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Today

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.Chanukah, for me, growing up in Laurelton, was really the only holiday celebrated in the neighborhood since it was all Jewish, explained Candee Sheppard, who was raised there in the mid-1950s.

We always celebrated with all the cousins on my mothers side, Sheppard said. We had a beautiful fireplace, with the presents stacked in front.November's election for president of the Jamaica Branch of the NAACP was appealed to the civil rights organization's national headquarters in Baltimore.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.Egypt and Tunisia have signed a deal to exchange expertise in the fields of sea fishing and fish farming for the years 2019/20.

The agreement is meant to activate cooperation between the Egyptian and Tunisian ministries of agriculture and make use of available potential to achieve integration in fish farming.

The announcement came as Egypts Deputy Agriculture Minister for Animal Wealth, Fisheries and Poultry Mona Mehrez was participating in the Egyptian-Tunisian technical committee for sea fishing in Tunis, which concluded its activities on Thursday.

In a statement released on Friday, Mehrez said the committee discussed means of fostering bilateral cooperation in the domains of fish farming, floating aquaculture cages, fisheries, and sea fishing, in addition to the exchange of scientific research and uniting stances at regional and international forums on fish wealth.

During the meetings, the deputy agriculture minister called on Egyptian and Tunisian investors to establish joint projects in the fields of sea fishing and fish farming, the statement added.

She also said that Egypt is willing to transfer its expertise in freshwater fish farming to Tunisia, as well as benefiting from the Tunisian expertise to farm fish in floating cages, the statement read.

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KAMPALA  Many Ugandans, and indeed many other people from poor African and Asian economies are duped by unscrupulous middlemen to go to United Arab Emirates (UAE), especially Dubai and Abu Dhabi, to work.

Indeed many job seekers fall prey to the false promises of some fake recruitment companies and individuals in Dubai that promise them jobs on Visit visa. Although accepting a job in UAE on a Visit visa is possible, it is not a right thing to do. Son, daughter of mother, I say: Never say yes to any job on Visit visa in this Asian economy.

Ugandan job seekers in the Arab world

As of August 6, there were 101 registered companies allowed to export labour to the Middle East, under their umbrella organisation the Uganda Association of External Recruitment Agency.

We have all heard of stories of many Ugandan job seekers suffering in that part of the world. Currently, at least 40,000 Ugandans live and work in the UAE, mostly in security companies, and as house helps.

In May 2018 The New Vision reported that an association of Ugandans living in United Arab Emirates was crying out to the Uganda government to rescue 33 Ugandan job-seekers who were stuck in Dubai.

The group got stranded after being dumped there by a labour export firm. The group had travelled on one-month tourism visas but had been promised to change their visas and work as maids and security guards. It is alleged that each one of them had paid the recruiter between UGX5m and UGX9m.

Bad working conditions in the Middle East

A report released by Ugandas Parliamentary Committee on Labour and Gender in 2017, revealed that about 50 Ugandans, most of them women, had died in UAE in the year. Dr. Sam Omara, of the Ugandan Embassy in Abu Dhabi, was quoted by Khaleej Times, a daily in UAE, saying many of the suicide cases resulted from frustrations.

Some of these people are told by recruitment companies that they are coming here to get good jobs and with big salaries, and when they get here, they get frustrated when they find things different.

In September 2018, Daily Monitor spoke of how Ugandan workers in the Middle East were being cheated. And on September 25, the same year, aviation authorities at Entebbe airport stopped 29 females and one male from flying out to Oman and UAE. Thereafter, in October 2018, the Uganda government suspended externalisation of Ugandan workers to Oman.

The Gender, Labour and Social Development minister Janat Mukwaya explained that the decision to bar Ugandans from seeking jobs in Oman was as a result of human rights violations against Ugandans in that country. Government insisted then that Saudi Arabia and Jordan were the only countries allowed to import Ugandan labour.

Those that are in Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman are there on their own, the minister said then, although things might have changed now.

Unemployment is such a threat in an individuals life that even the most learned, and the very intelligent are duped into accepting work on Visit visas. Even when the name says Visit visa, and even when the law clearly states that people residing in the UAE on a Visit visa are prohibited from working, and that companies are prohibited from employing such people, the practice still goes on.

Kelly Clarke of Khaleej Times spoke to some foreigners who have had ugly experiences working in Dubai on Visit visas.

I came here 10 months ago on a visit visa and managed to secure a job after one month. They held my passport and told me they would process a two-year Employment visa, but after two months of continuous working, nothing materialised, an Indian expat T.A. said.

Being paid cash-in-hand, T.A. was promised a monthly salary of Dh3,500 (around UGX3.5m) but received only Dh3,000 (around UGX3m).

I kept asking to get my labour papers so that I at least know they were processing it, but they never came. The labour courts would come in and do inspections, but just before their arrival, our company would tell those on visit visas to leave the building.

After constantly deferring her queries regarding an employment visa, T.A. said that in the third month when her Visit visa was due to expire the company told her that no Employment visa was coming.

People on a Visit visa cannot approach the court or police to complain, so companies get away with exploiting people like me. This is a big trend, she said.

What the law says

Article 11 of the Federal Law No. 6 for 1973 concerning immigration and residence clearly states that the alien who obtains a Visit visa may not work anywhere in the country with or without pay or for his own.

Additionally, by virtue of Federal Decree Law No 7 for 2007, a fine of Dh50,000 (around UGX50m) per worker has been prescribed, in the event the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation finds any employer employing an individual on a Visit visa. If the offence is repeated, the fine amount is doubled.

Expatriate employers violating the law will be deported and banned for life from entering the UAE. And for UAE nationals abusing the law, a six-month prison term will be handed down.

Despite this, and despite the right information desperate people might have, it takes only a click on ones computer or smartphone to access the Internet to see numerous job listings that specifically target applicants on Visit visas.

Technical Consultant (Visit visa preferred); Java Programmer (Visit visa/Immediate Availability); and Admin Assistant Male on Visit Visa; Security Officer (Visit visa preferred) are a few of the numerous job postings anyone can come across anytime on the Internet.

But the reasons for such postings may vary, Louise Vine, managing director of Inspire Selection, told the Dubai paper.

Companies may ask for someone on a Visit visa if the role is super urgent and some may also wish to place someone on a trial period before providing an Employment visa. However, when a legitimate agency is involved, this generally does not happen.

When we do hear about this type of thing though, it is usually with lower-income earners such as maids, drivers, labourers, she said.

One such person was a Nigerian expat F.O. Arriving in Dubai in February 2018, he worked for several months in two separate jobs in exchange for a small cash-in-hand salary.

He said: I was new to the country and handed my passport over to my employer on the promise my visa would be changed to a Residency visa. I was washing dishes in a restaurant. After three months of being told my visa would come, I started panicking. When my Visit visa expired, my manager told me they did not have the quota to take me on, so I had to leave.

After exiting UAE to Oman, F.O. returned to Dubai two months later and took up a labourers position in Al Ain.

That was such hard work. I did that for two months. I was told I would get paid Dh800 (approximately UGX800,000) a month, but they paid me just Dh600 (around UGX600,000) and again, kept telling me my visa would come but it never did. I left out of anger because I had been duped two times.

Given the legal implications of working on a Visit visa, T.A. and F.O. said that in their experience, companies are taking advantage of vulnerable job seekers. Knowing they have no legal grounding if they are treated unfairly in the workplace, bad employers lure them in on the pretext of probationary work, before letting them go once their Visit visa is expired.

Is all lost?

No! According to Ashish Mehta, founder and managing partner of Ashish Mehta & Associates, if a complaint is made against the employer by an employee who is a victim, the employer may be penalised.

However, similarly, an employee may also get into trouble for working illegally. A penalty or a ban may be imposed on the employer and the employee, Mehta said.

As such, residents and visitors are urged to seek employment through the right, legal channels and on right visas.

Got the job?

As you take up a job in UAE, the following must be within your possession.

Offer letter: Its mandatory for companies to issue an offer letter to you, mentioning the terms and conditions of the job. This has to be signed and accepted by you.

Ministry approval: The signed offer letter should be submitted by the employer to the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation for approval.

Work permit/Residency visa: The employer will procure your work and residency permits.

Health screening: Your medical tests will be conducted at government-approved health centres in the UAE. You will be tested for communicable diseases/conditions.

Certificate attestation: If you hold a degree from outside the UAE, you must get it certified from the UAE embassy or consulate in your country and also from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of your home country.

And lastly, remember to keep your passport safe. It is your right, and it will break or make your stay in UAE.

CommentsMission: Oversight for development and implementation of project plans. Responsibilities: - Manage a project in holistic way, overseeing interdisciplinary requirements, from the molecule in early stage (R&D) to regulatory requirements  Report and escalate to management as needed  Track project performance, specifically to analyze the succ...Real-estate experts gathered in Cairo this week for the Cityscape Egypt Business Breakfast to discuss the markets performance over the last year and the way forward.

The Housing Ministry also shed light on the governments urban development efforts and encouragement for investment in the sector.

Co-founder of the MENA for Real Estate Development Consultancy Fathallah Fawzi, the chair of this years Cityscape Business Breakfast, said that urban development and the development of the new cities were among the most important targets for Egypt.

He said the country was seeing an urban renaissance represented in the national projects that are underway as well as in the building of new cities, which will help create jobs and attract investment.

Fawzi said that some 20 fourth-generation cities had now been built across Egypt and that these would accommodate three million people.

The state is targeting to increase Egypts inhabited land from the current seven per cent to 12 per cent to accommodate the increasing population, expected to reach 150 to 160 million people by 2052, he said.

Egypts population grows by 2.5 per cent annually, Fawzi said, adding that this yearly increase had not been taken into account in some governorates, such as Alexandria and the Western Delta, leading to the spread of informal settlements and slum areas.

He said that the state was currently working on planning expansion in these governorates to provide for the increasing population.

He also called on the private sector to participate more in the urban development process, saying that partnership between the government and the private sector was a main pillar for achieving sustainable development.

Walid Abbas, an assistant to the minister of housing, said that last year his ministry had finalised 115 ministerial decrees that involved new real-estate projects across 15 cities. He added that the ministry had provided some 20,000 feddans of land for real-estate investment.

The real estate and construction sector is one of the most promising that contributes to economic growth and creates jobs, Minister of Planning Hala Al-Said said at the business gathering.

She said that the sector contributed 17 per cent to economic growth and that 13.2 per cent of jobs were generated by the sector.

As for the real-estate sectors outlook in 2019, a panel of experts concurred that demand for real estate was robust because of the growing population, but that challenges remain.

Ahmed Shalabi, CEO of Tatweer Misr, said that the governments economic reform programme, though necessary, had come at a cost as it had resulted in weaker purchasing power among consumers.

He said that despite the real-estate markets volume increasing in 2018, the number of units sold had decreased as a result of weakened purchasing power. In addition, 78 per cent of the units had been sold for investment purposes, he said, adding that greater access to mortgages could help developers and customers.

Mohamed Sultan, CEO of Palm Hills Developments, agreed, saying that intervention from the government was necessary to identify financial instruments that would not add to the burdens of the customer or the developer.

Shalabi pointed out that Egypt needed to focus on exporting its real estate by facilitating sales to foreigners, concentrating on the countrys competitive edge such as the low cost of living and the weather, and emphasising competition on price.

A presentation by Ayman Sami, head of JLL MENAs Egypt office, reviewed the real-estate markets in cities such as Cairo, Paris, London, New York, Madrid and Istanbul. Sami said that Egypt was an attractive market on price per metre and rental yields when compared to these other cities.

The Cityscape Egypt Business Breakfast precedes the seventh annual Cityscape Egypt Conference that will take place on 24-25 March.

The conference is an annual knowledge and networking forum that brings real-estate experts together.

It will be followed by an exhibition that will take place on 27-30 March.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 17 January, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Solid news on real estate

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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.The new national e-payment card Meeza (meaning merit in Arabic) is being released onto the market through the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Banque Misr and will soon be rolled out at other banks such as Banque du Caire.

Meeza is the latest financial inclusion initiative by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to push towards more cashless payments in Egypt.

The prepaid card can be recharged through the banks or ATMs as many times as its holder desires before it expires. Only an ID is required to issue the card  people 16 years or older can access Meeza cards  and it is exempted from administrative fees for the first month.

An NBE statement explained that Meeza would be available at all its branches in the second half of January to serve the needs of a wide stratum of people. Fees after the first month are set at LE25, according to the NBE.

People can also use the Meeza card without the need to open a bank account. Shopping online, making transfers and paying for different government and private-sector services are some of the merits granted to Meeza holders, who can also withdraw cash from ATMs, pay government bills, and buy from a wide network of merchants who have point-of-sale terminals.

Another merit of the Meeza card is its low administrative fees, said Mohamed Al-Itribi, president of Banque Misr. This would encourage vendors to do business via the prepaid card who may avoid using others because of expensive fees, he added.

Meeza provides the same services offered by Visa and MasterCard, but it can only be used locally. Its holder should also have a valid balance on the card, since it is prepaid.

The card is issued by the Egyptian Banks Company in cooperation with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the CBE, and a number of banks in the domestic market.

Applicants can receive only one Meeza card, which is usually issued without the name of its holder printed on it unless the holder wishes otherwise, in which case a request is filed at the bank. The bank destroys the card if the applicant does not receive it within three months.

NBE and Banque Misr plan to issue two million Meeza cards this year, starting with the prepaid cards in the first phase, followed by debit cards, and then cards to receive payments at a later stage.

Five other banks will start issuing Meeza cards in 2019, including the Qatar National Bank and the Housing and Development Bank.

The CBE aims to issue 20 million Meeza cards in the next three years, according to a statement by Ayman Hussein, the CBEs deputy governor.

Earlier statements made by Tarek Fayed, chairman of the board of Banque du Caire, explained that his bank was preparing to launch different types of Meeza cards at the end of January, starting with 450,000 prepaid cards to be issued throughout the year.

Using Meeza cards, merchants can easily pay all their government dues, be they to the tax, customs or other authorities, said Akef Al-Maghrabi, deputy chairman of the board of Banque Misr.

Since the card enjoys low fees in comparison to competing cards, hundreds of traders are likely to join the e-payment system, he added.

At a later stage, Meeza can also be used to pay pensions and payments from the Takaful and Karama cash-subsidy programmes, Al-Maghrabi added, as part of the governments plan to reduce the dependency on cash and encourage e-payments.

The Ministry of Finance announced in September that Meeza cards would be able to handle all government payments, such as pensions and subsidies, within the framework of amendments to the public accounting system that dictates that all government payments should be electronically settled in 2019.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 17 January, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Ushering in e-payments

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Advisers to former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz have been exploring the possibility of launching an independent bid for the White House in 2020, according to two people who have been informed of the discussions.

The entry of a high-profile billionaire Democrat outside the traditional party structure would add an unpredictable dynamic to the increasingly sprawling campaign to deny President Donald Trump a second term.

Trumps opponents, including many Democratic strategists, have expressed concerns that a serious three-way race in November would divide the Democratic vote in a way that helps Trump win reelection, either directly by denying Democrats states they would otherwise have won or by shifting the ultimate decision to the U.S. House.

Former Ohio governor John Kasich, a 2016 Republican candidate for president, is also looking at the possibility of running as an independent candidate. Neither Kasich nor Schultz have settled on a decision.

"Anyone thinking of running for president as an independent would have to think really hard about splitting the anti-incumbent, anti-Trump vote, and just playing the spoiler role and reelecting Trump," said Howard Wolfson, a former strategist for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. He now advises former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is considering his own presidential campaign, as a Democrat.

"I think that would be a terrible legacy for anyone to leave," Wolfson said.

Washington State Democratic Party Chair Tina Podlodowski issued a statement Friday calling on Schultz to give up any consideration of an independent run."I have two words for Howard Schultz on a potential run for president as an independent: Just. Dont," she said in a statement. Too much is at stake to make this about the ambitions of any one person.

Schultz, who has a net worth of about $3.3 billion and describes himself as a "lifelong Democrat," has not said publicly whether he will mount a presidential campaign and has kept open the option of running as a Democrat. He will begin a national book tour Jan. 28 for a memoir that describes his personal journey "to reimagine the promise of America."

Schultz's personal office did not respond Friday to a request for comment.

In all but two U.S. elections, candidates have won the presidency by earning a majority of electoral-college votes.

But the entry of a credible independent candidate could scramble those calculations by denying anyone an outright victory.

If no candidate wins 270 or more votes, the victor would be decided by the House in a "contingent election," with each state delegation getting one ballot. The Senate would decide who becomes vice president. Such outcomes are historically rare, last occurring in 1824, when the House resolved a four-way race in favor of John Quincy Adams, even though Andrew Jackson had received the most votes.

Although Democrats make up a majority of the House, Republicans still have an advantage in the number of state delegations they control, with more Republican members than Democrats in 26 of the 50 states. Democrats are a majority of 22 House delegations. Two states, Pennsylvania and Michigan, have an equal number of Republican and Democratic members.

Calculations like this led Bloomberg, another billionaire, to decide against mounting an independent bid for the presidency in 2016. After an extensive research effort, he concluded that his candidacy could win enough electoral votes to push the decision to the House, but not enough to win a majority of the electoral college.

At the time, Republicans controlled a majority of seats in the House and the Senate. "The fact is, even if I were to receive the most popular votes and the most electoral votes, victory would be highly unlikely, because most members of Congress would vote for their party's nominee," Bloomberg declared in a 2016 article explaining his decision to stand down. He later endorsed Clinton.

Advisers to Kasich, a Republican critic of Trump, have been planning a 2020 run along parallel tracks, with separate blueprints for running as an independent and as a Republican in a primary challenge to Trump.

"I think for the first time, there is a legitimate chance for a third-party candidate," Kasich said in a November interview on ABC's "The View." "If you have the Republicans on the extreme and the Democrats on the extreme, there is a big wide-open space in the middle."

Kasich strategist John Weaver said the former Ohio governor will take into account the risk of inadvertently helping Trump's campaign before making a decision.

"Nobody would want to be a part of an effort that reelects Trump," Weaver said.

Upon his retirement last summer, Schultz said he would focus on public service, leaving open the option of a presidential run. "Let's just see what happens," he told CNBC in June.

He has spoken in his deliberations with a network of former Starbucks advisers and board members, including former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley, D, and Steve Schmidt, the former campaign manager for John McCain's 2008 presidential run.

He also has close ties, through the company board and his philanthropic efforts, with a number for former military officials, including former defense secretary Robert Gates and retired Adm. Mike Mullen.

As a CEO, Schultz cast himself as a compassionate leader who wanted to use his company for social good. He earned praise for the benefits he provided Starbucks retail workers, including a stock ownership plan, health-care coverage options for part-time employees and the opportunity to attend college free online.

When Trump announced a ban on U.S. visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries in January 2017, Schultz announced a company goal of hiring 10,000 refugees in stores around the world.

But he also has signaled a willingness to break with Democratic orthodoxy. "We have to go after entitlements," he said in the CNBC interview after announcing his retirement last year. He also dismissed as "false promises" the proposals for single-payer health care and guaranteed federal jobs that have become popular on the left, arguing that they were fiscally unworkable.

At his March 2016 Starbucks shareholder meeting, Schultz opened his speech with a video montage highlighting the political divisions in the country, including still photographs of angry protests as well as the Democratic and Republican primary debates featuring Clinton and Trump. The video ended with footage of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 calling for national unity and love in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.

"We are facing a test not only of our character but of our morality as a people," Schultz told his investors. "The still photos in the video we shared are profoundly sad, and yet when we hear the heartfelt words of Robert Kennedy we are all comforted."

"We all long for that kind of leadership," he added.As she sifts through dozens of letters her brother Jake wrote from Vietnam, Dana Swift Plummer describes the moment she learned he had been killed in action.

She was 17 and sound asleep in her family's North Philly home when her mother's screams woke her on an early May morning in 1970.

"I bolted straight up and ran to the steps," she says. "I looked down and saw two soldiers. They told my mom they needed to talk to my father. He was on the early shift at the ball-bearing factory, so my mother called the plant and said my dad needed to come right away. But she knew my brother was dead. She kept screaming, 'My baby! My baby!'

"It took my dad 45 minutes to get home, taking two buses. The soldiers said, 'Mr. Swift, we are here to inform you of the death of your son.' My dad froze in shock. He didn't cry until after Jake's viewing, two weeks later. He went in the bedroom, closed the door and wailed in a way I had never heard in my life."

James "Jake" Swift Jr., 21, the oldest of four children, died on April 27, 1970, when his vehicle was hit with rocket fire in Binh Dinh province. The explosion blew off his left arm and leg and the back of his head.

"I've never stopped grieving," says Plummer, 65 who lives in West Oak Lane with her husband, Irving. "He was the ideal big brother. He was big and strong yet kind and generous. He bought me my first high heels with money from his paper route, because my parents couldn't afford them."

But Plummer didn't lose just one brother in the Vietnam War, she says.

She lost 64 of them.

Jake was a 1967 graduate of then all-male Thomas Alva Edison High School, then at 700 W. Lehigh Ave. Its sister school was Kensington High, all-female at the time, which Dana attended. To the Kensington girls, she said, the Edison boys were like honorary siblings.

>> READ MORE: Documentary coming on 27 Father Judge High grads killed in Vietnam

By the time the war ended, 64 Edison graduates had been killed in Vietnam, a staggering 10 percent of the 648 Philadelphia deaths from the war.

"It felt like we were losing our protectors," says Plummer.

In 2002, Edison relocated to Second and Luzerne Streets, and the massive complex fell into neglect. One of the buildings  nicknamed "the castle" for its turreted, gargoyle-adorned central tower  was destroyed in a 2011 fire (the site is now a shopping center). The other, a four-story annex, has been a vandalized blight on the neighborhood.

>> READ MORE: On Veterans Day, do more than say thanks | Opinion

That will change in June 2019 when the annex reopens as an apartment building whose 66 units will house low-income tenants, with preference given to veterans who will have access to a host of on-site services provided by the Veterans Multi-Service Center.

Its name: the Edison 64 Veterans Community, in memory of the men who never made it home from the Indochina peninsula.

"It's like we've come full circle," says Plummer.

Philadelphia has no shortage of lovely memorials to its war dead. But they're static. While they may stir feelings in those who bother to read the explanatory plaques attached to the shrines, they're mostly background scenery in the daily show of a busy city.

In contrast, Edison 64 will be a monument-in-action that not only memorializes the very members of the military who once strode its halls but honors their sacrifice by helping modern-day veterans who have struggled in the aftermath of war.

I can't think of a better use for the building.

>> READ MORE: Mental health care for veterans takes on the Warrior Ethos | Opinion

Edison 64 is the product of a $25 million public/private partnership between Mosaic Development Partners, Orens Brothers Real Estate, and the Veterans Multi-Service Center. It's financed with low-income federal housing tax credits awarded by the state Housing Finance Agency and with grants from the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and Home Depot (among others).

"The building will connect the past with the present in an important way," says VMC executive director Tim Williams, a retired U.S. Army Special Forces colonel. "This country treated our Vietnam veterans badly when they came home. I'm proud that a building so closely connected to the Vietnam War will be used to care for soldiers in the way every veteran deserves."

The project thrills Darryrl Johnson, a 1972 Edison grad who remembers the school principal announcing over the public-address system the names of the latest war deaths. Students would stop for a moment of silence, he says.

"After a while, we were thinking, 'Gosh, the names are piling up,' " says Johnson, a one-man Edison historian who helped research a new book by local author Richard Sand called Edison 64  A Tragedy in Vietnam and at Home, which goes on sale Monday (partial proceeds will benefit veteran causes). "I hope the new building will keep them from being forgotten."

Me, I hope the spirits of those young men fill the repurposed classrooms they once called home, as vets in need find new homes of their own.

For general information about Edison 64 or about how to access veterans services, contact the Veterans Multi-Service Center at 215-923-2600.Want to invest in veterans, but need ideas? We asked around Philadelphia's veterans' groups to find out how.

There are upward of 200,000 veterans in Philadelphia and surrounding counties, according to Hugo Lentze, founder of the Delaware Valley Veterans Consortium. He started the loose coalition that aims to be a meeting place for Greater Philly's veterans' groups to exchange ideas and event information.

To learn more, visit the website for the Delaware Valley Veterans Consortium (https://dvvc.weebly.com). The outfit meets quarterly to help counties and regional veterans' advocates work together and effect policy change.

"My vision, my goal is Philadelphia becomes the destination for military families, because of the benefits of living here as a veteran," Lentze said.

That's not even his day job.

Lentze works full-time at the Travis Manion Foundation, which was founded by Manion's parents and sister Ryan Manion in Doylestown. Marine First Lt. Travis Manion was killed by a sniper in Iraq in April 2007. The foundation trains veterans to speak to high school students about why character matters. The foundation (www.travismanion.org) has worked with more than 250,000 kids. Widows, families of fallen veterans, and even those once engaged to them also come together to participate in foundation service projects and to heal.

"This is going to be our best year," said Lentze, chief strategic partnerships officer at Travis Manion Foundation. "We're in nine cities and up to 50 employees. Now we're digging into where we are."

Hire Veterans as Employees

Kevin O'Brien founded Veteran Recruiting as a virtual job fair for veterans, their spouses, and families. Veteran Recruiting, based in Doylestown, is the leader in virtual career fairs for the military community. More than 212,000 veterans have been hired since 2011 through the organization. For more information, visit the website: www.veteranrecruiting.com. Contact O'Brien at kobrien@veteranrecruiting.com or 215-525-5776.

Philly-based JDog Junk Removal & Hauling just opened its 200th franchise.

"They're hiring veterans and giving them a chance to own a business," said Ralph Galati, board member of the JDog Foundation.

"If you want to get involved with veterans, go local," he recommends. "Then you see where your money is helping in the community."

Elissa Bloom, executive director of the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator, on Monday will honor women vets at the Loew's Hotel for the second annual Women's Entrepreneurship Day.

She'll be honoring four women vets who are also business owners: Kym Ramsey, founder, The Willow School; Rhonda Smith, founder, The Skirted Soldier; Carol Eggert, senior vice president for military and veteran affairs, Comcast NBCUniversal; and Erica Webster, founder, Dub Fitness.

Women entrepreneurs who work in technology, business, the nonprofit sector, and education will meet at this full-day conference. For more information, and to register, check out the website: www.wedphiladelphia.wordpress.com.

Trade with a veteran next time you buy and sell securities. Cauldon Quinn, a service-disabled veteran, last year opened Bancroft Capital, a certified veteran-owned small business operating an institutional broker-dealer and investment adviser. Based in Fort Washington, Bancroft Capital will donate all of its net profits on Veterans Day to the Travis Manion Foundation.

"Bancroft is committed to the restoration of veterans and disabled veterans to their rightful place of leadership within society, community, and foremost, to their individual family," said Quinn.

The sixth annual Veteran Shark Tank takes place Monday, Dec. 3, at the Union League of Philadelphia, 140 S. Broad St. To register or support the event, visit the website: http://veteransharktank.com.

Veteran entrepreneurs pitch business ideas at Veteran Shark Tank, which was created by Greater Philadelphia Veterans Network as a way to help veterans who are starting their own businesses, and is similar to the popular television show Shark Tank. Winners take home a cash prize of $25,000.

Remembrances

Pennsylvanians searching for their military decorations may search here. Treasury's Bureau of Unclaimed Property can also be reached toll-free at 1-800-222-2046 and via email at tupmail@patreasury.gov, to help conduct a thorough search for unclaimed property.

Finally, Terry Williamson is looking for donations for the Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial, located at Spruce Street and Columbus Boulevard (www.pvvm.org).

The memorial board has raised $126,000, half of its goal. The monument is scheduled for completion next year.

For more information, contact Terry Williamson, president of the Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund at 610-637-0980.Two Philadelphia police officers have lost their jobs after being criminally charged for a 2017 incident involving the Pennsylvania State Police.

Matthew Blaszczyk, 33, a 12-year veteran of the force who was assigned to the 25th Police District, and Jessica Kovacs, 31, a 10-year veteran assigned to the 26th Police District, were suspended 30 days with intent to dismiss, the department confirmed Friday.

Blaszczyk and Kovacs were arrested last month and charged as the result of their actions following a vehicle stop of Blaszczyk attempted by the Pennsylvania State Police on Dec. 29, 2017. The specifics of what was alleged were not available Friday night.

Blaszczyk was charged with fleeing or attempting to elude an officer, resisting arrest, reckless driving, driving without a light to avoid arrest, obstructing the administration of law, and two counts of recklessly endangering another person.

Kovacs was charged with obstructing the administration of law and hindering the apprehension of a suspect.

Lawyers for both could not be reached late Friday night for comment.A Philadelphia judge ruled Friday that a defense attorney will not be removed from a homicide case even though the lawyer had expressed concern for the careers of two detectives who were seen on a video allegedly looking at the suspects cell phone before they had a search warrant.

Fridays ruling and unusual hearing, which featured testimony from the defense lawyer and the district attorneys homicide chief, followed a Dec. 20 motion filed by District Attorney Larry Krasner and Patricia Cummings, supervisor of the offices Conviction Integrity Unit, seeking to disqualify attorney Bill Davis from the case.

In their motion, prosecutors contended that Davis, in a phone conversation with the homicide chief last month, discussed a plea deal for his client, Marquise Noel, so that the officers depicted would not be embarrassed or have their careers end[ed].' They argued that Davis behavior resulted from his firms representation of police officers, which posed a conflict with his representation of Noel.

The defense lawyer denied the claim or any conflict. He said the plea negotiations were introduced in the conversation by homicide chief Anthony Voci.

As she had in a Dec. 21 temporary ruling, Common Pleas Court Judge Barbara McDermott said Friday she found no conflict in Davis' continued representation of Noel, 21, and his law firms contract with the local Fraternal Order of Police lodge.

Davis said his firm, McMonagle, Perri, McHugh, Mischak & Davis, would not represent the two detectives if the District Attorneys Office charges them with any crimes. Both the District Attorneys Office and Davis have said they think the detectives were illegally searching the phones contents.

At issue was video evidence Davis had obtained that allegedly showed homicide detectives Freddie Mole and Joseph Murray looking at a cell phone while in Penn Presbyterian Medical Centers trauma bay about 3:30 p.m. Feb. 11, a few hours before they obtained a search warrant. The detectives were at the hospital following the shooting death of Tafari Lawrence, 23, who had been taken to the hospital.

At the same time, Noel  who was arrested two days later and charged with Lawrences shooting death  was also in the trauma bay for a gunshot wound to a leg.

Information on the black LG flip phone, found in a bag at the hospital, was allegedly key to linking Noel to the homicide. Noel, of Southwest Philadelphia, has pleaded not guilty and faces a June trial.

Prosecutors and police contend that the cell phone was Noels, although Davis says he has seen no such evidence.

It is not clear from still images of the hospital video  attached as exhibits in the district attorneys Dec. 20 motion  what the detectives were doing when they were looking at the phone.

Police Commissioner Richard Ross said Friday that Mole and Murray remain removed from street duty while Internal Affairs investigates the allegations against them.

Gregory Pagano, an attorney representing the detectives, wrote in an email Friday evening that they did not misrepresent any facts or evidence in police paperwork nor in sworn testimony. When examining the phone on the surveillance video, they were not conducting a search.

He wrote that the detectives "were following the best practices in the collection of mobile device evidence for law enforcement as recommended and endorsed by a federal agency, which recommends putting mobile devices into airplane mode and turning off Bluetooth settings in an effort to preserve evidence and data.

At Fridays hearing, Davis testified that he had called Voci on Dec. 19, two days before a scheduled motion-to-suppress hearing, to let him know about the video and to use it as leverage in getting a favorable resolution for his client. He said he told Voci that if he could resolve this case without destroying anyones life or career, that I would like to, referring to the detectives.

But, Davis testified, regardless of what personal feelings he had for the possible impact on the detectives' careers, it didnt affect what he did. He emailed the video to Voci that day, knowing that it could lead to the firing or even prosecution of the two detectives, he said.

Under questioning from Cummings, who also heads the unit that handles cases of alleged police misconduct, Voci testified that he had told the defense lawyer that perjury charges against the detectives were possible.

The judge said Davis has been acting in Noels best interests and has zealously represented him despite any personal feelings that Davis expressed for the detectives.

I dont know how you can even take personal feelings out of this business, because you cant, McDermott said.PITTSBURGH (AP)  A jury on Friday found a 73-year-old Pennsylvania prosecutor guilty of obstructing justice and misusing the power of his office by improperly intervening in criminal cases involving a 41-year-old woman who the prosecution says was his girlfriend.

Mercer County District Attorney Miles Karson was found guilty on 10 charges, including obstruction of government functions, officially oppressing an arrest or search warrant, and hindering prosecution.

Karson was accused of asking the woman's probation officer to not put her in jail after she acknowledged using heroin. He also allegedly tried to get a judge to release her on bond instead of jailing her in criminal cases by claiming to be a family friend when he was actually her boyfriend.

Karson, a Republican, was elected in 2015 in the largely rural county 60 miles north of Pittsburgh that borders Ohio.

He took the witness stand on Wednesday, insisting he was just trying to help her and didn't break the law, and denying the two had a romantic relationship.

Since he was charged by the state Attorney Generals Office in 2017, Karson had been silent on the accusations made against him, aside from a blanket denial of wrongdoing, until Wednesdays testimony, the Tribune Review reported.

Karson broke down in tears at one point after describing his military service in Vietnam, career as a lawyer and his two-decade battle with metastatic prostate cancer.

Karson lost his composure when his defense lawyer, Alexander Lindsay, started asking about the woman, Tonya Bulboff.

"Part of the problem of not having testosterone is sometimes you turn into a blubbering fool," Karson explained to the jury. He said he was committed to "making her better."

When Karson was charged in 2017, Bulboff was in state prison on a check-forgery case. She was released in June.

Bulboff testified for the prosecution that she and Karson had an "intimate" but not sexual relationship, the Sharon Herald reported

Karson remains Mercer County's top law enforcement official.

After the verdict, prosecutors told Senior Common Pleas Court Judge H. William White that they are concerned about justice for the residents of Mercer County with Karson still in office, according to the Herald.

Neither the judge nor the Attorney Generals Office has the power to order Karson out of office.

Lindsay said he has not yet discussed with Karson the possibility of him staying in office.

The judge said sentencing will be scheduled within 30 days.Two men were killed and a third critically injured in separate city shootings Friday afternoon in the city, police said.

The first happened just after 3:30 p.m. in North Philadelphia. Two men were inside a maroon Acura in the 3000 block of North Broad Street when the shooting happened, police said. An unidentified man was pronounced dead at the scene by medics. The second victim, a 25-year-old man with several gunshot wounds throughout his body, was taken by police to Temple University Hospital. He was listed in critical condition.

Just before 5 p.m., a 36-year-old man was in the 1600 block of Orthodox Street in Frankford when he was shot once in the neck and twice in the chest. Medics took him to Temple, where he was pronounced dead at 6:22.

No other details were available in either case.Growing lines at airports. Transportation Security Administration agents not showing up to work. The closing of a terminal in at least one major airport  Miami International. Air traffic controllers passing out leaflets to airline passengers.

The partial federal government shutdown already has lasted four weeks, and President Donald Trumps proposed deal Saturday to end the impasse was drawing swift criticism from Democrats.

If the shutdown continues, could a growing crisis at the nations airports become the impetus for ending the federal furloughs?

Its a fair question whether this might be the kind of thing that might apply pressure to end the shutdown," said Seth Kaplan, editor of the commercial aviation publication Airline Weekly. But, it hasnt worked yet.

I think its early to say whether that will actually transpire that way," he said. "But its reasonable to think that it could.

A relatively small percentage of airline passengers have experienced delays at airports related to the shutdown, the longest in U.S. history. It hasnt affected all airports, and this is a quiet time for the airline industry, Kaplan said. But if the shutdown continues past mid-February, when demand picks up for spring-break trips and travel for Passover and Easter, the shutdown could become a bigger problem, he said.

The airline industry differs from many others because of how visual it is, and because when something goes wrong at an airport, people experience it communally, he said.

The partial government shutdown began Dec. 22 after Democrats refused to agree to give more than $5 billion for the wall Trump wants to build along the U.S.-Mexico border.

It continues to affect varied aspects of peoples lives  those who provide government services and those who depend on them.

Some federal workers and contractors who are not getting paid and may be living paycheck to paycheck are struggling. Food agencies are setting up an emergency market in Philadelphia for federal employees. Nearly two million Pennsylvanians received food assistance benefits Wednesday for February  weeks early, and people who dont budget accordingly could run out of food. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has not said what will happen to the benefits in March.

Federal courts are running out of money. Immigration court cases are piling up. National parks, including Independence National Historical Park, are closed. Furloughs could cut into income tax revenue. Economic growth slows with every week the shutdown continues, the White House has said.

Will those impacts, individually or collectively, affect the duration of the shutdown?

The kinds of pressure points we might normally be thinking about might not apply, said Katharine Young, an associate professor at Boston College Law School who studies comparative constitutional law and has written about government shutdowns. The playbook that Trump is using is one that is really thriving in the shutdown and the destabilization that its producing. We have to deal with the worry that this is potentially almost endless.

But long lines at the nations airports ultimately could make a difference, Kaplan said.

You can imagine [airport delays] being the kind of thing that would perhaps have a disproportionate impact compared to other things that are really important too but just arent as visual as people being stuck in long lines at the airport," he said.

The TSA said Friday it expected a higher volume of travelers over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday  more than eight million passengers, nearly 11 percent more than on the same long weekend last year. Meanwhile, the national rate of unscheduled employee absences is 6.4 percent, compared to 3.8 percent in the same period last year.

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers  including TSA agents  did not get their most recent paychecks Jan. 11.

The president has ordered thousands of federal employees to go back to work without pay to soften the effects of the shutdown.

But some of the more than 50,000 TSA employees nationwide evidently are quitting to seek other jobs.

Given the issues with TSA staffing, and the increase in holiday travel, Douglas Kidd, executive director of the National Association of Airline Passengers, said passengers should get to airports earlier and pack light.

We are more than a little put out with all the parties involved in this," Kidd said. If you can avoid traveling by air, maybe now is a good time to avoid traveling by air."

Ironically, one thing that has allowed the shutdown to go on is the fact that some TSA agents and other federal employees are working, said Dan Sobien, a meteorologist who is president of the National Weather Service Employees Organization. Thats the union that represents government forecasters, for whom this will not be a holiday weekend.

If the government truly shut down, he said, there wouldnt be any more government shutdowns.My plan, in driving to the grand opening Friday of the regions newest and biggest Whole Foods, was to give you a Wild-World-of-Animals-type dispatch from the suburb whose name wrongly suggests it has a town center of any kind: Newtown Square, Delaware County.

Would the people of this affluent quadrant in Philadelphias western suburbs be found trampling one another while racing from their parked Range Rovers, BMWs, Hondas, and Subarus toward the automatic sliding glass doors separating them from the mound of dragon fruit selling for $3.99 apiece inside?

Would I find, on this corner of West Chester Pike near the former estate of chemical-heir-slash-murderer John du Pont, a Walmart-like frenzy of thrown elbows and crazed energy near the sushi bar?

My mission was to be snarky.

A 49-year-old retired mortgage executive (Can I have your life? I asked when Nicole Falcone told me she had clocked out of the workforce for good) was beyond thrilled to finally have this mecca of organic food just a mile from her house.

To be exact, Nicole put the arrival of her very own neighborhood Amazon-owned Whole Foods this way: Oh. My. God.

A 69-year-old Drexel Hill woman (call me an unidentified customer) presented a different variety of mammal entirely. She was less impressed by the pricey organics store and more perplexed overall: Why are the steaks at places like this cut as fat as a medical dictionary?

Im not going to cook a steak that thick," she said. "Im from the suburbs.

Bright lights, shiny floors of burnished concrete, a bar with local beers on tap. Prepackaged deli meats called charcuterie. Drinkable yogurt under a Kefir sign. Jars of sauerkraut in the Fermented section. Canisters of Amazing Grass Protein Superfood selling at discount for $27.99 next to bananas.

I was certain, as I walked out just before lunch, that I had an Onion-worthy storyline: Affluent Suburbanites Who Already Have Other Supermarkets Nearby Treat New Store Like Desert Oasis.

Then I took my notebook across the street to a place called Luigi & Giovannis. And I experienced a welcome lobotomy.

Are you with the FBI? owner John (aka Giovanni) DAlessandro asked when he saw me talking to a group of Italian-accented women working the prepared-foods section of his 41-year-old specialty food shop.

Why? I said. Is there a better story in here that I should be writing about?

This market, he told me, has been around since John and his butcher/partner Luigi Lemme, 73, bought it in 1978. And let me tell you, its been no picnic keeping it going, but these are hardworking people. That was the story he began to tell.

Luigi & Giovannis is in a low-slung and dated strip of stores on a quiet roundabout near the Pike, just off St. Albans Circle. For years, it has been the only thing resembling a town center of any kind out here. Theres a dry cleaner, a rug store, a barber, a dance studio, a vape shop. You get the picture.

Beyond grocery shelves and meat cases in the center aisles is a back room full of men working on butcher blocks. One, Italian-born butcher Artur Serano, 72, offered me a few slices of his own homemade capicola, a chianti-red delicacy that melted in my mouth as I tasted it on a fresh roll with a drizzle of olive oil.

I dont have anything organic in here is how John handled my question about whether he was worried about the new Whole Foods. Were eaters. We get it. We put it out. Its food."

I laughed. Thats a good line, you gotta admit. In other words, their niche is NOT protein superfood. And that may save them.

He and Luigi showed off two enormous roasted pigs just out of the oven. The pork will be part of the stores Saturday and Sunday smorgasbord, in which they serve homemade food out of heated trays placed outside, even in freezing weather, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The store also has a big catering business.

What am I gonna do? John said. Theyve survived decades of competition from now-defunct Genuardis, Giant, Acme, Wawa, and Primos hoagies up till now.

The food industry is so tough, in fact, that John wonders if Amazon owner Jeff Bezos underestimated just what kind of a son-of-a-b---- business it can be.

Amazon doesnt know what they got into, he said.

There it was  the fight Id imagined I would find at the Whole Foods  but instead, a block away and down the street.

And so much more interesting.Women marched in hundreds of U.S. cities and overseas on Saturday to mark the second anniversary of demonstrations that drew millions of protesters to the streets the day after Republican President Donald Trump's inauguration in January 2017.

Women's March, a national nonprofit organization that evolved from the initial Washington march, again hosted its main event in Washington, with hundreds of "sister" marches in other cities.

March On, a separate grassroots coalition that also grew from the original march, coordinated hundreds of marches in cities such as Boston, Houston, Baltimore and Denver.

Leaders of both groups said they would use this year's marches to push policy related to raising the minimum wage, access to reproductive healthcare and voting rights, among other issues. They are aiming to mobilize women to vote ahead of the 2020 elections, when Trump is expected to be the Republican nominee for president.

"There is definitely huge, huge focus on the 2020 elections," said March On's Natalie Sanchez, an organizer of the 2017 Boston Women's March who is also with March Forward Massachusetts, which organized Saturday's march there.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who launched her bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination this week, addressed the women's march in Des Moines, Iowa, the state that holds the first nominating contest and acts as a proving ground for White House hopefuls. She told the crowd that the 2017 march was one of the most influential political moments in her life.

"Now is the time to get off the sidelines. Our democracy only works when people like you stand up and demands it," Gillibrand said.

Kimberly Graham, 54, an attorney in Des Moines, said attending the march there two years ago gave her hope after Trump's election left her feeling dejected. Her excitement from seeing so many women and minorities win midterm election races has inspired her to weigh challenging Republican U.S. Senator Joni Ernst.

"Its given me a lot of hope that things will turn around. That it is darkest before the light," Graham said.

Activists say the marches were a chance to celebrate the gains made in the 2018 elections, which saw more women elected to the U.S. Congress than ever before.

The newly elected women - nearly all Democrats - include the first Muslim women and first Native American women in Congress, as well as the first black women to represent their states in New England. Many cited Trump's presidency among the reasons they decided to run for office.

As the political movement that grew out of hundreds of loosely affiliated marches in 2017 has grown, divisions have emerged.

In some cities, like New York and Washington, there was more than one march or demonstration due to criticism that some Women's March leaders are anti-Semitic - a charge those leaders have sought to dispel in recent interviews and statements.

Leaders of Women's March and March On say there is a role for everyone and that divisions in leadership have not detracted from the overall movement.

Julie Wash, 57, a librarian from Saratoga Springs, New York, said Women's March leader Tamika Mallory - who has faced blowback for her support of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan - is being held to a different standard than Trump and other white, male leaders.

"Theres a level of accountability that we need to hold white establishment men to if were going to hold Tamika Mallory to that standard," Wash said.

Wash came to the Washington march with her friend Nan Sullivan, 65, a business owner also from Saratoga Springs.

"Give us the whole table. Don't give us a seat. Just give us the whole table. Get out of the way and well clean up the mess," Sullivan said.

The marches also have been criticized as being unwelcoming to conservative women, who may support Trump's presidency and oppose abortion rights. The annual March for Life by anti-abortion campaigners was held in Washington on Friday, attended by Vice President Mike Pence.

Short link:

Professor Henrietta Joy Abena Nyarko Mensa-Bonsu has been elected the new President of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.



She replaces Prof. Aba Bentil Andam, who has just completed her two year term, and becomes the third woman to assume the high office of the Academy.



Prof. Mensa-Bonsu, in her remarks, said she would ensure that the high standards of the Academy were maintained during her tenure.



She said it was important for the youth to be drawn to the works of the Academy because the country was basically owned by them.



"The Academy is all about the well-being and progress of the country. Some of us are ageing and on our way out. It is you the young ones that would remain in charge of affairs. It is, therefore, very important that you show interest in the affairs of the Academy," she said.



Prof. Mensa-Bonsu said there was the need for the Academy to make use of modern innovations such as social media in order to reach a wider audience, especially the youth.



Prof. Aba Bentil Andam, the out-going President, decorated the new President with the Chain of Authority, and said she would be ever available for any assistance that might be required of her.



Prof. Mensah-Bonsu was sworn in along with a 10-member Governing Council.



The Academy is a learned society, established by an Act of Parliament in 1959, to promote knowledge within all the arts and sciences towards the overall growth of the nation.

Source: GNA









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Featured VideoEmbattled Zylofon and Menzgold CEO Nana Appiah Mensah we are informed is currently on his way to Ghana to face the wrath of the laws after the delegation sent from Ghana have been able to come into an agreement with the Dubai police where he has been held since December 7th, 2018.



The delegation includes Deputy Attorney General, Joseph Dindiok Kpemka, a representative from the Economic Organised Crime Office (EOCO), the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) and National Security.



The young billionaire Nana Appiah Mensah had been declared wanted by the Ghana police for defrauding by false pretence and an allegation of money laundering after his company(Menzgold) failed to pay customers investments.



Nana Appiah Mensah from the news going around had been arrested earlier in Dubai after he had gone to retrieve some monies owned Menzgold by a company in Dubai.



See a photo of NAM leaving the prison

Source: ghpage.com









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Featured VideoAn eight-member delegation from Tanzania, led by Mr Amon A. Mpanju, the Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Constitutional and Legal Affairs, is in the country to understudy the transformational agenda of the National Lotteries Authority.



The visit forms part of the efforts by the Tanzanian Government to restructure and transform its Lottery industry and operations.



The delegation, welcomed by the Authoritys Management, were taken through series of presentations and discussions on NLA history, change management processes, business models and initiatives by the Business Development Committee.



Mr Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, the NLA Director-General, explained the transformational agenda of the Authority, which include the E-kiosk Concept, being one of the top-notch business models, which has no financial burden on the Authority and the Government.



He said it was a Public-Private-Partnership initiative for which the Private Sector was responsible for the financial arrangements. This had gone through all the necessary legal procedure and arrangements awaiting the implementation across Ghana.



Mr Osei-Ameyaw said the E-Kiosk would offer a wide range of services including banking, mobile money, courier services, remittance, payments of utility bills and DSTV.



He said the NLA would partner state institutions in its implementation such as the Nation Builders Corps, Youth Employment Agency, Ghana Post, Ghana Revenue Authority, One-District-One-Factory Secretariat, Members of Parliament and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies.



The successful implementation of the E-Kiosk Project will triple the revenue generation of the NLA, he said.



Mr Osei-Ameyaw said one of the nightmares of the Authority was illegal lottery, adding: The NLA, supported by Association of Lotto Marketing Companies, had on numerous occasions caused the arrest and prosecution of illegal lotto operators, agents and writers.



He, however, said resource constraints and sometimes political pressure and interferences, hindered the NLAs fight against illegal lotto operators, agents, and writers.



He said most of them were operating with licenses provided by VAG Ghana under Act 844, which empowered the veterans to engage in raffles or lottery to economically and financially empower them.

Mr Osei-Ameyaw said the NLA, under the Government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has adopted a more innovative and pragmatic approach to addressing illegal lottery operations in the country through registration, validation and granting of license to illegal operators, agents and writers who met the requirements put in place by the Authority.



He said the NLA, since its establishment, has been running on self-financing business model without government funds by generating its own revenue for the administration, operations and overall management.



The NLA is also mandated by the Law under Act 722 to pay funds to Government through the Consolidated Fund for national development, he said.



Mr Osei-Ameyaw assured the Tanzanian Government of the NLAs preparedness and cooperation to collaborate and assist them to restructure and transform lottery business and operations in Tanzania.



Mr Mpanju, on his part, recommended the NLA to assist the Tanzanian Government to restructure and transform lottery business and operations in Tanzania.



He said the Tanzanian Government was ready to understudy and implement the business models and initiatives introduced by the NLA.



Other members of the delegation are Sande H. Mnozya, the Principal Human Resource Officer, Ministry of Finance and Planning, Elias D. Mwandobo, the Counsellor, Tanzania High Commission, Abuja, Nigeria, Hangi M. Changa, State Attorney, Office of the Solicitor General of the United Republic of Tanzania, and Luizer E. Mndeme, Principal Economist, Ministry of Finance and Planning.



The rest are Goodluck G. Moshi, Information and Communication Technology Officer, E-Government Agency, Nuhu R. Msangi, Principal Tax Officer, Tanzania Revenue Authority and Francisco M. Bajumuzi, Personal Assistant to the Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Constitutional and Legal Affairs.

Source: GNA









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Featured VideoGeorge Mireku Duker, NPP MP For Tarkwa-Nsuaem has blamed the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for creating enabling environment for Ponzi schemes in the country.



According to him, every business in Ghana that has eventually turned out to be a sham has its roots deep in the NDC.



He made this comment during a panel discussion on Menzgold saga on Peace FM's Kokrokoo on Friday, January 19, 2019.



Chronicling the genesis of Menzgold, a gold dealership company owned by Nana Appiah Mensah popularly called NAM 1; Hon. Mireku Duker noted that the company began as a financial institution between the years 2014 and 2015 but their activities were found to be shady and the Bank of Ghana issued a stern warning for them to stop operations.



The company then turned into Menzgold and all these transformations happened under the tenure of the NDC, he highlighted.



He wondered why the NDC failed to whip Menzgold and its Chief Executive, Nana Appiah Mensah into order but turned a blind eye to their activities and watched them develop muscles.



To him, the NDC is characterized by Ponzi schemes and therefore has no moral right to reprimand President Nana Akufo-Addo and his government for taking necessary steps to clamp down on individuals and companies which are into Ponzi schemes.



Hon. Mireku Duker further disclosed that in 2012, a formal complaint to the Police that Nana Appiah Mensah had duped some people but the NDC government in power did nothing about the case and so the Menzgold boss went scot free.



The same NAM 1 duped 53 people and they reported the case to the Police but the NDC didnt do anything about it. He went scot free, he said, stressing that "all Ponzi schemes happen in the tenure of the NDC. Anything Ponzi in Ghana, any time there is a scam; its the NDC. People find fictitious and dubious ways to set up Ponzi schemes to ruin Ghana anytime the NDC comes into power because they create enabling environment for these Ponzi schemes.









Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Featured VideoThe largest opposition party, National Democratic Congress (NDC) has asked all their communicators, officers and members of the party to boycott of media platform, Citi TV over what they describe as a disrespect of an NDC panelist who was featured on one of the TV programmes.



In a statement signed by its vociferous fire-spitting Communications Director, Sammy Gyamfi, the NDC is appalled by the disrespectful treatment meted out to its member, Ambrose Amoah Ashyia on the TV station.



This is to inform all NDC Communicators, members, officials and the general public that effective today, Wednesday, 17th January 2019, the NDC has boycotted Citi TVs morning Political programme, the statement said.



Read Below A Copy Of The Statement.



ATTENTION: ALL NDC COMMUNICATORS, OFFICIALS AND MEMBERS.



This is to inform all NDC Communicators, members, officials and the general public that effective today, Wednesday, 17th January 2019, the NDC has boycotted Citi TVs morning Political programme.



This decision has been occasioned by the gross disrespect the station showed to the NDCs representative who was billed to appear on that programme yesterday morning.



In line with the partys new panel placement policy, the party upon the approval of producers of the show sent Hon. Ambrose Amoah Ashyia ( Former DCE for Upper Denkyira West) to represent the NDC on Citi TV yesterday morning. The NDCs rep duly arrived at the station and went through make-up and all pre-arrangements to get him seated for the programme.



However, in a bizarre turn of events, the NPPs rep, Hon. Dr. Samiu Kwadwo Nuamah (MP for Kwadaso) who arrived after 8:00 am, which was the start time for the programme, requested that he was unwilling to debate the NDCs rep on the programme. To our shock and disbelief, the station duly obliged to this request and withdrew the NDCs rep for the programme, and subsequently replaced him with a known NPP staff of Citi TV, hence reducing the panel to an all-NPP affair.



It is important to state that as at Tuesday, the producer of the programme, Musah Anas Seidu had confirmed that our rep was welcome on the show. However, all efforts to get the station to rescind its draconian and strange decision yesterday morning proved futile, neither was the NDC given an opportunity to replace our rep.



As a result and in protest to this gross show of disrespect by Citi TV towards the NDC, the party hereby directs that effective today and until further notice, all Communicators are to abstain from participating in Citi TVs morning political talkshow program.



Please take note and observe accordingly.



SGD:



SAMMY GYAMFI



National Communication Officer, NDC.

Source: Josephine Acheampomaa/Peacefmonline/[email protected]









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Featured VideoA delegation assigned to Dubai to bring the CEO of troubled gold dealership firm, Menzgold, Nana Appiah Mensah back to Ghana seems to have failed in their mission as they returned to Ghana without him.



Explaining why that happened, a joint statement jointly signed by ACP David Eklu, Director-General of Public Affairs, Ghana Police Service and Mr. Abu Issah, Ag. Head of Legal and Prosecution of EOCO, said Nam1 as he is popularly called, is facing charges of misdemeanor in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and will be made available pending the outcome of the case.



It is the understanding of the Ghanaian delegation that Mr. Mensah faces Misdemeanor charges in the UAE and will be made available to Ghana upon the final determination of his current matter in the UAE. His case is next due for court on Feb 2, 2019 in Dubai.



However, Nam 1 was able to provided an extensive statement to Ghanaian security and legal officers to assist in investigations into the Ghana matter for further action.











Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Featured VideoMr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister of Information, on Friday, expressed concern about the creeping challenge of fake news in the Ghanaian media space.



He said the phenomenon is gradually gaining root with instances whereby the mainstream media outlets now publish some of the stories flying on the various fake news platforms.



It is a debacle we must begin to confront, especially coming at a time people are now faking videos, which almost look real with the necessary algorisms and photos infused into a video about things you have not even said, the Minister said.



He cited, for instance, the Menzgold saga whereby some media houses published that Nana Appiah Mensah, the Chief Executive Officer, of the gold dealership firm would arrive in Ghana on Thursday, January 17, which happened to be false.



Mr Oppong Nkrumah made the observation when the President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Mr Roland Affail Monney led members of the National Executives of the Association to pay a courtesy call on him at the Ministry, in Accra.



The Minister said the time is ripe for stakeholders in the media space to engage in a roundtable discussion to find ways to identify fake news and tackle it because the trend threatens the mutual existence of the mainstream media and the work of professional journalists.



Mr Oppong Nkrumah also underscored the need for media practitioners to differentiate between opinion and facts in news stories so that people did not consume opinions as facts.



He, therefore, called for policy guidance on the usage of information from social media platforms to protect the sanctity of information given out as news.



The Minister announced that a roundtable discussion platform would be organised among key media stakeholders later this year to find solution to issues confronting the media landscape.

Source: GNA









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Featured VideoSome 117 migrants who left Libya in a rubber dinghy two days ago are unaccounted for, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Saturday, after three people were rescued from the vessel after it sank in the Mediterranean.

"The three survivors told us they were 120 when they left Garabulli, in Libya, on Thursday night. After 10 to 11 hours at sea ... (the boat) started sinking and people started drowning," IOM spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo said on Saturday.

He said the people came mainly from west Africa, adding: "Ten women including a pregnant girl were aboard and two children, one of whom was only two months old."

An Italian military plane on sea patrol on Friday had first sighted the dinghy sinking in rough waters and had thrown two safety rafts into the water before leaving due to a lack of fuel, Rear Admiral Fabio Agostini told TV channel RaiNews24.

A helicopter dispatched from a naval ship had then rescued the three people, who were suffering from severe hypothermia and were taken to hospital on the island of Lampedusa.

"During this operation at least three bodies were seen in the water who appeared to be dead," Agostini said.

The Italian navy said it had alerted Libyan authorities who coordinated rescue operations, ordering a merchant ship to go to the site of the sinking, though rescue efforts had ceased after the search for the dinghy had proved fruitless.

According to the IOM, 2,297 migrants died or went missing in the Mediterranean last year, out of a total of 116,959 people who reached Europe by sea.

Arrivals in the first 16 days of 2019 totalled 4,449, almost all by sea, compared with 2,964 in the same period of 2018.

"As long as European ports will remain open ... sea-traffickers will continue to do business and kill people," Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said in a Facebook post late on Friday.

Since Italy's populist government came to power in June, Salvini, leader of the anti-migrant League, has closed Italian ports to humanitarian vessels.

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Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has called for legislation that will ensure a balanced representation of both men and women in governance.



His call follows reports by the Institute of Local Government Studies and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, which indicated that, 61 years after independence; only 45 women have been appointed to ambassadorial positions as compared to 319 men.



Ghanas Parliament is still far off from the 30 percent mark set by the United Nations for women representation with its current 37 women MPs.



A worldwide ranking of women participation in governance also pegged Ghana at 143rd position out of 193 countries surveyed. This means Ghana has a long way to go in promoting women participation in the countrys politics, and urgent steps must be taken to address the challenge.



But, according to the MP who is also the Ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, enacting laws to ensure a balanced representation will go a long way to yield the needed results.



I think it is now time to consider legislation. We have been doing advocacy for a long time. We have urged, appealed, prayed; but I think it is time for us to get a law that binds everybody.



Political parties must reserve a quota of their strongholds for women. After all these decades, we are not making progress; but rather we are declining.



The tokenism where political parties reduce filing fees by half for women is not enough; I even think it is an insult to our women. Cant we have laws that a percentage of our constituency should be reserved for women?, he quizzed.



Increase parliamentary seats to 300, reserve the extra 25 for women  Haruna



Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, also wants the number of seats in Ghanas parliament increased from 275 to 300, with a reserved number of 25 seats for women.



According to him, the extra 25 seats should reflect the size and strength of the political parties in Parliament and will help encourage women empowerment in the country.



Today, we have 275 seats in Ghanas Parliament. We can decide that we want to add an additional 25 and dedicate it to only women and decide that, that 25 reflects the size and strength of the political parties in Parliament, he said.

Source: citi









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Featured VideoThe Management of the Ghana Airports Company Limited on Saturday assured stakeholders of the Companys commitment towards positioning Ghana as an aviation hub.



This comes amidst the removal from office of its Managing Director, Mr John Dekyem Attafuah.



In a statement issued to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) and signed by the Board Chair, the company confirmed that Mr Attafuah had been removed from office as Managing Director, effective Friday, January 18, 2019.



The Deputy Managing Director, Mr Yaw Kwakwa, is now the Acting Managing Director, to oversee the day-to-day management of the Company.



Mr Robert Sackey Tagoe, the Group Executive (Human Capital and Office Services) cum Secretary to the GACL Board, has also been reassigned to the Ministry of Aviation, effective January 18, 2019.



Ms Amma Osafo-Mensah would act as the Group Executive (Human Capital and Office Services), the statement said.



The current Board, chaired by Madam Oboshie Sai Cofie, is still in place.



We, therefore, wish to assure our stakeholders, especially our lenders, that GACL remains committed to realising its vision of positioning Ghana as the preferred aviation hub and leader in the airport business in West Africa, the statement said.



Source: GNA









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Featured VideoWomen entrepreneurs have appealed to the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), the Ghana Standards Authority and the Ghana International Promotion Centre to streamline their operations, most of which were impediments to the growth of their businesses.



They said one had to go through a lot of frustrations before registering her products or getting the approval to do business both on the local and international markets.



Madam Bernice Ansah, the Chief Executive Officer of Bennyville Ventures, said this at a workshop in Accra on Saturday to improve womens knowledge on exports, enable them to share experiences and create opportunities to enhance their businesses.



The workshop is an initiative of the International Trade Centres (ITC) SheTrades of the Commonwealth Project and supported by the African Centre for International Trade and Development (ACINTaD).



More than 150 women from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Bangladesh attended the workshop, which aims, among other things, to create a portal for the women entrepreneurs to facilitate trade.



Eligible companies, which would meet the criteria of the portal project, have up to February 15, 2019, to register.



Madam Ansah, who led the discussion at the workshop, said some of the processes were so frustrating that the women felt like giving up on their businesses.



She narrated how her license was seized for nine months by the FDA when she tried to register her products, including a hair pomade.



She called for more awareness creation on the activities of the regulatory authorities to help the women work with ease.



Ms Shari-Julianne Hammond, the National Coordinator of SheTrades of the Commonwealth Project, said the initiative was sponsored by the UK Department for International Development and implemented in the four countries.



The two-year programme would select women owned businesses, business support organisations and corporations to benefit from a wide range of opportunities.



Ms Hammond said women owned businesses on the portal would be connected to potential buyers, suppliers and investors whilst learning new skills through free e-learning courses, on-site workshops and webinars.



The entrepreneurs would also receive support to attend national, regional and international trade fairs.



Ms Tara Nulhase, a Textiles and Apparel Expert of ITC, called on participants to know and understand their prospective customers to produce to suit their taste.



She urged them to consistently produce quality products and deliver on time to win the confidence of their customers.



Entrepreneurs in textiles, finance and pomade making, who shared their experiences advised the women to be creative, take time to build their businesses and be resilient.



Ms Roberta Annan of Impact Fund for Africa encouraged the women not to be afraid to make mistakes and never give up when they make them.



Mrs Valerie Obaze of R&R Luxury charged them to share their business culture and identity with employees to enable them to help in meeting their targets.

Source: GNA









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Featured VideoIran Concerned About Oil Revenues, U.S. Pressure

01/19/19

Source: Radio Farda

Iran's Vice-President Mohammad Baqer Nobakht says Tehran is facing "serious problems in exporting oil" as a result of "brutal sanctions." Speaking in the south-eastern province of Kerman on Friday January 18, Nobakht said Iran is "too far away from the target of exporting 2,410,000 barrels per day planned in the country's budget," which should have brought $47 billion in revenues.





Nobakht added that Iran is also facing difficulties in repatriating the money resulting from oil sales. "It is sometimes impossible to bring back the money, and sometimes difficult," He told ISNA on Friday.

The Iranian vice-president also said that sanctions on shipping and insurance have made oil export even more difficult for Iran. However, he said that "Iran will overcome brutal sanctions."

Meanwhile, According to OPEC, Iran's crude oil production declined about 1.04 million barrels per day (mb/d) to 2.769 mb/d in December from early 2018.

The volume is even less than December 2015, when Iran was still under international sanctions imposed during the Obama administration.

On the other hand, according to the Wall Street Journal, China has offered a $3 billion deal to develop an Iranian oilfield taking advantage of waivers allowed under US sanctions as some European countries ended crude purchases from Iran.





But according to preliminary information obtained by Radio Farda, China has already cut back its ongoing involvement with the Iranian oil company and has not spent a significant amount of money in the past few months on existing projects in Iran's oil fields.

Addressing the governments' critics, Nobakht said that Iran's problems are caused by "the enemy's brutality" rather than "mismanagement" by state officials.

Iran uses the term "enemy" for the United States and Israel and sometimes for Saudi Arabia. In this case it mainly means the U.S.

He said: "We are facing a really difficult situation in our international relations. As soon as we negotiate with someone, the enemies increase their threats and force him to step back."

Iranian officials were hoping that a special financial arrangement by EU would allow some trade to continue regardless of U.S. sanctions. But Europe's SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) for trade with Iran has not materialized yet.

Iranian official news agency had reported on Thursday that the SPV arrangements were about to be implemented soon.

However, a senior EU official told a briefing in Brussels on Thursday that the SPV is "still in the pipeline," and that EU wants "to make sure that when it is presented, it is comprehensive and covers all positive and negative aspects and developments," adding that the SVP is part of an EU "conclusion" to be out "shortly."

In the meantime, reports from Brussels indicate that a U.S. effort to enlist Europe in its pressure campaign against Iran faced a setback after officials said ministers from several European Union members will likely skip a summit organized by Washington on Iran and the Middle East, reported the Wall Street Journal on January 17.



Read report by Iran Daily

The senior EU official said about the Warsaw meeting that the title of the summit is "meeting to promote a future of peace and security in the Middle east. Who could be against that?" However, he hoped that the summit would promote peace and security in the region.

The summit, announced during Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's tour of the Middle East last week, is to be held in Warsaw in mid-February hosted jointly by Poland and the United States. However, It is still not clear how many countries will attend the summit and what is the exact goal President Donald Trump's administration is pursuing by organizing an international gathering.

Iranian officials have strongly denounced the summit as "an anti-Iran meeting," and criticized Poland for hosting the meeting. An Iranian foreign ministry official told Poland's charge d'affaires in Tehran that Iran saw the decision to host the meeting as a "hostile act against Iran" and warned that Tehran could reciprocate, IRNA reported.

Meanwhile, On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif criticized Poland for hosting the meeting and wrote on Twitter: "Polish Govt can't wash the shame."Satirist Keyomars Marzban to Be Tried in Iran Under Hardline Judge Salavati

01/19/19

Source: Center for Human Rights in Iran

Iranian satirist Keyomars Marzban, who has been detained in Iran since August 2018, is due to face trial for the charges of "propaganda against the state" and "insulting the sacred" at Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran presided by Judge Abolqasem Salavati.



Keyomars Marzban

Salavati is notorious in Iran for issuing harsh sentences in politically sensitive cases in Iran. In interviews with the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), several Iranian human rights lawyers criticized Salavati for ignoring arguments by the defense in court and bowing to the demands of the prosecution, especially in cases in which the arresting authority was the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC's) Intelligence Organization.

Since being detained, Marzban has also been smeared by state-run and right wing media outlets in Iran that have attempted to portray him as an agent of a foreign country who came to Iran to bring down the Islamic Republic.

Salavati has presided over many cases against dual nationals who have been imprisoned in Iran, including Amir Hekmati, Saeed Abedini, and Jason Rezaian, all of whom were released in January 2016 in a prisoner swap deal with the US.

Salavati is also the presiding judge in current cases against dual nationals including against Iranian-American Siamak Namazi, his father Baquer Namazi and British-Iranian dual citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

In all these cases, the victims have been held without due process and under unclear or unannounced charges, as well as denied full and proper legal representation.

Marzban's lawyer, Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, told CHRI on January 15, 2019, that a trial date had not been set yet and that he was concerned because he had not been allowed to meet with his client in Tehran's Evin Prison or read the full indictment.

Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) claimed on January 15 that Marzban was a foreign-based writer who allegedly worked for the US-funded news site, Radio Farda, in Prague, as well as the London-based Manoto broadcasting company.

The 26-year-old satirist was arrested by the IRGC's Intelligence Organization on August 26, 2018, about a year after returning to Iran to visit his ailing grandmother. He had been living in Malaysia after leaving his birth country of Iran following mass street protests against the contested 2009 presidential election.



Source: Keyomars Marzban's twitter account

On September 12, 2018, a website affiliated with the IRGC, Edalatkhahan (Justice Seekers), claimed in the most recent smear campaign that Marzban had traveled to the US to launch an anti-Islamic Republic media outlet "aimed at inflaming the people and creating social divisions."

Edalatkhahan also accused Marzban of working with Freedom House, a human rights organization based in Washington, DC, to get Iranian artists and celebrities to oppose state policies in Iran.

Marzban began his artistic career making short films. While living in Malaysia, he hosted a comedy podcast called "Sangetab Radio" (Twisted Stone Radio) and in 2014 he published a book of short stories titled Kham Bodam Pokhteh Shodam Balkeh Pasandideh Shodam (I was Raw, I Became Ripe and Pleasant).

On April 17, Marzban had given an interview to the state-funded Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) about his experiences living abroad.

"Iranians have very limited hopes and dreams," he said. "Their biggest dream is for the economic problems to be solved and all they think about is their daily affairs. But when I asked people in other countries about this, I realized that imagination and following your dreams is a very important thing."US Court Holds Iranian-American Journalist Marzieh Hashemi as Material Witness

01/19/19

Source: VOA

A U.S. court has confirmed that an Iranian-American anchorwoman who works for Iran's state television has been jailed in the United States as a material witness but has not been charged with any crime. Court officials say they expect Marzieh Hashemi to be released immediately after her testimony to a grand jury in Washington.



Marzieh Hashemi

Officials have not released details about the criminal case in which Hashemi has been named as a witness.



Iran has protested the arrest of Hashemi, who was born in the United States and is a presenter on Iran's English-language Press TV. Hashemi, 59, married an Iranian man and converted to Islam.



Federal agents detained Hashemi last Sunday in the St. Louis airport after she visited with relatives in the area.



The chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Beryl Howell, unsealed documents related to Hashemi's detention on Friday, which said she has twice appeared before the court and has been appointed an attorney.



The media rights group, Committee to Protect Journalists, issued a statement early Friday expressing concern over Hashemi's detention. The New York-based group asked the Justice Department to disclose the reason for her arrest and noted that "Iran routinely jails journalists."



U.S. law allows judges to detain witnesses if they are considered unlikely to respond to a subpoena and are believed to be a flight risk.On Friday, Native American marchers took to the streets of Washington, D.C. for the Indigenous Peoples March. A small group went out and brought their drums to pray, sing, and chant. But on the same day, the March for Life protest was also happening in the area. A group of high school students, which the Cincinnati Enquirer reports is from Covington Catholic High School  an all-boys private school in Park Hills, Kentucky  was seen taunting the chanting elder. This was all caught on video.

The video, which has now gone viral, shows a huge sea of teenage boys wearing red MAGA hats, and some sporting the Covington logo, surrounding this small group of Native Americans. They chant loudly to try and overpower the singing elder and his drum, and many of them are also seen laughing in the background, as well as capturing the whole encounter on their phones.

One of the posts that show the video (by @lilnativeboy) details that the group was "praying & singing for these white devils even though they were provoking them." They stood their ground and stayed strong, despite the disrespect.

While there is no absolute confirmation that these boys are from Covington Catholic High School, Laura Keener, the communications director with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington, released a statement saying, "We are just now learning about this incident and regret it took place. We are looking into it." People are now calling on the school's principal, Bob Rowe, for a statement.

It's important that the school's administration be held accountable for the student's actions, as it seems that the culture of toxic white supremacy might be permeating within their institution. They need to be informed about their students' culture, and clearly need to educate them on what it means to honor people of color, and the different cultures that exist in the country.

I dgaf if they are minors. They need to be identified. What school are they from? Who was chaperoning them? This is one of the most horrific displays of ignorance, racism & disrespect. My god. I feel sick. pic.twitter.com/oUsiVY5pNA  Lulu Says (@lulu_says2) January 19, 2019

Imagine sending the students at your school to D.C. on a field trip to protest abortion rights, and you wind up making national news because your students surround, mock, and harass a Native American elder on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.#CovingtonCatholic  Charlotte Clymer (@cmclymer) January 19, 2019

This is a betrayal of everything Jesus taught & practiced & a mockery of Christian values. As a Muslim who went to a Catholic high school, we were asked to be "men for others." I hope Covington Catholic High School has a come to Jesus moment w/ these kids, who should know better. https://t.co/Utcycx2Cob  Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) January 19, 2019

If you'd like to reach Principal Rowe, and have any suggestions or strong opinions about the event, @lilnativeboy points out that you can reach him via email at browe@covcath.org.Colombia's ELN rebel group was responsible for the car bomb attack against a police academy that killed at least 21 and injured dozens, President Ivan Duque said on Friday, making it almost impossible peace talks with the insurgent group can soon restart.

He called on Cuba to capture 10 National Liberation Army (ELN) commanders who are currently in Havana for the stalled peace talks.

In Thursday's attack, a car broke through checkpoints onto the grounds of the General Santander School in the capital Bogota before it detonated, shattering windows of apartments nearby. Defense Minister Guillermo Botero said on Friday the car was driven by ELN explosives expert Jose Aldemar Rojas.

"The ELN armed terrorist group is the author of this despicable attack. This was an attack prepared and organized many months in advance. For all of Colombia today it is clear that the ELN has no genuine will for peace," Duque said in a televised national address.

At least 20 police cadets died in the blast, as did Rojas, authorities said.

The ELN, which was formed by radical Catholic priests in 1964, has not claimed responsibility or issued a public statement.

Made up of some 2,000 fighters and considered a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union, the ELN began peace talks with the government of former President Juan Manuel Santos in early 2017, but they have been put on hold by Duque until the ELN frees its 16 hostages and stops attacks.

The car bombing - the worst in Colombia in almost 16 years - has heightened fears that a new wave of attacks could be launched in the Andean nation as a reaction to the right-wing president's stance.

Colombians plan to march in cities nationwide on Sunday in protest against the attack.

Duque, who took office in August, pledged during his election campaign to toughen offensives against the group and drug-trafficking crime gangs that kill and kidnap civilians.

On Friday he reiterated that talks cannot restart unless the insurgent group stops all attacks, and he canceled a dispensation that allowed 10 members of the ELN negotiating team to remain free in Cuba. He asked Cuba to arrest them.

"We appreciate the solidarity expressed by the government of Cuba yesterday and today we ask you to make effective the capture of the terrorists who are in your territory and deliver them to the Colombian police authorities," Duque said.

The Cuban government did not immediately comment on his request.

In November, Colombia asked Cuba to capture ELN rebel commander Nicolas Rodriguez and provide information about the presence of other ELN commanders in Cuban territory.

It also asked Havana to act on an Interpol Red Notice on Rodriguez. The Cuban government has not responded publicly to that request.

PLANNED ATTACK

Duque called the explosion a "crazy terrorist act" against unarmed cadets. It is the worst car bomb attack since the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) detonated a vehicle in Bogota's upmarket El Nogal social club in 2003, killing 36 and injuring more than 200.

"We will not rest until we capture and bring to justice the terrorists involved," he said. "I tell the criminals that social repudiation awaits them, the rejection of all Colombians and the international community."

The vehicle, a gray Nissan Patrol SUV, was carrying an estimated 80 kilograms (176 lb) of the high explosive pentolite, which has been used in the past by Colombian guerrillas, Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez said on Friday.

Botero said the car was registered in Rojas' name and that he was identified by his finger prints. He said investigators believe Rojas - who formed part of Rodriguez's security contingent years ago - did not intend to carry out a suicide attack, and that the bomb may have been activated by a cellular phone by someone else.

Rojas, known by his war alias El Mocho or Kiko, had lost a hand in bomb-making activity and traveled frequently across the border to Venezuela, Botero said.

The attack was planned over about 10 months, he said.

Car bombs were frequently used in Colombia during decades of civil war between the government and various leftist rebel groups, as well as in violence involving the Medellin cartel led by the late drug lord Pablo Escobar.

The worst of the war, which killed some 260,000 and left millions displaced, ended when the government reached a peace agreement with the FARC in 2016.

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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.This year at the Magic 107.7 Easter Egg Hunt the kids follow along the bunny trail and hunt for eggs that are hidden along the trail and check them off on the list provided. It all started 26 years ago as the Lake Mary Easter Egg Hunt. It stayed at the Lake Mary City Hall for 7 years before it was relocated to other places. The event has grown from an attendance of only a few hundred people to over 10,000 in 2015. This year the hunt took place in Downtown Historic Longwood, Fla., Saturday, April 3, 2021.The lawsuit comes on the heels of a comatose Arizona woman who gave birth in December 2018. Police said the 29-year-old was sexually assaulted and they are trying to track down the assailant. The CEO of the facility where she was living resigned as the company announced new safety measures in place.We like to look at those photographs of separate water fountains as if that was the worst of what it could be, rude and inconvenient, King said. Rude and inconvenient are not the words I would use to describe what I was finding in all the files of FBI reports. Brutality and terrorism are the words I would use, and it was legally sanctioned in most cases.Former British prime minister John Major urged Theresa May on Saturday to drop her "red lines" on Brexit or allow parliament to find a way forward to avoid a damaging no-deal departure from the European Union in March.

Major said he compromised on key decisions on the Northern Irish peace process and the first Gulf War while prime minister between 1990 and 1997, and May should do the same after her Brexit plan was rejected by a huge majority in parliament.

"Her deal is dead and I dont think honestly that tinkering with it is going to make very much difference if any difference at all," Major, who campaigned to stay in the EU ahead of the 2016 referendum, told BBC Radio.

May is due to tell parliament on Monday how she intends to proceed on Brexit. Lawmakers may then propose alternatives to see if any could command majority support.

"If we leave in chaos and without a deal, that seems to me to be the worst of all outcomes," Major said.

May should therefore "go around" lawmakers in her party who say they are ready to accept a no-deal Brexit and drop her opposition to key issues in the negotiations, Major - who also faced a revolt inside the Conservative Party over Europe - said.

May has ruled out staying in the EU's single market, an option that is considered less economically damaging, because Britain would not be able to control immigration from the bloc. She has also rejected staying in a customs union with the EU.

If May cannot compromise, she should allow parliament to find a way to overcome its splits, Major said. "I think there are signs parliament might be able to reach consensus," he said.

Failing that, Britain should have a fresh referendum on its membership of the EU.

In the meantime, delaying Brexit was wise, Major said.

Major's comments were rejected as "Remainer elite views" by a Conservative lawmaker who said May would break her promises to voters if she considered staying in the EU's single market or a customs union or holding a second referendum.

"Brexit would become meaningless. We wouldn't be leaving the European Union, we would be staying in the European Union," Suella Braverman told the BBC.

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We have so much work to do, but today were going to celebrate our accomplishments, emcee Neila Wilson said to the crowd on the parks lawn. We lift up courageous women who represent us grassroots leaders and women throughout our community sharing truth.The latest local production of Hand to God is at Mad Cow Theatre, and its a doozy. Director Tony Simotes has taken an already overheated story and amped it up even more. Ame Livingston, as a recent widow, seems ready to snap at any moment. Anthony Pyatt Jr., as both a meek teenager and a satanic puppet, boils with intensity. Even the generally milquetoast pastor, as played by Holland Hayes, bustles with purpose.Palestinian officials and analysts say that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sent a variety of messages during his address at the American University in Cairo as part of his Middle East tour last week.

Most notably, there was a reshuffling of issues for the US in the Middle East and the propagating of the Iranian threat as a top priority in the region at the expense of the Palestinian cause, a ploy to minimise the importance of the issue and indirectly support the USs traditional ally Israel.

These US moves come at a time when the region is facing significant challenges, most prominently the political freeze of the Peace Process between the Palestinians and Israelis, disputes with Iran, the Gulf crisis, the threats of terrorism and the proposed Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA) suggested by the US.

Mustafa Al-Barghouti, secretary-general of the National Palestinian Initiative, said that Pompeos address was insolent and ignorant of history and that it contradicted the speech given by former US president Barack Obama in Cairo nine years ago.

This is important, because it shows that US policy has lost control and is now taking orders from the Zionist lobby, he said. Al-Barghouti added that ignoring the Palestinian cause demonstrated great dangers, but this will not change our position or will and determination to reach our goal of liberating our people and creating our own independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

He said that the positions declared by Pompeo, especially his stance on the Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians, were peppered with falsehoods and ignorance. They demonstrated the inability of the incumbent US administration to handle the current situation in the Middle East, he said.

Al-Barghouti said that Washingtons focus on the Iranian issue aimed to fracture the region, divide the Arab world, and decimate the Middle East in order to allow Israel to circumvent the boycott it is facing.

The aim was to allow the normalisation of relations with Israel under the pretext of confronting the same enemy, Iran. This, of course, is contrary to reality, reason, and the interests of the Arab people, and it should not be allowed to happen, Al-Barghouti said.

Palestinian political analyst Abdel-Majid Sweilam said that the intentional disregard of the Palestinian cause by the US revealed a crisis in Washington and a hostility to the Palestinian people.

It was also proof that the Palestinian cause was foundational, he said, because the focus on secondary issues at the expense of the main one meant that the larger strategy was falling apart.

This explains why the Americans are ignoring the Palestinian cause, he said.

Sweilam said that the so-called deal of the century to be put forward by the US on Palestine was failing because the Palestinian people would not agree to it.

The US knows that it cannot have an effective policy in the Middle East without acknowledging the rights of the Palestinian people, he stressed, adding that the Israelis would not recognise the Palestinian people or their rights.

The main goal of the deal of the century is to erase these rights, he said.

Sweilam said that US intentions could not change reality and that the Palestinian cause would continue to be the foundation of stability and security in the region. He added that the US administration was detached from reality and wanted to create a reality for itself.

Nabil Shaath, Palestinian presidential adviser on foreign affairs and international relations, said the deal of the century has nothing to say to the Palestinian people, since the US was only interested in dominating the region and confronting Iran.

This proved that Washington was weak, he said, and was further evidence of its diminished power and importance in the world.

For decades, US diplomats have viewed themselves as mediators between the Palestinians and Israelis, and US secretaries of state have usually met with Palestinian representatives during regional tours.

However, relations between the two sides deteriorated a year ago after US President Donald Trump decided to relocate the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and recognised the city as the capital of the country.

He also shut down the offices of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in Washington and suspended US funding to the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA.

Pompeos visit to the region came amid peaceful protests since March 2018 along the border between Gaza and Israel, resulting in the deaths of more than 255 Palestinians and the injury of thousands.

Aaron David Miller, a former US mediator to the Middle East, said that Pompeos indifference to the Palestinians implied an unofficial disregard for the Palestinian-Israeli explosion and demonstrated Washingtons impotence in impacting events.

Instead of discussing the Palestinian cause, Pompeos visit focused on Iran and an agreement that Tehran is a destabilising force, he said.

Last week, Pompeo arrived in Cairo after a brief and unannounced visit to Iraq aiming to reassure Washingtons allies about US support in the war against the Islamic State (IS) group, despite the US announcement that it would withdraw its troops from Syria.

The trip also coincided with the resignation of retired general Jim Mattis as secretary of defence and retired general John Kelly as White House chief of staff.

Mattis and Kelly were two key figures thought able to tame Trumps policies, and there are now no senior retired military figures in the US administration.

Trumps foreign policy continues to raise many questions, especially his military strategy.

Mattis resigned last month after Trump suddenly announced that the US would withdraw its troops from Syria, and this was followed by leaked reports that Trump intended to withdraw thousands of US troops from Afghanistan.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 17 January, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Sidelining the Palestinians

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If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call our customer service team at 716-372-3121 or email nfinnerty@oleantimesherald.com.The great expectations that arose after the Stockholm Agreement on the Yemeni crisis adopted in Sweden in December have crumbled, and the country is again standing on the edge of an abyss, in the words of local observers.

The situation in Yemen dominated talks held by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his recent tour of the Middle East, especially in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The US Embassy in Riyadh released a statement confirming Yemen was at the top of Pompeos talks with Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz, Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir.

Pompeo told King Salman that he was grateful for Riyadhs support for the Yemeni political process under the sponsorship of the UN. With Bin Salman, the US secretary of state agreed on [the] need for continued de-escalation and adherence to [the] Sweden Agreement between the internationally recognised government of Yemen and the Houthi rebels, especially in the port city of Hodaida in the west of Yemen.

A comprehensive political solution is the only way to end the conflict, the US Embassy statement said.

However, despite the 13 December Agreement signed in Stockholm between the Yemeni government and the Houthis to monitor the ceasefire in Hodaida and the pullout of militia forces, and the fact that the UN Security Council voted unanimously on 21 December to authorise the deployment of UN monitors to observe the implementation of the agreement, fighting has since broken out again between the two warring parties amid the Houthis rejection of a UN monitoring mission.

Head of the Houthi delegation Mohamed Abdel-Salam requested the removal of retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert, chairman of the UN monitoring mission in charge of overseeing the ceasefire in Hodaida.

The lack of progress in Hodaida in terms of the implementation of the Stockholm Agreement is mainly due to [Cammaert] who has steered from the course of the agreement by implementing other agendas, Abdel-Salam said.

The task seems to be greater than Cammaerts capabilities, and its going to be difficult to discuss other issues if UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths does not intervene to address the matter, he added.

The Houthis want Cammaert out of the picture because he has not recognised the redeployment procedures in Hodaida the group announced at the end of December.

However, the situation has also been complicated by the decision by Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi to lift emergency levels on the fighting fronts following a Houthi drone attack on the strategic Al-Anad airbase last week.

Chief of Yemens Military Intelligence Saleh Tamah died of the wounds he suffered in the drone attack on a military parade in the southern Lahj province. A number of army commanders were wounded in the attack, including army Chief of Staff Abdullah Al-Nakhi.

The international community condemned the attack, and Griffiths said it had come at a time when hopes were high to further advance negotiations aimed at ending the war.

Al-Anad is the largest military airbase in Yemen, taken by the Houthis in their march southwards towards Aden in 2015. Government forces took back Al-Anad later in the same year.

Yemen has been plunged into deepening poverty since the onset of the war that flared when the Houthis overthrew the countrys internationally recognised government in mid-2014. In response, President Hadi requested Saudi Arabias support to fight the Houthis.

Since then, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have engaged in a war against the Iran-backed Houthis, according to statements made by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.

The Houthis and Tehran have denied Iranian backing.

According to UN estimates, 6,800 civilians have died and 10,700 have been injured in the war. Tens of thousands of childrens deaths could have been avoided if it were not for malnutrition and the spread of diseases such as cholera, in addition to the deterioration of healthcare services across the country, according to observers.

In November, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that if the international community did not work towards ending the conflict in Yemen, 14 million people  approximately half the population  could be lost to famine in the following months.

The UN said humanitarian conditions in Yemen were the worst the world has seen in decades.

Yemeni politician Mohamed Al-Mikhlafi said the Houthis were the cause of the deterioration in Yemen and that they realised that their redeployment or withdrawal from Hodaida would prevent them from monopolising the entrance of food, medicine and fuel supplies to the country.

Yemen has been importing food, medicine and fuel for years, most of which enter through the port of Hodaida, the lifeline of the country.

Al-Mikhlafi accused the Houthis of stealing humanitarian supplies and trading in them at the expense of the lives of the Yemeni people.

The UN World Food Programme has threatened to suspend deliveries, saying that the Houthis were stealing aid from the mouths of hungry people and accusing them of criminal behaviour and of selling aid on the black market.

The Houthis have claimed to have refused the entry of the programmes food into the country because it was rotten and violates standards and regulations for human consumption.

Saudi Ambassador in Yemen Mohamed Al-Gaber said that 60 per cent of the humanitarian aid sent by the coalition countries did not reach the Yemeni people because of the Houthis.

The Associated Press has also published a report saying that the warring parties on both sides of the conflict have prevented humanitarian aid from reaching the Yemeni people.

Al-Mikhlafi believes the Houthis must now implement the Stockholm Agreement since it is the only way out of the crisis in Yemen. Implementing the deal according to their own interpretation of it wont cut it. Continuing to fight will not last for long. And the international community wont tolerate famine in Yemen, he said.

In response, the Houthis have accused the government and coalition forces of wanting to control Hodaida in order to monopolise the aid the Yemenis receive.

The Stockholm Agreement states that the UN will monitor the port of Hodaida to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Yemeni people and that the port should be evacuated of all warring forces.

The government and the Saudi-led Arab coalition have agreed to the terms of the Stockholm Agreement, whereas the Houthis fear the loss of one of their most important military cards since the eruption of the war.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 17 January, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Hopes for peace dashed in Yemen

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Still, if there is a case to be made against the President, it shouldnt happen in the court of public opinion. As well as the media has reported on the special counsels investigation, justice, in the end, belongs in his hands. Knowing first-hand his rigorous adherence to the rule of law and how faithfully he strives to uphold his oath to the Constitution, I can attest no one is better suited for the job.Opponents will say that rich people will flee. But New Yorks modestly progressive tax rates havent chased away billionaires and millionaires yet  far from it. Weve got 63% more millionaires now than we did when we passed a so-called millionaires tax in 2009. And New York City is home to 103 billionaires, more than any other city in the world.Criminalized because she survived: thats Browns story. Its also the story of so many in New York and beyond. Patrice Smith is one example. Not unlike Brown, Smith is currently serving a 25-to-life sentence in New York for defending herself and, in doing so, killing her 70-year-old attacker when she was just a teenager. She has appealed to Cuomo through letters, media and outside advocates, to no avail.Namely, he stands accused, as President, of directing an ally  his erstwhile lawyer and fixer Cohen  to lie under oath to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, a project for which Trump had been actively courting Vladimir Putins support throughout 2016. The term for this is suborning perjury, and it would leave no doubt that the President obstructed justice as Special Counsel Robert Mueller and legislative investigators dig to get to the bottom of Russian interference in the election.He has been at pains to paint himself as a pragmatic Democrat ready to defend New Yorkers from the evils emanating from the Oval Office, outlining a markedly left-leaning vision of the future at his State of the State address on Monday that included marijuana legalization and an open-armed embrace of the Green New Deal.But in a memo released Friday, the Catholic Conference Dolan heads argues that the bill as written, which was modeled on one from last year that was passed by the Assembly and introduced by Democrats in the Senate, shields public schools and municipalities when it comes to creating a one-year window to revive old civil cases no longer allowed under current law.Will be leaving for Dover to be with the families of 4 very special people who lost their lives in service to our country! he wrote in an early-morning tweet.I provide a cautionary tale, he said. My life will never be the same as it was before this offense and its subsequent consequences. I am deeply pained and remorseful.Indiana State Police Sgt. Carey Huls told the Courier Journal that a nearby commercial driver noticed Kustes vehicle was not stopping after the collision, so he maneuvered his semi-truck in front of her damaged truck to slowly bring it to a stop on the right side of the highway.Members of the Lebanese Shia group Hizbullah and the 8 March Alliance have been pressing for the participation of Damascus in the Arab Economic and Social Development Summit (AESDS), slated to be held in Beirut on 19-20 January, while also demanding the postponement of the summit if Syria is not invited.

Hizbullah, an ally of the Syrian regime, is pushing the Arab League to reinstate Damascus in the regional bloc after its expulsion eight years ago over its response to opposition in Syria.

Syrias possible participation in the AESDS was not discussed at an Arab League Council meeting on 9 January, much to the disappointment of Lebanese media loyal to Syria.

Hossam Zaki, assistant secretary-general of the Arab League, earlier stated that a decision such as reinstating Syria in the Arab bloc would have to be taken unanimously. There was no consensus among the Leagues member states to accept Syrias return to the bloc, he added.

The Arab Leagues earlier decision had been to freeze Syrias participation in the League, not its membership, an official at the League told Al-Ahram Weekly. It had been made during a summit of foreign ministers, not delegates, and required a similar or higher-level meeting to reverse the decision.

Head of the Lebanese Wefaq Party Bilal Taqieddin called on Lebanon to put off the AESDS until Syrias participation had been confirmed.

There is no harm in postponing the meeting until March. Lebanon stands to gain from Damascus participation in the AESDS or its postponement until a solution emerges, Taqieddin said.

There are groups in Lebanon that do not want to take this step. This is why it is necessary to put off the summit, instead of convening it without Syria, he added. Lebanese officials should demand the revival of relations with Syria, and Beiruts agreements with Damascus should be reactivated.

Lebanons Al-Mourabitoun, or Independent Nasserist Movement, also loyal to Syria, urged the countrys President Michel Aoun to invite Syria to the AESDS, describing Damascus as the beating heart of the Arab world.

However, other Lebanese parties that are foes of Syria have rejected calls for Damascus reinstatement in the Arab League

They include the Future Movement, the main representative of Lebanons Sunnis, the Lebanese Forces, the second biggest Christian bloc, and the Druze-supported Progressive Socialist Party.

Walid Jumblatt, the head of the latter, is alleged to have spoken of Syrian interference in the formation of Lebanons government.

The position of powerful players, such as the leaders of Hizbullah, the Amal Movement and the Aounist Free Patriotic Movement, will all be important in any decision.

Needless to say, Lebanese currents in alliance with Syria support its return to the Arab League, but it is not known whether they will be prepared to use the issue to force a rift in the coalition Lebanese government or a wider rift in the Arab League.

Lebanese Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri is claimed to have said that freezing Syrias activities in the League was a mistake that ought to be rectified. Arab and Gulf delegations had also sat alongside Syrian representatives in Arab parliamentary meetings in Geneva, he added.

Aoun has said that the AESDS must be held on its scheduled date, putting rumours of its postponement to rest.

Diplomatic observers said Beirut had decided to leave the decision on Syrias participation to the Arab League, since it was the regional bloc that had suspended Syrias membership.

However, Gebran Bassil, president of the Free Patriotic Movement and Aouns son-in-law, has always been reserved about Lebanons policy of distancing itself from the crisis in Syria, often requesting boosting relations with Damascus.

Lebanese media cited diplomatic sources as saying that the Free Patriotic Movement would not make the mistake of inviting the Syrian regime to the AESDS, notably because the Arab League does not seem to be in a rush to decide on Syrias return to the bloc.

There are sharp differences between the Arab countries on the issue, confirmed when an Arab League Council meeting was cancelled on Sunday and again when the meeting was rescheduled with Syria not on the agenda.

Moreover, inviting Syria to the AESDS will have repercussions on relations between Aoun and the Lebanese Future Movement, notably because of the latters accusation that Aoun was responsible for the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Al-Hariri, the founder of the movement.

By not discussing Syria, the Arab League has squashed hopes among the regimes allies in Lebanon for normalisation.

The Amal Movement, a supporter of Syria, has also announced its rejection of Libyas participation in the AESDS because of Tripolis lack of cooperation with Lebanon in the case of the disappearance of Amal founder Imam Moussa Al-Sadr who disappeared along with two companions during a visit to Libya in the 1970s.

The Libyan authorities stated at the time that Al-Sadr had left Libya for Italy, something that Italy denied.

Berri, the head of Amal, has insisted on not inviting Libya to the AESDS. However, the head of the meetings organising committee, Anton Shoqeir, and executive committee head Nabil Shadid have already made arrangements for the meeting.

Regarding Libyas invitation to the summit, Speaker Berri informed the two members of the committee of his approval of Libyas invitation through diplomatic channels, in this case Libyas representative to the Arab League, a statement said.

The issue of Syrias invitation, the statement continued, was contingent on an Arab League Council decision at foreign-minister level and was not an exclusively Lebanese decision.

Libya participated in the 2002 Arab League Summit meeting held in Beirut, the statement noted.

In response, Berris office issued a statement saying that the committee statement was fabricated and baseless. In fact, the Lebanese Finance Minister had visited the president at the request of Berri to protest against inviting Libya to the summit.

Lebanons Higher Shia Council also rejected inviting a Libyan delegation to attend the summit, particularly because some [Libyan] officials still represent the interests of [former Libyan leader Muammar] Gaddafi. Our national dignity precludes inviting them.

It said it might mobilise the Shias in Lebanon if Libya was invited to the meeting and warned against the public reaction that might arise from inviting the Libyan delegation.

MP Mohamed Khawaga from the Development and Liberation bloc said on Lebanese television that Beiruts stance on Libyas participation in the AESDS was clear. Libyan officials were not welcome in Lebanon, he said, as long as Libya did not cooperate in the Al-Sadr case.

MP Mohamed Nasrallah from the same bloc said inviting Libya would constitute an assault on the dignity of Lebanon and be disrespectful to a wide stratum of Lebanese people.

The public is not waiting for our call for mobilisation. The people will move on their own, in which case no one will be able to control the streets, he said.

Sources told the Lebanese NBN channel, loyal to Berri, that the Amal Movement and followers of Al-Sadr were heading towards escalation if the Libyan delegation was granted access to Lebanon.

It should be mentioned that the Syrian regime, the ally of Hizbullah and Amal, had a strong relationship with the late Libyan leader Gaddafi.

Lebanese sources said that it would have been difficult for Al-Sadr to have travelled to Libya without the approval of Damascus and its making arrangements for it.

While moves to postpone the AESDS are growing, diplomatic sources say that Lebanon is adamant on forming a new government and convening the summit in Beirut on its due date for reasons linked to decisions made at the Cedar Donors Conference to support Lebanons economy. Preparations for the summit are ongoing.

Invitations have been distributed, including to the heads of all the religious denominations in Lebanon.

Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League Hossam Zaki, who flew to Lebanon to arrange the convening of the summit, said it would convene as scheduled and that conflicts within Lebanese circles were matters for Lebanons domestic policies and not the Arab League.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 17 January, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Lebanons quandary



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Im not one to ask for a public apology. I dont go that route. I take some of the blame for showing bad judgment and giving them my money. You never know with these people. But he doesnt seem to have any remorse, Pisarski said.Never, the Virginia resident said. This is something where I was going to be here no matter what. This is my life, were talking about. This is all of our lives and were going to be here fighting for that, regardless of whatever is happening at a higher level. This is for us.A lot of us including yours truly is a fan of daredevilry attempts of standing at the edge of cliffs and skyscrapers, but did you know that wind gusts can be fatal? she wrote in the March post. Is our life just worth one photo?Dear Covington Catholic, I went to a Catholic high school and am a follower of Christ, Rep. Ted Lieu tweeted. Jesus taught us to act in the exact opposite manner of how your students behaved. I will pray for your students and hope that as they mature their hate can turn into love.Peterson noted that the students will be disciplined, but Minnesota law prevents the penalties from being disclosed, according to news station Fox 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul. He also stressed the need to improve the way students are being taught about Hitler and the Holocaust.The Indigenous Peoples March is a national platform to raise the issues that negatively impact our communities the most  voter suppression, the border wall, the missing and murdered, human trafficking and lack of resources  just to name a few, Haaland said in a statement before the march. For too long Native communities have been left out of the national/global conversation, and our men, women and children suffer because of it. As one of the first Native American women in Congress, I see it as my responsibility to educate my colleagues about the federal governments trust responsibility and provide a voice to advocate for those who have historically not had a seat at the table to make a long-awaited change.The homeowner, who was not injured in the incident, told authorities hed been acting in self-defense when he reached for his gun and shot at the a group of men as they forced their way inside his home around 1 a.m., KHOU reported."Then I saw two deer on the ground, Vickers told the newspaper. It shot plum through both of them. They both dropped right there. They didn't take another step. I knew it was back there, but I didn't realize it was that close to her where it could get shot."His mother gave Matthew more than enough money to pay for his first and last month deposit on an apartment and additional expenses, read an official statement. The investigation to date tends to show Matthew killed his parents because he didnt want his mom to move out of state and sell the family house out from under him.It was a haunting reminder of a fatal shooting Oct. 1, when a gunman blasted Jaquan Campbell, 24, in the chest in the threater parking lot  also after leaving the strip club. In that incident, Campbell and his girlfriend were followed to the lot, where the suspects crashed into Campbells car and then shot him, police said. Two suspects were captured in Miami later that month.For the third time since the US announced the withdrawal of its troops from Syria, Israel has bombed a military location belonging to the Syrian regime and Iran, destroying a cargo plane transporting weapons from Iran and Iranian warehouses in southern Damascus and Syrian military bases.

Among the targets, according to the Israeli media, was a senior delegation of officials from the Lebanese Hizbullah group that was visiting Damascus as they boarded an Iranian plane heading to Tehran.

Russias Defence Ministry said the provocative Israeli strikes posed a threat to two civilian airplanes, adding that the strikes came from Lebanese airspace. In a statement, Moscow said that we are very concerned about the strikes and the way they were executed. This is a blatant violation of Syrias sovereignty.

Media loyal to the regime led by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad reported that Syrian Air Defence forces had fought off the Israeli jets and destroyed most of their missiles before they reached their targets.

Israel claimed that the strikes had been made in defence of Israels security. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said his country was defending red lines in Syria.

We will not accept Iranian military reinforcements aimed against us in Syria, Netanyahu said. We will confront this aggressively and steadfastly, also referencing the disruption caused by US President Donald Trumps announcement that US troops would withdraw from Syria.

The Iranian plane that was hit, according to US reports, was part of the fleet of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRG) airline Fars Air Qeshm, which had landed in Damascus for half a day. Israel claims the carrier is being used to transport military equipment to the Al-Assad regime and its ally Hizbullah.

Analysts believe that through the strikes against military targets in Syria, Tel Aviv wanted to send a message that Trumps decision would not prevent it from targeting Iran and its Shiite militias operating in Syria.

The US withdrawal is unnerving for Israel because it could mean that Iran will have more freedom of movement in Syria.

Since the start of the events in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of attacks against military targets in Syria belonging to the Syrian army, Hizbullah, the IRG, and even shooting down a Russian jet fighter. Recent strikes have been more widespread since the Russian plane was shot down over the Mediterranean in September 2018.

Gadi Eizenkot, chief of the general staff of the Israel Defence Forces, said that Israel had been able to abort an Iranian plot to transport 100,000 IRG soldiers and Shiite militias into Syria, transforming Syria into a massive military base for Iran on the border with Israel.

Eizenkot minimised the significance of the US decision to withdraw. The US decision is dramatic and important, but we must not exaggerate. We have been dealing with that front by ourselves for many years, he said.

Commenting on military coordination between Israel and Russia, he said that the presence of Russian troops in Syria had created a new reality and restrictions on Israels activities there, but that security coordination between the two sides was playing a major role in the Israeli armys fight against terrorism.

The statements imply that Israel will always find an ally to support it in the region. Even if the US withdraws, Russia is a ready replacement to support Israel despite tense relations between the two countries since the Russian jet was shot down.

US National Security Adviser John Bolton visited Tel Aviv on 5 January after Israel raised concerns about Irans taking advantage of the US withdrawal to expand its activities. Bolton reassured Israel that this would not happen, saying that the US withdrawal will happen while guaranteeing the defence of Israel and other friends in the region.

Despite the US decision to withdraw and the belief on the part of the Syrian regime and Iran that they will have free rein to expand and deploy militarily as part of a plot to dominate the Middle East, Washingtons reassurances to Tel Aviv have allowed Israels Air Force to attack more military targets in Syria belonging to the regime and its ally Iran.

It is believed that Israel put pressure on Washington to delay or slow its withdrawal to avoid a military void in Syria that Iran could fill, but that the US refused. Nonetheless, Israel has received a green light to attack anything that threatens its security from the US and Russia.

Relations between Israel and Russia that were cool after the shooting down of the Russian jet are now gradually thawing, especially since Moscow did not take any measures against Israeli air raids or use the C300 missile-defence system it sent to Syria after the September incident. Russia verbally condemned the incident but went no further than diplomatic censure.

Tensions did not escalate after the fighter jet was shot down, unlike when Turkey shot down a Russian jet and Moscow reacted strongly, including by severing ties and the threat of open warfare.

Israel wants to reassure Russia and vice versa, and their relationship will not be impacted by verbal statements. The Russian missiles, two military bases and navy vessels in Syria have not been targeting Israel.

The common interests between Tel Aviv and Moscow mean that their bond is stronger than ties between Russia and the Syrian regime.

There are also doubts about the level of threat Iran poses to Israel. It has only used its animosity towards Israel as a slogan for media and political propaganda purposes, and it is unlikely Tehran will take any steps to seriously threaten Israels security.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamed Jawad Zarif said last month that when did we ever say we wanted to annihilate Israel? Find me one person who has said that. No one has ever said that. Zarif added that neither founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ayatollah Khomeini nor former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had called for the erasing of the Jewish state from the map.

It is likely that Israel will continue its current pace of air strikes against Syria, whether or not US troops withdraw, as long as the Syrian crisis continues to rage without a political solution in sight that is satisfactory to all parties. This does not seem likely any time soon.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 17 January, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Israel attacks Syria

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This is Martunovichs first arrest. He was accused of assault in 2016, but never charged, said police. Sources said he was an assault victim in 2004 and 2016, and no one was arrested in either incident.Amroche had been visibly intoxicated and irate when police arrived at the United Nations-area apartment he shared with the victim, who was in distress and in need of help, according to a letter sent by the district attorneys office to a city agency that handles international matters.Last Friday, the guard tell us something, Oh, everything will be OK. Come [back] Monday. I come Monday, no check. I come yesterday, they say come today. You know I have to walk 12 blocks because I dont want to lose one ride, one fare, because I spend too much money for MetroCard. So today, I have to walk and take bus because I have no money. It makes me sick, she said.Zottolas son Salvatore, 41, had survived a July 11 murder attempt outside his waterfront home in the Bronx  a hit ordered in an effort to lure out the father, according to a federal criminal complaint. Two of the suspects drove to his house to lie in wait, but Salvatore never appeared that day, the complaint said.Kenyan police have arrested the wife and father of a man identified as the suicide bomber in an attack on Nairobi's Dusit hotel complex that left 21 dead, a police source said Saturday.

The attacker, one of five Al-Shabaab militants who stormed the complex on Tuesday, was identified as 25-year-old Mahir Khalid Riziki, who grew up in Mombasa.

"The wife of the suicide bomber is now in our custody. She will help us understand her husband's last moments and his movement, his story in latest years and his very last movements," a senior police official said on condition of anonymity.

"She was arrested in Mombasa and has been brought to Nairobi for further questioning," he added.

His father was also arrested.

"In the course of investigation of this nature, close family members of such people are crucial because they hold crucial information," the source said.

The official said Riziki was identified through mobile phone communication, and that he had communicated with one of the other attackers right before blowing himself up.

"He grew up in Mombasa and that is where he was recruited into Al-Shabaab," he said, adding that he had previously been involved in attacks targeting security forces and has previously travelled to Somalia.

That attack by the Somali Al-Qaeda affiliate led to a 20-hour siege at the DusitD2 hotel and office complex, which also left 28 injured while some 700 people were rescued.

The Dusit revealed it had lost six staff members while telecoms company Cellulant also lost six staff. An American and British-South African dual national were also among those killed.

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Nigerias president, Muhammadu Buhari, was not particular about parties when he asked Nigerians to vote out governors who failed to pe...





Nigerias president, Muhammadu Buhari, was not particular about parties when he asked Nigerians to vote out governors who failed to perform in their first terms, especially in payment of salaries.





Mr Buhari, who spoke with the Hausa service of the Voice of America, said he saw no justification in governors collecting bailout funds from the federal government and still failing to pay wages.





I wonder how these governors are able to sleep, knowing that they have refused to pay workers their wages.





These workers have families to cater for, they pay rent, pay school fees, hospital bills and food for their families, Mr Buhari was quoted as saying.





The president said the Nigerian constitution gives governors the independence to spend their funds without interference and that is why some are abusing that privilege by refusing to work for the people.





With elections just around the corner, Mr Buhari may just have sent the right signal to Nigerian workers, some of whom have become impoverished due to non-payment of salaries.





Relying on a data from BudgIT, a civic organisation concerned with participatory governance weve made a compilation of states where salaries are being owed.





In October 2018, BudgIT published a list of states yet to fully offset the outstanding amount owed pensioners and civil servants despite series of N1.8trillion bailouts from the federal government.





1. Abia: As at October 2018, Okezie Ikpeazu, governor of Abia State, was owing its secretariat workers and secondary school teachers five months salaries and pensioners 18 months. Mr Ikpeazu is seeking re-election in Abia having won a return ticket unopposed. As at October 2018, Okezie Ikpeazu, governor of Abia State, was owing its secretariat workers and secondary school teachers five months salaries and pensioners 18 months. Mr Ikpeazu is seeking re-election in Abia having won a return ticket unopposed.





In October 2015, some months after his inauguration, Mr Ikpezau, of the PDP, cleared all salary and pension arrears going up to eight months in some parastatals to become an instant darling of workers.





But that may not be happening now. Also to the excitement of workers, the governor in December 2018 paid the months salaries and pension just before Christmas but there is no record of his payment of backlog as indicated by BudgIT.





2. Adamawa: BudgIT data says that Adamawa State as at October 2018 owed its secretariat workers four months salaries, midwives four months, secondary school teachers two months and pensioners 13 months. BudgIT data says that Adamawa State as at October 2018 owed its secretariat workers four months salaries, midwives four months, secondary school teachers two months and pensioners 13 months.





Asides these, the state is also owing its local government workers. To offset some of these, the State House of Assembly in November 2018 granted approval to Governor Muhammadu Bindows request to source for N5 billion loan from UBA Plc to pay salary arrears of the local government workers.

Mr Bindow, the governor, secured the APC ticket to seek re-election in Adamawa.





3. Akwa Ibom: Emmanuel Udom, governor of Akwa Ibom State, inherited a huge pension debt from his predecessor but managed in 2018 to pay up to the end of 2015. : Emmanuel Udom, governor of Akwa Ibom State, inherited a huge pension debt from his predecessor but managed in 2018 to pay up to the end of 2015.





BudgIT, in October, says the state was owing twelve months pension but latest reports shows the government has not paid pension from January 2016 till date.





Mr Udom, who has secured the PDP ticket for 2019, does not owe any active worker.





4. Bayelsa: The state government has been paying its workers up to date but it is yet to clear a three and a half months salary arrears since 2016, BudgIT data shows. The arrears were incurred during the 2016 recession which saw a fall in revenue to states. The state government has been paying its workers up to date but it is yet to clear a three and a half months salary arrears since 2016, BudgIT data shows. The arrears were incurred during the 2016 recession which saw a fall in revenue to states.





In March 2019, Seriake Dickson, the governor, will again vie for the governorship seat under the flagship of PDP.





5. Benue: According to information provided to BudgIT, the amount owed Benue workers vary by levels but workers in levels eight to ten are owed between four and 11 months salaries.





Samuel Ortom, the governor, in August 2018, said he inherited over N69 billion of unpaid workers salary arrears, pension and gratuity and over 70 billion for other engagement of government.





After dumping APC, Mr Ortom won the PDP return ticket in Benue.





6. Borno: BudgIT documents says the state government owes only two months pension arrears accrued due to verification exercise. Having spent eight years in the reign, Kashim Shettima, the governor, is vying to go to the senate in next months election via his party, APC. : BudgIT documents says the state government owes only two months pension arrears accrued due to verification exercise. Having spent eight years in the reign, Kashim Shettima, the governor, is vying to go to the senate in next months election via his party, APC.





7. Delta: The state is also one of those owing huge pension. It was quoted as 36 months by BudgIT and there is no report of payment as of the time of compiling this list. The state is also one of those owing huge pension. It was quoted as 36 months by BudgIT and there is no report of payment as of the time of compiling this list.





Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of the PDP will battle it out with other candidates in March 2019 elections.





8. Imo: In 2016, Imo workers entered an agreement with the state government on payment of 70 per cent salaries with the exception of those on grade levels 01-06 that receive 100 per cent. In 2016, Imo workers entered an agreement with the state government on payment of 70 per cent salaries with the exception of those on grade levels 01-06 that receive 100 per cent.





The reason for the percentage salary was attributed to the national economic recession.





However, in May 2018, the workers protested and demanded full payment. It could not be ascertained whether Rochas Okorocha, the governor, has started paying full salaries. BudgIT says the state government owes up to two months salaries and 34 months pension as at October 2018.





Mr Okorocha is aiming to go to the Senate in 2019 on the APC platform.





9. Kogi: In Kogi, Yahaya Bello, the governor, pays secretariat workers only 50 per cent of their salaries while midwives receive only 40 per cent. Despite this, salaries and pensions being owed workers ranges from 2 to 13 months arrears, according to the report. In Kogi, Yahaya Bello, the governor, pays secretariat workers only 50 per cent of their salaries while midwives receive only 40 per cent. Despite this, salaries and pensions being owed workers ranges from 2 to 13 months arrears, according to the report.





Under the APC, Mr Bello is seeking to return to Kogi government house in March.





10. Kwara: BudgIT data says Kwara government owes secondary school teachers four months salaries as at October 2018. However, the outgoing governor, Abdulfatai Ahmed, has completed two terms and is not eligible to seek re-election. BudgIT data says Kwara government owes secondary school teachers four months salaries as at October 2018. However, the outgoing governor, Abdulfatai Ahmed, has completed two terms and is not eligible to seek re-election.





11. Ondo: In November 2018, the Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress in Ondo State, Tayo Ogunleye, said the government had paid six out of the seven-months salary arrears, with the promise to pay the remaining one month before the end of January. In November 2018, the Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress in Ondo State, Tayo Ogunleye, said the government had paid six out of the seven-months salary arrears, with the promise to pay the remaining one month before the end of January.





Before then, Ondo State owed its workers 20 per cent of salary arrears. The governor, Rotimi Akeredolu of the APC, would not be seeking re-election until 2020.





12. Osun: With N16.6 billion Paris Club refund, the Osun State Government in September 2018 announced payment of workers salaries, leave bonuses and pensions covering four months. With N16.6 billion Paris Club refund, the Osun State Government in September 2018 announced payment of workers salaries, leave bonuses and pensions covering four months.





This is however, minute, compared to what the government owes.





For up to 30 months, the state government under Rauf Aregbesola, has been paying workers above level seven 50 per cent of their salaries.





Mr Aregbesola completed his second term and handed over to his former Chief of Staff, Gboyega Oyetola, both of the APC.





13. Plateau: The state made the BudgIT list for owing up to 16 months pension. The governor, Simon Lalong, is seeking re-election on the APC platform. The state made the BudgIT list for owing up to 16 months pension. The governor, Simon Lalong, is seeking re-election on the APC platform.





14. Taraba: BudgIT says Taraba owes midwives one month and pensioners two months arrears as at October 2018. The governor, Darius Ishaku, will not be able to seek re-election until 2020 as the governorship election in the state last held in 2016. BudgIT says Taraba owes midwives one month and pensioners two months arrears as at October 2018. The governor, Darius Ishaku, will not be able to seek re-election until 2020 as the governorship election in the state last held in 2016.





15. Zamfara: As at October 2018, the state government owes secondary school workers four months and pensioners two months arrears, according to BudgIT data. The governor, Abdulaziz Yari is not qualified to seek re-election, having served two terms. As at October 2018, the state government owes secondary school workers four months and pensioners two months arrears, according to BudgIT data. The governor, Abdulaziz Yari is not qualified to seek re-election, having served two terms.





Commenting, NLC General Secretary, Peter Ozo-Eson, said the labour union has also asked Nigerian workers to vote out governors who are owing.





We have asked members to reject governors who are owing salaries and that they should make sure they collect their permanent voters cards and use those cards wisely by voting against the ant-workers governors; those owing salaries and those who are carrying out anti-labour obnoxious policies. Nothing has changed, that remains, he said.





Mr Ozo-Eson also recounted steps taken so far by the union to ensure payment.





In the past, we have done various things, we have even picketed states. Youll recall we went to a number of states. We were in Imo, we occupied occupied for days until eventually certain agreement was made. We picketed Benue, we had cause to go to Nasarawa. We went to Oyo. Weve engaged states owing salaries. As a result of those engagements, some of them have retrieved their steps and met their obligations. Those that have not so done, we campaign against them and their re-election.









Culled: PremiumTimes



The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has solicited the support of the media to deeply engage in sensitisation and consci...

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has solicited the support of the media to deeply engage in sensitisation and conscientisation exercise targeted at educating the electorate.













Its National Commissioner, Festus Okoye, stressed the urgent need to build public confidence in the electoral process through holistic voter education and general enlightenment of the electorate.













Okoye, represented by the State Commissioner, Prof. Abdulganiyu Raji, said in Ado Ekiti, yesterday, at the zonal sensitisation forum for the media, organised by the electoral body, that the Commission was adequately prepared to conduct the elections with all activities attached to electioneering processes almost fulfilled, as mandated by the constitution.













Okoye urged all registered voters yet to collect their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) to go and collect them, adding that INEC has made special arrangement to make them available at the designated centres across wards.













He stressed that smart cards reader was designed to authenticate, confirm and verify the fingerprint of the voters as an additional confirmatory procedure to avert electoral malpractices.













In a case, the finger is not authenticated by the card reader, but the PVC is confirmed as genuine and the voters personal details are consistent with the manual register, the electorate shall be allowed to vote, he assured.









On the challenge posed by vote buying, he said INEC has put in place measures to curtail such in the elections, adding We have received credible information that some politicians are financially inducing electorate to collect the Voter Identification Numbers (VIN) on their PVCs, since it will be difficult to buy votes at the polling units.









He, however, assured Nigerians that INEC would collaborate with security agencies to deal with violators of electoral laws, including those who may be trying to compromise its staff to perpetuate the illegal acts.Serena Williams crushed Ukrainian teenager Dayana Yastremska 6-2, 6-1 on Saturday before consoling her at the net as she burst into tear...

Serena Williams crushed Ukrainian teenager Dayana Yastremska 6-2, 6-1 on Saturday before consoling her at the net as she burst into tears.









You did amazing, youre gonna make it, dont cry, Serena told her.









It was Day 6 at the Australian Open in Melbourne.









I just play each match at a time, play as hard as I can and do the best I can. That really is all you can do, Serena said as she zeroes in on an eighth Australian title.









The 37-year-old, seeded 16, has dropped just nine games in her three matches so far and will now face Simona Halep, the world number one for a berth in the quarter-finals. Halep beat Venus Williams in two straight sets 6-2 6-3.









The Romanian finally hit form to pull off her best win of the year and cruise past the veteran American.









I was super-motivated today, she said after being taken to three sets in both her opening two matches as she bounces back from a herniated disc that ended her 2018 season early.









I have nothing to lose, she added, looking ahead to Mondays clash against 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena. I playing against a great champion. Itss going to a bigger challenge but Im ready to face it.









Fourth seed Naomi Osaka looked down and out against Taiwanese veteran Hsieh Su-wei before battling back to win 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 and set up meeting with Latvias Anastasija Sevastova.









Osakas win equals the 21-year-olds best performance at the Australian Open, where she reached the last 16 in 2018 but lost to Halep.









But she looked headed for the exit when she conceded the first set and was down 4-1 in the second, before winning five straight games to force a decider.









I just didnt want to give up, said the Japanese, who received a code violation after throwing her racquet.









Sixth seed Elina Svitolina struggled with a painful shoulder complaint that required treatment at every changeover, and medical timeouts, before she somehow beat Chinas Zhang Shuai 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 as the temperature rose in the centre court sunshine.









I just told myself youre going to die or win, said Svitolina, who scored her biggest career win by clinching the WTA Finals in Singapore last October.









She will next meet 17th-seeded American Madison Keys.









In the mens event, World number one Novak Djokovic continued his relentless drive towards more Australian Open glory as he cranked up another gear Saturday with third round drubbing of his Canadian opponent, Denis Shapovalov.









The Serb dropped a set for the first time this year against the fast-rising Shapovalov, before demolishing him in the fourth stanza to win 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.









Djokovic, with 14 Grand Slams to his credit is gunning for a record seventh Australian title.









I just tried to be in the moment and weather the storm, said the Serb, who was unsettled when the lights were switched on in Rod Laver Arena for television reasons, despite it still being daylight.









Completely unnecessary to turn on the lights, he said in roasting the organisers.









Djokovics victory means he is guaranteed to stay world number one when the new rankings are released after the tournament.









He next plays another up-and-coming star, Russias 15th seed Daniil Medvedev, who eased past David Goffin and has yet to drop a set.









Another young gun Alexander Zverev made the last 16 for the first time when he swatted aside Australian Alex Bolt in three sets and will play former world number three Milos Raonic for a place in the quarter-finals.









Eighth seed Kei Nishikori made it back-to-back victories for Japan, following Osaka on court by beating Portugals 44th-ranked Joao Sousa in three sets.









The 29-year-old has won all three of his first week matches on Margaret Court Arena to reach the last 16 for the seventh time in nine appearances.









I love to play this court, said the 2014 US Open finalist after delighting a large contingent of Japanese fans.









He next plays Spains 23rd seed Pablo Carreno Busta.The United States Bureau of African Affairs (AF) has disclosed that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubaka...

The United States Bureau of African Affairs (AF) has disclosed that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, was listed as an aide of Senate President Bukola Saraki.





In a tweet by Lauretta Onochie, a media aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, the Bureau of African Affairs which is part of the US Department of State and which is charged with advising the Secretary of State on matters of Sub-Saharan Africa said he was in Washington DC on diplomatic arrangements.





We cannot apprehend Atiku because of our diplomatic ties with Nigeria, hes being booked as an aide to Nigerias Senate President, AF said.





It would be recalled that Atiku who for 12 years was unable to enter the US following corruption indictment against him, arrived Washington on Thursday in company of Nigerias Senate President Bukola Saraki.

He is staying at the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC and is expected to attend several meetings with Nigerians in Diaspora.





In a 2010 report titled Keeping Foreign Corruption Out Of The United States the United States Senate PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs chaired by Carl Levin named Atiku as one of four Politically Exposed Persons, PEP, to watch out for.





The subcommittee report narrated how Jennifer Douglas Abubakar, a US citizen and fourth wife of Atiku between 2000 to 2008 helped her husband bring over $40 million in suspect funds into the United States, including at least $1.7 million in bribe payments from Siemens AG, a German corporation, and over $38 million from little known offshore corporations, primarily LetsGo Ltd. Inc., Guernsey Trust Company Nigeria Ltd., and Sima Holding Ltd.





Over half of the suspect funds, nearly $25 million, were wire transferred by the offshore corporations into US bank accounts opened by Ms. Douglas, the committee report read.





For most of the time period examined, the US banks with those accounts were unaware of Ms. Douglas PEP status and allowed multiple large wire transfers into her accounts from the offshore corporations.





As, over time, each of the banks began to question the wire transfers into her accounts, Ms. Douglas indicated that all of the funds came from her husband and professed little familiarity with the offshore corporations actually sending her money, the report added.





Bank records indicate that Ms. Douglas used most of the funds placed into her accounts to support a lavish lifestyle in the United States, paying credit card bills and household expenses in the range of $10,000 to $90,000 per month, including substantial legal and accounting bills.





She also transferred funds to accounts she opened for the Gede Foundation, a nonprofit corporation she established in 2002, and the American University of Nigeria (AUN), a university that Mr. Abubakar founded in 2003, and whose name reflects its association with American University in the United States.





An additional $14 million of the suspect funds were wire transferred by two of the offshore corporations, LetsGo and the Guernsey Trust Company, to American University to pay for consulting fees related to AUN.





American University officials told the Subcommittee that they understood the funds came from Mr. Abubakar and never inquired why the wire transfers were sent by unfamiliar offshore corporations.





At least another $2.1 million was wire transferred by the Guernsey Trust Corporation to accounts controlled by Edward Weidenfeld, a US lawyer who provided legal services to Ms. Douglas, Mr. Abubakar, and AUN.



A key US senator on Saturday said the Saudi crown prince was responsible for Jamal Khashoggis murder and must be dealt with, as he th...

A key US senator on Saturday said the Saudi crown prince was responsible for Jamal Khashoggis murder and must be dealt with, as he threatened new sanctions.









Republican Lindsey Graham, an influential ally of President Donald Trump, has previously said that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was complicit in the grisly killing of Washington Post contributor Khashoggi in October.









I have concluded that the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States cannot move forward until MBS has been dealt with, Graham said, using the initials for the crown prince.









Graham also threatened new sanctions against those suspected of involvement in the murder during a press conference in Ankara.









Western countries including the US, France and Canada have placed sanctions on nearly 20 Saudi nationals as the case has tarnished Riyadhs international reputation.









We will start sanctioning those involved in the killing of Mr Khashoggi. Well make a definitive statement that MBS knew about it and is responsible for it and come up with a series of sanctions, the South Carolina lawmaker said.









Turkey says Khashoggi was killed by a team of 15 Saudis who strangled him during a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to obtain paperwork ahead of his upcoming marriage.









The remains of the insider turned critic of the kingdom have yet to be found, three months after this murder.









Riyadh has denied any claims of the crown princes involvement but the case has caused strains with Washington.









Earlier this month the trial of 11 accused opened in Saudi Arabia with the attorney general seeking the death penalty for five defendants.









Graham acknowledged that he had been enthusiastic in his support of Prince Mohammed but accepted he had been wrong.









What has transpired in the last couple of years is unnerving to say the least, he said.









Graham said the sanctions were intended to send the message that the murder was not what you do if youre an ally of the United States.













(AFP)EgyptAir has said it transported six hippopotamuses from South Africa to China in a unique shipment, a statement by the national airliner said on Saturday.

EgyptAirs cargo division said it flew a shipment of three pallets weighing 6,600kg, with each pallet carrying two hippos.

The shipment flew from Johannesburg to Beijing via Cairo International Airport, on board EgyptAirs 840 and 95 flights.

EgyptAir has succeeded in providing all means which ensure the safety of the animals transport despite the shipment being one of a special nature, the statement concluded.

Short link:

The Kano State Government has revoked three contracts awarded to Tiamin Multi Services Ltd, a company belonging to Aminu Mohammed. Mr Mo...

The Kano State Government has revoked three contracts awarded to Tiamin Multi Services Ltd, a company belonging to Aminu Mohammed. Mr Mohammed is believed to be the contractor behind the videos showing the state governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, receiving money from contractors.





The three projects were worth N1.6 billion.





The state commissioner of information, Mohammed Garba, announced the cancellation at a widely reported press briefing on Friday, on the resolutions of the State Executive Council.





The state government gave non-performance as the reason behind revocation, which affected Tiamin and one other company, FNL Engineering Limited. It is unclear if the second company is also linked to Mr Mohammed.

Last year, an online newspaper, Daily Nigerian, published a series of videos showing Mr Ganduje collecting wads of dollar bills at different times believed to be kick-backs from contracts awarded by the state government.





Findings by this newspaper indicate that Tiamins managing director, Mr Mohammed, was the one who filmed the videos while delivering the cash to the governor at different times.





Mr Mohammed however declined to answer inquiry on his role in the sting operation.





However, a senior official in the company, who spoke on Friday evening but declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak by his boss, confirmed that Mr Mohammed was indeed the unseen face in the infamous Ganduje videos.





He said the cancellation is not unconnected with the decision of Mr Mohammed to blow the whistle on Mr Gandujes alleged misconduct.





Ironically, one of the projects by Tiamin that was revoked by the government, dualisation of Kofar Dawanau-Dandinshe-Kwanar Madugu was mentioned in one of the bribe-taking videos among those the contractors needed the governors intervention for payment.





Mr Ganduje was heard promising to talk to the states Accountant General on the outstanding payments.





The other two projects by the same contractor revoked by the government are roads linking different parts of Bichi and Fagge local government areas.





Mr Garba said the road projects in Bichi and Fagge were awarded on August 2, 2017 and November 13, 2017 with completion period of four months and 14 months respectively.





He said the contracts were revoked based on the contractors inability to complete the projects despite collecting respective advance payments of N204 million and N96 million.





Mr Ganduje is enmeshed in the bribe-taking scandal in spite of his denial and his suit against the news platform and its publisher, Jaafar Jaafar.





A probe into the scandal by the Kano State House of Assembly was also stalled in November by a high court of Kano State at the instance of Mr Ganduje.





President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed resentment over the misconduct as captured in the videos.





He was reported to have made references to it at a meeting with Nigerian community in Paris last year, and at a meeting of his partys campaign council penultimate week.





On Thursday, Mr Buhari re-echoed the dilemma he expressed at the party meeting on the irony of campaigning for Mr Ganduje with the allegation still around the governors head.



President Muhammadu Buhari has warned that he would not be cowed to abandon the corruption war as steps have already been taken to insul...

President Muhammadu Buhari has warned that he would not be cowed to abandon the corruption war as steps have already been taken to insulate already recovered assets from looters.





He restated that he remained committed to battle corruption to a standstill.





He said on Friday at the flag-off of his campaign in Kaduna that his administration would not waiver in its fight against corruption and ensuring sanity in public affairs.





Addressing a mammoth crowd of supporters, he said: We have taken measures to ensure that recovered funds and assets are not handed back to those who looted the treasury as was done after my detention when my administration was toppled in the 80s.





What we are doing is to ensure that all recovered assets are sold off and the proceeds lodged into the Single Treasury Account. That way, no one will have the opportunity to appropriate such assets.





The anti-corruption fight is difficult in the current democratic dispensation, but we will continue to work carefully and steadily until we insulate public funds from looters.





He said that the administration has recorded tremendous success in the war against insurgency, restiveness in the Niger Delta and other crimes and would not rest until peace is restored to all parts of the country.





I have nothing to say than to remind you of the situation we met this country and the promises we made to you.





So the best we can do for our country is to return the APC to power.





The biggest gift we can give to our country is security and sufficiency and economic prosperity,  he said.





Buhari assured Nigerians that the nations economy is recovering and is on track of development.





The larger population of the country are youth between the ages of 35 and below, Nigeria has lots of work to do to get you employment and sufficiency. We are determined to do that.





According to him, the government has also recorded massive success in the area of agriculture and commended the support of all governors, especially those of Lagos, Kebbi, Sokoto, Kano and Jigawa states for the turnaround in rice production.





We have stopped spending our foreign reserve to import rice, there is sufficiency in rice as we now produce it locally.





The President expressed confidence that his victory is assured in the state and North West region, and solicited for the support of all to ensure peace and economic development of the country.





He also promised that his administration, if re-elected in the 2019 general elections, will continue to make life easier for all Nigerians.





The President then called on the people of Kaduna state to ensure that they vote for all APC candidates to enable the party complete all ongoing developmental projects and programmes across the country.





He assured the electorate that the APC administration would not betray Nigerians or allow anyone to betray them.





Earlier, National Chairman of APC, Adams Oshiomhole, said that the fundamental issues of the campaign were the pronouncements by the PDP presidential candidate to sell the NNPC just as they sold NITEL, NEPA, Nigerian Airways and other government agencies, saying that the people should resist the move by not voting for them.





He called on the electorate to reject the PDP because it was responsible for the collapse of the biggest textile industries in Kaduna State, sending thousands of people out of job.





Oshiomole said Kaduna is home to the President and himself, adding with what I have seen here today, the APC has already won the general elections.





I am therefore calling on you to ensure that you vote for all of the candidates of the APC from top to bottom during the general elections.





Earlier, the Director General, APC Presidential Campaign Council, Rotimi Amaechi, urged party supporters to vote the party all through to ensure smooth running of the APC administration.





APC will see votes, but I must advise you, PDP has a rigging machinery. You have to do APC SAK without mistake.



Bottles, chemicals, office structures and furniture are reported to have been destroyed by the wildfire that engulfed parts of the Guinn...

Bottles, chemicals, office structures and furniture are reported to have been destroyed by the wildfire that engulfed parts of the Guinness Nigeria Plc, Aba Brewery in Abia on Friday.









Firefighters battled hard to contain the fire, which started at about 11 a.m. on Friday until about 6:46 pm when the Correspondent left the scene.









Okezie Uche, Aba Fire Service Commander, said that his men reached the site at about 1 p.m. and fought hard to extinguish the fire with the help of other staff of near-by companies who volunteered.









We have water challenges but today, we refilled from the NNPC.









When the fire seems to be out of control, I called the Controller of Abia Fire Service, Mr V.O Gbaruko in Umuahia office for backup and he sent men and more equipment.









We used techniques with the support of NNPC that gave us a foaming chemical which helped to extinguish the fire.









Without that chemical, we cannot do much because we are fighting a highly flammable material, he said.









Uche said the materials at the brewery included empty bottles, plastic crates and others.









He said that poor house-keeping might have been responsible for the fire, stressing that when the staff could not contain the fire, they called the Fire Service.









A Police Officer who preferred anonymity said that the police got information on the fire at about noon and called in the Fire servicemen in Aba.









They came, the Commander of MOPOL 55 also sent his men; the villagers also assisted in fighting the fire but it has not been easy as efforts were slowed because there was no power from EEDC to pump water.









And the water the Fire Service brought finished but the efforts continued with the help of Glover Paints that mobilized their men to bring water to help.









When the Umuahia Fire Service Commander sent his men, they joined with the help of the staff of Geometric, to contain the fire to this level, he said.









He assured that the fire would be over before 6 p.m. following combined efforts, adding that fire reached nearby NNPC Gas Pipeline but was put out at that end.









He said the fire reached the NNPC Gas Pipeline area near the depot but when the Fire Service came, they first tackled the area which was why the pipeline did not explode.









Eric Otuonye, the Station Officer in charge of Security of the Brewery, said workers noticed the fire and smoke in the compound at about 11:30 a.m. from a nearby bush hence they mobilized to fight it.









He said that the fight had been tough as firemen from Fire Service office in Aba and Umuahia, the Staff of Clover Paints and Guinness Nig. Plc fought the fire from 12 p.m.









I think the fire got to a chemical that has escalated it, this is after 6 p.m. and if it is not put out, I do not know what will happen at night.









I believe the fire must have started from our compound. But there is a bush close to our fence on that side where it started, that is what we are suspecting.









But now what is important is fighting the fire, when it is over we can now trace where it started, he said.









Otuonye said that the damage was to be estimated in billions of Naira.









Otuonye said the brewery had been shut down already since July 2018, adding that only a few police personnel and company security guards were around.









(NAN)Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, has insisted that he remains a member of the All Progressive Congress (APC), contrary to claim...





Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, has insisted that he remains a member of the All Progressive Congress (APC), contrary to claims by the factional chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Imo State, Marcelinus Nlemigbo, that he has been suspended from the party.





Okorocha denied the suspension controversy in a statement he issued through his Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo,





The Governor also maintained that there is no faction of the APC in Imo State.





According to him, There is only one APC in the State with Hon. Daniel Nwafor as the Chairman and Owelle Rochas Okorocha as the leader. Any other group claiming to be a faction of Imo APC must obviously be a gang of 419ers or league of fraudsters who are experts in issuance of dud cheques and collecting billions for jobs not done.





If Mr. Oshiomhole didnt want the preferred candidate of members of the party in the state, Ugwumba Uche Nwosu, for any reason, and if he actually meant well for Imo APC, he would have taken one of the guber aspirants that formed the coalition who are known members of the party, and who is also from Owerri zone, since that was the reason some of them in the coalition claimed that made them to leave the government. 









Further to buttress his claim, Governor Okorocha said but the APC National Chairman preferred a PDP man and also from Orlu zone. And he imposed the Candidate on the party and at a time the man was facing charges on corruption. That is the problem with Imo APC and its guber candidate.





Aside this problem, Oshiomhole also told his audience that he has dissolved the EXCOs of the Party from the State to the wards in total disregard of a ruling by Hon. Justice O.A. Musa of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory Bwari Abuja, delivered on August 14, 2018 inSuit No: FCT/HC/BW/CV/103/2018.





In the ruling, Justice Musa stated; An order of perpetual injunction is hereby made restraining the 1st and 2nd Defendants either by themselves, the National Working Committee, or National Executive Committee from either removing, substituting, replacing, suspending or interfering with the tenure of the 3rd Defendant/Claimant, his Executive and all elected officers of the 1st Defendant contained in exhibits A,B,C and D from their elected offices.





And to the best of our knowledge, Justice Musas ruling has neither been appealed against nor quashed. In other words, Mr. Oshiomhole decided to urinate on the High Court ruling when he said he has dissolved the Daniel Nwafor EXCO and has set up the M.O. Nlemigbo Caretaker Committee. One therefore does not need to be a SAN to know that the National Chairmans action was null, void and of no effect. It was effort in futility and that is why a contempt charge has been filed against him.





We are worried that the elections are around the corner and some people who are expected to know better, are behaving as if they have nothing at stake. Governor Okorocha and APC members in the State will deliver President Muhammadu Buhari and other marketable Candidates of the Party. And the party in the State shall outlive these yahoo folks, the statement added.The Federal Government in collaboration with the National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTS) have commenced a campaign to discourag...

The Federal Government in collaboration with the National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTS) have commenced a campaign to discourage illegal importation of food and indiscriminate use of chemicals on food items.









Mr Heineken Lokpobiri, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, on Friday in Abuja during the programme, said that the Federal Government had been fighting the issue of smuggling of agricultural commodities.









Lokpobiri said that many sudden health challenges were as a result of the consumption of smuggled rice, poultry products and poisonous fishes.









You may not know the significance of what you have done today because one fundamental problem we have in this country today is smuggling.









And as a ministry, the Federal Government attaches so much importance to this problem that a committee is headed personally by the vice president of the country and we have been confronting that problem.









And one point that we have always laboured to make is this collaboration with the traders but no matter the efforts you make, smuggling will always continue but if the traders do not buy these smuggled products, it will be the beginning of the end of smuggling.









Today, we have children of three, four, five years dying of kidney diseases.









It is because of the smuggled food we eat not just the rice, they are smuggling poultry products, poisoned fish, he said.









The minister suggested the creation of awareness in the states.









He assured that the Federal Government would continue to support Nigerian traders and farmers to fight smuggling and indiscriminate use of chemicals on food.









Mrs Ruth Agbo, the Women Wing Leader of NANTS, said that women formed a greater percentage of farmers and traders across the country.









If we dont stop what we are campaigning about, it will affect us in one way or the other.









We want to do it in line with government policies for import substitution, which says we have to eat what we produce and produce what we eat.









So, in line with that, we are saying we want to encourage our farmers to do more with the help and the support of government.









And the traders to do more by not buying what is wrong because anybody can be a victim of what we eat, she said.









Mr Yusuf Moses, the Assistant Controller, Investigation of the Nigeria Customs Service, commended women traders for taking up the fight against smuggling.









All along it has been Nigeria Customs fighting smuggling but today we are happy that the women have taken the battle up.









We are happy now that at the background we have our sisters, mothers and wives that are not here to patronise imported goods.









 We dont need those poisoned chicken and rice, he said.









Mr Don Pedro, the Deputy Director of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), assured the traders that made in Nigeria goods were of quality.









He appealed to Nigerian traders to always patronise locally produced products.









It was gathered that no fewer than 1,000 women traders participated in the campaign.









(NAN)The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has appealed to Cameroonian authorities not to evict over 100,000 of Nigerian refugees in th...

The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has appealed to Cameroonian authorities not to evict over 100,000 of Nigerian refugees in that country.









UNHCR on Friday expressed grave concerns over plans by Cameroon to evict the Nigerian refugees to Borno.









UNHCR said it deplored the reported move that Cameroon was forcing several thousand Nigerians to return to Borno, adding, it has put the lives of the refugees at risk.









Cameroon is currently home to more than 370,000 refugees, including some 100,000 from Nigeria, according to UNHCR.









We are gravely concerned for the safety and well-being of all these people, said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.









The UN refugee agency said on January 16, 267 Nigerian refugees, who had crossed into Cameroon in 2014, were forcibly returned.









It regretted that at dusk on January 14, militants attacked and ransacked the border town of Rann, about 10 kilometres from the Cameroon border.









UNHCR said that at least 14 people were reportedly killed and an estimated 9,000 fled to Cameroon.









Grandi said: This action was totally unexpected and puts the lives of thousands of refugees at risk.









I am appealing to Cameroon to continue its open door and hospitable policy and practices and halt immediately any more returns and to ensure full compliance with its refugee protection obligations under its own national legislation, as well as international law.









North-eastern Nigeria has been particularly hard-hit by the insurgency being waged in the region since 2009, the UN said.









Meanwhile, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Mr Edward Kallon, has said the deadly attack interrupted aid delivery to some 76,000 internally displaced people in Rann.









Kallon said the attackers looted or destroyed a medical clinic, humanitarian supply warehouses and aid workers accommodations, and burned down the nearby market and camp shelters.









(NAN)The Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, has alleged that the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi and Governor of Kad...





The Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, has alleged that the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi and Governor of Kaduna State Nasir El-Rufai are sponsoring the plot to arrest and remove the Chief Justice of Nigeria, NJC, Justice Walter Onnoghen on Tuesday.





The opposition coalition alleged that the plot was concluded in a meeting held in Abuja, Thursday night by the cabal in government, led by Amaechi.





Reading a prepared text before newsmen in Abuja, through its 1st National Spokesperson, Ikenga Ugochinyere, the body alleged that Justice Danladi Umar was specifically directed to ignore last weeks court orders which restrained the federal government through its agents from arresting the CJN pending the determination of the case.





It alleged that the cabal planned to name the Deputy Chairman of the National Judicial Council, Justice Mohammed Tanko as the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria once Onnoghen was arrested.

CUPP also alleged that the Buhari led-APC was intimidating NJC members to move against CJN Onnoghen and pave way for Tanko Mohammed, vowing that the opposition would fight till the end and frustrate APC plot to annex the Supreme Court .





CUPP said the CJN can only be removed in line with section 292 of the constitution.





The CUPP added, It with a heavy heart that we have summoned you today to notify the world that democracy is in clear and present danger in Nigeria. The cabal of the Presidency have just concluded a meeting last night where they have now set the stage to burn down the institution of democracy and constitutional governance for the purpose of achieving a narrow aim of annexing the judiciary.





Just few hours after our release of the secret letter directing the freezing of the account of the CJN illegally without a Court order, these men have at the end of their meeting last night directed the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Mr. Danladi Umar to disregard the Order of the Federal High Court, Abuja which has directed the Tribunal to maintain status quo and go ahead to issue a bench warrant on the next adjourned date being Tuesday the 22nd January, 2019 in the event the CJN does not appear in Court.





The meeting of the Presidency cabal also resolved and directed the new Ag. Inspector General of Police that the immediate arrest of the CJN on the same Tuesday as effort will be made to ensure he is served with the order same day, following the issuance of the arrest warrant would be his litmus test for his speedy confirmation as the substantive Inspector General.





They further resolved that another petition would now be forwarded to the National Judicial Council and that petition has already been drafted in the Chambers of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. This petition will precede the other frivolous and trumped up allegations which will be submitted against Justice Mary Peter-Odili, Justice Cletus Nweze and Justice Rhodes Vivour just to scare them away and tarnish their good names.





Those in the meeting were Rotimi Amechi, Nasir El-Rufai, Abubakar Malami, Boss Mustapha, and the Senior Advocate of Nigeria working with Rotimi Amechi who drafted the petition. The President is aware of this plot as the meeting rose with the resolution that Rotimi Amechi and El-Rufai would go to brief the President immediately.





The President has weaponized his failed fight against corruption. The Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal was once again reminded of his pending criminal charges and conscripted that as long as he issued the arrest warrant nobody will move against him. Nigerians, the said charges against the Chairman of the Tribunal has already been filed and is being handled by the Spokesman of the Buhari Campaign Organization, Mr. Festus Keyamo. This is a copy of the charge already filed.





The plan on Tuesday to get Danladi Umar to issue a bench warrant against the CJN; the plan on Tuesday to get the Ag, IGP to arrest the CJN and the plan on Tuesday to forcibly arraign the CJN are solely aimed at forcing the CJN out of office hence paving the way for a well-known pro-Buhari Judge, Justice Tanko Mohammed who is the Deputy Chaiman of the NJC to take over and do all their bidding.





Let it be known that unless and until the CJN is found guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction, he will not resign! Know ye all men and let the lips of the opposition be read clearly; and let the ears of President Muhammadu Buhari open and hear this: Amechi, Malami, El-Rufai, Boss Mustapha and other members of the cabal that are sponsoring this inglorious offensive against the judiciary in a bid to turn it into an appendage of the APC will fail. We will resist this attempt.





This is the bridge and it must not fall, we cannot retreat beyond this point and Justice Walter Onnoghen will not be illegally removed from office. God forbid! God forbid!! God forbid they succeed.





They want to force him out at all cost and put an acting CJN whos bidding will include setting up appeal panels to resolve the Rivers and Zamfara APC crisis in favour of the APC and the other States where they fear they will lose elections including Akwa Ibom State, Delta State, Lagos state, Benue State, Imo State, Kwara State, Plateau state, Kaduna State, Abia State and Sokoto State and also constitute a pro Buhari post presidential election Tribunal.





The CJN may not speak out because of the demands of his office but we will not as the opposition, the bearers of the conscience and consciousness of the Nigerian people keep quiet and allow these felons to desecrate the Nigerian judiciary.





The only way the CJN can leave office is by Section 292 of the Constitution or by a proper conviction and not by stepping aside from the NJC. We are shouting it from the roof tops; let them put the CJN in handcuffs, let Danladi Umar in dancing to the tune of his APC blackmailers and issue arrest warrant, let the IG dance to the tune of the litmus test of arresting the CJN, let the APC funded petition be brought to the NJC, Justice Onnoghen will not be forced out of office.





President Buhari! President Buhari! President Buhari! It is time to apply your brakes! Do not allow your political children who learnt their politics from the manual of Mobutu Seseseko, Idi Amin and Nkurunzizia lead you to burn down and destroy the institution of the judiciary and burn down Nigeria. It is on that note that we call on Justice Tanko Mohammed to stay away from these people and refuse that poisoned chalice that will destroy permanently the institution of the judiciary.





Furthermore, there is also an ongoing pressure on the members of the NJC and moves to conscript them to force the CJN out of office. Nigerians must rise now before this final bridge of the semblance of constitutional governance falls. Once again we shout; if you are sleeping- wake up; if you are eating- stop; if you are playing- stop; the enemies have gotten to the last bridge and it is either we stop them or we lose our country.





We must all stand up now. The court is the last hope of the common man, if they take over we shall be made slaves in our fatherland and the fundamental rights of citizens will become luxury.



China and Germany held their second High-Level Financial Dialogue in Beijing on topics including the global macroeconomic situation, eco...

China and Germany held their second High-Level Financial Dialogue in Beijing on topics including the global macroeconomic situation, economic governance, China-Germany strategic cooperation, financial cooperation and financial supervision.









The dialogue, co-chaired by Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, had achieved 34 mutually beneficial results, according to a press release after the dialogue.









Both sides agreed that in the context of increasing world economic uncertainties, it is of great significance to the economic development of both China and Germany as well as Europe and the world for the two countries, as two major economies, to strengthen macroeconomic policy communication and coordination.









The two sides pledged to jointly uphold multilateralism and free trade rules, and firmly support the rule-based and multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization (WTO) as the core, said the press release.









The two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation under multilateral frameworks such as the Group of 20 (G20) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and support the alignment of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative with the Eurasian connectivity strategy and European infrastructure planning.









The financial cooperation between China and Germany is of great importance. The two sides should strengthen policy exchanges, expand the two-way opening of the financial sector, promote the connectivity of capital markets, and implement their consensus, said Liu.









Scholz said the two countries share good foundations of dialogue and cooperation, adding that Germany is willing to expand pragmatic cooperations with China to enhance bilateral ties.









During the dialogue, the two sides signed three documents on the cooperation of central banks, bank supervision and stock and futures market supervision.Itse Sagay, chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), says President Muhammadu Buhari has nothing to...





Itse Sagay, chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), says President Muhammadu Buhari has nothing to gain with political dwarfs and people who have no hope.





Sagay added that there is no law in Nigeria binding the president to show up for a debate with motivational speakers.





You know many of these people, particularly the motivational speakers, that is their life; they have nothing else doing, Sagay said.





It doesnt even make sense for somebody who is deeply involved in government about development and improving the lots of his people to say that you are going to compete with people like that.





All that they are going to do is to ramble on and on let us be practical and sensible about a situation.





You go on areas, which you have your strength and concentrate on that. He has nothing to gain by debate.





In an interview with The Sun Newspaper, Sagay said Buhari has no plans to make the political dwarfs taller.





If he goes to debate, he is just going to help people who have no hope, and I call them, Buhari and the political dwarfs; he is only going to give relevance to the political dwarfs; he is already far ahead of all of them.



Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has departed from the US after a two-day visit. ...

Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has departed from the US after a two-day visit.





He is expected to land in Abuja, the nations capital, in time for the televised presidential debate scheduled for 7pm Nigerian time.





The debate is between the leading presidential candidates. It is not clear if President Muhammadu Buhari, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), will be in attendance.





Atiku left the US after holding a town hall meeting with Nigerians in Washington DC.





Lai Mohammed, minister of information, on Friday said Atiku will be grilled upon his return to the country.





The federal government has accused him of playing a part in the collapse of former Bank PHB.





Mohammed said there is evidence that Atiku benefitted N156 million from slush funds that led to the collapse of the bank.





Any time Abubakar returns home, he has questions to answer following the fresh evidence that we have that he benefitted from slush funds that led to the collapse of the former Bank PHB, he had said.





When Atiku returned from his Dubai trip in November 2018, operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) searched his jet.



Al-Ahram daily newspaper has denied Israeli media reports that it sacked a journalist due to participation in a controversial December visit to the Israeli Knesset by an Arab media delegation.

In an official press release on Saturday, Al-Ahram dismissed reports that it sacked Khaled Saad Zaghloul over the visit, describing it the assertion as bearing no relationship to reality.

Al-Ahram said Zaghloul was a reporter for Al-Ahram in the past, but that he had been dismissed in July 2011 for reasons the statement said there is no need to go into, supported by a labour court verdict of his dismissal in January 2013.

According to the statement, Zaghloul has constantly exploited the publications name to profit from various Western media outlets and official institutions via Al-Ahrams good reputation among such circles.

Zaghloul was among a number of Arab journalists who visited the Israeli Knesset in December in an effort to open communication lines as part of an initiative promoted by the Israeli embassy in Paris.

Saying that Al-Ahram has dismissed him because of his visit to Israel is inadmissible; yet we condemn his action [in taking part in the visit] completely, the statement said.

Al-Ahram stressed that the former employee is not related in any manner to the publication, calling on all media and official institutions to refrain from dealing with him.

It added that it will undertake action against him for being an imposter, to protect Al-Ahrams reputation and history in defending Arab causes and commitment to decisions by Egyptian publications against normalisation with Israel.

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The presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar on Friday walked out of the Nigeria Election Debate Group...

pic.twitter.com/crperoO3tT We came here for a Presidential debate, not a candidacy debate, and I, Atiku Abubakar cannot challenge or question an administration where the man at the helm of the affairs of the nation is not present to defend himself or his policies. #2019Debate January 19, 2019

Afterall, you cannot shave a man's head in his absence. I do not believe in attacking a man who is NOT here to defend himself.  Atiku Abubakar (@atiku) January 19, 2019

As a leader and former vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, let me first apologise to all Nigerians, my fellow candidates and the moderator for the APC Presidential Candidates absence in this debate. His non-appearance is a slight on ALL of us and our democracy.  Atiku Abubakar (@atiku) January 19, 2019

With respect to my fellow candidates, Fela Durotoye, Oby Ezekwesili, Kingsley Moghalu & to moderator Mark Sugar & with apologies to Nigerians here & at home expecting an interesting debate, I regret I will not be able to go on with this debate due to President Buhari's absence.  Atiku Abubakar (@atiku) January 19, 2019

I however challenge President Buhari to choose a date and time for a debate where he will be present and I will be there, hopefully with the other candidates as well.



Thank you and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.



Atiku Abubakar  Atiku Abubakar (@atiku) January 19, 2019

Atiku who arrived the venue with PDP heavyweights, including the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, regretted said he cut short his trip from United States to debate with Buhari.He said, We came here for a Presidential debate, not a candidacy debate, and I, Atiku Abubakar can not challenge or question an administration where the man at the helm of the affairs of the nation is not present to defend himself or his policies. After all you cannot shave a mans head in his absence.I do not believe in attacking a man who is NOT here to defend himself. As a leader and former vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, let me first apologise to all Nigerians, my fellow candidates and the moderator for the the APC Presidential Candidates absence in this debate. His non-appearance is a slight on ALL of us and our democracy.Secondly, with all due respect to my fellow candidates, Fela Durotoye, Oby Ezekwesili, Kingsley Moghalu and to the moderator and with all apologies to my Fellow Nigerians here and at home expecting an interesting debate, I regret that I will not be able to go on with this debate due to President Buharis absence.I, however, challenge the President Buhari to choose a date and time for a debate where he will be present and I will be there, hopefully with the other candidates as well.Thank you and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.The Cross River State governorship candidate of the Alliance for Social Democrat; Pastor Charles Okoi, and his counterpart from the Mega...

The Cross River State governorship candidate of the Alliance for Social Democrat; Pastor Charles Okoi, and his counterpart from the Mega Party of Nigeria, Chief Ofem Ubi, have alleged that the state governor, Prof Ben Ayade, tried to force them to step down for him by offering them millions of naira, which they rejected.









The governorship candidates claimed on Friday that they were approached by the governor to step down and endorse him, but they told the governor to go home with his money.









They made the allegation while stepping down for the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Senator John Owan-Enoh, during a rally in Boki Local Government Area.









Okoi maintained that he had vowed not to step down for anybody, saying, But because of the great work Owan-Enoh has been doing in the Senate for the people of the Central Senatorial zone of the state, I have no option, but to step down for him.









Let me say this that Ayade actually approached me and gave me money to step down for him, but I refused. I refused because I cannot step down for somebody, who has nothing to show in his almost four years of leadership.









When he gave me the money, I looked at my conscience and said to myself that I could not be associated with failure and no amount of money will satisfy my conscience. I am stepping down for Owan-Enoh willingly and I am doing so because of his pedigree.









In his remarks, Ubi also alleged that the governor called him several times to beg him to step down and endorse him.









But I told him that if I collected his money, my conscience would not forgive me and that our people would not want to continue with a bad government.









The APC governorship candidate is currently the best candidate in the state and given his achievements, he is the person to take the state to greater heights, Ubi stated.









Owan-Enoh, however, thanked the two governorship candidates for stepping down for him and promised that he would not disappoint the people of the state.









Reacting, the Chief Press Secretary to Ayade, Mr Christian Ita, said, The allegation is unfounded. The governor is campaigning to return to power on the strength of his achievements and has no reason to bribe anybody.His Royal Highness, Igwe Dennis Ezebuilo, an Anambra monarch on Saturday in Abuja donated a Toyota Hilux vehicle to President Muhammadu ...

His Royal Highness, Igwe Dennis Ezebuilo, an Anambra monarch on Saturday in Abuja donated a Toyota Hilux vehicle to President Muhammadu Buhari for his campaign.









Ezebuilo said that he made the donation in appreciation of the sterling performance of Buhari since he assumed office.









The paramount ruler of Amanuke kingdom, Awka-North, Anambra State, said that the re-election of President Buhari would consolidate his achievements.









According to the monarch, the president has done well in the areas of infrastructure, anti-corruption, transport and economy.









He said the donation was to help facilitate movements during a campaign for Buhari, who he said, deserved a second term in office.









Ezebuilo said that the presidents determination to ensure transparency in governance was commendable, and a path to securing a better future for the country.









The Igwe called for massive support for the Presidents anti-corruption drive, stressing that alleged corrupt public officers had been prosecuted and billions of naira in stolen funds, recovered.









He said that the success of the whistleblower policy was laudable, stressing that continuity in this direction would restore sanity in Nigeria.









Mr Mahmoud Mohammed, the Director of the Buhari/Osinbajo campaign office, who received the donation at the office in Abuja, commended the monarch and promised to ensure that the vehicle was used for its purpose.









It was reported that the Igwe then handed the keys to the vehicle to Mohammed.Former senate minority leader Godswill Akpabio has advised Nigerians to view dividends of democracy or political reward system in terms ...

Former senate minority leader Godswill Akpabio has advised Nigerians to view dividends of democracy or political reward system in terms integrity of the leader.









Nigerians, he said, should encourage leaders who displayed integrity in their past leadership roles.









Sen. Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom, now representing Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District, said that Nigerians should respect leaders who applied integrity in bringing development to the nation.









Nigerians should ensure that they elect good and committed leaders, with integrity at all elections, and stop expecting patronage in terms of appointments or contracts.









Good governance and delivery of critical infrastructure are the best reward system that any leadership can give the citizenry, and any leader that does these deserves mass support, he said.









The former Akwa Ibom governor also advised Nigerians against politicising national tragedies, adding that the unity of Nigeria was more important than politics.









Nigerian politicians should learn to run decent campaigns and try to shy away from issues that can generate violence or further polarise our country as we approach the elections.









They should stop jubilation whenever we experience set back in the war against insurgency, it is a collective responsibility to ensure that Nigeria is safe and we should all show commitment to that cause.









The reason why we are contesting for political leadership in the first place is because there is a country called Nigeria; if Nigeria stops to exist today, our politics will become useless, he said.









He urged politicians to see the advantage in the size and diversity of Nigeria and work hard to maintain its unity.









The reason why we are respected across the world is because of our population and our diverse ethnic configuration.









Politicians are supposed to use these factors to further engender peace and unity in the country, instead of creating hatred and enmity amongst their followers, he said.









Akpabio, a former member of main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Aug. 8, 2018.Related Colombia asks Cuba to capture ELN leaders after attack on police academy killed 21

Egypt has condemned a bomb attack that targeted a Colombian police academy on Thursday and left at least 21 people dead.

A car broke through checkpoints onto the grounds of the General Santander School in the Colombian capital before it detonated, shattering the windows of apartments nearby, Reuters reported.

Cairo offered its deepest condolences to the victims families and wished the injured a speedy recovery, according to a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry on Saturday.

Egypt stressed that its government and people stand by Colombia in its efforts to combat terrorism.

The statement added that Cairo rejects all forms of violence, extremism and terrorism, reiterating its call for pooling international anti-terrorism efforts to eliminate this phenomenon wherever it exists.

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Cameron Montemayor can be reached at cameron.montemayor@newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter: @NPNowMontemayor.A public high school in Machida City has apologized to a boy after the emergence online of a video that purportedly shows a male teacher assaulting him, reports Fuji News Network

On January 15, the teacher slapped the boy across the face, causing him to fall up against a wall in a hallway. The pair then scuffled along the floor before other students interceded, according to the clip uploaded to Twitter.

aMy emotions got the best of me,a the teacher was quoted. aI am reflecting [upon my actions].a

After the incident, the school filed a report with the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education. aIt is not possible to confirm whether [the video] is genuine, but it is consistent with the details we received from the school,a the board of education said.

According to the school, the teacher, aged in his 50s, is the head of a counseling section. The incident took place after he and the boy, a first-year student, got into an argument. The boy suffered a cut to the inside of his mouth.

aI have always told teachers that corporal punishment is not permissible,a said Shingo Nobuoka, the principal of the school. aI would like to offer an apology to the student.a

Two days after the incident, the school apologized to the boy and his parents. However, the student refused to accept the apology.Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn will stay behind bars in Japan for the foreseeable future after a Tokyo court quashed his appeal for bail as he faces charges on three counts of financial misconduct. Since his stunning arrest on November 19 the auto tycoon has languished in a Tokyo detention centre, facing questioning over allegations he under-reported his salary and tried to shift personal losses on to the company.

The court had previously refused to release the 64-yearold Franco-Lebanese-Brazilian businessman on the grounds that he could present a flight risk and destroy evidence. Last week he was formally charged on two of the counts and his request for bail was denied. Even his own lawyer has admitted he is likely to be kept behind bars until a trial -- which could take six months. His legal team said they would now appeal to the Supreme Court.

The appeal -- and its rejection -- came as the French government called for him to be replaced at the head of Renault. Japanese firms Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors jettisoned him as boss almost immediately after his arrest, but Renault was more cautious and appointed an interim leader while Ghosn fought the charges.

With the latest rejection he faces at least a two-month period in pre-trial detention. This can be extended almost automatically by one month at a time. His wife Carole has appealed to rights group Human Rights Watch over his detention, saying he was being held in harsh conditions and subjected to round-the-clock interrogations in an attempt to extract a confession.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned the terrorist attack on a police academy in the city of Bogota, the Republic of Colombia, which resulted in the death and injury of a number of people.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also expressed deep condolences to the families of the victims, wishing those injured a speedy recovery. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirms the solid position of the Kingdom of Bahrain, which rejects all forms of violence, extremism and terrorism, and calls for intensifying international efforts to eradicate this dangerous scourge, which is aimed at destabilising peace and security,  the statement added.

At least 20 people have been killed in a car bomb attack in the Colombian capital of Bogota, police say. Dozens more were injured in the blast which happened at 09:30 on Thursday in the south of the city. The cars driver, who was also killed, has been identified as a 57-year-old man. No group has said it was behind the explosion.Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry Assistant Undersecretary for Municipal Services Wael Al Mubarak honoured Bahraini citizen Sayyed Hussein Mohammed Ali, who trimmed street trees creatively. H

e stressed the importance of supporting Bahrainis initiatives that best serve the nation and citizens. Urban development director Rawya Al Mannai attended.

The Assistant Undersecretary underlined the directives issued by Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban PlanThe Southern Governorate will host the first Japanese Expo from February 7 to 9 at the Bahrain International Circuit, under the name Japanese Village.

The head of Bahrain-based Business and Friendship Association Nasser Al Arayed said trade exchange between Bahrain and Japan exceeded $ 1.2 billion annually, according to the latest statistics published in 2015.

Mr Al Arayed said that the diplomatic relations between Japan and the Kingdom of Bahrain date back to 1934 when Bahrains first shipment of oil was sent to Japan following the discovery of oil in Bahrain in 1932, and the number of Japanese citizens living in Bahrain now stands at around 250.

Mr Al Arayed explained that Japanese companies have completed many projects in Bahrain, including the petrochemical, aluminium, gas and telecommunications industries. Recently, projects have been held, such as the steel plant project, which will be based in Haddad. According to the head of the Bahraini-Japanese Business and Friendship Association, the number of Japanese companies having offices in Bahrain is 16; five companies operate in the financial sector, three in the commercial sector and eight in the industrial sector.

Fatima Al Ghatam, director of social and community programmes in the Southern Governorate, said: The Japanese village will be held under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Ali Al Khalifa, Governor of the Southern Province.The Shura Councils delegation, led by the Second Deputy Chairperson, Hala Ramzi Fayez, met here yesterday the President of Moroccos House of Councillors and Chairman of the Association of Senates, Shura and Equivalent Councils in Africa and the Arab World (ASSECAA), Abdelhakim Benchamach.

The meeting was held on the sidelines of the International Seminar on the Experiences of National Reconciliation, organised here by ASSECAA. Moroccos House of Councillors president expressed deep pride in the steady progress of the brotherly Bahraini-Moroccan relations of co-operation and coordination in various fields, especially the legislative one.

He stressed the role of the Shura Council in Bahrain and the House of Councillors in Morocco in unifying efforts and stances towards various issues of common interest at international parliamentary gatherings.

He lauded the effective role played by the Shura Council and its delegations to ASSECAA meetings, praising their keenness to participate effectively in such gatherings and support efforts to enhance sustainable development across Africa and the Arab worldEgypt's Minister of Endowments Mokhtar Gomaa on Saturday inaugurated a two-day conference on reforming religious discourse, and the role of the family, the media and society in building personality.

The conference is run by the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs under the auspices of President Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi.

It is titled "Building a national personality and its impact on the progress of states while maintaining its identity."

Scholars from Sudan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other Arab and Islamic countries are attending the conference.

The attendees also include up to 150 participants from 40 countries, including 13 ministers of Islamic affairs.

The participants are expected to discuss 50 research papers on the principles of religious and nationalist discourse, education and its effect on building personality.

They will also discuss the role of family and media in building the personality, a strategic vision for upgrading religious discourse and how it helps enhance protection against terrorism and extremism, an Islamic vision for building the nationalist personality in a changing world, and the potentials for renewing religious discourse and its effect for protection against terrorism and extremism.

Workshops and seminars will be held on the sidelines of the conference on Egypt's relations with African countries and the role of the family in the stability of societies along with means of protecting young people against extremism.

Tourist and cultural tours will be organised for delegations participating in the conference.



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US President Donald Trump is to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a second summit by the end of February, the White House says. The announcement came after Mr Trump met top North Korean negotiator Kim Yongchol at the White House. He had been expected to deliver a letter from Kim Jong-un to Mr Trump.

Little progress has been made on denuclearisation since their historic summit in Singapore last June. No venue has been announced for the new summit. Speculation is mounting that it could be held in Vietnam. Kim Yong-chols visit to Washington is the first sign of movement in nuclear diplomacy with North Korea for months, BBC state department correspondent Barbara Plett Usher reported. It is not clear what the reported letter from Kim Jong-un contained. But it was expected to lay the groundwork for another summit, our correspondent adds.

President Trump said he was looking forward to the talks. His press secretary Sarah Sanders said after the White House meeting that progress in the talks on denuclearisation continued, but added: The United States is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea.

Nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled, no detailed account of North Koreas nuclear facilities has been provided and sanctions are still firmly in place. Mr Kim however, has been busy boosting his global image. Hes improved relations with neighbouring South Korea, and both countries have destroyed guard posts along the heavily guarded demilitarised zone - and paid trips to each others countries.The concerns of the people of Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Yemen were the main topic of the opening session of a meeting of Arab ministers held in preparation for the Arab development summit on Sunday in Beirut, Arab News reported last night. The meeting in the Lebanese capitals Phoenicia Hotel saw unprecedented security measures covering a large area, including the summits venues and the accommodation of guests and journalists.

Only three presidents have so far confirmed their attendance at the summit  those of Lebanon, Somalia and Mauritania. However, the Arab Leagues Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki called for separating between the attendance and the summit itself, and the importance of its topics and the resolutions it will produce.

During a media briefing, Zaki said: The attendance of Arab leaders will undoubtedly increase the importance of the summit, but their absence, which has spurred media commentary, does not diminish the importance of the topics addressed by the summit  and many summits are not attended by presidents.AIR- INDIA Express announced introducing all inclusive promotional fares for its services from Bahrain to sectors including Kozhikode, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangalore. The promotional fares are applicable for tickets booked between 17 and 23 Jan 2019 with travel date between 17 Jan and 30 March 2019.

Fares from Bahrain to Kochi fights will be starting from BD47, Bahrain to Thiruvananthapuram from BD47, Bahrain to Kozhikode from BD52 and Bahrain to Mangalore will be from BD62. The statement further said AIR-INDIA Express, a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India, offers 30 kg free baggage allowance on all flights from Bahrain.

Passengers are allowed to carry one cabin baggage of maximum 7 kg (including laptop and duty-free shopping bags). 5 kg additional allowance can be availed by paying BD8 and 10 kg by paying BD16 at the time of purchasing tickets. With a fleet size comprising 25 Boeing 737  800 NG aircraft, the Airline flies to 13 International and 20 domestic destinations.A top US envoy has warned Iran against indulging in a proxy war against Bahrain, which he said was part of a much larger strategy to destabilise the region. Iran must stop testing and proliferating missiles, stop launching and developing nuclear-capable missiles, and stop supporting its militias in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain, and Yemen, said US Special Representative for Iran and Senior Policy Advisor to the Secretary of State, Brian Hook hailing Bahrain as a key partner in Iran strategy.

Speaking on the US-Iran policy at the Bahrain Center for Strategic, International and Energy Studies (Derasat) in a specially arranged roundtable discussion, he said that the US and Bahrain are working closely to promote stability and strengthen security in the region. Iran, on the other hand, has tried to weaken national identity in Bahrain and create sectarian divisions. But Bahrains leaders have responded by deepening their commitment to peaceful coexistence and religious freedom, Hook told the conference held in conjunction with Secretary of State Mike Pompeos visit to the region. Bahrain, the US Special Representative said, is a key partner in our Iran strategy.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Sheikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, the Chairman of Derasat, affirmed the longstanding relations between Bahrain and the United States, and Bahrains commitment to the USs strategy to combat Irans destabilising activities. The meeting, Dr Sheikh Abdulla said, highlighted the importance of convening relevant stakeholders in Research Centers such as Derasat as a way of coordinating efforts and creating partnerships. He told the US Special Representative that the Kingdom is looking forward to continuing efforts in this regard.

Meanwhile, Iran, which failed in its attempt to launch a satellite named Payam into orbit said yesterday that it will be ready for a new satellite launch in a few months time, The National report said quoting President Hassan Rouhani. Earlier this month, Pompeo said that the launch defied UN Security Council resolution 2231 of 2015, which endorsed an international agreement, from which the United States has withdrawn, on ending Irans nuclear weapons. The launch yet again shows that Iran is pursuing enhanced missile capabilities that threaten Europe and the Middle East, Pompeo tweeted.

The United States says Iran can use technical know-how from satellite launches to develop long-range missiles. Both the Payam and its carrier were designed and produced at Tehrans Amirkabir University of Technology. University head Ahmad Motamedi said Amirkabir had already received an order for a replacement, Mehr news agency reported. Iran also plans to launch another low Earth orbit satellite, the Doosti (Friendship in Persian), Jahromi said.

He did not give a date for the launch but said the satellite was intended to orbit the earth at an altitude of 250 kilometres (156 miles). Irans satellite-delivery rockets use technology virtually identical to nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, Pompeo said on January 3. The United States will not stand by and watch the Iranian regimes destructive policies place international stability and security at risk. Iran has launched several short-life satellites into orbit over the past decade, including the Simorgh and the Pajouhesh.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.The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Manager Kifle Horo said in a recent interview with the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) that the GERD will be filled in agreement with Egypt and Sudan.

Speaking about the latest tripartite consultations between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan, Horo said that the filling of the reservoir is related to the energy production of the dam and that it will be filled in agreement and accordance with downstream countries, ENA reported.

Regarding the information provided by some media about the collapse of the project and that it is located in an earthquake zone, Horo said that "the construction was done following many studies, and the region has not experienced an earthquake before."

Water for us is like oil and resources God has given us, and we do not want harm to our brothers and friends, and they know that right," he was reported as saying.

For the past three years, Egypt and Ethiopia have been at odds over the construction of the $4 billion hydroelectric dam, which Cairo fears will threaten its Nile water supply.

Ethiopia hopes to become Africas biggest exporter of electric power with the dam, which is set to be the continents largest. Addis Ababa denies that the structure will reduce Egypts access to water.

The project manager said in December that the dam is expected to be completed in 2022.

Construction was launched in April 2011 and was initially expected to be completed in 2017.

However, the construction was delayed due to change in design, which led to the increase of its generation capacity.

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Fairbanks, AK (99707)

Today

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 49F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 49F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.Polar bear A polar bear on the Beaufort Sea ice in 2010. Its rare but not unprecedented for polar bears to appear many miles south of the Beaufort Sea c

A man in Arctic Village reports that in early January he encountered and shot a polar bear. That may be an unprecedented event in Arctic Village, which is over a hundred miles south of the Beaufort Sea coastline, far outside polar bears normal range.

Jim Hollandsworth has lived in Arctic Village for about 30 years. He said he has never seen a polar bear before now. Neither have any of the elders hes spoken to.

One of the elders had heard about polar bears before, maybe, but no ones ever actually seen one, Hollandsworth said.

He reported that he went to check a trapline about a week and a half ago and immediately saw evidence of the bear when he arrived at his camp, which is about 20 miles from town by trail.

Tore up one of the snowmachines, flipped it completely over, said Hollandsworth, describing the damage. Destroyed everything all around it, um, kinda marking its spot.

Hollandsworth didnt see the bear itself until the next morning, when he stepped outside to put gas in the generator.

Polar bear in Arctic Village Jim Hollandsworth says that the day before he encountered the polar bear, he found it had done damage to his camp, including this snowmachine.

My dog barked, and the bear was on my back, right behind me. And I jumped back inside, grabbed my rifle, said Hollandsworth. By time I got turned around, it was heading for the door, the open door. Wanted to come in. So they got shot point-blank right there at the doorstep, he said.

Hollandsworth said it was still pretty dark out, and it was only after hed fatally shot the bear that he realized what it was. He said that the bear appeared to be a young female, probably about two years old.

When he reported the incident to the Alaska State Troopers, they put him in touch with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency responsible for managing polar bears.

Polar bears are federally protected, but theres an exception when a bear is killed in self-defense.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife did not respond to requests for comment, presumably due to the government shutdown.

Its not common for polar bears to be way outside of the typical range, but its not unheard of, said Eric Regehr, a polar bear researcher with the University of Washington whos worked in Alaska.

He said that bears in Alaska usually stay within a few miles of the coast, with the exception of pregnant females who may go farther inland to build their dens. But even those bears generally dont venture as far south as the Brooks Range.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game provided two examples of polar bears appearing unusually far south in the past two decades: one in Fort Yukon in 2008, and the other on the Dalton Highway almost to Toolik Lake back in 2002.

Regehr said that in individual cases like this, its very difficult to attribute cause to why a bear wandered so far from its typical area.

It seems to particularly happen with young bears, he said. And its not clear if theyre dispersing, looking for new habitat. Its not clear if they got, you know, mixed up, if theyre just inexperienced and they went the wrong way.

He said that generally, declining sea ice due to climate change may lead some bears to appear in unusual places, but at this time of year  when sea ice is present  it doesnt seem to him to be a likely explanation.

Alaskas Energy Desk is a public media collaboration focused on energy and the environment with partners KTOO in Juneau, Alaska Public Media in Anchorage, KUCB in Unalaska, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Fairbanks, KBRW in Utqiagvik and KYUK in Bethel.(Newser)  An AeroMexico ad with a cheeky offer for Americans has gone viral nearly two weeks after being posted on Twitter, reports ABC 7. In the commercial, Texas residents are asked whether they want to travel to Mexico"That's not my cup of tea" is an answer that sums them all upand are then offered a discount equivalent to their percentage of Mexican ancestry in a DNA test. Told their DNA results, which include Mexican ancestry, the Texans seem confused, shocked, or surprisingly happy, per CBS News. One even says something we really can't print.

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The ad, which notes that Mexican immigration in the US dates to the 1800s, ends with the slogan, "DNA discounts: There are no borders within us"a possible jab at President Trump's plan for a border wall. The offer from Mexico's national carrier is apparently real and targets residents of the Western US, including Utah and Arizona, per CNN. (In other AeroMexico news, one of their airliners met a scary fate after takeoff in 2018.)(Newser)  A public health emergency was declared Friday in Washington state's Clark County, and it's due to a measles outbreak. Per CNN, a Clark County Public Health release notes that, since Jan. 1, the department has IDed 19 confirmed cases of the highly contagious disease, as well as seven suspected ones. Just one of the patients is an adult, and of all the cases, 16 of the patients were verified as not having been immunized (it's not clear on the other three cases). The Oregonian notes that Clark County has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the state: More than one-fifth of all public school students there haven't had their shots. CNN and USA Today detail all of the well-frequented public places that infected patients have so far visited: schools, churches, restaurants, Portland International Airport, hospitals, and stores like Costco and Ikea.

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One patient was even said to have attended a Portland Trail Blazers game across the border at the Moda Center in Portland, Ore., on Jan. 11, though a Multnomah County release on Friday said no Oregon residents have yet been infected. Back in Washington, a warning has been issued to people who think they might be sick. "People who believe they have symptoms of measles should not go directly to medical offices, urgent care centers, or emergency departmentsunless experiencing a medical emergencywithout calling in advance," Clark County officials note. Symptoms include a dry cough, fever, tiny white spots on the inside of the cheek, and the trademark blotchy skin rash, per the Mayo Clinic. (Read more measles stories.)(Newser)  Parts of America already know, but a big winter storm is heading east and will likely pummel New England this weekend. Winter Storm Harper is expected to drop up to two feet of snow and create blizzard conditions in some areas as winter storm warnings are in effect from the Dakotas through the Great Lakes states and into the Northeast, Fox News reports. South Dakota and southern Minnesota already have up to a foot of snow, while Nebraskawhere a Southwest Airlines plane slid off an icy runway Fridayis under light freezing rain, per the Weather Channel. Now Chicago's O'Hare and Midway international airports have canceled more than 300 flights and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has declared a state of emergency. Among the forecasts:

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Blizzard : Snowfall and strong winds are expected to create "an all-out blizzard" in the Northeast that will likely close parts of Interstates 79, 80, 81, 86, 87, 89, 90 and 91, per AccuWeather, which adds: "Errands should be completed before the storm hits."

: Snowfall and strong winds are expected to create "an all-out blizzard" in the Northeast that will likely close parts of Interstates 79, 80, 81, 86, 87, 89, 90 and 91, per AccuWeather, which adds: "Errands should be completed before the storm hits." Slippery roads : Watch for possible freezing rain and sleetand slippery roadsfrom Arkansas into the mid-Atlantic states and, on Saturday night, into southern New England and the lower Hudson Valley.

: Watch for possible freezing rain and sleetand slippery roadsfrom Arkansas into the mid-Atlantic states and, on Saturday night, into southern New England and the lower Hudson Valley. Heavy snow : The heaviest snowfall is expected across a swath of the Northeast including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC, from late Saturday into Sunday. Snow is also likely in areas of the Appalachians from Tennessee to western Pennsylvania on Sunday.

: The heaviest snowfall is expected across a swath of the Northeast including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC, from late Saturday into Sunday. Snow is also likely in areas of the Appalachians from Tennessee to western Pennsylvania on Sunday. Flooding : The Long Island and New England coasts may see "minor to moderate coastal flooding," mostly during Sunday morning's high tide, says Weather.com.

: The Long Island and New England coasts may see "minor to moderate coastal flooding," mostly during Sunday morning's high tide, says Weather.com. Freezing : Watch for a flash freeze from Boston to New York in areas where the temperature goes above freezing. A possible ice buildup in some of northern Virginia and New England's southern coast could bring down power lines and trees.

: Watch for a flash freeze from Boston to New York in areas where the temperature goes above freezing. A possible ice buildup in some of northern Virginia and New England's southern coast could bring down power lines and trees. Next week: After the storm, snow may keep falling downwind of lakes Ontario and Erie while cold winds will likely keep blowing in the central Appalachians and coastal mid-Atlantic through Monday and in New England on Tuesday. Expect school closures and delays.

(Read more winter storm stories.)(Newser)  An Arizona police officer Tuesday shot dead a 14-year-old boy who was running away carrying an airsoft gun, CNN reports. The Tempe Police Department officer, identified to media only as Jaen, was responding to a suspicious vehicle in an alleyway when he saw the teen step out of a gray Chevy pickup and run for it. The officer cries "Hey" and opens fire as he shouts "Let me see your hands!" The teen, identified by NBC News as Antonio Arce, was struck in the shoulder blade and later pronounced dead. "He's got a handgun, he's got a handgun," Jaen is heard saying in body cam footage, but Arce was actually carrying a replica 1911 airsoft gun that police say was among items the teen had stolen from the truck.

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"It was a long distance," says Danny Ortega, an attorney for Arce's family. "How this young man could have presented a threat at that far a distance is a question that needs to be asked." While Ortega says he's "in the process of trying to figure out what happened," the department has placed Jaen on administrative leave during criminal and administrative investigations. The 14-year veteran was a member of the National Guard from 2007 to 2013 and in 2011 served in Iraq. Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir offered her "deepest condolences to the young man's family" at a news conference Friday, per KPHO , and said "the loss of his life is tragic." But she asked people to "withhold judgment" until investigations were finished.

(Read more police shooting stories.)The start of an experimental run of the electricity connection between Egypt and Sudan is scheduled for the end of the next month, Gamal Abdel-Rahim, chairman of the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC), told Al-Ahram Weekly.

The experimental run had initially been scheduled for the end of December, but difficulties in construction in the region have delayed completion of the work.

Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T), one of the largest Indian multi-national construction firms, has now finalised the construction of all the electricity pylons used, even the very high ones crossing the Nile, and has completed the installation of most of the power lines.

The Sudanese side has also completed all the work entrusted to it and is expected to finalise the last touches of the project within the coming 10 days.

The length of the electricity link between the two countries is 167km, including 100km in Egyptian territory between Wadi Halfa and Toshki. The rest is in Sudan.

The capacity of the line is 100 MW at a voltage of 220 KV, which can be increased to 300 MW or more in the future.

The cost of the line on the Egyptian side is about $6.7 million, funded from the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energys own resources.

The Sudanese side is expected to benefit from the Egyptian electricity supply, especially as Sudan produces only around 2,000 MW of electricity, far below its development needs.

This project is the best proof of the integration between the Arab countries, said Abdel-Rahim. He pointed out that such projects support Egypts electricity network and increase its reliability, securing energy supplies at any time of day or night.

Such electricity linkage projects qualified Egypt to act as a regional electricity hub, exchanging electricity with nearby countries during peak demand and exporting electricity at cost to those countries that need it, he added.

The connection with Sudan is one of several projects Egypt has with its neighbours. There is an existing electricity connection between Egypt and Libya, whereby Egypt provides Libya with electricity of a capacity of 100 MW at 220 KV.

There is also an electricity connection between Egypt and Jordan, through which Egypt can supply Jordan with electricity of up to 450 MW.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia are also working towards establishing a connection with a capacity of 3,000 MW at 500 KV DC (direct current). The connection was originally due to be completed in 2020 but has been extended to 2022 .

Feasibility studies for the project are still being evaluated by the Saudi side, and both sides are still deciding on points of linkage. The Egyptian-Saudi sides have a common desire to fulfill this huge project, Abdel-Rahim said.

The Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy is also currently evaluating a feasibility study by EuroAfrica Interconnector, project developer of an electricity connection between Egypt, Cyprus, Crete-Attica, Greece and Europe.

The project is expected to start with a capacity of 1,000 MW in the first phase to be doubled to 2,000 MW later.

The electricity exchange will benefit the countries concerned, especially during peak demand. Egypt can supply Europe with electricity from clean sources as well as from its backup reserves of electricity which reach 15,000 MW.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 17 January, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Connecting Egypt and Sudan

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(Newser)  The BuzzFeed report that had all of DC abuzz was roundly attacked by Trump supporters Friday after it alleged President Trump had instructed former attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress in 2017 about efforts to build a condo tower in Moscow. On Friday, a new detractor of the report (or part of it, at least) emerged: the office of special counsel Robert Mueller. In what the New York Times calls a "rare public statement," Mueller, via spokesman Peter Carr, said that "BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the special counsel's office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's congressional testimony are not accurate." CNN notes that it's "highly unusual" for Mueller to offer anything other than standard legal notifications to the media about how the probe into Russian election interference is going.

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BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith took to Twitter to defend the report, and to pressure Mueller's office to spell out what exactly the issue is. "We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he's disputing," Smith tweeted. Before Mueller's rep issued the statement, senior members of Congress had noted the report could be grounds for impeachment, and the White House had gone on the attack against it, with press secretary Sarah Sanders telling reporters Friday it was "categorically false." After the Mueller statement, Trump himself weighed in. "Remember it was Buzzfeed that released the totally discredited 'Dossier,' paid for by Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats (as opposition research), on which the entire Russian probe is based!" he tweeted Friday night. "A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!" (Read more Robert Mueller stories.)(Newser)  A school superintendent in Georgia said Friday a 12-year-old boy who tried to buy lunch with a counterfeit $20 bill appears to have been unaware the bill was fake and should not have been punished, the AP reports. The decision came after Christian Philon complained that administrators at Austin Road Middle School in metro Atlanta gave him 10 days of in-school suspension after a lunchroom cashier using a marker to check bills discovered last week that his lunch money was fake. Philon and his parents said the boy had been given the bogus bill by his father, who received it as change from a fast food restaurant. They said the boy and his father both believed it was real.

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Henry County Schools said in a statement Friday that a sheriff's deputy investigated and determined "there was no intent on the student's actions nor did the student have knowledge that he was in possession of a counterfeit bill." Superintendent Mary Elizabeth Davis reviewed the findings and decided the punishment wasn't warranted. "The student has returned to class," Davis said in the school system's statement, which did not mention Philon by name. The boy's father, Earvin Philon, previously told WSB-TV that he reported the bill to police after the lunchroom worker discovered it was counterfeit Jan. 10, hoping the police report would clear his son's name. Regardless, a school disciplinary panel Wednesday upheld the boy's punishment before being overruled by the superintendent.

(Read more Georgia stories.)(Newser)  Alec Raeshawn Smith was shocked to be diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 23. The incurable autoimmune disease, which often strikes in childhood, is far less common than type 2 diabetes, which does not always require patients to take insulin. Type 1 diabetics must take it; before the hormone was isolated in a lab in 1921, the diseasewhich causes the pancreas to stop producing insulinwas always fatal. Smith learned a new routine of insulin injections and checking his blood glucose levels, and was able to get his blood sugar under control and move into an apartment of his own. But when he turned 26, Smith was no longer covered under his mother's insurance, and opted to go without insurance rather than pay $450 per month for a plan with a deductible of over $7,000. "It can't be that bad," he told his mom of his plan to avoid insurance. Within a month, he was dead. Now the Washington Post takes a long look at the tragic consequences of "intolerably expensive" insulin.

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Smith thought it would be better to pay out of pocket for the insulin and other supplies required to manage his disease. But then he found out the insulin alone would cost him more than $1,000 a month, with hundreds more for other necessary supplies. Three companies dominate the global insulin market, and prices have skyrocketed at all of them: Eli Lilly's Humalog brand of insulin cost $21 for a 10-milliliter vial in 1996; it now costs $275. Sanofi's Lantus was $35 per vial in 2001 and is now $270. Novo Nordisk's Novolog was $40 in 2001 and is now $289. Because of this, some with T1D have taken to "insulin rationing," skimping on insulin intake to make their stash last longer. It's a dangerous practice, and one Smith's family and friends fear he was practicing in the days before his death. The full article, which delves into Smith's last days and what lawmakers are doing about insulin costs, is worth a read. (One study shows that we've been thinking "all wrong" about diabetes.)This Home Listed for $590K

'Is Not for the Faint of Heart'



THE MDC Alliance and its partners in the civic society instigated last weeks violent demonstrations so as to attract the attention and support of the international community in its failed bid for talks with the Government and ultimately effect an illegal regime change, political analysts have said.





The MDC A has been accused of using the fuel protests to reignite its bid for talks with Government so that it is accommodated in a Government of National Unity. A number of MDC Alliance members and civic society members in South Africa quoted by the media across the Limpopo claimed the economic challenges that the country is facing can only be solved if Government negotiated with MDC A leader Mr Nelson Chamisa. They added that regional leaders should push the Government to a negotiation table with the opposition.





There is no solution without the MDC . . . the Government should be dragged to a negotiation table and there should be a national transitional authority in the country . . . said one activist based in South Africa.





However, political analyst Mr Richard Mahomva said such efforts would not succeed, adding that the violent protests did not benefit anyone.





Another political analyst, Mr Goodwine Mureriwa, told our Harare Bureau that the violent protests point to a poorly-concealed political agenda oiled by the countrys traditional foes. He said the protests had nothing to do with fuel price hikes.





The fuel issue was only manipulated as a trigger to long standing efforts to internalise domestic politics in Zimbabwe in a manner skewed in favour of MDC A.





President Mnangagwa has also repeatedly said there was no room for such talks with the opposition as he won the Presidential election and Zanu-PF also has more than two thirds majority in parliament.





In addition, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Hon Monica Mutsvangwa said there were threats from the opposition to overthrow a constitutionally elected Government.





She added that actions by the opposition amounted to terrorism as they were marked by a total violation of the law which had nothing to do with the right of citizens to demonstrate as enshrined in section 59 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.





Threats to overthrow a constitutionally elected Government by force or install an unelected person as President of Zimbabwe will be thwarted. It will not work . . .





Minister Mutsvangwa added that the timing of the violence was not a coincidence, as it sought to put a dent on President Mnangagwas re-engagement efforts during his current tour to Eurasia and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.





The ruling Zanu-PF party also said it will not hold talks with the MDC-Alliance. Zanu-PF chief whip Cde Pupurai Togarepi told the partys parliamentary caucus in Harare last week that the social media was awash with statements by MDC-Alliance functionaries like its deputy treasurer Mr Charlton Hwende threatening to unseat President Mnangagwas Government.





There are messages on Twitter from the likes of Hwende who said they are going to remove President Mnangagwas Government in January. So is what we are seeing a manifestation of that? . . . It is very unfortunate if what they are looking for is dialogue at the same time they are causing mayhem in the country and destroying property. I think there are many avenues they can use to create dialogue with Government, with Zanu-PF or with any other political establishment in the country . . . , Cde Togarepi said.





Minister of State for National Security Hon Owen Ncube last week said the MDC A and its allies organised the violent demonstrations. He said the protests were well-orchestrated, given the widespread scenes of looting from shops, burning of cars, destruction of property, burning of tyres and closing of roads, which left four people dead, among them a police officer.





The prevailing security situation in the country is a culmination of a well-orchestrated series of events by the MDC Alliance, working in cahoots with NGOs, civic society, youth organisations, pressure groups and individuals, said Minister Ncube.





Minister Ncube said Government was aware of meetings organised by the Crisis Coalition in Zimbabwe from 3 to 7 December last year to foment disturbances in the country.



We just decided that each of us should buy a catapult from vendors operating at Renkini. We all bought the catapults. The gang was swelling as some of them were coming from Nkulumane, Pumula South and Sizinda among other surrounding suburbs. There are some police officers as well who we were liaising with. The cops didnt want to advance towards the rioters who were now pelting us with stones, Mr Chidzingwa said.



THE taxpayer continues to foot former president Robert Mugabes medical bills, as it emerged President Emmerson Mnangagwas government gave the deposed strongman US$4 million to cover his hospital expenses, as well as the costs of his two-month stay in Singapore late last year.





Mugabe, who turns 95 next month, was often criticised by ordinary Zimbabweans for frequently making expensive trips to the rich city-state in South-East Asia at the expense of the taxpayer when he was still the head of state.

Now wheelchair-bound, Mugabe  removed from power in a military coup in November 2017  continues to enjoy the state-funded medical trips at the benevolence of his former long-serving lieutenant.





This comes at a time the country is reeling from a multi-faceted economic crisis which has stoked social unrest.





Senior government officials told the Zimbabwe Independent this week that government footed Mugabes medical expenses to the tune of US$4 million towards the end of 2018. The money, sources said, was paid through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), which maintains it does not have adequate foreign currency to fund critical sectors of the economy which are currently on the brink of collapse.





Well-placed sources said Mugabe was first paid US$1 million upon his departure for Singapore in October but later contacted government from the South-East Asian nation complaining that the money was inadequate and requesting a further US$3 million in November.





The requested balance was paid promptly, according to the sources. The transactions were authorised by RBZ governor John Mangudya.





The governor sent a memo to the Finance ministry perm sec George Guvamatanga stating that there was a request by former president Robert Mugabe for an additional US$3 million, while he was in Singapore. This was after Mugabe initially received US$1 million from government for his medical bills, which he then said was not enough, a senior government official said.





Mangundyas memorandum reportedly did not impress Finance ministry permanent secretary Guvamatanga, although he could do nothing to stop the payment, which Mangudya had already effected.





Efforts to obtain the memorandum were fruitless as government is keeping a tight lid on the document. Mangudya declined to comment on the matter this week.





I dont deal with such information. I am not privy to that information and, therefore, I cannot comment, he said. However, despite his denial, sources maintained that he, indeed, authorised the transaction.





I know that Mugabe was given US$4 million for that trip. I am not sure if he was given US$3 million first and then the million, or the other way round. But that Singapore trip cost government US$4 million, which was indeed paid through the RBZ, another source said.





At a rally in Mugabes rural home in Zvimba, Mashonaland West province, in November last year, Mnangagwa announced that Mugabe had fallen critically ill and was unable to walk.





Mnangagwa told Zanu PF supporters at the rally that he was maintaining constant contact with his political mentor, whom he helped overthrow in a military coup in 2017.





Contacted for comment, Information ministry permanent secretary Nick Mangwana said he was not aware of any payment to Mugabe.





I dont know that at all, that is a ridiculous figure for medication and you are trying to impose it to me, asking me to justify it, Mangwana said, adding he would make inquires with his government counterparts to confirm the developments.





However, he later told the Independent to pursue the matter with Finance, as he had not been able to get hold of the team, which said was in Europe with Mnangagwa.





The President last year courted the ire of taxpayers after his administration chartered an expensive private jet for Mugabes wife, Grace, to facilitate her urgent return from her own medical treatment in Singapore to enable her to attend her mothers funeral. The charter cost over US$1 million.





This also comes as the state media last week reported that Mugabe lost US$150 000 which was stashed in a briefcase at his Zvimba home to his domestic workers.





Mugabes health and the money it consumes from the public purse has been a controversial issue since his days as president.





He was criticised for spending more time outside the country, either seeking medical treatment or on official visits. His successor, Mnangagwa, who is currently on a five-nation tour after hiring a US$74 000-per-hour jet, has fallen into the same trap, it seems.







FORMER Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko and his son, Siqokoqela, have exited Choppies Supermarkets after offering to be bought out of the company to end a protracted ownership wrangle.





The Mphokos lawyer, Professor Welshman Ncube last night confirmed to The Chronicle that his clients were no longer shareholders of Botswana based Nanavac Investment, trading as Choppies Supermarkets Zimbabwe.





Prof Ncube said he has since released a joint statement with Choppies Enterprise lawyer Mr Munyaradzi Nzarayapenga notifying the public about the latest development.





We have been instructed by our clients Choppies Enterprise, Phelekezela Mphoko and Siqokoqela Mphoko to advise the public and all staff of Nanavac Investments trading as Choppies Zimbabwe that on 9 January 2019 the shareholders and directors amicably resolved and settled all issues, matters, cases and disputes between and among themselves so that there are no longer any outstanding between our respective clients, who further advise that the Mphokos have disinvested from Choppies Zimbabwe and have no further interests in the company and its business, reads the statement.





Our respective clients wish each other well in their present and future endeavours.





In an interview, Prof Ncube said his clients would be paid for 51 percent shareholding, but could not state the amounts of money involved.





At the height of their legal battles, Choppies Enterprises Mr Ramachandran Ottapathu alleged that that the Mphoko family owned only seven percent shareholding.





He said the other 44 percent was given to them to fulfil the indigenisation laws of the country. However, Prof Ncube insisted that his clients held 51 percent of the shares.





The fight became messy when Mphokos son Siqokoqela and his wife Nomagugu were dragged to court on charges of interfering with the operations of Choppies Distribution Centre and Choppies Enterprises. This followed accusations that they swindled the businesses of a combined $80 000.





Siqokoqela, who was shareholder in the retail business and a non-executive director, is accused of abusing his power to loot $50 000 in cash realised from sales at different supermarkets and replacing it with transfers. His wife, Nomagugu is accused of allegedly bulldozing various Choppies outlets in Bulawayo and demanding cash. Chronicle



Vietnam considers the US an important partner and is willing to bolster the bilateral ties in all fields, especially in economic cooperation, trade, investment, science-technology, and education and training, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has affirmed.

The Deputy PM made the statement while attending a meeting, organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (Amcham)s Hanoi chapter in the capital city on January 18, to celebrate 25 years of the normalisation of the Vietnam-US trade relations, and the 25th founding anniversary of Amcham in Vietnam.

At the meeting, he affirmed that the normalisation and development of Vietnam-US relations have resulted in great interest for the people of the two nations, contributing to regional and international peace, stability, cooperation, and growth.

In the past 25 years, two-way trade surged nearly 120 times, from 450 million USD in 1994 to more than 60 billion USD in 2018. The US has been Vietnams largest export market for several consecutive years.

Investment from the US has greatly contributed to Vietnams development. The activities of GE, Microsoft, IBM, Nike, ExxonMobil, and other US firms, have helped Vietnam earn and sustain a foothold in the global value chain, Hue noted.

Speaking highly of Amchams achievements over the last 25 years, he voiced his hope that Amcham will continue to serve as a bridge connecting the two nations, thereby deepening and bringing the Vietnam-US comprehensive partnership to a new height.

Chairwoman of the 2019 Amcham Board of Governors Natasha Ansell said the normalisation of Vietnam-US relations have opened up opportunities for US enterprises and investors to develop in Vietnams market.

On the occasion, she revealed that a new programme titled Amcham Academy for High Potential Talent will be launched to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the organisation.

The programme is hoped to offer chances to learn and connect to young Vietnamese leaders, as part of Amchams commitment to creating sustainable socio-economic values for Vietnam, Ansell said. VNA



THE Government is fully prepared to deal with any form of crime including violent protests and protect law abiding citizens who are keen to go about their normal day-to-day business. THE Government is fully prepared to deal with any form of crime including violent protests and protect law abiding citizens who are keen to go about their normal day-to-day business.

The warning comes amid reports that the MDC-Alliance and some Non-Governmental Organisations were urging citizens to repeat protests this week in similar fashion to those that rocked the country last week resulting in wanton destruction of property.





The countrys security services have also sternly warned organisers of last weeks violent demonstrations against urging their allies to continue with the destructive plans this week, and has assured members of the public of adequate security.





Addressing a joint Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) and Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) press conference last night, ZDF director of public relations Colonel Overson Mugwisi said law enforcement agents were ready to apply the law without fear or favour.





The Zimbabwe Defence Forces and security services have also noted with concern the misinformation campaign by the organisers of the recent riots, who are using the media to urge members of the public and business to continue engaging in the so called shutdown, which has led to a trail of destruction, loss of life and injury to citizens.





The security services want to reiterate the assurance by Government that adequate security has been put in place to ensure members of the public and business go about their activities without hindrance. The Zimbabwe Defence Forces and security services remain committed to the provision of safety and security to all members of the public. In the same vein, we want to warn those bent on causing mayhem that the law will be applied without fear or favour, said Colonel Mugwisi.





ZRP spokesperson, Commissioner Charity Charamba, said there has been an increase in the number of cases of people committing crime, particularly robberies, while clad in military or police regalia





Some of these uniforms worn by criminals were seized by rogue elements during the recent riots in Epworth and Chegutu. A case in point is a recent arrest of five armed robbers in Epworth, Harare, on 14 January, who were using police and military regalia to commit armed robberies after hiring vehicles from car-rental companies.





We are giving an ultimatum to individuals who have retired, deserted, and absented themselves without official leave (AWOL) from services to immediately handover uniforms either to the police or the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. All those who do not comply with this directive will be flushed out by already deployed members of the security services, she said.





Last weeks unrest was reportedly hatched at a meeting held on January 11 in Belvedere, Harare, under the ambit of the Zimbabwe Civil Society Convergence (ZCSC). In essence, the meeting was meant to coalesce opposition pressure groups such as Tajamuka, Occupy Africa Unity Square, this Flag, ZCTU, General Consensus, Citizen Manifesto and Concerned Citizens Agenda under the umbrella of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC).

Initially, the stay-away  regarded as a euphemism for the violent protests  was meant to coincide with the dates teachers wanted to hold their demonstrations. Sources privy to goings on in the civic society grouping, which has also been inciting civil servants to down tools, said it has since activated its second phase by launching a petition to AU chair Rwandan President Paul Kagame to intervene to stop the purported human rights abuses against citizens.





In the petition, CiZC chairperson Richard Mahiya urged the AU to intervene in the same way they did in DRC after the recent elections, when it advised the elections management body in that country not to announce the final results. It is believed that the security agents timeous intervention to blunt the riots foiled the designs of the NGOs, who were buoyed by a $2 million injection by two Western governments. MDC-Alliance president Mr Nelson Chamisa  who is easy bedfellows with the NGOs who are doing his bidding  has even been intimating that the MDC-Alliance has the capacity to take up arms.





During a press conference in the capital on August 3 last year, Chamisa said: We do not believe in violence even if we have the capacity to resort to arms. His threats to make the country ungovernable were a running thread throughout his election campaign rallies before the July 30 harmonised elections.





In an interview Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister, Senator Monica Mutsvangwa, said any more forms of violence was an open application to the State to deal with the perpetrators decisively. She said regime change agents will not succeed.

We would want to assure people that Government will protect them from hooligans. Our security forces are on the ground monitoring the situation and ensuring that the security of the people is guaranteed. We want to protect our law abiding citizens. As you have witnessed in the past few days we have arrested a lot of protesters.





This shows that we are committed to ensuring the security of our citizens. Our security institutions are on the ground and will provide security, said Minister Mutsvangwa.





The protests, orchestrated by MDC-Alliance and civic organisations are also aimed at tainting President Mnangagwas engagement and reengagement tour of Europe. In addition, the opposition and its allies is plotting illegal regime change.





President Mnangagwa has also condemned violence and urged people to remain calm. Last week, protesters suspected to be MDC-Alliance hooligans unleashed terror on residents in most cities and towns across the country barricading roads, terrorising motorists, destroying properties and looting goods mostly food from supermarkets.





In an interview yesterday, Zanu-PF Secretary for Legal Affairs Cde Munyaradzai Paul Mangwana said the party has discovered that the protests were of a political nature hence the party was preparing a political response.





What happened last week was clearly a political agenda and therefore as a party we think there must also be a political response, we will defend this country in all ways possible. People died during the liberation struggle and this cannot be tolerated, he said.





It is estimated that the economy has suffered contagion economic effects across all the sectors with direct losses estimated to be $800 million. The retail sector alone suffered the most as an estimated $500 million worth of stock and properties were vandalised. Zimbabwean industries contribute $100 million daily to gross domestic product, and the terror attacks cost the country around $300 million directly.





Hundreds of protestors and looters including senior MDC-Alliance officials such as MPs have since been arrested on allegations of inciting violence. In Bulawayo alone, 309 were arrested, 110 were arrested in Mashonaland West, and many others across the country. Police and other security agencies have stepped up efforts to arrest those that were involved in looting businesses.





Meanwhile, Government will from tomorrow avail buses that will charge $1 per trip between various residential suburbs and the Central Business District in Harare as it steps in to offer relief to commuters.





The move, which also targets other towns and cities, is part of a broader plan to review the urban mass transport system. The Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (ZUPCO) will coordinate the new transport system after it was urgently tasked to manage a fleet of buses that will cover all suburbs in Harare, and will also extend to other towns and cities.





Briefing journalists in Harare yesterday, Information Minister Mutsvangwa said the new system will enable passengers use various forms of payment including cash and plastic money.





Over the past few weeks, transport fares had risen beyond the affordability of the commuting public. They were paying as much as $5 for suburbs within Harare. In line with the Transitional Stabilisation Programmes thrust to modernise the entire national transport system in the country, starting from Monday, 21 January 2019 at 5 am, Government, through the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company, is launching an urban mass transport system to complement the existing commuting system.





Said Minister Mutsvangwa: The modernisation of the mass public transport system will ensure low-cost, efficient and professional service to the commuting public as well as reduce the countrys fuel costs and decongest the Central Business Districts (CBDs) as buses carry more people compared to smaller forms of transportation.





Speaking at the same press conference, Transport and Infrastructure Development deputy Minister Fortune Chasi said authorities had made interventions to ensure that there were enough buses to meet demand.







THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) this week called a three-day stayaway to protest the governments decision to hike fuel prices amid a rapidly deteriorating economic environment and rising social discontent. Business reporter Kudzai Kuwaza (KK) spoke to ZCTU president Peter Mutasa (PM) recently on various issues, which include the countrys economic challenges, his tenure as National Social Security Authority (Nssa) board member and the impact of demonstrations. Below are excerpts of the interview:





KK: What is your assessment of 2018?





PM: The year 2018 is a year where we had a chance, an opportunity as a country to make things right, beginning with elections and a chance to sort out our politics as a nation. Unfortunately, we let that chance slip. We were supposed to make sure that as a nation we would not have disputed elections. We were supposed to make sure that after (former president Robert) Mugabe has gone, we will rebuild and reform our institutions and ensure that they are independent.





We were supposed to ensure that there would be separation of power within the branches of state. We were also supposed to bring people together, come up with a national vision and build national cohesion to get us out of the economic, political and social crisis that we have been in for the last 20 years.





Unfortunately, the government failed to harness both the approval of the international community and the approval of citizens and we are back to where we were. That is a state in crisis characterised by disputed electoral results and a debilitating economic crisis.





We as labour can safely say that the year 2018 was a missed opportunity. We have also witnessed suffering and hardships among the citizens starting with the disruptive 2% tax imposed by government on the economy. Workers have lost all their savings and pensions and they have also lost value of their salaries and the general citizenry have been dispossessed of their livelihood.





This is evident in the informal sector where there are in running battles with the police and local authorities. If nothing is done, many families are going to face serious social challenges.





KK: What is your view of the 2019 budget?





PM: For starters, the current government has not taken time to bring people together to discuss the direction the country should take. They have unilaterally come up with their own vision and come up with the mantra Zimbabwe is open for business.





They have now couched another mantra called austerity for prosperity. Without looking at the budget, there is a disjoinment between state and the citizens. The citizens have not been effectively allowed to bring in their input.





The government has disregarded the input of its citizens in terms of its policy strategy. We have a new minister who came up and, immediately without consulting any stakeholders, produced the Transitional Stabilisation Programme. Government came up with the vision for the country to be an upper middle-income economy by 2030 without consulting anyone. Government is going it alone. It is not carrying anyone on board.





The budget was anti-poor, anti-workers and will not address the real challenges the citizens are facing which include unemployment, poverty and inequality. Overall, it is not a budget that addresses the needs of the poor man and the ordinary citizens. As long as the budget failed to address the issue of currency and exchange rate distortions, the country will not succeed. The failure to address distortions is going to create winners and losers and the majority of the workers and the poor are going to be the losers.





The US dollar is now being used as the unit of account, but workers do not earn in US dollars. We also expected a budget that would bring about inclusivity. Of course, it is talking about shared growth but there is nothing tangible that is supporting the shared growth. We are expecting to see many workers in the public sector losing jobs.





Although we support the cleaning up of the public sector in terms of removing ghost workers and political appointees who are doing nothing, we need to be mindful that we have few teachers and doctors compared to what we must have. Government is driving free market economics. Free market economics have failed everywhere and the world is currently in crisis because of free market economics. The government wants to please a few elites at the expense of the majority and it is the majority that must carry the burden. The policy thrust which has informed the budget is very wrong for the economic recovery of Zimbabwe.





KK: Given your description of the budget, how does it amplify your call for workers to be paid in foreign currency?













PM: When we made the call for workers to be paid in forex, we experienced many challenges. But now service providers are demanding forex and the government itself is demanding forex. The minister has said (import) duty should be paid in forex. The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority is also demanding to be paid in forex. If everyone is demanding to be paid in forex, it becomes logical that workers in these companies must be paid in forex.





If you also look at the distortion, we are purchasing in shops whose prices are pegged in US dollar. The US dollar is basically is 1:3 with the bond note at the parallel market. If workers are to continue to earn in RTGS, it means their salaries have been devalued seriously.





We are now earning less than a third of our bargained salary. There is no alternative in our view as long as supermarkets, service providers and government itself now want forex. Workers must earn in foreign currency.





KK: How important is it to legislate the Tripartite Negotiating Forum?





PM: Legislating the TNF has been an important aspect since 2001. We came up with this after realising that the country is in a crisis. We have been in a crisis for almost two decades now and the legislation of the TNF has been on the agenda for nearly two decades. The legislation of the TNF has been on the agenda in the last three Parliamentary sessions. This simply shows there is lack of political will on the part of government. Government does not want to involve citizens and it does not want to involve labour in discussing policy formulation and discussing economic policy development.





The only way to come out of our current crisis is through social dialogue and coming up with a social contract. Legislation of the TNF has never been more important as currently. It is still a very important aspect but it seems the government does not want to involve anyone in policy formulation.





KK: Looking at the issue of retrenchments, how widespread were they in 2018?





PM: I am yet to get the actual figures but, given anecdotal information, it goes without say that companies are struggling and there have been retrenchments across various sectors and now with the 2% tax, the havoc that it caused in the economy we know the companies have been strained, especially after the government failed to address the issue of currency distortions. This will lead to more retrenchments and companies folding.





KK: How effective are demonstrations that you call for from time to time as a tool of protest?





PM: We think they are effective, basing on the response of the authorities. I think for sometime we had not seen the heavy handedness of the police when we called for demonstrations. When the demonstrations were supported by the citizens, the police came out in full force, in full armour and blocked us from demonstrating.





From that aspect, we think they are very effective because we demonstrate to send a message to the state. So if the state comes down heavily on you it means you have sent the message eloquently and effectively. It shows that the dictatorship does not want to deal with the message but deal with the messenger. It is a constitutional provision. It is not put there for design, it is there as an effective means for communicating, lobbying and advocacy. Unfortunately we have a leadership that does not respect the constitution.





We will continue with demonstrations because they are an effective tool of communication and it is a constitutional provision.





KK: What is your view of the National Health Scheme being proposed by government and has been on the cards?





PM: It will never take off because government is not serious about policy implementation. A national health scheme is a good idea as long as you address the macro-economic fundamentals. You cannot have a national health scheme when only 5% of the country in the formal economy and expect them to fund the whole population. The math does not add up. The economic fundamentals must be addressed first before we can experiment with the national health scheme.





KK: You were a board member of the National Social Security Authority, what is your view of the entity?





PM: Nssa is a mirror reflection of the nation. If the government is corrupt and does not follow due process it also affects Nssa. Nssa has been abused for a long time and, when I entered Nssa and tried to address these issues and reform it from within, I was dismissed and had to fight to be reinstated.



Buyanga said AMG was looking for the woman who was shot in the legs by soldiers and had to be carried in a wheelbarrow to get medical help. She has become the face of victims of the riots in Zimbabwe. The company intends to offer her any assistance they may be able to render.This comes at a time when the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights says it has attended to 172 victims of violence of which 68 were of people with gunshot wounds. It says other cases were a result of assaults with sharp objects, booted feet, baton sticks, sjamboks and tarmac abrasions. Indications are that some patients had dog bites as police allegedly unleashed dogs on protesters in some cities. Zimbabwean authorities say at least 200 people were arrested during the protests.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.Secretary for Labour & Welfare Dr Law Chi-kwong will visit Jakarta to meet Indonesian senior government officials for a two-day trip starting tomorrow.

They will exchange views and strengthen cooperation in enhancing protection of Indonesian domestic helpers in Hong Kong.

He will also meet Indonesian Minister of Manpower Hanif Dhakiri.

During his trip, Dr Law will also meet the National Board for the Placement & Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers, an employment agencies association and will visit a training centre foreign domestic helpers.

He will also call on the Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia Xiao Qian.

During his absence, Under Secretary for Labour & Welfare Caspar Tsui will be Acting Secretary.Huawei is confident that Western countries will have to buy its products because of their competitiveness, the Chinese telecom giant's CEO and founder Ren Zhengfei said in an interview on Thursday.

"When you have superior products, there is no need to worry about buyers, and I have never worried about that," Ren replied when asked about how to cope with some countries' restrictions and bans on the company.

Ren said Huawei is the best in the area of 5G, and the only manufacturer in the world that is capable of equipping 5G base stations with the state-of-the-art microwave technology, which perfectly suits Western countries where scattered villas are ubiquitous and are in need of high-speed information services.

"Of course they can choose not to buy our equipment, but that means they will have to pay much higher prices to build other network services," he told media in another group interview on Thursday.

Until last December, Huawei said it had secured more than 25 commercial contracts for 5G, the largest in the world, and has shipped more than 10,000 base stations for the fifth generation of mobile communications.

When asked about his daughter Meng Wanzhou's detention in December, Ren said he's confident the case would be resolved through legal channels.

Meng, the company's chief financial officer, was arrested on December 1 in Canada for alleged violation of sanctions on Iran and then released on bail on December 12. She still awaits a hearing on extradition to the U.S. in February.

After her arrest, Huawei said in a statement that the company was unaware of any wrongdoing by Meng, and the firm complied with all applicable laws.

Ren told CCTV that he had not seen his daughter for a long time, but was not too worried. He said they had phone calls, during which he told jokes to her.Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 74F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 74F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.The Southeast Kentucky Chamber of Commerce welcomed Enerblu President and CEO Daniel Elliott for its keynote speaker at the chamber luncheon this week. Elliott spoke on the problems and delays in bringing an anticipated 1 million square foot, 1,000 employee manufacturing facility to the Kentucky Enterprise Industrial Park in Pikeville.Generation Rising is the eighth album recently released by Christian hip-hop artist Morgan Ramsey George, formerly known as Lyrical Preacha  a Pikeville native.By Associated Press

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump sought to break the government shutdown impasse Saturday, offering to extend protections for young people brought to the country illegally as children, if Democrats give him $5.7 billion for his long-promised border wall. But Democrats dismissed the offer as non-starter, calling on Trump to re-open the government first.

Speaking from the White House, Trump said he was offering a "commonsense compromise both parties should embrace."

ALSO READ | US House passes Democratic bill to reopen government

Trump declared from the White House that "both sides in Washington must simply come together," adding that he was there "to break the logjam and provide Congress with a path forward to end the government shutdown and solve the crisis on the southern border."

Hoping to put pressure on Democrats, the White House billed the announcement as a major step forward. But Trump did not budge on his $5.7 billion demand for the wall and, in essence, offered to temporarily roll-back some of his own hawkish immigration actions  actions that have been blocked by federal courts.

Democrats dismissed Trump's proposal even before his formal remarks. Reacting to the anticipated announcement earlier in the day, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the proposal was "a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable." The California Democrat said Trump's expected offer was "not a good-faith effort" to help the immigrants and could not pass the House. She again called on Trump to reopen the government, shut for a record 29 days.

Democrats made their own move late Friday to break the impasse when they pledged to provide hundreds of millions of dollars more for border security.

ALSO READ | Donald Trump cancels Nancy Pelosi's foreign trip citing shutdown

Partisan clashes between Trump and Pelosi marked the fourth week of the shutdown. It was not clear if the fresh offers would lead to serious steps toward resolving the partisan fight or if they were just acts of political posturing. The maneuvering came as hundreds of thousands of federal workers go without paychecks, with many enduring financial hardship. Many public services are unavailable to Americans during the closure.

Seeking to cast the plan as a bipartisan way forward, Trump said Saturday he had support from "rank-and-file" Democrats, as top Democrats made clear they had not been consulted. He also said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would bring the legislation to a vote this week, though Democrats appeared likely to block it. McConnell had previously stated that no vote should be held in the Senate until Trump and Democrats agreed on a bill.

Trump's remarks from the Diplomatic Room marked the second time he has addressed the nation as the partial shutdown drags on. On this occasion, he sought to strike a diplomatic tone, emphasizing trust and the need to work across the aisle. But he still maintained that a border barrier was needed to block what he describes as the flow of drugs and crime into the country, though he described it as a "steel barriers in high-priority locations."

To ensure wall funding, Trump said he would extend protections for young people brought to the country illegally as children, known as "Dreamers," as well as for those with temporary protected status after fleeing countries affected by natural disasters or violence.

Administration officials said the protections would apply only to those currently in the Obama-era program shielding them from deportation, and the temporary protected status would apply to those who currently have it and have been in the U.S. since 2011. That means people from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Haiti  countries that saw the status revoked since Trump took office  would get a reprieve.

Democrats criticized Trump's proposal because it didn't seem to be a permanent solution for those immigrants and because it includes money for the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, which the party strongly opposes. Democrats also want Trump to reopen government before talks can start.

Trump's son-in-law and senior aide, Jared Kushner, has led the work on the proposals, said three people familiar with White House thinking who were not authorized to speak publicly. Some said Vice President Mike Pence and chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen were involved, too.By PTI

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Saturday said that the new Constitution would not change the unitary nature of the country.

Wickremesinghe's comments came in the wake of his political opponents headed by opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa alleging that his government is drafting a new Constitution to appease the main Tamil political party, Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

Addressing a gathering at Galle town, he said, "The United National Party (UNP) would not agree to abandoning the unitary state (of Sri Lanka)." On January 11, Wickremesinghe tabled in Parliament a report of experts on drafting a new Constitution.

Stressing that the new Constitution is still a long way ahead, the prime minister said, "We have no new constitution or even a draft. What was contained in the report were ideas from all parties. Without two-thirds support in the constitutional assembly we cannot draft a new Constitution," he said.

The Rajapaksa camp has also been accusing that the new Constitution will dilute the Buddhism's foremost position over other religions in the country. However, the prime minister emphasised that the foremost place given to the majority religion Buddhism has been preserved.By PTI

LAHORE: Pakistani counter-terrorism officers on Saturday killed four terrorists, including two women and a local ISIS commander, in an 'intelligence-based operation' in Punjab province.

The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Punjab Police said that it was an 'intelligence-based operation' conducted against ISIS in the Sahiwal district, some 200kms from Lahore. "A CTD team tried to intercept a car and a motorcycle carrying the terrorists near the Sahiwal toll plaza, however, they started firing at them and a shootout ensued," the CTD spokesperson said. "Four people, including two women and the local ISIS commander, have been killed and one child has been injured in the cross-fire," the spokesperson said. "The terrorists and three other accomplices who managed to flee were involved in the kidnapping of an American, a senior officer of the Pakistan Army and the son of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani," Inspector General Police Punjab Amjad Javed Saleemi said in a statement.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered a probe into the incident after the family of one of the victims killed in the encounter, claimed that police shot him dead along with his wife and his teenage daughter in a 'stage encounter'.

According to the CTD report submitted to Saleemi, "A CTD team did a joint intelligence-based operation in which four terrorists related to defunct organisation ISIS were killed. Weapons and explosive material have been recovered from their possession." The report further said the operation was in continuation of the operation conducted in Faisalabad on last Tuesday." The CTD was tracking remaining terrorists.

On Saturday, information was received that the remaining terrorists were travelling towards Sahiwal with arms and explosives. "They travel with families to avoid police checking," the report said. "This local terror network had also killed dozens of people in blasts and firing. It was the most dangerous network of the ISIS in Punjab," the CTD said.

Three children, aged between four and nine, of the dead couple were also travelling along with their family members. Two minor girls remained unhurt while the nine-year-old boy sustained a bullet injury who was shifted to hospital where his condition is stated to be out of danger.

Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the actual picture of the incident will become clear after a thorough investigation into the incident. "Apparently it seems that the terrorists used 'human shield' to protect themselves," he saidBy PTI

SYDNEY: Australian police on Saturday charged a man with the murder of Israeli student Aiia Maasarwe, some three days after her body was found in Melbourne.

The 21-year-old was speaking to her sister on the phone when she was attacked just after midnight on Wednesday, on the way home from a comedy show.

Her body was found in bushes near a tram stop by passers-by several hours later.

Victoria police, who have described the attack as "horrific", arrested the 20-year-old man on Friday in the outer suburbs of Melbourne.

He is due to appear in court on Saturday.

"Homicide Squad detectives have charged a man with murder following the death of Aiia Maasarwe," police said in a statement.

The charge "follows an extensive investigation into Aiia's death following the discovery of her body" they added.

Maasarwe was killed after getting off a tram near the university where she was completing a year-long exchange.

Hundreds of people dressed in black held several vigils in Melbourne for Maasarwe on Friday, including filling the 86 tram, which she was believed to have ridden on her way home, with red roses that were reportedly her favourite flowers.

Her father Saeed broke down at the crime scene Friday, where dozens of flowers and messages from the public were left nearby in support.

"I feel very, very sad from one side, but from another side, when I get this support and this help -- from the people, from the community, from the police -- it makes the suffering to feel a little more better," he told reporters.

"I want to be with her for more time, but someone decided I cannot be."Photo taken on Nov. 1, 2018 shows the night view of Shanghai, east China. (Xinhua/Cai Yang)

As chilly as the Alps winter is the global economic landscape beset with growing backlash against globalization when world leaders and business elites are busy packing up for their annual gathering of the World Economic Forum (WEF) next week in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

Some of those frequenters of the forum may still remember a keynote speech delivered by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Davos two years ago, in which he championed globalization and pledged a more open Chinese economy.

The past two years witnessed rising populism and trade protectionism, but also a determined China that honored its words and pressed ahead with further opening-up actions, climaxed by an import-themed fair, the China International Import Expo (CIIE), in the metropolitan city of Shanghai lying on the banks of the Yangtze River in November 2018.

BIG OCEAN

Martin Albrow, a British sociologist known for his works on globalization, remembered that the Chinese president had compared the world economy to an ocean to prove countries are growing interdependent and can no longer retreat into isolation.

"The image of an ocean is a very apt image," Albrow said in an interview with Xinhua on Monday, three days before the two-year anniversary of Xi's philosophical Davos speech.

When addressing issues connected with the ocean, one has to first of all understand one's own position, and then to decide what the best uses one can make of it are, he said.

To make the best use of the tide of globalization, Albrow sees a "wonderful" case in the Belt and Road Initiative brought up by China in 2013. "This (the initiative) is not dictated by economic globalization. It fits with it. It fits with the economic globalization," he said.

China's contribution is significant as it emphasizes key components of a global strategy for dealing with global issues, he said.

Globalization is neither invented nor designed by one person, but is an aggregate effect of human actions and policies, and it calls for collective leadership and the people working as a whole to meet it, he said.

"China offers us the understanding of this global situation," the sociologist added.

RESPONSIVE, RESPONSIBLE

Two years since Xi made his Davos debut, China has been playing a more responsive and responsible role in promoting economic globalization with various actions, including broadening market access, improving the investment environment and increasing imports.

The high-profile CIIE, a climax of those actions, attracted 172 countries, regions and international organizations, over 3,600 companies, and more than 400,000 Chinese and foreign buyers.

Shanghai, located at where the Yangtze River flows into the Pacific Ocean, stood out as an ideal venue for the event that is the world's first import-themed national-level expo and an innovation in the history of global trade.

"Indeed, openness, innovation and inclusiveness have become the hallmark of Shanghai," Xi said at the keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the CIIE. "They are also a vivid reflection of China in the new era and its commitment to development and progress," he added.

Sadaaki Yokoo, a senior executive with Panasonic Corporation, told Xinhua in a recent interview that China's opening-up will help countries around the world strengthen economic and trade exchanges and cooperation.

It also promotes the development of an open world economy and provides more and better growth opportunities for businesses around the world, said Yokoo, whose company exhibited its products and technology under the theme "A Better Life, A Better World" at the expo.

Also in Shanghai, U.S. electric vehicle (EV) giant Tesla's Gigafactory, an electric vehicle manufacturing facility, is under construction as one of the largest foreign-invested manufacturing projects in the city.

Tesla's Shanghai factory is also the first U.S. plant that benefits from China's new policy that allows foreign carmakers to set up wholly-owned subsidiaries in the country.

China, now the world's largest vehicle market, clearly has advantages in promoting EV production, said Albert Keidel, an adjunct graduate professor at the Economics Department of George Washington University.

"It's not a surprise that the world's automotive industry makers want to move their EV industries there," said Keidel. "That's quite a natural move."

OPENNESS AS SOLUTION

China not only tethers its fortunes to world trade, but has been making efforts, at various bilateral and multilateral occasions, to persuade other players to follow suit for the benefit of all.

"I was looking at the vast ocean when I boarded the ship, and it struck me that we are all indeed fellow passengers in the same boat," said Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit held in November on a cruise ship by the coast of Papua New Guinea.

China has become a propeller of free trade, Li Bo, visiting fellow at the International Center for Chinese Studies at Aichi University, Japan, told Xinhua, adding that this is exactly how the world views China today.

In November in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, Xi urged G20 member countries to stay committed to openness and cooperation and uphold the multilateral trading system.

"China upholds free trade and globalization, which injects certainty into the world to give people confidence that the great powers ... are embracing globalization and free trade," Li said.

It was also in line with the approach with which Xi addresses the differences between his country and the United States in the field of trade and economy, Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, told Xinhua on Tuesday.

The exchanges in trade and economy between China and the United States, the world's two largest economies, have been very close and interdependent, Xi told his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, at a working dinner after the conclusion of the G20 summit.

The differences between the two countries can only be resolved through consultations and cooperation, Zheng said, adding that these were the approaches upheld by Xi to resolve other problems derived from globalization.By UNI

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has recognised Rio de Janeiro as the 'World Capital of Architecture' for 2020.

"Through the range and quality of its activities, the World Capital of Architecture in Rio de Janeiro will demonstrate the crucial role of architecture and culture in sustainable urban development," UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Culture Ernesto Renato Ottone Ramirez said in a statement.

Having defeated Paris and Melbourne, Rio was selected to host the 27th edition of the World Congress of the International Union of Architects (UIA) in July 2020.

The "World Capitals of Architecture" initiative was launched by UNESCO and UIA in November 2018.By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Indian Institute of Technology Madras faculty have launched a start-up to prepare the Indian workforce for the advent of Artificial Intelligence age by training students at nominal costs.

Their start-up One Fourth Labs has an online school PadhAI that offers affordable India-specific courses on AI. Every year, the top performing students from courses on PadhAI will be invited to a summer garage, an AI residency program at IIT Madras Research Park where they can work on research, tackle problems of societal impact, or find solutions to commercial value.

The course is open to all students, faculty, and professionals with a basic background in mathematics and Python. The fee for students and faculty is Rs 1,000/- and for working professionals, Rs 5,000/-. The course will involve monthly contests and a capstone challenge that trains participants to build an app that works like Google Lens for a few Indian languages.

Further, the start-up will also create AI-driven apps by collaborating with Small and Medium Enterprises and the industry and generate value for the Indian economy. The start-up has been founded by Dr Mitesh M Khapra and Dr Pratyush Kumar, Assistant Professors in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Madras, and incubated by the IIT Madras Incubation Cell.

ALSO READ | IIT-Hyderabad first in India to start a full-fledged B Tech course in Artificial Intelligence

Speaking about the importance of AI to India's growth and development, Dr. Mitesh Khapra said, The Indian IT industry has gone through several waves of technology and survived by upskilling. The current wave of AI is very different. It requires both mathematical insight and hands-on experience. We need courses that strike the right balance between these two. Only then, will India be able to produce visible products and services in the AI age.

The PadhAI course is a hands-on course on Deep Learning which is the most successful sub-field of AI. To make it widely accessible, minimal prerequisites are expected and the fees are significantly lower than other offerings from universities and private organisations. The four-month course comprises 80 hours of lecture content and requires equivalent time in solving assignments. It will begin on 1st February 2019. Registrations for the course are open until 24th January 2019 at https://padhai. onefourthlabs.in

The mathematical and programming know-how for solving the complex capstone challenge will be sequentially built up with simplified explanations and interactive tools. Participants will receive scores based on their performance on these contents and certificates on successfully completing the course.

Speaking of the philosophy of One Fourth Labs, Dr Pratyush Kumar said, It is well accepted that to continue to generate employment and value, the Indian IT sector must up-skill to AI. There are several courses on AI available online and through universities. Most of these courses are not designed keeping Indian students in mind in terms of technical background. Amongst those that do, several are highly priced, with fees running from few tens of thousands to lakhs of rupees. One-Fourth Labs was founded to specifically address these challenges through its course offerings and residency programs.

(This story originally appeared in Edex Live)By Express News Service

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the TN Uniformed Services Recruitment Board to appoint a woman, who failed in the running race by 0.30 seconds, on account of her pregnancy, as a policewoman.

Justice S Vimala (since retired) gave the directive while disposing of a writ petition from R Devika, praying for a directive to the board to appoint her in the post of Grade II police constable or Grade- II jail warder.

The judge also directed the police department to take into account the constitutional provisions and maternity protection and convention of International Labour Organisation, to frame guidelines by providing the best possible measures to support women candidates who are in difficult circumstances on account of pregnancy or maternity or other natural causes, in future recruitment.

Participation by the petitioner, who was eight weeks pregnant, in a running test itself is a sign of courage, as persons similarly placed would be afraid because of fear of losing the child. Moreover, in the early stages of pregnancy, doctors always advise bed rest.

Taking 0.30 seconds extra should have been considered negligible under the given context as well as under the international standards, the judge said.

Considering the fact that the petitioner would be in fifth or sixth month of pregnancy now, the judge directed the authorities to select her for the post as on October 31, 2018 with all attendant benefits within four weeks.Shibu B S By

Express News Service

KOCHI: At the time of every Lok Sabha elections, especially during the last two terms, speculations will be rife in Kerala over the candidature of Malayalam superstars, especially Mammootty and Mohanlal. Though Mammoottys name was projected ever since he started his close association with CPMs Kairali channel, Mohanlals recent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave birth to the news he will be the candidate of the BJP in Thiruvananthapuram constituency during this Lok Sabha polls.

However, those who are waiting to see the entry of the BiG Ms of Malayalam cinema into electoral polls will have to wait for another term as the sources close to both the actors made it clear they will not accept the offer to contest in the elections.

It is not a new thing that Mammoottys name is getting projected as an LDF candidate. This year also, we have seen similar news on various media. However, the fact is he has no plans to contest in the elections this year, said sources close to Mammootty.

Meanwhile, another source, who is close to Mohanlal said the superstar also did not want to enter electoral politics. We have asked him about his plans and he said he was not interested in contesting the elections. There were strong rumours that Mohanlal will contest in the elections soon after he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. What we understood is that he is not interested, said sources.

Both Mammootty and Mohanlal still continue to be the busiest actors in Malayalam. While Mammootty is busy with projects till 2020, Mohanlal also has a handful of big budget movies in his kitty. The duo has a huge fan support in Kerala. So we do not think they will be contesting in elections in the middle of these tight film schedules, they added.

Suresh Gopi, who is at present the BJPs Rajya Sabha MP, had already made it clear he would think of contesting in the Lok Sabha elections only if the top leadership asks him to do so. Meanwhile, actor Innocent, who is the LDF MP from Chalakkudy, had also informed the leadership that he would not want to contest again. There are also speculations KPAC Lalitha and Rima Kallingal may be considered by the CPM. Insiders said celebrities are not likely to be included in the partys list this year. It is learnt the Congress party will not look into fielding any celebrities or artists in this election.Jijo Malayil By

Express News Service

KOCHI: Kerala, a consumer state with the banking sector reporting around Rs 3.6 lakh crore business in personal loans as on December 31, 2018, has the highest percentage of bad loans in the retail segment across the country.

As per the latest statistics provided by CRIF High Mark Credit Information Services, a credit information service provider, Keralas NPA figures stood at 1.41 per cent, when compared to the national average of around 1 per cent in the retail segment.

Kerala is followed by Madhya Pradesh (1.30 per cent), Tamil Nadu (1.18 per cent), Punjab (1.01 per cent), Karnataka (0.94 per cent) and Delhi (0.89 per cent), according to the CRIF. Of the retail loans, the housing finance dominates with 41 per cent, followed by gold loans at 31 per cent and car finance at 15 per cent. The NPAs for the three segments stood at 1.06 per cent, 0.24 per cent and 1.10 per cent respectively. Geojit Chief Investment Strategist V K Vijayakumar told Express that this can be considered an after-flood recovery phenomenon.

Possibly, the affected group of people is unable or reluctant to clear dues in time expecting a moratorium or interest waiver from the government, said Vijayakumar. He expressed hope of retail NPAs stabilising soon in the state.

CRIF High Mark Credit Information Services senior VP Parijat Garg said the retail credit industry in Kerala has witnessed nearly 20 per cent growth in the past three fiscal years, compared to the national average of 18 per cent. Gold loans continue to be the main drivers in the lending market with its share exceeding 40 per cent and witnesses one of the lowest category-wise NPAs with 0.24 per cent in Kerala, said Garg, adding 42 lakh loans were disbursed so far, this fiscal.

According to Malappuram District Cooperative Bank DGM Saramol CM, gold loans generally witness low NPAs as it is more liquid and price realisation is far easier. Moreover, banks only give out 80 per cent of the value of the metal pledged, so loanees prefer to settle loans, as they can always realise more prices in the open market, said Saramol.

A CRIF High Mark report says the education loan NPAs stood at 5.7 per cent, which is comparable to other states. Education loans normally carry higher NPAs as most applicants are not readily employed, and usually, repayment window ends within three to six months after the completion of education, said Saramol. In Kerala, PSU banks hold a 44 per cent market share followed by NBFCs with 26.5 per cent.By PTI

KOCHI: Four nuns, who took part in a protest demanding the arrest of rape-accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal, have written to the Kerala chief minister, seeking his intervention to ensure that their transfer orders were not effected till the trial of the case was over.

The letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was written after four of the five nuns, who led the agitation against the bishop last year, were directed to leave their convent in Kottayam district, in compliance with a transfer order issued by their congregation last year.

The survivor nun has also written a separate letter to the chief minister, seeking his help in the matter.

"Their aim is to single me out and to harass and torture me. My life will be in danger if such a situation arises," she has alleged in her letter.

ALSO READ: Church trying to suppress dissenting voices?

Their congregation -- Missionaries of Jesus under the Jalandhar diocese of the Roman Catholic Church -- has directed the nuns to join their previously-assigned convents, according to the transfer orders issued between March and May, 2018.

The nuns -- Alphy, Anupama, Josephine and Ancitta -- were served notice by the superior general of the congregation, Regina Kadamthottu, urging them to take up their assigned responsibilities as befitting members of the Missionaries of Jesus congregation.

Sister Nina Rose, who also fought for justice for the survivor nun, has not been asked to leave the convent.

While Sister Alphy has been transferred to a convent at Pakartala in Bihar, sister Ancitta and sister Josephine have been directed to join their convent in Lalmatia, Jharkhand.

Sister Anupama has been asked to report at a convent in Punjab.

In their letter to the chief minister, the nuns alleged that the transfer orders were aimed at splitting them and "to sabotage the case" against Bishop Franco Mulakkal.

READ HERE | A Christmas in solitude for Kerala nuns who protested against rape-accused Bishop

"Bishop Franco is supported by some of the church authorities and his henchmen. They are making false propagation and character assassination against us. The aim of the present transfer orders is to pressure and threaten us as all of us are prominent witnesses in the case," the four nuns alleged in the letter.

They claimed that their "fate of life" itself would be unpredictable if they were transferred to distant regions.

"They want to split us and put us into different locations in India. We will not be able to appear and give evidence before the court at the trial stage in such a situation," they said in the letter.

The nuns sought Vijayan's intervention to ensure that all of them could live at the St Francis Mission Home in Kuravilangad itself, with the survivor, till the trial of the rape case was over, especially considering their safety.

ALSO READ | Kerala nun rape case: Sister Anupama heckled, asked to leave key witness' funeral

"The victim is actually living on the strength and support extended from our side. Our presence itself is a great solace for her, who is totally in a broken situation," they said.

Alleging that the transfer orders were a "strategy" to put all of them under pressure, the nuns said, "If the transfer is effected, we will not be in a position to give evidence in the case daringly."

"We will not be allowed to live peacefully and will collapse emotionally and mentally. Our lives will be in danger," they said.

The protest led by the nuns and the Catholic reformist forums here in September last year had led to a public outrage and demands for action against the bishop.

Bishop Mulakkal, a senior member of the Roman Catholic clergy in India, was arrested last year following allegations by the nun that he repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted her at the Kuravilangad convent between 2014 and 2016, a charge denied by him.

The 54-year-old clergyman was "temporarily" relieved of all pastoral responsibilities as the bishop of the Jalandhar diocese by the Vatican.

The congregation had issued the transfer orders of the nuns last year, much before the outbreak of protests, but they had then refused to accept those.

In a recent communique, Superior General Regina said it was a "matter of serious concern" for her to note that they were yet to join their convents assigned previously.G Subhash Chandra By

Express News Service

CHITRADURGA: They first set up a small hotel on the Pune-Bengaluru highway in an attempt to shed stigma riddling their existence. Now, the group of transgenders have taken a step further, this time to help others too.

The group, led by Bhavana and associates, has installed a water purification unit on the National Highway that offers quality drinking water to passersby, truck drivers and residents of neighbouring villagers.

The drinking water costs Rs 2 for a 1-litre bottle and Rs 10 for a 20-litre can. The project, which became operational last week, has already gained popularity with people of nearby villages like Kyadigere, Dodda Siddavvanahalli, Palavvanahalli, Kunchiganal, and Ingaladal.

The idea of starting the water plant struck Bhavana after their initial endeavour, Satara Dhaba, became a success. The hotel was launched by the transgender members in 2009-10 with their own funds, without the support of the government or bank. It is located near Bharat Benz showroom.

The water plant has also been started with the money saved from their earnings from the dhaba. They serve vegetarian food and earn Rs 5,000-6,000 per day.

Radha and Vasanthi, two of the eight transgenders involved in the initiative, told TNIE that the water purification unit has been set up at a cost of Rs 3 lakh. We draw water from a borewell in our premises. Even the cost of the borewell was borne by Bhavana, they said.

Vasanthi, a resident of Challakere who is now settled here, said, After I was disowned by my family, this has become my home, and Bhavana is my guardian. She gave me a life of dignity when I was begging on streets.

They said earning a livelihood in their middle age is a challenge as they have no support. There is an urgent need from the government to extend financial support to transgenders who are interested in taking up income generation activities and save funds for the future.

The monetary support of Rs 500 provided by the government under the Mythri scheme is negligible. We should also be provided reservation, added Vasanthi. Radha, a resident of Putlarahalli near Parashurampura, was also abandoned by her family and took up begging at in Tumakuru.

They now appeal to people to support them as they try to lead a respectable life. We are also human beings. Please treat us like normal persons, and try to respect us as well, they say.By PTI

BENGALURU: Senior Congress leader and Minister D K Shivakumar Saturday said all ministers in the party including him were ready to step aside from the cabinet in the interest of the party to accommodate those MLAs who are dissatisfied.

"We are loyal soldiers of the party. When Dharm Singh government was there I was kept out of the government for political reasons. In the last regime I was MLA for sixthterm, Siddaramaiah could not include me in his cabinet (initially)," Shivakumar said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said this time it was a coalition government, and several legislators, who were senior to him- V Muniyappa, Ramalinga Reddy, Roshan Baig, H K Patil - are not part of the government.

"If need be, including myself, I'm telling you, we are ready to sacrifice for the party, for the workers, for legislators. Nothing is important. Party is important to us we want to bring back our party with flying colours," he said in response to a question.

ALSO READ: MLAs Umesh Jadhav, B Nagendra to meet KC Venugopal: Karnataka minister Shiva Shankar Reddy

Shivakumar also said the "decision" was arrived at a meeting of Congress ministers held a few days ago.

He said "I voluntarily have offered (to step down). In the interest of the party, if my leaders want, I'm ready."

To a question how many ministers were ready to resign, he said: "All of us are ready."

The statement by the Congress' "troubleshooter" gains significance as there is simmering discontent within a section in the party over not getting cabinet berth during the recent rejig.

To a question about getting in touch with MLAs, including Nagendra and Umesh Jadhav who were absent from the CIP meeting on Friday, Shivakumar said, "I'm in touch with all MLAs. I don't want to disclose."

He said there were no "rebels" in the party and downplayed dissatisfaction within the party.

"Who is rebel? I don't know, I have not seen any rebels," he said.

To a question how long Congress legislators will stay in the resort, Shivakumar said "Let me see. Discussions are on the district by district, constituency wise discussions are on (regarding Parliamentary election), also about the development work in each constituency."

Asked whether MLAs would return from the resort tomorrow, without giving any direct response, he said "Can they stay there itself?" Congress on Friday had shifted all its MLAs to a resort to allegedly "escape" from the BJP's "onslaught."

On BJP going for a statewide tour to study drought, Shivakumar, terming it as a "good" move, assured full cooperation from the government.

He also asked BJP legislators still in Delhi, to put pressure on the Prime Minister and Rural Development Minister "to get back our MNREGA money" of about Rs 1,500 crore that is pending with the Centre.By IANS

BENGALURU: Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) legislators will return on Saturday from a private resort in Gurugram where they were lodged for the last few days, a party leader said.

"All our MLAs have been directed to return to the state," state BJP President B.S. Yeddyurappa told the media here.

ALSO READ: Congress shifting Karnataka MLAs to resort to escape BJP's onslaught: Siddaramaiah

The party was not trying to "destabilise" the coalition government as alleged by the Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), he said.

"We are not trying to destabilise the government. We will work as a strong opposition."

Meanwhile, Congress legislators headed to a private resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru after a party meet on Friday, in an attempt to "safeguard" the MLAs.

"The BJP is indulging openly in horse trading. We need to have all our MLAs in our place and deliberate on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections (in April-May)," state Congress President Dinesh Gundu Rao told the media earlier.Express News Service

BENGALURU: A little over 100 of the 161 passengers on board an Air India flight (AI 263), heading from New Delhi to Male via Thiruvananthapuram, were stranded for three hours at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) here after a delayed departure from Thiruvananthapuram. The reason: the pilot and co-pilot had to wind up duty.

The passengers reached Male 10 hours late after a different aircraft and crew were arranged.

The pilot stood along with the crew when passengers were entering the flight at Thiruvananthapuram and told them the flight was heading to Bengaluru and not Male, passengers told TNIE. They were assured that a flight from Bengaluru will take them to Male within half-an-hour after they reached Bengaluru.

An Air India spokesperson said, Due to foggy conditions, flight No. 263, which was to leave Delhi at 5.50 am, was able to take off only at 7.20 am. Hence, it reached Thiruvananthapuram late. Due to Flight Data Time Limit rules, a pilot can only be allotted duty for a fixed number of hours. So, a decision was taken to divert the flight to Bengaluru so that the crew on board could be substituted with fresh flying crew, the spokesperson said.

Air India took good care of its passengers by giving them snacks and refreshments, the spokesperson claimed. A senior aviation official said DGCA rules are stringent and a pilot is permitted duty time of only 8-9 hours in the interest of passenger safety. If it is learnt that any pilot has exceeded the hours, licences will be suspended and the airlines will also face the music, he said.

Passengers wait at departure area

of KIA to get flight updates | Express

Passengers stranded at KIA were upset with the disruption of their schedule. Subash Fernando, an exporter of vegetables and fruits to Male from Thiruvananthapuram was highly agitated as his appointment with the Ministry of Maldives in connection with a business deal could not be met. I am sure never before in aviation history would this have happened.

While some passengers were informed as they were boarding the flight that it would go to Bengaluru, I was not even told that. After I was seated and just before departure, I heard the pilot announcing the flight was heading to Bengaluru!

There was a lot of commotion among passengers but the cabin crew assured that there would be only a half-hour delay in our journey due to this sudden change. To our shock, crew did not change immediately at Bengaluru. Instead, we were all deboarded, he added.

Another flier, Adam Sharief, a businessman from Maldives, said, The pilot clearly told us that he was not permitted to fly beyond eight hours. After we landed, we were taken near the immigration gates. For half-an-hour, no one was allowed to even shift from the seats we were occupying. We were not even allowed to use the toilets. After some time, the passengers were given manual boarding passes, attached to their existing boarding passes, and they were allowed inside the airport after, Sharief added.The 30th escort task group of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Navy arrived in the Philippines Thursday for a five-day friendly visit.

More than 200 people from the Chinese Embassy and Chinese-invested organizations, as well as overseas Chinese greeted the fleet when it arrived. Tan Qingsheng, Minister-Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in the Philippines was also in the greeting group.

Commodore Wilfredo Burgunio, deputy commander of the Philippine fleet, and other officials attended the welcoming ceremony.

During the visit, the Chinese fleet commander will pay courtesy visits to the Philippines' senior naval officers, hold an on ship reception, organize a tour aboard the ships, and engage in other activities with their Philippine naval counterparts.

The PLA Navy has visited the Philippines multiple times and docked in Manila, the largest port city of the country.By Express News Service

KAKINADA: Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu has said that the proposed Federal Front, a brainchild of KCR, may be led by the BJP. He was addressing the media in Kakinada on Friday. If the YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy wanted special category status (SCS) for the State, then why would he meet the BJP alliance? he questioned.

He further alleged that the BJP did not give the SCS to the State for the past four years, still the party has not given an assurance. The BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have only been cheating the State and the public observed the situation all along.

He attended an event on NTR death anniversary at the TDP district office in Kakinada. Speaking on the occasion, he said Modi was trying to take revenge on the Telugu people through the proposed Federal Front. Modi couldnt digest the States development and he was trying to break the State, he added. The minister said Modi does not want to grant SCS to the State.K Jayakumar By

For the past few weeks, the disruptive role of hartals and general strikes has been in national consciousness rather vividly. There have been too many of them in close succession, the justifications for them unconvincing. The Kerala High Court has come down heavily on flash hartals and stipulated seven days notice. While mainstream political parties may have some accountability, fringe organisations with hardly any ideology, commitment or following consider it an easy route to grab attention.

Whether or not we understand why a hartal has been called, shops invariably remain shut and public vehicles keep off the road. Autos and taxis remain static. When another hartal is called, say three days later for another cause and concern, the very same shops again down their shutters and public vehicles keep off the road. Of course public offices and public services are again paralysed.

Does it mean that these common participants in every hartalshopkeepers, transport staff and government employeessupport all of them? Obviously not. Then why do they cease to work normally? The answer is self-evident: out of fear of damage, attack and future vendetta. This is a familiar storyline. But the organisers of every hartal claim that it was a great success as there was total paralysis. Do they want us to believe that all those who stayed away from work on a hartal day were their supporters? A ridiculous fallacy indeed, yet this make-believe argument is often offered rather shamelessly. How long can such a titanic delusion parade as political action?

Organisers of hartals are not undertaking a referendum for their causes. It is not that they do not realise that their cause does not elicit any ebullient reaction from anywhere. Yet they expect hartals to be successful. Because the presumption is whether or not the shopkeeper or employee sympathises with their cause, they have to keep off work. Or else

That ominous or else is the point of short circuit. That is where intimidation comes in. That is how a threat of violence succeeds in forcing compliance. Of late some traders associations have been making statements that they will keep their shops open on a hartal day. But these brave pronouncements are wishful thinking. Who wants to risk violence and damage? Even without any sympathy to the cause, people are forced to observe hartals.

This is not only unethical but is against the very roots of democracy, where every citizen has the fundamental right to their views and beliefs. Every citizen has a right to dissent. When this right is routinely and callously trampled upon, society loses faith in what has been constitutionally provided. Instead, the right to difference of opinion and divergence of views gets systematically trampled upon.

This is not limited to hartals. Intolerance to dissent has already been ingrained into the DNA of our society. Our campuses exemplify this intolerance. Student violence is often directed against the opposing camp. Recently Simon Britto, a former Kerala MLA who was wheelchair bound for 25 years after a knife attack during his student days, passed away reminding us once again of the fatal consequence of intolerance.

A few months ago, Abhimanyu, a student, lost his life in a similar situation in Kochi. If university students cannot handle differences in ideology amicably or agree to differ with dignity, what can we expect from the committed workers of political parties? These students will graduate to be educated adults with inbuilt intolerance. When they come to occupy positions of importance and authority they will brook no dissent, and it will then be called disobedience. They become officials acutely aware of their authority and powers and completely oblivious to the rights of the ordinary

citizen.

They will not think twice before branding an agitator as anti-national and booking him under the severest of legal provisions. In a society where the privileges and authority of the powerful are more important than the rights of the underprivileged, intolerance flourishes. It is exalted indeed.

Our inability to differ in a dignified manner is a daily spectacle on television debates. It is self-evident in police stations where a counter-view is seldom entertained unless calibrated with authority. In government offices a patron-client relationship prevails. And the percentage of people who find this situation unnatural and undemocratic is amazingly small! In school critical thinking is seldom encouraged.

The teacher, wielding a cane and shouting the mantra of silence, silence is a prototype of a leader creating obedient followers. Leaders are always content with the silence of the lambs. And a society where everyone obeys even the most unnatural, unjustified and undemocratic demands makes everyone comfortable.

It is however a pseudo comfort. Where dissent is silenced, plurality is the casualty. Where plurality finds it difficult to survive, democracy wilts from within. The outer shell alone will remain with the sap already dried up. Without appreciating the beauty and worth of plurality and divergence, our claim to be a democratic society will only be technical in nature. In such a society forceful compliance to unreasonable hartals will be the order of the day. The realisation that our promised right to differ is being throttled is often underplayed. The day of redemption will be when the right to differ is given its due in every walk of lifefrom the kindergarten to the highest echelons of government. Or else difference of opinion could be construed as sedition.



K Jayakumar

Former Chief Secretary to Government of Kerala and former Vice Chancellor of Malayalam University

Email: k.jayakumar123@gmail.comNamita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: The essence of "Atithi Devo Bhava (Guest is like God)" will take a soul in Varanasi, during next three days when the most ancient city will rise to welcome and embrace the Indian diaspora during the high-profile Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas commencing on Monday, January 21.

A usual biennial event will be different in many ways this time. The most striking difference will be the warmth people of Kashi are ready to convect to the NRIs thronging the city in thousands. Government arrangements apart, around 200 families of Varanasi will host the guests at their homes during the event . The preparations are in full swing.

While some are renovating their dwellings, others are busy putting the minutest things in place to ensure maximum comfort blended with original Banarasi heritage in all its cultural glory to the guests. District magistrate Surendra Singh and senior superintendent of police (SSP) Suresh Rao Anand Kulkarni will lead the Banarsis to host NRIs at their homes.

"I and my wife Garima are ready to host Dr Rajpal Singh and his wife Vijay as guests. They are coming from London and we have make all arrangements to make their stay an experience in itself," says the DM adding that he will ensure to treat his guests with the typical Banarasi flavour during their stay.

"I have planned to take them to the ghats of Varanasi and temples," he states.

The DM says 350 NRIs have opted for home stay. Some 4,150 NRI delegates from 85 nations have registered for the event, and approximately 1,000 of them will be staying in the tent city, especially, erected for the event at Erah.SSP, Varanasi, Suresh Rao Anand Kulkarni will host a guest from US.

"Rakesh Pathak will stay with us. Since he has expressed keen interest in Varanasi, its lifestyle and religio-cultural heritage, I will take him on a Kashi tour," says the SSP.

On day one, it will be the Youth Pravasi Diwas. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join CM Yogi Adityanath and Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj in welcoming the Pravasi Indians by inaugurating the conclave officially on January 22. The valediction will be paid to the pravasis by President Ram Nath Kovind himself on Janaury 23.

Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth of Mauritius as the chief guest. Jugnauth has his roots in Rasra village in Ballia district of the state, and he is likely to travel to his ancestral village during his stay in India.

While entrepreneur Ashok Gupta, to host three guests, including US-based NRI Anshuman Trikha. Gupta, is bubbling with excitement.

For him, it is a matter of prestige.

"Banaras has its quintessentially calm and beautiful morning -Subah-e-Banaras - to offer the guests. I will ensure to give my guests a feel of it. I will make them see the sun coming out of the shining waters of Holy Ganga in all its glory," says Gupta.

He says without the 'darshan' of Lord Shiva at Kashi Vishwanath temple, no Kashi visit can be completed.

"Banaras offers a multi-cuisine platter. I will make our guests taste it as much as possible during their three-day stay with us," says doctoral fellow Dr Sunil Mishra and his lecturer wife Swati S Mishra of Bajardeeha area. They will be hosting Poland-based guests Dr Jagdish and his wife Bogumilla Babur Gheek. The couple will reach Varanasi on Sunday itself.

"We will make their stay memorable in all possible ways so that they can take a bit of Kashi along," says MishraSimilarly, social worker Divya Ratan Chaturvedi and his wife Pratibha Chaturvedi, a teacher, are ready to treat Rajiv Chaturvedi and Pramila Chaturvedi, from Australia.

The couple say they will try to tickle their palate with home made banarasi dishes like Banarasi stuffed paratha, matar kachauri and homemade malai (cream) with bread.

"We will serve Banarasi delicacies, including kachauri, lassi and baati chokha, malaiyo and rabri, to the guests," plans Jai Pradhwani, the chartered accountant who is ready to welcome his guests at his home.

He says he will ensure a traditional stay for his NRI guests - Dr Chandrashekhar Mishra (US), Amit Wanikar (China) and Rajpal Tyagi (Oman). Pradhwani, who has planned to welcome his guests traditionally amid the chanting of shlokas, and drum beats with putting a tilak on their forehead, has also decided gifts for his guests - a book on Banarasi culture and heritage along with the 'Bhagwad Gita' and a Banarasi stole.

In fact, the families which will host the guests got themselves registered online volunteering their services. They were selected by the authorities on the basis of the set criteria for playing the host.

The largest troupe -- 432 NRIs -- will be from Malaysia. Likewise, 375 from UAE, 340 from Mauritius, 187 from the US, 134 from Qatar and 109 from Oman will come. Moreover, 450 Saraswati cottages, 120 Triveni cottages and 50 Kashi villas have been erected in the tent city for the guests.

As many as 100 NRIs will stay in 50 Kashi villas. The cottages are equipped with all the facilities.Abhijit Mulye By

Express News Service

MUMBAI: The Indian Railways would be striving for hundred per cent electrification in all of its circles in the days to come, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said as he flagged off the first Rajdhani Express on the Central Railway starting from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) here on Saturday.

He also announced an investment of Rs 75,000 crore in the Mumbai circle and said that the first Rajdhani Train on Central Railway would prove to be 'historical' for the circle.

He also inaugurated several works done on several lines in Mumbai region that included flagging off of Diva-Panvel-Roha MEMU train and Pune-Karjat-Panvel train, inauguration of Pen-Roha electrification and two escalators at Panvel, dedication of 100feet national flags at CSMT, Mumbai Central and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, FOBs at Belapur, Taloja, Prabhadevi, Matunga Road, Jogeshwari, Goregaon, Virar and Malad stations, lifts at Bandra Terminus, Andheri and Borivli stations along with several other works of illumination, ATVMs and improved indicators, and also laid foundation for two ROBs at Juchandra station at the occasion.

"Mumbai circle is the first circle to have complete electrification. Soon, all the railway circles across the nation would be striving for hundred per cent electrification," the minister said.

"I want to see competition between Central Railway and Western Railway over Mumbai Rajdhani and see which one reaches Delhi first," Goyal said in a lighter vein while adding that the new CSMT Rajdhani takes 18 hours now but I have approved push and pull trials to speed it up so that it will not require a loco addition.

Push-pull will involve one loco in front and another in back.

"The CSMT Rajdhani passes via places that have never seen a Rajdhani. It will benefit a huge crowd of commuters," the minister added.

The Mumbai CSMT Rajdhani will travel on Kalyan-Nashik-Jalgaon-Bhopal-Jhansi route and will take 5 hours 30 minutes shorter than any other train from Central Railway reaching Delhi, he explained.

The first Mumbai CSMT train Rajdhani was sold out in five hours, officials said.Rajesh Asnani By

Express News Service

JAIPUR: The Issue of Gujjar reservation in Rajasthan is out in the open once again after the Modi Government declared 10% quota for general category a few days back. Congress had announced in its manifesto to give 5% reservation to the Gujjars in Rajasthan before the assembly elections.

Now Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla has questioned the Gehlot government on why it can't fulfill its promise when the central government can bring the reservation for general category in just 10 days. He has demanded that the reservation be given in the next 20 days or else the state will face another massive Gujjar protest.

"This time I have swear that I will not let the government rest easy till the time we don't get the reservation. After the central government has announced reservation for the general category the quota limit has reached 59.5 %, much more than 50%. We want that Congress should fulfill their Manifesto promise immediately", said Col Kirori Singh Bainsla, convenor of Rajasthan Gurjar aarakshan sanghrash samiti.

Rajasthan Gurjar Aarkshan Sangarsh Samiti has announced to hold Panchayats in various districts for bringing reservations for the Gujjars.

They have threatened Congress that If their promises are not fulfilled before the Lok Sabha elections, the society will vote against them. On Friday a meeting was held at Kirori Singh Bainsla's house in Jaipur in which Gehlot government was asked to bring reservations for the Gujjar in 20 days under SBC.

To ensure that series of Gujjar Panchayats will take place on 27 January in Khandar, 1 February in Nainwa, on 4 February in Ajmer and on 14th February a Panchayat will be held in Dausa.

In the recently held Vidhan Sabha elections, Gujjars had supported Congress. One of the prominent reasons for that was that Sachin Pilot, who belongs to the Gujjar community, was a potential CM face.

Seven Gujjar candidates won on Congress ticket while not a single Gujjar won on a BJP ticket. The community is not so happy with Congress as Sachin Pilot was not made the Chief Minister along with that they have become determined to get 5% reservation after PM Modi announced 10% reservation for the general category." For reservation 73 Gujjars sacrificed their lives and still we are being misled. If the government is serious on the issue they should take immediate steps otherwise we will hold protests. Along with gorgeous 5 other communities are fighting for their rights for the last 13 years", said advocate Shailendra Singh, General Secretary, Rajasthan Gurjar Aarkshan Sanghrsh Samiti.

Meanwhile, if the Congress fulfills its promise that they made in their manifesto, the reservation in Rajasthan will become 54%.

According to the supreme court ruling maximum limit for total reservation is 50%. The government also has an alternative for OBC categorisation but if they do that they might anger other communities.

This can be done if the government gets a directive from the central OBC commission. Congress would not want to take this step on their own just before the Lok Sabha elections.Mayank Singh By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Pakistan Army has instructed its troops posted along the Line of Control to remain together in larger numbers and not to move during daytime.

On January 16, 3 PoK Brigade located at Kotli instructed all the units under its command that there should be no move before 10:00 hours and all the moves have to be coordinated by the brigade headquarters. It also said that no post or listening post (temporary post used for observation and listening) will have less than 10 individuals, said a source.

Explaining the possible reason for such directions, Lt-Gen Vinod Bhatia (Retd), former director general, Military Operations, said, The cost (of ceasefire violation) on Pakistan has been raised; thats why its trying to limit the exposure time of its soldiers to effective retaliation by the Indian Army. It shows that we have the upper hand.

India has been retaliating effectively against the firing and shelling by Pakistani troops along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir, affirmed an Army officer.

Kotli in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is against the Mendhar and Rajouri sectors on the Indian side of the LoC. A brigade generally comprises of three units each having 1000 soldiers.By PTI

NEW DELHI: Some members of the Kashmiri Pandit community gathered at the Raj Ghat here Saturday to mark the 29th anniversary of their forced exile from Kashmir and demanded creation of a separate township in the valley for them.

They took an oath to return to Kashmir Valley and appealed to the government to fulfil its duty by facilitating their return.

They commemorated Kashmiri Pandit Exodus Day, the organisers said in a statement.

On this day in 1990 hundreds of thousands of protesters, along with armed militants, occupied streets of Kashmir shouting slogans against the minority community which eventually led to their exodus from the valley.

"Many Kashmiri Pandits were killed, raped and tortured before and after 19 January, 1990 in a series of targeted killings of minority Pandits," it said.

Remembering the night, Mona Razdan, one of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits, said that the night was "possibly the longest night of our lives".

The loss of Kashmiri Pandits - one of the most hardworking and talented people - is a huge loss for us. Don't want to engage in rhetoric, but I really hope that we can correct course at some point in future. #WeMissYou  Shehla Rashid   (@Shehla_Rashid) January 19, 2019

"Mobs from all over the valley had occupied every single road in Kashmir. They shouted slogans against Pandits asking us to either join them or leave the valley," she said.

Regretting the current state of the exiled Kashmiri Pandit community, Vivek Raina, a young student, said, "More than 50,000 of our people perished in the inhabitable camps. They fell to snake and scorpion bites. There still is a refugee camp in Jammu that harbours more than 25,000 people and is no better than a concentration camp."

Abhishek Thathoo, a young school student, said, "It is so painful that we are almost like this country's stepsons despite the fact that we were the only people who upheld the values of Indian civilisation in Kashmir. We lost everything and got no justice. Don't I have the right to live in my home."Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: The essence of Atithi Devo Bhava" (Guest is like God) will take a soul in Varanasi, during next three days when the most ancient city will rise to welcome and embrace the Indian diaspora

during the high-profile Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas commencing on Monday, January 21.

A usual biennial event will be different in many ways this time. The most striking difference will be the warmth people of Kashi who are ready play hosts to the NRIs thronging the city in thousands.

Government arrangements apart, around 200 families of Varanasi will host the guests at their homes during the event.

The preparations are in full swing. While some are renovating their dwellings, others are busy putting the minutest things in place to ensure maximum comfort blended with original Banarasi heritage in all its cultural glory to the guests.

District magistrate Surendra Singh and senior superintendent of police (SSP) Suresh Rao Anand Kulkarni will lead the Banarsis to host NRIs at their homes.

I and my wife Garima are ready to host Dr Rajpal Singh and his wife Vijay as guests. They are coming from London and we have make all arrangements to make their stay an experience in itself, says the DM adding that he will ensure to treat his guests with the typical Banarasi flavour during their stay. I have planned to take them to the ghats of Varanasi and temples, he states.

The DM says 350 NRIs have opted for homestay. Some 4,150 NRI delegates from 85 nations have registered for the event, and approximately 1,000 of them will be staying in the tent city, especially,

erected for the event at Erah.

SSP, Varanasi, Suresh Rao Anand Kulkarni will host a guest from US. Rakesh Pathak will stay with us. Since he has expressed keen interest in Varanasi, its lifestyle and religio-cultural heritage, I will take him on a Kashi tour, says the SSP.

On day one, it will be the Youth Pravasi Diwas. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join CM Yogi Adityanath and Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj in welcoming the Pravasi Indians by inaugurating the conclave officially on January 22. The valediction will be paid to the pravasis by President Ram Nath Kovind himself on Janaury 23.

Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth of Mauritius as the chief guest. Jugnauth has his roots in Rasra village in Ballia district of the state, and he is likely to travel to his ancestral village during his stay in India.

While entrepreneur Ashok Gupta, to host three guests, including US-based NRI Anshuman Trikha. Gupta, is bubbling with excitement. For him, it is a matter of prestige. Banaras has its quintessentially

calm and beautiful morningSubah-e-Banaras  to offer the guests. I will ensure to give my guests a feel of it. I will make them see the sun coming out of the shining waters of Holy Ganga in all its glory, says Gupta. He says without the darshan of Lord Shiva at Kashi Vishwanath temple, no Kashi visit can be completed.

Banaras offers a multi-cuisine platter. I will make our guests taste it as much as possible during their three-day stay with us, says doctoral fellow Dr Sunil Mishra and his lecturer wife Swati S Mishra of Bajardeeha area. They will be hosting Poland-based guests Dr Jagdish and his wife Bogumilla Babur Gheek. The couple will reach Varanasi on Sunday itself. We will make their stay memorable in all possible ways so that they can take a bit of Kashi along, says Mishra

Similarly, social worker Divya Ratan Chaturvedi and his wife Pratibha Chaturvedi, a teacher, are ready to treat Rajiv Chaturvedi and Pramila Chaturvedi, from Australia. The couple say they will try to tickle their palate with home made banarasi dishes like Banarasi stuffed paratha, matar kachauri and omemade malai (cream) with bread.

We will serve Banarasi delicacies, including kachauri, lassi and baati chokha, malaiyo and rabri, to the guests, plans Jai Pradhwani, the chartered accountant who is ready to welcome his guests at his home. He says he will ensure a traditional stay for his NRI guests  Dr Chandrashekhar Mishra (US), Amit Wanikar (China) and Rajpal Tyagi (Oman).

Pradhwani, who has planned to welcome his guests traditionally amid the chanting of shlokas, and drum beats with putting a tilak on their forehead, has also decided gifts for his guests  a book on Banarasi culture and heritage along with the Bhagwad Gita and a Banarasi stole.

In fact, the families which will host the guests got themselves registered online volunteering their services. They were selected by the authorities on the basis of the set criteria for playing the host.

The largest troupe -- 432 NRIs -- will be from Malaysia. Likewise, 375 from UAE, 340 from Mauritius, 187 from the US, 134 from Qatar and 109 from Oman will come.

Moreover, 450 Saraswati cottages, 120 Triveni cottages and 50 Kashi villas have been erected in the tent city for the guests. As many as 100 NRIs will stay in 50 Kashi villas. The cottages are equipped

with all the facilities.By IANS

AGARTALA: The Border Security Force (BSF) has strongly refuted claims by Bangladeshi border guards' "unfounded allegation that the BSF has been pushing Rohingyas into Bangladeshi territory", an official release said here on Saturday.

"On Friday night, Border Guards Bangladesh's (BGB) Lt. Col. Gomal Kabir over phone informed BSF Commandant Ratnesh Kumar that they have detained 31 Rohingya Muslims along the International Border (with Western Tripura). The BGB commandant insisted the BSF Commandant to take over those Rohingyas inside the India-Bangladesh Border Fencing," a BSF release said.

It said that the BGB Commanding Officer, who is the commandant of 25 Battalion of the BGB, also alleged that the BSF has been pushing Rohingyas into Bangladeshi territory. "BSF commandant firmly denied any such attempt and refuted the allegation as published in Bangladesh media," the release added. It also said that during the search of the area and spot verification, there were no signs of any illegal crossing of Rohingyas from the Indian territory to Bangladesh.

A senior BSF official said that during the past year, 62 Rohingya Muslims had entered India (Tripura) illegally. He said that the Rohingyas have illegally entered Tripura and a few other northeastern states via Bangladesh in search of jobs and temporary works. But subsequently, they were pushed back following legal and security formalities.

Over 700,000 Rohingyas have fled Myanmar's Rakhine state since August 2017 after a wave of persecution and violence that the UN described as an attempt at "ethnic cleansing". Efforts are on to repatriate them. Tripura shares an 856-km border with Bangladesh, most of which is fenced except a stretch of nearly 20 km.

Other than Tripura, the other northeastern states sharing the 1,880-km International Border with Bangladesh are Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km) and Assam (263 km).By PTI

RAMANATHAPURAM: The body of a 61-year-old Tamil Nadu fisherman, who drowned in the sea after his boat capsized off Neduntheevu while being chased by the Sri Lankan Navy, was brought here from the island nation and cremated, a fisheries department official said Saturday.

K Muniasamy was part of a group of fishermen in two boats fishing off Neduntheevu on January 13, when they were allegedly chased by the Lankan naval personnel.

Both boats capsized as a result and the fishermen fell into the sea. While eight of them were rescued, Muniasamy drowned.

His body washed ashore the coast in Jaffna on January 17, Ramanathapuram Fisheries department Deputy Director, E Kathavarayan said.

The mortal remains were brought to Tiruchirapalli airport from Colombo by a Sri Lankan airlines flight on Friday.

Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan paid homage to the deceased at the airport. The body was handed over to his relatives at his native village Ilanthaikootam near here last evening, following which it was cremated.

Earlier, District authorities including Collector K Veera Raghava Rao also paid homage. Condoling Muniasamy's death, Chief Minister K Palaniswami had on Wednesday announced a compensation of Rs five lakh to his family from the Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund.China on Friday expressed strong dissatisfaction with and firm opposition to a U.S. missile defense report's hyping up "China threat."

The report, Missile Defense Review, unveiled Thursday at the Pentagon, was the first update to the U.S. missile defense policy since its 2010 version.

The report, with a cold war mentality and outdated concepts such as the zero-sum game, has ignored the peace and development theme of the times and exaggerated geopolitical confrontation and great-power competition with groundless hyping up of "China threat," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying.

"The U.S. side's move is not constructive at all," Hua said, adding that it will jeopardize regional peace and security, impede the process of international nuclear disarmament, trigger arms races, and undermine global strategic balance and stability.

China always champions solving the missile proliferation through political and diplomatic means and opposes pursuing own interests at the price of other countries' security and interests, the spokesperson said.

Saying China is firmly committed to the path of peaceful development and a national defense policy that is defensive in nature, Hua stressed that China always exercises utmost restraint in developing its strategic forces "with no intention to pose a threat to any country, including the United States."

"We urge the U.S. side to abandon the cold war mentality, maintain global and regional peace with a responsible attitude and take concrete actions to safeguard international peace and stability," Hua said.By PTI

HYDERABAD: Asking Pakistan to stop meddling in Kashmir affairs, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi Saturday said the valley was and will always be an integral part of India, even as he stressed the need to have a consistent policy for the region.

The Hyderabad MP said whether it was the Congress or the BJP at the Centre, they have "no policy, no vision" to bring back normalcy in the Kashmir Valley.

"I feel that there has to be a consistent policy on Kashmir which unfortunately is lacking," he said.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader was replying to a question during a panel discussion organised at the Telangana Jagruthi International Youth Leadership Conference which began here Saturday.

Quoting a report, Owaisi accused the BJP-led central government of not doing anything for Kashmiri Pandits.

He said he has not seen so many lives being destroyed with pellet guns in the last eight years.

Owaisi said instead of having a policy for the region, the government was now aiming to have less lethal weapons which show where its priority lies.

"The Kashmir problem cannot be treated in a James Bond or a Rambo style. Someone will have to show a statesman-like approach. There is alienation and things have to be done in a proper way," he said.

Owaisi said Pakistan should stop meddling in Kashmir affairs.

He said IAS officer Shah Faesal, who recently resigned from the civil services, should chalk out his own independent political journey.

Faesal, who has been in the limelight since becoming the first Kashmiri to top the exam in 2009, resigned on January 9, protesting the "unabated" killings in Kashmir and the "marginalisation" of Indian Muslims ".

Let him chalk out his own independent political journey and that is what Kashmir requires.

You do not want Kashmir's political journey to be controlled by babus or IB officers sitting in Delhi," Owaisi added.By Online Desk

West Bengal CM and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's mega Opposition rally at Kolkata's Parade Grounds on Saturday, saw a massive show of strength. Banerjee said the Central governments expiry date was over just like your pills, while launching a scathing attack on PM Modi.

Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Yadav, former union ministers Yashwant Singha, Shatrughan Sinha and Arun Shourie, three present chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal, Chandrababu Naidu and HD Kumaraswamy; former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Gegong Apang, and DMK chief MK Stalin attended the rally. They all spoke about the need to come together to save the democracy and the Constitution, from the Modi-Shah combine, urging everyone to work together to bring a new dawn for the country.

Young leaders Kanhaiya Kumar, Hardik Patel and Jignesh Mevani too were present.

Rahul Gandhi did not attend the 'United India Rally' but extended his 'support' through a 'letter of unity.' Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi represented the Congress.By PTI

HYDERABAD: Microsoft India on Saturday announced the launch of a new e-commerce platform here for handloom weavers under its Project ReWeave,as part of its philanthropic initiative.

"The e-commerce platform would help connect artisans to the buyers directly enabling them to expand to newer customers and markets," a press release from Microsoft said. "A new e-commerce website hosts signature collections created by the weaver communities, showcase traditional designs and products created from natural dyes. The e-market place would help sell to a broad set of customers, support weavers in increasing their income and earning a sustainable livelihood while also reviving traditional forgotten Indian art," the release said.

Microsoft, in association with the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), has also curated a special curriculum in 'CAD and Colour for Handloom Weaving' to provide digital training in handloom design, it said.

At a ceremony hosted at NIFT, the first batch of 100 handloom weavers were awarded certificates for successful design course completion, the release said. Telangana Principal Secretary, Industries and IT Jayesh Ranjan said in the release that "Working with global technology leaders like Microsoft has enabled us bring technology to the doorsteps of our large weaver communities in the remotest districts of Telangana. These initiatives like e-commerce marketplace and design training would ensure weaver communities sustain themselves and provide livelihood to artisans," the release said.

"This also is a practical solution to motivate younger generation of weavers to continue with their traditions and not divert into other professions," it said.

On the initiative, managing director of Microsoft India (R&D) Anil Bhansali said, "With the introduction of our new e-commerce platform, digital empowerment centres and the new design curriculum, the weavers will be able to build on the rich handloom heritage of India and also reach out to a wider customer base."By IANS

NEW DELHI: In a fresh attempt to woo children into joining its network and boost user growth, Facebook is testing a new hub called "LOL" that will let kids share and post humorous meme content.

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch late Friday that it was experimenting with the "LOL" hub for kids. "We are running a small scale test and the concept is in the early stages right now," the spokesperson said in a statement.

Divided into categories like "For You", "Animals", "Fails" and "Pranks", "LoL" will be a special feed of funny videos and GIF-like clips.

The company is yet to decide if "LOL" will become a stand-alone app or be available in the main Facebook app.

ALSO READ: Facebook faces 'record-setting' fine over privacy violations

"'LOL' is currently in private beta with around 100 high school students who signed non-disclosure agreements with parental consent to do focus groups and one-on-one testing with Facebook staff," said the report.

According to social media experts, this is yet another attempt by Facebook -- embroiled in several data breach and privacy violation cases -- to get into a yet-to-be-tapped market to boost its stalled user growth.

"It may not be a good idea to again start some specific social media platform for tender minds especially when the content is not guided. There has been a call globally to limit the screen time for kids and Facebook is somehow trying to hook them onto screens," Anoop Mishra, one of the nation's leading social media experts, told IANS on Saturday.

ALSO READ: Facebook shuts hundreds of Russia-linked pages, accounts

Despite call for withdrawal by experts, Facebook has decided to expand the reach of its Messenger Kids by introducing the video calling and messaging app designed for children under 13. The Messenger Kids app was launched in the US in 2017.

In 2018, more than 100 child health experts wrote an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, urging him to discontinue the app.

"At a time when there is mounting concern about how social media use affects adolescents' well being, it is particularly irresponsible to encourage children as young as pre-schoolers to start using a Facebook product," the authors wrote.

ALSO READ: Social media could help motivate people to exercise

British Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt also warned the social media giant to stay away from his children.

"Facebook told me they would come back with ideas to PREVENT underage use of their product, but instead they are actively targeting younger children. Stay away from my kids please Facebook and act responsibly!" Hunt had posted on Twitter.

Responding to the backlash that Facebook's Messenger Kids is facing, a top executive of the social network said that families would be better off because the video calling and messaging app designed for the under 13s exists. "I firmly believe that it is a good product," said David Marcus, Facebook's Vice President of Messaging Products.

But experts feel that the app's overall impact on families and society is likely to be negative, and it could normalise social media use among young children by creating peer pressure.

"With the growing incidences of child trafficking, wrong marketing messaging amid absence of proper guidelines, such new apps meant for kids can be another cause of concerns for parents," stressed Mishra.

With over a billion users, Facebook-owned photo-sharing platform Instagram is currently very popular among teenagers.

Facebook has over 2.2 billion users globally, including 300 million in India.

The company last year launched a short-form video app called "Lasso" but the app did not gained much popularity.By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The #10YearsChallenge is catching up across social media circles, instilling curiosity in people and pushing them to dig out that one picture that would nail how they looked in the past, in comparison to their present.

On the other side, the movement has inspired social activists to highlight important historical spots and places that faded away with the passage of time, cities that saw huge developments over the years and also remind people about the affect Global Warming is having on our world.

While some are interesting and thought-provoking and others flimsy, the challenge is certainly driving social media to new heights. We at Thiruvananthapuram Express, conduct our city's #10Years Challenge to see what changes Thiruvananthapuram has undergone in the past 10 years.



The revamped stand which received a major faceli

Greenfield Stadium

The Greenfield Stadium at Kariavattom was spruced into a stadium with a 50,000-seat capacity as part of the 35th National Games. The stadium has introduced a couple of environment-friendly measures including rainwater conservation facility and solar panels.

The first green mall of the country, 'Mall of Travancore' was opened with 150 stores and 300 brands. Trivandrum Development Authority (TRIDA) ex-chairman P K Venugopal said inter-city roads have been widened facilitating an integrated city road system. "The first phase of the expansion of Karamana-Kaliyakkavilai road was completed long ago. The second phase is yet to begin. A stretch of 42-kilometre road including MG Road, two flyovers at Bakery Junction and Thakaraparambu were also completed," he said.

Thampanoor bus stand

The KSRTC bus terminal at Thampanoor has now become a major highlight of the city. The work of the new stand began in 2010 and was flagged off in February, 2014 during Oomman Chandy's tenure. The new terminal has sufficient space for entry and departure of 29 buses at the same time. There are also electronic display boards.

Rehabilitation of beggars

"When I took charge in 2010, I wanted to make Thiruvananthapuram, a garden city. Several green initiatives were taken. A major milestone, however, is the rehabilitation of the poor and the beggars. Beggar menace has always been an issue. Now they have been offered a comfortable stay," said J Chandra, former Mayor. She also said that 'Sewerage Plant' at Muttathara remains to be the landmark project among other waste disposal initiatives introduced by the Corporation.

By Express News Service

KOCHI: As the price of pineapple crashed recently, Nadukkara Agro Processing company through Horticorp will procure 200 tonnes of pineapple from the farmers. A meeting chaired by Eldho Abraham MLA and attended by Nadukkara Agro Processing company MD Shibu Kumar, directors, pineapple merchants and pineapple farmers associations was held at Muvattupuzha on Friday.

The procurement of pineapple will provide relief for the farmers hit by the low price. The procurement will start from Saturday. On the first day, two tonnes of pineapple will be procured. Later from Monday to Thursday, 50 tonnes each will be procured.

As many as 30 per cent procurement will be of A-grade ripe pineapples. The pineapples of farmers who approach Horticorp with a certificate issued by the respective agriculture officer will be procured. Last year, when the pineapple price was down, Horticorp had procured pineapple from the farmers.

However, there was an allegation only pineapple from selected farmers was procured. To avoid such complaints, the decision was taken to procure pineapple from farmers having certification from the agriculture officer. The support price for the pineapple will be Rs 17 per kg.

The authorities expect with Horticorp carrying out procurement drive, the price of pineapple at the wholesale and retail market will improve.

Agriculture Minister V S Sunil Kumar had visited Vazhakulam market to evaluate the price difference of pineapple.Donita Jose By

Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Drink and drive, and the Cyberabad Traffic Police will directly shoot a letter to your companys Human Resources (HR) about your misconduct.

Within a month of adopting this new technique to rein in the rising number of drunk driving cases in the zone, at least 100 letters have been already sent calling out both private and government employees working in Cyberabad.

The Letter of Information provides the HR with details including the name of the employee, the offence they were caught for, place, time and day of offence, and the punishment accorded by the courts.

The step is not meant to initiate any action against the employee. It merely aims to inform the company that their employee was involved in a serious traffic violation that could have caused a serious public hazard, said DCP Vijay Kumar, Cyberabad Traffic police.

One of these letters that was shot to an IT firm in Hitec City, detailing the case against one of their employees, has now gone viral on WhatsApp.

We thought it was a hoax initially. But then we reached out to the Commissioner and he confirmed that it was legitimate. Drunk driving is a social issue and this idea seems like a progressive step, noted Rajashekhar, an employee at the firm.

The letter not only informs the firm about the employee but also goes a step ahead and explains the law. It suggests that the HR undertake a sensitisation program to all its employees about following traffic rules and cooperating with the police.

We are hoping this will definitely bring about a change, at least in the IT companies where the HR departments dont take such issues lightly, added the DCP.By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Greater Chennai Corporation has so far seized 67.72 tonnes of banned plastics since the prohibition on single-use plastic came into effect from January 1.

Inspection in various shops was going on even during Pongal holidays, said corporation officials. A civic body release said corporation authorities seized 1.46 tonnes of banned plastic from January 14 to January 17.

On Friday alone, the corporation collected 2.17 tonnes of banned plastic. However, corporation authorities said the numbers have consistently gone down since the ban was implemented, indicating increased shift to other alternatives.

As for garbage accumulated during Pongal holidays, the civic body said a total of 4610 tonnes of garbage was collected on Kannum Pongal day alone, a figure below the usual daily average of 5100 tonnes. At Marina beach, 15 tonnes of garbage was collected.By Express News Service

Twelve unoccupied buildings and three empty or under-construction ones in Bengaluru will soon be turned into shelters for the homeless.

The BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike)-- which has identified these structures -- targets to convert at least 10 of the 15 buildings into homeless shelters by January end.

The welfare department has identified some unused space in multi-storey BBMP offices for this purpose. Many homeless can also be accommodated in the NGOs-run shelter homes meant for women and elderly destitutes.

"In the west zone, for instance, we have identified BBMP's office on Good Shed Road which will house 132 people. In all, 5,000 people can be accommodated into the KR Market building on the second floor. In the south zone, Giriamma Maternity Hospital will house 60 homeless women. The back entrance of the multi-level car parking on JC Road has an unused space that can house 40 people," said Deputy Commissioner (Welfare) Jagadeesh.

The BBMP will also tie up with NGOs which are already running centres for the homeless. "In Anepalya, Shantinagar, the Nightingale Medical Trust has beds, individual bathrooms for 70 women at their Sandhya Suraksha centre.

In Hennur, the Holy Cross Mercy home houses 16 women. In Kalasipalyam, the Mariamma temple already provides shelter for 100 to 150 people at a cost of Rs 20 per night. BBMP will cover this cost from now on and provide foldable beds," said Jagadeesh.

BBMP's Special Commissioner (Welfare) D Randeep said that the target is to have 30 functional centres by March 31. "We are focusing on places were work opportunities are close by as several homeless people work in the day and sleep on the streets at night. For example, construction workers, porters and other labourers who work in Majestic Railway station, KR Market, etc.

BBMP has several ward offices, community halls and even mustering centres where pourakarmikas mark their attendance in the mornings. These are left unused through the night," said

In Jakkur ward, Yelahanka, a shelter is under construction. A 2,000 square feet empty site in Vijinapura and a dilapidated government building in JC Road are being redone as well. Other locations include Queens Road, Summanahalli, Hoodi, Tulasi Thota road and PC road.

The Supreme Court in 2010 directed all the state governments to set up homeless shelters in cities/towns with a population of 10 lakh or more.

They directed that a minimum of one shelters should be made available for a population of one lakh people. Sadly, apathy by the state has seen only six shelters made available in the last nine years. It was only in October 2018 that the civic body began conducting surveys with the help of NGOs to take stock of the situation.By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Friday said that loan waiver for farmers is not a permanent solution for farmers in distress, instead they should be made financially stable. Kumaraswamy was speaking after inaugurating the three-day International Organic and Millet Fair, in Bengaluru. By loan waivers, farmers will not get a remedy. They should be prepared for distress.

As a step towards enhancing their stability, the state government has already geared up to adopt Israeli farming technology, where they analyse what crop should be grown on a piece of land, based on the rain pattern the land has seen in the last 20 years. Our government is committed to help farmers get profits from their farming, we just need their cooperation, he said.

Further, the CM said that in todays agriculture system, farmers are in distress because they are not getting the required support price.

For that, there is a need to change the system, by adopting millets. This is challenging. In order to help them, we are proposing that millets be used in mid-day meals and Indira

canteens, he said.

Rural Development and Panchayath Raj Minister, Krishna Byregowda said Karnataka is a pioneer in encouraging farmers to grow millets. We have set the trend, not just for India, but for the globe. Now, the United Nations has agreed to observe 2023 as the Year of Millets. Millet is the future and it is called as

smart food of the 21st century, he added.People look at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on Jan. 18, 2019. The White House said Friday that the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), "will take place near the end of February." (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

The White House said Friday that the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), "will take place near the end of February."

The announcement was made after Trump wrapped up a meeting in the Oval Office with Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the DPRK's ruling Korean Workers' Party Central Committee.

"President Donald J. Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and half, to discuss denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

"The President looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date," she said.

The meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un, if held as scheduled, will be the two leaders' second face-to-face encounter following their landmark summit in Singapore last June. Both sides have said they look forward to such a meeting.

Kim Jong Un said during his recent trip to China that his country will "make efforts for the second summit between DPRK and U.S. leaders to achieve results that will be welcomed by the international community."

Trump said on Jan. 2 that the two countries will set up a leaders' summit. "We'll probably now have another meeting. He'd like to meet, I'd like to meet. We'll set that up, we'll be setting that up in the not-too-distant future," Trump told reporters at the White House.

Traveling on a commercial plane, Kim Yong Chol arrived at Washington's Dulles International Airport on Thursday night and was greeted there by Stephen Biegun, the U.S. special representative for the DPRK, according to the Republic of Korea's Yonhap news agency.

Earlier Friday, Kim Yong Chol held talks with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Biegun at a hotel in Washington.

"Secretary Pompeo and Special Representative Steve Biegun had a good discussion this morning with DPRK Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol on efforts to make progress on the commitments President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un made at their summit in Singapore," U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino said in a statement.By PTI

MUMBAI: Facing criticism for jobless growth, as many as 1.1 crore jobs were lost in 2018 alone, Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday called for accurate data collection on employment and skilling.

According to recent CMIE data instead of creating jobs a whopping 1.1 crore jobs were lost in 2018 alone, which the report blamed to be after-effects of the November 2016 note ban and GST roll-out in July 2017. Both these measures led to millions of job losses and closure of over a million small industrial units. It can be recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi rode to power in 2014 summer elections promising one crore jobs to the youth every year.

Available data are not inclusive and does not cover many sectors and many new age industries like taxi aggregators who are reportedly engaging a million people today, Goyal said at an event here organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). "Wrong and delayed data can create havoc and can result in wrong planning," he added.

"Skilling after accurate data collection is very important in order to develop robust models on the lines of those followed internationally, like Singapore and Germany. We have been engaging with industry to understand the disconnect between the available data and the real situations. Therefore, to get an accurate picture we were having an engagement with business and industry, both traditional and new age," he said.

Goyal emphasised the need for focusing on sectors like tourism, health care and transportation which has the potential to create huge job opportunities in the country. "Let's focus on sectors like tourism, health care and transportation sectors that has tremendous potential to generate employment. With Ayushman Bharat we expect that the health care sector will need many professional in the related with the sector," the minister said addressing the workshop on 'Jobs and Livelihoods',.

The minister said women should be encouraged to develop livelihood in the changing landscape of jobs and opportunities. Further, Goyal said, a lot of business and entrepreneurs opined that the country lacks the right skill set needed for employment. "We discussed the relationship between education and skilling.

On how to make skilling programme more robust and sustainable so that one can utilise the available capacity for skilling and also expand the 'on the job' skilling through apprenticeship and other models," he added. The government, he said, is also looking at encouraging more start-ups to generate employment. "The entrepreneurial spirit of the country and Indians is the way forward, particularly with the changing world," he added.Nigeria's President, Muhammadu Buhari narrowly escaped an embarrassing scenario after he almost fell while trying to take a seat at the just concluded All Progressives Congress rally in Kaduna.It will be recalled that the President also missed a step and almost fell during a campaign rally in Kogi state a few days earlier. This has raised a lot of concern among Nigerians who are worried about the true status of his health.NairaNaijaNews has been furnished with the footage.Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has received Major-General Abubakar Sadiq Maikobi, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 82 Division Enugu, at Government House, Umuahia, NairaNairaNews has learnt.We gathered that Abubakar came in the company of Brig. Gen AK Ibrahim, the Commander, 14 Brigade, Ohafia Abia State, among other officers.Nairanaijanews will bring you more details of their meeting soon.Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about the planning and construction of major projects in Beijing's sub-center during his inspection tour in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 18, 2019. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged more efforts to achieve new, greater progress in the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks during an inspection tour of the region from Wednesday to Friday.

During the tour, Xi chaired a symposium on the region's coordinated development and made an important speech.

Vice Premier Han Zheng, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, accompanied Xi on the tour of the Xiongan New Area in Hebei Province and Beijing and attended the symposium.

THREE-DAY TOUR

On Wednesday morning, Xi visited the exhibition center for the planning of the Xiongan New Area and stressed that the creation of Xiongan is "a strategy that will have lasting importance for the millennium to come."

China should remain committed to the new development concept and stick to the high-quality growth when building the new area, Xi said.

While visiting a government service center, Xi stressed that development of the Xiongan New Area requires concerted efforts from a large number of enterprises.

"We welcome all companies, whether they are state-owned enterprises or private companies, local firms or companies from Beijing, Chinese enterprises or overseas-funded companies, as long as they conform to the industrial development plan of the new area," he said.

A good ecological environment represents the important value of the Xiongan New Area, he said while visiting a forestry zone in the region Wednesday afternoon.

Visiting the campus of Nankai University in Tianjin Thursday morning, Xi said it is a priority to nurture patriotism among students for them to become a new generation of capable young people well-prepared to join the socialist cause.

In a square on campus, enthusiastic students welcomed Xi, shouting greetings such as "Welcome, General Secretary" and singing a patriotic song. Xi shook hands with students and waved to others in the crowd.

At a community in Heping District in Tianjin, Xi pointed out that community work should be people-centered with an accurate grasp of people's needs and provide targeted and elaborate services for the residents in a timely manner.

He then visited a service and administration station for veterans in the community and stressed that setting up institutions for veteran affairs is to enhance the management of veterans and better protect their welfare in order to make military service a publicly respected occupation.

Talking about the large number of unique buildings and streets of historical and cultural significance in Tianjin, Xi asked for more care for the historical and cultural heritage in cities and better coordination of development and protection.

During his visit to the Tianjin port Thursday afternoon, Xi called for efforts to develop it into a world-class smart and green port, which can better serve the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei as well as joint development of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Xi then visited the Binhai-Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park, where he highlighted the pressing task to rely on self-dependent innovation for advancing high-quality development and replacing old growth drivers with new ones.

On Friday morning, while visiting the sub-center of Beijing, Xi stressed that planning should take precedence over the construction of the sub-center while quality should be the top priority.

He said the sub-center should be made another "shining name card" of Beijing.

SIX DEMANDS

Xi made six demands to promote the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Efforts should be made to relocate the non-capital functions of Beijing in an active, proper and orderly manner, he said.

He stressed high-quality and high-standard planning and development of the Xiongan New Area and called for building a number of major infrastructure projects in transportation, water conservancy and public services in the new area.

The relocation of Beijing's municipal organs should be taken as an opportunity to pursue high-quality planning and construction of the sub-center, Xi said, adding that the spatial layout and economic structure of Beijing should be optimized.

He stressed the need to take reform and innovation as impetus to inspire high-quality development and establish independent innovation bases.

Joint efforts must be made in the improvement and protection of ecology and environment, while more clean energy should be supplied, Xi said.

He called for a people-centered approach and joint work in developing the basic public services with shared benefits, adding that all poverty-stricken counties in the region should be lifted out of poverty by 2020.Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike has criticised the Former Inspector General of Police, Idris Kpotum describing him as a representative of "Satan" in Nigeria.Wike, in a recent speech, stated that 'Prayer and Fasting' was behind the removal of the IG. He also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate the death of a former Kano INEC REC and his family after they were burnt down to ashes in their family home in 2015.NairaNaijaNews has been furnished with footage of the speech.Sports

Murray pulls out of Marseille Open

Marseille, Jan 18 (Agencies) | Publish Date: 1/18/2019 12:35:24 PM IST

Andy Murray has pulled out of next months Marseille Open as he may have to undergo surgery again, the tournament organisers said on Friday. Murray has struggled to regain form since undergoing hip surgery last January and was knocked out in the first round of the Australian Open on Monday.

Murray, who is also scheduled to participate in Montpellier and Dubai next month, said after his Melbourne defeat that he would decide whether to have surgery within a week or push on through the pain to farewell fans at Wimbledon.

Murray said pulling out was a difficult decision as he had fond memories of the tournament. Its tough but I dont have a choice, I was very keen on returning to Marseille where I won the tournament in 2008. This title, one of the first of my career, remains a great memory, Murray added in the statement.

Murray will be replaced in the main draw of the February 18-24 tournament by 2013 runner-up Tomas Berdych.* Russia detected 23 foreign aircraft flying close to its border for surveillance purposes over the past week, the Russian Defense Military's newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda reported Friday.

* US President Donald Trump unveiled Thursday at Pentagon this year's Missile Defense Review which contain's the country's intention to expand its missile defense capabilities.

* France would carry out its military offensive against the Islamic State (IS) fighters in Syria this year, French President Emmanuel Macron said on January 17, warning that "any rush to withdraw (troops) would be a mistake."

* NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has confirmed his attendance at the informal meeting of defence ministers of the European Union (EU) member states, to be held in Bucharest at the end of January, Romanian Defense Minister Gabriel Les announced on January 17. The meeting is the first ministerial level event to be hosted by Romania since it took over the Presidency of the EU Council.

* Russia and Serbia signed a package of agreements on bilateral cooperation during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the Serbian capital of Belgrade, the Kremlin said Thursday.

* The first Macedonian-Bulgarian business forum kicked off on January 17 in the capital city Skopje to promote bilateral trade and economic relations between the two countries.

* The Moroccan authorities thwarted a total of 88,761 illegal migration attempts in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 37 percent, the Interior Ministry said on January 17. According to the ministry's statistics, 80 percent of these attempts were made by foreigners and 29,715 migrants were rescued at sea.

* Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday called for an inclusive peace process in Afghanistan, during a telephone conversation with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, officials said.

* Eighteen people died after a bus overturned in western Ethiopia on January 16, also leaving scores of others with serious injuries, police said on January 17.

* Turkish prosecutors on January 18 issued new detention warrants for at least 72 people over their suspected links to a group blamed for a failed coup in 2016.

* The death toll from a car bomb blast outside a police academy in Bogota on January 17 morning has climbed to 21, Colombian police said late Thursday.Today's Headlines Would you like to receive our daily news? Sign up today!

Breaking news Sign up for breaking news alerts from morning-times.com!!!

Week in Sports Get a weekly local sports round-up from www.morning-times.com every Saturday morning!!!The destroyer USS Donald Cook has entered the Black Sea less than two weeks after another US Navy vessel was deployed there. Moscow says it will watch the actions of the US ship closely.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer was sent to the Black Sea to conduct maritime security operations and enhance regional maritime stability, the US 6th Fleet said in a statement on Saturday, adding that it would strengthen the naval capability of the US NATO allies and partners in the region.

"The United States and the US Navy continue to stand alongside our allies and partners in support of shared regional interests and maritime stability, said Cmdr. Matthew J. Powel, commanding officer of the Donald Cook. Our arrival into the Black Sea will showcase the Navys interoperability in pursuit of common security objectives in this region.

Also on rt.com US Navy landing ship arrives to Black Sea to advance security and stability in Europe

It is the second such deployment in less than two weeks as, earlier in January, the Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship USS Fort McHenry was deployed to the Black Sea where its crew trained together with the sailors of the Romanian Navy. The US Navy statement said that the US military vessels routine deployment to the Black Sea is in full accordance with the international law.

The Russian Navy dispatched a patrol vessel to monitor the actions of the US destroyer as it entered the Black Sea waters, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. It also used additional electronic and technical means to monitor the situation. Under the international law, the US ships are allowed to stay in the waters of the Black Sea for no more than 21 days, the ministry said.

Six American military vessels carried out missions in the area in 2018, including the guided-missile destroyers USS Ross, USS Carney and USS Porter as well as the command ship USS Mount Whitney, the dock landing ship USS Oak Hill and the expeditionary fast transport USNS Carson City.

Also on rt.com Ukrainian official invites British warship to cross Kerch Strait & see how Russia reacts

The situation in the area remains tense after three Ukrainian Navy ships violated the Russian maritime border in the Kerch Strait, between Crimea and mainland Russia, on November 25. The provocative actions of the Ukrainian vessels led to a lengthy chase and eventually prompted the Russian coast guards to use force to stop the perpetrators.

The incident, which occurred in the area that used to be Russian territorial waters even before its reunification with Crimea in 2014, and ended in no fatalities, was quickly condemned by Washington as an act of aggression and led to the cancellation of a much-anticipated summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

If you like this story, share it with a friend!At a reception for visiting Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Toshiko Abe on January 18, Phong stressed that Japan has significantly contributed to HCM Citys socio-economic achievements.

HCM City welcomes Japanese enterprises and is willing to create optimal conditions for them to study the market and run businesses in the locality for a long term, he said.

Mentioning the metro line No. 1 linking Ben Thanh in district 1 to Suoi Tien Theme Park in district 9, the official told his guest that the city will provide budget-sourced funding for contractors in advance to speed up the progress.

Phong called on Japan to continue implementing cooperation projects, including those supporting visa grant to Vietnamese labourers and tourists, stepping up collaboration in Japanese language teaching and vocational training, and ensuring a favourable environment for Vietnamese guest workers.

For her part, Toshiko Abe noted with pleasure fruitful developments of the Vietnam-Japan extensive strategic partnership, especially coordination between the two countries in organising activities marking the 45th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic ties last year.

Japan wishes to partner with Vietnam to facilitate the connectivity between Japanese and Vietnamese firms, including those from HCM City, she said.A bizarre social media post urging Minnesota high schoolers to attend a sweethearts dance outraged many with its Nazi-themed puns and Heil Hitler salutes. The school has condemned the promotion as anti-Semitic.

The photograph, which was shared widely on Facebook, shows two unidentified students from Minnetonka High School giving the Nazi salute while in front of an invitation to a dance that reads: Sweethearts would be a Hit(ler) w/ you, and I could Nazi myself going w/ anyone else. Be Mein? Yes or Nein?

The Nazi-inspired plug was reportedly first uploaded to Instagram by the girl who posed in the photo. The caption below the photograph read: Also I would like to state that I am not anti-Semitic in any way. I hate all races equally.

After the picture came to the attention of school administrators, the students deleted it, according to Minnetonka Schools Superintendent Dennis Peterson.

In an email to the school community, Peterson condemned the social media post and said that the school district must do more to educate students about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.

The schools principal, Jeff Erickson, issued a similar statement which emphasized that the anti-Semitic media post... in no way aligns with our schools core values.

But the schools swift response was not enough to curtail a tidal wave of social media outrage, not to mention local and national news coverage.

While Minnesotans took to Twitter to condemn the photograph, national news media such as the Hill and NBC caught wind of the story.

Also on rt.com School says Nazi-saluting students protected by First Amendment, sparking outrage

Citing privacy concerns, school officials have not released the names of the students in the photo, or divulged what, if any, disciplinary action has been taken against them.

The incident comes just months after a group of Wisconsin high schoolers were photographed before prom giving what appears to be Nazi salutes. The photograph caused a massive national scandal. Wisconsin school authorities ruled in November that the boys were protected under the First Amendment and would not be punished.The American military has trained UAE fighter pilots for combat missions in Yemen, indicating Washingtons deeper involvement into the ongoing conflict, a recent report citing US Air Force documents claims.

The papers were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by Yahoo News. They appear to show how United Arab Emirates (UAE) pilots and crew were prepared for the Yemen conflict by US instructors under the UAEs F-16 pilot training program.

Also on rt.com British elite reap benefits of Saudi-led war on Yemen  hunger striking labour cllr to RT

It was completed at the USAFs Warfare Center in Al Dhafra, just south of the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi.

The training which, according to the documents, took place between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2017, resulted in four new instructors and 29 combat wingmen prior to their immediate deployment for combat operations in Yemen.

Also revealed was the escorting of four UAE F-16s to the USAFs Red Flag exercises in the Nevada desert. The two-week advanced aerial combat training oversaw 150 Emirati personnel participate in challenging exercises with the goal to prepare them for combat action in Yemen.

The UAE has been involved in Yemens civil war as part of a Western-backed, Saudi-led coalition battling Houthi rebels who rose up against the government in 2015.

While Saudi Arabias bombing campaign in the country has garnered the most international criticism, the UAEs role has received less coverage. However, it has been an active partner in the coalition, contributing both troops on the ground in addition to planes in the sky.

When pressed for comment on the UAE training by Yahoo News, both a US Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesperson and a second CENTCOM official, Lt. Col. Josh Jacques, repeatedly denied the claims of prepping pilots for Yemen sorties.

We do not conduct exercises with members of the [Saudi-led coalition] to prepare for combat operations in Yemen, Jacques said.

READ MORE: Life in fear: Report says 1 in 3 US drone-strike deaths in Yemen are civilians, including children

US officials have long been coy regarding the true extent of their support for the coalition, insisting that arm sales, air-to-air refueling, as well as intelligence training and sharing constitute the extent of their involvement.

However, in November, the US government said it would end mid-air refueling of coalition aircraft in response to growing outrage that the Saudi-led bombing campaign was unlawfully targeting civilians and putting the country on the brink of famine. For its part, Riyadh has repeatedly denied targeting civilians and not military related infrastructure on purpose.

In December, top US military brass reiterated Washingtons lack of involvement. Speaking at a Washington Post event, General Joseph F. Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, insisted that the US was not participating in the civil war, nor are we supporting one side or the other.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!A US federal judge has found four volunteers with a local aid group guilty of petty offenses after they entered a wildlife refuge without a permit to leave food and water for illegal migrants seeking to cross the US-Mexico border.

The case dates back to August 2017, when four women with the No More Deaths NGO drove into the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Arizona and left behind one-gallon water jugs and cans of beans. One of the activists, Natalie Hoffman, who was behind the wheel, was charged for having a vehicle inside the park, as well as entering without a permit and abandoning personal property there.

Her three co-defendants were found guilty of two similar charges. The Defendants did not get an access permit, they did not remain on the designated roads, and they left water, food, and crates in the Refuge, US Magistrate Judge Bernardo Velasco wrote in his decision on Friday. That, according to the ruling, violates the law and erodes the national decision to maintain the Refuge in its pristine nature.

The judge also slammed the No More Deaths group for failing to inform its activists about the real consequences of their actions. Each of the women may now face up to six months in prison and a $500 fine, although the date of their sentencing has not been set.

The courts decision drew an angry rebuke from the aid group. This verdict challenges not only No More Deaths volunteers, but people of conscience throughout the country, Catherine Gaffney, a longtime volunteer with No More Deaths, said in a statement published on its website.

If giving water to someone dying of thirst is illegal, what humanity is left in the law of this country?

The volunteers admitted they willingly chose not to obtain the entry permit as it would have prohibited them from leaving anything in the refuge. I was there to leave water, Hoffman said during the trial.

Also on rt.com Only a wall will work: Trump calls for border security as new migrant caravan departs Honduras

Another volunteer described their actions as sacred, while comparing the refuge to a graveyard. The area is indeed notorious for the number of human remains found there each year, according to local media.

The Friday verdict comes amid US President Donald Trumps ongoing efforts to tighten immigration and border enforcement, which has already resulted in a tense standoff between the White House and Democrats in Congress.

The US government has been shut down for four weeks due to disagreement over Trumps $5.6 billion Mexican border wall project.

Activists seeking to provide aid to migrants have been convicted before. In 2009, a No More Deaths volunteer was found guilty of littering after leaving water jugs at the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, Arizona. However, charges such as these against aid groups and volunteers have, for the most part, been dismissed. Five more activists are still awaiting trials for similar activities in Cabeza Prieta.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!For the 10th week in a row, Yellow Vest protesters filled the streets of Paris and other cities in France, with thousands of police standing guard. Earlier, Emmanuel Macron launched his national debates on the crisis.

In what is being called Act 10 of the nationwide protests, the Yellow Vests gathered in French cities on Saturday. In Paris, they occupied the Champs-Elysees and the Esplanade des Invalides near the nations parliament. People were seen waving national flags and setting off firecrackers. Some protesters brought cardboard coffins, apparently in memory of the people who have died since the beginning of the protests (the majority was killed in traffic accidents during road blockades). They marched under a large banner reading Citizens in danger.

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The Yellow Vests processions began in Caen and Rouen, both in northern France. The rallies are planned in Bordeaux, La Rochelle, and Beziers, among other places.

The authorities deployed 5,000 police officers in Paris, and 80,000 nationwide, according to local media.

Armored police cars were filmed moving through the streets of the southern city of Toulouse. There were also reports of armored vehicles stationed in the capital.

The Yellow Vest protests began in November as a movement against planned fuel tax hikes, but eventually grew to include wider demands, including the resignation of President Emmanuel Macron and his government.

Previous rallies have seen violent clashes with police. There have been injuries on both sides, and over 1,000 people have been detained in connection to the unrest, which has at times spilled out into street battles.

Saturdays rallies take place days after President Emmanuel Macron launchedgrand national debates, a series of public discussions about the governments policies. He hopes the debates will help in reaching a compromise with the protesters, but many have expressed skepticism regarding the format and intentions. As a result, some protesters appeared with placards denouncing the debates as a scam.The function was chaired by Deputy Defence Minister Col Gen Phan Van Giang and attended by Lao Ambassador to Vietnam Thongsavanh Phomvihane and representatives of Vietnams military units and central agencies.

At the ceremony, Col Gen Phan Van Giang delivered a speech reciting the history of the Lao Peoples Army and the special friendly relations between the two countries and armies.

He stated that the relationship between the two armies is a valuable legacy that needs to be safeguarded and developed by the two countries generations of today and tomorrow.

The Vietnamese general emphasised that the two armies should forge closer cooperation in the future to prevent regional and global risks from affecting each countrys defence.

For his part, Lao Ambassador Thongsavanh Phomvihane stated that the anniversary ceremony is a vivid indication of the intimate relationship between the two armies.

He affirmed that the Lao people will never forget the sweat and blood that Vietnamese soldiers left on his countrys soil to build up this special relationship of solidarity and faithfulness.Support for abortion in Pennsylvania is growing, and Pennsylvanians agree that abortion should be accessible and provided without judgment or stigma. Despite this, abortion access could be curtailed because politicians believe they have the right to interfere in personal medical decisions.Wild also donated part of her pay to an organization in the 7th District that has been impacted by the shutdown: Turning Point of Lehigh Valley, which offers social services to abuse victims. Wild declined to say how much she donated, adding that she plans to do the same with other groups impacted by the shutdownin the district.Laws can be undone by the next administration, but changed hearts usually stay changed, she said. I dont rely on government. This is Gods work as far as Im concerned, and were here to show others him. You dont do that by screaming and yelling and being nasty. You do that by showing mercy and compassion to those who maybe dont at this time think like you do.Rambo doesnt remember too many details about that one, though she is sure no one stole any pies. By then, of course, she and her four sisters and two brothers and assorted cousins had a place at the grown-up table.I think were progressing as far as trusting city government. I think were progressing as far as the working relationship between City Council and the mayors office, OConnell said after the speech. I think were progressing because we have more and more people interested to come into the city, to live in the city, run a business in the city and to work and invest in the city.Shook, a retired attorney from Hawaii, is credited with sparking the movement by creating a Facebook event that went viral and snowballed into the massive Jan. 21, 2017, protest. In a Facebook post, she claimed Sarsour and Mallory, along with fellow organizers Bob Bland and Carmen Perez, had steered the movement away from its true course and called for all four to step down.* APPF-27 wraps up, adopting Siem Reap joint declaration

* Vietnamese NA pledges to share working experience with Laos

* NA Chairwoman meets Cambodian Senate President

* NA Chairwoman meets Cambodia Prime Minister

Reporter: The APPF-27 finalised its agenda after three days of working. How do you assess about the outcome of the meeting as well as the Vietnamese delegations contributions?

Nguyen Van Giau: The APPF-27 gathered 20 delegations, including three led by the chairpersons of the parliaments and another six led by the vice chairpersons. The Vietnamese contingent, headed by NA Chairwoman Ngan, attended the APPF-27 as the Chair of the APPF-26. The presence of NA Vice Chairman Uong Chu Luu and members of the NA Standing Committee showed that the Vietnamese NA supports Cambodia as the Chair of the APPF-27 and wishes to continue making practical, active and responsible contributions to the APPF.

NA Chairwoman Ngan delivered a keynote speech at the opening session of the APPF-27, in which she recalled the success of the APPF-26 in Hanoi, evaluated the implementation of the Hanoi Declaration and documents adopted at the APPF-26, and raised some issues for the APPF member parliaments to address in the time ahead. The most important and inclusive recommendation is to work closely together and consider all issues, regarding the economy, politics, culture, society, defence, security and development cooperation, in a comprehensive manner. Vietnam is willing to cooperate with the APPF member parliaments in building and maintaining an environment of peace, cooperation and development.

The Vietnamese NA leaders speech was warmly welcomed and highly appreciated by leaders of the participating delegations, especially concerning the spirit of facilitating the effective operation of the APPF and its practical contributions to the common development of the region and the world. In their meetings with NA Chairwoman Ngan, senior Cambodian leaders stated that her speech was of great significance, opening the success of the conference in the following days.

At the APPF-27, the Vietnamese delegation was actively, fully and responsibly engaged in all the working sessions, including the meeting of women parliamentarians and plenary sessions on political, security, economic and trade issues, and on regional cooperation in coping with climate change, mitigating disaster risks, and promoting cultural diversity and tourism in the region. This shows Vietnams sincere support for Cambodia to successfully organise the APPF-27, considering Cambodias success as a success for Vietnam and the friendship between the two countries.

During the annual meeting, participants set out pragmatic initiatives and long-term visions aiming to build the Asia-Pacific region of peace, stability, harmony and sustainable development, thus meeting the aspirations of the member countries. Through the plenary sessions and discussions, the leaders of parliaments and the Chair of the APPF-27 hailed peace as a foundation for the development of each nation, which was a topic throughout discussions of the APPF-27 and was realised by heads of delegations through resolutions and a joint statement.

Reporters: At the APPF-27, the Vietnamese NA co-sponsored two resolutions. What were the results of considering these two resolutions?

Nguyen Van Giau: The first resolution is on cooperation in developing cultural diversity and tourism, which suits both Vietnam and Cambodia as culture is an important foundation for development and the cooperation potential in terms of culture and tourism between the two sides still remains huge. Via the resolution, the two countries can jointly introduce such potential to international friends. The second resolution features the building of solid institutions to boost trade and inclusive development.

In general, the two resolutions co-sponsored by Vietnam received support from member countries without any opposition. A total of 43 draft resolutions were submitted to the APPF-27 in Siem Reap, and the conference adopted 14 of them. The two resolutions proposed by the Vietnamese side were both adopted with high consensus.

Reporter: During her APPF working trip, NA Chairman Ngan and the high-level delegation of the Vietnamese NA were involved in many important bilateral activities with the Cambodian and Lao leaders. What are the key contents of those meetings?

Nguyen Van Giau: The Vietnamese NA delegation followed up a busy schedule during their three days in Cambodia, not only participating in the sessions of the APPF-27 but also being involved in many activities on the sidelines, notably the meetings between NA Chairwoman Ngan with the Prime Minister, the President of the Senate and the President of the National Assembly of Cambodia, and the Chairwoman of the Lao National Assembly.

During the meetings, the Cambodian leaders highly appreciated the Vietnamese NA delegations presence at the APPF-27, which he said contributed to the common success of the conference. The home side also recalled that the two countries recently held a formal ceremony to celebrate 40 years since Vietnam rescued Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge genocidal regime.

In his opening remarks at the APPF-27, Cambodian PM Hun Sen expressed his gratitude to the Vietnamese Party, State, army and people for having rescued Cambodia from the genocidal regime and healing the war wounds. President of the Cambodian NA Heng Samrin delivered a touching statement that regardless of the worlds changes, the Vietnam-Cambodia friendship will never change. With such perspective, the two countries always attach importance to educating traditions to the younger generations, contributing to preserving friendship and solidarity between the two nations.

The meeting between the NA leaders of Vietnam and Laos also took place in a friendly and brotherly atmosphere. Lao NA Chairwoman Pany Yathotou highly appreciated the assistance Vietnam offered to the Lao side, especially through the exchange of experience, thereby helping the Lao NA to increasingly improve its working efficiency.

The APPF-27 participation is the first foreign trip of NA Chairwoman Ngan and the high-ranking delegation of the Vietnamese NA in 2019. The fine success of the overseas working tour promises a year of numerous foreign affairs success for the Vietnamese NA.

Reporter: Thank you very much!We are monitoring the situation and forecast closely and are balancing safety and operations with the impact to travel across the state, PennDOT Secretary Leslie S. Richards said in a news release. We will make decisions throughout the storm with safety as our top priority, but we will also adjust plans if conditions allow.The issue is rising to the surface now in particular because many shore rentals are locked up in January. The new tax law requires property owners who let out their homes, including vacation properties along the states roughly 130-mile coastline, to collect the tax from short-term renters. In many cases, this is affecting owners and renters who have long-standing arrangements, or who rent by word of mouth or via informal social media posts.Mankato, MN (56001)

Today

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 62F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 62F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph.Stunned relatives searched for signs of loved ones Saturday at the site of a gas pipeline that exploded in central Mexico as it was being illegally tapped, killing at least 73 people and injuring dozens more.

In a fire-blackened field near the town of Tlahuelilpan, people sorted through clothing, shoes and other items that those fleeing Fridays blast had torn off in a desperate bid to survive.

I came here in the night looking for my son, walking through charred bodies lying on the ground, said Martin Francisco Trejo Hernandez, 55. Some people were still alive, screaming in pain, screaming for help. I never imagined I would see such a sight.

His son, Martin Alfredo Trejo, the 34-year-old father of a 6-year-old girl, had not be been found.

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(Los Angeles Times)

The massive fire, which took authorities four hours to put out, came amid President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors controversial efforts to eliminate rampant fuel theft across the country. In recent weeks, Lopez Obrador has ordered thousands of troops and police to guard pipelines, some of which have been temporarily closed so that breaches may be repaired. The president has accused fuel thieves  known here as huachicoleros  of sabotaging fuel lines in a bid to thwart the government crackdown.

The blast exposed both the inherent risks of fuel theft, which has caused large blasts in the past, and how rampant the practice has become. It also represented a new political crisis for Lopez Obrador, whose efforts to stop fuel theft have prompted anger because they have created gas shortages around the country.

Residents of Tlahuelilpan who were at the blast site on Saturday acknowledged that the siphoning of gasoline from pipelines had become commonplace.

In these towns, we all have a relative or friend who is dedicated to this, said Jesus Cesar Vera Velazquez, 43. But they do it out of necessity, because of hunger. Theres no work here, and people earn very little farming.

Here, even the mayor protects huachicol [black-market gasoline], said Ruben Cruz, 51, a farmer. Authorities here receive money from huachicol. It pays very well and its an opportunity to have some money, enjoy a better life.

Pemex chief executive Octavio Romero Oropeza said the pipeline where the explosion occurred had been subject to at least 10 breaches in the past three months.

The first 911 call reporting the breach on Friday came in just after 5 p.m., authorities said.

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Soon, as many as 800 people had converged on the site to gather gasoline, which gushed like a geyser from the ruptured pipeline more than 20 feet into the air, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, Mexicos defense secretary, told reporters Saturday.

Videos showed children and families at the site as men hauled jerrycans of fuel away, with some gatherers saturated with the flowing fuel.

Around 7 p.m., something triggered a massive explosion. In such a volatile environment, any form of friction  even from clothing  could have ignited the vapors, according to authorities on the scene.

Videos of the blast showed people engulfed in flames screaming as they ran from the fire, and badly burned victims whose clothes appeared to have been seared off by flames. At least 74 people were hospitalized, according to Omar Fayad, governor of Hidalgo state. Officials said many of them were in critical condition.

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Videos taken before the blast showed soldiers standing around the scene who did not appear to make efforts to disperse the mob.

Cresencio, the defense secretary, sought to justify the militarys actions, saying the small number of soldiers had been unable to deter a sometimes aggressive crowd. On previous occasions, Cresencio noted, people collecting black-market gasoline from ruptured fuel lines have attacked soldiers and police.

Lopez Obrador toured the blast site Saturday. At a news conference, he vowed only to intensify his efforts to combat fuel thieves.

We have to continue with the plan to end the robbery of fuel, Lopez Obrador told reporters. We are not going to stop  we are going to eradicate this.

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Fridays blast intensified the already heated debate over the presidents efforts to end what he calls the scourge of fuel theft, an illicit industry that has grown in recent years and is controlled by some of the countrys most powerful and violent criminal groups.

The president, a leftist populist elected last year on an anti-corruption platform, has complained that fuel theft costs Mexico $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion annually. Members of the military and Pemex, Mexicos state-owned petroleum company, have been accused of taking bribes to look the other way as thieves drill into pipes and resell the fuel on the black market.

Lopez Obradors efforts to divert fuel from pipelines frequently targeted by thieves and transport more fuel by tanker truck have sparked shortages around the country, with hours-long wait times at some pumping stations.

Critics of the president say his plan has been poorly executed and is unrealistic, as unlikely to succeed as former President Felipe Calderons 2006 decision to put soldiers on the streets to do away with drug cartels, a strategy that increased violence nationwide, leading to tens of thousands of deaths, while failing to diminish the drug trade.

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Some blamed Lopez Obrador for Fridays explosion. Trending Saturday on Twitter was a hashtag that referred to the president an assassin.

Others defended the president, saying the pipeline tragedy simply underscored the risks of fuel theft.

The huachicoleros are murderers, tweeted Epigmenio Ibarra, a well-known television producer and vocal supporter of the president. They will not go unpunished, he said. They will not be able to defeat Lopez Obrador.

The president expressed sympathy for people in towns and rural areas that have come to rely on the illegal fuel trade. Many, he said, had no alternatives because of the widespread poverty and lack of opportunity in their regions.

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The president said he would visit the pipeline zones in the coming days and outline an alternate economic development plan, including low-interest loans, for them.

At the scene of the blast, some angry relatives of the missing expressed outrage at the presidents plan. Others staggered around in a profound sense of shock and mourning.

Gloria Lopez de la Cruz, 38, said she was looking for her husband, Porfirio Hernandez, 40.

I cant find him anywhere. He is not in any of the hospitals or listed among the dead, said De la Cruz, who could not hold back tears.

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Her brother-in-law survived with burns and was in a hospital, added De la Cruz, who said she regretted not having stopped her husband from visiting the pipeline the night before. Hernandez went to see what was happening out of curiosity after seeing people carrying plastic jugs filled with gasoline, she said.

I should never have allowed him to come, she said. Now I am full of regrets.

The fields through which the pipeline courses displayed evidence of the disaster. The ditch marking the pipeline route was scorched on both sides. Murky gasoline pooled at various spots, posing an ongoing hazard. Pemex crews were there, working to fix the duct and remove leaked gasoline.

In a corner of an alfalfa field was evidence of the desperate attempted escape of two people, a man and a women.

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His burned and grimy jeans were heaped on one pile; still attached was a leather belt with a silver-toned buckle, embossed with the image of a horse.

A few feet away lay the seared and melted remains of a womans blouse or dress and underwear. Both had apparently tossed off their burning garments in panic as they hastened to escape the fiery holocaust.

Whether either survived was not clear.

McDonnell reported from Tlahuelilpan and Linthicum from Mexico City. Cecilia Sanchez of The Times Mexico City bureau and special correspondent Liliana Nieto del Rio contributed to this report.At the meeting, the ministers adopted a joint statement affirming the determination to fully enforce the CPTPP in support of trade liberalisation, setting high and fair standards for trading activities in the 21st century as well as fostering economic growth and bringing about benefits to both people and enterprises.

They also approved four important decisions, covering the CPTPP Commissions operation mechanism; the process, procedures and conditions for consideration and admission of new members; the process and procedures of the arbitral tribunal related to state-to-state settlement of disputes; and a code of conduct for arbitrators related to the settlement of disputes between an investor and a state.

In his opening remarks, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe affirmed that the member states are determined to do their utmost to ensure the CPTPP plays a leading role in trade liberalisation in the context of rising protectionism.

He said that the CPTPP remains open for any nation and territory which wants to join a high-quality agreement.

In an interview, Minister Tran Tuan Anh said that commitments are being implemented in an active, serious and full manner in the initial phase thanks to thorough preparations of the member states.

He voiced his belief that they will enforce the agreement effectively to bring about practical benefits to both people and enterprises.

According to him, three challenges facing Vietnam are pressure during the enforcement process; increasing competitiveness and capital in not only goods but also services; and measures to bring into full play opportunities brought by the CPTPP.

Koichi Ishikawa, a professor from the Institute of Asian Studies under the Asia University, said that the deal will help increase Vietnams exports of garments and textiles, footwear, farm produce, seafood and food to other member states.

He noted that the countrys supporting industry will face several difficulties, as Vietnam depends much on imported machines and equipment.

The CPTPP officially came into force on December 30, 2018 in Mexico, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia, the first six countries to ratify the pact. The agreement took effect in Vietnam on January 14, 2019.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.At least 21 people were killed and 71 others injured Friday when an explosion occurred in Mexicos central Hidalgo state at a fuel pipeline that had been illegally tapped, authorities said.

The fatal blast came as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has sent thousands of troops and police to guard pipelines as part of a major effort to eliminate rampant fuel theft. The president has also accused fuel thieves  known here as huachicoleros  of sabotaging fuel lines in a bid to thwart the government crackdown.

Lopez Obrador rushed to the scene in the early morning hours and said the tragedy would not alter his crackdown on fuel theft.

Images circulating on social media and on television showed horrific scenes of what appeared to be calcified bodies and badly burned victims whose clothes had been seared off at the site of the explosion  a rural zone in the town of Tlahuelilpan, 75 miles north of Mexico City.

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Some victims had burns over 40% to 90% of their bodies, officials reported.

2019-01-18: Video of moment of the #Tlahuelilpan explosion as dozens illegally siphoned gasoline from a Pemex pipeline due to gas shortage hysteria currently besieging Mexico and being exploited by #huachicoleros. pic.twitter.com/vwoAJEh3B9  Malditoperro (@malditoperromx) January 19, 2019

Residents had descended on the rural site about 5 p.m. with containers to collect gasoline gushing from the perforated pipeline, according to cellphone images circulating on Mexican media. The ruptured line burst into flame about 7 p.m., authorities said, as many people were still at the site seeking to collect free fuel.

It was not immediately clear what sparked the explosion. Footage aired on Mexican TV showed people running and screaming for help as flames shot from the ruptured pipeline. Firefighters were still trying to douse the remnants of the fire some five hours later.

In the evening, distraught residents were making the rounds of hospitals, seeking relatives who had been whisked away in ambulances and helicopters.

Fuel theft has been a problem in Mexico for decades but has increased in recent years, authorities say, as drug cartels have moved into the lucrative business. The thieves tap into pipelines, siphon off the fuel and sell it on the black market. The huachicoleros have an extensive network of trucks and storage facilities, a broad distribution system and knowledge of how to tap into high-pressure pipelines. The black-market gasoline is often sold openly on streets and along roadsides.

Aiding the fuel thieves, authorities here say, are corrupt police, local politicians and representatives and contractors of Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, the national energy company. Fuel theft cost Pemex some $3 billion last year, Lopez Obrador said.

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In recent weeks, the president has deployed about 10,000 troops and federal police to guard hundreds of miles of vulnerable fuel pipelines, many in remote areas. The government has periodically shut down much of the pipeline system as part of its anti-theft operation, leading to major shortages of gasoline at the pump.

I greatly lament the grave situation that Tlahuelilpan is suffering, Lopez Obrador said Friday in a Twitter message.

The president called the problem a scourge and vowed to eliminate it. Last year, Pemex detected more than 12,000 illegal perforations of pipelines, authorities said.

The black-market tapping of fuel from pipelines provides a living for many rural communities, where residents have resisted enforcement efforts. Fuel thieves occasionally engage in shootouts with police and military units.

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Fridays explosion is not the first such tragedy in Mexico. In 2010, 29 people in the state of Puebla were killed at an explosion at a pipeline that had also been illegally tapped.

McDonnell is a Times staff writer and Sanchez a special correspondent in The Times Mexico City bureau. Special Correspondent Liliana Nieto del Rio in Mexico City also contributed.Just when it appeared the posse tracking him hard through the desert was about to round him up, Phil Mickelson figured out a way to keep his pursuers at least another days ride behind him.

Mickelson birdied four of his last five holes Friday in the second round of the Desert Classic, making up for a meandering start that included a double bogey on his ninth hole. His four-under-par 68 at the Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West in La Quinta left him at 16 under after two rounds and with a two-stroke lead heading into the weekend.

I finished strong  and so I turned a round that was not very good into a respectable round, Mickelson said.

Surprising rookie Curtis Luck of Australia shot 66 on the Nicklaus course and is two shots behind Mickelson after a calm, sunny day in the desert that was ideal for low scores and high hopes.

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Adam Hadwin, the Canadian who shot 59 in this tournament two years ago, is at 13 under after a 66 at La Quinta Country Club. He tied for third last year, was second in 2017 and tied for sixth three years ago.

Never given to overstatement, Hadwin said, Ive been doing OK the last couple years here.

He is joined by journeyman Steve Marino, who, after a 65 at La Quinta that featured a four-hole stretch of birdie-birdie-birdie-hole in one, is hoping to get his first victory on tour in his 222nd start.

Three players are at 12 under, three at 11 under and a pack of 10 at 10 under. The way these courses give up birdies, any player among them can make a significant charge.

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Among the close challengers to Mickelson is defending champion Jon Rahm, who is four back after a 66 on the Nicklaus course. Hes trying to become the first repeat winner in the tournament since Johnny Miller in 1976.

Its difficult to defend, Rahm said, because you need to shoot very low every single time you play here.

Still, hes looking forward to his closing rounds on the Stadium course, where he won in a four-hole playoff last year.

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Fridays average scores on the par-72 layouts were 68.4 at La Quinta, 68.6 at Nicklaus and 70.2 at the Stadium, which show why Mickelson, even par in his first nine holes, actually was backing up. After needing only 21 putts Thursday, Mickelson couldnt find his stroke Friday until the 14th hole. He rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt there, and followed it with three more in the next four holes.

When I made one, I started to see the ball go in the hole, and I made a few more, he said. So I just needed one little spark and finally got it.

He had run so many putts over the edges Friday that on his 13th hole, the par-five fourth, he left the flagstick in the cup as he putted, as playing partner Aaron Wise has been doing this week. His birdie putt missed.

It felt very uncomfortable, Mickelson said. I dont think Ill do that again.

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Mickelson suddenly became catchable on the 18th hole, his ninth, when his second shot from a sidehill lie in the rough ended up in the water guarding the right side of the hole. Once he missed his six-foot par put, he had dropped to even par for the day, and his lead had shrunk to a shot.

It really wasnt as hard a shot as I made it look, he said of the iron into the hazard. But thats been the only hole I played over par this week, so I cant complain too much.

Mickelson will play his third and fourth rounds on the Stadium course, the most difficult of the three in the rotation. The weather is expected to be similar to Fridays, a far cry from the drizzly, cool weather in the first round.

You get nice weather out there and you hit some good shots, you can make birdie, Mickelson said. I feel its a course you can take advantage of, but the penalty for a miss is greater, so you just have to play a little bit better to shoot the same score.

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Everyone in the pack chasing Mickelson knows that. Avoid the deep bunkers, keep the ball dry, you might just catch the guy who has figured out the escape routes so far.In 1976, as a western civilization major at UC Santa Cruz, I was finishing my senior thesis on Gibbons Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, when I spotted a notice in the college office, announcing a new paralegal program at the University of San Diego.

With no clear after-college plans, I told myself the three-month graduate certificate program was a logical extension of my foray into 18th century property law, not to mention a path toward interesting employment, so I applied. A few months later, civil litigation certificate in hand, I sat in the lobby of Seltzer Caplan Wilkins & McMahon, a San Diego law firm, awaiting my interview with Gerald L. McMahon.

Jerry McMahon  GLM to me  died last Christmas Eve, a year after the stroke that put an end to his 54-year law career. My husband and I drove to La Jolla last week for his memorial service. No way did I want to miss the gathering for the man with whom I was so lucky to work as a young adult.

Not only was GLM an exceptional attorney, he was a great boss. Since the day he hired me, and 38 years since I left the firm to marry and move to Glendale, Ive been thankful for the opportunity I had to work alongside a man whose skills and habits became legend in San Diego and beyond.

More recently, with a focus on career education, Ive thought anew about the value of really good work experience. If I taught a career preparation class, Id start with lessons I learned in that job. If I were a boss, Id try to be like GLM.

First lesson: Where you go to school and how well you do there makes a difference, but you dont have to go to Harvard or Stanford. I got the interview because Id done well at the school from which the firm customarily hired. GLM had graduated summa cum laude from the University of San Diegos law school after graduating from the University of Southern California as the top graduating senior and serving three years as a Navy pilot aboard the USS Hornet.

I learned in the interview the importance of considering ones fit with a companys culture. It wasnt just his judgment that mattered to him; he asked me to consider my own. Noting my affiliation with UC Santa Cruz, a school with a liberal reputation, he asked if Id be comfortable working on behalf of landlords rather than tenants, farmers rather than farmworkers.

In one of the better on-the-spot answers of my life, I replied, I think Ill be fine, so long as I respect the work were doing and the people with whom Im working.

The next week, I happily walked to my new job, only to find myself unexpectedly handling the desk  and bewildering phone  of GLMs secretary, whod just been injured in a car accident. The fact that he didnt fire me after the first two botched phone calls was a lesson in grace: an unmerited gift of patience. The fact that I didnt complain about doing a job I didnt apply for likely didnt hurt my probationary period either.

Working at that desk for my first two weeks gave me valuable insight into how the office operated, how he managed his time and how he worked. I learned to take accurate messages and confidently assure callers he would get back to them by days end. He was faithful in returning those calls. Id see him on his phone at lunch and at the end of every day, a practice that kept his clients happy and saved him from days of continuous interruption.

He also worked a lot. If he wasnt in court or meeting elsewhere with a client, he was in the office from 8 a.m. until he went home to dinner close to 6 p.m. He was at the office most Saturday mornings, too.

It didnt take me long to appreciate the talents of a really good editor and writer. I can still see his sympathetic smile as his red pen swept through a line of my first case summary. No passive voice, he instructed, as he pointed to the little style guide he kept on his shelf. He insisted on accuracy, clarity and adherence to legal procedure.

I still have the note I wrote in 1979: GLM says  three parts to a motion: (1) what youre asking; (2) legal grounds; (3) documents on which [the motion is] based. I referenced that note a few times in my years on the school board, when we were wrestling with difficult issues.

I could say a lot more about lessons learned, but Ill close with a note I received from my friend and former colleague Marie, who reported to GLMs partner, Bob Caplan.

I remember one time when a client was standing in front of my desk shouting at me because of some perceived lack of attention by Bob Caplan, according to the note. Jerry McMahon came out from his office a few doors down and read our client the riot act. He was a very important client, but that didnt stop McMahon from defending Caplan and me. Ill never forget what he did.

In this era of me, too stories of workplace bullying and disrespect, we were lucky to know how it felt to be respected and protected by an employer.

I hope in a future column to write about the unusual path that took the 9-year-old Jerry McMahon from Youngstown, Ohio, to Los Angeles, in the shadow of Temple Hospital as he put it, and from there to the home of a wealthy Glendale couple willing to pay for a live-in companion for their son. That part of GLMs remarkable story reads more like Great Expectations than Gibbons Decline and Fall.

Joylene Wagner is a past member of the Glendale Unified school board, from 2005 to 2013, and currently serves on the boards of Glendale Educational Foundation and other nonprofit organizations. Email her at jkate4400@aol.com.No pet store in California can sell dogs, cats or rabbits from breeding mills under a new state law a Laguna Beach animal activist sponsored.

Judie Mancuso campaigned for the legislation in cities across the state before taking it to Sacramento in 2015 with a pitch to Assemblyman Patrick ODonnell (D-Long Beach).

Then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill, AB 485, into law in 2017, but it didnt take effect until this month to allow businesses to shift to the new model, said Mancuso, who ran unsuccessfully for Laguna Beach City Council last year.

The purpose of the law, she said, is to cut off demand for animals bred by mills in the Midwest. Many of those animals end up in California shelters, she said, and dogs, cats and rabbits are the most common types in stores.

A pet store operator who violates the law would be fined $500 for each non-rescue animal in the store.

Bringing these animals in from out of state, its just propagating [the] pet overpopulation problem and adding numbers, lots of big numbers, to the pet population and then causing this burden on our state, said Mancuso, founder and chief executive of the 12-year-old organization Social Compassion in Legislation. Taxpayers are the ones that pick up the tab. We pay for these animals to be sitting in shelters.

Another reason to limit the number of animals coming from breeding facilities is the condition of some commercial breeding mills, Mancuso said. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals website contends that some breeders cram animals together in cages, dont provide routine veterinary checkups and overbreed female animals.

Animals are often without adequate food, water, socialization or veterinary care. As a result, the animals face an array of health problems, ODonnell said on the Assembly floor when the bill passed the chamber in 2017. Because pet stores are several steps removed from the breeding of the animals they sell, store owners rarely know the conditions of their animals.

Some people have voiced concerns that the law will take too many pets out of the commercial system, but Mancuso said the problem of overpopulation needs to be solved first.

It would be best, ethically and morally, to get all the unwanted animals that are already here a home instead of ... shipping in tens of thousands, she said.

The law does not prohibit people from buying animals directly from breeders or from breeding pets personally, depending on local laws, Mancuso said.

If somebody wants a purebred, then its up to them to find one thats coming from a good place, said Mancuso, who just finished her second term as a member of the states Veterinary Medical Board.

California is the first state to make the ban a statewide requirement. In 2012, Los Angeles became the largest city in the country to approve such a ban.

At that laws three-year review mark, Mancuso said, the number of shelter animals being put to death had decreased. She took the Los Angeles law as her cue to lobby the state to follow suit.

This is a big win for our four-legged friends, of course, ODonnell said in a statement. But also for California taxpayers who spend more than $250 million annually to house and euthanize animals in our shelters.

By the time the state law passed, at least 36 local jurisdictions around California already had ordinances banning the sale of certain mill-bred animals at pet stores, according to Social Compassion in Legislation.

Laguna Beach passed an ordinance in 2012 prohibiting the retail sale of dogs and cats, though the city hasnt had a retail pet store since before that regulation.

In animal services, our mission is also to look out for the welfare of animals, so we thought it fit with the values of Laguna Beach, said Jim Beres, the Laguna Beach Police Departments civilian services administrator. Judie had the right goal  to get legislation passed at the state. It usually starts at the local level.

Mancuso said Social Compassion in Legislation has secured authors in the state Legislature for 12 new bills, including one that would require that every dog or cat leaving a shelter be microchipped for tracking purposes.

Brown signed another bill supported by Mancusos organization last year that will prohibit the sale of cosmetics tested on animals, effective in 2020.

The group also advocated for a bill passed in 2014 allowing restaurants to open their outdoor dining areas to pet dogs.

In addition to her work with Social Compassion in Legislation, Mancuso created a specialty pet lovers license plate with the state Department of Motor Vehicles to raise money for free and low-cost spay and neuter services statewide.

Social Compassion in Legislation plans a soiree on Saturday in West Hollywood to celebrate its accomplishments in 2018.Costa Mesa leaders and community organizations are rallying around 21 people in six families who were displaced after authorities deemed their apartment building unsafe after a fire, officials said.

Some of them have lost pretty much everything, said Costa Mesa Councilwoman Sandy Genis.

The Fire Department responded to the blaze in an upper-level unit of a two-story apartment building in the 700 block of West 18th Street at about 11:30 a.m. Jan. 11, department spokesman Joe Noceti said.

The fire damaged that apartment and caused heavy water damage to the unit below, the Fire Department said. The cause of the fire is under investigation, officials said.

Inspectors determined the six-unit building was no longer safe for occupancy because of fire, smoke and water damage and potential structural problems, Noceti said.

The residents of the apartment where the blaze started received help through the California Fire Foundations Supplying Aid to Victims of Emergency program, or SAVE, which provides a prepaid debit card worth $250, Noceti said.

Costa Mesa-based Fresh Beginnings Ministries helped coordinate temporary shelter for families who didnt have friends or relatives who could take them in right away.

I was able to find a place for three of the families that did not have a place to go, said Bill Nelson, executive director of Fresh Beginnings.

The nonprofit arranged for those families to stay in hotels while Fresh Beginnings worked to find longer-term accommodations, said Nelson, who also is an outreach worker for the city of Costa Mesa.

The three families placed in hotels moved out Friday, Nelson said. One moved into Pathways of Hope in Fullerton, which provides housing for homeless families, Nelson said.

The other families have made arrangements to stay with relatives while they wait the anticipated six to eight months until the apartment building can be occupied again, Nelson said.

The Daily Pilot was unable to reach members of the families for comment.

Having helped many families in similar circumstances, Nelson said he is sensitive to their concerns.

Moms and dads are worried about the security of their kids, he said. Once they see they have support and know theyre not alone, they stand up and take the reins.

The families children have been able to keep up their school attendance while they await repairs to the apartment building, Nelson said.

There are children ranging from  a new baby to teenage kids, Genis said. So wherever your heart lies, please help.

Fresh Beginnings Ministries is collecting donations for the affected families and taking their requests to fill needs. The organization will share the solicited items on Facebook as well as its website, Nelson said.

For more information and to donate, visit freshbeginningsministries.com.

UPDATES:

This article was originally published at 6:05 p.m. and was later updated with additional information.Organizers of an upcoming event will have to wait a few more weeks to see if Burbank officials will waive permit costs.

The Burbank City Council voted 4-0 on Tuesday to table discussion about whether the city should sponsor an event called We Are Women + until Mayor Emily Gabel-Luddy, who was absent that evening, returns for the next council meeting on Jan. 29.

We Are Women + is expected to be a new, free event created by resident Katie Ward, who was involved in the Womens March in Burbank last year. It is scheduled to be held at Memorial Field at John Burroughs High School on March 9.

Ward said the event is designed to raise awareness about more than womens issues, which will be the focus of marches scheduled across the country this weekend. The local event is expected to feature speakers from the LGBTQ community, those with disabilities, various religious groups and other marginalized people.

While past womens marches have been held along the Chandler Bike Path, Ward said she talked with city officials, and they recommended renting Memorial Field for her event, which is estimated to bring in 2,000 to 3,000 people that day.

Ward approached the City Council during its Jan. 8 meeting, asking that the $1,250 fee the Burbank Unified School District charges groups to use the field be waived and for the city to sponsor the event.

Although council members were in support of having an inclusive event like We Are Women +, city manager Ron Davis cautioned that the city would still need to pay for public-safety costs.

He said Police Chief Scott LaChasse estimated that an event of that scale would need one supervisor and four officers who would each need to be paid $137 an hour.

Davis said costs would increase if Ward is able to have Sen. Kamala Harris of California be the keynote speaker at the event.

Although public safety costs could be expensive, Councilman Tim Murphy said he was in support of waiving the permit fee and having the city sponsor the event.

This, to me, is an all-inclusive grassroots event to give people a chance to talk about a number of things, he said. Im very concerned about the way the rhetoric is going in this country. Im concerned about people being marginalized  Id be very happy to see different voices talk about things.

However, council members Jess Talamantes and Bob Frutos said they did not support the city fronting the total costs charged by Burbank Unified.

Talamantes argued that the city and school district should split the cost instead of having the city pay for everything.

To see if there can be some cooperation between the city and school district , the City Council voted to have Gabel-Luddy meet with Roberta Reynolds, school board president, to discuss a possible partnership.

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpioThree years after he went to prison following a political corruption scandal, former state Sen. Ronald Calderon completed his sentence and was released from a halfway house Friday, ending a dark chapter in the history of the California Legislature that ended with four ex-lawmakers behind bars.

The Calderon case, related money laundering charges against his brother, former Assemblyman Tom Calderon, the unrelated corruption conviction of former state Sen. Leland Yee, and the conviction of former Sen. Roderick D. Wright for voter fraud and perjury sparked calls for reform. But it did not significantly change the culture in the California Legislature, some observers say.

Besides being the butt of a few late-night comedy jokes, the reality is that the Calderon scandal served only to deepen peoples mistrust of politicians and led to a few reform bills that were quietly killed, said Kathryn Phillips, a spokeswoman for California Common Cause.

Once the most powerful member of a political dynasty from the San Gabriel Valley, Ronald Calderon was sentenced to 3 years in federal prison in 2016. The Democrat from Montebello admitted in a plea deal that he had accepted tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from undercover FBI agents and a hospital executive in return for official favors.

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Calderon, 61, went to prison shortly after his brother, Tom Calderon, was sentenced to a shorter prison term as part of a plea deal in which he admitted laundering bribes taken by his brother Ronald.

Its been very hard on everybody, Tom Calderon said Friday. Its not easy out there. You have to do whatever it takes to reinvent yourself and make a living for yourself.

While Tom Calderon said he has retired since his release after serving four months of a prison sentence, his brother has posted on the Internet that he has obtained a job in business development for a security company. The two have not talked for months, Tom Calderon said.

Ronald Calderon could not be reached for comment, but his attorney, Mark Geragos, said Saturday that hes doing spectacular.

A third brother, former Assemblyman Charles Calderon, was not implicated in the corruption scandal. Ian Calderon, who is Ronalds nephew, is a state assemblyman elected in 2012 who also was not alleged to have any part in any illegal scheme.

Ronald Calderon was released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Sheridan, Ore., last July after serving 2 years behind bars, and transferred to a halfway house in the Long Beach area to serve the rest of his sentence under supervision before being released Friday.

Federal prison officials did not immediately respond to questions about why Ronald Calderon was allowed to transfer to the halfway house and leave early. A judge in the case had recommended early release.

At his 2016 sentencing in Los Angeles, Ronald Calderon said he did not intend to break the law, but added: My reputation is destroyed.

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Prosecutors had asked for a five-year sentence.

Mr. Calderon betrayed the public trust, then-U.S. Atty. Eileen Decker said at the time. A basic premise of our society is that elected officials will not exchange their votes for monetary gain and thats what Mr. Calderon did.

Months earlier in 2016, Yee, a San Francisco Democrat, was sentenced to five years in prison for doing political favors in exchange for campaign cash in a separate federal corruption case. In 2014, the same year that Yee and Ronald Calderon were arrested, Wright, a Democrat from Inglewood, was sentenced to jail after he was convicted of eight felony counts, including perjury and voting fraud, for lying about living in his state Senate district.

Former Gov. Jerry Brown issued a pardon to Wright last month.

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One result of the corruption scandals was the approval by California voters of Proposition 50, which gave the Senate and Assembly the power to suspend members without pay for misconduct. The 2016 initiative passed with 75.6% of the vote.

But other reform measures stalled, including one vetoed by Brown that would have banned gifts from lobbyists, reduced the value of gifts that could be accepted by lawmakers and prohibited them from accepting tickets to professional sporting events, concerts and amusement parks.

Phillips said the Legislature still needs to alter the way it does business.

To change this system, we have to be willing to say no, not only to the most outrageous acts, but to the everyday, special access that moneyed interests have to elected officials, she said.

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Coverage of California politics 

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

Twitter: @mcgreevy99Before more than 30,000 educators in the Los Angeles Unified School District began their strike Tuesday, almost all of the letters we received on the impasse between United Teachers Los Angeles and the LAUSD expressed support for teachers (in fact, many of the letters were from teachers).

Now, with the walkout having lasted nearly a full school week, readers are getting impatient  both with the school district and, increasingly, with the teachers. Most of the letters we received this week still sided with UTLA and the broader movement calling for greater spending on public education, but the voices demanding an end to the strike and criticizing the union have grown in both number and stridency.

Arthur Christopher Schaper of Torrance is harshly critical of teachers with an agenda:

An L.A. Times article asked which side will come out from this strike stronger  teachers or the district?

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There are two answers; the first is neither.

The district is losing money as more families leave the region because of high costs, crime and declining education quality. The teachers union is politicizing education, and no matter how this strike ends, the district will continue to lose students and funding.

The second answer: Everyone will benefit in the long run. Students who spend less time in L.A. schools will avoid left-wing indoctrination. The bloated, top-heavy district may finally get shuttered, and students will have an opportunity to attend better charter schools.

Alan L. Strzemieczny of Riverside does not buy arguments about class size:

Who among the working parents would turn down a 6% annual pay raise? This bump, along with generous medical and retirement benefits, is a dream that most workers do not realize.

And class size? Recently, I found my third-grade class picture taken in the 1950s. There were two teachers and 67 students. Somehow the instructors were able to teach us reading, writing and math, and they still had time left over for songs and recess. Our Chicago school sent qualified students to high school, and many of us graduated college.

The problem isnt class size, its inferior teaching skills. It isnt salary and benefits, its union leaders who convince their members that the districts offers were not good enough.

Los Angeles resident Nanci Leonard writes about teaching larger classes:

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After almost 40 years teaching English at four public high schools, I understood that the one key variable among the hundreds of classes that I taught was size.

When I began my career, my classes had up to 30 students. When I retired, it was up to 43 students. No matter how prepared, enthusiastic and devoted I was, I was never able to connect with every student in every class.

Smaller classes are essential to better teaching and learning.

A handful of readers made a point similar to Ellen Solomon of West Hills:

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Forget putting the blame on Proposition 13. I thought the lottery was going to solve schools money problems.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and FacebookTo the editor: President Trumps wall along the U.S.-Mexico border would be the biggest boondoggle in the history of boondoggles. This monument to bigotry would have a negligible effect on illegal immigration, despite claims from the presidents most ardent supporters that our countrys very survival depends on having a wall.

Our nation has vested immense power in the presidency, so Trump is able to inflict great pain upon our country and economy. He has taken hostages and is not treating them well. He has made it clear that there are no limits to the pain and suffering he would inflict on the hostages, and that he is willing to bring down the economy if his demands are not met.

Democrats can end the suffering by giving Trump the $5.7 billion he wants to start building his wall. This is a small price to pay to free the millions of innocent hostages whose lives are being needlessly disrupted.

I beg you, congressional Democrats, give Trump his wall. We can wait until he is no longer president to halt this absurd project.

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Louis Mandris, Upland

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To the editor: One of the heavy ironies of the government shutdown is that the Coast Guard officers who patrol the border wall, which extends into the Pacific Ocean, are not being paid.

After my husband and I purchased a boat in Mexico, we took it for a ride off the coast of San Diego. Suddenly, we heard a loud voice telling us that we were about to be boarded.

Minutes later, a small boat containing several Coast Guardsmen roared up. The service members were polite and professional. They searched our boat thoroughly. Had we been guilty of anything, I would have been on the floor with outspread arms in a second.

Real security is far more complex than a physical wall. It is human beings who truly protect us, and it is time for us to honor our commitment to them.

Rachael Lehmberg, Seal Beach

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To the editor: All parties are responsible for this partial government shutdown.

Congress knows when it must pass a budget, but time and again it waits until it reaches a crisis point. If leaders in the private sector acted this way, they would be fired, which is what should happen to everyone in both houses of Congress.

Shame on all members of Congress and the president. This is not how Americans want the world to see how we are making America great again.

Tony and Joyce Elia, Mission Viejo

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To the editor: The round of tit for tat between Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) is laughable.

Still, everyone must understand that this level of government paralysis is extremely dangerous. The dysfunction emboldens our enemies and increases the likelihood of a major miscalculation as to our ability to respond to aggression.

The Cuban missile crisis was an Armageddon near-miss. Just imagine if we were to face a similar threat now.

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Nicholas LaTerza, Calabasas

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To the editor: I am as liberal as the next person, but I am very disappointed by Pelosis call to postpone Trumps State of the Union address.

This transparent political ploy will feed Trumps Twitter mill, creating a needless diversion from the real and horrifying problems raised by the shutdown.

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Pelosi and her allies, as well as the others in Washington, should be focused on finding an end to this disaster, which is affecting all Americans, rather than playing politics while Rome is burning.

Michael Werner, Pasadena

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and FacebookThe Deputy PM made the statement while attending a meeting, organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (Amcham)s Hanoi chapter in the capital city on January 18, to celebrate 25 years of the normalisation of the Vietnam-US trade relations, and the 25th founding anniversary of Amcham in Vietnam.

At the meeting, he affirmed that the normalisation and development of Vietnam-US relations have resulted in great interest for the people of the two nations, contributing to regional and international peace, stability, cooperation, and growth.

In the past 25 years, two-way trade surged nearly 120 times, from US$450 million in 1994 to more than US$60 billion in 2018. The US has been Vietnams largest export market for several consecutive years.

Investment from the US has greatly contributed to Vietnams development. The activities of GE, Microsoft, IBM, Nike, ExxonMobil, and other US firms, have helped Vietnam earn and sustain a foothold in the global value chain, Hue noted.

Speaking highly of Amchams achievements over the last 25 years, he voiced his hope that Amcham will continue to serve as a bridge connecting the two nations, thereby deepening and bringing the Vietnam-US comprehensive partnership to a new height.

Chairwoman of the 2019 Amcham Board of Governors Natasha Ansell said the normalisation of Vietnam-US relations have opened up opportunities for US enterprises and investors to develop in Vietnams market.

On the occasion, she revealed that a new programme titled Amcham Academy for High Potential Talent will be launched to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the organisation.

The programme is hoped to offer chances to learn and connect to young Vietnamese leaders, as part of Amchams commitment to creating sustainable socio-economic values for Vietnam, Ansell said.To the editor: Columnist Jonah Goldberg listed several of President Trumps suspicious actions related to Russia while at the same time suggesting that they could have an innocent explanation.

Is Goldberg not aware that lying about or hiding something is evidence of consciousness of guilt? Trump repeatedly denied having any business dealings with Russia, while we now know that his company was pursuing a building project in Moscow deep into the 2016 campaign.

We recently learned that Trump reportedly confiscated his translators notes from a meeting he had with his Russian counterpart. Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, knows what was said, and he knows that Trump is keeping that information from the American people, which gives him leverage over the president.

Furthermore, Trump has advocated pulling out of Syria and has reportedly wanted to pull the U.S. out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The president may not have intended to become an asset of Russia, but almost everything he has said and done has put him in Putins pocket.

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Dorothy Gravino, Los Angeles

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To the editor: All we can do at this point is speculate about whether or not Trump is an asset of the Russians. The New York Times article that Goldberg cites is based on solid evidence, but according to him it is both understandable and outrageous.

What I find objectionable is Goldbergs assertion that this could all be explained away by Trumps incompetence and petulance. The behavior of our president should not be tolerated by the people in Washington who are supposed to exercise oversight.

Trump is one of the most powerful leaders on the planet. He threatens our security by embracing autocrats like Putin and rejecting our allies. The real national emergency is an incompetent president and lawmakers who are unwilling to hold Trump accountable.

John Beckman, Chino Hills

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook.To the editor: Earlier, I agreed with the stance of the L.A. Times editorial board: British voters should get a chance to fix their Brexit mess by participating in another referendum. Now, I realize that popular democracy (referendums) is essentially incompatible with representative democracy (parliament).

Any referendum is necessarily a drastic distillation of a complex issue. It can never be a true expression of the people.

Voting for a representative of member of parliament says just who gets to decide. Fine. A vote on an issue or policy says ... what? What does 52% in favor mean? This is precisely why we have legislators.

So I say, no new referendum on Brexit. Prime Minister Theresa May should have Parliament cancel Brexit and start over. It is far more likely that a new referendum will leave the United Kingdom in another muddle and no better off.

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There are many lessons here for California.

William N. Hoke, Manhattan Beach

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To the editor: The caption under the photograph of May that ran in the print edition quotes the prime minister as saying that members of Parliament know they have a duty to act in the national interest.

This is a statement that should apply to all those impotent, enabling members of our Congress who refuse to rein in the abject chaos, dysfunction and corruption in this administration.

Partisan politics should stand aside in order to salvage what is left of this fragile and rapidly disintegrating democracy.

Penelope Burley, Santa Rosa Valley, Calif.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and FacebookIn offering a compromise of sorts to end the partial government shutdown, President Trump invited the American public to join him Saturday in an exercise of blame-shifting. People should resist the impulse to hold anyone but Donald Trump responsible for the historically long and needless shutdown of much of the federal government, although his Republican enablers in Congress can bask in the shame as well.

Pressured by the growing disapproval of his leadership even among his core supporters, Trump proposed what he called a down payment on a broader immigration reform: a three-year freeze on deportations for the Dreamers, or immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children, and for some non-citizens with Temporary Protected Status. Such temporary relief, though, wouldnt make the Dreamers much better off than they are now.

In exchange, Trump wants $5.7 billion for his cherished wall along the southern border. Its worth noting that the president shifted his rhetoric significantly  no longer is it a wall from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, he said, but steel barriers in high-priority locations identified by border agents.

Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute 

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Although it could be a starting point for real negotiations, it is not, at the moment, a deal worth taking. First and foremost, Trump has shown himself to be a completely unreliable negotiator, continually shifting positions and moving the goal posts; Democrats should ask to hear more before jumping at any offer. Beyond that, the courts have already provided some temporary protection for the Dreamers; Trumps promise of a three-year shield from deportation isnt much of an improvement, if any. And besides, Democrats shouldnt bargain on border issues until the government reopens. Otherwise, theyd just be encouraging Trump to take the government hostage again the next time he wants something Congress wont give him.

Even as he laid out his new, more limited vision of a wall, Trump continued to characterize it as an impossibly magical solution to a range of problems, some not even border-related. If his wall were built, Trump said, the crime rate and drug problem in our country would be quickly and greatly reduced. Some say it could be cut in half.

A physical barrier can be a useful part of the security equation  thats why we have walls along roughly 700 miles of the Mexican border. But a wall cant do what Trump claims; what it can do is send a clear, ugly message to the rest of the world about the bunker mentality of the president and his base.

The best that can be said about Trumps offer is that it opens up a potential middle ground

The best that can be said about Trumps offer is that it opens up a potential middle ground where Democrats could agree to spend more on border security and Trump could, in turn, agree to provide a path to citizenship for young people whose only real home is here, in the United States. But we wont get there as long as Trump refuses to reopen the government unless he gets $5.7 billion for his wall.

Trump seemed ready in December to accept a temporary spending bill with no money for his pet project. It was only after some xenophobic pundits and far-right members of Congress accused him of caving in that Trump reasserted his insistence on a wall. In fact, he raised the price tag from $5 billion to $5.7 billion.

The president clearly wants Saturdays speech to recast his obstinate wall demand as a reasonable request in exchange for an overdue solution to the thorny problem posed by the Dreamers. But hes responsible for the Dreamers dilemma too, having rashly terminated President Obamas Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in order to gain leverage over Democrats in negotiations over immigration policy.

This is a recurring theme of this transactional presidents tenure: To try to coerce Congress into supporting something that much of the country doesnt want, he manufactures a problem in the hope that it will strengthen his bargaining position. Weve seen it again and again  the administrations concerted efforts to undermine Obamacare, his threats to the North American Free Trade Agreement, the tariff wars he launched with much of the industrialized world, the DACA fiasco and now the longest government shutdown in the nations history.

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Trump has boxed himself into a corner with his wall, and congressional Democrats arent inclined to give him an easy way out. Thats why Trump went public Saturday with his proposed deal  to make it seem like hes negotiating, rather than simply prolonging the shutdown in the hope that congressional Democrats will give in. But if were going to get out of the mess Trump made, he has to be willing to actually negotiate, not just offer to solve another problem he created in exchange for getting the wall he fetishizes.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand FacebookGood morning. Its been a long week of storms, strikes and political stalemates, so its not a bad time to take a break and consider the marvelous things on local tables. We have the second round of reviews from our new restaurant critics: a Filipino place in Silver Lake, and a swank hotel restaurant downtown. Because theres nothing like a plate of happy birthday fried chicken to welcome you to your weekend.

Weve got a lot more on the menu: a local woman cooks Burmese pop-up dinners while putting out a food-art zine; the traditional Georgian cheese and egg bread khachapuri gets our attention as an object of desire; as do bottles of the addictive red wine vinegar from the late, great Oakland restaurant Camino.

We also have restaurant news, including a new taqueria in Highland Park, two steak-friendly restaurants and a Peruvian place in Koreatown, plus a reaction piece from local chefs on the recent foie gras ban. Finally, we have a story about chefs who are teaching cooking classes at a skid row apartment complex. Enjoy the weekend.

 Amy Scattergood

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SISIG ON SUNSET

A chef prepares chicken adobo at Maam Sir in Silver Lake. (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

In this weeks review Bill Addison considers Maam Sir, chef Charles Olalias culinary ode to his childhood in the Philippines. Olalia, who left Patina a few years ago to open his tiny counter joint Rice Bar, is going far beyond rice bowls at his newish Silver Lake restaurant. Adobo, yes, but also sisig with sweatbreads.

NOMADS HOTEL FOOD

The popular milk & honey dessert has milk ice cream, honey-oat shortbread and brittle. (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

The DTLA hotel restaurant from the team behind New Yorks celebrated Eleven Madison Park is the subject of Patricia Escarcegas second review. NoMad is tricked out: stuffed peacocks, bathrooms in bank vaults and a menu thats laced with truffles. Foie gras might be off the menu now, but theres still those pig confit breakfast burritos.

FOODGOD AND FOLLOWERS

Food influencer Foodgod at Il Pastaio Ristorante in Beverly Hills. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

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Jonathan Cheban is a television personality, probably best known for being friends with the Kardashians. And recently hes branched out to the food world, becoming a social media influencer under the name Foodgod, as Jenn Harris and Andrea Chang report. What does this mean? 3.1 million followers on Instagram, and counting.

GOODBYE TO FOIE

The foie gras funnel cake from Otium restaurant in downtown Los Angeles. (Otium)

Speaking of foie, I have a piece on what the recent reinstatement of Californias ban on the goose and duck liver delicacy means for Los Angeles chefs. Some are disappointed, mindful of the French tradition, but others are more circumspect, wanting to look forward to dishes that are more sustainable and less divisive.

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SKID ROW COOKING CLASSES

Chef Sara Kenas demonstrates how to make a salad during an evening gathering for residents of the Cobb Apartments in downtown Los Angeles in December. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

In a 76-unit permanent supportive apartment building called Charles Cobb Apartments on skid row, local chefs are teaching cooking classes to residents via the Skid Row Housing Trust. The idea is not only to increase culinary skills and awareness, but to bridge the gap between residents and the nearby food scene downtown.

Our 101 Restaurants We Love list for 2018 is out. The list incorporates restaurants and trucks from around Los Angeles and Orange County, in alphabetical order (no rankings this year). Plus this year theres a bonus list of 10 classic restaurants.

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Check us out on Instagram at @latimesfood.

And dont forget the thousands of recipes in our California Cookbook recipe database.

Feedback? Wed love to hear from you. Email us at food@latimes.com.A diocese in Kentucky apologized Saturday after videos emerged showing students from a Catholic boys high school mocking Native Americans outside the Lincoln Memorial after a rally in Washington.

The Indigenous Peoples March in Washington on Friday coincided with the March for Life, which drew thousands of anti-abortion protesters, including a group from Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills.



For the record: This article incorrectly states that Nathan Phillips is a Vietnam veteran. Military records indicate that he served in the Marines, but not in Vietnam.

Videos circulating online show a youth staring at and standing extremely close to Nathan Phillips, a 64-year-old Native American man singing and playing a drum.

Other students, some wearing Covington clothing and many wearing Make America Great Again hats and sweatshirts, surrounded them, chanting, laughing and jeering.

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In a joint statement to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School apologized to Phillips. Officials said they are investigating and will take appropriate action, up to and including expulsion.

We extend our deepest apologies to Mr. Phillips, the statement read. This behavior is opposed to the Churchs teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person.

According to the Indian Country Today website, Phillips is an Omaha elder and Vietnam veteran who holds an annual ceremony honoring Native American veterans at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

When I was there singing, I heard them saying, Build that wall, build that wall, Phillips said, as he wiped away tears in a video posted on Instagram. This is indigenous lands. Were not supposed to have walls here. We never did.

He said he wished the group would put their energy into making this country really great.

Ruth Buffalo, a North Dakota state lawmaker and member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, said she was saddened to see students showing disrespect to an elder who is also a U.S. military veteran at what was supposed to be a celebration of all cultures.

The behavior shown in that video is just a snapshot of what indigenous people have faced and are continuing to face, Buffalo said.

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She said she hoped it would lead to some kind of meeting with the students to provide education on issues facing Native Americans.

U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), who is a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe and had been at the rally earlier in the day, criticized what she called a heartbreaking display of blatant hate, disrespect, and intolerance.

Haaland, who is also Catholic, told the Associated Press she was particularly saddened to see the boys mocking an elder, who is revered in Native American culture. She placed some of the blame on President Trump, who has used Indian names including Pocahontas as an insult.

It is sad that we have a president who uses Native American womens names as racial slurs, and thats an example that these kids are clearly following considering the fact that they had their Make America Great Again hats on, Haaland said. Hes really brought out the worst in people.The white Chicago police officer who gunned down a black teenager in 2014 was sentenced on Friday to 6 years in prison, bringing an end to a historic case that was centered on a shocking dashboard-camera video and fueled national debates about race and policing and law enforcements code of silence.

Jason Van Dyke was convicted last year of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery  one for each bullet he fired at Laquan McDonald.

Moments before learning the sentence, Van Dyke acknowledged the teens death, telling the judge that as a God-fearing man and father, I will have to live with this the rest of my life.

The sentence was less than half of the penalty that had been sought by prosecutors, who asked for 18 to 20 years. But it went far beyond the request of defense attorneys, who argued that Van Dyke, 40, could be released on probation.

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Judge Vincent Gaughan did not characterize Van Dykes decision to open fire, saying only that it changed both Laquans and Van Dykes families forever. You can see the pain ... on both families, he said.

He predicted that no one involved in the case would be pleased with his decision: I assume 100% of people will be disappointed.

Illinois judges are typically required to sentence defendants for the most serious crime of which they are convicted. The defense wanted Van Dyke sentenced primarily for the second-degree murder charge, which carries a mandatory minimum prison term of four years. Prosecutors wanted the judge to focus on the 16 aggravated battery counts because each carries a mandatory minimum prison term of six years, and sentences for each may have to be served consecutively.

Earlier in the hearing, several black motorists testified that Van Dyke had used a racial slur and excessive force during traffic stops in the years before the 2014 shooting.

One of the witnesses, Ed Nance, struggled to maintain his composure as he looked across the room to identify Van Dyke. Testifying about a 2007 traffic stop, he said the officer cursed and slammed him on the cars hood, grabbed him by the arms and pulled him to the squad car.

Hours later, Van Dykes relatives tried to defend him, saying hes a good father and husband who goes out of his way to help and is not racist.

The issue of race has loomed over the case for more than four years, although it was rarely raised at trial. One of the only instances was during opening statements, when special prosecutor Joseph McMahon told jurors that Van Dyke saw a black boy walking down the street who had the audacity to ignore the police.

Fridays sentencing came a day after a different judge acquitted three officers accused of trying to conceal what happened to protect Van Dyke, who was the first Chicago officer found guilty in an on-duty shooting in half a century and probably the first ever in the shooting of an African American.

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Laquan McDonald, 17, was shot and killed by Officer Jason Van Dyke in 2014. (Tribune News Service)

At the sentencing, Laquans uncle read a moving letter written from the slain teens perspective, telling the court that Van Dyke killed him without provocation.

I am a 17-year-old boy, and I am a victim of murder, Marvin Hunter said. I am unable to speak in my own voice because an officer thought he would become judge, jury and executioner.

In asking for a long sentence, Hunter added: Why should this person who ended my life forever ... who has never asked for forgiveness ... be free when I am dead for forever?

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Van Dykes wife, Tiffany, asked the judge for leniency. His life is over. Please, please. He has paid the price already. I beg for the least amount of time.

During her testimony, Jason Van Dyke wiped his nose and eyes with a tissue while seated at the defense table in a yellow jail jumpsuit.

One of his daughters blamed the media for shaming police officers for doing their jobs. Kaylee Van Dyke, 17, said police officers dont care about peoples color  they care about your safety.

Keith Thompson described his brother-in-law as a gentle giant and not a monster. Thompson, who is black and whose wife is the sister of Van Dykes wife, said he had never seen anything to indicate that Van Dyke is racist in the 13 years theyve been acquainted.

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On Thursday, Cook County Judge Domenica Stephenson cleared former Officer Joseph Walsh, former Det. David March and Officer Thomas Gaffney on charges of obstruction of justice, official misconduct and conspiracy.

Stephenson said the video that sparked protests and a federal investigation of the police force showed only one viewpoint of the confrontation between Van Dyke and the teen armed with a small knife. She rejected prosecution arguments that the video demonstrated officers were lying when they described Laquan as moving even after he was shot.

The video appeared to show the teen collapsing in a heap after the first few shots and moving in large part because bullets kept striking his body for 10 more seconds.

The city released the video to the public in November 2015  13 months after the shooting  and acted only because a judge ordered it to do so. The charges against Van Dyke were not announced until the day of the videos release.A steady rain was falling on picketers outside Venice High School recently when a teacher in a polka-dot slicker suddenly broke out in dance.

As union chants and car horns blared in the background, roughly a dozen fellow educators and students joined in, grooving to the right and grooving to the left. They raised their arms to the heavens and brushed off their shoulders as an appreciative crowd cheered and whooped.

The dance, which was captured on video, has since gone viral on Twitter and been viewed well over a million times.

On Friday, the clip enjoyed another bump in popularity when it was tweeted again by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the young New Yorker whose liberal views and breezy social media manner have made her a hero to a generation of young Democrats.

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Ocasio-Cortez gave her blessing to the dance, writing on Twitter that These LA teachers striking against privatization + demanding smaller classrooms/more support for their students is a whole 2019 mood, followed by three dancer emojis.

These LA teachers striking against privatization + demanding smaller classrooms/more support for their students is a whole 2019 mood

 pic.twitter.com/iMska5whpH  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 14, 2019

The clip is raw and ends abruptly, but something about the image of teachers and students dancing together, in the rain, has struck a chord with union members and their supporters. This is particularly the case as the L.A. teachers strike ends its first full school week, according to the woman who organized the spectacle (and who was wearing the polka-dot jacket).

I think it stood out because theres a lot of walking the picket line and chanting, which is amazing and beautiful in its own right, said Hazel Kight Witham, who said she learned the routine in a cardio line-dancing class. But this is something different.

Teachers work in relative isolation, Kight Witham said, mainly with their students. Getting teachers out of the classroom and together on picket lines has been a revelation, she said, saying the energy shes seen this week is like nothing shes experienced in 18 years of teaching.

The dance provided an extra language for our struggle, Kight Witham said.

Kight Witham, who teaches English, is a crazy woman, student Mya Edwards said warmly, noting that the dance was being performed at elementary schools and other schools around the city, and being posted and shared on social media.

Husband Drake Witham, who teaches special education at Venice High, said his wife has a relentless spirit, adding that she rallied teachers and students to dance in the driving rain. She just loves teaching, Witham said.

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But the greatest compliment Kight Witham received for her choreography was on Monday night, when the video hit 1 million views and Roxane Gay, an author she admires, tweeted at her.

The woman in the polka dot coat who is on beat, Gay wrote, Good evening to her.Southern California Edison  fighting dozens of legal claims related to the Montecito mudslides that followed the Thomas fire  is putting the blame on Santa Barbara County and Caltrans for failing to prepare for deadly debris flows they knew were inevitable.

More than 75 lawsuits have been filed against Edison alleging it ignited the fire, which denuded the slopes above Montecito, making them vulnerable to catastrophic erosion during a heavy storm. On Jan. 9, 2018, as downpours soaked the mountainsides, boulder-filled debris tore through the wealthy town, killing 23 people and destroying 130 homes.

On Friday, the public utility sued the county and state agencies alleging that despite decades of warnings they did not build adequate catchment basins and channels, built low bridges that became choke points and didnt order historic flood zones to evacuate when the storm was approaching. Edison is seeking to have those agencies share any liabilities it faces from the disaster.

The agencies poor planning and mismanagement spanning from decades prior to the Montecito Mudslides all the way through the final hours  directly and proximately caused all or some of the damages that Plaintiffs now seek to recover from Edison, the company alleged.

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The complaint referenced reports by The Times, the Santa Barbara Independent and other media, which largely documented the failures over which the company is suing.

Californias two largest utilities, Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric, face billions in damages for sparking devastating wildfires in the last few years. PG&E, saying it could be liable for $30 billion if its found responsible for the Camp fire in Butte County, announced it would file for bankruptcy this week. Edison has been hit with new claims for Novembers devastating Woolsey fire.

In October, Edison conceded its equipment likely started at least one ignition point in the Thomas fire, which scorched 281,893 acres from the hills around Santa Paula to the slopes above Santa Barbara.

Joseph Liebman, who represents 500 clients suing Edison for the fire and mudslide, said fault for the debris flow squarely lies on the utility.

For Edison to blame the county of Santa Barbara and Caltrans is simply ridiculous, he said. They played no part in starting the fire or allowing the fire to spread.

He said Edison failed to maintain or update its electrical equipment and didnt power it down despite relentless Santa Ana winds.

Edison knew this was the longest red flag warning in state history, Liebman said. They powered down in the mountains above Palm Springs but did nothing in Ventura or Santa Barbara counties.

Edisons lawsuit says fires routinely burn in the Santa Ynez Mountains and make Montecito vulnerable to debris flows, but that the county and state agencies were negligent in allowing development in danger zones and doing little to protect residents and property.

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The unincorporated town of Montecito sits on an alluvial fan at the base of the steep Santa Ynez Mountain front. The young range produces vast quantities of sediment and sandstone boulders that, during heavy storms, turn into wrecking balls carried by torrents of mud.

In 1964, after the Coyote fire, the Army Corps of Engineers hastily built basins along two creeks to trap rainy season debris. The catchments are low dams built across the mouth of a canyon. But the military engineers warned the county that these small basins on Cold Springs and San Ysidro creeks would be vastly overwhelmed by a debris flow during a significant storm, according to documents The Times found at the National Archives.

The danger of loss of life and the menace of public health is great, said one memo summarizing the Corps conclusions in 1969.

The county never built bigger basins on those creeks and did nothing to improve the existing ones. In fact, the county had agreed to remove the two basins by 2026 to allow the passage of steelhead trout, The Times found.

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Of the 23 deaths last January, 21 people died below those two dams.

These exact areas had been hit three times before, twice since 1964.

According to Edisons complaint, of the twenty-four properties that were hardest hit in just one area during the Montecito Mudslides, four were named in old news reports as having suffered damage in 1926, 1964 or 1969.

The complaint noted that there was little damage and no deaths in Ventura County, where it said officials had built and maintained a much better flood control system, or in Carpinteria, where Santa Barbara County had its sole full-size debris basin.

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The lawsuit alleged:

County officials failed to enforce its own ordinances while permitting increased development in designated flood zones. They allowed walls and other obstacles that would push debris flows higher and farther from their natural course.

Planners also permitted more than 150 federal, state, county and private bridges to be built over creeks in hazard zones without ample clearance for debris flows. Many of these bridges became clogged with logs and boulders that diverted the debris flow out of the channel and into homes. The California Department of Transportation was named in the lawsuit for the bridges it built along the 101 Freeway and Highway 192.

The flood control district did not adequately clean out the already drastically undersized basins, which gradually fill up with rock and sediment, reducing their ability to trap debris. While county officials have insisted the 11 basins below the burned area were completely cleaned out, their own surveys show they only had 44% of their design capacity.

Emergency managers on Jan. 7 switched from evacuating residents based on a flood map to arbitrarily forcing evacuations for anyone living north of Highway 192. They pulled the flood map off the website  but it turned out to be remarkably accurate. Everyone who died was in the flood maps hazard area, but only six were in the mandatory evacuation zone. County spokeswoman Gina DePinto told the Independent that the emergency management directors biggest regret is probably that the map that showed the waterways was pulled.

Edison also named the city of Santa Barbara and the Montecito Water District as defendants. The utility accused Santa Barbara of negligence and poor planning for allowing development in the flood zone along a commercial strip in the city that juts into unincorporated Montecito. The water district was blamed for a ruptured main that released up to nine million gallons of water, exacerbating the deluge.

joe.mozingo@latimes.com

@joemozingoNEW DELHI: A satellite will be launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) exclusively for the Home Ministry to help it further strengthen its frontiers with Pakistan and Bangladesh among others.

The move is part of recommendations made by a task force on the use of space technology in improving border management which has been accepted by Home Minister Rajnath Singh

To execute the project in a time-bound manner, a short, medium and long-term plan has been proposed for implementation in five years in close coordination with the ISRO and the Defence Ministry.

"Major recommendations of the report are to build capacity in border guarding forces to use space resources for security, operational planning and border infrastructure development," the statement issued by the Home Ministry said.

In short term, immediate needs of border guarding forces will be met by procurement of high-resolution imagery and the hiring of bandwidth for communications, it said.

"In mid-term, one satellite is being launched by the ISRO for the exclusive use of the MHA," the statement said.

Over the long term, the MHA will develop ground segment and network infrastructure to share satellite resources by user agencies, develop a central archival facility for storing various imagery resources and dissemination of the same to user agencies, it said.

"Deployment of the Central Armed Police Forces in remote areas will be also coordinated by satellite communications. Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System-based GPS will provide navigation facilities for operational parties in high altitude, remote and difficult borders and Naxal areas," the Home Ministry said.

The Border Security Force (BSF) has been designated as lead agency for implementation of ground segment and network infrastructure, including establishment of archival facility, it said.

India shares land borders with Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar.

With the assistance of the Department of Space, the Ministry of Home Affairs would implement the project, the statement said.

"This project will strengthen island and border security and facilitate the development of infrastructure in border/island areas," it said.

The Home Minister has approved the report of the task force created by the MHA to identify areas for use of space technology in improving border management, the statement said.

The task force headed by Joint Secretary (Border Management), having members from the BSF, the Department of Space and BM division of the Home Ministry, consulted all stakeholders including border guarding forces, the ISRO, National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) and the Ministry of Defence to finalise the report.

Island development, border security, communication and navigation, Geographic Information System (GIS) and operations planning system, and border infrastructure development are the areas identified for use of space technology, it added.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.The forum creates a platform for policymakers, non-governmental organisations, businesspeople, and experts at home and abroad to exchange ideas to promote economic growth and a sustainable society.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, Le Quang Manh, said Vietnam needs more effective solutions to address sustainable issues in the fields of human resources, climate change adaptation, smart agriculture, environment, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Promoting sustainable development is not only about economic development, but also the settlement of social issues and environmental protection, he said.

In 2018, Vietnam recorded the regions highest GDP growth at 7.08% as well as a trade surplus of US$7.21 billion, tripling that of 2017.

The agricultural sector posted the highest growth in the past seven years with an export turnover of US$40.02 billion. Vietnam has become a middle-income country with the rate of poverty declining from over 60% in 1986 to around 7% at present.

The scale of the economy has increased more than 17.4 times from US$14 billion in 1985 to US$244 billion in 2018. The average income per capita rose to nearly US$2,540 from US$230 in 1985.

Manh said the implementation of the national socio-economic development strategy in 2011-2020 will bring enormous benefits to the countrys sustainable development, including the improvement of biodiversity, the reduction of environmental pollution, and a more responsible use of natural resources.

Nguyen Duc Khuong, Chairman of the Association of Vietnamese Scientists and Experts (AVSE Global), said rapid and sustainable growth greatly depends on the quantity and quality of human resources, especially as science-technology and innovation play key roles in creating added value.

He added that human resources are the decisive factor in labour and capital productivity. A strategy focusing on the quality of human resources will help Vietnam gain access to sustainable development trends and digital transformation, he said.

Caitlin Wiesen, Country Director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Vietnam, spoke highly of Vietnams socio-economic achievements gained in 2018, including accomplishments in poverty reduction.

She stressed the need to ensure sustainable growth through the integration of economic development with social welfare.

Vietnam needs to work towards promoting innovation and protecting the environment, as well as applying green and modern technologies, she suggested.Venice, FL (34285)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 74F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 74F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.LANSING  Michigan Department of Natural Resources conservation officers obtained confessions Tuesday from two Upper Peninsula men suspected in unrelated wolf poaching incidents in Ontonagon and Menominee counties.

Prosecuting attorneys are reviewing details of the two cases, with decisions on specific charges to be brought expected soon, according to John Pepin, of the MDNR.

Gray wolves are a protected species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and can only legally be killed in defense of human safety.

The names of the men  a 58-year-old from Greenland and a 67-year-old from Menominee Township  are being withheld pending their arraignments in the respective county district courts.

Wolves are examples of important wildlife species that play a critical predator role in the ecosystems of the Upper Peninsula, said Lt. Ryan Aho, a district DNR law supervisor in Marquette. Our conservation officers did some great work in obtaining confessions from these two individuals who killed wolves collared for study purposes by the MDNR.

On Monday, DNR Wildlife Division personnel said they had received a mortality signal from the collar of an adult female wolf in Ontonagon County.

Sgt. Marc Pomroy and DNR Conservation Officer Zach Painter went to the site, off Gardner Road in Greenland Township.

We gathered some information at the scene, and we conducted suspect interviews the following day, Painter said. During those discussions, the suspect admitted he shot the animal with a rifle, which we seized as part of the investigation.

In Menominee County, during the firearm deer hunting season, a mortality signal was received from a 1-year-old male wolf on Nov. 19.

I retrieved the collar later that day from a place along River Road in Lake Township, said DNR CO Jeremy Sergey. The collar was intact, covered in blood, but was not attached to a wolf.

After searching a vast area, and conducting numerous interviews, officers developed several suspects by the following day.

In an interview with conservation officers this week, the same day the confession was obtained in the Ontonagon County case, the man from Menominee Township confessed to killing the wolf. He was one of the original suspects developed in November.

MDNR investigates and pursues vigorous prosecution of any wolf poaching cases, Pepin said. Illegally killing a wolf is punishable by up to 90 days in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both, and the cost of prosecution.

Suspected poaching violations may be reported 24 hours a day, seven days a week to the DNRs Report All Poaching hotline at 800-292-7800.

Wolves killed in poaching incidents are typically sent to the DNRs Wildlife Disease Laboratory in Lansing, where necropsies are performed.

For more information on wolves, visit Michigan.gov/Wolves.Roehrs leans forward slightly and gives a quick glance to the technology in the room. Now we can keep track of our cost of gains and our feed conversion. We never could before.

Roehrs is quick to credit the support of his community during good times and bad. Ive had some good help from neighbors. He perks up as he credits his part-time hired hand, Marna Johnson, and his wife, Carolyn. Johnson does a lot of physical labor for the Roehrs cattle operation, and Carolyn does the bookwork.

Allan and Carolyn have resided at their current home for several years, but well over 100 years ago Allan Roehrss grandfather homesteaded a different location. Roehrs rises from his seat and lumbers out of the office, into the garage area. He gestures towards a wooden plaque on the wall: a Pioneer Farm Award, given to families who have held same family ownership of Nebraska land for 100 years. Roehrs cant remember for sure when his grandfather settled in Nebraska, and laments that he doesnt remember when his family was honored with the Pioneer Farm Award, either, wishing out loud that it was on the plaque. Back in his office, Roehrs does remember: I moved over to where we are and started feeding cattle about 46 years ago.You might not be aware that on August 16th the Council was informed, at the conclusion of the regular meeting, that there would be an Executive Session to discuss upcoming salary and benefit negotiations with the police union. Mayor Stahr informed Mrs. Wolfe that she would not be allowed to attend since her husband is a York City Police Officer and her participation would be a conflict of interest. It should be noted that Officer Wolfe is one of two officers that represented the police union during contract negotiations with the City this year. This only magnified her financial conflict of interest. Mrs. Wolfe argued with the Mayor quite vocally, stating that she had always been allowed to participate when the previous mayor was in office and demanded that she should be allowed to attend. The Mayor, again, asked her to leave and then the City Attorney told her that since she did have a financial conflict of interest she would be required to leave. We believe Mayor Stahr acted in the best interest of the City and the taxpayers by requesting Mrs. Wolfe recuse herself of Police Union discussions and negotiations.US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he had "an incredible" meeting with North Korea's nuclear envoy Kim Yong Chol and the two sides had made "a lot of progress."

The White House announced after Friday's talks that Trump would hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late February but will maintain economic sanctions on Pyongyang.

"That was an incredible meeting," Trump told reporters of the talks.

"We've agreed to meet sometime, probably the end of February. We've picked a country but we'll be annoucing it in the future. Kim Jong Un is looking very foward to it and so am I. Weave made a lot of progress that has not been reported by the media,a he said.

Despite his upbeat comments there has been no indication of any narrowing of differences over US demands that North Korea abandon a nuclear weapons program that threatens the United States and Pyongyang's demands for a lifting of punishing sanctions.

The first summit produced a vague commitment by Kim Jong Un to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, but he has yet to take what Washington sees as concrete steps in that direction.

Trump did not elaborate on the country chosen to host the summit, but Vietnam has been considered a leading candidate.Hundreds of people are demonstrating Saturday in the Arab city of Baqa al-Gharbiyye, following the murder of local Aiia Maasarwe who was murdered last Wednesday near Melbourne, Australia.

The participants of the demonstration, organized by the Sulha Committee (a committee for traditional conflict mediation), condemn the heinous act and demand life imprisonment for the defendant.

Earlier Saturday, the defendant, Cody Herrmann, was charged with murder and rape.WASHINGTON An American-born Iranian television anchor has been arrested as a material witness in an undisclosed US federal investigation, according to a federal court order granted on Friday.

At the request of the Justice Department, US District Judge Beryl Howell issued the order, the first official US confirmation of reports of the arrest of Marzieh Hashemi, an anchor for Iran's English-language Press TV news channel.

The order, which approved the partial unsealing of information in the case, said Hashemi was arrested on a material witness warrant issued by a federal judge and that she was assigned an attorney but "has not been accused of any crime."

Hashemi has made two court appearances, and the US government expects her immediate release after she finishes testifying before a federal grand jury investigating violations of US criminal law, the order continued.

It did not disclose further details of the case, which has added to tensions between the Iranian and US governments over the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the reimposition of harsh US sanctions, and the detention of Iranian-American dual nationals by Iran.Women will march in hundreds of US cities and overseas on Saturday to mark the second anniversary of demonstrations that drew millions of protesters to the streets the day after US President Donald Trump's inauguration in January 2017.

Women's March, a national nonprofit organization that evolved from the initial Washington march, is again hosting its main event in Washington, with hundreds of "sister" marches in other cities.

March On, a separate grassroots coalition that also grew from the original march, has coordinated hundreds of marches in cities such as Boston, Houston, Baltimore and Denver.

Leaders of both groups say they will use this year's marches to push policy related to raising the minimum wage, access to reproductive and healthcare and voting rights, among other issues. They are aiming to mobilize women to vote ahead of the 2020 elections, when Trump is expected to be the Republican nominee for president.

"There is definitely huge, huge focus on the 2020 elections," said March On's Natalie Sanchez, an organizer of the 2017 Boston Women's March who is also with March Forward Massachusetts, which is leading Saturday's march there.

Activists say the marches are a chance to celebrate the gains made in the 2018 elections, which saw more women elected to the U.S. Congress than ever before.One of the four Americans killed in a suicide bomb attack in Syria this week was a US Navy sailor and married mother of two whose father is a high-ranking officer in the New York State Police, officials said Friday.

The US Pentagon identified three of the four Americans killed in Wednesday's attack in the northern Syrian town of Manbij.

They are Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan R. Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Florida, who was based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) Shannon M. Kent, 35, of Pine Plains, New York, and based at Fort Meade, Maryland; and a civilian, Scott A. Wirtz, from St. Louis.

The Pentagon hasn't identified the fourth casualty, a civilian contractor.

But according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution , an Arabic interpreter who had emigrated from Syria to the US was among at least 20 people killed in the bombing.

Ali Taher told the newspaper Friday that his older sister, Ghadir Taher, 27, of East Point, Georgia, was killed by the blast.

Ali Taher, who immigrated with his family to the US, said his sister's smile would light up the room. He said she graduated from Tri-Cities High School and was kind and very easy to talk to.

The family learned of her death from her employer, Valiant Integrated Services, a defense contractor, he said.US Senator Lindsey Graham said on Saturday he hoped US President Donald Trump would slow the US withdrawal from Syria until Islamic State is destroyed.

Speaking in Ankara, Graham said he believed US Chief of Staff Joseph Dunford was working on a plan with Turkey to move Kurdish YPG elements away from Turkey.

Turkey says the YPG is a terrorist organisation and an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).Friends of 18-year-old Noah Domingo frantically tried to revive him before paramedics arrived and declared the UC Irvine freshman dead, according to newly released 911 calls.

Someone is not breathing. Theyre not OK, the caller tells the 911 dispatcher. Their whole body is like blue right now.

Domingo, who grew up in La Crescenta, died after a party at a home in Irvine on Jan. 12, prompting the immediate suspension of his fraternity. The Orange County coroners office is conducting an autopsy and waiting for toxicology reports to officially determine his cause of death.

In the seven-minute 911 recording, the caller says Domingo just drank too much.

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The 911 dispatcher instructs a group of men how to perform CPR on Domingo, who the men said was cold to the touch. He went to sleep around 11 p.m., and his friends didnt find him and call the police until 9:30 the next morning, according to the callers.

Come on Noah  please, one of the men says on the tape.

Police say they found Domingo unresponsive at 9:30 a.m., but he had died around 3:30 a.m., according to coroners officials.

UC Irvine officials said they could not release details about Domingos death because of the investigation. But the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity was suspended and ordered to immediately cease all activity, according to UC Irvine student affairs Vice Chancellor Edgar J. Dormitorio.

In an email to the campus community Monday, Dormitorio wrote that officials would collaborate with leaders in the Greek community to help support those affected by Domingos death.

We will also closely examine the larger context in which this tragedy occurred, he wrote. We will be working with the Greek community to help ensure that they are engaging in behaviors and practices that are in alignment with university policies and their own values.

Domingo followed his older sister to UC Irvine in the fall and chose to major in biology and join Greek life, just as she had, said their father, Dale Domingo. He said he did not want to speculate about what led to his sons death, but he was worried about a problematic drinking culture at colleges.

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As a family, were hurting, but were also concerned  could it have been prevented? Is there something we, as a family, can do to make sure something like this doesnt happen again? Dale Domingo said in an interview with The Times.

soumya.karlamangla@latimes.com

Twitter: @skarlamanglaCody Herrmann, 20, the suspect arrested for the murder of a 21-year-old Israeli student in Australia has appeared in an Australian court on Saturday charged with murder and rape.

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Herrmann, an aspiring rapper who performs as M.C. Codez, did not apply for bail in the Melbourne Magistrates Court. He is accused of slaying Aiia Maasarwe in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Cody Herrmann, the murder suspect

The 21-year-old victim had been studying at La Trobe University in Melbourne for the past five months as an exchange student from Shanghai University in China.

She was on her way home from a Melbourne comedy club and was speaking to her younger sister in Israel on FaceTime when she was attacked shortly after stepping from a tram in the Melbourne suburb of Bundoora.

21-year-old Aiia Maasarwe

Herrmann hung his head as he sat in the dock and stood only to hear the charges against him read. He was not required to enter pleas.

He will appear in the same court on Monday. A murder conviction carries a potential maximum penalty of life imprisonment and rape carries a potential maximum of 25 years.

Herrmann was arrested on Friday morning in a suburb neighboring Bundoora, around the same time as the victim's China-based father, Saeed Maasarwe, visited a floral memorial to his daughter that has grown at the site where her body was dumped behind a hedge not far from the tram station.

What he did to Aiia wasnt human. She was always smiling, she loved people. She had an open mind and wanted to learn about new cultures. I wanted to be with her longer, but now thats impossible. I pray that she is with God in heaven, the father said.

Saeed Maasarwe, Aiia's father

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison visited the same memorial on Saturday, accompanied by his wife and two daughters.

"Later today, I'm going to be meeting with her father. Words will fail me, I'm sure, as one father to another," Morrison said."I think that the country is very shaken ... but at the same time, as always, reaches out and seeks to comfort and I want to thank those Australians for doing that and I was pleased to be able to, with my family, simply do the same," he added.

People leave floral tributes near the Polaris Shopping centre in Bundoora, Melbourne, 18 January 2019

Around 1,000 people, including Saeed Maasarwe, gathered in a silent vigil in respect for the young Israeli on the steps of Victoria state parliament on Friday night. Many carrying flowers and candles later took trams to another vigil at the location near a shopping mall where the body was found on Wednesday morning.

Floral tributes continue to be laid at La Trobe University, which is in Bundoora, a suburb where many students live.Sources in Hamas claimed Saturday that they have recently begun indirect talks with Israel in order to advance a prisoner exchange deal before Israel's elections.

"This time there seems to be a strong motivation to make a deal before the elections, in light of declining support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu," sources in Hamas said in an interview with Arab media.

The sources added they had been approached by parties in Europe and Egypt regarding the start of negotiations.

"Hamas military wing will not provide any information about the prisoners without quid pro quo. No negotiations will be held before Israel releases the prisoners released in the Shalit deal," they said.Allies and supporters of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro are questioning his commitment to fighting corruption as questions mount about irregular payments in his inner circle just weeks into his presidency.

Bolsonaro's son, Flavio Bolsonaro, has come under fire over suspicious payments to his former driver flagged by the Council for Financial Activities Control, the country's financial regulatory body.

The Bolsonaros and the driver deny wrongdoing over $320,000 that changed hands from 2016-2017 and came to light late last yearPresident Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to broker a deal to coax the North to give up its nuclear program, the White House announced Friday.

News of a second meeting with the reclusive North Korean leader came after Trump met at the White House for 90 minutes with a North Korean envoy, Kim Yong Chol, who had traveled to Washington to discuss denuclearization talks. Trump and Kim Jong Un are to meet near the end of February at a place to be announced at a later day, said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

She called the Oval Office meeting "productive" and said the U.S. and North Korea would continue to have conversations with hopes that North Korea would give up its nuclear weapons capabilities.

"The United States is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea until we see fully and verified denuclearization," Sanders saidIt has been a week since US National Security Advisor John Bolton visited Israel, and Jerusalem has made no official announcement regarding the content of his discussions with Israeli colleagues regarding Israel-China relations. Nonetheless, commentators and journalists with access to senior Israeli officials knew enough to report that Israel was in the process of developing policies connected to issues raised by American officials, and will formulate a series of arrangements through which these sensitive matters will be monitored.

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It seems that while Israel is stepping up its policy of running between the raindrops when it comes to the two superpowers, Jerusalem is officially silent. Last week's Bolton talks were preceded by a long series of meetings between American officials past and present with their friends in Israel, and they all had an identical message warning of growing American concern over Israel's extreme openness towards China.

These warnings crossed the lines of former and current administrations, and emphasized the unity of American opinion in both government and academia on this issue.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Chinese President Xi Jinping (Photo: AFP)

The development of science and technology on which we Israelis pride ourselves rests not only with our own excellence, but also on the vital cooperation with science and technology professionals in the US and Western Europe. In this context, the European Union announcement last month that it is forced to examine its relations with China on "ports and technology" has become increasingly important. If the Americans and Europeans fear that Israel is developing into a place in which China can gain access to its business and scientific secrets, Israel's achievements of recent decades will face an existent threat. This is not a mere hyperbole.

There is no one in Israel who believes that it is possible or desirable to ignore China, which is expanding its presence and influence in our region. Trade relations with this new regional power are both vital and desirable. For the sake of its own advancement, Israel has in recent years learned to publicly ignore the fact that China is investing enormous strategic resources in Iran, both on the security and industrial-strategic fronts. Israel has never asked China, openly or covertly, to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear agreement brokered by former president Barack Obama. Like Russia, China enjoys full "Israeli immunity" on this issue. This is entirely understandable, but Israel must still be especially cautious in order to serve our own vital interests.

China is a mixture of a free economy and government-run one. Some one hundred Chinese mega-corporations reach all across the world, and decisions on their purchase of assets or their economic activities are made based on both financial calculations and political considerations. As such, all the construction and operation of ports around the world is carried out by Chinese government companies.

An American naval craft at Haifa seaport

Beijing is currently working to establish itself as a presence in the eastern Mediterranean basin even as its ally Iran is making clear that it intends to do the same. And as Russia, China and Iran are busy sailing around the eastern Med, we would do well to heed the words of former US Navy Commander Admiral Gary Roughead, a real friend of Israel, who said that the close proximity of the Chinese would make it difficult for US warships to use Haifa port as a base.

There are extensive cooperation agreements between China and Israel, and their implementation is very important to our economy. But a solid foundation for continued success requires both mutual Sino-Israeli goodwill and careful adherence to our inalienable assets as well as the interests of our strategic anchor in Washington.Israel is offering rehabilitation programs for men and women who manage to leave behind a life of sex work. The government on Sunday approved the rehabilitation plan, two weeks after lawmakers in the Knesset passed historic legislation that imposes fines on those who hire sex workers, rather than punishing the prostitutes themselves.

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The plan's proposal, submitted by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, is based on the recommendations of the Interministerial Committee to Examine Tools for Reducing the Status of Prostitution, headed by Justice Ministry Director-General Emi Palmor.

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The plan, which will cost about NIS 90 million over three years, will be implemented jointly by the Welfare, Health, Education and Public Security ministries.

Under the scheme, the Welfare Ministry will set up emergency apartments, half-way houses and rehabilitation hostels for sex workers. It will also formulate a rehabilitation plan for mothers who have fallen into prostitution. In addition, a special rehabilitation hostel will be set up for the use of the transgender population, and counselors and social workers will be hired to treat sex workers from the LGBT community. The ministry will also work alongside the National Insurance Institute to provide disability pensions for women who exit the prostitution cycle.

In addition, the Ministry of Health would increase the operations of clinics that treat former sex workers, as well as open up more clinics in new locations. The ministry will also invest in appropriate training for professionals working in health maintenance organizations and hospitals.

The Ministry of Education will create new content for sex education classes, and develop training and instruction material for school professionals. Meanwhile, the Public Security Ministry will expand various enforcement methods used by the police, including those used online.

Illustration

Part of the committee's responsibilities is to treat and rehabilitate former sex workers. As part of its work, the committee met with active sex workers and with men and women in the process of leaving the cycle of prostitution.

The team has also participated in a professional seminar organized by the European Union, and learned about various ways to deal with the problem. Subsequently, a special task force was established to implement the committee's recommendations.

Ahead of its approval, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked called the plan vital in reducing the phenomenon of prostitution in Israel, and said it would help those who managed to escape the cycle of sex work.

"The government has taken an important step in the struggle to reduce the consumption of prostitution through an effective rehabilitation program," Shaked said. "The program is designed to help bring women and men out of the cycle of prostitution and give them the opportunity to start a new life. I believe that the program will reduce the consumption of prostitution services and rehabilitate those who leave the prostitution cycle. I thank the Director General of the Justice Ministry, Emi Palmor, for her important work in preparing this plan."

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked

According to data compiled by the Ministry of Welfare, Israel has over 14,000 sex workers, including 3,000 minors. Of the women engaged im sex work. 62% are mothers of children under the age of 18, and 76% said they would have left the cycle of prostitution if they had the opportunity to do so.

"This legislation directly impacts the lives of 14,000 Israeli male and female sex workers. For this reason, we constantly ask to increase the budgets of special rehabilitation programs. Increasing the budget by NIS 90 million could create a real alternative," said Nitzan Kahana, the associate director of Task Force on Human Trafficking and Prostitution.

Kahana also praised another Shaked program that has been advanced  the preparation of a plan to combat human trafficking for the purpose of prostitution, based on a multi-year plan for combating slavery and human trafficking formulated by the Office of the National Anti-Trafficking Coordinator at the Justice Ministry.

In line with international law, the plan will address the issues of enforcement, protection of victims, prevention and cooperation with civilian bodies and will suggest a plan of action.

"Trafficking in women has taken on various forms," Kahana said. "For years, the State of Israel has celebrated its successful war against human trafficking, while traffickers continued to bring women into the country. By approving the plan, the governmnet shows it understands that the time has come to seriously deal with human trafficking," she said.Can US state governments withhold public contracts or financial investments from companies that boycott Israel? Twenty-six states have laws and regulations to this effect (legislation is pending in 13 more), but the American Civil Liberties Union has recently brought suits on behalf of plaintiffs in four states who object to this condition, claiming it infringes on their freedom of speech as protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

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So far, a speech pathologist is suing the state of Texas because her annual contract with the school district now requires she certify that her business is not boycotting Israel. An Arkansas newspaper is suing after a local community college conditioned continuation of its advertising contract on a similar requirement. In Arizona, the state is appealing a district court decision that ruled its statute unconstitutional. And in Kansas, a suit was dismissed after the law was amended to set financial limits, exempt sole proprietorships, and limit its scope to boycotts affecting an integral part of business sought with the state.

Meanwhile, the issue has sparked controversy in the Senate as lawmakers may soon vote on a clause affirming states rights to direct their contracts and assets in this way. The measure, included in the Senates first bill of the new Congress, is aimed primarily at the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

Bus ad in California calling to boycott Israel (Archive Image)

Activists on one side of this debate have maligned anti-boycott laws as requiring a loyalty oath to Israel, arguing that the government cannot force people to subscribe to a specific political viewpoint. When so framed, these laws appear to be intolerable censorship. The First Amendment enables anyone to freely express their views without fear of government retributioneven if those views are racist or anti-Semitic. But acting on such views is in many cases illegal, particularly when the effect is discriminatory. So while First Amendment arguments must be evaluated in these lawsuits, ignoring the well-established distinction between speech and action grossly misrepresents the controversy.

Contrary to the challengers free speech narrative, these state laws do not actually impact anyones ability to hold, express or advocate any viewpoint. Instead, they only require businesses seeking government contracts (or investments) to certify they are not engaged in discriminatory boycotts. This is actually milder than many other antidiscrimination laws at the federal, state and local level, which require companiesregardless of their financial relationship with any governmentto disregard traits such as religion or national origin in hiring practices and business dealings. The laws in question here, instead of directly regulating conduct, are intended to spare the public from subsidizing companies that act contrary to the collective interest.

The key question that free speech advocates (and the courts) have to answer is whether a boycott of Israel, in its current form, is merely a political viewpoint rather than a form of discrimination. For if such a boycott does nothing but express a political viewpoint, these laws should be struck down. The collective interest is never served by stifling one side of a genuine debate. However, if a boycott represents discrimination against a protected category, it would be on par with any other uncontroversial law safeguarding public funds from being used toward discriminatory ends.

Anti-Israel protest in Paris (Photo: AP)

While much discourse on this subject has uncritically assumed Israel boycotts are the former, there are good reasons to believe theyre the latter.

Most Israel boycotts today are conducted in solidarity with the BDS movement, founded in 2005. As just the latest in a long line of Jewish boycotts, BDS is arguably discriminatory in both its goals and its effect. Ignoring countries engaged in far more egregious behavior, the movement singles out Israel as exceptionally and uniquely evil among all nations of the world. It spuriously places all blame for a two-sided conflict on Jewish colonialism. And though there may certainly be times when Israeli policies or government actions warrant criticism, BDS does not merely target any individual Israeli policy or government. Rather, it rejects Jewish self-determination outright. Co-founder Omar Barghouti has said he opposes a Jewish state in any part of Palestine, which BDS sees as being a single state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

The practical impact of BDS on Jews and Israelis in the United States is no less troubling. When companies and organizations engage in secondary boycotts of Israel, meaning they wont do business with entities that have a relationship with Israel, this disproportionately targets both Jewish and Israeli Americans. And harm to Americans is not only economic. A team of professors at Brandeis University conducted an extensive study across 50 campuses and found Jewish students reported increased harassment, intimidation and hostility toward them on campuses with rising BDS activity. Student BDS leaders in particular have posted vile and hateful messages like Every time I read about Hitler I fall in love all over again and Lets stuff some Jews in the oven. And ironically for a group now waving the First Amendment flag, BDS advocates regularly heckle and even shut down events organized by Jewish groups to discuss Israel.

To be sure, the US Constitution protects the right of any individual to criticize Israel or engage in hate speech. And following the Kansas model, the appropriate scope of Israel boycott laws may be clarified in the months and years ahead. But to oversimplify this issue as one of censorship erases the distinction between speech and action, denies the relationship between BDS and anti-Semitism, and ignores the broad latitude state governments in the United States have to prevent discrimination.When Israeli burger chain Agadair decided to remove bacon from its menu last summer, it caused quite a ruckus. After all, a bacon cheeseburger was considered the chain's signature dish.

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The angry comments were quick to follow. Agadir, which at the time was also opening a kosher restaurant in Bnei Brak, was accused of capitulating to religious pressure. "You caved in to the Haredim, we won't come (to your restaurant) anymore," one irritated customer wrote on the chain's Facebook page. Another added: "You're trying to meet the religious public halfway, I'll try to meet you halfway by not coming anymore."

But Agadir was only the first. Next came sushi chain Japanika, which removed the sea food from its menu, and then hotdog purveyors Bayern Market that announced last week it will no longer sell pork sausagesone of the German food chain's most beloved dishes. Bayern also announced plans to open its first kosher food stand at Ben-Gurion Airport.





An Agadir burger (Photo: Tamuz Rahman)

Eitan Trabelus, the owner of Agadir, makes no effort to hide the fact that one of his considerations in giving up bacon was to make a statement of some sort to the religious public. "This step allowed us to cater to another target audience, the one bothered by the fact there is bacon in the restaurant's kitchen," he says. "At the same time, we're still not a kosher chain. We serve both cheese and meat, and we work on Shabbat. But there is a large traditional population in Israel that stays away from restaurants that serve pork, regardless of whether the place is kosher."

It's hard to ignore the fact you opened your first kosher restaurant in Bnei Brak at the same time as your announcement about removing bacon from all of your restaurants.

"It's true, but there's no connection between the two decisions. The idea to open a kosher restaurant in Bnei Brak came up two years ago, and the decision about the bacon came from entirely different reasons. Every once in a while, we examine our menu, and when we did that half a year ago, we noticed the burger with the bacon was selling less. Add to that the fact there was a shortage in bacon at the time, and because of that the price of bacon went up. Meaning, there was no request or religious coercion from anyonethese were two business decisions that it was the right time to make."

An Agadir burger (Photo: Tamuz Rahman)

Many of your customers were very angry at this move.

"There will always be those who love making noise online, but financially things went on as normal. The work at the restaurants remained the same, and we're happy that we were given the option of catering to a religious and traditional target audience that we've not catered to before."

Any chance bacon would make a comeback?

"Not at the moment. I'm pleased with my decision, and financially this decision is good for the chain. But you never know. We operate based on the needs of the market, and if there is suddenly a nassive demand for bacon, we might make another change. What we did do is when we removed the bacon, we put in alternatives such as 'lamb bacon,' and most customers welcomed this with love.

"It's important to me to tell you this, because it's very moving for me to see seculars, traditionalists and religious people sitting side by side at our kosher restaurant and eating together. When I stand at the restaurant and look at our customers, in my heart I feel like I've united the people. It might sound condescending, but until recently I believed a kosher place was a place secular people must not enter, and certainly not a place that serves delicious food."

Fire Shrimpsy

Bayern's decision to remove the pork sausages from their Sarona Market food stand was seen as even more dramatic. The pork sausage is the cornerstone of every restaurant serving German food. At least on the outside, Dorian Copitt, the CEO of Bayern Market, doesn't appear to be too worried by the barrage of outrage surrounding the decision.

"When the chain was still in its infancy, all of our locations served pork sausages, and we simply saw there was no demand," he says. "The sausages were removed without much ado from four locations and were left on the menu only in one place, at Sarona Market. Now we've decided to stop selling them there as well, and we issued a statement to the media."

It looks to many customers like religionization.

"Far from it. We decided for financial reasons that for two dishes sold in only one location, it's not worth it for us to give up on a big audience of customers and have the entire chain seen as one that sells pork. And no, I'm not just talking about the ultra-Orthodox and religious populations, for whom we will probably open kosher locations in the future, I'm talking about the traditional audience and the secular people who do mix meat and dairy, but pork feels like too much of a deviation from the cultural norms they grew up with.

"We're not a kosher chain, and we don't pretend to be. We sell sausages with cheese, and the only change is removing two pork sausages from the menu."

Bayern Market's hotdogs (Photo: Shai Ben Efraim)

Have you noticed a drop in sales because of the bad publicity?

"There were articles with quotes from people who said they won't come anymore, and that the chain lost them as customers, and all sorts of comments against the changebut in the field, the numbers are different. Since the pork was removed from the menu several weeks ago, the number of customers at the Sarona Market location has actually gone up.

"It's important to me to say that we didn't try to jump on the bandwagon, as you in the media like to call it. Just like McDonald's sells bacon all over the world, but in Israel it chose not to, we chose to stop selling pork, because we saw it wasn't as beneficial financially. What's all the fuss about?"

Hotdog and beer at Bayern Market (Photo: Shai Ben Efraim)

Unlike Bayern, Japanika removed the sea food from its menu quietly, without issuing a statement to the media. Perhaps it was because they were trying to avoid the kind of bad publicity Agadir experienced. But it didn't work. The news that shrimp had been removed from their menu caused quite an outrage.

To address the issue, Japanika released a video titled "Fire Shrimpsy" (which is actually rather funny), doing its own version of Labor leader Avi Gabbay's press conference announcing the split from Tzipi Livni's Hatnua, with Gabbay replaced by a giant sushi roll, while Livni is replaced by a weepy shrimp. The video helped minimize the bad publicity, but did not get Japanika completely off the hook.

"The reason for the change is very simple," says Japanika CEO Gadi Benoliel. "It all derives from financial reasons, and any other motive the media gives this is far from true."

Japanika sushi (Photo: Shai Ben Efraim)

So why the sudden change?

"It's very simple: The dishes that include sea food are not in demand in the chain's restaurants. In addition, the Health Ministry requires sea food to have its own section in the kitchen, and that is a waste of real estate that the restaurant needs for other things. To say we're capitulating to the religious public is far from the truth. We are open on Shabbat and sell meat and dairy together.

"It's important to me that people understand this change took two whole years, during which we thoroughly examined the issue and only then made the change. Believe me, food chains don't decide to remove raw materials or certain dishes from the menu if they are popular and profitable."

Benoliel admits, however, that the chain didn't plan on making a public statement on the matter. "I released a quiet message to the franchisees that we're going on a new journey without sea food. And then something bizarre happenedjournalists framed our choice as political, a capitulation to the Haredim."

Is there a chance you will go back on your decision?

"At the moment, no. There's no demand for sea food. We have eight kosher restaurants across the country, and as for the non-kosher locationswith sea food and without it, we're not relevant for the Haredim. We have no kosher certification, and the kitchen doesn't separate dairy and meat."

In grandpa's memory

The kosher trend is not exclusive to the restaurant chains. A series of bars and restaurants across the country have recently gone kosher as well. Giggsi, a bar-restaurant in Be'er Sheva, decided three months ago to shut its doors on Shabbat and turn kosher.

"The population in Be'er Sheva is more traditional than the population in Tel Aviv, so we weren't selling sea food and pork anyway. But we weren't kosher because we were open on Shabbat," says owner Asaf Benatia.

Why did you suddenly decide to make the change?

"Both myself and my business partner come from traditional homes. When my grandfather passed away, the change just felt right to me. He was a man of faith and would not eat at my restaurant because I didn't have a kosher certificate. I felt he would be happy to see from above the change I made in his memory."

Bacon cheeseburger (file photo)

And the responses?

"There were some who reacted negatively, claiming they wouldn't come anymore or boycott the place, saying we capitulated to the religious. But at the same time, our sale numbers went up. You have to understand we gave up on the two most profitable days of the week in the restaurant business (Friday and Saturday), while at the same time we saw an increase in profits. If my restaurant was in Tel Aviv, I might have chosen differently."

The famous Al Hamayim (On the Water) restaurant in Herzliya also changed its menu a year ago and went kosher. Aviram Hason, the owner, says he became more religious, and so he chose to make his restaurant kosher, after 27 years in which it operated without a kashrut certificate.

"Our restaurants are very successful on weekends, and as an owner I took a significant step that could have financially hurt our bottom line. I was happy to see there's a broad audience of religious people who choose to come specifically to us from all across the country. In hindsight, I can say it was a financially beneficial choice," he says.

Parve mashed potatoes

Chef Shaul Ben-Aderet explains that choosing to go with a kosher menu is an inevitable financial move for many restaurateurs. "As you know, my restaurants are not kosher. They operate on Shabbat and serve sea food," he says.

"When I opened the Kimmel restaurant in Tel Aviv 25 years ago, I had dishes that included pork, but after a short while I realized pork specifically was causing aversion to many people. Meaning, sea food was welcomed by my customers, but pork was taboo. The public has to remember that restaurants and food companies are businesses that want to give customers what they want. At the Kimmel Gilboa restaurant, because of the more traditional population in the area, I decided not to sell sea food and separate dairy from meat. For example, a beef tenderloin dish, which is served with mashed potatoesthe mashed potatoes will be parve (neither meat nor milk), while in Tel Aviv they are dairy. I see this as being considerate toward my customers and understanding their needs."

So are you in favor of this trend?

"I think every business needs to operate according to what works for it and its customers. A number of restaurateurs I know have turned their restaurants kosher, and they are completely happy with the change. They claim they got new customers that hadn't come in the past, while at the same time they gained days off on Friday and Saturday. Furthermore, some even say their profits haven't changed, and at times even increased. I don't think turning a restaurant kosher is pandering, and it's not necessarily negative. Moreover, restaurants that want groups of people or companies to come to them should have a kosher option. It's enough that one person keeps kosher, and the entire group won't come to you, and that's a great loss."

Shrimp sushi (file photo) (Photo: Shutterstock)

What are the downsides to turning a restaurant kosher?

"If you ask my opinion, it appears that in the coming years more and more modern kosher restaurants are going to appear, with menus that try to appeal both to the religious audience and to the secular one.

"The limitations of a kosher restaurant are mostly in the costs: a kashrut supervisor; kosher raw materials that cost more; closing our doors at Passover and weekends, which are strong days in the restaurant business. When a restaurant is debating whether to become kosher, it needs to first look at the geographic area it is located in. In Tel Aviv, it's less important, but in Jerusalem and in the periphery, it's critical."

As an example, he mentions the kosher restaurant that chef Moshe Segev opened in Be'er Sheva several months ago, which he recently turned non-kosher due to financial considerations.

Segev explained his decision saying there is no financial justification in keeping a restaurant in Be'er Sheva closed on Saturday, as it is the most profitable day of the week. "The advantage of a kosher restaurant is obvious; it can appeal to all sectors of society," he says. "But you also need to think financially and see whether in that particular location, there is financial justification for that choice."

"In any case, even in my non-kosher restaurants, 99 percent of them won't serve sea food, and I've never served pork in my restaurants. In the one percent that did serve sea food, I chose to remove it from the menu several years ago."This is a story of bereavement, shared destiny and the triumph of life over death. This is the story of Ayelet Dikshtein and Avigdor Gavish, who experienced awful tragedy, but decided to move on, refusing to succumb to the pain, and who found each other.

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Ayelet and Avigdorboth of whom lost their parents and siblings in separate shooting attacks in 2002this month held their engagement celebration, an occasion of joy mixed with sadness. The celebration took place at the home of Avigdor's brother, in the West Bank settlement of Elkana.

Ayelet Dikshtein and Avigdor Gavish (Photo: Yedioth Ahronoth)

Terror struck Avigdor's family in 2002, during the Second Intifada, when he was a 19-year-old recruit in the Israel Defense Forces. During the Jewish festival of Passover, and a day after the infamous massacre at the Park Hotel in Netanya, a Palestinian terrorist broke into his parents' house in the West Bank settlement of Elon Moreh.

The terrorist opened fire, fatally wounding Avigdor's father, David, who later succumbed to his wounds, and murdering his mother Rachel and her father Yitzhak Kanner on the spot.

Yitzhak Kanner

The terrorist then shot Avigdor's older brother, Avraham, who was a major in the elite Sayeret Matkal unit.

Avraham told his younger brother to get his rifle from upstairs. Avigdor, who still doing his basic training, calmly followed his brother's orders, while making sure that the rest of his siblings were safe. In the meantime, Avraham also succumbed to his wounds. The terrorist was eventuially shot dead by IDF troops who attended the scene.

The Gavish family

Months later, terror also struck Ayelet's family. At the end of 2002, the Dikshtein family were traveling from their home at the Psagot settlement to visit relatives when terrorists opened fire on their car.

Ayelet's nine-year-old brother and her mother Hana were critically wounded in the attack. Her father Yosef exited the vehicle to help his wife and son, and was shot dead. Shortly afterwards, her mother and younger brother died of their injuries. Ayelet, then a teenager, demonstrated resourcefulness under fire, assisting the rest of her brothers who were still in the vehicle.

The Dikshtein family before the attack

Despite his personal tragedy, Avigdor continued serving in the elite Maglan unit, becoming a squadron leader and then a deputy company commander.

After concluding his military service, Avigdor began his bachelor's degree in industrial engineering. A couple of years ago, he decided to make a career change and after completing his degree in music, he released an album titled "A New Day," for which he wrote the lyrics, composed the music and performed the vocals.

Ayelet went on to study education at the David Yellin College of Education, dedicated herself to dancing and is a movement therapist.

Avigdor and Ayelet met during one of the meetings organized by the One Family NGO for children who lost their parents to terror, and discovered they share a similar life story. With time, their relationship grew stronger and they become a couple.

On the day of their engagement, Avigdor and Ayelet visited the graves of his parents, brother and grandfather in Elon Moreh and then the resting places of Ayelet's parents and younger brother. Only then they did they call their friends and relatives to say that they were getting married.

Today, Avigdor is working on his second album. "This album is about connections. There are fragile moments during which connections are created. They might be elusive, and by the time they are created, they are gone again. Each song tells of my connection to music, to my father, to my best friend Elhai, who was also killed, and the depths of our souls."Good morning. Im Paul Thornton, and it is Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019. Tomorrow marks the two-year anniversary of Donald Trumps presidency (more on that below). Lets take a look back at the week in Opinion.

I never hoped I would eat my words as much as when I wrote in this newsletter last month  almost a generation ago by our dizzying political standards  that President Trumps infamous Oval Office argument with Nancy Pelosi and Charles E. Schumer indicated that a partial government shutdown would almost certainly happen. Now, were on to guessing just how much damage this longest-ever-and-continuing shutdown will inflict on the 800,000 federal workers whose incomes have been suspended and on the economy as a whole.

The best way to answer that question is to determine what consequences Trump would have to endure to budge on his demand for $5.7 billion in border wall funding and reopen the government. The president softening his heart toward immigrants seems beyond the realm of possibility, but what if something else softens  like the rock-solid support of his base? Dont count on that ever happening, says sociologist and physician Jonathan M. Metzl in an L.A. Times op-ed article:

Politics, of course, is often messy and confounding. People identify with particular politicians for reasons that dont make sense to outsiders who dont share their politics. Sometimes one priority overshadows another. Yet several themes emerged from my research. One was an ability of GOP voters, especially those who mistrusted the government, to hold seemingly conflicting thoughts about government services. Id be dead without my Medicaid, one man told our focus groups, and next said, The ACA is socialism in its most evil form. Ineffective government also played to long-held biases and anxieties about race. One white Kansas parent who identified as a GOP supporter insisted that school budget cuts were justified because blacks just use school funds to rent party buses. More frequent were vague concerns about ways that minorities or immigrants usurped undeserved resources, such as when one respondent claimed that, the Mexicans, their food stamps, everything they want, were paying for it. Such concerns sometimes led to people standing on principle even when it harmed them. Ill never forget how a man pulling an oxygen tank because of severe lung disease told me he would rather die (and soon did die) than receive benefits from the ACA because it used my tax dollars on Mexicans and welfare queens. Data that my research team amassed showed how these kinds of mortal trade-offs shortened lifespans, and sometimes disproportionately harmed white communities that form the core of GOP support. To be sure, I encountered many GOP voters who simply believed in smaller and more effective governance, and whose political views were not driven by a sense that others were gaming the system. But such moderate voices were smaller in number among my research subjects, and they certainly havent held sway in recent elections. >> Click here to read more

Its been almost two years since Trump began lying from the Oval Office. Tomorrow, as Ive already noted, marks the second anniversary of Trumps inauguration  and the day after that marks the second anniversary of Trumps first provably false whopper dispensed from the White House. Scott Martelle warns of the damage done to our democracy by the presidents compulsive dishonesty. L.A. Times

Another week, another potential impeachable offense  but this one could actually be dangerous for Trump. Virginia Heffernan delights in the possibility that Trumps moral turpitude, in allegedly telling his former personally attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress, could bring real legal trouble upon the president. The second possible federal crime in which Trump has been implicated by Cohen prompts Jon Healey to warn: Hell hath no fury like a fixer scorned.

Busting the myth of Kamala Harris, progressive prosecutor: As the 2020 campaign approaches, expect to read more pieces like the one by law professor Lara Bazelon examining Harris work as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general. Bazelon writes: Time after time, when progressives urged her to embrace criminal justice reforms as a district attorney and then the states attorney general, Ms. Harris opposed them or stayed silent. Most troubling, Ms. Harris fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that had been secured through official misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony and the suppression of crucial information by prosecutors. New York Times

Gavin Newsom, job-doer  and thats much better than whats in Washington and several other states, says Paul Krugman. In contrast to Republicans content to draw out the shutdown, governors like Newsom are trying to shore up their state healthcare systems and proposing to spend more on education and housing. New York TimesYankton, SD (57078)

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Enter the LAST NAME and the 7 DIGIT phone number on your print subscription account to connect your print subscription to your yakimaherald.com account.There are moments in Vice, a forbidding portrait of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and Leave No Trace, a parable of an Iraq vet trapped with his demons in the Oregon woods, when the travails of recent American history are compressed into how one man becomes a casualty in anothers relentless pursuit of power.

Vice explores a post-9/11 White House where Cheney, President George W. Bushs scheming shadow, veers the nation into two misguided wars that helped instigate todays political enmity and cultural divisions. Leave No Trace gives us Will, a fictional metaphor for hundreds of thousands of American soldiers maimed physically and psychologically in the deserts of Iraq and the valleys of Afghanistan.

The films are bookends for a time thats passed but really hasnt. Cheneys quiet, methodical cunning to expand presidential powers and rouse conservatives with patriotism and fear of the other were a prelude to President Trumps ascent on immigration fears and Make America Great Again slogans. Soldiers like Will were footnotes in Cheneys design, often forgotten outcasts in a legacy of opioids, addiction, suicides and PTSD that has plagued veterans for nearly two decades.

The movies, which epitomize the disparate styles of their directors, unsettle the tidy notions a nation makes to mask its darker self and the consequences of its actions. Taken together, Vice and Leave No Trace are indictments  one subtle, the other not  on our polarized, self-serving politics and the countrys inability and indifference to heal the unseen wounds of the men and women it sent to do its bidding.

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Adam McKays Cheney (Christian Bale in a Golden Globe-winning portrayal) is the consummate insider, a man of stealth who navigates a Washington punctuated by cutting asides, shifting loyalties, corruption, Shakespearean bedtime banter and a waiter (Alfred Molina) who slyly offers torture on a menu. Like McKays The Big Short, a skewering of Wall Street over the 2008 financial crisis, Vice is a bristling panorama of caricatures and incisive renderings of men and a few women with dangerous ambition and boundless hubris.

Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie and Ben Foster star in Leave No Trace. (Scott Green / Bleecker Street)

RELATED: Debra Granik explores the bond between father and daughter in the timely drama Leave No Trace

Leave No Trace protagonist Will (a haunted Ben Foster) lives with his daughter, Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie), in a solitude of forest rains and ever encompassing isolation. He sparks campfires and moves as if a breeze through the underbrush. Director and co-writer Debra Granik can make nature serene and menacing, full of beauty and hushed sounds, as if placing a soul adrift in unpredictable elements. The film casts a mood similar to Winters Bone, her masterful 2010 exploration into sins and family bonds deep in the Ozarks.

Its a really hard time after a war, says Granik, whose 2014 documentary, Stray Dog, about a Vietnam veteran, helped inform her script for Leave No Trace. No one wants to talk about it. The headlines are gone. Its not appreciated in films. Its like, OK we did that. Its had its window. We have this amnesia. We cycle through these wars. We mourn or grieve and acknowledge the works of the warriors and then it literally falls out of favor.

Will is the faded headline, Cheney, the man held unaccountable.

Christian Bale as Vice President Dick Cheney in Adam McKays Vice. (Annapurna Pictures)

RELATED: Adam McKay and Christian Bale on launching their Dick Cheney biopic Vice into todays polarized climate

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The Cheney in Vice views himself as a protector who must do whatever it takes to keep Americans safe. Although he is at the center of the nations wars, he appears detached, strolling hidden hallways or riding horses in the West while fire rains down on Saddam Hussein. Cheney was secretary of Defense under President George H.W. Bush during the first Gulf War in 1991; he knew how cruise missiles, drones and satellite technology could turn the battlefield into a distant abstraction of video-game-like figures.

Looks like its time to take Iraq, he says in the film, despite the fact that in 2003 no credible intelligence linked Hussein to weapons of mass destruction or ties to Al Qaeda. But anyone who questioned that agenda  remember the Dixie Chicks?  was scorned as unpatriotic and naive to the cruel ways of the world.

Vice at times reduces Cheney, whose former company Halliburton reaped billions of dollars in government contracts from the war, to a man consumed solely with power. But Cheney and his wife, Lynne (played in Vice by Amy Adams), were ideologues pushing a conservative, U.S.-first agenda to rationalize torture (enhanced interrogation), spying (eavesdropping on Americans phone calls and emails) and overthrowing leaders (Hussein) who were no threat to Washington.

I can feel your recrimination and your judgment and Im fine with that, says Cheney, looking directly into the camera at the audience. He was, after all, the guiding force for George W. Bush (Sam Rockwell) and a White House that did not want the flag-draped coffins of soldiers photographed; they chose to pretend the spoils of war didnt sting. You answer me this: What terrorist attack would you have let go forward so you wouldnt seem like a mean and nasty fella? I will not apologize for keeping your families safe.

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The ground Cheney set  repeatedly misleading Americans on the danger of Iraq, even after he left office  would later bloom into the Trump administrations use of lies and alternative facts. Played by Bale, Cheney, unlike Trump, is reticent, plotting and well versed in the sinews of politics and government. He would not have been a tweeter. In one scene, he tells Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell) to tone down his rhetoric because: We have the conservative radio and TV doing the yelling for us.

This is a guy who had an outsized influence on American history and world history, McKay says in an interview with The Times. Hes clearly not a charismatic guy. Hes clearly a guy who lived in the shadows.

McKay adds: No one is born evil or good or a hero or a villain. Life is incredibly complicated and were all doing the best we can, even the worst of the worst among us. Dick and Lynne came through the era of the Reagan Revolution that changed everything, and they saw that country under attack. And he used the tools and the beliefs that he had learned, which was executive authority and power, and you hit back. And when America needs to, we can get dark.

Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, left, and director Debra Granik on the set of Leave No Trace. (Scott Green / Bleecker Street)

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Will of Leave No Trace is engulfed in that darkness. The film is personal, not political  a father and daughter coming to terms with who they are. But roaming the woods, sleeping beneath a lean-to and foraging for food, Will is testament to trillions of dollars spent on two failed wars: more than 400,000 Iraqi civilians killed, the deaths of at least 4,400 U.S. soldiers, 32,000 U.S. casualties, and a 31% increase in suicides among American service members since 2001.

An ancient warrior voice and a damaged conscience reside in him. He is connected to the battlers in Homer, the trench troops of World War I, the soldiers of Vietnam. The specter of the battlefield turned many into unsettled souls, questioning the war that bruised their morality and forced them into a self-banishment from the world they had once known. Granik called it the dark downside.

This spirit that lives on the margin, says Granik, who based her film on Peter Rocks novel My Abandonment. We dont know if we can see him or not. He lives in the woods. Is he to be feared? Is he to be loved? There is someone dwelling in those woods. We dont know much about him. We dont know what he needs. We dont know why hes choosing to live this way. That was the beginning of being able to name post-traumatic stress.

Will carries a newspaper story about Iraqi vets committing suicide. He sees bits of himself in their words. He stops taking his medications, knowing that too many vets are addicted to opioids, antidepressants and other prescription drugs that have only caused more despair. Granik blames the pharmaceutical industry for turning the VA into the largest suicide prevention agency in the world.

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Well trained in the art of survival, Will clings to Tom in the belief that he can raise her. They are an itinerant home. But she is a girl who hasnt seen the things hes seen. They find refuge at a commune. Tom senses she belongs; she wants a piece of a bigger family. Will feels trapped. He needs to strip to his essence, to keep minimal, to stay far from the crowd. Tom knows this. It breaks her heart, but she knows, and there is acceptance when Will slips on his rucksack.

Theres such a rich legacy of soldier poets after wars, Granik says. To think your own thoughts about what you did, why you did it, who asked you to do it, all the parameters of what happened to you. To crack that open becomes excruciating for some, but I like the rigor it takes to do that.

Leave No Trace ends with Will disappearing into the forest, the flicker of a ghost. The last we see of Cheney in Vice is when he looks at the camera and accepts no blame.

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See the most-read stories this hour 

Twitter: @JeffreyLAT

jeffrey.fleishman@latimes.comHarare (AFP) - Zimbabwe police manned checkpoints on many main roads on Saturday, searching vehicles for protesters involved in recent anti-government demonstrations.

The crackdown by security forces has been fiercely criticised by the UN human rights office, with allegations of shootings, beatings and abductions of opposition figures, activists and ordinary residents.

Police road blocks were a notorious feature of daily life under former president Robert Mugabe.

But they largely disappeared after he was ousted by the military in November 2017 and his former deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa took power.

"We want to tell members of the public that... we have already set up security checkpoints where police officers and other security institutions will be checking," police spokeswoman Charity Charamba told Saturday's state-owned Herald newspaper.

The aim, she added, is to catch suspected looters and recover property stolen during protests that erupted after Mnangagwa last weekend announced a 150-percent increase in petrol prices.

The Herald said 700 people had been arrested since the violent protests, which it blamed on the opposition MDC party and trade unions.

- Police with assault rifles -

Police were in action at checkpoints on Saturday in the capital Harare and the second city Bulawayo, AFP reporters witnessed.

In Bulawayo, police officers armed with assault rifles manned roadblocks on every major road, conducting "stop and search" operations.

In both cities, customers seeking to stock up on basic goods tentatively returned to shops that opened for the first time since the protests started on Monday.

Long queues formed to buy bread and petrol, which are both in short supply due to Zimbabwe's long-running economic crisis.

"Nothing has changed after the fuel price increase," said one motorist in a queue who identified himself only as Sonny.

In Bulawayo, soldiers escorted fuel tanks delivering supplies to petrol stations.

Story continues

Social media has been blocked by the government in an apparent attempt to suppress information about the security operation and alleged abuses.

A complete internet shutdown was lifted on Friday.

"The internet was the tool used to coordinate the violence," presidential spokesman George Charamba told state TV.

"There is no way you expect us to sacrifice a national good for the sake of internet. If they want uninterrupted internet, let them abide by the law."

- Excessive use of force -

The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum said it had recorded at least 12 deaths, 78 gunshot injuries and more than 240 incidents of assault and torture.

The United Nations human rights office on Friday urged Harare to "stop the crackdown", voicing alarm over the security forces' "excessive use of force" which included reports of them using live ammunition.

And it called on Zimbabwe's government "to find ways of engaging with the population about their legitimate grievances".

The army and police held a joint press conference late Saturday to deny any misconduct, saying some assailants were wearing official uniforms to pose as security personnel.

"We want to warn those bent on causing mayhem that the law will be applied without fear or favour," defence forces spokesman Overson Mugwisi said.

Mnangagwa, 76, is trying to drum up investment on an overseas tour that started in Russia on Monday and will end with him mixing with world leaders at the Davos summit in Switzerland next week.

Mugabe, now 94, ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist for 37 years from independence from Britain until he was ousted in November 2017.

The military, fearing that Mugabe's wife Grace was being lined up to succeed him, seized control and forced him to resign before ushering Mnangagwa to power.Washington (AFP) - A US court on Friday confirmed the arrest of a journalist for Iranian television, saying her testimony is required over an unspecified case but that she is not accused of a crime.

Iran has protested the arrest of Marzieh Hashemi, who was born in the United States and is a presenter on Iran's English-language Press TV, amid high tensions between the two countries.

At a hearing in Washington, Beryl Howell, the chief judge of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, ordered the partial unsealing of an order on Hashemi, referred to by her former name of Melanie Franklin.

The order said that Hashemi was arrested on "a material arrest warrant" in a case in Washington.

She will be released immediately after the completion of her testimony to a grand jury investigating unspecified "violations of US criminal law."

"Franklin has been appointed an attorney and has not been accused of any crime," it said.

Hashemi married an Iranian man and converted to Islam. She has produced documentaries critical of US policy in the Middle East and the country's treatment of Muslims and African Americans.

She was arrested Sunday at the St. Louis airport on a visit to see an ailing family member, Press TV said.

Iran, generally on the receiving end of criticism by the United States on press freedom and human rights, pledged to defend Hashemi, who it considers an Iranian citizen due to her marriage.

"The arrest of Marzieh Hashemi by America is an unacceptable political act that tramples on freedom of speech," Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Wednesday.

The New York-based Committee to Protest Journalists voiced concern earlier Friday about the arrest, saying that the United States needed to disclose the reason for her arrest.

The advocacy group said that Iran is detaining at least eight journalists over their work.

In one of the most notorious cases, Iran detained Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian for 544 days before he was freed as part of a reconciliation deal with President Barack Obama's administration.(Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May made no change to her demands in talks with European Union leaders despite her Brexit plan being defeated by British lawmakers earlier this week, the Telegraph newspaper reported http://bit.ly/2RCdHch on Friday. May's demands continued to focus around either a legally binding time-limit for the Irish 'backstop'; a right for Britain to unilaterally withdraw, or a commitment to a trade deal finalization before 2021 to prevent the backstop from coming into force, the report said, citing unnamed senior EU diplomatic sources. The backstop is an insurance policy designed to prevent the return of border checks on the frontier between EU-member Ireland and Northern Ireland. May repeated her demands in talks with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Irish leader Leo Varadkar, the paper reported. On Friday night, May was also going to meet Arlene Foster, leader of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party, which has 10 seats in parliament and supports May's government but not her Brexit deal, a Telegraph reporter said on Twitter. The meeting would also be attended by Nigel Dodds, deputy leader of the DUP. May's deal for Britain to leave the EU was defeated earlier this week by 230 votes. She has appealed to lawmakers to come together to try to break the impasse. (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Catherine Evans and Rosalba O'Brien)President Donald Trump will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the end of February for a second summit seeking an agreement to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.

The announcement comes just after Trump met with former North Korean spy chief Kim Yong Chol in the White House Oval Office.

President Donald J. Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and a half to discuss denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement, according to Bloomberg. The President looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also met Kim Yong Chol earlier Friday in a Washington hotel, the Associated Press reports. A State Department spokesman told AP the discussion went well, with the two nations making progress towards commitments made during the Trump-Kim summit last June.

North Korea abruptly called off a meeting between Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol in New York last November. The reasons why were unclear, but Pyongyang was reportedly pushing for early relief from sanctions before eliminating its weapons program.

Since the landmark Trump-Kim summit, there has been little evidence that North Korea is actually taking steps to denuclearize. According to Bloomberg, satellite-imagery analysis and leaked U.S. intelligence shows North Korea is continuing to build rockets and warheads, even if weapons testing has stopped.Diyarbakir (Turkey) (AFP) - Thousands demonstrated Saturday in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast to support a detained lawmaker from a pro-Kurdish party who launched a hunger strike in November.

Waving flags of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), they danced and flashed victory signs in Diyabakir, the main city in the region, to express solidarity with Leyla Guven.

The HDP describes Guven's condition as "life threatening."

The 55-year-old began a hunger strike on November 8 in protest at the prison conditions for Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan.

"It is our duty to add our voices to that of Leyla's," HDP's co-president Pervin Buldan told the gathering.

Ocalan is one of the founders of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, and which is blacklisted as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

He has been serving a life sentence for treason in an island prison near Istanbul since his capture in 1999.

Guven's action is aimed at pressuring the government into allowing lawyers and family members to visit Ocalan, whose brother was finally allowed to meet him in jail a week ago.

She was arrested for her opposition to Turkey's military operation against a Syrian Kurdish militia that Ankara considers an offshoot of the PKK and has been in jail since January last year.London (AFP) - A suspected car bomb exploded in the Northern Irish city of Londonderry on Saturday, police said, with leading politicians alleging the blast was terror-related.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland tweeted a photograph of the scene outside a courthouse as it warned that evacuations were taking place due to a second suspect vehicle in the British province's second city.

"Police are in attendance at the scene of an incident in Derry/Londonderry city centre," the PSNI tweeted.

"We would ask for patience and co-operation of the public and the business community as we carry out our initial investigations."

"Bishop Street closed. Stay away. Suspected car bomb," an earlier tweet said.

The force added on Facebook: "As far as we know no one injured. There is another car we are not happy about. There are ongoing necessary evacuations," it posted.

Politicians from all sides on the island of Ireland condemned the incident.

Former Northern Irish first minister Arlene Foster, who heads the province's Democratic Unionist Party, referred to it as a "pointless act of terror", while the Republic of Ireland's foreign minister Simon Coveney called it a "car bomb terrorist attack".

The three decades of sectarian bloodshed in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles, were largely brought to an end under the 1998 Good Friday peace accords. Car bomb attacks were responsible for some of the worst atrocities.

Foster, who leads the pro-British DUP, said: "This pointless act of terror must be condemned in the strongest terms. Only hurts the people of the city.

"Perpetrated by people with no regard for life."

She said the swift actions of the emergency services had helped ensure there were no fatalities or injuries.

Coveney, also Ireland's deputy prime minister, tweeted: "I utterly condemn the car bomb terrorist attack in Derry this evening.

"There is no place and no justification possible for such acts of terror, which seek to drag Northern Ireland back to violence and conflict."

Story continues

Elisha McCallion, the local member of the British parliament from the Irish republican party Sinn Fein, condemned the bomb attack.

"This incident has shocked the local community," she said in a statement.

"Thankfully, no one appears to have been injured.

"Derry is a city moving forward and no one wants this type of incident."Zachary Keck

Security, Middle East

Imagine this.

Super Weapon: Israel Could Arm Stealth F-35s with Nuclear Weapons

There is no reason to think that Israel doesnt have the technical capability to make its new F-35s nuclear capable

By the end of this year, Israel is expected to become the second country after the United States to declare Initial Operational Capability for its F-35s. Already, Tel Aviv has taken possession of five of the multirole fighters, and following an agreement late last month to buy an additional seventeen planes, will ultimately purchase fifty planes. All fifty F-35s are scheduled to be delivered by the end of 2024.

(This first appeared in 2017.)

Israeli officials typically describe the F-35s purpose as ensuring the countrys continued air superiority in the region. In particular, they focus on how the planes stealth capabilities will allow them to evade Irans increasingly capable, Russian-built air defense systems. One mission that is not being discussed is that Israel will likely use its F-35s as a nuclear delivery system.

Although the government refuses to officially acknowledge it, Israel is known to have a nuclear arsenal with as many as 100 warheads. The Jewish State is also believed to possess a nuclear triad, consisting of ground-based Jericho missiles, Dolphin-class submarines equipped with sea-launched cruise missiles and some combination of nuclear-capable aircraft.

Its likely that the F-35 will be the newest addition to the air leg of Israels triad. This technically should cause some diplomatic problems with the United States. Previously, in order to purchase the A-4 Skyhawk and F-4 Phantoms from the United States in the 1960s, Israel agreed not to use U.S.-supplied aircraft as nuclear delivery systems. Before acquiring the F-4 Phantoms, for instance, the United States requested and received assurances that Israel would not use any aircraft supplied by the United States as a nuclear weapons carrier.

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At the same time, Israel also assured the United States that it would not introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East, which Israel interpreted to mean it could build a nuclear arsenal as long as it didnt publicly acknowledge its existence. Its possible Israel attaches a similarly tortured interpretation to its pledge not to use U.S. aircraft as nuclear weapon carriers. As Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris have pondered, What do use and carrier mean? Do they refer to equipping an aircraft with the capability to deliver nuclear weapons or do they refer to the act of employment itself? Kristensen and Norris also point out that it is not known if Israel made similar pledges when it acquired F-15 and F-16 aircraft in the 1980s and 1990s. Regardless of what pledges were or were not made, Kristensen and Norris judge that some of Israels F-15s and F-16s are nuclear capable.

If true, it would only make sense that Israels F-35s would be a nuclear-capable aircraft, as Tel Avivs Joint Strike Fighters are supposed to replace its current fleet of F-16s. Furthermore, the Israeli F35s will be based on the F-35A variant of the Joint Strike Fighters. This is significant because the United States and some of its allies are planning to equip part of their F-35A fleet with America's B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb.

Of course, Israel doesnt have access to the B61-12 bomb, and some have doubted Israels ability to refit the planes in order to carry its indigenous nuclear warheads. Changing the internal wiring and engineering of the plane to accommodate a different warhead could be done, but not without significant challenges, one analyst told War is Boring in 2014. Especially for a plane thats had the extensive engineering challenges that have been the hallmark of the F-35 program.

Similar arguments were made in the past, only to turn out to be wrong. This time is unlikely to be any different. When the United States was considering selling Pakistan F-16s in the 1980s, many argued that Islamabad lacked the technical sophistication to turn these into nuclear-capable aircraft. That turned out to be false. Furthermore, as noted above, there is good reason to believe that Israel has already retooled U.S. planes like the F-16 to carry nuclear weapons. Although the F-35 is more technically challenging, there is little reason to think Israels advanced defense industry cannot overcome these obstacles.

One way that the United States could try to prevent Israel from transforming the F-35 into a nuclear delivery system is by prohibiting Tel Aviv from making any changes to the plane. This is actually the policy the United States has adopted toward allies that have purchased the F-35s. As Wired has reported: The [F-35] stealth fighter jet, which Lockheed Martin is selling to US allies, comes with caveats that expressly prohibit unauthorized tinkering and a requirement that only US-run facilities service the plane. These rules, designed to protect deeply intertwined systems and maintain the security of sensitive technology, are non-negotiable.

The only exception to this rule is Israel. While every other F-35 operator will be prohibited from making any changes without Americas permission, Israel will be allowed to install its own custom software and weapon systems, as well as do its own maintenance. The head of Israels main air force testing center has said: All our platforms have been upgraded to enable stretching the flight envelope while using the unique weapon systems made by Israeli industry. Since Israel already intends to refit its F-35s to carry Israeli-specific weapons, its defense industry can surely equip some to carry indigenous nuclear gravity bombs. Moreover, the stand-off missiles Israel is putting on its F-35s can carry a heavy enough payload to support a nuclear warhead.

Thus, there is no reason to think that Israel doesnt have the technical capability to make its new F-35s nuclear capable. And, even those who doubt that Israel can refit its F-35s to carry nuclear bombs dont dispute that Israel would want this capability. As one analyst put: If Israeli F-35s can carry nukes, or if the ever-inventive Israeli defense industry can modify them to do so, then Israel could possess an atomic strike plane able to penetrate Iranian air defenses in the event of full-scale war.

Read full articleKano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Six Nigerian soldiers were killed and 14 injured when Boko Haram jihadists raided a village near the army chief's family home, security and hospital sources said Saturday.

The jihadists attacked an army position overnight Thursday in Kamuya, a village in the northeastern state of Borno near the home of army chief of staff Tukur Yusuf Buratai's mother, the sources said.

"We lost six soldiers in the fight and 14 others sustained various degrees of injuries," an army officer said.

"The terrorists also suffered heavy losses," the officer added without giving figures.

A medic at the hospital in nearby Damaturu confirmed that the bodies of six soldiers were taken to the morgue on Friday.

Four military vehicles were also seized by the jihadists while two others were destroyed, said the military source who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak about the incident.

Security sources initially told AFP that troops had fought off the militants in a three-hour battle during which the jihadists failed to overrun the post.

It was not known which Boko Haram faction was behind the attack, although the IS-affiliated Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) is known to operate in the area.

Kamuya was hit twice by Boko Haram in December 2015, not long after Buratai, a lieutenant general, was appointed chief of army staff.

The latest attack came days after Boko Haram overran a military base in the town of Rann, near the border with Cameroon, forcing thousands of civilians to flee.

Fourteen people, including three soldiers, were said to have been killed in that attack, and aid workers said buildings used by humanitarian organisations had been burned to the ground.

The UN's humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, said Friday that the attacks -- and others like it -- were having a "devastating impact" on civilians and the relief effort.

Around 1.8 million people are still homeless because of the insurgency, which began in 2009 and has killed more than 27,000.Rome (AFP) - Scores of migrants were feared missing off the Libyan coast, the IOM said Saturday after the Italian navy flew three survivors to the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa.

The International Organization for Migration said the three, who were suffering from hypothermia, had reported that there were initially 120 people on board their inflatable boat.

That meant "there would be 117 missing, including 10 women and a 10-month-old baby," IOM Italia said in comments posted on Twitter.

Earlier the Italian navy said that three migrants had died and about 15 remained missing, after it staged a rescue operation in the Mediterranean.

The navy intervened on Friday and a helicopter rescued the three people, one plucked from the sea and two from life rafts dropped by an air force plane, Admiral Fabio Agostini said.

Air force pilots had "spotted a dinghy in distress carrying about 20 people," he told Italian television in an interview tweeted by the navy.

"Three corpses were seen floating in the water during the operation," he said, adding that the rescuers had been unable to locate the dinghy.

The IOM said that most of the migrants were from Cameroon, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Sudan.

The three survivors said they had been in the sea for about three hours before help arrived.

The German charity group Sea Watch said Saturday that it had rescued 47 migrants from an inflatable boat, but it was not known if they belonged to the same group.

A Red Crescent spokesman meanwhile said 16 bodies had been found on the beaches of the Libyan city of Sirte between January 2 and 15.

According to the IOM, 83 people have died so far this year trying to cross the Mediterranean.

It said the number of migrants and refugees landing on European shores had almost doubled in the first 16 days of this year to 4,216 against 2,365 over the same period in 2018.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said "we cannot turn a blind eye to the high numbers of people dying on Europe's doorstep".

Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, in a Facebook video, said "the shipwrecks are back in the Mediterranean. The boats are leaving again and we are counting the dead".

But Salvini insisted there was no question of reconsidering his decision to ban access to Italian ports to NGOs, which he accused of playing the people smugglers' game.Moscow (AFP) - A Belarusian model who claimed she had proof of Russian collusion with the Trump election campaign, had her detention in Moscow extended by three days by a Russian court on Saturday.

Anastasia Vashukevich, also known as Nastya Rybka, has been held for questioning since Thursday after she was deported from Thailand as part of a group convicted of participating in a "sex training course".

"The court has decided to extend her detention by 72 hours," judge Natalya Borissenkova was cited as stating by the Ria Novosti news agency.

She denied the accusation of prostitution, telling the court that "I am not guilty of what I am accused," Interfax reported.

In a case that veered between salacious and bizarre, Vashukevich has said she had travelled to Thailand after becoming embroiled in a political scandal with Russian aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska -- a one-time associate of US President Trump's disgraced former campaign director Paul Manafort.

She then set tongues wagging by promising to reveal "missing puzzle pieces" regarding claims the Kremlin aided Trump's 2016 presidential election victory.

But the material never surfaced and critics dismissed the claims as a publicity stunt.

Both Washington and Moscow publicly shrugged off Vashukevich's story, which the US State Department described as "bizarre".

She had been in custody in Thailand since a police raid in the sleazy seaside resort of Pattaya early last year.

She was arrested at Moscow airport on Thursday after being deported from Thailand where she had spent a year in prison for participating in a "sex training course".

During the hearing in Moscow, she said she did not want to "in any way compromise Oleg Deripaska".

"I have had enough," she added, according to Interfax.

Her lawyer Dmitry Zatsarinsky, told reporters that his young client "has committed no crime" and had "nothing to do with" Deripaska and "still less with Donald Trump".

On Friday he denounced her arrest, which happened while she was in transit from Thailand on her way to Belarus.Robert Pruitt: Devotion Pruitts first solo L.A. museum show features a dozen of his spellbinding charcoal, conte and pastel drawings, a selection of his sculptures, and works by a handful of others who have influenced him. Self-possession radiates from the subject of each portrait, drawn to be palpably human but endowed with the monumentality of deities. Pruitts devotion extends to his mentors but also to these ordinary gods in our midst. (L.O.) California African American Museum, 600 State Drive, Exposition Park, L.A. Now through Feb. 17. Closed Mon. Free. (213) 744-7432.

Beatriz Cortez: Trinidad / Joy Station Installation by the L.A.-based artists celebrates indigenous peoples and multiculturalism; with the companion installation Beatriz Cortez & Rafa Esparza: Nomad 13. Also on display: Focus Iran 3: Contemporary Photography and Video. Craft Contemporary (formerly the Craft & Folk Art Museum), 5814 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. Starts next Sun.; ends May 12. Closed Mon. $5, $7; veterans, active military and children under 10, free. (323) 937-4230.

Dirty Protest: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection Painting, sculpture and media installations by more than 40 international artists. UCLA Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. Starts Thu.; ends May. 19. Closed Mon. Free. (310) 443-7000.

This Is Manga  The Art of Naoki Urasawa Retrospective of the Japanese manga artists work features over 400 drawings and storyboards. Japan House Los Angeles, Hollywood & Highland, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Starts Wed.; ends March 28. Open daily. Free. (800) 516-0565.

Staged Meaning/Meaning Staged Landscapes from the 17th century to the present from the Fishers permanent collection. USC Fisher Museum of Art, 823 W. Exposition Blvd., L.A. Starts Tue.; ends April 13. Open Tue.-Sat. Free. (213) 740-4561.

Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler: Flora The duos double-sided film installation Flora celebrates the unknown American artist Flora Mayo, former paramour of Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. Starts Sun.; ends April 7. Closed Wed. $10-$25; 17 and under, free. (323) 857-6010.

David Johnsons 1858 landscape painting Up the Hudson to West Point is among the works on display in the new exhibition Staged Meaning/Meaning at the USC Fisher Museum of Art.

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You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.By Ismael Lopez MANAGUA (Reuters) - Nicaragua's oldest and most-widely read newspaper published its Friday edition with a blank front page in protest against what it says is the government's withholding of ink, paper and other materials needed for its printing press since September. In a Friday editorial, the La Prensa newspaper asked: "Have you imagined living without information?," and complained that the government of leftist President Daniel Ortega had impounded its supply of printing materials for 20 weeks. "We don't know how much longer we can keep printing the newspaper. Maybe two more months, maybe until tomorrow," Jaime Chamorro, director of La Prensa, told Reuters by phone. Human rights organizations and independent media say the Ortega government is attacking freedom of expression. The government recently shut down a broadcaster and held two reporters on terrorism and hate-incitement charges, while a judge ordered the arrest of three more. The newspaper said customs agents at the behest of the government have been withholding imports of paper and ink in retaliation for critical coverage of simmering political tensions in the Central American country. Since April 2018, Nicaragua has been experiencing one of its worst crises since a civil war in the 1980s. Protests raged for months before a government clampdown reined them in, but more than 300 people were killed during that time and over 500 incarcerated, according to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, one of the groups the government has blacklisted. Rights groups say four radio stations and one TV station have closed, while dozens of journalists have been beaten and threatened. Nicaragua's customs authority was not available for comment on the accusations made by La Prensa. The government did not respond to a request for comment. The Ortega administration maintains there is freedom of expression in the country and has accused the opposition of seeking to mount a coup to oust him. (Writing by Anthony Esposito, editing by G Crosse)Nairobi (AFP) - Kenyan police have arrested the wife and father of a man identified as the suicide bomber in an attack on Nairobi's Dusit hotel complex that left 21 dead, a police source said Saturday.

The attacker, one of five Al-Shabaab militants who stormed the complex on Tuesday, was identified as 25-year-old Mahir Khalid Riziki, who grew up in Mombasa.

"The wife of the suicide bomber is now in our custody. She will help us understand her husband's last moments and his movement, his story in latest years and his very last movements," a senior police official said on condition of anonymity.

"She was arrested in Mombasa and has been brought to Nairobi for further questioning," he added.

His father was also arrested.

"In the course of investigation of this nature, close family members of such people are crucial because they hold crucial information," the source said.

The official said Riziki was identified through mobile phone communication, and that he had communicated with one of the other attackers right before blowing himself up.

"He grew up in Mombasa and that is where he was recruited into Al-Shabaab," he said, adding that he had previously been involved in attacks targeting security forces and has previously travelled to Somalia.

That attack by the Somali Al-Qaeda affiliate led to a 20-hour siege at the DusitD2 hotel and office complex, which also left 28 injured while some 700 people were rescued.

The Dusit revealed it had lost six staff members while telecoms company Cellulant also lost six staff. An American and British-South African dual national were also among those killed.Bogota (AFP) - Colombia Saturday demanded that Cuba hand over ELN rebels who were in Havana for peace talks, after a deadly car bombing Bogota blames on the group.

Conservative President Ivan Duque urged Communist-ruled Cuba -- a host and one of the guarantors of the peace process -- to send home National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels who were in Havana.

On Friday, the government blamed the leftist ELN for the bombing of a police academy in Bogota that killed 20 people as well as the attacker, and dealt a body blow to the peace process.

Duque then announced that he was reinstating arrest warrants for 10 ELN members who are part of the group's delegation to the Cuba talks.

The talks -- started with his predecessor -- were aimed at ending more than five decades of insurgency by the Marxist-inspired insurgents.

Duque said that Cuba must not protect the rebels.

The police academy car bombing "was a crime that violated human rights. And no such act deserves (Cuba acting) to avoid justice being done," Duque said while giving a speech in Tolima.

Colombia has experienced several years of relative calm since the 2016 peace accord signed by then-president Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas.

With the landmark agreement turning the former rebels into a political party, the smaller ELN is considered the last active rebel group in the country.

True to his election promises, Duque has taken a hard line against the ELN, including his demand they release all hostages as a prerequisite to kick-starting the peace process. The group is believed to be currently holding 17 hostages, some of them for several years.BOGOTA, Colombia (AP)  Colombia called on Cuba to arrest 10 National Liberation Army commanders currently in Havana for stalled peace talks after a car bombing blamed on the leftist rebels killed 21 people and injured dozens at a police academy in Bogota.

President Ivan Duque said late Friday that he had revoked a decree suspending arrest orders against leaders of Colombia's last remaining rebel group, known as the ELN for its Spanish initials, who have been living on the communist-run island.

"It's clear to all of Colombia that the ELN has no true desire for peace," Duque said in a televised address, citing a long list of 400 terrorist attacks attributed to the guerrillas since peace talks began in 2017.

"We would like to thank the Cuban government for the solidarity it expressed yesterday and today, and we ask that it capture the terrorists who are inside its territory and hand them over to Colombian police," he said, adding that no ideology could justify the cruelty of Thursday's attack.

Duque's comments came after authorities claimed that a one-armed ELN explosives expert was the person who carried out the attack, the deadliest in the South American nation in 15 years.

Even though Jose Aldemar Rojas had no criminal record, authorities said that the 56-year-old man is the same individual who shows up in intelligence reports as alias Mocho Kiko. He is believed to have lost part of his right arm manipulating explosives during a long clandestine career with an ELN cell near the border with Venezuela. He died in Thursday's attack.

The shock bombing recalled some of the bloodiest chapters of Colombia's recent past and has raised tough questions about lingering security threats in the wake of a 2016 peace deal with the larger and far more lethal Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

It would also appear to mark Duque's return to the law and order platform on which he was elected last year but then somewhat moderated once he took office.

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While Duque stopped short of shutting the door entirely to a negotiated end to decades of fighting with the ELN, he repeated his demands that the groups immediately cease all attacks and release 16 people it is believed to be holding captive as a condition for restarting stalled talks.

He also vowed to condemn any government that provides safe haven to the group  an indirect shot at Venezuela, considered by some a valuable rearguard for the clandestine cell that Rojas is accused of belonging to.

"Systematic deception and irrational violence have been the constant in three decades of failed talks with the ELN," said Duque, who earlier in the day fielded phone calls of support from several foreign leaders as well as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Cuba, which had been sponsoring peace talks and helped broker the historic 2016 deal with the FARC, offered its condolences to Colombia.

Cuba's foreign ministry "will act with strict respect for the Protocols of Dialogue and Peace signed by the Government and the ELN, including the Protocol in Case of a Rupture in Negotiations," wrote foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez.

The death toll of 21 made it the worst tragedy since a 2003 car bombing carried out by FARC rebels against an elite Bogota social club that killed 36. It proved especially unsettling because the target, the General Santander police academy, is one of the city's most protected installations.

With the help of security cameras and fingerprints on his one-remaining hand, investigators were able to quickly identify Rojas and determine that he was the owner and driver of a 1993 Nissan-pick up that was loaded with 80 kilograms (175 pounds) of pentolite carried out the attack.

Defense Minister Guillermo Botero said Rojas entered the heavily guarded facility via a side entrance used for deliveries, driving fast through a gate opened to allow the exit of a few motorcycles. He then maneuvered into the heart of the leafy campus where the vehicle exploded in front of a red tile-roofed barrack used by female cadets just after an honor ceremony had ended.

Less than 10 minutes before the blast an unidentified man descended from the vehicle at a nearby bus stop  an indication the bomb may have been activated remotely and not an unprecedented suicide bombing as some had initially speculated.

Investigators are now trying to determine whether that man is Ricardo Carvajal, who acknowledged taking part in the attack in phone calls intercepted by police. Carvajal was arrested in a pre-dawn raid in Bogota on Friday in which authorities also seized a rebel combatant manual.

"This was an operation being planned for more than 10 months," Botero said.

Only a small number of the 20 deceased cadets have been fully identified because the bodies of the young victims were badly mutilated.

Little is known about Rojas.

Records show he bought the car 10 months ago from Mauricio Mosquera, who authorities said was charged in the past for terrorism and rebellion. The car was last inspected six months ago in the eastern city of Arauca, near the border with Venezuela.

The same border region is a stronghold of the ELN, which has been stepping up its attacks on police targets and oil infrastructure in the volatile area. Authorities said Rojas traveled on several occasions to Venezuela to train rebels in the use of explosives.

In the past two decades the Cuban revolution-inspired group, which is believed to have around 1,500 fighters, has never been capable or shown much interest in carrying out high-profile act of violence.

But they've gained strength since the 2016 peace accord with the FARC led to the demobilization of some 7,000 guerrillas.

___

AP writers Christine Armario and Cesar Garcia contributed to this report.By Helen Murphy BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's ELN rebel group was responsible for the car bomb attack against a police academy that killed at least 21 and injured dozens, President Ivan Duque said on Friday, making it almost impossible peace talks with the insurgent group can soon restart. He called on Cuba to capture 10 National Liberation Army (ELN) commanders who are currently in Havana for the stalled peace talks. In Thursday's attack, a car broke through checkpoints onto the grounds of the General Santander School in the capital Bogota before it detonated, shattering windows of apartments nearby. Defense Minister Guillermo Botero said on Friday the car was driven by ELN explosives expert Jose Aldemar Rojas. "The ELN armed terrorist group is the author of this despicable attack. This was an attack prepared and organized many months in advance. For all of Colombia today it is clear that the ELN has no genuine will for peace," Duque said in a televised national address. At least 20 police cadets died in the blast, as did Rojas, authorities said. The ELN, which was formed by radical Catholic priests in 1964, has not claimed responsibility or issued a public statement. Made up of some 2,000 fighters and considered a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union, the ELN began peace talks with the government of former President Juan Manuel Santos in early 2017, but they have been put on hold by Duque until the ELN frees its 16 hostages and stops attacks. The car bombing - the worst in Colombia in almost 16 years - has heightened fears that a new wave of attacks could be launched in the Andean nation as a reaction to the right-wing president's stance. Colombians plan to march in cities nationwide on Sunday in protest against the attack. Duque, who took office in August, pledged during his election campaign to toughen offensives against the group and drug-trafficking crime gangs that kill and kidnap civilians. On Friday he reiterated that talks cannot restart unless the insurgent group stops all attacks, and he canceled a dispensation that allowed 10 members of the ELN negotiating team to remain free in Cuba. He asked Cuba to arrest them. "We appreciate the solidarity expressed by the government of Cuba yesterday and today we ask you to make effective the capture of the terrorists who are in your territory and deliver them to the Colombian police authorities," Duque said. The Cuban government did not immediately comment on his request. In November, Colombia asked Cuba to capture ELN rebel commander Nicolas Rodriguez and provide information about the presence of other ELN commanders in Cuban territory. It also asked Havana to act on an Interpol Red Notice on Rodriguez. The Cuban government has not responded publicly to that request. PLANNED ATTACK Duque called the explosion a "crazy terrorist act" against unarmed cadets. It is the worst car bomb attack since the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) detonated a vehicle in Bogota's upmarket El Nogal social club in 2003, killing 36 and injuring more than 200. "We will not rest until we capture and bring to justice the terrorists involved," he said. "I tell the criminals that social repudiation awaits them, the rejection of all Colombians and the international community." The vehicle, a gray Nissan Patrol SUV, was carrying an estimated 80 kilograms (176 lb) of the high explosive pentolite, which has been used in the past by Colombian guerrillas, Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez said on Friday. Botero said the car was registered in Rojas' name and that he was identified by his finger prints. He said investigators believe Rojas - who formed part of Rodriguez's security contingent years ago - did not intend to carry out a suicide attack, and that the bomb may have been activated by a cellular phone by someone else. Rojas, known by his war alias El Mocho or Kiko, had lost a hand in bomb-making activity and traveled frequently across the border to Venezuela, Botero said. The attack was planned over about 10 months, he said. Car bombs were frequently used in Colombia during decades of civil war between the government and various leftist rebel groups, as well as in violence involving the Medellin cartel led by the late drug lord Pablo Escobar. The worst of the war, which killed some 260,000 and left millions displaced, ended when the government reached a peace agreement with the FARC in 2016. (Reporting by Helen Murphy, Luis Jaime Acosta and Nelson Bocanegra; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Rosalba O'Brien)Canada's envoy to Beijing on Thursday threw cold water on long-sought free trade between the two nations as an ugly diplomat spat over Canada's detention of a top Chinese tech executive drags into a second month.

Ambassador John McCallum, who returned to Canada to brief lawmakers on the row, told reporters that Canadian businesses want to press on with growing the trade relationship.

But, he added, exploratory talks on free trade that started in September 2016 are now dead and unlikely to be revived in the forseeable future.

"We are certainly not negotiating free trade with China either before or after this. So it's not on the table right now," McCallum told reporters.

"Canada has invested a lot in China," he said. "Our tourist industry, our universities, our farmers are all highly dependent on China and I think China will still play a very important part in Canada's future."

Canadian businesses "want to continue moving forward in China," McCallum said.

But right now Ottawa is preoccupied with securing the release of two Canadians detained in China and obtaining clemency for a third on death row.

"Our top priority by a longshot is to get our two Canadians back and to save the life of the third. That is top of the list," the ambassador said.

Canada and China became embroiled in a tit-for-tat diplomatic row following the arrest in Vancouver of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a US warrant.

Meng faces extradition on fraud charges for alleged Iran sanctions-busting and lying to US banks about it.

- "Hostage" diplomacy? -

In a move widely seen as a counterstroke, Chinese authorities arrested two Canadians -- former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor -- accusing them of espionage.

Ottawa insisted they had been "arbitrarily" detained and that interrogations of Kovrig breached the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations -- allegations Beijing flatly rejected.

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Former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler went further, accusing China in an email to The Canadian Press of "hostage diplomacy."

Canada and China have flirted with the idea of deepening trade ties since the 1990s.

During tense negotiations with the United States and Mexico to revamp a continental free trade agreement last year, growing trade with China was touted as a means of reducing Canada's heavy trade reliance on the United States.

This would have made Canada the first Western nation to reach a free trade deal with Beijing.

But when exploratory talks floundered, Ottawa instead joined the Trans Pacific Partnership. This move came on the heels of a Canada-EU free trade pact in 2017.

Canada still sends 75 percent of its exports to the United States. But since 2003, China has been its second largest trading partner.

According to the latest government data, Canada exported Can$2.1 billion (US$1.6 billion) in goods to China in November while importing Can$3.9 billion (US$3.0 billion) in goods from China.Ouagadougou (AFP) - Burkina Faso's government and Prime Minister Paul Kaba Thieba stood down on Friday, according to a statement released by the country's president.

No explanation was given for the resignations, though sources told AFP President Roch Marc Christian Kabore wants to breathe new life into the leadership of the landlocked west African country, which is battling a rising wave of jihadist attacks and hostage-taking.

Canadian Edith Blais, 34, and her Italian partner Luca Tacchetto, 30, have been missing since mid-December, and late Wednesday a Canadian geologist kidnapped by suspected jihadists was found dead at a remote gold mine in the northeast.

"Prime Minister Paul Kaba Thieba submitted this afternoon his resignation as well as that of his government," the statement said.

"The president of Faso accepted the resignation" and expressed "all his gratitude to Prime Minister Paul Kaba Thieba and all its ministers for their commitment to the service of the nation," the statement added.

President Kabore chose experienced economist Thieba as prime minister in January 2016. However, in recent months several political opponents have been calling for his resignation and that of ministers in charge of security and defence.

Burkina Faso lies in the heart of the vast Sahel region, which is struggling with a bloody Islamist insurgency.

The region turned into a hotbed of violent extremism and lawlessness after chaos engulfed Libya in 2011.

An Islamist insurgency began in northern Mali, while Boko Haram rose in northern Nigeria.

Jihadist raids began in northern Burkina Faso in 2015 before spreading to the east, near the border with Togo and Benin.Rabat (AFP) - The bodies of two women from Denmark and Norway murdered by suspected jihadists while hiking in the High Atlas mountains in Morocco were flown back to Scandinavia on Friday.

The remains of Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, and 28-year-old Norwegian Maren Ueland were put on a plane that left Casablanca for the Danish capital, a police spokesman said.

Moroccan authorities said Thursday that four suspects arrested following the murder of the two tourists had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group.

The bodies of the two women were found Monday after they had pitched their tent at an isolated mountain site two hours' walk from the tourist village of Imlil.

One of them was beheaded, according to a source close to the investigation.

Imlil is a starting point for trekking and climbing tours of Mount Toubkal, which at 4,167 metres is the highest summit in North Africa.

Hours after the grisly discovery authorities announced the arrest of a first suspect and later said he belonged to an "extremist" group, while the three other suspects were arrested on Thursday.

Moroccan investigators are probing a link to Islamic extremism after a video emerged showing the suspects "pledging allegiance" to the Islamic State group, the Rabat prosecutor has said.

Authorities were working to determine the authenticity of a video posted on social media networks allegedly showing the murder of one of the tourists, according to the prosecutor.

"At this point, there is no tangible evidence that the video is not authentic," Norway's criminal investigations agency Kripos said Friday.

- 'In shock' -

All four suspects were arrested in Marrakesh, an hour away from the scene of the murder.

Younes Ouaziad, 27, lived with his parents in the working-class Al-Azzouzia neighbourhood.

His family and neighbours said Friday they were "in shock".

"He was a boy without any history, private. There was nothing to suggest he could do something like that," 35-year-old Abdelaati, a vegetable seller in the neighbourhood, told AFP.

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The murders have prompted condemnation from authorities in Denmark and Norway.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen denounced what he called a "beastly crime".

Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg condemned what she called a "brutal and meaningless attack on innocents".

Moroccan government spokesman Mustapha Khalfi described the killings as a "terrorist act" while Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani said it was a "stab in the back of Morocco and Moroccans".

Tourism is a cornerstone of Morocco's economy, accounting for 10 percent of national income.

Morocco has been spared jihadist attacks since 2011, when a bomb attack on a cafe in Marrakesh's famed Jamaa El Fna Square killed 17 people, most of them European tourists.A joyful, passionate powerhouse of positive energy, Wanda Battle is director of the tour ministry at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabamathe church Martin Luther King, Jr., pastored.

Leading tours at this MLK church is not just her jobits her calling, her sacred mission.

The tour is not just a historical journey, Battle explains. It represents a message of love, of struggle, of hope and overcoming, which are all the principles of human existencefor us to love each other as brothers and sisters and to be what Dr. King called the beloved community. Thats how God has helped me to understand the legacy of Dr. King. I want to be a better person and to do better every day in how I treat other people.

Its hard to explain the experience of touring King Memorial with Battle. Shes definitely not a buy your ticket, right this way, that concludes our tour kind of guide. She engages with everybody on her toursand helps them to connect with each other. Think of one thing you love about yourself, she might challenge you, because you have to love yourself before you can love other people.

In the basement of King Memorial, she gathers her group into Dr. Kings office and brings to life his love of books and lifelong learning. Just outside his office is an unassuming podium, the kind your church probably keeps in the fellowship hall for meetings and Bible studies. Dr. King stood behind it at the state Capitol the day he addressed the Selma to Montgomery marchers. And if you think Battle is just going to tell you about that podium, youre mistaken. Shes going to invite you to preach from it, briefly. Each member of the tour group steps behind it and repeats those famous words: How long? Not long!

I think whats happening right now is a real renaissance in civil rights and human rights because there are so many issues in our society, Battle says. Many groups are now taking their place to march and to send letters, to call and advocate for causes that they feel are important.

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Battle grew up in Montgomery. Two of the businesses her family owned were a funeral home and a taxi service, both of which helped transport the black community during the bus boycott. What many people dont realize, she explains, is how improbable King Memorials very existence is. First, its a church founded by wealthy black familieson a predominately white street. Many years later, when the state considered claiming eminent domain and taking the property, the move was unsuccessful because, by then, the church had been designated a National Historic Landmark. The Klan burned crosses near it but never fire bombed it or structurally damaged it. Battle has a simple explanation: I see that as the protection of God.

She also has an explanation for a resurgence of interest in Montgomery and everything that has happened there. People are fascinated by this history of overcoming and standing for what is right, for advocating and doing it in love, Battle says. For you see the result of what love does as opposed to what hatred does. Hatred is destructive. Dr. King advocated love for all mankind.

WATCH: Southern StoriesSummer Rememberings

If you've ever helped your Aunt Vertis load a family picnic table with fried chicken and casseroles while the uncles played horseshoes, you'll understand exactly what this Southern story is all about.Corona-based KPC Group has bid $610 million to purchase four of the nonprofit Verity Health System hospitals, including two in Southern California.

The KPC Group is the initial bidder for St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles, Seton Medical Center in Daly City and Seton Coastside in Moss Beach. OConnor Hospital in San Jose and St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy are not included in the bid.

Veritys six hospitals were originally owned and operated by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. After years of financial struggles, Integrity Healthcare took over management of the hospitals in 2015. Nantworks, the Culver City company controlled by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, purchased Integrity in 2017. (Soon-Shiong, a physician and entrepreneur, purchased The Times last year.)

Last August, Verity filed for bankruptcy protection, citing mounting losses and debt.

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Santa Clara County previously bid for the two Verity hospitals not included in the KPC Group offer. That sale was approved in bankruptcy court, but has been challenged by the state attorney general.

If KPC Groups bid is approved by a court next month, an auction could be held in April. A list of creditors with the 50 largest unsecured claims that were not insiders included Aetna Life Insurance Co., Medline Industries Inc. and Anthem Blue Cross. Nantworks is included in a broader list of all creditors, though the amount owed to each entity on that list was not specified.

The winning bid will still be subject to approval by the bankruptcy court.

Peter Baronoff, chief executive of KPC Group, said in a statement that the company is excited about the future of these hospitals, and we look forward to the opportunity of continuing their excellent track record of care in the communities they serve.

KPC Groups offer sets the floor for a potential future auction of the four hospitals, in which other buyers could submit competing or higher bids. If no other qualified bids are received, KPC Group will be named the successful bidder, according to the asset purchase agreement.

Rich Adcock, chief executive of Verity, said the healthcare system expects a very robust auction.

Theres a lot of interest in each of these facilities, he said.

KPC Group owns medical centers in Anaheim, Hemet, Menifee and Santa Ana, among other locations.

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The SEIU-UHW, which represents more than 1,000 workers at St. Vincent and St. Francis hospitals, released a statement saying the union was interested in hearing from KPC about its plan to sustain and invest in the hospitals and caregivers and would be looking to ensure that there is a good plan to protect workers and services.

samantha.masunaga@latimes.com

Twitter: @smasunagaBy Steve Holland and Jan Wolfe WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump proposed an immigration deal on Saturday in a bid to end a 29-day partial government shutdown, including temporary protections for "Dreamers" and other immigrants, but Democrats immediately dismissed it. Insisting on his demand for $5.7 billion to fund a U.S.-Mexico border barrier as part of any bill to fully reopen the government, Trump sought to pile pressure on Democrats by appealing to immigrants they have tried to help. In a speech from the White House, Trump offered three years of protections for young undocumented immigrants known as "Dreamers," as well as for holders of temporary protected status (TPS), another class of immigrants. Decrying what he called a "badly broken" U.S. immigration system, Trump said, "I am here today to break the logjam and provide Congress with a path forward to end the government shutdown and solve the crisis along the southern border." But the protections he proposed fell far short of the path to citizenship for Dreamers that Democrats and some Republicans in Congress have been urging for years. In a statement after Trump's speech, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called the plan a "bold solution to reopen the government, secure the border, and take bipartisan steps toward addressing current immigration issues." A spokesman for McConnell said he would seek Senate passage of the proposal next week. Democrats insisted talks on border security occur only after the government is reopened. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said, "It was the president who singled-handedly took away DACA and TPS protections in the first place. Offering some protections back in exchange for the wall is not a compromise but more hostage taking." Even before Trump spoke, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said his offer as reported in advance was "unacceptable," did not "represent a good-faith effort to restore certainty to people's lives," and was unlikely to gain the votes needed to pass the House or the Senate. About a quarter of the U.S. government has been partially shut down since Dec. 22, as funding has expired for reasons mostly unrelated to the border or immigration. WORK WITH NO PAY Some 800,000 federal workers have been staying home on furlough or working without pay. Trump has refused to consider legislation needed to fully reopen the government unless it includes $5.7 billion to help pay for a border wall or other barrier, which he says is needed to keep out illegal immigrants and drugs. The full cost of such a barrier could eventually top $24 billion, according to some government estimates. Trump also asked Congress for $782 million to hire an additional 2,750 border agents, law enforcement officers and staff, and another $563 million to hire 75 new immigration judge teams to reduce a backlog in immigration courts. The Dreamers, mostly young Latinos, are protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects certain people who illegally entered the United States as children. It provides about 700,000 immigrants with work permits, but no path to citizenship. Vice President Mike Pence told reporters Trump's proposal for the Dreamers and border humanitarian assistance was based on conversations with rank-and-file Democrats. He said Trump hopes millions of Americans will pressure Democrats to go along with the deal. Pence said conservatives should not worry that Trump is providing amnesty to Dreamers, saying, "This is not an amnesty." We hope once people get past the initial statements and initial reaction, when they really look at this legislation, when it comes to the floor of the Senate, theyll see it as an effort by the president to take ideas from both parties, said Pence. White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said declaring a national emergency on the border to fund a wall without congressional approval remained an option but was not Trump's preferred solution. Can the Democrats separate themselves from the extreme left and work out a compromise on border security? I think a lot of members want to do that, Mulvaney said. Former President Barack Obama put DACA in place in 2012 through an executive order. Most of his fellow Democrats since then have sought more lasting protection for the Dreamers. The Trump administration said in September 2017 it would rescind DACA, but it remains in effect under court order. Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is given to nationals from designated countries affected by armed conflict, natural disaster, or other strife. TPS holders are permitted to work and live in the United States for limited times. The Trump administration has shown a deep skepticism toward the TPS program and has moved to revoke the special status for immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras and other nations. Polls showed Americans increasingly blame Trump for the shutdown, the 19th since the mid-1970s. Most past shutdowns have been brief. The current one has had no impact on three-quarters of the government, including the Department of Defense, which has secure funding. (Additional reporting by Richard Cowan and Pete Schrodeder; Editing by Leslie Adler, David Gregorio and Daniel Wallis)WASHINGTON  Congressman Will Hurd of Texas is an increasingly lonely voice in the build the wall Republican Party of Donald Trump. A 41-year-old former undercover CIA officer, Hurd represents one of the largest congressional districts in America, Texas 23rd, a vast expanse of land roughly the size of Georgia that stretches from San Antonio to El Paso.

Hurds district includes 820 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, more than any other member of the House of Representatives. But if youre expecting Hurd, who was narrowly re-elected to a third term last year, to support President Trumps big, beautiful wall and stand with the decision to partially shut down the federal government over the fight, youve got it all wrong. Trumps border crisis is a myth, Hurd tells Rolling Stone, and a wall made of cement or steel slats is a third-century solution to a 21st-century problem.

What I always say is building a wall from sea to shining sea is the most expensive and least effective way to do border security, Hurd says.

He is one of the few Republicans to break ranks and vote with Democrats to approve funding to reopen the government. On Wednesday, he announced that hed landed a coveted seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee, bringing the perspective of someone who actually knows the border to Congress main government-funding committee.

Rolling Stone caught up with Hurd in his office on Capitol Hill to discuss the wall, what its like to represent nearly half of the entire U.S.-Mexico border and his idea for a modern-day Marshall Plan to address the root causes of the social and economic crisis in Latin America that has led to so many immigrants fleeing north and seeking refuge in the U.S. The conversation follows, lightly edited for length and clarity.

The word that we keep hearing from President Trump is that theres a crisis at the border. Is there a crisis at the border?

If there is a crisis, why are the people that are dealing with it not being paid? Thats the first step.

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Good question.

This is an issue that has transcended multiple administrations. I think $67 billion of drugs coming into our country is a crisis. Now, I also think when you think of a crisis, that means people are afraid to leave their homes, right? El Paso is one of the safest cities in the United States of America. The same can be said about Del Rio, Presidio and Eagle Pass, places I represent.

Its a problem that should be solved. Yes, last year 400,000 people tried to come into our country illegally, and thats a decrease in 80 percent from 2000. But 400,000 is still a big number.

When I crisscross my district, the thing I hear the most, people are like, We need workers. Whether its agriculture or artificial intelligence, we need workers. Why arent we also talking about streamlining this immigration process so that we get people here legally who are going to contribute to our economy? Its a problem that needs to be solved. I think it requires us to be cool, level-headed and talk about those solutions.

What youve described sounds like a number of issues that could be solved with different policies. It doesnt sound like: Were going to shut down the government and keep it shut down because this crisis is so dire.

No. Again, if youre dealing with a crisis, you need all hands on deck. Another example, with the Department of Homeland Security. The average large American business deals with 54 million cyber-intrusions a year. The DHS entity that is responsible for coordinating across the federal government and the private sector, theyre at 60-percent staff. Not paying the people and furloughing the people dealing with this problem doesnt make any sense.

Having personally gone to the border

Where did you go?

Ive been to El Paso. Ive been to Nogales in Arizona. Laredo. Eagle Pass. Theres really no substitute for going, is there? I feel like you shouldnt be able to talk about the border until youve actually gone.

(Laughs) I wish that was a requirement.

Can you describe for someone who has not seen what youve seen what the border actually looks like?

Roughly 2,000 miles. The number in Texas is about 1,200, from El Paso to Harlingen. The border is broken up into multiple sectors. I have four sectors just in my district. I represent 820 miles of the border, 29 counties, two time zones. My area is larger than 26 states, roughly the size of Georgia. In some parts of the district, its the Chihuahuan Desert, the largest desert in North America. You can see for dozens of miles in one direction.

Border Patrols response time in some areas is measured in hours to days. If your response time is measured in hours to days, then a wall is actually not a physical barrier. But where theres cities, where theres urban-to-urban contact, some kind of physical barrier makes sense, because it helps Border Patrol increase their response time because of the amount of time it takes to go over, go under, things like that.

Sure.

You have urban-to-urban contact, like El Paso and [Ciudad] Juarez. Juarez is, I believe, twice the size of El Paso, and theyre right up next to each other. [Ed note: Ciudad Juarezs population is 1.3 million and El Pasos is 684,000.] Then, in some places, I have Big Bend National Park. Santa Elana Canyon is a 6,000-foot cliff, then the Rio Grande River, and then another 6,000-foot cliff on the other side. Guess what? Its already a physical barrier. Lake Amistad, which is a lake on both sides of the border, has dozens of miles on either side. A wall in a body of water has another name. Its called a dam.

Then you have the people who have farms that go up against the Rio Grande because the Rio Grande is a source of water for agriculture and ranching. In some areas where there has been a proposal for a wall, in my district alone theres the potential of ceding 1.1 million acres of land to Mexico. Theres a thing in Texas we care about called private property rights. I think in just Texas alone, it would impact almost 1,000 property holders.

To build this theoretical wall?

To get the property rights with eminent domain. It would impact 1,000 people. Outside of Texas, you have the federal government or the state government as some of the biggest landowners. But what is happening, when you understand the threat from the narcos  if youre not following some of the Chapo hearings

I have. Weve been covering it.

If the narcos are making $67 billion a year  thats a conservative, with a little c, estimate on how much is there  youre not bringing [drugs] in in backpacks. Youre bringing it in in bulk. The U.S. national intelligence program is $60 billion. The narcos have the resources, they dont have to worry about government shutdowns, and theyre coming back and forth and being able to deliver their product. That is the issue were dealing with.

Border Patrol over time has only endorsed three people in the last couple years. Donald Trump, Martha McSally last cycle for Senate and a guy named Will Hurd. I talk to them because in some areas their cell phones or their push-to-talk radios dont work. In some places, in order for Border Patrol to see if someone is coming through there, they drag monster tires, really big tires, by car along areas where they know people may go through to later see if footprints are there. Guess what? The bad guys know that you can do things that decrease footprints and cover your tracks.

That seems so old-school, dragging a tire across the desert.

Some of the technology they have is 20 years old. Some of the technology they have is not actually on the border. Some of the technology they have requires a PhD in computer science in order to use.

We do not have operational control of our border. Operational control meaning we know everything thats going one way or the other. The only way you do that is by looking at all 2,000 miles of border at the same time. The only way you can look at all 2,000 miles of border at the same time is by using technology. The technology exists where you can deploy, whether its radar or LiDAR  LiDAR is radar, but with light instead of sound  cameras, infrared. You need a mile-by-mile assessment because each mile is different from the next.

The border is not this homogenous thing. Two thousand miles is a lot. Most people cant wrap their heads around how big that is. These are vast spaces.

Youre talking about radar. Youre talking about LiDAR. Youre talking about AI. Theres legislation youve put forward on this.

Yeah. The SMART Act.

By the way, do you know what the root causes [of illegal immigration] are? Violence and lack of economy opportunities in the Northern Triangle: El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. State Department and USAID are doing programs to work with our allies to address those problems. Weve seen, in the equivalent of what we would call counties, USAID and State Department activities where youve seen a decrease in the violence. Guess what youve also seen? Youve seen a decrease in the people leaving there to come to the United States of America.

Weve got to address root causes. That takes time. We should be working with Mexico. Mexico deports more Central Americans than we do almost by two-to-one. This is a shared problem, so lets address the root causes as well on that.

Were also missing an ambassador or two in the Northern Triangle, right?

We do not have an ambassador to Mexico. That is correct. The Northern Triangle, I do believe in all three places that we have [nominees], but they havent gone through the confirmation.

Have you talked to the president about the notion, as you put it, of proposing a third-century solution for a 21st-century problem?

I have talked to many people within the administration about how we solve this problem long-term. Thats why weve done legislation. The SMART Wall Act got included in the Homeland bill last year. This is not rocket science. We can solve this problem. We need to be looking at the right metrics. The metric is not measuring the tools that were using. The metric is: Are we seeing a decrease in drugs and illegal immigration coming into this country? Thats what we should be focused on, instead of how many miles of wall.

Does it drive you crazy to have a debate about a wall, steel slats, cement, whatever?

Yeah. Look, heres the thing. In some places, a physical barrier is a helpful tool. But you cant use the same tool over every single mile. Lets be efficient. What I always say is building a wall from sea to shining sea is the most expensive and least effective way to do border security. The average is $24.5 million a mile.

Wow. Thats a lot of money.

Some think we can get that down to $17.8 (million). A smart wall you can do for under $500,000 a mile.

Yet the government is partially shut down over steel slats and cement.

It is a myth. Thats why well continue to talk about how we solve this problem, operate within the Secure Fence Act, double down on our ports of entry, because thats where most of the illegal drugs come in, thats where most people are surrendering. Well use technology and address root causes in Mexico with a Marshall Plan for Central America. You do those things, put that together, its a big package, but its also what is needed in order to make sure our country is safe.



When is this wall fever going to break?

Honestly, if I knew the answer  I wish I knew the answer. I dont.Davids Bridal Inc., Americas largest wedding gown retailer, emerged from bankruptcy on Friday, just weeks after it first sought protection from creditors.

Davids Bridal shrank its debt load by about $450 million and is now owned by lenders including Oaktree Capital Group. The company, which filed for bankruptcy in November, was looking to exit bankruptcy quickly to avoid scaring off brides who might fear that a store under court protection from creditors was at risk of collapsing and could destroy wedding plans in the process.

Customers tend to associate the word bankruptcy with a companys liquidating and going away, not with its reducing debt while continuing to operate, Chief Executive Scott Key said. Its important to maintain trust with customers and employees that are involved with weddings, a time when brides are often spending heavily and dont want plans to be foiled. Davids competitor Alfred Angelo abruptly closed its doors in 2017, leaving brides stranded as orders went unfulfilled.

January is a crucial time for Davids Bridal and similar companies, as people who get engaged over the holidays turn into wedding dress buyers. Cutting debt frees our ability to re-invest in the customer experience, our stores and digital experience, Key said. It puts us in a position of strength. The company recently acquired Blueprint Registry, an online registry system, and is expanding its dress sizes to accommodate more customers.

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Based in the Philadelphia suburb of Conshohocken, Davids Bridal is one in a procession of retailers to file for Chapter 11 court protection after struggling with heavy debt loads. This week childrens clothing chain Gymboree filed to liquidate in bankruptcy, less than two years after it reorganized in bankruptcy.

Whats more, U.S. marriage rates have fallen since the 1980s, and although the amount Americans typically spend on weddings has risen, the industry has been thrown into chaos by intense competition, online options and shifting fashion tastes. In April, Gap Inc.s Weddington Way bridal brand announced plans to close, which followed J. Crew Group Inc.s decision in 2016 to shut its wedding-dress business.

The previous owner of Davids Bridal, private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, took control of the retailer in a more than $1-billion leveraged buyout in 2012. But sales and earnings werent enough to carry the debt load. The company, which has operated for more than six decades, has more than 300 outlets in the United States, Canada and the U.K. and franchise locations in Mexico.From left, Ted Mills, former chairman of Unity Missionary Baptist Churchs community Thanksgiving dinners; Tyrone Gadlin, a volunteer for more than 18 years; the Rev. Catherine Fitzhugh; and Shirley Robinson, a musician and volunteer for at least 10 years, sit for a portrait on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, at Unity Missionary Baptist Church on Cheyenne's south side. Jacob Byk/Wyoming Tribune Eagle"Terry Bean is a highly respected community leader who has devoted his life to bettering our community," Winemiller writes. "Over the course of several months in 20132014 Terry was the victim of an extortion ring led by several men known to law enforcement. This current arrest is connected to the ongoing investigation of that case in which Mr. Bean has fully cooperated. No allegations against Terry Bean should be taken at face value. We look forward to the opportunity to clear his name."

Staff Writer JoAnn Snoderly can be reached at 304-626-1445, by email at jsnoderly@theet.com or on Twitter at @JoAnnNCWV.Jake Jarvis can be reached by phone at 304-935-0144, on Twitter at @JakeJarvisWV or by email at jjarvis@statejournal.com.A shark said to be 'Deep Blue', one of the largest recorded individuals, swims offshore Hawaii, U.S., Jan. 15, in this picture obtained from social media on Jan. 17. @JuanSharks/@OceanRamsey/Juan Oliphant/oneoceandiving.com via Reuters

In this Jan. 15 photo provided by Juan Oliphant, Ocean Ramsey, a shark researcher and advocate, swims with a large great white shark off the shore of Oahu. Ramsey said that images of her swimming next to a huge great white shark prove that these top predators should be protected, not feared. Juan Oliphant via AP



Two shark researchers who came face to face with what could be one of the largest great whites ever recorded are using their encounter as an opportunity to push for legislation that would protect sharks in Hawaii.

Ocean Ramsey, a shark researcher and conservationist, told The Associated Press that she encountered the 20-foot (6-meter) shark Tuesday near a dead sperm whale off Oahu.

The event was documented and shared on social media by her fiance and business partner Juan Oliphant.

The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources said it was aware of photos of the great white and that tiger sharks also have been feeding on the whale.

Oliphant, who photographed the now-viral images, said it's unclear if the shark is the famed Deep Blue, believed to be the largest great white ever recorded.

''She looks the part right now,'' Oliphant said about the shark spotted Tuesday. ''Maybe even more exciting that there is another massive, you know, super-size great white shark out there. Because their populations are so dwindling.''

Ramsey, who operates Oahu-based One Ocean Diving and Research with Oliphant, said she has been pushing for several years for a bill that would ban the killing of sharks and rays in Hawaii, and hopes this year the measure will become law.

She said the images of her swimming next to a huge great white shark prove the predators should be protected, not feared.

Still, the veteran shark diver doesn't think the general public should recklessly get into the water with the giants, especially around a food source like a rotting whale carcass.

Ramsey said extensive training and time spent studying shark behavior has kept her team and customers safe. She teaches people about how to act and, more importantly, not act when they encounter a shark in the water.

Ramsey and her team observe behavior, identify and tag sharks and share that data with researchers as well as state and federal officials. She said she previously swam with the huge shark on research trips to Guadalupe Island, Mexico.

She also leads cage-free shark diving tours.

Unlike many marine mammals, sharks are not a federally protected species, though there are laws against the sale of their fins.

''There's not a lot of sympathy for sharks because of the way they're portrayed in media and they don't have the cute cuddly appearance,'' Ramsey said. ''You can't hate them for being predators. We need them for healthy marine ecosystems.''

Ramsey and Oliphant want to make sure that people realize that shark bites are uncommon.

''The idea that they see people as a food source, that is rubbish and that needs to go away because really that's ultimately leading to the demise of these animals,'' Oliphant said.

State Sen. Mike Gabbard sponsored the shark protection legislation last session and plans to reintroduce it this year. The bill died in the House when it wasn't heard by the House Judiciary Committee.

The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources said the decomposing whale carcass had drifted to about eight miles (13 kilometers) south of Pearl Harbor after being towed 15 miles (24 kilometers) offshore days earlier.

Officials say there have been reports that people are climbing onto the carcass to take its teeth as souvenirs, which may be a violation of state and federal laws.

The agency's Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement Chief Jason Redull said people should stay out of the water around the dead whale.

''Understandably, some people want to get into the water either out of fascination or to get photographs, but it is truly dangerous to be around this carcass with so much shark activity,'' he said.

Ramsey said it's impressive that the great white has survived a ''gauntlet of human death traps.''

''I don't know how old she is,'' Ramsey said. ''But for her to survive through so many longline fisheries and,. you know, gill nets and team nets and fishermen who might just kill her because they think that she is a monster ... it's very special.'' (AP)Please purchase a subscription to continue reading. If you have a subscription, please Log In .

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As a community service, our obituaries are always free to view. In order to better know our audience, we ask that you register to continuing viewing.The demand for semiconductors is expected to pick up in the second half of this year. Courtesy of Samsung Electronics



The demand for semiconductors could pick up in the second half of this year, an official said Friday, citing industry experts.

Many industry sources shared this view at a meeting in Seoul organized by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Participants included executives from Samsung Electronics Co. and its smaller local rival, SK hynix.

The ministry said participants did not discuss investment plans and export outlook of semiconductors.

A Samsung spokesperson told Yonhap News Agency by phone that chip prices are forecast to stabilize from the second half on revived demand in such fields as artificial intelligence, fifth-generation network technologies and Internet of Things (IoT).

He also said there is no change in Samsung Group's investment plan.

In August, Samsung Group, whose flagship units include Samsung Electronics, said it would invest 180 trillion won (US$160 billion) between 2018 and 2020.

Semiconductors have been a key growth engine for Asia's fourth-largest economy for years.

Chips accounted for 21.2 percent of South Korea's total exports in 2018, compared with 10.9 percent in 2010, according to data compiled by the Institute for International Trade.

Outbound shipments of semiconductors fell 27.2 percent in the first 10 days of January from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service.Tens of thousands of striking Los Angeles teachers and their supporters descended on Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles Friday as the walkout by more than 33,000 educators in the second-largest school district in America reached its fifth day. The teachers, who have won the support of the overwhelming majority of city residents, are fighting low pay, overcrowded classrooms, lack of sufficient nurses, school psychologists and librarians and the growth of charter schools.

As an estimated 60,000 rallied in the second-largest school district in the US, opposition by teachers spread across California and the nation. Also, on Friday, more than 500 teachers at 10 schools in Oakland, California carried out a wildcat sickout followed by a march and rally to fight plans to close one-third of the citys schools. Like LA teachers, the unions, working with the Democratic Party, have kept teachers on the job for more than 18 months without a new contract. In a provocative action, Oakland Unified School District superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell threatened teachers that for each 1 percent raise they achieve, more than $2 million will be cut in benefits or school services.

Virginia teachers, inspired by the strike in Los Angeles, will rally on January 28 in front of the state legislature in the capital of Richmond. Teachers are outraged that they make $9,000 a year less than the national average, even as the state legislature recently approved more than $573 million in tax breaks for Amazon.

The United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) union, which resumed negotiations with the school district on Thursday, is expected to continue talks over the weekend that are being mediated by the citys Democratic mayor, Eric Garcetti. The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that Garcetti hoped the strategic plan issued by district superintendent and former investment banker Austin Beutner could be used as a vehicle for collaboration between the district and the UTLA.

Beutners strategic plan involves carving up the district into 32 neighborhood networks based on a so-called portfolio model, which would pave the way for the shutdown of more traditional public schools and their replacement by publicly funded but privately run charter schools. Under the rule of the state Democratic Party, California already has the largest number of charters (1,300) in the nation, and Los Angeles has more than any other city. In addition, there are 102 charters that co-locate inside LAUSD schools grabbing up space, resources and students from traditional schools.

While the UTLA has not responded to Garcettis comments about collaborating with Beutner, union officials have continuously offered the mayor their political support and, before the strike even started, dropped teachers demands centered around the growth of charter schools.

At Fridays rally, UTLA president Alex Caputo-Pearl made the absurd claim that Democratic politicians had reluctantly backed school privatization but had switched sides because the teachers strike had given them strength to stand up to the charter school proponents. Democrats right here in California have allowed this to happen by underfunding public education and being scared of the charter school industry. Now, because you are strong and your union is strong, we are supported by Democrats like [California Senator] Kamala Harris and [Vermont Senator] Bernie Sanders. Because our pickets are strong, Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti supports you.

In reality, the Democratic Party has waged a decades-long assault on public education in California and across the US. Former governor Jerry Brown oversaw a vast expansion of charters while the citys last mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, operates a chain of charter schools and received the lions share of funding for his failed 2018 campaign for governor from the charter school industry.

Addressing the assembled teachers, Caputo-Pearl claimed, You need to know that you are the most essential part of the bargaining process. Our bargaining is strong because our pickets are strong. In reality, all of the bargaining has gone on behind the backs of teachers.

Educators cannot allow themselves to be used as movie extras in a scheme by UTLA executives to secure the own selfish interests at teachers expense. Teachers must form rank-and-file strike committees to monitor all negotiations between the district and the union and insist that all talks be live-streamed with transcripts made available the same day. These committees should poll all teachers and outline their own demands including a real pay increase, the ending of colocation and the reconversion of charters into traditional public schools.

Any effort by the UTLA to send teachers back to work once union officials claim they have a contract or the framework of a deal must be rejected. The principle of No contract, no work, must be upheld. Before any vote the full details of the agreement must be made available and teachers given ample to study and discuss it.

If the strike remains isolated, the UTLA and Democrats will come up with a rotten compromise, which will only accelerate the attack on education. That is why LA teachers cannot fight alone. Rank-and-file strike committees should reach out to teachers in Oakland and across the state to prepare a statewide strike, as part of the fight for a national strike and preparations for a general strike by all workers.

The World Socialist Web Site spoke to several teachers at the rally. Julie Beres, a LAUSD teacher, attended the rally with her 15-year-old son Phil.

Phil said, I think its really unfair because my mom basically lost her job and now I have to step up at 15 and get a job so that my mom has help paying the mortgage. Im infuriated that we might be homeless at the end of this month. Im infuriated about whats going on in our future.

When asked about the role of the Democratic Party, Julie said, Frankly, all of the politicians are corrupt. Our school board member in my district was put in there by big money and resigned and faced a felony because of the billionaires who use the political system. The only way to do this is for workers to organize independently so that the corruption doesnt happen.

I agree the union can be a barrier for us getting what we want. I think a nationwide strike would do good to show the plight of all of us because in some of the states they were paid so little for so long. If we all walked out and it was a nationwide strike, it would call attention to what was going on.

Mariah, a high school student who attended the rally with her friend David, said, We go to a small high school of 350 students and we still have up to 49 students in a class. We have one counselor who can only come twice a week, which is ridiculous because theyve been cutting classes due to budget cuts.

David said, My math class was cut halfway through and I was forced to take it online, and then they cut the online course!

On Thursday, WSWS reporters spoke with teachers and students at schools in the area of South Gate in south central Los Angeles. Carolina, who teaches fourth grade at Independence Elementary School, said, The oligarchs and billionaires abuse the workers. Theyre taking advantage of the workers. Finally, theres only so much the workers can take, and now theyre rising up and demanding their rights.

The district wants us to have 39 kids in a classroom in 4th through 6th grades. Right now, I have about 31. If they make it 39 kids, I will have to move my desk out of the room. Were getting fed up with all this.

At the downtown rally, Israel spoke about the abysmal conditions at his school. Its like daycare, we just sit down and go on the computer, but everything is blocked. They teach every kid the same thing in the same books. No actual math, no English, just chapter books. No nurses. No one knows what to do if some get sick or hurt. We have one counselor for 350 kids at Walnut Park Middle School.

Greg is a teacher who commented on former Obama education secretary Arne Duncans recent statements in the Hill where he told Los Angeles teachers to drop their demands because there simply wasnt enough money. Screw Arne Duncan! Greg said, He came out in favor of charter schools.

Mary teaches at the West Valley Occupational Center, which has adult education programs including job training, GED training and English as a Second Language classes.

The district keeps shutting down our programs. We cant get a nursing program because the district doesnt want to pay for teacher nurses. This is really important though because there is a shortage of nurses in the United States.

Prior to 2012, we had 3,500 instructors who are a small portion of the school district but were very important. We used to have 30 different adult schools. In 2012, they shut down the program. It was eventually reopened but its much smaller. Today, its between 660 or 900 teachers left.

Asked about the significance of the teachers strike, Mary said, Were fighting for our lives in adult education. The regular teachers are facing 57 students in a class. Were all fighting for our lives. After all, Donald Trump said, I love the uneducated.The political stalemate over the partial shutdown of the US government deepened this week. In the wake of President Trumps last-minute intervention Thursday to scuttle House Speaker Nancy Pelosis trip to a military base in Afghanistan, even the pretense of negotiations between the White House and Congress has been scrapped.

With no political agreement in sight, there are growing fears within the ruling class that the lockout of 300,000 furloughed federal workers and forced unpaid labor for an additional 500,000 employees, now heading into the fifth week, could well prompt the working class to seek its own way out of the impasse.

While Democratic and Republican officials have been careful to avoid such suggestions for the record, reporters with close connections to the corridors of power are beginning to reflect these concerns.

Robert Costa, a Washington Post reporter and political analyst for NBC News, tweeted this week, Couple senior Republican lawmakers tell me the only way this breaks open is if TSA employees stay home and Americans get furious about their flights. Thats the only out, they say. And theyre close to the [White House].

Similarly, Chuck Todd of NBCs Meet the Press remarked during an interview Thursday on NBC News that the only thing that could force a deal to end the shutdown was a strike by airport luggage screeners and air traffic controllers, bringing the nations commercial air travel system to a standstill.

McKay Coppins, who covers the Republican Party for the Atlantic, spoke to congressional staffers from both parties about how the shutdown might end. A grim but growing consensus has begun to emerge on Capitol Hill, he wrote in an article published Friday. There may be no way out of this mess until something disastrous happens. Included in the list of potential disasters cited by congressional aides were a terrorist incident and a strike by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners.

The danger for the ruling class of workers taking matters into their own hands and mounting an offensive against the shutdown is heightened by the fact that it would involve defiance of federal laws that ban strikes by public employees. Mass action would directly challenge the legacy of the PATCO strike of 1981.

The savage response of the Reagan administrationfollowing the playbook that had been drawn up by the preceding Democratic administration of Jimmy Carterin firing 11,000 controllers, outlawing the PATCO union, blacklisting all of the strikers for life and imprisoning local union leaders, has served to intimidate public-sector workers ever since. The smashing of the PATCO strike, possible only because of the complicity of the AFL-CIO leadership, was the signal for a wave of strikebreaking, wage-cutting and attacks on previous social gains such as healthcare and education that has continued to the present day, under Democratic no less than Republican administrations.

In the context of this weeks teachers strike in Los Angeles and expanding workers struggles internationally, any move by federal workers could trigger a much broader fight back against social inequality and the gutting of social programs.

The talk within the political and media establishment of the possibility of a rebellion by federal workers places in sharp relief the cowardly and treacherous silence of the government employee unions and the AFL-CIO. It underscores the degree to which the ruling class relies on these anti-working class and pro-corporate organizations to suppress the class struggle.

A full four weeks into the shutdown, with the ruling class and its state apparatus paralyzed by internal warfare, the defining feature of the unions response has been their absolute refusal to organize any type of job action. Sickouts by TSA workers and others who have already missed one paycheck are growing spontaneously, without any encouragement or support from the unions.

When compelled to respond to calls for strike action, the unions have been quick to uphold the authority of anti-strike laws and cite the fate of PATCO, while saying nothing about the governments violation of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery and indentured servitude.

World Socialist Web Site reporters have heard from multiple air traffic controllers that their union, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, has demanded that the membership keep quiet. Theyve been told not to speak to the press without authorization.

The unions are collaborating with the Trump administration to censor and suppress workers voices. The Federal Aviation Administration recently sent an email warning employees who have been forced to work without pay that they are accountable for the statements they make and the views they express during duty and/or off-duty time.

In so far as the unions have organized demonstrations, they have been limited to one or two local agencies. Slogans advanced by the unions are restricted to empty apolitical chants like End the shutdown and We want to work. The AFL-CIO and its adjuncts have made no effort to organize any mass demonstrations of federal workers or other sections of the population affected by the shutdown.

Instead, union officials are directing members to take part in their #CallTheVote campaign, trailing behind the Democratic Party in pressuring Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to call a vote on the funding bills passed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. Together with a failed attempt to get the courts to intervene to end the shutdown, the unions seek to channel all opposition into the dead end of the Democratic Party.

They say nothing about Trumps savage anti-immigrant policies, which the administration chose as the justification for the shutdown, in the form of an ultimatum on funding for his US-Mexico border wall. In this they again trail the Democrats, who support the militarization of the border and criminalization of impoverished workers from Central America seeking refuge in the US from the violence and repression caused by US imperialist exploitation and intervention. Their supposed opposition boils down to quibbling over how many billions to spend on the border and a semantic dispute over whether to call the combination of fencing, drones and other fortifications a wall.

Nor are they opposing Trumps threat to declare a national emergency, bypass Congress and order the military to build the walla step that would represent a turning point in the collapse of constitutional norms and imposition of dictatorial rule.

At the same time, the Trump administration is preparing for the long-term continuation of the shutdown.

This week more than 50,000 locked out workers were ordered to return to the job without pay, including at the Internal Revenue Service, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of the Interior and Food and Drug Administration. The State Department became the latest agency to order employees to report to work, announcing Thursday it had found sufficient funding for two weeks of operations.

Federal agencies are working to ensure that functions affecting favored sections of industry are restored. The Department of Interior ordered employees at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management back to work, without pay, to prevent delays to the March auctions of offshore oil and gas drilling rights.

Saturday marks the end of the pay period for most workers affected by the shutdownthe second two-week period without pay. Checks would normally arrive a week later. If they do not materialize, hundreds of thousands will be plunged deeper into crisis.

Already stories like that of Krystle Kirkpatrick, an IRS worker in Utah, are proliferating. Kirkpatrick told CBC Radio shes been forced to sell her blood plasma and rely on charity food banks to keep her family afloat.

At a Chicago demonstration of about 50 people held Friday, one worker summed up the feeling of many government workers. This is a hostage situation, she said.

There is a powerful array of forces lined up against federal workers. Both political parties have demonstrated that they are content to allow the shutdown to continue at the expense of the workers and those who depend on their services. The trade union apparatus is utterly hostile to the interests of its members, actively seeking to suppress any independent initiative that challenges their integration into the Democratic Party.

The reality of surviving a month and counting without pay, however, is compelling workers to seek to fight back. This resistance can be organized only through a movement of rank-and-file workers acting independently and in opposition to the trade unions and the capitalist political parties. To carry forward the fight, federal workers need to form committees of action in workplaces around the country to prepare strike action on a national scale and link up with striking teachers and other sections of workers in the US and internationally.Following last weeks neo-Nazi rally at St Kilda beach in Melbourne that involved right-wing independent Senator Fraser Anning, the pseudo-left organisations in Australia are attempting to channel anti-racist sentiment among workers and youth into the election of a federal Labor government.

At a rally at Melbournes State Library on Saturday, Socialist Alternative facilitated the promotion of the Greens, the trade union bureaucracy and, implicitly, the Labor Party.

Only about 400 people attended the event, with neither the Greens nor the trade unions making any effort beforehand to mobilise their supporters. Rally organisers in the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism, a front for Socialist Alternative, nevertheless enthusiastically promoted these organisations.

Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam was among the main speakers. She hailed the result of the Victorian state election last November, which was a political debacle for the Greens, but saw the incumbent Labor government returned with an increased parliamentary majority.

Ratnam declared: At the last state election, the Liberal Party right here in Victoria tried the same tactics of using a law-and-order agenda to confect fear, scapegoat communities and pit people against each other. And you know what Victoria did in responseyou voted against them and nearly wiped them out. And here we go again with an election around the corner. We have this cycle on repeat. We find [racism] being whipped up by these right-wing racists egged on shamefully by these politicians who do not represent us, who do not represent Australia.

Ratnams reference to the upcoming federal election made clear the message underlying the entire rallyvote for the Labor Party and the Greens.

Her assertions amounted to a flagrant cover up of Labors responsibility for the racist African gangs hysteria in Melbourne. The state government created the environment for such racism to emerge by presiding over a law-and-order campaign. This included spending unprecedented amounts for additional police and prisons, rather than on programs to alleviate youth unemployment or provide social facilities for young people.

It was only under these conditions that the Murdoch-owned tabloid media and the federal Coalition governmentfollowed in turn by extreme right-wing groups and individualsbegan to focus on the skin colour and ethnic origins of alleged youth offenders.

Carina Garland, Victorian Trades Hall assistant secretary, followed Ratnam in promoting Labor at Saturdays rally. She spoke solely about the Liberal Partys responsibility for promoting racism and xenophobia, without once mentioning the Labor Party.

Garland emotionally recounted how her Italian great-grandfather was killed by fascists and how her grandparents had fled Italy. I think it is sickening, ridiculous actually, that all these years later their granddaughter is standing here with all of you fighting against Nazis. This should not be happening now. She concluded: Its all a bit bleak but I think theres lots to be hopeful about.

Garlands implicit hope was only the return of a Labor government at the national level. The unions are spending tens of millions of dollars to assist Labor win the federal election that will be held later this year.

Jerome Small, Socialist Alternative member and Victorian Socialists candidate in the state election last November, was the final speaker at Saturdays rally. Making no attempt to differentiate from Ratnam or Garland, Small also presented the development of far-right groups as the outcome solely of the policies of the Liberal and National Coalition parties.

We also have to realise for the last 20 years some of the most powerful forces in our society have worked very hard to create a far-right movement in this country, he declared. And Im talking about the Liberal Party and their dance with Pauline Hanson back in the 90s and more recently. Im talking about Rupert Murdoch and the Herald Sun and Channel 7 advertising these people as patriots, rather than the Nazis that they are.

Smalls only criticism of the Labor Party was that it was failing to challenge the racism [and] agreeing to a bi-partisan regime of torture directed against refugees.

Smalls claim that Labor has failed to challenge racism is a flagrant lie. Historically, Labor was the author of the racist White Australia immigration policy that prevailed in the country, from its establishment in 1901 until the 1960s. The Keating Labor government introduced mandatory detention of refugees in 1992 and initiated a campaign of police raids against illegal workers to scapegoat them for mass unemployment.

Moreover, it was the Gillard and Rudd Labor governments from 2010 to 2013 that resumed the illegal detention of refugees on remote Pacific island prison camps. The Labor government imposed the brutal ban on asylum seekers seeking to reach Australia by boat from ever receiving entry, even if they were recognised as genuine refugees.

Socialist Alternative raised none of these facts. Smalls speech also featured a direct cover-up for the role of the trade unions in creating conditions for the development of ultra-nationalist tendencies. He declared: The great thing about today is to see the unions represented here, and then naming seven separate unions he claimed had representatives at the rally. This appeared to be based on some individuals holding union flags in the small crowd.

In reality, the unions have been at the forefront of blaming overseas workers and students for taking Aussie jobs and demanding harsh restrictions on their ability to work in the country. The anti-immigrant rhetoric of the unions has been directly adopted by the most extreme neo-fascist movements.

Small continued: We need a new sort of politics, a politics of solidarity to counter the politics of hatred and fear Victorian Socialists is proud to contribute to this politics as is every single person at this rally.

The new sort of politics advocated by the pseudo-left is not a socialist perspective. The term socialism was not mentioned throughout the event. The misnamed Socialist Alternative and their state-based electoral front, the Victorian Socialists, instead explicitly promote the Greens and Laborboth capitalist partiesas progressive and apologise for the corporatist trade union bureaucracy.

Small concluded his speech: Of course they [the fascists] have got a lot going for themtheyve got the media going for them, theyve got some of the most powerful politicians in our society going for them All we have is ourselves, so lets take it to the streets.

Socialist Alternative works to prevent any understanding of the real political and social roots of the re-emergence of fascistic tendencies internationally. Instead, it advocates support for alleged progressive and democratic elements within the parliamentary apparatus, combined with a dash of protest politics.

Smalls reference to the Victorian Socialists contributing to a new politics hinted at a potential coming together of the pseudo-left, the Greens, the union bureaucracy, and sections of the Labor Party, under the false banner that they are fighting fascism.

In Europe, the counterparts of Socialist Alternative already openly work to subordinate the working class to right-wing capitalist parties like Labor on the fraudulent grounds it is necessary to defend democracy against the extreme right.

Fascism, however, is a political excrescence that is the product of the intensifying crisis of the profit system. It cannot be defeated by tying the working class to the very parties and organisations that defend capitalism and have presided over the destruction of jobs, working conditions and living standards.

The Labor Party and the unions are representatives of finance capital and big business. They have proven to be ruthless instruments of the ruling class, especially in periods of crisis. Steeped in nationalist and racialist politics, Labor and the unions are no less responsible than the Liberal Party in cultivating the political climate within which openly fascistic forces now operate.

The claim that the Labor Party and the unions can serve as bulwark against racist and fascist forces is a dangerous echo of the Popular Front policies of the Stalinist Parties in the 1930s that facilitated the growth of the extreme right. The Popular Front defended the profit system, not democratic rights, and was directed above all at paralysing the revolutionary movement of the working class, resulting in catastrophes in Spain and France in particular.

The only way to defeat fascism and ultra-right parties is through the building of a unified movement of the working class, independent of Labor and the unions, on the basis of socialist internationalism to overthrow capitalism.

All those concerned by the re-emergence of fascistic tendencies need to draw on the lessons of history. We urge all workers and youth opposed to nationalism and racism to read the January 3, 2019 perspective of the World Socialist Web Site, The Strategy of International Class Struggle and the Political Fight Against Capitalist Reaction.In the opening days of the new year, a series of major scientific breakthroughs has demonstrated humanitys immense capacity for understanding the world and using this knowledge to solve the many social ills plaguing modern life:

 On January 1, NASAs New Horizons spacecraft flew past the Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule. It was the second astronomical body observed by New Horizons, after Pluto, and the most distant asteroid ever observed by a robotic explorer launched from Earth. The data sent back by the probe, through the combined efforts of an international team of hundreds of scientists and engineers, has already begun to inform the research describing the early history of our Solar System.

 On January 3, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) lunar exploration mission Change 4 achieved the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon and successfully deployed its rover Yutu-2. The scientific payloads were developed and are operated in tandem with researchers in China, Germany, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Sweden. It sent back the first closeup images of the less explored half of the Moon via a relay satellite positioned so as to be able to communicate with Earth and the lander simultaneously. Both New Horizons and Change 4 are among the dozens of spacecraft, landers and rovers that are currently studying the Earth, Sun, Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, asteroids, comets and even the regions immediately outside our Solar System.

 On January 4, plant scientists from the United States Department of Agriculture and the University of Illinois showed that it is possible to make genetically engineered plants that fix a glitch in photosynthesis. This flaw sometimes causes plants to produce toxins within themselves that must be expunged. Crops grown without this flaw could improve their productivity by 40 percent, which has the potential to help mitigate climate change and abolish world hunger.

 On January 14, scientists operating Change 4 announced the successful germination of food and clothing crops on the Moon, under the very low gravity of that body and after being bathed in solar radiation. Cotton, potato and rapeseed were all grown inside a miniature, artificial self-sustaining environment that was launched as part of the spacecrafts scientific payload. While the experiment has reportedly reached the end of its lifespan, it was a critical step towards establishing and maintaining human life on the Moon, Mars and beyond.

 Concurrently, machine learning and artificial intelligence are becoming more and more integrated with aspects of modern life, including medicine, transportation and manufacturing. Computer scientists are constantly exploring new ways to use this technology and they have encountered as yet no limits. Whole cities are steadily becoming powered by AI. Self-driving cars are on the verge of mass implementation.

Each of these advances demonstrates the potential to alleviate the need for backbreaking labor, to vastly reduce the time and human resources needed to build homes, schools and hospitals, to roboticize farming and transportation and to develop breakthroughs in medicine and human health. They are powerful rebukes to the incessant contemporary glorification of irrationalism, whether through the cultivation of backwardness and religious prejudice or the promotion of postmodernism and its rejection of objective truth. They stand as a mighty vindication of the materialist understanding of the world, that there are objective laws of nature and that humans can comprehend them and through practice based on that understanding, shape the world to improve human life.

These breakthroughs, on the other hand, contrast sharply with developments in society that have heralded 2019:

 The most recent data collected from UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the World Bank show that one in nine human beings, 815 million people, faces malnourishment or hunger and 9.1 million people starve to death annually. These figures include 150 million children who are hungry and 3.1 million children who starve to death each year.

 There are currently 68.5 million people fleeing war, persecution and oppression. The UN estimates there are an additional 210 million people who have been displaced as a result of climate change.

 Fascist and extreme-right ideologies are once again being promoted by the political establishments in every country. Far-right parties are part of the governments in Italy, Austria, Brazil, Poland, Hungary, Japan, Finland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Philippines and Greece. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been welcomed into German parliament committees and its policies on refugees and internal security have been adopted by the German state. In France, President Macron has openly praised the countrys World War II-era pro-fascist dictator Marshal Philippe Petain.

 Thousands of scientists at NASA, NOAA, the NSF, the USDA and the National Institutes of Health are currently furloughed as a result of the US government shutdown. Dozens of long-term experiments that are critical to monitoring Earths climate, agriculture and public health are being increasingly disrupted. This disaster for scientific research comes as both Democrats and Republicans agree that the latest developments in modern technology, including drones and sensors, should be deployed against desperate refugees fleeing US-backed oppression and poverty in Central America.

These are only some of the contradictions of life in the 21st century. Even as technology is used to probe deep space, develop higher forms of global coordination and unlock the potential of key biological processes, it is being used to increase militarization, censorship and oppression at home and abroad. Every advance made in space exploration is intertwined with increased militarization internationally and the growing threat of world war. For every rocket that is aimed at studying the cosmos, many more are developed and built to destroy either a part or the whole of humanity. Crop science is used not to feed the tens of millions of starving humans on six continents but to increase the profits and market dominance of a few agriculture conglomerates and to develop biological and chemical warfare. Science under capitalism is used to increase, not decrease, social inequality.

Artificial intelligence plays a particularly sinister role. It is being increasingly used by companies such as Amazon, Uber and Lyft to track every move employees make and force them to work longer and harder. Tens of thousands of jobs will be eliminated as automation becomes more and more commonplace. And it has been deployed on a mass scale by Google, Facebook and other tech companies in conjunction with US military and intelligence agencies to impose censorship on left-wing, anti-capitalist and socialist publications, track down immigrants with facial recognition, spy on virtually every human being and make war against the worlds population on an ever increasing scale.

Both factions of the US ruling elite in Washington's political wars are at war with science. Trump and the Republicans deny climate change and openly promote religious obscurantism. Official liberalism and academia are in thrall to the postmodernists, who reject any conception of objective truth and the application of science to human thought, society and culture, denying in particular the revolutionary role of the working class.

In contrast, Marxists insist that science can and must be applied to society itself, above all, to the socio-economic structures in which humanity is currently trapped. This means cutting through the ideological domination of the corporate elite and studying unfolding events from the standpoint of the class forces at work. This means taking up a study of Marxism, which bases its revolutionary politics on an analysis of objective reality and class interests, and it means a turn toward the working class, the only progressive, revolutionary and international social force on the planet.

The working class offers humanity an alternative to the war, poverty and social misery that are endemic to capitalism. It is noteworthy that, in the ongoing Los Angeles teachers strike, educators are demanding not only better pay and smaller class sizes, but the defense of public education from a capitalist oligarchy intent on gutting it. While the ruling elite is set on dragging society backwards, the working class, in the struggle for socialism, offers it a way forward.

Only in a socialist society can the vast scientific and technological achievements of mankind be transformed from cudgels for enforcing class exploitation and making war to instruments for securing a prosperous and fulfilling life for all people.Scott Morrison this week became the first Australian prime minister to visit neighbouring Vanuatu since 1990 or near-neighbour Fiji since 2006and the previous trips were only to attend annual Pacific forums dominated by Australia and New Zealand.

This fact demonstrates the contempt that the Australian capitalist class has for the people of the small Pacific island states. It also points to the bullying nature of Canberras turn to reassert its predatory interests, and that of Washington, against the rising influence of China.

The three-day trip was intended to reassure the military and corporate establishments of both the US and Australia that the government in Canberra is intent on militarily and strategically blocking Chinas activities across the Pacific.

At last Novembers Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Papua New Guinea (PNG), US Vice President Mike Pence launched a blunt attack on China and its policies throughout the region, including its militarisation of islets in the South China Sea and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) infrastructure plans for the Indo-Pacific and Eurasia.

In a lengthy private discussion with Morrison, Pence welcomed the Australian governments assistance package for the Pacific island states, announced ahead of the APEC meeting. The step up plan included $1 billion to support Australian business operations in the region, $2 billion in infrastructure loans, closer military ties, five new diplomatic missions and a push to get Australian broadcast media into the Pacific.

To boost the US and Australian military presence in the region, the US announced it would join Australia and PNG in establishing a naval base on Manus Island, off the PNG northern coastblocking a Chinese proposal to build a port there. That followed the announcement last August by Morrisons predecessor Malcolm Turnbull, just before he was ousted, that Australia had outbid China in order to fund a major regional military base, Blackrock Camp, in Fiji.

Successive US administrations have regarded the southwest Pacific as Australias patch to police, as an integral part of the US dominance over the Pacific, established by its defeat of Japan in World War II. Washington has been increasingly concerned, however, that Australian governments have allowed China to gain financial and diplomatic influence in the region.

These concerns became more forceful under the Obama administrations pivot to Asia to counter China, and intensified under Donald Trump, whose 2018 National Defense Strategy labelled China a strategic competitor that had to be combated, along with Russia.

There has been mounting agitation among Australias strategic and corporate think tanks for the government to combat Chinas program of aid and loans in the southwest Pacific, which began to displace Australias hegemony over the small states, which were mostly granted formal independence by Australia and New Zealand four decades ago.

Last November, a Lowy Institute report, entitled Australia versus China in the South Pacific, declared: Australia, which is already trying to balance its relations with China as an economic partner, and the US as a military ally, now finds itself contending with Beijings ambitions on its doorstep.

Before embarking on this weeks trip, Morrison told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that it was part of our refocusing of our international efforts on our own region, in our own backyard. In Vanuatu and Fiji, Morrison arrogantly claimed that the region was a family that included Australia.

Morrison was accompanied by Australias top intelligence chief, Office of National Intelligence director-general Nick Warner. Last year, Warner was central in insisting that Australia would build undersea internet cables to PNG and Solomon Islands, effectively vetoing competing proposals from Chinese telecommunications company Huawei.

Warner has a long record of service to Australian imperialism, including as initial chief of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) military-police intervention, which effectively took over that state from 2003 to 2017. Later, he headed the Defence Department and the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), the overseas spy agency.

Both the island state governments felt obliged to extend Morrison an officially warm welcome, but his efforts to tighten relations met resistance. Vanuatu Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu publicly dismissed an Australian request for a security treaty, saying there was no prospect of changing Vanuatus non-aligned status.

Vanuatus Daily Post reported that Australian officials had explicitly asked for a treaty during Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwais visit to Canberra last year. On that visit, Salwai, who heads a shaky multi-party coalition, was forced by Turnbull to deny unsubstantiated reports that Vanuatu had been negotiating with China for the construction of a naval port.

Despite Reganvanus statement, Morrison refused to back down. He told reporters such a treaty was a live option that were progressing.

Morrison offered nothing by way of economic assistance, except to lift restrictions on exports of kava, a mild narcotic commonly used in the Pacific, from Vanuatu. Apart from that, Morrison reiterated a 2018 announcement that Australia would train 300 Vanuatu police recruits.

In Fiji, Morrison and Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, a former military coup leader, put on a show of friendship. Bainimarama described the visit as an historic step up in the countries relationship, which was ruptured in 2006 when Australia imposed sanctions on Fiji after the former naval commander seized power. Bainimarama countered with a Look North policy, seeking aid from China, Russia and elsewhere.

Morrison proclaimed a vuvale (family) partnership, which the two prime ministers vaguely described as a broad-ranging and comprehensive agreement that will pave the way for deeper security, economic and people-to-people links.

Morrison dismissed journalists questions about the authoritarian nature of Bainimaramas government. But he offered Bainimarama little economically, except a scoping study to identify ways to capitalise on the many economic opportunities between our countries. Fiji will be granted entry into Australias Pacific Labour Scheme, which permits agribusinesses to exploit Pacific islanders on temporary visas.

Bainimaramas hold on power is fragile. His Fiji First Party barely retained office with a 51.8 percent majority in elections last November, the results of which were subject to a legal challenge that was eventually dropped last month.

Anxious to display some independence, Bainimarama continued to refuse to join Pacer Plus, an Australian and New Zealand-dominated regional economic pact. He also urged Australia to shift away from coal and other fossil fuels in order to curb the impact of climate change and rising sea levels on the low-lying Pacific islands. Morrison flatly dismissed the call.

One striking feature of Morrisons trip was that the language he used closely matched that of Labor Party leader Bill Shorten in delivering a speech to the Lowy Institute last November. Shorten said Australia had to turn up in the Pacific, and strengthen military ties, to avoid forfeiting what he called the Blue Continent underscoring its global geo-strategic significance.

Shorten said this orientation was essential as part of Labors anchor commitment to the US alliance, with the Trump administration wanting Americas allies to contribute more to the global order.

Whichever party heads the next Australian government after elections due by mid-May, there is a bipartisan agreement that the Australia must be on the frontline of the US confrontation with China, including across the Pacific, and that the Pacific states must be subordinated to that assignment.In a demonstration of independent initiative and defiance of the state-sponsored contract negotiations process, hundreds of Oakland teachers conducted a one-day wildcat sickout, Friday. The majority of teachers at nine schools called in sick and picketed outside Oakland Technical High School, where students and community members joined them in solidarity.

The crowd of over 500 people marched two miles down Broadway Avenue and rallied outside Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) headquarters downtown, demanding full funding for education, a raise in teachers pay and the halting of all school closures.

The sickout is part of the growing international upsurge of the working class in 2019. It takes place as over 30,000 teachers are striking in Los Angeles, over 70,000 Mexican maquiladora workers are engaged in a wildcat strike in open defiance of their union, a general strike of 700,000 public sector workers is shaking Tunisia, and as the Yellow Vest protesters in France prepare for their tenth week of confrontations with the French police and state apparatus.

These struggles are a continuation and deepening of the militant struggles that took place in 2018, including the statewide wildcat strikes by teachers in West Virginia, Arizona, Oklahoma and other states in the US.

In almost every major struggle of the working class in the recent period, workers have organized themselves independently of the trade unions, which have served to repress the class struggle globally for decades. Oakland teachers have been working without a contract since July 2017 and have begun to take independent initiative themselves, with yesterdays sickout more than tripling the number of schools and teachers participating over the last sickout in December.

The school district unsuccessfully sought to intimidate teachers to prevent the sickout, with two district officials sending a brief email Tuesday that labeled the action illegal 12 times. One portion reads, any sickouts, walk-outs or strikes conducted during this time are illegal and employees are subject to consequences for participation. The letter also threatens that teachers will be subject to disciplinary action and will lose pay for time missed.



In another official email sent Thursday evening, OUSD Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell openly stated that any pay raises secured by teachers will be offset by budget cuts, including layoffs. She wrote, Each one percent raise that teachers receive, equals an additional $1.9 million per year in costs to the District for their additional wages and benefits. When we add in all represented employees, such as support staff and others, the costs rise to about $3.5 million for each 1 percent raise. Later, the email states, to pay for increases for employee salaries, additional reductions in other areas will be necessary.

The teachers union Oakland Education Association (OEA), the local affiliate of the California Teachers Association (CTA) and National Education Association (NEA), has confined itself to the most tepid demands in negotiations, including a 12 percent pay raise over three years and class size reductions of two students over two years. The district has proposed a five percent raise over three years, no class size reductions, and caseload increases for Special Education teachers.

After Alameda County Superintendent Karen Monroe demanded nearly $60 million in budget cuts over the next two years to prevent state receivership, and it was revealed that the School Board plans to close or merge roughly a third of OUSD school over the next five years, the union raised no demands to halt the school closures or budget cuts. Instead, Monroe was invited to speak at an OEA-sponsored rally last weekend, alongside state Democrat Nancy Skinner, who voted for austerity budgets that cut upwards of $20 billion from California public schools in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Oakland teachers supporting the World Socialist Web Sites call for independent rank-and-file committees distributed hundreds of copies of the recent WSWS Teachers Newsletter statement, A fighting strategy for California teachers, which was met with great interest by teachers at the rally.

Teachers, students and community members expressed complete agreement with the call for a statewide strike to carry forward the struggle both in Oakland and Los Angeles.

Tara, an OUSD teacher who was out with her daughter, said, Im here because Im being priced out of Oakland, I cant pay the ever-increasing rent, and Im also here for our youth. We need reduced class sizes. These cuts effect our most marginalized youth.

Asked about the demand for a statewide strike, Tara declared, I totally support it. Its a growing movement, not just statewide but nationwide. We need to wake up and be aware of the corporate spending and the billionaire and millionaire agenda behind this. They are packaging a product to sell now, and we have to fight back. We want to protect public education, and I support universal education and universal health care, which are human rights.

Dozens of students joined their teachers for the picket, march and rally. Oakland Technical High School senior Mahlet told the WSWS, Im here to support our teachers. A lot of our classes dont have textbooks and thats not fair. Our teachers deserve to get paid way more for all the work that they do outside of school. They should get paid enough to live where they work.

She commented, Our priorities arent right. All the money that we spend on incarceration, on each prisoner instead of each student, is a big issue.

In discussing the need to unify with LA teachers, Meka said, I think a statewide strike is probably the best thing to do, to have all the teachers in the state stand in solidarity with each other. I think the OUSD School Board has a history of not really following what the teachers are asking for, so if everyone in California stands up together, theyll be more likely to pay attention. Mahlet added, I think youd see a ton of students standing with their teachers as well if that were to happen.

Also joining his teachers from MetWest High School was Ryan, who declared, Regarding school closures, it will just make a bad situation worse and make the schools that stay open more overcrowded. Students whose schools close will either move to another school farther away or just drop out altogether. Wherever they go, there wont be enough resources to serve them.

His friend Donna, a student at Oakland High School, said, Oakland and LA should team up to bring attention to our state. A statewide strike would show that were serious.

Rachel, an Illustration teacher at Skyline High School with two years experience in Oakland, declared, The low wages, budget cuts and school closures in Oakland are absolute bullshit.

She strongly supported the call for a statewide strike, declaring, I definitely support a statewide strike because these are statewide issues and we get a lot of our funding from the state. If we could all band together and fight collectively, then maybe we could actually get more state funding. We all know, obviously, that OUSD has a huge financial deficit, which is very real. So if the state actually provided the funding that the district needs, maybe they could fund our teachers and programs and get out of the deficit.

Many teachers spoke very critically of the attack under way against public education and the need for a broader movement of the working class to combat the drive towards privatization.

A teacher with the AmeriCorps program who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal told the WSWS, Im a math teacher. When they say, Theres no money thats not true, and Im happy to help them do the math. She continued, If Trump is shutting down the government for $5.1 billion to fund the wall, the real shutdown should be for our schools and that money should be funding our schools. Instead they are funding prisons; how many more prisons have we opened up? They spend more on prisons then they do on students.

She noted, This all has to do with capitalism and the way that we run our country. If the government wants to keep the divide between the rich and the poor, then they are doing a very good job of it.

David, a teacher at Life Academy with six years, criticized AFT President Randi Weingartens tweet last week regarding the looming LA teachers strike, in which she wrote, This is not about a strike wavethis is a specific fight for the kids & public schools of LA.

David declared, I totally disagree with this being a local issue. Theres no such thing as a local issue in this state or country. If we leave it to be local issues, then well continue to see Oakland teachers underfunded and undervalued, and LA teachers underfunded and undervalued, its just going to be a problem that continues. Unless theres statewide action nothing will change. I would love to see a statewide strike, and I think we should absolutely have one.

David also commented on the need for a broader social struggle to secure the rights of the working class, saying, Were all out here fighting for lower class sizes and higher pay for teachers, but the reality is that unless things change dramatically in how wealth is distributednot just here in Oakland, but statewide, nationwide, and globallythen there will continue to be fights for the most basic needs and necessities.An interim report by three academic engineers into Opal Tower has detailed serious major damage and minor damage to the buildings structure and indicates problems with both the design and construction. It states that the damage indicate[s] factors of safety lower than required by standards.

The report was commissioned by the New South Wales (NSW) state government and released four days after the builder and its engineers claimed the building was safe to reoccupy.

The building was partially evacuated on December 24, and fully on December 27, after the walls on the tenth floor cracked. Further investigation has revealed other damage. The builder, Icon, has placed props throughout the damaged sections of the building. Some residents moved back in last weekend after Icon and its engineers declared the building safe.

The report has concluded that while the foundations are sound and the building will not collapse, there are a number of problems, including major damage on five floors of the building.

It stated: A number of design and construction issues have been identified, a combination of which probably caused the observed damage to some structural members in the Opal Tower building.

It noted that further investigation is required on a range of issues and advised that residents should not reoccupy the building until it can be determined that no structural member is overloaded, which it assesses caused the cracking.

The 17-page report by the three academicsJohn Carter, Mark Hoffman and Stephen Fosterwas released to the public on January 14, despite an initial deadline of January 11. The report is brief, with only six pages of text and ten pages of diagrams and images.

The major damage was observed on levels 4 and 10, in the hob beams, which support the large concrete panels flanking the inset slots, or recessed atriums, on the edge of the building. The atriums are an architectural feature of the building, distinguishing it from most other buildings. A hob beam or upstand beam stands above the concrete floor slab of a building, unlike normal beams that sit below or at the level of the floor.

In addition to the cracking in the panels and the major damage and minor damage to a separate hob beam on level 4, cracking was also observed in floor plates between Levels 3 and 4. The use of the term major damage is significant because builders are required to repair major damage if it has caused a building to be uninhabitable.

It recommends that further analysis be undertaken on the structural design of the hob beams and associated structural members with similar details levels 4, 10, 16 and 26, and consideration be given to strengthening them at these other locations throughout the building.

The wording of the report suggests that the authors have concerns about the effectiveness of the bracing that has already been installed and that they fear there may be undiscovered problems elsewhere.

The report clearly stated: [B]efore residents re-occupy the building the designers must ensure that no structural member is overloaded as a result of any load redistribution likely to have occurred as a consequence of the observed damage to the structure of the building.

In other words, such work had not been done to the satisfaction of the authors.

Icon is nevertheless insisting that residents can return to Opal Tower, with the complicit silence of the NSW and federal government authorities. The CEO of WSP, Icons engineer who designed the building, told the Australian on January 17: The majority of the building, we believe, is safe for reoccupation.

The re-occupation list issued by Icon only showed 276 apartments. This means residents of 120 apartments will be forced to continue to live in hotels or elsewhere while work takes place to address the structural faults.

The interim report was given limited terms of reference. The authors nevertheless felt compelled to make assessments such as this:

Preliminary consideration of the bearing capacities of the hob beam at the locations of the connection of the beams with columns C21 and C38 on Level 10 and with columns C16 and C34 on Level 4 indicate factors of safety lower than required by Standards.

Building structural design should always include a large safety factor to carry loads greater than those expected. The very fact of the cracking shows that these beams and panels were over-stressed, beyond what they could withstand.

The report also noted that the authors have not been provided with all the information they requested from WSP in order to assess the design. The withholding of critical information cannot be dismissed as a purely technical issue.

Aside from indicating problems in the design, the report also detailed five significant deficiencies in the construction of Opal Tower.

The report agreed in principle with the plan by WSP to repair the damage. But is stated: [I]t is recommended that independent and qualified structural engineers should be engaged to check the final proposal in detail before major rectification works commence.

At the conclusion of the report, the authors stated: Before residents re-occupy the building the designers must ensure that no structural member is overloaded as a result of any load redistribution likely to have occurred as a consequence of the observed damage to the structure of the building.

The implication is this has not been done. The instruction to residents that they can return to their homes is therefore reckless. The question needs to be posed as to whether peoples safety is being put at risk, to both get the crisis out of the media, for the sake of the industry and to protect the narrow commercial interests of Icon and WSP.

The first response of both the NSW Liberal-National Coalition government and the Labor Party opposition was to scapegoat cowboy certifiers.

But the true extent of the problem is now emerging. A report in the Australian on Wednesday said the NSW cabinet will be considering, as early as next week, plans for proposed reformswhich would regulate engineers, builders, architects and other building practitioners.

Michael Teys, a strata consultant, told Smart Property Investment this week: People are going to have to die, I think, before we will have an honest look at what the problems are. For government to say its more about education and its more about increasing surveillance on certifiers, they simply missed the point.

Sandy Eskander, one of the owners of an Opal Tower apartment, told a press conference on January 14 that we will not return to the site until it is set and built as we had originally purchased it and until engineers have said on letterhead that it is safe for reoccupation.

He also stated: People have been buying into the Australian dream but unfortunately this has become the Australian nightmare for us.

The author also recommends:

Engineers disagree on whether Australian high rise is safe to reoccupy

[15 January 2019]

Evacuated Opal Tower residents in Australia express anger and dismay

[8 January 2019]

Opal Tower structural flaws expose rot in Australian construction industry

[7 January 2019]

Flammable cladding rife in Australian construction industry

[27 June 2017]The mass strike of maquiladora workers in the city of Matamoros, Mexico, along the US-Mexico border, has completed its first week and continues to expand in size and economic impact.

On Friday, the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter received reports from workers in the United States that their plants are running low on parts in a sign the Matamoros workers are having a powerful impact on the entire auto industry.

A worker at the Ford Assembly Plant at Flat Rock, Michigan, reports that the plant went down on Thursday and a one-week layoff was moved up to next week, possibly due to part shortages from Mexico.

The Ford autoworker then gave a powerful greeting: We need to stand united and, like our brave Mexican amigos, be willing to stand up and walk out if the union leadership fails to play hardball in the contract negotiations. God bless the brave men and women taking a stand in Mexico. I salute your bravery and pray for you and your families.

A sense of the vast shake up across the auto industry and other sectors was given by the Maquiladoras Association of Matamoros, which reported Friday that the losses for the companies have surpassed $100 million.

The ruling class in the US, Canada and Mexico is terrified that the strike is clogging the supply chain and inspiring the millions of workers across North America and internationally who face the same conditions.

The international corporate media has responding by continuing a virtual blackout of the strike, while a mere trickle of information can be found in the main Mexican outlets.

At the same time, employers have escalated their threats against workers of mass layoffs, plant closures and criminal charges against agitators, while the city, state and federal authoritiesdirectly implicating the Matamoros mayor and Mexican president of the ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena)have sent heavily armed police and soldiers of the Mexican Navy to harass the picket lines.

In spite of these vicious maneuvers, new maquiladora plants continued joining the strike Friday beyond the initial 45 companies affiliated to the Union of Laborers and Industrial Workers of the Maquiladora Industry (SJOIIM). These include companies like Avances Cientificos, Varel International and Sliding that are affiliated to other unions. The strike now covers nearly half of the 110 maquiladoras in the city and involves more than 70,000 workers.

The strike began on Saturday when workers first learned that they were being cheated by the companies and the trade union with the non-payment of bonuses and a raise mandated in their contract. Defying the orders by the union and management to go back to work, the walkouts continued to be organized outside of the gates and on social media, demanding a 20 percent raise and a bonus of 32,000 pesos ($1,700).

At a series of mass assemblies involving thousands from several plants at the central plaza of the city and outside of the union headquarters since Wednesday, workers have consistently pledged to continue and expand the strike across the city until their demands are met.

On Thursday night and Friday morning, thousands marched across the city chanting Factory by Factory! and visiting a plant at a time to appeal to shifts still working to join the strike movement.

The lack of trust and hatred toward the trade unions is generalized among workers after decades of overseeing constant abuses by the companies. This led strikers at most plants to elect representatives among themselves to advance their demands.

However, as calls were growing for waging the struggle independently of the unions through these committees and after a mass assembly was convoked online on Wednesday to discuss this, labor lawyer Susana Prieto Terrazas arrived at the city to address legal concerns by striking workers and, while supporting the strike, called workers to direct all appeals to the discredited unions and fed illusions in the Morena government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO).

Once the lawyer left Matamoros on Friday morning, the discussions among workers have centered along the lines of whether to develop the independent initiative of workers outside the framework of the unions or whether to continue to allow the trade union to speak for them.

Throughout Friday, the leaders of the SJOIIM and the Union of Workers in Maquiladora and Assembly Plants (SIPTME) closed their doors to workers. Jesus Mendoza, leader of the SIPTME, cowardly requested an interview with the local outlet La Frontera in which he denounced striking workers as criminals, defended the rights of the company to decide what to do with those workers, explaining that the company has fired them, and threatened picketers that are violating the law, noting that we have called the authorities.

About one hour after the interview, SITPME officials appeared at the picket lines accompanied with a unit of state police, and unsuccessfully demanded the strikers go home.

At noon, after waiting for hours at the SJOIIM offices for the reviled leader Juan Villafuerte Morales to face them, one of two representatives of a rank-and-file committee at the Parker auto parts company called on the hundreds of workers present to send two representatives from each maquiladora to be present as a committee at an assembly at the stairs outside of the union headquarters to discuss future actions.

Having been present at the earlier negotiations with the companies, the committee representative denounced the three union representatives of the 48 plants affiliated to the SJOIIM for acting vulgarly and doing whatever they please, adding that they are refusing obstinately to meet their demands. She also demanded Villafuerte to not be a coward and provide strikers with strike pay, prepared meals, chairs, tents and goods for their families bought with the money the union has taken through exorbitant dues equivalent to 4 percent of their salary.

On Friday evening, workers from two other plants confirmed to the WSWS that their maquiladoras and several others have responded to the call to send two fellow workers as delegates to a committee to spend the night and hold discussions outside of the union headquarters.

The struggle by maquiladora workers in Mexico has reached a crucial crossroads and faces two distinct paths. One path, advocated by the lawyer Prieto, urges workers to continue appealing to the trade unions, which operate as thuggish cheap-labor contractors for the companies and represent the main obstacle for uniting workers from different maquiladoras in Matamoros and beyond.

Despite warnings that this is the only legally sanctioned path, it will lead inevitably to a sell-out compromise with the companies and the betrayal by the union to leave workers to fend for themselves once the company and state authorities counterattack against the most militant workers with a vengeance.

The alternative path is for workers at all maquiladoras to elect their two rank-and-file representatives to formalize a strike committee composed by these representatives from all maquiladoras on strike in Matamorosto once and for all take the struggle out of the hands of the trade unions.

This committee must formulate and democratically vote on demands, discuss a strategy to win and formally delegate tasks to its members to advance and expand the strike. It must send appeals to maquiladora workers across the US-Mexico border and the country, to autoworkers in the United States and Canada to join their struggle.

We urge workers to contact us by email at autoworkers@wsws.org or our Facebook page in order to take up these crucial steps.Paldal Gate in Suwon, circa 1900-1920.



By Robert Neff



Twice, between early October and November 1884, George C. Foulk, an American naval ensign attached to the American legation in Seoul, traveled to Suwon.



The first time was in an open chair carried by two Korean coolies  or servants  and the second was part of his larger exposition to explore the southern half of the Korean Peninsula.



The road between Seoul and Suwon appears to have been kept in good repair and the ever-critical Foulk apparently even complimented the scenery along his path:



"The last four miles of road before Suwon were lined with picturesque old pines and numerous memorial stones. At one place was a resting place and pleasure resort for the King by a small lotus pond."





A lake near Suwon, circa 1900-1920.



He also noted that nearby was "a small lake celebrated for a delicious kind of fish"  unfortunately he doesn't appear to have visited it.



Foulk was impressed with the productivity of the region and the business of its residents. The road was filled with packhorses carrying cotton flax, oxen carrying loads of rice and coolies and itinerant merchants carrying their goods. The farmers were equally busy: harvesting rice, threshing it and making mats from the straw.



He was equally impressed with the gates of Suwon and its fortress but the city itself lacked much of interest, for Foulk wrote very little about it.



"Along the main streets were a few shops, some apparently filled with Chinese goods, but all small and poor."





A cattle market at Hwachon, Suwon, circa 1900-1920.



Again, he noted that the city produced coarse flax cloth in considerable quantity, along with persimmons, which were placed in large bags and carried to Seoul on packhorses and oxen.



Outside the south gate was a large collection of houses  he estimated it almost the same size as the city within the walls  where "the farmers assembled with grains, fruits and other products for sale to the citizens."



He estimated the population of Suwon at 22,000 people  about 12,000 within the walls and the rest living outside the south gate.



During that first visit in October, Foulk and his four chair bearers stayed the night in a cozy-looking hotel that proved to be cold and filthy. It was likely a long night for him. In the morning, Foulk would visit the magistrate of Suwon.





Working straw into mats, circa 1900-1920.





Paldal Gate in Suwon, circa 1900-1920.





A Korean market, circa 1910-1920.India: Samsung mobile manufacturing workers demonstrate over salaries and shift times

Hundreds of Samsung mobile manufacturing workers protested on January 12 to demand higher pay and changes in shift times. The workers assembled at the companys office in Noida Phase-II in the morning and remained there till around 10 pm.

The Samsung plant is just outside New Delhi and is reportedly the worlds largest mobile making facility with the capacity to produce 120 million phones per year. It was opened last July by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As well as demanding higher wages, the workers want restoration of previous shift times, which were changed this month. They also called for changes to current holidays and better food. Nearly 500 farmers demonstrated outside the companys office in October for more jobs for the local youth. A similar protest was held in August.

Hyundai workers in India hold one-day hunger protest

A group of workers from Hyundai Motors Chennai plant in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, held a one-day hunger protest on January 9 over stalled wage contract talks. The permanent workers previously banned overtime and have accused the company of using trainees to replace skilled workers.

The United Union of Hyundai Employees (UUHE) has been in talks for months with management to settle a 20182021 employment contract. Workers are demanding higher wages. Hyundai Motor has over 2,200 permanent workers, around 3,500 trainees and another 5,000 contract workers at the facility.

India unions shut down nine-day Mumbai bus workers strike

Unions covering Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) workers ended a nine-day bus strike for higher wages on January 16. BEST is a Mumbai-centered public transport provider.

The BEST Sanyukta Kamgar Kruti Samiti, a joint committee of many labour unions, called the industrial action to demand higher wages and for better employee housing.

The unions called off the industrial action, which involved an estimated 32,000 workers who grounded nearly 3,200 buses in Mumbai after accepting a high court ruling that a mediator be appointed to resolve the wage dispute.

Pakistan police attack demonstrating workers

Police violently attacked and arrested protesting Sehwan Development Authority workers in Dadu, Sindh province on Tuesday. The workers have not been paid for the past 40 months. Twenty workers were injured and fifty others, including protest leaders, were arrested.

Workers carrying placards blocked the M-9 Motorway at the Jamshoro Toll with barricades and burning tyres for about four hours.

Sri Lankan Telecom workers strike for better working conditions

Around 1,000 telecom workers from several branches across the country held a one-day strike and protested outside the companys main Colombo office on January 16.

The workers chanted slogans denouncing company administrators and called for salary increases, bonuses and a 40,000-rupee ($US219) basic monthly salary for contract workers who currently receive just 17,000 rupees. The strike was one in a series of protests held by Telecom workers for the same demands.

Chinese workers strike in Shenzhen over compensation

Two hundred OPD Technology workers in Shenzhen held two days of strikes beginning on January 6 to protest the companys refusal to provide employees with compensation after it announced that it was relocating operations to another city.

The OPD Technology plant in Shenzhens Baoan district is being transferred to Qingxi Countys Dongguan, a city more than 70 kilometres away. The government had ordered the relocation to facilitate the creation of a new highway.

Under Shenzhen rules, companies that transfer factories out of the city are required to pay workers compensation, calculated by the length of each workers employment. OPD Technology attempted to relocate without any discussion with workers or compensation.

The strike was violently broken up by police, leaving many workers injured. The industrial action ended after the company, backed by the local government, declared that it would pay 40 percent of the legally required compensation.

Protest to free jailed Shenzhen workers

Around 30 people protested at Beijings liaison office on Thursday after marching from the Western Police Station. They demanded the release of jailed workers and supporters.

In July, the government launched a brutal crackdown against workers at the Jasic Technology plant in Shenzhen who were trying to form an independent union. Many were injured, arrested and jailed.

The workers struggle attracted the support of students from universities who were also detained. Some of them have effectively disappeared. An estimated 40 people have been held since July. Protesters demanded that all those arrested by police should be freed before the Lunar New Year holiday, to be home with their families.

Cambodian garment workers continue strike

Over 1,000 employees of the W&D garment factory in Phnom Penh remain on strike, against the companys refusal to rehire ten workers it accuses of inciting recent stoppages.

Strike action began on December 24 over wages and conditions. The workers wanted payment of seniority indemnities, which are supposed to be made twice a year.

W&D management, with the support of the courts and the Cambodian Council of National Unions, issued an ultimatum for the workers to return to work within 48 hours or be sacked. The workers responded, however, by occupying the factory. On January 4, the company issued a press release stating that 1,200 workers at the plant would be sacked.

This week, the company retreated from its threat of mass layoffs. According to a company spokesperson, 600 strikers agreed to return to work but 1,000 refused. Garment worker Sam Srey Mom, told the media that she would not return to work, because the victimisation of the ten workers was an attempt by the company to pressure and divide us.

Cambodian garment workers walk out over unpaid wages

Five hundred workers at the Cambodian Quantum Clothing factory in Phnom Penh began strike action this week after its American owners sold the plant to a Chinese company without paying outstanding wages and benefits.

One of the workers told the Khmer Times that the plant had changed owners three times without outstanding payments being settled. Strikers said they would not return to work until their wages and benefits were paid.

Australia and the Pacific

Australia: McDonalds workers picket Brisbane store

Around 50 members of the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RFFWU) protested outside a McDonalds store in Brisbane on January 11 against alleged company threats to employees who had demanded their right to a paid 10-minute break after four hours of work.

The RFFWU, and its competitor the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, are currently in negotiations with McDonalds over a new work agreement covering over the company's 100,000 employees.

New Zealand: Wellington bus drivers strike

Around 200 NZ Bus drivers in Wellington, represented by the Tramways Unions, held a strike on January 16 in order to attend a union meeting. NZ Bus, is exploiting the fact that previous employment conditions were not carried over when bus companies sought new contracts to run buses in 2018. NZ Bus is forcing more workers to work part-time, with fewer guaranteed hours. Workers agreed to refuse to take fares from passengers starting January 28.

In recent years Wellington bus drivers have taken industrial action opposing the contract negotiations between operators vying for bus contracts and the Greater Wellington City Council. In May 2017, 60 of the bus lines were assigned to a new contractor, Transit-Group, who offered to take on former NZ Bus drivers, but without any guarantee of their wages and conditions.

New Caledonia miners strike in third week

A strike by workers at SLN, New Caledonias major nickel mining company, is continuing at the mines in Thio, Tiebaghi and Nepoui. The workers walked out on January 3 opposing a restructure of shift patterns aimed at cutting costs. SLN is currently running at a loss, having been affected by a global drop in resource prices. The company reportedly wants to extend the working day to 10.5 hours and introduce a 2 a.m. finishing time for afternoon shift workers.

Union leaders in Noumea have sought to end the strike and have accepted the companys proposed changes, which are already in force at the mine in Kouaoua. A worker at one of the striking mines told the public broadcaster that the union bureaucracys agreement, reached without the consent of the workers, was unacceptable.Canadas Liberal government and corporate media have ratcheted up their denunciations of China ahead of next weeks World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Launched with the arrest December 1 by Canadian authorities of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei, Chinas largest technology firm, the campaign is aimed at bringing the Canadian ruling elite fully into line with US imperialisms aggressive course of confronting Beijing, both economically and militarily.

On Thursday, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland declared that the Canadian delegation to Davos would raise the issue of two Canadians in Chinese custody with other attendees and appeal for them to speak out publicly against Beijing. Her reference is to former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, who were detained in China in the days following Mengs arrest and accused of endangering national security.

A third Canadian, Robert Schellenberg, who was recently sentenced to 15 years in prison on a drug conviction, had his sentence hastily increased to the death penalty last Monday in what the Canadian government says is further retaliation for Mengs arrest. Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Freeland have issued statements appealing for clemency for Schellenberg, with prime minister denouncing the application of the death penalty as arbitrary.

Freeland boasted that Canada has already secured public statements denouncing China from the United States, Britain, the European Union, France and Germany, among others. For its part, China attacked Canada for internationalizing the issue of the three detained Canadians and demanded that Ottawa respect the sovereignty of Chinas courts.

Mengs arrest, coming the same day as US President Donald Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G-20 summit to negotiate a solution to the US-China trade conflict, was unprecedented in its brazenness. Even former Liberal Deputy Prime Minister John Manley acknowledged that it may have been wiser to have quietly warned Meng not to fly through Canada so as to evade the US extradition. The Trump administration, which instigated Mengs arrest, is calling for her extradition on trumped-up charges of bank fraud related to Washingtons illegal sanctions against Iran. If deported and convicted, Meng could face 30 years in prison.

The Canadian government feels it can act so provocatively because its demonization of China is part of a broader offensive against Beijing led by US imperialism. On Thursday, a report revealed that the US is considering charging Huawei with stealing trade secrets, in what would mark a major escalation of Washingtons conflict with Beijing. German officials also indicated that Berlin is considering banning Huawei from its 5G network.

These moves come in the context of the intensification of Trumps drive to economically isolate China. Tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports have been imposed by Trump, as well as a ban on US government agencies doing business with Huawei over national security concerns. This has been accompanied by comments from supporters of Trumps aggressive strategy calling for the US economy to decouple from trade with China, a policy that recalls the protectionism of the 1930s that played a major role in setting the stage for World War II.

The US ruling elite, supported by its Canadian ally, is determined to prevent Chinas rise as an economic rival, which is calling US global hegemony into question. In doing so, Washington is not merely relying on economic means, but is more than ready to resort to all-out war. Last October, Vice President Mike Pence delivered a bellicose speech in which he railed against Chinese expansion and vowed that the US was preparing for a direct military conflict with Chinaa conflict which would be fought with nuclear weapons.

Having served as US imperialisms closest military-strategic partner for over seven decades, Canadian imperialism is playing a key role in this aggressive agenda. It has been intimately involved in US military operations in the Asia-Pacific since the Obama administrations pivot to Asia. This includes a secret agreement with the US military on the joint management of resources, and the deployment of Canadian ships and personnel to the highly volatile South China Sea and Korean Peninsula. In 2017, the Liberal government also identified China as a global threat in its new defence policy.

However, factions of the US and Canadian establishments, led by the military-intelligence chiefs and the corporate media, remain dissatisfied with Canadas supposed failure to go far enough in confronting Beijing. Underscoring the bipartisan character of the anti-China campaign in the US, Senator Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Republican Senator Marco Rubio have both warned Canada that its failure to ban Huawei from its 5G network as the US, Australia and New Zealand have done would result in a downgrading of intelligence sharing between Washington and Ottawa.

Ward Elcock, former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the countrys primary spy agency, told the Globe and Mail Thursday that such threats from the US must be taken seriously. The same Globe article noted that assistant director of intelligence at CSIS, Michael Peirce, issued a warning to Canadas research universities last October about doing business with Huawei.

For some, even banning Huawei, which would cost Canadian telecommunications providers hundreds of millions of dollars to replace Huawei-made equipment, wouldnt go far enough. Writing in the Toronto Star, business columnist David Olive urged the Trudeau government to break off diplomatic ties with Beijing over their detention of Kovrig and Spavor. China needs to know in forceful ways that its continued brutal treatment of Canadians will come at a heavy price, Olive wrote. This is a time for severing diplomatic relations with China. Its also appropriate for Ottawa to revoke its approval of the $40-billion LNG Canada mega-project in B.C. unless state-owned PetroChina relinquishes its stake in the consortium.

In the neoconservative National Post, Kelly McParland attacked China for its boorish, threatening and ill-tempered behaviour.

The bourgeois press has further inflamed the dispute between Canada and China since Mengs arrest. Both the National Post and the Globe explicitly welcomed her detention as an opportunity to shift public opinion on Canadas policy to China. Although important sections of the ruling elite have been pushing for some time for a free trade agreement with Beijing to open up new markets for Canadian energy and raw material exports, the past several months have demonstrated that the overwhelming majority of the establishment stands full square behind Washingtons provocative anti-China drive.

Incapable of appealing to the international working class to oppose the imperialist onslaught against China, the regime in Beijing, which represents the interests of a wealthy capitalist oligarchy, has reacted by whipping up reactionary nationalism. At a press conference Thursday, Chinese ambassador to Canada Lu Shaye vowed that Beijing would retaliate against Canada if it bans Huawei. I hope Canadian officials and relevant authorities and bodies will make a wise decision on this issue, said Lu. But if the Canadian government does ban Huawei from participating in the 5G networks, I believe there will be repercussions.

Responding to the Trudeau governments call for the release of the arrested Canadians, Lu denounced Canada for white supremacy and Western egotism. Beijing also issued a travel warning for Chinese visitors to Canada.The pro-Remain wing of Britains ruling elite were convinced that their moment of triumph had come with the rejection Tuesday of Prime Minister Theresa Mays deal for leaving the European Union (EU) and the failure Wednesday of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyns vote of no confidence on the Conservative government.

Led by the Blairite wing of the Labour Party, they calculated that the decks would now be cleared for them to campaign for a second Peoples Vote to overturn the 2016 referendum result in favour of leaving the EU.

But no such clear-cut scenario for exiting the Brexit crisis exists. Instead the factional warfare that May sought to manage in her own party in the hope of securing at least a soft Brexitmaintaining tariff-free access to Europes marketshas erupted with renewed force. In addition, divisions within the Labour Party over Brexit itself and the advisability of unequivocally backing a second referendum, which Corbyn also tried to manage with his policy of studied ambiguity, have also been brought to centre stage.

The campaign for a Peoples Vote stepped up a gear, with Tony Blair himself demanding that Corbyn enter crisis talks with May and abandon his pre-condition of her ruling out a no-deal Brexitsomething she is unable to do without completely alienating her Brexiteer wing and Northern Irelands Democratic Unionist Party, which she relies on the support of its 10 MPs for a majority in Parliament. Corbyns positioning Labour for a possible fresh vote of no-confidenceafter Mays Plan B deal is presented to Parliament Mondayand his proposal to then seek a vote on his own Brexit proposals is considered a dangerous waste of time that should be spent arguing for a second referendum to follow a vote on Mays alternative Brexit proposals on January 29.

However, within 24 hours the still deeply divided, febrile political landscape in the UK was made apparent. Thursday evening, the main pro-Remain newspaper, the Guardian, led with a front-page warning: Corbyn faces threat of revolt if he seeks new referendum.

A string of junior shadow ministers have told the Guardian they are strongly opposed to the idea of a second referendum, which they fear would expose Labour to a vicious backlash in leave-voting constituencies, it wrote.

An unnamed shadow minister was quoted as saying, This concept of blocking Brexit is wrong and would break a link with millions of our traditional voters who expect us to keep our word.

Backbench MPs, who have been canvassing opinion, were cited claiming that there are just as many Labour MPs opposed to a second referendum as supporting it.

Insisting that Corbyn must continue campaigning for a general election, Guardian columnist Owen Jones, a darling of the Remain campaign who supported efforts by the Blairites to remove Corbyn, warned, If Labour imposed a three-line whip in support of a referendum, shadow cabinet members representing leave constituencies have told me they will resign. If a referendum becomes the only option left, then Labour will have to campaign for remain, and make a great fist of it. But dont have any illusions. The campaign will be even more bitter and vicious than the last; the culture war that has enveloped the country will get worse; millions of leave voters will be angered and even more disillusioned than before; and under a slogan of tell them again, leave may well win once more.

Jones is only confirming that the hesitancy of Corbyn and his Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell to nail their colours firmly to Remain at this stage articulates concerns for the political stability of Britain that the ruling class would do well to heed, rather than attack him for. A bourgeois politician, Corbyns overarching concern is to police political and social discontent so as not to ignite a mass movement of the working class against the most crisis-ridden government in decades.

In an op-ed piece in the Financial Times by McDonnell Friday, he cited the present political stalemate as one that could provoke even greater disillusionment with our system 

This, he said, is why Labour will return to Parliament to promote the compromise we believe is not only in the best interests of our economy but is also capable of securing sufficient support both here and in Brussels.

Central importance is assigned by Labour to securing tariff-free trade with Europe: Labour is proposing a deal that involves membership of a customs union, with a say in future trade deals, a close and collaborative relationship with the single market and the protection of consumer, environmental and employment rights.

Remainers barely acknowledge this, but Mays deal was so decisively rejected because 118 Tory MPs who back a hard Brexit joined opposition MPs in the lobbies. The leaders of the hard Brexit wing are now positioning themselves to move against May in the near future, or at the very least to assume leadership of the party after she promised to step down prior to a general election.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove closed the debate on the no-confidence motion in the Tories with an attack on Corbyn that was understood as a leadership oration. On Friday, former foreign secretary Boris Johnson gave a public speech meant to relaunch his own leadership bid in which he outlined the anti-working-class agenda of the Brexiteers.

Johnson spoke at the headquarters of the JCB construction equipment conglomerate, owned by billionaire Tory peer and Leave supporter Anthony Bamford. He made a few populist attacks on corporations who have held wages down over the last decade. However, this framed his demand that it was necessary to cut immigration numbers to end access to unlimited pools of labour from other countries.

Johnson outlined that Brexit required the UK to massively increase its productivity levels that can only come about through ramping up the exploitation of the working class. He called for a flat level of tax that would be a bonanza for the super-rich at the expense of the working class. We must ... create the most favourable tax environment with no new taxes and no increases in rates and no one rich or poor to pay more than 50 percent of their income in tax, he said.

To create the most dynamic economy possible, the UK needed a series of free portsa form of free trade zonein designated areas of a country around seaports, riverports and airports where goods are exempt for any tariffs and taxes: There are now 135 countries in the world that have such free ports with all their power to attract the growth of all kind and it is absurd that Britain will be forbidden by this deal from doing the same.

The European bourgeoise understand that the failure of Mays agreement means she is numbered among the walking dead, leaving the way open for a second referendum. Senior figures such as European Council President Donald Tusk, chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron have all made statements sympathetic to the UK remaining in the EU and suggesting a possible second referendum.

On Friday, the Guardian cited unnamed EU diplomats stating that Mays deal had no support in Parliament and would not be revived. An ambassador said, The reality is there is no longer any interlocutor [in the UK] for Europe. It is not at present the prime minister. We have to wait until one emerges.

Another diplomat said, [I]f it [UK parliament] passes a simple bill to delay article 50 [enacting Brexit], then that means no deal is off the table, and Europe, I am sure, will respond not flexibly, but super flexibly.Bird Box, directed by Susanne Bier, screenplay by Eric Heisserer, based on the novel by Josh Malerman; Hold the Dark, directed by Jeremy Saulnier, screenplay by Macon Blair, based on the novel by William Giraldi

Bird Box

Bird Box, directed by Susanne Bier, is an apocalyptic science fiction film based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Josh Malerman.

Netflix began streaming the film on December 21 and, a week later, reported that Bird Box had the largest seven-day viewership, 45 million accounts, of any of its original productions. The company later said that Biers film had been viewed by some 80 million households in the month following its release. The movie, in other words, with a good deal of media and corporate encouragement, has become something of a phenomenon.

In Bird Boxs opening sequence, Malorie (Sandra Bullock), blindfolded, is rowing a boat down a river with two small children, whose eyes are also covered.

The film then jumps back five years. A sullenly pregnant Malorie and her sister Jessica (Sarah Paulson) listen to the news, which informs them that the streets are crowded with people escaping cities by car and on foot as witnesses report unexplained mass suicides. First recorded in Romania, theres now an alarming spread of incidents into Europe and Siberia. (In contemporary Hollywoods shorthand, it might be noted in passing, eastern Europe and Russia have now become the source of virtually all evil.)

Soon the terror becomes global. Apparently, we learn later, some alien entity has invaded Earth. Gazing at the mysterious, all-pervasive being is lethal for both mind and body, driving most victims to kill themselves.

Jessica falls prey to the aliens, but Malorie is saved when she lands on the doorstep of the darkened home belonging to Greg (B.D. Wong). Other survivors include the misanthropic Douglas (John Malkovich) and the handsome voice of reason, Tom (Trevante Rhodes). Birds, like the proverbial canaries in the coal mine, are the first to feel the danger.

In the present again, we see Malorie still feverishly paddling down an eerie river with the two children she calls Boy and Girlapparently indicative of her unmaternal inability to bond. A blindfold is a must for all occasions, including while bobbing and tumbling through the rapids and avoiding the siren call of those falsely telling you it is safe to uncover your eyes. There are some casualties who dont kill themselves, but merely kill others. Sight is death, blindness is survival.

Bird Box is tense throughout and mildly intriguing. Bullock and Rhodes (Moonlight) are interesting actors, as are Malkovich and Tom Hollander, who plays a lunatic in the grip of the evil forces. The movies basic motif is anxiety. At a time of government shutdowns, endless wars and ecological disasters, Bird Box may be popular because it taps into a certain social unease. A sense of impending disaster is certainly not foreign to many people at the moment. But this may give the film more credit than it deserves. Its success seems largely accidental, a phenomenon that has become famous for being famous.

Bier is a Danish film director known for Open Hearts (2002), Brothers (2004), After the Wedding (2006), In a Better World (2010) and the miniseries based on the 1993 John le Carre novel, The Night Manager (2016). Early in her career, she was associated, somewhat loosely, with the Dogme 95 group of Lars von Trier and others, who vowed to rescue cinema from bombast and revive chaste, i.e., purer, and more minimalistic artistic means.

Overall, Scandinavian directors have not investigated the tumultuous course of recent decades in a profound way. Reflecting the opinions and feelings of the more affluent social layers in the region, they have tended to react to world eventsincluding the lurch to the right by the various Social Democratic partieswith panic and even hysteria (von Trier) or with gender-obsessed, self-absorbed trivia (many others).

Bier (born 1960 in Copenhagen) has taken something of a middle, moderate course and has now made an international film career for herself. She seems pleasant and intelligent, but without a great deal to say. One comment notes that her films often deal with the traditional family framework, with the collapse of the bourgeois middle class under the pressure of globalization, terrorism, and war, and the way in which people deal with a disaster or a formative event outside their lives. Bird Box fits this characterization only in an indirect and murky manner.

The filmmakers Jewish father left Germany after Hitler came to power. In 1943, Biers family (her mother was also Jewish) fled Denmark to Sweden to escape deportation by the occupying Nazis. She told one interviewer, from NCPR, Im Jewish, and my family is Jewish, and Ive always had a very distinct recognition of war being an imminent catastrophe, of being a real thing.

Asked by an interviewer from the Express whether the evil menace of the entity in Bird Box was a metaphor for the Nazi regime, Bier responded, somewhat light-mindedly, The fun of making a movie like this is that people can interpret the unseen evil in any way they wish, adding, however, Sandra [Bullock] and I looked at this seven years ago but at the time it wasnt right. Now the time feels right.

In 2003, we commented, in regard to her Open Hearts, that Biers methodand the method of the Dogme filmmakers in generalwas to ignore causality, i.e., history (the infamous whole), and concentrate entirely on the immediacy of disaster. If a bomb is thrown into a crowd, they ask, how will X, Y or Z react? In this the element of accident and chance does play a larger role, demonstrating the relatively arbitrary character of the circumstances. Minor artists concern themselves exclusively with such problems.

Howard Hawks 1951 science fiction classic, The Thing From Another World (officially credited to Christian Nyby), and the 1956 version of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers directed by Don Siegel, among others, were suggestive, disturbing movies that effectively captured the angst of the postwar period, including the Cold War and the McCarthyite witch-hunts. The filmmakers were obliged by the political climate of the time to be roundabout.

Ironically, and almost certainly without intending to, Bird Box does give visual and dramatic life to a fairly widespread conviction at present in certain upper middle class circles, in Hollywood and elsewhere: that it is better to proceed blindly, or at least that one should learn how to adapt oneself to blindness, rather than confront the onslaught of monsters, societal or otherwise, with open eyes.

Hold the Dark

Other films try to look things more honestly in the face, even if its painful.

Directed by Jeremy Saulnier, Hold the Dark, based on the 2014 novel by William Giraldi, is an absorbing movie that deals, if only obliquely, with American capitalisms historic crimes against indigenous peoples and, more recently, the Iraqi population.

As quoted by Giraldi, an Eskimo shaman told legendary Greenlandic-Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen, We fear the cold and the things we do not understand. But most of all we fear the doings of the heedless ones among ourselves.

In December 2004, Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright), an author and expert on the behavior of wolves, is asked to come to the small, poverty-stricken village of Keelut, Alaska by Medora Sloane (Riley Keough). Her six-year-old son Bailey is apparently the third child in the village to be taken by wolves.

Medoras husband Vernon (Alexander Skarsgard), is fighting at the time in Fallujah, Iraq, where he brutally slaughters anti-American militants. Fellow US troops sadistically take selfies of the carnage. But when Vernon catches an American soldier in the process of raping an Iraqi woman, he stabs the man and leaves his knife for the woman to finish off her attacker.

Meanwhile, Core finds the Sloanes dead child, actually strangled by Medora, in the basement of the familys shack. When Vernon, who is wounded in Iraq, returns home, he and his friend Cheeon (Julian Black Antelope), steal Baileys body from the morgue, killing several police officers in the process. Vernon starts tracking Medora, and Cheeon machine-guns the squadron of officers sent to arrest him. Fallujah is again mentioned in a news broadcast.

There are suggestive elements in the movie. For example, when police chief Donald Marium (James Badge Dale) goes to arrest Cheeon, he tells the latter that we got two dead cops in town, to which Cheeon replies: Oh, yeah? Around here, a couple of dead cops is cause for a party.

Marium: We came out here, we helped put you guys on the grid a few years back. We got you plumbing, we got you electric...

Cheeon: Now you want a trophy for letting these folks take a shit in their own houses?

Later on Cheeon tells Marium: When were killed, the past is killed. When kids are killed ... thats different. When kids are killed, the future dies. Theres no life without a future.

Core sums up one of the movies central concerns. Speaking about Medoras murder of her son, he laments: Its like she wanted to fix him. Save him. I dont know. Save him by destroying. It happens in medicine. Chemotherapy. Save him from what? Darkness. In her. In him. Outside her window. She told me about it, but ... I wasnt listening. I think thats why she wrote me. She wanted a witness to tell her story. And ... to be punished.

Theres a decidedly bleak element here, but Hold the Dark also seems to want to say, or at least hint at, something interesting about American societys past wrongdoings, against the Inuit, African Americans, Iraqis and nature itself, and how those crimes inevitably come back to haunt you, how they never, in fact, entirely go away.Signaling an expansion of the global onslaught on jobs, automakers Tesla, Inc. and Nissan Motor Co. announced plans for layoffs in the United States on Thursday and Friday. Altogether, nearly 4,000 workers' jobs are on the chopping block at the two companies.

The job cuts come as part of a wave of planned sackings and cost cuts throughout the industry. The auto giants are seeking to terrorize an increasingly insurgent workforce into submission, as the companies confront slumping sales, a looming economic crisis, significant financial pressure from rising commodity prices and the impact of escalating trade wars, and the ever-present pressure by Wall Street and the big banks to reduce costs.

Nissan, based in Japan and the worlds sixth-largest automaker, has been plagued in recent months by the scandal surrounding the arrest of its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, based on allegations of unreported earnings. Behind Ghosns arrest, maneuvers and conflicts are taking place among the companys directors over a possible merger with Renault, one of Nissans two partners.

The cuts announced by the company Thursday will reportedly target nearly 700 contract workers at its Canton, Mississippi, assembly plant. Nissan will eliminate one shift each involved in the production of vans and pickup trucks. The job reductions in Mississippi come less than a month after Nissan stated that it would lay off some 1,000 workers at plants in Aguascalientes and Morelos in Mexico.

Tesla, the California-based electric vehicle manufacturer, revealed Friday that it plans to cut its workforce by seven percent, or approximately 3,150 jobs according to industry analysts' estimates.

Tesla has struggled to meet production targets of its low-cost Model 3 sedan over the past year, and shares dropped 13 percent on the announcement. The company has also revealed its intentions to drop prices slightly on its entry-level car, in an effort to offset the phasing out of consumer tax credits.

CEO Elon Musk, in the email announcing the cuts, alluded ominously to the speed-up, which will face the remaining workers, who are already under enormous and nearly intolerable pressure.

Tesla will need to make these cuts while increasing the Model 3 production rate and making many manufacturing engineering improvements in the coming months, he wrote, adding, There isnt any other way.

In the face of mounting attacks autoworkers, long suppressed by the pro-company unions, are moving into open rebellion, as demonstrated by the ongoing wildcat strike wave by tens of thousands of maquiladora workers just across the US border in Matamoros, Mexico. Opposition is developing among the working class internationally, with spontaneous walkouts and job actions occurring recently at General Motors Oshawa, Ontario assembly plant and at the nearby parts supplier Inteva.

In November, General Motors fired the opening shot in the latest jobs massacre when it announced plans to idle four factories in the United States, one in Canada, and two as-yet unnamed plants overseas, wiping out approximately 15,000 jobs. The announcement followed GMs closure of its assembly plant in Gunsan, South Korea, last May, laying off thousands. Industry analysts have indicated in recent weeks that a number of GM engine and engine component plants may soon also face cuts, such as plants in Romulus and Flint, Michigan.

Last week, Ford announced plans to shutter plants and slash thousands of positions at its operations in Europe, as part of a $14 billion dollar cost-cutting plan. In addition, the company earlier indicated plans to significantly reduce its global salaried workforce, and is cutting shifts at its US operations.

On Tuesday, Ford also revealed the first stages of its long-signaled intentions to form an alliance with Germanys Volkswagen, in a move that bodes even more sackings and plant consolidations.

The same day Ford announced its plans for reductions in Europe, Jaguar Land Rover, the United Kingdoms largest automaker, confirmed its previously indicated aim to slash some 4,500 jobs.

The global character of the attack on jobs underscore the importance of the February 9 demonstration against layoffs and concessions at General Motors headquarters in Detroit. The action has been called by the Steering Committee for the Coalition for Rank-and-File Committees in order to launch a counter-offensive by workers to reverse decades of attacks on their living standards.

Fiat Chrysler, the smallest of the Detroit Three automakers, has yet to indicate mass layoffs on the order of GM and Ford, having drastically reduced its US footprint and ending car production following the 2009 bailout and bankruptcy restructuring. However, it faces enormous pressures to cut costs in the wake of the imposition of $800 million in fines and other charges to settle lawsuits relating to the rigging of diesel emissions tests.

Autoworkers at the companys Belvidere Assembly Plant, just outside Rockford in northern Illinois, have contacted the World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter to report the layoff of an entire shift is imminent.

We are up in the air right now about C shift going away, said Steve, a C shift worker at the plant. We are in limbo and only building like 400 cars per shift and when the number is met they are short shifting.

I know FCA is holding out and going to pit plants against each other for future product and seek more concessions because it is a contract year. Our local union knows this and they usually concede to the company.

There are a lot of pissed off workers here about the collusion between the UAW and Big Three, he continued, referring to the corruption scandal in which the UAW was shown to have taken millions in bribes from the company. They told us recently when taking suggestions for future contract negotiations that we cannot submit anything about pay. But a majority want COLA back and no more tiers.

Roughly 5,000 work at the plant, producing the Jeep Cherokee. The layoff of an entire shift, over 1,500 workers, in the economically depressed Rockford area would pose catastrophic consequences for workers and their families.

John, another worker on C shift, said, Employees will be displaced, all while sales are up, profits are up, but yet they tell us its because of slumping salesRight now, were not sure when this is supposed to take place, but were hearing sometime in March.

The workers get screwed so the CEOs and their shareholders stay profitable, Steve continued. Thats the corporate oligarchy we live under.

All I can say is it wont work in the end... Oligarchs will lose!

Referring to the yellow vest protests by workers against inequality in France, he said, I believe we need a massive global movement/protest to turn the tide. [Im hoping that] the government shutdown along with all the other protests going on would start our own massive yellow vest movement across the country.

Whether at Fiat Chrysler, GM, Ford, Nissan, or the many parts and supplier companies, workers must reject the demand that they suffer the continued destruction of their jobs and livelihoods.

Workers should look to the courageous example of those striking at the maquiladora sweatshops in Matamoros, Mexico, where workers are rejecting the despised and corrupt unions and are in the initial stages of forming their own organizations.

Across the auto and auto parts plants throughout North America, workers should organize meetings and act to elect and organize rank-and-file factory committees, independent of the unions, linking their struggle with striking Los Angeles teachers and government workers as well as reaching out across borders to their brothers and sisters in other countries.

Above all, workers must recognize they are in a struggle against not just one or another greedy corporation; they are locked in conflict with the entire capitalist system and the political parties and organizations which defend it. In order to secure the needs of the working class, a new political strategy is needed, i.e., socialism, which means the fight for social equality, not the profit interest of the corporations and super-rich.

We encourage all workers who agree with this perspective to make the decision to get involved and contact us today.Speaking at the Pentagon Thursday, President Donald Trump announced the largest expansion of US missile defense forces since Ronald Reagans failed Star Wars program.

The announcement is the latest move in a global nuclear arms race in which the United States, Russia and China are rapidly expanding their nuclear arsenals, even as the Trump administration moves to tear up all restrictions on the development, deployment and use of nuclear weapons.

Trump has accelerated a $1 trillion nuclear modernization program put in place under Obama, while rushing the development of new US strategic bombers, nuclear submarines and low-yield nuclear weapons that are more likely to be used in combat.

At the same time, the White House has announced the United States intention to withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty as it prepares to ring Russia and China with short- and medium-range nuclear and conventional missiles.

While US missile defense strategy previously claimed to defend against the actions of smaller states such as North Korea and Iran, this years missile defense review more directly targets Russia and China. As the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank wrote, For the first time, the document puts Russia and China in the same sentence as missile defenses, making explicit what has hitherto been implicit.

Speaking at the Pentagon Thursday, Trump declared that foreign adversaries, competitors and rogue regimes are steadily enhancing their missile arsenals Their arsenals are getting bigger and stronger.

Trumps remarks echoed the themes of the Pentagon report he was presenting. Military superiority is not a birthright, the report states. The scale and urgency of change required to renew our conventional and missile defense overmatch should not be underestimated.

The report goes on to threaten: To our competitors: We see what you are doing, and we are taking action.

Congress has approved $10.3 billion for the US missile defense agency this fiscal year, a figure that is poised to skyrocket if Trumps plans are carried through.

In his Pentagon appearance, Trump did not attempt to hide the fact that he was using the prospect of billions of dollars in additional military funding to solicit political support. Responding to applause as he took the podium, Trump told the military audience, Youre only doing that because I gave you the greatest and biggest budget in our history. And Ive now done it two times. And I hate to tell the rest of the world, but Im about to do it three times. So thats the only reason you gave me such a nice welcome.

Despite the bitter factional warfare in Washington, there is overwhelming bipartisan agreement on the vast and perpetual expansion of the military. Last June, the Senate approved, on an 85-10 vote, an $82 billion increase in the Pentagon budget, bringing annual spending to $716 billion. The colossal levels of military spending are almost never discussed in the media and the money is appropriated without question.

The diversion of funds into military appropriations and the pockets of defense contractors is even more shameless in connection with missile defense than with other types of military spending, because the efficacy of missile defense is, according to experts, largely illusory.

Missile defense is the longest running scam in the history of the Department of Defense, wrote Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, and the new Missile Defense Review continues that proud tradition.

Since President Reagan first announced his Star Wars initiative, the United States has spent some $300 billion on missile defense systems. Cirincione observed that a decade after the start of Star Wars, having spent tens of billions of dollars on X-ray lasers, directed energy weapons, particle-beam weapons, space-based kinetic interceptors and brilliant pebbles, the Pentagon was forced to conclude that none of these fanciful concepts would work. We ended up with a concept of limited, ground-based interceptors that might be able to intercept one or two primitive long-range warheads.

But the extremely limited effectiveness of the US missile defense systems did not prevent Trump from making sweeping claims about US capabilities. Our goal is simple: to ensure that we can detect and destroy any missile launched against the United States anywhere, anytime, anyplace, he said.

We will destroy every type of missile attack against any American target, whether before or after launch, he added.

In reality, current US missile defenses are not capable of reliably destroying modern ICBMs possessed by Russia or China, much less the new generation of hypersonic reentry vehicles that the two countries are deploying.

Trumps statements reflect the two most essential characteristics of American military policy since the fall of the Soviet Union: boundless, often delusional, hubris and a total lack of restraint. Given the series of blank checks Congress keeps writing, it is likely that Trumps announcement will be the start of a new Star Wars boondoggleturning over hundreds of billions more dollars for fanciful proposals.

However, the dubious efficacy of these initiatives does not lessen their deadly implications. The entire program is part of accelerating preparations for nuclear war, in which US imperialism is preparing to use offensive nuclear weapons.

For all the money Trumps new missile defense system will consume, the primary mechanism for ensuring that no missiles reach the United States in the event of war is the threat to destroy the entire landmass of a potential opponent with nuclear weapons. The United States will continue to rely upon nuclear deterrence for strategic nuclear attack from major powers, the CSIS declares.

The central aim of the Trump administrations Nuclear Posture Review, released last year, was to de-stigmatize the use of nuclear weapons by expanding the range of possible scenarios in which the president could respond with a nuclear strike.

As numerous studies have made clear, a nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia or between the United States and China, beyond an initial death toll in the hundreds of millions, would result in a climatological phenomenon known as nuclear winter, entailing a long-term drop in global temperatures that would make agriculture impossible and wipe out the entire human race.A worker employed at an Amazon fulfillment center in east Baltimore contacted the International Amazon Workers Voice [IAWV] to relay her experiences with the massive web technology corporation and her efforts to obtain help after being injured on the job.

The worker is married with two children. She is employed as a picker, i.e., someone who selects items that are then packaged and loaded onto trucks for shipment to various destinations around the world.

The worker noted that her problems with the company began roughly three weeks ago. I was picking when I felt my shoulder strain, she said. She went to Amazons in-house medical facility, Amcare.

The difficulties began almost immediately, when she was told by an Amcare physician that her shoulder pain was not an injury and she had simply been working too much.

Id had the pain before then, she said, adding that after three or four days off, strains will usually go away. This time it didnt.

She told the IAWV, I was treated like a liar.

Amcare said she should wait two hours to see if the pain subsided. When it didnt, she was forced to take unpaid time off (UPT), during which she visited a physician, who determined that she had a shoulder sprain. The doctor told me that they see these types of injuries all the time from Amazon employees, she noted.

According to the worker, Amcare is comprised of personnel who are unqualified to give medical diagnoses. A 2016 Gawker article, which quotes testimony from Amazon employees, describes Amcare as like a school nurses office, and equally as competent.

A whistle-blowing website, Amazonslavery.wordpress, says AMCAREs objective is to keep the employees at their workstations, which means giving false, uninformed medical evaluations.

After returning to work with documented proof that an injury had taken place, the worker was confronted by human resources, who told her she would not be accommodated for her injury because nowhere on her physicians paperwork did it say she was owed any relief. However, she was told she would potentially be eligible to receive workers compensation.

After a prolonged period waiting for the companys workers compensation provider, Sedgwick, to respond to her application, she was forced to return to work as a picker without workers comp and without any accommodation for her shoulder injury. She told the IAWV she doubted she would ever receive compensation from the company.

Amazon is really cold-hearted to its workers, she said.

The International Amazon Workers Voice has reported on the criminal methods employed by Sedgwick, including the hiring of private detectives to spy on workers who request funds owed to them by the company and the ignoring of injuries, even when presented with written confirmation from a physician.

As of this writing, the worker has received no word about compensation. Having nearly exhausted her UPT hours, she has been compelled to return to work.

I was told by Amazon that they would take care of the situation, she said. Then I was told in an email that my [UPT] time had run out. I even had to go to Amazon on a day that I was recuperating and straighten the situation out so as not to be fired for taking time off to heal.

Despite her physicians recommendation that she be restricted to lifting objects 10 pounds or less, the worker was forced back onto heavier lifting because the company claimed no such easy positions were available. Only a few days prior to this, however, management had offered her just such an easier position.

The IAWV has reported a number of similar instances at Amazons Baltimore facility. The corporation has taken advantage of deindustrialized areas such as Baltimore, exploiting the lack of jobs with decent pay to take advantage of and brutalize the workforce.

According to the Baltimore Business Journal, Maryland officials have spent roughly $46 million in tax subsidies to lure Amazon to the state and allow it to abuse its workers, including $16.2 million in 2018 for the construction of a fulfillment center at Sparrows Point in the Baltimore suburbs. The fulfillment center, employing 1,500 workers, stands on the ashes of what was once the largest steel mill in the United States.

Speaking of the Sparrows Point fulfillment Center, the injured worker said she had already heard of a worker being victimized there, supposedly for stealing a piece of candy.

Amazon is a really cold-hearted company, she repeated.

She expressed her gratitude to the IAWV for reporting her story and wholeheartedly agreed on the need for workers to begin speaking to one another and organizing a struggle against the massive web commerce corporation."Compassion  Rediscovering the Heartbeat of the nation." Image from Unsplash



By Amanda Price



As nations grow, it often becomes popular, if not seemingly imperative, to define what it means to be a member of that people group. We ask questions such as "What does it mean to be Korean?", "What is the Australian identity?", "What makes one Canadian?", "What qualities define an American?" and so forth.



As necessary as these questions may be, there is one question that should precede them all  a question that, if left unasked and unanswered, makes any conclusions regarding national identity essentially meaningless. The question we must first ask ourselves is "what does it mean to be human?"



While there may be multiple answers to this question, there are also answers that are universal, answers that, regardless of differences, remain immutable and unchanging. Among these is the quality that we know as "compassion." Often missing from recorded history, compassion has played a major role in humanity's ability not only to endure, but to prevail against oppression and tyranny.



This was true of Korea, a country once beset by persecution and plagued by one of humanity's worst sicknesses, the desire for power. Though history may provide only scant references to these unseen moments of altruism and compassion, other eyes were watching.



In the diaries, journals and records of non-Koreans, political envoys, missionaries and aid workers, hidden gems have been uncovered. In these records, one can read of Korean families who hid activists at the risk of their own lives, of individuals who found ingenious ways to keep hope alive.



In these written accounts are stories of Koreans sharing food with Koreans and non-Koreans when they had so little for themselves, of sheltering allied soldiers during the war and of taking in the orphaned, the wounded and the unwanted without a thought for themselves.



What these non-academic records suggest is that compassion, not purely patriotic zeal, enabled Koreans not only to survive, but to maintain their humanity and hope in the midst of colonial oppression. Many of these are untold stories and, as one missionary wrote, "stories that will endure in people's hearts, not their heads."



This year the number of those who recall these moments, or remember their parents telling them of such times, will grow smaller. The memories of these hidden gems will become a flickering candle lost in the spotlight that shines on supposedly greater achievements. The past is now remembered with a focus on bravery, daring and patriotic zeal while compassion becomes a footnote.





"Have we forgotten what it feels like to suffer, and to hope with all our being that someone will care?" Image from UnsplashAt the reception (Photo: thanhuytphcm.vn)

He made the statement during his reception for new Belgian Ambassador to Vietnam Paul Jansen on January 17

According to Mr. Phong, in 2018, the two countries carried out diverse activities to mark the 45th anniversary of the diplomatic relationship, including Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucs visit to Belgium in October which helped create stronger impetus for bilateral relationship.

He expressed his belief that the Vietnam - EU Free Trade Agreement will make favourable conditions to boost the Vietnam  Belgium relationship, especially in trade and investment.

Noting that although Ho Chi Minh city has maintained good relationships with Belgian localities, the cooperation is limited compared to the potential, with two-way trade turnover of only USD616 million in 2018, and there are only 25 Belgian projects worth USD6.9 million in Ho Chi Minh city. I hope that Ho Chi Minh city and Belgium will increase cooperation in diverse areas, especially in waste water treatment, hi-tech, seaport and building of smart city, he added.

Asserting that Vietnamese Prime Ministers visit to Belgium in 2018 brought good results to the bilateral relationship, Ambassador Paul Jansen highlighted the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Belgian agency of quality. Under the MoU, Belgium plans to import vegetables and fruits from Vietnam, and work with Vietnamese universities and businesses to organize conferences on food safety in Ho Chi Minh city.

He added that Belgium expects to open a museum on chocolate in Ho Chi Minh city, to introduce his countrys key product, take advantage of coca planted in Vietnam, and contribute an additional tourism site for the Vietnamese city./.Park So-yeon, head of the Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth, speaks at a press conference in Seoul, Saturday. Yonhap



The head of a South Korean animal shelter on Saturday apologized for euthanizing stray pets, but claimed that she put stray pets to death with a "humanitarian" purpose.

Park So-yeon, chief executive of the organization Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth (CARE), has been accused of euthanizing more than 200 homeless animals and of secretly burying a number of them between 2015 and last year.

Park is also suspected of embezzling money from CARE sponsors and keeping it for her personal use, buying, among other things, a plot of land.

In her first official remarks following the allegations, Park told reporters that she sincerely apologizes for euthanizing homeless animals.

She decided to carry out the euthanasia in secret because of her "lack of courage and fear, because it could cause a huge controversy."











Kim Divan, 66 years old, of Woodward, OK passed away at his home on Saturday, June 12. He was born in Nebraska but spent his childhood and most of his adult life in Palmdale, CA until moving to Oklahoma in 2005. Kim liked to have a good time and enjoyed his motorcycles and fishing. He will bNorth Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui is in Sweden for talks with Stephen Biegun, Washington's special representative for Pyongyang. Yonhap



South Korea's chief nuclear envoy appears to be on his way to Sweden for a possible meeting with a senior North Korean official, a diplomatic source said Friday.

Lee Do-hoon, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, seems to have left for Stockholm, where a government-civilian security forum, often called Track 1.5 session, is to take place, the source added.

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui earlier headed to the Swedish capital from Beijing.

There's a possibility that Stephen Biegun, Washington's special representative for Pyongyang, will visit as well.

"Either bilateral or multilateral meetings can be held if all the three officials are present there," the source said.

It would depend on the results of high-level negotiations to be held in Washington D.C. this week.











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.Show Low, AZ (85901)

Today

A shower or two possible this evening with partly cloudy skies overnight. Low 69F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

A shower or two possible this evening with partly cloudy skies overnight. Low 69F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%.GREATER LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)  Planning to kick start your business this year? You might run into some delays if the government shutdown continues.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office is still open but who knows how long. If the government shutdown continues USPTO will close and if it closes, the chances of starting a successful business can drop drastically.

USPTO is the government agency that issues patents and trademarks. The office operates through government funding so once that's gone, examining patent and trademark applications wont continue.

According to Patent Lawyer Cedric D'Hue with D'Hue Law LLC, having a patent can be very valuable to startups.

If a business starts up and they have patents, they're 35 times more likely to succeed than startups that do not have patents, said DHue. If you look at a lot of companies that start up, every year of delay between them getting a patent cuts in half their ability to and have an IPO or Initial Public Offering.

President Trump said he's willing to keep the government shut down indefinitely. D'Hue suggests applying for a patent or trademark while you still can.

You know this affects a lot of our economy and we can do what we can for right now and we just need to make the most of the opportunities we're given to try to resolve the dispute and move on with growth, said DHue.

Lafayette native Jennifer Bono created Liv Right, a natural dissolving tablet that works as a decongestant. Her product is already on the market at Sunspot in West Lafayette, however she has concerns about the future of her product as she works on applying for a patent.

I am worried with the delay of getting the patent because I do want my product to be out there on the shelves so I can help other families just like it helped mine, said Bono.

Another Lafayette inventor David Barnes said his patent application has been filed but not granted.

"If it's not reviewed then you know, I don't have recourse on any infringements and that's really probably the biggest issue that I would face," said Barnes.

Bono and Barnes said they won't give up on their products because of the patent delay from the government shutdown.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres / Reuters



UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday urged the United States and North Korea to agree on a roadmap for serious negotiations on scrapping Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic weapons.

"We believe it's high time to make sure that the negotiations between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea start again seriously and that a roadmap is clearly defined for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," Guterres told a news conference.

His remarks came as top North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chol was in Washington for talks with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to prepare a second summit, probably in Vietnam.

Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a historic summit in June in Singapore -- the first ever between the two countries -- where they signed a vaguely worded denuclearization deal.

But there has been no progress made since then, with both sides disagreeing over what was signed in Singapore.











NEW YORK- Governor Andrew Cuomo bans tractor-trailers and buses on the Thruway and a majority of interstate highways starting at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

The governor has directed the New York State Department of Transportation and the Thruway Authority to ban travel on the Thruway for tractor-trailers and buses for the duration of the storm.

"Safety is our number one priority and with the anticipated storm impacting most of New York state, we are implementing this ban on tractor-trailers and buses so our plow operators, fire, law enforcement and emergency personnel can keep roads clean and respond to emergencies as quickly as possible," Cuomo said.

A list of the highways with the ban:

I-88 from Binghamton to Albany

I-86/Rt 17 from PA border to I-87 (entire length)

I-81 from PA Border to Canadian Border

I-84 from PA Border to CT Border

I-684 from I-287 to I-84

I-87 from Albany to Canadian Border

I-390 from I-86 to I-90

I-99 from PA Border to I-86

I-90 from Thruway Exit 24 to Berkshire Spur Exit B2 (through Cap Dist)

Rt 219 from Peters Rd to I-90 (expressway section)

I-190 - full length (both Thruway and DOT sections)

I-290 - full length

Rt 5 Skyway - I-190 to NY179 (Milestrip Rd)

Rt 400 - NY16 to I-90

I-390, I-490, I-590 around Rochester

Alternate Route 7 in Albany CountyWipro Limited operates as an information technology (IT), consulting, and business process services (BPS) company worldwide. It operates in three segments: IT Services, IT Products, and India State Run Enterprise Services (ISRE). The IT Services segment offers IT and IT-enabled services, including digital strategy advisory, customer-centric design, technology consulting, IT consulting, custom application design, development, re-engineering and maintenance, systems integration, package implementation, infrastructure, analytics, business process, research and development, and hardware and software design services to enterprises. It serves customers in various industry verticals, such as banking, financial services, and insurance; health business; consumer business; energy, natural resources, and utilities; manufacturing; technology; and communications. The IT Products segment provides a range of third-party IT products comprising enterprise platforms, networking solutions, software and data storage products, contact center infrastructure, enterprise security, IT optimization technologies, video solutions, and end-user computing solutions. It serves enterprises in various industries primarily in the India market, which comprise the government, defense, IT and IT-enabled services, telecommunications, manufacturing, utilities, education, and financial services sectors. The ISRE segment offers IT services to entities and/or departments owned or controlled by the Government of India and/or various Indian State Governments. The company has research collaboration agreements with the University of Texas at Austin; Tel Aviv University, Israel; Swinburne University, Melbourne; IIT Kharagpur; IIT Madras; IISc Bangalore; and University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore; and strategic relationship with Amazon Web Services in the area of DevOps. Wipro Limited was founded in 1945 and is based in Bengaluru, India.

Read MoreU.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, center, and U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun, right, stand with North Korean envoy Kim Yong-chol prior to a meeting in Washington, DC, Jan. 18. AFP



President Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to broker a deal to coax the North to give up its nuclear weapons, the White House announced Friday.

News of a second meeting with the reclusive North Korean leader came after Trump's 90-minute meeting in the Oval Office with a North Korean envoy, Kim Yong Chol, who traveled to Washington to discuss denuclearization talks. Trump and Kim Jong Un are to meet near the end of February at a place to be announced later, said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

''The United States is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea until we see fully and verified denuclearization,'' Sanders said ''We've had very good steps and good faith from the North Koreans in releasing the hostages and other moves. And so we're going to continue those conversations and the president looks forward to the next meeting.''

In May, North Korea released three American detainees and sent them home with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after his 90-minute meeting with the North Korean leader in Pyongyang.

The second summit signals stepped-up efforts by both countries to continue talks. Trump has exchanged multiple letters with the North Korean leader amid little tangible progress on the vague denuclearization agreement reached at their first meeting last June in Singapore.

On Friday, Pompeo met with the North Korean envoy at a Washington hotel before the White House meeting and the two had lunch together afterward.

Trump has spoken several times of having a second summit early this year. Vietnam has been considered as a possible summit venue, along with Thailand, Hawaii and Singapore.

Since their Singapore sit-down in June, several private analysts have published reports detailing continuing North Korean development of nuclear and missile technology. A planned meeting between Pompeo and the envoy, who is North Korea's former spy chief, in New York last November was abruptly canceled. U.S. officials said at the time that North Korea had called off the session.

The talks have stalled over North Korea's refusal to provide a detailed accounting of its nuclear and missile facilities that would be used by inspectors to verify any deal to dismantle them. The North also has demanded that the U.S. end harsh economic penalties and provide security guarantees before it takes any steps beyond its initial suspension of nuclear and missile tests.Quotient Technology Inc. operates as a digital media and promotions technology company that offers power integrated digital media and promotions programs for brands and retailers. The company offers Quotient Promotions Platform offers digital paperless and print promotions, including Coupons.com website and mobile applications; brand and retailer websites and mobile applications; and third-party publishing websites and mobile applications. It also provides Quotient Retailer Promotions Platform that uses consumer data and insights to distribute personalized and targeted media and promotions for retailers of grocery, drug, mass merchant, dollar, club and convenience merchandise; and Quotient Media Platform, which provides targeted advertising solutions that enables brands to reach shoppers before, during, and after their shopping cycles with digital media campaigns. It also provides Quotient Retailer Performance Media Platform that uses retailer's consumer data to drive sales and enhances the shopper experience; Quotient Analytics provides campaign analytics and measured sales results to brands and retailers; Quotient Consumer Properties; and Quotient Retailer Media Services. It serves approximately 800 consumer packed goods, representing approximately 2,000 brands, including various food, beverage, personal care, and household product manufacturers; retail partners representing various classes of trade, such as grocery retailers, drug, mass merchant, dollar, club, and convenience merchandise channels; and consumers visiting its websites, mobile properties, and social channels. The company was formerly known as Coupons.com Incorporated and changed its name to Quotient Technology Inc. in October 2015. Quotient Technology Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Danaher: AB SCIEX, AB Sciex Germany GmbH, AB Sciex LLC, AB Sciex LP, AB Sciex Pte Ltd., Accu-Sort Systems, Acme Cleveland Corporation, Advanced Vision Technology, American Precision Industries, Applied Biosystems, Applitek NV, Aquatic Infomatics ULC, Aquatic Informatics, Armstrong Tools, BC Distribution BV, Beckman Coulter, Beckman Coulter Australia Pty Ltd, Beckman Coulter Biotechnology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Beckman Coulter Biyomedikal Urunler Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited [irketi], Beckman Coulter Canada LP, Beckman Coulter Commercial Enterprise (China) Co. Ltd., Beckman Coulter France S.A.S., Beckman Coulter G.m.b.H., Beckman Coulter Genomics Inc., Beckman Coulter Hong Kong Limited, Beckman Coulter Inc., Beckman Coulter India Private Limited, Beckman Coulter International SA, Beckman Coulter International Shanghai Trading Co., Beckman Coulter Ireland Inc., Beckman Coulter K.K., Beckman Coulter Korea Ltd., Beckman Coulter Laboratory Systems (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Beckman Coulter Limited Liability Company, Beckman Coulter Mishima KK, Beckman Coulter Nederland B.V., Beckman Coulter Nippon GK, Beckman Coulter S.L.U., Beckman Coulter Saudi Arabia Co.Ltd., Beckman Coulter Srl, Beckman Coulter Taiwan Inc., Beckman Coulter United Kingdom Limited, Beckman Coulter de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Beckman Coulter do Brasil Ltda., Beckman Finance ApS, Beckman Holdings Ltd., BioTector Analytical Systems Ltd, Biosafe S.A., Blue Software LLC, Cepheid, Cepheid AB, Cepheid Europe SAS, Cepheid GmbH, Cepheid HBDC SAS, Cepheid UK Ltd., ChemTreat, ChemTreat Inc., ChemTreat International Inc., Cispus Hong Kong Holding Limited, Cytiva, Cytiva BioProcess R&D AB, Cytiva Biotechnology (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Cytiva Biotechnology (Hang Zhou) Co. Ltd., Cytiva Europe GmbH, Cytiva Sweden AB, Cytiva Sweden Holding AB, DH Europe Finance II Sarl, DH Europe Finance Sarl, DH Holding Italia SRL, DH Japan Finance Sarl, DH Life Sciences LLC, DH Netherlands BV, DH Technologies Development Pte Ltd., DHKAB Company AB, DTIL Ireland Holdings Ltd., Danaher (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Danaher Hong Kong Limited, Danaher Medical ApS, Delta Consolidated Industries, Devicore Medical Products Inc., Easco Hand Tools, Esko, Esko BV, Esko Finance BV, Esko Graphics BV, Esko Software BV, FHAB Company AB, Fluke, G. Lufft Mess- und Regeltechnik GmbH, GE Biopharma, Gelman Sciences Inc., Gendex, Genetix Group, Gilbarco Veeder Root, Gilzoni Ltd., Global Life Sciences Solutions Austria GmbH & Co. KG, Global Life Sciences Solutions Germany GmbH, Global Life Sciences Solutions Korea Ltd., Global Life Sciences Solutions Manufacturing UK Ltd, Global Life Sciences Solutions New Zealand, Global Life Sciences Solutions Operations UK Ltd, Global Life Sciences Solutions Singapore Pte Ltd, Global Life Sciences Solutions USA LLC, Global Life Sciences Technologies (Shanghai) Co Ltd., Global Life Sciences Technologies Japan KK, Hach Company, Hach Lange Finance GmbH, Hach Lange GmbH, Hach Lange Sarl, Hach Sales & Services Canada LP, Hach Ultra Japan KK, Hach Water Quality Analytical Instru. (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., HemoCue AB, HyClone Laboratories LLC, Hybritech Incorporated, Hyclone Life Sciences Solutions India Private Limited, IDBS Group, IRIS International, Imaging Sciences International, Immunotech SAS, Immunotech Sro, Intabio LLC, Integrated DNA Technologies, Integrated DNA Technologies BVBA, Integrated DNA Technologies Inc., Integrated DNA Technologies Pte. Ltd., Iris International Inc., Joslyn Holding Company LLC, KVHG GmbH, KaVo, KaVo Kerr, Kaltenbach & Voigt, Keithley Instruments, Kipp & Zonen BV, Kollmorgen, Labcyte Inc., Laetus, Leica Biosystems Imaging Inc., Leica Biosystems Melbourne Pty Ltd, Leica Biosystems Newcastle Limited, Leica Biosystems Nussloch GmbH, Leica Biosystems Richmond Inc., Leica Instruments (Singapore) Pte Limited, Leica Microsystems, Leica Microsystems (UK) Limited, Leica Microsystems CMS GmbH, Leica Microsystems Cambridge Limited, Leica Microsystems IR GmbH, Leica Microsystems Inc., Leica Microsystems Limited, Leica Microsystems Ltd. Shanghai, Leica Mikrosysteme Vertrieb GmbH, Life Sciences Holdings France SAS*, Lifschultz Industries, Linx Printing Technologies, Linx Printing Technologies Limited, MDS Analytical Technologies, Marconi Data Systems, McCrometer Inc., Microtest, Molecular Devices, Molecular Devices (Austria) GmbH, Molecular Devices LLC, Navman Wireless, Navman Wireless OEM Solutions, Nihon Pall Ltd., Nihon Pall Manufacturing Limited, Nobel Biocare, OTT Hydromet Corp, Pall, Pall (Canada) ULC, Pall (China) Co. Ltd., Pall (Schweiz) GmbH, Pall Aeropower Corporation, Pall Artelis BVBA, Pall Asia Holdings Inc., Pall Australia Pty. Ltd., Pall Austria Filter Ges.m.b.h, Pall Corporation, Pall Europe Limited, Pall Filtersystems GmbH, Pall Filtration Pte. Ltd., Pall Filtration and Separations Group Inc., Pall France SAS, Pall GmbH, Pall India Pvt. Ltd., Pall International Sarl, Pall Italia Srl, Pall Korea Ltd., Pall Life Sciences Belgium BV, Pall Life Sciences Puerto Rico LLC, Pall Manufacturing UK Limited, Pall Medistad BV, Pall Netherlands BV Irish Branch, Pall Technology UK Limited, PaloDEX, Pantone LLC, Pelton & Crane, Phenomenex, Phenomenex Inc., QHC Ireland Finance Limited, Radiometer, Radiometer Basel AG, Radiometer K.K., Radiometer Medical ApS, Radiometer Medical Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Radiometer Turku Oy, Raytek, Reytek Corporation, SH Switzerland Finance Sarl, Sea-Bird Electronics Inc., SenDx Medical Inc., Shanghai AB Sciex Analytical Instrument Trading Co. Ltd., Sutron, Sybron Dental Specialties, TCIL Ireland Finance Ltd., Tektronix, Thomson Industries, Tianjin Bonna-Agela Technologies Co. Ltd., Trojan Technologies, Trojan Technologies Group ULC, VSS Monitoring, Videojet Do Brasil Comercio de Equipamentos Para Codificacao Industrial Ltda., Videojet Technologies (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Videojet Technologies Europe B.V., Videojet Technologies Inc., Viridor Waste Management Limited, Vision Systems Limited, Willett International, X-Ray Optical Systems Inc., X-Rite, X-Rite Europe GmbH, X-Rite Incorporated, X-Rite Switzerland GmbH, XOS, Yukon Hong Kong Holding Limited, and Zhuhai S.E.Z. Videojet Electronics Ltd..The following companies are subsidiares of Sonic Automotive: AM GA LLC, AM Realty GA LLC, AnTrev LLC, Arngar Inc., Autobahn Inc., Avalon Ford Inc., Car Cash of North Carolina Inc., Cornerstone Acceptance Corporation, ECHOPARK: AM GA LLC, ECHOPARK: AM Realty GA LLC, ECHOPARK: EP Realty NC LLC, ECHOPARK: EP Realty SC LLC, ECHOPARK: EchoPark AZ LLC, ECHOPARK: EchoPark CA LLC, ECHOPARK: EchoPark Driver Education LLC, ECHOPARK: EchoPark FL LLC, ECHOPARK: EchoPark NC LLC, ECHOPARK: EchoPark Realty TX LLC, ECHOPARK: EchoPark SC LLC, ECHOPARK: EchoPark TX LLC, ECHOPARK: Echopark Automotive Inc., ECHOPARK: SAI DS LLC, ECHOPARK: SAI DS Realty TX LLC, ECHOPARK: SAI Vehicle Subscription Inc., ECHOPARK: TT Denver LLC, ECHOPARK: TTRE CO 1 LLC, FAA Beverly Hills Inc., FAA Capitol N Inc., FAA Concord H Inc., FAA Concord T Inc., FAA Dublin N Inc., FAA Dublin VWD Inc., FAA Holding Corp., FAA Las Vegas H Inc., FAA Poway H Inc., FAA Poway T Inc., FAA San Bruno Inc., FAA Santa Monica V Inc., FAA Serramonte H Inc., FAA Serramonte Inc., FAA Serramonte L Inc., FAA Stevens Creek Inc., FAA Torrance CPJ Inc., FirstAmerica Automotive Inc., Fort Mill Ford Inc., Franciscan Motors Inc., Frontier Oldsmobile-Cadillac Inc., Kramer Motors Incorporated, L Dealership Group Inc., Marcus David Corporation, Massey Cadillac Inc. (TN-MI), Mountain States Motors Co. Inc., North Point Imports LLC, Ontario L LLC, Philpott Motors Ltd., SAI AL HC1 Inc., SAI AL HC2 Inc., SAI Ann Arbor Imports LLC, SAI Atlanta B LLC, SAI Broken Arrow C LLC, SAI Calabasas A LLC, SAI Chamblee V LLC, SAI Charlotte M LLC, SAI Chattanooga N LLC, SAI Clearwater T LLC, SAI Cleveland N LLC, SAI Columbus Motors LLC, SAI Columbus T LLC, SAI Columbus VWK LLC, SAI Conroe N LLC, SAI Denver B Inc., SAI Denver C Inc., SAI Denver M Inc., SAI FL HC1 Inc., SAI FL HC2 Inc., SAI FL HC3 Inc., SAI FL HC4 Inc., SAI FL HC7 Inc., SAI Fairfax B LLC, SAI Fort Myers B LLC, SAI Fort Myers H LLC, SAI Fort Myers M LLC, SAI Fort Myers VW LLC, SAI GA HC1 LLC, SAI Irondale Imports LLC, SAI Irondale L LLC, SAI Long Beach B Inc., SAI MD HC1 Inc., SAI McKinney M LLC, SAI Monrovia B Inc., SAI Montgomery B LLC, SAI Montgomery BCH LLC, SAI Montgomery CH LLC, SAI Nashville CSH LLC, SAI Nashville H LLC, SAI Nashville M LLC, SAI Nashville Motors LLC, SAI OK HC1 Inc., SAI Oklahoma City C LLC, SAI Oklahoma City H LLC, SAI Oklahoma City T LLC, SAI Orlando CS LLC, SAI Peachtree LLC, SAI Pensacola A LLC, SAI Philpott T LLC, SAI Riverside C LLC, SAI Roaring Fork LR Inc., SAI Rockville Imports LLC, SAI Rockville L LLC, SAI S. Atlanta JLR LLC, SAI SIC Inc., SAI Santa Clara K Inc., SAI Stone Mountain T LLC, SAI TN HC1 LLC, SAI TN HC2 LLC, SAI TN HC3 LLC, SAI Tulsa N LLC, SAI Tulsa T LLC, SAI Tysons Corner H LLC, SAI Tysons Corner I LLC, SAI VA HC1 Inc., SAI VS GA LLC, SAI VS TX LLC, SAI Vehicle Subscription Inc., SAI West Houston B LLC, SRE Alabama  2 LLC, SRE Alabama  5 LLC, SRE Alabama  6 LLC, SRE California 10 LBB LLC, SRE California 11 PH LLC, SRE California  1 LLC, SRE California  2 LLC, SRE California  3 LLC, SRE California  4 LLC, SRE California  5 LLC, SRE California  6 LLC, SRE California  7 SCB LLC, SRE California  8 SCH LLC, SRE California  9 BHB LLC, SRE Colorado  1 LLC, SRE Colorado  2 LLC, SRE Colorado  3 LLC, SRE Colorado  4 RF LLC, SRE Colorado  5 CC LLC, SRE Florida  1 LLC, SRE Florida  2 LLC, SRE Georgia 4 LLC, SRE Georgia 5 LLC, SRE Georgia 6 LLC, SRE Holding LLC, SRE Maryland  1 LLC, SRE Nevada  2 LLC, SRE North Carolina  2 LLC, SRE North Carolina  3 LLC, SRE Ohio 1 LLC, SRE Ohio 2 LLC, SRE Oklahoma  1 LLC, SRE Oklahoma  2 LLC, SRE Oklahoma  5 LLC, SRE South Carolina  2 LLC, SRE South Carolina  3 LLC, SRE South Carolina  4 LLC, SRE Tennessee 6 LLC, SRE Tennessee 7 LLC, SRE Tennessee  1 LLC, SRE Tennessee  2 LLC, SRE Tennessee  3 LLC, SRE Tennessee  4 LLC, SRE Tennessee  5 LLC, SRE Texas 10 LLC, SRE Texas 11 LLC, SRE Texas 12 LLC, SRE Texas 13 LLC, SRE Texas 14 LLC, SRE Texas 15 LLC, SRE Texas 16 LLC, SRE Texas 9 LLC, SRE Texas  1 LP, SRE Texas  2 LP, SRE Texas  3 LP, SRE Texas  4 LP, SRE Texas  5 LP, SRE Texas  6 LP, SRE Texas  7 LP, SRE Texas  8 LP, SRE Virginia - 1 LLC, SRE Virginia  2 LLC, SRM Assurance Ltd., Santa Clara Imported Cars Inc., Sonic 2185 Chapman Rd. Chattanooga LLC, Sonic Advantage PA LP, Sonic Automotive - 1720 Mason Ave. DB LLC, Sonic Automotive 2424 Laurens Rd. Greenville Inc., Sonic Automotive 2752 Laurens Rd. Greenville Inc., Sonic Automotive Aviation LLC, Sonic Automotive F&I LLC, Sonic Automotive Support LLC, Sonic Automotive West LLC, Sonic Automotive of Chattanooga LLC, Sonic Automotive of Nashville LLC, Sonic Automotive of Nevada Inc., Sonic Automotive of Texas LP, Sonic Automotive  1495 Automall Drive Columbus Inc., Sonic Automotive  1720 Mason Ave. DB Inc., Sonic Automotive  2490 South Lee Highway LLC, Sonic Automotive  3401 N. Main TX LP, Sonic Automotive  4701 I-10 East TX LP, Sonic Automotive  6008 N. Dale Mabry FL Inc., Sonic Automotive  9103 E. Independence NC LLC, Sonic Calabasas M Inc., Sonic Development LLC, Sonic Divisional Operations LLC, Sonic FFC 1 Inc., Sonic FFC 2 Inc., Sonic FFC 3 Inc., Sonic Fremont Inc., Sonic Houston JLR LP, Sonic Houston LR LP, Sonic Momentum B LP, Sonic Momentum JVP LP, Sonic Momentum VWA LP, Sonic Resources Inc., Sonic Santa Monica M Inc., Sonic Santa Monica S Inc., Sonic Walnut Creek M Inc., Sonic Wilshire Cadillac Inc., Sonic eStore Inc., Sonic of Texas Inc., Sonic  Buena Park H Inc., Sonic  Cadillac D LP, Sonic  Calabasas A Inc., Sonic  Calabasas V Inc., Sonic  Camp Ford LP, Sonic  Capitol Cadillac Inc., Sonic  Capitol Imports Inc., Sonic  Carrollton V LP, Sonic  Carson F Inc., Sonic  Carson LM Inc., Sonic  Clear Lake N LP, Sonic  Clear Lake Volkswagen LP, Sonic  Denver T Inc., Sonic  Downey Cadillac Inc., Sonic  Fort Mill Chrysler Jeep Inc., Sonic  Fort Mill Dodge Inc., Sonic  Fort Worth T LP, Sonic  Frank Parra Autoplex LP, Sonic  Harbor City H Inc., Sonic  Houston V LP, Sonic  Integrity Dodge LV LLC, Sonic  Jersey Village Volkswagen LP, Sonic  LS Chevrolet LP, Sonic  LS LLC, Sonic  Lake Norman Chrysler Jeep LLC, Sonic  Las Vegas C West LLC, Sonic  Lloyd Nissan Inc., Sonic  Lloyd Pontiac  Cadillac Inc., Sonic  Lone Tree Cadillac Inc., Sonic  Lute Riley LP, Sonic  Massey Cadillac LP, Sonic  Massey Chevrolet Inc., Sonic  Mesquite Hyundai LP, Sonic  Newsome Chevrolet World Inc., Sonic  Newsome of Florence Inc., Sonic  North Charleston Dodge Inc., Sonic  North Charleston Inc., Sonic  Plymouth Cadillac Inc., Sonic  Richardson F LP, Sonic  Sanford Cadillac Inc., Sonic  Shottenkirk Inc., Sonic  Stevens Creek B Inc., Sonic  Volvo LV LLC, Sonic  West Covina T Inc., Sonic  Williams Cadillac Inc., Stevens Creek Cadillac Inc., The Sonic Automotive Family Emergency Fund (SAFE), Town and Country Ford Incorporated, and Windward Inc..Savills plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides real estate services in the Americas, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, the Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East. The company advises on commercial, residential, rural, and leisure properties; and offers corporate finance advisory, investment management, and a range of property-related financial services. It operates through Transaction Advisory, Consultancy, Property and Facilities Management, and Investment Management segments. The Transaction Advisory segment provides commercial, residential, leisure, and agricultural leasing services; and tenant representation, as well as investment advice on purchases and sales. The Consultancy segment offers various professional property services, such as valuation, project management and housing consultancy, environmental consultancy, landlord and tenant, rating, development, planning, strategic projects, research, and corporate services. The Property and Facilities Management segment manages commercial, residential, leisure, and agricultural properties for owners; and provides services to occupiers of property, including strategic advice and project management, as well as services relating to a property. The Investment Management segment is involved in the investment management of commercial and residential property portfolios for institutional, corporate, or private investors on a pooled or segregated account basis. Savills plc was founded in 1855 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreRoyal Bank of Canada operates as a diversified financial service company worldwide. The company's Personal & Commercial Banking segment offers checking and savings accounts, home equity financing, personal lending, private banking, indirect lending, mutual funds and self-directed brokerage accounts, guaranteed investment certificates, credit cards, and payment products and solutions; and lending, leasing, deposit, investment, foreign exchange, cash management, auto dealer financing, trade products, and services to small and medium-sized commercial businesses. This segment offers financial products and services through branches, automated teller machines, and mobile sales network. Its Wealth Management segment provides a suite of advice-based solutions and strategies to high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals, and institutional clients. The company's Insurance segment offers life, health, home, auto, travel, wealth, annuities, and reinsurance advice and solutions; and creditor and business insurance services to individual, business, and group clients through its field sales force, advice centers, and online, as well as through independent insurance advisors and affinity relationships. Its Investor & Treasury Services segment provides asset, cash management, transaction banking, and treasury services to institutional clients; correspondent banking and trade finance services for financial institutions; and short-term funding and liquidity management services. The company's Capital Markets segment offers corporate and investment banking, as well as equity and debt origination, distribution, sale, and trading services for corporations, institutional investors, asset managers, governments, and central banks. Royal Bank of Canada has a strategic partnership with Royal College Of Physicians & Surgeons Of Canada to support the needs of Canada's medical specialists. The company was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Read MoreSince 2016, Teeka Tiwari has trumped the stock market. His investment recommendations have each averaged 281%. Thats 17 times the S&P. And 112 times the average investor, according to JPMorgan! However, one investment Teeka just uncovered could top them all It involves former President Biden, billions of dollars, several large banks, and a super-rich family. As well as a MAJOR potential upgrade to our credit cards. Teeka, who ended up correctly picking the last investment of the decade, is declaring this his top pick for the 2020s.

Raymond James Financial, Inc., a financial holding company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the underwriting, distribution, trading, and brokerage of equity and debt securities, and the sale of mutual funds and other investment products in the United States, Canada, Europe, and internationally. The company operates through Private Client Group, Capital Markets, Asset Management, RJ Bank, and Other segments. The Private Client Group segment provides securities brokerage services, including the sale of equities, mutual funds, fixed income products, and insurance products to their individual clients; and borrowing and lending of securities to and from other broker-dealers, financial institutions, and other counterparties. The Capital Markets segment offers securities brokerage, trading, and research services to institutions with a focus on sale of the United States and Canadian equities and fixed income products; and manages and participates in underwritings, merger and acquisition services, and public finance activities. The Asset Management segment engages in the operations of Eagle, the Eagle Family of Funds, Cougar, the asset management operations of Raymond James & Associates, trust services of Raymond James Trust, and other fee-based asset management programs. The RJ Bank segment provides corporate loans, SBL, tax-exempt loans, and residential loans. The Other segment engages in private equity activities, including various direct and third party private equity investments; and private equity funds. Raymond James Financial, Inc. was founded in 1962 and is based in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Read More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..The following companies are subsidiares of Mohawk Industries: A&S Energie NV, A&U Energie NV, Aladdin Manufacturing Corporation, Aladdin Manufacturing Of New York LLC, Aladdin Manufacturing of Alabama LLC, Alsace Logistique S.A., Avelgem Green Power CVBA, Avon Pacific Holdings Ltd, B&M NV, BGE Mexico S. de R. L. de C.V., Berghoef GmbH, Berghoef-Hout B.V., Bienes Raices y Materiales del Centro S. de R.L. de C.V., C.F. Marazzi S.A., Canterbury Spinners Ltd, Carpet Foundation Ltd, Cevotrans BV, Ceramus Bahia S/A  Produtos Ceramicos, DT Mex Holdings LLC, DTM/CM Holdings LLC, Dal Italia LLC, Dal-Elit LLC, Dal-Tile Chile Comercial Limitada, Dal-Tile Colombia S.A.S., Dal-Tile Distribution Inc., Dal-Tile Group Inc., Dal-Tile I LLC, Dal-Tile Industrias S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile International Inc., Dal-Tile Mexico Comercial S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile Operaciones Mexico S. De R.L. De C.V., Dal-Tile Peru SRL, Dal-Tile Puerto Rico Inc., Dal-Tile Services Inc., Dal-Tile Shared Services Inc., Dal-Tile Tennessee LLC, Dal-Tile of Canada ULC, Daltile, Daltile, Dekaply NV, Durkan, Dynea NV, Eliane Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Eliane S/A - Revestimentos Ceramicos, Emilceramica India Pvt Ltd., Emilceramica S.r.l, Emilgermany GmbH, Emilgroup Asia Ltd, Explorer S.r.l., F.I.L.S. Investments Unlimited Company, Feltex Carpets Ltd, Feltex Carpets Pty Ltd, Feltex New Zealand Ltd, Fibremakers Australia Pty Ltd, Flooring Foundation Ltd, Flooring Industries Limited S.a r.l., Flooring XL B.V., Floorscape Limited, Godfrey Hirst & Co Pty Ltd, Godfrey Hirst (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Godfrey Hirst Australia Pty Ltd, Godfrey Hirst Group, Godfrey Hirst NZ Ltd, Hytherm (Ireland) Limited, IVC BVBA, IVC Far-East Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., IVC France S.a r.l., IVC GROUP LIMITED, IVC Green Power NV, IVC Group, IVC Group GmbH, IVC Luxembourg S.a r.l., IVC Rus OOO, IVC US Inc., International Flooring Systems S.a r.l., International Vinyl Company - Vostok OOO, KAI Group, KAI Keramica Ltd, KAI Mining EOOD, KERAMA CENTER OOO, Kerama Baltics OOO, Kerama Export OOO, Kerama Marazzi OOO, Kerampromservis (LLC), Khan Asparuh - Transport EOOD, Khan Asparuh AD, Khan Omurtag AD, Koninklijke Peitsman B.V., Kraj Kerama OOO, MG China Trading Ltd., MI Finance SRL, MUD (Holding) Brazil Ltda., Management Co EAD, Marazzi Acquisition S.r.l., Marazzi Deutschland G.m.b.H., Marazzi France Trading S.A.S., Marazzi Group, Marazzi Group F.Z.E., Marazzi Group S.r.l., Marazzi Group Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Marazzi Iberia S.L.U., Marazzi Japan Co. Ltd., Marazzi Middle East FZ LLC, Marazzi Schweiz S.A.G.L., Marazzi UK Ltd., Mohawk Assurance Services Inc., Mohawk Australia Pty Ltd, Mohawk Canada Corporation, Mohawk Capital Finance S.A., Mohawk Capital Luxembourg SA, Mohawk Carpet Distribution Inc., Mohawk Carpet Foundation Inc., Mohawk Carpet LLC, Mohawk Carpet Transportation Of Georgia LLC, Mohawk Commercial Inc., Mohawk ESV Inc., Mohawk Europe BVBA, Mohawk Factoring II Inc., Mohawk Factoring LLC, Mohawk Finance S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Acquisitions S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Funding S.a.r.l, Mohawk Foreign Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Investments Inc., Mohawk Global Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Holdings International B.V., Mohawk Industries Inc., Mohawk International (Europe) S.a r.l., Mohawk International (Hong Kong) Limited, Mohawk International Capital N.V., Mohawk International Financing S.a.r.l, Mohawk International Holdings (DE) LLC, Mohawk International Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk International Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk International Netherlands B.V., Mohawk International Services BVBA, Mohawk KAI Luxembourg Holding S.a r.l., Mohawk KAI Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Capital S.A., Mohawk Luxembourg Financing S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Pacific S.a r.l., Mohawk Marazzi International BV, Mohawk Marazzi Russia BV, Mohawk New Zealand Limited, Mohawk Operaciones Mexicali S. de R.L. de C.V., Mohawk Operations Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk Pacific Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Resources LLC, Mohawk Servicing LLC, Mohawk Singapore Private Limited, Mohawk Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Mohawk Unilin Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk United Finance B.V., Mohawk United International B.V., Mohawk Vinyl Financing S.a r.l., Molber Beheer B.V., Monarch Ceramic Tile Inc., P.F. Onroerend Goed B.V., PF Beheer B.V., Pergo, Pergo (Europe) AB, Pergo Holding BV, Pergo India Pvt Ltd, Polcolorit S.A., Premium Floors Australia Pty Limited, RR Apex LLC, Rata International Pty Ltd, Recubrimientos Interceramica S. de R.L. de C.V., Riverside Textiles Pty Ltd, S.C. KAI Ceramics SRL, Sibir Kerama OOO, SimpleSolutions USA LLC, Soft Step (Australia) Pty Ltd, Spano Group, Spano Invest BVBA, Spano NV, Stroyagromekhzapchast ChaO, Stroytrans OAO Orelstroy, Summit Wool Spinners Ltd, The Flooring Federation Ltd, Tiles Co OOD, Unilin (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Unilin ApS, Unilin Arauco Pisos Ltda., Unilin BVBA, Unilin Beheer BV, Unilin Distribution Ltd., Unilin Distribution Ukraine LLC, Unilin Finland OY, Unilin Flooring India Private Limited, Unilin Flooring SAS, Unilin GmbH, Unilin Holding BVBA, Unilin Insulation BV, Unilin Insulation SAS, Unilin Insulation Sury SAS, Unilin Italia S.R.L., Unilin North America LLC, Unilin Norway AS, Unilin OOO, Unilin Panels SAS, Unilin Poland Sp.Z.o.o., Unilin SAS, Unilin Spain SL, Unilin Swiss GmbH, Unilin s.r.o., World International Inc., Xtratherm, Xtratherm Limited, Xtratherm S.A., and Xtratherm UK Limited.Wall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI Spain 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 MSCI Spain ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

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[URGENT] MAJOR BUY ALERT

Since 2016, Teeka Tiwari has trumped the stock market. His investment recommendations have each averaged 281%. Thats 17 times the S&P. And 112 times the average investor, according to JPMorgan! However, one investment Teeka just uncovered could top them all It involves former President Biden, billions of dollars, several large banks, and a super-rich family. As well as a MAJOR potential upgrade to our credit cards. Teeka, who ended up correctly picking the last investment of the decade, is declaring this his top pick for the 2020s.The Toronto-Dominion Bank, together with its subsidiaries, provides various personal and commercial banking products and services in Canada and the United States. It operates through three segments: Canadian Retail, U.S. Retail, and Wholesale Banking. The company offers personal deposits, such as chequing, savings, and investment products; financing, investment, cash management, international trade, and day-to-day banking services to businesses; and financing options to customers at point of sale for automotive and recreational vehicle purchases through auto dealer network. It also provides credit cards; real estate secured lending; auto finance; consumer lending; point-of-sale payment solutions for large and small businesses; wealth and asset management products, private banking, investment advisory, and trust services to retail and institutional clients; and property and casualty insurance, as well as life and health insurance products. The company also provides capital markets, and corporate and investment banking services, including underwriting and distribution of new debt and equity issues; advice on strategic acquisitions and divestitures; and trading, funding, and investment services to companies, governments, and institutions. It offers its products and services under the TD Bank and America's Most Convenient Bank brand names. The company operates through a network of 1,085 branches, 3,440 automated teller machines, and 1,223 stores, as well as offers telephone, digital, and mobile banking services. The Toronto-Dominion Bank was founded in 1855 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Read MoreFortis Inc. operates as an electric and gas utility company in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean countries. It generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 433,000 retail customers in southeastern Arizona; and 98,000 retail customers in Arizona's Mohave and Santa Cruz counties with an aggregate capacity of 3,233 megawatts (MW), including 59 MW of solar capacity. The company also sells wholesale electricity to other entities in the western United States; owns gas-fired and hydroelectric generating capacity totaling 65 MW; and distributes natural gas to approximately 1,048,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in British Columbia, Canada. In addition, it owns and operates the electricity distribution system that serves approximately 572,000 customers in southern and central Alberta; owns 4 hydroelectric generating facilities with a combined capacity of 225 MW; and provides operation, maintenance, and management services to five hydroelectric generating facilities. Further, the company distributes electricity in the island portion of Newfoundland and Labrador with an installed generating capacity of 143 MW; and on Prince Edward Island with a generating capacity of 130 MW. Additionally, it provides integrated electric utility service to approximately 67,000 customers in Ontario; approximately 270,000 customers in Newfoundland and Labrador; approximately 31,000 customers on Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands; and approximately 15,000 customers on certain islands in Turks and Caicos. The company also holds long-term contracted generation assets in Belize consisting of 3 hydroelectric generating facilities with a combined capacity of 51 MW; and the Aitken Creek natural gas storage facility. It also owns and operates approximately 91,000 circuit Kilometers (km) of distribution lines; and approximately 49,500 km of natural gas pipelines. Fortis Inc. was founded in 1885 and is headquartered in St. John's, Canada.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft: 87 Leonard Development LLC, ABFS I Incorporated, ABS MB Ltd., Acacia (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., Accounting Solutions Holding Company Inc, Alex. Brown Financial Services Incorporated, Alex. Brown Investments Incorporated, Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft mbH, Amber Investments S.a r.l., Ambidexter GmbH, Ambidexter GmbH i.L., Argent Incorporated, BHW - Gesellschaft fur Wohnungswirtschaft mbH, BHW Bausparkasse Aktiengesellschaft, BHW Holding GmbH, BHW Kreditservice GmbH, BNA Nominees Pty Limited, BT Globenet Nominees Limited, BTAS Cayman GP, BTD Nominees Pty Limited, Baincor Nominees Pty Limited, Bainpro Nominees Pty Ltd, Baldur Mortgages Limited, Bankers Trust Investments Limited, Barkly Investments Ltd., Bayan Delinquent Loan Recovery 1 (SPV-AMC) Inc, Bayan Delinquent Loan Recovery 1 (SPV-AMC) Inc., Berkshire Mortgage Finance, Betriebs-Center fur Banken AG, Biomass Holdings S.a r.l., Birch (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., Blue Cork Inc, Blue Cork Inc., Borfield Sociedad Anonima, Breaking Wave DB Limited, Cape Acquisition Corp., CapeSuccess Inc., CapeSuccess LLC, Cardales UK Limited, Cardea Real Estate S.r.l., Career Blazers LLC, Career Blazers Management Company Inc, Career Blazers Management Company Inc., Career Blazers Personnel Services Inc, Career Blazers Personnel Services Inc., Career Blazers Personnel Services of Washington D.C. Inc. Washington D.C., Caribbean Resort Holdings Inc, Caribbean Resort Holdings Inc., Carpathian Investments Designated Activity Company, Cathay Advisory (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Cathay Advisory (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Cathay Asset Management Company Limited, Cathay Capital Company (No 2) Limited, Cedar (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., Centennial River 2 Inc., Centennial River Corporation, Chapel Funding, Charlton (Delaware) Inc, China Recovery Fund LLC, China Recovery Fund LLC, Cinda - DB NPL Securitization Trust 2003-1, City Leasing (Thameside) Limited, City Leasing Limited, Consumo S.p.A., Consumo Srl in Liquidazione, Cyrus J. Lawrence Capital Holdings Inc., Cyrus J. Lawrence Capital Holdings Inc., D B Investments (GB) Limited, D&M Turnaround Partners Godo Kaisha, D.B. International Delaware Inc., D.B. International Delaware Inc., DAHOC (UK) Limited (in members' voluntary liquidation), DAHOC Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, DB (Barbados) SRL, DB (Malaysia) Nominee (Asing) Sdn. Bhd., DB (Malaysia) Nominee (Tempatan) Sendirian Berhad, DB (Pacific) Limited, DB (Pacific) Limited New York, DB (Pacific) Limited New York, DB Abalone LLC, DB Alex. Brown Holdings Incorporated, DB Alps Corporation, DB Aotearoa Investments Limited, DB Asia Pacific Holdings Limited (in voluntary liquidation), DB Asset Finance I S.a r.l., DB Asset Finance II S.a r.l., DB Aster II LLC, DB Aster III LLC, DB Aster Inc., DB Aster LLC, DB Beteiligungs-Holding GmbH, DB Boracay LLC, DB Capital Investments Sarl, DB Capital Markets (Deutschland) GmbH, DB Capital Partners Inc., DB Capital Partners Inc., DB Cartera de Inmuebles 1 S.A.U., DB Cartera de Inmuebles 1 S.A.U., DB Chestnut Holdings Limited, DB Commodity Services LLC, DB Consorzio S. Cons. a r. l., DB Corporate Advisory (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., DB Covered Bond S.r.l., DB Credit Investments S.a r.l., DB Delaware Holdings (Europe) Limited, DB Direkt GmbH, DB Elara LLC, DB Energy Commodities Limited (in members' voluntary liquidation), DB Energy Trading LLC, DB Enfield Infrastructure Holdings Limited, DB Equipment Leasing Inc., DB Equipment Leasing Inc., DB Equity Limited, DB Finance (Delaware) LLC, DB Finance (Delaware) LLC, DB Finance International GmbH, DB Ganymede 2006 L.P., DB Global Markets Multi-Strategy Fund I Ltd., DB Global Technology Inc., DB Global Technology Inc., DB Global Technology SRL, DB Group Services (UK) Limited, DB HR Solutions GmbH, DB Holding Fundo de Investimento Multimercado Investimento no Exterior Credito Privado, DB Holdings (New York) Inc., DB Holdings (New York) Inc., DB Holdings (South America) Limited, DB IROC Leasing Corp., DB Immobilienfonds 1 Wieland KG, DB Immobilienfonds 2 KG i.L., DB Immobilienfonds 4 KG i.L., DB Immobilienfonds 5 Wieland KG, DB Impact Investment (GP) Limited, DB Impact Investment Fund I L.P., DB Impact Investment Fund I L.P., DB Industrial Holdings Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, DB Industrial Holdings GmbH, DB Intermezzo LLC, DB International (Asia) Limited, DB International Investments Limited, DB International Trust (Singapore) Limited, DB Investment Managers Inc., DB Investment Managers Inc., DB Investment Partners Inc., DB Investment Partners Inc., DB Investment Resources (US) Corporation, DB Investment Resources Holdings Corp., DB Investment Services GmbH, DB Io LP, DB Litigation Fee LLC, DB London (Investor Services) Nominees Limited, DB Management Support GmbH, DB Managers LLC, DB Municipal Holdings LLC, DB Nexus American Investments (UK) Limited (in members'voluntary liquidation), DB Nexus Investments (UK) Limited (in members' voluntary liquidation), DB Nominees (Hong Kong) Limited, DB Nominees (Singapore) Pte Ltd, DB Omega BTV S.C.S., DB Omega Holdings LLC, DB Omega Ltd., DB Omega S.C.S., DB Operaciones y Servicios Interactivos Agrupacion de Interes Economico, DB Overseas Finance Delaware Inc., DB Overseas Finance Delaware Inc., DB Overseas Holdings Limited, DB PWM, DB Portfolio Southwest Inc., DB Print GmbH, DB Privat- und Firmenkundenbank AG, DB Private Clients Corp., DB Private Wealth Mortgage Ltd., DB RC Holdings LLC, DB Re S.A., DB Service Centre Limited, DB Service Uruguay S.A., DB Services Americas Inc., DB Services Americas Inc., DB Servizi Amministrativi S.r.l., DB Strategic Advisors Inc., DB Strategic Advisors Inc., DB Structured Derivative Products LLC, DB Structured Derivative Products LLC, DB Structured Finance 1 Designated Activity Company, DB Structured Finance 2 Designated Activity Company, DB Structured Holdings Luxembourg S.a r.l., DB Structured Products Inc., DB Structured Products Inc., DB Trustee Services Limited, DB Trustees (Hong Kong) Limited, DB U.S. Financial Markets Holding Corporation, DB UK Bank Limited, DB UK Holdings Limited, DB UK PCAM Holdings Limited, DB USA Core Corporation, DB USA Corporation, DB Valoren S.a r.l., DB Value S.a r.l., DB VersicherungsManager GmbH, DB Vita S.A., DBAB Wall Street LLC, DBAH Capital LLC, DBAH Capital LLC, DBCIBZ1, DBCIBZ2, DBFIC Inc., DBFIC Inc., DBNZ Overseas Investments (No.1) Limited, DBOI Global Services (UK) Limited, DBOI Global Services Private Limited, DBR Investments Co. Limited, DBRE Global Real Estate Management IA Ltd., DBRE Global Real Estate Management IB Ltd., DBRE Global Real Estate Management IB Ltd., DBRE Global Real Estate Management US IB L.L.C., DBRMS4, DBRMSGP1, DBUK PCAM Limited, DBUKH No. 2 Limited, DBUSBZ1 LLC, DBUSBZ1 LLC, DBUSBZ2 S.a r.l., DBUSBZ2 S.a r.l., DBX Advisors LLC, DBX ETF Trust, DBX Strategic Advisors LLC, DBO Vermogensverwertung GmbH, DEBEKO Immobilien GmbH & Co Grundbesitz OHG, DEE Deutsche Erneuerbare Energien GmbH, DEUFRAN Beteiligungs GmbH, DEUKONA Versicherungs-Vermittlungs-GmbH, DEUTSCHE BANK A.S., DG China Clean Tech Partners, DI Deutsche Immobilien Treuhandgesellschaft mbH, DIB-Consult Deutsche Immobilien- und BeteiligungsBeratungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., DISCA Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, DNU Nominees Pty Limited, DSL Portfolio GmbH & Co. KG, DSL Portfolio Verwaltungs GmbH, DTS Nominees Pty Limited, DWS Alternatives France, DWS Alternatives Global Limited, DWS Alternatives GmbH, DWS Asset Management (Korea) Company Limited, DWS Beteiligungs GmbH, DWS CH AG, DWS Distributors Inc., DWS Distributors Inc., DWS Far Eastern Investments Limited, DWS Group GmbH & Co. KGaA, DWS Group Services UK Limited, DWS Grundbesitz GmbH, DWS International GmbH, DWS Investment GmbH, DWS Investment Management Americas Inc., DWS Investment Management Americas Inc., DWS Investment S.A., DWS Investments Australia Limited, DWS Investments Hong Kong Limited, DWS Investments Japan Limited, DWS Investments Shanghai Limited, DWS Investments Singapore Limited, DWS Investments UK Limited, DWS Management GmbH, DWS Real Estate GmbH, DWS Service Company, DWS Trust Company, DWS USA Corporation, De Heng Asset Management Company Limited, De Meng Innovative (Beijing) Consulting Company Limited, DeAM Infrastructure Limited, Deloraine Spain S.L., Delowrezham de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Deposit Solutions, Deutsche (Aotearoa) Capital Holdings New Zealand, Deutsche (Aotearoa) Foreign Investments New Zealand, Deutsche (Mauritius) Limited Port, Deutsche (New Munster) Holdings New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Access Investments Limited, Deutsche Aeolia Power Production Societe Anonyme, Deutsche Alt-A Securities Inc., Deutsche Alt-A Securities Inc., Deutsche Alternative Asset Management (France) SAS, Deutsche Alternative Asset Management (UK) Limited, Deutsche Asia Pacific Holdings Pte Ltd, Deutsche Asset Management (India) Private Limited, Deutsche Asset Management (Japan) Limited, Deutsche Asset Management (Korea) Company Limited, Deutsche Asset Management S.A., Deutsche Asset Management S.G.I.I.C. S.A., Deutsche Australia Limited, Deutsche Bank (Cayman) Limited, Deutsche Bank (Chile), Deutsche Bank (China) Co. Ltd., Deutsche Bank (China) Co. Ltd., Deutsche Bank (Malaysia) Berhad, Deutsche Bank (Suisse) SA, Deutsche Bank (Uruguay) Sociedad Anonima Institucion Financiera Externa, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft, Deutsche Bank Americas Holding Corp., Deutsche Bank Bauspar-Aktiengesellschaft, Deutsche Bank Capital Finance LLC I, Deutsche Bank Capital Finance Trust I, Deutsche Bank Europe GmbH, Deutsche Bank Financial Company, Deutsche Bank Holdings Inc., Deutsche Bank Holdings Inc., Deutsche Bank Insurance Agency Incorporated, Deutsche Bank Insurance Agency of Delaware, Deutsche Bank International Limited, Deutsche Bank Investments (Guernsey) Limited, Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A., Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A. - Fiduciary Deposits, Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A. - Fiduciary Note Programme, Deutsche Bank Mutui S.p.A., Deutsche Bank Mexico S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple, Deutsche Bank Mexico S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple, Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, Deutsche Bank National Trust Company Los, Deutsche Bank Nominees (Guernsey) Limited, Deutsche Bank Nominees (Jersey) Limited, Deutsche Bank Polska Spolka Akcyjna, Deutsche Bank Representative Office Nigeria Limited, Deutsche Bank S.A. - Banco Alemao, Deutsche Bank S.A. - Banco Alemao Sao, Deutsche Bank SPEARs/LIFERs Series DBE-8011 Trust, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Limited, Deutsche Bank Services (Jersey) Limited, Deutsche Bank Sociedad Anonima Espanola, Deutsche Bank Sociedad Anonima Espanola, Deutsche Bank Societa per Azioni, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Delaware, Deutsche Bank Trust Company National Association, Deutsche Bank Trust Company National Association, Deutsche Bank Trust Corporation, Deutsche CIB Centre Private Limited, Deutsche Capital Finance (2000) Limited, Deutsche Capital Hong Kong Limited, Deutsche Capital Management Limited, Deutsche Capital Markets Australia Limited, Deutsche Capital Partners China Limited, Deutsche Cayman Ltd., Deutsche Colombia S.A.S., Deutsche Custody N.V., Deutsche Domus New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Equities India Private Limited, Deutsche Finance Co 1 Pty Limited, Deutsche Finance Co 2 Pty Limited, Deutsche Finance Co 3 Pty Limited, Deutsche Finance Co 4 Pty Limited, Deutsche Finance No. 2 Limited, Deutsche Foras New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Immobilien-Leasing mit beschrankter Haftung, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Immobilien-Leasing mit beschrankterHaftung, Deutsche Global Markets Limited, Deutsche Group Holdings (SA) Proprietary Limited, Deutsche Group Services Pty Limited, Deutsche Grundbesitz Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Deutsche Grundbesitz Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., Deutsche Grundbesitz-Anlagegesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Deutsche Holdings (BTI) Limited, Deutsche Holdings (Grand Duchy), Deutsche Holdings (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., Deutsche Holdings (Malta) Ltd., Deutsche Holdings Limited, Deutsche Holdings No. 2 Limited, Deutsche Holdings No. 3 Limited, Deutsche Holdings No. 4 Limited, Deutsche Immobilien Leasing GmbH, Deutsche India Holdings Private Limited, Deutsche International Corporate Services (Ireland) Limited, Deutsche International Corporate Services Limited, Deutsche International Custodial Services Limited, Deutsche Inversiones Dos S.A., Deutsche Inversiones Limitada, Deutsche Investments (Netherlands) N.V., Deutsche Investments India Private Limited, Deutsche Investor Services Private Limited, Deutsche Knowledge Services Pte. Ltd., Deutsche Leasing New York Corp., Deutsche Mandatos S.A., Deutsche Master Funding Corporation, Deutsche Mexico Holdings S.a r.l., Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Group Limited, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Group Public Limited Company, Deutsche Mortgage & Asset Receiving Corporation, Deutsche Mortgage Securities Inc., Deutsche Mortgage Securities Inc., Deutsche Nederland N.V., Deutsche New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Nominees Limited, Deutsche Oppenheim Family Office AG, Deutsche Overseas Issuance New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Postbank, Deutsche Postbank Finance Center Objekt GmbH, Deutsche Postbank Funding LLC I, Deutsche Postbank Funding LLC II, Deutsche Postbank Funding LLC III, Deutsche Private Asset Management Limited, Deutsche Securities (India) Private Limited, Deutsche Securities (Proprietary) Limited, Deutsche Securities (SA) (Proprietary) Limited, Deutsche Securities Asia Limited, Deutsche Securities Australia Limited, Deutsche Securities Inc., Deutsche Securities Israel Ltd., Deutsche Securities Korea Co., Deutsche Securities Mauritius Limited, Deutsche Securities Menkul Degerler A.S., Deutsche Securities S.A., Deutsche Securities S.A. de C.V. Casa de Bolsa, Deutsche Securities S.A. de C.V. Casa de Bolsa, Deutsche Securities Saudi Arabia, Deutsche Securities SpA, Deutsche Securities Venezuela S.A., Deutsche Securitisation Australia Pty Limited, Deutsche Services Polska Sp. z o.o., Deutsche StiftungsTrust GmbH, Deutsche Strategic Investment Holdings Yugen Kaisha, Deutsche Trust Company Limited Japan, Deutsche Trustee Company Limited, Deutsche Trustee Services (India) Private Limited, Deutsche Trustees Malaysia Berhad, Deutsche Wealth Management S.G.I.I.C. S.A., Deutsches Institut fur Altersvorsorge GmbH, Durian (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., EC EUROPA IMMOBILIEN FONDS NR. 3 GmbH & CO. KG i.I., Elba Finance GmbH, Elizabethan Holdings Limited, Elizabethan Management Limited, Emerald Asset Repackaging Designated Activity Company, Erste Frankfurter Hoist GmbH, European Value Added I (Alternate G.P.) LLP, Exinor SA, FARAMIR Beteiligungs- und Verwaltungs GmbH, FRANKFURT CONSULT GmbH, Fiduciaria Sant' Andrea S.r.L., Finanzberatungsgesellschaft mbH der Deutschen Bank, Franz Urbig- und Oscar Schlitter-Stiftung Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-037, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-039, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-040, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-041, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-043, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-044, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-047, Funfte SAB Treuhand und Verwaltung GmbH & Co. Suhl "Rimbachzentrum" KG, G Finance Holding Corp., G.O. IB-US Management L.L.C., G918 Corp., GAC-HEL Inc., GWC-GAC Corp., Galene S.a r.l., Gemini Technology Services Inc., German American Capital, German American Capital Corporation, Gladyr Spain S.L., Global Markets Fundo de Investimento Multimercado, Global Markets III Fundo de Investimento Multimercado - Credito, Greenwood Properties Corp., Grundstucksgesellschaft Frankfurt Bockenheimer Landstrae GbR, Grundstucksgesellschaft Kerpen-Sindorf Vogelrutherfeld GbR, Grundstucksgesellschaft Leipzig Petersstrae GbR, Grundstucksgesellschaft Wiesbaden Luisenstrae/Kirchgasse GbR, HTB Spezial GmbH & Co. KG, Hollandsche Bank-Unie, IOS Finance EFC S.A., ISTRON Beteiligungs- und Verwaltungs-GmbH, IVAF I Manager S.a r.l., IVAF I Manager S.a r.l., Immobilienfonds Buro-Center Erfurt am Flughafen Bindersleben I GbR, Immobilienfonds Buro-Center Erfurt am Flughafen Bindersleben II GbR, Immobilienfonds Mietwohnhauser Quadrath-Ichendorf GbR, Immobilienfonds Wohn- und Geschaftshaus Koln-Blumenberg V GbR, J R Nominees (Pty) Ltd, Joint Stock Company Deutsche Bank DBU, Jyogashima Godo Kaisha, KEBA Gesellschaft fur interne Services mbH, Kidson Pte Ltd, Konsul Inkasso GmbH, Kradavimd UK Lease Holdings Limited, LA Water Holdings Limited, LAWL Pte. Ltd., Latitude Australia Secured Personal Loans Trust, Leasing Verwaltungsgesellschaft Waltersdorf mbH, Leonardo III Initial GP Limited, Lindsell Finance Limited, London Industrial Leasing Limited, MEF I Manager S. a r.l., MEF I Manager S. a r.l., MHL Reinsurance Ltd., MIT Holdings Inc., MIT Holdings Inc., MPP Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Maher Terminals Holdings (Toronto) Limited, Morgan Grenfell & Company, MortgageIT, MortgageIT Inc., MortgageIT Inc., MortgageIT Securities Corp., Motion Picture Productions One GmbH & Co. KG, NCW Holding Inc., Navegator - SGFTC S.A., Navegator - SGFTC S.A., New 87 Leonard LLC, Nordwestdeutscher Wohnungsbautrager Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, OOO "Deutsche Bank TechCentre", OOO "Deutsche Bank", OPB Verwaltungs- und Beteiligungs-GmbH, OPB Verwaltungs- und Treuhand GmbH, OPB-Holding GmbH, OPB-Nona GmbH, OPB-Oktava GmbH, OPB-Quarta GmbH, OPB-Quinta GmbH, OPB-Septima GmbH, OPPENHEIM Capital Advisory GmbH, OPPENHEIM Flottenfonds V GmbH & Co. KG, OPPENHEIM PRIVATE EQUITY Manager GmbH, OPPENHEIM PRIVATE EQUITY Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, OPS Nominees Pty Limited, OVT Trust 1 GmbH, OVV Beteiligungs GmbH, Opal Funds (Ireland) Public Limited Company, PADUS Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, PARTS Funding LLC., PB Factoring GmbH, PB Firmenkunden AG, PB International S.A., PB Spezial-Investmentaktiengesellschaft mit Teilgesellschaftsvermogen, PBC Banking Services GmbH, PCC Services GmbH der Deutschen Bank, PT Deutsche Sekuritas Indonesia, PT. Deutsche Verdhana Sekuritas Indonesia, Pan Australian Nominees Pty Ltd, Peruda Leasing Limited, Plantation Bay Inc., Plantation Bay Inc., Postbank Akademie und Service GmbH, Postbank Beteiligungen GmbH, Postbank Direkt GmbH, Postbank Filialvertrieb AG, Postbank Finanzberatung AG, Postbank Immobilien GmbH, Postbank Immobilien und Baumanagement GmbH, Postbank Immobilien und Baumanagement GmbH & Co. Objekt Leipzig KG, Postbank Leasing GmbH, Postbank Service GmbH, Postbank Systems AG, QR Tower 2 LLC, Quantiguous, R.B.M. Nominees Pty Ltd, REO Properties Corporation, RREEF, RREEF America L.L.C., RREEF China REIT Management Limited, RREEF European Value Added I (G.P.) Limited, RREEF Fund Holding Co., RREEF India Advisors Private Limited, RREEF Management L.L.C., RTS Nominees Pty Limited, Reference Capital Investments Limited, RoPro U.S. Holding Inc., RoPro U.S. Holding Inc., Route 28 Receivables LLC, Route 28 Receivables LLC, SAB Real Estate Verwaltungs GmbH, SAGITA Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, SAPIO Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, SCUDO Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., SEDO Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., SENA Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. Objekt Kamenz KG, SIFA Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, SOLIDO Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, SP Mortgage Trust, SPINO Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., SPV I Sociedad Anonima Cerrada, SPV II Sociedad Anonima Cerrada, STATOR Heizkraftwerk Frankfurt (Oder) Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Sal. Oppenheim, Sal. Oppenheim Alternative Investments GmbH, Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. AG & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien, Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. Beteiligungs GmbH, Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. Komplementar AG, Sechste Salomon Beteiligungs- und Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Sechste Salomon Beteiligungs- und Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., Service Company Four Limited, Sharps SP I LLC, Singer Island Tower Suite LLC, Somkid Immobiliare S.r.l., Stelvio Immobiliare S.r.l., Structured Finance Americas LLC, Structured Finance Americas LLC, Swabia 1. Vermogensbesitz-GmbH, Suddeutsche Vermogensverwaltung Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, TAKIR Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, TELO Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, TEMATIS Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., TERRUS Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., TESATUR Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. Objekt Halle I KG i.L., TESATUR Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. Objekt Nordhausen I KG i.L., TOSSA Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, TRIPLA Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, TRS Aria LLC, TRS Leda LLC, TRS Maple II LTD, TRS Oak II LTD, TRS SVCO LLC, TRS Scorpio LLC, TRS Tupelo II LTD, TRS Venor LLC, TRS Walnut II LTD, Tagus - Sociedade de Titularizacao de Creditos S.A., Tasfiye Halinde Deutsche Securities Menkul Degerler A.S., Tempurrite Leasing Limited, Thai Asset Enforcement and Recovery Asset Management Company Limited, Tianjin Deutsche AM Fund Management Co. Ltd., Treuinvest Service GmbH, Triplereason Limited, UKE Beteiligungs-GmbH, UKE Grundstucksgesellschaft mbH, UKE s.r.o., Ullmann - Esch Grundstucksgesellschaft Kirchnerstrae GbR, Ullmann - Esch Grundstucksverwaltungsgesellschaft Disternich GbR, Ullmann Ullmann Krockow Krockow Esch GbR, VCJ Lease S.a r.l., Vesta Real Estate S.r.l., VOB-ZVD Processing GmbH, WEPLA Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, WEPLABeteiligungsgesellschaftmbH, Wealthspur Investment Ltd., Whale Holdings S.a r.l., World Trading (Delaware) Inc., World Trading(Delaware)Inc., Zumirez Drive LLC, db PBC, and norisbank GmbH.The following companies are subsidiares of Prudential Financial: 210-220 E. 22nd Street SSGA Owner LLC, 49-51 avenue George V Holdings SAS, 49-51 avenue George V SCI, AIG Edison, AIG Star, AREF Cayman Co Ltd., AREF GP Ltd., ASPF II - Feeder Fund GmbH, ASPF II - Verwaltungs - GmbH & Co. KG, ASPF II Management GmbH, ASPF III (Scots) L.P., ASSURANCE, AST Investment Services Inc., Adlerwerke CB Investment LLC, Administradora de Fondos de Pensiones Habitat S.A., Administradora de Inversiones Previsionales SpA, Aoba Life Insurance Company, Asia Property Fund III GP S.a.r.l., BSC CP LP, Braeloch Holdings Inc., Braeloch Successor Corporation, Broad Street Global Advisors LLC, Broome Street Holdings LLC, CB German Retail LLC, CLIS Co. Ltd., COLICO INC., Campus Drive LLC, Capital Agricultural Property Services Inc., Chadwick Boulevard Investment Holdings Co. LLC, Cibecue LLC, Coconino LLC, Colico II Inc., Columbus Drive Partners L.P., Commerce Street Holdings LLC, Commerce Street Investments LLC, Coolidge LLC, Coral Reef GP, Coral Reef L.P., Coral Reef Unit Trust, Cottage Street Investments LLC, Cottage Street Orbit Acquisition LLC, DHFL PRAMERICA LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED, DHFL Pramerica Asset Managers Private Limited, DHFL Pramerica Trustees Private Limited, Don Cesar Investor LLC, Dryden Arizona Reinsurance Term Company, Dryden Finance II LLC, EUROCORE MARTY PROPCO SCI, EVP II GP S.a r.l., Edison Place Senior Note LLC, Essex LLC, EuroCore GP S.a r.l., EuroPRISA Management Company S.A., European Value Partners GP S.a.r.l., Everbright Pramerica Fund Management Co. Ltd., Flagstaff LLC, GA 1600 Commons LLC, GA 333 Hennepin Investor LLC, GA Bay Area GP LLC, GA Bay Area Investor LLC, GA Belden LLC, GA CLARENDON LLC, GA Cal Crossings LLC, GA Collins LLC, GA E. 22nd Street Apartments Holdings LLC, GA East 86 Street LLC, GA JHCII LLC, GA MENLO PARK INVESTOR LLC, GA Manor at Harbour Island LLC, GA Metro LLC, GA Mission LLC, GA TRITON INVESTOR LLC, GA W Paces LLC, GA/MDI 333 Hennepin Associates LLC, GIBRALTAR BSN HOLDINGS SDN BHD, GIBRALTAR INDIA SOLUTIONS LLP, Gateway CDE LLC, Gateway Holdings II LLC, Gateway Holdings LLC, German Retail Income CP LP, Gibraltar BSN Life Berhad, Gibraltar International Service LLC, Gibraltar Reinsurance Company Ltd., Gibraltar Universal Life Reinsurance Company, Glenealy International Limited, Global Portfolio Strategies Inc., Graham Resources Inc., Graham Royalty Ltd., Green Tree GP, Green Tree L.P., Greenlee LLC, Halsey Street Investments LLC, Hirakata LLC, IVP Fund GP LLC, Impact Investments Bridges UK S.a.r.l, Inversiones Previsionales Chile SpA, Inversiones Previsionales Dos SpA, Ironbound Fund LLC, Jennison Associates LLC, Kyarra S.a r.l., Kyoei Annuity Home Co. Ltd. (Kabushiki Kaisha Kyouei Nenkin Home), Kyoei do Brasil Companhia de Seguros, LINEUP LLC, Lake Street Partners IV L.P., MC GA COLLINS HOLDINGS LLC, MC GA COLLINS REALTY LLC, MC Insurance Agency Services LLC, Manor at Harbour Island LLC, Maricopa LLC, Market Street Holdings IV LLC, Mulberry Street Holdings LLC, Mulberry Street Investment L.P., Mulberry Street Partners LLC, Mullin TBG Insurance Agency Services LLC, MullinTBG Insurance Agency Services, New Savanna, Orchard Street Acres Inc., PAI Bayrock Groves LLC, PAI Delano 1500 Ranches LLC, PAI Good Hope Farm LLC, PAI Holly Hill Groves LLC, PAI Hunt Farm LLC, PAI Lake Placid Groves LLC, PCP V Cayman AIV GP L.P., PEREF II Co-Invest 1 GP S.a r.l., PEREF II GP S.a r.l., PEREF II PV S.r.l, PFI IBH (UK) Holdings Limited, PG Business Service Co. Ltd, PG Collection Service Co. Ltd., PG Insurance Service Co. Ltd. (PG Insurance Service Kabushiki Kaisha), PGA Asian Retail Limited, PGA European Limited, PGIM (Australia) Pty Ltd, PGIM (Hong Kong) Ltd., PGIM (Scots) Limited, PGIM (Shanghai) Company Ltd., PGIM (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., PGIM AVP IV GP S.a r.l., PGIM Agricultural Investments GP LLC, PGIM Agricultural Investors LP, PGIM Broad Market High Yield Bond Fund L.P., PGIM Broad Market High Yield Bond Partners LLC, PGIM European Financing Limited, PGIM European Services Limited, PGIM Financial Limited, PGIM Foreign Investments Inc., PGIM Fund Management Limited, PGIM Holding Company LLC, PGIM ITH (UK) Holdings Limited, PGIM Inc., PGIM International Financing Inc., PGIM Investments LLC, PGIM Japan Co. Ltd., PGIM Korea Inc., PGIM LTIF GP S.a.r.l., PGIM Limited, PGIM M Campus GP S.a r.l., PGIM Management Partner Limited, PGIM MetaProp Investor LP LLC, PGIM Netherlands B.V., PGIM Overseas Investment Fund Management (Shanghai) Company Ltd, PGIM REF Europe GP LLP, PGIM REF Europe L.P., PGIM REF Europe Member LLC, PGIM REF Intermediary Services Inc., PGIM Real Estate (Japan) Ltd., PGIM Real Estate Asia Value Partners IV SCSp, PGIM Real Estate Brazil Investimentos Imobiliarios Ltda., PGIM Real Estate CD S.a.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest GP S.a r.l., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest L.P., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest SCSp, PGIM Real Estate Co-Invest Holdings LLC, PGIM Real Estate European Core Diversified Property Fund, PGIM Real Estate Finance Holding Company, PGIM Real Estate Finance LLC, PGIM Real Estate France SAS, PGIM Real Estate Germany AG, PGIM Real Estate Global Debt GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate Inmuebles S. de R.L. de C.V, PGIM Real Estate Luxembourg S.A., PGIM Real Estate MVP Administradora IV S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Inmuebles IV S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate Management Luxembourg S.a.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Mexico S.C., PGIM Real Estate S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate U.S. Debt Fund GP LLC, PGIM Strategic Financing LLC, PGIM Strategic Investments Inc., PGIM USPF VI Manager LLC, PGIM Warehouse Inc., PGLH of Delaware Inc., PIFM Holdco LLC, PIM KF Blocker Holdings LLC, PIM KF Blocker V Holdings LLC, PIM USPF V Manager LLC, PLA Administradora Industrial SRL, PLA Administradora LLC, PLA Administradora S. de R.L. de C.V., PLA Asesoria Profesional II S. de R.L. de C.V., PLA Asesoria Profesional S.de R.L. de C.V., PLA Co-Investor LLC, PLA Mexico Industrial Manager I LLC, PLA Mexico Industrial Manager II LLC, PLA Mexico Residential Manager I LLC, PLA Residential Fund III Aggregating Manager LLC, PLA Residential Fund III Limited Manager LLC, PLA Residential Fund III Manager LLC, PLA Residential Fund IV Aggregating Manager LLC, PLA Residential Fund IV Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund I Blue LP, PLA Retail Fund I LP, PLA Retail Fund I Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund I Red LP, PLA Retail Fund II Aggregating Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund II LLC, PLA Retail Fund II LP, PLA Retail Fund II Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund II U.S. Carry/Co-Invest LP, PLA Services Manager Mexico LLC, PMCF Holdings LLC, PMCF Properties LLC, PPPF General Partner LLP, PR GA SCP Apartments LLC, PRAMERICA PRECAP VI GP (SCOTS FEEDER) LLP, PRAMERICA PRECAP VI GP LLP, PRECO ACCOUNT III LLC, PRECO ACCOUNT PARTNERSHIP III LP, PRECO Account IV LLC, PRECO Account Partnership IV LP, PRECO III GP LLP, PREFG Hanwha Manager LLC, PREI Acquisition I Inc., PREI Acquisition II Inc., PREI Acquisition LLC, PREI HYDG LLC, PREI International Inc., PRIAC Property Acquisitions LLC, PRICOA Management Partner Limited, PRISA Fund Manager LLC, PRISA II Fund Manager LLC, PRISA III Fund GP LLC, PRISA III Fund PIM LLC, PRREF II Fund Manager LLC, PRU 3XSquare LLC, PRUCO LLC, PRUDENTIAL CAPITAL ENERGY PARTNERS MANAGEMENT (FEEDER) LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP MEMBER LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP REIT LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP VENTURE 2 LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP VENTURE LLC, PT Asuransi Jiwa Mega Indonesia, Passaic Fund LLC, Pine Tree GP, Pine Tree L.P., Pramerica (Hong Kong) Holdings Limited, Pramerica (Luxembourg) CP GP S.a.r.l., Pramerica (Scots) CP GP LLP, Pramerica Business Consulting (Shanghai) Company Limited, Pramerica EVP CP LP, Pramerica Europrisa Feeder GP LLP, Pramerica Financial Asia Headquarters Pte. Ltd., Pramerica Financial Asia Limited, Pramerica Fixed Income Funds Management Limited, Pramerica Fosun Life Insurance Co. Ltd., Pramerica General Partner LLP, Pramerica Holdings Ltd, Pramerica Life S.p.A., Pramerica Marketing S.r.l., Pramerica PRECAP I GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP II GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP III GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP IV GP LLP, Pramerica Pan European Real Estate (Scots) LP, Pramerica Property Partners Fund (Scotland) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital I (Scotland) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital I GP (Scots Feeder) LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital II (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital III (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV GP (Scots Feeder) LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV GP Limited, Pramerica Real Estate Capital V (Netherlands) GP LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital V (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital VI (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica SGR S.p.A, Pramerica Systems Ireland Limited, Pramerica of Bermuda Life Assurance Company Ltd., Preco III (Scotland) Limited Partnership, Preco IV (Scotland) Limited Partnership, Pricoa Capital Group (Ireland) Limited, Pricoa Capital Group Limited, Pru 101 Wood LLC, Pru Alpha Partners I LLC, Pru Fixed Income Emerging Markets Partners I LLC, Pruco Assignment Corporation, Pruco Life Insurance Company, Pruco Life Insurance Company of New Jersey, Pruco Securities LLC, Prudential 900 Aviation Boulevard LLC, Prudential Affordable Mortgage Company LLC, Prudential Agricultural Property Holding Company LLC, Prudential Annuities Distributors Inc., Prudential Annuities Holding Company Inc., Prudential Annuities Inc., Prudential Annuities Information Services & Technology Corporation, Prudential Annuities Life Assurance Corporation, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Captive Company, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Term Company, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Universal Company, Prudential Asset Resources Inc., Prudential Bank & Trust FSB, Prudential Brasil Servicos de Consultoria em Gestao Empresarial Ltda., Prudential Capital Energy Opportunity Fund L.P., Prudential Capital Energy Partners L.P., Prudential Capital Energy Partners Management Fund L.P., Prudential Capital Group L.P., Prudential Capital Partners Management Fund IV L.P., Prudential Capital and Investment Services LLC, Prudential Chile II SpA, Prudential Chile SpA, Prudential Commercial Property Holding Company LLC, Prudential Customer Solutions LLC, Prudential Equity Group LLC, Prudential Financial Securities Investment Trust Enterprise, Prudential Fixed Income Global Liquidity Relative Value Partners LLC, Prudential Fixed Income U.S. Relative Value Partners LLC, Prudential Funding LLC, Prudential General Services of Japan Y.K., Prudential Gibraltar Agency Co. Ltd. (Prudential Gibraltar Agency Kabushiki Kaisha), Prudential Global Funding LLC, Prudential HYDF Carry/Co-Invest L.P., Prudential Holdings of Japan Inc., Prudential Home Building Investment Advisers L.P., Prudential Home Building Investors Inc., Prudential Huntoon Paige Associates LLC, Prudential IBH Holdco Inc., Prudential Impact Investments Mortgage Loans LLC, Prudential Impact Investments Private Debt LLC, Prudential Impact Investments Private Equity LLC, Prudential Industrial Properties LLC, Prudential Insurance Agency LLC, Prudential International Insurance Holdings Ltd., Prudential International Insurance Service Company L.L.C., Prudential International Investments Advisers LLC, Prudential International Investments Cayman, Prudential International Investments Company LLC, Prudential International Investments LLC, Prudential Investment Management Services LLC, Prudential Japan Holdings LLC, Prudential Latin American Investments Ltd., Prudential Legacy Insurance Company of New Jersey, Prudential Life Insurance Company of Taiwan Inc., Prudential Mortgage Asset Holdings 1 Japan Investment Business Limited Partnership, Prudential Mortgage Asset Holdings 2 Japan Investment Business Limited Partnership, Prudential Mortgage Capital Asset Holding Company LLC, Prudential Mortgage Capital Funding LLC, Prudential Mortgage Capital Holdings LLC, Prudential Multifamily Mortgage LLC, Prudential Mutual Fund Services LLC, Prudential Newark Realty LLC, Prudential Private Placement Investors Inc., Prudential Private Placement Investors L.P., Prudential QOZ Investment Fund 1 LLC, Prudential Real Estate Management Co. Ltd. (Prudential Real Estate Management Yugen Kaisha), Prudential Realty Securities Inc., Prudential Retirement Financial Services Holding LLC, Prudential Retirement Holdings LLC, Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company, Prudential Securities Secured Financing Corporation, Prudential Securities Structured Assets Inc., Prudential Seguros Mexico S.A. de C.V., Prudential Seguros S.A., Prudential Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., Prudential Structured Settlement Company, Prudential Systems Japan Limited, Prudential Term Reinsurance Company, Prudential Trust Co. Ltd., Prudential Trust Company, Prudential U.S. Real Estate Debt Fund GP LLC, Prudential Universal Reinsurance Company, Prudential Workplace Solutions Group Services LLC, Prudential do Brasil Seguros de Vida S.A., Prudential do Brasil Vida em Grupo S.A., Prudential/TMW Real Estate Group LLC, Pruservicos Participacoes Ltda., Quantitative Management Associates LLC, Quartzsite LLC, Residential Services Corporation of America LLC, Rio CP LP, Rock City MC LLC, Rock European Real Estate Holdings S.ar.l., Rock George V S.a. r.l., Rock Global Real Estate LLC, Rock Hamburg North S.a r.l., Rock Kensington Limited, Rock Marty GP S.a r.l., Rock Marty Holding S.a r.l., Rock Marty PropCo A S.a r.l., Rock Marty PropCo B S.a r.l., Rock Marty SCSp, Rock Meguro LLC, Rock Oxford S.a r.l., Rock Rhine S.a r.l., Rock Rossmarkt S.ar.l., Rock UK Real Estate Holdings S.ar.l., Rock UK Real Estate II S.a.r.l., Rockstone Co. Ltd., Rosado Grande LLC, Ross Avenue Energy Fund Holdings LLC, Ross Avenue Minerals 2012 LLC, SCP Apartments LLC, SENIOR HOUSING PARTNERS VI GP LLC, SENIOR HOUSING PARTNERSHIP FUND VI GP LLC, SHP IV Carried Interest LP, SHP V Carried Interest L.P., SMP Holdings Inc., SVIIT Holdings Inc., Sanei Collection Service Co. Ltd. (Kabushiki Kaisha Sanei Shuuno Service), Senior Housing Partners IV L.L.C., Senior Housing Partners V LLC, Senior Housing Partnership Fund IV L.L.C., Senior Housing Partnership Fund V LLC, Sterling Private Placement Management LLP, Stetson Street Partners L.P., Strand Investments Limited, TBG Insurance Services Corporation, TENSATOR HOLDINGS LTD, TMW ASPF I Verwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, TMW ASPF Management GmbH, TMW Management LLC, TMW Real Estate Group LLC, TMW Realty Advisors LLC, TMW USPF Verwaltungs GmbH, TRGOAG Company Inc., The Gibraltar Life Insurance Co. Ltd., The Prudential Assigned Settlement Services Corp., The Prudential Brazilian Capital Fund LP, The Prudential Gibraltar Financial Life Insurance Co. Ltd., The Prudential Home Mortgage Company Inc., The Prudential Insurance Company of America, The Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd., The Prudential Life Insurance Company of Korea Ltd., The Prudential Real Estate Financial Services of America Inc., The WMF Group, Thurloe Commercial Guernsey Limited, Times Square Center Associates, USPF V - Verwaltungs - GmbH & Co. KG, USPF V Carry LLC, USPF V Co-Invest LLC, USPF V Investment LP, United States Property Fund VI GP S.a r.l., Vailsburg Fund LLC, Vantage Casualty Insurance Company, Wabash Avenue Holdings V LLC, Wabash Avenue Partners V L.P., Yamato Life, and Yavapai LLC.Greenhill & Co., Inc., an independent investment bank, provides financial and strategic advisory services to corporations, partnerships, institutions, and governments worldwide. The company offers advisory services related to mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, spin-offs, and other strategic transactions, as well as various stages of a transaction's life cycle ranging from initial structuring and negotiation to final execution. It also advises clients on strategic matters, including activist shareholder defense, special committee projects, licensing deals, and joint ventures; and valuation, negotiation tactics, industry dynamics, structuring alternatives, and timing and pricing of transactions, as well as financing alternatives. In addition, the company provides debt restructuring advisory services to debtors, creditors, governments, pension funds and other stakeholders, and acquirers of distressed companies and assets; and advice on restructuring alternatives, capital structures, and sales or recapitalizations. Further, it assists clients in identifying and capitalizing on incremental sources of value; and on court-assisted reorganizations by developing and seeking approval for plans of reorganization, as well as the implementation of such plans. Additionally, the company advises on other financing matters, including debt issuances, equity financings, and exchange offers; and initial public offerings and other equity capital market transactions. It also offers financial advisory services to pension funds, endowments, and other institutional investors on transactions involving alternative assets; and advice to alternative asset fund sponsors for capital raising, financing, liquidity options, and related services. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Xerox: A B S Digital Limited, Acorn Business Machines (Holmfirth) Limited, Alloy Acquisitions Corp. LLC, Altodigital, Altodigital Networks Limited, American Photocopy Equipment Company of Pittsburgh LLC, Amici, Arena Group, Arena Group Holdings Limited, Arena Group Limited, Arizona Office Technologies Inc., B 2 Business Systems Limited, Back2Business Limited, Bessemer Insurance Limited, Bessemer Trust Limited, Boise Office Equipment Inc., Bright Ceramic Technologies Inc., Bunch CareSolutions, Business Systems (North Wales) Limited, CPAS Systems, CREDITEX - Aluguer de Equipamentos S.A., CTX Business Solutions Inc., Capitol Office Solutions LLC, CareAR Holdings LLC, CareAR Inc., Carolina Office Systems Inc., Carr Business Systems Inc., Chicago Office Technology Group Inc., ComDoc Inc., Concept Group, Concept Group Limited, Connecticut Business Systems LLC, Consilience Software, Continua Limited, Continua Sanctum Limited, Conway Technology Group LLC, Copyrite Business Solutions (Holdings) Limited, Copyrite Business Solutions Limited, Copytrend Limited, Criterion IT Limited, Customer Value Group, Dahill Office Technology Corporation, Digitex Canada Inc, Digitex Canada Inc., Docucentric Holdings Limited, Eastern Managed Print Network LLC, Elan Marketing Inc., Electronic Systems Inc., Fovia (Innovation) Limited, G-Five Inc., GDP Technologies Inc., Global Imaging Systems, Global PR Corporation, Gyricon LLC, Healthy Communities Institute, Heritage Business Systems Inc., Image Technology Specialists Inc., ImageQuest Inc., Imagetek Office Systems, Impika, Impika SAS, Inland Business Machines Inc., Institute for Research on Learning, Integrity One Technologies Inc., Intrepid Learning, Invoco Group, Irish Business Systems, Itec Connect Limited, LRI LLC, LaserNetworks, LaserNetworks Inc., Lateral Data, Learn Something, Lewan & Associates Inc., Limited Liability Company Xerox (C.I.S.), M & S Reprographics Limited, MRC Smart Technology Solutions Inc., MT Business Holdings Inc., MT Business Technologies Inc., MWB Copy Products Inc., Mail A Doc Limited, Merizon Group Incorporated, Michigan Office Solutions Inc., Minnesota Office Technology Group Inc., Mitral Systems Limited, Mr. Copy Inc., Nemo (AKS) Limited, NewField IT, NewField Information Technology LLC, NewField Information Technology Limited, Northeast Office Systems LLC, Osprey Business Systems Limited, PARC China Holdings Inc., Pacific Services and Development Corporation, Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated, Platinum Digital Print Solutions Limited, Precision Copier Service Inc., Quality Business Systems Inc., Quilver Business Services Limited, R. K. Dixon Company, RRXH Limited, RRXIL Limited, RRXO Limited, RSA Medical, Rabbit Copiers Inc., Reflex Digital Solutions (UK) Limited, Reprographics Egypt Limited, Saxon Business Systems Inc., Smart Data Consulting, SoCal Office Technologies Inc., Stem Networks Limited, Stewart Business Systems LLC, Stewart of Alabama Inc., StrataCare, Talegen Holdings Inc., Tektronix - color printing, Text Comm Limited (in receivership), The Xerox (UK) Trust, The Xerox Foundation, Time Business Systems Limited, Triton Business Finance Limited, Una-Stem Limited, Veenman B.V., Veenman Financial Services B.V., WDS, WaterWare Internet Services, XC Asia LLC, XC Global Trading B.V., XC Trading Hong Kong Limited, XC Trading Japan G.K., XC Trading Korea YH, XC Trading Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., XC Trading Shenzhen Co. Ltd., XC Trading Singapore Pte Ltd., XEROX CZECH REPUBLIC s r.o., XESystems Foreign Sales Corporation, XFS Secured Borrowing 2020-1 LLC, XHC Acquisition Corp., XMPie, XMPie Inc., XMPie Ltd., XRI Limited, XRO Limited, Xerox (Europe) Limited, Xerox (Ireland) Limited, Xerox (Nederland) BV, Xerox (Romania) Echipmante Si Servici S.A., Xerox (UK) Limited, Xerox (Ukraine) Ltd LLC, Xerox A/S, Xerox AG, Xerox AS, Xerox Argentina Industrial y Comercial S.A., Xerox Austria GmbH, Xerox Bulgaria EOOD, Xerox Business Equipment Limited, Xerox Business Services Bulgaria EOOD, Xerox Business Solutions Inc., Xerox Business Solutions Southeast LLC, Xerox Buro Araclari Servis ve Ticaret Ltd. Sti, Xerox Canada Inc., Xerox Canada Ltd., Xerox Canada N.S. ULC, Xerox Capital (Europe) Limited, Xerox Capital LLC, Xerox Computer Services Limited, Xerox Comercio e Industria Ltda, Xerox Corporation, Xerox DNHC LLC, Xerox Dienstleistungsgesellschaft GmbH, Xerox Distributor Operations Limited, Xerox Egypt S.A.E., Xerox Equipment Limited, Xerox Equipment UK Limited, Xerox Espana S.A.U., Xerox Exports Limited, Xerox Finance AG, Xerox Finance Leasing S.A.E., Xerox Finance Limited, Xerox Financial Services B.V., Xerox Financial Services Belux NV, Xerox Financial Services Canada Ltd., Xerox Financial Services Danmark A/S, Xerox Financial Services Finland Oy, Xerox Financial Services LLC, Xerox Financial Services Norway AS, Xerox Financial Services SAS, Xerox Financial Services Sverige AB, Xerox Foreign Holdings LLC, Xerox Foreign Sales Corporation, Xerox GmbH, Xerox Health Care LLC, Xerox Hellas AEE, Xerox Holding Deutschland GmbH, Xerox Holdings (Ireland) Limited, Xerox Holdings Inc., Xerox Hungary Trading Limited, Xerox IBS Limited, Xerox IBS NI Limited, Xerox India Limited, Xerox International Joint Marketing Inc., Xerox Investments Europe B.V., Xerox Israel Ltd., Xerox Italia Rental Services Srl, Xerox Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Xerox Latinamerican Holdings Inc., Xerox Leasing Deutschland GmbH, Xerox Leasing GmbH, Xerox Limited, Xerox Luxembourg SA, Xerox Mailing Systems Limited, Xerox Manufacturing (Nederland) B.V., Xerox Maroc S.A., Xerox Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Xerox Middle East Investments (Bermuda) Limited, Xerox N.V., Xerox Overseas Holdings Limited, Xerox Overseas Inc., Xerox Oy, Xerox Pensions Limited, Xerox Polska Sp. z o. o, Xerox Portugal Equipamentos de Escritorio Limitada, Xerox Products Limited, Xerox Products UK Limited, Xerox Professional Services Limited, Xerox Realty Corporation, Xerox Renting S.A.U., Xerox Reprographische Services GmbH, Xerox S.A.S., Xerox S.p.A., Xerox Secured Borrowing 2020-1 LLC, Xerox Servicios Compartidos Guatemala y Compani Limitada, Xerox Servicos e Participacoes Ltda, Xerox Shared Services Romania SRL, Xerox Sverige AB, Xerox Technology Services India LLP, Xerox Technology Services SAS, Xerox Telebusiness GmbH, Xerox Trading Enterprises Limited, Xerox Trinidad Limited, Xerox UK Holdings Limited, Xerox XHB Limited, Xerox XIB Limited, Xerox Xf Holdings (Ireland) DAC, Xerox de Chile S.A., Xerox del Ecuador S.A., Xerox del Peru S.A., Zeno Office Solutions, Zeno Office Solutions Inc., Zoom Imaging Solutions Inc., and inVentiv Patient Access Solutions.The following companies are subsidiares of Zimmer Biomet: Abbott Spine, Beijing Montagne Medical Device Co. Ltd., Beijing Montagne Medical Device Co. Ltd., BioMet, Biomet 3i Australia Pty. Ltd., Biomet 3i Belgium N.V., Biomet 3i Benelux Holdings N.V., Biomet 3i Dental Iberica SL, Biomet 3i LLC, Biomet 3i Mexico S.A. de C.V., Biomet 3i Netherlands B.V., Biomet 3i Nordic AB, Biomet 3i Portugal Lda, Biomet 3i Switzerland GmbH, Biomet 3i Turkey, Biomet 3i UK Ltd., Biomet 3i do Brasil Comercio de Aparelhos Medicos Ltda., Biomet Acquisitions (Unlimited), Biomet Argentina SA, Biomet Australia Pty. Ltd., Biomet Biologics LLC, Biomet Brazil Medical Device Ltda., Biomet C.V., Biomet CV Holdings LLC, Biomet Cementing Technologies AB, Biomet Chile SA, Biomet China Co. Ltd., Biomet Deutschland GmbH, Biomet Deutschland Holding GmbH, Biomet Fair Lawn LLC, Biomet Finance US LLC, Biomet France Sarl, Biomet Global Supply Chain Center B.V., Biomet Healthcare Management GmbH, Biomet Holdings B.V., Biomet Hong Kong CBT Ltd., Biomet Hong Kong Holding Ltd., Biomet Hong Kong No. 1 Ltd., Biomet Inc., Biomet Insurance Ltd., Biomet International Inc., Biomet International Orthopedics LLC, Biomet Leasing Inc., Biomet Manufacturing LLC, Biomet Mexico S.A. de C.V., Biomet Microfixation B.V., Biomet Orthopedics LLC, Biomet Orthopedics Puerto Rico Inc., Biomet Spain Orthopaedics S.L., Biomet Sports Medicine LLC, Biomet Trauma LLC, Biomet U.S. Reconstruction LLC, Biomet UK Healthcare Ltd., Biomet UK Ltd., CD Diagnostics, CD Diagnostics Inc., CD Laboratories Inc., Cayenne Medical, Cayenne Medical Inc., CelgenTek Innovations Corporation, Centerpulse Ltd, Changzhou Biomet Medical Devices Co. Ltd., Citra Labs LLC, Clinical Graphics, Compression Therapy Concepts Inc., Compression Therapy Products, D.S. Comp Ltd., Dornoch Medical Systems, Dornoch Medical Systems Inc., EBI Holdings LLC, EBI LLC, EBI Medical Systems LLC, EBI Patient Care Inc., ETEX Corporation, ETEX Holdings Inc., Electro-Biology LLC, Endius, Espanormed S.L., Etex, ExtraOrtho, Hakuho Company Ltd., IC Guided Surgery SRL, Implant Concierge LLC, Implant Innovations Holdings LLC, Implex, InnoVision Inc., Interpore Cross International LLC, JERDS Luxembourg Holding Sarl, Kirschner Medical Corporation, Knee Creations, LDR Brasil Comercio Importacao e Exportacao Ltda., LDR Holding, LDR Medical Hong Kong (branch), LDR Medical S.A.S., LVB Acquisition Inc., Lanx Puerto Rico LLC , Lanx Srl, Medical Compression Systems Inc., Medtech SA, Medtech SAS, Medtech Surgical GmbH, Medtech Surgical Inc., NORMED Medizin-Technik GmbH, ORTHOsoft ULC, Ortho Transmission, Orthopaedic Advantage LLC, Ospol Participacoes Ltda., Representaciones Zimmer Inc. S. de R.L. de C.V., Respondwell, SM Re Ltd., Scandimed Holding AB, Shanghai Biomet Business Consulting Co. Ltd., Synvasive Technology, Synvasive Technology Inc., ZB COOP C.V., ZB COOP LLC, ZB Cayman (Asia) Holding Ltd., ZB Cayman Island CBT 2 Ltd., ZB Dental India Private Limited, ZB EMEA 1 LP, ZB EMEA Finance UK 1 Ltd., ZB EMEA Finance UK 2 Ltd., ZB EMEA Finance UK 3 Ltd., ZB EMEA US UK LLC, ZB Hong Kong CBT 2 Ltd., ZB Hong Kong Holding Ltd., ZB Hong Kong Ltd., ZB Manufacturing LLC, ZB UK Group Holdings Limited, ZH2LX Barbados Branch (branch), Zfx, Zfx GmbH, Zfx Innovation GmbH, Zhejiang Biomet Medical Products Co. Ltd., Zimmer (Shanghai) Medical International Trading Co. Ltd., Zimmer Asia (HK) Ltd., Zimmer Australia Holding Pty. Ltd., Zimmer Biomet (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Asel Alarabiya Limited Company, Zimmer Biomet Asia Holding B.V., Zimmer Biomet Asia Holdings Pte. Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Austria GmbH, Zimmer Biomet BVBA, Zimmer Biomet CBT, Zimmer Biomet CBT 2, Zimmer Biomet CMF and Thoracic LLC, Zimmer Biomet Canada Inc., Zimmer Biomet Centroamerica SA, Zimmer Biomet Comp Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Denmark ApS, Zimmer Biomet Dental Canada Inc., Zimmer Biomet Dental K.K., Zimmer Biomet Deutschland GmbH, Zimmer Biomet Distribution LLC, Zimmer Biomet Finance Srl, Zimmer Biomet Finance US Holding Inc., Zimmer Biomet Finland Oy, Zimmer Biomet France Holdings SAS, Zimmer Biomet France SAS, Zimmer Biomet GK, Zimmer Biomet Global Holdings Switzerland GmbH, Zimmer Biomet Hellas SA, Zimmer Biomet Ireland Limited, Zimmer Biomet Italia Srl, Zimmer Biomet Korea Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Nederland B.V., Zimmer Biomet New Zealand Company, Zimmer Biomet Norway AS, Zimmer Biomet OUS Holdings AG, Zimmer Biomet Polska Sp. z.o.o, Zimmer Biomet Portugal Unipessoal Lda, Zimmer Biomet Pty. Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Romania S.R.L., Zimmer Biomet South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Spain S.L., Zimmer Biomet Spine Inc., Zimmer Biomet Sweden AB, Zimmer Biomet Taiwan Co. Ltd., Zimmer Biomet UK Ltd., Zimmer Biomet US 2 Holding Inc., Zimmer CBT I Holding Inc., Zimmer CBT II Holding Inc., Zimmer CEP USA Holding Co., Zimmer CEP USA Inc., Zimmer CIS Ltd., Zimmer CV Inc., Zimmer Caribe LLC, Zimmer Cayman Islands Holding Co. Ltd., Zimmer Co-op Holdings LLC, Zimmer Colombia SAS, Zimmer Czech sro, Zimmer Dental (Shanghai) Medical Device Co. Ltd., Zimmer Dental Chile Spa, Zimmer Dental GmbH, Zimmer Dental Inc., Zimmer Dental Italy Srl, Zimmer Dental Ltd., Zimmer Dental SAS, Zimmer Finance Ireland, Zimmer France Manufacturing Sarl, Zimmer Germany Holdings GmbH, Zimmer GmbH, Zimmer GmbH Euro IP Branch (branch), Zimmer GmbH Winterthur Branch (branch), Zimmer Gulf FZ LLC, Zimmer Inc., Zimmer India Private Ltd., Zimmer International Logistics GmbH, Zimmer Investments LLC, Zimmer Knee Creations Inc., Zimmer Luxembourg II Sarl, Zimmer Luxembourg Sarl, Zimmer Manufacturing B.V., Zimmer Manufacturing B.V. (branch), Zimmer Medical Malaysia SDN BHD, Zimmer Netherlands Cooperatief U.A., Zimmer Orthobiologics Inc., Zimmer Orthopedics Manufacturing Limited, Zimmer Production Inc., Zimmer Pte. Ltd., Zimmer Slovakia sro, Zimmer Southeast Florida LLC, Zimmer Spine Next Inc., Zimmer Spine SAS, Zimmer Surgical, Zimmer Surgical Inc., Zimmer Surgical SA, Zimmer Switzerland Holdings LLC, Zimmer Switzerland Manufacturing GmbH, Zimmer Tibbi Cihazlar Sanayi ve Ticaret AS, Zimmer Trabecular Metal Technology Inc., Zimmer Trustee Ltd., Zimmer UK Limited, Zimmer US Inc., and Zimmer do Brasil Comercio Ltda..The EstAe Lauder Companies Inc. manufactures and markets skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products. The company offers a range of skin care products, including moisturizers, serums, cleansers, toners, body care, exfoliators, acne care and oil correctors, facial masks, cleansing devices, and sun care products; and makeup products, such as lipsticks, lip glosses, mascaras, foundations, eyeshadows, nail polishes, and powders, as well as compacts, brushes, and other makeup tools. It also provides fragrance products in various forms comprising eau de parfum sprays and colognes, as well as lotions, powders, creams, candles, and soaps; and hair care products that include shampoos, conditioners, styling products, treatment, finishing sprays, and hair color products, as well as sells ancillary products and services. The company offers its products under EstAe Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Lab Series, Origins, MAAAC, Bobbi Brown, La Mer, Aveda, Jo Malone London, Bumble and bumble, Darphin, Smashbox, Le Labo, Editions de Parfums FrAdAric Malle, GLAMGLOW, By Kilian, BECCA, Too Faced, RODIN olio lusso, FLIRT!, Kiton, and Tom Ford brands. It also holds license arrangements for Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karan New York, DKNY, Michael Kors, Ermenegildo Zegna, Dr. Andrew Weil, TOM FORD BEAUTY, AERIN, and Tory Burch brands. The company sells its products through department stores, specialty-multi retailers, upscale perfumeries and pharmacies, and salons and spas; freestanding stores; its own and authorized retailer Websites; third-party online malls; stores in airports and on cruise ships; in-flight and duty-free shops; and self-select outlets. It has operations in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The EstAe Lauder Companies Inc. has a joint development agreement with Atropos Therapeutics Inc. to discover senomodulators. The company was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Read MoreA Kendall man who was charged in April 2016 with theft and forgery was found guilty on three counts Thursday in Columbia County Circuit Court in a case prosecuted by the state Attorney Generals office.

Neil Davey, 39, entered pleas of no contest to three identical charges in connection to his work managing Portage-based company WinCorp Platinum Inc. Five other similar charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Judge Troy Cross sentenced Davey to two years of probation. While on probation, Davey is required to pay $929 in fines, submit a DNA sample, maintain full-time employment, education, treatment or volunteering and adhere to a no-contact order with 13 specific people.

Davey also was sentenced Thursday to pay $246,000 in restitution, which already has been paid in full, and serve 45 days of jail with Huber work-release privileges, with 15 days to be served and 30 stayed to be served at the discretion of the agent, according to court records. Davey was ordered to report at 7 p.m. Feb. 17 to the Columbia County Jail. He might be transferred to Monroe County.

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Six letters written on behalf Davey were handed over to the court Thursday.At a reception for visiting Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Toshiko Abe on January 18th, Phong stressed that Japan has significantly contributed to HCM Citys socio-economic achievements.

HCM City welcomes Japanese enterprises and is willing to create optimal conditions for them to study the market and run businesses in the locality for a long term, he said.

At the meeting (Photo: VNA)



Mentioning the metro line No. 1 linking Ben Thanh in district 1 to Suoi Tien Theme Park in district 9, the official told his guest that the city will provide budget-sourced funding for contractors in advance to speed up the progress.

Phong called on Japan to continue implementing cooperation projects, including those supporting visa grant to Vietnamese labourers and tourists, stepping up collaboration in Japanese language teaching and vocational training, and ensuring a favourable environment for Vietnamese guest workers.

For her part, Toshiko Abe noted with pleasure fruitful developments of the Vietnam-Japan extensive strategic partnership, especially coordination between the two countries in organising activities marking the 45th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic ties last year.

Japan wishes to partner with Vietnam to facilitate the connectivity between Japanese and Vietnamese firms, including those from HCM City, she said.

Stressing substantial potential for collaboration between businesses and people of the two countries, Toshiko Abe said the Japan-Vietnam festival, which opened in HCM City on January 18th, has demonstrated joint efforts in enhancing mutual understanding and exchanges between residents in the city and Japanese people.

Japan commits to continuously improving the working environment and creating favourable conditions for Vietnamese labourers in the country, contributing to strengthening the fruitful friendship between the two countries, she said./.Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, neednt worry about Wisconsin being strict on drunk driving.

The sad reality is that our state is incredibly lenient.

Wisconsin, for example, is the only state in the nation that doesnt charge first-time drunken drivers with a misdemeanor crime.

Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, and Rep. Jim Ott, R-Mequon, want to change that. Instead of treating a first offense for operating while intoxicated like a traffic ticket, Darling and Ott would criminalize first-time drunken driving, putting it on par with other misdemeanors such as shoplifting and disorderly conduct.

Wanggaard, who leads the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, spoke against the proposal last week.

We want to feel like were really being strict on drunk driving, Wanggaard told the Associated Press. But its not about punishing that person that made the poor choice. Its about directing them to make good choices.

Wanggaard has a point: State efforts to deter drunken driving should include education and treatment for alcohol abuse, not just penalties. But criminalizing first-time drunken driving offenses isnt remotely draconian, given that every other state has done so.After that, its a lot of kind of independent work, Stetzer said. We really try to have them be the engineer of the project and develop and research the solution, and (we) assist them in whatever way we can.

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Problem-solving, teamwork, compromise and technical skills such as coding are some of the skills students develop in the club, Parsons said.

Some members, in teams of two or three, are currently preparing designs for a regional SkillsUSA competition Jan. 25 at Southwest Wisconsin Technical College in Fennimore, and several teams are signed up for the state competitions on April 30 and May 1, Parsons said. This is the second year the JYMS club has participated in competitions as a SkillsUSA chapter.

Sixth-graders Elina Voronecky and Claire Wiler  two girls in a club comprised mostly of boys  are designing their robot for the Urban Search and Rescue challenge, in which their creation needs to be able to locate, neutralize and dispose of an object representing explosive materials, according to Parsons. During the operation, they control the robot remotely and only can see what its doing through a mounted camera. The task is meant to mimic situations police or other emergency services could encounter.Hagedorn said its not a judges role to question the rationality of laws, only to apply them.

The court, which has since shifted to a conservative majority, overturned the 2005 ruling in June. In the more recent decision, justices disagreed with lower courts and ruled 5-2 that a $750,000 cap now included in state statutes is constitutional.

But Hagedorn  who will face off April 2 against Democratic-supported Appeals Court Judge Lisa Neubauer  could not cite a specific instance in which a conservative justice has allowed politics to creep in.

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When pressed for examples, Hagedorn said he believes some conservative judges have been not as careful in protecting some of the criminal rights that the accused have. He said they have handed victories to prosecutors in cases where a defendants Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures was violated.

Hagedorn declined to cite specific cases involving that issue, saying he wanted to be careful about discussing matters that might come before him on the bench.

Neubauer has rejected being labeled as the Democratic Party choice in what is supposed to be a non-partisan race. She was first appointed Appeals Court judge by Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle in 2007, and is Hagedorns colleague.Wisconsin ready to assist federal workers

MADISON  Federal employees in Wisconsin can apply for unemployment benefits to help meet their financial needs while they wait for work to resume.

We are ready to assist any federal employee that is facing a lack of work and income due to the partial shutdown, said Department of Workforce Development Secretary Caleb Frostman. Furloughed federal workers are dislocated workers, unemployed through no fault of their own and can apply for unemployment.

Federal employees can apply for unemployment through DWDs online UI benefit system at my.unemployment.wisconsin.gov.

Because many federal offices are currently closed, furloughed workers should be prepared to provide wage verification in the form of pay stubs or a W-2 form as DWD may be unable to verify wages through the employer.

Federal workers that are working full-time but are not being paid during the partial shutdown are not eligible for unemployment benefits.And so, when Jefferson narrowly secured the presidency after the contested election of 1800, this self-styled advocate for the common man abandoned the ritual altogether.

Instead, Jefferson sent a written message that his personal secretary read to the assembled House and Senate. By way of explanation, his missive simply noted that it was inconvenient to require that everyone be present for a speech and that he wished to recognize the economy of the legislators time and offer them relief from the embarrassment of immediate answers on subjects not yet fully before them.

How thoughtful! But this move, which appeared to reflect the presidents simplicity and practicality, was likely motivated by entirely different considerations. One, Jefferson was a notoriously bad public speaker, and likely suffered from acute stage fright. The man he defeated for the presidency, John Adams, once recalled: during the whole time I sat with him in Congress, I never heard him utter three sentences together. Likewise, Jefferson delivered his inaugural addresses in so soft and low a voice that people standing very close to him could not make out the words.It looks like Winonans may have to resort to entertaining themselves the next couple days as the mercury drops well below zero across the Midwest.CROOKED CREEK TOWNSHIP, Minn.  A 15-year-old New Albin, Iowa, teen was killed Thursday and two were injured in a single-vehicle crash in Houston County.

Caleb Ryan Colsch was a passenger in a car driven by a 16-year-old boy, whose name has yet to be released. The driver lost control of the 2002 Mazda Protege about 4 p.m. on Highway 26 in Crooked Creek Township, entered a ditch and hit a tree, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.

The driver and another passenger, Tyler Jeffrey Wild, 16, also of New Albin, were taken to Gundersen Health System in La Crosse with non-life-threatening injuries. Both were wearing seat belts.

Colsch was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, according to the state patrol.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 5 Angry 1ROCHESTER  A former police officer for the city of Kasson, Minn., has pleaded guilty to sexual assaulting three girls over a 20-year period, the Olmsted County Attorneys Office said Friday.

Julio Baez, 52, of St. Charles, had been charged in Rice, Dodge and Olmsted counties with criminal sexual conduct against the three victims. The conduct, disclosed last year, was initially investigated by the Olmsted County Sheriffs Office. Thursdays plea involved a deal in which some other charges will be dismissed.

Critical to reaching resolution was the involvement and understanding of the victims, said Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem. It is unfathomable to appreciate the impact of Baezs horrific conduct on each of their lives, and we needed to ensure each victims voice was heard.

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According to the Rochester Post-Bulletin, two of the victims, now grown women, were in the courtroom Thursday for Baezs hearing, as were members of Baezs family.

Baez was arrested in June at a hotel in Winona and taken to a Rochester hospital for treatment of self-inflicted gunshot wounds. He had been jailed since then.

He is expected to serve 18 years in prison. Sentencing is set for April 3.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1And Tamburino said Patterson appeared mentally stable at his first court appearance earlier this week.

He answered questions with what looked like a sound mind. So theres no issue as to mental competency, he said.

Prosecutors also allege that Patterson carefully planned his crimes. That may sound like it will make it hard to introduce a mental-illness element to the defense. But attorney Fred Goetz said premeditation and mental illness are two different things.

One can premeditate a crime, but you could be delusional. You could give some thought, for example, I have to do this because God is commanding me to do these things. So, to the extent things would be thought out or pre-planned, but they would be under a complete delusion  a delusional set of reality, Goetz said.

Former Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner said prosecutors are holding the best hand right now. She said theres still the possibility that Patterson will be charged for crimes he allegedly committed in Douglas County, Wis., where Patterson allegedly held Jayme for 88 days.

But Gaernter said the prosecutors in Douglas County will have to weigh the pros and cons before they make a filing decision.The Winona County Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention hosted the Southeast Minnesota Regional Prevention Meeting on Dec. 10 in Winona. Twenty-five individuals representing seven communities (or coalitions) learned about alcohol policy, prevention coalition sustainability and youth engagement.

Winona County Attorney Karin Sonneman gave a comprehensive presentation about local prevention and support efforts, including work by the Winona County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, the Winona County Treatment Court, and the city of Winona Social Host Ordinance.

Regional Prevention Coordinator Paulette Clark presented on prevention coalition sustainability with a robust list of resources and innovative ideas to maintain the positive outcomes of coalition work within communities. Funding strategies included asking for money from donors, civic and faith communities, grants, and fundraisers; charging for services; asset sharing or in-kind contributions; and earning money through entrepreneurial activities.

In our sustainability primer we talk about win-win opportunities, Clark said. We can strengthen each other by finding synergies. These regional prevention meetings provide a great platform for networking and finding more opportunities to collaborate and learn from each other.A new research study paints a rather misleading picture of Canadas adoption of electric vehicles, using data that are essentially correct but portrayed to grab headlines more than convey truth.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 19/1/2019 (880 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

A new research study paints a rather misleading picture of Canadas adoption of electric vehicles, using data that are essentially correct but portrayed to grab headlines more than convey truth.

The study, by the Welsh think tank GoCompare, first inserts the dagger with the observation that Canadas 23,620 electric cars puts it 13th out of 30 member countries the International Energy Agency studied, and then goes on to twist the blade just a bit, saying there are more electric cars in each of such countries as Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium and Switzerland  "all smaller than Canada."

Coming around for a second swing, the press release says "Canada, the second-largest country in the world by area," has 5,841 charging stations, making in the ninth-best-equipped country studied. "In comparison, the tiny Netherlands comes third with 32,875 charging points. This means Canada has the seventh-worst charging point network, with just 0.56 charging points every 100 kilometres, compared to 23.25 in the Netherlands."

The insinuation, of course, is as a large country, Canada should do better than smaller countries. Ignored in all of that, however, is a basic understanding of geography.

The very things that make the Netherlands, one of the stars of the study, so ripe for the EV movement are the very things that make it exponentially more difficult for Canada.

The Netherlands and many of its European Union partners have the perfect environment in which to nourish a change to an electrified world: fossil fuels are very expensive, alternative transportation options abound and cities are very close to each other. As well, cities in Europe dont seem afraid to use sound urban-planning principles to minimize citizens need to drive.

Consider some geography: the Netherlands packs 423 people, on average, per square kilometre; with that kind of population density, almost any business model can thrive. In Canada, that density is 3.6 people per square kilometre.

Canadas land mass is 236 times that of the Netherlands, essentially meaning that to equal the Dutch success in installing charging stations, wed need 7.7 million charging stations.

On that last point, consider the range of the Nissan Leaf, arguably one of the best examples of fully electric vehicles at a reasonable price point. It will do 243 kilometres, on average, on a single charge, in summer. Which means you could take a trip from Amsterdam to Antwerp, Belgium, and have range to spare. There are parts of Europe where you could easily visit three countries on a single charge.

In Canada, 243 kilometres means you proceed past Brandon without recharging at your peril.

But perhaps more important than the short distances between major cities in Europe is this: they have trains. Canada does, too, but not like Europe. In other words, if you are planning a trip outside your European home city, theres a very good chance youre going by train instead of by car. Once again, the still-limited range of EVs is less of an issue.

So if you dont need a car to travel, and are within range of enough places if you do, the odds you will look favourably on an electric vehicle are high, particularly set against Europes panoply of punishing taxes, fees and surcharges, all deliberately set to discourage fossil-fuel use.

Touting Chinas success in becoming an EV powerhouse is equally misleading: China may have the most EVs, but, according to worldatlas.com, is also the worlds biggest user of coal for electrical generation. Oops.

Electric vehicles and the networks to charge them are making great strides in Canada. The Chevrolet Bolt, for instance, now promises up to 353 kilometres of range under ideal conditions. As well, data from CAA suggest drivers of all EVs now on the market should be able to drive from coast to coast, at least when sticking to the Trans-Canada Highway.

Today, pretty much all the EVs for sale will cover the commuting needs of as many as 95 per cent of Canadians, and save about $1,200 to $2,500 per year in fuel and maintenance, according to PlugN Drive, a Canadian advocacy group. But the Bolt sells for $44,900 and the Leaf for $36,798. Even with fuel savings, price is a big hurdle to clear. With gas below $1 per litre, that hurdle stands even higher.

Canada can do more to encourage EV adoption, from preferred rates for electricity to premium parking and incentives to install charging stations at homes and businesses. But absent the transportation options and relative proximity of European cities, expecting Canada to instantly approach Europes success is simply disingenuous virtue-signalling and should be ignored.

Kelly Taylor is a Free Press copy editor and an award-winning automotive journalist.Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/1/2019 (881 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

Ive come home.

Thats what I think as I walk up to the north doors of "the Comp," my old high school in Selkirk.

Niigaan Sinclair's graduation photo from Lord Selkirk Regional Comprehensive Secondary School.

Ive entered these doors a thousand times, mostly during the early 1990s. Now, though, these doors are locked.

Almost all the doors to Lord Selkirk Regional Comprehensive Secondary School are locked. Its what administrators call the "hold-and-secure" policy.

Now, all 1,200 students enter through one door, beside the office.

I am greeted by a hall monitor named Henry. He is a local, retired, Metis man who has lived most of his life "in town." (Selkirk only became a city in 1998.)

Henry asks about my family and, of course, knows them -- even remembering me as a kid.

I ask him how long theres been hall monitors in the school.

"Since the threats," Henry says.

In October, RCMP arrested a 17-year-old student for bringing a shotgun to school. It followed eight knife-related offences by different students in the months prior.

In November, Macleans magazine released its "Canada's Most Dangerous Places" list for 2019 -- with Selkirk finishing 12th (third in Manitoba after Thompson and Portage la Prairie). According to the statistics, Selkirks rate of assaults are 2 1/2 times the national average, while crimes involving theft are double it. The worst: impaired driving (four times the Canadian average) and drug use and trafficking (six times).

Then, theres "the threats."

In early December, a number of social media posts appeared, threatening a group of students from Brokenhead First Nation. The threats didnt appear to be racial -- at least one of the alleged perpetrators is Indigenous -- but stemming from an ongoing disagreement.

Regardless, the threats were enough to cause administrators to close all 15 schools in Lord Selkirk School Division and tell 4,000 students to stay home.

RCMP later arrested three people, all from Selkirk. Two were 18-year-olds.

Closing the only high school in the division is a big deal. Lord Selkirk Regional Comprehensive accepts students from the city and nearby Lockport, St. Andrews, Clandeboye, Petersfield and Libau, as well as lakeshore communities such as Grand Marais and Victoria Beach, and First Nations such as Peguis and Brokenhead.

So, when the school reopened the next day, it was also a big deal. Students were greeted by RCMP officers and trauma counsellors.

"It was a hard day," cultural proficiency teacher Jacquie Bercier says. "There was a lot of uncertainty."

Selkirk is no stranger to violence. Much of the city was the site of the former St. Peters Indian Settlement, which, in 1907, was forcibly removed by the government of Canada (relocated as Peguis First Nation).

Some, like my family, refused to leave -- even when harassed by police and called "squatters" on territory once our own. Many others stayed, too. Approximately 35 per cent of Selkirk is Indigenous. The rest are married to, work with, or live beside an Indigenous person.

The St. Peter's legacy hangs like a shadow over the city, even after the government of Canada acknowledged the act and paid Peguis $126 million in compensation in 2009.

Much of this lives in silence. There is no monument or official recognition in the city for what happened.

But there are the people.

"Nearly everyone here is related or takes care of one anothers kids," Bercier says. "When the threats happened, the community stepped in. These are our kids."

The day after the threats, three local Indigenous groups, led by the Selkirk Bear Clan Patrol, also showed up to welcome students back to school.

"They sang, drummed, and afterwards, some grandmothers went inside the school and started to smudging the halls," Bercier says, "and they did this with administrative support."

Superintendent Michele Polinuk not only approved it, she believed it important to help the school heal.

"This is a place where we welcome everyone," she says, "we needed to do something to make this place feel safe again."

Social studies teacher Kevin Lopuck penned an editorial in the local newspaper: "The Comp, and the larger Selkirk community as a whole, is incredibly strong, and I am very proud to be a member of this community. In writing this editorial, my hope is that you can see past the negative headlines of recent weeks and I invite everyone to come see us for what we really are, a community that is kind, a community that cares for each other, and a community that seeks to make a positive difference in the lives of those around us, both near, and far."

Lopuck lives in Winnipeg.

Students felt the same. Lenore Boyce says her granddaughter refused to stay home from school, even while her mother encouraged her to. "Nothing was going to stop her."

Two days after the threats, a school-wide performing arts concert went on as scheduled.

"I had parents phoning and telling me to cancel it," Polinuk says, "but the students had worked so hard to prepare it."

The concert sold out.

"Parents, community members, and even leaders came out. People were sitting on the floor," Polinuk says. "Well, until the singing started."

At the end of the performances, the crowd was invited to sing carols, as music teacher Michael Brandon called on everyone to stand. Soon, an entire gym filled with many cultures and the history of this country -- good, bad, and the ugly -- stood and sang.

Together.

"It was an event only in Selkirk," Polinuk says, with tears in her eyes.

Thats my home. It hasnt changed at all.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.caNearly five months after an explosive Manitoba Clean Environment Commission report pushed decades-old allegations of racism and sexual abuse into the spotlight, police have yet to start an investigation called for by the provincial government.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/1/2019 (880 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nearly five months after an explosive Manitoba Clean Environment Commission report pushed decades-old allegations of racism and sexual abuse into the spotlight, police have yet to start an investigation called for by the provincial government.

On Friday  as First Nations leaders rallied at the legislature, calling for a provincial inquiry into Manitoba Hydros impact in the north  the Free Press learned the Ontario Provincial Police, who were tasked with investigating part of the CEC reports findings, are stalled.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS York Factory First Nation Chief Leroy Constant stands among protesters after speaking at a rally held at the legislature Friday. He says he isnt surprised police arent acting quickly.

"The case manager has advised that issues and concerns are being worked through before the investigation can commence. Until then, the investigation is on hold," OPP spokeswoman Carolle Dionne wrote in an email. "I cant provide you with more specific(s) at this time."

On Sept. 14, 2018, the RCMP said in a news release that the OPP and the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba would conduct separate investigations into the CEC reports findings. The OPP would investigate allegations against Hydro workers, while the IIU would look into those against the RCMP.

"This was required, as there were criminal allegations where both Manitoba Hydro employees and RCMP members may have been present," the RCMP said at the time.

The CEC report, dated May 2018 but not made public until August, detailed historical allegations of violence against Indigenous community members, starting in northern Manitoba in the 1960s.

At the CEC hearings in January 2018, Franklin Arthurson of Fox Lake Cree Nation testified the RCMP had "organized gangbangs" in nearby Gillam.

"They would pick up Fox Lake women, take them to jail and bring all of the Hydro guys there to do what they wanted with these young women," he told the commission. "I seen women raped."

IIU spokeswoman Barbara Czech wouldnt confirm Friday whether the police watchdog had started its investigation.

"The IIU does not provide updates on its investigations, and we have nothing to report at this time," she said in an email.

York Factory First Nation Chief Leroy Constant said he wasnt shocked by police inaction.

"All these allegations that have come out, and were inside of that (CEC) report, go back many years," he said. "Im not surprised that theyre not acting fast."

He believes a wider provincial inquiry, looking beyond the police investigations to past and present allegations of abuse at the hands of Hydro workers, would help the communities heal.

"Our people, our women still suffer to this day. We need healing for our members, and we feel that (an inquiry) will be the only way we can move forward with life," Constant said.

Constant  who was supported by Chief Doreen Spence of Tataskweyak Cree Nation, Chief Betsy Kennedy of War Lake First Nation, and Grand Chief Garrison Settee of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak in his call for an inquiry  said violence continues at Hydro camps, including those around the Keeyask generating station project near Gillam.

'Our people, our women still suffer to this day. We need healing for our members, and we feel that (an inquiry) will be the only way we can move forward with life'  York Factory First Nation Chief Leroy Constant

"All the issues outlined in that (CEC) report are still continuing today. Theres still rapes occurring. Theres still a fear (for) our women," he said.

Leadership from Fox Lake, which also has a partnership stake in Keeyask, declined to comment Friday.

Manitoba Hydro president and chief executive officer Kelvin Shepherd confirmed in an interview there have been five or six sexual assault investigations conducted by RCMP around the Keeyask project since construction began in July 2014. Three or four people have been charged, he said.

RCMP couldnt confirm the number of cases or charges related to the Keeyask project by deadline Friday, but said they would do their best to release numbers next week.

Shepherd said a provincial inquiry into the effect of Hydros northern projects isnt necessary.

"I would simply question what value a further inquiry would bring," he said. "There have been many opportunities through previous hearings and certainly, these stories of previous issues have been shared... So, Id say much of this is a matter of the record already.

"In terms of concerns about current projects at Keeyask, the communities involved are partners on the project and have a full voice and are directly engaged in dealing with these types of issues."

The Keeyask Hydropower Limited Partnership board has members from Tataskweyak, York Factory, War Lake and Fox Lake. The majority of board members  eight  are from Hydro.

The Keeyask partners are obliged to stay on board until the $8.7-billion projects construction is completed, expected in late 2021 or early 2022.

Constant said the First Nations partners havent considered legal action to force their way out of the deal. He acknowledged their relationship with Hydro is fraught, but Shepherd rejected that notion.

"We dont look at it as a partnership. (Its) very one-sided," Constant said. "We have all of our members at the table that represent on the board and everything is decided before we get there."

"What I can tell you is that although Manitoba Hydro does hold a majority on the board, which is only appropriate given the nature of the project, that generally speaking, theres always been significant discussion, engagement and ultimately broad consensus at the board," Shepherd countered. "So, I dont agree with their view that theyre expressing."

The Free Press requested an interview Friday with Sustainable Development Minister Rochelle Squires to discuss the First Nations leaders concerns and government response to the CEC report.

Squires wasnt available. A government spokesperson sent a statement by email instead.

"Given the nature of the CEC report allegations, our government referred the report to the police for investigation. Meantime, we will continue to work with Manitoba Hydro and our Indigenous partners on this very important issue."

jessica.botelho@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @_jessbuDozens of people gathered outside the Manitoba Legislative Building Saturday morning, braving an extreme cold-weather warning blanketing much of the province, to stand in solidarity with women around the world during the third annual Womens March in Winnipeg.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 19/1/2019 (880 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dozens of people gathered outside the Manitoba Legislative Building Saturday morning, braving an extreme cold-weather warning blanketing much of the province, to stand in solidarity with women around the world during the third annual Womens March in Winnipeg.

Participants gathered at the steps of the legislative building for an 11 a.m. start time.

There were three speeches delivered in the frigid cold as temperatures hovered around -30 C and the breath of people holding placards hung visible in the air.

"I think its pretty remarkable that, with the temperatures being so frigid, that anyone would turn out. So the fact we have people out here, I think, speaks to the importance of the cause," said Renee Desjardins, who carried a placard reading: "My feminism is weatherproof."

"A lot of people talk about feminism and womens rights and human rights and I think its easy to talk about those things, but harder to show up. I think its important to be there and lead by action and not just words."

The turnout Saturday marked a sharp decline from the first Womens March in Winnipeg in 2017, when thousands of participants streamed down Portage Avenue in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trumps inauguration.

Desjardins said some of the issues she feels its important for feminists to fight for in the Canadian context revolve around empowering women from marginalized communities, as well as seeking justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

People hold signs in support of women's rights. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press)

Following the speeches  which were delivered by Charlotte Nolin, Samantha Rayburn Trubyk and Vivienne Ho  the participants marched around the legislative grounds. Desjardins was accompanied by two friends and it was her first time participating in the event, since shed been unable to participate in the past due to work obligations.

"The speeches touched on the importance of solidarity, the importance of sharing stories, the importance of hearing voices from more marginalized communities," Desjardins said.

"Representation is important, and I think groups in Winnipeg, at least a lot of the womens groups that Ive been involved with in Winnipeg, do strive for messages of inclusivity and diversity."

Meanwhile, in the U.S., where the Womens March got its start, some cities  including New York City  saw two separate marches Saturday.

The split was sparked by accusations of anti-Semitism after it was revealed one of the main organizers of the original Womens March  Tamika Mallory  had close ties to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has a history of anti-Jewish comments.

Desjardins said shes only loosely followed the split in the movement in the U.S. and thinks its important to look at marches throughout Canada as distinct, separate events.

"Im more interested in whats happening in Canada. Canada has specific challenges, specific issues, so Ive been more in tune with whats happening at a local level, because I feel like thats where I can make a difference," Desjardins said.

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpeTwo men have been found guilty in the 2017 shooting death of 29-year-old Jeanenne Fontaine.

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Two men have been found guilty in the 2017 shooting death of 29-year-old Jeanenne Fontaine.

Christopher Matthew Brass and Jason Michael Meilleur were convicted Saturday.

Fontaine's best friend, Melissa Stevenson read a statement on behalf of the family on the court house steps. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press)

Fontaine was shot in the back of her head at her home on 457 Aberdeen Ave. on March 14, 2017. Then, the tiny bungalow was set on fire.

Tears streamed down the faces of the handful of Fontaines family and friends who were in the courtroom as the jury announced the verdict.

Outside the courthouse, standing in the frigid cold, Fontaines best friend, Melissa Stevenson, read a statement on behalf of the family.

"Jeanenne cannot be defined by this final and tragic chapter of her life. She was so much more, a loving mother, a daughter and a special niece. She was a sister and a friend. Her death has left us with a tremendous void in all of our lives," Stevenson said.

"A verdict of guilty does not bring her back. However, it gives us some peace of mind that no other women will be hurt by the actions of these two. We know Jeanennes spirit is flying high in the heavens."

Jurors began deliberating Friday afternoon after a two-week trial in a case that relates to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Jeanenne Fontaine was a cousin of 15-year-old Tina Fontaine, an Indigenous teen whose body was pulled from the Red River in August 2014. The case helped spark calls for the inquiry. Tinas accused killer was acquitted after a jury trial in February 2018.

Jurors heard Jeanenne Fontaine was shot by a third man, Malcolm Mitchell. The Crown argued Brass and Meilleur should be convicted of manslaughter because they were parties to the robbery that led to the death.

A candle burns on the front step of the Aberdeen house for Jeanenne Fontaine in March 2017. (Wayne Glowacki / Free Press files)

The Crown argued the three men went to Fontaines home with a plan to rob Fontaines boyfriend, Monte Bull, over a debt he owed to Meilleurs girlfriend over methamphetamine.

Chuck Fontaine, the victims brother, testified he heard one of them say, "Monte f---ed up."

One of the men, who jurors heard was Mitchell, had a pocket knife in hand when he went through the house looking for Bull, and he later "masked up" and brandished a gun.

The Crown said it was "entirely foreseeable" someone would get hurt as a result of the alleged robbery plan, which it said implicated Meilleur and Brass  even though Mitchell fired the gun that killed Fontaine.

The defence argued the Crown failed to present evidence of a plan to commit robbery with a firearm.

Jeanenne Fontaine was killed in the Aberdeen Avenue home she shared with her mom and brother. It was then set ablaze.

On Friday, Justice Gerald Chartier told the jury that in order to find the two men guilty, they needed to believe there was a robbery plan and Meilleur and Brass intended to help commit that offence.

In his closing argument Wednesday, Meilleurs defence lawyer, Theodore Mariash, told the jury the Crowns theory wasnt logical based on the evidence.

"The prosecutions reliance on this being a robbery gone wrong does not make sense," he said.

In her closing statement to the jury Wednesday, Brass lawyer, Tara Walker, argued there was insufficient evidence to prove Brass was present at the house. Meilleur had named him in his statement to police, but jurors were told nothing in Meilleurs statement could be used against Brass.

During the trial, while the jury was not in the courtroom, Walker asked the judge to order the jury to acquit Brass.

The kitchen in the Aberdeen Avenue home where Jeanenne Fontaine's body was found. (Supplied photo)

She argued there was not enough evidence to support the prosecutions theory Brass was the lookout at the house.

"Theres no evidence that Mr. Brass even knew there was a debt. Theres no evidence before the court from any witness that there was any planning of a robbery," Walker argued on Jan. 15.

The judge disagreed. He ruled the jury should consider all of the evidence as a whole, including testimony from a woman, whose identity is under a publication ban, who knew Brass. She testified he showed up at her residence looking upset and high and talked about a shooting and a fire.

While Chuck Fontaine hadnt identified Brass, he provided a description of a thin, 5-10, "native" man wearing black-framed glasses. Crown prosecutors argued the description matches Brass.

"In my view, all of this evidence taken together, if believed, could reasonably support an inference of guilt on the element of identity," Chartier said.

Jurors werent told that Mitchell had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for killing Fontaine and was sentenced to life in prison. He admitted he had pointed the gun at her and it went off while he was trying to steal a necklace from around her neck.

Brass was sentenced to life in prison for the February 2017 murder of Bryer Prysiazniuk-Settee in Winnipeg.

He and Mitchell were co-accused in the May 2017 killing of 51-year-old Daniel DiPaolo in Regina. Brass pleaded guilty in that case.

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.caOTTAWA - American authorities are facing a key deadline at the end of the month to formally request the extradition of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou from Canada to the United States.

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Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou is escorted by her private security detail while arriving at a parole office, in Vancouver, on Wednesday December 12, 2018. American authorities are facing a key deadline at the end of the month to formally request the extradition of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou from Canada to the United States. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

OTTAWA - American authorities are facing a key deadline at the end of the month to formally request the extradition of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou from Canada to the United States.

Friday, a spokesman for Canada's Justice Department said the U.S. had yet to file the required paperwork in the Meng case and stated the Americans have until Jan. 30 to do so. If the U.S. misses the deadline, lawyers with expertise in extradition cases say the door could open for Meng's eventual release.

Canadian police arrested Meng at Vancouver's airport Dec. 1 at the request of American authorities, who are seeking her extradition on fraud allegations. They say she lied to American banks as part of a scheme to get Huawei business around United States sanctions against Iran.

Her arrest has infuriated Beijing and the case is at the centre of an increasingly testy diplomatic dispute between Canada and China. The Chinese government says Meng has done nothing wrong and has demanded her release, warning Canada of severe consequences if it doesn't free her.

Under Canada's extradition law, the U.S. was given 60 days from the date of Meng's arrest to make its formal extradition request.

"The formal request for extradition (including the supporting documents) has not yet been made by the United States," Ian McLeod, a spokesman for Canada's Justice Department, wrote in an email Thursday.

"They have until Jan. 30, 2019 to submit this request. Canada then has a further 30 days to determine whether to issue an authority to proceed."

The U.S. Department of Justice declined to say very much about the Meng case except that it's not affected by the partial shutdown of the federal government there. Thousands of federal workers have been sent home without pay because of a budget stalemate between Congress and President Donald Trump.

"We have no comment other to say that the current operating situation has no impact on our filing preparations," the department's public-affairs office said.

Gary Botting, a Vancouver lawyer with significant experience in extradition cases, said recently appointed federal Justice Minister David Lametti would have an obligation to discharge Meng if the U.S. misses the deadline.

"If it hasn't arrived in the 60 days then every journalist in town should be jumping up and down to insist that Meng get discharged according to the act," Botting said in an interview. "That's what the act says... The minister must discharge them according to the rule."

Meng's case, Botting added, remains in a "political stage" and won't go before the courts  and into the "legal stage"  until Lametti makes the decision to introduce an authority to proceed.

Meng, Huawei's chief financial officer, is out on $10 million bail and is staying at her Vancouver home. She has been ordered to appear in a Vancouver courtroom on Feb. 6 to fix a date for further proceedings.

Lawyer Donald Bayne, who represented Ottawa professor Hassan Diab as he fought extradition on French terrorism charges for years, said it's not particularly unusual that U.S. authorities had yet to submit the formal request for Meng so late in the 60-day period.

He thinks they'll make the deadline.

"The Americans... having caused all of this so far  would never be able to say with a straight face, 'Yeah, we've decided not to go ahead' or 'Gosh, there was nothing to our case,' " said Bayne, who's based in Ottawa.

In the days that followed Meng's arrest, China detained two Canadians. Michael Kovrig, a Canadian diplomat on leave, and Michael Spavor, an entrepreneur, were taken in on vague allegations of engaging in activities that have endangered China's national security.

China also sentenced another Canadian, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, to death in a sudden retrial of his drug-smuggling case. He was originally sentenced in 2016 to a 15-year term, but the court delivered the new sentence after reconsidering his case.

Western analysts believe the arrests and the death sentence are part of an attempt by Beijing to pressure Canada into releasing Meng.

Bayne said he doesn't think Meng's case would end even if the Americans missed their deadline  but comments by Trump might do it.

He noted how last month the U.S. president raised questions about the basis of the extradition request by musing in an interview with Reuters about interfering in Meng's case if it would help him strike a trade deal with China.

Meng's legal team could argue Trump's remarks, which essentially made her a "human bargaining chip," indicated an abuse of process.

On the U.S.-China trade front, the deadline in the Meng case will coincide with high-level negotiations between Washington and Beijing, said the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

China's Vice-Premier Liu He, the country's economic point person, is scheduled to travel to meet with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington on Jan. 30 and 31 for a round of talks. They will meet as their two countries are locked in a tariff conflict that's rattled the global economy.

With files from James McCarten in Washington and The Associated Press.Dmitry Zvonov's hometown of Barnaul in Siberia is city close to the same size as Winnipeg and has a similar climate.

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Dmitry Zvonov's hometown of Barnaul in Siberia is city close to the same size as Winnipeg and has a similar climate.

Speaking from downtown Winnipeg on Friday afternoon with temperatures around minus 26, Zvonov, 44, was likely one of the few recent immigrants to the province who could say honestly that "the weather is fine today."

In fact, he is partly here precisely because of the extreme cold winter temperatures like the city is currently experiencing.

Zvonov has been qualified to participate in a newly revised federal government program to attract immigrants with startup business ideas, called the Startup Visa program.

He has developed an all-natural solid fuel that burns with no residue, is light weight, odorless, smokeless, environmentally friendly, water resistant and perfectly capable of igniting and burning in temperatures as low as minus 70. He believes the product has many applications and is starting by targeting the leisure outdoor market.

The Startup Visa Program expedites immigration to Canada for people with viable business ideas and the financial resources necessary to get them going.

Depending on the size and of the enterpirse participants in the program need to have support from a qualifying organization -- either a venture capital firm, an angel investor organization or, as in Arctic Fire's case, a business incubator. They also need to have cash to support themselves and their family. (Zvonov has moved here with his wife and three children.)

Arctic Fire is being supported by Manitoba Technology Accelerator, which is the only organization designated by the federal government to participate in the program in Manitoba.

The MTA is a business incubator that has helped technology companies in Winnipeg scale up for several years. (It was the incubator that helped Skipthedishes grow from a tiny startup from Saskatoon into what is now an international operation with close to 2,000 Winnipeg employees.)

The MTA's Marshall Ring, believes that if his group does its job and helps immigrant entrepreneurs launch successful businesses, there is a chance that the Startup Visa program could become a strategic avenue for growth for the city.

Without any marketing, the MTA has already received 200 expressions of interest since October which resulted in 44 applications about 20 of which have been accepted. Five of them have made it through the immigration process (which is handled by the normal federal government immigration bureaucracy) and are signed up with the program. Participants pay market rates for business consultants.

Ring said the MTA is looking for companies with disruptive technology that already have revenue of about $500,000, no more than 10 employees and have the expectation to generate rapid growth that would let them double in size every year.

They hope to have 30 clients signed up by the middle of the summer. The operation has leased new space in the concourse under the Centennial Concert Hall to house the ventures.

"There is no limit on how many we can bring in. There is no quota," Ring said. "We think it will intensify as we get success. We have to crawl, walk then run. But as we start gaining a national reputation as being a good landing place for the Startup Visa program... we think this will really help."

Gord Blaine, the manager of MTAs Starup Visa program stream, will manage a team of 10 to 15 business consultants who work with the immigrant entrepreneurs.

He said, "Arctic Fire will initially target the outdoor camping busines, but secondary markets include tourism, military, restaurant, catering and home emergency applications."

Zvonov said the decision to come to Canada to develop the business -- he has production in Russia where the product is patented -- is because the low cost of oil and gas in Russia detracts from the value of alternative fuels like Arctic Fire.

"In Russia oil and gas is much cheaper than green technologies," he said. "Canada is a country that takes care of its environment. People are happy to pay a little more to save nature. And we came to Winnipeg because of the climate. It's the same as where I live in Siberia."

MTA has also already signed up entrepreneurs from Brazil, China and India.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.caHealth Canada has delivered some reassuring news for people worried about glyphosate in their food and the environment in the wake of some of controversial reports and court rulings last year.

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Opinion

Health Canada has delivered some reassuring news for people worried about glyphosate in their food and the environment in the wake of some of controversial reports and court rulings last year.

The much-publicized jury ruling in favour of a California plaintiff claiming long-term exposure to the weed killer caused his cancer, has touched off a storm of conjecture about what is arguably the most heavily used herbicide in modern agriculture.

Health Canada had conducted a regular review of data pertaining to the herbicide in 2017, concluding that it did not pose undue risk. It reopened the file last year in light of the stir created by the courts consideration of the so-called "Monsanto papers," which reportedly document how the company underhandedly tried to influence regulators and public opinion. (Monsanto brought glyphosate to the market in 1974 under the trade name Roundup.)

As well, eight individuals or groups protested the 2017 ruling, arguing that federal scientists with the departments Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) either didnt look at the right data or didnt give appropriate weight to the concerns that were raised.

"Health Canada scientists reviewed the information provided in these notices, and assessed the validity of any studies in question, to determine whether any of the issues raised would influence the results of the assessment and the associated regulatory decision," it said in a statement issued Jan. 11.

Health Canada says it reviewed publicly available data, as well as data from manufacturers. It used 20 of its own scientists who were not involved in the 2017 re-evaluation of the product to carry out this latest review. It also reviewed the scientific reports referred to in the so-called "Monsanto papers."

"After a thorough scientific review, we have concluded that the concerns raised by the objectors could not be scientifically supported when considering the entire body of relevant data," it says, noting no pesticide regulatory agency in the world currently considers glyphosate a cancer risk.

That doesnt mean we start adding a shot of it to our morning orange juice. Nor does it preclude new data in the context of changing use patterns from future assessments making a different call. As with all scientific assessments, the conclusions you reach depend on the questions you ask.

The decision by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 2015 that glyphosate is a "probable carcinogen" (in a category that also includes wood smoke and processed red meat) has created an aura around the herbicide that has been hard for manufacturers and farmers who rely on the herbicide to shake.

The California ruling is just one of more than 9,000 lawsuits making similar claims before the courts. And just this week, a French tribunal ruled that countrys regulatory agency failed to properly weigh the risks posed by a newly introduced formulation of the product. Its approval was immediately revoked while the case is appealed. The fear is, the ban could be applied to all glyphosate products in that country.

So given all this, why should we believe the PMRA assurances that things are OK, really?

There are a few reasons. For one, the PMRA falls under Health Canadas mandate, not Agriculture and Agri-Food Canadas (AAFC), which is where some in the agricultural community would like it to live.

AAFCs mandate is to promote the agricultural industry and support this countrys bid to be a global food exporter. Health Canadas mandate is to protect and promote the health of Canadians.

Secondly, while farm groups and industry applauded the results of this latest assessment, the groups and individuals who appealed the 2017 decision are up in arms.

However, farmers and the industry werent so happy with the agency a few months ago when it proposed a ban on the commonly used neonicotinoid pesticides because of their risk to aquatic insects. Environmental lobbyists were celebrating that time.

If you are in the regulatory business  or the reporting business, for that matter  and you can manage to get both sides mad at you within the space of a year, you are probably doing your job.

Laura Rance is editorial director at Glacier FarmMedia. She can be reached at lrance@farmmedia.comPARIS - Thousands of yellow vest protesters rallied Saturday in several French cities for a 10th consecutive weekend, despite a national debate launched this week by President Emmanuel Macron aimed at assuaging their anger.

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French President Emmanuel Macron arrives to visit a school in Saint-Sozy, southwestern France, ahead of his meeting with about 600 mayors and local officials in Souillac as part of a national "grand debate". (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP)

PARIS - Thousands of yellow vest protesters rallied Saturday in several French cities for a 10th consecutive weekend, despite a national debate launched this week by President Emmanuel Macron aimed at assuaging their anger.

In Paris, about 8,000 protesters started their march at the Invalides monument in Paris, home to Napoleon's tomb, to remember the 10 people killed in protest-related traffic accidents and the hundreds injured since the movement for economic justice kicked off on Nov. 17.

French police have been criticized for using rubber projectiles that have caused several serious injuries to protesters.

"It's not normal to treat people the way we are being treated. We have injured people every Saturday," said Juliette Rebet, a demonstrator in Paris.

Protesters marched peacefully in the French capital but clashes erupted at the end of the main demonstration. Some activists wearing masks threw projectiles and knocked down a traffic light before police charged at them, using tear gas and water cannons. Thirty people were arrested in Paris, police said.

Police remove yellow vest demonstrators staging a sit-down protest in Souillac, southern France, ahead of French President Emmanuel Macron' s visit, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. Macron is meeting Friday with about 600 mayors and local officials in Souillac, a small town in southwestern France, as part of a national "grand debate".(AP Photo/Fred Scheiber)

Clashes were also reported in Bordeaux, Toulouse and the western city of Rennes.

At the Invalides, protesters carrying a banner that read "Citizens in danger" marched at the front of the procession and held coffin-shaped boards in memory of those killed.

Paris deployed 5,000 police around the capital, notably around government buildings and the Champs-Elysees shopping area. About 80,000 police fanned out nationwide.

Yellow vest demonstrators, one carrying a poster reading "Republic Broken", march in Paris, Saturday, Jan.19, 2019. Yellow vest protesters are planning rallies in several French cities despite a national debate launched this week by President Emmanuel Macron aimed at assuaging their anger. (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu)

The capital and much of France have endured weeks of protests over economic demands by French workers and students that at times descended into violence. The grassroots protests started two months ago over fuel taxes but became a broader revolt against economic problems.

According to the Interior Ministry, there were 27,000 protesters across France by early Saturday afternoon, down from 32,000 at the same time the week before.

Macron is facing a plethora of demands ranging from the re-introduction of France's wealth tax on the country's richest people to the implementation of popular votes that allow citizens to propose new laws.

Macron launched his grand debate this week during meetings with mayors and local officials. The three-month-long debate involves a series of meetings organized by citizens, groups and elected officials to enable the French to express their views on the economy and democracy.

Macron has already cancelled a fuel tax hike and released other funds to help French workers. He said he is open to discussions but has warned he won't give up on his major reforms, including the touchy issue of changing France's pension system later this year.

"We do not believe in the grand debate," said Jonathan Gaby, a demonstrator from the Paris suburbs. "We won't decide, the government will decide, in the end."When Mattel reached out to Cree filmmaker and writer Sonya Ballantyne about being one of 60 Canadian Barbie Role Models to commemorate the iconic dolls 60th birthday in 2019, her initial reaction was why me?

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When Mattel reached out to Cree filmmaker and writer Sonya Ballantyne about being one of 60 Canadian Barbie Role Models to commemorate the iconic dolls 60th birthday in 2019, her initial reaction was "why me?"

Ballantyne, 33, doesnt exactly love being the centre of attention. Heck, she didnt even really play with Barbies as a kid in the 90s, save for her sisters SeaWorld Barbie. "I thought she was a marine biologist, which is what I wanted to be," she says. "I thought it was cool she had a whale she trained and took care of."

But the more Ballantyne reflected on being named a Barbie Role Model, the more she realized it was an opportunity. Growing up in Misipawistik Cree Nation in northern Manitoba, she didnt see herself on TV, or in movies, or in her little sisters blond-haired Barbie dolls. Challenging stereotypes and providing positive, empowering representations of Indigenous people has been a major through-line in her work as a filmmaker and, now, as an author. In November, she published her first childrens book, Kerri Berry Lynn, about a very special little Cree girl and her loyal pack of seven dogs.

'I didnt have a hero as a kid who looked like me and I dont want other kids to grow up with that, so I will put aside any discomfort I have being in a public forum to make sure kids have that person'

"I didnt have a hero as a kid who looked like me and I dont want other kids to grow up with that, so I will put aside any discomfort I have being in a public forum to make sure kids have that person," she says. "After I processed it, Im really thankful they chose me. I want native kids to grow up with the drive and knowledge in their own humanity that is often taken away from them when theyre young."

As word got out about Ballantynes position as Barbie Role Model, Indigenous girls (and a few women) started asking her when shed "get her own Barbie." "I almost cried when I did a reading at Strathcona School  which is a primarily an Indigenous school in Winnipeg  and a little girl told me, "if they make a Barbie of you, Im going to buy it right away."

Ballantynes "why me?" turned into a "why not me?" and now, shes organized a Change.org petition, asking Mattel to create the first Cree Barbie. It has more than 1,300 signatures; actor Vincent DOnofrio, a personal hero of Ballantynes, even tweeted his support for her campaign with the hashtag #SonyaRocks.

Ballantyne has a specific vision for her Cree Barbie. She doesnt want to see a generic native American doll; she wants a doll that has a specific nation  in this case, Cree  assigned to her. Shed also love to see an Indigenous doll that wasnt dressed in buckskin or regalia, but rather dressed as a modern Cree girl.

"Id want her to wear mukluks, jeans, and a T-shirt. I was teasing my friends by saying I wanted the T-shirt that had a fry container with feathers that said Fries Before Guys, but Id want to shout-out my favourite character, Lisa Simpson, who also had her own doll made. The doll said, Trust in yourself and you can achieve anything. Id want it to say that."

Filmmaker/author Sonya Ballantyne is one of 60 women across the country selected as a Barbie Role Model. She wants to take the campaign a step further and is gathering signatures supporting the creation of a Cree Barbie doll  Id want her to wear mukluks, jeans, and a T-shirt, Ballantyne says. (Phil Hossack / Winnipeg Free Press)

In her 60-year history, Barbie has been both praised and criticized when it comes to the example she sets for girls. She went from being a miniature mannequin meant to model outfits to an impressive career woman meant to show girls that they could be anything  a vet, a doctor, an astronaut, a firefighter, a pilot, a ballerina, a chef, a rock star.

Still, while her clothes, professions, and even her face changed over the years, Barbie remained unflinchingly Barbie: blond hair, tiny waist, large bust, white skin. The message "you can be anything" seemed to come with an implied asterisk: *so long as you look like Barbie.

Now, Mattels flagship doll is offered in expanded body sizes, heights, skin tones, and hair textures. A Cree Barbie, as Ballantyne has envisioned it, seems like it would fit right in. For Mattels part, a spokesperson offered this statement: "Barbie continues to honour a diverse group of role models who break boundaries to inspire the next generation of girls. We are proud to partner with Sonya and share her message. Barbie continues to evolve and currently offers the most diverse doll line on the market."

Whether Cree Barbie joins that line remains to be seen, but Ballantyne believes her existence would mean a lot to kids who are still growing up like she did.

'Theres still an antiIndigenous ribbon that runs through everything in Canada. The idea the world I grew up in as a kid is still the world my nephews are growing up in. The second my nephew is not cute anymore, hell be mistreated because hes a native boy, or these native girls being sexualized because thats what native girls are. That drives me nuts'

"Theres still an anti-Indigenous ribbon that runs through everything in Canada," Ballantyne says. "The idea the world I grew up in as a kid is still the world my nephews are growing up in. The second my nephew is not cute anymore, hell be mistreated because hes a native boy, or these native girls being sexualized because thats what native girls are. That drives me nuts. Advocating for the Barbie is me just wanting to prove that a native Barbie from Mattel would be encompassing the message of you can be anything."

And yes, Ballantyne would have played with Cree Barbie.

"I would have thought that was the coolest thing," she says. "I used to freak out over any Cree representation. I remember when Tom Jackson was on Star Trek: The Next Generation and it was basically like me being on Star Trek: The Next Generation. I still freak out over Cree people doing cool things."

Now that shes the one doing cool things, she hopes she can inspire the upcoming generation of Indigenous kids to be whatever they want to be.

"I came from a rez and there were so many obstacles in my way to get anywhere and do anything at all," she says. "It was very difficult, but I did it. And if that gives you the drive to know you can do it too, thats what this represents."

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @JenZoratti

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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.One of the three men charged in a July 2018 double homicide in the Hi-Crest neighborhood pleaded guilty Friday to a pair of first-degree murder charges.

According to the Shawnee Co. District Attorney's Office, Matthew Hutto faces a sentence of life in prison on each count. His sentencing is set for May.

Prosecutors say Hutto, 19, was one of three men involved in the killings of Lisa Sportsman and Jesse Polinskey. Their bodies were found inside a home in the 3400 block of SE Girard St. Police say they were both beaten and stabbed.

The two other suspects, Bradley Sportsman and Richard Showalter, are awaiting trial, the Dist. Attorney's Office said. They remain in custody on $1 million bond.

Sportsman faces two counts of premeditated first-degree murder, or alternate counts of felony first-degree murder; possession of methamphetamine with the intent to deliver; criminal discharge of a firearm at an occupied dwelling; and aggravated burglary. His arraignment is scheduled for January 24th.

He was reportedly the estranged husband of Lisa Sportsman.

Showalter also faces two counts of premeditated first-degree murder, or alternate counts of felony first-degree murder; possession of methamphetamine with the intent to deliver; and aggravated burglary as well as an additional charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. His jury trial is scheduled for April 8th.5G will have an enormous impact on the worldJack Curran, from Carrigmannon, at his 90th birthday party in Glynn-Barntown GAA Clubhouse with his grandchildren (from left), Serena Eckbauer, Leila Thompson-Kaworek, Christopher Harpur, Aisling Rowan, Sean Harpur, and Ruairi and Niamh Curran and daughters, Deirdre Eckbauer, Fiona Thompson and Aileesh Harpur

There was no shortage of entertainment at the 90th birthday party of well-known local musician Jack Curran in the Glynn-Barntown GAA clubhouse.

Accordionist Jack of Carrigmannon, Killurin who plays regular traditional sessions in Galbally and is in constant demand for parties and nursing home concerts, was joined by a large group of family and friends at the milestone party including some who travelled from the UK.

Among the gathering were up to 30 musicians who brought along a variety of musical instruments to provide a lively session which had Jack up dancing and singing.

The birthday cake made by Jenny's Cupcakes in the Faythe was in the shape of an accordion, exactly like Jack's own accordion, thanks to photographs surreptitiously supplied by his grand daughter Aisling Rowan who organised the party.

'He knew that the party was happening so I wanted the cake to be a surprise', she said.

Two of Jack's grandchildren Clodagh Eckbauer and Gillian Thompson were unable to attend as they are in Australia but they sent video messages which everyone watched on the night.

Jack was showered with presents and good wishes on the special occasion.Life starting to get back to normal in Irishtown,New Ross, after the storm receded last March

With bitterly cold temperatures forecast in the UK this month, County Wexford is likely to experience a cold snap this winter after an unusually balmy start to 2019.

Wexford County Council have stocked up on salt and put in place emergency weather plans to ensure staff and vehicles can remote and high traffic access areas better than last year.

Snow arrived in abundance in December 2017 and again in April of last year Co. Wexford experienced its worst storm in 70 years when The Beast From The East and Storm Emma swept through the country. The piercing cold weather saw Wexford Harbour freeze and ice floes drift along the coast as the water temperature dropped to a freezing -0.8C. Ambulances were unable to get to patients and if not for the selfless efforts of farmers many people would not have been able to get to hospital.

Tractors and diggers were in short supply and the roads were a no-go zone for most. Up to 20,000 people were without power and the sight of water tankers in villages was a common sight.

The 3rd Battalion of the Defence Forces were drafted in to assist council workers in clearing roads, while several homeless people were given shelter at the Presentation Centre in Enniscorthy.

People living in rural county Wexford were snowed in for a week, often without running water or electricity. Their daily routine involved trudging through the snow to collect water for tankers, bringing their quarry home to boil before using.

Senior roads engineer Noel O'Driscoll said the big lesson learned last year was to have a plan b to ensure freak weather events like last year's storms can be managed.

Mr O'Driscoll said: 'We had a plan in place last year but pretty quickly we had to go back, nearly to the drawing board. We had crews on 12 hour shifts and they would get eight hours rest and go back out.'

Due to the severity of the snow fall many crew members couldn't get home and were put up in hotels instead. Meanwhile the crews who were at home couldn't get to work.

'We had to change things around quickly. After three or four days we got over it. It worked out. We had to act on the hoof.'

The council used contractors and sourced trucks with ploughs fitted with hydraulic snow blades which could turn to 45 degree angles to clear snow from the county's roads.

'We had tractors with blades also but the snow was so heavy the blades weren't powerful enough to shift it so we had to go to quarries and get industrial load shovels. We have them if we need them this year and we have a list of people we can call on. We will either do plan a or plan b.'

The council's two salt barns, containing 1500 tonnes of salt between them (costing approximately 120,000), are fully stocked after an unusually mild winter which saw salt spread on only eight mornings.

'We start our normal salting operation in October and over Christmas and New Year's we were only out once. We have hardly dipped into our reserves from last year. I don't think we will ever be hit as hard and if we could handle that situation we can handle what comes.'

He said in the event of a snow storm farmers can get grit from quarries.

Mr O'Driscoll said power cuts led to the lack of water in homes, adding that ESB workers prioritised areas without water.

'We got word to them and they did prioritse getting these areas back.'

The council prepared a 51-page winter service plan for 2018 and 2019 in the autumn. It states that the local authority owns five demountable salt spreaders, with two drivers assigned to each route. The local authority has one standby demountable salt spreader which is to be used in emergencies and in the event of breakdowns of other salt spreaders. The council also has snow blades fitted to privately hired tractors during snow emergencies and the local authority has contingency plans in place to hire in agricultural contractors to assist with gritting operations.

The plan prioritises 'Priority 1' roads: the N11, N25, N30 and N80, which have mobilisation times of one hour and treatment times of within two and a half hours.

Large, busier regional roads are given a 'Priority 2' status, followed by smaller regional roads, which may or may not be salted depending on the severity of the weather and the availability of salt spreaders.

A winter services manager oversees operations and a rota of duty engineers is included in the plan. At 2 p.m. each day from October 15 last until April 15, 2019, a designated duty engineer examines the Vaisala Manager Weather Protection System.

The council plans to treat the roads prior to the time of the forecast snow, frost, ice formations.

The salting of the Gorey Bypass is overseen by BAM from the Clough roundabout to the county bounds in north county Wexford and by Kilkenny County Council from O'Hanrahan Bridge in New Ross to the Kilkenny county bounds.

Businesspeople in towns and villages across the county are being advised by the council to assist by clearing snow from outside their properties. They have been assured that no legal liability exists in carrying out these clearance works, with the caveat that this is the case when such work is carried out in a safe manner.

No hot water is to be used to melt ice as this will only exacerbate the initial problem and create a slippier surface.

Wexford County Council will be assigned an allocation of salt by Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

Grit has been delivered to depots across the county and the 14,000lt fuel tank for salting and council vehicles has been half filled, with spare parts kept in storage at the council's machinery yard in the Old Dublin Road in Enniscorthy.Minister Kehoe and Taoiseach Varadkar present Ireland jerseys worn by the players in a recent game to the troops courtesy of the FAI

Minister Paul Kehoe swapped the relative safety of Wexford for one of the most dangerous countries in sub-Saharan Africa last week as he accompanied Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on a diplomatic mission to Mali.

The Minister of State with Special Responsibility for Defence joined the Taoiseach in meeting with the President and Prime Minister of Mali, along with Irish troops who are taking part in the EU Training Mission Mali (EUTM) to train the Malian armed forces.

The EUTM was founded in 2013 in response to an attempt by rebels to annex the northern part of the country and declare it an independent state. Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world and, thus, is prone to Islamic extremism.

Minister Kehoe said that security was tight as he flew into the country with the Taoiseach.

'It's a very dangerous region,' he said. 'Security was very tight as we arrived. We were not allowed out on the street and we were taken around in armoured vehicles. Mali is so dangerous that there's currently no Irish Aid agency operating there. Accommodation plans were changed this time. The place we were before had been shot up in the meantime. They went around room to room and executed ten people.'

'We were always very safe on this trip though,' Minister Kehoe said. 'We also had the Irish Rangers with us and fortunately everything went off without a hitch.'

Minister Kehoe said that he and Taoiseach Varadkar were greeted at the airport by the Malian Prime Minister and he and the President are grateful for the work being done by Ireland in the region.

'Ireland is very well respected out there,' he said. 'For a small country, they understand that we make a big contribution.'

As well as meeting Malian representatives, the Taoiseach and Minister also had the chance to meet the 20 Irish troops who are in the process of training the Malian Defence Forces, one of whom, Seamus McManus, is from Wexford.

The Minister and the Taoiseach said that they were delighted to see first-hand the good work that the troops were doing in Mali, as discussions are now taking place about potentially sending more troops to the poverty-stricken region. While Minister Kehoe flew home last Tuesday, the Taoiseach continued on his journey to Ethiopia where he was to meet with NGOs operating there.An off-duty garda sergeant and two young hurlers have been praised for their diligence which helped to uncover a major cannabis grow house in Piercestown.

Approximately 250,000 worth of cannabis was seized on Tuesday evening last.

Two St Martin's senior hurlers were running laps at the GAA club when they noticed two men acting suspiciously. The men were dressed in black and were seen jumping over a wall into the grounds of the house.

The two men, who believed the house was vacant as they had never seen anyone coming or going from it, contacted Garda Sgt Mick Morrissey, who lives locally and is a former club chairperson.

Sgt Morrissey, who is the sergeant in Oylegate, explained that he was off-duty when he received the call but said he would contact garda colleagues in Wexford town.

When he rang the station, they were extremely busy and so he said he would call to the house himself. When he got there, he met Joe and Sean who had waited by the house.

'The house was shuttered up so you couldn't see in. I banged on the door and shouted that it was the gardai but there was no answer.' He said he continued to bang on the door but, in the end, the landlord was contacted and arrived with a set of keys to gain access.

'The minute we opened the door I knew there was a problem; the smell of cannabis would have knocked you down. I've been in three or four in the last number of years but this was bigger than any I'd seen before.'

He said there was no sign of anyone in the building when he entered but said he found almost fully matured cannabis plants in four ground floor rooms and four first floors rooms, with one or two rooms left empty for living space.

Sgt Morrissey proceeded to search the local area but the two men had left the scene. Detectives from Wexford Garda Station subsequently attended the scene, searched and sealed off the premises.

Sgt Morrissey said: 'It's incredible to see one so close to a village but it just shows how brazen they are now. But, in this case, it seems that by leaving the house these guys drew attention to themselves and were caught out.'

He praised the actions of his two club colleagues for their quick thinking and alertness.

Inspector Denis Whelan confirmed that the value of the cannabis plants discovered was around 250,000. He also commended the actions both of his garda colleague and of the two hurlers, whose diligence, he said, had helped to uncover a substantial operation.Wexford-based education projects are encourage to apply to the 450,000 Engage & Educate Fund from Social Innovation Fund Ireland.

The fund, which was set up by Social Innovation Fund Ireland and Mason Hayes and Curran, is supported by the Department of Rural and Community Development via the Dormant Accounts Fund and will distribute 150,000 to successful applicants from community projects that empower people through education to achieve their full potential and to contribute to their communities.

This year's grants will be awarded to successful projects that can demonstrate positive impact, the potential to scale and have clear targets which can be supported by the Engage & Educate Fund.

Projects that focus on people experiencing disadvantage, people with disabilities or migrants are encouraged to apply. Each successful applicant will receive a share of the 150,000 fund, including a cash grant and access to an Accelerator Programme that provides mentoring, tailored training, bespoke business supports, and access to a peer network.

The closing date February 19. For more information, please visit socialinnovation.ie.At stop lights or freeway on and off ramps, youve probably seen people holding signs and asking for money. It can be tempting to hand over your spare change, but next time you may want to think twice.In the early 1800s, responding to Napoleons request to find a more effi cient way to feed his armies in the field, French inventor Nicholas Appert discovered that heating food stored in glass jars would sterilize it, keeping it safe to eat for long periods of time.

Shortly thereafter, Englishman Peter Durand invented a similar food storage method involving sealing food in iron cans lined with tin. The canning process revolutionized the way people throughout the Western world stored and ate their food, introducing an inexpensive way to preserve food for incredibly long periods of time without significantly altering its taste.Merrick Morton / Associated Press file

Netflixs streaming post-apocalyptic horror thriller presents a world in which most of the global population has committed violent suicide. The only way to survive is not to see it, whatever it is that is causing this mysterious, malevolent plague.

As her story begins, Malorie Shannon (Sandra Bullock) is sternly instructing her two blind-folded children, Boy (Julian Edwards) and Girl (Vivien Lyra Blair), about navigating the white-water trip theyre about to embark upon in a rowboat.(WGGB/WSHM) -- School officials with the Amherst-Pelham Regional Public Schools confirm that an eighth grader has died. A GoFundMe page for the students funeral expenses explained the child was found unresponsive after participating in the blackout challenge on social media.Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, right, and U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham shake hands before a meeting in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. Graham has discussed the situation in Syria with Cavusoglu and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the United States prepares to withdraw troops.(Turkish Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP, Pool)Bill Burt and George Bremer discuss the NFL schedule and Tom Brady's return to New England; Elton Hayes and Kevin Brockway reflect on Coach K's retirement; and Clay Horning breaks down the worst defensive play in baseball in recent memory.New York: The Trump administration has been rocked by bombshell reporting that the President instructed his former personal lawyer to lie to Congress about his business dealings in Russia, a development that has dramatically increased the likelihood he will be tried for impeachment.

A report in BuzzFeed alleges that Donald Trump instructed his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen to mislead Congress about his plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, a claim that has been denied by Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

A new report by BuzzFeed alleges that US President Donald Trump instructed his former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about his business dealings in Russia. Credit:Bloomberg

Trump's hand-picked nominee for attorney general, William Barr, told Congress this week that persuading a person to commit perjury amounted to obstruction of justice.

Special counsel Robert Mueller's office on Friday, local time, issued a rare public statement disputing the accuracy of BuzzFeed 's report.A public gathering in Israel to pressure the Australian government to quickly return the body of Arab-Israeli woman Aiia Maasarwe is scheduled to begin late Saturday night.

The event is being held next to the Abu Bakr mosque, about 20 minutes from the Maasarwe family home in the Arab-Israeli city of Baqa Al Gharbiyye.

Aiia's father, Saeed Maasarwe, at a public vigil on Friday night in Melbourne. Credit:Justin McManus

The vigil, to begin at 2.30pm local time Saturday during afternoon prayers, is expected to be attended by hundreds of people.

Traditionally in Islamic culture burial must take place as soon as possible, with specific rites including the family bathing and dressing the body.A man is dead after he shot two police officers in the face and neck in a "horrific" stand-off triggered when the pair attended a domestic dispute at a home in northern NSW on Friday night, police say.

Sergeant Mark Johnston and Senior Constable Helen McMurtrie spoke to Eric John Newman, 74, as he stood on the balcony of his Glen Innes home when they responded to reports of an assault about 11pm.

Leading Senior Constable Helen McMurtrie and Sergeant Mark Johnston were both shot on Friday night in Glenn Innes. Credit:Glenn Innes Examiner

Police believe the man fired a shot which grazed the side of Sergeant Johnston's face and then hit Senior Constable McMurtrie in the neck. A third police officer, a female probationary constable, was not injured.

The three colleagues took cover in a police car and helped treat their injuries before they heard what was believed to be a second gunshot.One day in March 2014, the woman sent a blank text message - an agreed distress signal - to her new partner, a NSW police constable. She also called triple 0 but did not speak when the call was answered. She sent another blank message to her partner, and ignored the call he made to her phone. At some stage she had turned her mind to the scene of the crime she would allege happened. She knocked over a peg basket, ripped a condom packet, unbuttoned her jeans and bumped her own head. She lay on the tiled floor and waited.

The couple's relationship had ended when in February 2014 the woman's ex partner started a court case to sell their Bonner home. The next day the womans mother put a caveat over the house, and the day after that the woman complained to police of domestic violence. Her ex partner was arrested in uniform and in front of his colleagues at his job as a corrections officer at the Alexander Maconochie Centre. He was given bail though the court imposed strict conditions.

When police arrived they heard a woman groan. The woman, who was a NSW police administrative worker, told the officer her ex had come to the house, made her kneel on the ground outside and hit her head on a retaining wall. She claimed not to remember how she got inside, but as prosecutors would later argue she was planting the seeds that would eventually lead to her alleging her ex had raped her. Because her jeans were undone police sent her to hospital for assessment for a sexual assault. Later that night when police returned to the house, she drip fed officers more of the story. He had actually hit her head twice on the retaining wall. He had come in and grabbed her and yelled how he was not "f--king going to jail" because of her. She had blacked out and then crawled inside.

The victim, who had that morning been sleeping in the granny flat at his parent's house, was arrested again in front of his family and charged with assaulting the woman. This time he was refused bail, and because of his job was sent to Goulburn SuperMax prison where he was confined to a cell 23 hours a day on charges he did not commit and in constant fear the other inmates would discover who he was and kill him.

The woman staged a fake crime scene that included a condom wrapper.

As more "memories" came back to the woman she gave another statement. She knocked the peg basket at the victim as he approached. He had grabbed her throat with one hand and held a brick in his other. He dragged her to the retaining wall. He pulled down her jeans and threw a condom packet at her. He raped her while she struggled. Later testing showed there was strong support that DNA on the condom wrapper came from the woman, while the victim's DNA was excluded. It was also excluded from forensic swabs.

The woman turned her attention to the man's family. She told police a man had run her off the road and used a knife to attack her. She said he had a car like her ex partner's father. Police found a steak knife at the scene but it matched the ones at her house, and regardless the allegations were inconsistent with her injuries. She pointed the finger at her ex partner's family as suspects in more crimes. She alleged they had broken into her home and stolen her iPad. Police found the iPad wrapped in a dishtowel and in a plastic bag on the grass verge at the ex partner's family home. She denied going there that day but the GPS on her car - installed by police to protect her - said otherwise. These stories raised police suspicions and caused them to reassess the rape claim and later charge the woman with making fake allegations.We are appalled by these events, by this tragedy, and we want, first of all, to offer our deepest condolences to the families of the victims, to inform the families of the victims that the entire government is with them, said Lopez Obrador, who rushed to the blast site in Hidalgo state, about 60 miles north of Mexico City.There is also concern that Kim has not been asked to spell out exactly what he means by denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and whether he is ultimately demanding that the United States withdraw its forces from South Korea and nuclear-armed submarines and bombers from the region. Thats a key question that gets to the heart of whether a deal is even possible, many experts say.At a meeting with President of the Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF) Douglas Foo in Hanoi on January 18th, the PM highlighted the guests talks on important issues regarding innovation and creation in which Singapore has experience.

He also welcomed the SMF Presidents initiatives for cooperation in this sphere between Vietnam and Singapore.

Singapore is Vietnams important partners in economy, trade and investment, the leader said, adding that the two countries have nine industrial parks (VSIP) across Vietnam.

Therefore, Singapores innovative and creative models are significant to Vietnam, he stressed.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (right) and President of the Singapore Manufacturing Federation Douglas Foo (Photo: VNA)



PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc told his guest that innovation, creativity and technological incubators are new to Vietnam and can help spur the countrys development.

In reply, Douglas Foo said many Singaporean groups and businesses want to operate in Vietnam, noting that the successful VSIPs have been seen as a symbol of the bilateral relationship.

He suggested the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training to encourage Vietnamese students to participate in innovation and creativity, and expressed his hope that the two countries would closely cooperate in order to make Vietnam-Singapore innovation and creativity centres successful in the time ahead.

Pointing out limited production capacity of Singapore due to the shortage of human resources, he said the joint centres can ease the problem.

The guest also expressed his hope that Singapore will send scholars to Vietnam to help the country in this regard.

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc stressed that the initiative to build a large-scale innovation and creativity centre in cooperation between the two countries are necessary./.It just does not work anymore, said Osman Ahmad, one of the young protesters on the streets of the capital, Khartoum. They may have successfully divided us in the past, and it worked on our parents and grandparents. But its not working on us, the new generation. We are on to them.Before the short flight to Delaware, Trump repeated disputed claims to have essentially rid Syria of Islamic State fighters, saying that when I took over, Syria was loaded with ISIS but weve brought it down to less than 1 percent. In fact, the territory controlled by the Islamic State had been substantially reduced before Trump took office, though experts say the terrorist group still has dangerous capabilities.I can see people panicking, and they have every right to, said Katelyn Leckemby, 35, whose husband, Stephen, is an electronics specialist who works on the vessels ported in Cape May. Leckemby is 7 1/ 2 months pregnant with the couples fourth child. Its scary, she added. A lot of people have families, and were all just trying to provide for them, and not knowing when the money is going to come in and whether you can provide for them especially, thats terrifying.The statement was remarkable on several levels  first, the special counsels office speaks exceedingly rarely, and second, the statement seemed to drive a stake through a sensational allegation that Democratic lawmakers suggested earlier in the day could spell the end of the Trump presidency. As earthshaking as the claims in the story were, no other media organizations were able to match them.After almost eight years of war and half a million deaths, the Syrian government has regained all but one of the armed oppositions strongholds. That has left the once-quiet Idlib and its surrounding areas bursting at the seams with some 3 million civilians and fighters who still reject government control. And with Turkeys border sealed shut to the north, those people could have nowhere to run.E.U. policymakers say they could foresee various scenarios that would warrant granting an extension. One might be if British Prime Minister Theresa May reconsiders her refusal to join the E.U. customs union, for example, which would take away Britains ability to do many trade deals but would simplify efforts to preserve peace in Northern Ireland by keeping the border with Ireland open. That has been a key sticking point in the negotiations.Government Vocational Training Institute For Women Jobs 2019

Latest Government Vocational Training Institute Management Posts Multan 2021 Government Vocational Training Institute For Women requires the services of experienced and responsible persons for the posts of Office Clerk / Junior Clerk, Chowkidar, Mali, Sweeper in Jalalpur Pirwala Punjab 2019.

How to Apply on Government Vocational Training Institute Job Advertisement

Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online.



Telephone: 0312-3560356

Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If the employer asks you to pay money for any purpose including processing to shortlisting, do not pay at all and report us using our contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs cannot be applied online here. Error & omissions excepted.The shutting down of some 25 percent of the federal government was triggered by Trumps demand for $5.7 billion to build more than 200 miles of new wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Pelosi has called the wall immoral, and Democrats are refusing to offer more than $1.3 billion, maintaining existing funding levels for border barriers and fences. Democrats also frequently point out that Trump long claimed that Mexico would pay for the wall.The tension is only going to grow in coming days. The partial shutdown of federal agencies is now in its fifth week, an unprecedented duration. No serious negotiations have taken place since Trump walked out of a meeting of bipartisan congressional leaders after Pelosi said she had no intention of funding a border wall.It was an unfair question to ask. Obviously he did not, as there was no way he would have recognized my voice or in any other way assumed that he was talking to anyone other than a random American who happened to be in Paris. Had he known, I wonder whether he would have agreed to have the phone handed to me.District Health Officer Thatta Jobs 2019

Latest District Health Office Management Posts Thatta 2021 Medical, health and technical personnel for the positions of Anaesthesia Assistant, Dental Assistant, ECG Assistant, HTV Driver, Lab Assistant, Supervisor, Ultrasound Assistant, X-Ray Assistant, LTV Driver, Motor Mechanic, Anaesthesia Attendant, Attendant, Dental Attendant, ECG Attendant, Lab Attendant, Pump Cleaner, Ward Servant, X-Ray Attendant, Chowkidar, Cook, Gatekeeper, Mali, Naib Qasid, Sanitary Worker, Security Guard required for the office of the District Health Officer in District Thatta Sindh 2019.

How to Apply on District Health Office Job Advertisement

Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online.



Telephone: 0298-920154-94

Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If the employer asks you to pay money for any purpose including processing to shortlisting, do not pay at all and report us using our contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs cannot be applied online here. Error & omissions excepted.At the time, Republicans controlled a majority of seats in the House and the Senate. The fact is, even if I were to receive the most popular votes and the most electoral votes, victory would be highly unlikely, because most members of Congress would vote for their partys nominee, Bloomberg said in a 2016 article explaining his decision to stand down. He later endorsed Clinton.To get that land, the government would have to resort to eminent domain: a power that allows the state to seize property from unwilling owners. The result would be one of the largest federal condemnations in modern U.S. history. In Texas alone, there are some 4,900 parcels of privately owned land within 500 feet of the probable route of the wall. In Arizona, some 62 miles of the route is owned by the Tohono Oodham Nation, which opposes the wall because it would damage the tribes land and impede ties with members across the border. No one knows exactly how many homes, businesses and tribal properties would have to be condemned. But it is likely that thousands of people would suffer.The first group  the UBERians, lets call them  believe the gig economy will give workers more money, more time and more flexibility. In a perfect UBERian world, we will all be gig workers, working for a variety of platforms, enjoying the benefits of life as independent contractors. As Uber and Lyft  the current victors of the gig economy  go public this year, its also clear that Silicon Valleys grand experiment with gig employment is not so much freedom from labor but gamifying it so that workers will do more of it. The next time you climb into the Prius you just summoned, ask your driver if he or she is on track to hit their Quest bonus today and see what happens.One of the greatest hazards to politicians is the temptation to buy into his or her own myth. And in politics, as in real life, its always a good idea to take the temperature of a room before opening ones mouth. In 2019, its also prudent to pay homage to the queen, in this case Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), before trying to burn down the House. For your further consideration, note that the rise of this new class of young women coincides with the victorious return of the 78-year-old Pelosi to the speakership. Chew on that for a while.Despite those drawbacks, my own strong support for They Shall Not Grow Old comes from working with the original films all my professional life. Forty years ago, I catalogued the hundreds of hours of Imperial War Museum film from which They Shall Not Grow Old is constructed, and I have participated in the production of television history programs related to the war ever since. They Shall Not Grow Old is only the latest, and by far the best, of many experiments (which began while World War I was still being fought) in film speeds and in the use of sound and colorization.But if the facts show that Trump ordered or participated in the commission of crimes, in particular crimes that may have allowed him to win the election, we think it incontrovertible that impeachment would be warranted. So too, if the facts show that Trump ordered his personal attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress, as BuzzFeed reported Thursday night in an article that the special counsel is now disputing, he would be guilty of an impeachable offense. One of the Nixon articles was for approving, condoning . . . and counselling witnesses with respect to the giving of . . . false or misleading testimony in duly instituted judicial and congressional proceedings.These are the dreamers, hundreds of thousands of young people who have played by the rules, studied, worked, made lives in this country. They are American in every way but in the eyes of the law, having been brought here as children  as first-graders, on average. Thanks to a dispensation from President Barack Obama, many of them have come out of the legal shadows and are contributing to this country. If no deal is reached, the Supreme Court is likely at some point to end that dispensation, as Mr. Trump has demanded, and they will be sent back into the shadows, or to countries of which they have no memory.The point is that the government is not doing an effective job of sending that message. To reinforce the message, all areas of law enforcement  from police to courts to prison to supervised release  must focus agency resources on targeting gun offenders. And this means that the response from every agency to gun-related offenses and gun offenders must be swift and certain.Constitutional and respectful policing is an essential element of the partnership between police and residents to create public safety, not at tension with it. Criticism of police does not embolden criminals, but police tactics and practices that destroy community trust do make neighborhoods less safe and the job of police officers more difficult. Justice Louis Brandeis wrote that sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants. Policing in the District needs more sunshine, not less.Spanish rescuers to drill for trapped boy: Trucks brought drilling equipment and giant pipes Friday evening for rescue workers to dig a tunnel toward a 2-year-old boy trapped in a deep well in southern Spain since Sunday. The child fell into the well, just 10 inches wide and 100 yards deep, as his family walked through a private estate in Totalan, Malaga. Officials said the operation would take at least a few days. Drilling on a first tunnel was to take around 15 hours. A second tunnel is planned after rescuers have erected a platform to remove earth and debris.Since holiday break, my office and I have worked and been in direct communication with a number of Commerce Department officials to ensure that federal fisheries in Alaska opened on time and fishermen were able to gain the necessary approvals and inspections to get out on the water, Sullivan said in a statement. This approach is vastly different from the 2013 government shutdown, which delayed Alaskas lucrative and iconic crab fishery, and the agencys efforts at mitigating impacts from the lapse in funding should be commended.These financial troubles were compounded by the strains of the job, which is known for taking immense emotional, physical and mental tolls on its professionals. But like many people who work in medicine, Stamey had always thought of herself as a caretaker and was afraid to ask for help. Instead, she swallowed her frustrations and soldiered on, ignoring the creeping depression that began to cast a shadow over her life and her work.In the days most emotional testimony, Tiffany Van Dykes eyes welled up and her voice faltered as she described her biggest fear: That someone would kill her husband of nearly 17 years. She described praying for McDonalds family, calling the shooting a tragedy and saying her husband was only doing his job. She also said the shootings aftermath has devastated their daughters, ages 12 and 17, and worried about their father being kept away from them.A second ice disk is found in Maine: The massive ice disk that formed on a Maine river has a baby brother. Officials at Baxter State Park in northern Maine shared a photo of an ice disk that's about 30 to 40 feet wide, located in wilderness more than 200 miles north of a much larger disk that formed in Westbrook. Ranger Dave Loomed said the perfect circle of ice stood out Wednesday when he cruised by Nesowadnehunk Stream on a snowmobile. The first ice disk, about 100 yards wide, attracted international attention after it was spotted in the Presumpscot River in Westbrook.I represent black women, who can take no comfort in silence, she said. We are not angry. We have simply swallowed so much pain it is oozing out of our pores and it comes out like fire, hot enough to burn just one more person.President Muhammadu Buhari was conspicuously missing from the five candidates who were supposed to partake in the presidential debate organised by Nigeria Elections Debate Group (NEDG) and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) today. Atiku Abubakar was present at the venue but opted out of the exercise citing the absence of Buhari.

However Buharis campaign spokesman, Festus Keyamo, has revealed why the President was unable to attend the event.

What he said:The girls mother, who was inside her home at the time, later wrote in an email to her neighbors that the woman told her daughter that she had cotton candy for her and that she should stop resisting and just come to her house. Her daughter fought back, saying I will never go! according to the letter.Today, Im making the little girl in me feel visible, wrote Sarah Rose Harper, who described herself as Eastern Band Cherokee. I remember being 11 in the nineties and seeing the FIRST person who looked like me in a magazine. It was an advertisement in Teen Magazine for the American Indian College Fund. I tore the add out and kept it in my dresser for years. Looking at it made me feel something deep inside of me. I felt less invisible.Regardless of what exact town we live in, we need to ask ourselves whether behavior like this DOES represent who we are and strive to be. Is this what our schools teach? Are these the beliefs that we as parents model and condone? Is this the way we want the rest of the nation and the world to see us?Mr. Mendezs first wife, Karen, died of lung cancer in 1986. In 1991 he married Jonna Hiestand, an expert on clandestine photography who also served as the CIAs chief of disguise. In addition to his wife, of Reston, Va., who confirmed his death, survivors include two children from his first marriage, Amanda Mendez of Smithsburg, Md., and sculptor Toby Mendez of Knoxville, Md.; a son from his second marriage, Jesse Mendez of Charleston, W.Va.; several sisters; and two grandchildren. He was predeceased by a son from his first marriage, Ian Mendez.We believe when voters passed Question 1 they were thinking about teachers salaries, hiring more teachers and more pre-K, not school construction and it doesnt mean school construction is unimportant, he said. But we really should be able to do both. This budget creates a false choice for salaries for more teachers and the buildings that they work in.Words do not suffice to describe the great sorrow and anger we feel in learning of this abuse, the letter said. Parents place their faith in educators to keep their children safe, but these boys  now men in their 60s and 70s  have lived with these memories for decades. No child here or anywhere should experience this kind of horrific mistreatment, and we again extend to these men our sincerest remorse and apologies.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Although I was born in the city (at Garfield Hospital), we moved to Suitland, Md., in 1954. I never bothered to look too closely at the neighborhoods history. Imagine my surprise all these years later when I stumbled across a whiskey jug from Suitland at an auction house in Delaware. What can you tell me about the man who bottled it, S.T. Suit?The 2019 presidential debate which took place at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, was not without its own drama. The exercise which was organized by Nigeria Elections Debate Group (NEDG) and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) was boycotted by both Peoples Democratic Partys(PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar and All Progressive Congress(APC) Presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.

The moderator of the exercise asked the PACT presidential candidate, Kingsley Moghalu, what he feels about the absence of the duo and he said The reason they (APC AND PDP candidates) are not here is because they cannot answer the intricate questions. It is a record of failure that theyre not here. One is a kettle, one is a pot and they call each other black

His response to the question has sparked reactions from Nigerians.

What they are saying:

Now I'm seriously liking Kingsley Moghalu, and taking him more seriously now. #PresidentialDebate2019  Udoka Nnadozie (@UdokaNnadozie) January 19, 2019

Kingsley Moghalus performance at the debate is absolutely top notch, im beginning to like him. Do you think he deserves a chance?  Jayeola Abass (@jayebros) January 19, 2019

https://twitter.com/bzee01/status/1086699487710625792In fact, what it didnt say was important, too. It didnt say Mueller had no evidence that Trump had sought to influence Cohen  just that BuzzFeeds description of such statements was inaccurate. Nor did it spell out which reported statements were inaccurate and in what way. Further, it offered no details about how BuzzFeed had mischaracterized any evidence that Mueller has collected.There was an UberBlack ride from the District to neighboring Alexandria, Va., for $250, according to internal records obtained by The Washington Post. Two airline tickets to a meeting in Vienna came in at more than $11,000 each, even as a staffer found a way to the same event for a fraction of the price. A meal for three at Joes Seafood near the White House cost $450  including $45 for a dish of Dover sole and $43 for halibut, according to receipts for the meal.Escaping the Madhouse: The Nellie Bly Story (Lifetime at 8) The story of the investigate reporter and the mistreatment of the mentally ill that she brought to light.Tiffany & Co. said sales slipped in the holiday shopping season as Chinese tourists spent less while traveling due to the strong dollar, making it more expensive to buy Tiffany jewelry outside of its stores in China. The company also said it was hurt by the ups and downs of the stock market, anxiety around Brexit and protests in Paris that forced the company to close its store during some weekends. The New York company said sales at established stores worldwide fell 2 percent in November and December compared to the same period the year before.Police hand out 450 fines for incidents at Piazza Navona and Trevi Fountain in Rome.

A 34-year-old Romanian man faces charges of damage after he was caught in the Fontana del Moro in Piazza Navona at around 15.00 on 18 January.

Police say the man was attempting to "empty the fountain of water", according to local media, fining him 450 for entering the monument which is located at the southern end of the piazza.

Designed by Giacomo della Porta in 1575 with the dolphin and four Tritons, the statue of the moor - by Gian Lorenzo Bernini - was added in 1653, giving the fountain its current name.

A seperate incident took place later in the afternoon of 18 January when police intervened swiftly to restrain a 50-year-old Polish man from wading into the Trevi Fountain, fining him 450 for his exploits.

The 17th-century Baroque masterpiece is no stranger to tourists behaving badly, from brawling over the perfect selfie to regular attempts to emulate Anita Ekberg's celebrated scene from La Dolce Vita.The senator representing Kogi west senatorial district in Kogi state, Dino Melaye, has been granted bail by an Abuja high court on health grounds today. The senator who has been in police custody in the last two weeks was charged for being in possession of firearms and attempt to commit an assassination.

Melaye whose campaign rally have been ongoing despite his absence has really been missed by Nigerians on the political scene.

What they are saying:

I taya o!

See who was granted bail on health ground is tweeting. Joker!  ADEOGUN TITUS (@orgatitus) January 18, 2019

Sir, u are not representing only ur constituency, but Nigeria in general.  Akpoge Godknows (@AkpogeGodfrey1) January 18, 2019

Welcome back The Don  Olayinka Oluwafemi Adiamo (@AdiamoOlayinka) January 18, 2019

https://twitter.com/EAE_Africa/status/1086386696713850880Decatur, IL (62521)

Today

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 76F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 76F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.Lodge brothers

From here in East Texas, I read the Thursday Tribune-Herald opinion piece by Tommy F. Chapman, Philanthropy, making good men even better are key to Masonic mission. I happen to be a Mason myself and have lived in Longview for 15 years, though I am a Kansas Mason due to being born and raised in the Sunflower State. But, as the saying goes: I got to Texas as quick as I could. Thus I am a Kansas Mason who lives in Texas.

As a Mason, I can visit any regular and legitimate Lodge worldwide. Ive visited Lodges in Waco, Dallas and most in the East Texas region, as well as lodges from South Dakota straight south to Texas and even a couple in Louisiana and New Mexico. Wherever I go, I find an old adage of my late dads proves to be true. Hed tell me: Jimmy, where you find Masons, you find friends. Indeed. I joined at age 18 and have been a Mason 37 years (age 55) and it was the best decision I ever made to join.

Ive met men such as Masonic Brother Buzz Aldrin, second man to walk on the moon, and actor and Masonic Brother Buck Taylor, who played in Gunsmoke and in the films Deadwood and Hell or High Water. Just for trivias sake, I have attended Lodge meetings in Deadwood, South Dakota.Thats just a small fraction of Bogles impact. Roughly a third of the money invested in U.S. mutual funds and exchange-traded funds tracks an index. The biggest money managers in the world, such as BlackRock Inc. and State Street Corp., are best known for their low-cost index funds. And the entire fund industry has been forced to lower fees in response, saving investors billions of dollars. There is literally no part of the industry that hasnt been affected by Bogles revolution.

And yet Bogles net worth is estimated at $80 million, a laughably small sum for the founder of one of the worlds biggest financial institutions. Compare that with Stephen Schwarzman, co-founder of private equity firm Blackstone Group, who has a net worth of $12.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Or Abigail Johnson, CEO of Fidelity Investments, who has a net worth of $12.2 billion, despite the fact that Fidelity is half the size of Vanguard based on assets under management. Or Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, who reportedly joined the ranks of billionaires last year.

So where did Bogles money go? It went to Vanguards investors, who still pay a fraction of the fees charged by the average mutual fund four decades after the firms founding. It also went to Vanguards employees, who were undoubtedly better paid than they would have been if Bogle were intent on amassing a fortune.Mr. Barr makes clear throughout the memorandum that he does not know all the underlying facts and appropriately qualifies his analysis with repeated it appears and apparently. Those caveats are highly relevant as the Senate deliberates his nomination. They demonstrate the vital quality of a careful lawyers open-mindedness, which has been vividly on display in recent days, when Mr. Barr has pledged to protect the independence of the Mueller investigation.

It is in the best interest of everyone  the president, Congress and, most importantly, the American people  that this matter be resolved by allowing the special counsel to complete his work, Mr. Barr told the Senate Judiciary Committee. I will follow the special counsel regulations scrupulously and in good faith, and on my watch, Bob will be allowed to finish.

Once Mr. Barr is confirmed, the Justice Departments ethics officers will carefully review whether he should be allowed to oversee the Mueller inquiry. In light of what we know, I see no reason he should step aside. Expressing his legal perspective on a legal theory of obstruction of justice should not come close to justifying the extraordinary action of requiring him to recuse himself from what will be one of the new attorney generals most pressing responsibilities.

The constitutionally ordained process of advise and consent should now be allowed to unfold. I am confident that Bill Barr will respond to all questions and concerns in a fair and honest way. I am also confident that he will be deeply respectful  as a matter of honor and integrity  of whatever advice he receives from the Justice Departments ethics officers. Based on his long record of distinguished service, the American people can count on him to do the right thing.

Ken Starr, former president and chancellor of Baylor University, was a former solicitor general in the George H.W. Bush administration. He was independent counsel in the four-year Whitewater investigation, subject of his newly released book, Contempt: A Memoir of the Clinton Investigation. This piece originally appeared in The New York Times this week.Michael Asiwaju, owner of Asiwaju Royal Furniture in Ojo, Lagos, has taken his own life, after being accused of rape on social media, recently.

Asiwaju, aka Mike Cash, according to city Round died at a hotel in Lagos, after ingesting a poisonous substance suspected to be Sniper and was met lifeless in his hotel room around 12am on January 13, 2019.

Before his death, he had posted via his Twitter handle at 7.35pm on Saturday, January 12, of his plan to take his own life.

Goodbye Ill die soon. (I) am gone, he tweeted.

Asiwaju was accused by a Twitter user, @thatgoddess of being informed by a made, that Asiwaju had rapped her, in his car, something in 2017.

Asiwaju, had denied the accusation, saying it was consensual sex  However, Twitter trolls werent kind to him, as they dragged him mercilessly on the platform.

Twitter users on learning of his death (which they thought was a joke, when he made his last tweet), are expressing their opinions about the situation.

Take a look below

Am sure most of you are happy now. It was obvious Asiwaju was frustrated and depressed, but every thing is a joke to yall on twitter. Cant believe man took his own life pic.twitter.com/7IM4ynFkTz  Chemical Boy  (@Chemicalboyy) January 19, 2019

https://twitter.com/DrOlufunmilayo/status/1086473366138245120?s=19

Wait suddenly Asiwaju is a saint because he allegedly killed himself?(I don't even believe that), what happened to all his alleged atrocities,what happened to the rape story on premiumtimes, what happened to the revenge porn he dropped here?Okay let's watch as the story unfolds  ILORIN CAKE PLUG (@nancy_treats) January 19, 2019

https://twitter.com/KemalOdanz/status/1086530690072698880?s=19

https://twitter.com/TWEETORACLE/status/1086512425761992704?s=19

Mehnn, this place is toxic. I was exchanging DMs with the young man called Asiwaju, asking him to seek help and not do anything silly. Well, he killed himself. They call it bants, but he died. Twitter justice! Rape allegations and other criminal issues should not be made here.  Mazi Gburugburu (@Mazigburugburu1) January 19, 2019

*Asiwaju rape allegations* Asiwaju: i wud kill myself TwitterNG

 Do giveaway nah

 Release all the nudes on your

 Give me ur iPhone charger b4 u die *Asiwaju commits suicide* TwitterNG

 Suicide isn't d answer

 My DM is opened if ur depressed Thunder fire y'all   OMO OBA of CALABAR (@RICHIEBANKZ90) January 19, 2019

Don't call people out for rape on social media we have courts for that. Get your lawyer. It's all bants till you are the victim or someone close.

RIP Asiwaju, may God be with your child.@thatgoddess____ if you lied about that issue, earth will judge you.  #ThatLekkiBoy #TLB (@temmyhlee) January 19, 2019

https://twitter.com/choqlateskynne/status/1086475017796403200?s=19WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump is to hold a second summit with the leader of North Korea near the end of February to try to coax the North to give up its nuclear program.

The announcement came at the White House Friday after Trump met with a North Korean envoy.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump met for 90 minutes with Kim Yong Chol to discuss denuclearization and a second summit. She said the president looks forward to meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a place to be announced at a later date.

Trump had his first historic meeting with Kim Jong Un last June in Singapore and reached a vague denuclearization agreement, but little tangible progress has been made since. So far, no details have been publicly released about how denuclearization could occur.Parents at a Huntsville school are concerned about a worksheet students filled out in class.

Sheree Simms said students were asked to correct the capitalization in this sentence: "How many ku klux klan members are in Alabama?"

Simms' son is a sixth-grade student at the Academy for Science and Foreign Language, and she said this was on his grammar assignment. She says the students were learning capitalization on Thursday.

"That should be staying in history class. That was the wrong way to teach it," said Simms.

Sims explained the students were expected to capitalize the K's in Ku Klux Klan.

"It kinda scared the kids because some of them do know a little bit about it and what they do and what has happened with the KKK," said Simms.

WAAY 31 reached out to the school board member for the magnet school, Michelle Watkins, about the situation. She said it was an unfortunate incident and the district is making sure it won't happen again.

Simms said she also received a personal call from the principal.

"He was also himself offended," said Simms.

Simms said she is satisfied knowing the lesson won't be taught again.

"I think it was a mishap and poor execution of the assignment," said Simms.

Huntsville City Schools released the following statement about the assignment:

"A four-page supplemental worksheet was given out to a language and literature class as an assignment related to a historical fictional book. The material contained a reference in a section on grammar and capitalization that is unacceptable for use in our classrooms. The worksheet is from an outside source and had not been completely vetted before it was distributed to students in the class. School administrators took immediate steps to make sure that proper screening will take place so that any classroom materials are both age and content appropriate for students. School administrators also called the parent of each child in the class to make them aware of the situation and to let them know that steps have been taken to prevent such an occurrence in the future."WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is accusing the White House of leaking information about her planned congressional trip to Afghanistan and saying it's "very irresponsible on the part of the president."

Pelosi's comments Friday came after President Donald Trump canceled the military plane that was to have carried a congressional delegation to Afghanistan on the previously undisclosed troop visit. Trump suggested she travel by commercial plane instead.

Pelosi said she planned to do just that but was thwarted after "the administration leaked that we were traveling commercially." She says the State Department reported "the president outing" the original trip made the scene on the ground in Afghanistan "more dangerous because it's a signal to the bad actors that we're coming."

The White House has denied leaking Pelosi's backup plan to fly commercially and says it leaked nothing that would cause a security risk.

Pelosi and Trump are at an impasse over funding Trump wants for a U.S.-Mexico border wall. The partial government shutdown has reached its 28th day.Friends and customers are praising the actions of an IHOP employee after he stopped the gunman who had just killed his dad.

Roderick Turner shot and killed IHOP employee, Roy Brown, inside the restaurant Wednesday night. Brown's son then shot and killed Turner.

WAAY 31 spoke with people who say they are proud of Jay Brown for taking matters into his own hands before an already tragic situation could become even worse--saying he potentially saved a lot of lives.

This is my favorite place to eat in Huntsville and everybody who knows me knows that," said John Powell.

Powell visits the IHOP on Drake Avenue multiple times a week and has formed a special bond with those who work there.

They know what I like to eat and how to fix it," he said. "Theyre like family. The food is delicious, but the family is really good.

So, when Powell heard the tragic news that two employees at the restauranta father and sonwere shot by an irate customer, he was concerned, and so were others who knew them.

Hes kind of the epitome of customer service. Always friendly, got everything right every time, and would go out of his way to just make everything great," said Sierra Seay.

When Seay and Powell learned Roy Brown's son, who'd been shot in the arm, pulled out his own gun and killed the shooter, they told me they were proudcalling him a hero.

Its amazing that he was able to think so quickly on his feet in that situation, because I think I probably just wouldve panicked," Seay said.

"Im glad he was carrying. I think its fantastic. I love knowing that the good guys have guns so that, if the bad guys act up, the good guys can protect themselves," Powell added.

Both said they were glad Brown was able to protect the other people who were working and eating inside the restaurant as well.

It was obviously an incident where a good thing happened because somebody was armed," Powell said. "Obviously, he helped save lives. I would love it if the staff kept weapons.

Many customers told WAAY 31 the incident wont keep them from eating at IHOP. One man said the employees bravery actually makes him want to visit the restaurant more often.

WAAY 31 asked IHOP about their weapons policy. A spokesperson told us franchises are only told to abide by state and local gun laws. In Alabama, the names of permit holders are not public record.

Jay Brown is still recovering in the hospital with a severe arm injury.James Hyde was 17-years old when he killed an Albertville police detective.

A judge sentenced him to die, but years later the Supreme Court ended mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles. Friday, Hyde got a new day in court. During his testimony he said he wishes he could take back his actions from 1995.

"I don't deserve to ask for this court's mercy," said Hyde.

"He should serve life without parole, because Andy's not here, his life is gone," said James Maze.

In 1995, James Hyde killed Albertville police detective Andrew Whitten when a friend feared the detective would testify against him in court.

More than two decades later, detective Whitten's partner, James Maze, still remembers his friend Andy.

"He was always laughing, he always had a smile on his face, he was always cutting up," remembered Maze.

Albertville Police filled the courtroom during the hearing. We learned at the time of the murder, Hyde was about a month away from turning 18.

"If he had waited 30 something days or whatever it was we wouldn't be here," said Maze.

During his time in prison, Hyde accumulated more than 20 write ups ranging from walking on the wrong side of the hallway to assault. He testified he now goes to church on occasion and graduated from anger management.

Maze says he feels like it's his responsibility to make sure Hyde stays in prison because Whitten was more than a colleague.

"He's my friend," said Maze.

The judge will make his decision one month from today. Even if Hyde is granted parole, it will be 30-years before he's eligible.Nigerian radio personalty, Toke Makinwa, shared a lovely picture of herself standing beside a commercial bus that looks to have been converted to a recreation facility via her Instagram page today.

The 36 years old graduate of English and Literature from the University of Lagos separated from her husband following a scandal revealing he had impregnated his ex-girlfriend On 5 October 2017.

Picture below;Some Zimbabweans have set up an online petition aimed at blocking Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa from attending the forthcoming World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, questioning his move to rub shoulders with world leaders while local people are being brutalized by state security agents following nationwide protests this week over the high cost of living.

The petition, created Wednesday on change.org and seeking 5,000 signatures, has been signed by 3,612 people amid concerns by human rights organizations, opposition parties, various nations, the European Union, United Nations and other entities about the deteriorating political and economic situation in Zimbabwe.

This comes at a time when the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights says it has attended to 172 victims of violence of which 68 were of people with gunshot wounds. It says other cases were a result of assaults with sharp objects, booted feet, baton sticks, sjamboks and tarmac abrasions. Indications are that some patients had dog bites as police allegedly unleashed dogs on protesters in some cities. Zimbabwean authorities say at least 200 people were arrested during the protests.

Police say only 3 people were killed while some non-governmental organizations estimate that at least 12 people were gunned down by state security agents. The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum claims that it has recorded 844 cases of human rights violations.

Several organizations and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change led by Nelson Chamisa, have backed the online petition noting that Mnangagwa, who is currently visiting several European nations, should go back home instead of attending the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting to be held between 22 and 25 January, 2019.

Thabitha Khumalo, chairperson of the MDC, said organizers of the Davos meeting should seriously consider blocking Mnangagwa from attending the World Economic Forum.

A lot of people globally have signed that petition requesting that E.D Mnangagwa must be denied permission to participate in the Davos meeting because what we are saying is that Zimbabwe is burning economically, socially, culturally, you name it. We are saying he must come back home and correct the ills that have engulfed our country.

Reacting to Khumalos remarks and the online petition, Zanu PF Central Committee member, Joseph Tshuma, said while there are people who are upset about what is happening in Zimbabwe, Mnangagwa should be given a chance to meet with economic giants in order to find ways of getting the much-needed foreign direct investment.

To be honest with you when the president left the country all these things had not started to happen  I will tell you my brother without mincing my words. Zimbabweans have shot themselves on their feet because, look, with all these things happening, these are the kind of recipes that brew sort of anger, desperation and fear from any investors.

It will be very difficult to invest in a country which can easily burn down property and loot things with impunity. And so, we are putting ourselves in a corner. We are crying that the economy is going down, others are trying to resuscitate it and then we throw the biggest spanner in the works. Im telling you we have gone 10 steps backwards.The URL has been copied to your clipboard

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Human rights lawyers and opposition in Zimbabwe say President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government is failing to respect citizens rights by responding to protests with brutality. As Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare, security forces have arrested a prominent political activist.President of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) Obert Masaraure was kidnapped last night by alleged state agents at his Harare home.

Masaraure, according to his wife was later dumped at Harare Central Police Station after being severely beaten. ARTUZ secretary general Robson Chere has also been detained.

Masaraure was kidnapped when he was on the line with VOA Zimbabwe Service, saying he was fearing for his life as he felt he had been followed to his house by suspected members of the spy network, the Central Intelligence Organization.

Minutes after raising concern, loud noise could be heard from the background as the home was being broken into.

When VOA tried to reach him a few minutes after he raised alarm, his wife responded in a text, noting that they took him away, they broke our house.

He was abducted in front of his wife and children.

Efforts to reach State Security Minister Owen Ncube and police spokesperson Charity Charamba were futile as their phones went unanswered.

Zimbabwean authorities for days now have shutdown internet amid a crackdown on protesters who staged public protests this week.

Despite growing international pressure from the United Nations, Washington, London and the European Union, the crackdown led by the military is not showing any signs of slowing down.

Police and soldiers have been accused of indiscriminately dragging people from their homes and torturing them, forcing many government critics to go underground.

Government is accusing protesters of trying to topple President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Masaraure was part of the 2017 Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders (YALI). YALI was launched in 2010 by former United States President Barack Obama as part of his flagship programme to support young Africans as they spur growth and prosperity, strengthen democratic governance, and enhance peace and security across Africa.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship, which began in 2014, brings young leaders to the United States for academic coursework and leadership training and creates unique opportunities in Africa for Fellows to put new skills to practical use in leading organizations, communities, and countries.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and administered by The International Research and Exchanges Board IREX.WASHINGTON - The U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) Friday denied it was blocked by Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) from conducting a military inspection in Iraq's Anbar province near the Syrian border.

In an email to VOA, the U.S.-led international coalition's Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) said the operation in western Anbar earlier this week was coordinated with the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and the purpose of it was to survey Iraqi border security posts with Syria as a part of the ongoing effort to defeat IS.

"This survey was planned, coordinated and conducted with the ISF, and occurred without incident," CJTF-OIR told VOA.

"Coalition forces and the ISF work together to secure the borders of Iraq, protecting the people of Iraq and supporting security that ensures the lasting defeat of ISIS," it added, using an acronym for the militant group.

The response from the coalition comes as Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in a statement Tuesday said it prevented the U.S. forces with the anti-IS coalition from carrying out a "suspicious reconnaissance" operation on the Iraqi border with Syria.

"The Anbar command of the Mobilization Forces prevented the American forces from completing the survey, forcing them to return to their base and not to approach the units of Popular Mobilization Forces," Qasem Musleh, the PMF field operations commander in Anbar, said in the statement.

Musleh accused the U.S. of violating Iraqi sovereignty, claiming the U.S.-led coalition collected "dangerous" information about the Iraqi border patrol, the number of combat points, the quantity of ammunition, the type of weaponry and the number of personnel present at each border point.

"American provocations have come to reveal secret information about our troops stationed at the border," he said, adding, "This information reveals the secret of the forces stationed there, making it easy to target."

In this Nov. 7, 2018, photo released by the U.S. A In this Nov. 7, 2018, photo released by the U.S. Army, U.S. soldiers gather for a briefing during a combined joint patrol rehearsal in Manbij, Syria. In this Nov. 7, 2018, photo released by the U.S. Army, U.S. soldiers gather for a briefing during a combined joint patrol rehearsal in Manbij, Syria.

Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF)

The PMF is an umbrella organization of several Shiite militias formed in 2014 after the Iraqi army fled the area following IS attacks. The group includes U.S. terror-designated militias, such as Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq and the Badr organization, and Iranian-friendly parties such as the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.

Empowered by Iran, the group played a key role in driving U.S.-backed Kurdish peshmerga forces out of Kirkuk and other disputed territories in northern Iraq following a Kurdish referendum for independence in late 2017.

U.S. officials in the past have stated the group works as a regional proxy to Iran and is increasingly threatening and provoking American troops in Iraq and Syria.

An assessment of the U.S. anti-IS operations by the Pentagon's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) last November warned that the PMF's increased military and political power, along with their willingness to act independently of the Iraqi security forces, could further Iran's influence in Iraq.

The Pentagon report said the Iranian proxies continued their threatening rhetoric against the U.S. presence in Iraq. It added Iran-backed militias were likely behind two attacks targeting U.S. facilities in Iraq last September, including mortar attacks that targeted Baghdad's Green Zone and landed near the U.S. embassy, and rocket attacks that targeted the Basra Airport, near the U.S. consulate.

The mortar fire on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad then prompted the White House's National Security Council to ask the Pentagon for plans to attack Iran, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The U.S. consulate in Basra has been closed since Sept. 28, when U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the U.S. would be relocating diplomatic personnel from the city following increasing threats from Iran and Iran-backed militia.

National security correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.A U.S. court has confirmed that an Iranian-American anchorwoman who works for Irans state television has been jailed in the United States as a material witness but has not been charged with any crime.

Court officials say they expect Marzieh Hashemi to be released immediately after her testimony to a grand jury in Washington.

Officials have not released details about the criminal case in which Hashemi has been named as a witness.

Iran has protested the arrest of Hashemi, who was born in the United States and is a presenter on Irans English-language Press TV. Hashemi, 59, married an Iranian man and converted to Islam.

Federal agents detained Hashemi last Sunday in the St. Louis airport after she visited with relatives in the area.

The chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Beryl Howell, unsealed documents related to Hashemis detention on Friday, which said she has twice appeared before the court and has been appointed an attorney.

The media rights group, Committee to Protect Journalists, issued a statement early Friday expressing concern over Hashemis detention. The New York-based group asked the Justice Department to disclose the reason for her arrest and noted that Iran routinely jails journalists.

U.S. law allows judges to detain witnesses if they are considered unlikely to respond to a subpoena and are believed to be a flight risk.GENEVA - The UN refugee agency says it is shocked by reports that Cameroonian authorities have forcibly returned some 9,000 Nigerian refugees who fled across the border earlier in the week in search of safety from militant attacks.

The sudden mass exodus of thousands of Nigerian refugees into Cameroon followed attacks by Boko Haram militants in the small border town of Rann in Nigeria's Borno State on Monday.



The militants reportedly targeted military installations, civilian and humanitarian facilities. The United Nations reports the market and shelters housing thousands of internally displaced people in Rann were burned down by the attackers. At least 14 people are reported killed.



UN refugee spokesman, Babar Baloch, tells VOA Cameroon's expulsion of the thousands of Nigerian refugees fleeing for their lives was totally unexpected and distressing.

Nigerian refugees are seen on a Cameroonian milita FILE - Nigerian refugees are seen on a Cameroonian military truck set to make its way out of Fotokol for Nigeria, in Fotokol, Cameroon, April 19, 2017. (M.E. Kindzeka/VOA) FILE - Nigerian refugees are seen on a Cameroonian military truck set to make its way out of Fotokol for Nigeria, in Fotokol, Cameroon, April 19, 2017. (M.E. Kindzeka/VOA)

"It is really alarming for us to see desperate people who have just arrived in Cameroon seeking safety in this remote part and then for them to be ending up back into a situation of danger is extremely worrying," said Baloch.



Baloch says the UNHCR and its partners were making preparations to provide humanitarian aid to the newly arriving refugees when they heard the refugees were being summarily expelled.



"It is unexpected because there were no indications. We were already in touch with the Cameroonian authorities in terms of how to take care of the newly arrived refugees and then we found out reports that they may have been sent back," said Baloch.



Baloch says there are concerns for the possibly precarious situation of another 6,000 Nigerian refugees who fled to Cameroon several weeks ago.



The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi is appealing to Cameroon to continue its open-door policy toward those seeking refuge. He is calling for an immediate halt to any more returns. He says Cameroon must ensure compliance with its obligations under national and international law to protect refugees in fear of their lives.WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that he had an "incredible" meeting with North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Yong Chol and the two sides had made "a lot of progress" on denuclearization.

The White House announced after talks between Trump and Kim on Friday that the U.S. president would hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late February, but would maintain economic sanctions on Pyongyang.

"That was an incredible meeting," Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said of the talks. "We've agreed to meet sometime, probably the end of February. We've picked a country but we'll be announcing it in the future. Kim Jong Un is looking very forward to it and so am I.

"We have made a lot of progress as far as denuclearization is concerned and we are talking about a lot of different things. Things are going very well with North Korea."

Trump and the White House have given no details of the talks, and despite his upbeat comments there has been no indication of any narrowing of differences over U.S. demands that North Korea abandon a nuclear weapons program that threatens the United States and Pyongyang's demands for a

lifting of punishing sanctions.

FILE - U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea FILE - U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shake hands after signing documents during a summit at the Capella Hotel on the resort island of Sentosa, Singapore, June 12, 2018. FILE - U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shake hands after signing documents during a summit at the Capella Hotel on the resort island of Sentosa, Singapore, June 12, 2018.

?June summit

A summit in June in Singapore  the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader  produced a vague commitment by Kim Jong Un to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, but he has yet to take what Washington sees as concrete steps in that direction.

Critics of U.S. efforts said the first summit did little more than boost Kim's international stature.

Trump did not elaborate on the country chosen to host the summit, but Vietnam has been considered a leading candidate.

Kim Yong Chol, regarded as a member of Kim Jong Un's inner circle, also had talks on Friday with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the U.S. special representative on North Korea, Stephen Biegun.

The State Department said the two sides had "a productive first meeting at the working level" and Biegun would travel to Sweden at the weekend to attend an international conference.

The conference is also being attended by North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui. Washington has been keen to set up talks between Biegun and Choe but North Korea has resisted, apparently wanting to keep exchanges high-level.

Asked if the two would meet in Stockholm, a State Department spokeswoman said: "We have no meetings to announce."WHITE HOUSE - In a bid to end the monthlong partial shutdown of the U.S. government, President Donald Trump on Saturday offered Democrats compromises on his hard-line immigration policies, but they were knocked down by the opposition party even before he spoke.

"We hope they will offer their enthusiastic support, and I think many will," Trump said of the Democrats. "The radical left can never control our borders. I will never let it happen."

Migrants from Cuba, Venezuela and Central America FILE - Migrants from Cuba, Venezuela and Central America queue at the Paso del Norte International Bridge in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, to cross the border and request political asylum in the United States, Jan. 9, 2019. FILE - Migrants from Cuba, Venezuela and Central America queue at the Paso del Norte International Bridge in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, to cross the border and request political asylum in the United States, Jan. 9, 2019.

In his remarks, broadcast live from the White House Diplomatic Reception Room, Trump called for 2,750 more federal agents for immigration control and $5.7 billion for a steel barrier covering 370 kilometers (230 miles) of the border with Mexico.



"It is time to reclaim our future from the extreme voices who fear compromise and demand open borders," Trump said. "That is why I am here today to break the logjam."

WATCH: Trump Proposes Immigration Deal in Bid to End Shutdown

Pair of programs



Trump offered compromises on two programs his administration has targeted for elimination: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for immigrants from some Latin American and African nations.



The bipartisan Bridge Act would allow 740,000 immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children, often referred to as Dreamers, to keep their work permits and hold off deportations for three more years if their permits have been revoked.



That plan has been strongly opposed by some prominent conservative commentators.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks durin FILE - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 17, 2019. FILE - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 17, 2019.

Shortly before Trump spoke, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the offer a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives that were "unacceptable" and said the president's proposal was "not a good-faith effort."



"It is unlikely that any one of these provisions alone would pass the House, and taken together, they are a nonstarter. For one thing, this proposal does not include the permanent solution for the Dreamers and TPS recipients that our country needs and supports," Pelosi added in her statement.



U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California, tweeted: "We will never allow a shutdown as a negotiating tactic. Need to reopen government first."

U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, an Alabama Republican, chastised his Democratic Party colleagues in the House for rejecting Trump's proposal even before the president announced it, saying Trump "keeps trying to negotiate and Democrats just keep saying no."

Trump said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, would bring his proposed legislation to the floor next week in order to "immediately reopen our federal government."

The president made his announcement shortly after he attended a naturalization ceremony in the Oval Office for five new American citizens, highlighting his support for legal immigration.

Trump's proposal reportedly stems from a Thursday night meeting involving his son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner; Vice President Mike Pence; and McConnell to craft an outline for legislation that could win sufficient approval from opposition lawmakers.



McConnell has resisted any immigration-related bills being introduced in the Senate that the president would not agree to sign in advance.

FILE - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell FILE - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is surrounded by reporters as he returns from meeting with President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders at the White House, to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 2, 2019. FILE - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is surrounded by reporters as he returns from meeting with President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders at the White House, to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 2, 2019.

?'Time to make a law'



In a statement released after Trump's speech, McConnell said, "Everyone has made their point  now it's time to make a law. I intend to move to this legislation this week."

There had been speculation Trump might declare the situation on the southern border a national emergency, giving him a face-saving way to end the government shutdown that could prove both politically and economically costly, while maintaining the backing of his core supporters.

Later, several top administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, Trump son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, spoke with a small group of reporters at the White House.

Mulvaney cautioned that while declaring a national emergency "is still a tool that is available to the president," it is not the preferred route.

The president faces pressure from his conservative base not to compromise on immigration issues. Some influential commentators, who are hard-liners on border security, have warned Trump that trading amnesty for wall funding could cost him re-election in 2020 because he would lose support.

Pence denied the criticisms, saying, "This is not an amnesty bill." He said the proposal was for a three-year reprieve for DACA recipients and would not grant citizenship or permanent residency to any of the immigrants affected.

Trump has repeatedly insisted he needs $5.7 billion in taxpayer funding to extend a wall along the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

A man looks out at the U.S. border where workers a FILE - A man looks out at the U.S. border where workers are replacing parts of the U.S. border wall for a higher one, in Tijuana, Mexico, Dec. 19, 2018. FILE - A man looks out at the U.S. border where workers are replacing parts of the U.S. border wall for a higher one, in Tijuana, Mexico, Dec. 19, 2018.

The Democrats, who control the House but not the Senate, have offered more than $1 billion in new money for border security, but none specifically for a wall. Democratic sources say the money will be included in a packet of spending bills the House will consider next week  $524 million to improve ports of entry and $563 million to hire more immigration judges.



The impasse over the wall and the record-long government shutdown also led to a dispute between Trump and Pelosi over her plans to travel to Afghanistan.

'Very irresponsible'



Pelosi accused the White House on Friday of leaking information about her planned trip to fly commercially to Afghanistan after Trump denied Pelosi the use of a military plane for the trip.



Pelosi said it was "very irresponsible on the part of the president" to release details about her sensitive travel plans, which the State Department said significantly increased the security threat on the ground.



The White House denied leaking Pelosi's flight plans.



Trump on Thursday had revoked the use of a military plane for Pelosi and Democratic members of Congress for their planned trip to Afghanistan to visit U.S. troops and to Brussels to take with NATO leaders. In a letter to the speaker, the president said that "in light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay [as a result of the shutdown], I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate."



A spokesperson for Pelosi's office said the trip would have provided "critical national security and intelligence briefings" as well as served as an opportunity for Pelosi to thank the troops.



The president's letter did not directly address Pelosi's call Wednesday for Trump to delay his scheduled Jan. 29 State of the Union address until government funding was restored and the shutdown ended.



VOA's Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.Thousands of women gathered in cities in the United States and around the world Saturday for the third annual Women's March to demand gender equality and call attention to environmental concerns and immigrant rights, among other issues.



At a rally in Washington, just blocks from the White House, march organizer and transgender rights activist Abby Stein told demonstrators they would not be deterred by efforts to divide them.



"A lot of people out there, a lot of people in the media are trying to divide us. What brings us together is not the fact that we are all the same. What brings us together is our differences," she said.

WATCH: Women's March in Washington Brings Heat on a Wintry Day

House of the Lord Churches Executive Minister Leah Daughtry also addressed the Washington crowd, emphasizing the mantra "we can't stop."



"We won't stop until every child is reunited with their parents at the border. We can't stop. We can't stop. We won't stop until every child has free, full access to education. We can't stop. We won't stop until everyone has full, free, fair access to health care," Daughtry said.

The beginning

The first Womens March was held in 2017, the day after Donald Trump was sworn in as president of the United States.

Participants walk to the Ontario provincial legisl Participants walk to the Ontario provincial legislature during the Women's March in a -22 Celsius (8 Fahrenheit) wind chill snowstorm in Toronto, Ontario, Jan. 19, 2019. Participants walk to the Ontario provincial legislature during the Women's March in a -22 Celsius (8 Fahrenheit) wind chill snowstorm in Toronto, Ontario, Jan. 19, 2019.

?On Trumps first full day in office, hundreds of thousands of women descended on Washington in a display of popular opposition to the new administration and its policies. Sister marches were held in more than 600 locations in the U.S. and around the globe in solidarity with the marchers in Washington.

Peter Newsham, Washingtons interim police chief at the time, said of the march in the U.S. capital, The crowd stretches so far that theres no room left to march.

Many marchers wore the knitted pink hats that have become a symbol of women's anti-Trump sentiments.

Moment to movement

In 2018, organizers of the Womens March sought to build on the first rally by focusing on politics and the power of women voters. They based the second march in Nevada, a battleground state for the midterm elections later in the year. The rally touting the message Power to the Polls focused on voter registration, featuring activists and members of Congress as speakers.

As in 2017, sister marches were held in cities across the U.S. and thousands of women also marched in London, Paris, Sydney and other European and Australian cities.

In 2019, the organizers brought the march back to Washington. Hopes were high for this years turnout, especially after a record 102 women were elected to the House of Representatives in the midterms at the end of last year.

A demonstrator expresses her support for Planned P A demonstrator expresses her support for Planned Parenthood during the Women's March in Los Angeles, Jan. 19, 2019. A demonstrator expresses her support for Planned Parenthood during the Women's March in Los Angeles, Jan. 19, 2019.

?A growing controversy

Several prominent womens and civil rights organization were absent from the list of partners published on the Womens March website.

Among those that had partnered with the group in the past, but missing in 2019, were civil rights organization Southern Poverty Law Center and the political action committee Emilys List. By late Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee had also withdrawn its name from the list of partners.

The controversy surrounds several Womens March leaders who have been accused of holding racist and anti-Semitic views.

Organizers have repeatedly denied all accusations of misconduct or using inappropriate speech.

Native American drummers sing as they help lead th Native American drummers sing as they help lead the Women's March in Seattle, Jan. 19, 2019. Native American drummers sing as they help lead the Women's March in Seattle, Jan. 19, 2019.

The issue resurfaced when two of the marchs organizers appeared on the ABC talk show The View on Monday and refused to denounce Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has made repeated anti-Semitic and anti-white remarks.

When asked why she had posted a photo of Farrakhan on Instagram with a caption that included the hashtag for the title Greatest of All Time, Womens Marchs co-president Tamika Mallory said, I didnt call him the greatest of all time because of his rhetoric. I called him the greatest of all time because of what hes done in black communities.

Mallorys co-president, Bob Bland, denied allegations printed in The New York Times and the Jewish magazine Tablet that members of the organization had expressed anti-Semitic beliefs at a meeting behind closed doors.

The people that the journalist spoke to did not tell the truth, period, full stop, Bland said. The Womens March unequivocally condemns anti-Semitism, bigotry, transphobia. ... We condemn any statements of hate.

A girl holds a rose as protesters take part in the A girl holds a rose as protesters take part in the Women's March calling for equality, justice and an end to austerity in London, Jan. 19, 2019. A girl holds a rose as protesters take part in the Women's March calling for equality, justice and an end to austerity in London, Jan. 19, 2019.

?Going forward

Some marchgoers said they weren't deterred.

"The controversy has certainly influenced conversations around my decision to attend or not. Though it never was going to stop me, even more so I feel it's important to attend," said Naomi Zipursky of San Francisco, who was to attend the local march there Saturday.

By not showing up, I dont even allow the conversation to begin and only create a bigger gap.

The thought that I, as a Jewish woman, wouldnt be welcome or would need to leave part of my identity at the door in order to attend the march is disheartening and, frankly, alienating, Zipursky said. [But] I also believe that what one person may say or do doesnt necessarily represent what an entire organization may stand for.

A separate March for ALL Women was planned for Saturday in the U.S. capital, with organizers rallying those who may feel the main march is divisive and not inclusive.

Many participants didn't think the marches would ever compare to the first one.

Its going to be very hard to pull off the momentum of the first womens march, said Mary Tablante, communications officer at the Asian Americans Advancing Justice. I am still going [this year] because I do think they are trying to improve it. Theres still a lot of work to be done in the movement.

With a pink hat in the foreground, demonstrators m With a pink hat in the foreground, demonstrators march on Pennsylvania Avenue during the Women's March in Washington, Jan. 19, 2019. With a pink hat in the foreground, demonstrators march on Pennsylvania Avenue during the Women's March in Washington, Jan. 19, 2019.

Despite the controversy, marches were planned in almost every U.S. state. ABC News reported some states would hold multiple marches: California planned to have more than 30 marches, New York 15, Texas, 13 and Florida 11. Michigan was to host eight and Pennsylvania seven.

Marches also were planned in more than a dozen European nations, as well as in Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Israel, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and South Africa, among others.U.S. and Somali military officials said Saturday that scores of al-Qaida-affiliated fighters had been killed during an attack on a government military base near Somalia's southern port city of Kismayo.



The militants launched a surprise dawn attack Saturday at the base near Bula Gudud village, 50 kilometers north of Kismayo, starting with triple suicide blasts. Scores of heavily armed militants then stormed the base from all directions, Somali officials told VOA.



"The terrorists have attacked the base with suicide blasts, and fierce fighting occurred. We defeated them and forced them to flee, killing at least 70 militants during the attack and an airstrike that followed," Abdinur Ibrahim, regional security spokesman, told VOA.?

U.S. officials said Saturday that 52 al-Shabab militants had been killed in the retaliatory airstrike following the initial attack. The airstrike targeted a site in Somalia's Middle Juba region and no civilians were killed or injured, according to a U.S. Africa Command press release.



The armed group claimed responsibility for the military base attack and said 41 Somali soldiers had been killed in the incident.?



"Our fighters started the attack by detonating a huge car bomb inside the base and then the suicide infantry followed to eliminate the soldiers who survived from the blast. Forty-one soldiers from the apostate government were killed," a pro-al-Shabab website claimed.



Medical sources at the Kismayo hospital said the bodies of eight Somali soldiers and 19 others who were injured were brought to the hospital.



Multiple military sources familiar with the attack told VOA militants outnumbered government soldiers in the base and briefly took it over, seizing some weapons and military supplies before military reinforcements countered the offensive.



Defensive airstrike



About an hour after the militants left the base, an airstrike carried out by unidentified foreign forces supporting the Somali military killed more than 60 militants. At least two missiles hit the militants driving away in a military truck and two Toyota pickup truck they seized from the base, officials said.



"On their way back, after the defeat in the battle for the military base, an airstrike hit the militants, killing all those in three vehicles, estimated to have been more than 60," a Somali military official familiar with the airstrike told VOA on the condition of anonymity.



Both the militants' claim and that of the Somali military could not be independently verified due to the remoteness of the area. But to support their claim, the Jubbaland regional administration released graphic photos showing completely burned military transport vehicles and body parts that were strewn on and around them.



The U.S. military recently increased its periodic airstrikes in Somalia to help the U.N.-backed government in its fight against al-Shabab and Islamic State.?



Last June, a U.S. soldier was killed and four other soldiers were wounded in a firefight against al-Shabab militants near the same base attacked Saturday by the militants.



Alexander Conrad, 26, of Chandler, Ariz., and his wounded fellow soldiers were fighting alongside about 800 troops from the Somali National Security Forces and Kenyan Defense Forces when they were hit with mortars and small-arms fire.



Saturday's militant attack came days after al-Shabab struck a Nairobi hotel and killed at least 21 people, including an American citizen.



Kenya has military personnel in the southern part of Somalia where they are fighting terrorists under the African Union's mission.



Khadar Hared contributed to this report from Nairobi.Senator Ben Murray Bruce has reacted to the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential debate which was organised Nigeria Elections Debate Group (NEDG) and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) today.

Bruce who represents Bayelsa East senatorial district in the senate is not happy that the incumbent president did not make it to the venue of the debate. He revealed that Atiku had to take a 12 hours flight from USA despite how tired he was just for the debate only to realize that Buhari didnt attend.

What he said:SYDNEY - With temperatures of 48 Celsius (118 Fahrenheit) in the New South Wales outback, records are falling as an extreme heat wave grips eastern Australia.

Even in a land used to nature's extremes, this heat wave is punishing. The blistering conditions are affecting much of eastern Australia, but New South Wales has felt it most.

Last year was Australia's third-warmest year on record, and 2019 has got off to a scorching start.

Residents in White Cliffs, 1,000 kilometers northwest from Sydney, have endured heat of 48.2 Celsius. Other parts of Australia have also set new heat records, including the town of Noona, which hit a nighttime temperature of 35.9 Celsius (96.6 Fahrenheit), the highest ever documented across the nation.

This image made from a video, Jan. 7, 2019, shows This image made from a video, Jan. 7, 2019, shows dead fish along the Darling River bank in Menindee, New South Wales, Australia. An Australian state government announced plans to pump oxygen into lakes and rivers after hundreds of thousands of fish have died in the heat. This image made from a video, Jan. 7, 2019, shows dead fish along the Darling River bank in Menindee, New South Wales, Australia. An Australian state government announced plans to pump oxygen into lakes and rivers after hundreds of thousands of fish have died in the heat.

"The heat wave across New South Wales over the past week has actually broken 14 all-time maximum temperature records, said Graham Creed, a TV weather expert. It is all a combination of weather patterns that have led to the buildup of heat, including the influence of climate change increasing the potential of these events.

Now we currently have (a) near-record late start to the monsoon across northern Australia. That is leading to the clear skies and very little rainfall that is allowing the heat to continue to build across the northern and central parts of the continent," he added.

Heat waves are Australia's deadliest natural hazard, but there was relief for a distressed sheep found abandoned in the New South Wales outback. It was rescued by the police, and allowed to recover in an air-conditioned patrol car.

Cooler conditions this weekend are expected to give way to more extreme heat in the coming days. Authorities say the hot weather will worsen the risk of serious bushfires. Emergency crews in drought-hit New South Wales continue to battle about 80 blazes.

Australia's hottest recorded temperature was 50.7 Celsius (123 Fahrenheit) in South Australia in January 1960.

MIAMI - When Wilkinson Sejour, owner of Chef Creole, the only Haitian restaurant at the Miami International airport, noticed TSA (Transportation Security Administration) agents were no longer coming in to buy meals, he found it odd and wondered what was going on.

Sejour learned they were federal workers affected by the U.S. government's partial shutdown. The federal security screeners are among hundreds of thousands of federal employees working without pay until President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats resolve a political dispute over construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

So Sejour devised a plan to show his appreciation.

"We've been at the airport for four months now, and they support us every day," he told VOA Creole. "I thought if they were there since the beginning and helped me make money, now that they're having problems, I have to thank them for their support and try to help them."

Tony Mertin packages hot meals at the Chef Creole Tony Mertin packages hot meals at the Chef Creole restaurant at Miami International Airport, Jan. 15, 2019, in Miami. Tony Mertin packages hot meals at the Chef Creole restaurant at Miami International Airport, Jan. 15, 2019, in Miami.

The Chef Creole restaurant owner decided to offer free meals for a week  lunch and dinner  for TSA agents, customs inspectors and other federal employees working at the airport. They lined up to partake in the offerings, or sent a colleague to get meals for agents who were too busy to walk over to the restaurant.

"Food is important, more important than money  when you have food you're OK," Sejour noted.

So far, Chef Creole has distributed 1,400 free meals. Sejour said he doesn't have a lot of resources. He said he worried about how he was going to afford to give out free food. But he had faith.

"The first day we gave out free meals, people saw and they offered to help, too. They said, 'Chef, here are five cases of chicken, 50 pounds of shrimp, two cases of ribs  you don't have to publicize it'  that's how it's done. You have to have faith," Sejour told VOA Creole.

An employee of the Chef Creole restaurant, right, An employee of the Chef Creole restaurant, right, unloads meals for TSA workers at Miami International Airport, Jan. 15, 2019, in Miami. An employee of the Chef Creole restaurant, right, unloads meals for TSA workers at Miami International Airport, Jan. 15, 2019, in Miami.

What has been the reaction among the lucky recipients? Gratitude.

"God bless you brother, no other restaurant in airport is doing what u are doing, all the money we spend in those restaurants and not one has offered to help tsa during a time like this, much respect to you brother we appreciate you, God bless," @im_so_handsome commented on Chef Creole's Instagram page.

"We are humbled by your generosity. You deserve every blessing you receive and then some," commented @stevieb305.

The gratitude was echoed by members of the Haitian community who reacted to a post about Chef Creole's efforts on VOA Kreyol's Instagram page.

"Good job. Kindness going around," @farahfaroul commented.

"Keep up the good work you're doing, you'll be rewarded, God is with you," @maranata_christ_revien commented in Creole.

On Thursday, Haitian recording label Abstract Records gave Sejour a check for $500 to help pay for his efforts.

"That will help me buy more supplies, because I promised I would feed them for a week," Sejour said.

Asked what motivates him, Sejour said he was inspired by the spirit of Haiti's independence.

"Remember, we are Haitians  and when we were the first to win our independence, all of South America came to us for help, so it's in our blood to help our neighbors  not just our brothers and sisters."

Sejour added that he finds pleasure in feeding people.

"What makes me happy is when you look in the person's eyes  it's just a plate of food  but it makes them happy," he said.

Click here for related VOA Creole video.The Islamic State terror group is promising to keep targeting U.S. and U.S.-backed forces in the northern Syrian town of Manbij, where a suicide attack this week killed four Americans and five coalition soldiers.



The claim, published in IS's most recent online newsletter, Naba, comes as U.S. defense and intelligence officials are questioning whether the terror organization's security and intelligence networks run deeper and remain more intact than previously thought.



"The Attacks of the Mujahedeen Will Continue in Manbij Until Sharia Governance Returns," the newsletter proclaimed, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group.



IS "began executing attacks against the apostates months ago," it added, citing an interview with an IS fighter who is part of one of several "security detachments operating in the area."



Previous targets included coalition-backed military and intelligence officials, the newsletter claimed, along with several unsuccessful attempts to attack U.S. forces.



"ISIS remains an adaptive and dangerous adversary," a senior U.S. counterterrorism official told VOA, using an acronym for the group.



And while IS's claim of responsibility for Wednesday's attack in Manbij has yet to be confirmed, "we believe the claim is authentic," the official said, calling the attack "very typical" of IS insurgent activities.

iei eeiii ee ie ei ii FILE - An image grab taken from a video obtained by AFP-TV on Jan. 16, 2019, shows U.S. troops gathered at the scene of a suicide attack in the northern Syrian town of Manbij. FILE - An image grab taken from a video obtained by AFP-TV on Jan. 16, 2019, shows U.S. troops gathered at the scene of a suicide attack in the northern Syrian town of Manbij.

?Detail, coordination demonstrated



A key concern for some officials and analysts are the levels of detail and coordination demonstrated in the Manbij attack.



"There were several photos, videos and detailed discussions identifying the coalition aircraft posted on social media immediately after the attack," said Jade Parker, a former counterterrorism analyst in support of U.S. military activities.



"This may present an enduring challenge for the coalition in countering the insurgents because Islamic State intelligence capabilities, in particular, prolong the group's ability to target individuals perceived as threats to the survival of their terrorist organization," she added.



The IS newsletter, Naba, itself detailed how the group's fighters or informants have been watching U.S. forces at their bases around Manbij, noting how and when they move, and how they interact with members of the coalition-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.



And the IS suicide bomber struck just as the U.S. patrol approached a restaurant known to have been frequented by the American forces.

A woman embraces a Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) f FILE - A woman embraces a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighter after she was evacuated with others by the SDF from an Islamic State-controlled neighborhood of Manbij, in Aleppo governorate, Syria, Aug. 12, 2016. FILE - A woman embraces a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighter after she was evacuated with others by the SDF from an Islamic State-controlled neighborhood of Manbij, in Aleppo governorate, Syria, Aug. 12, 2016.

Just as troubling to former officials is that all this took place in an area that was liberated from IS more than two years ago.



"Manbij should have been a showcase of how stability comes back and ISIS can be contained and defeated, and it's not," former U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford said during a conference call on U.S. Syria policy.



"These ethnic tensions that I've talked about, the economic grievances ... will always give ISIS a recruiting base," he said.

Sleeper cells



The most recent U.S. estimates have put the overall number of IS fighters in Syria at 13,000 to 14,500, many of them outside areas controlled by U.S.-backed forces. U.S. military officials have also said many IS fighters have been content to lie low, hiding in remote areas or as part of sleeper cells, waiting until the opportune moment to activate and strike.



The attack Wednesday in Manbij appears to have been one of those moments.



Defense officials Friday identified three of the Americans killed in the attack as Army Green Beret Chief Warrant Officer Jonathan Farmer, 37; Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician Shannon Kent, 35; and Defense Intelligence Agency operations support specialist Scott Wirtz, 42.



A fourth American, civilian contractor Ghadir Taher, also was killed, her company, Valiant Integrated Services, confirmed.



Taher's family told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the 27-year-old had emigrated to the U.S. from Syria as a child and was working there as an interpreter.



"As Wednesday's attack demonstrates, ISIS remains a threat," acting chief Pentagon spokesman Charles Summers Jr. said Friday. "We will continue to hit the remnants of ISIS hard to destroy any residual networks and ensure its enduring defeat."

FILE - A convoy of US military vehicles is seen in FILE - A convoy of U.S. military vehicles is seen in Syria's northern city of Manbij, Dec. 30, 2018. FILE - A convoy of U.S. military vehicles is seen in Syria's northern city of Manbij, Dec. 30, 2018.

?Equipment withdrawal



The Pentagon has already begun pulling some equipment from Syria as part of a withdrawal announced by U.S. President Donald Trump last month.



But Summers insisted that despite the mandate to get the 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria back home, there was no timetable for their return.



"The withdrawal is based on operational conditions on the ground, including conversations with our allies and partners," he said, adding that the number of troops in Syria "will fluctuate during this process."



But critics of the Trump administration have complained that any withdrawal will be more complicated given the president's announcement that U.S. forces will be returning home.



"His recent choices, unfortunately, are already giving the Islamic State  and other American adversaries  new life," Brett McGurk, former U.S. envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat IS, wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Post Friday.

"The Islamic State and other extremist groups will fill the void opened by our departure, regenerating their capacity to threaten our friends in Europe  as they did throughout 2016  and ultimately our own homeland," he added.Demonstrators in Greece are planning a massive rally Sunday to protest a deal that would normalize Greek relations with Macedonia.

Greeks have been divided over the deal, in which Macedonia will change its name to the Republic of North Macedonia and Greece will drop its objections to the Balkan country's joining NATO and the European Union.

The U.S. State Department said in a tweet Friday that Sundays demonstration in Athens is expected to draw 150,000 or more participants.

Greek identity

Greek protesters say Macedonias new name represents an attempt to appropriate Greek identity and cultural heritage. Macedonia is the name of Greeces northern province made famous by Alexander the Greats conquests.

Opposition to the deal is particularly strong in the Greek province of Macedonia, where many people have put up posters urging local lawmakers to vote against the agreement.

A nationwide poll in Greece this week found that 70 percent of respondents oppose the deal.

The agreement has caused Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to lose his four-year coalition in parliament after his nationalist allies defected to protest the deal. Following the upheaval, Tsipras narrowly won a confidence vote in parliament Wednesday.

Tsipras has called for a televised debate on the planned name deal with Macedonia before parliament votes on the agreement.

The Greek prime minister and his Macedonian counterpart, Zoran Zaev, brokered the compromise in June to end a 27-year name dispute between the two neighbors.

Supporters of the movement boycotting the deal wit Supporters of the movement boycotting the deal with neighboring Greece to change the country's name to the Republic of North Macedonia protest in front of the parliament building during debates on the name change, in Skopje, Macedonia, Jan. 11, 2019. Supporters of the movement boycotting the deal with neighboring Greece to change the country's name to the Republic of North Macedonia protest in front of the parliament building during debates on the name change, in Skopje, Macedonia, Jan. 11, 2019.

?Macedonia approves

Last week, Macedonias parliament approved a constitutional revision to change the countrys name. The agreement has also caused protests in Macedonia, with critics there saying the government gave up too much in the deal.

Tsipras has argued the Macedonia deal will bolster stability in Europes Balkan region. European Union countries have also strongly backed the deal.U.S. President Donald Trump expressed appreciation to Special Counsel Robert Mueller Saturday for disputing the accuracy of a news report that said he directed his attorney to lie to Congress.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump's recognition of Mueller came as a surprise to some, as Trump has frequently dismissed the Mueller-led Special Counsel investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election as "a witch hunt."

"I appreciate the Special Counsel coming out with a statement last night," Trump said. "I think it was very appropriate that [he] did so. I very much appreciate that."

Trump's remarks came two days after BuzzFeed News cited two anonymous federal law enforcement officials in its report as saying that Trump ordered his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress about efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

Special counsel spokesman Peter Carr said Friday, "BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the special counsel's office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's congressional testimony, are not accurate."



The comments are a rare statement by the special counsel office disputing a news report.

Shortly after Mueller's office spoke out, Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed, said in a statement that he stood by their reporting and urged "the Special Counsel to make clear what he's disputing."

The BuzzFeed report prompted two House Democratic committee heads to say they will investigate the matter.

FILE - Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff, D-California.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Friday the allegation is "among the most serious to date." He added, "We will do what's necessary to find out'' if the report is true.

Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Jerrold Nadler said directing a subordinate to lie to Congress would be a federal crime and said his committee's job "is to get to the bottom of it."

Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas posted on Twitter that if the BuzzFeed story is true, Trump "must resign or be impeached."

FILE - Michael Cohen arrives at his home in New Yo Michael Cohen arrives at his home in New York with his left arm in a sling supported by a pillow, Jan. 18, 2019.

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said in a statement Friday that "any suggestion -- from any source -- that the President counseled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false.'' White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the story is ridiculous.



BuzzFeed reported that Cohen told special counsel Mueller that the president told him to lie to Congress about Trump's dealings with Russia.

The news site said its anonymous sources are also "involved in an investigation of the matter."



BuzzFeed said investigators learned about Trump's effort to get Cohen to lie to Congress "through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents."

Trump tweeted Friday that Cohen is "Lying to reduce his jail time!''

Cohen pleaded guilty in to lying to Congress about the Trump Tower project in Moscow. He has been sentenced to three years in prison for crimes that include paying hush money to women who alleged they had affairs with Trump.



Cohen is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight and Reform Committee in February, when he will likely be questioned about the report.



Special counsel Mueller and his team of prosecutors have been investigating Trump campaign links to Russia as well as looking into whether Trump, as president, obstructed justice by trying to thwart the probe.

Trump has repeatedly denied collusion with Russia and has called Mueller's investigation a "witch hunt." Russia also has rejected U.S. intelligence findings that Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election in an effort to give Trump's campaign a boost.Following a deadly suicide truck bombing on a police academy near Bogota, the president of Colombia has called on Cuba to arrest 10 commanders of the Colombian ELN rebel group who are in Havana.

Ivan Duque said late Friday he is asking Cuba to capture the terrorists who are inside its territory and hand them over to Colombian police. He said no ideology could justify the cruelty of Thursdays attack.

Its clear to all of Colombia that the ELN has no true desire for peace, Duque said Friday in a televised address.

Colombia's President Ivan Duque gives a statement Colombia's President Ivan Duque gives a statement inside the General Santander police academy after a bomb exploded on the campus in Bogota, Jan. 17, 2019. At right is Defense Minister Guillermo Botero and at left is Vice President Martha Lucia Ramirez. Colombia's President Ivan Duque gives a statement inside the General Santander police academy after a bomb exploded on the campus in Bogota, Jan. 17, 2019. At right is Defense Minister Guillermo Botero and at left is Vice President Martha Lucia Ramirez.

?Cuba responds

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, said in a statement, that Cuba will act with strict respect for the Protocols of Dialogue and Peace signed by the Government and the ELN, including the Protocol In Case of a Rupture in Negotiations.

The ELN commanders have been in Cuba following stalled peace talks there with Colombia.

Colombian authorities say Jose Aldemar Rojas, a one-armed ELN explosives expert, carried out the attack that killed 21 people and wounded dozens more. Officials say Rojas died in the attack.

This was an operation that has been planned for the past 10 months, said Defense Minister Guillermo Botero.

Largest rebel group

The ELN has not claimed responsibility for the attack.

The rebel group, however, has increased attacks on police since peace talks in Cuba stalled when the rebels refused to heed the governments demand to free all hostages.

ELN is now the countrys largest armed rebel group since FARC disbanded and turned into a political party as part of a peace deal with the government.

Despite a long history of guerrilla violence in Colombia, major terrorist bombings in the country have been rare.SAN LUIS, ARIZ. - U.S. authorities said Friday that 376 Central Americans had been arrested in southwest Arizona, the vast majority of them families who dug short, shallow holes under a barrier to cross the border.

The group members dug under a steel barrier in seven spots about 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of a border crossing in San Luis and made no effort to elude immigration agents. There were 176 children in the group.

Nearly all of those in the unusually large group were from Guatemala. They were taken to Yuma after entering the country Monday.

The area became a major corridor for illegal crossings in the mid-2000s, prompting the federal government to weld steel plates to a barrier made of steel bollards that had been designed to stop people in vehicles, not on foot, Border Patrol spokesman Jose Garibay III said. In those spots, there is no concrete footing to prevent digging.

The group used multiple holes in an apparent effort to get everyone across the border quickly, Garibay said.

FILE - This Jan. 14, 2019, photo released by U.S. This Jan. 14, 2019, photo released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows some of the 376 Central Americans the Border Patrol says it arrested, the vast majority of them families who had dug holes to cross into the United States, about 10 miles east of San Luis, Ariz. This Jan. 14, 2019, photo released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows some of the 376 Central Americans the Border Patrol says it arrested, the vast majority of them families who had dug holes to cross into the United States, about 10 miles east of San Luis, Ariz.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection released photos and video of a long line of migrants standing patiently on a desert road's dirt shoulder after they were stopped.

On Wednesday, the Border Patrol arrested 247 people, mostly from Central America, who turned themselves in to agents in a highly remote part of New Mexico, where authorities have found 25 groups of more than 100 people since October. A group of 115 was found in the same area Thursday.

Large numbers of Guatemalan families and unaccompanied children are surrendering to immigration agents in Antelope Wells, N.M., where 7-year-old Jakelin Caal and her father were found Dec. 6 with 161 others.

Caal started vomiting on the bus ride to the nearest Border Patrol station 94 miles (150 kilometers) away and had stopped breathing by the time she arrived. She died at a hospital in El Paso, Texas.

The southwest Arizona desert is less remote but arrests have also sharply increased after years of relative quiet. The Border Patrol's Yuma sector made 7,857 arrests in October and November, more than double the same period a year earlier.

Despite a surge in asylum-seeking families from Central America in recent months, border arrests remain low by historical standards.

The Border Patrol made 396,579 arrests on the Mexican border in fiscal 2018, up 30 percent from a 46-year low during the same period a year earlier but still well below a high of more than 1.6 million in 2000.[Editors Note: U.S. Department of Defense Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Southeast Asia Joseph H. Felter visited Cambodia this week to discuss the restoration of military cooperation with Cambodia. Bilateral defense ties have undergone drastic setbacks over the past few years amid Cambodias growing closer security ties with China and political tensions surrounding Cambodias general elections last year. The senior Pentagon official sat down in Phnom Penh on Wednesday with VOA Khmer to discuss defense ties with Cambodia and the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy aimed at dealing with Chinas growing influence in the region.]

VOA: Can you tell us about this trip of yours to Cambodia?

Felter: That was special because this is my first trip to Cambodia in this capacity as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia. It was also the first time we had a senior-level defense talk in quite some time in Cambodia  defense dialogue which took place on Tuesday hosted by Gen. Neang Phat [Ministry of Defense secretary of state].

VOA: Who did you meet on the Cambodian side and what issues did you discuss?

Felter: On Tuesday I met with Gen. Neang Phat. He was hosting with his senior members from his staff from the Ministry of Defense and the Cambodian military. Just today, we visited Ream Naval Base and met with Vice Admiral Ouk Seiha, commander of the base, and his staff.

VOA: Can you tell us what issues you raised with Cambodian officials?

Felter: Gen. Neang Phat is the secretary of state of the Ministry of National Defense. As part of the Defense Policy Dialogue, we discussed a range of issues like regional and international security, multilateral and bilateral cooperation. What I thought to be the most important part of our discussion on Tuesday with the Defense Policy Dialogue was mapping out a way forward to improve and enhance military-to-military cooperation between the United States and Cambodia to identify a way we can improve our defense ties and military cooperation.

VOA: We have seen many joint activities have been canceled due to the political situation in Cambodia. Have you brought this into discussions with Cambodian officials to find ways to restart them?

Felter: Yes, we have restarted on some levels. Encouragingly, Cambodia agreed to restart our POW/MIA [Prisoner of War/Missing in Action] cooperation and we find this very encouraging. Later this month we will have a joint on-field activity where we actually go out and do recovery operations of two missing pilots that we are searching for. So we find this very encouraging. Following this, we will be able to enhance our existing state partnership program. This is the partnership program with the Eisenhower National Guard that we will be sending many subject experts here to help the Cambodian military develop their peace-keeping skills. We know that Cambodia will participate in peace-keeping operations and missions around the world so we look forward to that. And there is a way forward beyond that. We will identify a number of activities that we can do to build on this military-to-military cooperation and enhance defense relationship. But to go down that path, we were clear in our discussion on Tuesday with Gen. Neang Phat that a number of things will have to happen on the Cambodian side that has to take initiative in areas of promoting national reconciliation, opening space for civil society and media. Some specific areas down that path include improving bilateral and multilateral exercises, restarting joint combined exchange training which we did in the past, the naval exercise CARAT (Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training). Angkor Sentinel is another example.

VOA: Your call for release the of Kem Sokha, the opposition leader, is met with a negative response from Cambodian officials. What do you think about that?

Felter: That was one of the areas that we discussed in detail as part of promoting national reconciliation. I dont want to go into too much detail. Yes, we are concerned. The charges against him were directly related to conspiring with the US. And theyre just false and I think that would be a nice gesture on Cambodias part to drop those charges and I think that would be one example of an area that would help us move down that path that I just described towards improving our military relationship and increasing military-to-military cooperation.

VOA: If the charge is not dropped, will it affect military cooperation in the future?

Felter: Yes. It does send a strong signal by Cambodia that they appreciate our concern. That is one example. There are many other areas that we hope Cambodia will make progress on. That was one particular area that we would appreciate progress on, and that would facilitate us restarting our mutual military relationship.

VOA: Given the tension between Phnom Penh and Washington in the past few years, do you think it is difficult for the U.S. to improve defense ties with Cambodia?

Felter: I think we have a shared vision with Cambodia for the Free and Open Indo-Pacific region. I think our vision is shared by Cambodia. We want Cambodia to be a strong, independent, and sovereign country. And we stand by them. Anyway, they might invite us to do so, to help them to maintain their sovereignty and build the capacity of the military. In the case that we were discussing, we would help them to protect their sovereignty. So this is encouraging. We have a shared vision in the future with Cambodia, and we are prepared to work with them to achieve that vision.

VOA: But Prime Minister Hun Sens government officials said already that the United States had interfered in Cambodian politics and sovereignty?

Felter: We respect Cambodias sovereignty. We respect them as a sovereign country that they make sovereign decisions, and we hope that continues. We hope no other nation can interfere in Cambodias sovereignty and influence them in terms of decisions.

VOA: Why is the U.S. so concerned about the potential accommodation of any Chinese military base in Cambodia?

Felter: I think it was from our Vice President [Mike Pences] letter that was sent to the Prime Minister [Hun Sen] expressing concerns should there be a foreign military presence or base in Cambodia. And the impact it would have on regional security and our relationship with Cambodia. Courageously, the Prime Minister responded strongly affirming his support for the Cambodian constitution that has prohibited a foreign military presence or base in the country. We find that encouraging. But [what] we do find concerning is [that] we look at the precedent across the region. So we are concerned that this may be the path that China may be leading Cambodia down so they may say hey this is just going to be a joint base or this is just going to be a rotational presence or this is just going to be a facility for ships and commercial aircraft. We are concerned, based on the precedent across the region, that Cambodia might fall into the same trap other countries have been to and find themselves with a Chinese military presence or [China would] have access to ports and airfields so they can use them to project military power. We find that very concerning.

VOA: What are the current challenges to U.S.-Cambodian defense ties?

Felter: Well, encouragingly, we have a shared interest in building a military relationship and strengthening our bilateral ties. We have a long history of military cooperation. We visited Ream Naval Base today where we had a long history of cooperation of support for the Cambodian navy, for example. We were able to tour some of the facilities that the United States provided to Cambodia: the boathouse, hospitals, and classrooms for English-language training. But some of the challenges, I think we can get down that path if Cambodia can take some initiative to take some actions. Again, as I mentioned before, in the area of promoting society, promoting national reconciliation and creating space for civil society and media. I think we can strike down that path. I think it is in there. I think it is in our mutual interest to move down that path and build our military relationship. So we look forward to making progress.

VOA: What do you see as the U.S. role in the security order here in this region?

Felter: We have the National Defense Strategy now that has a view into the Indo-Pacific region that is the region of the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean with the ASEAN countries, Cambodia included, being central to that Indo-Pacific. Thats ASEAN Centrality. But the US, in its National Defense Strategy, one of its main components is to strengthen the alliance, build partnerships, and help countries across the region build the capacity of their militaries so they can defend their own sovereignty. Our strategy is to help countries defend their own sovereignty. We want to work with partners and allies to help them defend their own sovereignty and make sure that no one country can dominate the region, no one country can undermine all countries -- large or small -- and no one country can undermine the sovereignty of any countries in the region.

VOA: With an ongoing Chinese militarization of the artificial islands China occupies in the South China Sea, where the U.S. and its allies continue to exercise their Freedom of Navigation operations, do you expect any clashes there in the future?

Felter: We are certainly not looking for any type of confrontation. Like many other countries, the U.S. is looking for and wants a constructive relationship with China. We will cooperate where our interests overlap. But we are going to compete where our interests diverge. Our interests do diverge in the South China Sea. China, as we all know, is militarizing claims in the South China Sea. It is making claims that have no basis in international law, trying to enforce claims that are just not legal. So the U.S. will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international laws allow. And importantly, you may recall an incident where China came very close to a collision at sea a couple of months ago with the USS Decatur. That concerned us. That was reckless behavior. Our response is that we are going to continue our Freedom of Navigation operation.

VOA: Some people say the United States is not a claimant state in the South China Sea and should not have a role to play in this maritime dispute. What do you think about that?

Felter: All states benefit from keeping this region free and open. The United States is in a position to exercise those rights in international law. And as to all countries, we encourage them to exercise the same rights. It is part of our Indo-Pacific Strategy. We are going to continue to exercise those rights in international law and encourage those states to do the same.

VOA: In a recent survey of some one thousand Southeast Asian academics, observers, and stakeholders, by Singapores ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, some 61% of the respondents viewed the Indo-Pacific as an unclear concept. What is your take on that?

Felter: It is a new concept, it is a result of our national defense strategies that came out with the current administration. So we need to clarify. We have done a number of things to help clarify that. But it is actually very simple. It is not very hard to grasp. Our Indo-Pacific Strategy is the strategy that tries to ensure that we remain free and open and that all countries laws are protected by international law and that no one country is going to dominate this region. You look at all the Indo-Pacific Strategy, it is reflecting the strategies of Japan, Indonesia, and a number of other states that also have a vision for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific where all states are protected by international law.

VOA: Given some uncertainties in Washington surrounding the partial shutdown of the federal government and recent leadership transition in the Pentagon with the exit of Former Secretary James Mattis, do you think these issues will pose difficulties for the implementation of the Indo-Pacific Strategy?

Felter: No. Our interest is enduring in the Indo-Pacific region. Individuals and governments will come and go. I worked closely with Secretary [Jim] Mattis and he brought me into the Pentagon so I miss him. But with the current Acting Defense Secretary [Patrick] Shanahan, who studied under Secretary Mattis for a year and a half, there is going to be no change. Again, American interests are enduring. Our interest in this case is to keep the region free and open by working with our partners to do so.

Note: This interview was edited for length and clarity.Vanguard

Nigerias latest micro-credit schemes, TraderMoni and MarketMoni, are among the initiatives to incrementally lift Nigerians out of poverty, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, has explained.

Thisday

The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) yesterday alleged that the Presidency and some top APC Chieftains are plotting to arrest the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, on Tuesday and replace with Justice Tanko Mohammed.

The Sun

The Lagos State Police Command has warned hoodlums in the state against electoral violence, saying that anyone arrested would be made to face the wrath of the law.

Guardian

As part of his electioneering campaign, former Vice President and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar has pledged his support for the creative industry if elected president of Nigeria.

Leadership

Kaduna State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Deputy campaign Coordinator, Comrade Danjuma Bello Sarki has condemned in very strong terms the destruction of Abubakar Atiku and Isah Ashirus billboards ahead of President Buharis visit to Kaduna yesterday.

Daily Trust

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has de-listed all candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the upcoming general elections in Rivers State, barring them from contesting.

The Nation

Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, will today play host to the wife of president, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, Vice Presidents wife, Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo, and wives of All Progressives Party (APC) governors across the country for the South West Women and Youth Presidential campaign rally.

Tribune

GOVERNOR Samuel Ortom of Benue State has asked the people of the state and Nigerians in general to forgive him for supporting the election of President Muhammad Buhari in 2015.Click here to log in and see all of our other subscription options for the Mesabi Tribune, including online only & auto-renewal subscriptions.The coastal city of Danang has been mentioned as a possible venue for the second Trump-Kim summit AFP/HOANG DINH Nam

One of North Korea's top generals Kim Yong Chol is expected to meet with Trump at the White House on Friday to hash out details of a second meeting with Kim, including a potential venue.

The second round of talks follow a historic summit in Singapore last year and are aimed at denuclearisation and ending decades of enmity between the two nations.

READ: Highlights: Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un's historic summit Vietnam has cropped up in the swirl of rumours and conjecture over a possible site for the meeting, with the capital Hanoi or the coastal city of Danang seemingly the most likely bases for the summit.

On Thursday Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said he would be open to hosting it.

"We don't know the final decision. However, if it happens here we will do our best to facilitate the meeting," he said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

"Vietnam has cooperated well with the US in developing economic and trade relations, as well as in other areas."

A Vietnamese government source who wished to remain anonymous told AFP "logistical preparations" were under for a Trump-Kim summit although "no official decision" had been made.

"There is lots of work to be done, not only for Danang but some other locations for the event. The Vietnamese side is ready to host ... but it is not up to us to decide."

Like several other Southeast Asian countries, Vietnam maintains diplomatic ties with both communist-run Pyongyang and Washington and is keen to host major global events as it tries to project a more confident global profile.

Communist Vietnam hosted a major Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in the central city of Danang last year attended by global leaders, including Trump.

Hanoi welcomed North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho in November for a visit reportedly aimed at sharing lessons from its economic success story.

The foreign ministry told AFP that Vietnam "supports constructive efforts to solve disputes through peaceful dialogue ... on the Korean peninsula in particular," in a statement earlier this month.

Trump has said he is eager to meet with Kim again after their historic summit in June, the first ever meeting between two sitting leaders from two countries that never formally ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

The leaders agreed on a vaguely-worded statement in which Kim pledged to work towards "the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula".

But progress has since stalled with the two sides disagreeing over what that means.

Kim is hoping for an easing of international sanctions but the United States insists on maintaining maximum pressure until Pyongyang moves forward on giving up its nuclear weapons.Twenty Thai firms specialising in refrigeration, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, electric components, and electronics take part in a business matching event in HCM City on Jan 18.  Photo Thu Hang

The event was organised by the Thai Ministry of Commerces department of international trade promotion as part of a roadshow to introduce two Bangkok fairs to attract more visitors from Asean member countries.

The 2019 Bangkok Refrigeration, Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioner Fair (Bangkok RHVAC 2019) and Bangkok Electric & Electronics Fair (Bangkok E&E) will take place from September 25 to 28 in the Thai capital.

This year 400 companies will exhibit their products in 1,000 booths and more than 14,000 visitors from around world are expected, Wittayakorn Maneenetr, deputy director general of the department, said.

They would provide one-stop solutions providing chances for operators through the supply chain industry, he said.

Vietnamese enterprises should join the fairs to explore business opportunities from prominent traders and key industry players from around the world, he said.

Thailand exports electrical and electronics products mainly to Southeast Asia, and Viet Nam mainly imports air conditioners from it, he added.

Thailand ranks second in the world in air conditioner production and fourth in refrigerator production.Foreign ministers of the Southeast Asian bloc do the ASEAN handshake at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Retreat in Thailand.

ASEAN member countries should closely co-ordinate and support each other to promote creativity, assist start-ups and develop high-quality human resources amidst the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the diplomat said while addressing the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Retreat that concluded in Thailand on January 18.

Given the complex developments of the East Sea (internationally known as the South China Sea) situation and increasing militarisation in the area, Minh urged ASEAN to maintain its solidarity and common voice. Doing so would contribute to regional peace, stability and security on the basis of principles covering self-restraint, zero militarisation and full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), towards an effective and efficient Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in line with international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS).

During the two-day retreat, ministers reviewed the building of the ASEAN Community and discussed the realisation of the outcomes from the 33rd ASEAN Summit that took place last November, according to a press statement issued following the event.

More than 80 per cent of ASEANs action lines had been implemented while the 10-member groups combined economy grew at over 5 per cent during 2018.

ASEAN was looking at various measures, including an initiative to build networks of smart cities and cybersecurity, in order to adapt to the intensive and extensive impacts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The ministers also reached a consensus on ASEANs 2019 theme of Advancing Partnership for Sustainability, and agreed to carry out a range of initiatives in different areas.

Member countries will step up efforts to ensure peace and security, and effectively cope with non-traditional security challenges.

At the same time, ASEAN will increase communications work, people-to-people exchanges and social welfare, while consolidating its capacity for combatting natural disasters.

ASEAN stands ready to enhance comprehensive co-operation with its partners; carry forward its central role; and build an open, transparent, and inclusive regional architecture based on international laws.

The ministers said ASEAN needed to regularly discuss the East Sea issue, and noted their concerns over reclamation work and other activities that had eroded trust, increased tensions and harmed regional peace and security.

They agreed to push ahead with negotiations of the COC in an effective and efficient manner, including the completion of the first reading of the Single Draft COC Negotiating Text in 2019.

They also agreed to continue assisting Myanmar in stabilising the life of locals in Rakhine state, and welcomed positive developments on the Korean Peninsula.

ASEAN groups together 10 member nations of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (right) has talks with former US State Secretary John Kerry in Hanoi on January 18. - VNA/VNS Photo Thong Nhat

The PM also promised to direct agencies to consider Kerrys proposal for a Vietnamese partner to form a joint-venture that will build a wind power mill in the country, adding that the Vietnamese Government always considered renewable energy a priority.

He said he hoped Kerry and partners would make further contributions to Vietnam-US ties.

Kerry said the delegation included those who previously urged the US to lift embargos on Vietnam and promote partnership between the two countries.

As Vietnam was facing the impact of climate change in the Mekong Delta and a shortage of power for development, he said he knew of banks and international organisations that are interested in investing in clean power in the country. Therefore, he wished to receive support from the Vietnamese Government, ministries, agencies and localities in the regard.

He expressed his belief that on the back of the past experience in similar projects in other countries, the project in Vietnam would be a success.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (right) shakes hands with the first US ambassador to Vietnam Pete Peterson in Hanoi on January 18. - VNA/VNS Photo Thong Nhat

On the same day, PM Phuc also had talks with Pete Peterson, the first US ambassador to Vietnam in 1997. Peterson expressed his delight over the thriving ties between the two countries, especially after the USs removal of trade embargos on Vietnam. He said it was a great honour for him to serve as the first US Ambassador to Vietnam.

There are several American investors showing interest in the operation of the Hanoi-Hai Phong expressway, he said, adding that he had made efforts to seek corporations who have strong financial capacity and considerable experience to invest in the project.

PM Phuc spoke highly of Petersons thorough understanding about Vietnam, asking him to send documents to authorities to discuss his initiatives further.

He ordered the Ministry of Transport to coordinate with relevant agencies to study and propose detailed plans.Oxford University says it will "not pursue new funding opportunities" with Chinese telecoms group Huawei AFP/WANG ZHAO

Huawei has been under fire in recent months with the arrests of a top executive in Canada and an employee in Poland, along with a worldwide campaign by Washington to blacklist its equipment.

And in the latest blow for Huawei, Oxford University said it had decided it would "not pursue new funding opportunities" for both research contracts or philanthropic donations from Huawei and related group companies - though existing projects would continue.

"We currently have two such ongoing projects, with a combined funding from Huawei of 692,000 (US$898,000)," a university spokesman said Thursday, adding that Huawei had been informed of the decision to turn away future funding.

Oxford said it had made the decision in "light of public concerns raised in recent months surrounding UK partnerships with Huawei."

But a Huawei spokesman said the company had not been informed and would "await the University's full explanation".

"We have operated in the UK since 2001, employ 1,500 people here and have long standing research collaborations with 20 other UK universities working to develop the technologies of the future," he said.

Huawei faces unprecedented challenges to its business amid a global campaign by Washington to push nations to reconsider using the telecom giant's equipment in their cellular networks over security concerns.

Australia and New Zealand banned its gear last year and a top British operator moved to remove its existing equipment, while concerns grow in Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and other countries.

Huawei's reclusive founder Ren Zhengfei stepped out of the shadows this week to give a rare media interview, forcefully denying accusations that his firm engaged in espionage on behalf of the Chinese government.

The company fired the Chinese employee in Poland who was arrested on espionage allegations.

Ren's daughter and Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou was detained in Canada last month on US fraud charges related to Iran sanctions violations.Romania's Simona Halep, who is returning from a herniated disc, has limped through her first two matches at Melbourne Park. (Photo: AFP/Jewel SAMAD)

Halep, who is returning from a herniated disc, has limped through her first two matches at Melbourne Park, taken to three sets in both, and knows she will need to up her game to make the last 16.

"Tough one, but for sure I'm not going to run that much," she said of facing the elder Williams sister, who is still going strong 21 years after playing for the first time at Melbourne Park.

"Because it's going to finish fast, the points. She's a great player, champion. It's always a big challenge for me to face the sisters," she added ahead of the night match on Margaret Court Arena.

Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus is unseeded, but remains a threat. She made the final in 2017 when she lost to Serena.

Her sister is gathering pace as she targets a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title and should have little trouble against unseeded Ukrainian teenager Dayana Yastremska in an afternoon match on Rod Laver Arena.

"The key is just going out there and playing really well, just doing the best that you can," said Serena as she zeroes in on a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam singles title.

"I'm not always confident. I just do the work, I go out there and I play the best I can. I work hard and see what happens. That's it."

The sisters will meet in the last 16 if they come through their third-round match-ups.

Fourteen-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic is gunning for a seventh Melbourne Park title and faces 25th-seeded Canadian Denis Shapovalov, one of the NextGen stars who are out to topple the sport's big guns.

"He's very pumped. He brings a lot of energy to the court, which is great to see," said Djokovic said of the 19-year-old.

"I expect a really interesting encounter. He will not have anything really to lose, so I'm sure he's going to come out really pumped."

Whoever wins will play either 21st seed David Goffin or 15th seed Daniil Medvedev for a berth in the quarter-finals.

Others in action Saturday include men's fourth seed Alexander Zverev against young Australian Alex Bolt and US Open champion Naomi Osaka, who plays an all-Asian clash with Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei.Ghosn received 8 million euro in 'improper' payments: Nissan, photo AFP

Nissan said Ghosn entered into a personal employment contract with Nissan-Mitsubishi B.V. (NMBV), a company formed "with the mission of exploring and promoting synergies within the Nissan-Mitsubishi Motors partnership".

"Under that contract, he received a total of 7,822,206.12 euros (including tax) in compensation and other payments of NMBV funds," Nissan said, citing an ongoing investigation into alleged wrongdoing by Ghosn.

The firm said the contract was signed without consultation with current Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa or Mitsubishi Motors CEO Osamu Masuko.

"Nissan views the payments Ghosn received from NMBV to be the result of misconduct and will consider measures to recover from Ghosn the full sum," the firm said in a statement.

Since his out-of-the-blue arrest on Nov 19, Ghosn has been kept in a Tokyo detention centre and has made only one public appearance in court when he passionately rejected the accusations against him.

Ghosn faces three formal charges.

First, he is accused of under-declaring his income by five billion yen (US$46 million) between 2010 and 2015 in official documents to shareholders, apparently to fend off criticism he was overpaid.

Second, he stands accused of continuing this practice for three more years, understating his pay by a further four billion yen.

A third, more complex, charge relates to allegations he sought to transfer personal investment losses to the firm and paid a Saudi intermediary from company funds to stump up collateral for him.

"GLOBAL DONATION ADVISORY COUNCIL"

The 64-year-old auto tycoon rejects all the charges, arguing in court that he has been "wrongly accused and unfairly detained based on meritless and unsubstantiated accusations."

He has appealed several times to be released on bail and filed another appeal earlier Friday.

So far, the appeals have all been rejected, with the court reasoning that he is a flight risk and could tamper with evidence.

His lawyers have vowed to lodge an appeal with the Supreme Court against his continued detention, but even his lead attorney has told reporters it is unlikely he will taste freedom before a trial - and that could take six months at least.

Meanwhile, the allegations continue to stack up against Ghosn - once revered as a corporate genius who saved Nissan from the verge of bankruptcy.

He is said to have had luxury houses in Beirut and Rio de Janeiro paid for by the company - plus costly renovations for the first property.

It is also alleged one of his sisters received US$755,000 for work carried out between 2003 and 2016 as part of a "Global Donation Advisory Council" - a body which has never existed according to sources close to Nissan.

Nissan is thought to be looking into other payments such as donations to universities in Lebanon or a subscription to a yacht club in Brazil for US$63,000.

Ghosn has been unable to defend himself against these new allegations and they do not form part of the formal charges against him.

But the Japanese firm is ramping up its probe into its former leader and more revelations are likely as it continues.

Nissan has also been slapped with formal charges over the affair as they submitted the documents to shareholders that allegedly under-declared the executive's income.

Carlos Ghosn NissanBosch will roll out smart solutions of every scale and level to facilitate Vietnam in building out smart cities

Bosch technologies bring connectivity not only to apartments and houses but also to entire cities. Smart cities improve city-dwellers' quality of life, as well as the economic efficiency of cities themselves. For this reason, Bosch wants to make cities more intelligent. The focus of these efforts will be on mobility, infrastructure, energy, and security.

Whether it is a case of connecting various modes of transportation  such as trains, buses, and car sharing  or managing traffic signals and lighting in cities, the aim is to offer city-dwellers better quality of life and thus more convenience and security, while also conserving resources.

As the smart city trend is picking up momentum in Vietnam, Bosch has announced an initial investment of $450,000 as part of its global smart city development plan to set up a new laboratory at the Bosch Software and Engineering R&D centre in Ho Chi Minh City.

The company employs 1,700 associates at two R&D facilities in Ho Chi Minh City, namely the Bosch Automotive R&D centre and the Software and Engineering R&D centre. The number is projected to grow by more than 15 per cent year-on-year, reaching 2,600 associates by 2020.

For several years now, we have been steadily expanding our software and engineering expertise and capacity in the area of connectivity in order to offer more user-centric solutions for Vietnam, said Mallikarjuna Guru, managing director of Bosch Vietnam. Moving forward, we strive to make Ho Chi Minh City one of the key IoT solutions hubs for Bosch in Southeast Asia through our Bosch Software and Engineering R&D centre.

According to Guru, around 30 associates are currently working at the new facility to develop and test various solutions such as Energy Monitoring Systems, Intelligent Traffic Management, Intelligent Parking Management, and various Connected Industry solutions.

Take, for example, the Intelligent Parking Management solution which helps smart cities and connected vehicles find free parking space. Soon all it will take is the touch of a button for cars to make their own way into the garage. Once inside, vehicles will enter and leave parking spaces automatically. All drivers will have to do is tap on the relevant app.

In Vietnam, Bosch has successfully implemented a new urban mobility solution called Integrated eScooter System, the integrated system solution with in-hub motor, where smartphone, eScooter display, battery, and charger are perfectly aligned. This Integrated eScooter System can connect to the Cloud Server for monitoring, tracking, and controlling. Meanwhile, its human-machine interface can provide users with useful information about the status of the system and the vehicle, such as temperature, speed, and battery capacity.

BIMA (Bosch Intelligent Microgrid Asian) provides hardware and software for a customised microgrid solution, which integrates multiple energy sources (e.g. solar, battery, diesel generator, and grid) to provide cost-effective and reliable power. The unique selling points are blackout prediction based on machine learning algorithms for efficient diesel generator operation, dynamic identification of load flexibility and cloud-based energy management.

For connected buildings, the Bosch Security Escort is a wireless help-call system to locate and position people or property throughout the systems range.

The initatives underscore Boschs long-term commitment to the Vietnamese market as well as its endeavour to help the country build the smart cities of the future. Bosch stated that the firm will commercialise more smart products and roll them out to meet the rising smart city trend in Vietnam.A popular twitter user, Michael Asiwaju, who is the owner of Asiwaju Royal Furniture in Ojo area of Lagos, has taken his own life, after being accused of rape on social media, recently.

The young businessman was said to have dropped a suicide note on his twitter handle yesterday before finally taking his life. It was reported that people made jest of him after dropping the note and even went as far as asking for his iphone charger on social media.

The news of his death today have got Nigerians reacting on social media.

What they are saying:

So Asiwaju finally commit suicide. When he said "Good Bye, i'll die soon" some people were making fun of him and some one even requested for his iphone charger. He did this to prove his innocence. #Asiwaju  Idowu (@maloms) January 19, 2019

Seeing this Twitter ng and Asiwaju trending,it makes me sad how he was dragged on this app,making him to commit suicide according to punch newspaper. Epl is back, i hope to see today matches take over the twitter ng trends  Uche Kennedy  (@uchekennedy_) January 19, 2019

https://twitter.com/mrdreamstyle_ng/status/1086534452833120257

https://twitter.com/dave_gizmo/status/1086597180209750016President of the Australian Senate Scott Ryan. - VNA/VNS Photo

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1973, Vietnam and Australia have built strong and substantive relations on the basis of mutual respect and interest.

The Vietnam-Australia Comprehensive Partnership, announced in 2009 and enhanced in 2015, underlines the concerted efforts of the governments and people of the two countries to advance bilateral relations.

The two countries elevated their bilateral relationship to the level of a Strategic Partnership in 2018 on the occasion of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucs official visit to Australia

The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) will provide free transit service to any furloughed federal employee effective today, and until the federal government resumes all operations.

We understand that many furloughed federal employees may be struggling financially during the ongoing government shutdown and transportation costs should not be an additional burden, said Tina Quigley, RTC general manager. To help ease the hardship, furloughed government employees can use the transit system at no cost.

Furloughed employees must show their federal employee ID to the driver when boarding the bus.

In celebration of Chinese New Year, from Jan. 28  Feb. 24, Hakkasan Las Vegas, located at MGM Grand Hotel, will reinvent the classic fortune cookie and offer both an a la carte and prix fixe specialty menu, as well as a curated cocktail (Pictured: Hakkasan Chinese Crispy Chicken Sticky Rice).

The fortunes will be written on a ribbon and placed around the Hakkasan macarons, to create the fortune macaron. The fortune macarons will be available as part of the Chinese New Year set menu and also a la carte.

The specialty menu features a variety of small eats, main dishes and desserts. Small eats include peking duck with crispy bean curd and mango, a dim sum duo with seafood sesame jian dui and shacha chicken puff, and a superior soup with Chilean seabass and bamboo pith. Main dishes include wok-fry lobster with spinach and lily bulb, rhug estate lamb with shitake, stir-fry pak choi with cryngii and pioppini, and crispy suckling pig with sticky rice. For dessert, guests will indulge in the wealth pot, featuring dark chocolate, mandarin and crispy hazelnut, or the fortune macarons. A la carte menu items are priced starting at $18. The prix fixe menu is available for $128 per person for a minimum of two guests.

In addition to the specialty menu, the luxury restaurant will also offer the ping jing cocktail during the near month-long celebration. The cocktail includes Haku vodka, Campari, vanilla liqueur, chamomile tea, blood orange, lemon and yuzu soda and is priced at $16.

Hakkasan Restaurant will also celebrate the Year of the Pig with the wishing tree tradition inspired by the Lam Tseun trees in Hong Kong. Hakkasan will be inviting guests to write their wishes for the year ahead on specially designed ribbons which will then be hung on the wooden cages in the restaurant.

In addition to the menu, Hakkasan will also host a traditional lion dance to celebrate Chinese New Year Day on Tuesday, Feb. 5 at 8 p.m.Pope Francis on Saturday meets with members of an Ecumenical Delegation from the Lutheran Church in Finland.

Speaking to the Finnish ecumenical delegation gathered, the Pope told them that ecumenism is a journey and a shared commitment to ecumenism is an essential requirement of the faith we profess; it stems from our very identity as Christs followers.

Irreversible journey

As we make this journey, Pope Francis continued our unity grows and he reiterated that this common path that is tread is an irreversible one. This is not an optional way, he said.

When we pray in common, when we join in proclaiming the Gospel and serving the poor and the needy, the Pontiff observed, we are walking together on the path leading to the goal of visible unity.

The Pope pointed out that the the theological and ecclesiological issues that still keep us apart can only be resolved in the course of the journey along this common path, without forcing matters and without being able to foresee when and how it will take place. He also underlined that the Holy Spirit was there as a guide on this journey.

Promoting encounter

In the meantime, Pope Francis said, we are called to do what we can to promote encounter and to resolve in charity the misunderstandings, conflicts and prejudices that have tainted our relations for centuries."

The Pope also mentioned that, the journey towards theological consensus has been aided by the recent Declaration of the Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue Commission for Finland on the Church, Eucharist and Ministry Communion and Growth. The dialogue, he stressed, needs to continue and to build on this beginning.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

This year, Pope Francis noted, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity focuses on the biblical verse, Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue (cf. Deut 16:18-20).

He said, the verb is in the plural, and it reminds us that we cannot work for justice apart from one another. In a world so deeply torn by conflict, hatred, forms of nationalism and division, our common prayer and commitment to greater justice cannot be deferred.

In conclusion, the Pope said he was confident a shared witness of prayer and faith would prove fruitful and that the delegations visit would strengthen the good cooperation already existing between Lutherans, Orthodox and Catholics in Finland.The federal government has said that it would interrogate the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),Atiku Abubakar, over his alleged contribution to the collapse of former Bank PHB.

This was made known by Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, while speaking with state house correspondents on Friday. According to Mr Mohammed, there is evidence that the former vice President, was a beneficiary of slush funds that led to the collapse of the bank.

However, reacting to the report from faraway America, is Senator Ben Murray Bruce.

Bruce, who accompanied the presidential candidate to the States, alongside the Senate president, Bukola Saraki, described the move as pathetic and disappointing.

Speaking via Twitter, he wrote that the bank in question has been defunct for many years  And the federal government immediately realised Atikus role after proving them wrong by visiting America.

According to Bruce, while speaking via Twitter on Saturday morning, said he thought the federal governments fight back to Atikus visit to the U.S, would be epic.

Bank PHB has been defunct for a decade, but it is the day after Atiku proved them wrong by coming to America that they suddenly remember that he has a case to answer? This is such a disappointment. I thought their fight back would be something smart. But this? This is pathetic!PRECISION 1 told us that in biopsy naive men, 28% of men can avoid biopsy after negative mpMRI. For those with PI-RADS 3-5 lesions, MRI-targeted biopsies detected 12% more Gleason 3+4 prostate cancer than TRUS systematic biopsy, as well 13% fewer insignificant cancers. Furthermore, MRI-targeted biopsies required only 4 cores per patient.

told us that in biopsy naive men, 28% of men can avoid biopsy after negative mpMRI. For those with PI-RADS 3-5 lesions, MRI-targeted biopsies detected 12% more Gleason 3+4 prostate cancer than TRUS systematic biopsy, as well 13% fewer insignificant cancers. Furthermore, MRI-targeted biopsies required only 4 cores per patient. MRI-FIRST 2 told us that in biopsy naive men, 18-21% of men can avoid biopsy after a negative mpMRI, missing 11% of clinically significant prostate cancer. Patients with Likert 3-5 lesions undergoing TRUS + MRI-targeted biopsies had no difference in detection of Gleason 3+4 prostate cancer (+2%) compared to those undergoing TRUS systematic biopsy; there were 14% fewer insignificant prostate cancers detected among patients undergoing TRUS + MRI-targeted biopsies.

told us that in biopsy naive men, 18-21% of men can avoid biopsy after a negative mpMRI, missing 11% of clinically significant prostate cancer. Patients with Likert 3-5 lesions undergoing TRUS + MRI-targeted biopsies had no difference in detection of Gleason 3+4 prostate cancer (+2%) compared to those undergoing TRUS systematic biopsy; there were 14% fewer insignificant prostate cancers detected among patients undergoing TRUS + MRI-targeted biopsies. 4M3 told to use that in biopsy naive men, 49% can avoid biopsy after a negative mpMRI, missing 3-4% of clinically significant prostate cancer. Patients with PI-RADS 3-5 lesions undergoing TRUS + MRI-in bore targeted biopsies had more Gleason 3+4 prostate cancer detected (+12%) and 11% few insignificant cancers detected compared to those undergoing only TRUS systematic biopsy.

PI-RADS 3 in screening and low-risk patients a PSA and MRI surveillance

PI-RADS 3 in screening and high-risk patients a Targeted + systematic biopsy

PI-RADS 3 and indication for biopsy a Targeted + systematic biopsy

PI-RADS 3 in the index lesions, forego targeting and do systematic biopsy a old fashioned, but possible

The prevalence of PI-RADS 3 index lesions varies between one in three (32%) to one in five (22%) men, depending on the patient cohort of first biopsies or previously negative biopsies

The prevalence of clinically significant prostate cancer in PI-RADS 3 lesions varies between patient groups from one in five (21%) to one in six (16%) depending on previous biopsy status

PI-RADS 3 indicated uncertainty and is an indicator of quality. The Total PI-RADS 3 rate should be <15%

Management strategies should be developed for these men

Addition to improvements in MR imaging: clinical parameters, such as PSA density

Prague, Czech Republic (UroToday.com) With the widespread utilization of prostate multiparametric MRI (mpMRI), there is debate regarding the subsequent steps in management for patients with PI-RADs 3 prostate lesions. To assess this diagnostic conundrum, Dr. Radtke, a urologist from Heidelberg, Germany, and Dr. Barentsz, a radiologist from Radboud University Medical Center provided a joint lecture at the ESOU 2019 annual meeting.As has been widely discussed at this meeting, we now have three level 1a prospective clinical trials assessing the role of prostate mpMRI prior to prostate biopsyDrs. Radtke and Barentsz subsequently presented meta-analysis data assessing the relative sensitivity of MRI targeted biopsies compared to TRUS systematic biopsy for identifying Gleason 3+4 prostate cancer noting that in biopsy naive patients MRI targeted biopsies outperformed TRUS biopsy (RR 1.15), as well as in prior negative biopsy men (RR 1.28). Second, assessing the relative sensitivity of MRI targeted biopsies compared to TRUS systematic biopsy for identifying Gleason 3+3 prostate cancer, they note that in biopsy naive patients MRI targeted biopsies detected less clinically significant prostate cancer (RR 0.60), as well as in prior negative biopsy men (RR 0.54) compared to TRUS biopsy patients.PI-RADS 3 lesions are equivocal for clinically significant prostate cancer. The prevalence of PI-RADS 3 index lesions in the diagnostic work-up is significant, varying between one in three (32%) to one in five (22%) men. This varies depending on a patient cohort of first biopsies, previously negative biopsies, and active surveillance biopsies. Interestingly, the PI-RADS 3 detection rate has decreased over time from 40-50% in the early years of reading mpMRI to ~15-25% in recent years. But, as Drs. Radtke and Barentsz note, not all radiologists can read mpMRIs well. In a study published by Greer et al., specialists (>2000 MRIs read) had less PI-RADS 3 diagnoses than non-specialists (300-500 MRIs read). Further analysis of the PRECISION datanotes that the PI-RADS 3 rate was 5% among central reads (experts) and 21% among total reads (non-experts). This correlates with an increased rate of PI-RADS 1-2 among experts (52%) compared to non-experts (28%). In summary, experts are more willing (and likely more confident) to categorize possible PI-RADS 3 lesions as PI-RADS 1-2 lesions than non-experts. One way to increase the appropriate categorization of PI-RADS 3 lesions is to add clinical parameters such as PSA density, which changes the positive predictive value by ~22%. As Dr. Barentsz notes an indicator of an expert radiologist reading mpMRIs is a ~5% PI-RADS 3 rate.Drs. Radtke and Barentsz summarize their counseling of patients with PI-RADS 3 lesions as follows:Drs. Radtke and Barentsz provided several conclusions and take-home messages to this overview of the management of PI-RADS 3 lesions:Presented by: Jan P. Radtke, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany; Jelle O. Barentsz, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The NetherlandsWritten by: Zachary Klaassen, MD, MSc  Assistant Professor of Urology, Georgia Cancer Center, Augusta University/Medical College of Georgia, Twitter: @zklaassen_md, at the 16th Meeting of the European Section of Oncological Urology, #ESOU19, January 18-20, 2019, Prague, Czech Republic References:1. Kasivisvanathan V, Rannikko AS, Borghi M, et al. MRI-targeted or standard biopsy for prostate cancer diagnosis. N Engl J Med 2018;378(19):1767-1777. 2. Rouviere O, Renard-Penna R, Claudon M, et al. Use of prostate systematic and targeted biopsy on the basis of multiparametric MRI in biopsy-naive patients (MRI-FIRST): A prospective, multicentre, paired diagnostic study. Lancet Oncol 2019 Jan;20(1):100-109.3. 3. van der Leest M, Cornel E, Israel B, et al. Head-to-head comparison of transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate versus multiparametric prostate resonance imaging with subsequent magnetic resonance-guided biopsy in biopsy-naive men with elevated prostate-specific antigen: A Large Prospective multicenter study. Eur Urol. 2018 Nov 23 [Epub ahead of print].4. Schoots IG. MRI in early prostate cancer detection: how to manage indeterminate or equivocal PI-RADS 3 lesions? Transl Androl Urol 2018 Feb;7(1):70-82.5. Greer MD, Brown AM, Shih JH. Accuracy and agreement of PIRDSv2 for prostate cancer mpMRI: A multireader study. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2017 Feb;45(2):579-585.6. Hansen NL, Kesch C, Barrett T, et al. Multicentre evaluation of targeted and systematic biopsies using magnetic resonance and ultrasound image-fusion guided transperineal prostate biopsy in patients with a previous negative biopsy. BJU Int 2017 Nov;120(5):631-638.The addition of standard biopsy cores to MRI-targeted biopsy yields an additional 7% of men with clinically significant cancer and a small increase in detection of insignificant cancer (2%)

Standard biopsy in MRI negative men over-detected 15% of men with insignificant prostate cancer

Prague, Czech Republic (UroToday.com) The much-anticipated debate regarding whether all patients with an elevated PSA should have an mpMRI prior to biopsy started with Dr. Caroline Moore from London giving the Pro standpoint advocating for pre-biopsy mpMRI. Dr. Moore started by asking the question: what are the important considerations in a diagnostic strategy? First, is the ability to detect clinically significant disease; second, to rule out clinically significant disease; and third, an assessment of cost both to the individual and to society.How does a standard biopsy compare to the MRI-targeted biopsy in the biopsy naive population? This question was answered by last years publication of the PRECISION study, which found that MRI +/- targeted biopsy (vs 10-12 core TRUS biopsy) detected more clinically significant prostate cancer (Gleason 3+4; 38% vs 26%), less clinically insignificant cancer (9% vs 22%), and used few biopsies in fewer men (median 4 cores in MRI +/- targeted biopsy arm vs 12 cores in TRUS biopsy arm).Since PRECISION, the MRI-FIRST study has also been published in Lancet Oncology. This was a 16 center French study and was a paired diagnostic study - eligible patients were referred for mpMRI before a first prostate biopsy, with a planned interval of fewer than 3 months between MRI and biopsies. An operator masked to multiparametric MRI results did a systematic TRUS biopsy by obtaining 12 systematic cores and up to two cores targeting hypoechoic lesions. In the same patient, another operator targeted up to two lesions seen on MRI with a Likert score of 3 or higher (three cores per lesion) using targeted biopsy based on multiparametric MRI findings. Patients with negative multiparametric MRI (Likert score 2) had systematic biopsy only. In the standard biopsy group, 20% of patients had Gleason grade group 1 disease and 30% had Gleason grade group 2. In the MRI targeted approach, 6% had Gleason grade group 1 and 32% had Gleason grade group 2 prostate cancer. For this study, the authors concluded that there was no difference between systematic biopsy and targeted biopsy in the detection of Gleason grade group 2 or higher prostate cancer; however, detection was improved by combining both techniques and both techniques showed substantial added value.Dr. Moore also notes a second important study following PRECISION was the 4M study. This study included 626 men from four centers in the Netherlands, of which all men had an MRI and standard biopsy, and those with a PIRADs 3-5 lesion (n=317) had an in-bore targeted biopsy. In the standard biopsy group, 23% had clinically significant prostate cancer and 25% had Gleason grade group 1 disease. In the MRI-targeted biopsy cohort (3 cores per patient), 25% had clinically significant prostate cancer and only 14% had Gleason grade group 1 disease. Based on these results, 49% of men could have avoided biopsy after a negative MRI. Additional conclusions from this study include:Dr. Moore subsequently summarized these three studies with the following table:Dr. Moore then highlighted a recent paper assessing cost-effectiveness from an analysis of the PROMIS cohort of patients. Based on this analysis, the use of mpMRI first (before biopsy) and then up to two MRI-targeted TRUS biopsies detects more clinically significant prostate cancers per pound spent than a strategy using TRUS biopsy first (sensitivity 0.95, 95%CI 0.92-0.98 vs 0.91, 95%CI 0.86-0.94). This also proved to be cost-effective with an ICER of 7,076 (8350/QALY gained).Dr. Moore concluded with several take-home points. MRI before biopsy:1. Is clinically effective, as it increased the detection of clinically significant disease and reduced diagnosis of clinically insignificant disease2. Reduces pathology workload3. Reduces patient impact4. Is cost effective at the population level in a publically funded servicePresented by: Caroline Moore, MD, Senior Clinical Researcher at University College London and an Honorary Consultant Urological Surgeon at University College Hospital London, United KingdomWritten by:Zachary Klaassen, MD, MSc  Assistant Professor of Urology, Georgia Cancer Center, Augusta University/Medical College of Georgia, Twitter: @zklaassen_md, at the 16th Meeting of the European Section of Oncological Urology, #ESOU19, January 18-20, 2019 Prague, Czech Republic References:1. Kasivisvanathan V, Rannikko AS, Borghi M, et al. MRI-targeted or standard biopsy for prostate cancer diagnosis. N Engl J Med 2018;378(19):1767-1777. 2. Rouviere O, Renard-Penna R, Claudon M, et al. Use of prostate systematic and targeted biopsy on the basis of multiparametric MRI in biopsy-naive patients (MRI-FIRST): A prospective, multicentre, paired diagnostic study. Lancet Oncol 2019 Jan;20(1):100-109. 3. van der Leest M, Cornel E, Israel B, et al. Head-to-head comparison of transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate versus multiparametric prostate resonance imaging with subsequent magnetic resonance-guided biopsy in biopsy-naive men with elevated prostate-specific antigen: A Large Prospective multicenter study. Eur Urol. 2018 Nov 23 [Epub ahead of print].4. Faria R, Soares MO, Spackman E, et al. Optimising the Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer in the Era of Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Based on the Prostate MR Imaging Study (PROMIS). Eur Urol. 2018 Jan;73(1):23-30.



Further Related Content:Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has made the reason he chose not participate in the presidential debate that was organised today by Nigeria Elections Debate Group (NEDG) and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) despite being in the venue today.

He was reported to have made it to the venue of the debate but opted not to participate simply because Buhari did not make it to the venue of the debate.

Atiku who is the Presidential flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic party (PDP), made this known in a series of tweet he released via his twitter handle.

What he said:

Afterall, you cannot shave a man's head in his absence. I do not believe in attacking a man who is NOT here to defend himself.  Atiku Abubakar (@atiku) January 19, 2019

I however challenge President Buhari to choose a date and time for a debate where he will be present and I will be there, hopefully with the other candidates as well. Thank you and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Atiku Abubakar  Atiku Abubakar (@atiku) January 19, 2019Bosniak I: no contrast enhancement

Bosniak II: no contrast enhancement or discrete contrast enhancement of the septa

Bosniak IIF: discrete contrast enhancement of the walls or septa

Bosniak III: multiple contrast-enhancing septa

Bosniak IV: multiple contrast-enhancing septa and irregular contrast enhancing soft tissue components

There are key differences to the contrast-enhanced ultrasound Bosniak classification of cystic masses compared to the CT classification

Often used for second opinions or to follow-up renal cysts

This imaging modality using color Doppler sonography provides additional dynamic information

For the patient, there is no radiation and the contrast media used is less nephrotoxic

Prague, Czech Republic (UroToday.com) Dr. Johannes Rubenthaler from Munich presented the case for using contrast-enhanced ultrasound for assessing cystic renal masses. Dr. Rubenthaler notes that contrast agents for CT imaging are iodine-based contrast media, with relative contraindications of GFR <30 ml/min and hyperthyroidism. For an MRI, paramagnetic contrast media has relative contraindications of GFR <30 ml/min, nephrogenic systemic fibrosis, and fear of cerebral deposition. Alternatively, contrast-enhanced ultrasound contrast agents do not rely on renal or thyroid function and have a high safety profile. The composition of these agents include a (i) shell  comprised of palmitic acid, albumin, interface-active substances, and lipids; (ii) core  comprised of air and perfluorocarbon gas. Visualization during contrast-enhanced ultrasound requires a high mechanical index setting.Dr. Rubenthaler notes that there are three phases to assess the vascularization of renal cysts:1. Arterial phase: 10-15 seconds2. Portal phase: 30 seconds  2 minutes3. Delayed phase: 2-5 minutesThere are also nuances to the Bosniak classification of renal cysts that have been applied to findings on contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging:Dr. Rubenthaler concluded with several take-home points regarding contrast-enhanced ultrasound:Presented by: Johannes Rubenthaler, MD, Department of Radiology, Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Munich, GermanyWritten by: Zachary Klaassen, MD, MSc  Assistant Professor of Urology, Georgia Cancer Center, Augusta University/Medical College of Georgia, Twitter: @zklaassen_md, at the 16th Meeting of the European Section of Oncological Urology, #ESOU19, January 18-20, 2019, Prague, Czech Republic



Further Related Content:Healthy bladder: umbrella cells (flat and large on the surface)

Inflammatory bladder: small monomorphic cells with distinct borders with loose, infiltrative cells in the lamina propria

Low-grade cancer: monomorphic, cohesive cells with distinct borders and papillary/well-organized architecture (increased thickness)

High-grade cancer: pleomorphic, not cohesive cells with indistinct borders; tortuous vessels in a fibrovascular stalk

CIS: flat, disorganized architecture; pleomorphic, not cohesive cells with indistinct borders

Cellvizio is an interesting, innovative technology in the diagnosis of bladder tumors

The interpretation of images on the screen in the OR is challenging and requires time and operator experience

The differential diagnosis between inflammation and dysplasia/CIS is difficult

No pathologist is required in the OR

The diagnosis of dysplasia and CIS is difficult but can be obtained in about 75% of cases

Prague, Czech Republic (UroToday.com) Dr. Maurizio Brausi is a pioneer in the field of confocal laser endomicroscopy, he presented this technology and its role in the diagnosis of CIS and dysplasia for bladder cancer.Confocal laser endomicroscopy is an optical biopsy of the bladder urothelium in that it is an en-face view, in vivo, a microscopic and minimally invasive procedure with instantaneous imaging. Cellvizio is a unique optical biopsy system that is probe-based and used during endoscopic procedures in the gastrointestinal, pulmonary and urinary tracts.The probe is compatible with existing endoscopes and allows real-time visualization of the tissue at the cellular level. This technology, as noted by Dr. Brausi, makes it possible to access difficult locations in the body such as the bile duct, ureters or even pancreatic cysts. As such, for urologists, it is available for cystoscopy and ureteroscopy.Advantages of Cellvizio in the field of urology are several:1. Allows accurate and instantaneous characterization of the bladder and upper tract suspicious areas/lesions, such as CIS or dysplasia2. Assesses the quality of transurethral resections of the bladder through real-time characterization of lateral and deep margins3. Provides a map and characterization of lesions during long-term surveillance of bladder cancer patientsThe steps to the confocal laser endomicroscopy procedure include (i) a full cystoscopy, (ii) identification of the area of interest, (iii) instillation of fluorescein into the bladder, and subsequently (iv) confocal laser endomicroscopy of the area of interest.Dr. Brausi notes that utilization and comfort with this technology, particularly interpreting images at the cellular level, takes some practice. As follows are several notes from his experience:Dr. Brausi presented his phase I-II initial case series in 2014 at the EAU, enrolling 9 patients and concluded that the technique was feasible and easy to perform with no side effects observed during or after the procedure. He noted that interpretation was difficult during the first 3-4 cases, but improved thereafter.More recently, Dr. Brausi presented newer data assessing detection of CIS and dysplasia with confocal laser endomicroscopy among 32 patients, using bladder biopsy as a pathologic control. He noted that the concordance between imaging and pathology for CIS/dysplasia was 74%.To conclude, Dr. Brausi noted several remarks:Presenter byMaurizio Brausi, Professor and Chairman of Urology Department of Urology Ausl Modena, Carpi-Modena, ItalyWritten by: Zachary Klaassen, MD, MSc  Assistant Professor of Urology, Georgia Cancer Center, Augusta University/Medical College of Georgia, Twitter: @zklaassen_md, at the 16th Meeting of the European Section of Oncological Urology, #ESOU19, January 18-20, 2019, Prague, Czech Republic References:1. Brausi M, Gavioli M, De Luca G, et al. Abstract 633: Optical biopsy with confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE): A new technology for diagnosis of bladder cancer. Preliminary results of a phase II pilot study. Eur Urol Supple 2014;13(1): Abstract 633The plane of dissection

The prograde dissection

Intermittent bursts of plasma kinetic energy

Sharp and blunt dissection

Innovative handling of the loop  used to lift and push the tumor

Prague, Czech Republic (UroToday.com) Dr. Bernard Malavaud from France made the case for en-bloc TUR for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Dr. Malavaud notes that the goal of staging is to setup the stage for a play at the theater  for example, the T stage for a cancer lesion. There are several visual parameters according to Dr. Malavaud that can assist a urologist in predicting the aggressiveness of a bladder tumor on endoscopy:1. Size: <0.5 cm vs >3 cm2. Pedicle: thin stalk vs stout vs sessile3. Fronds: solid vs coalescent vs thin4. Cytology: negative vs high-gradeThis is important as a good endoscopy carries a wealth of information regarding T-stage.There are several important points for achieving an en bloc resection of a bladder tumor as noted by Dr. Malavaud:One of the benefits of an en bloc resection is that the structure of the specimen is retained. This allows for confident analysis of the tumors deep extension and margins and makes it easier for the pathologist to assess the depth of tumor growth. Furthermore, this also allows confirmation of muscle presence and in cases of T1 high-grade tumors, depth of lamina propria invasion. Dr. Malavaud also highlights that an en bloc resection is amenable to aggressive, deep resections in small T2 tumors that may subsequently be offered conservative management.Dr. Malavaud says that it is often difficult for pathologists to accurately assess bladder cancer T-stage. As noted in a classic paper from the 1990s, among 90 specimens assessed by 11 histopathologists, there was poor (kappa statistic 0.41) agreement of disease stage. Indeed, a pathologists confidence in the specimen is related to the quality of the resection (ie. en bloc), the presence of detrusor muscle, lack of cautery artifact, and ease of analysis.Dr. Malvaud concluded with the following take-home message slide advocating for en bloc resection of NMIBC tumors:Presented by: Bernard Malavaud, MD, Ph.D., FEBU, professor of Urology, Toulouse Medical SchoolWritten by: Zachary Klaassen, MD, MSc  Assistant Professor of Urology, Georgia Cancer Center, Augusta University/Medical College of Georgia, Twitter: @zklaassen_md, at the 16th Meeting of the European Section of Oncological Urology, #ESOU19, January 18-20, 2019, Prague, Czech Republic



References:

1. Robertson AJ, Beck JS, Burnett RA, et al. Observer variability in histopathological reporting of transitional cell carcinoma and epithelial dysplasia in bladders. J Clin Pathol 1990 Jan;43(1):17-21.VI-RADS 1: SC CE and DW category 1 (muscle invasion is highly unlikely)

VI-RADS 2: SC, CE, and DW category 2; both CE and DW category 2 with SC category 3 (muscle invasion is unlikely to be present)

VI-RADS 3: SC, CE, and DW category 3; SC category 3, CE or DW category 3, and the remaining sequence category 2 (the presence of muscle invasion is equivocal)

VI-RADS 4: At least SC and/or DW and CE category 4; the remaining category 3 or 4 SC category 3 plus DW and/or CE category 4; SC category 5 plus DW and/or CE category 4 (muscle invasion is likely)

VI-RADS 5: at least SC plus DW and/or CE category 5; the remaining category 4 or 5 (invasion of muscle and beyond the bladder is very likely)

Can be helpful in planning a re-TURBT

The scoring should be used to establish the risk of residual cancer after TURBT

Surveillance of NMIBC

Prague, Czech Republic (UroToday.com) Dr. Valeria Panebianco from Italy presented her collaborative groups development of the mpMRI VI-RADS for bladder cancer. This is a landmark initiative that was recently published in European Urology. As Dr. Panebianco notes, there are clinical questions and imaging answers when it comes to staging bladder cancer and that a multimodal approach reduces the risk of error from one particular test, but may present a dilemma when results conflict. As clinicians that treat prostate cancer, we are all familiar with the PI-RADS system for mpMRI of the prostate, however, there are other disease sites that also use a RADS format, including breast (BI-RADS) and liver (LI-RADS).Certainly, the prognosis and management of bladder cancer mostly reflect tumor stage, and the most critical step in bladder cancer staging is to differentiate muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) from non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Clinical staging, based on cystoscopy and TURBT, is associated with 23-50% diagnostic inaccuracy. According to Dr. Panebianco, mpMRI offers an opportunity to reduce staging errors by better anatomical visualization, with the added value of DWI and DCE.The rationale and aim of the VI-RADS scoring system were to define a standardized approach to imaging and reporting mpMRI for bladder cancer, defining the risk of muscle invasion. Furthermore, VI-RADS was created through a consensus using existing literature. The scoring is applicable to untreated patients and to treated patients having only received a diagnostic TURBT, but prior to re-TURBT. mpMRI is best performed before or at least 2 weeks after TURBT, bladder biopsy or intravesical treatment. Administration of an intramuscular antispasmodic agent is recommended, in addition to adequate bladder distention. MRI does not necessarily have the ability to visualize all of the histological bladder wall layers, however, it is able to assess size, location, multiplicity, and morphology. A 5-point VI-RADS score is generated using the individual T2W, DWI, and DCE MRI categories and suggests the probability of muscle invasion. The dominant sequences for risk estimates are DWI (first) and DCE (second, especially if DWI is sub-optimal). The T2 sequence (structural category) is helpful as a first pass guide.The VI-RADS 1.0 scoring is as follows:The score is firstly based on structural category (T2W) for the morphology (high spatial resolution), and the presence of definitive muscular invasion is decided by DWI and DCE. If there is any discordance between T2W and DCE sequences (a deviation of two categories between T2W and DCE MRI). DWI improves the accuracy when the image quality of DWI sequence is optimal.VI-RADS may have several potential roles:Dr. Panebianco summarized her talk with the following points:1. VI-RADS hopefully creates a foundation for mpMRI in bladder cancer staging in untreated patients2. VI-RADS can be a user-friendly method to simplify reporting and communication3. VI-RADS will be tested, validated and refined where necessary4. The next step is to create a foundation for mpMRI in bladder cancer staging in treated patients (ie. after pembrolizumab in the NMIBC state)Presented by: Valeria Panebianco, Department of Radiological, Oncological and Pathological Sciences, Sapienza University of RomeWritten by:Zachary Klaassen, MD, MSc  Assistant Professor of Urology, Georgia Cancer Center, Augusta University/Medical College of Georgia, Twitter: @zklaassen_md, at the 16th Meeting of the European Section of Oncological Urology, #ESOU19, January 18-20, 2019 Prague, Czech Republic References:1. Panebianco V, Narumi Y, Altun E, et al. Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Bladder Cancer: Development of VI-RADS (Vesical Imaging-Reporting and Data System). Eur Urol 2018 Sep;74(3):294-306.(@FahadShabbir)

UN refugee agency said it will reinforce its pre-screening procedures before any clothing is distributed to refugees

DAR ES SALAAMThe , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Jan, 2019 ) :UN refugee agency said it will reinforce its pre-screening procedures before any clothing is distributed to refugees.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement that the decision to reinforce the pre-screening of clothing distributed to refugees was aimed at preventing a repetition of last year's scenario where it allowed the distribution of clothing items to refugees that were deemed inappropriate.

In the last quarter of last year, the UNHCR distributed some 1.5 million pieces of clothing received from a private donor to refugees in Nduta and Mtendeli camps in western Tanzania and to members of the host community living nearby in Kibondo and Kakonko districts in Kigoma region.

During the first mass distribution, which took place in the presence of local authorities, the UNHCR and its partners identified a number of donated clothing items that were deemed inappropriate, including some 1,900 pieces of camouflage-styled clothing for men and boys.

Since this type of clothing were not permitted for civilian use under Tanzanian law, the statement said, the UNHCR immediately removed all the unsuitable pieces and stored them securely.

"On Dec. 31, 2018, these unsuitable clothes were handed over to local authorities upon their request," the statement said.

In January, Tanzanian authorities launched an investigation, following media reports that these items were seized in Nduta and Mtendeli camps prior to their distribution to refugees.

"While waiting for the findings of the investigation, the UNHCR stands ready to support the government in its efforts to clarify the way these clothing items have been handled," the statement said.

The UNHCR "continues to work closely with the Tanzanian government and other partner organizations in providing international protection and humanitarian assistance to refugees and asylum-seekers in the country," the statement added.

Tanzania hosts more than 300,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, mostly from Burundi and theDemocratic Republic of Congo.(@rukhshanmir)

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th January, 2019) Russian national A. Zhukov was extradited to the United States from Bulgaria, the Russian embassy in the United States said, noting that the consulate general staff would visit him in jail in the near future.

"On January 18, 2019, Russian national A. Zhukov was extradited from Bulgaria to the United States ... A. Zhukov is currently in a prison in Brooklyn, New York.

The staff of the Russian consulate general in New York will visit their compatriot in prison in the near future and provide all the necessary consular assistance to him," the embassy said in a statement.

The embassy noted that Zhukov had been charged with conspiring for the purposes of carrying out computer fraud.

In November, the US Department of Justice said it had indicted six citizens of Russia and two citizens of Kazakhstan for their involvement in an advertising fraud scheme. Aleksandr Zhukov was among those indicted in the case.(@rukhshanmir)

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th January, 2019) The Bulgarian security forces detained 43 people across the country during an operation against the financing of international terrorism, local media reported Friday, citing sources.

According to the BTA news agency, the operation is being carried out in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, as well as in the cities of Blagoevgrad, Razgrad, Haskovo, Plovdiv and Lovech.

The raid comes following reports on unregulated large money transfers made to and from Bulgaria using illegal payment system.

The news agency reported that 126 permits for searches of offices, houses, vehicles and people were issued by a court. About 32,000 Euros ($36,400), documents and other evidence were seized.

A mastermind of the criminal scheme, a Syrian national residing in Bulgaria, was detained in Sofia, the news agency said.Collision between two buses in Bolivia left 12 people dead and several injured, local media reported Saturday

BUENOS AIRES (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th January, 2019) Collision between two buses in Bolivia left 12 people dead and several injured , local media reported Saturday.

According to the ABI news agency, the incident took place on Saturday early morning in the Challapata municipality of the Oruro Department of the country.

There is still no official data on the exact number of those killed and injured, but the news agency reported that both buses have been almost completely ruined as a result of the crash.MAALOULA (Syria) (UrduPoint news / Sputnik - 19th January, 2019) Syrian President Bashar Assad believes that nowadays Russia is more powerful than the Soviet Union because of the greater strength of mind, Russian lawmaker Dmitry Sablin said on Friday after the meeting with Assad.

The Russian delegation is currently in Syria in order to sign a cooperation agreement between the cities of Sevastopol, located in Russia's Crimea, and Tartus. Sablin, who is a coordinator of the Russian State Duma's group on relations with the Syrian parliament, takes part in the visit.

"I would like to cite a conversation with the Syrian president.

He said that today Russia was much more powerful than the Soviet Union. I tried to debate saying that the [Russian] territory, economy and army were not so big [as in the Soviet Union]. Commenting on that, he said that the Russian had great strength of mind, greater than any other country," Sablin said, while visiting the Monastery of St. Takla in the town of Maaloula.

Russia is assisting Syria's struggle against terror groups as well as supporting the reconciliation process and providing civilians with humanitarian aid.(@FahadShabbir)

The UAE Embassy in Astana has distributed school supplies to students in Kazakhstan as part of the outstanding relations between the two countries

ASTANA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 18th Jan, 2019) The UAE Embassy in Astana has distributed school supplies to students in Kazakhstan as part of the outstanding relations between the two countries.

Dr. Mohammed Ahmed bin Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE Ambassador to Kazakhstan, said that the gesture is also in line with the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Humanitarian and Charity Establishment initiative to distribute school bags to students.

Dr. Al Jaber expressed his hope that this cooperation would continue in order to achieve the aspirations of both countries.

He also noted that the project is part of the 'Year of Tolerance' announced by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by senior officials in Astana.Richard Wolff: The Next Economic Crisis Is Coming

By Lee Camp

January 18, 2019 " Information Clearing House " - Every time I sit down with economist Richard Wolff, he demonstrates why the field of economics is so necessary in the cultural critique of our American empire. In my recent interview with him, we discussed why the thriving economy touted by President Donald Trump hasnt translated into real gains for the majority of Americans. We also went over what is hidden by the economic indicators that allow the financial industry to celebrate while so many Americans are still suffering.

Professor Wolff talked with me on my show Redacted Tonight: VIP on RT America. Enjoy this excerpt from the interview.

LEE CAMP: Professor Wolff  thanks for joining me! Last month was, apparently, the worst December for the stock market since the year 1980. Whats going on here?

RICHARD WOLFF: A lot of things are coming to a head. Each one of them by itself might have gone by without this, but theyre too many.

To list major ones: The tariff war with China, Europe and the rest creates enormous uncertainty. It makes all the predictions and plans of corporations and entire countries uncertain. People are holding back. Number one.

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Number two, the capitalist system that were all part of has a downturn on average every four to seven years. Its been more than seven years since the last crash  2008/9 so everybody knows its coming.

Its not a question of whether, weve never been able to overcome these kinds of instabilities in our system. So were overdue for one.

And heres another one that people dont talk about. The big tax cut last December, 2017, gave an awful lot of money to the richest Americans and to big corporations. They had no incentive to plow that into their businesses, because Americans cant buy any more than they already do. Theyre up to their necks in debt and all the rest.

So what they did was to take the money they saved from taxes and speculate in the stock market, driving up the shares and so forth. Naive people thought that was a sign of economic health. It wasnt. It was money bidding up the price of stock until the underlying economy was so far out of whack with the stock market that now everybody realizes that and theres a rush to get out and boom, the thing goes down.

Very serious. The question now is how badly the underlying economy  jobs, incomes, and debts  will be impacted negatively by all of this stock market downturn.

LC: You brought up predictions of an impending crash because its been seven or eight years, even JPMorgan Chase has told investors that the next crash, the crisis, they think will be in 2020. What does it mean when the largest financial firms in the world are saying, Oh yeah! Were just going to have another financial crisis around the corner?

RW: Its a wonderful sign. (Laughs) And by the way, JPMorgan Chase is not the only one. Goldman Sachs has done that, the International Monetary Fund, lots of the major players know its coming. The only disagree on exactly when which you can never know anyway. But heres what it means, it means that they have accepted, as if it were like rain falling from the sky, that this economic system we have crashes every few years. As if its kind of in the cards. Unchangeable. Unaffected by anything we might do.

Its kind of like giving up on the human desire not to be plunged into a crazy unemployment and cutback every few years that interrupts peoples lives, their educations, their savings for the future. I mean, we ought to have an economic situation, or at least a debate, about an economic system that works this way rather than simply accepting it in the manner of these predictions. As if theres nothing we can do.

LC: Absolutely. Donald Trump keeps telling us that unemployment is very low, so obviously he is a wonderful president. Is that true? Also I overheard on NPR that they had a panel or something about why wages arent going up considering how well the stock market has done over the past years, and how low unemployment is. The host just seemed baffled as to why wages have not gone up.

RW: Well again, there are a number of reasons why wages arent going up. What weve seen is a quote-unquote recovery that is very peculiar.

Two particular peculiarities: People who lost jobs  and those are in the millions in 2008, 2009, and 2010  have now gotten jobs, thats true, but the jobs theyve gotten have lower wages, have less security and fewer benefits than the ones they lost, which means they cant spend money like we might have hoped they would if they had got the kinds of jobs they lost, but they didnt. And the second thing is that large numbers, particularly of white men aged 30-60, have not gone back into the labor force.

They lost their jobs, its very hard for them to find new jobs. The jobs they find are so poor that theyre more likely to stay at home, or do something else. So as the economy comes back at least with some jobs, and as they run out of savings, these people are slowly coming back.

So theres no need for employers to raise wages to attract workers, they can just pull them slowly out of the desperate population of people who havent worked for years and have run out of savings. They cant turn to their friends and relatives anymore, so they come back and accept the jobs that they were once too proud to accept. Its a real downturn of the quality of life of America, which is why you dont see the wages going up and why you see the anger and the bitterness, because all of the promises of Obama before, and of Trump now, are not changing that basic situation.

LC: Yeah, the quality of life has definitely gone down. If these jobs are not good  as you say  and also the gains have gone to the 1%, and something like 50% of Americans cant afford a $1000 emergency, then why does it seem like everything just keeps trucking along? You know, you dont really see things collapsing. There arent strikes shutting down whole cities. Whats the motor that keeps things going?

RW: Well at this point I think it really depends on what indexes youre looking at. The biggest thing thats kept this economy going in the last few years should make everybody tremble. Its called debt, let me give you just a couple of examples. Ten years ago, at the height of the crash, the total debt carried by students in the United States was in the neighborhood of $700 billion, an enormous sum.

What is it today? Over twice that, one-and-a-half trillion dollars. The reason part of our economy hasnt collapsed is that students have taken up an enormous amount of debt that they cannot afford, in order to get degrees which will let them get jobs whose incomes will not allow them to pay back the debts. And forget about getting married, forget about having a family.

We have paid an enormous price in hobbling the generation of people who would have otherwise lifted this economy and made us more productive. It is a disastrous mistake historically, and if you face that, and if you add to it the increased debt of our businesses, and the increased debt of our government, you see an economy that is held up by a monstrous increase in debt, not in underlying productivity, not in more jobs that really produce anything, but in debt.

That should frighten us because it was the debt bubble that burst in 2008 and brought us the crash. It is as if we cannot learn in our system to do other than weve always done and thats taking us into another crash coming now.

LC: Yeah. This is the land of the free, but it seems like most of us are chained down by debt peonage.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January 18, 2019 " Information Clearing House " - With unseemly haste, US news media leapt on the killing of four American military personnel in Syria as a way to undermine President Donald Trumps plan to withdraw troops from that country.

The deadly attack in the northern city of Manbij, on the west bank of the Euphrates River, was reported to have been carried out by a suicide bomber. The Islamic State (ISIS) terror group reportedly claimed responsibility, but the group routinely makes such claims which often turn out to be false.

The American military personnel were said to be on a routine patrol of Manbij where US forces have been backing Kurdish militants in a purported campaign against ISIS and other terror groups.

An explosion at a restaurant resulted in two US troops and two Pentagon civilian officials being killed, along with more than a dozen other victims. Three other US military persons were among those injured.

US media highlighted the bombing as the biggest single death toll of American forces in Syria since they began operations in the country nearly four years ago.

The US and Kurdish militia have been in control of Manbij for over two years. It is one of the main sites from where American troops are to withdraw under Trumps exit plan, which he announced on December 19.

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Following the bombing, the New York Times headlined: ISIS Attack in Syria Kills 4 Americans, Raising Worries about Troop Withdrawal. The report goes on, the news prompted calls from Republicans and Democrats for President Trump to reconsider his plans to withdraw troops from the country.

A more pointed headline in The Washington was: Killing of 4 Americans in Syria Throws Spotlight on Trumps Policy.

The Post editorialized, the bombing showed that [ISIS] is likely to be a force to be reckoned with in Syria for the foreseeable future. It quoted politicians in Washington claiming the bombing deaths were a direct result of a foolish and abrupt departure announcement [by Trump], and made the case for staying.

Democrat Senator Jack Reed, who sits on the Senate Armed Forces Committee, said: From the beginning, I thought the president was wrong [in ordering the withdrawal]. It was a strategic mistake for the whole region.

With macabre smugness, anti-Trump politicians and news media appeared to exploit the death of US troops in Manbij to score points against Trump.

The presidents claims made just before Christmas of having defeated ISIS were widely replayed following the Manbij attack this week by way of ridiculing Trumps order to pullout US troops from Syria.

Nevertheless, despite the deaths, Trump and his Vice President Mike Pence stated they were still committed to bring the 2,000 or so US troops home. Some military figures also went on US media to defend Trumps pullout plan in spite of the terror attack in Manbij.

There clearly is a serious division in Washington over Trumps policy on Syria. For Democrats and supportive media outlets, anything Trump does is to be opposed. But there are also elements within the military and intelligence nexus which are implacably against, what they see as, his capitulation to Russia and Iran in Syria. That was partly why his Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned days after Trump made his announced withdrawal at the end of last month.

Having invested years and money in regime-change machinations in Syria, there is bound to be US military and intelligence cabals which are resistant to Trumps move to pack up. Not that Trumps move portends a peace dividend for the region. It is more a tactical change for how US imperialism operates in the Middle East, as his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in Cairo last week.

That is why Trumps order to take troops out of Syria may not be a clear-cut withdrawal. His National Security adviser John Bolton on a tour of the Middle East last week has already tried to undermine Trump by attaching all sorts of vague conditions to the troop pullout. Bolton and Pompeo have talked about the need to ensure the total defeat of ISIS and of the countering of Iranian presence in Syria.

This brings up the question of who may have carried out the bombing in Manbij? Was it really a suicide bomber? Was it really ISIS? Several observers have pointed out that ISIS have not had any presence in Manbij for the past two years since the Americans and Kurds took control of the city.

As always, the key question arises: who stands to benefit from the killing of the American troops? The scale of the attack suggests it was carried out with a sharp political message intended for Trump.

One potential beneficiary are the Kurdish militants who are being abandoned by the putative US withdrawal. Without their American sponsor on the ground, the Kurds are in danger of Turkish forces launching cross-border operations to wipe them out, as Ankara has vowed to do. A Machiavellian Kurdish calculation could be to disprove Trump about ISIS being defeated, and that US forces are needed to prevent any resurgence of the terror group in Manbij and northeast Syria.

Another sinister player is the CIA or some other element of US military intelligence. It is certainly not beyond the realm of plausibility that the CIA could facilitate such an atrocity against American personnel in order to discredit Trumps withdrawal plan.

Certainly, the way the anti-Trump media in the US reacted with such alacrity and concerted talking points suggests there was something a bit too convenient about the massacre.

It would in fact be naive to not suspect that the CIA could have pulled off such a false flag in Manbij. As in 1950s Vietnam, as told by Graham Greene in The Quiet American, the CIA have been doing such dirty tricks with bombing atrocities and assassinations for decades in order to precipitate wars in foreign countries that the agency calculates are in Americas geopolitical interests.

Finian Cunningham has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is a Masters graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent.

This article was originally published by " Strategic Culture Foundation "-

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Peace and joyNew details about the deadly head-on accident near Exit 7 emerged after Ryan Kittredge, 31, was formally charged in the deaths of John and Heidi Johnson of New Ipswich.HUDSON -- Question: The pages of a book are numbered consecutively from 1 to n. The book is divided into 12 chapters such that the number of digits used to number the pages of each chapter is the same. Compute the least possible value for n.For full access, please log in, register your subscription or subscribe.

Try for 99 a month for two months, cancel or pause anytime.The US has 95% of the worlds foreign military bases, with personnel in more than 160 countries. But the Pentagon is leaving hundreds of outposts out of its official reports.

Editors Note: Nick Turse reports in TomDispatch that the US Department of Defense is operating hundreds of off-the-books bases absent from the official rolls. The Pentagon lists in its official property portfolio 4,775 sites, including 514 overseas outposts in 45 foreign countries. But Turse points out that this excludes hundreds of known US military bases in numerous nations.

DoD also publicly acknowledges that it has personnel in more than 160 countries on all seven continents. And the annual cost of deploying these US military personnel abroad and operating these foreign bases approaches $150 billion per year, Turse reports.

The US has 95 percent of the worlds total number of foreign military bases. And scholar David Vine tells Turse the secrecy is mostly to prevent domestic debate about the money, danger, and death involved, as well as to avoid diplomatic tensions and international inquiries.

Ben Norton

Bases, Bases, Everywhere Except in the Pentagons Report

January 18, 2019 " Information Clearing House " - The U.S. military is finally withdrawing (or not) from its base at al-Tanf. You know, the place that the Syrian government long claimed was a training ground for Islamic State (ISIS) fighters; the land corridor just inside Syria, near both the Iraqi and Jordanian borders, that Russia has called a terrorist hotbed (while floating the idea of jointly administering it with the United States); the location of a camp where hundreds of U.S. Marines joined Special Operations forces last year; an outpost that U.S. officials claimed was the key not only to defeating ISIS, but also, according to General Joseph Votel, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, to countering the malign activities that Iran and their various proxies and surrogates would like to pursue. You know, that al-Tanf.

Within hours of President Trumps announcement of a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria, equipment at that base was already being inventoried for removal. And just like that, arguably the most important American garrison in Syria was (maybe) being struck from the Pentagons books  except, as it happens, al-Tanf was never actually on the Pentagons books. Opened in 2015 and, until recently, home to hundreds of U.S. troops, it was one of the many military bases that exist somewhere between light and shadow, an acknowledged foreign outpost that somehow never actually made it onto the Pentagons official inventory of bases.

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Officially, the Department of Defense (DoD) maintains 4,775 sites, spread across all 50 states, eight U.S. territories, and 45 foreign countries. A total of 514 of these outposts are located overseas, according to the Pentagons worldwide property portfolio. Just to start down a long list, these include bases on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, as well as in Peru and Portugal, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. But the most recent version of that portfolio, issued in early 2018 and known as the Base Structure Report (BSR), doesnt include any mention of al-Tanf. Or, for that matter, any other base in Syria. Or Iraq. Or Afghanistan. Or Niger. Or Tunisia. Or Cameroon. Or Somalia. Or any number of locales where such military outposts are known to exist and even, unlike in Syria, to be expanding.

According to David Vine, author of Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World, there could be hundreds of similar off-the-books bases around the world. The missing sites are a reflection of the lack of transparency involved in the system of what I still estimate to be around 800 U.S. bases outside the 50 states and Washington, D.C., that have been encircling the globe since World War II, says Vine, who is also a founding member of the recently established Overseas Base Realignment and Closure Coalition, a group of military analysts from across the ideological spectrum who advocate shrinking the U.S. militarys global footprint.

Such off-the-books bases are off the books for a reason. The Pentagon doesnt want to talk about them. I spoke to the press officer who is responsible for the Base Structure Report and she has nothing to add and no one available to discuss further at this time, Pentagon spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Baldanza told TomDispatch when asked about the Defense Departments many mystery bases.

Undocumented bases are immune to oversight by the public and often even Congress, Vine explains. Bases are a physical manifestation of U.S. foreign and military policy, so off-the-books bases mean the military and executive branch are deciding such policy without public debate, frequently spending hundreds of millions or billions of dollars and potentially getting the U.S. involved in wars and conflicts about which most of the country knows nothing.

Where Are They?

The Overseas Base Realignment and Closure Coalition notes that the United States possesses up to 95% of the worlds foreign military bases, while countries like France, Russia, and the United Kingdom have perhaps 10-20 foreign outposts each. China has just one.

The Department of Defense even boasts that its locations include 164 countries. Put another way, it has a military presence of some sort in approximately 84% of the nations on this planet  or at least the DoD briefly claimed this. After TomDispatch inquired about the number on a new webpage designed to tell the Pentagons story to the general public, it was quickly changed. We appreciate your diligence in getting to the bottom of this, said Lieutenant Colonel Baldanza. Thanks to your observations, we have updated defense.gov to say more than 160.

What the Pentagon still doesnt say is how it defines a location. The number 164 does roughly track with the Department of Defenses current manpower statistics, which show personnel deployments of varying sizes in 166 overseas locales  including some nations with token numbers of U.S. military personnel and others, like Iraq and Syria, where the size of the force was obviously far larger, even if unlisted at the time of the assessment. (The Pentagon recently claimed that there were 5,200 troops in Iraq and at least 2,000 troops in Syria although that number should now markedly shrink.) The Defense Departments overseas tally, however, also lists troops in U.S. territories like American Samoa, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Wake Island. Dozens of soldiers, according to the Pentagon, are also deployed to the country of Akrotiri (which is actually a village on the island of Santorini in Greece) and thousands more are based in unknown locations.

In the latest report, the number of those unknown troops exceeds 44,000.

The annual cost of deploying U.S. military personnel overseas, as well as maintaining and running those foreign bases, tops out at an estimated $150 billion annually, according to the Overseas Bases Realignment and Closure Coalition. The price tag for the outposts alone adds up to about one-third of that total. U.S. bases abroad cost upwards of $50 billion per year to build and maintain, which is money that could be used to address pressing needs at home in education, health care, housing, and infrastructure, Vine points out.

Perhaps you wont be surprised to learn that the Pentagon is also somewhat fuzzy about just where its troops are stationed. The new Defense Department website, for instance, offered a count of 4,800+ defense sites around the world. After TomDispatch inquired about this total and how it related to the official count of 4,775 sites listed in the BSR, the website was changed to read approximately 4,800 Defense Sites.

Thank you for pointing out the discrepancy. As we transition to the new site, we are working on updating information, wrote Lieutenant Colonel Baldanza. Please refer to the Base Structure Report which has the latest numbers.

In the most literal sense, the Base Structure Report does indeed have the latest numbers  but their accuracy is another matter. The number of bases listed in the BSR has long born little relation to the actual number of U.S. bases outside the United States, says Vine. Many, many well-known and secretive bases have long been left off the list.

One prime example is the constellation of outposts that the U.S. has built across Africa. The official BSR inventory lists only a handful of sites there  on Ascension Island as well as in Djibouti, Egypt, and Kenya. In reality, though, there are many more outposts in many more African countries.

A recent investigation by the Intercept, based on documents obtained from U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) via the Freedom of Information Act, revealed a network of 34 bases heavily clustered in the north and west of that continent as well as in the Horn of Africa. AFRICOMs strategic posture consists of larger enduring outposts, including two forward operating sites (FOSes), 12 cooperative security locations (CSLs), and 20 more austere sites known as contingency locations (CLs).

The Pentagons official inventory does include the two FOSes: Ascension Island and the crown jewel of Washingtons African bases, Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, which expanded from 88 acres in the early 2000s to nearly 600 acres today. The Base Structure Report is, however, missing a CSL in that same country, Chabelley Airfield, a lower-profile outpost located about 10 kilometers away that has served as a drone hub for operations in Africa and the Middle East.

The official Pentagon tally also mentions a site that goes by the confusing moniker of NSA Bahrain-Kenya. AFRICOM had previously described it as a collection of warehouses built in the 1980s at the airport and seaport of Mombasa, Kenya, but it now appears on that commands 2018 list as a CSL. Missing, however, is another Kenyan base, Camp Simba, mentioned in a 2013 internal Pentagon study of secret drone operations in Somalia and Yemen. At least two manned surveillance aircraft were based there at the time. Simba, a longtime Navy-run facility, is currently operated by the Air Forces 475th Expeditionary Air Base Squadron, part of the 435th Air Expeditionary Wing.

Personnel from that same air wing can be found at yet another outpost that doesnt appear in the Base Structure Report, this one on the opposite side of the continent. The BSR states that it doesnt list specific information on non-U.S. locations not at least 10 acres in size or worth at least $10 million. However, the base in question  Air Base 201 in Agadez, Niger  already has a $100 million construction price tag, a sum soon to be eclipsed by the cost of operating the facility: about $30 million a year. By 2024, when the present 10-year agreement for use of the base ends, its construction and operating costs will have reached about $280 million.

Also missing from the BSR are outposts in nearby Cameroon, including a longtime base in Douala, a drone airfield in the remote town of Garoua, and a facility known as Salak. That site, according to a 2017 investigation by the Intercept, the research firm Forensic Architecture, and Amnesty International, has been used by U.S. personnel and private contractors for drone surveillance and training missions and by allied Cameroonian forces for illegal imprisonment and torture.

According to Vine, keeping Americas African bases secret is advantageous to Washington. It protects allies on that continent from possible domestic opposition to the presence of American troops, he points out, while helping to ensure that there will be no domestic debate in the U.S. over such spending and the military commitments involved. Its important for U.S. citizens to know where their troops are based in Africa and elsewhere around the world, he told TomDispatch, because that troop presence costs the U.S. billions of dollars every year and because the U.S. is involved, or potentially involved, in wars and conflicts that could spiral out of control.

Those Missing Bases

Africa is hardly the only place where the Pentagons official list doesnt match up well with reality. For close to two decades, the Base Structure Report has ignored bases of all sorts in Americas active war zones. At the height of the American occupation of Iraq, for instance, the United States had 505 bases there, ranging from small outposts to mega-sized facilities. None appeared on the Pentagons official rolls.

In Afghanistan, the numbers were even higher. As TomDispatch reported in 2012, the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had about 550 bases in that country. If you had added ISAF checkpoints  small baselets used to secure roads and villages  to the count of mega-bases, forward operating bases, combat outposts, and patrol bases, the number reached an astounding 750. And counting all foreign military installations of every type  including logistical, administrative, and support facilities  hiked ISAF Joint Commands official count to 1,500 sites. Americas significant share of them was, however, also mysteriously absent from the Defense Departments official tally.

There are now far fewer such facilities in Afghanistan  and the numbers may drop further in the months ahead as troop levels decrease. But the existence of Camp Morehead, Forward Operating Base Fenty, Tarin Kowt Airfield, Camp Dahlke West, and Bost Airfield, as well as Camp Shorab, a small installation occupying what was once the site of much larger twin bases known as Camp Leatherneck and Camp Bastion, is indisputable. Yet none of them has ever appeared in the Base Structure Report.

Similarly, while there are no longer 500-plus U.S. bases in Iraq, in recent years, as American troops returned to that country, some garrisons have either been reconstituted or built from scratch. These include the Besmaya Range Complex, Firebase Sakheem, Firebase Um Jorais, and Al Asad Air Base, as well as Qayyarah Airfield West  a base 40 miles south of Mosul thats better known as Q-West. Again, you wont find any of them listed in the Pentagons official count.

These days, its even difficult to obtain accurate manpower numbers for the military personnel in Americas war zones, let alone the number of bases in each of them. As Vine explains, The military keeps the figures secret to some extent to hide the base presence from its adversaries. Because it is probably not hard to spot these bases in places like Syria and Iraq, however, the secrecy is mostly to prevent domestic debate about the money, danger, and death involved, as well as to avoid diplomatic tensions and international inquiries.

If stifling domestic debate through information control is the Pentagons aim, its been doing a fine job for years of deflecting questions about its global posture, or what the late TomDispatch regular Chalmers Johnson called Americas empire of bases.

In mid-October, TomDispatch asked Heather Babb, another Pentagon spokesperson, for details about the outposts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria that were absent from the Base Structure Report, as well as about those missing African bases. Among the other questions put to Babb: Could the Pentagon offer a simple count  if not a list  of all its outposts? Did it have a true count of overseas facilities, even if it hadnt been released to the public  a list, that is, which actually did what the Base Structure Report only purports to do? October and November passed without answers.

In December, in response to follow-up requests for information, Babb responded in a fashion firmly in line with the Pentagons well-worn policy of keeping American taxpayers in the dark about the bases they pay for  no matter the theoretical difficulty of denying the existence of outposts that stretch from Agadez in Niger to Mosul in Iraq. I have nothing to add, she explained, to the information and criteria that is included in the report.

President Trumps decision to withdraw American troops from Syria means that the 2019 Base Structure Report will likely be the most accurate in years. For the first time since 2015, the Pentagons inventory of outposts will no longer be missing the al-Tanf garrison (or then again, maybe it will). But that still potentially leaves hundreds of off-the-books bases absent from the official rolls. Consider it one outpost down and who knows how many to go.The U.S. Navy routinely operates in the Black Sea consistent with the Montreux Convention and international law.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) began its north-bound transit of the Dardanelles Strait, en route to the Black Sea Jan. 19, 2019, to conduct maritime security operations and enhance regional maritime stability, combined readiness and naval capability with our NATO allies and partners in the region.

The U.S. Navy routinely operates in the Black Sea consistent with the Montreux Convention and international law, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa / U.S. 6th Fleet reported.

Read alsoUSS Fort McHenry en route to the Black Sea (Photo)

"The United States and the U.S. Navy continue to stand alongside our allies and partners in support of shared regional interests and maritime stability," said Cmdr. Matthew J. Powel, commanding officer of Donald Cook. "Our arrival into the Black Sea will showcase the Navy's interoperability in pursuit of common security objectives in this region."

The Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43) and embarked elements of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit conducted operations earlier this month, which included a port visit to Constanta, Romania and training with Sailors from the Romanian navy.

In 2018, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Ross (DDG 71), USS Carney (DDG 64) and USS Porter (DDG 78), the Blue Ridge-class command and control ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20), the Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ship USS Oak Hill (LSD 51) with embarked elements of the 26th MEU, and the Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport ship USNS Carson City (T-EPF 7) all conducted operations in the Black Sea.

Porter, forward-deployed at Naval Station Rota, Spain, is conducting naval operations in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe.

U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied, and interagency partners, in order to advance U.S. national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa.The location will be announced later.

U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late February but will maintain economic sanctions on Pyongyang, the White House said on Friday after Trump met Pyongyang's top nuclear negotiator.

Read alsoTrump says next meeting with N. Korean leader likely in early 2019  media

The announcement came amid a diplomatic flurry in Washington surrounding the visit of Kim Yong Chol, a hardline former spy chief, and marked a sign of movement in a denuclearization effort that has stalled since a landmark meeting between Trump and the North Korean leader in Singapore on June 12, as reported by Reuters.

"President Donald J. Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and a half to discuss denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said. She said a location would be announced later.

The summit was announced even though there has been no indication of any narrowing of differences over U.S. demands that North Korea abandon a nuclear weapons program that threatens the United States and Pyongyang's demands for a lifting of punishing sanctions.The situation in the area of the Joint Forces Operation remains under control of Ukrainian troops.

Russia's hybrid military forces mounted four attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas on January 19.

Read alsoUkraine forces in Donbas shoot down enemy drone equipped with fragmentation explosives (Video)

"No Ukrainian soldiers were killed or wounded from 00:00 to 18:00 Kyiv time," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said in an update on Facebook.

The enemy opened fire from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms at the Ukrainian positions near the villages of Stanytsia Luhanska, Vilniy, Pisky, and Shyrokyne.

The situation in the area of the Joint Forces Operation remains under control of Ukrainian troops.There were no Ukrainian army casualties in the past day.

Russian-led forces mounted nine attacks on Ukrainian troops in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, in the last 24 hours.

Read alsoPoroshenko: Ukraine's army hasn't used Javelins in combat yet

"No Ukrainian army casualties have been reported in the past day. According to intelligence reports, one occupier was killed," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation said in an update on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on January 19, 2019.

Russian occupation forces opened aimed fire from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms as they attacked the defenders of the town of Krasnohorivka, and the villages of Vilniy, Hnutove, and Vodiane.

The enemy also employed 82mm mortars near the villages of Pisky and Vodiane, as well as heavy machine guns and small arms near the town of Maryinka and the village of Chermalyk. In addition, a sniper was active near Hnutove.

"Since Saturday midnight, Russian-led forces haven't attacked the Ukrainian positions yet," the report said.Ukraine successfully tested the new systems late in May 2018.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says that Ukraine's army has never had the occasion to use U.S. third-generation anti-tank missile systems, Javelins, in combat in Donbas.

"We were told it was impossible to get Javelins and lethal weapons we had to arm our soldiers with. Why were Javelins so important? Because it is a very modern anti-tank weapon. One can launch a missile and forget about it  it can find a Russian tank on its own and destroy it. So far, not a single launch has been made from the Javelin system on the frontline," the president said at a meeting with the community of Zolotonosha and the respective district, an UNIAN correspondent said.

Read alsoPoroshenko speaks of "Javelin effect" in Donbas

According to Poroshenko, as soon as the Russians have learned that the Javelins arrived in Ukraine, Russian tanks operators do not want to go to the contact line, they have simply stopped attacks with tanks. "Their tanks haven't attacked us for a year now, because they don't want to go there," he said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, at the end of 2017, the Donald Trump Administration decided to sell Ukraine lethal weapons, in particular Javelin anti-tank missile systems. On March 2, 2018, the U.S. State Department approved the sale to Ukraine of 210 Javelin missiles and 37 launchers worth a total of about $47 million.

On April 30, the Ukrainian president announced that Javelins had been delivered to Ukraine. On May 22, Ukraine successfully tested the new weapons.Despite repeated appeals, no recommendations were given on rehabilitation and recuperation, the lawyer said.

Sergey Badamshin, one of the lawyers of the Ukrainian sailors, has said one of the Ukrainian sailors captured near the Kerch Strait on November 25, 2018, Vasyl Soroka, needs a medical examination due to an injured hand.

Read alsoKlimkin, Maas: Freedom of navigation in Azov Sea, Kerch Strait must be based on international law principles

"The injured hand has not been recuperated. It hurts. There is still an edama. There is still shrapnel inside. He needs an examination, the decision on surgery and rehabilitation," the lawyer wrote on Facebook.

"I am saddened by the irresponsibility of some doctors. Despite repeated appeals, no recommendations were given on rehabilitation and recuperation. Medical documentation on the application has not been provided as well," he said.

UNIAN memo. 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.

Moscow's Lefortovo district court on January 15, 2019, decided to keep 20 Ukrainian sailors in remand until April 24. Today, January 16, the court extended the detention term for another four Ukrainian sailors.The topics of meeting also covered the possibility of further influencing Berlin as a pressure on Russia to release Ukrainian prisoners of war and political prisoners.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany Heiko Maas have said the freedom of navigation in the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait should be based on the principles of international law.

"In this regard, the joint initiative of Germany and France on joint international monitoring of freedom of navigation in the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait was welcomed," the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported following the ministers' talks on January 18.

Read alsoKlimkin: Concept of UN-OSCE peacekeepers in Donbas still under discussion

The ministers considered the possibility of holding consultations at the expert level with further discussion of the parameters of the implementation of the mentioned initiative within the framework of the Normandy format.

Another important topic of the meeting was the energy theme, in particular in the context of the construction of the North Stream 2 gas pipeline. The Ukrainian side essentially defends the position regarding the need to extend the norms of the EU energy legislation to all routes of gas supply in Europe. The German side confirmed the importance of preserving the transit role of Ukraine.

The topics of meeting also covered the possibility of further influencing Berlin as a pressure on Russia to release Ukrainian prisoners of war and political prisoners.

In the context of bilateral issues, Klimkin and Maas highly assessed the state of Ukrainian-German cooperation, including the unchangeable of Berlin's support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state, as well as practical assistance in the effective implementation of systemic reforms.Russian ships' access to EU ports may be restricted.

Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin says his European Union counterparts will in February and March discuss new sanctions against Russia over an attack on Ukrainian navy boats near the Kerch Strait.

"There are several ideas I will deliberately not mention. They will be discussed by the EU foreign ministers in February and March. These may be very important decisions," Klimkin said at a press conference summing up the results of Ukraine's diplomacy in 2018, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

Read alsoEU Ambassadors agree on sanctions against GRU's "Salisbury tourists"  journalist

According to him, Ukraine is currently discussing with the EU "what could have an impact on Russia" in connection with an act of aggression near the Kerch Strait.

"There are two approaches here: one approach concerns personal sanctions against those who organized all this and who gave commands, but the EU is right that all the military command of Russia is already under sanctions  who else could be added here? Or [the second approach] is that we will also work on the logic of restricting access [to EU ports] for Russian ships assigned to the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea," he said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Russian special forces in November 2018 attacked and seized three Ukrainian navy boats with 24 Ukrainian sailors on board. The boats were heading from the Ukrainian port of Odesa on the Black Sea to the Ukrainian port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov via the Kerch Strait. The sailors, who were taken from Russian-occupied Crimea to detention centers in Moscow, are now facing trial. They hold themselves not guilty and consider themselves to be prisoners of war. Next hearings on their cases are scheduled for April 24 and April 26.The effectiveness of such an option does not mean that the Russian side agrees with it.

Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin says that the concept of a joint United Nations and OSCE peacekeeping mission in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, is still under discussion.

"OSCE representatives have prepared the concept of such a joint mission. It is still being discussed," Klimkin said at a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Kyiv on January 18, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

Read alsoGermany's Foreign Minister says new dynamics needed in Minsk peace talks (Video)

This concept is not a formal proposal of the country chairing the OSCE, but Klimkin said he had discussed that issue with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Slovakia's Minister for Foreign and European Affairs Miroslav Lajcak.

"It's very important to me that after the negotiations that have taken place recently, after  just imagine  the 18th ceasefire has been violated, there is clear understanding that there should be an international component. It can be from that of the United Nations, but perhaps taking into account the presence of the OSCE in Donbas right now, [it can be] combined," he said.

"It is very important that it also involves not only the military presence, but also to the police component and the international administration," he added.

"I have got this concept. We are discussing it now. We are far from making it official, but I think such a joint mission can be one of the effective options," Klimkin said.

The OSCE knows the situation in Russian-occupied Donbas in detail and has experience.

"On the one hand, they have a history of solving problematic issues, and on the other hand, they are aware that the capacities of the [OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine] SMM are not enough for this. And of course, we should find out whether the United Nations' capacities combined with the OSCE could be an interesting option," Klimkin said.

"Ultimately, the effectiveness of such an option does not mean that the Russian side agrees with it. It will most likely disagree, as we know very well, but I think that option deserves further discussion," he added.An aerial shot of the Mediterranean Sea south of Sicily, May 2011.  UNHCR/Frederic Noy

UNHCR is deeply saddened at emerging reports of an estimated 170 people who either died or went missing in two separate shipwrecks on the Mediterranean Sea.

Some 53 people have died on the Alboran Sea, western Mediterranean, according to recent information from NGO sources. One survivor is understood to have been rescued by a passing fishing boat after being stranded for more than 24 hours at sea and is receiving medical treatment in Morocco. Moroccan and Spanish rescue vessels have been searching for the boat and survivors for several days to no avail.

The Italian Navy are also reporting an additional shipwreck on the central Mediterranean. Three survivors were taken for treatment on Lampedusa, and reported that 117 people, who are currently dead or missing, were on board with them when they departed from Libya.

UNHCR has been unable to independently verify the death tolls for both shipwrecks.

The tragedy of the Mediterranean cannot be allowed to continue, said Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. We cannot turn a blind eye to the high numbers of people dying on Europes doorstep. No effort should be spared, or prevented, from saving lives in distress at sea.

In 2018, 2,262 people lost their lives attempting to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea. UNHCR is concerned that actions by States are increasingly deterring NGOs from conducting search and rescue operations, and is calling for these to be lifted immediately.

At the same time, greater efforts are needed to prevent refugees and migrants from taking these desperate journeys in the first place. More safe and legal pathways to access asylum in Europe are needed for those fleeing war and persecution so that no one feels they have no other choice than to put their lives in the hands of unscrupulous traffickers and smugglers.

For more information on this topic, please contact:By John W. Whitehead

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.

January 18, 2019 " Information Clearing House " - How far would you really go to secure the nations borders against illegal aliens?

Would you give the government limitless amounts of money to fight yet another endless war? Surround the entire country with concrete walls and barbed wire? Empower border police to do whatever it takes to crack down on illegal immigrants, even if it means violating their human rights? Hold your nose and tolerate all manner of abuses in name of national security?

Would you allow government agents to trample on the rights of anyone who gets in their way, including legal citizens? Relinquish some of your freedoms in exchange for the elusive promise of non-porous borders? Submit to a national ID card that allows the government to target individuals and groups as it chooses in order to identify those who do not belong? Turn a blind eye to private prisons and detainment camps that profit off the forced labor of its detainees?

Would you turn your backs on every constitutional principle for which our founders fought and died in exchange for empty campaign promises of elusive safety by fast-talking politicians?

This is the devils bargain that the U.S. government demands of its people.

These devilish deals have been foisted upon we the people before.

Every decade or so, the government makes the case for expanding its wartime powers and curtailing the citizenrys freedomin the war on terrorism, war on drugs, war on communism, war on foreigners, war on extremism, war on dissidents, war on peace activists, war on anti-government speech, etc.all for the sake of national security, of course, and as expected, the American people fall in line.

This time around, the government wants us to buy into the fiction that this war on illegal aliens is so necessary for national security that we should be grateful when roving bands of border patrol agents, flexing their muscles far beyond the nations borders, exercise their right to disregard the Constitution at every turn.

Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter

Except these border patrol cops arent just disregarding the Constitution.

Theyre trampling all over the Constitution, especially the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits the government from carrying out egregious warrantless searches and seizures without probable cause.

As part of the governments so-called crackdown on illegal immigration, drugs and trafficking, its border patrol cops are expanding their reach, roaming further afield and subjecting greater numbers of Americans to warrantless searches, ID checkpoints, transportation checks, and even surveillance on private property far beyond the boundaries of the borderlands.

That so-called border, once a thin borderline, is now an ever-thickening band spreading deeper and deeper inside the country.

Consequently, nearly 66% of Americans (2/3 of the U.S. population, 197.4 million people) now live within a 100-mile-deep, Constitution-free zone.

As journalist Todd Miller explains, that expanding border region now extends 100 miles inland around the United Statesalong the 2,000-mile southern border, the 4,000-mile northern border and both coasts... This border region now covers places where two-thirds of the US population (197.4 million people) live The border has by now devoured the full states of Maine and Florida and much of Michigan.

So much for walking that golden ribbon of highway.

In this authoritarian reshaping of America, youd better watch where you roam and ramble, because you could find yourself wandering into the governments ever-expanding, Constitution-free zone where freedom is off-limits and government agents have all the power and we the people have none.

Miller continues:

In these vast domains, Homeland Security authorities can institute roving patrols with broad, extra-constitutional powers backed by national security, immigration enforcement and drug interdiction mandates. There, the Border Patrol can set up traffic checkpoints and fly surveillance drones overhead with high-powered cameras and radar that can track your movements. Within twenty-five miles of the international boundary, CBP [Customs and Border Protection] agents can enter a persons private property without a warrant.

These are definitely not Mayberry cops.

The CBP, with its more than 60,000 Customs and Border Protection employees, supplemented by the National Guard and the U.S. military, is an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, a national police force imbued with all the brutality, ineptitude and corruption such a role implies.

Just about every nefarious deed, tactic or thuggish policy advanced by the government today can be traced back to the DHS, its police state mindset, and the billions of dollars it distributes to local police agencies in the form of grants to transform them into extensions of the military.

As Miller points out, the government has turned the nations expanding border regions into a ripe place to experiment with tearing apart the Constitution, a place where not just undocumented border-crossers, but millions of borderland residents have become the targets of continual surveillance.

In much the same way that police across the country have been schooled in the art of sidestepping the Constitution, border cops have also been drilled in the art of anything goes in the name of national security.

In fact, according to FOIA documents shared with The Intercept, border cops even have a checklist of possible behaviors that warrant overriding the Constitution and subjecting individualsincluding American citizensto stops, searches, seizures, interrogations and even arrests.

For instance, if youre driving a vehicle that to a border cop looks unusual in some way, you can be stopped.

If your passengers look dirty or unusual, you can be stopped.

If you or your passengers avoid looking at a cop, you can be stopped.

If you or your passengers look too long at a cop, you can be stopped.

If youre anywhere near a border (near being within 100 miles of a border, or in a city, or on a bus, or at an airport), you can be stopped and asked to prove youre legally allowed to be in the country.

If youre traveling on a public road that smugglers and other criminals may have traveled, you can be stopped.

If youre not driving in the same direction as other cars, you can be stopped.

If you appear to be avoiding a police checkpoint, you can be stopped.

If your car appears to be weighed down, you can be stopped.

If your vehicle is from out of town, wherever that might be, you can be stopped.

If youre driving a make of car that criminal-types have also driven, you can be stopped.

If your car appears to have been altered or modified, you can be stopped.

If the cargo area in your vehicle is covered, you can be stopped.

If youre driving during a time of day or night that border cops find suspicious, you can be stopped.

If youre driving when border cops are changing shifts, you can be stopped.

If youre driving in a motorcade or with another vehicle, you can be stopped.

If your car appears dusty, you can be stopped.

If people with you are trying to avoid being seen, or exhibiting unusual behavior, you can be stopped.

If you slow down after seeing a cop, you can be stopped.

Are you starting to get the picture yet?

This isnt about illegal aliens and border crossings at all.

Its a test to see how hard we the people will fight to hold onto what remains of our freedoms.

If this is a test, were failing abysmally.

Then again, weve been failing this particular test for a long time now.

Indeed, as journalist Hayes Brown concludes, the United States has a long, dubious history of putting national security before peoples freedoms.

Certainly, it took no time at all for us to forget Benjamin Franklins warning that Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

It was 1798 when Americans, their fears stoked by rumblings of a Quasi-War with France, chose safety over liberty when they failed to protest the Alien and Sedition Acts, which criminalized anti-government speech, empowered the government to deport dangerous non-citizens and made it harder for immigrants to vote.

During the Civil War, Americans went along when Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus (the right to a speedy trial) and authorized government officials to spy on Americans mail.

During World War I, Americans took it in stride when President Woodrow Wilson and Congress adopted the Espionage and Sedition Acts, which made it a crime to interfere with the war effort and criminalized any speech critical of war.

By World War II, Americans were marching in lockstep with the governments expanding war powers to imprison Japanese-American citizens in detainment camps, censor mail, and lay the groundwork for the future surveillance state.

Fast-forward to the Cold Wars Red Scares, the McCarthy eras hearings on un-American activities, and the governments surveillance of Civil Rights activists such as Martin Luther King Jr.all done in the name of national security.

By the time 9/11 rolled around, all George W. Bush had to do was claim the country was being invaded by terrorists, and the government was given greater powers to spy, search, detain and arrest American citizens in order to keep America safe.

The terrorist invasion never really happened, but the government kept its newly acquired police powers made possible by the nefarious USA Patriot Act.

Barack Obama continued Bushs trend of undermining the Constitution, going so far as to give the military the power to strip Americans of their constitutional rights, label them extremists, and detain them indefinitely without trial, all in the name of keeping America safe.

Despite the fact that the breadth of the militarys power to detain American citizens violates not only U.S. law and the Constitution but also international laws, the government has refused to relinquish its detention powers made possible by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Now you have Donald Trump claiming the country is being invaded by dangerous immigrants and insisting that the only way to keep America safe is to build an expensive border wall, expand the reach of border patrol, and empower the military to assist with border control.

This latest crisis is yet another manufactured reality that keeps us tuned into the governments soap opera and oblivious to all else.

Its time to change the channel.

While the border wall debate certainly stirs up, divides and distracts the populace, expanding the governments police powers is not the answer.

For that matter, building a border wall is unlikely to do much to deter illegal immigrants from getting into this country (they will just continue to tunnel under border walls or go around them as they have been doing), it wont thwart drug traffickers (they already use legal ports of entry and corrupt government agents as conduits to funnel their drugs into the country), and it certainly wont make America any safer from its most pressing threatthat is, government agents armed with totalitarian powers.

It will, however, expand the reach of the police state under our noses.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, once the government acquiresand usesadditional powers (to spy on its citizens, to carry out surveillance, to transform its police forces into extensions of the police, to seize taxpayer funds, to wage endless wars, to censor and silence dissidents, to identify potential troublemakers, to detain citizens without due process), it does not voluntarily relinquish them.

Its time we the people put our house in order.

Just look at the mess were in right now: the longest government shutdown in history, political theatrics that keep the populace distracted while the police state clamps down, an economy that is disintegrating before our eyes, a surveillance state that is gearing up for total control, an aging national infrastructure that is falling apart, an appalling lack of leaders with moral backbones and civic knowledge, and a government that grows more authoritarian with every passing day.

The problem is not that the U.S. is being invaded by rapists, thieves and cold-blooded killers.

Rather, the problem is that the U.S. government is overrun with rapists, thieves and cold-blooded killers who are on the government payroll.

Our own government is now the greatest threat to our safety, and theres no border wall big enough to protect us from these ruffians in our midst.

We the people will always be the best defense against tyrants and thugs, whether they serve in our own government or foreign threats.

So stop worshiping at the feet of false political idols whose allegiance is only to power and profit. Stop tolerating this topsy-turvy state of affairs that punishes truth, transparency and justice while rewarding greed, corruption and injustice. Stop obeying every immoral government order. And stop letting your personal politics get in the way of standing up for your freedoms.

As historian Howard Zinn rightly recognized:

Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is the numbers of people all over the world who have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world, in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem.

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute . His new book

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Peace and joy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).By Jeff Murphy, January 18, 2019

WARRENSBURG, MO  Jessica Carnnahan, a senior at Lees Summit North High School, today got an unexpected boost to putting herself on a more affordable road to a college degree. She was surprised by representatives of the University of Central Missouri who paid a visit to her classroom to let her know she was the winner of a free tuition giveaway.



Shortly after she entered her 11:30 a.m. class, Carnnahan was presented a large check signifying that she was receiving free tuition for up to 30 credit hours at UCM, effective for the fall 2019 semester. She was randomly selected for the tuition giveaway based on a contest that was open to all freshmen and transfer students who applied for admission to UCM prior to Jan. 1, 2019. Carnnahan was the only student selected among 4,677 applicants.



The surprise announcement came with much fanfare, including a classroom visit by UCMs costumed mascot, Mo the Mule, who also was joined by presenters Mike Godard, interim provost  chief learning officer, and Drew Griffin, assistant vice provost for admissions and financial aid. In addition to free tuition that essentially covers one year of courses, Carnnahan also received UCM memorabilia and cookie cake to help celebrate with her classmates. The presentation was made during the International Baccalaureate Psychology and English class taught by Andrea Hood-Johnson.



This is the first time we have ever done this at the University of Central Missouri. This was completely random and nothing that anyone had to apply for other than turning in their application, Godard said. Weve heard great things about you Jessica. I know that youre going to be a great student on our campus.



I was just sitting in class expecting it to be a normal day, and then it wasnt, Carnnahan said with a huge smile as she spoke to media shortly after learning that she received financial boost toward her higher education.



Planning to graduate this spring, she said she chose UCM because of its reputation for an excellent psychology program, which is her intended major. She met previously with UCMs psychology faculty and was excited to learn about opportunities such as internships that will contribute to her education. She hopes to use her future degree at UCM as a stepping stone to eventually become a psychiatrist.



In addition to an academic program of interest, Carnnahan said she is pleased to be attending the same school her mother claims as her alma mater. Both of her parents, Lester and Becky Carnnahan, attended the presentation. The family has resided in Lees Summit about 25 years.



It is great to know that she is going to be close, and will be helped out with the financial burden of college, her mother said. Her remarks were also echoed by her father. He added, however, that Jessica worked very hard throughout high school, which makes getting financial assistance more rewarding.



Griffin said he appreciated the cooperation of the Lees Summit R-7 School District and Lees Summit North High School for helping the university to make this event a success. While this is the first time UCM has offered a free tuition giveaway, it may pave the way for similar events in the future. Griffin said he plans to meet with the provost and enrollment management leaders to explore the possibilities.

University of Central Missouri officials presented a large check to Lees Summit North High School senior Jessica Carnnahan, center, signifying her selection as the winner of a tuition giveaway that was coordinated by the universitys admissions area. Among those taking part in the surprise presentation were, left to right, Mike Godard, UCM interim provost-chief learning officer; Carnnahans parents, Lester and Becky Carnnahan; Drew Griffin, assistant vice provost for admissions and financial aid; and UCMs mascot, Mo the Mule.Farmers have rejected the proposal of having a Friday market as a way to mitigate the effects of the extended weekend curfew. This was revealed in the House of Representatives, along with NAMDEVCO's decision to supplement the sales some farmers would be losing.As we approach International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, 2019, the 74th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, we face a dwindling number of Holocaust survivors, along with an unprecedented rise in anti-Semitism, hate crimes and Holocaust denial. Maintaining the memory of the Holocaust and the lessons it teaches us is more important today than ever before.

On June 25, 2015, the Tulsa City Council voted to affirm the Tulsa resolution based on the Charter for Compassion. Tulsa joined 70 Compassionate Communities worldwide to challenge moral issues that need to be identified and acted upon. It is within this context that Holocaust comparisons are sometimes raised in reaction to the sad state of human affairs that at any given moment in time and place, somewhere in our world there are acts of violence being perpetrated upon the innocent.

We are challenged every day to act in response to this violence and to build defenses to prevent future hostility. The lessons of the Holocaust provide a valuable framework for developing responses and prevention strategies. How we deploy these powerful lessons raises fundamentally difficult questions. How to do this without diminishing the Holocaust and its victims? When is it appropriate to evoke the Holocaust in talking about current affairs? Who should speak of the lessons?First District Attorney Erik Grayless argued that Mizes actions were not necessary and not reasonable, pointing out inconsistencies in the accounts Mize and some of his relatives gave to law enforcement, and presented independent witnesses who said the only person they saw with a gun in the confrontation was Mize.

Authorities had found Jake Ulrichs body slumped over in the passenger seat of Jack Ulrichs truck, abandoned in the 6500 block of West Edison Street. The fireworks stand was in the 600 block of South 65th West Avenue.

After the trial, Grayless told reporters he thinks the evidence he presented that indicated Mize may have been the one to ditch the truck in which Ulrichs body was found was very compelling to the jury.

We saw a fair amount of emotion from the jury in relation to the testimony about Jake and how he actually died. Theres strong evidence that defendant Mize drove in the vehicle that did not belong to him while Jake was laying dying or dead next to him and that was impactful for the jury. The defense refused to admit that  and I think that weighed in the jurys determination in sending this strict sentence to him.The OSBI is the state administrator that provides access to the database, Fielding said.

The FBI is expected to issue its final rules in 2020, Adams said.

Simonson said the legislation needs to be in place in advance so when the details are worked out, Oklahoma is ready to use the new technology.

Adams said the legislation needs to be tweaked to ensure that the OSBI gets a sample.

Simonson said the system will allow law enforcement to know in a timely fashion if a person arrested in Oklahoma for a stolen car is wanted in another jurisdiction for rape, murder or another crime before they may bond out of jail.

President Donald Trump in 2017 signed federal legislation to let the FBI develop rules for the program, Simonson said. State legislation allowing it is required, he said.

But not everyone is supporting the bill, which was filed last year but did not secure approval.

It represents another move away from the bedrock American principle that you are innocent until proven guilty, said Ryan Kiesel, executive director of the Oklahoma affiliate of the ACLU. The state of Oklahoma is increasingly treating people as though they are guilty upon arrest.OKLAHOMA CITY  Oklahoma and the nation are starting to feel the effects of oils sliding value during the final quarter of 2018, the latest count of working rigs from Baker Hughes shows.

A report the firm released Friday showed that Oklahomas rig count fell by 10 as it fell by 25 nationally, compared to a week ago.

The latest data also shows the states number of working rigs fell by 14 the past two weeks, to 126. A year ago, 121 rigs were drilling in the state.

As for the Cana Woodford Basin, home to Oklahomas STACK and SCOOP plays, its rig count climbed to 62, up by five to end the week.

Subscribe to Daily Headlines Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.January 18, 2019 " Information Clearing House " - If youre an American, hes still out there among the maybe candidates. But if you live in the Middle East  whether youre Arab or Israeli, Muslim, Jew or Christian  you should keep your eye on Bernie Sanders.

Hes no shoo-in, of course  certainly not after his pitiful handover to the awful Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election. I still remember shouting No! myself when I heard his fans cursing his decision to stand down in favour of Clinton. But the guy just might have the guts, even the courage, to stand up to the ally to whom the US always gives groveling, uncritical, slavish, immoral support.

Note how at this point I dont need to identify Israel as the ally in question. Nor did I have to mention in my first paragraph that Sanders is one of the two most prominent Jewish members of the US Senate. In fact, Sanders wears his origins, race, religion, social background and integrity so easily that he comes across, even to a cynical European still living in a pre-Brexit world (just), as a patently nice guy. Unlike Donald Trump, hes sane. But unlike Obama, hes not so goody-two-shoes or optic-obsessed to think that he can fandangle voters with ageing good looks and the right heart.

Its one thing for a black candidate to go for the black vote in the US, but for an American Jew to go for the American Jewish vote is a very different matter.

Sanders campaign is not just going to be about economics or the futility of Mexican walls. It might well be about Iran. Its going to raise a lot of questions among the Christian fundamentalists. But, most importantly of all, its going to be about Israel. And, if this liberal intellectual is going to be a serious candidate for 2020, hes going to meet plenty of latent anti-Semitism in the United States. It took long enough for John Kennedy, the first Catholic American to become president, to shake off the claim that he would be more loyal to the Pope than to America.

Just imagine how Sanders will have to confront the same bigots when they insinuate that hes more loyal to Israel than to his own country. Hes not  as one television presenter once suggested  a dual national. Hes not an Israeli. Hes the child of Polish Jewish immigrants.

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You know, he told the same television host, my Dad came to this country from Poland at the age of 17 without a nickel in his pocket. He loved this country ... I am, obviously, an American citizen and I do not have any dual citizenship. He was, he said in a later interview, proud to be Jewish but not particularly religious. He spent time on an Israeli kibbutz near Haifa in 1963 after college graduation. So did thousands of other Americans and Europeans  and they werent all Jewish.

Take a look through his Israel/Palestine CV, and Sanders is clearly neither an aggressive Zionist nor a liberal patsy. Hes a New Deal Democrat, which is how many would judge him. Younger, leftist voters might consider him as a kind of upwardly mobile intellectual, a Chomsky on wheels  even though the great (Jewish) philosopher, activist and linguist said before the last presidential election that hed vote for Clinton as a frontrunner rather than Sanders in swing states in a final vote to keep Trump out. Much good did that do him.

But lets remember a few more things about Sanders. Hes always supported the right of Israel to exist and its right to self-defence, and hes always condemned Palestinian attacks on Israelis. But hes also kept away from pro-Israeli Jewish lobby groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and he didnt restrain himself when he chose to condemn Israel for its illegal colonial project of building homes for Jews and Jews only in the occupied West Bank, nor when Israel has blatantly interfered in US domestic or electoral politics.

When Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress in 2015  with the usual Saddam-like standing ovations from American representatives more fearful of being critical of Israel than standing up to the lobby  Sanders skipped the speech. He [Netanyahu] doesnt have the right to inject himself into an American political discussion by being the speaker before a joint session of Congress to criticise the United States, he told CNN. This is breath-of-fresh-air stuff from a leading American politician, even if his 77 years gives Sanders the patina of wisdom  and thus more leeway than usual for a critic of Israel.

The 2014 Gaza war (with its usual exchange rate of 2,100 Palestinians dead, most of them civilians, for 72 Israelis) seems to have been a critical moment in the Sanders horror of Israeli-Palestinian killings. He spoke of the Israeli attacks [sic] that killed hundreds of innocent people  including many women and children and referred to Israels ruthless air strikes as disproportionate and completely unacceptable. Unlike Hillary Clinton, he didnt cosy up to AIPAC by speaking at their 2016 policy conference. In the speech he would have given to them, he said that it is absurd for elements within the Netanyahu government to suggest that building more settlements in the West Bank is the appropriate response to the most recent violence. It is also not acceptable that the Netanyahu government decided to withhold hundreds of millions of shekels in tax revenue from the Palestinians.

But, he added, it was unacceptable for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas  my inverted commas, here, for a man who has long run out of presidential legality  to call for the abrogation of the Oslo agreement. This would make sense  only Abbas had actually threatened Oslo because the continued building of Jewish colonies on Arab land had already effectively destroyed the agreement. And in a later AIPAC-encouraged Senate round robin letter, Sanders appeared to give all the usual caveats to Israel, complaining that the UN delivered disproportionate criticism of Israel and demeaning the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). He later said he didnt actually write the letter even though he signed it, which was a bit like apologising to the Palestinians after you have thrown them under the proverbial bus.

The nearest hes got to confronting the great taboo  the sacrosanct economic-military relationship between Israel and America which no candidate ever wants to talk about  was half-Chomsky and half-Obama. What must be done, he said, is that the United States of America must have a Middle East policy which is even-handed, which does not simply supply endless amounts of money, of military support to Israel, but which treats both sides with respect and dignity, and does our best to bring them to the table.

But he even got a nod of approval from that brilliant grudge Norman Finkelstein when he told J Street liberals that Donald Trumps support for a peace deal didnt amount to much. The real question is: peace on what terms, and under what arrangement? Does peace mean that Palestinians will be forced to live under perpetual Israeli rule, in a series of disconnected communities in the West Bank and Gaza? Thats not tolerable, and thats not peace.

If Palestinians in the occupied territories are to be denied self-determination in a state of their own, will they receive full citizenship and equal rights in a single state, potentially meaning the end of a Jewish majority state? These are very serious questions with significant implications for Americas broader regional partnerships and goals.

If you want to see what Sanders is up against in the abuse stakes from American Jews who would definitely not vote for him, you have only to glance at columnist Andrea Peysers critique in the New York Post in 2016. Bernie Sanders is not quite Jewish, she wrote. Hes Jew-ish  a non-practising, anti-Israel, kinda, sorta Hebrew ... Whats disproportionate about Israels self-preserving responses to rocket fire on civilians heads, Bernie? Sanders, she said, had forged a far-left political brand, siding with Jew-haters and Israel foes, which is redundant.

But Bernie Sanders can also dish it out. When anti-Israeli audience members interrupted him in Vermont, he told them to shut up  itself a red rag to the super-left, who immediately condemned him for being pro-Israel. Hes talked about the dangers of Hamas, but hes also condemned proposed US legislation that would punish boycotts against Israel and Israeli colonies on the West Bank (the Israel Anti-Boycott Act) on the grounds that it would harm free speech in America.

Hes now bashing Trump for destroying the Iran nuclear agreement, Saudi Arabia for its Yemen war and Israel for its shooting down of Palestinians on the Gaza Strip fence. Hes even critical of that imperial journalistic messenger Thomas Friedman for blaming the Palestinians for their own suffering. So things cant be that bad.

Of course we have to remember the numbing sickness of American politics; the absolute need to kowtow to power when theres no alternative; the use of the word compromise instead of capitulation; the personal pressures that might be used against a Jewish presidential contender. Im not sure Bernie Sanders can resist all this. I still recall how Judge Richard Goldstone, a fine and decent man whom I wrote of two weeks ago, believed in justice for the Palestinians and wrote so eloquently of their suffering in the 2008-2009 Gaza war in his massive UN report. Yet he, after pressure on him from Jewish groups and from his own Jewish family, then recanted and turned his back on those who trusted him.

Be sure Bernie Sanders knows of Goldstones Calvary, but he may be made of sterner stuff. The Arabs will watch Sanders, if theyre wise, though they are still blinded by the Trump bauble. The Israelis, whose lives depend on their future dependence on America as much as their past reliance, may come to fear him.

One certainty is that if Sanders is up for the 2020 race, the US-Israel Middle East collusion is likely to lose its taboo status for a long time to come.

This article was originally published by " The Independent " -

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Peace and joyTanzanian model and fashion entrepreneur Tahiya has come out guns blazing to ask Diamond Platinumz's baby mama Hamisa Mobetto to keep off her man.

According to Tahiya, Hamisa snatched her man whom she did not mention.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Diamond Platinnumz to sign first female musician to Wasafi records

READ ALSO: Diamond Platinumz Kenyan lover reveals how she met the music sensation

In an Instagram rant seen by TUKO.co.ke on Saturday, January 19, Tahiya unleashed unprintable insults directed to Hamisa and ask her to keep off other people's husbands.

''Hamisa Mobetto keep off other people's husbands st*pid.'' Tahiya posted on her Instagram stories.

READ ALSO: Diamond Platnumz's Kenyan bae confirms wedding plans are still on

The lass even went ahead to share screenshots of her convo with Hamisa asking her whether she knew the man in question to which she denied.

Tahiya however pulled down the posts minutes later but assured everyone that the message had already gotten to the intended parties.

READ ALSO: Socialite Pendo's mzungu lover embarrasses her online, says she is broke and fakes celebrity life

It is not yet clear whether the said man is Hamisa's new lover or another one but the truth will soon come out.

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.

Witness Narrates His Experience After 14 Riverside Terror Attack | Tuko TV

Source: Tuko.co.ke- A leaflet with attack threats was found on an electric pole in Kitengela bus station

- The leaflet indicating key premises in Kitengela were targeted was discovered by police officers

- Leaflet was taken by detectives from Directorate of Criminal Investigations

- Detectives said they were handling the leaflet seriously but did not rule out business rivalry among motives behind the threats

Police in Kitengela, Kajiado county are on high alert following spread of leaflets bearing terror attack threats few days after 14 Riverside Drive terror attack.

The leaflets bearing warnings of impending attacks by alleged terrorists were pinned on electric poles near Kitengela Police Station.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens.

READ ALSO: DusitD2 attack reminder for Kenyans never to lower guard in war against terrorism

The leaflets were found pinned in an electric pole near Kitengela Police Station. Photo:UGC

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: DusitD2 suicide bomber identified, said to have sneaked back into Kenya two days before attack

According to a police report seen by TUKO.co.ke, on Saturday, January 19, two officers who were on general duty noticed the conspicuous poster pinned on an electric pole near the station.

"Two officers who were on duty both at the report office and station guard reported today at about 12pm while in their place of work they saw a leaflet hanging on an electric post which is in bus park few meters from station," read part of the report.

On advancing to view the contents of the poster, one officer is reported to have established that it was underscored with a title "The next Kitengela attack."

Among the areas highlighted in the poster as points of target included; Naivas super market, Powestar supermarket and B lady shop.

Detectives said they were handling the threats with the seriousness it deserved despite hinting of business rivalry among issues behind the leaflets. Photo:UGC

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Bruce Odhiambo's ailing mother misses his burial as Uhuru, Raila attend

The poster indicated that multiple casualties was among the agenda of the alleged attacks.

"Above shops are in Kitengela and up to now no one knows who placed the threat attack leaflet. The letter has been handed over to Directorate of Criminal Investigation for detailed probe," the police report indicated.

A detective privy to the matter said they were handling the threats with the seriousness it deserved but did not rule out a possibility of sinister business rivalry.

The alert comes just a few hours after a taxi driver drove two suspected terrorists to a police camp in Garissa.

Additional reporting By; Lucky Omenda, TUKO Correspondent, Nairobi

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.

Witness Narrates His Experience After 14 Riverside Terror Attack | Tuko TV

Source: Tuko Breaking News Latest- Mahir Khalid Riziki was born and bred in Majengo slums, Mombasa town

- Mahir attended his madrasa classes at the notorious Musa Mosque where he was radicalised

- The suspect was recruited into a terror gang which targeted security personnel in the area

- He fled to Tanzania in 2014 and later to Somalia in 2015 when authorities launched a crackdown

- The suicide bomber sneaked back into the country through porous Mandera border on Sunday, January 13

Detectives investigating DusitD2 terrorist attack have positively identified the Mombasa-born Mahir Khalid Riziki as the suicide bomber behind the assault.

Born and raised in Majengo slums in the coastal town, Mahir attended his madrasa classes at the notorious Musa Mosque where he was radicalised.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens.

READ ALSO: Australia denies Kenyatta University student's lover killed in DusitD2 attack is its citizen

25-year-old Mahir Khalid Riziki was born in Mombasa. Photo: UGC.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: British hero soldier who stormed DusitD2 to save lives flown out of Kenya over security fear

Upon his radicalisation, the suspect was recruited into a terror gang which targeted security personnel in the area before fleeing to Tanzania in 2014 when authorities launched a crackdown.

The 25-year-old did not however stay for long in the neighbouring country as he continued with his extremist mission to join Somalia-based al-Shabaab in 2015 for further training.

According to police reports, the suicide bomber sneaked back into the country through porous Mandera border on Sunday, January 13, two days before the incident.

READ ALSO: Japhet Ndunguja: 26-year-old GSU officer killed while on duty during Dusit terror attack

Based on eyewitness' accounts, the attacker arrived at the DusitD2 Hotel much earlier than his accomplices apparently to scout and familiarise himself with the location.

Prior to the first explosion, Mahir was in constant communication with Ali Salim Gichunge whom the police say was part of seven-man squad and the grand master planner.

A CCTV footage at the 14 Riverside Drive area, captured Mahir on phone as he walks away into an open field, one passer-by is also seen making his way out.

READ ALSO: Violet Kemunto, wife of key terror suspect in 14 Riverside attack has degree in journalism

The passer-by, Abdulahi Ogelo told NTV he heard Manir demand whereabouts of the unknown caller who also was giving some instructions.

Minutes later, he blew himself up to signal start of the operation which claimed 21 lives and left several people with various injuries.

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.

Witness Narrates His Experience After 14 Riverside Terror Attack | Tuko TV

Source: Tuko- The government has reduced the age limit of second-hand cars from eight to five

- This regulation targets vehicles above 1500CC and will be effected beginning July 2019

- Trade Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya said the reduction of the age cap will be gradual

- By 2022, only brand new vehicles will be allowed into the country

- Move is perceived as government's strategy to ignite local manufacturing industry

The government has announced plans to reduce the age limit of second-hand cars imported into the country from eight to fives years.

This new regulation is expected to take effect beginning July, 2019 in a gradual plan to rid the country of used vehicles.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens.

READ ALSO: Bernadette Kongalo, DusitD2 revenue manager who lost her life while saving her colleagues

Only cars above 1500cc engine capacity will be affected by these new regulations. Photo: Nation

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: How much will you pay for importing a car from Japan to Kenya

According to Trade and Industry Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya, the regulations will affect vehicles above 1500CC/1.5 litre engine capacity.

This means Kenyans intending to import such vehicles will be forced to part with more cash to match the value of the newer cars.

"People who would want to purchase cars with bigger engine capacities will have to pay more because they will only be allowed to bring in the newer 5-year-old vehicles," Munya said.

According to the CS, the age limit ceiling for second-hand vehicles will be on a gradual reduction series so that only brand new vehicles will be allowed in the country by 2022.

The government is determined to end importation of second hand vehicles into the country by 2022. Photo: TUKO.co.ke

Source: Original

READ ALSO: IEBC advertises Ezra Chiloba's position 3 months after being fired by Wafula Chebukati

This new law is seen as part of the government's strategy to ignite and sustain local manufacturing of vehicles.

"Those who will need the fuel guzzlers need to have the financial muscle to get newer cars. Otherwise they will have to settle for smaller cars as we explore options of having locally assembled vehicles," Munya said.

In 2016 Parliament amended the Excise Duty Bill, 2015 which saw increased taxation of second-hand cars from overseas.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

Kenyans Donate to Victims Of 14 Riverside Attack - On Tuko TV

Source: TukoSeveral Heads of States have sent their messages of encouragement to President Uhuru Kenyatta and Kenyans in general after the Tuesday, January 15, terror attack at DusitD2 hotel that claimed 21 lives.

On Thursday, January 17, President of Somalia Mohamed Farmaajo sent his message condemning the attack and promising to stand in solidarity with Kenya in the fight against terror.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Police arrest 13 people in Mombasa in connection to DusitD2 attack

Somalia President Mohamed Farmaajo calls President Uhuru Kenyatta assuring of his government's commitment in the fight against terror. Photo: UGC

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Former Kiambu Governor William Kabogo commends Kenyans for expressing patriotism during DusitD2 attack

"I strongly condemn the terrorist attack in Nairobi. Our thoughts and prayers are with the government and the people of Kenya at this tragic time. Kenya is an important ally and a brotherly neighbour. Such heinous acts only serve to embolden our joint quest to vanquish terror," said Farmaajo.

Farmaajo confirmed he had spoken to Uhuru on phone and assured him his government was ready to cooperate in the fight against terrorism.

READ ALSO: CJ Maraga's condolence message to families of dusitD2 attack victims sets Twitter ablaze

Farmaajo's message came after several other leaders sent their message of condolence and encouragement to the families affected.

Already, several people have been arrested in connection to the attack as police continue with investigations. '

While addressing the nation, the Head of State assured Kenyans the government could bring all culprits to book.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news

Kenyans Angered by New York Times Coverage of 14 Riverside Attack | Tuko TV

Source: Tuko NewspaperEast Greenbush

Ashby calls for Wadsworth Center to be located in E. GreenbushBy Alvaro Huerta

January 18, 2019 " Information Clearing House " - The historical ties of Mexican immigrants to the U.S., specifically the Southwest, distinguishes people of Mexican origin from other immigrant groups, especially those from Europe. While Mexican immigrants continue to be demonized and characterized as criminals, drug dealers, rapists, illegal aliens and invaders by American leaders and millions of white citizens, they have essentially become foreigners in their own land.

In his infamous article, The Hispanic Threat, the late Dr. Samuel P. Huntington of Harvard claimed that Latinas/os in general and individuals of Mexican origin in particular represented an existential threat to the U.S. By studying history, however, we can easily dismiss racist labels and false narratives by small-minded American leaders, scholars and citizens. Moreover, we can learn the true history about the actual invaders. For instance, in progressive history books, like Dr. Ronald Takakis A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, we learn that white Americans gradually migrated into what is now known as Texas during the 1820s. While the Mexican government allowed for whites to settle in this foreign territory, the authorities did so under the assumption that the Americans adopt Mexican customs, learn Spanish and intermarry with the native population. This originally occurred without much conflict, which reveals the openness of the Mexican government and its people towards foreigners.

By 1826, according to Takaki, then-President John Quincy Adams offered the Mexican government $1 million for Texas, where the Mexican government refused. Once Mexico outlawed slavery in 1830, however, American slaver owners, along with other white settlers, rebelled and formed The Republic of Texas in 1836. By 1845, it was annexed into the United States.

It appears to me that the white settlers or gringos took the Mexicans literally when the hosts generously said, Mi casa es su casa.

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Once the U.S. government annexed Texas, it didnt take the government long to pursue additional territory via the U.S. war against Mexico (1846 to 1848), as documented by key Chicana/o historians, such as Dr. Juan Gomez-Quinones, Dr. Deena J. Gonzalez and Dr. Rudolfo Rudy Acuna. Based on the false idea of Manifest Destiny, this imperialist war represented a bloody and greedy land grab, where Acuna documents in his classic book, Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, as a religious doctrine with roots in Puritan ideas, which continue to influence U.S. thought to this day. After the U.S. forced Mexico to sign the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, Mexico lost half of its territory. Although the Mexicans who decided to reside in the U.S. were protected under the treaty, which included their ancestral lands, the U.S. Congress quickly ratified the treaty, where Mexicans eventually lost their lands through the courts, illegal acts and violent means by white citizens and the state.

Thus, when we think about Mexican immigration to el norte, we must examine it under this historical context. That is, unlike the millions of European immigrants who travelled across an entire ocean to settle in North America, Mexicans have always occupied this land or called it home until it was stolen from them by military force. Moreover, like in the case of Native Americans and the brutal history of broken treaties by the U.S. government, the Mexicans in el norte lost their basic rights under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Given their historical memory, this is one reason why the millions of Mexicans who make their journey to the U.S. (with or without legal status), especially to the Southwest, dont view themselves as law breakers or so-called illegals.

Like the homingpigeon, the Mexican is simply returning to the motherland.

Despite the loss of their ancestral lands, the impact or contributions of Mexicans (immigrants, residents and citizens) to American cities, suburbs, rural communities and agricultural fields during the past 170 years has been positive, overall. Moreover, while Mexicans in el norte dont receive the credit that they deserve, theyve contributed greatly (and continue to the present) in many areas of American society and its economy, including agriculture, music, art, construction, infrastructure, transportation (e.g., railroads, freeways, roads), medicine, mining, ranching, science, the military, the academy and beyond. Essentially, theres no doubt that individuals of Mexican origin played a key role (to the present) to help make this country into the richest, most advanced and powerful country in the world.

Despite being defeated militarily during the 1800s and experiencing institutional racism, Mexicans have migrated to this countryalong with those whove settled prior to the U.S. war against Mexicoto work, create jobs, study, serve in the military, raise families, etc. For instance, during the second half of the 19th Century, Mexican immigrants and their offspring represented a key labor force in agriculture, railroad construction, mining and other key sectors. However, instead of being rewarded for their labor contributions with adequate financial compensation and upward mobility opportunities, theyve experienced racism (to the present) in the workforce and beyond. For example, according to Takaki, working on white-owned ranches in Texas, Mexican laborer[s] found themselves in a caste system  a racially stratified occupational hierarchy.

During the 1800s and most of the 1900s, it was very common to see Mexicans and Chicanas/os (Mexican-Americans) employed as laborers/workers, while whites worked as supervisors or managers. This racial hierarchy in the workforce, along with the unequal educational system, has limited the occupational status of Mexican immigrants and Chicanas/os. Yet, despite being relegated to the bottom of the economic workforce, which included agricultural programs like the Bracero Programthe U.S.-Mexico guest worker program of the mid-19thcenturythe Mexican people in el norte have a strong tradition of organizing for social and economic justice. For example, according to Takaki, in 1903,  hundreds of Mexicans and Japanese farm workers went on strike in Oxnard, California. This is just one example, apart from the case of the United Farm Workers (UFW) and Brown Berets of the 1960s and 1970s, where Mexicans and Chicanas/os defended their labor and civil rights through labor strikes, civil disobedience, protests, marches and so on.

Moreover, despite being a racial minority in this country, Mexicans and Chicanas/os served in the military in higher rates compared to whites. According to Acuna, during WWII, while Chicanas/os represented only 2.69 million residents in the U.S., between 375,000 to 500,000 Chicanos served in the war. Despite their contributions and sacrifices, it didnt stop the U.S. government from implementing Operation Wetback in early 1954, where Mexican immigrants and Chicanas/os were deported in mass to Mexico. Its obvious to me that their military and labor contributions werent appreciated by the U.S. government, after all.

As a of son of Mexican immigrants, this issue is not just an academic exercise for me. Its also personal. For instance, like millions of her paisanas, while my late mother Carmen toiled in the informal economy as a domestic worker in this country for many decades, middle- and upper-class whites pursued economic opportunities and leisure activities outside of the household. Similarly, like millions of his paisanos, while my late father Salomon first arrived in this country to pick fruits and vegetables during the Bracero Program, where he was forced to abandon his family and rural community, American families enjoyed the fruits of his labor in the comfort of their homes and restaurants.

At the end of the day, my late parents never received the adequate financial rewards or benefits of their labor and sacrifice, such as good wages, upward mobility opportunities, educational opportunities and homeownership.

In my expert opinion, based on my advanced degrees from UCLA and Berkeley, interdisciplinary scholarship, civic engagement experience and public policy background, it will take many generations to come for millions of Mexicans and Chicanas/os in el norte to one day obtain the elusive American Dream.

Dr. Alvaro Huerta is an assistant professor of urban and regional planning and ethnic and womens studies at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is the author of Reframing the Latino Immigration Debate: Towards a Humanistic Paradigm, published by San Diego State University Press (2013).

This article was originally published by " Counterpunch " -

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Peace and joyA new report released by a local based civil society organization has accused the government of Uganda for continued stifling of internet freedoms.

The report released on Friday by Unwanted Witness, a civil society organization that advocates for safe and accessible online platforms for the realization of human rights says the year 2018 had government implement measures to crack down on internet users in Uganda.

One of the most alarming digital rights violation was the passing of the Excise Duty Amendment Act 2018 which introduced charges on the use of social media in Uganda. The social media tax has with no doubt negatively impacted on low income Ugandans and their ability to access internet as a human right, the report says.

Stories Continues after ad

Every internet user in Uganda is required to pay a daily social media tax of 200 in order to access social media sites including Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram among others like Snapchact, Tagged, Badoo.

The report says the new tax was one of the ways the Ugandan government stifled freedoms of citizens to enjoy internet.

One step forward and two steps back is the best way to describe efforts by Ugandans to gain the constitutionality laid out freedoms of speech and expression, says the report.

The report points out the Computer Misuse Act, 2011 which it says has been evoked to arrest and detain a number of Ugandans who use the internet.

The now notorious cyber law has been widely and repeatedly evoked to arrest, detain and interrogate journalists, activists, bloggers, human rights defenders and opposition politicians in the bid to gang dissent, stifle freedom of speech, and generally violate digital rights.

The report adds: Just like sedition, the Computer Misuse Act, 2011 is used to perpetually keep victims in and out of either police or court rooms since none of the cases has ever been conclusively determined. Section 25 of the Act has been a potent weapon.

Speaking at the launch of the report, Unwanted Witness Chief Executive Officer, Dorothy Mukasa alleged that members of the first family have used the Computer Misuse Act of 2011 to stifle internet freedoms for many citizens.

Members of the first family have prominently featured as the highly offended group by internet users but none of them has ever come to court to testify about the same, Mukasa says.

The report has also indicated that journalists at 80 per cent were the most affected members of the community by the various internet laws in 2018 adding that a number of them have been arrested and detained using the Computer Misuse Act 2011.

Online editors including Richard Wanambwa (Eagle Online), Giles Muhame (Chimpreports), Darius Mugisha(Matooke Republic), Tadeo Ssenyonyi (Business Focus), John Njoroge (formerly CEO Magazine), Bob Atwine(Spy Reports) and Andrew Irumba of the Spy have been mentioned as journalists who have been victims to cyber laws in 2018

Majority of these continue to battle with the charges at the Criminal Investigations Department headquarters in Kibuli.

The report however, said internet penetration and usage in Uganda has continued to grow in the year 2018 adding that 13 million people out of the over 40 people in Uganda now use the internet.

It is also said that many people have continued to use internet to express themselves and also fight for their rights from being violated by others.

The report calls upon a number of stakeholders to ensure section 25 of the Computer Misuse Act, 2011 is nullified in order to protect freedom of expression as a cornerstone for democracy.This is a long overdue letter of thanks to the Public Health Department of the Division of Health, Wellness and Family Development of the THA.

We, the residents of Calder Hall Trace, Scarborough, have long enjoyed excellent service from the sanitation workers who operate in our neighbourhood.Three Opposition MPs are calling on the Government and the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) to have a heart and stop disconnecting the water supply of errant customers during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Barataria/San Juan MP Saddam Hosein yesterday wrote to WASAs executive director Lennox Sealey urging him to suspend the drive and display humanity as people are suffering and strapped for cash in the pandemic given the lockdowns.THE legislative road has been paved for the decriminalisation of pepper spray in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Firearms (Amendment) Bill 2021 was passed yesterday in the House of Representatives with no objection.Do you have a news tip?

Want to share good news story, or do you have information that should see the light of day? Then we want to hear from you.

More here





By Vijay Prashad

January 18, 2019 " Information Clearing House " - On January 10Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for his second term as president of Venezuela. I tell the people, Maduro said, this presidential sash is yours. The power of this sash is yours. It does not belong to the oligarchy or to imperialism. It belongs to the sovereign people of Venezuela.

These two termsoligarchy and imperialismdefine the problems faced by Maduros new government.

Oligarchy

Despite 10 years of governance by the socialist forcesfirst led by Hugo Chavez and now by Madurothe Venezuelan oligarchy remains firmly intact. It dominates large sections of the economy, holds immense amounts of the countrys social wealth and controls the main media outlets. A walk through the Altamira neighborhood in eastern Caracas is sufficient to gauge the resilience of the wealthy, most of whom have homes in Spain and in Florida as well. Pelucones is the name used to define thembigwigs, a term with aristocratic connotations. They have resisted all attempts by the socialist Bolivarian movement to expand political and economic democracy in the country.

This oligarchy, through its media, controls the political and social narrative, defining the nature of Venezuelas crisis to its advantage. For this small sliver of the population, all of Venezuelas serious problems are blamed on the Maduro movement. None of the problems are laid on the doorstep of their long domination of Venezuela nor do they cast an eye at the United States, which has tried to suffocate the Bolivarian revolution since 1999.

Imperialism

Imperialism is a word that is rarely used these days. It is relegated to histories of colonialism in the distant past. There is little understanding of the suffocating way that financial firms and multinational businesses drive their agenda against the development aspirations of the poorer nations. There is even less understanding about the muscular attitude of countries such as the United States, Canada and the Europeans against states that they deem to be a problem.

Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter

The gunsights were once firmly on West Asia and North Africaon Iraq, Libya, Syria and Iranbut now they are focused on Latin Americaon Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. These countries face economic sanctions and embargoes, threats of annihilation, covert operations and war. The definition of imperialism is simple: if you dont do what we tell you to do, well destroy you.

Pressure on Venezuela has been intense. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for the overthrow of the Bolivarian government, led by Maduro. Sanctions have been ratcheted up. Economic warfare has become normal. Threats of a military invasion are in the air.

Lima Group

On January 4, the Lima Group of 13 Latin American governments and Canada said that it would not recognize Maduro as the president of Venezuela. Behind them sits the U.S. State Department, which has put pressure along the hemisphere for the isolation of Venezuela as well as Cuba and Nicaragua. The U.S. State Department characterized the inauguration of the new president as Maduros illegitimate usurpation of power. Diplomatic language has dissolved into this kind of crudity.

The Lima Group was set up for one reason: to overthrow the current government of Venezuela. It has no other purpose. Sanctions and diplomatic withdrawals are part of the Lima Groups arsenal. Buoyed by the election of far right-wing politicians such as Brazils Jair Bolsonaro and enthused by the fulminations of Trump, the Lima Group has tightened the pressure.

Argentinas Mauricio Macri went to Brasilia to meet Bolsonaro, where he condemned the dictatorship of Maduro, and accused himpersonallyof being responsible for the difficulties in Venezuela. This is harsh language, rhetoric that sets in motion a dangerous push toward regime change in Venezuela.

The Lima Groups violations of the UN Charter have been helped along by the Organization of American States, which held an extraordinary session to push its members to take economic and diplomatic steps for the restoration of democratic order in Venezuela. It perhaps needs to be emphasized that restoration of democratic order is a euphemism for regime change.

When U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley tried to draw the UN Security Council into such languageof dictatorships and regime changeshe was rebuffed by the other members. In November 2017, for instance, Bolivia, China, Egypt and Russia boycotted an informal meeting called by Haley. No other such meeting has been possible. There is worry that the Trump administration will attempt in Venezuela what the Obama administration conducted in Honduras, or worse, what the Bush administration conducted in Iraq.

It Begins

Maduro was not permitted to take his oath in the National Assembly. He was blocked by Juan Guaido, leader of the opposition. That is why Maduro took his oath in the Supreme Court, a procedure that is validated by the Constitution.

Strikingly, the head of the Organization of American Statesthe Uruguayan politician Luis Almagrosent out a tweet that welcomed Juan Guaido as the president. Guaido, to his credit, had not claimed the presidency. It was, instead, a foreign official from a regional body that has superseded the Venezuelan people and attempted to install a new president in Caracas.

More chilling has been the words from the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his department. Pompeo, in a tweet, wrote, The time is NOW for a return to democracy in Venezuela. The word nowin capitalssuggests that Pompeo is clear that there needs to be no procedures, only a coup. The day after this tweet, Pompeos department said, Its time to begin the orderly transition to a new government. One does not need to read between the lines to know that this is a call for regime change, for a coup, and that it comes from Washington, D.C.

Trumps national security adviserJohn Boltoncoined the phrase troika of tyranny that includes Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. It is plain as day that the United States wants to overthrow the governments in each of these countries, and perhaps Bolivia as well. These are dangerous portents.

Those troops that Trump is withdrawing from Syria might not be going home anytime soon. They might find themselves deployed soon enough on the beaches of Punto Fijo, facing a Bay of Pigs style resistance from the Chavistas.

Vijay Prashad

is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at

Globetrotter

, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He is the chief editor of

LeftWord Books

and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He has written more than twenty books, including

The Darker Nations: A Peoples History of the Third World

(The New Press, 2007),

The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South

(Verso, 2013),

The Death of the Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution

(University of California Press, 2016) and

Red Star Over the Third World

(LeftWord, 2017). He writes regularly for Frontline, the Hindu, Newsclick, AlterNet and BirGun.

This article was produced by

Globetrotter

, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here

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We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites.

Thank you for your support.

Peace and joysanjiv@tribunemail.com

London, January 18

Britons who have changed their minds since voting to leave the European Union in 2016 are among those uniting to call for another chance to reverse the decision. These "Remainer now" voters, former Brexit supporters, are adding their voices to the chorus of calls for a second referendum amid political paralysis in Britain over the issue.

Gary Maylin, 38, from Norwich in eastern England, said he originally backed leaving the bloc after more than four decades of membership because he "wanted sovereignty for the UK". He recalled facing a barrage of pro-Brexit sentiment at the time which influenced his choice. My MP was

(pro-)Leave, all arguments I heard were for Leave, he said. "So I decided the EU was to blame for a lot of the things that were going wrong  the inability of our government to control our destiny."

The world's fifth-largest economy is in political turmoil and grasping for solutions that could smooth its planned departure from the bloc just 10 weeks from now. British Prime Minister Theresa May is scrambling to put together a new Brexit strategy after MPs rejected her EU divorce deal, but admitted on Thursday that she cannot rule out a potentially damaging no-deal split.

Maylin was among 51.9 per cent of voters to support leaving the bloc in the nationwide referendum two and-a-half years ago, trumping the 48.1 per cent who went for Remain. But he says he would now "absolutely" vote the other way. "I've come to appreciate that we are not going to... succeed as a nation on our own," Maylin explained, adding "walking away isn't working for us". "We really benefit from being strong as a united Europe rather than independent as a country," he said.

Earlier this week, Maylin joined a dozen or so other Brexit converts who headed to Westminster, the epicentre of political power, to tell British MPs why they now want another referendum. The meeting was organised by "RemainerNow", an initiative launched by a Europhile, Andrew Davidson, in his spare time with a presence online.  AFP

May calls EU leaders on next steps

Brussels: British PM Theresa May spoke to EU leaders Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk by telephone on Friday to discuss where to go next on Brexit. Discussed with PM @theresa_may the next steps on the UK side. #Brexit, tweeted Tusk, who represents EU leaders as president of the European Council May also spoke with the head of the EU executive, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, at her request.pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Tapachula (Mexico), January 19

Hundreds of mostly Honduran migrants entered southern Mexico on Friday, joining around 1,000 other people from Central America who crossed a day earlier and putting to the test Mexicos vows to guarantee the safe and orderly flow of people.

The cohort crossed the Guatemalan border into Chiapas state before dawn without needing the wrist bands that Mexican officials on Thursday gave migrants to wear until they could register with authorities, several migrants and an official told Reuters.

The road today was open, said Marco Antonio Cortez, 37, a baker from Honduras traveling with his wife and children, ages 2 and 9. They didnt give us bracelets or anything, they just let us pass through Mexico migration.

A migration official at the entry point, who asked not to be named because she was not authorized to speak to media, said that at least 1,000 people crossed from Guatemala into Mexico before dawn, without putting on wrist bands.

Asked why migrants did not receive wrist bands, David Leon, the director of civil protection, said authorities faced a caravan of hundreds of people early in the morning and let them pass rather than risk a confrontation.

The migrant group proceeded on foot alongside cars on a highway, accompanied by federal police officers, arriving at a shelter in the city of Tapachula around midday.

Sitting by the side of the road rubbing cream onto his childrens feet, 40-year-old Honduran migrant Santos Pineda said he and his family entered Mexico easily, and without having to provide documents or wear any wrist bands. The familys plan was to press on to the United States, he said.

A migration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said those who entered without wrist bands ran the risk of being detained for crossing illegally.

Around 300 mostly Honduran migrants with wrist bands were still waiting to cross into Mexico on Friday afternoon.

Mexicos migration institute said the migrants can stay in temporary shelters in Mexico until they receive humanitarian visas allowing them to remain in the country, or they can wait in Guatemala for their document to be ready.

Groups of migrants left El Salvador and Honduras earlier in the week, the latest in a string of caravans of people largely fleeing poverty and violence.

The caravans have inflamed the debate over US immigration policy, with President Donald Trump using the migrants to try to secure backing for his plan to build a wall on the US-Mexican border.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is pursuing a humanitarian approach to the problem, vowing to stem the flow of people by finding jobs for the migrants. In exchange, he wants Trump to help spur economic development in the region. Reuterspardeepdhull@gmail.com

Narathiwat (Thailand), January 19

Unknown gunmen shot dead two Buddhist monks and injured two others in an attack at a temple in Thailands mainly Muslim south, the first such killing of a Buddhist monk in the restive region in more than three years.

An abbot and vice abbot were killed when at least six assailants believed to be dressed as members of a government security force burst into the Rattanupap temple in Narathiwat province and opened fire late on Friday, police said.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha and religious leaders condemned the attack in the mainly ethnic Malay province, the scene of a long-running insurgency against Thai rule.

The prime minister condemns this outrageous act and has ordered officials to quickly investigate the incident and apprehend these criminals, the prime ministers office said in a statement.

Thai Muslim leaders also spoke out against the shooting of monks.

We urge perpetrators of violence in the southern border provinces from all sides to stop killing innocent people and religious leaders, the Sheikhul Islam Office, which represents Thailands Muslim minority, said in a statement.

Police said the assailants were still at large.

A separatist insurgency has dragged on in southern Thailand for more than fifteen years. More than 6,900 people have been killed and 13,000 injured in the area since 2004 when violence intensified, independent monitoring group Deep South Watch says.

Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist country but Muslim Malays are a majority in three southern provinces bordering Malaysia.

The three provinces, and a small part of neighbouring Songkhla, were part of a sultanate annexed by Thailand in 1909.

Separatist tensions have simmered ever since.

As with most violence in Thailands deep south, there was no claim of responsibility for Fridays attack. Buddhist and Muslim leaders as well as state officials have often been targeted by insurgents.

At least 23 monks have been killed and more than 20 wounded since 2004, but there has not been an attack on monks since 2015. An imam was shot on Jan. 11, also in Narathiwat province.

The killings have added a religious dimension to a conflict that initially was rooted in ethnic and national tensions.

Many Buddhists, not just in the south but across the country, are feeling aggrieved by Muslims, and it will take time for that to change, Rakchart Suwan, chairman of the Buddhist Network for Peace, told Reuters.

Analysts said the latest incident showed that insurgent group Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) retained significant military capacity despite government efforts to wipe it out.

Regardless of BRNs specific objectives with this attack, the Thai government would be very foolish not to consider the danger of a toxic communal atmosphere in the south which could get out of control, Anthony Davis, an analyst with defence and security publisher Janes, told Reuters.

The Thai military government has taken part since 2015 in talks brokered by Malaysia that aim to end the violence but the BRN has stayed out of the dialogue.

That process was stalled last year and Bangkok has signaled that it will return to the talks this year. Reuterssanjiv@tribunemail.com

Islamabad, January 18

Pakistans Supreme Court has ordered the federal government to promulgate a new law within a fortnight to grant more rights, including fundamental human rights, to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

A seven-judge Bench headed by Justice Saqib Nisar issued a detailed order in response to several petitions filed against constitutional issues and previous reforms in the region. The Bench wrote that the jurisdiction and power of the SC extend to Gilgit-Baltistan.

The Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi last year conveyed its stand to Pakistan that the entire state of J&K, which also includes the so-called Gilgit-Baltistan, is an integral part of India by virtue of its accession in 1947.

The Bench said the regions courts did not have constitutional powers to deal with issues within Pakistan, but the people from the region will be able to challenge their top courts decisions in the SC of Pakistan. It also ordered that the people of the region should be given fundamental human rights as provided in the proposed constitutional order, which was made part of the detailed order.

Noting the international status of Kashmir, of which Gilgit-Baltistan is a part, the order said that as and when the promised plebiscite is organised by the parties to the dispute, it will be up to the people of all of J&K, and of Gilgit-Baltistan, to make their choice. It also said until the plebiscite, it is surely incumbent upon both India as well as Pakistan to ensure that the people of this region enjoy maximum rights for areas within each countrys control.

However, it noted that until the plebiscite is held, an arrangement must be provided by Pakistan for the people of Gilgit-Baltistan for governance within a framework of a constitutional nature.  PTI

India protests order

New Delhi: India on Friday summoned the Deputy High Commissioner of Pakistan and lodged a protest over the Gilgit-Baltistan order. The Deputy High Commissioner of Pakistan was summoned and a protest was lodged on recent SC order on the so-called Gilgit-Baltistan which is an interference in Indias internal affairs, the MEA said. It was reiterated that the entire state of J&K, which also includes the so-called Gilgit-Baltistan has been, is and shall remain an integral part of India. TNSuttara@tribuneindia.com

El-Arish, January 19

Egyptian security officials say a Christian man who has been kidnapped by suspected Islamic militants in the Sinai Peninsula is a police forensic expert.

They identified him Saturday as 45-year-old Adeeb Nakhlah, who lived and worked in el-Arish until 2017 when he fled following a spate of attacks targeting Christians there.

The officials did not say whether Thursday's kidnapping of Nakhlah was planned given his profession.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Militants led by the Islamic State group have for years been battling security forces in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula.

The militants have targeted Christians since December 2016, killing more than a 100 of them in attacks on churches and buses carrying pilgrims to remote monasteries.  APpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Ottawa, January 19

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau renewed calls for the release of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi after meeting his wife on Friday, calling the issue a priority for him and all Canadians.

Trudeau said Canadians view of Saudi Arabia had been defined in part by its treatment of Badawi, who was jailed for 10 years for insulting Islam and has received 50 lashes of 1,000 to which he was sentenced.

Badawis wife and three children have lived in Canada since being granted asylum in 2013, a year after his jailing.

Freeing Raif Badawi is a priority not just for me and for his family but for all Canadians, Trudeau said.

We continue to try to convince the Saudis and apply pressure on them both behind the scenes and in public to liberate Raif Badawi, including asking for a pardon, he said.

Trudeau said he had raised the case in conversation with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, highlighting Badawis status as the face of Canada-Saudi relations.

The two leaders met at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires in early December.

Its the same message that I delivered a few months earlier to the King of Saudi Arabia when we spoke by telephone, Trudeau added.

Canada-Saudi relations soured last August after Ottawa demanded the immediate release of jailed human rights campaigners, including Badawis sister Samar.

The kingdom reacted with fury, expelling the Canadian ambassador and severing all trade and investment ties in protest.

Canadas granting of asylum last week to a young Saudi woman, Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, who fled her family, was widely expected to further strain relations with the kingdom.  AFPBy Danny Sjursen

January 18, 2019 " Information Clearing House " - As the nation continued to reel from President Donald Trumps shock decision last month to remove all U.S. troops from Syria, news came Wednesday that an unknown number of U.S. soldiers were among at least 15 killed in a bombing in northern Syria. Amid such continued violence, one would think the presidents withdrawal would have ever more urgency. And yet, just about everyone in Washington has attacked his decision to pull out.

The reflexive hatred for Trump that dominates the national conversation is bad for the U.S., especially when it comes to foreign policy. This is not to say that the president isnt a flawed figure; after all, Ive spent the better part of two years critiquing most of his policies. Still, when the man demonstrates prudent judgmentas in his recent calls to pull U.S. troops out of Syria and Afghanistanhe should be applauded. But thats unlikely to happen in a divided America, as long as an interventionist, bipartisan consensus runs the show in Washington.

Some call it the deep state, others the swampbut the terminology hardly matters at this point. This forever-war crowd of congressional members, media pundits, arms industry CEOs and semiretired generals holds the reins on foreign policy in ways that are counter to the war-exhaustion instincts of both Trump and the American public. And it has to stop.

Thatll be no easy task, of course, as the military-industrial-congressional complex has gathered ever more power in the generations since President Dwight D. Eisenhowera Republicancoined the term. Still, theres one way, in the near term, to expose Beltway bellicosity on foreign affairs: Force Congress to publicly debate and vote on each of Americas ongoing wars. Lets start with Syria, since its there that President Trump has a rare opportunity to shift the onus of responsibility for the bloody conflagration onto U.S. representatives. And thats the last thing cowardly congressional members want.

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Legislators in Washingtonimitating the media pundits they increasingly resembleprefer only to yell, scream and tweet about every foreign policy move this president makes. Some of Trumps actions have undoubtedly been unacceptable, but whenever he goes with his instincts and recommends troop withdrawals and less war in the Middle East, hes immediately castigated by politicians from both sides of the aisle. Ranging from New Jersey Democrats like Bob Menendez to stalwart Southern Republican hawks such as Lindsey Graham, theyre all essentially selling the same snake oil: perpetual war.

Not that these members of Congress do anything about ittheyre all talk. In that sense, theyre no more useful than the mainstream media pundits peddling the same militarist agenda. The Senate traditionally has a powerful role in overseas policy, but these days, all the Foreign Relations Committee chairs and co-chairs do is give interviews in the Capitol Rotunda. Conservative constitutionalists must recall that its Congress thats supposed to declare wars, whereas the president only executes the chosen policy. So instead of squawking about Trumps isolationism and irresponsibility in Mideast affairs, these empty suits should head back into their deliberative chambers and craft some alternative policy for a change.

None of this is new. The executive branch has increased its size, scope and power in foreign policy since at least World War II. Nevertheless, its not too late to rectify part of this unconstitutional state of affairs. After all, on Syria and Afghanistan, Trump has the strategic high ground, in that the wars are aimless failures, and the support of a majority of Americans who are sick of endless war and ready to bring the troops home. In a sense, thats exactly what Trump ran on: ending stupid wars.

But the militarist elites dont care what the peopleespecially Trumps supporterswant. As far as theyre concerned, they alone know whats good for America. Or so theyd have us believe. In reality, whether theyre election-obsessed legislators or ratings-obsessed media moguls, these interventionists all serve the same corporate masters. They play politics even when livesboth of U.S. troops and countless civiliansare at stake. That goes for pugnacious Republicans of the Lindsey Graham mold, as well as hypocritical media celebrities like Rachel Maddow and her Democratic fan club. On the ostensible left, were even seeing an entire generation of born-again hawks rise in opposition to any and all de-escalation, even if those same liberal politicians and pundits would likely celebrate the same decision were it made by President Barack Obama.

With this in mind, Trump should send future Syria and Afghanistan policy to Congress, forcing its members to debate and publicly vote for either more or less war. Congress, with the exception of the recent Yemen War resolution, hasnt done so since October 2002. At the very least, constituents would finally know where their representatives stand on our many wars and could hold representatives accountable should they choose to follow strategic inertia and prolong these unpopular conflicts.

The health of American democracy depends on adhering to the Constitution and its representative institutions. Legislatorsnot unelected presidential advisers, media pundits and retired generalsshould decide on matters of war and peace. Thats why Americans shouldnt canonize men like former Secretary of Defense Jim Mad Dog Mattis. This darling of the mainstream left and right was neither martyr nor missionary.

At every turn, it appears, he and his allegedly self-described Committee to Save America, subverted Trumps popular intention to end decades-long wars. That wasnt his jobor John Kellys or H. R. McMastersso in some ways, resigning was the most appropriate decision for Mattis. Note that the secretary of defense chose to finally fall on his sword not over U.S. support for starving 85,000 Yemeni children, but in response to a modest de-escalation from an aimless military intervention in Syria. A curious ethical decision to say the least.

Mattis wasnt the only one on the presidents team to disapprove of the withdrawal. Just take national security adviser John Bolton, who at every turn seems to backtrack or soften the blow of the presidents policies. Bolton works harder than anyone in Washington to continueor even radically expandU.S. military involvement in the Middle East. Though his actions would seem to run counter to Trumps recent anti-interventionist announcements, Bolton remains a fixture in a very confusing White House.

This is yet another reason the life-and-death decisions of war and peace must be decided in publicnot in the West Wing or corporate boardrooms, but rather on the floors of the Senate and the House of Representatives. If the bipartisan crowd of congressional members whove been so critical of Trumps proposed Mideast withdrawals sincerely believe that more war is the answer, let them cast their vote accordingly.

Even if ultimately the citizenry proves apathetic and fails to hold its representatives accountable, a public war debate and vote would be refreshing. Its the least that my fellow soldiersand our many nameless victimsdeserve.editorial@tribune.com

Ranjit Powar

Have you have ever heard of a monk who got away with, neigh, worshipped for celebration of carnal pleasures banned in most religions? One such lucky maverick monk was Drupka Kunley, who is credited with bringing Buddhism from Tibet to Bhutan. Drupka Kunley used unconventional and blasphemous methods to teach an ultra-liberal form of Buddhism to the common man, very much at odds with the austere monastic Buddhism. He indulged freely in wine and women and also came to be known as The saint of 5000 women. Happiness, he is quoted to have said, lies at the bottom of the wine pail and below the navel.

He came to be known as a Divine Madman for his extraordinary antics and has been worshipped as a fertility deity and a protector against evil in a deeply superstitious Bhutanese society. The Divine Madman is symbolised with a phallus, which is a totem of the Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom and considered to be a potent charm against lurking evil. Many houses in Bhutan depict huge, unabashed images of male penises on their outer walls, and also display carved wooden icons of erect phalluses in various colours and styles. You can also find these being sold in many shops, and there is no embarrassment about them.

The folklore of this merry madman leads one to Chimi Lhakhang, the fertility temple situated on the outskirts of the city of Punakha, built in 1499 in dedication to Drupka Kunley. According to popular legend, the monk destroyed and buried a dog demoness at this spot. Visitors to the Chimi Lhakhang temple park their vehicles at Sopsokha village, which has come up with a couple of cheerful shops selling all forms and sizes of brightly painted wooden phalluses, Bhutanese Thangkha panels and gemstones for the tourist and a small eatery.

A long, ascending trek over uneven boulders lies between the village and the Fertility Temple. It is a charming path through resplendent green paddy fields and open countryside, but can be rather daunting for the aged and the weak. Hawkers selling cheap gemstone jewellery, scarves and local knickknacks squat on sides of the path, and little children try to sell small handmade lucky charms. The tedious climb to the hilltop proves worthwhile when one reaches the top to look at the serene, old temple with a beautiful, white, brown and golden facade. There is a huge prayer wheel before one climbs up to a stone-tiled platform. A hoary old banyan tree stands grandly in the centre of a paved courtyard, its leaves swaying gently to the breeze. A black Chorten under which the Divine Madman is said to have trapped the dog-demoness also stands here. One enters the stupa and temple hall to see many phallus symbols displayed on the walls through paintings and carvings.

Inside the centre of the hall stands a large statue of Padmasambhava on an altar, along with the Divine Madman next to it. The temple houses the original 10 inch wooden phallus decorated with a silver handle, supposed to be brought from Tibet by the monk and still used to bless visitors who throng the temple to be blessed with a child or merely to pay obeisance. The tradition is to strike pilgrims on the head with this phallus totem to bestow a child to an aspiring couple and drive away the evil eye and malice.

The child monks playing outside the monastery give it a feeling of good cheer and one can almost fathom the wistfulness of faith in the eyes of couples praying to the Divine Madman.

Fact File

Getting there: Drive to Punakha from Paro or Thimpu.

Best time to visit: March to May, September to November. It is a good idea to visit while entering or leaving Punakha.

Handy tip: An additional permit is needed to visit Punakha, which can be obtained from Thimpu.singhking99@yahoo.com

Tanushree Ghosh Dhall

Almost all Punjabis in the US have these things in common: theyll probably be in the restaurant business (either as owners or chefs); they usually stick together and you can never take Punjab out of their heart. These typical traits of this inclusive community are bound to generate stereotypes about them.

There is nothing unusual about bonding with ones community, especially in foreign lands where the community acts more like an extended family. Within the fold of any community, there are tremendously intrinsic, individualistic stories of the diaspora which are either lost or not talked about enough. These stories break the stereotype by moulding it and give lifes lessons worth learning for members of all communities.

Building interfaith bridges

Dr Jaswant Singh Sachdev, a Phoenix-based neurologist, and a faculty member of Carl T. Hayden Veteran Administration Medical Center, is a prominent speaker and author of four books. His is one such success story. Talking about the issues that the Sikh diaspora faces in the US, his answer is quite honest but not unexpected. He feels the unique identity of Sikhs and their faith puts them at a disadvantage, both at home and abroad. And it is no different in the US. The boisterousness of their psyche makes the Sikhs stand out and sometimes victimised, which often turn out cases of mistaken identity.

Dr Sachdev has experienced this victimisation first hand. Brother of his close friend was shot point blank in front of his gas station post 9/11 in his hometown of Phoenix. But remaining true to his faith, he endeavoured to stop spread of animosity further. His actions went beyond awareness dialogues and campaigns that often affected loved ones choose to pursue after tragedies or hate crimes. He started going to churches, colleges, schools, inviting people of different faiths to gurdwaras and gave information about Sikhs, who they are what they stand for. He also started a monthly homeless dinner for the homeless. He would bring 10 to 15 Sikh volunteers and provisions to cook simple vegetarian hot meals onsite that would serve more than 200 homeless persons at the Phoenix Rescue Mission.

And he has continued this selfless service for 20 years without fail.

Dr Sachdevs mission of live and let live didnt stop here. He also started the Arizona Interfaith Movement that helps people of any faith encountering difficulties due to their religion or nationality.. It holds an annual interfaith event where people of different faiths get together for an interfaith dialogue. The langar at this event is provided by members of the Sikh community under his supervision to the hundreds who show up. A gala event is also held in the last week of October or first week of November at Heritage Square in Downtown Phoenix.

Giving back to the community

Author, entrepreneur, speaker and management consultant, Raveen Arora is a diversity champion and founder of Think Human. A restaurant owner, he has opened a community centre, adjacent to his restaurant, The Dhaba.

He started the centre in a rundown area where drug abuse and homelessness were rampant with a mission of giving back to the community. He is now a major enabler of the economy of the suburb. He has donated the land adjacent to his plaza for a ramp for the disabled and crosswalk which enables nearly 1,500 residents in the neighbourhood to safely access the bus stop, nearby shopping services, and the light-rail station. He also provides interest-free loans to bright students working in his restaurant.

His is not only a story of giving back in gratitude but a gritty rags-to-riches story as well. Arora, who is an accountant by profession, had extremely humble beginnings in poverty and hunger. From someone who faced ravages of polio as a refugee in the streets of Kolkata during his childhood, he has built a career and reputation that has seen recognition from heads of states (including President Carter) and industry leaders.

His beliefs and principles are as simple as his beginnings. He believes there are no limits in serving the humanity. Arora, who is over 60 himself, makes a point to visit the Friendship Village that serves elderly suffering from dementia, whenever possible.

Of grit and a never-say-die spirit

Septuagenarian Kusum Tuli is the face and force behind the Jewel of the Crown, a premier and one of the most highly rated restaurants in Arizona. A housewife and mother of five, she had no business or work experience. She had, even in her wildest imaginations, never dreamt of running a restaurant. Like a dutiful Indian wife, she started to help her husband, who was struggling to run a seafood restaurant, which he had somewhat accidentally ended up with.

Despite no experience of any kind, she has built her restaurant into a niche brand that provides customers a warm home-like experience but with touches of luxury not possible at home.

Recalling her journey, Tuli says, In those initial days of struggle, someone gave us advice that turned the tide for us. As it came from another seafood restaurant owner, the Tulis followed it without a doubt. He told them to stick to what they know and suggested her to treat her customers as her guests who were there to dine at her invitation.

Her story seems straight from Bollywood movie Kal Ho Na Ho. In those difficult days when they were understaffed, she started managing the kitchen at the Jewel. Like any experienced Indian wife, Tuli forbade her husband to help her in the kitchen and the restaurant. He too has complied with her advice since then. The result can be seen. From a simple housewife to a successful restaurant owner, she is one of the many success stories of diasporic grit and survival spirit.

These Punjabis may have remained within the stereotypes cast for them but they have not let these stereotypes define or limit their horizons in the alien land where they have put their new roots and have made it home.editorial@tribune.com

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 18

Cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhus Local Bodies Department came under fire from Congress MLAs representing urban areas at the Chief Ministers pre-budget consultation meeting with legislators from the Malwa region.

Initiating the debate against the department in absence of the minister, MLAs from Ludhiana along with MP Ravneet Bittu pointed out that despite the government sanctioning Rs 66 crore for works in the city, funds were not being released. They also complained about the use of funds under the smarty city project for paying salary to the staff sans any work.

On being asked to explain by the CM, A Venu Parsad, Principal Secretary (Local Bodies), said the payment was not being released on the basis of instructions against single tender works. Capt Amarinder directed his Chief Principal Secretary to sort out the issue at the earliest.

Similarly, MLAs representing the rural areas minced no words in pointing out to the Chief Minister that it was high time that development works for the sanctioned projects be started ahead of the Lok Sabha Polls.

In another matter, the legislators, led by Ghanour MLA Madan Lal Jalalpur, protested against technical advisers in various departments, alleging that they were sitting on technical clearances, thus delaying the projects. It was pointed that the advisers should only advice and not sit on sanctions.

An MLA from Patiala region spoke categorically about corruption in the Revenue Department. Health Minister Brahm Mohindra spoke on the need to bring rural doctors under the Health Department to improve services in the rural areas.

He urged the Chief Minister to merge 750 doctors serving in the Rural Development and Panchayats Department with the Health Department, which would ultimately help tide over the situation of shortage of doctors in the state to a considerable extent.

Rs 208-crore grant announcededitorial@tribune.com

New Delhi, January 18

Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the mode of access for Indian devotees headed for Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara in Pakistan was yet to be decided by the two countries.

Whether access will be given to them by using passport as a travel document or visa will be applied, are issues that are to be discussed bilaterally between the two countries. It is yet to be finalised, Puri said.

We have so far decided that the access from our side, the main road which goes up there and the specific corridor, we will complete in a time-bound manner, he said.

Puri, however, lamented that the cartographer who drew the boundary between India and Pakistan after Partition, must have been insensitive as he carved out the place belonging to Guru Nanak Dev from India.

The 4-km corridor will connect Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district with Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib in Narowal in Pakistan. It will provide access to Sikh pilgrims to the historic shrine in the neighbouring country.

Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, is believed to have spent more than 18 years of his life there. The Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara is located on the banks of the Ravi, about 3-4 km from the Indo-Pak border.

The ground-breaking ceremony for the corridor was performed by Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan in November last year.

On Indian side, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had laid the foundation stone of the corridor in Gurdaspur last year.  PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 18

Eight years after a maternal grandfather was convicted and sentenced to life for murdering his one-and-a-half-year-old grandson, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has reversed the trial courts judgment. The FIR in the matter was registered on a complaint by the daughter of the accused. But she was declared hostile during the trial.

Allowing the appeal filed by Mohinder Singh against the judgment of his conviction and sentence by Moga Additional Sessions Judge in January 2011, the Bench of Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Harinder Singh Sidhu asserted the trial court erred in law and facts while convicting the appellant.

Speaking for the Bench, Justice Sharma added the prosecution failed to prove its case against the appellant beyond reasonable doubt. Accordingly, the appeal was allowed and the appellant was acquitted of the charge framed against him. The appellant be released forthwith, Justice Sharma added

The prosecutions case was that complainant Charanjit Kaur was residing with her father, a drunkard, who would demand money from her. The complainant, on the fateful day in November 2009 had gone out of her house to see Gurmail Kaur. When she came back, she found her son killed.

In an attempt to establish the allegations against the accused, the prosecution examined 10 witnesses in support of its case. The accused, on the other hand, denied the prosecution case while alleging implication.

Justice Sharma asserted Gurmail did not support the prosecutions case and was declared hostile. Similarly, Charanjit Kaur, declared hostile, also deposed that her signatures were obtained by the police on blank papers. She denied the suggestion that she resiled from her statement after being won over by the accused.

The victims father and the complainants husband Jaswinder Singh was also declared hostile. He, too, had stated that his wifes signatures were obtained on a blank paper. Describing his father-in-law as a good man, Jaswinder Singh the appellant used to take liquor occasionally.amansharma@tribunemail.com

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, January 19

The Maharashtra unit of the Karni Sena on Moday warned actress Kangana Ranaut that its members would burn down the sets of her films if she continued to criticise the outfit.

"If she continues to threaten us, we will ensure that she will not be able to step into Maharashtra. We will burn the sets of her films and destroy her career," Ajay Singh Sengar, president of the Maharashtra Karni Sena told reporters here.

The Karni Sena, which had threatened violence against the movie 'Padmavat' two years ago, has now set its eyes on 'Manikarnika - The Queen of Jhansi' in which Ranaut plays the eponymous role.

The outfit, which claims to represent Rajputs, has demanded that the producers hold a special screening for its members before its commercial release.

READ | Manikarnika: Kangana Ranaut threatens to destroy Karni Sena if they continue harassing her

Sengar also warned that members of his outfit would attack theatres if the film was released without their approval.

The Karni Sena has opposed to scenes of Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi dancing to a song and her alleged relationship with a British officer.

Following threats issued by Karni Sena earlier this week, Ranaut had warned that she would 'destroy it' if they disrupted the film's release. "If they don't stop then they should know I am also a Rajput and I will destroy each one of them," she was quoted as saying. Ranaut is also the co-director of the movie.

The biopic on Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi, whose maiden name was Manikarnika, is due for release on January 25.uttara@tribuneindia.com

Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, January 19

Telangana Police have adopted a name and shame policy to contend drunken driving.

Not only are motorists caught under drunk driving jailed for 1-4 days, but they also have to endure the additional ignominy of police writing to their companies Human Resources (HR) departments about their act.

The police say that the reason for writing the letters was to ensure that people were shamed into adhering to traffic safety rules.

Our intention is not to embarrass people, but to sensitise all employees about the danger in driving vehicles in an inebriated condition, says Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyberabad Traffic) S M Vijay Kumar.

The letter mentions that the person was detained under influence of alcohol and sent to prison for a certain number of days. It also contains an advisory that it should be shared with other employees, along with the information that alcohol levels of over 30mg per 100ml of blood would invite a similar action on others. Additionally, they risk their vehicles being impounded for 10 days.

A person caught drunk driving must also undergo counseling with spouse or parents, and gets a negative entry on the driving license.rchopra@tribunemail.com

Kolkata, January 19

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said the coming together of the SP and the BSP had led to a wave of happiness in the country and left a worried BJP to hold meeting after meeting to devise a strategy to win even one seat in Uttar Pradesh.

Speaking at a mega opposition rally here, Yadav also sought to give a reply to the BJP questioning the opposition parties about their prime ministerial candidate.

They ask, who is PM candidate of opposition parties...We say people will decide the PM candidate from our side. But from their side, this name (Narendra Modi) has disappointed the country, who is your other name? Yadav said.

He said while opposition parties had entered into alliance with the common people, the BJP had forged ties with the CBI and the ED.

The SP chief sat on the dais next to BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, who was participating in the rally as a representative of his party chief Mayawati.

RLD chief Ajit Singh and his son Jayant Choudhury, who are engaged in discussions with the SP to join their political alliance in UP, were also present on the stage.

Yadav said the people across the country were celebrating the arrival of the New Year and this happiness would increase manifold when they would have a new prime minister. PTIamansharma@tribunemail.com

Nagpur, January 19

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday asked BJP workers to resolve to make Narendra Modi the country's prime minister again in 2019.

It was the BJP's might that has compelled the bickering opposition parties to come together, Gadkari said at the inauguration of the national convention of the party's Scheduled Caste Morcha here.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will work with full determination to make Narendra Modi the prime minister again, he said.

"I want to ask you to make a resolution to work with full conviction and strength so that in the coming elections we once again form BJP government with full majority and make Narendra Modi prime minister again for doing justice to backward sections and making India prosperous, progressive and powerful," Gadkari said.

The Union Transport Minister's statement comes after his recent remarks wherein he apparently asked the BJP leadership to take responsibility for setbacks in the Assembly polls.

He, however, denied that he ever targeted the party's leadership.

Socio-economic equality is the "conviction and ideology" of the BJP, Gadkari said.

"It is not bad performance but good work that invites more enemies. The people who could not see eye to eye, who have lost (political) ground, have come together," he said referring to the opposition's attempts to cobble together a grand alliance before the Lok Sabha elections.

"Had the BJP not been strong, why would the nephew go to his aunt (Bua)?" he said, apparently referring to Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav forming an alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh.

"Whoever wants to come together against the BJP... you all come together. Even then the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make you bite the dust," Gadkari said.

"The BJP is not a party of mother and son, father and son or a party of any family," he added.

Gadkari alleged that the Congress succeeded in creating a wrong perception that the BJP was a communal party representing only upper castes and was inimical to Dalit interests.

"There is this theory in politics...either convince or confuse people. When you cannot convince, you start confusing," he said.

"Congress and those opposed to the BJP and RSS's ideology created this misunderstanding (about the saffron party being anti-Dalit)," he added. - PTIIndex-Journal Careers

PART-TIME POSITION available in our packaging area.

Job responsibilities include putting inserts into the newspaper. Must have a positive attitude and be a team player. Applicants must be able to: lift up to 20-lbs; stand for long periods of time; be available to work Sunday thru Friday, late evening to early morning hours; pass drug screen.uttara@tribuneindia.com

Ravi S.Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 19

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday accused opposition parties of playing into corporate hands. "The questioning of the deal should be guided only by this country's strategic and security interests, and to clear doubts on process of procurement and transparency," Sitharaman said.

"I want every strand of this debate to be explained, as much as it can be, without any of us playing into the hands of international corporate warfare. None of us should play party to any corporate warfare. We cannot become pawns in the hands of the corporate giants to constantly bully the government, to constantly throw misinformation at the public, to misinform the public," she said.

Sitharaman, who was speaking about India's Strategic interest in the context of the Rafale deal, organised by Foundation For Public Awareness and Policya think tank she said the controversy over Rafale deal was now beyond reasonable questioning.

They have knocked at every door, including Supreme Court, but still continue with the questions. The answers to their questions have also been given during a discussion in Parliament on the issue. But theyre deliberately not trying to understand, and continue to misread and misconstrue Supreme Court's verdict on these issues.

She wondered whether the procurement of 36 fighter jets was being "sabotaged".

"There is a growing sense that efforts are still being made to scuttle the Rafale deal. This would be the greatest disservice to the country," she said, adding that ever since the Modi government came to power, there was a conscious effort to keep middlemen at bay from the corridors of the Defence Ministry.

Rafale will act as force-multiplier to country's defence capability, she added.

Referring to opposition members playing with paper aeroplanes in Parliament when Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was speaking during a discussion on Rafale issue, Sitharaman wondered if the opposition seriously wanted to hear the answers.

She said their hardwiring to corruption was making it hard for them to believe the above board deal.

The country cannot wait anymore to upgrade its air defence preparedness, considering the disturbances at its borders, and the neighbouring countries scaling up their preparedness at a fast pace, she said.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Arun Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 18

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah declared on Friday that his son Omar Abdullah will be the partys chief ministerial candidate in the 2019 Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir as he himself would contest the Lok Sabha elections.

The former Chief Minister, who has been pitching for a single-party majority rule, said the last spell of the PDP-BJP coalition government was a disaster and has pushed us back by years.

In an interview, he said the Centre should recognise the space that the separatist conglomerate Hurriyat Conference enjoys in Kashmir and initiate talks, while making it clear what it could do and cant. The dos and donts should be made clear at the very outset.

Farooq Abdullah, whose tryst with elections started in the 1977 campaign when his father Sheikh Abdullah was unwell, listed communalism as the biggest challenge this time; it is much more dangerous than militancy.

There should be no question of delaying the polls or holding the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls separately in the state, he said.

The Governors administration or Presidents rule with two-three advisers cannot do what the MLAs can. In fact, they are doing nothing, he observed.

And if any party is not ready for polls, that is their problem, he said, referring to Governor Satya Pal Maliks observation that barring the PDP all other parties were ready for simultaneous polls. The PDP, however, in its reaction claimed that it was ready for polls any time.

Arguing in favour of single-party rule in the state, Farooq Abdullah said, When I was CM with a clear majority in 1996, I could do many things, but when Omar headed the coalition (2009-2014), he could not achieve that much, and Mehbooba Muftis alliance with BJP was a disaster and it has pushed us back by years. We cannot court such disaster again.

He rebuffed the idea that the autonomy resolution could not be taken to its logical conclusion when he had absolute majority in 1996. The autonomy resolution is alive. For us, former Prime Minister Narasimha Raos statement that anything short of azadi is possible still holds relevance. We are not asking for azadi.

If any clause of the autonomy resolution affects the solidarity of India, we are ready to discuss that. It is not greater or minor autonomy, it is autonomy, and we are also promising regional autonomy to all the three regions. Ruling out the possibility of any alliance ahead of polls, the NC leader said, Nothing doing. We may have some understanding with BSP. That, too, we are considering.

Regarding talks with the Hurriyat, Farooq said it should be realistic and come out with an out of box solution as former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf had declared that plebiscite is not possible.

On former IAS officer Shah Faesal, the NC chief refused to comment. He is a young man with a brilliant mind, but he should be clear in his mind what he wants to do. Farooq Abdullah also said the Army should be taken off internal security because that is bringing a bad name to it.

Engage Hurriyat, with clear riders

Centre should recognise the space that Hurriyat Conference enjoys and initiate talks, while making dos and donts clear at the very outset. Hurriyat too should be realistic.  Farooq Abdullah, NC Presidentrchopra@tribunemail.com

Kolkata, January 19

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday called upon people to defeat the dangerous BJP government at the Centre at any cost.

Stating that the country was at the crossroads of a serious crisis, he said there is need for immediate change of the Modi government to save the country and democracy.

If the (Narendra) Modi-(Amit) Shah combine continues to rule the country by winning the 2019 elections, it will change the Constitution and further elections will never take place. A fascist regime will set in as was done by Hitler in Germany, Kejriwal said at the TMCs mega opposition rally here.

He accused the BJP of creating enmity among people in the name of religion.

It was Pakistans dream to split this country into pieces. This BJP government is going ahead in that direction by creating enmity among people and dividing the nation on the lines of religion, language... Kejriwal said at the Brigade Parade Grounds here.

Slamming the central government, he said in the past five years, it had failed to create employment opportunities and farmers were facing acute crisis.

Demonetisation has taken away all the scope of employment and Modis friendly insurance companies were making money at the cost of farmers, the Delhi CM alleged.

He added that the objective of the general election was not to find the next prime minister, but to oust Modi and his party.

Leaders of all the opposition parties, except the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the CPI(M)-led Left Front, are taking part in the massive rally. PTIrchopra@tribunemail.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 19

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday hoped that India and Pakistan would engage in a meaningful dialogue to resolve their issues.

Addressing a press conference in New York, he was asked about the human rights situation in Kashmir and frosty ties between New Delhi and Islamabad. In response Guterres said, Well, first of all, in relation to the human rights situation, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has produced recently a very detailed report. So, the UN has clearly done its job in that regard.

He was referring to a recent first-of-its-kind scathing Human Rights report on Kashmir that blamed India and Pakistan for alleged atrocities. India had rejected the report as politically motivated, while Guterres during his first official visit to India in October 2018 after assuming the UN top post had simply stated that the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner is under the UN aegis but has autonomy.

On the India-Pak dialogue process, the Secretary-General said that his office is available for facilitating good ties between the two neighbours.

Ive been offering my good offices in relation to the dialogue between the two countries that, until now, had no conditions of success. And I hope that the importance of both India and Pakistan is such in international affairs, I hope that the two countries will be able to engage in a meaningful dialogue, said the UN Secretary-General.

Indian principled position is that Kashmir is a bilateral issue with Pakistan with no scope for any third-party role or mediation.monicakchauhan@gmail.com

Ghaziabad, January 19

A 28-year-old female inmate, who was suffering from HIV, has died while she was being ferried back from a hospital to a jail in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad district, authorities said on Friday.

Seema, a resident of Bulandshahr district, was admitted to the district hospital in Dasna on January 9, where her illness was diagnosed as HIV. The next day, she was referred to a hospital in Meerut, said jail superintendent Dhadhi Ram Maurya.

The jail staff was carrying the woman back to Dasna on Thursday night as the doctors had discharged her after prescribing the same treatment in the jail hospital.

During the journey, she complained of severe pain in the heart. The woman was immediately rushed to the district hospital, where she was declared brought dead, the official said.

The body will be handed over to her family after completing the legal formalities, the superintendent added. PTIROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Chennai, January 18

The DMK moved the Madras High Court today challenging the Central Governments decision to provide 10 per cent reservation in employment and education to the economically weaker section in the general category, saying it offends the basic structure of the Constitution.

The party claimed in its plea that reservation was not a poverty alleviation programme but more in the nature of social justice to uplift communities that hadnt had access to education or employment for centuries.

Therefore, essentially, the exception to the equality clause is only available to those communities which were ostracised for centuries in matters of education and employment. Economic criteria has been, however, used as a filter to exclude the creamy layer, persons belonging to the backward classes but who are economically advanced, DMK organising secretary RS Bharathi said in the petition.

Hence, application of economic criteria solely is not contemplated as an exception to the rule of equality and consequently to provide reservation solely on economic criteria offends the basic structure of the Constitution, he added.

The petitioner said: It is well settled that the ceiling limit of 50 per cent in reservation is also part of the basic structure and has been asserted by the SC in several cases.

However, in Tamil Nadu, the ceiling limit is 69 per cent... under the State) Act, 1993 which is placed in the IX Schedule, he further submitted. Legislations placed in the IX Schedule of the Constitution cannot be legally challenged.  PTI

Its unconstitutional

The concept of reservation is not with reference to economic status but the community to which a person belongs to this (10 per cent) reservation violates the basic structure of the Constitution.  RS Bharathi, DMK Organising Secretary

UP third to give nod

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh on Friday became the third state after Gujarat and Jharkhand to approve the Central law of 10 per cent reservation for the poor among the upper caste on Friday. The UP Cabinet decided that reservation would apply in government jobs and educational institutions with retrospective effect from January 14, 2019. tnsshalender@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 18

The Congress today cited new facts to reiterate its demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe into the Rafale jet purchase, saying the government was wrong if it thought the issue had been given a quiet burial.

The controversy is very much alive and has acquired a new dimension, the party said days after Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman rejected the JPC demand in the Lok Sabha. Sitharaman said the issue must rest after the Supreme Court dismissed all anti-Rafale purchase petitions having satisfied its conscience on the process, pricing and procedure involved in the inter-government Rafale agreement between India and France.

Addressing reporters today, Congress veteran P Chidambaram said a JPC was needed to probe the issue in the light of new facts as Dassault was laughing all the way to the bank. We have always said the court cannot probe this issue, Chidambaram said accusing the Government of wronging the nation on two counts.

Firstly, the government compromised national security by denying the Indian Air Force 90 fighter aircraft that they desperately need. Secondly, it has purchased two squadrons that will cost about Euro 25 million more per aircraft. At the 2016 exchange rate this enhanced cost is equal to Rs 186 crore! India will pay Rs 186 crore more per aircraft, Chidambaram said referring to a media report claiming Prime Minister Narendra Modi bought the jets at a much higher price than what was negotiated by the Congress-led UPA.rchopra@tribunemail.com

Bengaluru, January 19

The BJP would not destabilise Karnatakas ruling coalition, party state chief BS Yeddyurappa said on Saturday, a day after the Congress shifted all its MLAs to a resort near here fearing a poaching bid.

The former chief minister said he had asked all BJP MLAs camping at a Gurugram hotel to return and they would now tour the states drought-hit areas.

I have directed all our MLAs in the resort to come to Bengaluru. They have all left, they are all coming (back), Yeddyurappa said.

Now our work is to tour the drought-affected areas where people are suffering and try to address the problems they are facing, he told reporters here.

We will not try to destabilise this government for any reason, let them not have that fear. We will work as the opposition, Yeddyurappa said.

Let the Congress-JD(S) leaders not have any doubt about it, he added.

The Congress on Friday moved all its MLAs to a resort to allegedly escape the BJPs onslaught.

According to top Congress sources, at least eight party MLAs had decided to jump ship and the partys legislators were shifted to the resort on the outskirts of the city to avoid this.

Exposing chinks in the ruling Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition in the state, four dissident MLAs of the former on Friday skipped the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting here that was called as a show of strength against an alleged bid by the BJP to dislodge the H D Kumaraswamy-led government.

CLP leader Siddaramaiah welcomed Yeddyurappas decision to call back all BJP MLAs and asked him to walk the talk on not trying to destabilise the ruling coalition.

I welcome Yeddyurappas decision to call back the BJP legislators from Delhi and send them to monitor the drought management in the state, the Congress leader said in a tweet in Kannada.

Yeddyurappa has said that they will not destabilise the state government, they will work as opposition. Let Congress, JD(S) leaders not fear. He should walk the talk and save the publics trust, Siddaramaiah said in another tweet. PTIrchopra@tribunemail.com

Kolkata, January 19

Issuing a war cry Delhi mein sarkar badal do (change the government at the Centre), Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday asserted that the expiry date of the Modi government is over and a united Opposition will win the coming General Election.

Addressing an Opposition rally at Brigade Parade Grounds called by her, she also promised to work together. Who will be the Prime Minister will be decided after the polls, she said.

Criticising the BJP, she said, There is courtesy in politics, but BJP does not follow it. Those who are not with BJP are called thieves.

Banerjee, whose speech lasted nearly 25 minutes, also claimed that the BJP does not give respect to many of its own senior leaders and people like Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari are ignored. Modi and his associates are now talking of collective leadership, but if BJP wins the Lok Sabha polls, these leaders will be ignored again, she said.

Noting that the present situation in the country is of super Emergency, Banerjee said it is worse than that imposed by Indira Gandhi and raised the slogan of Badal do, badal do, Delhi mein sarkar badal do (change the government).

She alleged that the BJP has divided the nation through its divisive politics.

What Pakistan could not do in 70 years, it (BJP) has succeeded in doing in just four years, the firebrand TMC supremo said. She claimed that under the Narendra Modi government, banks, CBI, RBI, economy and democracy have all suffered irreparable damage.

The Modi government, she added, has targeted all Opposition leaders who spoke against the BJP and have not spared Sonia Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati and herself. It has not kept any of its promises made before 2014, she claimed, adding, Achhe din will not come for BJP again. You have missed your opportunity.

Meanwhile, a four-member committee of Opposition leaders has been formed to look into alleged EVM manipulation by BJP.  PTI/TNS

Read: Tumultuous welcome for Mamata at Brigade Ground

We are fighting against thieves: Hardik Patel at opposition rally

Mahagathbandhan will ensure defeat of BJP: Jignesh Mevani

Modi govt playing mischief with statistics: Yashwant Sinha

EVM is chor machine: Farooq AbdullahROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Tribune News Service

Yamunanagar, January 18

Additional Sessions Judge Dr Abdul Majid has awarded seven-year jail to seven persons, including two policemen, for extorting Rs 4 crore from a businessman in Chandigarh, falsely accusing him of rape.

Policemen Mahender Singh of Bhiwani and Mahavir Singh of Jind, Varun Gupta of Yamunanagar district, Mahima Kadiyan alias Mahima Hooda of Rohtak, Ram Niwas of Jind and Sunil Dutta alias Gullu of Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh) have also been fined Rs 3.97 lakh.

In her complaint, Mahima Kadiyan of Rohtak had claimed she and her brother went to Yamunanagar along with Ajay Bansal, proprietor of Kala Emporium Private Limited, Chandigarh, in connection with a property deal on May 12, 2012. She alleged she was raped by the businessman in a hotel who drugged her by giving her a soft drink laced with some intoxicant.

Subsequently, a case was registered against Bansal under Sections 376 (rape), 328 (causing hurt by means of poison, etc, with intent to commit offence) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

Bansal's uncle Jai Chand lodged a counter complaint, stating they had been doing business with Sonu Bansal of Yamunanagar since 2010. He said a girl visited their showroom on April 26, 2012, and introduced herself as Mrs Hooda. She expressed interest in purchasing land.

She was shown a 172-acre site in Dhanaura village on April 27, 2012, and a deal was struck for Rs 30 crore.

He said Bansal and Mahima visited the tehsil office of Bilaspur in Yamunanagar for the site plan on May 2, 2012. But it was not available with the patwari. Thereafter, they went to a hotel for rest. Jai Chand said at about 4 pm, Mahima Kadiyan told Bansal that her husband was in Hansi with the earnest money. As the two reached a resort in Hansi, a policeman in uniform with three or four others arrived there.

Accusing Bansal of kidnapping and raping Mahima, they forced a compromise in lieu of Rs 20 crore. On May 4, 2012, a sum of Rs 4 crore was transferred from Bansals account to that of Sonu Bansal via RTGS. A police probe revealed the money was shared by seven persons. On May 2012, the police scrapped Sections 328, 376 and 506 in the FIR on finding that the facts mentioned by complainant Ajay Bansal were true.uttara@tribuneindia.com

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, January 19

The release of the voter's list for Mumbai that is due on January 31 may be delayed by a few days following allegations of a large number of bogus voters.



Officials from the collector's offices at Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban have indicated that work on weeding out the names of bogus, duplicate and deceased voters is in progress. Sources said around one lakh names have been removed from voters lists in both the districts and more would be deleted in the coming days. However, it is not clear whether the exercise would be completed before the January 31 deadline.



Data put out by Eklavya, an NGO, indicated that as many as nine lakh names among 1.07 crore voters in the two districts could be bogus. Mumbai Congress Party chief Sanjay Nirupam had earlier this week compiled copies of voters' names and photographs in several Lok Sabha constituencies that indicated extensive duplication.



Nirupam alleged that in one Lok Sabha constituency, Magathane, one voter was registered under 11 names with 11 separate addresses, Nirupam alleged.



The former MP from North Mumbai came up with several such instances and said as many as 1.5 lakh bogus voters exist in each Lok Sabha constituency in Mumbai and surrounding areas.



shalender@tribune.com

Legendary actor Robert Redford is set to receive an honorary Cesar award, Frances equivalent of the Oscars. The veteran actor will receive the honour at the 44th annual Cesar ceremony, which will take place on February 22 in Paris.

An iconic actor, an exceptional director, a passionate producer, founder and president of Sundance, the most revered festival of independent films in the world, Robert Redford has left his mark through all his endeavours in the film world, Alain Terzian, the president of the Academy of Arts and Techniques of Cinema, said in a statement. Redford, who began his acting career on Broadway in the play Tall Story in 1959, was previously honoured with the Academys Lifetime Achievement Award.  PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service & PTI

Srinagar, January 18

The Kashmir valley continued to be in the grip of the cold wave as the minimum temperature stayed below the freezing point, a weather department official said Friday.

The official said the Pahalgam tourist resort was the coldest place in the Valley with the minimum temperature of -10.3C, which was down from the previous nights -5.1C, the official said.

The minimum temperature in Srinagar rose Thursday night from -1.3C and settled at -0.7C, the official said. The Gulmarg ski resort recorded a low of -10C on Thursday night, he said.

He said Leh in the frontier Ladakh region recorded -15.6C, while the mercury in nearby Kargil settled at -19.2C.

Meanwhile, the authorities at Srinagar International Airport on Friday cancelled the flights to New Delhi following bad weather and low visibility in the capital. As the weather department has issued a warning for the week, officials say it might be hard for both road and air traffic to operate.

Director, Srinagar International Airport, Akash Deep Mathur said due to bad weather in Delhi, IndiGo, SpiceJet, AirAsia and Vistara flights scheduled for Friday were cancelled. He said some flights to other states were able to operate.

There is a weather warning so the flight operations might be hit. Today, there was poor visibility in Delhi, the official said.

In the last few days after the Valley witnessed snowfall, both road and air traffic has been affected.

Weather department officials said there might no respite from bad weather till January 24.

A fresh western disturbance is expected to hit Kashmir from Saturday, resulting in moderate to heavy snowfall or rain over the next four days.

Director, meteorological department, Sonam Lotus said the Valley would witnesses light to heavy snow till January 24, including in the plains. He said the residents of the avalanche-prone areas in the region had been asked to remain vigilant.

Today, the sky was overcast across the Valley. The snow is expected to start from tonight or Saturday morning. In the plains of the Valley, there might be heavy to light snow. The flights from Srinagar have more chances of getting affected for the next five or six days. In Jammu, there is a prediction of heavy rain, the official said.

On January 19, the flights might be able to operate during the day but it is risky, he added.

Rain, snow in Valley till Jan 24editorial@tribune.com

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 18

All political parties are on the same page over holding Assembly elections simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections to establish a democratic government as early as possible in J&K.

During the all-party meeting convened by Chief Electoral Officer, J&K, Shailendra Kumar on Friday, representatives of all political parties were unanimous about holding simultaneous elections in the state.

Sources said higher-ups in the election department had made it clear that they were fully prepared to conduct both elections in one go but the final decision in the matter had to be taken at the national level.

Officers of the election department revealed during the meeting that 17,000 additional EVMs have already been procured as part of the preparations for conducting both elections simultaneously, said one of the participants who attended the meeting.

A team of the Election Commission of India (ECI) is likely to visit J&K in February to assess the ground situation before taking the decision on holding simultaneous elections, the participant said. The ECI team is also likely to interact with representatives of all parties.

As reported earlier, all Deputy Commissioners submitted details of Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers to the CEO in December last year. The state government had constituted panels at the divisional and district levels to assess the ground situation for holding the simultaneous elections.

The election department has also completed the process of special summary revision of electoral rolls in the state. The final publication of the electoral rolls will be on January 30.

Meanwhile, former minister Raman Bhalla, who represented the Congress in the meeting, said: We told the CEO that there was uncertainty about the coming Assembly elections, so the confusion should be removed by the election department.

More EVMs procurededitorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 18

The casual labourers of the power development department (PDD) on Friday called off their 44-day-long agitation after assurance from the government that their demands will be addressed within a month.

As many as 3,405 workers engaged by the department for repair and maintenance of its critical equipment and high-tension power lines across the Jammu region were on protest over the denial of wages for the period ranging from two to four years.

Hundreds of workers drawn from various districts of Jammu, including those who have become handicapped due to accidents, were staging daily protests outside the office of the chief engineer of the power department.

The chief engineer has sought one-month time to address our grievances and streamline the process. We have called off our strike. We hope the government will release our pending salaries and streamline the process, said Akhil Sharma, president, All J&K PDD Need-Based and Casual Workers Union.

Apart from the issues of delayed wages, they are demanding the implementation of SRO-381 and regularisation of workers who have completed more than seven years in the department. However, the process is going on at a snails pace.

For years, the successive governments have befooled the workers and exploited them. We hope under the Governors administration, justice will be done with us, said Ashish Verma, another union leader.

Casual labourers are the backbone of the PDD. In the past two decades, as many as 100 workers have died while performing their duty, but their families have not received any relief as they were not permanent.editorial@tribune.com

Sumit Hakhoo

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 18

Two children from Jammu and Kashmir who thwarted terrorists' attempt to carry out a large-scale massacre during the Sunjwan attack on February 10, 2018, have been conferred with the Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW) National Bravery Awards 2018.

The coveted awards were presented to Gurugu Hima Priya, 9, and Soumyadip Jana, 14, in New Delhi.

Priya and Soumyadip confronted heavily armed terrorists who had attacked a residential block in the Sunjwan Army camp on the outskirts of Jammu. They showed exemplary courage and spontaneous initiative by diverting the attention of Pakistan-backed terrorists and saved lives of their families and other persons.

Soumyadip was in the residential block with his family when the terrorists tried to enter his quarter. He received grievous injuries in the attack that left him into a coma for three months. He is still receiving treatment. He barricaded the door and did not allow the terrorists to enter. He sustained multiple splinter injuries during the confrontation.

Similarly, Priya too saved the lives of several persons. She valiantly stood in the way of the terrorists. Feeling frustrated, they threw a grenade inside the room, injuring her. Her mother was also grievously injured.

According to Ruby Saxena, project officer, ICCW, Both the children had shown an extraordinary bravery and saved several lives. It is recognition of their brave act that they have been selected for the award.

Eight girls and 13 boys from 12 states of India have been selected for the bravery award. The National Bravery Award Scheme was initiated by the ICCW in 1957 to give due recognition to the children who distinguish themselves by performing outstanding deeds of bravery.@theMarket: Markets Retrace December Losses

It was a week where lackluster earnings battled with the Fed's willingness to hold off on rate hikes for investors' attention. The Fed won. Investors bought on the dips and helped to push the markets out of correction territory.

From a technical point of view, however, all the U.S. indexes are overbought, extended, and in need of some kind of pullback. Traders know this and have been shorting the market as it climbs, betting that we will see at least a 100-point decline in the S&P 500 Index. It hasn't happened  yet.

Normally, markets will do what is most inconvenient for the greatest number of traders.

In this case, the indexes simply keep going up. But before you exhale in relief, be advised that when the last bear throws in the towel, that's when the markets will blind-side you.

For those who followed my advice last quarter and have remained invested, your paper losses are rapidly disappearing. I expect that, despite continued volatility through March, the second half of the year should see all your losses recouped and I expect further gains after that.

Earnings, which were not forecasted to match the gains of the last few quarters, have come roughly in-line with investor's lower expectations. So far, the average results indicate about a 7 percent gain for the quarter. In cases where a company announced less than that, traders were quick to punish their share price.

In some cases, for example, banking stocks, where trading profits were down last quarter as a result of the steep drop in equities, the Algos were whipping prices around on almost an hourly basis. Clearly, this is a market where the only smart thing to do is buy and hold for the longer term.

One positive (but suspicious) development occurred on Thursday afternoon. Someone (I'll call him the Trade Whisperer), let it be known through a Wall Street Journal report that the Trump House was considering pulling the Chinese tariffs in a bid to trigger a breakthrough in the U.S./Sino trade negotiations. It took all of 10 minutes for stocks to spike much higher.

Despite the outpouring of denials from all of Trump's men, U.S. markets still closed higher and continued the move into Friday. I found it interesting that, despite the denials, Asian markets, especially China, gained over one percent Thursday night. Where there's smoke, there may be some fire down the road.

I mention this because, in my opinion, events like this illustrates the extreme fragility of global markets. Anything (real or imagined) can spark a violent move in financial markets. A case in point is the troubling (and expanding) revelations that seem to be surrounding Donald Trump.

At last count, 16 of his closet aides and/or campaign staff have been linked to Russian nationals in an effort to tilt the presidential election in Trump's favor. His former closest confidant, Michael Cohen, is now admitting that his ex-boss actually conspired to obstruct justice (committed a crime) and that the Mueller investigation can prove it.

These are developments that every investor should take on board and treat seriously, regardless of political affiliation. There is potentially a risk that, despite Trump's repeated denials, Mueller does have the goods on the president. If so, look out below.

The bottom line: There is simply too much lurking out there to make an informed investment decision. As such, the best option is to stay invested, but keep looking over your shoulder.editorial@tribune.com

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 18

Five years ago, Amarpreet Singh joined Khalsa Aid, an international NGO set up with an aim to provide humanitarian aid in disaster areas and civil conflict zones around the world. At present, he is the managing director of the Asia-Pacific zone. Over the years, he has closely witnessed some of the worst crises faced by humanity.

Along with his strong-willed group of volunteers, he has worked for Rohingyas, provided water to a parched community in Latur and resurrected schools in Kerala. During the opening of Khalsa Aids office here, third in India, Amarpreet, who has led and coordinated relief operations in Kerala, Bangladesh, Iraq, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Uttarakhand and other areas, believes that sewa is supreme. He said, There is a simple formula if you have the will, things will work out.

Excerpts from the interview

What are your plans for Punjab?

Most of the people know Khalsa Aid as an organisation working for the disaster-hit areas. But, we are running schools, tuitions, organising weddings and funding surgeries for the poor in Punjab. Sixty per cent of the Khalsa Aid budget is reserved for the state. There is another reason for reaching out to the Doaba region. Scores of NRIs are willing to help, but they are not sure that their money will be used properly. We want to bridge the gap. We have already five tuition centres and two schools in the state. Now, we plan to expand them further.

How challenging was your working during the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh?

In 2017, two of us had gone to Bangaldesh just to see the situation. Anticipating that 1.5 lakh refugees were stranded on the border, we found 5 lakh people, including pregnant women and children, who walked for 10 days after their villages were gutted. We heard stories how people were locked inside their houses, which were set on fire. Since we were the first and only two Indians to reach the border, there was immense political pressure and a Twitter campaign branded us terrorists. We sought media support and broadcast burning villages. People were hungry and without clothes. We did not give up even after our operations were shut down. Eventually, the Bangladesh army took us to two camps where 18,000 to 20,000 people are staying. We are also setting up schools for refugees children. Things are yet to be improved fundamentally - There are camps inundated with knee-deep water. A lot of work is yet to be done.

How do you take water and food to those places where life is an ordeal?

It is about will. In Latur with no water for miles and a train from Delhi delivering it, we arranged thousands of litres of water for a month. We purchased water at double prices from far areas and brought it there. In Bangladesh, we went empty handed and sourced utensils to groceries from scratch. Two of our volunteers drove eight to 10 hours to purchase things and came back to set up a camp with the help of a Muslim family. On the first day, we partook of langar to 25,000 people. Sawa lakh se ek laraun is proven in such situations. I have seen it happen and it is in our roots.

What was the most challenging situation?

One such situation was delivering a body to a family and seeing it relieved during floods in Kashmir. We are not professionals, but we surprise ourselves with our own courage when someone sees hopes in us. Volunteers waded through 20-foot water scurrying for bodies. We were their only hope and we had to deliver.editorial@tribune.com

Dipender Manta

Tribune News Service

Mandi, January 18

People of nine villages in Kullu district will maintain a pin-drop silence till February 25 to follow the age-old custom to appease the local deity Gautam Rishi.

According to a legend, every year the local deity at Goshal village goes to heaven to attend assembly of deities on Makar Sankranti and returns after 42 days.

The locals said during that period, the deity wanted silence in nine villages of the Ujhi valley (Goshal, Solang, Shanag, Kothi, Palchan, Ruar, Kulang, Majhach and Burua) which followed Gautam Rishi. In Goshal village, the temple of the deity would remain shut for devotees during that period.

Suresh Kumar, a native of Goshal village, said: To escape the wrath of the deity, we keep mobile phones on silent mode and dont watch TV. The work in agriculture field also comes to halt as we refrain from using agriculture instruments like spade for digging and scissors for pruning of apple orchard.

We have been following the practice since centuries. During this period, we stop listening to music and performing household chores and even agricultural work, he added.

The villagers believe that the noise from the earth will disturb the deity, which will make him angry. This will spell doom for the people, their crops and livestock.

Chaman Lal, a priest of local deity, said, According to the legend, it is believed that on Makar Sankranti, deities assembly begins in heaven for more than one month and our deity Gautam Rishi also leaves for the meeting. He will come back after 42 days and predict the happenings in the year to villagers through his Gur.

The temple is closed after spreading mud on the floor. It is believed that when the temple is reopened if a flower surfaces on the mud, it symbolises happiness for the villagers. If charcoal appears, it indicates that the village would face a fire incident. Grain indicated a good harvest, he said.

As per tradition, the locals start their routine activities only when the deity is back in the temple. The Kullu district is known for its religious activities, where the confluence of deities can be seen during a week-long Dasehra festival at the famous Dhalpur ground.

What legend sayseditorial@tribune.com

Vishal Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jind, January 18

As electioneering is gaining momentum, caste-based statements by political and community leaders to woo voters have been noticed for the Jind Assembly segment.

On Wednesday, the Akhil Bhartiya Jat Maha Sabha chief Hawa Singh Sangwan called Punjabi-speaking community in the state Pakistanis.

Interacting with reporters here, Sangwan had said local residents should not vote for Punjabi candidates as they were not Haryanavis.

Though he did not name anyone, his indication was apparently at the BJP candidate Krishan Middha, a key contestant among three Jat candidates.

Similarly, former Independent MLA from Rohat segment in Sonepat, Sukhbir Singh Farmana had reportedly made unsavoury comments about the Punjabi community.

Farmana, who is also active in khap panchayat, was addressing an election rally at Taloda village on Wednesday. The village-level meeting was organised in support of the Congress candidate Randeep Surjewala.

However, Surjewala has disassociated himself from the alleged comments, saying Farmana was not a member of the Congress party. He said the party did not endorse caste-based politics.

But political analysts said various contestants and their supporters were trying to win over voters by touching the caste factor.

He said caste politics may impact social fabric, particularly after large-scale violence during the Jat reservation movement, but it was an electoral tradition in Haryana.

Unsavoury comments

The Akhil Bhartiya Jat Maha Sabha chief Hawa Singh Sangwan, had on Wednesday, called Punjabi-speaking community in the state Pakistanis. He further said local residents should not vote for Punjabi candidates as they were not Haryanvis.laxmi@tribune.com

THE transfer of senior CBI officers Rakesh Asthana, AK Sharma, MK Sinha and Jayant J Naiknavare gives the government a clean slate to start with. Indeed, it is surprising that this step was not taken till now. The publicly acrimonious behaviour of the top brass at the countrys premier investigative agency left everybody singed by its fallout. The government threw out the rule book while dismissing Alok Verma as Director, a move made far worse by not moving others. This created the impression of partisanship. The country had to see the sorry spectacle of Indias top cops fighting with each other, dragging in the courts and the government in their slugfest.

Now that the top brass is being replaced, there is a chance of a reset. Norms of appointment need to be followed to a T and the members of the selection committee to appoint the new CBI Director, led by the PM, must ensure the best officer is selected to head the CBI. Others in his team should also be selected with care. Ideally, sensitive appointments need to be bipartisan, and the choice should inspire confidence in the system, which has been severely damaged by the shadow of adhocism and open display of discord.

The government must eschew the temptation of imposing its will, as should the Opposition. The CBI deserves much better than to be seen as the political executives handmaiden. The bureaus independence is a prerequisite to its proper functioning, as is the integrity and the discretion of its officers. The very idea of them being booked under various Sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, as happened recently, is unthinkable. Even as the jury is out about such activities by the officers who have been removed, their gross indiscipline is reason enough for them to go. As for the government that let the original situation deteriorate to such an alarming extent, it is hoped that it would monitor the conduct of the new incumbents with due diligence, even as it provides them with the support they need to restore the morale and prestige of the CBI.Smruti S Pattanaik

Smruti S Pattanaik

Research Fellow, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses

ONE of the BJPs electoral promises was to provide citizenship to the minority Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. After coming to power, it introduced the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, in the Lok Sabha; it was finally passed on January 8 this year. Many perceive this as an electoral stunt. However, within the BJP, this issue has been discussed several times. This Bill has opened up a larger debate on who should be a citizen and what should be the basis of granting citizenship. Assam, which in the past witnessed agitation against foreigners, and a political settlement was reached only in 1985 by the signing of the Assam Accord, is on the boil over the issue. The state is already witnessing problems in registering citizens under the National Register of Citizens. Many were excluded from the list when the first draft was completed on December 31, 2017, as they failed to provide valid documents. The citizenship Bill is only adding to the growing tension.

Assam sees this as a ploy to settle illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Tension between Assamese and Bengali settlers is not new. Many Assamese perceive that they have become minorities in their own homeland and this is an attempt to undermine their culture and make their identity subservient. Assam also has historically witnessed colonialism of a different kind when the British encouraged people from neighbouring areas to settle and work in the tea plantations. The Asom Gana Parishad, which was a coalition partner of the ruling BJP in the state and had spearheaded the Assam agitation, has withdrawn its support to the government. Except for Meghalaya, there is not much reaction from other states, perhaps due to the fact that many of these may not be affected by the resettlement of refugees. The All Assam Students Union and Assamese intellectuals as well as activists have registered their protest against the Bill. Other political parties have opposed the idea of giving citizenship on the basis of religion. This Bill raises complex questions on policy implications. Recently, the government repatriated Rohingya refugees staying in India to Myanmar despite the fact that they face persecution in that country and even though India is providing aid to the community in Bangladesh.

Minorities are indeed persecuted and many of them migrated to India and sought refuge here. Though India and other South Asian countries are not signatories to the refugee convention, India has sheltered Tibetan, Tamil, Afghan, Burmese and Rohingya refugees who faced persecution in their own country. India also provided shelter to 10 million refugees from East Pakistan in 1971. Except for the refugees from East Pakistan, most of them have stayed back in India. However, due to religious persecution and discrimination, many of the religious minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh have sought refuge in India. If one looks at the minority Hindu population in the neighbouring countries, their numbers have reduced significantly in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Minorities constitute 3 per cent of Pakistans population, whereas in Bangladesh they account for 8.5 per cent. This is in sharp contrast to 23 per cent minorities that Pakistan had boasted of during Partition. For long, anti-foreigner agitation has rocked Northeastern states. Some of these states also have an inner line permit that all Indian citizens must have to enter these states. The complexity of the outsider and son of the soil debate has been a constant part of the political discourse. In the past, Arunachal Pradesh witnessed agitation against the Supreme Courts decision of 2015 to settle Chakma and Hajong refugees in the state who had been living stateless for 50 years.

It is important to refer to the Nehru-Liaquat Ali Khan agreement of 1950 on the protection of minorities. The agreement reads, The Governments of India and Pakistan solemnly agree that each shall ensure, to the minorities throughout its territory, complete equality of citizenship, irrespective of religion, a full sense of security in respect of life, culture, property and personal honour, freedom of movement within each country and freedom of occupation, speech and worship, subject to law and morality. In spite of this assurance, the minority Hindus in Pakistan were subjected to forced conversion, while female members were abducted and married off to Muslims. Christians were often victims of the draconian blasphemy law, killed on the basis of allegations. Minority Hindus were singled out for discrimination and their property was grabbed by members of the majority community in collusion with the authorities. This was one of the major causes of Hindu migration from East Pakistan (and later Bangladesh). It is true that many of the Hindu refugees from Pakistan face major problems in their day-to-day life in India as they are not citizens despite spending several years in the country. Some fear repatriation as they need to frequently extend their long visa. Without citizenship, they find it difficult to send their children for higher education and find employment. The same is also the case with the vast number of Tamil refugees staying in India.

While it is important that the government has to take a decision on the future of these large number of refugees, especially wherever repatriation is not possible, it is equally important to ensure that its decision to provide citizenship on humanitarian grounds has to include all persecuted minority communities irrespective of the religious identity. Moreover, the decision to provide citizenship needs to be debated further. Northeastern states have a complex demography which has led to violent ethnic clashes. It is a sensitive region with undercurrents of ethnic tension. The government needs to think through the settlement policy. Without taking a decision on how and where to settle these refugees and calculating the economic cost and its impact on society, conferring citizenship would not be an adequate policy measure for accommodating persecuted minorities. It cannot be an election-time sop; it has to be part of a long-term policy on how to tackle the larger humanitarian crisis.amansharma@tribunemail.com

Chandigarh, January 19

Padma Bhushan neurologist Jagjit Singh Chopra has died here at the age of 84, the PGIMER said.

After suffering a stroke, Chopra had been admitted in the ICU of Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER) for the past one month. Chopra is survived by his son and daughter.

A condolence meet was held on Saturday at the medical institute, under the chairmanship of Director Jagat Ram. Senior professors, former directors, PGI faculty members, administrative staff and resident doctors mourned the death of the eminent medical scientist.

He was the founder of the department of neurology at PGIMER, Chandigarh.

Born in Lahore, Chopra completed his initial studies at the Government Medical College in Patiala and pursued further studies in the United Kingdom.

He is credited to have published 235 scientific papers in various national and international journals.

He was the first Indian neurologist to be selected as the secretary general of XIV World Congress of Neurology, held at New Delhi in 1989.

He was awarded lifetime achievement award by the World Federation of Neurology in 2017. - PTISign up today!

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Today

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.This is a story that shows its whats on the inside of a person that matters.

On Friday, author and illustrator Phyllis and Thomas Baker, of Somerset, read their new book, The Bus That Rosa Parks Rode, to 70 students in pre-kindergarten through fourth-grade at Divine Mercy Catholic Academy, East Campus in Johnstown.Music

Music Makers deliver drum beats and winds of change for Dr. King dream@IsaacAvilucea on Twitter

Isaac Avilucea is The Trentonians main municipal scribe. A two-time prior restraint winner and testicular cancer survivor, he relishes his reputation as the "Mean Girls" reporter that followed his 18-day stay at the now-defunct North Adams Transcript.There's a Part of the Brain That Always Says Yes to One MoreScience Forecast Tonight

Winter weather advisory is out for most of the region A winter weather advisory is out for most of the region and a winter storm warning is posted for northwest Missouri and northern Kansas, including the St. Joseph. Up to 8 inches of snow is possible near St. Joseph, while Kansas City could see anywhere from 2 to 4 inches of snow.

Fanboy Fashion News Dominates

Chiefs fans have Overland Park clothier seeing red OVERLAND PARK, KS (KCTV) - With all the excitement, many Chiefs fans want to look the part. One Overland Park store is giving fans more dapper option than just a t-shirt. Danny Assal has owned Dan's Clothier and Tailor for more than 30 years.

Naming The Kansas City Dead

Newspaper Cookie JOURNALISM

Limited-edition More Stuf Oreos have 'most creme ever' | The Kansas City Star Cookie fans and food bloggers are freaking out over the limited-edition More Stuf Oreo, an Oreo with the "most creme ever." They remind people of the Oreo Big Stuff from back in the '80s, but with much more filling.

Show-Me Lock Down Shut Down

Parson outlines details of Missouri prison closure JEFFERSON CITY, MO (AP) -- Gov. Mike Parson says there will be no layoffs and no additional prisoner releases as part of a northwest Missouri prison consolidation. Parson plans to close Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron, although on Friday he said he wants to keep it available in case it's later needed.

Rep. Davids Declaration

Davids says reopening government is top priority Newly elected Democratic Kansas Congresswoman Sharice Davids says her top priority is reopening the government. In a speech Friday at a Kansas City, Kansas, Chamber of Commerce forum, Davids called the partial government shutdown "completely unacceptable." She said she would push for back wages for furloughed government workers and low-wage contractors.

Train Tonight

Amtrak modifies service because of winter storms WASHINGTON (AP) - Amtrak is modifying service in the Northeast and Midwest because of winter storms moving through the region. The Capitol Limited, from Chicago to Washington, and the Lake Shoe Limited, from Chicago to New York, are canceled on Saturday. On Sunday, five Acela trains and six Northeast Regional trains will not operate between New York and Boston.

Gary Warns Against Slip & Slide

Snow will end and there will be slick spots KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Share in our weather experience on the weather blog. Click on the blog at the top of the page for more information.

Working Class Celebrate Overtime

More bad weather means long hours for snow removal teams KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The additional rain and snow expected this weekend once again means long hours and plenty of work for tree and snow removal companies around the metro. Last week, Tree Trimming Plus owner Terry Heath and his team worked around the clock to clear streets and parking lots after a storm moved through the area.

KC Coach Is A Survivor

In tragedies' wake, Andy Reid and the Chiefs found success through second chances January 18 at 6:51 AM They stepped out of the cold and into the warmth and uncertainty of a private airport in Philadelphia. Failure was not an option. In early January 2013, five members of the Kansas City Chiefs organization had traveled east, and when the big man with the familiar mustache walked in to join them, he could smell soft pretzels and - considering the crowd - feel the day's importance.

Overall perspective on our pop culture news and whyis an essential part of our KICK-ASS TKC discourse . . .Closer to home, for news junkies, these local items are worth a glimpse this evening . . .And this is thefor tonight . . .A lesbian couple in Missouri was denied an apartment because their marriage was not "understood in the Bible" A federal judge has ruled in favor of the Missouri Friendship Village, a retirement community that rejected a lesbian couple due to religious beliefs. Here are the details.

The best round-up of this story that decries State officials working against protections for this community. Here's the progressive take on the hot topic. Checkit:OVERLAND PARK, KS (KCTV) -- The Overland Park Police Department is looking for multiple suspects in connection to several thefts from area liquor stores. From Jan. 3 - Jan. 16, there have been up to nine thefts, according to the Overland Park Police Department.Violent St. Louis/Kansas City Meth Ring Was Right Out of Breaking Bad click to enlarge COURTESY MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS Meth dealers hunting a drug thief in St. Louis are responsible for a pair of murders, including the grisly killing of man whose toothless, charred corpse was found last summer in a burning Dodge Challenger, according to federal authorities.

Review of a drug story that's much more captivating than the other write-ups, check more deets on anhome grown drug gang that won't be thwarted by a border wall. Read more:Waiter! There Is A Bug In My Pizza Kansas City history is shot through with mob ties. So it's no surprise that Alan Sykes of Tipton, Missouri, had a question for curiousKC about organized crime: "Did the FBI bug the Villa Capri and bust some mafia from what they learned?"

Shame on Kansas City "public" media for continuing the tradition of ethnic profiling and glamorizing crime legend that actually caused a great deal of human misery locally and across the nation . . . When local media outlets would rather publish old school reports than keep up to date on current controversy, here's what they come up with . . .Nice Kansas City Save

Fire crew rescues teen driver after SUV goes into Brush Creek KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) - Crews with the Kansas City Fire Department had to rescues a driver midday Friday after the teen's SUV went into Brush Creek. According to officers with the Kansas City Police Department, the 19-year-old woman had a medical condition that caused her to lose control of her vehicle, sending it off Blue Parkway and into the water.

Kansas City Big Foot Bust

Man arrested had heroin in size 18 shoes, meth at KC Amtrak | The Kansas City Star Federal prosecutors have charged an Arkansas man with smuggling heroin and methamphetamine on an Amtrak train that stopped in Kansas City. He hid the heroin in a pair of shoes that were size 18, court documents say.

Stranger Danger Double Take

Elementary school-age student approached by man, woman KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City Police Department has increased patrols in the northland after an elementary school-age student was approached by a man and woman in a car Thursday afternoon. The Park Hill School District notified parents Friday of the incident, which involved a student from Tiffany Ridge Elementary School near NW Old Tiffany Springs Road and NW Green Hills Road in the Northland.

Local Demand For Drugs

4 arrested in Clay County drug bust CLAY COUNTY, MO (KCTV) -- Four were arrested Wednesday afternoon after the Clay County Section of the Missouri Western Interdiction and Narcotics Task Force served a search warrant. The warrant was issued in Kansas City. Methamphetamine, prescription narcotics, and firearms were among the items discovered during the investigation.

Big Picture Shut Down Impact

Husch lawyer: Shutdown hits business involved in foreign trade - Kansas City Business Journal Businesses relying on exports and imports as part of their supply chain are starting to feel effects from the partial federal government shutdown. Beau Jackson, a trade and intellectual property partner at Husch Blackwell LLP in Kansas City, said the shutdown is affecting key entities for foreign trade, such as the U.S.

Show-Me War On Terror Price

Missouri man one of 4 Americans killed in Syria suicide bomb attack, Pentagon says The Pentagon has identified three of the four Americans killed in a suicide bomb attack claimed by the Islamic State group in Syria this week. They are Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan R. Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Florida, who was based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) Shannon M.

Kansas Life Lesson

JoCo Inferno Rescue

2 injured by fire in Overland Park duplex OVERLAND PARK, KS (KCTV) -- Two people have been injured in a fire in Overland Park. Overland Park fire crews reported to the 8400 block of Kessler Street. The fire happened at a duplex. The cause of the fire is unknown at this time. KCTV5.com is now with you on the go!

A bunch of local news items worth sharing in one place, here's the rundown of today's more important headlines, news items along with a few more crime stories . . .And this is the OPENT HREAD for right now . . .Released this past spring, the Galaxy S10 represents one of the biggest overhauls ever to happen to Samsungs premium smartphones. There are not one, not two but a whopping four models, ranging from 5.8 to 6.7 inches, and as many as five cameras across the front and back in certain variants.

Both the Galaxy S10 Plus and Galaxy S10e have made our list of the best smartphones, but every handset in the lineup is worth a look.

The Galaxy S10 Plus and S10

Here's a closer look at some of the most prominent features in the Galaxy S10 versus 2018's Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus, with an eye toward what's changed with the year's phones. Also check out our Galaxy S10 vs S10 Plus vs S10e vs S10 5G face-off to see which new Galaxy is right for you.

Updated, Nov. 12: We've added updating pricing information and test results.

Design

There are more Galaxy models to choose from than ever before. After years of offering just two sizes  the 5.8-inch Galaxy S9 and the 6.2-inch Galaxy S9+ were 2018's entries  Samsung is selling four varieties of the Galaxy S10: the 5.8-inch S10e, 6.1-inch S10, 6.4-inch S10 Plus and 6.7-inch Galaxy S10 5G, all of which span a range of prices and features.

Another noteworthy change with the Galaxy S10 is the placement of the fingerprint sensor. Recent models have placed the sensor on the back of the phone to make more space for the phone's Infinity Display. But with the S10, the fingerprint reader moves back to the front of the phone in the form of an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor underneath the display.





All the Galaxy S10 colors

There is one exception: Samsung's entry-level Galaxy S10e skips this feature in exchange for a lower price tag, putting the fingerprint reader on that model's power button.

Other phones have offered in-display sensors in the past  notably the OnePlus 6T, though it uses an optical scanner rather than an ultrasonic one. Based on our testing, the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor works well, but you need to press your finger on the sensor long enough for it to register.

Samsung used to play it pretty safe on colors, with the S9 debuting in Midnight Black, Coral Blue and Lilac Purple before a Gold variant arrived later. Colors got a little more daring with the Note 9, though thankfully the S10 continues that trend in a big way. There are no less than eight colors on offer between the three core models of Samsungs flagship. (The 5G version of the S10 comes in Crown Silver or Majestic Black.)

Theres Prism White, Prism Black, Prism Blue and Prism Green, which wont arrive in the U.S. Flamingo Pink is another new hue, based on Pantones color of the year, Living Coral. The S10e gets an exclusive Canary Yellow option that wont see the States either. And, finally, the 512GB and 1TB storage variants of the S10+ come in a more luxurious (and durable) Ceramic Black and Ceramic White.

Display (and hole punch)

There's no denying that Samsung's Infinity Display has been a hit since it first graced the Galaxy S8 two years ago. Samsung is retaining that AMOLED screen with the S10, but with a slightly different kind of display.

The Galaxy S10 Plus' hole-punch Infinity O display

With Samsungs new Infinity-O approach to the S10s display, Samsung is housing the phone's front camera in a hole punch located in the device's upper right corner. That allows the phone maker to shrink the bezel at the top of the phone without having to use an iPhone X-style notch. The S10 Plus sports an even wider hole to accommodate two front cameras. (The Galaxy Note 10, released after the S10 family debuted, moves the punch hole to the center of the display.)

Samsung does allow you to hide the front cameras and the hole punches by turning it into a black bar, but it's not very appealing.

The entry-level S10e model differs from the others somewhat in that it incorporates a flat display. Its a departure from the curved panel we've gotten used to with Samsung's Galaxy S phones.

Performance

Samsung's new phones upgrade from the Snapdragon 845 inside the Galaxy S9 to Qualcomms new Snapdragon 855, at least for Galaxy S10 models sold in the U.S. (In other markets, Samsung uses its own Exynos chipset for the Galaxy S phones, with the Exynos 9820 powering this year's model.)

Based on our benchmarks of the entire Galaxy S10 lineup, Samsung's latest phones are quite fast. For example, the S10 Plus posted a score of 10,732 in Geekbench 4, which measures overall performance. The Galaxy S10 did slightly better with a 10,813 score.

When we tested the S10 family back in the spring, those were the fastest results we've seen from an Android phone, approaching the iPhone XS's score of 11,420. Of course, subsequent Snapdragon 855-powered Android phones have gotten faster, too, as have the iPhone 11 phones powered by Apple's new A13 Bionic chip.

Nevertheless, the S10 is decided faster than its predecessor. The Galaxy S9 Plus posted a score of 8,295 on Geekbench 4 when we reviewed the phone a year ago.

Don't think you're sacrificing performance if you opt for the S10e, which is running on that same Snapdragon 855. It scored 10,513 on Geekbench 4, just behind the S10 Plus. (Chalk up the small gap to the extra RAM in the S10 Plus model we tested.)



The Galaxy S10e and the new OneUI interface

The S10 Plus' score of 5,648 on the graphics-measuring 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme test was better than what we saw from the Snapdragon 845-powered S9 and S9 Plus. And it also beat the iPhone XS (4,339) and every other Android phone we had tested up until that point. The Galaxy S10 was right behind its larger sibling with a 5,606 score.

The S9 offered 4GB of RAM while the S9 Plus upped the ante to 6GB. This time around, the S10 starts with 6GB of memory on the S10e, moves up to 8GB for the S10, and goes as high as 12GB of RAM for the range-topping configurations of the S10 Plus.

5G connectivty

The Galaxy S10 enjoys another performance edge over the S9, though only with one model. The Galaxy S10 5G supports next-generation 5G networks that wireless carriers are currently building out, taking advantage of the X50 5G modem included with the Snapdragon 855. That will mean faster data speeds when you're able to connect to a 5G network, as we discovered when testing the Galaxy S10 5G. At some test sites in Chicago, we saw download speeds topping 1 Gbps on Verizon's network.

The trouble is Verizon's network is limited to 15 cities as of this writing, and because it uses millimeter-wave technology, Verizon's network is limited to certain neighborhoods in a city. T-Mobile's 5G network launches in December, and will cover 5,000 cities, though with slower speeds than what Verizon has to offer. In other words, given that 5G is still in the early going, it's hard to justify the added expense of the Galaxy S10 5G over other S10 models.

Still, each of the Big Four carriers now sells the Galaxy S10 5G, after the phone initially debuted with Verizon. (AT&T only offers the phone to select customers, though.)

Cameras

While the S9 featured a single, 12-megapixel lens with variable aperture and the S9 Plus doubled up on its 12-MP shooters, all versions of the Galaxy S10 will feature multiple cameras on the back.

The primary shooter  a 12-megapixel, variable aperture lens backed by a dual-pixel sensor  is present on every model. The S10e adds an ultrawide-angle 16-MP secondary shooter. And the S10 and S10 Plus throw in a 12-MP telephoto lens for striking portraits.

The Galaxy S10e's dual rear cameras

At the front, all S10 models have a 10-MP dual-pixel camera, and the S10 Plus gets a secondary 8-MP depth sensor to allow for shallow depth-of-field selfies, too.

Finally, the Galaxy S10 5G gets a whopping four cameras on the back, adding a sophisticated time-of-flight 3D depth sensor to the trio of existing cameras on the back. The same 3D shooter replaces the 8-MP secondary camera youd normally find on the front of the S10 Plus.

Just as the Galaxy S9 used its variable aperture to improve photos in low-light settings, the S10 turns to software to take better photos in the dark. The new phones can recognize 30 different scenes, more than any previous Samsung flagship, and adjust exposure parameters on the fly based on what it sees.

To see how well the Galaxy S10's camera performs, check out our camera face-off between the Galaxy S10 Plus and Pixel 3. The Pixel 3 out-performed the S10 in five of our eight tests and the Pixel 4 has only added further improvements to the camera. But we still include the Galaxy S10 Plus on our list of top camera phones, and it's a definite improvement over what you get from the Galaxy S9' cameras.

Battery

The S9 and S9 Plus came with 3,000- and 3,500-mAh batteries, respectively. Those helped the two phones last nearly 11 hours on our Tom's Guide Battery test, which features continuous surfing over T-Mobile's LTE network until the devices run out of power.

Samsung wanted to improve on that performance, and so the phone maker is turning to bigger batteries to make that happen. The size of that battery will depend on which model of the S10 you buy.

Galaxy Buds

The entry-level S10e features a 3,100-mAh battery, which is a bit more than what the S9 included. But battery sizes will scale up to 3,400 mAh and 4,100 mAh on the S10 and S10 Plus models. The range-topping S10 5G will pack a 4,500 mAh unit to power its next-generation radios.

On our battery test, the Galaxy S10 Plus lasted a whopping 12 hours and 35 minutes, which far surpasses not only the Galaxy S9 Plus but also the Galaxy Note 9 and every flagship phone for the past year. That lands the Galaxy S10 Plus on the list of longest lasting smartphones. The S10e wasn't that impressive, turning in a time of 9:41 that's actually below average for smartphones. The S10 lasted a respectable 10:19.

All four S10 devices will be able to wirelessly recharge other devices with their own batteries, using a new feature Samsung has dubbed Wireless PowerShare. The feature is compatible with any other Qi-supported products, like Samsung's new Galaxy Buds, pictured above, and automatically turns itself off once the S10 drops down to 30 percent capacity.

Software

The biggest software change with the Galaxy S10 versus the Galaxy S9 is a new interface. Samsung unveiled its OneUI Android skin last year, and it's been added to the Galaxy S9 models as well as the S10 family. Its a more dynamic interface that changes based on what you're using the phone to do; buttons and search bars disappear if they're not germane to the task at hand, for example.

The Galaxy S10 Plus, front and back

But Samsung also tweaked OneUI to put many of the buttons and commands within reach of your fingers, so that you can use your phone one handed. That's critical for phones with larger screens, which the S10 lineup is expected to introduce.

Another plus: you can finally remap the Bixby button for other functions, though apparently you can't change it to Google Assistant.

MORE: Galaxy S10: Ten Features to Enable and Disable

Be aware that Samsung is updating its user interface once more for Android 10. The new version, One UI 2.0, is currently in beta and it's only open to the Galaxy S10 and not the S9.

Price

The S10 range begins at $749 with the 5.8-inch Galaxy S10e. For that price, you get 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Theres an option for 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage as well.

Galaxy S10e: Samsung's entry-level model costs $150 less than the Galaxy S10. It features just two-rear cameras and instead of an in-display fingerprint sensor, you get a fingerprint reader on the power button.View Deal

The 6.1-inch Galaxy S10 starts at $899 with 8GB of RAM off the bat, as well as 128GB of space for media and apps. You can upgrade to a 512GB model if you prefer.

Galaxy S10: With a starting price of $899, the Galaxy S10 features a triple-lens rear camera setup and the same blazing performance you get from the larger S10 Plus. View Deal

The 6.4-inch S10 Plus costs $999 for the same 128GB configuration. It also has a 512GB storage option as well as 1TB version. You can also bump the RAM to 12GB.

Galaxy S10 Plus: We think the Galaxy S10 Plus is the best of the new S10 models and the one to get if you can swing its $999 price.View Deal

The Galaxy S10 5G is the most expensive of the new models, even though it's not that much different from the Galaxy S10 Plus, save for the larger screen and 5G modem. Still, at $1,299, it's a $300 premium over the S10 Plus.

Under a current promotion, you can knock the cost off each new Galaxy S10 model by up to $350 when you trade-in your current phone. Be sure to check our best Galaxy S10 deals page to see the latest discounts.

As for the Galaxy S9 and S9+, their prices have fallen since the S10 arrived on the scene. The S9 costs around $599 these days, and the S9+ costs $699, though you can find lower prices at many retailers, especially if you don't mind turning to used models. Samsung is offering a $160 rebate on its older phones when you trade in a current handset. We still monitor Galaxy S9 deals, too.

Bottom Line

With U.S. smartphone sales slowing as more people hold on to their current phones for longer, Samsung faced a challenge with the Galaxy S10 launch: Come out with a device that not only improves upon what's come before it, but also differs substantially so that users feel compelled to upgrade.

Are the changes from the Galaxy S9 enough to convince people to upgrade to Samsung's new phone? For early adopters, perhaps. Based on our testing, we think the Galaxy S10 is a better bet for people who own a Galaxy S8 or older device. And if you're looking for a bargain phone, the still-powerful Galaxy S9 remains a compelling option.[January 19, 2019]

United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches NROL-71 in Support of National Security

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., Jan. 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying a critical payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) denoted NROL-71 lifted off from Space Launch Complex-6 on Jan. 19 at 11:10 a.m. PST. The mission is in support of our country's national defense.

"Congratulations to our team and mission partners for successfully delivering this critical asset to support national security missions," said Gary Wentz, ULA vice president of Government and Commercial Programs, "thank you to the entire team for their perseverance, ongoing dedication and focus on 100% mission success."

The Delta IV Heavy is the nation's proven heavy lift launch vehicle, delivering high-priority missions for the National Reconnaissance Office, U.S. Air Force and NASA. With its advanced upper stage, the Delta IV Heavy can take more than 14,000 pounds directly to geosynchronous orbit, as well as a wide variety of complex interplanetary trajectories.

The mission launched aboard a Delta IV Heavy, comprised of three common booster cores each powered by an Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68A liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engine producing a combined total of more than 2.1 million ponds of thrust. The second stage was powered by an AR RL10B-2 liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engine.







NROL-71 is ULA's first launch in 2019 and 132nd successful launch since the company was formed in December 2006.

ULA's next launch is the WGS-10 mission for the U.S. Air Force on a Delta IV rocket. The launch is scheduled for March 13 from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

With more than a century of combined heritage, ULA is the world's most experienced and reliable launch service provider. ULA has successfully delivered more than 130 satellites to orbit that provide Earth observation capabilities, enable global communications, unlock the mysteries of our solar system, and support life-saving technology.

For more information on ULA, visit the ULA website at www.ulalaunch.com, or call the ULA Launch Hotline at 1-877-ULA-4321 (852-4321). Join the conversation at www.facebook.com/ulalaunch, twitter.com/ulalaunch and instagram.com/ulalaunch.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/united-launch-alliance-successfully-launches-nrol-71-in-support-of-national-security-300781245.html

SOURCE United Launch Alliance[January 19, 2019] CIO Roundtable Invests in INTERalliance Adopt-A-Chapter Program

CINCINNATI, Jan. 19, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- During the 2018 IT Symposium, held December 6th, the CIO Roundtable delivered a $10,000 donation to The INTERalliance of Greater Cincinnati to initiate a new Adopt-A-Chapter Pilot. The INTERalliance Adopt-A-Chapter Pilot will partner local Cincinnati High School chapters of 10-25+ students with corporate partners to facilitate mentorship and richer engagement in INTERalliance programs. The benefits of each Adoption will include a transportation sponsorship, a classroom technology donation, supplies and meals for engagements, and cover the administrative costs of the program. The donation from the CIO Roundtable will cover five adoptions between 2018 and 2020.

Geoff Smith, CIO Roundtable co-chair awarded the donation to INTERalliance at the symposium and stated, The CIO Roundtable has been hosting an annual symposium for the Regions IT Leaders for over 10 years. Four years ago, we moved to a paid registration format so that wed be able to donate the Events net proceeds to organizations/programs that enhance our Regions 'Ecosystem' and Talent Pipeline. Over the past 4 years, these donations have exceeded $100K. INTERalliance has been a MAJOR contributor to the Regions TechTalent Pipeline for over ten years, so its not surprising that INTERalliance was once again an award recipient. This time a $10,000 donation to help expand one of their new programs, 'Adopt a Chapter.' Virtually all of our 25 member companies are active supporters of INTERalliances many highly impactful programs. We hope that this donation will help jumpstart a key new program that further aligns/engages our IT employer base with high school students during the school year in a way that enhances existing INTERalliance school programs and creates new opportunities for curious, motivated high school students to directly see what a career in IT looks like for them. We look forward to seeing this program grow and succeed.



There are hundreds of students in our region who are interested in Technology but do not have the means to expand their knowledge. This pilot is designed to level the playing field in our local High Schools, inspire students who wouldnt have the opportunities to become inspired, and help build the talent pipeline that Cincinnati needs, stated Heather Ackels, INTERalliance Executive Director. It is critical to invest differently if we are going to make the impact that I know INTERalliance and our business community can make. This is just the beginning! About the INTERalliance of Greater Cincinnati: The mission of the INTERalliance is to establish the Greater Cincinnati Region as a model of cooperation between business and educators -- working together to identify, nurture, train, employ, and retain the area's best IT talent. More information can be found at www.interalliance.org.

Member companies of the INTERalliance include The Kroger Co., Procter & Gamble, Great American Insurance, Worldpay, GE Aviation, Vora Technologies, Fifth Third Bank, Western & Southern Financial Group, and Paycor, among many others.

Heather.Ackels@interalliance.org Heather Ackels INTERalliance of Greater Cincinnati

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][January 18, 2019] XPO LOGISTICS SHAREHOLDER ALERT: ClaimsFiler Reminds Investors with Losses in Excess of $100,000 of Lead Plaintiff Deadline in Class Action Lawsuits Against XPO Logistics, Inc. - XPO

ClaimsFiler, a FREE shareholder information service, reminds investors that they have until February 12, 2019 to file lead plaintiff applications in securities class action lawsuits against XPO Logistics, Inc. (NYSE: XPO), if they purchased the Company's securities between February 26, 2014, and December 13, 2018, inclusive (the "Class Period"). These actions are pending in the United States District Courts for the District of Connecticut and Southern District of New York. Get Help XPO investors should visit us at https://www.claimsfiler.com/cases/view-xpo-logistics-inc-securities-litigation or call toll-free (844) 367-9658. Lawyers at Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC are available to discuss your legal optios.



About the Lawsuits XPO and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

On December 13, 2018, Spruce Point Capital Management reported that its lengthy investigation into XPO revealed "concrete evidence to suggest dubious tax accounting, under-reporting of bad debts, phantom income through unaccountable M&A earn-out liabilities, and aggressive amortization assumptions: all designed to portray glowing 'Non-GAAP" results" and "financial irregularities [covering] growing financial strain," among other findings. On this news, the price of XPO's shares plummeted $15.77 per share, or 26.17%. The first case filed is Labul v. XPO Logistics, Inc., 18-cv-02062. About ClaimsFiler ClaimsFiler has a single mission: to serve as the information source to help retail investors recover their share of billions of dollars from securities class action settlements. At ClaimsFiler.com, investors can: (1) register for free to gain access to information and settlement websites for various securities class action cases so they can timely submit their own claims; (2) upload their portfolio transactional data to be notified about relevant securities cases in which they may have a financial interest; and (3) submit inquiries to the Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC law firm for free case evaluations. To learn more about ClaimsFiler, visit www.claimsfiler.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190118005522/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][January 18, 2019] WELBILT SHAREHOLDER ALERT: ClaimsFiler Reminds Investors with Losses in Excess of $100,000 of Lead Plaintiff Deadline in Class Action Lawsuit against Welbilt, Inc. - WBT

ClaimsFiler, a FREE shareholder information service, reminds investors that they have until February 11, 2019 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Welbilt, Inc. (NYSE: WBT), if they purchased the Company's shares between February 24, 2017 and November 2, 2018, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Get Help Welbilt investors should visit us at https://www.claimsfiler.com/cases/view-welbilt-inc-securities-litigation or call toll-free (844) 367-9658. Lawyers at Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC are available to discuss your legal options. About the Lawsuit



Welbilt and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws. On November 5, 2018, the Company disclosed a restatement to its YE December 31, 2016 financial statements and likely revision to its December 31, 2015 and 2017 statements due to "errors in the tax basis of a foreign subsidiary and incorrect amortization of the intangible assets held by the same entityIn addition, the Company discovered certain intercompany transactions were not recorded on a timely basis."

On this news, the price of Welbilt's shares plummeted. The case is Schlimm v. Welbilt, Inc et al, 18-cv-3007. About ClaimsFiler ClaimsFiler has a single mission: to serve as the information source to help retail investors recover their share of billions of dollars from securities class action settlements. At ClaimsFiler.com, investors can: (1) register for free to gain access to information and settlement websites for various securities class action cases so they can timely submit their own claims; (2) upload their portfolio transactional data to be notified about relevant securities cases in which they may have a financial interest; and (3) submit inquiries to the Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC law firm for free case evaluations. To learn more about ClaimsFiler, visit www.claimsfiler.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190118005519/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][January 18, 2019] ALLERGAN SHAREHOLDER ALERT by Former Louisiana Attorney General: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Reminds Investors with Losses in Excess of $100,000 of Lead Plaintiff Deadline in Class Action Lawsuit Against Allergan plc. - AGN

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until February 19, 2019 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Allergan plc. (NYSE: AGN (News - Alert) ), if they purchased the Company's shares between February 24, 2017, and December 19, 2018, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. What You May Do If you purchased shares of Allergan and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-agn/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by February 19, 2019.



About the Lawsuit Allergan and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

On December 19, 2018, the Company announced that it had halted the sale of its textured breast implants in the European market following a compulsory recall request from the French regulatory authority, Agence Nationale de Securite du Medicament, after the product's CE Mark certification expired, amid concerns of a link to a rare form of cancer. On this news, the price of Allergan's shares plummeted. The case is Cook v. Allergan Plc et al, No. 18-cv-12089. About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC KSF, whose partners include the former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana. To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190118005512/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]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.COHOES  Sharon Mitchell has been on a waitlist for the shingles vaccine for seven weeks.

The retired high school English teacher from Cohoes is worried what will happen if she doesn't get it soon. Two of her friends had shingles several years ago, and one has painful flare-ups to this day.

"It's frustrating, for the pharmacy and for me," said Mitchell, 71. "They don't even have an estimate. Usually, John can tell you we'll be getting some in X number of weeks, but he doesn't know with this."

John McDonald, her pharmacist and state Assemblyman, said he has a list of 70 customers at Marra's Pharmacy waiting to get the vaccine. He's been out since September, and other pharmacies nationwide have been out even longer  since spring, when the two-dose vaccine known as Shingrix first became broadly available in the U.S.

On Friday, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, visited the pharmacy on Remsen Street in Cohoes and suggested the federal government shutdown was only exacerbating the problem.

Normally, he said, Congress could call on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to address the drug shortage, either by expediting regulatory hurdles for the manufacturer or redirecting shipments from low-priority to high-priority areas. But due to the federal shutdown, he said, the staff charged with doing that are all furloughed.

"This is one of so many examples of how this government shutdown is hurting people in the Capital Region and elsewhere," he said.

"Because of the shutdown there's no one home at the FDA," he added. "We call the FDA and say, 'Can't you do this?' We don't get an answer because there's no one there."

Shingles is more serious and more prevalent than most people realize, health officials say.

Caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox, shingles causes a painful rash that may appear as a stripe of blisters on the trunk of the body or the face. If it spreads to the eyes it can cause loss of vision. Anyone who has recovered from chicken pox may get shingles later in life when the dormant virus reactivates, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

While the rash and blisters eventually fade with treatment, nerve pain can persist for months or even years after.

Roughly one in every three Americans will develop shingles in their lifetime, and the risk increases the older you get.

In October 2017, a federal panel of immunization experts made two recommendations that helped contribute to the vaccine shortage experienced today. It recommended that all adults over age 50 get the vaccine (down from a previous recommendation of age 60 and older) and it recommended the newly developed Shingrix vaccine over the longstanding Zostavax vaccine, as the former was found to be significantly more effective at preventing the virus.

But the maker of the new vaccine, GlaxoSmithKline, wasn't prepared for the demand that followed. Shortages were being reported by May 2018, according to multiple news reports.

Schumer on Friday said that, ideally, the federal government would reopen and the FDA would intervene to help address the shortage. Barring that, however, he said the FDA could declare the current vaccine shortage an emergency, which would allow the agency to bring back staff to address the problem.

"I am urging the FDA to go above and beyond, to do whatever it can, amidst this needless shutdown and pull out all the stops to step in and help remedy this shortage before it becomes a full-on crisis," he said. "And it is why I am, once again, urging the president to see the light here and stop holding agencies that have nothing to do with the debate at hand hostage."ALBANY  Spurred on by the Senates new Democratic majority, legislators next week are likely to pass a long-sought bill to help immigrant college students, as well as a measure that protects teachers from being evaluated based on student test scores.

But another bill, which would make permanent the states property and school tax cap, may end up in the middle of a fight over rent regulations toward the end of the legislative session.

The first bill, known as the New York DREAM Act, would let children of undocumented immigrants apply for state financial help such as scholarships for college. Known as Dreamers, many of these immigrants were brought to the U.S. as young children or babies but due to their undocumented status, cant get state aid for college. The bill has passed in the Assembly for at least the last four years but had been blocked in Senate where Republicans were in control until this year.

Now, with Democrats controlling the Senate, the measure, with an approximately $27 million price tag, is expected to handily pass both houses.

Democratic Assemblywoman Carmen De La Rosa, who sponsored the bill with Senate Democrat Luis Sepulveda, said shes confident there are enough votes in both houses to approve the measure.

The same goes for the testing-evaluation bill, which passed last spring in the Assembly but didnt move in the Senate. That measure would permanently prevent the mandatory linking of student test score results to teacher evaluations. That measure has been a priority with the politically powerful state teachers union, New York State United Teachers, whose members heavily backed Senate Democrats in November.

Its a very common-sense measure, said Yonkers Democratic Sen. Shelley Mayer, who chairs the education committee.

The test-score evaluation battle dates back more than five years, to when Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed a teacher evaluation system that leaned heavily on test results. That idea sparked a backlash by teachers and NYSUT, which said it wasnt a fair way to evaluate job performance.

Cuomo later abandoned the plan and state education officials placed it under a moratorium , but NYSUT wants legislation ensuring it wont resurface in the future.

While a DREAM Act and a testing bill appear likely to pass, the fate of a permanent tax cap could end up being tied to rent regulation laws and it could thrust lawmakers into a classic urban-suburban battle.

Thats because rent regulations, which affect more than 2 million tenants in New York City, expire in mid June.

When Cuomo pushed through the property tax cap at the end of the 2011 legislative session, it was linked to rent regulations.

Politically, rent regulations are to New York City lawmakers what property tax caps are to suburban and upstate legislators. Both are popular among constituents and lawmakers feel like they need to protect these pocketbook programs.

That may be especially true in the newly Democratic Senate, where suburban members want to ensure their constituents that they arent under the sway of New York City interests. Indeed, the sponsor of the Senates permanent tax cap bill, Democrat James Gaughran, is from Long Island.

It was an issue that I ran on, said the freshman lawmaker.

But a core group of Assembly Democrats from New York City say they worry about extending rent regulations, which impacts their constituents since many are renters rather than homeowners.

The rent control issue is an important one for us, said De La Rosa, who noted that her district in upper Manhattan and the Bronx has one of the highest concentrations of regulated apartments in the state.

Lawmakers from the city may push for strengthening and expansions of rent regulations, or giving control of the regulations to New York City, as a bargaining chip to approve a permanent tax cap.

And while popular with the public, the tax cap has drawn criticism and even lawsuits from the states vast education lobby as well as municipal officials who say it hinders their ability to raise funds.

On the other hand, Cuomo in his budget address earlier in the month said that making the cap permanent was among his priorities.

If its truly a high priority with the governor, it will happen, E.J. McMahon, research director at the Empire Center said in an email. The governor, he added, has all the leverage he needs to lock this down as his legacy.

rkarlin@timesunion.com  518-4545758  @RickKarlinTUAlbany

Hundreds of demonstrators marched on the Capitol on a cold Saturday afternoon for the third annual women's march - the display partially fueled by what many in the crowd said is a presidential administration unfriendly to women's and minority rights.

Many of the demonstrators carried signs and chanted "this is what democracy looks like," while also sporting the iconic "pink pussy" hats that have become an emblem of the women's rights movement.

"That's what this is about: it's about trusting women to make their own health care choices, to make their own life choices," Libby Post, the co-founder of CapitalWomen, said. "We have one thing in common, and that is a progressive politic that wants real change for this country, real change for this state, and real change for this county."

The marchers left from Jenning's Landing at noon, and walked up State Street before gathering at West Capitol Park, where the band Sirsy kicked off the afternoon's rally with lively rock music.

Over a dozen community leaders and activists spoke to crowd, some giving energized, impassioned speeches denouncing President Trump's policies. Others, meanwhile, advocated for things like women's reproductive rights, health care and minority empowerment.

This women's empowerment movement began a day after President Donald Trump's 2016 inauguration, when thousands of women marched in Washington D.C. and around the world to advocate for women's rights.

Patricia Sibilia, president of the League of Women Voters of Albany County, said she joined this year's rally to support democracy and stand up against some of the Trump administrations policies related to things like immigration and health care.

"We're definitely non-partisan, but we hold positions. On a lot of the positions we hold, the president has spoken against," Sibilia said. "It's really showing that, when we first came together two years ago, it was the first time it was real hope and it started a momentum, and that momentum is still going strong."

Some said the turnout wasn't as high as in previous years - though temperatures hovering around the high teens throughout the rally, as well as the incoming winter storm likely played a role in the diminished attendance.

But those who braved the cold to attend the march ranged in age from high school to retirement, and represented a wide range of ethnicities, religions and professions.

One man held a flag representing the "Veterans for Peace" group, and he said that while veterans are often associated with the conservative side of the political spectrum, he said that that's "painting with a very broad brush."

"The right wing may use us for their benefits, but actually we are a very strong voice for peace and for social justice around the world," Dan Wilcox said. "We join in all of these fights, environmental, with the women here, supporting immigrants and refugees. It's all the same issue. We're not going to have peace in the world if we don't have justice."

Tina Lee worked on the campaign for Michelle Ostrelich, who ran for a state Senate against Jim Tedisco in the 2018 midterm election. Lee said she also attended the women's march in Washington D.C. in 2017, and was empowered to join a political campaign for the first time in her life.

She credits the women's empowerment movement for the large gain in women elected to the U.S. Congress last November - and she's noticed progress made in the two years since that first women's march in D.C.

"After the 2016 election we've all had this realization that we need to be as involved as we can," Lee said. "We're totally energized to keep working, keep supporting each other."Des Moines, Iowa

Unlike some of her potential rivals, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand will be starting from scratch in early-voting Iowa when she makes her first visit as a 2020 Democratic presidential prospect on Friday.

Gillibrand, who announced her intentions to run on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on Tuesday, is wasting little time getting to the state where the 2020 caucuses launch the Democratic presidential selection process. Still, activists who have already been lavished with attention from other potential candidates say Gillibrand is a virtual unknown to them, especially compared with some of her Senate colleagues.

"I know hardly anything about her," said Sioux City resident Tim Bottaro, among the western Iowa Democrats expected to meet her at a private home gathering with other activists Friday afternoon.

She plans a variety of appearances across the state this weekend, including coffee-shop talks in Sioux City and Ames, a brew pub meeting and speaking slot at the Women's March in the capital, Des Moines, as well as smaller-group introductions in small-town Boone and private meetings with influential Democrats along the way.

Gillibrand's Iowa trip is the beginning of her journey to introduce herself to more Americans outside New York, which she has represented in Washington since 2006, first as a congresswoman and then as a senator, when she replaced Hillary Clinton in 2009. She has distinguished herself in the nation's capital with her outspoken opposition to President Donald Trump and her forceful advocacy for victims of sexual assault and harassment.

Unlike several of the more than a dozen Democrats who have signaled an interest in running, Gillibrand did not visit Iowa in 2018, when Iowa Democrats picked up seats in the U.S. House and the state Legislature in the November midterm elections.

Gillibrand may also have to contend with Iowa's traditionally tricky winter weather this weekend. A snowstorm was scheduled to hit western Iowa, where her tour begins, just as she is set to arrive in the state.ALBANY  Owners of an Orange Street home that was demolished after the city tore down the building next door have accused the city of negligence in a notice of claim filed last month.

David Rowley, attorney for homeowners Jerome Johnson and Lenora Graham, alleges the city didnt inspect 170 Orange St. before workers contracted by the city started to tear down 172 Orange St., which had stood vacant for 18 years. The work left one side of the occupied 170 Orange St. with a gaping hole on one side because the building lacked a fourth wall and was depended on the adjacent rowhouse.

"The City of Albany ... whose negligence and intentional acts performed in the course of inspecting, preparing for and recommending, and effecting the demolition of 172 Orange Street caused severe and extensive damage," the notice reads.

The notice, which Rowley said he filed in December also alleges other issues related to the demolition, such as the possibility it exposed the displaced family and other neighbors to asbestos and other carcinogenic items released into the atmosphere during the tear down process.

The official filing was first reported by WTEN.

When the city and its contractor began to tear down the abandoned 172 Orange St. in Sheridan Hollow, they discovered the Graham-Johnson home had a shared, west-facing wall with the building they were taking down.

The city attempted to stabilize the Grahams home, but after doing so an inspection revealed the building was structurally unsound and was uninhabitable even prior to the demolition of the other house.

An engineer report completed by Russ Reeves on Oct. 23 for 170 Orange St. detailed fire damage in the roof from a previous fire next door as well as extensive water saturation and deterioration in the roof, a failing foundation on the easterly side of the home, and a back addition that had separated from the house by about six inches, among other concerns, according to records obtained by the Times Union through a Freedom of Information Law request.

Rowley, the homeowners' attorney, said he couldnt comment on the additional issues found with the home, saying he was still waiting on the city to fill a FOIL request.

He noted the Graham-Johnson family lived in their home for over 20 years without any issues. At the time of emergency demolition, nine people lived in there, including six grandchildren, and the family dog.

It wasnt unsafe prior to this, and if the city thought it was unsafe prior to this they would have done something, Rowley said Their action belies their story at this point and time. Its a story made up in order to provide them with some type of defense to what was really indefensible.

Albany and the demolition contractor, M. Cristo Inc., said there was no way to know the Graham-Johnson house was three-sided ahead of the neighboring demolition.

City officials have maintained they told the family to evacuate during the tear down of the building next door, but they went back in their home. The Graham-Johnsons claim that wasnt the case.

When the emergency demolition was issued, Albany provided the family with a tractor-trailer and helped move furniture and other items from the home. The city also offered temporary housing on Morton Avenue, but the Graham-Johnsons felt it was unsafe and eventually were provided funding through their homeowners insurance for housing.

Albany officials declined to comment because of the pending litigation.He was a visionary and one of the most famous capitalists in all of history. He introduced the automobile to the world and created the modern day production line. By the time of his death in 1947 Henry Ford was worth almost $200 billion in today's dollars. He was an icon and a hugely successful businessman.

Except when he failed. And in 1928 he launched a project that failed big time. It was called Fordlandia and no, it wasnt located in Oregon and Fred Armisen had nothing to do with it.

Related: 5 Things Real Leaders Do Every Day, According to Henry Ford

Its a town located in the Amazon rainforests of Brazil. Believe it or not, the town is still there but not at all like it was planned. Fordlandia (catchy, right?) was established by the automaker so that he could have a reliable source of a very critical raw material: rubber. In 1928, there was (or so it seemed) an endless supply of rubber trees in the Amazon rainforest and hey  who gave a hoot about the environment back then anyway, right?

The deal seemed like a good idea at the time. Resources were plentiful, labor was cheap. The Brazilian government was happy to give a concession for a cut of the profits. The hope was to build a community of 10,000 workers who could enjoy the high standard of living, like the Americans had, while churning out rubber for Fords factories back home.

It failed. Big time. Why?

Related: Why Henry Ford's Most Famous Quote Is Dead Wrong

Workers building the city were felled by yellow fever and malaria. Transport was only possible by a nearby river because there were no roads. Managers, who knew little about tropical farming, incorrectly planted crops that were then beset by disease and insects. Even worse, the local workers were forced to eat unfamiliar American food, wear ID badges, endure long hours in the hot sun, live in American-style housing and -- can you believe it? -- they didnt like it! In fact, they disliked the arrangements so much that riots broke out after just a few years.

Ironically, the whole adventure ultimately turned out to be a waste of time: by 1945 synthetic rubber would circumvent the need for natural rubber. Ford's grandson sold back the property to the Brazilian government six years after its founding for a loss of about $200 million in today's dollars.

Related: How Ford Created a Huge Market by Lowering its Prices

Talk about a bad business decision, right?

But here's the thing: even the greatest capitalists make bad business decisions. Dont believe me? Think of New Coke or Apples Newton or Sonys Betamax. Bad business decisions are a part of doing business. But theres a thing about making bad decisions that separates the successful business people like Henry Ford from all others. The decision doesnt kill your company.

The Fordlandia loss most definitely hurt Ford's pride more than his pocketbook because, as mentioned above, he was personally sitting on a fortune worth more than 10 times that amount while the Ford Motor Company was in the midst of a post-war profit boom.

Sure, Ford lost money. But he didn't lose his shirt. He did what smart business people do. He took a risk -- a big risk -- but he certainly didn't bet the farm. That's a lesson I've learned from years running a business. When I decide to invest in a new technology, or a new product line, or an updated website I always make sure I can afford to lose the money. Whenever I hear of people investing their life savings in a new business or all of their capital in a new venture I always think uh-oh. Thats not something Henry Ford would have done.

Related:

Ever Heard Of Henry Ford's Colossal Failed City in the Jungle?

How to Get Better at Handling Failure: Key Lessons From Entrepreneurs

5 Compelling Reasons for Starting a Business Even Though Most Businesses Fail



Copyright 2019 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reservedALBANY  Four weeks into the federal shutdown, the federal courthouse in downtown Albany was eerily quiet on Friday afternoon.

Many offices were dark, chairs stacked from a recent vacuuming, and the only sound that could be heard in the carpeted hallways was the intermittent rattle of construction workers drilling on Broadway.

The federal judiciary, funded through court fees and other appropriations, is projected to be fully operational through Friday, Jan. 25, according to the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts. But activity has visibly slowed.

During two trials at the courthouse this week, jurors were told they would not receive lunches paid for by the government as they deliberated, which is normally a courtesy, officials said.

The courts were initially projected to run out of money by Jan. 10, but due to aggressive cost-cutting efforts, courts were granted 11 more days before implementing a shutdown plan. Non-essential travel, new hires, and certain contracts have all been frozen to conserve resources.

"We are cautiously optimistic that we may be able to squeak out another week," said John M. Domurad, chief clerk of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.

If funds run out and new appropriated funds do not become available, the court system will prioritize "mission critical" work; "non-essential" workers will be furloughed, while others are required to work without pay.

Supporting courthouse staff, who for now are receiving a pay check, say they are bracing themselves for when that moment arrives.

"I'm still pretty new, so I haven't built up as much savings as I would like, but we are a court family here; everyone is looking out for each other," said IT technician Chris B., who declined to provide his last name.

But while the courts are fully functional, offices that are paid by the U.S. Department of Justice, like the the U.S. Attorney's office, have taken a hit.

The U.S. Attorney's office, located on the second floor of the courthouse, has implemented a contingency plan, as required by federal law, prioritizing work necessary to public safety and national security. Security personnel at the court's entrance, also employed by the DOJ, are working without pay.

One person familiar with the office of the U.S. attorney said that about 70 percent of the staff members are working. None of the employees are getting paychecks.

The DOJ has asked some federal courts to suspend or postpone civil cases in which the government is a party, although some have declined to do so.

If a court denies a litigator's request to postpone a case and orders it to continue, the litigation will become an excepted activity that can continue during the lapse, according to the shutdown plan.

"In the civil arena, typically attorneys with filing obligations that cannot be rescheduled will be allowed to meet court deadlines for filings, appearances, etc.," said Michael Barnett, public information officer for the U.S. Attorney's Albany office.

Criminal cases will continue uninterrupted, although it's unclear whether law enforcement agencies such as the FBI or U.S. Marshals Service, which transports inmates and hunts fugitives, have had to curtail investigations. FBI field offices throughout the state, considered critical to public safety and national security, continue to be fully operational, though workers are not being paid, officials said.

There have been impacts on the defense side as well, as investigators and trial experts routinely hired by federal public defenders are also not being paid.

The federal General Services Administration, which manages government buildings and travel accommodations, has reduced its operations. Courts are working with local building managers to reduce the impact.

Meanwhile, attorneys' associations have expressed "grave concern" over the imminent roll back of judiciary services, noting that the furlough has already caused delay and backlog in some areas.

"Lack of funding for certain administrative agencies or other government components, including the immigration courts, has resulted in thousands of delayed immigration and other hearings, leaving litigants in a state of limbo," the New York City Bar Association said in a statement. "As lawyers, we are uniquely situated to observe the harms being wrought on the court system and access to justice, and we urge a speedy resolution to end the shutdown."

The judiciary hires 33,000 employees nationwide and relies on $8 billion in funding from the federal budget.KINGSTON  The USDA has assured that Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program recipients will receive their February benefits. However, the promise has not resolved the problems the government shutdown is causing for the SNAP program.

U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-Kingston, says that some stores can no longer accept the benefit cards because the government shutdown does not allow vendors to renew their SNAP licenses. That, said the freshman in Congress, causes the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards to be worthless.In preparation for the forecast snowstorm, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has directed the state Department of Transportation and the Thruway Authority to ban tractor trailers and buses on the entire Thruway system, with the exception of I-95 in Westchester and Bronx counties, and most interstate highways.

The ban will be in effect beginning 3 p.m. Saturday and will last for the duration of the storm.Will Waldron/Albany Times Union

Columbia County residents beware  an imposter pretending he's from the sheriff's department is calling people to say they must send money to pay a fine.

Sheriff David P. Bartlett said four citizens say they've gotten calls from someone saying he works for the sheriff's office asking for the money. The main number of the office, 518-828-3344, appears on their caller ID and in one of the calls the person identified himself as Sheriff's Lt. Wayne Lopez, a real staffer.The five Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons High School students wore burgundy and gray Catholic school uniforms as they cordially met a reporter the day before they boarded a midnight bus from Schenectady to the Washington, D.C. March for Life. Three of them are veterans who attended prior marches. But when asked about their views, they don't simply parrot Catholic Church doctrine. Even their approach to protests and their hopes for what changes it might bring sound different from those of older anti-abortion activists.

When junior Ethan Marrone is asked what social issue he cares about as urgently as abortion, he swiftly and confidently replies: "Gay or LGBT rights; I believe it's wrong to disrespect or discriminate against people because of who they love or marry."

Did he and his fellow activists hope Friday's rally would lead to the end of Roe v. Wade or stop Gov. Andrew Cuomo from signing the Reproductive Health Act? They all shook their heads no.

"Roe v. Wade is the law; we don't mean to impose our views on someone else," Marrone said.

"Our goal is for people to think more carefully and clearly about the anti-abortion position," said freshman Sean Willis. "We want to change people's hearts."

Multiple surveys  including from Gallup, Quinnipiac and Pew  indicate most millennials (born 1981-1996) and Gen Zers (born 1997 and after) favor abortion rights. However, a gradually increasing number are embracing an anti-abortion viewpoint. For instance, Gallup found last year that 19 percent of millennials and Gen Zers think all abortion should be illegal (compared to 18 percent for Gen X), and 42 percent believe it should be legal only in a few circumstances. The Capital Region millennials and Gen Z activists interviewed for this article reflect diversity within the anti-abortion movement.

ND-BG senior Max Lavoie said his "very liberal, very Democratic parents" emphatically disagree with his anti-abortion views. But all five students said they have good friends who are passionately in favor of abortion rights.

Lavoie added that he can picture dating a girl who did not share his views "as long as we respect each other and listen to each other." He can't imagine protesting at a clinic providing abortions. "A rally is a valid way to express my opinion and it's fair," he said. "Yelling at a woman walking into a clinic, what does that accomplish other than making the woman feel bad?"

Washington, D.C.-based think tank Third Way noted a "right-ward shift" in Gen Z-ers and millennials who may not comprehend how divisive and violent the clash over the abortion issue has been for past generations.

"I believe our movement must be non-violent and value all life, whether it's the life of an unborn child, a doctor who provides abortions or anyone else," said Oneonta's Natalie Sell, 18, who has attended every March for Life in D.C. for the past five years.

When Renee Morgiewicz, 31, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany's coordinator of parish services gets angry push-back from abortion rights activists, she says that "I sometimes learn that the person had an abortion and carries lingering emotional pain and I try to love the individual behind the argument."

Interestingly, she and Lavoie say science and advancements in technology have influenced their opinions on when life begins. Morgiewicz said she believes life begins at conception, while Lavoie said research convinced him it begins at the first fetal heartbeat.

"Millennials have come of age in an era in which sonogram photos are used to announce a friend's first-trimester wanted pregnancy on Facebook, which undoubtedly complicates their perspective on ending unwanted pregnancies that are similarly far along," Third Way reported. "Millennials have not had the generational experience of coat hangers and unsafe medical practices threatening women's health and safety."

ND-BG freshman Nicholas Mendonca says he comes from "an entire family of immigrants" and regards the treatment of refugees and immigrants as a priority along with abortion. He plans to be an active voter. He paused to reflect when asked what he'd do if he had to choose between an anti-abortion politician who believes in strict immigration policy and one who supports abortion rights.

"That's a hard question. I haven't figured it out," Mendonca said. "Abortion is life and death but immigration can be, too, especially for refugees."COLONIE  Air traffic controllers at Albany International Airport handed out information leaflets to travelers on Friday as they seek to explain the impact the federal government shutdown has on air safety and efficiency.

Controllers are working without pay during the shutdown, but contractors who upgrade equipment have been furloughed.Albany

When a woman who was raped 40 times by a middle-school janitor recently tried to sue the city of New York for ignoring red flags about the rapist, her lawsuit was voided because she failed to sue within a strict time limit.

The woman is exactly the kind of person the proposed Child Victims Act should help. The abuse by the janitor, now serving a 20-year sentence for his crimes, left her psychologically wounded and afraid to be alone, according to the lawsuit. If the city really did overlook obvious warnings, she deserves to be paid.

But would the Child Victims Act help her?

It might not  because she went to a public school instead of a private one.

The long-debated Child Victims Act is supposed to do two things: 1.) Extend a statute of limitations that currently bars child sexual abuse victims older than 22 from proceeding with civil and criminal cases and 2.) open a one-year window for victims of past abuse to pursue civil lawsuits.

The legislation has been around for at least a decade, but stymied because of opposition not only from the Catholic Church, Orthodox Jewish groups and the Boy Scouts of America, but also, at times, from the New York State School Boards Association, the New York Council of School Superintendents and the New York Conference of Mayors.

This year, though, with Democrats in control of the state Senate, the legislation seems sure to pass. For those of us who have championed its passage  this is my 11th column on the topic  that's cause for celebration.

But the victory will be hollow if the version of the Child Victims Act that's enacted doesn't help all victims, including the woman raped by the middle school janitor in Brooklyn. To do so, it would have to cover children victimized by public institutions (schools, universities, hospitals, prisons, mental-health facilities, etc.) as well as private schools, churches and individuals.

And it would have to eradicate what's called the notice of claim loophole.

A notice of claim is essentially a first step toward filing a lawsuit. In New York, it typically has to be filed within 90 days of the event resulting in the lawsuit  but only against governments. No such time limit applies to lawsuits against private or religious groups.

Earlier versions of the Child Victims Act, including the one introduced by Gov. Cuomo in last year's budget, explicitly said lawsuits will be allowed during the one-year window even if a "person had previously failed to file a notice of claim."

But that line was not included in the bill passed by the Assembly last year and was likewise missing from the version proposed in Cuomo's latest budget. When I asked his office about that, I received a statement from Alphonso David, counsel to the governor, saying that "all institutions responsible for permitting and covering up abuse are treated the same under the Child Victim's Act."

But treating them "the same" might be problematic. Since public and private institutions aren't considered equal under state law, treating them as such in the Child Victims Act could leave the loophole intact. It may need to be explicitly addressed, in other words.

I asked the governor's office about that, but didn't receive a response.

State Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Democrat from Manhattan and longtime champion of the Child Victims Act, insisted the bill does not and will not "let public institutions off the hook."

Susan Phillips Read, a former judge on the state's Court of Appeals, disagrees. In a memo on the legislation, Read argued it wouldn't apply to public institutions and therefore has a "disparity of treatment of victims."

More Information Contact columnist Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse

Confused? You're not alone.

There's reason to be wary of legislation that allows such confusion and leaves so much room for debate. If lawmakers really want to hold public institutions accountable under the Child Victims Act, they should make the bill's language as clear as day.

And if they don't, they should be honest about it and explain why  after we've seen so many cases involving both public and private institutions  it's fair to hold only non-government groups accountable.

Significantly, Gary Greenberg also believes Cuomo's bill leaves the loophole intact. Greenberg, who was sexually abused as a child at the old Cohoes Hospital, has spent years rallying abuse survivors to get the bill passed.

"I have no idea why the governor took that out of his bill," Greenberg said. "The loophole has to be closed."

There is wide agreement on that. The New York State Teachers Union and the school board association both told me Friday that they stand with victims and support closing the notice of claim loophole, retroactively.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has dropped its long-standing opposition to the look-back window, so long as it includes public schools and institutions.

"We believe the legislature should pass a strengthened Child Victims Act that allows all survivors to be compensated and to heal, regardless of where or when the abuse occurred," said Dennis Poust, spokesman for the state's Catholic Conference.

So let's finally get it done, correctly, without any doubts about intentions. For the woman raped in her public middle school, and for all the other victims out there, it's the least New York can do.

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchillALBANY  State Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara is proposing new legislation that would make data about stretch limousines available on the state Education Department's Office of the Professions website alongside similar data for engineers, architects and more.

But Santabarbara, who represents the Amsterdam area that was home to most of the victims of the Oct. 6 Schoharie County limo crash that killed 20 people, does not support the outright ban of stretch limos proposed earlier this week by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

"These are companies that are doing the right thing," Santabarbara said Friday after introducing his bill in the Assembly. "We shouldn't ban the entire industry. It's unfair to companies that have been operating legally."

Santabarbara said that while he and the governor share the goal of getting unsafe and illegal stretch limos off the road, "He is clearly moving in a different direction than I am."

The company involved in the crash, Prestige Limousine of Wilton, wasn't properly certified; its 2001 stretch Ford Excursion had failed two state Department of Transportation inspections in the months leading up to the fatal crash.

"This is a tragic situation that devastated the Amsterdam community," Santabarbara said. "What it showed is that the laws need to be updated."

Santabarbara's bill would create a public database on all carriers that operate stretch limousines in New York state that would live on the Office of Professions website. Santabarbara, a professional engineer, says the public can look up his licensing  but not that of a limo operator.

The bill will also require an immediate safety review of all companies that operate stretch limos in the state.

Santabarbara said people who rent limos rarely know anything about the companies or vehicles. In the case of Prestige, both DOT and State Police had ordered the stretch Excursion off the road, although that information wasn't discovered by the public until after the crash.

"The consumer needs a way to check that," Santabarbara said.

Cuomo's legislation  including the stretch limo ban as well as stepped-up oversight of commercial passenger-carrying vehicles  was folded into his executive budget bills.

Santabarbara says he wouldn't mind if his proposal was included in that package, although he said it could easily be passed separate from the budget measures. "It's common-sense," Santabarbara said of his bill. "I would expect unanimous support across the board. It should be done."

There is ambiguity already in state laws regarding stretch limos. The Ford Excursion involved in the crash was supposed to be regulated by the state DOT and face stringent inspections every six months. However, stretch limos with 10 or fewer seats can get a letter exempting them from DOT inspections and certification.

Santabarbara said he is going to introduce additional legislation that will address other factors that led to the crash, including a bill calling for a review of problem intersections like the one at Route 30 and Route 30A in Schoharie, where the crash occurred.FINANCIAL

UNION MUTUAL

M. Joseph Cook was promoted to vice president and executive vice president of Community Mutual, a member of the Union Mutual Companies. Cook previously served as chief marketing and business development officer of New York operations.

Schuyler M. Ryan was promoted to director of accounting and was also elected to serve on the Community Mutual Board of Directors. Ryan previously served as an accounting manager.

Matthew Miles was promoted to director of subrogation. Miles previously served as a subrogation adjuster.

HEALTH CARE

ALBANY MED

Sowmya Chandra Reddy joined the Division of Endocrinology and was appointed assistant professor of medicine at Albany Medical College. Reddy, an endocrinologist, has a special interest in treating patients with diabetes and metabolic disorders.

Ananthakrishnan Ramani joined the Division of Infectious Disease. An expert in infectious diseases, Ramani  who will continue to serve as medical director of the Columbia County Department of Health  specializes in treating patients with HIV and hepatitis C, as well as other infections, including pneumonia, influenza and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Trauma surgeon and Army Col. (retired) Kurt Edwards was appointed chief of the Division of Trauma and Critical Care in the Department of Surgery. Edwards previously served as chief of trauma and critical care at San Antonio Military Medical Center.

NONPROFITS

CAPITAL REGION SPONSOR-A-SCHOLAR

Laura Marx was named executive director. Marx has more than 23 years of experience in nonprofit management and fundraising, most recently as the area director of Capital Region and South Central New York Chapters of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

ADIRONDACK MOUNTAIN CLUB

Seth Jones was promoted to education director. Jones previously served as manager of education programs.

PROFESSIONS

FEATHERSTONHAUGH, WILEY & CLYNE LLP

Jonathan S. McCardle was named partner. McCardle previously served as an associate and law clerk.

LEMERY GREISLER LLC

Meghan M. Breen was promoted to principal attorney. Breen focuses her practice in the areas of bankruptcy, creditors' rights and commercial litigation.

RYAN BIGGS | CLARK DAVIS ENGINEERING & SURVEYING

Nadya Levitova joined as a design engineer. Levitova will provide engineering support for a variety of projects in the education and religious markets.

Zach Wietsma joined as a design engineer. Wietsma will provide engineering support for bridge and contractor support service projects.

Kate Sesselman joined as a marketing assistant. Sesselman will assist the marketing department with proposal responses, marketing collateral design and CRM data management.

THE MUSIC STUDIO

Sarah Kralovic joined as an executive assistant. Kralovic previously held administrative positions at a nonprofit and a recruiting firm.

BARCLAY DAMON

Alexandra Locke joined as an associate. Locke, who previously served as associate counsel at Raymours Furniture Company Inc., is a member of the real estate and financial institutions and lending practice areas, supporting commercial real estate and finance transactions, including the acquisition, sale, leasing and mortgaging of retail shopping centers.

SERVICES

MURNANE BUILDING CONTRACTORS

Michael J. Murnane was named as vice president of the Clifton Park regional office. Murnane previously served as a project manager.

 Jennifer PattersonAlbany

Even as Tom Nardacci opens his latest co-working space, the Bull Moose Club across from the Capitol, he is looking to expand even more.

Nardacci, who created a company called Aurelius Coworks that oversees the Bull Moose Club and the Troy Innovation Garage in downtown Troy, says he is looking at other potential opportunities in the Capital Region as well as locations in other upstate cities and neighboring states.

Aurelius held the grand opening of the Bull Moose Club on Friday. The 10,000-square-foot facility is located at 150 State St. with a view of the state Capitol.

"Troy Innovation Garage and Bull Moose Club are critical to meet the needs of the Capital Region's evolving private sector economy, particularly the growth of software startups, new creative businesses, and an influx of professionals who work remotely and choose to live in Upstate New York," Nardacci said.

Nardacci said that he has hired CRESA, the prominent Washington D.C. real estate firm, to help look for new potential sites.3 1 of 3 Sara Cline Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Sara Cline Show More Show Less 3 of 3





NISKAYUNA  A county grand jury has indicted the 33-year-old man accused of raping and impregnating an 11-year-old girl, according to the attorneys involved in the case.

As a result, the preliminary hearing that was scheduled Friday afternoon for Robert Cronin was postponed, according to Niskayuna Town Court staff.Catherine Rampell: The risks of a recession are rising -- and Trump might be to blameAnna Maciejewska, who has been missing since April 2017, is presumed to be dead. The missing person case became a homicide investigation in 2018.These are two individuals who chose to be violent. They wanted the victim dead. They showed up at that location armed for war, said Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp

Pull QuoteDorothy Eleanor Mercer passed away on June 9, 2021 at Archbold Memorial Hospital. She was born on December 18, 1932, in Pavo to the late Early Byrd Wood and to the late Nellie Deen Wood. She was married to Eugene Mercer who precedes her in death. Survivors include her children, Leon David Mc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!

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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.Local

Calais School Board

Calais board balks at warning school budget vote

CALAIS  School directors on Thursday narrowly refused to warn a Town Meeting Day vote on a budget for Calais Elementary School, but tentatively agreed to ask voters to revisit whether such budgets should continue to be decided by Australian ballot.

The latter question presumes there are any such budgets in the post-Act 46 era, which Board Chairwoman Susanna Culver conceded Friday is far from clear.

Were all waiting to see how it turns out, said Culver.

Culver said School Directors Rick Kehne and Dorothy Naylor were on the short end of the 3-2 split, while she was joined by board members Katie Reed and Chris Cadorette in voting against one of two amendments proposed by Kehne.

Culver said Kehnes motion to warn a budget vote was at best premature and potentially unnecessary in a school district that may cease to exist on July 1.

Barring judicial or legal intervention  both of which are now actively being pursued  that is the state of play in Calais and its sister districts in the five-town, six-school Washington Central Supervisory Union.

Exercising the discretion it was granted by the Legislature when it passed Act 46, the state Board of Education has ordered several school district mergers  including one that would create a single, pre-K-12 school district anchored by U-32 Middle and High School. That district would also include currently autonomous elementary schools in Calais, Berlin, East Montpelier, Middlesex and Worcester.

School boards in three of those communities, as well as U-32, have already approved warnings that limit school-related decisions that must be made on Town Meeting Day to filling seats held by school directors with expiring terms. The East Montpelier board may join that list when it meets on Monday.

All six school boards have worked on budgets. If the judge in a lawsuit to which four of them are parties issues a requested injunction, or the Legislature approves an extension some lawmakers requested this week, the local boards could suddenly be back in the budget business.

In the meantime, school officials are proceeding as if the budget for the merged district will be finalized by a yet-to-be-elected 10-member board and presented to voters in all five towns.

Culver said that could change, and if it does, warning a school budget vote in Calais would be appropriate.

The board has already blessed a $1.97 million draft budget for Calais Elementary School  an increase of about $66,500, or just under 3.5 percent.

Due to declining enrollment and rising cost, the draft budget reflects the elimination of one of six teachers at the pre-K-6 school.

That draft budget will either be rolled into a much larger budget for the merged district or voted separately if the merger is delayed by judicial or legislative action.

Culver said the Calais board tentatively agreed to add a separate amendment proposed by Kehne to the Town Meeting Day warning.

Essentially, the board has agreed to give voters the opportunity to consider abandoning the Australian ballot for school budget votes and shifting back to a floor vote.

The change would only come into play if the state-ordered merger is delayed or derailed. Culver acknowledged it would alter a voter-approved practice that was finally adopted after several failed attempts in 2015.

Culver predicted those who long lobbied for a change they argued would give more voters the opportunity to weigh in on school spending wouldnt be happy to see the question back on the ballot.

They worked hard for it and they earned it, she said.

According to Culver, a question about which method of voting on school budgets is preferable prevented the board from finalizing the warning.

Culver said she hopes that will happen Monday following a closed-door joint meeting with the Select Board. Both Calais boards are parties to one of the three lawsuits challenging Act 46 that have been reassigned to Judge Robert Mello, due to conflicts of interest disclosed by Judge Mary Miles Teachout.

The files in all three cases were shipped to Mello in Franklin County on Thursday, though no hearings have yet been scheduled and court officials said it is unclear where they will be heard.

david.delcore @timesargus.comAd Resource Stock Digest 2,058 Interested This Week

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Read MoreJudges have slammed the competition watchdog's handling of the merger between Sainsbury's and Asda.

Lord Justice Roth, supported by two other judges, said the Competition and Markets Authority had made 'unreasonable and unfair' demands of the supermarket groups during its consultations over the deal.

The CMA expected teams from the two grocery chains to prepare responses to 400 pages of complex market analysis in a matter of days.

Lord Justice Roth, supported by two other judges, said the Competition and Markets Authority, led by former Tory MP Lord Tyrie, had made 'unreasonable and unfair' demands

In a judgment that will embarrass the CMA's boss, former Tory MP Lord Tyrie, the judges even raised the question of whether the case showed the watchdog's methods will not be fit for purpose after Brexit.

The judges said that the regulator will have to deal with more large-scale mergers post-Brexit when the European competition authorities will no longer hold sway.

This could 'multiply' the problem caused by the authority's tight timetables. The row started after the CMA shared a large number of complex documents with both supermarkets just seven working days before the deadline for responses.

Sainsbury's and Asda said they needed up to five more weeks to review the information, which was accompanied by a large volume of industry data.

When the CMA granted only a one-week extension the firms launched a judicial review, the process where government bodies' decisions are reviewed by judges.

And the three judges ruled the watchdog had been too wedded to its timetable considering the deal was such a 'large and complex' merger, five times the size of the average tie-up.

The judges told the Competition Appeal Tribunal: 'We have no doubt that imposing that timetable was unreasonable and unfair.'

They added: 'If the departure of the UK from the EU will lead to all large-scale, international mergers affecting the UK which currently fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of the EU Commission, being in future also subject to the UK merger regime, this problem is likely to be multiplied.'

Between November 27 and 28, nine different sets of Working Papers were sent. One batch was dispatched at 1 am. All in all, there were 400 pages.

The companies were given just seven working days to analyse the data and send responses before the December 7 deadline.

The three judges said the CMA's timetable should be quashed, but made clear the watchdog retained the power to set a new schedule.

Sainsbury's and Asda said: 'We took the decision to apply for a Judicial Review of the CMA's phase two timetable and process reluctantly but were pleased that the Tribunal ruled in our favour.'

A CMA spokesman said it is 'not unusual for companies to be required to respond in the timelines we were working to with Sainsbury's and Asda'.

He added: 'The court confirmed that it is for the CMA to set its own administrative timetable, in order to meet the legally binding deadline, and that we did not need to give them as much time as they were asking for.'Plus 500 is the most short-sold firm on the London exchange

Plus 500 is under siege from hedge funds predicting a share-price slump as it battles with tighter regulation.

The spread-betting company is the most short-sold firm on the London exchange, with investors gambling on a drop in 13.1 per cent of its stock.

It is also gearing up for a shareholder vote on Monday on whether to increase the salaries of chief executive Asaf Elimelech and finance head Elad Even-Chen from 233,000 to 360,000, and give them bonuses of 212,000.

Shares tripled in the past three years helped by the boom in online currency bitcoin, but that has plummeted in the last 12 months.

And a European crackdown on the risky contract-for-difference products which Plus 500 punters use to make bets, is making the products much less profitable.

Russ Mould, at broker AJ Bell, said: It looks like hedge funds are predicting the regulatory crackdown on spread-betting will hurt the business.High Street retailers might be drowning their sorrows after a tough festive period, but Britains pub groups have been on the crest of a post-Christmas wave.

The four stock market-listed chains that have already revealed their winter trading results all reported higher sales than last time, kicking the New Year off with a bang.

Analysts are concerned that consumers are tightening the purse strings as shoppers have shunned chains from Marks & Spencer to Debenhams.

Good health: The four stock market-listed chains that have already revealed their winter trading results all reported higher sales than last time, kicking the New Year off with a bang

But the updates from the likes of The City Pub Company, Greene King, Revolution Bars and Mitchells & Butlers have shown people are still thirsty for a pint.

Pub groups havent had it easy in recent years, and savers may be wary of propping up the bar, so to speak.

Beer sales in UK pubs and bars fell to 12,635 barrels in 2017 from 18,737 a decade earlier, according to statistics from the British Beer and Pub Association.

As with the retailers, rising rents and business rates have hit the sector. Some chains are still struggling under the huge debt burdens they were encouraged to take on in the early noughties.

After a slew of mergers and takeovers, by 2012 more than a fifth of the UKs pubs were owned by Enterprise Inns and Punch Taverns.

Popular Shares - BT Philip Jansen is the new boss of BT, and has a job on his hands reviving its flagging fortunes. The consumer bit of BT has a big chunk of the market, serving millions of households, so its focus is getting existing customers to take out more products. Bundling together broadband, TV and mobile phone services is key to success here. Less than half of BTs revenues come from these consumer services, though, and elsewhere things havent been going so well. Openreach, the exchanges and cables arm, has been under pressure to roll out faster broadband and reduce prices. BTs business services division has witnessed falling revenues from the public sector. The pension scheme, meanwhile, still has a 4.5billion black hole in it. In response BT is simplifying and cutting costs, to the tune of 1.5billion a year. Will it work? Jansen may put his stamp on proceedings at BTs full-year results in May. Until then its very much a case of wait and see. LAITH KHALAF senior analyst Hargreaves Lansdown

Their combined debt was 5.4billion  pretty hefty compared with their combined market value of just 250million.

A lot has changed since then. Enterprise Inns, now Ei Group, is worth 911million. This month, it sold 370 properties to help reduce its debt to six times its earnings.

Punch Taverns was split up, and part of the estate sold to brewing giant Heineken.

Over the last 20 years, other firms have hit the stock market including Shepherd Neame, Young & Cos, The City Pub Company and Mitchells & Butlers.

According to broker Berenberg, there may now be opportunities to find value in the pub sector - although there will still be good picks and bad.

Analyst Owen Shirley thinks cheap-and-cheerful Wetherspoons could steal more customers through its value-for-money prices and innovation.

It launched an app in 2017 which allows customers to order food and drink without leaving their table. The City Pub Company, on the other hand, owns a more eclectic selection of high quality premises.

With little debt Shirley says it could be in a good position to expand rapidly. Already shares have built up a 21.5 per cent gain so far this year as it revealed Christmas sales rose by 7 per cent.

Ei Group is set for a transformational year, Shirley adds, as it reduces its debt and makes itself a less risky choice for investors.

Greene Kings festive sales were up 10.9 per cent, and the announcement added 95.5million onto its market value as shares rose 5.6 per cent in a day.

Although this will have given investors some cheer, it could be short-lived. In order to boost sales growth, Shirley points out, it seems Greene King is having to discount.

Richard Marwood, who manages Royal Londons UK Dividend Growth Fund and UK Income with Growth Trust, owns shares in Greene King mainly because the dividend has been reliable.

This could, however, be a strait jacket, according to Shirley, as continuing to meet the payments is giving the pub group little room to pay off its debt. For similar reasons Shirley would steer investors away from Marstons.

Brexit uncertainty may also present more problems for pubs. Many rely on low-cost labour and employ staff from the EU. There could be a problem with staff shortages or if the minimum wage is hiked.

Investors should keep an eye out for lazy and unimaginative chains.

Marwood says the way people use pubs has changed a fair bit over time, pointing out that the volumes of beer drunk have gone down over the years, and that customers go to pubs to eat rather than just to drink.

The City Pub Companys executive chairman Clive Watson, for example, says his pubs are always trying new ideas.

Weve worked hard to provide a wider range of craft beers, offer new vegan and vegetarian food, he explains.

Though there are clearly challenges, Shirley is convinced that The City Pub Company, Wetherspoons, Ei Group and Fullers could be a strong buying opportunity.

As Marwood points out, no matter what happens, people will always want to go out for drinks.Prices for five-star hotels around the world have been almost cut in half in some destinations annually this winter, research shows.

Many people looking to head on a more luxurious holiday may believe five-star hotels were out of their price range - but according to Skyscanner data, it could be more affordable than first thought.

Amsterdam has been found as the destination that had the biggest drop in luxury prices annually, falling 42 per cent.

Cheap: Five-star hotel prices in Amsterdam have seen the biggest drop year-on-year at 42%

The average five-star hotel in the Netherlands' capital dropped from 449 to just 260.

Those looking long-haul can grab sizeable reductions including an average 23 per cent price drop in five-star hotels in the Cuban capital of Havana.

Hotel prices in the city reduced from an average 312 in 2017 to 241 in 2018.

Venice, Italy was the third destination that had the biggest drop in luxury prices, down 22 per cent from 422 to 330 a night.

Palma de Mallorca, the Balearic Islands saw another huge price drop of 20 per cent whilst Tokyo, Japan also had a fall of 16 per cent.

Other destinations that saw a substantial reduction in price include Dubai, Los Angeles and Sydney, Australia.

On average, Britons are willing to spend 811.20 for a winter holiday abroad, according to research by WeSwap.

The currency exchange platform asked more than 2,000 people how much they are spending or willing to spend on a winter holiday.

TOP TEN POPULAR DESTINATIONS WITH BIGGEST PRICE DROP FOR FIVE STAR HOTELS Destination 2017 Average

Price 5-star hotel per night 2018 Average

Price 5-star hotel per night Percentage price drop Amsterdam, North Holland 449.00 260.00 -42% Havana, Cuba 312.00 241.00 -23% Venice, Italy 422.00 330.00 -22% Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands 267.00 214.00 -20% Tokyo, Japan 397.00 334.00 -16% Bang Tao Beach, Thailand 169.00 149.00 -12% Sydney, New South Wales 232.00 207.00 -11% Los Angeles, California 492.00 454.00 -8% Dubai, UAE 191.00 177.00 -7% Source: Skyscanner

It found that millennials would spend less than the national average, at 599.30 per person, whilst those over 55 years old would be willing to spend far more at 977.90.

A further 26 per cent of those surveyed said they would spend 1,000 or more for their winter trip overseas.

Those who are looking for a trip away this winter season are in luck as Skyscanner has revealed some of the cheapest five-star hotels across the globe for February and March.

This includes a five-star hotel in Venice for just 38 per person, per night with flights as cheap as 29 return in February.

It also found five-star accommodation in Dubai for only 44 per person with flights coming in as little as 282 for a return in March.

Fall: Havana had five-star hotel price reductions of 23% year-on-year, falling from 312 to 241

Skyscanner has found flights to Venice for as little as 29 return & five star hotels for just 38

You could be staying in a five star hotel in Havana for 48.50 a night, with return flights at 622 per person for a return.

Tokyo also has some great offers with five star accommodation available from 45 per night and return flights from 582 this February.

Lisa Tyndall, senior growth manager at Skyscanner, said: 'The luxury of a five-star hotel might seem like a distant dream for some travellers, but according to our data, that dream could become a reality.

'We have found a number of popular destinations which have seen average price drops of up to 42 per cent year-on-year on their five-star hotels.

'Our current hotel deals are also showing rooms available from as little as 38 a night, when staying in Venice, proving that travellers really can enjoy luxury for less in 2019.'EMILY ST. LAWRENCE, Chariho girls lacrosse, senior: St. Lawrence scored the 100th goal of her career in a 16-1 win against Lincoln. St. Lawrence finished her career with 104 goals, eight short of the school record. The team did not play last season due to the coronavirus pandemic.

JOSH MOONEY, Stonington track & field, sophomore: Mooney scored in three events at the State Open meet. Mooney was second in the 110 hurdles, fourth in the javelin and fifth in the 300 hurdles. He scored all 17 of Stoningtons points.

ALEX STOEHR, Westerly softball, freshman: Stoehr hit three triples and a double in a doubleheader sweep of Barrington. For the week, she was 7 for 13 with four doubles, two triples and three RBIs. Stoehr is hitting .333 for the season.

Vote

View ResultsIrrigation system gifted by France will be maintained: Bedi

Puducherry, Jan 19 (PTI): Puducherry Lieutenant

Governor Kiran Bedi Saturday said the best irrigation system

introduced by the French during their rule in the union

territory would be maintained.

Bedi said this while speaking to a batch of students

from France who participated in the planting of saplings as

part of a programme of an educational institution on the bunds

of Velrampet lake near here during her 141st weekend visit.

The former IPS officer said, "The wonderful and best

irrigation system introduced in Puducherry by France is a

gift...We will take steps to maintain it."

Students from Nice, France, greeted her in French on

arrival at the lake and appreciated the steps taken to improve

the water bodies here.

Making visits to Velrampet and a few other pockets on

her bicycle along with officers of Raj Nivas, Bedi saw the

improvement made by way of desilting and removal of weeds from

the lake.

An official of the PWD told her that the lake would

attract a large number of tourists during the forthcoming

holiday on January 26 (Republic Day) as boating facility had

been introduced. PTI COR

NVG NVGJaipur, Jan 19 (PTI) A male panther was found dead near a village here on Saturday.

The carcass of the panther, aged around one year, was found in the forest area near Jaisinghpura Khor village, officials said.

Exact cause of the death will be clear after the post-mortem, Sudarshan Sharma, deputy conservator of forest (wildlife) at the Jaipur Zoo said.

The carcass was disposed off in the presence of the officials from forest, the district administration and local police. PTI SDA



DPBKochi, Jan 19 (PTI) Four nuns, who took part in a protest demanding the arrest of rape-accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal, have written to the Kerala chief minister, seeking his intervention to ensure that their transfer orders were not effected till the trial of the case was over.

The letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was written after four of the five nuns, who led the agitation against the bishop last year, were directed to leave their convent in Kottayam district, in compliance with a transfer order issued by their congregation last year.

The survivor nun has also written a separate letter to the chief minister, seeking his help in the matter.

"Their aim is to single me out and to harass and torture me. My life will be in danger if such a situation arises," she has alleged in her letter.

Their congregation -- Missionaries of Jesus under the Jalandhar diocese of the Roman Catholic Church -- has directed the nuns to join their previously-assigned convents, according to the transfer orders issued between March and May, 2018.

The nuns -- Alphy, Anupama, Josephine and Ancitta -- were served notice by the superior general of the congregation, Regina Kadamthottu, urging them to take up their assigned responsibilities as befitting members of the Missionaries of Jesus congregation.

Sister Nina Rose, who also fought for justice for the survivor nun, has not been asked to leave the convent.

While Sister Alphy has been transferred to a convent at Pakartala in Bihar, sister Ancitta and sister Josephine have been directed to join their convent in Lalmatia, Jharkhand.

Sister Anupama has been asked to report at a convent in Punjab.

In their letter to the chief minister, the nuns alleged that the transfer orders were aimed at splitting them and "to sabotage the case" against Bishop Franco Mulakkal.

"Bishop Franco is supported by some of the church authorities and his henchmen. They are making false propagation and character assassination against us.

"The aim of the present transfer orders is to pressure and threaten us as all of us are prominent witnesses in the case," the four nuns alleged in the letter.

They claimed that their "fate of life" itself would be unpredictable if they were transferred to distant regions.

"They want to split us and put us into different locations in India. We will not be able to appear and give evidence before the court at the trial stage in such a situation," they said in the letter.

The nuns sought Vijayan's intervention to ensure that all of them could live at the St Francis Mission Home in Kuravilangad itself, with the survivor, till the trial of the rape case was over, especially considering their safety.

"The victim is actually living on the strength and support extended from our side. Our presence itself is a great solace for her, who is totally in a broken situation," they said.

Alleging that the transfer orders were a "strategy" to put all of them under pressure, the nuns said, "If the transfer is effected, we will not be in a position to give evidence in the case daringly."

"We will not be allowed to live peacefully and will collapse emotionally and mentally. Our lives will be in danger," they said.

The protest led by the nuns and the Catholic reformist forums here in September last year had led to a public outrage and demands for action against the bishop.

Bishop Mulakkal, a senior member of the Roman Catholic clergy in India, was arrested last year following allegations by the nun that he repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted her at the Kuravilangad convent between 2014 and 2016, a charge denied by him.

The 54-year-old clergyman was "temporarily" relieved of all pastoral responsibilities as the bishop of the Jalandhar diocese by the Vatican.

The congregation had issued the transfer orders of the nuns last year, much before the outbreak of protests, but they had then refused to accept those.

In a recent communique, Superior General Regina said it was a "matter of serious concern" for her to note that they were yet to join their convents assigned previously. PTI TGB ROH RCWe failed in our protest over Sabarimala issue, says BJP

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 19 (PTI): The BJP Saturday

admitted that its fight to protect the faith of devotees on

the Sabarimala issue was 'not entirely successful.'

The party has been spearheading the nearly

two-month-long agitation against the decision of the Kerala

government to implement the Supreme Court order allowing entry

of women of all age groups into the shrine of Lord

Ayyappa.

Speaking at the venue of the protest, state BJP

president P S Sreedharan Pillai said the party would end the

indefinite fast on Sunday.

"There were notable achievements during certain

phases of the agitation, but, our fight to protect the faith

was not entirely successful," he said.

"Even though we were unable to achieve 100 per

cent success, we were able to garner more public support due

to the blessings of Lord Ayyappa," Pillai said at the protest

venue in front of the Secretariat here.

The protest lost steam at a point of time when the

saffron party was unable to field known leaders to take part

in the indefinite relay fast.

The fast was started by party general secretary A N

Radhakrishnan followed by C K Padmanabhan and Shobha

Surendran, among others.

Meanwhile, the BJP-led by National Democratic

Alliance (NDA) met Kerala Governor P Sathasivam and

submitted a memorandum seeking withdrawal of 'fabricated'

cases registered against 'devotees' on the Sabarimala issue.

The memorandum, with around one crore signatures from

people from Kerala and elsewhere, seeks to end the police

restrictions at the hilltop shrine.

Pillai, who led the delegation, sought the release

the activists who were jailed during the recent protests on

the women's entry issue.

"Around 5,000 fabricated cases have been registered

against the devotees who protested. Almost 1,000 activists are

still in jail. They must be released," he said.

Besides, there were demands to end the alleged

police raj at the shrine and withdrawal of prohibitory orders

at Sabarimala, a senior BJP leader told PTI.

Besides Pillai, the lone BJP MLA in the state O

Rajagopal, Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) leader Gopakumar and

former Kerala Congress leader P C Thomas, among others, also

were part of the NDA team that met the Governor.

The prohibitory orders ended on January

14, the Makaravilakku festival day.

However, a BJP leader said their memorandum seeks to

reduce the police restrictions which may come up next time

when the shrine opens for monthly pooja.

Meanwhile, two women in their late 30s, who came

to offer prayers at the shrine, were turned back by the police

apprehending protest by devotees.

The state had witnessed "nama japam" protests by BJP,

RSS and right outfits over the entry of young women into the

shrine, where the deity is Naishtika Brahmachari (perennial

celibate).

The state had also seen widespread violence after

two women of menstrual age visited the shrine on January 2

following the September 28 order of the apex court allowing

women of all ages into the shrine.

PTI RRT UD

NVG NVG(TNS)  For more than a decade, Mount Dora and Lake County officials have looked at ways of drawing in companies that offer high-wage professional jobs into the rural area near Round Lake Road, just east of the city.Those efforts received a boost recently when the governors office announced a $2.5 million award toward widening Round Lake Road in the Wolf Branch Innovation District and extending the road just past State Road 44, about 30 miles northwest of downtown Orlando.When completed by 2023, the improvements will make it easier for motorists in that area  including workers and residents  to easily connect with the recently completed State Road 453, a spur that leads to State Road 46, and to the Wekiva Parkway. The better road network is expected to create a large employment hub in that area, Mount Dora Mayor Nick Girone said.This will be phenomenal, Girone said. This will make us very attractive to industries and companies that would want to relocate here because it will connect employees and residents with the larger transportation network [in Central Florida].According to plans, Round Lake Road will be widened from two lanes to four lanes between Meadowland Drive in Orange County and Wolf Branch Road in Lake County. The project also will lengthen Round Lake to just north of S.R. 44, for a total of 4.5 miles of improvements. The project is currently in the planning and design stages.In 2004, Mount Dora and Lake County officials designated about 1,300 acres near Round Lake and Wolf Branch roads to be developed into a professional employment center, with businesses focused on research, health care, information technology and clean, light manufacturing.Later designated as the Wolf Branch Innovation District, it mostly straddles state roads 46 and 453, and roughly stretches from Wolf Branch Road to the Orange County line.At that time, Mount Dora and Lake officials envisioned that the Wekiva Parkway and the now-completed S.R. 453 spur would bring in tens of thousands of motorists from Orange and Seminole counties. It also would provide about 17,000 new job opportunities.Lake officials said in a county document that the Wolf Branch Innovation District will be a game changer for an area that has historically been known as mostly agricultural, dotted with horse ranches and farms.The area will also incorporate a network of trails and outdoor spaces that will make this an ideal place to live and work right here in Lake County, according to the document.Lake County Commission Chairwoman Leslie Campione said the area  with rolling hills and homes on large lots  is perfect for attracting career-oriented, professional workers looking to settle in Central Florida.It has a small-town feel and a nice quality of life, she said.Campione cautioned, however, that the area must maintain its rural character and charm when new businesses and homes are developed within that district.She said its still too early to say how the local governments will attract businesses, whether its through tax breaks or other incentives. However, any incentives must be to companies that offer jobs that pay above the countys average wage, she said. According to the state, the average annual wage in Lake County is $36,595.The $2.5 million award to Lake County was announced Dec. 28 by former Gov. Rick Scotts office. It was among five awards totaling nearly $9 million in funding from the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund.Mount Dora spokeswoman Lisa McDonald said the Round Lake Road expansion and the Wekiva Parkway completion will play a big part in changing the economic and geographic landscape in that area.As we move into the future, and as we bring in these high-tech industries, were also looking at bringing in young professional families, she said. Were really excited.BJP tells Cong it would not destabilise ruling coalition

Bengaluru, Jan 19 (PTI) The BJP would not destabilise

Karnataka's ruling coalition, party state chief

B S Yeddyurappa said Saturday, as the state remained in the

grip of political unrest with the Congress on tenterhooks to

keep its numbers intact.

As the Congress MLAs remained sequestered in a resort on

the city outskirts fearing a poaching bid by the BJP,

Yeddyurappa said he had asked all his party lawmakers camping

at a hotel in Gurugram to return and tour the state's

drought-hit areas.

"We will not try to destabilise this government for any

reason, let them not have that fear. We will work as the

opposition," Yeddyurappa, whose party has been accused of

having triggered the political crisis with its toppling game,

said.

"Let the Congress-JD(S) leaders not have any doubt

about it," he said, a day after chinks in the ruling coalition

was exposed with four MLAs skipping the Congress Legislature

Party (CLP) meet.

As the fissures became evident, the Congress on Friday

swiftly moved all its MLAs to the resort keeping them on leash

to "escape" the BJP's alleged "onslaught" to woo its MLAs with

money and other allurements.

Top Congress sources had said Friday that at least eight

party MLAs had "committed" themselves to BJP to jump ship.

The BJP also announced that a seven-member team led by

Yeddyurappa would tour the drought-hit districts from Monday.

CLP leader Siddaramaiah welcomed Yeddyurappa's

decision to call back all BJP MLAs and asked him to "walk the

talk" on not trying to destabilise the ruling coalition.

"I welcome Yeddyurappa's decision to call back the BJP

legislators from Delhi and send them to monitor the drought

management in the state," he said in a tweet in Kannada.

"Yeddyurappa has said that they will not destabilise

the state government, they will work as opposition. Let

Congress, JD(S) leaders not fear.

He should walk the talk and save the public's trust,"

Siddaramaiah said in another tweet.

Congress pointsman and frontline minister

D K Shivakumar said he was in touch with all the MLAs.

Asked about senior ministers resigning to accommodate

disgruntled legislators in the cabinet, he said, "I have

voluntarily offered.. in the interest of the party if my

leaders want I'm ready. "

"All of us are ready," he said when asked how many were

ready to quit.

On Yeddyurappa-led team's drought tour, Shivakumar said

"good thing that at least now they have got enlightenment to

study the drought situation. Karnataka government will give

them all cooperation. My compliments to them."

As the state saw another return to resort politics,

the BJP alleged that the resort where Congress legislators

were staying owed Rs 982 crore to the government as penalty in

a land encroachment case and asked Congress leaders to collect

the amount and use it to waive farm loans.

"Now that Congress Party will spend time in resort we

request 'Maryada Purushothama' Sri.@siddaramaiah,@DKShivakumar

&@dineshgrao to collect this money while u return U can use it

for farmer loan waiver," Karnataka BJP said in a tweet, citing

media reports.

During the recent assembly session at Belagavi, Revenue

Minister R V Deshpande had told the House that the state

government would take all measures to collect Rs 982 crore

from the resort for encroaching on 77 acres of government

land.

In a clear sign that all was not well within the

Congress, the CLP meet saw four absentees and the party later

said it would issue notices to Ramesh Jarkiholi, B Nagendra,

Umesh Jadhav and Mahesh Kumatahalli seeking explanation.

After the political drama unfolded on Monday, two

Independents withdrew support to the coalition government.

The Congress has been accusing the BJP of making

repeated attempts to bring down the government and targeted

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah on

the issue.PTI KSU RA

BN BNBengaluru, Jan 19 (PTI) Karnataka BJP president B S Yeddyurappa has said some Congress MLAs skipping the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting and the deep differences between the ruling coalition partners are an indication that a volcano may erupt in the coming days.

His remarks came after four dissident Congress MLAs on Friday skipped the CLP meeting here that was called as a show of strength against an alleged bid by the BJP to dislodge the H D Kumaraswamy-led Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) government.

"The absence of Congress MLAs from the CLP meeting and deep differences between the coalition partners are an indication that this is likely to erupt as a volcano in the next coming days," Yeddyurappa said late Friday evening here.

Their absence also shows intense and widespread anger and resentment among Congress MLAs, he said.

The BJP chief said the tone of CLP leader Siddaramaiah's warning to the party MLAs showed his frustration and fear.

"Mr Siddaramaiah, the tone, tenor and content of the meeting notice given by you to the MLAs shows your frustration and proves that you are gripped by fear. If your relationship with the MLAs was strong and cordial, why did you mention in the notice that action would be taken as per the anti-defection law?" Yeddyurappa asked.

The Congress would issue notices to absentee MLAs -- Ramesh Jarkiholi, B Nagendra, Umesh Jadhav and Mahesh Kumatahalli, Siddaramaiah had told reporters after Friday's meeting.

Yeddyurappa also attacked Congress general secretary K C Venugopal over his remarks that 'Operation Lotus' commenced in Karnataka in 2008.

The BJP chief said it was the Congress which started the "aaya ram, gaya ram" culture, referring to the practice of MLAs defecting to other parties, he said.

"In 1967, the then prime minister Indira Gandhi had said that 'gaya ram has now

become aaya ram' when an MLA of her United Front government had joined and quit the Congress three times in a gap of 15 days," he said.

The former chief minister said it would be better if Siddaramaiah and Venugopal study political history to know what happened in Haryana where the Congress had formed the government with Bhajan Lal with the help of 36 Janata Party MLAs.

The Congress is continuing this culture, Yeddyurappa said.

It looks like that Siddaramaiah has forgotten that he too joined the Congress with

the same culture, he added.

Yeddyurappa said the BJP was not lusting for power.

With 104 seats, the BJP is functioning as a vigilant and constructive opposition party and the Congress and the JD(S) with 80 and 37 seats, respectively, have formed an unholy alliance to form the government, he said.

Kumaraswamy and Siddaramaiah should realise that this is first time in the history of legislature that a party with more than 100 seats is sitting in the opposition.

Yeddyurappa also said that the BJP's MLAs assembled at a Gurgaon hotel to discuss the strategy to win the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

"If 104 MLAs of our party meet at one place and discuss the strategy to win the Lok

Sabha, what is your problem? It is your responsibility to keep your party MLAs under control. If you scream the way you have been doing, it only shows your helplessness," he said.

Taking a dig at Venugopal's remarks that "glorious days" of the grand old party must return, Yeddyurappa asked if he was referring to the return of "multi-crore scams of the Congress-led UPA regime".

He accused the Congress and the JD(S) of fooling people and said while the two parties were friends in Karnataka, they were enemies in Kolkata.

"As usual the JD(S) has been playing a double-game. The JD(S) needs the Congress on one hand and on the other, the JD(S) wants 'mahagathbandhan', which the Congress does not want," Yeddyurappa claimed.

The double standards of these parties show that there is no alternate to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said. PTI BDN DIV

DIVNew Delhi, Jan 19 (PTI) The Himachal Pradesh High Court has asked the state road transport corporation to look into a complaint filed by a lawyer, alleging a scam in the tendering process for buying electric buses.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ajay Mohan Goel said it was satisfied that the petitioner was sponsored by some manufacturer of vehicles, who did not qualify for the bidding process, according to the terms and conditions of the Request for Proposal (RFP) document.

The plea was filed in the backdrop of the RFP document published by the Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) for design, manufacture, supply and commissioning of 50 battery-operated passenger transport vehicles (EV buses) with chargers for operating in and around Shimla.

"On a query, it is admitted by his counsel that the petitioner is not a bidder or competitor for the allocation of the proposed work and thus, he, in our considered view, has no locus standi to file the instant writ petition. "Though we are inclined to dismiss this writ petition on this score alone, nevertheless, the Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) will look into the issues raised by the petitioner in his complaint dated November 13, 2018 (Annexure P-4) with full objectivity," the bench said.

It, however, clarified that the direction would not give any cause of action to the petitioner "to ask for a reasoned order and/or to approach the court on the same cause of action".

The high court's order came on a plea filed by advocate Raghunath Mahabal, seeking constitution of an independent special investigation team of experts for a fair and impartial investigation into the tendering process and "to expose the unfair and illegal acts and book all the persons involved in the crime".

The petitioner had alleged that changes were made in the terms and conditions of the tendering process to avoid competition and favour certain parties by buying their vehicles at much higher prices.

He had also sought a direction restraining the HRTC from awarding the contract of sale of electric buses to the successful bidder. PTI PKS MNL RCNew Delhi, Jan 19 (PTI) The issue of extradition of Niels Holck alias Kim Davy, the prime accused in the 1995 Purulia arms drop case, to India, has been resolved politically and independent authorities in his country are pursuing the matter, Denmark Prime Minister Lars Lkke Rasmussen said Saturday.

The case relates to the incident on the night of December 17, 1995, when an AN-26 aircraft dropped arms and ammunition in West Bengal's Purulia district. The consignment had hundreds of AK-47 rifles, pistols, anti-tank grenades, rocket launchers and thousands of rounds of ammunition, according to investigators.

The crew consisted of five Latvian citizens and British national Peter Bleach all of whom were arrested. Davy, a Danish citizen and the prime accused in the case, had escaped, according to details of the probe.

Responding to a question on the status of the extradition of Davy, Rasmussen said the issue has been resolved politically.

"This problem has been solved in the political sense. There is a dialogue between authorities and what we (India and Denmark) agreed upon last year in April was we should rely on these independent authorities to do their work," he told reporters on the sidelines of opening of the Danish Cultural Institute here.

India has been seeking extradition of Davy and the Danish government had accepted India's request but he challenged the proceedings in a city court in Copenhagen which rejected the extradition.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with Rasmussen on Friday in Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, 2019 in Gandhinagar.

"We did not touch upon the subject at all yesterday (in the meeting with Prime Minister Modi). The last we talked about it was in April in Stockholm," he said.

The bilateral meeting between the two leaders was held on the sidelines of the summit on Friday. They had earlier met during the first India-Nordic summit in Stockholm in April 2018.

During the meeting, Rasmussen said they deliberated upon various areas of bilateral cooperation and also exchanged views on multilateral issues of mutual interest.

Calling India a "very close friend" of Denmark, Rasmussen said that at these time of "uncertainty" there is a need to learn more about each other.

"Denmark values its friendship with India. We should take our friendship to higher level and opening of Danish Cultural Centre is a step towards it," he said.

On free trade, Rasmussen said Denmark is a true believer of it and said that at these times of "uncertainty" the EU should be among those advocating free trade.

"We are true believers of free trade specially at these times of uncertainty, the EU should be among those advocating free trade. We are double as open as we used to be. If you look at import and export then we are double as open and double as rich," he said.

The Danish prime minister is on a two-day visit to India from January 18 to 19, for the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, 2019 in Gandhinagar, where Denmark is participating as a 'partner country'.

Rasmussen is accompanied by a business delegation, including CEOs of major Danish companies, an External Affairs Ministry statement said. PTI UZM MPB RCJNew Delhi, Jan 19 (PTI) President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday said defence was a "key pillar" of relationship between India and Czech Republic as he called for mutual development and production of defence equipment by the two nations.

Kovind said this during a meeting with Czech Republic's Prime Minister Andrej Babis at Rashtrapati Bhavan, a spokesperson said.

He said Kovind welcomed the visiting dignitary and said that along with an economic partnership, defence is a key pillar of India-Czech bilateral relations.

The President expressed hope that the two countries will move forward from a traditional buyer-seller relationship to one where the two can co-develop and co-produce defence equipments, the spokesperson said.

Kovind also fondly remembered his own visit to the Czech Republic in September 2018 as he said that India counts the country as a key partner in its growth story.

He thanked the Czech Republic government for hosting the 'Czech Make in India' pavilion at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in Gandhinagar, the spokesperson said.

Kovind added that there are immense opportunities for Czech technology and manufacturing in India. PTI NES DPB

DPBBJP dissidents calls for ousting Modi-Shah

Kolkata, Jan 19 (PTI) Disgruntled and previous stalwarts

of BJP like Shatrughan Sinha, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shorie,

who held important position in the past NDA government of Atal

Bihari Vajpayee,joined ranks with opposition leaders Saturday

to call for ousting Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

Shatrughan Sinha, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, all

members of the NDA cabinet under Vajpayee but, have fallen out

with the present leadership, shared dais with senior

opposition parties leaders at the rally which launched an

attack on Modi and Shah.

Shatrughan Sinha, sitting BJP MP from Patna Sahib, called

for changing the government in the 2019 Lok Sabha election and

said he was not afraid of being removed from the ruling party.

He insisted he would continue to "show mirror" to the

party and call "a spade a spade".

Sinha, who has been at odds with his party over

several issues and has criticised the demonetisation exercise

and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, said he

was attending the rally hosted by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee in

Kolkata as a representative of the Rashtra Manch, a political

action group launched by former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha.

"If you keep suppressing facts, people will continue

to say 'chaukidar chor hain'," he said, using the word

Congress president Rahul Gandhi has been employing to

criticise the prime minister on the Rafale jet deal issue.

The actor-turned BJP leader said there was "lokshahi"

during Vajpayee's tenure and now it's "tanashahi"

(dictatorship).

Former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha came

down heavily on the Narendra Modi government saying that this

was the first government after Independence which has been

playing "mischief" with the developmental statistics are are

quick at branding people who criticize the government as "desh

drohi" (traitors)and those praising the government as "desh

bhakt"(patriots).

Former union leader Arun Shourie also echoed the views

of Sinha.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who had

convened the rally, said BJP's misrule has crossed all levels

and it has forced even BJP leaders like Shatrughan Sinha to

come out in open against the government.

The BJP central leadership Saturday said the party

will take "cognisance" of its MP Shatrughan Sinha's presence

at the united opposition rally against the Narendra Modi

government and termed the actor-turned-politician an

"opportunist."

BJP's national spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy

described Sinha as an "opportunist" and said he was in the

party to enjoy the perks of being an MP, but at the same time

seen making different voices at various platforms. PTI PNT

SNS SNSTejashwi charges Modi,Shah with hatching conspiracy against

Lalu

Kolkata, Jan 19 (PTI) RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav Saturday

alleged that BJP as part of conspiracy has set CBI and ED

against his father Lalu Prasad and his family for not joining

hands with them in their efforts to divide the country on

communal lines.

Addressing opposition parties rally here organised by

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Yadav came down

heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and called him

"manufacturer, wholesaler and distributor of lies."

He lauded Banerjee for bringing leaders of various

parties on one platform and urged all the leaders to keep

standing together to oust the BJP government from power.

Yadav said Banerjee always stood with his father (Lalu

Prasad) in times of "dukh-sukh" (sorrow and happiness) and

appealed to people of Bihar residing in West Bengal to provide

her strength in her political fight keeping this in mind.

"Modi ji is manufacturer, wholesaler and distributor of

lies...he speaks one lie and give 10 more with it as gift,"

the RJD heir apparent said making a scathing attack at the PM.

"If you join hands with them (Narendra Modi and Amit

Shah) than you will be regarded as 'Raja Harishchandra'

(legendry king who stands for truth). Or else they will set

CBI and ED, with whom they have entered into alliance, against

such person. My father and my family have been victim of this

conspiracy," the RJD leader who himself is facing probe in

hotels-for-land scam said.

Yadav, the younger son of Lalu Prasad and who is leader

of opposition in Bihar Assembly, referred to Congress chief

Rahul Gandhi's "chaukidar chor hai" jibe and said "chaukidar

shall always remember that janata are 'thenedar' (officer

in-charge of a police station) and will punish chaukidar for

wrongdoing."

On NDA taking swipe at the opposition by asking who is

the leader among them, the RJD leader said "our beauty lies in

the fact that there is unity in diversity."

Yadav said that country does not not need sword to fight

the communal force rather there is a need of needle. "If we

stich a torn cloth with needle using string of different

colours it would become more attractive," he added. PTI PNT RG

SNS

SNS SNSWe must defeat the corrupt Modi govt to save country and

democracy : Hardik Patel

Kolkata, Jan 19 (PTI) Lauding Trinamool Congress

supremo Mamata Banerjee for her clarion call to defeat BJP in

the coming Lok Sabha elections, Patidar leader Hardik Patel on

Saturday called upon people to fulfil her desire in its true

spirit to save the country and democracy.

Addressing a huge rally at the historic Brigade Parade

Ground here, Patel said that all non-BJP parties have united

here to defeat the BJP government.

"We must save our country and democracy for the

welfare of the nation," he said.

Stating that the opposition parties are fighting

against "thieves", Patel said while Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose

had given a call to fight against the 'goro' (Britishers), "we

are fighting against choro (thieves)."

The young Gujarat leader thanked West Bengal Chief

Minister Mamata Banerjee for bringing all major opposition

leaders on one platform and pointing towards 'jansalab' (mass

gathering) at the grounds said it was an indication that BJP

is on its way out of power. PTI AKB SNS KK

KK KKShourie asks opposition to work together to out BJP in the LS

Polls

Kolkata, Jan 19 (PTI) Former union minister Arun

Shourie on Saturday asked the opposition to work together to

throw out the BJP government at the Centre in the coming Lok

Sabha polls.

The opposition parties should unitedly pitch single

candidates against the BJP contestants in the country to win

the Lok Sabha poll.

Shourie, who was among the galaxy of speakers to

address the united opposition rally of TMC supremo Mamata

Banerjee, said there are no two opinions on the need to oust

the BJP.

"We (opposition parties and leaders) have to have a

single aim - that is ousting the BJP in the next Lok Sabha

election. Become Arjun (of Mahabaharata)," he urged the

opposition leaders.

"It will not be an easy work - pitching a single

opposition candidate in each seat against the BJP. But we must

sacrifice for the country, with a sense of love for it,"

Shourie, who was minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee

government said.

He said the Modi-Shah duo of BJP has lost the trust of

the people. "This government has lied on all counts ... Modiji

knows that his hold over the country has loosened".

Congratulating Banerjee for holding the opposition

rally, Shourie said other opposition parties should also hold

such rallies and each of them should attend those and not

merely send representatives.

"The Bengal tigress has given the call to oust BJP. I

am sure it will be successfull," he added. PTI PNT KK

KK KKKolkata, Jan 19 (PTI) Slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his "the 'Mahagathbandhan' (grand opposition alliance) is against the people" remark, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu Saturday said the opposition leaders were not "bonded labourers" who would dance to the PM's tune.

Asked to comment on Modi's criticism of the opposition alliance at a meeting in Silvassa on Saturday, Banerjee said, "He (Modi) is not the 'Nawab' and we are not his slaves that we will dance to his tunes.

"We are free citizens of this country. He wants us to be his servants, but we are not."

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who was present at the tea party hosted by Banerjee after the united opposition rally at Brigade Parade Ground, said, "We are only the servants of people of this country".

Asked to comment on Modi's remark that the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal was afraid of the BJP, Banerjee said, "The BJP is scared to face people of the state. Modi will get a befitting reply in the coming elections for making such comments."

Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi called for a one-on-one fight with the BJP in every constituency in the forthcoming general elections.

Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said BJP is anti-people and dividing the people by spreading hatred.

"In Uttar Pradesh, they (BJP) are sowing the seeds of hatred among the people on the basis of religion and caste," he said.

National Conference leader Farooq Abdulah said the Constitution of the country was under threat.

Besides Naidu, Singhvi, Yadav, Satish Mishra of BSP, Abdullah, former Arunachal CM Gegong Apang, Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani and Patidar leader Hardik Patel were present at the tea party. PTI SUS AKB JM IND

INDAllow state agencies to hire their own IT personnel

Turn the Information Services Division, currently part of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, into its own department

Give the CIO authority over technology across all state agencies, but also give agency heads the right to decline technology services from the new IT department

Direct the CIO to develop and implement a plan to utilize open-source technology and products for the information technology and telecommunication systems of all state agencies

In 2011, Oklahomas elected leaders told state government to consolidate their IT operations under a single agency. Eight years later, the state has saved hundreds of millions of dollars But new legislation from the chair of the state Senate Appropriations Committee would open up a path for Oklahoma IT to decentralize again. Senate Bill 227 , which Sen. Roger Thompson filed Jan. 10, would make several big changes to state IT. It would:Given the states long push toward centralization, the bill would literally be a step backward for Oklahoma.But it would also be a step backward relative to the rest of the country. A recent analysis from the Center for Digital Government* showed that most states have moved toward centralized IT structures over time, hoping to achieve the same kind of cost savings states like Oklahoma have noted. In fact, between 2016 and 2018, 13 states moved in the direction of centralization. Only two moved away from it.Speaking with, Thompson said the idea for the bill came from problems the states prisons have experienced with IT services.I have been working on this for several years, and what we find is that whenever you send somebody out  they may not be familiar with corrections, he said. In some cases, theyre afraid to go behind the wall.Thompson said the fact that most states are moving toward centralization doesnt change his mind; he said hes seen documentation suggesting that state IT agencies could achieve their technology needs at a lower cost than what the IT division is currently billing them.has requested that documentation from Thompsons office. Oklahoma statute requires IT bills to be set at the cost of providing the service or technology.In a retrospective report published in 2017, OMES attributed $372 million in cost savings to the centralization effort and highlighted which projects contributed to that overall figure.Oklahoma CIO Bo Reese has also pointed to centralization as a way to improve the states cybersecurity, since it allowed his agency to standardize practices across various government offices.But one agency, the Oklahoma Securities Commission, has resisted centralization. And just six days after Thompson filed his bill, news broke that that agency had experienced a data breach. According to the agency unwittingly left three terabytes of sensitive information  including Social Security numbers, FBI investigation records, the names of AIDS patients and user passwords  unprotected on the Internet for about a week.Though the bill specifies that agencies could decline services from the IT department, Thompson said that would not apply to cybersecurity.Theres still a need for centralization and security  but the agencies need to be more involved, he said.Unlike the issue of staff centralization, the question of whether states are promoting IT agencies to separate departments is murkier. A review of all 50 state organization charts byshowed that 23 states have individual IT departments and 27 have IT shops that were a part of some larger department.Even if Thompsons bill would be looking backward on centralization, the open-source component of the bill would be a modern move for state IT. Open source technology has had some big wins in the private technology market lately, with Microsoft and IBM paying billions of dollars to acquire prominent open source companies GitHub and Red Hat, respectively. Both companies provide hardware and software to the state and local government market.State government has also started looking more directly at open source software. New Hampshire passed a law in 2012 requiring state agencies to consider open source software. Georgia has been using open source technology for years . And last month Californias Government Operations Agency launched a new effort to promote open source technology across the state.Thompson said he included that provision in the bill in order because state agency officials have told him they want to use more commercial-off-the-shelf software rather than pursuing custom or internally built solutions.We are running six, seven months behind in building computer programs sometimes  but we could just outsource that, he said.The bill does not include a formal definition of the term open source, but Sen. Thompson said he would include one in the future.A spokesperson for OMES declined to comment for this story.SB 227 has not yet been through committee or gone through any votes.Agartala, Jan 19 (PTI) The BSF on Saturday rebuffed claims made by the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) that it was deliberately pushing Rohingyas into their territory.

A Bangladesh-based newspaper had on Friday reported that the Border Security Force (BSF) was trying to force 31 Rohingyas into their country from the Kasba Upazilas Kajiatali border area in Brahmanbaria.

The area falls in Tripura's Kamalasagar in Sipahijala district, about 32 km from here.

Terming the allegations as false and baseless, the BSF Tripura Frontier in a statement said that on January 18, at about 8.30 pm, Lt Col Gomal Kabir, Commanding Officer of BGB called BSF Commandant Ratnesh Kumar and informed him that they had detained 31 Rohingya Muslims at the International Border.

"Commanding Officer 25 BGB insisted the BSF Commandant to take over those Rohingyas inside the Indo-Bangladesh Border (IBB) fencing. Commanding Officer BGB also alleged that BSF have been pushing Rohingyas into Bangladesh territory," the statement said.

"BSF strictly denies any such attempt and refutes the allegation as published in Bangladesh media," the statement added.

The BSF further said that during search and spot verification, no tell-tale signs of any such type of illegal crossing of Rohingyas from Indian territory to Bangladesh side were found.

BSF said that it has learnt from reliable sources that the BGB have brought a group of Rohingyas from the interior of Kasba Upazila and falsely shown them to have been detained near the border pillar "under a specific strategic plan".

When contacted, a BSF Public Relation Officer on condition of anonymity said, "The allegation is completely false and baseless and BSF has no such plan or never had any such plan earlier".

He said in 2017, 12 Rohingyas were apprehended and in the following year another 62 were held from different parts of Tripura, but not a single one of them was pushed to Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh newspaper had reported that BGB had confirmed the presence of Rohingyas in no man's land on the Indian side.

"BSF is gathering huge number of Rohingyas on the border area in a number of trucks. BGB and local villagers are on high alert about the matter," Kabir was quoted as saying in the newspaper report. PTI JOY JM RHLKolkata, Jan 19 (PTI) The stage is all set for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's mega Opposition rally against the Narendra Modi government here on Saturday.

Leaders of all the opposition parties except the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the CPI(M)-led Left Front will be taking part in the rally, which the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has said will sound the "death knell" for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

"Only few hours to go for the historic 'United India Rally' at the Brigade Parade Grounds. I welcome all national leaders, supporters and lakhs of people to participate in today's rally to pledge to build a stronger, progressive and united India #UnitedIndiaAtBrigade," Banerjee, who is also the TMC chief, said in a tweet.

More than 20 national leaders, including former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, his son and Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah, Sharad Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Hemant Soren and former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Gegong Apang, reached Kolkata on Friday to take part in the rally.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is also expected to be in attendance.

Although Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati will not attend the rally, senior party leader Satish Chandra Mishra will be present on her behalf.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi too has extended his support to the rally. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi are expected to represent the Congress at the rally.

Large-scale preparations have been made to ensure that the rally turns out to be massive success. Besides the huge stages, 20 watchtowers have been erected and 1,000 microphones and 30 LED screens put up so that the spectators can see the leaders and hear them speak clearly.

As many as 10,000 security personnel will be deployed in and around the venue of the rally and around 400 police pickets have been set up to ensure foolproof security, the police said.

Lakhs of TMC supporters and workers have started arriving in the city from all over the state.

Vehicular movement around the venue has been restricted, the police said. PTI PNT RBT RCGandhinagar, Jan 19 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday met his nonagenarian mother Hiraba in Raisan village near here after he made a brief stopover on his way to Ahmedabad Airport.

Hiraba lives with the PM's younger brother Pankaj Modi in the village.

The prime minister spent around 30 minutes with his mother and other family members in the morning and then left for Ahmedabad airport, sibling Pankaj said.

PM Modi is on a three-day visit to Gujarat since January 17. PTI PJT PD BNM RCJ

RCJWashington, Jan 20 (PTI) Seeking to end the federal government shutdown, President Donald Trump has offered temporary protection for people illegally brought to the US as children in exchange for USD 5.7 billion for constructing a wall on the Mexico border.

The impasse between the Trump-led Republican Party and the Democratic Party led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the border wall led to the shutdown, which has rendered 800,000 federal government workers without work and crippled key departments.

The shutdown-- the longest in US history-- entered its 29th day, as Trump Saturday made the announcement.

The president has also proposed protection to other groups of immigrants facing deportation.

Both sides in Washington must simply come together, Trump said in a White House speech, adding he is trying to break the logjam."

Defending his plan for the US-Mexico border wall, he said, "Walls are not immoral, in fact they are the opposite of immoral because they will save many lives."

Trump said he was offering a "commonsense compromise both parties should embrace."

The president said he would give protection for young people brought to the country illegally as children and also extend it to those with temporary protected status after fleeing countries affected by natural disasters or violence.

The divide between the Republicans and Democrats, and the shutdown are fallouts of Trump refusing to sign spending bills without the USD5.7 billion to start constructing the border wall. PTI ANB

ANBUnited Nations, Jan 19 (PTI) United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday hoped that India and Pakistan will engage in a "meaningful dialogue" to resolve their issues.

The UN chief also said he has been offering his "good offices in relation to the dialogue between the two countries that, until now, had no conditions of success."

Guterres was speaking to reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.

I hope that the importance of both India and Pakistan is such in international affairs, I hope that the two countries will be able to engage in a meaningful dialogue, he said.

The UN chief was responding to a question on his repeated urging of dialogue between the two South Asian neighbours.

In relation to the human rights situation, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has produced recently a very detailed report. So, the UN has clearly done its job in that regard, Guterres said to a question by a Pakistan journalist on the situation in Kashmir. PTI LKJ ANB

ANBBeirut, Jan 19 (AFP) At least 20 Islamic State group jihadists were killed Saturday in Iraqi air raids on their embattled enclave in eastern Syria, a war monitor reported.

The raids come a day after a US-led air strike on the Euphrates Valley village of Baghouz killed six civilians, including four children, and 10 IS fighters, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

There were no immediate comments from the Iraqi army or from the US-led coalition.

Baghouz is part of an enclave of less than 15 square kilometres (less than six square miles) that is all that is left of IS territory in eastern Syria after a gruelling Kurdish-led offensive launched with coalition support.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that Saturday's air strikes "carried out by Iraqi aircraft killed at least 20 IS fighters in Baghouz".

He said at the same time the Iraqi army units stationed nearby on the border with Syria fired artillery.

Abdel Rahman said the US-led coalition had stepped up its air strikes against IS since the jihadists killed 19 people, four of them Americans, in a suicide bombing on a restaurant in the flashpoint northern town of Manbij on Wednesday.

"The strikes are continuing, and have intensified since the Manbij attack," he said on Saturday.

"Residential buildings in Barghouz were hit," he said.

Wednesday's US losses were the biggest since Washington deployed troops in Syria in 2014 in support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Previously it had reported just two combat losses in separate incidents.

The Manbij bombing rekindled controversy triggered by President Donald Trump last month with his surprise announcement of a full withdrawal from Syria.

The US president justified the order with the assertion that the jihadists had now been "largely defeated" in Syria, a claim that the attack threw into renewed question. (AFP) SCY

SCYNew Delhi, Jan 19 (PTI) Following are the top foreign stories at 1700 hours:



FGN10 UN-GUTERRES-LD INDOPAK

India, Pak should engage in 'meaningful dialogue' to resolve their issues: UN chief

United Nations: United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday hoped that India and Pakistan will engage in a "meaningful dialogue" to resolve their issues.



FGN5 US-TRUMP-KIM-2NDLD MEETING

Trump to meet Kim Jong-un again in February: White House

Washington: US President Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in late February on Pyongyang dismantling its nuclear and missile programmes, the White House has announced. By Lalit K Jha



FGN12 PAK-SHARIF-HEALTH

Sharif not completely well, says special medical board

Lahore: A special medical board that examined Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Kot Lakhpat jail here has said that "he is not completely well" and more tests are required before suggesting treatment for him. By M Zulqernain



FGN4 US-TRUMP-LD ANNOUNCEMENT

Trump to make 'major' announcement on shutdown, border issue

Washington: US President Donald Trump has said he will make a "major" announcement Saturday on the ongoing federal government shutdown and the humanitarian crisis on the country's southern border. By Lalit K Jha.



FGN14 MEXICO-4THLD FIRE

Fuel pipeline blaze in Mexico kills 21, injures dozens

Tlahuelilpan (Mexico): A massive fire broke out at an illegal pipeline tap in central Mexico on Friday, killing at least 21 people and injuring 71 more, just as the government wages a major crack-down on fuel theft. (AFP)

RUPPeshawar, Jan 19 (PTI) A member of a Peace Committee was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, police said.

The man, identified as Malik Mir Alam Khan, was killed after some bikers ambushed his vehicle at Achini Khwar area in Khyber district, they said.

Five years ago, Khan was injured in a suicide attack in the same district, police added. PTI CORR SCYColombo, Jan 19 (PTI) Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Saturday said the new Constitution would not change the unitary nature of the country.

Wickremesinghe's comments came in the wake of his political opponents headed by opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa alleging that his government is drafting a new Constitution to appease the main Tamil political party, Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

Addressing a gathering at Galle town, he said, "The United National Party (UNP) would not agree to abandoning the unitary state (of Sri Lanka)."

On January 11, Wickremesinghe tabled in Parliament a report of experts on drafting a new Constitution.

Stressing that the new Constitution is still a long way ahead, the prime minister said, "We have no new constitution or even a draft".

What was contained in the report was ideas from all parties, he said, adding, "Without two-third support in the constitutional assembly we cannot draft a new Constitution."

The Rajapaksa camp has also been accusing that the new Constitution will dilute the Buddhism's foremost position over other religions in the country. However, the prime minister emphasised that the foremost place given to the majority religion Buddhism has been preserved. PTI CORR SCY

SCYNew Delhi, Jan 19 (PTI) Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis Saturday said his country is ready to step up Indo-Czech cooperation in defence and other sectors, and its defence minister will visit Bengaluru next month to attend Aero India.

Interacting with reporters on the sidelines of an event at the Czech Embassy here, he also hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a "charismatic leader" with a "vision".

Babis was on an official visit to India from January 17-19. He led a Czech delegation at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2019, with Czech Republic as a partner country.

The two leaders also held a bilateral meeting on Friday on the sidelines of the Summit. The entire gamut of bilateral relations including important global and regional issues of mutual interest was discussed during the talks, officials said.

"We discussed concretely, defence cooperation, Tatra (trucks), Skoda, our investments, possibility of a direct airline service between Delhi and Praguie, tourism and other areas of cooperation," he said Saturday, when asked what the two prime ministers discussed.

Czech car maker Skoda Auto and Volkswagen Group India on Saturday inaugurated a new technology centre at its Chakan manufacturing plant in Pune as part of its 2.0 India project.

Babis attended the programme and also inaugurated a Center for European Studies at Symbiosis University in Pune.

On defence cooperation, he said, "We are ready to increase our defence cooperation in passive radars and other things... Our defence minister will visit India next month to participate in Aero India event in Bengaluru."

Aero India 2019 will be held in Bengaluru from February 20 to 24 and the defence exhibition will see participation of top fighter-jet manufacturers, defence equipment makers and companies related to the sector.

On bilateral ties, Babis said, "Both countries have a long history of cooperation. Old Czech brands like Skoda and Bata symbolise that tie. A lot of Indians think Bata is an Indian firm, which shows the deep connect."

He also pitched for extending cooperation in the education sector through students exchange programme.

Addressing a gathering at a reception held at the embassy in the evening, the Czech prime minister described his visit as "fantastic".

"We are looking forward to cooperate with Indian companies, universities, thinking about exchange of students. It was a great visit, and I leave with a lot of pleasant memories," he said.

Babis also unveiled a book on the journey of Ideal Jawa and Yezdi motorcycle brand in India, whose history is linked to the original motorcycle manufacturer Jawa which was founded in the then Czecholslovakia in 1929. PTI KND SMN

SMNA veteran of former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walkers administration will continue into the new administration of Gov. Tony Evers.David Cagigal, who has been serving as Wisconsins chief information officer since 2011, will continue in the role. As CIO, Cagigal also serves as division administrator for the Division of Enterprise Technology (DET), which manages the states IT assets.Cagigals continuance as CIO may strike some as an anomaly, since many new administrations bring in their own appointments for senior cabinet-level positions.Yes this is an anomaly, agreed Doug Robinson, executive director of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers.Walker, a Republican who pulled the state acutely to the right, was narrowly defeated in November when Evers, 67, a Democrat, landed 49.5 percent of the vote to Walker's 48.5 percent.In an email to his DET staff earlier this month, Cagigal noted some of the departments achievements last year, like BadgerNet , a statewide network services system serving all 72 counties.All the nearly 1,400 authorized user customers have been transformed to a faster, more resilient network, Cagigal noted in his email.The department also facilitated in key infrastructure support in the opening of the Hill Farms State Office Building in Madison, home to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, including the Division of Motor Vehicles, State Patrol, Division of Transportation Investment Management, Division of Transportation System Development, Division of Business Management, as well as Human Resources.We conducted a comprehensive, objective internal assessment that shined light on all our work and established the foundation for staff suggestions and ideas on how we can do that work better, Cagigal wrote.The Center for Digital Governments 2018 Digital States Survey gave Wisconsin an overall grade of A-, matching the states A- grade from the 2016 survey.As the survey organizers explained, this reflects a state that is trending sharply up, showing results across all categories, Cagigal told his staff.Cagigal joined the Walker administration after spending a number of years in the private sector heading up IT programs at companies like Amoco Corp. and Maytag.New Delhi, Jan 19 (PTI) Former finance minister P Chidambaram rejected the ruling BJP's claim of achieving the highest growth rate under the NDA government on Saturday, saying it was based on "bogus numbers" produced by the Niti Aayog.

The senior Congress leader took to Twitter to say that these numbers were rejected by every economist and statistician of repute.

"The BJP's claim of 'highest growth rate' under NDA is based on the bogus numbers produced by Niti Aayog," he wrote on the microblogging website.

Chidambaram claimed that the CSO numbers published earlier and those released by the NSC Committee on Real Sector Statistics in August last year were the only credible ones.

"UPA 1 years (2004-2009) were the best growth years since Independence and in fact the best ever," he said.

Another senior Congress leader, Ahmed Patel, also took to Twitter to criticise the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government's economic policies.

"In 4.5 years, India's debt increased by 50% to 82 lakh crore. Reckless spending & creating liabilities for future governments are key features of their so called 'Gujarat Model'," he said in a tweet. PTI SKC/ASK RCGandhinagar, Jan 19 (PTI) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj Saturday assured African nations that India will continue to be their trusted partner and work closely for the economic and social empowerment of Africans.

Addressing ministers and representatives of around 50 African nations to mark the first-ever 'Africa Day' at the ongoing Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit here, Swaraj said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared Africa as the "top priority" in India's foreign and economic policy.

"As Africa marches in its journey towards security, renewal and prosperity, India will remain a trusted partner, working closely with Africa for the economic and social empowerment of its people," Swaraj said.

The minister said India dedicating a day to an entire continent for the first time during the investors' meet underlined the importance it accords to the African economies "in the development and growth map of the contemporary world".

Speaking before Swaraj, Uganda Foreign Affairs Minister Henry Okello said that due to stagnation in relationship between India and Africa, China has realised the potential of the continent and came out in a big way.

"Everybody knows that relations between India and Africa were very robust in the past, but in recent times they became stagnant. In the meantime, China realised the potential and came in a big way. Now, it should be set on the right track," Okello said.

Underlining the significance of the African Day event, Swaraj said it was held during 150th birth anniversary year of Mahatma Gandhi and the 100th birth anniversary of iconic African leader Nelson Mandela.

India has always shared a special bond with the people of Africa and supported their liberation from colonialism and apartheid (a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s), the minister said.

She said PM Modi has declared Africa as the "top priority" in the foreign and economic policy of India.

"In the last four years, our long-standing ties with Africa have acquired vibrancy and dynamism. There has been unprecedented intensification of our political engagement with Africa, with 29 visits to African countries at the level of President, Vice President and Prime Minister, apart from several ministerial visits," the minister said.

Swaraj also said that Africa has emerged as an important trade and investment partner of India.

"The trade between India and Africa stood at USD 62.66 billion for 2017-18 which reflects a nearly 22 per cent increase over the previous year. India is ranked as the third largest export destination in Africa," the minister said, adding that as many as 38 African countries are now enjoying the benefits of India's Duty Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) Scheme.

She exuded confidence that the recent signing of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement will boost trade and economic ties with Africa.

"In recent years, there has been a surge in Indian investment in Africa. India is the fifth largest investor in Africa with cumulative investments of USD 54 billion," she noted.

Swaraj identified minerals and mining, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, infrastructure, high-technology manufacturing and information and communication technology as the areas having a considerable potential to boost investment ties with African countries.

"Currently, 189 projects in 42 African countries for nearly USD 11.4 billion are being implemented under the Indian Line of Credits (LoCs). These projects have had a positive impact in many African countries and are changing the lives of its people by covering a range of sectors," she said.

The minister also touched upon the issue of terrorism, and called for a greater engagement to deal with it.

"One of the most serious challenges toward international peace and security is the menace of terrorism. Like India, many of the African countries are the victims of terrorism. Consequently, preserving peace and security, countering terrorism and extremism is an important element of our engagement," she said.

Underlining that India's relationship with Africa is on upswing, the minister also acknowledged that maintaining this momentum, building the foundation of security, and ensuring development and growth for the benefit of people are the major challenges.

"Strong relations between India and Africa will go a long way in redefining the contours of the international order on more egalitarian lines," she said. PTI PJT PD NSK BALPrayagraj has become a city in mystical motion. It began swaying to rhythmic drumbeats and vigorous chants early this month as waves upon waves of saffron-clad sages and ash-smeared naga sadhus arrived with ardent devotees for the Ardh Kumbh Mela at the Sangam. The formal arrival of the members of 13 akharas (schools of religious practice) was a sight to behold. They came chanting and smoking chillums, some striding in, some riding decorated horses or elephants, some rocking in magnificent palanquins and some throbbing in incongruous SUVs. It was an inclusive affair, with the Kinnar Akhara of transgenders being allowed to participate in the processions, called Peshwai, for the first time. The Kinnars sashayed in and later merged their akhara into the Juna Akhara.

This is for the first time that a chief minister has announced the dates for the royal baths in the Kumbh, and the seer community is fully convinced that the Kumbh, under Yogi, will be a historic event. Mahant Narendra Giri, head, All India Akhara Parishad The Kumbh Mela is unique, impressive, extravagant by its sheer size, organisational capabilities and spirituality. - Ira aka Agni Devi, a maths teacher from Croatia The BJP has a habit of politicising everything. They used surgical strike and demonetisation for their political advantage. Then, why not Kumbh? Joe Anthony, national general secretary, Samajwadi Party

Many of the pilgrims had marched for miles to reach the Kumbh Nagri at the Sangamthe confluence of the Ganga, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswatilistening to motivational songs such as Nadiya chale chale re dhara... tujhko chalna hoga (As the river flows on and on, so will you have to walk). Said to be the largest gathering of pilgrims, the Kumbh Mela had assumed a higher profile this time. For one, the monk who rules Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, had elevated the Ardh (half) Kumbh Mela to Kumbh Mela in an audacious announcement he had made more than a year ago. Global interest in the festival had also increased after UNESCO in 2017 recognised the Kumbh Mela as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

But the hordes that descended on the city were impelled more by fervent faith than by the burnished image of the festival. Jo kumbh mein naha gaya woh moksha pa gaya (One who bathes at the Kumbh attains salvation), said the naked baba Gopal Puri, whose raised hand and overgrown, twisted nails demand your attention. He took a vow at the Kumbh Mela in Ujjain in 2016 not to lower his hand until all the sins and sorrows of India were wiped out. Absolution for sins comes easy for another baba, Swami Raghavendra, who puffed out his philosophy: Lage dum, mite gum, yeh hai Kumbh (Smoke chillum, mitigate sorrow, this is Kumbh). Others like Swami Bharanand get their high from the mere act of participating in the Kumbh. Ganga maiya me jab tak paani rahe, Kumbh teri kahani rahe (As long as there is water in Mother Ganga, the story of the Kumbh will remain), he said. Sacred chants, chiming bells and devotional songs at the Sangam create an ethereal world where the natural meets the supernatural.

So they arrived, in astounding numbers, on Makar Sankranti (winter solstice), the day the festival beganthe administration said 20 million pilgrims took a holy dip at the Sangam on January 15. The days will now be longer with the sun moving into Capricorn, and politically hotter, too, with the monks government sparing no efforts to make it the grandest of all Kumbh Melas in modern times.

Something for even the gods to savour, perhaps. The gods and demons had churned an ocean of milk, got a kumbh (pot) of the nectar of immortality, quarrelled over its possession and, in an ensuing chase, spilled a few drops of nectar in the Ganga in Haridwar, the Shipra in Ujjain, the Godavari in Nashik and in the Sangam. The chase lasted 12 divine daysone divine day equals a year on earthand the Kumbh Mela is, therefore, celebrated at each of the four places once in 12 years, with the venue depending on the alignment of the sun, the moon and Jupiter. A dip in these river sites during the Kumbh Mela, believe devotees, absolves all sins.

All lined up: The government has built 22 pontoon bridges to facilitate movement of devotees.

The year 2019 will see a political churning, too, as Lok Sabha elections are at hand, and the BJP governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh have pulled out all the stops in organising the Kumbh Mela. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited the city ahead of the festival to take stock of the situation; Yogi made six visits last year. With nearly 15 crore pilgrims expected to attend the festival, the BJP hopes the Kumbh Mela will help consolidate Hindu votes ahead of the polls.

Though BJP leaders refrained from admitting it, it was clear since last May that the Yogi government would milk the festival for political nectar. In a visit to the Sangam in May, he did something that no other chief minister had done, by announcing the dates for shahi snan (royal baths) of the Kumbh MelaJanuary 15 (Makar Sankranti), February 4 (Mauni Amavasya) and February 10 (Basant Panchami). He also announced an innovation: helicopters would shower petals of flowers on bathing pilgrims, especially the sadhus from the akharas who take the first dip at the Sangam. In yet another departure from the secular past, the chief minister hoisted the dharam dhwaja (religious flag) of the akharas, which symbolised the formal beginning of the Kumbh.

Sins and sorrows may not be easy to erase, but names have far less adhesive properties. The name Allahabad is slowly vanishing, a cabinet meeting last October having renamed the city as Prayagraj. The revival of the citys ancient, perhaps mythological, name has been delightful to the monks and priests and those leaning towards hindutva. They were also gladdened that the government has thrown open the temple of Akshay Vat (a banyan tree that grants wishes), which stands within Allahabad Fort.

Sheltering faith: A view of the Kumbh Nagri on the left side of the Shastri bridge. Nonstop electricity and water have been provided to make the stay of devotees hassle-free.

The government has gone the whole hog to promote the Kumbh Mela, with a newly made logo for the festival. Additional Chief Secretary Awanish Awasthi, who heads the state tourism development corporation, said all official letters bore the logo, which shows seers taking a holy dip at Sangam with temples in the backdrop. Cinema theatres have been showing the logo at the end of the national anthem to popularise it.

The BJP has hopped on to the Kumbh brand wagon, featuring the word Kumbh in the names of several of its programmes. One of them, the Samrasta Kumbh, was held in Ayodhya last month to mobilise dalits and other weaker sections. Inaugurating it, Yogi said it was dalit sages who had composed most of the vedic mantras, so it was unfair that dalits had been prevented from learning the vedas. Another programme, held in Lucknow University, was called Yuva Kumbh. Here, the chief minister spoke about youth development programmes. As a political alliance against the BJP was taking shape, party strategists were emphasising samagra hindutva (holistic hindutva) to unite the Hindu society.

The RSS, too, is using the Kumbh brand name. It is organising Netra Kumbh in Prayagraj, distributing spectacles to one lakh patients. Our volunteers will be deployed at key points to help and guide pilgrims in various ways and we will be working with the mela administration, said Anurag, who is the RSS zilla pracharak of Varanasi. The RSS is essentially a Hindu organisation and only Hindus come to the Kumbh. So, if we are spreading hindutva, what is wrong with that, he asked. But, it is wrong to say that we are trying to mobilise Hindu votes through the Kumbh.

On beat: A naga sadhu plays damru, standing atop his saffron Ambassador under the railway bridge at the Kumbh.

The opposition parties, however, think otherwise. Joe Anthony, national general secretary of the Samajwadi Party, said, The BJP has a habit of politicising everything. They used surgical strike and demonetisation for their political advantage. Then, why not Kumbh? But it will not benefit them. In Akhilesh Yadavs regime, too, the Kumbh Mela was hailed by everybody. Even Harvard University constituted a team to study the Kumbhs management.

The Congress, too, thinks that the BJP is using the Kumbh for political advantage. They changed the name of Ardh Kumbh to Kumbh, and Allahabad to Prayagraj. This is to placate their vote bank, said Congress secretary B.P. Singh. They are playing with religion and faith. Yashwant Singh, Congress spokesperson in Uttar Pradesh, said the saffron party was trying to gain political mileage, not just from the Kumbh but also from Hindu rituals and symbols. They have not even spared Lord Ram and Ayodhya, he said. A Bahujan Samaj Party leader said that there was no doubt that the BJP was giving mammoth publicity to Kumbh keeping the 2019 elections in mind.

But, members of the akharas are impressed by the governments efforts. Mahant Narendra Giri, head of the All India Akhara Parishad, was all praise for Yogi. I give full credit to the chief minister for making the Kumbh an extraordinary extravaganza, he told THE WEEK. Traditions remain the same, but arrangements change with governments. This time, the government has done laudable arrangements to make it a success. There is a good deal of publicity by the government. This is for the first time that a chief minister has announced the dates for the royal baths in the Kumbh, and the seer community is fully convinced that the Kumbh, under Yogi, will be a historic event.

Mahant Narendra Giri | Pawan Kumar

To this end, the state has stayed true to its official sloganDivya Kumbh, Bhavya Kumbh (Divine Kumbh, Grand Kumbh). It has constituted a new organisation for the KumbhPrayagraj Mela Pradhikaranheaded by IAS officer Vijay Anand. The Kumbh Nagri is spread across 3,200 hectares, almost double the area (1,936 hectares) for the festival in 2013. The budget is more than triple this time. While the Akhilesh Yadav government spent Rs1,214 crore for the festival in 2013, Yogi has allotted Rs4,200 crore. While most of the funds have been spent on beautification, widening of roads and expansion of parking lots, Rs116 crore was set apart for cleanliness and sanitation.

Cleanliness, in fact, ranked high among the governments priorities. In October, it launched the Swachh Kumbh Champ Campaign to directly involve people in the cleanup drive for the Kumbh Mela. As per the official website, more than a lakh toilets were built, and 20,000 plus dustbins with liner bags placed. The government has provided 40 compactors and 120 trucks for disposal of waste. More than 15,000 sanitation workers have been posted to keep the festival grounds clean. The government said it would ensure that no effluents were discharged into the rivers. The tanneries and industrial units in Kanpur have been asked to cut down their production by 50 per cent to reduce pollution in the Ganga. Kumbh 2019 in Prayag will be the greatest religious congregation on this earth, said Yogi, and I assure you that, during the Kumbh, purest water will flow in the Ganga for pilgrims and devotees. There will be no discharge of effluents into the river. This event will help in enhancing the image of the country in the eyes of the whole world.

As part of the Kumbh, the government has renovated most of the dilapidated and neglected temples in the city. It also launched a Paint My City campaign, which has produced paintings of folklore and religious ceremonies on city walls and buildings. A Rs20-crore project of the Prayagraj Mela Pradhikaran, it seeks to convey the spiritual significance of the festival to all devotees, Indian and foreign, said the festivals additional officer Dileep Trigunayat. Five hundred artists were roped in for the project.

Ira aka Agni Devi | Pawan Kumar

The government has built 22 pontoon bridges to facilitate movement of devotees on the sandy banks of the rivers. An airboat service from Prayagraj to Varanasi, and a boat service to Haldia on the Ganga, have been started, the latter offering five- and seven-star cruises. For a skywalk facility, the government has developed the Curzon railway bridge, which was constructed in 1905.

Four tent cities have come up at Prayagraj for the pilgrims to stay, with 4,200 premium tents available for the well-heeled. Offering personal Ganga ghats, the most luxurious of the tents command tariffs touching Rs32,000 a day. To light up the Kumbh Nagri, the government has installed 40,700 LED lights. A laser show, with mythological themes, adds to the dazzle. A helicopter tour of the Kumbh Mela will be on offer from January 17. A selfie point has been created at the Sangam, and pilgrims can get their photographs converted into postal stamps, with a heritage site or the festival in the backdrop.

Aeromed International Rescue Services has been called in to provide an air ambulance service. An airplane, with a doctor, paramedical staff and life-support system, is on standby at the Bamrauli airport in Prayagraj. In case of emergency, a patient can be flown to Delhi or Mumbai at short notice. Four river ambulances are on standby, too. To oversee security and to avert stampedes31 pilgrims were killed in a stampede at the Allahabad railway station in 2013National Security Guard and other paramilitary forces have been deployed in each of the Kumbh Nagris 20 sectors.

The security has been tightened especially because dignitaries from 192 countries and more than 5,000 NRIs will be visiting the Kumbh. It was to facilitate their visit that the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas was postponed from January 9 to January 21 to 23. Besides them, numerous foreign pilgrims flock to the Kumbh. What attracts me to the Kumbh is the unique manifestation of Indian culture and values like ahimsa, sanatan dharma (eternal order) and the sterling faith of devotees, said Carina aka Uma Puri Pushpa, a physiotherapist who came from Austria. Smooth management of this sea of humanity is not seen anywhere in the world. Ira aka Agni Devi, a maths teacher from Croatia, said: It is unique, impressive, extravagant by its sheer size, organisational capabilities and spirituality.

Vishvaguru Mahamandelshwer Maheshwaranand from Austria, who came with his disciples, argued that spiritualism had taken a back seat. Earlier it used be a spiritual event and heritage of rishis (seers). People used to come for sadhna (disciplined learning) and kalp vaas (where seers live in isolation far from their family). But, with the passing of time, hippies and junkies started coming in, which has adversely affected the spiritual contour of the Kumbh, he said.

Pandit Ram Naresh Tripathi, a prominent astrologer who has seen many kumbhs, agreed with him. After the Kumbh of 1972, a lot of changes have crept in, he said. Though we can call it the Kumbh of faith, the fact is that this mammoth religious affair has become highly commercialised. High-profile seers come and spend crores of rupees. Earlier, they came here for kalp vaas, now they want more land to set up their dwelling units and more facilities. These days, the stress is much on glamour, pomp and show.

As this saffron show comes to an end in early March, all eyes will be on the mother of all events this yearthe Lok Sabha elections.In an interview prior to the release of Praana, director V. K. Prakash gave a disclaimer that the thriller movie is not based on late journalist Gauri Lankeshs life. In fact, scriptwriter Rajesh Jayaraman had penned the script way before her untimely death. Disclaimers aside, Praana, which features only one actorNithya Menenhas carefully imbibed many real-life incidents and lays bare horrifying truths. The real success of Praana depends on how precisely the audience comprehends the hidden layers of the two-hour psychological thriller.

Nithya Menen appears as Tara Anuradha, an outspoken writer who is known to express her views on social issues. As the movie begins, we hear her talking about the freedom to eat, wear the clothes we like and love the person of our choice. You cannot help but think of incidents that have been the subject of heated debates in recent times. Though Praana starts off as a usual horror thriller, it slowly takes another form and introduces its underlying concept. The first half, trying to establish a stand, may feel like a drag. The second half, however, makes up for it with twists and shocking revelations.

Without any onscreen violence, the solo drama shows how people who stand up for freedom are mentally and physically tortured and attacked. While symbolism is at its best in the film, Taras powerful dialogues drive the point home. In a commendable performance, Nithya Menen stresses each word while she delivers them with a pinch of pain and strong resentment. Although her conclusion is an oft-heard phrase, it leaves you thinking again Marendathu samoohamalla oru vyektiya [It is not the society that needs to change, but the person]. Throughout the movie, she reiterates that each one of us should stand up for freedom and that is what she intends to do through her book, Music of Freedom. Praana ends with Your life is important and leaves you in awe of the crew for putting forth the message through a rather unusual genre.

Sitting through the credits, you will definitely run a Google search on the crew behind the amazing sound effects. Oscar-winning sound editor Resul Pookutty has worked his magic, successfully experimenting with live surround sync sound for the first time ever. Pookutty's format has captured every minute detail of Tara's movements, and lets you slip into her skin, listening to the sounds just as she would. Even though the movie does not give you too many jump scares, it manages to keep you on the edge of your seatall credit to the engaging sound effects and visuals. Distorted visuals, unusual camera angles and few first-person perspectives by P.C. Sreeram are Praana's strengths. Arun Vijay's background score and music by Louis Banks bring in a breath of fresh air.

Praana released in four languagesMalayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.

Movie: Praana

Director: V.K. Prakash

Cast: Nithya Menen

Rating: 3.5/5Special counsel Robert Mueller's office on Friday issued a rare public statement disputing the accuracy of BuzzFeed News' report that said President Donald Trump's attorney told Mueller that the president directed him to lie to Congress.

BuzzFeed, citing two unidentified law enforcement officials, reported that Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate project and that Cohen told Mueller that Trump personally instructed him to lie about the timing of the project.

The report said Mueller's investigators learned about Trump's directive "through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organisation and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents." The report said Cohen then acknowledged Trump's instructions when he was interviewed by the Mueller team.

The statement by Mueller's office on Friday night doesn't cite any specific errors. In it, the special counsel's spokesman, Peter Carr, said, "BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the special counsel's office, and characterisation of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's congressional testimony are not accurate." BuzzFeed spokesman Matt Mittenthal said the publication stands by its reporting and urged readers to "stay tuned" as they worked to determine what Mueller was denying.

Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, also said the publication stands by its reporting and the sources who informed it.

"We urge the special counsel to make clear what he's disputing," Smith said.

Immediately after the special counsel's statement was issued, Trump retweeted several posts that called the story fake news.

Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, tweeted: "I commend Bob Mueller's office for correcting the BuzzFeed false story that Pres. Trump encouraged Cohen to lie. I ask the press to take heed that their hysterical desire to destroy this President has gone too far. They pursued this without critical analysis all day. #FAKENEWS."

The extraordinary statement from Mueller's office came after Democrats had vowed to investigate whether the report was true, calling that possibility a "concern of the greatest magnitude."

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., both said they would probe BuzzFeed's account. Some Democrats even said that if the report were true, then Trump should be impeached.

Any evidence that Trump directed a witness to lie to investigators would place him in the greatest political and legal jeopardy yet.

Giuliani said in a statement earlier on Friday that "any suggestion from any source that the President counseled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false." White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the allegation "absolutely ridiculous." On Twitter on Friday morning, Trump charged that Cohen was "Lying to reduce his jail time!" Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress to cover up that he was negotiating the Trump Tower project on Trump's behalf during the heat of his presidential campaign.

The charge was brought by Mueller and was the result of Cohen's cooperation with that probe.

Cohen admitted that he lied when he told lawmakers he had never agreed to travel to Russia in connection with the Moscow project and when he said that he'd decided by the end of January 2016 that the "proposal was not feasible for a variety of business reasons and should not be pursued further."

He was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to conceal his boss' alleged sexual affairs, telling a judge that he agreed time and again to cover up Trump's "dirty deeds" out of "blind loyalty."

Giuliani noted that Cohen had pleaded guilty to lying and quoted federal prosecutors in New York who chastised him for a "pattern of lies and dishonesty over an extended period of time." Mueller's team, however, had previously called him a credible witness.

"Today's claims are just more made-up lies born of Michael Cohen's malice and desperation," Giuliani said.

Lanny Davis, a Cohen adviser, declined to comment.

Cohen is scheduled to testify publicly before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Feb. 7. The top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, said Friday that he expects Cohen to talk to that panel in February.

Although House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has discouraged any talk of impeachment in the early days of her new majority, some senior Democrats said that if the BuzzFeed report was confirmed, Trump's actions could rise to that level.

"If the @BuzzFeed story is true, President Trump must resign or be impeached," tweeted Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, a member of the House intelligence panel.

Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline, also a Judiciary committee member, tweeted that if Trump directed Cohen to lie, "that is obstruction of justice. Period. Full stop." A Senate Democrat, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, tweeted that "we need to know this ASAP" if Mueller does have multiple sources confirming that Trump directed Cohen to lie.

"Mueller shouldn't end his inquiry, but it's about time for him to show Congress his cards before it's too late for us to act," Murphy tweeted.(TNS) - Soon after starting a job as a University of South Florida police officer, Douglas Widmann found that a critical piece of equipment often let him down: the two-way portable radio he used to communicate with dispatchers didn't work in many buildings on campus.That claim is now the basis for a breach of contract lawsuit Widmann recently filed against USF's Board of Trustees. According to the complaint, Widmann resigned because USF gave him a "defective" radio and body armor that didn't fit, so he shouldn't be required to repay more than $10,000 the university is demanding for leaving before the three-year term spelled out in his employment contract.But Widmann is motivated by more than his own self-interests, said Leighton Leib, one of his attorneys."I think he feels ethically, morally he needed to speak out," Leib said. "He believes in an ethos associated with law enforcement but overriding that is a concern for the people he's protecting and serving."University officials declined to comment on the lawsuit, but USF Police Chief Chris Daniel said the department's Harris XG-75P radios work well and do not compromise safety."The safety of the students, faculty and staff is paramount," Daniel said. "We're always looking for opportunities to improve, but they should have confidence the police department has the ability to communicate effectively and react to circumstances that could put them in jeopardy."A U.S. Army veteran who is still a member of the Individual Ready Reserve, Widmann previously worked for the Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake and moved to the Tampa Bay area in December 2017 with his wife, who is also a law enforcement officer, according to the complaint.Widmann accepted an offer with USF in April and signed a contract in May.A section of the contract states that employees who voluntarily terminate their employment agree to reimburse USF for the cost of training, uniforms and body armor. But Widmann's lawsuit claims USF breached the contract by giving him a "defective" radio that "lost its signal, and therefore did not work at all, inside many, if not most" USF buildings, including "multiple" student dormitories, the complaint says.The radios failed when Widmann was working with his department trainer, when responding to calls for service including emergency calls, and while participating in active shooter drills in USF's ROTC building, according to the complaint. When the radios didn't work, Widmann and other officers had to use their cell phones to reach department dispatchers.USF "jeopardized Plaintiffs safety and the safety of his fellow Department law enforcement officers  as well as the safety of USF students, faculty, and staff members  by providing Plaintiff and his Department colleagues radios that did not work inside these buildings," the complaint says.Widmann also had to use his own personal body armor because the agency-issue armor did not fit properly, the suit says.Widmann claims he raised issues with supervisors but he was not given "functional substitutes." He resigned in October and returned to the Salt Lake City department. Soon after, the suit says, USF demanded he repay the department $10,251.The importance of functioning radios was highlighted by the investigation into last year's mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. A review of the incident found that an antiquated radio system used by the Broward Sheriff's Office collapsed, crippling the emergency response to the shooting that left 17 dead.Daniel, the police chief, said USF's radio system was purchased about 10 years ago and meets industry standards for digital radios, allowing them to communicate with other agencies including the Tampa Police Department and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. He acknowledged there are some locations on campus where radio reception is poor and officers use their cell phones as a backup to reach dispatchers, but it's "not the norm.""Just like any system, there are going to be spots in the buildings they may have difficulty communicating in," Daniel said. "I'm confident in the radios and I'm confident in my personnel that if a weak spot occurs, they can manage their way out of it."The West Central Florida Police Benevolent represents USF police officers in collective bargaining. Union president Nick Marolda said he hasn't heard complaints from other USF officers about the radios."If I did, that's something I'd want to address," Marolda said. "It's pretty important for police officers to have working radios."Contact Tony Marrero at tmarrero@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3374. Follow @tmarrerotimes.2019 the Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.)Visit the Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.) at www.tampabay.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Asked why he was not firing FBI chief Edgar Hoover, President Lyndon Johnson said, Id rather have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside pissing in. Hoover ran the FBI for 48 years as its boss, from 1924 when it was called the Bureau of Investigation, till his death in 1972.

Several presidents found Hoover useful; several others were scared of him. They knew, or they feared, that he had files on virtually everybody who was somebody in the US, especially about their sexual indiscretions.

Johnsons successor Richard Nixon was lucky. Hoover died towards the end of Nixons term. Soon the Congress made a law that no FBI boss shall serve more than 10 years. Only the Yanks would do thattrust a guy, a paranoid and a blackmailer at that, to run their premier crime-detection agency for half a century. And then, give every successor of his a maximum of 10 years. Even their presidents get only eight years at the most.

Illustration: Deni Lal

Compare that with our CBI chiefs. Only two of its 28 bosses lasted five years. Some lasted a fortnight; one or two had only a few days; three were acting.

Truth be told, it was not the rogue Hoover that Americans trusted, but the robust institution he was running. They knew that the Hoovers would come and go, but the institution would go on.

We in India are the other way round. We place our trust in men, and ignore the institution. When the men fail, we do not mend or mind the men, but amend the laws, and make a mess of the institution.

That is what happened to the CBI. Like every institution on terra firma Indica, it had been scoring sometimes, and flopping sometimes. But every time it flopped, we took the institution to task, changed the laws that governed it and made a mess of it.

All three organs of the state share the blame. The original sin was the executives. As is their wont, our rulers have been using the CBI to raid political foes, and to close cases against friends. So much so that a chief justice called it a caged parrot.

But what have the judges been doing? When they found the agency was not chasing the hawala-moneyed politicians in the 1990s, they took it upon themselves, through the Vineet Narain judgment, to monitor the case. In the end, they could not convict even one among the dirty dozens. Yet the judges gave a host of directives on how to run the CBI and get it watched by the vigilance commission.

And the legislature? They have been making laws at the drop of a judgment. They gave statutory status to the vigilance commission, with its chief being selected by the prime minister, the home minister and the leader of the opposition. When they tried to reform the CBI as the judges advised, they included the chief justice in the selection committeethus giving the go-by to the sanctified principle of separation of powers. Imagine, a judge selecting the police chief who is an arm of the executive. Incredibly, the judges concurred! As if the touch of the court would turn a rogue into a saint.

There is a protocol anachronism too. The CBI chief is selected by the prime minister, the leader of the opposition and the chief justice or his nominee. But the vigilance chief, who is notionally superior to the CBI chief, is selected by the prime minister, and two lesser mortals, inferior to the chief justice.

In the end, one is left to wonder: have the judge-selected CBI chiefs been any holier than their predecessors? Were Ranjit Sinha and Alok Verma not selected with the concurrence of the judges?

prasannan@theweek.inThe Afghan problem surged in the Indian consciousness thanks to President Donald Trumps statement that the US deployment must be pared down by half to 7,000 troops. Trump is drawing the curtain on this endless war. The Indian establishment is aghast that Washington is negotiating the Talibans return to mainstream politics.

India risks being stranded as the train starts moving. The Modi government had a wonderful opportunity to engage with the Taliban once it became evident that the international community accepts the groups legitimacy. But hardline policy toward Pakistan precluded new thinking and the Indian establishment bonded with anti-Taliban (anti-Pakistan) elements in Kabul. A deathly game ensued.

Illustration: Bhaskaran

It was a game to lose. But in the process, India lost sight of Taliban, which in turn led to our caricaturing of it as representing evil and religious extremism, and as Pakistans proxy. Whereas, Taliban always had indigenous Afghan roots, represented traditional Islam and never harboured ambitions of global jihad or ulterior motives toward regional states, including India.

Most certainly, India should engage with the Taliban. The Taliban are in control of more than half of Afghan territory and the power calculus in Kabul must be reset to accommodate it if peace is to be durable. But the Indian establishment keeps chanting that the road to peace must be Afghan-led and Afghan-controlled. Like any other hackneyed mantra, it comes to mean nothing. To borrow from Rabindranath Tagores Gitanjali, Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads.

Meanwhile, there are other contradictions, too. Since 2001, Delhi harmonised its Afghan policies with Washingtons. But, ironically, Washington never lost sight of the cardinal truth that Pakistan will forever remain its principal interlocutor. Thus, while Washington pampered Indian vanity by praising its extravagant aid to Afghanistan, it drew a red line to keep India out of centre stage, lest it annoyed Islamabad. Washington remained circumspect about the Indian role and at least one US commanderGeneral Stanley McChrystalpublicly voiced misgivings once in 2010.

Suffice to say, the US and Pakistan did not come to blows over the Afghan situation. Instead, their discords and antipathies notwithstanding, they are joined at the hips. What next? It is about time India realises that given the cascading US-Iranian tensions and the free fall in Russian-American relations, continued US military presence in Afghanistan is today more the problem than the solution.

What sort of post-war Afghanistan can we expect? No doubt, foreign powers will remain immersed in Afghan affairs. The country is far too strategic. Pakistan has legitimate interests. Russia, China and Iran have profound security concerns. China would not mothball Belt and Road Initiative projects. And, despite Wuhan spirit, there is still that competitive edge to Indian policies, as apparent from Delhis initiative to include Afghanistan in the very historic First India-Central Asia Dialogue in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on January 13.

Clearly, a neutral Afghanistan is too much to hope for. Post-war reconstruction demands engagement. The BRI projects that bring in big investments and create jobs will be top priority. While all partner countries are equal, China will be more equal than others. India should reconcile with geopolitical realities.

But trust the Kabul elite not to repeat the folly of Hafizullah Amin and Hamid Karzai to welcome intervention. This should be the last time Afghanistan came under foreign occupation.

The writer is a former diplomat.What works against him are the below average dialogues and a sloppy scriptA joint meeting was held Thursday evening at Williamsburg City Hall, where members of the Williamsburg City Council, the Williamsburg Historic Preservation Commission, Why Whitley and the University of Kentucky Extension Office met to discuss ideas concerning the city's future--both immediate and long-term. Mayor Roddy Harrison (pictured) began the meeting by highlighting a few thoughts on what the aspects of a great community entail. During the meeting, Melissa Bond, extension specialist with the Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky, also provided attendees with a summary of the results from the city's recent First Impressions, a program that helps communities learn about their strengths and shortcomings through the eyes of first-time visitors. Overall, the responses were positive, with one reviewer calling the city "quaint and appealing." Currently, the group plans to meet monthly and expects to involve other local organizations as well. | Photo by Timothy Wyatt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Martin Luther King Jr. has become a secular saint. With that, we sometimes forget that he went to seminary and received a theology doctorate from Boston University before he was impelled into the struggle for civil rights.

Reinhold Niebuhr, a major theologian, trained at Eden Seminary, across the river. He discounted what he saw as a romantic attachment to the charity of individual compassion. He turned to the Biblical notion of justice and saw it as one based on an attempt to make power relationships more equitable for groups as well as individuals.

Niebuhr had no illusions about human nature being a mixed bag of good and evil. Indeed, he went further and argued that groups were less capable of morality than individuals. For King, Niebuhr offered a way out of the quietism of an individuals experience with God and a purely partisan approach to social policy for the Christian.

In later years, King would see Niebuhr as too pessimistic about social progress and of the divine power of grace to help shape the direction of human life. He would seize a suggestion by Niebuhr that some form of public pressure could avail the civil rights of minorities; the seemingly powerless could mobilize their sheer numbers to effect social change with non-violent resistance to injustice. King learned of the non-violent resistance of Gandhi in India. For King, this became a tool to use and to train others in the struggle to actually seek to follow the admonition to love the enemy.

Personalism added depth to Kings vision. Popular at his Boston University, it is a philosophical system that emphasized the importance of the human person, made in the image and likeness of a personal, active God. So, it is obvious that we must respect human persons. It moves from the abstract realm of thought and considers the impact of individuals and communities. So in Kings mind it created a base for praxis, the linkage of theory and practice.

King employed the tools of the preaching trade in his public rhetoric, as he made different modes of preaching his own. Recall that he remained a pastor of a church throughout his call to be a public advocate. Take a step back and note that Kings great addresses were sermons to an increasingly secular society, but they were public sermons nonetheless that called us all to the better angels of our nature.

Drawing from the Social Gospel and Josiah Royce, Kings joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and its goal continues  the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the Beloved Community love that can transform opponents into friends goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age which will bring about miracles in the hearts of men.

Notice that it is apocalyptic, that Christ brings the dawn of a new age. Note that reconciliation itself is not based on the politics of identity with a group but seeks an integration of all toward humanizing our society.

The religious scope of his vision of peace and justice pushed King into realms that were considered out of his lane, poverty and peace, especially toward Vietnam. He seems to have always been critical of an economic system that allows so many to live in poverty or economic vulnerability. Before he was murdered, he was planning a massive poor peoples campaign for Washington, similar to the site of his speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

His last great speech was supporting sanitation workers. He linked his vision with that of Moses, neither of whom would enter the Promised Land. Perhaps, some of us will live to see steps toward it.

David Crowley is former pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Alton.If you recall, my old position in King County became vacant in September 2018. The county did a recruitment in the latter part of 2018 and interviews were to be held this past week. Then, Jody Miller, the serving interim who had been the deputy director and was, in my mind a 99 percent shoo-in for the job  was offered and took the director's position at Pierce County. Jody had been the deputy director there prior to coming to King County. Jody will be gone on Feb. 1, which now means  the county is suddenly opening the position up again to get more qualified candidates. There is a bit of a hole there with both the director and deputy director's positions vacant. The entire program has been in "transition" so there is an opportunity for someone to come in and set their own agenda. Besides the offers below, contact me if you want what insights I might be able to give. But, note that I've been gone 12 years and only one staff member remains from my tenure.See the email from the hiring authority below. At this point I'd say the field is "wide-open" with no one with the inside track."I want to thank Jody Miller for all of her hard work with the King County Office of Emergency Management. Jody has been a transformational leader, providing exceptional service and strategic direction during her tenure [as the deputy director].As you know, King County has been searching for a new permanent OEM director. In light of Jodys withdrawal from this recruitment, we are extending the recruitment for a limited period to provide an opportunity for additional applicants who may be interested in the role.The OEM Director provides leadership, planning, coordination, and oversight of the County's emergency management efforts. The director is a key partner with federal, state, county, and municipal emergency management personnel and communicates directly with the County's Chief Operating Officer. The director is a member of the Operations Cabinet and a key advisor to the County Executive on emergency management policy and program direction.This recruitment is open until the position is filled. To receive consideration, candidates need to apply by Sunday, January 27th. Our plan is to maintain our current schedule for final interviews by February 4, 2019. A full description of this position can be found at https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/kingcounty/jobs/2268612/director-office-of-emergency-management?keywords=emergency%20management&pagetype=jobOpportunitiesJobs If you would like to have a confidential discussion about this opportunity or to refer potential candidates, I invite you to contact Aimee Higbee at 206-263-1276 or ahigbee@kingcounty.gov Thank you in advance for any helpful assistance youre able to lend to our recruitment efforts for this critically important position."EDWARDSVILLE  Authorities are holding two New York men allegedly caught passing through Madison County with more than 10.7 pounds of cocaine.

Charged are Edgardo J. Aponte, 29, and Alexis R. Minaya, 46, both of Farmingville, New York. They are each accused of one count of controlled substance trafficking and one count each of unlawful possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. Both are Class X felonies, punishable by between six and 30 years in prison.VANCOUVERWorkers at a Vancouver mining companys operations in Burkina Faso are safe and away from the camp where a Canadian was kidnapped by armed gunmen, the companys CEO said Friday.

Kirk Woodman, a father from Halifax, was found dead Wednesday with multiple gunshot wounds  a killing Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland called a terrible crime.

Reached by phone Friday, Progress Minerals CEO Adam Spencer said the company has suspended its operations in Burkina Faso until further notice.

There are no workers present at the camp. All workers involved in the incident are safe, Spencer said.

He declined to provide further comment on the incident, citing the sensitive nature of the killing and Woodmans familys request for privacy.

Spencer referred StarMetro to the Toronto-based marketing company Catch Advisory Group to provide context on the companys operations in Africa. The group did not immediately respond to requests.

Read more:

Canadians bullet-riddled body found in Burkina Faso, officials say

Trudeau says woman missing in Burkina Faso is still alive as far as we know

Its unclear how many employees worked for Progress at the mining camp in Tiabongou where the kidnapping took place.

As of Friday, Progress Minerals website was under construction, but recent media releases sent by the company show its operations in Burkina Faso spanned 1,115 square kilometres in the country. Progress, which describes itself as targeting large, low-cost, high-quality gold deposits, had recently obtained two new exploratory permits in the northeast part of the country, in the same area where Woodman was kidnapped.

Spencer wrote in a November press release that exploration work in the area was scheduled to begin in January 2019. Woodman was the companys vice-president of exploration.

Progress also has operations in Cote dIvoire. Spencer declined to comment on whether any changes have been made to those operations.

Catherine Coumans, a research co-ordinator at the sustainable mining advocacy initiative Mining Watch Canada, said Canadian mining companies are increasingly setting up operations in risky environments  whether that risk comes from climate, politics or violence.

Its because of increasing scarcity and competition, Coumans said, adding theres a sense among mining companies that if they dont set up in a certain area, another company will.

Its the bottom line; theyre going in because theres money to be made.

Coumans said the government of Canada should be working more closely with mining companies to establish no-go zones and to carefully consider the environmental, community and labour impacts of where they mine.

She views the region of Burkina Faso where Woodman was kidnapped as a clear example of what should be a no-go spot.

That particular part of Burkina Faso right up against Niger is very dangerous, she said. Canada has travel advisories against travelling to certain parts of the world, and yet thats exactly where our mining companies are operating.

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That creates risks not only for Canadians working in those areas but also for local communities. Coumans is researching a Barrick Gold Mine in Tanzania, where the companys security forces set up to deal with invading villagers has been repeatedly accused of excessive force and violence.

The Canadian government needs to have much more serious human-rights standards with respect to the operations of Canadian companies operating overseas, Coumans said.

The news of Woodmans killing came soon after a 34-year-old Quebec tourist and her travelling companion were reported missing in the West African nation. Sherbrooke native Edith Blais and her Italian friend Luca Tacchetto were travelling by car in southwestern Burkina Faso when all communication with their families abruptly ended Dec. 15.

The Mining Association of Canada declined to speak with StarMetro.

With files from The Canadian Press

Read more about:SHERBROOKE, QUE.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his ministers are vowing to do more to ease the economic anxieties felt by Canadians, a reality that could trip up the Liberals political prospects in this election year.

Trudeau and his cabinet ministers wrapped up a three-day retreat here Friday that set government priorities  and some of the political messaging  for the coming months ahead of Octobers federal election.

The key one will be economic. The Canadian economy is doing well with forecasts for continued growth and low unemployment, all of which Trudeau takes credit for.

Its happened because we had a plan to invest in Canadians and their communities. Obviously there have been challenges and learning experiences throughout the past three years but we have stayed focused on growing the middle class ... and we are succeeding, Trudeau said.

But the Liberals fear that good news is lost in the recent stock market turmoil and economic hardships felt in some regions. Just this week, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer was highlighting the fallout of the depressed resource sector. Canadians are struggling more and more to get by and Justin Trudeau is failing to help, Scheer said on Twitter.

Trudeau acknowledged that whatever good economic news the government might trumpet, not all Canadians are feeling confident.

People are feeling anxious in the world  about whats going in the world, what the future might bring for their kids and grandkids, said Trudeau, who will rally Liberal MPs Sunday in Ottawa ahead of Parliaments Jan. 28 return from its Christmas break.

A senior adviser sketched out the challenge for the government  while there is a lot of anxiety building around the world, keep focused on trying to create economic opportunity.

That message will fall to Finance Minister Bill Morneau to deliver as he takes on a higher profile to talk up the economy and push back against political rivals.

Were going to be thinking about how we can present for Canadians our plan for continuing to face up to those real anxieties that middle-class families face, Morneau said this week.

But there are also cautions that Canada could get side-swiped by external developments.

With ongoing diplomatic spats with China and Saudi Arabia, potential fallout from Britains Brexit chaos and the unresolved tariff tiff with Washington, ministers are warning that Canada is not immune to the events in the tough and turbulent world.

Were living though, I think, probably the most turbulent moment in terms of the rules-based international order since the Second World War. This turbulence is affecting a lot of countries and we should not imagine that we can be immune, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said.

But the Liberals also face turbulence at home, with strong opposition to their agenda from provincial governments such as Saskatchewan and Ontario, notably on climate change.

Obviously there are a range of different perspectives across the provinces, Trudeau said, adding that his approach with all provinces is to work on the things we agree on and trying to minimize and work around the areas we have disagreement.

But faced with the prospect of divisive election debate on the topic of climate change  and carbon pricing  the Liberals intend to hammer the economic argument for change.

At the retreat, the Liberals announced the creation of an advisory panel chaired by Steven Guilbeault, a prominent Quebec environmentalist, and Tamara Vrooman, president and chief executive officer of Vancity, a large community credit union, to recommend new initiatives on climate change.

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We think theres a big economic opportunity as we think about ensuring businesses become more innovative, Morneau said.

Canadians are concerned about climate change  and, in some cases, are paying the price for the changes already afoot  but they want government policies on the issue to be affordable, says Catherine McKenna, minister of environment and climate change.

Trudeau has already declared that climate change  and each partys response to it  will be the ballot box question this October. The choice, he bluntly told a town hall in Saskatchewan recently, is to back politicians who have a plan or hide your head in the sand.

Stephane Dion led the Liberal party in the 2008 election, the last time a carbon tax was a central theme on the campaign trail. The Conservatives handily beat the Dion and his green shift carbon tax proposal in that vote.

Now that headway is being made, Dion  who is Canadas ambassador to Germany and special envoy to the European Union  says it would be a mistake turn back.

My only advice is not only for Canadians or Europeans but it is for the world, said Dion who was one of six Canadian diplomats who attended the retreat to brief ministers. Encourage the people who want to do more because we need to do more.

Other policy decisions that lie ahead for the Liberals include the commitment to examine universal pharmacare, a priority that Morneau said is really important. An advisory council led by Dr. Eric Hoskins  Ontarios former health minister  continues to study the issue, raising the question whether a proposal will be unveiled in the budget or the election platform. I cant tell you that I know for certain how far well get on that in the budget, Morneau said.

Its expected that Bill Blair, the minister of border security and organized crime reduction, will report to cabinet in the coming weeks on options to further restrict handguns, a move spurred by escalating gun violence across the country.

Morneau has said the Liberals final budget before the election will include a focus on helping Canadians adapt to the changing job environment. Just exactly how hasnt been yet decided, he said this week.

Last year, the government released a poverty reduction strategy based largely on previously announced initiatives. But Jean-Yves Duclos, of families, children and social development, says the Canada Child Benefit and two measures yet to take effect  the Canada Workers Benefit this April and the Canada Housing Benefit next year  will go a long way to meeting the strategys initial target of reducing poverty by 20 per cent by 2020, compared to 2015 levels.

To meet the more ambitious goal of 50 per cent reduction by 2030, Duclos said, more measures will likely be needed in the coming years.

Read more about:Canadas 3.3 million barrels per day (bbl/d) of conventional and heavy crude exports to the U.S.  essentially our only customer  is at risk due to increasing U.S. light oil production.

For example, ExxonMobil is overhauling its 584,000 bbl/d Baytown refinery, the second-largest in the U.S., to process more light crude oil from west Texas.

Gulf Coast refineries have long been configured to process heavier crudes from Latin America, Canada and other oil producing regions. But the drilling boom in the Permian Basin and other shale oilfields has produced a flood of light crude.

The Baytown refinery is among several Gulf Coast refineries undergoing upgrades in recent years to better process light Texas crude to take advantage of lower-cost oil from the Permian Basin and elsewhere.

ExxonMobil is one of the most active producers in the Permian Basin, with plans to triple total daily production to more than 600,000 oil-equivalent barrels by 2025 from its operations in the Permian and New Mexico.

ExxonMobil plans to spend more than $2 billion on transportation systems (pipelines) to support its Permian operations.

Mike Priaro, Calgary

Read more about:CHICAGOThe white Chicago officer who gunned down a Black teenager in 2014 was sentenced Friday to nearly seven years in prison, ending an explosive case that arose from a graphic dashcam video and added fuel to debates about race and policing and law enforcements code of silence.

Jason Van Dyke was convicted last year of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery  one for each bullet fired at Laquan McDonald. Attorneys on both sides agreed that if he behaves in prison, the 40-year-old could be released in less than three and a half years.

McDonalds family lamented that the penalty was too light. His great uncle said the sentence reduced Laquan McDonalds life to that of a second-class citizen and suggests to us that there are no laws on the books for a Black man that a white man is bound to honour.

Moments earlier, Van Dyke acknowledged the teens death, telling the judge that as a God-fearing man and father, I will have to live with this the rest of my life.

The sentence was less than half of the penalty that had been sought by prosecutors, who asked for 18 to 20 years. But it went far beyond the request of defence attorneys, who argued that Van Dyke could be released on probation. The prison term was also a fraction of what Van Dyke could have faced had he been convicted of first-degree murder, which carried a mandatory minimum of 45 years in prison.

Judges typically rebuke defendants during sentencings, even for much lesser crimes, and they often explain why they imposed the sentence they did. But Judge Vincent Gaughan did neither in his brief comments from the bench.

Read more:

Judge rejects bid for new trial and sets sentencing date for cop convicted of shooting Laquan McDonald

Jury sees video of Chicago officer shooting Black teen 16 times

Chicago police officer convicted in 2014 murder of teenager Laquan McDonald

Fridays testimony came a day after a different judge acquitted three officers accused of lying about the shooting to protect Van Dyke, who was the first Chicago officer found guilty in an on-duty shooting in a half century and probably the first ever in the shooting of an African-American.

The lead defence attorney, Dan Herbert, said Van Dyke truly felt great after learning his sentence. He was happy about the prospect of life ahead of him and someday being reunited with his wife and two daughters.

The prosecutor who oversaw the case said he can live with the sentence.

Our goal was to find the truth, present the truth and ask for justice. ... It was not revenge, special prosecutor Joseph McMahon said.

The judges decision to deem the second-degree murder conviction the most serious crime  siding with the defence on that question  may also have spared Van Dyke a far longer term behind bars.

Had Gaughan sentenced Van Dyke on the 16 counts of aggravated battery, as prosecutors asked him to do, he could have faced decades in prison. Each aggravated battery count carried a mandatory minimum of six years, and the judge could have ordered those sentences to be served one after the other.

After the judges announcement, Van Dykes older daughter began crying and said I want him home.

The case triggered large street demonstrations when the video emerged, and authorities prepared for potential unrest in October, when the verdict came out. But there were no sign of protests following the sentence.

Activist William Calloway called the sentence a slap in the face to us and a slap on the wrist for Van Dyke.

The issue of race loomed over the case for more than four years, although it was rarely raised at trial. One of the only instances was during opening statements, when the special prosecutor told jurors that Van Dyke saw a Black boy walking down the street who had the audacity to ignore the police.

On Friday, several Black motorists testified that the officer used a racial slur and excessive force during traffic stops in the years before the shooting.

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One of those witnesses, Vidale Joy, said Van Dyke used the slur after pulling him over in 2005 and at one point put a gun to Joys head. He said Van Dyke looked infuriated and seemed out of his mind. Under cross examination, Joy acknowledged that he did not allege Van Dyke used a slur in his first accounts of the stop.

Another witness, Ed Nance, struggled to maintain his composure as he looked across the room to identify Van Dyke. Testifying about a 2007 traffic stop, he said the officer cursed and slammed him on the cars hood, grabbed him by the arms and pulled him to the squad car.

Van Dykes relatives tried to defend and humanize him, saying hes a good father and not racist.

His wife said her biggest fear was that somebody would kill her husband in prison for something he did as a police officer, something he was trained to do.

She looked up over her shoulder and addressed the judge directly: His life is over. Please, please. He has paid the price already ... I beg for the least amount of time.

On Thursday, Cook County Judge Domenica Stephenson cleared former officer Joseph Walsh, former detective David March and officer Thomas Gaffney on charges of obstruction of justice, official misconduct and conspiracy.

Stephenson accepted the argument that jurors in the Van Dyke case rejected: that the video that sparked protests and a federal investigation of the police force was just one perspective of the events that unfolded on the South Side.

The judge said the video showed only one viewpoint of the confrontation between Van Dyke and the teen armed with a small knife. She found no indication the officers tried to hide evidence or made little effort to talk to witnesses. She singled out how they preserved the graphic video at the heart of the case.

The video showed Van Dyke opening fire within seconds of getting out of his police vehicle and continuing to shoot the teen while he was lying on the street. On the footage, the teen is seen collapsing in a heap after the first few shots. Bullets kept striking his body for 10 more seconds.

Police were responding to a report of a male who was breaking into trucks and stealing radios on the citys South Side.

City Hall released the video to the public in November 2015  13 months after the shooting  and acted only because a judge ordered it to do so. The charges against Van Dyke were not announced until the day of the videos release. He soon lost his job.

The case cost the police superintendent his job and was widely seen as the reason the countys top prosecutor was voted out of office. It was also thought to be a major factor in Mayor Rahm Emanuels decision not to seek a third term.

The accusations triggered a federal investigation of the police department that found Chicago officers routinely used excessive force and violated peoples rights, particularly minorities.PARISNearly four months after an Interpol chief was detained in China on corruption charges, his wife has applied for asylum in France, she said Saturday.

Grace Meng, wife of Meng Hongwei, the former Interpol president, has remained in France, where the organization has its headquarters, since his arrest.

I have officially claimed asylum in France, Meng said in a text message Saturday.

Meng, who has refused to specify her Chinese given name or to have her face photographed or filmed by the news media, said in interviews Friday that she was seeking French protection for her and her twin boys.

I cannot go back to China; such strange things happen there, and fundamental rights are not respected, she told the newspaper Liberation. Even here, I am afraid of being kidnapped, and I fear for the safety of my children.

The Chinese authorities have not specified the charges against Meng Hongwei, who was also a vice minister in the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, and it is unclear where he is being held.

Read More:

China accuses ex-Interpol chief of bribery, other crimes

His abrupt detention in the fall, accompanied by the news that he had resigned from Interpol with immediate effect, has cast a cloud over Chinas push for a more prominent role in global affairs by taking up more leadership roles in international bodies.

Grace Meng was put under French police protection shortly after her husbands arrest.

In the interviews published Friday, she said she had not had any contact with her husband or with any friends or relatives in China since the arrest, and her Chinese phone and email had been blocked. Strangers had followed her and had tried to get her to travel with them, she said, and she had received threatening phone calls.

I need the French government to protect me, to assist me, to help me, me and my children, Meng told Radio France in an off-air interview Friday.

Both Liberation and Radio France reported that Meng was supposed to go to the French asylum agency headquarters in Paris on Friday to file an official request. The agency was not immediately reachable for comment Saturday, and it was not clear whether she had sufficient grounds to claim asylum.

In November, Interpol elected a South Korean police veteran as its next president to replace Meng Hongwei, who was halfway through his four-year term when he was detained.

Interpol, which functions as a sort of clearing house for the circulation of arrest warrants, tips and data, does not have direct policing powers of its own. Its presidency is a largely ceremonial role that entails chairing meetings and representing the institution at official events; a secretary-general runs the police organization on a day-to-day basis.

Jurgen Stock, the secretary-general, has said repeatedly that Interpol does not have a say in a states internal affairs and was not in a position to prevent the arrest of Meng Hongwei.

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Grace Meng has denied that her husband is guilty of corruption.

We dont have any secret accounts abroad, no hidden money, she told Liberation. I think that my husband was arrested for a political reason.

Read more about:MEXICO CITYA massive fireball that engulfed people scooping up fuel spilling from a pipeline ruptured by thieves in central Mexico killed 21 people and badly burned 71 others in what was a chronicle of a tragedy foretold.

It came just three weeks after new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador launched an offensive against fuel theft gangs that drilled dangerous, illegal taps into pipelines an astounding 12,581 times in the first 10 months of 2018, an average of about 42 per day.

With crowds of townspeople often involved, either aiding thieves or collecting spilled fuel in primitive containers, it was only a matter of time before a fire occurred.

In fact, they have occurred before, but seldom with the scale and horrifying death toll of Fridays fire in the state of Hidalgo, which came as people collected the spilled gasoline in buckets, plastic jugs and garbage cans.

The leak was caused by an illegal pipeline tap in the small town of Tlahuelilpan, about 100 kilometres north of Mexico City, according to state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex.

Video footage showed dozens of residents in an almost festive atmosphere as whole families gathered in a field as a geyser of fuel spouted dozens of feet into the air from the tap.

Footage then showed flames shooting high into the air against a night sky and the pipeline ablaze. Screaming people ran from the flames, some themselves burning and waving their arms.

Hidalgo Gov. Omar Fayad said 21 people were killed immediately and 71 suffered burns in the blast at the duct that carries fuel  apparently gasoline  from the Gulf coast to Tula, a city just north of Mexico City.

Pemex attributed the blaze to the manipulation of an illegal tap.

Hidalgo state police said the leak was first reported at about 5:00 p.m. local time.

There was a report that residents were on the scene trying to obtain fuel, according to a police report. Two hours later, the pipeline burst into flames.

And another pipeline burst into flames in the neighbouring state of Queretaro on Friday, because of another illegal tap. Pemex said the fire near the city of San Juan del Rio was in an unpopulated area and there is no risk to human beings.

In December 2010, authorities blamed oil thieves for a pipeline explosion in a central Mexico near the capital that killed 28 people, including 13 children.

That blast burned people and scorched homes, affecting 5,000 residents in an area 10 kilometres wide in San Martin Texmelucan.

The blast will further focus attention on Lopez Obradors fight against the $3 billion per-year illegal fuel theft industry.

I greatly lament the grave situation Tlahuelilpan is suffering because of the explosion of the duct, Lopez Obrador tweeted. He called on all branches of government to assist the victims.

He launched the offensive after taking office Dec. 1, deploying 3,200 marines to guard pipelines and refineries. His administration also shut down pipelines to detect and deter illegal taps, relying more on delivering fuel by tanker truck. There arent enough trucks, however, and long lines at gas stations have plagued several states.

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But Lopez Obrador faces resistance in his battle against fuel theft. Gangs have been able to win the loyalty of whole neighbourhoods, using free gasoline and getting locals to act as lookouts and confront military patrols carrying out raids against the thefts.

It is unclear whether Fridays tragedy will turn the tide of opinion against the gangs in the impoverished villages that lie above the underground pipelines.

I am calling on the entire population not to be accomplices to fuel theft, Fayad wrote. What happened today in Tlahuelilpan must never happen again.

Read more about:A diocese in Kentucky is looking into videos that show youths, possibly from the dioceses all-male high school, mocking Indigenous people at a rally in Washington.

Laura Keener of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington said Saturday it regrets the incident and is investigating but didnt comment further.

The Indigenous Peoples March in Washington on Friday coincided with the March for Life, which drew thousands of anti-abortion protesters, including a group from Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills.

Videos circulating online show a youth standing extremely close to an elderly Indigenous veteran who was singing and playing a drum. Other youths, some wearing clothing with Covington logos, surrounded them, laughing and shouting. Many of the youths were also wearing Make America Great Again (MAGA) hats.

An online news platform called Indian Country Today identified the elderly man as Nathan Phillips, an Omaha elder and Vietnam veteran who holds an annual ceremony honouring Indigenous veterans at the Arlington National Cemetery.

State Rep. Ruth Buffalo, a North Dakota state lawmaker and member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, said she was saddened to see students showing disrespect to an elder who is also a U.S. military veteran at what was supposed to be a celebration of all cultures.

The behaviour shown in that video is just a snapshot of what Indigenous people have faced and are continuing to face, Buffalo said.

She said she hoped it would lead to some kind meeting with the students to provide education on issues facing Indigenous people.

U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico sharply criticized what she called a display of blatant hate, disrespect, and intolerance.

This Veteran put his life on the line for our country, she tweeted Saturday. Heartbreaking.DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, DEL.A solemn procession. A long salute. A chaplains prayer.

U.S. President Donald Trump travelled to Delawares Dover Air Force Base on Saturday to pay his respects to the returning remains of four Americans who were killed this week in a suicide bomb attack in Syria.

The bombing, which was the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in Syria since American forces moved into the country in 2015, came as Trump prepares to pull U.S. troops out of Syria.

The president stood solemnly and saluted the remains of civilian Scott A. Wirtz of St. Louis, Missouri, as his body was carried from a C-17 military aircraft into a waiting van.

Wirtz and the three other Americans were killed in a suicide bombing Wednesday in the northern Syrian town of Manbij. He had been assigned to the Defence Intelligence Agency as an operations support specialist.

The three other transfers were to be conducted privately, with the president observing. He also spent time with the families of those killed.

Read more:

Syria attack kills 4 Americans, raising questions on pullout

Opinion | Donald Trump is right to pull out of Syria

Opinion | Leaving Syria isnt a pullout  its an American surrender

Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Saturday that meeting the relatives of the countrys fallen heroes might be the toughest thing he has to do as president.

The trip was not listed on the presidents public schedule that was released Friday night, but he tweeted the news in the morning.

Will be leaving for Dover to be with the families of 4 very special people who lost their lives in service to our Country! he wrote. He later told reporters: When Im going to meet relatives of some of our great, great heroes that have fallen, I think it might be the toughest thing I have to do as president.

The visit came during a budget fight that has consumed Washington for the past month, shuttering parts of the federal government and leaving hundreds of thousands of workers without pay. Raising the stakes in his dispute with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the president on Thursday abruptly cancelled her military flight, hours before she and a congressional delegation were to depart for Afghanistan on a previously undisclosed visit to U.S. troops.

Trump planned a Saturday afternoon announcement that was expected to outline a deal the White House hopes might pave the way for the shutdowns end.

Trump has made one other visit to Dover during his presidency, soon after taking office. On Feb. 1, 2017, Trump honoured the returning remains of a U.S. Navy SEAL killed in a raid in Yemen. Chief Special Warfare Operator William Ryan Owens, a 36-year-old from Peoria, Illinois, was the first known U.S. combat casualty since Trump became president.

In a Dec. 19 tweet announcing the withdrawal from Syria, Trump said, We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency. He said the troops would begin coming home now. That plan triggered immediate pushback from military leaders and led to the resignation of Defence Secretary Jim Mattis.

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Over the past month, Trump and others have appeared to adjust the timeline, and U.S. officials have suggested it will likely take several months to safely withdraw American forces from Syria.

A leading U.S. voice on foreign policy, Sen. Lindsey Graham, said during a visit Saturday to Turkey that an American withdrawal from Syria that had not been thought through would lead to chaos and an Iraq on steroids. Graham, R-S.C., urged Trump not to get out without a plan and said the goal of destroying Daesh militants in Syria had not yet been accomplished.

The Daesh group claimed responsibility for Wednesdays attack in Manbij, which killed 19 people, including the four Americans.

Trump said before arriving in Dover that Daesh has lost almost all its territory but that doesnt mean youre not going to have somebody around. He also said we can be pulling back but weve been hitting ISIS very hard over the last three weeks ... and its moving along very well.

Manbij is the main town on the westernmost edge of Syrian territory held by the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurds, running along the border with Turkey. Mixed Kurdish-Arab Syrian forces liberated Manbij from Daesh in 2016 with help from the U.S.-led coalition.

But Kurdish control of the town infuriated Turkey, which views the main U.S. Kurdish ally, the YPG militia, as terrorists linked to Kurdish insurgents on its own soil.

Trump reinforced his withdrawal decision during a meeting with about a half-dozen GOP senators late Wednesday at the White House.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who was at the meeting, told reporters on a conference call that the president remained steadfast in his decision not to stay in Syria, or Afghanistan, forever. But the senator did not disclose the latest thinking on the withdrawal timeline.

Paul said Trump told the group, Were not going to continue the way weve done it.

__

Follow Colvin on Twitter at https://twitter.com/colvinj

Read more about:It only takes a few minutes for the TTC stops at Dufferin and Bloor to become jammed with people waiting in line for a bus  so whats going to happen when thousands of new residents move into the area?

On any given weekday travellers pour up the stairs from the subway stop below. Teenagers from nearby Bloor Collegiate stream to the bus. The students share jokes and listen to music on each others headphones, standing at the bus stop alongside people whove just wrapped up an afternoon of shopping at the popular Dufferin Mall.

Youll find local residents in the line, like Kerry McArthur, a business owner who sometimes uses the Dufferin bus to get around.

The bus can get pretty packed. Im not looking forward to getting on, McArthur says, as she stays warm inside Dufferin station on a frigid afternoon, looking through the glass for the southbound Dufferin 29 bus. Its the fourth busiest bus route in Toronto with a daily ridership of 39,720 boardings, according to the latest TTC figures.

McArthur and others in her community are anxious because in the coming years the already crowded Dufferin-Bloor area will become home to a major development that will see about 2,100 units of housing, a mix of apartment units and condos that is still being ironed out by the development partnership of Capital Developments and Metropia.

And recently, residents learned that another corporation, Primaris, is interested in developing the north parking lot of the Dufferin Mall, just south of Bloor, and turning it into as many as four apartment towers. A community meeting between residents and the developer is planned for Monday night, although the project is just an idea with no formal drawings.

Read more:

Opinion | Shawn Micallef: Politicians who decide on public transit need to know the system. That starts with riding it

The TTC needs $33.5 billion to keep the system functional  roughly two-thirds of which are unfunded, report says

Meanwhile another developer received approval last year from the city to construct Reimagine Galleria  six buildings a few blocks north, at Dufferin and Dupont St., the current 8-hectare site of the Galleria Mall shopping centre and a community centre. The 10-year build-out calls for 2,800 residential units, including 150 affordable rental apartments.

And there are other developments planned for Dufferin as far south as Queen St. and as far north as the Yorkdale Mall area.

Taken together, theres little argument that all of these projects will place heavy demands on Dufferin, a street that a century and a half ago was a muddy, underused roadway, but is now bursting at the seams.

Dufferin and Bloor is ground zero for the development boom, which has the attention of local residents.

They worry that transit, roads, parks, schools and local infrastructure might not be able to support the planned influx of future residents to the area.

The service on the Dufferin bus is a major sore point.

Locals say sometimes service is sporadic, with 10- or 20-minute waits, followed by two or three buses arriving in a row. And its often standing room only once you get on board  both during the week and on weekends.

Members of a newly formed community group say they arent out to try to block the new projects slated for their community.

Were not against residential development or intensification  you hear about residents groups concerned about heights, parking, things like that. Those arent the primary concerns for us. Were concerned about things that have an impact on diversity, affordability and inclusion in our neighbourhood, says Emily Paradis, co-chair of Build a Better Bloor Dufferin (BBBD), a local community group in the area that is watching the planned development projects closely.

We recognize that downtown neighbourhoods, especially those close to the subway line, should intensify. Its where development should be happening. We have a fantastic neighbourhood and were proud and happy to accept new folks, Paradis says.

But what were concerned about is that development happen in an intentional way that takes into account the pressures on existing infrastructure especially social infrastructure like schools, arts organizations, non-profits, affordable housing, park space as well as community and recreation spaces, she adds.

Mondays meeting between the developer Primaris, BBBD members and other residents was called after the surprise news the company was interested in turning Dufferin Malls northern parking lots into towers.

The site in question is across the street from a three-hectare parcel of land the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) sold for redevelopment a few years ago, land that is part of the Bloor-Dufferin project involving Capital and Metropia.

The Bloor-Dufferin project is the subject of a Local Planning Appeal Tribunal, an adjudicative body that hears cases related to municipal planning and land matters. The developer has launched an appeal to the body, arguing the city hasnt made a decision on the development application within the time prescribed in the Ontario Planning Act.

One sticking point for the city is that the current zoning for the area doesnt allow for significant heights, a spokesperson in the citys planning department explained. The project calls for seven new buildings ranging from six to 40 storeys.

So the conversations happening between the city and the developer are about striking the right balance in terms of heights and densities for the project, the planning official says.

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But the project will also feature a new park and new streets, which the city sees as good things the planning official added.

Danny Roth, a spokesperson for Capital Developments, which is handling marketing and media for the project, said in a statement: We believe that the ongoing approval process and the contributions of city staff, the local councillor (Ana Bailao) and area residents, together with our distinct vision for the site, will ensure a development influenced by the neighbourhoods past, invigorated by the current community, and inspired by the future needs of an increasingly dynamic city.

He declined to comment further because the project is before the appeal tribunal.

Meanwhile, the new Dufferin Mall parking lot plan  Primaris hopes to present a rezoning application to the city sometime in May or June  has only added to residents fears about the cumulative effect all of this development will have in the coming years.

When this type of redevelopment starts to pick up speed, that puts pressure on land values in the neighbourhood. We see residential rents increasing and lower and moderate tenants getting pushed out as a result, Paradis, the co-chair of the BBBD groups, says.

Commercial rents are increasing too. Weve seen arts organizations and non-profit front-line services having trouble retaining spaces in the neighbourhood. A number have had to move due to increased costs and rents. We want spaces that non-profits can have access to, she adds.

The Bloor-Dufferin area also has a shortage of purpose-built rental buildings (many area renters live in basement apartments).

Matthew Kingston, vice-president of development for Primaris and a resident who has lived in the Bloor-Dufferin area with his family since 2014, says its the companys intention today for all of its residential towers on the site to be purpose-built rental apartments, but that is subject to what happens in the future with government policies.

For example if rent control was brought back by a new (provincial) government and we were at a stage when we were looking to start leasing, or we hadnt completed leasing yet, we might need to change the tenure because it may no longer be financially viable for us to stay as rental, Kingston says.

Primaris, a developer and retail mall owner, owns the 10 hectares the Dufferin Mall sits on.

Regarding the congestion caused by buses and cars on Dufferin and the impact the new developments will have on this, Kingston argues alternative modes of transportation need to be brought into the mix.

Lyft, Uber, how will they work to alleviate traffic? What about bike sharing? I use a bike share to get to work every day at Yonge and Adelaide. Getting downtown is nice from our neighbourhood. I think weve been car-centric as a city. We need to look at alternative modes, he says.

Deputy Mayor Ana Bailao, the councillor for Davenport, which Dufferin St. runs through, says she has been pushing the TTC since 2016 to look at its transit service on Dufferin in light of the increasing development.

Her push played a role in the TTC introducing an express bus service in October that only stops at major intersections.

The city has two options. Either we say were going to close our doors to new people coming into the city, or were going to plan and invest in our services and in growing our city. I think what we have to do  it is not enough now  but were continuing to look at the Dufferin route, she said in an interview.

For the Galleria development we made sure we accommodated for bus bays, we accommodated for a loop so if in the future we want to cut or change the route, we have the opportunity to use that site as a loop site.

So these are the things that are important to incorporate as these developments are approved.

As for Dufferin and Bloor, Bailao says there are discussions going on at the city about whether a tunnel should be built from the north side to the south side of Bloor to lessen the pedestrian activity on the street corners of that intersection.

She says the city has made mistakes in planning in other parts of the city  Liberty Village for example where transit is still not there to the levels needed to meet the demands of the community.

Bailao says she is fighting hard to ensure those mistakes arent repeated.A Toronto man accused of running an international human trafficking ring was one of six people arrested this week following a multi-jurisdiction investigation spanning Canada, the U.S. and Australia.

Toronto police said Friday they were contacted by the FBIs child exploitation task force last August about an alleged organized crime group behind a complex prostitution operation with tens of thousands of possible customers.

According to an indictment filed in the U.S., the FBIs main suspect was Toronto-based Zongtao Chen, also known as Zong Tao Chen and Mark Chen.

The suspect allegedly led a criminal business that recruited women, primarily from China, to travel to the U.S. and elsewhere to engage in prostitution and other sex trafficking activities.

The indictment listed a number of international websites and the locations they advertised, including in Toronto, at Don Mills Rd. and Sheppard Ave. E., and in Calgary and Edmonton.

The international investigation began after nearly 20 anonymous tips came into Crime Stoppers of Oregon during the summer of 2016, according to the Oregonian.

International prostitution ring operating in Portland, a tip read, according to court documents reported by the newspaper. When will you shut down this operation?

A person designated as a boss would oversee and manage a brothel in a hotel or apartment complex in the different cities the organization was operating, police said.

Customers looking for massages and escorts would call a number listed on www.supermatchescort.com or related websites, or send a message by text, email, or WeChat, an encrypted internet messaging service based in China.

The organization used dispatchers who would receive incoming requests from potential customers to set up dates with women working at the various brothels.

Dispatchers used a computer program to schedule and track all of the prostitution dates. This computer program had a customer database that logged more than 30,000 customer phone numbers with details from previous dates, police said.

Chen is accused of promoting illegal prostitution activities at brothels in three cities in Oregon  Portland, Tigard and Beaverton.

Undercover officers who set up dates on the websites were directed to sparsely furnished apartments with just a mattress in a bedroom along with a bedside stand filled with condoms, towels and bottles of oil and lubricants, FBI agent June Piniewski wrote in one search warrant affidavit, the Oregonian reported.

One woman who was waiting for an officer at one location in Oregon told investigators she just opens the door when a customer shows up and does whatever the customer says, Piniewski wrote in the affidavit, according to the Oregonian.

A multi-jurisdictional takedown took place Tuesday in Canada, U.S. and Australia. The FBI shut down about 500 websites used by one of the alleged criminal enterprises, including www.supermatchescort.com, according to federal prosecutors.

Protecting vulnerable foreign nationals from criminal traffickers seeking to exploit them for profit is a critically important law enforcement mission, Billy J. Williams, U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, said in a news release.

Trafficking adults for sex can at times be overlooked by our society because some believe the adult victims have a choice. This notion is false. These victims are powerless and often thousands of miles away from their home, native language and personal connections who might help them escape. We have always and will continue to aggressively pursue criminals who exploit vulnerable victims.

Chen, 46, was located and found to be living in the GTA, Toronto police said.

Chen and five others are charged with conspiracy to use interstate facilities to engage in racketeering and promoting, managing and carrying out a racketeering enterprise.

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Chen appeared in court Wednesday to face an extradition request from the U.S. government.

Police are concerned there may be more victims. Toronto police said it is continuing their investigation into Chen regarding human trafficking-related offences that have taken place here.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-7474, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477) or online at www.222tips.com.Nadine Woods, a business owner in the Georgian Bay town of Port McNicoll, doesnt mince words when discussing the notion that a provincial review encompassing 82 municipalities and millions of people will result in improvements to her small community.

I dont think they know enough about our area to be able to butt their nose into our area and say that they know how to fix everything, says Woods, the owner of Port McNicoll Barbershop. Im wary of the whole thing.

Woods wants her local representatives to address the issues themselves.

County leaders couldnt agree more. They say they intend to get ahead of provincial reviewers by coming up with recommendations of their own for reform.

The governments announcement this week that it will review the governance of eight regional municipalities and the County of Simcoe has sparked a mix of speculation, concern and hope across the large part of the province thats affected, which includes the highly-populated GTA regions of Peel, Durham and York. The consequences will also be felt in areas with more rural residents like Oxford and Simcoe counties.

The province says its goal is to cut red tape, find efficiencies and improve services, but some residents and municipal leaders worry the exercise is more about trimming the provincial deficit and getting rid of politicians.

I think Queens Park is hemorrhaging money and they need to find some, says Woods.

Her town of Port McNicoll is part of Tay, which has a population of roughly 10,000 and is represented by five ward councillors, along with a mayor and deputy mayor, who serve on county council  translating to an average of about 1,400 constituents per representative.

Theyre looking for things to cut here but we dont have enough already, she says.

Simcoe County politicians say previous attempts to slash the 32-member regional council (the largest in the province) have failed and the county must address representation across the board  at ward and regional level  that isnt optimal, and improve service delivery. Made up of 16 member municipalities, all of which have two representatives at the regional council table, the county is a vast patchwork of jurisdictions ranging in population from 8,962 in Penetanguishene to 36,566 in Innisfil.

Spanning from York Region boundary in the south, up to the southern shores of Georgian Bay in the north, its also home to Barrie and Orillia, cities that function independently and dont have a seat at county council, but share county-provided services like paramedics, long-term care and social housing. A county statement boasts of being one of the largest counties in Ontario, with combined population expected to surpass half a million this year.

Considering the looming review, county politicians are urgently developing their own plans for reform.

Anita Dubeau, deputy mayor of Penetanguishene, says the provinces unexpected move last spring to slash Toronto council in half during an election was a wake-up call for those in her region.

She says she and her colleagues must be proactive, considering past failed attempts to chop county council.

I have supported downsizing our council for many years, she says.

There has been attempts to try to downsize that house (county council) for some years, but its very difficult when you bring it to the floor.

Past efforts fell through because, among other reasons, the deputy mayor and mayoral representative from each of the 16 townships couldnt agree on who should concede their seat, Dubeau says.

I think there is more of a flavour for that now, she says. There is a lot of work to be done in the next six months.

But she says an arbitrary cut like that inflicted on Toronto, would do more harm than good.

We need to try to come up with a plan on our own, she says.

Consolidation has been an ongoing evolution for Simcoe County, which once consisted of 32 municipalities  until a rearrangement of boundaries in the mid-90s.

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Tinys Mayor George Cornell, who also heads the county council, says now that the province has come forward with a request for review, that definitely puts (municipal reform) front and centre for the county.

We dont want to be waiting.

He wants to look at representation across all 16 communities to address set-ups that arent optimal, for a region he describes as somewhat unique due to its municipal makeup.

Cornell says it will be on the agenda for the next meeting.

I dont get the sense at all that it will be anything like the process used with Toronto, he says, of the provinces review. This will be more collaborative.

Cornell and Dubeau agree the review could be catalyst for how to better deliver public services.

We (Penetanguishene) do have some shared services with Midland and thats a good beginning, Dubeau says. We have fire services that have been amalgamated.

Simcoe County residents and business owners the Star spoke to expressed a range of opinions about the provincial review, with some saying there is plenty of opportunity to find efficiencies, while others worrying about losing political representation or the province simply bungling the process.

Shanta Cadeau, co-owner of the Old Corner Store in Hillsdale, is among those who support the province.

I think there is lot of wastage, Cadeau says.

Across the street Evan Nelson, the owner of Hillsdale Truck and Auto Supply, is also on side. He says he supported the Ford governments unprecedented move to slash Toronto city council by nearly half, but hopes Premier Doug Ford doesnt take a similar rushed approach in Simcoe County.

They should consult with us, he says.

Missy Edwards, who resides in Tay Township but works as an accountant in neighbouring Midland, fears the review will result in municipalities being amalgamated and residents losing their political voice.

Even with the councillors we have now its still hard to get your voice heard, she says.

When they get rid of red tape, it just seem to create more red tape.

Read more about:OTTAWAAmerican authorities are facing a key deadline at the end of the month to formally request the extradition of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou from Canada to the United States.

Friday, a spokesman for Canadas Justice Department said the U.S. had yet to file the required paperwork in the Meng case and stated the Americans have until Jan. 30 to do so. If the U.S. misses the deadline, lawyers with expertise in extradition cases say the door could open for Mengs eventual release.

Canadian police arrested Meng at Vancouvers airport Dec. 1 at the request of American authorities, who are seeking her extradition on fraud allegations. They say she lied to American banks as part of a scheme to get Huawei business around United States sanctions against Iran.

Her arrest has infuriated Beijing and the case is at the centre of an increasingly testy diplomatic dispute between Canada and China. The Chinese government says Meng has done nothing wrong and has demanded her release, warning Canada of severe consequences if it doesnt free her.

Under Canadas extradition law, the U.S. was given 60 days from the date of Mengs arrest to make its formal extradition request.

Read More:

China is using detainees as bargaining chips, Trudeau envoy says

Were suffering: China-Canada tourism may slow amid political drama

Chinas ambassador accuses Canada of backstabbing in arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou

The formal request for extradition (including the supporting documents) has not yet been made by the United States, Ian McLeod, a spokesman for Canadas Justice Department, wrote in an email Thursday.

They have until Jan. 30, 2019 to submit this request. Canada then has a further 30 days to determine whether to issue an authority to proceed.

The U.S. Department of Justice declined to say very much about the Meng case except that its not affected by the partial shutdown of the federal government there. Thousands of federal workers have been sent home without pay because of a budget stalemate between Congress and President Donald Trump.

We have no comment other to say that the current operating situation has no impact on our filing preparations, the departments public-affairs office said.

Gary Botting, a Vancouver lawyer with significant experience in extradition cases, said recently appointed federal Justice Minister David Lametti would have an obligation to discharge Meng if the U.S. misses the deadline.

If it hasnt arrived in the 60 days then every journalist in town should be jumping up and down to insist that Meng get discharged according to the act, Botting said in an interview. Thats what the act says ... The minister must discharge them according to the rule.

Mengs case, Botting added, remains in a political stage and wont go before the courts  and into the legal stage  until Lametti makes the decision to introduce an authority to proceed.

Meng, Huaweis chief financial officer, is out on $10 million bail and is staying at her Vancouver home. She has been ordered to appear in a Vancouver courtroom on Feb. 6 to fix a date for further proceedings.

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Lawyer Donald Bayne, who represented Ottawa professor Hassan Diab as he fought extradition on French terrorism charges for years, said its not particularly unusual that U.S. authorities had yet to submit the formal request for Meng so late in the 60-day period.

He thinks theyll make the deadline.

The Americans ... having caused all of this so far  would never be able to say with a straight face, Yeah, weve decided not to go ahead or Gosh, there was nothing to our case,  said Bayne, whos based in Ottawa.

In the days that followed Mengs arrest, China detained two Canadians. Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were taken in on vague allegations of engaging in activities that have endangered Chinas national security.

China also sentenced another Canadian, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, to death in a sudden retrial of his drug-smuggling case. He was originally sentenced in 2016 to a 15-year term, but the court delivered the new sentence after reconsidering his case.

Western analysts believe the arrests and the death sentence are part of an attempt by Beijing to pressure Canada into releasing Meng.

Bayne said he doesnt think Mengs case would end even if the Americans missed their deadline  but comments by Trump might do it.

He noted how last month the U.S. president raised questions about the basis of the extradition request by musing in an interview with Reuters about interfering in Mengs case if it would help him strike a trade deal with China.

Mengs legal team could argue Trumps remarks, which essentially made her a human bargaining chip, indicated an abuse of process.

On the U.S.-China trade front, the deadline in the Meng case will coincide with high-level negotiations between Washington and Beijing, said the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

Chinas Vice-Premier Liu He, the countrys economic point person, is scheduled to travel to meet with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington on Jan. 30 and 31 for a round of talks. They will meet as their two countries are locked in a tariff conflict thats rattled the global economy.

Read more about:EDMONTONAlbertas elections commissioner is mulling a $5,500 fine for Rebel Media, accusing the far-right outlet of breaking the rules with a billboard slamming Education Minister David Eggen.

In a letter addressed to Rebel founder Ezra Levant and Alberta-based reporter Keean Bexte  though the letter spells it Keenan Beexte  the commissioner said a billboard the organization put up near Innisfail back in November counted as a political ad, and Rebel did not register as a third-party advertiser.

In my initial assessment of this matter, I am considering an administrative penalty of $5,500, the commissioner wrote.

The letter was posted to the Rebels website. When StarMetro reached out to an investigations manager for comment, a statement was sent back saying they couldnt comment on any potential investigations.

In a response letter, also posted to the Rebels site, the outlet says it will file an appeal to the fine in court within 30 days.

Fred Kozak, a lawyer representing Rebel Media, confirmed they received the commissioners letter and said they wanted to see the information used to arrive at the decision.

Read more:

Ezra Levant sends cease-and-desist to Hudsons Bay Company over Make Canada Great Again hats

We think the legislation was intended to give us an opportunity to express our perspective and we didnt really have that opportunity, Kozak told StarMetro during an interview.

The investigation stemmed from a complaint made by Elections Alberta, according to the commissioners letter.

Specifically, Rebel Media posted a political advertisement in the form of a billboard on Highway 2 near Innisfail, Alberta, with the message 40% of Grade 9 students failed provincial exams  Alberta can do better than David Eggen (Albertas minister of education) www.FireEggen.ca, the letter said.

The billboard was up prior to December, the commissioner said, from Nov. 23 to Nov. 30. That violated rules that govern when political advertising can take place, the commissioner said.

Posting the billboard is classified as political advertising since it was directed at a member of the Legislative Assembly, the letter states. Sponsoring the advertisement cost Rebel Media $2,730, according to findings in the investigation.

The commissioner alleges Rebel Media violated section 9.1(1) of the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act, which says a third party has to register if it spends more than $1,000 on election or political advertising.

The Rebel bills itself as a fearless news source and platform for activism but has consistently faced criticism for aligning itself with extreme views and far-right stances on political issues.

Levant did not respond to a request for comment, but in a post on the Rebels website titled: HELP: Rachel Notley is coming to kill The Rebel! the organization said the government was prosecuting us for what we have said about them.

The outlet is asking people for donations to fund its defence. The post goes on to say that Rebel Media has been Premier Notleys most effective critics and that her government will do anything to silence us.

The commissioners letter states that individuals who violate the law could be fined $10,000 but an organization, like a union or corporation, could be fined upwards of $100,000.

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Rebel Media appeared alarmed at this, suggesting that they might be fined the full $100,000 if they keep publishing, even though the commissioner said he was only considering a $5,500 fine.

Of course, were not going to stop our journalism. And the penalties for companies can be $100,000 a pop. $5,500 is just their first sucker-punch, the post says.

Rebel Media suggests in the post that Notley and the NDP are trying to put them out of business. However, Albertas election commissioner operates independently from the government.

Read more about:EDMONTONA comprehensive Indigenous history resource is going out to every junior high and high school across Alberta.

The province is distributing the Canadian Geographic Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada to 1,600 Catholic, private, francophone and charter schools starting Friday.

Canadian Geographic developed the four-volume atlas that details Indigenous languages, treaties, lands, histories and cultures, with more than 200 contributors and guidance from the Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, the Metis National Council and the Assembly of First Nations.

The stories are written by Indigenous people for the most part, the information was gathered by them. Its important, you cant be writing somebody elses story, Indigenous Relations Minister Richard Feehan said after unveiling the atlas at Ben Calf Robe-St. Clare school in Edmonton Friday.

Its an issue of respect, and also an issue of getting it right. Part of the problem in so much of the textbooks we grew up with when I was a child many years ago was that they were written by non-Indigenous people, so the perspective was skewed. And were hoping to have less of that.

The atlas is split into four volumes  Truth and Reconciliation, First Nations, Inuit and Metis  and is available in hard copy books, as well as an online version and a phone app.

The atlas goes deep into history and culture, with categories like wildlife, ceremonial spaces, sport, housing, visual arts and traditional land use, but it also tackles the often dark history of Canadas interactions with Indigenous peoples.

While theyre talking about really important aspects of history and cultures and traditions, it doesnt shy away from the horrors we have to address when we are at the schools as well, Feehan said.

So theres issues of residential schools and Sixties Scoop and other issues that as a country we just simply have to look at squarely and take responsibility for.

Marlene Poitras, the Assembly of First Nations regional chief for Alberta, commended the government for being the first jurisdiction in Canada to formally bring the atlas to its schools, calling the atlas a very important document.

I didnt learn much within (the school) system about our history, our treaties and residential schools and all that. If it was spoken about, it was glossed over, Poitras said.

Canadian Geographic also published a large floor map of Indigenous territorial boundaries, which will travel between schools and was at Ben Calf Robe-St. Clare on Friday.

Students walked on the map in their socks, many searching for and pointing out the areas where their families originated.

Ive seen Indigenous kids on the map and saying, this is my community, this is where Im from, this is where my aunties from, this is where my dads from, said Charlene Bearhead, education adviser with Canadian Geographic.

I think it instills a real sense of pride. And I think in schools where we see a mix of Indigenous and non-Indigenous kids, its really great to see that interaction. Non-Indigenous kids are saying, Where are you from, show me.

Canadian Geographic society CEO John Geiger said the organization conceived the idea of the atlas two years ago.

The intent was to build an educational tool unprecedented in size and scope to share the perspectives, experiences and stories of First Nations, Inuit and Metis in Canada.

Education Minister David Eggen said the atlas is one step toward supporting teachers as part of the ongoing K-12 curriculum overhaul, which will include a strong Indigenous learning component.

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He said distributing the atlas provincewide is like planting a seed that could spark a collection of First Nations, Metis and Inuit literature in Alberta schools.

We want to support teachers every step of the way with resource materials, professional development and so forth, Eggen said.

This is another way to give content, but it also sends a message that this is part of the future of our education here, and I think that its something we can all be very proud of.

Read more about:EDMONTONAn arctic blast that brought snow and plunging temperatures to Albertas big cities this week will be mercifully short-lived, forecasters say.

Temperatures will dip below -20 C in Edmonton and Calgary Friday night, but by Sunday, Environment Canada meteorologist Kyle Fougere said he expects a reprieve, with temperatures around the freezing mark in both cities.

That will return both cities to the milder temperatures theyve been enjoying for most of the season.

Fougere said the culprit for the cold is an arctic air mass that settled over Calgary and Edmonton over the past week. But its set to retreat over the weekend, giving Albertans a break from the chill.

In Calgary, dense fog froze across the city earlier in the week, making for slick sidewalks but also coating bare winter trees with hoar frost. Fougere said the cloud cover also helped prevent temperatures from plunging far below freezing at night.

Meanwhile, Edmonton has seen a consistent snowfall thats likely to keep up over the weekend.

Weve seen some very fluffy snow that kind of piles up a fair amount. We suspect for Edmonton well probably have that for the next couple days before we get into some clearing, Fougere said.

Decembers temperatures were about three degrees above average for both cities, and Fougere said forecasts for the rest of the winter are also looking warmer than usual.

Read more about:High in the Alps, the global elite will be feeling low about the economic outlook.

The ski resort of Davos, Switzerland, will again play host next week to the World Economic Forums annual meeting, drawing JPMorgan Chase & Co.s Jamie Dimon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan. Domestic political strife is forcing U.S. President Donald Trump and U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May to stay home.

Those still going will do so as their economies lose momentum just a year since they enjoyed a rare synchronized upturn. While few predict a recession, companies are the most bearish since 2016 as economic data falls short of expectations and political risks mount amid an international trade war, U.S. government shutdown and Brexit.

The mood is going to be much darker than a year ago, said Nariman Behravesh, IHS Markits chief economist, who will be in Davos. A recession isnt imminent, but as economies slow it wouldnt take much to topple growth.

The summit formally begins on Tuesday although the tone will be set a day before when the International Monetary Fund publishes new growth forecasts and China releases data likely to show expansion in 2018 was the slowest in almost three decades. The Bank of Japan and European Central Bank also have meetings next week at which policy makers may recast their outlooks.

The evidence is consistent with slowdown rather than slump, but downside risks have increased, said Tom Orlik, chief economist at Bloomberg Economics.

Some of the companies sending executives to Davos are already sounding less upbeat. Dimons JPMorgan last week missed profit estimates and he warned the U.S. economy could stop growing if the government shutdown endures.

BlackRock Inc., which will be represented by CEO Laurence Fink, said this month its cutting jobs. Societe Generale, helmed by Frederic Oudea, this week reported challenging conditions as it warned fourth-quarter trading revenue probably fell 20 percent.

Such developments leave governments and central banks under pressure to respond at a time when global policy uncertainty is at a record high.

Its not just Trump and May who have problems. French President Emmanuel Macron faces protests against his reform program, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsiprass governing coalition has splintered, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is at odds with China over the arrest of a Huawei Technologies Co. executive and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Contes populist coalition is under strain.

In a potential theme for Davos week, BlackRocks Fink has told fellow CEOs that they should take a larger role fixing political problems that governments prove incapable of solving.

Stakeholders are pushing companies to wade into sensitive social and political issues  especially as they see governments failing to do so effectively, Fink wrote in a letter this week.

The global economy is nevertheless still stronger than a decade ago when one participant bemoaned the grimmest Davos ever as the financial crisis and recession raged. The OECD reported on Thursday that employment in its member nations reached 68.4 percent in the third quarter of last year, the most since it began compiling records in 2005.

Policy makers are also on the alert. The U.S. Federal Reserve is already signalling it is more cautious about raising interest rates, while China is cutting taxes. At the ECB, President Mario Draghi has said that uncertainties remain prominent.

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We see the biggest risk in the global economy as one of talking ourselves into a recession, Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat, another Davos delegate, said this week.

For those wanting to take their minds off the economy, there are distractions in Davos along with the traditional cocktail parties. The Forums agenda includes panels on how to achieve happiness, live longer, perform magic and spot con tricks. Delegates can also dine in the dark and meditate together each morning.

Read more about:NEW YORK - Canadian businessman Gordon Flatt has filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court to find out who is behind three hidden video cameras he discovered in an apartment he uses in New York.

According to court documents, he and a companion were staying at the property owned by his brother, Brookfield Asset Management Inc. chief executive Bruce Flatt, in October when they discovered three hidden cameras, which allowed a user to access live audio and video remotely.

The documents added that after the discovery Flatt alerted his brother, who indicated he had no knowledge of the cameras and did not authorize anyone to install them in the apartment.

A Brookfield spokesperson says the apartment is owned by its chief executive but it is not his residence.

The devices were made by Nest Inc., and documents say the U.S. technology company confirmed one device had been activated on a one-month subscription but would not provide account holder information.

The lawsuit filed earlier this month says Flatt intends to subpoena Nest to discover the identity of the person, or persons, who installed and used the three cameras.North Penn Schools

Future grants could allow purchase of more propane buses

North Penn: Future grants could allow purchase of more propane busesStaff reports

Watertown Public Opinion

Bloomberg News this weekpublished a long, detailed analysis of what we can expect 30 days from now as the shutdown continues. It will be so much worse in 30 days that we will think the current situation was not so bad.

I myself am among the 53 percent group of Americans who believe the border crisis was conjured out of thin air. We think Trumps wall is a medieval monstrosity that is far inferior to less expensive methods for improving border security. Using linkages to Congress vote tracking, I decided to see what our elected reps are doing about this.

Since Jan. 3, at least seven appropriation bills have passed in the House. Their purpose is, of course, to fund the reopening of government. Dusty Johnson voted in the minority against all seven of these bills. Over in the Senate, Mitch McConnell has refused to even schedule up-or-down votes on these appropriation bills. Do our South Dakota senators have zero influence regarding these matters? Lets dream that the Senate does pass some appropriation bills. Are presidential vetoes not possible to override?

Amazingly, McConnell and our senators found utmost importance in lifting sanctions on a billionaire Russian oligarch. Hes a guy who is reported to have assisted Trumps convicted campaign manager, Paul Manafort. Weve also learned that Mitch McConnell has scheduled a January 18 vote, not for ending the shutdown, but rather to diminish womens health care. As Kurt Vonnegut would say, so it goes.

Dave L. Wegner

Sioux FallsStaff reports

Watertown Public Opinion

I phoned into a Wednesday evening town hall event with Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds out of curiosity as to whether an end is in sight to our government shutdown.

Rounds had met with President Donald Trump along with others earlier in the day, so perhaps there was optimism.

I was alerted to the event Tuesday evening when an unexpected phone number popped up on my cell phone. I do not answer such calls because of the large number of scams. If it is important, the caller will leave a message.

This was a recorded call from Sen. Rounds telling me another call would come a day later and that I should answer it and join the forum.

Given that Congress is a mess, our government is dysfunctional, and our leaders are incapable of compromising with one another, perhaps it was worth listening.

Upon joining the event, Sen. Rounds told listeners how we could ask questions. He gave a brief overview of the immigration-caused shutdown and his meeting with the president.

Nobody wins in a shutdown, he said.

Nobody wins because our leaders are not doing their jobs.

Mostly what Rounds said about immigration seemed like national political talking points that someone seems to hand out to Congressional representatives of both political parties.

I hoped to get Sen. Rounds to address this topic.

South Dakota and the United States have near-record low unemployment rates. Obviously, we need more people and employees. Since we are a nation of immigrants, why wont Congress work to fix our hopelessly broken immigration system? Instead of working so hard to keep people out, why dont we make our system more efficient for people to enter our country legally?

Rounds early in his town hall blamed President Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi because they wont negotiate. As a result, theres not much Congress can accomplish, he said.

Questioners gave Rounds the easy out by not focusing on this elephant in the room.

They asked about health care, trade, net neutrality, commercial trucking log-books, confirmation proceedings over proposed U.S. Attorney General William Barr, and turnover at the Environmental Protection Agency.

These all are important issues, but none are the cause of a government shutdown.

While President Trump focuses on building a wall and Rounds and others talk about the importance of Border Security, the rest of our immigration system is getting worse. Trump would have us believe there is a crisis at the border.

But it is only a small part of the problem.

A new study by the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) shows that people overstaying their Visa significantly exceeded illegal border crossings during each of the last seven years.

While much focus has been on immigration from Central America, undocumented immigrants have increased dramatically from India and Venezuela. When it comes to overstaying their Visa, Mexico is the leading country.

Many of these dont need to slip over a border, they enter the United States legally and stay.

Most are coming for economic reasons, much as our forefathers did when they settled this country.

There is plenty of opportunity, especially in South Dakota. Throughout the state employers are scrambling to find workers. Sen. Rounds and Sen. John Thune long have supported workforce development.

It is time for them to ditch the national political rhetoric and return to their South Dakota roots. Imagine if they started using South Dakota talking points and became bold leaders who moved the conversation to real immigration reform that would make a difference to businesses in our state.

Perhaps the could help create a path to citizenship for the nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants already living in our country. Then we create a more orderly method for new immigrants to enter our country.

Most importantly, perhaps they could lead the way to reopen our government so that it can help our businesses thrive.

Brad Johnson is a local businessman and journalist who is active in state and local affairs.Staff reports

Watertown Public Opinion

PIERRE  City officials in Watertown and Pierre were informed Friday by the U.S. Dept. of Transportation (USDOT) that its expediting the process to find the cities a new air carrier.

Pierre and Watertown requested on Jan. 15 that the USDOT began soliciting proposals to replace California Pacific Airlines (CP Air), the airline that holds the federal Essential Air Service (EAS) contract for the two communities.

Originally, the USDOT asked that all airline proposals be submitted by Feb. 13. At the request of the cities, that deadline has been moved up to Jan. 30.

Pierre Mayor Steve Harding says that this change is really good news for Pierre.

The sooner we can get this process moving, the sooner we can restore reliable air service to Central South Dakota, he Harding.

Watertown Mayor Sarah Caron echoed those comments.

We cant control the airlines, but we can control how we react to poor service, she said. We are working together to do everything we can to remedy the situation as quickly as we can.

On Thursday CP Air cancelled all flights serving both Pierre and Watertown. There is no information indicating that service will resume.

People who are directly impacted by the cancellations should contact CP Air directly at 1-855-505-9394 or customerservice@mycpair.com. Impacted travelers can also visit transportation.gov/airconsumer for additional resources.

The USDOT leads the EAS contracting process by calling for proposals from airlines interested in serving the Pierre and Watertown markets and ultimately choosing the winning proposal. The USDOT gives EAS communities, such as Pierre and Watertown, the opportunity to review the proposals and make a recommendation.Staff reports

Watertown Public Opinion

PIERRE  Mike Tanner, news director at Watertown Radio, was presented with the A.H. Pankow Award by Gov. Kristi Noem Thursday evening.

Every year, the A.H. Pankow Award is presented to a representative of the broadcast media, print media or public relations industry who has shown superior interest in and coverage of the South Dakota visitor industry.

A.H. Pankow was the first publicity director for the state of South Dakota and this award honors his vision for getting coverage of the state.Staff reports

Watertown Public Opinion

Maintain Place to Violate Beverage Laws  Nuisance: Joel C Young, 18, 152 13th St NE #13, fine $200, court costs $40, surcharges $46.50, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days; Tyler R Landis, 18, 152 13th St NE Apt 13, fine $200, court costs $40, surcharges $46.50, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days; Cole R Palmer, 20, Mitchell, fine $200, court costs $40, surcharges $46.50, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days; Jeffrey T Swenson, 18, 312 11th St NE Apt 27, fine $200, court costs $40, surcharges $46.50, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days; Nathan A Telkamp, 19, 312 11th St NE, fine $200, court costs $40, surcharges $46.50, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days; Nicholas S Paulsen, 18, 312 11th St NE #27, fine $200, court costs $40, surcharges $46.50, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days; Riley Schmidt, 18, 1130 E Kemp Ave, fine $200, court costs $40, surcharges $46.50, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days.

Reckless Driving: Jacob L Gertsema, 20, 905 14th St SE, fine $416, court costs $160, surcharges $44, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days, reimburse the county for any court appointed attorney fees; Anthony J Brown, 29, 2611 3rd Ave NW, fine $416, court costs $160, surcharges $44, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days, reimburse the county for the cost of the blood test; Jeremy L Evenson, 29, 1933 11th Ave SW, fine $416, court costs $160, surcharges $44, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days, reimburse the county for any court appointed attorney fees; Brandon M Kriese, 20, Henry, fine $416, court costs $160, surcharges $44, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days, reimburse the county for the cost of the blood test; Randall J Bluedog, 30, Sisseton, fine $416, court costs $160, surcharges $44, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days, reimburse the county for any court appointed attorney fees; Dory J Ries, 56, 5 3rd St SE Apt 7, fine $416, court costs $160, surcharges $44, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days, reimburse the county for any court appointed attorney fees, reimburse the county for the cost of the blood test.

Driving with Revoked (not suspended) License: Jacob A Kalsbeck, 27, 208 1st St SW, fine $416, court costs $40, surcharges $44, license revoked for 1 year, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days, reimburse the county for any court appointed attorney fees; Francis L Thompson, 50, homeless, fine $416, court costs $40, surcharges $46.50, license revoked for 1 year, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 27 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days.

Speeding on a State Highway: Tyler D Bellows, 21, Denison, TX, fine $19, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Mason L Carleton, 16, Bryant, fine $79, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Cody Winrow, 20, Madison, fine $19, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Daren D McKeever, 9, 120 42nd St SW, fine $79, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Jordan L Niehaus, 26, Raymond, fine $39, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50.

Pet Violation  Animal at Large Dog/Cat: Christine A Kallenberger, 46, 321 8th Ave NE, fine $47.50, court costs $40, surcharges $22.50.

Open Alcoholic Beverage Container Accessible in Vehicle: Allan Block, 65, 603 1st Ave NW, fine $54, court costs $160, surcharges $28.50, sentenced to 5 days jail time, 5 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, reimburse the county for the cost of the blood test.

Domestic Abuse Disorderly Conduct: Alex H Wanna, 32, 1806 Westminster Ave Apt 11, fine $234, court costs $40, surcharges $51, sentenced to 15 days jail time, 15 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days, reimburse the county for any court appointed attorney fees; Vern M Driver, 46, 19 11th St SE, fine $234, court costs $40, surcharges $51, sentenced to 5 days jail time, 5 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days, reimburse the county for any court appointed attorney fees.

Following Too Closely: Jordan R Hall, 21, 615 6th St NE #5, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50.

Log Book: Daniel E Karges, 39, Milbank, fine $104, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50.

Overweight on Axle: Craig Rowcliffe, 41, DeSmet, fine $104, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50.

Fail to Maintain Financial Responsibility: Brandon J Scott, 33, 1309 34th St SW, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50, license suspended for 30 days, sentenced to 10 days jail time, 10 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days; Damien L Bell, 22, 1143 N Park St, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50, license suspended for 30 days, sentenced to 10 days jail time, 10 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days.

Possession of Controlled Substance in Schedules I or II: Jessica R Cooper, 35, Pierre, court costs $40, surcharges $64, sentenced to 4 years penitentiary time, 4 years suspended, defendant will make payments directly to the county auditor for their court appointed attorney fees; Shawnee M Gasco, 21, Mina, fine $500, court costs $40, surcharges $64, sentenced to 10 days jail time, put on 2 years probation, defendant shall pay fines and costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen, obtain alcohol and/or chemical dependency evaluation and comply with any recommended treatment or counseling recommended by court services all at the defendants own expense including aftercare and mental health evaluation and any counseling, be placed on supervised probation and comply with all terms and conditions established by court services, submit person and property voluntarily to search and seizure by both law enforcement and/or court services to insure the defendant is in compliance without the necessity of probable cause or warrant, voluntarily give a sample of bodily substances for testing purposes and pay the costs thereof without the necessity of probable cause or warrant, have full time employment or be in school full time or a combination of the two, maintain sobriety and not consume any alcoholic beverages nor enter any establishment where alcohol is the primary item of sale; Brice W Anderson, 21, 207 17th St SE, fine $500, court costs $40, surcharges $64, sentenced to 15 days jail time, put on 1 year probation, defendant shall pay fines and costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen, repay the county for the cost of their court appointed attorney, be placed on supervised probation and comply with all terms and conditions established by court services, have full time employment or be in school full time or a combination of the two, maintain sobriety and not consume any alcoholic beverages nor enter any establishment where alcohol is the primary item of sale, submit person and property voluntarily to search and seizure by both law enforcement and/or court services to insure the defendant is in compliance without the necessity of probable cause or warrant, voluntarily give a sample of bodily substances for testing purposes and pay the costs thereof without the necessity of probable cause or warrant, declare all prescription medication to their court services officer, obtain alcohol and/or chemical dependency evaluation and comply with any recommended treatment and any other treatment or counseling recommended by court services all at the defendants own expense.

Use or Possession of Drug Paraphernalia: Dominic L Beckwith, 18, Aberdeen, fine $204, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Danessa R Likness, 19, 1601 3rd Ave SW, fine $204, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50.

Unsafe/Illegal Backing: Mary E Johnson, 58, Hazel, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Darwin J Dame, 54, 312 8th St SE Apt 10, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50.

Driving on Wrong Side of Road: Amy J Hearnen, 45, Conde, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50.

No Motorcycle Driver License: Amy J Hearnen, 45, Conde, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50.

Purchase, Receive, Consume, Possess Tobacco Under 18: Rainey E Kannas, 15, 115 20th St NW, fine $29, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Tristin Bialas, 17, 1416 12th Ave NE, fine $29, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50.

Fail to Stop  Accident Causing Property Damage: Damien L Bell, 22, 1143 N Park St, fine $316, court costs $40, surcharges $46.50, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days.

Driving Under Influence-3rd Offense: Kasey K Steffensen, 43, Lake Norden, fine $1000, court costs $210, surcharges $64, license revoked for 18 months, sentenced to 2 years penitentiary time, 2 years suspended, put on 2 years probation, defendant shall pay fines and costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen, obtain alcohol and/or chemical dependency evaluation and comply with any recommended treatment and any other treatment or counseling recommended by court services all at the defendants own expense including aftercare, be placed on supervised probation and comply with all terms and conditions established by court services, maintain sobriety and not consume any alcoholic beverages nor enter any establishment where alcohol is the primary item of sale, submit person and property voluntarily to search and seizure by both law enforcement and/or court services to insure the defendant is in compliance without the necessity of probable cause or warrant, voluntarily give a sample of bodily substances for testing purposes and pay the costs thereof without the necessity of probable cause or warrant, have full time employment or be in school full time or a combination of the two, declare all prescription medication to the court services officer, stay on program for as long as he is on probation and has a valid work permit.

Driving with Suspended (not revoked) License: William S Ries, 30, 1309 35th St SW, fine $204, court costs $40, surcharges $26, license suspended for 30 days, sentenced to 10 days jail time, 10 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days.

Careless Driving: Gabe Jurgens, 12, 813 N Maple St, fine $51.50, court costs $40, surcharges $22.50.

Dog Creating Noise: Larry C Haider, 62, 1216 5th Ave NW, fine $47.50, court costs $40, surcharges $22.50; Jeffrey E Fox, 56, 2703 5th Ave NW, fine $47.50, court costs $40, surcharges $22.50, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered.

Rear Lamps Required: Chance W Walford, 33, 1028 23rd St NE, fine $25.

Simple Assault Intentionally Cause Bodily Injury: Mason L Nelson, 18, 44781 German Drive, fine $416, court costs $40, surcharges $46.50, sentenced to 60 days jail time, 60 days suspended, defendant shall be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days, complete a chemical dependency evaluation and a mental health evaluation within 30 days and complete any recommended treatment and provide written proof to court services within 90 days of sentencing, pay fines and court costs as ordered.

Failure to Obey Traffic Control Device: Hannah M Eide, 15, Clear Lake, fine $51.50, court costs $40, surcharges $22.50.

Exhibition Driving: Tanner J Schiferl, 19, 1025 7th Ave NE #15, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50.

Petty Theft 2nd Degree-$400 or Less: Matthew L Wohlers, 28, Dyersville, IA, fine $134, court costs $40, surcharges $26, sentenced to 10 days jail time, 10 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen.

Speeding on Other Roadways: Terrance L Sorensen, 63, Sioux Falls, fine $79, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; John D McGruder, 56, Huron, fine $19, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Alex J Barse, 23, 1405 13th Ave NE, fine $39, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Lorne G Lowe, 47, Summit, fine $59, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Frank M Williams, 76, Sisseton, fine $19, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; James A Kremer, 63, 1118 E Kemp Ave, fine $19, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Jan L Jones, 58, Northglenn, CO, fine $19, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50.

Purchase, Receive, Consume, Possess Tobacco Under 18: Levi Redday, 17, 1023 4th Ave NW, fine $29, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Casper S Dabek, 18, 17473 458th Ave, fine $29, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50.

Seat Belt Violation: Justin R Sears, 19, Stockholm, fine $25; Samuel D Hicks, 20, 416 3rd St NW, fine $25; Jonathan M Kramer, 18, Renville, MN, fine $25; Frank M Williams, 76, Sisseton, fine $25; Zachery T Allen, 25, 904 3rd Ave SW, fine $25; Elizabeth C Raml, 36, 46293 US Highway 212, fine $25; Dawn R Prue, 35, 209 Carstens Drive, fine $25; Cody L Ammann, 40, 2150 Cedar Drive NE, fine $25; Linda D Casey, 69, Florence, fine $25.

No Drivers License: Maylee Contreras, 20, 45779 Appleby Place, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Lynette I Hayes, 51, 1052 8th St NW, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50.

Fail to Maintain Financial Responsibility: Autumn A Lindblad, 22, 1630 3rd Ave SW Apt E8, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50, license suspended for 30 days, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days; Sierra J Hill, 22, 404 12th St SE, fine $54, court cots $40, surcharges $28.50, license suspended for 30 days, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days; Jessica Bland, 27, 1216 3rd Ave SE, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50, license suspended for 30 days, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days; Cyler E Anderson, 23, 104 New Trier Ave NW, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50, license suspended for 30 days, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered; Nolita J Hill, 51, Waubay, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $26, license suspended for 30 days, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days.

Renewal Registration during Assigned Month: Andrew M Peterson, 18, 3033 Air Haven Rd, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Amy K Thompson, 23, Correll, MN, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Mitchell J Muske, 27, 903 3rd St NE, fine $54, court cots $40, surcharges $28.50; Jessica A Gronke, 30, 1315 W Kemp Ave, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50.

Driving with Revoked (not suspended) License: Starnisha A McClellan, 22, New Brighton, MN, fine $416, court costs $40, surcharges $46.50, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days; Teanna M VanDykhorst, 19, 315 E Kemp Ave, fine $416, court costs $40, surcharges $44, license revoked for 1 year, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days, reimburse the county for any court appointed attorney fees.

Possession of Alcohol by Minor: Kyler Gulbraa, 20, 1225 3rd St NW, fine $434, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 25 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days, complete C.A.T. program enrolled in file MAG18-265; Tyler L Hansen, 20, 917 38th St SW, fine $294, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50, sentenced to 20 days jail time, 18 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days, complete a chemical dependency evaluation within 30 days and complete any recommended treatment and provide written proof to court services within 90 days of sentencing; Kaitlyn N Hogeland, 20, 312 11th St NE #15, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50, sentenced to 10 days jail time, 10 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days; Andrew W Crocker, 19, 156 S Lake Drive, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50, sentenced to 10 days jail time, 10 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days; Christian O Howard, 18, 413 1st St SW, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50, sentenced to 10 days jail time, 10 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days; Connor A Bates, 20, 120 2nd Ave SW, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50, sentenced to 10 days jail time, 10 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days; Oceana M Williams, 20, Brookings, fine $174, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50, sentenced to 15 days jail time, 13 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days, complete a chemical dependency evaluation within 30 days and complete any recommended treatment and provide written proof to court services within 90 days of sentencing; Mckenzie L Bolocon, 18, 815 1st Ave NE, fine $54. cpirt cpsts $40. surcharges $28.50, sentenced to 10 days jail time, 10 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days; Kaylee M Nickel, 19, 110 1st Ave SW, fine $54, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50, sentenced to 10 days jail time, 10 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days.

Permit Threatening or Harassing Telephone Calls: Briana E Lawrence, 27, Eden, fine $316, court costs $40, surcharges $44, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days, reimburse the county for any court appointed attorney fees; Andrew J Borgan, 19, 612 1st Ave NE, fine $316, court costs $40, surcharges $46.50, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days, have no contact direct or indirect with the victim for 360 days.

Reckless Driving: Curtis L Skatvold, 75, Kansas City, MO, fine $416, court costs $160, surcharges $44, sentenced to 30 days jail time, 30 days suspended, defendant shall pay fines and court costs as ordered, be a law abiding citizen for a period of 360 days.

Speeding on Interstate Highway: Rachel R Erick, 41, Vallejo, CA, fine $19, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Joshua J Bolluyt, 39, Fergus Falls, MN, fine $19, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Nathan J Cloud, 18, Flandreau, fine $39, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Joseph M Heminger, 24, Sisseton, fine $19, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Aaron O Landrie, 29, Grand Forks, ND, fine $19, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Stanley D Hieb, 78, Aberdeen, fine $19, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Charles L Fulton Jr., 33, Brookings, fine $19, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50.

Use or Possession of Drug Paraphernalia: Joshua J Gilliland, 22, 917 E Kemp Ave, fine $204, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Daniela M Moldovan, 25, Grand Forks, ND, fine $204, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50; Devin M Lehman, 20, Aberdeen, fine $204, court costs $40, surcharges $28.50.Model claiming Trump secrets dragged into Russian detention

MOSCOW: A Belarusian model who claimed she had proof of Russian collusion with the Trump election campaign was in custody Friday after police dragged her from a transit zone in Moscows airport, her lawyer told AFP.

politicscrime

By AFP

Saturday 19 January 2019, 10:20AM

Detained Belarusian model Anastasia Vashukevich, (L) known by her pen name Nastya Rybka with Russian seduction guru Alex Kirillov (R) leave Thai immigration department in Bangkok on Thursday (Jan 17). Photo: Lillian Suwanrumpha / AFP

Anastasia Vashukevich, known as Nastya Rybka, was in jail in southern Moscow after being detained with several others at the airport.

They flew in after being deported from Thailand where they had spent a year in prison for participating in a sex training course.

A Russian lawyer representing Vashukevich branded the arrest an international scandal, saying his client had committed no crimes and was planning to travel on to Belarus.

Instead she was moved from the transit zone onto the Russian territory by unidentified law enforcement employees, said Dmitry Zatsarinsky.

He said employees in civilian clothes dragged her out of the transit zone and added that he was planning to lodge an official complaint.

Zatsarinsky posted a video on his Instagram that shows five or six men trying to force a young woman resembling Vashukevich into a wheelchair as she tries to break free.

They then abandon their efforts and simply carry her through what appear to be one-way double doors typically used in airports.

Vashukevich was convicted in Thailand earlier this week after nearly a year in jail following her arrest in a seaside resort of Pattaya.

She pleaded guilty to multiple charges including soliciting and illegal assembly.

Vashukevich was a part of a group participating in a seminar led by Russian self-styled seduction guru Alex Kirillov. The court convicted her and seven co-defendants.

She had travelled to Thailand after sparking a political scandal when she posted a video allegedly showing tycoon Oleg Deripaska and an influential Russian deputy prime minister relaxing on a yacht.

Deripaska later sued her for invasion of privacy.

While in Thai custody, she claimed she had information about alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US elections and pleaded for US help, fearing prosecution in Russia.

Zatsarinsky said that some people in the group had been deported to Belarus via Ukraine, rather than Russia, and faced no problems at the airport in Kiev.

Russian police late Thursday confirmed Russian and Belarusian citizens were detained in Sheremetyevo airport on arrival from Thailand as part of an ongoing probe into coercing into prostitution.

On Friday morning, two men and two women remained in police custody, the interior ministry said, Russian agencies reported.Five soldiers injured by bombs, insurgent killed

NARATHIWAT: Frightened children huddled on the classroom floor amid the sound of gunfire and a helicopter hovering overhead as security forces and militants clashed in a rubber plantation near their school in Chanae District yesterday morning (Jan 18).

violencemilitary

By Bangkok Post

Saturday 19 January 2019, 09:50AM

Security units regroup near the rubber plantation in Chanae District of Narathiwat after the raid on an insurgent camp yesterday morning (Jan 18). Photo: Waedao Harai / Bangkok Post

One militant was killed. Four others escaped but left trails of blood behind them.

Also yesterday morning, in Sungai Padi district, five members of a security team patrolling a road along a railway track were wounded by the second of two bombs detonated by ambushers.

The first bomb was detonated about 7:30am when a soldier and five paramilitary rangers based at Toh Deng train station were patrolling a road parallel to the track in Tambon Toh Deng of Sungai Padi District.

A steel box stuffed with explosives believed to weigh about 10 kilogrammes had been hidden in a pipe running beneath the road and was detonated remotely.

The patrol members were uninjured and opened fire into roadside bushes they believed were concealing the attackers.

As they tried to move away from the scene of the attack, a second bomb exploded about 15 metres from the first, wounding five of them. Three suffered serious injuries. The second bomb was inside a cooking gas cylinder and believed to weigh about 20kg.

Shortly before, at about 7:15am, police and paramilitary rangers raided a rubber plantation in Ban Tue Kor in Tambon Chanae of Chanae District.

They converged on a shelter where there were five armed men. The two sides exchanged gunfire for about half an hour. As the militants began retreating a helicopter was called in to help track them.

One militant was found dead at the scene. He was later identified as Abdulloh Masae. An AK-47 rifle and several empty magazines were beside his body.

There were blood trails leaving the area and it was believed other suspects were wounded.

The clash occurred about two kilometres from Ban Tue Kor School, where pupils had already arrived for classes and could clearly hear the gunfire.

Teachers had them huddle down on the floor for their safety and tried to calm the frightened children.

Read original story here.Participants march in a previous Martin Luther King Jr. day observance in Southfield. The city's MLK Day event is the oldest and largest in the state.This subscription will allow curernt subscribers of The News Guard to access all of our online Subscriber-Only content, including the E Editions area.

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If you need help with exactly how your specific name needs be entered, please call us at 1-541-994-2178 or email admin@countrymedia.net.Picking the right investment of the decade can transform your life Today, the Wall Street legend who picked the last investment of the decade months (even years) before his peers will finally reveal his new #1 pick for the 2020s. Its not 5G, artificial intelligence, EVs, or clean energy. The answer will surprise you.

Halliburton Company provides a range of services and products to oil and natural gas companies worldwide. The company's Completion and Production segment offers production enhancement services, including stimulation and sand control services; and cementing services, such as well bonding and casing, as well as provides casing equipment. It also provides completion tools that offer downhole solutions and services, including well completion products and services, intelligent well completions, liner hanger and sand control systems, and service tools; production solutions comprising coiled tubing, hydraulic workover units, downhole tools, pumping services, and nitrogen services; and pipeline and process services, such as pre-commissioning, commissioning, maintenance, and decommissioning. In addition, this segment offers electrical submersible pumps, as well as artificial lift services. The company's Drilling and Evaluation segment provides drilling fluid systems, performance additives, completion fluids, solids control, specialized testing equipment, and waste management services; oilfield completion, production, and downstream water and process treatment chemicals and services; and drilling systems and services. It also offers wireline and perforating services, including open-hole logging, and cased-hole and slickline; and drill bits and services comprising roller cone rock bits, fixed cutter bits, hole enlargement, and related downhole tools and services, as well as coring equipment and services. In addition, this segment provides cloud based digital services and artificial intelligence solutions on an open architecture for subsurface insights, integrated well construction, and reservoir and production management; testing and subsea services, such as acquisition and analysis of reservoir information and optimization solutions; and project management and integrated asset management services. Halliburton Company was founded in 1919 and is based in Houston, Texas.

Read MoreWall Street analysts have given iShares S&P 400 MidCap 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 S&P 400 MidCap ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

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View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.Centrica plc operates as an integrated energy company in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, North America, and internationally. The company operates through British Gas, Energy Marketing & Trading, Centrica Business Solutions, Bord GAis Energy, and Upstream segments. It supplies gas and electricity to residential customers, as well as offers energy-related services; and generates power from combined cycle gas turbines and nuclear assets. The company also provides installation, repair, and maintenance services for domestic central heating, plumbing and drains, home electrical, and gas and kitchen appliances; and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment, as well as offers breakdown services. In addition, it is involved in the procurement, trading, and optimization of energy; procurement and sale of LNG; and supplies energy efficiency solutions and technologies to residential customers. Further, the company produces and processes gas and oil; develops new fields to maintain reserves; constructs, owns, and exploits infrastructure; and engages in the social enterprise investment fund activities. Additionally, it provides vehicle leasing, commercial, and insurance services, as well as energy management products and services; and operates a gas storage and franchise network. The company was formerly known as Yieldtop plc and changed its name to Centrica plc in December 1996. Centrica plc was incorporated in 1995 and is based in Windsor, the United Kingdom.

Read More14 hours ago

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Does Nike (NYSE: NKE) Have What It Takes To Get Back Running Again

For a company whose shares powered to new highs on what felt like a daily basis for much of last year, Nike (NYSE: NKE) has surprised many with its sluggish performance in the first half of 2021. Their shares are trading down more than 10% from the most recent all time high that they tagged at the end of December. In the grand scheme of things, thisJapan Airlines Co. said Friday it has reported to the government on its new rules around alcohol consumption by its flight staff and measures to monitor enforcement following a series of drinking-related problems at the company.

JAL said it has tightened alcohol control since earlier this month, barring flight crew from boarding if more than 0.00 milligram of alcohol per liter is detected in the pre-boarding breath test, compared with the previous threshold of 0.1 milligram per liter.

The airline has also set up an in-house committee headed by company President Yuji Akasaka to improve the organizational climate concerning safety. The panel is expected to compile a report by the end of March.

"I deeply apologize for having caused tremendous trouble related to the drinking problems and damaging public trust," Akasaka said at a press conference in Tokyo.

JAL has been under scrutiny since one of its pilots was arrested by British police in October for being around 10 times over the legal alcohol limit under British aviation law, delaying the departure of its London-Tokyo flight for more than an hour. He was later convicted in Britain and dismissed by JAL.

A female flight attendant was also found to have drunk some champagne while on duty on a flight from Narita airport outside Tokyo to Honolulu in December.

Following these incidents, JAL said six executives will face pay cuts for up to three months from February. Among them, Akasaka already had his salary reduced from December and will continue to see the disciplinary measure.

Read also: JAL probed over copilots drinking

Transport minister Keiichi Ishii said his ministry will conduct on-site inspections of JAL and other domestic airlines in the near future to check if their flight crews are following stricter regulations set by each company.

"We will make maximum efforts to restore public confidence in aviation safety," Ishii said at a news conference after a Cabinet meeting.

In the wake of drinking scandals last year, the ministry decided to introduce tougher rules on pilots' alcohol consumption, making alcohol tests mandatory and banning pilots from boarding if even a tiny amount of alcohol is detected in their system.

Earlier, JAL had introduced stringent rules that prohibit pilots from drinking in a 24-hour period before a flight as a temporary measure and alcohol tests on all flight attendants before departure. From March, such tests will be held after arrival as well.

In addition to JAL, the ministry has issued warnings to four other airlines -- All Nippon Airways Co., ANA Wings Co., Skymark Airlines Inc. and Japan Air Commuter Co. -- which were found to have issues involving excessive drinking by their pilots.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Surakarta  Sat, January 19, 2019 16:00 880 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e79d82e 1 National cross,surakarta,religion,conflict,conservatism Free

The Surakarta administration in Central Java has finally decided to cover a cross-shaped road mosaic in front of the City Hall with paint following complaints from conservative Muslim groups.

The administration has met with several religious leaders and came up with a number of solutions. But to prevent the polemic from dragging on, we decided to cover the mosaic with paint, Surakarta deputy mayor Achmad Purnomo said on Saturday.

Previously, the Surakarta's Muslim Troops (LUIS) and the Surakarta Syariah Council (DSKS) questioned the design of the mosaic and demanded that the city administration review it.

We have asked the Surakarta administration to evaluate and replace the cross-like mosaic with other motifs so as not to cause controversy and sectarian disputes, LUIS spokesperson Endro Sudarsono said.

Mosaik koridor Jalan Jenderal Sudirman di depan Balai Kota Surakarta yang disebut mirip Salib. (Courtesy of Surakarta Communications and Information Agency/-)

An aerial photo of the mosaic on Jl. Sudirman also went viral and caused controversy among internet users.

In response to the controversy, Surakarta Mayor FX Hadi Rudyatmo, who is a Catholic, said his administration never planned to have a cross-shaped road mosaic in front of his office.

If I [had planned] a cross on a road, I would have blasphemed my own religion. A cross is very much respected by Christians. No cross is placed down below. All are placed up above.

Achmad said that the mosaic was actually inspired by keraton (royalty) symbols of the Surakarta Sultanate and that its designer was also a Muslim. The art project was not finished yet, he added.

The administration, he said, decided to paint over it rather than change the mosaic by adding more andesite tiles.

Workers paint over a road mosaic in front of the Surakarta City Hall in Central Java after Muslims groups complained that the street art resembled a Christian cross. (JP/Ganug Adi Nugroho)

Meanwhile, DSKS spokesman Endro Sudarsono said that the road mosaic could only be perceived as a picture of a cross. We give the the Surakarta administration the discretion to choose how to change the cross. This is to avoid an incorrect interpretation and to make Surakarta conducive.

It is the second incident in which Muslims have objected to the display of the Christian symbol in the past few months.

In December, villagers of Purbayan in Kotagede, Yogyakarta, cut off a wooden cross on a Christians grave, arguing that the religious symbol was not welcome in the villages cemetery.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Paul Handley (Agence France-Presse) Washington  Sat, January 19, 2019 11:01 880 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e79906e 2 World US,UnitedStates,Donald-Trump,investigation,Russia-meddling,politics,Robert-Mueller,BuzzFeed Free

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office took the rare step Friday of disputing a news report on his Russia investigation, saying a BuzzFeed article alleging that US President Donald Trump directed his former lawyer to lie to Congress is "not accurate."

Trump's lieutenants had already strongly pushed back against the report, which said that the president ordered Michael Cohen to lie about a Russian skyscraper project they pursued during the 2016 election.

"BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the Special Counsel's Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's Congressional testimony are not accurate," spokesman Peter Carr said in a statement.

Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 vote and possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Moscow is the subject of frequent articles and even more frequent speculation.

But it is extremely rare -- if not unprecedented -- for his office to issue such a statement.

BuzzFeed's editor-in chief however said the news organization stood by its work.

"We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he's disputing," Ben Smith tweeted.

The statement was nevertheless a cause for celebration for the president, who retweeted numerous supporters slamming BuzzFeed and later wrote it was "A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!"

Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani had earlier called the allegation in the BuzzFeed report "categorically false" in a comment sent to several White House reporters, while Deputy White House Spokesman Hogan Gidley labeled the report "ridiculous." He said Cohen is someone "who now quite frankly has been proven to be a liar."

Democrats in Congress had pledged to investigate the report to see if the president had committed an impeachable felony.

"These allegations may prove unfounded, but, if true, they would constitute both the subornation of perjury as well as obstruction of justice," said Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

BuzzFeed reported late Thursday that Cohen, who worked for trump for more than a decade, has told investigators that the president personally instructed him to lie about the Moscow Trump Tower plan in testimony in 2017 to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.

The BuzzFeed article was based on interviews with two anonymous "federal law enforcement officials" who are familiar with Cohen's testimony to the investigation led by Mueller.

"Any suggestion -- from any source -- that the president counseled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false. Michael Cohen is a convicted criminal and a liar," Giuliani said in a statement quoted by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.

"Lying to reduce his jail time!" Trump said on Twitter of Cohen, who was convicted last year of fraud and perjury.

No other media have confirmed BuzzFeed's reporting.

It came two months after Cohen pleaded guilty in a New York court to making "false, fictitious and fraudulent" written testimony to the House and Senate intelligence committees in August 2017 in connection with the Moscow project.

A statement of the facts in his November 29 plea deal with Mueller's prosecutors suggested that his testimony had been prepared in consultation with unnamed people in the White House.

Cohen had told the two committees that the Moscow project talks ended in January 2016, when in fact, as he later admitted, they went on at least six months longer, to June 2016 when Trump had already secured the Republican nomination for president.

Cohen had also testified that others in the campaign, including Trump, were not informed about the project.

But in the November plea deal, Cohen also admitted the project had been discussed with Trump -- designated "Individual 1" in court documents -- several times in early 2016.

"Cohen made the false statements to minimize links between the Moscow project and Individual 1... in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations," prosecutors wrote.

Cohen was the president's right-hand man for years at the Trump Organization, the umbrella company, often relied upon to quietly fix difficult problems and negotiate deals for the real estate mogul.

But he has turned on his former boss after he was charged with giving hush money to women alleging affairs with Trump ahead of the 2016 election -- payments that violated campaign finance laws.

Cohen, who has been sentenced to three years in jail, said Trump ordered him to make the payments, and now says he regrets his work for the president.

While Democrats could not confirm the BuzzFeed report, they said they were poised to further probe the allegations.

"Our committee is already working to secure additional witness testimony and documents related to the Trump Tower Moscow deal and other investigative matters," said Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, January 19 2019

State-owned lender Bank Mandiri announced recently that it had split its commercial banking division, previously managed under the corporate banking directorate, into an independent directorate as one of its strategies to boost growth.



Mandiri president director Kartika Wirjoatmodjo told reporters during a press briefing in Jakarta that the commercial banking directorate would be headed by Riduan Ahmad, who was previously Mandiris senior vice president of middle corporate.



The new division would serve companies larger than medium enterprises, defined as having over Rp 10 billion (US$709,000) in assets but were non-publicly-listed and non-state-owned entities.



Mandiri itself, the second-largest bank in Indonesia, held assets worth Rp 1.03 quadrillion as of November. We expect that the appointment of a new specialized director will help grow our commercial ban...Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, January 19, 2019 15:14 880 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e79cdc6 1 National Abu-Bakar-Baasyir,terrorism,Joko-Widodo-Maruf-Amin Free

The legal team representing firebrand Muslim cleric and terrorism convict Abu Bakar Ba'asyir rejected on Saturday claims that the unconditional release of the cleric was a gift from President Joko Jokowi Widodo, saying that the release was part of a regular judicial procedure.

One of the lawyers, Muhammad Mahendradatta, said the decision was purely based on humanitarian reasons and was provided for in Indonesian law

This plan is free from political interest and is not unusual in our legal mechanism. The public dont need to credit the government for this, or praise [Jokowis administration] for releasing a member of the ulema, for the sake of devotion to the ulema. Its not that, he said.

Mahendradatta explained that the legal basis of the plan was in the Law No. 12/1995 on Prison, which is separate from the Criminal Code (KUHP). In the Prison Law, he said, prison terms could be reduced if the prisoner faced declining health or advanced age.

This means less time in prison, we call it remission [] its already Ba'asyirs right by law, he said.

He added that Jokowi did not suddenly came up with the decision, because the legal team had sent a letter to Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu seeking Ba'asyirs release and it had government support since then, following discussion with legal experts, including those from the Presidential Palace.

This might be the result of that process, Mahendradatta said, adding that the release had nothing to do with Jokowi as any president might have done the same.

The Presidents lawyer, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, who is also an adviser to the Jokowi-Ma'ruf Amin presidential-election campaign team, concurred that the 80-year-old clerics release was free from any political motive, but acknowledged that it was carried out as a special measure.

Ba'asyir, who is eligible to be released on parole on Dec. 13, insists on defying a general condition of parole that requires him to express loyalty to the national ideology Pancasila, which is stipulated in Government Regulation No. 99/2012 on sentence reduction for inmates, including those convicted of terrorism.

Yusril said that Ba'asyir would continue to insist that he would only obey God.

I spoke to Jokowi about this. We have been running back and forth on Pancasila. While [Ba'asyirs] condition is getting worse. And [the President] understood, therefore, he would simplify the mechanism, he said.

Jokowi agreed that Ba'asyirs parole would not require him to express a commitment to Pancasila.

So [Ba'asyir] will be released unconditionally. His house will not be guarded by police. He can opine that democracy is a transgression [of Islam]. We will let him, said Yusril.

He added that the President had the discretion to override a regulation, as long as it was not a law and there was a strong argument for doing so. (ggq)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, January 19, 2019 15:35 880 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e79d2ff 4 City Jakarta-police,drugs,narcotics,smuggler,drug-smugglers,drug-smuggling Free

The Jakarta Police have arrested 11 suspected drug smugglers believed to be part of a Banjarmasin-Jakarta drug ring. The drugs were hidden inside food packaging labeled as catfish flakes and Medan anchovies.

Investigators seized 6.5 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, 40,000 ecstasy pills, 20,000 pills of a new drug called Yaba and 15 grams of marijuana. All were found during a raid in Green Pramuka Apartment complex in Central Jakarta on Tuesday.

We confiscated the evidence of packages labeled catfish flakes, a signature dish from Riau. The contents were replaced by the suspects with the [crystal meth]. The same with the food packs labeled Medan anchovies, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono said on Friday as reported by kompas.com.

Police busted the drug ring after previously arresting a suspect identified only as HR in Depok, West Java, on Dec. 13, 2018. On the same day police also arrested two other people, identified only as FIR and AH, in Cibinong. Investigators also arrested three other suspects, GZ, NR and NR, in a Green Pramuka apartment last week.

Inside the apartment, investigators found several suitcases containing the crystal meth, ecstasy pills and marijuana hidden inside the food packages.

After further investigation, Police arrested five further suspects, identified only as AW, ZN, TON, FM and YAH.

Jakarta Police drug unit officer Adj. Sr. Comr. Calvijn Simanjuntak said GZ allegedly received the drugs from a suspect, MG, who is still at large. Police are also hunting another suspect identified only by the initials HONG, who allegedly connected GZ and MG.

Calvijn said the drug ring allegedly produced the colored food packaging with printed pictures as camouflage for the drugs. (gis)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Ni Komang Erviani (The Jakarta Post) Denpasar  Sat, January 19 2019

While battling against the plastic that has besieged its waters, Bali is preparing a bylaw that would impose a US$10 levy on foreign tourists.



The Bali administration has drafted a bylaw on tourist contributions for the environment and cultural preservation, which has been discussed with the Bali Legislative Council since December.



Bali Governor Wayan Koster said the revenue from the tourist tax would be allocated to fund programs on preserving the environment and Balinese culture.



This will give us better fiscal space to support the development of Bali, Koster said at the Bali Legislative Council building.



A renowned tourist destination, Bali welcomed 5.7 million foreign tourists in 2017, most of whom came from China and Australia. The number was expected to exceed 6 million in 2018, in which the island province hosted international events such as th...Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Indonesia  Sat, January 19 2019

Two Indonesian citizens in Malaysia who were tried on charges that could have led to death sentences returned home on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.



Officials handed over Siti Nurhidayah from Brebes, Central Java and Mattari from Bangkalan, East Java to their respective families on Thursday, sparking an emotional reunion at the ministry compound in Jakarta.



Siti was arrested for possession of crystal methamphetamine in Penang, Malaysia after flying in from Guangzhou, China, on Nov. 6, 2013. However, an investigation found that she was the victim of fraud, said Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, the director of the citizen protection unit.



During trial, Sitis legal team was able to present several key witnesses who helped to get her acquitted of all charges on Nov. 15 last year.



Our analysis results reinforced our belief that Siti Nurhidayah was a vi...Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, January 19, 2019 09:48 881 75e76da2d15e495661b6357e2e7981f7 2 National Abu-Bakar-Baasyir,Joko-Widodo,terrorism,Joko-Widodo-Maruf-Amin Free

Convicted terrorist Abu Bakar Baasyir will be unconditionally released from Gunung Sindur prison in Bogor, West Java, as he has received a pardon from President Joko Jokowi Widodo.

Abdul Rahim, a son of Ba'asyir, said on Friday that the family had received news of the pardon from the Presidents lawyer Yusril Ihza Mahendra. Yusril had visited Baasyir to tell him that Jokowi had agreed to set him free despite him having over six years left to serve in prison.

He would be released early next week pending an administrative process.

This is purely for humanitarian reasons. He is old, so the president will release him unconditionally, Abdul said.

He said Baasyir would return to Surakarta and live with him.

Baasyir has been in prison for eight years after being sentenced to 15 years by the South Jakarta District Court in 2011. The court found him guilty of funding a military training camp for terrorists in Aceh.

Read also: Ma'ruf Amin calls on Jokowi to grant clemency to Ba'asyir

Yusril, who is also an adviser to the Jokowi-Maruf Amin presidential campaign team, said because Baasyir is now 81 years old and has a deteriorating health condition, it was time to release him.

Jokowi said he was very concerned about Baasyirs condition and therefore asked me to examine [his release], start a dialogue and meet him at the prison, Yusril said in a statement.

Ba'asyir also expressed gratitude and thanked all those who had taken the initiative to release him.

Jokowi confirmed the clerics release on humanitarian grounds but he refused to expand on the details of the legal mechanism that enabled the release.

Please ask the National Police chief about the details, he told reporters on the sidelines of his visit to an Islamic boarding school in Garut, West Java. (ggq)Tokyo authorities are working on solving an unexpected New Year riddle -- whether an item of graffiti found in the city was created by the elusive artist Banksy.

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike indicated her excitement in a tweet Thursday on the discovery of a picture of a rat holding an umbrella and bag: "We found a picture of a lovely rat that could be a piece by Banksy. This may be a gift from him to Tokyo. It seems the rat is carrying a bag."

The picture -- no bigger than a sheet of office paper -- was discovered on a metal flood barrier near Hinode Station on the Yurikamome train line in the bay area of Tokyo's Minato Ward.

The Tokyo authorities became aware of it following an inquiry by a citizen at the end of last year.

The Tokyo metropolitan government on Wednesday removed the part of the barrier on which the mysterious item is drawn and put it in a warehouse due to concerns that the picture, which has already been shared online, may draw too many people.

"Drawing graffiti is unacceptable. But if the picture is authentic, we need to preserve it," an official of the metropolitan government said.

Read also: Banksy gifts Welsh steel town a white Christmas attraction

Banksy, a British-based artist whose identity is known to few, has produced works of art, including some featuring rats, on walls and other locations all over the world.

In October he caused a controversy after he shredded his noted picture "Girl with Balloon" during an auction in London.

A picture of a rat that looks similar to the one found in Tokyo is posted on Banksy's website.

The Tokyo official said the government is considering how to judge the authenticity of the graffiti as Banksy is an artist who "has a unique style of activity."Gaining popularity in the past few years among travelers, East Nusa Tenggara enters 2019 with a strong determination to conquer tourism. Kompas.com reported that the provinces Governor Viktor Bungtilu Laiskodat, along with Deputy Governor Josef Adrianus Nai Soi, is set to further develop tourism and hence the peoples welfare.

The deputy governor explained that the development of tourism in East Nusa Tenggara would be synchronized with the growth of other sectors, namely trade and agriculture. Therefore, all food will be sourced from the province itself.

He went on to say that the governor had advised residents to convert their houses into homestays for travelers so that residents could earn money. Bedrooms and toilets must also meet a good standard to accommodate travelers from across the globe.

East Nusa Tenggara has to be among the most sought-after destinations in the world, as it has unique nature and distinct culture, said the deputy governor at the opening of Reba, a traditional celebration held by the Langa people at Bajawa subdistrict, Ngada regency in Flores on Tuesday.

Read also: Third Meti Kei Charm Festival set to be merrier this October

To attract more travelers to the region, East Nusa Tenggara also holds six annual festivals that have been acknowledged by the provincial administration.

Whale-fishing festival

The festival celebrates catching whales using traditional tools, regularly held by the Lamalera people in Lembata regency. The festival symbolizes the teamwork and unity of the fishermen in the area, with certain rules that make the practice environmentally friendly. Only certain types of whales are allowed to be caught and the tools used are limited to traditional ones.

Semana Santa festival

The centuries-old tradition of Semana Santa is still carried out in East Flores regency. Residents of East Flores take part in a procession on Good Friday. Visitors come from across Indonesia and the globe to join the festivities and the residents along with the local church play host.

Sikka woven textile festival

Held in Sikka regency, this festival promotes authentic Flores woven textiles. The provincial administration is now set to provide more support to woven textile artisans, taking cue from private organizations who previously empowered the weavers to promote their works. The upcoming woven textile festival will involve 1000 weavers who will create textiles on a square at the center of Maumere city.

Kelimutu festival

The colors of the Kelimutu lake are the pride of Ende regency. Those who are interested in marveling at the beauty of the three-colored lake should attend the Kelimutu festival. Ende is also a regency with significant history, hosting Indonesias first president Sukarno who was exiled there. It is also the place where the state ideology Pancasila was initially thought of.

Reba Ngada festival

Held every Jan. 15, people enjoy sweet potatoes, which is the staple of Ngada regency. The residents of Ngada also plant sweet potatoes during the festival. While visiting Ngada, travelers might also like to go on a detour to Bena and Tololela customary villages.

One thousand horses and Pasola festival

Sumba island is famous for its horses and the horse festival is held annually. The festival features participants on horseback throwing wooden spears, as well as a procession in Marapu traditional village. Pasola, a thanksgiving ritual, is usually held seven days after full moon. (mut)Prizewinning Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase and star drummer Yoshiki were among the celebrities who attended a Hollywood event Thursday aimed at celebrating the 20th anniversary of an international short film competition in Japan.

"Tonight is like a reunion. We have many filmmakers here. I would like to enjoy our short films tonight but also celebrate many great films," Tetsuya Bessho, an actor and president of the organizer of the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, said in his address at the event.

Jason Reitman, director of the upcoming sequel to the Ghostbusters series, took part in the event as the recipient of a 2001 audience award at the film festival for "In God We Trust."

"I'm not sure there's a more pure form of filmmaking than making short films," Reitman said.

"It's extraordinary to make a short film and to one day get a phone call saying, 'We'd like to bring you to Japan.' And it was a dream," he said.

Kawase, a Cannes Film Festival award winner who has been tapped to direct the official film of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, said, "Even if it's in a time period of 20 minutes, you can have a portrayal of life reflected in the piece."

Read also: Japanese animator Miyazaki's 1984 film to get Kabuki remake

Singaporean director Yee Wei Chai's film "Benjamin's Last Day at Katong Swimming Complex," which won the grand prix at the Japanese film competition in 2018, and "The Human Face," a documentary about Kazuhiro Tsuji, who became the first Japanese to win the Academy Award for makeup and hairstyling, among others, were screened during the event.

The annual short film competition in Japan, which began in 1999, is one of Asia's largest short film festivals. The grand prize winner at the Japanese festival is eligible for an Oscar nomination by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Thursday's event was co-organized by Japan House Los Angeles, a Japanese Foreign Ministry facility used to promote the country's culture.The first presidential debate is scheduled for Thursday. Both candidates have declared their visions and missions to attract voters, especially from the millennial generation.

However, environmental concerns and corruption in the natural resource sector are still perceived as less-discussed issues among the public and young voters in particular, although Indonesia continues to lose its forests as a result of the operations of large-scale oil palm plantations, mining and the paper industry.

Golongan Hutan is an initiative aimed at encouraging voters to question the candidates in the 2019 election about their stance on deforestation. The initiative consists of nine organizations that campaign and advocate for forest conservation, environment and natural resources, namely WALHI, Coaction Indonesia, Kemitraan, Madani Berkelanjutan, Greenpeace Indonesia, Change.org, Rekam Nusantara Foundation, Econusa and HuMa.

Khalisah Khalid, coordinator of the initiative, said they wanted to motivate young people to actively save Indonesian forests. One way is by finding out about the candidates visions and missions and their commitment to forest conservation and corruption eradication.

Read also: Environmental causes dominate Indonesia's clicktivism in 2018

We encourage them to question the candidates, including about their funding sources  are they from companies that contribute to deforestation and eliminating local peoples sources of income, said Khalisah in an official statement.

On its website, Golongan Hutan features information related to deforestation. There are also questions to be asked of the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the presidential candidates, President Joko Jokowi Widodo and Prabowo Subianto, via Twitter with the hashtag #GolHut. One of the questions is about what the candidates will do if they are supported by palm oil, mining and paper companies.

@jokowi Kalau ada perusahaan sawit, tambang atau kertas yang mau membiayai kampanye Anda, bagaimana sikap Anda? #GolHut  Wagi Wisnu Wisnu (@WagiWisnu) January 16, 2019

@sandiuno Bagaimana solusi Anda agar perusahaan perkebunan, tambang, dan kertas yang menggerogoti hutan bisa lebih patuh peraturan? #GolHut  Gratiana Wardoyo (@gratiana_achie) January 14, 2019

The initiative welcomes questions from netizens as well, including from those who are still confused about where to start looking for information. Golongan Hutan will rewrite the questions based on data and facts.

It is hoped the questions can ensure the candidates discuss environmental problems and steps to save Indonesian forests. (wir/wng)When Yumiko Munekyo was a vice president at Nomura Holdings Inc. in 2011, she would take clients to upscale sushi spots around Manhattan. Theyd invariably order junmai daiginjo, the highest grade of sake and also usually the priciest, but not always the most interesting or appropriate.

Munekyo knew better, having grown up in Japans Hokuriku region, a hub for artisanal sake, or jizake. New Yorks top Japanese restaurants almost never stocked them. They were mainly serving daiginjo, which is made from highly polished rice so its elegant and floral, good with some fish but not with meat, she says. I wanted different sakes that people could pair with food, like wine.

In 2013 she and her husband, Jason Geiger, an executive director at Nomura, founded Sake Suki, a boutique company that imports smaller labels to the U.S.

So far theyve had success at the top of New Yorks restaurant ladder. Le Bernardin, Manhattans vaunted seafood dining room, offers the earthy, full-bodied Manzairaku Junmai Ginjo sake with an appetizer of hamachi tartare with osetra caviar on its tasting menu. Sake certainly starts the conversation, says Aldo Sohm, Le Bernardins wine director. He prefers it to conventional Champagne and says the sake brings together the disparate tartare and caviar flavors and textures. It retails for about $85 a bottle.

Read also: In a Tokyo neighborhood's last sushi restaurant, a sense of loss

Sake Suki selections have also been embraced by the citys modern Japanese restaurants. The Michelin-starred Sushi Noz carries the Nishide Shuzo 100 Year Sake, made with natural yeast from the brewery and recognizable by its elegant hand-painted porcelain bottle. It retails for around $145. The bottles detail and design are exactly in line with the ethos of Sushi Noz, says co-owner Joshua Foulquier, who admires the importers unconventional approach.

But Sake Sukis aspirations are bigger. The aim, the founders say, is to move sake beyond sushi counters and omakase menus and into the mainstream. Think pizza spots, burger joints, and beyond.

Munekyo started her career as a sales analyst at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in Tokyo before coming to the U.S., and that training has informed her business. I traded 30-plus currencies and still trade USDJPY [U.S. dollars to yen] to buy our sake from breweries, she says. I check markets and see the event schedule to decide the timing of trades.

The couples initial goal was to bring in sake for themselves. It was so expensive, we might as well have flown to Japan to pick it up ourselves, says Geiger. The most economical way was to bring it in in large quantities. They got an importers license, rented space in an alcohol-licensed warehouse, and brought over their first shipments in 2016.

Sake Sukis bottles, imported exclusively by the company, are available in New York, California, and Texas in both wine shops and restaurants. Its expansion plans include Las Vegas, Florida, and Illinois. To make the sake accessibleand to reach customers traumatized by bad hot sake and sake bombsback labels are written in English and provide information about the brewery as well as serving and tasting notes.

Its still a push to get sake into glasses in America. Riedel recently introduced the Junmai, its second sake glass, yet neither is currently available in the U.S. Sake opinion leaders in Paris and London have been most active so far, observes Wolfgang Angyal, head of Riedels Japanese subsidiary.

Yet bigger growth is on the way. From 2017 to 2018, Sake Suki doubled the number of cases sold to 1,200, or about 10,300 liters (2,720 gallons), which is tiny by sake standards. Japan-based Takara Holdings Inc., for instance, produced 8.8 million liters of sake at its U.S. and Chinese plants in 2017. The companys president, Mutsumi Kimura, is optimistic about the future of sake in the U.S. and beyond. As sushi restaurants expand, sake sales will grow, he told Bloomberg last July.

Retired Dom Perignon winemaker Richard Geoffrey is working on a product with Masuizumi brewery for 2019. And Dassai sake is opening a $30 million brewing company in Hyde Park, N.Y., in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America in early 2020.

Sake Suki is sanguine that this rising tide of sake will raise all boats. And anyway, bulk product isnt the pointquality is. The companys market niche is bringing the small, independent producers with unique products to the fore and letting them cultivate a fan base, much as the craft beer movement has made avid beer drinkers out of consumers burned out on Bud Light. Our selections are small-production, theyre not famous names like Moet Chandon, says Geiger.

In the meantime, while its been a challenge to get into wine bastions like Italian restaurants, more non-Japanese spots are embracing sake. New York Thai restaurant Thaimee Table now carries the Manzairaku Yamahai Junmai. Sake is just the right combo of sweet and vegetal, like Thai food. Because of its light and fresh taste, it elevates curry dishes, says chef Hong Thaimee. Its the pinot noir of sake, says Munekyo; at about $32 retail, its also accessible. Geiger says its smooth, full-bodied character makes it the perfect pair for pizza and burgers, as well as steak and fried chicken.

The duo is pushing to position sake as part of the cocktail culture as well. Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Tarrytown, N.Y., now mixes an aperitif with a base of tart Kagatsuru Umeshu, a sake flavored with plums, added to sparkling wine and wildflower liqueur, served on the rocks. Its one small, refreshing step along sakes American journey.In public squares across China, it is not unusual to see retirees practicing dance, tai chi, or even singing.

Wang Jinxiang is no different -- except she live streams her performances to an audience of thousands online.

The 62-year-old is among a legion of senior citizens trying to make a name for themselves in China's massive social media scene, a world usually populated by the young.

Undeterred by the frosty winter, Wang put on a show in a square by the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing.

"Which song do you want to listen next?" she asked her 23,000 followers as she delivered an hour-long special.

She began this hobby after her nephew's teacher showed her the online singing platform Quan Min Karaoke two years ago. Immediately she fell in love.

"When I first started live streaming, I was faced with a lot of issues that were very troublesome. I was not that good at handling the technical things on the smartphone," she told AFP.

Wang feels she has found an outlet express herself and now spends two hours every other day of the week singing and performing live fashion shows.

Fans send her virtual gifts that can later be redeemed as cash of varying amounts -- China has a wealth of payment apps and social media platforms that allow people to exchange money.

Fountain of youth

She explained: "Quan Min Karaoke allows the elderly to exercise at home, sing better and show themselves on it."

"I'm constantly thinking of new things to do everyday, what new tricks I can do for tomorrow to attract and entertain everyone," Wang added.

China's internet is heavily censored by the Communist Party authorities, but it nonetheless has an abundance of bloggers and vloggers.

But the relative freedom of streaming content live has meant the industry is booming -- Deloitte estimated 2018 revenues at $4.4 billion, up 32 percent from 2017 -- with scores of platforms allowing people to share their skills, views, or the mundanity of ordinary life.

As well as the usual beauty reviewers and aspiring comedians, live streaming can bring about unlikely stars.

Last year a corn farmer from a remote cliff-top village became an online sensation by showcasing his daily activites and in 2017 an elderly couple, one of whom had Alzheimer's disease, won millions of online fans simply by answering questions from the public.

In a rapidly ageing nation -- by 2050, one in three people in China, or 487 million people, will be over the age of 60, according to the official Xinhua news agency -- the internet has become a sort of fountain of youth for those who want their talents immortalised.

Wang, whose main audience is aged over 60, has seen more and more older people connect with her online.

"I have hope that people will be more brave. It requires us elderly people to be more active, to use our time better and have a better time," she mused before adding: "Old people should cherish and make the best of their time left."

Read also: Forever young: China's 'dancing aunties' kick up their heels

Dark web

Streaming may be an enjoyable pastime for many, but the internet can still be a dark place, warned Wang Kelan, who live streams her song and dance performances from the small city of Yuncheng in Shanxi province.

The 72-year-old has endured cyber-bullying from online followers who ridicule her shows.

"Society is actually unfair to the elderly nowadays," said Wang Kelan, who is not related to Wang Jinxiang.

"They said it was shameful to do live streaming at such an old age," she confessed, though she insisted that her love for the internet outshines the toxic comments.

"Everyone says young people can't live without internet, but really, it's the same for the older generation," she explained.

"I believe I live a happier and more fulfilling life than those who just gossip under the sun. I think that it is particularly boring and meaningless," she added.

For Wang Jinxiang, the internet has brought her a world of possibilities: Later this year, she'll be performing live in one of Beijing's TV studios.

She said: "From a young age, I loved to sing, to dance, to move. Enjoy your life and do what you want. I believe it is a happy way to spend the later part of your life."Morgan County

Jacksonville Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Sherry R. Pellhum, 49, of 544 Brooklyn Ave. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 5:17 p.m. Thursday on a theft charge.

 Justin W. Heaton, 26, of 137 Spaulding Place was booked into the Morgan County jail at 2:21 a.m. Friday on a charge of resisting a police officer.

 Jared P. Guizzetti, 22, of 815 W. Lafayette Ave. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 2:42 a.m. Friday on charges of resisting a peace officer and obstructing identification.

ACCIDENTS

 Anna M. Lane, 84, of Greenfield was cited on a charge of improper lane usage after police say the vehicle she was driving went into another lane and struck a vehicle being driven by Carla Jo M. Baxter, 62, of Jacksonville at 1:03 p.m. Friday in the 1800 block of West Morton Avenue.

Baxter was treated at the scene for minor injuries.

Greene County

Sheriff

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Curtis L. Douglas, 23, of Patterson was booked into the Greene County Jail at 4:10 p.m. Thursday on a Greene County arrest warrant accusing him of burglary.

 Eric B. McFain, 46, of Carrollton turned himself in to authorities at 2 p.m. Wednesday on a Greene County summons accusing him of unlawful videotaping or audio recording in a residence.

Carrollton Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Justin T. Gipperich, 34, of Carrollton was booked into the Greene County Jail at 8:02 p.m. Wednesday on a charge of aggravated criminal sexual assault involving a victim under 13 years old.

Roodhouse Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Raenell M. Newingham, 41, of Hillview was booked into the Greene County Jail at 9:57 p.m. Wednesday on charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and having no valid drivers license.

Scott County

Sheriff

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Israel H. Goodwin, 34, of Pompano Beach, Florida, was booked into the Greene County Jail at 8:27 p.m. Thursday on a Broward County, Florida, warrant accusing him of forgery.

 Martell A. Wills, 26, of Colchester was booked into the Greene County Jail at 7:21 p.m. Wednesday on a domestic battery charge.

Compiled by Nick Draper, David C.L. Bauer and Samantha McDaniel-OgletreeThose looking for ideas and information for house renovations can likely find inspiration at the Central Nebraska Home Show.

About 100 vendors are set up at Pinnacle Bank Expo Center at Fonner Park this weekend, showcasing the latest trends in home improvement. The show opened Friday and will continue from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

With a blast of winter weather hitting the area, the display set up at Fireplace Stone & Patio looks inviting. The crackle and pop of a fire can be heard even though that is a bit deceiving. That sound was coming from the dancing flame pattern of an electric fireplace.

Jeff Williams, with the Grand Island-based business, said electric models are popular now, especially the linear design for a more modern appearance. There are many different styles of fireplaces.

In our showroom we have about 25 different displays. Even that is just a drop in the bucket that you can choose from. Its always evolving, he said.

One change in electric fireplaces is the switch to LED lights to make it more realistic. Some models are only for appearance because they dont even project heat.Juan Guaido, President of the Venezuelan National Assembly and lawmaker of the opposition party Popular Will, speaks during a news conference in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 10, 2019. (Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo)

Venezuelas Rightful President Needs White House Support

The last chance to oust Nicolas Maduro without invasion

The United States and its allies hold the key to Venezuelas recovery after two decades of socialist devastation. Their diplomatic support can make or break the campaign to establish Juan Guaido as the legitimate and recognized president.

The defiant 35-year-old industrial engineer chairs Venezuelas National Assembly, the opposition-led legislature that Nicolas Maduros dictatorship refuses to recognize. As explained by columnist and political scientist Maria Teresa Romero, the National Assembly is the last vestige of democracy left in the government under Chavista rule.

From the centrist social-democratic Popular Will party, Guaido was virtually unknown prior to Jan. 10. Thats when he challenged Maduros illegitimate inauguration for a second six-year term, declared the presidency vacant, and announced that he would instead lead the country, as mandated by the Constitution.

Now, Guaido is asking the military, civilians, and the international community to acknowledge him as interim president. With sufficient support, he can then lead a transitional government and call for free and fair elections.

However, he is short on time and resources, and he faces an ominous political persecution from the regime. Such has been the fate of other opposition leaders such as Leopoldo Lopez and Maria Corina Machado, and Guaido would be of little use behind bars or banished from the country. The regimes intelligence service already kidnapped and interrogated him over the weekend, before subsequently releasing him.

The Law on Guaidos Side

As noted by Guaido and his supporters, the May 2018 presidential election in Venezuela was a sham. Backed by Cuban agents who dominate the Chavista regime, Maduro is a usurper who continues the diabolical legacy of the brutal and militant socialist Hugo Chavez.

Without free speech or open nominations for candidates, the opposition parties abstained from participating and called for a boycott. Only 46 percent of registered voters turned out, the lowest level in recent Venezuelan history and markedly below the 70 percent average from previous elections.

The Venezuelan Constitution, passed in 1999 under Chavez, states in articles 233 and 350 that the National Assembly can take command if the courts remove the president. The Venezuelan people have the authority to reject a regime that jeopardizes democratic principles and human rights.

Venezuelas Supreme Court has operated in exile since July 2017, when the regime packed the official one with loyalists. It deems Maduro a convicted criminal and backs Guaido.

International Pressure Reaching Climax

At this moment, 48 nationsincluding the United States, EU members, and Latin-American neighbors in the Lima Grouphave already rejected Maduros touted presidency. Ecuador, a socialist-inclined ally for over a decade, has joined in denouncing the regime, and this month, Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno withdrew his ambassador from Caracas.

Paraguay also broke relations with Venezuela altogether after Maduros inauguration. Even the meek Organization of American States recently voted to not recognize the legitimacy of Nicolas Maduros new term.

The momentum needs to build toward the planned Jan. 23 mass demonstration in favor of Guaido and the rule of law. Beyond rejecting Maduro, nations should issue statements to recognize Guaido as the rightful interim president; Brazil has already done so and shown the way forward.

Only overwhelming political and social pressure will get the corrupted military to switch sides. To facilitate that, the National Assembly has offered amnesty for army officers who rebel against the regime.

Maduro has already isolated himself. Only six of 18 Latin American nations continue to support him: Bolivia, El Salvador, Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Uruguay.

Elsewhere, his main allies are Turkey, Belarus, Russia, China, and Iran, to some degree because they would like to see their loans repaid. If the transitional government assures the debts will be honored, Maduro could further lose support.

Foreign Military Intervention?

There is no guarantee that the military and police will side with Guaido, and their fear of doing so would mean a worsening of an almost impossibly worse scenario. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), for example, believes military intervention is the only solution left to restore democracy in a country so lawless and corrupt.

President Donald Trump has said that all options are on the table. That could include providing support to resistance fighters or perhaps a limited engagement to protect the National Assembly, as suggested by Romero, ideally with a regional coalition.

The likelihood of a quagmire is great, though, with so many bad actors present, including Marxist terrorists such as the FARC and National Liberation Army of Colombia. There appears to be little support for a costly long-term presence and reconstruction, both in the United States and throughout Latin America. All of the prominent Latin American nations with conservative presidentsArgentina, Brazil, Chile, and Colombiahave rejected the idea, deeming it too unpredictable. Further, their military expertise and economic capacity would struggle with such an awkward foreign invasion.

Even in Venezuela, a majority of the opposition are reluctant, according to a February poll. They are concerned a U.S. military presence could backfire and validate Maduros anti-imperialist rhetoric, although his apologists say there is an economic war against Venezuela either way.

Hearts and Minds: A War for Legitimacy

Guaidos plan can only succeed if the vast majority of nations side with him and embolden the armed forces and police to do the same. Recent developments have shown that the international community is ready to isolate Maduro further. Trump can lead this movement, along with Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, and help put an end to the socialist nightmare that has directly claimed over 5,000 lives, jailed hundreds of activists, and led to a growing exodus of 3 million people.

Neighboring countries have their own problems and cant withstand the Venezuelan refugee crisis forever. Its only a matter of time before a country with a population five times the size of El Salvador starts sending caravans north.

Inordinate times call for inordinate measures, and the Guaido plan appears to be the last-road exit before a dead end into a new Cuba harboring terrorists and other criminal gangs. The United States can and should step up its game against Maduro and back this legal, available solution endorsed by the worlds democratic governments.

Fergus Hodgson is the founder and executive editor of Latin American intelligence publication Antigua Report.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.Van Dyke Gets Nearly 7 Years in Prison

CHICAGOFormer Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was sentenced on Friday to nearly seven years in prison for shooting teen Laquan McDonald to death in 2014 in a landmark case that highlighted racial tensions in Americas third-biggest city.

After a jury convicted Van Dyke of second-degree murder last fall, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Vincent Gaughan sentenced Van Dyke to 81 months in prison and said he would have to serve at least two years before he was eligible for parole.

Van Dyke, 40, appearing unshaven and wearing a yellow-orange jail uniform in court, sat expressionless while the sentence was read. He had faced a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison for his second-degree murder conviction and up to 30 years for each of 16 counts of aggravated battery  one count for each shot he fired at 17-year-old McDonald, who was carrying a knife.

In a statement he read before the sentence, Van Dyke called the date of the shooting the worst day of my life.

The last thing I wanted to do was shoot Laquan McDonald.

Gaughan did not sentence him for the aggravated battery conviction, explaining second-degree murder was the more serious crime.

In his closing argument, prosecutor Joseph McMahon said between 18 and 20 years was an appropriate sentence and probation requested by the defense was not.

The verdict in October marked the first time an on-duty Chicago police officer was held criminally accountable for the killing of an African-American and touched off celebratory street demonstrations in Chicago.

The jurys verdict followed numerous acquittals or mistrials of police officers facing criminal charges across the country in the deaths of black men.

The hearing came a day after another judge found three of Van Dykes former police colleagues not guilty of conspiring to protect him after he fatally shot 17-year-old McDonald.

Days of protests erupted in the third-largest U.S. city when a dashboard camera video of the Oct. 20, 2014, shooting was released more than a year later in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

The video also prompted the dismissal of the citys police superintendent and calls for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign. Emanuel is not running in next months mayoral election.

Prosecutors showed the video repeatedly during the three-week trial. Jurors said they faulted Van Dyke for escalating the conflict when he could have waited for an officer with a non-lethal Taser weapon.

Van Dyke testified in his own defense during his trial, saying he feared for his safety and fired because McDonald was advancing on him. Both the officer and his lawyers argued that the angle of the video did not reflect Van Dykes perspective.

By Suzannah Gonzales and Robert ChiaritoFormer FBI General Counsel James Baker testified before the House judiciary and oversight committees on Oct. 3 and Oct. 18, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

EXCLUSIVE: Transcripts of Former Top FBI Lawyer Detail Pervasive Abnormalities in Trump Probe

Former top FBI attorney James Baker admitted to House lawmakers in October last year that the investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Russia was riddled with abnormalities.

Confronted with a damning summary of abnormalities, bias, and omissions that transpired during the investigation, Baker told Congress that the investigation was indeed highly unusual.

I had a jaundiced eye about everything, yes. I had skepticism about all this stuff. I was concerned about all of this. This whole situation was horrible, and it was novel and we were trying to figure out what to do, and it was highly unusual, Baker told lawmakers.

Members of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees conducted the interviews in an unclassified setting, with agency counsel present to ensure that classified information didnt enter into the unclassified setting. The transcripts of the interviews havent been publicly released, but were obtained for this article.

Baker served as the FBIs general counsel when the bureau investigated the Trump campaign, and also Hillary Clintons use of an unauthorized private email server. During two days of testimony on Oct. 3 and Oct. 18, he told lawmakers that he believed even toward the end of the Clinton investigation that she should have been charged over her alarming, appalling mishandling of classified information.

He argued with others, including then-FBI Director James Comey, about the issue all the way toward the end of the investigation, but was ultimately persuaded that Clinton should be exonerated.

My original belief  after having conducted the investigation and towards the end of it, then sitting down and reading a binder of her materials, I thought that it was alarming, appalling, whatever words I said, and argued with others about why they thought she shouldnt be charged, Baker told lawmakers.

As of October 2018, almost two years after the Clinton probe concluded, Baker still believed that the conduct of the former secretary of state and her associates was appalling, with regard to the handling of classified information.

As general counsel, Baker advised senior FBI leaders on the legal aspects of key investigations and served as the liaison with the Department of Justice (DOJ). In testimony, he detailed a series of unusual steps he took in the TrumpRussia investigation, including serving as the conduit between Perkins Coiethe firm working for the Clinton 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC)and the FBI.

Baker left his position as general counsel in early January 2018, and resigned from the FBI in early May 2018.

Baker testified that it was Michael Sussmann, a partner at Perkins Coie, who shared with him information that detailed alleged communications between servers in Trump Tower and servers located in Russia at Alfa Bankan allegation that eventually was debunked. Sussmann was also the lawyer who spearheaded the handling of the alleged hack of the DNC servers. Baker admitted that it was highly unusual to interact with an outside counsel.

Mr. Jordan: [This] is the first time and to your recollection the only time an outside counsel had information and was wanting to make sure it got to the general counsel of the FBI, and it happened to deal with the Russia investigation. Mr. Baker: I that thats correct. Sitting here today, thats the only one I can remember.

Baker had at least three meetings with Sussmannthe first in person and the following two by phone. During the subsequent meetings, Baker discovered that Sussmann was speaking to the media regarding the same information he shared with Baker.

Baker admitted during his testimony that he knew Sussmann had professional involvement with the DNC.

Baker acknowledged that he soon discovered that Sussmann was also speaking to The New York Times regarding that same information. The FBI later contacted The New York Times and asked the newspaper to hold off on publishing while the bureau investigated the matter.

The information that Sussmann passed to Baker also appeared in the so-called Steele dossier, in a memo dated Sept. 14, 2016. Notably, Sussmann met with Baker five days later, on Sept. 19, 2016. Baker had initially testified he believed the meeting took place sometime before the election. Lawmakers later provided a specific date.

The server and Alfa Bank were investigated by the FBI, and were also the subject of a journalistic investigation by The New York Times. Nothing was found.

The server in question wasnt operated by the Trump Organization, but run and managed by Cendyn, a vendor that organizes email marketing campaigns for hotels and resorts, according to a Nov. 2, 2016, article by Slate. The traffic was simply mass emails, related to loyalty programs, discount offers, and the like.

During lawmaker questioning of Bakers interactions with Mother Jones reporter David Corn, it was revealed that Baker was the subject of an ongoing criminal leak investigation by the DOJ. Baker admitted to having received parts of the Steele dossier from Corn. Baker testified that these sections were different than the ones already in the FBIs possession.

Mr. Baker: My recollection is that he had part of the dossier, that we had other parts already, and that we got still other parts from other people, and that  and nevertheless some of the parts that David Corn gave us were parts that we did not have from another source.

Baker said he either knew or assumed at the time that Corn had gotten the dossier from Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, whom Steele was working for.

Simpson had been hired by the DNC and the Clinton campaign through Perkins Coie to produce the dossier on then-candidate Trump. Former British spy Christopher Steele compiled the dossier, which the FBI later used as the core of the FISA application to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

Baker told investigators that he personally reviewed portions of the Page FISA application, adding that this wasnt something he would usually get involved in. He also admitted that he didnt review the Woods file, which provides underlying documentation for the accuracy of facts represented in the FISA application.

Baker testified that he told Comey at some point that he thought the FISA was legally sufficient. Baker, however, appears not to have been aware of the politicized nature of some the information. He also acknowledged he had only read part of the FISA.

DOJ official Bruce Ohr, who was a key conduit between Steele and the FBI, previously testified to the joint committee that he had informed the bureau of Steeles anti-Trump bias, and that the dossier was tied to the Clinton campaign and the DNC. Neither fact appeared in the final FISA application before it was approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Baker also said that he only became aware of the fact that Ohrs wife, Nellie Ohr, worked for Fusion GPSwhich had also employed Steelefrom public reporting.

Mr. Ratcliffe: When did you become aware that the wife of the number four person at the Department of Justice was helping in the creation of the Steele dossier?  Mr. Baker: To the best of my recollection, I think I learned about that through public reporting.

When asked whether he was aware of Bruce Ohrs warning to the FBI, Baker responded, I dont recall ever hearing that before just right now. Baker told lawmakers he was aware Ohr served as Steeles back-channel to the FBI, but said he was unaware, however, that Ohrs FBI handler, agent Joe Pientka, funneled the intelligence to FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page.

Strzok and Page exchanged dozens of text messages expressing bias against Trump and support for Clinton, while playing key roles on the investigations related to both candidates. The discovery of the text messages led to the removal of Strzok from the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Baker told lawmakers he ordered an investigation into the messages shortly after reading them.

I only read like a couple, literally a couple. But that was enough for me to hear, that it freaked me out. And I was worried and I thought we need to get on top of this quickly, Baker said.

Baker said that, despite an ongoing investigation by the DOJ inspector general, he consulted with other folks at the FBI to put together a team to do a review the text messages.

The House Judiciary and Oversight committeeswhich interviewed nearly two dozen witnessesconcluded in December last year that the DOJ under President Barack Obama had treated Trump and Clinton unequally by affording Clinton and her associates extraordinary accommodations, while potentially abusing surveillance powers to investigate Trumps associates.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Baker thought his meeting with Michael Sussmann took place after the FISA application on Carter Page was approved. Baker in his testimony said the meeting took place sometime before the election. The Epoch Times regrets the error.

Jeff Carlson is a regular contributor to The Epoch Times. He also runs the website TheMarketsWork.com and can be followed on Twitter @themarketswork.Pro-life supporters participate in the "March for Life," an annual event to mark the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the U.S., outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Jan. 18, 2019. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Thousands Attend March for Life as Trump, Pence Pledge Support

More than 100,000 Americans from across the nation gathered in Washington on Jan. 18 for the annual March for Life, as President Donald Trump pledged in a pre-recorded video message to veto abortion-supportive bills.

If they send any legislation to my desk that weakens the protection of human life, I will issue a veto and we have the support to uphold those vetoes, Trump said in the recorded message. We know that every life has meaning and that every life is worth protecting.

Ever since the Supreme Court handed down its decision on Roe v. Wade on Jan. 22, 1973, which made it legal for women to have an abortion up to her second trimester, the peaceful rally has been held every year to mark the anniversary. The theme for this years 46th march was Unique from Day One: Pro-Life is Pro-Science.

In a surprise appearance, Vice President Mike Pence addressed the crowd in person, pledging his support for pro-lifers and introducing the message from Trump.

According to the March for Lifes president, Pence was originally scheduled to only speak at the events 37th Annual Rose Dinner.

With his wife, Karen, by his side, Pence told rallygoers to remain strong and reiterated that the Trump administration is behind them.

Know that you have an unwavering ally in this vice president, in our family, and you have a champion in the president of the United States of America, he said.

Pence also spoke at the March for Life in 2017, marking the first time a vice president attended the event.

We gather here today because we know we still have much work to do, said Pence. We urge you to stand strong. Stand with that love and compassion as you stand for life, and know that we will stand with you until that great day comes where we restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law.

Trump has named a number of conservative judges and has signed anti-abortion legislation such as reinstating the so-called Mexico City policy, which bars U.S. foreign aid money from going to NGOs that promote or perform abortions.

A bipartisan group of politicians also spoke at the event: Republican Reps. Steve Daines (Mont.) and Chris Smith (N.J.), as well as Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski (Ill.) and State Rep. Katrina Jackson (La.).

Lipinski is one of the few Democrats in Congress who openly opposes abortion.

Meanwhile, the editor-in-chief of The Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro, headlined this years rally. A number of other speakers also spoke, including religious officials and professionals in the health care industry, such as Dr. Kathi Aultman, a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

A woman cannot kill her child and remain unscathed, said Aultman. There are millions of women in the United States who have had abortions. Some of you are here.

Medical students and residents are taught that abortion is a normal part of womens health care, she added. The pro-life view is discouraged.

Just one day before the march, the Senate failed to pass the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, despite the Republican Partys four-vote edge in the chamber, on a vote of 48-47. Five Republicans didnt cast a vote on Jan. 17; their spokespeople told The Epoch Times that for various reasons, the lawmakers were unable to be there to vote in support of the measure.

The bill was to make permanent the prohibition on the use of federal funds for abortion and was sponsored by Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).

Voices Nationwide

As what looked like thousands gathered in front of the stage on the National Mall, live footage showed supporters with heavy winter gear, some holding up brightly colored protest signs. The crowd was filled with both men and women, young and old alike.

Slogans on signs ranged from Womens rights begin in the womb, to I am the pro-life generation. One sign read, Choose love, Choose life, and another read, Defund Planned Parenthood.

Cindy Falce, a resident of Pennsylvania, said she has been coming to the event since 1993, having only missed it three times since then.

When I come and march, I feel like I am doing something toward that cause, to answer to God that I have done a little tiny part to be against the slaughter of unborn babies, she said.

Others who attended argued that science is embedded in their anti-abortion stance.

I would say the scientific evidence is really clear. That baby, when conceived, is a human, said Bill Harkins, from Mobile, Alabama. Again, science is showing that.

Harkins, a deacon in the Roman Catholic Church, said the facts show that a fetus is a human life and we dont want to take human life. This year was his fourth time attending the march.

In 2016, the president wrote that he was pro-life before admitting that he didnt always hold that position. He said he changed his mind after a significant personal experience brought the gift of life into perspective for him.

I think theyre [Pence and Trump] doing well, said Bobby Tull, of St. Louis. It seems like were headed in the right direction with the Trump-Pence administration.

Paul Masek, also a resident of St. Louis and a member of the Generation Life program of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, echoed those sentiments.

Theyre supportive of specifically the pro-life issues, in terms of being anti-abortion, he said.

Holly Kellum contributed to this report.The Patriotic Art of the Arc de Triomphe

Behold the Beauty

In 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte promised triumphal arches to his troops after they won the Battle of Austerlitz.

The first arch Bonaparte commissioned was the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and construction began on Aug. 15, 1806, Bonapartes birthday.

As a great admirer of the fine arts of antiquity, Bonaparte charged architect Jean-Francois-Therese Chalgrin to look at classical architecture for inspiration. Chalgrin looked to the Arch of Titus (A.D. 81) in Rome for his design, although the Arc de Triomphe has no columns.

The 164-foot, neoclassical arch shows scenes of dynastic life as well as battle scenes, which differs from the classical tradition of triumphal arches that depict military victories only.

Near the top, a frieze runs around the arch: The east facade frieze faces the Champs-Elysees, which in Bonapartes time would have faced the Tuileries, or the royal and then his imperial palace. (The palace was destroyed in 1871 during the Paris Commune.) The east facade frieze shows French troops as they depart for new campaigns, and the west facade shows the troops as they return.

At the base of each of the four pillars stands a sculptural group on a pedestal, each showing a historic scene. The most famous is the Departure of the Volunteers of 1792 by Francois Rude, commonly known as La Marseillaise, which is also the name of the French national anthem.

La Marseillaise represents the departure of 200,000 Frenchmen, off to defend their republic. The volunteers, ordinary French folk, are represented in the sculpture as naked or in civilian dress, the young and old respectively, united in their willingness to fight for their country. The winged woman in the scene is the Genius of Liberty, who incites the men to fight.

The Triumph of Napoleon by Jean-Pierre Cortot celebrates the 1810 Treaty of Vienna peace agreement. In this sculpture, Bonaparte wears classical robes and stands proudly in the center, as Victoria, the Genius of Victory over death, holds a laurel crown above his head; in her other hand, a palm branch. Above them all hovers the winged Genius of Fame, who announces Bonapartes victory with her trumpet, a motif not seen in antiquity but that emerged in the Renaissance period. In her other hand, Fame holds a battlestaff topped with the imperial eagle, which Bonapartes battalions would have carried into battle.

The sculpture cycle is completed on the west facade, with Antoine Etexs sculptures entitled Resistance of 1814, and Peace of 1815.

King Louis-Philippe dedicated the arch in 1836 to the armies of the Republic and the Empire.

To find out more about the Arc de Triomphe, visit Arc-de-Triomphe.fr.enStudent Helps to Deliver Baby at Subway Station

A first-year medical student helped to deliver a newborn babyat a subway station in North London.

The student, 21-year-old Hamzah Selim heard screams at Warren Street station as he was walking home from an anatomy lecture.

The whole experience was unbelievable. It was such a mad coincidence, he said, according to the Evening Standard.

As Selim rushed over to the woman, he realized she was giving birth.

It was just instinct, he said.

The student had just spent the past few weeks at a neo-natal unit at University College London, the BBC reported. The woman was in a pool of blood, but he said when he saw the babys head and arms side by side, all the blood left me in that moment.

The womans sister was there helping to deliver the baby before he arrived. He tried to call someone more qualified to help but found no one was available.

Great work by Hamzah Selim, first-year medical student delivering his first baby at Tube station  https://t.co/2lM17LQw9b  Mr Shahid Mohammed Sardar  (@Shahid_MoSardar) January 17, 2019

I knew a little bit of what to do. I had to lower the woman. I took my jumper off and wrapped the baby in it. I held the baby in horror. It wasnt responding so I immediately went to the worst possible thought, he said to the BBC.

He was in utter panic when he couldnt feel the babys pulse, but he remembered to test the newborns reflexes and rubbed the babys cheek.

It just coughed in my face, and it was the best moment of my life, he said.

He said the mother was incredible, she was so strong, and so much more brave than me.

The mum did absolutely great given it was the first birth I was involved in outside the textbook, Salem said to the Evening Standard. The ambulance arrived a few minutes later and the mother and child were taken to hospital.

Wed like to thank the staff at Warren Street station, who did a fantastic job in assisting the customer who gave birth, a Transport for London spokesman said to the newspaper. London Ambulance Service attended and both mother and child were taken to hospital.

The British Transport Police Network Response said in a tweet, Wed like to wish a huge congratulations to the mum and her new baby, born today at # WarrenStreet. We didnt get there in time to deliver baby, but we still love a # goodnews story

Wed like to wish a huge congratulations to the mum and her new baby, born today at #WarrenStreet We didnt get there in time to deliver baby, but we still love a #goodnews story  pic.twitter.com/MXdB8f2z5t  BTP NetworkResponse (@BTPNetworkResp) January 15, 2019

Off-Duty Nurse Delivers Baby at Target

In a separate case, an off-duty nurse was in the right place at the right time when she noticed a heavily pregnant woman experiencing difficulties in Target in Georgia.

Tanya Saint Preux Picault decided to go shopping in August 2017 and felt fine until she started to go into labor.

I didnt think she was going to deliver that fast at first, but then she had a really painful contraction and her water broke. As a labor and delivery nurse I kind of knew what was about to happen, 24-year-old Caris Lockwood said.

I really wasnt nervous, Lockwood told ABC News. It was certainly an incredible experience, and [I] truly believe it was one of those moments where God placed the right people in the right place at the right time. Im grateful that I was there and able to help bring Tanyas baby into the world.President Trump to Make Announcement on Government Shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP)President Donald Trump says he will make a major announcement on the government shutdown and the southern border on Jan. 19.

The announcement will occur at 3 p.m. at the White House, the president said.

I will be making a major announcement concerning the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border, and the Shutdown, tomorrow afternoon at 3 P.M., live from the @WhiteHouse.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2019

President Trump and Democrats in Congress remain far apart over Trumps insistence on funding for a wall along the Mexican border as the price of reopening the government. The cost to build the wall is expected to be almost $6 billion.

The shutdown affects about one-quarter of the government, including nine Cabinet-level departments. Some 800,000 federal employees are off the job or working without pay.

President Trump criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi via social media for intending to leave the country for a foreign trip. Pelosis trip was postposed just minutes before the delegation was set to depart.

Why would Nancy Pelosi leave the Country with other Democrats on a seven day excursion when 800,000 great people are not getting paid.

Why would Nancy Pelosi leave the Country with other Democrats on a seven day excursion when 800,000 great people are not getting paid. Also, could somebody please explain to Nancy & her big donors in wine country that people working on farms (grapes) will have easy access in!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2019

Earlier in Jan. 18, the president tweeted that the GOP was unified and there would be no cave on the issue of Border and National Security.

Never seen the Republican Party so unified. No Cave on the issue of Border and National Security. A beautiful thing to see, especially when you hear the new rhetoric spewing from the mouths of the Democrats who talk Open Border, High Taxes and Crime. Stop Criminals & Drugs now!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2019

A beautiful thing to see, especially when you hear the new rhetoric spewing from the mouths of the Democrats who talk Open Border, High Taxes and Crime. Stop Criminals & Drugs now! Trump tweeted.

The political stakes are high as the shutdown moves into a fifth week.President Donald Trump walks towards Marine One while departing the White House in Washington, on May 17, 2017; Former FBI Director Robert Mueller during his farewell ceremony at the Justice Department in Washington, on Aug. 1, 2013. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters/; Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images)

Muellers Office Disputes BuzzFeed Report on Former Trump Lawyer

It claims that Trump told Cohen to lie about Trump Tower Project in Moscow

Special Counsel Robert Muellers office on Jan. 18, said it was disputing a report from BuzzFeed News that claimed President Donald Trump had directed his former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the timing of talks for a Trump Tower project in Moscow.

BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the Special Counsels Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens Congressional testimony are not accurate, Peter Carr, a spokesman for Muellers office, said in a rare statement from the special counsel.

UPDATE: A spokesperson for the special counsel is disputing BuzzFeed News report. https://t.co/BEoMKiDypn pic.twitter.com/GWWfGtyhaE  BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) January 19, 2019

The BuzzFeed report cited two unnamed law enforcement sources, claiming that Cohen told investigators working for Mueller that Trump had directed him to lie about talks with a Russian official for a Moscow Trump Tower. The alleged lie was that talks fell through in January 2016 when they actually ended in June 2016, in order to be in line with Trumps disavowals of commercial and political ties to Russia.

The BuzzFeed report claimed that Muellers office learned of Trumps alleged instructions to Cohen through internal Trump Organization emails, witness interviews, text messages, and other documents, and that Cohen told prosecutors about the directive in an interview.

Muellers spokesman disputed portions of the BuzzFeed story that appeared to go to the heart of the allegations made against Trump.

It is the first time Mueller has commented about a news article concerning his probe of Russias alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

I commend Bob Muellers office for correcting the BuzzFeed false story that Pres. Trump encouraged Cohen to lie. I ask the press to take heed that their hysterical desire to destroy this President has gone too far. They pursued this without critical analysis all day. #FAKENEWS  Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) January 19, 2019

BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith has since released a statement saying: We stand by the reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what hes disputing.

After the BuzzFeed report was published on Jan. 17, leading Democrats in the House of Representatives said they would seek to verify the story, saying that if true it would be evidence of criminal activity by the president.

The Washington Post reported that while Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had so far discouraged talk of impeachment as Speaker of the House, some senior Democrats said that if the BuzzFeed report is confirmed, Trumps actions could rise to that level (impeachment).

Earlier on Jan. 18, the White House said the story was false. Look, thats absolutely ridiculous, spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters. Trumps current lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, called it fake news. He added that any suggestion that Trump encouraged Cohen to lie is categorically false.

Now the DOJ must reveal the leakers of this false BuzzFeed story which the press and Democrats gleefully embraced. And maybe House Dems should wait to investigate until the Mueller report is filed. 4 have started already.There may be nothing to legitimately investigate.  Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) January 19, 2019

The statement was exceptional given that Muellers team rarely comments about news reports.

They are making a public comment to tell everyone to calm down, David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor, said. He doesnt want people to think his silence is confirming the truthfulness of the report.

Trump said on Twitter on Dec. 13, that Cohen made up a story to get less prison time.

I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law. He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law. It is called advice of counsel, and a lawyer has great liability if a mistake is made. That is why they get paid. Despite that many campaign finance lawyers have strongly  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2018

Despite that many campaign finance lawyers have strongly stated that I did nothing wrong with respect to campaign finance laws, if they even apply, because this was not campaign finance. Cohen was guilty on many charges unrelated to me, but he plead to two campaign charges which were not criminal and of which he probably was not guilty even on a civil basis.

The president added, Those charges were just agreed to by him in order to embarrass the president and get a much-reduced prison sentence, which he did-including the fact that his family was temporarily let off the hook. As a lawyer, Michael has great liability to me!

Donald Trump Jr., who was mentioned in the BuzzFeed report, wrote on Twitter that he is challenging the media to devote equal time to covering the Mueller teams dispute of the BuzzFeed report.

If the media does not spend  minute for minute  the same amount of time on the death of the latest #FakeNews from @BuzzFeed (RIP) that they did speculating about IF ITS TRUE ! then they should quit even pretending to be unbiased. What a disgrace. #RIPbuzzfeed  Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 19, 2019

Cohen is scheduled to begin a three-year prison sentence in March after he pleaded guilty to charges including but not limited to lying to Congress, campaign finance violations, and tax evasion. His least mentioned but toughest sentence was for crimes referred to as 2B1.1 in the sentencing guidelines (pdf), which include crimes like fraud, deceit, and embezzlement.

Kevin Corke, @FoxNews Dont forget, Michael Cohen has already been convicted of perjury and fraud, and as recently as this week, the Wall Street Journal has suggested that he may have stolen tens of thousands of dollars. Lying to reduce his jail time! Watch father-in-law!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2019

Cohen will be testifying to Senate Intelligence Committee investigators behind closed doors in February.

The Epoch Times reporters Ivan Pentchoukov and Petr Svab, and Reuters contributed to this report.

Watch next:

The SpyGate Scandal: What We Learned in 2018

2018 proved to be a year of numerous revelations that provided clarity regarding events leading up toand followingthe 2016 presidential election.A giant snowman called Frosty has turned into an icon after it survived an attempt by a vandal on Jan 14, 2019. (Courtesy of Codylutzmedia.com)

Man Tries to Vandalize a Giant Snowman, Learns the Best Lesson of His Life

What would you do if you saw a giant snowman? Maybe you would take a few good selfies, appreciate the work that went into making it, share pictures on your social media or call a local TV station. But in this case, the person thought of vandalizing it and karma instantly hit back!

Cody Lutz, his fiance Lucy, and Lucys sister decided to build a giant snowman in their front yard after a snowstorm hit in Kentucky.

We were playing in the snow, shes from Mississippi so this is the most snow shes ever seen in her entire life. Im from Buffalo so this is no big deal, Lutz told WXIX. I love the snow!

To build a 9-foot-tall snowman that would survive for many days, Lutz and Lucy decided to use a large tree stump as the base. They covered the exposed bark with snow and no one knew what was inside, tricking the would-be vandal.

Instant karma: Front yard Frosty with tree trunk base teaches KY driver a valuable lesson https://t.co/CSYI5psp5a pic.twitter.com/5P4OSWIxax  FOX19 NOW (@FOX19) January 16, 2019

On Jan. 14, when Lutz came back home, he saw tire tracks leading to the giant snowman in his yard. Someone had tried to run over the snowman and had hit the tree stump.

Instant Karma! Lutz told WXIX. Its hilarious! You know, what goes around comes around, in good ways and bad ways. So, I guess everyone learns a valuable lesson here from Frosty.

Frosty has become a national icon of good attitude and Lutz has built him a fan page on Facebook. Guys frosty has a fan page. Show him some respect after his ordeal, their post said.

Frostys fan base is slowly building. I love his good attitude in spite of the lack of respect from the truck driver that tried to plow him over. Just look at that contagious smile! said netizen, Vicky Blough Daniels who recommended the page Tree-Stump Frosty on Facebook.

Another fan, Beverly Kelley McGaw thought of Frosty as an anti-vandalism icon.

Lutz and Lucy are planning to build another massive snowman on Jan. 20, and have called it the Petersburg Snowman Building Party! The couple have posted a public invitation about it on their Facebook.

The survivor snowman has been making a lot of news globally and Lutz and Lucy have become instant celebrities. Lutz whos a brand and marketing photographer shared three images of Frosty for the first time on Jan. 16. They were titled, Stop your audience in their tracks.Long Island 22-Year-Old Killed in Hit and Run on New Years Day

It was an hour-and-a-half into the New Year when Taekwon Campbell was the victim of a fatal hit-and-run in Central Islip, Long Island. A video of the incident was released by the Suffolk County Police Department on Jan. 15.

The New Year was greeted with heavy rain, and Campbell was walking through the storm. At about 1:30 a.m., he was struck by a car.

After striking Campbell, the car pulled over to the side of the road to park, when suddenly Campbell was run over a second time by another car. Drivers and passengers from both vehicles rushed out to check on Campbell once theyd stopped.

No Help Was Offered

The suspects can be seen panicking and checking on Campbell. At some point, it looks like they grab Campbell and move him to the side of the road.

Three of the four suspects rushed to their car while one stayed behind looking at Campbell. According to the police video on Youtube, they fled the scene afterward, leaving Campbell on the side of the road.

A cash reward of up to $5,000 has been offered by Suffolk County Crime Stoppers for any information leading to an arrest, and justice for Campbell and his family.

Fundraiser for Peace

Ishera Govan started a campaign on GoFundMe to raise money for her brothers funeral with a goal of $5,000. Currently, $315 have been raised by 10 people since its start on Jan. 2.

Cambell wasnt troublesome, he was a boy who loved his skateboard and video games, reads the campaign story. He was also turning 23 on Jan. 13, less than two weeks after the incident. His funeral will be held on Jan. 18.

Govan, her family, and Campbells friends are the energy behind the GoFundMe, and they all ask for the same thing: contributions to help lay Taekwon down in PEACE.

Hit and Run in Long Island

Another hit and run accident occurred in South Hempstead on Jan. 14. A gas station worker was killed after the driver of an SUV ran him over. The 59-year-old worker was pronounced dead at the hospital.

On Jan. 18, Joshua E. Roston was arrested by Nassau County police after he turned himself in overnight in Pennsylvania, according to Newsday. Roston turned himself in after a press conference was held by the police department on Jan. 17, where a picture of the suspect was released.Indonesia to Release Suspected Bali Bomb Mastermind From Prison

JAKARTAAbu Bakar Bashir, the radical Muslim cleric and alleged mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings, will be granted early release from jail on humanitarian grounds, Indonesias president said on Jan. 18.

Bashir, 81, who is considered the spiritual leader of the Islamist group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), was convicted in 2010 under anti-terrorism laws for links to extremist training camps in Aceh province and jailed for 15 years.

President Joko Widodo, who is seeking re-election in April, has been criticised by opponents who question his Islamic credentials and accuse him of backing the criminalisation of clerics.

The first reason is humanitarian. He is elderly and his health is also a consideration, Widodo told reporters, according to a statement from the social affairs ministry.

Widodo also cited security concerns, but he did not elaborate.

Cleric who inspired terrorists who killed 202 people in Bali bombing is freed from prison ahead of Indonesian elections https://t.co/QCGycnJpvc  Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) January 18, 2019

A legal adviser in Widodos campaign team, Yusril Mahendra, said he had lobbied the president for Bashirs release.

This shows to the public that it is not correct that Jokowi persecutes or criminalises clerics, Mahendra was quoted by Indonesia media as saying. Jokowi is the presidents nickname.

Scores of the more than 200 people killed in the 2002 bombings of Bali nightclubs were Australian and Canberra has previously urged against leniency for Bashir.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Jan. 19 that he has been in contact with the Indonesian government.

Australias position on this matter has not changed, weve always expressed the deepest of reservations, Morrison told reporters in Melbourne.

The Bali attack spurred Indonesia to set up its now elite anti-terrorism squad Densus 88 or Detachment 88, which received funds and training from Australia and the United States.

It was not immediately clear when Bashir would be released from prison in Bogor, a satellite city near the capital Jakarta, or what the terms of his release would be.

Bashirs lawyers said he was eligible for early release because he had served more than a third of his sentence, but he had refused to sign documents detailing the requirements for his probation.

Security officials have previously raised concerns about the clerics influence in radical networks. In 2016, police moved him from a maximum-security prison on Nusakambangan island in Central Java to Bogor.

By Agustinus Beo Da Costa and Kanupriya KapoorU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officer Jeremy Bucher patrols the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Reserve near Ajo, Ariz., on March 27, 2006. (David McNew/Getty Images)

Four Women Convicted After Leaving Food and Water in Border Area for Migrants

A federal judge has found four women guilty of entering a national wildlife refuge without a permit as they sought to place food and water in the Arizona desert for migrants.

The four convicted women, who are volunteers from a group named No More Deaths, include Natalie Hoffman, Oona Holcomb, Madeline Huse, and Zaachila Orozco-McCormick.

Hoffman was found guilty of operating a vehicle inside Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, entering the federally protected area without a permit, and leaving water jugs and cans of beans there in August 2017. The others were found guilty of entering without a permit and leaving behind personal property.

According to the Arizona Republic, the case stemmed from an encounter with an FWS officer on Aug. 14, 2017. The volunteers were dropping off one-gallon plastic water jugs and canned beans in a protected wilderness area in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Arizona.

One officer from the FWS testified during the trial that none of the four women had filed the necessary permits required to access the area.

The Defendants did not get an access permit, they did not remain on the designated roads, and they left water, food, and crates in the Refuge. All of this, in addition to violating the law, erodes the national decision to maintain the Refuge in its pristine nature, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bernardo Velasco wrote in his decision (pdf).

Velasco also blamed No More Deaths for failing to warn their volunteers about the full consequences of violating the refuges regulations.

No one in charge of No More Deaths ever informed them that their conduct could be prosecuted as a criminal offense nor did any of the Defendants make any independent inquiry into the legality or consequences of their activities, he wrote in the order.

The Court can only speculate as to what the Defendants decisions would have been had they known the actual risk of their undertaking, he added.

The Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge is along 56 miles of the Mexico-United State border. Any individual of 18 years old or over is required to obtain an access permit to enter the refuge, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS).

The visitor needs to print two copies of the permit, one for the vehicle and one to keep with themselves, according to the FWS website.

The Jan. 18 verdict is the first conviction against humanitarian aid volunteers along the U.S.-Mexico border since 2009, when a federal judge found another No More Deaths volunteer guilty of littering for dropping off water jugs at the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, the Arizona Republic reported.

Massive Catch of Illegal Aliens

Days before the verdict, a group of 376 Central American migrants surrendered themselves to the Border Patrol in Arizona on Jan. 14, after tunneling beneath the border wall near San Luis, Fox News reported.

Additional footage of #YumaSector Border Patrol agents processing the group of 376 Central Americans on Monday. #NationalSecurity #SouthwestBorder pic.twitter.com/SohiN2XPu0  CBP Arizona (@CBPArizona) January 18, 2019

The tunnels, about a few feet long, were reportedly dug by smugglers under the steel border.

Almost all were families or unaccompanied juveniles, the CBP Arizona said in a Twitter post.

Pictures of #YumaSector Border Patrol agents processing the group of 376 Central Americans on Monday. #NationalSecurity #SouthwestBorder pic.twitter.com/NxKE2VIeow  CBP Arizona (@CBPArizona) January 18, 2019

In my 30 years with the Border Patrol, I have not been part of arresting a group of 376 people, CBP Yuma Border Sector Chief Anthony Porvaznik told ABC News.

Thats really unheard of, he said.

Wall to Prevent Unnecessary Deaths

For decades, the desert where the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge is located has been one of the most deadly areas for migrants trying to enter America illegally.

According to Humane Border, a Tucson-based group that compiles data and logs it on the Arizona OpenGIS Initiative for Deceased Migrants website, the remains of at least 3,011 dead migrants have been recovered in southern Arizona between 2001 and 2018.

Some groups and local residents have been aware that a border wall may help to prevent these tragic deaths.

Migrants flee via Arizonas desert route and die horrible deaths. In order to circumvent the coyotes, many take great risks. 1.) overheating, starvation, dehydration; 2.) Execution (not paying cartel fees) 3.) human trafficking. A border wall WILL help deter this journey!  USARampart.com (@UsaRampart) August 3, 2018

Migrants flee via Arizonas desert route and die horrible deaths. In order to circumvent the coyotes, many take great risks. 1.) overheating, starvation, dehydration; 2.) Execution (not paying cartel fees) 3.) human trafficking, wrote USA Rampart in a tweet. A border wall WILL help deter this journey!

@POTUS Does anyone remember the 3,00 deaths on the Arizona Desert since 1998 that could have been prevented with a wall? I lived in Tucson several years and do know about them picked off the desert every week. @TommyThomason35  Tommy Thomason (@TommyThomason35) January 5, 2019

A Tucson resident who named himself as Tommy Thomason on Twitter also expresses similar support for a border wall and thinks it will prevent the death in the desert.

Does anyone remember the 3,00[0] deaths on the Arizona Desert since 1998 that could have been prevented with a wall? I lived in Tucson several years and do know about them picked off the desert every week, he wrote in a Twitter post.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Feds Confirm Jailed Iranian TV Anchor Not Charged With Crime

WASHINGTONFederal officials confirmed on Jan. 18, that a prominent American-born anchorwoman on Iranian state television was jailed in the United States as a material witness and has not been charged with any crime, according to court papers.

Marzieh Hashemi has appeared twice before a U.S. district judge in Washington and has been appointed an attorney. U.S. government officials expect her to be released immediately after her testimony before a grand jury.

The order to unseal some parts of her case came days after she was first detained. It did not include details on the criminal case in which she was named a witness. Her son Hossein Hashemi did not comment on details of the case outside court on Friday.

It was not clear how long her testimony would take.

Were hoping that it would be complete and she would be out this week. It doesnt look like thats going to happen, he said. So were just waiting to hear more.

Federal law allows judges to order witnesses to be detained if the government can prove that their testimony has extraordinary value for a criminal case and that they would be a flight risk and unlikely to respond to a subpoena. The statute generally requires those witnesses to be promptly released once they are deposed.

Marzieh Hashemi, who works for the Press TV networks English-language service, was detained by federal agents on Jan. 13, in St. Louis, where she had filmed a Black Lives Matter documentary after visiting relatives in the New Orleans area, her son said. She was then transported to Washington and has remained behind bars since then.

Hashemi, 59, is a U.S. citizen and was born Melanie Franklin. She lives in Tehran and comes back to the United States about once a year to see her family, usually scheduling documentary work in the U.S., her son said.

Hossein Hashemi said he, his brother and his sister also have been subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury. Asked whether his mother had been involved in any criminal activity or knew anyone who might be implicated in a crime, Hashemi said, We dont have any information along those lines.

Marzieh Hashemis detention comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the United States. Iran also faces increasing criticism of its own arrests of dual citizens and other people with Western ties.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement early Friday expressing concern over Marzieh Hashemis case and asked the Justice Department to disclose the reason for her arrest. The groups statement noted that Iran routinely jails journalists.

By Michael Balsamo and Lisa Nicole MatthewsDemocratic Socialists of America Supports Brazils Communist Resistance

Commentary

In the 1980s and 90s, Americas largest Marxist organization, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), played a role in bringing a Marxist government to power in Brazil. Well into the 2000s, the DSA worked to build ties between the United States and Brazilian socialist and labor movements.

Now that Brazils new anti-communist President Jair Bolsonaro is removing Marxist government contractors and cracking down on leftist and communist elements, the DSA has joined the anti-Bolsonaro resistance.

The DSA and their allies perceive President Donald Trump and Bolsonaro as enemies in their quest for global socialism. This unifying cause has propelled the United States and Brazilian resistance movements to strengthen ties.

On Jan. 4, the Miami branch of the DSA rallied with the Black Rose Anarchist Federation (Rosa Negra) and the combative anti-capitalist/imperialist group One Struggle at downtown Miamis Torch of Friendship to protest the Bolsonaro inauguration.

The Facebook invitation stated explicitly that the groups hope to signal closer cooperation between social movements in Miami and social movements in Brazil.

According to the events Facebook page:

Internationalism is not an abstract question for us. Its not a matter of choice. Its an urgent necessity, especially when you consider that Trump is simply one of many fascists currently exercising power in the Americas.

For this reason, we call on all comrades to mobilize on Friday, January 4th against the inauguration of Jair Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro has come to prominence in recent years as the voice and face of the far-right in Brazilian politics.  A Bolsonaro presidency signals a return to the horrors of Brazils military dictatorship.

The anti-Bolsonaro rhetoric is extreme and reminiscent of the hard-lefts cringe-worthy and often violent response to Trump.

In a blog post posted on the Black Rose website about their anti-Bolsonaro event with the Miami DSA, the author claimed that Bolsonaro came to power by embracing overt misogyny, racism, homophobia, and transphobia. Supporters of the new president, the article continues, have harassed or attacked organizers and journalists, and Bolsonaro has expressed fascist values.

In one particularly disturbing post on the anarchist website Enough is Enough, video footage shows masked anarchists shouting in Portuguese: Fascism is not be discussed, it is to be destroyed! and No Bolsonaro, No Bolsonaro, No Bolsonaro!

The video was shared by the New York City Antifa Twitter page, which boasts over 33,000 followers at the time of this report. The blog post also featured a disturbing image of Bolsonaro with arrows protruding from his face, neck, and chest.

The irony is that a month before the election in Brazil, candidate Bolsonaro was allegedly stabbed by Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, a longtime affiliate of the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL).

It should be noted that at its biennial national convention in Chicago in August 2017, the DSA cheered wildly the spokespersons from the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) of Brazil, in a symbolic effort to identify itself with the broad left parties of the left in Europe and Latin America, according to New Politics.

While the DSA clearly isnt alone in its anger over the Bolsonaro presidency in Brazil, the organization played a role in imposing a Marxist government on Brazil and, therefore, has an interest in seeing its investment endure.

Lula

Former iron-worker and labor activist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (popularly known as Lula), helped found the Brazilian Partido dos Trabalhadores or Workers Party in 1980. Openly a party of the left, it wasnt doctrinaire or overtly communist.

The Workers Party was a coalition of multiple strands of the Brazilian leftabout a dozen major currents, ranging from Trotskyist and MarxistLeninist to leftist social democratic. While the Workers Party has run in several elections as a partner of the Communist Party of Brazil, Lulas non-denominational leftist coalition proved effective, winning over many millions of Brazilian voters.

Lula ran unsuccessfully for president three times before achieving victory in the 2002 election. He was re-elected in the 2006 election, then was succeeded by his former chief of staff, Dilma Rousseff, in 2011. Rousseff, the daughter of a Bulgarian communistwho herself took up arms against the government in several Marxist guerrilla groups in the 1960swas impeached and removed from office in 2016.

Lula was jailed for corruption in 2018, paving the way for Bolsonaros openly anti-communist campaign and eventual electoral victory.

In the United States, the DSA took a strong interest in Lula and his innovative political strategy. DSA member Stanley Gacek was a labor attorney and American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) international affairs assistant director, responsible for the federations relations with Latin America and the Caribbean.

Gacek has spoken and written extensively on Brazilian labor and politics, and has been a friend and special adviser to Lula and the Workers Party since 1981, according to the winter 2005 issue of the DSA publication Democratic Left.

In 1990, in collaboration with Cuban President Fidel Castro, Lula and his Marxist adviser, Marco Aurelio Garcia, called a meeting of all significant left-wing groups from Latin America and the Caribbean in Sao Paulo to save what had been lost of communism in Eastern Europe and the old USSR.

Representatives from 48 communist parties and terrorist groups attended. This gathering, which became known as the Sao Paulo Forum, became a near-annual event and was the chief coordinating body for the Red Tide that swept socialists and leftist parties to power all over South and Central America through the 1990s and early 2000s, and in Mexico in 2018.

This made Lula a hero of the international left, including within the U.S. socialist and communist movements.

On April 17, 1993, the DSA hosted a reception for an extremely distinguished delegation of democratic socialist leaders from Latin America in the Upper West Side of New York City, home of prominent DSA comrade Gene Eisner, according to the MayJune 1993 edition of Democratic Left. The guests, all of whom would be running for president of their respective countries within the next year, included Ruben Zamora of El Salvador, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas of Mexico, Antonio Navarro Wolff of Colombia, and Luis Inacio Lula da Silva (Lula) of Brazil.

DSA leaders attending this august event included then Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union President Jack Sheinkman and DSA National Political Committee member and Latino Commission Co-Chairman Jose La Luz.

Incidentally, in 2008, La Luz was the chairman of Latinos for Obama, where he worked to mobilize Latino voters for the former president.

On Sept. 23, 2003, the extreme-left Washington non-profit Institute for Policy Studies held its 27th annual Letelier-Moffitt Memorial Human Rights Awards.

The International Award recipient was Colombian peace activist Nancy Sanchez Mendez, and was presented by U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a longtime DSA member and supporter.

The Special Recognition Award went to Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, president of Brazil (in absentia). It was presented by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, a DSA member and Gaceks boss.

In December 2006, Lula visited the United States, where he paid a visit to his socialist and labor friends.

Gacek covered the meetings for the pro-Cuba North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA):

With Lula as President of Brazil, U.S. labor and the AFL-CIO have a very direct and promising opportunity to implement our vision of global justice and workers rights. Lula is an ally and friend for a number of historical, personal and ideological reasons. 

President Lula is also well aware of the importance of international labor solidarity to his success. He made the following remarks to several hundred friends and admirers in the lobby of the AFL-CIO building on December 10, an audience that included President John Sweeney and other members of the Federations Executive Council: If I succeed, all of you will succeed; and if I fail, all of you will fail. But I cant fail, and do you know why? It might take a hundred years for another trade union leader to be elected the president of Brazil, so we cant afford to squander this opportunity. 

In a Resolution on Democracy in Brazil posted on the Miami DSA website in October 2018, the radical group reaffirmed their commitment to align with socialists in Brazil and to defeat capitalism globally:

RESOLVED, that The Democratic Socialists of America of Miami-Dade County will work to answer the call made by the National Political Committee to seek out Brazilian allies in the Miami area and work with them to organize actions in solidarity with the Brazilian people.

RESOLVED, that we have a special obligation to deepen bonds of solidarity with socialist political movements, workers movements, and social movements in Latin America and the Caribbean and that we will actively work to foster these relationships both as a local chapter level and at the national level of the Democratic Socialists of America.

RESOLVED, that we believe borders are violent and drawn by the ruling class and that our only hope of defeating capitalism lies in building a socialist movement based on global proletarian cooperation to redistribute wealth and dismantle empire.

With Brazil moving away from socialism with the election of Bolsonaro, the DSA is watching its work in Brazil crumble. Moreover, if socialism is overturned in Brazil, that could lead to a cascading effect that could overturn Marxist governments in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and eventually even Cuba.

The DSA is dedicated to preserving socialism in Brazil and imposing socialism in the United States, their ultimate prize. Americans must pay attention to freedom lovers in Brazil. Patriots should likewise offer support to Brazilian patriots to build an anti-Marxist front.

America is fighting the same enemy of liberty.

Trevor Loudon is an author, filmmaker, and public speaker from New Zealand. For more than 30 years, he has researched radical left, Marxist, and terrorist movements and their covert influence on mainstream politics.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.California Officer Slain Weeks Into Job Was Perfect Cop

DAVIS, Calif.A 22-year-old California officer killed weeks into the job was a dedicated daughter and sister who represented the best of the police community, family and fellow officers said on Jan. 18 at a packed memorial service.

Loved ones and officers from across the country packed about 8,000 seats at an indoor arena at the University of California, Davis, to pay tribute to Natalie Corona, who had dreamed from a young age of going into law enforcement like her father.

It was truly in her blood, Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said. I placed a bet that one day shed be the police chief. I know what it takes, and she had it.

Officer Natalie Corona of @cityofdavispd your life mattered. We stand with your family, @cityofdavispd, the Davis community & SPD Academy Class #18BR1 and ours s are broken. You are a hero Natalie  and we will never forget you #inthelineofduty #sacpd #officercorona pic.twitter.com/QbwFHhJ5Mp  Sacramento Police (@SacPolice) January 11, 2019

He apologized to her parents, Merced and Lupe Corona, for the shooting death of their daughter last week as she responded to a car crash.

You delivered to us the perfect cop. Our commitment to you was to get her home, he said. Im so sorry that we didnt get her back home to you.

Coronas slaying has shocked Davis, which prides itself as a safe, family-friendly community anchored by one of the states top universities. The last time a police officer died in the line of duty in Davis was in 1959.

Officers lined walkways on the campus and saluted as family members followed Coronas casket into the 90-minute service. Uniformed officers took their seats, holding their hats, as a slideshow on giant screens displayed family pictures and Coronas brief professional life.

Musician Billy Ray Cyrus sang a song he wrote for soldiers of the Vietnam War and said Coronas smile touched his heart.

Shes a light in this world that wont be forgotten, he said.

This video given by friends of #NatalieCorona says she always had a smile on her face. And they wanted the world to see ther beloved friend. #KTVU @cityofdavispd pic.twitter.com/F2IzYimueu  Paul Chambers (@PaulChambersTV) January 11, 2019

Family, colleagues and others who knew Corona have recalled her vibrant smile, compassion, dedication and lifelong dream of joining law enforcement in the footsteps of her father, who spent 26 years as a Colusa County sheriffs deputy.

Merced Corona said he tried to get his daughter Nat to join the county force, but she told him that she had found the perfect department in the perfect city and couldnt picture herself anywhere else.

Today we lay to rest our beloved sister cop, he said.



The father of Fallen @cityofdavispd Officer #NatalieCorona , Jose Merced Corona shared this story about his daughters kindness. The 22-year-old, was shot & killed in Davis last night by a suspect who later took his own life. @FOX40 pic.twitter.com/ScixLyZCjt  Doug Johnson (@DougJohnsonFX40) January 11, 2019

A rising star in the Davis department, Corona graduated from the Sacramento Police Academy in July and had completed her field training in December. She was assigned to patrol on her own just weeks ago.

On the evening of Jan. 10, there was no apparent danger when Corona responded solo to a three-car crash in downtown Davis, near the university campus. But as Corona talked to the drivers, gunfire erupted.

Police say gunman Kevin Douglas Limbaugh, 48, was not involved in the crash but rode up on a bicycle and opened fire on Corona without warning. He hit her in the neck and fired more shots as she lay on the ground, reloading at least twice as he fired at passing vehicles, narrowly avoiding wounding others before he casually walked home.

Police are still investigating the motive and say Limbaugh did not appear to know Corona or specifically target her. It is also not yet clear if Limbaugh had planned the attack or acted spontaneously, Davis police Lt. Paul Doroshov said.

Limbaugh dropped a backpack that led officers to identify him and trace him to his house, where he had a brief standoff with police, went back inside and killed himself, the Davis police chief said.

Police found two unregistered semiautomatic handguns at the house and a handwritten note on the bed that claimed police had been bombarding him for years with ultrasonic waves and he cant live this way anymore.

Limbaugh was charged and convicted in a battery case last fall after assaulting a colleague at a casino where he worked. He was ordered then to surrender a semiautomatic rifle he owned. It is not clear how he obtained the two handguns.

After the memorial service, a funeral procession is planned from Davis to the town of Arbuckle about 40 miles north, where the Corona family lives. The slain officer is survived by her mother, her father and three younger sisters.Pall bearers carry the casket of Vietnam veteran Peter Turnpu as hundreds of strangers gather for a funeral in Wrightstown, New Jersey on Jan. 18, 2019. (Joe Lamberti/Camden Courier-Post via AP)

77-Year-Old Veteran Dies Alone, Hundreds of Strangers Show Up at Funeral

Hundreds of strangers came together on Friday, Jan. 18, for the funeral of a U.S. Army veteran who died alone at his New Jersey home last month.

Peter Turnpu, 77, died on Dec. 9 from natural causes. He had no known relative and few friends. So a police officer asked LeRoy Wooster, owner of LeRoy Wooster Funeral Home in Atco, to help put together a service for Turnpu.

It was the right thing to do, Wooster said. I didnt want him to be buried alone.

More than 1,000 paid their respects at the funeral in North Hanover Township, around 42 miles east of Philadelphia, on the afternoon of Jan. 18. An honor guard from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst was also present.

A procession of around 200 vehicles made its way from a church to the funeral to pay respect to Turnpu. Mourners lined up and saluted as pallbearers carried the flag-draped casket, some weeping and others giving a salute.

The veterans among the mourners, some leaning on canes and many decorated with medals and holding flags, saluted as the casket passed, the Inquirer reported.

Wooster obtained information about Turnpu after finding a letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs during a visit to a VA hospital in Philadelphia.

He told the Inquirer that Turnpu was born in Estonia on July 3, 1941, and came to the United States with his mother after his father died. He served in Vietnam from 1964 to 1966 and received an honorable discharge.

Hundreds of people, veterans groups and beyond are here at the Veterans Memorial Cemetery In Wrightstown to honor, thank, pay tribute & say goodbye to fallen Vietnam Veteran Peter Turnpu.NBC10 Philadelphia  Cydney Long  2019118

It took weeks of searching for Wooster to find the information and learn that Turnpu was eligible for burial with full military honors at the Brigadier General William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery.

Wooster donated a casket, transportation, and services as a funeral director. The state provides a free burial plot to veterans and their spouses.

I really did not want the publicity and I am not a hero. The hero is Peter. The heroes are the veterans who are here to honor him, Wooster told WPVI-TV.

Were all brothers. Nobody should go out alone, said Ordway VanHee, the vice president of the Vietnam Veterans of America New Jersey Chapter 899 in Wrightstown, when attending the service.

Rev. Rochelle Coles is among the veterans who came to show respect for Peter Turnpu, a veteran who died with no known family pic.twitter.com/dFP7A55Ytr  Melanie Burney (@MLBURNEY) January 18, 2019

Connie OHara, who said she knew Turnpu in the early 1950s, described him as a blonde little boy my age and an avid stamp collector while posting condolence on the funeral homes webpage.

Former Army Capt. Rogers Ramirez leads mourners in a rousing rendition of The caissons go rolling along. pic.twitter.com/4Of0MJNc0B  Melanie Burney (@MLBURNEY) January 18, 2019

A person named Rohan Corera called Turnpu a true American patriot in another condolence.

I only read about this story online so I didnt know this individual. Immigrated to America. Served our nation. A true American Patriot. Thank you for your service. RIP, he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From NTD News10 Iconic World Landmarks Now Made in China

There is no need to pay exorbitant airfares to visit famous landmarks worldwide when you live in China and have them all in your own backyard.

Thanks to Chinas duplitecture (duplicated architecture), half of Europe can be visited without taking a step out of the country.

Are these copycat structures an outward manifestation of a lack of originality and cultural self-confidence, or actually a representation of Chinas growing wealth and construction expertise?

The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower located in Hangzhou bears strong physical similarity to the original. Interestingly, the 1887 construction of this tower was met with much opposition from French people who objected on artistic grounds.

By showing that its making it big, China has turned to faking it big, commented Bianca Bosker, author of Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China, reported by CBC. I think that its important to recognize that by recreating Paris, China isnt paying homage to France. Its celebrating Chinas own successes.

The Great Sphinx of Giza

This full-scale replica of the famous Egyptian monolith can be found reclining outside of Shijiazhuang. It was once ordered to be demolished in 2016 in acquiescence to Egypts demand, a direction which Chinese workers acted upon by decapitating the mythical creature.

However, its head was reattached in 2018, prompting a furious Egypt to file a complaint with UNESCO, the cultural arm of the United Nations.

Italys Grand Canal

Complete with European buildings, man-made canals, and gondoliers dressed in traditional Venetian clothing, the Chinese have outdone themselves with the Venice of the east.

Chinas Florentia Village imitates an Italian town, and is actually an outlet mall with more than 200 shops, boasting classic Italian luxury brands including Gucci, Fendi, and Prada.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

5,000 miles away from the real deal, Shanghais freestanding bell tower is deliberately engineered to slant to mirror Bonanno Pisanos 1372 architectural wonder.

Meanwhile, engineers in Italy are still working toward making their gravitationally-challenged landmark lean less.

Despite the extensive labor of engineers, Roberto Cela, engineer and technical director at the OPA, which looks after Pisas main monuments, predicted that the tower will never be completely straight, as reported by the South China Morning Post.

It is a building that has been extensively studied for over 100 years but there are still so many things to know, he said.

The U.S. Capitol

 as pictured in Beijing.

The U.S. Capitol sits alongside other replicas: the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, New Yorks Statue of Liberty, and the Washington Monument.

Moai Statues of Easter Island

No Rapa Nui people were involved in the construction of these statues lining a pedestrian walkway in Beijings business district.

Moai statues were constructed to honor important people, such as chieftains, who had passed away.

The first European visitor to the island in 1722, Jacob Roggeveen, described native people praying to the idols: These idols were all hewn out of stone, and in the form of a man A clear space was reserved round these objects of worship by laying stones to a distance of twenty or thirty paces.

The Roman Colosseum

This famous amphitheater was historically known for its public spectacles and gladiatorial contests, so it seems only fitting that China has built its twin in a theme park in Macaua gambling hotspot.

The replica serves as an outdoor concert venue which seats 2,000 people.

The Sydney Opera House

One of the most recognizable structures in the world, the Australian performing arts centre paved the way for much of the complex geometries in modern architecture.

The Alpine Village of Hallstatt

Hallstatt, a centuries-old UNESCO world heritage site in Upper Austria, cost metals and mining company China Minmetals Corporation $940 million to build a replica of in Chinas southern city of Huizhou, attracting not only tourists and property investors, but also angry backlash from Austrians who had been left completely in the dark about the project.

The made in China version of the village was eventually revealed to Austrians when a Chinese visitor to the heritage site let word of the Chinese constructions slip.

The controversy was eventually settled amicably, with the popularity of the cloned village boosting the numbers of Chinese tourists to Austria. Residents of Austrias Hallstatt, a village of around 900, traveled to Guangdong to attend the opening ceremony.

Moscows Kremlin

Chinas reverse engineering of the Kremlin can be found 18 miles (30 kilometers) outside of Beijing in the form of a government office complex, home to the Mentougou Weather Bureau.

The Kremlin has been home to the most powerful men in Russia since the days of the tsars.

The buildings bear extravagant, onion-shaped golden domes, white walls, and arched windows.

One notable break in the illusion is the absence of crosses on the domes, a likely result of the Chinese Communist Partys atheist position and active persecution of religious groups.

Chinas attitude towards mimicry is said to be rooted in history. Palaces belonging to rival kingdoms conquered by the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, were replicated within his own capital city.

What are your thoughts; are Chinas doppelgangers soulless and tacky, or the sincerest form of flattery?State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham has been named the chair for the Senates Health and Human Services Committee.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also named Kolkhorst as a member of the Senate Committees on Finance, Transportation, Nominations and Water and Rural Affairs.

The Senate Committee on Health and Human Services is responsible for setting public health policy for the state, regulating physicians and other healthcare professionals, and providing legislative oversight to state agencies and boards, including the Health & Human Services Commission, Department of Family & Protective Services and the Texas Medical Board among many other health-related licensing agencies.

Kolkhorst served as chair of the House Committee on Public Health for six years during her tenure in the House of Representatives. In addition to health policy, the committee chair also oversees nearly $80 billion of health care spending in the state budget.

As a member of the Senate Finance Committee, Kolkhorst will continue to serve as a budget writer.

With Kolkhorsts reappointment to the Transportation Committee, Kolkhorst will oversee the Texas Department of Transportation and will work with local officials on solving traffic problems and highway needs.A Bryan man who turned himself in to Midland authorities on Jan. 8 in connection to the death of a College Station woman is now in the Brazos County Jail, records show.

Terry Dan Ratliff, 54, is charged with murder, aggravated assault of a family member with a deadly weapon and tampering with evidence in the death of 39-year-old Theia Flakes.

Authorities said just before 4:30 p.m. Jan. 7, one of Flakes three daughters arrived at the Oasis Apartments on Dominik Drive after school and found Flakes unresponsive. The child called an adult relative for help, and the relative called authorities.

The official cause of Flakes death will be determined by a medical examiners autopsy investigation. Police who confirmed Flakes and Ratliff, who had been held in the Midland County Jail, have a dating history.

He is being held in the local jail on $1.35 million bond.Click the image to the left and log in to get your exclusive reader perks.EARLVILLE - Mary E. Watkins, 90, passed away Monday, June 14, 2021, at her home surrounded by her family. She was born in Davenport, a daughter of Horace and Katherine Olmstead Burns and was a graduate of Davenport High School. On June 29, 1950, Mary married Gerald E. Watkins in Oneonta, andThis is the temporary subscription pass for users returning from the Vision Data subscription process. Your subscription will be updated within 24 hours, after your information is verified. Please click the button below to get your pass.This subscription will allow current subscribers of The St. Helens Chronicle to access all of our online Subscriber-Only 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 call us at 1-503-397-0116.Bill Ford Envisions Electric Pickups, EV Sales, Going the Last Mile

Soft demand for electric vehicles and an unclear regulatory future were among the challenges facing the automotive industry debated during a variety of panel discussions at AutoMobili-D on Thursday at NAIAS.

On one hand, automakers and suppliers are busy reinventing the future with the multi-billion dollar investments in hybrid, electric and self-driving vehicles. At the same time, the industry  along with regulators and municipalities  continue to debate the most effective ways to fit all of the new forms of emerging transportation together in a way that is both profitable and benefits consumers.

From Ford Executive Chairman Bill Fords perspective, these are exactly the issues the automotive industry should always be focused on.

If our mission is to improve peoples lives around the world  and I would argue that we have done that  then we have a chance now to reinvent what mobility means for the future, Ford said during The Final Word, sponsored by The Detroit News. What we are trying to do is create the best cars and trucks for today, and then prepare for tomorrow, which is largely unknown.

Electric Scooters  A fun ride or urban clutter?

New modes of transportation  ranging from e-bikes and scooters to self-driving shuttle buses  are all viewed as possible ways to provide last mile services to people in dense population areas.

Scooters have simultaneously emerged as one of the most popular and most controversial last mile services over the past 12 to 18 months. Those who use them say electric scooters are quick, efficient and fun. Those who dislike them say they are dangerous, users lack etiquette, are prone to crashing and leave them laying anywhere.

Ive heard many people complaining about coming out of a crowded event and everybody is literally tripping over a pile of Bird scooters, said David Byron, manager of design and innovation strategy at Sundberg-Ferar. Its kind of emerged as an urban clutter issue.

However, Brett Wheatley, vice president of Fords Mobility Marketing Group, said customers have enthusiastically embraced electric scooters.

For anybody who has ridden one, they are just fun  they are addictive, Wheatley said, adding that many consumers are choosing to use scooters instead of calling an Uber.

Steve Vozar, chief technology officer and co-founder of May Mobility, said scooters work well for one person but not for groups of people or for somebody who needs to get to a grocery store. Vozar said the transportation industry and urban planners need to focus efforts on identifying underserved, dense population centers and connecting those people to other transportation systems.

Overcoming electric vehicle sales barriers

Even though just about every global automaker has announced plans to launch multiple electric vehicles in the coming years, sales of EVs only accounted for about 1 percent of U.S. vehicle sales in 2018.

Sujit Jain, president of E Vehicles and Powertrain Solutions for Bosch, identified three barriers to widespread adoption of electric vehicles during a discussion about E-Mobility: What Are We Waiting For? They include:  Low gas prices  An unclear future U.S. regulatory structure  The relatively limited range and high cost of batteries

These factors are largely outside of the control of Bosch and other suppliers and it is likely that these headwinds will continue in the foreseeable future, Jain said. The most important contribution that suppliers can make is to provide cost-effective and efficient solutions.

Paul Eichenberg, managing director of Eichenberg Strategic Consulting, said, Europe is driving global regulation of CO2 emissions and fuel efficiency.

Industry sales of the traditional internal combustion engine are not, Going away anytime soon, regardless of the headlines you read, said Scott Adams, Senior Vice President, Product Management and Sales, eMobility  Vehicle Group. In fact, the companys projections call for ICE vehicles to retain a 71 percent share of the global vehicle market in 2030 compared with 88 percent now.

Still, the consensus of panelists was that the auto industry must forge ahead with providing e-mobility solutions to customers worldwide despite these obstacles, and doing so will be one of the most important missions for corporate survival.New York: US President Donald Trump has sought to end the longest federal government shutdown in US history by announcing a compromise proposal that would fund his promised border wall while providing protections for immigrants at risk of deportation.

In an address from the White House on Saturday local time, Trump struck an unusually conciliatory tone, describing his plan as a "straightforward, fair and reasonable" attempt at bipartisan compromise.

But the President's proposal received a frosty reception from leading Democrats who said his offer did not go far enough to protect undocumented immigrants who had entered the US as children.

They insisted any negotiations over a border security should not begin until the government re-opens.Washington: US regulators have met to discuss imposing a record-setting fine against Facebook for violating a legally binding agreement with the government to protect the privacy of its users' personal data, according to three people familiar with the deliberations but not authorised to speak on the record.

The fine under consideration at the Federal Trade Commission  a privacy and security watchdog that began probing Facebook last year  would mark the first major punishment levied against Facebook in the US since reports emerged in March that Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy, accessed personal information on about 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge.

The penalty is expected to be much larger than the $US22.5 million ($31.4 million) fine the agency imposed on Google in 2012. That fine set a record for the greatest penalty for violating an agreement with the FTC to improve its privacy practices.

The FTC's exact findings and the total amount of the fine have reportedly not been finalised. Credit:AP

The FTC's exact findings in its Facebook investigation and the total amount of the fine, which the agency's five commissioners have discussed at a private meeting in recent weeks, have not been finalised, two of the people said. Staff have briefed the commissioners about their probe, the third person said, and plan to issue a formal recommendation for a fine soon  a move that would then trigger a vote by the commissioners.Afghanistan's presidential race is in full swing, with several former officials lining up to challenge President Ashraf Ghani in a vote to be held in July, amid a raging war and fears that yet another fraud-marred election could further destabilise the country.

On Friday, Mohammad Hanif Atmar  a powerful former national security adviser who parted ways with the government in August  became the most serious challenger to formally join the race so far. He vowed to "save the country" from what he has described as Ghani's mismanagement.

Former national security adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar (centre) and his running mates Yunus Qanuni and Mohammad Mohaqia register at the Independent Elections Commission in Kabul on Friday. Credit:AP

He joins a list of former officials who have either formally joined the race or declared that they will do so. They include Rahmatullah Nabil, a one-time intelligence chief who has selected an army general and a female former Cabinet minister as his running mates (Afghanistan has two vice presidents); Zalmai Rassoul, a 75-year-old former foreign minister, who came a distant third in the disputed 2014 race that brought Ghani to power; and Shaida Abdali, a former diplomat seen as close to former president Hamid Karzai.

Ghani, who has declared he will seek a second term, is scheduled to begin his re-election bid on Sunday, local time. A senior official close to him said Ghani had dismissed his controversial first vice-president, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, from the ticket, replacing him with Amrullah Saleh, a former intelligence chief Ghani recently tapped to lead the country's police force.Rome: Three survivors of a rubber dinghy that sank in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya say up to 117 other migrants were aboard at the time, a UN migration official said.

It appeared to be the latest tragedy on the dangerous central Mediterranean route from North Africa to Europe.

Flavio Di Giacomo of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) told Italian state TV on Saturday that "unfortunately about 120" migrants were reported by survivors to have been on the overloaded smugglers' dinghy when it was launched from Libyan shores on Thursday evening.

A migrant rescued from the Mediterranean Sea in December. Credit:AP

"After a few hours, it began sinking and people began drowning," Di Giacomo said.London: When I heard that Oxfords famous Bodleian library had a secret hoard of 3000 obscene books known as the Phi Collection, naturally I had to check it out.

I was picturing a lantern-lit, dusty corridor in the 400 year-old Bodleians gothic depths, a pale librarian with shaking hands pointing to a heavy oak door bound by padlocked chains.

Instead, I crossed the road to the Bodleians modern extension, and was nodded in the direction of an exhibition of 20 or so books in a glass cabinet in the lobby.

The University of Oxford's 'Phi Collection' is home to 3000 booked deemed 'obscene'. Credit:Nick Miller

This isnt the entire Phi Collection, of course. That rests in the Bodleians new, huge and utterly unsexy storage warehouse in Swindon, explains this temporary exhibitions curator, Professor Jennifer Ingleheart, a Latin scholar from Durham University.Fremantle will play host to nationwide crisis talks aimed at tackling a range of issues in the fishing industy, including the Western Rock Lobster debate, next month.

Peak-body Seafood Industry Australia will meet with local and interstate fishing councils in the port city on February 6.

Seafood is coming under heat as industry leaders question how long before the government wipes it out. Credit:WAFIC

SIA chief executive Jane Lovell said the meeting was called to deal with a "nervousness" felt in almost every state's fishing industry.

In WA, youve got the rock lobster 17 per cent ordeal happening, she said.Firefighters are still battling to extinguish a factory fire in Campbellfield after local residents heard explosions coming from the building.

The blaze was brought under control about 2.30am, however, investigators will be unable to enter the building until the fire is completely out.

The factory was used for recycling batteries and other machinery, according to the MFB.

"It appears the building was crammed full of batteries and other combustible materials. The EPA is in attendance and will investigate further in the light of day," a spokesman for the MFB said in a statement on Sunday morning.

He said the loud bangs coming from the factory were caused by batteries exploding in the intense heat.Detectives have named the man found dead in his apartment by his sister in Brisbane's north as Robert Charles Frescon.

Police were yet to determine what led to the death of Mr Frescon but were treating the death as a homicide.

Detective Acting Inspector Christopher Toohey is appealing for information about the death of 33-year-old man Robert Charles Frescon. Credit:Queensland Police

Mr Frescon's sister went to check on him after he did not turn up to work on Friday.

Emergency services were called to 1/36 Hunter Street at Kelvin Grove after the 33-year-old man was found dead in his unit about 3pm on Friday.A Senior Constable has been left with a suspected broken nose after being punched in the face after stopping two vehicles for a random breath test on the Gold Coast.

The 59-year-old man was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital for treatment following the incident at Coomera overnight.

Three people have been charged after a random breath test stop. Credit:Michelle Smith

Police said the Road Policing Command officer stopped the vehicles about 8.15pm on Friday for random breath tests on Beattie Street.

The drivers, a man and a woman, returned positive roadside breath test results and were seated in the back seat of the police vehicle.Move over Ivy, Hudson, James and Hunter  and hello Willow, Leo, Archer and Theodore.

The most popular baby girl and boy names lodged with the Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages in 2018 have been revealed.

The most popular baby names in Queensland in 2018 have been revealed.

Charlotte and Oliver continue to reign supreme for the fourth year running as the most popular baby names in Queensland.

The popularity of Charlotte has been thought to have been influenced by the birth of Princess Charlotte in 2015, to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.I suspect you would have more choices if you plan to keep working past 60. Aim to establish a situation where you actually enjoy your work, and plan to take long annual holidays that make working worthwhile.

If we conservatively assume you contribute just the net rent for five years, you could build your super up to between $350,000 and $400,000, depending on the funds earnings, salary increases etc. If you continue to spend $80,000 a year, the money would run out in around 5.5 years. You could, if you so choose, then begin to sell off the rental properties, one by one. You dont mention how many there are, or their value, but I would guesstimate their value to be about $1.5 million. Alternatively, however, you might want to leave them for your children.

If the income you receive from rent falls into the 37 per cent tax bracket, then after tax and Medicare levy, you are left with $3,075 a month to save, totalling $36,900 a year. You could reduce tax by topping up your employers nine per cent employer super contributions to the maximum $25,000 a year (or more simply by maximising a salary sacrifice arrangement).

I am a 55 year old single mother with two high school children and earn $85,000 a year after tax. I estimate our yearly expenses to be around $80,000, including an annual holiday. Last year, I inherited money and rental properties from my parents. After paying off my mortgage, this left me with $50,000, which I plan to use for home repairs, braces for the children and for a rainy day. The rental properties return $5,000 a month after expenses and before tax, which I plan to save until I retire, if possible. I only have $100,000 in super plus $25,000 in Telstra shares. Can I retire when Im 60, or will I need to keep working beyond that? L.M.

My wife and I are both 53, we have no children and own our home. I retired at 50 on a Commonwealth Defined Benefit full pension of $70,000 a year on which I pay tax at the marginal rate with a 15pc offset due at age 55 and I think its then tax free from the age of 60? My wife isnt officially retired but doesnt work. She has $750,000 invested in a five year fixed term deposit and the interest she earns requires her to do a tax return. She also has a Colonial First State industry super fund with $50,000 in it. We both have separate everyday bank accounts with $60,000 each. We dont have a lot of expenses and are comfortably living off my pension, so what Id like to know is whether or not it would be a better option for us to move money out of the bank and into my wifes super? Id like to know if either myself or my wife, can do this and is there a limit on how much we can move into her super and also if there are any tax implications, i.e. would it have to be non-concessional contributions for both of us? Or are there any tax incentives for us to put extra money into her super even though we dont work but do pay tax? M.K.

The taxation of your CSS pension is a little more complex. It is what is known as a hybrid pension, and consists of three different tax components.

The first is easy, its the number of dollars you contributed after tax and called the taxfree component. This portion of your pension is always taxfree, regardless of your age.

The second is the taxable component-taxed element composed of the Governments three per cent productivity component negotiated with the Public Sector union back in 1990, since the union insisted that the money actually be put aside regularly and not just promised at retirement. Good thinking!

Since the money is actually invested by Comsuper and the earnings subject to 15 per cent tax over the years, as are the earnings on your contributions (above), this portion of your pension is fully taxed until you begin your pension or, in your case, reach your preservation age."When I asked how much higher the bid was, he replied he wasnt able to share that information. In shock, the couple said they needed more time and would call back soon. Loading Five minutes later, I called and explained that the property was advertised at $470 and I didnt want to be part of a bidding war, he adds. I was angry and felt that I was being bribed into paying higher than advertised; its false advertising. Ive seen units advertised within a set price range but this wasnt the case.

Frustrated, Coombes saw the same unit advertised again for rent the following Saturday. I dont understand what the agent was trying to achieve but when games like this are played everyone misses out. Real Estate Institute of NSW chief executive Tim McKibbin said that in tough rental markets it was not uncommon for someone to walk into a property and offer the agent a higher price. I understand the frustration of renters trying to secure a place, weekends are lost and they want them back. He said an agent could get into trouble if they had not done their due diligence on potential renters.

"If there are six people interested in a unit, the agent has to make sure the person who offers the highest amounts has the full capacity to fulfil their duty to pay rent. The bottom line is the agents job is to secure the best rent for the landlord. If someone comes along and makes a higher offer, an agent must put this to the landlord. At the end of the day the landlord will make the decision, he said. Changes are underway In Queensland, it is illegal for landlords to start a bidding war on an advertised price.

Nevertheless, there is nothing to stop them accepting offers from prospective tenants. New South Wales, Western Australia and South Australia do not have legislation in place preventing rent bidding from occurring. However, under the Australian Consumer Law section 18, a person must not, in trade or commerce, engage in conduct that is misleading, or deceptive, or likely to mislead or deceive. A spokesperson from NSW Fair Trading said state laws did not prohibit the practice described as rent bidding or rental auctions. There is nothing to prevent a potential tenant from offering to pay a higher rental amount than advertised.

However, an agent cannot misrepresent or advertise a price they or the landlord is not willing to accept. Also, it is not misleading or deceptive conduct if an agent is informing a potential tenant that another party is interested in the property and have offered to pay a higher rent, then give the potential tenant the opportunity to make a counter-offer. The Real Estate Institute of Victoria states rental bidding is legal as long as it complies with the Residential Tenancies Act. But there are changes afoot. The Andrews government passed a series of rental reforms last year that included more than 130 changes. They will progressively come into effect. For instance, rental properties will have to be advertised at a fixed price, and agents cannot request or solicit rental bids. ''The reform does not prevent residential rental providers and agents from accepting a rental bid if it is offered unprompted by a prospective renter,'' Consumer Affairs Victoria information says.

''The reform leaves market participants to choose if they want to offer a bid, rather than in response to opportunistic price-gouging by RRPs and agents.'' The rise of apps A number of rental bidding apps, such as Rentberry and PropertyConnect, allow tenants to submit offers to landlords. Consumers have raised concerns in some states, with groups in NSW and Canberra calling for bans on rental apps, as they drive up rental prices. The ACT government is examining a regulatory approach to rent bidding apps. McKibbin recommends a cautious approach. Technology is moving a lot faster than the law, the app you choose may not be legal, he said.The name was changed to Cabbage Patch Kids in 1982. Credit:Courtesy of Cabbage Patch Kids Cabbage Patch Kids were all the rage in the early 1980s. I recall the story that they started out as "The Little People" and were never offered for sale as such but were "adopted", each coming with its own name and birth certificate. The change of name to Cabbage Patch Kids was made in 1982, when toy maker Coleco started to mass-produce the dolls but kept the idea of each one having a name and birth certificate. The craze lasted for about three years in Australia, and I remember my youngest daughter insisted on taking her two adopted "children" with us on holiday to New Zealand. I believe she still has her Cabbage Patch dolls to this day. THE BIG FREEZE

Sunny-boy's existed up until 2016. Credit:Courtesy of the Daily Juice Company A Sunny-boy was one of the great favourites from the school tuck shop. Sunny-boy was orange flavoured and one of a range of frozen products in similar packaging: Razz was raspberry and Glug was sort of cola flavoured. And if you found the words "Sunny-boy Free Drink" inside, that's what you got! Despite this, its popularity didn't last. "The Daily Juice Co. can confirm that we have regrettably had to make the hard decision to stop production of the icy treat, Sunny-boy, as of August 2016," a spokesperson for the company said. "Unfortunately, Sunny-boy has experienced a sustained reduction in consumer demand over a long period of time, making it necessary to delete the product from our range of water ice treats." CHILLING OUT Here's another great Australian invention, the Esky. First registered as a trade name in 1952, the term is now so commonly used in Australia that it's become the generic name for many types of portable coolers or ice boxes. As such, it's part of the Australian vernacular.

The Esky. Credit:Courtesy of Scrapdogs on eBay The original Esky was created by Malley's, a Sydney refrigeration business, and the company asserts it was "recognised as the first official portable cooler in the world". According to Malley's, some 500,000 Australian households owned one by 1960, a remarkable figure in a country of approximately 10 million people. WORLD'S TASTIEST WORMS Suzi Catchpole from the Essential Kids website laments the fact that, because of changes to the biscuit by the manufacturer, Arnott's, it's no longer possible to make Vita-Weat "worms". "There probably wasn't a single kid of the 1980s who didn't know the catchy Vita-Weats jingle off by heart, thanks to its TV ad," says Suzi. "At the 17-second mark there was an image of a young boy squeezing Vegemite and butter 'worms' through those fabled holes  curling as they grew longer before finally being destroyed with a lick of the tongue.

Did you used to make worms with your biscuits? Credit: "There's a ritual involved in eating VitaWeat worms; it's as much a part of me as the smell of Reef Oil in summer, of the rush of wind through my hair as I ride a bike." I can only agree, Suzi. FLY ME TO THE MOON Anyone remember playing on one of these? In the early 1960s, a Blue Mountains Council engineer, John Yeaman, visited the US and brought back plans for a playground "rocket". Funded by the Rotary Club of Blackheath, the first Blackheath Rocket was built and installed in the Blackheath Soldiers Memorial Park by Blue Mountains City Council. Over the years the park became known to locals as the "rocket park". Dick West, who owned a welding business in Blackheath, went on to make rockets that popped up in playgrounds across NSW, as well as in Queensland and South Australia. In 1997, the original rocket, along with other heritage playground equipment, was removed due to insurance issues. Blackheath Rotary Club has since set up a Gofundme campaign to raise money for a new rocket.

The 'rocket park' Credit:Sladew BUBBLING OVER This is the first known recipe for chocolate crackles  a favourite snack for generations of Aussie kids. It appeared in an advertisement in the Australian Women's Weekly in December 1937, under the entirely accurate headline: "Gee, they're good!" The ad was placed to plug the vegetable fat Copha, one of the key ingredients of the crackles. Another key ingredient is crispy rice cereal, and in 1953 Kellogg's, the manufacturer of Rice Bubbles, nabbed the trademark for "chocolate crackles", which it still holds. In 2003, Kellogg's reportedly stepped over the line when it attempted to (gasp!) trademark the recipe itself. Fortunately, the story was more media beat-up than corporate power grab  it's all but impossible to patent or trademark a recipe.Back in 1971, John Kerry  who would go on to be the 2004 Democrat nominee for the presidency and then Secretary of State  was a young decorated hero of the Vietnam War. He had no sooner returned to the USA than he appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to plead that Americas involvement in the unwinnable war be brought to a halt. On that occasion, he asked a famous question:How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?''

Premier Gladys Berejiklian does not believe pill testing is effective. Credit:AAP

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Might I ask the same of the NSW Government with their unwinnable war on drugs and their continued, if now faltering opposition to pill-testing at music festivals? As the evidence on the virtues of pill-testing around the world grows, just as outrage over needless deaths builds, does anyone doubt that five years from now we will have pill-testing? So why not do it now?

How do we ask another festival-goer to die for want of instituting the very policy advocated by most of those on the front-line  the police, doctors, and emergency workers? Yes, those whose job in life it is to feed populist prejudices  the shock-jocks and certain columnists  will implode, but that is just a bonus. This far in, Premier Berejiklian, you must recognise that all the endless rhetoric about just say no has had as much impact as sniffer dogs  three-fifths of stuff-all.The Ballesty family spends as much time in the water as they can, often battling the waves as they swim from Manly to Shelly beach.

It's important for Paul Ballesty, 74, to spend time with his grandkids. Mr Ballesty wants them to think of him as the adventurous and energetic man he is.

"I don't have great recollections of doing things with my grandparents but we [Mr Ballesty and his wife] have been fortunate to do things with our family, from holidays to swimming," he said.

The Ballesty family have a tradition of swimming the Cole Classic together. Credit:Christopher Pearce

Swimming was an integral part of Mr Ballesty's childhood. When it came time for him to learn to swim, his father and two brothers took him down to the local baths at Cabarita.A newly developed family of drugs could cut cholesterol by up to 75 per cent and prevent thousands of strokes, heart attacks and deaths.

But theres a catch: the drugs cost about $8000 per patient per year.

Unless the manufacturer cuts prices, subsidising it for the hundreds of thousands of Australians with high cholesterol could blow out the health budget.

Michael Lynch uses a PCSK9 inhibitor, and credits it with lengthening his life. Credit:Louise Kennerley

The new drugs, called PCSK9 inhibitors, pose a big dilemma for health authorities around the world: how much is preventing a heart attack worth?For some time Ive had a policy not to debate the existence of human-induced climate change, especially not with strangers on the internet.

In my experience the only people still in doubt are not the type to be persuaded by facts. If you present evidence, theyll simply attack the credibility of the source and insult you for believing it.

My position as a journalist is simple. When the scientific community has genuine debate, Ill report the evidence and counter-evidence and various viewpoints. When there is near consensus, Ill regard the science as settled until such time as that changes.

The ocean around Tasmania used to be renowned for forests of giant kelp, with strands measuring 12 metres, but most of it has died off as the waters have warmed. Credit:Craig Sanderson

Climate change falls into the latter category, so the fertile ground for a journalist is to examine how it plays out in specific ecosystems, and how humans respond to it both through public policy and as individuals.But here in the Tien Shan, the biggest effect may be on the supply of water for people and agriculture.

With colleagues from the Kazakhstan Institute of Geography, Shahgedanova has made the slow trip from Almaty, 24 kilometres to the north and nearly 3 kilometres below, lumbering up a steep, rutted mountain road in a giant Russian utility vehicle. At the road's end sits a Soviet-era research station that, like the Tuyuksu itself, has seen better days.

On the glacier, researchers maintain an array of measuring stakes planted in holes in the ice. Last year, at the end of the summer melting season, the team drew lines on the stakes marking the height of the ice, as researchers have done here for decades. Now, looking at a stake nearly a year later, Nikolay Kasatkin, one of the institute researchers, and Shahgedanova saw that more of the wood was visible. With the end of melting still a couple of months off, parts of the Tuyuksu were already almost a metre thinner.

The Tuyuksu, which is about a 2.5 kilometres long, is getting shorter as well. When the research station was built in 1957 it was just a few hundred metres from the Tuyuksu's leading edge, or tongue. Now, reaching the ice requires scrambling on foot for the better part of an hour over piles of boulders and sediment left as the glacier retreated. In six decades, it has lost about a kilometre.

As the Tuyuksu melts, the rivulets turn into torrents, carving channels in the surface. The flows merge, forming a stream that joins with those from other melting glaciers to become the Little Almaty River, one of several glacier-fed rivers that flow through and around the city. They supply some of the drinking water for the region's two million people and irrigation water for fields of corn and other crops outside the city.MEDITERRANEAN WITH SIMON REEVE



8.40pm, SBS

Ah, the Mediterranean. Fried fish. Pristine beaches. Ouzo. Maybe a light-hearted affair. Not if you're Simon Reeve. The intrepid yet unfailingly pleasant traveller tonight escorts us to Libya, where the first bit of sightseeing takes in the motorway roundabout where Daesh likes to crucify infidels. Yes. Crucify. But as always with these journeys there is light and shade, so we also visit the astonishing Leptis Magna before heading off to relatively wholesome Tunisia, and then Sicily. As always, utterly fascinating.

Mediterranean with Simon Reeve: The show's host takes us on a fascinating trip to Libya. Credit:Craig Hastings

SONGLINES



7pm, NITV

Coming from beautiful East Arnhem Land, tonight we have the story of Njambi, the flint spear, as told to the children and grandchildren of his skin-group by elder Roy Wuynumbi Ashley. It's a songline that encompasses all kinds of aspects of life and history and it feels an enormous privilege to witness a contemporary performance of a big chunk of actual ceremony. Intriguing, poetic and enlightening, you're left with a visceral sense of a truly living culture.AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR AWARDS



7.30pm, ABC

Of the eight finalists for this year's Australian of the Year, two are women and one is an indigenous man. I guess that is better than eight white men, and it is always difficult to truly criticise the nominees because they are invariably genuinely exceptional. For what it is worth, my money is on South Australia's Dr Richard Harris, the cave-diving anaesthetist who helped rescue the boys in Chiang Rai. Kumi Taguchi and Anthony Lehmann (that's Lehmo to his mates) will bring it to us live.

Seth MacFarlane in "The Orville".

THE SONG KEEPERS



9.15pm, NITV

Absolutely beautiful documentary the celebrates an often-forgotten aspect of our clash of cultures: the incredibly fruitful relationship that often flourished between Lutheran missionaries and the local indigenous people, particularly in the preservation of language. Here, the women of remote Central Australia were taught ancient hymns in language and 140 years later musical director Morris Stuart helps to revive the women's choral tradition, and then take the songs back to Germany. Exquisite.ART BY TWILIGHT AT HEIDE

Keeping the doors open late for cool summer nights of art and live music on Friday, January 25, and Saturday, February 16, between 5pm and 8pm, Heide is offering M readers the chance to score one of five doubles to the session on Friday, January 25. View the current exhibition, Mirka Mora: Pas de Deux  Drawings and Dolls, before joining the Australian Art Orchestra as they explore the meeting points between disciplines and cultures, and imagines new musical forms to reflect the energy and diversity of 21st century Australia. BYO picnic or order a light snack from Cafe Heide. To enter the draw, email your details to promotions@heide.com.au before midnight tonight.

Mirka Mora: Pas de Deux  Drawings and Dolls is on at Heide. Credit:C.Capurro/photo

MIDSUMMA EXTRAVAGANZA

Following on from last year's sold out Comedy Extravaganza, the 2019 event has been upsized to take over the Arts Centre Hamer Hall on Tuesday. January 29. A mega celebration of Australia's talented LGBTI artists, this all-star show of epic proportions promises to be the queer event of 2019. We have three doubles (worth $474 in total) to join host Rhys Nicholson and guests  including Yummy, Trevor Ashley, Zoe Coombs Marr, Carlotta and Joel Creasey  to indulge in the diverse offerings. Send your details to competitions@artscentremelbourne.com.au before midnight tonight and you'll register to win."Because of the nature of the job theres a fair amount of concentration required. We've always said if youre sick, you take a sick day - but people know if they take a sick day off theyll be super busy the rest of the week. "Were pretty adamant that if we see someone at work coughing or spluttering, well tell someone to go home and not make everybody else sick." Were pretty adamant that if we see someone at work coughing or spluttering, well tell someone to go home and not make everybody else sick. Gareth Bryant This recasting of the sick day is apparent in other countries too as employers take into account the varying responsibilities of their staff. Mark J. Marsen, director of human resources for Allies for Health & Well-Being, a US agency for those with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, says the sick day "is alive and well" at his company, although the semantics have changed.

"We call them 'personal emergency days'," Marsen says. Broadening the definition gives employees greater privacy, Marsen says. It also takes into consideration mental health and whether a child or another family member who depends on the employee is sick and requires care. No longer does the employee have to "sell" their sickness to their boss with a list of symptoms. Personal days mean "you're not able to do work today because of some circumstance," Marsen says. Last month, Marsen caught a cold while traveling and missed two days of work. On the third day, he says, he felt well enough to work from home and checked his email, getting rid of the junk in his inbox. "That's a life enhancer," he says.

Dr Anne Junor, an academic at the University of NSW, says that a lot of professionals don't take official sick leave because they fear the work will be waiting for them when they get well. So when the workload increases  they take it home and are also likely to keep working whilst sick. "Even people who have sick leave entitlements may find it very hard to take sick leave, because of work pressure. The works going to be piling up for them when they come back," Junor says. "There are some jobs where the difference between being at work and at home if youve got various devices is immaterial.

"Depending on the job, you might lose contracts, sales, clients ... you may seem discourteous. It piles up. The work demands continue. Theyre constant - so its just as easy to do work from your sick bed, really." Junor also says a fear of needing it later was another contributor as to why workers rarely use up their full allocation of sick leave each year. It piles up. The work demands continue. Theyre constant - so its just as easy to do work from your sick bed, really. Anne Junor "Its a rare employee who would take their annual quota of sick leave. Its always a worry in the back of your mind; what if you got really sick in the future and youd used up your entitlement?" AHRI chairman Peter Wilson says that private workplaces have to be more flexible in order to lure the most talented people into their fold - backed up by AHRI data which also showed that people in the public sector take more than three extra days a year off compared with private counterparts, with 10.8 days per annum compared to 7.4.

"Theres a lot more working from home and remotely and we found that, when talking to employers, this reflects an understanding between the mix of interdependent work and independent work," he says. Loading He says that there was no logical reason that independent work - requiring no input from others in your team or management - could not be done remotely. Recent ABS data showed that more than 30 per cent of Australians now work from home in some capacity - an increase from under 20 per cent just 15 years ago. "You can be facing a commute of two hours each way - and if thats not necessary then youre giving people four hours of their life back," Wilson said.Beneath the sea of green in risk assets right now is a rippling tide of doubt and anxiety.

On the surface, the picture is approaching perfect. The S&P 500 Index, off to its best start since 1987, just posted a fourth weekly gain. It's up 13 of 17 days since Christmas and the moves are being matched step-for-step by global stocks. Volatility keeps receding. Commodities and emerging-market equities have surged. Leveraged loans advanced again. High-yield bonds did, too.

Wall Street's rally to start 2019 may be a false dawn. Credit:AP

Yet 2019's stellar start still lacks something to prove it's more than a dead cat bounce in a new downtrend: conviction.

Every price gain seems matched by an outflow, every inflow matched by a hedge. Analysts are fickle, at odds, or AWOL. And volume is down -- those sidelines must be crowded.New Orleans police on Friday arrested a man accused of shooting two people in Algiers on Christmas, killing one and wounding another.

Damyia McInnis, 28, faces counts of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder following the slaying of Leon Bush and the wounding of a woman whose name has not been released.

The shooting in question occurred at the corner of Gen. Meyer Avenue and Casimier Street about 5:20 p.m. Bush was struck multiple times and died at the scene. The woman was hit in the leg and taken to a hospital for treatment.

Police stopped short of saying exactly how they linked McInnis to the case. He was arrested at a home in the police district that patrols areas such as Gentilly and then taken to jail, police said.

He would be sentenced to life in prison if eventually convicted of murder.

In other matters recently handled by local authorities:

 New Orleans police have arrested three men accused of stealing a backpack from a cyclist at gunpoint last year, officials said Friday.

Shomra Christophe, 18; Keyon Doby, 19; and Antonio Collins, 20, each face one count of armed robbery in connection with the case.

The robbery in question occurred about 8:55 p.m. Oct. 7 in the 4900 block of Perrier Street in Uptown, when a cyclist noticed three people in a car were following him. The cyclist went to the side of the road, and the car pulled alongside him. A man stepped out of the back of the car, pointed a gun at the cyclist, and demanded his backpack, who surrendered the bag, police said.

The robbers fled. Police didnt say how they linked Christophe, Doby and Collins to the case, but detective later obtained a warrant to arrest them.

Police captured Christophe on Jan. 8, and the other two were arrested on Thursday.

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 The Orleans Parish Coroners Office identified the man killed in the 8700 block of Birch Street in the Leonidas neighborhood on Wednesday as Darren Isom, 59.

 New Orleans municipal officials are using Wisner Foundation grant money to buy guns back from city residents from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at New Hope Baptist Church, 1807 Rev. John Raphael Jr. Way in Central City.

Each qualifying, participating resident will receive $500, though multiple weapons can be disposed of.

Guns must be in a bag or case and in working condition. They must also be provided by an Orleans Parish resident. A photo ID is not required, but proof of residency is.

Only personal weapons are being accepted. They must not be issued by any public agencies.

Gun locks will be available at the event, officials said.

 Andrew Breaux, 26, was arrested on allegations that he pointed a gun at a security guard who ordered him out of a bar in the 500 block of Bourbon Street in the French Quarter about 1:45 a.m. Thursday, New Orleans police said Friday.

Breaux faces counts of aggravated assault, illegal possession of a firearm inside of an establishment selling alcoholic beverages, negligent carrying of a concealed handgun and criminal trespassing, police said.

 About 9:10 p.m. Thursday in the 7700 block of Read Boulevard in New Orleans East, a woman told investigators she was sexually assaulted by a man she knew, police said.

 Two men stole a wallet from a 36-year-old man holding groceries and standing at the corner of Franklin Avenue and North Derbigny Street on the edge of St. Roch about 9:45 p.m. Thursday, New Orleans police said. The men pulled up in a car  one of them put the victim in a headlock and demanded his wallet, which the victim handed to the second man, police said. The robbers fled in their car.

 A man snatched the purse of a 42-year-old woman waiting at the bus stop at the corner of Alabo Street and St. Claude Avenue in the Lower 9th Ward about 9:50 p.m. Thursday, New Orleans police said. The man ran away.Gov. John Bel Edwards makes a point while answering a question as he speaks at the Press Club of Baton Rouge luncheon Monday Jan. 7, 2019, in Baton Rouge, La.Protesters marched from Canal Street to the Convention Center where President Donald Trump was scheduled to appear Jan. 14. Protesters demanded an end to the federal shutdown and talks of a muti-billion dollar wall on the U.S.-Mexico. border.Louisiana's top court agreed Friday to hear the case of a St. Landry Parish man whose convictions were reduced in a fiery, 2011 'road rage' crash in Baton Rouge that killed five people.

East Baton Rouge Parish prosecutors are asking the state Supreme Court to reinstate David Leger's original vehicular homicide convictions and eight-year prison sentence.

The state 1st Circuit Court of Appeal reduced Leger's convictions in 2017 to negligent homicide and ordered him resentenced, saying nothing pointed to his intoxication as a contributing factor in the Interstate 10 crash that killed five Ascension Parish residents, including three young boys.

"We are pleased that the Supreme Court has agreed to consider the decision of the appellate court and believe that upon review of the briefs that the Supreme Court will reinstate the verdict of the jury," District Attorney Hillar Moore III said Friday.

Leger's appellate attorney, Rachel Conner, has asked the high court to let the appeals court ruling stand. She argues there is no evidence of a causal relationship between Leger's intoxication and the fatalities.

Leger's blood alcohol level after the crash was 0.10 percent. A blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent is considered presumptive evidence of drunken driving in Louisiana for those 21 and older.

A partially empty bottle of rum was found inside Leger's pickup after the crash.

Trial testimony indicated Leger, 36, of Palmetto, and Kelsye Hall, 29, of Baton Rouge, were engaged in a high-speed game of "cat and mouse" on I-10 West when Leger's truck attempted to pass Hall's sport utility vehicle on the right shoulder. The two vehicles came into contact, and Leger's truck spun out of control and crossed the grassy median.

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

Convicted drivers in alleged road rage-related fatal crash point fingers at each other The convicted drivers in a fiery crash allegedly the result of a road-rage chase on Interstate 10 in Baton Rouge that killed five Ascension Pa

His truck smashed into a car driven by Effie Fontenot, 29, of Prairieville, on I-10 East between the Highland Road exit and Bluff Road overpass. Fontenot's car burst into flames.

Fontenot was killed, as were her sons  Austin and Keagan Fontenot, 3 and 11, respectively, and Hunter Johnson, 7. Kimberly Stagg, 19, of Prairieville, who was riding in the front seat, also died.

Hall, who was not intoxicated, was found guilty by state District Judge Trudy White on five counts of negligent homicide and sentenced to two years in prison in 2013.

An East Baton Rouge Parish jury convicted Leger in 2014 on five counts of vehicular homicide, and state District Judge Chip Moore sentenced him to eight years in prison.

In 2016, state District Judge William Morvant awarded nearly $5.5 million to the victims' families who sued Leger, Hall and their auto insurance carrier. The judge found Leger and Hall  who blamed each other at the trial of the lawsuit  equally at fault for the crash and the damages.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 Ouray Silver Mines Inc. is now a subsidiary of Aurcana Corporation, a Vancouver, Canada-based public company that develops and operates mines. Above, workers clear out a roadway to the mine. (Courtesy photo)The University of St Andrews has announced the discovery of what could be the oldest surviving classroom periodic table of elements chart.

Periodic Table Found In Storage Room

In a statement, the British public university said staffers from the School of Chemistry found the old poster while cleaning out their storage room in 2014.

The poster, which dates back to 1885, is printed in German on a linen-backed paper. It was found rolled up along with a clutter of decades-old laboratory equipment, chemical vials, andfhing charts.

The paper was so old it started to crumble when touched.

Purchased By Chemistry Professor In 1888

School records revealed the history of the table. An entry in the financial transaction records in the university's archives showed the table was bought in October 1888 by Thomas Purdie.

Purdie worked as chemistry professor at the university from 1884 until 1909. The table likely hung in his classroom until his retirement.

The table was produced in Vienna in 1885. Researchers were able to narrow down the print date of the poster using hints from the elements represented and left out on the chart.

Gallium and scandium, which were discovered in 1875 and 1879, respectively, were included in the chart. Germanium, however, which was discovered in 1886 was not included in the table.

Conserving What Could Be World's Oldest Surviving Periodic Table Chart

The chart has since received a full conservation treatment. The National Manuscripts Conservation Trust (NMCT) in collaboration with Richard Hawkes, who established the Artworks Conservation, awarded the University's Special Collections a funding grant for the conservation of the chart.

"We are delighted that we now know when the oldest known periodic table chart came to St Andrews to be used in teaching," University of St Andrews Head of Special Collections Gabriel Sewell said in the university statement.

"Thanks to the generosity of the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust, the table has been preserved for current and future generations to enjoy and we look forward to making it accessible to all."

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Scientists have discovered bodies of tiny, ancient creatures preserved undisturbed for millennia in a kilometer-thick slab of ice deep in an Antarctic lake.

Tardigrades And Crustaceans Beneath The Icy Lake

Researchers with the Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA) project found the remains during a mission to drill into the Mercer subglacial lake.

Scientists found the carcasses of the small animals, which ranged in size from 0.1 mm to 1.5 mm, after inspecting mud from an instrument lowered into the lake's icy waters. The mud contained remnants of algae that lived here millions of years ago, when Antarctica was much warmer.

It also contained the remains of tardigrades, also called "water bears," eight-legged creatures known to be capable of surviving in extreme environments.

Researchers also found a plant or fungus, a shrimp-like crustacean, and another shelled organism with delicate hairs.

"It hints that life may exist in more complex forms than thought previously underneath the massive ice sheet in Antarctica," Martin Siegert, head of the Lake Ellsworth Consortium, which aims to explore a subglacial lake under the ice of west Antarctica, commented on the discovery.

How Did The Ancient Creatures Get There?

Scientists do not know how the organisms came to be in the icy lake, but the creatures may have lived in nearby ponds and streams during warm periods, when the glaciers retreated 10,000 to 120,000 years ago.

They may have been washed into the lake through rivers under the ice. They may have also been transported into the lake after becoming stuck to a glacier.

Lake Mercer

The mission marks the third time scientists have explored an Antarctic subglacial cake. It is also the first time to access Lake Mercer, which spans 160 square kilometers in area, which covers twice the size of Manhattan,

The lake has only been previously explored with radar.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography glaciologist Helen Fricker discovered Lake Mercer by accident more than a decade ago while using satellite altimeter measurements to find the grounding line of a glacier.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.A hot potato: The fate of two controversial European Union copyright regulation proposals remains in question after member states spoke out against the way the rules were written at an EU summit on Friday. Article 13, in particular, raises the bar for platforms regarding liability over content uploaded by its users. In other words, services that provide a place for users to discuss and share ideas would become subject to penalties for content their users upload.

Article 11 and Article 13, nicknamed the Link Tax, have been contentious since they were initially proposed back in April of last year. The new rules aimed to give publishers of online content more control by imposing a fee on websites for the right to use quotes in their articles.

The first draftings of the regulations were defeated in the European Parliament last July due to concerns over increases in platform liability. The rules were rewritten with new provisions and were preliminarily approved in September. Many believed the measures would pass when they came up for a vote.

However, when EU member states convened on Friday to approve on the legislation, 11 countries stood against the new copyright rules mainly over the same concerns as the previous vote. Italys new populist government and others view the regulations as too strict" and say they would hamper the free exchange of information.

This is just ContentID on steroids, for everything, Cory Doctorow, co-editor of Boing Boing told The Verge.

If youre a platform, then you are liable for the material which appears on your platform, said University of Glasgow Professor Martin Kretschmer.

Kretschmer, who teaches intellectual property law believes the rules present a substantial problem in the sharing of information. Changing the copyright regime without really understanding where the problem is is foolish, he continued. [But] thats the council position as of May, and that has huge problems.

The EU member states in favor of copyright reform have until February 28 to approve a new proposal. However, finding a compromise that will suit opponents of the rules seems to be an uphill battle.In context: Few pieces of legislation have forced tech companies to take the privacy of their users' data seriously more than the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, better known as the GDPR. Among other things, the GDPR -- via a clause known as the "Right to Access" -- requires tech companies to provide users with all of the data that's been collected about them on request.

So far, most major international corporations have created automated systems that allow this to occur, but it seems that may not be quite good enough for some privacy advocates.

Privacy group noyb, headed up by Max Schrems, has filed numerous complaints against YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, Apple, Amazon, and more.

Schrems alleges that the companies either failed to comply with Right to Access rules entirely by ignoring requests for data or failed to provide required background information regarding how the data is used and who it's been shared with.

...Schrems is undoubtedly hoping the EU will put its money where its mouth is, and prove that the GDPR isn't a toothless piece of legislation.

By filing these complaints, Schrems is undoubtedly hoping the EU will put its money where its mouth is, and prove that the GDPR isn't a toothless piece of legislation.

In theory, if regulators do find that the companies in question have run afoul of the GDPR, the fines can get pretty high. According to noyb's complaint summary, Amazon (to name one example) could get hit with a maximum penalty of $8.02 billion.

We'll be monitoring this story moving forward, and we'll let you know if any of the companies targeted by Schrems' complaints issue any official statements.Florida Department of Health reported 12,157 new COVID-19 cases statewide during the week of June 4-10, bringing the cumulative total since March 2020 to 2,300,786. Forty more people died, upping the death toll to 37,265.Technician Diana Gordineer, right, receives eight bags of newborn items for the Northeastern Health System Maternity Center. Gifts were donated by Oklahoma Home and Community Education Aprons and Lace group and delivered by member Betty Lowrey, left.SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Hundreds gathered this morning in downtown Syracuse and marched to the citys East Side for the 2019 Syracuse Womens march.

Protesters braved temperatures in the teens as they walked from the Everson Plaza on Harrison Street to a rally at the University United Methodist Church on University Avenue.

The event was one of hundreds of sister marchers that were held across the country in support of the Womens March held this morning in Washington D.C.

The 2017 Womens March inspired thousands of women to run for office, tens of millions to vote, and hundreds to win elected office, according to the marchs website. The 2019 Womens March marks two years of resistance to the Trump presidency, two years of training new activists, and two years of building power.

Protesters carried signs that said slogans such as I hate cold weather, but I hate Trump more" and Weak men fear strong women. The marchers chanted no wall," Immigrants are welcome here, dont give in to racist fear," black lives matter here, and justice.

A rally was held inside the University United Methodist Church after the march.

We are united today to raise our voices and represent what we are fighting for, said Nada Odeh, the lead organizer of the Syracuse march.

The mission of the Womens March is to harness the political power of diverse women and their communities to create transformative social change." The women-led movement is committed to dismantle systems of oppression through nonviolent resistance," according to the marchs website.When art teacher Kristy Flanigan moved from Genesee Elementary School to Auburn Junior High School last September, she found a friend as well as a co-worker in fellow art teacher Kasha Fletcher.

"I'm all about sharing, to make Kristy's load easier during the transition," Fletcher said. "Switching from building to building can be difficult."

"And I was switching grade levels, too," Flanigan added.

Students in each Auburn Junior High School seventh-grade art class class voted on the best tangram, and that work was etched into wood for display at "Both Ends of the Rainbow."

Since they share teaching seventh graders - Fletcher teaches 10 classes of seventh-graders while Flanigan teachers six classes - they decided to collaborate on projects so the students were getting the same level and type of instruction.

The fruits of those efforts can be seen in the upcoming "Both Ends of the Rainbow" exhibit at the Schweinfurth Art Center, 205 Genesee St., Auburn. The exhibit, which features more than 1,000 artworks from students and seniors who live in Cayuga County or are members of the Schweinfurth, opens Sunday, Jan. 27, with a student reception from noon to 5 p.m.

Among the artwork from Auburn Junior High School are collaborative projects between the two teachers, as well as other teachers at the school. One of the projects, a cube mural, involved students of both teachers creating cubes that were pieced together in one large piece.

"We talked about line variety, and the students had to make one side dense and the other less dense," Flanigan said. The third side was solid black. Each teacher has more than 200 students, so there were plenty of leftovers that Fletcher said will be used to make other murals to be displayed at the junior high school.

For another joint project, students created black-and-white line art, cut it up into tangram pieces, and built pictures out of them. Each class then voted on their favorite one, which was etched into wood by the tech teacher with the school's laser cutter, Fletcher said. A selection of the tangram art is included in Both Ends of the Rainbow.

Auburn Junior High School art teachers Kristy Flanigan and Kasha Fletcher worked with social studies and Spanish teachers to have students create these Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, books. The students were studying Aztec history and culture at the time.

A third project was conducted in collaboration with social studies and Spanish teachers at the school, Flanigan said. The students created Dia de los Muertos books while they were learning in social studies class about the Aztec traditions that informed the Mexican custom of honoring the dead every year on Nov. 1. Spanish teachers taught about the Mexican tradition at the same time.

Flanigan said future collaborations are possible, including with English teachers. "Eighth-grade students are designing board games, and they need to prepare instructions that are clear and concise," she said. "Maybe next year we can collaborate with English teachers on that."

Fletcher said she is excited to work with the Schweinfurth to display the students' artwork. "I gave one student a notice that his artwork was going to be in Both Ends, and his whole face lit up," she said. "He's a quiet student, and he just sat there looking at the letter for a minute. I learned later that he went right to the office to tell his mother, he was so excited.

"That was the sweetest moment," Fletcher concluded. "That's why I love teaching."

Flanigan smiled and nodded in agreement.

If you go ...A 32-year-old Watertown man has been arrested for forcibly touching a 17-year-old girl, according to a Friday night news release from New York State Police.

Wesley S. Cowart, 32, was charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of forcible touching, police said.

The incidents occurred several times in June and August of 2016, according to police.

He has been issued appearance tickets and will appear in Town of LeRay Court on Jan. 28.TOWN OF ADAMS, N.Y. -- A Syracuse man has been arrested for depositing a fraudulent check worth nearly $4,000, according to a Friday night release from New York State Police.

Trey B. Thomas, 25, has been charged for criminal possession of a forged instrument, police said.

On Dec. 13, Thomas deposited the money through a mobile banking service to a credit union account, police said.

Thomas was arraigned Thursday in Town of Adams Court and was remanded to the Jefferson County Jail on $5,000 cash bail or $10,000 bond. He is set to reappear in Town of Adams Court on Jan. 23 at 6 p.m.The CCDC would be connected to the CTE, which in turn would be connected to the high school/gym, resulting in one building. Carl Gutschow, an architect with Thompson & Litton, was present at the meeting this week and said the CCDC, a green construction, would be a partly split level structure, cascading down the hillside on the high school campus. It would include an elevator and ramp.

As part of the project, the administration offices would be moved from the location on Newtown Road to the CCDC.

Also, the School Board is asking that Supervisors explore the possibility of having the public roads that cross through the campuses of Floyd Elementary School and the high school be abandoned so the roads are no longer public roads and revert to the Floyd County Public Schools property.

The new CCDC and renovated CTE structure would mean more than buildings for the county, its students and residents, said Supt. Dr. John Wheeler. It comes down to workforce development.Round the Mountain: Southwest Virginias Artisan Network and Heartwood: Gateway to Southwest Virginia, has announced a renewed membership campaign and focus on the artisans of Southwest Virginia. As a part of that campaign, Heartwood Hits the Highway will visit the Art on 16 Gallery in Marion today, Jan. 19, from 1-5 p.m.

Heartwood Hits the Highway is designed to provide artisans with multiple opportunities to get involved. During the renovation closure, ongoing through March 15, Heartwood will hit the highway to showcase artisan work as well as give artisans an opportunity to sign up to become a Round the Mountain member. Heartwood Hits the Highway events are open to the public and will include cider, snacks and regional art for sale plus a collective art project to commemorate the tour.

Other highway sites include the Big Stone Gap Visitor Center on Jan. 26 from 1-5 p.m., Buffalo Mountain Brewery in Floyd from 1-5 p.m. on Feb. 2, Great Road on Main in Christiansburg on Feb. 9 from 1-5 p.m., Miltons at Western Front Hotel in St. Paul from 9 a.m. until 12 p.m. on Feb. 9, and Franklin/Patrick County on Feb. 16 from 1-5 p.m.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

On behalf of our client, we are on the hunt for Class 2 Drivers to drive a variety of different trucks. Some experience is...



View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nzTwo cases of measles have been confirmed in the Bay of Plenty and Lakes district.

But they are not linked to the outbreak in the Waikato.

Medical Officer of Health Dr Phil Shoemack says one case was notified on Thursday, the other 10 days ago.

One of them contracted measles in the Philippines and its unclear where the other picked it up visiting a number of countries from Singapore to Japan, he says.

We are in the process of identifying people who have had close contact with the two patients and those who havent been vaccinated will be required to be quarantined.

With the case identified yesterday, we are aware one person who was in close contact hasnt been vaccinated and there may be more.

Phils advice to anyone under 50 who havent been vaccinated, get it done.

You will need two doses to be immunised.

The Waikato District Health Board has declared a measles outbreak and is urging people in the region to get immunised.

The District Health Board has been notified of six cases of measles in the last week, with two of those cases going back to late December.

The DHB's chief medical officer of health, Dr Richard Hoskins says the DHB had been working with the families to find out where they might have contracted measles.

Measles can lead to complications such as pneumonia, seizures, and swelling of the brain, with about 20 per cent of measles cases resulting in hospitalisation.Bay of Plenty

Our client has plenty of work in the pipeline and as such they are in need of hammerhands for an immediate start.The successful...



View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nzWith temperatures hitting record highs more people will be frequenting Bay of Plenty lakes, rivers and oceans in an attempt to cool off.

But before you take the plunge, health experts are warning locals to tread with caution.

Toi Te Ora Medical Officer of Health Dr Jim Miller says while it is safe to swim in many of the nearby estuaries, beaches, rivers and lakes, its important to know when it is not safe, how to recognise signs of water contamination, and where to find out about local warnings; ultimately minimising the risk of falling sick.

Look before you leap; if the water looks discoloured, smells unusual, or if there is scum or leathery mats of black or brown algae on the surface of lakes or on the beds of rivers, swim or play somewhere else and dont eat shellfish from the area, he says.

After rainfall, water is likely to be contaminated with animal faeces from rural and urban run-off.

As a precaution, avoid swimming in rivers, streams, lakes or estuaries for 48 hours after heavy or prolonged rainfall.

It is also best to avoid swimming and collecting shellfish near pipes or culverts which run down to a waterway where storm water is discharged, and near wharves and marinas.

Land Air and Water Aotearoa has developed a site that allows swimmers to keep up-to-date on information pertaining to the quality of all New Zealand freshwater rivers and catchments.

Many spots throughout the Bay of Plenty are currently flagged as unsuitable for swimming including the Kaiate Falls which has been recorded as having high levels of bacteria and faecal contamination.

Other sites have also measured high levels of E.coli including Te Matai swimming reserve and Waiari Stream near Te Puke, McMillan road at Tuapiro Stream, Wairoa River near Te Puna, Wardlaw Glade near Taneatua, Whakatane River near the Landing Road bridge, Waioeka River and Otara River in Opotiki, and Waiotahe Estuary Reserve.

Further north Henry Road Ford in Katikati and are also unsuitable swimming spots due to high levels of bacteria that may cause illness.

Waihi Estuary boat ramp in Pukehina, Kennedy and Otautu Bay at Lake Rotoehu and Lake Okaro boat ramp have all shown signs of potentially toxic algae.

Last month Western Bay of Plenty District Council also advised caution over the security of vehicles and belongings in carparks.

If youre setting off on a walk and leaving your car in a carpark, wed like to remind people to be extra vigilant with the security of your vehicle and belongings, WBOPDC said in a post on Facebook.

Unfortunately there can be opportunistic thieves operating at the remote carpark sites such as Kaiate Falls and Ngamuwahine River, especially this time of year.An opening celebration will be held in Matata this Tuesday, January 22 at 6pm to officially launch a new mural celebrating mana wahine and the kuia of the area.

The murals creation has come through a collaboration between Whakatane Ki Mua, Matata Blue Light and the Matata community, with funding assistance from the Ministry for Womens Suffrage 125 community funding programme.

Whakatane Ki Mua strategic coordinator, Rebecca Mackay says the project has received overwhelming support in various forms, from kai deliveries and verbal encouragement to local sponsorship from a range of businesses and organisations.

The community vision for the Whakatane Ki Mua project is that our communities are made more vibrant, engaged and connected, and I think public art is generally understood to beautify a place, and add vibrancy, she says.

However, in the case of Mana Wahine Matata, its done more than that  its brought people together and now those involved are looking to the future and using this experience as a platform for greater community connectedness.

The mural was painted by Whakatane-born artist, Arohanoa Matthews and is the second in the creative story-telling project, following the success of the Clifton Road carpark mural, Whakaahutanga, painted by Te Haunui Tuna in Whakatane last year.

The mural painting took place over four days, but prep started well before that with many hui held between the project team, artists, and rangatahi (youth)  and work behind the scenes to bring the iwi and whanau of the wider community into the kaupapa.

Arohanoa says it was important for her to listen to the community first and to learn about their place of standing (turangawaewae) and what mana wahine means to them, in order to design a mural that they could connect to.

"For me, the concept of mana wahine has been exemplified through the journey of its creation, as much as what the mural itself depicts, she says.

The collaboration of rangatahi wahine (young women) who have worked alongside me, have really showcased their leadership and work ethic. They have uplifted each other and held one another accountable throughout this journey."

The Matata community has rallied behind us and has empowered the rangatahi wahine to stand up and show their worth and talents through this mural. I am so proud of what they have achieved in only four days.

Matata community member and project enthusiast, Marsha Playle, says the amount of support has been truly amazing.

This project has been carried out with huge community input, displaying the strength of our wahine and whanau - past, present and future, she says. Now I have more people to wave and say Kia ora to on the street.

Weve had a range of values installed into our kaupapa, recognising the importance of the many cultures and protocols; not only of Te Ao Maori but also a universal outlook, says Marsha.

Rebecca concludes by reflecting on the whakatauaki (proverb) which guided the kaupapa for the project. The whakatauaki is Ka Titiro ki muri, ka haere ki mua - We look back to enable us to move forward, she says.

Were grateful to the kuia and kaumatua who guided us with the past and the rangatahi who will take us into the future, and all those who contributed to this project in some way."

The community is invited to join the opening celebration of the mural from 6pm on Tuesday January 22 at the reserve adjacent to the mural on the Matata Vounteer Fire Station.

Please bring a plate of kai to share. Mural artist Arohanoa Matthews will be present and will also share an artists korero.

For more information, visit the Whakatane Ki Mua Facebook page.

A video of the mural can be found at the Whakatane District Council Facebook page.Stay up to date on COVID-19

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Sponsored By: Arvest BankThe U.S. Navy unexpectedly revealed in 2018 that it was returning the ENCAP (encapsulated in a container that is fired from a torpedo tube) Harpoon anti-ship missile to active service. The Navy withdrew the ENCAP Harpoon in 1997 but in 2018 test fired one of them (apparently refurbished for the occasion) and found they still worked as they were supposed to. The ENCAP Harpoons were initially replaced by an anti-ship version of the Tomahawk, which was also soon withdrawn. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the major naval adversary of the United States soon disappeared. The smaller Russian state could not afford to maintain, much less operate, much of the huge Soviet fleet.

By American 1999 subs were just carrying land attack Tomahawks, not just because the Soviet navy was gone but also because for either Harpoon or Tomahawk you have to have a general idea of where the target is before you fire the missile, which has its own terminal guidance system for locating a ship nearby and hitting it. But the subs rely on stealth for protection and that means few transmissions while underwater. For the ENCAP Harpoon, the 1990s passive sonar could locate a surface target out to about a hundred kilometers (under the right conditions). Half that was needed, (in most cases) for the Mk48 torpedo, which also a terminal guidance system and could, at slow speed, reach a target out to about a hundred kilometers.

In any event, a lot has changed since the 1990s when it comes to passive (just listening) sonar the subs use most of the time, as well as the tech used for a submerged sub to receive (or send, when necessary) electronic information. Subs now have many more periscope capabilities. The conventional optical periscope has been replaced by devices that can be sent to the surface tethered by cable. These tethered devices can receive satellite and other electronic messages, as well as send. That means a sub could be ordered to send up the sat receiver so many times a day when in a combat zone to receive updates on enemy activity. These could include firing orders for distant ships (or land targets) to be fired on using missiles. The latest version (Block II+ER) Harpoon has a 300 kilometer range and much better terminal guidance and countermeasures. But it is still a slow (800 kilometers an hour) missile while the most modern anti-ship missiles have terminal attack speeds of more than three times that. Then again for a surprise attack Harpoon can be useful as it comes in very (sea skimming) low often avoiding enemy radar. So a possible situation would have an enemy ship detected by satellite or UAV with location information sent to a sub within Harpoon range (or able to move into range) which could then fire one or more ENCAP Harpoons and then go hide. ENCAP Harpoons blasting from the sea surface makes a lot of acoustic and visual noise. Another option is the ENCAP UAVs proposed for subs. These can be launched more quietly and spend several hours searching an area for any targets and sending the sub brief message bursts with the location of any targets.

The navy is not spending a lot of money on bringing the ENCAP Harpoon back into service. It is going to upgrade some older Harpoons and ship then as ENCAP weapons for possible use under the right conditions. The navy, as expected, isnt providing details and the details may involve some new tech or tactics that are best kept secret.

What the Navy is spending a lot of money on is new subs. The Navy is putting its 17th Virginia class SSN (nuclear attack sub) into service in February. The South Dakota (SSN 790) took three years to build and is the seventh of eight Block 3 Virginias. Ten years ago the navy got its fifth Virginia eight months ahead of schedule and under budget. At that point, the Virginias were taking 5-6 years to build and are arriving at the rate of one a year. Over the last five years, the speed of construction has increased as well as the rate of delivery (now one or two a year) in order to replace the aging Los Angeles class boats. In one recent 25 month period five Virginias were put into service.

Each block of Virginians represents improvements, some of them substantial. There are (or will be) four Block 1s, eight Block 2s, eight Block 3s, ten Block 4s and ten Block 5s. The Navy now plans to build 66 Virginias with ten currently under construction and 17 in service (or undergoing sea trials). Blocks 1-4 of Virginia are all armed the same way but Block 5 (arriving in the early 2020s) will have additional space to store and launch missiles and will carry 65 missiles and torpedoes (75 percent more than Block 1-4 boats). This will be accomplished by adding an additional section (the VPM or Virginia Payload Module) that adds 25.6 meters to the length of the sub and increases displacement to 10,400 tons. Each new Block gets better electronics and sensors and it is believed that the passive sonar in the late model Virginias have much longer and accurate detection ranges. The Block 5 will also receive a large number of equipment upgrades.

The Block 1-4 Virginias cost about $2.2 billion each. They displace 7,800 tons and are 114.9 meters (377 feet) long and 10.36 meters (34 feet) wide. Top speed is over 50 kilometers an hour, max depth is more than 250 meters (over 800 feet). The Block 1-4 Virginias are armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles (in 12 vertical launching tubes) and four 53.3 cm (21 inch) torpedo tubes that can fire MK 48 torpedoes or naval mines.

More important are the large number of electronic systems carried. These make the Virginias more difficult to detect, which enables these subs to be more effective at espionage and scouting. The electronics can also quickly detect and identify incoming torpedoes and rapidly use countermeasures. The passive (listen only) sonar system is backed by a huge library of sounds. Virginias are also designed to operate in shallow waters and carry a SEAL Delivery Vehicle (sort of a minisub for getting SEALs ashore) outside the sub. With a dozen or so SEALs on board, a Virginia will be carrying nearly 150 people.

Virginias nuclear reactors are the new type that does not have to be refueled, having sufficient nuclear material to last 33 years. The reactors generate enough heat to provide 40,000 horsepower, as well as ample electricity for all the electronics. The block 2 models used less costly construction techniques, while the eight Block 3 boats have some design changes and new technology. The most dramatic improvements will come with Block 5.

The U.S. currently has three classes of SSN. Most are the 6,900 ton Los Angeles-class SSNs. Sixty-two of these submarines were built and 32 are still in service. Armed with four 53.3 cm torpedo tubes, they carry twenty-six weapons for those tubes (either the Mk 48 torpedoes or BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles). The last 31 Los Angeles-class SSNs added the Mk 45 vertical-launch system (VLS), which carries another twelve Tomahawks. If built today these late model Los Angeles class boats would cost about $1.5 billion each. The first of these entered service in 1976, and the last one in 1996. These boats can last 30-35 years before they must be retired or undergo extensive (over half a billion dollars worth) of refurbishment and refueling. This can take 4-5 years and will keep the sub going for another 10-15 years. But theres barely enough money to keep building Virginias and no time or cash to refurb elderly Los Angeles class boats. That was why the number of Virginias planned was increased to 66 and the tempo of construction speeded up. Thus the American SSN fleet will not shrink from 55 in 2013 to under 45 by 2030. The current building plan keeps the SSN numbers at or above fifty.

Twenty-nine 9,000 ton Seawolf-class SSNs were supposed to replace the Los Angeles boats but Seawolf proved too expensive. Only three were built. The Seawolf was designed for the Cold War, carrying fifty weapons (torpedoes, cruise missiles, or Harpoon anti-ship missiles) for its eight 660 mm (26-inch) torpedo tubes. Seawolf was fast (top speed of over 60 kilometers an hour) and much quieter than the Los Angeles boats. To replace the un-built Seawolfs the Virginia-class was designed. Think of it as a Los Angeles size hull with a lot of Seawolf technology installed. The Virginia class boats ended up costing about half as much as the Seawolfs. But that was largely possible because the Virginias used a lot of the new technology developed for Seawolf.A survey of nations in what was once known quaintly as the Free World shows some of them engaged in what could best be described as a cold civil war.

Such a condition is inherently unstable. One possible future is one where the cold conflict becomes hot with unforeseeable consequences. Another is that one side successfully represses the other before violence reaches a certain threshold.

Now before we go any further, lets make one thing clear. Whatever the country and its specific ills, we can be sure that Vladimir Putin is the culprit. According to Stephen Collinson of CNN (Another good day for Putin as turmoil grips US and UK):

In London, Theresa May on Tuesday suffered the worst defeat in the modern parliamentary era by a prime minister, as lawmakers shot down her Brexit deal with the European Union by a staggering 432 votes to 202. The United States, meanwhile, remains locked in its longest-ever government shutdown, which is now entering its 26th day, is nowhere near ending and is the culmination of two years of whirling political chaos sparked by President Donald Trump. It's hard to believe that two such robust democracies, long seen by the rest of the world as beacons of stability, have dissolved into such bitter civic dysfunction and seem unmoored from their previous governing realities. [  ] The result is that Britain and the United States are all but ungovernable on the most important questions that confront both nations. That's music to Putin's ears. The Russian leader has made disrupting liberal democracies a core principle of his near two-decade rule, as he seeks to avenge the fall of the Soviet empire, which he experienced as a heartbroken KGB agent in East Germany. Russia has been accused of meddling in both the Brexit vote and the US election in 2016  the critical events that fomented the current crisis of the West.

It isnt exactly clear how the meddling of which the coryphaeus of the Kremlin is merely accused managed to entice Theresa May into botching (or sabotaging) Brexit talks or to embolden Donald Trump into finally standing his ground on his top campaign pledge. Even Collinson admits that folks in the US and UK may have had something to do with the ruckus: Supporters of Trump in the US and Brexit in Britain see their revolts as uprisings against distant or unaccountable leaders who no longer represent them or share their values.

Harrumph! Why should anyone care what the great unwashed think about accountability or values? What matters, say skeptics like Collinson, is that the proles getting uppity might be deeply corrosive to the international political architecture that has prevailed for over 70 years. Lets get our priorities straight!

While Britain and the US are entertaining distractions, the current main feature is the jacquerie going on in France. To be sure, many wonder if les gilets jaunes are a genuine, grassroots rebellion of ordinary Frenchmen, or some kind of Astroturf comparable to color revolutions that western governments and their accomplices like George Soros have sponsored in many countries. While there is some evidence of agents provocateurs (the expression is French, after all) working for the Emmanuel Macron regime  can we start using that word now, like Assad regime, Putin regime, etc.?  and minor involvement of groups like Antifa committing vandalism with an aim to discredit the yellow vests, the definitive attestation of authenticity was pronounced by world-class poseur and shill for plutocracy and warmongering, Bernard-Henri Levy: Its a real social movement, but its one driven by sad, mortifying, and destructive forces.

Any movement Levy calls sad, mortifying, and destructive  thats French for deplorable  cant be all bad, especially with some monarchists involved. Its rather ironic, though, given that barely a year ago some were comparing vain little Macron to Napoleon.

What is perhaps most detestable to bien pensants like Collinson and Levy is that the social basis of the yellow vests is readily identifiable. Theyre who we used to call simply French working people. As geographer Christopher Guilluy describes in Spiked:

Paris creates enough wealth for the whole of France, and London does the same in Britain. But you cannot build a society around this. The gilets jaunes is a revolt of the working classes who live in these places. They tend to be people in work, but who dont earn very much, between 1000 and 2000 per month. Some of them are very poor if they are unemployed. Others were once middle-class. What they all have in common is that they live in areas where there is hardly any work left. They know that even if they have a job today, they could lose it tomorrow and they wont find anything else. Not only does peripheral France fare badly in the modern economy, it is also culturally misunderstood by the elite.  One illustration of this cultural divide is that most modern, progressive social movements and protests are quickly endorsed by celebrities, actors, the media and the intellectuals. But none of them approve of the gilets jaunes. Their emergence has caused a kind of psychological shock to the cultural establishment. It is exactly the same shock that the British elites experienced with the Brexit vote and that they are still experiencing now, three years later. The Brexit vote had a lot to do with culture, too, I think. It was more than just the question of leaving the EU. Many voters wanted to remind the political class that they exist. Thats what French people are using the gilets jaunes for  to say we exist. We are seeing the same phenomenon in populist revolts across the world. [  ] The Parisian economy needs executives and qualified professionals. It also needs workers, predominantly immigrants, for the construction industry and catering et cetera. Business relies on this very specific demographic mix. The problem is that the people outside of this still exist. In fact, Peripheral France actually encompasses the majority of French people. [  ] Think of the deplorables evoked by Hillary Clinton. There is a similar view of the working class in France and Britain. They are looked upon as if they are some kind of Amazonian tribe. The problem for the elites is that it is a very big tribe. The middle-class reaction to the yellow vests has been telling. Immediately, the protesters were denounced as xenophobes, anti-Semites and homophobes. The elites present themselves as anti-fascist and anti-racist but this is merely a way of defending their class interests. It is the only argument they can muster to defend their status, but it is not working anymore. Now the elites are afraid. For the first time, there is a movement which cannot be controlled through the normal political mechanisms. The gilets jaunes didnt emerge from the trade unions or the political parties. It cannot be stopped. There is no off button. Either the intelligentsia will be forced to properly acknowledge the existence of these people, or they will have to opt for a kind of soft totalitarianism.

Unfortunately, soft totalitarianism is not out of the question, whether in France or other countries in which populism threatens to upend the elites neoliberal gravy train and all the social and moral baggage that comes with it. Guilluy sees the revolt in France as beyond control by the normal political mechanisms. That may be true, at least in France, at least for now.

But the US may be another story. At the end of this week all Washington was atwitter with an alleged bombshell (relax, in the US legacy media every other story is a bombshell, especially if it involves dirt on Trump) that former Trump attorney, fixer, and alleged literal bagman Michael Cohen had actually been instructed by his erstwhile client to commit perjury. Unlike much else thrown at Trump, this story (reported in Buzzfeed, which by total coincidence played a key early role in publicizing the US-UK Deeps States dirty dossier) would constitute an impeachable crime. In an extraordinary move, Grand Inquisitor Robert Mueller released a statement through a spokesman indicating the report was not accurate but not specifying in what regard. As of this writing Buzzfeed stands by the story and asked for clarification by Muellers office, which may or may not be forthcoming.

Whatever the fate of this report, make no mistake: there will be more of the same, an endless parade of them. The fact that such reports might turn out not to be true makes little difference. Their existence is sufficient to keep Trump constantly on the defensive pending his removal, one way or another.

Elizabethtown College Professor Emeritus Paul Gottfried describes how grandees of the GOP are already getting set to restore the status quo ante in collusion with their nominal Democrat adversaries once the interloper is gone:

 in the next few years, a working alliance will develop between regular Democratsparticularly New Democrats from red statesand the milquetoast Republican establishment.  Such an alliance would reflect electoral reality, as the Right seems to be growing weaker, not stronger, since the election of Trump two years ago. The ever ambitious Mitt Romney fired on his partys leader prematurely, but his political instincts may be right after all. The GOP is likely to move leftward because thats where a majority of the voters are, and if this happens to Trumps detriment, Romney will hope to pick up the pieces. Neoconservatives and much of the authorized conservative movement would no doubt welcome the Utah senator or someone like him as the kind of conservative they could work with were he to run for the presidency. If the elections since 2018 have shown anything, its this: blue electoral areas have remained quite solid, while traditionally red ones, even in the Deep South, are up for grabs. Thats because the party perceived as being further to the left has benefited from its growing coalition. If theres another explanation, I cant seem to find it. It would not be unusual to have two national parties that are recognizably on the left contending for power. The parties now running the major Western European countries are all to the left of our present GOP. In a possible alliance, the GOP, as the ideologically and electorally weaker side, will readily cooperate with establishment Democrats. They will undoubtedly find such shared concerns as confronting Putin the thug and supporting the Likud Party in Israel. They should have no trouble reaching an agreement on giving amnesty to all non-criminal illegal immigrants once Trump is no longer on the scene. There is no reason to think that this political shift wont continue. We are looking at a process thats been brought about by college educators, the culture industry, the mass media, and mass immigration, and the momentum may be extremely hard to reverse or even to stop. Americas future wont necessarily be British Columbias, whose provincial legislature features only parties of the left and which hasnt elected a conservative to a provincial office since the early 1990s.

The celebrated Sage of Baltimore, H. L. Mencken observed that Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. This begs the question, though, of who the common people are. In contrast to France, where Guilluys peripheral France is still a majority of the French population, US elites in both parties are looking to the day when Americas deplorables are a minority (which we already may be) that will continue to shrink. Anyone who might object to ethnic and moral replacement is clearly a racist and white supremacist, comparable to Frances xenophobes, anti-Semites and homophobes. In the not too distant future, Guilluys normal political mechanisms may be more than sufficient to handle whats left of a disappearing America.

If Trump is going to build that Wall, hed better do it damn fast.The survival of historic Eastern Christianity has never been as urgent as it is today. Christianity saw its beginning in Greater Syria which was subdivided by France and Britain after WWI into modern day Syria, Lebanon, Palestian/Israel and Jordan. The land that housed, nurtured and spread the teachings of Jesus Christ for over two millenniums, now threatens children of that faith. The survival of historic Eastern Christianity, particularly in Syria, is critical for several reasons:

Greater Syria is the homeland of Jesus and Christianity. Abraham was from modern day Iraq, Moses from Egypt, and Muhammad from Mecca; Jesus was from Syria.

Paul converted to Christianity and saw the light while walking through The Street Called Straight in Damascus.

Jesus followers were called Christians for the first time in Antioch, formerly part of Syria.

One of the earliest churches, perhaps the earliest, is in Syria.

The potential demise of historic Eastern Christianity is reflected in the key question Christians ask: should we stay or emigrate? The urgent question  in the face of the ongoing regional turmoil  precipitated with the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 and escalated since the Arab uprisings in 2011. Historic Eastern Christians fears were further magnified when Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim of the Syriac Orthodox Church and Archbishop Paul Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church, both of metropolitan Aleppo, were kidnapped on April, 22, 2013; with no traces of their whereabouts, dead or alive, since. For many years, I was deputy, friend, and advisor to the Archbishop Ibrahim, which provided me an opportunity to meet many Christians. I have, over time, noticed the change in their sentiment, with more considering emigration after the uprising and the kidnapping of the two Archbishops. Historic Eastern Christians survived the Ottoman Genocide in 1915 and thereafter; they multiplied and thrived in the Fertile Crescent despite some atrocities until the start of the misnamed Arab Spring in early 2011. Prior to the Arab Spring, historic Eastern Christians were victims of violence on several occasions. In the mid-1930s, the historic Assyrian community in Iraq suffered violent onslaughts and were driven to Syria. In the 1970s and 1980s, during the Lebanese Civil War, Christians were victims of sectarian violence. During the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, Christians were victims of widespread sectarian violence which led to mass migration. The Arab Spring began with great hope for the right of the people to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. However, it was swiftly hijacked by Islamists and Salafists and turned into an Islamic Spring, an Arab Fall and a Christian Winter; bringing along with it a new massacre of Christians. Presently, Eastern Christianity is at the mercy of clear and identifiable domestic, regional, and international, historic and contemporary conflicts in the Fertile Crescent, namely:

Jihad vs. Ijtihad: A long standing conflict amongst Muslims between the sword vs. the pen.

Sunni vs. Shiite: A conflict which began following the death of the Prophet Muhammad.

Arabism vs. Islamism: The former has territorial limitations, the later has no territorial limitations.

Syria vs. Israel: It is an essential component of the Palestinian problem, not the presumed Arab- Israeli conflict.

West vs. East: A throwback to the Cold War, or its revival.

Historic Persian, Ottoman and Arab Empires animosities: Each seeking regional hegemony.

One is reminded of the proverbial saying, When the elephants fight, the grass suffers. Certainly, Eastern Christianity is suffering and threatened with extinction.

Syria was a model of religious tolerance, common living and peaceful interaction amongst its religious, sectarian, cultural and ethnic components. Seven years of turmoil, in which various international and regional powers manipulated segments of Syrian society by supplying them with an abundance of weapons, money and sectarian ideologies, has heightened Eastern Christians fears. During the seven-year turmoil in Syria, the entire society has suffered; Sunnis, Shiites, Alawites, Yazidis, Kurds, Christians and others. Christians, being a weak and peaceful component of the society, have suffered immensely. Maaloula; a religious treasure for Christians globally, and the only city in the world where Aramaic  the language of Jesus Christ  is spoken, was attacked and besieged by ISIS. Numerous historic Churches were damaged, and many destroyed. Christians in Raqqa were forced by ISIS into one of three options: 1. Pay a penalty in pure gold  known as a Jizya to keep their life and practice their faith  albeit in secret only; 2. Convert into Islam; or 3. Face immediate death. To top their pain, the kidnap of the two prominent Archbishops meant no Eastern Christian believer was safe.

Amidst all the doom and gloom, however, there remains hope. The survival of Christianity depends on the actions and reactions of three parties:

Eastern Christians: During the last hundred years, 1915-2015, since the Ottoman Genocide, Eastern Christians have been victims of a history of massacres, which meant that every Eastern Christian was a martyr, a potential martyr or a witness of martyrdom; if you fool me once, shame on you, if you fool me twice, shame on me. The ongoing regional turmoil has heightened their sense of insecurity. The answer to an age-old question Eastern Christians had on their mind: To flee Westwards or remain in their land, in the face of death, is increasingly becoming the former.

Eastern Muslims: There is a difference in perceptions between Eastern Christians and mainstream Muslims regarding the massacres committed against Christians. When certain violent groups or individuals kill Christians, while shouting a traditional Islamic profession: No God but one God and Muhammad is Gods messenger, it is reasonable for Christians to assume the killers are Muslims. However, for mainstream Muslims, the killers do not represent Islam; they are extremists, violating basic Islamic norms such as Muhammads sayings, Whoever hurts a Thummy  Christian or Jew  has hurt me, no compulsion in religion and other Islamic norms regarding just treatment of people of the Book; Christians and Jews. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the Muslim elites to impress upon their fellow Muslims that:

a. The three monotheistic religions believe in one God and all faithfuls are equal in citizenship, rights and duties.

b. Christians participated in the rise of Arab Islamic civilization. They were pioneers in the modern Arab renaissance and they joined their Muslim brethren in resisting the Crusades, the Ottomans and Western colonialism.

c. Christians are natives of the land and they provide cultural, religious, educational, and economic, diversity.

d. Christians are a positive link between the Muslims and the Christian West, particularly in view of the rise of Islamophobia. Massacres of Christians and their migration provide a pretext for the further precipitation of Islamophobia.

e. Civilization is measured by the way it treats its minorities.

The Christian West: The Crusades, Western colonialism, creation and continued support of Israel, support of authoritarian Arab political systems, military interventions, regime change, and the destabilization of Arab states made Muslims view Eastern Christians guilty by association. The Christian West helped Jews come to Palestine to establish Israel. Shouldnt the same Christian West also help Eastern Christians remain in their homeland, rather than facilitate their emigration? Western Christians, particularly Christian Zionists, believe that the existence of Israel is necessary for the return of Jesus to his homeland. However, it would be a great disappointment for Jesus to return to his homeland, Syria and not find any of his followers.

Prior to 2011, Eastern Christian religious leaders were encouraging Syrian Christians in the diaspora to return to Syria, their homeland, where life was safe and secure with great potential. Now, the same leaders are desperately trying to slow down Christian emigration. Eastern Christians loud cries for help to remain are blowing in the wind.In case Missouri lawmakers missed the unmistakable walkaway message from the Nov. 6 election, we will restate it clearly for them: Missouri voters want cleaner, more transparent government. They want to put an end to the domination of Jefferson City by special interest groups. They want legislators to be elected based on the power of their ideas, not the microscopic gerrymandering of districts to predetermine their partisan makeup.

Hoping to capitalize on overwhelming voter support for the Clean Missouri amendment on Nov. 6, state Sen. Scott Sifton, D-Affton, proposes to go one step further by lifting the veil that currently prevents Missourians from knowing the extent to which big donations influence the awarding of major state contracts. The donations Sifton is specifically targeting in his Transparency in Government Contracting Act (Senate Bill 148) are those that go to dark money political organizations.It could be genuine admiration on Trumps part for a leader who has strongman attributes he likes  and official powers he envies.

Or it could be genuine gratitude for Russias social media campaign to push the 2016 election to Trump. Even if Trump is telling the truth when he says he didnt know about that at the time, he certainly knows now.

But theres another element to all this that creates the nagging sense its something more than admiration or gratitude.

Ponder what we all know so well about this presidents personality: his incessant chest-thumping, his need to always look tougher than the next guy, his utter refusal to ever bend for any adversary. Except one.

Think about the kinds of criticism Trump endures regarding Russia: that hes weak, that someone else (Putin) is stronger than he is. Its the one kind of criticism Trumps fragile ego cant abide. Except in this one instance.

Think of all the world leaders, including allies, whom Trump has savaged any time it served his personal needs. It would serve his needs greatly to criticize Putin. One good Trumpian tongue-lashing would put to rest this weakness theme that has to be driving him crazy. And yet he wont do it.Some parts of this story are ironic. For example, its odd that it was the city that made the effort to dump the county back in 1876, not wanting to be responsible for lightly populated areas out in the sticks. One of the leaders of this visionary effort was a young Republican state representative named Joseph Pulitzer, who two years later would found a newspaper thats been complaining about it for decades.

As the county began growing, it became obvious to city leaders that theyd screwed up. They began making efforts to modify the Great Divorce decree. They all flopped, so in 1962 someone had the bright idea to let voters statewide amend the state constitution and put the city and county back together. It failed by a margin of 3-to-1.

There is nothing new under the sun, except for all the money Sinquefield will throw at it this time around.

I remember having the facts of life explained to me by the late George Wendel of the St. Louis Universitys Center for Urban Programs. Wendel and Terry Jones of the University of Missouri-St. Louis had interesting academic sidelines explaining and/or polling on the question.CNN's Rebecca Buck looks at why this year's Women's March is being overshadowed by controversy.

Demonstrators are gathering for the Women's March in Washington and related rallies across the country Saturday, with many of the movement's supporters looking to channel two years of momentum and common cause against President Donald Trump into progressive policies.

The national Women's March group was to kick off late Saturday morning at Freedom Plaza in the US capital.

In addition to that march, rallies and demonstrations were to be held across the country by different groups -- some affiliated with the national Women's March Inc. organization and others that aren't.

It is the third year for the women's marches. The first, in January 2017, started as a display of resistance to Trump's election. In 2018, the movement shifted to focus on midterm elections.

The Washington organizers in particular say this year is about not only commemorating victories such as unprecedented wins for the Democratic Party by women of color in the midterms, but also agitating for progressive laws and positions they say will benefit women across race, class, sexual orientation and other identities.Edward Nance said in his tearful testimony that he sustained shoulder injuries from his interactions with Van Dyke and had to have surgery on both rotator cuffs. Nane also testified he now has anxiety, PTSD and ADD as a result of his run-in with Van Dyke in July 2007.

The prosecution did not bring an expert witness to testify that Nance's injuries were caused by Van Dyke's actions.

Laquan McDonald's great uncle the Rev. Marvin Hunter also took the stand, reading a letter that he wrote in McDonald's voice.

In the letter, Hunter said that Van Dyke became "judge, jury and executioner" on the night McDonald was killed. He recounted how McDonald was about to move in with his mother and sister after his mother had battled drug addiction.

"However, Jason Van Dyke, with his cold, callous disregard for the life of a young black man, without me provoking him, robbed us of this. The story of my life is that in the short time of my life, I have worked hard to correct the mistakes I had made. But in a matter of six seconds, he then took 16 shots and ended the possibility of this happening forever."

"What happened to me can never be changed," Hunter said in his great nephew's voice. "But other young black men and women would not have to face Mr. Jason Van Dyke and his evil and selfish ways."The Rev. Rodrick Burton of New Northside Missionary Baptist Church loves to minister to his congregation, lifting them up during Sunday services and at Wednesday Bible study.

That lift, though, is weighing on him more and more as gun violence takes its toll on his congregation.

Ive been pastor here for six years and had four members murdered, Burton said. For the most part, churches have been involved in dealing with the aftereffects of the violence, ministering to those whose loved ones have been killed.

That has to change, he said. More churches have to become greater players in the community, and help those veering into trouble get back on the right path. More need to work with police and social service agencies to stem the violence that has put the city of St. Louis on the map as one of the most dangerous places in the U.S.

Abating that culture of violence is the goal of an ambitious new program led by two of the largest social service agencies serving north St. Louis. For the first time, Better Family Life and the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis are teaming up to combat decades of neighborhood decline and urging ministers to commit to the effort. The two agencies will officially open a joint office on Monday, in a storefront off Martin Luther King Drive.

The location was selected to be close to those living in the troubled area. And its symbolic, said Michael McMillan, CEO of the Urban League. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stressed the importance of service to community, so its fitting to launch the efforts on the street bearing his name, he said.

Working together, there are not that many things we dont do, McMillan said. We have to work harder and smarter and be more collaborative than competitive.

By working out of the same office in the most violent part of town, the agencies can get a deeper understanding of gaps in service, and strengthen areas they already focus on, such as employment and housing.

For the two largest social service community empowerment organizations in the African-American community to come together, that is huge for us, McMillan said.

James Clark, vice president of Better Family Life, said more people need to step up. Otherwise, the most challenging parts of town eventually will drag down all of St. Louis.

No singular organization can effectively address it, Clark said. We have multigenerational family dysfunction, communities that have been underserved, and our neighborhoods are in crisis.

The agencies are focusing on an area dubbed the rectangle by Police Chief John Hayden. Last year, shortly after becoming the new chief, Hayden said he would beef up police resources in that area, which takes in eight neighborhoods. In 2017, two-thirds of the citys 205 homicides and about half of the violent assaults happened in that part of town.

Hayden said Thursday that violent crime in the area was down 19 percent in 2018 over the year before, but no amount of increased police presence will pull a neighborhood out of its decline.

We are not able to arrest our way out of it, Hayden said at meeting held at Better Family Life as pastors in the rectangle learned more about the collective efforts underway.

If we love on this hurt community, violent crime will come down, Hayden said. I need you all. The police have very limited tools. If churches are involved, it makes my job easier. It will benefit us all.

The chief also praised the sustained efforts of the social service agencies, pointing out the expansion of Urban Leagues Save our Sons job readiness program, headquartered in Ferguson, into the targeted area, and Better Family Lifes de-escalation program to intervene in ongoing conflicts before they erupt into violence. The program is receiving national attention with other cities trying their own version.

There are 112 churches in the rectangle, bordered by Goodfellow Boulevard, Vandeventer Avenue, West Florissant Avenue and King Drive. Some places of worship are more active than others in their community outreach. Clark said the effort to reduce crime must include restoring the neighborhood church as a focal point.

As we empower the church, and the church becomes more relevant, families will have an anchor in the neighborhood, Clark said. The churches are going to be asked to host weekly neighborhood meetings and become gathering places for residents when they need resources but do not know where to turn.

A place where when a mother cannot feed her children, she can walk to the local church, Clark said. A place where a mothers daughter who needs a tutor can go for help, a place where when a young man doesnt adhere to a curfew, Mom can walk him to the church to get help.

Already, churches are stepping up to offer more free meals, hold clothing drives, house job fairs and provide space for mental health counselors. Work is underway to create scout troops for boys and girls.

Bishop Steven G. Thompson, senior pastor at Leonard Missionary Baptist Church, is one of the clergy members committed to the new effort.

The church for ages has been the backbone of the community, he said. If we dont get vitally involved, the neighborhoods are going to be worse than they are.

In January 2018, there was a fatal shooting in front of the church, on North Compton Avenue.

Its one thing to hear about this stuff somewhere else, but when its right on your doorstep, its: Hey, somethings got to be done. Its getting closer to you.

Another way

Timothy Watson was baptized at the church in 1966 and is now a deacon. He grew up in the neighborhood and went to the old Vashon High School.

To see how the community turned to all this gun violence and we dont care who we shoot. This is not how the neighborhood was, Watson said. There has always been crime and probably will be forever. But it has to slow down.

The churchs current outreach includes giving away food and clothes every Saturday, following a morning prayer. In the winter, they make pots of chili and pass out gloves and hats.

Being more present in the neighborhood introduces church members to the guys that got grills in their mouths. Tattoos. Driving the nice cars. We get to meet the community. We do what it takes to make it feel like somebody out there still cares.

Watson hopes other churches in the rectangle will do the same.

Id like to see churches adopting families, going into their homes and helping them get jobs and doing whatever they can, Watson said. If you leave people out here alone and desolate with no hope, they are going to continue to live the way they live. They dont see any other way out. My objective is to show them another way.

Thompson said that for too long, society has relied on the threat of incarceration to address neighborhood problems. The possibility of a prison sentence is not necessarily a deterrent, he said.

Sometimes I think its the gesture of kindness that is going to do more, said Thompson, who will host an interfaith service at his church on Monday, the federal holiday honoring King.

Burton, with New Northside, agreed.

After the crack epidemic, and the huge law enforcement response in dealing with it, neighborhoods emptied out, left behind broken families, parents in jail, children raising themselves, Burton said. We continue dealing with the fallout from that.

The key is a balance of resources, which must include police, he said.

Im praying to God this isnt the last planned police effort, Burton said.

Thompson, like other pastors involved in the new effort, said the service to community King talked about, often from a pulpit, must be led by the churches.

Sunday is when we worship. But after benediction, thats when service starts, Thompson said. Thats for our outreach efforts. For our neighborhood.

For our fellow man.

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.John D. McGurk's Irish Pub in Soulard closed early last Friday and opened late Saturday because of the storm, said Julie Laffler, events manager.

It was pretty quiet, which was unusual for us, she said. Laffler said she doesn't a remember a storm that bad in the nine years. It's very rare we call it quits.

Staff were remaining cautious going into the weekend but we're hoping for the best, Laffler said.

The Soulard neighborhood is very good about rallying and supporting each other, she said.

Business was slow Friday at Edele and Mertz Hardware in Soulard, but that was to be expected after customers rushed the store last week and bought all the salt and shovels the store had stocked, said owner Steve Edele. The store sold nearly 392 bags of salt - nearly 10 tons  and about 40 shovels within a period of about 12 hours, he said.

It was the first big snow in years, Edele said. People seemed to have forgotten how bad the snow could get.

Globe Drugs, across the street, had restocked bread and milk, which were in high demand just before last weekend's storm. The store stayed open throughout last weekend, and plans to stay open this weekend as well, said owner Rick Ruzicka.MARYLAND HEIGHTS  Maryland Heights on Thursday night became what is believed to be the first city in St. Louis County to set up zoning requirements concerning medical marijuana.

The City Council approved a zoning change recognizing the "licensed and regulated" uses of the drug, although the law deals largely with parking.

Missouri in November joined 32 other states in legalizing medical marijuana after 65 percent of voters approved a state constitutional amendment. State license application forms will not be available until August, and municipalities will not license any entity not already state licensed.

"We started looking into this when the amendment passed, and then we have received three separate inquiries from people who want to manufacture it, grow it and dispense it," said Michael Zeek, Maryland Heights' planning director .

He referred questions about the names of the inquiring entities to another city official, who was not available Friday. Inquiries concerning the identities of 250 applicants for state licensing have also been gone unanswered in recent weeks.We can literally get fired for being gay or trans, said Ryan, who said it was his third time joining the womens march in St. Louis. As long as there is injustice toward people who arent (cisgender) white men, well be here.

Anne Ogier, 28, a social worker from Chesterfield and a lesbian, said she was marching to let the country know I dont like where were going. People are more openly showing hate and discrimination and it greatly concerns me. This isnt acceptable, and were going to keep fighting. Were gonna keep voting and were going to get this country back on track.

Julie Connoyer, 57, and her husband, Tim Eckels, 63, of Elsah, said they were marching Saturday to pay homage to the suffragettes who marched for voting rights a century ago. After Trumps victory, they said, they helped form a group of activists in Elsah aimed at engaging and educating voters.

Eckels said the womens marches across the country sent a message that were a country of compassion. We care about making a future for our children  I have two daughters  I want their future to be a secure one where rights of all people are respected, where our environment is clean and safe and where we all have health care.

Rally in WashingtonKANSAS CITY, Mo.  Now that Missouri is entering the medical marijuana industry, two Democratic lawmakers from Kansas City want to give businesses owned by women and minorities a slight edge in entering the market.

The Kansas City Star reports that the virtually identical proposals by Rep. Barbara Washington and Sen. Kiki Curls give minority- and women-owned businesses a 10 percent bonus when the state scores license applications on a variety of measurements.

Advocates of the bills say affirmative action is appropriate since studies have shown that marijuana-related arrests have typically fallen disproportionately on black and Latino users, even though white people use marijuana at about the same rate.

Missouri voters in November approved medical marijuana. The constitutional amendment requires the state to issue at least 24 licenses to sell medical marijuana in each of the state's eight congressional districts, or 192 total.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services probably won't decide who gets licenses until the end of 2019. But the department has already accepted more than $2 million in application fees from more than 250 people hoping to start medical marijuana businesses, so competition appears to be strong.WASHINGTON  Congress held several show votes on contentious issues during the week of Jan. 14-18, a result of the partial government shutdown.

They were show votes largely because they had no chance of becoming law either because of opposition in the opposing chamber, or veto likelihood from President Donald Trump. Some were set up to get opposing party members on the record on tough issues while the impasse between House Democrats and Trump on Trumps call for a wall on the southern border spiraled toward its fifth week

Here are how St. Louis-area members came down on several key votes:

House

Russia sanctions relief  The House on Jan. 17 voted, 362-53, to prohibit the Treasury Department from lifting economic sanctions on the corporate domain of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, in return for his relinquishing majority shares in three companies. But a Senate vote (below) allowed the sanctions relief to take effect. A yes vote was to retain the sanctions.(HJ Res 30)ST. LOUIS  Police are investigating three separate shootings in St. Louis late Friday and early Saturday.

A male victim arrived at a hospital with gunshot wounds to the legs. He was shot near Hodiamont and Wabada avenues in the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood just before 11 p.m. Friday and was stable, police said. His condition was not available.

A male victim arrived at a hospital with a gunshot wound to the thigh. He was shot at about 1:30 a.m. near North Kingshighway Boulevard and Enright Avenue and was stable, police said.

The third victim, shot in the abdomen at about 2:30 a.m. near Natural Bridge and North Newstead avenues, was said to be in critical but stable condition.

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Leslie Paul Bauer was born in 1907, the third child of Lloyd and Vivian Bauer, who had met in art school in New York. His father died while Leslie was a small child, and for reasons unclear, Vivian sent him to live with her parents in British Columbia. His two older brothers, Lloyd and Lionel, and his younger sister, Rita, stayed with their mother.

When Leslie was 14, his mother wrote to her parents. Leslie saw the return address in San Francisco. He rode his horse to the train station, sold the horse and used the proceeds to go find his family.

The four siblings became a vaudeville act. They called themselves the Foley Four. Vivian had remarried. Her new husband was Tom Foley, and the Bauer kids decided to borrow his name. The Foley Four sounded better, apparently, than the Bauer Four. The brothers danced. The sister sang.

They toured the country. Leslie later said they played in all 48 states. Eventually, the oldest of the brothers, Lionel, dropped out. One day he just disappeared. The siblings figured Lionel, whom they called Skid, as in Skid Row, had succumbed to his demons.Flawed people and a forceful look at an area ravaged by an economic downturn and a rising opioid epidemic meld in the character-driven Sugar Run, Mesha Marens novel debut.

At 35, Jodi McCarty is getting her first taste of freedom when shes released from prison after being convicted at 17 for shooting her girlfriend, Paula Dulett. Before Paula, the only person who had been kind to Jodi was her grandmother, Effie.

The aimless cross-country trek, including a dip into Mexico with Paula, was the closest to happiness Jodi had known, savoring the delicious, unfamiliar risk of each day. The couple supported themselves with petty crimes and Paulas skills as a poker player. Paulas intoxicating talks about how a good poker hand is a sweet sugar run has Jodi remembering her West Virginia home and how she wants to return to the landscape of flashing mountain creeks that appear out of nowhere after a good rain.

The relationship with Paula  and its violent end  preys on Jodis mind as she begins her new life, hoping she can fulfill her dream of settling on the land once owned by her grandmother. Then Jodi meets and falls for Miranda Matheson Golden, who is separated from her husband, a country music star of receding fame.BERLIN  Thousands of farmers from across Germany and their supporters have protested at Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate, calling for climate-friendly agriculture and healthy food.

Organizers say 170 tractors drove in from farms around the country to join 35,000 other protesters for the Saturday demonstration under the motto "we are fed up with the agricultural industry."

The protest was called to coincide with the German capital's "Green Week" agricultural fair, and Agriculture Minister Julia Kloeckner's meetings with dozens of countries about more international cooperation on agricultural issues, the dpa news agency reported.

The protesters say the message to Kloeckner and the others is that "farm work on the land, in the fields and in the stables is something very valuable and worthy of protection."

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Who knows? My crystal ball broke a long time ago, said Jon Doggett, the Washington-based CEO of the National Corn Growers Association, commenting on the uncertainty that surrounds trade talks.

Remarks from Doggett and others came as the NCGA, headquartered in Chesterfield, held a summit on soil health in St. Louis Tuesday and Wednesday.

But in certain sessions and on the sidelines, simmering concern over trade policy was a hot topic of discussion, with multiple farmers citing it as one of the top challenges they currently face  if not the biggest.

During updates about how federal policies are being felt on the farm, Doggett fielded multiple questions about trade at the conference. Going forward, he said it is hard to know what to expect, and indicated that its possible farmers may need to brace for high-impact tariffs spiraling into the following year.

I think we will be in this time next year before we see that decision again, said Doggett, referring to the Trump administrations move to issue two rounds of relief payments to farmers in a bid to negate economic harm from tariffs on products from soybeans to pork.Blog Archive Apr 2010 (22) May 2010 (25) Jun 2010 (8) Jul 2010 (12) Aug 2010 (18) Sep 2010 (19) Oct 2010 (29) Nov 2010 (30) Dec 2010 (18) Jan 2011 (13) Feb 2011 (21) Mar 2011 (23) Apr 2011 (19) May 2011 (31) Jun 2011 (36) Jul 2011 (46) Aug 2011 (26) Sep 2011 (12) Oct 2011 (15) Nov 2011 (17) Dec 2011 (7) Jan 2012 (18) Feb 2012 (4) Mar 2012 (12) Apr 2012 (18) May 2012 (10) Jun 2012 (21) Jul 2012 (8) Aug 2012 (15) Sep 2012 (7) Oct 2012 (17) Nov 2012 (20) Dec 2012 (10) Jan 2013 (58) Feb 2013 (59) Mar 2013 (60) Apr 2013 (98) May 2013 (135) Jun 2013 (204) Jul 2013 (293) Aug 2013 (351) Sep 2013 (363) Oct 2013 (348) Nov 2013 (374) Dec 2013 (442) Jan 2014 (547) Feb 2014 (476) Mar 2014 (526) Apr 2014 (527) May 2014 (469) Jun 2014 (408) Jul 2014 (472) Aug 2014 (522) Sep 2014 (443) Oct 2014 (472) Nov 2014 (497) Dec 2014 (536) Jan 2015 (539) Feb 2015 (520) Mar 2015 (582) Apr 2015 (658) May 2015 (679) Jun 2015 (673) Jul 2015 (728) Aug 2015 (803) Sep 2015 (923) Oct 2015 (924) Nov 2015 (802) Dec 2015 (791) Jan 2016 (782) Feb 2016 (835) Mar 2016 (929) Apr 2016 (866) May 2016 (947) Jun 2016 (1044) Jul 2016 (882) Aug 2016 (1035) Sep 2016 (967) Oct 2016 (918) Nov 2016 (854) Dec 2016 (885) Jan 2017 (881) Feb 2017 (777) Mar 2017 (897) Apr 2017 (872) May 2017 (851) Jun 2017 (851) Jul 2017 (971) Aug 2017 (1040) Sep 2017 (998) Oct 2017 (1144) Nov 2017 (1046) Dec 2017 (838) Jan 2018 (873) Feb 2018 (769) Mar 2018 (885) Apr 2018 (809) May 2018 (827) Jun 2018 (820) Jul 2018 (840) Aug 2018 (854) Sep 2018 (844) Oct 2018 (852) Nov 2018 (870) Dec 2018 (912) Jan 2019 (919) Feb 2019 (827) Mar 2019 (957) Apr 2019 (913) May 2019 (1007) Jun 2019 (935) Jul 2019 (950) Aug 2019 (936) Sep 2019 (910) Oct 2019 (920) Nov 2019 (874) Dec 2019 (908) Jan 2020 (942) Feb 2020 (849) Mar 2020 (898) Apr 2020 (848) May 2020 (822) Jun 2020 (789) Jul 2020 (819) Aug 2020 (858) Sep 2020 (841) Oct 2020 (873) Nov 2020 (812) Dec 2020 (780) Jan 2021 (765) Feb 2021 (716) Mar 2021 (819) Apr 2021 (805) May 2021 (815) Jun 2021 (474)Lone Star Deception, a film co-written and produced by former Fort Bend County real estate developer Ed deZevallos, will premiere at the Regal Edwards Cinema, located at 7620 Katy Freeway, on Thursday, Feb. 7.(I) didnt know I was going to get it, kind of had (forgot) about it, he says. Thanks be to God everything worked out because thats what I really wanted to do. I enjoy doing IT things and working, but Im more of a people person, I like working hands-on with people.

Onley says that Brown is what the department needs for improving relations with South Statesville.

I will tell you today, if I go to somebodys door down there today and knock on it, half the people probably wont even come to the door, he said.

But Brown is already an established member of the community, Onley added. There is that level of trust already. Theyre more willing, I believe, to speak to him about what we can do to make things better down there. Thats where Russell comes in. 

Onley said the new position is planned to be a permanent person solely dedicated to indentifying problems within South Statesville. Funding for positions like these has been a routine issue, according to Onley.

But last year, the Statesville City Council voted to begin funding the new position starting this month.Countries & Areas

Search for country or area A Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan B Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Burundi C Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cote dIvoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia D Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic E Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia F Fiji Finland France G Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana H Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary I Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy J Jamaica Japan Jordan K Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan L Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg M Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique N Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway O Oman P Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Q Qatar R Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria T Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu U Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Y Yemen Z Zambia Zimbabwe3:18 p.m.  In the 1400 block of 10th Avenue, police investigated the theft of checks that were later used at a Scottsbluff business.

4:16 p.m.  At the intersection of West 24th Street and Avenue I, David Retzer was arrested on two Scotts Bluff County warrants.

Dec. 22

12 a.m.  At the intersection of West 27th Street and Avenue I, police investigated a report of a female standing in the middle of the intersection. A juvenile was cited on a charge of minor in possession.

6:44 a.m.  Police investigated an assault at the Regional West Medical Center emergency room. A juvenile was cited on a charge of assault.

7:54 a.m.  At the intersection of 20th Street and Third Avenue, an officer stopped a vehicle for no front license plates. Eduardo Bella Ortega was cited on a charge of driving under suspension. Camryn Rein was cited on a charge of no proof of insurance.

12:09 p.m.  At Safeway, 601 Broadway, police investigated a disturbance.

Dec. 23

11:45 a.m.  At Walmart, police investigated Elisia Rotherham on a citation for theft by shoplifting.A fundraiser is underway for a Gering couple who had the RV they were living in damaged by fire.

A fifth-wheel owned by Joseph Kyser and his wife, Susan, was damaged in a fire Saturday, Jan. 12, Kyser said. Local fire departments responded to the property they live on County Road S and battled the blaze, which Joseph Kyser said was determined to have been caused by an electrical arc.

Kyser said that the couple, who are traveling ministers, have lived in the RV in Gering for 3 years. The couple regularly travels to Native American reservations in Nebraska, Montana and Washington state. They have been traveling ministers for about 12 years.

Firefighter Ministry has assisted the couple, helping them by providing hotel accommodations. However, the couple is hoping to replace the RV they lived in and unfortunately, Kyser said, insurance is not paying as much as the couple needs.

A friend in the couples ministry group has posted a fundraiser on Facebook. The fundraiser is available online at https://bit.ly/2DmnJ8v.

Submit Your News We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form

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.LINCOLN  Legislation introduced last week by State Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue aims to protect consumers and promote truth in advertising by preventing plant-based food companies from billing their products as plant-based meat.

Bloods bill, LB 14, would make it a Class I misdemeanor for misleading or deceptive practices, including misrepresenting a product as meat that is not derived from livestock or poultry.

Cattle outnumber Nebraskans by 4 to 1. They are the states single largest industry and the engine that powers the states economy. According to the Nebraska Beef Council, the multiplied impact of the $6.5 billion in cattle sales each year is $12.1 billion. Additionally, the state is home to about 3.1 million hogs and pigs at commercial operations in nearly every county. The poultry industry also plays a significant role in Nebraskas economy. Because of this, Blood said she reached out to representatives from several state livestock and farm groups and got their input on the bill. The feedback she received was mostly positive.

I think the livestock producers like the fact that someone is standing up for them, Blood said. Were not doing this to get back at plant-based companies, but we care about what consumers buy and how its labeled.SCOTTSBLUFF  Second-graders at Lincoln Heights Elementary concluded their week by learning about fish. Janelle Craig invited her husband, Chuck, and son, Hunter, to give a presentation using a rainbow trout.

As part of the activity, the students learned facts about a fish.

If the fish eggs are white, theyre dead and the brain is small but theyre still smart, said Israel Rodriguez.

Chuck Craig also shared that fish have four retinas to see through the murky water. He also explained why fish are slimy.

Slim helps them swim faster and fight off parasites and bacteria as they move through the water, he said.

With a rainbow trout under the projector, the Craigs began dissecting the fish while pointing out body parts and major organs. As they pulled out the gills, heart and brain, the classroom erupted as some students were grossed out.

Through a Nebraska Game and Parks program, Janelle Craig has been able to bring fish into the classroom to facilitate student learning for the past three years.

We got the fish from Montana and then went to Game and Parks before they came here, she said.Prosecutors have charged a Gering man in two cases in which he is accused of seriously assaulting people he had disagreements with.

In connection with a December incident, Jared Rutter has been charged with first-degree assault, a Class II felony, and use of a deadly weapon to commit assault, a Class II felony.

According to an arrest affidavit, Scottsbluff Police made contact with a man at the Regional West emergency room on Dec. 30 who had been assaulted. The man suffered abrasions to the face and had several teeth missing.

The man told police he had been in a small area of his garage, which he calls an office, sitting and working, when he felt someone grab him from his left side. He was forced out of the chair by a man and onto the floor, where he was struck several times with a hand tool and kicked repeatedly in the torso. The man said he was unable to fight back and unable to flee, as he is missing a leg. The man said he crawled to his home, waiting for his sister who came to the home to let the dog in. The sister told police she had found the man on the ground in the yard, laying on his front side.

Initially, the man told police he did not know who had injured him.Fairmont A celebration of life service for Robert Bob Weber, age 66, of Fairmont, will be 11 a.m. Monday, Jan. 21, 2019, at the Lakeview Funeral Home in Fairmont. A private family burial will be held at a later date. Visitation was 3-6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019, at the Lakeview Funeral Home in Fairmont and will continue one hour prior to the time of service. Bob passed away Wednesday morning, Jan. 16, 2019, at the Mayo Clinic Health System in Mankato. The Lakeview Funeral Home and Cremation Service of Fairmont is assisting the family with arrangements.

Robert Weber was born on March 31, 1952, in Fairmont, the son of Everett and Leona (Servias) Nutt. He began his education attending Lincoln School in Fairmont and later attended Fairmont Jr. and Sr. High School where he earned his diploma.

Following his graduation, Robert made his home in the Fairmont area and worked as a machinist at Artsway in Armstrong, Iowa, and Nortech Aerospace Systems where he retired from in 2016.

Bob loved the outdoors and jumped at the chance to spend time fishing. He was also very interested in Indian artifacts and enjoyed hunting for them in addition to studying them and their history. Bob was an avid Minnesota Twins and Vikings fan and spent countless hours out in his garage cheering them on. After returning to Fairmont in 2001, Robert became a member of Grace Lutheran Church and was later baptized into the Lutheran faith in 2002. Bob was also a long-time member of the Trimont Conservation Club.

Left to cherish his memory are two daughters and grandchildren; sister, Rosemary (Erwin) Atzenhoefer, of Trimont; brother, Lawrence (Sharon) Grunert of Menasha, Wisconsin; as well as many nieces, nephews, extended family and friends.

Bob was preceded in death by his parents, Everett and Leona Nutt; grandparents, Earl and Hazel Nutt and Omer and Anna Servais; brother, Roger Nutt; and many aunts and uncles.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 U S President Donald Trump has set out new plans for his Mexican wall, offering to extend temporary protection for people brought into the US illegally as children to secure funding for the controversial project.

Mr Trump offered a series of compromises in a speech on Saturday to try and end a partial government shutdown.

The 72-year-old has so far struggled to find a way out of the four-week shutdown over his demand to build the divisive border wall between the US and Mexico.

Speaking from the White House, Mr Trump promoted his new plan as a way to break the logjam and provide Congress with a path forward to end the government shutdown.

The president is also offering to extend protections for immigrants who came to the US as a result of war or natural disasters in their home countries.

Mr Trump delivered a speech from the White House on Saturday / REUTERS

He said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will bring the proposal for a vote in the Senate this week.

However Democrats, who control the House, are already saying they find the president's offer unacceptable.

Mr Trump said he was offering a "commonsense compromise both parties should embrace".

Five people take the oath of citizenship from United States Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) Kirstjen Nielsen during a ceremony hosted by Mr Trump / EPA

But in advance of his remarks, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the proposal for ending the 29-day partial government shutdown was "a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable".

The California Democrat said Mr Trump's offer was "not a good-faith effort" to help the immigrants and could not pass the House.

Democrats criticised the proposal because it did not seem to be a permanent solution for the affected immigrants and because it includes money for the wall along the US-Mexico border, which the party strongly opposes.

Democrats also want Mr Trump to reopen government before talks can start.Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), left, addresses furloughed federal workers before they share stories of how they have been affected by the government shutdown in a round table with him and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.).R obert Mueller has issued a rare public statement disputing a bombshell report alleging that Donald Trump ordered his former lawyer to lie to Congress.

BuzzFeed, citing two unidentified law enforcement officials, reported that Mr Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie about a Moscow real estate project.

It said Cohen told Mr Mueller that Mr Trump had personally told him to lie about the timing of the project.

The report said Mr Mueller's investigators learned about Mr Trump's directive "through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organisation and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents".

It added that Cohen acknowledged Mr Trump's instructions when he was interviewed by Mr Mueller's team.

However Mr Muellers spokesman, Peter Carr, said: "BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the special counsel's office, and characterisation of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's congressional testimony are not accurate."

Buzzfeed spokesman Matt Mittenthal said the publication stands by its reporting and to "stay tuned" as they worked to determine what Mr Mueller was denying.

Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, also said the publication stands by its reporting and the sources who informed it.

"We urge the special counsel to make clear what he's disputing," Mr Smith said.

Immediately after the special counsel's statement was issued, Mr Trump retweeted several posts that called the story fake news.

He later tweeted: "A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!"

Mr Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, tweeted: "I commend Bob Mueller's office for correcting the BuzzFeed false story that Pres Trump encouraged Cohen to lie.

"I ask the press to take heed that their hysterical desire to destroy this President has gone too far. They pursued this without critical analysis all day. #FAKENEWS."

The extraordinary statement from Mr Mueller's office came after Democrats had vowed to investigate whether the report was true, calling that possibility a "concern of the greatest magnitude".

Any evidence that Mr Trump directed a witness to lie to investigators would place him in the greatest political and legal jeopardy yet.

Mr Giuliani said in a statement earlier on Friday that "any suggestion - from any source - that the President counseled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false".

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the allegation "absolutely ridiculous".

On Twitter on Friday morning, Mr Trump charged that Cohen was "Lying to reduce his jail time!"

Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress to cover up that he was negotiating the Trump Tower project on Mr Trump's behalf during the heat of his presidential campaign.

The charge was brought by Mr Mueller and was the result of Cohen's cooperation with that probe.

Cohen admitted that he lied when he told lawmakers he had never agreed to travel to Russia in connection with the Moscow project and when he said that, by the end of January 2016, he decided the "proposal was not feasible for a variety of business reasons and should not be pursued further".

He was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to conceal his boss' alleged sexual affairs.A t least 66 people have been killed and 71 injured after a leaking pipeline exploded in central Mexico.

Dozens of local residents scrambling to fill up containers with oil were engulfed in flames after the blast, local authorities have said.

Hidalgo's governor Omar Fayad told Mexican said on Saturday that emergency services had registered the charred bodies of 66 people, and that at least 71 others had been injured.

Mr Fayad said the number of victims could still rise depending on what emergency services discovered where the blaze had been hottest, which had been difficult to access.

Over 85 other people on Saturday were listed as missing a day after a massive fireball erupted at an illegal pipeline tap in the small town of Tlahuelilpan, about 62 miles north of Mexico City.

The incident occurred just three weeks after new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador launched an offensive against fuel theft gangs that drilled dangerous, illegal taps into pipelines an astounding 12,581 times in the first 10 months of 2018, an average of about 42 per day.

Television footage of the incident on Friday showed flames leaping into the night sky near the Tula oil refinery.

People are watching the fire at the scene of a massive blaze triggered by a leaky pipeline. / AFP/Getty Images

In a statement, the refinery said the pipeline was ruptured by suspected fuel thieves who had installed an illegal tap.

Television footage showed the pipeline gushing a fountain of fuel earlier in the day and dozens of people at the site trying to fill buckets and plastic containers.

Mexican soldiers stand guard near a fire after a leaking gas pipeline triggered a blaze in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state / AFP/Getty Images

Separate footage published on broadcaster Televisa showed people with severe burns from the blast as the government sent in ambulances and doctors to treat the victims.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has launched a major crackdown on rampant fuel theft, which the government said cost the country more than $3 billion last year.

The explosion was one of the worst in recent history in a country that has suffered hundreds of illegal ruptures to its network of oil and gas pipelines.

"I urge the entire population not to be complicit in fuel theft," Fayad said on Twitter. "Apart from being illegal, it puts your life and those of your families at risk."

Lopez Obrador expressed his concern on Twitter, and said he wanted "the entire government" to help people at the scene.F resh scenes of carnage have taken place across France as Yellow Vest protesters marched for the 10th consecutive weekend.

Thousands of demonstrators rallied in French cities, despite a national debate launched this week by President Emmanuel Macron.

Some activists were donned in masks as projectiles were thrown in Paris, as officers resorted to sing tear gas and water cannons once more.

French police have been criticised for using rubber projectiles that have caused several serious injuries to protesters.

Juliette Rebet, a demonstrator in Paris, said: Its not normal to treat people the way we are being treated. We have injured people every Saturday.

People faced riot police in Paris / AFP/Getty Images

Protesters marched peacefully in the French capital but clashes erupted at the end of the main demonstration.

A total of 30 people were arrested in Paris following the demonstration, police said.

Clashes were also reported in Bordeaux, Toulouse and the western city of Rennes.

At the Invalides, protesters carrying a banner that read "Citizens in danger" marched at the front of the procession and held coffin-shaped boards in memory of those killed.

Demonstrations took place across France / AFP/Getty Images

Paris deployed 5,000 police around the capital, notably around government buildings and the Champs-Elysees shopping area. About 80,000 police fanned out nationwide.

The capital and much of France have endured weeks of protests over economic demands by French workers and students that at times descended into violence. The grassroots protests started two months ago over fuel taxes but became a broader revolt against economic problems.

According to the Interior Ministry, there were 27,000 protesters across France by early Saturday afternoon, down from 32,000 at the same time the week before.

Mr Macron is facing a plethora of demands ranging from the reintroduction of France's wealth tax on the country's richest people to the implementation of popular votes that allow citizens to propose new laws.

A protester in Angers, France / REUTERS

The president launched his grand debate this week during meetings with mayors and local officials. The three-month-long debate involves a series of meetings organised by citizens, groups and elected officials to enable the French to express their views on the economy and democracy.

Mr Macron has already cancelled a fuel tax hike and released other funds to help French workers. He said he is open to discussions but has warned he will not give up on his major reforms, including the touchy issue of changing France's pension system later this year.F orecasters have warned snow could fall in London next week as temperatures continue to plunge across the UK.

A cold spell has gripped the country this week and the Met Office has said the mercury will continue to plummet freezing in parts of country over the coming days.

Temperatures sunk as low as -9C in parts of northern Scotland as the weekend began, while conditions in the south hovered a few degrees above freezing.

Largely grey, gloomy conditions and patches of rain and sleet are expected on Saturday in southern areas while a band of rain and snow is expected to hit the north of the UK on Sunday.

At the start of next week, conditions look set to turn even colder with the possibility of disruptive heavy rain, sleet and snow across the country.

The Met Office is also not ruling out sleet and snow in lower areas of the country on Monday and Tuesday.

Most of the snow will be in higher ground and the further north you go the more likely for snow in those areas, spokesman Mark Wilson said.

At the moment were not expecting it in London but it is not completely out of the question, he added.

Snowstorm in Europe: January 2019 1 /42 Snowstorm in Europe: January 2019 Aftermath of an avalanche that hit the Hotel Saentis in Hundwil, Switzerland EPA ftermath of an avalanche that hit the Hotel Saentis in Hundwil, Switzerland EPA Aftermath of an avalanche that hit the Hotel Saentis in Hundwil, Switzerland EPA Trucks and cars make their way on the motorway A 8 between Salzburg and Munich after heavy snow falls near Irschenberg, south of Munich, Germany AP A man and a woman clearing snow on the roof of a building in Schaftlach near Waakirchen, Bavaria, Germany EPA A track vehicle of the German army provides food to a village near Berchtesgaden, southern Germany AP Firefighters remove snow from the roof of a building in Buchenhoehe, southern Germany AP snow blower clears a road in Schaftlach near Waakirchen, Bavaria, Germany EPA A snow plough clears the A9 highway in Garching, southern Germany, after heavy snowfall AFP/Getty Images Workers try to free a train of the Harzer Schmalspurbahn narrow gauge train that got stuck in the snow on the Brocken mountain in the Harz region near Schierke, central Germany AFP/Getty Images A street sign reading "danger of avalanches" stands on a snow covered street in Vordernberg, Austria AFP/Getty Images A man cleans a street from snow in Vordernberg, Austria AFP/Getty Images Workers try to free a train of the Harzer Schmalspurbahn narrow gauge train that got stuck in the snow on the Brocken mountain in the Harz region near Schierke, central Germany AFP/Getty Images A man cleans a path at a cemetery from snow in Vordernberg, Austria AFP/Getty Images A snow-covered commuter train stands still at the station of Berchtesgaden, southern Germany AFP/Getty Images A road sign reading 'B197 Arlbergpass CLOSED' is seen on a snow-covered road during a snowstorm near St. Anton am Arlberg, Austria EPA An employee of a freight train terminal works beside of a fright train after snow fall in Munich, southern Germany AFP/Getty Images A man uses a snow blower after heavy snowfalls near Irschenberg, southern Germany REUTERS A worker tries to free a train of the Harzer Schmalspurbahn narrow gauge train that got stuck in the snow on the Brocken mountain in the Harz region near Schierke, central Germany AFP/Getty Images a snow plough clearing the area in Ramsau am Dachstein, Austria AFP/Getty Images At least seven people have died in parts of Germany and Austria due to heavy snowfall EPA Two men try to remove snow from a roof of a house in Filzmoos, Austria, EPA A snow plough clearing the area in Ramsau am Dachstein, Austria AFP/Getty Images A car drives on a snow covered road near Reitham, Bavaria, Germany EPA A house is seen between snow-covered trees near Flachau, Austri Reuters A men shovel snow on a rooftop during heavy snowfall in Filzmoos, Austria Reuters A women shovels snow from the rooftop of her house in Austria Reuters A caterpillar shovels snow on an icy road after heavy snowfall near Sufferloh, southern Germany Reuters EPA A road worker frees a road sign for the mandatory usage of winter tyres (or snow chains) over the winter period from snow during heavy snowfall near Untertauern, Austria EPA Cars driving in snow on a highway in Irschenberg, southern Germany AFP/Getty Images Horses stand on a meadow covered with snow in Hohenleiten near Munich, Germany Reuters Snow covered railtracks are seen after heavy snowfall in Warngau, southern Germany Reuters A car drives through a snow covered road during heavy snowfall near Obertauern, Austria EPA A woman shovels snow in Siegsdorf, Bavaria, Germany EPA A railway station is covered in snow in Agatharied, Bavaria, Germany EPA A car is covered with snow in Agatharied, Bavaria, Germany EPA A wheel loader clears snow on a parking lot near Holzkirchen, Bavaria, Germany EPA Snow covers a building's windows at Santis-Schwaegalp mountain area after an avalanche, in Switzerland Reuters A snow-covered bus stands at Santis-Schwaegalp mountain area after an avalanche, in Switzerland Reuters The road to Hundwil, Schwaegalp is closed after an avalanche came down, in Nesslau-Krummenau, Switzerland EPA The peak of Mount Saentis (back C) is seen in the background as fire fighters stand in front of a barrier blocking the road to the Santis-Schwaegalp mountain area after an avalanche in Switzerland Reuters

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Mr Wilson said the west of the UK is expected to see snow and sleet showers.

The wintery conditions will travel east by the end of the week.

Theres uncertainty about whether itll reach London but the further east you go there is a greater chance of snow showers later next week, Mr Wilson said.

He warned temperatures will turn even colder than they have been.

Itll feel very cold in the wind, he said. And itll feel colder still by the later part of next week.S ir John Major has urged Theresa May to become a Brexit mediator after her deal was overwhelmingly defeated in the Commons earlier this week.

The former prime minister called for MPs to be given a free vote on the way forward on Brexit to break the deadlock in Parliament.

He urged Mrs May to stage a series of "indicative" votes to enable her to establish which, if any, of the alternative proposals could command a majority.

"The Prime Minister argued valiantly for her deal. She fought for it but the House of Commons killed it and killed it comprehensively," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"The Prime Minister still needs a deal. If she can't deliver one that Parliament accepts, then she needs to become a facilitator, a mediator, to find out what Parliament will accept."

TODO: define component type apester

Sir John, whose premiership was riven by divisions over Europe, said that ideally all the party leaders would give their MPs a free vote to allow an "honest representation" of opinion in the House.

"It is the only way to get an absolutely honest answer from Members of Parliament and if it is a free vote it removes the danger of resignations from Government or the opposition frontbench because they disagree with their leader's policy," he said.

"If there is a whip, many Members of Parliament would follow the whip out of loyalty to their party or their leader rather than loyalty to their conscience or their constituents.

Boris Johnson calls on PM to tear up Brexit backstop

"This is such a unique issue I think it would be an act of statesmanship by the party leaders to say 'Because of the very strong opinions on either side, we are going to lift the party whips so Parliament and the country can get a genuine view of what it is Members of Parliament most think would be best for our country or, perhaps, least bad for our country'.

"It is a unique way of doing it but I think it is justified."

But Tory Brexit supporter Suella Braverman dismissed the former PM's "Remainer elite" views, saying: "Thank you Sir John, but no thanks."

Ms Braverman, a former chairwoman of the pro-Leave European Research Group of Tory MPs who resigned as a Brexit minister over Mrs May's Withdrawal Agreement, called for the Irish backstop to be scrapped.

She said some of the options being put forward, like a customs union, allowing continued free movement of people or holding a second referendum, would be "clear breaches" of promises the PM had made and would ignore the will of the people.

She said they would also have "severe consequences" for the Tory party, but she stopped short of saying she would resign the party whip in protest.

Fellow Tory MP Anna Soubry, a prominent Remainer in the party, in turn reacted with "despair" to Ms Braverman's comments, accusing her of being "rude and living in a Brexit fantasy land".

Ms Soubry praised Sir John for offering a way forward.L abour has slammed Theresa May for offering the country false hope and false promises over Brexit as the party calls for an open and frank debate to break the Commons deadlock.

Following the crushing defeat of the PM's plan to leave the European Union, shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer will say there are no easy routes out of the current crisis and "difficult decisions" will need to be made by Parliament.

It comes after Jeremy Corbyns refusal to meet Mrs May for talks to discuss the way forward unless she kills off the possibility of a no-deal Brexit.

In a letter on Friday evening, Mr Corbyn, the only Westminster leader to reject her offer of a meeting, accused the Prime Minister of "playing for time" and said the talks were "not genuine".

TODO: define component type apester

Later today, Sir Keir will say in a speech to the Fabian Society new year conference in London: "It's now time for an open and frank debate about how we break the deadlock.

"There are no easy routes out of the mess this Government has got us into on Brexit.

Sir Keir Starmer, who will warn breaking the Commons deadlock on Brexit will require an "open and frank debate" / PA

"Difficult decisions are going to have to be made by Parliament.

"Now is the time for an honest debate and for credible solutions to emerge."

In his letter, Mr Corbyn complained Mrs May had ruled out any extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process or a second referendum.

"Whatever one thinks of those issues, that reinforces the view these are not genuine talks, but designed to play for time and give the appearance of reaching out, whilst sticking rigidly to your own emphatically rejected deal," he wrote.

The PM has also made it clear she will not accept a customs union with the EU, a measure which Mr Corbyn said was "necessary" for any new proposal to command the support of MPs.

On Saturday morning, former prime minister John Major called for MPs to be given a free vote on the way forward on Brexit to break the deadlock in Parliament.

Farage urges Brexiteers to prepare for second referendum

He urged Mrs May to stage a series of "indicative" votes to enable her to establish which, if any, of the alternative proposals could command a majority.

"The Prime Minister still needs a deal. If she can't deliver one that Parliament accepts, then she needs to become a facilitator, a mediator, to find out what Parliament will accept," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

It came as the Financial Times reported that pro-Brexit Cabinet ministers had warned Mrs May she risks splitting the Conservative Party if she gave way to calls for a customs union.

After she spent Friday in Downing Street in meetings with senior ministers, the FT quoted a "cabinet official" as saying that she was told that a customs union was a "total no go".

Key Brexit moments of 2018: in pictures 1 /23 Key Brexit moments of 2018: in pictures Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during a Cabinet meeting at Chequers in July PA The Cabinet thrashed out a Brexit blue print PA The away day meeting PA Boris Johnson leaves Carlton House Terrace in Westminster after he resigned as Foreign Secretary PA David Davis pictured after quitting the government, resigning his post as Brexit Secretary AFP/Getty Images New role: Jeremy Hunt was appointed as Foreign Secretary in July Getty Images Dominic Raab took over the role of Brexit Secretary in July AP/Matt Dunham Exotic spresm: Liberal Democrats Leader Sir Vince Cable following his speech at the party conference PA More than half a million protesters descended on London for the People's Vote March in October Sky News Demonstrators called for a People's Vote on Brexit during a march in Liverpool earlier this year Getty Images Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, presented the red Budget Box as he revealed the government's financial plans in October Getty Images It was the last Budget before Brexit AFP/Getty Images Mr McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn listen as Chancellor Philip Hammond delivers his Budget statement AFP/Getty Images New Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay after Dominic Raab quit the post in November Getty Images Esther McVey also resigned as Work and Pensions Secretary Sir Keir Starmer opened the debate on a motion to hold the Government in contempt of Parliament on December 4 AFP/Getty Images Sir Graham Brady (centre), chairman of the 1922 Committee, announces that Theresa May has survived a confidence vote on December 12 PA Theresa May in Downing Street after winning the confidence vote Jeremy Selwyn The Prime Minister confronts Jean-Claude Juncker at an EU summit in December 'You called me nebulous' Philip Sime/Twitter Jeremy Corbyn was accused of mouthing the words "stupid woman" during the last PMQs of the year Jeremy Corbyn responds in the Commons amid the row PA Jeremy Corbyn denied reports he muttered the words "stupid woman" AFP/Getty Images

Among those believed to be present were International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, the Leader of the House Andrea Leadsom and Home Secretary Sajid Javid.

Ms Leadsom told the Daily Telegraph that no-deal was the default position should no agreement be reached, adding: "If we fail to prepare, we prepare to fail our country."

She told the paper: "No-deal is not the desired outcome, but it would be incompetent for any responsible government to rule it out, and there are very good reasons for that.

"If we rule out no-deal, we can forget about the EU taking us seriously. We weaken our negotiating hand."

The Daily Mail reported that Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the Leave-inclined European Research Group, said no-deal was better than Mrs May's deal, but Mrs May's deal was better than not leaving at all.

Elsewhere Tory MP Nick Boles warned ministers were ready to resign if the Government tried to block moves to give MPs the power to block a no-deal Brexit.

In an interview with the BBC Radio 4 Political Thinking podcast, the former minister said their was a growing bandwagon behind plan which could enable parliamentarians to demand Article 50 is extended to allow fresh talks with Brussels.

"We have had indications that many ministers, including Cabinet ministers are very, very keen to see it pass and are telling the Prime Minister that they will not vote against it," he said.

"There is a bandwagon rolling, it's got a lot of momentum behind it and I very much hope that any MP who shares my view that a no-deal Brexit would be a disaster, will jump on board."H uge crowds have gathered in central London for the global Womens March to protest against violence against women and the impact of policies on austerity.

Thousands of people carrying placards joined this years march, which is taking place in more than 30 countries around the world.

This year's event was significantly smaller than 2017's protest, where close to 100,000 demonstrators took to London's streets - largely in response to the inauguration of President Trump the previous day.

The theme for the London chapter this year is bread and roses, in honour of the Polish-born American suffragette and workers rights campaigner Rose Schneiderman.

After the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 where 146 - mainly female - garment-industry workers died, Schneiderman declared: The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too.

The rally began at midday and saw women March from Portland Place towards Regent Street, along Haymarket before ending at Trafalgar Square.

Saturday marks the third anniversary of the first Womens March in 2017, a day after President Donald Trumps inauguration, when as many as 6 million people around the world gathered in protest of his election.

Last year, thousands gathered in central London for the Times Up rally, in honour of the campaign against sexual harassment and honouring the #MeToo movement.

The march in Washington this year is expected to smaller and more spointered amid inclement weather, an ideological split and reconfiguring of the route due to the government shutdown.

Several major sponsors withdrew this year and local chapters disaffiliated from the central organization which leads it, following allegations of antisemitism.

As the march got underway in London, people sang we are family, Ive got all my sisters and me as they walked towards Trafalgar Square.

Protesters marched from Portland Place to Trafalgar Square holding banners with slogans such as "Theresa May we won't pay" and "Austerity: Women are paying the price".

Another read: "Sugar and spice and reproductive rights."

Campaigners from anti-austerity groups, refugee organisations, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and family planning charities were among the speakers.

Student Joyce Gallagher, 22, said: "We're here to support our sisters and to fight for equality.

"If you don't constantly keep fighting nothing is going to change."

Fellow student Frida Lorentzen said: "There are a lot of things going on everywhere and while you might not feel everything yourself it's important to show up."

Elsewhere, 16-year-old Eve Rooney,said: "I'm here to show my solidarity, to march with women who believe the same thing as me and to march for all those women who can't be here."

The leader of Womens Equality UK Sophie Walker addressed the crowds.

Patriarchy doesnt just take women for granted, it relies on our oppression to ensure others thrive, she said.P olice are hunting two "dangerous individiuals" after a security guard was stabbed to death at a New Year's Eve party in Park Lane.

Tudor Simionov, 33, was working outside the private event at a 12.5million townhouse in London's West End when he was attacked on January 1 at around 5.30am.

Scotland Yard is appealing for information about Ossama Hamed, 25, and 23-year-old Nor Aden Hamada.

Detective Inspector Garry Moncrieff of the Homicide and Major Crime Command said: "Ossama Hamed and Nor Aden Hamada are dangerous individuals who need to be apprehended.

Police are hunting Nor Aden Hamada, left, and Ossama Hamed / Met Police

"I would urge anyone who has seen them, or knows of their whereabouts, to contact police immediately.

"These are live lines of enquiry, therefore I am not willing to speculate on where they may be but rest assured we are working with colleagues to ensure that if they are in this country, or overseas, we will track them down."

Victim: Tudor Simionov with girlfriend Madalina Anghel. She said the couple moved to London for a better life and had planned to marry

Mr Simionov died at the scene after he tried to stop gatecrashers storming into a party at Fountain House. He was hailed a hero for protecting his colleagues.

His girlfriend, Madalina Anghel, revealed to the Standard that they moved to London for a better life and had planned to marry.

Police officers at a cordon in Park Lane / Nigel Howard

Two of his colleagues, aged 29 and 37, were also stabbed during an altercation, as was a 29-year-old woman.N estled at the foot of the Golden Gate bridge on the grounds of the old Fort Baker military base overlooking San Francisco Bay, Cavallo Point offers a prime spot for exploring both the city and the nearby Golden Gate park.

Where is it?

Located in Sausalito, a half-hour drive from San Francisco, the hotel offers the best of urban buzz couples with an appealing slice of tranquil wilderness  and, thanks to the sites patriotic origins, a dose of apple-pie Americana. Daily shuttles make exploring the city easy  while the surrounding woodlands offer brilliant hiking opportunities and there are watersports and activities galore.

Facilities

The Healing Arts Center & Spa / Photograph by Kodiak Greenwood

The Healing Arts Center & Spa offers an excellent range of treatments, and there are also daily dawn yoga classes, as well as regular guided meditation sessions, guided hikes under the Golden Gate Bridge and watercolour classes. The hotel also has strong foodie credentials, with a cooking school, nightly wine tastings, and a restaurant, Murray Point, that is a destination in its own right.

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Extracurricular

San Francisco is just a short drive away, and its ever-changing cultural scene makes it a must-visit, even if you've been before. The buzzing new neighbourhood to know is Dogpatch, thanks to the profusion of new galleries (most notably the Minnesota Street Project, which houses exhibitions from dozens of upcoming artists and collectors).

Elsewhere, North Beach is a must thanks to its heritage as the home of the beat movement (stop by City Lights Bookstore, former haunt of Allen Ginsberg). Lower Haight is wonderful for shopping with independent boutiques every few metres. And Mission, historic home of the citys Mexican population, is now hipster central thanks to its many vintage stores  but dont forget to take in the Hispanic architecture and vibrant murals while there.

Food & drink

The onsite restaurant, Murray Point, is a destination in its own right / Photograph by Kodiak Greenwood

For food, Hayes Valley is the place to go  and the hottest restaurant in town is undoubtedly Che Fico, opened last year by chef David Nayfeld who celebrates his Jewish Italian heritage in an exciting, ever-changing menu. Think heavenly cured meats, surprising salads and highly instagrammable pizzas. Gwyneth Paltrow is a fan, and no wonder - the atmosphere is unbeatable, and the cocktails potent. Book early  reservations are hard to come by.

As well as the unmissable Che Fico, classics such as hipster favourite Mission Chinese (cheap and delicious and seriously fiery Chinese), Tartine Manufatory (fabulous baked goods and beautiful brunches) and La Taqueria (a must-visit Burrito spot in San Fransisco) are all worth a trip. The city also has great bars  stop by True Laurel for avant-garde cocktails and an equally inventive menu of bar snacks.

Which room?

Historic king suite / Photograph by Kodiak Greenwood

Cavallo point offers the option of historic lodging (that is, staying in one of the former officers residences) or contemporary hotel rooms. Theyre both immaculately equipped but for pure charm, the historic residences win hands down. They are quite simply magical. With their cinematic clapboard exteriors and all-American front porches, they look like something out of a film set and have great views over the bay.

Best for...

Families will love Cavallo Point thanks to the endless outdoor space and range of activities  but its also a surprisingly winning option for a quirky couples break, combining the best of the big city, with out-of-town peace and a quiet and fascinating dose of history.

Details:

Rooms start from 352Millennials might be accused of destroying most things - whether its mayonnaise (good riddance, if you ask us) or bars of soap. But there's one very wholesome pastime they're bringing back.

Needlepoint - a craft that's been around since 1500 BC- is having a moment with twenty and thirty-somethings. High profile fans include Taylor Swift, who created a 'started from the bottom' canvas for her friend Ed Sheeran, while Julia Roberts and Amy Adams have also said they like to switch off with a bit of old fashioned needlework.

MTV News

In Palm Beach, Florida Jessica Cheney runs preppy favorite Lycette Designs, where pithy phrases (including 'Ducking autocorrect' and 'Aspiring stay at home dog mom') are sold as patterns. She also hosts meet-ups where needlepoint fans can get together for a drink and a sewing session.

"I host 'Stitch and B*tches', or 'Stitch and Sip', where you can booze it up with needlepoint," Cheney says, "people don't feel as weird doing needlepoint when [they realize] other young people do it too."

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Cheney started creating her witty slogans three years ago when she was working at a needlepoint shop in Washington, D.C. and couldn't find anything that fit her aesthetic. It was the beginning of a trend.

"I dont want to toot my own horn but I was the first one to do them, which was pretty cool. I was looking around and didn't want to needlepoint kittens in baskets or stereotypical stuff. I saw there was a need for it and started creating the canvases." She's since traveled to Nantucket, Newport, and Boston to sell her designs, finding social media a great way to spread the word.

Lycette

People found [needlepoint] through Instagram - theres this underground community," Cheney says, adding that the needlepoint crowd are quite unlike the traditional 'good girl' types of old - encompassing young people of both sexes: Theyre young, theyre in Chicago, New York, Boston and starting these accounts to have a virtual stitch and b*tch.

Cheney says needlepoint clubs are particularly popular in New York, where millennials frazzled by the pace of city life flock to her craft gatherings. I think its because were so addicted to our screens that were looking to create something thats actually tangible - we're often watching TV and on our phone at the same time," she says.

It's far from a meet-up in your grandma's basement - in New York, 'Stitch and B*tch' sessions take place in the slick surrounds of The Pierre or the Mark Hotel.

When it's nice out, we've met in Central Park. Our favorite spot to date was at the Palm Court at The Plaza here in the city, it was just perfect, Rudy Saunders, better known as Rudy the Prep on Instagram, told Insider. Saunders learned needlepoint when his mother taught him at the age of ten and later founded the Young Needlepointers of New York with a co-worker.

Despite the name, Saunders insists there's no age discrimination. "While most people in the group are younger, the important thing is everyone is young at heart," he says.

It might be a good way to reduce screen time and switch off, but for some needlepoint has also become a tool of the resistance - what's been dubbed 'craftivism.'

In the wake of the #metoo movement, a piece created by Sharon Downey of @badasscrossstitch went viral for its sharp takedown of the old phrase 'boys will be boys' - the final 'boys' crossed out with 'will be held accountable for their f****** actions.'

Rose McGowan, Emily Ratajkowski, Willow Smith, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Zoe Kravitz were among the thousands to share Downey's canvas on Instagram.

Whether you want to take down the patriarchy one stitch at a time - or just create a witty phrase to hang in your WC - here's how to get involved.

Where to learn needlepoint

Palm Beach

Lycette Designs on Palm Beach offers boozy Sip & Stitch classes all over, traveling to New York, Nantucket, Newport, and Boston

New York

Annie & Co. hosts classes and one-on-one lessons, teaching needlepoint, knitting, and crochet. Private lessons are $50 for one hour but there are beginner's group classes on offer too.

Washington, D.C.

The Point of It All gives classes to kids and adults. They also sell to folks who aren't in D.C. and even turn their creations into throw pillows, wall hangings, and handbags.

Who to follow

Featuring pop culture references galore - whether you're a Harry Potter fan or you can't stop re-watching Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion - this Brisbane-based account has your craft needs covered. We're very into the 10 Things I Hate About You quotes.

This Los Angeles-based account brings embroidery to your wardrobe. Why make a pillow when you could customize the denim jacket of your wildest festival fantasies?

Follow Rudy Saunders for endlessly preppy inspiration. He needlepoints Lilly Pulitzer shift dresses, neon yellow Croc shoes (very on trend) and even enormous Monopoly boards. Saunders also organizes New York City needlepoint meet-ups.

Shannon Downey was behind that viral 'boys will be boys' creation. Now, she's calling her followers to join her in with her 'craftivism.'

Follow Lycette for sassy sayings and Palm Beach preppiness. Owner Jessica Chaney offers needlepoint classes and hosts more informal 'stitch and sip' sessions.

Snarky Crafter is exactly what the name suggests - some of the sayings have got the account into hot water.

Lyndsey Vernick offers rock star inspiration in her designs, which are available on Etsy and in Winter Haven, Florida. Her site also has an entire 'adult humor' section, complete with 'better late than pregnant' and 'not today Satan.'As big data companies such as Facebook and Google come under scrutiny for collecting and selling customers personal information, so is the state of Connecticut.

A new bill introduced by state Reps. Fred Camillo, R-Greenwich and Brenda Kupchick, R-Fairfield, would limit the disclosure of voter registration data  which includes things birth date, home addresses, party affiliation and more  and prohibit the sale of that data for commercial use.

Connecticut is the only state in the country that allows for the sale of voter registration data for commercial purposes, a vestige of the states strong Freedom of Information Act long before electronic privacy became an issue.

The main thing is a lot of people are worried about their information being sold, Camillo said. Especially with the hacks going on. You dont want to make it real easy for the hackers, and anything that makes it a little bit harder I think is a good thing.

Secretary of the State Denise Merrill introduced similar legislation last year, but the bill died without a vote.

Im happy to have the support of Representatives Camillo and Kupchick for the privacy concepts I raised last year, and I look forward to working in a bipartisan manner to protect the privacy of Connecticut voters and bring Connecticut in line with the majority of states, Merrill said Friday in a written statement.

Under freedom of information laws, the state is required to make public all voter registrations and the information included on them. In addition, the state sells a database of the information for $300.

Currently, the only way to remove voter data from public records is to un-register to vote  although in an age of online records, the data never really goes away  or in extreme cases, through the Safe at Home program run by the Secretary of the States office. That program is a partnership with the states domestic violence crisis centers and allows victims to use the state office as their mailing address for registration purposes.

The only way into the program is through a domestic violence crisis center.

Hillary Long, who lives in Southport, has been working with Camillo on the legislation, and started the website ctvoterprivacy.org to help get the word out.

People are going to register to vote thinking they are just registering to vote, they dont think there are any negative ramifications for voting in the state of Connecticut, Long said. Its just really important that people know about this.

Colleen Murphy, executive director of the state Freedom of Information Commission, said in written testimony last year that the agency opposed the law as it was proposed. But she said at the time the commission was not against working with lawmakers on a way to reduce privacy risks while still upholding the publics right to information.STAMFORD  It is a new year with new governor, but the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council is seeking answers to old questions.

For one, they want to know why the cement ceiling in the train stations old garage is still held together with plywood.

The council, which holds monthly meetings around the state, held its January meeting this week in the Stamford Transportation Center. Before the session started, council members spent 30 minutes in the centers parking structure, largely on a garage-deterioration tour led by city resident and council Vice Chairman Jeffrey Maron.

He pushed for the garage tour hoping the state Department of Transportation, soon to be under new leadership, changes its approach to the garage, which he said has been left to crumble.

The oldest portion of the structure, the 727 spaces built closest to the stations center in the mid 1980s, is in such disrepair that only some 200 spots remain usable. A DOT representative comes to every meeting, Maron said, but the department never agrees to a garage tour.

They dont want to see what they dont want to see, he said.

So the garages oldest portion had a long-awaited moment in the spotlight, with two city representatives, a state representative, state contractors, subcontractors and DOT Assistant Rail Administrator Richard Jankovich in tow.

To the uninitiated, the garage seems in middling condition  albeit difficult to navigate  on the first floor. But a trip up one level, on a staircase with each step seemingly missing a piece of its steel toecap, reveals a different story.

On the second and third floors, only a walking path remains as fences on either side block off the bulk of the garages open space. But the blocked off spots are just one garage woe commuters bemoan.

Overhead, a plywood patchwork keeps cement pieces from falling on commuters cars  or heads. The plywood fixes were part of a $1.5 million 2015 stopgap after falling concrete sparked immediate work.

Lackluster parking enforcement, largely because policing the garage is an open legal question  with the city, state and the contractor who manages the garage all playing a roll  is also a problem, commuters say. There are stop signs that few heed and spots routinely lost to two-spot parkers with little regard to dividing lines.

Rampant sideswipping in the garages tight spaces is such a problem on upper floors throughout the structure that city Rep. Bradley Michelson, R-1, said hell only park in the less desired basement on his daily commute.

The Department of Transportation is making some fixes, although not as many as commuters want.

Jankovich and contractors used part of the tour to talk about coming work on the roof to replace joints between concrete panels and seal it with protective coating. That work should come in the spring, on the newest portion of the garage, the 1,200-spot L wrapping around the original building.

The state this fall unveiled a plan to build another 960-spot garage on South State Street that will replace lost spots in the existing garage. That is scheduled to open in 2021.

Still the biggest question for commuters is what will come of the current garage in the intervening years and after.

Maron said hed like to see measures taken to prevent further crumbling on either the original portion or the 1,200-spot addition, which he fears could become the next decrepit garage if not cared for.

Many wonder if, and when, the 727-spot original garage  which the state in 2006 said was broken beyond repair  will be razed.

If it is torn down, commuters want another built on the site. The state could push to see the land developed for other uses. Officials in the past administration had plans for a developer to turn the site into a highrise with hotel, apartment and office space.

The DOT currently isnt saying what will come of the old garage. A spokesman told The Advocate in November that the department doesnt have answers.

The old garage seems like the elephant in the room, Michelson said this week.

barry.lytton@stamfordadvocate.com; 203-964-2263; @bglyttonNEW CANAAN  Connecticut State Police shut down a stretch of the Merritt Parkway for roughly 45 minutes after a crash Friday night.

The three-car collision was reported one minute before 7 p.m., according to the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The crash left Route 15 north closed between Exit 35 and Exit 36 while crews worked to clear the scene.STAMFORD  Bridgewater Associates, the worlds largest hedge fund, plans in March to outsource 197 positions to professional-services firm Genpact, while keeping them in their South End offices, the firm told the state Department of Labor this week.

The companies announced last week that Genpact would take over significant parts of Bridgewaters HR, recruiting and finance operations. But they did not publicly disclose the amount of transferring employees  equal to about half the number that Bridgewater now employs at 2200 Atlantic St., and more than 10 percent of Bridgewaters workforce statewide  before the hedge fund sent a letter Wednesday to the Labor Department.

Please be advised that the business decision has been made to permanently transition certain enablement functions of Bridgewater, currently located at One Harbor Point Square, 2200 Atlantic St... to Genpact at the same location, Sarah Fass, Bridgewaters head of employee relations, wrote in the letter. The enablement operations at Bridgewater are expected to continue until March 18, 2019, at which point Genpact shall assume certain operations.

At the same time, Bridgewater has another 40 open positions. Any of those posts staffed before the March change-over would then be moved to Genpact, Fass added in the letter.

The Bridgewater-Genpact alliance includes plans for a new digital hub at the waterfront complex at 2200 Atlantic. The center would also eventually serve other financial-services clients.

Opened last year, Bridgewaters Stamford offices accompany its headquarters in Westport.

Officials at Building and Land Technology, the owner of 2200 Atlantic, were not immediately available to comment Friday.

Last year, the firm employed about 1,600 in the state, according to state Department of Economic and Community Development data.

Bridgewater is eligible for up to $52 million in state tax credits, grants and loans, based on achieving certain goals for creating and retaining jobs.

The hedge fund has already significantly restructured in recent years. In 2012, co-CEO Eileen Murray led an overhaul of the firm's middle- and back-office operations, working with Bank of New York Mellon and Northern Trust.

We are constantly searching for ways to improve our business, as well as improve the experience for our clients and employees, Murray said in a statement last week. I am extremely excited about this partnership with Genpact, as I believe it will allow us to harness the latest in process expertise, digital innovation and design thinking to connect our operations and deliver optimal results.

Employing about 8,000 in the U.S., Genpact serves industries including financial services, health care, insurance, energy, manufacturing and hospitality.

From Bridgewaters point of view, this initiative will provide cost savings, John Knopf, an associate professor of finance at the University of Connecticut, said in an interview last week. Firms like Genpact are getting much more sophisticated at helping the likes of Bridgewater to streamline their operations and analyze their data.

Amid the planned downsizing, Bridgewater continues to perform strongly. It bucked what was generally a lackluster year for the hedge fund industry by posting a 14.6 percent return for its flagship Pure Alpha fund.

Bridgewater manages about $163 billion in assets, more than any other hedge fund in the world, according to financial-services data tracking firm Preqin.

Among personnel changes at other large hedge funds, Greenwich-based AQR Capital Management confirmed last week layoffs comprising small reductions in headcount.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschottSaturn's rings gave scientists the information they needed to finally pin down how long a day on the gas giant lasts.

Set your timers for 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 seconds  scientists have finally figured out how long a day lasts on Saturn, cracking a lingering mystery about the ringed gas giant.

That's according to newly published research that uses data gathered by NASA's Cassini mission before the spacecraft's destruction in September 2017. The new calculation shaves several minutes off previous estimates for a Saturn day, which scientists have been making for decades based on data from the Cassini mission and its predecessor, Voyager.

"The researchers used waves in the rings to peer into Saturn's interior, and out popped this long-sought, fundamental characteristic of the planet. And it's a really solid result," Cassini Project Scientist Linda Spilker said in a statement. "The rings held the answer." [In Photos: Cassini Mission Ends with Epic Dive into Saturn]

It may seem like it should be easy to measure the length of a day on a planet  just wait and watch the world spin. But Saturn's precise day length has stumped scientists for decades. Because the planet is a gas giant, researchers can't watch steady landmarks through the clouds, as they could with a rocky planet.

Scientists can also typically use the tilt of a planet's magnetic field to measure its day length. But that didn't work for Saturn, because the field aligns nearly perfectly with the planet's rotation axis, stymying their calculations. One scientist who has studied the planet's magnetic field said that the day-length uncertainty is "a bit embarrassing," speaking in an interview with Space.com about research published in October.

These challenges left scientists with rough estimates falling between 10 hours, 36 minutes and 10 hours, 48 minutes  not particularly satisfying.

The research published today took an entirely different approach  looking not to the planet itself, but at its delicate rings. This idea was proposed in 1982, but not until the Cassini mission did scientists have the data to see if the technique would work.

The idea is that as Saturn spins, its insides wiggle a little, causing small changes in the planet's gravitational field. Those small changes ripple out to the chunks of ice in the rings that decorate the gas giant, causing small waves in the rings.

"Particles throughout the rings can't help but feel these oscillations in the gravity field," lead author Christopher Mankovich, a graduate student in astronomy at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said in a statement. "At specific locations in the rings, these oscillations catch ring particles at just the right time in their orbits to gradually build up energy, and that energy gets carried away as an observable wave."

So, Mankovich and his colleagues studied those observable waves and used them to backtrack inward to the planet itself. That's how the researchers came up with the measurement of 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 seconds. It's still not set in stone  the error bars on that calculation stretch between a minute and 52 seconds longer and a minute and 19 seconds shorter. But the new calculation's range beats a 12-minute window.

The research is described in a paper published yesterday (Jan. 17) in The Astrophysical Journal.

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook. Original article on Space.com.Update for 2:50 p.m. EST: A United Launch Alliance Delta IB Heavy rocket successfully launched the new U.S. spy satellite NROL-71 into orbit today. Read our wrap story here. Photos | Launch Video!

The United States plans to launch a hush-hush spy satellite Saturday (Jan. 19), and you can watch the liftoff live.

The NROL-71 spacecraft is scheduled to launch atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy rocket from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base at 2:05 p.m. EST (1905 GMT; 11:05 a.m. local California time). You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of ULA, or directly via the launch provider.

The webcast will be brief; ULA is expected to cut off the live feed after about 6 minutes, to help preserve the secrecy of NROL-71's mission. (The satellite's instruments and activities are classified, as are those of other spacecraft operated by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.)

The mobile service tower rolls back from the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying the NROL-71 spacecraft in preparation for launch from Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The launch is scheduled to take place on Jan. 19, 2019. (Image credit: United Launch Alliance)

Saturday's liftoff is a long time coming. NROL-71 was originally scheduled to take flight in early December, but technical issues and uncooperative weather pushed the launch back multiple times.

Then, ULA nixed a Dec. 19 attempt after noticing a hydrogen leak coming from the Delta IV Heavy. That issue ended up taking several weeks to resolve.

Saturday's liftoff will be the second in five-plus months for the 232-foot-tall (71 meters) Delta IV Heavy, ULA's most powerful rocket. A Delta IV Heavy also lofted NASA's Parker Solar Probe in August 2018.

Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate) is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us @Spacedotcom or Facebook. Originally published on Space.com.The Los Angeles City Council approved a lease agreement in May for this vacant property at the Port of Los Angeles, where SpaceX planned to build a factory for its next-generation launch system. SpaceX said Jan. 16 that work will take place initially in South Texas instead.

WASHINGTON  Less than a week after laying off 10 percent of its employees, SpaceX said Jan. 16 that it plans to shift work on at least prototypes of its next-generation launch system from Los Angeles to Texas.

In a statement, SpaceX said it was now planning to build prototypes of its Starship vehicle, the upper stage of its next-generation reusable launch system, at its site in South Texas originally designed to serve as a launch site. An initial prototype version of that vehicle has been taking shape in recent weeks at the site in advance of "hopper" tests that could begin in the next one to two months.

"To streamline operations, SpaceX is developing and will test the Starship test vehicle at our site in South Texas," company spokesperson Eva Behrend said in an emailed statement. The news was first reported by the Los Angeles Times after a pair of tweets early Jan. 16 from Joe Buscaino, a member of the Los Angeles City Council whose district includes the Port of Los Angeles. [Images: SpaceX's Giant Spaceship for Mars Colony & Beyond]

"While I feel crushed about #SpaceX pulling the #SuperHeavy out of the @PortofLA, I feel confident that other innovators will see the huge value they get in San Pedro," he wrote. Super Heavy is the name SpaceX recently gave to the lower stage of the overall launch system that previously had the formal name of Big Falcon Rocket, or BFR. The upper stage was renamed Starship.

See more

In May, the council approved unanimously an agreement between the port and SpaceX to lease vacant property at the port where SpaceX planned to construct a factory for what was then still called the BFR. SpaceX sought to build the vehicle at the port, rather than its existing factory in nearby Hawthorne, California, because the vehicle's large diameter  nine meters  required that it be transported by ship rather than by truck.

"This is game-changing for our city," Buscaino said at a May 8 council meeting where the agreement was briefly discussed. "We're going to start building spaceships at this terminal."

SpaceX agreed to pay $1.38 million in rent for the first year, growing over the 20-year agreement to total $40 million. The company initially planned to build an 80,000-square-foot factory there, with later facilities covering 200,000 square feet. SpaceX expected to ultimately employ 700 people there.

"It will be conducting production and development on the largest rocketship ever known, the Big Falcon Rocket," he said at the hearing. "Colleagues, with your approval, for our city, this will be a Big Falcon Deal." The council approved the lease agreement without additional debate.

In its statement, SpaceX did not explain why it was moving work on the system to South Texas, but said it did not affect existing activities. "This decision does not impact our current manufacture, design, and launch operations in Hawthorne and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California," Behrend said. "Additionally, SpaceX will continue recovery operations of our reusable Falcon rockets and Dragon spacecraft at the Port of Los Angeles."

SpaceX currently uses the port for droneships that serve as landing pads for Falcon 9 first stages, as well as ships that recover Dragon spacecraft that splash down in the Pacific Ocean. In recent days, the port has seen the arrival of both a droneship carrying the Falcon 9 first stage from the Jan. 11 launch of 10 Iridium Next satellites, as well as a ship that retrieved a Dragon spacecraft that departed the International Space Station and splashed down late Jan. 13 off the Baja California coast.

In tweets later Jan. 16, Elon Musk, the founder and chief executive of SpaceX, said that development of the vehicle itself, including the Raptor engines that power it, would continue in Hawthorne, while at least the prototype versions of Starship are built in Texas. "We are building the Starship prototypes locally at our launch site in Texas, as their size makes them very difficult to transport," he said.

A shift to South Texas, industry sources said, could be a way to reduce expenses, given the lower cost of living there versus the Los Angeles area. However, that region of Texas has a much smaller workforce, particularly in aerospace, compared to Southern California. [Launch Photos! SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Soars with 1st GPS III Navigation Satellite]

The announcement comes less than a week after the Jan. 11 announcement that SpaceX was laying off approximately 10 percent of its workforce so that it can focus its resources on both its next-generation launch system as well as Starlink, its broadband constellation.

SpaceX didn't go into details at the time about the size of the layoffs, beyond estimates form company sources that about 10 percent of the more than 6,000 SpaceX employees were losing their jobs. However, in a Jan. 11 filing with California's Employment Development Department, provided to SpaceNews after a public records request, the company revealed that it was laying off 577 people at its Hawthorne facility alone, a figure first reported by Bloomberg.

The filing, required by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, stated that all employees would be paid wages and benefits through their formal date of termination, March 12. The seven-page document listed the positions being eliminated, which included a wide range of engineers, technicians, machinists and managers.

That figure does not include any layoffs at other SpaceX facilities, including in Texas and Florida, the two other states where the company has a significant presence. No WARN notifications from SpaceX regarding any layoffs have yet been published by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity or the Texas Workforce Commission.

Musk has yet to publicly comment about the layoffs, but he has in recent days showed off images of the Starship test article under construction in Texas, including one Jan. 10 where he said the vehicle had "finished assembly."

See more

That vehicle will make its first short "hop" flight soon, he said Jan. 5. "Aiming for 4 weeks, which probably means 8 weeks, due to unforeseen issues."

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.Update for 3 a.m. EST, Jan. 21: The total lunar eclipse of 2019 has ended. See our full story here! See more photos here!

Original Story: The total lunar eclipse of January 2019 promises to be a spectacle to behold, and may be visible to millions across North and South America, weather permitting. But if Mother Nature prevents you from seeing the moon marvel, fear not. You can always tune in to the "blood moon" on your favorite digital devices with some free webcasts.

On the night of Jan. 20, beginning just minutes after 10:30 p.m. EST (7:30 p.m. PST), the moon will noticeably, progressively get darker. The sun, the Earth and the moon will converge in an instance of perfect cosmic alignment to create a total lunar eclipse. The online observatory Slooh will host a free webcast on Slooh.com (you can sign up for a free account). We'll simulcast that feed on Space.com's homepage, courtesy of Slooh.

As the sun's rays pass through Earth's atmosphere, the light refracts. Blue light, which is visible during the daytime, gets scattered, and the red shades that accompany sunset and sunrise get cast into space. During the full moon phase, the lunar nearside is completely lit by the sun, because the moon passes over or under Earth's shadow. But occasionally, the moon travels, partially or completely, through the planet's copper-colored shadow, giving skywatchers a special treat. [Super Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse of 2019: A Complete Guide]

Skywatcher Keith Burns took this montage of images, which shows the Dec. 20, 2010, total lunar eclipse. The montage won a NASA contest to become an official NASA/JPL wallpaper for the public. (Image credit: Keith Burns/NASA/JPL)

If weather, location or mobility concerns prevent you from watching the eclipse directly under a clear sky, don't worry: Plenty of webcasts will broadcast the event.

The online telescope service Slooh will begin its coverageat 10:30 p.m. EST (7:30 p.m. PST). "We stream it live so that people from around the world, no matter their geographical location, can witness this phenomenon together," Slooh's resident astronomer, Paige Godfrey, said in a press statement. (This webcast will also appear on Space.com's homepage.)

Godfrey and Slooh astronomer Paul Cox, plus Slooh storyteller Helen Avery, will discuss the science and cultural impact of lunar eclipses during the webcast.

The Exploratorium in San Francisco will provide live lunar eclipse Facebook, and this broadcast, like Slooh's, will begin at 10:30 p.m. EST (0330 GMT/7:30 p.m. PST) as the moon moves into the darker region of Earth's shadow, called the umbra. "The Exploratorium will broadcast a telescope view of the moon live from Pier 15 on San Francisco's Embarcadero," museum representatives announced on the Exploratorium website. The museum will be closed during the broadcast.

This Sky & Telescope map shows the visibility region for the total lunar eclipse of Jan. 20-21, 2019. (Image credit: Sky & Telescope; source: Fred Espenak)

The Virtual Telescope Project will work with astrophotographers watching the total lunar eclipse from the United States and Panama to deliver a live feed of the stunning event beginning at 10:30 p.m. EST (0330 GMT/7:30 p.m. PST). That project is a celestial-viewing service managed by Italian astronomer Gianluca Masi.

The major stages of the total lunar eclipse of Jan. 20-21, 2019 are shown in this Sky & Telescope graphic. Times are listed in EST. (Image credit: Sky & Telescope)

Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, located on the southern slope of Mount Hollywood, will also broadcast the event here, beginning when the moon rises on the West Coast, at about 8:10 p.m. EST (5:10 p.m. PST).

You can find a global map, interactive material and total lunar eclipse data on TimeandDate.com. The website will feature a livestream of its own, too. Check the Weather Channel app for another livestream, as well.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of the January 2019 total lunar eclipse that you'd like to share with Space.com and our news partners for a possible story or image gallery, send comments and images in to: spacephotos@space.com.

Follow Doris Elin Salazar on Twitter@salazar_elin. Follow us @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. Original article on Space.com.On the evening of Jan. 20 and early morning Jan. 21, the moon will undergo a total eclipse visible over all of the Americas. Today such a spectacle provides good opportunities to judge the clarity of our atmosphere based on the brightness and color of the eclipsed moon, to observe the Earth's shadow passing over prominent lunar craters, and to simply stare into the sky at a beautiful celestial show.

But eclipses in the ancient (and not so ancient) past often terrified onlookers, who viewed them as evil omens. Sometimes they were used as benchmarks to date historical events, and one eclipse helped to better understand a now well-known concept of meteorology.

Here's a look at famous lunar eclipses from days gone by. [Supermoon Blood Moon Total Lunar Eclipse: Complete Guide]

Death of Herod/Birth of Christ

In order to try and date the time of the birth of Christ, biblical scholars have tried first to date the death of King Herod, with whom the Wise Men consulted before their visitation with Jesus. According to the first century Jewish historian Titus Flavius Josephus, Herod was said to have died after an eclipse of the moon visible from Jerusalem ... and the birth of Jesus must have occurred before the death of Herod.

The eclipse is supposed to have happened before Passover, so it would seem logical that we must search for an eclipse of the moon before the end of March, some have theorized (though Passover can also start in April). From lists of eclipses there is one that occurred on March 13, 4 B.C., and many have cited that the birth of Christ must have preceded that time. But this eclipse occurred at 5:40 a.m. local time in Jerusalem and was only 36 percent partial. Would this eclipse have been a good benchmark for Josephus?

Perhaps Josephus was referring to a more dramatic event. In the after-midnight hours of Jan. 10, 1 B.C. there was a total eclipse of the moon. Totality was unusually long, lasting 1 hour and 39 minutes, and was widely visible throughout the Old World. In the December 1943 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine, Roy K. Marshall writes: "This eclipse is much more likely to have been observed. It is only a couple of months earlier in the year than the observance of Passover. Why could not the death of Herod have occurred in 1 B.C.?"

To this day, attempts to date the death of King Herod continue to be rather contentious. Other researchers point toward other lunar eclipses to support their hypotheses.

Columbus' trick

On his fourth and final voyage to the New World, as the story goes, Columbus and his men were for a time marooned and hungry on the north coast of Jamaica in the West Indies. The inhabitants were tired of supplying food in exchange for little tin whistles and hawk's bells. But Columbus had brought with him a copy of the Almanach Perpetuum written by the Spanish astronomer Abraham Zacuto, which predicted a lunar eclipse for Feb. 29, 1504. Knowing this, three days earlier Columbus threatened the Jamaicans that he would take the moon away if they didn't cooperate with his expedition.

He wrote: "It began before sunset, so I could observe only the end of it, when the moon had just begun to return, and it must have been two and a half hours after sunset." The clear sky on the eclipse night exhibited what could only be interpreted by the Jamaicans as an inflamed (ruddy) and "angry" moon. When the frightened natives implored him to bring back the moon, the explorer stepped aside and pretended to pray. As the moon began to emerge from the Earth's dark shadow (the umbra), the grateful Jamaicans cheered and hurried away to bring food for the ill and starving men.

Columbus' exploitation of eclipse ignorance likely inspired Mark Twain to use an eclipse in his story "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." The hero of the story avoided being burned at the stake by using a total eclipse of the sun to demonstrate his mystical powers. However, on the quoted date (June 21, A.D. 528) there was no solar eclipse at all; the moon was four days past full.

Ben Franklin's eclipse

Benjamin Franklin was an author, printer, politician, diplomat, inventor and scientist. He represented the unschooled original thinker and inventive genius so characteristic of many early Americans. Among his scientific interests was astronomy, and he no doubt was eagerly looking forward to the night of Nov. 1, 1743, when a total eclipse of the moon would be visible from his home city of Philadelphia. Totality would occur at a convenient hour, just after 9 o'clock in the evening, and it would last an unusually long 100 minutes.

Unfortunately, a spell of unsettled weather dashed his hopes and prevented him from observing the eclipse. From what we can gather, a full-fledged nor'easter, or possibly the remnants of a hurricane, blew in just before the eclipse was to get underway, complete with clouds and a heavy, windswept rain. Sometime later, Franklin received a letter from Boston  some sources say it came from a friend, others say it was from one of his brothers. The letter contained surprising news: The lunar eclipse was seen there in clear skies, and the stormy weather that blocked Franklin's view didn't arrive until after it finished. [How Benjamin Franklin Spread Science on 'Supernatural' Solar Eclipses]

Franklin was perplexed. He felt that because the winds in Philadelphia blew strongly from the northeast  in the direction of Boston  that this was where the storm originated. "This puzzled me," he wrote, "because the storm began with us so soon as to prevent an observation; and being a north-east storm, I imagined it must have begun rather sooner in places farther to the north-eastward than it did in Philadelphia."

Franklin began gathering weather observations from around Philadelphia and other locations and eventually determined the proper direction of movement for storm systems. In a letter in 1749 to clergyman Jared Eliot, Franklin pointed out that storms apparently occurred earlier in the region toward which the wind is blowing (a wind from the northeast is blowing toward the southwest) and began later for places in the direction from where the wind was emanating from. He later would write a treatise on the behavior of coastal storms along the Atlantic Seaboard. And to think it all began because he was deprived a view of a lunar eclipse!

Lawrence of Arabia

Thomas Edward Lawrence  better known today as Lawrence of Arabia  was a British adviser to the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. According to his writings, his small force of 50 Bedouin warriors succeeded in overrunning Turkish fortifications because on the night of July 4t 1917, the defenders panicked at the sight of a total lunar eclipse. They clanged copper pots and fired their guns into the air rather than at their attackers, presumably to frighten whatever was consuming the moon. As it turned out, the Turkish soldiers had other grounds for worry, as an Islamic tradition holds that the Day of Judgment will be heralded by a lunar and solar eclipse in the month of Ramadan, during which Lawrence's eclipse occurred.

Kermit would love this....

And finally, in January 1972, in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, villagers fired shots in the air in an attempt to frighten the great frog that they believed was trying to swallow the moon, according to the March 1972 issue of Sky & Telescope. I guess we can call this a "ribbeting" occurrence.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmers' Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for Verizon FiOS1 News in New York's Lower Hudson Valley. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. Original article on Space.com.Marvin Neal, left, speaks with Georgetown County attorney Wesley Bryant, right, and an attorney for Georgetown County Councilman Austin Beard Jan. 18 at a hearing on Beard's residency. The hearing was continued until March 15.How to mark King holiday with marches, music and more in the Michiana areaSuccess! An email has been sent with a link to confirm list signup.Thelma Duncan, age 93 of Columbus, OH, formerly of Somerset, passed away on Wednesday, June 16, 2021 at Kobacker House Hospice Care in Columbus. Services are pending at this time and will be announced on Thursday. Lake Cumberland Funeral Home is entrusted with the arrangements for Thelma Duncan.Washington: US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he had "an incredible" meeting with North Korea's nuclear envoy Kim Yong Chol and the two sides had made "a lot of progress."

The White House announced after Friday's talks that Trump would hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late February but will maintain economic sanctions on Pyongyang.

"That was an incredible meeting," Trump told reporters of the talks.

"We've agreed to meet sometime, probably the end of February. We've picked a country but we'll be annoucing it in the future. Kim Jong Un is looking very forward to it and so am I. Weve made a lot of progress that has not been reported by the media, he said.

Despite his upbeat comments there has been no indication of any narrowing of differences over US demands that North Korea abandon a nuclear weapons program that threatens the United States and Pyongyang's demands for a lifting of punishing sanctions.An Iowa pet rescue says it has taken in a puppy that survived attempted euthanasia.

King's Harvest Pet Rescue  a self-described no-kill shelter in Davenport, Iowa  posted the story in a Wednesday social media post. The shelter says that Rudolph, a dog estimated to be 7 or 8 months old, came to the rescue after a failed euthanasia attempt by another shelter.

"But God had a different plan because he woke up," the Facebook post reads.

Rudolph has been deemed a "miracle dog" after waking up after attempts to euthanise him were conducted. Credit:Facebook/Kings Harvest Pet Rescue

Local TV station WQAD reports that the puppy came from a crowded shelter in Oklahoma. The station reports veterinarians had found the puppy alive after he had been given medicine meant to euthanise the animal.A conductor was killed in Burma when a bomb exploded on board his bus, reports said, in the fourth such incident this year.

State media said the bus had been travelling from the eastern town of Kyaukkyi to Yangon, the former capital, when the device exploded on Wednesday morning.

The New Light of Myanmar, the Burma junta's official newspaper, blamed the blast on "insurgent destructionists", its shorthand for the various ethnic groups that have been waging low-level guerrilla wars for the past five decades.

Kyaukkyi is in Karen state, home to the largest of Burma's rebel militias.

A travel agent said the bus had stopped at a service area at the time of the explosion, saving many more lives."During the landing, the last 100 metres was thrilling," said Wu Weiren, designer of the lunar program. Chang'e-4 landed on a slope surrounded by four perilous craters. "It was pretty accurate." Chang'e-4's chief engineer, Sun Zezhou, explained the probe hovered, and then autonomously avoided the craters it detected using lasers. But Sun, Wu and the team at ground control didn't know of Chang'e-4's success at the time, because of the delayed transmission of data from the moon's far side. A screen at the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre shows the lander of the Chang'e-4 probe and the rover Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit-2) taking photos of each other. Credit:Jin Liwang "Why did we go to the far side of the moon to explore? Two reasons. From a scientific viewpoint, the far side of the moon, especially the landing zone, is the oldest crater. Its geological structure and composition may be more representative of the age of the moon," says Sun.

Second, the far side of the moon offered more favourable conditions for low-frequency radio observations of space, or listening for the earliest sounds of the universe. The ruling Chinese Communist Party's official newspaper, People's Daily, offered a third reason: The party has set the goal of being at the forefront of the world's space powers by 2030. China started late in the space race, achieving its first astronaut in space, Yang Liwei, in 2003. Chinese astronauts made their first spacewalk in 2008. NASA named its Apollo moon missions, conducted almost 50 years ago, after a mythical Greek god. The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program has named its lunar probes after the moon goddess of Chinese mythology, Chang'e, and the rovers after her pet rabbit. Chang'e-3 reached the moon with the first Jade Rabbit in 2013. China was only the third nation, after the United States and Russia, to make a soft landing on the moon.

But China wanted its own "first". The Chang'e-4 mission has racked this up. First growth on the moon This week cotton seeds sprouted, and potato and rapeseed plants began to germinate, the first biological growth experiments on the moon. They died, on schedule, as the frozen lunar night descended late this week. "We successfully realised the first green leaf that has grown on the moon in human history. This will provide the research foundation for human beings to build a lunar base in the future," declared the dean of Chongqing University's Institute of Advanced Technology, Professor Xie Gengxin, at another press conference. The first green leaf sprouting on the moon. Credit:China National Space Administration

Chang'e-4 carried a bioscience tank measuring 17.3 centimetres by 19.8 centimetres contained six species  cotton, rapeseed, potato, Arabidopsis, yeast and fruit flies. The tank had a high-pressure seal to withstand the month-long space flight and moon landing, and a camera to record the experiments. China's ground control sent a command for water to be released 30 minutes after landing. For the next nine days, temperature, data and 170 photographs of the growing seeds were sent back to ground control. The internal temperature of the tank was kept between -60 degrees Celsius and 80 degrees Celsius, "a stable temperature suitable for living", according to the Chonqing University scientists who designed the experiment. Scientists wanted to see how the seeds grew under low gravity and high radiation. Potato is likely to become a staple food for humans to survive in space, the Chinese scientists said. Rapeseed oil is likely to be an important cooking fuel. Fruit flies have short growth cycles. Yeast is food for fruit flies. The tank contained a micro-ecosystem of producers, consumers and decomposers. The experiment was switched off to save battery power as the lunar night arrived.

Science in action Chang'e-4 carried four international and six Chinese payloads or experiments. Astrophysicist and ANU research fellow at the Mount Stromlo Observatory, Brad Tucker, says an experiment from the Netherlands tested how quiet the far side of the moon was for radio telescopes. "This has long been an idea of astronomers and so it was great to see it tested ... So just like NASA missions, there is a huge involvement from international groups."

Australia's Parkes radio telescope famously was involved in providing the televised images of NASA's great leap for mankind in 1969, as Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. The Parkes Observatory in central NSW provided television images of the first moon landing. Credit:CSIRO Tucker says nowadays, Australian space scientists hold regular meetings with collaborators in China, discussing projects from radio astronomy to optical astronomy and space missions. "When it comes to astronomy space, China has quickly levelled to the same scale as the US, Europe, and Russia." The next step in China's moon program is to send Chang'e-5 to the moon by year's end to collect samples and return to Earth with them.

"All the scientists are interested in getting access to these fresh new samples from a site they haven't been at during Apollo missions," says Mauer. Another two probes will explore and take samples from the moon's south pole, the likely site of a moon research base. Chang'e-8 will test technology that could be used to build a moon base. Deputy chief commander of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, Wu Yanhua, said that like China, the US, Russia and Europe are all considering a moon research station. China planned to test technologies that could be used to build houses, such as 3D printing, on the moon as part of a multinational base. "No matter if it is robots or humans to the moon, if there are more frequent explorations and development tasks, there should be infrastructure to support routine exploration," he said. A long-term base would need to be built to endure temperatures ranging from minus 180 degrees at night to more than 100 degrees during the day.

Tucker says: "People often ask why we never went back to the moon, and that was because we had no reason. Now groups do, that is for more experiments and using it as a gateway to Mars. Everyone has come to the conclusion that being able to get resources and establish a refuelling stop around the moon is the easiest way to Mars." Technology has come a long way since the first moon landing. He expects multiple countries to have a large presence on the moon by the end of the next decade. But international co-operation on the moon base could be hampered by the US political bar on NASA working with China. The so-called Wolf Amendment, introduced in 2011, links NASA funding to a prohibition on NASA co-operating with China without explicit approval from Congress. Chinese astronauts are prohibited in the International Space Station.

Before the earthly technology trade war between the Trump Administration and China worsened, dialogue between the two nations' space programs appeared to be warming. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine had met with his Chinese counterpart, CNSA administrator Zhang Kejian, at an international conference in Germany last October. Bridenstine, who this month congratulated China's space program on achieving a "first for humanity", told Zhang last year he would welcome greater sharing of scientific data with China. Chinese state media reported as front page news this week that former US astronaut and one-time NASA chief Charles Bolden was calling for co-operation with China's space program. "My fear is the US may be left out," Bolden was quoted as saying. The European Space Agency is training with Chinese astronauts ahead of the expected start date of China's space station, Heavenly Palace, in 2022.

By then, the International Space Station, built through collaboration between the US and Russia, will be retired. The European Space Agency began developing ties with its Chinese counterpart in 2012. The International Space Station. Credit:Photo: NASA via Bloomberg Maurer was one of the first European astronauts to train in the Chinese space program in 2017, doing sea survival training alongside seven "taikonauts". After a fortnight of exercises, a space capsule was placed in the ocean, and the astronauts had to survive in the water for hours until they were rescued by helicopter. Maurer marvelled at the inflatable rubber boots.

A year earlier, a Chinese taikonaut had spent six days in a cave in Europe in an ESA scientific program. "We learn how to work together as an international team, in a dangerous and difficult environment in a stressful situation. The Chinese taikonaut integrated perfectly," he says. Li Guoping, secretary general of China's National Space Administration, said China was working with Germany, France, Russia and the European Space Agency on manned space exploration and hoped for international co-operation on developing equipment, astronaut training and space medicine for the Chinese space station. Maurer says that collaboration with more international partners was needed because space exploration required the best technology  and it is expensive. China, in its pursuit of space glory, appears to have deep pockets. Wu Yanhua on Tuesday compared the cost of sending Chang'e-4 to the moon with Beijing's rampant subway construction, per kilometre.Naypyitaw: Myanmar's military announced Friday that the Arakan Army, a Buddhist rebel group in Rakhine state, has been classified a terrorist organization after mounting a flurry of recent attacks.

The state earlier was the site of a brutal counterinsurgency campaign by the military against the Muslim Rohingya minority, causing more than 700,000 to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.

Military officers said at a news conference in the capital, Naypyitaw, that leader Aung San Suu Kyi ordered security forces to launch the offensive against the Arakan Army.

Military officers said that leader Aung San Suu Kyi, left, ordered security forces to launch the offensive against the Arakan Army. Credit:AP

The insurgent group, which seeks autonomy from the central government, killed 13 police officers and wounded nine in attacks on January 4. The moves to counter the rebels were decided at a January 7 meeting at Myanmar's presidential offices, the officers said.Loading "Who is next? Ali Imron, the guy who made the bomb? Its frightening," Mr Laczynski said. "Its a slap in the face for so many Australians who are still injured and still recovering. "Widodo wants to give clemency, leniency; for goodness' sake, there are a lot of people in Australia still hurting right now." Indonesian man Dewa Ketut Rudita, who suffered burns to 35 per cent of his body in the blasts and had his right eye injured, said he was "disappointed, of course".

Loading "If humanitarian reasons are the reason given for his release, shouldn't it be asked where was his humanity when he committed the crime that took so many lives? [Many people are] suffering still, the survivors and families of the victims," he said. "As a human with empathy, I understand that he is old, I empathise with that. But shouldn't the victims and families of the bombings be given consideration? How we would feel about it?" Mr Morrison said on Saturday that Canberra had spoken to Jakarta about the early release of Bashir and that "Australia's position on this matter has not changed". "We have always expressed the deepest of reservations and we will continue to work closely with Indonesia on this issue. We are partners when it comes to countering terrorism and religious extremism and we will continue to do that," he said.

Loading Relations between Canberra and Jakarta have been strained in recent months since Mr Morrison revealed Australia would consider moving its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv in Jerusalem, despite a subsequent partial backdown from that plan. The free-trade deal between the two nations has still not been signed. Yusril Ihza Mahendra  who successfully lobbied Widodo for Bashir's early release  said the elderly cleric would be released unconditionally and the President had personally involved himself in the case in anticipation of concerns from friendly governments including Australia and the United States. "Actually releasing a convict should be the role of the Minister of Law and Human Rights and all the agencies under him including the corrections agency. But the President took over the authority just in case there will be questions from other countries," he said. Bashir's lawyer, Muhammad Mahendradatta, said on Saturday that the release was not extraordinary and that "this is a legal case, this is not a political issue. It has legal grounds".

"God willing, as promised by the President or Yusril, the plan is that [he will be released] next week. Next week can mean Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. How it will happen [what legal avenue will be taken to release him] it's not our authority, it's the government." Relations between Canberra and Jakarta have been strained since Prime Minister Scott Morrison suggested Australia would consider moving its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Credit:AAP Asked if Bashir could return to preaching, Mahendradatta said "it's an unconditional release from both sides, from the government and Bashir". Wednesday or Thursday is considered the most likely day for Bashir's release. Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak, the spokesman for the Prabowo campaign, told the Antara news agency that "apart from the political element, we are grateful that he was released for humanitarian reasons, moreover he is already old, because it is time".

Dahnil said it was unfortunate the Widodo government had only recently made efforts to liberate Bashir, noting the 2019 election campaign was now under way. Sidney Jones, one of the world's leading counter-terrorism experts and the director of the Jakarta-based Institute of Policy Analysis of Conflict, said the timing of the release was "strange". "If Jokowi didnt want all the speculation about political motivations, why not wait a few months [until after the election] for the release?" Jones said it would not be a "huge risk" to allow Bashir to return to his home town of Solo as he had reversed his support for Islamic State several years ago. "He wont be touring the country rabble-rousing as he has done in the past. But he is very much the elder statesman of the extremist movement, so there will be an endless flood of visitors to his house," she said.Harare: Zimbabwe imposed a "total internet shutdown" for most of Friday in what critics called an attempt to hide growing reports of a violent crackdown on protests against a dramatic fuel price increase. Badly injured people streamed into a hospital in the capital, and rights groups said at least 12 people have been killed this week.

Gasoline in the economically shattered country is now the world's most expensive, and since Monday Zimbabweans have heeded a nationwide call shared on social media to stay at home in protest. Others took to the streets. Since then, graphic reports have emerged of security forces targeting activists and labour leaders while the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa blames the opposition for the unrest.

"Our country is going through one of the most trying periods in its history," the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference said, lamenting the government's "intolerant handling of dissent" and its failure to halt economic collapse.

A pedestrian carries bottles containing fuel amid protests over fuel prices. Credit:Bloomberg

Access to the internet and popular social media apps such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp has been intermittently blocked as the country's largest telecom company, Econet, sends customers text messages relaying the government's orders and calling the situation "beyond our reasonable control".Nairobi: A Canadian national and five other people suspected of helping extremist gunmen stage a deadly attack in the Kenyan capital this week appeared in court on Friday as prosecutors investigated them for suspected terror offenses.

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A judge ordered five of the suspects held for 30 days while authorities look into the assault on the DusitD2 hotel complex that was carried out by al-Shabab, a group that is linked to al-Qaeda and based in neighboring Somalia.

Kenyan authorities say 21 people, including one police officer, were killed by the attackers, one of whom blew himself up beside a restaurant. Another four gunmen died.As Kelly ODwyer explained it Saturday, her reasons for quitting politics were complex and "very personal".

After 10 years in federal Parliament, four elections, and three years as a member of cabinet, the federal minister decided over Christmas that she had missed out on too much time with her young children, Olivia and Edward, thanks to the gruelling demands of her job.

Whats more, she added, like so many families, the path to parenthood hadn't been easy.

"If my husband and I want to give ourselves an opportunity - the very best opportunity - to have a third child, we need to be very realistic. I turn 42 years of age this year, and everything would have to go right.Is it just me or is Australia Day starting to take on a state-mandated vibe? Scott Morrison, our most recent cab off the prime ministerial rank, has not just scraped the bottom of the barrel with his attempt to impose himself on our national day, he has dived through it and come out the other side.

He emerges, with shards of broken cooperage on his head, to tell us that he will maintain standards on citizenship, without making any sort of case for how, exactly, weve been letting them go.

The Aussie throngs wear thongs, but not to your citizenship ceremony, please. Credit:Andy Zakeli

Having failed to gain support for its proposed citizenship reforms (remember those?), the government is now picking on the littlest guy it can find to make an unsubtle point about its robust patriotism. That little guy is the local councils that run citizenship ceremonies, effectively on behalf of the Commonwealth.

In recent years a handful of local councils have elected not to have citizenship ceremonies on January 26, out of respect for indigenous Australians, many of whom dont regard the day as worthy of jubilant celebration.The Liberal Party will lose one of its most senior women and moderate figures with Jobs and Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O'Dwyer to quit politics.

Ms O'Dwyer was flanked by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Saturday afternoon as she announced she will not recontest her Melbourne electorate of Higgins at the election.

Jobs Minister Kelly O'Dwyer will announce her resignation from politics on Saturday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

She said she was "absolutely confident" Mr Morrison would lead the Coalition to victory in at the election but she could not commit to another three years in public life.

Ms O'Dwyer said she was partly motivated by her desire, at 41, to have a third child, and "everything would have to go right" for that to occur. Her children will soon reach primary school age and she did not want to "consistently miss out" on important family time.Kelly O'Dwyer's first speech to Parliament in 2009 contained big clues about how she would walk away from it just 10 years later.

The newly elected member for Peter Costello's old blue-ribbon Melbourne seat of Higgins, O'Dwyer concisely highlighted the tricky balancing act of raising a family and forging a career.

"No one has yet worked out how to be in two places at once - so there are no simple solutions," she said. "Indeed, the right solutions vary from family to family."

Kelly O'Dwyer at work with son Edward after his birth in 2017. Credit:Simon Schluter

For O'Dwyer - one of the Morrison government's most senior ministers and a mother of two young children - the competing pressures were proving difficult despite the best efforts of her and husband Jon. During maternity leave in 2017, O'Dwyer continued to attend cabinet meetings, and two copies of the same children's book were often purchased; one was placed in O'Dwyer's ministerial office in Canberra, the other at home in Melbourne.Friends and family of a Perth woman who hasn't been seen since Tuesday have made a public appeal to help find her.

Missing woman Ara Cho Credit:Facebook

Ara Cho, or Ara Seed, 34, was last seen on the morning of January 15 in the Mosman Park area wearing black shorts, a black cardigan and black backpack.

She is around five-foot, three-inches tall.

A police spokesman confirmed officers were making inquiries into Ms Cho's possible whereabouts but had yet to locate her.Baqa al-Gharbiyye: Aiia Maasarwe's heartbroken sister Noor has led hundreds of mourners in calling for justice during an emotional vigil outside the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq mosque.

About 1000 people gathered in the towns city centre on Saturday, protesting violence against women across the globe and demanding that authorities release Aiia Maasarwes body so it could be brought home.

The Land Wants Aiia Back, read some of the placards, with others calling for an end to violence against women.

Hundreds gathered in solidarity outside a mosque in Baqa al-Gharbiyye on Saturday, calling to bring Aiia Maasarwes body back home.

The Baqa al-Gharbiyye community has chosen to rename the town's main square in honour of exchange student Aiia Maasarwe, 21, who was found dead in Bundoora on Tuesday night.But this is as good. You lob a grenade into the public square. Youre clearing the space of enemies of the people, the non-patriots, the un-Australians who do not think as you about Australia Day.

You cant actually declare war because theres no one to fight  or your older buddies to whom you follow are taking a rest from fighting.

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Scott Morrison this week launched a pre-emptive attack in defence of the day the First Fleet landed. Why he should do so, only his conscience or party strategists know. The country went through all this last year when a few councils opted to move citizenship ceremonies from Australia Day because of Indigenous complaints that the day was to them one of invasion and dispossession. Morrison said this week he would move to revoke their right to hold them if they did. So there. Thatll address the entire issue of national identity.

So resign yourselves, fellow Australians, to months of warfare. The battle for the poll has begun. One of the fields of conflict will surely be what is it to be an Australian. And from that, what values does said Australian hold or should hold to be so defined. Its a particular madness of this writhing of character that the military plays such a large part.

During the past quarter of a century, in particular, the myth has grown that our countrys identity was forged in the crucible of war. In particular, the failed campaign at Gallipoli has become sacred ground. A legend was born, a story enshrined within the greater story of the nation. Forget everything else; this was the birth of the nation. This distortion was not the soldiers doing.

Its more than passing strange to think of Australia as a warlike nation, despite our governments willingness to send men and women to foreign lands and despite its willingness to spend billions on defence systems. In temper of mind, a less warlike nation on Earth you could hardly imagine, except perhaps Bhutan, with its philosophy of gross national happiness.A 34-year-old who was allegedly kicked out of a suburban wine bar on Sydney's north shore before launching a stabbing attack on a group of teenagers was a postgraduate science lecturer at the University of NSW.

Until last week, Shannon Brett Morrison was working as a project manager at a pharmaceutical company PSI CRO and as a lecturer and tutor in the UNSW School of Medicine.

Shannon Brett Morrison, 34, has been charged with attempted murder after he allegedly stabbed six teenagers in a park on Sydney's north shore.

Described online by colleagues as "approachable," "humble" and "a pleasure to work with," Mr Morrison holds a Masters in Pharmaceutical Medicine from UNSW, as well as a Bachelor of Advanced Science from the University of Sydney.

But now the 34-year-old stands accused of attempted murder, after an alleged stabbing spree last weekend in which he allegedly attacked six teenagers with a knife in a Turramurra park.The NSW government does not trust Sydney councils to approve developments with a high corruption risk or strategic importance - that power has been exercised since last year by independent hearing and assessment panels.

Yet the power to assess and approve the construction of a facility for the delivery of construction materials such as sand, aggregate and cement on Glebe Island rests with the government authority behind the proposal.

Pyrmont residents David Gordon (left) and Christopher Levy are opposed to the construction of a shipping facility on Glebe Island. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Jamie Parker, the Greens member for Balmain, expressed concern about the capacity of the Port Authority of NSW to green light its own plan for a multi-user facility on Glebe Island. This makes a mockery of any notion that this approval will be independent, he said.

But a Port Authority spokeswoman said: This is an automatic and non-discretionary statutory provision and is consistent with the same approach that applies to other public authorities for comparable infrastructure projects.Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Sydney on Saturday calling on NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to soften her hardline stance on drugs and introduce pill testing at dance festivals.

The protesters gathered at Sydney Town Hall, a week after the death of 19-year-old Alex Ross King, after taking drugs before entering Parramatta's FOMO festival. Her's is the fifth death in as many months.

Chanting "we want pill testing now" and carrying signs like "Just say no to Gladys", the crowd made its way down George Street to Hyde Park, surrounded by a heavy police presence.

Protesters at the pill testing rally in Sydney. Credit:Christopher Pearce

Speakers included politicians such as Dr Kerryn Phelps, the independent member for Wentworth and former president of the Australian Medical Association, and federal Greens leader Dr Richard Di Natale, who is also a medical doctor.Japanese organising expert Marie Kondo, whose Netflix show about decluttering has gone viral, has helped to transfer the overflow from bulging wardrobes across NSW into second-hand shops, with one of the highest post-Christmas used clothing hauls ever seen in NSW charity shops.

Jack De Groot, the NSW CEO of St Vincent de Paul, says in the first three weeks of this year the charity's distribution centres in western Sydney have had a 38 per cent increase in donations over the same period last year.

Bargain hunters search the racks inside the Vinnies store in Waverley. Credit:Dean Sewell

The Catholic charity usually receives about 30,000 kilograms a week of used clothing to its western Sydney distribution centres, but in the past few weeks this volume has swelled to 50,000 kilos a week.

"Is it all the Marie Kondo phenomenon? It is hard to say as post-Christmas is always a bit of a time for a cleanout, but there is something in the community at the moment which is causing a lot of good quality, barely used items being donated, which means this is one of the best times of the year for op shopping," Mr De Groot says.A man has been charged with using an unauthorised firearm under the influence of alcohol after his wife, 31, was shot in the head in the state's south early Saturday morning.

Police say the woman was on a property at Pretty Pine, north of Deniliquin, with five other people when she was shot shortly after midnight. No one else was injured.

The woman was airlifted to Royal Melbourne Hospital, where she remained in a critical condition.

The woman's husband, 32, was refused bail and will return to court on January 23.Australia and Britain have signed a new bilateral Wine Agreement and Mutual Recognition Agreement overnight in London, which will help ensure the continued flow of trade post-Brexit.

Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Simon Birmingham said these agreements would ensure arrangements already in place between Australia and the European Union for our wine and other exports continued to apply for Britain post-Brexit.

Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Simon Birmingham. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

This will mean Australian exporters can continue to benefit from existing arrangements for mutual recognition as they do currently, even if the UK leaves the EU without an agreement, Mr Birmingham said.

These agreements provide assurances to Australian exporters that they will be able to get their goods into the UK post-Brexit, whether it be wine, medical devices or automotive parts, without additional trade barriers or regulations.People were surprised when we took over the pub and saw Lou who was pregnant at the time behind the bar pulling drinks, says Gantner of Melbourne, who after decades of regularly visiting his grandmother, a Bermagui resident, admits to always having a soft spot for Bermie. I just love this town, but just needed a viable business opportunity to lure me here, explains Gantner, adding, the challenge to breathe new life into this iconic pub was irresistible. Weve opened the pub up, revamped the restaurant, moved the pokies to the back of the hotel and increased the range of drinks, explains Gantner who admits the cellar may now be stocked with a little too much beer. We got a bit carried away with the beer, he muses, adding weve now got 16 on tap, but hey we are a pub after all. Zane Grey at the weigh-in of a shark caught off Bermagui in the late 1930s. The overhauled watering hole is only part of a wave of generational change in the town of 1500 people, creating an upbeat atmosphere the sleepy seaside village hasnt experienced since several high profile visits by famed US game fisher Zane Grey put Bermagui on the map in the late 1930s.

And its not just the main street rocking a new vibe, one of the most sought-after addresses in town is Bunga St which, in the space of a couple of years has morphed from an industrial centre into a mecca for foodies. Here, early risers have to brave regular queues out the door of artisan bakery Honorbread for sumptuous pastries, while a few doors up is Eastwoods Deli. The brainchild of Kelly Eastwood, who has cooked in the kitchens of Rick Stein and worked behind the scenes for televisions programs like My Kitchen Rules and River Cottage Australia, this little gem dishes up a range of delicatessen delights including gourmet cheeses, antipasto, pates and tasty cured meats. Oh if you want to replicate the same tastes at home, you can book into one of Kellys in-store cooking classes. Shes even cooked for Bill Gates (really!), so she must be good. Meanwhile, at the other end of the street is Mister Hopes retro espresso coffee bar (now with an evolving mini theatrette), where, despite churning out a steady flow of coffee for holiday-makers, Tia, the young barista takes time to chat to me about her towns renaissance. Tia, a Barista at Mister Hope, believes Bermagui is going through a generational change. Credit:Tim the Yowie Man It used to be full of old crusty fisherman, now its a younger generation, there's a real buzz, young people want to stay here she says as she hands me my latte with a smile.

While Bermagui is undeniably diversifying away from fishing, everywhere you look are reminders of the ongoing significance of both commercial and recreational fishing to the prosperity of the area. This is especially the case at the Fishermans Wharf which overlooks a modest fishing fleet and where among a series of sculptures of fishing icons-past also boasts the best fish and chips in town. Oh, and Bermagui must surely lay claim to the only main street in Australia, where instead of park benches, interpretative panels describing the range of fish species (including the prized marlin) you can catch in surrounding waters line the footpath. However, its back at the top of the main street, at the pub, where the real buzz is this summer. From late mornings to late evening the pub is doing a brisk trade, proof that generational change can be a good thing. A lot of our patrons this season are down from Canberra, and they demand a high standard of food, says Gantner, as I tuck into a tender porterhouse steak. Our first challenge was to turn around the food  if locals eat here, then the tourists will come too, he explains. Despite their new family-friendly direction, Gantner and Redmond clearly dont want to lose touch with the heritage of the landmark pub. One way theyve ensured this connection remains tangible are the dozens of historical photos of past publicans theyve tracked-down and lovingly framed and hung on the walls.

That man is Bermagui Beach Hotel, says Gantner pointing to a black and white photo near the entrance of the late Bill OShea, the hotels longest serving publican, and whose family ran the hotel for much of the twentieth century. A pub has been operating on the site of the Bermagui Beach Hotel since 1895 under various names including Whiffens Hotel. Credit:Bermagui Museum Some even say they have seen his ghost wandering the hallways, but perhaps theyve just had a couple too many [drinks], laughs Redmond. The annals of the Bermagui Museum report that during a severe drought in the early 1950s fresh water was brought to the hotel via steamers which docked at the wharf (demolished in 1971) opposite the hotel. According to local lore the ballast water of some vessels were pumped into tanks at the pub and sold to parched locals by the entrepreneurial Mrs OShea. Apparently for a period a schooner of water was more expensive than beer. Whod have thought?! Your Akubra-clad columnist can confirm that these days water is plentiful (and free) and with those 16 beers on tap, theres very little chance of the Bermagui Beach Hotel ever running out of beer either.

That is, of course, unless OSheas ghost is a very thirsty one. Fact File This water tower at the top of Bermagui has become one of the seaside towns most photographed spots. Credit:Tim the Yowie Man Bermagui Beach Hotel: 10 Lamont Street. Hearty pub meals and a range of accommodation from a budget bunk house to top floor heritage rooms with drool-worthy views across Horseshoe Bay Beach to Gulaga (Mt Dromedary). Ph: 02 6493 4206 Web: www.bermaguibeachhotel.com.au Dont miss: The Bermagui Gelati Clinic at the Fishermans Wharf. When it first opened in an old veterinary clinic, its purposefully partly-painted over sign fast became one of the most photographed on the south coast. As for the gelati, the roasted pear and rosemary is to die for.

Look out for: At the top of town on Pacific Drive is a water tower, which, when recently decorated with a giant mural became an instant drawcard. Spirit Dance by Joe McKenzie actually began as a bedtime story for Joes two sons in which two friendly spirits protected them while they slept. Now, colourfully adorning the tower the two spirits watch sentinel over the coastline, also marking the entry to the photogenic ocean swimming pool, Bermagui Blue Pool. The infamous Bermagui Vet-come-Gelati Clinic sign. Credit:Tim the Yowie Man Dont miss: Between 1880 and 1883, using only a pick and shovel nearly 250 kilograms of gold was unearthed at the nearby (7km north of Bermagui) Montreal Goldfield. It is the only goldfield in Australia that extends into the sea and these days for a small entry fee you can try your own luck. Fun for all the family. This goldfield also featured in the great unsolved Bermagui Mystery  the disappearance of a surveyor and four other men, but thats a column for another day. More: www.montrealgoldfield.org.au More: visitbermagui.com.au and visitnsw.com Spotted

The lizard that lost its pattern The rare unpatterned blue-tongue found in a Bega garage. Credit:Stephanie Haygarth While Matthew Higgins, this columns former regular Ainslie correspondent recently made a seachange to Bega, it hasnt stopped the astute nature observer from submitting unusual sightings from his new neck of the woods. Unlike most of his finds, Higgins most recent discovery wasnt in the bush, rather a rare unpatterned blue tongue lizard lurking in his garage. Have you spotted any colour-challenged critters in your neighbourhood? If so, Id love to hear from you.

Simulacra corner A log camouflaged as a lizard near Mt Majura. Credit: Susan Pellegrino While walking with her two children along the ridge between Mt Ainslie and Mt Majura, Susan Pellegrino and her two children Millie (aged 9) and Lucy (aged 12) spotted a terrifying lizard. Before taking flight herself, Susan managed to snap a photo of Millie and Lucy running from the long-tailed woody reptile. Looks horrifying!

Contact Tim: Email: timtheyowieman@bigpond.com or Twitter: @TimYowie or write c/- The Canberra Times, 9 Pirie St, Fyshwick. Where on the south coast? Where on the South Coast this week? Credit:David Osmond Clue: Not far from another pub. Degree of difficulty: MediumAfter a record breaking heatwave the weather has finally cooled down for some very hot Canberrans, but don't start thinking it's going to be cool.

Despite a maximum of 33 degrees forecast for Saturday, the mercury actually hit 36, six degrees above Canberra's average maximum temperature for January.

Calle Thornton, 2, helps out dad Alec Thornton at the Canberra City Farm in Fyshwick on Saturday. Credit:Dion Georgopoulos

The big relief is likely to come is overnight temperatures.

While during the week the minimum remained in the 20s, it's expected to be a much more bearable 14 or 15 degrees in coming days.To call Lion and Buffalo a corner cafe would be like summing up the Japanese decluttering guru Marie Kondo as a "neat person". Neither is inaccurate. But it's also far from the role they play in their adoring fans' lives.

Polish apple cake is made from Allison's late mother's handwritten recipe. Credit:Janie Barrett

For Anna Allison, owner of the South Coogee cafe, the small but popular eatery is where her family history and community life collide. Regulars come ready with anecdotes, knitting clubs spin Skittles-coloured yarn at the communal table, runners stop for a pick-me-up after their weekend coastal jog.

Last year, locals gathered over free long blacks to mourn the passing of Pellegrini's co-owner, the legendary Melbournian Sisto Malaspina. "We've united a lot of locals," says Allison, "People who live within metres of each other for 40 years have met and became friends at the cafe."

Part of the reason community is so important to Allison is because she's had to find her own. A migrant from Poland, the former government worker knows what it's like to rebuild a life in a new city. As a result, diversity and inclusiveness is very much the cafe's lifeblood. Lion and Buffalo's staff come from all corners of the world. You'll notice this on the menu cover  a world map where tiny portraits of the team members are proudly planted on the countries of their birth.

This multicultural DNA is reflected in the food. On the all-day menu is everything from braised lamb with chimichurri to a black rice and bircher muesli and a seasonal ramen. Allison sources her fresh produce straight from the farmers, and is in contact with them about weather conditions and supplies. This means you'll get open-range Papanui eggs, Mayura Station full-blood Wagyu, fresh wasabi roots and  for the small goods  Pepe Saya butter and bread from Iggy's.Capturing the eventful life of Australian artist Brett Whiteley seems a mammoth challenge. He spent time in London during the swinging '60s, had a stint in NYC's famous Hotel Chelsea, found inspiration after settling in Lavender Bay and battled drug addiction until his death in 1992.

"This is two seasons on Netflix if you did the whole thing," says actor Leeanna Walsman, who is appearing as Wendy Whiteley, Brett's long-time muse and former wife, in the world premiere run of Brett and Wendy ... A Love Story Bound by Art (until January 27).

Wendy Whiteley (centre) with Paul Gleeson who plays Brett, and Leeanna Walsman who plays Wendy in the Riverside Theatre play. Credit:Neil Hunt

The production from Kim Carpenter's acclaimed Theatre of Image finds its focus in the extraordinary partnership between the pair, who met when they were teenagers. "I just don't think you had one without the other," says Walsman. "Wendy had a lot to do with who Brett was and the art he created. She may not have put the brush to the canvas, but she was definitely supporting him the whole way."

Walsman was lucky enough to have morning tea in Lavender Bay with Wendy in preparation for the role. "She's incredibly smart and articulate and she's been really open with the process," says Walsman.For nearly a decade, Marie Jean Pierre showed up to work as a dishwasher at the Conrad Hotel in Miami's posh, high-rise-filled Brickell neighbourhood.

The Haitian immigrant said she informed the hotel from the time she was hired, in April 2006, that she could not work on Sundays because she was a missionary for the Soldiers of Christ Church.

"I love God," Pierre, 60, told NBC Miami on Wednesday. "No work on Sunday, because Sunday I honour God."

For most of that time, the hotel respected her religious beliefs and allowed her to have Sundays off. However, that changed in October 2015, after a kitchen manager insisted on scheduling her to work on Sundays.Interested in back issues of Estes Park News? Check out our Virtual E-Edition Archives and enjoy some of our previous content.

Take Me to the Virtual ArchivesTo continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.

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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!STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  We know a bit more about New Yorks plans to legalize marijuana for recreational use after Gov. Andrew Cuomos budget message the other day.

Mostly we heard about the hundreds of millions in tax dollars that an Empire State weed biz could generate.

But before state lawmakers rush aboard the weed train, they may want to take a look at the bumpy rides being endured by states where so-called adult use marijuana is already legal.

Lets take California, which began selling legalized weed last year. Things are not going according to plan in the Golden State.

The Associated Press recently reported that the state is expected to generate $355 million in tax revenue from weed by June of this year. Thats half of what was predicted in last years state budget.

The main problem? High taxation and over-regulation of the weed industry has allowed the existing underground market to continue flourishing, cutting into the states profits. The AP said that as much as 80 percent of the pot sales in the state still take place in the illegal marketplace.

High taxes? Over-regulation? Where have we heard that before, New Yorkers?

The Los Angeles Times laid out quite the cautionary tale with a recent major look at Californias fledgling pot industry. New York lawmakers should make sure to follow the link.

Heres how things in Cali shake out: There is a 15 percent state excise tax on weed. Los Angeles County adds another 10 percent recreational pot tax. Then theres the existing 9.5 percent in state and county sales taxes.

Thats a lot of taxes being paid by growers and consumers.

Those looking to sell weed need to get permission from the state and from the city where they want to set up shop, making for significant red tape. Product testing fees, aimed at ensuring consumer safety, are also said to be onerous.

No wonder people are still buying their (untaxed) weed on the street. And no wonder some growers prefer to operate in the (untaxed, unregulated) underground marketplace.

There are other problems. Just 89 of Californias 482 cities allow retail pot sales, according to the Times. Thats less than 20 percent. In Los Angeles County, 82 of the 88 cities prohibit weed sales.

Now you see why that expected financial windfall hasnt quite materialized. And seeing as individual cities vote on how weed is managed in their areas, it also shows a less-than-overwhelming level of demand.

Residents have complained about weed businesses that pop up in their neighborhoods. How would you feel if there was suddenly a pot farm next door? Police are concerned about drugged drivers and overall crime tied to the pot trade. Theres the question of sales to minors. Banks are sometimes unwilling to handle proceeds generated by weed sales.

And Oregon, one of Americas legal weed pioneers, is also having trouble lately. The state has a 1 million-pound glut of marijuana flower on hand. Wholesale prices are down.

The reason: Too much product and not enough demand. Its all driven by the ease with which growers can enter the Oregon market, a low barrier to business purposely created by lawmakers to encourage black market growers into the legitimate marketplace.

Meanwhile, a hot debate has sprung up around the new book Tell Your Children by New York Times reporter Alex Berenson.

The book talks about the possible links between weed and violent crime, psychotic behavior and mental illnesses like schizophrenia, particularly in those who begin smoking marijuana regularly while young.

Weed advocates have pushed back against the book for its hysterical, Reefer Madness-like take on marijuana.

But in interviews, Berenson makes thought-provoking points about how todays weed is a lot more potent than your daddys marijuana, and about how legalizing for social justice purposes is a much different thing than making weed widely available for recreational use.

None of which is to say that New York shouldnt legalize weed. But there are clearly a lot of issues that need to be discussed. We cant be blinded by dollar signs.

Lets get busy.STATEN ISLAND -- With the first snow to hit the city since a freak storm in November, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that the city was ready to tackle it head on.

This weekends storm is the first since the snowstorm that left virtually all of New York City paralyzed in gridlock for hours in November.

That was a freak storm by definition, what we experienced that time and where this city ended up in a horrible situation was because the George Washington Bridge went out, that just has not happened before, he said. That said, we learned from it for sure.

The citys initial forecast ahead of the Nov. 15 snowstorm projected just a few inches of snow. But before the evening rush hour commute, the projections jumped to six inches of snow causing widespread delays on city streets and leaving New Yorkers across the five boroughs stuck in traffic for hours.

Numerous accidents and stuck vehicles were reported across the Island, as motorists were forced to navigate slippery roads covered in slush, ice and snow.

The mayor had initially planned to travel to Bangor, Maine, Friday but said he decided to postpone his trip because of the storm.

MAYOR SAYS BE PREPARED, STAY OFF ROADS

The mayor urged New Yorkers Friday to get everything they need to get done during the day Saturday before the storm hits.

We dont know exactly what were going to be be dealing with here, but we do know its a real storm, we do know were going to have very cold temperatures, potential for icing -- the best people can do is get whatever you have to get done during Saturday, the mayor said

Deputy Mayor for Operations Laura Anglin said the city is expecting between three to six inches of snow citywide. She said the worst case scenario would be snow would reach between six to nine inches.

Anglin said a light snow would likely touch ground Saturday sometime between 5 and 7 p.m. and moderate to heavy snow would begin between 7 and 10 p.m.

But the forecast has continued to shift throughout the day, with the National Weather Service calling for less snow and more rain and sleet. The predicted sharp drop in temperatures following the storm on Sunday remains in effect.

Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia said her department plans to have 700 salt spreaders on hand and 1,600 snow plows ready for the weekend.

This is going to be a very dangerous form with lots of different variables, and so we are preparing for the worst, Garcia said.

FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.One of the Staten Island gang members accused of fatally gunning down a beloved New Brighton woman following a brawl by the courthouse last summer has been charged in two separate shootings, authorities said.

Isaiah Kelson, 22, and fellow gang member Naquan Young, 23, allegedly fired several shots in the vicinity of Heberton and Post avenues in Port Richmond at around 1 a.m. on April 8, 2018, police said.

Nobody was struck but police recovered several shell casings from the scene, according to an NYPD spokeswoman.

The two men were indicted on charges of attempted murder, felony assault, criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a firearm and reckless endangerment.

The defendants fired loaded firearms in the direction of civilians in a residential neighborhood while other individuals were present at this location, said the indictment.

Kelson, of Mariners Harbor, and Young, of West Brighton, pleaded not guilty during their arraignment Friday in state Supreme Court, St. George. Kelson was remanded and Youngs bail was set at $150,000 bond/$75,000 cash.

Kelson is separately accused of assault in another shooting incident on April 28, 2018.

Police said Kelson was in a white BMW traveling on the West Shore Expressway when the car pulled up near another motorist by the Victory Boulevard exit at around 4:30 a.m.

Kelson then fired four or five shots into the vehicle, injuring a 35-year-old victim, said police and the indictment.

He is additionally charged with criminal possession of a firearm, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment.

Kelsons attorney, Matt Santamauro, declined comment Saturday.

GANG MEMBERS CHARGED WITH CONSPIRACY AFTER COURTHOUSE MELEE

Kelson and gang associate Sean Oliveras are accused of fatally gunning down bystander Frances Williams, 67, after a brawl erupted by the Staten Island Courthouse on July 10, 2018.

Both men fired the shots that struck Williams, affectionately known as Ms. Franny, according to court papers. The victim was struck in the face while walking down Jersey Street in New Brighton, officials said.

The woman died a month after the shooting.

In a superseding indictment filed earlier this month, Kelson, Olivares, Young, Caleb Bethea and Jaleel Hewitt were hit with conspiracy charges for allegedly plotting revenge against a rival gang after their associate, Robert Craigwell, 26, was killed in the brawl by the courthouse, according to the indictment.

Craigwell died after he was pinned between a car and building at 22 Fort Place. Prince Edmonds has been charged with second-degree murder for allegedly mowing down Craigwell with a van.

The incident began when Bethea got into a physical altercation with a rival gang member near the courthouse. Young then advertised the incident on social media and Kelson, Olivares, Craigwell rushed to the courthouse on Central Avenue after seeing the post, authorities said. Hewitt arrived in a separate vehicle.

The indictment said Kelson, Olivares and Craigwell, who was armed with a loaded gun, parked the car near the courthouse and walked to Fort Place. Craigwell then pointed the gun towards the crew that was fighting with his associates before he was killed, according to the indictment.

After Craigwell was struck by the vehicle, Kelson and Olivares allegedly fled the scene and returned to West Brighton to retrieve their guns. The two men, along with Hewitt, then discussed heading to New Brighton to shoot those associated with the individuals involved in Craigwells death, said the indictment.

Olivares and Kelson went in one car and Hewitt followed in another.

Olivares and Kelson spotted someone they believed was a rival associate and exited the car before allegedly firing several shots at someone running down Pauw Street. Hewitt had parked his car behind his co-defendants during the shooting.

Williams was struck while Olivares and Kelson were shooting at the intended target near Pauw Street, officials said.

Olivares, Kelson and Hewitt then got back in their respective cars and sped away to West Brighton. Cops ensued and caught Olivares trying to get rid of the gun used to hit Williams before he was apprehended by 780 Henderson Ave., authorities said.

Oliveras and Kelson were previously charged with two counts of second-degree murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, assault, reckless endangerment, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a firearm.

Hewitt is also charged with criminal facilitation and hindering prosecution.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.A former employee at the Richmond County District Attorneys office who admitted to embezzling nearly half a million dollars of public funds to pay for lavish vacations, designer clothing and jewelry is getting a free trip to prison.

Former borough resident William Nelson, 45, who now lives in Pittsburgh, was sentenced to two years in prison during an appearance in Brooklyn federal court Friday, authorities said. He also received two years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $441,262.30 in forfeiture.

U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie blasted Nelson during the proceeding, calling his scheme brazen and mind boggling.

Im not buying the shopaholic explanation, Dearie said.

Just one time in my 31 years, I want someone to say I did it. Im all to blame, said the judge.

In his sentencing memorandum, defense attorney Patrick J. Brackley submitted a psychological report that suggested his client had a dysfunctional childhood and had an undetected shopaholic illness," said court papers.

Bill just could not stop and because of his job and how good he was at it, the temptation was always right in front of him to carry out the shopping sprees over and over again, said the report. He became an addict, obsessed with acquiring more and more and underscored by very poor impulse control.

Nelson, a former director of procurement, pleaded guilty last year to siphoning $441,262.30 of government funds for approximately four years, officials said.

This closes a difficult chapter in the life of this decent man, Brackley said in a statement to the Advance. He will move on with dignity and remorse.

The defendant used RCDA AMEX credit cards to purchase goods for himself and family, including an extensive knife collection, airfare, lodging, a Disney trip, meals, sporting goods and memorabilia, jewelry, apparel, toys, alcohol, video games and movies, electronics, household items, grocery items, books, sundries, survival gear, handbags, collectibles, souvenirs, and event tickets, authorities said.

Nelson spent more than $100,000 of RCDA money on knife purchases and trips to knife shows. Other big ticket items included more than $13,000 in event tickets, including New York Giants and Steelers tickets, officials said.

The defendant made purchases of over $99,000 using the RCDA Amazon account, prosecutors said. Between February 2010 and November 2016, the defendant allegedly spent approximately $160,000 in funds from the AMEX Cards via a PayPal account registered in his name.

Nelson used PayPal to directly transfer thousands of dollars from the RCDA credit cards to his own personal bank account. He attempted to conceal his embezzlement by hiding itemized credit card statements and using his authority to approve payments for his personal purchases, prosecutors said.

The majority of Nelsons employment was under the administration of former district attorney Dan Donovan.

Nelson served as procurement director until May 2016, when he was removed during the transition to Michael McMahon's administration, and placed in the position of procurement analyst, a position he held until his resignation in December 2016.

Following his departure, previously undetected and unauthorized spending was uncovered, and immediately reported to the Department of Investigation, McMahon previously told the Advance.

McMahon penned a scathing victim impact statement that was read in court Friday, saying Nelson committed these crimes due to unadulterated avarice.

The defendants repetitive stealing over the course of this period was conscious, deliberate, and repetitive," McMahon said in the letter. "Every instance of brazen theft that he committed had multiple layers, each evidencing a series of calculated actions on his part...in many instances, the defendant posted the fruits of his gluttony on social media in a boastful, unrepentant manner.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Food carts and trucks will soon sport a new letter grade. The citys Department of Health announced today that the program is ready to roll for the citys mobile units, a level of assessment that puts routine inspections on par with brick-and-mortar establishments.

Since 2010 the Health Department has issued letter grades for restaurants based on points incurred during inspection.

Building on the restaurant program, food truck vendors will now be subject to an A, "B" or "C" grade, which will be posted on the units along with a new permit decal. Each cart or truck also will be fitted with a location-sharing device so the units can be tracked for routine inspection.

These data will only be accessible to Health Department staff or agents of the Department and they will be protected from disclosure in all instances except where ordered by a court, the Health Department said of the information collected by the tracking devices.

The program will take two years to be completely in effect.

A POSITIVE STEP

Letter grades on food carts and trucks will help New Yorkers see how these businesses fared on their latest inspection, right when they want to place an order, said Acting Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot in an official statement.

Regulations on letter grade display and access to inspection reports have been a noted disparity between brick-and-mortar eateries and mobile food units for years.

I feel its definitely a positive step, said Lou Marfoglio, a chef who organizes food truck festivals at the Staten Island Mall and in Northern New Jersey. While Marfoglio hires a retired New York State food inspector chase the official examinations by the fire and health departments just prior to festivals, he feels the letter grades add an extra layer of assurance to the public that their food is safely handled.

Its really needed, said Marfoglio. He believes it levels the sanitation playing field, so to speak, between a hundred thousand dollar rig following all the rules and then someone 40 yards away whos cooking the food at home.

Anthony Rapacciuolo is an organizer of the Mount Loretto Food Truck Festival held the third week each June.

He says, The grading system will add validity to whats become a booming industry. Id say as recently as five years ago comments such as 'street meat or dirty water dogs were common when referencing mobile food vendors."

Now, he adds, Customers can enjoy gourmet hand-crafted plates that rival those of a traditional brick and mortar restaurants.

LEARNING CURVE

Rapacciulo admits there will be a learning curve getting used to the new program. Based on an informal poll he took of food truck operators that he normally corrals for Mount Manresa festivals, many said they werent fully cognizant of the new guidelines.

Ultimately, the new system is putting the customer first by ensuring they are purchasing a product that has met proper sanitary standard. However, Id like to see city agencies work a little harder to help ensure that the vendors understand how to comply, said Rapacciulo.

The Health Department will offer education workshops in the near future, aimed at ensuring vendors understand the grading system and have a refresher course in food handling. To attend a session, go to the Health Departments website at nyc.gov/health/foodservice.

There are six different kinds of mobile permits available in limited supply to New York City entrepreneurs including City-wide permits, borough-specific ones (50 per borough), Green Carts (vegetables only, no prepared foods) and seasonal ones issued from April 1 to Oct. 31. There are also Specialized Vendor Permits where units can patrol Parks perimeters while Restricted Area Permits afford food sales from private property so long as the vendor has a lease from a landlord.

New Yorkers are known around the world for always being on the go  and New York is known around the world for the amazing diversity of its street food, ranging from halal hot dogs to curry in a hurry. But everyone celebrating that diversity has a right to know that it meets uniform health standards, and the Health Department is right to implement a letter grading system for food carts and trucks to help assure that those standards are met, said Assembly Member Richard N. Gottfried, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Health.In 2018, 26,777 visitors came to Sandcastles Childrens Museum in downtown Ludington, according to Kristin Korendyke, museum executive director.

The three biggest months for museum attendance occurred in the summer, with 3,366 visitors in June; 5,769 in July; and 5,691 in August.

In addition to counting the number of visitors, the museum also records the zip codes of visiting kids and families. A total of 22,354 zip codes were collected in 2018, from 36 different states, Washington, D.C. and five countries.

For the local area, the most visitors came from Mason County, with 8,092; 1,003 came from Oceana County; 867 came from Manistee County; and 267 were residents of Lake County.

The most visitors came from Michigan, with 19,024. Illinois came in second with 767, Indiana was third with 608, and Ohio was fourth with 518 visitors.

In addition to visitors from the United States, the museum also had guests from Australia, Canada, Italy and the Czech Republic.

We are very proud of the volume of visitors we are able to accommodate, Korendyke stated in a press release. Not only do we consider it a compliment that so many people want to visit and explore the museum, but the admission collected from these visitors supports our yearly budget, paying for staff, utilities and maintenance of our building and exhibits.

Our organization has grown so much over the past 12 years, and we know we are able to do so only through the tremendous support we have received from our community. All of our expansion, growth and the creation of our educational exhibits are supported by the generous donations of our supporters and grants from area foundations, companies and councils, she said.

On behalf of the museums board of directors, manager and staff, Korendyke thanked the community for another fantastic year.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.Thai locals wore traditional dress for a parade at the 'umbrella festival' in the village of o Sang in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand on Friday.



The Bo Sang umbrella festival celebrates hundreds of hand-painted paper sun umbrellas being produced in the village.



Locals began making them centuries ago when a Buddhist monk from the area travelled to neighbouring Burma, returning to his home with the newly learned umbrella making technique.



Villagers in Bo Sang adapted the skill - becoming known as the umbrella people - and spawning an industry that manufacturers hundreds of thousands of handmade sun umbrellas that are shipped around the world.



Each year, villagers celebrate their tradition by lining the streets with bright, intricately decorated umbrellas.



While the town's young women wear traditional silk gowns as the ride bicycles and carry umbrellas to shade them from the sun.



The festival lasts for three days and finishes on Sunday evening.ANKARA, Turkey  A U.S. withdrawal from Syria that has not been thought through would lead to chaos and an Iraq on steroids, Sen. Lindsey Graham warned Saturday, urging President Trump not to get out without a plan.

Speaking to reporters in the Turkish capital of Ankara a day after meeting with Turkish officials, the Republican senator from South Carolina said a plan to withdraw from Syria should ensure that the Islamic State group is defeated, that Iran is contained and that Turkey is protected from threats from Kurdish rebels.

Graham said the goal of destroying Islamic State militants in Syria has not yet been accomplished.

I am urging President Trump not to do what President Obama did, which is just to get out and not to understand what happens when you just get out, he said.

Graham was referring to Obamas decision to pull U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011, ending the occupation of the country since 2003. In 2014, Obama redeployed troops to Iraq at the invitation of the government to stop Islamic State militants from advancing on Baghdad. Some 5,200 troops remain in Iraq today, and Islamic State was defeated in its last urban stronghold only a year ago.

A U.S. withdrawal from Syria without a plan would lead to an Iraq on steroids, he said.

The senator added that the Turkish and U.S. defense chiefs were working on a plan to move Syrian Kurdish militia away from the border with Turkey, but did not provide further details.

Trump has raised the possibility of creating a safe zone at the border with Turkey in an apparent bid to prevent a possible Turkish military operation against a Syrian Kurdish militia. The group was allied with the United States in the fight against Islamic State, but Turkey views the fighters as terrorists and a major national security threat.

Graham said he also discussed the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October and said the U.S. and Saudi Arabia cannot move forward in their relationship until Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman  who has been accused by some of complicity in the killing  is dealt with. He did not elaborate.

A prominent voice on foreign affairs in the U.S., Graham met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and also held discussions with the foreign affairs and defense ministers and Turkeys intelligence chief.UNITED NATIONS  Fuel is being shipped illegally from Iran to Houthi Shiite rebels in Yemen to finance their war against the government, and both sides are violating international law with their military campaigns and arbitrary detention of rivals, U.N. observers say in a new report.

The experts paint a grim picture of a deeply fractured country sliding toward humanitarian and economic catastrophe with no sign of victory by either side in a conflict that many view as a proxy war between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran.

In the 85-page report to the Security Council seen by the Associated Press, the experts said the government and its coalition partners led by Saudi Arabia made significant progress on the ground against the Houthis in 2018  but their aim of restoring the governments authority throughout the country is far from being realized.

At the same time, the panel of experts monitoring U.N. sanctions against Yemen said the Houthi leadership has continued to consolidate its hold over government and non-government institutions.

In the reports only upbeat note, the experts said talks in Sweden between the government and the Houthis that led to an agreement in December on a cease-fire and withdrawal of rival forces from the key port of Hodeida have raised hopes that a political process may quell the primary conflict in Yemen.

The conflict in Yemen began with the 2014 takeover of the capital Sanaa by the Iranian-backed Houthis, who toppled the government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. A Saudi-led coalition allied with Hadis internationally recognized government has been fighting the Houthis since 2015.

Saudi-led air strikes have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties and killed thousands of Yemeni civilians. The Houthis have fired long-range missiles into Saudi Arabia and targeted vessels in the Red Sea.

The fighting in the Arab worlds poorest country has taken a terrible toll on civilians, with thousands killed and a catastrophic humanitarian crisis under way.

The latest report said a small number of companies inside and outside Yemen operated as front companies using false documentation. The panel said it found that the fuel was loaded from Iranian ports and the revenue from the sale of this fuel was used to finance the Houthi war effort.

Iran has repeatedly rejected allegations that it is providing military support to the Houthis.

Edith M. Lederer is an Associated Press writer.Your Holiday Shopping Magazine to Emporia and area businesses. Also visit ShopEmporiaKansas.com to shop Emporia businesses who are online. Start your online shopping here.

VIEW NOWWEST BEND  The Catholic Daughters of Court St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, #1797, met on Thursday, Dec. 13. Mass was celebrated by Father Sunny.

The ladies enjoyed a Christmas celebration with wine and hors doeuvres. The Committee of Karen Fogarty, Linda Thul, Linda Thilges, Judy Gralapp, and Donna Grimm served scrumptious chicken breast with rice and orange sauce (Thanks, Don) with delicious potluck dishes by the members.

Becky Larson, Regent, opened the meeting with a prayer for the sick.

Chairman Ashley Laubenthal told the group that 140 poinsettia plants were sold: 85 to decorate the church and 55 were purchased by individuals. The court thanked Mary Meyer for selling 29 and everyone who purchased them.

Colleen Wuebker, Legislative Chairman, reported that the supreme court judges voted against a hearing to defund Planned Parenthood. She asked members to write the judges, and to keep praying for the end of abortion.

Colleen said the Magnificant will take place in Willey on Saturday, March 9. Members should contact Ellen Streit if they can go.

Christmas cards were signed by the members for District Deputy Jane Bruch, out of town, homebound, care center and assisted living members, and service men and women.

The court voted on presenting Christmas gifts to Fr. Girres, Fr. Sunny, Ann, Bruce, and the Deacons.

Carol Eoriatti and Bob and Patti Runchey delivered Angel Tree Prison Ministry presents to Eagle Grove, Humboldt, Rolfe and Laurens. Gifts were also sent to Belmond and Spencer.

Colleen and Patti thanked everyone who donated to the Thanksgiving and Christmas food drives. The response was overwhelming.

Christmas gifts were purchased for the courts Adopt a Family. Many thanks to the members for their support.

Ashley Laubenthal gave the Good of the Order on Poinsettias very informative and interesting.

Regent Becky reminded the court there is no meeting in January, adding that dues are payable after Jan. 1.

The February meeting will begin with Mass at 6 p.m. and a Valentine meal at the Wagon Wheel.To the Editor:

As the government shutdown drags on, we can blame Donald Trump for the shutdown, but the far greater sin is being committed by the Democratic Party.

Perhaps the Democrats need to read Trumps Art of the Deal, but they seem to be ignoring those they profess to protect for what seems like purely political gain.

Whether the wall is the best form of border protection is an open question, but it is one that President Trump clearly believes in and is willing to negotiate for. By refusing to budge in their opposition, the Democrats are giving up a golden opportunity to move forward on real immigration reform.

Trump has indicated that he is willing to give the Dreamers a more secure residency in the U.S., and I think a path to citizenship for other aliens, who have shown themselves to be a positive presence in their communities, is something he would likely accept in negotiation. (I would also suggest that it would be helpful if we would find a way to invest in our neighbors to the south, to try to improve living conditions there so as to reduce the need of those populations to attempt the treacherous trek to the U.S.)

In short, it is time for a new chapter, the Art of Compromise! The wall would hurt virtually no one, but the shutdown is hurting many.

We need to quit the political posturing and do what is best for all residents of the U.S. and our neighbors  End the shutdown and bring real relief to the tired, the poor, and the huddled masses.

(signed) Fred Wirtz

West Bend, IAby Anesa McGregor

The Palo Alto County Board of Supervisors discussed the opportunity of funding available for water quality improvement with Engineer Don Etler from Bolton & Menk of Spencer during their regular meeting on Tuesday, January 15.

According to Etler, when the Iowa legislature passed Senate File 512, it provided funding of up to $150 million of a 10 year period to establish about forty viable conceptually designed nutrient-removalwetland projects in the four counties of Clay, Palo Alto, Kossuth and Pocahontas. These projects should be ones that could be quickly implemented and constructed by the corresponding drainage districts.

The projects need to be weeded out to about 40 projects within an 18 month time frame. The funding would become available in about 2020-2021.

See The Reporter/The Democrat for the full story.OAKLAND (BCN)



Oakland Technical High School's teachers were at school by the first bell Friday morning - but many of them weren't there to teach.



Instead, they were met by hundreds of other Oakland educators to march and rally for higher pay, smaller class sizes and more resources for students.



"We're getting ready for a strike," said teacher Tania Kappner, who is also part of a union caucus called Equal Opportunities Now/By Any Means Necessary. "We are out here sick and tired of the district's disrespect."



Friday's march was planned to be a one-day affair, and it's still unclear if and when a strike will happen. Teachers are demanding a 12 percent pay raise after Oakland Unified School District offered them only 5 percent. Negotiations have been going on for around two years.



The teachers union, Oakland Education Association, says it has scheduled a fact-finding panel for later this month, which is the final step before the union can organize a strike. The OEA did not lead or promote Friday's march, according to First Vice President Ismael Armendariz.



John Sasaki, a spokesman for OUSD, said the district would like to resume negotiations with the union, and is open to giving teachers higher pay. But he also said the district is facing budget issues that can't be ignored.



"We would love to give our teachers the world," Sasaki said. "But we just don't have the world to give them."



The tension in Oakland comes at the same time as teachers in Los Angeles are on strike, throwing many schools there into chaos.



Teachers in many other states across the nation have also gone on strike in the past year, giving broader energy to what otherwise would be a local issue.



The Oakland teachers said they were buoyed by that support Friday. Hundreds of students and teachers marched down Broadway, chanting and waving signs, blocking southbound traffic for blocks.



"Teachers and parents must unite, education is a human right," they shouted.



Many were holding colorful signs with slogans that included "Teachers deserve a living wage" and "Cut from the top."



Passing drivers honked their horns, and business owners and patrons along Broadway raised their fists in support.



Two marching high school students, Marlene Smith and Ruby Schrag, described pinched resources at their school, Oakland Tech.



Smith said the school didn't have copy paper when the year started. And some classes are so large that not all the students can sit at desks. They write on books on their laps.



Schrag and Smith said they joined the march to support their teachers.



"The teachers put a lot into their jobs and we wanted to reciprocate," Schrag said.



The march ended at OUSD headquarters at 11th and Broadway. The chants continued, and organizers asked the marchers to come to the next Board of Education Meeting on Jan. 23.



While some of the marchers were determined to strike, others were more cautious. Amy Colt, an English teacher at Skyline High School, said she hopes Friday's march sent enough of a message.



"I think it's going to be a real wakeup call," she said. "We have the power."





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.A man who worked for and helped inspire a new law that ends the practice of charging someone with murder if they aren't convicted of doing the killing themselves is the first person in California to benefit from that law.



Friday morning, Adnan Khan -- who had been in prison since 2004 for the killing of a man who died in a 2003 Antioch robbery -- had his murder sentence commuted Friday in Contra Costa County Superior Court. This is the first such commutation since SB 1437 went into effect Jan. 1.



During a 10-minute hearing, Judge Laurel S. Brady commuted Khan's 25-years-to-life murder sentence, and re-sentenced him to three years for the robbery. Khan, having served far longer than that already, is now a free man. He was expected to walk out of the Contra Costa County Jail in Martinez Friday.



"He's served his parole time and then some," Brady said in court of Khan.



Khan, now 33, sat in court in his orange prison jump suit, showing little expression. That was not the case for the 30 or so of Khan's family and friends in the courtroom, who smiled, sniffed back tears and exchanged hugs after Khan's murder sentence was commuted.



Among those overjoyed was Tajwar Shahana of Pittsburg, Khan's mother.



"I lived 15 long years that I lived without my son," she said. "I was not nervous (today); I felt something good was going to happen."



Khan's case was the inspiration for SB 1437, co-authored by Senators Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and Joel Anderson (R-La Mesa). It was specifically designed to end the practice of sentencing a person who did not commit a homicide, or who perhaps didn't know a homicide had occurred, to the same terms as someone who committed the killing. Until now, someone could be convicted of first-degree murder if he or she was convicted of a crime -- a robbery, for instance -- that resulted in the killing, even if someone else did the killing.



The Contra Costa County District Attorney charged Adnan Khan and fellow defendant Rick Asheed Page in January 2004 with first-degree murder of Kevin Leonard McNutt's death. The killing occurred during a marijuana robbery gone wrong; Khan maintains he didn't even know until after the robbery that McNutt had died. Khan and Page also were charged with second-degree robbery.



While he was in San Quentin State Prison, Khan co-founded Re:store Justice, which worked to change the laws that allowed accessories to murders be charged with murder. Re:store Justice was the main sponsor of SB 1437.



Before he left office, former Gov. Jerry Brown commuted Khan's sentence to 15 years to life.



Kate Chatfield, Khan's attorney and co-founder of Re:store Justice, said SB 1437 is proof that an unjust law can be remedied.



"Adnan was an accomplice to a felony, but did not murder anyone, did not intend for anyone to die," Chatfield said.



She said there are an estimated 800 similar cases in California in which accomplices to a murder are serving similar long sentences as was Khan, and that he and others are working to inform inmates how they can petition for resentencing.



"We're trying to make it as simple as possible for people who are incarcerated to get back into court," said Chatfield. She said Friday's brief hearing went "wonderfully smoothly" -- the Contra Costa County District Attorney's office didn't fight it. But she said the cases to follow likely won't all be like that.



"I anticipate there will be some hearings that will be contested in court," Chatfield said.



Khan will live at a transitional home in Oakland, according to Shadeed Wallace-Stepter, who worked with Khan in San Quentin and who left prison in August.



"We talked about this day for so long ... and now that it's happened, it just feels 'normal,' Wallace-Stepter said. "I'm not surprised at all that this has happened -- it's about time."



As for the short term, Chatfield said, "There will be a big party tonight!"



Regarding the bigger picture, Khan's mother said, "Whatever happened ... we'll leave it behind."







Oakland Technical High School's teachers were at school by the first bell Friday morning - but many of them weren't there to teach.



Instead, they were met by hundreds of other Oakland educators to march and rally for higher pay, smaller class sizes and more resources for students.



"We're getting ready for a strike," said teacher Tania Kappner, who is also part of a union caucus called Equal Opportunities Now/By Any Means Necessary. "We are out here sick and tired of the district's disrespect."



Friday's march was planned to be a one-day affair, and it's still unclear if and when a strike will happen. Teachers are demanding a 12 percent pay raise after Oakland Unified School District offered them only 5 percent. Negotiations have been going on for around two years.



The teachers union, Oakland Education Association, says it has scheduled a fact-finding panel for later this month, which is the final step before the union can organize a strike. The OEA did not lead or promote Friday's march, according to First Vice President Ismael Armendariz.



John Sasaki, a spokesman for OUSD, said the district would like to resume negotiations with the union, and is open to giving teachers higher pay. But he also said the district is facing budget issues that can't be ignored.



"We would love to give our teachers the world," Sasaki said. "But we just don't have the world to give them."



The tension in Oakland comes at the same time as teachers in Los Angeles are on strike, throwing many schools there into chaos.



Teachers in many other states across the nation have also gone on strike in the past year, giving broader energy to what otherwise would be a local issue.



The Oakland teachers said they were buoyed by that support Friday. Hundreds of students and teachers marched down Broadway, chanting and waving signs, blocking southbound traffic for blocks.



"Teachers and parents must unite, education is a human right," they shouted.



Many were holding colorful signs with slogans that included "Teachers deserve a living wage" and "Cut from the top."



Passing drivers honked their horns, and business owners and patrons along Broadway raised their fists in support.



Two marching high school students, Marlene Smith and Ruby Schrag, described pinched resources at their school, Oakland Tech.



Smith said the school didn't have copy paper when the year started. And some classes are so large that not all the students can sit at desks. They write on books on their laps.



Schrag and Smith said they joined the march to support their teachers.



"The teachers put a lot into their jobs and we wanted to reciprocate," Schrag said.



The march ended at OUSD headquarters at 11th and Broadway. The chants continued, and organizers asked the marchers to come to the next Board of Education Meeting on Jan. 23.



While some of the marchers were determined to strike, others were more cautious. Amy Colt, an English teacher at Skyline High School, said she hopes Friday's march sent enough of a message.



"I think it's going to be a real wakeup call," she said. "We have the power."







Despite the defense's strong objections, including an allegation that it smacks of Nazi Germany and fascism, a judge on Friday granted the prosecution's request for a gag order in the trial two men for the 2016 Ghost Ship fire in Oakland that killed 36 people.



Alameda County Superior Court Judge Trina Thompson said she is issuing the so-called "protective order" in the trial of Ghost Ship master tenant Derick Almena and creative director Max Harris because the case "has received community-wide notoriety" and she's concerned that if potential jurors are exposed to irrelevant information it could endanger their right to a fair trial.



Almena, 48, and Harris, 28, are charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter for the deadly fire during a music party at the warehouse at 1309 31st Ave. on Dec. 2, 2016.



The order applies to prosecutors, Almena and Harris and their attorneys and all the witnesses in the case.



Thompson said the order will only last until jurors and alternates for the trial, which is scheduled to begin on April 2, are sworn in.



She also said she could rescind or modify the order at any time if that seems to be appropriate.



James said the gag order is necessary to prevent the defense from tainting the pool of potential jurors for the trial, which is scheduled to begin on April 2.



James said Almena himself has played a part in trying to influence jurors through his frequent interviews with the news media and by telling others "to get his story out because he's hopeful this information will reach eventual jurors."



James said, "We should try to pick a jury that's free of bias but that will be completely impossible if the defense talks to the media all the time."



After James spoke about his request for a gag order, Harris' attorney Curtis Briggs told Thompson, "I have never heard something more terrifying in my career or in my life" and alleged that the District Attorney's Office "has become completely unhinged."



Briggs said he should be allowed to speak to the media about the case because "my client (Harris) is the underdog and I'm his advocate."



Briggs said Harris "is fighting for his life" and "I have an obligation to talk to the press."



Harris said the prosecution's bid for a gag order "is a renewal of Nazi Germany and fascism."



Almena's lawyer Tony Serra said he also should be allowed to talk to the media because "we have an uphill battle in contesting the allegations."



But Thompson said she is granting the gag order because, "We have to harness this (all the publicity the case has received) so that we get a fair and balanced jury."



The gag order doesn't prevent the news media for covering hearings in the case or reporting on them.



Thompson also heard arguments on the defense's request to dismiss the charges against Almena and Harris on the grounds that potentially exonerating evidence was destroyed, lost or altered under the watch of the Alameda County District Attorney's Office.



Briggs alleged that former Oakland Fire Marshal Maria Sabatini and other investigators failed to preserve potentially exculpatory evidence because "they understood the liability the city had" by failing to crack down on safety violations at the warehouse.



Thompson didn't rule on that motion on Friday but said she will hold a hearing on Feb. 22 to determine if she should hold an evidentiary hearing on that issue at a later date.



Thompson also scheduled a hearing on Feb. 11 on a defense motion asking that the building's owners and Oakland firefighters and police officers be arrested and prosecuted along with Almena and Harris.







A man known who was dubbed "Jogger Joe" on social media sites pleaded no contest on Friday to misdemeanor battery for stealing the cellphone of a man who confronted him for throwing a homeless man's belongings into Lake Merritt last June.



Henry Sintay, 31, also pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vandalism for throwing the homeless man's belongings into the lake.



After Sintay entered his pleas, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson immediately sentenced him to five years' probation, ordered him to take anger management classes and ordered him to stay away from the man who had confronted him, Matt Nelson, as well as from the area where the incidents occurred.



Oakland police Officer Michael Ransom II wrote in a probable cause statement that Sintay was recorded committing a strong-arm robbery of a cellphone on June 9, 2018, and Sintay confessed to the crime when he was interviewed by police.



Sintay, an Oakland resident, has a prior felony conviction for selling or transporting marijuana in Riverside County in 2009.



Nelson, who's the president of Presente.org, which describes itself as the nation's largest online Latinx organizing group, wrote in an online posting shortly after the incident that the theft occurred on June 9 when he used his cellphone to videotape Sintay when he asked Sintay why he threw a homeless man's belongings into Lake Merritt the previous evening, June 8.



That incident, videotaped by another person, was posted on the Lake Neighbors Facebook group page and received national attention.



Nelson alleged that Sintay, who was accompanied by another man, grabbed his cellphone and "assaulted me multiple times."



Nelson wrote that he suffered "a mild concussion, some cuts and bruises and many sore and strained muscles."



Before Sintay entered his plea on Friday, Nelson told Judge Jacobson that he was agreeable to allowing Sintay to resolve the case without having to serve time in state prison.



Nelson said he just wanted Sintay to "acknowledge the severity of the crime, the violence and the theft, and the destroying of the few possessions of a homeless individual."



But Nelson said, "I can't find a compelling reason" to have Sintay sentenced to state prison.



Sintay originally was charged with felony second-degree robbery for stealing Robinson's phone but Jacobson amended that count to misdemeanor battery after the prosecution and the defense submitted the case to him.



The misdemeanor vandalism count was added to the case after the initial charge was filed against Sintay.



Referring to Sintay's actions against the homeless man and Nelson, Jacobson told Sintay, "There should never be conduct like this again. Your behavior was shameful."



Jacobson also ordered Sintay to write letters of apology to the homeless man and Nelson.



Alameda County Assistant Attorney Matthew Golde, one of the prosecutors in the case, said Sintay's plea and sentencing are "a fair reflection of what happened."



Golde said Nelson agreed to a resolution that didn't call for Sintay to serve time in state prison because Nelson believes in restorative justice.







An Antioch man was sentenced Friday to 50 years to life in prison for the June 2016 shooting death of his father in what prosecutors had said was part of a plan to secure money from a life insurance policy.



Because of an enhancement for using a firearm in committing first-degree murder, 24-year-old Scott Eastman will serve a minimum of 25 years before he is eligible for parole.



In handing down the sentence, Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Anita Santos noted the "gravity and planning" that went into the June 25, 2016 shooting of 43-year-old Relis Eastman in their Antioch house, and the fact that Scott Eastman simply left his father for dead, bleeding on the floor, to be found later by Scott Eastman's 9-year-old stepbrother.



On Friday, Scott Eastman showed little emotion when Santos handed down the sentence.



A jury on Sept. 27, 2018 found him guilty of first-degree murder.



During the trial last fall, prosecutors said Scott Eastman had motives to kill his father. Scott Eastman believed he was the beneficiary of his father's life insurance policy, and also thought he was about to get kicked out of the family house. Scott Eastman had used apps that mask internet activity to hide his searches for a firearm and ammunition he eventually used to kill his father, said prosecutors, who also believed he bought drugs over the Dark Web, purportedly to sell, and had them delivered to the family house.



On Friday, family members made statements to the court that Relis Eastman's killing had torn the fabric of their family and caused profound damage to their individual lives.



Aurora Eastman was 18 when her father was killed. On Friday, she told the court that she has since suffered from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and panic attacks since the killing.



"It was the feeling of my heart being ripped from my chest," said Aurora Eastman, her stepmother Kathleen Rogneby standing beside her, choking back tears.



Fighting tears herself, Aurora said it was she who made the agonizing call to pull her father off life support a few days after the shooting. Her younger sister, Aurora said, had all but given up dreams of becoming a doctor after Relis' death, and statements from four family members Friday all mentioned going into deep depressions after the killing.



"I will never forgive him, and neither should anyone," Aurora said of her older brother. "Scott didn't just take my dad, he took my future with him. I hate Scott Alexander Eastman."



Several family members have since relocated to Kansas, where Relis Eastman once lived. Aurora Eastman said family members are working to piece their lives back together.



Julian Ross, Scott Eastman's attorney, had sought a measure of leniency. He said this and previous crimes came from a young mind that was still developing, and asked Santos to strike the firearms enhancement, which would have made his client eligible for parole after 20 years.



Santos acknowledged Ross' contention about a "lack of mental sophistication" on Scott Eastman's part, but ultimately agreed more with prosecutor Alison Chandler, who cited months of planning ahead of the shooting.



"It was a callous, evil, psychotic choice the defendant made, and he made it months before he actually did it," Chandler said. "There were many chances to jump off that train."







The heavy rain this week raised the levels of the two main reservoirs that supply water to the Sonoma County Water Agency, but at a cost.



The water agency, now known as Sonoma Water, said the rain put pressure on the wastewater collection system in the Sonoma Valley causing several sanitary sewer overflows at four locations.



Between 2 and 2.5 inches of rain was measured over a 24-hour period in the Sonoma Valley, and sewer pipelines intended only for wastewater exceeded capacity, Sonoma Water said in a statement.



Less than 50,000 gallons of wastewater overflowed during the four spills, and maintenance crews were on the scene through Wednesday night. The overflows were stopped at 2 a.m. Thursday, and crews cleaned up and monitored flows later Thursday morning, Sonoma Water officials said.



The flows into the Sonoma Valley wastewater treatment plant were 20 million gallons a day at 7 p.m. Wednesday night, about 10 times greater than flows during dry weather, according to Sonoma Water.



During increased flows, groundwater and storm water enter leaky sewer pipelines, manhole covers and private sewer laterals.



The Sonoma Valley Sanitation District plans a $6 million project to replace 1.8 miles of pipeline along state Highway 12, and will continue replacing aging pipelines for the next several years.



The District also plans sewer lateral inspections and repairs to reduce inflow from private sewer laterals and illegal connections to the sewer system, Sonoma Water said.



The District's Lake Mendocino reservoir reached the 72,000 acre-feet level during the storms. When the reservoir reaches 68,000 acre-feet, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers controls the dam operations for flood control purposes.



The larger reservoir, Lake Sonoma, filled to 227,000 acre-feet, a 15,000-acre-feet increase over a 24-hour period. Between the two reservoirs, the storm increased storage of 20,000 acre-feet, or about 6.5 billion gallons of water, according to Sonoma Water.





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.BERKELEY (BCN)



Police in Berkeley are investigating a sexual assault that was reported earlier this month at a University of California-Berkeley campus residence.



The University of California Police Department is investigating the incident.



Police said the victim, a University of California-Berkeley student, was sexually assaulted in her residence on Jan. 6 by a suspect she had met with earlier in the day at a caf on campus.



When the caf closed, the victim and the suspect went to the victim's residence, and once they were at the residence, the suspect sexually assaulted the victim, police said.



The victim did not suffer any major physical injuries during the assault.





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.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)



San Francisco police arrested two men for separate assaults Thursday night in the Tenderloin neighborhood.



Around 7 p.m., a 40-year-old man got in a fight with a 38-year-old and stabbed him near Eddy and Leavenworth, according to the San Francisco Police Department.



The victim was taken to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries. Police didn't identify either the victim or the suspect.



Two hours later, around 9:15 p.m., San Francisco police responded to another assault call, this time near Polk and Geary.



A 45-year-old man hit the victim, who was in a wheelchair, with a metal pipe. The suspect was arrested and the victim was taken to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries.





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)



Despite the defense's strong objections, including an allegation that it smacks of Nazi Germany and fascism, a judge on Friday granted the prosecution's request for a gag order in the trial two men for the 2016 Ghost Ship fire in Oakland that killed 36 people.



Alameda County Superior Court Judge Trina Thompson said she is issuing the so-called "protective order" in the trial of Ghost Ship master tenant Derick Almena and creative director Max Harris because the case "has received community-wide notoriety" and she's concerned that if potential jurors are exposed to irrelevant information it could endanger their right to a fair trial.



Almena, 48, and Harris, 28, are charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter for the deadly fire during a music party at the warehouse at 1309 31st Ave. on Dec. 2, 2016.



The order applies to prosecutors, Almena and Harris and their attorneys and all the witnesses in the case.



Thompson said the order will only last until jurors and alternates for the trial, which is scheduled to begin on April 2, are sworn in.



She also said she could rescind or modify the order at any time if that seems to be appropriate.



James said the gag order is necessary to prevent the defense from tainting the pool of potential jurors for the trial, which is scheduled to begin on April 2.



James said Almena himself has played a part in trying to influence jurors through his frequent interviews with the news media and by telling others "to get his story out because he's hopeful this information will reach eventual jurors."



James said, "We should try to pick a jury that's free of bias but that will be completely impossible if the defense talks to the media all the time."



After James spoke about his request for a gag order, Harris' attorney Curtis Briggs told Thompson, "I have never heard something more terrifying in my career or in my life" and alleged that the District Attorney's Office "has become completely unhinged."



Briggs said he should be allowed to speak to the media about the case because "my client (Harris) is the underdog and I'm his advocate."



Briggs said Harris "is fighting for his life" and "I have an obligation to talk to the press."



Harris said the prosecution's bid for a gag order "is a renewal of Nazi Germany and fascism."



Almena's lawyer Tony Serra said he also should be allowed to talk to the media because "we have an uphill battle in contesting the allegations."



But Thompson said she is granting the gag order because, "We have to harness this (all the publicity the case has received) so that we get a fair and balanced jury."



The gag order doesn't prevent the news media for covering hearings in the case or reporting on them.



Thompson also heard arguments on the defense's request to dismiss the charges against Almena and Harris on the grounds that potentially exonerating evidence was destroyed, lost or altered under the watch of the Alameda County District Attorney's Office.



Briggs alleged that former Oakland Fire Marshal Maria Sabatini and other investigators failed to preserve potentially exculpatory evidence because "they understood the liability the city had" by failing to crack down on safety violations at the warehouse.



Thompson didn't rule on that motion on Friday but said she will hold a hearing on Feb. 22 to determine if she should hold an evidentiary hearing on that issue at a later date.



Thompson also scheduled a hearing on Feb. 11 on a defense motion asking that the building's owners and Oakland firefighters and police officers be arrested and prosecuted along with Almena and Harris.





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.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)



A man attempted to rob a bank in San Francisco's South of Market district Thursday afternoon, but police said he left empty handed.



The attempted robbery w as reported around 1:25 p.m. in the 100 block of Mission Street.



The suspect handed a note to a bank employee, but that man immediately activated an emergency button and the suspect fled the scene.



Police said they arrested a 42-year-old man in connection with the crime.





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.MARTINEZ (BCN)



An Antioch man was sentenced Friday to 50 years to life in prison for the June 2016 shooting death of his father in what prosecutors had said was part of a plan to secure money from a life insurance policy.



Because of an enhancement for using a firearm in committing first-degree murder, 24-year-old Scott Eastman will serve a minimum of 25 years before he is eligible for parole.



In handing down the sentence, Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Anita Santos noted the "gravity and planning" that went into the June 25, 2016 shooting of 43-year-old Relis Eastman in their Antioch house, and the fact that Scott Eastman simply left his father for dead, bleeding on the floor, to be found later by Scott Eastman's 9-year-old stepbrother.



On Friday, Scott Eastman showed little emotion when Santos handed down the sentence.



A jury on Sept. 27, 2018 found him guilty of first-degree murder.



During the trial last fall, prosecutors said Scott Eastman had motives to kill his father. Scott Eastman believed he was the beneficiary of his father's life insurance policy, and also thought he was about to get kicked out of the family house. Scott Eastman had used apps that mask internet activity to hide his searches for a firearm and ammunition he eventually used to kill his father, said prosecutors, who also believed he bought drugs over the Dark Web, purportedly to sell, and had them delivered to the family house.



On Friday, family members made statements to the court that Relis Eastman's killing had torn the fabric of their family and caused profound damage to their individual lives.



Aurora Eastman was 18 when her father was killed. On Friday, she told the court that she has since suffered from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and panic attacks since the killing.



"It was the feeling of my heart being ripped from my chest," said Aurora Eastman, her stepmother Kathleen Rogneby standing beside her, choking back tears.



Fighting tears herself, Aurora said it was she who made the agonizing call to pull her father off life support a few days after the shooting. Her younger sister, Aurora said, had all but given up dreams of becoming a doctor after Relis' death, and statements from four family members Friday all mentioned going into deep depressions after the killing.



"I will never forgive him, and neither should anyone," Aurora said of her older brother. "Scott didn't just take my dad, he took my future with him. I hate Scott Alexander Eastman."



Several family members have since relocated to Kansas, where Relis Eastman once lived. Aurora Eastman said family members are working to piece their lives back together.



Julian Ross, Scott Eastman's attorney, had sought a measure of leniency. He said this and previous crimes came from a young mind that was still developing, and asked Santos to strike the firearms enhancement, which would have made his client eligible for parole after 20 years.



Santos acknowledged Ross' contention about a "lack of mental sophistication" on Scott Eastman's part, but ultimately agreed more with prosecutor Alison Chandler, who cited months of planning ahead of the shooting.



"It was a callous, evil, psychotic choice the defendant made, and he made it months before he actually did it," Chandler said. "There were many chances to jump off that train."





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.MARTINEZ (BCN)



A man who worked for and helped inspire a new law that ends the practice of charging someone with murder if they aren't convicted of doing the killing themselves is the first person in California to benefit from that law.



Friday morning, Adnan Khan -- who had been in prison since 2004 for the killing of a man who died in a 2003 Antioch robbery -- had his murder sentence commuted Friday in Contra Costa County Superior Court. This is the first such commutation since SB 1437 went into effect Jan. 1.



During a 10-minute hearing, Judge Laurel S. Brady commuted Khan's 25-years-to-life murder sentence, and re-sentenced him to three years for the robbery. Khan, having served far longer than that already, is now a free man. He was expected to walk out of the Contra Costa County Jail in Martinez Friday.



"He's served his parole time and then some," Brady said in court of Khan.



Khan, now 33, sat in court in his orange prison jump suit, showing little expression. That was not the case for the 30 or so of Khan's family and friends in the courtroom, who smiled, sniffed back tears and exchanged hugs after Khan's murder sentence was commuted.



Among those overjoyed was Tajwar Shahana of Pittsburg, Khan's mother.



"I lived 15 long years that I lived without my son," she said. "I was not nervous (today); I felt something good was going to happen."



Khan's case was the inspiration for SB 1437, co-authored by Senators Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and Joel Anderson (R-La Mesa). It was specifically designed to end the practice of sentencing a person who did not commit a homicide, or who perhaps didn't know a homicide had occurred, to the same terms as someone who committed the killing. Until now, someone could be convicted of first-degree murder if he or she was convicted of a crime -- a robbery, for instance -- that resulted in the killing, even if someone else did the killing.



The Contra Costa County District Attorney charged Adnan Khan and fellow defendant Rick Asheed Page in January 2004 with first-degree murder of Kevin Leonard McNutt's death. The killing occurred during a marijuana robbery gone wrong; Khan maintains he didn't even know until after the robbery that McNutt had died. Khan and Page also were charged with second-degree robbery.



While he was in San Quentin State Prison, Khan co-founded Re:store Justice, which worked to change the laws that allowed accessories to murders be charged with murder. Re:store Justice was the main sponsor of SB 1437.



Before he left office, former Gov. Jerry Brown commuted Khan's sentence to 15 years to life.



Kate Chatfield, Khan's attorney and co-founder of Re:store Justice, said SB 1437 is proof that an unjust law can be remedied.



"Adnan was an accomplice to a felony, but did not murder anyone, did not intend for anyone to die," Chatfield said.



She said there are an estimated 800 similar cases in California in which accomplices to a murder are serving similar long sentences as was Khan, and that he and others are working to inform inmates how they can petition for resentencing.



"We're trying to make it as simple as possible for people who are incarcerated to get back into court," said Chatfield. She said Friday's brief hearing went "wonderfully smoothly" -- the Contra Costa County District Attorney's office didn't fight it. But she said the cases to follow likely won't all be like that.



"I anticipate there will be some hearings that will be contested in court," Chatfield said.



Khan will live at a transitional home in Oakland, according to Shadeed Wallace-Stepter, who worked with Khan in San Quentin and who left prison in August.



"We talked about this day for so long ... and now that it's happened, it just feels 'normal,' Wallace-Stepter said. "I'm not surprised at all that this has happened -- it's about time."



As for the short term, Chatfield said, "There will be a big party tonight!"



Regarding the bigger picture, Khan's mother said, "Whatever happened ... we'll leave it behind."





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.TLAHUELILPAN, Mexico  Mexicos president pledged Saturday to redouble his fight against an epidemic of fuel theft after thieves punctured a pipeline north of Mexico City, causing an explosion that killed at least 73 people and injured 74 others.

The blast underscored the danger of fuel thefts, which has cost the government billions of dollars and has been the target of a weeks-long crackdown by the administration of Mexicos new president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The governments strategy has included diverting fuel from the pipelines most heavily targeted by criminal gangs, and transporting it by truck. But the logistical changes have slowed deliveries across the country, causing shortages and long lines at service stations.

Lopez Obrador insisted that the disaster showed why his strategy was more necessary than ever: Fuel theft not only inflicts financial damage on the nation, but it also exacts a deadly toll.

We have to continue with the plan to end fuel theft, Lopez Obrador said during a news conference. We will not stop. We will eradicate this.

The explosion, which occurred Friday night in Hidalgo state, was particularly deadly because the breach in the pipeline created by criminals had also lured hundreds of villagers from the municipality of Tlahuelilpan, drawn by the promise of free gasoline.

That section of pipeline had been among the parts of the fuel transportation network that had been temporarily shut as part of the governments strategy to curb theft. But the flow through the tube resumed Friday, just hours before thieves punctured it, officials said.

Gov. Omar Fayad of Hidalgo told reporters that his state, like others, had suffered fuel shortages as a result of the governments strategy.

Residents who gathered at the explosion site Saturday said that while opportunism had prompted some residents to flock to the illegal pipeline tap Friday, many others were compelled by the shortages created by the government crackdown.

In the footage, military personnel who had rushed to the scene can be seen standing by and observing the throng that had converged on the pipeline, which connects to the nearby Tula refinery operated by the government-run oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos, known as Pemex.

Mexicos defense secretary, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, said that about 25 troops were on the scene, but the contingent was not large enough to turn back the 600 to 800 villagers who had swarmed the site.

Paulina Villegas and Kirk Semple are New York Times writers.Despite the ongoing partial government shutdown, Death Valley National Park has largely remained open to visitors. But after confirmed reports of vandalism and damage, environmental advocates are asking, at what cost?

The park is a massive 3.4 million acres of desert along the California-Nevada border. As one of the largest national parks in the United States, it's hard to monitor visitors' behavior, even when staff isn't furloughed. Shutdowns, and the lack of funding and staffing that come along with them, naturally make things harder.

"While most visitors have been respectful of the park, we have had some issues," read a statement by National Park Service spokesperson Andrew Munoz.

MORE DAMAGE: Joshua trees cut down, desert vandalized at Joshua Tree National Park during government shutdown

According to Munoz, Death Valley has seen illegal camping and off-road driving. Parts of the park have also been vandalized with graffiti and locks on gates have been cut off. Closed restrooms have been damaged as people forced their way in.

Death Valley, like other national parks, has remained open, with just certain areas off limits to the public.

"State Routes 190 and 178 cross the park, and by law must be kept open barring any public safety hazard. So while some other parks can simply close gates and limit the number of visitors that way, Death Valley doesn't really have that option," explained Chris Clarke, California desert program manager with National Parks Conservation Association. The NPCA is a nonprofit that lobbies on behalf of America's national parks.

MESSY SHUTDOWN: SF Public Works steps up to clear trash piles during shutdown in federal parks

The National Park Service wouldn't confirm how many rangers have been furloughed at Death Valley. There were only eight law enforcement rangers working through the shutdown at the much smaller Joshua Tree National Park, where there were reports of graffiti, illegal off-roading through pristine desert, and vandalized Joshua trees.

Munoz confirmed human waste has also been an issue at Death Valley, as it has been at national parks nationwide since the government entered a partial shutdown on Dec. 22. The problem at Death Valley was so bad, according to the NPCA, that one recent trailhead cleanup filled a 55-gallon bag with just toilet paper and human waste.

The National Park Service announced Wednesday it would use Federal Land and Recreation Enhancement funds as a stopgap to bring park maintenance staff back to Death Valley to "clean restrooms, remove trash, and remove health and safety risks."

Donations would also allow the Furnace Creek Visitor Center at Death Valley to remain open, and parts that had been previously closed off, including Dante's View, Artists Drive, and Natural Bridge, will slowly be reopened over the course of a week.

Read Alix Martichoux's latest stories and send her news tips at amartichoux@sfchronicle.com.

Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news.DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del.  A solemn procession. A long salute. A chaplains prayer.

President Trump traveled to Delawares Dover Air Force Base on Saturday to pay his respects to the returning remains of four Americans who were killed last week in a suicide bombing in Syria.

The bombing, which was the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in Syria since American forces moved into the country in 2015, came as Trump prepares to pull U.S. troops out of the nation.

The president stood solemnly and saluted the remains of Scott Wirtz of St. Louis as his body was carried from a C-17 military aircraft into a waiting van.

Wirtz, a former Navy SEAL, and the three other Americans were killed in the suicide bombing Wednesday in the northern Syrian town of Manbij. He had been assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency as an operations support specialist.

The three other transfers were conducted privately, with the president observing. He also spent time with the families of those killed. The Pentagon identified two of the others as Army Chief Warrant Officer Jonathan Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Fla., and Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician Shannon M. Kent, 35, of Pine Plains, N.Y. The fourth person, a civilian contractor, has not been identified.

Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Saturday that meeting the relatives of the countrys fallen heroes might be the toughest thing he has to do as president.

The trip was not listed on the presidents public schedule that was released Friday night, but he tweeted the news in the morning.

Will be leaving for Dover to be with the families of 4 very special people who lost their lives in service to our Country! he wrote.

Trump has made one other visit to Dover during his presidency, soon after taking office. On Feb. 1, 2017, Trump honored the returning remains of a U.S. Navy SEAL killed in a raid in Yemen. Chief Special Warfare Operator William Ryan Owens, a 36-year-old from Peoria, Ill., was the first known U.S. combat casualty since Trump became president.

In a Dec. 19 tweet announcing the withdrawal of troops from Syria, Trump said, We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency. He said the troops would begin coming home now. That plan brought immediate objections from military leaders and led to the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

Over the past month, Trump and others have appeared to adjust the timeline, and U.S. officials have suggested it will likely take several months to safely withdraw American forces from Syria.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for Wednesdays attack in Manbij, which killed 19 people, including the four Americans.

Jill Colvin is an Associated Press writer.ATLANTA  A collection of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.s papers on display in Atlanta provides insight into the slain civil rights leaders thought processes as he drafted some of his most well-known speeches and notable sermons.

The Meaning of Hope: The Best of the Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection opened Saturday at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta. It is timed to commemorate what would have been Kings 90th birthday on Jan. 15 and to attract people visiting Atlanta for the Super Bowl next month.

The Voice to the Voiceless gallery at the center plays host to exhibits of Kings papers from the Morehouse collection that rotate every four months. Organizers intended this exhibit to showcase the best of the best, papers that people would instantly recognize.

Its kind of getting people to understand the best of the popular, the best of the familiar, the best of the things that make them embrace King for the icon that weve made him, said Nicole Moore, manager of education and museum content at the center.

There are drafts of his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance and Beyond Vietnam speeches and of his eulogy for four girls who died when Ku Klux Klan members bombed a church in Birmingham, Ala. In drafts and outlines of speeches and sermons, both typed and written out longhand, words and entire lines are crossed out and rewritten. Even an already published copy of Letter from Birmingham Jail is marked with further handwritten edits.

The exhibit also provides visitors an opportunity to go beyond Kings most familiar words to learn something new, said Lauren Tate Baeza, head of content for the center.

For example, most people are familiar with Kings iconic I Have a Dream speech, but they may not know that he largely improvised when he delivered that speech, departing from his text titled Normalcy, Never Again, Baeza said. A draft of that speech with Kings notes is part of the exhibition.

Also included in the exhibition are Kings school transcripts  including one from Crozer Theological Seminary where he got a C in public speaking  and the briefcase he had with him when he was assassinated in 1968 and its contents, including aspirin and shaving powder.

That gives people an idea, not as a scholar or as a minister, but King as a person, what he had on him, what he carried around, Moore said.

Kate Brumback is an Associated Press writer.Rafe Swan/Getty Image

A San Bruno man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder Thursday night after allegedly stabbing a stranger in the back and charging at his neighbors while wielding knives, police said Friday.

Police officers responded to a report of a stabbing on the 500 block of San Mateo Avenue in San Bruno around 11:30 p.m. and found a victim who initially thought a stranger struck him on the back before fleeing, but learned after walking into a nearby business that he was instead stabbed, according to the San Bruno Police Department.Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie, may be the first billionaire couple with a huge stake in an enormous technology company to announce their divorce.

They wont be the last.

The surprise announcement this month that the Bezoses would divorce after 25 years of marriage instantly raised questions about the future of their 16 percent, roughly $140 billion stake in Amazon. As its founder, chairman, chief executive and largest shareholder, Jeff Bezos exerts almost complete control over the company.

The big question is, now what? Will MacKenzie Bezos sell her portion of the familys vast Amazon holdings? Will she seek a seat on the board? Will she push for big strategic or management changes?

The divorce could have consequences for investors in other companies with billionaire founders  Google, Facebook, Groupon and Snap, to name a few. Unlike Jeff Bezos, who owns Amazon shares with ordinary voting rights, these tech entrepreneurs wield control of their companies by holding special classes of shares that confer extra power to their owners.

To put it more explicitly: What would happen if Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chang filed for divorce?

Thats not to suggest theres anything amiss in the relationship between Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, or with the marriages of controlling shareholders at any other giant tech company.

But more such breakups are inevitable  after all, the divorce rate in California is about 60 percent, and many of the founders of high-flying Silicon Valley companies are only now reaching the age for the proverbial midlife crisis.

The phenomenon of tech companies with controlling founders is still relatively recent. Google set a trend when it went public in 2004 with dual-class shares that enshrined Sergey Brin and Larry Page as the controlling owners. In the ensuing 15 years, about two-thirds of initial public stock offerings backed by venture capital funds have involved similar super-shares, according to Dealogic.

The fate of such controlling shares in cases of divorce is, or should be, of intense interest to investors.

David Larcker, director of the Corporate Governance Research Initiative at Stanfords business school and a co-author of Separation Anxiety: The Impact of CEO Divorce on Shareholders, said his research showed that shareholders should pay attention to matters involving the personal lives of CEOs and take this information into account when making investment decisions.

The law doesnt explicitly require controlling shareholders to disclose prenuptial or other agreements that could affect the disposal of their company stakes in the event of divorce. But some experts said they would support such a requirement.

Its absolutely material, and as a result it should be disclosed, said John Coffee Jr., director of the Center for Corporate Governance at Columbia University. In theory, he said, any provision that would reassure investors would lead to a higher share price. Theres no question its in the best of interests of shareholders.

Charles Elson, a professor and director of the corporate governance center at the University of Delaware, also supports the disclosure of prenuptial agreements. No one thought a Bezos divorce was a risk factor for Amazon, Elson said. Now no one knows how this will turn out. From a shareholder perspective, its certainly material.

Larcker said requiring public disclosure might be going a little too far, considering the privacy issues involved. But he agreed that, at the least, a board needed to be kept fully informed.

Once a divorce settlement is under way, he said, the board needs to think about whether the ex-spouse will demand a board seat, whether they are planning to liquidate their shares or perhaps sell as a block to an investor, maybe an activist. All of these actions can have a real impact on shareholder value.

So far, investors have hardly reacted to the Bezos breakup. That might be partly because the couple went out of their way to characterize the split as amicable, saying they plan to continue our shared lives as friends.

When many billions of dollars are at stake, amicable divorces are rare, even when they start out that way. Most divorces start out contentious and end contentious, said Samantha Bley DeJean, a matrimonial lawyer in San Francisco, who has worked with many tech entrepreneurs and represents Angelina Jolie in her custody battle with Brad Pitt. When they start out amicably, you hold out some hope that theyll stay that way, but in my experience it only gets worse.

In 2017 Mark Pincus, the billionaire founder of internet game company Zynga, and Alison Gelb Pincus filed for divorce. The two had a prenuptial agreement, which hasnt been made public, but presumably addressed the issue of Pincus 70 percent voting stake in Zynga. In an interview with the New York Times last year, Pincus said the split was amicable.

After the couple filed for divorce, Pincus converted his super-voting shares into ordinary shares, reducing his voting control of Zynga to about 10 percent. He told the Times that the conversion had nothing to do with the divorce.

Alison Gelb Pincus is an entrepreneur in her own right: she helped found online retailer One Kings Lane, which was sold in 2016 to Bed Bath & Beyond for nearly $30 million. The Pincuses quietly finalized their divorce last year on terms that havent been made public. Zynga hasnt disclosed any changes in Mark Pincus shareholdings since then.

A spokeswoman for Zynga, where Pincus remains executive chairman, declined to comment. DeJean, who represented Alison Gelb Pincus, said she couldnt discuss the case. But in general, she said, the fact that both spouses are extremely wealthy typically doesnt change the dynamics of a divorce.

It becomes a matter of principle, she said, and principles can be dangerous in these situations, especially when theres enough money to litigate them.

In their 2010 divorce, Steve and Elaine Wynn, the founders of the casino company Wynn Resorts, each received half of the couples 36 percent controlling stake in the company, valued then at $1.4 billion. To maintain Steve Wynns control, Elaine Wynn agreed to vote her shares along with her ex-husband.

At the time, the arrangement seemed amicable: Elaine Wynn warmly described Steve Wynn as her partner of 41 years and father of her children, and Steve Wynn said he was delighted that his ex-wife would remain on the companys board.

That didnt last long. After two acrimonious years, Elaine Wynn was forced off the board and sued to regain voting control of her shares.

The animosity only deepened after the Wall Street Journal reported last year that Steve Wynn had repeatedly sexually harassed Wynn employees and had paid a manicurist $7.5 million after she told others that Wynn had forced her to have sex.

That led Wynn to step down as chief executive. He sold his shares, leaving his former wife as the companys largest shareholder. Since peaking in 2014, Wynn shares have fallen by more than half.

Larckers research found that among 24 chief executives who got divorced between 2009 and 2012, seven (29 percent) stepped down within two years of the divorce settlement.

DeJean said she had recently drafted numerous prenuptial agreements for young entrepreneurs. Negotiating them is delicate: Its not especially romantic to be discussing the disposal of assets in a divorce proceeding in the middle of a courtship or engagement.

The idea of making those prenuptial terms public could be anathema to such clients.

Still, DeJean said, I can see why investors would want to know.

James B. Stewart is a New York Times writer.In announcing layoffs last week, SpaceX pointed to its bid for riskier markets  providing broadband internet via thousands of small satellites and building a spaceship for Mars transportation.

What went unsaid was that the companys money-generating business of launching satellites may also face a squeeze, with new competitors on the horizon and fewer launches planned for huge commercial satellites that operate in a fixed position relative to the ground.

SpaceX cited the need to become a leaner company when it said that it would lay off 10 percent of its more than 6,000 employees. The cuts appear to be concentrated at its flagship Los Angeles County facility, where 577 employees will be let go, according to a state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice. The cuts ranged from composites and propulsion technicians and manufacturing engineers to baristas, cooks and dishwashers. SpaceX declined to say whether its facilities in other locations will be affected.

But in another blow to the California economy, SpaceX said Wednesday that it will build its Mars spaceship in south Texas instead of the Port of Los Angeles.

It said that test versions of its Starship and Super Heavy rocket will be assembled at its Texas launch facility in a move to streamline operations. Development of the spaceship will continue at SpaceX headquarters.

Orders have slowed for school bus-size commercial geostationary satellites. Once as numerous as 20 to 25 per year, worldwide orders across the industry dropped to 17 in 2015 and 2016, according to a 2017 report from the Satellite Industry Association trade group. More recent industry order data arent publicly available, but experts say the trend toward smaller satellites for Earth imaging and communications has continued.

SpaceX launched 21 missions in 2018, up from 18 the year before. President Gwynne Shotwell told CNBC in May that SpaceX expected a slight slowdown in 2019 launches, but the company indicated Monday that it is planning more missions this year than in 2018.

SpaceXs workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, which has a starting price of $62 million, could also face greater competition in the future. Blue Origin, led by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, is developing a rocket called New Glenn, which is expected to reach initial launch capability in 2020. United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin that competes with SpaceX for national security launches, is working on a new rocket called Vulcan Centaur.

Also, newer entrants such as Virgin Orbit and Rocket Lab are trying to win a portion of the burgeoning small-satellite market.

Even though SpaceX  has a competitive advantage, some of these new launch vehicle programs come along, maybe that competitive advantage will not be as distinct, said Marco Caceres, senior space analyst at market research firm Teal Group. Doesnt mean they wont have a very healthy launch rate. It means its going to keep it from doubling the number of Falcon launches.

A SpaceX representative noted in a statement that the company plans to succeed in developing interplanetary spacecraft and a global space-based internet.

Either of these developments, even when attempted separately, have bankrupted other organizations, the representative said. This action (the layoff) is taken only due to the extraordinarily difficult challenges ahead and would not otherwise be necessary.

The company is also preparing to send NASA astronauts to the International Space Station this summer in its Crew Dragon capsule. That project, along with the Starlink satellite constellation and the Mars Starship, are enough to challenge any company, said Greg Autry, director of the Southern California Commercial Spaceflight Initiative at USC. And (SpaceX CEO Elon Musk) is trying to do all three at once.

Musk may also be seeking military customers for Starlink. In late December, the company won a $28 million contract for the Defense Experimentation Using the Commercial Space Internet project of the U.S. Air Force. The idea is to test various commercial satellite constellations to see if they could eventually be used for use by military aircraft.

Leasing the SpaceX service makes sense for the Defense Department, said Greg Spanjers, chief scientist for the Air Force strategic development planning and experimentation directorate. Were just saying this is an important enough change that the Air Force needs to be in there as an early adopter and first customer, he said

Commercial companies, including SpaceX, have said they intend to use the satellites to provide broadband service to home users, which means those costs have to be reasonably low on a per-user basis, said Brian Beal, program manager for the project.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Samantha Masunaga is a Los Angeles Times writer.John Bogle, who died last week, is widely seen as having changed how ordinary people invest their money. His firm, the Vanguard Group of Investment Cos., which grew to have $4.9 trillion under management, was built on a belief that, over the long term, most investment managers cannot outperform the broad stock market averages.

Jack Bogle made an impact on not only the entire investment industry, but more importantly, on the lives of countless individuals saving for their futures or their childrens futures, Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley said in a statement.

Here are some of Bogles investment tips:

Stay the course. Wise investors wont try to outsmart the market, he said. Theyll buy index funds for the long term, and theyll diversify.

Long-term investors must hold stocks even though the market is risky, because they are still likely to produce better returns than the alternatives, Bogle said in 2012.

Investors should weather any storms, he told the Wall Street Journal in 2016. If were going to have lower returns, well, the worst thing you can do is reach for more yield. You just have to save more.

Beware the experts. Money managers missed all the warning signs before the 2008 financial crisis, Bogle noted: How could so many highly skilled, highly paid securities analysts and researchers have failed to question the toxic-filled, leveraged balance sheets of Citigroup and other leading banks and investment banks?

In 2017, he waved younger investors away from financial advisers and gave his approval to robo-advisers.

Unless you need a financial adviser to help you get started in that routine, you probably dont need a financial adviser at all, he told CNBC.

Keep costs down. Vanguards fund shareholders own it collectively, so there is no private owner to siphon profit, allowing the firm to keep costs down.

In investing, you get what you dont pay for. Costs matter. So intelligent investors will use low-cost index funds to build a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds, and they will stay the course. And they wont be foolish enough to think that they can consistently outsmart the market.

Bogle became a harsh critic in his later years of the mutual fund industry and the high fees charged to investors for stock-picking expertise.

Dont get emotional. Invest in a diverse selection of stocks and bonds, trust in the arithmetic and stick to it  this was the essence of Bogles advice for investors. Impulse is your enemy, was one of the mantras.

Eliminate emotion from your investment program. Have rational expectations for future returns and avoid changing those expectations in response to the ephemeral noise coming from Wall Street.

Own the entire stock market. Bogle was the leading proponent of structuring an investment portfolio to mirror the performance of a market yardstick, like the Standard & Poors 500 stock index.

The S&P 500 is a great proxy, Bogle told the Wall Street Journal last year, adding that he hadnt bought an individual stock in about 25 years.

Bogle also told CNBC that the U.S. was safer than other markets. U.S. companies are innovative and entrepreneurial.

Amie Tsang is a New York Times writer.Californias low-carbon fuel standard, designed to reduce emissions of planet-heating carbons from transportation fuels sold in the state, is a valid measure to protect residents health and well-being and does not violate the rights of out-of-state producers and suppliers, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

The state may be confronted by crumbling or swamped coastlines, rising water, or more intense forest fires caused by higher temperatures and related droughts, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said in a ruling upholding the fuel regulations. The court said California can seek to reduce the harms caused by fuels sold within its borders, regardless of where it was produced.

Oil and ethanol producers in other states challenged Californias standard, arguing that the state was unconstitutionally regulating conduct outside its borders and interfering with interstate commerce.

The court had upheld an earlier version of the low-carbon standard in 2013, and a different Ninth Circuit panel rejected a September challenge by oil companies to emissions standards in Oregon that are similar to the California rules. The companies asked the U.S. Supreme Court last week to review and overturn the Oregon ruling, and the California case could be headed there as well.

Allowing states to combat global warming seems especially vital ... given whats going on at the federal level, totally irresponsible, reckless rollbacks by the Trump administration, said attorney Sean Donohue, who filed arguments for the Environmental Defense Fund supporting the California rules.

David Pettit, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the ruling should give people a sense of confidence that the system and the credits the system creates are here to stay.

Paul Zidlicky, lawyer for the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers association, declined to comment.

Interactive Vaccine Tracker: Latest developments Detailed information about the coronavirus vaccines as it becomes available.

The regulations, based on a 2006 state law, require suppliers of gasoline, ethanol and other transportation fuels sold in California to reduce carbon emissions 10 percent by 2020, with increasing reductions in future years. The rules require the state to consider emissions during a fuels production and disposal as well as its use in vehicles. Sellers of high-carbon fuels can meet the standards by buying credits from those whose products are below the limits.

Rejecting industry claims that the state was exceeding its authority by applying its rules to fuels produced elsewhere, the court said California has a valid concern about the effects of production and use of the fuels on Californias own air quality, snowpack and coastline.

The fuel sales and sellers directly governed by the low-carbon standard and the harms California intended to prevent are all within the states borders, Judge Ronald Gould said in the 3-0 ruling. He said the standard also serves the legitimate purpose of ensuring that out-of-state fuels do not benefit in California markets by cutting corners and (by) not being subject to Californias regulations on the resulting greenhouse gases.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelkoLeaders of the 100 or more Womens Marches being held from the Bay Area to the nations capital Saturday share a common hope.

They hope their events are about more than opposing President Trump. They hope they can build momentum for positive change  even as their movement faces signs of division in several cities nationwide over competing goals.

This isnt about one person; its about a system. And he is just a symptom of that system, said Sophia Andary, co-chairwoman of Womens March San Francisco. Sister marches are being held in Oakland, San Jose and more than two dozen other California cities.

Trumps election inspired the first Womens Marches in 2017 that drew a total of more than 5 million people nationwide. Those events in turn inspired women to run for elective office and win in November in record numbers. The activists organizing Saturdays marches have seen nothing in Trumps policies on immigration, abortion rights and the environment to lessen their opposition to him.

But now that the marches are in their third year, organizers hope to look beyond Trump. They want the marches to give women a place to celebrate their political gains in November and to see how their disparate issues are connected.

If Trump is gone in 2020, if not before, all the issues that were fighting for will still be there, Andary said. There is still so much inequality in our community.

Thats why the theme of this years march is Womens Wave, to honor womens growing representation in Congress. A record 21 women are now senators, the number of women in the House has topped 100, and San Francisco Rep. Nancy Pelosi is reprising her role as the first female House speaker.

Some of those new House members, like Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, have already had success introducing ideas like a Green New Deal into the national political conversation. The proposal, which has been only loosely outlined, would use substantial government investment in clean-energy jobs and infrastucture and vehicles to make the nation carbon-free within a dozen years.

Ocasio-Cortez may be the media star of the freshman class of legislators, but she needs help to pass legislation.

There needs to be a movement to back them up, said Aimee Allison, an Oakland activist who is a member of the steering committee of the Womens March in Washington, which is expected to be one of the nations largest. Now we need to show that they have grassroots support for those ideas.

Allison said Saturday should also be a time for Womens March supporters to show the crop of 2020 presidential candidates what they want the next president to focus on. Each march has a set of unity principles. In San Francisco, they are reproductive rights, environmental justice, civil rights, ending violence, and rights for workers, immigrants, LGBT people and those with disabilities.

Allison said the presidential candidates had better be listening.

Thats the reason that its very important to have this march now, said Allison, whose organization supporting women of color, She the People, will host a presidential candidates forum in April in Texas. Candidates have to be clear that if they dont speak to womens issues, theyre not going to win. If they dont have anything to say about those issues, then just keep steppin.

But all is not well with the Womens March movement. It is splintering in some cities, roiled by internal divisions. In New York, there will be two marches Saturday, owing to differences between organizers. In Washington, some march leaders accused others of making anti-Semitic remarks.

The Democratic National Committee bowed out as a partner of the Washington event. Other big-name sponsors of the inaugural 2017 march there, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Service Employees International Union and Emilys List, have decided not to be participate in this years event.

Last month, the organizers of a march in Eureka said they were postponing the event because the group bringing it together was overwhelmingly white. The event is back on, but a boycott is being planned.

More Information Women's Marches Marches will be held in several Bay Area cities Saturday. San Francisco: 11:30 a.m. rally at Civic Center Plaza, followed by a 1:30 p.m. march down Market Street. Oakland: 10 a.m. rally at the Lake Merritt amphitheater, followed by an 11 a.m. march to Frank Ogawa Plaza. Other cities: Rally and march information for other Bay Area cities can be found at https://bit.ly/2KYnjHr See More Collapse

As a result of this infighting  as well as activist burnout after two years of anti-Trumpism and bad weather predicted in many parts of the country  organizers are expecting lower turnout. In San Francisco, roughly 35,000 people are expected at the event beginning at 11:30 a.m. at Civic Center Plaza, half as many as turned out last year and one-third of the 2017 crowd.

Such political splintering is typical as movements grow, particularly one organized under a theme as sprawling as women, said Ellen Hartigan-OConnor, a UC Davis history professor who co-edited the Oxford Handbook of American Womens and Gender History with fellow Professor Lisa Materson.

The Womens March brought people together at that moment that struck people at the same time and in the same way, Hartigan-OConnor said. One of the reasons that there was so much energy and turnout was because people embraced all of these different things. They werent focused on their individual interests. But as weve seen, some of that energy went into women running for office, or local housing initiatives or immigrants rights.

Alison Mata, who is helping to plan the Oakland march, hopes a new section at this years event, Call to Action Alley, will help focus marchers on their next move. The alley will have representatives from nonprofits and businesses owned by women who want to channel activists energy.

This is something we talk about all the time, Mata said. How to get people engaged in a nonelection year. Its a challenge.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoliHere is a look at the immigration programs central to President Trumps offer to Democrats to win funding for his border wall, and the legal challenges in which some are entangled:

The Bridge Act: This stands for Bar Removal of Individuals who Dream and Grow our Economy. Trump did not refer to it by name in his televised address from the White House, but it is the centerpiece of his offer.

Introduced in 2017 by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-N.C., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the Bridge Act would provide three years of protection from deportation to undocumented immigrants who entered the United States by June 2007 before turning 16, who have no serious criminal record and have pursued an education or military service.

About 700,000 immigrants now in the U.S. meet those criteria and are protected by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program Trump has tried to abolish. While most Democrats would prefer longer protection for DACA recipients and a path to citizenship, as proposed in the Dream Act, the Bridge Act would at least extend the youths protected status beyond the end of Trumps current term in January 2021. Trump noted that their status could later be the subject of a broader immigration package.

The Dream Act: Not part of Trumps offer, it stands for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors and is also the source of the Dreamers label that supporters have given to participants in DACA. It won House passage in 2010 but died in the Senate. The current version was also introduced in 2017 by Graham and Durbin and is widely supported by Democrats.

The legislation would provide a 13-year path to U.S. citizenship for DACA recipients and other undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. before age 18, have lived in the country for at least four years, and have no serious criminal record. After eight years, they could apply for legal residence if they have been working, attending school or served in the military. Five years later, they would be eligible for citizenship.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals: President Barack Obama established the program by executive order in 2012. Trump announced its elimination in September 2017, effective in March 2018, saying Obama had exceeded his authority.

But federal judges in San Francisco, New York and Washington, D.C., have kept the program in place, saying Obama acted within a presidents authority to set priorities for deporting unauthorized immigrants, and that Trump had offered no reasoned explanation for repealing the program. A federal appeals court in San Francisco reached the same conclusion in November.

In a separate suit brought by Texas and 25 other Republican-led states, a federal judge in Texas has ruled that Obama acted illegally, but refused to suspend DACA pending an appeal. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and suspend the program, but the court has taken no action, an indication that it will not take up the case during the current term that ends in June.

Temporary Protected Status: Established by a 1990 law, the program allows people living in the U.S. without authorization to remain in the country if their homeland has suffered a life-threatening disaster. Their legal residency must be renewed every 18 months, an action that previous administrations routinely took. More than 440,000 people from 10 countries are now covered by TPS, more than half of them from El Salvador, where the protected status was initially granted after a 2001 earthquake. Many also come from Honduras and Haiti, which were devastated by a 1998 hurricane and 2010 earthquake, respectively.

The Trump administration has ordered cancellation of the program for El Salvador, Honduras and Haiti, as well as Nicaragua, Sudan and Nepal. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the protections were no longer needed because the initial disasters had ended. Part of Trumps offer Saturday was extending the protections for three years.

A federal judge in San Francisco blocked deportations of Salvadorans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Sudanese in November, saying the administration had failed to explain its reasoning. The judge also allowed TPS supporters to offer evidence that the administration was motivated by racism. Other courts have blocked deportations of other TPS recipients.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelkoAfter House Speaker Nancy Pelosi moved to postpone President Trumps State of the Union address, citing security concerns due to the government shutdown, Trump responded by grounding her military transport to Europe and Afghanistan. It was a classically petty example of political tit-for-tat, inviting derision on both sides.

The risk for Pelosi, and the hope for Trump, is that the underlying government shutdown could be seen the same way. If the unprecedented crippling of federal operations is perceived as a case of two intransigent partisans who need to stop bickering and reach a compromise, the San Francisco congresswoman will take more of the blame for the accumulating consequences, and the president will be more likely to get the billions he is demanding for his border wall.

In fact, Trump is the author of this longest shutdown in history  now entering its fifth week and likely to reach a full month  with more than a little help from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who wont allow votes to reopen shuttered agencies without the presidents permission.

In light of more recent events, its worth revisiting what Trump told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in an infamous televised Oval Office meeting with Pelosi and a strangely mum Vice President Mike Pence the week before the shutdown began: If we dont get what we want one way or the other ... I will shut down the government, absolutely. ... I am proud to shut down the government for border security. ... So I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. Im not going to blame you for it. ... I will take the mantle of shutting down. And Im going to shut it down for border security.

We dont have to take Trumps word for it  nor should we as a general rule  but the presidents account in this case was accurate. On the eve of the shutdown, the Republican-controlled Senate passed legislation to fund the entire government, without the wall, by voice vote, meaning it passed overwhelmingly enough that no roll call was necessary. The outgoing House Republican majority and the president were expected to do the same before an outcry from far-right commentators forced Trump to reverse course. The Democratic House majority has now passed similar legislation, but McConnell has prevented senators from voting on what they passed a month ago.

Trumps shutdown is unprecedented not only in length but in kind. The four-decade history of federal funding gaps contains no other example of a president causing a shutdown to make Congress spend money on a new program or project. Most of the previous shutdowns were brought about by lawmakers trying  and usually failing  to force cuts or spending on the president. Other White Houses recognized that acceding to such demands would set a terrible precedent, encouraging future hostage-taking for any reason; so would a congressional capitulation to Trump.

The presidents back-and-forth with the speaker is a distraction not only from the shutdowns cause but also a potential resolution. McConnell and his fellow Senate Republicans have voted for a functioning government before. They can and should do so again.

This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.An Alameda County judge presiding over the Oakland Ghost Ship criminal case issued a gag order Friday, preventing the defendants, attorneys and witnesses from speaking publicly about the case until a jury is sworn in for the April 2 trial.

Judge Trina Thompsons order puts a lid on an outspoken defense team in a case that has garnered widespread attention following the December 2016 warehouse fire that killed 36 people. Everyone who died was attending an electronic music concert at the Ghost Ship warehouse, which had been illegally converted into a living space for artists.

Alameda County prosecutors requested the gag order earlier this month, arguing that one of the defendants, Derick Almena, sought to use media coverage as a way to reach potential jurors. Almena and co-defendant Max Harris are each charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter.

At a Friday hearing in downtown Oakland, prosecutor Autrey James said he understood Thompsons need to balance the need for a fair trial with the defendants rights to free speech. However, he said, the barrage of public statements by the defense could make it nearly impossible to find impartial jurors.

James added that his motion for a gag order was precipitated by the defense attorneys recent bid for a citizens arrest of the warehouses landlord and city officials, whom they claim are responsible for the warehouse fire. Word of the citizens arrest motion was delivered to James not through normal court channels, he said, but a news release.

Some form of gag order is absolutely necessary, he told the judge.

Defense attorneys Tony Serra and Curtis Briggs vigorously argued against the gag order, with Briggs at times shouting his arguments and at one point comparing the proposed censorship to Nazi Germany.

That is America with a K, Briggs said.

The defense team said that in the six months after the Ghost Ship fire, before Almena and Harris were arrested, their clients were vilified in the news media by city officials.

The defendants and defense teams contacts with reporters, the attorneys argued, was their only way to offset that imbalance.

The gag order, Briggs said, was never requested until the district attorneys office started hearing things they didnt like.

Almena, who was dressed Friday in red jail garb and is represented by Serra, nodded silently at this statement.

Briggs represents Harris, though the defense attorneys have collaborated on most of their legal maneuvering.

Thompson sided with the prosecution, but she reserved the right to rescind or narrow the gag order if it proved to be too broad. The order does not prevent victims families from speaking to the media, and reporters can still attend hearings and review public court filings.

The defense did score a victory earlier in the day, when Briggs and Serra asked the judge to grant a future evidentiary hearing. Defense attorneys said they intend to argue that prosecutors either withheld or destroyed evidence that would have been helpful to their clients.

For one, they said, investigators never tested whether accelerants were present in the warehouse, thereby ignoring the possibility of arson.

James said there was no failure to disclose evidence and the defense team had ample time to review all findings. He added that investigators didnt test for accelerants because it was well known the artists warehouse was filled with flammable materials, like paint thinners and paint cans.

Thompson set an evidentiary hearing for Feb. 22  but with a caveat.

She told defense attorneys they must first specify what evidence theyre seeking and how it would have been exculpatory.

The defendants motion for the citizens arrest was postponed until Feb. 11.

Fridays hearing marked the latest chapter in a 2-year-old tragedy that has spawned both a criminal case and a sprawling civil case.

Investigators never determined an official cause of the inferno, but evidence has pointed to an electrical malfunction. Prosecutors argued that Almena, the warehouses master tenant, and Harris, the artists creative director, ignored the buildings potential fire hazards.

Briggs and Serra have said the buildings owner, Chor Ng, and her family were responsible for keeping the warehouse up to code, and city officials failed to enforce the law.

Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidyIts tough to take office as governor and promptly have two crises on your hands, like Gavin Newsom did with the Los Angeles teachers strike and impending bankruptcy filing of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

So when he called the other day asking about some potential appointments, I couldnt help but give him a couple of pieces of advice.

The first one: For now, stay out of the teachers strike.

There is little chance a political intermediary is going to make either side happy. That makes it a loser for anyone who tries.

Let Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti take a crack at it first. Its his city. If he gets it settled, fine. If he walks the plank after ticking off both sides, then Newsom can jump in as the lifeguard to save the day.

Leading to piece of advice No. 2: Concentrate on PG&E.

Ive represented PG&E as a lawyer in the past, so I didnt offer any tips on how to handle its possible bankruptcy.

But no one likes big utilities, so theres only one side to take in this fight and come out ahead: the publics.

Smell test: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just relearned an old political lesson: Dont get in a skunk fight with a skunk.

And there is no bigger skunk than President Trump.

There Pelosi was, all set to head to the airport for a military flight with a congressional delegation to Afghanistan and other overseas destinations, when Trump yanked away the plane. It was a completely predictable response to her (very strong) suggestion that he reschedule his State of the Union address to Congress until the government is fully open.

With that, the whole debate over whether to fund Trumps border wall turned into a playground spat  or skunk contest, if you prefer.

And while all of this is going on, hundreds of thousands of people are going without paychecks and genuinely hurting.

Trump couldnt care less. With one stroke, he deflected attention from all that pain to Pelosi, whom he portrayed as just another hack politician flying off on a junket.

The trouble with getting into a fight with a skunk is that the skunk wins. Even if you manage to score a technical knockout, you still wind up with some of the stink.

New wall: Trump is intent on building two walls  one between the U.S. and Mexico, the other between the White House and Congress.

I would be willing to support a GoFundMe campaign for that purpose.

Speaking of funding: Payday loans, if properly regulated, could make life a bit easier for federal employees having to weather the shutdown storm.

And who better to set up and administer an emergency program than the banks that taxpayers bailed out during the 2008-09 financial crash?

Call on the banks to commit a percentage of their asset base for a national payday program, offering zero-interest loans based on federal workers take-home pay.

Im surprised none of the many Democratic presidential candidates has proposed the idea.

In the meantime, Lefty ODouls is offering free meals to federal workers and their families.

Movie time: If Beale Street Could Talk, a story about blacks dealing with the criminal justice system. In this movie, it is all bad.

It starts with an argument between a white cop and a black man that leads to horrific consequences. Great acting, in particular by Regina King.

Theres nothing inspirational about this movie. Its just a taste of reality. So Beale Street does talk on that level.

So long: A recently widowed woman whose wedding I officiated years back approached me the other day about delivering the eulogy at her husbands funeral.

I will, but you know, I only met your husband at the wedding, and even then it was only for a couple of minutes, I said.

True, she said. Still, you probably knew him as well as anyone.

Want to sound off? Email: wbrown@sfchronicle.comWell, it was kind of a dreary week, wasnt it? Rain, wind, traffic messes, kids tracking in mud, long nights, gray days. It makes you think of that old song, Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.

After looking out the window at downtown San Francisco on a rainy day, however, I have come to a new conclusion. Rain is OK. It helped wash the streets, drove the bad guys inside, and increased the sale of rain gear, thereby aiding the economy. Bad weather is good  in moderation, of course, like everything else.

Moderate rainy days  wet, but not too wet  are perfect for urban exploring adventures. Museums are not crowded, and a movie on a rainy day is always a treat. Consider a rainy walk in the park, or a visit to the Cliff House to see the waves roll in across the Pacific and crash into the rocks. Even a ferry ride on a stormy day can be a small adventure.

It was bucketing down rain midweek for a lunch date in North Beach. Not a soul was out in Washington Square. Even the usual idlers had taken shelter. The cable cars rumbled by, nearly empty. Plenty of room at Original Joes, which is usually crowded. The French bread had that extra tinge wet weather gives to the sourdough.

It was as if the city had been returned to the locals; not a tourist in sight. We had a nice lunch, and a glass of grappa later to take the chill off. One of the customers stepped up to the piano and played a lively tune. A rainy day concert.

Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

Rainy days always have a mystique for people who grew up here. We dont have snow, or ice, or tornadoes, but we do have our own version of bad weather. As kids we used to have our own primitive forecasting systems.

Wed watch the seagulls. If they all sat in puddles and didnt fly, it meant rain.

Or we relied on old folk tales. If you could hear railroad trains or pick up the foul smell of Butchertown downtown, rain was on the way. There was some truth in this. The gulls, who dont like to fly in strong winds, can sense the change in atmospheric pressure and decide to stay grounded. If someone became aware of smells or sounds from the southern part of city where the industry and railroads were, it meant the wind had changed, and rain would arrive within a few minutes.

The south wind was ahead of a storm, said Michael Pechner, who grew up in the city. You could smell it.

Pechner became a professional meteorologist, and he agrees with what longtime San Franciscans have suspected for a while: Storms these days are not as intense as they used to be. Last weeks rainstorm was the strongest in several years. But we used to have big storms much more often.

Climate change is the reason for the shift, Pechner said. In the last 10 or 15 years, there have been fewer wet winters and more drought conditions, he said. There are rainstorms, but fewer of them.

The last big event was in 2017, when a big rain caused an almost catastrophic failure to Oroville Dams main spillway and then to an emergency spillway, causing thousands of residents to flee.

In the winter of 1995, storms in January and March produced three floods on the Russian River  something that had never happened before and hasnt happened since. A few seasons after that, storms at the tail end of winter flooded large portions of the Sacramento Valley and even as far south as low country around Modesto and near Tracy. The Yuba River rose ominously and levees broke. Several people lost their lives and hundreds of houses were ruined. It was late in the rainy season, too. I remember seeing the fruit trees flowering above flooded fields.

There hasnt been a storm like that around here for a very long time. It used to snow every few years around the bay, too. Mounts Diablo and Tamalpais would get a dusting, and there would be ice and snow in the Santa Cruz Mountains. But that hasnt happened for years.

Historically, there have been all kinds of floods. In 1862, so much rain fell that the Central Valley was turned into a lake 700 miles long. You can still hear rainy-day stories about the big storm that hit the Bay Area in the first week of 1982  landslides in Marin and Santa Cruz, the shutdown of the Golden Gate Bridge to most traffic. Twenty-one people died in that storm.

Back then, big weather events were harder to predict. The Weather Service forecast badly underestimated the impact of what The Chronicle called the Killer Storm.

But that was before the tech revolution. Now the Weather Service and private meteorologists use data from computer weather models, from satellites and from thousands of surface observations. The data can be complied and updated in minutes.

It used to be that forecasts were offered for one or two days ahead, and their accuracy was right sometimes only half the time, Pechner said. Now there are forecasts up to 16 days out that are pretty accurate.

The internet also makes it possible for almost anyone to forecast the weather with some degree of accuracy. Various National Weather Service and other sites are available on smart phones. And there is even a free do-it-yourself weather forecast page with links to all kinds of information posted by Jan Null, a veteran meteorologist who runs the Golden Gate Weather Services.

So you dont have to rely on what the television experts tell you or what your smartphone says. You can decide for yourself whether it is a good day for a walk in the rain.

Carl Noltes column appears Sundays. Email: cnolte@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @carlnoltesfThank you for reading!

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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.Thousands took to Seattle's streets Saturday for the city's second Women's March amid the backdrop of the Me Too movement and Trump administration.

"Women have always been the backbone of the resistance," Seattle City Councilwoman Teresa Mosqueda told the crowd gathered at Capitol Hill's Cal Anderson Park before the march began. "Women are the backbone of every movement. That's because we get shit done."

Whether there in opposition to the president, to stand in solidarity with survivors of sexual assault, to warn the against restrictions to legal abortion and contraceptives or to advocate for people on the fringes of society, protesters packed King County Metro buses and Link light rail cars to join the rally at Cal Anderson at 10 a.m.

Cool temperatures and a light rain didn't dampen the spirits of the crowd. Women of all ages, many of whom wore the pink-eared "pussy hats" symbolic of the resistance to President Donald Trump, dominated the gathering, but like last year, thousands of men marched alongside them. The number of protesters didn't match last year enormous turnout, in which an estimated 120,000-175,000 people marched days after Trump's inauguration. Estimates for this year were not immediately available, but more than 25,000 RSVP'd on Facebook.

RELATED: Protesters rally at a second Women's March in nation's capital

A handful of the president's supporters crashed the party, including one wearing a "I stand with Trump" t-shirt along with helmet and visor resembling police riot gear.

Sensitive to criticism of last year's event, organizers invited a diverse group of speakers to take the stage to greet the crowd. The rally included an opening ceremony highlighting missing and murdered Indigenous women, as well as remarks from local activists and politicians, including Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

Speaker Veronica Valdez of the Truman National Security Project outlined the themes of the women's movement: "Equality, inclusion, justice and environmental stewardship."

A preoccupation with Trump was evident throughout the throng, many of whom carried homemade signs denouncing the president, including at least one sign labeling him as "Groper in Chief." But speaking before the march began, state Rep. Kristine Reeves said the event wasn't centered around any one person, not even the president.

"I'm not here to tell you that I'm standing here against Donald Trump," she said. "I'm here to tell you that I'm standing up for every kid who has to know that they can be anything they want to be in this country. I'm standing up today for every woman who knows that her rights are human rights. I'm standing up today for every black person in America who deserve to know that their lives matter.

"I'm standing up today because our country deserves better, and you're going to bring it."

Activist Aneelah Afzali highlighted Seattle's continued resistance to the Trump administration, including a huge demonstration at Sea-Tac International Airport after an executive order barred people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. before being defeated in court and eventually revoked.

"We have to keep pushing and pushing in a labor of love to birth a better future for all of us," Afzali said.

Signs included the simple ("Dump Trump"), the specific ("Climate justice is a feminist issue") and the personal ("Crowd make me anxious, and yet..."). Some were explicit, or at least as explicit as Trump ("Shut down this shithole president"), while others were sweet and innocent ("Kind is the way we should be," in a child's handwriting).

Teri McCain wore a pussy hat and a No. 45 Seahawks jersey and carried a cardboard cutout of former President Barack Obama. She came to last year's march months after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Now cancer free, she said it was good to see the large crowd out protesting Obama's successor.

"This No. 45, as I call him, is everything that we are not," she said. "He's the most un-American thing that I know; just dividing the people, the racism, the hustling. He's all about himself and money and nothing else."

Around noon, marchers started moving slowly down Pine Street -- sometimes breaking out into spontaneous cheers or song -- before turning north on 4th toward Seattle Center, where the march concluded around 3 p.m. Most participants smiled, many saluted each other on his or her sign-making prowess.

Similar marches were held throughout the country, and other events outside the city brought together local protesters. About 175 gathered on a bluff above Saratoga Passage on Whidbey Island, where one demonstrator held up large American flag as a bald eagle flew overhead.

"With what's happened in the last year, I could not let the day go by being quiet," said demonstrator Cynthia Stewart.

An Episcopal priest, Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton, marched beneath a sign: "Hey Trump, I Vote."

Just behind her, a sign displayed the visage of poet Maya Angelou and her words: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."

A dog carried in its teeth the message: "Hey Trump, Bite Me."

SeattlePI reporter Joel Connelly contributed to this report.

SeattlePI reporter Stephen Cohen can be reached at 206-448-8313 or stephencohen@seattlepi.com. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @scohenPI.In its third, maybe final year, and amid a national controversy, Seattle's Womxn's March is "marching forward".

The march that had hundreds of thousands of protesters in its first year and thousands last year, is going to be a weekend affair, as it precedes Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday.

Saturday will start with a rally at 9 a.m. in Cal Anderson Park, where the march will start at 9:45 a.m.

The just over 2-mile march will take Pine Street down to Fourth Avenue where it will turn right and wind up through Cedar Street and Fifth Avenue North to the Seattle Center.

#ShePersisted to #MeToo: Women's March 2018 marks year of resistance

Panels peppered throughout the Seattle Center will begin after the march at 11:30 a.m.

Lectures, workshops, trainings, small groups, panel discussions and community-building events will take place Sunday for Womxn Act in Capitol Hill, Greenwood, West Seattle and throughout the city.

The state-level group announced it was splitting from the national group last month, after allegations of antisemitism among the country-wide leadership. They then announced they would disband after the march.

After Tablet reported on the relationship between leaders of the Women's March and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, the state-wide group released a statement stating how they would fold into the nonprofit Smart Politics after the march.

RELATED: Washington State Women's March group to disband after Saturday's march

Seattle's Womxn's March hasn't stated whether they would disband after this year, but they did condemn Farrakhan's comments about Jewish people.

"Three years ago, I made a promise to myself. I promised that I would unpack my own shit and I would be the best ally I can be," Angie Beem, the state's Board Director for Women+s March said in a statement on Facebook. "Continuing to be a part of the Women's March with the blatant bigotry they display would be breaking a promise. We can't betray our Jewish community by remaining a part of this organization."King County Council launched a campaign with several partners to draw attention to labor and sex trafficking and help victims find resources.

The announcement Friday to a crowd at Sea-Tac International Airport, included the council's plans to partner with the Port of Seattle, City of Seattle, Sound Transit, Alaska Airlines and Delta Airlines for the campaign.

Human trafficking does occur in Washington state, and more frequently than in most other states. A press release from the council stated that Washington ranked 12th in the U.S. for states with the highest number of phone calls, emails and web form submissions from people who are victims of human trafficking.

In July 2018, Washington ranked 13th in the U.S. for most active cases handling human trafficking in its federal courts.

RELATED: Seattle jury: Fake filmmaker led sex trafficking ring

Vice-chairman of the council Reagan Dunn, who was involved in the previous campaign, told SeattlePI in a phone interview that the campaign's biggest goal was to raise awareness and drive calls to the national human trafficking hotline, which has received more than 3,600 calls from Washington since 2007, according to the press release.

"The number allows people and victims to get questions answered," Dunn said. "It can help victims who want to get out, resources they can use and put a plan in action to distance themselves. It can also be a reporting mechanism for trafficking."

In 2013, the King County Council launched a successful public awareness campaign, with less money and partners than this time around, Dunn said.

"There is empirical evidence that public awareness campaigns make a difference," Dunn said. "One tenth of the economy is black market economy, and people don't understand that other than drugs, sexual slavery is a portion of that."

RELATED: How Washington ranks in human trafficking cases

According to the press release, the 2013 campaign resulted in a 63 percent increase in calls from Washington residents.

"We have the dedicated employees, strong partnerships, and shared commitment needed to stop labor and sex trafficking in our region," said King County Executive Dow Constantine in the press release. "Human traffickers prey on people in our community who are vulnerable, specifically targeting people of color. Our united effort will connect survivors with the resources they need to break free and thrive once again."A Seattle-area man who posed as an HBO documentarian while coercing young women and teen girls to work as prostitutes for his benefit has been convicted on 17 federal felonies following a jury trial.

David Delay, a 51-year-old Lynnwood man, was convicted Monday on charges related to claims that he ran a sex trafficking ring and duped women and girls into supporting him through prostitution. Indicted by a federal grand jury in May 2015, Delay could receive a life prison term when he is sentenced in February.

Among the allegations were claims that Delay produced child pornography and engaged in sex trafficking. At least three young women and one teen girl are said to have been drawn into the ring. Delay is alleged to have solicited sexually explicit photos and videos from a 16-year-old girl whom he pressured to work as a prostitute.

I commend the victims who courageously took the witness stand and described some of the darkest moments in their lives, U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes said in a statement Monday. It was their testimony coupled with the other evidence in this case that demonstrated for all to see that the defendants outrageous actions were nothing less than criminal.

Investigators recovered dozens of prostitution advertisements promoting other teens. They also seized 700 hotel room cards, contracts describing the documentary and computers they claim were loaded with sexually explicit materials, including child pornography.

MORE FROM SEATTLEPI: A hacker, a sex trafficker and a fake filmmaker go to jail ...

The investigation into Delay began in December 2014, when a young woman went to Redmond police with claims that shed been manipulated into prostitution by Marysa Comer, Delays codefendant. Prosecutors say evidence collected shows Delay trafficked a girl and three young women while promising they would get rich once his documentary wrapped.

Comer pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge related to sex trafficking in November 2015, and is scheduled to be sentenced in December. Prosecutors have said Delay got his family into harassing Comer, and that he did so himself when the two crossed paths at the SeaTac Federal Detention Center.

Delay and Comer recruited girls and young women into prostitution by approaching them online. Delay promised them money and fame, prosecutors contend, and posed as an HBO-connected filmmaker. An HBO representative testified at Delays trial that the company did not have any business dealings with Delay.

MORE FROM SEATTLEPI: New tool lets FBI crack iPhone in 'Grampa's RV' pimping probe

Delay told his victims that he had a contract with HBO to produce a documentary on prostitution and escorting, and that if they worked for him as prostitutes to fund and participate in the documentary, they would become famous and receive millions of dollars, Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine Crisham said in court papers.

The scam was widespread enough that a King County Sheriffs Office vice detective working undercover as a sex buyer encountered another young woman who claimed to be involved in the documentary. According to court statements, the young woman, identified through a Backpage.com advertisement, told the detective she was a producer for Delay, whom she knew by a different name.

Prior to pleading guilty, Comer had claimed Delays film company  Grandpas RV Productions  was a legitimate business. Delays attorneys disputed claims that Delay brought the young woman into prostitution.

MORE FROM SEATTLEPI: Amazon analyst fed insider info to millionaire frat brother

Investigators seized phones, computers and electronic storage devices from Delay and Comer containing evidence of the sex-trafficking scheme. Delay also shared child pornography online and enticed a girl into sending him sexually explicit videos of herself. His computer included pornographic videos of three girls who have been identified by law enforcement, as well as several children who had not yet been identified.

Delay was booked and released on state charges in December 2014. He was arrested again on Jan. 12, 2015, arriving at Sea-Tac International Airport from Chicago; Comer was arrested the following day at a Chicago-area hotel.

Attorneys for Delay repeatedly asked that the case be thrown out. They claimed prosecutors were too slow to pass along evidence collected in the matter, and that a detective has pressured witnesses not to speak with defense investigators. Efforts at forcing a dismissal were not successful.

The prosecution received attention from the Justice Department headquarters. Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore said Monday that the department with continue to vigorously pursue sex traffickers and described Delay as a man who preyed on vulnerable teenagers and young women, exploiting them for his own profit and sexual gratification, with no regard for their humanity.

Delivering the verdict following a 10-day trial, jurors convicted Delay of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking through force, fraud, and coercion, sex trafficking adults through force, fraud, and coercion, attempted sex trafficking of a juvenile through force, fraud, and coercion, and other sex trafficking-related charges, as well as production of child pornography. He remains jailed.

SeattlePI senior editor Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.Last year the organization received approximately 8,000 cans of Vienna sausages during the driver week. They are hoping for 10,000 this year. She said each bag sent home for the weekend contains one can of Vienna sausages.

Welsh said the average cost of a can of Vienna sausage is approximately 60 cents.

The reasons for choosing Vienna sausages are cost plus ease in collection and transportation, high content of protein and fiber. In addition, Wesh said, children love them. Every week, volunteers from churches, businesses and schools fill paper bags with child-friendly food. This year they have added a vegetable.

Each bag includes one container of ramen noodles, one can of Vienna sausages, one No. 2 can of pasta, two breakfast items (grits and/or oatmeal); two fruit bars; one can of green beans and one fruit cup.

Carolinas Hospital System donates 8,000 paper bags per month.

Welsh said the food builds the childrens self-esteem, because they know someone cares about them and it gives them hope.

She said approximately 125 volunteers help pack the bags, deliver them to the schools and help with food drives. They help take inventory at the warehouse and send hand-written notes to everyone who makes a donation.FLORENCE, S.C.  An Illinois-based distribution company, Field, has added a new warehouse in Florence. The global distributor of fasteners expanded to Florence a couple of weeks ago and occupies the former Morning News printing plant on Otis Way.

The company was started in 1976 by Dick Field and is based in Rockford, with a second physical plant in Tyler, Texas, and three additional warehouses in Mexico.

Tim Firm, director of human resources, is in Florence interviewing perspective employees, and said the company will initially employ 12 to 15 people. As business grows, he said, that number is likely to increase.

Firm said the reason for locating to this area is that it puts the company close to its customer base in the Southeast.

We want to increase our presence in the Southeastern United States, he said. He said Field serves customers in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama, and I-20 will put it in a good place as far as transportation goes.

Its website says Field is a full-service, data-driven, on-demand engineering partner with a unique, technical approach to inventory management and supply chain solutions for fasteners and other Class 'C' items.As a grower, Matthews has garnered national acclaim for his record-breaking corn and soybean yields. He has achieved a yield of more than 100 bushels an acre for soybeans for the past two years.

Matthews said his work with Heiniger over the years has allowed his farm to produce higher yields. Based on this success, he hopes to share strategies to help other farmers make changes to increase their yields. Working with researchers is valuable for busy farmers, he said.

For me it aids in staying focused on profitable yields," Matthews said. "We as farmers have so many hats to wear. Some days we are a banker, accountant, insurance agent, chemist, mechanic, engineer, electrician, agronomist, all the same day, and not to mention a father and husband or mother and wife. Also, Im a volunteer fireman and first responder that may pop up at any time day or night. With these demands, we must surround ourselves with smart people.

Cullen Bryant, a row-crop farmer from Dillon County, said he plans to attend the sessions again this year because maximizing yield is an important part of ensuring a net profit.Separate skeletons suggested to be from different early hominin species are, in fact, from the same species, a team of anthropologists has concluded in a comprehensive analysis of remains first discovered a decade ago.

The research appears in a special issue of the journal PaleoAnthropology and is part of a series of articles that offers the most comprehensive accounting to date of Australopithecus sediba (A. sediba), a hominin species discovered in South Africa in 2008.

The fossil site of Malapa in the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa yielded two partial skeletons: a juvenile male individual--Malapa Hominin 1 (MH1)--and an adult female (MH2); each is more complete than the famous "Lucy" specimen from Ethiopia. The discovery of Malapa was made by Lee Berger, a professor in the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, who, with colleagues, dated the site to just under two million years old. They named a new hominin species, Australopithecus sediba, based on MH1 and MH2.

Over the past decade, researchers have been piecing together these skeletons; the culmination of their work appears in PaleoAnthropology, co-edited by New York University anthropologist Scott Williams and Dartmouth College anthropologist Jeremy DeSilva. The issue's nine papers, which analyze 135 fossils, outline A. sediba's skull, vertebral column, thorax, pelvis, upper limb, hand, and lower limb as well as its body proportions and walking mechanics.

The papers' consensus is that A. sediba is a unique species distinct from both A. africanus, with which it shares a close geographic proximity, and from early members of the genus Homo (e.g., H. habilis) in both East and South Africa, but that it shares features with both groups, suggesting a close evolutionary relationship.

"Our interpretations in the papers suggest that A. sediba was adapted to terrestrial bipedalism, but also spent significant time climbing in trees, perhaps for foraging and protection from predators," says Williams, whose research in the issue centered on the axial skeleton (vertebrae, ribs, and sternum). "This larger picture sheds light on the lifeways of A. sediba and also on a major transition in hominin evolution, that of the largely ape-like species included broadly in the genus Australopithecus to the earliest members of our own genus, Homo."

A few years ago, a separate research group posited that the hominin fossils at Malapa belonged to two different species--in part due to differences in their lumbar vertebrae. However, an analysis by Williams and his colleagues, including two Ph.D. candidates in anthropology at NYU, Jennifer Eyre and Thomas Prang, indicates that both are from A. sedibaand that distinctions are due to age.

"The differences in these vertebrae can simply be attributed to their developmental age differences: the juvenile individual's vertebrae have not yet completed growth, whereas the adult's vertebra growth is complete," he explains. "As it happens, the two Homo erectus skeletons we have are juveniles, so MH1 looks more similar to them because it too is a juvenile."A new study in Science challenges long-held theories of why a common virus -- cytomegalovirus, or CMV -- can reactivate and become a life-threatening infection in people with a compromised immune system, including blood cancer patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation.

The discovery, to be published in Science's Jan. 18 issue, used a newly developed mouse model and could pave the way for cheaper, safer therapies to protect patients from CMV.

"This is a big deal for the bone marrow transplantation field," said Dr. Geoffrey Hill, the paper's senior co-author and director of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. "Our study shows for the first time that antibodies can play a dominant role in controlling CMV reactivation. This is turning dogma on its head."

Previous research on CMV reactivation has focused on T cells, the celebrated disease fighters of the immune system. There had been occasional hints that antibodies produced by immune system B cells played some role against CMV, but it seemed to be a supporting role. Clinical trials using antibodies to fight the virus were disappointing, Hill said.

But Hill and his research team found that strain-specific antibodies made from B cells are responsible for keeping CMV suppressed in mice, without the need for any other immune cells.

A future therapy could work by collecting the CMV-thwarting antibodies from patients who have been exposed to the virus and who are undergoing bone marrow transplant. The antibodies would be purified and multiplied in the lab, then returned to the patient after transplant.

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At Fred Hutch, Hill and colleagues are now pursuing clinical studies to test the approach.

"Most people don't see any symptoms of the virus because their healthy immune systems keep CMV in check," Hill said. "But it can roar back to life in anyone with a compromised immune system, and the results can be life-threatening."

BACKGROUND

CMV, a type of herpes virus, infects at least half of adults by age 40. The virus can cause life-threatening complications such as pneumonia, hepatitis and gastroenteritis and has plagued allogenic transplant patients for decades. CMV infection is the most common complication of bone marrow transplantation. Just over 8,000 people in the United States received allogenic transplants in 2017 for blood cancers, including leukemias and lymphomas, and other blood disorders, according to the Center for International Blood & Marrow Transplant Research.

"Just having been exposed to the virus in the past predicts a worse outcome, despite new antiviral medications. It's a major problem," said Hill, who cares for patients at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, the Hutch's clinical care partner.

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To find out the fuller story, Hill, who worked at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute until 2018, and Mariapia Degli-Esposti at the Lions Eye Institute in Perth, Australia, created the first animal model of CMV reactivation. They infected mice with CMV so that the animals experienced the primary infection followed by virus dormancy, as a person would. Three months later, the researchers gave the mice a bone marrow transplant, effectively wiping away their immune systems and replacing them with new donor marrow.

In a series of experiments looking at the roles of different types of immune cells, the team found that B cells played a critical role in controlling CMV. That is, transplanted mice that had no pre-existing B cells and thus lacked antibodies saw CMV spring back to life within 10 days of the transplant.

The group then looked into different strains of the virus, since CMV exists in many related but differing forms and can change over the course of infection. The researchers used eight different strains of CMV and found mice given the antibody from the same strain of the virus that they were exposed to previously were protected completely from CMV coming back.

Since earlier clinical trials had used antibodies from pooled sources, the strain-specific CMV protection had been hidden.

The National Health and Medical Council of Australia funded the study.

In addition to Hill and Degli-Esposti, co-authors of the paper are Jose Paulo Martins, Christopher E. Andoniou, Peter Fleming, Rachel D. Kuns, Iona S. Schuster, Valentina Voigt, Sheridan Daly, Antiopi Varelias and Siok-Keen Tey. The scientists involved in the discoveries could benefit financially from this work in the future.Making it to the Big Show

17 UofSC students spent part of their winter break at the country's largest retail convention: the NRF Big Show in New York City.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) Big Show in New York City is the largest retail conference in the United States, and this year it included the biggest group of Gamecocks yet.

The University of South Carolina contingent for the annual show included 17 students from the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management (HRSM), three of whom earned NRF scholarships for the trip. They were joined by faculty from UofSCs Department of Retailing as well as career and corporate engagement officers.

Executives from all the major retailers in the U.S. take the time to speak with attendees and give you their candid thoughts." -Allison Lausch, UofSC student

The students toured leading retail facilities and attended lectures and panel discussions with giants of the industry, including Kohls, Macys, Nordstrom, Walmart, Amazon, Nike and many more. They also heard from successful business owners who started from scratch and make it to the top.

Each speaker had an amazing story, background, and tons of advice to share with students like myself, says Sydney Berhhardt, a UofSC retailing major, NRF scholarship winner and president of the UofSC NRF chapter. They always stress at these conventions that we are the future of retail. They honestly are right. Technology is constantly changing, stores are evolving, and the industry is growing exponentially.

The students also took part in the Executive Mentor Experience, an opportunity to engage directly with leaders and executives from some of the most exciting brands in the world.

American Express, Ashley Stewart, B&N Industries, Bed, Bath & Beyond, BJ's Wholesale Club, Brooks Brothers, CallisonRTKL, Carnival Cruise Line and Chanel USA were just a few of the companies who sent their top people to share their experience and network with future leaders.

The students also had an extra mentor, UofSC retailing alumna Sara Wingate Bako, now vice president at Cupio and Cupio Blush. Bako took the group behind the scenes and gave them a firsthand look at the type of career they can build with a degree from South Carolina.

The whole weekend is focused on how to develop and apply our skills to the real-world industry, from a students perspective, with speakers being influential people in retailing, says Allison Lausch, retailing major, vice president of the UofSC NRF chapter and NRF scholarship winner. Executives from all the major retailers in the U.S. take the time to speak with attendees and give you their candid thoughts. These are companies that I only had a connection to because of the NRF Student Program.

Lausch, Bernhardt and fellow HRSM student Shakeyma Irving all won $1,500 NRF scholarships leading up to the conference. The students were nominated for the awards by retailing instructor Daniela Jankovska for their work with the campus chapter.

Lausch was also named a semifinalist for a $25,000 NRF Next Generation scholarship, one of just 25 semifinalists chosen from a large pool of applicants nationwide.

Students interested in joining the UofSC NRF chapter may contact the clubs faculty adviser Jankovska at jankovsd@email.sc.edu.

Share this Story! Let friends in your social network know what you are reading aboutSaratoga Springs

Farm to school grant benefits school district

Saratoga Springs City School District is expected to benefit from a 2019 New York State Farm to School Grant







Security researchers have disclosed an open server at the Oklahoma Securities Commission that has a huge trove of data containing confidential government files and documents related to FBI investigation.





The Oklahoma Department of Securities (ODS) has acknowledged the breach after a Silicon Valley-based security firm, UpGuard's, security researchers Chris Vickery and Greg Pollock reported how they discovered a wide-open server belonging to the agency.





"The data was exposed via an unsecured rsync service at an IP address registered to the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES), allowing any user from any IP address to download all the files stored on the server," says Pollock.





The researchers found a three TB of data, and files include spreadsheets, Life insurance information, names of AIDS patient, interviews with witnesses, social security number, bank records, and emails and letters from agents, witnesses, and subjects.





The companies which were badly affected by this breach are AT&T, Goldman Sachs, and Lehman Brothers.





It represents a compromise of the entire integrity of the Oklahoma Department of securities network, UpGuards head of research Chris Vickery told Forbes. It affects an entire state level agency Its massively noteworthy.





Meanwhile, ODS has said that the open server was immediately secured after the exposure was discovered.





"A forensic team is currently conducting an analysis to determine the type and number of data files that may have been exposed and who may have accessed them," the department added. "The ODS is also exploring remedial actions and notifications for anyone whose information may have been exposed.CHANDIGARH, JANUARY 19: In a major breakthrough, Ropar Police has arrested five persons for their alleged involvement in a state wide Army recruitment scam. Disclosing this here today, the official spokesperson disclosed that the Police has recovered 29 Aadhar cards, fake documents sets of 48 individuals, and Rs 8 lakh from their possession. Sixty eight attestation and official stamps were also recovered.

These stamps are of different official designations like those of SHOs, Tehsildars, Municipal Councilors etc. In the last five years, this gang has secured recruitment of 26 individuals in the Sikh, J&K and Artillery regiments by preparing fake caste and residential proof certificates. They used to charge Rs 3-5 lacs from every individual for the recruitment process.

Clerks of the Army recruiting centers in Patiala, Ferozpur and Ludhiana were hand in glove with these perpetrators, who, after taking their cut, verified the fake documents, the spokesperson added. Initial investigations reveal that Yogesh of Salem Tabri, Ludhiana is the kingpin of this gang, which has, in the last five years, prepared fake documents of nearly 150 individuals hailing from Haryana.

Aspirants from Haryana were roped in by Manjeet and Sunil of Jind as there is less competition in Army recruitment in Punjab. Both Manjeet and Sunil, who run a Army recruitment training academy in Jind, have also been arrested. Similarly, Manoj and Amit of Ferozpur used to provide recruits to Yogesh from the districts of Fazilka, Moga, Faridkot and Ferozpur.

Names of several Non- Commissioned Officers (NCOs) posted in Ludhiana, Gwalior, Ferozpur and Bhuvneshwar have figured in the questioning of the suspects. These NCOs used to be a link between the recruiting authorities and the aspirants willing to join the Army.Chandigarh, January 19: A nation is not defined by geography and topography but by the character of the people. Punjab has such great characters who gave supreme sacrifice for their motherland. Land of this country is so fertile and it gave birth to brave sons who choose death over injustice. These were the words of the Punjab Finance Minister Mr. Manpreet Singh Badal who was the chief guest of the 25th Punjabi Parvasi Divas at Hotel Taj here on Saturday.

The event was organised by International Chamber For Service Industry (ICSI) in collaboration with the Punjab Government. Mr Badal inaugurated the event and also released the vision document of the ICSI. In the vision document, ICSI underlined the need to develope service sector in the state to further improve financial health and attract more investments. Addressing the gathering, Mr. Badal said that over the centuries we had sent the finest sons to fought for the nation.

25th Punjabi Parvasi Divas at Hotel Taj

The Punjabis are defiant and can not be subdued they are brave sons of motherland who strive and fought for independence. He said that we have sacrificed a generation of young men to overthrow the foreign rulers . He assured on the behalf of Punjab Government that Punjab will rise and prosper. I also urge you all to contribute in making the new Punjab. He said that its need of hour for the Punjabi Diaspora to come forward to serve their motherland and society.

It is matter of fact that Punjab is substantially contributing in the National Food Kitty since the post independence era, the Minister added. Expressing hope that India will be the next superpower, Mr Badal said I will surely witness it in my lifetime. Being Punjabi by heart I earnestly wish to see the younger generations of Punjabis live prosperous and healthy life and we all have to pay back to serve our motherland to secure best life for Punjabi Youth.

Mr. Badal admitted that Punjab was lagging behind in the service sector and he assured that now the Punjab Government is focusing on this sector to bring more investment and tourism inflow in the state. Prominent among others presented in the event were Addition Chief Secretary (Home) Mr. N.S. Kalsi, Principal Secretary (NRI Affairs) Mr. S. R. Ladhar, ADGP (NRI Wing) Mr. Ishwar Singh, Punjab Health System Corporation Chairman Mr Amardeep Singh cheema, ICSI DG Dr. Gulshan Sharma and ICSI Bangkok (Thailand) President Mr. Paul Narula.Kolkata, Jan 19: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday called upon people to defeat the "dangerous" BJP government at the Centre at any cost. Stating that the country was at the crossroads of a serious crisis, he said there is need for immediate change of the Modi government to save the country and democracy. "If the (Narendra) Modi-(Amit) Shah combine continues to rule the country by winning the 2019 elections, it will change the Constitution and further elections will never take place.

Narendra Modi

A fascist regime will set in as was done by Hitler in Germany," Kejriwal said at TMC's mega opposition rally here. He accused the BJP of creating enmity among people in the name of religion. "It was Pakistan's dream to split this country into pieces. This BJP government is going ahead in that direction by creating enmity among people and dividing the nation on the lines of religion, language..." Kejriwal said at the Brigade Parade Grounds here.

Amit Shah

Slamming the central government, he said in the last five years, it has failed to create employment opportunities and farmers were facing acute crises. "Demonetisation has taken away all the scope of employment and Modi's friendly insurance companies were making money at the cost of farmers," the Delhi CM alleged. He added that the objective of the general elections was not to find the next prime minister, but to oust Modi and his party. Leaders of all the opposition parties, except the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the CPI(M)-led Left Front, are taking part in the massive rally.Amaravati (AP), Jan 19: TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu Saturday cited the tension in Kerala over the entry of women of menstruating age into the Sabarimala temple to accuse the BJP of creating "strife" in temples across the country. Naidu, who is in Kolkata for a mega rally of anti-BJP parties, addressed Telugu Desam Party leaders via teleconference and asked them to inform people about BJP's "vicious politics", a party release said.

He asked every TDP worker to become a "mobile media" and carry out door-to-door campaigns. "The BJP is creating strife in temples. It is provoking tension in Sabarimala. It is raising the Ram temple issue once again. We have to be cautious against this," he told TDP leaders. Referring to the political turmoil in Karnataka, he alleged that the BJP was trying to "purchase" legislators to dislodge the JD(S)-Congress government in the state.

YSR Congress president Jaganmohan Reddy

"The BJP is making a mockery of democracy by indulging in vicious politics," the release quoted Naidu as saying. Naidu termed "ridiculous" BJP's claim it gave "special treatment" to Andhra Pradesh. "Is giving us an empty hand despite my 29 trips to New Delhi the special treatment? Is sprinkling chilli powder on injuries the special treatment?" he added. He asked TDP workers to inform people about Telangana Rashtra Samiti leaders' alleged attacks on Andhra Pradesh and expose how YSR Congress president Jaganmohan Reddy was rubbing shoulders with them.

"Jagan compromised with (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi for his cases and with (Telangana Chief Minister) KCR for his ill-gotten wealth. You have to take this to people," he added. Naidu said the target for the party is to win all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the general election and at least 150 out of the total 175 assembly seats in the state. "We have to achieve this," he stressed. Referring to the Kolkata rally, the TDP president said except KCR and Jagan, leaders of over 20 parties were attending it. "All those who came to Kolkata are anti-Modi. It is clear that KCR and Jagan are with Modi. The so-called Federal Front is a big zero. It is only for the support of Modi and not an opposition to the BJP," Naidu claimed.Police arrest two in Cozumel kidnapping case

Cozumel, Q.R.  Two people are being investigated for an alleged kidnapping on the island of Cozumel. In press release, police say they have arrested two men for investigation into the kidnapping of a person last Wednesday.

Police say the kidnapping occurred January 16th in the colony Adolfo Lopez Mateos after a report of deprivation of liberty against the two men. The report says the victim was taken aboard a gray van against their will.

The State Prosecutor Generals Office, through the Special Prosecutors Office in Investigation of Kidnappings, initiated the investigation against the two identified by their initials as LXPC and MSD.

If found guilty, they could be sentenced to between 50 and 90 years in prison. The identity of the victim has not been released.Director of Soriana grocery chain found dead in vehicle

Torreon, Coahuila  A wealthy businessman and co-owner of the popular Soriana grocery chain, has been found dead in his vehicle in Torreon, Coahuila.

A member of Organizacion Soriana and Tiendas Soriana, Carlos Martin Bringas, was found dead inside his truck. Photos from the scene show Bringas was shot in what media reports are saying was a suicide. This has not been confirmed or denied by police.

What police have confirmed however, is that an investigation has begun in which they note finding Bringas in the drivers seat of his truck with a bullet wound to the head and a .9 millimeter caliber pistol at the scene.

Carlos Martin Bringas was the director of Soriana and Tiendas Soriana SA de CV. Organizacion Soriana has confirmed the death of Bringas. In a brief statement, the company expressed its solidarity with the board of directors and asked for respect and privacy for the Martin Bringas family in these difficult times.

The Soriana company originated in Torreon, Coahuila in 1968 and was founded by the brothers Francisco and Armando Martin Borque. There are 814 stores throughout Mexico.Direct democracy arises

when representatives fail

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

I agree in principle with George Wills position on the danger of direct democracy versus a democratic republic.

Despite the important role journalists play in educating the public on matters of importance, it is difficult for the ordinary citizen to devote sufficient attention to all aspects of all issues in order to make an informed decision.

While muddling through our hectic, everyday lives, we may be too easily persuaded by the 30-second sound bite or emotional appeal of an attack ad seen on television. Therefore, we rely on the deliberative institution of our elected representatives, whose job it is to inform themselves thoroughly, usually with the assistance of their staffs, in order to make thoughtful, contemplative decisions on our behalf.In the United States, greenhouse gas emissions are plummeting. And the credit, surprisingly, goes to the Trump administration.

Of course, environmentalists would have you believe this White House is accelerating climate change and hurling us toward planetary disaster. But just the opposite is the case: Since 2016, emissions have dropped almost 3 percent, marking the ninth time this century that the United States has led the world in annual CO2 reductions.

This is the product of deregulation, not heavy-handed government interventions. Energy companies have been freed up to expand and vigorously compete to provide the cheapest, most high-quality products, and the result has been huge environmental  and economic  gains.

The story starts with Executive Order 13771, a controversial measure imposed early in the Trump administration requiring two-for-one for all new regulations: In order to propose a rule, agencies had to first identify two existing regulations to repeal.Virginias roots to the intelligence and special operations communities run deep. They grew from Gen. George Washington, our nations first spymaster. They grew from Gen. William Donovan, who founded World War IIs Office of Strategic Services (OSS)  the predecessor to CIA and the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). They grew from Mosbys Rangers. When Donovan created the OSS, one of the first things he did was gather all available information about this group of Confederate guerrillas who operated in Northern Virginia. They grew from Prince William Forest Park, an OSS training facility. They grew from the OSS Maritime Unit, the predecessor to the Navy SEALs based in Virginia Beach. They grew from the OSSs Assessment Station S in Fairfax. They grew from every branch of the U.S. military that contributed personnel to OSS.

Virginia can proudly claim to be home to the American intelligence and special operations communities. They play an essential part in the states economy.

Virginia has been home to thousands of people who have served our nation. They include legendary figures such as Elizabeth McIntosh, who served in the OSS Morale Operations Branch and later with CIA. She was named a Virginia Woman in History in 2012. Donovan was a Medal of Honor recipient and the only American to receive the countrys four highest decorations.The future will indeed be bright for Virginians if we continue to strengthen the partnership between business, higher education, and our bipartisan state leadership that has placed our system of colleges, universities, and community colleges among the very best in our country and the world.

Nancy Howell Agee is president and CEO of Carilion Clinic and principal architect of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. She may be reached at nhagee@carilionclinic.org.

Victoria Harker is executive vice president and CFO of TEGNA Inc., and serves on the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. Contact her at vharker@tegna.com.

Both are board members of the Virginia Business Higher Education Council.Sen. Mark Obenshains bill to place a time limit on a universitys ability to hire a member of its board of visitors is shortsighted and betrays an unfortunate lack of confidence that school leaders are able to make decisions they believe will benefit their institution. It is a blunt instrument aimed at solving a nonexistent problem. In the relatively rare instances in which board members have been hired by the universities they have served, the outcomes have generally been positive for all. The most striking example may be Paul Trible, who became president of Christopher Newport University in 1996 after serving on the universitys board. Trible has led a remarkable period of growth and transformation at the Newport News school. Had it been in effect at the time, Obenshains bill would have prevented Trible from taking the job. Similar unfortunate, unintended consequences seem likely should the overly restrictive legislation pass.

Tomorrows weather report calls for a day of rain and balmy temperatures  to be followed Sunday night by a surge of Arctic air. Depending on when the the front comes in, we may briefly see some snow, or even the dreaded wintry mix. The big story is the projected drop of 40 degrees overnight. Be sure your pipes are well insulated or leave a faucet dripping slightly. And remember: Spring is only 60 days away.DENVER  A United Airlines pilot from Virginia has asked a judge to dismiss an indecent exposure charge against him, saying he is the victim of governmental misconduct.

Andrew Collins of Leesburg was arrested Sept. 20 for standing naked in front of his 10th-floor hotel window overlooking the Denver International Airport terminal. He has pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charge.

The Denver Post reports that his attorney, Craig Silverman, wrote that it is not a crime to be naked in Denver in a hotel room and that Collins had no idea people could see him when he partially opened the curtains.

In a separate motion for dismissal, Silverman also says authorities lacked probable cause to prove the case.The interaction sparked an idea.

I thought, well it would be cool if more people knew how to do this, and solve it quickly, said Halsdorf, whose fastest time solving the regular-size cube is 8.1 seconds.

Her request to launch a Rubiks Cube club this school year was approved by the school. Rubiks teams arent as common in middle and high schools as they were 25 years ago, but theyre not extinct.

Still, James Madison teachers thought, at most, eight students would join. As of the spring semester  it has more than 80 members.

The students are committed to flexing their skills and increasing speeds. Once a week, about an hour before the school day begins, the students spin different types of cubes  as large as 7-by-7-by-7  and a pyramid inspired by the Rubiks.

They meet in the library, where Seal and other teachers lead lessons on how best to crack the code by detecting algorithms.

Its an enigma when they first see it, Seal said. But theyre curious, and when they see another kid solve it, they think, well maybe I can do that. They realize a cube of any combination can be solved.The dates and times of the drills still arent announced beforehand, but when a drill begins, Jenks said, it is clear that it is a drill and not a real event. We wont even wait the 30-60 seconds anymore.

While the dates and times of the drills are not released in advance, no one should have reason to believe it is a real event, he said.

Hanover schools take a similar approach, having a school staff member make a school-wide announcement about the drill. Thats repeated three times, Hanover schools spokesman Chris Whitley said.

We believe our approach is a good balance between ensuring that our students, staff and faculty are fully aware that it is a drill and simulating an actual event, Whitley said. This approach allows us to constantly refine our ability to respond if an actual event occurred.

In Richmond, the four planned drills  two in September, one this month and one in April  are all unannounced, but Richmond Public Schools spokeswoman Kenita Bowers said the district encourages schools to give parents a heads-up through a principals weekly message. Students and staff are told on the day of the drill, she said, an effort to reduce panic and confusion as to whether it is a real or simulated event.Mountain Valley did not name the Bohons as defendants in its motion for a preliminary injunction.

The motion asks Dillon to order the tree-sitters down, and to subject them to fines and forced removal by U.S. Marshals if they refuse her command.

It also asks that the injunction apply to anyone who acts as the agents, servants, employees and attorneys of the tree-sitters and to all other persons who are in active concert or participation with them.

Fishwick argued that would be a clear violation of the constitutional rights of people like Belinsky, who has consulted with representatives of the tree-sitters, and Breslau, who is part of a team of supporters on the ground.

The right to hire and consult with an attorney, as well as the right to associate with others, is protected by the First Amendment, the friend-of-the-court brief stated. Regardless of ones view of the impact or necessity for the pipeline itself, it is key to our free society that the rights of the people to speak out and associate with others on matters of great political and societal importance ... be protected.

Tree-top blockades are the latest form of yearslong resistance to the pipeline, which opponents say will scar the scenic landscape of Southwest Virginia.Thats when Nelson approached McClellan and her own state senator, Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta. Both legislative offices suggested that she draft a resolution to give the lawmakers an idea of what it should look like.

Her relationship with the MLK commission is a marriage made in heaven for me. Because they could bring to this task so much more than I could myself.

Kamille Gardner of Washington, a great-great-niece of Allie Thompson, has joined the commissions history of lynching work group as part of the effort to shepherd the resolution to approval.

Gardner, 27, learned about her great-great-uncles lynching when she was in high school.

I was just horrified that something so heinous could happen to someone so close in my family tree, she said. The injustice of it all. And then, to never know everything that happened that day and the events leading up to it. That was definitely frustrating.

Gardner, who works for an international nonprofit, hopes the commissions work gets recognition beyond Virginia, so other states can learn from my familys experience.A boy was found with life-threatening injuries after a report of a shooting in Richmonds Gilpin Court public housing community Friday night.

Officers responded to the 1000 block of St. James Street about 6:15 p.m. They found the boy, who was then taken to a hospital.Chesterfield County police are looking for a man who pulled a gun and tied up a woman inside a business office in the 9100 block of Midlothian Turnpike near the intersection with Powhite Parkway around 2 p.m. Saturday.

Police said there were no injuries, but that the suspect  described as a 6-foot-tall white man with a medium build who appeared to be between the ages of 30 and 40  was being helped by the victim before he displayed a handgun and bound her by her wrists and ankles and covered her mouth.

The man then stole a gray 2018 Nissan Versa with Virginia license plate UUX-2907. He was wearing a gray jacket and jeans at the time, according to police.

Police ask anyone who sees the vehicle to call 911 immediately to report it.

Other information about the incident can be reported to the Chesterfield Police Department at (804) 748-1251 or to Crime Solvers at (804) 748-0660.

 C. Suarez RojasA self-employed accountant who was elected treasurer of Elizabeth Scott Elementary Schools PTA pleaded guilty Thursday to embezzling $24,500 from the organization after earlier skipping her trial and fleeing to North Carolina.

After accepting her plea in Chesterfield County Circuit Court, Judge David E. Johnson sentenced Jessica L. Yeakey, 42, of Chester, to five years in prison with four years and nine months suspended, giving her three months to serve. The punishment exceeded discretionary sentencing guidelines, which called for probation and no incarceration.

Yeakeys conviction this week came more than a year after she was declared a fugitive for skipping her Dec. 11, 2017, embezzlement trial. That proceeding had been rescheduled for Jan. 25, 2018, but she skipped a second time, said Chesterfield Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Robert J. Fierro Jr.

Authorities learned she traveled to North Carolina in January and entered a substance abuse recovery program in that state. She traveled back to the Richmond area Dec. 6 and was arrested by Richmond police on the warrant issued for her arrest for skipping trial.

Yeakey testified Thursday that she returned to the Richmond area to turn herself in, but Fierro said he didnt have any way to independently verify that.I reached out to them after we made a payment in December, Rajah said. If it wasnt for them saying we will work with you, my daughter would be sitting at home right now.

Hanover County resident Cassie Mergy, who asked that her maiden name be used, said her family has had to dip into savings to pay work-related expenses that her husband, a federal air marshal, is accumulating as an essential employee.

The job automatically covers the marshals flights, but the marshals pay for hotels and food with a credit card issued in their names when they travel. Usually they are reimbursed within about 24 hours, she said. The job requires them to keep the credit card payments current or face discipline.

We just paid a few thousand dollars a few weeks ago. I pulled that money out of our savings account, she said. By the grace of God we have been working hard in the past couple of years to build up our savings.

Scott Riley, 29, was supposed to start a job with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Jan. 7 but got an email saying he wouldnt be able to start until the agency reopens. His last job was at a fish farming operation in Sierra Leone in West Africa.MANSFIELD -- A Mansfield Police officer was injured Friday afternoon after he was dragged by a vehicle attempting to escape, according to Sgt. Toneli Webb.

Officers attempted to pull over Jon Goodall, 51, of Michigan, after he allegedly failed to use his turn signal in his 2008 Infinity 2X56 four times, Webb reported.

Goodall has been charged with two counts of felonious assault, failure to comply with order or signal of an officer and possession of drugs.

Webb said as officers approached the vehicle, one of the officers was dragged suffering minor scrapes, bruises and pulled muscles. Another officer was almost struck by the vehicle too, Webb said. The names of the officers involved were not disclosed.

"He continued driving down Longview and stopped at 441 Longview and exited the vehicle," Webb said. "Use of force ensued. Then he was arrested."

Webb said Goodall tossed an undisclosed amount of suspected drugs out the window as he drove.A U.S.-born Iranian television anchor who has been jailed in the United States has not been accused of any crime, according to federal court documents.

Marzieh Hashemi has been detained as a material witness, though it is unclear for which case, the documents, made public on January 18, show.

Hashemi works for Irans state-run English-language Press TV news channel. Her son says she was detained by federal agents on January 13 in St. Louis, where she had filmed a Black Lives Matter documentary.

She was then transported to Washington and has been in custody since then.

Officials said she was expected to be released immediately after her testimony is completed, but it's not clear when that would be.

Iran has called for her immediate release. The FBI and Justice Department have not commented publicly on her case.

A U.S. government source told Reuters it appeared that a grand jury was examining whether Press TV is a propaganda outlet that failed to register with the Justice Department as an agent of a foreign government.

Press TV has said that Hashemi was born Melanie Franklin in the United States and changed her name after converting to Islam.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying that Hashemi received Iranian citizenship after marrying an Iranian.

Based on reporting by AP and ReutersTajik state television has ordered that even the most innocent of love scenes be edited from films before they are broadcast to ensure they are in line with Tajik culture and values.



In line to be censored are kissing, hugging, and movements that suggest a couple is having sex.



Officials say the move is part of the effort to implement the decree on Promotion of Tajik National and Cultural Values issued by the Committee for Television and Radio in early 2018.



Mahmadsharif Boboshohzoda, deputy head of the committee, said on January 18 that the edits would not affect the storyline of the movies.



"It's just a few seconds that will be edited out," he told RFE/RL's Tajik Service.



The censorship will apply to all films -- from domestic movies to Soviet-era films and Hollywood blockbusters.



One the first films affected by the new rule is the hugely popular Soviet movie The Irony Of Fate, Or Enjoy Your Bath, which Tajik state TV airs almost every New Year's Eve in keeping with a Soviet tradition.

Fully Clothed Embrace



The 1975 film featuring Russian film stars Andrey Myagkov and Barbara Brylska features a handful of scenes in which the main characters -- Zhenya and Nadya -- are embracing while fully clothed.



At one point Zhenya hesitantly kisses Nadya's face and hair -- but that bit was missing from the condensed version aired on December 31.

One Dushanbe resident said he was "annoyed" by the editing of "an innocent moment" in his favorite movie.



"They were not in the bed or naked, it was just an emotional moment, the culmination of the film," Sayof Mizrob told RFE/RL.



Like millions of people in former Soviet states, Mizrob says his family has made a tradition of watching the film on television as they gather for New Years Eve dinner.



"The editing ruined it for me," he said.



State TV officials insist they censor inappropriate scenes from films out of respect for Tajik traditions and values.



"Some countries put on the Islamic hijab on women when they show foreign movies. They do it in accordance with their own culture," Boboshohzoda said.

Tight Control



However, Tajik officials point out that they won't follow the example of countries like Iran, which pixelate female characters' bare skin or superimpose clothing or other objects onto their images.



"We dont take extreme measures [in editing films]. We just ensure they adhere to the Tajik mentality," said one state TV official, who asked that his name not be published because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Tajikistan, a Muslim-majority country ruled by a secular government that tightly controls all things religious, has been promoting what authorities call national values.



Authorities have in recent years urged people to give their babies pure Tajik-Persian names, a move widely seen as an effort to counter a trend that saw parents choosing Arabic and Islamic-sounding names in recent years.



They also encourage people to drop Russian-style surnames with the Slavic -ev/-ov suffixes.

Last year, the government issued a "recommended" dress code for men and women based on so-called traditional Tajik designs.



The latest censorship order is not expected to shield Tajik eyes from all intimate cinematic scenes, however, as many people have access to satellite and cable channels that broadcast films in their entirety, and uncensored DVDs are widely available in the country.More than 50 swimmers braved the icy water of Belgrade's Ciganlija Lake on January 19 for a race to celebrate the day that many Orthodox Christians celebrate as the Feast of the Epiphany. Swimmers traditionally compete for the "Honorable Cross," which symbolizes the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan.Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets of the Azerbaijani capital to call for the release of a jailed anticorruption blogger and other people they consider political prisoners.

The protesters taking part in the sanctioned rally in Baku on January 19 demanded President Ilham Aliyevs government release Mehman Huseynov and other political prisoners.

Police said some 2,800 people took part in the rally, though opposition organizers said the figure for the number of demonstrators was around 20,000.

The National Council for Democratic Forces, an umbrella group of opposition parties, organized the rally.

Security forces said there were no violent incidents at the event. Police checked participants for weapons before allowing them to attend the demonstration.

Protesters held signs saying "Freedom For Political Prisoners" and "We WIll Win," among others.

A resolution was adopted at the end of the demonstration calling for all political prisoners to be freed and that activists who were detained on the eve of the protest action also be released.

Rally organizers said about 100 activists had been detained by police ahead of the demonstration, with most of them still being held.

Azerbaijani officials reject the notion that there are political prisoners in the country.

Speakers at the rally also criticized what they called widespread corruption in the state government.

Ilqar Mammadov, the head of the opposition REAL Party who was recently released from prison, said "if Azerbaijan was a true republic then the...serious problems of Azerbaijan would be discussed in the [parliament]."

He also pointed out that Azerbaijan's neighbors, Georgia and Armenia, had become progressively more democratic than Azerbaijan in recent years.

Calls for Huseynov's release have intensified inside and outside Azerbaijan since he was targeted with a new charge late last month, just weeks before his expected release from prison.

He is accused of "resisting a representative of the authorities with the use of violence dangerous to [the representative's] health and life."

Huseynov himself and several other political prisoners have started hunger strikes in protest.

Huseynov is already serving a two-year prison term on libel charges that he and his supporters considered to be politically motivated. He was originally arrested and charged with slandering a police officer.



Huseynov has also alleged that he has been tortured while in prison.

Rights groups and Western governments have urged the Azerbaijani authorities to release political prisoners for years, and have accused the government of fabricating criminal cases to stifle dissent and media freedom.

Aliyev, who has ruled the oil-producing former Soviet republic of almost 10 million people with an iron fist since shortly before his long-ruling father's death in 2003, has shrugged off the criticism.Russian President Vladimir Putin and an estimated 270,000 other Muscovites followed an Orthodox Church tradition and jumped into icy waters to celebrate Epiphany.

Many Orthodox Russians traditionally take three jumps into icy rivers and lakes in the early hours of January 19. The city of Moscow organized 60 bathing sites for the event this year.

The Russian Interior Ministry estimated that some 2.4 million people across Russia took part in the traditional icy dip.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin has marked the Orthodox Epiphany -- which celebrates the baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan River -- for many years. He declined to say exactly where Putin took his dip on January 19, only saying it was in the Moscow region.

Similar events marking the Feast of the Epiphany were also held in Ukraine, Belarus, and other parts of the former Soviet Union.

The epiphany tradition is also celebrated in many other countries where the Orthodox Church is prominent, including Serbia.

In Belgrade, men from were seen diving into Belgrade's freezing cold Sava River and Ciganlija Lake to retrieve a cross thrown by a church official.

The traditional swim was revived by the church 20 years ago and is gaining in popularity around the country.

Based on reporting by TASS, Interfax, and AFPKazakh authorities are hunting for three suspected poachers, including one who is alleged to have fatally beaten a wildlife ranger in what is a rare occurrence in Kazakhstan.

The death of Erlan Nurghaliev, who died in a hospital in the capital, Astana, on January 15, has sparked widespread outrage in the Central Asian nation, with the Prosecutor-Generals Office taking charge of the investigation.

The event also highlighted the growing threats to Kazakhstans famed saiga, an endangered ancient species of antelope protected under Kazakh law.

Nurghaliev and his partner, Pyotr Nitsyk, both rangers with the state Okhotzooprom agency, had been on patrol near Lake Tengiz -- about 150 kilometers southwest of Astana on January 13 -- when they discovered car tracks in the snow and heard gunshots. They also saw freshly killed saiga.

Nitsyk told reporters that a second car of rangers went to try and find the alleged poachers' cars, while Nitsyk and Nurghaliev followed the tracks and caught up with the suspects as they drove away.

Nitsyk said they fired warning shots at the poachers before they were able to block the cars movement.

The cars stopped and the rangers confronted the men, who attacked them, according to Nitsyk, badly beating Nurghaliev and hitting him in the head with a rifle butt.

The alleged poachers drove away, taking the rangers car keys and a GPS locator, Nitsyk said. The second patrol of rangers couldnt immediately locate Nitsyk and Nurghaliev, whose age was given as either 53 or 55, delaying his medical treatment.

On January 19, the Interior Ministry released images of the suspects and their names, asking people to help locate them.

Nurghaliev was hospitalized in an Astana hospital and died two days later without regaining consciousness.

Some Kazakh media said it had been more than 10 years since the last wildlife ranger had been killed on duty, though that could not be immediately confirmed.

Many Kazakhs are angry at the problem of poaching, but also wonder why Nurghaliev wasn't given emergency medical care or flown by helicopter to a hospital.

Interior Minister Kulmukhanbet Kasimov defended the decision not to dispatch a helicopter, citing bad weather.

Erlan Abdrakhmanov, a top official with Okhotzooprom, hailed Nurghalievs professionalism and love for his job.

"He was not afraid to go out in any kind of weather. He loved and defended nature very much. He was a firm believer in the idea that the fauna of our republic should flourish," Abdrakhmanov said on January 17.

With bulging eyes, a tubular snout, and a spiraled horn, the saiga is as distinctive as it is endangered, and they are found mainly in Kazakhstan but also in other Central Asian countries.

The animals are sought by poachers, who sell their horns to black-market buyers in China, where they are used in traditional folk medicine.

In 2015, a mass die-off of the animals on the Kazakh steppe mystified scientists and conservationists, sparking worries that the population which had been gradually recovering would again be critically threatened.

Following the mass die-off, officials estimated the saiga population at no more than 130,000.

In 2017, there were an estimated 156,000 saiga in Kazakhstan, according to the Agriculture Ministry.Hundreds have demonstrated on Sakhalin in Russias Far East to protest against any potential transfer to Japan of any of the islands from the disputed Kurile chain.

Some 300 people turned out for the unsanctioned event on January 19 in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the regional administrative center.



One demonstrator was hauled off by police after the event and held for two hours before being released with a citation for violating public order.

Its the latest in a string of similar actions on Sakhalin.



It comes amid efforts by Moscow and Tokyo to resolve a decades-long dispute over the islands, known in Russia as the Southern Kuriles and in Japan as the Northern Territories.



The islands were captured by Soviet troops in the last days of World War II. Failure to resolve the dispute has blocked the countries from signing a peace treaty to formally end the hostilities.



In November, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to accelerate negotiations based on a 1956 Soviet proposal to return the two less populated islands, Shikotan and a group of islets called Habomai.



Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on January 14 that the two countries still have "substantial disagreements" despite some progress in bringing their positions closer.



Lavrov also warned not to expect progress toward an agreement unless Japan first recognizes Russian sovereignty over the Pacific island chain.Several hundred people marched in central Moscow on January 19 to honor human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova, who were gunned down in Moscow ten years ago.

Markelov and Baburova, who were known for crusading against ultranationalist violence, were shot dead in broad daylight near the Kremlin in 2009.

Two young neo-Nazi group members, Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgenia Khasis, were convicted of the killings in 2011. Tikhonov was sentenced to life in prison for murder and Khasis to 18 years for helping him.

Markelov had represented investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered in 2006, as well as Chechen civilians abused by Russian troops.



The killings sparked accusations that the Kremlin was not doing enough to hunt down the attackers of activists and journalists.A Belarusian model who claimed to have evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election has apologized to a Russian tycoon as she also proclaimed her innocence of prostitution-related charges against her.

Anastasia Vashukevich, who is also known as Nastya Rybka, told reporters in the Nagatinsky district court in Moscow on January 19 that she was "not guilty of what I am accused of" and pledged not to "compromise" Russian billionaire businessman Oleg Deripaska.

She previously said she had audio of the tycoon talking about Russia's alleged interference in the U.S. election.

The Moscow court ruled that her detention would be extended by three days, until January 22, as the charges of involvement in prostitution against her and her mentor, Aleksandr Kirillov, are investigated.

"Guys, please pass my apologies to Oleg Deripaska and [Russian politician and former Deputy Prime Minister] Sergei Prikhodko," she told reporters in the courtroom. "I am very sorry that everything happened that way. I am sincerely ashamed of what happened. I do not want to aggravate [the situation] so I personally apologize to Oleg [Deripaska]. All this was in order to attract his personal attention, nobody else's, only his."

Vashukevich was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport on January 17 after being deported from Thailand, where she had spent about nine months in prison on prostitution charges.

Also detained in Moscow was Kirillov, a self-styled Russian sex guru also known as Alex Lesley, and two others, named by Interfax as Andrei Zhezhka and Maria Zharkova.

Vashukevich gained worldwide attention in February 2018, when Russian anticorruption activist Aleksei Navalny published an expose appearing to show then-Russian Deputy Prime Minister Prikhodko off the coast of Norway on a yacht belonging to Deripaska.

Navalny's report, which drew on photographs and video that Vashukevich published on Instagram in 2016, appeared to show Prikhodko being offered lavish treatment on Deripaska's yacht. The two also appear to discuss U.S. politics.

Vashukevich, who was pictured on the yacht with the two men, says she had an affair with Deripaska.

Vashukevich and Kirillov made international headlines again when they asked for asylum in the United States while detained in Thailand.

Vashukevich claimed that she could reveal details about Russia's alleged meddling in the U.S. election with hours of audiotapes as evidence.

Deripaska, one of several Russian tycoons hit by U.S. sanctions, was once an associate of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who was convicted last year in the United States of tax and bank fraud.

Vashukevich has more than 120,000 followers on Instagram and has authored a book about seducing oligarchs.

But she and Kirillov face other legal problems in Russia as Deripaska won an invasion of privacy lawsuit against the two in July over the video that showed Deripaska vacationing with Prikhodko.

Deripaska is among the Russian tycoons and officials who have been sanctioned in recent years by the United States in connection with Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. His business empire includes aluminum, energy, and construction assets.

With reporting by AP, Interfax, and TASSThousands of demonstrators gathered at a sanctioned protest rally in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, on January 19 to demand that President Ilham Aliyev's government release Mehman Huseynov, a jailed anticorruption blogger, and other people they consider political prisoners. Slogans such as "Freedom" and "End to the dictatorship!" were among those chanted by the protesters. (RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service)Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office has disputed a report in BuzzFeed News that U.S. President Donald Trump directed his former lawyer to lie to Congress about a real estate project in Moscow as Congressional Democrats vowed to investigate allegations.

In a first for the Mueller investigation, the Special Counsels Office commented on a media report, saying in a January 18 statement that the allegations, based on two unnamed law enforcement sources, were not "accurate."

"BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the Special Counsels Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens Congressional testimony are not accurate," Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller's office, said in the statement, though he did not say the entire article was wrong.

BuzzFeed said in a statement that it was standing by its reporting and urged the Special Counsel to make clear what hes disputing."

The White House has called the allegations categorically false, but leading Democrat lawmakers said the possibility the report is true was a concern of the greatest magnitude and would seek an inquiry into the matter.



"These allegations may prove unfounded, but, if true, they would constitute both the subornation of perjury as well as obstruction of justice," California Republican Adam Schiff, House intelligence committee chairman, said in a statement.



"We will do what's necessary to find out if it's true," he added.



BuzzFeed News reported on January 17 that Trump told Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations over the Moscow project during the 2016 campaign.



The report, which quotes the two law enforcement officials "with direct knowledge of the investigation" into the project, has not been independently confirmed.



The allegations put Trump further at risk in an investigation that has already resulted in convictions of or guilty pleas from four former campaign aides, including ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.



Trump tweeted that Cohen was lying to reduce his jail time, although Cohen has already been sentenced to three years for a number of political and financial crimes that came to light through the Special Counsel investigation by Robert Mueller.



Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said in a statement that any suggestion that Trump told Cohen to lie is "categorically false."



Some Senate Intelligence Committee investigators have said they hope to ask Cohen about the BuzzFeed report when he testifies behind closed doors in February, Reuters reported.

With reporting by Reuters, AP and CNNYes. I will do my part to conserve household energy usage, even if I'm uncomfortable in my home.

No. It is too hot to conserve household energy usage.

I already conserve, even before ERCOT requested it.

Maybe, depending on the reason ERCOT provides and whether or not I am home during that time.

Vote

View ResultsLebanon, IN (46052)

Today

Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 70F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 70F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.The Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness is asking individuals across the state to volunteer for the upcoming annual counts of individuals experiencing homelessness in Connecticut. The Point-in-Time Count will take place on the evening of Jan. 22 into the morning of Jan. 23. The Youth Outreach & Count will take place Jan. 23-29.

Each year, the Point-in-Time Count surveys adults and families with children on one night and is followed by the Youth Outreach & Count, a weeklong count of youth, according to a release. The separate census for youth is critical, as many are missed during the PIT Count because they often do not access adult emergency shelters or other homeless services, the release said.

For those experiencing homelessness, these counts offer a chance for them to connect with volunteer surveyors who can record their needs, add them to community registries for housing resources, and guide them towards services and supports that that can end their homelessness, the release said.

The counts provide data used to measure the extent of homelessness in the state and compare how homelessness trends year-to-year. Connecticut is required to report this data to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which uses it to compile the Annual Assessment of Homelessness Report to Congress, the release said.

The 2018 PIT Count estimated that 3,383 people in Connecticut were experiencing homelessness, 683 of them children, the release noted. The 2018 Youth Outreach & Count estimated that 5,054 youth under age 25 reported being homeless or unstably housed. The full 2018 PIT and Youth Count Report can be found at www.cceh.org/pit/data-and-reports.

Connecticut is determined to end all forms of homelessness and we rely heavily on this data to drive and inform our solutions, said CCEH CEO Richard Cho, in a written statement. It takes a village - even an entire state - to end homelessness, and we still need volunteers to join teams in their community.

The success of these counts depend on the participation of volunteers, the release said. Volunteers are trained to administer the survey, learn about community resources, and will hit the streets as a part of a survey team led by a member of Connecticuts homeless service-provider community.

Visit www.cceh.org to sign up to volunteer.

Volunteer surveyors will be using a mobile app called Counting Us, developed by Canton, MA based company, Simtech Solutions.

The 2019 PIT Count and Youth Outreach & Count are made possible through support from the Department of Housing, Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Fairfield Countys Community Foundation, Farmington Bank Community Foundation, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, and Melville Charitable Trust, the release said.TORRINGTON  In northwest Connecticut, the Fit Together NWCT public health initiative is working to build the healthiest kids, families, and communities by helping to identify policy changes and environmental improvements in the cities of Torrington and Winsted that will help make the healthy choice the easy choice.

Recently, Fit Together announced its first Gold Partner recognitions honoring 10 sites in Torrington and Winsted for their positive impact on childrens health. Seven recipients are child care centers who are proactively implementing evidence-based strategies to increase daily healthy habits.

These include Brooker Memorial, ED Advance Head Start Programs in Torrington at St. Johns Place, Torrington East School, and Winsted Batcheller School, at Hill Top Christian Nursery School, Torrington YMCA Childcare, and Winsted Area Childcare. The final three honorees were health care practices who are initiating conversations to reinforce the importance of healthy habits including Litchfield County Pediatrics, Litchfield Hills Pediatrics, and the pediatric practice of Drs. Michal Curi and Dr. Jessica Magda.

These gold level sites were identified because they instill a positive relationship with food and enthusiasm for healthy choices by promoting evidence based strategies such as limiting or eliminating sugary drinks, promoting water as the drink of choice, prohibiting the use of food as a reward, limiting unhealthy choices during snacks and celebrations, and providing opportunities for physical activity outside of recess on a daily basis. They also offer practice specific, obesity prevention program components that include providing consistent 5-2-1-0 messaging in offices, calculating BMI for all patients aged two and older, and using a Healthy Habits Questionnaire to have a respectful conversation about lifestyles with their patients.

Fit Together is working with 30 sites and to see 10 sites already make it to gold status is truly impressive. All our partners work hard, every day, to help kids make the easy choice the healthy choice. At Fit Together we believe healthy habits make happy kids, and thats why were dedicated to decreasing childhood obesity. said Fit Together Executive Director Carla Angevine, MS, RDN.

Our dream is that Torrington and Winsted will be recognized as the healthiest communities in Connecticut. Our future is held by our children and our challenge is to give them the best chance to live long, healthy and productive lives.

Fit Together adopted 5-2-1-0 as a central message for all of its initiatives. Lets Go!, a childhood obesity prevention initiative in Maine, originally developed the 5-2-1-0 message, which stands for five or more fruits and vegetables a day, two hours or less of recreational screen time a day, one hour or more of physical activity a day, and zero sugary sweetened beverages. Lets Go! uses a six sector approach to reaching youth and families where they live, learn, work and play to reinforce the importance of healthy eating and physical activity. The six sectors are: early child-hood, schools, after-school, workplace, healthcare, and communities.

Fit Together, a community collaborative, was formed in 2011 with the initial purpose to identify and implement environmental and social improvements in Torrington and Winsted that help make healthy choices for individuals, easy choices. Their mission is to build the healthiest kids, families and communities through sustainable strategies that foster healthy eating and active living.

Visit Fittogethernwct.org for more information on Fit together and the initiative.The American Shakespeare Theatre was kind of like one of those old Hollywood movie stars youre just not sure is still alive.

Olivia De Havilland is still kicking at 102. Carol Channing? The curtain closed on her life performance a few days ago, at 97.

When I first moved to Stratford in 1984, a few blocks away from that echoing barn of a theater, it was already a moldering mess, a fire trap in search of ignition and rapid, consuming, spectacular oxidation.

The fact that it stood upright for nearly another 35 years before going up in flames seems to be a miraculous homage for something whose time was long past.

Over the years, one local charlatan after another promised to shine up the theater all the way back to its alleged glory. All they needed was a little more state money, a few extra thousand dollars in local donations from people who believed in the power of stage productions, the value of classic literature, and the actors who inhabit roles to create timeless emotion.

Thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of school kids bused there from anywhere within a two-hour bus trip, were first exposed to Shakespeare along the banks of the Housatonic River in Connecticut. Hundreds of years later, The Bard is still fueling a tourist attraction in his English hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon.

Stratford, Connecticut was never able to create that kind of synergy. About as close as it could ever come is the venerable Jerrys Shakespeare Pizza, around the corner from the set-back, Elm Street property that isolated the theater from its neighbors, who were screened from seeing the place burn, until it was too late.

The highway signs on the Merritt Parkway and I-95 announcing the theaters imminent exit were hopeful jokes. The theaters sunset arrived at a time when vacuous cable TV was keeping more and more people home, huddled for warmth around their mortgages and rising property tax bills.

Sure, the great James Brown played the Shakespeare; the inimitable Kinks.

But the theaters claim to fame was staged presentations of Shakespeare.

Katharine Hepburn once swanned around the 14 acres. But for decades, besides some truncated summer programming, the park has been a bucolic home for the noisy, gregarious monk parakeets whose VW-sized thatched nests make for easy bird watching. I wasnt the only neighbor who would bring over old oranges for them to tear into, while enjoying their noisy takeoffs and landings.

Shakespeare, to this eventually quiet little town park, was there in that fire trap, but very far away, in some rosy memories. Yes, all the foibles of man, from greed to love, are there, but the language is dense and archaic. Im wondering if the old Shakespeare Festival Theatre turned off more kids than excited them.

Im kind of a word guy, and every time I see a Shakespeare play it takes me a couple scenes to even start understanding the language. Still, it can be mind-blowingly beautiful. A couple years back, we stood in line at the replica Globe Theatre on the south bank of the Thames, to spend five English pounds, about $12, for standing room in front of the stage for The Tempest, a mostly unbelievable story of coincidence. A couple days later, still gob-smacked, we did the same thing for A Midsummer Nights Dream.

Both were unbelievably wonderful and moving, even if the story lines were not reconstructed from transcripts of grisly California murder trials and recycled bad jokes from 20 years ago.

Theater in Connecticut is in trouble. You can see it in the smallish crowds at the Yale Rep and Long Wharf. The Westport Country Playhouse and the Hartford Stage have deep-enough subscription bases, but anyone who thinks that the region was or is eager for a reopening of the Shakespeare Theatre, is having a mid-winter night delusion.

Which brings us to the letter that Stratfords legislative delegation has penned to Gov. Ned Lamont, requesting $5 million to try to put something new on the site of the Stratford ruins.

That would be a classic case of good money being burned after the bad. They call it an artistic and cultural icon. I mean, Olivia De Havilland is arguably a cultural and artistic icon, but Im pretty sure it would be tough for her to reprise her role as Scarlet OHaras sister-in-law in Gone With the Wind, from 1939 Hollywood.

This brings us to the state lawmakers who want Gov. Ned Lamont to cough up $5 million.

It has a special place in the history of not only Stratford, but also of our entire state, the Stratford state representative whined on Friday. Rebuilding would be an opportunity to revitalize the arts, boost our economy and commemorate an integral piece of our history.

That is so much laughable hogwash.

Lets leave it to Willy the Shake, who in The Tempest wrote how the actors melted into thin air, and in Macbeth: Whats done is done.

Ken Dixon, political editor and columnist, can be reached at 203-842-2547 or at kdixon@ctpost.com. Visit him at twitter.com/KenDixonCT and on Facebook at kendixonct.hearst.TORRINGTON  The first franchise in upper Litchfield County of the Five Guys Burgers and Fries restaurant is scheduled to open this spring at 1891 East Main St.

The Guys are the five sons of the founding Murrell family from Virginia. The company opened a handful of casual dining restaurants in the D.C. area in 1986, and now has shops in 1,500 locations nationally and in four countries.

They have been interested in the market for a while, said Brooke Nihan, a realtor with Coldwell Banker. They said the car count, the demos and the population, of Torringon met their criteria.

The company sent a corporate team last fall to scout locations in the city, Nihan said.

Its a wildly popular restaurant concept that will appeal to large demographic segments, realtor Mario Longobucco said in a statement. He added that the expected consumer interest in the restaurant will benefit nearby businesses as well.

To accommodate the restaurants need for a 3,000 square-foot interior, a location swap was undertaken in the shopping plaza, according to Torringtons Economic Development Director Erin Wilson.

She said the Verizon store recently relocated to a free-standing building closer to the street to free up space for the new restaurant which will occupy the eastern corner location of the plaza.

The first official business the company did with the city was to file an application to allow signs to be placed on the building and on the name directory sign at the entrance to the plaza.

Representatives of the franchise chain did not return calls for comment.

The plaza is owned by 1891 East Main Street, LLC, whose principal member is Bik Wan Cheng of Torrington, according to state documents. Cheng is also known as Kevin Lee.

New Milford welcomed a Five Guys to its WalMart plaza on Route 7 two years ago, and a Five Guys opened on Route 67 in Oxford last year.Dr. Shannon Bowling, left, dean of the School of Engineering Technology & Computer Science at Bluefield State College, and County Commissioner Bill Archer spoke to the Spanishburg Ruritan Club about the Pipestem Plan. The plans goal is to create a tourism corridor through the region.Greg Jordan/Bluefield Daily TelegraphMichael Kennedy, 34, was convicted by a McDowell County jury Friday. He faces life in prison with no possibility of parole for the murders of his wife, Jessica Daugherty, and her son by a previous marriage, Jeremy. (Jessica Nuzzo/Bluefield Daily Telegraph).Jonathan Miller proudly stands in the hallway in front of his classroom at First Baptist Church in Horn Lake. The hat, dog tags and flag hanging on the wall are all gifts sent back from overseas soldiers who got their Cup of Joe through his Eagles Sunday School Class at the church.Source:

January 19, 2019 11:26 IST

Bharatiya Janata Party Karnataka president and former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa on Saturday called back all party MLAs camping in Gurugram.

The BJP MLAs from Karnataka said they were in Gurugram since Monday evening to devise strategies for the coming Lok Sabha polls, and not to avoid being 'poached' by the ruling Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance.

Yeddyurappa said some Congress MLAs skipping the Congress Legislature Party meeting and the deep differences between the ruling coalition partners are an indication that a volcano may erupt in the coming days.

His remarks came after four dissident Congress MLAs on Friday skipped the CLP meeting in Bengaluru that was called as a show of strength against an alleged bid by the BJP to dislodge the H D Kumaraswamy-led Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) government.

"The absence of Congress MLAs from the CLP meeting and deep differences between the coalition partners are an indication that this is likely to erupt as a volcano in the next coming days," Yeddyurappa said late on Friday evening in Bengaluru.

Their absence also shows intense and widespread anger and resentment among Congress MLAs, he said.

The BJP chief said the tone of CLP leader Siddaramaiah's warning to the party MLAs showed his frustration and fear.

"Mr Siddaramaiah, the tone, tenor and content of the meeting notice given by you to the MLAs shows your frustration and proves that you are gripped by fear.

"If your relationship with the MLAs was strong and cordial, why did you mention in the notice that action would be taken as per the anti-defection law?" Yeddyurappa asked.

The Congress would issue notices to absentee MLAs -- Ramesh Jarkiholi, B Nagendra, Umesh Jadhav and Mahesh Kumatahalli, Siddaramaiah had told reporters after Friday's meeting.

Yeddyurappa also attacked Congress general secretary K C Venugopal over his remarks that 'Operation Lotus' commenced in Karnataka in 2008.

The BJP chief said it was the Congress which started the 'aaya ram, gaya ram' culture, referring to the practice of MLAs defecting to other parties, he said.

"In 1967, the then prime minister Indira Gandhi had said that 'gaya ram has now become aaya ram' when an MLA of her United Front government had joined and quit the Congress three times in a gap of 15 days," he said.

The former chief minister said it would be better if Siddaramaiah and Venugopal study political history to know what happened in Haryana where the Congress had formed the government with Bhajan Lal with the help of 36 Janata Party MLAs.

The Congress is continuing this culture, Yeddyurappa said.

It looks like that Siddaramaiah has forgotten that he too joined the Congress with the same culture, he added.

Yeddyurappa said the BJP was not lusting for power.

With 104 seats, the BJP is functioning as a vigilant and constructive opposition party and the Congress and the JD-S with 80 and 37 seats, respectively, have formed an unholy alliance to form the government, he said.

Kumaraswamy and Siddaramaiah should realise that this is first time in the history of legislature that a party with more than 100 seats is sitting in the Opposition.

Yeddyurappa also said that the BJP's MLAs assembled at a Gurgaon hotel to discuss the strategy to win the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

"If 104 MLAs of our party meet at one place and discuss the strategy to win the Lok Sabha, what is your problem? It is your responsibility to keep your party MLAs under control. If you scream the way you have been doing, it only shows your helplessness," he said.

Taking a dig at Venugopal's remarks that 'glorious days' of the grand old party must return, Yeddyurappa asked if he was referring to the return of 'multi-crore scams of the Congress-led UPA regime'.

He accused the Congress and the JD-S of fooling people and said while the two parties were friends in Karnataka, they were enemies in Kolkata.

"As usual the JD-S has been playing a double-game. The JD-S needs the Congress on one hand and on the other, the JD-S wants 'mahagathbandhan', which the Congress does not want," Yeddyurappa claimed.

The double standards of these parties show that there is no alternate to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said.

With ANI inputsSource:

Last updated on: January 19, 2019 19:31 IST

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public gathering at the inauguration and foundation stone laying of several projects at Silvassa in Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

On a day when many opposition parties came together on a common platform in Kolkata, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at their proposed mahagathbandhan or grand alliance, saying it is a combine of those whom he had prevented from "looting" India and it is not against him but people of the country.

He took a dig at the opposition rally organised on Saturday by the Trinamool Congress in Kolkata as well as as at West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, without taking her name, saying the Bharatiya Janata Party has only one MLA in the state, "but still they are so afraid of us that they are saying bachao (save us)".

"The mahagathbandhan or grand alliance is not against Narendra Modi but people of India," Modi said while addressing a public function at Silvassa, the capital of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, after laying a foundation stone for a medical college.

"My actions against corruption made some people angry as I prevented them from looting public money. They have formed the mahagathbandhan," Modi said, adding that these leaders have come together out of fear.

Against the backdrop of the West Bengal government denying permission to BJP to organise yatras in West Bengal, the PM said political parties in the TMC-ruled state are not even allowed to carry out their programmes.

"Party workers are killed there during elections and they talk about saving democracy. When those involved in suffocating democracy talk of saving it, then people will say wah kya baat hai...'," he said mocking the parties opposing the BJP.

Leaders of an array of opposition parties are taking part in the 'United India Rally' in Kolkata, where TMC chief Mamata Banerjee gave a call for changing the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.Source:

January 19, 2019 08:22 IST

IMAGE: The two leaders had met on June 12 last year in Singapore for the first summit. Photograph: Photograph: @Scavino45/@WhiteHouse/Twitter

United States President Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late February on Pyongyang dismantling its nuclear and missile programmes, the White House has announced

The two leaders had met on June 12 last year in Singapore for the first summit.

The White House, however, did not identify a location for the second setting between the two leaders.

The announcement came after Trump met with North Korean envoy, Kim Yong Chol, on Friday for a discussion that included talk about Kim Jong Un's unfulfilled pledge to dismantle his country's nuclear weapons programmes.

President Trump sat down with Kim Yong Chol, a high-level official in North Korea's Communist government, in the Oval Office, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

"President Donald J Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and half, to discuss denuclearisation and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February.

'The president looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date.' she said in a statement.

The press secretary told reporters: "We continue to make progress, we continue to have conversations."

The US is going to continue to keep "pressure and sanctions" on North Korea until 'we see fully and verifiable denuclearisation', she said.

"We had very good steps and very good faith from the North Koreans with the release of hostages and other moves and so we'll continue this conversation.And the President looks forward to it next February," Sanders' told reporters.

The North Korean envoy arrived at the White House after a closed-door meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US special envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun at a hotel here.

Following the White House meeting the North Korean official and a delegation he was leading were invited to lunch by Pompeo at Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.

The Secretary, Special Representative Biegun, and Vice Chairman Kim discussed efforts to make progress on the commitments President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un made at their summit in Singapore.

"At the conclusion of the Secretary's meeting with Vice Chairman Kim, the two sides held a productive first meeting at the working level," State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino said.

Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman said that in Singapore, Trump capitulated to Kim Jong Un -- handing North Korea a propaganda coup in exchange for empty words.

"During a second summit, he must deliver concrete, verifiable commitments from Pyongyang," he demanded.

Last year in Singapore, Trump had described his first-ever historic meeting with Kim Jong Un as 'really fantastic' and said they had agreed to 'sign' an unspecified document after their 'very positive' summit, aimed at normalising ties and complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

The US president had said he believed he and Kim Jong Un will 'solve a big problem, a big dilemma' and that by working together, 'we will get it taken care of'.

The summit at Singapore's Sentosa island - the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader -- had marked a turnaround of relations between Trump, 72, and Kim, 36, after a long-running exchange of threats and insults.

The US insists it will accept nothing less than complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.Source:

Last updated on: January 19, 2019 21:17 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday boarded a tank while inspecting Larsen and Toubro's Armoured Systems Complex facility at Hazira in Gujarat's Surat for manufacturing high-end guns.

The prime minister shared a brief video of himself standing in a tank on his Twitter handle.

"Checking out the tanks at L&T's Armoured Systems Complex in Hazira," Modi said in the tweet.

The Armoured Systems Complex, which Modi inaugurated earlier in the day, will be the first private facility in the country where the K9 Vajra self-propelled Howitzer guns will be manufactured.

L&T had in 2017 won the Rs 4,500-crore contract from the ministry of defence to supply 100 units of K9 Vajra-T 155 mm/52 calibre tracked self-propelled gun systems to the Indian Army under the Centre's 'Make in India' initiative.

The company has set up the Armoured Systems Complex at Hazira, around 30km from Surat, to manufacture and integrate advanced armoured platforms, such as self-propelled artillery Howitzers, future infantry combat vehicles, future-ready combat vehicles and future main battle tanks.

WATCH: PM Modi takes a ride in K9 Vajra self-propelled Howitzer

The manufacturing complex is executing the 'K9 Vajra-T 155 mm/52-caliber tracked self-propelled Howitzer guns' programme.

K9 Vajra contract involves delivery of 100 such systems in 42 months, which is the largest contract awarded to a private company by the ministry of defence.

L&T had signed a transfer of technology contract for guns with South Korean company Hanwha Corporation.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was also present at the inauguration.

Photographs: Press Information BureauSource:

Last updated on: January 19, 2019 21:18 IST

In a show of strength, a galaxy of Opposition leaders attended a mage rally organised by West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata.

Over 20 political parties, except the Biju Janata Dal and the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front, took part in the massive rally.

The rally -- held at Kolkata's Brigade Parade Grounds and attended by lakhs of people -- saw the participation of Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief MK Stalin, National Conference head Farooq Abdullah and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, among other prominent political faces.

The Opposition leaders targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party over various issues ranging from Rafale deal to alleged religious intolerance.

Banerjee wrapped up the event by heralding the "expiry date" of the Modi government.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, called the mahagathbandhan a combine of those he prevented from looting India.

Meanwhile, A four-member committee, comprising Abhishek Manu Singhvi (Congress), Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Satish Mishra (Bahujan Samaj Party) and Arvind Kejriwal (Aam Aadmi Party), has been formed after reports of electronic voting machine manipulation by the Bharatiya Janata Party, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee said on Saturday.

In addition to evaluating the functioning of EVMs and finding ways to stop any malpractice, the committee will suggest electoral reforms to the Election Commission before the Lok Sabha polls, Banerjee added.

IMAGE: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy, AP CM Na Chandrababu Naidu, Samajwady Party President Akhilesh Yadav, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, BSP General Secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, National Conference President Farooq Abdullah and other opposition leaders join hands together during Trinamool Congress's mega rally 'Brigade Samavesh' in Kolkata. All p hotographs: Swapan Mahapatra/Ashok Bhaumik/PTI Photo

Expiry date of the Modi govt is over: Mamata

Issuing a war cry Delhi mein sarkar badal do (change the government at the Centre), Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee asserted that the "expiry date" of the Modi government is over and a united opposition will win the coming general elections.

At the rally, she also promised to work together along with other opposition parties.

Who will be the prime minister will be decided after the polls, she said.

Claiming that BJP's days at the Centre are numbered, she told the mammoth gathering that the "expiry date of the Modi government is over".

Criticising the BJP, she said, "There is courtesy in politics, but BJP does not follow it. Those who are not with BJP are called thieves."

Banerjee also claimed that the BJP does not give respect to many of its own senior

leaders and people like Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari are ignored in the saffron party.

"Modi and his associates are now talking of collective leadership, but if BJP wins the Lok Sabha polls these leaders will be ignored again," she said.

Noting that the present situation in the country is of "super Emergency", Banerjee said it is worse than that imposed by Indira Gandhi and raised the slogan of Badal do, badal do, Delhi mein sarkar badal

do (change the government).

Not afraid if BJP removes me: Shatrughan

Disgruntled BJP leader Shatrughan Sinhacalled for changing the government in the 2019 Lok Sabha election and said he was not afraid of being removed from the ruling party.

He insisted he would continue to "show mirror" to the party and call "a spade a spade".

Sinha has been at odds with his party over several issues and has criticised the demonetisation exercise and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax. He has said he was attending the rally hosted by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata as a representative of the Rashtra Manch, a political action group launched by former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha.

"My elder brother Yashwant Sinha was saying that after this I will be definitely removed from the party, I told him koi baat nahi hai (no problem)," he said at the rally attended by several opposition leaders, including from the AAP and the RJD.

Known for his powerful dialogues in Hindi movies, Sinha said, "He is in Bharatiya Janata Party but before that he is with Bharat ki janata."

"If you keep suppressing facts, people will continue to say chaukidar chor hain," he said, using the word Congress president Rahul Gandhi has been employing to criticise the prime minister on the Rafale jet deal issue.

Sinha, who served as a Union minister in the NDA cabinet of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said there was lokshahi (democracy) during Vajpayee's tenure and now it's tanashahi (dictatorship).

BJP has forged ties with CBI and ED, says Akhilesh

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the coming together of the SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party has led to a wave of happiness in the country and left a worried BJP to hold meeting after meeting to devise a strategy to win even one seat in Uttar Pradesh.

Yadav also sought to give a reply to the BJP questioning the opposition parties about their prime ministerial candidate.

"They ask, who is PM candidate of opposition parties... We say people will decide the PM candidate from our side. But from their side, this name (Narendra Modi) has disappointed the country, who is your another name?" Yadav said.

He said while opposition parties have entered into alliance with the common people, the BJP has forged ties with the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement directorate.

The SP chief sat on the dais next to BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, who was participating in the rally as a representative of his party chief Mayawati.

Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh and his son Jayant Choudhury, who are engaged in discussions with the SP to join their political alliance in UP, were also present on the stage.

Yadav said the people across the country were celebrating the arrival of the New Year and this happiness will increase manifold when they will have a new prime minister.

Be Arjun and pitch united Oppn candidates to win LS poll: Shourie

Former Union minister Arun Shourie asked the opposition to work together to throw out the BJP government at the Centre in the coming Lok Sabha polls.

The opposition parties should unitedly pitch single candidates against the BJP contestants in the country to win the Lok Sabha poll.

Shourie said there are no two opinions on the need to oust the BJP.

"We (opposition parties and leaders) have to have a single aim -- that is ousting the BJP in the next Lok Sabha election. Become Arjun (of Mahabaharata)," he urged the opposition leaders.

"It will not be an easy work - pitching a single opposition candidate in each seat against the BJP. But we must sacrifice for the country, with a sense of love for it," Shourie, who was minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government said.

He said the Modi-Shah duo of BJP has lost the trust of the people. "This government has lied on all counts ... Modiji knows that his hold over the country has loosened".

Congratulating Banerjee for holding the opposition rally, Shourie said other opposition parties should also hold such rallies and each of them should attend those and not merely send representatives.

"The Bengal tigress has given the call to oust BJP. I am sure it will be successful," he added.

EVM is chor machine: Farooq Abdullah

National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah called the EVM the "chor machine" and demanded that the ballot paper system be brought back for the sake of transparency.

"It is not the question of ousting any single person (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) but of saving the country and honouring the sacrifices of those who fought for its freedom," he said.

"The EVM is chor machine. Honestly speaking, it is so. Its use must be put to an end. Nowhere in the world is the machine used. The opposition parties should approach the Election Commission and the President of India to stop the use of the EVM and bring back the old ballot papers for the sake of transparency," he said.

He blamed the BJP for the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and said people are being divided on religious lines. "People are being branded as Pakistanis. But all people -- right from Ladakh to elsewhere -- want to continue in India.

"I am a Muslim and I love India, my country," he said.

Continuing his tirade against the BJP, he said it stood for the Triple Talaq Bill in Parliament but did not pass the Women's Reservation Bill.

Urging for a united fight by opposition parties in the coming Lok Sabha election, he said the prime minister can be decided after the poll results.

"We have to fight and oust BJP. We have to come together to put up a one-to-one fight against it. We should fight together to strengthen our country," he said and hoped the new government will take the country forward.

PM is allowing Adani, Ambani to get benefits: Kharge

Representing the Congress, Mallikarjun Kharge said party chief Rahul Gandhi and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi had sent their good wishes for the rally.

At the rally, Kharge, the leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha, read out a message from Sonia Gandhi, highlighting the "crisis" looming over the country with farmers and fishermen living under immense strain.

Under the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, the economic and political institutions of India were being undermined, he said, adding that the upcoming Lok Sabha polls will be for the restoration of democracy in the country.

Kharge, who participated at the rally as the emissary of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, said, "Till we (opposition parties) unite, we will have to continue seeing Modi and Shah trample democracy and the secular values of the country."

Congress's national spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi was also present at the rally.

"Never before have we seen such vendetta politics... When Amit Shah did 100 rallies in Uttar Pradesh, no one questioned, but when the RJD organised a rally, it got an Income Tax notice," Singhvi said.

"(Prime Minister) Narendra Modi makes fun of the opposition alliance, but his party made the most unethical alliance in Kashmir. What would he say about it?" Singhvi

said.

Stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi time and again referred to his na khaunga na khane dunga (neither will I eat nor allow anyone to eat) slogan, Kharge wondered what the PM was actually doing.

"He himself is not eating, but he is allowing Adani, Ambani and his corporate friends to benefit," he said.

Going by Modi's promise of creating two crore jobs every year, 9.5 crore jobs should have been created by now, the Congress leader said, adding that instead, the government had rendered 1.6 crore people jobless.

Referring to demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax, he alleged that the two measures had triggered an economic crisis in the country.

At the end of his speech, Kharge said in Hindi, "Manzil door hain, rasta kathin hain, phir bhi pahuchna hain. Dil mile na mile, kamse kam haath mila kar chalo (The destination is far and the road is difficult but still, we have to reach there. Whether our hearts meet or not, we should walk holding hands)."

After Kharge's speech, Banerjee thanked Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi for their good wishes for the rally and for sending the two senior party leaders to the function.

Modi govt's sologan is sabka saath sabka vinash: Yashwant Sinha

Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha came down heavily on the Narendra Modi government saying that this was the first government after Independence which has been playing "mischief" with the developmental statistics.

Sinha who quit the BJP recently said, under the present regime while praising the government was desh bhakti (patriotism), criticising it is desh drohi (sedition).

"After Independence this is the first government which has been presenting decorated and inflated developmental statistics to befool people," the former Union finance minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government said apparently referring to the Niti Aayog downgrading GDP growth rate during UPA time.

Sinha, who was in a committee to find solution to the Kashmir problem said when he had suggested to talk to the cross-section of people in the environment of love, he was branded a "Pakistani agent".

From the dais itself, he urged NC leader Farooq Abdullah did he spoke wrong on this count, to which the NC leader nodded in negative.

The former Union minister made fun of Modi's government's slogan of sabka saath sabka vikas and said the apt slogan would be sabka saath sabka vinash.

He said now he is left with no personal desire but to see that this "anti-people" government is ousted from power.

Modi is a publicity PM: Chandrababu Naidu

Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu said the BJP has betrayed the people of the country by reneging on all the promises it had made before the 2014 general elections.

Naidu said the BJP has failed on its promises of a corruption-free government, to bring back black money from foreign shores and double farmers' income, among several other assurances.

"The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) is a publicity PM and not a performance PM," he said Naidu claimed that Modi has cheated the farmers of the country, who are ending their lives under financial stress.

"He promised doubling farmers' income, instead they are committing suicide now," the Andhra CM said.

Alleging corrupt dealings in buying Rafale fighter jets from French firm Dassault, he said 36 aircraft were being bought at the price of 126 jets.

Naidu said demonetisation caused immense hardship to people and called the GST a "fraud".

Unemployment has increased and new jobs were not being created due to lack of economic growth, he said.

"The BJP is trying to divide the people of the country and playing dirty politics... The government is misusing the ED and the CBI to take on opposition leaders and parties," Naidu said.

He also claimed that electronic voting machines were a "big fraud" and demanded that paper ballots be brought back in the upcoming general elections.

Oppn should forget their differences and fight BJP: Deve Gowda

Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda said with the general elections close at hand, the opposition parties should forget their differences and come together to fight the BJP unitedly.

The Janata Dal-Secular supremo said a small group of senior leaders should be formed to decide on a roadmap on how they will ensure good governance.

The herculean task of seat sharing for the coming Lok Sabha elections has to be addressed to ensure direct fight against the BJP, he said.

"People want a new government," he said addressing a mammoth rally.

"A stable government is needed to build a strong nation, but after getting 282 seats in the 2014 elections, Narendra Modi instead of building a strong nation, wants to destroy the secular nature of the country and destroy all constitutional institutions," Deve Gowda said.

Stating that a question often asked is who would be the prime minister after Modi, he said the opposition leaders must have confidence that they can give a stable government for five years. This must be ensured by the galaxy of leaders congregated at the rally.

Gowda said Modi claims that coalition government is unstable and cannot achieve anything, but the opposition has to show that it can give a stable government and develop the nation.

Referring to the coalition government led by him between June 1996- April 1997, he said it had sanctioned the Bogibeel bridge in Assam, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi recently.

"Delhi Metro was also cleared by my government, 36 crore poor people were helped through rice, wheat and kerosene oil at subsidised prices," Gowda said, stressing that a coalition government can ensure development of people and the nation.

We must defeat the corrupt Modi govt to save country: Hardik Patel

Lauding Mamata Banerjee for her clarion call to defeat BJP in the coming Lok Sabha elections, Patidar leader Hardik Patel called upon people to fulfil her desire in its true spirit to save the country and democracy.

"We must save our country and democracy for the welfare of the nation," he said.

Stating that the opposition parties are fighting against "thieves", Patel said while Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had given a call to fight against the goro (Britishers), "we are fighting against choro (thieves)."

The young Gujarat leader thanked Banerjee for bringing all major opposition leaders on one platform and pointing towards jansalab (mass gathering) at the grounds said it was an indication that BJP is on its way out of power.

If Modi wins in 2019, elections will never take place: Kejriwal

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal called upon people to defeat the "dangerous" BJP government at the Centre at any cost.

Stating that the country was at the crossroads of a serious crisis, he said there is need for immediate change of the Modi government to save the country and democracy.

"If the (Narendra) Modi-(Amit) Shah combine continues to rule the country by winning the 2019 elections, it will change the Constitution and further elections will never take place. A fascist regime will set in as was done by Hitler in Germany," Kejriwal said at TMC's mega opposition rally here.

He accused the BJP of creating enmity among people in the name of religion.

"It was Pakistan's dream to split this country into pieces. This BJP government is going ahead in that direction by creating enmity among people and dividing the nation on the lines of religion, language..." Kejriwal said at the Brigade Parade Grounds.

Slamming the central government, he said in the last five years, it has failed to create employment opportunities and farmers were facing acute crises.

"Demonetisation has taken away all the scope of employment and Modi's friendly insurance companies were making money at the cost of farmers," the Delhi CM alleged.

He added that the objective of the general elections was not to find the next prime minister, but to oust Modi and his party.

Lok Sabha polls will be second fight for Independence: Stalin

DMK president M K Stalin said the upcoming general elections will be akin to the second freedom struggle for people of India to fight against the "radical Hinduism" of the BJP.

Stalin said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is "afraid" of a few people, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

"The next (Lok Sabha) elections will be the second fight for Independence. We will stop this poison of Hindutva and radical Hinduism from spreading. Our call is to defeat Modi and save the country," he said.

Criticising the central government, Stalin also accused it of working for corporate houses.

"If Modi is back in power, the country will go back 50 years," he said.Source:

January 19, 2019 18:54 IST

Four nuns, who took part in a protest demanding the arrest of rape-accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal, have written to Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, seeking his intervention to ensure that their transfer orders were not effected till the trial of the case was over.

The letter to the chief minister was written after four of the five nuns, who led the agitation against the bishop last year, were directed to leave their convent in Kottayam district, in compliance with a transfer order issued by their congregation last year.

The survivor nun has also written a separate letter to the chief minister, seeking his help in the matter.

"Their aim is to single me out and to harass and torture me. My life will be in danger if such a situation arises," she has alleged in her letter.

Their congregation -- Missionaries of Jesus under the Jalandhar diocese of the Roman Catholic Church -- has directed the nuns to join their previously-assigned convents, according to the transfer orders issued between March and May, 2018.

The nuns -- Alphy, Anupama, Josephine and Ancitta -- were served notice by the superior general of the congregation, Regina Kadamthottu, urging them to take up their assigned responsibilities as befitting members of the Missionaries of Jesus congregation.

Sister Nina Rose, who also fought for justice for the survivor nun, has not been asked to leave the convent.

While Sister Alphy has been transferred to a convent at Pakartala in Bihar, sister Ancitta and sister Josephine have been directed to join their convent in Lalmatia, Jharkhand.

Sister Anupama has been asked to report at a convent in Punjab.

In their letter to the chief minister, the nuns alleged that the transfer orders were aimed at splitting them and "to sabotage the case" against Bishop Franco Mulakkal.

"Bishop Franco is supported by some of the church authorities and his henchmen. They are making false propagation and character assassination against us.

"The aim of the present transfer orders is to pressure and threaten us as all of us are prominent witnesses in the case," the four nuns alleged in the letter.

They claimed that their "fate of life" itself would be unpredictable if they were transferred to distant regions.

"They want to split us and put us into different locations in India. We will not be able to appear and give evidence before the court at the trial stage in such a situation," they said in the letter.

The nuns sought Vijayan's intervention to ensure that all of them could live at the St Francis Mission Home in Kuravilangad itself, with the survivor, till the trial of the rape case was over, especially considering their safety.

"The victim is actually living on the strength and support extended from our side. Our presence itself is a great solace for her, who is totally in a broken situation," they said.

Alleging that the transfer orders were a "strategy" to put all of them under pressure, the nuns said, "If the transfer is effected, we will not be in a position to give evidence in the case daringly."

"We will not be allowed to live peacefully and will collapse emotionally and mentally. Our lives will be in danger," they said.

The protest led by the nuns and the Catholic reformist forums in Kochi in September last year had led to a public outrage and demands for action against the bishop.

Bishop Mulakkal, a senior member of the Roman Catholic clergy in India, was arrested last year following allegations by the nun that he repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted her at the Kuravilangad convent between 2014 and 2016, a charge denied by him.

The 54-year-old clergyman was "temporarily" relieved of all pastoral responsibilities as the bishop of the Jalandhar diocese by the Vatican.

The congregation had issued the transfer orders of the nuns last year, much before the outbreak of protests, but they had then refused to accept those.

In a recent communique, Superior General Regina said it was a "matter of serious concern" for her to note that they were yet to join their convents assigned previously.January 19, 2019 12:51 IST

Under its Agile business model, the company has started using its off-shore base up to the extent of 90 per cent which, along with several other measures, will benefit its operating margins, said Chief Operating Officer N Ganapathy Subramaniam.

With rising subcontracting costs in on-site locations -- especially in the US -- weighing on its margins, TCS is looking to execute as much work possible from India, to raise the off-shore efficiency to as high as 90 per cent.

Traditionally, the IT outsourcing services industry uses its off-shore base for service delivery to the extent of 70 per cent, while the remaining is executed out of on-shore locations in client geographies.

Under its Agile business model, the company has started using its off-shore base up to the extent of 90 per cent which, along with several other measures, will benefit its operating margins, said Chief Operating Officer N Ganapathy Subramaniam.

We hired more people than we had budgeted for in the quarter, which is why manpower costs increased and ultimately played down into the dip in margin. We decided that if there is demand, we should capture it rather than let someone else do so, said Subramaniam told Business Standard.

In the quarter just gone, TCSs net margins saw a dip of 90 basis points to 25.6 per cent despite posting strong growth in revenues and profits, primarily because the firm had to rely on subcontractors.

The other reason was heavy hiring in the US owing to the spike in demand, an unusual phenomenon in the October-December period that is typically marred by extended holidays and client furloughs.

Increase in sub-contracting costs, as well as the cost towards almost 6,800 new hires during the quarter, negatively impacted margins by 60 basis points. Most of the new hires have already commenced work on projects signed over the past quarter.

Subramaniam attributed the spike in manpower costs to the Business 4.0 model, which advocates embracing risks.

While not a traditionally hiring-heavy quarter, TCS has gone all out to tap into the upswing in demand. The hiring was meant to tackle both the visa situation as well as the US and UK markets, which are very supply-constrained at this point.

The sub-contracting pool is flexible, so we hired locally rather than waiting for visas to come through, to ensure that project works kick-start, he added.

In the first three quarters of FY19, TCS added a net 23,000 people to its workforce, a significant increase as compared to a net addition of 7,000 in the whole of FY18. The company has also hired more candidates across its US centres over the past nine months than the preceding nine months, a move analysts have largely appreciated.

This aggression was also partly on account of the healthy order win during the last nine months. In Q3 alone, TCS signed contracts worth $5.9 billion, a record in itself, with majority of them coming from North America.

Subramaniam attributes the firms ability to structure the existing demand with the right mix of on-site and off-shore resources as the secret to its aggressive growth.

I would say the off-shore component is a lot more today than it was earlier, especially in projects adopting the location-independent agile methodology. It (use of off-shore) used to be around 70 per cent earlier, but we now see projects getting executed from off-shore to the extent of 90 per cent, or even fully, depending on customer comfort and complexity of the project.

TCS typically looks at the most appropriate way to form the teams and locations so that the right value is created and the right cost models are put in place, which also factors in where the customers resources and talent pool are located, he added.

While the demand environment, the company says, stays healthy, given the deals in hand, analysts tracking the sector also expect client budgets to see a jump in 2019, after remaining subdued for many years.

According to initial interactions, there doesnt seem to be any constraint on client budgets. If at all, there will be an increase, said Subramaniam. In fact, even some analyst polls expect a 3-5 per cent increase in budgets, so I dont see any stoppage or downturn.

Image: TCS Chief Operating Officer N Ganapathy Subramaniam. Photograph: Courtesy TCS on TwitterAfter four women with shared experiences came together and decided to start something new, Rise Hair Salon opened its doors on Thursday, June 27. The salon was created by individual stylists Hannah Haslett, Sami Johnson, Haley Shinall and Alyssa Trossevin and is located at 159 West Clayton Street.In what was, so far, the best baseball game of the week, the Jaguars pulled their 33rd win out of the fire and salvaged a gem of a start from their star pitcher.Maximum Temperatures globally, 17 January 2019. The top 15 temperatures are all in Australia. Graphic: El Dorado Weather

16 January 2019 (The Journal)  The top 15 hottest places in the world today are all in Australia as a severe heatwave continues to roast the southeast of the continent.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology said the past four days were among the countrys top 10 warmest on record, with temperatures nearing 50 degrees Celsius in some parts.Fruit growers are suffering severe losses as produce is cooking on branches, ABC reports. Forecasters are warning of more record-breaking temperatures before the weekend. Authorities in several states have issued health warnings urging people to take care of themselves, their relatives, neighbours and pets as heatwave impacts can build over several days. []

The warmest 15 places on the planet in the past 24 hours were all in Australia, according to the El Dorado Weather site.

Temperature forecast for Australia, 16 January 2019. Graphic: BOM

The top spot was claimed by Tarcoola in South Australia, which reached 49.1 degrees, while Yulara in the Northern Territory came in 15th at 46.1 degrees.

Yesterday the New South Wales state government announced plans to mechanically pump oxygen into lakes and rivers after hundreds of thousands of fish have died in heatwave conditions.

Up to a million dead fish were found floating last week in the Darling River in the west of the state and the state government announced that 1,800 more rotting fish had since been found in Lake Hume in the states south.

Minister for Regional Water Niall Blair said 16 battery-powered aerators had been bought and would be placed in various drought-affected waterways after they are delivered today.

They are a Band-Aid solution; we admit that, Blair told reporters. [more]

Mounds of dead flying foxes in Campbelltown suburb of Sydney, 11 January 2019. The bats were killed by the record heat wave. Photo: Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown / Facebook

The hottest 15 places in the world today are all in Australia as extreme heatwave rages on

By Helen Regan and Ben Westcott

16 January 2019

(CNN)  Australia is sweltering under record-breaking temperatures as an extreme heat wave continues to sweep across the country, causing wildlife to die and fruit to cook from the inside out.

The past four days are in Australias top ten warmest days on record, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said in a tweet on Wednesday, with all of the countrys eight states and territories affected.

South Australias Port Augusta hit a scorching 48.5 degrees Celsius (119 F) on Tuesday, the highest since records began in 1962, according to CNN affiliate Nine News. The town of Tarcoola in South Australia reached a sweltering 49 C (120 F).

Elsewhere, temperatures stayed well above 40 C (104 F) and the hot weather is expected to last until Friday. One town in northwestern Australia, Marble Bar, suffering through 22 consecutive days of temperatures above 40 C, at one point almost reaching 50 C (122 F).

As the mercury continues to rise, concerns are with the vulnerable, including the young, elderly and those with asthma or respiratory diseases.

On Wednesday, New South Wales Health authorities warned that the high temperatures are expected to contribute to high ozone air pollution across Sydney. Dr. Richard Broome, director of environmental health at New South Wales Health, said that people with asthma and other respiratory problems were particularly vulnerable as ozone can irritate the lungs.

Ozone levels are higher outdoors than indoors, and generally highest in the afternoon and early evening, so limiting time outdoors during the heat of the day and in the evening helps people to not only keep cool but to limit their exposure to ozone pollution, he said. []

Its the second heatwave in less than a month to hit Australia. Just over two weeks ago, a brutal post-Christmas heatwave led to extreme or severe fire warnings across at least three states and intensified severe droughts across the country.

Fish, bat deaths and fruit cooking from the inside

The high temperatures are taking an increasing toll on the countrys flora and fauna. In the Murray-Darling River Basin across the southeast, more than a million dead fish have been washed up on the banks.

Niall Blair, Primary Industries Minister in New South Wales state, said more deaths of marine life are expected in coming days as temperatures continue to rise, according to local media.

But environmental activists have blamed the mass deaths on poor management of the river system by state and federal governments, alleging mass consumption of water by farmers was leaving too little for fish to survive.

A lack of water in the Darling River and the Menindee Lakes means that authorities were unable to flush the system before millions of fish suffocated through a lack of oxygen in water, independent New South Wales lawmaker Jeremy Buckingham said in a statement.

This mass fish kill should be a wake up call for Australia.

Colonies of bats were also succumbing to the heat and dropping from trees in Adelaide, according to CNN affiliate Nine News, prompting warnings to avoid contact with the animals as they can carry deadly diseases.

Heat can be disastrous for bat species. Following a heat wave in north Queensland in November 2018, an estimated 23,000 spectacled flying foxes died  almost one third of the species in Australia.

In South Australia, the extreme heat is causing stone fruit, including peaches and nectarines, to cook from the inside out, leading to heavy losses for farmers and spurring a race against time to harvest the fruit before it spoils, according to ABC.

The stone burns them, which means they burn on the inside, they become squashy and you cant use them, Dried Tree Fruits Australia chairman Kris Werner told ABC. [more]

Stay indoors: Warning issued as Australias heat wave hits record highs

A rescued flying fox in Campbelltown during the record heatwave in Sydney, Australia, 11 January 2019. Photo: Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown / Facebook

By Emma Brancatisano

11 January 2019

(9 News)  When Storm Stanford walks through a flying-fox camp during extreme heat, the noises that she hears are always the hardest to forget.

One of the worst things is in the aftermath when youre waiting and you hear the mums calling out for their pups, the coordinator of the WIRES bat and flying fox team told 9news.com.au.

During a heat stress event, the animals are all over the place. Afterwards, you see the mums flying around and calling. Some will stop, but others will keep calling because their pup isnt going to respond.

Ms Stanford was one of the WIRES volunteers desperately attending to a local bat colony in Campbelltown, in Sydneys south-west, on Sunday when more than 200 animals were found dead during record-searing heat. Most of them were pups. To date, about 3000 of the bat species have since died across Sydney, and others across New South Wales and Victoria, claimed by the effects of a dangerous heatwave that moved through the nations south-east. []

The scene has been described by volunteers as unbelievable as dead bats were found on the ground, while others dangled from trees. When you go into a camp in heat stress, all the animals are on the ground because thats the coolest place they can be. There are piles of bodies  some of them are dead, others are alive, she explained. []

In 45+ degree heat, all members battled to save as many as they could without falling in the heat themselves, but with great team work and support they made it through to nightfall, environmental group Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown wrote on Facebook. [more]

Deaths of thousands of bats in searing heatwave will happen again,



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Nearby CaliforniaRussia has deployed batteries of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles close to the Ukrainian border, according to new satellite images.

The photos, taken by ImageSat International, show a deployment of short-range nuclear-capable Iskander ballistic missiles near the city of Krasnodar, which is about 270 miles southeast of the Ukrainian border, Fox News reported. ImageSat is a professional commercial satellite imaging provider. Its imaging is regularly used by governments and defense agencies for security analysis purposes.Navy Officials Says Carrier Could Be Sent Through Taiwan Strait

A Navy official on Friday said it could still send an aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait in spite of recent military advances by China that could heighten the threat posed to U.S. warships.

We don't really see any kind of limitation on whatever type of ship could pass through those waters, Admiral John Richardson, who oversees naval operations, told reporters in Tokyo Friday.BritBox, the streaming service devoted to bringing British television to American audiences, has surpassed 500,000 subscribers.





The service, launched in March 2017 by BBC Studios and ITV with investment from AMC Networks, is an SVOD network available on Roku, Apple TV, IOs and Android devices and Chromecast.Since launching, BritBox has exclusively premiered current seasons of Vera, starring actress Brenda Blethyn; Maigret, starring Rowan Atkinson; Hold the Sunset, starring John Cleese; and Bliss, starring Heather Graham. It also has premiered its first original series, Bletchley Circle: San Francisco, reviving the classic franchise.Many of BritBoxs hit series are available within hours of their UK broadcast with the services Now feature, including popular soaps like EastEnders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Casualty and Holby City.We knew that our special sauce of combining our Now feature of near live television, with the best British TV programming would make this a must-have service," said Soumya Sriraman, president of BritBox . "British content is as popular as ever, and we are doubling down by making amazing series accessible while continuing to build our ever-growing community around desirable content.Theres never a shortage of books focused on childrens social and behavioral development. The need for such titles, says Mark Grimes, v-p of publishing at the American Academy of Pediatrics, has less to do with kids themselves and more to do with the world at large: Children are seeing and responding to the same images that are causing their parents stressfamilies being separated at the border, mass shootings. Its important that the books we produce give parents the tools they need to help their children thrive in a world that feels uncertain.

Grimes cites Damon Korbs Raising an Organized Child as just such a book; its an AAP title that helps parents foster a safe, nurturing environment within their own home and better prepare their children to deal with whatever they confront outside of it.

Kristine Enderle, editorial director at the American Psychological Associations Magination Press, agrees with Grimes that children are increasingly aware of big-picture concerns. These days, kids are more afraid of and worried about things that worry adults, she says. Many Magination titles, such as Merriam Sarcia Saunderss My Whirling Twirling Motor, help parents talk through stressful situations with their kids, hoping that this will build emotional resiliency and bolster their kids physical and mental health in the long run.

Raising an Organized Child and My Whirling Twirling Motor are among several forthcoming titles aimed at helping parents foster their childrens emotional wellbeing.

Middle School Matters

Phyllis L. Fagell. Da Capo Lifelong, Aug.

Fagell, a licensed clinical and certified school counselor and Washington Post columnist, views the often-overlooked middle school years as a critical stage in a childs development and a low-stakes training ground to teach kids the key skills theyll need to thrive now and in the future, according to her publisher. Fagell addresses issues including dealing with conflict, regulating emotions, and choosing good friends.

My Whirling Twirling Motor

Merriam Sarcia Saunders, illus. by Tammie Lyon. Magination, Mar.

Licensed marriage and family therapist Saunderss first picture book follows Charlie, a boy with ADHD. Katherine ten Hagen, the books editor, says Motor is about taking the time to notice what kids do right each day, instead of all the time they spend not listening quite as well as we may hope. The goal is to build self-esteem and a support system through encouragement and unconditional love.

Raising an Organized Child

Damon Korb. AAP, June

Subtitled 5 Steps to Boost Independence, Ease Frustration, and Promote Confidence, this book by behavioral and developmental pediatrician Korb has a straightforward premise: organized children are raised, not born. Grimes says the title not only addresses the kind of organization that means being able to find two matching socks, or remembering to turn in homework, but, more important, it stresses the executive function and neurodevelopmental abilities that create confident and independent kids.

The Science of Parenting Adopted Children

Arleta James. Jessica Kingsley, June

Incorporating neuroscience and attachment theory, James, founder and director of Adoption & Attachment Therapy Partners, aims to help parents assist adopted childrenmany of whom have endured traumatic experiencesin developing socially, emotionally, and morally, and in finding success in and out of the home.

The Stressed Years of Their Lives

B. Janet Hibbs and Anthony Rostain. St. Martins, Apr.

When family psychologist Hibbs (Try to See It My Way: Being Fair in Love and Marriage) discovered her college-age son was suffering from depression, she sought help from Rostain, a psychiatrist who focuses much of his work on children and adolescents. Now, the two have teamed up to create a guidebook for parents of college and college-bound students that, according to the publisher, explains whats normal, whats not, and how to intervene before its too late.

21st Century Parenting

Rick Capaldi. Central Recovery, Aug.

In this guide to raising emotionally hardy children, Capaldi, founder of a nonprofit school-based counseling agency in Southern California, offers a new take on the three Rs: he advocates reading childrens environments, regulating their emotional temperatures, and redirecting their behavior.

Under Pressure

Lisa Damour. Ballantine, Feb.

Studies have shown that anxiety among girls has risen dramatically in recent years. Damourwho, in 2016s Untangled, addressed the normal, if perplexing, developmental stages of teenage girlshere offers strategies that will help parents support anxious daughters. This is a remarkably thorough and accessible guide for raising girls into strong, independent women, our review said.

Understanding Teenage Anxiety

Jennifer Browne and Cody Buchanan. Skyhorse, Aug.

Browne (Baby Nosh) and her son Buchanan, who suffered from chronic untreated anxiety during his teen years, draw on personal experiences in this guide for parents dealing with anxious adolescents. They discuss the physical and emotional symptoms of anxiety, self-harm, coping strategies, and more.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misstated the publication year for Untangled by Lisa Damour.

Return to the main feature.The abundance of parenting styles and fadstiger moms, helicopter parents, and cat dads, not to mention free-range parenting, baby-led parenting, and attachment parentingis enough to make any new parents head spin. As a possible antidote, several forthcoming titles suggest that maybe what moms and dads really need is to slow down, be a little more mindful, and practice some self-compassion.

It really feels like mindfulness is having a moment, says Suzy Reading, author of Stand Tall Like a Mountain (Aster, May), who points out that, though mindful parenting may be trendy, theres nothing new about the practice of mindfulness, which is a way of grounding oneself in the present moment. Over the last 20 years, there has been significant research into the health benefits of mindfulness. And with the advent of positive psychologythe study of the building blocks to wellbeingtheres no surprise that mindfulness is center stage.

In Stand Tall Like a Mountain, Reading, who is a psychologist, yoga instructor, and mother of two, outlines mindfulness practices for parents and children, offering a range of choices that cater to different interests. Some practices incorporate yoga and mindful breathing, some focus on relaxation and meditation techniques, and others make use of art and journaling. I wanted to create an easily accessible resource that families could turn to, to enjoy together, she says. Mindfulness has wonderful benefits, for each of us as individuals and also for the health of the family unit. It helps us to navigate difficult emotions and challenging experiences and to truly savor the joyful times, too.

Echoing Readings sentiments about the science behind mindfulness is Diana Korevaar, a perinatal psychiatrist and the author of Mindfulness for Mums and Dads (Murdoch, Apr.). She stresses research into human brain functioning and the impact emotions have on peoples thoughts, behavior, and relationships. The science of mindfulness is very much grounded in what we know about the development of the brain through childhood, and then the way the brain continues to be developed throughout our lives, she says, noting that mindfulness practices help foster a capacity for clear thinking, creativity, and problem solving, among other attributes.

Korevaars book details mindfulness strategies that can be practiced anywhere and that are aimed at helping parents calm down, reframe challenges, and experience life more positively. Research shows that within eight weeks, in some of the more robust mindfulness training programs, we can quite literally change the structure of the brain, she says.

Susan M. Pollak, author of Self-Compassion for Parents (Guilford, Aug.), also extols the science behind mindfulness, but she attributes the popularity of mindful parenting to another factor: having kids is really, really hard. We never feel that were good enough, says Pollak, a psychologist, student of meditation and yoga, and mother of two. For many of us, there is so much pressure and so little support. We look over our shoulder, comparing ourselves with our friends, families, neighbors. We lose sleep. We wonder if someone, someplace does it better.

Self-compassion and mindfulness, Pollak says, suggest another path: We now have decades of solid research that shows that mindfulness and compassion can help us lead more fulfilled lives. We dont have to feel angry or helpless and drive our kids and ourselves to exhaustion trying to do it all. The seeds for happier and less combative parenting are within us.

Pollak stresses the value of mothers and fathers nurturing themselves as a way to improve their parenting. If we include ourselves in our circle of compassion, were less likely to yell, to melt down if a child spills her milk or refuses to help set the table, she says. Rather than berate ourselves when were having a hard time, we learn to be a good friend to ourselves when were struggling. To extend kindness to ourselves is one of the biggest gifts we can give a child.

Pregnant Pause

If parenting is difficult, its even more challenging for mothers dealing with postpartum depression. Thats the focus of Expecting Mindfully (Guilford, Mar.) by clinical psychologists Sona Dimidjian and Sherryl H. Goodman.

Many women are at risk for depression during pregnancy and the postpartum period, and this is concerning for the mother and likely also involves her partner and other support people, Dimidjian says. Depression in pregnant women is also concerning for the fetus, given that all of the developing neurobehavioral systems have implications for later development.

Expecting Mindfully is grounded in mindfulness-based cognitive therapya form of therapy that leverages mindfulness practicesand offers mothers and mothers-to-be guided meditations, yoga practices, journaling exercises, and other tools aimed at preventing postpartum depression. The book will also feature a companion website that includes audio downloads narrated by meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg and video clips of prenatal yoga practices.

The strong evidence for mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is compelling, Dimidjian says. We wrote this book to help mothers access comfort and support and concrete tools that will help them navigate the challenges of pregnancy and parenting.

The Kids Are Alright

In addition to books that help parents be more present, which in turn will benefit their children, some titles focus on mindfulness for kids.

Ive seen firsthand how stress affects children and how much calmer and more open to learning they are once theyve done some mindfulness, says Uz Afzal, an educator and author of Mindfulness for Children (Kyle, Apr.). When I teach the practices in this book to children, they have practical tools they can use to help them to focus, and to calm their minds when they become upset, overwhelmed, or angry.

One key practice is balloon breathing: a child imagines a small balloon inflating and deflating in her belly with each breath, while using simple phrasese.g., Blow up the balloon or Let all the air outto maintain her concentration. I was speaking in a class recently to a child who told me how mindfulness helped him before a test, Afal says. He was feeling anxious, and the practice helped him to calm his nerves and to focus.

Lisa Roberts, a certified yoga instructor and author of Teach Your Child Yoga (Sterling, June), has also seen how mindfulness can benefit kids through her work running the inpatient yoga program at St. Louis Childrens Hospital. Yoga connects the mind and the body through intentional movement, she says. Moving the body with awareness and control by linking movements to the breath results in meditation.

In her book, Roberts demonstrates that yoga supports childrens physical, cognitive, sensory, emotional, and social development. She includes lessons designed for kids that aid posture, digestion, cold and allergy relief, and more.

Because stress and anxiety are not exclusive to adults, Roberts emphasizes the importance of parents teaching children coping skills to help them navigate everyday challenges. Parents are feeling the effects of our rapidly changing world and the pace at which we move and live, she says. Theyre learning how to adapt so they can cope and keep up with these changes, and they want their children to have these skills too.

Bless This Mess

Mindfulness and self-compassion can help parents and their children in myriad ways, but theyre no panacea for the abundant challengesdiapers that need to be changed, kids who wont nap, homework that needs to be completed, to name just a fewthat parents face every day. And to some extent, thats kind of the point: parents cant change what it means to be a parent, but they can change how they react to parenting.

Parents are tired of being frustrated, irritated, angry, or flying off the deep end with their children, says Steven Fonso, a holistic doctor, whose Finding Magic in the Mess (TarcherPerigee, July) aims to help parents recognize unhelpful patterns, release the need to be perfect, and reframe challenges as growth opportunities. The benefit for parents is that they learn to relax for their own sake, which helps to lower stress hormones, he says. They discover a larger emotional range, which can replace frustration and irritation with love, joy, and peace.

Teacher, school counselor, and educational consultant Kim John Payne, in Being at Your Best When Your Kids Are at Their Worst (Shambhala, Sept.), also acknowledges the inherent difficulties of parenting. He offers lessons in remaining calm when children are misbehaving and testing boundaries.

When your kids are pushing every button on your control panel, [its because] theyre disoriented, theyre lookingtheyre lost, Payne says. And what theyre doing is using you to echolocate. Theyre pushing you because theyre trying to find the resistance they need to find where they are. If we can stay centered when our kids are pushing us, the whole situation doesnt escalate and become inflamed. They find what they need because theyre looking at us to orient them.

This isnt always easy, Payne acknowledges. Parenting is probably one of the hardest things that we do in terms of how we stay centered, even calm. We can do that in a lot of areas in our lives, but parenting... Our kids have just got a way of pushing us.

Parents, Not Zen Monks

Authors extolling the virtues of meditation and self-compassion caution parents against seeing be mindful as yet another item on their already-lengthy to-do lists, and against thinking they need to achieve enlightenment in order to be good parents. Instead, mindful parenting can be achieved in small, everyday moments.

You might be thinking, Yeah, I have to work, shop, and make dinner, do laundry, attend to my aging parents, exercise, walk the dog, and now I have to practice self-compassion too? When is that going to happen?  Pollak says. But the beauty of self-compassion is that you dont need to disappear from your daily life. You can do this in the midst of life, in the chaos of your world.

No amount of mindfulness and compassion will remove unpleasant things from our daily lives, she adds. Poopy diapers will not magically disappear or suddenly turn to gold. But what happens if we bring awareness to the task of changing diapers? How we respond to the daily drudgery of parenting can have an impact on our day. While we cant make the unwanted tasks of parenting go away, we do have a choice about how we are in relationship to them.

Reading agrees, stressing that one of the strengths of mindfulness is that it doesnt require elaborate practices. We use everyday tasks to hone the skills, she says. This helps us build our mindfulness muscles, so they can really sustain us through more stressful moments.

Below, more on the subject of parenting books.

The Science of Parenting: PW Talks with Emily Oster

In Cribsheet, her follow up to Expecting Better, the economist confronts common parenting wisdom with hard data.

Nonfiction Comics About Parenting: New Parenting Books 2019

Forthcoming books by Lucy Kinsley, Guy Delisle, and others bring the reality of parenthood to vivid visual life.

Helping Kids During Troubled Times: New Parenting Books 2019

Here are the latest books that focus on childrens social and behavioral development.This week, the library world will gather in Seattle for the American Library Associations 2019 Midwinter Meeting, where a slate of great authors will take the main stage to give keynotes, and where publishers and other content-related service providers will make up the bulk of the booths on the exhibit floor. As always, the publisher booths will be the most prominent and widely visited booths at the show. Anyone who has ever been to an ALA conference knows well that librarians will happily wait in long lines (often with bookbags slung over both shoulders) for the chance to meet authors and get signed ARCs. Thats because Americas libraries are built on a foundation of books and literacy.

Even as the digital age has progressed, changing the way many people access information, surveys shows that books and literacy remain closely associated with the library brand, and that reading services remain a major source of support and advocacy for libraries, as well as for the ALA. But as libraries continue to expand and transform in response to evolving community needs, I sometimes question whether the ALA is losing sight of just how central books and reading are to the work of libraries.

As I glanced through the professional program for this weeks conference, it seems to me that the ALA and its divisions are offering less conference programming focused on booksparticularly adult books. Aside from a handful of publisher-led Book Buzz sessions, whats happened to the programs that provide practical advice to librarians who want to support adult readers? And what does this shift in programming say about the future of libraries?

If I could suggest one New Years resolution for the ALA, it would be to make 2019 the year of the book. And a good place to start that effort is with the ALAs Notable Books Council.

Whats Notable

Dating back to 1944, the ALAs Notable Books lists have celebrated the best titles published each year. Administered by the ALAs Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) division, the lists are selected by the Notable Books Council, in accordance with its stated mission to identify 25 very important fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books for the adult reader each year. This is a noble effortand an effort that over the years helped to position the library community as an expert voice in the world of books.

However, in an age when best-of lists abound online and ones reading list can be fed by friends Goodreads accounts, the widening signal-to-noise ratio is making it harder for ALA to have an impact. The Notable Books Council struggles to find 12 members who are willing to commit to rigorously reading some 200 books over the course of a year. Perhaps understandably so: readers on the council must be serious about the work and be deep readers. If Frederick Douglass by David W. Blight is under consideration, for example, we are talking about 912 pages of deep reading! For todays web-focused, social mediasavvy librarians, this kind of methodical analysis of literary fiction and nonfiction may not be so appealing.

Full disclosure: I have never been on the Notable Books Councilwhich is probably a good thing, because I cant even belong to a book club. I start out intending to respect the reading choices of a clubs membership but soon recognize that I only want to read what I want to read. And when book groups dont like my choicesas was the case when I chose A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines and Everything Conceivable: How the Science of Assisted Reproduction Is Changing Our World by Liza Mundywell, I get pretty annoyed.

If I were on the Notable Books council, I know I would have been extremely frustrated when, among many other standout novels, The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott and Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan werent selected as fiction notables for their quality of writing and unique storytelling styleespecially considering that Egan went on to win the ALAs 2018 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

 ALA must envision a more wide-reaching, visible national platform for our members invaluable work promoting great books. 

Though I cant really say for sure what goes on in the deliberations for Notable Books, descriptions of the process from past and current council members remind me of a book club selection process,where the loudest and most persuasive reader wins. After reading broadly, council members pitch their top books based on criteria such as focusing on specialized knowledge, the quality of writing, or a new way of looking at an issue or idea. There can be no skimming or Googling reviews as the council gets down to the business of selection.

But I have to wonder: cant the lists from other reputable awards and publications, including the Carnegie Medals (which are published by the time the council is making its decisions), influence the councils reading and deliberations at all? Must the council readers strictly follow their own leads? With so many great books now being shared and discussed on social media, is there a better, more inclusive way for the council to approach its work?

In recent years, the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, the ALAs adult book awards, have helped the library community raise its profile in literary circles. However, the awards have also had some unintended consequences.

Established in 2012, the Carnegie Medals initially brought cache to the Notable Books Council, using its long list to vet finalists. But after a few years of awarding the Carnegie Medals in the summer, months after the other major national awards were given, the Carnegie committee decided to align its cycle more closely with the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Awards, with the winners announced at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. As a juried prize, released in advance of the Pulitzers, the Carnegie Medals have succeeded in becoming an honor coveted by authors and publishers. But when the Carnegie Medals changed its schedule, the Carnegie committee appears to have left the Notable Books Council behind, somewhat diminishing RUSAs role in the Carnegie selection process.

Thats unfortunate. Shouldnt ALA find a way to better leverage the Carnegies, now an established, respected national literary award, to highlight the work of the Notable Books Council and expose the Notable Books lists to a wider audience?

Transformational

The point is, ALA must envision a more wide-reaching, visible national platform for our members invaluable work promoting great books. The Notable Books lists have long been a resource for my own reading choices, and earlier in my career I relied on them for readers advisory. Today, it feels like public libraries are increasingly focused on current bestsellers. And, as I have frequently bemoaned, readers advisory is becoming a lost art.

Yes, there is still a RUSA CODES: Readers Advisory Research and Trends Committee. But when I visit ALA Connect, I can find no discussion posts or shared files among the members, nor even a scheduled meeting at the upcoming ALA Midwinter conference. It troubles me that the Notable Books lists and the work of the ALAs readers advisory committee are buried in a section within an ALA division.

When I see recent trends indicating a national resurgence of independent bookstores, I am thrilled to think of new homes for readers. But I also fear that libraries will lose ground if we dont compete better for readers attention. So I am calling on ALA to explore ways to better support our book-related services, and to ensure that the next generation of readers advisors will have a home in libraries.

When ALA introduced its successful Libraries Transform campaign in 2015, it was meant to build on our foundational principles. Whats more foundational to libraries than books? If we envision 2019 as the year of the book, imagine the transformation we might lead.

PW columnist Sari Feldman is executive director of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Cleveland, Ohio, and a former president of both the Public Library Association (20092010) and the American Library Association (20152016).I came late to tattoos, but I have to show you, Amy Hempel says while pulling up the hem of her pants to reveal a line of Arabic script across her calf. Hempel teaches at Stony Brook University on Long Island, but she met me at a cafe in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to discuss Sing to It (Scribner, Mar.), her first story collection to be published in over a decade.

The show-and-tell portion of the chat is already phenomenal. I got the title of the book tattooed on my leg next to a big old scar from a motorcycle accident I was in as a teenager, Hempel says. The title comes from an Arabic proverb: When danger approaches, sing to it. What better way to reclaim ones leg from injury than to make it appear physically beautiful? Sing to it. Its a stance for how to deal with life, she says. When theres danger coming your way, you disarm it. It has a better result than meeting threat with threat. We see how well that goes all the time. She laughs.

One of the most masterful writers of short stories in American literature today, Hempel has long written about people in distress and the moments in which crises distill characters down to their most basic nuts and bolts, sometimes in the space of just a few sentences. Such is the path of Sing to It, which collects stories of varying lengths about confronting danger: a novella about a home health aide in Florida who learns some terrible truths about the maternity home where she gave birth as a teenager, some resonant short stories, and a handful of very short stories that convey whole worlds within a couple of lines, including one in which a self-centered man repeatedly calls his ex. You cant run from danger, Hempel says. That makes sense to me as a way to try to deal with all thats going on today.

All thats going on today, of course, refers to the turmoil of the Trump presidency. Hempel, who is known for her precise and deliberate word choices, includes in the collection a new two-page story that refers to the president just once, but its enough to convey a certain level of disgust. Well, I cant say the name, she says. But what else can I think of? I went for a physical a couple of weeks ago, and the doctor goes, Hmmm. My blood pressure is suddenly way higher than its ever been. And then I realized that Fox News had been on in the waiting room. Oh!, I thought. This has effects. 

As a result, Hempel is considering how she can personally make a difference. Im about to start taking Spanish lessons because of the border situation, she says. Does this mean Im heading to the border to do some translating? I dont know what form it will take. But I asked a friend who works at the UN what I could do, and she asked, Why dont you learn Spanish for starters? And I thought, Yes, I could! I know words! 

Another friend asked Hempel what shed be willing to sacrifice, noting that perhaps giving up material objects would make her more flexible. Its really fun to cull and give things away, and to be able to manage with less, she says. When she left her teaching position at the University of Florida to come back north, she bequeathed much of her furniture to her grad students. That felt great. I dont regret any of this. Regret is one of those words of high danger. Its a terrible feeling, because what can you do about it? Nothing.

So is Hempel the Marie Kondo of the literary world? I ask what she does with her books in the culling process. Books are always the hard part, she says. Some things I would never part with, but my compromise with some is Ill just tear out the inscription page and just keep that.

We look out the window and coo at a few dogs walking by the cafe, which is a convenient segue. That Hempel is a dog lover is a key feature of her work, right up to the cover of The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, a volume that contains her four previous story collections, in which shes pictured posing with a very good boy. Im trying to resist showing you a picture of my current dog, she says, and then she pulls out her phone to show me photos of Ghandi, a pit bull she adopted six years ago, proudly dressed up as the pope for Halloween. He wore the costume around for an hour and a half. He really dug it.

Hempel has written about dogs and grief exquisitely before, but Sing to It contains a particularly harrowing, lovely story about facing danger in a way that is a feat for any dog lover: a fictionalized version of her experience working as a volunteer at a shelter where dogs are euthanized. The shelter story is very harsh but its all true, she says. Why didnt I write it as a nonfiction piece? Well, its told from the perspective of the dogs, so that was the most fictive leap. I ask whether its true that, as in the story, volunteers at full service shelters use superglue to close dog-bite wounds, rather than going to the hospital for stitches and having to report their injuries. In response, she pulls up her sleeve and shows me a faint, tooth-shaped scar on her arm.

I ask Hempel how she summoned the emotional strength to both volunteer and write about the shelter, which sounds gut-wrenching. When I was working I just reminded myself of one thing: my feelings dont matter, she says. I can have them later. Im here to make the dogs feel better. Still, the work was difficult: The constant outrage and despair were something to reckon with. But I think the volunteers buoyed each other up. One thinks of the old drops in a bucket analogy, but it was always such a high to get somebody out of there and into a good home. On some nights, Id walk out with dogs on the euth list, thinking, I cant stand it, youre great. Youre my dog now. When Ive had room, Ive fostered as many as four at a time. Then it gets tricky.

As well as championing dogs, Hempel is also a teacher who champions her writing students, having taught at Benningtons low-res MFA program for nearly 25 years and held other teaching positions. People know Im partial to short, short stories, and there are a fair number of them in this collection, she says when I ask what kind of advice students seek out from her. So students know, everywhere Ive taught, that they could submit short short pieces and Id be happy to work with them in this form.

I mention that, with all thats going on today, political books have been outselling fiction in the past year, but Hempel isnt having it. I will always read fiction, she says. Because Im teaching and judging prizes, most of what I read is by new writers. I read many debuts, which can be so exciting. As an example, she pulls a galley out of her bag: Black Light, a debut story collection by Kimberly King Parsons. Shes funny and badass.

Hempel appreciates that new writers have new ways of expressing themselves. Theyre saying things differently, which I love, she says. I really liked Tommy Oranges novel, There There. I know Oakland well from living in the East Bay many years ago, but I didnt know that Oakland. So that was new to me.

That Hempel is inspired by students and constantly open to new points of view is apparent both in her work and in the way she chooses to live. As for tattoos, she says she may not be done just yet. Its true what they say: once you do one, you think of many many more.

Maris Kreizmans writing has appeared in Esquire, GQ, the L.A. Times, the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and elsewhere.New parents receive such an abundance of child-rearing adviceanecdotes about sleep training and breastfeeding, warnings about overscheduling, horror stories about potty training and preschoolthat making the right decisions for children sometimes seems impossible. In an effort to help parents make more informed choices, economist Emily Osterwhose first book, 2013s Expecting Better, used statistical data to debunk common pregnancy mythsapplies the same sort of analysis to the early childhood years in Cribsheet (Penguin Press, Apr.).

Youre an economist whos married to an economist, and youre the daughter of two economists. How does this field of study inform your new book and your parenting style?

Economics is a science of decision making. And one of the things we spend a lot of time thinking about is people making choices, trading off costs and benefits.

That was how my parents thought about parenting. I have many childhood memories of my mother saying things like, Im going to get the groceries delivered because my time is very valuable.

The other thing is, the kind of economics I do is very data intensive, and we worry a lot about causality and trying to understand relationships in data. And that comes up a lot in this book: before you get to making a decision, you need to understand what the evidence said about these different choices.

All of those tools are applicable in my job, but also can be applicable in parenting, and I try to make them applicable in my own parenting where possible.

Cribsheet focuses on the early childhood years. What are some of the issues it addresses, and what might readers find surprising?

It looks at a lot of issues around sleep, including things like sleep training. We look at cosleeping, daycare vs. nanny, stay-at-home parent vs. mom and dad working outside the home. There are a lot of these hot-button issues that we try to get at.

Breastfeeding comes up a lot. The book argues that there are some small benefits to breastfeeding, but theyre nothing on the order of what the rhetoric would have you believe about the magical benefits. There just isnt any evidence for the idea that feeding breast milk to a baby is the most important thing that you can possibly do, or that if you dont nurse your baby, youre condemning them to a life of obesity and poor test scores.

Why do so many pregnancy and parenting myths persist?

People learn a lot from their own experiences. And then they think that, because it works for them, or their kid turned out good, that thats informative about the behavior. People have a very hard time making decisions with data, and a very easy time making decisions with anecdotes.

Whats your books biggest takeaway for parents?

Theres one very broad takeaway, which is that not everyone is going to make the same decisionsand thats okay. There is so much pressure that parents put on other parents to behave in the way that they behaved, and that parents put on themselves. You have to make these decisions for yourselves based on what works for your family.

Return to the main feature.Washingtons debut collection, Lot (Riverhead, Feb.), maps the sprawl of Houston and the relationships within it, especially those between young black and brown boys.

What does being from Houston mean to you? Was it important to you that your collection was as much about Houston as the characters and their lives?

I think writing the book was one way of trying to figure that out, but I dont know if I did. Maybe, for me personally, being from Houston means youre open to difference. The locals here are pretty laid back. Were pretty open to folks that are different from us, and to incorporating other ways of living into our own. The descriptor Ive heard most often is that Houstonians are scrappy, which isnt wrong. But maybe we just need new adjectives. Virtually all of my fiction is rooted in Houston, and I dont think any of the narratives would survive being pulled out of it. If the stories work, theyre being colored by the city, I think. Or at least thats what Im most interested in trying to do at the moment.

Did you find it difficult to faithfully render the Houston you know on the page?

NahI was less worried about faithfully rendering anything than just doing what I was trying to do. Thats always hard enough. But its the Houston I know, and not some all-encompassing homologation of it, because the latter would be impossible to render, and also it doesnt really exist. The city has too many layers. My big hope is that other folksspecifically nonwhite folkswill have the chance (and the funding) to publish work about their Houstons, too. From there, well probably scratch the surface of what life can look like in Harris County. But only just barely.

How much do you pull from your own life and experiences when writing? Are there any of your characters you feel a particular kinship with?

Im from Houston, so theres that. But the fiction is fictionalthough, of course, nobodys gonna believe it; American literary fiction is pretty obnoxious about immediately correlating authors of color with their novels and short stories, despite what the writer actually says. That said, the collections recurring narrator is who set the whole project off. I wanted to try and understand him better.

What was the most challenging or rewarding part of capturing the tenderness of your characters?

Im always a little weirded out by narratives that portray victimized folks solely as victims, rather than people who are just trying to navigate their situation, whatever it looks like, just like anyone else. Most of us dont get to choose the circumstances were dealt. But I guess the most rewarding part of the whole thing was getting to write about communities that mean a lot to me. And a place I really care about. Thats a rare opportunity. The work was hard, but Im stoked about what my editor and I came up with.The Universal Life Church (ULC) would like to thank the members of the U.S. Coast Guard for their dedication and service to this country. It is an admirable career they have undertaken  and even more admirable that they are currently performing their duties without pay. The ULC recognizes the stress that the insanity of the current shutdown has placed on them and their loved ones, and thinks the fact that service members struggling to make ends meet during this difficult time is appalling. The church believes that it is its duty to offer a helping hand.

To that end, effective today, the ULC has formally extended an invitation to all active USCG members and their immediate families to dine free of charge at Eden Seattle, a restaurant located in the SoDo district of Seattle. This offer will remain in place for the duration of the government shutdown. The church asks only that members be in uniform and bring military I.D. Note that for legal reasons, alcoholic drinks are not included in this offer.

The restaurants address is listed below:

Eden Seattle

1950 1st Ave S

Seattle, WA 98134

Americans are known for coming together to help one another through difficult times. The ULC wants USCG members who continue to work without pay to know that they are valued, and that the support of the community is behind them.

The ULC also invites all of the restaurants in Seattle to join in these efforts to help USCG members and their families by offering similar assistance.Daniel Clancy John Neuhoff Lawyer Dallas

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The resources include over 30 original articles and were developed specifically for buyers and sellers of real estate in Northeast Los Angeles.

The substantive and comprehensive information weve assembled cannot be found anywhere else, stated Senior Partner and Marketing Coordinator Keely Myres. The information, advice and guidelines were developed in our office and based on over 50 collective years of experience representing buyers and sellers in the Northeast.

According to Myres, the purpose of the homebuyer resources is to allow access to relevant, cutting edge and easy-to-understand information specific to local communities like Glendale, Hermon, Garvanza, Pasadena and Altadena.

Our firm establishes with our clients their role in achieving a successful purchase or sale of a home,  said Myres. Our resources will allow homebuyers to become stronger partners in the goal of achieving the American dream of home ownership.

For home sellers, the more they understand the specific information available to them, the more prepared they will be and the easier it will be to maximize their proceeds.

For over twenty-seven years, Tracy King has been recognized as a top selling real estate agent, earning Presidents Circle, Elite and Premier honors in the industry.

A boutique real estate agency based in Eagle Rock, CA, the Tracy King Team has distinguished itself by providing an unprecedented level of personal service paired with expertise in advanced technology and online marketing techniques.

Our new, exclusive resources reflect our overall approach to real estate, which is highly personal, original and creative, said Myres.

The Northeast Los Angeles homebuyer and seller resources can be accessed at http://www.TracyKing.com.Johnson & Masumi, A Northern Virginia Immigration Law Firm

Johnson & Masumi, a Northern Virginia immigration law firm, released a blog post educating readers on the EB-5 visa program, how it differs from similar visas, and who may be an ideal candidate for the visa.

The EB-5 visa is designed to allow investors to immigrate to the U.S. for the purpose of creating jobs and investing capital into troubled businesses. There are two programs available: the basic program, which applies to most qualifying businesses nationally, and the Regional Center Pilot Program, which focuses on specific areas of the U.S. There are other EB visas available, each of which has different requirements. An EB-2 visa is designed for people who hold advanced degrees or exceptional abilities in certain fields, such as art, science, or business. EB-3 visas, meanwhile, are provided to skilled workers who have at least two years of training or experience in a particular field.

The EB-5 program is ideal for people who wish to invest large amounts of money within the U.S. Candidates are required to make a capital investment of either $500,000 or $1,000,000 in a new commercial enterprise in the U.S. The enterprise must create or preserve 10 jobs for U.S. workers within two years of the investment. To obtain an EB-5 visa, investors must locate a qualifying investment opportunity and contribute the required amount of capital. They must also submit an 1-526 petition, which proves eligibility for the EB-5 program. Next, investors will become a two-year conditional resident of the U.S. in order to implement their project. Following this period, investors receive unconditional permanent residency and submit a petition that shows they have met the requirements of fulfilling their visa.

Speak to a Northern Virginia immigration attorney for more information and to schedule a consultation. The immigration attorneys at Johnson & Masumi are highly experienced in handling a wide range of immigration visas, including the EB-5 visa. The firm serves clients primarily within the Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. areas but is also able to work with clients around the country. For more information, contact the firm at 703-688-8279 or online at https://www.johnsonmasumi.com. Johnson & Masumi is headquartered at 8300 Boone Blvd. Suite 225, Vienna, VA 22182.Drivers with good/excellent credit score benefit of cheaper car insurance Insurance companies use credit score to determine how risky is to provide coverage to a client, said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company.

Carinsuranceplan.org has released a new blog post that explains why insurance companies use a persons credit score to determine the car insurance costs.

Almost all car insurance companies use the credit score as a rating factor. The only states were insurance companies are prohibited to use credit information to determine policy rates, are California, Massachusetts, and Hawaii.

Insurance companies consider that a persons credit score will provide more info on how risky it is to provide coverage. Drivers with good or excellent credit score, pay significantly lower insurance rates, than those that have a low, or poor credit score

Independent studies have evaluated the impact of credit score over a drivers insurance rates. These studies concluded that:



On average, drivers that have poor credit score can expect to pay twice as much for car insurance rates than drivers that have an excellent credit score.

Improving the credit score from poor to good, can save 32% on insurance premiums

Improving the credit score from good to excellent can save an additional 27% on car insurance rate.

For more details, money-saving tips and free quotes, visit https://carinsuranceplan.org/

Carinsuranceplan.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.The December quarter saw a drop in metropolitan Melbournes median house price of 3.7 per cent to $796,500 while Regional Victorias went up by 2.5 per cent to $411,000.

Regional Victorias property market was the top performer in the 2018 calendar year, with a 5.5 per cent annual increase in the median house price to $400,000 (up from $379,000) and annual increases of more than 20 per cent in the top five towns.



The 2.5 per cent regional increase in the median house price for the December quarter was the second strongest for the year, in contrast to metropolitan Melbourne which had its weakest quarter.

The Real Estate Institute of Victorias latest data reveals that greater Melbournes median house price increased 1.4 per cent to $826,500 (from $815,000) and the unit price increased 1.8 per cent to $597,000 (from $586,500) in the 2018 calendar year.



REIV President Robyn Waters said that despite low confidence, sluggish auction clearance rates and a 20 per cent reduction in residential property sales in the past 12 months, vendors are still getting "good prices" for their homes when they do sell.



It might take you a bit longer to sell and you might have to put in a bit more effort, but the big picture is showing that house prices have increased slightly in Melbourne over the past 12 months, Ms Waters said.



Confidence is a major factor in the property market and this latest REIV data is showing that the market overall is steady, coming off an increase in the median house price of 13.2 per cent in 2017 which could not be sustained.



The top 20 star suburbs of 2018 were all in the outer ring with most located in the expanding south east and Mornington Peninsula/Bayside areas; new transport infrastructure including Skyrail and the Monash Freeway widening are likely to have been a factor in this growth.

Malvern down 20% to $2.1 million

Kew down 17% to $1,975,000

Toorak down 16% to $2.8 million

South Yarra down 16% to $1.6 million

Balwyn down 16% to $2 million

Brighton down 15% to $1.99 million

Source REIV December 2018 quarter



Ms Waters said properties are being tightly held in Inner Melbourne as vendors wait out this period while the markets in Outer Melbourne and Regional Victoria are stronger as buyers are inclined to snap up more affordable options.



There is no doubt that the banks tighter lending conditions are contributing to this trend as are incentives for first homebuyers which encourage the purchase of affordable properties, more likely to be found in Outer Melbourne or Regional Victoria, Ms Waters said.



That said, there were a few inner suburbs  Malvern East, Thornbury and Hawthorn - that fared well in the last quarter of 2018 thanks to an increase in the number and value of sales from the September quarter. This is a good indication that confidence is starting to pick up in the prestige areas.



The REIV expects Victorias property market to remain steady in the first half of 2019 as we await the outcome of the banking Royal Commission and Federal Election but things should begin to look up again in the second half of the year.



Our latest data showed some surprise quarterly increases in inland Victoria with Golden Point, Irymple and Daylesford all achieving an uplift of more than nine per cent.





The REIV claimed its property data is the most accurate and up-to-date in Victoria, collated and submitted directly by those working at the coalface.



"As the States peak body for real estate agents, with around 80 per cent of agencies being valued members, the REIV is uniquely placed to access this raw data which is not subject to interpretation, speculation, assumptions or third-party sources," Robyn Waters said.

Other data showed a deeper decline throughout 2018, including the ABS.Going to the beach

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View ResultsNew York, Jan 19 (IANS) President Donald Trump has promised a "major announcement" about the shutdown as it enters its 29th day on Saturday, while his opposition received a blow when the special investigator looking into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election refuted a widely reported story that his lawyer had claimed Trump asked him to lie to Congress.

Trump tweeted that he will be making the announcement at 3 pm (1:30 am Sunday in India) from the White House "concerning the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border".

While he left the nation in suspense about his plans, there was a small sign of progress in finding a solution to the shutdown with the Democrats offering to add $1.87 billion to the budget for border security, but not for the wall.

Democrats had hoped to increase pressure on his presidency by pursuing claims that Trump had made his former lawyer lie to Congress that was reported by BuzzFeed News, a website, and picked up by several major news outlets including the Washington Post. Now that has fallen apart.

A spokesperson for the special counsel investigating allegations of Russian interference took the unusual step of issuing a late night statement denying report that the lawyer Michael Cohen had told investigators that Trump had asked him to lie to Congress about Trump Organisation's plans for a hotel in Moscow.

Democratic Party leaders had seized on the now refuted BuzzFeed report based on anonymous sources involved in the investigation and demanded Congressional probes into the allegations with prospects of impeaching Trump.

Democrat Senator Ralph Blumenthal had said that if the reports were true, Trump would be guilty of obstruction of justice, suborning perjury, and conspiracy to violate laws prohibiting false statements to Congress.

Another Democrat, Representative Joaquin Castro tweeted that Trump "must resign or be impeached" if the report is true.

The official denial by the office of Robert Mueller, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director, who is heading the Russia probe, is a major setback for the credibility of US media that has relied on anonymous and unidentified sources for many reports about Trump.

It gives a measure of vindication for Trump, who has repeatedly accused the media of spreading "fake news".

Cohen's credibility was questionable because he has admitted in court in November that he had been sentenced to three years in prison after admitting to lying and been convicted of that and other offences.

Trump pounced on it immediately and tweeted that Cohen is "lying to reduce his jail time".

In a Saturday morning tweet after the Mueller's office denial, Trump tweeted: "Many people are saying that the Mainstream Media will have a very hard time restoring credibility because of the way they have treated me over the past 3 years (including the election lead-up), as highlighted by the disgraceful Buzzfeed story & the even more disgraceful coverage!"

The shutdown was caused by Trump's insistence on getting $5.7 billion in the budget to build a wall along the Mexican border, which the Democrats have refused with equal vehemence. Because of their disagreement there is no budget and all but the essential government operations have been shutdown temporarily because there is no money to pay for them.

About 800,000 workers are off work because of the shutdown and most, including those working, haven't been paid since January 11.

The standoff over the budget has descended into cheap drama with Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocking Trump from delivering the annual State of the Union Address to a joint session of the Congress and the President retaliating by refusing to let her use a government plane to visit US troops in Afghanistan.

Trump's planned speech on Saturday will come after a nation-wide Women's March starting that morning to protest his policies considered detrimental to women, demand the preservation of abortion rights and to promote their rights, as well as those of minorities and immigrants.

The March has been an annual event after the first massive event held in 2017 in Washington the day after Trump's swearing-in. Drawing abut 500,000 participants it is considered to be among the biggest demonstrations held in the nation's capital.

Reflecting the nation's deep polarisation, an anti-abortion rally was held in Washington on Friday with thousands participating. Trump sent a prerecorded message of support to the rally and Vice President Mike Pence attended it personally, telling them: "We will stand with you until that great day comes where we restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law."

Unlike in India, abortion continues to be a live issue with political conservatives, mostly in the Republican Party, constantly vowing to criminalise it - a position supported by Trump - making it a symbol of the nation's political divide.

( can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)Chandigarh, Jan 19 : In a major breakthrough, the Punjab Police on Saturday arrested five people in Ropar district for their alleged involvement in a state-wide Army recruitment scam.

An official spokesperson said the police recovered 29 Aadhaar cards, fake document sets of 48 individuals and Rs eight lakh from their possession.

Sixty-eight attestation and official stamps were also recovered. These stamps are of different official designations like those of SHOs, tehsildars, municipal councillors, the spokesperson said.

"In the last five years, this gang has secured recruitment of 26 individuals in the Sikh, J&K and Artillery regiments by preparing fake caste and residential proof certificates. They used to charge Rs three-five lakh from every individual for the recruitment process," the spokesperson added.

"Clerks of the Army recruiting centres in Patiala, Ferozpur and Ludhiana were hand in glove with these perpetrators, who, after taking their cut, verified the fake documents."

Initial investigations revealed that Yogesh of Salem Tabri, Ludhiana is the kingpin of this gang, which has, in the last five years, prepared fake documents of nearly 150 individuals hailing from Haryana.

"Aspirants from Haryana were roped in by Manjeet and Sunil of Jind as there is less competition in Army recruitment in Punjab. Both Manjeet and Sunil, who run an Army recruitment training academy in Jind, have also been arrested," he added.

Two other persons, Manoj and Amit of Ferozepur, used to provide recruits to Yogesh from the districts of Fazilka, Moga, Faridkot and Ferozepur.

"Names of several Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) posted in Ludhiana, Gwalior, Ferozepur and Bhuvneshwar have figured in the questioning of the suspects. These NCOs used to be a link between the recruiting authorities and the aspirants willing to join the Army," the spokesperson said.Manila, Jan 19 : Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena lauded on Saturday the anti-drug campaign of the Philippines President, saying the world needs to respect the Rodrigo Duterte government's war on drugs.

During a visit to the main headquarters of the Philippines National Police (PNP), Sirisena said that he admired the Duterte administration's "bold commitment to address the drug menace", Xinhua news agency reported.

The Sri Lankan government would focus on the distribution hub of international drug trafficking in the country which had been a perennial problem in the area for years, a statement issued by the PNP quoted Sirisena as saying.

Sirisena, who arrived in Manila on January 15 for a five-day state visit, returned to Sri Lanka on Saturday.Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur chairs a review meeting ahead of the Global Investors Meet in Shimla, on Jan 19, 2019. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur chairs a review meeting ahead of the Global Investors Meet in Shimla, on Jan 19, 2019. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Shimla, Jan 19 : Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday said the state is making all-out efforts to attract investment and is holding a global investor summit in Dharamsala on June 10 and 11.

The Chief Minister said the state has created a land bank for allocation to industries and information on this has been made available on the Revenue Department website.

"This is a major step which would help the interested entrepreneurs in getting information about the availability of land as per their choice at one click," he said here at a review meeting of the investor summit.

Thakur said the summit would go a long way in attracting investment of thousands of crores of rupees in tourism, hospitality, resorts, pharmaceutical, information technology, health, herbal and ayurveda, horticulture, power, food processing, real estate and education sectors.

Thakur said Himachal Pradesh has a peaceful environment which will help in attracting entrepreneurs.

He also launched the website and mobile app of the global investor summit.

Chief Secretary B.K. Agarwal said roadshows would also be organised in major cities across the country about the summit and the Chief Minister would participate in it in Hyderabad and Bengaluru.Ankara, Jan 19 : Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has become an obstacle in improving the US-Saudi ties and must be "dealt with", US Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of President Donald Trump, said here on Saturday.

The Republican lawmaker said that ties between the two sides cannot move forward unless action was taken against Bin Salman, who faced international rebuke over his role in the murder of his supporter-turned-critic and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom consulate in Turkey in October.

"The relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia cannot move forward until Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is dealt with," Graham told reporters in Ankara on Saturday, a day after discussing issues related to Saudi Arabia with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He also said he will push for more US sanctions against those involved in the killing of dissident Saudi journalist, Turkish Yeni Safak newspaper reported.

After weeks of providing conflicting accounts of what happened to Khashoggi, the kingdom later said that he was killed "accidentally" in a fist fight at the consulate by "rogue" agents. However, it denied the ruling royal family's involvement in the killing.

Eleven individuals had been charged by Saudi prosecutors in the journalist's killing -- with five suspects facing the death penalty.

The US imposed economic sanctions on 17 Saudi officials in November for their role in the Khashoggi killing, and later, the US Senate unanimously passed a resolution holding the Crown Prince responsible for the murder.

Trump, however, had been reluctant to go after Bin Salman, who is widely believed to have ordered the hit job. He also refused to halt weapon sales to Riyadh, describing Saudi arms purchases as vital to the US economy.

Turkish and American intelligence reports stated that the body of Khashoggi was dismembered shortly after his murder inside the Saudi diplomatic mission. There were also reports of sound recordings and phone calls that directly tied Bin Salman to the murder.

Graham said that by ordering the brutal murder, Bin Salman violated "every norm of international behaviour".Washington, Jan 19 : Thousands of demonstrators will take to the streets across the US on Saturday to protest against President Donald Trump and stand up for womens rights at the Womens March.

Though this year's event has been marred by controversy, participants will seek to channel the spirit of the first massive march in 2017 that saw hundreds of thousands of protests take over the nation's capital the day after Trump's inauguration, spurring activism and political campaigns by women around the country, reports the Guardian.

"It's time to march again. The 2017 Women's March inspired hundreds of women to run, millions more to vote, and dozens to win elected office. The 2019 Women's March marks two years of resistance to the Trump presidency, two years of training new activists, and two years of building power," the organiser said on its website.

"And this time, we're coming back with an agenda."

The organisers have planned to unveil a 10-part federal policy platform dubbed the Women's Agenda at the event, with proposals on combating violence against women, reproductive rights, and racial and economic fairness.

"Women are just not on the agenda in this current administration," the Women's March Chief Operating Officer, Rachel Carmona, said.

This year, the main event will again be in Washington D.C., kicking off at Freedom Plaza near the White House.

Speakers are set to include the professor and activist Angela Davis, film-maker Michael Moore, actors Scarlett Johansson and America Ferrera, and feminist writer Gloria Steinem.Srinagar, Jan 19 : Rescue teams on Saturday recovered a sixth body of a civilian buried under an avalanche in Leh district of Ladakh, the Border Roads Organization (BRO) said.

The avalanche struck the Khardung La pass on Friday trapping 10 people, while they were traveling in a truck at 7 a.m. Five of the bodies were recovered on the same day.

"We have today recovered the body of the 6th civilian who was buried alive under an avalanche in Khardung La yesterday," a BRO officer said.New Delhi, Jan 19 : Keeping aside the 1995 Purulia arms drop case in which Danish national Kim Davy played a key role, India and Denmark have boosted their bilateral relationship and are now planning to forge a strategic partnership, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said here on Saturday.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the inauguration of a Danish Cultural Institute, he said that both he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have agreed that Kim Davy is a judicial issue and is separate from bilateral ties.

"Prime Minister Modi and I had agreed that this is a judicial issue," he said.

"We talked about that with him (Modi) when we met in Stockholm in April last year (on the sidelines of the first-ever India-Nordic Summit)."

Rasmussen said he saw this problem as solved in the political sense.

"There is a dialogue between our authorities," he said. "What we agreed last year is that we can rely on these independent authorities."

The Danish Prime Minister also said that this issue did not come up for discussion at all during his meeting with Modi on the sidelines of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in Gandhinagar on Friday.

The Purulia arms drop case is a pending legal case regarding an incident on December 17, 1995 in which unauthorised arms were dropped from an Antonov An-26 aircraft in Purulia district of West Bengal.

The chief accused -- Davy (real name Niels Holck) -- claimed it was a conspiracy of the then Congress government at the Centre, together with Indian intelligence wing RAW and Britain's MI5, to overthrow the then Communist government in West Bengal and he was given assurances from the Central government about his safety and return to Denmark.

He also alleged that politician Pappu Yadav, in association with then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, facilitated his safe exit from India.

Rasmussen said that during his meeting with Modi on Friday, both sides agreed to cooperate in different fields like smart cities, renewable energy, maritime sector and waste water management.

"What I regard as the most important outcome is that we agreed that we should be preparing a strategic partnership," he said.

"We already have strategic partnerships with China and South Korea."

On reports of India and Denmark agreeing to set up research platforms, Rasmussen said one example is the renewable sector where both sides have decided to establish a kind of centre of excellence.

"It will not be a physical structure but it will be a partnership bringing India and Denmark (together) on windmill technology," he said. "We are already working in India."

The Danish Prime Minister said this partnership will be driven by his country's embassy here and an advisor in this specific area will be appointed in the mission.

On the issue of free trade in the face of India and the European Union (EU) still grappling to sign the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA), he said Denmark is "really interested in free trade, especially in these days when you have some kind of an uncertainty".

He referred to US President Donald Trump's calls for protectionism and said the EU should be among those advocating free trade.

Negotiations for the BTIA between India and the EU started in 2007 but were put on hold in 2015.

Those in the know say that after India renounced its bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with all countries, investments from European nations are now not protected.

India has terminated all BITs following a new BIT model New Delhi released in December 2015.

The 28 EU member states, including Denmark, have now passed on the responsibility of investment protection negotiations to the EU.

Rasmussen said if and when India and the EU sign a free trade agreement, "you will find Denmark standing in the corner".

With China playing an increasingly leading role in the world and the US gradually ceasing to do so under Trump, he said Europe must play a leading role.

"We should step out in all these different areas," he said.

Rasmussen welcomed the fact that China wants to play a leading role but said he feels there should be a level playing field.

"But basically, I think it is good that we now have new world players who want to play their role like India," he said.San Francisco, Jan 19 : Google's offices in the US, UK, Canada, India, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Sweden, Switzerland, and Denmark witnessed renewed protests by human rights groups over its plan to re-enter China through a censored search application code-named "Project Dragonfly".

The demonstrations were organised by coalition of Chinese, Tibetan, Uighur, and human rights groups outside the tech giant's offices. The Tibetan advocacy groups that were protesting included Free Tibet and the International Tibet Network.

"They fear that a censored search engine would lead to further oppression of the Tibetans, as filtered searches would erase terms such as 'Tibet' and 'Tiananmen Square' in line with the official narrative of the Chinese Communist Party," the Business Insider reported late on Friday.

The same concerns apply to the Chinese citizens, including other oppressed minorities such as Uighur Muslims and Southern Mongolian people, the report added.

The Internet giant designed a censored version for China search engine to blacklist information about human rights, democracy, peaceful protest, and religion in accordance with strict rules on censorship in the country that are enforced by its Communist Party government.

The dispute began in August 2018 when reports surfaced that Google staffers working on "Project Dragonfly" had been using a Beijing-based website to help develop blacklists for the censored search engine, which was designed to block out broad categories of information related to democracy, human rights, and peaceful protest, according to The Intercept.

Several Google employees, including former Senior Scientist Jack Poulson, resigned in September, citing lack of corporate transparency in the wake of the censored search engine project.

In December, Google was forced to shut down a data analysis system that it was using to develop the search engine and the teams working on "Project Dragonfly" stopped gathering search queries from mainland China.Mexico City, Jan 19 : At least 21 people have been killed and 71 others injured in an oil pipeline explosion in central Mexico, authorities said.

It is believed the blast occurred after the pipeline was ruptured by suspected oil thieves in the town of Tlahuelilpan, in Hidalgo state, on Friday night, the BBC reported.

According to officials, dozens of people were scrambling around the ruptured pipeline to fill up containers when fire broke out. TV footage showed large flames and people at the scene with severe burns.

Hidalgo Governor Omar Fayad told the media that the explosion was followed by the fire.

Residents in the immediate vicinity of the pipeline, which runs from the cities of Tuxpan to Tula in the state of Veracruz, had been evacuated, state oil company Pemex said in the statement.

"I'm very sorry for the serious situation in Tlahuelilpan due to a pipeline explosion. I'm in Aguascalientes and since the Director of Pemex and the Defence Secretary briefed me, I gave instructions to contain the fire and treat the victims," tweeted Mexican President AndrAs Manuel LApez Obrador.

Authorities have blamed fuel theft for previous explosions in Mexico. In 2010, a pipeline blew up in the state of Puebla, leaving 28 people dead and scores wounded.Srinagar, Jan 19 : Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti spoke to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday seeking release of a separatist leader on humanitarian ground.

"Have spoken with HM requesting his (Shahid ul Islam's) early release on humanitarian grounds as his wife has suffered a brain haemorrhage," she tweeted.

Shahid-ul-Islam, belonging to the moderate Hurriyat group headed by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency in 2018 and was presently lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail.

Shahid's wife suffered the brain haemorrhage last week and has since been in hospital.Kolkata, Jan 19 : Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor feels his party is "on the march" and even if it bags lesser seats than the ruling BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, it can still form a UPA-III government with the help of its allies.

"Congress is on the march. I can't give you an exact number because a lot of alliance determinations are yet to be finalised, but I would say that even if we got fewer seats than BJP, we would still have enough regional parties who would wish to ally with us.

"So, a UPA-III is far more likely than an NDA-III," Tharoor said during an interaction at the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Meet here late on Friday.

"The BJP is going to go from about 282 to at best somewhere around 160 seats," Tharoor predicted when asked about the polls later this year.

"They won't find the allies. They can look around the country, even the allies they had in 2014...some have deserted them.

"It's interesting to see that the RSS has predicted a hung parliament in their publication. I would say if you look across the heartland, the BJP is losing awful lot of votes.

"They did too well last time (2014) for their own good. It would have been impossible (for them) to replicate even if they had a successful government.

"Now that they are not doing well as a government, those numbers are going to be halved," he further added.

Queried about the reasons for his prediction that the government would fall, the 62-year old diplomat-turned-politician pointed out that not meeting promises and the growing communal discord in the country would dominate the election campaign.

"What happened to 'Acche Din'? You were promised better times. How many of you are better off as a result of this government's five years. And if they have failed, then why do they deserve a second chance?

"So the first and most important message is, kya aapke ke liye acchhe din aaye hai? If not, let's turf these fellows out for their pretences.

"Petrol price rise, taxation, job crisis and so on. A lot of this is going to dominate the election campaign.

"A second issue must be the growing communalisation of the society. Do we really want our children to be growing up in a country in which people are seeking to divide us in the name of hatred, in the name of communnalism or religion? Or do we want to live as we would live before that?"

Tharoor said the opposition alliance may vary from state to state and place to place. "But the support that the Congress is expressing through the presence of its leaders (at the rally) here is precisely because of the conviction at all levels of the party that the opposition must resist the very dangerous tendencies we saw in last five years," he later told reporters on the sidelines.Bengaluru, Jan 19 : Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) legislators will return on Saturday from a private resort in Gurugram where they were lodged for the last few days, a party leader said.

"All our MLAs have been directed to return to the state," state BJP President B.S. Yeddyurappa told the media here.

The party was not trying to "destabilise" the coalition government as alleged by the Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), he said.

"We are not trying to destabilise the government. We will work as a strong opposition."

Meanwhile, Congress legislators headed to a private resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru after a party meet on Friday, in an attempt to "safeguard" the MLAs.

"The BJP is indulging openly in horse trading. We need to have all our MLAs in our place and deliberate on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections (in April-May)," state Congress President Dinesh Gundu Rao told the media earlier.Mumbai, Jan 19 : Actors Kartik Aaryan, Bhumi Pednekar and Ananya Panday will star in "Pati Patni Aur Woh", an adaptation of B.R. Chopra's 1978 film with the same title.

Production houses, T-Series and BR Studios, had recently shared that they will be coming together for a multiple film deal.

First out of the association is "Pati Patni Aur Woh".

Kartik will be seen sharing screen space with Bhumi and Ananya for the first time.

Producers Bhushan Kumar, Juno Chopra and Abhay Chopra who last produced "Bhoothnath Returns" are glad to have come back together for this film directed by Mudassar Aziz.

"We had a great synergy with BR Studios when we worked on 'Bhoothnath Returns' a few years ago. We are happy to produce 'Pati Patni Aur Woh' with them," Bhushan Kumar of T-Series said in a statement.

"Juno, Abhay and Mudassar have given an interesting tweak to the story that matches today's times. Kartik, Bhumi and Ananya are new age actors who are talented and add their spark to the story.

"We have worked with Kartik in 'Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety' and we are glad that we are working again. Bhumi has proven what a fantastic actor she is while Ananya is new, but audiences will fall in love with her. The film will so have great music," he added.

Commenting on this, Juno Chopra of BR Studios said: "'Pati Patni Aur Woh' was widely accepted when it was released and we believe that the subject still has the power to draw the audience to the theatres.

"We have treated it with a modern touch now and have a fantastic team to take our vision forward."

The film goes on floors in February.

Meanwhile, actress Taapsee Pannu said in an interview that she had been dropped from the film and was not given a proper explanation for it.

Soon after this, a joint statement from Bhushan Kumar and Juno Chopra was released on Thursday.

"When a script is locked, every director or producer approaches actors for the casting of the film, it is a basic protocol followed by almost all filmmakers.

"Similarly, for our upcoming project - 'Pati Patni Aur Woh', we reached out to many actors, who we thought could be our potential protagonists in the film.

"The versatile actress Taapsee Pannu was one of the many actresses we had approached for one of the leading ladies in the film."

However, the producers had "never made any commitment to her. We would like to clarify that our casting was purely done on the basis of who suited the characters to the tee".

They also praised Taapsee and called her "an extremely talented actress" and shared that the producers would love to work with her in future.Washington, Jan 19 : US President Donald Trump is to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a second summit by the end of February, the White House has said.

The announcement came after Trump met top North Korean negotiator Kim Yong-chol at the White House on Friday, the BBC reported.

He had been expected to deliver a letter from Kim Jong-un to Trump.

Little progress has been made on denuclearization since their historic summit in Singapore last June. No venue has been announced for the new summit.

Speculation is mounting that it could be held in Vietnam.

Kim Yong-chol's visit to Washington is the first sign of movement in nuclear diplomacy with North Korea for months.

It is not clear what the reported letter from Kim Jong-un contained. But it was expected to lay the groundwork for another summit, our correspondent adds.

Trump said he was looking forward to the talks.

His press secretary Sarah Sanders said after the White House meeting that progress in the talks on denuclearization continued, but added: "The US is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea."Moscow, Jan 19 : Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said he will hold talks with the new UN envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen in Moscow on Monday next week.

"We will be interested in hearing how he plans to start the work of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, especially after he just visited Damascus on a two-day visit and held talks with the Syrian leadership," Lavrov said on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

He said that Moscow expected the agreement reached at a summit of Russia, Germany, France and Turkey in Istanbul in October on the need to start the work of the Syrian Constitutional Committee to be implemented as soon as possible.

Lavrov said the recent events in Syria, including the terrorist attack in Syria's Manbij on Wednesday, demand a more active involvement of those who want to help eradicate the terrorist threat.

Moscow is concerned about the situation in Idlib province bordering Turkey in the northwest of Syria, the last major hotbed of terrorists in the war-torn country, he said.

According to Lavrov, contrary to the agreement on the establishment of a demilitarized zone in Idlib, about 70 per cent of the zone is still occupied by terrorists, who are shooting at the positions of the Syrian army, local settlements and threatening the Russian air base in Hmeymim.

The Russian top diplomat also noted the necessity of transferring territories controlled by the US to the Syrian authorities after the announced US departure takes place.

Moscow is interested in ensuring that the decisions of the UN Security Council on the need to preserve the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria are translated into practical actions, Lavrov said.Washington, Jan 19 : US President Donald Trump is to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a second summit by the end of February, the White House has said.

The announcement came after Trump met top North Korean negotiator Kim Yong-chol at the White House on Friday, the BBC reported.

He had been expected to deliver a letter from Kim Jong-un to Trump.

Little progress has been made on denuclearization since their historic summit in Singapore last June. No venue has been announced for the new summit.

Speculation is mounting that it could be held in Vietnam.

Kim Yong-chol's visit to Washington is the first sign of movement in nuclear diplomacy with North Korea for months.

It is not clear what the reported letter from Kim Jong-un contained. But it was expected to lay the groundwork for another summit, our correspondent adds.

Trump said he was looking forward to the talks.

His press secretary Sarah Sanders said after the White House meeting that progress in the talks on denuclearization continued, but added: "The US is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea."

Not very much was agreed on in the Singapore summit, so there is little to measure success by.

Nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled, no detailed account of North Korea's nuclear facilities has been provided and sanctions are still firmly in place.

Kim however, has been busy boosting his global image. He's improved relations with neighbouring South Korea, and both countries have destroyed guard posts along the heavily guarded demilitarised zone - and paid trips to each other's countries.

Ties between North Korea and China also appear to have improved, with Kim making multiple trips to Beijing to meet President Xi.

The summit was historic for the fact that it happened at all -- but on paper, all it really achieved was a vaguely-phrased agreement in which both countries agreed to work towards denuclearization.

It was never really made clear what denuclearisation would entail - the agreement did not include any timeline, details or mechanisms to verify this process.

If there is a second summit, many will be expecting something more concrete to come out of it. Both North Korea and the US are unlikely to get away with calling another vague agreement a success.

North Korea hasn't conducted a missile test since the summit. It's also dismantled a nuclear testing site and a key missile engine facility.

It did however test out a new "high-tech" tactical weapon last November -- its first official report of a weapons test in a year. This however, was not taken to represent a huge threat.

But it's still not clear how many nuclear facilities still exist in North Korea.

A report after last year's summit identified the extent of North Korea's network of missile bases.

However, this is not a breach of the Singapore agreement -- as North Korea has not made any commitment to halt any weapons development or shut down its missile bases.United Nations, Jan 19 : UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for serious talks between the US and North Korea, and for a clear roadmap of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

"We believe it's high time to make sure that the negotiations between the US and North Korea start again seriously, and that a roadmap is clearly defined for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Guterres said on Friday at a press conference, Xinhua reported.

"We will not advocate for any anticipation of other measures before a clear negotiation is put in place, aiming at the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula with a roadmap," he added.

Guterres made the remarks when US President Donald Trump was meeting North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chol at the White House.

"We encourage both countries to move on with the negotiations. We need a clear roadmap, as I said, to clarify things, to allow us to know exactly what the next step will be and to have predictability in the way negotiations take place," he said.

The White House said Friday that Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will meet again at the end of February at a venue to be announced later.NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF"), announces that KSF has commenced an investigation into Johnson & Johnson ("J&J") (NYSE: JNJ).

The Company has been embroiled in significant litigation by over 11,000 consumers claiming that its iconic talc powder products contained asbestos that caused cancer. Some cases have resulted in massive verdicts against J&J including a $417 million award to one California plaintiff in August 2017 and a $4.7 billion award in Missouri to 22 plaintiffs in July 2018. Further, a Mississippi state court recently denied J&J's request to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the state's Attorney General over its failure to disclose the risk, allowing that case to proceed.

Recently, news reports based on internal company documents obtained in the litigation revealed extensive evidence indicating that for many decades Company executives knew that its talc samples had tested positive for asbestos and took various measures to conceal the information from the public.

The Company has been exposed to significant financial losses as well as a securities class action lawsuit for failing to disclose material information to investors, violating federal securities laws, which is ongoing.

KSF's investigation is focusing on whether J&J's officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to its shareholders or otherwise violated state or federal laws.

If you have information that would assist KSF in its investigation, or have been a long-term holder of J&J shares and would like to discuss your legal rights, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn ([email protected]), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-jnj/ to learn more.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include Former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Contact:

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner

[email protected]

1-877-515-1850

1100 Poydras St., Suite 3200

New Orleans, LA 70163

SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Related Links

http://www.ksfcounsel.com

SHANGHAI, Jan. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- GreenTree Hospitality Group Ltd. (NYSE: GHG) ("GreenTree" or the "Company"), a leading franchised hotel operator in China, today announced that it has closed a HK$40 million investment to acquire 27,776,000 ordinary shares in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange ("HKSE") initial public offering of China Gingko Education Group Company Limited ("Gingko"). Gingko is a pioneer in developing and providing higher education services for the hospitality industry in China. Gingko was founded in 2002 by Mr. Gongyu Fang, a visionary entrepreneur in this field. With nearly 10,000 students on campus, Gingko is currently ranked as China's number one hospitality university by the "Gaosan Web Association", an authoritative website with introductions to and rankings of universities in China.

Mr. Fang, Chairman and CEO of Gingko, welcomed GreenTree's investment. "We are pleased to have GreenTree as our investor. This transaction is part of both companies' larger plan to cultivate professional talents for the hospitality industry in China. It is a truly win-win cooperation that combines Gingko's deep expertise in education with industry experience from GreenTree, a leading player." Mr. Alex Xu, Chairman and CEO of GreenTree, echoed, "Mr. Fang has done a tremendous job of building Gingko's superior educational platform. We feel privileged to work together with him and his team as part of our strategy to further enhance and develop talents for our companies and for China's hospitality industry generally."

About GreenTree Hospitality Group Ltd.

GreenTree Hospitality Group Ltd. ("GreenTree" or the "Company") (NYSE: GHG) is a leading franchised hotel operator in China. As of September 30, 2018, GreenTree had 2,558 hotels, among which 2,528 are franchised and managed hotels. The Company had the highest proportion of franchised-and-managed hotels among the top four economy to mid-scale hotel networks in China. In 2017, GreenTree was the fourth largest economy to mid-scale hotel group in China in terms of number of hotels according to China Hospitality Association. The Company has built a strong suite of brands including its flagship "GreenTree Inns" brand as a result of its long-standing dedication to the hospitality industry in China and consistent quality of its services, signature hotel designs, broad geographic coverage and convenient locations. GreenTree has positioned its brands to appeal to value-and-quality-conscious business travelers and leisure travelers.

For more information on GreenTree, please visit http://ir.998.com.

About China Gingko Education Group Company Limited

China Gingko Education Group Company Limited ("Gingko") (HKEX: 01851) is a higher education services provider in Sichuan Province focusing on cultivating professional talents for the hospitality industry in China. Gingko started to provide higher education services in 2002. For the 2017/2018 school year, Gingko enrolled nearly 10,000 students, among which 1,222 students enrolled in the hospitality management program. According to the Frost & Sullivan Report, by the end of 2017, among all 746 private higher education institutions in China, only 225 institutions offered hospitality management programs. Among such 225 institutions, Gingko's hospitality management program ranked second based on the number of students enrolled in the hospitality management program in the 2017/2018 school year. In a comprehensive assessment conducted in 2017 by Chinese Universities Alumni Association ("CUAA") of programs offered by all independent colleges in China, 24 out of Gingko's 25 bachelor's degree programs were named star-rated programs, among which its hospitality management program was named a six-star program, representing CUAA's highest award for undergraduate hospitality management programs offered by independent colleges in China.

For more information on Gingko, please visit http://www.chinagingkoedu.com/.

Safe Harbor Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements made under the "safe harbor" provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, these forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such as "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "aim," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "potential," "continue," "is/are likely to," "confident," "future," or other similar expressions. GreenTree may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with or furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Any statements that are not historical facts, including statements about or based on GreenTree's current beliefs, expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections about us and our industry, are forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors and risks include, but not limited to the following: GreenTree's goals and growth strategies; its future business development, financial condition and results of operations; trends in the hospitality industry in China and globally; competition in our industry; fluctuations in general economic and business conditions in China and other regions where we operate; the regulatory environment in which we and our franchisees operate; and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing. You should not place undue reliance on these 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. All information provided, including the forward-looking statements made, in this press release are current as of the date of the press release. Except as required by law, GreenTree undertakes no obligation to update any such information or forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which the information is provided or statements are made, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

For more information, please contact:

GreenTree

Ms. Selina Yang

Phone: +86-21-3617-4886 ext. 7999

E-mail: [email protected]

Mr. Nicky Zheng

Phone: +86-21-3617-4886 ext. 6708

E-mail: [email protected]

Christensen

In Shanghai

Ms. Constance Zhang

Phone: +86-138-1645-1798

E-mail: [email protected]

In Hong Kong

Ms. Karen Hui

Phone: +852-9266-4140

E-mail: [email protected]

In US

Ms. Linda Bergkamp

Phone: +1-480-614-3004

E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE GreenTree Hospitality Group Ltd.The Philippines is a primary location from which Shearwater Health recruits its nurses through its local Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) accredited recruitment partner, ABD Manpower Services, Inc. Many Filipinos become nurses for the purpose of working in other countries, especially in the United States, where better economic and career growth opportunities are found ( watch a touching example of one nurse's journey here). Attractive nursing opportunities outside of the Philippines result in more Filipino nurses in the profession here per capita than in the nations that recruit from the Philippines.

Any CNO at a U.S.-based hospital may read this and reasonably assume that Philippine hospitals have an ample supply of nurses. But the frequent departure of nurses from hospitals in the Philippines creates high turnover and temporary staffing shortages across the Philippines health sector. In some ways, then, U.S. hospital CNOs and Philippines CNOs share the same problem.

As a part of its mission to improve patient outcomes globally, in combination with its deep ties and commitment to the Philippines, Shearwater Health today announces a partnership with Asian Hospital, based in Manila, Philippines, to refer nurses for employment for a period of time while the nurse awaits a visa. Asian Hospital and Medical Center (AHMC) is a quaternary hospital and a subsidiary of the Metro Pacific Hospital Group, the largest private hospital group in the Philippines managed by the Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC). It is one of the top Philippine hospitals accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI), the world's most prestigious accrediting body for health care organizations. It has built a reputation of providing a unique and heartfelt kind of care to its patients in the Philippines, and a quality service that is on par with U.S.-based hospitals.

This transpacific partnership to coordinate efforts to address the nursing shortage will help Asian Hospital manage the migration of nurses outside of the country. In many cases in the Philippines, when nurses decide to work abroad, they prefer not to disclose this to their employers until the last possible moment, causing hospitals to scramble to fill positions.

Shearwater Health will help correct this problem by referring nurses recruited for U.S. employment through its POEA accredited agency, ABD Manpower, Inc., to Asian Hospital. Shearwater Health will then notify Asian Hospital many months in advance of when the nurse is expected to depart for the United States.

The wait for a visa to work in the United States for a Filipino nurse can take 2-4 years. Nurses often choose to work abroad (in the Middle East, for example) while waiting for a visa, which may require leaving their children and spouse in the Philippines. With Asian Hospital's outstanding reputation for developing nursing talent through its nursing leadership and training programs, Shearwater Health believes this arrangement offers nurses an alternative to remain in the Philippines while still developing nursing skills.

As a result, Asian Hospital, Shearwater Health, and the nurse will coordinate for the same goal: provide outstanding nursing care in the Philippines without disruption, and empower nurses inclined to work in the U.S. to reach their dream of a career in a U.S hospital.

SOURCE Shearwater Health

Related Links

http://www.swhealth.com

PLAINFIELD, Ind., Jan. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Like many Midwesterners, Duke Energy continues to monitor and prepare for a winter storm that has the potential to cause power outages across the company's 69-county Indiana service area.

Related: B-roll video of storm prep and winter storm power restoration efforts

"This storm will be different compared to the system that blanketed the Midwest with snow last weekend," said Duke Energy Meteorologist Curt Grimoskas. "This one is distinctive because it has the potential to bring a combination of snow, sleet, rain, freezing rain, very gusty winds and cold temperatures."

Related: High-resolution photos of winter storm power restoration work

Snow on its own typically has little to no impact on the electric system. However, heavy wet snow accumulation, freezing rain and high winds can bring down trees, limbs and power lines. These types of winter storms can also create hazardous driving conditions, which could delay and impede Duke Energy workers' abilities to assess storm damage and restore power.

Duke Energy workers preparing for and tracking storm

Ahead of this weekend's storm, Duke Energy line technicians and other workers continue to inspect equipment, check supplies and restock inventories to ensure adequate materials are available to make repairs and restore power outages. In addition, Duke Energy meteorologists are continually tracking the storm's path and intensity, and updating forecast models, which influence how the company mobilizes its workers and other resources.

Related: How Duke Energy restores power following a storm

Duke Energy has more than 500 line technicians, service crews and other storm personnel available across the company's Indiana service region to respond to power outages once conditions are safe. Depending on the impact of the storm, Duke Energy can bring in additional workers from its Southeast utilities and/or activate mutual aid agreements to enlist help from other utilities across the U.S.

Safety reminders

Ahead of this winter storm, Duke Energy urges customers to make plans to move family members  especially those with special needs  to safe, alternative locations in the event of an extended power outage. The company also advises customers to be prepared and stay safe, and to encourage their family members, friends and neighbors to do the same.

"We can't stress enough the need for customers to be prepared for this storm and to be ready to move family members and neighbors  especially those who may be more vulnerable during a loss of power  to safe, alternative locations," said Stan Pinegar, Duke Energy Indiana state president.

Here are ways customers can be prepared and stay safe before, during and after a storm:

Ensure an adequate supply of flashlights, batteries, bottled water, non-perishable foods, medicines, etc., as well as the availability of a portable, battery-operated radio, TV or weather radio.

Stay away from power lines that have fallen or are sagging. Consider all lines energized as well as trees or limbs in contact with lines. Please report downed power lines to Duke Energy or local emergency services.

If a power line falls across a car that you're in, stay in the car. If you MUST get out of the car due to a fire or other immediate life-threatening situation, do your best to jump clear of the car and land on both feet. Be sure that no part of your body is touching the car when your feet touch the ground.

If you are driving and encounter emergency responders or other roadside work crews, remember to MOVE OVER. It's the law in Indiana and a good practice for all drivers.

and a good practice for all drivers. If you use a generator due to a power outage, follow the manufacturer's instructions to ensure safe and proper operation. Operate your generator outside; never operate it inside a building or garage.

operate it inside a building or garage. Don't use grills or other outdoor appliances or equipment indoors for space heating or cooking, as these devices may omit carbon monoxide.

Reporting outages

Customers who experience outages during the storm have multiple ways to report them:

Text OUT to 57801 (standard text and data charges may apply)

Call the automated outage-reporting system:

Indiana : 800.343.3525

: 800.343.3525 Report an outage or view current outages by visiting duke-energy.com/outages

Duke Energy will also provide updates on its social media channels to keep customers informed if significant outages occur:

Duke Energy on Twitter: twitter.com/DukeEnergy

Duke Energy on Facebook: facebook.com/DukeEnergy

Duke Energy Indiana

Duke Energy Indiana's operations provide about 6,700 megawatts of owned electric capacity to approximately 820,000 customers in a 23,000-square-mile service area, making it the state's largest electric supplier.

Duke Energy Indiana is a subsidiary of Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK).

Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy is one of the largest energy holding companies in the U.S., with approximately 29,000 employees and a generating capacity of 49,500 megawatts. The company is transforming its customers' experience, modernizing its energy grid, generating cleaner energy and expanding its natural gas infrastructure to create a smarter energy future for the people and communities it serves.

The company's Electric Utilities and Infrastructure unit serves approximately 7.6 million retail electric customers in six states  North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. Its Gas Utilities and Infrastructure unit distributes natural gas to approximately 1.6 million customers in five states  North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. Its Commercial Renewables unit operates a growing renewable energy portfolio across the U.S.

A Fortune 125 company, Duke Energy was named to Fortune's 2018 "World's Most Admired Companies" list and Forbes' 2018 "America's Best Employers" list.

More information about the company is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center includes news releases, fact sheets, photos, videos and other materials. Duke Energy's illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

Contact: Lew Middleton | 317.838.1505 office

24-Hour: 800.559.3853

SOURCE Duke Energy

Related Links

http://www.duke-energy.com

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Marc A. Bronstein is recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Pinnacle Lifetime Member in the field of Law in recognition of his role as an Attorney at Marc A. Bronstein, A Professional Law Corporation.

Established in 1997, Marc A. Bronstein, A Professional Law Corporation provides legal assistance to California residents pertaining to estate planning, real estate, business, and taxation. Dedicated to providing comprehensive legal advice, Mr. Bronstein, and his firm, lend a multifaceted approach in their belief that aggressive legal representation is the best way to serve their clients. Through their legal counsel, Mr. Bronstein and the firm balance legal and financial perspectives in advising clients on taking actions to accomplish their important goals.

As the founder and Senior Attorney at Marc A. Bronstein, A Professional Law Corporation, Marc A. Bronstein brings forty years of experience in the field of law, together with the knowledge and experience of a certified public accountant and practicing tax professional. A well venerated professional throughout his career, Mr. Bronstein has become well versed in the areas of Estate planning, as well as business, real estate and tax matters. Mr. Bronstein was admitted to the State Bar of California over forty (40) years ago and to U.S. Tax Court over thirty-five (35) years ago. However, despite this extensive experience, Mr. Bronstein continues to offer his clients quality services at affordable rates based on his strongly held beliefs that legal assistance should be readily accessible to those who seek it.

Prior to embarking on his academic career, Marc A. Bronstein was an active member of the Boy Scouts of America, obtaining the highest attainable rank of Eagle Scout. Mr. Bronstein then earned his Bachelor of Science degree Magna Cum Laude in Accounting from California State University, Long Beach and his Juris Doctor degree-Cum Laude from Loyola Law School in 1977. Thereafter, Mr. Bronstein attained his Master of Science degree in Taxation from Golden Gate University in Los Angeles, California. Through Mr. Bronstein's education, he remained an active part of the community, including earning a Certificate of Heroism from the Boy Scouts of America and a Commendation for Community Service from the City of Culver City, as a result of his actions while serving as a Troop Leader with the Boy Scouts of America.

Mr. Bronstein is also an affiliate of several distinguished organizations including the Beverly Hills Bar Association and California State Bar Association.

For more information, please visit https://marcbronstein.com/

Contact: Katherine Green , 516-825-5634, [email protected]

SOURCE Continental Who's Who

Related Links

http://www.continentalwhoswho.com

GERMANTOWN, Tenn., Jan. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. or MAA (NYSE: MAA) today announced the taxable composition of the 2018 distributions paid to shareholders. The company does not expect any portion of the 2018 distributions paid to shareholders to represent a return of capital. The company did not incur any foreign taxes. The composition presented is applicable to all dividend distributions during 2018. The classifications for 2018 are as follows:

Common Stock (MAA) (CUSIP 59522J103)

Record

Date Pay Date Cash

Distributions

Per Share Ordinary

Taxable

Distribution Long Term

Capital Gain Unrecaptured

Sec. 1250

Gain Section

199A 01/12/2018 01/31/2018 $0.9225 99.2612% 0.6111% 0.1277% 99.2612% 04/13/2018 04/30/2018 $0.9225 99.2612% 0.6111% 0.1277% 99.2612% 07/13/2018 07/31/2018 $0.9225 99.2612% 0.6111% 0.1277% 99.2612% 10/15/2018 10/31/2018 $0.9225 99.2612% 0.6111% 0.1277% 99.2612%

8.5% Series I Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock (MAA/PI) (CUSIP 59522J889)

Record

Date Pay Date Cash

Distributions

Per Share Ordinary

Taxable

Distribution Long Term

Capital Gain Unrecaptured

Sec. 1250

Gain Section

199A 03/15/2018 04/02/2018 $1.0625 99.2612% 0.6111% 0.1277% 99.2612% 06/15/2018 07/02/2018 $1.0625 99.2612% 0.6111% 0.1277% 99.2612% 09/17/2018 10/01/2018 $1.0625 99.2612% 0.6111% 0.1277% 99.2612% 12/14/2018 12/31/2018 $1.0625 99.2612% 0.6111% 0.1277% 99.2612%

This release is based on the preliminary work the company has performed on its tax filings and is subject to correction or adjustment based on the completion of those filings. Shareholders are encouraged to consult with their personal tax advisors as to their specific tax treatment of these MAA distributions. The company is releasing information at this time to aid those required to distribute Forms 1099 on the company's dividends. No material change in the taxable composition is expected.

About MAA

MAA is a self-administered real estate investment trust (REIT) and member of the S&P 500. MAA owns or has ownership interest in apartment communities throughout the Southeast, Southwest and Mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S. focused on delivering strong, full-cycle investment performance. For further details, please refer to "For Investors" page at www.maac.com or contact Investor Relations at [email protected].

Certain matters in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27-A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. Such statements include those made about the expectation that the company will have no material change in taxable composition of its 2018 distributions. The expectation is based on preliminary work the company has performed on its year-end filings and on information currently available. Unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the company to differ materially from those on which these calculations were based. Reference is hereby made to the filings of Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, reports on Form 8-K, and its annual report on Form 10-K, particularly including the risk factors contained in the latter filing.

SOURCE MAA

Related Links

http://www.maac.com

CLEVELAND, Jan. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- After more than a year of investigations and hearings, the European Commission (EC) imposed both an anti-dumping and an anti-subsidy duties on e-bikes imported from China in January 2019 in order to protect EU manufacturers from unfair competition. The EC released a document detailing the new duties on January 18th. Instead of adopting a single anti-dumping duty for all Chinese suppliers, the EC opted for per company dumping duties, ranging from 24%-79%.

The EU  which features a large e-bike market is home to a number of the world's leading suppliers (such as Accell Group) and countless smaller industry participants. According to industry analyst Gleb Mytko, "The European Commission's actions were designed to protect a nascent but important industry from what it deemed unfair dumping practices." With these measures, the EU hopes to maintain a competitive and diverse e-bike market that is well positioned for strong growth. In addition, the move will allow new e-bike start-ups to compete and expand their operations, ensuring the long term health of the EU e-bike industry. This is particularly important because the global e-bike market is still at an early stage of development and is poised for many years of growth.

For more information on the global e-bike industry, see Freedonia Group's Global Motorcycles study: https://www.freedoniagroup.com/World-Motorcycles.html

About The Freedonia Group, a division of MarketResearch.com  The Freedonia Group is a leading international industrial research company publishing more than 100 studies annually. Since 1985, we have provided research to customers ranging in size from global conglomerates to one-person consulting firms. More than 90% of the industrial companies in the Fortune 500 use Freedonia Group research to help with their strategic planning. Additional Automotive & Transport studies can be purchased at https://www.freedoniagroup.com/, www.marketresearch.com and www.profound.com.

Press Contact:

Corinne Gangloff

+1 440.684.9600

[email protected]

SOURCE The Freedonia Group

Related Links

https://www.freedoniagroup.com

DUBLIN, Jan. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Research Report on Coal Import in China, 2019-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

China is the largest coal producer and consumer. The huge coal consumption in China encourages foreign coal producers to expand their production capacity. In addition, overseas coal mines are mostly opencast ones, which makes it easy to increase production.

However, coal production in China is restricted by environmental protection policies and other factors. In recent years, some small and medium-sized coal mines had to cut or even stop production because their environmental protection facilities failed to meet standards. Meanwhile, the rising mining costs have made the coal prices in China higher than the international coal prices. For example, in 2017, the average price of imported steam coal was only 429 CNY/ton, about 12% lower than that of domestic steam coal.

According to this analysis, the logistics costs for imported coal are very low because imported coal mostly enters China by sea. While the logistics costs for domestic coal are far higher because the prices of refined oil are more expensive in China than in other parts of the world, and the expressway tolls are excessively high. Therefore, China imports a large quantity of coal every year. In 2017, the import volume of coal in China was about 270.9 million tons, up by 6% from 2016.

Coal imports are classified into anthracite, coking coal, other coal, other bituminous coal and lignite. The first three types of coal are used for thermal power generation and collectively called steam coal in China. China's coal imports are dominated by steam coal that has a low average price. For example, in 2017, steam coal imports reached about 188.14 million tons, accounting for about 69.4% of China's coal imports. As the major sources of China's coal imports, in 2017, Indonesia, Australia, Mongolia and Russia exported 251 million tons of coal in total to China, contributing about 93% to the import volume of coal in China. Indonesia, the largest source of China's coal imports, exported about 109 million tons of coal to China in 2017, accounting for 40.2% of the import volume of coal in China.

According to the researcher, coal import can bring the following benefits to China: (1) Appropriate amount of coal imports can suppress the price fluctuations and speculation on China's coal market so that the downstream industries can maintain stable production and operation; and (2) the import of high-quality coking coal that China lacks can promote the development of China's coke and metal smelting industries.

However, the Chinese government issues policies to restrict coal import from time to time, worrying that a large number of coal imports will harm the interests of the domestic coal mining industry. For example, from July 1, 2017, according to the Interim Measures for Administration of Quality of Commercial Coal, the ports administered by province-level governments stopped approving coal import.

On January 9, 2018, the National Energy Administration held talks with major power enterprises on assessing power plants' use of imported coal and the supply of coal for power generation. At the beginning of April 2018, the Customs of China's major coal importing provinces such as Fujian, Guangdong and Zhejiang began to restrict coal import.

It is expected that the import volume of coal in China will continue to grow from 2019 to 2023 but the growth rate may be limited. On one hand, imported coal can stabilize the coal prices in China and improve the operation of the major downstream industries of coal. On the other hand, a large number of coal imports will certainly impact China's coal mining industry. Therefore, the Chinese government will issue policies to regulate and rationalize coal imports.



Key Topics Covered:



1 Overview of China's Coal Industry

1.1 Definition of Coal

1.2 Classification of Coal

1.3 Industry Chain of Coal



2 Analysis of Environment of Coal Import in China, 2019-2023

2.1 Economic Environment

2.1.1 China's GDP and Disposable Income Per Capita

2.1.2 China's Industrial Value Added

2.2 Policy Environment

2.2.1 China's Regulatory Policies on Coal Industry

2.2.2 China's Policies on Coal Import

2.3 Technological Environment



3 Analysis of Coal Supply in China

3.1 China's Coal Reserves

3.2 Production Capacity of China's Coal Mines

3.3 Production Volume of Coal in China



4 Analysis of Coal Demand in China

4.1 Major Downstream Consumers of Coal in China

4.1.1 Thermal Power Generation

4.1.2 Iron and Steel Smelting

4.1.3 Building Materials Industry

4.1.4 Chemical Raw Materials and Chemical Products Industry

4.2 Consumption Volume of Coal in China

4.3 Market Size of Coal in China



5 Analysis of Coal Import in China

5.1 Scale of Coal Import in China

5.1.1 Import Volume of Coal in China

5.1.2 Import Value of Coal in China

5.2 Average Import Prices of Coal in China

5.3 China's Reliance on Coal Imports



6 Analysis of Coal Imports by Type in China

6.1 Steam Coal Import in China

6.1.1 Import Volume of Steam Coal in China

6.1.2 Import Value of Steam Coal in China

6.1.3 Average Import Prices of Steam Coal in China

6.1.4 Comparison of Average Prices of Domestic and Imported Steam Coal in China

6.1.5 Sources of China's Steam Coal Imports

6.2 Coking Coal Import in China

6.2.1 Import Volume of Coking Coal in China

6.2.2 Import Value of Coking Coal in China

6.2.3 Average Import Prices of Coking Coal in China

6.2.4 Comparison of Average Prices of Domestic and Imported Coking Coal in China

6.2.5 Sources of China's Coking Coal Imports

6.3 Anthracite Import in China

6.3.1 Import Volume of Anthracite in China

6.3.2 Import Value of Anthracite in China

6.3.3 Average Import Prices of Anthracite in China

6.3.4 Comparison of Average Prices of Domestic and Imported Anthracite in China

6.3.5 Sources of China's Anthracite Imports



7 Analysis of Major Sources of China's Coal Imports

7.1 China's Coal Imports from Indonesia

7.2 China's Coal Imports from Australia

7.3 China's Coal Imports from Mongolia

7.4 China's Coal Imports from Russia



8 Major Coal Importers in China

8.1 Major Steam Coal Importers in China

8.2 Major Coking Coal Importers in China



9 Prospect of Coal Import in China, 2019-2023

9.1 Major Factors Influencing Coal Import in China

9.1.1 Favorable Factors

9.1.2 Unfavorable Factors

9.2 Forecast on Import Volume of Coal in China

9.3 Forecast on Types and Major Sources of China's Coal Imports



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/f4kq9p/china_coal?w=5

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

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NAPERVILLE, Ill., Jan. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Calamos Investments*, a global investment management firm, announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Timpani Capital Management LLC, a boutique investment firm based in Milwaukee. The transaction is expected to close following applicable regulatory and customary closing conditions, including mutual fund shareholder approvals.

Co-founded in 2008 by Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager Brandon M. Nelson, Timpani focuses on small-and smid-cap growth investing, combining fundamental research with behavioral finance concepts.

"We are thrilled to have Brandon and his team join Calamos Investments," said John P. Calamos, Sr., Founder and Global Co-Chief Investment Officer of Calamos Investments. He continued, "As our firm has long embraced the merits of active management and growth-focused stock selection, Timpani's small- and smid-cap expertise is a welcome addition to our lineup."

"Following a rigorous due diligence process, we are confident in the exceptional capabilities of Brandon and his team," said John Koudounis, Chief Executive Officer of Calamos Investments. "With this acquisition we are gaining strong talent and innovative investment thinking that extends our growth equity platform, consistent with the firm's long term growth strategy."

"At Timpani, we have always sought to put our clients first," said Brandon Nelson. "In joining forces with Calamos, I, along with my team, will be able to remain focused on our investment mandates while we benefit from the resources and synergies of a larger company that has been serving investors for more than 40 years. Moreover, Calamos and Timpani hold similar investment philosophies, embracing active, high conviction growth investing while also sharing similar corporate cultures and values, assuring us of a smooth transition."

About Calamos

Calamos Investments is a diversified global investment firm offering innovative investment strategies including alternatives, multi-asset, convertible, fixed income, and equity. The firm offers strategies through separately managed portfolios, mutual funds, closed-end funds, private funds, and UCITS funds. Clients include major corporations, pension funds, endowments, foundations and individuals, as well as the financial advisors and consultants who serve them. Headquartered in the Chicago metropolitan area, the firm also has offices in London, New York, San Francisco, and the Miami area. For more information, please visit www.calamos.com.

*Calamos Investments LLC, referred to herein as Calamos Investments, is a financial services company offering such services through its subsidiaries: Calamos Advisors LLC, Calamos Wealth Management LLC, Calamos Investments LLP and Calamos Financial Services LLC.

About Timpani Capital Management LLC

Timpani Capital Management is a boutique investment manager focused on small- and smid-cap growth investing. Timpani Capital uses a consistent and proven investment philosophy and process that has been used since the inception of the firm. Its experienced senior management and investment professionals work as a team to identify investment prospects and manage portfolios for institutions, consultants, and fund shareholders. The firm is based in Milwaukee.

SOURCE Calamos Investments

Related Links

http://www.calamos.com

DUBLIN, Jan. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Telcos' MSS Market Opportunity in APAC" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

"Telcos' MSS Market Opportunity in APAC", provides an executive-level overview of the managed security services (MSS) market opportunity for telecoms companies in Asia Pacific (APAC). It delivers qualitative insights into the MSS market, analyzing key trends and growth drivers in the region.

The MSS market size in the APAC region is expected to grow by a CAGR of 9.4% between 2017-2022, rising from US$19.7 billion in 2017 to US$30.8 billion by 2022. From a global perspective, the APAC region was the third largest MSS revenue generator in 2017, with 25% of the global total and will remain the third largest with a 25% share over the forecast period.

APAC telcos are in varying states of development with their MSS services. Some larger telcos in developed markets with an enterprise focus have become quite advanced, offering application, infrastructure, and cybersecurity services, even investing in their own SOCs. However many just fairly recently launched their MSS services with application security often a prominently featured type of service usually alongside a portfolio of infrastructure security services. Infrastructure security services tend to be closer to a telco's traditional enterprise offerings. A key strategic advantage APAC telcos have, particularly in emerging markets, is their in-country presence and experience which can be important for some verticals that might regulatory restrictions to keep data domestically or in some markets not well covered by global vendors.

There is a large disparity in the MSS capability between APAC's leading telcos and those that have only recently launched forays into security services. APAC telcos with a strong legacy in providing enterprise solutions around networking, cloud, and data centers are better positioned in the MSS space than telcos who have focused on mass market communication or only simple enterprise connectivity.

The report provides in-depth analysis of the following

Managed Security Services: Taxonomy and Market Context: This section provides an overview of the core portfolio of telecom operators' managed security services.

Telco's MSS market opportunity: This section looks at the recent development and the current state of managed security services in APAC, while also providing a closer look at the drivers and inhibitors for telcos in various categories of security services.

Key findings and recommendations: it consists of a summary of key findings and growth opportunities for telcos in the APAC managed security services market.

Scope

There is a large disparity in the MSS capability between APAC's leading telcos and those that have only recently launched forays into security services. APAC telcos with a strong legacy in providing enterprise solutions around networking, cloud, and data centers are better positioned in the MSS space than telcos who have focused on mass market communication or only simple enterprise connectivity.

APAC is the world's third largest region in terms of MSS revenue in 2017 with $19.7 billion , accounting for about 25% of the global total. APAC will keep pace with the rest of the world in terms of MSS revenue growth, with a CAGR of 9.4% for both APAC and total global revenue over 2017 to 2022, retaining a 25% share in global MSS revenue in 2022 with $30.8 billion .

, accounting for about 25% of the global total. APAC will keep pace with the rest of the world in terms of MSS revenue growth, with a CAGR of 9.4% for both APAC and total global revenue over 2017 to 2022, retaining a 25% share in global MSS revenue in 2022 with . APAC telco that offer MSS often prominently feature application security along side a portfolio of infrastructure security services. Telcos may build on in-country sales channels and staff, customer relationships, and knowledge of local market dynamics providing them with a competitive edge in the application security services segment.

Key Topics Covered:



Key takeaways



Section 1: Taxonomy and Market Context

Managed security services definition

Managed security services value chain



Section 2: Telcos' MSS Market Opportunity

APAC MSS Market Size in a Global Context

APAC MSS Market Size by Vertical and Business Size

APAC MSS Opportunity in Applications Security

APAC MSS Opportunity in Infrastructure Security

APAC MSS Opportunity in Cyber Security



Section 3: Key Findings and Recommendations



Companies Mentioned



AVG

Checkpoint

Cisco

DKAV

Fortinet

IBM

Infosys

Microsoft

NTT

Optus

PCCW

SingTel

Symantec

Telstra

Trustwave

Unisys

VMWare

VNPT

Vodafone

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/8k2fm4/asiapacific?w=5

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com

NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- AJC applauded Moldova for adopting the international working definition of anti-Semitism.

The Decision on Condemning anti-Semitism and Promotion of Tolerance issued today by Prime Minister Pavel Filip endorses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, and commits Moldavan authorities to prevent and combat anti-Semitism, extremism, racism and any other form of discrimination or intolerance.

"Moldova has taken a laudable step in recognizing clearly the resurgent cancer of anti-Semitism and mobilizing to effectively combat it," said American Jewish Committee (AJC) CEO David Harris, who has visited the country several times. "We commend the Jewish Community of Moldova, an AJC international partner, for working with their government to achieve this important policy decision."

AJC, the global Jewish advocacy organization founded in 1906 after deadly pogroms in Tsarist-ruled Kishinev, marked its 110th anniversary during a visit to the Moldovan capital in July, 2016.

The IHRA definition, adopted by the alliance's 31 member states in 2016, is based on the 2005 European Monitoring Centre (EUMC) Working Definition. It offers a clear and comprehensive description of anti-Semitism in its various forms, including hatred and discrimination against Jews, Holocaust denial, and, of particular note, anti-Semitism as it relates to Israel.

AJC worked closely over a decade ago with the EUMC in developing this working definition as a tool for monitors and law enforcement officials.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee

Related Links

http://www.ajc.org

Zero Hedge

January 19, 2018

After months of waffling about the prospects of another summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump, the White House announced Friday afternoon that a meeting has finally been tentatively scheduled for late February, following a series of meetings involving North Koreas chief negotiator that culminated in meeting the president at the Oval Office.

Following the announcement, the White House said that it has continued to make progress with North Korea, though sanctions will remain intact.

According to the Associated Press, Gen. Kim Yong Chol, the lead negotiator for North Korea and a former spy chief, met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Friday after previously scheduled talks between the two had been abruptly canceled in November. After meeting with Pompeo at a hotel in DuPont Circle  a meeting for which Stephen Biegun, the US special representative to NK, was also in attendance, Kim traveled to the White House to meet with Trump. A State Department spokesman said that Kim had a good discussion with Pompeo and Biegun.

None of the parties responded to questions about the location of the summit, which will follow a historic Singapore summit between the two leaders that took place back in June.

WH Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump met with Kim for 90 mins to discuss denuclearization and the possibility of a second summit, and that Trump looks forward to meeting with the North Korean leader again.

However, its unclear whether any material progress has been made on the biggest sticking point between the US and NK: That is, the USs demands that the North complete the denuclearization process before any sanctions are lifted. The North has been pushing for a gradual schedule of sanctions relief whereby it surrenders some nukes in exchange for some sanctions being lifted. The US has repeatedly said this is out of the question.

This article was posted: Saturday, January 19, 2019 at 6:58 am

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Comment on this articleStatistics from 1967 to 2017 from the American Physical Society show that the percentage of women earning doctorates in physics has dropped in recent years, from a high of around 21 percent in 2015 to about 17 percent in 2017. Women earning bachelors degrees, though, rose from 18 percent in 2015 to 21 percent in 2017.American Mirror

January 19, 2018

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is now accusing President Donald Trump of putting her life in danger.

On Thursday, Trump sent a letter to Pelosi informing her that he cancelled her upcoming trip to Europe and the Middle East.

Trump told Pelosi that she could not use military aircraft  which are funded by taxpayers  but could still make the trip if she wanted to fly commercial on her own dime.

Pelosis spokesman, Drew Hammill, took to Twitter on Friday morning and accused  without any evidence  the Trump administration of leaking the commercial travel plans.

After President Trump revoked the use of military aircraft to travel to Afghanistan, the delegation was prepared to fly commercially to proceed with this vital trip to meet with our commanders and troops on the front lines, Hammill wrote.

He continued in a third tweet: In the middle of the night, State Depts Diplomatic Security Service provided an updated threat assessment detailing that the President announcing this sensitive travel had significantly increased danger to the delegation & to troops, security, & other officials supporting trip.

He then accused the Trump administration of leaking the travel plans, which he claimed put Pelosi and other Democrats in danger.

This morning, we learned that the Administration had leaked the commercial travel plans as well.  Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) January 18, 2019

Hamill then attempted to claim that the threat to Pelosis life was so severe that the group of lawmakers postponed the trip so that they didnt endanger themselves any further.

In light of the grave threats caused by the Presidents action, the delegation has decided to postpone the trip so as not to further endanger our troops and security personnel, or the other travelers on the flights, Hammill wrote.

Whether here or abroad, the Speaker always thanks our troops, diplomats and intelligence community for their heroism & service. The Speaker commends her colleagues on the delegation, who personally & officially have dedicated their lives to protect & defend the American people, Hammill added.

Whether here or abroad, the Speaker always thanks our troops, diplomats and intelligence community for their heroism & service. The Speaker commends her colleagues on the delegation, who personally & officially have dedicated their lives to protect & defend the American people.  Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) January 18, 2019

In response to Hammills salacious claims and baseless allegations, a senior White House official told Daily Mail reporter Francesca Chambers that its a flat out lie that the Trump administration would leak information that would threaten Americans safety.

NEW: Senior official tells me it's a "flat out lie" the WH would leak info that would threaten Americans' safety. "When the Speaker of the house and about 20 others from Capitol Hill decide to book their own commercial flights to Afghanistan, the world is going to find out." https://t.co/Kg7x1xLbuc  Francesca Chambers (@fran_chambers) January 18, 2019

Trump cancelled Pelosis plane less than an hour before she was set to leave.

This article was posted: Saturday, January 19, 2019 at 7:51 am

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Comment on this articleZero Hedge

January 19, 2018

Update 2: In an almost unprecedented event  having rarely commented on stories related to the special counsels investigation  Robert S. Mueller IIIs office put out a statement firmly disputing the reporting of the news site BuzzFeed reported that the president instructed his personal attorney to lie to Congress about his push for a Moscow real estate project

BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the Special Counsels Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens Congressional testimony are not accurate, the special counsels office said.

As The Hill reports, BuzzFeed had released a statement earlier Friday defending the reporters behind the story and saying that it stands by this story 100%, and for his part, Cohen adviser Lanny Davis refused to confirm or deny the report during an interview with MSNBC on Friday afternoon.

President Trump retweeted a few social media reactions

I told you all that the BuzzFeed story was nonsense. pic.twitter.com/gbTXPjpVtk  John Cardillo (@johncardillo) January 19, 2019

We called it. FAKE NEWS! More Buzzfeed B.S. https://t.co/aOIPJJu0vH  Dan Bongino (@dbongino) January 19, 2019



And then made his own views clear:

Remember it was Buzzfeed that released the totally discredited Dossier, paid for by Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats (as opposition research), on which the entire Russian probe is based! A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2019

Fake News is truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2019

Update 1: Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani has called the BuzzFeed report that Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie categorically false.

Fourteen hours after the Buzzfeed story hit, @RudyGiuliani finally denies it: "Any suggestion  from any source  that the President counseled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false." per @HallieJackson  Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) January 18, 2019

Skeptics are taking aim at a Thursday night BuzzFeed report that President Trump personally instructed his former attorney Michael Cohen to lie to congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

Less than 12 hours after the report, its credibility has been called into question after the two journalists who wrote the story gave vastly different answers as to whether they had actually the evidence  while many have pointed to the dubious past of reporter Jason Leopold.

Anthony Cormier, Jason Leopold

Leopold came under fire for a 2006 Truthout.org article incorrectly reporting that Karl Rove had been indicted over the Valerie Plame CIA leak case  claiming that multiple anonymous sources confirmed Roves indictment is imminent.

As we learned last week, Rove isnt being indicted, and the supposed Truthout scoop by reporter Jason Leopold was wildly off the mark. It was but the latest installment in the tale of a troubled young reporter with a history of drug addiction whose aggressive disregard for the rules ended up embroiling me in a bizarre escapade  and raised serious questions about journalistic ethics. Joe Lauria, WaPo, 2006

Was just tipped off via DM. This reporter is the first name on the buzzfeed byline. So yeah, my skepticism wasnt unwarranted. https://t.co/IySHs1Zv0l  Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) January 18, 2019

The other journalist from the Thursday night BuzzFeed report, Anthony Cormier, admitted to CNNs New Day that he hasnt actually seen the evidence in the case.

Host Alisyn Camerota opened the interview by asking Cormier if he had seen the evidence to which Cormier replied: Not personally. He then clarified that the folks we have talked to  two officials we have spoken to are fully, 100 percent read into that aspect of the Special Counsels investigation Mediaite

Except Leopold told MSNBC  We have seen the documents . We have been briefed on documents.

We have seen documents. We have been briefed on documents. We are very confident in our reporting," BuzzFeed News reporter Jason Leopold, who co-wrote bombshell new report, says. pic.twitter.com/5RXOx8rvo0  MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 18, 2019

I dont think that weve said that we havent seen them.  Leopold's exact quote on MSBC after being asked about Cormier's comments on CNN earlier. Cormier's quote  No, Ive not seen it personally. when asked by Alisyn Camerota  Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) January 18, 2019



https://twitter.com/JordanSchachtel/status/1086297926320701442

Wait wait wait BuzzFeeds reporter hasnt seen ANY of the evidence on which his entire story is predicated??? Like all the other Russia collusion BS, this all hearsay and slander. No proof of anything. BuzzFeed is #fakenews.#MAGA  https://t.co/4QJg8za8hq  HARLAN Z. HILL  (@Harlan) January 18, 2019

Despite not having seen the evidence at hand, Cormier explained his sources at length: [Our sources] have been working the Trump Moscow tower portion of the investigationbefore Mueller. So they had access to a number of different documents, 302 reports which are interview reports, he explained. That stuff was compiled as they began to look at who the players were speaking with, how those negotiations went, who all from the Trump organization and outside the organization were involved in getting that tower set up.

Cormier was then asked about Jason Leopolds dubious past, with CNNs Alisyn Camerota asking: He was in trouble for perhaps claiming to have sources he really didnt have. His stories didnt wash. Executive directors and editors have had to apologize after some of his big blockbuster stories, adding How can you be certain today?

To which Cormier said: My sourcing on this goes beyond the two on the record, adding Its 100 percent. I am the individual who confirmed and verified that it I am telling you our sourcing goes beyond the two I was able to put on the record. We were able to gather information from individuals who know this happened.

Cormier told NPRs Morning Edition that they had managed to find ways to verify these peoples stories off the record.

BuzzFeed News reports that Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. @a_cormier_, one of two reporters who broke the story, says of their two law enforcement sources, "we've managed to find ways to verify these people's stories off the record." https://t.co/93EjJl0Js6 pic.twitter.com/owzl9iKkjR  Morning Edition (@MorningEdition) January 18, 2019



President Trump on Friday tweeted in response to the story:

Kevin Corke, @FoxNews Dont forget, Michael Cohen has already been convicted of perjury and fraud, and as recently as this week, the Wall Street Journal has suggested that he may have stolen tens of thousands of dollars. Lying to reduce his jail time! Watch father-in-law!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2019

Trump Jr. chimed in as well, tweeting Here we go again another CNN/Buzzfeed bombshell with no evidence. The usual clickbait BS and when it fails as all the others have there will be ZERO coverage.

Here we go again another CNN/Buzzfeed "bombshell" with no evidence. The usual clickbait BS and when it fails as all the others have there will be ZERO coverage. Textbook #fakenews https://t.co/VNHN9ndz36  Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 18, 2019

On Friday morning, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) said We will do whats necessary to find out if its true, of the BuzzFeed report, calling the allegation the most serious to date.

We will do whats necessary to find out if its true, House Intel Cmte. Chairman Schiff says of new BuzzFeed News report that President Trump told Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. https://t.co/BybYlmFCkW  NBC News (@NBCNews) January 18, 2019

The allegation that the President of the United States may have suborned perjury before our committee in an effort to curtail the investigation and cover up his business dealings with Russia is among the most serious to date, Schiff tweeted on Friday  one day after President Trump canceled his 7-day overseas trip with Nancy Pelosi.

The allegation that the President of the United States may have suborned perjury before our committee in an effort to curtail the investigation and cover up his business dealings with Russia is among the most serious to date. We will do whats necessary to find out if its true. https://t.co/GljBAFqOjh  Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) January 18, 2019

This article was posted: Saturday, January 19, 2019 at 7:12 am

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Infowars.com Videos:Belgium reach last 16 of Euro 2020 after Denmark win Kevin de Bruyne inspired Belgium to a comeback win against Denmark that secured

Shenzhou-12: China launches first crew to new space station China has launched three astronauts into orbit to begin occupation of theEconomy expands by 3.1% in quarter one 2021 The Ghanaian economy expanded by 3.1% in the first quarter of this year, the

Belgium reach last 16 of Euro 2020 after Denmark win Kevin de Bruyne inspired Belgium to a comeback win against Denmark that securedWe as a school, we have always done what we can to support kids who are hungry, and if the worst happens, we have resources from the PTA and other groups, the support of our teachers and staff, we will do what we have to make sure no student goes hungry here, he said.FRANCONIA [mdash] Donald "Don" Swift was born in Montreal, Quebec, on March 3, 1954, and passed peacefully from his battle with cancer on June 13, 2021, with some family by his side. He is formerly of Scarborough, Ontario, and Beaconsfield, Quebec. He is survived by his two daughters: Katie Now that COVID-19 cases are declining and the majority of Minnesotans have received vaccinations, what activities are you most looking forward to resuming this summer?

You voted:HOUSE

Russia Sanctions Relief: The House on Jan. 17 voted, 362-53, to prohibit the Treasury Department from lifting economic sanctions on the corporate domain of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, in return for his relinquishing majority shares in three companies. But a Senate vote (below) allowed the sanctions relief to take effect. A yes vote was to retain the sanctions. (HJ Res 30)

Jeff Van Drew, D-2: YES

Andy Kim, D-3: YES

Racist Remarks by Iowa Congressman: The House on Jan. 15 voted 424-1 to disapprove of remarks by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, in a New York Times interview that extolled white nationalism and white supremacy. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., the only member to vote against the resolution, said he opposed it as too weak. A yes vote was to formally repudiate Kings words but not him personally. (H Res 41)

Van Drew: YES

Kim: YESIm marching (for) equality, love and unity, Loreal Ellevintage Chrisp said. And Im marching for a government breakthrough.

Ellevintage Chrisp, 37, a Local 54 member, said the government shutdown has dragged on too long, and that federal employees are suffering. If no one stands up, she said, nothing will change.

The rally brought everyone back to Boardwalk Hall, where Hamer testified at the DNC 55 years ago in opposition to the seating of an all-white Mississippi delegation. Although Hamers efforts were defeated, her testimony was broadcast nationally. One year later, the Voting Rights Act was passed.

It was beautiful, Atlantic County Freeholder Ashley Bennett said of the march before she mounted the stage to honor women who served on Atlantic City Council. It was solidarity. It was sisterhood.

Keynote speaker Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver spoke about Hamers political activism.

Too often there are people among us, in our communities, there are everyday heroes all around us, she said. As a community, we need to honor and recognize and lift up the contribution of all of us.

For Barbara Rheault, a union leader with the New Jersey Education Association, the word of the day was justice.CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE  Authorities arrested two Lower Township men Thursday in the drug-induced death last year of a West Cape May woman.

Francis Leszczynski, 79, and Paul Neville, 59, were charged with first-degree strict liability for drug-induced death, Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffrey H. Sutherland and Cape May police Chief Anthony Marino said in a news release.

On July 30, Cape May police responded to a 911 call of an unresponsive woman at a residence in the 700 block of Grand Avenue in West Cape May, Sutherland said.

Upon arrival, police discovered Susan Perkins, 59, lying on the floor next to her bed. Attempts to resuscitate Perkins were unsuccessful, Sutherland said.

An autopsy performed by the Southern Regional Medical Examiners Office determined Perkins cause of death was from the effects of ingesting heroin and fentanyl, Sutherland said.

Man found dead at lake in Lower Township, prosecutor says LOWER TOWNSHIP  A man was found dead Tuesday at a lake in the Cape Island Wildlife Manageme

Investigators determined Leszczynski and Neville were responsible for selling and facilitated getting the heroin Perkins ingested, Sutherland said.

In addition to the strict-liability charge, Neville was charged with hindering apprehension. Both men were sent to the Cape May County jail.

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.President Muhammadu Buhari was received in Kaduna on Friday by a massive crowd of party supporters, who thronged the Ahmadu Bello Stadium (ABS) for the flag-off of the All Progressives Congress campaign in the state.

The president, who spoke in Hausa during the flag-off of the governorship and presidential campaign, said Kaduna was his home and remained one of his strongholds.

I have nothing to say than to remind you of the situation we met this country and the promises we made to you.

So the best we can do for our country is to return the APC to power.

The biggest gift we can give to our country is security and sufficiency and economic prosperity, he said.

The president said that the APC administration had so far addressed the security situation in the country, as the 17 local government areas, hitherto under the control of the Boko Haram insurgents in the North-east had been recaptured.

There is no one local government in the North-east remaining in the hands of the insurgents.

But they are using youths, especially young girls as suicide bombers by sending them to markets, motor parks and worship centres to kill people. Even that had been brought under control.

He said in the area of the economy, the country was recovering and on the track of development.

The larger population of the country are youths between the ages of 35 and below, Nigeria has lots of work to do, to get you employment and sufficiency.

According to him, farmers in the country have had pumper harvest following the availability of fertilisers provided at a cost of N5,500 as against the N9000 it used to be. He said the fertiliser has been provided in each of the local government areas of the country.

We have stopped spending our foreign reserve to import rice; there is sufficiency in rice and we now produce it locally.

I am thanking governors, especially those of Lagos, Ogun, Kebbi, Sokoto, Kano, Jigawa and Ebonyi who have tried in the production and processing of our local rice.

The president expressed confidence that his victory was assured in the state and North-west region.

Mr Buhari said the mandate given to him by Nigerians required their support, especially for peace and economic development of the country.

He assured that his administration would use all the recovered looted funds for the well-being of citizens.

He also promised that his administration, if re-elected in the 2019 general elections, would continue to make life easier for all Nigerians.

He said that as promised in 2014, his administration would continue the fight against corruption and insecurity in the country.

He said the anti-corruption fight was difficult in the current democratic dispensation, compared to the period I was a Military Head of State, when those who looted the economy were arrested and prosecuted.

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He, however, promised that those who have looted the country would be investigated and be prosecuted in the course of time.

All those funds, properties and companies recovered so far would be sold and proceeds returned to the treasury.

The president said the government was tackling kidnapping for ransom incidents and remnants of Boko Haram.

On the militancy in the oil producing areas of Niger Delta, the president said the federal government was engaged in dialogue with them to understand that the country belonged to all of us.

The constitution has spelt out the percentage that should be provided for the oil-rich region and every other resource (that) belong to all Nigerians, irrespective of where such resources are located.

The president called on the people of Kaduna State to vote for the APC candidates in the 2019 general elections to enable the party to complete all ongoing development projects across the country.

He assured the electorate that the APC administration would not betray Nigerians and would not allow anyone to betray Nigerians.

The National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, said that the fundamental issues of the campaign were the pronouncements by the PDP presidential candidate to sell the NNPC just as they sold out NITEL, NEPA, Nigerian Airways and other government agencies.

He said the people should resist that move by not voting for them.

Mr Oshiomhole declared that with what I have seen here today, the APC has already won the general elections.

I am therefore calling on you to ensure that you vote for all of the candidates of the APC from top to down during the general elections.

Earlier, the DG Campaign of the APC, Rotimi Amaechi, urged party supporters to vote the party all through to ensure a smooth running of the APC administration.

 APC will see votes, but I must advise you, PDP has a rigging machinery. You have to do APC SAK without mistake.

PDP will be happy if you make mistakes during the poll.

President Buhari has lived all his life a hero and you owe him that duty of returning him to power, Mr Amaechi said.

Mr Oshiomhole said Kaduna was home to the president and himself and residents would ensure the president was victorious in his election.

He called on the electorate in the state to reject the PDP that was responsible for the collapse of the biggest textile industries in Kaduna.

He handed the APC flag to the three senatorial candidates in the state and wished them well in the February 16 polls.

(NAN)

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President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday in Minna called on eligible voters to vote massively for candidates of the All Progressives Congress ( APC) in the February and March general election .

Addressing a large crowd of party supporters at the Trade Fair Complex in the Niger State capital, President Buhari said the APC led administration will continue to implement people-oriented policies and programmes that will enhance the well being of Nigerians.

He said that arrangement has been concluded for the construction of modern standard gauge rail line from Minna to Abuja, and to Baro Inland Water Port to enhance socio economic growth of the state.

Mr Buhari commissioned the port today before the rally.

He said a new Lagos  Ibadan  Minna  Kaduna and Kano rail line is being constructed while Mokwa- Jebba federal road is ready.

We will ensure the completion of the ongoing Zungeru Hydro Power Project and all ongoing federal government projects across the country 

I am urging eligible voters to vote all the APC candidates from top to down and down to top to ensure continuity of the present administration.

The National Chairman of All Progressives Congress ( APC) Adams Oshiomhole, called on Nigerians to disregard the allegation by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) that the forthcoming presidential election will be rigged .

As a progressive, I strongly believe in one man one vote, one General one vote, one woman one vote, one youth one vote. I dont believe in rigging, he said.

He called on eligible voters to safeguard their permanent voters cards(PVCs) as that was the only instrument they need to cast their votes to candidates in the forth coming general election.

He said that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) claimed to have spent $16 billion on power, yet there is no power .

Gov. Abubakar Bello, who is seeking re-election, expressed optimism that eligible voters in Niger will massively for the All Progressives Congress ( APC) candidates seeking various elective positions.

Mr Bello commended President Buhari for the prompt release of funds which led to the completion of Baro Inland Water Port.

He said that the project will promote economic development and create job opportunities for the people . We will continue to mobilise eligible residents to massively vote for our various the candidates seeking elective positions to ensure continuity,  he said.

The Presidential train has now left Minna to Jos, Plateau State. The campaign train is also expected in Ibadan, Oyo State, later today.

(NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

Some supporters of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bauchi State clashed on Saturday, leaving one person seriously wounded and a car destroyed.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent who witnessed the incident reports that the fight occurred at Bauchi Club roundabout along Ahmadu Bello when the PRP was preparing to flag-off its gubernatorial campaign in the state.

A witness, Yusuf Yaro, told NAN that trouble started when one of the vehicles of a PRP supporter broke down in front of APC supporters office at the popular roundabout, due to mechanical problem.

Today is the flagging off of PRP campaign exercise. The PRP supporters were conducting their rally and moving from Zaranda Hotel to Kobi Street and to other selected areas chosen for the occasion.

Unfortunately, a vehicle belonging to a PRP supporter broke down in front of an APC campaign office at the Bauchi Club roundabout, thus resulting in the clash, Mr Yaro said.

Another witness who identified himself as Ibrahim Sani, said the faulty car was parked in front of the APC supporters office, with loud campaign music coming out from it.

Honestly, I dont know whether the vehicle was faulty, but it was parked in front of this APC supporters office.

There was loud music coming out of it and from other PRP supporters conducting their rally.

Maybe the APC supporters believed the action was deliberate and aimed at to mocking them, hence the clash that occurred, he explained.

NAN reports that the vehicle destroyed was Honda Accord with registration number DR-892-ABJ and the person injured, a PRP supporter, was simply identified as Abdullahi, who was taken to the hospital for treatment.

When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Kamal Abubakar , told NAN that the command was yet to receive formal report on the incident.

NAN reports that as count-down to the Election Day commences, clashes among party supporters in the state, mostly youth, have become frequent.

Most of the clashes were over the positioning of campaign posters and billboards within the metropolis.

(NAN)President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the presidential candidate of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming presidential election, failed to attend Saturdays presidential debate because of his strict schedule, his campaign team has said.

The debate was organised by the Nigeria Election Debate Group and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria.

Mr Buhari and the candidate of the major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, abstained from the debate which was attended by three other candidates.

Mr Abubakar was at the venue of the event but left after learning Mr Buhari had chosen to stay away.

Mr Buharis campaign spokesperson, Festus Keyamo, in a statement said out of the

several opportunities afforded Mr Buhari to interact with the Nigerian people directly by different organisations, he had earlier taken full advantage of another town-hall meeting organised by another group which held on Wednesday.

The statement appeared to be referring to The Candidate, a programme organised by Deria Media and NTA.

Mr Keyamo said the president was joined at that town-hall meeting by his vice presidential candidate who is also the vice-president of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo.

Nigerians from all walks of life who were physically present and through on-line platforms asked uncensored questions which were adequately answered. It was also transmitted live by various broadcast networks in Nigeria, Mr Keyamo said.

In addition, the busy and hectic official and campaign schedules of Mr. President clashed with this programme.

Today, Mr. President commissioned the Baro Inland Water Port in Niger State and campaigned in Niger and Plateau States where his time was over-stretched by the tumultuous and mammoth crowds in both States, (as seen by Nigerians on live television) and only returned to Abuja late this evening, Mr Keyamo said.

The campaign spokesperson thanked the organisers for the invitation extended to the president and assured that he would continue to hold these debate groups and Nigerians in high esteem.

He said Mr Buhari had during past election debates honoured similar invitations.

Nigerians will also recall that a few weeks ago, our Vice-Presidential candidate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, also attended the debate organized by the same organisations.

Lastly, we note the statement of the candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who actually came for the event and left the venue when he did not see Mr. President, who is our candidate. According to him, he would not want to attack Mr. President in his absence.

It should now be obvious to Nigerians that for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the PDP, this election is all about attacking the person and programmes of Mr. President and not about proffering their own solutions to the problems they created during their sixteen years of misrule, maladministration and looting of the nations resources.

When they cannot see President Buhari to attack, the content of their campaign becomes hollow, empty and full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Now that Atiku Abubakar had a unique opportunity to explain to Nigerians his own vision and mission without a President Buhari in the picture, he ran away. Afterall, he has his own eight years of crass and grand corruption as Vice President to defend before the Nigerian people, Mr Keyamo said.

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The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has arrived Nigeria from his trip to the United States of America, his office said.

Mr Abubakar, who arrived the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja at 3.15pm was received by associates and supporters, a statement by the Atiku Media said Saturday.

The trip to the United States by Atiku Abubakar is particularly significant because it provided an opportunity for the leading presidential candidate in the February 16 poll to take his message of getting Nigeria working again to Nigerians who are based in the United States and also to share his vision with investors and making a case to investors that Nigeria is the best destination for their capital, the statement said.

During his two-day visit to the United States, Mr Abubakar and his team that included the Director General of his campaign and Senate President, Bukola Saraki, had meetings with officials and business leaders in the United States including members of Congress, officials of the State Department and US Chamber of Commerce.

Those meeting centered around expanding the scope of Nigerias economy through foreign direct investment and creating more opportunities for jobs creation for Nigerians, the statement added.

Among those who received him at the airport are former governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu; Ben Obi, former governor of Cross River State and Director of Field Operations in the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Liyel Imoke, and Tom Ikimi.

The federal government said on Thursday Mr Abubakar would be interrogated on his return for alleged complicity in fraudulent activities at the defunct Bank PHB.

Information Minister Lai Mohammed however said Mr Abubakar will not be arrested.The man was walking westbound with an acquaintance on the Hampton Roads Center Parkway when he was shot by someone in a vehicle that approached him from behind, the release said.ADVERTISEMENT

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, will only participate in the presidential debate slated for today if President Muhammadu Buhari attends, a campaign spokesperson has said.

Mr Abubakar, who travelled to the United States on Thursday, is expected back in Nigeria today Saturday.

However, a spokesperson of the Atiku Campaign Organisation, Kassim Afegbua, told PREMIUM TIMES by phone Saturday, If Buhari is not attending, he (Atiku) is not going to attend because that is the real debate.

Other sources in his campaign team said he might still participate if he returns to the country before the time for the debate.

Mr Abubakar, a former vice president, is seen as the main challenger of the ruling All Progressives President Buhari in next months presidential polls.

Mr Buhari and Mr Abubakar are among five presidential candidates expected to sell themselves to Nigerians during the presidential debate organised by the Nigerian Election Debate Group and the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria ahead of the general elections.

The debate will start at 7pm at the Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.

Apart from the duo, other candidates shortlisted for the debate are those of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, Oby Ezekwesili; Alliance for New Nigeria, Fela Durotoye; and the Young Progressives Party, Kingsley Moghalu.

The running mates of the candidates all participated in their own debate held last month.

The Presidency did not confirm if Mr Buhari will attend the debate.

Calls and text massages sent to the presidents Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Shehu Garba, were not responded to.

However, there are indications Mr Buhari may not attend the debate. His party, APC, hinted this week that there was nothing special about the debate.

Lanre Issa-Onilu, the partys national publicity secretary said the president may choose not to attend if he feels there are other viable options through which he can engage Nigerians.

On Wednesday Mr Buhari, and his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo, appeared at a town hall discussion forum organised by Daria media, in partnership with the Nigerian Television Authority. They took questions from Kadaria Ahmed  the anchor of the event.

Ahead of the presidential elections in 2015 when Mr Buhari was the main challenger to the then President Goodluck Jonathan, a similar debate was organised.

Mr Buhari boycotted the event. His argument then was that there was no basis for debate since the record of the PDP and Mr. Jonathan in government was public knowledge.ADVERTISEMENT

Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerias president, has extended his appreciation to the people of Plateau State, who turned out in innumerable numbers to welcome him in Jos, Plateau State during his presidential campaign visit on Saturday.

The Rwang Pam Township Stadium, venue of the event, was, according Mr Buharis spokesperson, Femi Adesina, was completely overrun by a sea of humanity, made up of ecstatic supporters of the President, who kept hailing the man they love and admire.

Mr Adesina said so much was the tumult that Mr Buhari could not eventually address the crowd.

After waiting for about an hour, with the melee not receding, but rather increasing in tempo and fervour, President Buhari received illustrious Plateau citizens who were crossing to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from other political parties, waved at the appreciative crowd, and left for Abuja.

The statement said Mr Buhari lauds Plateau people for turning out in their thousands to welcome him into Jos, lining the roads right from the airport, defying the boiling sun.

He thanks them for their steadfastness over the years, and for continued faith in the administration, which was indicated by the turnout at the stadium, Mr Adesina said.

He also said Mr Buhari sues for greater restraint from teeming supporters and appreciative Nigerians in other campaign stops ahead, pleading that they allow the campaign programme run as planned, since it is also an opportunity for him to give a stewardship report.

We have been serving you for about four years, we want another four years mandate from you, it is needful for you to allow us give you a report. You deserve it, the President says.

He said campaign visits by the president, resumes on Monday, as he has resolved to get to all parts of the country, before the February 14 deadline.

The presidential election holds on February 16, 2019.The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) says it is making efforts to rescue about 20,000 Nigerian girls trapped in different parts of Mali.

Julie Okah-Donli, the Director- General of NAPTIP, who made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Abuja, said the victims were trapped in different parts of Mali engaged in prostitution.

Mrs Okah-Donli said that the trafficked victims were discovered after NAPTIP sent a fact-finding mission to Mali last December, following some security reports.

She said: We sent a fact-finding mission to Mali last month and the mission came with a report that, about 20,000 Nigerian girls had been trafficked to different parts of Mali.

Many of the girls said that they were deceived that, they were being taken to Malisia, making it sound like Malaysia, to work in hotels, restaurants, hairdressing salons and some other jobs.

Some of the girls arrived there in their school uniforms, meaning that they were kidnapped on their way to or from school, she said.

The NAPTIP boss decried the living condition of trafficked Nigerians in the West African country, adding that some of the girls were sold for N600, 000 and were made to service, mainly miners.

There are over one million Nigerians residents in Mali, out of which about 20,000 are trapped into forced prostitution.

The conditions are horrible; they are kept in shanties in the thick of the forest where they cannot escape and with the madames watching over them.

Their job, mainly, is to service miners from other parts of Africa who are predominant in Northern Mali.

They are bought for N600, 000 and they are made to pay back N1.8 million or N2 million within six months before regaining freedom and also becoming madams.

She assured that the Nigerian authorities were collaborating with their Malian counter parts as well as the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), to rescue and rehabilitate the victims, most of whom were eager to return.

Most of the girls are desirous of returning home and we are working with the IOM, the Malian government and the Nigerian Embassy in Mali to see how we can repatriate them.

Our plan is to rehabilitate them immediately they return home, we will have rehabilitation programme on ground before they are repatriated.

Mrs Donli-Okah further decried the fact that human trafficking increased by 500 girls daily, while urging Nigerians to be more vigilant.

Trafficking increases by at least, 500 girls daily, they bring them in their hundreds and now, they waybill them through well known motor parks in Cotonou.

It also cuts across all 36 states of Nigeria and happens all over the world. It is no longer about the Edo girls being trafficked to Italy.

I urge Nigerians to be alert and sensitive about their surroundings; they should report suspicious movements to the authorities, especially at our border posts. (NAN)

ADVERTISEMENTThe ruling All Progressives Congress has described as illegal the visa granted by the United States to Atiku Abubakar, Nigerias main opposition presidential candidate.

Mr Abubakar entered the U.S. on Thursday, his first in 12 years, on a trip billed for meetings with Nigerian business elite in Washington D.C. and a stop at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for off-record briefing on Nigerias economic matters. Both the politician and his supporters in the Peoples Democratic Party see the journey as a major political victory.

But Mr Abubakars entry and presence in the USA is a mockery of President Bush Proclamation 7750 which affirms the denial of US visa to foreign officials involved with corruption and other supporting legislations by the Congress, the APC U.S. chapter said in a statement Thursday night. APC believes that Mr Abubakar should be held accountable for his involvement in money laundering.

The statement, signed by Ronke Ekwensi, national secretary of APC U.S. chapter, contained many defamatory comments, including the outright description of Mr Abubakar as a thief wearing the cloak of corruption, even though Mr Abubakar has not been charged to court of any such crime.

Mr Abubakar has been taunted for years by critics over his inability to enter the U.S. since leaving office as Nigerias vice-president in 2007. The stalemate, which Mr Abubakar himself expressed strong concerns about, was the source of many speculations, especially claim that the politician was being denied visa because he had been found wanting in a series of corrupt deals.

But while Mr Abubakar has been investigated by the U.S. authorities, including the countrys Senate, and was a suspect in a bribery scandal that sent a former U.S. federal lawmaker to jail, the Nigerian politician was never convicted of any crime.

Before he left as vice-president in 2007, Mr Abubakar was also accused of fraud by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, but he was never arraigned in court.

In May 2018, PREMIUM TIMES found that Mr Abubakar had sold his mansion in the U.S., a move he attributed to prolonged disuse of the property rather than his inability to enter the country.

As the 2019 general elections campaign heats up, Mr Abubakars issues with the U.S. authorities were deployed as a critical weapon by the ruling partys supporters.

Although Mr Abubakar argued that his ineligibility for an American visa should not preclude him from becoming Nigerias president, he continued to explore chances of travelling to that country, nonetheless.

He appeared to have hit a breakthrough when he settled his decade-long rift with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, with whom he had fallen out before they completed their respective tenures as president and vice-president from 1999-2007.

Mr Obasanjo was amongst those who said cast the image of Mr Abubakar as a corrupt politician. As recently as August 2018, Mr Obasanjo told PREMIUM TIMES he would never to support his then-estranged lieutenant for president in 2019.

But barely two months later, and a few days after Mr Abubakar emerged presidential candidate of the PDP, Mr Obasanjo changed his mind, forgiving the presidential candidate and endorsing him over President Muhammadu Buhari, whom he said he wants out of office for incompetence.

Mr Obasanjo said while endorsing Mr Abubakar amidst fanfare at his country home in Abeokuta that he would help the candidate mend fences where necessary.

By December, Mr Abubakar was granted a U.S. visa following Mr Obasanjos intervention, according to multiple sources familiar with the affair.

The ruling APC appeared to have caught wind of Mr Obasanjos moves to help Mr Abubakar secure a visa early, issuing a call late November that U.S. government should desist from going along with the plan.

Lai Mohammed, the cabinet information minister, said the warning was necessary to let the U.S. recognise that granting Mr Abubakar a visa could weigh heavily on the outcome of the general election.

In a statement earlier today, however, Mr Mohammed said the APC was indifferent to Mr Abubakars trip to the U.S. He, however, said Mr Abubakar would be grilled over newly-emerged evidence of corruption he allegedly perpetrated.

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Mr Abubakars campaign dismissed the charges as a distraction, saying the ruling party was jittery as it faces defeat next month.ADVERTISEMENT

The presidential candidates of Nigerias ruling and main opposition parties have shunned the presidential debate that is currently underway in Abuja.

Three candidates are attending the debates scheduled for five candidates.

President Muhammadu Buhari was not available when the televised debate opened at 7:00 p.m. in Abuja. His counterpart in the Peoples Democratic Party Atiku Abubakar, also shunned the event.

Mr Abubakars campaign had earlier said he would not take part in the debate if President Buhari is absent. Party insiders said the former vice president feared he would be overwhelmed by the three other candidates, who are younger and more vibrant.

Mr Buhari also shunned the 2015 presidential debate when he was the main opposition contender.

Oby Ezekwesili, Kingsley Moghalu and Fela Duro-toye are taking part in the debate, which is being aired live by stations affiliated to the broadcasting organisations of Nigeria.

The running mates of all the five presidential candidates, however, participated in the vice presidential debates on December 14.Gov. Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna spoke to Channels TV this week and commented on several key national issues, including the ongoing case against the Chief Justice of the Federation, Walter Onnoghen.

PREMIUM TIMES is publishing a transcript of the interview with the permission of the broadcast station.

Channels TV: How is your campaign turning out at the moment?

El-Rufai: It is turning out well. I have been away a couple of days, the campaign team has been going around the state; they have visited about five local government areas in the last one week and we are on course to visit all the 23 local government areas and the 34 state constituencies. I think before the first of February, because of assignments in Abuja and elsewhere, I have missed some of the constituencies and I plan to visit each one when I go back.

Channels TV: How intense do you think this is going to be?

El-Rufai: An election is not over until it is over but we are in a good position. The polls are showing that we are stronger this time than in 2015 but we are not going to be resting until the final vote is cast and counted. That is how an election is; you never know what will happen until it is announced.

Channels TV: There are those who were kind of surprised when they saw the kind of rally the PDP had only recently. They thought you have a battle on your hands.

El-Rufai: I do not have a battle on my hands. The PDP usually rents crowds and being in the Government House, I now know checking back on the records the PDP has never won the governorship election in Kaduna State; they stole it. So I am not worried at all about crowds. We are connected to ordinary people, we are in touch with them and we regularly test the pulse of the state through polling. So we know where we are, where we are weak and what the messages should be. We are very scientific about this and we are quite confident. As I have said, we are in a stronger position to win this election in 2019 than we were in 2015.

Channels TV: So that crowd that PDP had was rented?

El-Rufai: Probably. I am not worried.

Channels TV: Lets go back to 2015. Kaduna State had pre-election violence. It was recorded in some other states, including Rivers and Lagos. How do you see this happening now? Do we have that kind of scenario playing out again, because we know that Kaduna State is a volatile state and interests contend all the time?

El-Rufai: Well, I do not recall any pre-election violence in Kaduna in 2015. I know that one of our supporters was shot by the convoy of the governor because they were throwing stones at the incumbent governor then. But I do not think there was any significant pre-election violence then. In 2011 there was a very bad post-election and in 2015 many people died celebrating Buharis victory. I would not call that violence because they were recklessly using their motorcycles and some people died. I know that there are nightmare scenarios about the 2019 elections but frankly, in spite of the historical volatility of Kaduna State for which as governor I have to be vigilant, I am not worried. I think the preparations and processes of INEC have improved so dramatically in the two, three years that most people have confidence that INEC would conduct credible elections. I was in Osun, if INEC is to conduct elections in the same level of credibility or even the same level as they did in Ekiti, I think there would be no violence at all. It would be clear that things were free, fair and credible; the peoples choice just won. What leads to violence is that there was a perception that there was some manipulation and some rigging. I do not think what I have seen in Osun and Ekiti is such that that feeling is very evident in most peoples mind. I am confident.

And speaking about Kaduna specifically, I know the areas and the potential flashpoints and we are going to deploy security agencies to secure lives and property there.

Channels TV: You know that at the moment that election is being contested, INEC tweeted at a time that security agents were preventing people from going out to vote. There are those who were not really happy with the way the elections turned out (in Osun and Ekiti).

El-Rufai: The first round of the Osun election; that was where I was physically and saw what happened. And quite frankly, it was a nearly perfect election. The Osun (supplementary polls) I was not there, I heard reports. I cannot comment because I was not physically there. The logistical preparations of INEC for the Osun and Ekiti elections were impressive and if they are able to do that for national elections or near that, I think we are getting to where we are supposed to be.

Channels TV: You have always spoken about unity and peace in the state and how you want that to be the case and how you can. But there are those who raised concerns wondering why you chose a Muslim as your deputy. I came across Sheik Ahmed Gumi, everybody knows it is politically motivated. He said he does not think it is a good idea for you to have chosen a Muslim as your deputy.

El-Rufai: I am surprised a cleric is talking about political motivation. I am a politician, so anything I do is politically motivated, so what is so special about that? You know you go into elections, you do your calculations on how to win and I dont understand why it is Ahmed Gumis business to comment on my election. We were classmates, we were in the School of Basic Studies and he knows I am not stupid on any standard. And I have been in politics, he has never been in politics, he does not understand politics. Throughout his public commentary career; I know where he stands, I know what motivates him, I know his political sympathies, so he is in no position to comment on my decisions. He lives in Kaduna, he has one vote; if he does not agree with my choice of candidate he is free to withhold his vote. I do not want to go further and characterise him in a way that is disrespectful. But, with the greatest respect, Ahmed Gumi neither has the moral standing nor the experience to even comment on what I am doing.

Channels TV: Perhaps he said it in a positive light that you should also factor the sensitivity of the people. He may be suggesting that you, being a Muslim and the deputy being a Muslim, would naturally get the majority of the Southern Kaduna voting population not to vote for you.

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El-Rufai: What if I tell you no matter who I chose as my running mate, even if I chose the Pope, like 67 percent of the Christians in Southern Kaduna would never vote for me. For me, that is not the issue. Kaduna State is divided. It used to be united. The way to unite it is to take religion and ethnicity off the table.

Okay, in the past, since 1992, every deputy governor of Kaduna State has been a Christian? What has it done for the state? Has it united the state? Has it changed the feeling of the Christian minority that they are part of the government? My current deputy governor is a Christian. I did not pick him because he is a Christian; I picked him because we were colleagues from the university and I know him to be brilliant, focused and a fair and a just man. Has it changed anything? In fact, what it did was to bring disrespect to him! No one respects him in Southern Kaduna just because he is in what is called the Islamic party.

So there are complicated issues in Kaduna that people speaking from a distance would not understand. But I want to assure you: One is that I want to win this election so I am not going to take a foolish decision to make any point. But those that are making the argument that I must have a Christian running mate have not been able to justify it based on history.

From 1992, we have had more violence in Kaduna than before. The presence of a Christian deputy governor did not change anything. Even when a Christian, Patrick Yakowa of blessed memory, was the governor of the state, it did not stop the violence, the intolerance and insensitivity in Kaduna. In my view, the way to begin to heal and unite the people of the state is to completely take religion and ethnicity off the state. We have tried to do that in the last three years but we cannot take away intolerance in the state for decades overnight. But what we are trying to do is that what matters for public office is experience, tolerance and capacity and this lady, Dr Hadiza; she is competent, she has had a solid track record of public service, she is brilliant, she is a medical doctor, a consultant physician.

And I am surprised that there is even a discussion on this. What we have become is everything in this country is about religion, ethnicity.

Channels Tv: But you know you cannot separate religion from politics in Nigeria?

E-Rufai: There is no problem in having religion in politics. But religion should not determine politics. I think politics is a way to elect leaders that would deliver public good and what is important is not the religion of the person or his ethnicity but whether he can deliver and I am confident that Dr Hadiza can deliver. The reason why the governors and president have deputies is in the event of mortalities. I am 58 to 59 years old; I could drop dead. I have to pick someone in the event I drop dead, which can happen anytime. Can that person run the state competently? That was what determined my choice in 2015 and that determined my choice in 2019. Religion or ethnicity are at the back of my mind.

Channels TV: People think the antidote would be restructuring. Have your views on restructuring changed?

El-Rufai: They have not changed. I presented the papers at the Bisi Akande colloquium on restructuring. I believe we should look at the federation and rebalance it. Constitutional restructuring is one thing, restructuring our minds to just be objective on what is right and wrong is another thing. I am extremely sad about this Chief Justice matter. Because if I am the Chief Justice and I write to say that I have an asset and this bank account but I did not declare them, I would not even let the CCB to file charges, I would resign there and then to protect the institution that I head. Because the admission that I did not declare my asset, that infraction alone is enough for him to step down and protect the institution. All this court orders and lawyers and all this is not helping the judiciary and the media and Nigeria.

Channels: There are some of us who feel there has to be a place where you can go and the charges and allegation proved against him. They think it is an issue that has to be determined and once it is determined, no matter who he is, the law is the law. And that has got to be the case. And some say there is a Court of Appeal decision which has not been set aside. They have a question; are they wrong?

El-Rufai: They are wrong. Again, I think it depends on which side you want to be. Nigerians can be morally flexible. Like I said, the Constitution is clear. As far as the violation of the Code of Conduct on holding public office is concerned, the only institution allowed to investigate violations is the Code of Conduct Bureau. The only institution allowed exclusively to deal with violations to Code of Conduct is Code of Conduct Tribunal. It is clear.

The case that they are referring to, Nganjiwa case, is judicial misconduct. It was a case of a judge that violated the Code of Ethics of judges and he was taken to court because the disciplinary control of judges is vested by the same Constitution in the NJC. So if a judge engages in judicial professional misconduct in the course of his duty as a judge, he should be first taken to the NJC, because it is easier for judges to determine if his conduct is above or below the standard, before referring him to the regular court. That is the same decision in Nganjiwa decision. I got the copy just yesterday. On page 19 of the judgment, the judge said if a judge commits frauds or murder he would be referred to the regular court, not the NJC. So I do not know those who are quoting the Nganjiwa thing. I do not know maybe they have read the entire thing. They should read page 19. I read it yesterday night. All the arguments being made that he should first go to the NJC 

Channels TV: The CCT declared itself incompetent because the matter has not been referred to the NJC.

El-Rufai: For violation of the Code of Conduct, it has to go to not any person or authority but the Code of Conduct Tribunal. Violations of the Code of Conduct for public officers, not the Code of Conduct for judges. Now in the same Nganjiwa case, I am saying the lead judgment said yes, this judge ought to have been taken to NJC but, however, if a judge engages in murder, fraud on regular crime, he would be taken to regular court, not NJC. NJC exercises disciplinary control over judges in the course of their duties. But people are reading that judgment to mean that if a judge walks to your house, kills your wife, rapes your daughter, he cannot be arrested or be taken to a regular court until the NJC, his own peers, determine he should be tried. That means you are creating special court for judges and judges are above the law. That cannot be the intention of the law and the Constitution.

Channels TV: The thing about it is that there is a different school of thought; that is why it is before the CCT. The lawyers are doing their work.

El-Rufai: Why I am concerned is that Nigerian elites should have a consensus about the protection of our institutions even if it seems to be against us.

Channels TV: Do you think it is time for public officials, including the president, to all make their Code of Conduct forms public?

El-Rufai: As far as I am concerned, the asset of public official should be public, everyone should publish their asset declaration. And I think the president has published his and the Vice president when they took office. My own Code of Conduct declaration is already in the public domain. I think it should be a requirement of the law, not optional, and a legal requirement.

Channels TV: Some people fear that politicians will be victimised or exposed to the public if they have to go through the process of filling forms and making it public.

El-Rufai: That is the problem behind the current position of the law that you file it with CCB. It is optional for you to publish it. Those who wrote that part of the Constitution felt that it would duly expose them. But my argument is that if you put yourself out to lead people, you should be ready for maximum scrutiny. I do not think it is an issue. I think we have reached in the 21st century a point when everything should be laid there; let everyone know everything and challenge. If you want to lead people, they should know what you have when you came into office and what you have when you leave office. I have no issue with that at all. But right now, that is not the position of the law; the position of the law is that you file with CCB. Of course, you can use the Freedom of Information and demand for it and give credible reasons. But it is not a requirement that you publish it. But many public officers have freely on their own published their assets.

Channels TV: In the 2015 elections, for a lot of people it was a free and fair election. The process has come to questions again now that the president did not assent to the electoral act amendment bill. Do you think that would have perhaps advanced the cause of our democratic process if Mr President had assented to that bill?

El-Rufai: I am indifferent to it. I have looked at the provisions of the amendment bill, there is nothing there that substantially changes what is in the electoral act, frankly. Should the president have assented to it? Personally, I think he should have. That is my personal opinion. But that was before he took the decision to withhold assent to the latest version, not the earlier version that tried to change the order of elections. I was one of those that advocated that it should not be assented to because there was an agenda from the National Assembly that was not in the national interest. But the last version, I did not see any issues there. I am sure the president got properly advised before withholding assent but I do not think what I read, the few clauses that were amended, substantially changes the electoral framework.

Channels TV: We are not going to have electronic transfers of result. Does that bother you?

El-Rufai: It was not in the amendment. The amendment bill the president withheld assent has no provision for electronic transfer of result. Those that thought it was there should go and read the bill. It does not stop INEC from doing it because the electoral act is flexible. It allows INEC to use technology to advance the cause of fair and credible elections. INEC can still do electronic transfer even without it in the bill.

ChannelsTV: Would that be tenable if they do an electronic transfer of result and we do not have it legally documented?

El-Rufai: It is not everything that is in the Act. The Act gives INEC the power to determine methods and procedures of election. INEC can do it should they want to do it. That is up to them. How safe is their existence this day of cybercrime, hacking, Analytica, Russians and Trump? Maybe we should take a second look at that. Maybe, if it is in the bill. But it was not in the bill. Those that were shouting it is because of this electronic have not read the bill; they are just shouting.

Channels TV: Now, a lot of people still think, couldnt the president have to look to another region to appoint another IGP? A lot of AIGs have to retire

El-Rufai: Again, the region, ethnicity problem. The president has announced an acting IG. That IG cannot become an IG until the Police Council says. What is the Police Council? It consists of the president and the state governors. So if the 36 state governors and even a few of them object, the man would not be the IG because the IG is for the whole country. For me, we should not be asking whether the IG is from this part of the country or not. We should be looking at his resume, whether he is competent or not; credible Inspector-General of Police. When we receive his resume we would have to make comments on him in the Police Council. And thankfully, if I am of the view he is not good enough to be our IG, I would stand on it.

Channels TV: Maybe we should come to Kaduna politics. In your question on the merit of who you chose, are you succeeding to the extent that maybe the next time out, if there is a Christian-Christian ticket, there wont be a complaint; that people would look at it as merit?

El-Rufai: Yes. I hope we would get there. We are not there yet. I am sure that my choice of a Muslim running mate, so to say, would be problematic for some people. But after four years when they see that it really did not matter, and it did not change the way we implement policies, I think it will begin to advance towards that utopia of (downplaying) religion and ethnicity. That is where I want to take my people.

ChannlesTV: What is the agenda towards that goal?

El-Rufai: The agenda is to ensure that the discussion on where you come from, the way you worship God, does not go into government offices and public policies.

ChannelsTV: Do you see that happening?

El-Rufai: It is already happening in Kaduna and we are going to continue to advance it. And I think if Kaduna is able to do it, the rest of Nigeria can do it. It would not happen in one election cycle and it would not happen overnight, but we have to start, we cannot continue like this. This country is falling apart because everybody takes sides with an ethnic group or religious affiliation and it is destroying the country. It is making us underperform in every way and it just has to end. And if Kaduna is the one that would be the guinea pig and if I am the one that would advance that agenda I would start it.

ChannelsTV: What exactly do you mean when you said your current deputy governor as a Christian has not changed anything? Does that mean he is a failure?

El-Rufai: No. I am saying that the policy of allocating the deputy governor slot to a Christian in Kaduna State, which has been more or less the unstated policy since 1992, has not succeeded in advancing unity, integration of Christian and Muslim communities in Kaduna State. In fact, one of the worst rounds of violence we have had in the state was in 1992 exactly when Maggie was the first Christian deputy governor of Kaduna State.

ChannelsTV: Would a Muslim-Muslim ticket make a difference?

El-Rufai: I do not know. I am ready to try. What I am saying is the Muslim-Christian ticket has not delivered on the promise, so what is wrong in trying something else?

ChannelsTV: As we all know its been problematic over the years in Nigeria, this religious sentiment. What exactly fuels it?

El-Rufai: I think what fuels it is this: history has shown and I think this started in the mid 90s under the military, history has shown that you can get what you do not deserve by advancing your ethnic or religious affiliations. You can avoid sanctions by hiding behind your tribe, your region or religion when you are wrong and clearly wrong.

Channels Tv: Isnt that also a function of leadership? Just as you have said now, some people in leadership give vent to it.

El-Rufai: I agree. This is why I mentioned the time it started, because I am old as a Nigerian I lived this. I do not read History of Nigeria only before I was born. I have lived and I have seen how this country has metamorphosed. I have lived under a parliamentary system of government and the military and I have been part of some other governments. I think some governments that lack legitimacy deliberately introduced this in the polity. In 1992, we elected Chief Moshood Abiola and Babagana Kingibe as president and vice president but it was not even an issue of discussion for this country. And then in 1995 1996 it had become an issue because the government of the day pushed the agenda of division. Now it has become part of our lives. If you want to get ahead you do not push your ethic or religion agenda and hope that the person at the other end will be sympathetic to it. And my point is that we need to draw a line to it and stop this. It has not taken us anywhere, and those of us that are leaders ought to be reflective and stop encouraging and advancing this agenda.

One of the most painful things that I experienced in the last two weeks was the statement by the governors of the South-South justifying that none declaration of asset is a non-issue because the Chief Justice of Nigeria is from the South. This is the sort of things we have seen. Wrong is wrong and right should be right and leaders should advance that. We cannot do it all the time. Sometimes, it is not black and white, it is a bit of grey. We must stand for something that it is right because it cannot take us anywhere.

Channels TV: That particular issue is growing. Since you have dwelt on that, one would wonder because until Saturday, Mr President said he did not know about the prosecution of the CJN. Who is there pushing it?

El-Rufai: Why should he know about it? Let us please stop this personalising institution. Why should the president know about the prosecution of anyone? Wont you be worried that the president knows about every prosecution? Institution should be allowed to work. I am the governor of Kaduna State; the Constitution requests I declare my assets before being sworn in and the Constitution states it specifically in very plain language.

ChannelsTv: What of if the Attorney-General of Kaduna State is charged to court, are you saying you shouldnt know about it?

El-Rufai: I do not have to know. If the Attorney-General of Kaduna State goes and murders and rapes someone and the police arrest him, I do not need to know. They should charge him/her to court  my attorney-general is a woman. Institutions should be allowed to work and we should stand to protect the integrity of the institutions. Saying that the president doesnt know, I think it is a complement to the president, it shows he does not interfere with the institutions and he does not get involved. We should cease being ethnic and religious, otherwise this country would not go anywhere.

ChannelsTV: When you say wrong is wrong, does that suggest in some quarters that they have already adjudged him wrong? Because we still have the presumptions of innocence in the country.

El-Rufai: The man has already admitted that he did not declare the asset; he forgot. If the matter was that the Code of Conduct Bureau made an allegation and they have filed charges in the tribunal, I would presume innocence. But I have seen a written statement by the Chief Justice saying that yes, I have this accounts, yes I did not declare them, I forgot. Forgetting is not a defence in law.

Channels TV: But we should not forget that if that were the case, if they could stop at that, they would not go to court or the CCT. So to the extent that they have also taken it to the appropriate institution, is in the contention.

El-Rufai: It is not in contention.

Channels TV: But it says in the Constitution that you summon the CJN to NJC.

Nasiru: No way, it is not in the Constitution. Look, the Constitution is very clear. If the matter has to do with Code of Conduct for public officers, the only court and tribunal vested with the power to try violations of that code is the Code of Conduct Tribunal; that the Code of Conduct Tribunal can try anyone, including the president, if he violates the Code of Conduct. It is very clear. In simple language, in the Constitution, the NJC is supposed to take petitions on the professional misconduct of judges. If a judge kills or steals, it is not NJC, it is the regular court. You cannot say the NJC is a self-appointed court, a special court that would first have to clear judges before they go through regular court. It is saying that judges have immunity that the constitution has not yet contemplated. Only the president and governors have immunity in the Constitution. All this playing with words, for me, that is not even the issue.

The issue is this. The code of conduct for public officers requires you to declare your asset. All of us. Have you declare your asset? Yes! I have. You declare all your asset? No, I have not! The Chief Justice has admitted it, so there is no issue whether I have done it or I have not done it. His defence is I have forgotten. That is not a defence in law and he knows it. He is a lawyer. All these things, what is worrying for me is the fact that all of a sudden, we have no regard for institutions. Political parties are getting involved in issues. My colleague governors that ought to know better are issuing statements based on where the Chief Justice came from. That is wrong and sad.

ChannelsTV: But it is not going to be tenable in the CCT what anyone else has done.

El-Rufai: I know. But public commentary by leaders should advance the cause of institution and unite us. You cannot say he is a crook but he is my crook, so he should be let go. This an attitude in Nigeria that has the capacity to destroy the country. If one Babachir Lawal, the former SGF, was being investigated and all of a sudden northeast governors met and issued a statement that Yes, he has done that but he is from Northeast, where would Nigeria be? And this Kemi Adeosun; and all these Southwest governors met and said Well, she made a mistake, she got this fake certificate but she is from the south-west so she is immune from being asked to resign.Nigerias president, Muhammadu Buhari, was not particular about parties when he asked Nigerians to vote out governors who failed to perform in their first terms, especially in payment of salaries.

Mr Buhari, who spoke with the Hausa service of the Voice of America, said he saw no justification in governors collecting bailout funds from the federal government and still failing to pay wages.

I wonder how these governors are able to sleep. knowing that they have refused to pay workers their wages.

These workers have families to cater for, they pay rent, pay school fees, hospital bills and food for their families, Mr Buhari was quoted as saying.

The president said the Nigerian constitution gives governors the independence to spend their funds without interference and that is why some are abusing that privilege by refusing to work for the people.

With elections just around the corner, Mr Buhari may just have sent the right signal to Nigerian workers, some of whom have become impoverished due to non-payment of salaries.

Relying on a data from BudgIT, a civic organisation concerned with participatory governance, PREMIUM TIMES makes a compilation of states where salaries are being owed.

In October 2018, BudgIT published a list of states yet to fully offset the outstanding amount owed pensioners and civil servants despite series of N1.8trillion bailouts from the federal government.

1. Abia: As at October 2018, Okezie Ikpeazu, governor of Abia State, was owing its secretariat workers and secondary school teachers five months salaries and pensioners 18 months. Mr Ikpeazu is seeking re-election in Abia having won a return ticket unopposed.

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu

In October 2015, some months after his inauguration, Mr Ikpezau, of the PDP, cleared all salary and pension arrears going up to eight months in some parastatals to become an instant darling of workers. But that may not be happening now. Also to the excitement of workers, the governor in December 2018 paid the months salaries and pension just before Christmas but there is no record of his payment of backlog as indicated by BudgIT.

2. Adamawa: BudgIT data says that Adamawa State as at October 2018 owed its secretariat workers four months salaries, midwives four months, secondary school teachers two months and pensioners 13 months.

Adamawa Governor, Muhammadu Bindow

Asides these, the state is also owing its local government workers. To offset some of these, the State House of Assembly in November 2018 granted approval to Governor Muhammadu Bindows request to source for N5 billion loan from UBA Plc to pay salary arrears of the local government workers.

Mr Bindow, the governor, secured the APC ticket to seek re-election in Adamawa.

3. Akwa Ibom: Emmanuel Udom, governor of Akwa Ibom State, inherited a huge pension debt from his predecessor but managed in 2018 to pay up to the end of 2015.

BudgIT, in October, says the state was owing twelve months pension but latest reports shows the government has not paid pension from January 2016 till date.

Akwa Ibom governor, Udom Emmanuel

Mr Udom, who has secured the PDP ticket for 2019, does not owe any active worker.

4. Bayelsa: The state government has been paying its workers up to date but it is yet to clear a three and a half months salary arrears since 2016, BudgIT data shows. The arrears were incurred during the 2016 recession which saw a fall in revenue to states.

Seriake Dickson

In March 2019, Seriake Dickson, the governor, will again vie for the governorship seat under the flagship of PDP.

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5. Benue: According to information provided to BudgIT, the amount owed Benue workers vary by levels but workers in levels eight to ten are owed between four and 11 months salaries. Samuel Ortom, the governor, in August 2018, said he inherited over N69 billion of unpaid workers salary arrears, pension and gratuity and over 70 billion for other engagement of government.

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state.

After dumping APC, Mr Ortom won the PDP return ticket in Benue.

6. Borno: BudgIT documents says the state government owes only two months pension arrears accrued due to verification exercise. Having spent eight years in the reign, Kashim Shettima, the governor, is vying to go to the senate in next months election via his party, APC.

Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima

7. Delta: The state is also one of those owing huge pension. It was quoted as 36 months by BudgIT and there is no report of payment as of the time of compiling this list.

Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa. [Photo credit: Thisday Live]

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of the PDP will battle it out with other candidates in March 2019 elections.

8. Imo: In 2016, Imo workers entered an agreement with the state government on payment of 70 per cent salaries with the exception of those on grade levels 01-06 that receive 100 per cent.

The reason for the percentage salary was attributed to the national economic recession.

Former Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha

However, in May 2018, the workers protested and demanded full payment. It could not be ascertained whether Rochas Okorocha, the governor, has started paying full salaries. BudgIT says the state government owes up to two months salaries and 34 months pension as at October 2018.

Mr Okorocha is aiming to go to the Senate in 2019 on the APC platform.

9. Kogi: In Kogi, Yahaya Bello, the governor, pays secretariat workers only 50 per cent of their salaries while midwives receive only 40 per cent. Despite this, salaries and pensions being owed workers ranges from 2 to 13 months arrears, according to the report.

Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello [Photo Credit: The News Nigeria]

Under the APC, Mr Bello is seeking to return to Kogi government house in March.

10. Kwara: BudgIT data says Kwara government owes secondary school teachers four months salaries as at October 2018. However, the outgoing governor, Abdulfatai Ahmed, has completed two terms and is not eligible to seek re-election.

Former Kwara State governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed

11. Ondo: In November 2018, the Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress in Ondo State, Tayo Ogunleye, said the government had paid six out of the seven-months salary arrears, with the promise to pay the remaining one month before the end of January.

Rotimi Akeredolu tests positive for COVID-19

Before then, Ondo State owed its workers 20 per cent of salary arrears. The governor, Rotimi Akeredolu of the APC, would not be seeking re-election until 2020.

12. Osun: With N16.6 billion Paris Club refund, the Osun State Government in September 2018 announced payment of workers salaries, leave bonuses and pensions covering four months.

This is however, minute, compared to what the government owes.

Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola

For up to 30 months, the state government under Rauf Aregbesola, has been paying workers above level seven 50 per cent of their salaries.

Mr Aregbesola completed his second term and handed over to his former Chief of Staff, Gboyega Oyetola, both of the APC.

13. Plateau: The state made the BudgIT list for owing up to 16 months pension. The governor, Simon Lalong, is seeking re-election on the APC platform.

Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau state

14. Taraba: BudgIT says Taraba owes midwives one month and pensioners two months arrears as at October 2018. The governor, Darius Ishaku, will not be able to seek re-election until 2020 as the governorship election in the state last held in 2016.

Taraba State Governor, Darius Ishaku

15. Zamfara: As at October 2018, the state government owes secondary school workers four months and pensioners two months arrears, according to BudgIT data. The governor, Abdulaziz Yari is not qualified to seek re-election, having served two terms.

Former Gov. Abdulazizi-Yari of Zamfara State.

Commenting, NLC General Secretary, Peter Ozo-Eson, said the labour union has also asked Nigerian workers to vote out governors who are owing.

We have asked members to reject governors who are owing salaries and that they should make sure they collect their permanent voters cards and use those cards wisely by voting against the ant-workers governors; those owing salaries and those who are carrying out anti-labour obnoxious policies. Nothing has changed, that remains, he said.

Mr Ozo-Eson also recounted steps taken so far by the union to ensure payment.

In the past, we have done various things, we have even picketed states. Youll recall we went to a number of states. We were in Imo, we occupied occupied for days until eventually certain agreement was made. We picketed Benue, we had cause to go to Nasarawa. We went to Oyo. Weve engaged states owing salaries. As a result of those engagements, some of them have retrieved their steps and met their obligations. Those that have not so done, we campaign against them and their re-election.ADVERTISEMENT

Some civil society organisations in Nigeria have called on the National Assembly to pass the Gender Equal Opportunity (GEO) Bill or risk being voted out in the forthcoming elections.

The GEO bill seeks to modify socio-cultural practices such as female genital mutilation, and other forms of gender-based violence that abuse the human rights of girls and young women in Nigeria. The bill has been in the National Assembly since 2015.

Speaking to journalists on Thursday during a march in Abuja to commemorate the 2019 Global Women March, the Executive Director, Vaccine Network for Disease Control in Nigeria, Chika Offor, said the day provides opportunity for Nigerian CSOs to speak up over the delayed passage of the GEO bill.

The GEO bill promotes human rights in matters relating to marriage/family life. It is a bill that benefits all individuals across Nigeria especially girls and young women, she said.

By not taking the bill serious means that the National Assembly dont consider the safety and welfare of Nigerian girls and women important. This time around we will simply vote the unserious assembly members out. The voice of girls and women matter and we will continue to advocate for a second public hearing on the bill and an immediate passage by the Assembly, Mrs Offor said.

In a patriarchal society like ours, and a male dominated Assembly, we can see how a very important bill is being treated by the National Assembly, this is not fair to the safety and welfare of Nigerian women and girls.

In the last one decade, Nigeria has witnessed increase in rape cases and violence against women. The CSOs said the bill provides a legal framework on punishment for girls and women violators and should be taken serious.

According to Executive Director, Education as a Vaccine (EVA) Nigeria, Olabukunola Williams, the bill prohibits discrimination of all sorts and promotes equality and fairness among sexes.

The GEO bill is important because no person should discriminate against any person on the ground of gender, age or disability. It provides a legal framework for girls and young men and women to live their lives free of gender-based discrimination and violence, Mrs Williams said.

The Communications Officer for White Ribbon Alliance Nigeria, Tariah Adams, said it is the responsibility of the legislators to ensure that bills like the GEO is not delayed in a society where rape and violence against women have become a social norm.

Mrs Adams said gender equality will promote equality, ensure development and advancement of all persons, including young women and adolescent girls through promotion of their rights and equality in society and under the law.

In her response, the Senate Minority Leader, Biodun Olujimi, assured the CSOs that the National Assembly will organise a public hearing and see that the bill is passed for the safety of Nigerian girls and women.

Ms Olujimi promised that the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, will respond to the bill in good time.ADVERTISEMENT

Dozens of al-Shabaab militants were killed on Saturday as they launched an attack on a military base in Somalia, a government official said.

The militants began by detonating an explosives-packed vehicle at an entrance to the Bar-Sanguni base, said Ali Mohamed Mohamud, a general and senior Somali army commander.

An intense exchange of gunfire followed but Somali soldiers were able to regain full control of the base located in Lower Juba province, he said.

There were contradicting tallies as to the number of people killed.

The general said seven Somali soldiers died, while al-Shabaab put the number at 15.

Jubbaland regional security minister Abdirashid Hassan Abdinur told state-run Radio Mogadishu that 73 militants were killed. Al-Shabaabs radio station did not say how many of its fighters died.

Al-Shabaab, a group affiliated with the international al-Qaeda terrorist network, launches regular attacks against government officials, foreigners, hotels and restaurants within the volatile nation.

The jihadist group claimed responsibility for a gun and bombing attack at an upscale hotel in Nairobi, Kenya on Tuesday in which 21 people were killed.

(dpa/NAN)This is not the best of time to be a (Nigerian) patriot. Frankly, events of the last few weeks could make anyone who genuinely loves Nigeria and desires a better future for the country weep, weep, weep and slip into depression. As the nation prepares for the presidential elections slated for February, there has been an avalanche of depressing developments rearing their ugly heads from left, right, back, front and centre.

First, there is the incumbent and his ominously hilarious theatrics across campaign podiums, from Warri to Lokoja. Stripped of all pretensions (and, frankly, based on no fault of his, at least on the surface), he is not fit for the 4-year rigour and troubles of the highest office in the landphysically, psychologically, mentally and emotionally. In the last one week he has unraveled, shattering all choreographed, pretentious air of seriousness built around him by his paid vuvuzelas, largely through deliberately orchestrated inaccessibility.

Then there is the strongest opposition candidate, in whose hands Nigerians cant be sure the entire nation would not be mortgaged at the popular UAE Mortgage Market or, even, her assets looted and listed on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM), ostensibly by friends of the president. Hes finally been chauffeured into the United States, amidst pomp and pageantry, against all odds. And many otherwise discerning Nigerians, struck by the carefully Atikulated PR gymnastics, have screamed allelluyah! With his visible ethical kraw-kraw and moral lapa-lapa, it is a sign of how far we have sunk that his entry into DC would generate so much enthusiasmas though by that entry, Nigerias many troubles would disappear pronto.

Then there are over a zillion other alternatives, mostly young energetic minds churning out beautiful ideas across the social media spaceon politics, on culture, on social security, on the global economy. They, however, have inadvertently chosen to remain blind to the reality of electioneering and party politics in Nigeria, intoxicated somewhat by the perceived genius of their individual ideas, flying separately on parties whose structures are at best fit for local county elections.

Sad!

While all of these are happening, many Nigerians have simply accepted fate. Given the strength of the two leading political parties, the politically pragmatic among voters have either chosen to move to a yet unknown #NextLevel or join others to #GetNigeriaWorkingAgain, even if they do not understand the how. The many discerning others, disillusioned as it were by the alternative candidates failure to inspire followership and galvanize action, have simply activated the Siddon-look buttonthat being an unsuccessful euphemism for apathy.

Frankly, it is difficult to question the apathetic decision of these people, given the dynamics of electioneering and party politics in the country. It is why SATIRE SATURDAY opines that those who lampoon Nigerians for showing little interest in the emergence of the new candidates miss the point. The reality of electioneering in present day Nigeria favours strong party structure, which the newbies failure to form an alliance did not allow materialize. There are over 70 presidential candidates in the next elections, including those who may struggle and yet fail to get a Supervisor position in their local government areas. The aim of many of them, it appears, is to have their named mentioned with the one-time presidential aspirant description.

Many who understand the pragmatic aspect of politicking have openly expressed frustration at the two options before Nigerians, with the hope that the serious-minded ones among the alternative options would form a solid movement that could convincingly inspire Nigerians to indeed throw away the two filthy options before them. Sadly, that has not been the case. Its not dusk yet, anyway; and one day is a long period in politics as they say, how much more six weeks.

Away from ideals, to face reality, SATIRE SATURDAY is more concerned about the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari this week. As things stand today, however inconvenient this may sound to his traducers, Mr Buhari is the shoo-in in the presidential contest. So it is important that in the spirit of patriotism, we care about the presidents.

First, if you strip Mr Buhari of his scorecard, of his intellectual capacity, of his (non-)management of Nigerias affairs, of his handling of herdsmen crisis, of his lopsided appointments, of Air Nigeria, of his many gaffes, one thing is clear: he is a likeable human. There is this child-like innocence that he exhibits if you approach him with a plain mindset, devoid of the harsh reality of the last 3-and-half years or the nightmare of his first encounter with the press in 1983. It is in that context that SATIRE SATURDAY opines, warts and all, that such innocent man should not be punished the way his supporters are wont to with this desire to hand him a fresh 4-year mandate.

In the last few days, the president has shown even the most unthinking of his fawning fans that he would do well as presidential candidate of a rural old soldiers association in his native Daura, rather than be subjected to another torture of 4-year gymnastics in the name of managing Nigerias numerous headaches. The man has shown, in clear, unambiguous manners that he needs to take a long, long nap; that he needs to rest.

First, it began with his minor misstep at the campaign event in Lokoja, in which he almost fell. An almost inconsequential development that could happen to anyone. But for a man whose health has generated discussions more than the naira rate has in the last three years, that was quite worrisome. Then less than 24 hours later, the drama shifted to the #TheCandidates town hall event with Kadaria Ahmed, wherein the presidents demeanour, even under such a relaxed and less tense atmosphere, was at best bland and at worst, dry.

At a point during the discourse, he showed clearly that he knew almost nothing about some issues of governance. And because unlike most politicians, he naturally isnt schooled in the art of deception, it was very clear to even the least discerning among Nigerians who watched the programme that the president is out of touch with basic realities. Of course it was clear he perhaps nurses a hearing problem, which isnt anything unusual for a man of his age anyway.

In a country with a scandalously low life expectancy rate, God has been immensely good to Mr Buhari. It is in the light of this that SATIRE SATURDAY wonders why some opportunists, lurking somewhere off the radar, would want to severely punish the old man with another 4-year mandate. Clearly, in a rapidly changing world where the energetic Macrons and Kagames of this world are finding it increasingly difficult to address peoples desires, it is suicidal to force an ailing Buhari down the throat of any nation in 2019. And so, clearly, many of those pushing for another 4-year punishment for Mr Buhari do not love Nigeria.

But again, if anyone watched the president in the last seven days yet failed to pity the old man but still has the audacity to scream Sai Baba!, the person apparently does not like Buhari. And thats where independent-minded Nigerians with no partisan minds must come in to rescue the old man from his fawning supporters, including those with sinister mindsets.

For the pedant, there would naturally be a quick question: where is Mr Buharis own famed integrity in all of this? Having realized his own weaknesses, why cant he simply resist the A o mu erin joba beats and go home to rest? Well, SATIRE SATURDAY has a quick answer: it may not be the presidents own fault and heres why.

In the belief system of some African communities, a man is said to transform into a toddler when he gets to a certain old age in life. At that point, he reasons, thinks, acts and moves around like a toddler, a minor. The Yoruba for instance pay special attention to these people based on that belief. It is unclear whether this is the case in Mr Buharis but for the safety of the president and our nation, lets assume this is the case and protect the old man. He does not deserve the punishment of another four years.

Now, should Buhari choose to go take a long nap and, based on their party structure, the baton does not get to any of the other new alternatives, then it naturally flows toward the Dubai direction. And thats quite scary, to be frank. Well, there is an alternative: Nigerians may have to form a civilian JTSF (Joint Treasury Security Force), draw up a roster and operate shift to monitor and secure the nations treasuryfrom Mr President and his friends, who are entitled to be rich!

ADVERTISEMENTThe time was short because if the metal did not cool at the right pace in exactly the right places within the giant mold, the casting might not be strong enough to stand the pressure and strains a ?Columbia-class submarine sees when deep under the surface.Last November, a little-known group hosted a press briefing in the name of PDP presidential candidate, Mr. Atiku Abubakar, at the National Press Club in Washington DC.

As the groups official designation  Atiku Diaspora Support Group  suggests, its members are Nigerian-Americans campaigning for the former vice-presidents presidential crusade.

Franklin Ekechukwu is a co-director of the group, he explains why he and his colleagues believe Mr. Abubakar is worthy of Nigerias highest office.

Q: What is your organization called, is it a support group for PDP or for His Excellency Atiku Abubakar?

A: We are called Atiku Diaspora Support Group, we are not PDP even though some of us are PDP members. It comprises all Nigerians who want a better government, who want Nigeria to start working again.

Q: Are you limited to just the United States of America?

A: No, no, no. In the United States we have coordinators in all fifty states of continental USA, then we have people in Malaysia, in China and we have UK branch. We have affiliates in Nigeria, those are working on the ground, we call them the champions of democracy. We have national body of champions of democracy in Nigeria, we created national coordinators, then we have regional coordinators. We have state coordinators, then to make it much better, we have local government coordinators. In a nutshell, we have 774 local coordinators.

Q: Atiku became presidential candidate this past October, given what you are telling me, you guys are literally spread across the world, is this something that started in October or was the support group there before he emerged PDP candidate?

A: It started before he emerged PDP candidate. I already know Mama Titi and of course my partner, Obed, knows Mama Titi. I have been working with the PA called Abdulrazaq. Se we knew since a year and six months ago, the work has been going on in Nigeria. I am also aware that he was going to run, Obed was also aware, we were doing our own part and waiting for him to win the primaries. So I can tell you that I know when Abdul went to Ogun State, when he went to Oyo State, that was way before the primaries. We have been existing, we have been planning long before he went for the primaries and won.

Q: This is nice to know but why have you all been planning? What is it about the candidate that spurred this movement, this support for him on your part long before he became the candidate?

A: Let me be frank. In April this year [2018], I convened the U.S.-Nigeria investment summit that was held at the Embassy of Nigeria [Washington DC]. I planned it, executed it, dedicated four months of my life to it. I am the principal of U.S.-Nigeria organization, it is a company that is supposed to channel everything I want to do for Nigeria. The whole plan is to attract investment, investors to Nigeria. The United States Secretary of Commerce spoke at the event, that is the first time ever that Secretary of Commerce will attend such event at our Embassy. That was my effort to help my country regardless of which government is in power. But what attracted me to Atiku is this; when I read his life story, I found out that he has gone through all the things of life, people see him as a rich man now but they forget that the man went through certain roads of life before he got to where he is. As a child he found it difficult to go to school, he trekked for an hour thirty minutes to and from school, his father died at a young age, he had no uncles to help, he was able to build a house for his mum at the age of sixteen. These simply tell me that he went through hell as a child and he matured quickly. When he joined the Customs, he didnt find things easier either but he managed to do all he need to do to get to where he is. Mama Titi told us that at one point they lived in a one-bedroom apartment. When you look at how creative he had to be at a very young age, to build a house for his mum and to survive, you know, taking loans, doing odd jobs, these are things most Nigerians dont know about him. He was still finding other alternatives to have extra income while he was a custom officer. So looking at his life story, I came to understand that not only is he creative, he has vision and he was able to succeed. When you meet a leader who has a vision of tomorrow, then you know he can succeed at anything you give him because he makes things happen. That is how he struggled until he established Intels and he had a vision for the companys success, he knew that for this Intels company to last for a long time, he needed to bring in some traditional leaders and some military people to be on the board of directors. And he was able to accomplish that by bringing in His Royal Highness Ado Bayero and General Musa YarAdua, that is a demonstration of his vision to sustain things. He has managed to make it to the point where now people call him a billionaire and all they see is the money. You and I understand that Atiku was a rich person before he got into politics, he climbed to the position of director general in the customs, knowing that he could not go any further, he resigned and entered into business full time before getting into politics. You also know that he was behind PDPs success at the 1999 elections, he practically financed the party. So at this point, after reading his life story, I said this is a man that needs to come into power because he will know how to invest, he has the vision and then after I got to know him, talking to people around him, I knew this is a person I can support. And luckily for me a friend of mine who has been to Nigeria and found out that this man and his wife has this foundation helps orphans and fights against human trafficking, these are things you do to make life better for other people. Atiku has given so many scholarships to many people regardless of where they come from. These things, giving back to the society without looking to gain from it, that is actually one thing that made say I need to follow him.

Q: How were you able to get so many branches of the Atiku Diaspora Support Group going so quickly? I mean you said you are in all fifty states of the U.S., you are in Malaysia, the UK and all 774 local government areas of Nigeria, that must have taken a lot of work.

A: I was national coordinator for Jonathan support group and at that time I had a lot of friends in the whole fifty states. I was also the former regional director of Nigerians in the Diaspora (NIDO) in the United States. I was regional director of NIDO and a board member of NIDO at that time. I was also the director of membership and mobilization for NIDO, so I travelled to the whole fifty states, I met a lot of people in all fifty states of the U.S. Obed who is my partner in the Atiku Support Group, actually he is the national coordinator, I am the deputy national coordinator. Using the position I had before, what I did is I collapsed the JEG support group into Atikus and contacted all the people Ive been working with in the past and we reestablished. In terms of Nigeria, I used a gentleman called Chris Ibe who is a national youth publicity secretary in Nigeria. Their youth organization is nationally known and nationally driven. I called on him to start off champions of democracy and he utilized the youth movement. Chris also has an NGO which fights against illicit drugs. I used his organization and the youth movement. We appointed national coordinators who are well-known within the youth movement, they selected the regional coordinators. We asked the regional coordinators to get state coordinators for us, it was more of a screening process. The only difficulty we had was screening them out, we wanted to know who is for Atiku and who can work hard. The we instructed the state coordinators to get us, in all the local governments in their state, local coordinators. It was a tasking process, we have formed the international one alright but we have to trust other people to get people they can work with, that can mobilize. It was hard work but it was also fun.

Q: So concretely, what is the diaspora support group doing to make sure Atiku is elected next president of Nigeria?

A: We have done a lot of things, as you know, we did the National Press Club event [in Washington DC]. And then theres a lot of video we have made to highlight things that are not going well in Nigeria, things that are not going the right direction.

Q: So is the video being aired in the United States or in Nigeria?

A: Its being aired in Nigeria 

Q: on the TV stations?

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A: We handed them over to the TV stations but I dont know if they have aired them or not. We plan to do ten more videos this January, we will have two videos come up every week. We have done some jingles and in terms of mobilizing, we are mobilizing people on the ground, that is one of the reasons why we have the local coordinators. For instance, Atiku was in Lagos for the youth movement, most of our members were there, most of the champions of democracy. And, as a matter of fact, Atiku made one of our champions of democracy national special adviser on youths. So we are doing a lot but we want to do more. Here in the United States, if His Excellency decides to come to the United States, we are planning to be his local organizing group. Not only that, we have appointment with some senators and house of representative members. We want to speak to them on looking towards Nigeria and the elections as a priority in terms of rigging elections and for them to monitor whats going on in Nigeria. Some of us are going to travel to Nigeria to campaign, those who dont travel will be here to let the world know what is going on and call attention to Nigeria as a nation.

Q: Nigerians in the diaspora dont vote in Nigerian elections, they dont have the PVC and all that. So how much weight is the diaspora contributing to this campaign? All attempts to get voting rights for Nigerians outside the country has failed so why should we be concerned?

A: Nigeria belongs to each and everyone of us. And the betterment of Nigeria will bring progress to even Nigerians here in the United States and across the world. I can tell you this, the investors refuse to go to Nigeria these days because the present government is going around the world telling people that we are corrupt. No matter how you look at it, Nigeria being perceived as corrupt reflects directly on even Nigerians in the diaspora. If you are a businessman as I am, you cannot do business and investors dont want to invest in Nigeria because they feel like the business environment in Nigeria is not conducive. The chief executive of Nigeria, the chief salesman is telling them dont come because we are corrupt, that affects everybody. Now if Nigerians in the diaspora say they dont want to bother themselves about what is happening in Nigeria, they are myopic in their vision. In terms of what we are contributing to Nigeria, we send money to Nigeria, our parents, our family members, everybody are still in Nigeria. In every family, one or two people may be in the United States but the rest are there. And all of them depend on you, on how much you are sending, they tell you we are dying send money. Many of them are truly dying because they have no jobs, no money, no hope of any kind. This election is the most critical election in our lifetime, this will either break or save Nigeria, we need to take it very seriously and engage. Whoever you are in the diaspora, we need to engage. As you know youths are dying just trying to get away from Nigeria. Those of us who are here have to engage. Yes, we dont have PVC and Ill remind people that the bill for diaspora voting rights, I was one of those that pushed it when I was in NIDO. We wrote it, we sent it in. I cant say because I am not voting then I cant participate in the affairs of my country, no. The reason why we are here in the United States, outside the country, is to learn and take that knowledge back home.

Q: President Obasanjo has come out in support of Atiku but there is also a history of the same man criticizing his former vice-president. A lot of people quote Obasanjos previous statements to characterize the candidate now. How is your group addressing this political baggage?

A: The relationship between Obasanjo and his vice is one that is between them to settle, thank God they have settled it. What transpired between His Excellency and his boss is common knowledge. He made those statements out of anger and frustration, but he has come to realize that as of today, that his vice-president is the best person to lead Nigeria to the next level, to make Nigeria work again. That is why he is supporting him. People can use what OBJ has said in the past against him (Atiku), there was even a time when he (Obasanjo) said Atiku Abubakar will not rule the country while he (Obasanjo) is alive. But you see, in life, we sin then we repent. If we decide to dwell on every statement we made in the past then that means God should not forgive us for the things we have done then. We are made in Gods image, we behave like God meaning that we can do something and then we redress it. OBJ made those statements out of anger, out of frustration, he probably felt insulted. In that situation, people cannot take what he said to heart. If you watch carefully, his excellency Atiku never took those statements to heart, because he understands where the man is coming from. He respected his boss and remained so till his boss forgave him. I dont see why other people consider what OBJ said about Atiku as something that cannot be forgiven. If the man who made those statements now says he has forgiven the person he spoke about why do we keep blaming the same person for those statements?

Q: Okay, but here in the United States too, there have been negative press against the candidate and some other negative developments which Im sure you know about. Does that bother the Diaspora Support Group?

A: No, emh 

Q: there is the issue about Jefferson, the former Congressman, who I believe is still in jail, which resulted in the raid on Vice-President Atikus former residence in Maryland. How has your group addressed and moved beyond that?

A: We, my group, did a criminal background check, I worked with some lobbyists here to look into those allegations, we didnt find anything. I even communicated that to His Excellency. We didnt find nothing at all that is incriminating with regards to His Excellency. Not only that, what we found is the legislative report that was compiled about some African leaders and I can tell you clearly how that legislative report came about however I dont need to go expressively to explain that because then I will point fingers at some people. But in that legislative report, they mentioned His Excellency Atiku, it is just because of the fact that His Excellency was trying to bring American University to Nigeria. The forty million dollars that was mentioned, or that people are going around talking about, is simply that the money used to bring American University to Nigeria, the reason why it looked like it is something criminal is simply because of the fact that the money came from sources. You know, as a businessman, your money cannot be in one particular area, it can actually come as transfer from different areas until the money is complete. Every businessman does that, every man has an offshore account and so when the legislators were looking into that and they found out that it was from different sources, normally it would raise a red alert. But after all that is done, they looked into it and found out that it was nothing so they let it go.

Q: So what would you, as a diaspora Nigerian, say to Nigerians back home who are aware of that case? How would you explain it to them?

A: Simply put, I would say that there was never a case against His Excellency Atiku Abubakar. That innuendoes and propaganda cannot add up to a case. If there is a case against him, His Excellency travels out of Nigeria every time, believe you me, Interpol would have picked him up once he is outside that country and bundled him into United States. But there is no case against him and you cannot pick something that has never existed and force it against a man who is just doing good for his country. I believe a lot of people have gone through that American University in Yola, people have passed through it, a lot of them have graduated from it, there is nothing there so all these innuendoes should not continue to arise. And the financial affairs of an individual should not be held to scrutiny when a person want to do something good for his country.

Q: Finally, what is your background? Why are you living outside Nigeria when you are so passionate about the country?

A: Well you know my name, Franklin. My background, I was born during the Nigeria-Biafran war in 1967, Im fifty-one years old. I came to the United States in 1986, I went to school here in the U.S., my degree is in Biochemistry and Mathematics. Ive founded different businesses, I worked in pharmaceutical sector but after a while I moved on to work for myself. I owned other businesses to the point where I owned my own bank, Key Financial Bank, a mortgage bank. When I became the regional director of Nigerians in the Diaspora (NIDO), we did a lot to move Nigeria forward. I worked hand-in-hand with late Ambassador Adefuye, may his soul rest in peace. Thats one ambassador I know that worked very tirelessly for Nigeria, it is unfortunate that he passed away. I worked hand-in-hand with him, at that time things improved. You remember back then when people say Nigerians are scammers, they say that about Nigerians in the diaspora, that all we do is scam people. That was affecting Nigerians here, even at their work. When Ambassador Adefuye came, we launched a program, a massive PR program to change how Nigerians are perceived. We went from being viewed as scammers to being appreciated as the hardest working immigrants in America. Its unfortunate that now it seems like we are going back to those days, we have to work hard to re-build the image of Nigeria. From there, when the stock market and the market fell, I decided to open the business of trade and investment promotion which I am doing now, moving investors to Nigeria and some other African countries, creating government and inter-governmental relationships. I am also creating a mentorship program for Nigerians which involves American businesses to mentor young people from Nigeria.Nigerias proposed 2.3 million barrels daily crude oil production capacity is achievable, key government officials have said.

Since President Muhammadu Buhari presented the draft Appropriation Bill for the 2019 Budget of Continuity to the joint session of the National Assembly late last year, critics have continued to express doubt about prospects of meeting both the production and revenue targets.

The biggest criticisms are coming from the chieftains of the main opposition political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Former Vice President and Presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, said the 2019 budget is fundamentally flawed and unworkable, as the document is based on grossly exaggerated assumptions that cannot be met.

Also, the Senate President and Director General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Bukola Saraki, described the budget as a hopeless document that cannot be implemented.

Apart from the $60 per barrel oil price benchmark, Mr Abubakar said it was doubtful if the 2.3 million barrels per day oil production capacity will be realised.

We all know that throughout 2018, average (oil) production was 1.95 million barrels per day. Indeed, the latest report from OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) suggests Nigeria will be required to cut production to 1.65 million barrels per day. This implies revenue targets to implement the budget will not be met, he said.

Misssed Targets

Since 2014, the country has not met its daily oil production projections due to a combination of factors, including attacks on oil production facilities in the Niger Delta, or reduction in production due to unfavourable crude oil prices.

In 2014, the countrys daily production capacity averaged about 2.2 million barrels against the projected 2.39 million per day in the budget.

Details from a budget implementation monitoring report from the Budget Office of the Federation showed that in 2015, out of about 2.28 million barrels daily oil output that was proposed, only 2.19 million barrels per day were realised.

Similarly, in 2016 only about 1.782 million barrels were realised, out of about 2.2 million barrels oil output proposed for the year, while 1.79 million barrels were produced in 2017 against about 2.3 million barrels benchmark proposed in the budget.

For 2018, out of about 2.3 million barrels per day proposed, about 1.95million barrels per day were realised.

Udoma, Kachikwu, Others Speak

Both the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, and his counterpart in the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udoma, believe the proposed output benchmark is realisable.

During the presentation of the budget details, Mr Udoma said President Buhari directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to take all possible measures to achieve the oil production target.

Nigerias representative to the OPEC, Melee Kyari, says there was no cause for any worry about prospects of the country meeting its production target.

Mr Kyari, who is also the General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing Department of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said a number positive milestones and achievements by the corporation and its partners call for such optimism.

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A fortnight ago last month, OPEC members and their non-OPEC allies resolved to cut their production by 2.5 per cent (about 1.2 million barrels per day) effective last January 1 to boost prices and stabilise the market.

With the cut, based on their October 2018 production levels, Mr Kachikwu said Nigeria will henceforth be producing an average of 1.78 million barrels of crude oil per day (bpd) till further notice.

The OPEC is expected to review the decision in the next six months either to extend the duration of the cut, or terminate it.

Regardless, Mr Kachikwu said the country, which aims at producing about 2.3 million barrels per day in 2019, will have an additional boost with the production of first oil from the 200,000 barrels per day capacity Egina oilfield by Total.

The deep-water oil field is operated by Total Exploration & Production, in partnership with the NNPC, Chinese National Oil Company, South Atlantic Petroleum (Sapetro) and Petrobras of Brazil.

It is located some 130 kilometers off the coast of Nigeria at water depths of over 1,500 meters, is one of Nigerias ultra-deep offshore oil concessions.

The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru, described the achievement of first oil production from the oil field on December 29, 2018, as a landmark achievement that would boost Nigerias production capacity.

The addition of about 200,000 barrels of oil production from the Egina Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) was the industrys major milestone achievement in 2018, Mr Baru said.

Besides, Mr Kachikwu said Nigeria still has the added advantage to raise its oil output even further with an additional 500,000 to 600,000 barrels of condensates, which is not usually factored into the computation by OPEC of its members production figures.

If it is pure crude, it raises certain other implications in terms of the OPEC quota. However, if it is condensate, then obviously we will smile, the minister was quoted to have told Reuters recently.

The NNPC in its Monthly Financial and Operations Report for September 2018 said the countrys total crude oil production in August was higher by 4.46 million barrels, or 7.76 per cent to average approximately 2 million barrels per day compared to the previous month.

The cumulative production of Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) from all fields between August 2017 and August 2018 stood at about 51.02 million barrels of crude oil, or an average daily production of 128,834 barrels per day.

NPDC is projected to ramp-up production level to about 250,000 barrels per day in the near future, the report said.PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-19 00:02:02

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES.

Toachi Mining Announces Strategic Financing of up to C$1,500,000

Alain Bureau

President and CEO

Candace Di Vito

Manager, Investor Relations

Telephone: 416 365 7043

Email: cdivito@toachimining.com

Toachi Mining Inc., (Toachi or the Company) (TSX-V: TIM) (OTCQB: TIMGF) announced today that it intends to proceed with a strategic non-brokered private placement with a combination of insiders and high net worth investors (the Financing Group), for an aggregate principal amount of up to C$1,500,000 convertible debentures (the Debentures) of Toachi (the Financing), of which Toachi has already received commitments for C$1,000,000.

Each Debenture will bear interest at an annual rate of 10.85% and may be converted into a maximum of 12,500,000 common shares of the Company at a conversion price of $0.12 per share at any time prior to maturity. Maturity is 12 months following the closing date. No transaction or finders fees will be paid in conjunction with the issuance. The Debentures and its underlying common shares will be subject to resale restrictions of four month and one day from the closing.

The net proceeds from the Financing will be used to accelerate Toachis option payment to earn a controlling interest in the La Plata Project in Ecuador, advance engineering of the Toachis La Plata Project as well as for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Over 50% of the Financing will be subscribed by insiders of the Company, including members of the Board of Directors. A Material Change Report will be filed outlining the exemptions the Company will rely upon as described in policy NI 61-101. Toachi has been granted a conditional approval from the TSX Venture Exchange for this Financing which remains nevertheless subject to its final approval.

The Financing and all of their underlying securities will be issued pursuant to exemptions from the prospectus requirements of applicable securities legislation. The Debenture offering will thus be solely addressed to accredited investors, to subscribers which are not individuals and each subscribing for at least $150,000 or other prospectus exemptions in each of the Provinces of Canada and to eligible purchasers residing in jurisdictions other than Canada as agreed to by Toachi provided that no prospectus filing or comparable obligation arises and Toachi does not thereafter become subject to continuous disclosure obligations in such jurisdictions.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities of Toachi Mining Inc. in the United States, nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities offered have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act or any U.S. state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or unless an exemption from such registration is available.

Additional information relating to the Company is also available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

About Toachi Mining Inc.

Toachi brings a disciplined and veteran team of project managers together with one of the industrys highest grade projects at La Plata in Ecuador. Toachi is focused on and committed to the development of advanced stage mineral projects throughout the Americas using industry best practices combined with a strong social license from local communities. Toachi Mining has 81,166,435 shares issued and outstanding.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information as such term is used in applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information is based on plans, expectations and estimates of management at the date the information is provided and is subject to certain factors and assumptions, including, that the Companys financial condition and development plans do not change as a result of unforeseen events and that the Company obtains regulatory approval. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause plans, estimates and actual results to vary materially from those projected in such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause the forward-looking information in this news release to change or to be inaccurate include, but are not limited to, the risk that any of the assumptions referred to prove not to be valid or reliable, that occurrences such as those referred to above are realized and result in delays, or cessation in planned work, that the Companys financial condition and development plans change, and delays in regulatory approval, as well as the other risks and uncertainties applicable to the Company as set forth in the Companys continuous disclosure filings filed under the Companys profile at www.sedar.com. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, other than as required by applicable law.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is dened in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190118005

TOACHI MINING ANNOUNCES STRATEGIC FINANCING OF UP TO C$1,500,000PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-19 18:37:32

Steady growth of the global market for bulletproof security glass can be attributed to increased security concerns worldwide. Rising incidences of crime and terrorist attacks have increased deployment of modules that deliver safety and security. With this, growth of the global bulletproof security glass market is projected to generate revenues of worth US$ 2,000 million by the end of 2026, as forecasted by a new report available with Research Report Insights.Report For Sample with Table of Contents@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110114875/Bulletproof-Security-Glass-Market Bulletproof security glass finds application in multiple end-user industries including financial services, commercial services, institutional construction, residential construction, aviation industry and automotive industry among others. Based on the application in end- user industry, the bulletproof glass is used in the banks, ATM booth, armored cash trucks, residential buildings, premium vehicles and display cases. Thickness, weight, transparency, and level of bullet resistance are few of the prime prerequisites considered in the manufacturing of the bulletproof security glass.With the help of advanced manufacturing and processing technologies, manufacturer of bulletproof glass as well as providers of building materials have introduced a variety of entities. For instance, bulletproof glass manufacturers deliver different bullet resistant barrier systems that include bullet resistant transaction windows and doors, bullet resistant frames, and ballistic counters among others. All these bullet resistant systems are highly deployed in new construction projects of financial services, schools, vehicles and other crime prone locations.Request For Report Discount@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110114875/Bulletproof-Security-Glass-Market The financial community remains dynamic due to consistent merger and acquisition activities and sometimes institution failures. However, integrations of one or more entities lead to prominent infrastructure changes in the financial institutions. As these institutes are prone to crimes and terrorist attacks, demand for bulletproof security glass has dramatically increased in this industry.According to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the numbers of new residential construction have increased steadily in past decade in the United States. Owing to increased numbers of breaches and crimes, construction industry is adopting bulletproof security glass in the construction projects, particularly in different educational institutions as well as residential buildings. With the increasing numbers of construction projects, and intensified security concerns, bulletproof security glass are likely to witness steady demand in the construction industry.Across the globe, terrorist attacks continues to generate concerns of human safety. Highly vulnerable regions to terrorist attacks such as Israel, Iraq and Syria, have witnessed incremental demand for bulletproof security glass in automotive as well as construction industries. Apart from these industries, military and defense sectors have also increased installation of bulletproof security glass.Despite being a highly sought after material for security, bulletproof security glass may experience hindrance of adoption in automotive industry. Challenges to reduce the weight of bulletproof glass and increasing demand for light and fuel efficient vehicles do not support adoption of heavy bulletproof security glass. Further, stringent government regulations on the use of bulletproof security glass can obstruct utilization in specific world regions. For instance, the government of Philadelphia has passed a bill to regulate use of bulletproof security glass in different constructions.Report Analysis@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110114875/Bulletproof-Security-Glass-MarketThis report studies the global Body Contouring Devices and Procedures market, analyzes and researches the Body Contouring Devices and Procedures development status and forecast in North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East & Africa and Latin America. Various key players are discussed in details and a well-informed idea of their popularity and strategies is mentioned.

Body Contouring Devices and Procedures

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This report on global Body Contouring Devices and Procedures market is a detailed research study that helps provides answers and pertinent questions with respect to the emerging trends and growth opportunities in this particular industry. It helps identify each of the prominent barriers to growth, apart from identifying the trends within various application segments of the global market for Body Contouring Devices and Procedures Collecting historical and recent data from various authentic resources, and depending on all the factors and trends, the report presents a figurative estimate of the future market condition, along with compound annual growth rate (CAGR).Get Sample copy of this Report:This report focuses on the global top players, covered: Cynosure, Inc., Alma Lasers, Alleragan, Syneron Medical Ltd, Bausch Health Companies, Inc, Lumenis, Merz Pharma GmbH & Co., Palomar Medical Technologies Inc., Sound Surgical Technologies LLC., Zeltiq Aesthetics, Chromogenex Technologies LTD, UltraShape Ltd, Fotona, Misonix Inc., Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation, Sientra Inc., Invasix Ltd, Erchonia Inc, Lutronic etc.Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers The study segments the market by geography into: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. It provides in-depth forecasts of revenue of the market as a whole as well as each and every application segment. The competitive landscape is mapped depending on product and technology.The key questions answered in the report:1. What will be the market size and growth rate in the 2019-2026 year?2. What are the key factors driving the global Body Contouring Devices and Procedures market?3. What are the risks and challenges in front of the market?4. Who are the key vendors in the global Body Contouring Devices and Procedures market?5. Trending factors influencing the market shares of Body Contouring Devices and Procedures6. What are the key outcomes of Porters five forces model?7. Which are the global opportunities for expanding the Body Contouring Devices and Procedures market?Get Discount on this Premium Report: https://www.qyreports.com/ask-for-discount?report-id=105725 This study also offers an overview of pricing trends and ancillary factors that will be influencing pricing in the global Body Contouring Devices and Procedures market. The market study, estimation, and market sizing have been done utilizing a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches.Most important data include the key recommendations and predictions by our analysts, intended to steer a strategic business decision. The company profiles section of this research service is a compilation of the growth strategies, financial status, product portfolio, and recent developments of key market participants. The report provides detailed industry analysis of the global Body Contouring Devices and Procedures market with the help of proven research methodologies such as Porters five forces. The forces analyzed are bargaining power of the buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, and the degree of competition.Get Complete Report@:Table of Contents:Global Body Contouring Devices and Procedures Market Research Report 2019-2026Chapter 1: Body Contouring Devices and Procedures Market OverviewChapter 2: Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3: Body Contouring Devices and Procedures Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4: Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5: Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6: Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type.CONTINUED FOR TOCThis Electric Two-Wheeler market research is an intelligence report with meticulous efforts undertaken to study the right and valuable information. The data which has been looked upon is done considering both, the existing top players and the upcoming competitors. Business strategies of the key players and the new entering market industries are studied in detail. Well explained SWOT analysis, revenue share and contact information are shared in this report analysis.

Electric Two-Wheeler

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This report covers Electric Two-Wheeler market from the bottom line, starting from its definition. Later, it segments the market on various criteria to give a depth of understanding on the various product types and pricing structures and applications. Each and every segment is examined carefully by factoring in sales, revenue and market size in order to understand the potential of growth and scope.Ask for sample pdf copy of this report @ https://www.qyreports.com/request-sample?report-id=105723 Major key players-AIMA,Yadea,Sunra,BYVIN,TAILG,Lvyuan,Incalcu,Lvjia,Lima,Supaq,Bodo,Slane,OPAI,Xiaodao Ebike,Birdie Electric,Gamma,Mingjia,Qianxi Vehicle etcKey questions answered in this report: What will the market size and the growth rate be in 2026? What are the key factors driving the global Electric Two-Wheeler market? What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the global Electric Two-Wheeler market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in the global Electric Two-Wheeler market? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the global Electric Two-Wheeler market? Trending factors influencing the market shares of the Americas, APAC, Europe, and MEA. What are the key outcomes of the five forces analysis of the global Electric Two-Wheeler market?Get maximum discount on this report @ https://www.qyreports.com/ask-for-discount?report-id=105723 Moreover, the research highlights the changing trends in the global Electric Two-Wheeler market. Technological developments are predicted to allow key companies to introduce a new Electric Two-Wheeler market in the global market, thus widening the scope of this global market. The competitive rivalry in the Electric Two-Wheeler market is described in detail in the report. Operations of key players in the Electric Two-Wheeler market are described in detail, including their historical and projected importance in the market.To offer a clear understanding of the global Electric Two-Wheeler market, several questions have been addressed in the research study concerning the growth of the global Electric Two-Wheeler market. It is also been discussed with respect to projected growth rate of the global Electric Two-Wheeler market in the near future. Also, depending on the ongoing trend of the market, the region which is anticipated to witness high growth in the next few years is studied in detail.The prime objective of this research report is to provide a deep insight into the global market for Electric Two-Wheeler to the key market participants and assist them in making rewarding strategies to gain an edge over competitors.To know more information, please visit @ https://www.qyreports.com/report/global-electric-two-wheeler-market-size-trends-applications-status-analysis-and-forecast-reports-2019-to-2026-105723/ Table of Contents:Global Electric Two-Wheeler Market Research Report 2019-2026Chapter 1: Electric Two-Wheeler Market OverviewChapter 2: Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3: Electric Two-Wheeler Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4: Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5: Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6: Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type.CONTINUED FOR TOCPR-Inside.com: 2019-01-19 18:46:23

Digital forensic comprises integration of computer science with laws that are needed for the purpose of investigation of crime. It comprises complete recovery and then interpretation of data that is present in various digital devices to be presented in the courts of law and mostly involves various cyber-crimes. Investigation in digital forensics is carried out in three different stages which include display acquisition, investigation and analysis together with reporting of crime.Report For Sample with Table of Contents@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110114870/Digital-Forensics-Market In accordance with the research report on the world market for Digital Forensics by Research Report Insights (RRI), it has been anticipated that strong growth would prevail in the said market. The world market for digital forensics market stood at a valuation of around US$ 2.87 bn in the year 2016 and is estimated to be worth around US$ 6.65 bn by the year 2025, thereby rising at a CAGR of 9.7% from 2017 and 2025.North America is forecasted to Continue with Regional Supremacy over the Period of ForecastThe world market for digital forensics has been regionally segmented into the geographies of South America, North America, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Europe. The region of North America is quite likely to continue with market dominance in the international market for digital forensics. North America is expected to be trailed by Europe as it stood as a major regional segment of the said market. Asia Pacific accounts for a substantial revenue in the world market for digital forensics. The growing trend of internet of things technology and cloud based solutions in many of these regions is acting as the major growth driver in these geographies.Increased Growth of Cloud Services to Encourage Growth of the MarketOwing to the rampant growth of cloud devices and services with in-built facilities of Internet-of-Things, cyber criminals have undue advantage of dealing with leaking of customer information. Such characteristics might augment the risk of viruses and malwares thereby making computer systems prone to hacking.Another reason for the improvement of the said market is the possible tracing of hacking activities to their source. These activities are traced by forensic agencies by making use of the right forensic methods. Thus, such evidence-based investigation for the purpose of recovery of information has been a prime factor for the rise of the market for digital forensics. The rise in demand for digital solutions and forensics tools is also fueled owing to the fact that multiple channels are utilized for the purpose of hacking confidential information from various organizations and companies.Request For Report Discount@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110114870/Digital-Forensics-Market A few of the crucial companies in the digital forensics market comprise LogRhythm Inc., IBM Corporation, Paraben Corporation, AccessData Group LLC, FireEye Inc., Micro Systemation, Binary Intelligence LLC, Guidance Software Inc., CISCO, and AB, NUIX amongst many others.For the study the market has been segmented as follows:Global Digital Forensics Market SegmentationBy TypeComputer ForensicsNetwork ForensicsCloud ForensicsMobile Device ForensicsDatabase ForensicsOthersBy ApplicationHealth CareEducationBanking, financial services and insurance (BFSI)Defense and AerospaceLaw EnforcementTransportation and LogisticsInformation TechnologyOthersBy RegionNorth AmericaEuropeAsia PacificMiddle East and AfricaLatin AmericaReport Analysis@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110114870/Digital-Forensics-MarketPR-Inside.com: 2019-01-19 20:30:15

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The report on the global Cobaltous Oxalate market is a comprehensive overview of the market, covering various aspects such as product definition, segmentation based on various parameters, distribution channel, supply chain analysis, and the prevailing vendor landscape. It compiles exhaustive information sourced via proven research methodologies.This report studies Cobaltous Oxalate in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with capacity, production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, covering, GFS Chemicals, CFM, Baltic Enterprice, Celtic Chemicals, Jinchuan Group, Hanrui Cobalt, Jiayuan Cobalt Holdings, Jiangxi Tungsten Industry Co Ltd, GEM, Zhejiang Galico Cobalt & Nickel Material, Huayou International, Hunan Chuangda Vanadium & Tungsten, Chongqing Southern Chemicals, ALT Cobalt & Nickel Products (Dalian),Shanghai Ningxi Industrial Resources, Shandong Boshan Dahe ChemicalRequest a sample report copy-Different driving factors and opportunities have been examined carefully to understand the present and future growing factors of the businesses. In addition to this, it also gives a gist about the restraining aspects that are holding back the progress of this particular market. The report has been curated using primary and secondary research techniques to discover the statistics of industries.Along with qualitative and qualitative details pertaining to the markets key elements, an overview of the chief macro and micro economic factors that will enable companies to the market to surmount competition are also examined in great details.The report also presents a round-up of vulnerabilities which companies operating in the market must avoid in order to enjoy sustainable growth through the course of the forecast period. Besides this, profiles of some of the leading players operating in the global Cobaltous Oxalate Market are included in the report.Ask for Discount copy of this report-The report firstly introduced the Cobaltous Oxalate basics: definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain overview; industry policies and plans; product specifications; manufacturing processes; cost structures and so on. Then it analyzed the world's main region market conditions, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, capacity utilization, supply, demand and industry growth rate etc.The report on the global Cobaltous Oxalate Market is a comprehensive overview of the market, covering various aspects such as product definition, segmentation based on various parameters, distribution channel, supply chain analysis, and the prevailing vendor landscape. It compiles exhaustive information sourced via proven research methodologies.The report on the global Cobaltous Oxalate Market is a complete overview of the market, covering various aspects product definition, segmentation based on various parameters, and the prevailing vendor landscape. It compiles in-depth information and research methodologies. It is also combined with relevant charts and tables to enable readers to get a better perspective of this global market.Moreover this, profiles of some of the leading players operating in the global Cobaltous Oxalate Market are included in the report. Using SWOT analysis, their weaknesses and strengths are analyzed. It helps the study deliver visions into the opportunities and threats that companies may face during the forecast period.TOC-Global Cobaltous Oxalate market.Chapter 1 Global Cobaltous Oxalate Market Overview.Chapter 2 Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3 Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5 Global Supply (Production), Consumption, ExportChapter 6 Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Market Forecast.The short answer is politics. The claim by Rep. Ilhan Omar that Sen. Graham is compromised, is beyond stupid.

Omar cites the way [Graham] is behaving towards President Trump. Graham was a major critic of Trump at one time, but now often supports the president.

But Graham sometimes does not support him. Just yesterday, he criticized Trumps decision to cancel Nancy Pelosis junket. Recently, he criticized Trumps decision to withdraw from Syria. And Graham expressed anger over the way Trump spoke of John McCain.

If Graham were compromised, he wouldnt be behaving that way.

Graham was appalled that the GOP might nominate Trump and apprehensive about a Trump presidency, but appeased to some extent when he found himself in agreement with many of Trumps policies. The same is true of many Republicans, including me.

Im pretty sure Trump has no compromising information about me.

The foregoing would probably be sufficient to explain Grahams behavior, but I think theres something else at play: opportunism (but not in any bad sense).

Graham strongly favors amnesty for a goodly portion of the illegal immigrant population, has long supported lenient sentencing for federal felons, and wants a robust U.S. engagement in the Middle East. By becoming cozy with Trump, Graham improves (or thinks he improves) the chances of influencing him on such matters.

One can disagree, as I do, with some (or all) of Grahams policy objectives. However, its perfectly reasonable, and indeed smart, for the Senator to try to advance them by getting on Trumps good side. In doing, as I said, Graham isnt compromising his principles because he does criticize Trump when the two disagree.

Im pretty sure Graham wishes that some other Republican, perhaps almost any other Republican, were president. But Trump is the president we have and Graham is trying to make the most of it.

Thats called doing your job.We have been writing about the growing anti-Semitism of the Democratic Party, but dont kid yourself: the Left hates Christianity more than it does Judaism. The Lefts bigotry has manifested itself over the last few days in connection with Karen Pence, the vice-presidents wife. David French explains (links omitted):

Karen Pence is a believing Christian woman. She took a part-time job at a private Christian school. And this, believe it or not, is a scandal. Dont believe me? Her job has already merited not just one, but two critical Washington Post stories. Theres the obligatory CNN report, accompanied by a piece of commentary that argues the school is like a real-life setting for The Handmaids Tale.

Shockingly, the Christian church has teachings about sexual morality that are at odds with the Lefts celebration of homosexuality and sexual confusion. The Christian school at which Mrs. Pence teaches requires its parents to express agreement with Christian teachings on this and other topics. How scandalous can you get? The overt bigotry on display from members of the left-wing press is, in my opinion, shocking. This one comes from a CNN White House reporter:

So, lemme get this straight, the second lady of the United States has chosen to work at a school that openly discriminates against LGBT adults and children. https://t.co/A4lxOv7V8G  Kate Bennett (@KateBennett_DC) January 16, 2019



This was tweeted by a Washington Post editor and writer for Politico:

How can this happen in America in 2019? https://t.co/OrjMdiEuk0  Lois Romano (@loisromano) January 16, 2019



How is this possible in America in 2019? Ummmaybe because we have religious freedom here?

David French sums it up well:

[T]here is no scandal at all if people who dissent from Christian orthodoxy form churches, organizations, and schools and hire like-minded people to advance their shared faith. Its no scandal at all if they exclude people who disagree with their mission and purpose. Is the Democratic party wrong if it excludes Republicans? Is a Muslim mosque wrong if it wants to be led by an imam and not a rabbi? Not only is this not scandalous, but its also the exercise of a fundamental First Amendment right. If Lois Romano or Kate Bennett or any other Karen Pence critic wants to argue against Christian theology, then have at it. Most Christians I know welcome the dialogue. But if they want to condemn a woman for the free exercise of her Christian faith? If they want to argue that theres something inherently wrong with orthodox Christians associating, worshipping together, and teaching their children? Well, then theyre exhibiting a deep intolerance thats at odds with pluralism itself.

Deep intolerance, of course, is what contemporary liberalism is all about. It dominates, among other things, the Democratic Party and its press mouthpieces. And it hates diversity.

My only additional comment is that the same leftists who smear Karen Pence for exercising her Christian faith celebrate Muslims like Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. Do liberals think that Islamic private schools promote homosexuality? Will any Washington Post reporter wonder How can this happen in America in 2019? because Islamic schools dont approve of what used to be called sexual immorality?

Heh. Just kidding. Dont hold your breath. Rank hypocrisy has a new name: it is called intersectionality.On Thursday evening BuzzFeed posted a story with the attention-grabbing headline President Trump Directed His Attorney Michael Cohen To Lie To Congress About The Moscow Tower Project. CNN ran with the story essentially nonstop yesterday. Below is CNN New Days tweet with a video clip of the shows interview with BuzzFeed reporter Anthony Cormier discussing his story yesterday morning. The excitement was palpable.

If true, Trump was toast. Democrats couldnt contain themselves. As Chuck Ross put it at the Daily Caller: Democrats seized on the report to call for congressional investigations into whether Trump obstructed justice or suborned perjury from Cohen

If not true, however, BuzzFeed is toast. Or should be.

A funny thing happened on the way to the impeachment. The Special Counsel issued an extraordinary statement yesterday evening through spokesman Peter Carr: BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the Special Counsels Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens Congressional testimony are not accurate. Ed Driscoll rounds up commentary here at InstaPundit.

I thought the Special Counsels statement is clear, but BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith professes confusion. He seeks clarification of Muellers statement. Smith tweeted: In response to the statementfrom the Special Counsels spokesman: We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what hes disputing. Maybe Don Lemon can clear it up for him!Editorial

Is this the time of Pa. working together?Sartomer recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of its West Chester production facility. Pennsylvania state Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19th Dist. In this photo, Dinniman, center, presents a citation to Sartomer officials John Kozel, left, Sartomer Americas plant process engineering manager and Kenny Messer, right, Sartomer Americas president.A 102,894-square-foot office building in the Valley Forge Corporate Center in Lower Providence has sold for $17.5 million. The three-story office building, at 1000 Madison Ave., was fully occupied by five tenants at the time of the sale.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.Insights

Imagine the young mother feeding her infant and then settling the child in for a nap, as the mom sighs in relief at what she believes is a mom Read moreWeather Alert

...Code Orange Ozone Health Advisory in effect until Sunset... The Shelby County Health Department has issued a Code Orange Ozone Health Advisory effective for Shelby County Tennessee, Crittenden County Arkansas, and DeSoto County Mississippi, including the city of Memphis that will remain in effect until sunset. This ozone health advisory is due to monitored ozone values that are unhealthy for sensitive groups. These values have exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency's federal safe health standard. The Shelby County Health Department recommends that sensitive groups which include active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, limit prolonged outdoor exertion. Please continue to check the latest air quality forecasts and updates until monitored values return to safe levels. For more information go to www.midsouthcleanair.org. In addition to the advisory, the Shelby County Health Department has issued a Code Orange Ozone Forecast effective for Shelby County Tennessee, Crittenden County Arkansas, and DeSoto County Mississippi, including the city of Memphis for Friday. This ozone forecast is due to forecasted ozone values that will be unhealthy for sensitive groups. These values will exceed the Environmental Protection Agency's federal safe health standard. The Shelby County Health Department recommends that sensitive groups which include active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, limit prolonged outdoor exertion. Please continue to check the latest air quality forecasts and updates until monitored values return to safe levels. For more information go to www.midsouthcleanair.org.Planning a trip to New York? Get ready for new attractions such as Vessel, a climbable structure that could become Manhattans answer to the Eiffel Tower; events such as WorldPride; and exhibits celebrating Leonard Cohen and Frida Kahlo.

So much is happening that the city tourism agency, NYCGo, has dubbed 2019 "a monumental year."

Vessel opens this spring in Hudson Yards, a new Manhattan neighborhood near the High Line. The building resembles a honeycomb and has 2,500 steps. Also opening at Hudson Yards: Mercado Little Spain, a food hall created by chef Jose Andres.

At JFK Airport, the TWA Hotel gives new life to Eero Saarinens TWA Flight Center, a 1962 landmark. The new site will offer 512 rooms, restaurants, bars, a rooftop observation deck and a museum.

In June, the city hosts the WorldPride festival, marking the events U.S. debut, along with the annual LGBT Pride march, June 30.

June also marks 50 years since the Stonewall Riots, which sparked the gay rights movement. Related exhibits include the New-York Historical Societys "Stonewall at 50" and Robert Mapplethorpe at the Guggenheim.

Several new museums are taking shape, one at the Statue of Liberty and another celebrating dogs.

The Whitney Biennial runs May 17 to Sept. 22; the Jewish Museum opens a show about Leonard Cohen on April 12; the Metropolitan Museums Costume Institute looks at "camp" in fashion in May; and the Museum of Modern Art expands its gallery space by 30 percent. The Brooklyn Museum hosts the largest Frida Kahlo exhibit in the U.S. in 10 years, Feb. 8 to May 12, with art, photos, film footage and personal items such as hand-painted corsets and embroidered blouses.

For theater lovers, 2019 brings revivals of "Kiss Me, Kate" and a reimagined "Oklahoma!"; a new Temptations jukebox musical; stage versions of the movies "Beetlejuice," "Moulin Rouge" and "Tootsie"; and intriguing new Broadway shows: "Be More Chill," aimed at Gen Z and millennials, and "Hillary and Clinton," starring Laurie Metcalf and John Lithgow.

For shoppers, new Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom stores debut in Manhattan, and Staten Island gets Empire Outlets.United Way of Olmsted County promotes volunteerism in southeastern Minnesota through our Get Connected online tool. Get Connected is made available to nonprofit agencies in our region to post volunteer opportunities. This tool allows individuals to view these volunteer opportunities. Go to volunteer.uwolmsted.org for more information or call 507-287-1533.

RESPITE FOR FAMILY CAREGIVERS

Volunteers provide companionship to an older adult, while temporarily relieving the family caregiver. This allows the caregiver time to attend a support group, run needed errands or just relax and take a break from the duties of care giving, with the ease of mind that their loved one is safe and taken care of. Male volunteers are especially needed. Email hollyb@elder-network.org 507-285-5272 for more information or to volunteer with Elder Network.

CLASSROOM VOLUNTEER AIDE

Classroom Volunteer Aides will assist elementary classroom teachers with classroom tasks. Tasks will vary based on the needs of the individual teacher at the time, but may include preparing instructional materials, creating bulletin boards, filing, or monitoring small groups of students working. You will play an integral role in allowing teachers to spend more time in direct student time or planning. Email juruzek@rochester.k12.mn.us or call 507-328-4354 for more information or to volunteer with Rochester Public Schools.

WORLD FESTIVAL PLANNING COMMITTEE

We are looking for members to help us plan this coming years World Festival which will be held on Saturday, April 20th at Mayo High School. Planning committee members plan activities, displays, performances, set-up etc. Expectation of planning committee members is that they participate in the World Festival. Applicants must have interest in different cultures including their own. Email brian.faloon@ria-minnesota.org or call 507-280-8319 for more information or to volunteer with Rochester International Association.

OFFICE AIDE

With your help we can get the ball rolling and start 2019 with our best foot forward. As the Office Aide, your duties may include: sorting and organizing files, scanning documents, data entry,

organizing office supplies, and much more. Volunteers should have a desire to make a difference and support individuals with disabilities. Email slangenfeld@hiawathahomes.org or call 507-226-0701 for more information or to volunteer with Hiawatha Homes Foundation.

RESTORE TREAT SUPPLIER

Make treats for the ReStore volunteers and bring them to the ReStore. Our volunteers always appreciate snacks in the break room, and you can help! Email volunteer@rochesterrestore.org or call 507-252-0849 for more information or to volunteer with Two Rivers Habitat for Humanity.How many friends can you remember who left a deep impact in your life? My guess is the number is significant. As Eleanor Roosevelt famously said, "Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart."

This month Autumn Ridge Church will lose both a preacher and a friend. I, for one, am not looking forward to this transition.

I first met C. John Steer in 1990, when he had been at Autumn Ridge for less than a year. It was May, and he had just weathered his first Minnesota winter. John wondered why anyone would live in this "dreadful" climate.

We met for breakfast at Perkins South (let all true Rochesterites now bow our heads in a moment of respectful silence). I tried to answer his questions about the Minnesota dialect by explaining the subtle differences between "Not that bad," and "Could be worse." Although John never uttered a "you betcha" or "dontcha know" in his life, he was sincere in his attempts at cultural adjustment.

Three years later, I was going through a very difficult time  my own "dark night of the soul." When I thought about who I could reach out to, John Steer came to mind. Our telephone calls were a lifeline in a difficult experience.

When we decided to move back to States in late 2013, the door opened for me to join the pastoral staff at Autumn Ridge Church. One well-meaning pastor in the community told me, "You have been a friend of John for a long time. You wont be able to work on his staff and maintain that friendship." After a few years, I asked John if we were still friends. With a typical "Steerism" John responded, "Woody, why would you ask me such a daft question?"

Good point.

In December 2015, my father fell asleep at home in Rochester and awakened in heaven. His death was unexpected. I am not sure how he heard or when he arrived, but suddenly John was there, sitting by my mothers side. While I dealt with all the public servants and the funeral director, John patiently sat by my mother, reading Scripture, praying, and listening to her stories. She never saw the body as it was taken out the front door. John was telling her about growing up in England. I am thankful he was both a pastor and a friend that night.

Johns sermons were typically memorable. He gave a New Years sermon a year ago that was great. "Six Secrets of a Harmonious Home" was funny and practical. His series on Lamentations was the first I heard in 40 years of ministry. And I envy his ability to say the hard things in the nicest way possible.

Thinking of Johns sermons, I share some wisdom from C.H. Spurgeon  a nineteenth century preacher John has quoted approximately 3,406 times. "If Christ is not all to you, He is nothing to you. He will never go into partnership as a part Saviour of men. If He be something, He must be everything, and if He be not everything, He is nothing to you."

Thank you, John, for making Christ everything, as you have served as preacher, pastor, and friend to many in the Rochester community. I am confident you will continue to do so in the years to come.

Woody Roland is pastor of missions at Autumn Ridge Church. Pulpit runs on the Saturday faith pages and features reflections from area religious leaders. To contribute, contact Life Editor Jeff Pieters at 285-7748 or life@postbulletin.com.Political Editor

Schuyler Kropf is The Post and Courier political editor. He has covered every major political race in South Carolina dating to 1988, including for U.S. Senate, governorship, the Statehouse and Republican and Democratic presidential primaries.The Post and Courier provides a forum for our readers to share their opinions, and to hold up a mirror to our community. Publication does not imply endorsement by the newspaper; the editorial staff attempts to select a representative sample of letters because we believe its important to let our readers see the range of opinions their neighbors submit for publication.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.Watchdog and Public Service reporter

Thad Moore is a reporter on The Post and Couriers Watchdog and Public Service team and a graduate of the University of South Carolina. To share tips securely, reach Moore via ProtonMail at thadmoore@protonmail.com or on Signal at 843-214-6576.Jerrel Floyd is an Alabama raised reporter who covers Summerville and Dorchester County for The Post and Courier.The state Department of Transportation is looking for a way to fix the lights on Interstate 526 between Interstate 26 and the Don N. Holt Bridge. They have been out for at least four years. About a quarter of the city's regular street lights are also out. File/StaffAdam Parker has covered many beats and topics for The Post and Courier, including race and history, religion, and the arts. He is the author of "Outside Agitator: The Civil Rights Struggle of Cleveland Sellers Jr.," published by Hub City Press.Hundreds of people joined hands to form a line near the ocean to emphasize their opposition for offshore drilling during the 8th annual Hands Across the Sand event at Folly Beach on Saturday, May 20, 2017. They probably won't be happy to hear the federal government is continuing with the permitting process during the federal government shutdown. Michael Pronzato/ Staff1.4k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

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Democrats are now in control of the U.S. House of Representatives, and they may soon be ready to use their new power to begin impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.

After the latest bombshell allegation that Trump in 2017 ordered his personal attorney to lie to Congress  the most damning allegation against the president so far  many House Democrats are now saying theyve had enough and dont want to wait any longer for Bob Mueller to finish his report.

Yesterday several leading House members raised the possibility of impeachment, and in some cases even resignation. The consensus among these Democrats is that if it is true that Trump did commit the crime of suborning perjury then he does not belong in the White House any longer, and should leave the presidency as soon as possible.

For example, Rep. David Cicilline (R.I.), the head of House Democrats messaging arm, said on Friday:

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If true, this is, I think, the most serious threat to the Trump presidency that weve seen so far, and thats saying something. This is obstruction of justice, if these facts are true, this is suborning perjury, I mean, theres no question its an impeachable offense.

Its still my preference that we await the final report of Mr. Mueller, but it becomes increasingly difficult when faced with evidence such as this. Theres really no explanation for suborning perjury, theres no innocent explanation for telling a witness to lie to the Congress of the United States, so I think this is different.

At least one House Judiciary Committee member, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a top progressive leader, said the report suggests Trump obstructed justice. Thats a federal crime, she said.

Freshman lawmaker Rashida Tlaib also tweeted the BuzzFeed News report, with a simple yeah, like I said in an apparent reference to the impeach the motherf*ckercomment she made several weeks ago.

And Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), a member of the Intelligence Committee and twin brother of presidential hopeful Julian Castro, said Trump must resign or be impeached if the story is accurate.

If the @BuzzFeed story is true, President Trump must resign or be impeached.  Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) January 18, 2019

He was joined by California Rep. Brad Sherman, who Tweeted:

If the reports in @BuzzFeed are true @realDonaldTrump should resign or be impeached.

If the reports in @BuzzFeed are true @realDonaldTrump should resign or be impeached.  Rep. Brad Sherman (@BradSherman) January 18, 2019

The explosive allegations as reported by BuzzFeed that Trump personally directed Cohen to lie to Congress have increased the stakes for Cohens planned appearance before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on February 7.

Beyond the Oversight hearing with Cohen next month, chairmen of the Intelligence and Judiciary committees both pledged to investigate the matter on Friday.

As a counterintelligence concern of the greatest magnitude, and given that these alleged efforts were intended to interfere with our investigation, our Committee is determined to get to the bottom of this, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said that the allegations that Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress is only the latest example of appearing to obstruct justice, which his panel will investigate.

Democrats have already pointed to Trumps firing of James Comey as director of the FBI in May 2017 as a previous example of potential obstruction of justice.

We know that the president has engaged in a long pattern of obstruction, Nadler said.

House Democratic leaders are showing caution as they seek to temper expectations for immediate impeachment proceedings. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Md.) avoided the impeachment question when asked by reporters saying I dont want to get into that right now. Well see what Mr. Cohen has to say at the hearing.

The impeachment talk among House Democrats is ramping up as the shutdown showdown between Trump and Speaker Nancy Pelosi is growing increasingly nasty.

Pelosi has previously set a high bar for impeachment, however, despite calls from many within her caucus who want action taken now.

If theres to be grounds for impeachment of President Trump  and Im not seeking those grounds  that would have to be so clearly bipartisan in terms of acceptance of it before I think we should go down any impeachment path, Pelosi told USA Today shortly before becoming Speaker.

When special counsel Muellers office issued a statement yesterday questioning some details of the BuzzFeed report, it appeared to many as if they were saying to Democrats to hold on and wait a while before beginning impeachment proceedings. With these latest disclosures, however, the patience of Democrats  and millions of Americans  is wearing thin.

If Robert Mueller has clear and convincing evidence that Donald Trump committed crimes, then he should disclose that information to Congress  and to the American people  immediately.9.9k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

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One Democratic pollster said on Saturday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should stop negotiating with Donald Trump as long he is under investigation for being a Russian asset.

In an interview with MSNBCs AM Joy, Fernand Amandi said Pelosi and the Democrats have the upper hand and they shouldnt give Trump an inch.

Im just not really keen on the idea of the Speaker of the House of Representatives  continuing to negotiate in good faith for the reopening of our government when its talking about a president who is currently being investigated by the FBI for possibly being a hostile foreign agent of a hostile foreign government, Amandi said.

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Call me old fashioned, but Im just not really keen on the idea of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who is third in line to the presidency by the way, continuing to negotiate in good faith for the reopening of our government when its talking about a president who is currently being investigated by the FBI for possibly being a hostile foreign agent of a hostile foreign government. That being said, its interesting that now the president is introducing DACA. I will give Speaker Pelosi what I think is some free advice. I think they should take the deal with one caveat. Add to the mix that in exchange for the $5 billion for the wall and the extension of DACA protections, that the president release his tax returns immediately. Something that he promised to do, by the way, during the campaign. Were now two years into the administration. I think its time for leader Pelosi to continue to play hardball. She clearly has the upper hand. She clearly has the negotiating advantage.

The Democrats shouldnt give Trump an inch

The days of unchecked power are over for Donald Trump. Led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrats now have a growing amount of leverage over the president.

First, public opinion is on their side. A majority of the country blames Trump for the shutdown. Not to mention, Trump is on video saying he would be proud to shut down the government over his proposed border wall, which a majority of the country opposes.

Second, hundreds of thousands of Americans arent receiving paychecks, putting many of them in a situation where they cant afford food or medication. The longer that goes on, the more it will hurt Trump. Over the past several weeks, his approval rating has been in a steady decline.

But most importantly, as Fernand Amandi mentioned on Saturday, all of this falls against the backdrop of the reality that Trump is being investigated as a potential Russian agent. In other words, we really dont know who Donald Trump is working for.

Unless and until that investigation concludes and we determine which side this president is on, Democrats shouldnt give an inch.

Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook and Twitter491 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

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BuzzFeed News said Friday night that it is standing by its reporting concerning Donald Trump ordering Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. Their comments were made on Twitter after an unusual statement was issued by special counsel Robert Muellers office disputing BuzzFeeds report from Thursday night which set forth the allegations involving the president and Cohen, his former lawyer.

We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what hes disputing, BuzzFeed News said in a statement shared by BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith on Twitter.

In response to the statement tonight from the Special Counsel's spokesman: We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he's disputing.  Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) January 19, 2019

BuzzFeed reported Thursday, citing two federal law enforcement officials as unnamed sources, that Cohen had told the special counsel that Trump had instructed him to lie about the timing of negotiations over a potential Trump Tower in Moscow.

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Muellers office rarely comments on stories related to the special counsels investigation into potential collusion between Trumps campaign and Russia during the 2016 election, but issued a statement Friday night denying certain aspects of BuzzFeeds reporting.

BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the Special Counsels Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens Congressional testimony are not accurate, special counsel spokesman Peter Carr said in a statement.

Shortly after Muellers office released the statement, Smith called into CNN and reiterated that BuzzFeed stood by the report.

Obviously, we stand by the reporting in this story, he said on CNNs Anderson Cooper 360. We spoke to federal law enforcement officials involved in the investigation  who told us the president directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress.

Buzzfeed's Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith tells @andersoncooper he stands by his organization's bombshell report, and remains "really confident in these specific sources and in the stories these reporters told." https://t.co/OqWfJcIQIt pic.twitter.com/FZYeUZZ1Qm  Anderson Cooper 360 (@AC360) January 19, 2019

Cooper asked Smith if he knew the sources from the story, and he said, Yes, of course I know.

Weve been reporting on the Trump Tower Moscow, which is at the heart of the Russia investigation, for months, Smith explained. We really urge the special counsel to make it clear what hes disputing.

He added that it would be the responsible thing for the counsel to clarify.

After BuzzFeed published its article two Democratic committee chairmen in the House, Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler, said that they would be opening investigations into the allegations of the presidents criminal behavior.281 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

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By Alexandra Valencia and Jose Llangari

QUITO (Reuters)  U.S. officials spoke with officials from Ecuadors British embassy on Friday about an alleged meeting there between President Donald Trumps former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, an Ecuadorean government source said.

The Guardian newspaper reported the meeting in November, alleging the two met at least three times, including in 2016, just before WikiLeaks released damaging emails about Trumps rival in the 2016 presidential elections, Hillary Clinton.

Manafort and Assange have both previously denied meeting each other at the embassy.

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WikiLeaks, in a statement on Friday entitled the U.S. interrogation of Ecuadorian diplomats, accused Ecuadors government of assisting the United States in prosecuting Assange, who first sought asylum in the embassy in 2012.

The source said the embassy officials, at the request of the U.S. Justice Department, provided testimony in Quito at facilities provided by Ecuadorean authorities.

Ecuadors Foreign Ministry declined to comment and the U.S. embassy in Quito did not respond to a request for comment.

Manafort is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to conspiracy against the United States and agreeing to cooperate with U.S. Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections and possible collusion with Trumps campaign.

Part of Muellers probe has involved looking into whether Trump associates may have had advance notice before WikiLeaks published emails stolen by Russian hackers from Democratic computer networks to damage Clinton.

WikiLeaks called the Guardians story indisputably fabricated and said it was being used as a pretext for the United States to prosecute Assange. The Guardian has defended the article and said it relied on a number of sources.

A lawyer for Assange in Ecuador, Carlos Poveda, said he had not received any notification of the interviews with the embassy officials.

Assanges relationship with Ecuador has grown increasingly fraught and President Lenin Moreno has said he does not like his presence in the embassy. Ecuadors new regime has done a 180 turn in relation to protecting Mr Assange, WikiLeaks said in the statement published on Twitter.

Assange initially took asylum at the embassy in London to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation. That investigation was dropped.

Assange denied the Swedish allegations saying the charge was a ploy that would eventually take him to the United States where prosecutors are preparing to pursue a criminal case against him.

(Writing by Angus Berwick; Editing by Brian Ellsworth and Daniel Wallis)1.8k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

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Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that there is enough evidence that Donald Trump Jr. lied to Congress for the presidents son to face criminal charges.

Sen. Blumenthal said on MSNBCs The Beat with Ari Melber, I think there is enough evidence here of potential perjury from Donald Trump Jr. To call him back to our committee, to consider criminal charges against him, and to follow the evidence and the law as to investigating him. I think there is potentially an even stronger case to be made against him right now.

Blumenthal later added, If he lied if he committed perjury before our committee, and I was in the room when he said to us, I was only peripherally aware. That statement but also other statements, for example, his denying that he talked to the president about the trump tower meeting before or after it occurred. His saying that he was only peripherally aware about the Moscow Trump Tower project but also his denial of talking to the president about it, his father. I think there is a lot here, a lot of smoke and there may well be fire.

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Sen. Richard Blumenthal says there is enough evidence to consider criminally charging Donald Trump Jr. https://t.co/w8LZgMOdog pic.twitter.com/RZT3eFiUqk  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) January 19, 2019

After the Buzzfeed report revealed that Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, along with their father were receiving extensive briefings from Michael Cohen about the Moscow Trump Tower project, it is clear that the presidents son lied to the Senate. It has also become increasingly obvious that the Trump strategy was to comprehensively lie to Congress about all Russia scandal matters.

The Trumps never considered what would happen to their lies if Democrats took back all or part of Congress.

Donald Trump is afraid that Mueller is going to indict his son.

Trump Jr. probably will be charged, and the fallout from this event should set up a presidential downward spiral like this country has never seen before.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook.3.5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

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Nicolle Wallace explained that Trump collusion is really about Trump and his family being bought, paid for, and owned by the Russians.

Wallace said on her MSNBC show Deadline: White House, Donald Trump never thought he would win. So he didnt release  didnt pull the curtain back. He wasnt a normal candidate. Even he thought it was impossible to win. He did not write a victory he did not think he would win. He didnt do any of the normal I remember Mitt Romney calling him to release his taxes, a normal pressure point, the last nominee from your own party saying its what everyone does, but never did any of those things, one, hes Donald Trump. Two, he never thought he was going to win so the collusion wasnt so much about political ambition, it was about being bought and paid for and owned by the Russians.

Video:

Nicolle Wallace on the Trump collusion, The wasnt so much about political ambition, it was about being bought and paid for and owned by the Russians. https://t.co/TddGQQBo6c pic.twitter.com/sZZ0XdeLwC  PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) January 18, 2019

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From the Russian perspective, collusion was about installing their owned candidate who could weaken the US, destabilize the West, carry out their foreign policy dreams, and lift the crippling sanctions. As Nicolle Wallace said, Trump keep his Russian cash pipeline a secret and keep the cash flowing in the future.

The Russia scandal isnt the usual case of candidate cheating because they wanted to win. Trump was conspiring with a hostile foreign government for financial gain. Trump sold out his country to Russia for money. The stars aligned properly and the conspiracy just effective enough for Trump to slide into the White House, but the spotlight that comes with winning is what is leading to Trumps undoing.

The investigations, criminal charges, and prison sentences all came about because Trumps candidacy called attention to his criminal activities.

Never has a US president been purchased and owned by a foreign country.

The collusion was about hiding Trumps status as a Russian asset.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook.Support local journalism

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No, never ask againThe Petoskey News-Review

PETOSKEY  Through a century of tending to the local business communitys needs, the Petoskey Regional Chamber of Commerce has seen some noticeable changes  for example, in the types of technology used around its office.

In preparing for the organizations centennial observances this year, though, staff members historical research has turned up some recurring themes through the past 100 years.

The issues relevant to a business success and growth have always been our job to deal with, said chamber events and communications manager Nikki Devitt.

The chamber has kept binders of meeting minutes from many of its early years in storage. In reviewing sources such as these, chamber president Carlin Smith said staff found that the chamber became involved in advocacy for serviceable roads not long after its 1919 founding. Roads were a key concern for the local business community in a time when automobile use was growing rapidly, and their improvement and upkeep has remained a perennial topic in Michigan political discourse.

As is still the case, tourism was seen as an important driver for local business in the chambers early years, and another focus of the groups advocacy and outreach at that time. At one point, Smith noted that local voters approved a public funding initiative which helped promote Petoskey to potential visitors in far-flung locales. A separate organization, the Petoskey Area Visitors Bureau, has since taken on the lead role in the areas tourism marketing efforts, but the chamber remains a popular information resource for visitors to the area.

During the past decade or so, business operators and others around Petoskey have cited a tight supply of affordable housing as a key local concern, with the chamber among the organizations exploring strategies to address this. Devitt said this issue also has surfaced in the past, as when the chamber got involved in 1940s efforts to seek solutions to a shortage of workforce-appropriate housing.

The chambers founders firmed up its organizational structure at a gathering in May 1919. Historical research indicated that fully 150 men were in attendance at the event, Smith noted. Bylaws were approved, officers  including the first president, George W. McCabe  were selected and more than $5,000 in funding commitments were secured. Records show the chambers membership count reached 187 in its first year.

Early on, the chamber operated from an office on Howard Street in downtown Petoskey. Executive secretary J. Frank Quinn was the first to handle day-to-day management needs.

The chamber has operated from its current office at 401 E. Mitchell St., at the edge of Pennsylvania Park, since the 1960s. Governed by a 15-member board of directors, the organization employs a staff of five. In recent years, membership has tended to hover in the 780-800 range.

Advocacy on business-related issues remains among the chambers key services. The Petoskey organization is among multiple Northern Michigan chambers of commerce which established an alliance for this purpose in recent years, with alliance staff advocating to state policymakers for the regions business concerns. Other chamber initiatives of the 21st century include Leadership Little Traverse, a program training interested individuals for community leadership roles, and Thriving Petoskey, which encourages businesses to embrace an operating philosophy known as conscious capitalism.

Networking and promotional opportunities are among the biggest draws which help the chamber bring in members, Smith noted. Resources offered along these lines include Business After Hours networking events, the Connecting Women in Business group, promotional publications, guest speaker events, ribbon-cuttings at new businesses and more.

The chamber has a variety of plans in mind for marking its 100th anniversary this year, including tie-ins at Business After Hours, a commemorative newspaper insert, a luncheon for past board chairpersons and a centennial ball in November.

Devitt noted that staff are on the lookout for chamber and local business memorabilia to weave into the celebrations, and encouraged those who have such items to contact the organization.

For more information about the chamber, see petoskeychamber.com or call (231) 347-4150.By Max Boot

Traditional Republican presidents such as Calvin Coolidge, Dwight D. Eisenhower and George H.W. Bush were not very exciting, but they were very responsible. They wanted to manage the government effectively and to live within our means. Those days are long gone. The GOP has metamorphosed from the preternaturally mature Father Knows Best party to the perpetually juvenile Van Wilder party. It wants to live it up, moon the grown-ups and dodge the consequences.

The transformation began during the Reagan administration. That was when supply-side economics (what Bush called voodoo economics) and unremitting hostility toward government (the problem, Ronald Reagan called it, not the solution to our problem) became the regnant party orthodoxy.

Eschewing the staid, green-eye-shade accounting of Republicans past, the supply-siders argued that cuts in marginal income tax rates could pay for themselves. It did not, of course, happen. The Reagan tax cuts, which slashed the top rate from 70 percent to 28 percent, caused the deficit to nearly double, from $79 billion in 1981 to $153 billion in 1989. The fiscal situation would have been even worse if Reagan, who was far more responsible than his most fervent followers, had not signed tax increases in 1982, 1983 and 1984 that clawed back about half of the 1981 tax cut.

The deficit spending of the Reagan years was at least justified because it boosted the economy out of a deep recession and helped the armed forces recover from their post-Vietnam nadir. But the political success of Reagans tax cuts has mesmerized Republicans ever since, leading them to advocate steep tax cuts regardless of the circumstances.

In 2017, the Republican Congress passed, and Trump signed, a massive tax cut that delivered a sugar high to the economy that is already wearing off (2018 was the worst year for the stock market in a decade) while bequeathing debt that could take generations to pay off. As Bloomberg News notes: Total public debt outstanding has jumped . . . by $1.9 trillion since President Donald Trump took office, or roughly the size of Brazils gross domestic product.

The GOPs proclivity for using government shutdowns to force through its agenda is another example of its drunken frat-boy antics. The three longest government shutdowns in U.S. history were all caused by Republican temper tantrums.

In 1995-1996, Republicans led by House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) shut down the government for 21 days to force President Bill Clinton, who was committed to a balanced budget, to accept steeper cuts in domestic spending than he wanted. That was a public-relations debacle that contributed to Gingrichs downfall. In 2013, Sen. Ted Cruz (R.-Tex.) and his tea party allies forced a 17-day shutdown in a futile attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act. In both cases, Republicans were willing to halt the vital operations of the government and risk the creditworthiness of the United States to try to shove their ideological demands down the throat of a president who disagreed with them.

The current, partial shutdown  the longest on record at more than three weeks and counting  is even more reckless and ill-advised, having begun on Dec. 22 when Republicans still controlled both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. The border emergency used to justify the funding stoppage is a figment of the xenophobic imaginations of Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and Donald Trump. The number of apprehensions at the southern border declined 75 percent in the past two decades  from 1.6 million in 2000 to 397,000 last year. The number of undocumented immigrants in the United States is at a 15-year low. Immigrants, both legal and illegal, commit fewer crimes than the native-born. And there has never been a terrorist attack in the United States carried out by terrorists who entered the United States from Mexico.

There is, to be sure, a long-standing problem with undocumented immigrants and drugs entering the United States, but spending, as Trump proposes, $5.7 billion to build an extra 200 miles of wall along a 2,000-mile border will not solve anything. Most drugs and roughly half of all undocumented immigrantsarrive through legal ports of entry.

Trump has conjured an illusory solution to an imaginary crisis. But, having taken the country hostage, he and his Republican allies are inflicting real suffering on 800,000 federal workers and real danger on 325 million Americans. FBI agents, Transportation Security Administration officers, air traffic controllers and Coast Guard members are working without pay  or, as with a growing number of airport screeners, not working. Morale is plungingand financial worries rising among the men and women charged with keeping us safe.

A party that felt an iota of responsibility to the country would be alarmed by these developments and would reopen the government even if it meant overriding the presidents veto. But for the drunken frat-boy party, the damage inflicted by its ideological bender is no reason to sober up. Indeed, for the most antigovernment Republicans, the shutdown is a feature, not a bug, because it is shrinking, at least for a few weeks, the size of the government. The Republicans of yesteryear would send todays Republicans to their rooms without any supper.

Max Boot is a columnist for The Washington Post. His work appears frequently on PennLive Opinion.By Michael Gerson

Those who want to understand how Democrats manage to scare the hell out of vast sections of the country need look no further than the story of Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and the Knights of Columbus.

In considering the confirmation of Brian Buescher to a federal judgeship last month, Harris and Hirono submitted written questions that raised alarms about his membership in an all-male society comprised primarily of Catholic men. Were you aware, Harris asked, that the Knights of Columbus opposed a womans right to choose when you joined the organization? And: Have you ever, in any way, assisted with or contributed to advocacy against womens reproductive rights? And: Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed marriage equality when you joined the organization?

For those who know the Knights of Columbus, this is a bit like accusing your Aunt Harriets knitting circle of being a Mexican drug cartel. In most of the country, the Knights of Columbus is a respected fraternal organization consisting of men who hand out coats to needy children, promote devotion to the Virgin Mary, support crisis pregnancy shelters and protest doggedly each year in the March for Life.

Hirono regards the traditional moral views of the Knights as extreme positions. The difficulty with this line of reasoning is that they are exactly the same positions of the Catholic Church itself. So why wouldnt a judges membership in the Catholic Church  with its all-male clergy, opposition to abortion and belief in traditional marriage  be problematic as well?

The difficulty with a reductio ad absurdum comes when people no longer find it absurdum. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has made the argument bluntly. In raising concerns in 2017 about appeals court nominee Amy Coney Barretts Catholic faith, Feinstein said, When you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you.

So is it fair to say that Harris, Hirono and Feinstein would want judicial nominees to quit religious organizations that hold extreme positions or recuse themselves from all matters of morality that the senators regard as tainted by religious dogma? That sounds like an exaggeration. But here is a question that Hirono asked both Buescher and Paul Matey, another appeals court nominee: If confirmed, will you recuse yourself from all cases in which the Knights of Columbus has taken a position?

This is not just a liberal excess; it is a liberal argument. Religious liberty, in this view, reaches to the limits of your cranium. You can believe any retrograde thing you want. But you cant act on that belief in the public square. And you cant be a member of organizations that hold backward views and still be trusted with government jobs upholding the secular, liberal political order.

The comparison of this view to the United States long history of anti-Catholic bigotry has been disputed. Actually, it is exactly the same as this history in every important respect. A 19th-century bigot would have regarded Catholicism as fundamentally illiberal  a backward faith characterized by clerical despotism  and thus inconsistent with Americas democratic rules. The same attitude seems currently present in the U.S. Senate.

And there is a strange twist to this argument in American evangelicalism. Evangelical Christians have largely gotten over their anti-Catholic bias. But many believe that Islam is fundamentally illiberal  a backward faith characterized by clerical despotism  and thus inconsistent with the United States democratic rules. Little do they realize that an evangelical institution in Massachusetts is increasingly viewed like an Islamic institution in Mississippi. With suspicion.

The answer to all of this is a great American value called pluralism. The views and values of Americans are shaped in a variety of institutions, religious and nonreligious. No one is disqualified from self-government by a religious test. So people who are members of the Knights of Columbus and members of the American Civil Liberties Union can participate on an equal footing.

There are limits, of course. Membership in a terrorist group or the Ku Klux Klan is disqualifying, because they are motivated by hate and seek the violent subjugation of their neighbors. But if liberal Democrats want to compare the Catholic Church to a hate group, good luck with that. They will offend the last religious traditionalists they havent already and alienate a good many others besides.

Michael Gerson is a columnist for The Washington Post. His work appears frequently on PennLive Opinion.When Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and a group of state officials appeared for a Friday news conference, their focus was on delivering a single message.

That message was that an upcoming winter storm, which is expected to dump snow, ice and rain across the state this weekend, will result in poor road condition.

This storm has the potential to deliver every winter weather option that Mother Nature has, Wolf said. If you do not have to travel, please, please dont.

The news conference was hosted in the hours after Wolf called a state of emergency as forecasters predict that up to a foot of snow could fall in parts of the state. Ice and extremely cold temperatures also have been predicted.

At the conference, Wolf said that state of emergency will allow Pennsylvania to more easily receive assistance from neighboring states and from the National Guard, while also suspending bidding rules that could hamper quickly needed spending decisions to deal with the winter storm.

It is import to note that the declaration does not ... restrict citizens from travel on the commonwealth roadways, Wolf said.

However, it does reduce speed limits to 45 mph on interstates and expressways. It also bans commercial vehicles from traveling interstate highways and the Pennsylvania Turnpike between noon Saturday and noon Sunday. That ban excludes Interstate 95 in southeastern Pennsylvania.

PennDOT Secretary Leslie Richards said that is because southeastern Pennsylvania is the only portion of the state not predicted to receive severe weather during the storm.

The ban includes both tractor-trailers and buses, and commercial drivers who defy the ban could face fines as high as $300, a state police official said.

The ban will also be imposed on the U.S. 22 expressway in Lehigh Valley, as well as the state Route 33 expressway in Northampton and Monroe counties, according to the earlier state-of-emergency announcement.

The storm is to begin dumping snow and ice on central Pennsylvania Saturday afternoon into Sunday, forecasters said. That accumulation is to be followed by a period of extreme cold heading into Monday.

Richards stressed that some parts of the state could receive up to 2 inches per hour at the height of the storm.

Travel will be very challenging this weekend, she said, repeating Wolfs message that motorists should avoid driving unless absolutely necessary.

Richards and the other officials denied that the Friday press conference and prior planning were the result of criticism received about their handling of Novembers Winter Storm Avery.

In the lead up to the upcoming storm, officials at the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency have been in contact with emergency leaders in each of the states counties, said Randy Padfield, PEMAs acting director.

Padfield said those conversation, in addition to internal communications, has allowed emergency management leaders to refine plans and assess impacts and consequences.

This is a very severe storm. It has a lot of potential and it has a lot of different variable associated with it, he said.

Wolf offered a similar warning.

We dont know exactly whats going to happen, he said. "This storm really has the potential to pack a wallop and to do some bad things for drivers in Pennsylvania.Update: State police have announced that Michael Nealon, 73, has been found and is safe.

YORK COUNTY: Missing Endangered Person Advisory UPDATE. Nealon has been located and is safe. The MEPA is canceled. Thanks to all who RTed.  PA State Police (@PAStatePolice) January 19, 2019

State police in York County are looking for a 73-year-old man, who is considered missing and endangered.

Police said Michael Nealon, 73, is missing and was last seen in Stewartstown.

Nealon was described by police as 5 feet, 10 inches tall and 170 pounds, with gray hair and brown eyes.

He was last seen wearing a black vest, blue jeans and brown boots, police said, adding that he was driving a black 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee, possibly with an Illinois registration.

Police said anyone who sees Nealon should call 911.In the hours before an upcoming winter storm is expected to dump large amounts of snow and ice on Pennsylvania, state officials have issued a warning, urging motorists to keep emergency kits stocked and ready in their vehicles.

As part of their message, those officials included a list of items that should be kept in the emergency kits. Those items are listed below:

non-perishable food

water

first-aid supplies

warm clothes

a blanket

a cell phone charger

a small snow shovel

Officials also encouraged motorists to evaluate their individual needs and to adjust their kits appropriately.

Motorists should tailor their kits to any specific needs that they or their families have, such as baby supplies, extra medication and pet supplies, officials said.

The storm is to begin dumping snow and ice on central Pennsylvania Saturday afternoon into Sunday, forecasters said. That accumulation is to be followed by a period of extreme cold heading into Monday.

On Friday, state officials, including Gov. Tom Wolf, hosted a news conference, and Randy Padfield, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agencys acting director, called the upcoming weather a very severe storm.

And Wolf encouraged motorists to avoid travel unless absolutely necessary.

This storm has the potential to deliver every winter weather option that Mother Nature has, Wolf said. If you do not have to travel, please, please dont.Just like careful homeowners, the operators of Harrisburgs homes of last resort are making careful preparations for this weeks forecasted combination punch of snow, ice, wind and bitter cold.

But it does appear Harrisburg has met the most basic definition of what it means to have a working safety net: Having some kind of safe, warm bed for everyone who needs it as the winter weather intensifies.

Thats not to say everyone will want it: Earlier this winter, it was clear that there were still a small knot of homeless who, for a variety of reasons, are resistant to the idea of following someone elses rules and making a go of it in outdoor encampments.

But the safe havens are open and theyre ready to go.

The main overnight shelter for homeless men in the city at Downtown Daily Bread, a program of the Pine Street Presbyterian Church at 234 South St. It offers a day shelter space for clients to stay out of the elements from 8 a.m to 4 p.m., a free lunch line, and, by night, 40 cots for single men with no other space to stay.

Director of Development Susan Cann said the the shelter has been serving slightly more than 30 clients so far this week, but is prepared to operate at capacity as the weather worsens.

Harrisburg also has a trusty safety valve when the worst weather hits, in the Bethesda Mission at 611 Reily Street.

Bethesda - a known commodity to Harrisburgs poor because of its 365-day-a-year evening meal service for all-comers - took itself out of the overnight shelter business a few years ago to concentrate on its longer-term programs aimed at helping clients find long-term self-suffiency.

But, when the temperature drops below 20 degrees, or theres a bad storm, CEO Scott Dunwoody said, a green flag goes out and thats a sign that any male whos on the street with no other options can come in, with no expectations of a longer commitment.

We put mattresses on the floor of the chapel. We put mattresses through the rest of the building, and they are allowed to stay in the house throughout that whole cold period, Dunwoody said, adding that as a practical matter, Bethesda can take in at least 60 overnight guests.

Generally, homeless women and women with children are more likely to be in a longer-term program from the start, or they will have more options to couch-surf with families and friends, the experts say. But there is a small, emergency overnight shelter for women, too, and it operates out of the YWCA Greater Harrisburg, at 1101 Market St.

We do about an additional 10 beds (beyond longer-term shelter for domestic violence victims and other women) for women just to come in off the street, said Mary Quinn, the Ys chief executive officer.

Like the other shelters, overnight guests typically are awakened and asked to be out the door early the next day. Its not some kind of tough love. Its literally because groups like the YW need their space for their daily programming.

Thats where breakfast at the Salvation Army and Downtown Daily Breads day shelter - where guests can take life skills classes but also store possessions in lockers, arrange to receive mail, recharge electronics, shower, and get laundry tokens - come in, in the citys multi-layered approach.

But if Winter Storm Harper deals the wind chills forecasters are projecting, Quinn noted, the departure rules can be adjusted.

All the citys overnight shelters typically open for the evening at 7:30 (DDB) or 8 p.m. (Bethesda, the YWCA, and a third, smaller shelter for men at Susquehanna Harbor Safe Haven, 1805 N. 12th St.

As for the resisters, those who simply cant stand the thought of sleeping in a mass shelter either because of social anxieties, substance abuse issues, worry about religious expectations, an aversion to forced wake-up times or whatever other reason, there is one last potential source of comfort and encouragement when all the day shelters and soup kitchens have closed.

Bethesda Mission still makes the rounds on Friday and Saturday nights through the Harrisburg area, checking on on the homeless and offering a warm drink; snacks; hats, gloves, blankets; and finally, some simply encouragement, Dunwoody said.

We know the chronic homeless people on the street very, very well," Dunwoody noted, adding his crews have plenty of supplies to provide to anybody on stays on the street. The Mobile Mission, staffed by volunteers who are scheduled weeks in advance, is only able to run on Fridays and Saturdays.

There are other smaller, faith-based programs that also supplement these larger programs with meals, street checks and other services.

But the bottom line is that in Harrisburg, with what is considered to be the regions largest homeless population, anyone who wants to be inside during the winter, can be inside.The final round of expected snowfall totals are in from the National Weather Service, and theyre showing a slight dip from what was predicted earlier Friday.

According to snow total predictions issued at 10:33 p.m., Harrisburg and Carlisle are down to an expected eight inches of snow, Lebanon at seven inches, and areas like York and Lancaster seeing between two and three inches.

Northern central Pennsylvania wont be so lucky, and areas like Renovo, State College and Williamsport could see more 15 inches of snow or more.

Governor Tom Wolf declared a state of emergency on Friday. Speed limits on interstates and expressways will be reduced Saturday afternoon to 45 mph. He asked Pennsylvanias to not travel unless they had to.

The National Weather Service has much of central Pennsylvania under a winter storm warning, including Somerset, Bedford, Fulton, Franklin, Perry, Dauphin, Schuylkill, Lebanon and Cumberland Counties.

The warning is in effect from 1 p.m. Saturday to 1 p.m. Sunday, and the final update was issued at 9:56 p.m. Friday.

While the snow totals is a large concern for many, ice is also expected to accumulate during the course of the storm. Up to two tenths of an inch of ice is expected in the counties under the warning, though some may see less.

The NWS says snow will develop Saturday afternoon, and could become heavy at times by evening. It will change to mixed precipitation at night, and could taper off by early Sunday morning.

The forecast for the Harrisburg region shows an accumulation of three to five inches of snow during the day Saturday, with another three to five inches possible at night.

Sunday, rain, sleet and possibly freezing rain could fall before 7 a.m., with some freezing rain and sleet possible between then and 10 a.m.

Following the storm, temperatures will drop drastically, with the Sunday night low around 3 degrees, with winds averaging 13 to 16 mph and gusts as high as 33 mph.

Monday, the temperature high is only expected to hit 15 degrees, falling to 3 degrees again at night.A memorial service has been announced for Karen Coates, chief of staff to Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny County, who died this past Thursday after a brief illness at the age of 55.

The service will be held at 11 a.m. Jan. 23 at the Forum auditorium, 500 Walnut St., Harrisburg.

Doors open at 10 a.m. and there will be a visitation after the services.

A luncheon reception will be held following the service at 1 p.m. at The Harrisburg Hilton, One North Second St., Harrisburg.

House Members and Senators planning to attend are encouraged to RSVP via email to acandori@pabmc.net so organizers are able designate a reserved section for elected officials. House staff can attend without submitting leave time.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to The Karen S. Coates Memorial Scholarship Fund, created in her honor to benefit women interested in a career in law and government. The address is: c/o Caleigh Romano, 3206 Doris Court, Phoenixville, PA 19460.

Coates has been hailed by Republicans and Democrats alike for the service she provided to lawmakers and impact she had in steering the law-making process over the past 12 years.The demolition of the former Patriot-News building continues in a process that started in October.

The project is taking place over the course of a few months as crews wrap up asbestos abatement and tear down the building at 812 Market St., Harrisburg.

The sidewalk is blocked off with caution tape, and as crews work toward the front of the building, traffic is periodically stopped as debris rains down inside the fenced-in demolition area.

The building is now owned by the Public School Employees Retirement System, which was conducting a study of what should go in its place.

It was purchased first by a New York commercial real estate company, Twenty Lake Holdings in June 2017 for $644,286. L & B Realty Advisers LLP, a Dallas-based real estate investment advisor, then purchased the building from Twenty Lake Holdings for $1.6 million on Dec. 20, 2017, according to Dauphin County records.PennDOT has announced that the ban on commercial vehicles on some interstates has been partially lifted as a result of a reduction in the approaching storms severity.

Gov. Tom Wolf announced the ban Friday after he signed a state of emergency in anticipation of the storm. That ban went into effect at noon Saturday.

At 2:30 p.m., the ban will be lifted from I-83, I-81 south of I-83, I-283, I-180, and the Turnpike from the New Jersey state line to the Carlisle exit, according to a news release from PennDOT. Due to a reduction in anticipated storm severity in the southeast and south-central regions, the ban is in effect on all interstates except Interstate 95, I-676, I-476, I-76, and I-276 in southeastern Pennsylvania. The ban is also in effect on the U.S. 22 expressway in the Lehigh Valley and the Pennsylvania Route 33 expressway in Northampton and Monroe counties.

A 45-mph speed restriction is in place on I-80 from the Ohio State line to I-99, as well as I-376 in Mercer and Lawrence counties.A bridal retailer with numerous stores in Pennsylvania announced on Friday that it has completed its financial restructuring and emerged from chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Davids Bridal which had filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 19 says it has emerged with a substantially stronger balance sheet and is poised for long-term growth.

David's Bridal which is based in the Conshohocken area in Montgomery County has 13 stores in Pennsylvania, according to its website including a store in the Paxon Towne Center in Lower Paxton Township, and another store in Springettsbury Township, York County. The company has been around for more than 60 years and has more than 300 stores. The companys didnt close any stores during the restructuring process, and its prior lenders are now owners of Davids Bridal.

"I am excited to announce that we have successfully emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy on an accelerated timeline thanks to the tireless efforts of our team and our new owners' confidence in the future of our company," said Scott Key, chief executive officer of David's Bridal.

In 2017, another bridal chain wasnt as lucky. Alfred Angelo Bridal filed for bankruptcy that year and immediately closed all of its stores.At Vitos Italian Ristorante in Lower Allen Township, house wine has a new meaning.

Owner Vito Serradella makes his own wine; a line of seven varieties from a dry Montepulciano to pinot grigio and a sweeter strawberry.

Vito and his wife, Giusy introduced the wines in December after acquiring a limited winery license from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board.

People are loving it. They drink a cup and take a bottle home, Vito said.

Vitos is one of the only restaurants in the Harrisburg area making and selling its own wine. Changes to the states liquor laws in 2016 allow holders of limited winery licenses to sell Pennsylvania beers and distilled spirits, something the Serradellas now offer.

The couple opened the casual full-service restaurant in 2017, serving traditional pizza shop fare punctuated with specials such as swordfish and steaks. They arrived in central Pennsylvania from Europe where Vito worked at restaurants in Germany, France and Scotland.

Growing up in Palermo, Italy, Vito recalls his grandfather and father making homemade wine.

Vitos wine is made with a minimum amount of sulfur and no sugar, colors or preservatives. The Serradellas buy grapes from California and source blueberries and strawberries from New Jersey.

They ferment the wine in 1,000-liter stainless steel tank at the restaurant. They also have been making wine since October at their other property, Wood Fire Italian Oven in York County.

Its unique. Its something you dont find at the liquor store or at another pizza shop, Vito said.

Vitos wine sells for $7 a glass and $25 a bottle (except for the Montepulciano which is $30 per bottle.)

Vitos Italian Ristorante, 1150 Lowther Road, Lower Allen Township, 717-737-4040.A new Apple patent application that was filed in the Kingdom of Denmark was discovered by Patently Apple earlier today that covers possible future functions and features related to HomePod. One such feature is a quad-speaker setup for a home theater experience. Considering that Apple is entering the streaming content business in the not-too-distant future, this is a real possibility of coming to market in sync with their new service.

Another feature involves in-home messaging for HomePods scattered throughout the home. Apple describes a new "presence" feature to detect who is in which room to ensure the message goes to the right person. This super advanced AI will either be seen by Apple fans as crazy cool or an off-the-wall tool for Big Brother. It's fascinating to know that such technology is even in the works.

In the end, it's clear by this patent application that Apple has a grander vision for HomePod that goes way beyond its humble start as a single smart speaker. There's even some interesting software Apple is working on to enhance the HomePod experience.

Quad HomePod Home Theater Experience

Apple's patent FIGS 10L and 29A below are pretty straight forward. Apple intends to introduce a 4-HomePod setup in the future that could tie into Apple TV to provide a home theater experience for their upcoming video streaming service. Users will be able to control the audio from an iDevice.

In-Home Messaging + Advanced Presence Detection

In the future, HomePod will be a part of a smart home setup where HomePod becomes and in home intercom system that will provide some really awesome or eerie capabilities depending on your perspective.

As an example, a mom wants to notify her child that supper is ready using Siri on HomePod. Siri, according to Apple, will be able to determine a physical position of a user in order to deliver output of audible notifications as appropriate.

More specifically, Apple notes that determining the presence of a particular person in a particular room, The HomePod will be able to detect breathing patterns of a particular user, their footstep patterns, motions sensors or a camera.

Dinner Party HomePod Feature

When having a dinner party with friends, HomePod will be able to detect your friend's iPhones, be able to check their favorite tunes and create a custom playlist that could be played during the party. Different friends with different music tastes could create quite an interesting music evening for all. Everyone likes to hear their favorite music and this future HomePod feature just might be a big hit at parties.



Apple TV HomePod Hub

Apple's Home App will have a HomePod hub section allowing custom setup throughout the home, patio, garage and so forth.

HomePod Audio Customization

It appears that once Apple introduces a quad HomePod setup, users will also be given more control over audio customization. There's no doubt that quad HomePod systems will be used in a wide variety of rooms in a home or office and giving the user maximum flexibility to customize the audio will appreciated by audiophiles and movie watchers.

Apple's patent was filed in The Kingdom of Denmark in Q2 2017 and published in Europe on January 16, 2019. Thirteen Apple engineers were listed on this invention including Aimee Piercy (Senior UX Designer); Pedro Mari (Sr. Code Artist designer, Human Interface; and more. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.As more and more parents travel overseas to find a surrogate, a new study published in Human Fertility is the first to compare the experiences of those who carry out surrogacy in the UK with those who go abroad. The research highlights important problems faced by parents, which could influence UK surrogacy law.

A new study is the first to compare the experiences of people who have carried out surrogacy in the UK with those who go overseas, for example, to countries such as USA, India and Georgia. The research, led by Dr Vasanti Jadva at the Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge, in collaboration with NGA Law and Brilliant Beginnings, surveyed over 200 people who had either already had a child through a surrogate, were in the process, or were planning a surrogacy arrangement.

Almost half (42%) of parents who chose to find a surrogate in the UK did so to foster a closer relationship with the surrogate, while almost all (97%) of those opting to go to the US did so to access a better legal framework, which includes being recognised as the legal parents of the child from birth. In addition, although the laws surrounding surrogacy vary by state in the US, many states allow commercial surrogacy and it is generally easier to find a surrogate than it is in the UK.

Although the US offers a more secure legal framework, it comes with a hefty price tag, and the study found that going to the US simply wasn't affordable for many parents who considered it.

Those who found a surrogate in other, more affordable countries - such as India, Thailand or Ukraine - experienced greater delays and difficulties in obtaining the necessary legal documents on their return to the UK. One couple returning from India reported a delay of 6 months in getting a passport for their child.

The UK has a notoriously challenging legal landscape for those seeking surrogacy arrangements. Profit-making surrogacy agencies are illegal in the UK and surrogacy arrangements are not legally enforceable, which means the surrogate remains the legal mother of the child until a Parental Order is made, often many months after the birth.

Estimates suggest that the number of children being born through surrogacy in the UK has tripled in the past few years. But until now, very little has been known about why people go to these countries or their experiences of the process.

The findings of this new study highlight the stress and anxiety that parents can face when travelling abroad for surrogacy, particularly in trying to obtain legal parenthood when back in the UK, but also caused by the lack of legal security in the UK.

"UK surrogacy law is outdated and struggling to cope with the strain of modern surrogacy experience both in the UK and globally," said co-author Natalie Gamble.

The Law Commission (the independent body responsible for reviewing the law in England and Wales) has started a project to substantively review surrogacy law. As lead author and Senior Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, Dr Vasanti Jadva, added: "We hope our findings will feed into the Law Commission's review of surrogacy law as they highlight how people's experiences can differ depending on the country in which they conduct their surrogacy arrangement. "

As reform of UK surrogacy law is considered, the authors recommend that future iterations are clearer, more secure, and designed to reduce delays in recognizing parents as the legal guardians of the child.BLOOMINGTON  Strong winds and fluffy snow made a dangerous combination Saturday as Central Illinois endured its second snowstorm in a week. The forecast for Sunday goes from bad to worse, with plummeting temperatures and the possibility of a bit more snow.

The snow started out as the issue, and then once the wind got in here, thats now the main threat, said Scott Baker, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Lincoln.

About 3 inches of snow fell on Bloomington-Normal, with winds blowing up to 30 mph. Knox County received more than 5 inches from a storm that stretched diagonally from Iowa to Indiana.

In Central Illinois, cars slid off roads and several semitrailer trucks jackknifed. Illinois State Police said state Route 10 west of Lincoln was nearly impassable Saturday afternoon.

"Multiple cars have been abandoned in the middle of State Route 10," the state advisory said. "IDOT plows have been unable to open the road up. Please seek alternate routes of travel instead of Illinois Route 10 west of Lincoln."

In Funks Grove Township, plows were idled until the winds died down. A posting on the township Facebook page said Route 136 was impassable and other roads couldn't be kept open.

The Mount Hope-Funks Grove Fire Protection District asked anyone with snowmobiles if they could help respond to emergencies until roads were reopened. The district also put out a plea for help to uncover fire hydrants buried by snow.

McLean County remained under a collision alert, with motorists advised to delay reporting non-injury accidents. Illinois State University and Heartland Community College both closed, and a number of events were canceled.

Chris Gardner of Normal said her family spent the day cooking, cleaning and occasionally sledding after their flights to New York City and Arizona were canceled. "Boo winter," she wrote on Twitter.

Some people ventured into the cold to find something warm. Manager Amanda Dambacher of Panera, 1401 S. Veterans Parkway, Bloomington, said business didnt pick up until after lunch but as streets became more clear, customers came calling for basically anything hot.

Ironically, Dairy Queen, 1528 E. College Ave., Normal, did sell a few Blizzard treats, but traffic was significantly lower than usual, said store manager Mary Calfas.

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Private plow drivers cleared commercial lots and residential driveways as quickly as they could. White-out conditions were reported throughout the region but none in the Twin Cities, according to the National Weather Service.

The wind kept enough snow in the air that people with plows, snowblowers and shovels had to go over the same areas multiple times to keep paths clear.

Scott Bowles, owner of Scotts Exterior Maintenance, Bloomington, said it seemed everyone was more prepared for this storm.

All in all, everythings cleaning up rather well, Bowles said. Its pretty fluffy snow so, normally, a big drift, theyre hard to push because they're rather heavy, but since its so fluffy, it hasnt been too bad.

Outside of the Twin Cities, road crews fought drifting on north-south roads, according to a Facebook post by the McLean County Sheriff's Department. All roads, especially secondary roads, remain treacherous. Sheriffs deputies and Illinois State Police troopers have responded to dozens of motorist assists and minor vehicle incidents throughout the day."

Several highways were closed temporarily after semi trucks jackknifed. In Bloomington and Normal, police said there werent very many accidents, but some drivers had slid off the road into ditches and medians.

Both cities issued parking bans to keep vehicles off streets while plowing crews worked to remove snow. Normal police said the number of cars parked on streets outnumbered the number of accidents reported; those vehicles were ticketed.

Temperatures never rose above freezing. Coupled with dangerous road conditions and snowed-in driveways, most people stayed indoors as #StayHomeSaturday cropped up on social media once again.

Light snow is anticipated midweek and possibly again next Saturday, Baker said.

Photos: Snow returns for a second round in Bloomington-Normal 

Contact Kelsey Watznauer at (309) 820-3254. Follow her on Twitter: @kwatznauer.

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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.BLOOMINGTON  Programs that provide food and rent aid to low-income Central Illinois residents continue amid the partial federal government shutdown but could be in jeopardy if it continues into March.

SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits, Section 8 housing vouchers and WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children) are among federally funded programs that continue.

But, if the shutdown drags on for several more weeks, those programs and others could be in peril.

February SNAP benefits (formerly food stamps) are being loaded onto LINK cards by Sunday "and some already may have it," Meghan Powers, spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Human Services, told The Pantagraph on Friday.

Because benefits typically are issued at the beginning of the month, Powers wants to assure SNAP recipients the benefits they are receiving are for February.

"We're hearing that some people think they need to use their SNAP benefits before February," Powers said. "But these are meant to last through the end of February. Once they're on your card, you can use them in the upcoming months."

"We also want people to know that the February benefits are coming early but they are not extra benefits, so they need to budget accordingly," Powers said.

SNAP is a federal program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and distributed through DHS in Illinois.

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With February SNAP benefits coming early, supermarkets are preparing for an increase in shoppers during the next week.

"We are working diligently to provide the best possible customer service to all of our customers and keep them informed during the recent adjustment in the SNAP schedule," said Eric Halvorson, manager of corporate affairs for Kroger's central division, which includes Illinois, Indiana and eastern Missouri.

Also continuing is WIC, which provides federal grants to states for food and nutrition education for low-income pregnant and postpartum women and to children to age 5.

"We want families to know that ... WIC at the McLean County Health Department is still open, and it is business as usual," said Lisa Slater, public health communications specialist.

McLean County public housing officials have been assured by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that federal Section 8 vouchers and other public housing payments to assist low-income tenants with rent payments are intact through February.

"We received subsidy payments at the beginning of January as we normally would for both of our public housing programs and the housing choice voucher programs," said Bloomington Housing Authority Executive Director Jeremy Hayes. "According to HUD, those monthly payments are scheduled to be paid on time for February as well. ... We have heard reports that March payments are questionable."

Regarding school meals, Illinois State Board of Education has received funding through March, said Jackie Matthews, ISBE director of media and external communications.

"Historically, we have received our third-quarter allotment in early April each year and that is the allotment that is in doubt at this moment due to the federal government shutdown," Matthews said.

Matt Burgess, chief operating officer for Home Sweet Home Ministries, and Angie Bubon, development director for The Salvation Army of McLean County, said their food pantries aren't experiencing an increase in demand yet but they are monitoring the situation.

"If this (shutdown) goes on for a long time with no SNAP payments for a while, then we will see increased demand on food pantries and food co-ops that aren't tied to government payments," Burgess said. "We aren't seeing that yet."

Contact Paul Swiech at (309) 820-3275. Follow him on Twitter: @pg_swiech Maria Nagle, Kelsey Watznauer and Derek Beigh contributed to this report.

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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  Maggie Kreuzer said she's "the perfect age" to illustrate the value of the HPV vaccine, now approved for women and men ages 27 to 45.

"I'm in that age gap that didn't receive the vaccine as a child," Kreuzer, 32, of Shirley, said of the human papillomavirus vaccine that reduces the risk of cervical cancer in women and several other cancers in women and men.

But people like Kreuzer, who were that age before the recommendation, never got vaccinated.

That's why the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in October approved the vaccine for women and men ages 27 to 45.

And that's why Kreuzer got vaccinated by nurse Geri Miller at Obstetrics and Gynecology Care Associates in Bloomington earlier this week and why several Central Illinois health care professionals applaud the expansion.

"I would absolutely recommend it without hesitation," said Jean-Marie Tyner, nurse practitioner with Advocate Medical Group in Lexington.

"This is a great tool to limit the risk of cancers in men and women," said Dr. Richard Ginnetti, medical director for primary care for OSF HealthCare's Eastern Region.

"This protects against the (nine) most common strains of HPV," said Kreuzer, also a medical assistant at the obstetrics and gynecology practice. "HPV causes cancer and that's why we care so much."

"This is a cancer-prevention vaccine," added Carol Carlton, Macon County Health Department director of clinical nursing services. "This is very valuable for males and females."

HPV, which is spread by sexual contact, is the most common sexually transmitted virus, causing 14 million new infections a year in people ages 15 through 59, with about half of those among people ages 15 to 24, said Dr. Joe Santiago of Obstetrics and Gynecology Care Associates.

"There are many different strains of the virus," Tyner said.

Most people with HPV have no symptoms. But HPV causes 13,000 cases of cervical cancer in women in the United States each year, according to the American Cancer Society, as well as vaginal, vulva, anal, penile and throat cancers and genital warts. The vaccine reduces the risk.

"Most people think only women need it, but men and women need it because HPV causes cancer in men and women," Kreuzer said. "There has been a decrease in cervical cancer and in pre-cancerous cells in women who have received the vaccine."

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"Since the introduction of the vaccine, I have seen a dramatic decrease in high-grade (cervical cancer screening) Pap smears, which tend to progress to cancer, and in genital warts" and in procedures needed to treat those conditions, Santiago said. "It's really impressive."

Because HPV is spread by sexual contact, some parents are reluctant to have their 11- and 12-year-olds vaccinated before they are sexually active.

"But the earlier you get vaccinated, the more it can prevent cancer," Kreuzer said.

"It (getting vaccinated) does not promote promiscuity," Santiago said.

"The (medical) literature shows there is no evidence of that," added Tyner. "The vaccine doesn't have any morality attached to it. It's cancer prevention."

When some people aren't vaccinated as children, they don't get vaccinated as adults, even after they become sexually active. But the vaccine offers protection even after sexual activity begins because adults may be exposed to strains of HPV that they weren't exposed to when they were younger, medical professionals agree.

That's why FDA has approved the vaccine for 27-to-45-year-olds.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is expected to follow suit in February and expand its recommendation for people ages 9 through 45. After the ACIP acts, health insurers should begin to cover the vaccine for 27- to-45-year-olds, said medical professionals.

Most insurers already cover it to age 26.

Insurance coverage is important because the vaccine, which is a three-shot series over six months for people 15 and older and a two-shot series for youth ages 9 to 14 over six to 12 months, costs $200 to $300 per dose.

"Working in an OB/GYN office, I see patients with pre-cancerous cells and cervical cancer on a daily basis," Kreuzer said.

"It's devastating to give women that news," Santiago said.

"This is an effective vaccine to prevent that," Kreuzer said. "I was excited they expanded the age range so I could be protected."

"Eighty-eight percent (of eligible youth) get the first dose," Carlton said. "Thirty-two percent of eligible female patients and 27 percent of eligible male patients complete the recommended series.

"We're working on strategies to increase that," Carlton said. "But they do get some protection with one shot."

Tyner said, "If time lapses, you don't need to start the series all over again. You just need to get the last one and you can finish it at any time."

Medical professionals recommended that women and men ask their doctors about the vaccine for themselves and their children. For patients ages 27 to 45, some medical professionals are taking names of interested patients and will call them back when insurers cover the vaccine.

"We have a vaccine that reduces our risk for cancer," Tyner said. "Why would you not line up for that?"

Contact Paul Swiech at (309) 820-3275. Follow him on Twitter: @pg_swiech

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.NORMAL  Normal police on Friday released a photo of the man suspected of robbing a Freedom Oil gas station at gunpoint Thursday night near Illinois State University.

It was the 10th armed robbery reported in the Twin Cities in a little more than a month. While police are seeking a suspect they dubbed the "Business Bandit" in connection with most of those, they are not connecting this robbery with the others at this point.

"We're not considering that one related to our other ones," said John Fermon, Bloomington Police Department public affairs officer, adding that this suspect appears to be taller than the "Business Bandit."

Police were called about 9:30 p.m. to the business at 601 S. Main St. A man entered the gas station, displayed a black handgun and fled north with an undisclosed amount of money, police said.

The clerk was shaken up but not injured, police said.

The suspect was described as an adult African-American man, wearing a dark winter coat with a hooded jacket under it with the hood up, blue jeans and gray gloves. He may have a thin build, but the clothing made it hard to tell, police said.

Video footage shows the suspect partially covered his face with a scarf while he was in the store.

Police said he was 18 to 30 years old and 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall.

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Illinois State University police issued an emergency alert Thursday night asking people to remain alert and use caution.

The robbery came a day after police said one individual may be responsible for at least seven of nine recent armed robberies at Twin City businesses since Dec. 14.

Police say the Business Bandit is a black male, 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 8 inches tall with a medium build. In several of the incidents, the suspect has been seen wearing a black hooded jacket with button or snap pockets on the front sides of the coat.

In a statement released Wednesday, police encouraged all businesses to check their video surveillance systems to ensure they are operational and are capturing clear video of the interior and exterior of their businesses. Businesses also should make sure their exterior windows are not covered by posters or flyers.

Before Thursday's incident, the most recent robbery occurred at 5:27 p.m. Sunday at Rosati's Pizza, 203 N. Prospect Road, Bloomington.

In that incident, the male suspect entered the store and demanded money from an employee while wielding a knife, police said. The suspect took an undisclosed amount of cash and left on foot.

Photos: 2018-19 McLean County jail mugshots

Contact Roger Miller at (309) 820-3233. Follow him on Twitter: @pg_rmiller Contact Kelsey Watznauer at (309) 820-3254. Follow her on Twitter: @kwatznauer

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.BLOOMINGTON  In a ceremony marked by laughter and tears, Scott Kording was sworn in Friday as the newest associate judge for the 11th Judicial Circuit.

Tom McClure, director of legal studies at Illinois State University, noted in his introduction of Kording that the newest judge has a reputation for legal expertise and attention to detail that extends to proper grammar.

"Courtoom 3A just became a dangling-participle-free zone," McClure told the courtroom packed with spectators.

In an emotional speech, Kording thanked his wife, Melanie, his parents, Lois and Don Kording, and his friends and colleagues for their support.

Kording credited his mother with "the gift of encouragement" and his father with "the gift of service."

"I will work the whole rest of my life at it and still only become half the man he is," Kording said of his father.

Kording also recognized Valerie Bolte, his longtime paralegal, saying, "Today I'm getting all the credit for her work."

Attorneys who have been on the opposing side of the courtroom or presided over Kording's cases laughed in acknowledgement at Kording's admission that his super power as lawyer may have been "annoying everybody" in his attention to detail and relentless advocacy for his clients.

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Among Kording's most recent clients was Matt Everly, who was cleared of child abuse charges, and John Butler, whose felony charges involving alleged financial mismanagement of the city-owned arena are pending.

Chief Judge Mark A. Fellheimer noted that Friday's ceremony was his fifth since August as a wave of retirements brought changes to the judiciary.

Kording is one of three new associate judges and two circuit judges to be named within the past year as four retirements and the election of one judge to the appellate court resulted in significant turnover to the roster of 21 judges serving the circuit that covers Ford, Livingston, Logan, McLean and Woodford counties.

Former McLean County States Attorney Jason Chambers was appointed to replace retiring Judge Robert Freitag, and Logan County States Attorney Jonathan Wright was recently sworn in to replace Judge Thomas Harris, elected in November to the 4th District Appellate Court in Springfield.

The retirements in December of Associate Judges David Butler and Lee Ann Hill resulted in the appointments of Scott J. Black and Kording. Black previously worked in the Illinois Attorney Generals Office.

Pontiac attorney Sarah Duffy was named last year to take William Yoders spot as an associate judge after he was appointed to replace retiring Chief Judge Kevin Fitzgerald. Fellheimer succeeded Fitzgerald as chief judge.

Associate judges are paid $188,000 a year and circuit judges earn $198,000.

Photos: Scott Kording becomes a judge

Contact Edith Brady-Lunny at (309) 820-3276. Follow her on Twitter: @pg_blunny

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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.SPRINGFIELD  Three new agency directors and another deputy governor have been named by new Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Pritzker appointed Sol Flores as a deputy governor. Flores is founder of La Casa Norte in Chicago, a nonprofit organization that has helped 30,000 youth and families confronting homelessness. The organization also provides assistance to single parents, domestic violence victims and abandoned youth. Flores, who was recognized by former President Barack Obama, also serves on the boards of the Latino Policy Forum, Chicago Low Income Housing Trust Fund, Community Renewal Society, Hispanic Housing Development corporation and Kuumba Lynx.

Flores will join Dan Hynes, Christian Mitchell and Jesse Ruiz as deputy governors in the Pritzker administration.

Pritzker named John Kim, a 25-year veteran of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, to head the department. He is currently chief legal counsel for the agency, but has also served as director, interim director, ethics officer and project manager for an IEPA-China pollution prevention project.

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Kim, who has a law degree from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, has also been general counsel at the Department of Agriculture and an assistant attorney general.

A member of the city of Chicago's Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame has been appointed director of the Department of Human Rights. Jim Bennett has served as Midwest regional director of Lambda Legal, the largest legal organization dedicated to securing full civil rights for the LGBTQ community. In 2013 he chaired Illinois Unites for Marriage, the coalition that worked to bring same-sex marriage to Illinois.

Bennett holds a master's degree from the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Pritzker named Michael Kleinik to serve as director of the Department of Labor. Kleinik is currently executive director of the Medical Cannabis Alliance of Illinois. He previously was executive director of the Chicago Laborers' District Council's labor management cooperation committee. Kleinik also served two terms as Fayette County sheriff.

Kim, Bennett and Kleinik must all receive Senate approval.

Pritzker has now filled 12 of the 27 agency director positions.

Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0District 3 council member Vickey Chivers, president of the Concerned Citizens Action Group for Anderson County is chairman of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Parade and Program committee this year. The parade kicks of Monday at 10 a.m.The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriff's Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by managing editor Tony Lascari.

Wednesday, Jan. 16

10:27 p.m. - A Mount Haley Township woman, 54, reported someone stole her temporary disability parking placard from her unlocked vehicle. There is a $10 replacement fee.

9:41 p.m. - A deputy responded to a car-deer crash at East Chippewa River and South 5 Mile roads.

9:38 p.m. - Horses were loose in Warren Township, but the 49-year-old owner retrieved them without incident.

8:51 p.m. - A 65-year old woman and 55-year old man in Hope Township had a disagreement about trees near a property line.

6:10 p.m. - Police responded to a domestic assault in the 100 block of East Chapel Lane.

4:46 p.m. - Police responded to a fraud complaint in the 5100 block of Huntington Drive.

4:11 p.m. - Officers responded to an animal complaint in the 7000 block of Eastman Avenue.

3:35 p.m. - Police responded to a parking violation in the 3900 block of Todd Street.

2:27 p.m. - Animal Control responded to MidMichigan Medical Center-Midland after a Midland resident was bitten by their own dog. An isolation notice was issued.

2:13 p.m. - A deputy assisted the Coleman Fire Department at the scene of a workshop fire at a Warren Township residence.

12:36 p.m. - Police responded to a crash with property damage at Haley and Indian streets.

12:14 p.m. - Officers responded to a fraud complaint in the 400 block of East Main Street.

12:16 p.m. - Officers responded to a domestic violence complain in the 4800 block of East Patrick Road.

11:02 a.m. - A citation was issued for a one-vehicle personal injury crash in Mount Haley Township.

10:26 a.m. - Police responded to a hit and run crash at the Wackerly Street offramp to U.S. 10.

8:54 a.m. - Police responded to a crash with property damage at Cambridge and Vail streets.

7:11 a.m. - Deputies responded to a business alarm in Lincoln Township and found the building was secure.

3:40 a.m. - Police made a warrant arrest at East Patrick and Swede roads.

12:15 a.m. - A deputy found a vehicle in a ditch with no damage and a wrecker responded and pulled the vehicle out.State Rep. Josh Elliott, one of the legislatures chief proponents of legalization, predicted votes would switch based on the precise details in the bill. For example, some legislators want legalized pot to be limited only to those 21 and over, but others want that boosted to age 25. Some favor allowing home-grown marijuana, but others question the idea because the state would not receive any tax revenue.Hundreds of animals in need in Midland County are given another chance of a happier, healthier life through the Humane Society of Midland County animal foster program.

Animal fostering is a short-term alternative to adopting, where volunteers can provide animals with a temporary home to help acclimate the animals to a home environment.

"Fostering is difficult sometimes, but if people give it a chance, they'll realize it is so gratifying," said Diane Winkler, Humane Society of Midland County volunteer and foster coordinator.

Winkler began working at the Humane Society in 2013, and has fostered more than 40 animals, keeping track by posting pictures of each animal on one of her walls.

Fostering also serves to improve the health of younger animals, as newborn cats and dogs have not yet developed a strong enough immune system to handle the shelter environment, Winkler said. Though the staff regularly cleans and keeps the environment sanitary, the volume and variety of animals that pass through the shelter, with their own variety of potential health issues, can be dangerous for younger animals.

Fostering is also an good option for people who are unsure if they want to own an animal, Winkler said, though the Humane Society discourages people from fostering if they are just looking for a short-term adoption.

For cats that are old enough to thrive on their own, though not big enough to safely go through surgery, the foster-to-adopt program allows volunteers to adopt animals on a foster-like basis -- effectively fostering the animals until they can be spayed or neutered. The volunteer can then adopt the animal.

At any given time, the Humane Society has 350-450 volunteers active within the database, Winkler said. Of that number, about 200 volunteers log hours each month.

The shelter currently houses about 35 animals -- about 20 cats and 15 dogs -- which is much lower than its yearly average, though typical of the winter season. During the spring and summer months, the shelter houses about 100 animals at any given time.

"Kitten season" usually starts toward the end of February, Winkler said, and peaks during the spring and summer.

"The less seasonable climates -- like Florida, Texas and California -- they see kitten season all year round," Winkler said. "We're lucky that we get a bit of a break in the winter, so it's our time to regroup, rejoin the forces, and get prepared for springtime to come again."

In 2018, more than 300 animals were cycled through the Humane Society's foster program, including 33 adult dogs, 67 puppies, 25 adult cats and 185 kittens. There were about 20 active foster homes in the Midland area last year, Winkler said, with 25 homes currently active.

One of the most active fosters in the community is Nikki Rayce, president-elect of the Humane Society of Midland County board. With each litter of puppies taken into Rayce's care, she creates a Facebook page where families that take each dog can connect and trade advice and concerns. Rayce also maintains a presence in the group to offer members support and resources.

The Humane Society also provides services to low-income pet-owners, like The Pet Pantry, which provides supplemental food to feed pets one month at a time. Programs like Rhoda's Fund and Papa's Pups -- named after two volunteers who passed away from cancer -- offset veterinary costs of getting pets spayed or neutered for individuals in low-income households, including senior citizens on fixed incomes and people going through other financial hardships.

"You don't have to be rich to be a pet owner -- you to have the heart and you have to be willing to work for your animals," Winkler said. "The thought that animal ownership is only for the rich is silly, because an animal doesn't care how much money you have as long as you can provide proper care for it."Chapel Lane Presbyterian Church will honor the Rev. Dr. Rhonda M. Myers on Sunday, Jan. 27, after the 10:30 a.m. worship service.

Myers has served the church as pastor for the past 7 1/2 years. She and her husband, the Rev. David Myers, are leaving Midland for new assignments in the Springfield, New Jersey, area.Deon Jackson, district senior associate superintendent for operations and administration, speaks to a group of residents during the Jan. 17 meeting.WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is preparing to make a new offer to Democrats that could end the record-breaking government shutdown in a rare Saturday address from the White House, while stopping short of declaring a national emergency on the southern border.

With the shutdown in its 29th day, Trump was expected to propose items he believes Democrats favor as part of a broader border-security package, according to two people familiar with White House planning. The hope is the proposal would revive negotiations with congressional Democrats, which have been nonexistent for days.

Although the president has threatened for more than a week to declare a national emergency, such a drastic step was unlikely to occur in Saturday's address.

The individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations, stressed late Friday that the planning remained very fluid and that nothing is firm until Trump makes his announcement.

Trump is scheduled to speak at 1 p.m. Pacific time.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Saturday morning that he will make an "important statement" that afternoon and continued to point to a new caravan of Central American migrants crossing into Mexico from Guatemala that was the subject of segments this week on "Fox & Friends" as one reason for the wall.

"Everybody knows that walls work. You look at different places, they put up a wall, no problems," Trump said.

Aides to the top Democrats in Congress - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. - said late Friday that they had received no new offer from the White House.

The ongoing shutdown of some 25 percent of the federal government was triggered by Trump's demands for $5.7 billion to build more than 200 miles of new wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Pelosi calls the wall "immoral," and Democrats are refusing to offer more than $1.3 billion to extend existing funding levels for border barriers and fences. Democrats also frequently point out that Trump long claimed Mexico would pay for the wall.

Absent negotiations, the impasse has devolved into bickering between Trump and Pelosi, offering little comfort to the 800,000 federal workers who have gone without pay since Dec. 22 and have been forced to rely on food banks or other jobs.

The fight escalated on Saturday, with Trump telling reporters he hopes Pelosi can "come along and realize . . . that walls work." Trump was asked if the shutdown had become too personal between himself and Pelosi.

"It's not personal for me," he said. "She's being controlled by the radical left, which is a problem."

A spokesman for Pelosi did not immediately return a response for comment.

A proxy battle - a political clash like few others - emerged over the past week between the leaders of two of the nation's three branches of government as they leveraged the powers of their offices against one another, all the while trying to shape public sentiment.

Pelosi suggested this past week that Trump reschedule his Jan. 29 State of the Union address on Capitol Hill due to security concerns stemming from the nearly month-long partial government shutdown. He retaliated with a last-minute cancellation of her trip with other House members to Afghanistan using a military aircraft.

On Friday Pelosi accused Trump of putting herself and fellow lawmakers in danger by publicizing their plans to travel to Afghanistan, forcing them to abandon the trip. Pelosi said the State Department had determined that the trip, even using commercial aircraft, could no longer be made without endangering the safety of lawmakers, as well as of troops and support personnel due to the president's actions.

"You never give advance notice of going into a battle area - you just never do it," Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol. "Perhaps the president's inexperience didn't have him understand that protocol. The people around him, though, should have known that, because that's very dangerous."

The White House has forcefully denied Pelosi's claims.

Meanwhile, the furloughed workers and those forced to work without pay will soon miss another paycheck unless the shutdown is somehow resolved, a fact that White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Friday made it imperative for Pelosi to stay in the country this weekend.

"That's one of the key reasons that the president did not want Speaker Pelosi to leave the country, is because if she did it would all but guarantee the fact that negotiations couldn't take place over the weekend," Sanders told reporters at the White House.

But Pelosi's spokesman, Drew Hammill, said the White House had not sought to schedule negotiations with the speaker for this weekend.

The impacts from the shutdown have spiraled in various directions despite efforts by the administration to limit them by calling workers at agencies including the IRS and State Department back to work, in most cases without pay.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams on Friday said the shutdown had created "head winds" to economic growth, and a key measurement of consumer confidence - released by the University of Michigan - has fallen to its lowest level of Trump's presidency.

The administration moved forward Friday with a broader crackdown on congressional travel: Acting White House Budget Director Russell Vought said in a memo, "Under no circumstances during a government shutdown will any government owned, rented, leased, or chartered aircraft support any congressional delegation, without the express written approval of the White House Chief of Staff."

The White House and Democrats are in agreement on the need for border security generally and even on some specifics of what that would entail - just not on the wall.

Next week the House will take up another batch of spending bills aimed at reopening the government without funding the wall that will include some spending directed to the border. One bill will include $563 million for immigration judges, the same figure Trump has requested; another will include $524 million to expand facilities at ports of entry along the border.

-- The Washington PostMore than 600,000 Oregonians who rely on the U.S. Department of Agricultures food stamps program received their February benefits early this week. Meanwhile, allocations for March remain in limbo as negotiations in Washington, D.C., continue to end a partial shutdown of the federal government, which enters its fifth week Sunday.

The USDA ordered the release of next months food stamp benefits two weeks early, the Oregon Food Bank said in a news release. Food stamp credits are typically delivered to recipients between the first and ninth of each month.

Food stamp recipients should expect the allocation to last them until at least March, although the food bank said new applicants will still receive benefits through February.

The federal food stamp program, called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, serves more than 350,000 households in Oregon. The program disburses approximately $750 million per month in the state, an average of $200 per household.

Nationwide, the Agriculture Department provides some $4.8 billion to fund the program for the month, the Associated Press reports.

About 89,000 Oregonians enrolled in the supplemental nutrition program for Women, Infants and Children  known as WIC  will keep their benefits through March, a spokesperson for the Oregon Health Authority told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

President Donald Trump and Democrats on Capitol Hill remain at an impasse over a resolution to re-open agencies shuttered since Dec. 22. Some 800,000 federal workers are working without pay or have been furloughed due to the shutdown.

Food pantries have popped up across the country to aid affected employees, some of whom work for agencies like the Transportation Security Administration and even the FBI.

In Oregon, Coast Guard service members havent been paid since December.

Trump is expected to offer a compromise to end the shutdown at 1 p.m. The deal reportedly includes protection for some 800,000 immigrants brought to the U.S. by their parents, known as Dreamers, in exchange for $5.7 billion to fund a wall on the southern border.

The Oregon Food Bank maintains a list of food pantries and other local and state-supported services on its website.An investigation continues to determine what killed two people found dead in a Grants Pass motel room on Wednesday, authorities said.

The Grants Pass Department of Public Safety on Friday identified the two people as 31-year-old Christopher R. Hotch and 37-year-old Monica J. Snow. Both are from Grants Pass.

Workers at a Motel 6 along Northeast Seventh Street discovered Hotch and Snow a little before 1 p.m. Its not clear how long the two were in the room before being found.

The medical examiners office hadnt confirmed the cause of deaths for Hotch and Snow as of Friday, said Lt. Todd Moran, a police spokesman. He said he wasnt sure when it would be determined and noted that investigators suspect both died from drug overdoses.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 |@EvertonBailey

Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.There are a lot of great things about living in Oregon. Sky-gazing in the middle of January is not one of them.

As the rest of the world prepares for whats been dubbed the super blood wolf moon, designated as such due to its intense red coloration and because it comes at a time when wolves would howl at night out of hunger, Oregonians will instead stare up at the sky to be greeted by  what else?  clouds.

According to the National Weather Service, folks can anticipate overcast conditions across the state Sunday night.

Its an issue Oregon sky gazers are all too familiar with. Clouds can intrude on celestial events in even the best of times, as visitors to the coast during 2017s total solar eclipse can attest. That event happened in late August, when much of the state sees clear skies.

Cities like Salem, Madras and McMinnville got an unfettered view of the phenomenon, which isnt scheduled to visit the continental U.S. again until 2024.

That wont be the case for the blood wolf moon anywhere in Oregon.

In Portland, OMSI even cancelled its watch party due to the forecast. But those who are insistent on watching the show do have one option: they can catch the eclipse on several livestreams via YouTube.

Its better than nothing, right?Fridays plea by Kakra Gyambibi may be the beginning of the the final chapter of a lengthy story in Connecticut  which began in 2015 when state Comptroller Kevin Lembo reported a nearly 3,000-percent increase in costs to the state taxpayer-funded prescription plan that his office runs for state government employees, retirees and their families. Those costs rose from $800,000 in 2012 to $24 million in 2015 when the plan was flooded with prescriptions for compound medicines that are mixtures of medications, typically creams for pain and skin conditions such as scarring, which are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Meanwhile, the compounded drugs became a national issue, as other state and federal drug programs such as TRICARE were allegedly victimized.By Alan Abitbol, University of Dayton

(THE CONVERSATION) Gillette has launched a new marketing campaign, "The Best Men Can Be," with an ad that has gone viral.

The ad begins by depicting boys bullying other boys, women being harassed and cat-called, and a group of men excusing all of it as "boys will be boys." Gillette then asks if this is "the best a man can get." The rest of the ad portrays men pushing back against other men's bad behavior.

It's been polarizing, to say the least.

On one side, the campaign is being praised for tackling masculine stereotypes and challenging men to be better.

On the other side, some are saying that Gillette risks turning off customers who think the brand is shamelessly capitalizing on the #MeToo movement and practicing "leftist" politics. There are already calls for the brand to be boycotted.

So why has this ad caused such a large divide?

In my research on companies' use of pro-social messages, backlash usually arises due to some combination of the cause itself, a poor fit between the brand and the cause, and suspicion of the company's true motives.

An authentic pairing matters

Companies have backed various social issues for decades. Marriott, for example, organized fundraisers for the March of Dimes, a nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies, in the 1970s.

Today, customers expect companies to stand for something. According to a 2018 Edelman Earned Brand report, nearly two-thirds of consumers believe companies should take a stand on social or political issues.

However, studies have shown that, in order for the corporate activism to be warmly received, the cause usually needs to be connected to the company's product line or brand in some way.

This can happen when a company and its supported cause share similar values, such as Disney's partnership with Make-a-Wish for its "Share Your Ears" campaign. Both organizations strive to bring joy to children. Or it can happen when a company backs a cause that's aligned with its brand - think Nike's "Find Your Greatness" campaign, which works to curtail teenage obesity through fitness.

If the pairing doesn't appear authentic, consumers might wonder if the company is just trying to make a profit versus truly championing the cause. For example, the public questioned Pepsi's attempt to address racial tensions with its 2017 Kendall Jenner ad, in part because the pairing seemed so disingenuous: What does a can of Pepsi have to do with racial issues and police brutality?

Its not the message or the cause - its the delivery

The issue with the Gillette ad is not that it is supporting a cause, or even that Gillette is supporting the particular cause of toxic masculinity.

In fact, Gillette is not the only male-centric brand to have recently challenged masculine stereotypes. Just for Men launched its "Better Man" campaign in October 2018, which encourages men to be more compassionate and caring. In 2014, Dove Men+Care launched its "Care Makes a Man Stronger" campaign to explore the different ways men define masculinity.

Gillette, however, takes a more aggressive approach.

The ad immediately sets the tone with a heated issue, beginning with a slew of stories about the #MeToo movement. It goes on to discuss a host of problems - bullying, harassment, sexism - tied to toxic masculinity. About halfway through, Gillette calls for men to abandon dated models of masculinity and fight against the stereotype. It ends by galvanizing an entire generation with the powerful line "because the boys watching today will be the men of tomorrow."

While the ad and its message are poignant, its delivery is off: It compels an entire consumer base to back the #MeToo movement and to positively associate its brand with that cause.

But people don't like to be told what to do; for this same reason, ads rarely insist outright that people buy their product. Instead, they'll show how a product can be a part of people's lives, and might even improve them.

So why, a viewer might ask, would a company feel emboldened enough to imply that its customer base needs to do more on behalf of a particular cause?

It should be noted that Gillette seems to be genuinely supporting the cause. The company is donating US$1 million to nonprofits who support positive forms of masculinity.

But viewers might be questioning the company's motives because the ad doesn't directly tie the cause to what the brand is known for: shaving and grooming.

Should that matter? Surprisingly, it does.

In a study I conducted about how consumers perceive messages of female empowerment, showcasing the product - and tying the product to the message - seemed to resonate best.

For example, a Dodge campaign showing women using Ram trucks to do various activities, from working on a ranch to picking up kids from school, was well-received. But aVerizon commercial telling girls to embrace science didn't resonate as well, because the only clue that it was an ad for Verizon was a Verizon logo at the end.

Gillette is taking a stand, as many companies are doing.

They simply didnt properly execute the message.

-- Alan Abitbol, University of Dayton

The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.By Michael C. Blumm and Mary Christina Wood

One simple truth emerges from mounting climate disasters: Our economy and personal security hinge on a stable climate system.

The inferno that reduced Paradise, Calif., to ashes should leave no doubt as to the consequences of governments failure to control carbon pollution. Yet a recent Oregon Court of Appeals decision reinforces the position of our state attorney general that government has no duty towards its citizens to safeguard our climate system.

The latest scientific evidence, published this month in the journal Science, shows that the worlds ocean temperatures are increasing at rates once thought improbable by scientists. These increases  40 percent higher than predicted in 2014 by the United Nations climate panel -- coincide with a die-off of one-fifth of the worlds coral in the last three years. The ocean, which has absorbed 93 percent of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases, is in failure mode.

The result is that we will see dangerous temperature spikes and climate calamities  coming rapidly and relentlessly. We have scant time to change course. United Nations leaders call for pushing down the carbon emissions curve by 2020 to avoid thresholds that will trigger runaway climate change. After remaining nearly flat for three years, global emissions hit an all-time high in 2018.

In light of President Trump and Congressional Republicans outright disregard of climate reality, pending court cases represent a last resort. Actions brought on behalf of youth in both federal and state court allege that government is violating their right to live in a healthy and stable climate system. An appeal to the Ninth Circuit has delayed trial in the federal case.

Last week, the youths case in state court, Chernaik v. Oregon, was rejected by the appeals court in an unreflective opinion by Judge Rex Armstrong. Giving judicial approval to government inaction, the opinion stated that while the state has a public trust obligation to protect submerged lands, it owes the public no duty to provide a safe atmosphere.

The decision upheld the position staked by Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum that the state owes no fiduciary obligation to its citizens to protect their crucial natural resources. This scours all duty out of the public trust -- for without an enforceable obligation, there is simply no trust. Accordingly, Oregon may eschew a scientifically defensible climate plan, putting our state oddly in line with Trumps stance. The cap-and-trade program now before the legislature will not slash emissions sufficient to meet Oregons necessary share for limiting temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Twelve years have passed since Oregons state lawmakers first announced climate goals. Since then, legislators have watched the climate crisis steadily intensify while rejecting the comprehensive bills repeatedly offered by citizens. Their inaction has put us all in grave danger.

The youth will appeal the Chernaik decision to the Oregon Supreme Court. That court has a final opportunity to bring the law in step with climate reality before tipping points lock in a catastrophic climate future.

-- Michael C. Blumm is the Jeffrey Bain Faculty Scholar and a law professor at Lewis and Clark Law School. Mary Christina Wood is the Philip H. Knight Professor of Law at the University of Oregon School of Law.By MARC A. THIESSEN  The Washington Post

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has written President Trump to suggest that he postpone his State of the Union address, citing her security concerns over the ability of the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security to protect government officials during the shutdown.

With all due respect, that is fake news.

Pelosi isn't worried about security. She invited the president to deliver the State of the Union on Jan. 3, 13 days after the partial government shutdown began. She did not ask the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service before writing the president whether they had concerns about their ability to provide security. Indeed, Politico reports that a planning meeting with the Secret Service was scheduled for the day after Pelosi sent her letter, and subsequently canceled. If Pelosi had bothered to ask, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen would have told her exactly what she said Wednesday on Twitter: "The Department of Homeland Security and the US Secret Service are fully prepared to support and secure the State of the Union."

Pelosi is using her faux security concerns as a pretext to do something unprecedented and outrageous: deny a president of the United States the opportunity to come to Congress and deliver his State of the Union address. Never in the history of our Republic has the House speaker invited, and then disinvited, a sitting president from addressing a joint session of Congress. Yet all those who constantly decry Trump for shattering of presidential norms seem to be perfectly fine when Pelosi is doing the norm shattering -- and lying about why she is doing it.

To the contrary, some have praised this is as a power move on Pelosi's part. No, it's not. Pelosi understands full well the power of a State of the Union address. Trump's first two addresses of a joint session drew 48 million and 46 million television viewers, respectively (plus millions more online). She knows that, if anything, the drama of Trump addressing Congress in the midst of the shutdown would likely increase interest. Trump has now twice demonstrated that he can use the venue effectively. So, Pelosi wants to stop him from speaking from the rostrum of the House of Representatives directly to tens of millions of Americans and calling her out for her refusal to compromise.

If she follows through on this threat, it could backfire. Right now, Democrats are brimming with confidence because polls show that a majority of Americans blame Trump for the shutdown. But according to a recent Hill-HarrisX poll, 70 percent of Americans want both sides to compromise, including 61 percent of Republicans and 76 percent of Democrats. Right now, Trump is the only one talking compromise, while Democrats are demanding unilateral surrender. A few weeks ago, Trump sent Vice President Pence to Capitol Hill with an offer that cut his wall request from $5.7 billion to $2.5 billion. Pelosi said she would be willing to give him "one dollar." She probably thought it was funny. But to millions of voters, it came across as cocky and insensitive to the hundreds of thousands of federal workers affected by the shutdown.

Then, to add insult to injury, Democratic lawmakers took a junket to Puerto Rico on the very day that federal workers stop receiving their paychecks. They had time to sun themselves on the beach at an exclusive resort with more than 100 lobbyists and executives and hang out with the cast of "Hamilton," but they could not be bothered to accept Trump's invitation to meet with him at the White House on Tuesday to find a way out of the crisis.

And now Pelosi is threatening to cancel the State of the Union address -- a move that will be seen by many Americans as petty and vindictive. If Democrats continue with this cavalier attitude and refusal to negotiate, eventually public opinion will turn against them.

Trump should tell Pelosi that, while he appreciates her concerns, the Secret Service has assured him that they can handle security and that he plans to deliver his address in person, as scheduled. Let her withdraw the invitation. If she does, it will be a turning point in our nation's history -- a moment when the last vestiges of comity in Washington were destroyed. It may also be the moment when Americans finally realized that Pelosi cares more about hurting Trump than she does about finding a compromise solution and doing what is best for the country.

Follow Marc A. Thiessen on Twitter, @marcthiessen.

(c) 2019, The Washington Post Writers GroupBy Melissa Hart

While helping cook supper for 45 guests at the local homeless shelter on a freezing night in January, I thought of Iron Chef. You know the show: Two renowned chefs in kitchens on stage receive boxes of ingredients they must use to create a gourmet, multicourse meal. Right before the timer starts, theyre given a surprise ingredient on which to base their dinner. Salmon cheeks? Kohlrabi? Sea eels? No problem.

But in the shelters kitchen alongside the lead cook, I had to admit potential defeat. Our surprise ingredient turned out to be carrots. Enough for 10 carrot cakes -- if we had flour and baking powder. We examined a giant bag of brown-tipped lettuce, a cabbage, half-rotten pears, seemingly-impenetrable Red Delicious apples, a giant block of cheddar cheese and several pounds of limp broccoli.

Once a month, my grandmother used to excavate wilted vegetables from her refrigerator drawers and fry them in tempura batter. I ate them, because even an old shoe would be delicious tempura-fried with soy-ginger dipping sauce. But a new fire code in the shelters kitchen prohibited us from frying anything. Ditto sauteing and grilling.

As I got to work chopping a mountain of carrots, I knew we could do better by the people we were scheduled to serve that evening.

By the time perishables donated to a food bank make their way to a homeless shelter, theyre often suitable only for soup. Meanwhile, at the grocery store last month, I asked my favorite produce clerk if he had any carrot tops for my daughters rabbit. Check with the cashiers, he told me. And theres always the dumpster outside.

Then, he told me the markets dirty little secret, which Im sure is shared by most grocery stores across the country. I already knew it, of course. You know it, too: Supermarkets throw out pounds and pounds of perfectly good food every day.

More than half a million people in the United States are identified as homeless on any given night. Almost 2,000 live in my county, many of them children and veterans. Most who arrived at the shelter that night as we scrambled to concoct a decent dinner didnt care about gourmet food. They craved a hot meal. But they deserved better than what we had to give them. They deserved the fresh produce festooning the top of the dumpster outside my market.

Intrigued by the promise of free rabbit snacks, my daughter and husband had investigated the dumpster. They found a college kid eating hours-old pizza from a plastic bag. An older woman hauled out a sack of giant muffins. My kid came home with a mango, an eggplant and a tomato, each marred by a single nickel-sized bruise.

Organic? I asked.

Organic, she replied.

Perhaps youve heard Tristram Stuarts Ted Talk on how hes made it his lifes work to feed needy people with food that would otherwise go to waste. He founded a company that brews beer out of leftover bread, and he once fed 5,000 people in Trafalgar Square a meal of curry and smoothies from thrown-away vegetables.

Or maybe youve seen the late Anthony Bourdains 2017 documentary Wasted, about the 1.3 billion tons of food tossed away each year and the ways in which people rescue it to feed the hungry.

My produce clerk confessed that he takes vegetables out of the grocery stores garbage if supervisors allow it. He also looks the other way if people are scavenging. Its good food, he reasoned.

Im not above scavenging to help feed my citys neediest residents. But it turns out dumpster-divings a tricky business. Technically, its illegal. If someone gets hurt climbing in or out, they can sue the property owner. Some grocers balk at donating perishable food, lest they inadvertently spread E. coli or salmonella.

One supermarket chain in Oregon donates produce to a landscape materials company where its turned into compost. At the nursery, I buy bags of Love Food not Waste compost made from produce donated by local markets. But how much more effective would those discarded tomatoes and eggplant be as ratatouille served on a freezing winter night with fresh mango smoothies for dessert?

In the end, the shelters chef and I made a decent meal. We thickened carrot soup with pureed canned garbanzo beans and canned pumpkin. We sliced donated canned ham and tucked it between pieces of sandwich bread, topping it with shredded cheese. We made apple-pear sauce.

It was challenging to make something out of almost nothing, even fun. But how much more fun -- how much more gratifying and respectful of both servers and those being served -- to make something out of something.

Melissa Hart is the author of Better with Books: 500 Diverse Books to Ignite Empathy and Inspire Self-Acceptance in Tweens and Teens(Penguin/Random House, 2019). She lives in Eugene.Clark County has declared a public health emergency in the wake of a measles outbreak that has sickened at least 19 people, 18 of them children.

Clark County Council Chair Eileen Quiring declared the emergency Friday, the same day that the list of sites linked to the outbreak included a Jan. 11 Trail Blazers game at Portlands Moda Center attended by 19,000 people.

According to a news release by the county, the declaration allows the county to have access to additional resources outside the regional area.

Eighteen Clark County-area children and one adult have the preventable disease, public health officials have confirmed, and seven more are suspected of having it. Sixteen of the confirmed cases are in people who havent been vaccinated.

Measles is a highly contagious viral illness spread through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It was thought to be eradicated years after the vaccine hit the U.S. in 1963. Prior to the vaccine, 400 to 500 people would die every year, and 48,000 or more were hospitalized.

Clark County has one of the worst vaccination rates among all Washington counties, with just 77.4 percent of all public students having completed their vaccinations, according to state records.

Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.Portland police have made an arrest in the 2009 killing of assistant federal public defender Nancy Bergson, officials announced Saturday.

Homicide detectives arrested 28-year-old Christopher Alexander Williamson at a Tualatin address on Southwest Mohawk Street at 4:34 p.m. Friday. Williamson was booked into Multnomah County Inverness Jail at 10:41 p.m. on a single allegation of murder.

In 2012, cold case homicide detectives had found an unidentified persons DNA among the evidence from the Nov. 24, 2009, slaying, according to a Portland Police Bureau report obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive several years ago.

The 57-year-old lawyer known for her independent spirit and deep commitment to work was found lying face down in the dining room of her Southwest Portland home. A girl who had stopped by to walk Bergesons golden retriever saw her body through a front window and alerted a neighbor.

Patrol officers were called to the home at 4146 S.W. Hamilton St. about 3 p.m. Then a police forensic criminalist and a deputy medical examiner responded. The deputy medical examiner thought it was a natural death, so Bergesons body was removed from the house.

But an autopsy the next morning showed Bergeson had been strangled.

Homicide detectives were called to start a criminal investigation, about 16 hours after Bergesons body was discovered. At the time, a sergeant said the chain of events wasnt ideal because fibers, hairs or evidence could have been lost when Bergesons body was moved. Also, detectives prefer to examine a crime scene with the victims body present and sometimes have a victims hands placed in bags to preserve evidence.

Police have said there were signs that Bergeson fought back against her attacker.

At the time of Bergesons killing, Williamson also was living in Southwest Portland, in the 5200 block of Southwest Custer Street, according to court records. His father also lived at the time in the 5000 block of Southwest Miles St. Williamson would have been 19 at the time of the crime.

Investigators believe the attack wasnt random, and that Williamson may have had some connection to Bergeson, outside of her work. Police have not disclosed the suspected motive in the case.

"Even though it has been 9 years, Nancy continues to have a tremendous presence and positive influence in the lives of many people,'' her family said, in a statement released Saturday afternoon. "Her friends and family appreciate the tenacious work of law enforcement; for the first time in many years, we carry a hope that there will be answers and justice.''

In May 2012, the bureau's Cold Case Homicide Unit was asked to review and support the investigation of Bergeson's homicide.

Portland police have arrested Christopher Alexander Williamson, 28, on one count of murder in the 2009 killing of Nancy Bergeson at her home in Southwest Portland.

At that time, Detective Division Commander George Burke said investigators didnt know whether the DNA profile was from anyone involved in the homicide. As of 2015, there was no DNA match in crime databases, and the case remained a mystery.

The detective unit obtained grant money  $257,316 in 2008 and $280,453 in 2010  from the U.S. Department of Justice to use DNA technology to help identify suspects in unsolved homicides.

Evidence from Bergesons killing was among the evidence analyzed by the state police crime lab.

"Efforts are being made to obtain potential matching DNA evidence,'' the police bureaus 2012 grant progress report said. Homicide detective Michele Michaels has remained the lead investigator in the case.

The excerpt says the Portland Police Bureau's cold case homicide unit had obtained a DNA profile from the crime scene, and was working to identify a match to a named suspect.

Portland Police Bureau Homicide detectives worked tirelessly over the past nine years, investigating every lead, according to a bureau statement. This investigative work, in collaboration with the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, has led to today's arrest.

Williamson will be arraigned Tuesday. Don Rees, a Multnomah County chief deputy district attorney, is the assigned prosecutor. He declined to comment on the case.

Williamson doesnt appear to have had any criminal cases in Oregons federal court. He was arrested in 2015 on a domestic violence-related allegation, accused of punching his father, but the fourth-degree assault charge was thrown out after he completed a diversion program, court records show. He has 2011 convictions for third-degree assault and minor in possession of alcohol and a TriMet fare evasion citation from last year.

Williamson was living in Southwest Portland at the time of the homicide. He later had addresses in Southeast and Northeast Portland, according to court records. He told jail officials hes from Vancouver, Washington, where his mother lives. He attended school up until 10th grade, and his Facebook page indicated he had been a student at Portlands Wilson High School. He most recently has been living on disability benefits. He told court officials in 2015 that he suffered from bipolar disorder and depression and used marijuana regularly.

Williamsons mother, Penny Williamson, asked Saturday by phone if her son knew Bergeson, only said, "I dont know,'' and hung up.

For many years, prosecutors and defense lawyers wondered if Bergesons attacker was tied in any way to her last case. Bergeson had wrapped up her defense of a man in a tax evasion conspiracy case just four days earlier after a three-week trial. The day before her body was discovered, the man Bergeson was defending in federal court was found guilty of preparing fraudulent tax returns. Police examined her past cases and clients.

Bergeson, a native of Newport Beach, California, served 18 years with the federal public defenders office in Portland. She was described as bold and passionate in whatever she pursued -- whether it was her criminal defense work, love of animals, dragon boat races or friendships she cherished.

Oregon Federal Public Defender Lisa Hay said Portland police had kept her office informed, to the extent they could.

"We really appreciate their work in trying to solve this case,'' Hay said Saturday morning. "It doesnt erase the loss that the office feels.''

"We remember Nancy on our letterhead as an inspiration for us to keep doing the work we do,'' Hay added. "Obviously this is a hard moment for our office because the murder was so shocking and stole such a vibrant member of our community from us. But its a big moment for us to have this next step.''

Steven Wax, Oregons former federal public defender who was Bergesons boss and colleague, said hes been aware that Portland police and the district attorneys office have continued to investigate her killing.

Wax said he has no information that Williamson was ever a client or involved in any of Bergesons cases.

"I am pleased there has been a breakthrough that led to an arrest,'' Wax said Saturday. He said hes hopeful the arrest leads to a conviction.

The Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association created the Nancy Bergeson Ardent Advocate Lecture Series to honor a career-long public defender whose legal acumen was matched only by her uncanny ability to empathize with her clients," the group said. "She articulated her clients position to a jury or judge as if it was Nancy, herself, on trial for her life.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonianA middle-aged fisherman stands alone on the seashore at the turn of the 16th century, contemplating a letter hes just received. From that quiet opening springs a tempest of a tale, a heros journey to the afterlife that starts as a quest for a lost love and turns into an epic battle between good and evil that froths over with myths, metaphors and magic, not to mention sly humor, song and sex.

Portland author Stevan Allred recently discussed his novel The Alehouse at the End of the World (Forest Avenue Press, 334 pages, $17.95), which hell present at a Jan. 31 reading. Here are seven things to know about the book.

1. It came about almost accidentally. I was actually trying to write a 1,000-word flash fiction piece about a guy inside a fish, Allred said. When inspiration carried him further, he decided to commit to a fantasy novel, in the vein of his favorite books. I gave myself permission to be wild and crazy. I thought about all those books that I had loved and all the amazing places they had taken me and I thought, Can I write something that puts me in that kind of company? "

Allred avoided an outline, preferring to write himself into and out of corners and following only the rules of internal consistency. I just looked for ways to surprise myself while I was writing, he said, adding that the resulting energy is delicious for readers, its delicious for the creator.

2. It brims with literary and pop culture influences: references to classic contemporary novels such as Dune and Fight Club, nods to famous movie lines and rock lyrics. I thought they would be fun for readers, Allred said. I wrote myself a giant loophole in the prologue so I could justify bringing them into whats a novel set in 1500.

3. Its a gumbo of myths and legends from throughout the world. I borrowed anywhere I could find something that interested me, Allred said.

Take Dewi Sri, a luscious sex-positive goddess who has her way with the other characters, male and female. She was inspired by a carving of the Balinese goddess of rice and fertility that Allred has had for years.

Then there are the Kiamah beast, whos adapted from a Nez Perce origin story in which a beast swallows the world, and the pelican deity, who hearkens back to the pelicans historical symbolism of sacrifice and renewal. Allred also drew from a native coastal legend, about the peoples of the world emerging from a giant clam, to create one of the idiosyncrasies of his spirit world: The souls of the newly dead, once freed from their flesh, burrow into clam shells to await rebirth.

4. It contains numerous deftly drawn characters, of which Allreds favorite is the malevolent, despotic crow. Its more fun to write the bad guy, Allred said, adding, As a writer I gave him so much love to make him the way he is, and I enjoyed that.

Playing foils to the fishermans everyman are four human-sized birds with varying powers: the crow, the pelican, a scholarly cormorant and a piratical frigate bird. I worked a lot on, Theyre birds, but they have human characteristics, but theyre gods,  Allred said. That to me comes back to what I think is what one of the underlying themes: As humans we have an animal nature, but we are somehow hopefully able to rise above that.

5. It revels in sex. Lots of sex, described with lots of words that might look as if Allred made them up. I did not invent most of those words, Allred said, explaining that many are slang terms from various cultures. I would like the sound of something or just the look of it on the page. I found that language enormously entertaining, and the challenge of writing a sex scene that would be fairly graphic  I felt would be alleviated by using this language that was new and fresh and unfamiliar.

6. Its now out in audiobook as well, with Allred as the narrator  or rather, he said, as the performer. When I got to the crow, this sound came out of my mouth that I did not know was in there and it was somewhere between Snidely Whiplash and Wallace Shawn. He liked it, so he created more voice characters. Fun fact: Allred worked with a friend from Sunset High School days, sound engineer Dan Rhiger, to record the audiobook for Ashlands Blackstone Publishing. (The books publisher is in Oregon as well  Forest Avenue Press is based in Southwest Portland.)

7. Its a tale of hope and resistance. I believe that that idea has real meaning in the real world, said Allred, quoting the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:  the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

Its important to hang onto hope in the darkest hour of the night, the hour of the beast.

***

Stevan Allred

When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31

Where: Annie Blooms Books, 7834 S.W. Capitol Highway.

Admission: Free

Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian journalism delivered to your email inbox.Top Most Innovative Research On Automotive GPS Tracking Devices Market Report Forecast: By key players are - Spark Nano, Zoombak, Escort Inc, Garmin, LoJack, Linxup, Calamp Corporation, Sierra Wireless, Orbocomm.

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Automotive GPS Tracking Devices Industry research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period. It is a professional and a detailed report focusing on primary and secondary drivers, market share, leading segments and geographical analysis. Further, key players, major collaborations, merger & acquisitions along with trending innovation and business policies are reviewed in the report.Get Free Exclusive PDF Sample Copy of This Report:The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Automotive GPS Tracking Devices Industry global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 2019  2023.The scope of the report extends from market scenarios to comparative pricing between major players, cost and profit of the specified market regions. The numerical data is backed up by statistical tools such as SWOT analysis, BCG matrix, SCOT analysis, PESTLE analysis and so on. The statistics are represented in graphical format for a clear understanding on facts and figures.For Any Query Please Visit:The generated report is firmly based on primary research, interviews with top executives, news sources and information insiders. Secondary research techniques are implemented for better understanding and clarity for data analysis.UpMarketResearch offers a latest published report on Global Automotive GPS Tracking Devices Market Analysis and Forecast 2019-2023 delivering key insights and providing a competitive advantage to clients through a detailed report. The report contains exclusive content which highly exhibit on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability. The report for Automotive GPS Tracking Devices market analysis & forecast 2019-2023 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Automotive GPS Tracking Devices Market Analysis and Forecast 2019-2023 report helps the clients to take business decisions and to understand strategies of major players in the industry. The report also calls for market-driven results deriving feasibility studies for client needs. UpMarketResearch ensures qualified and verifiable aspects of market data operating in the real-time scenario. The analytical studies are conducted ensuring client needs with a thorough understanding of market capacities in the real-time scenario.To Buy This Report Directly and get it in PDF format within 24 hours, please visit:The major manufacturers covered in this report Spark Nano Zoombak Escort Inc Garmin LoJack Linxup Calamp Corporation Sierra Wireless Orbocomm Tomtom International Meitrack Group Teltonika Atrack Technology Trackimo Xirgo TechnologiesOn the basis of product primarily split into Wired GPS Tracking Devices Battery GPS Tracking DevicesOn the basis of the end users/applications Passenger Cars Light Commercial Vehicles Heavy Commercial VehiclesGeographically, this report studies the top producers growth opportunity in these key regions, covering North America Europe China Japan India Southeast Asia Other regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)The Report covers in-depth analysis as follows: Chapter 1 Automotive GPS Tracking Devices Market Overview Chapter 2 Global Automotive GPS Tracking Devices Competition by Manufacturers Chapter 3 Global Automotive GPS Tracking Devices Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2019) Chapter 4 Global Automotive GPS Tracking Devices Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2019) Chapter 5 Global Automotive GPS Tracking Devices Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type Chapter 6 Global Automotive GPS Tracking Devices Market Analysis by Application Chapter 7 Global Automotive GPS Tracking Devices Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis Chapter 8 Automotive GPS Tracking Devices Manufacturing Cost Analysis Chapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers Chapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders Chapter 11 Market Effect Factors Analysis Chapter 12 Global Automotive GPS Tracking Devices Market Forecast (2019-2025) Chapter 13 Research Findings and Conclusion Chapter 14 AppendixKey Reasons to Purchase: To gain insightful analyses of the market and have a comprehensive understanding of the Global Automotive GPS Tracking Devices Industry Analysis and Forecast 2019-2023 and its commercial landscape. Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations. To understand the future outlook and prospects for Automotive GPS Tracking Devices market analysis and forecast 2019-2023.Customization of the Report:UpMarketResearch provides free customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you to get a report that suits your necessities.Grab Special Discount :You can also ask for region wise market research report, as below: Automotive GPS Tracking Devices-Global Market Status & Trend Report 2013-2023 Top 20 Countries Data Automotive GPS Tracking Devices-North America Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Automotive GPS Tracking Devices-South America Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Automotive GPS Tracking Devices-Europe Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Automotive GPS Tracking Devices-EMEA Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Automotive GPS Tracking Devices-Asia Pacific Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Automotive GPS Tracking Devices-China Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Automotive GPS Tracking Devices-India Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Automotive GPS Tracking Devices-United States Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Automotive GPS Tracking Devices are as follows: History Year: 2013-2017 Base Year: 2017 Estimated Year: 2019 Forecast Year 2019 to 2025About UpMarketResearch:The UpMarketResearch () is a leading distributor of market research report with more than 800+ global clients. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well-defined  we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Contact Info:Name: Alex MathewsEmail: alex@upmarketresearch.comOrganization: UpMarketResearchAddress: 500, East E Street, Ontario, CA 91764, United States.New study focusing on Global Commercial Loan Software Market By top profiling companies like ProfitStars, HiEnd Systems, Interactive Ideas, Ellie Mae, CODIX, RealINSIGHT Software.

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Global Optical Interconnect Market is accounted for $4.38 billion in 2016 and expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.9% to reach $16.62 billion by 2023. Power consumption and bandwidth requirements in data centers, growing communication bandwidth, emerging mobile cloud computing applications and rising demand for data securities are fuelling the market growth. However, high initial investment and slow commercialization of optical interconnection-related technologies are hindering the market growth. In addition, conversion delay due to bandwidth requirement and absence of appropriate practical optomechanical technology are the challenges faced by the market.Detailed Sample Copy of Updated Analysis @Note: If this link doesnt work in Internet Explorer, kindly try copy pasting it in other browsers.North America is anticipated to dominate the market due to huge internet penetration resulting in higher usage of data center networks. In addition to this, presence of huge internet based business like Facebook and Google among others driver the market. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market owing to rising technological advancements in China, Japan, South Korea and India.Top Industry Players:Some of the key players in Global Optical Interconnect market are Acacia Communications Inc., Amphenol FCI (AFCI), Broadcom Limited, Finisar Corporation, Fujitsu Ltd., Infinera Corporation, Juniper Networks, Inc., Lumentum Holdings Inc., Mellanox Technologies, Ltd., Molex, LLC, Oclaro, Inc., Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. and TE Connectivity Ltd.Request Discount on this repots @Note: If this link doesnt work in Internet Explorer, kindly try copy pasting it in other browsers.Market Segments:Based on product, Optical Transceiver is used in an optical network to convert electrical signals to optical signals and optical signals to electrical signals. Testing of key optical parameters: transmitter optical power and receiver sensitivity is a big deal. High-speed serial transceivers form the backbone of networks. Communications, servers and many other electronic systems depend on high-speed serial transceivers. There is increased demand for 40G Quad Small Form Factor (QFSP) pluggable optical transceiver.Interconnect Levels Covered: Chip- & Board-Level Interconnect Board-To-Board Level Metro & Long Haul Optical Interconnect Rack-Level Optical InterconnectFiber Modes Covered: Single-Mode Fiber Multi-Mode FiberProducts Covered: Connectors Optical Transceivers Free Space Optics, Fiber and Waveguides Silicon Photonics PIC-Based Interconnects Optical Engines Cable AssembliesApplications Covered: Telecommunication Data CommunicationEnquiry Before Buying @Note: If this link doesnt work in Internet Explorer, kindly try copy pasting it in other browsers.About Market PrognosisWe at Market Prognosis believe in giving a crystal clear view of market dynamics for achieving success in todays complex and competitive marketplace through our quantitative & qualitative research methods.We help our clients identify the best market insights and analysis required for their business thus enabling them to take strategic and intelligent decision.We believe in delivering actionable insights for your business growth and success.Contact us:ProgMark Pvt Ltd,Thane - 421501India.Contact No: +1 973 241 5193Email: sales@marketprognosis.comThe state Judicial Department doesnt keep statistics on the racial makeup of jurors. When people arrive for jury duty they are asked to complete a confidential juror questionnaire which in addition to their name, address and occupation, asks them to complete information about race. Under state statutes it is not mandatory for them to complete the information about race.Global Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Market Growth Analysis By Top Leading Players Edward Life Sciences, Medtronic, Boston Scientific Corporation, St. Jude Medical, Jena Valve, Meril Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd & more

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Market Study Report adds 2018-2023 Global Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement market report that offers an exhaustive coverage of the industry with brief analysis, data charts, figures, statistics that help take business decisions, company profiles and more.The report titled Global Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) Market (Value, Volume): Analysis By Type of Approach (Transfemoral, Transapical), By Region, By Country (2018 Edition): Forecast to 2023 - By Region (North America, Europe, APAC, ROW), By Country (U.S., Canada, Germany, France, United Kingdom, India, Japan China, Brazil, South Africa) has covered and analyzed the potential of global transcatheter aortic valve replacement market and provides statistics and information on market size, shares and growth factors. The report intends to provide cutting-edge market intelligence and help decision makers take sound investment evaluation. Besides, the report also identifies and analyses the emerging trends along with major drivers, challenges and opportunities in the global transcatheter aortic valve replacement market. Additionally, the report also highlights market entry strategies for various companies across the globe.Request a sample of this premium report at:Company Analysis Edward Life Sciences, Medtronic, Boston Scientific Corporation, St. Jude Medical, Jena Valve, Meril Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd.A comprehensive research report created through extensive primary research (inputs from industry experts, companies, stakeholders) and secondary research, the report aims to present the analysis of Global Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) Market by Type of Approach (Transfemoral and Transapical), By Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Rest of the world) and By Country (U.S., Canada, Germany, France, United Kingdom, India, Japan China, Brazil and South Africa).According to research report Global Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) Market (Value, Volume): Analysis By Type of Approach (Transfemoral, Transapical), By Region, By Country (2018 Edition): Forecast to 2023 - By Region (North America, Europe, APAC, ROW), By Country (U.S., Canada, Germany, France, United Kingdom, India, Japan China, Brazil, South Africa) global market is projected to display a robust growth represented by a high CAGR of 14.70 % during 2018 2023.Transcatheter aortic valve replacement has been a ground-breaking advancement in the field of interventional cardiology and cardiovascular surgery. Although, surgical aortic valve replacement is considered the standard treatment, yet 30% of patients are not considered candidates for traditional open heart surgery because of advanced age and presence of multiple comorbidities. TAVR offers this population a less invasive treatment option also with better outcomes. Over the recent years, the global TAVR industry has been growing rapidly mainly due to growing number of elderly population, rising awareness about minimally invasive devices, new device approvals and increasing health expenditure in developing countries. The procedure of transcatheter aortic valve replacement through transfemoral retrograde is the most common catheter-based approach and is performed in approximately 70% to 80% of the total TAVR cases, globally. Hence, this segment holds majority share in the market. This trend is anticipated to continue in the forecast period as well.Amongst the regions, North America accounts for the largest regional share in the global transcatheter aortic valve replacement market in 2018. However, Asia Pacific is predicted to advance at the highest rate, mainly driven by increase in healthcare expenditure coupled with growing penetration and awareness about technologically advanced heart valve therapies.Scope of the ReportGlobal Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) Market(Actual Period: 2013-2017, Forecast Period: 2018-2023)Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) Market Size and Growth:By Value, By Volume.By Type of Approach Transfemoral and Transapical: By Value.Regional Markets North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the World(Actual Period: 2013-2017, Forecast Period: 2018-2023)Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) Market Size and Growth:By Value, By Volume.By Type of Approach Transfemoral and Transapical: By Value.Country Analysis U.S., Canada, Germany, France, United Kingdom, India, Japan China, Brazil, South Africa (Actual Period: 2013-2017, Forecast Period: 2018-2023)Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) Market Size and Growth: By Value, By Volume.By Type of Approach Transfemoral and Transapical: By Value.Other Report HighlightsMarket Dynamics Drivers and RestraintsMarket TrendsPricing AnalysisProduct Launches and Recent ApprovalsCompany Share AnalysisSWOT AnalysisPorter Five Force AnalysisSupply Chain AnalysisPolicy and Regulatory LandscapeRequest a discount on standard prices of this premium report at:Customization of the ReportThe report could be customized according to the client s specific research requirements. No additional cost will be required to pay for limited additional research.Table of Contents1. Research Methodology2. Executive Summary3. Strategic Recommendations4. Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) Market Outlook5. Global Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) Market: Growth and Forecast6. Global Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) Market: By Drugs Class7. Global Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) Market: By Sales Channels8. Global Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) Market: Pipeline Analysis9. Global Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) Market: Regional Analysis10. Market Dynamics11. Market Trends14. SWOT Analysis Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) Market15. Company ProfilesMore Details on this Report: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:Medical Marijuana Market report for 2018-2024 - Top Companies | Canopy Growth, Aurora Cannabis, Inc., Medical Marijuana, Inc., GW Pharmaceuticals, Aphria, Inc., CanniMed Ltd., Tilray, Emerald Health Therapeutics, and MedReleaf Corp

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Medical marijuana market to register an appreciable CAGR of 36% over 2018-2024, Germany to emerge as a vital regional contender.A news that has lately set the global medical marijuana market ablaze, is that of the Canadian Government passing the Cannabis Act for the official legalization of the marijuana drug. According to reports, Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, has set October 17, 2018 as the official date for the announcement, following which adult marijuana will be available for the sale in authorized dispensaries. After Uruguay, Canada is only the second country in the world, and the first among the G7 nations to permit a legal market for marijuana. The instance clearly throws light on the vast market potential Canada will be holding for investors of both medical and recreational marijuana.Meanwhile in the United States, reports claim that marijuana is legalized for medical purposes in 30 states and Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and Guam. Reliable studies have demonstrated the effective usage of medical marijuana in the treatment of chronic pain, migraines, and melancholia. The drug moreover, is also used in relieving the symptoms of multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, and cancer. This in turn has substantially backed the modifications & relaxations in the drug policies of several governments. The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), has estimated that there are around 25 million people across the U.S. suffering from pain on daily basis that in turn has triggered a surge regional medical marijuana market share & legalization of the drug for therapeutic purposes in the recent years. The relaxations in the law have also uplifted several companies to pour billions of dollars in research as well as in the commercialization of the product.Get a Sample Copy of this Report:@Recently for instance, WeedMD Inc., a licensed producer and distributor of medical cannabis has announced that it has collaborated with Revive Therapeutics Ltd. to focus on research and development & commercialization of novel cannabinoid-based therapies. Reports reveal that WeedMD will supply Revive with cannabidiol (CBD) and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which are the two main chemicals used for medical purposes that will in turn evaluate the treatment of liver disease, autoimmune hepatitis, and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.In another turn of events, WeedMD, has also signed a joint agreement with Phivida Holdings Inc., to develop & operate Cannabis Beverages Inc., at its Strathroy-based greenhouse facility, Ontario. According to reports, the joint venture will focus on product manufacturing, marketing, development, and supply of cannabis-infused beverages for Canada as well as to licensed international markets. The CBD-infused products market valuation in Canada alone is about USD 5.6 billion  according to the Consumer Health Products Canada. And the duo, leveraging the proven product demand, is expected to position themselves well enough in the growing marijuana market.The presence of such a large number of recreational and medical marijuana companies in Canada, have indeed significantly impelled the Canada medical marijuana market. Reports further claim that the Canada medical marijuana market is forecast to register a CAGR of 32% over 2018-2024. Across the European continent, Germany being the first country to legalize medical marijuana recently in 2017, is expected to be a lucrative investment spot for potential stakeholders. Having accounted for USD 805.5 million in 2017, the Germany medical marijuana industry is projected to grow at a striking rate of 49.5% over 2018-2024.The rigorous relaxations and modifications in drug policies to increase the access to the drug from several countries have led to an extraordinary expansion of the online medical marijuana market. The legalization has further paved way for customers & patients to opt for more convenient ways such as mail orders. The online buying process is further gaining traction, given the complete privacy and discreetness this distribution channel provides.Make Inquiry about this report @All in all, with support from the regional governments and emergence of new business opportunities through e-commerce, this market is expected to emerge as one of the most profitable business spaces of its time. Further shedding light on the commercialization matrix, a report by Global Market Insights, Inc., claims the global medical marijuana industry to hit USD 55 billion by 2024.Medical marijuana market research report includes in-depth coverage of the industry with estimates & forecast in terms of revenue in USD million from 2013 to 2024, for the following segments:Medical Marijuana Market by Application Pain Managemento Neuropathic Paino Cancer Paino Others Muscle Spasms Nausea Anorexia Seizures OthersMedical Marijuana Market by Route of Administration Inhalation Oral TopicalMedical Marijuana Market by Distribution Channel Dispensaries OnlineThe above information is provided for the following regions/countries: North Americao U.S.o Canada Europeo Germanyo Italyo UKo Czech Republico Franceo The Netherlandso Rest of Europe Latin Americao Argentinao Chileo Peruo Colombia Rest of the Worldo Australiao IsraelGlobal Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comBlog :Adhesive Resin Industry 2019 Market Trends, Size, Share, Top Key Players: Exxonmobil Chemical, Eastman Chemical Company.,3M, Yparex B.V., Admer Adhesives Resin, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation,

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Adhesive Resin Market report mainly focuses on Market share dominated by major players, types, and applications of Adhesive Resin Industry. This research report categorizes the Adhesive Resin Market by companies, region, type and end-use industry. The vendor analysis is one of the key elements and is very useful for every player to understand competitive landscape in the market. The readers will find this report very helpful in understanding the market in depth. The report provides key statistics on the market status of Global and regional Adhesive Resin manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry.For In-Depth Review | Get Sample Copy@Adhesive Resin Market accounted for USD 13.10 billion in 2017 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.2% during the forecast period of 2018 to 2025. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2016, the base year of calculation is 2017 and the forecast period is 2018 to 2025.According to U.S. Census Bureau, in 2016, total construction spending increased 6.5% from the previous year. Moreover, in 2014, construction spending was up nearly 11% and in 2015 it increased 10.7%. Furthermore, there is a huge investment scenario in developing countries, which help in the growth of the adhesive resin in the near future.For a pervasive understanding of the market, business strategies and latest developments of the vital players accompanied with co-development deals and market size have also been enclosed. Briefly citing, their revenue share, contact information and meticulous SWOT analysis is available. The regions which have been studied in depth are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America. This helps gain better idea about the spread of this particular market in respective regions.This report implements a balanced mix of primary and secondary research methodologies for its analysis. The market is segmented on the basis of key criteria.Market Key Competitors: DuPont, Arizona Chemical, 3M, Yparex B.V., Admer Adhesives Resin, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Exxonmobil Chemical, Eastman Chemical Company, Dow Chemical Company, Evonik Industries, Lawter B.V., Ashland Inc., Georgia-Pacific Chemicals LLC, Alchemie, Bostik, Satyen Polymers Pvt. Ltd., STAR SPECIALTIES POLYMERS PVT. LTD., Polygon Adhesives & Resins Pvt.Ltd., National Adhesives and Polymers, Resins and Plastics Limited, Mechemco, HAC Resins Pvt Ltd.Competitive Landscape:The global adhesive resin market is fragmented with the presence of a large number of players across different regions. These major players have adopted various organic as well as inorganic growth strategies such as mergers & acquisitions, new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, and others to strengthen their position in this market.Speak To Industry Experts, Request For Details Report@A birds eye view of the Adhesive Resin Industry made available in the report helps readers to understand the key drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities that are shaping the Teeth Whitening Products market. Furthermore, the report evaluates challenges experienced from buyers and sellers side.Table of ContentChapter. Introduction Report description and scope Research scope Research met Market research process Market research methodologyChapter: Industry Analysis Value Chain Analysis Technology Roadmap Market Attractiveness AnalysisChapter: Market Dynamics Introduction Market Drivers Market Restraints Market Opportunities Market TrendsChapter: Porters five forces analysis Bargaining power of suppliers Bargaining power of buyers Threat from new entrants Threat from new substitutes Degree of competition Market attractiveness analysis Market attractiveness analysis, by product type segment Market attractiveness analysis, by type of segment Market attractiveness analysis, by end user segmentChapter: Adhesive Resin Market  Competitive Landscape Company Market Share Analysis Adhesive Resin market: company market share, 2016 Strategic Development Acquisitions & Mergers New Therapy Launch Agreements, Partnerships, Collaborations and Joint Ventures Research and Development, Therapy and Regional ExpansionChapter: Major Application Analysis Major Application Market Share Major Down Stream Customers Analysis Others GlobalChapter: New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis: New Project SWOT Analysis New Project Investment Feasibility AnalysisToc continued!Get Full Toc@Major Market Drivers: Growth in construction, transportation, and consumer applications Shift in preference towards hot-melt adhesives Demand for adhesive resins in Asia-Pacific Increase in surgical procedures expected to boost demand for green as well as synthetic adhesive resinsMarket Restraint: Volatility in Raw Material PricesMarket Segments:The adhesive resin market is segmented on the basis of product type in to: polyacrylic ester (PAE), polyvinyl acetate (PVA), vinyl acetate ethylene (VAE), synthetic rubber (SBS, CR & SIS), ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), polyurethane, epoxy, modified acrylate & methyl methacrylate (MMA), cyanoacrylate and others.The adhesive resin market is segmented on the basis of formulation in to : water-based, solvent-based, hot-melt, reactive, and others.The adhesive resin market is segmented on the basis of application in to : paper & packaging, building & construction, wood-working, transportation, consumer/DIY, leather & footwear, and others.The adhesive resin market is segmented on the basis of geography: North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa.Note: If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Make an Inquiry for Discount On this Report@About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Data Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.comGlobal Fleece Knitting Yarn Industry Market Analysis & Forecast 2018-2023

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Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Industry Market, presents an expert and top to the bottom investigation on the progressing condition of the Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Industry Market comprehensively, giving a fundamental outline of Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Industry Market including groupings, applications, definitions, industry cost structure, inventory network. Downy Knitting Yarn report gives brief data about improvement approaches and plans and in addition fabricating procedures and strategies.Get sample copy of report:Table of Contents1 Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Overview1.1 Product Overview of Fleece Knitting Yarn1.2 Classification of Fleece Knitting Yarn1.2.1 Type 11.2.2 Type 21.2.3 Type 31.2.4 Type 41.3 Applications of Fleece Knitting Yarn1.3.1 Application 11.3.2 Application 21.3.3 Application 31.3.4 Application 41.4 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Regional Analysis1.4.1 USA Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.2 Europe Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.3 Japan Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.4 China Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.5 India Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.6 Southeast Asia Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.7 South America Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.8 South Africa Market Present Situation Analysis1.5 Fleece Knitting Yarn Industry Development Factors Analysis1.5.1 Fleece Knitting Yarn Industry Development Opportunities Analysis1.5.2 Fleece Knitting Yarn Industry Development Challenges Analysis1.6 Fleece Knitting Yarn Consumer Behavior Analysis2 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Competitions by Players2.1 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Players2.2 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Players2.3 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Price (USD/Unit) by Players2.4 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Gross Margin by Players3 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Competitions by Types3.1 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales s3.2 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Type3.3 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Price (USD/Unit) by Type3.4 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Gross Margin by Type3.5 USA Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales3.6 China Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales3.7 Europe Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales3.8 Japan Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales3.9 India Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales3.10 Southeast Asia Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales3.11 South America Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales3.12 South Africa Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales4 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Competitions by Applications4.1 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales4.2 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Applications4.3 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Price (USD/Unit) by Applications4.4 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Gross Margin by Applications4.5 USA Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales4.6 China Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales4.7 Europe Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales4.8 Japan Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales4.9 India Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales4.10 Southeast Asia Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales4.11 South America Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales4.12 South Africa Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales5 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Production Market Analysis by Regions5.1 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Production5.1.1 USA Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.2 Europe Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.3 China Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.4 Japan Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.5 India Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.6 Southeast Asia Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.7 South America Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.8 South Africa Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.2 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Production Value (Million USD) and Share by Region5.3 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Price (USD/Unit) by Region5.4 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Gross Margin by Region6 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales Market Analysis by Region6.1 USA Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Consumption Present Situation Analysis6.2 Europe Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Consumption Present Situation Analysis6.3 China Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Consumption Present Situation Analysis6.4 Japan Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Consumption Present Situation Analysis6.5 India Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Consumption Present Situation Analysis6.6 Southeast Asia Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Consumption Present Situation Analysis6.7 South America Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Consumption Present Situation Analysis6.8 South Africa Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Consumption Present Situation Analysis7 Imports and Exports Market Analysis7.1 USA Fleece Knitting Yarn Imports and Exports Analysis7.2 Europe Fleece Knitting Yarn Imports and Exports Analysis7.3 China Fleece Knitting Yarn Imports and Exports Analysis7.4 Japan Fleece Knitting Yarn Imports and Exports Analysis7.5 India Fleece Knitting Yarn Imports and Exports Analysis7.6 Southeast Asia Fleece Knitting Yarn Imports and Exports Analysis7.7 South America Fleece Knitting Yarn Imports and Exports Analysis7.8 South Africa Fleece Knitting Yarn Imports and Exports Analysis8 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Players Profiles and Sales Data8.1 Company one8.1.1 Company Basic Information8.1.2 Fleece Knitting Yarn Product Category8.1.3 Company One Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales8.2 Company Two8.2.1 Company Basic Information8.2.2 Fleece Knitting Yarn Product Category8.2.3 Company Two Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales8.3 Company Three8.3.1 Company Basic Information8.3.2 Fleece Knitting Yarn Product Category8.3.3 Company Three Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales8.4 Company Four8.4.1 Company Basic Information8.4.2 Fleece Knitting Yarn Product Category8.4.3 Company Four Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales8.5 Company Five8.5.1 Company Basic Information8.5.2 Fleece Knitting Yarn Product Category8.5.3 Company Five Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales8.6 Company Six8.6.1 Company Basic Information8.6.2 Fleece Knitting Yarn Product Category8.6.3 Company Six Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales8.7 Company Seven8.7.1 Company Basic Information8.7.2 Fleece Knitting Yarn Product Category8.7.3 Company Seven Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales8.8 Company Eight8.8.1 Company Basic Information8.8.2 Fleece Knitting Yarn Product Category8.8.3 Company Eight Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales8.9 Company Nine8.9.1 Company Basic Information8.9.2 Fleece Knitting Yarn Product Category8.9.3 Company Nine Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales8.10 Company Ten8.10.1 Company Basic Information8.10.2 Fleece Knitting Yarn Product Category8.10.3 Company Ten Fleece Knitting Yarn Sales8.11 Company 118.12 Company 128.13 Company 138.14 Company 148.15 Company 158.16 Company 168.17 Company 178.18 Company 188.19 Company 198.20 Company 209 Fleece Knitting Yarn Upstream and Downstream Analysis9.1 Key Raw Materials Suppliers and Price Analysis9.2 Key Raw Materials Production and Consumption Analysis9.3 Key Raw Materials Mode of transport and cost analysis9.4 Proportion of Manufacturing Cost Structure9.5 Manufacturing Process Analysis9.6 Fleece Knitting Yarn Downstream Buyers Analysis9.7 Fleece Knitting Yarn Industry Chain Analysis9.8 Procurement Method Analysis9.9 Customs Tariff Analysis10 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Forecast10.1 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Consumption Forecast by Regions10.1.1 USA Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Consumption Forecast Analysis10.1.2 Europe Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Consumption Forecast Analysis10.1.3 China Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Consumption Forecast Analysis10.1.4 Japan Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Consumption Forecast Analysis10.1.5 India Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Consumption Forecast Analysis10.1.6 Southeast Asia Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Consumption Forecast Analysis10.1.7 South America Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Consumption Forecast Analysis10.1.8 South Africa Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Consumption Forecast Analysis10.2 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Production Forecast by Regions10.2.1 USA Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Production Forecast Analysis10.2.2 Europe Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Production Forecast Analysis10.2.3 China Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Production Forecast Analysis10.2.4 Japan Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Production Forecast Analysis10.2.5 India Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Production Forecast Analysis10.2.6 Southeast Asia Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Production Forecast Analysis10.2.7 South America Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Production Forecast Analysis10.2.8 South Africa Fleece Knitting Yarn Market Production Forecast Analysis10.3 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Consumption Forecast by Type10.3.1 Type 1 Fleece Knitting Yarn Consumption Forecast Analysis10.3.2 Type 2 Fleece Knitting Yarn Consumption Forecast Analysis10.3.3 Type 3 Fleece Knitting Yarn Consumption Forecast Analysis10.3.4 Type 4 Fleece Knitting Yarn Consumption Forecast Analysis10.4 Global Fleece Knitting Yarn Consumption Forecast by Applications10.4.1 Application 1 Fleece Knitting Yarn Consumption Forecast Analysis10.4.2 Application 2 Fleece Knitting Yarn Consumption Forecast Analysis10.4.3 Application 3 Fleece Knitting Yarn Consumption Forecast Analysis10.4.4 Application 4 Fleece Knitting Yarn Consumption Forecast Analysis11 Research Findings and ConclusionBy this report online:About Market Density:Market Density is your one stop market research and industry analysis reports' library providing business data and intelligence information on thousands of micro markets with global as well as regional coverage.Market Density offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Market Density understands how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available.Contact Us:Email: Support@marketdensity.comWebsite:Phone: +1 669 264 16564340 Stevens Creek Blvd,Suite # 172,San Jose, CA 95129Hdtv Market Booming Worldwide by 2025| Hisense Electric Co., Ltd., Sichuan Changhong Electric Co

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HTF MI recently introduced Global Hdtv Market study with in-depth overview, describing about the Product / Industry Scope and elaborates market outlook and status to 2023. The market Study is segmented by key regions which are accelerating the marketization. At present, the market is developing its presence and some of the key players from the complete study are Hisense Electric Co., Ltd., Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., Ltd, Haier Electronics Group Co., Panasonic Corporation, TCL Corp., Onida Electronics, Sony Corp., Skyworth Digital Holdings Limited, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., KONKA GROUP CO.,LTD, Philips, Vizio Inc., Toshiba Corp., Videocon Industries Ltd., Seiki Digital, LG Electronics Inc., Sharp Corp., Funai Electric Co. Ltd. & Westinghouse Digital etc.Request Sample of Global Hdtv Industry Market Research Report @:The Hdtv market can be split based on product types, major applications, and important regions.This report studies the Global Hdtv market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the Global Hdtv market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.Browse 100+ market data Tables and Figures spread through Pages and in-depth TOC on " Hdtv Market by Type (, LCD, Plasma & OLED), by End-Users/Application (Application 1, Application 2, Application 3, Application 4 & Application 5), Organization Size, Industry, and Region - Forecast to 2023". Early buyers will receive 10% customization on comprehensive study.In order to get a deeper view of Market Size, competitive landscape is provided i.e. Revenue (Million USD) by Players (2013-2018), Revenue Market Share (%) by Players (2013-2018) and further a qualitative analysis is made towards market concentration rate, product/service differences, new entrants and the technological trends in future.Enquire for customization in Report @Competitive Analysis:The key players are highly focusing innovation in production technologies to improve efficiency and shelf life. The best long-term growth opportunities for this sector can be captured by ensuring ongoing process improvements and financial flexibility to invest in the optimal strategies. Company profile section of players such as Hisense Electric Co., Ltd., Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., Ltd, Haier Electronics Group Co., Panasonic Corporation, TCL Corp., Onida Electronics, Sony Corp., Skyworth Digital Holdings Limited, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., KONKA GROUP CO.,LTD, Philips, Vizio Inc., Toshiba Corp., Videocon Industries Ltd., Seiki Digital, LG Electronics Inc., Sharp Corp., Funai Electric Co. Ltd. & Westinghouse Digital includes its basic information like legal name, website, headquarters, its market position, historical background and top 5 closest competitors by Market capitalization / revenue along with contact information. Each player/ manufacturer revenue figures, growth rate and gross profit margin is provided in easy to understand tabular format for past 5 years and a separate section on recent development like mergers, acquisition or any new product/service launch etc.Market Segments:The Global Hdtv Market has been divided into type, application, and region.On The Basis Of Type: , LCD, Plasma & OLED.On The Basis Of Application: Application 1, Application 2, Application 3, Application 4 & Application 5On The Basis Of Region, this report is segmented into following key geographies, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share, growth rate of Hdtv in these regions, from 2013 to 2023 (forecast), covering North America (U.S. & Canada) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Analysis (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Latin America (Brazil, Mexico & Rest of Latin America) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Europe (The U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden & RoE) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Asia-Pacific (China, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Rest of Asia) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Middle East & Africa (GCC, South Africa, North Africa, RoMEA) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Rest of World {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Analysis (%) and Opportunity Analysis}Buy Single User License of Global Hdtv Industry Market Research Report @Have a look at some extracts from Table of ContentIntroduction about Global HdtvGlobal Hdtv Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2017Hdtv Market by Application/End UsersGlobal Hdtv Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Applications(2013-2023) table defined for each application/end-users like [Application 1, Application 2, Application 3, Application 4 & Application 5]Global Hdtv Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2023)Hdtv Competition by Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and ApplicationHdtv (Volume, Value and Sales Price) table defined for each geographic region defined.Global Hdtv Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales DataAdditionally Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors list is being provided for each listed manufacturersMarket Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018) table for each product type which include , LCD, Plasma & OLEDHdtv Manufacturing Cost AnalysisHdtv Key Raw Materials AnalysisHdtv Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers, Industrial Chain AnalysisMarket Forecast (2018-2023)........and more in complete table of ContentsBrowse for Full Report at:Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager)HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA  08837Phone: +1 (206) 317 1218sales@htfmarketreport.comConnect with us atBNY Mellon, Finastra Fiserv profiled in Digital Banking Market to grow at 4% CAGR to 2024|By Key Vendors: Oracle, SAP SE, Temenos, Backbase, Intellect Design Arena, Kony

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The North American digital banking market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 2.5% during the forecast period. The market is driven by the early adoption of digital solutions among the banking institutes. The high penetration of internet and smartphone users is also augmenting the demand for digital banking solutions. Large volumes of credit card and debit card transactions in the region also promote the digital banking market.Request for a sample of this research report @The increasing venture capital investment in fintech sector is propelling the digital banking market. Over the past five years, fintech has emerged as the most lucrative sector and the venture capitalists are investing billions in the sector to make profits. In 2017, approximately USD 16.5 billion investment was witnessed in the fintech companies, increasing from USD 3.7 billion in 2013. Acknowledging the rise of fintech players, banks are looking to boost their investments in technology. While some banks are collaborating or investing in the fintech companies to develop more customer-centric products, others are acquiring the fintech players to acquire technical expertise and expand their product portfolio.Company profiled in this report based on Business overview, Financial data, Product landscape, Strategic outlook & SWOT analysis: Appway Backbase BNY Mellon CREALOGIX ebanklT ETRONIKA Fidor Solutions Finastra Fiserv Halcom D.D. ieDigital Intellect Design Arena Kony NETinfo NF Innova Oracle SAB SAP SE Sopra TCS Technisys Temenos WorldlineThe supportive government initiatives & policies for the promotion of digital banking services is also driving the digital banking market. Governments across the globe are constantly working on accelerating the adoption of digital banking services. The demonetization activities and digitalization policies adopted by the government are encouraging the adoption of digital payment solutions. Moreover, governments are also offering tax incentives and subsidies to the fintech players to encourage the adoption of digital solutions.Browse Full Report:Corporate banking held over 13% share in the digital banking market in 2017. The emergence of the fintech players is the primary factor accelerating the adoption of digitalization among the corporate banks. The corporate banks are experiencing tough competition from the fintech companies that are offering standalone products at low costs. This is encouraging corporate banks to embrace the technologies to provide a better experience to their customers. Moreover, the integration of the advanced technologies into the banking platforms, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data analytics, is also augmenting the demand for digital solutions among the corporate banking sector to analyze the customer behavior and meet their requirements.Non-transaction services in the digital banking market are anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 14% during the projected timeline. The increasing need to provide enhanced customer experience is driving the adoption of non-transaction digital services among the banking institutes. The digital disruption and generational shift cause fundamental changes in customer behavior that are rapidly influencing customer expectations from banks. Over a third of the millennials (population aged between 16 to 34) believe they will be able to live a bank-free existence in the future. Customers, especially the younger population who are digitally savvy, hyper-connected, and choice conscious have an inclination toward tech-oriented services as their preferences are changing. These customers are accustomed to digital experiences offered by online retailers and expect the same or perhaps a richer experience from the banks.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @The key players in the digital banking market space are Appway, Backbase, BNY Mellon, Crealogix, ebanklT, EdgeVerve Systems, ETRONIKA, Fidor, Finastra, Fiserv, Halcom, IE Digital, Intellect Design Arena, Kony, NETinfo, NF Innova, Oracle, SAB, SAP, Sopra, Tagit, TCS, Technisys, Temenos, and Worldline.Browse Related Report:Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) Market Size, Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Spain, China, India, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, GCC, South Africa), Growth Potential, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2018  2024About Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Blog:Crane Market 2018-2024: Global Analysis By Key Players Terex Corporation, Liebherr Group, XCMG Group, Welbilt Inc, Konecranes, Komatsu Ltd.

Crane Market

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Crane Market is expected to exceed USD 20 billion by 2024. Increasing construction spending across the globe is a major factor driving the crane market growth. Shifting focus of the government entities on infrastructure development coupled with growing consumer preference for aesthetic and luxurious constructions will drive the industry growth. Urbanization, environmental impacts, and population growth have surged the need for sustainable and smart infrastructure solutions.The construction and transportation sectors are the major segments contributing toward the adoption of mobile cranes with many on-going projects.Request for a sample copy of this report @In the Crane Market, the oil & gas industry accounted for around 20% of the overall revenue and is anticipated to grow at a steady rate over the forecast timespan. The rise in the adoption of mobile Crane Market is expected to accelerate owing to the expansion in the cement plants and infrastructure development.Several major economies across the globe are contributing toward the industry growth, with construction and retrofit market growing at a significantly high pace. The crane market will witness a growing demand for the upgrading of mobile cranes in the coming years.In addition, the growing demand for fuel-efficient and advanced cranes is rapidly gaining popularity due to their cost-effective performance and a high level of safety. Construction companies prefer using fuel-efficient equipment as it emits less carbon and enables fuel savings.Crane Market, By Product Mobile Crane Truck Loader Crane Rough Terrain Crane All Terrain Crane Crawler Crane Fixed Crane Monorail Crane Stiffleg Crane Tower Crane Gantry CraneMake an Inquiry for purchasing this Report @Growing adoption of mobile and tower cranes for construction activities is accelerating the U.S. crane market growth. Increasing adoption of the cranes was owing to the rise in home construction, nonresidential building, and government construction activities. According to the U.S. Commerce Department, the construction spending rose to 0.9 percent in November 2016 by 0.3 percent. The constantly-growing population in the region has resulted in increased investments in the infrastructure development sector. Rapid urbanization in the country is demanding the faster construction of facilities and buildings for the growing population. In addition, the rising government investments in infrastructural operations have provided a potential for the growth of the crane market.Public infrastructure and government utilities in North America will witness a high adoption of cranes owing to the construction of reservoirs, wastewater treatment plants, and power lines across the region thereby providing an impetus to the crane market.In Europe, the focus of the crane manufacturers is on implementing new safety standards relating to the assembly and dismantling of the machine. An important product development issue across the entire range of crane types is the reduction of diesel engine exhaust emissions in compliance with Stage V of the EU Regulation on emission limits for mobile machinery. Europe accounted for the second largest revenue in crane market owing to the growing usage of cranes across the construction and oil & gas industries. However, the European market was hurt by changes in subsidies in the wind power market in Germany, resulting in fewer crawler crane sales.Browse Report Summery @Key players participating in crane market include Palfinger AG Terex Corporation, Komatsu Ltd., Konecranes PLC, Liebherr Group, Tadano, Ltd., XCMG Group, Hitachi Sumitomo Heavy Industries, and Manitowoc among others. The crane industry is highly fragmented and competitive in nature owing to the presence of several regional and international players, who are actively investing in R&D and developing technologically-advanced products to sustain in the industry. There is an inclination toward energy-efficient cranes as they help in reducing carbon emissions. Several players are ensuring new product development initiatives to foster the crane market growth.Browse Related Reports:Crawler Crane Market to reach US$ 3 bn by 2024Crawler Crane Market size is set to exceed USD 3 billion by 2024; according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. The shipments are expected to grow at a CAGR of over 4%.Increasing utilization of crawler cranes in the energy sector is anticipated to drive the crawler crane market growth. These machines offer heavy lifting operations at the nuclear and renewable energy sites and facilitate the operators in handling the materials efficiently. Several manufacturers have developed energy sector-specific machines that witness a high demand. For instance, Manitowoc has launched a wind power crane, Grove GTK1100, that is used for wind turbine operations such as erection and construction. Additionally, the crawler crane market is witnessing growth opportunities due to the increasing infrastructure projects across the globe.Request for a sample copy of this report @About Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone:1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:TLGV Volunteer Marcy Dawley staked out an area along the Quinebaug River in Putnam for the eagle count. Dawley has been participating in the count for the last six years. She has seen bald eagles sitting in trees along the river already this year.Amoboateng surrendered after a couple of hours and was arrested on charges that included first-degree kidnapping, second-degree assault, assault of a pregnant person, first-degree threatening, first-degree criminal mischief and two counts of violation of a protective order, as well as interfering with police and two counts of violation of a protective order.Covid-19 origin: Was right about China virus coming from Wuhan lab, says Donald Trump

Trump-Kim Jong to meet again in February: White House

International

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

Washington, Jan 19: US President Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in late February on Pyongyang dismantling its nuclear and missile programmes, the White House has announced.

The two leaders had met on June 12 last year in Singapore for the first summit.

N Korea envoy reaches US even as Pyongyang poses 'extraordinary threats'

The White House, however, did not identify a location for the second setting between the two leaders.

The announcement came after Trump met with North Korean envoy, Kim Yong Chol, on Friday for a discussion that included talk about Kim Jong-un's unfulfilled pledge to dismantle his country's nuclear weapons programmes.

President Trump sat down with Kim Yong Chol, a high-level official in North Korea's Communist government, in the Oval Office, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

"President Donald J Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and half, to discuss denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February.

"The president looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date. she said in a statement.

Shutdown in Trump's US: Why India shouldn't be presidential system

The press secretary told reporters: "We continue to make progress, we continue to have conversations."

The US is going to continue to keep "pressure and sanctions" on North Korea until "we see fully and verifiable denuclearization", she said.

"We had very good steps and very good faith from the North Koreans with the release of hostages and other moves and so we'll continue this conversation.And the President looks forward to it next February," Sanders' told reporters.

The North Korean envoy arrived at the White House after a closed-door meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US special envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun at a hotel here.

Following the White House meeting the North Korean official and a delegation he was leading were invited to lunch by Pompeo at Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.

The Secretary, Special Representative Biegun, and Vice Chairman Kim discussed efforts to make progress on the commitments President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un made at their summit in Singapore. At the conclusion of the Secretary's meeting with Vice Chairman Kim, the two sides held a productive first meeting at the working level, State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino said.

Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman said that in Singapore, Trump capitulated to Kim Jong-un handing North Korea a propaganda coup in exchange for empty words.

During a second summit, he must deliver concrete, verifiable commitments from Pyongyang, he demanded.

German, British diplomats to attend Russia foreign ministry briefing on INF Treaty

Last year in Singapore, Trump had described his first-ever historic meeting with Kim Jong-un as "really fantastic" and said they had agreed to "sign" an unspecified document after their "very positive" summit, aimed at normalising ties and complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

The US president had said he believed he and Kim Jong-un will "solve a big problem, a big dilemma" and that by working together, "we will get it taken care of".

The summit at Singapore's Sentosa island - the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader - had marked a turnaround of relations between Trump, 72, and Kim, 36, after a long-running exchange of threats and insults.

The US insists it will accept nothing less than complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

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Story first published: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 10:10 [IST]Zakir Naik tried to cross over to Maldives but was not allowed

Zakir Naik wants Indian Muslims to migrate to Kerala, a state he mastered in radicalising

Zakir Naik case: ED attaches assets worth Rs 16.40 cr under PMLA

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Jan 19: Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached properties worth Rs. 16.40 Crores in Mumbai and Pune, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the case of Zakir Naik.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), in a statement, said it had issued a provisional order for attachment of Naik's assets, located in Mumbai and Pune, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The estimated value of the immovable assets was Rs 16.40 crore, the central probe agency said.

A poison called Zakir Naik and his role in radicalising Kerala detailed by an ISIS recruit

During the course of the PMLA investigation, ED claims it had already made two provisional attachments totalling to Rs. 34.09 Crores. Further investigations revealed that funds to the tune of Rs. 49.20 crore was received in the NRE Bank accounts of accused in India from his Dubai accounts.

"The origin of these deposits was from unknown sources. Naik used funds of Rs. 17.65 crore for purchase of properties from builders-Salim Kodia partner in MK Enterprises, Munaf Vadgama, partner in Aafiyah Realtors, Sameer Khan, partner in Pacific Orient Genesis Associates and Musa Lakdawala partner of Lakdawala and Yash Associates in their projects-Fatima Heights (Mumbai), Aafiyah Heights(Mumbai), ENGRACIA(Pune) and in a project at Bhandup, Mumbai," the release stated.

This is the third such attachment in the case by the ED. The total attachment as proceeds, in this case, is Rs. 50.49 crore including the present attachment.

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Story first published: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 15:57 [IST]Will the Jagan-KCR bonhomie backfire?

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Hyderabad, Jan 19: Amidst all the alliances that have been announced ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, here is another one that should be keenly watched. The TRS and YSR Congress could fight the Lok Sabha battles in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh together.

There are 42 seats up for grabs in both these states and the two parties would be up against the Congress and the TDP. While the Congress and TDP came together for the Telangana assembly elections, it is unlikely that they would fight together in AP during the Lok Sabha polls.

Unity of corrupt leaders: Babul Supriyo on Mamata Banerjee's mega rally

The TDP-Congress combine did not work in Telangana. The sentiment against Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP was high as he was seen as the man who had blocked the formation of the state.

The question now is will there be a reverse sentiment if the TDP-YSR Congress come together. In Andhra Pradesh, K Chandrashekhar Rao is seen the person who bifurcated the state. The people of the Seema-Andhra region had vehemently opposed the bifurcation of the state, but KCR had his way.

Further the people of Andhra Pradesh are also upset that the TRS did not allow a discussion in Parliament on the special category status for AP. While the top leaders of the two parties may be in favour of an alliance, on the ground the workers are not in favour of it.

The workers feel that this would be counterproductive and any such alliance could end up giving the TDP a victory on a platter. People in AP have already started questioning Jagan Mohan Reddy about the logic behind this alliance. The special status is an emotive issue and the people of the state feel that the TRS is one of the reasons as to why it did not come through.

All I can hear from Bengal is 'Bachao Bachao': PM Modi reacts to oppn rally

Leading political scientist, Dr. Sandeep Shastri tells OneIndia that the alliance may not be counter-productive. If the YRS Congress and TRS can bag 30 out of the 42 seats in both states, then they would be a major player.

He feels that this alliance is like a BJP-Akali Dal combination in Punjab, where both parties fight on independent issues. While in the Telangana state polls, the sentiment may have worked against the TDP-Congress, the case may not be similar in the Lok Sabha elections, Dr. Shastri feels. In the LS polls the parties would raise larger issues, he also says.

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Story first published: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 16:23 [IST]Rules permitting liquor home delivery in Delhi come into force, but wait not over yet

Why this SC judge wont stay in Delhi after he retires

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 19: It is better not to be in Delhi, the Supreme Court said on Friday, expressing its despair over the lack of implementation of measures to curb air pollution and traffic congestion in the capital which, it added, has become like a "gas chamber".

"In the morning and evening, there is so much pollution and traffic congestion," Justice Arun Mishra said, hearing a matter related to air pollution in the National Capital Region. It is better not to be in Delhi. I do not wish to settle in Delhi. It is difficult to live in Delhi," he said.

Delhi: Dense fog, poor visibility affects flight operations at IGI

A bench of justices Mishra and Deepak Gupta said these problems affect the right to life.

Justice Mishra cited an example to explain the problem of traffic, saying he was stuck in traffic on Friday morning and could have missed the swearing-in of two judges at the Supreme Court.

Advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the court as amicus curiae, told the bench that Delhi has become a "gas chamber" due to pollution. And Justice Gupta agreed, "Yes, it is like gas chamber."

Singh told the court that authorities always say they take measures to curb pollution but the reality is different.

"We would like to understand," the bench said.

"What are the things which are required to be done in actuality? What remains to be done as per the comprehensive action plan? What is required to keep in check environment pollution in Delhi? What more can be done?" it said, adding "implementation is definitely lacking".

Beware Delhiites, a car stolen every 12 mins in national capital

It said that many polluting vehicles enter Delhi at night and asked authorities how they were allowing these to enter the national capital. The court asked the Delhi police what action they have taken to remove unclaimed vehicles - that are no longer required in legal cases - from police stations.

It also asked the Delhi government why they have not appointed district 'nazir' (record keeper of record-room). Delhi government's counsel told it they are yet to receive a reply from Delhi Development Authority for allotment of land to build malkhana (record room).

"If you can dispose of the junk vehicles, you will get several acres of land," the bench said. The court posted the matter for further hearing on February 1.

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Story first published: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 5:47 [IST]United against politics of hate: Opposition launches blistering attack on Modi govt at Kolkata rally

India

oi-Deepika S

Kolkata, Jan 19: A host of opposition leaders, ranging from former BJP ministers such as Yashwant Sinha to first-time Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani, attacked the policies of the Narendra Modi government at the massive 'United India' rally organised by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Kolkata on Saturday.

Leaders from several opposition parties were in attendance, including AAP's Arvind Kejriwal, TDP's N Chandrababu Naidu, JD(S)'s H D Kumaraswamy, NC's Farooq and Omar Abdullah, DMK's M K Stalin, NCP's Sharad Yadav, SP's Akhilesh Yadav and JMM's Hemant Soren among others. Meanwhile, former BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha and Arun Shourie also graced the event, along with Hardik Patel and Jignesh Mevani. Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi were also present.

Opposition rally Live: Mamata roars from Kolkata, says BJP crossed Lakshman Rekha

Haven't seen a more Jandaar, Shandaar, Damdaar rally: Shatrughan Sinha

In a fiery speech, BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha, who shared the stage with opposition leaders at Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee's rally of unity said that he hadn't seen a more jaandar (lively), shaandar (grand) and damdaar (powerful) rally in his life.

Sinha ripped into his party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at today's rally. Calling the GST as "neem pe karela" (rubbing salt on wound) soon after demonetisation, he said, did Prime Minister Narendra Modi think of the farmers, traders and the youth when he announced demonetization at midnight.

Calling it a "Tughlaki farman", Sinha said that PM Modi did not even think of the ordinary women in the country, who saved cash after household expenses, for rainy days.

Modi is a publicity PM, not a performing PM: Chandrababu Naidu

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said, "Today is a historic day. We have only one ambition- Save India, Save Democracy. We have to unite India; BJP is trying to divide India. The BJP and NDA have betrayed the nation. This government is doing fraud by paying extra for 36 jets. It has misled the nation in this case.

"This Prime Minister is a publicity PM, not a performing PM. The GST is a fraud, economic growth is stagnant. The govt is interfering in the federal set up," he added.

Fight not to remove PM Modi, but against a mindset: Yashwant Sinha

The opposition's efforts to form a grand alliance is not an attempt to remove Prime Minister Narendra Modi but to get rid of a mindset, former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said at Mamata Banerjee's rally of opposition leaders.

Sinha, a former minister in the NDA government and a known critic of the PM, said democracy has been under attack in India for the last few years when criticising the government makes a person anti-national.

Yashwant Sinha batted for a united opposition candidate against the BJP in 2019 elections.

Bengal Tigress call to oust BJP will be successful: Arun Shourie

Former union minister Arun Shourieasked the opposition to work together to throw out the BJP government at the Centre in the coming Lok Sabha polls. Referring Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee as "Bengal Tigress", he said, "The Bengal tigress has given the call to oust BJP. I am sure it will be successful."

Unity of corrupt leaders: Babul Supriyo on Mamata Banerjee's mega rally

Kumaraswamy calls Mamata a role model

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy said today that in 70 years, the country has seen emergence of strong regional parties which have played important roles to protect the interest of their own states and understanding the emotions of their own people.

Describing Mamata Banerjee as a role model for the women of the country, Kumaraswamy said that she has empowered women of the state.

If Modi-Shah come back in 2019, they will destroy this country: Arvind Kejriwal

AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said, "In the last five years, PM Modi and Amit Shah's combo has finished the country. Today, the country is fed up with them. Modi has told lies, took votes from the youth, promised them jobs. Today, naukri (job) is a far fetched ideal, there is a job deficit and the farmers are worst hit. Farmers are committing suicide when their crops are getting destroyed. PM Modi and Shah tend to hand them over to insurance companies to recover their money, and these insurance companies are Modi's friends.

PM 'manufacturer, whole-seller, distributor' of lies: Tejashwi Yadav

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav today launched a savage attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party, the BJP, at Mamata Banerjee's rally in Kolkata. In an emotive speech, Yadav said the PM was the "factory, manufacturer, whole-seller, and distributor" of lies.

Taking a jibe at PM Modi-- who calls himself the chowkidar (watchman) of the people--Mr Yadav said if he was the chowkidar, the janata (Public) was the thanedaar (police).

Akhilesh lashes out at PM Modi

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said, "Bengal will show the way to the rest of the nation. They tease us saying they have so many PM hopefuls, but who will be the one? The public will decide who will be our PM. We ask you who failed you, who upset the country and its people, who played dirty games and spread hatred, it's the BJP. When they promised sabka saath sabka vikas, they tried to poison your society. Modi's message is a message of hate."

PM Modi fears Mamata Banerjee: Stalin at united opposition's rally

"This is the second freedom struggle. The elections will serve as a platform to get rid of the Modi government. Modi had claimed that there is no opposition in India; today he is talking only about oppositions. He is scared, he is scared that we will dethrone the BJP from power. This BJP government is not for commoners, it's for corporates. Rafale deal is a case of corruption. Vijay Mallya left India with the help of this government, Sushma Swaraj helped Nirav Modi flee the country," Stalin said.

EVM is a Chor machine: Farooq Abdullah

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah insisted on the return of the ballot paper for a fair selection process. Calling the electronic voting machine (EVM) a "thief", the National Conference leader said no country in the world uses this machine.

"EVM is a chor machine. We should meet the Election Commission of India and the President to urge them to stop the use of EVMs," Mr Abdullah said at the "United India Rally" organised by the Trinamool Congress chief at Kolkata's Brigade Parade Ground.

Mahagathbandhan will end crisis in country under BJP: Jignesh Mevani

Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani today said the coming together of so many opposition leaders at TMC's opposition rally gives a message for change in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) will ensure the defeat of the RSS and the BJP, Mr Mevani said, addressing the massive opposition rally at Brigade Parade Grounds.

"The country is going through an unprecedented crisis with the exploitation of the poor, minorities and dalits in the four-and-half-year rule of the BJP," the independent leader from Gujarat said.

Shatrughan Sinha avoids question on Ram temple; joins Mamata's opposition rally

He also expressed hope that when the Mahagathbandhan forms government at the Centre, it will ensure the upholding of the Constitution, and the country will become a true socialist republic.

We are fighting against thieves: Hardik Patel

Gujarat Patidar leader Hardik Patel said today that while Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had given a call to fight against ''goro'' (Britishers) "we are fighting against ''choro''(thieves)."

The young Gujarat leader thanked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for bringing all major opposition leaders on one platform and pointing towards ''jansalab'' (mass gathering) said it was an indication that BJP is on its way out of power.The war has just begun, let us not let the lockdown go waste: PM to Chief Ministers

Soon you will get lightning alerts: Find out how

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

New Delhi, Jan 19: The Union government is developing a Common Alert Protocol (CAP) system to warn people about impending thunderstorm and lightning strikes, which account for the second highest number of natural disaster deaths in India, a top official has said.

K J Ramesh, the director general of meteorology, India Meteorological Department (IMD), said predicting thunderstorm and lightning might be a possibility soon by studying satellite and radar images and collating data from several other sources.

Five killed in lightning strike, one drowns as rains lash West Bengal

"The CAP model has already been tested successfully. A message can be pushed into all active cell phones in a particular area, alerting people about the possibility of lightning," he said at a three-day international conference, which began here on Thursday evening.

The top IMD official also complimented the Odisha government for talking "proactive steps" in building proper infrastructure to ensure safety of its people during natural hazards.

"The Odisha government has been trying to improve matters and working closely with the IMD. The state administration has built a large number of cyclone shelters along the coastal areas," he said, adding that the media would need to play a crucial role in creating awareness on natural calamities.

Inaugurating the meet, Odisha's Higher Education and Industries Minister Ananta Das urged researchers to find solutions to nature's fury as lightning led to 1560 deaths in the state in the last four years.

Lightning strike kills two police constables in Bihar

Stating that he had once witnessed the death of three youths who were struck by lightning, he said nature's behavior has become erratic and Odisha was prone to many extreme weather events including thunderstorm, heavy rainfall, heat wave, cyclone and flood.

The state government has set up the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) in the aftermath of the 1999 super cyclone to cope with such situations and efforts were on to strengthen the mitigation machinery and emergency response to natural calamities, he said.

The conference, attended by over 200 scientists, researchers, academicians, planners and other stakeholders from abroad, including the US and South Africa, has been jointly organised by OSDMA and the Centre for Environment and Climate (CEC), in collaboration with other institutes.

Ministry of Earth Sciences Secretary M N Rajeevan, Odisha's Special Relief Commissioner Bishnupada Sethi and Purdue University Profesor Dev Niyogi were among those who spoke on the occasion.

Sethi said the three-day conference has been organised to attract national attention on natural hazards and find methods to manage such events.

Odisha, he said, suffered a loss of Rs 72,000 crore due to damage caused to infrastructure by natural calamities in the last 24 years.

"Lightning alone has caused over 5000 deaths in the state since the super cyclone of 1999. Most of these casualties occurred between April and September. The researchers should be able to find out why some Odisha districts like Deogarh were less susceptible to lightning when compared to Mayurbhanj," he stated.

Odisha: 34 killed due to lightning in 36 hours

Rajeevan, on his part, said it was difficult to predict certain natural hazards because of their brief lifespan.

"The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune and Earth System Science Organization (ESSO) have developed an app, 'Damini', to monitor lightning activities.

There was need for more extensive study in the area and the Ministry of Earth Sciences is carrying out a research project on thunderstorms," he added.

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Story first published: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 11:51 [IST]Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

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India

oi-Deepika S

Kolkata, Jan 19: Sidelined BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha on Friday avoided media when he was asked about the Ayodhya land dispute case. He went a step ahead and joined an anti-BJP rally organised by the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata's Brigade Parade Ground.

The actor-politician has been at odds with the BJP on several decisions taken by the BJP-led Centre, including demonetisation, and has criticised it as a "one-man show".

When a reporter asked him a question on Ram Temple, Sinha simply said, ''Khamosh'' (quiet) and walked away.

Asked if Banerjee could become prime minister after the 2019 election, he said, "PM will be decided by people and leaders of the parties based on numbers after the election. But she is certainly in the category of best personality."

Opposition rally: Modi-Shah have done what Pak could not, says Kejriwal

"She is no more only a regional leader but a prominent national leader," Sinha, her colleague in the NDA Cabinet of former prime minister A B Vajpayee, said over phone from Mumbai.

Asked about the speculation in the media that he might take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi in the Lok Sabha election as a candidate of the united opposition, Sinha said, "I neither confirm this nor deny it."

"It's churning period for me. I will speak on these issues only when the weather changes for good," he said, appearing to be philosophical.

The BJP Lok Sabha member from Patna Sahib constituency is a "star speaker" at the rally.

The rally is attended by leaders from opposition parties, including HD Deve Gowda, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Chandra Babu Naidu, AAP's Arvind Kejriwal, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, BSP's Satish Mishra, besides Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie.

It is being projected as a show of strength by anti-BJP political parties ahead of the general election, expected to be held in April-May.

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Story first published: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 14:20 [IST]Sabarimala: Two woman devotees forced by policemen to return

India

oi-Deepika S

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 19: Two young women were forced to return on Saturday by policemen, while they were on their way to the Pamba base camp in Kerala's Sabarimala.

Reshma Nishanth and Shanila had tried to enter the abode of Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimala last week too, but were stopped at Neelimala.

As many as 51 women aged between ten and 50 have entered Sabarimala since an entry ban on women in that age group was lifted.

On January 2, Kanakadurga, 44, and Bindhu, 42, became the first women to enter the hill shrine, three months after the Supreme Court allowed women of all age groups to enter Sabarimala. Following their entry, the head priest decided to close the sanctum sanctorum of the temple in order to perform a "purification" ceremony.

Kerala's list of 51 women who entered Sabarimala has a Tamil Nadu man

Violence involving the BJP-RSS and the ruling CPI(M) rocked parts of Kerala during the January 3 hartal with several houses and shops of rival leaders and workers being attacked over the women's entry into the temple.

On January 4, a 46-year-old Sri Lankan devotee, Sasikala, managed to enter the sanctum sanctorum of Sabarimala. A week later, a young dalit activist, claimed to have visited Sabarimala, disguised as an elderly pilgrim. However, the police and government did not confirm her claims.

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Story first published: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 10:26 [IST]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

Polls in J&K: Review by CEO soon

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

Jammu, Jan 19: A team of the Election Commission will soon visit Jammu and Kashmir to review the situation with political leaders and other stakeholders on polls in the state.

"A team of Election Commission will visit the state soon to have a review of situation with political leaders and other stakeholders for holding the elections," state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shailendra Kumar said Friday.

BPL families to get cattle in J&K

On the issue of holding of simultaneous polls, the CEO informed that his office had already taken necessary steps for holding the elections, but decision lies with the Election Commission, who would take a final call at an appropriate time after taking all aspects into consideration.

Speaking about the progress on updation of voters for which the final publication date was January 1, Shailendra said the exercise was launched on September 1, but the date was extended by the Election Commission for the state, along with some other states till January 31.

Weather forecast for Jan 19: Moderate rain, snowfall in J&K, Himachal Pradesh

During this period, as many as 3,07,813 additions, 1,25,834 deletions, 94,565 corrections and 14,989 transpositions were made, the CEO said.

A massive awareness programme will being launched soon to educate the masses about the voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT).

The CEO said the Election Commission had allocated 17,000 additional EVMs with VVPAT facilities to the state to be used in the elections.

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Story first published: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 11:43 [IST]PM to launch customised crash course for Covid frontline workers

PM lauds mother for following Covid norms, isolating from 6-year-old boy to protect him from coronavirus

India is adaptable, agile even during pandemic: PM Modi at fifth edition of VivaTech

PM Modi meets his mother during Gujarat tour

India

pti-PTI

Gandhinagar, Jan 19: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday met his nonagenarian mother Hiraba in Raisan village near here after he made a brief stopover on his way to Ahmedabad Airport.

Hiraba lives with the PM's younger brother Pankaj Modi in the village.

All I can hear from Bengal is 'Bachao Bachao': PM Modi reacts to oppn rally

The prime minister spent around 30 minutes with his mother and other family members in the morning and then left for Ahmedabad airport, sibling Pankaj said.

PM Modi is on a three-day visit to Gujarat since January 17.

PTIOpposition rally Highlights: Gathbandhan sounds battle cry from Kolkata, vows to crush BJP

India

oi-Vikas SV

Kolkata, Jan 19: Massive show of strength rally by the opposition parties concluded on Saturday afternoon with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee warning the PM Modi-led goverment at the Centre that their days were numbered. Who's who from the opposition ranks were on the dais with Mamata in Kolkata and in unison they criticised the BJP rule, accusing the saffron party of being 'anti-democracy'.

From former prime minister HD Deve Gowda to rebel BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, all on the dais stressed on how the current regime was interferring with the institutions and misusing the mandate given to them in 2014. Many leaders stressed that it was important to forget differences and stay united if they want to oust the BJP from the Centre.

Here are the highlights from the rally:

Newest First Oldest First Rally ends with National Anthem. Mamata warns BJP and says this is the beginning of BJP's end. "BJP Hataao, BJP hataao" chants Mamata. Badal do, badal do, she further chants. There will be no achche din for BJP. I am not concerned about who becomes the PM, I just want BJP to go," says Mamata. "This meeting has been forced by historical necessity. You ask who's the leader of the Opposition. There are so many people on the stage. Can't you see? We have many leaders unlike your party," says Mamata. collective leadership is the need of the hour. We are all leaders, we are all equal, we have united because country needs us, says Mamata. He claims he is clean but look at all the scams his govt is involved in. Things change, even weather changes, then why shouldn't the government change," says Mamata. Look at the way they are targetting the opposition leaders. Look what they did to Lalu ji. They are misusing CBI. They are ruining institutions... They are interferring in the work of state governments, says Mamata. This government's days are numbered...They have crossed Lakshman Rekha, says Banerjee. "Modi's expiry date is over just like your pills. We are now here to build a new India," says Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee begins address. I want to tell people of Bihar, they have been cheated .. Help us in defeating Modi ji. Let us support Mamata ji, says Tejashwi Yadav. Modi ji is a factory of lies. He keeps lying. His politics is adultrated, says Tejashwi. He says we must be united and be cautious. My father was sent to jail. It was a conspiracy. Who ever opposes them, they send ED and CBI after them, says Yadav. Modi ji will lose his sleep. Modi bhagawo, desh baccahao, says Yadav. Tejashwi Yadav begins address. "HAL was not given the contract to build aircraft. Please come clean with facts on Rafael otherwise u have to listen: Chowkidar Chor Hai, Chowkidar Chor Hai, Chowkidar Chor Hai," says Shatrughan. We shall make it, hum honge kaamyaab, says Sinha. Sharughan Sinha heaps praise on Tejashwi Yadav. They will try to distract us. They will try to divert attention, they will rake up Ayodhya, they will make all sorts of promises, says Shatrughan Sinha. The government must answer increased price of Rafale, says Sinha. "Demonetisation was announced in haste. They announced without considering the people and other senior party leaders. Even the finance minister was not kept in the loop before announcing demonetisation. Women, who had accumulated some wealth for their families' benefit, were left in lurch when note ban happened. They lost crores due to it," says Shatrughan Sinha. Farmers and youth suffering under current rule, says Shatrughan Sinha. He slams government over Rafale deal. He says government insulted HAL. Demonetisation and GST were a double blow on people...Why are you hiding details of Rafale deal, Sinha says. "Even before being a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, I am leader of Bharat. So whatever I say or do, is for the people and for their benefit. I am answerable to them. Hence, I try to show BJP a mirror so that they understand that it's a democracy and they cannot do such injustice. Yashwant Sinha tells me that BJP will now throw me out of the party. But I am not scared but I am a people's man," Shatrughan Sinha says. Under Atal Bihari Vajpayee there was democracy, now there is dictatorship, says Shatrughan Sinha. People ask me that you are in BJP then why are you rebellling. I am with truth. I am not afraid of speaking the truth, says Shatrughan Sinha. He says Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie told him that I would be expelled from the party after this, so be it. Shatrughan Sinha calls Mamata Banerjee revolutionary leader. Shatrughan Sinha begins address. "I request senior regional leaders to prepare a manifesto together to take it forward. This task needs to be executed by the leaders themselves. I was the PM for a short time. I know that stable nation is important to build the a country. They got full majority, but what they have done is in front of everyone. We need to instill confidence among the people by telling them about our action plan," Deve Gowda says in Kolkata. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said the mega opposition rally being hosted by her Trinamool Congress here on January 19 would sound the "death knell" for the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls and regional parties would be the deciding factor. Large scale preparations have been made to ensure that it is a complete success. Besides the huge podiums, 20 watch towers have been erected and 1,000 microphones and 30 LED screens put up so that the spectators can see and hear the speeches of the leaders clearly. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu alleged on Friday that the Modi government had failed on all fronts and had been misusing all the constitutional institutions of the country. Ahead of Mamata Banerjee's mega opposition rally in Kolkata tomorrow (January 19), Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday wrote to the West Bengal Chief Minister extending is support and said opposition unity is needed to uphold democracy, social justice and secularism. #WestBengal: Crowds begin to gather for TMC led 'United India' rally in #Kolkata, today. pic.twitter.com/hGtObQM6VG  ANI (@ANI) January 19, 2019 Crowds begin to gather for TMC led 'United India' rally in Kolkata. The leaders who have confirmed their participation are: Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, JD(S) chief HD Deve Gowda, Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, Babulal Marandi of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik), Former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie, RLD Chief Ajit Singh, National Conference's (NC) Farooq Abdullah, DMK President MK Stalin, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar, BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha, SP's Akhilesh Yadav, RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel. The mega rally, convened by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for showcasing a united stand against the centre's ruling BJP in the coming general elections, is being billed as the biggest in the venue both in terms of the prospective huge crowd and large gathering of parties and leaders from across the country. "Mamata Banerjee has called everyone to defeat combo of Amit Shah and Narendra Modi. I support this..Mamata didi has called all non BJP parties here as the Amit Shah-Narendra Modi duo is very dangerous and the country needs to be saved from them," Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal reportedly said. Senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi,said that the opposition leaders are joining hands to save their political career. "Tired of their defeats in the political battle, these leaders are now trying their luck by forming an alliance," he said. Mamata Banerjee arrives at Brigade Parade ground, Kolkata. Crowd up on their feet, loud chants can be heard across Brigade Parade ground as Mamata arrives. DMK president M K Stalin and former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav along with SP national vice-president Kiranmoy Nanda have arrived here at Brigade Ground. Mamata Banerjee is now introducing the regional leaders to the gathering. West Bengal: Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav and DMK Chief MK Stalin received by CM Mamata Banerjee at 'United India' opposition rally, in Kolkata. pic.twitter.com/1FZbrIm3zK  ANI (@ANI) January 19, 2019 Mamata Banerjee welcomes leaders. "There is an atmosphere of fear in the country. BJP rule is dangerous for the country," says former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren. "We are here to oppose communal forces," says Soren. Soren says everyone is suffering under BJP rule. Gegong Apang begins address. "We are here to save democracy. We are here to save democratic principles...Last four years have been testing times for Indian democracy. Democracy has been going through a worst phase," Apang says. "I congratulate Mamata Ji for organising this historic rally. I urge everyone to save democracy," says Apang. Shatrughan Sinha arrives. Hardik Patel earlier today said that Subhash Chandra Bose fought against the 'goro' (Britishers) "we are fighting against 'choro' (thieves)." "I am greatful to Mamata ji for inviting me," says Yashwant Sinha. "I know what the BJP will say about this gathering. They will say that we have united to overthrow one man. Its not about one person, its about the ideology," says Yashwant Sinha, a BJP rebel. "They have left no stone unturned to destroy institutions. They are a threat to democracy...This is the first government which is tinkering with numbers," says Yashwant Sinha. "What this government is doing is unprecedented in history. Anyone who opposes them is called anti-national," says BJP-rebel Yashwant Sinha. "No government has lied so much to the nation. There has been no government so far in history which has interfered in functioning of the institutions so much," says Arun Shourie. Shourie says the government must be ousted, there is no doubt in that. "What is happening in Karnataka will happen in Madhya Pradesh. We have to be aware, cautious," says Shourie. Shourie says all must unite and keep differences aside. "People have stopped trusting Modi-Shah. No you all have to show people that all parties will stay together," says Arun Shourie. "While uniting, we will fight the elections. They said 'Sabka saath, Sabka vikaas.' They took 'sabka saath,' but did 'sabka vinaash'," said Yashwant Sinha earlier. "The party that gains the most from division of votes is the BJP. We must stop division of votes," says Congress' Abhishek Manu Singhvi. "PM Modi makes fun of Gathbandhan. But the most unethical alliance was in Kashmir. They preach us, " says Singhvi. He thanks Mamata Banerjee for bringing all parties together.

One former prime minister, three chief ministers, six former chief ministers and five former Union ministers will be attending the Mamata Banerjee-hosted United India Rally in Kolkata, said reports.

More than 20 national leaders, including former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha and Arun Shourie; three present chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal, Chandrababu Naidu and H D Kumaraswamy; and former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Akhilesh Yadav and Gegong Apang will attend the meeting.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi have decided to skip the Kolkata event, but AICC general secretary Mallikarjun Kharge will represent the Congress at the rally.Marijuana racket busted in Hyderabad, 5 arrested

India

oi-Vikas SV

Hyderabad, Jan 19: A Marijuana smuggling racket has been busted in Hyderabad and five people have been arrested, said reports.

The Excise and Enforcement team has also seized 50 kg of Marijuana.

Cannabis is a banned substance in India and the person possessing it can be booked under sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

This tweet on Marijuana by Delhi Police is more like a 'guide' to smoking good pot

The Delhi Police's crime branch earlier this month busted a drug trafficking syndicate that imported drugs online via dark web from the US and other countries, to distribute them in the city. The police claimed to have recovered 11.67kg of marijuana, 50 grams of cannabis wax, 50 grams of malana cream and 76 cartridges filled with a costlier type of marijuana worth about Rs 2.7 crore from the two men.

What is Cannabis/Marijuana or ganja?

Cannabis, also known as marijuana, is a psychoactive drug from the Cannabis plant. It is being used in India for both medicinal and recreational purposes for centuries . The main psychoactive part of cannabis is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Dried cannabis leaves are usually smoked, although they also be eaten or drunk in different forms. The earliest recorded uses date from the 3rd millennium BC. Since the early 20th century, cannabis has been subject to legal restrictions.

The possession, use, and sale of cannabis is illegal in most countries of the world. Effects of chronic use may include bronchitis, a cannabis dependence syndrome, and subtle impairments of attention and memory.People who smoked cannabis regularly in adolescence exhibit reduced connectivity in specific brain regions associated with memory, learning, alertness, and executive function.

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Story first published: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 11:05 [IST]Mamatas mega United India rally brings Kolkata to grinding halt

India

oi-Shubham Ghosh

Kolkata, Jan 19: As anti-BJP parties and leaders assembled at the Brigade Parade Grounds in Kolkata for the 'United India' rally organised by West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, the metropolis came to a grinding halt.

Cadres of the ruling party of Bengal started assembling in the city from the wee hours of Saturday and as vehicles multiplied, the state capital's transportation system came under stress. The traffic police were doing their best to keep things under control but the pressure was perhaps too much on the city.

Unity of corrupt leaders: Babul Supriyo on Mamata Banerjee's mega rally

The traffic cops suspended auto-rickshaw services on almost all routes of the city and as the day progressed, almost all vehicular movement was stopped barring the emergency services. The parking lots were full as the number of vehicles coming from outside the city also multiplied. People were even entering the city through waterways, putting that also under a lot of duress.

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Story first published: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 15:35 [IST]Kerala's list of 51 women who entered Sabarimala has a Tamil Nadu man

India

oi-Deepika S

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 19: Kerala government's latest claim that 51 women of menstrual age entered the Sabarimala shrine during the ongoing pilgrimage season has created a flutter and threatened to erupt into a controversy.

The list, in a violation of privacy, had the phone numbers, addresses and Aadhaar numbers of the 51 people. It has, however, turned into a huge headache for the government as several persons on it have denied the state's claims.

According to the list given by the Kerala government, 24 women from Tamil Nadu, 21 from Andhra Pradesh, 3 from Goa and 1 each from Karnataka, Puducherry and Goa entered the shrine to offer prayers to Lord Ayyappa.

Interestingly, the names of Kanakadurga and A Bindu, both from Kerala and below the age of 50, were missing in the list despite confirmation that the duo had visited the temple.

The Kerala government has informed the Supreme Court that a total of 51 women have entered the Sabarimala shrine since the apex court order threw open its doors to women of all ages.

The number came as a surprise as till now only two women - Bindu and Kanakadurga - were reported to have reached the hill-top shrine braving protests by right-wing activists and devotees.

The BJP, the Sabarimala Karma Samiti and the Pandalam royal family, associated with the Lord Ayyappa temple, came down heavily on the state government saying there were discrepancies in the age of the women devotees mentioned in the affidavit. This is the first time the government has stated that 51 women in the previously barred age group have entered the temple.

BJP state President P S Sreedharan Pillai termed the government's submission as "the biggest lie of the century."

The state had witnessed widespread violent protests for several days from January 2 after the LDF government confirmed that two women in menstrual age entered the shrine following the September 28 apex court order allowing women of all ages into the shrine.

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Story first published: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 9:23 [IST]MP: BJP Yuva Morcha leader fined Rs 10,000 for flouting COVID-19 norms but no case as he expresses 'remorse'

Ayodhya land deal: Rahul Gandhi slams BJP, says betrayal in name of Lord Ram is unrighteous

Karnataka political turmoil: Yeddyurappa calls back all BJP MLAs camping in Gurugram

India

oi-Deepika S

Bengaluru, Jan 19: The high-octane natak (drama) in Karnataka is likely to continue on Saturday as the Congress sets the house in order and BJP shifts its MLAs back to Bengaluru from Gurugram.

BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa has reportedly asked his MLAs, who were staying at a resort in Gurugram to come back to Bengaluru, even as Congress is seeking an urgent reply form four of its MLAs for skipping crucial party meet on Friday.

The Karnataka BJP MLAs were staying at a seven-star hotel in Gurugram since Monday to avoid being "poached" by the ruling Congress-JDS alliance.

Karnataka: Congress moves MLAs to Eagleton resort to 'work out counter-strategy against BJP'

Yeddyurappa has said no member of his party was involved in any operation to topple the Congress-JD(S) coalition government.

With the ongoing power tussle between the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition and BJP in Karnataka intensifying, both sides have been trading charges of trying to poach each other's MLAs.

"The BJP has nothing do with ruling coalition MLAs who are in Mumbai," the former Chief Minister said and accused the Congress and JD(S) of trying to shift the blame on his party to over up their 'failures and inability' to keep their flock together.

"No one from the BJP has indulged in any kind of operation or luring Congress-JD(S) MLAs.

We had gathered all our MLAs atone place and were discussing about the preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls for the last two-three days. Todayall are coming back," Yeddyurappa said.Google Doodle: Manlee Kongprapads 136th Birthday

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar P

Bengaluru, Jan 20: Search engine Google dedicated doodle to Thai dancer Manlee Kongprapad, born in Bangkok's Yai District on this day in 1885, who fell in love with dance at an early age and overcame a humble upbringing to distinguish herself within royal circles as a renowned performer and later as a teacher.

Kongprapad was raised by a single mother who worked in a palace kitchen. Her mother's job gave her the opportunity to watch royal dance performances, the young Kongprapad quickly became enchanted by the dancers' ornate costumes and graceful movements.

She was so captivated that she briefly ran away from her mother to practice the choreography. Receiving training from masters of the ancient art form, she became so proficient that she was recognized as a favourite of the court-even inventing some of her own moves that are still practised to this day.

Google doodle celebrates Dalida's 86th Birthday

Kongprapad would eventually become a part of the first generation of teachers to provide formal dance training at Thailand's first School of Drama and Musicology, which was founded in 1934 and later renamed the College of Dramatic Arts. In doing so, she helped preserve the rich cultural tradition that had changed her life, opening up similar opportunities for future generations of dancers.

Dance has a rich history in Thailand, dating back more than 500 years. Over the centuries, royal courts have been important patrons of classical dance, one of the region's most celebrated art forms, which incorporates theatrical elements to interpret epic tales of history and culture.

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Story first published: Sunday, January 20, 2019, 0:19 [IST]Get approval first, Delhi court tells police on chargesheet against Kanhaiya Kumar

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 19: The Delhi Police has been directed to get an approval from the legal department of the Delhi government before presenting the chargesheet against former student union leader Kanhaiya Kumar and others.

Why did you file the chargesheet without approval from the legal department, the court asked. The police said that it would get the approval from the government in 10 days.

The Delhi Police in its chargesheet against former student union leaders Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid has stated that the footage was genuine.

Kanhaiya Kumar led a procession and supported seditious slogans at JNU

There was a question mark raised over the footage that showed students at the JNU raising anti India slogans while condemning the hanging of Parliament attack convict, Afzal Guru.

We have video clips to prove the offence which has been corroborated by the statements of the witnesses and that Kumar was leading a procession and allegedly supported seditious slogans raised on the JNU campus in February 2016, the police also said.

All the footage was genuine and the presence of students belonging to Kashmir was also established through mobile clips and videos. The Kashmiri students had masks on during the procession, but did not cover their faces while returning the police also said. Further there was no permission granted to organise the event and every member was part of the unlawful assembly the police further said.

The police said that it had evidence to proceed against the accused, which also included seven students from Jammu and Kashmir. The police has accused them of organising the event against the hanging of Afzal Guru, who was hanged in connection with the Parliament attack.

The police alleged that Kumar had incited and was part of the mob that shouted anti India slogans. The police said there is no direct evidence against 36 other accused, including Communist Party of India leader D Raja's daughter Aprajita, but they can be summoned for questioning.

Kanhaiya Kumar incited mob to chant anti-India slogans says 1,200 page chargesheet

The chargesheet has been filed under IPC section 124A (sedition), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 465 (forgery), 471 (using as genuine, forged document), 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly), 149 (unlawful assembly with common object), 147(rioting), & 120B (criminal conspiracy).

The others charged in the 1,200 page chargesheet are Aquib Hussain, Mujeeb Hussain, Muneeb Hussain, Umar Gul, Rayeea Rassol, Bashir Bhat and Basharat. The police said there is no direct evidence against 36 other accused, including Communist Party of India leader D Raja's daughter Aprajita, but they can be summoned for questioning.

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Story first published: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 12:39 [IST]Dassault laughed its way to the bank: Chidambaram on Rafale

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

New Delhi, Jan 19: Firing a fresh salvo on the Rafale issue, the Congress alleged that the NDA government has wronged the country by reducing the number of aircraft bought under the deal as it "denied" the IAF the fighter jets it "desperately" needed and gave a "windfall" to Dassault Aviation by paying more per aircraft.

Addressing a press conference, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said the government did not buy the 90 more aircraft needed by the Air Force and paid Rs 186 crore more to French firm Dassault, maker of Rafale, for 13 India-specific enhancements in the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA).

If I was the finance minister: Here is Chidambaram's answer

The former finance minister reiterated his party's demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale jet deal, saying the decision is not amenable to court but to a parliamentary panel.

The Congress has alleged earlier that the Prime Minister increased the 'Benchmark Price' of Rafale deal from 5.2 billion Euros to 8.2 billion Euros and that the NDA government paid over Rs 1,600 crore per aircraft against UPA's negotiated price of Rs 527 crore per aircraft, demanding answers as to who is responsible for the loss to the state exchequer.

Chidambaram's press conference came in the backdrop of a media report claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to buy 36 aircraft instead of the 126 asked for by the Indian Air Force pushed the price of each jet up by 41.42 per cent.

"The government has wronged the country in two ways - firstly, it has compromised national security by denying to the Air Force 90 fighter aircraft that they desperately need. Secondly, it has purchased two squadrons that will cost about 25 million euro more per aircraft. At the 2016 exchange rate, 25 million Euros is equal to Rs 186 crore. India will pay Rs 186 crore more per aircraft," Chidambaram told reporters.

"There is no doubt any longer that Rafale aircraft deal deserves to be examined thoroughly by a joint parliamentary committee. The Congress reiterates its demand for constitution of a JPC," he said.

The Congress leader said he feels that Dassault "is laughing all the way to the bank", as the NDA government gave a "gift" to the French firm over amortization or recovery on the cost of 13 India-specific enhancements sought in the aircraft that cost 1,300 million Euros.

He said the cost of these enhancements has been recovered by Dassault in 36 aircraft and the same should have been recovered by it for 126 aircraft instead.

"That is a windfall for Dassault. That is the gift that the NDA government has given to Dassault and that is why I said that Dassault is laughing all the way to the bank....The windfall to Dassault was a deliberate decision of NDA government and is highly questionable," he said.

Rafale: Govt compromised on national security says Chidambaram

"The increased price per aircraft is a gift to Dassault that the NDA government gave between April 2015 and August 2016," he also said.

Chidambaram earlier said that in the light of new facts and revelations, "the question gains greater urgency: why did the government buy only 36 Rafale aircraft instead of 126 aircraft required by the Air Force?"

"The government has compromised national security by denying to the Air Force the 7 squadrons (126 aircraft) that it desperately needs," he tweeted earlier.

Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia also took to Twitter to demand answers from PM Modi on the increased cost of aircraft. "The PM's unilateral decision to buy 36 Rafales resulted in a price escalation of 41.42 per cent per jet. When will the prime minister answer?" he asked.

Chidambaram said serious issues are being raised in media reports about the process of decision-making in the NDA government and alleged that "the man who got away was Manohar Parrikar who passed the buck to the Cabinet Committee on Security. Clever man."

"We will not comment on the process today. However, it is necessary to compliment the three officers of the Indian Negotiating Team who stood up to pressure and forced a vote of 4-3 on every issue," he said, adding that he has never seen such a decision on a defence deal happening in any government so far in the country.

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Story first published: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 5:53 [IST]US: CDC classifies Delta variant, first identified in India as 'variant of concern'

Court order on Gilgit-Baltistan: India lodges protest with Pakistan

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

New Delhi, Jan 19: India on Friday summoned the deputy high commissioner of Pakistan and lodged a strong protest on a recent order by Pakistan Supreme Court extending its jurisdiction over Gilgit-Baltistan.

The Pakistani official was conveyed that the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, which also includes the so-called 'Gilgit-Baltistan', "has been, is and shall remain an integral part of India", the ministry of external affairs said.

On Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan order, China remains mum

In an order, the Pakistan Supreme Court has said that its jurisdiction and power extend to Gilgit-Baltistan.

"The deputy high commissioner of Pakistan was summoned today and a strong protest was lodged on recent order by Supreme Court of Pakistan on the so-called 'Gilgit-Baltistan' which is an interference in India's internal affairs," the MEA said.

It also said Pakistan was asked to immediately vacate all areas under its illegal occupation.

"Pakistan government or judiciary have no locus standi on territories illegally and forcibly occupied by it. Any action to alter the status of these occupied territories by Pakistan has no legal basis whatsoever," the MEA said in a statement.

Gilgit-Baltistan Order: Pak rejects India's objection but faces domestic protests

It said India rejected such continued attempts by Pakistan to bring material change in these "occupied territories and to camouflage grave human rights violations, exploitation and sufferings of the people living there".

In the order, the Pakistan Supreme Court has also asked the federal government in Pakistan to promulgate a new law within a fortnight to grant more rights, including fundamental human rights, to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

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Story first published: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 6:08 [IST]Chinese J-20 emerging as top Fifth Generation Fighter in world: Here's why

India

oi-Vikas SV

New Delhi, Jan 19: China's upgraded J-20 fighter is creating a flutter in the defence circle with Beijing based papers claiming that PLA's J-20 is superior to US' F-35. The J-20 is China's fifth-generation stealth aircraft that was first unveiled in 2011. It is generally seen as a direct competitor to the United States' F-35 stealth fighter.

Almost all the leading countries in the world are working on developing fifth-generation jet fighters which require high-end research and technological capabilities. There is no precise definition as such about the characteristics that a fifth-generation fighter should have, but it is agreed by and large that it must include stealth technology, supersonic cruising speed, and highly integrated avionics as part of the criteria.

China's new J-20 is one of the world's most advanced fighter jets and the country's answer to the American F-22 Raptor. The Chinese warplane was developed by the Chengdu Aerospace corporation, which began testing them in 2011 before the first planes entered service in March 2017. J-20 is considered by many as a full fifth-generation fighter.

China's fifth generation fighter jet J-20, which has been in service under the People's Liberation Army Air Force since early 2018, is endowed with state-of-the-art aviation and electronic technologies. Its range and weapons payload are widely considered to be better than the F-35's, enabling it to achieve its main mission of gaining aerial superiority in a 21st Century battlefield, reported an English-language Chinese newspaper.

Equipped with an advanced weapon system and capable of stealth and supersonic cruising, the F-35 is regarded as one of the most advanced fighter jets in the world. But China is no sitting duck in a potential clash with the US fighter jet, the report further said.

The Chengdu J-20 is 20.3-20.5 metres long, has a height of 4.45 metres and its wingspan is 12.88-13.50 metres. The maximum take-off weight is 34,000-37,000 kg. The fighter's range is about 1,200 kilometres which can be increased up to 2,700 kilometres with external fuel tanks.

[China's 5th generation fighter J-20 Chengdu: Where does it stand compared to Rafale?]

The Global Times also said the PLA's passive radars and meter wave radars could detect F-35s before they could pierce China's airspace, and could in turn guide the PLA's anti-aircraft missiles such as the HQ-9 and HQ-16 to fend off the F-35s.

Both aircraft possess highly integrated avionics and sensor equipment, featuring a low-observable, active electronically scanned array (AESA) that can track multiple targets in any weather.

The US experts, however, do not fully agree that J-20 is superior to F-35, but US military sees China's air force, and especially the J-20, as a substantial threat.J&K village becomes first in India to vaccinate adult population fully against COVID-19

False: Centre is not planning to bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir

Some actions by Indian government inconsistent with democratic values: Top US official

BPL families to get cattle in J&K

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

Jammu, Jan 19: The Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to give away cattle received from the military farms to the families living below the poverty line, officials said Friday.

The decision was taken here at a meeting of defence representatives and officers of animal husbandry department, chaired by advisor to the Governor Khurshid Ahmed Ganai, regarding the handing over of cattle to state government after the closure of military farms.

The military dairy farms at Nowshera, Udhampur and Jammu have a total of 1917 cattle heads of different types.

J&K: Grenade attack in Srinagar, no casualities

The advisor directed officers of animal husbandry department to prepare a plan for the distribution process with special preference to SC/ST families.

Ganai further directed the principal secretary to constitute district level committees headed by deputy commissioners to monitor the distribution at the district level.

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Story first published: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 10:36 [IST]As Congress carts its MLAs away, BJP comes up with plan B in Karnataka

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Bengaluru, Jan 19: The Congress has carted its MLAs to a resort, in what is being seen as an attempt to keep its flock together from possible poaching. Four of its MLAs are not in the resort and this has to a certain extent spoilt the party of the Congress which was trying to put up a united front.

B S Yeddyurappa on the other hand returned from Delhi to Bengaluru, following which he visited the ailing Siddaganga Mutt seer, Shivakumar Swamiji in Tumakuru. He also has asked all the BJP MLAs holed up in a resort in Gurgaon to return to Bengaluru.

Karnataka political turmoil: Yeddyurappa calls back all BJP MLAs camping in Gurugram

Does this mean that the operation to topple the ruling JD(S)-Congress coalition is over? Not yet, said a source close to Yeddyurappa. He is confident of convincing Umesh Jadhav, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kumathalli and B Nagendra. All these four stayed away from the Congress Legislature Party meeting.

Some within the BJP are confident that they would get these four to resign. However that would not be enough to bring down the number of the coalition. In addition to this the BJP is hopeful of convincing four more MLAs from the Congress to resign. The BJP feels that if this goes through, then a floor test could become necessary. During the floor test the BJP would hope that some more disgruntled elements from the Congress would cross vote.

In terms of numbers the job for the BJP is a Herculean one. It would need to bring down the house strength to 211 from 224. There are two independents, who have not revealed their next course of action as yet. It may be recalled that the two had resigned last week and said that they were pulling out of the government. This means that the BJP would need to convince at least 12 legislators to resign.

Karnataka: Congress moves MLAs to Eagleton resort to 'work out counter-strategy against BJP'

For the resignation ploy to work, a lot would depend on the Speaker of the House. He can keep the resignations in abeyance and ensure that the government continues to function.

For now the entire picture appears to be sketchy. The four MLAs who did not attend the CLP have not revealed anything as yet. The Congress while keeping its flock together has been trying to get in touch with the MLA, three of whom are still in Mumbai.Bengal Lockdown: Who needs e-pass and how to apply for it

All I can hear from Bengal is Bachao Bachao: PM Modi reacts to oppn rally

India

oi-Deepika S

Silvassa, Jan 19: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a scathing attack on the attempts being made by various opposition parties to form a 'mahagathbandhan' or a 'grand alliance' ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha elections due this year with a sole aim to oust the ruling BJP from power.

PM Modi, who spoke at a public meeting in Silvassa, said the big difference between the opposition leaders and him was that they were trying to save themselves while, he spent all his time, in interest of the country.

"My actions against corruption have infuriated some people. It's but natural for them to get angry as I've prevented them from looting public money. Consequently, they have now formed an alliance called Mahagathbandhan," the PM said.

Opposition rally Highlights: Gathbandhan sounds battle cry from Kolkata, vows to crush BJP

"This grand alliance is not just against me but the people of this country. All of them haven't come together yet but they are already negotiating their share in the spoils of power," PM Modi said.

"They are crying for help and shouting from Kolkata 'bachao, bachao'. This gathbandhan is not against Modi but against the country, he said.

Earlier in the day BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy said their party isnt threatened by this 'Mahagathbandhan'. Calling the meeting 'a rally of conflict', Rudy taunted asking: "Who is Mahagathbandhan PM's face?" The minister was addressing a press conference at the party's headquarter in New Delhi.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday rolled out the red carpet for opposition leaders to take on the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, which was attended by several leaders from different political parties.

The leaders include former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha and Arun Shourie; three present chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal, Chandrababu Naidu and H D Kumaraswamy; former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Akhilesh Yadav and Gegong Apang; and Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi.Ahead of Jan 26, three terror modules busted, two came close to striking

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 19: The intelligence agencies have had a busy couple of months. At least three terror plots have been busted ahead of Republic Day. Intelligence Bureau officials tells OneIndia that out of the three plots, two came very close to being executed.

The first one was a plot in Punjab. The intelligence detected movement of terrorists of the Khalistan movement and also those from Jammu and Kashmir coming together to carry out a big attack in Punjab and New Delhi.

A plan had been hatched by Zakir Musa, who entered Punjab in disguise. He was planning on carrying out a strike along with the Khalistan terrorists in Ludhiana and Delhi. He came to Punjab disguised as a Sikh and was in touch with several persons part of the local module.

Be alert! J&K police issue advisory ahead of Republic Day

A high alert was declared in Punjab, following which there was a major crackdown on the modules. IB officials say that the threat has not passed, but has been neutralised to a great extent.

The ISIS inspired module:

In December, the National Investigation Agency acting on the basis of several inputs provided by the Intelligence Bureau raided modules of Harkat-ul-Harb in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

Over 10 persons were arrested with several arms and ammunition. The NIA said that they were planning on carrying out a series of strikes ahead of Republic Day and also the general elections.

During the raids, the NIA found literature relating to the Islamic State and said that the module was inspired by the international terrorist group. However further investigations have shown that the module boss was being handled from Pakistan. This lent credence to the fact that the Intelligence Bureau has always maintained that the ISI has been setting up modules in the name of the ISIS in India.

Investigations also revealed the main intention was to disrupt the elections and embarrass the security agencies. An NIA official also said that the module was ready to launch a major strike ahead of January 26 and would have gone through with the plan had it not been busted in the nick of time.

Dawood is back:

The latest plot to be busted was one that was hatched by the D-syndicate. Three sharpshooters including an Afghan national identified as Wali Raja were arrested by the sleuths of the Special Cell, Delhi Police.

Dawood's Afghan killer, Kerala resident had two high profile targets on radar

It was learnt during investigation that the team of sharpshooters had been sent to India by Rasool Party, a close aide of Dawood Ibrahim. This module was being tracked by the IB since December and it was learnt that they were planning on carrying out a series of killings ahead of Republic Day.

Party, it may be recalled was one of the conspirators in the murder of former Gujarat home minister, Haren Pandya. Party is a key player and was instrumental in transporting several youth from Gujarat and Hyderabad to a terror module in Bangladesh.

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Story first published: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 16:50 [IST]Central government employees who are 45 years and above advised to take vaccine

7th Pay Commission: Why the TA for CG employees will not increase despite rise in DA

7th Pay Commission: Here is what to expect on Jan 26 and Feb 1

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 19: There are several reports which state that there could be good news regarding the 7th Pay Commission on January 26.

Similar reports had emerged ahead of August 15 as well, but Central Government employees were left disappointed.

A top official told OneIndia that there is no such announcement on the anvil. Sops will be doled out for sure, but it would come in different ways. Hence in this regard, the CG employees must keen a close watch on the Cabinet meetings that will take place.

All announcements would be made during the Cabinet meetings and not on Republic Day, the official also confirmed.

The other question is whether there would be any announcement in the budget scheduled for February 1. It would be a vote on account or an interim budget and hence CG employees cannot expect much in that as well.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has indicated that the budget would focus on larger aspects.

This would mean that it would be more than what an interim budget can offer. This brings us to the question whether there would be any announcement for the CG employees.

Looking at the reports emerging, it could be said that there would not be anything much for the CG employees in the interim budget. The budget's big focus would be on the farmer community, which has been largely disappointed with the government. Going by the big farmer push that the government is planning, it could be said that an announcement on the 7th Pay Commission is unlikely.J&K village becomes first in India to vaccinate adult population fully against COVID-19

False: Centre is not planning to bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir

Some actions by Indian government inconsistent with democratic values: Top US official

2 more bodies recovered from Khardung La Top avalanche site

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar P

Ladakh, Jan 19: Two more bodies, buried under an avalanche on January 18, were recovered by Fire & Fury Corps near Khardung La Top on Saturday. Seven bodies were recovered till now.

Five civilians were killed and five others are missing after two trucks they were travelling in came under an avalanche in Khardungla Top in the mountainous Ladakh region on Friday.

The avalanche took place at around 7 a.m, news agency PTI quoted an unnamed Border Roads Organisation official.

Weather forecast for Jan 20: Very heavy rain/snow very likely over J&K, Himachal Pradesh

Five bodies were recovered on Friday after the trucks were buried 20 feet deep under debris, nearly 800 metres from Khardungla Top towards South Pullu.

Governor Satya Pal Malik, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti condoled the loss of life in the accident.

In his message, the governor prayed for eternal peace to the departed souls and strength to the bereaved families in their hour of grief. The governor announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 5 lakh for the next of kin of those killed in the avalanche.

(With PTI inputs)

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Story first published: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 21:05 [IST]VVS Middle School

Students raise more than $700 for UNICEFPhoto Courtesy Greater Oneida Chamber of Commerce

From left are Greater Oneida Chamber of Commerce board member Doreen Borders, Scott McKinnon, and Greater Oneida Chamber of Commerce board member Rachel Siderine.Military pension exemption

Nathan Rice (Jan. 9 Public Pulse) questions the financial wisdom of a proposed tax break for military veterans and asks if its appropriate for another carve-out.

There are many carve-outs, and all should be reviewed.

This proposal isnt so much of a reduction of tax revenue but an anticipated increase to state coffers.

A friend retired six years ago as a technical sergeant with 20 years of service and thus receives about $21,500 in annual pension. He makes a great salary now as a civilian working for a defense contractor at Offutt Air Force Base.

He could take his $80,000 civilian salary and live in Iowa and pay less in taxes, since Iowa does not tax military pensions. Nebraska would not get as much income tax revenue if he lived in Iowa but worked at Offutt.

Or he can live in Nebraska and pay tax on his pension and his civilian income.

Nebraska will come out behind.

The proposal is more good than anything else.

Rob Butler, Omaha

Should have listened to BuffettWhere, exactly, is the Midwest? What are its proper boundaries, and which are its member states? Those are some of the questions explored in a new book from the University of Nebraska Press, covering a wide range of topics about the region.

Finding a New Midwestern History, edited by Jon Lauck, Gleaves Whitney and Joseph Hogan, doesnt offer a definitive answer to the Midwests boundaries, but it provides much fun in looking at the question.

Despite the familiar stereotypes, regional scholar J.L. Anderson writes, theres no single, monolithic Midwest identity and culture: Just as there are many Souths (Appalachia, Coastal, Piedmont, Bluegrass, Delta, etc.), there are many Midwests (Corn Belt, Upper Peninsula, etc.).

And even residents of the Midwest lack a consensus about which states actually belong to the region. Anderson quotes historian Drew Caytons observation from 2008: People who live in Nebraska do not necessarily think Ohio is in the Midwest and people in Ohio do not necessarily think Minnesota is in the Midwest.Phillips said he bought painting supplies by selling handmade greeting cards to other inmates. He followed a strict routine of painting each morning while his cellmate was elsewhere. He was sometimes inspired by photos in newspapers and liked to use bright colors that didnt spill into each other.

But a cramped cell isnt an art studio. Phillips said prison rules prevented him from keeping his paintings so he regularly shipped them to a pen pal.

After he was exonerated, Phillips rode a bus to New York state last fall to visit the woman. He was pleased to find she still had the paintings.

These are like my children, Phillips, a former auto worker, said during a tour with The Associated Press.

But I dont have any money. I dont have a choice. Without this, Id have a cup on the corner begging for nickels and dimes. Im too old to get a job, he said.

Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy supports Phillips effort to be compensated for his years in prison. Michigans new attorney general, Dana Nessel, is reviewing the case. Its complicated because he has a separate disputed conviction in Oakland County thats still on the books, spokeswoman Kelly Rossman-McKinney said.More than once Friday, he asked Frakes to detail his agencys plan to slim the overcrowding and meet the deadline.

What do you need from us to help you get there? Lathrop asked. Were open to whatever suggestions you have  its a public safety issue with those who have to be released.

Frakes said his department is working as hard as it can to prepare inmates sooner for parole by expanding rehabilitation programs so that more are eligible for release by the Parole Board, an independent panel of five people appointed by the governor. But he doubted that the deadline would be met.

Were going to try our very best, Frakes said.

The overcrowding emergency law, he told lawmakers, requires the Parole Board to take another, harder look at releasing inmates. But the law also says the board can deny release to those considered a very substantial risk to commit a violent crime or those considered more likely than not to refuse to follow the conditions of parole.WASHINGTON  Nebraskans and Iowans joined the crowds Friday from across the country demonstrating in the nations capital against abortion.

Participants in the 46th annual March for Life talked about the importance of delivering a positive message to the world about their beliefs.

But Jeff and Brenda Davis, of Beatrice, Nebraska, also said that their first time attending the national march represented an opportunity to fire themselves up for the cause.

Its as much for us, for everybody from all 50 states, to then go home and take some of the energy and enthusiasm with them, Jeff Davis said, as the family warmed up at a reception hosted by Nebraska Republican Sen. Deb Fischers office.

The couple brought two of their three daughters along for the event, which is traditionally held around the anniversary of the Supreme Courts landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized a legal right to have an abortion.

The past couple of years saw marchers rejoicing at having an administration that sides with them on abortion issues.

Vice President Mike Pence and his wife took the stage at Fridays pre-march rally, while President Donald Trump addressed the crowd via a prerecorded video .Then all of a sudden it kind of felt like it hit a black ice patch, and then it went sideways, said Salz, a producer in Los Angeles who was back in Omaha for a visit.

McCoy, the airport affairs manager, said crews had been working on treating Eppleys runways since the start of the freezing drizzle earlier in the day.

Sarah Smith was traveling Friday with her husband, Andy Lee, and their three small children from Alamo, California, for a nieces birthday party. Like many passengers, she said Fridays ordeal was mostly calm.

You could just tell you were sliding a little bit, and then a little bumpy near the end, she said.

Passengers said they stayed on the plane for about an hour after it slid off the end of Runway 14R. Stairs were eventually brought to the aircraft, and passengers were taken by bus back to the terminal, where they were briefly sequestered in a conference room.

Smith said her children didnt seem to notice that anything was amiss.

I dont think they even realized what happened, she said.

Philip Baris, 57, came to town from Los Angeles for a wedding. He had a window seat and said he knew that the landing didnt go right when he saw ice.Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

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The regional study covering all the key regions is an ideal data to understand growth opportunities at specific location or region. The analysis on the Industry Chain covering upstream and downstream customers will give access to a vast pool of knowledge to new or existing players.

The data in the section covering the opportunities & challenges have been collected by industry experts and analysts with deep understanding of the market. The details of the threats and Affecting factors is sure to assist in corporate decision making.

The following manufacturers are covered in this report, with sales, revenue, market share for each company: Ansell Healthcare, Church & Dwight, Reckitt Benckiser, BMS Factory, LELO, Luvu Brands, Doc Johnson, Adam & Eve, Fun Factory, Aneros, Bad Dragon, Beate Uhse, Crystal Delights, Happy Valley, Jimmyjane, Lovehoney, OhMiBod, Tantus.

Market size by Product Erection Rings, Dildos, Adult Vibrators, Other.

Market size by End User Online Stores, Retail Outlets, Specialty Stores.

Market size by Region, North America, United States, Canada, Mexico, Asia-Pacific, China.

Access Report and Full Table of Contents of Sex Toys Market @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/38924-sex-toys-industry-market-report

Table of Contents - Snapshot

Chapter 1 Study Coverage

Chapter 2 Executive Summary

Chapter 3 Breakdown Data by Manufacturers

Chapter 4 Breakdown Data by Product

Chapter 5 Breakdown Data by End User

Chapter 6 North America

Chapter 7 Europe

Chapter 8 Asia Pacific

Chapter 9 Central & South America

Chapter 10 Middle East and Africa

Chapter 11 Company Profiles

Chapter 12 Future Forecast

Chapter 13 Market Opportunities, Challenges, Risks and Influences Factors Analysis

Chapter 14 Value Chain and Sales Channels Analysis

Chapter 15 Research Findings and Conclusion

Chapter 16 Appendix

View More Related Reports @

Global Sexual Wellness Products Market Insights, Forecast to 2025

https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/38925-sexual-wellness-products-industry-market-report

Global Inflatable Toys Market Research Report 2018

https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/23350-inflatable-toys-industry-market-report

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DecisionDatabases.com is a Global business research reports provider, enriching decision makers and strategists with qualitative statistics. DecisionDatabases.com is proficient in providing syndicated research Report, customized research reports, company profiles and industry databases across multiple domains.

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Web: https://www.decisiondatabases.com/UPDATE 2:15 p.m.: The National Weather Service office in Valley now is expecting only about an inch of snow by the time the weather system moves out of the Omaha area. The freezing rain that was falling early Friday afternoon was expected to become a mix of freezing rain and snow before switching over to all snow Friday evening.

Creighton University announced on its Twitter page that it had closed at 2 p.m. because of the weather. Drivers in central Omaha were reporting that it is becoming difficult to keep their windshields clear because of the freezing rain.

Council Bluffs police said on Twitter that road conditions had deteriorated rapidly and noted that several calls had come in about people being injured in falls. "Everything is becoming coated with a thin layer of ice," Bluffs police said. "Please be careful!"

UPDATE, 1:45 p.m.: The Nebraska State Patrol said before 1:30 p.m. that troopers were reporting that main roads in the Omaha metro area are wet but side streets are covered with ice. The patrol recommended that people allow themselves extra time if they needed to be out driving.

UPDATE, 1 p.m.: Light drizzle is falling across the Omaha area, and sidewalks are starting to get slick, Omaha's street maintenance engineer said.The bout of freezing drizzle that hit the Omaha area Friday was expected to end overnight, but weekend warriors will face a new challenge through Sunday: frigid cold .

Omahans waking up Saturday could see fresh snow on the ground from precipitation that lingered into Friday night. No more than a half-inch was forecast to accumulate, said Van DeWald of the National Weather Service Office in Valley.

Saturday and Sunday will be dry, but increasing cold will nip at exposed skin. The high Saturday is forecast to be 16 degrees, while the low will drop to 4 or 5, DeWald said, but north winds of 15 to 25 mph could sink the wind chill to between minus 5 and minus 8.

So cold (weather) is the big story of the weekend, DeWald said.

Those winds should diminish by Sunday, which is expected to have a high of 21 and a low of 15. By Monday, DeWald said, things should return to a balmy 33.The World-Heralds statehouse reporters round up news highlights from the Legislature and state government into the Capitol Digest  a daily briefing for the political newshound with a busy schedule.

Industrial hemp. Industrial hemp would be legalized in Nebraska under Legislative Bill 457, introduced by State Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha.

The proposal would define industrial hemp the same way it is defined under the newly passed federal farm bill  as strains of the cannabis plant that are less than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol. That chemical, commonly known as THC, produces marijuanas high.

The farm bill gives a green light for hemp sales and production in states that allow it. Under LB 457, Nebraska farmers would be able to grow hemp, and entrepreneurs could process and sell products made with the low-THC plants.It will be rare, beautiful and probably doggone hard to see.

The weather forecast for Sunday night offers only slim hope to get a glimpse of the total lunar eclipse.

As the only total eclipse visible in North America until May 26, 2021, the event is already rare.

But in addition, the eclipse will take place when the full moon is near the closest point in its orbit to Earth  a time popularly known as a supermoon, according to NASA. This means that the moon is deeper inside the Earths shadow, and therefore may appear darker, the agency said.

It will also appear a bit larger than usual. How much bigger? NASA says about 14 percent larger than the smallest full moon, significant in close-up photographs but a difference not easy to discern with the naked eye.

The National Weather Service is predicting mostly cloudy skies for the spectacle, which will unfold after dark in the southeast and southern sky.

Its really disappointing, said John Johnson, astronomy outreach coordinator for the Omaha Astronomical Society. We had great plans if the weather would have cooperated.

Theres still quite a buzz about the one coming Sunday.A message popped up on my Facebook Messenger a few days ago and I felt relieved.

Finally, I had an answer to a question that had nagged at me for weeks: What had a woman I had never met given her mother-in-law as a gift?

I had sent the woman a message after reading a post she had written on a site for moms that had sparked one of the most entertaining, real-talk conversations I had seen in a while.

When I joined the group a few months ago, I saw it as a place to ask questions about schools and other childhood activities in my area. I hadn't expected to become invested in any of the women's lives on there. But then suddenly there I was, messaging a stranger because her post ended without an update and it felt as if someone had ripped the last page from my book. I needed to know how it ended, even if this wasn't exactly a serious novel.

The woman had asked the group: "Any suggestions on what to get the mother-in-law you despise? Begrudgingly, looking to pry about $10-15 from my cold, cracked, overwashed hands. I'm all for gag gifts but I feel if I give her a bible or some duck tape for her fingers (so she won't text us drama) that somehow I'll be the only one finding it humorous."For the protection of our patients and staff and in an effort to control the spread of infection within our hospital, public visitation is restricted until further notice, infection control nurse Mary Mockerman said. Please do not make social visits to patients if you are feeling ill, have a cold, cough, fever, sore throat, body aches or diarrhea.

The hospital also discourages all school-age children and youth from making social visits to the hospital. The restriction does not apply to people seeking medical attention.

Health officials are encouraging the public to wash their hands with soap and water and use hand sanitizer for the benefit of community wellness.

The annual flu vaccine is the most effective way to prevent flu. While people experience several symptoms at the onset of the flu, several symptoms overlap with the onset of a cold. However, cold symptoms are usually milder and are associated with runny and stuffy noses.

Lynne Adams, Scottsbluff Public Schools health services coordinator, said they do not have exact numbers on the number of students with the flu, but school faculty are working together to reduce the spread of germs.Irish actor Liam Cunningham leads a Late Late Show line-up including Mairead McGuinness, with music from Mary Black and Paddy Casey.

Joining host Ryan Tubridy to chat about the upcoming final season of Game of Thrones, actor Liam Cunningham will also discuss his recent trip to South Sudan where he visited those fleeing the civil war, photographing the people he met in the camps along his journey.

In one of the most turbulent weeks of Theresa Mays tenure, Ryan will be joined in studio by Mairead McGuinness, Vice President of the European Parliament and MEP, to get the view from Brussels as the United Kingdom goes back to the drawing board to negotiate a Brexit deal.

Irelands Favourite Folk Song is a national celebration of the songs that define us as a people. Ahead of the search, Ryan will be joined by Irish folk royalty including Mary Black, Phelim Drew, Aoife Scott and Fiachna O Braonain, to discuss the music theyre most connected to and to play some of their most loved songs.

At the beginning of 2018, Trisha Lewis weighed 27 stone and was fearful for her life. One year later, she is 100lbs down, and has shared her weight loss journey with her with 17,000 Instagram followers. Trisha joins Ryan to discuss the realities of life for someone with morbid obesity, and her plans to lose another 100lbs in 2019.

Illegally adopted from a GP in Monaghan in the 1970s, and with few clues to her origins, Margaret Norton will tell Ryan the extraordinary story of how, despite the odds, she recently reconnected with her birth parents.

Irelands largest festival of traditional music, TradFest, returns next week, and to celebrate well have a performance from 11 vocalists including Paddy Casey, Eleanor McEvoy and Sibeal Ni Chasaide.

There will also be comedy from Bridget and Eamon (Jennifer Zamparelli and Bernard O'Shea), and well be announcing details of the Late Late Shows annual search for the best new Irish enterprises.

Only on The Late Late Show, RTE One, Friday, January 18 at 9.35pmBetsy, a 3-year-old cow that escaped six months ago, during the annual rodeo in Anchorage, Alaska, has been roaming the outskirts of the city ever since, despite her owners best efforts to capture her.

Betsy the cow slipped out of her pen amid the bustle of the annual Anchorage rodeo last year, and headed right for Far North Bicentennial Park, a 4,000-acre forest on the outskirts of the Alaskan city. Cowboys saddled their horses and went after Betsy as soon as they noticed she was gone, but it was too late. She made it to the forest and shes been enjoying her freedom for the last six months, despite her owners attempts to catch her.

Photo: jvalley678/Pixabay

Im just totally exhausted from looking day in and day out, Frank Koloski, Betsys owner, told The Washington Post. Shes a go-getter, thats for sure.

The runaway cow is as slippery as a fish too. Koloski says that hes received dozens of tips and reports from joggers, bikers, and cross-country skiers who spotted Betsy on the snow-covered trails of Far North Bicentennial Park, and police often call him after getting reports of a cow on the loose from communities around Anchorage. He always drives to the spots where Betsy was last seen, but all hes been able to find so far is her hoof prints in the snow.

I go out there, Im standing in her tracks and shes nowhere to be found, the 47-year-old cattle owner complained.

Reports of a cow roaming the trails of Far North Bicentennial Park started circulating around Anchorage in the fall, with some of those who saw Betsy asking if they had been hallucinating. After all, the Alaskan forest isnt the type of place where youd expect to come face to face with a bovine.

Almost got run over by a cow last night on moose meadow, a November post in the Anchorage Fat BikeFacebook group read. As in, cattle, not a bear or a moose.  Am I crazy or has anyone else had a sighting in the area?

Up until last week, when Betsys owner took to social media to ask for help locating and retrieving his cow, reports of a cow roaming through the forest on the outskirts of Anchorage were met with skepticism, and those who claimed to have seen her were often told that they had been hallucinating. But now its official. There is a cow wandering through Far North Bicentennial Park, and shes been there for over six months.

Frank Koloski told The Post that people in and around Anchorage have been phenomenal with the support and with getting the word out to help bring my Betsy home, but added that most of them dont have the necessary cowboy experience required to capture a rodeo cow.

A rogue rodeo cow has been wandering Anchorage trails for months: I know deep down (she) doesnt want to be caught, said the owner https://t.co/3iK0IzppCG pic.twitter.com/MmJZIJFNze  Anchorage Daily News (@adndotcom) 14 January 2019

Attempts to lure Betsy with food have been unsuccessful, but her owner has a better plan. All he needs to do is figure out what area of the park his rodeo cow is hanging out in. Hell bring several other cows to that location, Betsy will rush to them, and he and his cowboy friends will rope her. But thats virtually impossible to do if he doesnt even know her approximate location.

Because the natural park is so large, Betsys owner cant do much more than hang around and wait for someone else to spot her. Then, he can execute his plan and pray that it works. In the meantime, Betsy continues to enjoy her freedom. Shes accustomed to the harsh Alaskan winter and reportedly has plenty of hay bales, patches of grass and mineral salt blocks to feed on. And because the forest is within city limits, the risk of her being attacked by wolves or bears is minimal.



Cows have gained a reputation as escape artists in the last couple of years. In 2018, we reported about a cow in Poland that escaped a farm and joined a pack of wild buffalo, as well as about another brave bovine that escaped on her way to the slaughterhouse and hid in a forest for over six weeks.Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

In this latest report on Selfie Sticks Market the market size is expected to scale up to USD BN by the end of financial year 2025. This report valued the market at USD BN in 2018. After evaluating the various market drivers and market restraints the report expects a % of CAGR across the study period. The report takes a deep dig in the market with detailed analysis on the Revenue, Production, and Capacity from 2013 to 2025.

The report also studies the marketing pricing, trends and extrapolates the growth rate for the next six years. The manufacturers data covered in the report assists in understanding the competitive scenario along with planning the capacity expansion plans.

The latest developments such as the organic and inorganic growth adopted by the key players mentioned in the report, throws light on the strategic planning of the competitors, thus assisting in taking informed decisions.

Download Free Sample Report of Selfie Sticks Market Report @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/download-sample-38922

The regional study covering all the key regions is an ideal data to understand growth opportunities at specific location or region. The analysis on the Industry Chain covering upstream and downstream customers will give access to a vast pool of knowledge to new or existing players.

The data in the section covering the opportunities & challenges have been collected by industry experts and analysts with deep understanding of the market. The details of the threats and Affecting factors is sure to assist in corporate decision making.

The following manufacturers are covered in this report, with sales, revenue, market share for each company: Anker, Fotopro, KobraTech, Kootek, Looq Robotics, Momax, Mpow, Fromm Works, Satechi, Selfie on A Stick, Selfie Stick Gear, Xiaomi.

Market size by Product Remote-Triggered Selfie Stick, Wired Selfie Stick, Bluetooth Selfie Stick.

Market size by End User Mobile Phone Application, Camera Application, Other.

Market size by Region North America, United States, Canada, Mexico, Asia-Pacific, China, India.

Access Report and Full Table of Contents of Selfie Sticks Market @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/38922-selfie-sticks-industry-market-report

Table of Contents - Snapshot

Chapter 1 Study Coverage

Chapter 2 Executive Summary

Chapter 3 Breakdown Data by Manufacturers

Chapter 4 Breakdown Data by Product

Chapter 5 Breakdown Data by End User

Chapter 6 North America

Chapter 7 Europe

Chapter 8 Asia Pacific

Chapter 9 Central & South America

Chapter 10 Middle East and Africa

Chapter 11 Company Profiles

Chapter 12 Future Forecast

Chapter 13 Market Opportunities, Challenges, Risks and Influences Factors Analysis

Chapter 14 Value Chain and Sales Channels Analysis

Chapter 15 Research Findings and Conclusion

Chapter 16 Appendix

View More Related Reports @

United States Selfie Camera Market Report 2021

https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/10020-united-states-selfie-camera-industry-market-report

Global Pogo Sticks Market Insights, Forecast to 2025

https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/37403-pogo-sticks-industry-market-report

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DecisionDatabases.com is a Global business research reports provider, enriching decision makers and strategists with qualitative statistics. DecisionDatabases.com is proficient in providing syndicated research Report, customized research reports, company profiles and industry databases across multiple domains.

Our expert research analysts have been trained to map clients research requirements to the correct research resource leading to a distinctive edge over its competitors. We provide intellectual, precise and meaningful data at a lightning speed.

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E-Mail: sales@decisiondatabases.com

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Web: https://www.decisiondatabases.com/She recalled him standing on that counter while the sit-in stretched on for three hours. Only later did she learn how he came to view the demonstrators that day.

In her home, on a wall next her couch, two of Blackwell's photographs from that day hang in a frame, along with a note signed by him. It reads, "Joan - Like I have said a hundred times - yall were the bravest people I ever saw."

Mulholland said she was not scared during that sit-in or at others that she participated in before and while attending Tougaloo College, a historically black institution in Mississippi where she was one of the few white students. She was one of the Freedom Riders and they knew the risks, she said.

"It was a given that any of us could be killed at any moment," she said. "Once you accept the idea you could die, what is there to worry about?"

Mulholland, who grew up in Arlington and later raised five boys there, wasn't taught by her parents to care about racial equality. Her mother believed in segregation and her father, while he didn't share her mother's beliefs, thought change needed to happen from the top down.Capital murder suspect David Anthony Pike spent nearly half of his life running from police until this week.

The 57-year-old fugitive was taken into custody in Puerto Rico on Thursday morning for allegedly forging his passport, which ended the decades-long search coined by investigators as "Operation Sweet Home Alabama," according to Chambers County Sheriff Sid Lockhart.

He and another man, King Albert Mayes, were both arrested in the mid-1980s and charged with the murder of Calvin Irwin, who was found fatally shot on County Road 84 just outside of LaFayette.

Pike made bond on a murder charge in Chambers County about 34 years ago. But before he was indicted on the charge, he fled the area, Lockhart said during a news conference Friday in Chambers County.

The sheriffs office promised the family they would not give up on finding Pike.

And (they) didnt, said a female relative holding a framed photo of Irvin during the news conference. Thirty-four years later, hes coming back.

The process for Pikes extradition back to Alabama will begin soon to face a charge of capital murder  robbery, according to Fifth Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jeremy Duerr.Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

In this latest report on Scented Candles Market the market size is expected to scale up to USD BN by the end of financial year 2025. This report valued the market at USD BN in 2018. After evaluating the various market drivers and market restraints the report expects a % of CAGR across the study period. The report takes a deep dig in the market with detailed analysis on the Revenue, Production, and Capacity from 2013 to 2025.

The report also studies the marketing pricing, trends and extrapolates the growth rate for the next six years. The manufacturers data covered in the report assists in understanding the competitive scenario along with planning the capacity expansion plans.

The latest developments such as the organic and inorganic growth adopted by the key players mentioned in the report, throws light on the strategic planning of the competitors, thus assisting in taking informed decisions.

Download Free Sample Report of Scented Candles Market Report @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/download-sample-38919

The regional study covering all the key regions is an ideal data to understand growth opportunities at specific location or region. The analysis on the Industry Chain covering upstream and downstream customers will give access to a vast pool of knowledge to new or existing players.

The data in the section covering the opportunities & challenges have been collected by industry experts and analysts with deep understanding of the market. The details of the threats and Affecting factors is sure to assist in corporate decision making.

The following manufacturers are covered in this report, with sales, revenue, market share for each company: California Exotic Novelties P&G, LELO, Reckitt Benckiser, Gellite Gel Candles, Himalayan Trading Post, Bath & Body Works, TATINE, CoScentrix, diptyque, Lee Naturals, Magnolia Scents by Design, Mels Candles, Net-a-Porter, Northern Lights Candles, Paddywax, Southern Made Candles, Soy Works Candle Company, Stand Around Creations, The Gel Candle Company, The Yankee Candle Company.

Market size by Product Lemon, Lavender, Frankincense, Chamomile Other.

Market size by End User Retail Outlets, Online Outlets.

Market size by Region North America, United States, Canada, Mexico, Asia-Pacific, China.

Access Report and Full Table of Contents of Scented Candles Market @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/38919-scented-candles-industry-market-report

Table of Contents - Snapshot

Chapter 1 Study Coverage

Chapter 2 Executive Summary

Chapter 3 Breakdown Data by Manufacturers

Chapter 4 Breakdown Data by Product

Chapter 5 Breakdown Data by End User

Chapter 6 North America

Chapter 7 Europe

Chapter 8 Asia Pacific

Chapter 9 Central & South America

Chapter 10 Middle East and Africa

Chapter 11 Company Profiles

Chapter 12 Future Forecast

Chapter 13 Market Opportunities, Challenges, Risks and Influences Factors Analysis

Chapter 14 Value Chain and Sales Channels Analysis

Chapter 15 Research Findings and Conclusion

Chapter 16 Appendix

View More Related Reports @

Europe Unscented Cleaners Industry 2016 Market Research Report

https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/6890-europe-unscented-cleaners-industry-market-report

Global Steam Ovens Market Research Report 2017

https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/606-steam-oven-industry-market-report

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DecisionDatabases.com is a Global business research reports provider, enriching decision makers and strategists with qualitative statistics. DecisionDatabases.com is proficient in providing syndicated research Report, customized research reports, company profiles and industry databases across multiple domains.

Our expert research analysts have been trained to map clients research requirements to the correct research resource leading to a distinctive edge over its competitors. We provide intellectual, precise and meaningful data at a lightning speed.

For More Details:

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E-Mail: sales@decisiondatabases.com

Phone: +91-90-28-057900

Web: https://www.decisiondatabases.com/Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

In this latest report on Intelligent Desk Market the market size is expected to scale up to USD BN by the end of financial year 2025. This report valued the market at USD BN in 2018. After evaluating the various market drivers and market restraints the report expects a % of CAGR across the study period. The report takes a deep dig in the market with detailed analysis on the Revenue, Production, and Capacity from 2013 to 2025.

The report also studies the marketing pricing, trends and extrapolates the growth rate for the next six years. The manufacturers data covered in the report assists in understanding the competitive scenario along with planning the capacity expansion plans.

The latest developments such as the organic and inorganic growth adopted by the key players mentioned in the report, throws light on the strategic planning of the competitors, thus assisting in taking informed decisions.

Download Free Sample Report of Intelligent Desk Market Report @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/download-sample-38915

The regional study covering all the key regions is an ideal data to understand growth opportunities at specific location or region. The analysis on the Industry Chain covering upstream and downstream customers will give access to a vast pool of knowledge to new or existing players.

The data in the section covering the opportunities & challenges have been collected by industry experts and analysts with deep understanding of the market. The details of the threats and Affecting factors is sure to assist in corporate decision making.

The following manufacturers are covered in this report, with sales, revenue, market share for each company: Ikea Group, Modoola, Fonesalesman, Carlo Ratti, Herman Miller, Tabula Sense, Milano Smart Living, Seebo Interactive, Kamarq Holdings, Ori Systems, OIF Life.

Market size by Product Single person, Mutiple Person.

Market size by End User Offices, Commercial, Home Use.

Market size by Region North America, United States, Canada, Mexico, Asia-Pacific, China.

Access Report and Full Table of Contents of Intelligent Desk Market @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/38915-intelligent-desk-industry-market-report

Table of Contents - Snapshot

Chapter 1 Study Coverage

Chapter 2 Executive Summary

Chapter 3 Breakdown Data by Manufacturers

Chapter 4 Breakdown Data by Product

Chapter 5 Breakdown Data by End User

Chapter 6 North America

Chapter 7 Europe

Chapter 8 Asia Pacific

Chapter 9 Central & South America

Chapter 10 Middle East and Africa

Chapter 11 Company Profiles

Chapter 12 Future Forecast

Chapter 13 Market Opportunities, Challenges, Risks and Influences Factors Analysis

Chapter 14 Value Chain and Sales Channels Analysis

Chapter 15 Research Findings and Conclusion

Chapter 16 Appendix

About Us:

DecisionDatabases.com is a Global business research reports provider, enriching decision makers and strategists with qualitative statistics. DecisionDatabases.com is proficient in providing syndicated research Report, customized research reports, company profiles and industry databases across multiple domains.

Our expert research analysts have been trained to map clients research requirements to the correct research resource leading to a distinctive edge over its competitors. We provide intellectual, precise and meaningful data at a lightning speed.

For More Details:

DecisionDatabases.com

E-Mail: sales@decisiondatabases.com

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Web: https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ANKARA, Turkey  After lengthy meetings with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Senator Lindsey Graham called on Saturday for a slower, smarter withdrawal of American troops from Syria to avoid setting off a broader war and a nightmare for Turkey.

Mr. Graham, Republican of South Carolina, has a long familiarity with Turkey and its place in the NATO alliance, and he said he was on a mission to ensure that the American withdrawal announced by President Trump in December did not cause greater damage that would be against United States interests in the long run.

I can understand the desire to withdraw, but withdrawal without a plan is chaos, he told a news briefing in Ankara, the Turkish capital. It would be Iraq on steroids, he warned, in a reference to how the Islamic State gained power after the withdrawal of American forces from the country in 2011.

Mr. Grahams trip to Turkey came after an aborted visit by the White House national security adviser, John R. Bolton, who left the country without meeting with Mr. Erdogan. Infuriated by comments Mr. Bolton had made in Israel that Turkey would be forced to ensure that Kurdish forces were protected, Mr. Erdogan canceled a proposed meeting.ROME  Women of all ages, and some men, took to the streets in a dozen cities around the world on Saturday, the anniversary of the 2017 Womens March that served as a strong rebuke of President Trumps policies.

The annual marches and rallies have taken on wider themes since then, such as challenging the rise of the far right, while also calling for an end to inequality, the gender pay gap and violence against women.

Some events were organized in response to a call from the United States to create a Womens Wave. But others were held independently, and in many cases, the core message was that womens rights are about more than Mr. Trump.

In cities across the United States, women braved subzero temperatures in some parts of the country to march even as accusations of anti-Semitism have rocked the movement and prompted questions about its future.They do not feel sorry; they are sowers of hatred, Mr. Szczepaniak said. We hope very much that after this murderous murder, the Polish nation will finally understand which side the truth is on. And again we can be proud of Poland and our solidarity, as we were in 1989.

That was the year Poland broke free from communist rule. The spark in the fight for freedom came from this city, where the labor unions of the shipyards banded together in a movement that became known as Solidarity, or Solidarnosc in Polish.

But the roots of todays current political divide can also be found in those days of uprising.

Mr. Kaczynski, along with his twin brother, Lech, fought alongside Lech Walesa to bring down Communism. In 1990, he helped the Solidarity hero win the presidency and later served as Mr. Walesas chief of staff. But they fell out after an intense power struggle and have been enemies ever since.

Mr. Kaczynski soon came to believe that the revolution had never been completed. By agreeing to a bloodless transition that allowed some Communist figures to remain in public life, he believed political leaders had failed to eradicate the Soviet infection.

He formed Center Agreement and, ultimately, Law and Justice, which had a brief turn in power from 2005 until 2007. But much of his agenda had been stymied by the courts. The party lost the early election to the liberal Civic Platform.PARIS  Nearly four months after an Interpol chief was detained in China on corruption charges, his wife has applied for asylum in France, she said on Saturday.

Grace Meng, wife of Meng Hongwei, the former Interpol president, has remained in France, where the organization has its headquarters, since his arrest.

I have officially claimed asylum in France, Ms. Meng said in a text message on Saturday.

Ms. Meng, who has refused to specify her Chinese given name or to have her face photographed or filmed by the news media, said in interviews on Friday that she was seeking French protection for her and her twin boys.

I cannot go back to China; such strange things happen there, and fundamental rights are not respected, she told the newspaper Liberation. Even here, I am afraid of being kidnapped, and I fear for the safety of my children.WILTINGEN, Germany  In the bright, cavernous basement of the new Van Volxem vinery building, Christoph Dirksen, one of the Mosel regions most important wine tasters, was making his rounds sampling from giant stainless-steel tanks.

Its early to make a final judgment on the wines of 2018, even for Mr. Dirksen, a critic for Vinum, an industry publication. But he nodded his head approvingly. Here, and almost everywhere else in the country, German winemakers are celebrating what they believe will prove to be a banner vintage.

Its not just good, said Roman Niewodniczanski, one of Germanys most celebrated vintners and the owner of Van Volxem. Its grandiose!

What proved to be the countrys hottest, driest spring and summer on record were disasters for many German farmers, river boat captains and foresters. But they were a blessing for winemakers, leading to a record harvest  Mr. Niewodniczanski estimates his output will be up 20 percent or more on last year  while also imparting a high must weight: the all-important measure of a grapes sweetness.TAIPEI, Taiwan  Just a few weeks ago, President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan was struggling politically. Her party had lost in key local elections, imperiling her run for a second term next year.

But then she got help from an unlikely source: the president of China.

In a speech this month to the people of Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy that Beijing considers Chinese territory, President Xi Jinping said the island must be and will be united with China and warned that independence efforts could be met by armed force.

Mr. Xis speech raised anxieties in Taiwan that Ms. Tsai was able to tap into by delivering a rebuke of Mr. Xis proposal, in a rare departure from her usual cautious ambiguity.

Democratic values are the values and way of life that Taiwanese cherish, she said, and we call upon China to bravely move toward democracy.John Aslanyan, a pharmacist from San Diego and a regular visitor to Rosarito, said he couldnt convince his fiancee to join him on this day trip to the town.

She was nervous, he said, that there would be a repeat of Novembers border closing  a worry shared by many other of his friends, he added. He did persuade his sister to tag along on this jaunt.

This is the first time I am seeing this beach this empty, said Mr. Aslanyan, the lone diner at a restaurant on Rosaritos oceanfront.

Moises Espitia, an analyst with the Metropolitan Center of Economic and Business Information, a local research group, said the financial pain caused by the borders shutdown in November was felt particularly acutely in the services and tourism sector.

On the day of the shutdown, the more than 59,000 restaurants and hotels in the Tijuana and Rosarito Beaches metropolitan area suffered a collective loss of $6.7 million, Mr. Espitia estimated.TLAHUELILPAN, Mexico  Mexicos president vowed on Saturday to redouble his fight against an epidemic of fuel theft after thieves punctured a pipeline north of Mexico City, causing an explosion that killed at least 79 people and injured 81 others.

The blast underscored the deadly perils of the fuel-theft racket, which has cost the government billions of dollars a year and has been the target of a weekslong crackdown by the administration of Mexicos new president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The governments strategy has included diverting fuel from the pipelines most heavily targeted by criminal gangs, and transporting it by truck. But the logistical changes have slowed deliveries across the country, causing shortages and long lines at service stations.Vinton, IA (52349)

Today

Variably cloudy with showers and thunderstorms likely. Some thunderstorms may be severe overnight. Storms could contain damaging winds. Low around 70F. SSE winds shifting to NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Variably cloudy with showers and thunderstorms likely. Some thunderstorms may be severe overnight. Storms could contain damaging winds. Low around 70F. SSE winds shifting to NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.ROME  More than 100 African migrants who set off in a rickety, inflatable dinghy have died in a wreck off the Libyan coast, humanitarian workers said on Saturday, in what was the deadliest such episode in recent months.

The scale of the catastrophe became clear after three survivors, two Sudanese and one Gambian, who were rescued by the Italian Navy and brought to shore in the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, told the aid workers that 117 migrants had died.

Survivors told us that they had about 10 women on board, and one of them was pregnant, Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, said in a phone interview. There were also two toddlers, one of them was 2 months old.

The migrants were believed to have been from countries in West Africa and Sudan. Libya is the principal springboard for most African migrants seeking to enter Europe, and before they even set to sea, the migrants face other dangers like traffickers and violence.

The dinghy set out on Thursday from the coastal town of Garabulli, Libya, west of Tripoli, and in about 10 hours started deflating and taking on water, survivors told humanitarian workers.

When an aircraft from the Italian Navy on a security and surveillance mission spotted the craft 50 nautical miles northeast of the Libyan capital, the vessel had already started sinking, the Navy said in a statement, and roughly 20 people could be seen on board.

The rescue effort comes in a fraught political environment, with several European governments questioning the motives and behavior of independent rescue groups, and some bringing criminal charges against them.

The Italian Navy said that, after launching two inflatable rafts toward the migrants, it immediately called another helicopter to provide support, as their closest vessel was well beyond 110 nautical miles from the shipwreck.

The helicopter rescued the only three survivors and brought them to the hospital on the island of Lampedusa. They were suffering from hypothermia, had burn scars and were traumatized, humanitarian workers said.

The Italian Coast Guard said in a statement that it had immediately verified that the Libyan Coast Guard was aware of the event within their search and rescue area, ensuring the outmost collaboration.

It also confirmed that a nongovernmental organization, Sea Watch, had offered its help and that the message was passed on to the Libyan Coast Guard.

In a separate incident,Sea Watch said that it had rescued another 47 people on a rubber dinghy in the Mediterranean on Saturday. But it had yet to receive information on what port, if any, the group could be brought to. One of the groups boats was stranded at sea for weeks earlier this month after being denied entry to several European ports.

In February 2017, the bodies of 74 migrants were recovered from a beach near the town of Zawiya in western Libya. The bodies were believed to have come from a shipwrecked inflatable raft that was found on the shore.

European countries have struggled to stem the flow of migrants, training the Libyan Coast Guard and offering money and other resources to Libyan officials to shift the migration crisis off its shores and to deal with it at the source. But the migrants keep making the perilous journey.

On Friday night, the Italian Navy said the rescue operations, coordinated by the Libyan Rescue Coordination Center, had concluded after the search for the dinghy proved fruitless.Lori Clarke, 62, a retired schoolteacher from Bucks County, Pa., said the 2018 womens march in Philadelphia was the first time she had attended a public protest.

Im just a normal everyday average woman, Ms. Clark said. I would never have thought of coming out to protest.

I hate crowds, she added. The reality of a Trump administration hit home, and I felt that I needed my voice to be heard.

And in Washington, Hilary Ruesch, a 38-year-old marketing director for a wine importer, said she and others had traveled from Brooklyn to come back to where it all began.

They were members of a local chapter for the liberal grass-roots group Indivisible. The chapter has a mailing list of about 300 members, but in two years, the core of the group  the ones who could be counted on to do the grunt work of local political advocacy  had dwindled to about 50 people. Weve seen some attrition, she said. But those who remain are really dug in.

And she said they played a small  but satisfying  role in the 2018 election that gave Democrats a working majority in the New York State Legislature, and in the subsequent lobbying campaign that ended this week with the Legislatures vote to liberalize the states restrictive election laws.

This time there are not as many, Ms. Ruesch said of the march this year. But its a long battle. And we still have all these people.The storm continued to move briskly and was not expected to linger in the Northeast. Mr. Otto said he expected the worst to move past New York City, where only two or three inches were forecast, by Sunday morning. In New England, the storm was expected to pass by Sunday night.

As with any storm, National Weather Service offices across the country were busy providing detailed forecasts and updates. But this time their meteorologists were doing it without pay, a casualty of the federal government shutdown.

Theres definitely a drain on morale, said Ray Martin, a senior meteorologist in the Weather Service office serving Washington and Baltimore. He said he knew colleagues with young children or a new house who were struggling. Theres a little bit of not feeling appreciated, he added.

Though the snowstorm was not exactly surprising  it is January, after all  its impact has proved frightening, especially on transportation.

A United Airlines plane slid off a concrete surface at OHare International Airport in Chicago on Saturday, while the plane was turning off a runway. Airline officials said no injuries were reported.

The night before, at Eppley Airfield in Omaha, a Southwest Airlines plane slid off the runway after landing. After a bumpy descent, the plane seemed to be coming in sideways just before touching down, said Benny Salz, a passenger on the flight. It hit the ground hard, fishtailed and slid into the grass just off the runway, said Mr. Salz, 30, a music producer and singer who lives in Los Angeles.

People were definitely freaked out when we landed, he said.WASHINGTON  As the most diverse freshman class in history settles into the House of Representatives, newcomers like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan have been racking up social media followers and soaking up the spotlight, liberal firebrands largely elected to safe Democratic seats.

But overlooked in the hallway protests and often glowing news media coverage, a larger group of more centrist Democrats has arrived with a different agenda. And now, they are quietly asserting their influence as the partial government shutdown, which has left them scrambling to explain why 800,000 workers are still without pay, enters its fifth week.

The centrists, elected to seats held last year by Republicans, delivered Democrats their House majority, and their re-elections will be critical to keeping the party in power. They include a sizable subset with backgrounds in military, intelligence and national security, and won by promising to work across the aisle and to end dysfunction in Washington. Now they are caught in the most dysfunctional situation of all  a record-breaking shutdown  and they are under pressure from constituents to do something about it.

[The Latest: In White House Address, Trump Proposes DACA Deal in Exchange for Wall Funding]

This past week, a group of freshmen in Trump-leaning districts convened a private strategy session to discuss how they could press Speaker Nancy Pelosi to reclaim the issue of border security for Democrats and to open the door to negotiations with President Trump. Some also aired their frustrations with Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the chairman of the Democratic caucus, who hosted a small dinner for freshmen from battleground districts.For a moment in August, an event hall in Texas teemed with hope, taquitos and unity.

It was a border-town stop for Beto ORourkes Senate campaign, but another Democratic politician commanded particular attention: Gina Ortiz Jones, a history-making congressional candidate  gay, Filipina-American, an Iraq war veteran  hoping to turn a majority-Hispanic district blue. Really special person, Mr. ORourke said, as Ms. Jones stood and waved.

But soon, a county chairwoman posed an uncomfortable question. Mr. ORourke had not endorsed Ms. Jones. In fact, he had elevated her Republican opponent, Representative Will Hurd, with frequent praise and, most memorably, a live-streamed bipartisan road trip that helped jump-start their midterm campaigns. Would Mr. ORourke support the Democrat?

He would not.

This is a place where my politics and my job and my commitment to this country come into conflict, Mr. ORourke said. Im going to put country over party.

Some supporters of Ms. Jones saw it differently: Beto ORourke was once again putting Beto ORourke first.The schools website and Facebook page were down as of Saturday afternoon.

The encounter became the latest touchpoint for racial tensions in America, particularly under Mr. Trump, who has painted immigrants in broad strokes as rapists and drug dealers and recently mocked Senator Elizabeth Warren with a reference to Wounded Knee and Little Bighorn, sacred ground for Native Americans whose ancestors fought and died there.

Across the country, Mr. Trumps name  and his campaign for a wall on the southern border with Mexico  have been used to goad minorities, including by high school students at sporting events.

[Read more about the Wounded Knee massacre, the Battle of Little Bighorn and why the president invoked them to attack Senator Elizabeth Warren, a 2020 presidential candidate. And a new book by David Treuer, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, shows the history of American Indians as more than victimhood.]

The episode drew widespread condemnation from Native Americans, Catholics and politicians alike.

This veteran put his life on the line for our country, Representative Deb Haaland, a Democrat of New Mexico who recently became one of the first Native American women to serve in Congress, said on Twitter. The students display of blatant hate, disrespect, and intolerance is a signal of how common decency has decayed under this administration. Heartbreaking.

Sisters of Mercy, a group of Roman Catholic women who take vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and service, condemned the behavior in the videos as disturbing and bigoted. Racism and intolerance in all forms go directly against Catholic social teaching, the Sisters of Mercy said.

In a statement on Saturday, the Indigenous Peoples Movement identified the man in the videos as Nathan Phillips, an Omaha elder, a veteran and the former director of the Native Youth Alliance, a group that works to ensure that traditional culture and spiritual ways are upheld for future generations. Mr. Phillips also holds an annual ceremony honoring Native American veterans in Arlington National Cemetery, the group said.

Mr. Phillips could not be reached for comment on Saturday. He told The Washington Post that he noticed the teenagers taunting participants at the Indigenous Peoples March.The authors delineated between first wave digisexuality (online pornography, hookup apps, sexting and electronic sex toys), where the tech is simply a delivery system for sexual fulfillment, and second wave digisexuality. Those practitioners form deeper relationships through immersive technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality and A.I.-equipped sex robots, sometimes obviating the need for a human partner altogether.

Dr. Twist, who also runs a clinical practice in family and sex therapy, said she has had several patients in their 20s and 30s who qualify as second-wave digisexuals.

What theyve been into is sex tech, toys they can control with their tech devices, that attach to their penis or their vulva, she said. They havent had contact with humans, and really dont have any interest in sex with people. This is what they want to be doing, and if they could afford a sex robot, they would.

Their sexuality may seem boundary pushing or deviant. Every advance in cybersex has met with cultural resistance before it became normalized, Dr. McArthur said.

Each time we have new technologies, theres a wave of alarmism that follows, he said. It happened first with porn, then with internet dating, then with Snapchat sexting. One by one these technologies come along and theres this wave of panic. But as people start to use these technologies, they become part of our lives.

Are Bionic Sex Toys Also Romantic Partners?

Indeed, the latest generation of robotic sex toys make Charlottes low-tech Jack Rabbit vibrator from Sex and the City look as antique as the 28,000-year-old siltstone dildo found in a cave in Germany a few years ago.Q: I live in a market-rate rental on the Upper West Side. My refrigerator has broken several times over the past few months, despite repeat visits from repairmen. Weve had to throw out spoiled food and devote too much money to takeout. We asked the landlord for a new fridge, but he refuses to replace it unless we agree to a $17-a-month rent increase for the remainder of the lease. He claims that New York City law requires tenants to pay for new appliances. Is this really the case?

A: There is no city law requiring tenants to pay for new appliances if their old ones break. On the contrary, the warranty of habitability, a state law, requires your landlord to provide you with a safe, livable and clean apartment, which would include a functioning refrigerator.

So he must either fix your broken one or replace it with one that works. The replacement does not need to be new, but it must be similar or better than the one you had before. Unless your lease states otherwise, your landlord cannot charge you for this. It is his responsibility.

So where did your landlord get the idea that you should shoulder the cost? He may be referring to the states rent stabilization code, which allows a landlord to pass the cost of apartment improvements onto a rent-stabilized tenant as a rent increase if the tenant gives written consent, according to Peter A. Schwartz, head of the real estate practice at the Manhattan law firm Graubard Miller. But since your lease is market rate, the rule does not apply to you. (And even if your apartment were stabilized, you would still have to consent in writing to a rent increase.)President Trump was several minutes into an extemporaneous speech on Monday when an offhand locution clarified an important reason the government shutdown persists: I said Ill build the wall and Im going to build the wall.

The first-person singular is familiar to observers of both this president and his recent predecessors. Mr. Trump has escalated this phenomenon, as in his telling inquiry regarding Jim Mattis, the former secretary of defense: Whats he done for me? In this acceleration of the personal presidency, Mr. Trump is abetted by opponents who insist on interpreting all events through him. The result is that the space between the man and the office is vanishing. The shutdown dispute has sharply divided Democrats and Republicans, but all seem to agree on one crucial point: Letat, cest Trump.

The motto of this presidency might best be expressed as the reverse of the old feminist slogan The personal is political. According to Trumpism, the political is determined by the personal. All issues are judged by their compatibility with Mr. Trumps interests. This may be smart politics. It is not serious conservatism. It is a formula for an all-encompassing politics that intrudes into every realm of life.

Mr. Trumps presidency has upended many conservative orthodoxies. Perhaps none is more disconcerting than the collapsing barrier between the political and the social. The key distinction is between state and society. The state wields coercive authority over certain realms of life, the extent of which liberals and conservatives reasonably dispute. Society, by contrast, consists of the rich layers of private associations  families, religious institutions, civic clubs, businesses and media  that provide a buffer between the individual and the state.WASHINGTON  After Id been writing a column for a few years, a male boss gave me a T-shirt depicting the Furies swooping.

He didnt mean it as a compliment.

The three sisters, the infernal goddesses of ancient mythology born from the blood shed by Uranus when he was castrated by his son, were known for relentlessly hounding men. But the Furies took vengeance on wicked men who hurt women and swore false oaths.

So I took it as a compliment.

The capital has suddenly been infused with the spirit of the Furies. After many false springs and discouraging backlashes, we are finally experiencing a revolutionary assertion of womens power that is transforming Congress.

Kill Bill-style, the fiery Democratic women keep coming, driven by vengeance against the wicked man in the White House with the history of hurting women and swearing false oaths.BERKELEY, Calif.  A few months ago in Chicago, where I was visiting for a wedding, a department store clerk asked me what kind of accent I had. I admitted it was Russian. Would you take our president home with you? he asked. His question threw into sharp relief my predicament: As a liberal Russian living in the United States, I am now associated with a man whose xenophobic, antidemocratic agenda I detest.

American attitudes toward Russia and Russians have always been hostage to the larger relationship between our nations. During the Reagan years, Russia was the evil empire, purveyor of nuclear arms, spies and Hollywood villains. The Russians repaid in kind: At a New Years show in the Kremlin Palace that I attended at the tender age of 9, the antagonist was an agent of the rotting West sent to steal Soviet childrens gifts.

But there were always counterpoints. Which American intellectual didnt lose him or herself in The Brothers Karamazov? Which Soviet dissident didnt hope to be shouldered by the American government, the guarantor of human rights, dignity and freedom of conscience? As we listened to the Voice of America on crackling radio transmitters in our tiny Soviet kitchen, devouring the facts that our government concealed  about the war in Afghanistan, the dissidents thrown into mental asylums, the Chernobyl disaster  we couldnt help but admire America as a moral counterweight. Of all my beliefs assailed by the realities of Donald Trumps America, this one is the hardest to let go.

Nothing indicated we were headed this way. By and large, the previous five American presidents of my lifetime, Democrats and Republicans both, all maintained some steady policies when it came to Russia: supporting democratic elements and shunning authoritarianism. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall, Ronald Reagan famously demanded in 1987, his deep personal sympathy for the energetic Soviet leader notwithstanding.Indeed, Kings views may have evolved alongside many other spiritually grounded thinkers, like Rabbi Brian Walt , who has spoken publicly about the reasons that he abandoned his faith in what he viewed as political Zionism. To him, he recently explained to me, liberal Zionism meant that he believed in the creation of a Jewish state that would be a desperately needed safe haven and cultural center for Jewish people around the world, "a state that would reflect as well as honor the highest ideals of the Jewish tradition. He said he grew up in South Africa in a family that shared those views and identified as a liberal Zionist, until his experiences in the occupied territories forever changed him.

During more than 20 visits to the West Bank and Gaza, he saw horrific human rights abuses, including Palestinian homes being bulldozed while people cried  children's toys strewn over one demolished site  and saw Palestinian lands being confiscated to make way for new illegal settlements subsidized by the Israeli government. He was forced to reckon with the reality that these demolitions, settlements and acts of violent dispossession were not rogue moves, but fully supported and enabled by the Israeli military. For him, the turning point was witnessing legalized discrimination against Palestinians  including streets for Jews only  which, he said, was worse in some ways than what he had witnessed as a boy in South Africa.

Not so long ago, it was fairly rare to hear this perspective. That is no longer the case.

Jewish Voice for Peace, for example, aims to educate the American public about the forced displacement of approximately 750,000 Palestinians that began with Israels establishment and that continues to this day. Growing numbers of people of all faiths and backgrounds have spoken out with more boldness and courage. American organizations such as If Not Now support young American Jews as they struggle to break the deadly silence that still exists among too many people regarding the occupation, and hundreds of secular and faith-based groups have joined the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights.

In view of these developments, it seems the days when critiques of Zionism and the actions of the State of Israel can be written off as anti-Semitism are coming to an end. There seems to be increased understanding that criticism of the policies and practices of the Israeli government is not, in itself, anti-Semitic.

This is not to say that anti-Semitism is not real. Neo-Nazism is resurging in Germany within a growing anti-immigrant movement. Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States rose 57 percent in 2017, and many of us are still mourning what is believed to be the deadliest attack on Jewish people in American history. We must be mindful in this climate that, while criticism of Israel is not inherently anti-Semitic, it can slide there.

Fortunately, people like the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II are leading by example, pledging allegiance to the fight against anti-Semitism while also demonstrating unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people struggling to survive under Israeli occupation.

He declared in a riveting speech last year that we cannot talk about justice without addressing the displacement of native peoples, the systemic racism of colonialism and the injustice of government repression. In the same breath he said: I want to say, as clearly as I know how, that the humanity and the dignity of any person or people cannot in any way diminish the humanity and dignity of another person or another people. To hold fast to the image of God in every person is to insist that the Palestinian child is as precious as the Jewish child.Growing up in the 1950s as one of the few Chinese-American kids in my New Jersey town, I was so often told to go back where you came from that I wondered about this place called China, where I had never been. But whenever I asked my mother about her young life in China, I always received the same curt answer: That was wartime, unhappy memory.

Over time, I stopped asking. Until one day, when she was in her 70s and we were having dinner in her small apartment, I lapsed into my childhood mantra. Too bad you cant tell me about my grandparents in China, I muttered with no expectation of a reply.

But this time my mother put down her chopsticks and said: All right, you want to know? Ill tell you.

I listened, transfixed, as my gentle mother launched into a tale with such clarity and force that I sat mute, fearing any sound from me would disrupt the narrative unfolding like a storybook that had never been opened:

One day in 1935, my 6-year-old mother climbed onto her fathers back in their dirt-floor cottage as they prepared to go to Suzhou, about 60 miles away. She was known only as Little Sister, and she was overjoyed because Baba had chosen her, not one of her brothers, for the special trip.A well-known novelist, filmmaker and commentator, Mr. Moix has made plenty of provocative statements before. But this time he committed the twin sins of inelegance and indiscretion. As a public intellectual hes supposed to play the seducteur who engages in a chaste flirtation with his audience. Announcing that he wouldnt sleep with some of them kills the mood.

And in a country that lives by the maxim Not all truths should be told, knowing what not to say  and what parts of your life to conceal  are key social graces.

He can sleep with whoever he wants, Yann Moix, who cares? the 20-something humorist Agnes Hurstel said on France Inter radio. Desire, erotic thoughts, are never politically correct. Whats unacceptable, she said, is that Mr. Moix spoke to the magazine as if he was on the couch of his shrink.

Mr. Moix tried to explain that hes a prisoner of his preferences and of his own fear of aging. His relationships with younger women often end painfully after a few months, dooming him to a perpetual adolescence. Its not something enviable, its something sad, he said on a French talk show. His new book is based on his misery after a breakup.

But his remarks caught Frenchwomen in a take-no-prisoners mood, and feeling a new solidarity. #MeToo has made them more alert to the discrimination they face. They sense that they are still having to tolerate treatment their American counterparts have squashed, especially at work, and that this isnt changing quickly enough.

The bedroom was one place where Frenchwomen were winning. Surveys report that they are far more likely to remain sexually active after age 50 than their American counterparts . The way the French see it, everyone is entitled to sex and love, and theres beauty in every age.

Still, aging while female isnt simple. Even in France it takes delicate internal calibrations to keep counternarratives at bay and stay bien dans votre age  comfortable in your own age.The rationalization camp, which has gained considerable prominence in recent years, is built around a set of theories contending that when it comes to politically charged issues, people use their intellectual abilities to persuade themselves to believe what they want to be true rather than attempting to actually discover the truth. According to this view, political passions essentially make people unreasonable, even  indeed, especially  if they tend to be good at reasoning in other contexts. (Roughly: The smarter you are, the better you are at rationalizing.)

Some of the most striking evidence used to support this position comes from an influential 2012 study in which the law professor Dan Kahan and his colleagues found that the degree of political polarization on the issue of climate change was greater among people who scored higher on measures of science literary and numerical ability than it was among those who scored lower on these tests. Apparently, more analytical Democrats were better able to convince themselves that climate change was a problem, while more analytical Republicans were better able to convince themselves that climate change was not a problem. Professor Kahan has found similar results in, for example, studies about gun control in which he experimentally manipulated the partisan slant of information that participants were asked to assess.

The implications here are profound: Reasoning can exacerbate the problem, not provide the solution, when it comes to partisan disputes over facts. Further evidence cited in support of this of argument comes from a 2010 study by the political scientists Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler, who found that appending corrections to misleading claims in news articles can sometimes backfire: Not only did corrections fail to reduce misperceptions, but they also sometimes increased them. It seemed as if people who were ideologically inclined to believe a given falsehood worked so hard to come up with reasons that the correction was wrong that they came to believe the falsehood even more strongly.

But this rationalization account, though compelling in some contexts, does not strike us as the most natural or most common explanation of the human weakness for misinformation. We believe that people often just dont think critically enough about the information they encounter.

A great deal of research in cognitive psychology has shown that a little bit of reasoning goes a long way toward forming accurate beliefs. For example, people who think more analytically (those who are more likely to exercise their analytic skills and not just trust their gut response) are less superstitious, less likely to believe in conspiracy theories and less receptive to seemingly profound but actually empty assertions (like Wholeness quiets infinite phenomena). This body of evidence suggests that the main factor explaining the acceptance of fake news could be cognitive laziness, especially in the context of social media, where news items are often skimmed or merely glanced at.Ed Tant

Athens, Ga.

To the Editor:

In his short satirical tale Zadig, or the Book of Fate, Voltaire describes the fictitious great lord Irax: The peacocks are not more vain, the doves not more voluptuous. He is, we are told, corrupted by vanity and voluptuousness and breathed nothing but false glory and false pleasures .

Zadig, the prime minister of the kingdom, undertakes to rectify the bad behavior. He does this with the cooperation of a vast entourage of the courts sycophants and via such an uninterrupted litany of praise for Irax for all the good qualities he lacked, that after five days Irax, exhausted and chastened, begged for it to stop .

President Trump does not appear to be exhausted or chastened.

Jerry Kavanagh

Pearl River, N.Y.

To the Editor:

In a time when the classics are nearly all forgotten by the average reader, I was heartened to read Bret Stephenss imaginative column about how the classic writers might have portrayed Donald Trump and his minions. Missing, however, was the wonderful Don Quixote, by Cervantes.

Written at the turn of the 17th century , Don Quixote conjures a character who can only be seen as a premonition of the leadership we live with today. It is the story of a man who thinks he is something he is not and who cannot tell the difference between reality and illusion. When confronted with the evidence of his illusions, he simply dismisses the reality as enchantments.

While Don Quixote the character lacks the malevolence of Donald Trump the president, his misstatements and actions still cause embarrassment to himself (that he does not recognize) and sometimes tragedy for others. Cervantes wrote of Don Quixote, He accommodated every thing he saw, with incredible facility, to the extravagant ravings of his disordered judgment .

If that doesnt sound like Donald Trump, I dont know what does!

Jeffrey E. Green

Somerville, Mass.In the presidential election of 1948, he voted for the Socialist Norman Thomas, not the Democrat Harry S. Truman.

Two groups of thinkers that have had a lasting impact on American culture had a lasting impact on Mr. Glazer as well. The first was the New York Intellectuals, the collection of writers, gathered around Partisan Review and later The New York Review of Books, who combined leftist politics with modernist aesthetics. The Partisan Review writers Dwight Macdonald and Hannah Arendt were early influences; another contributor to the magazine, the art critic Clement Greenberg, helped get him his first job.

While he was at Commentary, Mr. Glazers circle widened. Writers like James Baldwin and Irving Howe would drop by the office, and at Greenwich Village parties he met prominent intellectuals like Lionel Trilling and the Partisan Review editors Philip Rahv and William Phillips. These were people, Mr. Glazer said, who seemed to be working at the forefront of knowledge, with their understanding of Marx, Freud and Modernist developments in the arts.

There was an awful lot of talk, Mr. Glazer said, but he had always felt that he was something of an outsider, a junior member at these get-togethers, more like a hanger-on than a full participant.

Mr. Glazers turn to neoconservatism followed an almost paradigmatic path. Throughout the 1950s, and even after he went to work for the Kennedy administrations Housing and Home Finance Agency in 1962-63, he continued to consider himself a radical. But if, as his longtime friend Irving Kristol put it, a neoconservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality, then Mr. Glazer got hit over the head.

He had taken a teaching post at Berkeley in 1963, just as the student rebellions of the 1960s were erupting. Opposed to the growing American military involvement in Vietnam and supportive of social policies designed to help the poor, he initially sympathized with the student protesters. But as they grew more extreme  nihilistic was Mr. Glazers word  he turned away from them and his own leftist past as well. He moved toward what he saw as a hard-won pragmatism but what others saw as a reactive conservatism.Neri Oxman and William Albert Ackman were married Jan. 19 at Central Synagogue in New York. Rabbi Angela Buchdahl performed the ceremony.

Ms. Oxman, 42, is a professor at the M.I.T. Media Lab. She graduated from the Architectural Association School of Architecture, RIBA Part 2 (Royal Institute of British Architects) in London. She also holds a Ph.D. in design computation from M.I.T. and was recently honored with the National Design Award in recognition of her contribution to the world of design and architecture. The bride served as a member of the Israeli Air Force from 1996 to 1999, achieving the rank of first lieutenant.

She is a daughter of Rivka Oxman and Robert Oxman of Caesarea, Israel. The brides father is professor emeritus of architecture and the history of modern design at Technion Israel Institute of Technology, where her mother retired as a professor of digital design.

Mr. Ackman, 52, is the founder and chief executive of Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund company in New York. He is also the founder of the Pershing Square Foundation, a charitable venture that has provided more than $400 million in grants since 2006.Want this column in your inbox? Sign up here.

Ive been thinking a lot about that famous egg  you know, the one that just broke the world record for the most-liked Instagram post ever. Its a normal egg, brown, with freckles, nothing special. It couldve been the egg youll eat for breakfast this morning. Instead, it hatched an internet phenomenon, for reasons no one can explain.

Say what you will about that egg and those who cared about it. But in a week when much of the world seemed so mired in acrimony, it was a small (very small) symbol of what collective effort can do. Speaking of accomplishments, prepare for the week ahead with the top stories in business and tech, below. Then go enjoy an omelet.

Jan. 13-19

Whats Up?

Entering Crisis Mode

President Trumps government shutdown continues, and the household budgets of federal employees are hurting. Some 800,000 havent been paid in weeks, and a typical furloughed worker is now about $5,000 behind in salary. Thousands have filed for unemployment. Theyve cut back on spending and investing, which is taking a serious bite out of the countrys economic growth. On a warmer note, some thoughtful souls have been offering free pizza, wine, financial services and even homemade casseroles to unpaid workers across the country. Still, none of these gestures can substitute for a paycheck.There were conflicting accounts of what happened on that bus. Joyous soldiers, black and white, may have been sharing a celebratory bottle of whiskey. Woodard and the driver argued about restroom breaks and Greyhounds rules requiring a driver to accommodate passengerss needs.

When the bus stopped in Batesburg, a small town about 30 miles from Columbia, the state capital, the driver summoned the towns two police officers, Chief Lynwood Shull and his deputy, Elliot Long, and Woodard was ordered off the bus.

Shull admitted using his blackjack on the sergeant. When Woodard wrested it away, Long, gun drawn, ordered him to drop it. Then, by the Gergel books account, Shull rained blows on Woodard so ferociously the blackjack broke. Woodard was left sightless, both eyes gouged out, and thrown in jail, igniting a racial fuse that would burn its way across America to Waring, the White House and eventually the Supreme Court.

Its more than just an incident, its a huge historical moment, said Patricia Sullivan, a professor of history at the University of South Carolina and author of Lift Every Voice: The NAACP and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement.

As a law student at Duke University in the 1970s, Gergel had read of Waring. But passing mention of Woodard escaped him and he didnt think much of Waring again until, as an intellectual property and personal injury lawyer and outside counsel to the city of Columbia, he was named to the federal bench.

In my installation talk, I spoke about Judge Waring, Gergel recalled. I saw blank looks.

He plunged into research, using his inside knowledge of court dockets and evidentiary records. I understood what I was looking at, he said. I knew what to ask for.An American-born journalist who works for an Iranian state-run television channel was arrested in the United States as a material witness in an undisclosed investigation, according to a federal court order unsealed on Friday.

The journalist, Marzieh Hashemi, was arrested at the St. Louis airport on Sunday and was transferred by the F.B.I. to Washington, according to Press TV, where she works as an anchor.

American officials had not confirmed her detention until Friday, when Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ordered some details about her arrest unsealed.

The court order said that Ms. Hashemi, 59, had been arrested on a material witness warrant and was not accused of any crime. She had made two court appearances, it said, and American authorities expected her to be released after her testimony before a grand jury investigating violations of U.S. criminal law. Though the order said a lawyer had been appointed for Ms. Hashemi, none was named.A gas pipeline in the Mexican state of Hidalgo exploded on Friday night, killing at least 21 people in a blast the authorities said was caused by an illegal tap used to steal fuel.

Omar Fayad, the governor of Hidalgo, said on Twitter that more than 70 others were injured in the explosion in Tlahuelilpan, a town about 80 miles north of Mexico City.

The state-run energy company, Pemex, said that the explosion was caused by an illegal fuel tap at the Tuxpan-Tula pipeline.

[The death toll soars as officials begin an in-depth examination.]

The country has been plagued by fuel thefts, and Mr. Fayad called on Mexicans not to be accomplices. He said the practice was not only illegal, but it also puts your life and families at risk.KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo  The Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday rejected an African Union demand to delay announcing the final results of its presidential election, compounding the turmoil surrounding a vote that many fear could fan widespread unrest.

In a surprise announcement on Thursday, the African Union called for the results to be postponed because of serious doubts over the conduct of the election. The vote was supposed to be Congos first democratic handover of power in 59 years of independence, but the runner-up candidate has said the result was rigged.

The final tally will be released once the Constitutional Court has ruled on challenges to provisional results, including those filed by Martin Fayulu, the opposition leader and second-place finisher.

I do not think anyone has the right to tell the court what to do, the government spokesman Lambert Mende said.The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill weighs race so heavily in its admissions process that it is the predominant factor in determining whether many black and Hispanic students get in, according to court papers filed on Friday by an anti-affirmative action group that is also suing Harvard.

The group, Students for Fair Admissions, says the university is excluding white and Asian applicants in favor of less qualified black and Hispanic students.

The plaintiffs accuse U.N.C., a public flagship university, of using race at every stage of the admissions process, in violation of the law, even when the application gives no indication that race affected the students life in any way.

This is wrong, the university said in a brief in its defense, also filed Friday. An applicants race does not provide an automatic boost or guarantee admission, the university said. Rather, This factor, like all others, is always considered in the context of everything else known about a candidate and in light of the range of contributions the candidate might make to the University.The nicknames assigned by federal investigators to some bank robbers are drawn largely from their appearances or modus operandi.

In March, the F.B.I. said it was seeking a bank robber in California who used wigs and facial hair disguises, calling him the Shaggy Bandit. Another in Massachusetts was named the Faceless Bandit because he was completely masked. And in April, investigators sought a robber in Knoxville, Tenn., whom they called the Edentulism Bandit because witnesses said he was missing several teeth.

The latest to appear on F.B.I. Wanted posters is the Traveling Bandit, who the authorities said on Friday has robbed at least seven banks in six states in less than a month.

The Traveling Bandit has covered more than 3,200 miles in a string of robberies that started on Dec. 28 at a Capital Bank in Aventura, Fla., about 20 miles north of Miami. He progressed from there to holding up a bank in North Carolina, then two in Tennessee, and one each in Alabama and Illinois. His most recent one was on Thursday in Price, Utah.That claim echoes earlier ones from Mr. Trump: baseless warnings that unknown Middle Easterners had infiltrated a migrant caravan and that terrorists were pouring across the southern border.

Nowhere in the White Houses 25-page counterterrorism policy, released in October, was the threat of terrorists infiltrating the nations southwest border raised. And the State Department, in a September report, said there was no credible evidence that terrorist groups had sent operatives to enter the United States through Mexico.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for evidence of Mr. Trumps claims.

The Washington Examiner report, like most of its predecessors over the past decade, did not include any photographic evidence of the prayer rugs in question and largely relied on hearsay.

Along the Mexican border there have been stories of suspicious items picked up by local residents, including Muslim prayer rugs and notebooks written in both Arabic and Spanish, former Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, warned in a March 2005 speech.

Later that year, former Representative Tom Tancredo, Republican of Colorado, told CBS that, during a visit to the border in Arizona, weve found copies of the Quran, we have found prayer rugs, we have found a lot of stuff written in Arabic, so its not just people from Mexico coming across that border.

In 2014, David Dewhurst, then the lieutenant governor of Texas, invoked prayer rugs found on the Texas side of the border in the brush. PolitiFact Texas rated his claim Pants on Fire, and noted that it could find only one photo of a purported prayer rug, presented by the conservative news outlet Breitbart.

That photo, eight scholars and religious figures said, looked nothing like a prayer rug, and it appears to have been removed from the current version of the Breitbart article. (Perhaps, suggested Gawker, the photo was actually of an Adidas soccer jersey.)KODIAK, Alaska  The morning after more than 40,000 Coast Guard members missed their first paycheck, and the federal governments shutdown stretched into its fourth week, Eleanor King placed an empty jar next to her diners cash register.

In scribbled black marker, a sign on the jar, written in all capital letters, read: Donation Coast Guard. By 9 a.m. on Wednesday, nearly an hour before a rainy winter sunrise, the jar held $120  money with which patrons were effectively buying meals for members of the maritime force.

While the shutdown has affected hundreds of thousands of federal workers across the United States, halting paychecks and furloughing those who have been deemed nonessential personnel, it has brought a particular chill to Kodiak, a small town of 6,300 on an isolated island in the Gulf of Alaska.

Roughly a quarter of the islands population is either an employee or dependent family member of the Coast Guard, which has now had to scale back some of its operations in one of the worlds most dangerous waterways.This is not pleasant and this is not easy, Judge Gaughan said in delivering his ruling.

Mr. Van Dykes sentencing comes only one day after the acquittals of three fellow police officers who were accused of attempting to cover up his crime, a ruling that left many Chicagoans stunned and furious. And even with Mr. Van Dykes conviction and sentence, there remained an unsettled question in Chicago of whether anything in the police department  and what many see as a decades-old code of silence in which officers conceal and conspire to protect their own  had really changed.

For several hours in a cramped courtroom on Friday, residents who had filed complaints against Mr. Van Dyke years ago testified for the prosecution about those encounters. One man said he had been called the N-word. Another cried and said he had to undergo surgery after being manhandled. Another, a young black man who said he was wrongly arrested, chuckled and said, Hes definitely in the right attire when asked to identify Mr. Van Dyke in the courtroom.

Mr. Hunter, the spokesman for the McDonald family, told Judge Gaughan how he had used Laquans final paycheck from his construction job, issued four days after his death, to buy the suit the teenager was buried in.

Please think about me and about my life when you sentence this person to prison, Mr. Hunter said in court, reading a statement written from the perspective of Laquan. Why should this person who has ended my life forever because he chose to become judge, jury and executioner  and has never asked for forgiveness  be free when I am dead.

Mr. Van Dyke, who has grown a patchy beard and become noticeably thinner since going to jail, sat expressionless throughout much of Fridays testimony. He wore a faded yellow jail jumpsuit. And when he entered and exited the courtroom, he clasped his hands behind his back, flanked by sheriffs deputies.

Jurors convicted Mr. Van Dyke in October of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm, one for each bullet he fired. Prosecutors asked Judge Gaughan to sentence him to at least 18 years in prison. Mr. Van Dykes lawyers suggested probation.

Just before learning his sentence, Mr. Van Dyke rose and read a short statement.

Shooting Laquan was the last thing I ever wanted to do, said Mr. Van Dyke, who spoke softly and read from a piece of paper. People have the right to judge my actions, however no one knows what I was thinking in that critical moment.WASHINGTON  The Federal Trade Commission is in the advanced stages of its investigation into whether Facebook violated privacy rules and is expected to seek large fines from the company, according to two people familiar with the inquiry.

The five members of the commission met in mid-December to discuss the investigation, according to the people, who would speak only on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is not public. The meeting is a sign that the investigation is far along, the people said, because the commissioners rarely meet in the early stages of an inquiry.

The investigation, which began in late March, is continuing, and the commissioners and staff have not reached a final conclusion, including how much the agency might seek in fines, the people said. Consumer-protection and enforcement staff members have provided updates on what they believe is evidence of privacy violations, but they have not submitted a final report.

The commissioners would vote on any recommendations from the staff, including whether to pursue fines or other penalties. They do not always approve staff recommendations.Wow, so much Trump impeachment talk. People, how would you feel about a President Mike Pence?

Never thought much about Mike, did you? But if Trump gets tossed out of office, hes next in line. Wed have a chief executive who reportedly calls his wife Mother. Who has a rule that he wont drink in a room where theres mixed company unless his wife is present, or eat a meal alone with any woman hes not married to.

The least alarming interpretation of the vice presidents rules of sexual separation is that this guy is such a wild man, he cant control himself unless theres somebody else there to guard a female in his near proximity.

O.K., no.

Then well have to presume that Pence is living in a world of the old order, when women werent seen as normal employees, employers and colleagues, but as a different species entirely, defined by their gender, deserving of special treatment and special discrimination.

On a practical basis, if he became president, would that mean no private lunch with Nancy Pelosi unless Chuck Schumer came, too? If Theresa May wanted to sit down with him and confer about Brexit, would he be able to offer her a snack?Later he adds: There are an awful lot of people who are looking for a voice that represents the people who feel disaffected. And: I do want to be more of a voice of reason and moderation in the Republican Party.

Hogan is attracting notice partly because he just romped to re-election over the progressive Democrat Ben Jealous  becoming the first G.O.P. governor to win re-election in Maryland since 1954  and partly because hes one of only three Republican governors in deep-blue states (Massachusettss Charlie Baker and Vermonts Phil Scott are the other two). His approval rating is 68 percent in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2 to 1.

But mostly Hogan makes no secret of his disdain for the president, though he goes out of his way to avoid mentioning his name. In his second inaugural address this week (written with the help of Mark Salter, John McCains old wordsmith), he merely noted that his father, the late Congressman Lawrence Hogan, was the first Republican to come out for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.

Despite tremendous political pressure, Hogan said of his dad, he put aside partisanship and answered the demands of his conscience to do what he thought was the right thing for the nation that he loved.

That doesnt quite answer the question of whether Hogan would really contemplate a run  though he is traveling to Iowa in March, ostensibly in his role as vice chairman of the National Governors Association. The downside of any primary challenge is that it is guaranteed to be nasty: Nobody emerges from an encounter with Trump without feeling soiled. Its also likely to be losing: With the qualified exception of Lyndon Johnson in 1968, no incumbent president who sought his partys nomination has failed to win it since Chester A. Arthur in 1884.On Wednesday, Microsoft announced a commitment of $500 million to advance affordable housing solutions in the greater Seattle area. While it was striking for the company to acknowledge how supremely difficult it is for lower- and middle-income workers to afford to live close to where they work, 95 percent of its commitment would be in the form of loans to housing developers, much of it for market-rate housing that will benefit more-affluent residents.

What is needed in Seattle  as well as San Francisco; Austin, Tex.; New York City; Boulder, Colo.; and other urban areas where the rapid influx of high-paid tech workers has made housing unaffordable for nearly everyone else  isnt a corporate takeover of housing policy but, rather, a per-employee head tax that would fund real investments in affordable housing, which should be a public good.

The notion of a head tax isnt unprecedented, even in Seattle. In May 2018, faced with a crisis of homelessness and housing insecurity, the Seattle City Council levied a fee of $275 per employee on corporations whose annual revenues exceed $20 million  the most conspicuous of which is Amazon . (Microsoft is based in nearby Redmond, Wash.) The tax would have raised a modest but useful sum to build affordable housing units and fund social services. But just weeks later, after Amazon hinted that it might leave Seattle altogether, the Council voted overwhelmingly to reverse its decision.

It was a terrible loss for Seattles housing advocates, who were hoping for a systemic response to doubling rents, inhumanely fast evictions (Washington State has a three-day notice period) and a rise in the number of families living in their cars. And they were not reassured when, a few months after killing the head tax, Jeff Bezos, Amazons chief executive, announced that he would pay a minimum wage of $15 per hour to all of its United States workers , a boost to low-wage warehouse and cafeteria workers. But in Seattle, where the minimum wage is now $16 for big employers, low wages cannot buy decent housing. The average rent in Seattle was nearly $2,000 in 2017, and nearly half of all renters spent more than 30 percent of their incomes on housing. For many workers, $15 or even $20 an hour, at 40 or 50 hours a week, means couch-surfing.Tick that box, too. Trump has described the European Union as brutal, called it a foe, spoken in favor of British withdrawal from it, and downgraded the E.U. ambassadors status in Washington.

In short, the president has shown disdain for an organization that has furthered American interests. Safeguarding the stability and security of Europe was the greatest single American strategic challenge from 1945 to 1990. The E.U. was a foundation of this effort that ended with the establishment of a Europe whole and free.

Like every enemy of the people in the press, like every poor schmuck who ever worked for this guy, like any American patriot who wants to respect the president, Ive struggled to find a redeeming feature in Donald Trump. I can now report: There is none.

But I must return to Russia again. Just because Trump furthers Russian designs does not mean hes in Russias employ. Of course it does not. I want to be clear about that. Just because you assist Russia does not means youre an asset of Russia even if you assist Russia from the Oval Office.

Putin, who has described the collapse of the Soviet Union as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the last century, seeks the collapse in the 21st century of the American quasi-imperium that has provided the organizing structure of the free world. The Russian president favors a retreating United States that has abandoned its values, granting open season to autocrats  an America for which human rights, a rules-based international order, the rule of law itself, and the dignity of the free citizen in a democracy have been nullified.

Again, Trump is working in sync with Putin. Tick another box. There is not a despot on the face of the earth who fears Donald Trumps United States. From Beijing to Budapest, authoritarianism and illiberalism have been given a boost by Trump as alternative models to liberal democracy.

The presidents principal emotion in the face of dictators is envy. He is a would-be King Ubu for whom self-aggrandizement never self-aggrandizes quite enough.[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.]

TRENTON  The chief counsel to Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey came under withering questioning on Friday from lawmakers who pointedly challenged whether the administration took seriously an accusation of sexual assault against a top Murphy official.

You thought it was important but you let him stay there for all those months, asked Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce, a Republican, referring to why the state continued to employ the accused, Albert J. Alvarez. With all due respect, do you believe it was better for him to remain employed? Was it intentional to leave him employed or was it just lack of experience? she said.

After a pause, the chief counsel, Matthew Platkin, replied, It was not intentional.

Assemblywoman Pamela R. Lampitt, a Democrat, commented: What is so special about Al Alvarez; why is he a protected person? Were here because of Al Alvarez.

Mr. Platkin, who has emerged as a central character in the administrations handling of the accusation, also said during testimony that while he asked Mr. Alvarez to leave, he never directly tried to force him out, including imposing a deadline.[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.]

For decades, the New York City skyline was dominated by one building, the 1,250-foot-tall Empire State Building. But 17 supertall skyscrapers  defined as over 984 feet in height by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat  have been started or completed since the Great Recession, completely remaking the citys traditional silhouette.

If the developer Harry B. Macklowe has his way, an 18th will soon join them. On Friday, Mr. Macklowe submitted a preliminary application to the Department of City Planning outlining his intention to build a new super tower, east of Fifth Avenue between 51st and 52nd streets, overlooking St. Patricks Cathedral.

If approved at 1,551 feet tall, his skyscraper, known as Tower Fifth, would rank as the second-tallest building not only in New York, but in the Western Hemisphere.

In the heady world of competitive building, Tower Fifth would hover 216 feet above the roofline of One World Trade Center  which would remain the citys tallest building because a mast brings its official height to 1,776 feet  and reach a scant 12 inches above Central Park Tower, the skyscraper nearing completion on Billionaires Row.Its our understanding the victim just came forward to prosecutors as an adult with an allegation of abuse that occurred while a minor in the early 1990s, Bishop Checchio said in a statement. If the allegations were proved to be true or if Father Ganley admitted to them, the bishop said, as per Church protocol, he would then be removed from the priesthood.

In a letter sent to members of Father Ganleys parish in Phillipsburg, the Rev. John Barbella, the pastor, said that a statement about the arrest and indictment would be read to parishioners at Masses this weekend. Father Ganleys name had been removed from the parish website by Friday evening.

It truly breaks my heart to have to share such news with you, Father Barbella said in the letter. Please pray for the victim of this crime, and for the healing of everyone who has been hurt by it.

The attorney generals office said Father Ganley was currently being held at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center in New Brunswick. In his statement to the diocese, Bishop Checchio advised anyone with information about the allegations against Father Ganley or any other priest to contact law enforcement and the dioceses Office of Child and Youth Protection.

The sexual abuse of a minor is among the most terrible of crimes because it is committed against societys most innocent and vulnerable, Bishop Checchio said in his statement. Incidences of this type truly sicken and sadden me. I am truly sorry to learn of this abuse and the suffering of this victim.

The attorney generals office formed the Clergy Abuse Task Force in September 2018 in response to the publication of a 1,350-page Pennsylvania grand jury report that detailed abuse allegations against Roman Catholic priests by more than 1,000 accusers in four of the states six dioceses. Its mandate is to investigate claims of abuse in all seven of the Catholic dioceses in New Jersey as well as any efforts to cover up acts of abuse.In the days before the artist Robert Indiana died last May at 89, two of his close associates were brainstorming just what sort of art might be sold under the Indiana brand during his last years.

Maybe people, they wondered, who had enjoyed Mr. Indianas iconic sculpture LOVE, with its jaunty, tilted O, would appreciate similar works also based on short words.

What about JOY, one of them proposed in a text message to the other. Or FUN USA? Why not BEER, or perhaps BREW, or even BOB.

There were markets to explore.

VINO seems to be the biggest that would be the wine drinkers, Mr. Indianas caretaker, Jamie L. Thomas, wrote in one of the text messages to Mr. Indianas New York art publisher, Michael McKenzie.Trump belittled the trip as a "public relations event"  even though he had just made a similar stop in a conflict zone during the shutdown  and said it would be best if Pelosi remained in Washington to negotiate to reopen the government.

"Obviously, if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative," wrote Trump.

Pelosi, undeterred, quietly began making her own preparations for the overseas trip.

But on Friday, Pelosi said her plan to travel by commercial plane had been "leaked" by the White House.

"The administration leaked that we were traveling commercially," Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol. She said it was "very irresponsible on the part of the president."

She said the State Department told her "the president outing" the original trip made the scene on the ground in Afghanistan "more dangerous because it's a signal to the bad actors that we're coming."

The White House said it had leaked nothing that would cause a security risk.

Denying military aircraft to a senior lawmaker  let alone the speaker, who is second in line to the presidency after the vice president, traveling to a combat region  is very rare.An additional five families were displaced from the nearby homes.

While the morning began in flames and fleeing residents, it ended with an outpouring of kindness.

By 10:30 a.m., the Red Cross was on the scene and neighbors were out in the wintry chill offering hot chocolate to residents and first reponders.

The rallying around of these families has been amazing, Kristin Marlow-Kellemen, American Red Cross of Northwest Indiana executive director, said. One of the families across the street opened up their home to let people in and neighbors were bringing out hot chocolate. The support from the community has been phenomenal.

The Red Cross's Disaster Action Team is dispersed to the scene in situations such as these to aid disaster victims. In many cases, victims are in shock, Marlow-Kellemen said.

We serve the families and make sure their immediate needs are met, such as having a safe, warm place to stay and food to eat, she said. Also, such as today when there's a lot of firefighters out there in the cold for a long time, we bring them hot coffee.Defense attorney Bob Harper said following Friday's hearing that the drug test from the child was provided to him during Friday's hearing.

"There's no saying how it happened," he said. "There's nothing filed saying she did anything."

Ramos is accused of allowing illegal drugs to be sold in the presence of her 6-year-old child, according to court records.

She also faces charges of possessing heroin, hypodermic needles and other heroin-related paraphernalia, according to court records. She is charged with possessing and dealing marijuana, possessing synthetic marijuana, allowing drug use at her Portage home and possessing crack pipes and other drug paraphernalia.

Friday's bond reduction is her second since October. It was reduced from $7,500 to $4,500 at that time by Clymer, who said he offered the reduction as a sign of hope and encouraged her to participate in drug treatment if she wants to see the bond reduced further.

Ramos vowed in October that if released from jail, she would not stick with the father of one of her children if there were drugs around.

"My kid is more important to me than he is," Ramos said.The Hammond School Board voted 4-0 Thursday night to approve a six month contract for Superintendent Walter Watkins.

Under the new contract, Watkins will be paid $82,745.00, half of the annual compensation provided in the superintendent's previous contract.

Before voting, the board addressed concerns raised in a Dec. 10 public hearing about a car furnished by the school district. Hammond labor relations attorney Dan Friel said the car has been previously paid for and will be returned when Watkins' contract ends.

In March, Watkins announced his intention to retire from the superintendent post he has held for 16 years, but said in a December board meeting he would stay on to see the district through coming financial challenges due to declining enrollment in the district.A woman was accused of sexually assaulting an employee in the fitting room of Southlake Mall's Victoria's Secret store and slapping another employee on the buttocks on her way out.

Tina Marie Rice, 38, was charged with two counts of sexual battery, one count of criminal confinement and two counts of battery, according to court records.

At 8:14 p.m. Nov. 28, Hobart police went to Victoria's Secret in Hobart's Southlake Mall in response to a report of sexual battery, according to police reports.

A Victoria's Secret employee, referred to as "A.H." by police, told officers Rice selected a pair of woman's underwear and asked for a fitting room that evening. While in the fitting room, A.H. said Rice removed her underwear and turned around, showing the employee her buttocks.

Rice then allegedly said, It's going to get personal."

She then put on the underwear and asked A.H. her opinion, to which the employee replied they looked nice.

While still in the fitting room, Rice stepped toward A.H. and lifted up her shirt above her stomach and simultaneously pulled down the employee's pants slightly, stating, Wow, you're cleanly shaved, according to police reports.Videos

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Today

Mostly clear. Low around 55F. NNW winds at 10 to 15 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low around 55F. NNW winds at 10 to 15 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph.Kulwicki had the closest bid with $725, winning the phone. She immediately went on stage with host Drew Carey where she played the Bulls-eye game.

According to The Price is Right website five grocery items are shown to the contestant who must choose one item and determine how many of that item is necessary to total between $10 and $12.

If the contestant is successful within three attempts, then the contestant wins a bonus prize. If the contestant is unsuccessful, they still can win the bonus prize if a hidden bulls-eye is behind one of the items with which the contestant achieved a total of less than $10.

Kulwicki didnt hit the bulls-eye with her three attempts, but won the bonus prize, and the trip to Canada.

Ive never been to Canada, Kulwicki told host Drew Carey during the show.

While on stage Kulwicki gave a thumbs up a couple of times for her success. She also gave a shout out to her husband, family and friends back home.

The win sent her on to The Wheel where three contestants get two chances to spin a big wheel divided into 20 sections with values from 5-cents to $1. The contestant who spins closest to $1 goes on to the Showcase against one other contestant at the end of the show.GOTHENBURG  The Gothenburg Board of Education has chosen Todd Rhodes as the next superintendent of Gothenburg Public Schools, according to board president Nate Wyatt.

Rhodes, who replaces Superintendent Dr. Michael Teahon, will assume his leadership duties beginning July 1.

The Gothenburg School Board was committed to a rigorous superintendent search process and with providing the community clear and comprehensive information that began last April, a press release said.

Focus groups and community meetings provided input on the desired qualities of the next superintendent. GPS received over 20 applications for the position.

The desire for so many prospective candidates to work at GPS is evidence of Dr. Teahons legacy and the current administrative teams expectation for excellence within the district, Wyatt said.

In reference to the four finalists, Wyatt said the candidates presented many strengths to further the mission of GPS, creating a challenging decision.

Interviews were conducted over two days. Candidates interviewed with breakout groups composed of certificated staff, classified staff, administration and community leaders before meeting with the board.A derivative octa-core Zen+ processor and Navi GPU for the next generation Playstation look increasingly likely. The leaked product code implies that AMD and Sony may have already finalized the core specifications for the PS5 - if not very close.

4 Reviews , News , CPU , GPU , Articles , Columns , Other "or" search relation. 5G , Accessory , Alder Lake , AMD , Android , Apple , ARM , Audio , Business , Camera , Cannon Lake , Cezanne (Zen 3) , Charts , Chinese Tech , Chromebook , Coffee Lake , Comet Lake , Console , Convertible / 2-in-1 , Cryptocurrency , Cyberlaw , Deal , Desktop , Exclusive , Fail , Foldable , Gadget , Galaxy Note , Galaxy S , Gamecheck , Gaming , Geforce , Google Pixel , GPU , How To , Ice Lake , Intel Evo / Project Athena , Internet of Things (IoT) , iOS , iPad Pro , iPhone , Jasper Lake , Lakefield , Laptop , Launch , Linux / Unix , Lucienne (Zen 2) , MacBook , Mini PC , Monitor , MSI , OnePlus , Opinion , Phablet , Radeon , Renoir , Review Snippet , Rocket Lake , Rumor , Ryzen (Zen) , Science , Security , Smart Home , Smartphone , Smartwatch , Software , Storage , Tablet , ThinkPad , Thunderbolt , Tiger Lake , Touchscreen , Ultrabook , Virtual Reality (VR) / Augmented Reality (AR) , Wearable , Windows , Workstation , XPS , Zen 3 (Vermeer) Ticker

Six months ago, Forbes broke the news that the former chief architect of AMD Radeon Technologies Group Raja Koduri was apparently unhappy with the Vega series because his resources were split between developing Vega and Navi. As a result, Koduri was unable to spend as much time as he would have liked for the Vega family of desktop GPUs. The end result was an underwhelming Vega series that couldn't compete with Nvidia's Pascal generation as AMD head Lisa Su supposedly wanted to focus on Navi development for the Playstation 5 instead.

Fast-forward to 2019 and new rumors seemingly back up the original report. PCgamesn.com is quoting an unconfirmed product code of an unnamed custom AMD chip supposedly bound for the Playstation 5. Based on the line of code alone, broad details such as the CPU and GPU can be deduced. The next Playstation could sport eight physical 3.2 GHz Zen+ cores paired with a 1.0 GHz Navi GPU if proven true.

More specific details about the chip remain unknown such as the fabrication size, number of simultaneous threads, GPU core configuration, and the overarching power envelope. Even so, these latest findings line up well with very early rumors dating back to Q1 2018 when Sony was supposedly considering an octa-core Zen processor for the next generation Playstation. A processor upgrade would be a huge boon to the console gaming scene as the existing Jaguar cores are abysmally slow for general operation and roughly comparable to the six-year old 2x AMD A4-5100.Napoleon, OH (43545)

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Partly cloudy skies early then becoming cloudy with periods of rain late. Thunder possible. Low 67F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early then becoming cloudy with periods of rain late. Thunder possible. Low 67F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.Vanuatu turns the Corner LETS USE THIS AS A SPRINGBOARD FOR THE FUTUREThere are no injuries and airport fire crews are working with Southwest to deplane the passengers and take them to the terminal, officials said.

During a conversation Friday afternoon, Fortin said area residents can expect to wake up today to 1 to 2 inches of snow on top of that ice. The high today is 15 degrees, with the evening low expected to sink to 3 degrees. Better than the below-zero temperatures forecast earlier in the week, at least. Theres a chance of another storm system moving in Sunday overnight into Monday that brings a slight chance of precipitation, Fortin said.

Pat Miller, operations director with Council Bluffs Public Works, said his crews have been on a 24-hour schedule since Thursday in anticipation of the inclement weather.

Crews were out all day Friday, with a small crew monitoring conditions before the weather hit and a full crew working in full force trying to keep up with the ice once the freezing rain started to fall.

Miller said the department didnt pre-treat the roads because of the nature of the precipitation.

In conditions like this, our best tool is salt, he said. When you have that much moisture on the ground you cant pre-treat.

Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}Dooley is retired from the U.S. Army after a 20-year career.

I am interested in the direction and decisions made for the local VA and the impact it has on the county veterans, Dooley said in his application. I believe my experience in the military as well as my experience with the VA systems will assist me in giving educated advice on future subjects.

Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

During Tuesdays Board of Supervisors meeting, the board noted that nine people had applied to be on the commission. Matt Wyant and Garfield Coleman, both managers with county departments and military veterans, lead the interview process. Board Chairman Tim Wichman sat in on each interview as well, while most of the other supervisors sat in on two to three interviews. Supervisor Justin Schultz  a National Guardsman  sat in on one before deciding to recuse himself because of his previous work and interactions with some of the applicants.

Wyant made the final recommendation, saying, There were several really good candidates, noting about those not chosen, I would recommend that they are reached out to and encouraged to stay involved.The Legislative Auditor has cited several concerns about the administration of the state's unemployment program during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, including the allocation of federal jobless benefits, state worker overtime and the Its not every day a New Orleans student receives an opportunity to take selfies with a United States senator, but one Democratic politician made that a reality for 5,000 students citywide Friday afternoon (Jan. 18).

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker delivered a keynote address to students from 28 schools during an appearance at the Xavier University of Louisiana Convocation Center. InspireNOLA Charter Schools and U.S. Representative Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, hosted the rally as part of the ongoing Project Live & Achieve initiative, which is an effort to unite schools, community groups and faith organizations to support non-violence, academic success, high expectations and community involvement.

The event was packed with all of the usual bells-and-whistles of a school rally. Xaviers center was filled with students from schools that included Edna Karr High School, McDonogh 35 High School, Alice M. Harte Elementary and Eleanor McMain Secondary. Booker was greeted by the sounds of Karrs and Hartes marching bands.

Several students also performed spoken-word poems, and an enthusiastic religious performance was delivered by McMains choir. Booker hugged the choirs director and gave the choir a standing ovation all while the students belted out a strong Oh Lord note.

I was blown away by the talent I saw here already, Booker said. And then theres nothing like the choir coming together.

Congressman Richmond strongly alluded to the possibility of Booker stepping up to run in the 2020 presidential election, comparing Bookers final decision to the choice then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama had to make for the 2008 election. Richmond made that point clear when he urged the students to shout to run, Cory, run.

Booker is the first African-American senator to represent New Jersey. The Stanford and Yale university alumni formerly served on the City Council in Newark, New Jersey, before going on to become the citys mayor. Like Richmond, many politicos consider him a contender for next years election. Indeed, Bookers speech Friday had the hallmarks of a political stump speech in some ways.

Booker sought to relate to the students present by reflecting upon his fathers background in poverty. His father had a chance to go to college thanks to collections from his church, and eventually Bookers dad became one of IBMs first black salesmen, Booker added.

His father nonetheless experienced racism after struggling to find housing when he moved to New Jersey. Booker said his father was even attacked by the dog of a real estate agent who was caught in a sting operation organized by Bookers father and his fathers attorney, who happened to get punched in the face by the agent before the attorney could confront the agent for housing violations, Booker said.

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Booker also addressed the need for affordable health care, and stressed that he cant be satisfied with the country when children have it easier to find unlimited gasoline than unleaded water. He also said he cant be satisfied with a nation that professes an education is a pathway but underfunds their schools.

Booker also addressed the prevalence of crime nationwide. He pointed out that a shooting occurred in his own neighborhood last year when Shahid Smith was murdered with an assault weapon right at the top of the street where I live. Citing figures from the Brady Campaign, a gun control group, Booker stressed that he cant accept a country where nearly 90 people die everyday because guns are so easy to get.

Booker told students that the onus is on everyone, including the students themselves, to confront the issues affecting the nation. He described his remarks as the call of your generation right now, and said there are so many folks who want us to become adjusted to injustice.

The opposite of justice is not injustice, its apathy and indifference, Booker said.

Even so, we still live in a country where the power of the people is greater than the people in power, Booker told students.

No matter how dark things seem, Booker said. No matter how hard the path, if we stand together, if we work together, this nation will rise.

'So young': McMain students hold peace rally after freshman shot dead

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.New Orleans Police arrested a 28-year-old man Friday (Jan. 18) in connection to the Algiers shooting that killed a man and injured a woman Christmas Day.

Damyia McInnis was booked with second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, simple criminal damage and criminal trespassing, jail records show.

Police are accusing McInnis of killing 48-year-old Leon Bush and shooting a 45-year-old woman in the leg near the intersection of General Meyer Avenue and Casimier Street on Dec. 25, 2018.

Bush, a father to three children, was found lying face-down in General Meyer Avenue, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds around 5:20 p.m., police said.

The 45-year-old woman was taken to a hospital, police said.

Bond information was not immediately available.

Anyone with additional information on this shooting is asked to contact NOPD Homicide Detective Maggie McCourt at 504-658-5300.

He was the protector of our family, sister says after man fatally shot Christmas night in AlgiersPolice arrested a 26-year-old man accused of pointing a gun at a security guard after he was asked to leave a bar in the French Quarter Thursday (Jan. 17), police said.

Andrew Breaux was booked with aggravated assault, negligent carrying of a concealed weapon, possession of firearm inside of an alcoholic beverage outlet and criminal trespassing, according to jail records.

Police responded to the aggravated assault call around 1:45 a.m. in the 500 block of Bourbon Street.

Two days before police say Breaux pointed a gun at a security guard, police were notified of an aggravated assault around 3:35 a.m. in the same block of Bourbon Street. Police are looking for a man with a skinny build, about 5-feet, 7-inches tall in that incident.

After asking a woman for her cellphone to put in his number, the man walked away with her phone, police said. The woman chased the man, until he pulled up his shirt to reveal a black firearm tucked in his waistband.

The woman backed away and ran on Toulouse Street toward Rampart Street, police said.

At the time of the assault, the man was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, a jean jacket and light-colored distressed jeans, police said.

Anyone with additional information on these incidents is asked to call the NOPD Eighth District at 504-658-6080.A former New Orleans pastor who was convicted in November of taking thousands of dollars of Road Home grant money from a Hurricane Katrina victim failed to show up for his scheduled sentencing Friday (Jan. 18)  the fifth time his case was set for sentencing.

Elijah Mealancon, 58, was convicted Nov. 19 of one count of unauthorized use of a movable. He was accused of taking $33,000 from the victim in the case, and never completed renovating her home as promised.

Mealancon was arrested the day he was convicted, and court records show he later posted a $7,500 bond which allowed him to remain out of jail until sentencing.

At his first scheduled sentencing hearing on Dec. 17, Mealancons attorney told Criminal District Judge Franz Zibilich his client was in the hospital in Baton Rouge.

Zibilich issued a warrant for Mealancons arrest, noting the case has been dragging on for almost eight years. He set the next sentencing date three days out.

Court records show Mealancon missed that hearing, along with two other hearings scheduled on Dec. 21 and Dec. 28.

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Mealancon didnt show up for his fifth scheduled sentencing date Friday.

Zibilich again issued a warrant for his arrest, and told an Orleans Parish Sheriffs Office deputy, I want somebody to go arrest him.

He told Mealancons lawyer, Ronald Haley, to let his client know its going to be much worse if hes brought to court under arrest instead of showing up on his own.

Zibilich told the victim, who has been in court for each of Mealancons scheduled appearances to give an impact statement, hes doing what he can to get Mealancon there and to make sure justice is served.

Mealancons sentencing is now scheduled for Tuesday.A man was found shot to death Friday night (Jan. 18) on Beechgrove Boulevard, a roadway that runs between a series of apartment buildings in unincorporated Westwego, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office.

Officers responding to reports of a shooting found the man about 9:38 p.m. near the intersection of Beechgrove Boulevard and E. Claiborne Parkway (map), JPSO spokesman Capt. Jason Rivarde said.

The man, who has not been identified, suffered at least one gunshot and was pronounced dead at the scene, Rivarde said.

Neighbors said they heard at least four or five shots, possibly from more than one gun.

First-responders were called by a passerby, who spotted the fatally wounded man in the roadway. Standing near the police tape, Lanell Lewis said her 26-year-old daughter was leaving for a date night with her boyfriend when she spotted the man and stopped to call for help.

She said he was still gasping for air, Lewis said. She said she heard him take his last breath.

Reached by phone late Friday, Niejua Lewis said she did not see the shooting or the shooter but she did find the victim, who was barely breathing.

A gun lay near his body, she said.

I did the best I could, which was to call 911, Niejua Lewis said, and wait for EMS.

Its heartbreaking, she said.

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Officers taped off the area surrounding the intersection of Beechgrove, which is flanked by apartments, and E. Claiborne Parkway, which is lined with wooden houses elevated on pilings. A mans body could be seen lying on the pavement of Beechgrove Boulevard just before the intersection.

Nobody deserves this here, said the man, who declined to give his name. Nobody deserves to die like that.

We dont condone this, the man continued, describing how he and other residents strive to keep the neighborhood clean, cozy and welcoming for their families. When his children, ages 6 to 13, heard the gunfire, he told them it was thunder, he said.

Groups of residents watched investigators process the scene. At least a dozen investigators crowded around the mans body, where several evidence cones were placed. Several more officers searched the area around a wooden home, their flashlights bouncing from the homes facade to the grass nearby.

The man said he thinks the neighborhood could use more of a police presence, while adding that there are usually officers patrolling the area.

We need them, he said.

Several neighbors commented that the area had been relatively void of violence for the past year. The last shooting reported there, a fatal one, occurred almost exactly one year ago. A man, identified as 19-year-old Freddie Carter, was killed last Jan. 26 in the 900 block of Beechgrove Boulevard, a few blocks from where Friday nights shooting occurred.

JPSO said no details on a possible suspect or motive were available late Friday.

Anyone with information on the killing is asked to call the JPSO Homicide Section at 504-364-5300 or submit tips anonymously by calling Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.

Laura McKnight covers crime and breaking news for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune.Trung Le, the man convicted in a mass shooting on Bourbon Street that killed a nursing student and injured nine others in 2014, will have his sentence cut in half after the Louisiana Supreme Court denied the district attorneys appeal of a higher courts ruling that vacated his manslaughter conviction.

Le, 25, was convicted of exchanging gunfire with an unidentified man in the 700 block of Bourbon Street around 2:45 a.m. on June 29, 2014. Brittany Thomas, a 21-year-old nursing student from Hammond, was killed in the crossfire.

A jury unanimously convicted Le of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter after a weeklong trial in 2016. Criminal Distirct Judge Byron Williams imposed the maximum sentences on each count  40 years for manslaughter and 20 years for attempted manslaughter  and ordered they be served consecutively for a total of 60 years.

Le appealed, calling Williams sentence excessive, cruel and unusual punishment.

The Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal in April vacated Les manslaughter conviction and instead found him guilty of negligent homicide in Thomas death.

At Les trial, prosecutors said he didnt fire the shot that killed Thomas. That was the basis of the appellate judges decision to vacate the manslaughter conviction.

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaros office appealed that ruling, and the state Supreme Court on Friday (Jan. 18) denied their appeal. Chief Justice Bernette J. Johnson and Justice Jefferson D. Hughes III dissented from the majority opinion.

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1 year after Bourbon Street shooting killed 1, wounded 9: Still looking for Brittany

Les case will be sent back to the trial court for sentencing. Ad hoc Judge Dennis Waldron will sentence Le only on the negligent homicide charge, which carries a sentencing range of zero to five years.

Waldron can choose to run that sentence concurrent or consecutive to his 20-year attempted manslaughter sentence, putting Les sentencing range between 20 and 25 years.

Cannizzaro said hes deeply concerned  that this decision essentially condones violence and shootouts on crowded city streets.

To let this decision stand creates a dangerous situation for our citizens and tourists, he said. It essentially says that if there is a gunfight that inadvertently takes the life of an innocent bystander such as Brittany Thomas, the law will treat the shooters as if there isnt a real victim.

A re-sentencing date has not been set.WASHINGTON  Coast Guard personnel havent needed food stamps before, but with their salaries suspended due to the partial government shutdown, they may become eligible for help. The problem, though, is that funding may run out before they have a chance to apply for benefits if the government remains closed.

To address the problem, Gov. Phil Murphy and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooker asked President Donald Trump on Friday to create a new fund to allow them to receive benefits under the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. The state is giving next months benefits early because of the shutdown to those already eligible.

If the federal government will not pay them their salary, we must ensure that they have the resources to provide for themselves and their families, Murphy wrote in a letter also signed by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a fellow Democrat.

They and their families have sacrificed so much for this country, and, through no fault of their own, are in danger of not receiving the help they need, the letter said. Such a result should be unthinkable in our great country, and we urge you to take steps to prevent it from becoming a reality.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, D-2nd Dist., has introduced legislation to fund the Coast Guard and the Federal Aviation Administration so their employees can be paid.

The shutdown, already the longest ever, moves into its fifth week Saturday. It began Dec. 22 after Trump refused to sign legislation funding federal agencies unless it also included more than $5 billion in taxpayer funds for a southern border wall the president had promised Mexico would pay for.

Then there was this announcement late Friday.

Murphys letter came a day after he blasted Trump for the shutdown, calling his actions juvenile  and thats insulting juveniles.

Our brave service members continue to patrol New Jerseys coastline and protect our country without pay due to President Trumps shameful shutdown, Murphy said Friday. These families have sacrificed so much for us to enjoy our freedom. If President Trumps shutdown must continue, he needs to provide assistance for those whose livelihoods are hanging in the balance while he plays politics in Washington.

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., met with Coast Guard families as well as air traffic controllers and federal agency employees in Montclair Friday. Around 800,000 federal workers, including more than 5,000 in New Jersey, have working without pay or furloughed.

Good, hardworking New Jerseyans are needlessly suffering," Menendez said. Across our state, families are struggling to make rent, pay their mortgage, buy food and medicines, and even cover their kids college tuition."

House Democrats, meanwhile, are preparing to vote on two more spending bills next week, but Senate Republicans are refusing to bring up any legislation reopen the government, even though they passed almost identical measures last month.

Trump used the shutdown to begin a new round of fundraising for his 2020 re-election campaign, asking supporters to buy bricks to send to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

That campaign is full of misrepresentations, however. The bricks are emblazoned with claims to support a border wall, such as enough fentanyl enters through the southern border to kill every American. But independent fact-checkers quoted the Drug Enforcement Administration as saying that a wall would have no impact because most drugs coming into the U.S. from Mexico are smuggled through existing ports of entry.

The fundraising email also claimed that Americans not only want the wall, they demand the wall, except that every independent poll showed the opposite and that a majority of Americans blamed Trump, not congressional Democrats, for the shutdown.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

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Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.Can Americans still have a sensible and friendly political discussion across the partisan divide? The answer is yes, and we intend to prove it. Julie Roginsky, a Democrat, and Mike DuHaime, a Republican, are consultants who have worked on opposite teams for their entire careers yet have remained friends throughout. Here, they discuss the weeks events, with prompts from Tom Moran, editorial page editor of The Star-Ledger.

Q. Gov. Phil Murphy gave his State of the State address Tuesday. How did he do? Is New Jersey better off today than when he took office?

Roginsky: New Jersey is undoubtedly better off today than it was when Governor Murphy took office. From paid sick leave to equal pay for equal work to stronger gun safety laws, millions of New Jerseyans have directly and tangibly benefitted from his governorship.

DuHaime: Julie won't be surprised that I disagree. The Democrats who run New Jersey have raised numerous taxes while ignoring the looming threat of public pensions forcing the state into bankruptcy. Under Gov. Christie, Democrats and Republicans didn't always agree, but we came together to on important issues like pension and benefit reform, storm recovery and bolstering Atlantic City. Now that Democrats are in total control, the major initiative seems to be legalizing weed, but that can't even get done because they can't agree how high to make the tax on it.

Q. The governor took special aim at the business tax breaks that have been crucial to the revival of Camden, which is Ground Zero for his political rivals, George Norcross and Senate President Steve Sweeney. Hows that going to play out?

Roginsky: The governor was very vocal about fixing issues related to business tax breaks during the campaign, so it is not surprising that he is following up on it. On the other hand, he supported giving a massive tax break to Amazon, which is not necessarily the poster child for a business that requires corporate welfare to survive. So I think it is just one more issue that will become a bone of contention.

DuHaime: Make no mistake, this is a major escalation in the governor's war against fellow Democrats, and it is not just a policy disagreement. New Jersey's tax incentive program has worked to bring new businesses and development to cities like Newark, Jersey City and Camden, among others. This program was bipartisan, started under a Democrat Gov. Jon Corzine and bolstered under Republican Gov. Chris Christie, with support from both sides of the aisle in the Legislature. It has worked in a state where other elements, such as high taxes, make it unattractive to businesses.

Q. As we speak, the governor has no chief of staff, only an acting one. The administration has reached out to several people in recent weeks and found no match. Whats the problem? And how much does it matter?

Roginsky: A chief of staff needs to be able to be just that: the chief of a staff that he or she has the ability to shape, hire and fire. When lower-level staff members feel that they can go around the chief of staff, that does not bode well for the organizational structure as a whole. That is as true in Trenton as it is in Washington. The governor would be well-served in having a strong chief of staff who is given authority over every member of his staff and who answers only to the governor and not to anyone else. Otherwise, you are setting up competing power structures that lead to internecine warfare among people whose only concern should be to advance the governor's agenda.

DuHaime: Julie makes great points about the structure that needs to be in place for a chief of staff to be effective. I would think being chief of staff to the governor would be very attractive job and a place where someone can have a direct, large and positive impact on the state, so I am sure it will be filled permanently soon.

Q. The incoming attorney general, William Barr, says he would resign before firing Robert Mueller without good cause. Can we trust that? Or do we still need legislation to make sure, as Sen. Cory Booker is demanding?

Roginsky: "Good cause" is in the eye of the beholder, so I strongly support Senator Booker's legislation protecting Robert Mueller.

DuHaime: I take Barr at his word. No one is firing Mueller before he is finished, and his report comes out.

Q. Rep. Steve Kings racist comments in defense of white supremacy drew wide rebukes from Republicans who have supported him in the past, including former Gov. Chris Christie. But wasnt it obvious before this that King was a racist? Why now?

Roginsky: It was obvious for years that Rep. King was racist. It was also obvious that Rep. King represents a district in the nation's first-in-the-nation caucus state, so Governor Christie and other Republicans with national ambitions looked the other way for years. The fact that the dam broke now has allowed Governor Christie and others to suddenly find strength in numbers in criticizing his rhetoric. But let's remember that they didn't disavow him when he made the racist statement about Mexicans having cantaloupe-sizes calves from hauling marijuana across the border, they didn't disavow him when he supported a politician who said the Quran is worse than Mein Kampf, they didn't disavow him when he said that no other race contributed as much to civilization as whites, they didn't disavow him when he met with members of an Austrian political party that is a direct descendent of the Nazi Party, they didn't disavow him when he said that "mixing cultures" would lead to a worse quality of life, and they didn't disavow him when he endorsed a neo-Nazi for mayor of Toronto. But since they are such profiles in courage in taking on racist rhetoric in their own party now, I am expecting them to condemn President Trump for all his racist dog-whistle rhetoric as well. I won't hold my breath, though.

DuHaime: I could fill my response with what-abouts? aimed at Democrats turning a blind eye to anti-Semitism, racism, sexism and divisive identity politics within their own ranks over the years, because leaders in both parties often excuse poor behavior in their own party while condemning it in the other. But I wont do that today. For me, I will simply admit I wish I criticized King earlier. I was blinded at first by party loyalty King showed toward Christie at a time when few in national politics gave us a chance. In 2009, Congressional Democrats organized a blatantly political ambush of a hearing to embarrass Gov. Christie, which then-Gov. Corzine turned into television ad. Only one Republican on the committee showed up to call Democrats out. It was Steve King. I certainly didnt know his views on anything, but I appreciated his efforts and always remembered it. Over time, we have seen his divisive rhetoric which has grown far worse in recent years. He should leave Congress, but thats probably up to voters in his district, not us. For all those piling on those Republicans critical of Steve King now, instead of criticizing them, I would say better late than never. Part of the problem in American politics today is that one can never admit a mistake because everyone loves to pile on people who make mistakes.

Roginsky: You have sufficiently shamed me into agreeing with you. Youre right. Better late than never.Facing a busy travel weekend and an increase in officers calling out of work, the Transportation Security Administration confirmed Friday it sent staff from around the country to help boost its ranks at Newark Airport.

The TSA said 6.4 percent of its nationwide staff missed work Thursday compared to a 3.8 percent rate at the same time last year. Many officers - who are laboring without pay from the partial federal government shutdown - reported they are not able to report to work due to financial limitations," according to an agency statement.

Members of the TSAs National Deployment Force, which is often used in major events or natural disasters to help the local workforce, were sent to Newark Airport, according to a spokesman. TSA officers in the force are available to travel to areas outside of their home base.

TSA officers are resilient during this time, yet there is a rise in callouts from officers who say they are not able to report to work due to financial reasons. I understand this & where necessary, we will exercise contingency plans using the resources & staff available.  David P. Pekoske (@TSA_Pekoske) January 17, 2019

In coordination with airport authorities and airlines, TSA will continue to optimize resources, manage consolidation efforts, and ensure screening lanes are properly staffed, TSA spokesman Thomas Kelly said.

TSA has built great flexibility into its system, and usage of the NDF will allow the agency to bolster available screening officers at airports across the country to maintain the highest security standards, the spokesman said.

It was unclear how many TSA officers missed work at Newark Airport or how many extra screeners were called in. The spokesman said the agency does not disclose airport-specific call-out numbers.

As the agency sent backup to Newark, security screening wait times Friday night were mostly light. Terminal B saw the longest wait at 22 minutes for general screening, according to the airport. PreCheck lines continued to clock in under 10 minutes.

Newark on Thursday logged the fourth-longest maximum wait for security screening Thursday at 29 minutes.

While national average wait times are within normal TSA times of 30 minutes for standard lanes and 10 minutes for TSA Pre, some airports experienced longer than usual wait times, the TSA said in a statement Friday.

The government shutdown, sparked by President Trumps bid to fund a wall at the Mexican border, has led officials to close checkpoints at some of the nations busiest airports as federal workers miss work.

Hi, Brett. Thank you for sharing your travel experience with us. We are monitoring the situation and TSA agents are still working. For updated information about security wait times, please check our official website at: [https://t.co/qmtjPfQZxh]. We appreciate your feedback. *AS  Newark Liberty Airport (@EWRairport) January 18, 2019

TSA officials estimate more than 8 million passengers will be screened through Monday, a 10.8 percent increase from the last Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.With New Jersey under a state of emergency on Saturday because of the severe impending snowstorm, the organizers of the 2019 Womens March on New Jersey in Trenton have pulled the plug on the event.

The march was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. at the Trenton War Memorial.

The safety of march participants, organizers, speakers, and volunteers is of the utmost concern, a statement from the group said.

March organizers did not say if or when the march would be rescheduled.

There are five other womens marches scheduled across the state for Saturday including one in Newark and another in Atlantic City. None of the other marches have announced any changes due to the state of emergency.

The marches were first held across the county in 2017 after the election of President Trump as as a way to send a message about womens rights and other issues.

Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrsheldon Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.Mary J. Fennell doesnt consider herself a history buff, except when it comes to the African Burying Ground in Bedminster.

Shes been worrying about it ever since a historical marker was placed there two years ago, wondering if its boundaries overlap adjacent land the township committee is about to sell. Fennell, a resident for 32 years, doesnt want the sale to happen until the township makes sure there are no human remains on the two plots, which are less than an acre combined.

She wants officials to use Ground Penetrating Radar, a device that can determine if anomalies are in the soil, a possible sign that there might be graves underneath.

Because of the age of the deed and the description of where it (the cemetery) was, it may be a little to the left or a little to the back," she said. The exact location of the burial ground cant be determined."

Mayor Lawrence Jacobs is certain the township is on solid footing with the cemeterys location after years of mystery. Stories lingered for generations about the cemeterys existence on Hillside Avenue, where the old municipal building once stood in 1935.

A small group of citizens, including Fennell, began to poke around in 2013. Jacobs said the Somerset County Cultural & and Heritage Commission was studying old burial grounds in the area at the time. The Bedminster Historical Preservation Committee researched the property, too.

And, they came up with this site," he said.

It was true. The burying ground wasnt folklore. It showed up in land surveys, property lines and a deed found by Tom Buckingham of the heritage commission.

The references were hiding in plain sight," Jacobs said.

Robert Aaron, a free black man, and two slaves, Rick and Yaff, purchased the land for $3 on June 22, 1801. It was sold to them by Aaron Melick Jr., who owned Rick and the land. Yaff was owned by Aaron Van Dorn.

A dedication ceremony was held on the site of the first African burial ground in New Jersey in Bedminster in 2016.

The property wasnt big  one-tenth of an acre or a 66 by 66 foot square. Still, it carried historical importance because historians believe the deed is one of the earliest in New Jersey where slaves owned the land to be used solely as an African Burying Ground.

About 100 people -- township, county officials and historians -- gathered for a dedication in 2016. They erected a plaque with a brief description to mark its location.

Jacobs, who has read Fennells request in a letter to the township committee, doesnt think penetrating radar is necessary.

Our professionals and engineers and historians looked at all of the old deeds and maps and surveys and all of the other descriptions," Jacobs said. There is certainty as to the location of the burial."

Thomas DAmico, historic sites coordinator with the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission, agrees. The land dimensions, he said, are small so that there probably wouldnt be anything outside of that area."

I tend to doubt that they would bury outside of their particular site," he said.

But Nancy Piwowar, a local Plainfield historian, who has done extensive research on Robert Aaron, would like the township committee to reconsider.

No one really knows where anybody is buried," she said. Look what happened at the federal building in New York when they found the African burial ground."

During its construction in 1991, some 15,000 skeletal remains of enslaved and free Africans were discovered 30 feet below the citys street level on Broadway. The six-acre site with history from the 1630s to 1795, is the nations largest African burial ground to be discovered in the United States.

Bedminsters burial ground pales in comparison, but its history and the men who purchased the land are just as important.

Piwowar said Aaron was one of the first African-American bee keepers in New Jersey, an occupation for which he was respected because bees were used to fertilize crops. Aaron, she said, voted in three elections and was married in Zion Lutheran Church, which was also started by an African-American in Oldwick. When he died  possibly 1801 or later - Piwowar said his inventory was worth $115.84.

Im glad she (Fennell) is taking up the issue," Piwowar said. Its rare to find someone who would invest so heavily in taking a moral position that she really has no personal investment."

She did try financially. Fennell wanted to buy the township land thats for sale, but shes not eligible because Jacobs said her property is not adjacent.

Jacobs said the lots are undersized," and available for sale to two homeowners whose property is next to the land. He said its not for development, only for those homeowners to have a little bit more yard. Combined, the lots cost $35,000.

Fennell said she hasnt heard back from the township committee about her radar request, but she would be willing to pay for the land test if the township did not.

Jacobs, again, didnt think it was necessary. That decision, Fennell said, is disappointing, but not surprising. She questions how the township can be that certain when the deed is over 215 years old.

Weve done all the research," Jacobs said. Were confident in the demarcation that the professionals have given and have done all of the research into this issue."

Read More

Barry Carter may be reached at bcarter@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@BarryCarterSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.An Atlantic County high school teacher was arrested Friday after officials said she had a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old student.

Jessica R. Gaeckle, 30, of Galloway Township, was charged with two counts of official misconduct and hindering apprehension, a release from the Atlantic County Prosecutors Office said.

Gaeckle, a teacher at Pleasantville High School, had sex with the student on at least two occasions" and asked them to destroy evidence once she learned that a criminal investigation had been launched, prosectors said.

Public records show that Gaeckle is an english as a secondary language teacher at the school and earns a salary of $53,941.

Gaeckle was processed at the Atlantic County Prosecutors Office and released on a summons, according to the release.

Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrsheldon Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.A former Parsippany Boy Scouts leader who admitted to sexually assaulting three scouts in the 90s was sentenced to 10 years in state prison.

Stephen Corcoran, age 51, of Morris Plains, pled guilty to four counts of sexual assault in August, 2018 for separate acts of sexual penetration that were committed upon three former boy scouts between 1997 and 1999 in Morris Plains, according to a release from the Morris County Prosecutors Office.

The Defendant held a trusted leadership role in his community and chose to abuse his power by hurting innocent children," Morris County Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp said in the release. "The past cannot be changed, however we hope that this sentence brings some closure to the victims.

Corcoran was charged in 2012 with abusing two of the scouts, and indicted in 2013 on charges of abusing all three, officials said.

Corcoran is already serving a seven year state prison after he was convicted in 2017 on 11 charges in a separate child pornography case, the release stated

The child pornography charges stemmed from the testimony of the key prosecution witness, who alleged that he was 18 years old when Corcoran showed him the images of what he characterized as middle-school aged boys, prosecutors said

His latest sentencing will run concurrent to the seven-year sentence he was handed in 2017.

The case first came to light in 2011, when a former boy scout came forward and told police that he had been sexually assaulted by Corcoran when he was a juvenile, according to the release.

An investigation showed that two additional former boy scouts has also said they were sexually assaulted by Corcoran in the 90s, authorities said.

One of the victims disclosed a course of abuse that occurred over several years, the release stated.

The ex-troop members alleged in a 2012 lawsuit filed against the Boy Scouts that Corcoran began grooming them for sexual abuse when they were 11 and 12 years old and later molested them at his home and on camping trips to locations that included a scout camp in Bergen County.

In 2018, the former scouts settled the sexual assault case where they sought to hold the organization responsible for allowing Corcoran to serve as a troop leader.

The former scouts' attorney, Bruce Nagel of Roseland-based Nagel Rice, told NJ Advance Media last year that the amount of the settlements were confidential, but that his clients were very pleased with the outcome.

Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrsheldon Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.Atlantic City will pay out a settlement of $462,500 to a man who claimed a group of police officers beat him and held him at gunpoint before releasing two K-9 dogs on him in February 2012.

In a federal lawsuit filed in November 2013, Julius Adams said he was walking home from Trump Casino after a night of gambling and drinking when he was stopped by a group of Atlantic City police officers.

He alleged he was then attacked. At one point, as he was bleeding profusely, an officer said, Let that n----- bleed out, according to the lawsuit. The attack left him incapacitated for a month and with permanent injuries. Adams claims the incident was payback for an internal affairs complaint he filed a year earlier against an officer.

Sgt. Frank Timek, Sgt. Daryl Hall, officer Brent Dooley, officer Kyle Eisenbeis and the city of Atlantic City were named in the lawsuit.

According to Adams deposition, when Timek arrived on the scene, the veteran officer placed Adams against the wall and began patting him down before Timeks K-9 partner dragged Adams to the ground. Dooley then allegedly began beating Adams with a baton.

When Hall arrived, Timek told him that Adams had kicked at his dog, according to the deposition. Hall then released his K-9 partner to bite Adams, who was handcuffed, before kicking the man in the face and ribs, according to the lawsuit.

When deposed, Timek, Hall and Dooley denied Adams story, calling him very combative and alleging he started a violent struggle. Typically, in a settlement, neither party admits wrongdoing.

Adams eventually pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of inflicting harm on a law enforcement animal, saying he hit one of the K-9 dogs to get the animal off of him, according to court transcripts.

When the Atlantic City internal affairs unit investigated the alleged attack on Adams, they determined his complaint of excessive force was unfounded. HIs case wasnt unusual. From 2007 to 2014, internal affairs investigated 570 excessive force complaints against Atlantic City police officers. Only two were deemed to have merit by department investigators.

Adams' civil trial was scheduled to start last Monday, but the parties settled the case before it began.

With this case now concluded, Atlantic City police have been named in at least 25 excessive force lawsuits, costing taxpayers almost $7 million over the past 10 years. This occurred as the city crumbled, nearly going bankrupt in 2015 before the state stepped in.

The Adams case was highlighted in The Force Report, a 16-month investigation by NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, which found Atlantic City was a department that often seemed indifferent to aggressive officers.

Timek was one of those officers. The 20-year veteran accumulated 63 internal affairs complaints  43 of them for excessive force  between May 2001 and August 2014, as well as being named in 11 excessive force lawsuits, according to court documents. During that time period, he became a K-9 handler and then was promoted to sergeant, just three months after he allegedly sicced his dog on Adams.

The culture created by Atlantic Citys insufficient policies, procedures and customs actively endangered the community, wrote Richard Rivera, a former West New York officer and police expert who was hired by a plaintiff in a separate excessive force lawsuit.

Adams attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, who has won nearly $4.5 million for clients in excessive force lawsuits against Atlantic City police officers, declined to comment on the settlement.

Another civil trial is scheduled for March, according to court documents, for a different plaintiff Bonjean is representing, in which a group of Atlantic City police officers allegedly beat a man unconsciousness and released a K-9 dog on him in November 2014, according to the lawsuit.

A phone call and email to a police department spokesperson seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com. Follow on Twitter @monavage. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.This years Womens March on New Jersey was supposed to bring together kindred spirits of women grounded in diversity, according to the events mission statement.

But one of the key groups supporting Saturdays march in Trenton has pulled out due to feuding among organizers.

Leaders of Black Lives Matter-N.J. withdrew their support of the march Wednesday after clashing with the Womens March founder Elizabeth Meyer and the organizing committee, according to a statement from the group.

Upon attending the first meeting held in Trenton, after a long and tense conversation, we were told that this march is basically a white womens march (being that the lead organizer is a white woman who has final say), said a post on the Black Lives Matter-N.J. Facebook page.

Re: BLM NJ ceases involvement with the Womens March on New Jersey Date: Jan 16, 2019 Black Lives Matter NJ... Posted by Black Lives Matter-NJ on Thursday, January 17, 2019

Black Lives Matter leaders will not be speaking at or working at the Trenton march, the group said.

We found that the leadership expressed many classist, agist and internalized racist views that we simply do not adhere to. It became increasingly clear, that our name was being exploited and if we continued to attempt to work with this group, we would only be participating in harm against the very communities in which we hold ourselves accountable, the groups statement said.

The organizers of the Womens March on New Jersey said they were sad and disappointed the Black Lives Matter group withdrew as one of the hosts.

We regret any miscommunication and missteps that damaged our relationship with them. While we tried, in good faith, to listen and hear their concerns, we clearly werent successful. We had tremendous hope that our collaboration might bring greater understanding and awareness for everyone who had committed to this movement of tearing down stereotypes, eliminating margins, and reevaluating the true meaning of diversity, the Womens March leadership team said in a statement.

At least two other groups that had previously supported the Womens March on New Jersey -- the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New Jersey -- previously pulled out of the march amid complaints about non-white women not getting enough of a voice in the planning of the event.

The Womens March on New Jersey still has a long list of other sponsors and partners, including the New Jersey Education Association, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. The speakers at the 11 a.m. march are scheduled to include First Lady Tammy Murphy and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-12th District.

The behind-the-scenes dispute at the New Jersey march is one of several controversies that have marred this years Womens March events around the country.

Some former supporters, including some Jewish women, are boycotting this years Womens March events because of links between organizers of the national Womens March organization and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has made anti-Semitic and homophobic statements.

The Womens March national organization put out a statement saying their leaders value all participants, including gay and Jewish marchers.

The Womens March exists to fight bigotry and discrimination in all their forms  including homophobia and anti-Semitism  and to lift up the voices of women who are too often left out," the statement said.

Several local marches, including the Womens March on New Jersey and the Womens March on Philadelphia, have put out their own statements distancing themselves from the national organization and stressing they are independently-run groups with no financial or administrative ties to the national march.

Disputes among leaders of New York City womens march groups have also resulted in at least three rival womens march events scheduled in Manhattan on Saturday.

There are at least five Womens March events scheduled in New Jersey on Saturday. In addition to Trenton, separately-run marches are scheduled in Atlantic City, Asbury Park, Newark, Leonia and Franklin in Somerset County.

Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter@KellyHeyboer. Find her at KellyHeyboerReporter on Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.A group of more than 1,000 strangers gathered together for the funeral of an Army veteran who died alone.

Officials say 77-year-old Peter Turnpu died at his Waterford home last month from natural causes, and had no known relatives and few friends. Funeral director LeRoy Wooster says he was asked to help by a police officer and immediately agreed to put together a service for Turnpu.

POWERFUL Moment! Dozens of strangers show up to a Vietnam Veterans Funeral. He had no known family, so a local Funeral Home invited the community to help give him the proper send off. Story @6abc at 6pm. pic.twitter.com/7uLMyzmrl6  Gray Hall (@GrayHall6abc) January 18, 2019

More than 1,000 were present at the man's funeral in Atco on Friday afternoon to pay their respects.

Wooster says he was able to find out that Turnpu was a veteran of the Vietnam War who received an honorable discharge  making him eligible for a burial with full military honors. Wooster also donated a casket, transportation and services.

Turnpu had no surviving relatives. He came to America from Estonia with his mother and became a citizen in 1954, Wooster said.

Paying respect to local @camdencountynj Vietnam #veteran Peter Turnpu at Brigadier General Doyle Cemetery in Wrightstown. He passed away with no family. Hundreds came out to show their appreciation for this veterans service.  #WelcomeHome #vietnamvet pic.twitter.com/1mmgZSATRb  Freeholder Bill Moen (@BillMoen) January 18, 2019

He served in Vietnam from 1964 to 1966 and was honorably discharged. He had worked as a truck driver for a small South Jersey company. He was married, but divorced in 1980.

The only papers he saved were his immigration papers for him and his mother from Estonia and the letter from the Veterans Administration hospital, Wooster said. There was nothing more recent than 30 or 40 years ago.

Wooster said Turnpu lived alone in a rented house. He said a neighbor alerted authorities when he hadnt seen him and his body was discovered shortly afterward on Dec. 9.

Wooster said it took a month to coordinate Turnpus burial in a military cemetery.JERSEY CITY  The day after a preschooler died after being found unresponsive at a Jersey City school, officials are mum about their investigation into the boys death.

Hudson County Prosecutors Office spokesman Ray Worrall confirmed on Thursday his office is looking into the incident. Requests for comment on the progress of the investigation were not returned on Friday.

The boy was unresponsive after taking a nap at School 37 Thursday afternoon and was brought to Jersey City Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, according to school officials. The call for an EMT came at about 2:20 p.m.

A JCMC spokeswoman referred all questions to the prosecutors office.

The mood was somber Friday at the 800-student school, located in Jersey Citys Hamilton Park neighborhood. Grief counselors visited every class and the parent-teacher association bought lunch for the distressed preschool teachers, according to one source.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.A car crashed into the rear of the Jersey City Board of Education offices Friday morning, and the driver fled while a passenger was left behind with a broken leg, authorities said.

Jersey City police responded at roughly 11:10 a.m. and were told that the driver fled west on Claremont Avenue toward West Side Avenue, according to police radio transmissions. Authorities did not say if the car was stolen, but in radio transmissions, police said the car had fictitious license plates.

When police arrived the passenger was on the ground outside the vehicle, a four-door Chevrolet, that slammed into the painted brick building. It appeared that his leg was broken, police said in radio transmissions.

Jersey City spokeswoman Ashley Manz said the injured passenger, who was not cooperative with police, was taken to RWJBarnabas Healths the Jersey City Medical Center for treatment.

Apparently the car was traveling at a high rate of speed on Orient Avenue behind the Board of Education offices and failed to negotiate the curve. No one in the building was injured.You could hear the voice of Linda Belcher, easy-going matriarch of the Emmy-winning Bobs Burgers animated series, come through in every word spoken by John Roberts.

The actor was speaking with students from The Ethical Community Charter School in Jersey City, and over 60 minutes Thursday he imparted advice on career and life choices. Some of the advice even came from his Linda character, who Roberts admits is a hybrid version of his mother, Brooklyn accent and all.

Among the topics Roberts touched upon were bullying, hard work, great teachers and creating characters:

On bullying: Yes, my bully would always ask me if I was a boy or a girl. All you need is one good friend."

On hard work: If you put the work into it, something good is always going to come out of it.

On great teachers: Stay positive, support each other and help each other to find your voices. I am still close with the teachers that were there to support me."

On creating characters: Observe your surroundings. Comedy is a great place to start  with your mom. People relate to comedy when it comes from a place thats real.

Roberts' work helped Bobs Burgers win the 2017 Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program.

Through its FSA Performing Arts program, TECCS has brought in a number of performers, including Hamilton cast member Euan Morton, to speak with and advise students.Talk show host Wendy Williams, again beset by complications of Graves' disease, has announced that she will take an extended break from The Wendy Williams Show."

Williams, who had already been away recovering from a shoulder fracture after an injury in December, posted a statement from her family (the Hunter family  Williams' full name is Wendy Williams Hunter) on Twitter Friday afternoon.

Over the past few days, Wendy has experienced complications regarding her Graves' Disease that will require treatment, the statement said. Wendy will be under the strict supervision of her physicians, and as part of her care, there will be significant time spent in the hospital.

Starting on Dec. 24, The Wendy Williams Show had been airing reruns. The show returned this month, but with a panel of Hot Talker hosts instead of Williams. Williams, who has been hosting the talk show since 2008, was supposed to be back on the show on Jan. 21. That date was already postponed from Jan. 14, which was in turn postponed from Jan. 7.

Williams also shared a statement from Debar-Mercury, the company that distributes The Wendy Williams Show.

For over ten years, Wendy has been a vital part of the Debar-Mercury family, that statement read. We wholeheartedly support Wendy in this decision to take the time she needs and we will welcome her back with open arms the moment she is ready.

The companys statement also said that the show will air old episodes for the week of Jan. 21, then move on with new episodes featuring different hosts.

This is the second time Williams, 54, has had to take a break from the show for health reasons. The talk show host, who lives in Livingston and grew up in Ocean Township, took a doctor-mandated break of several weeks from the Fox talk show in February 2018 after publicly revealing her Graves' disease diagnosis. The hiatus followed an incident several months before during which Williams fainted on live TV on Halloween in her Statue of Liberty costume. She later said she had become overheated and was dehydrated.

Williams has been treated for hyperthyroidism  an overactive thyroid  since she was diagnosed 20 years ago. At the time, she was also diagnosed with Graves' disease, an autoimmune condition that causes an overproduction of thyroid hormone. Symptoms can include weight loss, heart palpitations, anxiety and eye bulging. Williams previously said that she experienced rapid heartbeat, heat intolerance, sleeplessness, trouble swallowing and irritability.

Saying she had pressed reset on her approach to life, Williams tearfully made her triumphant return to the show in March alongside Dr. Oz, who spoke about her condition and said she had the lowest level of vitamin D he had ever seen.

You saved your life, Ill make it real simple, Oz, who lives in Cliffside Park, told Williams at the time.

Actor Jerry OConnell had filled in for Williams as host during her break.

I had been having bats swimming in my head since maybe July, didnt tell anybody, 'cause I figured well, its menopause, its a whole bunch of things going on, she told the audience, saying she had been postponing a doctors appointment for too long.

We put so many things ahead of ourselves and our health, its ridiculous," she said at the time.

Williams' previous treatment included undergoing a procedure during which she drank radioactive iodine to strip her thyroid of its overactivity. She also had taken a daily thyroid pill, but after nearly two decades, complications continued to develop, she said.

Sending positive energy to @WendyWilliams for a quick recovery. There are too many Hot Topics to be without WW on TV!  Andy Cohen (@Andy) January 18, 2019

The talk show host did not give a specific date for when she would be returning to TV.

Watch What Happens Live host Andy Cohen and Kathy Griffin were among those who shared messages of support for Williams on Friday.

There are too many Hot Topics to be without WW on TV, Cohen tweeted.

Griffin called Williams someone she admires.

She is a hard working woman who never had a damn thing handed to her, Griffin tweeted. She has proved the haters wrong time and time again. Cant wait to see you back in action Wendy! In the meantime, get some rest...you deserve it!

. @WendyWilliams is someone I love and admire very much. She is a hard working woman who never had a damn thing handed to her. She has proved the haters wrong time and time again.



Can't wait to see you back in action Wendy! In the meantime, get some rest...you deserve it! https://t.co/7x6SfNZSZm  Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) January 18, 2019

Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.New Jersey might be close to avoiding a looming crisis over its controversial high school graduation rules.

But its not the fix critics who won a legal battle to overturn the rules had said they wanted.

A bill introduced Thursday in the state Senate would change state law to accommodate rules created by former Gov. Chris Christies administration rather than repealing or revising those rules to comply with state law. The proposal would allow the state to keep in place the current graduation rules, which include the controversial requirement that students pass PARCC exams.

A panel of appellate court judges had struck down those rules last month because they require students to pass PARCC exams or other tests taken prior to 11th grade. State law says a mandatory graduation test should be given in 11th grade, which makes current the rules invalid, the judges found.

State Sen. Teresa Ruiz, D-Essex, said she introduced the bill after discussing the ruling with attorneys for Gov. Phil Murphys administration. The state no longer gives a standardized test to all 11th grade students, so its options were limited.

The easiest way to go about it, we all decided, was to have a legislative fix," said Ruiz, chair of the Senates Education Committee.

While the proposed change is arguably the simplest fix for the state, it might not be the most politically popular move for Murphy. He had campaigned on immediately ending PARCC testing and dropping the requirement that students pass a specific standardized test before they graduate.

His office would not say if he supports the proposal because he does not comment on pending legislation, spokeswoman Alyana Alfaro said.

The Education Law Center, one of the groups behind the legal challenge, previously suggested the state should temporarily suspend the testing requirement for graduation or eliminate it completely.

Jessica Levin, an attorney for the Education Law Center, had yet to analyze the bill, she said. A primary concern is the impact on students who have yet to pass PARCC or alternative exams.

We are concerned with the thousands of students who havent yet passed under the regime that was invalidated, Levin said. We are concerned that a solution is provided for all students and not just some.

Ruiz said options such as suspending or repealing the rules were not discussed and the state is focused keeping the current rules passed by the State Board of Education in 2016.

Indeed, the state signaled its intent to stay the course earlier this week when it asked the panel of judges to partially reconsider its ruling and keep graduation requirements for the Classes of 2019 and 2020 in place. Otherwise, the state argued, 170,000 juniors and seniors would have no clear path to meet the requirement that they pass an exam in 11th grade, since such an exam doesnt exist.

The judges have yet to rule on the request.

The dispute follows years of unrest over changes to graduation rules.

New Jersey has long required students to pass a so-called exit exam before graduation, and most recently students took a single test in 11th grade, which most students passed. But Christies administration revised the rules after the introduction of the PARCC tests in the 2014-15 school year.

The plan was to gradually transition to using the PARCC Algebra 1 and 10th grade English exam instead of an 11th grade test.

What ensued was widely characterized by teachers, parents and students as chaos: There were different rules for different graduating classes, and accusations the state was weaponizing the high school graduation requirements to beat down a testing opt-out movement.

Currently, there are similar, yet partially different requirement for seniors, juniors and sophomores. And some schools are still trying to test students who have so far refused to take PARCC under the belief Murphy would make the exam and the graduation requirement disappear.

Asked how he planned to deal with the situation at an appearance Friday at a Woodbridge school, Murphy said making changes to standardized testing isnt easy.

PARCC is like the bear hunt. I have wished we could get rid of it on Day 1. And believe me, were trying to," he said. This is more complicated than we had thought before we got into office.

State Education Commissioner Lamont Repollet added that the state is working on a strategy for current juniors and seniors but said hes not ready to unveil it.

Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.A 21-year-old community college honors students, who maintains she is innocent, was sentenced Friday to 33 years in prison for her role in the shooting death of a pot dealer.

A jury in September found Raquel Garajau, of Tinton Falls, guilty of felony murder and other robbery and weapons charges in the 2017 slaying of 29-year-old Trupal Patel.

Patel was shot by Garajaus boyfriend at the time, Joseph Villani, in the garage of Villanis Ocean Township home. Earlier this month, Villani, 22, admitted to conspiring with Garajau to rob Patel of his marijuana. He then confessed to shooting Patel when the plan went awry on Feb. 6, 2017.

But Garajau maintained at her sentencing that she had no knowledge of Villanis plans.

Im not the person that Im being perceived to be, she told Judge Joseph Oxley in a Monmouth County courtroom on Friday, according to a video from the Asbury Park Press. And I didnt do the things that Im being accused of and Ill continue to fight to prove my innocence.

After Villanis guilty plea, Garajaus attorney, Robert A. Honecker Jr., said he intends to appeal his clients conviction.

(Villani) was the bad guy in this case, Honecker said.

After Villani shot Patel, he, along with a friend, dumped the body in Shark River Park in Wall Township, Villani admitted. It was discovered weeks later by a park ranger who was collecting trash.

He then had a different friend move Patels black 2003 Jaguar and ditch it in nearby Asbury Park, Villani acknowledged. Police made contact with the friend who moved the car, and that friend wore a wire when talking to Villani about the killing.

Prosecutors at Garajuas trial presented evidence that showed she continued to text Villani after Patels death, imploring him to clean the bullets and take your time bleaching everything.

Take that bag of stuff out cause I touched his phone, another text read. We will throw that stuff in the ocean.

Another text said, Babe you need to move that car its too important. Like ASAP. People will start noticing hes not answering.

Villani admitted to stealing cash, Patels Movado watch and the pot Patel brought to the deal. Villani said he and Garajau then sold the weed.

He is expected to get 40 years in prison when hes sentenced on March 21.

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Today

A few passing clouds. Low 62F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

A few passing clouds. Low 62F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.TOWN OF WHEATFIELD  A former Lewiston town police officer accused of videotaping a woman while she changed in a locker room has been sentenceWEST HAVEN  Dana Paredes, who served as vice principal of West Haven High School before being appointed acting principal following the death of Principal Pam Bellmore Gardner  and who helped lead the school during Gardners illness  is expected to be appointed principal of the high school at Monday nights Board of Education meeting.

In his letter recommending Paredes to the position, Superintendent of Schools Neil C. Cavallaro wrote that since taking the helm, Paredes has shown the ability to make good decisions and command the respect of all stakeholders.WEST HAVEN  Mayor Nancy Rossi will hold a town hall meeting Jan. 29 so residents can ask questions of her and if a recent city council meeting is any indication, there will be many.

At the recent meeting during the public comment portion, residents  and even City Council members in her own Democratic Party  spoke of and complained about an array of issues, including The Haven  or absence of the upscale commercial development; potholes  one allegedly the size of a childrens pool; the sudden departure of the finance director; high taxes; employee furloughs around Christmas; lack of available information on city finances; the environment; the fire districts; unequal allocations for the Allingtown neighborhood; ties between University of New Haven and Saudi Arabia.

No one was tougher on Rossi  in comments that appeared directed toward her  than Tracy A. Morrisey, D-8, who pummeled her for lack of transparency and said she would request a forensic audit of city finances. Two other Democrats on the council threw jabs, as well.

Its hard to change anything if you dont know whats going on, Morrisey said from her board seat during the public comment portion after residents spoke. Wheres the transparency?

Rossi, who has said she is all about transparency  running on that platform  said she has held a few such meetings.

I like to keep the residents updated and included in what is going on in the City of West Haven, she said. To me, the best way is to have a town hall meeting.

The meeting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on the second floor in the Harriet North room. Douglas Gordon, a sophomore political science major at UNH, will moderate and the session likely will be on Facebook Live, she said.

There are ground rules, according to a press release from City Hall, including questions are limited to two, and attendees are asked to keep each one under two minutes so all voices can be heard. In addition, one follow-up question is allowed after each initial question.

The rules may be altered by the moderator at the event, organizers said.

Opportunities for participants to submit questions or comments in writing as an alternative to speaking will also be available.

Both Morrisey and Democrat Louise Martone, D-10, commented on the abrupt departure Jan. 11 of Finance Director Ron Cicatelli , who had only been in the job less than six months.

Morrisey asked, Do you think they believe he resigned? tapping into the widely held belief that he was told to resign or be fired.

Morrisey said the council hadnt had any updates on finances and before they knew it, there was a new finance director.

We sit in darkness, she said.

Martone, chairwoman of the Finance Committee, said it was tough to sit here and do a job, without information.

She said Cicatelli had promised her hed be at the meeting to provide information, but then he was gone.

West Haven is under the advisement of the state Municipal Accountability Review Board. The city has met state requirements and earlier this month initiated the process to receive $8 million in municipal restructuring funds expected to provide it with the means to finish the 2017-18 fiscal year in the black, Rossi has said.

Third District Democrat Aaron Charney, who is helping that resident with the pothole, said from his board seat that hes thinking about proposing an ordinance that would end the citys ability to take property by eminent domain because all those buildings sit boarded up and there is no sign of The Haven being developed.

Rossi also spoke, in a defensive manner, at some comments that were made by fellow Democrats, including a comment made by Morrisey about Rossi buying back two weeks of vacation.

How does the mayor buy back two weeks vacation? Morrisey asked during her comments.

Rossi said after they spoke, that she did buy back two weeks after making sure it was legal and allowed. But Rossi said that personnel information should be confidential so she will look into how that information was obtained.

Rossi said Morrisey made it sound like she was taking from the city, when the opposite is true.

Rossi said even though the city provides her with a car, she mainly uses her own car  except for some longer trips to Hartford because of liability matters  and that she buys her own gas and doesnt use a city credit card to buy lunches. Rossi also doesnt get benefits through the city, she said. She said her salary is among the lowest for a mayor.

Morrisey also implied Rossi had a black book with City Hall employee compensation time recorded.

Rossi said she has no such book, but has a composition book in which she keeps track of her time in case it is ever raised as an issue. Rossi said at about 8 p.m. that night, she had been at work since 6:30 a.m.

Rossi said the reason she ran for mayor is because she truly cares about the city.Fifty-four years later, John Pawelek can still hear those thousands of marchers, led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., singing We Shall Overcome as they crested a hill and came into full view at dawn near Montgomery, Ala.

Oh man, was that emotional! said Pawelek last Tuesday morning as he sat in his home in Hamden. At first, we could just hear them singing. Then, there they were, linked arm-in-arm: John Lewis, Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King, leading all the others.

For a 22-year-old graduate student from Brown University, it was an unforgettable moment. Pawelek and two friends from Brown had flown down the night before in a crowded cargo plane; they were heeding Kings nationwide call asking people across the country to join the effort to allow blacks to vote in Alabama.

The experience of marching with King inspired Pawelek and changed his life. But as America prepares to celebrate another King holiday Monday, Pawalek admits hes disappointed racism still has not been eradicated.

Pawelek contacted the New Haven Register because he believes its important to tell people how brave King and his supporters were and what they accomplished as well as what still needs to be done.

There were 20,000 of us who marched that day in 1965, Pawelek said. Im 76. Although Im in good health, there arent that many of us left (of the 20,000). This is eyewitness history. I was 10 feet away from Martin Luther King.

What motivated Pawelek to risk his life down there, to be spat upon by angry Southern racists who might have pulled him out of the line of marchers  he was on the edge closest to the mobs  and beaten him, perhaps killed him? He said his firsthand experience with racism in his native Baltimore at age 12 spurred him to go to Alabama 10 years later.

Like Selma (Alabama), Baltimore wasnt integrated , he recalled. The black schools were on one side of town and the white schools were on the other side. The black schools were very rundown. My father supervised industrial arts for the citys school system; on weekends wed go into the white schools industrial shop classes, take the nice tools and then go to the black schools and switch the nice tools with the rusty ones! That made a big impression on me.

When Pawelek was in junior high school in 1954, the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education ruled that schools must desegregate. For the first time, there were black kids in my school. The white parents protested and tried to block us from going to school. Many white parents wouldnt let their kids go in but my parents insisted that I go. I was one of seven white kids who went to school in the morning. We had to walk through this gauntlet of parents screaming at us. That was like Alabama years later.

Because he was younger and smaller when he encountered the earlier mobs, Pawelek said, I think I was more scared in Baltimore when I had to go through that crowd.

But this experience had an upside: This was the first time Id ever met a black kid. I started hanging out with them. I realized black kids were human beings.

Pawelek fast-forwarded to 1965. Martin Luther King was all over the news with sit-ins and people getting killed. This was really dangerous stuff and King was very courageous.

Pawelek noted King attempted to lead marchers across Selmas Edmund Pettus Bridge, from the black side of town to the white side. The goal was to march to the state capital of Montgomery, 54 miles away, to press for action on voting rights.

The first two attempts to cross that bridge were unsuccessful, as the nonviolent marchers were repelled by police using dogs, clubs and firehoses. But for the third try, King and his other organizers sent fliers to churches and schools all over America, urging them to join the march.

I saw the flyer on a bulletin board at Brown, Pawelek said. I knew I wanted to go right away. So did my friends Jim and Barry. But we were nervous, not knowing what to expect when we got down there.

He recalled the drive to Boston and the $50 flight from there to Montgomery, sitting on the wooden floor of the cargo plane with about 50 others.

They arrived in a dark Alabama at about 3 a.m. But instantly their spirits were buoyed and they began to feel safe when they walked into the lobby of the Montgomery airport.

It was full of people: old, young, clergy, all colors, Pawelek said. It brings tears to my eyes, just thinking about it.

We were ushered outside where pick-up trucks were lined up. Black farmers were waiting to drive us to the drop-off site where the marchers were going to be. When we got there, we were fed drinks and sandwiches. 

They waited in a field; the skies were beginning to lighten.

At about 5 a.m., at the dawns first light, they heard the singing. And then the marchers came over that hill, with the sun rising behind them. Pawelek and the others waiting in the field ran up to join them, applauding and singing along to We Shall Overcome.

Pawelek saw King pass by, 10 feet away, followed by the other early marchers. We waited two hours to get into the line.

I was tall, so I was placed on the outside. A young black woman was linked arm-in-arm with me. For a white man to be arm-in-arm with a black woman  I dont know if it was illegal, but it was certainly unheard of!

George Wallace was governor and he was adamantly against integration. We had a chant: Oh Wallace, you cant jail us all! Oh, Wallace, segregations gonna fall!

Sitting in his living room, Pawelek began to sing, as he did that day 54 years ago in Alabama: Im gonna lay down my sword and shield! Down by the riverside! Down by the riverside!

The chants and songs lifted the marchers spirits but the local white people were enraged. It was very, very scary, Pawelek said. All along the way there were people yelling at us, calling us the worst words you could imagine. It was their culture, they didnt know any better. You couldnt be angry with them. But this is why it was so courageous of King to be doing this.

Pawelek said things got really ugly and dangerous when they reached the outskirts of Montgomery. The National Guard was there, with fixed bayonets but they had confederate flags on their sleeves. Supposedly, they were protecting us, but they werent. They didnt stop people from running into the street. They were spitting on me. My face was wet. My left arm was all wet. That was really scary because I knew what else could happen.

But they made it safely to the big square in downtown Montgomery, where the 20,000 gathered to hear King. He stood on the courthouse steps, giving a full-out Baptist minister speech, Pawelek recalled.

The convoy of pick-up trucks delivered them back to the airport without incident. But the marchers later learned that Viola Liuzzo, a volunteer driver from Michigan, had been kidnapped and murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan.

After Pawelek and his wife, Linda, moved to Hamden, they joined the Unitarian Society of New Haven. Inspired by his time with King, Pawelek participated in the societys program working with inner city kids at the Waverly Townhouses in New Haven.

Asked if he is optimistic racism will fade away, Pawelek replied, Im always optimistic. You cant be a scientist and not be optimistic. (He is a senior research scientist at the Yale School of Medicines Department of Dermatology and the Comprehensive Cancer Center.)

The only way to deal with racism is through pure love of everything: of the Earth, of other people, Pawelek said. Love and respect have to be instilled in us. Its the only way.

Pawelek will observe Kings holiday by presenting a civil rights slideshow to kids at the Unitarian Society. I think telling children about this is the most important thing.

Contact Randall Beach at 203-680-9345 or randall.beach@hearstmediact.com.When St. Elizabeth of Hungary Roman Catholic Church in Branford closed in June 2017, it was a kind of death for Andrea Duffy, and the grieving was difficult. But she moved on to St. Mary Church, one of the other two churches in the newly formed St. John Bosco Parish, and became a trustee and member of the Parish Council.

Its not just what the church does for you. You have to join the church and be a part of it, said Duffy, who had been a member of St. Elizabeth for about 15 years after moving from West Haven to Branford.

I wrestled for a while and I realized my faith was not in a building, she said.

So now that her former church, which she can see on her neighborhood walks, is being sold, there is more acceptance of the inevitable.

When the Archdiocese of Hartford instituted a major restructuring plan in June 2017, reducing the number of parishes from 212 to 127, including 59 new parishes formed by merging others, 26 churches were left dark, available for weddings and funerals but not for regular Masses. Now the archdiocese is selling those buildings to other congregations or even nonreligious uses.

St. Paul Church on First Avenue in West Haven, closed when the parish merged with St. Lawrence and St. Louis to form St. John XXIII Parish, is being sold to the University of New Haven. UNH is conducting an environmental review before the sale is closed and has not decided how it will use the property, said university spokeswoman Lyn Chamberlin in an email, but she said UNH has no plans to raze the church.

It is important for us to continue to invest in the neighborhood surrounding our main campus, said UNH President Steven Kaplan in a release when the sale agreement was announced in November.

But the closing of a long-beloved church means its former members no longer will be able to worship in the sanctuary where they were married, where their children were baptized and received their first Holy Communion, where their parents and spouses were memorialized before being sent to their final resting place.

It was very hard when the sanctuary light was blown out and the doors were closed for good, said Duffy, whose husbands funeral was held at St. Elizabeths in 2011. Our last Mass there was June 25, 2017. Its a grief. Its the grieving process, just like when you lose a close family member. Later that year, Father [Daniel] Keefe was kind enough to have a healing Mass for the people of St. Elizabeths, with a mingling of holy water into one bowl from the closed church and the two remaining parish churches, St. Mary and St. Therese.

But the Mass was celebrated at St. Mary in the center of town, not at St. Elizabeth, with its floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on the natural world.

I thought that when we closed the church that was the funeral, and I realized that wasnt. That was the death. The healing service served as a funeral. Its expected sale  the buyer has not been revealed because the sale hasnt closed  is easier for Duffy to deal with. You know that time goes on and its now just a building, she said.

Pope Francis, however, emphasized the special nature of closed churches in a letter to those attending an International Conference on Cultural Heritage in November, titled Doesnt God Dwell Here Anymore? The common sense of the faithful perceives for the environments and objects destined for worship the permanence of a kind of imprint that does not end even after they have lost that role, Francis wrote to those wrestling with what to do with buildings that are no longer in use.

The Rev. Daniel Keefe, pastor of St. John Bosco, said in an email that he had not been familiar with St. Elizabeths parishioners before the merger. Their reaction to it being closed (not sold) was, understandably, very emotional, he wrote. Yet, the majority accepted it as a necessity, and joined the new parish of St. John Bosco. Many of the former St. Elizabeth parishioners now have an active role in the many ministries of St. John Bosco and have embraced the new parish.

Removing religious objects

When a church is closed, it is not just a matter of locking the doors. It must be deconsecrated, with special prayers and all religious items removed  the altar, relics, statues and vestments. If the baptismal font is not removable, it must be destroyed, according to Paul Connery, director of property and assets for the Archdiocese of Hartford. The stained-glass windows may remain if the building will continue to be used as a church but, if not, anything showing a religious scene must be removed.

While the archdiocese is overseeing sale of the properties, which may include rectories, schools, convents and land, proceeds will go to the parish, Connery said. Any sale must be approved by the archdioceses Finance Council and Archdiocesan Consultors, a group of priests who report to Archbishop Leonard Blair.

Most of these properties are owned specifically by these parishes, Connery said. My role in this department is to be an adviser, facilitator  We want to make sure that they follow the proper civil and canon law processes.

Churches may be sold for use as schools and other profane purposes  profane as in secular, the opposite of sacred  but not for a sordid use, Connery said.

We do sell churches to real estate developers, so they are for-profit, but we certainly put restrictions to the degree that we legally can to make sure they are not used in ways that are antithetical to our Catholic Church beliefs, Connery said. It would be nice for sure if a church were sold to another church. Its not a Catholic church anymore.

He said that restrictions the archdiocese may put on a sale will not last indefinitely. But, he said, most of these buildings have zoning issues anyway. A lot of them are in residential areas so theyre not going to turn them into a supermarket.

One of the first churches to be sold was St. Brendan on Whalley Avenue in New Haven. The parish had merged with St. Aedan on Fountain Street before the archdiocesan-wide plan went into effect and the property, including a school, was bought by a Chabad-Lubavitch boys rabbinic school, Yeshivas Beis Dovid Shlomo.

Churches that have gone on to non-religious uses include St. Margaret of Scotland Church in Waterbury, which was sold to the Brass City Charter School, Connery said, with the church planned for use as an auditorium. And the city of East Hartford bought Blessed Sacrament Church for use as a senior center. We have another potential sale where they might turn it into a museum, Connery said. Among other properties sold are the rectory of St. Therese Church in Branford on Acorn Road, which was sold to a private party as a residence.

Location and condition

But most organizations seeking to buy closed churches are faith groups, said Dave Melillo, a senior commercial associate with H. Pearce Commercial Real Estate, which is acting as agent for the Archdiocese of Hartford and the Diocese of Bridgeport. He said selling a church is not very different from selling commercial properties.

It comes down to location and condition. Theres no magic to it, Melillo said. Youre certainly more limited in your pool of buyers. The majority of inquiries are from other religious organizations or educational organizations. Were busy. Were showing them often.

He said many of those interested are from ethnic churches looking for a larger space, although many dont have the financial resources to buy a large church.

St. Ann Church, 930 Dixwell Ave., Hamden, and St. John the Baptist, 786 Dixwell Ave., New Haven, are for sale as the result of four parishes merging into one, named Christ the Bread of Life. While St. Ann Church is still on the market, its parish center on Jones Road was sold to a West Haven congregation, Comunidad Cristiana de Restauracion a las Naciones, Melillo said.

However, that sale displaced a congregatoin that had been meeting in the parish center, Bethcar Fellowship Church, which now is meeting at a transitional location, First Calvary Church at 605 Dixwell Ave., New Haven, according to its website. Pastors for those two congregations could not be reached.

St. Anthony on North Main Street in Ansonia, which closed in 2015, before the archdioceses merger plan, was sold in September to Abundant Life Ministries, according to the city assessors web page.

Other churches the archdiocese has designated for sale include St. Clare in East Haven, Church of the Epiphany in Cheshire, and St. Mary of Czestochowa and Sacred Heart in Torrington.

Connery said his job is satisfying and challenging. This process, its going to keep going. Thats the reality, he said. There are more churches that are going to close over time. It is unfortunate. People are sad when their church closes.  A lot of these churches are late 1800, early 1900 churches, a lot of these are immigrant churches. We dont have enough priests to cover the number of parishes.

In the Diocese of Norwich, spokesman Wayne Gignac said the only church in the diocese for sale is the former Sacred Heart Church in Vernon.

A more piecemeal process

Connerys counterpart in the Diocese of Bridgeport is Anne McCrory, chief legal and real estate officer. Theyre way ahead of us in the sale of churches, for sure, because we havent done the same consolidation of church as they have, McCrory said of the archdiocese. Weve done things a little more piecemeal here.

One church that is in the process of being sold is Our Lady of Pompeii of the Holy Rosary, informally called Holy Rosary, which is one of three churches the diocese closed in 2012, out of 16 in the city. That was a church that was what we call suppressed canonically in 2012, McCrory said. The others were St. Raphael and St. Ambrose.

We have a contract for sale of Holy Rosary, she said. Im reluctant to say that its going to happen, but were hopeful.

Holy Rosary is listed as part of the East Bridgeport Historic District and was founded at the turn of the 20th century by Italian immigrants, although the current building was built in 1930, McCrory said. It was an ethnic parish as opposed to a territorial one so it drew Italian immigrants from all over the area.

For many years, Holy Rosary held Italian Mass in addition to English, McCrory said. However, it had lost  its ethnicity many years ago.

When a territorial parish closes, its crystal clear. The assets, the liabilities and the people are divided up, she said. The problem with an ethnic parish is there isnt any territorial breakup. The diocese by default kind of has to take responsibility for what happens there.

Another church that the diocese may have a buyer for is St. John Nepomucene at Brooks and Jane streets on Bridgeports East Side. Closed in 1991, the church fell into disrepair. We preserved both the rear altar, the actual altar itself, because it had a relic in it, side railings in addition to of course the windows and the statues, McCrory said.

Despite its dilapidated condition, the diocese hopes to have a buyer, because other potential sales have fallen through, McCrory said. What you get in the urban areas are popup churches, she said. Theyre great and theyre wonderful people, but they dont generally have any money.

She said in selling a closed church Bishop Frank Caggiano is always looking for some sort of ministry that would be complementary to the mission of the church, such as a monastery. On the other hand, I have seen some interesting restaurants that have resulted from churches in other parts of the country, McCrory said.

She said the model established under former Bishop William Lori was to keep the closed church available to former parishioners for a period of time, perhaps as a chapel. Lori felt there needed to be a period of transition, she said. Its pretty luxurious in the current environment to be able to do that.

The Archdiocese of Hartford has also allowed closed churches to be used for weddings and funerals until theyre sold.

edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382.NEW HAVEN  A 75-year-old homeless woman who uses a walker was made to leave City Hall on a recent cold night, after she hid there on the suggestion of a local activist and self-proclaimed mayoral candidate.

The woman, Poonsri Dangprasert, said she spent the night of Jan. 9 outside when the temperature in New Haven hit a low of 35 degrees, according to accuweather.com.

While a security guard walked Dangprasert out of City Hall that night, the city now will review what occurred to make sure that if a similar incident arose, information about available services would be provided, city spokesman Laurence Grotheer said.

City Hall is open until the scheduled business has concluded and everyone there for that purpose leaves, Grotheer said, though theres no written policy he could provide about when the building closes for the night.

City Hall may close at different times to accommodate long evening meetings and reopens at 9 a.m. to the public. There are no provisions for City Hall to serve as an overnight shelter, Grotheer said, noting, however, that the city works with social service providers for such accommodations.

The city contracts for its building administration with Fusco Corp., which provides security, Grotheer said. Grotheer didnt say whether the city has its own policy for situations when there is a person remaining in the building. But the city would work with Fusco, which has probably been provided with shelter referral information, he said.

Grotheer said he attempted to reach Fusco to confirm whether they have a procedure in place in the event someone attempts to stay the night. The Register independently Friday afternoon attempted to reach a representative of Fusco Corp. on its policy.

Grotheer said this was the first time he had heard of a person attempting to stay the night at City Hall.

Dangprasert said she has been homeless for 10 years after she came to the United States from Thailand and a business deal went sour. She is now receiving assistance from the citys Elderly Services Department.

Dangprasert went to City Hall the evening of Jan. 9 to attend the Affordable Housing Taskforce meeting. Social activist and proclaimed mayoral candidate Wendy Hamilton invited Dangprasert and others experiencing homelessness to come to the meeting because they were discussing plans for housing in the city.

Hamilton said she spoke with Dangprasert afterward and learned she didnt have a place to stay that night. After calling the 2-1-1 helpline to find a shelter without success and not being able to take the woman home with her, Hamilton decided to find her a place to sleep at City Hall, and helped her to hide on the fifth floor.

She had nowhere to go, Hamilton said. Knowing homeless people hide in City Hall a lot, I hid her upstairs, thinking lets give it a shot.

Hamilton said she gave Dangprasert three $10 bills in the event anyone should find her, so Dangprasert could try to bribe them to let her stay. It was a quick solution and I hoped she would be able to stay until morning, Hamilton said.

Why not let her sleep one night? If worse came to worst, she could have cabbed somewhere or asked for police help, Hamilton said. I couldve gotten into trouble. I took a risk to rescue this gal as quickly as possible. Call it stupid, but it was quick. What else could I have done? I couldnt take her home with my sick husband. Call me stupid but I did it.

But a security guard found Dangprasert upstairs at about 10 p.m. while making his rounds. The guard said he woke the woman and told her she needed to leave because City Hall was closed, and he walked her outside.

It hasnt been easy to get help in this city because I fight for my rights, Dangprasert said. Ive been depressed and hurt, unencouraged.

I didnt think they would find her, Hamilton said. I hid her in a room way in the back. I didnt think they would care. I just thought it was cruel throwing an elderly woman out in the dark. If I was the guard I wouldve given her the benefit of the doubt and just let her sit there.

The next day Hamilton met Dangprasert at the soup kitchen and gave her the keys to Hamiltons apartment at 360 State St., where she stayed for a few days. Dangprasert couldnt stay long without Hamilton putting her on the lease so Hamilton brought her to the Elderly Services Department to ask the agency to help find a place for Dangprasert to stay.

. Since then, Elderly Services Director Migdalia Castro has been working directly with Dangprasert and the Office of Housing and Homelessness Services. Shes been placed in a shelter and Castro said shes working on paperwork for more permanent housing.

She needs not only guidance but someone to walk her through he process, Castro said. Its a very complicated system because if you dont know how to walk it, its very scary.

mdignan@hearstmediact.comMILFORD  Florence Chicos started knitting and crocheting when she was just a child. Her mother taught her and her siblings, even her brother. On Saturday, Chicos joined hundreds of other people around the state knitting and crocheting red hats that will be distributed to babies born in Connecticut hospitals in February.

The program that Chicos and nearly a dozen other women at Carriage Green in Milford, a Benchmark assisted living community, were participating in Saturday is called Little Hats, Big Hearts, which celebrates American Heart Month and helps raise awareness for congenital heart defects. According to the American Heart Association, which organized the program in connection with the Childrens Heart Foundation, congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defect in the country.

Twenty-seven hospitals in Connecticut are participating in the Little Hats program, from Bridgeport Hospital, to Danbury Hospital and Yale New Haven Hospital. Every baby born at one of the hospitals in February will receive one of the little red hats made by volunteers.

In 2018, more than 200,000 hats were distributed through the program.

Some of the volunteers are personally connected to this program, either having a child who was born with a congenital heart defect or in loving memory of those lost to heart defects and heart disease, states an AHA press release.

Congenital heart defects are structural problems with the heart present at birth.

They result when a mishap occurs during heart development soon after conception and often before the mother is aware that she is pregnant, according to the AHA. Defects range in severity from simple problems, such as holes between chambers of the heart, to very severe malformations, such as complete absence of one or more chambers or valves.

The ladies knitting and crocheting in Milford Saturday didnt have personal connections to the cause, but they are accustomed to tapping their skills to help out the community.

Joan Callendrillo, retired preschool director at St. Marys School in Milford, sat beside her mother, Marie Montemarano, who lives at Carriage Green.

Callendrillo has knitted hats for babies before, including for Milfords St. Marys Church mission to Haiti program, thanks to a skill taught to her as a child by her aunt.

Doris Quagliani, executive director of Carriage Green, said the residents and staff at Carriage Green often unite for a cause.

Our mission is to elevate the human connection and keep everyone connected to what matters most, Quagliani said, not just as it relates to our own residents, families and associates inside the community but also fostering strong relations outside of the community too.

Toni Ann McKane, programming director at Carriage Green, said the goal is to create 100 hats by Feb. 1, which will be added to those made at other Benchmark properties, and at all the other locations and households pitching in for the cause.

By about 2 p.m. Saturday, Chicos had made about six hats: Some she knitted, some she crocheted, and she was helping Pauline Boyum, another Carriage Green resident, get started on the hat pattern.

Like Chicos and Boyum, the ladies here have been practicing this craft since they were children. Vera Overchuck, for example, grew up in the Walnut Beach section of Milford. An older woman living there at the time gathered a group of neighborhood girls then about 10 and 12 years old and taught them to crochet.

I thought it would be a nice thing to do in the summer, sitting on the beach, Overchuck said.

The others told similar stories about learning to knit or crochet from a mother or a loving aunt, and they talked about all the hats, slippers, sweaters and blankets they created over the years.

Its a relaxing pastime, Overchuck said. She and the others agreed that today its even easier to learn, thanks to Youtube.

And with their lifelong skills, most of them could finish a hat in an hour, adding to the effort to raise awareness about congenital heart defects.

The American Heart Association is committed to raising awareness for congenital heart defects, and helping children live stronger lives through education, research and public policies.

In fact, the organization's funding for pediatric cardiac research is second only to the federal government, the AHA states.

For more information about the Little Hats, Big Heart program, people can go to heart.org/littlehatsbighearts.

Jill K. Dion, Milford Mirror Editor, 203-402-2315, editor@milfordmirror.com Twitter@Milfordmirror Milfordmirror.comHAMDEN  The town announced the institution of a parking ban and the extension of service hours at the community warming center Friday in preparation for an oncoming snowstorm.

The warming center in Grace & St. Peters Episcopal Church, located at 2927 Dixwell Ave., will remain open from 9 p.m. Saturday through 7 a.m. Tuesday, officials said in a release.HAMDEN  Those gathered at Congregation Mishkan Israel varied in creed, belief and background. But they came together to worship and sing as one.

The temple held its annual interfaith service to mark the life of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Thursday evening.

Rabbi Emeritus Herbert Brockman served as the keynote speaker upon the occasion, following in the footsteps of King, who addressed the congregation in 1961.

Drawing from Kings example, Brockman addressed what he considers the defining civil rights issue of our time  immigration  in his remarks.

He drew a comparison between the vision of two Kings  one, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, as well as the modern Republican Party as shaped by the administration of President Donald Trump; the other, Martin Luther King Jr.  for this country and how it welcomes immigrants, tracing the threads of the two viewpoints through American history, seeking answers to basic questions like who are we? and who do we want to become?

He urged those in attendance to embrace immigrants, to embrace their fellow man, and welcome them to his country  to stand alongside King, seek justice, and believe in the American tradition.

Martin Luther King gave his life for his love of country. Kings greatness was his absolute belief in the rightness and righteousness of the American ideal. Before Kings patriotism, all dark forces of nativism, supremacy and prejudice paled. He staked his life on (a) life of brighter and better things, a land of equality, dignity and freedom, said Brockman. My friends, we have seen these days before. We have spent generations battling those who would make America sharp and small and scared.

We have risen; we have challenged; we have dragged ourselves to a more perfect union. We have done so by seeing ourselves and our own histories in the eyes of the other. By choosing compassion and mercy and grace, we are far richer and freer and a more prosperous people. In our shared humanity, we find our empathy and our strength. We find the proud and dusty pages of our story, that proves that ours is a country unafraid to open, extend and expand.

Through the service, prayers were offered for unity, for welcome, for the love of God, for the glory of God, for humanity and the world.

We pray for love to encompass us for no other reason save that we are human / for love through which we may all blossom into persons who have gained power over our own lives, said Omer Bajwa, Muslim chaplain at Yale University.

We pray to stand upright, we fallen; to be healed, we sufferers. We pray to break the bonds that keep us from the world of beauty; we pray for opened eyes, we who are blind to our own authentic selves, said Rev. Allie Perry of the Shalom United Church of Christ.

Let the time not be distant when all shall turn to you in love, when corruption and evil shall give way to integrity and goodness, when bigotry shall no longer enslave the mind, nor prejudice blind the eye, said Rev. Jack Davidson of Spring Glen Church and Rev. Bonita Grubbs. May all, created in your image, become one in spirit and one in friendship, forever united in your service. Then shall your realm be established on earth, and the word of Your prophet fulfilled.

The Most Rev. Peter Rosazza, Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus with the Archdiocese of Hartford, offered a benediction at the close of the service, praying to give thanks for Kings life, work and example.

Though his life was taken by a violent act  something he sensed would happen  his legacy lives on in his person, his writing, and his intercessory prayer from heaven. All challenge our society to conform to the best of our traditions  that each and every human being deserves respect, and that every human being, and every human life, is of inestimable value, said Rosazza.

We state with Dr. King  I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional truth will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.comSpaceX and China have been the builders and testers of new rockets for the last decade. Other countries and companies rarely test new rockets. Many other competing companies and nations have as much or more money, but they just do not test and launch.

SpaceX was formed in 2002. They had the first attempt at flight in March 2006. They successfully flew on their fourth attempt in 2008.

Since their first mission in June 2010, rockets from the Falcon 9 family have been launched 67 times, with 65 full mission successes, one partial failure and one total loss of spacecraft. In addition, one rocket and its payload were destroyed on the launch pad in the fueling process before a static fire test.

Designed and operated by private manufacturer SpaceX, the Falcon 9 rocket family includes the retired versions Falcon 9 v1.0, v1.1, v1.2 and currently active Block 5 evolution. Falcon Heavy is a heavy-lift derivative of Falcon 9, combining a strengthened central core with two Falcon 9 first stages as side booster.

Constellation and Space Launch System

Space Launch System (SLS)has spent $14 billion from 2011 to 2018. It will spend another $6.8 billion from 2019 to 2021. There is about $2.3 billion per year being spent on SLS.

$15 billion has been spent on the Orion crew spacecraft. There is $1.3 billion per year being spent on Orion. There was one pad abort test in 2010 and one orbital test on a Delta IV rocket in 2014. There will be one more unmanned test currently scheduled for December 2019.

From 2005 to 2010, there was about $11.9 billion spent on the Constellation program. This was paid to mainly the same companies working on Space Launch System.

A combined Constellation and SLS spending of $26 billion resulted in one test launch of Ares 1 in 2009.

In 2009, the Government Accountability Office said Orion and Ares I faced significant technical and design challenges. NASA was working to resolve 207 high-risk problems. The most publicized of these was the potential for excessive Ares I vibration to violently shake Orion and its crew during launch. By late 2009after a test flight NASA engineers had fixed the vibration problem.

There was one test launch of a Delta rocket carrying an Orion capsule in 2014.

In 2016, there was a NASA post about the SLS moving to an integrated test launch by the end of 2018. The test launch is now unlikely to happen before the end of 2020. The SLS and Orion programs are spending about $4.5 billion per year.

United Launch Alliance merged in Dec 2006. ULA operates the Atlas V, Delta IV, and Delta IV Heavy launch vehicles since 2006. The Atlas V and Delta IV rockets were respectively developed by Lockheed Martin and Boeing as part of the EELV program, and first launched in 2002, while the Delta II was previously built and launched by Boeing.

In 2014, ULA began development of the Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle, which is designed to meet medium and heavy lift requirements, and will replace both Atlas V and Delta IV. Development of Vulcan began in an effort to lower costs and end reliance on Russian-made RD-180 engines used on the first stage of Atlas V. Vulcan will use the RL10 to power the Centaur V upper stage and a pair of BE-4 engines for its main stage. The Vulcan inaugural flight is scheduled for mid-2020.

Blue Origin

Blue Origin has had about ten test flights of the sub-orbital New Shepard rocket.

Blue Origin has had test firings of the BE-4 rocket.

China Launches and Rockets

China has developed a lot of rockets, performed many tests and performed many launches. In the last decade, it has been China and SpaceX that are developing and testing rockets.

Rockets from the Long March family have a total of 297 launches as of 29 December 2018. 282 were successful, 8 were failures, and 7 were partial failures. The cumulative success rate is 94.9%.Going to nuclear power and uranium would be many times faster than replacing fossil fuels with renewables.

There is a constant stream of death and sickness from fossil fuels. Japan and Germany went to more coal.

Renewables can be better but are far from perfect.

Nuclear can be a net gain for the environment and for the health of people. Each year nuclear offsets 2-3 billion tons of CO2 by generating 2500-2600 TWh of clean energy. Even against natural gas without leaks nuclear offsets 1.2 billion tons of CO2.

Nuclear Power has generated about 85000 TWh over about 50 years of operation. Nuclear power has saved about 3 million lives. Coal power was displaced in the USA. Coal power was displaced in China, Japan, Germany and France. The deaths from coal are about 20-100 deaths per Terawatt hour. Although China is building more nuclear power now most of the 50 years of nuclear power has been offsetting coal in the USA, France, Japan and Germany.

Nuclear has been at the 2500 TWh level of power generation for 22 years. 13 years in the range of 2000 TWh. A 14 year ramp up with an average of about 500 TWh.

So nuclear offset 100 to 120 billion tons of CO2. Nuclear power offset 100 million tons of sulfur dioxide. 100 million tons of nitrous dioxide. 2 billion tons of sludge. 2 billion tons of ash. 1000 tons of arsenic.

Natural Gas in the US has a 2.3% Leak Rate, so a Bit Better than Coal But Worse than Diesel

Natural gas does have leaks. One way to quantify the magnitude of the methane leakage is to divide the amount of methane emitted each year by the total amount of methane pumped out of the ground each year from natural gas and oil wells. The EPA currently estimates this methane leak rate to be 1.4 percent. That is, for every cubic foot of natural gas drawn from underground reservoirs, 1.4 percent of it is lost into the atmosphere.

A new study synthesized the results from a five-year series of 16 studies coordinated by environmental advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), which involved more than 140 researchers from over 40 institutions and 50 natural gas companies.

All told, based on the results of the new study, the U.S. oil and gas industry is leaking 13 million metric tons of methane each year, which means the methane leak rate is 2.3 percent. This 60 percent difference between our new estimate and the EPAs current one can have profound climate consequences.

An earlier EDF study showed that a methane leak rate of greater than 3 percent would result in no immediate climate benefits from retiring coal-fired power plants in favor of natural gas power plants.

EDF found that replacing the diesel used in most trucks or the gasoline consumed by most cars with natural gas would require a leakage rate of less than 1.4 percent before there would be any immediate climate benefit.

Renewables

Renewables like solar and wind need natural gas backup or they need continental scale buildouts and high voltage wire to move power around. They also need a lot more storage on the grid.

Currently, the grids are one way. The solar on my roof that generates power from 10am to 4pm on sunny days sends power to the grid and burns off as heat at the nearest distribution node.

PGE politely runs the power meter backwards anyway. 80-90% of the neighbors who do not get solar have higher PGE bills to compensate as they must still pay for all of the powerplants and grid.

Mining and Other Energy Deaths

Moving a lot of stuff and building a lot of stuff is dangerous.

There are a lot of mining deaths and oil extraction deaths.

Working on roofs is dangerous.

Working on tall windmills is dangerous.

Making cement and steel has quite a few deaths.

There is more cement and steel used for Windmills and solar power than to get the same power from nuclear.

A lot of cement and steel is needed for solar.

Summary of Sergio Pacca and Darpa Horvath 2002 Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Building and Operating Electric Power Plants in the Upper Colorado River Basin, Environmental Science and Technology, Vol 36, No 14, pp 3194-3200. Assume solar is 2 to 3 times better now. It still uses a lot more steel and cement to support the same power generation.

Cement and steel need a lot of oil and coal to create and they are industries with high workplace deaths and injuries.

5 megawatt offshore wind turbine, need 600 of these to equal a single 1 gigawatt nuclear reactor (wind has less operating load factor 30% versus 90%. The wind is not always blowing, but nuclear reactions are always happening).

Oil platform size: dimensions of the platform are 103 x 99 meters.

Wind rotor diameters are about 90-100 meters for the 4-6 MW turbines. So wind rotor diameters are about the same width as an oil platform.

Nuclear power plants built in the 1970s used 40 metric tons of steel, and 190 cubic meters of concrete, for each megawatt of average capacity.

Modern wind energy systems, with good wind conditions, take 460 metric tons of steel and 870 cubic meters of concrete per megawatt.

Modern central-station coal plants take 98 metric tons of steel and 160 cubic meters of concretealmost double the material needed to build nuclear power plants.

Solar has a higher carbon footprint than nuclear. About 30-100 grams CO2e/kWh.

Nuclear is at 17 grams. Fossil fuel is at about 800 grams.

The solar pollution figure cannot be factoring in the need for natural gas backup for most solar and wind installations. Otherwise the pollution figure would be higher.

Chinas coal mining deaths fell to 375 in 2017. Down from about 5000 per year ten years ago. Coal mining is for 8 billion tons of coal, uranium mining is for 65,000 tons of uranium each year. 100,000 times less target material. Even the amount of rock removed by uranium mining is less. Uranium mining uses acid leaching. Miners do not go underground for uranium.

About 40% of US rail freight is to move coal. A 200 car trainload is needed every few days to keep each of the large coal plants burning. 40% of all rail freight deaths would be someone being killed by a coal train. A lot of trucks and trains are needed move coal and oil. There are transportation accidents. It is clear statistically that moving 700 million tons of coal or 1 billion tons of oil causes a lot of deaths. A lot of the oil is moved by pipeline but there is still a significant fraction that moves by truck and train.

An actual 1.58GW coal plant near Laughlin, Nevada. Note: each coal plant in the united states kills about 30-300 people from the resulting air pollution. Some plants are more polluting than others. The Laughlin coal plant produces 9 million tons of CO2 each year.

The Laughlin plant needs 42,000 train carloads of coal per year. It can take weeks for the coal to go from mine to plant. There can be multiple trains bringing coal to and from the big plants.

A 500 megawatt coal plant produces 3.5 billion kilowatt-hours per year, enough to power a city of about 140,000 people. It burns 1,430,000 tons of coal, uses 2.2 billion gallons of water and 146,000 tons of limestone.

A 500 MW coal plant each year puts out (triple these numbers for the Laughlin plant):

 10,000 tons of sulfur dioxide. Sulfur dioxide (SOx) is the main cause of acid rain, which damages forests, lakes and buildings.

 10,200 tons of nitrogen oxide. Nitrogen oxide (NOx) is a major cause of smog, and also a cause of acid rain.

 500 tons of small particles which are a health hazard, causing lung damage.

 125,000 tons of ash and 193,000 tons of sludge from the smokestack scrubber.

 225 pounds of arsenic, 114 pounds of lead, 4 pounds of cadmium, and many other toxic heavy metal

 a plant could use 2 tons of Uranium and 6 tons of Thorium to replace this coal plant.

30% of US coal comes from mountain top removal mining. They blow up the entire mountain top to scoop out the coal. The forest on top is destroyed (literally blown to bits). The explosions are near nuclear bomb in scale. About 1000 tons of explosive per day is used while mountaintops are removed for coal mining.

Around 7 billion gallons of sludge gets dammed up. There have been leaks of sludge that have killed all aquatic life in rivers and on one occasion 125 people. Birth defects and cancer rates are about twice as high around the mountain top removal sludge areas.

Sludge ponds are permitted to hold 2.8 billion gallons of toxic sludge, and is 21 times larger than the pond which killed 125 people in the Buffalo Creek Flood.

Blasting at a mountaintop removal mine expels coal dust and fly-rock into the air, which can then disturb or settle onto private property nearby. This dust contains sulfur compounds, which corrodes structures and tombstones and is a health hazard.China has offered to buy more than $1 trillion in additional imports over six years, shrinking its $323 billion trade surplus with the U.S. to zero by 2024. Global investors are increasingly confident that a China trade deal will happen.

China is basically offering the USA, a China-funded economic stimulus.

U.S. negotiators are doubtful about Chinas offer and want more of the commitments front-loaded. Chinas commitments are too far into the future. The first year would see roughly an additional $45 billion in purchases by China.

Its not yet clear how China would achieve the large purchases and changes in global trade. Buying American agricultural products, natural gas, and perhaps oil are only part of the solution.

U.S. and China reportedly are having trouble agreeing on safeguards for U.S. technology and intellectual property. This big offer is shifting the focus to a different time frame.What if I told you that at least 82 people would be coming to Danbury this week to learn about investing in the downtown? It might have been a pipe dream a few years ago, but not now. Its happening.

Downtown Danbury is a designated Opportunity Zone  one of 72 zones in 27 municipalities in Connecticut  and more than 80 people have signed up for a workshop Wednesday morning at the Palace Theater on Main Street to learn more about investing in city properties, businesses and entrepreneurs. Thats a lot of interest.

Opportunity Zones are something good that came out of the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The program opens the door for investors to defer tax on capital gains through qualified Opportunity Funds created for investment in the zones. Opportunity Funds are private investment vehicles dedicated to community, business, real estate, and economic development activities in Americas lowest-income communities, according to the flier for the workshop.

Its a great way of bringing capital in these neighborhoods in our communities, said Bob Santy, president of the Connecticut Economic Resource Center. CERC and the City of Danbury are among the sponsors of the Wednesday program. The agency has been helping other cities in the state understand Opportunity Zones; a similar workshop is scheduled for Friday in Stamford, which has five zones.

A little background on what makes an Opportunity Zone. Under the new law, a governor could nominate low-income census tracts, where at least 20 percent of the residents are below the poverty level or earn no more than 80 percent of the areas median income, as the zones. The U.S. Treasury secretary had to certify the designations, which are good for 10 years.

Among the 27 Connecticut municipalities, Norwalk has three Opportunity Zones, Bridgeport and New Haven each have seven.

City governments and districts like CityCenter Danbury can do all they want to promote a downtown with amenities, such as flowers and flags, brick sidewalks and bright lighting, and events, such as outdoor concerts and farmers markets. Thats all positive. But with substantial private investment, tangible growth can take off.

The time is right in Danbury.

Downtown has a good buzz right now, Betsy Paynter, the new executive director of CityCenter, told me as we sipped mocha coffee and chai tea recently at Mothership Bakery on Main Street. Sure, its her job to promote the downtown, but the chatter and bustle in the coffee shop underscored her observation.

Betsys background is in marketing and economic development, in Newtown and Brookfield governments, before coming to CityCenter Aug. 1.

Though she grew up in Danbury, she returns with a fresh perspective. She sees the downtown as the center for arts and innovation. I agree that the arts distinguish and uplift a community. And downtown Danbury, home of the Western Connecticut Cultural Alliance, the Music Center, the Danbury Museum and Historical Society, the Palace Theater, and more, is the hub. A Request for Proposal is out for new uses of Tuxedo Junction on Ives Street.

New business enterprises are incubated at the Hackerspace@TheInnovationCenter near the Danbury Public Library.

Downtown is not the retail center it was in the pre-mall days. Department stores, like Feinsteins that once was an anchor on Main Street, are not likely to return. But places that offer experiences you cant get on Amazon  think coffee shops, wine bars, restaurants  can thrive.

Downtown Danbury, a financial and professional center, has people. And that is a strength. Nearly all 365 apartments at Kennedy Flats are rented, and another 150 apartments are scheduled to be constructed soon on the former site of The News-Times on Main Street. Naugatuck Valley Community College, at the corner of Main and West streets, brings about 500 new students every year to downtown.

Danbury, and the other 26 municipalities in Connecticut, will be competing against 8,700 Opportunity Zones across the country for investments. The Hat City is at a point ripe for catalytic growth, though, and the high interest in Wednesdays informational session is one indication.

Contact Editorial Page Editor Jacqueline Smith at jsmith@hearstmediact.comPreserving open space, enhancing the downtown shopping district, and protecting natural resources were three of the top responses Ridgefielders gave in a survey.

The survey, which was launched as part of the Planning and Zoning Commissions 10-year update of the town plan, also revealed that residents believe the town needs more affordable housing but would like to see more control over development in the future.

High taxes, increased school spending, and the cost of living were also listed as concerns throughout the survey, which was conducted in November and December.

Others listed building the tax base as a concern.

How do you build a tax base without having development? said Chairwoman Rebecca Mucchetti at the commissions Jan. 2 meeting.

She said she was surprised that good schools were not higher on the list of reasons respondents said they moved to town.

We hear so many people say we came here because of the schools, Mucchetti said.

Glenn Chalder of Planimetrics, the firm hired by the commission to rewrite the plan, noted that around 60 percent of the households surveyed have only one or two people  no kids.

That explains the tension over budget, said Mucchetti. Youve got 60 percent of the people who dont have kids in the schools, but the schools are 80 percent of the budget.

Too big?

In total, 428 were surveyed  some responded online; others over the phone.

Of 100 residents surveyed by phone, 22 percent identified something related to town character as the greatest challenge or need facing Ridgefield. Residents said they are concerned the town is getting too big, and that there are too many new developments.

The concern that Ridgefield is becoming overdeveloped surprised some commissioners.

There have been four really controversial applications within the last two years that have developed a life of their own, said Mucchetti. That gives the sense of controversy, but its been interpreted as overdevelopment.

Chalder pointed to the fact the survey was conducted at the height of election season while signs opposing the Ridgefield Winter Club were displayed prominently on lawns throughout town.

Diversity

At least one respondent is concerned that Ridgefield will become a sanctuary city  a town or city that declines to help federal immigration authorities from tracking down and detaining undocumented workers. That drew confusion from the commission until Commissioner Cathy Savoca pointed out the town had resettled a refugee family from Syria.

But then beside that we have lack of diversity as an issue, said Vice Chairman Joe Fossi.

Protection

Chalder said that protecting character is what he took as a message from the survey.

Its been the hallmark of Ridgefield for decades, he said.

On the online survey, respondents chose preserving open space as the most important topic or issue that should be addressed in the 10-year rewrite of the town plan, with 154 residents including it in their first, second, or third choice. Protecting natural resources was included by 137 respondents.

But if character is so important, and if we want to keep the character we have, who do they think has been preserving, protecting, and developing it? asked Mucchetti.

Infrastructure

The plan lays out a road map for the commission to create regulations for development and conservation in the next decade.

Thirteen percent of those surveyed by telephone gave an answer related to infrastructure when asked what the most important issue facing the town is.

Several named the town sewer system  voters approved an upgrade to be paid for with a mix of taxes, state grants, and increased fees in November  improving road conditions, improving access to public water, and traffic congestion.

Small town feel

Through the online survey, 143 respondents listed invigorating/enhancing downtown as one of three topics or issues that should be given emphasis in the plan  the second highest number of responses. Economic development was ranked fourth on the list, with 115 respondents saying it should be a priority in the plan.

Of 327 participants online, many alluded to concerns about the Ridgefield Winter Club when asked about the greatest challenge facing the town. Words like maintaining, preserving, and small town feel appeared to echo the sentiments of the protect residential zoning signs on lawns throughout town.

Mucchetti was concerned that it has generally been accepted as fact that we allow commercial activities in residential zones, and we dont.

Commissioner John Katz seemed to reject that.

Witness whats been going on for the last three months, he said From the perception of the public, thats commercial  Its certainly known to the residents of the neighborhood [as commercial]..

Chalder said he wants to make sure the commission has the right tools to confront anything thats submitted under the town zoning regulations.

Somebody could apply for anything  they could apply for a mini-nuclear reactor in their backyard, said Chalder. I think you have the right tools to say that would be an unreasonable impact on the neighborhood.highlights The new M series will include three devices to begin with.

These devices will include 5,000 mAH battery with fast charging.

One of the three phones will also come with a three-camera setup.

New Delhi:

Hoping to re-capture its pole position from rival Xiaomi, Korean giant Samsung will launch its 'Galaxy M' series of smartphones -- first in India -- as it looks to clock double-digit growth in this hyper-competitive market. The range, which will include phones priced up to Rs 20,000, will be sold online only. While initially, the devices will be available on Samsung's website and Amazon, it will be extended to other online platforms later. "Samsung India will be the first country to launch the new Galaxy M series smartphones later this month. This new range has been inspired by millennials and designed in India," Samsung India Senior Vice President Asim Warsi told PTI.

He added that the new range will help the company achieve "strong double-digit growth" in 2019.

"This is our first salvo in 2019. We have been investing in the Indian market not only in terms of devices but also our factory expansion and our experience centre...we continue to remain focused on the needs of the Indian consumer," he said. On the government's move to tighten norms for e-commerce companies, Warsi said Samsung will continue to conform with the laws.

In December, the government had introduced new regulations -- effective February 1 -- that would bar online marketplaces with foreign investments from selling products of the companies where they hold stakes, and ban exclusive marketing arrangements. Citing GfK data, Warsi said the company exited the December 2018 quarter with a 40 per cent value share of the market.

However, reports from other research organisations like IDC and Counterpoint have positioned Xiaomi to be ahead of Samsung (in terms of units shipped) for many quarters now. Xiaomi has a dominant position in the online smartphone sales and has been aggressively expanding its offline presence over the last many months.

Warsi maintained that while Samsung will continue to focus on its offline channel, the latest range will cater to the millennials shopping online. The new M series will include three devices to begin with. These devices will include 5,000 mAH battery with fast charging. One of the three phones will also come with a three-camera setup.New Delhi:

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday blasted Pakistan for interfering in the internal affairs of the country and said Kashmir will always remain an integral part of India. Pakistan should stop meddling in Kashmir affairs. Kashmir is and will always be an integral part of India. Even Kashmiris and Kashmir youth are an integral part, AIMIM MP from Hyderabad was quoted as saying by ANI.

Asaduddin Owaisi, AIMIM in Hyderabad: Pakistan should stop meddling in Kashmir affairs. Kashmir is and will always be an integral part of India. Even Kashmiris and Kashmir youth are an integral part. pic.twitter.com/fuf8kd1gsV  ANI (@ANI) January 19, 2019

Owaisi said whether it was the Congress or the BJP at the Centre, they have no policy, no vision to bring back normalcy in the Kashmir Valley. "I feel that there has to be a consistent policy on Kashmir which unfortunately is lacking," he said.

He was replying to a question during a panel discussion organised at the Telangana Jagruthi International Youth Leadership Conference which began on Saturday.

Quoting a report, Owaisi accused the BJP-led central government of not doing anything for Kashmiri Pandits. He said he has not seen so many lives being destroyed with pellet guns in the last eight years.

His remarks come a day after Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi raised the Kashmir issue during his meeting with the visiting UN General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espionosa.

Qureshi said that he discussed the regional and international issues. including Kashmir with the UNGA chief and "apprised her of Pakistan's grave concern over the gross human rights violations" in Kashmir.

He called for implementing the UN Security Council's resolutions on Kashmir in letter and spirit to resolve this longstanding issue. Qureshi alleged that India was continuously violating the ceasefire agreement on the Line of Control (LoC) and urged the international community to help resolve the issue.

With Agency Inputs

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.highlights According to 2016 Assembly poll results, BJP has 3 MLAs in West Bengal.

The seats that BJP won were Madarihat, Baishnabnagar and Kharagpur Sadar.

The BJP also tweeted the video in which the PM is talking about the '1 BJP MLA.'

New Delhi:

It was a dig at Mamata Banerjee. But it seems in his attack against the Opposition's United India Rally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi quoted the old tally of Bengal BJP lawmakers. Addressing a rally in Silvassa, the capital of Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, PM Modi said that, "there is just one BJP MLA in Bengal and the entire Opposition has gathered there and shouting 'bachao, bachao.' Just one MLA has destroyed their peace and they are all frightened because of that."

News Nation did a simple check and found out that the '1 MLA' claim is inaccurate. According to the results of the West Bengal Assembly Elections that were conducted in 2016, the BJP has three MLAs in the state. Among the winners are BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, who contested from Kharagpur Sadar in West Medinipur. The three seats that the BJP won in 2016 state polls were Madarihat (Alipurduar district), Baishnabnagar (Malda district) and Kharagpur Sadar (West Medinipur district).

The BJP also tweeted out the video in which the Prime Minister is heard talking about the '1 BJP MLA.' Meanwhile, attacking PM Modi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that, "Modi government's expiry date is over." Addressing the mega rally in Kolkata, Banerjee raised slogan of "badal do, badal do, Delhi ka sarkar badal do."

       MLA                        



  MLA           ,        :  @narendramodi pic.twitter.com/FvVAi4vlEd  BJP (@BJP4India) January 19, 2019

More than 20 national leaders, including former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, his son and Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah, Sharad Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Hemant Soren and former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Gegong Apang, reached Kolkata on Friday to take part in the rally.

Large-scale preparations were made to ensure that the rally turns out to be massive success. Besides the huge stages, 20 watchtowers were erected and 1,000 microphones and 30 LED screens put up so that the spectators could see the leaders and hear them speak clearly. As many as 10,000 security personnel were deployed in and around the venue of the rally and around 400 police pickets were set up to ensure foolproof security, the police said. Vehicular movement around the venue was also restricted, the police said.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that ever since the Modi government came to power, there was a conscious effort to keep middlemen at bay from the corridors of the Defence Ministry. Between 2014 and today, in the purchases (in defence), including the ones done by Manohar Parrikar and Arun Jaitley, we deliberately not had any middleman coming into the corridors of South Block, the Defence Minister said.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: Between 2014 & today, in the purchases (in defence), including the ones done by Manohar Parrikar & Arun Jaitley, we deliberately not had any middleman coming into the corridors of South Block pic.twitter.com/NfyepzRHBh  ANI (@ANI) January 19, 2019

Sitharaman also slammed the Congress for calling Chief of Air Force Birender Singh Dhanoa a liar for saying that Rafale is a good aircraft. Chief of Air Force was called a liar by our opponents for just calling the Rafale a good aircraft. He didn't say he loves PM Modi or he likes BJP. He just said it is a damn good aircraft, that's his business to say, tweeted ANI.

Accusing the opposition of spreading misinformation in the Rafale deal, Sitharaman wondered whether they were becoming pawns in a corporate rivalry.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: Chief of Air Force was called a liar by our opponents for just calling the #Rafale a good aircraft. He didn't say he loves PM Modi or he likes BJP. He just said it is a damn good aircraft, that's his business to say. pic.twitter.com/CwNJuT2fb8  ANI (@ANI) January 19, 2019

"I want every strand of this debate to be explained, as much as it can be, without any of us playing into the hands of international corporate warfare. None of us should play party to any corporate warfare. We cannot become pawns in the hands of the corporate giants to constantly bully the government, to constantly throw misinformation at the public, to misinform the public," Sitharaman said while addressing a seminar on 'India's Strategic Interest in Context of the Rafale Deal'.

She also accused the opposition of spreading doing a "disservice" to the nation by misinforming the public on the fighter jet deal.

"You (opposition) are misinforming the public and doing disservice to the country if you are becoming pawns in a corporate rivalry. Is India's interest at the top of your agenda or are you becoming a partner to some kind of corporate rivalry," she asked.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president MK Stalin on Monday equated the countrys situation under the Narendra Modi government with British rule and said that the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will be Indias second freedom struggle. Speaking at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjees massive United India Rally, the Stalin said, The upcoming general elections in May will be the second freedom struggle of the country."

The DMK president said that the prime minister was afraid of the Opposition unity, asserting that coming together of opposition parties was must to safeguard the nation. "Wherever PM Modi is going he is fiercely attacking the Opposition, Modi is fearful of Opposition and that is why he is also cursing us, he is afraid of our unity, we must come together to safeguard India, Stalin said.

Read More | United India Rally LIVE: We are allying with masses, BJP with CBI, ED, says Akhilesh Yadav

Tens of thousands of people gathered at Kolkatas Brigade Parade Ground to attend the massive Opposition rally called by Banerjee. The rally is aimed at uniting the Opposition parties against the BJP for the Lok Sabha elections 2019.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav are among the top Opposition leaders who attended the party.

Addressing the rally, NC Leader Farooq Abdullah accused the Narendra Modi government of dividing the people based on their religion and emphasised the need of Opposition unity to defeat the divisive forces. "The BJP is dividing people on the basis of religion. We must all come together to defeat the divisive forces," Abdullah said.

Also Read | At United India Rally, Hardik Patel says we are fighting against thieves

Experts believe the "United India Rally will project Banerjee as a major political force to reckon with against the ruling BJP. The rally, where the leaders of most Opposition parties will be present, is seen as the endorsement of West Bengal CM as Oppositions PM candidate against BJPs Narendra Modi in 2019.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.highlights TMC expects around 40 lakh will attend the rally.

At least 25 top political leaders will occupy the stage.

The rally is seen as crowning moment for Mamata Banerjee.

New Delhi:

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banerjee will hold a mega rally of Opposition parties at Kolkatas Brigade Parade Ground on Saturday. At least 25 top political leaders of Opposition parties, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, NCPs Sharad Yadav, DMK chief MK Stalin and estranged BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha, are have reached Kolkata to attend the "United India Rally. The rally is in lines with Mamata Banerjees efforts to forge an anti-BJP federal front for the coming Lok Sabha elections 2019. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav are among the top leaders who will occupy the stage.

Although Congress president Rahul Gandhi expressed his support for the rally in his letter to the West Bengal CM, it was highly unlikely that he would turn up for the rally. Instead of Gandhi, top Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi will attend the rally. The TMC has claimed that around 40 lakh people are likely to reach the Brigade Parade Ground for the rally, which could be the biggest ever political rally at least in last 10 decades. However, the Kolkata police said that the ground can hold around 7 Lakh people.

The "United India Rally will project Banerjee as a major political force to reckon with against the ruling BJP. Experts believe the rally, where the leaders of most Opposition parties will be present, would also endorse the West Bengal CM as Oppositions PM candidate against BJPs Narendra Modi in 2019.

Below are the live updates of TMC's Brigade Parade Ground rally:

15:53 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In BJP has two seats in West Bengal. They will lose that very soon: Mamata Banerjee

15:51 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In BJP got enough days to deliver good days (acche din) but they didn't care at all: Mamata Banerjee

15:49 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In A new government will be formed at the Centre. It is inevitable. Their expiry date has come. This is people's verdict: Mamata Banerjee

15:45 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In We will not allow riots in the name of Rath Yatra, says Mamata Banerjee



West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Opposition rally in Kolkata: Danga laga do, fasaad laga do, ek hi unka (BJP) issue hai, Hum Bengal main 'Rath Yatra' ke naam pe danga-fasaad nahi karne denge. pic.twitter.com/FbqCWe8oLK

 ANI (@ANI) January 19, 2019



15:42 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In It doesn't matter who will be the Prime Minister but BJP must be defeated, says Mamata Banerjee

15:26 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee begins her speech at United India Rally, says "We will work together to bring a new dawn for the country".



We will work together to bring a new dawn for the country: @MamataOfficial #UnitedIndiaAtBrigade pic.twitter.com/qZ8VdxnKK6

 All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) January 19, 2019



14:59 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In A sea of people at Kolkata's Brigade Parade Ground during Mamata Banerjee's United India rally.



It's been more than three hours since #UnitedIndiaAtBrigade rally started. People are patiently sitting at the venue, listening to every speech by national leaders pic.twitter.com/afkFjAWI65

 All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) January 19, 2019



14:41 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge reads a message from Sonia Gandhi: "The upcoming general elections will be on the faith of restoring democracy in our country."



#UnitedIndiaAtBrigade @INCIndia leader Mallikarjun Kharge reads a message from Sonia Gandhi: "The upcoming general elections will be on the faith of restoring democracy in our country"



WATCH LIVE >> https://t.co/IjQtPwzly7 pic.twitter.com/LUAHrRwfMi

 All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) January 19, 2019



14:12 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In "Today is a historic day for the country. The Shah-Modi duo have destroyed the country. We have to defeat Modi and Shah at any cost," says Arvind Kejriwal at United India Rally.



#UnitedIndiaAtBrigade Delhi Chief Minister @ArvindKejriwal says: "Today is a historic day for the country. The Shah-Modi duo have destroyed the country"



WATCH LIVE >> https://t.co/IjQtPwzly7 pic.twitter.com/AvvJLcwATK

 All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) January 19, 2019



14:05 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In "Jo baat Bengal se chalegi, woh desh mein dikhai degi (What started from Bengal, will be seen all across the country)," says Akhilesh Yadav.



"Jo baat Bengal se chalegi, woh desh mein dikhai degi (What started from Bengal, will be seen all across the country)," says @yadavakhilesh at #UnitedIndiaRally in Kolkata



Follow LIVE updates here: https://t.co/R2JKLKEIvN pic.twitter.com/5mVidNXYMD

 News Nation (@NewsNationTV) January 19, 2019



13:50 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In DMK Chief MK Stalin,Congress's Mallikarjun Kharge, BSP's Satish Mishra and SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav at opposition rally in Kolkata.



DMK Chief MK Stalin,Congress's Mallikarjun Kharge, BSP's Satish Mishra and SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav at opposition rally in Kolkata pic.twitter.com/lyRQ1lSwlI

 ANI (@ANI) January 19, 2019



13:26 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In "The upcoming general elections in May will be the second freedom struggle of the country," says DMK's Stalin.



"The upcoming general elections in May will be the second freedom struggle of the country," says DMK chief @mkstalin at #UnitedIndiaRally in Kolkata



Follow LIVE updates here: https://t.co/R2JKLKEIvN pic.twitter.com/1cdKZEumZS

 News Nation (@NewsNationTV) January 19, 2019



13:24 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In "Clouds are parting. A rainbow of political parties is forming. The time for a coalition has arrived," says Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singvi.





Clouds are parting. A rainbow of political parties is forming. The time for a coalition has arrived," says @DrAMSinghvi at #UnitedIndiaRally in Kolkata



Follow LIVE updates here: https://t.co/R2JKLKEIvN pic.twitter.com/Sq2n3qtRWg

 News Nation (@NewsNationTV) January 19, 2019



13:25 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Former MP Sharad Yadav says: "Not one institution is left, which has not been destroyed by the current govt at Centre."





"Not one institution is left, which has not been destroyed by the current govt at the Centre," says @SharadYadavMP at #UnitedIndiaRally in Kolkata



Follow LIVE updates here: https://t.co/R2JKLKEIvN pic.twitter.com/zICGyMUauH

 News Nation (@NewsNationTV) January 19, 2019



13:26 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Former Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah, says: "The BJP is dividing people on the basis of religion. We must all come together to defeat the divisive forces."



"The BJP is dividing people on the basis of religion. We must all come together to defeat the divisive forces," says Jammu and Kashmir National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah at #UnitedIndiaRally in Kolkata



Follow LIVE updates here: https://t.co/R2JKLKEIvN pic.twitter.com/Zbg0vC0bvj

 News Nation (@NewsNationTV) January 19, 2019



12:57 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In No other government has said so many lies. Never before were institutions undermined in this manner, says former Union Minister Arun Shourie.

12:56 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Not one institution is left, which has not been destroyed by the current govt at Centre, says Sharad Yadav.

12:55 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Clouds are parting. A rainbow of political parties is forming. The time for a coalition has arrived, says senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

12:35 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In "This is not about removing one man from power. We have come together to defeat an ideology," says former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha.

12:10 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Gegong Apang, former CM of Arunachal Pradesh says: "The last four years have been testing times for Indian democracy"



#UnitedIndiaAtBrigade Gegong Apang, former CM of Arunachal Pradesh says: "The last four years have been testing times for Indian democracy"



WATCH LIVE >> https://t.co/IjQtPwzly7 pic.twitter.com/1Z1vt1Gu6S

 All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) January 19, 2019



12:03 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In "The country is passing through an unprecedented crisis. All parties have to come together to defeat BJP and RSS," says Jignesh Mewani.



#UnitedIndiaAtBrigade @jigneshmevani80, MLA from Gujarat: "The country is passing through an unprecedented crisis. All parties have to come together to defeat BJP and RSS"



WATCH LIVE >> https://t.co/IjQtPwzly7 pic.twitter.com/3L9J0gVdPH

 All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) January 19, 2019

11:56 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav and DMK Chief MK Stalin received by CM Mamata Banerjee at 'United India' opposition rally, in Kolkata.



West Bengal: Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav and DMK Chief MK Stalin received by CM Mamata Banerjee at 'United India' opposition rally, in Kolkata. pic.twitter.com/1FZbrIm3zK

 ANI (@ANI) January 19, 2019



11:28 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi,Union Minister on TMC's opposition rally today: Ye sab thake huye pite huye pehelwan hain jo akhaade mein ja kar phir apni qismat aazmana chahte hain. Pehla gathbandhan(in Karnataka) hi is haal mein hai toh aage kya hoga. (All of them are lost and tired wrestlers who want to try their luck once more time. Their first alliance is in peril then what would happend next.)

10:32 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Mamata Banerjee welcomes Opposition leaders at the 'United India Rally' at Brigade Parade Grounds.



Only few hours to go for the historic 'United India Rally' at Brigade Parade Grounds. I welcome all national leaders, supporters and lakhs of people to participate in today's rally to pledge to build a stronger, progressive and united India #UnitedIndiaAtBrigade

 Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) January 19, 2019



08:51 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Crowds begin to gather for TMC led 'United India' rally in Kolkata today. The TMC has estimated that as many as 40 lakh people are likely to attend the rally.



#WestBengal: Crowds begin to gather for TMC led 'United India' rally in #Kolkata, today. pic.twitter.com/hGtObQM6VG

 ANI (@ANI) January 19, 2019



08:43 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, his son and Karnataka Chief Minister Kumaraswamy, Samajwadi party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu are amond the leaders who has already arrived in the city. Mamata Banerjee visited them at the various hotels across the city they have been put up.



Ahead of #BrigadeChalo rally, @mamataofficial called on HD Devegowda, @PawarSpeaks, @ncbn, @mkstalin, @yadavakhilesh, earlier this evening



     ,  ,  ,  ,        pic.twitter.com/BS8KaSb1fs

 All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) January 18, 2019



08:38 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In A massive stage has been built at Kolkatas Brigade Parade Ground for the the rally what the TMC claims could be the biggest ever in at least a century. The party expects around 40 lakh people from across the state and others parts of the country will attend the rally.





08:34 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Hello and welcome to News Nation Live Blog: The stage is set for West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banerjee's mega Opposition rally against the Narendra Modi government. More than 20 national leaders, including former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha and Arun Shourie; three present chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal, Chandrababu Naidu and H D Kumaraswamy; and former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Akhilesh Yadav and Gegong Apang will attend the mega United India Rally at Kolkatas Brigade Parade Ground. Stay with us for more information as we will bring you all the live updates about the mega Opposition rally.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.highlights Yeddyurappa said the BJP will not destabilise the government.

The Congress will hold another CLP meeting later on Saturday.

The BJP has 104 members, while the Congress has 79 and the JDS 37.

New Delhi:

Amid the accusations of trying to bring down the Congress-JDS government in Karnataka, former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa on Saturday said that they will not destabilise the state government and the ruling coalition need not worry. We will not destabilise this govt at any cost. Congress and JDS need not worry, news agency ANI quoted Yeddyurappa as saying.

The BJP leader said that his party MLAs, who were staying at a luxury resort in Gurugram, will return to Bengaluru on Saturday. Our MLAs are returning to Bengaluru from Delhi. We will tour the state and analyse the situation of drought, he said.

The Congress party has been accusing the BJP of trying to poach its MLAs as part of the Operation Lotus. The BJP, however, rebutted the allegations and claimed that it was the Congress-JDS government that was trying to break its MLAs.

Also Read | Congress moves its 76 Karnataka MLAs to resort after CLP meet

Earlier on Friday, the Congress party had called a meeting of all its legislators in Bengaluru. However, four of its MLAs didnt turn up for the he Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting, which triggered speculations that they were indeed in the BJPs fold.

The MLAs who failed to attend the session were - Ramesh Jarkiholi, who was removed as minister in the recent cabinet rejig, B Nagendra, Umesh Jadhav and Mahesh Kumatahalli. The Congress party will again hold a CLP meeting later on Saturday to test the loyalties of its MLAs.

The coalition government in Karnataka suffered the first major setback when two MLAs, an Independent and a member of the Karnataka Pragnyavantara Janata Paksha, Tuesday withdrew support to the government.

Also Read | Big setback to Kumaraswamy-led Karnataka government as two lawmakers withdraw support

There was no immediate threat to the government with the withdrawal of support, but speculation was rife that many other disgruntled Congress MLAs could follow suit by resigning from the Assembly, though the party has maintained that its flock is intact. In the 224-member Assembly, BJP has 104 members, Congress has 79, JDS 37, BSP, KPJP and Independent one each, besides the Speaker.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.highlights The court didn't accept the chargesheet against Kanhaiya Kumar.

Delhi police said it will get approval in 10 days.

Kanhaiya is accused of leading anti-national event at JNU in 2016.

New Delhi:

A Delhi court on Saturday slammed the police for filing chargesheet against former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in the 2016 JNU sedition case without taking approval from the legal department. "You dont have approval from legal department, why did you file chargesheet without approval?" the court asked the police.

The Delhi police told the Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sheraw that it would procure the requisite sanctions from the legal department within 10 days. On January 14, the Delhi Police had filed the chargesheet against Kanhaiya Kumar and others. In its chargsheet, the police claimed that Kumar was leading the procession and supported the anti-India slogans raised in the university campus.

"It is evident from Kumar's act seen in the video footage/statements of witnesses that he become the part of unlawful assembly, led the unlawful assembly, played active role in riots, raised/supported anti national slogans which lead to violence," the police said in its chargesheet, adding that "Kumar himself raised anti-India slogans to incite hatred and disaffection towards the government established by the law."

Police also charged former JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans during the event held on February 9, 2016, to commemorate the hanging of Parliament-attack mastermind Afzal Guru.

Khalid raised slogans as shown in the videos and mobile clips, the police said, citing a video which shows him saying "the programme is against occupation of Kashmir by the Indian State. I am making it very apparent that I am not from Kashmir but I believe that what is happening in Kashmir is Indian occupation of Kashmir..."

The evidence listed by the agency include report of JNU's high-level committee, statement of varsity's Registrar Bhupinder Jutshi and the mobile phone recordings in which Kumar was seen arguing with him over cancellation of the programme.

On February 11, 2016, a case was registered under sections 124A and 120B of the IPC against unidentified persons at the Vasant Kunj (North) police station, following complaints from BJP MP Maheish Girri and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The United India Rally organised by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Kolkatas Brigade Parade Ground on Thursday kick-started Oppositions campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held later this year. Top Opposition leaders, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, among many others attended the rally. Addressing the event, the Opposition leaders spoke in one voice and vowed to defeat the Narendra Modi-led BJP.

Speaking at the rally, Akhilesh Yadav accused the ruling Narendra Modi government of trying to poison the society. Responding to BJPs many grooms jibe over PM candidate, the SP leader said that the prime ministers face for the Opposition will be chosen by the people.

"Today, I tell them that the face will be one chosen by the people. You have many groups in your alliance too, and that includes the CBI and the ED, but we have allied with the people," he said.

Read More | United India Rally: Mamata Banerjee vows to work together to bring change in the country

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who delivered a passionate speech at the rally, said that what Pakistan could not do to India in the 70 years, the Modi-Shah duo has done that in just five years.

What Pakistan could not achieve in 70 years since Indias independence, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have achieved in five years. They have turned Hindus against Muslims, Muslims against Christians. If they return to power the country will disintegrate Kejriwal said at Mamata Banerjees Kolkata rally.

National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah also echoed similar sentiments and accused the Modi government of dividing people in the name of religion and sought Opposition parties to unite to defeat the BJP. Abdullah also raised the contentious issue of EVM machines and demanded paper ballots.

"The EVMs are chor (thieving) machines, and there is no system like this in anywhere else in the world. We need to bring back paper ballots," Abdullah said, asserting all parties to unite against the BJP, which is "dividing people on the basis of religion".

The only big face that was missing from the rally was Congress president Rahul Gandhi. The Congress, however, send Mallikarjun Kharge, who read a special message from Sonia Gandhi - "the upcoming general elections will be on the faith of restoring democracy in our country."

Also Read | 2019 Lok Sabha polls will be India's second freedom struggle: MK Stalin at United India Rally

Reacting to the mega rally, the BJP termed the leaders of the Opposition tired wrestlers and said that they were jumping in the ring to try their luck. "Ye sab thake huye pite huye pehelwan hain jo akhaade mein ja kar phir apni qismat aazmana chahte hain. Pehla gathbandhan(in Karnataka) hi is haal mein hai toh aage kya hoga. (All of them are lost and tired wrestlers who want to try their luck once more time. Their first alliance is in peril then what would happend next.)" Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Considered by many as a 'cinematic revolution' in terms of visuals, graphics, 4D SRL sound, the Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar starter 2.0 even after two months of its release continues to be at the forefront. The sci-fi movie which was released last November 29, has been chosen for a major international award-The Golden Reel Award, an award which is one of the most sought-after in the fields of sound and editing.

2.0 has been nominated in the prestigious Golden Reel Award for their ground-breaking editing in the Foreign Feature Film category. Resul Pookutty, the sound designer, editor and mixer for the magnum opus took the brilliant news on social media. He tweeted, "Absolutely delighted to announce #2Point0 is nominated for the highest recognition in Sound Design, Golden Reel Award at @mpseorg in the USA, I m elated... Indian Cinema marches forward... thank you so much #TeamCanaries @shankarshanmugh @arrahman @rajinikanth".

Absolutely delighted to announce #2Point0 is nominated for the highest recognition in Sound Design , Golden Reel Award at @mpseorg in USA, Im elated... Indian Cinema march forward... thank you so much #TeamCanaries @shankarshanmugh @arrahman @rajinikanth pic.twitter.com/cLb9UYWkph  resul pookutty (@resulp) January 19, 2019

The use of the 4D SRL sound in 2.0. by Resul Pookutty, was the first time technology of this kind was introduced in the Indian cinema.

Also Read | Kartik Aaryan is the new face of PETA India

Shankars sci-fi magnum-opus 2.0 which saw Akshay Kumar and Rajinikanth in the lead roles was the most expensive film ever made with a budget of over Rs 500 crores. The Rajinikanth-Akshay Kumar starrer is also the second highest grossing Hindi dubbed film of all time after SS Rajamouli's 'Baahubali 2: The Conclusion'.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Launching a blistering attack against the opposition parties who today came on one stage in Kolkata with an aim to oust BJP from power in 2019 Lok Sabha poll, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that those who got together had no agenda but to stop the BJP. He further said that 130 crore Indians are watching their games with amusement and will give them a befitting reply in the upcoming poll.

Taking a dig at Mamata Banerjee, PM Modi said They talk of democracy in a state where the ruling party does not even allow local elections democratically.

Earlier, on Saturday, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee called for collective leadership, raising a slogan for a change at the Centre. 'Delhi mein sarkar badal do', she chanted. "This mega rally is the beginning of the end of the BJP and after that, there would be a change in the country, we will hold a victory rally at the Brigade Parade Grounds, the West Bengal chief minister said.

They got together in Kolkata with no agenda but to stop BJP.



They talk of democracy in a state where the ruling party does not even allow local elections democratically.



130 crore Indians are watching their games with great amusement.



India will give them a befitting reply!  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 19, 2019

Leaders from 22 opposition parties today came together at a mega rally and declared they will fight unitedly to oust the Narendra Modi government. On this congregation of political parties, PM Modi said, Their day begins with Modi, ends with Modi. All they want to do is further their own dynasties. They have zero vision for India.

Entire Opposition hates me because my crimes are:



Waging the toughest war against corruption.



Stopping the reign of middlemen from the corridors of power.



Giving the poor what belongs to them in the first place but was denied for years. pic.twitter.com/EK8DrHeAhO  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 19, 2019

Listing the reasons why the opposition parties hate him, PM Modi said, Entire Opposition hates me because my crimes are: Waging the toughest war against corruption, stopping the reign of middlemen from the corridors of power, giving the poor what belongs to them in the first place but was denied for years.

Earlier, on Saturday, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee called for collective leadership, raising a slogan for a change at the Centre. 'Delhi mein sarkar badal do', she chanted. "This mega rally is the beginning of the end of the BJP and after that, there would be a change in the country, we will hold a victory rally at the Brigade Parade Grounds, the West Bengal chief minister said.

Several speakers called for putting up a joint candidate in each constituency to take on the BJP and save the country from what was described as the poison of communalism and vendetta politics".

The leaders decided to hold opposition rallies next in Andhra Pradesh capital Amravati and New Delhi. Chief ministers N Chandrababu Naidu, Arvind Kejriwal and H D Kumaraswamy attended the parade ground rally.

Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, National Conference chairman Farooq Abdullah, socialist leader Sharad Yadav and DMK leader M K Stalin were there. Former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and dissident BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha also sat on the dais.

Also present were Benoy Tamang of GJM and three leaders from the northeast -- Badruddin Ajmal of AIDUF of Assam, Lalduhawma of Zoram Nationalist Party of Mizoram and former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Gegong Apang, who quit the BJP on Tuesday. The Congress was represented by Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Kharge read out a message from UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi wishing success to the rally.New Delhi:

With an aim to increase the participation of students on Republic Day, the Maharashtra government has said that the students of class 10 and 12 students of Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) who participate in parades and other such activities on Republic Day will get an extra 10 marks.

The state governments order has been given to all schools in Maharashtra, a senior official at the MSBSHSE, Mumbai Division told The Asian Age newspaper. According to the government resolution (GR), the move is to increase participation of students in National Cadet Corps (NCC) and Scout Guide events. Such students will get 10-20 marks additional for participation.

The board will be awarding bonus marks to the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher School Certificate (HSC) through this scheme. Also, medal winners and those participating in the International Youth Exchange programmes will be granted 15 and 20 marks, respectively.

Meanwhile, like earlier, students participating in national and international sporting events will continue to get 25 marks.

Talking about the divyang stickers, the official said, As per the Rights of Person with Disabilities Act, 2016, education institutes are obliged to give concession to the students with special needs. MSBSHSE has a special marking scheme for 'Divyang' students. However, while assessing papers, teachers fail to differentiate between answer papers. Papers with these stickers will be assessed and evaluated separately, considering the concessions as per the aforesaid right.

The divyang students will be provided stickers during the board exams this year in order to make the assessment process easy.Please purchase a subscription read this premium content. If you have a subscription, please sign up for a digital website account or log in.A Nazi-themed invitation to a high school ball has sparked outrage after two students were pictured with the invitation while also performing Nazi salutes.

Derided on social media by some as a disgusting and shocking act, the two Minnetonka High School (MHS) students are seen in the photo, posted on a private Instagram, holding what appears to be a large cardboard invitation to the school's "Sweethearts" dance.

The invitation reads: "Sweethearts would be a Hit(ler) w/ you, and I could Nazi myself going w/ anyone else. Be Mein? Yes or Nein?"

The post was accompanied by the caption stating: "I would like to state I am not anti-Semitic in any way, I hate all races equally".

After condemning the invitation, the school wrote to students' parents noting they would be disciplined, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune.Heavy trucks have brought in drilling equipment and giant pipes as rescue workers prepare to dig a tunnel to reach a two-year-old boy who has been trapped in a deep well in southern Spain for more than five days.

"The priority now is the works on the vertical tunnel," said a spokeswoman for the regional government in Malaga.

Officials said on Thursday they were not losing hope of finding the boy alive, but the operation would take at least a few days.

A second tunnel is also planned after rescuers have erected a platform to remove earth and debris.

The child, Julen, fell into the well which is just 25cm wide and 100 metres deep as his family walked through a private estate in Totalan, Malaga.

The case has captivated Spain and the whole country is holding its breath for the outcome, not least because Julen's parents lived another family tragedy in 2017. According to media reports, their three-year-old son died suddenly while walking along a beach not far from Totalan.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska thanked public and private entities on Friday for "putting all their means at our disposal" in what he said was a very complex rescue operation.

ReutersHundreds have met at a Northland marae to try and find a way forward for Ngapuhi's stalled treaty negotiations.

While negotiations began a decade ago, they stalled because Ngapuhi, New Zealand's largest iwi, couldn't agree on who should be negotiating for them.

Former Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson has blamed this on "useless leadership".

"There's a generation of leaders there that have failed and they need to move on and the younger generation needs to step up," said Mr Finlayson.

There are two main factions - those who think Ngapuhi should be ruled from the centre and those who want more power handed to hapu to negotiate on their behalf.

Those at the hui, the first since a vote on a new mandate was rejected by iwi members in December, told Newshub they were hopeful for progress and to see attendees working together.

"I think more unity is what I want out of today, and it is to see our people working as one towards one goal," said Ngapuhi Youth representative Codi Clarke.

"Ngapuhi is so far a part that we are looking for that common ground to be able to come together."

But others are less hopeful, with Gabriel Henry from Ngapuhi, saying the original negotiating group need to go.

"That is the answer no one is going to do anything unless each individual hapu is able to do their own mandate."

No decision came from Saturday's hui, but the talks are a crucial first step.

Newshub.Mrs. Ruth L. Cleek, 94 died peacefully surrounded by her family on June 14, 2021, in New Albany Indiana. Born December 21, 1926, in Hot Springs, Virginia, she was the daughter of the late Willie Gratton Hodge and Clara (Stinnett) Hodge, and wife to the late Ronald Cleek. Mrs. Cleek was the PIn the final view, there remain the realities of the war itself. Trying to impose our current understanding and perspectives onto those who fought on both sides of the war is foolish, pointless and waste of time. We need to accept them for who they said they were and why they chose to fight. Did some want to preserve the intolerable conditions of slavery who fought for the South? Of course. Did some who fought for the North care little about the lives and torments of the slaves in the South? Of course. Did some want to fight for the Union? Yes. Did some want to fight for their home country (state)? Yes. Are there as many reasons for them to fight as there were individual soldiers? Most definitely.

There are no perfect people at any point in history including our own. There are no perfect motives. There are just the facts of what happened, and what we make of them. Here is the culmination of my point. History is history, what we learn from it is up to us. How we teach the lessons of history says more about us than it ever will about those involved in the actual events. This flag is a salient point  here is an actual historical emblem representing an actual historical entity involved in the actual historical events. It is inanimate  but it is soaked in the lives of those who carried it and those who fought against it.Central Virginia food pantries

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Helping Hands: As needed, 329 Main Street Madison Heights, (434) 846-5914.

First Baptist Church of Monroe: 1 p.m. Thursdays by appointment only, 139 Francis Ave. Monroe, (434) 929-3764.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors: Hot meal for lunch 10:50 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. Thursdays, Ascension Church 253 S Main St.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors: 9 a.m. to noon first and third Saturdays of the month, 151 Mitchell Bell Road Madison Heights, (434) 660-7837.

Appomattox

Chestnut Grove Baptist Church: 8 to 11:30 a.m. third Saturday of the month, 611 Chestnut Grove Road Appomattox, (434) 352-0316.

Bedford

Bedford Christian Ministry: 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, 217 W. Washington St., (540) 586-2633.

Bedford Christmas Store: 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays but call first, 510 Blue Ridge Ave., (540) 589-0424.

Hunting Creek Food Pantry: 6 to 8 p.m. first Thursday of the month and 9 to 11 a.m. third Saturday of the month, 15455 Big Island Highway Big Island, (540) 299-5045.

Bedford Church of God: 6 to 8 p.m. Thursdays but call first, 1212 E. Main St., (540) 586-8706.

Campbell

Candlelight Outreach: Mondays through Thursdays, serving elderly, 243 Jackson Lane Concord, (434) 993-3677.

Hyland Heights Baptist Church: 4:30 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays, 11452 Wards Road, (434) 821-6906.

Dawn: 10 a.m. to noon Mondays to Thursdays, 1280 C Main St. Altavista, (434) 369-7937.

Grace Community Church: 2 to 4 p.m. third Sunday of the month, 911 Grace Ave. Altavista, (434) 369-6344.

Piedmont Community Impact: 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays to Thursdays, 215 School Road Gladys, (434) 283-7531.

Burning Bush Cogic: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. third Saturday of the month, 17716 Brookneal Highway Brookneal, (434) 376-3837 or (434) 941-6264.

First Baptist Church: 8:30 a.m. to noon third Saturday of the month, 710 12th St. Altavista, (434) 369-7175.

Chapel Grove Baptist Church: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every third Tuesday, 1028 Chapel Grove Road Evington, (434) 534-6154.

Timberlake United Methodist Church: 6 p.m. fourth Monday of the month by appointment only, 21649 Timberlake Road, (434) 239-1348.

Christian Life Church: 9 to 11 a.m. third Saturday of the month, 333 Shirley Drive, Lynch Station, (434) 369-7134.

P.I.N. Ministries Inc.: 5 to 6:30 p.m. second Wednesday of the month but call first, 3129 Maryland Ave. Lynchburg, (434) 845-1320.

Lynchburg

Court Street Baptist: 2 to 2:45 p.m. second Friday of the month, 517 Court St., (434) 845-3028.

Fairview Christian: 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesdays and Fridays, 2701 Campbell Ave., (434) 845-6031.

Fairview UMC: 1 to 3 p.m. fourth Thursday of the month, January through October, and third Thursday of the month, November to December, 3041 Campbell Ave., (434) 258-8372.

FARRR Foundation (The Lighthouse): 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. first and third Thursdays of the month, 1310 Church St., (434) 847-5050.

Fellowship Church of Christ: Mondays to Fridays by appointment only, 1816 Bedford Ave., (434) 528-3924.

Immanuel Baptist Church: Noon to 1 p.m. third Wednesday of the month by appointment only, 4 Turf Road Lynchburg, (434) 847-7145.

Love & Truth Community Church: 4 to 6:30 p.m. Mondays (closed the fifth Monday and holidays), 3135 Fort Ave., (434) 845-0200.

Lynchburg Daily Bread: 7 to 9 a.m. and 10:50 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. Mondays to Sundays, 721 Clay St., (434) 845-5703.

Lynchburg First Church of the Nazarene: 9 a.m. to noon Wednesdays, but call first, 1737 Wards Ferry Road, (434) 515-1413.

Minerva Glass: 10 a.m. to noon Thursdays, 903 Taylor St., (434) 845-0625.

Park View: 2 to 4 p.m. Thursdays, and noon to 2 p.m. Saturdays, 2420 Memorial Ave., (434) 845-8468.

Shekijah Preparation Assembly: By appointment, 104 Fleetwood Drive, (434) 237-7721.

Nelson

Nelson County Pantry: 10 a.m. to noon last Saturday of the month, 9890 Thomas Nelson Highway Lovingston, (434) 263-6694.

Oak Hill Baptist Church: 9 a.m. to noon third Saturday of the month, 382 Level Green Road Roseland, (434) 329-0617.

Candlelight Outreach: Delivery as needed to shut-ins, elderly and disabled, (434) 993-3677.With ratification in sight, Lynchburg area women rallied in support of the equal rights amendment as state lawmakers consider approving the measure.

Nearly 200 women, men and children rallied at 12th and Main streets overlooking the Lynchburg Community Market early Saturday afternoon. They carried signs demanding equality under the law and listened as speakers called on the House of Delegates to join the Senate of Virginia in supporting the ERA.

Forty some odd years ago, the ERA was introduced and passed and the states set out to ratify it and yet here we are four decades later, and we still do not have equality under the law, said Karen Nuzzo, a local activist. We are one of the few first world nations that does not give women equal standing under the law. What the heck is wrong with us, we need to get this done.

The proposed amendment guarantees that the rights enshrined in the Constitution apply equally to all regardless of sex.

Virginia is now poised to become the last state needed to ratify the ERA. On Tuesday, the state senate voted to approve the amendment 26 to 14 and if the house follows suit the Virginia will become the 38th state to ratify the ERA.Varstnicii, persoanele cu dizabilitati si familiile cu copii vor primi suport din partea Uniunii Europene pe timp de pandemieMartin H. Simon/Pool/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- President Trump traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Saturday to meet with the families of four Americans killed last week in a terrorist attack in Syria.



After spending time with the victims' families, the president participated in the dignified transfer ceremony of Scott Wirtz, a contractor who was killed in the deadly bomb blast.



In a somber moment, the president walked onboard a C-17 aircraft that held the transfer case, draped in an American flag. Inside, a chaplain led a prayer. The president, who was joined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting Secretary of Defense Shanahan, stepped off the plane and stood silently in formation, saluting the case as it was carried to a transfer vehicle by the Navy Ceremonial Team.



The president told reporters on the White House South Lawn before departing for Dover that meeting with the family members of fallen soldiers is one of the "toughest things I have to do as president."



"I think it is the toughest thing I have to do. When I'm going to meet relatives of some of our great, great heroes that have fallen, I think it might be the toughest thing I have to do as president," Trump said.



Wednesday's attack in Manbij was the deadliest for the U.S. military since troops went into Syria.



ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. Last month, Trump declared the U.S. would withdraw troops from Syria.



"We've been hitting ISIS hard over the last three weeks," he said outside the White House Saturday morning. "It's been moving along very well. When I took over, it was a total mess."



He added that killing members of ISIS may be inadvertently helping some countries, including Russia, Iran and Syria.



"At some point, you want to bring our people back home," he said of troops in Syria.



At the Pentagon on Thursday, Trump expressed his condolences for the families of the four Americans.



"I want to take a moment to express my deepest condolences to the families of the brave American heroes who laid down their lives yesterday in selfless service to our nation," Trump said.



"We never forget their noble and immortal sacrifice," he added.



The Department of Defense has identified three of the four Americans killed. They are Army Chief Warrant Officer Jonathan Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Florida; Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician Shannon M. Kent, 35, of upstate New York; and DOD civilian Scott A. Wirtz of St. Louis, Missouri.



The president is also mired in a monthlong stalemate over funding for his proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. More than 800,000 federal workers are on furlough or working without pay as part of a partial government shutdown.



Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Since moving to Lynchburg, Woofter has thrown herself into community work. She serves on the boards of the James River Council for the Arts and Humanities and Grassroots Local Market and is a member of the Lynchburg City Schools Equity Task Force, an advisory committee to the city school board.

The 22nd district includes parts of Lynchburg and Campbell, Bedford and Franklin counties. Woofters candidacy represents the first challenge to Bryon since 2013. Byron, R-Bedford County, was first elected to the House of Delegates in 1997 and has since been re-elected 10 times.

In an interview on Friday, Woofter criticized Byron for being absent from the community and said she was running in part to ensure the district was represented by someone familiar with local daily life.

Ive been actively engaged in the community for the last five years, and I have not had the privilege of meeting [Del. Byron] yet, Woofter said. Im not sure weve run into each other at anything. And Im sure shes a busy person, but I have been surprised not to see her at public events that are important to our local community.

Bryon, who is widely expected to run for re-election but has not made an official announcement, did not return a request for comment Friday.More than a dozen women from the Lynchburg area met Friday at the Lake Vista clubhouse in Forest to create signs for todays Lynchburg Womens March and to put the finishing touches on the event.

The march is scheduled to take place from noon to 2 p.m. at the Lynchburg Community Market and will feature a variety of local speakers. Organizers said the march, the first of its kind in Lynchburg, will largely focus on the push to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.

Earlier this week the Senate of Virginia voted to approve the ERA and the House of Delegates is now considering the amendment. Supporters say if the legislature approves the amendment Virginia will become the final state needed to ratify the ERA. On Friday, march organizers made calls to state lawmakers urging them to support the amendment.

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.Johnson said his business also wanted to start brewing beer that will be sold at the winery but cannot get a brewing permit because of the government shutdown.

We have everything set up for a brewery but we cant do anything until this issue is settled in Congress, Johnson said. We were hoping to have our license by May but even if the office reopened tomorrow they have so much paperwork backed up that we might not get it until September.

Doug John, who owns and operates Apocalypse Ale Works in Forest, said he has several new beers his business wants to release but cannot until the shutdown is resolved and the TTB offices reopen.

In the craft beer industry you have to watch for trends, John said. IPAs are big right now and small breweries like ours release new beers to follow those trends. If we cant make new beers, it will really start to hurt our business.

John said his brewery also is seeking a license to start making cider, but cannot get approval from the TTB while the offices are closed.Thank you for reading!

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To subscribe, click here. Already a subscriber? Click here.Longview, TX (75601)

Today

Clear to partly cloudy. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable.Wendy Zele, FirstEnergy regional external affairs manager, responds to an inquiry from the audience during a community forum on the future of the Perry Nuclear Power Plant. The event was held on Jan. 14 in Perry Village. Listening to Zele's response is Perry Schools Superintendent Jack Thompson.Posted Friday, January 18, 2019 6:39 pm

If you havent been out state Route 6 lately, you might not have noticed that theres a new speed zone from the Chevron gas station to just past Hillcrest 76 gas station  down from 55 mph to 45 mph.

As I detailed in a previous column, as a person who lived just a few miles up the hill from the Chilvers Road intersection growing up, I supported a traffic improvement in this area.

There has been so much growth in the Claquato, Littell and Adna area neighborhoods off those arterial roads. It creates a real problem during rush hour and gets worse by the year. Drivers take increasing risks just to get out into the roadway in that cluster of three intersections  Scheuber, Chilvers, and Highway 603.

Today, more than 11,000 vehicles traverse that section of State Route 6 daily on average. That number has climbed several hundred cars per year, according to WSDOT data.

Brian Mittge mentioned in a previous column on the topic that he spoke with WSDOT officials, inquiring about their plans for the area. Mittge reported that he spoke with officials who informed him that they had already been working on plans for the area earlier 2018, at the request of a member of the public.

As of early December, the plan to reduce the speed to 45 mph had been awaiting approval from state officials.

About two weeks after the fatality in December at Chilvers Road and State Route 6  about a week after Mittge inquired  I happened to be driving out to Adna and passed several county and WSDOT vehicles sitting near the Chevron gas station on Highway 6.

By the time I came back through, the 45 mph signs were up.

In my mind, reducing the speed by 10 mph reduced the risk for a fatality accident. Numerous studies show the statistical increase of injury or death in a vehicle accident as speed increases.

I was surprised by all the skepticism from my friends, and I also was kind of curious myself about the process and how WSDOT decides to implement these changes. So, made a couple of phone calls.

I ended up getting in contact with a Traffic Operations Engineer for the southwest Washington region and picking his brain a little bit about the topic.

When it comes to speed, there are tons of studies about whats effective, said Dave Burkey of WSDOT.

Burkey explained that WSDOT had been looking at a number of factors before implementing the new speed zone.

The roadway (at Chilvers Road) is particularly wide ... theres good lighting ... its well-striped, he continued, explaining that over the years WSDOT had looked at things that improve safety across the board on the thousands of miles of roads and highways they oversee and maintain.

This is when Burkey talked about the geometrics of the roadway, in other words, a fancy way of saying that people drive the speed theyre most comfortable with, given the road and conditions, etc., often regardless of posted signs.

So, we do speed studies, said Burkey.

Burkey explained that when changes like this new speed zone are implemented, that WSDOT will reach out to partners like Washington State Patrol and (in this case) the Lewis County Sheriffs Office to help educate the public about new speed zones, WSDOT also has offered to engage community on the topic, welcoming feedback and comments.

Burkey also indicated that there will be a follow-up study on the new speed zone  are people honoring it? Is the new speed zone shaping new behavior? The follow-up study will measure behavior after-the-fact and evaluate for additional ways to reduce speed if necessary.

Currently, WSDOT doesnt have any firm plans on what they might implement if the new speed zone isnt effective at reducing speed. When I asked Burkey what WSDOT might do, he listed a few possible options.

More guideposts or additional delineators are possible. Were in the middle of trying to figure out exactly what would be the best fit (in that case)  it could include reconfiguring turn lanes, Burkey mused.

But he was careful to note that anything WSDOT looks at as far as additional changes will depend on the results of the follow-up traffic study.

So, hopefully, the new posted speed zone slows people down. I drive that stretch of road at least a couple of times each week  I have yet to see any law enforcement educating drivers, so hopefully that means the speed zone is having its intended effect.

But, ultimately, I think additional changes will be inevitable at for that stretch of highway.



Brittany Voie is a columnist for The Chronicle. She lives south of Chehalis with her husband and two young sons. She welcomes correspondence from the community at voiedevelopment@comcast.net.Free access for current print subscribers

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Activate your account now.NEW YORK  An impending storm, a schism within the movement and activism fatigue didnt deter handsful of Connecticut women from traveling to Manhattan for the third annual Womens March on Saturday.

Even so, the march itself was drastically smaller than previous years  New York City Police estimated as many as 25,000 marchers, compared to more than 250,000 the previous two years.

I dont think dwindling numbers means anything, said Laura Kostin, a member of the Greenwich Representative Town Meeting who ran for a seat in the state House of Representatives in 2018. The frustration has not faded.

Kostin traveled to New York with a group of Greenwich women to attend the march on the Upper West Side, which, despite dwindling attendance, was mostly a celebration of what the movement has achieved since the first Womens March in 2017 a day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump. An unprecedented number of women ran for and were elected to office at every level in 2018 with the help of many women who became politically active for the first time after the 2016 election.

The Womens March events, which took place around the country, were a sign of how the movement has persisted despite controversy among the New York-based leaders of the national Womens March group that planned the original event. Allegations of anti-Semitism divided the leaders of the group last year, prompting apologies, and spawning rival marches in New York and other cities that focused on intersectionality and diversity within the movement itself.

The group of Connecticut women said they attended the march on the Upper West Side rather than the second rally in New York, which took place in lower Manhattan, because the location was more convenient. The second rally, which featured speakers like U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, drew a few thousand people and highlighted the progressive agenda of the group, rather than focusing on the controversy that led to the rival rally.

Donna Mcdonough, who lives in Hamden, attended the rally in lower Manhattan, and said she was disappointed by the divide within the movement as well as the low attendance.

I think that we should have learned something from 2016, she said. Also, I support the rights of women everywhere, including in Palestine ... I suspect that the turnout was a lot smaller than it should have been because I think that people were disillusioned with the splintering.

Others attended a march in Hartford on Saturday, including Gov. Ned Lamont, first lady Annie Lamont and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz.

In Hartford, about 2,000 people gathered in Bushnell Park and marched a few hundred yards to the north side of the state Capitol for the days rally.

Several Fairfield County groups participated, including a busload from Westport-based DefenDemocracy and Sister District of Fairfield County, and a group from Fairfield Standing United, with Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, D-Fairfield.

Lamont, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Bysiewicz and U.S. Rep Jahana Hayes were all at the Hartford march. Bysiewicz said her appointment as chair of the Governors council on Women and Girls on Friday was timed in part to coincide with Saturdays march.

Blumenthal said the marches make a difference in Washington, D.C.

The nation is watching, Trump is watching and my colleagues in the Senate are watching, he said. The old saying that a picture is worth 1,000 words, well, Donald Trump doesnt read too much, but he looks at pictures.

In New York, Jennie Baird, who attended the Upper West Side march, was raised in an activist family  she remembers her parents taking her to protests during the Vietnam War era. She has attended the Womens March every year, and said even though activism has always been a part of her life, she didnt consider herself active until after the 2016 election.

That was really a wakeup call, Baird said. The first Womens March changed everything.

Baird said she was not concerned about the divisions within the movement, and argued the emphasis on the controversy is a way to distract from the original intent of the march.

Its easy to use that as a division tool, she said. But the march Im seeing is very inclusive.

Baird attended the March on Saturday with her mother, Linda Levy, and her daughter, Izzy Baird, who is a student at Mount Holyoke College. It was the first time the three generations of women attended a march together.

Levy was a freedom rider  a group of civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in the 1960s to challenge the non-enforcement of the the Supreme Court decision that ruled segregated public buses were unconstitutional  and said shes hopeful the momentum of the Womens March will continue.

I believe in this country, I believe in democracy and I believe in this movement, Levy said. The civil rights movement had plenty of schisms, but when I think back to the 1960s and to now, this country isnt perfect and theres still a lot to do, but weve come a long way. Whats going on now is unbelievable.

Levy said the march has evolved from its first iteration in 2017. She said the protests that year were largely anti-Trump and focused on Womens reproductive health. This year, she observed, there was a greater diversity of issues and groups represented on the signage of the protesters, and among the protesters themselves.

I cant remember a time when so many people have been following politics and all of the issues this closely, she said. This is good for progress and good for the country.

kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt. Staff writer Dan Haar contributed to this report.3 1 of 3 H John Voorhees III / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 2 of 3 H John Voorhees III / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 3 of 3





A male student was arrested at Danbury High School Wednesday after officials say he was threatening a female student and bullets were found in his possession.

The school resource officer learned of the threat around 12:15 p.m. that day.BRIDGEPORT  Several local residents could use a little support as the winter months push onward and generous neighbors have the perfect opportunity to help those in need through the Giving Fund.

For the 10th consecutive year, the Connecticut Post partnered with United Way, a nonprofit organization focused on charitable fundraising and support, to provide stories of people in the community who need financial help to help them get through the holidays and the winter months.

Donations are made to The Giving Fund, a philanthropic partnership between United Way, LifeBridge of Bridgeport and the Post. Online donations can be made at https://bit.ly/2UWVaFx.

As of 1 p.m. Jan. 9, 127 Connecticut Post readers donated $23,799 to the cases shared from Thanksgiving 2018 through Jan. 3. The needs were fully met for the following cases: 001, 010, 017, 019, 021, 024, 027, 030, 034, 037, 043, 045, 051, 055 and 060.

All cases for this season can be found at www.ctpost.com/ givingfund. Names have been changed to protect the privacy of those asking for help.

Over seven weeks, a total of $29,220 was asked for in the Connecticut Post cases. The following cases are from week five and were initially published in the paper on Dec. 20, 2018.

WEEK FIVE

Rena  Case 041

Rena needs to catch up on her kids tuition costs. She and her husband have 4-year-old twins enrolled in preschool. Rena was recently laid off and theyre now behind on tuition payments. A gift of $400 would help them catch up.

Bill  Case 042

Bill needs to keep his family warm. He lost his job and had to move into a shelter in Bridgeport with his girlfriend and his child. Hes actively searching for work while trying to figure out how to replace the items they left behind. A gift of $500 would help him buy winter clothes for his family.

Macy  Case 044

Macy has some financial burdens. She recently took on the responsibility of raising her 3-year-old grandson, which has proven to be a difficult transition. A gift of $500 would help her get back on her feet after taking on this huge responsibility.

Katie  Case 046

Katie needs a rocking chair. The 93-year-old woman is living independently after spending several years in a nursing home. Some days her age wears on her and needs a place to relax. A gift of $450 would help Katie buy a rocking chair, cushion and throw blanket on days when she isnt felling well.

Dory  Case 047

Dorys car needs repairing. The 21-year-old mother of two works part-time at a factory, but her car is in dire need of some fixing so she can get to work and drop her kids off at day care. A gift of $500 would help cover her car repairs.

Sam  Case 048

Sam needs a new computer. The 16-year-olds current computer keeps crashing, but his mom isnt able to afford a new one as a single mother with five children. A gift of $375 would help Sam buy a new computer.

Jennie  Case 049

Jennie needs to get to work. The single mother of two attends night school and recently started a new job, but is struggling to figure out how to afford transportation. A gift of $420 would cover the cost of six monthly bus passes to help Jennie get to her job.

Ryan  Case 050

Ryans car needs maintenance. Hes an elderly man living in Bridgeport and suffering from various health problems. His health problems require continuous care, making it hard to cover the costs of rent and basic necessities, let along car repairs. A gift of $500 would help Ryan keep up on necessary car repairs.Posted Friday, January 18, 2019 6:38 pm

Im beginning to think the State of Washington needs to change when it goes into Legislative session, because in my view its gotten so scary it should coincide with Halloween.

This year, in the governors proposed budget, according to several stories I read, calls for about a 22 percent increase in spending, the largest in 20 years. Part of his logic, if you want to call it that, is revealed in his press conference.

He said  Like many things in the state, we slashed these budgets during the recession, he said. Mental health was slashed. Our childcare system didnt keep pace with demand. We didnt pay for basic education. This budget asks if we care enough about our children and education and clean water to make those investments.

Ah, there it is  do we care enough?

But did we really cut anything during the recession? And didnt we just increase school investment significantly last session? But I guess it just wasnt enough.

We have a good economy now, at least in Seattle and the Puget Sound, and its projected to cover half of what he wants to invest in now, but what happens when the economy goes south again? And it will.

Investments and invest are words used in his drivel to describe this massive tax and spending plan and Im just not sure why he just doesnt say so. Im tired of the do I care enough guilt trip spenders dump on me.

Of course I care but I also care that the state agencies care enough to spend it carefully and do what they say they are going to.

Even scarier though is the fact that for some of his usual supporters, like state employee unions, even this huge increase is not enough.

Voters in this state recently and by significant margin rejected the so-called carbon tax, but he apparently doesnt care.

The proposed capital gains tax on the rich is really rich as well.

What is it about hard work and success that needs to be punished by even more taxes? And why is working hard, taking financial risk, building a business, employing people and paying taxes that entitles the state to 9 percent when you want to retire and sell it?

Perhaps if this governor, or any before him, had shown some skill dealing with Western State Hospital, Id be encouraged about his skill spending the kind of money hes talking about here. But his results on that alone are dismal, cost a fortune, and after repeated failures led to federal aid being cut off.

Western State is just an indicator of the states inability handle meaningful, and really solvable problems. But for 1.1 billion dollars to solve the Orca issue, exactly what return should we expect to see for that kind of investment.

That seems to me a much more challenging problem than Western State is.

State Rep. Bruce Chandler, the ranking Republican on the House budget committee said of Inslees budget: If youre an Orca, a criminal, or someone who voted for the failed carbon tax in November, you probably like this budget, If youre a small business owner, a family concerned about public safety, or the average citizen trying to make ends meet, you probably dont.

So, if we give the governor every tax hike, I mean investment he asks for, what exactly should we expect? Not much if history is any indicator.

Except demanding even more spending on who know what but if only we care enough.



John McCroskey was Lewis County sheriff from 1995 to 2005. He lives outside Chehalis, and can be contacted at musingsonthemiddlefork@yahoo.com.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.BRIDGEPORT  City firefighters quickly put out a mobile home on fire between two houses late Saturday afternoon.

Around 4:25 p.m., fire units were sent to the 80 block of Pearl Harbor Circle for a reported vehicle on fire. Less than two minutes later, the dispatcher updated the call to a motor home on fire in the driveway of a home.

The first unit on scene reported a mobile home in the driveway on fire, fully involved. Despite the mobile home being situated between two homes, the fire units on scene said there was no threat of exposure to either home.

All fire units except for one ladder and one engine were cleared from the scene by 4:50 p.m.

A Fire Marshal responded to the location to investigate the cause of the blaze.The ten-pin alley is scheduled to open mid-2019

PLANS for a new 2m bowling alley in Newburys Kennet Shopping centre have been backed by town councillors.

Superbowl UK wants to open the 14-lane 10 pin bowling alley, complete with laser tag and a childrens soft play area, in the former TK Maxx store.

The proposals were first revealed at the Newbury Vision conference in October.

If plans are approved by West Berkshire Council, the bowling alley is scheduled to open mid-2019.

The proposal marks what could be the start of a changing profile for the shopping centre with the inclusion of more mixed-use units.

HIG Capital  the private equity investment firm that owns the centre  wants to include more leisure and lifestyle-led outlets in the mall in an attempt to readdress the balance between retail and leisure, to match changes in consumer spending.

According to a planning statement, advocates of the scheme say there has been limited demand from other shops and retail outlets to take the vacant space.

This proposed development aims to provide greater permeability across the southern part of Newbury town centre by increasing pedestrian connectivity to the railway station.

The proposal also includes the provision of a multi-storey car park that will increase parking spaces near Newbury railway station.

Town councillors discussed the scheme at a planning and highways committee meeting held on Wednesday, January 2.

The councils deputy leader, Miles Evans (Con, Victoria), said the bowling alley proposal represented a vital opportunity to attract custom to the southern part of the town.

Pleased to support plans for a #bowling alley and Laser Tag in the @KennetCentre@NewburyTC#retail is changing, with traditional occupiers consolidating and focusing online. A different offering is welcome. #Newburypic.twitter.com/r4dplbLF6v , tonight It's clear that the face of  Miles Evans (@MilesWEvans) January 2, 2019

Mr Evans said: We felt it was important to support something that Newbury has not had before and will hopefully bring a different group of people into the centre.

The high street is changing and evolving. A lot of the big retailers have moved out of the Kennet centre  such as Debenhams and TK Maxx.

Its all we can do really  to support initiatives and ideas that are a bit different.

Once this Market Street development is achieved over the next few years, the Kennet centre is going to be ideally placed for those people.

West Berkshire Council planning officers are expected to make a decision on the proposal by Tuesday, January 29.

To view or comment on the bowling alley application, type the reference number 18/03193/FUL into West Berkshire Councils planning portal.Posted Friday, January 18, 2019 6:37 pm

Representatives of small business owners and low income workers had plenty to say at a public hearing Wednesday on Gov. Jay Inslees proposal to impose a state capital gains tax.

Thirty-three individuals testified before the Senate Ways & Means Committee. Those in favor of the tax said Washingtons current state tax system unfairly and disproportionately strains the budgets of low-income wage earners. Others were concerned that taxing proceeds from selling off a small business to fund a retirement could hurt retirees.

Profits from the sales of residences, property used in a trade or business, cattle, livestock, timber or agricultural lands and traditional retirement accounts would be exempt from the proposed tax. Small business sales are not exempt, which some said is their primary source of retirement, despite earning an average salary.

Thats my retirement, said Wayne Lunday, who spoke on behalf of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors. Thats the retirement of all the NAIFA members that are out there building those small agencies and small businesses, and its going to devastate them if they have to write a check for 9 percent of what their business is worth to the governor.

Inslees proposal would tax long-term capital gains of more than $25,000, and $50,000 for joint filers at 9 percent, starting in 2020. It would add about $975 million to the states coffers. The governors proposed two-year budget has an operating fund of $54.4 billion, with money set aside for goals that include mental health reform, measures to save Puget Sound orcas and initiatives to combat climate change, according to the Office of Financial Management.

In Washington state, capital gains accounted for about 9 percent of total income reported on federal income tax returns, according to briefing materials presented at the hearing.

Imagine somebody that has a regular salary. Has $1 million in their 401k plan, said Gary Franke, a member of the Washington Association Health Insurance Underwriters. And being taxed $85,000.

Last fall, a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy showed that the lowest 20 percent of earners pay almost 18 percent of family income in taxes, while the top one percent pay just three percent in taxes. Multiple people testified that Washingtons upside-down tax system needs to be changed.

We see people at food banks who are working two or three jobs, said Claire Lane, director of the Anti-Hunger & Nutrition Coalition. They are hard workers, and they are paying a far bigger share of their income in taxes than people who have a $1 million profit.

The current tax code is not only unfair, its inadequate to meet the needs of our state, said Samantha Grad, on behalf of a Washington chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. We need to rebalance our tax code so that we can make investments that create thriving communities with access to opportunity that works for all of us.Newburyport - Paul James Matthews, 95, a resident of Newburyport, died Monday morning June 14, 2021 at Port Healthcare Center in Newburyport. He was born on January 26, 1926, in Newburyport, Mass., to the late James and Mary Matthews. Paul was raised in Newburyport and was a graduate of NewbWhat to Know Massachusetts State Police conducted an internal investigation of Trooper Michael Cogan following an off-duty crash in February 2017.

The report, obtained by NBC10 Boston, concluded there was not enough evidence to prove whether or not Cogan abused his position.

Questions were raised about whether Cogan received special treatment from first responders. Cogan also never performed field sobriety tests.

Interviewing witnesses is a key part of police work.

So why did Massachusetts State Police conduct an internal investigation of one of their troopers without speaking to a single person?

The report, obtained by the NBC10 Boston Investigators, concluded there was not enough evidence to prove whether or not Trooper Michael Cogan abused his position following an off-duty crash last February.

Details of the crash first surfaced in the summer of 2018, raising questions about whether Cogan received special treatment from first responders who arrived at the accident in Wilmington.

The crash occurred late on a Friday night along Woburn Street. Cogans truck hit a pole and lost a wheel upon impact, knocking out power to the neighborhood.

Neighbors called 911 and described Cogan spinning the vehicles tires in the road, telling dispatchers it appeared the driver was trying to flee the scene.

The NBC10 Boston Investigators discovered Wilmington police officers sent Cogan away in an ambulance and never performed any field sobriety tests.

The trooper then checked himself out of the hospital without ever seeing a doctor, potential evidence literally walking out the door with him.

After the NBC10 Boston Investigators started asking questions, Wilmington Police Chief Michael Begonis launched an internal review of the incident. At the conclusion of the probe, Begonis agreed his officers shouldve asked more questions, but did not believe they gave a fellow cop a free pass.

I think we couldve done better, Begonis told NBC10 Boston Investigator Ryan Kath in July. But Im confident there was no special treatment.

Following the story, state police confirmed they were starting their own internal investigation to see if Cogan violated department policies and procedures.

The report written by a lieutenant in the Andover barracks concluded an allegation that Cogan abused his position was not sustained.

It is impossible to speculate if Cogans employment as a Massachusetts state trooper potentially resulted in any different treatment from the Wilmington police officers in any conscious or subconscious manner, Lt. Eric Bernstein wrote. Therefore, there is insufficient evidence to prove or disprove this portion of the complaint.

The NBC10 Boston Investigators shared the report with several law enforcement experts to get their reaction.

I would characterize it as a non-investigation, said Tom Nolan, a criminology professor and former Boston police officer of 27 years.

Nolan expressed surprise that state police leaders signed off on the internal investigation without speaking to a single witness.

State police investigators did not interview the neighbors who described the trooper stumbling like a drunk. They did not interview firefighters who reported they smelled alcohol on his breath in the ambulance. Nor did they speak with police officers who said Cogan identified himself as a trooper at the scene.

Its slipshod, its sloppy, and its unprofessional, Nolan said. And its indicative of the lack of seriousness with which the State Police take the allegations that were made against this particular trooper.

The NBC10 Boston Investigators tried speaking with Cogan at the conclusion of one of his patrol shifts last summer, but the trooper declined to comment.

Its a step further than internal investigators went. Instead of interviewing him in person, the department asked Cogan to fill out a brief written question/answer form.

His responses are redacted in the internal investigation obtained by The Investigators. Therefore, its unclear how he answered this question: Were you seeking to obtain any special privileges, preferential treatment, or to avoid the consequences of illegal acts, as a result of your official position with the Massachusetts State Police?

Department spokesman Dave Procopio defended the process in a written statement.

The purpose of the State Police internal investigation into Trooper Cogans off-duty crash was to determine whether any specific departmental rules of conduct were violated, not to re-investigate the crash itself, which had already been investigated by Wilmington Police and reviewed by the District Attorney, Procopio wrote.

However, critics point out that the District Attorneys office was investigating to see if criminal charges should be pursued. State police were trying to determine if their own department rules were violated, a completely different line of questioning.

For an agency facing increased scrutiny from the overtime scandal and other recent controversies, Nolan said the lack of detail in the report is all the more surprising.

It should have been an investigation that crossed all the Ts and dotted all the Is, and we dont see that here, Nolan expressed. What state police did was get an industrial-sized broom and swept this under the rug.

Ryan Kath can be reached at ryan.kath@nbcuni.com. You can also follow him on Twitter or connect with him Facebook.What to Know The third annual womens march is happening on Saturday

Amid allegations on antisemitism, many women are deciding whether or not to participate

There are many competing marches happening across the country

Amid accusations of anti-Semitism surrounding the leaders of the Womens March on Washington, many Jewish women will be deciding one thing this weekend: to march or not to march?

Joan James, of Lincoln City, Oregon, was very supportive until the allegations of anti-Semitism began to surface.

"The Womens March is supposed to be an inclusive movement that supports diversity of color and ideas," said James, who is Jewish. "If your leaders are making statements that are less than supportive of a group of people, it tears the movement from the inside."

James is still conflicted on whether or not she will participate this weekend, when thousands of women are expected to take the streets for the third year in a row. The march, sparked by the election of President Donald Trump, was organized by women worried about his agenda and offended by comments he made. Many participants wore distinctive "pink pussy hats" as a symbolic way to show resistance.

Now some women are aggravated the anti-Semitic allegations are causing a divide within the womens movement.

The accusations of anti-Semitism were crystalized in an article written in the Tablet in December. The magazine reported that in an initial planning meeting, Tamika Mallory and Carmen Perez, two of the Women's March Inc. leaders, said that Jewish people had a special collective responsibility as exploiters of black and brown people." Mallory and other leaders deny the statement.

In addition, Perez, Mallory, and Linda Sarsour's association with Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan, who has a history of making anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ comments, led to more criticism. The New York Times reported that Mallory and Perez said, they work in communities where Mr. Farrakhan is respected for his role in rehabilitating incarcerated men. They attended the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March in 2015, which Mr. Farrakhan planned.

In an appearance on ABC's "The View," Mallory said, "What I will say to you is that I don't agree with many of Minister Farrakhan's statements." In a later interview with a radio station called Breakfast Club, she condemned anti-Semitism. However, she and the other leaders did not denounce Farrakhan's rhetoric.

Some advocates are conflicted about whether the allegations are serious enough to keep them from participating.

In response, Womens March Inc. released a press statement which reads, Its become clear, amidst this media storm, that our values and our message have  too often been lost. That loss caused a lot of harm, and a lot pain. We should have been faster and clearer in helping people understand our values and our commitment to fighting anti-Semitism. We regret that. Every member of our movement matters to us  including our incredible Jewish and LGBTQ members. We are deeply sorry for the harm we have caused, but we see you, we love you, and we are fighting with you.

While some advocates are frustrated with the controversay over the anti-Semitic allegations, they also recognize the impact of the Womens March.

Aliza Lifshitz, a Jewish Barnard College student and activist, posted on her Facebook page, If youre vocally critical of the womens march but you do nothing to publicly call out or resist the current administrations policies, it is very safe to assume that youre using your concerns about anti-Semitism to tear down a movement you didnt agree with in the first place.

"People should acknowledge what they are missing out on when they abandon the womens march," she said in an interview with NBC.

Lifshitz believes the march has played a significant role in organizing the womens resistance movement, and that the march itself is symbolic of the desire for change. However, she also said she respects anyone who feels uncomfortable marching because of the controversy.

The allegations have resulted in stark differences between competing marches and women abandoning the march altogether over confusion about what each organization stands for.

Womens March Inc. brought three Jewish women onto their steering committee. Abby Stein, the first openly transgender woman raised in a Hasidic community, is one of the women.

The leaders of the Womens March are not anti-Semitic," she said. "Louis Farrakhan has no impact on the goals of the Women's March. In fact, the Womens March is the antithesis to everything he preaches."

Stein said when she was given the opportunity to join the steering committee, she saw it as a way to make sure Jewish women feel included and as a platform to defend the LGBTQ community.

"The question was not how I could join the Womens March, but how could I not?" she said. "I can accomplish so much when it comes to eradicating anti-Semitism by working with them."

Stein told NBC the Womens March in 2017 focused on resistance, the march in 2018 guided people to the polls, and this years march is about a policy agenda.

One of the strongest impacts the steering committee has is assisting with the womens agenda which is a policy agenda that Congress could basically copy and paste and turn it into a bill, she said.

The Women's March Inc. has released a policy agenda encompassing many different topics, including ending violence against women, advocating for reproductive rights, and fighting for racial injustice.

Despite efforts to show the march is inclusive and not anti-Semitic, the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Sens. Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand, among others, are no longer sponsoring the Womens March Inc. event.

I think it is unfortunate they are no longer supporting the event," said Rabbi Robin Podolsky of Los Angeles, who wrote an article in the Jewish Journal called Why I Will Walk With the Womens March. "We have to ask ourselves who benefits if our movement fractures and it is not us. At this point, I still feel really firm that it is the grassroots women who have to define the march and not a couple of personalities at the top."

As a Jewish woman, I think it is important that we reclaim this march and that we stand for this as much as any woman. I see us walking in the same direction, where each of us is heard and empowered," she said.

Many womens marches planned around the world on Saturday are not associated with Womens March Inc.

Womens March Alliance, for example, is a separate organization that plans the march in New York City.

Katherine Siemionko, the alliance's founder and president, told NBC, We are hoping to roll out a new name brand and face this upcoming March to make it clear that we have no association with Womens March Inc.

Siemionko is aware many Jews are contemplating whether or not to march.

"We are working to make sure everyone feels welcome and we are doing a lot of outreach across the board," she said. "We have also been speaking at synagogues and making sure to confirm our commitment to the Jewish communities we have worked with in the past."

During a phone call in October, Siemionko asked Sarsour why Women's March Inc. was planning to hold a competing event in New York City on Saturday. She said Sarsour had told her the separate rally was needed to provide a space for women of color.

Siemionko told NBC many women of color are involved in her organization. She said the volunteer trainings this week averaged 60 percent people of color and the alliance's board has 3 women of color out of 5 members. Siemionko told NBC she thought Sarsour had given her a "lame excuse."

Women's March Inc. did not make Sarsour available for an interview.

With all of the controversy, some people are choosing to stay away from any womens march this year.

Arielle Kaplan, a 24-year-old Jewish woman from New York City, said, I think it is great that people are going and that Jewish women are trying to make marches that are inclusive for Jews, but I am not going because I don't want people to mistake me for supporting Womens March Inc. by going to a womens march that is unaffiliated.The General Assembly's self-described socialist member is sponsoring legislation to repeal the state's right-to-work law, which says employees can't be forced to join a labor union.

Del. Lee Carter, a democratic socialist inspired by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, has filed House Bill 1806, which could force workers in Virginia to become union members and pay union dues as a condition of their employment.

Virginia is among 27 right-to-work states  a fact that business leaders often point to with pride. Carter's bill aims to change that.

"Repealing it is bigger than just the actual technical changes that it would make," said Thomas McIntire, Carter's legislative aide. "It sends a signal to workers in Virginia saying that your voice matters."

In right-to-work states, a workplace where employees are represented by a union is considered an "open shop": People can work there without joining the union, and they can cancel their union membership at any time.

Critics of right-to-work laws say this allows freeloading: Non-union employees don't pay union dues, but they benefit from the collective bargaining agreements and higher salaries that the union negotiates.

Carter ran as a Democrat in winning the 50th House District seat representing Manassas and part of Prince William County in 2018. He wants to repeal the state law that says, "No person shall be required by an employer to become or remain a member of any labor union or labor organization as a condition of employment or continuation of employment by such employer."

HB 1806 would allow "agency shops" or "union shops," where all employees must pay the union either dues or a service fee.

"A collective bargaining agreement may include a provision establishing an agency shop or a union shop," the bill says. "If such a provision is agreed to, the employer shall enforce it by deducting from the salary payments to members of the bargaining unit the dues required of membership in the labor union, or, for nonmembers thereof, a fee equivalent to such dues."

McIntire said the fees would help the union provide better support to employees in the workplace.

Supporters of right-to-work laws say they are good for the economy.

States without such laws tend to have higher unemployment and a higher cost of living, said Scott Mayausky, commissioner of the revenue in Stafford County, Virginia. That's because compulsory union membership drives up the cost of goods and services, he said.

In such situations, a company's costs can increase  and that worries Mayausky the most.

"Statistically, if you look at a lot of the Rust Belt states that are big union states, those are the ones that have been struggling economically, and a lot of their companies are leaving," Mayausky said.

Mayausky had two grandfathers who were coal miners, so he understands the good that unions can bring. But he believes this isn't the time for repealing the right-to-work law in Virginia.

"We're doing very well," Mayausky said. "I don't understand the push to change the right-to-work law when things seem to be headed in the right direction."

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Virginia has about 176,000 union members  approximately 4.6 percent of wage and salary workers in the state.

McIntire said it was important for Carter to file the bill, which is pending before the House Rules Committee.

"This is at the core of what Del. Carter stands for when it comes to worker rights," McIntire said. "It's important to get this in now as early as possible."What to Know A victim told her mother Boykin touched her inappropriately in March.

Investigators identified four victims of molestation and at least 15 of improper touching, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors also said Boykin took inappropriate photos of children with his smart watch.

A day care in Prince William County, Virginia, has reopened just a few months after a worker there pleaded guilty to molesting preschoolers.

Parents of some of the victims said they are outraged taht Minnieland Academy in Bristow is back open.

They started sharing photos with each other a few weeks ago when they noticed the lights were back on at Minnieland.

"I was appalled, completely appalled they were going to open," Jennifer, a parent of one of the victims, said Friday.

Taylor Keith Boykin, 27, pleaded guilty in October to 14 charges of sexually abusing children in his care and taking inappropriate photos of them.

Minnieland's Bristow location had closed in June because of parents taking their children out of the program.

Jennifer and other parents say the reopening is concerning.

"Youd think thered at least be some courtesy to let the parents know. Theres nothing. And so, it just -- the callousness of it," she said. "It just seems like they dont care and if they dont care, then Id be worried this is going to happen again."

"We certainly understand and respect that there are families that this has been traumatic for and are very sorry for what they have had to deal with," said Mark Hubbard, who represents Minnieland's owners. They operate 54 centers that provide care to 5,000 children.

Hubbard said the owners had tried to find a new tenant for the facility, but weren't successful.

He said the shopping center's owner didn't like the empty space.

"They are holding us to the contract we have with them and the landlord is pushing us to reopen because they want the retail activity in their shopping center complex," Hubbard said.

Boykin admitted to sexually molesting four girls, but prosecutors also revealed as many as 15 children were victims of improper touching by Boykin.

The mother of a girl enrolled at the Minnieland Academy in Bristow sparked the investigation in March when she saw Boykin's strange behavior near the playground slide and asked her 5-year-old daughter what was happening. She told her Boykin, who the children called Mr. Taylor, tickled her all over her body, including her private parts, according to the prosecution.

Boykin would reach into the tube of the slide and sexually assault them, telling them he was tickling them, according to the prosecution. Often he pulled down their pants and underwear and took photos with his smart watch. Investigators found 120 images.

The mother told Child Protective Services, and police began an investigation, quickly identifying other victims.

Police arrested Boykin April 20. Boykin confessed to police, saying, "I knew I shouldn't have been tickling there. I knew I shouldn't have been in that area."

In court Monday, it was revealed another mother first reported improper behavior to the director of Minnieland in 2016. Another teacher told the director in January 2018 she saw Boykin tickling children between the legs, and that same month, the lead kindergarten teacher told the director Boykin made improper comments about children's pants being pulled down.

Boykin pleaded guilty to charges including indecent liberties, aggravated sexual battery and production of child pornography.

Boykin faces life in prison at sentencing in March. Some victims' parents will take the stand at sentencing to tell the judge how the crimes affected their daughters.A diocese in Kentucky apologized Saturday after videos emerged showing students from a Catholic boys' high school mocking Native Americans outside the Lincoln Memorial after a rally in Washington.

The Indigenous Peoples March in Washington on Friday coincided with the March for Life, which drew thousands of anti-abortion protesters, including a group from Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills.

Videos circulating online show a teen staring at and standing extremely close to Nathan Phillips, a 64-year-old Native American man singing and playing a drum.

"I was sad for him. I was really, truly sad for him," Phillips said in an interview with NBC News.

"The actions that he was involved in, you know, who allows the children to treat others that way? Who teaches our children that? What was in their minds? You know, chants of 'build the wall' and other things that were even worse."

Other students, some wearing Covington clothing and many wearing "Make America Great Again" hats and sweatshirts, apparently chanted, laughed and jeered.

"I was scared. I was afeared. But - no buts - we have to stand strong," Phillips told NBC News.

Another encounter apparently took place before the one went viral.

In a joint statement, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School apologized to Phillips. Officials said they are investigating and will take "appropriate action, up to and including expulsion."

"We extend our deepest apologies to Mr. Phillips," the statement read. "This behavior is opposed to the Church's teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person."

Asked for comment by NBC News, the interim director of the Holy See Press Office, Alessandro Gisotti, said that the diocese [of Covington] has already strongly condemned the students actions.

According to the "Indian Country Today" website, Phillips is an Omaha elder and Vietnam veteran who holds an annual ceremony honoring Native American veterans at Arlington National Cemetery.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Phillips said he felt threatened by the teens. It was getting ugly, and I was thinking: Ive got to find myself an exit out of this situation and finish my song at the Lincoln Memorial,  he said. I started going that way, and that guy in the hat stood in my way and we were at an impasse. He just blocked my way and wouldnt allow me to retreat.

Phillips said he kept drumming and singing, focusing on his wife, who died of bone marrow cancer, and threats to indigenous communities around the world. I felt like the spirit was talking through me, he said.

In a video posted to Instagram, Phillips wiped away tears. "When I was there singing, I heard them saying 'Build that wall, build that wall,'" Phillips said. "This is indigenous lands. We're not supposed to have walls here. We never did."

He said he wished the group would put their energy into "making this country really great."

Phillips said the incident started as the students from Covington Catholic were observing a group of Black Israelites talk, and started to get upset at their speeches, according to Cincinnati.com.

Phillips said some of the members of the Black Hebrew group were also acting up, "saying some harsh things" and that one member spit in the direction of the Catholic students.

Chase Iron Eyes, a spokesman for the Indigenous Peoples March and an attorney for the Lakota People's Law Project, told the Courier Journal Saturday that Phillips initially approached the students in an attempt to defuse a situation. Chase Iron Eyes said Phillips was swarmed though some video posted on social media seems to show Phillips walking into the crowd of students.

State Rep. Ruth Buffalo, a North Dakota state lawmaker and member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, said she was saddened to see students showing disrespect to an elder who is also a U.S. military veteran at what was supposed to be a celebration of all cultures.

"The behavior shown in that video is just a snapshot of what indigenous people have faced and are continuing to face," Buffalo said.

She said she hoped it would lead to some kind of meeting with the students to provide education on issues facing Native Americans.

The videos prompted a torrent of outrage online. Actress and activist Alyssa Milano tweeted that the footage "brought me to tears," while actor Chris Evans tweeted that the students' actions were "appalling" and "shameful."

U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland, D-New Mexico, who is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna and had been at the rally earlier in the day, used Twitter to sharply criticize what she called a "heartbreaking" display of "blatant hate, disrespect, and intolerance."

Haaland, who is also Catholic, told The Associated Press she was particularly saddened to see the boys mocking an elder, who is revered in Native American culture. She placed some of the blame on President Donald Trump, who has used Indian names like Pocahontas as an insult.

"It is sad that we have a president who uses Native American women's names as racial slurs and that's an example that these kids are clearly following considering the fact that they had their 'Make America Great Again' hats on," Haaland said. "He's really brought out the worst in people."

CORRECTION (Jan. 23, 4:07 p.m. ET): The Associated Press reported that Indian Country Today said the Native American, Nathan Phillips, was a Vietnam veteran. Military records show that he served in the U.S. Marine Corps but did not serve in Vietnam.What to Know Leftover rain from a Saturday night downpour tapered off by Sunday morning.

Strong wind gusts hit the region Sunday, causing temperatures to plummet.

Temperatures Monday will hover in the single digits, but will feel like they're well into the negatives.

A First Alert continues through Monday as dangerous cold and high winds spread across the area.

Temperatures fell into the teens and single digits Monday morning with high winds and a wind chill or feels-like of -10 to -20 degrees.

AP

Here is the latest breakdown for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

A flash freeze happened overnight quickly turning standing water to ice. Roads and walkways may be slippery on Monday with the worst conditions in the upper Pennsylvania Suburbs and Lehigh Valley.

By daytime, there will be plenty of sun, but the frigid air will remain. Highs are expected to hang in the teens, which is 20-30 degrees below average for January 21. The high winds will continue with dangerous wind chills well below zero. If you venture outside, cover all exposed skin, because frostbite can occur in as little as 20-30 minutes.

Scattered power outages and downed tree branches are possible with the high wind and ice-coated surfaces.

Things to remember:

Keep pets inside

Dont use space heaters on loose rugs or near drapes

Dont use generators indoors

Dont use ovens and stoves to heat your home

This Arctic blast comes on one of the most popular days for volunteering, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Outdoor activities are likely to be moved or canceled.

The African American Museum in Philadelphia hopes to get people inside as quickly as possible Monday. Other groups are also making plans for the cold. Keep an eye on social media and reach out to organizations to learn of any changes to volunteer opportunities.

Temps still won't break the freezing mark Tuesday when sunny skies push the high temperatures into the upper 20s. Relief from the cold finally comes on Wednesday with high temps pushing into the 40s.

Our team of First Alert meteorologists will keep you updated with the latest forecast here, on air and on the NBC10 App so you will be prepared for the dangerous cold and high winds in your neighborhood.Although an Army veteran had no family with him as he died last month, hundreds of strangers came together Friday for his funeral with military honors thanks to the work of a volunteer.

Peter Turnpu, 77, died at his New Jersey home from natural causes.

He had no known relatives and few friends, according to officials. So a police officer asked LeRoy Wooster, owner of LeRoy Wooster Funeral Home in Atco, to help put together a service for Turnpu.

"It was the right thing to do," Wooster said. "I didn't want him to be buried alone."

More than 1,000 paid their respects at the funeral in North Hanover Township on Friday afternoon. An honor guard from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst was also present.

Mourners lined up and saluted as pallbearers carried the flag-draped casket.

Wooster said it took weeks of searching, but he was able to learn that Turnpu was a veteran of the Vietnam War who received an honorable discharge  making him eligible for a burial with full military honors at the Brigadier General William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery.

Wooster donated a casket, transportation and services as a funeral director.

Watch a stirring video of the funeral above.Posted Friday, January 18, 2019 6:50 pm

The city of Tenino, Tenino School District and a Portland-based nonprofit are spearheading a more than $10 million project that would turn the school district into a regional hub for training in renewable energy technology.

The project is called Tenino Innovation and Education through Renewables, or TIER. Essentially, it would turn Tenino into a living lab and show how a small town could move to a renewable energy economy through power grid modernization.

Its kind of a cool transition when you talk about transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy  that this area was a huge part of the fossil fuel industry, and were able to take that, and support that transition, and be an example of how that can be done successfully, said Tenino City Council member Dave Waterson.

The TIER Advisory Committee includes representatives from the Tenino School District, the city of Tenino, South Sound Solar, Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) and PECI. The team behind the project has also included Centralia College and Washington State University.

The simple explanation (of TIER) is we have emerging technologies that are technologies of the future, said Tenino School District Superintendent Joe Belmonte. We want our kids to have access to them and we want to make sure that those kids have opportunities that are hands on. If we have solar rays, and alternative energy, and microgrids and all of those kinds of things here that kids can access  its not abstract  its hands on.

In September 2017, Tenino School District installed solar panels on its high school. Waterson, Belmonte and President of South Sound Solar Kirk Haffner put a grant application together for TransAlta and matched the grant with another from the Washington State Department of Commerce.

When we installed the solar (system) in the school, one of my things was I wanted students to be aware of it besides just seeing it there, Waterson said. I wanted them to be able to see how much power its putting out  just to start being aware of other forms of energy, and how it works and what it means. That was kind of just a basic, Lets put this on the school and make students aware of it and we built on that.

Waterson said this is how the TIER project originated. After the solar panel project, Tanya Barham, director of operations & product development at PECI, reached out to Waterson and Belmonte. PECI is a Portland-based nonprofit that, according to its website, aims to build resilient community energy systems.

We support local efforts by applying resources, planning and technical expertise because we believe strongly that local control of energy systems will strengthen local economies, make local systems more resilient and have lasting benefits for the environment, the nonprofits biography reads.

Barham said Thursday that the group currently has about $70,000 of cash funding, and another $200,000 worth of in-kind donated labor, planning and expertise. Barham estimated the entire TIER project will cost more than $10 million.

Because its such a good lab, the idea is that we can drive down, we can create best practices and disseminate those so that no other community  they dont need to spend $10 million, Barham said. They will benefit from this investment.

Tenino School District hosted a presentation Thursday to unveil the project to regional stakeholders. The purpose of the presentation was to announce the project and garner support, Belmonte said. Barham said the TIER project will most likely begin at the end of 2019 and various phases of the project will continue throughout 2022.

The next step for the TIER project is to secure funding. However, Barham said the first piece of the project people in Tenino would notice  dependent on grant funding  would be 150kW of solar in a field to the left of the substation.

They would put a large grid-scale lithium-ion battery in the substation and they would begin updating the overhead line from the substation to the high school, in order to create resilient back-up power in case of an emergency, Barham said. They (Tenino residents) would start seeing that. They would see some requests for labor, or requests for bids from the utility in order to perform that work.Former President George W. Bush delivered food to federal workers on Friday who are still on the job despite not being paid due to the partial government shutdown.

Bush posted a photo of himself in Florida delivering boxes of pizzas to the workers to his Instagram page.

"Its time for leaders on both sides to put politics aside, come together, and end this shutdown," Bush said in the post.

He also thanked the government employees who still travel and protect him everyday.

"Laura and I are grateful to our Secret Service personnel and the thousands of Federal employees who are working hard for our country without a paycheck. And we thank our fellow citizens who are supporting them," Bush wrote in the post.

A spokesman for Bush told NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth the former president plans to continue to bring more food to the workers until the government reopens.

The shutdown will soon enter its fifth week.A Los Angeles teachers' strike that sent thousands of shouting educators into downtown streets, paralyzing traffic during a rainstorm and leaving a half-million students in uncertainty, isn't the kind of publicity Mayor Eric Garcetti needed for his potential presidential campaign.

The Democratic mayor, who has said he will soon decide whether to enter the 2020 White House contest, would anchor his candidacy to the idea that local government is where things get done in America, in contrast to the turmoil and vast political divide in President Donald Trump's Washington.

But the televised scenes of angry picketers leading chants with bullhorns and blocking streets during rush hour chafes against the notion of LA as a model metropolis and provides a reminder of the challenges that come with trying to mount a national campaign from City Hall, not Capitol Hill or a statehouse.

Michael Dukakis rose to prominence in the 1980s on the Massachusetts Miracle economic boom. Ronald Reagan coasted to re-election by telling voters it was "morning again in America." How Garcetti would sell his record to voters is just starting to emerge. But the labor strife in LA is the latest example of urban headaches that could shadow a campaign that would be inescapably hitched to the city's rise or fall.

The mayor can fairly claim that the local economy is thriving, and Google and Facebook are among the companies expanding here. Once-dreary downtown has seen a rebirth.

But as a mayor, Garcetti faces numerous hurdles not shared with potential rivals like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren or former Vice President Joe Biden, who are fixtures in the Washington establishment.

Homeless encampments line downtown streets, even with a strong local economy. A vast transit-building plan has yet to show any sign of easing the city's notorious traffic, and a federal corruption probe at City Hall is looking into foreign investment and downtown development.

Other barriers are historical  no sitting mayor has ever been elected to the White House. Garcetti is in the middle of a second term.

Equally ominous: LA's City Hall has long been a dead end for a string of its former mayors, whose political magic didn't travel well when they set their sights on higher office.

Former Mayor Tom Bradley failed twice to become governor, and his predecessor, Sam Yorty, tanked in races for governor and president. More recently, businessman Richard J. Riordan lost a bid for governor in 2002 and former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa faltered in his run for governor last year, failing to even win his home county.

The record for New York mayors is similarly discouraging. Rudy Giuliani briefly ran for U.S. Senate in 2000 and was an early casualty in the 2008 presidential race. Ed Koch faltered in a bid for New York governor in 1982. John V. Lindsay, a Republican, switched parties in 1971 and sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972, but dropped out after a few primaries. He also flopped in a U.S. Senate bid.

Why? The nature of local politics is often messy, and mayors typically become targets for all sorts of grumbles that never reach the Washington Beltway  labor strife, trash that doesn't get picked up, traffic that doesn't move.

Governors and presidents, though, are often layers removed from where policy hits most voters in their daily lives. Senators and representatives, meanwhile, may have to navigate poor ratings for Congress but are always able to point the finger at someone else in Washington.

Garcetti's fellow Californian and another potential presidential contender, Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, is free to express her sympathies with organized labor  a common maneuver for any Democrat  but has no reason to get directly involved in the strike.

Another challenge: Rural voters historically look askance at big coastal cities. Garcetti, rooted in heavily Democratic Los Angeles, could also be a target for Republicans who typically dominate the heartland vote and could depict him as another Hollywood politician looking to export sprawl and liberal values.

Slim and polished, Garcetti, 47, has succeeded as a city politician with a low-key demeanor that hasn't been tested beyond LA. He would bring his attractive resume to the race  he's an Ivy Leaguer and Rhodes scholar  and he often speaks of his Mexican-Jewish-Italian roots, jokingly calling himself a "kosher burrito."

But he's far from a national figure, though he has traveled to Iowa, Ohio and other battleground states to raise his profile. He was initially elected on a back-to-basics agenda but has since helped secure funds for rail lines and championed a $1 billion program to get control of the homeless crisis.

Other mayors considering White House bids have their own challenges but have more cushion than Garcetti  they are no longer in office.

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is known for his vast business empire, along with his years as New York City mayor. But he's also a philanthropist who has donated tens of millions of dollars to causes like gun control. Mitch Landrieu, who spent two terms leading New Orleans, gained national attention with his decision as a white mayor of a majority black city to remove high-profile Confederate monuments and arguing that the nation needs a frank discussion on race.

And Landrieu agrees with Garcetti that mayors are qualified for the Oval Office.

"The job of mayor," Landrieu told The Associated Press in an interview, "is more like the job of being president than being a senator or a congressman, and in many instances a governor."

The LA mayor has no authority over the school system  the Board of Education is independently elected  but even Garcetti has said that when you are a mayor, there is nowhere to pass the buck.

He's been deep into talks with union and school leaders, along with Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, and trying to encourage a deal as the strike entered its fifth day Friday.

But he said earlier this week that he's not planning any announcement about his political future while the walkout continues.

"My first priority is making sure that kids are safe, that our schools are open," he told KPPC radio.What to Know A 27-year-old woman was sexually attacked and robbed of nearly $50 early Thursday while riding an uptown 4 train in Brooklyn, police say

The man first tried to kiss the woman, but she got away, and then threw her to the ground, where he attacked her and stole money from her

The victim was treated at an area hospital for minor injuries; the suspect was arrested Friday night

Police say they've arrested the man suspected of trying to rape a woman on the subway in Brooklyn early Thursday.

Daniel Jean-Pierre, 37, of Brooklyn, was arrested Friday, a day after police released surveillance video of the suspect. He's facing charges of attempted rape, robbery, criminal sexual act, sexual abuse, forcible touching, petit larceny and assault. It's not clear if he has an attorney.

According to police, the 27-year-old victim boarded an uptown 4 train at around 1 a.m. at the Franklin Avenue station in Crown Heights when the suspect immediately tried to kiss her, according to the NYPD. She quickly tried to push the man away, but he grabbed onto her and the two struggled, knocking the woman to the ground.

As she was getting up, police said the man pulled down her pants and underwear down and sexually attacked her. She moved away from the man, who continued to try to touch her genitals.

He was then able to hold down both of her arms, stole about $50 from her and fled once the train stopped at the Barclays Center station, officials said.

She tried to follow the man, but eventually lost sight of him when he jumped onto the tracks, authorities said. The victim was treated at an area hospital for minor injuries.What to Know The NYPD is no longer searching a Pennsylvania landfill for a missing Staten Island father who has been presumed dead

The 40-year-old Staten Island father was last seen on Dec. 20. Police had been searching the landfill for his body

Police sources say a couple he knew are considered persons of interest in his presumed death

The NYPD is no longer searching a Pennsylvania landfill for a missing Staten Island father who has been presumed dead.

The department had been searching the Republic Service Conestoga Landfill, about 140 miles from New York City, in connection with the disappearance of Michael Stewart.

In a statement on Saturday, the NYPD said it had "completed a methodical search" of the landfill.

Stewart, a 40-year-old father of two was last seen on Dec. 20, and he last sent a text message to his mother on Dec. 21, writing, "Please help me Mom," the New York Post reported.

A reporter at The Reading Eagle first spotted NYPD vehicles, along with Pennsylvania state police, leaving the landfill Monday evening.

Stewart was seen on surveillance video Dec. 20 horsing around with his friend Angelo Nesimi inside a barber shop in Port Richmond. Nesimi is a person of interest in Stewart's disappearance, the Staten Island Advance reported.

Nesimi, 33, was arrested Dec. 31 in connection to a violent attack on his girlfriend, Zammara Sanchez, police told the Post. The couple were previously questioned in the suspected killing of Stewart, and Sanchez told detectives that her boyfriend "killed somebody -- and he made me go with him to get rid of the body in New Jersey," the Post reported, citing sources.

An army of @NYPD vehicles was spotted Monday afternoon at the Exxon station in #Morgantown. They were leaving from an investigation being conducted at the @RepublicService Conestoga Landfill. @PAStatePolice are also on the scene. pic.twitter.com/PmKvxYM8hH  Michael Yoder (@YoderReports) January 7, 2019

Investigators believe it's possible that Stewart's body was dumped in New Jersey, and that sanitation workers may have picked it up with the trash and it was incinerated, the Advance reported, citing a source. Another source said surveillance video shows Nesimi and Sanchez tossing what could be a body into a Dumpster in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, before driving away in a Chrysler sedan.

Sources also told the Post that Stewart had a relationship with the couple: "It was a relationship between the three of them that ended with [Stewart] stabbed up," a police source told the Post.

Nesimi told the Daily News in a jailhouse interview this month, "I didn't do it, 100 percent. They're trying to pin it on me."

Both Stewart and Nesimi have criminal records. Nesimi claimed he knew Stewart only for the past few years and that they kept up with each other because they went to the same barber shop, but said they weren't close.

No one has yet been charged in the suspected killing, and a body has not been found.What to Know Police are looking for two suspects in a road rage stabbing in Brooklyn

A 53-year-old Volvo driver behind an Infiniti stopped at a green light in Bensonhurst honked, apparently setting off the people inside

They stabbed the driver four times; he's expected to be recover

Police are looking for two people who stabbed a driver in an apparent road rage attack in Brooklyn.

Surveillance video shows how the assault unfolded at 65th and 1st Street in Bensonhurst Thursday night: a red Infiniti was stopped at a green light, and the driver of a blue Volvo behind the car honked.

Two people got out of the Infiniti, pulled out the 53-year-old driver and assaulted and stabbed him four times, then got back into their car and took off, police said.

Witnesses' cellphone video shows the victim being taken away in a stretcher after the attack. He's expected to recover, police said.On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national holiday to honor the activist and leader's life and his achievements in the mission to end racial segregation and inequality, there are plenty of ways to celebrate. Here are some of the best tributes and events taking place around the city:

Rachel Neville

Kupferberg Presents: Dance Theatre of Harlem

Sunday January 20, 4:00 p.m.

Kupeferberg Center of the Arts, Flushing, NY

This event brings together activists, artists and civic leaders who all come together to celebrate Martin Luther Kings life and vision. The Kupferberg Center invites the Dance Theatre of Harlem a multi-cultural ballet dance institution. The founder Arthur Mitchell was inspired to start a school that would offer children (especially in Harlem) the opportunity to learn how to dance.

Bewulf Sheehan

Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

Monday January 21, 10:30 a.m.

Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY

One of New York Citys largest public celebration, the 33rd annual Brooklyn tribute will feature world-renowned activists, public figures, civic leaders, musicians and other performers who will honor Kings legacy. Tarana Burke, founder of #MeToo, will deliver the keynote speech.

Dirk Vanderwalker

Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Historic Harlem Walking Tour

Monday January 21, 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.

Various Locations, NY

Hosted by Big Onion, known for their popular walking tours in New York City. This tour will celebrate the many African-Americans who fought for equal rights, and explore the history of Harlem and African-American culture. This event will look at how the context of the Great Migration in American History drove the neighborhoods transformation.





Alize Lietaer

Harlem Gospel Choir MLK Day Matinee

Monday, Janauary 21 12:30 p.m.

Sony Hall, New York, N.Y.

You might want to come hungry to this all you can eat home style southern buffet. The gospel performance will be by the world famous Harlem Gospel Choir who have been praised by people such as Diana Ross.

2019 Martin Luther King Jr. Commerative March

Monday January 21, 10:00 a.m.  2:00 p.m.

Various Locations

A tradition at the Manhattan Country School, this march is organized by the students. The kids are able to choose the theme and write speeches about civil right issues both in the past and present.

Besides events, MLK Day of Service is a great opportunity to join a project already planned in your neighbourhood or develop your own project with family, friends, and your neighbors. You can also find out if your job/organization have any volunteer opportunities.

Find a MLK Day Volunteer Opportunity

Find a volunteer opportunity in your area. As Dr. King said, "Lifes most persistent and urgent question is, "What are you doing for others?'"Deputies were trying to reach a woman Friday afternoon after she received a virtual kidnapping call about her daughter, according to the San Diego County Sheriffs Department.

Around noon, a man called 911 stating that his wife had received a call from an unknown person who claimed to have kidnapped the couples daughter, sheriffs Lt. Dave Perkins said.

The kidnappers told the wife they have her daughter and demanded a $7,000 ransom but the husband was able to contact the daughter and confirmed she was OK, the lieutenant said.

The husband was asking for deputies to do a welfare check on the wife at a Wells Fargo branch in Ramona because she refused to get off the phone with the supposed kidnappers, Perkins said.

Deputies were able to contact the wife later in the afternoon, Lt. Karen Stubkjaer said.

"No money was exchanged and no one is or was in danger," she said.

There has been a rise in virtual kidnapping cases in San Diego and elsewhere in Southern California. The Chula Vista Police Department told NBC 7 in May, it responded to three cases of virtual kidnappers a month.

Virtual kidnapping is an extortion scam that tricks victims into paying ransom for loved ones who they believe is being threatened with violence or death, the FBI said.

The callers often go to great lengths to keep the victim on the phone to prevent the victim from calling the supposed kidnapped victim, according to the FBI.

The FBI said the best course of action if you receive a call demanding a ransom is to hang up the phone and not engage the caller. Also, do not call out your loved ones name and, if you do engage the caller, ask questions that only the alleged kidnap victim would know, such as name of a pet, or ask the supposed kidnapper to speak to your family member immediately by asking, How do I know my loved one is OK?

The most important thing to remember, according to the FBI, is to never agree to pay the ransom by wire or in person.

If you suspect a real kidnapping is taking place, contact the FBI immediately or call your local police department.A California judge, citing a new state law, overturned a prison inmate's murder conviction and ordered him released from custody on Friday.

Adnan Kahn is believed to be the first California inmate to benefit from the new law limiting murder convictions exclusively to actual killers. Previously, accomplices and others indirectly involved in a homicide could be convicted of murder.

Kahn, who had served 15 years at San Quentin prison, spoke to reporters shortly after walking out of the Martinez Detention Center in Contra Costa County.

Im still processing it right now, it doesnt seem real so Im waiting for someone to pinch me, Kahn said.

In 2003 Kahn was convicted of murder and was sentenced to 25 to life in prison after being convicted of robbing a marijuana dealer who was stabbed to death by Khan's partner.

Supporters of the law SB 1437 that took effect Jan. 1 say as many as 800 inmates with murder convictions might be eligible for reduced sentences.

Former Gov. Jerry Brown last month reduced Khan's sentence to 15 years to life, making him eligible for an immediate parole hearing. Brown's commutation left Khan's murder conviction in place.

The California Peace Officers Association denounced the new law.

What is what determines for folks to participate in the future in these types of crimes, said Shaun Rundle, member of the Peace Officers Association.

Judge Laurel Brady resentenced Khan on his robbery conviction to time served.

"If given the opportunity to re-enter society, I will live a life of service with the purpose of preventing and deterring crime and increasing public safety for our communities," Khan wrote in his commutation application.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that she's pushed back a congressional trip to Afghanistan she was attempting to organize after the Trump administration leaked that she was trying to make the trip on a commercial airline.

Pelosi called the move, which the White House denies, "very irresponsible."

Asked by reporters if she thought Trump was retaliating for her request that Trump reconsider giving his State of the Union address at the Capitol, given that many government workers responsible for security aren't being paid, Pelosi said, "I would hope not. I don't think the president would be that petty, do you?"

Trump hasn't responded to Pelosi's State of the Union request, but a day later, on Thursday, denied Pelosi and other members of Congress a military plane to make the trip, citing the shutdown. He suggested at the time that she could still fly commercially if she wanted to.

Trump tweeted Friday that he would be making a "major announcement" about the shutdown on Saturday afternoon.

Senior American delegations to war zones are usually planned and executed under strict secrecy, since reporting those plans ahead of time would tip-off the enemy on where to attack high-value targets. Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said in a statement that Trump's revelation of Pelosi's travel plans on Thursday increased the danger to all involved.

Hammill said that the delegation had been prepared to make the trip commercially, but Friday morning, "we learned that the Administration had leaked the commercial travel plans as well."

The trip was postponed given "the grave threats caused by the Presidents action," Hammill said.

The White House said it had leaked nothing that would cause a security risk.

Asked about the denial, Pelosi said, "I rest my case."

For security reasons, Pelosi would normally make such a trip on a military aircraft supplied by the Pentagon. According to a defense official, Pelosi did request Defense Department support for overseas travel and it was initially approved. The official wasn't authorized to speak by name about the matter, so spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said the president does have the authority to cancel the use of military aircraft.

Pelosi said that, "You never give advance notice of going into a battle area, you just never do. Perhaps the president's inexperience didn't have him understand that protocol. The people around him, though, should have known that, because that's very dangerous."

Trump's initial letter  his first public comments to or about Pelosi after she suggested Trump push back the State of the Union from Jan. 29 until after the end of the shutdown  was sent just before she and other lawmakers were set to depart on the previously undisclosed trip to Afghanistan and Brussels. Trump belittled the trip as a "public relations event"  even though he had just made a similar warzone stop  and said it would be best if Pelosi remained in Washington to negotiate to reopen the government.

"Obviously, if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative!" Trump wrote.

Denying military aircraft to a senior lawmaker  let alone the speaker, who is second in line to the White House after the vice president, traveling to a combat region  is very rare. Lawmakers were caught off guard. A bus to ferry the legislators to their departure idled outside the Capitol on Thursday afternoon.

The political tit-for-tat between Trump and Pelosi laid bare how the government-wide crisis has devolved into an intensely pointed clash between two leaders both determined to prevail. It took place as hundreds of thousands of federal workers go without pay and Washington's routine protocols  a president's speech to Congress, a lawmaker's official trip  became collateral damage.

Hammill said that Pelosi was planning to meet with commanders and troops on the front lines in Afghanistan as part of Congress' oversight responsibilities. Her trip was initially scheduled for Brussels as well.

Trump's move was the latest example of his extraordinary willingness to tether U.S. government resources to his political needs. He has publicly urged the Justice Department to investigate political opponents and threatened to cut disaster aid to Puerto Rico amid a spat with the island territory's leaders.Most third graders can probably tell you what they want to be when they grow up, but can they tell where they're going to college?

A third grader in Frisco knows his college destination -- and he knows it's already paid for!

The full ride for the boy, who turned nine years old Friday, is today's Tell Me Something Good.

Prince Nallamothula was at Frisco City Hall Tuesday where Mayor Jeff Cheney declared Jan. 15 Prince Nallamothula Day.

Prince is a third grader at Talley Elementary and has been recognized nationally as part of the "Young Inventor Challenge."

"Great job representing Frisco, Prince!" is what the city posted on its Twitter page.

"It's really exciting," Prince said. "Because I have my own holiday all to myself!"

That's not even half the story.

Prince is an invention machine with international acclaim.

His national recognition came November 2018 when his Happy Family smart phone app won an award at the Young Inventor Challenge at the Chicago Toy and Game Fair.

Another award came in the international Paradigm Challenge for his Sneeze Pod, which aids in preventing the spread of germs.

Prince is also working on a remote farming tool he calls "Grobot." "You can set a schedule to, like, on this day and this time go plow the fields," Prince explained. "I just want their work to become easier."

"He has a lot of curiosity," said Lalitha Nallamothula, Prince's mother and the person he credits for his inspiration. "He is curious about how things work."

Somehow between school and inventing, Prince fits in his own YouTube Channel where he talks about quantum physics.

He's so impressive the University of North Texas now it wants him on campus when he graduates from high school.

UNT President Neal Smatresk and dean of New College Wesley Randall were at city hall the night Prince was honored and explained one of his inventions.

"So he gives this pitch, it's compelling," said Randall, getting emotional as he recalled seeing Prince. "He's not trying to buy a yacht. He's trying to make it easier to farm food. It's pretty cool"

Video from Frisco City Hall showed Smatresk coming from out of the audience to approach Prince, hand him his business card and say, "I'd like to offer you a full ride scholarship to UNT."

Kris Muller, senior communications specialist confirmed it an email to NBC 5 saying Smatresk "was so impressed by Prince that he offered him the scholarship on the spot."

"It was a surprise to us," explained Prince's father, Balu Nallamothula.

"This little boy is both adorable and eloquent. He loves to share his knowledge with enthusiasm and surprising poise," Muller said.

"I just want to make the world a better place," Prince said.

So where does someone so young get such big ideas?

"Head and heart," he whispered.

"We're so excited to be able to engage the next generation and at the possibility of having Prince join the UNT family," Heather Noel of UNT said.Posted Friday, January 18, 2019 6:48 pm

The Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team (JNET) was one of a number of area and federal agencies that have, since late 2016, spearheaded investigation into a drug and firearm distribution organization resulting in the seizure of 23 kilograms of meth, over $300,000 in cash and property and 115 firearms.

Eleven individuals have been charged in the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Western District of Washington, and five more have cases yet to be adjudicated.

According to a press release from the Centralia Police Department, JNET, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Tacoma Resident Office initiated an investigation into a criminal organization responsible for trafficking crystal meth, heroin and guns throughout southwest Washington.

The criminal network was built on associations from prison, during inmates sentences in Washington.

These associations manifested into a broad network of members fluent in various criminal activities, to include the trafficking of large quantities of methamphetamine, heroin and stolen and/or illicit firearms, reads the press release.

Investigators have written and executed 20 search warrants spanning Lewis, Pierce, Thurston and Grays Harbor counties, leading to the arrest and charging of 17 people. Others have been charged in Lewis and Thurston counties district courts, according to the press release.

The following people have been charged in Washingtons Western District: Aaron Barge, Dawn Cooper, Torina Lorenzano, Terry Munsell, John McNeal, Martha McNeal, Heath Morris, Stephen Conophy, Brandon Seward, Kathy Pedigo and Brian Colson.

Most recently, the investigation yielded additional arrests and the seizure of large quantities of meth and 85 firearms. The press release doesnt go into further detail on these most recent investigations.

This investigation is ongoing at this time and there will be no further information released until its conclusion, reads the press release.

Centralia Police Chief Carl Nielsen did not immediately return a phone call requesting comment.Lobos, a Belgian Malinois whose nose has led to the seizure of millions of dollars' worth of illegal drugs in Fayette County, is hanging up his leash and turning in his sheriff's deputy badge after eight years -- or 56 dog years.

The Austin American-Statesman reports Lobos was only one-half of the Fayette County sheriff's K-9 and drug interdiction unit. The other half, Sgt. Randy Thumann, is continuing his work with a new dog, 16-month-old Kolt.

"It's hard to replace him as a partner," Thumann said of Lobos. "But it's what you put into it that you get out of it. I'm confident the next dog will be just as good, if not better, because I've learned a lot from Lobos to help me as a handler."

Since pairing up in 2011, Thumann and Lobos regularly made seizures of narcotics and cash along Interstate 10, one of the eight largest drug trafficking corridors in the nation, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

In 2018 alone, Lobos uncovered over 33 kilos of meth, 16 kilos of cocaine and 290 pounds of marijuana in vehicles after Thumann pulled over the drivers.

Over the years, Lobos has sniffed out contraband in some unusual places. He once found methamphetamine worth nearly $6 million stowed in the gas tank of a semi, liquid meth worth $8 million hidden in the rear air conditioning box of a Ford Expedition and 13 kilos of cocaine in a diaper bag.

In 2016, the sheriff's office said Lobos and Thumann even helped uncover a human trafficking operation.

Thumann had approached a car at a rest area off I-10 to make a traffic stop, but when he began questioning the driver's five passengers -- three women, a boy and a girl -- the driver ran off. Lobos helped Thumann chase down the driver, who authorities said was paid $4,500 to bring them across the border illegally and take them to Houston. Immigration officials later released the women and children to family members from Texas.

Lobos lived with Thumann while they worked together, but the 9-year-old will spend his retirement on a ranch with a close relative of Thumann's. Kolt lives with Thumann.

"He's still in the family, so I still see him all the time," Thumann said of Lobos. "He's basically a pet now -- he'll get to live an everyday dog life now."

After working for years with the same police dog, Thumann said he's still adjusting to working with a younger dog. Kolt may be well-trained, but he's only 16 months old.

"It's a change of pace for sure," Thumann said. "It can be frustrating, but it's a lot of fun at the same time. It's like having another kid."

Kolt might have a big dog collar to fill, but he's already making big drug busts of his own. Earlier this month, he uncovered 15 kilos of cocaine from a Ford F-150 after Thumann stopped the vehicles on I-10. The next day, Thumann and Kolt netted 6.5 kilos of meth and about $687,000 in cash tied to money laundering in two separate cases, the sheriff's office said.

"There's nothing like seeing a dog do what you trained it to do," Thumann said. "And there's nothing like knowing that you couldn't have caught the bad guy if it hadn't been for your dog."Researchers say a pack of wild canines found frolicking near the beaches of the Texas Gulf Coast carries a substantial amount of red wolf genes, a surprising discovery because the animal was declared extinct in the wild nearly 40 years ago.

The finding has led wildlife biologists and others to develop a new understanding that the red wolf DNA is remarkably resilient after decades of human hunting, loss of habitat and other factors had led the animal to near decimation.

"Overall, it's incredibly rare to rediscover animals in a region where they were thought to be extinct and it's even more exciting to show that a piece of an endangered genome has been preserved in the wild," said Elizabeth Heppenheimer, a Princeton University biologist involved in the research on the pack found on Galveston Island in Texas. The work of the Princeton team was published in the scientific journal Genes.

The genetic analysis found that the Galveston canines appear to be a hybrid of red wolf and coyote, but Heppenheimer cautions that without additional testing, it's difficult to label the animal.

Ron Sutherland, a North Carolina-based conservation scientist with the Wildlands Network, said it's exciting to have found "this unique and fascinating medium-sized wolf." The survival of the red wolf genes "without much help from us for the last 40 years is wonderful news," said Sutherland, who was not involved in the Princeton study.

The discovery coincides with similar DNA findings in wild canines in southwestern Louisiana and bolsters the hopes of conservationists dismayed by the dwindling number of red wolves in North Carolina that comprised the only known pack in the wild.

The red wolf, which tops out at about 80 pounds, was once common across a vast region extending from Texas to the south, into the Southeast and up into the Northeast. It was federally classified as endangered in 1967 and declared extinct in the wild in 1980.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the 1970s captured a remnant population in Texas and Louisiana that eventually led to a successful captive breeding program. Those canines in 1986 became part of the experimental wild population in North Carolina. That group has been declining since peaking at an estimated 120 to 130 wolves in 2006. A federal report in April said only about 40 remained.

An additional 200 red wolves live in zoos and wildlife facilities as part of captive breeding programs.

A federal judge in November sided with environmental groups that argued in a lawsuit that efforts by federal authorities to shrink the territory of the wild group in North Carolina were a violation of law. The judge ruled U.S. Fish and Wildlife also violated the Endangered Species Act by authorizing private landowners to kill the canine predators even if they weren't threatening humans, livestock or pets.

The debate over red wolf protections could take on new dimensions with the discovery on Galveston.

Sutherland said the Galveston canines have effectively quashed a decades-old impression that red wolves were a feckless predator overwhelmed by the numerical superiority of coyotes. He adds that the Galveston group has DNA that can't be found in the animal's captive population.

"From a practical conservation biology standpoint, these animals have special DNA and they deserve to be protected," he said, explaining that conservation easements that restrict development along parts of the Gulf Coast are an essential first step.

A spokesman for U.S. Fish and Wildlife said the agency is unable to comment during the partial government shutdown. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said in a statement that the Galveston discovery is "interesting," but "we do not anticipate any regulatory changes or implications in Texas at this time."

Kim Wheeler, executive director of the North Carolina-based Red Wolf Coalition, cautioned that further study of the Galveston pack is needed.

"We can get excited, but in my mind, we really need to let science do its due diligence to determine what this animal is," she said, noting that red wolves can evoke strong feelings in people with livestock or who have other concerns with their predatory nature.

Conservationists, meanwhile, say policymakers need to have a greater appreciation for hybrid animals. When the Endangered Species Act was implemented in the 1970s, conventional wisdom was that hybridization between species -- such as the wolf and coyote -- was rare and to be avoided. But experts say the thinking on that has changed.

"Now we know hybridization is relatively common in natural systems and does not always have negative consequences, but the policy hasn't quite caught up with this notion," Heppenheimer said.The Kremlin said Wednesday it still expects a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump to go ahead as planned despite a suggestion from Trump that it could be canceled.

Trump, in an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, said he may cancel the sit-down with Putin at the G-20 summit in Argentina this weekend following Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian naval ships last weekend.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that the meeting is on and that Russia has not received "any other information from our U.S. counterparts."

Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, noted that the meeting, which is set for Saturday, has been prepared through official channels and Moscow expects Washington to notify it of any changes in the same way.

"This meeting is necessary for both sides," Ushakov said. "It's important in view of the developing situation in the world."

The long-simmering conflict between Russia and Ukraine burst into the open on Sunday, when Russian border guards fired on three Ukrainian vessels and seized the ships and the crew.

Trump said he would be receiving a "full report" from his national security team on Russia's recent actions in eastern Ukraine and the Black Sea. He said he would decide on a course afterward.

"Maybe I won't have the meeting," he said. "Maybe I won't even have the meeting."

Trump added: "I don't like that aggression. I don't want that aggression at all."

The comments were Trump's strongest to date in condemnation of Russia's recent actions in Ukraine, where tensions are flaring. But White House aides were still planning for the Putin meeting after Trump's comments.

Ushakov, Putin's aide, said that the naval encounter between Russia and Ukraine likely will be on the agenda of the planned meeting, which will start with the two presidents meeting privately before being joined by senior officials.

He said that the Kremlin expects that the talks will touch on nuclear arms control, noting that it's particularly important to discuss them in view of the U.S. intention to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

"It's extremely important to prevent an uncontrollable and senseless arms race," he said.

Ushakov said that the two presidents also are to discuss regional crises, including the situation in Syria, the Iranian nuclear deal and North Korea.

The meeting between Trump and Putin is set to be just one of several high-profile foreign-policy engagements for the U.S. leader on the whirlwind two-day visit to Argentina. Trump also is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping over dinner this weekend, in what may be a pivotal session to determining if and how the ongoing trade dispute between their countries could be resolved.

The White House on Tuesday warned Xi against trying to wait out Trump in the ongoing talks, suggesting the Chinese economy was not as resilient to a trade war as would be the U.S. economy.

The warning from Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, came ahead of the two leaders' high-stakes sit-down on Saturday evening. Over the last year, the two countries have levied a series of tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of imports from one another, with the latest round of U.S. duties set to go into force in the new year.

Xi said on Wednesday the international community needs to build consensus to solve the conflict between free trade and protectionism. In a speech to lawmakers in Spain, where he is conducting a state visit before attending the Group of 20 leaders' summit in Argentina, he said the world is facing "instability, uncertainty and hot topics without precedents in our history."

"I think we are at a crossroads," Xi said. "In economic terms we need to decide if we are going to follow the economic globalization and free market or if we are going to choose unilateralism and protectionism."

National Security adviser John Bolton said Trump will also be meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Argentine President Mauricio Macri, South Korea's Moon Jae-in, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the trip an opportunity for the president to cement relations with other world leaders and advance a global economic system based on "free, fair and reciprocal trade."

The Trump-Xi meeting would be the first since the two countries began hitting each other with import taxes earlier this year. The United States targeted $250 billion in Chinese products, and Beijing lashed back by slapping tariffs on $110 billion worth of U.S. goods. The two sides have been in negotiations for months, but Kudlow described them as being stalemated until just a few weeks ago.

Kudlow said the administration has been "extremely disappointed" by China's engagement in trade talks but the meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of the G-20 summit could be a game-changer.

"Perhaps we can break through in Buenos Aires or not," he said.

Kudlow added that if the U.S. doesn't get "satisfactory" responses to its trade positions more tariffs will be imposed. He said Trump is "not going away."

"I hope they understand that," he said.

China's foreign ministry has said a recent phone conversation between Xi and Trump about trade and other issues was "extremely positive."

Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov, Nataliya Vasilyeva and Aritz Parra contributed to this story.Mixed reaction poured in Friday after Jason Van Dyke was sentenced to six years and nine months in the shooting death of Laquan McDonald.

"I want to say to everyone, everyone in the city of Chicago and across this country, that if they had sentenced him to one minute, it is a victory, said McDonalds great uncle Marvin Hunter. It is a victory because what has happened in this courtroom today has never happened in the history of this county, and it sets a precedent and it sends a strong message to unjust police officers that now you can and will go to jail if you're caught lying, if you're caught breaking the law."

However, Marvin also called for legislative change so police officers will be "convicted properly ... just like any other citizen in the state of Illinois and in this country." He said it was also a sad day in America because this man has clearly committed murder.

"We are being treated like second-class citizens here in the city of Chicago," he said, adding the sentence "reduced Laquan McDonald's life to a second-class citizen."

Van Dyke's defense, calling the case "emotionally draining," said they are "happy with the sentence." "We certainly wanted probation," said attorney Dan Herbert.

Herbert said Van Dyke "truly felt great" after learning his sentence.

"It was the first time I've seen the guy, honestly since this whole ordeal started, where he was happy," Herbert said. "He's certianly not happy about jail, he's certainly not happy about missing his family, he's happy about the prospect of life ahead of him."

Special prosecutor Joseph McMahon said the case was a tragedy from the beginning.

"We know that no sentence will bring back Laquan McDonald or undo the hurt to his family and friends, McMahon said. Just like no sentence will fix the concerns of the African-American community in this city, cities like Aurora, cities like Elgin and Rockford and across this country."

Activist William Calloway, who was instrumental in the revelation of the video of McDonalds death, said he was devastated by the sentence.

We're heartbroken, but we're not deterred, we're not giving up, he said. We don't agree with the judge's ruling at all. We feel that what Jason Van Dyke did when shooting Laquan 16 times, he deserves to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

He got 81 months, he added. That's a slap in the face to us and a slap on the wrist to him.

As Van Dykes family left the courthouse, demonstrators could be heard shouting no justice, no peace.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago police Supt. Eddie Johnson released a statement observing the end of the lengthy legal procedurebut saying little about the sentencing itself.

Todays sentencing marks the end of a court case, but our work to bring lasting reform to the Chicago Police Department continues, Emanuel and Johnson said in a joint statement. While a jury and judge have rendered their decisions, all of us who love Chicago and call this city home must continue to work together, listen to each other, and repair relationships that will make Chicago safer and stronger for generations to come.

Other mayoral candidates were quick to issue statements as well--including former police Supt. Garry McCarthy. He said the diversity of American should make its citizens stronger, not pull them apart.

"We must stop the polarization that exists in this city if we are to move forward," said. "We must view each other as human beings, not by our skin color, race, national origin, gender, age, occupation, sexual orientation, language, religion, or political affiliation. We need to come together as a society."

Susana Mendoza also issued a statement.

"While a historic step forward was taken when a jury convicted Jason Van Dyke of the murder of Laquan McDonald, todays lenient sentence did not fit the severity of the crime, Mendoza said. The fact is that our prisons are populated with individuals serving longer sentences for much lesser crimes. While many are justifiably disappointed with this sentence, this has nonetheless sent a message to police officers that if they break the law, there will be consequences. As mayor, I will work tirelessly to rebuild the broken trust between police and our communities to heal our city. Today is just a start. We have a lot of work ahead of us.

Gery Chico said the loss of a child is the worst burden a parent can ever bear and wished peace on the McDonald family. He said the judges sentence was far too light for this crime.

Now, we as leaders of this city, have a responsibility to ensure we lead Chicago to be a more just and fair city to all of our citizens, Chico said. It is up to us to usher in new criminal justice reforms, world class police training, community policing, and vastly expanded social services. As mayor, I will fight my heart out every single day to achieve these objectives, and I will bring an absolute commitment to implementing the U.S. Justice Department's consent decree.

Amara Enyia said a unique sympathy and bias is evident when police are put through Chicagos justice system.

Jason Van Dyke murdered Laquan McDonald in cold blood and will face no more than 81 months in prison -- barely a slap on the wrist for a crime that took the life of a child, Enyia said. Todays sentence makes it even more difficult to make the case that our city is truly invested in repairing relations with the community when our justice system seems to exhibit a perpetual disregard for the voices and opinions of those very communities.

Mayoral candidate and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said the justice system failed all of our Black and Brown communities as well as Laquan McDonald.

Jason Van Dyke, the police officer who shot Laquan sixteen times to death, was sentenced to just 81 months in prison, with legal experts saying he will likely only serve three years. This sentence does not reflect the severity of the crime committed or the senseless loss of a young life, Preckwinkle said. The sentence comes just a day after the three officers accused of conspiracy in covering up Laquans murder were acquitted of all charges. With so many members of our Black and Brown communities criminalized and jailed for non-violent drug offenses, Van Dykes sentence today shows that our lives dont matter.

She said law enforcement needs to be held accountable or Chicago will not be able to move forward.

The two sentences this week show the bias, lack of equity and police code of silence in our criminal justice system, Preckwinkle said. My heart goes out to Laquans family and the activists whose tireless efforts have helped to expose the injustice of our system.

Bill Daley also noted the strained relationship between law enforcement and the public it serves.

The jury clearly found Jason Van Dyke guilty of multiple crimes. The court has an obligation to sentence him in a way that is consistent with other defendants, Daley said. The appearance of a lenient sentence is a problem at a time when we desperately need to rebuild trust between people and police. We must learn from these situations and work together to repair the relationship between the police and the communities they serve.

Lori Lightfoot said she was saddened and frustrated by the sentence.

"Judge Gaughans sentence of 81 months for the murder of Laquan McDonald is a supreme disappointment," Lightfoot said. "While the judge gave a long oration on technical legal points, he failed to explain and justify this low sentence. Unfortunately, the lack of explanation will only fuel the perception and reality that police officers who commit crimes on duty, even murder, will not be held to the same standards as other defendants. We must continue our citys long history of peaceful protestprotest that brought this case to light in the first placeas we continue to fight for justice."One person died in a traffic collision in Novato Friday evening, according to police.

Around 8 p.m., police said that they were investigating at fatal collision along South Novato Boulevard, near the entrance to the Novato Fair Shopping Center at Diablo Avenue.

Police anticipate that roads in the area may be closed for several hours.As the government shutdown continues, dozens of Bay Area scientists, janitors, and researchers who work at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View organized a march to protest their inability to work Friday.

I think a lot of us, we have a lot wrapped up in what we do," said Matt Ditzler. "We just want to get back to work."

Workers received support from politicians as they protest to end the shutdown.

Their voices need to be heard, we need to open the government, if you have a policy disagreement, you talk about it, you dont hold a million people hostage, said Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren.

NASA scientist are not the only ones feeling the effect of the shutdown, NASAs janitorial crew have also not been able to work.

The situation is bad, myself, I dont have money to pay the rent, electricity, said Daniel Gitan a NASA Ames employee.

The Second Harvest Food Bank donated food to the furloughed workers in order to help them feed their families.

In addition to marches and donations, the union representing these NASA workers have been pooling union dues to loan money to workers who need it to pay bills.A big announcement is expected from the president on Saturday about the border and the government shutdown and at the same time, local lawmakers plan to hold an emergency meeting to help furloughed workers.

Congressman Mark DeSaulnier will holding an emergency meeting Saturday at Stanley Middle School at 2 p.m. in Lafayette with federal workers who say they are out of food and money.

This is awful what the President is doing to them he is holding them hostage were going to try and help as much as we can, DeSaulnier said.

A number of organizations agreed to bring resources to the town hall meeting including financial help for workers.

We wrote a letter to our financial institutions asking them to give cash advances, many of them have. We want people to know they dont have to miss a paycheck, DeSaulnier said.

The president tweeted a video Friday in anticipation of his announcement calling the situation at the border a humanitarian crisis."

The humanitarian crisis that the president talks about at the border is actually happing right here in our country, said Congresswoman Jackie Spier at a news conference in San Mateo after meeting with federal workers.

This shutdown has got to stop, she said.(Natural News) Taking vitamin D supplements during pregnancy can prevent the onset of autism spectrum disorder in children, a recent animal study showed. Researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia say that pregnant mice who are given active vitamin D treatment during their equivalent first trimester bear offspring that do not not exhibit autism-related behaviors.

The study used a widely accepted model of autism in mice, which lists symptoms such as abnormal behavior and basic learning and social interaction deficits.

The results demonstrate that vitamin D levels are a crucial factor in brain development, says lead researcher Professor Darryl Eyles.

Recent funding will now allow us to determine how much cholecalciferol  the supplement form that is safe for pregnant women  is needed to achieve the same levels of active hormonal vitamin D in the bloodstream. This new information will allow us to further investigate the ideal dose and timing of vitamin D supplementation for pregnant women, says researcher Dr. Wei Luan.

The results were published in the journal Molecular Autism.

Human studies show correlation between vitamin D levels, autism onset

Various human studies have previously established a link between vitamin D intake and the onset of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children.

Autism experts at Chinas First Hospital of Jilin University noted that a 32 month-old toddler with ASD who had daily oral intake and monthly injection of vitamin D3 showed a marked improvements in behavior. According to the researchers, the boy was more responsive, stopped banging his head, and running in circles at two months following the vitamin D intervention. However, the researchers cautioned that the single case study cannot be taken as a general representation for all autism patients. The results of the case study was published in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Another study revealed that low vitamin D levels in pregnant women may raise the odds of autism spectrum disorder in children. The researchers examined 4,200 blood samples from pregnant women and their children, and found that pregnant women with low vitamin D levels at 20 weeks of gestation were at an increased risk of having a child with autism-related traits by the age of six. The findings demonstrate that vitamin D deficiency may be linked to the onset of neurodevelopmental disorders, researchers said. Access to safe, inexpensive and publicly available vitamin D supplements in at-risk groups may help stem the prevalence of this risk factor, experts added.

In addition, a small Swedish study revealed that children with autism had significantly lower vitamin D levels at birth compared with their siblings. The researchers examined 58 pairs of Swedish-born siblings and found that the average vitamin D levels at birth were 31.9 nanomoles per liter in healthier siblings and only 24 nM in those who developed autism.

The researchers also noted that children born during winter had lower vitamin D levels compared with those born during the summer. Children of African or Middle Eastern heritage also exhibited vitamin D deficiency regardless of their autism status. These new results suggest that vitamin D may be another nutritional factor important in the development of autism spectrum disorder during pregnancy and early life. The researchers found a wide range of vitamin D levels among the children with autism and an overlap in vitamin D levels between those who developed the disorder and those who did not. So theres still much we dont understand, said Dr. Paul Wang, a Developmental Pediatrician and Head of Medical Research at Autism Speaks.

Sources include:

ScienceDaily.com

TheGuardian.com(Natural News) Amid revelations that Google engineers have engaged in flagrant censorship by downgrading search results and placing controversial terms like abortion on blacklists so pro-life content is hidden comes a new report that some employees are triggered by traditional American values like family.

Or, at least, the word family.

As reported by The Daily Caller, an executive with the company sparked a major backlash from employees when the word was used in a weekly company-wide presentation, internal documents the news site obtained indicate.

Apparently, several employees were angered by the term because it was used in relation to a product aimed at children  because the implication was that only families have children, according to the documents. The backlash became serious enough and large enough that a Google vice president was forced to address the controversy by asking for feedback about how Google could be moreinclusive.

Please help us get to a better state. Teach us how to talk about it in [an] inclusive way, if you feel like we are not doing it well. As a team we have [a] very inclusive culture, and want to do right in this area. I am adding my team here so we can have [an] open conversation, Google vice president Pavni Diwanji noted.

Citing the reviewed documents, The DC noted further:

One employee stormed out of the March 2017 presentation after a presenter continued to show (awesome) Unicorn product features which continually use the word family as a synonym for household with children, he explained in an internal thread. That employee posted an extended rant, which was well-received by his colleagues, on why linking families to children is offensive, inappropriate, homophobic, and wrong.

But becoming unhinged and demonstrating you dont have any capacity for understanding and compromise is, apparently, non-offensive, appropriate, inclusive, and right (remember when blowing up at a senior executive would cost you your job?).

Being offended is 100% preventable

The offended employee noted: This is a diminishing and disrespectful way to speak. If you mean children, say children; we have a perfectly good word for it. Family friendly used as a synonym for kid friendly means to me, you and yours dont count as family unless you have children. And while kids may be less aware of it, there are kids without families too, you know.

Groan. Even in one of the most liberal, Left-wing companies on the planet, its never liberal and Left-wing enough. (Related: Deep dive into tone deaf Gillette razor ad that stereotypes male masculinity finds it is directed by Kim Gehrig  who hates men.)

As if this employees inability to adapt, overcome, and get over himself/herself werent bad enough, about 100 other Google employees upvoted the post, which is the electronic equivalent of being a clapping seal. Thanks for writing this. So much yes, one of them responded.

My family consists of me and several other trans feminine folks, some of whom Im dating. Were all supportive of each other and eventually aspire to live together. Just because we arent a heterosexual couple with 2.5 kids, a white picket fence, and a dog doesnt mean were not a family, wrote another.

Well, right. But that also doesnt mean that couples who do have the kids and the picket fence arent versions of a family either, and for that matter, by far the normal vision of a family that most people get when they hear the word.

The Google presenter who used the word family isnt the problem here. The problem lies with those special little snowflakes who walk around just waiting for something to offend them, when the reality is, being offended is a 100-percent preventable thing.

One day in the not-too-distant future our country will face a legitimate crisis that we will all have to deal with. Those who are most offended by the least offensive things arent going to make it.

Read about more libtard behavior like this at Libtards.news.

Sources include:

DailyCaller.com

Stupid.news(Natural News) A recent Gallup study revealed that 23 percent of American employees feel burned out at work very often or always. While this doesnt seem like a lot, let us first consider what this means for businesses, financially. Job burnout is said to contribute to an estimated $125 billion to $190 billion in healthcare spending each year. The stress that office workers feel about their jobs, and most importantly, their managers (more on this later) is said to dramatically increase their risk for Type 2 diabetes, stroke, gastrointestinal issues, high cholesterol, and even death.

It makes sense, therefore, for companies to take special care in ensuring the health of their workers  particularly those who contribute to the growth of their company. Therefore, keeping your employees happy is one way to save a lot of money.

Mindfulness training may be another option. A recent study published in the October 2018 issue of the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology concluded that a mere six-weeks worth of mindfulness training can improve employee well-being and job performance.

For the purposes of the study, the researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial among employees of a Midwestern marketing firm. A total of 60 participants were observed with half receiving treatment while the other half were left on their own. Researchers found that at the end of the trial period, those who received the mindfulness training program had significant improvements in attentional focus at work and dramatic decreases in work-life conflict. Those in the treatment group also reported feeling more satisfied with their job.

These findings suggest that even short sessions of mindfulness training can foster improved productivity, job satisfaction, and positive feelings regarding work.

People dont quit jobs, they quit managers

Employment burnout is the state wherein a worker loses all motivation or incentive to do their work. Left untreated, this can develop into depression and anxiety. Those who are burned out often say that they feel powerless or hopeless about their current workload (or job position) and feel incredible amounts of dread during their weekends, due to the knowledge that they would have to return to work after only a few hours. (Related: Experts determine burnout and depression are closely linked.)

Burnout is not something to poo-poo, either  particularly if you are a manager or someone in a position of power. As mentioned earlier, if human emotion or compassion is not part of your vocabulary, you would still need to care about your employees health if only to save money.

There are several factors that can contribute to burnout. Some companies and industries have much higher rates of burnout than others, usually because they have more than one of the factors listed below:

Unclear requirements: When your employee doesnt know what he or she is doing, it is extremely hard for them to be confident, enjoy their work, or even feel that theyre doing a good job. It is important that their job descriptions are clearly defined. As much as possible, do not change their requirements constantly. Set reasonable expectations.

When your employee doesnt know what he or she is doing, it is extremely hard for them to be confident, enjoy their work, or even feel that theyre doing a good job. It is important that their job descriptions are clearly defined. As much as possible, do not change their requirements constantly. Set reasonable expectations. Impossible requirements: Following on that, make sure that you give your employees the right amount of time to complete tasks properly. Chucking work on a single employee and then telling him/her to finish it by the end of the day, over and on top of everything he/she has to do, is simply irresponsible.

Following on that, make sure that you give your employees the right amount of time to complete tasks properly. Chucking work on a single employee and then telling him/her to finish it by the end of the day, over and on top of everything he/she has to do, is simply irresponsible. Constant high stress moments with no down times: Every job has periods of crunch times where workers have to work longer hours and at a more focused pace. This is helpful for employees who can feel invigorated by their work, and if their extra effort is recognized. However, a problem will occur if every day is crunch time. When employees dont have time to relax, the chances of them losing focus and energy is extremely high.

Managers would also do well to remember that they are responsible for their workers. Even if a mindfulness training can help improve an employees mental health for a short time, deep-seated issues (such as unrealistic expectations and impossible workloads) should be carefully handled and managed properly.

If you literally have to drag yourself out of your bed to go to work, then it is highly recommended that you take a break to recover. Read the articles found at MindBodyScience.news for more information on the natural therapies that can benefit your health and well-being.

Sources include:

NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov

VeryWellMind.com

CNBC.comYves here. Im old enough to remember Reagans much-touted Star Wars program. In this Real News Network segment, Daniel Ellsberg explains why Trumps effort to revive Reagans failed idea still wont work. Not only is it another pork program, but it would actually increase the odds of nuclear war.

PAUL JAY: Welcome to The Real News Network. Im Paul Jay.

Behind me is a graphic from a soon-to-be coming to your TV set Netflix series called Space Force. Its a parody of what Donald Trump has proposed, to have a special unit of the armed forces that will be in space and firing weapons, and sensors, and supposedly defend America from missile attacks. It would all be rather funny and deserves a parody, if it wasnt such dangerous lunacy.

Ronald Reagan first proposed a space wars scheme in the 1980s. Heres a clip from Reagan in 1983.

RONALD REAGAN: Let me share with you a vision of the future which offers hope. It is that we embark on a program to counter the awesome Soviet missile threat with measures that are defensive. What if free people could live secure in the knowledge that their security did not rest upon the threat of instant U.S. retaliation to deter a Soviet attack? That we could intercept and destroy strategic ballistic missiles before they reached our own soil, and that of our allies?

PAUL JAY: Well, Reagans version of Space Force, Star Wars, never actually took place. It cost way too much money. It was clearly not going to work. The technology wasnt there to be effective. And it was also really the beginnings of an American posturing to create a first strike capability without the possibility of a retaliatory second strike, because if Soviet missiles were coming towards the United States, theyd be shot down before they ever reached the United States at all. Sounds very defensive. Really it was offensive, but it never worked, anyway.

Well, Donald Trump is now reviving the Reagan-esque vision of Star Wars, and on Wednesday at the Pentagon, heres what Donald Trump said.

DONALD TRUMP: The U.S. will now adjust its posture to also defend against any missile strikes, including cruise and hypersonic missiles. And we are, by the way, very advanced also on hypersonic technology and missiles. Our review calls for 20 new ground-based interceptors at Fort Greely, Alaska, and new radars and sensors to immediately detect foreign missiles launched against our great nation. We have some very bad players out there, and were a good player, but we can be far worse than anybody if need be. Ive always known, and Ive watched and Ive seen, the stronger you are, the less you will need, whatever that strength may be.

PAUL JAY: I did a series of interviews with Lester Earnest. You can find it on our website. Lester worked with the SAGE radar system in the late 1950s at MIT. The SAGE system was supposed to be a system that could detect any Soviet bombing coming towards the United States, and direct other fighters and missiles, Bomarc missiles, to knock these airplanes out of the air before they could blow up the United States. The whole thing, according to Lester Earnest, was a scam. The SAGE radar system never worked. They didnt have any ability to deal with the radar jamming devices that were on all the bombers. And everybody in the program knew it was a scam. And it went on for 25 years and cost, in todays dollars, more than a trillion dollars.

And in an Air Force study that took place a few decades laterIm sorry, Im doing this by memory, but I believe it was in the 1970sthe Air Force concluded exactly what Lester Earnest said, that this whole system, SAGE radar system, its the kind of thing you see in the Dr. Strangelove movie, where youve got the big board, and you can see every plane coming in, and where everything is. The whole thing, even according to the Air Force commission study, was a system that never would have worked, and cost a fortune for nothing.

Theres a long history of the supposed defense systems that make a fortune for the arms manufacturers, and we can put this graphic up. When Donald Trump went on Wednesday to the Pentagon to announce his version of Star Wars, the Space Force, Raytheon stock went up almost three points, practically before his speech was over. This whole thing has been a moneymaking operation. And it would be worth a Netflix parody, and it would be a joke, if it wasnt so dangerous, and such lunacy.

I did a recent interview with Daniel Ellsberg, and Daniel talks about exactly this idea, that theres actually defense; that you could have nuclear war, and somehow the United States could be safe, which is what Trump is promising. And the whole thing is a simple, as far as I can make out, a complete con. And this is another way to spend tons of money to the Raytheons of this world, and give people the idea that somehow theres a way to conduct nuclear war and still protect American lives.

Youll see in this clip were going to play from the Ellsberg interview that not only is this thing nuts that you can stop ICBMs, missiles, from coming, and certainly you cant stop hypersonic missiles from coming, but that most of the missiles that would really be effective are coming from submarines, anyway. And even Space Force, from what we know, is not going to be able to deal with submarine-based missiles.

So the whole things a crock. But most importantly, it only takes a first strike, an American strikeor a Russian strike this way, but in most likelihood an American striketo end life as we know it on earth because of nuclear winter. And Ellsberg talks about this in this clip.

So were going to playfor those that followed the Ellsberg series, this is Part 12 of 13, and I really encourage everyone to watch this series. Go find Ellsbergs book. Its called Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, which is what Ellsberg was. He was working for the Rand Corporation. And he was actually at the highest levels, planning the American nuclear strategy, which really, he came to understand, was a first strike capability. Thats really what it was always about. It was never defensive posturing. And mostly to be used to blackmail, threaten other countries. And making America great again means put a lot more money into the military-industrial complex, and to make the threat of first strike even more doable.

So heres Episode 12 of my Reality Asserts Itself series interview with Daniel Ellsberg.



PAUL JAY: In his book Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, Daniel Ellsberg ends with some recommendations. Heres what he writes. He proposes that the United States, first of all, commit to a no first use policy for nuclear weapons. Two, probing investigative hearings on our war plans, especially in the light of nuclear winter. Three, eliminating ICBMs, intercontinentaleliminating our intercontinental ballistic missiles. Next, forgoing delusions of preemptive damage limiting by our first strike forces. Giving up the profits, jobs, and alliance hegemony based on maintaining that pretense. Otherwise dismantling the American doomsday machine. Both parties, as currently constituted, oppose every one of these measures. This mortal predicament did not begin with Donald J. Trump, and it will not end with his departure. The obstacles to achieving these necessary changes are posed not so much by the majority of the American public, though many in recent years have shown dismaying manipulability, but by officials and elites in both parties and major institutions that consciously support militarism, American hegemony, and arms production and sales.

PAUL JAY: These proposals, lets go through them sort of one by one. But I want to start with the issue of nuclear winter. You call for congressional hearings into the issue of nuclear winter. When you look at the Pentagon and what theyre planning, a new nuclear bomb called the B61-12, which is supposed to be like all kinds of different nuclear bombs all wrapped into one, from exploding on high to actually burrowing into the earth and exploding in the earth. Both Russia and the United States and China developing hypersonic weapons, airplanes that are supposed to be able to evade all forms of defense systems. Both the United States, Russia, and China for that matter, but particularly the United States, which apparently is going to spend what, a trillion dollars over the next 30 years, much of it in the next 10 years. Theyreall the major powers, and particularly the United States, are not acting like they believe nuclear winter is real. How controversial is it, and what makes you believe it is real? And why is there a need for congressional hearings?

DANIEL ELLSBERG: Their ignoring the reality of nuclear winter has nothing to do with raising doubts about it. Actually, none of these countries have actually presented studies or done studies that would even raise doubts about it. They just ignore it. And they do that because its in their interest, to the extent that its in their interest to build these weapons, which in the light of nuclear winter serve no military purpose or national security purpose, whatever. So they, there have in fact never been hearings on the actual effects, even aside from smoke, of our nuclear attack options, or the difference that any of them might make.

The big point about nuclear winter, by the way, is on the one hand that it kills nearly everyone, instead of nearly everyone in the Northern Hemisphere only. But is that a real moral difference? To initiate the hemispheric massacre raises all the same moral issues as killing nearly everybody. The difference that it makes is that it means that going first makes absolutely no difference whatever from going second. And yet all of these countries, in particular the U.S. and Russia, I should say, have built their systems on the presumption that it is, however bad it is to go first, they dont have to, they dont have to pretend that would be costless. But its better than going second. Actually, it isnt. Plausible as that is. Yes, our ICBMs, for example, could destroy many or most of Soviet ICBMs; fixed, vulnerable missiles like that. Isnt that good, to do away without those? No, because the Soviet submarines that we cant target with our intercontinental ballistic missiles, even if we do diminish them through anti-submarine warfare, well still have more than enough missiles on our cities to destroy our society and actually to cause nuclear winter.

So it doesnt make any difference. All thats involved is, as I say, the jobs, profits, donationson both sides, by the way, political influence. And the pretense with our allies, our allies in particular, that we still stand as their protector against a more or less nonexistent threat from Russia now, or in the past the Soviet Union. But again, an illusory one in the sense that it depends on a promise, an assurance, and a readiness to initiate omnicide in the event that they are attacked.

PAUL JAY: And from an Americans point of view, even if there is no nuclear winter, the United States is gone, and the United States is in the Northern Hemisphere.

DANIEL ELLSBERG: Yes. Thats right. Doesnt make thatit doesnt actually make that difference to what happens in America. Although most of our weapons, like the B61-12 and so forth, are all directed toward, in principle, in theory, reducing the number of weapons they can send, and thus, in theory, reducing damage to the United States. It wont. Even without smoke, the Soviet submarine missiles will destroy the United States.

PAUL JAY: And the doctrine previously, and hard to believe it isnt still the doctrine, that if a war broke out with Russia, the United States also goes after China. Theres no way the Americans are going to let-

DANIEL ELLSBERG: I dont know if thats still necessarily the truth.

PAUL JAY: But isnt it hard to imagine the United States-

DANIEL ELLSBERG: I think China has every reason to worry that we do not plan to leave them as the sole surviving superpower.

PAUL JAY: Theyre not going to let China left standing, and Russia and the United States taking each other out.

DANIEL ELLSBERG: Yeah. Why not? Well  not. Just not. You could say wont you need, wont we need help? Well, really, they wont be much help from anybody. What is the use of destroying everybody? Whats the use of destroying the Russian culture, ability to reconstruct, whatever? No use, but  maybe itll deter them.

PAUL JAY: We know theres a very strong presence of evangelical Christianity in the armed forces. And in fact, weve done stories on this, that the evangelical movement is actually helped, nurtured, promoted at many levels of the senior military command. Is there a kind of taste for the apocalypse in some of this nuclear war planning?

DANIEL ELLSBERG: I cant really judge that, but I have known for a long time thatfor example, President Reagan was very influenced by evangelical thinking. Possiblywell, Jimmy Carter was a born again Baptist. Harry Truman, and I dont think anyone has ever made the point, that the President Harry Truman, who on the prospect of nuclear weapons wrote in his diary, writing in 1945, this may be the fire prophesied in Ezekiel. And some historians, like my friend Peter Kuznick, have interpreted this to mean that he realized what an earth-shattering, horrific development this was. But remember, he talked about it at the same time, both in his diary and in public, this may be the most terrible or the most wonderful thing that ever happened. He thought it was very good that it was given to our hands.

But I think nobody looked back, from what we now know of the significance of the, not just all born again, but a major fraction of the fundamentalist evangelical thinking in this country which points toward Armageddon as a necessary prerequisite to the rule of the Messiah on earth for a thousand years. Is it possible that Harry Truman foresaw that as an inevitable, and perhaps desirable, event? That would seem absurd, except in the context of this, where the Left Behind series on the effects of the Rapture and the [Messiah] and so forth have actually sold more than 60 million copies. [In the world agree] many people believe that.

PAUL JAY: And the current-

DANIEL ELLSBERG: Its not reassuring to know that many of our military leaders also may look on nuclear Armageddon, as prophesied in the Bible, as a terrible but necessary development toward messianic rule.

PAUL JAY: And the current vice president, Mike Pence, is apparently quite a serious evangelical.

DANIEL ELLSBERG: Pence is very likely, very likely in that-

PAUL JAY: And who knows, the way things are going in DC right now, might be a president before 2020.

DANIEL ELLSBERG: Yeah. But I must say, here we have an outlook thats far out of my own experience, and Im really speculating about it.

PAUL JAY: The issue of nuclear winter is controversial. There are some studies that have shown that it wont be as serious as the people who say it will happen to say. But theres never been a serious-

DANIEL ELLSBERG: You cant really say some. Very few. Im toldand I believe this is trueby Alan Robock and Brian Toon now, who are major environmental scientists now, that there is now, as of the last ten years, not 30 years ago, virtually as much consensus about the effects of this soot in the stratosphere as there is about climate change. And the doubters of that are as few and far between.

My understanding, by the way, is the main uncertainty that does remain is how much of this soot that endssmoke, and toxicthe black material that is generated by these firestorms will actually reach the stratosphere. My understanding is theres very little controversy at all about the effects of the calculations of 150 million tons of smoke in the stratosphere that has been made. The question, in the absence, of course, of any adequate experimental verification of this, and hopefully there will remain an absence of adequate experimental verification, is how much of the smoke will reach the stratosphere. And there is some uncertainty about that.

PAUL JAY: The other one of your proposals, that the United States should declare it will not be the first to use nuclear weapons. Why does the United States not want to say that?

DANIEL ELLSBERG: On the one hand, we have allies who believe thatlike Japan, and otherswho believe that this adds to some extent to deterrence of any war, any armed conflict involving them with, for example, China. The assurance that the U.S. would defend our allies not only with conventional forces, in which were by far the preeminent force the world has ever seen, in fact, but with nuclear weapons as well; by initiating nuclear weapons, as we always promised to do with NATO.

Now, it may well add somewhat to their deterrence. But as I say, at the cost of rationalizing and supporting a structure that has a genuine risk of destroying most life on earth. Is that necessary, either to their defense or our national security? No. I would say not. Thats my opinion. But that hasnt really been addressed very strongly as to whether they really need that, as opposed to whether it serves current structures of power, and alliance, and hegemony, and so forth.

Unless its necessary, its wrong. Its terribly wrong. And it hasnt ever really been necessary. Was it necessary to build a doomsday machine, or lets just say a hemisphere-destroying system? No. That was never necessary. But it was useful, profitable, helped the Air Force, helped R&D.

Let me make a general point that applies to all of these preparations. President Reagan said, and got President Gorbachev easily to agree, he did agree, nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. What he didnt say was it has never been threatenedor I should put it differently. What he didnt say was it must not be threatened, or prepared for, or risked. In fact, at the very moment that he said that, and throughout his term, was in the largest buildup, the only one comparable being that under John F. Kennedy, actually, when I was still working as a consultant. But President Reagans buildup was then the largest. Were now in the midst of a third huge buildup. And he continued that, despite saying that the war must never be fought. He was preparing to fight it.

The reason for that, I think, is that each president has wanted to be able to threaten nuclear war, however mad it might be to carry out the threat. He did not think it was mad to make the threat. It was useful to us in a number of ways, or he thought it might be. And even if he didnt personally think it was useful, he thought it would be politically damaging for him to give that up; to say we would not initiate. It would have made him vulnerable to a domestic rival, to complaints with allies. And thats still true. President Obama wanted, as early as 2010 and then in reviews in 2016, and then in his13, and then in his last year in office, 2016, he pressed quite strongly for the Defense Department to be willing to enunciate no first use. Sole use is to deter a nuclear attack. We will not initiate or threaten to initiate nuclear war under any circumstances.

He received kickback from the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy, which makes the weapons, and the Department of State, Kerry, who responded to some allies, we dont have time in our last year to bring them around, realize that they dont need this, and its better for the world not to have it. So we gave that up, along with giving up ICBMs.

Now, ICBMs have been essentially obsolete for over half a century. Since submarine-launched weapons became available on both sides, which cant be targeted by the other sides ICBMs, and which can, in fact, destroy entire target systems, entire societies by themselves, the ICBMs have been nothing other than a hair trigger, a lightning rod for attack if the other side fears that war is coming. Getting rid of them has always been the right thing to do, for 50 years. Secretary of Defense Perry, under Clinton, recommended, or wanted, to get rid of ICBMs. I should say he now is being very public as an ex-defense secretary that we should get rid of our ICBMs. So has General Cartwright, the former commander of Strategic Command, the successor to Strategic Air Command, SAC.

Cartwright and Perry have both called for no first use. So the idea that these arent sound military ideas is unfounded, and yet they persist. I come back to my earlier point. No president has really wantedI didnt say this, but Ill say it. No president has really wanted a nuclear war. There have been a few individuals that thought that was a good solution to the contest with communism. No president has thought that. But every president wanted to threaten it and prepare for it. And the preparation, in part, is not only to support the threats, although it is in part that. And not only for alliance reasons. The preparation is very profitable. And that means that campaign donations flow to the candidate who is for spending such weapons as now, and more significantly, flow away from him if he should depart from it. He or she should depart from that.

So really no president, and no candidate, including Hillary Clinton, for example, has really proposed conversion, in a large sense. George McGovern, actually, fatefully did call for lets come home, America. Lets declare peace somehow. As radical a notion as having a peace treaty with North Korea; after over 50 years, and we dont have a peace treaty. Lets come home and declare peace on the world, and devote these resourcesnot totally disarm, but simply stop trying to pretend to run the world, or trying to run the world, and convert those resources that we now spend, our largest industry if you look at the Defense Department and Energy altogether, to peaceful uses of various kinds. Health, education, infrastructure, solar energy, renewable energy, the various kinds.

Boeing and Lockheed, if we could find a way to convert them, would perhaps change their political influence on thisI think that may be whats required. But just to say that is to show how difficult the job is.

PAUL JAY: Please join us for the next part of our series with Daniel Ellsberg on Reality Asserts Itself.Australia swelters in record temperatures with warmest ever night New Scientist (David L)

Rent-a-sister: Coaxing Japans young men out of their rooms BBC

Apophis asteroid could strike Earth in 2068, warn Russian scientists RT (chuck419)

Why Is All of New Zealand Obsessed With This Drunken, Littering, Rowdy Tourist Family? Slate (Lance N). This account makes clear they were more destructive than just littering: Rowdy tourists: Group served deportation notice, may be banned from New Zealand for 5 years

Mexico explosion: at least 20 killed after burst pipeline ignites Guardian

RTE to make climate-change programming a priority Irish Times (martha r)

Climate change is affecting health now. Our leaders must take action STAT (martha r)

China?

North Korea

Brexit

A Helpful Timeline of Prince Philip Not Dying Vice

EU Cancels Final Negotiations On EU Copyright Directive As It Becomes Clear There Isnt Enough Support TechDirt

A Murder in Gdansk Project Syndicate

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Imperial Collapse Watch

Reagan Wannabe Relaunches Reagans Star Wars Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)

Trump Transition

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezs First House Speech Broke a C-SPAN Record. Heres What She Said Time (martha r)

California Encourages TSA Workers To Sign Up For Unemployment Despite Federal Guidance Huffington Post (Kevin W). See: Federal employees who take unemployment benefits during the shutdown will have to pay them back CNBC (Kevin W)

Toxic History: Washington State Prepares to Sue US Navy Over Hazardous Dumping  Sputnik (Kevin W)

The White House calls food stamp funds for Puerto Rico excessive and unnecessary Grist

Fake News

Narrative Control Firm Targeting Alternative Media Caitlin Johnstone, Consortiumnews

Jay Alix, McKinsey Redux Credit Slips

When someone is caught selling heroin, they are arrested and charged with a crime. The same needs to be true of the drugmakers who knew that opioids were addictive and being abused and still sold them anyway for the sake of profit.  Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) January 18, 2019

Oddly Enough, More Big Pharma Kickbacks for Docs Are Associated With More Opioid Deaths Splinter News (Kevin W)

More than half of the U.S.s largest cities are issuing bonds to protect against climate change MarketWatch

Tesla is slashing workers ahead of one of the most crucial deadlines in its history Business Insider (Kevin W)

Everyone whos telling you that Tesla is influencing the rest of the auto industry is completely wrong Business Insider

Stock-Market Margin Debt Plummets Most Since Q4 2008 Wolf Richter

NY Fed president warns shutdown is hitting US growth Financial Times

Class Warfare

Antidote du jour (Tracie H):

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.Contributed photo The Vault Barn Pole Vault Clubs Anthony Meacham kicks into his vault, looking for some energy to clear his vault attempt. Anthonys 14 feet 9 inches earns him a respectable seventh place finish in a field of 45 and highlighted recognition at this past weekends Randal Tyson High School Track Invitational held in Fayettevilles University of Arkansas. Woodsboro senior Skylar Hall and freshman Bella Coscetti also placed during the tounament.As a passionate scooter rider in my long-ago childhood, I was glad to hear of scooters  the electric, not the leg-propelled kind  coming to San Antonio.

However, I began to question that development when my husband and I spent time in downtown San Antonio in December. Not only did we repeatedly almost stumble over carelessly discarded scooters on sidewalks, but our usually casual sauntering turned into somewhat anxious walking since we needed to be aware of reckless scooter riders.

As mentioned in the commentary Scooter solutions the city can test now (by Robert Trevino, Opinion, Jan.6), there is a lack of bicycle lanes downtown and an erratic, incomplete system of bicycle lanes in all parts of the city except for public parks.

Scooters belong neither on sidewalks nor roads. Bicycle lanes appear to be the most appropriate place for electric scooters. It seems premature to adopt scooters before issues relating to bicycles  far more in common use  have been resolved.

The purpose of the scooters may need to be readdressed. As stated in the commentary, they are a last-mile transportation option. It would be interesting to determine if this is largely the use to which scooters are currently put.

I wonder if a substantial number of San Antonians are interested in the availability of these scooters. Are we responding to marketing pressures from companies providing scooters? Or are we feeling competitive with other cities that are using them?

Marianne Ross

Get them out

I listened to President Donald Trumps address on immigration and the Democratic response. Absurd.

Yes, we truly do need a secure border. Yes, we need to stop wasting billions of dollars every year on illegal immigrants who happen to take one step on United States soil. As far as Im concerned, we can leave the immigrant term out of the equation. After all, there is only one way to emigrate into our country  legally.

Trespass is defined as making an unlawful or unauthorized intrusion  especially on land or property. The United States is our land and our property. We can kick trespassers off our property  with force if necessary  jail them, fine them and get them out.

This is a simple fix to this entire issue and would save us billions of dollars each year.

John Gretz, Windcrest

Political pawns

I am really mad and frustrated that federal workers are being abused and treated like pawns for the convenience of egotistical politicians paid by the taxpayers.

Can someone explain to me why the president didnt build the wall when both houses of Congress were predominantly Republican? This is cruel and unusual punishment.

Carlos Carranco Jr., Laredo

Not Trumps fault

Re: Heed signs of what will happen as world warms, Editorial, Dec. 15:

What specific things should world leaders do to reduce emissions in naturally occurring climate change?

Your only answer is political  Donald Trumps fault. That is ridiculous. The only way carbon emissions are reduced is through technological advancement and economic/market forces.

Richard Frontz

Carbon tax savings

The December report from the Congressional Budget Office titled Options for Reducing the Deficit: 2019 to 2028 said:

Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases would diminish the potentially large long-run costs associated with climate change, but producers and consumers have little incentive to manufacture or purchase technologies that reduce those emissions. That lack of incentive results from the fact that the costs imposed by climate change are not reflected in current energy prices  (a carbon tax) would reduce U.S. emission of greenhouse gases and would do so in a cost-effective way.

All the more reason that the bipartisan Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act is a no-brainer. Its purpose is to reduce carbon emissions while using a revenue-neutral, carbon-fee and dividend system.

All the more reason we should call our congressional representatives and leave the message to support it.

Bill Hurley

Caesars due

Re: Paying county taxes and fees just got easier, Metro, Jan. 10:

I find it ironic and slightly symbolic  that Bexar Countys tax assessor and collector, Albert Uresti, is smiling as he takes Caesars due from a taxpayer. I would hope that once in a while Uresti offers a little condolence to the taxpayer, maybe, I know you need this money, but the government needs it more.

Bill Young, Brownsville

Birds of a feather

Re: Sculley accused of leak, by Josh Baugh, Metro, Jan. 8:

Councilman Greg Brockhouse should be thanking City Manager Sheryl Sculley for releasing the damaging document on City Council candidate Dereck Hillyers character flaws, legal problems and past job-performance deficiencies. Her actions help ensure that residents of District 2 are protected from the antics of another fire union member and union trustee.

Then again, Brockhouse  the union puppet  and Chris Steele, mouthpiece, are used to backing vindictive, poor-performing, insubordinate, self-admitted liars lacking any sense of integrity.

All I can imagine is Brockhouse is lonely and needs a crony to hang with on the council. Why else did he defend or support this guy?

Hey, Greg, how about a little integrity check on yourself? You know what they say about birds of a feather.

Bill BruetschThe Posts report that President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin  including taking away an interpreters notes and instructing the person not to discuss what was said even with senior officials of his own administration  has raised hackles in Washington. Some have gone so far as to suggest this is evidence that the president is a secret Russian asset.

More likely it is evidence that the president feels he cannot trust those around him not to leak the details of his private conversations with foreign leaders. Why would he think that? Because he has repeatedly seen the classified details of those conversations leak to the media.

For example, in 2017, someone in the administration leaked a full transcript of Trumps phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to The Post, during which the president berated Turnbull about a refugee swap deal Turnbull had made with President Barack Obama. The public exposure of this exchange was an embarrassment for the Australian leader and damaged our relationship with a critical foreign ally.

An administration official also provided The Post with a full transcript of Trumps phone call with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, in which he discussed finessing their dispute over who would pay for a border wall  with the Mexican leader telling Trump that I have recognized the right of any government to protect its borders as it deems necessary and let us look for a creative way to jump over this obstacle  embarrassing the Mexican leader.

A transcript of Trumps phone call with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte also leaked, during which Trump congratulated him on the unbelievable job he was doing on the drug problem despite reports of extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses  sparking outrage in Washington.

Also leaked were two of Trumps conversations with British Prime Minister Theresa May  including one in which he complained about his coverage in the British media (to which May awkwardly explained that she could not control the media, telling the president that we are not North Korea) and, a few months later, another call in which Trump, according to The Post, berated May for Britain not doing enough, in his assessment, to contain Iran  questioned her over Brexit and complained about the trade deals he sees as unfair with European countries. That conversation reportedly left May and her aides shaken.

And, of course, there are the voluminous leaks of his communications with Russian officials. For example, someone in the Trump administration revealed that the president congratulated Putin on his election victory during a phone call  even though he had been warned in his briefing papers DO NOT CONGRATULATE. Some U.S. officials also told the media that Trump had shared classified details of an Islamic State terrorist plot with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during an Oval Office meeting  exposing Israel as the source of intelligence. It turned out that Trump did not reveal that Israel was the source  that was done by the anonymous geniuses who leaked his conversation with Lavrov to the media.

Despite this record, senior officials are angry at being cut out of Trumps meetings with Putin, anonymously complaining to the media that there is no detailed record, even in classified files, of Trumps face-to-face interactions with the Russian leader at five locations over the past two years, according to The Post. Well, maybe thats because the classified details of his conversations keep ending up in the media.

The Post notes that Trump is trying to shield his communications with Putin from public scrutiny. Of course he is. A presidents private conversations with foreign leaders are supposed to be shielded from public scrutiny. Every president conducts diplomacy behind the scenes and out of public view. Thats why transcripts of any presidents phone calls and notes of his meetings are marked classified. Sharing secrets with the media is illegal.

To be clear, some of what Trump reportedly said in these private conversations is indeed outrageous. But he is the president, and every president has the right to hold confidential conversations with foreign leaders without the details ending up on the front pages. The fact that he has responded to these serial leaks by restricting access to his interactions with Putin is not evidence that Trump is a Russian spy; it is evidence that there are people around him who have no compunction about breaking the law and harming national security by leaking what he says to the media. That is not just an outrage. It is a crime.

@marcthiessenA suspected electrical short resulted in a fire at a commercial business office building on the Northwest Side late Friday according to the San Antonio Fire Department.

Firefighters responded about 11 p.m. to the 8200 block of Interstate 10 West to a fire they say started within the walls and quickly spread to the attic. The building is home to Red Mccombs Business Office.Submitted

The Liberty County Historical Commission will hold its first quarterly meeting of the new year on Monday, January 21 at 6 p.m. in the A. J. Jack Hartel Building, 318 San Jacinto Street, Liberty, Texas. Meetings are open to the public and they are encouraged to attend.

The guest speaker will be Robert B. Scherer, Jr. of Anahuac, well-known in southeast Texas and former County Chair of the Chambers County Historical Commission.Officials with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office arrested 65 people for felony Driving While Intoxicated charges and felony sex crimes throughout the month of December, according to records from a public information request filed by the Chronicle.

Of those arrests, 39 were felony DWI charges. In Texas, a person is charged with DWI if their blood or breath alcohol concentration (BAC) is .08 or higher, according to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT.)

Driving while intoxicated in Texas is usually considered a misdemeanor on the first two offenses. A person's third DWI offense results in a felony charge.

Drivers charged with a third DWI charge face up to $10,000 in fines, between two to 10 years in prison and can have their license suspended. Drivers can also face an annual fee up to $2,000 for three years to retain their license, according to TxDOT.

SEE LAST MONTH: MCSO arrested 51 on felony DWI charges in November

Of the 39 arrested. ten people were charged with DWI with a child passenger. Drivers that are charged with DWI with a child can face fines up to $10,000, up to two years in prison and loss of their driver's license for 180 days, according to TxDOT.

Montgomery County authorities also arrested another 26 for sex crimes felonies. Charges of those arrested include sexual assault, indecency with a child, possession of child pornography, failure to comply with sex offender registry requirements, prostitution and online solicitation of a minor.

Of the 26 charged with felonies related to sex crimes, 22 were tied to a minor or a child.

>>>Click through the photos above to see mug shots of the accused as well as their charges...

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

Tuolumne County Superintendent Of Schools Office View Photos

Sonora, CA  The Tuolumne County Superintendent of Schools Office has received $583,000 in grant money from the California Department of Education.

60 local teachers will enter a new program that uses the theme of arts to develop curriculum that incorporates science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The teachers will take part in an intensive two-week training program this summer. There will also be a one-week student academy where the teachers can pilot the lessons they create from the training. It will then culminate next school year, and local artists will even be involved to provide classroom lessons for students.

Tuolumne County Superintendent of Schools Cathy Parker says, We are excited and honored to have the opportunity to improve area student achievement and form partnerships within and without our county for much needed STEM and arts education. This couldnt have happened at a better time.

Competition for the funding was competitive and the Tuolumne County Superintendent of Schools Office was one of 52 districts or county offices to receive grant dollars.Akufo-Addo can't even shower in presidential ...Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a measure putting more regulations on gun dealers in Illinois, red tape that a group representing the industry said could put them out of business.

At an event at a Chicago school, surrounded by the citys police superintendent, mayor, other elected officials and gun control advocacy groups, Pritzker on Thursday signed Senate Bill 337, which lawmakers passed more than six months ago.

The reason for it is to deter straw purchases so that we can prevent someone from buying a gun for someone else who is not legally allowed to own a gun, Pritzker said.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the law will help reduce gun violence. He called it common sense.

If youre going to regulate a barbershop and a bar, maybe you should also regulate a gun dealer, Emanuel said.

Federal Firearms Licensees of Illinois Executive Director Todd Vandermyde said the measure is anti-gun and anti-business. He said it will increase costs for gun dealers, potentially driving them out of business.

Theres a new [electronic] record-keeping requirement, Vandermyde said. Theyre mandating alarm systems and [video] security systems that could run into the tens of thousands of dollars.

Pritzker dismissed claims that the new law would be redundant and burdensome. Vandermyde said it is and also will cost the state.

Theyre going to want [local governments] to perform inspections or the state to perform inspections, so how are they going to fund that? Vandermyde said. Were already regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. ATF already comes out and inspects gun dealers and licenses us and we just dont see what the state is going to add to that other than more regulation and cost.

We know that other states that have enacted similar laws to this one have seen a reduction in guns used in crimes, said state Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Brook.

Vandermyde said Pritzker, Emanuel and others are out of touch.

Theyre all surrounded by people with guns to protect them for their safety but they want to take away the ability for the average person to have an effective means of self-defense, Vandermyde said. They want to make it harder for them to get guns. They want to put them at a disadvantage against the criminal element.

Lawmakers passed the bill with simple majorities more than six months ago on May 30, the penultimate day of regular session. The state constitution says bills that pass both chambers must be sent to the governor within a month, but Senate President John Cullerton made sure the bill didnt go to former Gov. Bruce Rauner, who said he planned to veto it.

Cullerton put a procedural hold called a motion to reconsider on the bill, which kept it from Rauners desk. That hold was lifted Jan. 8 and sent to Pritzker on Wednesday.

Using a procedural hold isnt a new trick. Longtime statehouse observer and University of Illinois professor emeritus Kent Redfield said its technically possible for lawmakers to hold a bill that passed in one General Assembly and then pass it onto a new governor. He said its an ambiguous area that hes not aware has been fully litigated.

Particularly if its controversial legislation involving something like gun control measures  there certainly would be a court challenge, Redfield said.

Vandermyde said his group is looking at a number of options, including a legal challenge. The law is set to take effect this summer.

It just shows the political chicanery that went on with this, that they knew that former Gov. [Bruce] Rauner would veto this bill because of its anti-business, anti-Second Amendment repercussions, he said.

The Illinois State Rifle Association has said it will go to court.

Political gamesmanship like this is just a typical day in Illinois politics, ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson said in a statement. The only thing that is being accomplished here is the creation of a bureaucratic nightmare for gun dealers. Rest assured, we will be challenging this new law in court.

Nothing in this bill is going to enhance public safety in Illinois, Pearson said.

Pritzker said hes open to other gun control measures, such as banning certain guns or high-capacity magazines. Vandermyde said economic growth, not more gun legislation, is what will reduce violence.Discuss this article with your neighbors or join the community conversation.

Click here to get accessHeroism saw them through time in 'barrel': SV authors book recounts warfighters' resolve in VietnamSen. McSally meets with Cochise County mayors: Group discusses countys issues, how she plans to support themThe partial government shutdown is now in its fourth week, with no solution in sight, while the hectic scene at the border persists.

It could even be set to intensify: As recently as Jan. 17, a second caravan of Honduran migrants arrived at the Guatemala-Mexico border, heading in the direction of the US-Mexico border in the hopes of gaining entry as asylum-seekers. >>>Take a look at how these borders look now in the gallery above.San Antonio police arrested a man Wednesday after he admitted taking a shower with a 9-year-old girl, authorities said.

Ernesto Vallejo, 33, was charged with indecency with a child by contact, according to Bexar County Jail records.

FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox

Police began investigating him on Dec. 27, when the girl and her father made a police report against him.

During a forensic interview, the child told investigators that Vallejo made her shower with him and also made her touch him, according to his arrest affidavit.

Later, Vallejo allegedly laid on top of her while they were both fully clothed and "said he wanted to show her how babies are made," police said.

Police interviewed Vallejo on Thursday, shortly before his arrest. He told them "he did a mistake but it was not as bad as the victim's parents were saying," according to the affidavit.

Vallejo admitted showering with the girl, but denied that he asked her to touch him. He also told police he was wrestling with the girl after the shower and admitted to saying "this is how you make babies," according to the affidavit.

RELATED: Previously convicted sex offender among 15 arrested, indicted on child sex crimes in December

"He stated it was stupid of him to say and that they were both fully clothed," detectives wrote in the arrest affidavit.

Vallejo's criminal record includes a 2009 conviction for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, records show. He was sentenced to seven years of prison in that case, but records show he was released early in 2014.

Vallejo was released from Bexar County Jail Thursday after posting a $75,000 bond, jail records showed.

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County. Read him on our breaking news site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | fsabawi@mysa.com|@FaresInSAA year after its sudden closure, the former Furr's Buffet has been reborn as Harbor Freight Tool's newest store.

The store opened a little more than a week ago and store manager Shiloh Colvin said, "We haven't slowed down since."

Headquartered in California, the 41-year-old chain has more than 1,000 stores nationwide, and its successful Odessa location prompted Harbor Freight Tools to head east to Midland.

"Our Odessa location is doing really well. We've wanted to get into Midland for a long time (and) this building came available at a good price," Colvin said.

The store caters to the area's dominant oil and gas industry, offering tools from cutters to grinders to saws to drills. But Colvin said its primary customers are the do-it-yourselfers, whether working around the home or on the car. The store is located across the parking lot from Midland College's Advanced Technology Center, which houses the college's automotive repair department, and Shiloh said the professor has made almost daily visits inquiring about tools.

In addition to tools such as cutters, grinders, saws and drills, the store carries compressors and generators, greenhouses and tool boxes.

Colvin said Harbor Freight carries tools for those who don't want to spend a lot of money to higher-end tools for professionals "who are building houses, building America" and professional mechanics.

The store is fully staffed at 32 employees, who focus on customer service, he said. Employees can help the customer find what they're looking for or determine what they should be looking for, Colvin said.Children play a game in the SMALL Lab, a multimedia set-up located in the auditorium of the renovated Moultrie library, this morning. The library is the only one in Georgia with this technology, donated by ABM. It allows computer programs  including games and documentaries  to be broadcast on the floor and interacted with using a wand. In this game, the children are matching Dr. Seuss characters with the books that they appeared in. The library held its grand opening this morning and has special programs and tours planned all day today.MOULTRIE [mdash] Gary Ray Riggins, age 67 of Colquitt County died Monday June 14, 2021 at his home surrounded by family Celebrations of Life Services are being planned and will be announced later Gary was born September 17, 1953 in Moultrie Ga. to the late Curtis R. and Martha Latrail HolmesRISE - Toledo, an operation of Green Thumb Industries LLC, has received a city permit to begin interior remodeling at 1920 Cooper Foster Park Road to create the first medical marijuana dispensary in the city of Lorain.Bobby Hughes, 4, of Elyria attended Elyria Public Library's West River Branch 25th anniversary celebration with his grandmother Kelli Hughes on Jan. 18. Bobby played with giant LEGO blocks near the children area's notable tree. Kelli Hughes said she comes to the library once a week with her grandson and recalled taking her two sons when the library was first built.Teen migrants walk in line inside the Tornillo detention camp in Tornillo, Texas. Government investigators say many more migrant children may have been separated from their parents than the Trump administration has acknowledged.Israeli forces deploy during a raid in the West Bank City of Ramallah. Israel has been launching raids into the heart of Ramallah, and the U.S. is cutting off aid and taking actions that many fear will obliterate any remaining hope for a two-state solution.You are the owner of this article.General Motors CEO Mary Barra speaks to reporters after a December 2018 meeting with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, to discuss GM's announcement it would stop making the Chevy Cruze at its Lordstown, Ohio, plant.There was a little more than $500,000 in occupancy taxes collected in 2018, according to TDA officials.

TDA board chair Polly Ledbetter said the board turning its accounting over to the county to handle will free up staff to focus on marketing and promoting the county. She said the county can incorporate the TDA finances into its finance office, making the best use of resources.

During the meeting, Ed Phillips, chief executive officer of TDA, said Lake James State Park plans to build a new visitors center that is expected to open in 2021 and could have a national park representative presence there.

Nora Coffey, Lake James State Park superintendent, said the state is in very early discussions with the National Parks Service about how they can collaborate with them to have more of a presence in Burke County on the Overmountain Victory Trail.

The state is wrapping up design work on the new visitors center at Lake James, Coffey said. Bids on the project are expected to go out in March, she said, and a groundbreaking should happen in April or May.January 19, 2019

Coincidence? - Chief Nurse Of British Army Was First To Arrive At Novichoked Skripal Scene

On March 4 2018 the British/Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found incapacitated on a bench in Salisbury. The British government asserts that they were affected by a chemical poison of the so called Novichok group. The case led to a diplomatic conflict as Britain accused Russia of an attempt to kill the Skripals. No evidence was provided by the British government to support those accusations. The Skripals have since been vanished.

Today an intriguing new detail of the case came to light. Spire FM, a local radio station in Salisbury, reports of a young woman, Abigail McCourt, who was given a 'Lifesaver Award' for her involvement in the Skripal case:

The 16 year old, from Larkhill, was the first to spot two people collapsed on a bench in the Maltings on March 4th and didn't hesitate to help. Abigail quickly alerted her mum, a qualified nurse, who was nearby and together they gave first aid to the victims until paramedics arrived. It soon became clear this was no ordinary medical incident, but the poisoning of a former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia, with Novichok.

...

Immediately following the incident and with the world's media focused on Salisbury, the pair didn't want any want press attention and kept their involvement quiet. But Abby's mum now feels the time is right for her daughter to be recognised for the "incredible" way she dealt with the scenario. Alison nominated her for the Lifesaver Award at Spire FM's Local Hero Awards, and the judges were unanimous in their decision that Abigail was a very worthy winner.

Earlier reports mentioned that a 'military nurse' had attended to the Skripals. Following the above report Elena Evdokimova checked the name of the young woman's mothers and found a curiosity:

Elena Evdokimova @elenaevdokimov7 - 10:50 utc - 19 Jan 2019 We were right, it was Alison McCourt who was that"unknown military nurse" who, absolutely randomly, happened to be near the bench where #Skripals collapsed . Spire FM alleges that it was her daughter Abigail alerted her, but no one mentioned her before ...

Here is the thing. Alison McCourt is not just one random 'off-duty army nurse'. She is the Chief Nursing Officer for the British Army in the rank of Colonel:

Colonel A L McCourt OBE ARRC QHN - Assistant Head Health Strategy / Chief Nursing Officer (Army) - Senior Health Advisor (Army) Department.

Colonel McCourt was appointed Chief Nursing Officer on February 1 2018, just one month before the Skripal incident happened. Colonel McCourt lives in Larkhill, a garrison town some 11 miles from Salisbury. She is known to visit elsewhere.



Colonel McCourt at Downing Street 10

via QARANAC Association - bigger



via QARANAC Association



Alison McCourt with her daughter Abigal receiving the Livesaver Award

Photo via Spire FM - bigger

There is a discrepancy between the Spire FM report and Alison McCourt's narrative of the event in the video [Update Jan 21 - the video has been taken down] posted with the Spire report. The written report only mentions Abigal McCourt and her mother. But in the video the mother speaks of "Abigal and the rest of our family" who were the first to arrive at the Skripal poisoning scene. She continues to contrast "Abigal" and "we" and later again "Abigal" and "the rest of us" meaning that there were more persons on the scene than just the mother and the daughter. In a recorded interview at the bottom of the Spire FM page Abigal says that it was her brothers birthday and that "we" were out celebrating it. (She also mentions that "the woman [Yulia Skripal] was not breathing at the time we found her." How then could she vomit?)

In 2014 the Daily Mail reported (video) on Colonel Alison McCourt's deployment as British mission leader to Sierra Leone where she helped to fight the highly infectious Ebola disease. According to that report McCourt is married and has two children. Her son must by now be fourteen. There is no further information available about her husband.



via Daily Mail - bigger

Neither Colonel McCourt nor her daughter were affected by the extremely dangerous Novichok with which the Skripals were allegedly poisoned. But what about the other persons, her son and her husband, who were also at the scene? What were they doing?

No additional information about the McCourts has so far come to light.

Isn't it an extremely unlikely coincidence that the first person who 'by chance' attends to the Skripals is the top nurse of the British army? An experienced officer, highly connected, who is also know for handling highly infectious patients? Who wrote the script for this enthralling saga (rec.)?

This is one of the many, many 'coincidences', curiosities and lies that make the official Skripal poisoning narrative so unbelievable.



There are also many indications that the case is related to other British government operations. Indeed the whole Skripal incident might well have been staged.

Pablo Miller, the MI6 agent who recruited, handled and befriended Sergei Skripal, also worked for Orbis Ltd. Orbis is the company of the 'former' MI6 agent Christopher Steele who was paid by the Hillary Clinton campaign to write the 'Dirty Dossier' about alleged Trump connections to Moscow. Soon after the Skripal incident happened, the British government released a D-Notice that prohibited British media from further mentioning Pablo Miller's name and thereby the relation of the two cases.

Long before the Skripal incident happened an experienced Russia scholar asserted that the Steele dossier was written by someone trained by Soviet intelligence. It is thus quite possible that Sergej Skripal, the former Russian spy, was an informant or even author of the Steele dossier about Trump.

The recently exposed British military intelligence operation Integrity Initiative has shown extensive interest in the media echo the Skripal case had in various countries. Curiously one of its papers lists Pablo Miller, the Skripal handler, as a contact of the Integrity Initiative's leader Colonel Chris Nigel Donnelly.

There is additional suspicion that the Integrity Initiative, whose primary function is to stoke Russophobia, was one of the brains behind the Skripal incident.

The Initiative was also involved in the Steele dossier and the russophobic anti-Trump campaign. Andrew Wood, a former British ambassador to Moscow, is employed by the Institute for Statecraft, the shadowy parent organization of the Integrity Initiative funded by the Ministry of Defense and Foreign Office. It was Andrew Wood who helped to disseminate the Steele dossier to U.S. Senator John McCain. McCain then gave the dossier to FBI Director James Comey. The FBI used the dossier first to get FISA warrants to spy on the Trump campaign, and, after Comey was fired, to launch a counter-intelligence investigation (section 3) against Trump himself.

Here is a theory how all this may come together. Back in 2015 the Institute of Statecraft and its russophobic director Colonel Donnelly discussed how to increase sanctions on Russia. In 2016 the Steele dossier was created in an attempt to connect Trump to Russia. Steele's colleague Pablo Miller and his spy Sergei Skripal were quite likely involved in creating the dossier. The dossier was disseminated with the help of Donnelly's Institute of Statecraft.

For some reason the Skripals had to be taken out. Sergei Skripal probably threatened to spill the beans about the dossier after it became public. The highly scripted 'Novichok' incident in Salisbury was staged to remove Skripal and to smear Russia with an alleged murder attempt. Colonel McCourt, the trusted army nurse, was asked to help on the scene. After the Skripal incident, and with no evidence shown, Russia was blamed and massive sanctions followed. The Integrity Initiative, the propaganda arm of the Institute of Statecraft, analyzes the media results of the Skripal affair and continues to stoke the anti-Russia campaign.

It might be possible that Steele's 'dirty dossier', the Skripal case and the Integrity Initiative operation are unrelated. But that chance for that now tends towards zero.

Posted by b on January 19, 2019 at 19:41 UTC | Permalink

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SubmitSpecial Counsel Robert Mueller's office on January 18 disputed key elements of a media report that President Donald Trump directed his former lawyer to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate deal, raising questions about a story that has dominated US news coverage for the past 24 hours.

BuzzFeed News reported late on January 17 that Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer who is slated to go to prison for lying to Congress and other crimes, told investigators working for Mueller that Trump had instructed him to lie about efforts to build a skyscraper in Moscow while he was running for president.

"BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the Special Counsels Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's Congressional testimony are not accurate," Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, said in the special counsel's first comment on a media report since its probe started 20 months ago.

While Carr did not directly address whether there was evidence that Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress, he disputed portions of the story about how BuzzFeed corroborated the explosive allegations against Trump.

Citing information from two federal law enforcement officials, BuzzFeed said Cohen told the special counsel that after the 2016 presidential election Trump instructed him to tell Congress that negotiations over the Moscow project had ended earlier than they had in order to obscure Trump's involvement.

Carr's statement also appeared to dispute BuzzFeed's assertion that the special counsel learned about Trump's directive from interviews with employees of the Trump Organization, emails, text messages and other documents.

BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith said in a statement: "We stand by the reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he's disputing."

After the BuzzFeed report was published on Thursday night, investigators in the US Senate and House of Representatives said they planned to investigate the allegations, while some Democrats described the report as a game-changer that, if true, could be grounds for impeaching the president.

Earlier on January 18, the White House said the story was false. "Look, that's absolutely ridiculous," spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters.

David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor, said Mueller's decision to comment highlighted the significance of the allegations made in the BuzzFeed article and the attention it was getting in the media and among lawmakers.

"They are making a public comment to tell everyone to calm down," Weinstein said. "He doesnt want people to think his silence is confirming the truthfulness of the report."

Trump said on Twitter that Cohen was lying to get less prison time. Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said in a statement that any suggestion that Trump told Cohen to lie is "categorically false."

Representatives for the Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment on the BuzzFeed report.

Cohen, who once said he was so loyal to Trump that he would "take a bullet" for him, is scheduled to begin a three-year prison sentence in March after pleading guilty to charges including campaign finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress.

If Trump did tell Cohen to lie, that would constitute criminal activity, said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat. He added that he would look into the matter.

"Directing a subordinate to lie to Congress is a federal crime," Nadler said on Twitter.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said the allegation that Trump may have directed Cohen to lie under oath "is among the most serious to date."

"We will do what's necessary to find out if it's true," Schiff, also a Democrat, said on Twitter.

Some Senate Intelligence Committee investigators hope to ask Cohen about the BuzzFeed report when he testifies behind closed doors in February, a committee source told Reuters. He also will face questions about it in testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Feb. 7.

Yet Mueller's move to push back on the BuzzFeed report could give some lawmakers pause, while also giving ammunition to allies of Trump in their efforts to criticize the media and in their calls for Mueller to complete his probe.

"Today's development only underscores the need for the special counsel to wrap this investigation up immediately," Republican Representative Mark Meadows said on Twittter. "The constant secrecy and breathless speculation helps no one."

"SEISMIC EVENT"

Legal experts said the allegation, if true, exposed Trump to a new level of risk in an investigation that has already resulted in convictions of or guilty pleas from four former campaign aides, including ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

If true, "it's a seismic event," Andy Wright, an associate White House counsel under former Democratic President Barack Obama, told Reuters.

Cohen, his left arm in a sling, did not comment as he entered his apartment building in New York on January 18. His adviser, Lanny Davis, also declined to comment to Reuters, and his lawyer, Guy Petrillo, did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump denounced Cohen as a "rat" after he began cooperating with investigators while Cohen, whose duties included making payoffs to two women who said they had affairs with Trump, said on Thursday he regretted giving "my blind loyalty to a man who doesn't deserve it."

Directing or encouraging someone to lie under oath is a crime known as subornation of perjury. The report also raises questions about obstruction of justice and conspiracy.

William Barr, Trump's nominee to be attorney general, said at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday that a president would be committing obstruction if he directed a subordinate to lie under oath. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

While the Justice Department has previously concluded that a sitting president cannot be charged while in office, such an allegation, if found true, could fuel impeachment proceedings in Congress.

Trump repeatedly has denied collusion with Russia and slammed Mueller's investigation as a "witch hunt." Russia also has rejected US intelligence findings that Moscow interfered in US politics in the 2016 election in an effort to boost Trump.

Trump said during the presidential campaign that he had no ties or business dealings with Russia.

Democrats, who took over the US House of Representatives this month, have generally been cautious regarding any talk of impeachment to remove Trump from office although some rank-and-file members have pushed for such a resolution.

Impeachment proceedings would face an uphill battle in the Senate, where Trump's fellow Republicans have a majority.

BuzzFeed also reported that Cohen regularly updated Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. and his daughter Ivanka Trump, who is now a top White House adviser, about the Moscow project.

A spokesman for Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Ivanka Trump, said she was minimally involved in the development. Trump Jr., who has also testified previously before Congress, in a Twitter post called the BuzzFeed report "fake news."

After Mueller's statement disputing the report, Trump Jr. called out the media and Schiff in a series of Twitter posts. "Hey Adam, turns out it was Full of Schiff!" he wrote.The AAP government and the Delhi Police engaged in a blame game on January 19 after a court questioned the department for filing a chargesheet in the sedition case against former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and others without procuring the required sanction from authorities.

An AAP government spokesperson said no file seeking any prosecution sanction in any JNU-related case had so far been brought to the notice of any Delhi minister.

"If the Delhi Police are making any such claim, it is a complete lie and they are hiding something," he said.

However, a senior Delhi Police official said prosecution sanction is required at the stage of taking cognisance.

He said that while filing the chargesheet, the investigating officer had mentioned that he has applied for sanction from the Delhi government.

"It was applied for the same day," the spokesperson said.

Sources said the file for sanction was received by the home department and forwarded to the law department for necessary action.

Earlier January 19, a Delhi court questioned police for filing a chargesheet against Kumar and others in the sedition case without procuring the required sanction.

"Why did you file (the chargesheet) without approval? You don't have a legal department," the court said.

On January 14, police filed the chargesheet against Kumar and others, saying he was leading a procession and supported seditious slogans raised on the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus during an event on February 9, 2016.

They previously claimed before the court that Kumar had raised anti-India slogans "to incite hatred and disaffection towards the government".

Police also charged former JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans during the event to mark the hanging of Parliament attack mastermind Afzal Guru.

The event had taken place despite the university administration cancelling the permission, following a complaint from ABVP, which had termed it "anti-national".

A case was registered on February 11, 2016 under sections 124A and 120B of the IPC against unidentified persons at Vasant Kunj (North) police station, following complaints from BJP lawmaker Maheish Girri and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

State Bank of India (SBI) on January 19 said Hitachi Payment Services (HPY) has agreed to pick up 26 per cent stake in SBI Payment Services Private Limited (SPSPL), a card acceptance and digital payment platform. After allotment of the shares, SBI shareholding in SPSPL will become 74 percent from existing 100 per cent, the bank said in a statement.

However, it did not disclose the financial details of the deal.

The JV will provide various payment options to customers and merchants focusing on areas such as rollout of a nationwide card acceptance infrastructure, quick response (QR) code acceptance, Unified Payment Interface (UPI), mass transit sector and e-commerce businesses.On the 15th of every alternate month, Veronica Waghim and a few of her friends drive down almost 50 kilometers away from her village to the state capital of Kohima (to friends/relatives' homes) to collect a few products that people in their neighbourhood have ordered from e-commerce portals. It may not be a smooth drive but she says that it is worth the effort when they get hold of the products, which are otherwise not available in the local market.

Shoes, clothes and other accessories are the most common ones on the list of items ordered. Mostly branded merchandise that will not get delivered to the interiors of her home state Nagaland, get delivered to the larger cities. And people don't mind driving down for that.

Most of us imagine people from villages to wear plain unbranded clothes and footwear. States like Nagaland could well be an exception because they are not only willing to drive extra miles for the right attire, there is a well-defined brand consciousness among the youth as well.

She says that exposure to the internet and international lifestyles have increased the aspirations of those in her village. So, whenever there are new product launches by a Nike, Adidas or even Prada, they are the first to know. And it is a matter of pride when someone of a particular age group gets is before the others. Further, she also knows of people who drive from as far as 200 kilometres away to get goods ordered online.

"Most of us work part-time as guides for tourists during busy seasons like the Hornbill festival (December 1-10 every year). Whatever money we make out of them is mostly spent on buying new apparel and shoes. The idea is to earn yourself and spend as you please," she says.

Considered as the fashion capital of the country, the North East is estimated to contribute a majority chunk of branded apparel sale of online retailers. But last mile connectivity has been a consistent problem.

A Bain and Company report had said that China, South Korea, and increasingly India, are at the forefront of digitalisation in retail. In fact, India saw a compounded annual growth rate of 53 percent in e-retail penetration from 2013 to 2017 beating its Asian peers. E-commerce players are also taking note. Amazon, for instance, expanded its delivery network to the North East in early 2018. But there are several states, especially Nagaland, that only have a handful of delivery points.

As e-commerce players drive business deeper into the Indian hinterland, youngsters like Waghim may no longer have to travel to bigger cities to get their aspirational goods. And the misconceptions about the spending abilities of Indians in rural markets may also get busted with a significantly larger sales reported from smaller towns.

While road infrastructure is shoddy in several parts of India, especially the North-East, there is a rising opportunity for the global players to cater to the newer markets that are opening up. Setting up a physical store may not be feasible, but local grocery stores could be used as a delivery point. Similarly, post offices and bank branches could also facilitate product delivery.

The market for branded products has fast moved into areas which were once viewed as 'no-go' areas. The buyers are willing to walk a few miles to get their products. It is time the retailers also get ready to make their move.Artificial intelligence (AI) is encouraging a gradual evolution in the job market that, with the right preparation, will be positive. New jobs will offset those lost. People will still work, but they'll work more efficiently with the help of AI, according to a PwC 2018 report.

Another report on AI by Gartner said that faster upskilling means faster AI deployment. Elucidating on it, the report further said, "Enterprises that intend to take full advantage of AI shouldn't just bid for the most brilliant computer scientists. If they want to get AI up and running quickly, they should move to provide functional specialists with AI literacy. Larger organizations should prioritize by determining where AI is likely to disrupt operations first and start upskilling there."

Microsoft is treading on the same path. The company aims to skill over 10,000 developers. It also plans to set up AI labs in 10 universities and train 5 lakh youths across the country over the next three years, said Rohini Srivastav, National Technology Officer, Microsoft India, while addressing a two-day conference at the company's R&D centre in Bengaluru.

As part of the Intelligent Cloud Hub program, Microsoft will support selected institutions with best-in-class infrastructure, onsite training for faculty and students, curriculum and content, access for participating students to cloud and AI services, developmental tools and developer support.

The company will also offer a wide range of AI developmental tools and Azure AI Services such as Microsoft Cognitive Services, Azure Machine Learning and Bot Services. Training will include development workshops to help both the faculty and students build their skills and expertise in cloud computing, data sciences, AI and IoT. Additionally, it will assist faculty in strategizing content and curriculum for project-based and experiential learning.

For research focused institutions, Microsoft will provide AI-based recommendations for potential areas of research. Support will also be available in terms of an in-campus Cloud Software Research Associate throughout the duration of the program.

According to a recent TeamLease report, India's IT industry will see an addition of around 2.5 lakh new jobs in 2019. The HR and staffing solutions provider said that the adoption of emerging technologies such as AI, machine learning, and robotics for automation is driving the industry's growth.

Besides fresh hiring, IT sector will focus on upskilling employees which is estimated to increase by around 20 percent, the TeamLease report said.

While statements like robots and AI will destroy jobs have made headlines, the Gartner report states that in 2020, AI will become a positive net job motivator. It will create 2.3 million jobs while only eliminating 1.8 million jobs.

In 2021, AI augmentation will generate $2.9 trillion in business value and recover 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity. By 2022, one in five workers engaged in mostly non-routine tasks will rely on AI to do their jobs, as per the report.SAGINAW, MI - Michael A. Webster believes Saginaw County on the rise and says retaining young talent and accepting fresh ideas are the keys to the countys success.

If employees feel good about what they do, that will translate into the service they provide, Webster said. We can create the right conditions so that they can provide the optimal level of service to the public."

The newly elected chairman of the Saginaw County Commissioners represents the 11th District, which covers parts of the city of Saginaw and parts of Saginaw Township.

Webster holds a bachelors degree from Hampton University and a masters from Central Michigan University. Webster was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, and is married to Karen Lawrence-Webster, a trustee for Delta College.

Michael Webster was recently appointed president of the board of directors for the Saginaw YMCA and serves on the board of directors for HealthSource and Michigan Works.

On a tour through the Saginaw County Governmental Center, 111 S. Michigan, he stopped by the county clerks office to point out new accommodations made for people with impairments.

It took someone new coming in to implement these ideas, Webster said.

Webster, 54, was elected as a commissioner in 2016 to serve a four-year term. He became the boards chairman on Jan. 2.

He pointed to a sign in the commissioners chambers that reads: Be the change. #saginawcountyrise.

We can rise up as a county, Webster said.

New developments throughout the county, including the Delta College satellite campus in downtown Saginaw, are indicators the county is rising, Webster said.

Saginaw County is rising up out of its current condition to reach its future goals and aspirations, he said.

Webster replaced Commissioner Carl Ruth as chairman. Ruth now serves as vice-chairman.

Newly elected Commissioner Sheldon Matthews, who represents Spaulding and James townships and part of the city and part of Saginaw Township, was sworn in at the Jan. 2 meeting.

Matthews replaced Susan McInerney, who did not seek reelection.BROOKLYN, MI.  The Michigan International Speedway, MIS Cares and Americrown donated more than $1 million in grants to local service groups and organizations in 2018.

The money was raised through cash donations, in-kind donations, work programs, grants and sponsorships, organizers say. Raffle tickets and merchandise were also sold.

We are proud to give back to so many great organizations in the area, MIS President Rick Brenner said in a news release. We continue to look for ways to create opportunities to give back and make an impact throughout the region.

An MIS Charity Dinner during the FireKeepers Casino 400 weekend raised $29,434 in June 2018. The funds went toward the Henry Ford Allegiance Health Foundation Patient Immediate Needs Fund and the MIS Cares Fund.

Nineteen community organizations received $85,000 in grants.

Recipients include:

Associated Charities of Lenawee County  Back to School Program 2019

Community Learning Connections  Ruling Our eXperiences (ROX) Girl Empowerment Mother  Daughter Workshop

Concord Food for Thought  Weekend Backpack Program

Diuble Family Vision  WHIP Warning Hearing Impaired People

Habitat for Humanity of Lenawee County  The Great Pasty Project

I92 Ministries Inc.  I92 Weekend Backpack Meal Packs

Jackson Symphony Orchestra  Creative Outlets and Inclusion

Jasmynns Voice  Helping others find their voice, one iPad at a time

Junior Achievement of the Michigan Edge, Inc.  JA CEO Challenge

Lenawee Community Foundation  Lenawee Imagination Library

Northwest High School Communication Arts Project  Broadening Horizons, Expanding Options

Rise Above  Expand Impact

Sacred Heart Catholic School  Replace 10 Chromebook Laptop Computers

Save Our Youth / Help Them Prosper  After-School Mentoring Program

Square One Education Network  Master of Mobility

The Shop Rat Foundation  Manufacturing 2 U

Therapeutic Riding, Inc.  Adopt a Horse

YMCA of Lenawee County  Maple Pride Afterschool Program

Adrian College  Track and Explore

New toys and nonperishable food was raised at MISs 10th annual MIS Cares Charity Track and Toy Drive on Dec. 1.

Toys were donated to the U.S. Marines Toys for Tots in both Jackson and Lenawee counties. Food was donated to the Brooklyn Food Pantry and the St. Marys of Good Counsel Food Pantry in Adrian.

Hillsdale, Jackson, Leawee and Washtenaw County students will receive $5,000 in grants to further their education, donatated by MIS and the speedway.

Recipients included:

Felician Childrens Center Preschool  STEM Learning through mud science

Lumen Christi High School  Lumen Christi HPL

Michigan Center Junior/Senior High School  FIRST Robotics Program

St. John the Evangelist Elementary  Next Generation Science Standards

Western High School  STEAM CrossBraining

MIS Cares will award at least 10 scholarships to graduating seniors in Hillsdale, Jackson, Lenawee and Washtenaw Counties entering a STEM-related field in 2019. Applications are available at www.mispeedway.com/scholarship. The deadline is Feb. 22.GRAND RAPIDS, MI  An East Grand Rapids insurance and risk management firm is the latest tenant to lease space within a new 15-story office building under construction in downtown Grand Rapids.

Van Wyk Risk Solutions will lease the 10th floor of the Warner Building, 150 Ottawa Ave. NW., and plans to move in once construction wraps up by late July or early August, Orion Construction spokesperson Jason Wheeler said Friday.

The addition of Van Wyk means commercial space at the building is now fully leased. Other tenants include Chemical Bank and the law firm Warner, Norcross + Judd.

Its huge for us, Wheeler said. For us, it was confirmation that providing new commercial office space in the urban core is still an important facet, because we are running out of inventory when it comes to renovated space.

The Warner Building is being built alongside a 12-story Hyatt Place Hotel thats also under construction. Both buildings are owned by a partnership that includes Orion, DTM Management of Lansing and SIBSCO, the real estate firm run by the family of Peter Secchia, a local business leader and former U.S. Ambassador to Italy.

Together, the two buildings have a $72 million price tag. They are located at the site of a former 125-space parking lot.

David Wiener, a senior vice president at Colliers International, a real estate firm that worked to bring VanWyk to the Warner Building, said the fact that the buildings commercial space is fully leased demonstrates the demand for high-end office space downtown.

Any building that has had some money put into it recently, space is almost non-existent, he said.

Warner, Norcross + Judd will occupy the most office space in the Warner Building  floors 11 through 15. Chemical Bank is leasing the 9th floor for its West Michigan headquarters.

A 432-space parking garage will occupy floors 2 through 8.

And the first floor will host a Chemical Bank branch and space for about two retailers. Wheeler said the retail space has not been leased, but there are a bunch of interested partners. Possible uses for that space could include a coffee shop or other retail options. Wheeler said it also could possibly be used as office space for a nonprofit organization.

Wieners firm tracks vacancy rates at 104 office buildings downtown. He said the overall vacancy rate is 11.3 percent. But when examining high-end office space, thats either newly constructed or renovated, the vacancy rate is about 5 percent, he said.

The Warner Building is the only major office building under construction in downtown Grand Rapids, Wiener said.

While his firms statistics show a high-demand for office space, the sector hasnt been without its challenges.

At least one project underway in downtown Grand Rapids was once eyed for office space, but the developer backed away from the idea.

Commercial real estate firm SIBSCO originally planned to build a 12-story, 150,000-square-foot building with several stories of office space, as well as ground-floor retail and restaurant space, at the corner of Division Avenue and Weston Street SW.

That plan didnt materialize after developers failed to draw sufficient interest from tenants and retailers. The project has since been scaled back to include a three-story building, with first floor retail space and apartments on the two remaining floors.

Also, in October, commercial real estate firm Franklin Partners backed away from its plans to develop a seven-story office building  aimed at attracting one of the regions large employers to high-end space downtown  at the Studio Park development.

Studio Park is a $140 million movie, housing, hotel and parking development south of the Van Andel Arena. The developers behind the project still plan to include an office space component, though it will differ from what Franklin Partners envisioned.FLINT, MI -- Elevated levels of PFAS have been discovered in groundwater on Bishop Airport property, and the state has added it to a list of sites requiring further investigation.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality collected six groundwater samples from monitoring wells on airport property, land that was reportedly operated as a landfill by the city of Flint from 1966 until 1975, finding as much as 1,236 parts per trillion total polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), according to a state PFAS Web site.

The same testing showed the highest level of PFOS and PFOA at 176 ppt.

PFAS are a group of man-made chemicals that includes PFOA, PFOS and many other chemicals that have been manufactured and used in a variety of industries in the United States since the 1940s, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Although there are few regulations to stop the spread of PFAS, either from the EPA or from the state, Michigans rule for water quality specifically limiting PFOS to 12-ppt -- is one of them.

Pat Corfman, a Bishop spokeswoman, said the airport uses water produced by the Karegnondi Water Authority -- not from groundwater, but the state says future work at the airport will include a monitor well network to evaluate the impact on the drinking water aquifer and to evaluate potential risks to nearby private wells.

The airport property is located along Swartz Creek, and areas near the airport appear to be serviced by private wells, the state PFAS Web site says.

Bishop Director Craig Williams issued a statement to MLive-The Flint Journal Friday, Jan. 18, saying the DEQ is studying ways to mitigate any runoff from the old landfill area. The airport has been proactively working to support the DEQ in (its) remediation efforts and will continue to do so," Williams' statement says.

State Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, issued a statement Friday calling the discovery an alarming and worrisome situation" and saying that the direct source of contamination must be identified and cleaned up immediately.

The list of PFAS contamination sites across our state continues to grow and grow as a direct result of decades of negligent environmental safety regulations," Ananichs statement says. Ive said it a million times: Michiganders deserve to be able to trust the water from their taps, and that cannot happen until legislation is passed to strengthen water safety rules and to hold corporate polluters accountable.

"These are dangerous chemicals that have been linked to cancer, immune system issues and developmental problems in children. PFAS contamination needs to be treated and addressed like the serious health crisis it is.

In addition to the Bishop Airport property, the state has listed other Genesee County sites on its list of sites found to have elevated levels of PFAS.

At the old Buick City site in Flint, one of the locations, testing revealed a paint shop tested at 15,000 ppt of PFOS.ANN ARBOR, MI - Ann Arbor is getting a visit from a trio of Mean Girls," who will speak about their Broadway experiences on Jan. 28 at the Ann Arbor District Library.

University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance alums Ashley Park, Erika Henningsen and Taylor Louderman will discuss the Tony-nominated musical adaptation of the 2004 film at 7:30 p.m. inside the downtown librarys first floor lobby, 343 S. Fifth Ave.

The trio earned major roles in Tina Feys musical adaptation, including Park, who earned a Tony nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role for her role as Gretchen Weiner. Park, an Ann Arbor native, is both a UM and Ann Arbor Pioneer High School alum.

Louderman earned a nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for her role of villain Regina George in Mean Girls, who was portrayed by Rachel McAdams on screen. Louderman attended UM through her sophomore year before taking a sabbatical after earning a starring role in Bring It On: The Musical.

Park and Louderman are joined on the cast of Mean Girls by Henningsen, an SMTD alum who was cast to play the role of Cady Heron, the musicals protagonist, which was portrayed by Lindsey Lohan. Overall, the musical earned 12 Tony nominations.

The event is free and open to the public.Elissa Slotkin started her run for Michigans 8th Congressional District in part because she felt Washington was broken.

After narrowly defeating incumbent Rep. Mike Bishop in November 2018, the Holly Democrat is experiencing the partisan dysfunction she described on the campaign trail firsthand, entering Congress in the midst of the longest U.S. government shutdown in history.

Shes frustrated by the gridlock, but she remains hopeful that new members of Congress like herself can inform the conversation and show there are people out there who are just not going to accept that this is the way Washington is.

I didnt expect that we would get elected and sunshine and rainbows would just appear and it would be easy, the former U.S. Department of Defense official said ahead of a Lansing event with U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow. No matter what was going to be happening at this time, what no matter what was going to be our first issue, it was always going to be complicated because of our government right now.

Slotkin served three tours in Iraq with the CIA before holding several positions with the U.S. State Department and the Department of Defense. Prior to her Congressional run, she served as an adviser to two Secretaries of Defense on the Middle East, Europe and NATO, Russia, Africa, and the Western Hemisphere.

She is one of four new Democratic members of Congress from Michigan, along with fellow Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit, Haley Stevens of Rochester Hills and Andy Levin of Bloomfield Twp. Slotkins campaign in the 8th Congressional District was closely watched nationwide, and her win - along with Stevens' win in the 11th District - brought Michigans Congressional delegation to a 7-7 split and contributed to Democrats securing a majority in the House.

During the shutdown, Slotkin is donating her paycheck to the Alzheimers Association in solidarity with federal employees who arent being paid, and said shes heard stories from federal workers across Michigan whose situations are becoming increasingly dire. She said shes absolutely willing to work on negotiating a deal to address border security, but believes the federal government shouldnt be held hostage to that conversation.

Slotkin said the shutdown has impeded significant progress on policy priorities shes eager to get to, including a wide-ranging infrastructure package and an overhaul of federal campaign finance rules. She said shes particularly passionate about requiring similar disclosure rules for PACs that currently exist for political campaigns.

If youre going to donate money into our political process, whether its $15 or $15 million, you should have to say...what your name is, where youre from, and who you work for, she said.

With Democrats in charge of the House, she said party leaders now have an obligation to live up to what voters asked for in the 2018 elections and use the power of holding a branch of government to stake out a clear agenda, be willing to negotiate with Republican leadership and provide more Congressional oversight. Slotkin announced this week shed be serving on the House Armed Services Committee.

When youre in the majority, you can hold hearings, subpoena people, open up the conversation, shine a light on what the executive branch is doing in a way that we just havent been," Slotkin said.

Prior to Slotkins election, the 8th Congressional District had been held by Republicans since 2000, and her election was one of the closest contests in the state. Throughout the election cycle, attack ads against Slotkin alleged she was a Washington insider who was hand-picked by Pelosi to replace Bishop in the House.

Slotkin was ultimately among a handful of Democrats who did not support House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - ahead of the vote, she said she respected Pelosis service, but believed it was time for a different generation of leadership.

Slotkin said the influx of new voices into the party with one of the largest and most diverse group of new lawmakers in Congressional history is contributing to a complete political tornado in Washington that hasnt been stymied by the government shutdown.

She said she and many of her colleagues on both sides of the aisle are privately discussing potential solutions and continuing to encourage party leaders to get in the damn room and recognize that giving up or waiting for issues like the shutdown to resolve themselves isnt an option.

We all have a fire under us to get something done, she said. Were trying to still figure out the dynamic between all of us, and the leadership is still trying to figure out how to manage this very, very energetic and outspoken class.Divers and search crews were waiting for Lake Michigan conditions to calm down today before going back out to look for a 16-year-old boy who could not be rescued Friday night after jumping off the Waukegan, Ill. pier to help a friend who had fallen into the water.

The boy who initially slipped off the pier was rescued, according to a report from ABC Channel 7. But the teen who jumped into the lake to help could not be found by rescuers, who searched for more than an hour Friday night amid a snowstorm and falling temperatures.

The incident occurred about 4:30 p.m. near the Waukegan Municipal Beach. The suburban community is located just north of Chicago.

Three boys were walking on the pier in the snowstorm when one 16-year-old boy reportedly slipped and fell into the lake, Waukegan Fire Marshal Steven Lenzi said, according to Channel 7. His friend, also 16, jumped in to save him, while the other boy called 911, according to media reports.

Both boys in the water were seen to be struggling in the lakes rough currents, the fire marshal said.

The first boy who fell in was able to get out of the water. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Rescuers looking for the second boy faced challenging conditions, including low visibility and treacherous waves, Lenzi said. A winter storm warning remained in effect for the area this morning.DETROIT -- While auto industry insiders hobnobbed at the Cobo Center during an exclusive, black tie preview of the North American International Auto Show on Friday, GM workers and activists with little to celebrate protested outside.

UAW members, environmental activists and some elected officials rallied in multiple demonstrations against the planned closure of GMs Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant and other U.S. factories.

The auto workers union held a candlelight vigil in Detroits Hart Plaza in unified support of the thousands of individuals who will be adversely affected by General Motors decision to stop production at four Michigan, Maryland and Ohio plants."

Another group focused on environmental concerns joined the demonstration and the crowd marched to Cobo Center, where protesters chanted Which side are you on? toward attendees arriving at the gala.

GM proclaims its commitment to a zero emissions future, it has decided to pull the plug on the hybrid Volt, which is manufactured at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant, so it can focus on gas-guzzling pickup trucks and SUVs, the group said in a statement released before the demonstration.

GM announced the planned closures in November 2018, citing transforming product development, optimizing product portfolio, staffing transformation and increasing capacity utilization as the three core reasons behind the cuts.

The Detroit auto show opens to the public Saturday, Jan. 19. Full coverage here.Theyre about to head to Japan to start a world tour. Before that, Michigan rockers Greta Van Fleet will perform on national TV on Saturday Night Live.

UPDATE: WHAT SNL FANS THOUGHT OF GRETA VAN FLEETS PERFORMANCES (VIDEO)

The Frankenmuth four are the music guest for tonights show on NBC at 11:30 p.m. ET (January 19, 2019). Actress Rachel Brosnahan from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is the shows guest host.

Greta Van Fleet are scheduled to perform two songs, but its live TV, so who knows. Their publicist tells MLive that we will just have to tune in to see which songs the young rockers will perform.

This will be the groups second nationally televised performance in the U.S. They played The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon on July 26, 2018, receiving a standing ovation after performing When the Curtain Falls from their first full-length album, Anthem of the Peaceful Army.

GRETA VAN FLEET IN DETROIT: HOW THEY SOUNDED, SETLIST, SWAG & MORE

The group spent much of 2018 touring to sold out concerts all over the world. They ended 2018 with three sold out shows at the Fox Theatre in Detroit. Beginning next week they have concerts scheduled in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, France, The UK, Mexico, Belgium, Argentina, Chile and Ireland before headed back to the U.S. and Canada for concerts in May.

MEET GRETNA VANFLEET, THE WOMAN WHOSE NAME INSPIRED GRETA VAN FLEET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Just because your vacation may be delayed by COVID doesn't mean it can't be better than in prior years.'At the Limits of What I Can Do:' Marine Corps Commandant Makes Plea for Funding

Gen. David Berger told Congress that the service has trimmed assets and people and needs full funding to ensure readiness.LATHAM, N.Y. -- The New York National Guard placed more than 450 soldiers and airmen on active duty Friday, Jan. 18, at the direction of New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, as the first major snow storm of 2019 headed for New York and the northeast.

"The impending storm will be problematic and dangerous because it will be a high level of snow over a large geographic area, and the state is deploying significant resources in preparation," Cuomo said.

"Drivers should stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary and residents should prepare for potential power outages. Emergency Operations Centers are activated throughout the state this weekend to monitor the situation and we are already deploying significant additional resources and assets to ensure the safety of all New Yorkers throughout the duration of this storm."

State officials warned New Yorkers to expect 12 to 24 inches of snowfall throughout Upstate New York over the weekend with winter storm warnings across all of Upstate.

The storm will begin to roll in from the southwest Saturday morning and overspread the state Saturday afternoon into evening. The heaviest of the snowfall will be overnight Saturday through the day Sunday.

Snowfall forecasts have remained the same with the majority of Upstate set to receive 14 to 20 inches and a portion of the Albany area receiving up to 24 inches. Snow will linger into Monday with gusting winds causing blowing snow conditions.

The New York National Guard was prepared to deploy 200 soldiers and airmen in 10 Immediate Response Force (IRF) teams at air bases and armories across the state, from Long Island to Buffalo. The New York Air National Guard operates from five bases.

Each team consists of 20 soldiers or airmen and five Humvees or tactical trucks. The IRFs are capable of providing transportation support to police or other critical personnel, moving key supplies, and conducting limited debris clearance missions.

Joint Task Force Empire Shield, the New York National Guard security augmentation element in the New York City metropolitan area also stood up response forces prepared to assist New York City government.

The 750 soldier and airmen task force has 25 vehicles standing by to provide mobility support and also assist in debris removal with chainsaw teams. About 100 soldiers are assigned to the storm response mission.

Another 150 soldiers and airmen were standing by to conduct logistics support and mission command operations.

Debris clearance teams were placed on standby at the 105th Airlift Wing at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, N.Y. and at the 109th Airlift Wing at Stratton Air National Guard Base, Schenectady County Airport, in Scotia. N.Y.

New York Army National Guard soldiers and trucks will also be stationed at New York State emergency supply stockpile locations across the state to transport emergency supplies if required. The requirement to have three tractor trailers at the emergency storage locations has changed to a mix of vehicles.

A total of 105 vehicles are committed to the response mission.

Major General Raymond Shields, the Adjutant General of New York, also placed a small number of members of the New York State Defense Forces; the New York Naval Militia and the New York Guard; on state active duty to assist in the storm response.

Trained New York Guard personnel are conducting chainsaw training classes for New York National Guard soldiers, and both the Naval Militia and the New York Guard are providing personnel to augment headquarters operations.The world's most expensive fighter jet soon may be flying with parts made from a 3D printer.

Maintainers at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, last month installed for the first time a metallic 3D-printed bracket on an operational F-22 Raptor, according to the Air Force and Lockheed Martin, the company that produces the $150 million aircraft.

If the titanium piece holds up, the part will be installed on all F-22 aircraft during maintenance, and the use of 3D parts in the aircraft could be expanded, with the eventual goal of reducing depot time for the maintenance-prone jets, officials said.

"We're looking to go a little bit further as this part proves itself out," said Robert Blind, Lockheed Martin modifications manager, as quoted in an Air Force release.

Though a first for the stealthy F-22, harnessing 3D printing technology for use in a combat jet isn't new among the services, which have used additive manufacturing for everything from Humvee door handles and rifle grips to gas mask modifications.

The Marine Corps last April flew an F-35B Lighting II aircraft with a part supplied by a 3D printer to replace a worn, plastic bumper on the plane's landing gear door. The part was printed, approved and installed within a few days, eliminating a longer wait for a replacement part from the States.

Unlike the Marines' plastic bumper, the 3D bracket in the F-22 was made using a powder bed fusion process with a laser to build the part layer by layer from a titanium powder, the Air Force said.

The printed bracket won't corrode, it said. It replaced a corrosion-prone aluminum component in the kick panel assembly of the cockpit that is replaced 80 percent of the time during maintenance.

The part will be monitored while in service and inspected when the aircraft returns to Hill Air Force Base for maintenance, the release said. If validated, the part will be installed on all F-22 aircraft undergoing maintenance.

The Air Force said it has at least five more metallic 3D printed parts it plans to test on the F-22.

"Once we get to the more complicated parts, the result could be a 60 to 70 day reduction in flow time for aircraft to be here for maintenance," Robert Lewin, 574th Aircraft Maintenance director at Hill, said in the statement.

The Air Force did not say how much time or money 3D printing could save in F-22 maintenance. But Lewin said the technology gives the maintainers the ability to acquire replacement parts on short notice without minimum order quantities, an issue that's particularly challenging in the F-22 community due to the small fleet size.

Maintenance problems and the small size of F-22 squadrons have contributed to low aircraft availability rates service-wide, a government report found last year.MIDDLETOWN  The city is spearheading a statewide economic development initiative that aims to revitalize urban centers where streets bear the name of civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Norwalk and New Britain have joined with Middletown leaders in the Martin Luther King Jr. Corridors Initiative, a stimulus program that also intends to address jobs, housing and education in these communities through a public-private partnership between faith, public and private sector leaders, groups and institutions.

Faith leaders joined numerous state and local officials, filling City Hall Council Chambers in a two-hour program Friday afternoon that began with the audience joining in on Lift Every Voice and Sing.

A $100,000 grant from the state is intended to kick start the initiative. Liberty Bank and Key Bank, along with private contributors, have promised at least another $50,000, said state Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown.

Deputy House Speaker Bruce Morris, D-Norwalk, welcomed Lesser, a member of the Black and Latino caucus (his mother is from Argentina), and state Rep. Quentin Phipps, D-Middletown, the citys first black state representative. Lesser and state Sen. Ed Gomes of Bridgeport were instrumental in introducing and spearheading the MLK project.

Times are changing, but will we make certain the outcomes will change? Morris asked, then referenced the words of Rev. William McKissick, president of the Middletown Ministerial Alliance, who had preceded him at the dias.

You said it well. The condition of this country is so divided. ... We deliberately named streets after (King) to deliberately further his dream, but we deliberately did nothing there afterwards. It takes a deliberate grant like this, that is designed to bring all of us together, Morris said, his voice raising with emotion.

Legislation was developed with the state Department of Banking, in collaboration with Lesser and Gomes, in response to concerns, conditions and opportunities identified in talks between former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the founders of FREEDOM (Faith, Restoration, Empowerment & Economic Development Outreach Ministries).

The latter includes the Rev. Carl McCluster, pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Bridgeport; and social justice advocate and faith and community leader William Callion of Stamford.

Morris referenced Kings speech to striking sanitation workers at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tenn., the day before he was assassinated.

Unless the economy includes all of us  it included us when we were black and picking cotton  I care about it [including] all of us as beneficiaries of that economy. Thats what this grant is about, Morris said.

The idea is the ensure places such as Middletown, Norwalk and New Britain are economically inclusive, he said.

We cannot allow our urban cities to dwindle: be left to themselves. Now we have the opportunity to collaborate, to think together about how these areas will benefit everyones education, because weve all said education is the great equalizer  making sure all kids in these communities are educated, Morris said.

More for you News Taking King's mission to the streets

Lesser took the microphone, acknowledging the effect the lawmaker/pastors words have on audiences. Lesser said his mission, while a fellow state representative, was to never follow Morris during a press conference. I failed at that today, he said, as laughter rang around the room.

We are 56 years from the March on Washington, and we often forget it wasnt the March on Washington, it was a March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. During his lifetime, Dr. King was able to win great battles for legal equality for civil rights on paper. Weve learned theres a big difference between legal equality and substantive equality, that economic justice, which is what were here talking about today, is critical, Lesser said.

That vision of economic justice he died by  that is still unrealized, he added.

Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz wasnt able to attend the presentation. Her senior advisor, Jimmy Tickey, read a statement from the Middletown resident.

Dr. King said, By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry, and lifted the whole nation to undreamed levels of production. Gov. Lamont and I believe that in order to lift Connecticut up to new levels, we must also raise the living standards of Connecticuts people and address some of the most serious economic inequalities in Connecticut, Tickey read.

That includes passing paid family medical leave, raising the minimum wage to $15, and closing the gender pay gap, Bysiewicz said in her letter. Black and Latino women are making 63 cents and 54 cents, respectively, compared to their male counterparts $1, she said.

Wesleyan University was host to King four times  in 1962, 1963, 1964 (when he delivered the baccalaureate address) and 1966), according to the special collections and archive blog. President Michael Roth attended the proceedings. He will work with the collaborative, along with CONNCAN (which aims to improve education for children statewide), and municipal and state education leaders to improve educational outcomes and enhance the town-gown relationship, according to the initiative.

The plan was designed to develop and share models that can be replicated in neighborhoods and communities in municipalities throughout Connecticut  and the nation.

MLK Boulevard: A Snapshot of King's Dream Deferred, published on the Colorlines daily news site delves into some of the more than 900 streets in the United States named after the Nobel Prize winner.

The existence of so many Martin Luther King streets is complicated by the fact that so little of the economic justice that King fought for five decades ago has come to fruition.

According to researchers at the University of North Texas, residents in neighborhoods with streets named after King are $6,000 poorer than residents in neighborhoods without one, the Colorlines article reads.

Visit faithandresults.com for information.BAD AXE  The Huron Daily Tribune announces that Bradley Massman has been promoted to the position of assistant editor.

Brad has been a huge asset to our newsroom, and I couldnt be more proud of him receiving this well-deserved promotion, said Tribune Editor Kate Hessling.HURON COUNTY  The Michigan Air National Guard is seeking input on a plan to update military training airspace around an aerial gunnery range in northern Michigan  a change that officials say could alter noise levels in surrounding communities.

Huron County could be one of those communities  and the changes could alter more than just noise levels in the county.

The proposal would change and create new military operating areas in the Alpena Special Use Airspace Complex. That site is the militarys largest training zone east of the Mississippi River and includes the Grayling Aerial Gunnery Range.

Current military operating areas, where military aircraft can practice intercepts, turning and evasive maneuvers, were established 50 years ago and are too small for modern aircraft, guard officials say.

The military is interested in modifying the airspace to accommodate better training for modern fighter aircraft, said Matthew Trumble, director of exercises for the Michigan Air National Guard.

Guard officials are currently gathering concerns from municipalities in Alpena, Crawford, Montmorency, Otsego, Presque Isle, Huron, Sanilac and Tuscola counties by arranging meetings with local officials.

Officials said the areas could see new low and medium altitude military operating areas, while the gunnery range would get an increased ceiling. The adjustments could cause changes in the amount of ground noise. Currently, the floor for the operating area is 5,000 feet, whereas the new flight zone would be lowered to 500 feet.

A 37-year flying veteran with a commercial pilot license, Huron County Sheriff Kelly J. Hanson remembers how prior to the closure of the Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda, low level military flying in the area caused many complaints from residents. He said sonic booms would sometimes cause shaking homes, broken windows, startled residents and spooked livestock.

"I don't think it is a good idea," said Hanson. "I think there's going to be a lot of resistance to it."

However, loud noises may be the least of the potential problems. According to the Huron County Road Commission, the change would almost certainly disrupt the everyday happenings at Huron County Memorial Airport.

The road commission, which manages the airport on behalf of the county, has already come out in opposition because of the effect it will have on the airport. According to road commission Secretary-Manager Neal Hentschl, the county became aware of the proposed change about a month ago. Since then, officials have been collecting information in preparation for a potential meeting with the National Guard in February.

"It will really hamstring the airport  the flights in and out of there," Hentschl said.

Hanson explained exactly how the airport would be affected, saying that when military airspace becomes active, they will not allow any airplanes flying off of instruments. Flying by reference to instruments instead of visual flight is what takes place with the majority of the many commercial flights coming and going from Bad Axe. Many times, this is because of weather conditions.

"There aren't many days, especially in the afternoon, where there aren't some kind of clouds that you have to deal with in order to come into an airport," Hanson said.

Added Hanson: "It isn't going to be good for the Bad Axe airport and the traffic that comes in and out of there, because it's going to be impeded."

The guard doesnt plan to hold public meetings on its plans, but a 45-day comment period will open once they are finalized in the next few months.

Under the plans, aircraft will typically fly two to four hours each weekday, with occasional training exercises occurring on the weekend, the guard said. Night flying will also occur occasionally, though exercises will conclude by midnight.

About two to four aircraft will be flying in an operating area during training, though the number could reach up to 10 depending on training needs.

"Certainly we're all supporting of the military, there's no question, but practice out over the lake then," Hentschl said. "There's other areas that you can do that."On Thursday, 17 January 2019, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Markos Bolaris received the Head of the Holy Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church in Greece, Archbishop Khoren Arakelyan, as well as the President of the Armenians of Greece, Artenian Merouzian.

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs presented to Arakelyan the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' priority for laying down policy principles and forging a strategy for exercising religious and ecclesiastical diplomacy through continuous dialogue on the part of the Ministry with institutional ecclesiastical organisations, theologians, and academicians. He was briefed by the Most Reverend on the history of the establishment, in 1958, (following the separation of the Church established in Armenia from the Holy See of Cilicia in Beirut) of the churches in Greece and the flock of the Holy Armenian Orthodox Apostolic Church. In addition, he was briefed on Mr Arakelyans effort to organise a meeting of Armenian youth from Greece and Europe at a camp ground in our country, which he endorsed and expressed the desire to support.

The Most Reverend expressed his thanks for the scholarships that Greece provides to young people from Armenia who wish to undertake Theological Studies at Greek Universities and underscored the added value that the provision of scholarships also to graduates of the University of Etchmiadzin, a city where the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin is located, would have for the continuous functioning of his Church.

The President of the Armenian community estimated that approximately 70,000 citizens of Armenian descent reside in Greece today (both Greeks and non-Greeks.) He praised the reception that the latest wave of Armenian immigrants received in our country, after the fall of the USSR, and hoped that the administrative obstacles that they face, mainly on issues related to integration into the labour market, would be overcome. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs stressed his intention to support specific requests that will be sent by his interlocutors.What can be worse than being single in the New Year? Watching a frog make headlines for finding his soulmate and making lavish Valentine's Day plans with her.

via GIPHY

Turns out, the 'World's Loneliest Frog', Romeo isn't so lonely anymore as he has finally found his girlfriend aka soulmate in Juliet.

For 10 long years, Romeo (a Sehuencas water frog) had been living in isolation at the Museo de Historia Natural Alcide d'Orbigny in Bolivia. But, thanks to a team of scientists, who played cupid, Romeo found a female mating partner. Seriously, where can we sign up to get such a dedicated team to find a soulmate for us as well?

Here they are! The dream team that found @romeothefrog's beloved Juliet in the heart of the Dromne Forest! #Match4Romeo @MuseodOrbigny pic.twitter.com/7fzvEnkq50  Global Wildlife Conservation (@Global_Wildlife) January 16, 2019

Anyway, the reason such efforts were made is that Romeo is said to be the last one of its kind. This sent the conservationists into panic mode and they started looking for a mating partner for him, in order to save the species from becoming extinct.

YouTube

When we were busy swiping left and right on dating apps, the conservationists were making a profile for him on Match.com. Maybe, it's time to uninstall Tinder.

Now that they've found my love, starting to get really nervous...have I still got it?! #sweatingnuptialpads #dating #Match4Romeo  Romeo the World's Loneliest Frog (no longer!) (@romeothefrog) January 16, 2019

The frog not only has a dating profile, but he's also quite popular on social media.

Just a daydreaming frog waiting for my love.... Where are my hopeless romantics at?! #loveisintheair #Match4Romeo pic.twitter.com/XkXqPRWtPq  Romeo the World's Loneliest Frog (no longer!) (@romeothefrog) January 10, 2019

Reportedly, people even raised $25,000 to send an expedition team to the cloud forests in Bolivia to find more frogs of his kind and finally, they found one and named it Juliet.

Romeo, now probably the world's happiest frog, even tweeted about his new found love. What's more, Romeo and Juliet are set to go on a blind date on Valentine's Day next month.

Pinch me! Can this be real?! This isn't an early April Fool's joke, right?! It's starting to sink in  #toogoodtobetrue #match4romeo https://t.co/pZxQ9s0BlH  Romeo the World's Loneliest Frog (no longer!) (@romeothefrog) January 15, 2019

Twitter has all sorts of reactions about this love story. While some are genuinely happy for Romeo and Juliet, others are plain jealous that even a frog has Valentine's Day plans and they don't.

Never thought I'd be rooting for frog sex, but here we are. Hop to it, my dude. https://t.co/rE0iL35oVL  Taylor McCleve (@TaylorMcCleve) January 17, 2019

shit this is more exciting than waiting for avenger's movie https://t.co/bqEkiepqWG  MaD (@retardito) January 17, 2019

All you single people complaining you'll never find someone  if this frog can wait 10 years for a mate, YOU can make it.  https://t.co/9jD2nMJsoe  Sophie  (@thatgingeRNurse) January 17, 2019

I know they are frogs but I find this so romantic!  https://t.co/r2vJBnsy5L  Graciela Valenzuela (@Graciegurrrl) January 17, 2019

Great. So frogs can turn into mates? Miracles can happen? Oy. I hate it when my mom is right. #Jewishmothers #froganalogies #nature https://t.co/x9dEnACnwB  Susie D. (@SusieD_NYC) January 18, 2019

A literal frog has a date for Valentine's Day and I can't even get a text back.. Ok. https://t.co/aJCn7SSd8X  heidi (@leshay_heidi_) January 17, 2019

I'm happy for this frog species. Conservation is a great thing. However, do any other single humans find it a tiny bit depressing that a frog will have a date on Valentine's Day while the rest of us are at home still single? Guess we can all live vicariously through Romeo. https://t.co/3FEmhsfT5c  Aimee Hicks (@ahicks83) January 18, 2019

So a frog is going to have a better Valentine's Day than me this year



Happy 2019... https://t.co/Ewt7aEHNAa  Andy L (@AndrewLegon) January 17, 2019

...if this frog can find a soul mate in 2019 then so can I probably https://t.co/7ZHfyiGOZy  Shaxx Jr (@MalcomXanX) January 18, 2019

While the frog is tweeting about his girlfriend, we still continue to be the 'world's loneliest humans' and February 14 will basically be another 'Netflix and chill' day.Starting off the new year with a fresh security breach, Twitter is warning Android users that their private tweets might have been exposed.

Weve become aware of an issue in Twitter for Android that disabled the Protect Your Tweets setting if certain account changes were made, the company revealed on Thursday.

Android users might have been impacted if they had protected Tweets turned on in their settings -- and made certain changes to their settings, such as changing the email address associated with their account -- since late 2014.

At least for now, Twitter is insisting that iOS users were not affected by this latest breach.

Along with an official apology, the social network says it is in the process of informing users who might have been impacted by the issue.

For Twitter, this is just the latest failure to properly protect users privacy.

Just last month, the company alerted users to a bug that potentially exposed the country code of their personal phone numbers, as well as whether their accounts had been locked by the social giant.

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As with previous attacks on its platform, Twitter suspects foreign actors might have been involved in last months breach.

During its investigation, the company said it noticed unusual activity involving the affected customer support form API. Specifically, it observed a large number of inquiries coming from individual IP addresses located in China and Saudi Arabia.

Of course, Twitter isnt the only social network struggling to keep users information secure.

Last month, Facebook admitted it might have mistakenly overshared the photos of nearly 7 million users.

Facebooks issue stemmed from a photo API bug, which Facebook believed might have affected those who used Facebook Login, then granted permission to third-party apps to access their personal pictures.  ,     Mediapool.bg,         ,     -  .

   - ,       .           18:00 .The city of Sandy Springs continues to amend its development code, despite objections from some of its residents and even one council member.ATLANTA  Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Atlanta has announced that tickets are now on sale for Waitress, which will play at the Fox Theatre fSubmit A Press Release

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Note: All submissions will go through our editorial approval process before being posted.Get Cobb County news and local guidance about the coronavirus outbreak.

Sign up for our Email News Alerts.Those who read offbeat stories in a futile attempt to block out depressing political news like I do may have seen this viral story by now: A Texas woman was banned from a local Walmart after spending hours driving an electric shopping cart around the store's parking and guzzling wine from a Pringles can.

According to a story from The Associated Press, the source I turn to for breaking news about big-box store, alcohol-fueled small-town shenanigans, cops eventually found the woman in a nearby restaurant and told her not to return to the store. Police say the woman wasn't arrested and her name was not released.

I believe an immediate ban was premature. Perhaps she is a creative songwriter looking for the next big hit about drinking something out of something. Its a relatively unexplored subgenre of popular music, though, to my knowledge, none of those songs mentioned anything as awful as Pringles.Viola Caudill, 85, a resident of the Gowen Community passed away Thursday June 10, 2021 at home. A Graveside service will be held a 11:00 AM Monday June 14, 2021 in the Pavilion at Bache-Red Oak Cemetery. There will be a family and friends visitation on Sunday June 13, 2021 from 5:00pm to 7:McAlester, OK (74501)

Today

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds light and variable.As Massachusetts prepares for what could be the first major snowstorm this winter, the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning.

The warning has been issued for a period starting at 4 p.m. Saturday, running through 7 p.m. Sunday, and includes Franklin, Worcester, Middlesex, Essex and Hampshire counties.

A winter storm warning is issued when significant amounts of snow, as well as sleet and ice, are expected.

The National Weather Service predicts that snow accumulations could reach near 16 inches near the New Hampshire, Vermont and New York borders. Earlier predictions of even higher amounts have since been downgraded. Snow could fall at a rate of 1 to 2 inches an hour are possible at times. The National Weather Service has cautioned that there is still some uncertainty to snow totals for this storm due to the potential for it it switch over to rain in some areas.

Overall, the National Weather Service is forecasting snow accumulations of between 3 to 7 inches south of the Mass. Pike and 7 to 12 inches north of it with 12 to 15 inches near the New Hampshire border.

The agency said wind gusts could be as high as 40 miles per hour.

Heavy snow is expected to develop Saturday evening and change to freezing rain and sleet around daybreak Sunday.

Temperatures in the upper teens and lower 20s could lead to a flash freeze and icy roads, the weather service said.

The mixed precipitation will end as a period of snow on Sunday afternoon, according to the agency.MASHANTUCKET, Conn.  Red Sox owners John Henry and Tom Werner both plan to attend the teams visit to the White House next month but cautioned that the ongoing government shutdown could put the visit in jeopardy.

Its tough with the government shutdown, Henry said. Its something well be watching.

The target date for the trip is Feb. 15, with the team planning to fly up from Fort Myers and return on the same day. The organization has made it clear that each team employee will decide individually if they will attend.

No players have publicly said they will skip the event, but manager Alex Cora said Thursday that he is re-considering in the wake of recent developments about the administrations handling of crisis relief in Puerto Rico in 2017. Both Henry and Werner have attended the teams ceremonies in 2004, 2007 and 2013 and plan to do so once again.

Its our intention to go, Werner said. We went when President Bush honored the team. We went when President Obama honored the team. We look it as a way to celebrate what the team accomplished.

Its awkward if theres a shutdown, Werner said.MASHANTUCKET, Conn.  Andrew Benintendi has signed quite a few photos of his two famous 2018 postseason catches.

He caught the final out of Game 4 of the ALCS at Houston, a diving grab with the bases loaded and Boston ahead 8-6. He then made a leaping catch in Game 2 of the World Series in front of the Green Monster.

The one in front of the wall has been the most Ive seen, Benintendi said here at Red Sox Winter Weekend. I feel like I get tweeted that every single day, a picture of that. So its fun to see that.

He joked hes rebranding himself as a defensive outfielder.

ALCS Game 4 catch:

Game 2 World Series catch:President Donald Trump on Saturday afternoon proposed what he called a bipartisan deal aimed at ending the partial government shutdown and crisis at the countrys southern border, which includes temporary protection from deportation for thousands of young immigrants.

Amid his demands for a border wall, a campaign promise, Trump laid out what he called a common sense plan in a live announcement from the White House. He proposed:

$800 million in urgent humanitarian assistance

$805 million for drug detection technology

An additional 2,750 border agents and law enforcement professionals

75 new immigration judge teams to reduce the court backlog of almost 900,000 cases

$5.7 billion for a wall made of steel in high priority locations

Three years of legislative relief for 700,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA immigrants, also known as Dreamers, including protection from deportation and work permits

Three year extension of Temporary Protected Status for 300,000 immigrants while Congress works on a larger deal

Trump said the proposal is based on input from border agents and homeland security professionals.

The president called the proposal a compassionate response to the ongoing tragedy on our southern border, adding that it is a common sense compromise both parties should embrace.

Trump said the new system would include measures to protect migrant children from exploitation and abuse, including a system that would allow Central American minors to apply for asylum in their home countries.

Both sides in Washington must simply come together, listen to each other, put down their armor, build trust, reach across the aisle, and find solutions, Trump said.

The president said the proposal was not aimed at solving all immigration issues.

This plan solves the immediate crisis and it is a horrible crisis, he said. It is a humanitarian crisis like we rarely see in our country.

The proposed deal is aimed at ending the partial government shutdown, which entered its 29th day Saturday as hundreds of thousands of federal workers go without pay.

The offer has been criticized by top Democratic aides because it is not a permanent solution for Dreamers, and also because it includes money for the wall, which the party opposes, the AP reported.

Ahead of Trumps announcement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement referring to the proposal as a non-starter.

Unfortunately, initial reports make clear that his proposal is a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and in total, do not represent a good faith effort to restore certainty to peoples lives, Pelosi wrote. It is unlikely that any one of these provisions alone would pass the House, and taken together, they are a non-starter. For one thing, this proposal does not include the permanent solution for the Dreamers and TPS recipients that our country needs and supports.

The proposal follows days of tension between Trump and Pelosi.

Pelosi had suggested Trump postpone the annual State of the Union address that was tentatively scheduled for Jan. 29.

Trump then canceled Pelosis military flight scheduled on Thursday, hours before she and a congressional delegation were to depart for Afghanistan on the previously undisclosed visit to U.S. troops.

Pelosi said on Friday her plan to travel by commercial plane had been leaked by the White House. The Afghanistan trip was canceled, Pelosi citing a security risk.

The White House denied leaking any information.

Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.Gov. Charlie Baker hopes to expand eligibility for some Medicare coverage in his annual budget, helping low-income seniors pay for out of pocket hospital, doctor and drug costs.

Bakers annual state budget - which is scheduled to be released next week - will include $10 million extra for Medicare for low-income seniors. In exchange, the federal government would pay out $100 million, as part of the Medicare Savings Program. Most of the states contribution will come out of MassHealth, according to the governors office.

The proposal would make an additional 25,000 Massachusetts seniors eligible for the program, which helps cover out-of-pocket expenses for premiums and copays for doctor and hospital visits, as well as medication, according to the governors office.

The proposal would increase the income eligibility and asset test for the states seniors. With this plan, people over 65 making from $15,790 to $20,000 per year would be included, instead of only including people who make less than $16,400, as the program covers now.

The asset assessment would double the current level, going from $7,560 now to $15,120.

A total of 43,000 seniors would be eligible for the program compared with the 18,000 people currently benefiting from the program. The coverage could transform medical spending for low income seniors, allowing some to spend hundreds of dollars on health care rather than thousands.

This will make a big difference to a lot of people, Baker said.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh also endorsed the plan calling it a significant way to make sure seniors have access to quality health care.

Reducing out-of-pocket costs for low-income elders aligns with the City of Bostons efforts to expand access to affordable healthcare," Walsh said. "I look forward to working with the Administration, legislature and advocates to move this important priority forward to help thousands of people across the Commonwealth pay for their healthcare.CLAREMONT, N.H. -- Less than a week after making her 2020 presidential pitch to a Manchester crowd, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren returned to New Hampshire Friday to meet with voters living along the Vermont border, a part of the early primary state which heavily favored Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' progressive message in 2016.

Although the Massachusetts Democrat has yet to formally enter the White House race, she is expected to use her own status as a progressive leader, as well as her oft-repeated pledge to root money and influence out of politics, to court voters who backed Sanders in the last presidential cycle.

Echoing themes from her Senate colleagues 2016 platform, which called for rebuilding the middle class through a series of progressive economic, health care and environmental policies, Warren used her evening organizing event at The Common Man in Claremont to again make her pitch to New Hampshire voters for an America that works for families and just not the wealthy and powerful.

The senator, who gained national attention for her work to hold Wall Street accountable after the 2007 economic recession, reiterated her call for structural change in Washington politics and policies that enhance access to educational opportunities, make health care more affordable and address issues in the immigration system.

Warren acknowledged that achieving such change will not be easy, but stressed shes up for the challenge.

This will be hard, I understand that. People have told me the kind of changes I want to make are just too hard. You just cant do it. Youre talking about getting corruption out of Washington? Changing whether or not congressmen can take lobbyist jobs after they leave? ... I get that its hard, she said.

But, you know? I have done this before. People told me after the financial crash that it would not be possible to get a consumer agency passed into law. The banks spent $1 million a day for over a year to lobby against a consumer agency and other financial reforms, but I just want to say we got organized, we persisted and today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the law," Warren continued.

The senator, who faced questions from audience members about her chances of winning in 2020, further pointed to other times in history where groups got organized, persisted and achieved things once thought impossible.

That is how we build the America we want. We dream big, we fight hard and we make the change this country needs, she said.

Larissa Cahill, a Claremont resident who was among the first in line to see Warren, said shes a big supporter of the senator and has long been following her work on Capitol Hill.

I think shes a progressive candidate. Shes very smart, shes very politically savvy, I think she has one of the best chances possible to beat (President) Donald Trump in the next election and Id like to see a woman president and Id like to see it be Elizabeth Warren, she said in an interview.

Despite that, Cahill offered that it would be tough for her to choose between backing Warren and Sanders, whom she supported in 2016, if both were to run as Democratic presidential candidates in 2020.

That would be a really tough question, she said. But, at the same time, I think theyd probably have a conversation. I think they would get behind the same progressive cause. So no matter who it was, as long as the cause was correct, as long as it was a progressive cause, as long as it was fighting for the working class, the middle class  the marginalized of society  I would get behind that.

Matt Bean, of Claremont, also offered that while he supports Warrens focus on fighting for the middle class and her outspoken criticism of Trump, it would be difficult for him to choose between her and Sanders in a potential primary matchup.

Its tough. Bernie was kind of my start in politics, so it would be hard for me to go against Bernie if he ran, he said. But, as of right now, he hasnt announced, so my mindset is he isnt running right now.

Bean said for Warren to lock in his vote, she would have to vocally support a Medicare for All" health care system.

Its the one thing that she hasnt said straight up, that shes for Medicare for all. So that would be the one thing. If she says shes for Medicare for all, Im in," he said.

Warren signed on as a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All plan for single-payer health care in September 2017.

Edgar Grallert, a self-described moderate Republican from Lebanon, New Hampshire, said he decided to see Warren in Claremont to learn more about the Massachusetts Democrat.

I dont know much about her. You hear a lot of the negatives, because I listen to a lot of podcasts. My understanding is that shes very big on financial regulation and Im for that  just play by the rules and the country will be a lot better, he said.

Claremont voters overwhelmingly supported Sanders in New Hampshires 2016 Democratic presidential primary. The Vermont senator won 1,538 votes to Hillary Clintons 614 across the citys three wards  a more than two-to-one margin, according to data from the New Hampshire secretary of states office.

Sanders won the New Hampshire primary with a 60 percent of the vote over Clinton, who went on to become the Democratic Partys 2016 nominee.

Despite his 2016 campaigns momentum  and its subsequent work through the Our Revolution effort  Sanders has yet to say whether he will again run in 2020.

The New York Times reported that Warren and her Vermont colleague met in December to discuss their presidential ambitions. Those familiar with the sit-down told the newspaper that both were seriously considering 2020 White House bids, but did not seek support from or try to dissuade the other from running.

Warren, however, has already seen some success in wooing Sanders' supporters in her own state.

Holyoke City Councilor Jossie Valentin, who campaigned for the Vermont senator and served as one of his Massachusetts delegates at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, announced earlier this month that she will serve as a liaison to Warrens exploratory committee as the senator mulls a White House run.

Valentin told The Republican that she has received encouragement from several of the Sanders surrogates and activists she worked alongside during the last presidential cycle, despite speculation that the Vermont senator may also seek a 2020 bid.

Warrens Claremont stop marked the senators third public event in New Hampshire since she announced in late December that she had formed a committee to explore a possible 2020 White House run.

The senator met with voters during an afternoon organizing event at Manchester Community College on Jan. 12. Later that day she attended a Concord house party, her committee announced.

Warren will return to New Hampshire next month to deliver keynote remarks at the New Hampshire Democratic Partys 60th annual McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner.

Republican National Committee spokesperson Mandi Merritt argued that the senator is focused on the Granite State because "she needs to make up ground in New Hampshire."

But no matter how many visits she makes, New Hampshirites know that Warren is long on empty promises, but short on real accomplishments that have helped New Hampshire families, she said in a statement.CHICOPEE  He called himself Christian Rich, drove a black Mercedes Benz and claimed to make so much money buying and selling cellphones that he needed help to count it, according to the arrest report.

In August, he recruited a 15-year-old girl on Facebook to work for him, but took her to his apartment instead. When she asked to go home, he pulled up his shirt to show off seven knife scars, then pulled her toward his bed and raped her, according to the report.

When she pleaded for a ride home, he drove her to Hartford and raped her again, the report said.

The girls would-be employer was later identified as Christian Barbee, 33, of Springfield, who has an extensive criminal history, with convictions for assault and battery, breaking and entering, intimidation of a witness, violating a restraining order and escaping from a penal institution.

On Wednesday, Barbee pleaded not guilty in Chicopee District Court to five new charges  kidnapping, witness intimidation, aggravated rape, rape of a child with force and aggravated statutory rape of a child.

At a prosecutors request, he was held without right to bail for a hearing Friday to determine if he is too dangerous to be released on bail.

During the hearing, Judge William Rota ruled that Barbee posed too great a danger to the victim to be granted bail, and ordered him held for 120 days at the Hampden County House of Correction. When the term expires, prosecutors can seek to renew it for another 120 days.

The girl told police she responded to Barbees Facebook pitch for women to go to Verizon cellphone stores and purchase iPhones that could be resold later for profit, according to the arrest report.

Barbee was looking for females 18 years old and older, but would also hire younger girls to accompany the older ones to stores. The alleged victim said she was promised $100 for every store she entered, the report said.

Barbee picked her up near her home in Springfield, and drove to a West Springfield motel to pick up an 19-year-old girl who was supposed to work as her partner. The plan went awry when the partner got into an argument with her boyfriend, and Barbee and the 15-year-old ended up driving back to his apartment in Chicopee to check on his two cats, the report said.

Along with way, he gave the girl his wallet and asked her to count his cash. She counted $8,000, the report said. When they arrived at his apartment, she was reluctant to go inside, but he refused to let her stay in the car, the report said.

In the apartment, he started drinking from a bottle of Hennessy cognac and offered her some. When she refused, Barbee said he had more money that needed counting and promised he would bring her home after she helped him count it, the report said.

He eventually grabbed her by the arm and pulled her toward the bed, where he raped her. Later, he agreed to drive her home, but drove to Connecticut instead, and raped her again in his car before finally driving her back to Springfield, the report said.

The next day, he left a message saying the night before was just a test, that he was drunk and that he would make it good, according to the report, which said Barbee later contacted her and offered hush money if she didnt say anything about what happened.

The girl saved screen shots of the messages, which she later turned over to police, leading to Barbees arrest, the report said.

Barbee is no stranger to the criminal justice system.

In 2008, he was given a 30-month jail term after pleading guilty in Palmer District Court to breaking and entering in the daytime and intimidating a witness. As part of a plea bargain, prosecutors dropped charges of kidnapping, assault with intent to rape and threatening to commit a crime. The victim was Barbees former girlfriend, who lived with her mother in Hampden, court records show.

In a related case, Judge Patricia Poehler sentenced Barbee to 36 months probation on charges of breaking and entering, assault and battery and malicious destruction of property involving the same victim.

In 2011, state police officers, U.S. marshals and members of the Holyoke and Ludlow police departments arrested Barbee on warrants after he eluded capture in Northampton.

The search  which led to students at one Northampton elementary school being kept inside for recess  ended when Barbee was found hiding in a home in Ludlow.

In 2013, he was sentenced to two to four years in state prison on charges of escape from a penal institution, witness intimidation and violating a restraining order, court records show.

In 2018, he was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and threatening to commit a crime after allegedly threatening to shoot up a house in Springfield. The outcome of that case was not available Friday.WESTFIELD -- Police officers normally assigned to city schools have been reassigned due to a staff shortage in the police department, a situation City Councilor Brent B. Bean II on Thursday called "inexcusable."

Bean had requested a meeting with someone from the department to discuss how to get officers at the schools. Councilor Michael Burns, liaison to the police department, said Capt. Michael McCabe has agreed to meet with the council at a date to be determined.

Typically there are officers stationed at the high schools, Westfield Middle School and Westfield Intermediate School, said Bean. But because there are numerous police officers out on medical leave, the resource officers were pulled from the schools. Bean said they need to be replaced.

"In my mind it's inexcusable that we don't have officers in the schools," he said. "I understand the reasoning, but I want to make sure February, March and so on are covered. There are no officers there now unless they're called in."

Councilor Nicholas J. Morganelli Jr. said rather than call in McCabe, Bean could have gone to the department.

"This is something where the answer could be found if you just ask," he said.

Bean said he has asked.

"I've talked to the individuals, and the bottom line is I don't like the answers we're getting," Bean said. "I understand there's a manpower issue. The bottom line is we need officers in those schools. They serve a real purpose there and without them there, there's a void."

Burns said McCabe agreed to discuss the situation with the council. "Again, it reflects the manpower," Burns said. "They did hire seven police officers but are waiting for a waiver to put them on active duty."

Councilor Matt Emmershy, former police liaison, said he and Burns have attended Police Commission meetings and the issue has been discussed at length.

"They're out of options and it's something that they didn't want to do. But they're really out of options," he said.

Councilor Dave Flaherty agreed school resource officers are needed, but said it should be the school committee's job to work with the police department to get them back in the schools.

"I don't feel it's our role to tell them what to do. It's the school committee's job," Flaherty said. "It's not a City Council matter. The school committee is obligated to take care of these issues. I think we should ask them to come talk to us."

Bean said he was "comfortable with that" and asked to include the school committee in the meeting with McCabe.WESTFIELD -- After meeting behind closed doors to discuss "complaints or charges" against Deputy Chief Patrick Egloff, the two-person Westfield Fire Commission on Friday named him temporary chief.

Egloff made no statement at the meeting following the board's unanimous decision. The meeting was attended by several firefighters.

Egloff will officially become temporary chief a minute after midnight on Jan. 21, when the current temporary chief, Andrew Hart, returns to his permanent position of deputy chief.

The department has been without a permanent chief since Mary Regan retired July 1.

Asked, following the meeting, about filling the job on a permanent basis, commission Chairman Albert J. Masciadrelli and Secretary Patrick Olearcek said any action to appoint a permanent chief would occur at a future meeting.

Hiring decisions for the Westfield Fire Department are governed by the state Civil Service Commission. Egloff is the only certified candidate on the civil service list, records show.

The commission did not disclose what the charges or complaints against Egloff consist of, nor did the commissioners issue any statement about that when they came out of the executive session.

A lawsuit filed in August in Hampden Superior Court by three Westfield firefighters points to Egloff as the alleged perpetrator of indecent assaults against two women.

The complaint says two of the plaintiffs were contacted by state police assigned to Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni's office, owing to the nature of the allegations against Egloff.

Details of that investigation have not been disclosed. Egloff has not been charged with any crimes.

The plaintiffs, Fire Capt. Rebecca Boutin and firefighters David Kennedy and Kyle Miltimore, filed the lawsuit after being told Aug. 7 by Deputy Chief Seth Ellis that "Westfield Fire Department is left with no alternative but to terminate" them.

The plaintiffs sought and received from the court Aug. 29 a temporary restraining order against the fire commission to stop their termination.

Statements contained in an investigation report, conducted by a private law firm the city hired, accused the plaintiffs of "a plot to have Egloff arrested for rape." In their lawsuit, the three firefighters reject those allegations.

The investigator's report also states: "Adding fuel to the fire are Egloff and the Chief (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."

Masciadrelli and Olearcek were asked following Fridays meeting about dissension in the department. Citing the litigation, they declined to comment. They also declined to comment on a ruling by a judge in the lawsuit filed by Boutin, Kennedy and Miltimore that the commission violated the states Open Meeting Law Aug. 6 when it discussed terminating them.NORTHAMPTON  Prosecutors have sought to protect key witnesses in a Northampton murder case out of concern for their safety, court documents show.

Daniel Cruz, 44, allegedly was shot to death by another city man, 22-year-old Nerkin Morales, at the Meadowbrook apartment complex in the citys Florence section on March 10, 2018.

According to police, Morales and his friend and alleged criminal associate Pedro Soto-Rodriguez subsequently recruited a number of people to help cover up the murder. Cruzs body was found on fire on Hatfield farmland later that night.

The investigation into the murder has led to at least 10 arrests and a bevy of indictments in Hampshire Superior Court for those allegedly involved. Over the course of the investigation, police talked to a number of witnesses who provided information in the case.

However, the vast majority of those witnesses have told authorities that they had significant concerns over their safety, and feared retaliation by Morales" and his gang for the information they had provided, court records show.

The prosecution has sought to have discovery in the case  the legal procedure by which the prosecution may share information with the defense  partially redacted to protect the identities of these witnesses.

Why were witnesses afraid?

Court documents filed by prosecutors allege that the violent criminal reputations of both Morales and Soto-Rodriguez were a factor, describing how the duo were known to run Meadowbrook "through their distribution of narcotics in the apartment complex.

The two were self-proclaimed members of a gang known as MOH, which either stands for Money Over Haters or Money Over Hoes, that has been associated with drug dealing and violent criminal behavior, the court documents allege.

Furthermore, MOH allegedly has connections to the nationally known Bloods gang, a criminal organization that has existed since the 1960s and which frequently is linked to drug distribution and violent crime, documents reveal.

Northwestern Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Suhl, who is prosecuting the case, said she could not go into detail about the relationship between the local gang and the national one, but confirmed that the police investigation into Cruzs murder had revealed connections between the two.

"Pretty much every witness in the case had safety concerns, " Suhl said, explaining that many of the witnesses had lied initially to investigators because they feared for their personal safety.

Witnesses had reported concerns based on things happening after the murder occurred, Suhl said. Things like people driving by their house or coming by unexpectedly fueled fears among potential witnesses.

There were some more significant things that happened with some of the witnesses where they were very concerned about their safety, the prosecutor said.

Court documents shed further light on these concerns. One motion for a protective order states that many of the concerns were due to the nature of the crime they had information about (murder), things that had been done and said in the small community where the murder occurred (Meadowbrook Apartment Complex)."

The documents further state that concerns also were based on past actions by Morales and his cohorts, including individuals driving by or stopping in to the homes of the witnesses in the case, violent videos shown to individuals of what happens to rats or snitches, numerous social media posts referencing rats and snitches, and known past incidents of violence by this group of individuals towards many others.

Court documents show several reported instances of threats from Morales in previous criminal cases. In a police report from July 2017, Morales allegedly was seen choking his girlfriend. The woman who reported the incident later told police that Morales had subsequently appeared at her apartment and brandished what appeared to be a sawed-off shotgun. Morales later texted the woman, writing, I would have laid you smooth out then dealt with the rest 100 100 100, which the witness took to mean that Morales was going to shoot her.

In a case from 2014, Morales and several other teenagers faced charges after attacking a teen who had provided information to police about another pending case involving an alleged MOH member. The teen was labeled a snitch and subsequently ambushed on the bike trail near Meadowbrook, according to a police report.

Given the history of threats and intimidation, Suhl said the protective orders were issued for witnesses who have given testimony against Morales, Soto-Rodriguez and Matthew Ross, who has been charged with being an accessory after the fact. More protective orders are pending review, Suhl said.

The prosecutor said she had ultimately opted for the protective orders just to do what we can to keep the witnesses safe."Earlier this month an iconic restaurant experience passed into history with the closing of Durgin-Park, the landmark Boston restaurant located in the Faneuil Hall Marketplace.

One of the oldest eateries in continuous operation in the U.S., Durgin-Park could trace its history back to 1827, when John Durgin and two partners began serving food in the Faneuil Hall market, which was at that time Boston's primary food distribution and retailing hub. The restaurant became know as Durgin-Park in 1877 and continued to be operated by descendants of the establishment's founders up until 2007, when Durgin-Park was sold into corporate ownership.

Longevity, however, wasn't Durgin-Park's only distinction. It was also unique for its "common table" style of dining and the "sassy" attitude of its wait staff, both of which were integral parts of the Durgin-Park experience.

The menu at Durgin-Park was the third notable aspect of the restaurant's identity.

It featured "Yankee" fare, with dishes like Yankee pot roast, clam chowder, and baked Indian pudding just a few of the items for which the establishment was renowned. Boston baked beans were such an important part of Durgin-Park's menu that for many years the restaurant had a specialist "bean" chef on staff.

Other unique Durgin-Park offerings included signature desserts such as apple pandowdy and coffee "jello."

The announcement of the restaurant's closing triggered an upwelling of food nostalgia across New England and beyond. During its last few weeks of operation business was running at 300 percentof normal levels.

Future plans for Durgin-Park's "brand" and Faneuil Hall location are yet to be finalized.





Side Dishes:



Gateway City Arts in Holyoke has announced that it's hosting "Community Gatherings" on Wednesday evenings.

The prime attraction is to be their Wednesday Tunes Series, evenings of free live music featuring local musicians that will be held weekly from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The Bistro at Gateway City Arts will be serving its menu of light fare. Many of the dishes at the Bistro are inspired by the food traditions of the Czech Republic, with choices like garlic soup, Czech goulash with dumplings, Hasselback potatoes, and cauliflower wings.

Sandwich options include a roasted pork panini, a Czech Reuben, and their own signature Bistro burger. The Bistro also features a rotating selection of locally sourced craft beers.

The direct line for the Bistro at Gateway City Arts is (413) 650-0786; their email address is bistro@gatewaycityarts.com.





Carrabba's Italian Grill locations will be promoting their new "Carrabba's Today, Carrabba's Tomorrow" menu with a special offer. Starting Tuesday, January 22 and continuing through Thursday, Jan. 31, dine-in guests who order one of three signature chicken dishes - wood-grilled Chicken Bryan, Chicken Marsala, or Pollo Rosa Maria - will be offered the opportunity to take home a free order of Carrabba's lasagna or spaghetti.

There's a Carrabba's Italian Grill Location in West Springfield at 955 Riverdale Street. The restaurant answers at 413-733-3960.





Polish Culinary Vacations is promoting its 2019 schedule of tour to Poland including its Aug.11 through 19 itinerary, which will include the XVII Pierogi Festival in Krakow.

The annual festival promotes traditions of Polish cuisine and culture, with traditional foods accompanied by folk music and exhibits of Polish folk art. Highlight of the multi-day event is the opportunity to enjoy pierogi filled and formed in numerous variations, with festival exhibitors outdoing each other to prepare and serve the most unique and tastiest version of the traditional filled dumpling. Festival visitors act as judges, voting for the best pierogi, with the winning exhibitor being awarded the statue of St. Jack, the patron saint of pierogi.

More information on Polish Culinary Tours can be had by calling (888)-703-8130 or going to their web site, PolandCulinaryVacations.com.





Taste of Hartford Winter Restaurant Week 2019 continues through Feb. 3 with 20 participating restaurants in central Connecticut serving specially priced multi-course menus, most of which are priced at either $20.19 or $30.19.

Taste of Hartford restaurant week is presented by the Greater Hartford Arts Council in partnership with CTNow. A list of participating eateries along with links to their Restaurant Week menus can be found at connecticutrestaurantweek.com.

With less than a month to go until Feb. 14, many restaurants are already promoting special menus and deals for those wishing to celebrate Valentine's Day with an evening out.

The occasion, according to research conducted by the National Restaurant Association, is the second most popular day for dining out in the year, with almost a quarter of Americans typically planning to celebrate their relationship with a restaurant meal.

With Valentine's Day falling on a Thursday this year, restaurants are expecting business during the weekend that follows to benefit as well. Back in 2013, the last time that the holiday was celebrated on a Thursday, more than a third of those who said they were going out for the occasion planned to wait until Friday or Saturday evening.

On Jan. 27 Bistro Les Gras in Northampton will be presenting Fried Chicken Dinner III, a family-style celebration of the restaurant's signature buttermilk-fried, locally-sourced chicken.

Sides being served as part of the dinner will include sweet potato-pear gratin, white bean salad, cheddar biscuits with chive butter, and vinegar pickles.

Cost to attend is $29 per person; reservations are required. Call the restaurant at (413) 320- 4666 for more information.





Lattitude Restaurant in West Springfield is hosting a monthly "Chop and Fin" Dinner Series over the next several months, with the first such event planned for Monday, January 28.

The dinners will be five course creations and will include an introductory seasonal cocktail concoction. Since seating is limited advance reservations are required.

January's Chop and Fin dinner will be priced at $75, not including tax or gratuity. More details are available by calling Lattitude at (413) 241-8888.

The Table 3 Restaurant Group in Sturbridge has announced that it Cedar Street Cafe will be expanding its Sunday hours, remaining open until 2 p.m. The Cafe's breakfast menu will remain available until that new early afternoon closing time.

Cedar Street Cafe has also installed a new draft dispenser system to pour fresh cold brew and nitrous cold brew coffees, the latter, according to the Cafe's promotional materials, offering an alcohol-free flavor signature not unlike that of a traditional stout.

Cedar Street Cafe is located at 420 Main Street in Sturbridge. Their web address is cedarstreetcafesturbridge.com and their telephone number is (508) 347-6800.

Exploiting the popularity of pairing of pizza with beer, Pizza Hut, the Texas-based division of Yum! Brands, Inc., has announced it's expanding its pilot program of beer delivery to 300 more restaurants.

Pizza Hut first tested the idea of delivering beer with pizza in Arizona; the expanded program will now be offered across seven states. The company has announced that it plans to further grow the beer delivery program throughout 2019, with the objective of having the service at over a thousand locations by mid-summer.

The current beer delivery program features a dozen different national brands and offers two different packaging sizes - a two-pack and a six-pack. Customers verify that they are of legal age at the time of delivery by presenting valid ID.

The beer delivery program is one part of Pizza Hut's current efforts to reposition itself as a major player in the ready-to-eat food delivery business.

Hugh Robert is a faculty member in Holyoke Community College's hospitality and culinary arts program and has over 40 years of restaurant and educational experience. Please send items of interest to Off the Menu at the Republican, P.O. Box 1329, Springfield, MA 01101; Robert can also be reached at OffTheMenuGuy@aol.com





WESTFIELD  Peerless Precision of Westfield, the University of Massachusetts Lowell and companies in Billerica and Wilmington are collaborating on a better way to build domes protecting radar equipment on aircraft, ships, submarines and the like.

Todays technology allows for printable, flexible electronics on small surfaces, according to a news release from the state issued this week. But Peerless, SI2 in Billerica, Xenon of Wilmington and UMass Lowell are working on technology that would allow builders to print the electronics on larger and more complex surfaces and thus build larger protective domes, called radomes.

The consortium, led by SI2 and in cooperation with the national trade group Netflex, now has a $928,400 grant from the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2), according to the news release. The state is giving the grant in order to enhance the competitiveness of the radome design, testing, fabrication and repair business in Massachusetts.

Peerless is a precision manufacturer making parts for the aerospace, defense and medical devices industries. It has about 20 employees.

Both SI2 and UMass Lowell have received M2I2 grants previously, while this is the first for both Peerless Precision and Xenon, according to the news release.

All told the state announced $3.7 million in new grants from M212 this week. Other projects were:Authorities are searching for a 37-year-old Lawrence man who is wanted for kidnapping his 1-year-old son, police said.

Fillemom De Lima was last seen with his son in Lawrence.

Lowell police announced Friday night that officers in that city were searching for De Lima.

De Lima is 5 feet 11 inches tall, 180 pounds, is balding and has a full beard, Lowell police said. He also has a full sleeve tattoo on his left arm.

Police said De Lima was last seen driving a white 2014 Cadillac CTS with Massachusetts license plate 2DH996. The car, a four-door sedan, may have a New England Patriots magnet near the rear license plate.

Anyone with information about De Lima is asked to call the Lowell Police Department at 978-937-3200.The Peterborough, New Hampshire, man who was killed in a crash on Interstate 495 in Tewksbury on Friday night has been identified as Robert Flagg, state police said.

Flagg, 37, was driving a 2008 Chevrolet Silverado on I-495 south before Exit 39 when, for reasons that remain under investigation, his pickup truck traveled off the right side of the highway and struck a tree, state police said.

State police said Flagg was not wearing a seatbelt and was ejected from the pickup truck. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The crash remains under investigation.A 58-year-old Lawrence man is facing charges in connection with the death of 11-year-old Precious Wallaces, a Haverhill girl who died last month.

Miguel Rivera was arrested Friday night and is being charged with permitting substantial bodily injury to a child and misleading a police investigation, according to the office of Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett.

Lawrence police received a call asking for medical assistance at 233 Jackson St. on Dec. 15. Officials found Wallaces unresponsive an took her to Lawrence General Hospital. She was then flown by medical helicopter to Tufts Medical Center, where she died.

Wallaces' death has been under investigation since.

An autopsy was performed, but a cause and manner of death were not determined.

Authorities could issue more charges against Rivera, Blodgetts office wrote in a statement.

Rivera is currently being held on $1 million bail and is scheduled to be arraigned in Lawrence District Court on Tuesday.

The district attorneys office did not release specific information Riveras alleged involvement in Wallaces' death.

Wallaces was a student at Consentino Middle School in Haverhill.

This tragedy happened so unexpectedly, who would of thought our Precious would leave us so soon. She was just starting to live life, a family member said in a GoFundMe created on her familys behalf to help offset burial costs.As Massachusetts braces for a storm that could bring at least a foot of snow to some parts of the state, airlines are beginning to cancel evening flights.

Snow is expected to start falling in Western Massachusetts around 6 or 7 p.m. and reach Boston by 9 or 10 p.m. Saturday.

Ahead of the storm, some flights at Boston Logan International Airport and Bradley International Airport have been canceled.

Several evening flights, including trips to Chicago, Denver, Detroit and Cleveland are listed as canceled on the Logan airport website.

The airport urges customers to check with their airline before heading to Logan.

Travelers in Central Massachusetts can check on the status of flights at Worcester Regional Airport here.

At Bradley, a number of flight cancellations have already come in for Saturday evening, a spokeswoman said.

Passengers with flights Saturday night or Sunday are advised to check with their airline before heading to Bradley.

Flight status updates are available online. Customers who are on Twitter can receive automated updates by tweeting their flight number to @BDLFlightInfo.Throngs of protestors arrived at Boston Common on Saturday to take part in the Womens March, a national movement "celebrating power of women united, according to its lead organizer Karen Cosmas.

The protest marks the third Womens March in the Boston area. Similar marches are slated to take place across the country on Saturday.

In addition to spotlighting womens rights, like contraception for all, the march aims to unite protestors on a number of societal issues.

Leaders here are fighting every day for human rights, religious freedom, racial justice, economic justice, reproductive rights, climate justice, workers' rights," said Cosmas, the executive director of March Forward Massachusetts.

A group of counter-protestors from the Club of American Nationalists also gathered in Boston.

Organizer John Camden said the group was there to support pro-life values and President Donald Trump.

The Womens March became a national movement in 2017 as a protest against the presidents conservative agenda.

Boston organizers credit the marchs rallying cry of left-wing activism and female leadership as inspiring record numbers of women to run for elected office across the country during the 2018 midterm elections, and in turn, resulted in Democrats taking back the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The march is not connected to New York-based Womens March Inc., the national organization roiled in controversy, according to Cosmas. Organizers of the New York non-profit, founded by several women who launched the first massive Womens March protest in Washington D.C. in 2017, are under scrutiny for allegedly making anti-Semitic comments.

A program of speakers is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Boston Common, which will include comments from local officials and Boston leaders of Planned Parenthood, the NAACP the ACLU, the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action Impact and other groups.

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, who has received national attention for her historic win and progressive agenda, will provide a keynote address.Detroit

Public enjoys first day of 2019 Detroit auto show

The snow only delayed the crowds who turned out for the public opening of the NAIASfeatured

Macomb County

Lucido proposes bills that would bring local control to road funding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!)COURTESY NIAGARA HISTORY CENTERWhen New York State 8th District American Legion's annual convention was held in Lockport in 1948, a highlight of the event was the parade. Here the parade is headed south on South Transit Street, crossing the old trestle bridge over the Erie Canal at West Genesee Street.To mitigate man-made climate change, carbon emissions must decrease. But they increased in the U.S. and around the world in 2018.

To mitigate man-made climate change, the U.S. must be a global leader with forward-looking policies and advances in technology, but in 2018, our policies were retrograde to the point of scorn.

One does not have to be a climate scientist to understand this. One only has to hear what climate scientists have been saying for years: A warmer world will be defined by routine coastal flooding, extreme weather events, displacement, drought and famine. We are flirting with economic and humanitarian calamity. One only has to care about the Earth, our children, grandchildren and future selves to get this.

We make these points in light of two recent news events. The first was Gov. Greg Abbotts recent comments to the Dallas Morning News that its impossible for him to say that man-made climate change is linked to extreme weather. Listen, I am not a scientist, he said.

But Texas has some of the best climate scientists in the world. We encourage Abbott to set up a meeting with Texas A&M Universitys Atmospheric Sciences Department. Faculty there have issued a unanimous statement about mans impact on a warming world and the serious challenges it poses.

It is one thing to not know a thing; it is another for a key public policymaker to not want to know, a critical difference here because the experts are saying climate change is the existential threat of our time. The governor should let Texans know which it is.

And there is plenty of other evidence the governor can peruse. The National Climate Assessment warns of the link between man-made climate change and extreme weather: In the absence of significant global mitigation action and regional adaptation efforts, rising temperatures, sea level rise, and changes in extreme events are expected to increasingly disrupt and damage critical infrastructure and property, labor productivity, and the vitality of our communities.

It is possible to not be a scientist but listen to scientists, who have been saying there is a link between man-made climate change and extreme weather. Thats called smart leadership. And as the most popular politician in the state, a person who admirably responded to the extreme weather event we call Hurricane Harvey, Abbott really could be a leader on this issue. He only needs to choose to lead.

Lets not forget scientists have also warned of the economic toll that will come from climate inaction.

The second bit of news to consider is a recent report from the research firm the Rhodium Group, which found U.S. carbon emissions increased by 3.4 percent in 2018. Carbon is the primary contributor to climate change, so reducing carbon emissions is crucial to mitigating man-made climate change.

Unfortunately, the U.S. is not an outlier on this front. This report follows a similar report from the Global Carbon Project, which projected global carbon emissions increased by 2.7 percent in 2018.

We are not alone in failing to do enough. China and India continue to build coal-fired power plants. Many other nations are not going to meet their voluntary pledges under the Paris climate agreement.

But we stand out in our failure because of our policies of denialism. President Donald Trump has called climate change a hoax, vowed to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and rolled back federal regulations designed to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

But this recent Rhodium report shows the U.S. should be doing more to reduce carbon emissions, particularly from the manufacturing sector. And it highlights the importance of increasing fuel economy standards to reduce emissions.

One does not have to be a scientist to understand this. One only has to accept the science and care about its implications for the Earth and future generations.File / San Antonio Express News

Classes on administering the drug naloxone, which reverses the effects of an opioid overdose, should be as readily available as first aid and in CPR classes.

Texas A&M University is taking a historic first step by becoming the first university in the nation to train all students enrolled in health sciences on the delivery of naloxone at no added cost to the students. This training should occur on all campuses across the country and become part of the curriculum.Julian Castro is just 44 and running for president, so why does it feel as though his political moment has already passed?

That just as he has finally stepped onto the national stage with a winning smile and a compelling personal story, his rising star has faded?

Three reasons stand out.

The first is that his resume is painfully thin for a presidential candidate. He attended outstanding schools: Stanford and Harvard Law. He was mayor of San Antonio for five years before joining the Obama administration as secretary of Housing and Urban Development. And, thats kind of it.

Its an excellent resume for a rising star who might next run for governor or U.S. senator, but Castro did not choose those options in 2018.

Instead, he stayed on the sidelines as others rode the blue wave to office or prominence, which brings us to the second point.

Beto ORourke has stolen Castros thunder as the young, inspirational candidate from Texas.

ORourkes resume is also thin for president, but his Senate run inspired millions of Texas voters and captured much of the nations imagination. He was a fighter but also a consensus builder. He was a strong, compelling and youthful voice in opposition to President Donald Trump.

He assumed the risk of an embarrassing Wendy Davis-like thumping  early on, Texas Sen. John Cornyn called ORourkes run a suicide mission  and vaulted onto the national stage. ORourke lost to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, but he captured many of our imaginations because he zigged when others zagged. He also won more votes in Bexar County than Castro ever did as mayor.

Castro could have done the same in challenging Gov. Greg Abbott. There would have been a risk, of course. The Castro brand might have taken a thumping and those presidential ambitions would have been shattered. But he also could have been a ballot inspiration, and as governor he could have made a difference on the very issues he is campaigning on for president.

He has said a run for governor did not carry much appeal, and maybe so. But its also far less risky to run for president in a crowded and talented Democratic field and lose than it is to challenge a strong governor such as Abbott in big ol Republican Texas. But Austin would have been a natural fit. After all, education is the biggest issue this year in Austin. And education, thanks to the passage of Pre-K 4 SA, is Castros signature issue.

How could a Gov. Castro have shaped that discussion by insisting on Pre-K 4 Texas?

Well never know, and this brings us to the third point. Castro is the ultimate what if? candidate.

What if he had run for governor in 2018? He certainly would have closed the gap between Abbott and Democratic challenger Lupe Valdez, who was underfunded, underwhelming and unfit for the job. The combination of Castro and ORourke at the top of the ticket might have pushed other Democrats over the finish line.

But we will never know. Just like we will never know how San Antonio might have benefited from Castro serving eight years as mayor  rather than bolting after five for a dull, but important Cabinet position in a lame-duck administration, leaving a leadership vacuum back home.

He was done with potholes, and understandably so. His horizons were always so much bigger. But there was so much more work to be done. What if he had revamped public transit in one of the nations most economically segregated cities? That would have put a different spin on his recent West Side bus ride to launch his campaign. Or what if he had pledged San Antonios commitment to the Paris climate agreement? Or used his platform as mayor to speak out against white nationalism and hate? What if?

This isnt to say his candidacy lacks salience. A product of San Antonios West Side, whose grandmother immigrated to this nation from Mexico, Castro is a living rebuttal to Trumps rage about immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border. A reminder that the immigrants story is an inspirational one that plays out over generations and can lead to amazing places. But the moment could have been bigger if the candidate had chosen a bolder path.

jbrodesky@express-news.netWASHINGTON  Houston Democrat Al Green, distantly under fire for his embrace of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in a 2006 encounter, broke a long silence Friday and condemned the black nationalist figure as a "bigot."

Green, an outspoken advocate for impeaching President Donald Trump on the basis of his past racial comments, said Farrakhan's attacks on Jews should also be denounced.

"We have reached a point in our history where we cannot allow bigotry  regardless of the source  to be condoned, whether that be from President Trump or Minister Farrakhan," Green said in a statement. "Although there are those who will find reason to condemn one and not the other for their bigotry, I have condemned both."

Green's statement came ahead of this weekend's scheduled marches by a number of women's groups now facing divisions over some of their leaders' associations with Farrakhan. The controversy escalated this week after Women's March co-president Tamika Mallory refused to denounce Farrakhan during an interview on ABC's The View.

ON RUSSIA: Texas Republicans defect en masse as Trump weakens sanctions

The long-festering dispute has sparked a schism among protest organizers, leading to a separate "March for ALL Women Rally" on Saturday in Washington and other cities.

The disagreement has given new life to a simmering argument between some conservative and Jewish groups and African American members of Congress who have met with Farrakhan in the past, including Green.

Green, who has represented Houston's 9th congressional district since 2005, was ensnared in the controversy as one of several Congressional Black Caucus members seen embracing and talking to Farrakhan at a meeting in 2006.

But until now, Green has tried to generally stay out of the fray, refusing to be drawn into statements specifically denouncing Farrakhan, who has called "powerful Jews" his enemy.

In October, however, Green took to Twitter to criticize Farrakhan's remarks comparing Jews to termites.

"If President Trump compared persons of any ethnicity or religion to termites, I would call that statement bigoted," he wrote. "Since Minister Farrakhan has compared Jews to termites, I must call that statement bigoted. Bigotry is unacceptable regardless of the source."

Other black members of Congress have disavowed Farrakhan at various times for his anti-Semitic and anti-white remarks, prompting the 84-year-old minister to lash out at them as sellouts. Jewish civil rights groups have called on more than a half-dozen black lawmakers to speak out against Farrakhan over the 2006 encounter and other events.

Among those facing similar pressure were Andre Carson of Indiana, Maxine Waters of California and Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who was recently elected his state's attorney general.

The controversy also swept up former President Barack Obama, who was photographed smiling with Farrakhan at a 2005 Congressional Black Caucus gathering. The image, taken when Obama was still an Illinois state senator, became fodder for his opponents in the 2008 presidential election.

GRAY MATTERS: Why Houston women keep marching

More recently, the Farrakhan storm has overtaken the planned Women's March because of Mallory's long association with Farrakhan and her attendance at a speech he gave in February that included anti-Semitic remarks.

Pressed to denounce Farrakhan on The View, Mallory would only distance herself from his anti-Semitic pronouncements.

"I don't agree with these statements," she said. "It's not my language, it's not the way that I speak. It's not how I organize."

While Green has similarly criticized Farrakhan's anti-Semitic remarks on Twitter, his statement on Friday appeared to go a step further by explicitly calling out the minister as a bigot  likening him to Trump.

"I refuse to engage in a debate about one being better than the other," Green said. "Although I have met with both of them, I do not condone the bigotry of either. Both are bigots."About 1,000 students in south Laredo will be affected by school boundary changes proposed by United ISD administration.

READ MORE: United ISD executive named most 'Outstanding Principal' in region

UISD is proposing the changes for next school year due to the opening of a new elementary school located near Cuatro Vientos Boulevard and Wormser Road. It will replace Salinas Elementary School, which is overcrowded and one of UISD's oldest campuses.

"The current Salinas Elementary has so many portables outside right now, so all these students will now be indoors in one facility," Mike Garza, UISD assistant superintendent for administration and support services, told Laredo Morning Times.

Garza presented the proposed boundary changes to the school board this week. Ruiz, Salinas, Centeno and Bonnie Garcia elementary schools would be affected.

The new school is set to be completed by Aug. 1. The current campus, which neighbors Ruiz Elementary, will likely be demolished, Garza said.

Salinas Elementary currently enrolls about 800 students. Next school year, about half of those students will go to the new school while the other half will attend Ruiz Elementary. And about half of those currently enrolled at Ruiz Elementary will go to the new campus.

About 50 students from Centeno Elementary would also attend the new school, since an area south of Wormser will be encompassed in the boundary for the new school.

Proposed boundary changes that would take affect for UISD in the 2019-20 school year Salinas Elementary: A new boundary for Salinas Elementary is the area south of Pine Street, Calle Puebla and Jalapa Street and north of Lomas Del Sur Boulevard Ruiz Elementary: A new boundary for Ruiz Elementary is the area north of Pine Street, Calle Puebla and Jalapa Street and south of Jaime Zapata Memorial Highway and Texas Highway 359 Centeno Elementary: Moving the northern boundary of Centeno Elementary to south of Lomas Del Sur Boulevard Roosevelt Elementary: Moving the southern boundary of Roosevelt Elementary from Olmos Drive to south of Balcones Drive Veterans Memorial Elementary: Moving the northeast boundary of Veterans Memorial Elementary from north of Almos Drive to south of Balcones Drive See More Collapse

After these shifts, UISD expects to see a decrease in enrollment at Ruiz Elementary, from about 830 to 770 students. This will alleviate some overcrowding at the campus.

"The whole idea is we balance as many elementary schools as possible," Garza said.

For Salinas and Ruiz elementary schools, their boundaries will now meet at Pine Street. This would divide the Salinas and Ruiz zones into more equal zones, with Ruiz in the north and Salinas in the south.

Garza said the new school can house more than 900 students. The current Salinas school was built to accommodate no more than 600 students. But it currently has about 800 students. Approximately 200 of them are in portables, Garza said.

"We want to eliminate portable facilities so that they're all indoors," Garza said. "The reason we want to do it that way is because number one, it provides better educational opportunities, it provides safety and security for our students once they're indoors because we now have a lot of enhancements where we have security stations and police officers on the campuses."

Because Cuatro Vientos Boulevard is considered a hazardous roadway to get to the new Salinas school and students cannot walk to school from South Ejido Avenue due to lack of sidewalks, UISD will provide additional transportation.

Another proposed boundary change would affect about 25 students who attend Salinas Elementary. The area north of Jaime Zapata Memorial Highway and south of Texas 359 will now be zoned to Bonnie Garcia Elementary instead of Salinas.

UISD proposed a boundary change for Veterans Memorial and Roosevelt elementary schools as well. About 90 Veterans Memorial Elementary students would go to Roosevelt Elementary next school year. Garza said this change was needed to lower enrollment at Veterans Memorial.

Garza said he plans to notify the parents and students affected by these proposed changes.

Laida Benavides, UISD assistant superintendent for business and finance, said she expects some parents to be concerned, but ultimately it's for the betterment of the students.

READ MORE: Sexual harassment claim against teacher unfounded after rumors spark investigation, according to UISD



"Change is hard, but we also think the new school building, with state-of-the-art technology, It's really what we think is best for children and really get them out of those portables and into a real classroom," Benavides said. "It's human nature to not accept change, but I think Mr. Garza and his staff will go and present the numbers and who will be affected, and answer questions that will come up in those sessions."President Donald Trump met on Saturday with the families of four Americans killed in a suicide bombing in Syria that was claimed by the Islamic State. The attack has cast new doubts on Trump's claim that the terrorist group has been vanquished.

Images from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware showed Trump saluting a flag-shrouded casket containing the remains of a former Navy SEAL who was among the casualties of the deadliest attack on Americans in Syria since U.S. forces entered the country in 2015.

Trump met earlier in the day with relatives of the four victims in a private room at Dover, a facility that serves as the destination for military cargo aircraft carrying the bodies of soldiers and others killed in overseas warzones.

In comments to reporters before departing from Washington, Trump said he was "going to meet with relatives of our great, great heroes that have fallen," adding that "I think it might be the toughest thing I have to do as president."

Trump was joined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan. Trump's decision to pay tribute to the victims came just weeks after he had declared the Islamic State vanquished and vowed to pull remaining U.S. forces out of Syria.

His trip to Dover coincided with a turbulent day in Washington, as protesters assembled on the National Mall for a women's march and Trump prepared for an announcement from the White House aimed at resolving a budget battle over his demands for billions of dollars to erect a wall along the southern border - an impasse that has caused a government shutdown and left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without pay.

Before the short flight to Delaware, Trump repeated disputed claims to have essentially rid Syria of Islamic State fighters, saying that "when I took over, Syria was loaded with ISIS" but "we've brought it down to less than 1 percent." In fact, the territory controlled by the Islamic State had been substantially reduced before Trump took office, though experts say the terrorist group still has dangerous capabilities.

Trump depicted this week's attack, which targeted a restaurant frequented by Americans in the northern city of Manbij, as one that was carried out by remnants of an otherwise spent terrorist group. Though defeated, he said, "that doesn't mean you're not going to have somebody around" capable of violence.

His assertions and determination to pull U.S. forces and advisers from Syria are at odds with officials in his administration who have led that effort. Former defense secretary Jim Mattis resigned in disagreement with Trump's Syria plan.

Brett McGurk, who served as the special presidential envoy to the coalition to counter the Islamic State, also resigned in protest and said in an opinion column published in The Washington Post Friday that Trump's decisions were "giving the Islamic State - and other American adversaries - new life."

The Pentagon identified three of those killed Wednesday as Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan Farmer; Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician Shannon Kent; and civilian Scott Wirtz, a former Navy SEAL working for the Defense Intelligence Agency.

The fourth individual, who worked for a defense contractor, was identified as Ghadir Taher.

A suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest at the restaurant where the Americans had gathered after a meeting with local military officials. Three U.S. troops were also wounded in the attack, the deadliest against U.S. forces in Syria since their entry into the country in 2015.

Earlier this week, Trump derailed plans by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other lawmakers to visit U.S. forces in Afghanistan, denying them access to U.S. government aircraft.WASHINGTON - Protesters from across the country marched through the nation's capital Saturday for the third annual Women's March on Washington, an event that drew far smaller crowds than previous years as controversy plagued its leaders.

Organizers had hoped to see hundreds of thousands of attendees, the kind of turnout that made the 2017 march a seminal moment in the protest movement against President Donald Trump. But Saturday's march in Washington appeared to attract thousands, mirroring lower turnout at marches in New York, Los Angeles and other cities across the country.

The march occurred amid turmoil surrounding the national Women's March organization, including allegations of anti-Semitism, secretive financial dealings and disputes over who gets to own and define the Women's March. Some organizers have called for its national co-chairs to resign.

None of that acrimony was on display Saturday as boisterous protesters set off to march from Freedom Plaza. They had reason to celebrate. The movement the march helped spawn was crucial to flipping the House to Democrats and electing an uprecendented number of women to Congress.

The marchers walked behind a banner that read "The Women's Wave Rises" and chanted "Hey Hey, Ho Ho! White supremacy has got to go!"

Sadiqa Reynolds, president of the Louisville Urban League, called on unity among women of all backgrounds. To roaring applause, she told the crowd there's no place in America for racism or exclusion.

"I represent black women, who can take no comfort in silence," she said. "We are not angry. We have simply swallowed so much pain it is oozing out of our pores and it comes out like fire, hot enough to burn just one more person."

Maya Valentine, 23, a student at Simmons University in Boston, echoed that sentiment, saying "a lot of times, whenever we organize and stand up for a cause, we forget black women, and women of color have just as much relevancy."

The march route took protesters by the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Some lingered in front of the hotel, turning their signs toward its main entrance. An all-female block of drummers hammered out a thunderous beat and twirled their sticks in unison to cheers from the marchers.

The ubiquitous "pink pussy hats" that have become the symbol of the march gave the event a familiar feel, but one issue distinguished this year's proceedings: a partial government shutdown that was into its 29th day.

Marchers also highlighted a panoply of other issues. Some protested Trump's plan for a border wall, others highlighted reproductive rights and many called for an end to the Trump administration's ban on travelers from some majority-Muslim countries.

Stephanie Wesolek, 28, stood beside her 8-year-old son, Blaine, who carried a poster around his neck with the words "Boys will be . . . good humans," a message she wanted to send to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

"Little boys need to realize they can't grow up to be jerks like them," she said, adding that her son "needs to see all these people and realize how important this is."

Matthew Giedt, 59, a retired school administrator who lives in San Diego, said he planned a trip to Washington to see the "Burning Man" exhibit at the Renwick Gallery, but was thwarted by the government shutdown. He and his wife, instead, spent their time "exercising their right to promote getting the government back into operation."

Giedt carried a sign that read: "Mr. Trump tear down your government shut down."

He tied the sign to a twig he found outside the Hay-Adams Hotel and fixed it with a broken shoelace. Giedt said he was impressed with the energy of the march and its lineup of speakers.

March leaders delivered impassioned remarks rebuking the news media and rejecting the controversies that swirled around the organization in recent weeks. They promoted their newly released political agenda, celebrated the record number of women elected to Congress and spoke of the importance of an intersectional movement led by women of color.

"When you listen to critics, ask yourself this question. Show me another woman-led, large mobilization force like us . . . it doesn't exist because it is here in Freedom Plaza," said Linda Sarsour, a Women's March co-chair.

The controversy stemmed from an incident last winter when the African-American co-president of the march, Tamika Mallory, attended a Nation of Islam event at which black nationalist Louis Farrakhan made incendiary remarks about Jews. Mallory condemned the remarks, but refused to distance herself from Farrakhan.

Since then, the march's national leadership has tried to quell the outrage - reaching out to the Jewish community, denouncing anti-Semitism, meeting with rabbis and unveiling a new steering committee that includes three Jewish women.

The controversy prompted several high-profile supporters and progressive organizations, including the Democratic National Committee, to pull their support for the rally. Many women who previously went out of their way to attend opted to stay home and support independent groups.

Sydney Gart, 18, a freshman at American University who is Jewish, said she was torn by the recent allegations of anti-Semitism, but didn't want the controversies to keep her from supporting all women. Marching alongside fellow Jewish women seemed like the best option, she said.

"As Jewish women we can't stand idly by," Gart said. "This was a great way of showing that we're strong and we're resilient. . . . We're going to march with our Torah, it's so amazing."

In a symbolic gesture, Women's March leaders Tamika Mallory and Carmen Perez helped to carry a "Jewish Women of Color" banner at the front of the march as Jewish women sang "we will build this world with love."

A small group of counterprotesters, surrounded by D.C. police, marched toward Trump International Hotel carrying signs that read "America you need to bless God," "Abortion is murder" and "Islam is a religion of blood and murder."

The march came a day after Women's March leaders unveiled a 10-prong political platform that the group says will outline "realistically achievable" priorities, such as raising the federal minimum wage, addressing reproductive rights and violence against women, and passing the long-dormant Equal Rights Amendment.

Sister marches took place across the country and the world. At a rally in Manhattan's Foley Square, Leah Maguire, 35, and a friend displayed a "pussy grabs back" sign. It was their first Women's March event.

"I couldn't come last year because I was nine months pregnant, so it's my first time - but I came for my children's futures," said Maguire, of Brooklyn. "My daughter and my son both. My son helped me paint this sign. Thank goodness he can't read what it says yet."

In Los Angeles, Ajana Orozco carried a hand-painted sign decorated with flowers that read on one side, "Not all women have vaginas," and on the other, "Proud trans woman."

She read about controversy surrounding the march but chose not to focus on it. She said she would rather focus on women's solidarity in general.

"I came here because it's the Women's March and I identify as a woman," she said. "Not everybody thinks I am, but that's how I identify, so it's important for me to join this march and fight for my rights."

Cities such as New York, Philadelphia and Washington also were home to competing marches with groups wanting to deliver a rebuke to the national organization.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., kicked off one alternative rally in Manhattan.

"We got the House, now what are we going to do with it?" She asked. "Now we are going to get all the houses, including the white one in 2020."

In Washington, the March for All Women in Pershing Park was one of two alternatives to the Women's March, drawing dozens of participants across from the Women's March event. Another march, which organizers called the Inclusive Women 4 Equality for All Rally, drew about 30.

- - -

The Washington Post's Gabrielle Paluch reported from New York, Mia Nakaji Monnier reported from Los Angeles and Mark Guarino reported from Chicago.ALTON  Plans and data are important, but stories that are meaningful to a person is what makes them want to travel somewhere, so when it comes to destination/tourism marketing, storytelling in whatever form it takes is a key.

That was the message of Daniel Thomas, president and CEO of TimeZoneOne, a global creative communications agency and the public relations agency for Illinois tourism.

Thomas was the keynote speaker at this years Tourism Summit, an annual event by Great Rivers and Routes Tourism Bureau, the rebranded Alton Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Several hundred people, including county and municipal officials, business owners and others in the tourism trade, met at Altons Best Western Premier Thursday for the annual event.

Thomas grew up in the hotel industry, saying he poured his first pint of beer at the age of 12 and had to learn the business from the ground up.

He eventually worked for the John Hancock Center Observatory, now 360 Chicago.

It was about the narrative, it was about unique experiences, he said about promoting the attraction.

Today his company solves problems and tells stories.

Thats what its all about in tourism, he said. We start by telling a good story, a really compelling story.

Storytelling is a key part of content marketing, but its not the same thing, he added. Storytelling is a way to make authentic connections with your audiences. Its a away to build trust and establish a relationship.

In doing that, Thomas said the same person or group may have different roles.

Sometimes youre the storyteller, sometimes youre the listener, he said. To be a really good storyteller you have to be a good listener.

He also said destination marketers have to remember that the most important person is the customer who wants to see and experience memories.

People only want to hear stories that matter to them personally. To share a story that matters to them, you have to really know and understand who they are. If you try to talk to everyone, youll end up talking to no one.

Demographics and data are important, but the important information is deeper than standard demographics.

Demographics dont tell you the behaviors and the personal motivations as to why they want to visit, he said.

It is personas that influence those.

When you understand that, you can craft a story that will attract them, he said.

To learn those things it is important to listen, and look at social meeting, and reply to comments. He noted that it can sometimes be uncomfortable.

Thomas noted one hotel received a negative comment on social media. Instead of deleting the comment, they responded to the comment.

Within 15-20 minutes we had seven people that had stayed at the hotel that actually read what the customer had said, and became advocates for the hotel and started correcting what the customer had said.

He also noted that people craved information from trusted sources that could be everything from known travel writers to your mums neighbors coworkers daughter who just came back from vacation to Costa Rica and had a picture on Facebook is now a trusted source.

Theres no better storytellers for a destination or a product than the people who have experienced it firsthand, he said.

He also talked about what platform to use to get stories out. There are a lot of options, and not all of them will work out.

Youre not going to get it right every time, but thats OK, he said.

Thomas also said the travel journey has changed, showing a video about the differences.

In the past people planned everything beforehand, take the trip and then share it through hours-long slide shows. Today people plan shorter segments, can plan as they travel, and also share as they travel.

He referred to dream, plan, book.

In the dream phase, marketers need to inspire, and much of this happens on social media.

The planning stage happens anywhere, anytime, all the time and it is very important to make sure business listings are up to date, or remove them.

Better to not have it there than to have bad information on the site, he said.

In booking, he said 85 percent of travelers will book activities during the trip.

The ultimate goal is to get them through to the next phase, to sharing, he said. You want them to post and be your advocate. You want them to take over the storytelling. That my friends is the Holy Grail of storytelling.

Reach reporter Scott Cousins at 618-208-6447.LANSING  State Rep. Phil Green, of Millington, this week, announced his legislative office is open and ready to serve residents of the 84th House District.

Sherry Sofia will serve as Rep. Greens legislative director and Zoe Harness as his director of constituent relations.

Green will have an integral role in the states budget process, following the announcement of committee appointments by House Speaker Lee Chatfield this week.

Green will serve as vice chair for an appropriations subcommittee related to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The committee, along with others in the appropriations stable, will be responsible for deliberating on funding plans that impact state budget changes.

As we craft a state budget that reflects the demands of residents and the well-being of Michigans economy, its important to look at issues that will help the health and well-being of all residents, Green said. Im honored to hold this position and look forward to the hard work ahead, creating a better Michigan and a government that is working efficiently for its residents.

Green will also serve on House Appropriations subcommittees related to higher education, agriculture and rural development, and the Departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Quality.

People can contact Green by calling 517-373-0476 or emailing RepPhilGreen@house.mi.gov.

Correspondence can also be mailed to S-1188 House Office Building, P.O. Box 30014, Lansing, MI 48909.

Residents can view updates from Green or subscribe to his newsletter by visiting www.RepPhilGreen.com.WASHINGTON - One political rule of life is never ask a question unless you really want to know the answer.

Example: It cannot possibly get worse in Washington, can it?

By early Thursday afternoon, President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had traded insults several times. Pelosi called for a delay of Trump's planned Jan. 29 State of the Union address as long as portions of the government were shut down. The president then revoked military support for her weekend trip to visit troops in Afghanistan.

A couple days earlier, the House rebuked Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, for a history of racially and ethnically charged remarks, the latest his questioning of how "white supremacy" had become offensive.

"We have just been through a very difficult week," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. lamented.

Could it get worse?

Yes, it can. It almost did. And it still might.

Hoyer's comments came Thursday as he tried to restore calm to a rambunctious House after a fairly innocuous set of votes turned the chamber into a tinderbox of raw emotions. Republicans accused Democrats of trying to steal a vote, Democrats accused Republicans of not paying attention to the floor proceedings and, finally, a GOP lawmaker shouted "go back to Puerto Rico."

Tensions flared and lawmakers walked toward each other in the well of the House.

The chance of physical confrontation seemed to grow by the second, a cross between a Spike Lee movie where one remark turns an entire neighborhood into flames and a moment inside the regular brawls that occur in Taiwan's parliament.

Cooler heads prevailed, mostly because of Hoyer and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and their agreement to a do-over vote Wednesday. Scalise joked that maybe he could whip enough votes for the minority to actually win.

"I don't want to get too carried away," Scalise told Hoyer, "but I appreciate that we were able to resolve this, and I know tensions got a little heated."

The tension is only going to grow in coming days. The partial shutdown of federal agencies is now in its fifth week, an unprecedented duration. No serious negotiations have taken place since Trump walked out of a meeting of bipartisan congressional leaders after Pelosi said she had no intention of funding a border wall.

Starting Friday about 800,000 federal workers will begin missing their second round of paychecks during the standoff, just as monthly bills for mortgages, rents, utilities and credit cards come due.

Yet the Senate has adjourned with no votes planned until the end of the month, unless a deal is somehow struck. However, with no votes, there will be very few senators here in Washington, diminishing the chance for any dealmaking.

The House will be in session, but that might not help matters much. Lawmakers had planned to use the week as time to work back in their districts, a particularly key period for the almost 100 freshmen serving their first weeks in office.

Some newcomers had scheduled town halls to connect with their new constituents and explain what has been happening in the Capitol - those will now likely be canceled. Some veterans planned to use the break to travel abroad on congressional delegations to meet with foreign dignitaries.

Trump's actions blocking Pelosi's travels and the House votes have likely nixed any other congressional travel. A normal week in the Capitol can be contentious enough.

A week when no one planned to be in Washington is a recipe for disaster, to the point where maybe a physical confrontation is not too far off.

These near-clashes have happened before, often when the House majority flips and those newly in the minority feel disrespected. In 1995, a few months after Republicans seized the majority for the first time in 40 years, Democrat Sam Gibbons, 75 at the time, grabbed the tie of a GOP subcommittee chairman, then-Rep. Bill Thomas, after a Ways and Means Committee meeting on Medicare policy.

Gibbons told The Washington Post in 2003 he actually wanted to choke Thomas.

In 2007, seven months into their new minority status, Republicans accused Democrats of stealing a procedural vote by banging the gavel shut before all votes were cast. Pelosi, in her first year as speaker, created a special committee to investigate, the ranking Republican being a backbencher named Mike Pence, R-Ind.

The future vice president called the mostly inconsequential procedural vote "a dark moment in the history of the United States."

Last week's clash recalled that 2007 dispute, but this came during a much darker period of the nation's political state - a combustible mix of racial, gender and ethnic politics amid a shutdown of federal agencies.

House Democrats had already approved seven bills that would have reopened the entire government. Thursday's proposal served as the most basic of all: a one-page bill opening those impacted agencies at last year's budget levels until Feb. 28.

Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., a former judge who was presiding, asked if anyone wanted a recorded vote on the measure. No Republican spoke up, so he moved to the next vote.

Some Republicans wrongly accused Butterfield of not holding a full vote, shouting at him as he left the dais.

"Go back to Puerto Rico," Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., yelled from the GOP side of the aisle. It was in the direction of Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., who is of Mexican descent.

Cardenas took the remark as an ethnic slur and charged toward Republicans, one of Pelosi's senior staffers at his side. He shouted at Republicans, asking who said it. No one took ownership.

Later, Smith called Cardenas to apologize and asked to meet in person, saying he meant to mock the several dozen Democrats who went to Puerto Rico the previous weekend, not to single anyone out for their ethnicity.

"I accepted his apology," Cardenas told The Hill.

Democrats agreed to hold a full vote on the same bill Wednesday and Scalise acknowledged Butterfield had done nothing wrong. He thanked him for his "fairness."

Hoyer issued a final warning about the tone of the chamber, decrying "undertones of prejudice or racism or any kind of -ism."

"We need to be civil to one another, we need to be polite to one another even," he said.

It can't get any worse. Right?Maryland Democratic legislative leaders emerged largely upbeat Friday from an initial meeting with Gov. Larry Hogan to discuss his $46.6 billion budget proposal, a contrast from some past years when battle lines were drawn over spending priorities.

The spending plan does not include any dramatic changes or major initiatives that could be controversial. It boosts overall spending by 4 percent and increases funding for schools, health departments and public safety.

"I think it's a great beginning to a second term," said Maggie McIntosh, D-Baltimore City, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

But McIntosh warned that the longer the partial federal government shutdown continues, costing Maryland an estimated $1.3 million to $1.5 million in revenue daily, the more difficult it will be to craft a balanced budget.

"We are going to have to be careful," she said. "Every day the federal government is closed, the revenue projections we enjoyed coming into this session decrease."

Getting through the budget process without a major clash with the Democratic-majority legislature would be a big win for Hogan, R, as he tries to boost his national profile with a message of bipartisanship.

The popular, term-limited governor has made no secret of his antipathy for President Trump and Washington's polarized politics. He is being courted by some Republican critics of Trump as a potentially appealing alternative.

Legislative leaders and advocates were poring over the massive budget documents on Friday.ButMaryland Senate President Thomas Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert, and House Speaker Michael Busch, D-Anne Arundel, said they were largely pleased with the fiscal plan, which alsoprovides a 3 percent raise for state employees. The legislature will debate, modify and approve the budget in coming weeks.

"He's a Republican governor, and he increased spending by four percent," Miller said of Hogan's plan. "He's taking care of our state employees; he's taking care of our retirees and funding education. Things look good."

The state teachers union, which clashed with Hogan during his first four years in office, was less impressed by the $6.9 billion allocatedfor education, noting that the $347 million increase over last year's appropriation was mandated by the Democratic-majorityGeneral Assembly.

"It's a status-quo, autopilot budget that continues to utilize outdated funding formulas that leave our schools underfunded annually," said Steven Hershkowitz, a spokesman for the Maryland State Educators Association.

Advocates and legislative leaders had hoped to pursue bolder changes in education spending this year, based on recommendations from a panel known as the Kirwan Commission that was tasked with advising the legislature on how to transform the state's public school system into a world-class system.

But the commission postponed coming up with proposals for new funding formulas, and it instead asked the government to set aside $200 million for initial policy changes and to use $125 million in tax revenue from Maryland casinos to make additional increases in teacher pay and to further expand prekindergarten.

Hogan's plan includes the $200 million Kirwan requested but would use $65 million of the $125 million in casino revenue to pay for school construction. Nearly $36 million would go toward the Kirwan Commission recommendations. The proposal is a change for the governor, who left Democrats and union leaders frustrated last month when he called for using far more of the casino money for school construction.

Hershkowitz said Friday that all revenue from casinos should go to teacher salaries and programming improvements, noting that voters approved a "lockbox" initiative in November that directed such dollars to education.

"We believe when voters passed Question 1 they were thinking about teacher's salaries, hiring more teachers and more pre-K, not school construction and it doesn't mean school construction is unimportant," he said. "But we really should be able to do both. This budget creates a false choice for salaries for more teachers and the buildings that they work in."

The Mental Health Association of Maryland praised Hogan's proposed budget in a statement, noting that services for mental health and substance-use disorders were fully funded, but it said more resources are needed.

"This is not the finish line," said Dan Martin, the association's senior director of public policy. "With opioid overdose deaths continuing to rise and demand for behavioral health services skyrocketing, we must continue to find common sense solutions to expand access to treatment and community-based services for all Marylanders in need."

Miller, who called the governor's overall plan "very fair and very balanced," said he was displeased that his plan for a police-training facility and 500 additional police officers in Baltimore was not included.

"There is a major crime problem in Baltimore City," he said. "They have a 15-minute response time and that is embarrassing. . . . People need to be protected."A Green Beret, a Navy linguist, a former Navy SEAL and a Syrian emigre were the Americans killed in this week's suicide bombing in Syria, the Defense Department and a defense contractor said on Friday.

The Pentagon named the three current and former service members slain in Wednesday's attack as Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan R. Farmer; Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician Shannon M. Kent; and civilian Scott A. Wirtz, a former Navy SEAL working for the Defense Intelligence Agency.

The department did not identify the fourth American killed, a civilian contractor who officials said served as an interpreter. A spokesman for defense contractor Valiant Integrated Services said an employee, Ghadir Taher, was killed in the attack.

The four died, and three other Americans were wounded, in the northern city of Manbij when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest at a restaurant the group visited after a meeting with local military officials.

The incident marked the largest single loss of life in the Pentagon's war against Islamic State militants in Syria. It was a sign of the powerful threat that the group continues to pose as the Trump administration begins to withdraw.

The attack took place in a city that has become a symbol of the complex array of local and international rivalries that American and partner forces have navigated as they seek to stabilize areas reclaimed from the Islamic State.

Charles Summers, a Pentagon spokesman, said the bombing demonstrated that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, "remains a threat" in Syria. "We will continue to hit the remnants of ISIS hard to destroy any residual networks and ensure its enduring defeat," he said in a statement.

The American team was struck as the larger U.S. force of about 2,000 troops makes preparations to depart Syria, while also continuing their support for Syrian partner forces battling the Islamic State. While they no longer control a vast domain across Iraq and Syria, militants hold some territory in eastern Syria.

The status of the fight against the Islamic State has come under renewed scrutiny after President Donald Trump's surprise Dec. 19 withdrawal announcement. Initially, the president declared that the group had been defeated and said U.S. troops would be coming home immediately. But senior officials, facing widespread criticism from allies and lawmakers, have since softened that characterization and said troops will exit in a manner that allows them to ensure the militants are fully beaten.

American forces have been stationed in Manbij, a strategic city near Syria's border with Turkey, since 2017 in an effort to ensure extremists do not return and to avoid clashes between Kurdish partner forces and factions supported by NATO ally Turkey, which views the U.S.-backed Kurdish units as a terrorist threat. Russian and Syrian government forces are also positioned nearby.

Manbij has been largely quiet in recent years, possibly creating a false sense of security for foreign personnel conducting patrols and engaging with local troops. The Pentagon has launched an investigation into this week's attack, including the circumstances surrounding the team's visit to a restaurant known as a destination for Westerners.

The backgrounds of the Americans killed, according to information provided by the military, is representative of the skills U.S. forces have honed in the insurgent conflicts of the past two decades.

Farmer, a 37-year-old Green Beret from Boynton Beach, Florida, was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the Pentagon said. A married father of four, Farmer joined the Army in 2005 and did multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan before serving in Syria. He received numerous awards and decorations, including a Bronze Star Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters.

Kent, a 35-year-old language specialist, was assigned to Cryptologic Warfare Activity 66, based at Fort Meade, Maryland. She enlisted in the Navy in 2003.

"She was a rockstar, an outstanding Chief Petty Officer, and leader to many in the Navy Information Warfare Community," Cmdr. Joseph Harrison, the head of her unit at Fort Meade, said in a statement.

Kent was from Pine Plains, New York, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered flags across the state be flown at half-staff until Kent's funeral.

"I am not surprised she quickly rose through the ranks as a Navy Cryptologist as she was a master of languages - speaking seven fluently," Dutchess County Legislature Chairman Gregg Pulver said in a statement. "Those of us who knew her personally will remember her brilliant mind, loving nature, and always hold her as our small-town hero."

Kent was the first female service member killed by enemy fire in more than three years.

More than 80 female service members have been killed by enemy action since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to a database maintained by the Women in Military Service for America Memorial. The last woman killed in combat was Air Force Maj. Adrianna Vorderbruggen, who died in late 2015 in Afghanistan.

Wirtz, a 42-year-old civilian and former Navy SEAL, served as an operations support specialist with the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's intelligence arm. A DIA spokeswoman said he had completed three deployments for the agency in the Middle East.

"This is a stark reminder of the dangerous missions we conduct for the nation and of the threats we work hard to mitigate," the DIA's director, Lt. Gen Robert Ashley, said in a statement.

Wirtz competed in mixed martial arts in his hometown, St. Louis, in 2009, winning a bout in the Battles for Fame event. "We are saddened by the news today of the passing a former fighter, supporter and friend," Shamrock FC, a professional mixed martial arts company, said in a statement.

Taher, a 27-year-old native of Damascus, Syria, emigrated to the United States in 2001 and studied business before returning to Syria as an interpreter for Valiant, according to her younger brother, Ali.

Asked about how she viewed her work, her brother said: "She described it as hard, but she loved it. Although she was in a dangerous place, she never felt the danger. She was such a kind soul. . . . She brought people together no matter where they're from."

Taher is survived by parents and three siblings. She would have turned 28 in two weeks, her brother said.

"We are extremely saddened by the tragic and senseless passing of Ghadir Taher," Tom Becker, a spokesman for Valiant, said in a statement. "She was a talented and highly-respected colleague loved by many who will be dearly missed."

In a separate announcement Friday, the Army's Special Operations Command said an Army ranger, Sgt. Cameron Meddock, 26, of Spearman, Texas, died Thursday of wounds he received during combat operations on Jan. 12 in Afghanistan's Badghis province.

Meddock served with Company A, 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, and was on his second deployment with the U.S.-led coalition. The announcement said he died in Landstuhl, Germany, "as a result of wounds sustained from small arms fire."

The casualty in a province known as relatively secure was a reminder of the deterioration of security conditions across Afghanistan.

---

The Washington Post's Julie Tate and Dan Lamothe in Washington and Alex Horton in Dubai contributed to this report.An attempt to regulate the capture of a type of Patagonian predatory mollusk has unleashed violent protests dubbed "the squid wars" in South America's biggest fishing nation.

The southern Chilean city of Concepcion has seen days of rioting after lawmakers passed a bill to regulate fishing of the large squid, with workers from industrial fisheries striking since Jan. 9. On Friday, the protests spread to capital Santiago with hundreds marching to the presidential palace.

Demonstrations aren't unusual in Chile's industry after years of over-fishing depleted stocks of everything from anchovies to sardines along its 2,700-mile (4,300-kilometer) coast. But the violence of the squid wars has caught the government flat footed. The new regulation, passed last week, was intended to protect the marine environment by banning mid-water trawling, forcing industrial fisheries to use corral methods.

Protesting workers employed at large fisheries from Blumar SA to Copec SA-owned Orizon say it's not possible to catch squid using corral methods because they get crushed by other fish in the nets. They called for the department of fisheries to regulate the issue rather than leaving it in the hands of Congress.

"Mr. President, as the nation's highest authority, you can stop all of this," worker representatives said in a letter to President Sebastian Pinera Friday. "Our political class is populist and short-sighted, they don't realize that these laws are impacting honest and hardworking people."

At the center of the dispute is the Humboldt squid, known locally as jibia. A smaller relative of the giant squid, it can still measure up to about 5 feet (1.5 meters) and weigh 66 to 110 pounds (30 to 50 kilograms). Seen as a low-cost substitute for calamari, jibia prices have more than doubled and Chilean exports have quadrupled in the past eight years, according to newspaper El Mercurio.

The squid bill is part of the government's broader reform of the sector. But any changes to fishing rules are controversial in Chile, the world's sixth-largest exporter of fresh fish, and the biggest in the Americas.

In Pinera's first term, an attempt to regulate the sector backfired when a bill awarded fishing licenses all along the country's coast to seven of Chile's most powerful families. Last June, Pinera promised a reform "to ensure a more equal access to our fishing wealth."ROME - A vessel that went down off the Libyan coast has left at least 117 migrants missing in what could be the deadliest disaster in the Mediterranean in more than a year, the U.N. migration agency said Saturday, citing reports from rescued migrants.

The account of the sinking, about 50 nautical miles off the Libyan coast, came from three survivors rescued by the Italian navy. An International Organization for Migration spokesman said two children, including a two-month old, were among those presumed dead.

The central Mediterranean represents one of the world's most perilous migrant passageways. Over the last year, it has seen a reduction in the number of large-scale disasters - in part because smugglers have been using smaller boats for those trying to reach the continent.

Meantime, European governments, particularly Italy, have tightened their own borders and tried to deter African migrants from making the journey.

But the fatality rate for those attempting the trip has increased. Most humanitarian rescue boats have ceased operations in the region, as countries across southern Europe have impounded their vessels or accused the groups of criminal activity.

"We cannot turn a blind eye to the high numbers of people dying on Europe's doorstep," Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, said in a statement.

The UN refugee agency, noting that more than 2,200 people died last year trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean, said that it is "concerned that actions by states are increasingly deterring NGOs from conducting search and rescue operations."

Matteo Salvini, Italy's far-right interior minister, have said his policies - which include closing off port access to humanitarian ships that rescue migrants - have helped to reduce the overall death toll in the Mediterranean by thwarting migrants from attempting the journey.

The move has been domestically popular in Italy, and it reflects how attitudes about migrants - and about the dangers they incur - have gradually hardened in Europe's front line countries.

After more than 300 migrants died in a 2013 shipwreck, Italy launched a yearlong sea operation to avoid similar tragedies. It now cedes much of the search-and-rescue in the Mediterranean to Libya's coast guard. which intercepts migrants bound for Europe and returns them to North Africa.

In a statement about the latest deadly incident, the Italian navy said that by the time a military plane had spotted the sinking dinghy, there were 20 people aboard. The plane launched two inflatable rafts and called for support. A helicopter rescued one person from the water and two people from one of Italian rescue rafts.

The three survivors were taken by helicopter to the island of Lampedusa.

Federico Soda, the Rome-based director of the IOM's Mediterranean coordination office, said it was unclear whether smugglers were changing tactics and returning to using the kind of larger rubber dinghies more common before 2017. But either way, he said, the quality of the boats is low.

"[The migrants] have already bought their one-way ticket," Soda said. "If you can just get people on a boat and out, the smuggler doesn't care if they live or die."When John Salter Jr. arrived in Mississippi in 1961, he was 27 and had already served in the Army, worked as a labor organizer in Arizona, received a master's degree in sociology and taught at a college in Wisconsin. He was taking a new job as a professor at Tougaloo College, a historically black institution a few miles outside the state capital of Jackson.

Salter did much more than teach at Tougaloo. He became a close associate of Medgar Evers, the NAACP's Mississippi field secretary, and helped organize what became known as the Jackson Movement.

Salter, who later changed his name to John Hunter Gray to honor his American Indian heritage, was perceived as white at the time. In a state in which racial injustice was enshrined in law and social customs, he became "the Jackson Movement's radical heart," as M.J. O'Brien wrote in his 2013 history, "We Shall Not Be Moved: The Jackson Woolworth's Sit-In and the Movement It Inspired."

Salter - as he was known throughout his career as an activist and academic - died Jan. 7 at his home in Pocatello, Idaho, at age 84. He had recovered from systemic lupus, said a son, John Salter III, who could not cite a specific cause of death.

In Mississippi, the home of Salter and his wife became an informal headquarters for civil rights activists.

"We decided to go south because things were happening," he told filmmaker Loki Mulholland for his documentary "An Ordinary Hero," about his mother, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, who was one of Salter's students at Tougaloo.

"When history calls, you usually get, I would say, maybe one chance to do something," Salter added, "and then if you reach out for it, you ride off on the wings of destiny."

At Tougaloo, he organized an NAACP youth council, taught tactics of nonviolence and published a mimeographed newsletter, "North Jackson Action." He conducted a study of poverty in Mississippi for the NAACP and testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

He was also under surveillance by the FBI, which compiled a file of several thousand pages about him. Police officials often tailed Salter as he walked on the streets or drove on local roads. He once found the lug nuts on his car wheels loosened.

Nonetheless, Salter became "the Jackson Movement's radical heart," as M.J. O'Brien wrote in his 2013 history, "We Shall Not Be Moved: The Jackson Woolworth's Sit-In and the Movement It Inspired."

After a series of commercial boycotts and protests, the Jackson Movement burst into the nation's consciousness with the dramatic events of May 28, 1963.

That day, Evers called for Mississippi's first sit-in. Students from Tougaloo and other activists planned to enter a Woolworth's department store, sit down at a segregated lunch counter and ask for service.

An all-white crowd of several hundred, many of them young men from a local high school, quickly gathered and began to taunt the protesters, pulling the women off their stools. The male demonstrators were physically attacked.

Salter soon joined the protesters at the lunch counter. Reporters and a photographer for the Jackson Daily News, Fred Blackwell, captured what happened next.

A former Jackson police officer, Benny Oliver - fired for his violent tendencies - punched black demonstrator Memphis Norman in the head, knocking him down.

"As Mr. Norman lay on the floor," a New York Times account noted, "Mr. Oliver began kicking him in the face until blood spurted from his mouth and nose."

Police officers, who otherwise stood idly by, placed both Oliver and Norman under arrest.

In Blackwell's famous photograph of the incident, Salter sits in the left foreground at the counter alongside two Tougaloo students, Joan Trumpauer - one of the college's two white undergraduates - and Anne Moody.

"Annie and I were pulled off our stools," Trumpauer, now Joan Mulholland, said in an interview. "I didn't get any bad blows, but I had every condiment on the counter poured on my head."

Salter was struck with brass knuckles and slashed in the back of the head with the edge of a broken glass sugar container. A watery pepper solution was thrown in his eyes. His cuts and abrasions were filled with salt and pepper. Blood dripped onto his shirt and mixed with the ketchup, mustard and sugar that had been dumped on his head.

Cigarettes were stubbed out on the back of Salter's neck, leaving scars that were visible for the rest of his life.

"We knew we were going to die," Joan Mulholland said. "My spirit had left my body and was hovering somewhere above, protecting me."

The ordeal lasted for three hours. The police stepped in only when the mob began to loot and damage the store.

The demonstrators were escorted out only after the president of Tougaloo College was able to organize a caravan of cars to take them to safety.

In the next few days, further demonstrations were held in Jackson. Police tactics grew tougher, as Salter and other protesters were arrested, hauled away in garbage trucks and held in cattle pens at the local fairgrounds.

"In some instances," Salter recalled, "police urinated in water buckets, threw the food on the ground and said, 'Eat, dogs, eat.' "

On June 11, two weeks after the lunch-counter protest, President John F. Kennedy went on national television to call for a comprehensive national civil rights bill. That night, Evers was assassinated at his home.

The next day, Salter was arrested during a protest march and beaten until he "woke up in a pool of muddy blood." He was taken to the fairgrounds, where other demonstrators were being held.

"I stepped out of the paddy wagon and held my fist up," he said. "You know in a nice early '60s stance. Probably one of the first times that had been done, and was immediately cheered by a whole throng of people."

After a suspicious car accident in which Salter and a chaplain were seriously injured, he left Mississippi and continued his civil rights activities in North Carolina and elsewhere. A year later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law.

John Randall Salter Jr. was born Feb. 14, 1934, in Chicago. He grew up mostly in Flagstaff, Arizona, where his father, an American Indian descended from several tribes in the Northeast, was an artist and college professor. His mother was a teacher.

After serving in the Army and helping organize labor unions at mining camps, Salter graduated in 1958 from Arizona State University, from which he received a master's degree in sociology in 1960.

He alternated between teaching and activism, moving from Vermont to the state of Washington, from Rochester, New York, to Chicago, where he worked with street gangs. He taught at the University of Iowa, at a college for Navajo Indians (now Dine College) in Arizona and from 1980 to 1994, at the University of North Dakota, where he directed the Department of American Indian Studies.

Salter, who settled in Idaho in 1997, legally changed his name in homage to his ancestors; Gray had been his father's last name before he was adopted by a white family.

His wife of 54 years, the former Eldri Johanson, died in 2015. Survivors include four children, Maria Salter and Josephine Evans, both of Pocatello, and John Salter III and Peter Salter, both of Lincoln, Nebraska.; a brother; 12 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

In 1979, Salter published a book about his civil rights experiences, "Jackson, Mississippi: An American Chronicle of Struggle and Schism."

"Nobody who was part of it can forget it," he told filmmaker Mulholland. "You don't have to remember every detail, just remember that you know there was a time when a pretty hideous situation existed and there were people who set out to change it."China has come down hard on its world-renowned counterfeit industry. Bazaars lined with fake watches, shoes and bags have been demolished in recent years. A new law effective Jan. 1 promises to slap online retailers with up to 2 million yuan ($296,000) in fines for bogus goods sold on their platforms.

But Chinese counterfeiters -- still the most prolific in the world -- have already reshaped their businesses by retreating to even more private spaces online. Many of the country's best fakers are now hawking their wares via social messaging networks like Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s WeChat. First they market their offerings at home and globally on platforms like Instagram or ByteDance Ltd.'s Tik Tok. Buyers then order and pay through private messaging apps. Such transactions are arguably "friend-to-friend" and not e-commerce as defined by the new law.

These days a knock-off black Dior saddle bag can go for about $255 on a Chinese social media network. That's one tenth the $3,250 price-tag on the real thing, but still pricier than the average high-street bag. It looks and feels real -- a smooth, buttery leather with the heft of a true luxury bag. And it arrives in just a day or two, with what are purportedly Dior's engraved box, red ribbon and certificate of authenticity.

The skill of the counterfeiters and their growing ability to leverage global social networks has left Beijing playing whack-a-mole as it attempts to stamp out fake luxury goods. Even as China's rich become ever more important to marquee fashion houses, the bulk of its consumers remain on the outside: Bombarded by marketing for items they can never afford, and hungry for more affordable knockoffs.

"The income disparity across China's diverse population -- coastal versus inland, urban elites versus migrant workers -- means that lower-priced goods, including those accused of being fake, will unlikely lose their market in China any time soon," said Fan Yang, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, who's written a book on Chinese counterfeits.

China's Ministry of Commerce, Dior, ByteDance and Tencent didn't respond to requests for comment. Instagram said it has systems in place to catch counterfeit content before a purchase is made, and that it has tools where buyers can report purchases they are unhappy with.

The difficulties in stamping out counterfeiting in luxury goods shows the challenges Beijing faces in ongoing trade war negotiations as it attempts to assure the U.S. that it can address intellectual property theft -- a key grievance of foreign companies.

The global trade in counterfeits will balloon to $991 billion by 2022 from $461 billion in 2013, according to research firm Frontier Economics, which includes luxury goods, consumer products and several other categories like pharmaceuticals. China and Hong Kong are by far the biggest source of exported counterfeits, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

On Instagram, counterfeiters often put up a picture of the bag they are hawking without specifying if it is fake or real. They include contact details for Chinese or international messaging services where buyers can follow up to actually make the purchase. The hashtag used is often that of a real brand -- say a #Hermes or a #Birkin.

An Instagram spokesperson said the company uses sophisticated spam detection and blocking systems to fight counterfeiting, and has devoted more resources to the issue over the past year.

Chinese consumers account for a third of the $1 trillion in global luxury demand. In recent years, global brands have gone from being enraged at Chinese internet platforms to being willing to working with them, especially as they rely on the portals to reach China's shoppers.

In 2015, Kering, which owns Gucci and Saint Laurent, sued Alibaba for counterfeits it said were being sold on Alibaba's platform. Kering dropped the suit two years later for a "joint taskforce" to fight fakes with the Internet giant. Alibaba, meanwhile, says its made a serious effort to rid Taobao, its flagship e-commerce platform of fakes.

In 2017, Alibaba launched an Intellectual Property Protection platform where brands can file complaints and receive a response within 24 hours. It's also put resources into identifying and proactively taking down listings, a company spokesperson said.

It's now rare to find sellers openly hawking counterfeits on its platforms. But some may occasionally appear by listing unbranded bags and encouraging buyers to contact them privately to complete the transaction. Its Xianyu platform -- a digital "flea market" where consumers can sell used goods -- turns up scores of such listings.

Eugene Low, a Hong Kong-based partner at law firm Hogan Lovells, expects China's new legislation will further motivate e-commerce firms to step up their efforts. "They won't want to be the first target of enforcement," he said.

Even so, the grey areas in the new legislation could leave counterfeiters continuing to exploit the loopholes. "How the law would be enforced would be unclear at this time," said Pedro Yip, a partner at consultancy Oliver Wyman.When we tally the final cost of the government shutdown - whenever that may come - there will be plenty of concerning numbers. Unpaid wages. Lost revenue to businesses. The amount of canned goods given out at food banks to government workers who never should have been forced to visit them.

Here's another number: 56,768.

That's the number of people who attended the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington last January, a month that officials say is usually busy for the museum.

That's the number of people who, in a single month, walked out of a building in the nation's capital knowing more about Native Americans than when they walked in.

That's the number of people, or as close to any estimate that is available, who won't get that same opportunity this month if the government shutdown lasts much longer.

This matters because American Indians remain one of the most vulnerable groups in this country, and the cost of ignorance about them is already too high. Just look at this past week. It began with President Donald Trump joking about a Native American massacre and ended with a group of teenagers in "Make America Great Again" gear harassing an elder at the Indigenous Peoples March in the nation's capital on Friday.

Indigenous people from the Washington area and beyond had gathered for the march, hoping to be seen and heard.

People waved signs that read, "We will not be silenced."

They marched in their traditional garb, demanding that part of their heritage be noticed.

Two women held a white sheet stained with red handprints, bearing the message, "Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women."

"It's an important time in our country's history, in our world's history," Deb Haaland, D-N.M., one of two Native American women elected to Congress for the first time, told the crowd. "It's time for us to make a move. It's time for us to stand up for the environment. It's time for us to stand up for our people."

She called on those gathered to make sure people vote, so that the country gets elected officials "who care about us, who care about our issues."

Elected officials who know better than to joke about a shameful slaughter.

Five days before the march, President Trump referenced Wounded Knee in a tweet that was meant as a jab against Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Warren, who in a much-ridiculed move released a DNA test to prove her Native American roots, discussed her plans to enter the 2020 presidential race in a video last month.

"If Elizabeth Warren, often referred to by me as Pocahontas, did this commercial from Bighorn or Wounded Knee instead of her kitchen, with her husband dressed in full Indian garb, it would have been a smash!" Trump tweeted.

The outrage was swift and warranted. People reminded the president that the U.S. Calvary slaughtered hundreds of Sioux men, women and children during the Wounded Knee Massacre on Dec. 29, 1890. To drive home that horror, many also posted black and white photos that showed bodies left on the frozen ground.

Queen Muhammad Ali, a film director and one of the speakers at the march, said she wasn't surprised by Trump's tweet and saw a positive in it. Even if it wasn't his intention, she said, "He's bringing light to issues people didn't know about."

"He's bringing an uprising," she said. "He's making us say, 'We're here and we're not going away.' "

She was there to speak about American Samoa, to tell the crowd how half the population in the U.S. territory in the South Pacific Ocean has diabetes or is on dialysis. But she also hoped people would look at those gathered as a unified front because many issues indigenous people face run across tribal and geographic lines.

Through a social media campaign, in which people described why they wanted to march, individuals spoke about personal struggles and broader ones. They spoke about the past and the present.

"There are approximately 1.6 million people living in the US without running water or basic plumbing in their homes," wrote Emma Robbins, director of the Navajo Water Project. "Many of these folks are Indigenous, living on Native Nations, which is something we need to change. We deserve to have the basic human right to clean, safe running water."

"I am a survivor of sexual assault and violence," wrote Corinne Oestreich, a journalist who is Lakota and Mohawk. "Indigenous women are at a greater risk than any for Human Trafficking and violence, and I don't want to see any more of my sisters represented by a Red Dress."

"Today, I'm making the little girl in me feel visible," wrote Sarah Rose Harper, who described herself as Eastern Band Cherokee. "I remember being 11 in the nineties and seeing the FIRST person who looked like me in a magazine. It was an advertisement in Teen Magazine for the American Indian College Fund. I tore the add out and kept it in my dresser for years. Looking at it made me feel something deep inside of me. I felt less invisible."

"I march for the Lakota language that is dying," wrote Terrance Hollow Horn, a hip-hop artist who is Oglala Lakota from Wounded Knee, South Dakota. "I march for any and all Indigenous languages. For the youth that feel like they're forgotten. Rejected. Pushed aside. Told they 'can't.' I march for those youth that lost their battle to depression."

If you want to learn more about the issues Native Americans face, you can visit the National Museum of the American Indian at Fourth Street and Independence Avenue SW.

Just not tomorrow, and probably not the day after that. Unfortunately, not until the shutdown ends.Heres the rundown: Gymboree and Crazy 8 stores are closing, an Italian restaurant is reopening and Alamo Drafthouse is upgrading its Westlakes location.

Gymboree and Crazy 8 stores will be shuttered after Gymboree Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this week. The childrens clothing retailer operates Gymboree shops at North Star Mall, Huebner Oaks and the Village at Stone Oak, as well as Crazy 8 stores at Bandera Pointe, Ingram Park Mall, Alamo Quarry Market, the Village at Stone Oak and South Park Mall.

On ExpressNews.com: Gymboree, Crazy 8 stores in San Antonio to close

The retailers stores are still open and website operational, and the company said it will offer more details about going-out-of-business sales soon.

Gymboree also said it sought authorization from the court to keep honoring gift cards for 30 days. However, if you have GymBucks or Gymboree Rewards stored up, youre out of luck. The programs were discontinued, effective immediately, Gymboree said Wednesday.

Alamo Drafthouse is renovating its Westlakes location near Loop 410 and Texas 151. Its getting new recliners with personal tables and a refurbished lobby with new lighting and gaming tables, construction project director Daniel Osborne told mySA.

Programming will be limited during construction, which should be finished by May.

Westlakes will be unable to participate in pre-sales for major film ticket releases because we cant be sure which theaters will be available that far in the future  and we'd much rather give you a seat with, well, a seat, Alamo Drafthouse said in a news release.

Medical Center classic Aldos Ristorante Italiano is reopening Monday at the Dominion Ridge shopping center in Northwest San Antonio. The restaurant at 22211 Interstate 10 West has a full bar, a tiled pizza oven, private dining areas and an expanded wine list, food writer Mike Sutter reports. The menu includes lamb chops, spaghetti Bolognese, shrimp scampi and veal.

The previous location on Fredericksburg Road closed earlier this month to make way for a large office and retail development.

On ExpressNews.com: Aldos Ristorante Italiano, an Italian restaurant, reopening at Dominion Ridge in San Antonio after closing at Medical Center

Think Botanicals, a CBD business, is holding a grand opening for its Lackland shop this weekend. The event starts at 1 p.m. at 410 Valley Hi Drive, according to a Facebook event. The company has several other locations in San Antonio.

A used-car business is also hosting a grand opening Saturday for its first location in Texas. People wanting to sell their car pay a flat flee to CarLotz, which markets the car, handles test drives, negotiates the sale and cuts the seller a check afterward, the company said in a news release.

The grand opening at 15447 West Interstate 10 runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

Have any retail openings or closings to report? Contact me at madison.iszler@express-news.net.This weeks storm  by far the worst of the new year  caused mudslides, car crashes and hundreds of fallen trees, leaving officials on Friday to continue assessing and mitigating the damage.

As of Friday morning, the San Francisco Department of Public Works had received 240 reports of downed trees or limbs since the heaviest storm moved in Wednesday afternoon.

Our crews have been literally working around the clock, and we brought in extra crews to respond, particularly Wednesday night, said Rachel Gordon, an agency spokeswoman.

San Francisco had received 10.28 inches of rainfall as of Friday morning, or about 91 percent of normal rainfall totals for the water year, which began Oct. 1. Santa Rosa has now received 17.12 inches, or 93 percent of average, and San Jose had received 5.9 inches, or 87 percent of the water years expected total, according to the National Weather Service.

A few scattered showers are expected this weekend as another weak storm bears down on the region, and up to one inch of rainfall is still possible in the North Bay and less than half an inch is expected in San Francisco. The storm system is moving from southern Oregon into Northern California, said Matt Mehle, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

Its more passing showers than its going to be wet all day, Mehle said.

Coasts and higher elevations could see 20 to 30 mph winds on Sunday evening with the coming cold front, forecasters said, and cloud cover from the weak storm could obscure views of the total lunar eclipse expected that night.

Known as the super blood wolf moon for its reddish tint, the full eclipse will be visible in all of North America for a little over an hour, around 8:41 p.m.

It may still be cloudy during the totality, said Anna Schneider, a National Weather Service meteorologist. It may not clear up until thats over.

King tides are also expected to return this weekend, and they could cause minor flooding in coastal areas and low-lying elevations such as marshes, Schneider said.

On Friday, forecasters warned visitors to stay off the coast as large waves crashed on shore. Waves between 25 to 35 feet were expected to batter local shores, with favored locations expected to see occasional waves exceeding 45 feet, according to a high surf advisory from the National Weather Service.

Breaking waves between 17 to 21 feet were spotted along San Franciscos coastline, along with open ocean waves around 15 feet, Mehle said.

Were still seeing very high surf impacting the coastline, he said.

Next weeks forecast includes dry and cool weather.

Gwendolyn Wu is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: gwendolyn.wu@

sfchronicle.com Twitter: @gwendolynawuThere are two things that connect the names Gauss, Riemann, Hilbert and Noether. One is their outstanding breadth of contributions to the field of mathematics. The other is that each was a professor at the same university in Gottingen, Germany.

Although relatively unknown today, Gottingen, a small German university town, was for a time one of the most productive centers of mathematics in history.

Gottingen's rise to mathematical primacy occurred over generations, but its fall took less than a decade when its stars were pushed abroad by the advent of National Socialism, the ideology of the Nazi Party. The university's best minds left Germany in the early 1930s, transferring its substantial mathematical legacy to Princeton, New York University, and other British and American universities. By 1943, 16 former Gottingen faculty members were in the U.S.

The story of the rise and fall of mathematics in Gottingen has largely been forgotten, but names associated with the place still appear frequently in the world of mathematics. Its legacy survives today in other mathematical research powerhouses around the world.

Founding of the university

In 1734, King George II, who ruled both the United Kingdom and a large area of land in Northern Europe, founded a university in Gottingen, Germany.

The Enlightenment was by this point in full swing in northern Germany. For example, mathematician Gottfried Leibniz developed calculus less than 100 miles north of the new university, just 50 years before its founding.

Finding themselves in the midst of the Enlightenment, scientific researchers at the new University of Gottingen had more academic freedom than generations past. They were promised intellectual autonomy and freedom from close religious supervision. Instead, they were recruited solely to advance knowledge and carry out original research. The education of students was also more egalitarian than it had been previously in Europe, as both rich and poor were admitted and trained.

Great mathematicians

By the late 18th century, the university in Gottingen was a well-known center of scientific learning in Germany. Its enduring mathematical prowess, however, originated in Carl Friedrich Gauss. Often referred to as the prince of mathematics, his research at Gottingen between 1795 and 1855 spanned from algebra to magnetism to astronomy.

Gauss's discoveries were groundbreaking, but the reputation that he started in Gottingen only grew as mathematicians from across Europe flocked to the town. Bernhard Riemann, the head of mathematics at Gottingen from 1859 to 1866, invented Riemannian geometry, which paved the way for Einstein's future work on relativity. Felix Klein, the chair of mathematics from 1886 to 1913, was the first to describe the Klein bottle, a 3-dimensional object with just one side, similar to the Mobius strip.

Klein was instrumental in hiring the next generation of mathematicians to Gottingen. This generation included Carl Runge, who helped invent a key part of today's most accurate weather prediction software, the Runge-Kutta time stepper; Hermann Minkowski, who is perhaps best known for his work on relativity; and David Hilbert.

Hilbert's famous 23 problems, presented at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1900, guided mathematical research for the entire 20th century. During his career as professor and head of the math department at Gottingen, he mentored an astounding 76 Ph.D. students, many of whom went on to make seminal discoveries of their own.

The exodus

After Gauss's appointment at the university until the early 1930s, Gottingen's mathematical prowess survived in an environment of constant political turmoil, including the Napoleonic Wars, the Franco-Prussian War and World War I.

But the wave of nationalism that accompanied the Nazis' rise to power in the early 1930s transformed Gottingen. The 1933 Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service made it illegal for any non-Aryan, specifically Jews, to serve as a professor or teacher in Germany. In response to this and other anti-Semitic legislation, Jewish scholars, professors with Jewish connections and anyone who opposed Nazism fled Germany.

Emmy Noether, who had been the first female professor of mathematics at Gottingen and was described by Einstein as the most important woman in the history of mathematics, left in 1933 to teach at Bryn Mawr College. Richard Courant left in 1933 to help found the top U.S. applied mathematics institute at New York University. Hermann Weyl, who had been appointed Hilbert's successor as chair of mathematics in Gottingen, moved to Princeton, where he helped to transform the Institute for Advanced Studies into a research powerhouse.

Hilbert was asked in 1934 by the minister of science under the Nazi regime whether mathematics in Gottingen had suffered from the departure of the Jews and friends of the Jews. He replied: "Suffered? It hasn't suffered, Mr. Minister. It doesn't exist anymore!" Hilbert was right. Only one of the pre-Nazi full professors stayed past 1934.

The center of mathematics shifted quickly during the Nazi era and in the wake of World War II. Courant, Weyl and others helped move it to the U.K. and the U.S., where most of the top-ranked mathematics programs are located today.

These countries' mathematical heritage is in Gottingen. Its story is their story.

David Gunderman, Ph.D. student in Applied Mathematics, University of Colorado

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.ONE HUNDRED years ago the first engagement in the War of Independence took place on a quiet road in County Tipperary close to the Limerick border.

The Soloheadbeg Ambush Centenary Commemoration will take place this Sunday, January 20.

Tim Hanly, PRO of the Solohead Parish Centenary Commemoration Committee, said it is a major historical event.

The ambush of the cartload of gelignite by Dan Breen, Sean Treacy and other members of the Third Tipperary Brigade bound for the nearby quarry resulted in the death of two RIC officers, Constable James McDonnell McDonnell and Constable Patrick O Connell.

Soloheadbeg is widely recognised as the first action of the War of Independence, said Mr Hanly.

He said the events at Soloheadbeg, along with the subsequent arrest and rescue of Soloheadbeg Ambush party member Sean Hogan at the station in Knocklong in May 1919 has very strong Limerick connections.

Indeed, the Knocklong rescue was undertaken by five members of the famous Galbally Galtee battalion of the East Limerick Brigade in co-operation with three of Hogan's Third Tipperary Brigade.

The authorities subsequently executed an innocent man Patrick Maher, from Glenbrohane, for involvement in Knocklong. Patrick Maher was the last of the forgotten 10 buried in Mountjoy prison and in 2001 he finally got his dying wish to be laid to rest in his native Limerick, said Mr Hanly.

Large numbers from Oola, Doon, Galbally, Cappamore, Pallasgreen and Knocklong are expected to travel to Solohead this Sunday to mark the start of the War of Independence.

Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan will attend on behalf of the government. Organisers hope the commemoration will honour the past whilst being an inclusive and dignified occasion. Family members of all parties involved in the ambush will be in attendance.

A Mass of remembrance for all involved with the ambush will take place in Solohead Church at 11.30am. Archbishop of Cashel & Emly, Kieran OReilly will say the Mass. The formal commemoration programme commence at the memorial in Solohead Cross at 12.30pm with recitals from the Charles Kickham Brass Band and the Sean Treacy Pipe Band. Following the laying of wreaths, Dr Martin Mansergh will unveil a heritage information board. The Proclamation of Independence will be read, Irish flag raised and national anthem played. The oration will be given by Deputy Eamon O Cuiv.

Later in the afternoon the Third Tipperary Brigade Old IRA Commemoration Committee will host a separate event at the ambush site - two miles away from the main memorial in Solohead Cross. There will be an assembly from 2.30pm at Coffeys Forge with a parade to the nearby ambush site where there will be wreath laying and an oration by Labhras O Murchu.

Attendees area asked to avail of park and ride facilites in Tipperary Racecourse. Organisers urge those attending to arrive early. All welcome. For more information see the Soloheadbeg Centenary Facebook page.LIMERICK City north Solidarity councillor Mary Cahillane has launched a broadside at union boss Paul Bell for suggesting members who refuse to cross nurses picket lines will not be backed by Siptu.

Mr Bell, a Labour party councillor in Louth, believes the Irish Nurses and Midwives Associations action to put staff on strike could jeapordise the public sector pay agreement.

Cllr Cahillane has instead called for full support by all workers for nurses and midwives in their upcoming national strikes.

She said: Paul Bell is uttering frankly outrageous statements for a trade unionist and is giving succour to the Government lie that the country cant afford to give nurses a pay rise. The opposite is the case  the country and our health system cant afford not to. Their pay claim is absolutely necessary to retain essential and skilled workers in our public health service. It is part of a struggle for a fully funded national public health system thats free at the point of use and accessible to all.

Cllr Cahillane also called on Labour TD Jan OSullivan to clarify her views on Cllr Bells remarks.

Nurses should get the full support of all workers and of the general public. Their pay claim is totally just as theyve suffered a decade of austerity. Rising costs and rents are making it impossible for nurses and other workers to make a life in Ireland. Fewer staff has put unbearable strain on work conditions for nurses, she added.

All nurses and health workers, whether in the INMO or other health unions, should support their colleagues, as it is totally untrue that there is a competition for finite public funds as the economy shows a budget surplus, record levels of corporation tax, and huge wealth being generated at the top of society, she concluded, pledging to support front-line nurses.An IT Sligo Creative Design student has been shortlisted for the Institute of Designers of Ireland 2018 annual IDI Irish Design Awards. Paul Roper a native of Cliffoney, Sligo was notified of his nomination recently for his re-design of the humble clothes peg.

Paul hasnt taken a traditional route to design but has shown some incredible initiative. Having left school at 15, he took up an apprenticeship as a carpenter which he worked at for many years. When the economy slumped, Paul emigrated with his family to Canada where he worked in multiple jobs before returning to Ireland. He was also one of the best poker players in Europe and has played at some of the biggest tournaments in the world. However, Paul wanted to change his career path completely.

After some consideration, Paul decided to return to college as a mature student at the age of 43. He started studying Quantity Surveying. He received his degree in QS last year and then transferred to study Creative Design after he won an Enterprise Ireland Award for his Lock-on invention. This ingenious device allows the hitching of trailers to vehicles with a press of a button. The invention wowed the judges and inspired Paul to consider a career in design.

Now Paul is back with his next invention and this time he has completely redesigned the simple clothes peg. After witnessing his ill mother struggling to hang washing on the line, Paul promised to invent an improved clothes peg which any person, regardless of ability, would be able to use easily.

In his first attempt, Paul created a simplified version made of hinges, wood and magnets. Both his mother and partner were incredibly impressed with his crude prototype. Encouraged by early responses, Paul developed his designs and quickly accumulated a considerable amount of investment to create fully working prototypes. Within a few months Paul sourced tool makers in China and created fully working products of his new clothes peg which he has named Magpin. The name comes from Mag for magnet and Pin is what most Americans call pegs.

Throwing away the rule book

Great designers throw away the rule book and can completely divorce their design from tradition, and that is exactly what Paul has achieved. This product is a complete redesign of the clothes peg. It is much bigger than a peg, is designed to always be on your line and is T shaped. This unique design means clothes are hung from the side as opposed to being clamped on top as you would with a traditional peg.

The design has function but is also beautifully formed. Each curve, angle and bend has a purpose to either add strength or to allow easier usability. It is an incredible product which has three different hanging methods on one device. As well as the magnetic clamp option, it also offers a hole for hanging smaller items and a hook for trousers or shoes.

One of the best parts of Pauls design for this country, is how easy it is to take the clothes off the line when clouds gather. Just a quick sharp pull and your clothes are released from the line. Unlike traditional pegs you can leave the Magpin on the line thanks to its sturdy design and high quality build.

Sadly the person he first designed them for, his mother, passed away from cancer before seeing the final product. But her inspiration and support throughout Pauls life spurned him on. Today, he is in talks with a major retailer and distributor with access to an international market.

Speaking from IT Sligo, Paul thanked the IDI for recognising his design: Im very humbled to be nominated by IDI Ireland. I have researched the other candidates and I cant believe Im among this high a calibre of designers. This idea came from seeing my poor mother struggle with this simple task when she suffered with cancer. I hope this product will help others with similar issues.

The IDI Ireland Awards will take place on the 24th of January at Dublins Custom House Quay and the winners will be announced that evening.Ava Murray, student of St Clare's Comprehensive Manorhamilton will give a TED-Ed presentation as part of the Dail 100 commemorations.



Ava was one of fifteen students who were selected in a nationwide competition to deliver a TED-Ed Club presentation at the Mansion House on Tuesday, January 22, as part of the Houses of the Oireachtas programme commemorating the 100th anniversary of the First Dail.



Ava Murray

The presentations were held in the Round Room of the Mansion House, the venue for the first public sitting of Dail Eireann on 21 January 1919.

Ava's presentation was Does school prepare us for life in the modern world?

Her talk along with the 14 others are now available for viewing on the TED-Ed Clubs channel on YouTube and on Oireachtas TV.

Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghail said: There can be no better way to commemorate the first hundred years of Dail Eireann than to highlight voices of future leadership in our country as these students surely represent.

Other events are being held this month in Dublin to mark the century anniversary.

Also read: Leitrim students take home awards at Young Scientist ExhibitionThe Glens Centre is delighted to announce a very special visit to Manorhamilton of the RTE Con Tempo Quartet on Monday, January 21.



Join the Kaleidoscope Open Sessions with the RTE Con Tempo Quartet for 12 per person or free for Under 18's at 7pm.

This renowned international quartet is RTEs quartet-in-residence and has played the major concert halls of Europe, from Bucharest to Berlin to London. They will be conducting workshops in local schools during their stay in Leitrim.

With the support of Creative Leitrim, under the auspices of Leitrim County Arts Office, this offers an exceptional opportunity for schools to engage with some of Irelands top classical musicians. And the Quartet is encouraging local musicians to come along and engage with them.



They have collaborated with many traditional musicians over the years, including Mairtin OConnor and Cathal Hayden.

This is a unique event in North Leitrim and is part of The Glens new strategy for the development of classical training and experiences for the community.

Bring an instrument and/or a poem and play/read it for your fellow artists and local audience. Any type of music/writing welcomed!



Under 18's have free admission! Please note the earlier time of 7pm.

Bookings and details on www.theglenscentre.com or call: (071) 9855833.Mari grew up in Leitrim and went to school in Carrick-on-Shannon. Her parents, Malachy and Winnie are deceased and she is the second eldest of four children. She lived and worked in both Sligo and Galway before moving to Kildare.

WHAT IS YOUR FIRST KILDARE MEMORY?

I have been living in Newbridge since 1994  a blow-in. I moved from the west of Ireland (I was working in the bank in Galway) to be with my husband, Paul, who was in the Defence Forces medical corps. My first memory of arriving in Kildare was the absolute thrill of being so near the capital city, Dublin. Having hailed from the west, a trip to Dublin took a whole day. Now I could be at Newlands Cross in 30 minutes.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT KILDARE?

I love that Kildare is both rural and urban  I live in Newbridge and it has all the services of an urban centre but also has the rural beauty of the Curragh on its doorstep.

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR IDEAL DAY SPENT IN KILDARE?

I start with a cycle in Newbridge and afterwards head for lunch in the gorgeous Newbridge Silverware restaurant. I always enjoy a browse in a bookshop Farrells in Newbridge or Barker and Jones, Naas, keep me happy and occupied. An ideal day for me is one when I can get some quiet time to produce a few hundred words of my second book  a self-help book called Wellbeing. Its always a privilege to end the day playing badminton in my club in Kilcullen; fun and sociable, a great mix.

WHAT HAS THE REACTION BEEN LIKE TO YOUR NEW BOOK, BECOMING A MOTHER?

Ive been told Becoming a Mother: Reflections on Adoptive Parenthood is the first book on adoption by an Irish adoptive parent. The reaction has been amazing and I am still getting complimentary texts and emails. Ive had people come up to me in the street thanking me for my honesty on all the aspects around adoption Ive shared. Since publication, the book has been added to college and HSE reading lists.

Mari began her journey in the literary world by joining a creative writing class at Scoil Mhuire in Clane. Becoming A Mother is published by Orpen Press.St Brigids day is fast approaching but what do we really know about the patron saint of Kildare?

Delving into her story reveals a woman who was not only a feminist with a colourful past but also a trailblazer shunning the traditional life for one of leadership and guidance. She was named after one of the most powerful goddesses of the pagan religion  the goddess of fire, whose manifestations were song, craftsmanship, and also considered the flame of knowledge.

St Brigid was born in AD 450 in Faughart, near Dundalk in Co Louth. Her father, Dubhthach, was a pagan chieftain of Leinster and her mother, Broicsech, was a Christian. It was thought that Brigids mother was born in Portugal but was kidnapped by Irish pirates and brought to Ireland to work as a slave, just like St Patrick was. Brigids father named her after one of the most powerful goddesses of the pagan religion. He kept Brigid and her mother as slaves even though he was a wealthy man. Brigid spent her earlier life cooking, cleaning, washing and feeding the animals on her fathers farm.

She lived during the time of St Patrick and was inspired by his preachings and she became a Christian. When Brigid turned eighteen, she stopped working for her father.

Brigids father wanted her to find a husband but Brigid had decided that she would spend her life working for God by looking after poor, sick and elderly people.

Legend says that she prayed that her beauty would be taken away from her so no one would seek her hand in marriage; her prayer was granted.

Brigids charity angered her father because he thought she was being too generous to the poor.

When she finally gave away his jewel-encrusted sword to a leper, her father realised that she would be best suited to the religious life. Brigid finally got her wish and entered the convent.

She received her veil from St Macaille and made her vows to dedicate her life to God. Legend also says that Brigid regained her beauty after making her vows and that God made her more beautiful than ever.

News of Brigids good works spread and soon many young girls from all over the country joined her in the convent.

Brigid founded many convents all over Ireland; the most famous one was in Kildare town.

It is said that this convent was built beside an oak tree where the town of Kildare now stands. Around 470 she also founded a double monastery, for nuns and monks, in Kildare.

As Abbess of this foundation she wielded considerable power, but was a very wise and prudent superior.

The Abbey of Kildare became one of the most prestigious monasteries in Ireland, and was famous throughout Christian Europe.

St Brigid also founded a school of art, including metal work and illumination, over which St Conleth presided.

In the scriptorium of the monastery, the famous illuminated manuscript the Book of Kildare was created.

Pages from this book drawn by local artist Josephine Hardiman will be on show at Kildare libary during this years festival for St Brigid which is held in Kildare town every year to celebrate her life and teachings.

This years festival Feile Bride will take place from January 31 to February 9 with a theme of Brigid: Flame of Justice and Peace.

The festival encourages us to take time out of our busy lives and focus on what is really important to us through the teachings of St Brigid which include healing and contemplation, personal growth.

Like I said she was a trailblazer.Therell be a laugh-filled lock in at a Portlaoise pub at the end of the month, when Kavanaghs Comedy Club presents funnyman Danny OBrien.

Award-winning Irish comedian Danny O'Brien went to prison. Three times to perform. Once again by accident. He's performed relentlessly worldwide and taken up a new religion through the medium of a hangry hangover.

Danny was handpicked last year to perform as part of the iconic Best of the Edinburgh Fest show touring Australia, has featured on The Comedy Channel and is a regular on Irish TV and Radio. He recently opened for American comedian Bill Burr in front of over 7,000 people in Dublin.

'Lock-In' has already sold out at Galway International Arts Festival, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival and a ten-city European run of shows. All before his biggest tour to date this year across 12 international countries around the globe. So book your tickets now to avoid disappointment.

Danny has been performing stand-up comedy for the best part of a decade, headlining regularly at top comedy clubs and festivals to worldwide audiences.

As the resident host and owner of The Comedy Crunch in Dublin one of Irelands most successful comedy clubs - his friendly, high energy and anecdotal style draws in an audience and brings on the big laughs with ease.

Danny is a festival favourite and has been asked to perform at a host various festivals as well as regular international performances

Danny has also featured in The Comedy Central Show Brexit at Tiffanys in 2017, toured his sell out solo show and provided tour support nationwide with Today FMs Dermot & Dave's live sell out show. He is a regular contributor on Irish television and radio.

Following in the footsteps of Simon Pegg, Dylan Moran and Dara O Briain, Danny was handpicked in 2016 to perform as part of the iconic Best of The Edinburgh Fest show across Australia touring Perth World Fringe, Adelaide Fringe Festival and The Melbourne International Comedy Festival and returned again in 2018.

After a sell out month long run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and a tour of South East Asia, Danny followed these with a national and international tour with over 36 dates in six countries with his hugely successful 'RaconTour'.

O' Brien's new show 'Lock-In' saw him performing in several prisons across Ireland and the UK and debuted at The Edinburgh Fringe last August.

Danny O'Brien 'Lock In' comes to Kavanaghs Comedy Club on Friday, January 25, at 9.30pm.

For more information or to book tickets, see the website at www.kavanaghsportlaoise.com.It could be you!

So said Head of Enterprise Laois, as Evelyn Reddin announced the launch of Irelands Best Young Entrepreneur 2019 in Laois.

Were looking for dynamic, innovative young business people to enter the Irelands Best Young Entrepreneur 2019 competition in Laois. Who knows, you might make it all the way to the National Final in Google in September!

Hosted by the Local Enterprise Offices around the country, the competition is staged in conjunction with the Dept. of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Enterprise Ireland and the Local Authorities of Ireland.

Now in its fifth year, this nationwide competition invites 18-35 year olds who have a business idea, a start-up or an already established business to enter.

Applying is quick and simple. It takes about 15 minutes, is free of charge and is done on www.IBYE.ie. Shortlisted applicants take part in Business Bootcamps and compete in the County Final. Here in Laois we have an investment fund of 50,000 to share between the winners and runners up of the Best Business Idea, Best Start-Up and Best Established Business categories, said Ms Reddin.

From there, County Winners go on to compete at Regional Finals and, if successful, all the way to the National Finals.

But its not all about the National Finals.

We know from past participants that the real value for them is in being part of the process. Taking part in Irelands Best Young Entrepreneur challenges young business people to stop and really focus on where there business is now and where they can take it. The business planning, mentoring, advice and support they receive during the process is really valuable.

They tell us that being part of IBYE helps them to build a network of fellow entrepreneurs and they often become trusted friends and advisors to each other. Finally, IBYE is often their first experience of getting media exposure, which is a really important in building profile, said Ms Reddin.

Irelands Best Young Entrepreneurs is one of the headline events each year for Local Enterprise Office Laois.

The Local Enterprise Office is the first port of call for anyone in business, no matter what age they are. Hosting Irelands Best Young Entrepreneur each year allows us to connect with young entrepreneurs and explain to them the services and supports available to them to help accelerate their business growth.

We are looking forward to receiving applications from young entrepreneurs for the 2019 competition. Apply now by visiting www.IBYE.ie.

The closing date is Friday 15th March, but why wait? Get your application in today, said Ms Reddin.

The Local Enterprise Office network is the First Stop Shop for anyone seeking information and support on starting or growing a business in Ireland.

The Office provides advice, information and support to you in starting up or growing your business.

With 31 dedicated teams across the Local Authority network in Ireland, Local Enterprise Offices offer a wide range of experience, skills and services.

The Local Enterprise Office is for people interested in starting up a new business or already in business including; entrepreneurs, early stage promoters, start-ups and small business looking to expand.Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state has lost his elder brother, retired AVM Aliyu Ahmed El-Rufai.

Daily Trust reports that the late AVM died at the age of 71.

Legit.ng gathered that a family source who confirmed the death to the newspaper, said the late AVM died in the early hours of Saturday, January 17, at a hospital in Abuja after a protracted illness.

READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda

The source said the late AVM is survived by a wife and six children and that his funeral rite would take place at Sultan Muhammad Bello Mosque, Kaduna, after the Assar prayers as arrangements are being made to convey his remains to Kaduna today, January 19.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that the Nigerian Ambassador to Cote dIvoire, Ibrahim Isah, died after a protracted illness.

It was reported that Isah passed on Tuesday, January 15, in Abidjan, the country's capital at 59. The late Isah, who hailed from Niger state, joined the Nigerian Foreign Service in 1983.

READ ALSO: FG asks court to remove Onnoghen as CJN chairman

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have upgraded to serve you better.

We are honestly tired of Buhari and Atiku | - on Legit TV

Source: Legit.ng- FG has reportedly asked the court to remove Justice Walter Onnoghen as CJN

- Onnoghen is facing trial at CCT over his failure to declare some of his assets as required by law

- Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, who is the next in hierarchy to Onnoghen, might become the acting CJN pending the determination of the substantive suit

The federal government has reportedly filed a motion at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) seeking the removal of Walter Onnoghen as the chief justice of Nigeria (CJN).

Punch reports that the the motion was filed by Musa Ibrahim and Fatima Danjuma Ali on behalf of the Attorney-General of the Federation on Thursday, January 17.

Legit.ng gathered that the move, according to the government, is aimed at ensuring that Onnoghen is not a judge in his case and that the next in line of seniority, Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, becomes the acting CJN pending the determination of the substantive suit.

READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda

The plaintiff asked the court to compel President Muhammadu Buhari to name the next most senior judge as the acting CJN and chairman of the NJC.

The motion on notice was brought in pursuance of Section 6(6) Paragraph 11 (1) of the Fifth Schedule, Part 1 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).

The federal government prayed the tribunal for an interlocutory order directing the defendant/respondent to step aside as the Chief Justice of Nigeria and chairman of the National Judicial Council over an allegation of contravening the provision of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act CAP C15 Laws of the federation of Nigeria 2004 pending the determination of the case.

An interlocutory order of the honourable tribunal directing the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to take all necessary measures to swear in the most senior Justice of the Supreme Court as an acting Chief Justice and chairman of the National Judicial Council in order to prevent a vacuum in the judicial arm of government pending the determination of the case.

The fresh move against Onnoghen came after the National Industrial Court, Abuja, had on Monday, January 14, restrained the chairman of the CCT, Danladi Umar, the AGF, the Code of Conduct Bureau and the police from removing Onnoghen.

This was pursuant to a motion ex-parte filed by a lawyer, Peter Abang.

The opposition political parties had on Friday, January 18, claimed they had uncovered a plan by the federal government to arrest Onnoghen on Tuesday, January 22.

The first national spokesperson of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), Imo Ugochinyere, made the claim at a press conference in Abuja on Friday.

Ugochinyere said the arrest would be carried out shortly after a bench warrant would have been issued by the CCT against Onnoghen.

He added that arrangements had been concluded to immediately name Justice Ibrahim Muhammad as acting CJN.

He said Nigerias democracy was currently in danger.

Members of the cabal in the Presidency have just concluded a meeting last night (Thursday) where they have now set the stage to burn down the institution of democracy and constitutional governance for the purpose of achieving a narrow aim of annexing the judiciary.

Just a few hours after our release of the secret letter directing the freezing of the account of the CJN illegally without a court order, these men have at the end of their meeting last (Thursday) night directed the chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Danladi Umar, to disregard the order of the Federal High Court, Abuja which had directed the tribunal to maintain status quo", he said.

READ ALSO: Atiku reportedly listed as an aide to Nigerias Senate president Saraki to visit America

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) raised the alarm over an alleged move by the federal government to arrest the chief justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, who is standing trial at the Justice Umar Danladi-led Code of Conduct Bureau.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have upgraded to serve you better. South-South governors condemn trial of CJN Onnoghen | - on Legit TV

Source: Legit.ng- The spokesman of Atiku campaign organisation, Kassim Afegbua, has given one condition for the PDP's presidential candidate to attend the debate

- Profesor Itse Sagay, the chairman of PACAC, was quoted to have said that that President Buhari would not debate with political dwarfs

- Afegbua, however, said Atiku would attend the debate if President Muhammadu Buhari is ready to participate in the debate

Kassim Afegbua, the spokesman of the Atiku Campaign Organisation (AKO), has given one condition that would make the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, participate in the 2019 presidential debate.

The Sun reports that he said that the PDP candidate would only participate if the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), President Muhammadu Buhari, would be available for the engagement.

Legit.ng gathered that Afegbua gave the condition in reaction to the statement by the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itse Sagay, that President Buhari would not debate with political dwarfs.

READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda

He berated Sagay for making such a statement, saying the erudite professor has become a turncoat academic.

He said: When you realised that a supposed law professor like Itse Sagay now talks with tongue in cheek, you easily know that societal values and morality have become debased.

"When you realised that he once taught in the University, then the senility of his intellect has attained double jeopardy.

"Itse Sagay has not only become a turncoat academic but one whose sight invokes pity, sympathy and empathy.

"can APC presidential candidate who has been fighting battles with his WASC consider others who are duly qualified and well read as dwarfs? Does it not suggest that something is amiss somewhere?

Who is actually a dwarf here? Is it a presidential candidate running away from debate or one who is challenging the other to a debate?

"Didnt you see them packaging a phoney debate for him where he would have studied the questions and answers and regurgitate them to the best of what would have been prepared for him?

If the APC presidential candidate is not presenting himself for debate, we will not allow our presidential candidate to attend any debate. But if APC candidate is ready to engage our candidate, he is ready and prepared for him.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that the presidential campaign organisation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) replied the federal government over the allegation against its party's presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

READ ALSO: Atiku claims US is backing his presidential bid

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have upgraded to serve you better.

Nigeria Latest News: Buhari vs Atiku - 2019 Elections | - on Legit TV

Source: Legit.ng- Nigerians have been assured of continued fight against corruption by President Muhammadu Buhari

- According to the president, all recovered assets will be sold off and the proceeds lodged into the Single Treasury Account

- Buhari also said that his administration has recorded tremendous success in the war against insurgency, restiveness in the Niger Delta

President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, January 18, assured Nigerians that his administration would not waiver in its fight against corruption and ensuring sanity in public affairs.

Buhari gave the assurance while addressing his supporters at the flag off of his re-election campaign in Kaduna.

READ ALSO: Atiku reveals why US is backing his presidential bid

We have taken measures to ensure that recovered funds and assets are not handed back to those who looted the treasury as was done after my detention when my administration was toppled in the 80s.

What we are doing is to ensure that all recovered assets are sold off and the proceeds lodged into the Single Treasury Account.That way, no one will have the opportunity to appropriate such assets.

The president assured that the government would not be cowed to abandon the corruption war.

The anti corruption fight is difficult in the current democratic dispensation, but we will continue to work carefully and steadily until we insulate public funds from looters.

He said that the administration has recorded tremendous success in the war against insurgency, restiveness in the Niger Delta and other crimes and would not rest until peace is restored to all parts of the country.

I have nothing to say than to remind you of the situation we met this country and the promises we made to you.

So the best we can do for our country is to return the APC to power.

The biggest gift we can give to our country is security and sufficiency and economic prosperity,  he said.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that in what was seen as a setback for the candidacy of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), a political movement started by Shehu YarAdua declared support for President Buhari.

Atiku, who is now in America on a foreign campaign, has always regarded YarAdua as his mentor and leader.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better.

Nigeria Latest News: Buhari vs Atiku - 2019 Elections | Legit TV

Source: Legit.ngEditor's note: Olubunmi R. Adeyinka, a public affairs analyst writes on issues in Nigeria especially the challenges of effective productivity for governments and organisations in the country.

Adeyinka focuses on the efforst on the NOI polls and the gathering of data for effective use in Nigeria.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Legit.ng.

Your own opinion articles are welcome at info@corp.legit.ng drop an email telling us what you want to write about and why. More details in Legit.ngs step-by-step guide for guest contributors.

Were ready to trade your news for our money: submit news and photo reports from your area using our Citizen Journalism App.

Contact us if you have any feedback, suggestions, complaints or compliments. We are also available on Twitter.

A major challenge to effective productivity for governments and organisations in Nigeria is how to adequately capture and interpret data. Creating good strategy is premised on the ability to understand the current state of affairs, its nuances, and changes over time in order to implement an approach that best fulfils the desired objective.

The country lacked credible data from authentic and rigorous data gathering tools. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a globally renowned economist and two-term Nigerian finance minister who served as the vice president of World Bank, founded NOI Polls Limited in response to this vacuum.

Established 12 years ago as West Africas first country-specific opinion survey firm, it has built its methodology in technical partnership with The Gallup Poll (USA).

Over the past twelve years, NOI polls has produced independent research, provided strategic consulting, analytics and data banking services that have helped corporations, policy makers, government agencies, international donors, CSOs, and private enterprises to understand the opinions of Nigerians.

READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda

This has focused on issues of governance, market trends, management of the economy, provision of social and health services, as well as performance of government and private sector institutions.

Comprising a team of over 500 researchers including enumerators, field supervisors, field managers, research analysts, associates, and managers, NOI has published some of the most groundbreaking research in Nigeria.

In the run up to the 2019 elections, NOIPolls has been instrumental in assessing the impact of voter education being carried out by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as well as the preparedness of INEC and the electorates towards the 2019 elections.

Election polls attract a great deal of attention for their ability to predict the outcome of elections, however their most critical function is to help journalists and citizens understand the meaning of the campaigns and the electoral process.

Polls help to explain, among other things, what issues are important, how candidate qualities may affect voters decisions, and how much support there is for particular policy changes.

NOIPolls also published its monthly approval ratings assessing President Buharis 3rd year in office across a 3-year period (June 2015 to May 2018). The results revealed that over the tenure, the Presidents performance rating had taken a downward plunge, plummeting from his highest rating of 80% recorded in October 2015, to 37% recorded in August 2016 and more recently 39% in April 2018. It also helped predict the results of the Ekiti state gubernatorial elections, as well as assessing the major factors that premised voters in their choice of candidates.

The most recent elections related poll conducted in September 2018 assessed the collection of Permanent Voters Cards (PVC).

It revealed a low rate of collection as that almost 7 in 10 Nigerians (68 percent) who registered since the commencement of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise in April, 2017 are yet to collect their permanent voters card (PVC).

Most people who were yet to collect their PVCs at the time of the survey reported that they have checked but were told by INEC officials that their PVCs were not yet ready for collection.

Given the low collection of PVCs, 34 percent of the electorates suggested that INEC should send text messages to citizens whose PVCs are ready, recruit more ad-hoc staff (25 percent) and create more collection centers across the country (15 percent) amongst other recommendations to boost collection of PVCs.

Surveys to understand the barriers to women and youth participation in politics have been particularly insightful in this electoral cycle.

They exposed that most Nigerians (91%) believe there is gender disparity in politics, with culture and religion cited as the greatest barriers to Nigerian women in politics.

Young people on the other hand cited financial constraints and god-fatherism as the two largest constraints militating young professionals from contesting for office. These findings have helped CSOs involved in enhancing wider political participation to create strategies to mitigate these barriers.

READ ALSO: US government is in support of my candidature - Atiku

Outside the elections, surveys on social issues such as rising drug and child abuse, have helped shape the advocacy strategy for stakeholders.

Research on the nature and origins of fake news revealed that social media propagates fake news far more than word of mouth, the internet, television and newspaper combined.

NOIPolls also partnered to develop the manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), the first in Nigeria used in developed markets and larger emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil.

Based upon manufacturers responses to set questions on core variables in their businesses, it indicated that structural issues continue to stifle the growth and expansion of Nigerian manufacturing firms which limit manufacturers ability to produce standard products profitably.

Power supply tracking has helped power companies understand perceptions of their deliveries in order to improve consumer relations.

These have provided estimates of the electricity demand within specified clusters, estimates of off-takers willingness to pay for improved electricity services, and assess the demand for electricity within the specified clusters. The presentation of findings in easy to understand info-graphics allows all citizens to comprehend the status of the sectors.

Base and end line surveys in agriculture and food security have also been undertaken to provide socio-economic baseline data at the level of smallholder farmers along pre-identified Green Innovation Centers.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

A baseline survey was also carried out to assess the City Infrastructure Quality Index, which will serve as an indicator for measuring improvements in the quality of infrastructure in Nigeria over time. This will provide insight of the economic health of the selected cities and measure access to urban transport and solid waste management services.

The wide scope of topics covered illustrates how NOIPolls is making progress in achieving its mission of giving Nigerians a voice on the issues that impact their lives as well as supporting businesses. Surveys on citizens perception in particular have provided timely and relevant information on public attitudes and opinions on various social and economic issues.

These have given a voice to ordinary citizens to aid decision makers in the public and private sectors for better performance and improved governance.

With an expansion plan to cover West Africa over the next five years using the latest methodologies for data collection, NOI aims to magnify the significance of public opinion research across the continent.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: Same great journalism, upgraded for better service!

Nigeria Latest News: Buhari vs Atiku - 2019 Elections | Legit TV

Source: LegitSilvassa, January 19: As opposition parties came together at West Bengal chief minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's rally in Kolkata, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a counter-attack at newly-formed alliances of non-BJP parties. After laying the foundation stone for a medical college in Silvassa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli on Saturday, PM Modi said the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) is formed against people of India.

"This gathbandhan (alliance) is not against Modi but against the people of India," PM Modi said. He said his fight against corruption has brought opposition parties together. "My actions against corruption have infuriated some people. It's but natural for them to get angry as I've prevented them from looting public money. Consequently, they have now formed an alliance called Mahagathbandhan," the prime minister said. Narendra Modi Rides K-9 Vajra Self Propelled Howitzer Built by L&T in Hazia; Watch Video.

PM Modi said those who destroyed the democracy in the country today talk about saving it. "Currently, they (opposition parties) are not even properly together and already that have started bargaining for their share," he said. PM Modi's remarks came on a day when non-BJP parties have gathered at the Brigade Parade Ground rally where they vowed to oust the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha, who severed his ties with Bharatiya Janata Party in 2018, said at his age he wanted nothing in life but the ouster of the Modi government for which the entire opposition should unite. He suggested all the opposition parties should field one common candidate against the BJP across the country so that the NDA government could be "thrown out lock, stock and barrel".

Another former Union Minister Arun Shourie attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his demonetisation decision that set the economy backwards and inflicted misery on the common man and for messing up with a simple idea like the Goods and Services Tax, making it cumbersome.

Among those who attended the rally were Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, DMK chief MK Stalin, Loktantrik Janata Dal chief Sharad Yadav, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah and Nationalist Congress Party head Sharad Pawar. Although Congress president Rahul Gandhi could not make it to the event, he had extended his support in a letter addressed to Banerjee.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 19, 2019 03:26 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).(CNN)  The White House announced Friday that a second summit will take place between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in February.

The announcement came after Trump met with Kim Yong Chol, North Korea's lead negotiator on nuclear talks, for more than 90 minutes in the Oval Office and discussed "denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February," according to press secretary Sarah Sanders.

"The President looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date," she added.

Trump welcomed Kim Yong Chol into the Oval Office shortly after the North Korean envoy met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a Washington hotel. Pompeo, who also in the White House meeting, invited Kim and his delegation to lunch after the Oval Office discussion.

Shortly after the White House meeting, Sanders was pressed by reporters on why the U.S. should believe North Korean promises regarding denuclearization.

"We've continued to make progress. We're continuing to have conversations. The U.S. is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea until we see fully and verified denuclearization. We've had very good steps in good faith from the North Koreans in releasing the hostages and other moves so we're going to continue those conversations," she said.

Sanders also characterized the meeting as "productive."

"The President had about an hour-and-a-half-long meeting. There was a U.S. delegation; we'll send out those specific names here shortly. I can tell you Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in the room, as were others from the President's team. It was productive and we're going to continue those conversations," she added.

Kim Yong Chol had arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport on Thursday evening, bringing with him a letter from Kim Jong Un meant for Trump, a source familiar with the denuclearization talks between the U.S. and North Korea told CNN.

During his last trip to the U.S. in June, Kim Yong Chol visited New York and met with Pompeo before traveling to Washington, where he delivered an oversized envelope containing a letter from Kim Jong Un to Trump in the Oval Office. The two met for two hours in the White House.

During that visit, Kim Yong Chol was able to break the impasse between Washington and Pyongyang and help get the first U.S.-North Korea summit back on track.

Trump and Kim Jong Un's summit in Singapore in June ended with a commitment from the North Korean leader to "work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," but negotiations appear to have stalled since then.

Many critics accuse the Trump administration of failing to get Pyongyang to agree to specifics at their first summit. They say the North Koreans want a second summit because they believe they can extract greater concessions by meeting with Trump directly, as opposed to working with envoys like Pompeo or Steve Biegun, the U.S. special representative to North Korea.

It is still unclear whether Kim Yong Chol and Trump discussed specific terms related to the newly announced second summit in February, but Vice President Mike Pence made it clear this week that the US is still waiting for North Korea to take concrete steps to denuclearize.

North Korea an 'extraordinary threat'

The Pentagon's newly unveiled Missile Defense Review, which Trump personally introduced on Thursday, explicitly states that North Korea remains an "extraordinary threat" to the U.S., an assessment that is consistent with previous findings by U.S. military and intelligence agencies but rarely acknowledged by Trump himself.

Seven months ago, Trump declared that his first summit with Kim Jong Un in Singapore had eliminated any nuclear threat posed by the North Korea, even though the meeting produced no verifiable proof that the rogue regime will discontinue its nuclear program.

Trump made little mention of North Korea in his public remarks at the Pentagon on Thursday but the underlying missile defense strategy emphasizes efforts to improve protection measures against the existing North Korean arsenal.

"While a possible new avenue to peace now exists with North Korea, it continues to pose an extraordinary threat and the United States must remain vigilant," the Pentagon assessment says.

"Over the past decade, it has invested considerable resources in its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and undertaken extensive nuclear and missile testing in order to realize the capability to threaten the U.S.homeland with missile attack. As a result, North Korea has neared the time when it could credibly do so," it says.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "White House announces second Trump-Kim summit."MISSOULA- While the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women is all too common for Montana, one Missoula organization is continuing the fight to raise awareness about the issue.

To do so, the Payne Native American center is holding a walk tomorrow at in front of the Payne Native American Center at noon.

Organizer Lauren Small Rodriguez says this is the first event completely led and organized by the Native American community.

It's geared towards unity, its geared towards concrete efforts, to stop MMIW, to stop our missing and murdered indigenous women, children and families.. it's very important to us, it's been going on for quite a long time, said Rodriguez.

As women like Jermain Charlo and Ashley Loring Heavy-Runner are still missing, Tribal leaders are asking the community to join them and seek this much-needed change.

Rodriguez says Montana has the fifth highest rate of missing and murdered indigenous women in the nation.

She hopes the vigil will bring awareness to several proposed bills that will directly impact the tracking of this growing issue and find justice for the victims and their families.

If you would like to donate to the cause click here.A bill in the Montana Legislature is proposing to do away with an antiquated blood test requirement for brides.

Montana is the last state in the nation that requires women to get a blood test before they get a marriage license. This mandate has been in place since the early 1900s.

The blood test can detect if a woman has the rubella virus, which can cause women to have a hard time getting pregnant.A Montana legislator is proposing to outlaw romantic relationships between high school teachers and students, even if the student is above the legal age of consent.

In Montana the age of consent is 16. House Bill 173 says high school and elementary students can never give consent in a relationship that happens in a school setting.

The bill is being proposed by Democrat Shane A. Morigeau of Missoula.

The bill includes school employees, volunteers and independent contractors who work directly with students.

If it passes, adults found guilty could face a $500 fine and up to six months in jail for having a relationship with a student.FRENCHTOWN - The Frenchtown High School shooting threat case has been referred to Missoula Youth Court, authorities said Friday afternoon.

The sheriff's office says a conversation about shootings overheard on a bus led to Frenchtown Schools closing Friday.

Officials have not yet if multiple students are involved in the threat, or how many were referred to Youth Court.

A release from the Missoula County Sheriff's Office says that on Thursday, Jan. 17, students on a school bus told their parents that they'd overheard a conversation about a "possible school shooting event." The students' parents called school officials, who notified deputies.

The sheriff's department says it's investigating the incident based on the "context and content of that conversation."

Superintendent Randy Cline issued the following statement:

"After the District was made aware of a verbal threat last night, school officials determined it would be best to cancel school on Friday and give the District and law enforcement time to fully investigate the threat before bringing students back to school. School officials conducted a threat assessment today and are working with law enforcement to address the safety and welfare of our students and staff. No weapons were on school property, and there was no imminent threat to student or staff safety. The District is fully cooperating with law enforcement and they will handle any legal consequences of the threat.

The District will not comment on individual student discipline, but all threats are taken seriously and we take the steps necessary to keep students and staff safe. School will resume on Tuesday, January 22 with an additional law enforcement presence, and counselors will be available to assist students as necessary. We are thankful for the continued support of our parents and the Frenchtown community, as well as the collaboration with law enforcement."

Frenchtown Schools are slated to resume on Tuesday, Jan. 22, after the Martin Luther King Jr Day.The US Customs and Border Protection released video Friday showing a group of 376 migrants apprehended at the border in Arizona Monday.

The group entered the US near the Yuma Sector checkpoint. That's a section of the border protected by a fence.

Most people in the group used one of the seven holes they dug to tunnel under that fence. Officials say a "very few" of them went over it.

The group is made up almost entirely of families from Guatemala.

It includes 176 juveniles. Thirty of them are unaccompanied.

The group surrendered to border patrol agents and will likely be transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

According to officials, most migrants apprehended in the Yuma Sector come from Guatemala in buses or taxis.The Billings Chamber of Commerce is one of 380 chambers joining the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to sign a letter, calling on congress and the administration to end the government shutdown.

Billings Chamber of Commerce is collecting stories and narratives of the impact the shutdown is having on local businesses in Billings.

President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, John Brewer, says local businesses downtown have told them they've had less traffic in their businesses during the shutdown.

"The top two states impacted our Montana and Alaska based on population of federal workers with our national lands and other things here," said Brewer.

They sent out a survey to chamber members to get a handle on the impact the shutdown has had on the local economy.

"There may be some opportunities in there for us to help promote our member businesses in the community to encourage visitation and offer some

kind of relief to the effected employees for them to continue to enjoy their quality of life by attending dinners and events in our community at a discounted rate," Brewer said.

L.P. Anderson Point S Tire and Auto Service is one local business who has lost government employed customers due to the shutdown.

Owner Jared McDermott says his company works with federal agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Forest Service.

He says they are seeing a reduction in the number of government vehicles coming in for service due to the shutdown.

McDermott adds, the impact on his business is noticeable, and he knows he's not the only local business feeling the pinch.

"A lot of those people aren't working right now and as a result, we're not seeing those vehicles come in for service. Those people need to get back to work because they have families to support and they need tires on their own vehicles on their own vehicles that they're probably not getting right now because they don't have a paycheck," said McDermott.Billings Chamber of Commerce hosted their 2019 Chamber Ag Appreciation Celebration on Friday night.

Billings Chamber of Commerce says the celebration is about education, admiration, and gratitude for the area's farmers, ranchers, consumers, and businesses that make agriculture the region's number one industry.

The Chamber welcomed approximately 800 people to MetraPark for the dinner.

President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce John Brewer said the industry is so important to residents and the quality of life that Billings is able to enjoy thanks to all the great work of ag folks in the region.

Brewer added, "And the purpose is for a lot of our business communities to buy tables and then invite their clients to enjoy and just have a great night with Yellowstone County Catering and large pieces of meat and beer and enjoy the night!"Weather Alert

...FIRE WEATHER WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH SATURDAY EVENING FOR GUSTY WINDS AND LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY FOR FIRE WEATHER ZONE 413 BELOW 6000 FT... The National Weather Service in Pocatello has issued a Fire Weather Watch for gusty winds and low relative humidity, which is in effect from Saturday afternoon through Saturday evening. * AFFECTED AREA...Fire Weather Zone 413 Caribou Range/Caribou NF. * WINDS...West 10 to 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph. * RELATIVE HUMIDITY...As low as 14 percent. * IMPACTS...Strong winds and low humidity coupled with dry fuels will create critical fire weather conditions. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... A fire weather watch means that critical fire weather conditions are forecast to occur. Listen for later forecasts and possible Red Flag Warnings. &&Sunshine Division gives out hundreds of boxes of foods to impacted TSA workersAuburn, IN (46706)

Today

Some clouds early with showers likely late, and a thunderstorm is possible. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Some clouds early with showers likely late, and a thunderstorm is possible. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.Angola, IN (46703)

Today

Some clouds early with showers likely late, and a thunderstorm is possible. Low 66F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Some clouds early with showers likely late, and a thunderstorm is possible. Low 66F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening. Thunderstorms likely late. Low 67F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening. Thunderstorms likely late. Low 67F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.People demonstrate in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2018, demanding an end to the separation of migrant children from their parents.Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Police say these two men stole $3,500 worth of tools from a Benton Park West home under construction. They also stole a security camera while it was still on while the victim watched on an app on his phone.A group wants to honor a St. Louis native killed in Syria by adding him to the St. Louis Walk of Fame.Amia Tyrae Berryman, 28, was killed in Baton Rouge in March. Friends on social media said she worked in home health care and had a "big heart."As the government shutdown stretches towards a fifth week, FBI field offices across the country are opening food banks to help support special agents and staff struggling without pay.Divers come face-to-face with one of the world's largest great white sharksWASHINGTON (AP)  Special counsel Robert Mueller's office on Friday issued a rare public statement disputing the accuracy of BuzzFeed News' report that said President Donald Trump's attorney told Mueller that the president directed him to lie to Congress.

BuzzFeed, citing two unidentified law enforcement officials, reported that Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate project and that Cohen told Mueller that Trump personally instructed him to lie about the timing of the project. The report said Mueller's investigators learned about Trump's directive "through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents."

The report said Cohen then acknowledged Trump's instructions when he was interviewed by the Mueller team.

The statement by Mueller's office on Friday night doesn't cite any specific errors, but the special counsel's spokesman, Peter Carr, said, "BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the special counsel's office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's congressional testimony are not accurate."

Immediately after the statement was issued, Trump retweeted a post that said: "Sadly so many will never get the memo that it was fake!"

Buzzfeed spokesman Matt Mittenthal said: "We stand by our reporting, and we are working to determine what exactly the Special Counsel is disputing. Stay tuned."

Democrats had earlier vowed to investigate whether the report was true, calling that possibility a "concern of the greatest magnitude." House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., both said they would investigate the matter.

Any evidence that Trump directed a witness to lie to investigators would place him in the greatest political and legal jeopardy yet and confront him with allegations of the sort that led to the departure of one president and the impeachment of another.

The Associated Press had not independently confirmed the report.

Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said in a statement Friday that "any suggestion  from any source  that the President counseled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false." White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the allegation "absolutely ridiculous."

On Twitter Friday morning, Trump charged that Cohen was "Lying to reduce his jail time!"

Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress to cover up that he was negotiating the Trump Tower project on Trump's behalf during the heat of his presidential campaign. The charge was brought by Mueller and was the result of Cohen's cooperation with that probe.

He admitted that he lied when he told lawmakers he had never agreed to travel to Russia in connection with the Moscow project and when he said that he'd decided by the end of January 2016 that the "proposal was not feasible for a variety of business reasons and should not be pursued further."

He was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to conceal his boss' alleged sexual affairs, telling a judge that he agreed time and again to cover up Trump's "dirty deeds" out of "blind loyalty."

Giuliani noted that Cohen had pleaded guilty to lying and quoted federal prosecutors in New York who chastised him for a "pattern of lies and dishonesty over an extended period of time." Mueller's team, however, has called him a credible witness.

"Today's claims are just more made-up lies born of Michael Cohen's malice and desperation," Giuliani said.

Lanny Davis, a Cohen adviser, declined to comment.

Cohen is scheduled to testify publicly before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Feb. 7. The top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, said Friday that he expects Cohen to talk to that panel in February.

Though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has discouraged any talk of impeachment in the early days of her new majority, some senior Democrats said that if the BuzzFeed report is confirmed, Trump's actions could rise to that level.

"If the @BuzzFeed story is true, President Trump must resign or be impeached," tweeted Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, a member of the House intelligence panel.

Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline, also a Judiciary committee member, tweeted that if Trump directed Cohen to lie, "that is obstruction of justice. Period. Full stop."

A Senate Democrat, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, tweeted that "we need to know this ASAP" if Mueller does have multiple sources confirming that Trump directed Cohen to lie.

"Mueller shouldn't end his inquiry, but it's about time for him to show Congress his cards before it's too late for us to act," Murphy tweeted.MASON CITY, Iowa (AP)  The Iowa Department of Transportation says road conditions are deteriorating in northern Iowa as a winter storm sweeps the Midwest for a second straight weekend.

The department says visibility is below a half mile in many locations, with snow and winds of up to 20 mph hitting areas like Mason City and Clear Lake. Motorists are being warned to use extra caution on roads.

The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for Friday afternoon into Saturday for all of eastern Iowa, with high winds and snow up to 8 inches in northeastern Iowa. Some cities have already declared snow emergencies in anticipation of the storm, and some school events have been postponed or canceled.

To see images from Iowa DOT cameras, click here.BRITT, Iowa  A man is pleading not guilty to being caught with a stolen gun.

Aric Gail Dunn, 25 of Webster City, is charged with 2nd and 3rd degree theft. He was arrested after a traffic stop on U.S. Highway 18 near Britt on December 17. Officer say two loaded handguns were found in a box behind the drivers seat. One of the guns had been reported stolen.

Dunns trial is scheduled to start on February 20.GARNER, Iowa  A woman accused of stealing from the Caseys General Store in Britt is pleading not guilty.

BreAnna Hedegard, 25 of Mason City, is charged with lottery fraud and 5th degree theft. Britt police say she took money from the stores cash register and from the managers office. Hedegard is also accused of taking a lottery ticket printed by mistake, scanning it, and keeping the prize money for herself.

Court documents state that Hedegard denied these allegations but that her actions were captured of security video.

Hedegards trial is due to begin on March 20 in Hancock County District Court.FOREST CITY, Iowa  A Mason City man is pleading not guilty to a Winnebago County kidnapping.

Kristofer Warren Voigt, 38, is accused of assaulting and abducting a woman on November 7, 2018, in Lake Mills. Law enforcement says Voigt was armed with a knife and a gun, repeatedly threatened to kill the woman, and wound up taking her to Mason City.

Hes charged with 1st degree burglary and 2nd degree kidnapping. Voigts trial is scheduled to begin on February 27.NORTHWOOD, Iowa  A man convicted of aiding and abetting in the rape of a North Iowa woman who later died must remain a registered sex offender.

Zachary Michael Patterson, 27, was convicted in Worth County in 2012 of aiding and abetting assault with intent to commit sexual abuse. Patterson admitted to being in the house the night 27-year-old Bridget Wirtjes was raped. Wirtjes later died of her injuries.

Patterson served six months in jail and completed his probation and parole. He filed a petition with the court in September 2018 so he would no longer be on the Iowa Sex Offender Registry. A hearing on that petition was held December 17, 2018, in Worth County District Court.

Patterson told the judge that being a registered sex offender was an embarrassment to his family, harmed his chance of employment, and prevented him from seeing his grandparents in care facilities.

District Court Judge Gregg Rosenbladt has now rejected Pattersons request. Judge Rosenbladt says Patterson may not have sexually assaulted Wirtjes but he was present when it happened and did not stop it from taking place. He also says that one evaluation of Patterson considered him at average risk to reoffend. Due to the egregious nature of Wirtjes sexual assault and death, Judge Rosenbladt has ruled that Patterson must remain on the Iowa Sex Offender Registry.ROCHESTER, Minn.  A man accused of attacking a security guard has been found incompetent to stand trial.

Marcus Angelo Chambers, 22, was arrested on December 2, 2018, after police say he knocked down a guard at the U.S. Bank building in downtown Rochester and punched the guard three or four times in the head.

The guard suffered a large cut on his face and took himself to the hospital after complaining of head and shoulder pain.

Chamber is charged with 3rd and 5th degree assault.(CNN)  The Democratic Republic of Congo's Ebola outbreak, which began August 1, is continuing unabated in the new year.

The total number of probable patients is now 663, while 407 deaths are likely attributable to the viral illness, the Ministry of Health said Wednesday. An additional 123 people, who doctors suspect may be sick with Ebola, are currently under investigation. The ministry also reported that 237 people have recovered from the life-threatening illness.

On average, Ebola  which causes fever, severe headache and in some cases hemorrhaging  kills about half of those infected. The latest outbreak has a case fatality rate of 60%.

The current outbreak is the second-deadliest and second-largest in history, topped only by one in West Africa in 2014, when the disease killed more than 11,000 people, according to the World Health Organization.

Recent tweets from both Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO's director-general, and Dr. Peter Salama, WHO deputy director-general of emergency preparedness and response, address the "numerous" challenges of this epidemic.

Salama believes the current outbreak "is really several distinct outbreaks," as North Kivu province remains the epicenter with additional cases occurring in neighboring Ituri province, according to the World Health Organization. The two provinces are among the most populous in the nation and border Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.

Not only is North Kivu experiencing this deadly Ebola outbreak, but long-term conflict smolders there, with 50 armed groups causing intermittent violence, according to WHO. The UN public health agency estimates that more than a million refugees and internally displaced people are traveling through and out of North Kivu and Ituri, and this movement is a potential risk factor for the spread of Ebola.

Another complication: a high number of malaria cases in the region.

Local grit has overturned some of the obstacles. Though protesters of a long-delayed presidential election vandalized health care facilities in late December, on Monday, locals in Rwangoma worked to repair the damage with their own labor and at their own expense. Each inhabitant contributed 500 Congolese francs (equivalent to about a third of a US dollar).

Hope arrived in the form of a baby girl born earlier this month to a mother who had been cured of the viral disease in December. Twice the healthy baby girl has been tested for Ebola, and twice the results have come back negative.

Other positives include the Ministry's November launch of the first randomized control trial for experimental Ebola treatments; 248 patients have received one of the four new drugs as of January 1, according to the WHO. Additionally, 60,715 people have been vaccinated since early August.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Ebola deaths top 400 in Congo as obstacles challenge health care workers."BANCROFT TOWNSHIP, Minn.  Four semis crashed together Friday afternoon in Freeborn County but only one person was injured.

It happened in the southbound lanes of Interstate 35 near mile marker 16 around 1:50 pm. The Minnesota State Patrol says all four semis lost control due to snowy and icy conditions and collided with each other.

Only one semi driver, Viktar Yermakovich, 45 of Albertville, was hurt. He was taken to Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea with what are described as non-life threatening injuries.

The State Patrol says all four drivers were wearing their seat belts.

The Freeborn County Sheriffs Office, Clarks Grove Fire Department, Geneva Fire Department, Ellendale Ambulance, Gold Cross Ambulance, and MnDOT all assisted at the scene.CLEAR LAKE, Iowa - The numbers are alarming: according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2016, 500 people were killed in workplace shootings in the United States.

That's why the Clear Lake Police Department, in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce, held an informational session to the public Friday morning at City Hall about what to do during an active shooter situation.

Karo Brattrud has a similar informational session that involved simulating real-life situations at NIACC.

"It was still very scary going through it, even though it wasn't real. And it really made you think about what to do in a situation like that instead of being a sitting duck."

She attended today's course to see what's changed since then, and learned that the older method of a simple lockdown has evolved. In addition, she advocates those who haven't attended a course to do so.

"You don't lock down anymore. You want to run, if you can, hide if you can't, and bar the door and protect yourself as much as you can and help your coworkers if you can."

Participants also learned about behavioral patterns that could be a sign beforehand.The EPA is calling on second-level students, who are influential consumers and will be the decision-makers of tomorrow, to use their unique artistic talents and inspire others to make low carbon and environmentally conscious consumption choices.

"We have a very high quality environment in Ireland. How we choose to live affects the air we breathe, the water we drink and swim in, and the beauty spots such as mountains we walk in. It is through our consumption decisions  the stuff we buy and how it is used  that these impacts are sharply revealed. Dr Jonathan Derham, EPA Programme Manager was speaking at the launch of the EPAs annual nationwide competition for secondary school students, The Story of Your Stuff.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is encouraging second-level students to creatively trace the life cycle of their everyday items and tell its story. The call comes as part of the EPAs The Story of Your Stuff 2019 competition, which was launched yesterday.

The competition inspires students to use their artistic talents to visually tell the story of any item they use  from mobile phones to deodorants or a hairbrush. It raises awareness of where an item comes from, its carbon footprint, what happens to it when it is used and eventually disposed of, and what impact this has on all aspects of our environment. Core information on challenges to our environment is available to entrants through the EPAs irelandsenvironment.ie web resource.

Colette Ryan, the EPA lead for The Story of Your Stuff, said: The Story of Your Stuff competition aims to get young people to think and talk about their environment and to understand where their stuff comes from and its environmental burden. As people become more aware of the connectivity between the quality of our environment and how we consume they then become more discerning and sustainable consumers. The decisions we make on a daily basis  what to eat, what to wear, how to travel, how to dispose of items  directly affect our well-being, the people around us, and the environment.

Students are invited to use a visual creative medium of their choice, including video, animation, drawings and photography, to tell the story of their chosen item, considering the entirety of its life cycle.

Colette Ryan said: The quality of the entries each year is fantastic and a testament to the wonderful students who take the time to explore the story of their stuff, and to the teachers who guide them. We look forward to seeing the projects from this years entrants.

The winner of The Story of Your Stuff will receive 500 for themselves and 500 for their school. Competition guidelines and tips are available at www.thestoryofyourstuff.ie. The deadline for entries is Friday, 8th March 2019.

Last years competition was won by Amber Pomeranz and Lauren Lehane from Presentation Secondary School, Milltown, Killarney, Co Kerry, who made a video on the story of chewing gum.

When researching their project, entrants are encouraged to use the EPAs website, particularly the Irelands Environment section atwww.IrelandsEnvironment.ie. It offers easily accessible information about your local environment, environmental indicators, reports and research on topics such as climate change, biodiversity and waste management.Teagasc has organised a nationwide series of personalised Forestry Advisory Clinics promoting the establishment of forestry as a sustainable and rewarding land use on Irish farms.

These clinics will be held in Teagasc offices around the country on specific dates, from 10 am to 4 pm each day (see details below), where a private and personalised one-to one consultation with an experienced forestry advisor can be arranged by appointment.

Kilkenny (R95 RX30) Tuesday 29 January

Mullinavat (X91 YW32) Monday 28 January





The Forestry Programme offers landowners and existing forest owners many options in relation to forest establishment with a range of attractive grants and annual premium categories available.

Dr Nuala Ni Fhlatharta, Head of Teagascs Forestry Development Department said: Landowners consider forestry for many reasons. That is why a land use change to forestry, like any new farm enterprise, will raise many questions.

She added, It is also a great opportunity for farmers to understand the requirements of the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and other farm schemes before establishing a forest. These Teagasc Forestry Clinics are an ideal opportunity to flesh out the details of how forestry might work for you.

A consultation with your Teagasc forestry advisor will provide independent and objective advice, empowering you to make informed decisions on many relevant issues including the following:

Opportunities for farmers and other landowners under the Forestry Programme 2014-2020

Available grants and premiums

Interaction with other farm schemes, e.g. BPS, GLAS, etc.

How forestry can improve farm income and the environment

How to apply and get the job done right first time

What to expect from you forest crop; harvesting and timber sales

Although the emphasis for the upcoming clinics is on new planting; existing forest owners, regardless of what stage their forest is at, can also avail of this opportunity to pick up valuable management tips.

Prior booking of a one to one forestry consultation is essential. To book your free consultation, please see table below for contact details. Please bring maps and other relevant information on the day to optimise the advisory experience and outcome.

These clinics provide an ideal opportunity to get answers to your forestry questions  dont miss it!

For further details, visit www.teagasc.ie/forestryclinicsCORVALLIS, Ore. -- An Oregon State University student convicted of a hate crime has been released and is enrolling part-time at the university.

On Dec. 12, Andrew Joseph Oswalt, 28, was sentenced to 40 days in jail and three years of probation for putting racist bumper stickers on cars outside of an anti-racism meeting in Corvallis in 2017. He was also ordered to pay a fine of $500 and not have any contact with the victims.

RELATED: Former OSU student sentenced to 40 days for hate crime

Oswalt was released from Benton County Jail Jan. 10. He has filed an appeal in the case.ALBANY, Ore. -- Oregon State Police's crime lab is facing a backlog of urine samples, and it's allowing criminals to stay on the streets, Linn County's District Attorney said.

Doug Marteeny told KEZI 9 News a lack of resources is to blame. He said the crime lab is at a "crisis" level when it comes to prosecuting driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUII) cases, and he's frustrated it's taking so long to prosecute them.

He said the crime lab does great work, but they just don't have the resources they need to process urine samples in a timely manner. Marteeny said 50 percent of his cases involving DUII are drug related, and right now, it takes about 14 months to get results back. Marteeny said the long wait time to make initial charging decisions is problematic.

"As a prosecutor of 15 years, Ive had numerous experiences where Ive sat across the table from family members who've lost loved ones to the hands of drunk drivers and to explain to them why I've got to wait 14 months," Marteeny said. "That's not an easy conversation to have, and that makes you passionate to get this problem fixed."

He said the crime lab needs more money to expedite the process, and that's why the Oregon District Attorney's Association is planning on proposing a bill to lawmakers that would require crime labs to return blood or urine sample testing within 90 days.ROSEBURG, Ore. -- Umpqua Valley Habitat for Humanity and the Red Cross are hosting the "Give a Pint, Get a Pint" blood drive at Backside Brewing on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Those who participate Jan. 21 will give a pint of blood and get a coupon for a pint of brew. Non-alcoholic beverages are available for those under 21.

Backside Brewing is located at 1640 NE Odell Ave. and is opening Monday just for the blood drive. Their kitchen will be open for pizzas, street tacos and more.

To sign up, click here.COOS BAY, Ore. -- Police are looking for an armed robbery suspect in Coos Bay, and theyre asking for the publics help.

An armed robbery was reported at Old World Antiques, 285 S. Broadway Street, at about 3:11 p.m. Thursday.

Police said a man wearing a mask threatened employees at the store with a firearm and stole an undisclosed amount of property. He left the scene in a car similar to a black 2008 Nissan Maxima.

Witnesses said the man was about 5 feet 7 inches tall with a thin to medium build. They said he was wearing an University of Oregon hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans.

Police said the suspect should be considered dangerous.

If you have any information, call Coos Bay Police at 541-269-8911 Ext. 1.EUGENE, Ore. -- With Hayward Field under construction, the nation's premier track and field meet has to find a new home for this year's race.

The Prefontaine Classic has been held at Hayward Field in Eugene every year since 1973 until now. Sources told KEZI 9 News the meet will be moved to Stanford this June while construction continues at Hayward Field.

RELATED: Prefontaine Classic says goodbye to old Hayward

Crews expect to be finished with the new Hayward Field by April 2020, in plenty of time for the 2020 Prefontaine Classic to be held there. Runners said they are optimistic that the meet will return to Eugene next year.

MORE: Community reacts to Hayward Field demolition

The meet director, Tom Jordan, reportedly made the announcement last week at an Oregon Track Club Board meeting. However, the official announcement will not come until Feb. 5.

Jordan says he cannot confirm the new location until then because the wording of the announcement has to first be approved by five different organizations.1 Shares Share

This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com.

After several months of intense discussions, Dr. Joe Smith thought he was headed from his successful two-physician practice to a respected practice with many more physicians. It was pretty much a done deal, until he was told that the senior partner decided he really didnt want someone with an already-established and lengthy patient roster.

Instead, Dr. Jones wanted the new doctor to take over his existing patients when he retires. Dr. Smith wishes hed known that in the beginning, or known where to find that answer before he was told, much to his disappointment, We just dont have room for you right now.

Its not that he isnt connected, or that he didnt ask a lot of questionslike, How long do you think Dr. Jones will stay, and how much influence does he still wield when it comes to new doctors joining the practice?

Of course, its impossible to know everything about what may lie ahead when a doctor moves on. But these days, making your next career move as an M.D. requires more than a cursory decision or, as Dr. Smith says, a leap of faith. Gone are the days when you might have thought, Oh, heck. Ill just take a chance and it will all probably work out.

Not like flipping burgers

Sometimes, though, it may not work out. As a physician, changing course is not quite like leaving McDonalds for a better position at Burger King. With the substantial investment youve made thus far in your education and training, you dont want to take a misstep, says Russell B. Still, CVA, CHBC, and executive vice president of Medical Management Associates, Inc., a nationwide health care consulting firm.

Youve been taught to think independently for years now, to figure out problems yourself, he says. And theres no place to go to get this kind of education, to formally learn how to choose your next employer.

Sure, you can scour LinkedIn and Glassdoor, as well as medical student and physician members-only forums where experiences and opinions can be shared anonymously and confidentially. If its a hospital or health system, you might find a video of a potential department chair giving a presentation on YouTube. Look at the corporate website under News to see whats happening in the C-suite, whats written about the mission of the organization and about its own financial health. But word-of-mouth, aka the horses mouth, is still going to be your most reliable means of learning whats upand downas you contemplate advancing your medical career.

Someone somewhere knows more about your prospective employer than you do, so you should strategize about how to access them and that information. Its natural to be slightly hesitant for any number of reasons, but you owe this to yourself, especially as you assess the culture you may be immersed in if you join.

I would encourage a candidate to talk to anyone they can, Still says. You never know who might be able to open a door for you.

If you choose private practice

First, youve probably already determined out of the gate that you are either entrepreneurial, bound for private practice, versus a hospital or health system. Choosing the former means you have more direct influence over your future, and that youll be hired as an associate, work two to three years, and become a shareholder.

Here are basic questions you should ask if youre joining a private practice, says Still. If youre the first hired into the practice, thats one thing, but if not, how many others have been there? Why have they stayed? Youll likely have a chance to talk to them, and theyll be carrying the practice flag so it may be more challenging to get a true picture.

But if they left, and you can access them, why did they leave? Maybe the senior doctor is a jerk, the path to partnership was too long, or they stayed around too long thinking they could buy in and it didnt happenthose are all critical things to know.

Share and share alike?

Digging beneath the obvious surface has many benefits as you consider your move, he says. Hopefully, youre not going to work in a private practice for two or three years, and not know what the buy-in looks like. As an incoming employee, you need to know that and how the value of the practice is calculated. If you dont know, and you get to buy inseveral years awayand then find out its two million dollars, either youre going to stay and not be a shareholder but be an employee, or youll leave and start over somewhere else.

Still always recommends that buy-ins be sold in equal shares so that no one partner has more control than another. Senior shareholders can protect themselves in different ways. However, he urges you to fully understand the method the practice is using to calculate its value. Typically, these include three criteria:

The stock value, i.e., assets minus liabilities

Accounts receivable

The goodwill or intangible value of the practice

Applying the formula to current financial information will help you understand how much your future buy-in will be. In addition, you need to understand how shareholders are compensated.

This all helps you determine if you will make more as a shareholder than an associate, says Still. If its possible youll make less as a shareholder than you do as an associate, thats not a good sign.

Private practice investigation questions

If, after doing your 60 Minutes investigative work, youre ready to have that critical face-to-face conversation to get the answers to your long list of questions, dont leave anything to chance, Still says. Include these as part of your investigation if you go the private-practice route.

Whats your expectation for me as employee, and possibly as a shareholder, to contribute to the business?

Whats my compensation ultimately going to be?

What is my opportunity to earn more than base salary? How is that determined or calculated?

Do I have any say-so in how my patients are scheduled?

Regarding policy: What kind of marketing do you expect me to do? Will you assign me new markets to develop? Will I do public speaking?

What does the contract look like at this moment?

Has it been used before and how many times?

Is it negotiable at all, and if not, why not?

We talked about buy-in, but what does the senior shareholders buy-out look like? For example, will you owe a departing shareholder a lot of money?

What kind of benefits will I have and at what cost?

Will my spouse or partner, and my kids, be included in those, or will we pay for them?

Do you have a 401K or profit-sharing?

Hospital or health system queries

If youre headed towards employment with a much larger organization, the economics may look much like private practice, but benefits will likely be richer than those for a private practice, Still says. You should still ask some of the same questions youd pose when assessing a private practice but include these for this particular scenario:

Whos the chair of my department and what are they like?

Who are my colleagues?

Specifically, what other physicians in my specialty are working here? I want to talk to them.

How did they come to work here?

Did most come from private practice or another hospital, and how many have just come out of training? When you talk to them, ask them about their personal situation and plans for the future, and how this current position fits into all of that, Still says.

Chances are, your potential employer will do exhaustive research about you before extending an offer. You owe it to yourself to do the same on your side of this equation. You know what they say: The more you know 

Stephanie Stephens is a writer, Careers by KevinMD.com.

Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.More than a few people said Happy March for Life! as I arrived here for the annual pro-life rally in our nations capital. The march actually consists of a few days of events. Initially a protest of the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, the march has evolved into more than just a protest. Its a celebration as well, a reaffirmation of the things that really matter in life.

Legal abortion has changed our country, forcing political realignments and leading to the polarized rancor we see around us today. And for the reluctant mother who has an abortion, it forever changes the very texture of her being. It affects the people in her life and people who will be in her life. It leaves a scar that always will be there, unseen but omnipresent.

So why would the March for Life be a happy celebration? Because, in no small part, of the kids. The young people in attendance  a vast majority of them high school and college students  bring an energy and a rejuvenating commitment that, frankly, is needed more than ever in our country right now. It happens without fail every year: I walk into, usually, St. Matthews Cathedral, not very far from the White House, on the morning before the march. I forget that this is going to be a full 8 a.m. weekday Mass and smile as I see the high school students getting off their buses. The vast majority of them this year appeared to be from Baton Rouge, La. And after Mass, a woman I talked to said how familiar I looked. Perhaps her local paper runs this column or maybe she remembered the happy lady posting photos on social media of the students and the religious sisters traveling with them from the year before.With the ruckus over the proposed border wall along the Mexican border, I keep remembering the unforgettable raft trip I took with my two children in August 1995.

Drifting down the Rio Grande between the United States and Mexico, we floated 33 miles through Boquillas Canyon in Big Bend National Park in Texas, a lonely, beautiful, sun-blasted desert of mountains and cactus.

It was a blissful three nights and two days. At noon, when the sun sizzled like a steaming laser, we took refuge along canyon walls to eat lunch. I suppose our raft meandered into Mexican water, but rivers have no border walls. At night, our guide was careful to pitch our tents on the American side.

One afternoon, two Mexicans in sombreros stood with a sign on the Mexican side of the river. Theyd tied a donkey to a cottonwood. For $10, the sign said, we could ride the donkey into the village of Boquillas del Carmen a half mile away and enjoy a taco or a burrito at a cantina.

Big Bend is hidden from the world. Its plunked on the elbow of the Rio Grande five hours southeast of El Paso, six hours from San Antonio and four hours south of Midland and Odessa. From the river, the nearest paved road in Big Bend is 14 miles away down a dirt path.HOLDREGE  A confirmed influenza-associated death has been reported in the Two Rivers Public Health Department District, which includes Dawson, Buffalo, Gosper, Phelps, Kearney, Harlan and Franklin counties.

According to a press release from Two Rivers, there is widespread flu activity across the state at this time. Outbreaks are occurring in schools, long-term care facilities, hospitals, clinics and workplaces.

The health department did not release a name or city where the death occurred.

Influenza symptoms include fever, chills, headache, muscle aches and dry cough. Officials at Two Rivers remind people to stay at home for at least 24 hours after they are fever free and havent taken fever reducing medications in that time. They also suggest calling health care providers rather than visiting a clinic and potentially infecting others. The flu may be serious especially for the elderly, young children and those with compromised immune systems.

Two Rivers provides these tips for flu prevention:

1. Stay home when you are sick, especially if you have a fever.

2. Get vaccinated each year.

3. Cover your cough.BROKEN BOW  A panel of Nebraska ranchers and farmers will describe their experience with generational business transitions at a Feb. 12 meeting at the Tumbleweed Cafe in Broken Bow.

Sponsors are the Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition, Nebraska Extension, the Nebraska Environmental Trust and the World Wildlife Fund.

Attorney Pamela Olsen also will participate in the meeting, scheduled 10 a.m.- 2:30 p.m.

The $15 registration fee includes lunch.

Walk-ins are welcome, but preregistrations are requested by Feb. 5 for the meal count. Contact Extension Educator Troy Walz at twalz1@unl.edu or 308-872-6831.LINCOLN  Two Hub Territory farmers placed at the state level in the 2018 National Corn Growers Association yield contest.

Ashton Peterson of Bertrand placed first in Nebraska in the irrigated corn division with an average yield of just under 332 bushels per acre.

Paul Gangwish of Shelton placed third in the states no-till/strip-till irrigated division with an average of just under 320 bushels per acre.MEDFORD, Ore. -- Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) hosted three town halls today, some getting heated at times.

First stop: Grants Pass High School. The auditorium was about one-third full. Walden discussed a wide-range of issues, from wildfires, border security, opioids, the Russia investigation, and housing.

Walden hasn't done a town hall meeting in this region since 2017, but said he's done more than 100 over the past six years, as well as hosted phone call town halls, answered emails, and answered comments online.

"We've accomplished a lot over the past couple of years for the district and the state and more work needs to be done this Congress," Walden said. "I also want to hear what is on people's minds as well."

To watch the Grants Pass meeting, CLICK HERE.

The second stop of the day was at Central Medford High School Auditorium. This meeting was more heated. The main focuses of this meeting were housing, renewable energy, and immigration. Several audiences member pressed Walden on the ongoing shutdown.

In response, he stressed the bipartisan bills he's passed, and called for more bipartisanship. He also said he supports a wall along some stretches of the border, as well as using fencing and technology where that's better suited.

"We've got to get control of the border," Walden said. "Then we can have an organized immigration system."

Walden voted for a funding bill that would reopen the government, but did not include funding for the border wall. It's currently making it's way through the Senate. Walden says he voted for the Democrat's bill because wants federal employees to be able to get back to work.

He voted against a separate funding bill that would include immigration security funding, because he said there wasn't enough.

Walden wrapped up his day in Klamath Falls at OIT with a town hall at 3:30.

To see the Medford town hall, CLICK BELOW.

This is the remainder of his town hall tour:

Saturday, January 19, 2019

What: Deschutes County Town Hall Meeting

When: 2:30pm PT

Where: Mountain View High School Auditorium, 2755 NE 27th St. Bend, 97701



Sunday, January 20, 2019

What: Jefferson County Town Hall Meeting

When: 11:00a.m. PT

Where: Jefferson County Senior Center, 860 SW Madison, Madras, 97741



What: Crook County Town Hall Meeting

When: 2:00p.m. PT

Where: Crook County High School, 1100 SE Lynn Blvd. Prineville, 97754



Monday, January 21, 2019

What: Harney County Town Hall Meeting

When: 9:00a.m. PT

Where: Harney County Fairgrounds, Memorial Building 69660 S Egan Ave, Burns, 97720



What: Malheur County Town Hall Meeting

When: 2:30p.m. MT

Where: TVCC Four Rivers Cultural Center, Owyhee/Snake River Rooms, 676 SW 5th Ave, Ontario, 97914GOLD BEACH, Ore.  With heavy rains on the way along the Southern Oregon coast, the Curry County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) is offering a major resource for locals who may encounter flooding  a ready supply of sandbags.

"Due to the weather forecast of potential heavy rains here in Curry County and potential flooding in areas from now through the weekend, the Curry County Road Department will have sandbags and sand, at no cost available by 3:00 p.m. today to those who need them," Sheriff John Ward said in a statement.

There will be about 30 bags filled in advance on a first-come, first-served basis at the entrance to the Hunter Creek Road Department shops just south of Gold Beach  plus a few shovels for those in need.

CCSO said that people should bring their own shovels in case of a shortage. The agency said that they will be available by phone for anyone with questions or a need for additional help. Road Master Richard Christenson will also have some of staff on-call to assist in an event that their help is needed.

"Please be careful when driving in this weather and if at all possible, stay home until the storm passes," said Sheriff Ward. "Always be prepared!"

The City of Brookings is offering a supply of sandbags too, as they brace for the same heavy rains.

We are anticipating significant rain event over the next few days, City Manager Janell Howard said, and are asking residents to please secure any yard waste bags and other debris to prevent these materials from entering and clogging the Citys drainage system.

Brookings residents can get their sandbags by calling Police dispatch at (541) 469-3118, then press zero (0) when the message begins. Dispatch personnel will tell residents how and where to get the sandbags.

Public Works staff will be working throughout the event monitoring and clearing drainage systems in an effort to prohibit large quantities of debris entering the system, Howard said.

Anyone who sees debris, bags, or other materials in a drainage ditch, or flooding of any kind, should call the same number as above to notify dispatch.MEXICO-- At least 6 people are dead because of a ruptured gasoline pipeline explosion. This happened last night in Tlahuelilpan a town about 80 miles north of Mexico City.

Governor Omar Fayad said at least 76 others are injured.

State oil company Pemex said an investigation is under way. The company initially said the explosion was caused by illegal taps into the pipeline and Fayad called on the community not to steal gasoline.

The fire resulting from the pipeline explosion has been extinguished and rescue teams are recovering bodies.Were still a few days from summer, but temperatures are dangerously hot already. As we get ready for whats expected to be the hottest day of the year, some organizations in the metro are making sure people in the community are protected.NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR OVER UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES

TORONTO, Jan. 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Montero Mining and Exploration Ltd. (TSX-V: MON) (Montero or the Corporation) is pleased to announce it has signed a non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI) with Gravity Worx Mining Solutions (Pty) Ltd (Gravity Worx) to provide Technical Services including but not limited to metallurgical and engineering consulting services for the potential development of the Uis Lithium Tin tailings project (the Project") in Namibia. These Technical Services will be provided at no cost to Montero and will allow Gravity Worx to develop a non-binding proposal to Montero to supply a metallurgical process plant to process tailings material containing lithium and tin and operational services on a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis. Gravity Worx is currently finalizing a non-compliant Scoping Study on the project.

Dr. Tony Harwood, President and Chief Executive Officer of Montero commented, Montero is pleased to announce this non-binding Letter of Intent with Gravity Worx to assist in the potential development of the Uis Lithium Tin Tailings project. Gravity Worx is a specialist engineering company that provides fit for purpose engineering and operational solutions to the minerals sector. Gravity Worx will provide consulting services at no cost to Montero in order to be granted the opportunity to present a non-binding proposal for a Build Own Operate and Transfer solution. The Uis Lithium Tin Tailings project has a NI43-101 Inferred Mineral Resource of 14.4 million tonnes at 0.37% lithium (Li 2 O) and 17.1 million tonnes at 0.05% tin (SnO 2 ) in coarse and fine tailings material. Montero and Gravity Worx are currently evaluating the metallurgy characteristics of the tailings in order to cost and design a lithium and tin process plant.

The Uis Lithium Tin Tailings Project is located in central Namibia near the town of Uis 220 km north of Walvis Bay, Namibias largest commercial deep-water port. The project is in the Erongo Region connected by dirt and asphalt road to the port of Walvis Bay.

The Lithium-Cesium-Tantalum (LCT) pegmatite field that hosts the Uis Tin mine is hosted in metasedimentary units of the Damara Mobile Belt, the northeast-trending branch of the Neo-Proterozoic, Pan African Damara Orogen in Namibia. The unzoned albite rich pegmatites at the Uis Tin mine belong to a group of highly fractionated, cassiterite and lithium-rich rare metal pegmatites.

The Uis Lithium Tin Tailings project comprises un-weathered surface mine tailings of coarse sand tailings and slimes derived from the Uis Tin mining operation between 1924 and 1990 (Diehl, 1992). The pegmatites were mined by open cut and hauled to a process plant for crushing and milling for cassiterite extraction. The mine historically produced 35,400 tonnes of cassiterite concentrate which delivered coarse and fine tailings material on surface (Diehl, 1992). The tonnage and grade of the tailing material has been substantiated by a mineral resource estimate announced on the 14th January 2019. The pegmatites at Uis have not previously been mined or systematically sample assayed for lithium.

Qualified Person's Statement

This press release was reviewed and approved by Mr. Mike Evans, M.Sc. Pr.Sci.Nat., who is a qualified person for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101 and a Consulting Geologist to Montero. A review was also undertaken by Nico Scholtz, Pr.Sci.Nat., who is a qualified person for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101 and is a Namibian based geologist with more than 10 years experience. He has extensive experience in rare metal pegmatite exploration in Namibia having worked on many Lithium-Cesium-Tantalum (LCT) pegmatite intrusions.

About Montero

Montero is a mineral exploration and development company engaged in the identification, acquisition, evaluation and exploration of mineral properties in Africa. Currently these include lithium and tin in Namibia, lithium in Chile, while looking for partners to advance its phosphates in South Africa and rare earth elements in Tanzania. Montero trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol MON.

For more information, contact:

Montero Mining and Exploration Ltd.

Dr. Tony Harwood, President and Chief Executive Officer

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Tel: +1 416 840 9197 | Fax: +1 866 688 4671

www.monteromining.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 STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release includes certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements, projections and estimates. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Such information is based on information currently available to Montero and Montero provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Forward-looking information by its very nature involves inherent risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements of Montero to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Actual results relating to, among other things, completion of the HOA, results of exploration, project development, reclamation and capital costs of Monteros mineral properties, and financial condition and prospects, could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements for many reasons such as: an inability to complete the HOA on the terms as announced or at all; changes in general economic conditions and conditions in the financial markets; changes in demand and prices for minerals; litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; technological and operational difficulties encountered in connection with Monteros activities; and other matters discussed in this news release and in filings made with securities regulators. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of Monteros forward-looking statements. These and other factors should be considered carefully and accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Montero does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.Kenneth Brian Scalf

Mocksville

It wont work

Many people feel that building the wall will solve many of our problems at the border. I disagree. The president claims that the wall will slow down or eliminate the amount of illegal drugs from entering the U.S. The bulk of the drugs are now entering the U.S. through legal points of entry. An alternative route would be to smuggle them through tunnels that have already been built. The wall will not solve this.

Regarding human trafficking, these individuals can be transported through the same tunnels. Again, the wall will not solve this problem.

There is too much money involved. The cartels are not going to let these revenue streams to go away. They will always be able to make the necessary changes faster than we can make so that their revenue streams will not go away. Consequently, the wall should not be built.

Joe Barnes

Clemmons

Please submit letters online, with full name, address and telephone number, to Letters@wsjournal.com or mail letters to: The Readers Forum, 418 N. Marshall St., Winston-Salem, NC 27101. Letters are subject to editing and are limited to 250 words. For more guidelines and advice on writing letters, go to journalnow.com/site/forms/online_services/letter/Shes been on the job for less than two weeks and already has generated more national press coverage than some members of Congress get in their whole careers.

Not that its been all positive, of course. Far from it.

The news media  and not just on the right  doesnt quite know what to make of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 29-year-old freshman representative from Queens who is a Democratic Socialist and proud of it.

Their inability to fit her neatly into a pre-existing mold has resulted in a barrage of dubious stories, out-of-touch tweets and cable-news weirdness, the likes of which weve never seen before.

And, in just about every case, Ocasio-Cortez has flipped critical coverage on its head and continued to make her points  not always with perfect accuracy but with pitch-perfect tone and effectiveness.

Last weekend, for example, she drew fire after she criticized CBS Newss spirited (if tone-deaf) announcement of its 2020 campaign team. A graphic showed 12 reporters and producers, not a single one of which was black.WASHINGTON  It was William P. Barrs confirmation hearing. But it was Robert S. Mueller IIIs affirmation hearing.

President Trump had nominated Barr to be his new attorney general to shield him from Muellers hoax of a rigged witch hunt. But Barr spent much of his seven-hour confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday lavishing praise on his future boss tormentor. And Republicans, for the most part, didnt defend Trump  and occasionally joined in the Mueller veneration.

None of this guarantees that Mueller will be able to complete his work unhindered, or that Americans will ever know what work he did. Ominously, Barr, while promising as much transparency as I can consistent with the law, suggested he might try to bury the special counsels report by treating it as confidential and releasing only certain information himself.

Still, Muellers de facto affirmation hearing should be of concern to Trump as the president tries to discredit whatever the special prosecutor comes up with in the coming weeks or months. Just about everybody but Trump regards Mueller as an upstanding man doing honest work. Even Trumps potential new attorney general.For example, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County was one of 17 school systems in North Carolina where the disparities in short-term suspensions were worse than the states.

For the state overall, black students were 4.3 times more likely than white students to face short-term suspension.

In Forsyth County, black students were 6.3 times more likely to face that punishment.

And the share of short-term suspensions over the past three years for black students in Forsyth County Schools has increased slightly, according to the groups current and past report cards.

On achievement, for the state overall, white students are twice as likely as black students in Grades 3 through 8 to score career and college ready on end-of -grade exams. For Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, white students are 2.6 times as likely to be ready.

And when it comes to juvenile delinquency court, black students at the state level were 3.7 times more likely than white students to be referred. In Forsyth County, they were 5.5 times more likely.

Nearly 61 percent of the students suspended in the 2016-17 school year in the school system were black, while black students make up less than 30 percent of the school systems overall population.Based on the response by the U.S. Labor Department, the guarantee of being paid does not impact eligibility until the appropriation is passed and they have received their pay.

Once wages are reported for a week where UI benefits were already received, the system will automatically set up the overpayment and send out a notice regarding such.

Parker did not say how DES plans to recoup the paid benefits once they are spent.

Rules

Kokai said the job-search requirement might prompt many furloughed workers to continue to hold out hope for a return to their jobs in the near future.

Those who do make job contacts are likely to explain to prospective employers that they are following state unemployment rules, not making real requests for a new job.

The longer the shutdown lasts, the more federal government furloughed employees are in uncharted territory, Quinterno said.

From the perspective of furloughed federal workers, applying for unemployment insurance likely may prove more confusing and unappealing than it is worth, especially given North Carolinas less-than-generous benefit structure, Quinterno said.Wells Fargo has a history of aggressively and sometimes illegally squeezing its customers to boost its profits, and this report illustrates that the bank is deploying similar tactics on Americas college campuses to target vulnerable students, Warren said to Sloan.

Worse still, the burden of Wells Fargos fees does not hit all students equally. Low-income students are more prone to overdraft on their accounts and to suffer from your banks excessive overdraft fees, she said.

These high fees, which are an outlier within the industry, demonstrate conclusively that Wells Fargo does not belong on college campuses.

Warren said she wants a response from Wells Fargo by Feb. 5 on these subjects: the demographic characteristics of the consumers of these accounts; evidence of the varying financial needs of the consumers; the partnerships and marketing agreements with the 31 colleges; and a breakdown of the different types of fees.

Wells Fargo responded to Warrens letter with a statement in which it said it is continually working to improve how we serve our customers, including all students and those who participate in our Campus Card program.You are here: World

 Flash

Senior representatives from Pyongyang and Washington met here to prepare for a second summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) reported on Friday.

The report said Choe Son Hui, vice foreign minister of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), was in the Swedish capital for roundtable talks with a small team of international experts at an undisclosed site.

Stephen Biegun, the U.S. special representative for the DPRK, was among the foreign diplomats participating in the talks, according to the report.

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom and State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Annika Soder met the representatives, said the report.

The report said that Trump and Kim, who met in Singapore last June, are expected to meet soon again.

Brandon Dolly, a senior at Musselman High School, recently won an honorable mention in Next Gen Personal Finances PAYBACK Challenge for his essay about college spending. His teacher, Ladeana Beddow, business education teacher at the high school, stands behind him. Flash

The White House on Friday barred Congress members from using government planes without prior written approval, a day after delaying Speaker Nancy Pelosi's planned foreign trip amid the standoff over the partial government shutdown.

"Under no circumstances during a government shutdown will any government owned, rented, leased or chartered aircraft support any Congressional delegation, without the express written approval of the White House Chief of Staff," Russell Vought, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, announced in a memo to department heads.

"Nor will any funds appropriated to the Executive Branch be used for any Congressional delegation travel expenses, without his express written approval," the memo said.

A day earlier, President Donald Trump told Pelosi that her planned seven-day trip to Brussels, Egypt and Afghanistan will be rescheduled when the shutdown is over.

"During this period, it would be better if you were in Washington negotiating with me and joining the Strong Border Security movement to end the Shutdown," the president wrote in a letter to the top House Democrat on Thursday.

In response, Pelosi's office said she had to cancel a commercial trip to Afghanistan because the Trump administration leaked details of it, undermining security for the lawmakers who planned to go.

The shutdown, the longest in the U.S. history, started on Dec. 22 due to a budget standoff in which Trump requested 5.7 billion U.S. dollars for building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, but congressional Democrats rejected his demand.Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were two of the most outstanding revolutionary figures in history. They dedicated their lives to defending and propagating the objectives of Marxism, and they founded the German Communist Party (KPD). They became leading figures in the German revolution, which ended WWI. Jan. 15, 2019 marked the 100 year anniversary of their execution, and at this time communists and socialists around the world remember their legacy.



Luxemburg and Liebknecht were both born in 1871. Luxemburg was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Jewish family, and became active in politics at the age of 15. While at school she joined the Proletariat Party and helped to organize a general strike which was violently repressed and its leaders executed. Soon after, she fled to Switzerland and studied at Zurich University, where she was awarded a doctorate degree in 1897. She collaborated with fellow revolutionaries from Poland, France, Lithuania, Germany and Russia, and after acquiring German citizenship, she threw herself into work with the German Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Karl Liebknecht was the son of Wilhelm Liebknecht and the godson of Karl Marx. He trained as a lawyer, and from an early age was active in the SPD. In 1912, he was elected by the party to the German parliament. His father and August Bebel had been the cofounders of the SPD, which started as an overtly Marxist party. It was the world's strongest and most influential workers' party until 1914, when it capitulated to nationalism and dispatched German workers to the trenches to kill fellow workers from other European countries.

In the late 19th century, German capitalism experienced a long period of expansion, which fostered a culture of deal-making between the SPD, the government and employers. This led to a belief that capitalism had changed its basic character, and that Marx's theory of an irreconcilable conflict of interest between capital and labor was outdated. In that case, instead of requiring a revolution, capitalism would be able to evolve into socialism. This revised Marxism was a doctrine of gradual reform, and its leading thinker was Eduard Bernstein, who claimed, "The movement is everything, the final goal nothing."

It was Rosa Luxemburg who first identified and directly challenged this process within the SPD. Her book "Reform or Revolution," published in 1900, destroyed Bernstein's evolutionary arguments; and its critique of reformist socialism remains a fresh and vibrant masterpiece of Marxist theory.

After 1900, conflicts of interest between the major capitalist powers grew. German capitalism was hemmed in by Imperialist colonization, so the rapid growth of the German economy entailed a direct clash with French, Belgian, Russian and British interests. European competition for markets engulfed the world and provided the fuel that fed the deadly flames of WWI.

As war approached, the parties of the Second International met in Basel, Switzerland in 1912. They solemnly resolved to strain every sinew to prevent war, and if war were to break out, to overthrow their governments and the entire socio-economic system of capitalism. However, despite their declarations, the social democratic parties betrayed the workers in 1914 by sending them to war.

When hostilities commenced, Luxemburg campaigned against the war, hoping for a general strike to end it. Liebknecht opposed the war in parliament and was dispatched to the Eastern front, where he was forced to bury the dead. He returned to Berlin in 1915 and spoke out on Potsdammer Platz on May 1, 1916, calling for a revolution to end the war. Both Liebknecht and Luxemburg were incarcerated for the rest of the war.

Luxemburg's articles and letters written in prison describe dramatic shifts in mass consciousness  from hysterical and joyful celebrations as soldiers left for the front, to the resignation, misery and hunger that followed. It was a time of unprecedented barbarity and utter despair, but from her prison cell Luxemburg prepared for a revolutionary awakening that would end the slaughter.

Luxemburg and Liebknecht celebrated the victory of the Russian revolution in 1917. Disgusted at the betrayal by the SPD, they formed a Marxist organization called the Spartacus Bund in 1916, which went on to form the KPD in 1918. It came into existence at the apex of the German revolution, which broke out on Nov. 4, 1918 when a mutiny by the navy in Kiel spread to North Germany and grew into a general revolt against the war, the Kaiser, and the old society.

On Nov. 9, revolution reached the capital, Berlin. That day Liebknecht declared the Socialist Republic of Germany from the balcony of the palace, while the SPD leader Friedrich Ebert declared a democratic republic. The Kaiser abdicated and fled the country. Thus, WWI was ended by revolution.

Workers, soldiers and sailors elected revolutionary councils, but the SPD leaders still managed to wield enough influence and authority, established over decades, to ride out the initial storm of unrest. Luxemburg and Liebknecht faced the difficult task of building the influence of the KPD, whilst also encouraging the justified anger of the most militant revolutionary fighters against the old order, and against the maneuvers of the SPD leadership.

The initiative fell to the SPD leader Friedrich Ebert, who ordered reactionary bands of former soldiers, organized in the so-called Freikorps, to suppress the KPD-led insurgency in Berlin, which was defeated on Jan. 13, 1919. Two days later, Liebknecht and Luxemburg were arrested, interrogated and tortured. Liebknecht was put in a car and killed by a shot from behind. Luxemburg was beaten with rifle butts before she was shot. Her corpse was dumped in a Berlin canal. Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were true revolutionary heroes, and their ideas and legacy will be remembered down the ages.

Heiko Khoo is a columnist with China.org.cn.

For more information please visit: http://china.org.cn/opinion/heikokhoo.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.(CNN)  An extreme heatwave already breaking records across Australia is expected to peak in many parts of the country Friday, with temperatures forecast to stay above 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) for the sixth day in a row.

The six days from January 12 to 17 are all within Australia's ten hottest days on record, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said.

Marble Bar in northwestern Australia hit the highest temperature during the heatwave at a sweltering 49.1 C (120 F) on Sunday  a January record for the area. The town had seen more than 20 consecutive days of temperatures above 40 C (104 F).

On Wednesday, New South Wales broke 14 heat records and eight January records. Conditions are so hot in the state that asphalt roads are starting to melt, CNN affiliate Nine News reported.

Records across South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria over the past week include 48.9 C (120 F) in Port Augusta, 47.8 C (118 F) in Andamooka and 46.4 C (115 F) in Griffith.

"Based on the extent and duration, this is the most significant heatwave to have affected inland eastern Australia since January 1939," Simon Grainger, Bureau of Meteorology climatologist, told CNN.

And it's not just the highs that are making people sweat. Noona in western New South Wales broke an all time "minimum temperature" record Thursday night, with the heat levels remaining above 35.9 C (96 F) throughout the night, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

While inland areas in New South Wales and Queensland are expected to see the mercury rise once again on Friday, cooler temperatures are expected to bring relief to parts of South Australia according to the BOM.

The town of Tarcoola in South Australia, which reached a sweltering 49 C (120 F) on Tuesday, is forecast to cool off slightly to 31 C (87 F) Friday.

As the protracted heatwave continues, concerns are with the vulnerable, including the young, elderly and those with asthma or respiratory diseases.

High ozone levels

On Wednesday, New South Wales Health authorities warned that the high temperatures are expected to contribute to "high ozone" air pollution across Sydney.

Dr. Richard Broome, director of environmental health at New South Wales Health, said that people with asthma and other respiratory problems were particularly vulnerable as ozone "can irritate the lungs."

"Ozone levels are higher outdoors than indoors, and generally highest in the afternoon and early evening, so limiting time outdoors during the heat of the day and in the evening helps people to not only keep cool but to limit their exposure to ozone pollution," he said.

A health warning was in place across New South Wales from Tuesday, warning people to stay indoors during the hottest part of the day, minimize physical activity and keep hydrated.

"Signs of heat-related illness include dizziness, tiredness, irritability, thirst, fainting, muscle pains or cramps, headache, changes in skin color, rapid pulse, shallow breathing, vomiting and confusion," the statement said.

It's the second heatwave to hit Australia in less than a month. Just over two weeks ago, brutal post-Christmas temperatures led to extreme or severe fire warnings across at least three states and intensified severe droughts across the country.

Fish, bat deaths and fruit cooking from the inside

The high temperatures are taking an increasing toll on the country's flora and fauna. In the Murray-Darling River Basin across the southeast, more than a million dead fish have washed up on the banks.

Niall Blair, primary industries minister in New South Wales, said more deaths of marine life are expected in coming days as temperatures continue to rise, according to local media.

But environmental activists have blamed the mass deaths on poor management of the river system by state and federal governments, alleging mass consumption of water by farmers was leaving too little for fish to survive.

"A lack of water in the Darling River and the Menindee Lakes means that authorities were unable to flush the system before millions of fish suffocated through a lack of oxygen in water," independent New South Wales lawmaker Jeremy Buckingham said in a statement.

"This mass fish kill should be a wake up call for Australia."

Colonies of bats were also succumbing to the heat and dropping from trees in Adelaide, according to CNN affiliate Nine News, prompting warnings to avoid contact with the animals as they can carry deadly diseases.

Heat can be disastrous for bat species. Following a heatwave in north Queensland in November, an estimated 23,000 spectacled flying foxes died.

In South Australia, the extreme heat is causing stone fruit, including peaches and nectarines, to cook from the inside out, leading to heavy losses for farmers and spurring a race against time to harvest the fruit before it spoils, according to ABC.

"The stone burns them, which means they burn on the inside, they become squashy and you can't use them," Dried Tree Fruits Australia chairman Kris Werner told ABC.

It comes as the Australian Open kicked off in Melbourne at the Rod Laver Arena, in temperatures which topped 30 C (86 F).

It is the second year in a row of extreme temperatures at the Grand Slam event, with some competitors collapsing or complaining of heatstroke in the 2018 event.

Climate change taking its toll

January is typically the hottest month of the Australian summer and temperatures across the board have been higher in the country in recent years.

A report released by the Bureau of Meteorology on Thursday revealed 2018 was the country's third hottest year on record, with rainfall 11% below average.

Australia's winter last year saw the worst drought in living memory hit part of the country in August, destroying farmers' livelihoods as farmland turned dry and barren.

Even as Australia has suffered the effects of ongoing climate change, the government drags its feet on crafting a comprehensive environmental policy.

Despite a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warning of "global catastrophe" should world temperatures rise above 1.5 C (34 F) by the middle of the next decade, Prime Minister Scott Morrison's administration has refused to phase out the use of coal-fired power.

This story was first published on CNN.com. "Australia suffers through searing temperatures as heatwave reaches its peak."Evelyn "Berniece" Anderson, age 89, of Pierce City, Missouri, passed away following an illness on June 12, 2021. Berniece was born on April 22, 1932, in Neosho, Missouri, to Truman and Louella (Ball) Patrick. At 21 years old, Berniece married her best friend, Millard Anderson. Before his pas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.Help for government workers

As the government shutdown enters its 29th day, more local entities are stepping up to help federal workers.

For example, Luckys Market is hosting a community lunch for government employees today from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The grocery store is offering lunch on us, immediate family included.

The Wort Hotel's Silver Dollar Bar and Grill is offering 50 percent off all food for furloughed government workers and a guest through Jan. 31.

Teton County Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, or VOAD, also wants community members affected by the shutdown to know about utility, food and loan resources available. In a press release sent Thursday morning, member organizations and what they're offering are listed.

They include:

St. Johns Episcopal Church can help individuals who cannot pay their utility bills with financial assistance. For information or to apply call Liz Collins at 733-2603.

One 22 is a resource for community members and can help with financial assistance. Call 739-4500.

The Jackson Food Cupboard can help individuals who need food assistance during the government shutdown. The Jackson Cupboard is open Monday and Thursday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to noon. On Fridays, the Jackson Cupboard hosts Free Food Fridays to help reduce food waste. The public is welcome to come and take perishable food items. The food is set out from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the St. Johns Episcopal Church parking lot. Email jacksonholecupboard@gmail.com or call 699-2163 for information.

The Good Samaritan Mission is also available to help individuals who need food assistance. The Mission provides food boxes to families or individuals in need when the Jackson Cupboard is closed. The Mission also provides short-term housing for employed seasonal workers. For information about the Missions programs call 733-3165 or come by 285 W. Pearl Ave.

Hole Food Rescue helps to reduced food waste in Teton County by distributing excess food to organizations. Hole Food Rescue manages the JH Food Help website that lists all the locations for free or reduced meals in Jackson. Go to JHFoodHelp.com to view or download the map.

The Teton County Board of County Commissioners wrote a letter Monday expressing support and sympathy for local employees affected by the government shutdown. No concrete actions were promised, but the commissioners wrote they would like to "express our gratitude for the dedication and service of all federal employees at partner agencies within Teton County that are currently affected by the on-going government shutdown."

"We recognize that many talented people in our community dedicate their professional lives to protecting, promoting, managing, and preserving our public lands and resources, and that the current government shutdown may be creating hardship for you and your families," the letter reads. "You are all valued members of our community, and we would like to express compassion and empathy on behalf of all Teton County residents for any difficulties this situation is creating."Funeral services for June Ann Leadbetter Arnold will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 16, 2021, in the Chapel at Boren-Conner Funeral Home, Jacksonville with Bro. George Folmar officiating. Burial will follow at the Jacksonville Old City Cemetery. June was born April 15, 1932 in Hidalgo, TeOreskes Addresses Science in a Changing Climate

Jan. 18, 2019

Internationally renowned geologist, science historian and author Naomi Oreskes addresses the Founders' Day Convocation audience.

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.  As the global climate changes, so too does the climate for science, according to internationally renowned geologist, science historian and author Naomi Oreskes, who spoke during Illinois Wesleyan Universitys Founders Day Convocation Wednesday afternoon.

We now live in a world where many people doubt science  where the claims of science are contested routinely, Oreskes said. We live in a world of truthiness, of fake news and alternative facts.

Oreskes, who is a leading voice on the issue of anthropogenic climate change, contends that when people reject facts  such as in the case of climate change  they make bad choices with potentially dire consequences.

If people dont believe in climate change, then why would they support action to address it? Oreskes said. The answer, of course, is that they wouldnt.

While rejecting facts can be dangerous, Oreskes also said it is important to ask, Why trust science? She urged the Founders Day Convocation audience to question, What is this based on? What is the evidence behind these claims? What is the basis for which we should trust what youre telling us?

Scientific evidence gathered through various research methods is critical, according to Oreskes.

Evidence is really the key element in science, not method, Oreskes said. And so, I believe that when you talk about science, its really important for us to talk about What is the evidence that supports these claims?

Oreskes said it is the responsibility of scientists collectively to determine if evidence supports an expert consensus, in order for a claim to be deemed a scientific fact.

Our scientific knowledge is based on the accumulated expertise and experience of  not just one genius  but of hundreds of thousands of scientists working together, Oreskes said. We should not trust scientists as individuals, but we do have good reason to have confidence in the process of which they are a part.

Many Illinois Wesleyan students in attendance at Wednesdays Founders Day Convocation are either already  or soon to be  part of this global scientific evidence gathering, evaluating and truth-seeking process.

We challenge students to push through personal and academic barriers, to solve the worlds most complex problems and to be the leaders of tomorrow. In fact, youre the leaders of today, President Eric Jensen told the audience.

Jensen added that Illinois Wesleyan  founded 169 years ago  is institutionally committed to equipping students with the understanding and insight to navigate and positively influence our changing climate, which is this years intellectual theme.

So, the challenge for you today is What are you working on? Jensen declared, in recognition of what Provost and Dean of Faculty Mark Brodl considers "the coin of the realm on campus."

What problems will you solve, locally and globally? What talents are you developing to contribute to the world?" Jensen continued.

What climates will you change both now and in the future?

By John TworkThis Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.On Friday, officials with the Walker County Hospital District board announced that they have finalized a $7.8 million purchase of Huntsville Memorial Hospital. Do you feel like this is a good use of tax dollars, and is this the right direction for the struggling health care facility?

You voted:January 18, 2019

Donation of design workstations, funding for design software and curriculum development collaboration underline the companys support for local students

POCATELLO  ON Semiconductor continues its support of, and collaboration with, the Idaho State University Department of Electrical Engineering by recently donating an industrial-grade Linux server, eight state-of-the-art computer workstations and associated design software.

The new workstations will be used to train ISU electrical engineering students, and eventually to provide professional graduate-level education to ON Semiconductor employees.

We have already started using the donated equipment for current coursework related to semiconductor design. In addition to the equipment and software donation, ON Semiconductor design engineers are working with us to create a new course that they will also help teach this spring. said Steve Chiu, director of the ISU electrical engineering program.

Chiu said the workstations are powerful computers that use the Linux operating system, Cadence design software, and are also loaded with ON Semiconductors own proprietary software. They are used to design Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) chips, a technology used in manufacturing of integrated circuits used in a wide range of analog, digital and mixed-signal applications.

The ability to use such modern tools is a valuable skill for ISU students. We are thrilled by this donation from ON Semiconductor and their continued support that will benefit our students and, potentially, their own employees through enhanced professional education opportunities, Chiu said.

This donation is another step in our commitment to Idaho State University STEM initiatives. We believe that by providing students hands-on learning experience in the classroom, we can help to ignite a lifelong passion and excitement about integrated circuit design, said Paul Streva, Director of the Industrial Products Business Unit at ON Semiconductor. We are excited to be able to support the next generation of engineers and look forward to the possibility of recruiting ISU engineering students in the future as we tackle the worlds challenges.

ON Semiconductors Corporate Giving program focuses on disaster relief, environment, health, human services and STEM education. The company has been a proud supporter of the Idaho State University Foundation with $30,000 in donations during 2018 to help fund the Bengal STEM day, ISU Growing Together, MATH Counts and other programs.Dateline Is China Deliberately Sowing Discord over the Myitsone Dam?

This week, The Irrawaddy discusses the Chinese Embassys controversial recent statement about the dam, and the governments worrying silence on the projects future

Kyaw Kha: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! This week, well discuss Irrawaddy Myitsone, the lifeblood of Myanmar. Im The Irrawaddy chief reporter Kyaw Kha and Im joined by environmentalist Dr. Myint Zaw and Khon Ja of the Kachin Peace Network.

Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Hong Liang recently visited Kachin State and claimed that some Kachin leaders support the Myitsone Dam project. In particular, the Chinese Embassys statement [about the dam project] aroused controversy. How much has it impacted upon and caused concerns among the Kachin community?

Khon Ja: It has caused serious concerns. For example, Rev. Hkalam Samson [president of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC)] is one of the senior Kachin leaders. He was quoted in the [Chinese Embassys] statement as supporting the dam project. This could seriously heighten concerns among not only the Kachin community, but also people elsewhere in Myanmar. Before the Chinese Embassy released its statement, wed already read in The Irrawaddy about Rev. Hkalam Samsons stance on the dam project. That the Chinese Embassy has said the opposite made me very worried. Why did it issue a misstatement? It caused controversy not only among the Kachin community but also among the Bamar community. And [Bamars] were really concerned that the Kachin had approved the project. They assume that [the governments] decision about the dam project will change if the Kachin approve it, because the majority of the people residing in Myitsone are Kachin.

Kyaw Kha: Dr. Myint Zaw, could you recap the reasons that people are so bitterly opposed to the Myitsone Dam project?

Myint Zaw: This project will decide whether The Irrawaddy River survives or dies. The river is of vital importance to the entire Myanmar population. As it played a fundamental part in the birth of the nation, the possibility of sowing the seeds of its destruction makes the whole country worried. Secondly, our country has the longest-running civil war in the world. [Construction of the dam] will only deepen the hatred and grievances between Kachin and Bamar people who reside downstream. It will only contribute to perpetuating the civil war and conflict. So, the Myanmar people strongly reject it out of consideration for the future of the Irrawaddy River and for the sake of the countrys future peace.

KK: So, Daw Khon Ja, you say China has not been honest in its approach regarding the Myitsone Dam project.

KJ: Thats rightChina has been dishonest. When the Chinese ambassador visited Kachin State in July 2016, we presented him with printouts of statements by civil society organizations [opposing the projects]. [Leaders of] political parties including U Awng Hkam [president of the Kachin Democratic Party (KDP)] staged a demonstration in front of the hotel where the Chinese ambassador was staying. But the Chinese Embassy has said the opposite about those who have publicly opposed the project. This is even more dangerous, we believe. We are worried about [Chinas] motives for saying this so assertively. I think it is worse than a divide-and-rule approachId call it cunning. And the Chinese Embassys statement heightened the concerns of Myitkyina locals. Now an elected government is in office. What Myitkyina residents had expected was total cancellation. But then, based on what they heard from the Chinese ambassador, they assume that the dam project has been approved. And the Myanmar government hasnt released any statement. So locals are in a fog, and this has heightened their concerns.

KK: Can you assess the negative impacts of the dam from a technical perspective?

MZ: In short, the Irrawaddy will die [if the dam is built]. This is not just an assumption; it is a conclusion based on international examples and local surveys. The Myitsone Dam will kill the Irrawaddy, and destroy the social security of millions of people who live along the river. A river flows not just to convey water, but also to preserve the balance of nature. Its ecological balance sustains the lives of the majority of farmers and fishermen in the country. The blocking of the natural flow of the river will cause huge changes in the flow of the entire river downstream. This will affect the agriculture and livestock farming of millions of people, not to mention changes in the waterway, river temperature, and erosion of riverbanks. The changes will be felt right down to the Delta. It has become clearer, according to recent international surveys, that the middle part of the river and the Delta areas will be hit hardest by the downstream impact. So it is a serious cause for concern from a technical point of view.

KK: The Chinese ambassador visited Kachin State from Dec. 28-29 and met leaders of the KBC and Kachin political parties. Before his visit, the British and U.S. ambassadors visited Kachin State. It seems that China is concerned about their visit. It seems that China doesnt want Western countries to come close to the Myanmar-China border. The Chinese ambassador reproached the leaders of the KBC and Kachin political parties regarding the visits of the ambassadors of Western countries. So, do you think Kachin State is a buffer zone in tensions between China and Western countries?

KJ: China has not provided help for displaced persons in Kachin State. There are more than 120,000 displaced persons and it is the U.K. government that has provided the most help. So, our understanding is that the British ambassador has come to review an aid program funded by his government. And USAID has provided funds regarding human rights, natural resources and the livelihoods of people across the country, including in Kachin State. China has not provided assistance in those areas. Those ambassadors do not have offices in those areas, but their aid programs are in operation there. While people are only talking about displaced persons in Rakhine State, those ambassadors came to monitor their aid programs in Kachin State. This is how we understand [their visits]. But there may be many other reasons behind their visits. At present, China seems to have total control over the formal peace process led by the government. But the U.K. and U.S. governments play no role in the process. So, we wonder if they visited Kachin State in order to adjust the balance. But it seems China will not let anyonenot only Western countries including the European Union but also international non-governmental organizations and UN agenciesaffect the position it has already established. I say this because staffers of [humanitarian agencies] cant get close to the border.

MZ: As an ordinary citizen, Id like to question the role played by China. While it says it wishes to facilitate Myanmars peace process, what its ambassador to Myanmar has done amounts to sowing discord between the Kachin and Bamar peoples. It is not an ethical act. While the country is faced with a crisis due to the Rakhine issue, China is aggressively attempting to take advantage of it, and it is acting unethically. This is how I see it as a citizen.

KJ: [China] also sows discord between the government and the people. We have read [the Chinese sides] presentation that the economic corridor [section] of the Belt and Road Initiative [BRI] is a Myanmar government planthat Myanmar needs it and it has to rely on China for its development and technology transfer; that the leader of the ruling party is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi; that the BRI is being implemented for the development of Myanmar; and that opposing the BRI amounts to opposing the government. This seems to be an attempt to present any oppositionfor example, over the Kyaukphyu [deep-sea port] or the railroad project [that will link Kunming in Chinas Yunnan province with Kyaukphyu]as an act of rebellion, forcing [the Myanmar government] to take action. And [Chinas] action amounts to sowing discord between party chairwoman Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the people.

KK: The previous government led by U Thein Sein suspended the dam project in response to public. People want to know whether or not Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will shelve the project. What is your assessment of this? Do you think she has changed her mind, as the Chinese ambassador has suggested?

MZ: I dont think she has changed her mind, because she also opposed the project together with the people under the U Thein Sein government. Before her first visit to China, she established an investigation commission [to assess the impact of the dam project]. The commission has not yet made an official report, but my understanding is that the commission has found more disadvantages in the project [than advantages]. We assume that the disadvantages of the dam have been presented to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. And it has become clearer according to scientific surveys that the project has more disadvantages; that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as a leader would think about how to terminate it rather than how to resume it.

KK: The Irrawaddy River is the lifeblood of Myanmar and is vital not only for the Kachin but also for the entire country. People wont accept the dam project, as it would kill the river. For a leader, accepting the dam would be political suicide. Dont you think the government should release a clear statement about it? Public concerns have grown as the government has kept silent about it. I think some people will take to the streets if the government stays silent.

KJ: There are many causes for concern at present [in Myanmar], and this is one of the most serious. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, in her election campaign, promised to disclose information about Myitsone. But she failed to do so after she came to power. People expect the complete cancellation of the Myitsone Dam project. People understand that Myanmar is heavily in debt, and are extremely concerned about how [the government] is addressing it behind the scenes. If there is no answer, those over the age of 18 will blame themselves [for having voted for the NLD]. Under U Thein Seins government, everyone raised objections to the Myitsone Dam in unison. The majority of the people felt that the government was a quasi-government, and they therefore seriously opposed it. So, the people were more united [in their opposition to the dam project]. But now, there are many blind supporters of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. We have seen people start to disagree over Myitsone. This is a real cause for concern. There may be individuals and organizations who would exploit the circumstances for political gain. And foreign countries would exploit the circumstances. This is a cause for concern to us.

KK: Myitsone was sold under the military regime. But the current government has to bear its legacy. What will be the consequences if [the government] tries to settle the issue discreetly, as Daw Khon Ja has said?

MZ: Due to opposition from the people and environmentalists, U Thein Seins government suspended the dam project. In other words, his government protected our natural resources and national heritage by halting the project. The current government has a responsibility to protect our national landmark by terminating the project. We people have elected the current government. Even if it cant achieve much, we will forgive it, presumably. We will forgive it if it cant do a lot for national development, because we are used to struggling along the way. But, if it agrees to destroy the resources and landmarks of the country, its historical legacy will be a negative one. As it is an elected government, I hope it will leave behind a [good] legacy for the country.

KK: Thank you for your contributions!Last Wednesday, Fianna Fails Billy Kelleher entered the members bar in Dail Eireann and ordered a coffee.

Surrounded and teased by some of his party colleagues about a radio interview he gave that morning, in which he expressed an interest in becoming an MEP, Kelleher took it all in good spirits.

His cappuccino arrived just as his party leader, Micheal Martin came in.

The choice of continental beverage was quickly seized upon and pointed out to the leader. Just getting ready for life in Brussels, Martin was informed, to much hilarity.

A short time earlier, Kelleher was standing at the door of the Leinster House annex building, where his deputy leader, Dara Calleary, passed him by with the simple but pointed greeting of bonjour.

Martin saw the funny side, but behind the smiles, the reaction to Kellehers news was one of fury.

On Wednesday morning, Kelleher appeared on RTEs Morning Ireland to be interviewed by Bryan Dobson on the issue of Brexit.

But Dobson, before the interview ended, turned to the issue of Brian Crowleys anticipated (at that stage) departure from the political stage and asked Kelleher if he would have an interest in running.

He answered: Brussels and the European Parliament is going to play a critical role for Irelands future in the years ahead, and I think Irelands going to play a critical role as well in Europe, so from that perspective, I certainly would like to be central to that. Fianna Fail hasnt made any decision in terms of its strategy.

Once it outlines its strategy, well certainly I would be making my views known, but I certainly would have an interest in pursuing the area in the European stage.

You could almost hear the collective choking on cornflakes by Fianna Fail TDs and handlers.

The reason many were so surprised was that Martin had made it clear by way of an interview in the Irish Examiner with my colleague Elaine Loughlin last year that he wants all current TDs to stay in the Dail and forget any ambitions to go to Brussels.

Loughlin specifically asked Martin about Kelleher, and this is what he said at that point: We want our strong players in Dail Eireann. I think we will be able to identify candidates who are not members of Dail Eireann for the European elections. Billy has a very significant role to play in domestic politics and he hasnt come to me at all about that. He is in enterprise now and i think he has a lot of give to enterprise because he instinctively understands it and he is a significant vote-getter in Cork North-Central.

The discussions we have had, myself and Billy, is how do we get a second seat in Cork North-Central?. That is our target and that is our objective. Billy has a very significant contribution to make in national politics. Pressed on whether he would let Kelleher stand in the European elections if he was asked, Martin said:

I want him in national politics.

That was taken as an effective ban on TDs from considering a run  and up stepped Gorey councillor and spin doctor for the Higher Education

Authority, Malcolm Byrne, who also wants to contest the Ireland South race.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner before Christmas, Byrne made it clear he has Martins backing for the race. He is based in the South-East, and it was always likely that the party would look to run someone from the Cork area.

So when on Monday, Crowley announced he was to hold a press conference on Thursday to declare his intentions, Kelleher got to thinking.

He realised that even if Fianna Fail makes it into government, he is unlikely to get to the Cabinet table, because FF will at most have seven or eight Cabinet seats, given it will have to form a coalition with other parties.

With Martin and Michael McGrath both from Cork and ahead of him in the pecking order, to have three Fianna Fail ministers from Cork city is unrealistic.

After 26 years in Leinster House, such a realisation is not an easy one, so of course, he would begin to think of new pastures.

Also, he is known to have been most unhappy to have been moved out of the health portfolio, where he had performed admirably.

Kelleher played a pivotal role on the Oireachtas Committee which examined the Eighth Amendment, driving the issue of the 12-week time limit in particular.

Yet, he also had to operate in the shadow of Martin, who as a former health minister weighed into health matters on an ongoing basis, which must have been frustrating.

Kelleher, too, is known to be somewhat bored by his business portfolio, given that the party has siphoned off the Brexit issue to Lisa Chambers and the relevance of the department has lessened significantly due to the strength of the economy.

How are you supposed to be effective when you have full employment and growth of 7% plus? Kelleher is said to have said in complaint to his colleagues.

Not too long ago, Kelleher was even harbouring ambitions to be considered as Martins heir apparent when the leaders position was being speculated upon. But no longer.

Certainly, given the manner in which Dobsons question was asked on Wednesday, many of those choking Fianna Failers immediately smelled a setup. Some said they felt Dobson may have been informed that it was worth his while to press Kelleher on his intentions. Suggestions that Kelleher made his announcement on Wednesday with the blessing of Martin have nbeen rubbished, with several TDs saying it was not sanctioned.

This was out of the blue, not sanctioned at all. Despite what some may say, this was not coordinated or, may I say, this is not wanted, said one senior TD.

Kelleher is one of a number within Fianna Fail angered by the partys neglect of Europe, typified by the fact it has no MEPs at present. He feels there is a job to be done, given the scale of uncertainty around Brexit and the wider European project at present.

But from the partys perspective, the main reason Martin is not keen on Kelleher resigning is because that presents the party with no end of potential troubles.

Firstly, the Dail arithmetic is very finely balanced that a by-election caused by a TD going to Europe leaves a high chance of FFs position being weakened.

Indeed, were Kelleher to win, the party fears his seat would be lost.

Any TD who wins a seat in the Euros will force a by- election, which in turn presents grave difficulties for the party. For example, were Billy to win an MEP seat, he leaves a gap in Cork North-Central and we would lose any by-election there, said one senior TD.

If Brexit happens on March 29, Ireland South goes from a four to a five-seat constituency and Kelleher is virtually assured of election. Martins fears are well-founded but unless he wants to give Kelleher a more prominent role, he must prepare to lose one of his closest allies from the Dail.We need to reconsider how we focus our scarce resources on those young people who need it most in the interests of them and the public, writes Professor Ursula Kilkelly.

Earlier this week, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, appeared before the Policing Authority to account for the failure of An Garda Siochana to progress nearly 8,000 referrals (almost 3,500 young people) from the Garda Diversion Programme over a seven-year period. The failures, due to Garda inaction, were described by the commissioner as professionally humiliating.

For the gardai, this is a terrible mess. For the victims, it is crushing news and for many of the young people affected, it could indeed involve life-altering or indeed life-limiting consequences.

More generally, it is a blow to public confidence in the ability of An Garda Siochana to do the basic job of progressing criminal charges to final conclusion.

The fact that these cases involve youth offending, some of it serious, has caused alarm with questions being asked about our system of police diversion and our treatment of young offenders generally. In truth, the matter has very little to do with the Garda Diversion Programme  it is a more general policing matter  but these matters are intertwined in a way that suggests that we need to reconsider how we focus our scarce resources on those young people who need it most in the interests of young people and the public.

The Garda Diversion Programme is the national system of police cautioning, set up in the 1960s and put on a statutory basis in the Children Act 2001. The Programme is operated by Juvenile Liaison Officers (JLOs), specially trained members of the gardai, and it aims to divert young people under 18 years from committing further offences.

In short, it offers young people who accept responsibility for their behaviour a police caution in lieu of prosecution. It works as follows: when a young person comes to the attention of the gardai with respect to criminal behaviour, he/she is referred to the Diversion Programme.

The decision to admit the young person is made by the National Director of the Programme according to statutory criteria  the young person must accept responsibility for the behaviour, agree to be cautioned and be under 18 years.

Depending on the seriousness of their behaviour, the young person admitted will receive either an informal caution or a formal caution with 12 months supervision by a JLO and families and/or victims may be involved in this process. While no recent or long-term evaluation of the Programmes success rate has been carried out, it is well regarded for its consistent record of successfully supporting young people to move away from offending behaviour. Its strengths include that decision-making is centralised under the act and all young people (just under 10,000 in 2016) are considered for admission.

Over a long time, the programme has embedded diversion  a key principle of youth justice  into our youth justice system, meaning that young people meet specially trained police officers  over 120 JLOs work in all districts around the country  as their formal point of contact with the police. The result is a programme that represents best-practice in keeping away from the courts those young people who will, evidence tells us, grow out of their offending, without any real intervention at all.

Young people who do not meet the programmes criteria will be found unsuitable by the director and will instead be referred for prosecution. These include those who have repeat referrals or whose offending is more serious.

Approximately 15% of young people referred to the programme every year fall into this category and this group is the subject of the recent scandal. According to the commissioner, a review of 158,521 referrals made between 2010 and 2017 found that 7,894 were not properly progressed due to inaction on the part of gardai.

These referrals involved 3,489 young people with a majority of relatively minor offences including public order, theft and criminal damage. Among the referrals not progressed were 55 serious offences, including rape and sexual assault and 3,500 gardai are believed to be involved in the errors, amounting to 25% of all Garda officers.

This highlights the need for training to be provided to all gardai on the operation of the programme and on approaches to use when working with young people more generally. The specialist approach should not be limited to JLOs alone.

The public is entitled to have confidence that matters referred to the gardai for prosecution will be pursued with rigour and fairness. It was good to hear the commissioner accept responsibility for the errors, and that steps are being taken to hold individual gardai accountable, where appropriate, and to provide support and information to victims and others affected.

This openness should extend to doing things differently in future. While the programme has a successful reputation for working effectively with young people referred for caution, those young people not admitted are in fact the hard cases that deserve much greater attention they are the young people who without intervention will head for what is known as the deep end of the youth justice system  they commit more crime, engage in more serious offending and they generally, have complex unmet needs that make them harder to reach. However effective the diversion programme is, it offers nothing at all to young people in this category. One important aspect of this weeks developments is that it has shed light on these young people.

For years they were reported as a statistic in the programmes annual report, with little information on why they were not admitted. Their subsequent pathways remain equally hidden, until, perhaps they are sentenced to a period of detention in Oberstown Children Detention Campus where if they are lucky, they might finally have their needs met in health, education or work on offending behaviour

But what if an intervention had happened earlier? What if the Garda Diversion Programme worked, not as a wide-net for the many young people who come into contact with the police for minor offences, but rather as a specialist resource to respond to the needs of the few who are likely to continue to offend due to their more complex unmet needs. What if rather than being found unsuitable, the programme focuses precisely on these young people, working with their families and their communities to bring them back from the brink?

Notwithstanding the important work that JLOs do every day and that the diversion programme has been doing for years, it is time now to consider a more radical form of police diversion, where scarce resources and expertise are targeted at those who need it most.

Professor Ursula Kilkelly School of Law University College CorkThe extravagant splendour of the animal kingdom is prompting scientists to rethink evolution, writes Ferris Jabr.

A male flame bowerbird is a creature of incandescent beauty. The hue of his plumage transitions seamlessly from molten red to sunshine yellow. But that radiance is not enough to attract a mate.

When males of most bowerbird species are ready to begin courting, they set about building the structure for which they are named: an assemblage of twigs shaped into a spire, corridor or hut.

They decorate their bowers with scores of colourful objects, like flowers, berries, snail shells or, if they are near an urban area, bottle caps and plastic cutlery.

Some bowerbirds even arrange the items in their collection from smallest to largest, forming a walkway that makes themselves and their trinkets all the more striking to a female  an optical illusion known as forced perspective that humans did not perfect until the 15th century.

Yet even this remarkable exhibition is not sufficient to satisfy a female flame bowerbird. Should a female show initial interest, the male must react immediately.

Staring at the female, his pupils swelling and shrinking like a heartbeat, he begins a dance best described as psychotically sultry. He bobs, flutters, puffs his chest.

He crouches low and rises slowly, brandishing one wing in front of his head like a magicians cape. Suddenly his whole body convulses like a windup alarm clock.

If the female approves, she will copulate with him for two or three seconds. They will never meet again.

The bowerbird defies traditional assumptions about animal behaviour.

Here is a creature that spends hours meticulously curating a cabinet of wonder, grouping his treasures by colour and likeness. Here is a creature that single-beaked builds something far more sophisticated than many celebrated examples of animal toolmaking; the stripped twigs that chimpanzees use to fish termites from their mounds pale in comparison.

The bowerbirds power, as at least one scientist has argued, is nothing less than art.

Adaptations are meant to be useful  thats the whole point  and the most successful creatures should be the ones best adapted to their particular environments. So what is the evolutionary justification for the bowerbirds ostentatious display?

Not only do the bowerbirds colorful feathers and elaborate constructions lack obvious value outside courtship, but they also hinder his survival and general well-being, draining precious calories and making him much more noticeable to predators.

Numerous species have conspicuous, metabolically costly and physically burdensome sexual ornaments, as biologists call them. To reconcile such splendor with a utilitarian view of evolution, biologists have favored the idea that beauty in the animal kingdom is not mere decoration  its a code.

According to this theory, ornaments evolved as indicators of a potential mates advantageous qualities: its overall health, intelligence and survival skills, plus the fact that it will pass down the genes underlying these traits to its children.

A bowerbird with especially bright plumage might have a robust immune system, for example, while one that finds rare and distinctive trinkets might be a superb forager. Beauty, therefore, would not confound natural selection  it would be very much a part of it.

Charles Darwin himself disagreed with this theory. Although he co-discovered natural selection and devoted much of his life to demonstrating its importance, he never claimed that it could explain everything. Ornaments, Darwin proposed, evolved through a separate process he called sexual selection: Females choose the most appealing males according to their standard of beauty and, as a result, males evolve toward that standard, despite the costs.

Although never completely forgotten, Darwins theory of beauty was largely abandoned.

Now, nearly 150 years later, a new generation of biologists is reviving Darwins neglected brainchild. Beauty, they say, does not have to be a proxy for health or advantageous genes. Sometimes beauty is the glorious but meaningless flowering of arbitrary preference.

These biologists are not only rewriting the standard explanation for how beauty evolves; they are also changing the way we think about evolution itself. For decades, natural selection  the fact that creatures with the most advantageous traits have the best chance of surviving and multiplying  has been considered the unequivocal centrepiece of evolutionary theory.

But these biologists believe that there are other forces at work, modes of evolution that are much more mischievous and discursive than natural selection.

Perhaps no living scientist is as enthusiastic  or doctrinaire  a champion of Darwinian sexual selection as Richard Prum, an evolutionary ornithologist at Yale University. In May 2017, he published a book, The Evolution of Beauty that lucidly and passionately explains his personal theory of aesthetic evolution.

The silver surfperch.

It was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction, but within the scientific community, Prums ideas have not been as warmly received. Again and again, he told me, he has asked other researchers for feedback and received either excuses of busyness or no reply at all. Some have been openly critical. In the early 1980s, while researching the history of sexual selection, Prum read a seminal 1915 paper and a 1930 book on the subject by the English biologist and statistician Ronald Fisher. At first, Fisher argued, females might evolve preferences for certain valueless traits, like bright plumage, that just happened to correspond with health and vigour.

Their children would tend to inherit the genes underlying both their mothers preference and their fathers trait. Over time, this genetic correlation would reach a tipping point, creating a runaway cycle that would greatly exaggerate both preference and trait, glorifying beauty at the expense of the males survival.

In the early 1980s, the American evolutionary biologists Russell Lande and Mark Kirkpatrick gave Fishers theory a formal mathematical girding, demonstrating quantitatively that runaway sexual selection could happen in nature and that the ornaments involved could be completely arbitrary, conveying no useful information whatsoever.

Although Fisherian selection was certainly not ignored, it was ultimately overshadowed by a series of hypotheses that seemed to rescue beauty from purposelessness. First, the Israeli biologist Amotz Zahavi proposed a counterintuitive idea called the handicap principle.

Extravagant ornaments, Zahavi argued, were not merely indicators of advantageous traits as Wallace had said  they were a kind of test. If an animal thrived despite the burden of an unwieldy or metabolically expensive ornament, then that animal had effectively demonstrated its vigour and proved itself worthy of a mate.

Similarly, in 1982, the evolutionary biologists W. D. Hamilton and Marlene Zuk proposed that some ornaments, in particular bright plumage, signalled that a male was resilient against parasites and would grant his children the same protection.

Many scientists began to think of sexual selection as a type of natural selection. Scores of researchers joined the hunt for measurable benefits of choosing an attractive mate: both direct benefits, like better parenting or more desirable territory, and indirect benefits, in particular some evidence that more alluring males really did have good genes underlying various desirable qualities, like resistance to disease or higher-than-average intelligence.

After more than 30 years of searching, most biologists agree that although these benefits exist, their prevalence and importance is uncertain. Prum thinks the evidence for the heritable benefits of choosing a beautiful mate is scant because such benefits are themselves rare, whereas arbitrary beauty is nearly ubiquitous.

Over the years, the more he contemplated runaway selection, the more convinced he became that it was a far more powerful and creative evolutionary force than natural selection, which he regards as overhyped and boring. Animals are agents in their own evolution, he told me during one conversation.

Birds are beautiful because they are beautiful to themselves.

Prum still stings from the perceived scorn of his academic peers. But after speaking with numerous researchers in the field of sexual selection, I learned that all of Prums peers are well aware of his work and that many already accept some of the core tenets of his argument: namely that natural and sexual selection are distinct processes and that, in at least some cases, beauty reveals nothing about an individuals health or vigor.

At the same time, nearly every researcher I spoke to said that Prum inflates the importance of arbitrary preferences and Fisherian selection to the point of eclipsing all other possibilities.

Like Darwin, Prum is so enchanted by the outcomes of aesthetic preferences that he mostly ignores their origins. Toward the end of our bird walk at Hammonasset Beach State Park, we got to talking about club-winged manakins.

I asked him about their evolutionary history. Prum thinks that long ago, an earlier version of the birds courtship dance incidentally produced a feathery susurration.

Over time, this sound became highly attractive to females, which pressured males to evolve adaptations that made their rustling feathers louder and more noticeable, culminating in a quick-winged strumming. But why, I asked Prum, would females be attracted to those particular sounds in the first place?

To Prum, it was a question without an answer  and thus a question not worth contemplating. Not everything, he said, has this explicit causal explanation.

Prums indifference to the ultimate source of aesthetic taste leaves a conspicuous gap in his grand theory. Even if we were to accept that most beauty blooms from arbitrary preferences, we would still need to explain why such preferences exist at all.

Its entirely conceivable that an animal might be inherently partial to, say, a warbling mating call or bright yellow feathers, and that these predilections would have nothing to do with advantageous genes.

Male flame bowerbird.

Yet such inclinations are inarguably the product of an animals neurobiology, which is itself the result of a long evolutionary history that has adapted the animals brain and sensory organs to specific environmental conditions.

In the past two decades, a cohort of biologists have dedicated themselves to studying how an animals sensory bias  its ecological niche and its particular way of experiencing the world  sculpts its appearance, behaviour and desires. Like Prum, they dont think beauty has to be adaptive. But where Prum celebrates caprice, they seek causality.

Molly Cummings, a professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin, is a leading researcher in the field of sensory ecology. For several years, she studied various species of surfperch, repeatedly diving in kelp forests with a Plexiglas-protected spectrometer to quantify and characterise the light in different habitats.

After hundreds of dives and careful measurements, Cummings discovered that water itself had guided the evolution of piscine beauty. A females preference for a blaze of silver or blue was not arbitrary; it was a consequence of the particular wavelengths of light that traveled farthest through her underwater niche. Whichever males happened to have scales that best reflected these wavelengths were more likely to catch the eye of females.

In her studies, Cummings showed that surfperch living in dim or murky waters generally preferred shiny ornaments, while surfperch inhabiting zones of mercurial brightness favoured bold colours.

Later, Cummings found that Mexican swordtails occupying the upper layers of rivers, where the clear water strongly polarised incoming sunlight, had ornaments that were specialized to reflect polarised light  like a stripe of iridescent blue. Some people think female preferences just somehow emerge, Cummings says, but what has been overlooked is that in many cases, its a result of environmental constraints. Its not always random.

What a creature finds attractive depends on more than the unique qualities of its environment, however; attraction is also defined by which of those qualities cross the threshold of awareness.

Michael Ryan, a professor of zoology whose lab and office are just a few floors below Cummings, has spent more than 30 years investigating how the quirks of an animals anatomy determine its aesthetic preferences  a career he details in his recent book, A Taste for the Beautiful.

Since 1978, Ryan has been traveling to Panama to study a mud-colored frog called the tungara. The tungara has a unique form of beauty that is not visual but aural. At dusk, male tungara frogs gather at the edges of puddles and sing to seduce females.

Their mating call has two elements: The main part, dubbed the whine, sounds precisely like a miniaturised laser gun; sometimes this is followed by one or more brief barks, known as chucks. A long and complex mating call is risky: It attracts frog-eating bats. Yet there is a high payoff. Ryan has shown that whines followed by chucks are up to five times as appealing to females as whines alone.

But why?

As it happens, larger males, which produce the deepest and sexiest chucks, are also the most adept at mating, because they are closer in size to females. Moreover, the tungara frog has an inner organ tuned to 2,200 hertz, which is close to the dominant frequency of a chuck.

Together, these facts seem to indicate the tungaras puddle-side serenade is an example of adaptive mate choice: Females evolved ears tuned to chucks because they indicate the biggest and most sexually skilled males.

male Tungara frog with its inflated vocal sac risks getting eaten by bats as it whines and barks to attract female attention. Richard Prum (inset) believes not all beauty in nature can be explained

Ryans research revealed a stranger story. When he examined the tungara frogs family tree, he discovered that eight frog species closely related to the tungara also have inner ear organs sensitive to frequencies of about 2,200 hertz, yet none of them produce chucks in their mating call.

Ryan thinks that eons ago, the ancestor of all these species probably evolved an inner ear tuned to roughly 2,200 hertz for some long-abandoned purpose.

The tungara later revived this neglected auditory channel, probably by happenstance. Male frogs that happened to burp out a few extra notes after whining were automatically favoured by females  not because they were more suitable mates, but simply because they were more noticeable.

Like the glistening scales on the surfperch and swordtails that Cummings studied, the tungaras costly mating call did not evolve to convey any pragmatic information about health or fitness. But that doesnt mean that these traits were arbitrary.

I took a real beating when I suggested this idea in 1990, Ryan says.

It was very widely criticised. But now sensory bias is considered an important part of the evolution of these preferences.

Prum says sensory bias could not possibly explain the staggering diversity and idiosyncrasy of sexual ornaments  the fact that every closely related sparrow species has a unique embellishment, for example. He sees sensory bias as just another way to maintain the predominant adaptive paradigm that refuses to acknowledge his theory of aesthetic evolution. Tellingly, Prum and Ryan do not discuss each others work in their recent books.

Most of the scientists I spoke with said the old dichotomy between adaptive adornment and arbitrary beauty, between good genes and Fisherian selection, is being replaced with a modern conceptual synthesis that emphasises multiplicity.

Beauty is something that arises from a host of different mechanisms, says Gil Rosenthal, an evolutionary biologist at Texas A&M University and the author of the new scholarly tome Mate Choice. Its an incredibly multilayered process.

The environment constrains a creatures anatomy, which determines how it experiences the world, which generates adaptive and arbitrary preferences, which loop back to alter its biology, sometimes in maladaptive ways.

Beauty reveals that evolution is neither an iterative chiseling of living organisms by a domineering landscape nor a frenzied collision of chance events.

Rather, evolution is an intricate clockwork of physics, biology and perception in which every moving part influences another in both subtle and profound ways. Its gears are so innumerable and dynamic  so susceptible to serendipity and mishap  that even a single outcome of its ceaseless ticking can confound science for centuries.

Adapted from an article that appeared in The New York Times Magazine.GWYNETH PALTROW eats burgers and drinks whiskey. Or so we are led to believe by the inclusion of such an admission in a recent interview, writes Lindsay Woods.

She says, This is not about punishing my body for enjoying things like burgers and whiskey. Ms Paltrow has a new book to promote  The Clean Plate.

The fact that she used the word punish in regards to food speaks volumes of her attitude towards it. I sincerely doubt she is wrapping her chops around a quarter pounder or necking a Midleton Rare as a reward for her virtuous ways for the bulk of the year. I have an inkling that said reward will come in the form of a yoga retreat or such like. Which is utterly grand; if she would just admit to same instead of trying to endear herself to the masses: See, Im just like one of you. I eat meat patties sandwiched between bread. Like me, like me, buy my book.

This, after all, is the same woman whose website advised inserting jade eggs into our nether regions. The $66 dollar egg promised to, increase vaginal muscle tone, hormonal balance and feminine energy in general, as outlined on her Goop site. Now, what in the name of sweet Ryan Gosling is, feminine energy?

While Paltrow did not write the article herself, like many other such ludicrous oddities, it was published on her site.

Considering she herself is in ownership of one, she has had considerable bad luck with the topic of vaginas. Between the eggs, steaming, etc, the backlash has been swift. So, she has returned to peddling the clean eating chestnut. I mean, it is January after all.

She understands that, life is messy and she wants to share her simple and tasty recipes to one and all. A quick scan through said recipes, calls for ingredients such as watermelon radish, aleppo pepper and coconut aminos. She prefaces the ingredient lists with exclamations of, This recipe is stupid easy. Oh Gwyneth, youre so funny.

Look, you dont need me or a celebrity to preach to you about reducing our consumption of meat. If you have a brain and/or a conscience, you will have already made strides to do same to limit the end result of our planet effectively imploding. But Ill be damned if Im going to swallow any further tosh from someone who wanted me to sit over a hot pot of water filled with herbs for 45 minutes to cleanse your uterus and balance female hormone levels. I only gained ownership of my uterus in 2018 Gwyneth  leave off.

On the other end of the, its January, sort your life out brigade, we have Maria Kondo. Specifically, her new Netflix offering, Tidying up with Marie Kondo. While she came to prominence with her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, which was published in 2014, her show has given her a wider audience. I admire a lot of the basic principles she promotes: those who have adopted the method of KonMari-ing speak favourably of same. Her book offers practical advice on re-organising and streamlining. The show, does not. It is a bit of a wet kipper and makes for slightly squirmy viewing.

The tension between the first couple is palpable, as the stresses and strains of raising a young family and running a home take their toll. Kondo, arrives to aid them in their transition to a simple and more purposeful way of living. A veritable Supernanny but, for tidying up. She shows the couple how to fold a few t-shirts and say, thank you, to items they no longer have a use for. The next we see of her is a week later, when she arrives with a few boxes in tow to show the couple how to compartmentalise items.

Where the show fails, is in its inability to display how the participants ultimately get about to enacting the methods. Instead, at the end of each episode, we are treated to a smiling Kondo (whose face incidentally, is pure sunshine) gratefully accepting the thanks from the couples whom she has helped. Its all just a bit flat and uninspiring. Presumably, the idea is, if we see how it is done, we will do it, due to the nature of how we consume modern day content. But we never actually see it in action. So, for what it is worth, if you fancy a bash, have a gander at her book; the irony of this is not lost upon me, as Kondo views books as clutter. Maybe check it out in your local library instead.

Coconut aminos and KonMari-ing all make for heavy subjects to digest in January  Id best take a nap.

@thegirlinthpaperA woman has died after a house fire in County Galway.

Gardai and Fire Services attended at the scene at Tullyvoheen in Clifden yesterday evening.

They were called to the house at around 7pm and brought the blaze under control a short time later.

The sole victim of the fire was a woman believed to be in her late 40s.

Her body was located inside the house and the scene is currently preserved for examination.

Gardai say foul play is not suspected at this time.Sinn Fein MEP Lynn Boylan is accusing the Irish media of giving too much coverage to the British Eurosceptic Nigel Farage.

During the week Mr Farage spoke in the European Parliament about Brexit.Two paramedics have been suspended and four others issued with warnings after they expressed health and safety concerns about being asked to drive a young patient from Cork to Dublin towards the end of their third night-shift in a row.

Paramedics based at the Cork city ambulance base are now refusing to plug the gap caused by the suspension of the two-person crew, with ambulances and crews being drafted in from county areas to help provide cover in the city in recent days.

Paramedics have now written to National Ambulance Service (NAS) management calling for the immediate reinstatement of their suspended colleagues.

In a statement last night, the HSE said the NAS is investigating an issue that occurred locally and is not in a position to comment further. It added: The HSE is satisfied that there has been no impact regarding continuity of service.

The suspensions and warnings follow an incident in the early hours of last Monday as the three two-person ambulance crews providing overnight cover in Cork City were coming to the end of their third night-shift in a row  working 8pm to 8am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

They became aware around 11pm on Sunday that an intra-hospital transfer involving a stable paediatric patient from Cork to Dublin may be required. It is understood that a nurse, due on duty at CUH on Monday morning, was asked to report earlier than rostered, to accompany the patient on the transfer. The hospital requested the transfer, which prompted ambulance control in Dublin to contact the first paramedic crew in Cork City with a Protocol 37 or emergency transfer request around 5am.

The crew, which had dealt with eight calls that night and who were two hours from the end of their third 10-hour shift, expressed concerns about crew fatigue. In that context, they pointed out to dispatchers the health and safety risks.

Ambulance control passed the call to a second city crew, who were dealing with a patient in a hospital at the time. They expressed similar health and safety concerns. The call was then passed to a third crew who expressed similar concerns.

A source said despite the Protocol 37 request, the patient was stable, and at no stage did any of the crews refuse to take the transfer. The source also insisted that crews would have responded if it was an emergency case.

A crew from Macroom was subsequently tasked to transfer the young patient, leaving CUH for Crumlin just after 6.30am on Monday and arriving back at their base at 3pm, a 20-hour shift.

The source pointed out that the hospital protected its staff by calling a day-shift nurse in early but that the NAS has no system in place for its staff in such scenarios: If a surgeon had come into an operating room 10 hours into the last night of a three-night shift and expressed concerns about fatigue, would you let the surgeon operate? Youd wait for a fresh surgeon.

This is a long-standing issue that has come to a head. Its not the hospitals fault, because they looked after their staff by not sending a night nurse. Its a failure of the ambulance service to not have a system in place for such calls.

Separately, up to 500 members of the NAS Representative Association are planning an eight-hour work stoppage on Tuesday.A judge has warned that smartphones are making it easier for people to access pornography, including looking at abusive images of children, which he described as journeys into the dark side of human behaviour.

Judge James McNulty made his comments as he convicted a Co Cork man for possession of child pornographic images that were found on his iPhone by gardai. The court also heard there had been hysteria in Clonakilty over rumours of a child porn ring operating in the town, despite assurances from both gardai and the judge that the rumours were unfounded.

In sentencing the man, Martin Hayes, aged 37, from Clonakilty, Co Cork, Judge McNulty warned anyone tempted to explore child pornography, for any reason, that they would face social penalties that exceeded any likely prison sentence.

We live in changing times where moral codes are sometimes forgotten, he said at a sitting of Bandon District Court. The internet and smartphones grant easy access to pornography but there are boundaries and lines that must not be crossed.

Child pornography involves crossing a boundary into the dark side of human behaviour and journeying into the world of sexual deviancy.

He said there needed to be a principle of general deterrence to stop others from committing similar offences.

So for teens on WhatsApp or men on bar stools, they should be able to tell one another that child pornography is dangerous territory, he said. Do not go there.

For those who are immature, or confused, or easily led, or just curious, and for the perverts, there are four things you need to know.

One  to store or share child pornography is a serious offence; two  chances are you will be detected and prosecuted; three  if convicted there is a real risk that you will spend time in prison; four  there are other serious social consequences for you, in your family, in your community, in your accommodation, even in your employment and your future travel plans and job prospects.

Hayes, currently of no fixed abode, had pleaded guilty last Tuesday to possession of four child abuse images during a Garda search in March 2017.

Last Tuesdays sitting of Clonakilty District Court had heard there was no foundation to rumours of a child porn ring in the area, but at yesterdays court proceedings, Hayes solicitor, Plunkett Taaffe, said: There is a rumour mill out there that is being hysterically dealt with.

The proceedings were also briefly interrupted by one man who took issue with the publication of Mr Hayes old address. He later apologised to the judge and said: It was not my intention but at the moment with everything that is happening around Clonakilty...

Judge McNulty said he believed the rumours were greatly exaggerated.

Judge James McNulty

There had been rumours of a child porn ring  they were unfounded, he said, adding there was no basis for connecting Hayes with any separate criminal matters.

Ahead of sentencing, Hayes solicitor Mr Taaffe said his client was now ostracised in his community, had lost his job in the hospitality sector, and was now effectively homeless as a result of his offending

Judge McNulty said Hayes, who had no previous convictions, had obtained the images from an illegal source and sentenced him to 33 days in prison, with 30 days suspended for two years, alongside Probation Service supervision for one year.

The court does not consider him to be a threat or a danger to children, Judge McNulty said, adding that the Probation Service would be able to assist the mans rehabilitation and ideally help him reintegrate himself back into his native place.

Mr Hayes is a native of Clonakilty but unfortunately he has to some extent sullied the name of a good town full of decent people, Judge McNulty said, before adding that in another way the defendant was lucky to be from the town as it was acknowledged as one of the finest places in West Cork and also a place where people are welcoming, kindly and tolerant.

The judge said he hoped that Hayes, knowing he had been severely punished, and provided that he did not reoffend, could be accepted back into his community, having made a bad error of judgement for which he was paying a heavy price.Theyre going to need some bigger boats  as a picturesque fishing village on the Cork coast is set to host an international shark fishing competition this year.

And organisers of the first Ballycotton Big Fish hope its 250,000 prize fund will reel in competitors from all over the world for four days of fishing.

The offshore catch-and-release event from September 12 to 15 commands a 5,000 entry fee and will be limited to 120 entrants. Expressions of interest are open now and entries will be accepted from next month.

The entry fee includes the hire of charter boats, with teams from a minimum of two and up to six people allowed.

They will fish for four species of shark, including mako, thresher, and blue shark, and will release all specimens caught.

There will also be a strict protocol in place governing the handling of all specimens caught.

The event is the brainchild of Ballycotton-born millionaire businessman, Pearse Flynn, who is investing some of his own personal fortune to help realise the villages tourism potential.

Mr Flynn, who made his fortune in telecoms and tech, owns and heads up British debt solution company Creditfix.

He has built a luxury cliff-top mansion overlooking the villages landmark lighthouse and plans to invest up to 3m of his own cash in various projects in the village, including two restaurants, a craft shop, gallery, and community arts venue, and a childrens playground.

A keen fisherman, he came across big shark fishing competitions off California and Mexico, some with prize funds of up to 3m, and felt something similar could be replicated here.

In the early 1900s, the waters off East Cork were a favoured fishing ground for members of London high- society but that tradition waned.

Archive video: Basking Sharks in BallycottonAround 700 jobs at Aughinish Alumina in Limerick are safe for now following a US senate vote to allow sanctions on its owner to be lifted  but the political fallout is not over after the House of Representatives voted the opposite way.

Fears were raised for the jobs in Limerick this week as senators from both parties indicated their intention to override the US treasurys decision to lift sanctions imposed on companies such as Aughinish owner Rusal, which is controlled by the Russian billionaire Oleg Derispaska through another company, En+.

Mr Derispaska had been targeted by the US administration over perceived close ties to the Kremlin, and companies linked to him had suffered in the fallout as sanctions were imposed last April.

However, treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin said this week that the intent was not to punish the companies, but to exert pressure on Mr Deripaska.

The Russian oligarch has agreed to relinquish controlling shares in companies involved as part of the deal with the treasury department.

He will personally remain under sanctions.

The senates threatened rebellion to defy treasury never materialised this week, leading to relief for the Aughinish workers.

The company has been described as one of Limericks best employers, with 700 jobs and hundreds more indirectly tied to it.

The House of Representatives bucked the senate result, voting overwhelmingly to keep sanctions on the firms, with a majority of President Donald Trumps Republican Party joining opposition Democrats in the vote.

Despite the fact that the vote is merely symbolic, it shows the fallout from the controversy is far from over.

New revelations about Mr Deripaskas ties to the Kremlin have been coming out in recent weeks, as well as his links to Mr Trumps former presidential campaign chairman Paul Manafort, now a convicted felon.

Key supporters of Mr Trump in the House of Representatives, including House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy and Republican whip Steve Scalise, were among those who voted to keep sanctions in place.

House majority leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat, called on Mr Mnuchin to delay ending the sanctions in light of this weeks votes in the House and Senate.

Despite Mr Hoyers request, sanctions against Rusal and other companies could be lifted by the end of this month.This is a huge wake up call to the whole industry, the whole financial services industry and any player  whether they are an incumbent, new start-up or whatever the case may be, says Muir. If they continue to try and comply with the black letter law, rather than the new bar of community standards and expectations, then its just a matter of time before theyll be caught out.

While the commission is yet to define community standards and expectations, Muir says it will likely come down to a two-point question that companies can ask themselves  does it comply with the law and is it fair?

Its important that the fairness question must be asked from the perspective of the customers  but it cant be from an individual customers perspective, it has to be from a community perspective, he tells Insurance Business.

Is that fair in the eyes of the wider community? Thats the question companies need to be asking themselves and thats the new standard organisations and individuals must align themselves to.

Interestingly, Muir  who founded Compliance Advocacy Solutions in 2017  says the Royal Commission has increased the publics awareness of consumer rights, which could very well have an impact on their expectations.

Youve now got a community of people who are very much aware of what theyre entitled to, so the bar is quite high and thats the bar companies need to align to, he says.

Of course, community standards and expectations, by their nature, will change over time and Muir says the onus will be on organisations to keep track of those changes.

Complying with community standards and expectations is a very difficult thing to do  you need to be monitoring what ASIC and others views are, and you need to keep constant contact with consumer advocacy groups, he says.

Muir also says organisations must move away from strict tests for their compliance measures to adopt health indicators instead.

Partly the reason were in this situation is because we tried to dumb down compliance obligation so its a black and white test, he says. I think whats going to happen as we move to community standards and expectations is well see this test change from black and white to a series of health indicators.

Rather than a single thing, therell be multiple indicators which will help organisations work out if something is fair.Ng has 18 years of experience in the insurance industry and joined Generali GC&C in 2015 as a risk engineer, senior manager for Greater China. Prior to joining Generali, he was risk engineer senior manager at Zurich Risk Engineering Group, based in Hong Kong and Malaysia.

With an electrical engineering background from City & Guilds London Institute, Ng also has a masters degree in insurance and risk management from Deakin University, Australia, as well as a masters degree in business administration and management from the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.

As a technical expert, [Ng] brings the risk appreciation capabilities and expertise coupled with a strong understanding of the Asian insurance landscape which will help to drive Generalis underwriting excellence across the region, said Hayden Seach, head of Generali Global Corporate & Commercial Asia.

I would like to thank Joe for his indeed enormous contribution to Generali and we wish him all the best in his retirement, Seach added. It is particularly pleasing that we have been able to identify his replacement from within and this appointment reflects the strength and depth of talent we have within the business.Barthelemy Toguo from Cameroon, born in 1967, cut quite the superhero figure, dressed in bright overalls and armed with a power chainsaw, hacking away at timber to construct his installation, in the days leading up to the Biennale.

The artist, who was recently conferred the titles of Knight in the Order of Arts and Literature, and Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, France arrived in Kochi earlier this October, to begin setting up his work for the festival.

Barthelemy, who was also shortlisted for the Prix Marcel Duchamp in 2016, maintains a fairly multi-disciplinary oeuvre, with works ranging from paintings, installations and performances to video, photography, ceramics and even wood carving.

At the Biennale, the artist offers his overview of a greater purpose: The role of art is to open the door to other cultures of the world, and to bring visitors to discover other worlds. For his own works, Barthelemy is consumed by concerns over issues of immigration and exile.

Human mobility represents incredible difficulty in contemporary society, he explains. The young dreadfully languish under the yoke of laws related to the borders, and humanity should look a little more closely at how this plagues people.

Earlier, at an edition in the Lets Talk series of artist presentations at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Barthelemy urged that cultural activists should persevere to make the grassroots mission a success.

I live in Paris and also Bandjoun (a town in the West Region of Cameroon). I have noticed that anything new to ones culture is widely seen with suspicion and prejudice in both urban and rural areas, he related.

Barthelemy Toguo



In a personal initiative, Barthelemy went on to establish Bandjoun Station, a centre for exchange between local and international artists, including an exhibition space, a library and plantations in Bandjoun, in 2007.

However, initially, the locals were not welcoming, he points out. Even today, some continue to think the art centre is basically for the White. Gradually, they began hosting local traditions and rituals associated with weddings and funerals, helping him gain the confidence of people and develop their curiosity about art.

A still of the installation by Barthelemy Toguo



In Kochi, the artist observes, It is a Biennale that has been very open in the various mediums, and their diversity contributes to the good quality of the Biennale. The organisation of biennials and festivals of this size makes art accessible to a wide audience.

He adds, This is a young biennale, and it is open to the international world. It has already built a good reputation, I think the team is on a good track, and it will make constructive changes.

Expectedly, nature happens to be an important part of Barthelemys efforts to nurture different forms of art, even promoting vegetable farming in a big way while providing residencies for visual artists, at his centre in Bandjoun.

A still of the installation by Barthelemy Toguo



Barthelemy is quick to dispel misconceptions about political motivations. Contemporary art must not be of a political, activist or even intellectual nature to have a great impact, he asserts. But the artist has the right to express himself on everything he feels.

The task at hand is to take the work to the people. Art evolves quickly, and in this environment, current technological developments are taken into account to interest the younger generation, he explains.

Barthelemy is also showing at The Musee dArt Contemporain du Val-de-Marne (MAC/VAL) in Vitry-sur-Seine, Paris until 24 February. At KMB, his works are on display at Pepper House, until March 29.Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., an Indian American second-term congressman, seen here with family members and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was named to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence by the speaker. (photo provided)If a girl gets raped or molested the first question society asks is What clothes were you wearing?. It is disturbing and at the same time saddening that people tend to blame the victim and not the perpetrator of this horrible crime.

Over the years many activists, social media campaigns and NGOs have tried to convey that rape is never ever the victim's fault. Nothing and no one has the right to violate someonee body (man or woman).

An exhibition in Brussels is amplifying this very message boldly, for all those who care to understand. It consists of recreations of outfits worn by people when were raped and assaulted. It was inspired by a project created by the students at the University of Kansas.

We have had so many request for our art exhibit that we are creating a second installment! Want to participate in our 2019 What Were You Wearing? exhibit? Fill out this form:https://t.co/3WaBdZ6WYD pic.twitter.com/gm7eEVtn70  Me Too Springfield (@MeTooSGF) January 18, 2019

The exhibition that was earlier held in January 2018 was again held this year considering the number of requests for it. The exhibits will be available for public viewing till January 20, 2019.





Delphine Goossens, a worker in the prevention services in Brussels took the original testimonies of the Kansas students and gathered pieces of her and her co-workers' clothing to represent the outfits in the exhibition which was named What were you wearing?

She has put up the exhibition at the Molenbeek Maritime Community Centre. I think a school can make it, or a university, she said. Its easy.

There were several outfits hanging around the room, including a girl child's frock, a t-shirt and shorts.





A woman, Liesbet Verboven, who came to see the exhibition said that her experience was very emotional. A friend of hers was assaulted and had a poor experience with the police, who blamed her decisions and location for the incident.

It leaves a big impact to see all these clothes, that it can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere, Verboven said. I hope it can change the mindset of people that blame the victims of violence and rapes, she added.

With 'What Were You Wearing?', Goossens challenged society's notion that rape happens due to revealing clothes.

Just because someone decided to wear something that doesn't fit someone else's idea of 'decent clothing' does not mean she is asking for it. If she partied, consumed alcohol, decided to stay out late or travel with men does not mean she was asking for it. Rape is always, always the fault of the rapist.Two teenage girls, 18-year-old Jyoti Kumari and 16-year-old Neha took over their fathers business in Uttar Pradesh after he fell ill in 2014. For four years they pretended to be guys in order to run their father's barber shop.

The barbershop had initially closed but the shop was the familys only source of income. So, the girls decided to take matters into their own hands and run it themselves. Initially, the customers were sceptical about getting their moustaches trimmed and hair cut by women and did not behave well with them, Jyoti told The Guardian. So we decided to change our whole get-up so that none could identify us, she added.

Twitter

The girls cut their hair short and adopted names Deepak and Raju. 100 houses in their village knew their real identities but the surrounding communities had no idea, Neha said.

The pair earned almost 400 rupees every day, which was enough for them to pay for their fathers treatment and support the family. We faced a lot of troubles when we started the job in 2014, Neha said. Others in the village mocked us but we ignored them and focused on work since we had no other option.

The Guardian

But that was not it, the girls would open the shop in the afternoon so that they could continue studying in the morning. Jyoti has now graduated and Neha is still studying.

Now we have gained enough confidence and dont fear anyone, Neha said. The majority of people have come to know that we are girls. Jyoti has started regrowing her hair. Dhruv Narayan, the girls father, said: This gives me a lot of pain when I find them at work but I am very proud of my daughters. They have extricated the family out of a sudden crisis.

The two girls were honoured by the government for their spirit and determination. Hats off to these girls who did not leave any stone unturned to support their family.The Right To Information law is a powerful tool in the hands of a common man. The UPA government, led by the Indian National Congress party, were instrumental in passing the Right to Information (RTI) law in 2005.

The objective was to undo the culture of bureaucratic secrecy.

However, ever since the RTI law was passed, successive governments have wanted to suppress it somehow. Lately, public authorities associated with the central government have denied information to citizens who have filed an application under the RTI.

Presently, over 26,000 information requests lie pending before the commission, says an article in The Conversation.

AP

After demonetisation, the country took a plunge in terms of cash circulation. Several people died too while standing in kilometre-long queues. When citizens filed RTI appeals with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) about demonetisation, they were refused information. The queries ranged between who had been consulted, reasons for demonetisation and what was the cost incurred by scrapping notes. None of the queries ever received a response.

In 2017, the Indian Air Force denied an RTI request and refused to release vital information related to the pricing of 36 Rafale fighter jets, a deal between India and France. The matter is now a key corruption scandal.

afp

In 2015, Neeraj Sharma, an IT professional from Delhi, sought details of Prime Minister Narendra Modis graduation degree from Delhi University. The information was blatantly denied. He also sought details of all the students who secured Bachelor of Arts degree in 1978, the year when PM Modi secured completed his graduation.

The Delhi University denied the information saying it was private information and has little to do with public interest.

And these requests are just a few in the ever-rising mountain of queries.

When the RTI law was passed back in 2005, it was harbingered as a ground-breaking move to empower common people of the country. Though, over a period of time, conscious efforts have been made to dilute the tool.In a bid to help the family of the inspector Subodh Kumar Singh, who was killed during Bulandshahr mob violence in December 2018, the Uttar Pradesh police have donated Rs 70 lakh. A senior police officer told ANI that the money has been raised additionally to the Rs 50 lakh compensation offered by UP government.

December saw massive violence on Bulandshahr after the carcasses of cows were found dumped in near the forest area outside Mahaw village.

"Activists of right-wing organisations soon gathered at the spot and alleged that people of a community were indulging in cow slaughter," ADG (Law and Order) said.

The angry villagers which included the members of various Hindu groups gathered and jammed the road in front of Chingarwathi police chowki and sought action against the culprits. Later they jammed the Bulandshahr-Garh state highway.

The administration tried to talk to the protesters and when they didnt budge. The protesters soon turned violent and started pelting stones on policemen. The protest went violent and amid the violence, the mob killed inspector Singh, who was allegedly shot at by one of the protesters.

Yogesh Rai, the main accused of Inspector Subodh Kumar Singhs murder was arrested a month after the violence. He had earlier released a video from his hideout in which he said he wasnt present at the sight of the violence and had no association with the protest.The Sikh community is known for its kind gesture and benevolence. In a recent incident that will restore our faith in humanity, the community has offered free meals to fellow American government employees after they were caught amid the shutdown that has left thousands without pay.

The Gurdwara menu which includes lentils, vegetables, rice and tortillas helped the employees in San Antonio, Texas.

The shutdown which has been in its fourth week has left roughly 8 lakh federal government workers without work in key departments.

Since president Trump wants to build a wall on the US-Mexico border using USD 5.7 billion. The Democrats, however, say that this move is a waste of money and all federal employees have been working without pay. The community helped with the refreshing meal.

"Workers and families affected by the shutdown are invited to Sikh Centre all weekend for free meals starting today," the Center posted on its Facebook on Friday.

As government employees near the fourth week without pay, the Sikh community in San Antonio steps up. #Seva https://t.co/jvw9xo5Ddf  Sikh Coalition (@sikh_coalition) January 12, 2019

"Sikh Community is there to support the federal employees who did not receive their paychecks. Also, the Sikh Community appreciates their services and believes in giving gratitude to those men and women for doing a wonderful service for the nation," Balwinder Dhillon, President of the Sikh Center of San Antonio, told reporters.

"The least we could do is support them with a hot meal for the next three days," he said.Yesterday, the Supreme Court said that Delhi is a gas chamber and its better not to be in Delhi. But surprisingly, about 93 percent of the people in Delhi dont understand the Air Quality Index or and its six categories.

The survey was done in 10 most polluted areas of Delhi revealed on Friday.

More than 500 residents from Ashok Vihar, Dwarka, ITO, Lodhi Road, Patparganj, Rhini, RK Pura, Siri Fort, Anand Vihar, and Bawana talked to United Resident Joint Action (URJA)-a collective of the citys resident welfare associations and ARK foundation.

The respondents were talked to in such a way that minimum 50 people each from the 10 localities and they didnt know the meaning of the AQI and how the air quality is categorised as good, moderat, poor and severe. Nearly 89 percent of the respondents were not aware about that pollution monitor installed in their areas.

88 percent people said that they hadnt seen any LED screens showing the different levels of air quality, the survey said. Surprisingly, only 71 per cent of the respondent said they arent satisfied with the air-quality in Delhi.

reuters

Only 58 percent respondent said they were affected by pollution and 42 percent said they were not affected.

(With PTI inputs)View this post on Instagram

What an unforgettable & outstanding tour it's been !! Happy to have witnessed the historic victories by the men    HUGE congratulations  And so proud of you my love @virat.kohli  

A post shared by AnushkaSharma1588 (@anushkasharma) on Jan 18, 2019 at 4:12am PSTNawazuddin Siddiqui is one Bollywood actor that inspires us to never stop chasing our dreams. His journey proves that if you work hard towards your dream, sooner or later you will achieve it.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui started his career as a junior artist, he did some blink-and-miss roles in films like Munna Bhai MBBS before making it big with and getting all the attention that he rightfully deserves.

Twitter

Currently, Nawazuddin Siddiqui is one of the most sought after and versatile actors in the B-town. From playing a gangster in Sacred Games to doing Nandita Das' Manto, he has proved his mettle as an actor with every film. In his next, he will be seen essaying the role of Bal Thackeray.

Twitter

For the promotions of the movie, he recently appeared on The Kapil Sharma Show along with films leading lady Amrita Rao and shared some interesting anecdotes from his struggling days.

Talking about the time when he was a junior artist for an ad, he revealed he was paid a sum of Rs 4000.

The happiness was short lived as I had to share half the money with one of the co-ordinators since I didnt have a junior artiste card. From what was left, I spent Rs 1800 at a hotel to celebrate my achievement and then took a rickshaw ride. By the end of it, I was penniless again, he said.

YouTube

He also revealed that he once decided to sell coriander that he bought for Rs 200 from a wholesaler to earn profit, but a tragedy happened. He said that the leaves were turning brown and no one would buy it from him.

I confronted the seller, who explained that I should have sprinkled water on the leaves to keep them fresh. The advice came too late and it was money down the drain.

Pinterest

Based on the life of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, the movie is slated to release on Jan 25.After the Padmaavat fiasco last year, it was reported that Karni Sena was protesting against the release of Kangana Ranaut starrer Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi.

According to a report in ANI, the Maharashtra Karni Sena wrote a letter to the director, producers and writers of Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi and warned them that if the movie distorts history or shows Rani Laxmi Bai as the lover of a Britisher, they will have to bear the dire consequences.

Reacting to the same and revealing how the Karni Sena has been harassing her, Kangana Ranaut said that she is a Rajput too, and if the Karni Sena will continue to harass her, she will destroy each one of them.

Twitter

In a shocking development, now Karni Sena has refuted the claims made by Kangana Ranaut that the group is opposing the release of the biopic on the freedom fighter. Dr Himanshu, Karni Senas national spokesperson and ex-major rubbished the reports and said that groups name is being used for personal vested interests.

Twitter

We are not opposing 'Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi' till we don't have anything substantial from the family, region or the community. These people, I believe, are using the name of Karni Sena for their own vested interests and they are bringing disrepute to Karni Sena and to the historical characters, Himanshu was quoted as saying by IANS.

Instagram

We disown and completely dissociate ourselves" from all such claims, he said adding, Supposedly, the family has a problem. They can come to us and if they seek support from us and have a valid reason (we will take it in consideration)... I was in Jhansi recently and nobody said anything of this nature.

"First and foremost, we should be clear which Karni Sena (has protested). Anybody who pops up and says 'I am Karni Sena', cannot be Karni Sena," said the Karni Sena spokesperson.Indian audiences were tired of the same-old Saas-Bahu serials when Over-the-top (OTT) content players came into the market and established themselves so well that they are only going forward from here on. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar and AltBalaji among others have gained huge popularity in India.

Remember the nation went into a frenzy after Sacred Games and Mirzapur had released. Nawazuddin Siddiqui said that people in Italy would also recognise him as Ganesh Gaitonde.

Twitter

To keep up with the ongoing trend, now Doordarshan is also venturing into the world of OTT. Its working towards launching its own streaming platform. And it will use this platform to bring back some old shows. Yes, you read that right!

YouTube

OTT is an important platform. Doordarshan is also planning to have its own digital platform where it can put out its content which can be available worldwide. CEOs of Prasar Bharati and Doordarshan are working on a project to evolve an online platform for the viewers," Supriya Sahu, Director General, Doordarshan, told IANS here on Friday.

Twitter

What all shows will be available on this platform? Well, that hasnt been decided as of yet.

We have a huge library of content. Some of our content is iconic. People of India associate themselves with our shows as they have grown up watching such shows. So we are trying to see if that kind of platform can be developed for us to utilise it, she added.

TheStorypedia

What all shows you would want to watch? Dekh Bhai Dekh, Hum Log, Buniyaad, Fauji, Alif Laila, Circus, Ducktales and Malgudi Days  there are so many shows that we want back, dont you agree?

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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.Was Warren C. Coleman the richest African-American in America in 1900? Some, a very few, would say yes and many others, most, would say no in 1900 or ever.

Other historians have agreed that Coleman was the richest African-American in the South. As an historian working on the life and times of Warren C. Coleman for the past five years, the evidence that I have recently discovered indicates that Coleman was the richest African-American as of 1900. Other African-Americans became millionaires after 1900, but before 1900, no other former African-American slave, was in the position of Warren C. Coleman, given his material wealth and family background. How come no one else is talking about these facts?

The historical record shows, I recently discovered, that Coleman owned property up and down Depot Street (currently Cabarrus Avenue), around Lincoln Street, Spring Street, various parts of Coleburg and various lots outside Cabarrus County. His wealth was extensive. His various possessions included imported horses, a grocery store, his own home on Church and Cabarrus Ave., and various properties that generate rental money on a monthly basis.Catholic priests bowing with respect before the urn with ashes of Gdansk mayor Pawel Adamowicz (AP Photo/Wojtek Strozyk)

Polish and European officials joined thousands of people for the funeral of Pawel Adamowicz, the mayor of Gdansk.

Mr Adamowicz, 53, died on Monday after being stabbed the night before at a charity event. The arrested suspect is an ex-convict with a grudge against an opposition party that Mr Adamowicz once belonged to.

European Council President Donald Tusk, a personal friend of Mr Adamowicz, was among those attending the burial at the vast Gothic St Marys Basilica. Polands President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also attended along with former leaders including Lech Walesa.

As people gather for the funeral of Pawel Adamowicz, my thoughts are with his family, friends, and all those in Gdansk, Poland and Britain mourning today.



His assassination has shocked Europe and is a tragic loss for Poles and all those who want to build inclusive societies.  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) January 19, 2019

Other dignitaries included former German president Joachim Gauck and city mayors from other countries. The powerful leader of Polands ruling conservative party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, was not in attendance.

The black urn with the mayors ashes will be laid to rest at one of the basilicas chapels.

Crowds in the streets were able to watch the ceremony on giant screens.

Expand Close Boy and girl scouts standing at attention by the urn (AP Photo/Wojtek Strozyk) / Facebook

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A solemn procession brought Mr Adamowiczs coffin to the basilica for a Mass on Friday night. The body was then cremated.

The killing, which came as Poland faces a deep political divide over actions by the ruling Law and Justice party, was a shock to the nation. It has drawn calls for greater national unity and condemnation of hate speech in the public sphere.The accuracy of a news report that said Donald Trumps lawyer told Robert Mueller that the president directed him to lie to Congress has been disputed by the special counsels office.

BuzzFeed, citing two unidentified law enforcement officials, reported that Mr Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate project.

The report also said that Cohen told Mr Mueller that Mr Trump personally instructed him to lie about the timing of the project.

The report said Mr Muellers investigators learned about Mr Trumps directive through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organisation and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents.

BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the special counsel's office, and characterisation of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's congressional testimony are not accurate.Robert Mueller's spokesman

The report said Cohen then acknowledged Mr Trumps instructions when he was interviewed by Mr Muellers team.

The statement by Mr Muellers office on Friday night did not cite any specific errors.

However the special counsels spokesman, Peter Carr, said: BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the special counsels office, and characterisation of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens congressional testimony are not accurate.

Buzzfeed spokesman Matt Mittenthal said the publication stands by its reporting and to stay tuned as they worked to determine what Mr Mueller was denying.

Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, also said the publication stands by its reporting and the sources who informed it.

We urge the special counsel to make clear what hes disputing, Mr Smith said.

In response to the statement tonight from the Special Counsel's spokesman: We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he's disputing.  Ben Smith (@benyt) January 19, 2019

Immediately after the special counsels statement was issued, Mr Trump retweeted several posts that called the story fake news.

He later tweeted: A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!

Mr Trumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, tweeted: I commend Bob Muellers office for correcting the BuzzFeed false story that Pres Trump encouraged Cohen to lie.

I ask the press to take heed that their hysterical desire to destroy this President has gone too far. They pursued this without critical analysis all day. #FAKENEWS.

The extraordinary statement from Mr Muellers office came after Democrats had vowed to investigate whether the report was true, calling that possibility a concern of the greatest magnitude.

I commend Bob Muelleras office for correcting the BuzzFeed false story that Pres. Trump encouraged Cohen to lie. I ask the press to take heed that their hysterical desire to destroy this President has gone too far. They pursued this without critical analysis all day. #FAKENEWS  Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) January 19, 2019

House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a Democratic Representative from California, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a Democratic Representative from New York, both said they would probe BuzzFeeds account.

Some Democrats even said that if the report were true, then Mr Trump should be impeached.

The Associated Press had not independently confirmed the report.

Any evidence that Mr Trump directed a witness to lie to investigators would place him in the greatest political and legal jeopardy yet.

Mr Giuliani said in a statement earlier on Friday that any suggestion  from any source  that the President counseled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the allegation absolutely ridiculous.

On Twitter on Friday morning, Mr Trump charged that Cohen was Lying to reduce his jail time!

Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress to cover up that he was negotiating the Trump Tower project on Mr Trumps behalf during the heat of his presidential campaign.

The charge was brought by Mr Mueller and was the result of Cohens cooperation with that probe.

Cohen admitted that he lied when he told lawmakers he had never agreed to travel to Russia in connection with the Moscow project and when he said that he had decided by the end of January 2016 that the proposal was not feasible for a variety of business reasons and should not be pursued further.

Expand Close Michael Cohen, former lawyer to Donald Trump, has been jailed for three years (AP file/Richard Drew) / Facebook

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He was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to conceal his boss alleged sexual affairs.

He told a judge that he agreed time and again to cover up Mr Trumps dirty deeds out of blind loyalty.

Mr Giuliani noted that Mr Cohen had pleaded guilty to lying and quoted federal prosecutors in New York who chastised him for a pattern of lies and dishonesty over an extended period of time.

Mr Muellers team, however, had previously called him a credible witness.

Todays claims are just more made-up lies born of Michael Cohens malice and desperation, Mr Giuliani said.

Lanny Davis, an adviser to Mr Cohen, declined to comment.Former Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke is escorted into the courtroom (Antonio Perez/AP)

A US judge has sentenced former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke to nearly seven years in prison over the 2014 shooting death of black teenager Laquan McDonald.

Judge Vincent Gaughans sentence of six years and nine months in prison Friday came a day after another judge acquitted three other officers of trying to cover up the shooting to protect Van Dyke.

Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times, including after the 17-year-old was on the ground and barely moving.

Expand Close Tiffany Van Dyke, wife of former Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke attends his sentencing hearing (Antonio Perez/AP) / Facebook

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A jury convicted him in October of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery, one for each shot.

The case went largely unnoticed until the city was forced to release police dashcam video 13 months after it happened.

The video sparked large protests and led to the ouster of Chicagos top police official and some department reforms.

The 40-year-old Van Dyke is believed to be the first Chicago officer convicted in a fatal on-duty shooting of an African-American.Evidence: Michael Cohen arrives at his home in New York following surgery on his shoulder. Photo: AP

Senior Democrats have pledged to investigate a report that US President Donald Trump directed his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations over a real-estate project in Moscow during the 2016 election.

House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff said "we will do what's necessary to find out if it's true".

He said the allegation that the president directed Cohen to lie in his 2017 testimony to Congress "in an effort to curtail the investigation and cover up his business dealings with Russia is among the most serious to date".

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerrold Nadler, of New York, said directing a subordinate to lie to Congress is a federal crime.

"The @HouseJudiciary Committee's job is to get to the bottom of it, and we will do that work," Mr Nadler tweeted.

The report by BuzzFeed News, citing two unnamed law enforcement officials, said that Mr Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress and that Cohen regularly briefed Mr Trump and his family on the Moscow project - even as Mr Trump said he had no business dealings with Russia.

An adviser to Cohen, Lanny Davis, declined to comment on the substance of the article, saying that he and Cohen would not answer questions out of respect for special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe. Mr Mueller is investigating Russian meddling in the election and contacts with the Trump campaign.

The BuzzFeed story says that Cohen told Mr Mueller that Mr Trump personally instructed him to lie about the timing of the project in order to obscure Mr Trump's involvement.

Mr Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, scoffed at the report, saying in a statement: "If you believe Cohen I can get you a good all cash deal on the Brooklyn Bridge."

Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress in 2017 to cover up that he was negotiating the real-estate deal in Moscow on Mr Trump's behalf during the heat of his presidential campaign. The charge was brought by Mr Mueller and was the result of his co-operation with that probe.

Cohen was recently sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to tax crimes, bank fraud and campaign violations. He is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on February 7.

The report comes as House Democrats have promised a thorough look into Mr Trump's ties to Russia. Though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has discouraged any talk of impeachment in the early days of her new majority, some senior Democrats said that if the BuzzFeed report is true, Mr Trump's actions could rise to that level.

"If the @BuzzFeed story is true, President Trump must resign or be impeached," tweeted Texas representative Joaquin Castro, a member of the House intelligence panel.

William Barr, Mr Trump's nominee for attorney general, said at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday that a president or anyone else who directs a witness to lie is illegally obstructing an investigation.

That statement attracted attention given Mr Barr's expansive views of presidential powers and his belief that presidents cannot be scrutinised by prosecutors for acts the constitution allows them to take.

Mr Cohen was seen returning home from a pre-scheduled hospital visit yesterday afternoon after receiving surgery on his shoulder.

Photos showed the president's former fixer clutching a pillow that was held in front of his left arm, which was in a sling.

Meanwhile, Ms Pelosi has cancelled her plans to travel by commercial plane to visit US troops in Afghanistan, saying Mr Trump had caused a security risk by talking about the trip.

It was the latest twist in what has become a Washington game of brinkmanship between Ms Pelosi and Mr Trump, playing out against the stalled negotiations over how to end the partial government shutdown.

Earlier in the week, Ms Pelosi had asked Mr Trump to reschedule his January 29 State of the Union address, citing security issues at a time when the Homeland Security Department and other agencies remain unfunded.

Mr Trump responded by cancelling the military plane that was to have carried Ms Pelosi and a congressional delegation to Afghanistan on the previously undisclosed troop visit.

Mr Trump suggested she travel by commercial plane instead.

Mr Trump had belittled the trip as a "public relations event" - even though he had just made a similar warzone stop - and said it would be best if Ms Pelosi remained in Washington to negotiate to reopen the government.Lets talk: Emmanuel Macron bids to relaunch his presidency after months of violence by the yellow vest movement. Photo: Reuters

Grand Bourgtheroulde is a small town of just over 4,000 inhabitants deep in the heart of Normandy in northern France. Like many towns of its size in rural France, it has felt an increasing sense of marginalisation, of belonging to 'La France peripherique' as an influential 2014 essay by geographer Christophe Guilluy put it.

So it was the embattled French President Emmanuel Macron who chose Grand Bourgtheroulde as the place to launch this week a national debate to address rising discontent with his government following more than two months of protests by the 'gilets jaunes' (yellow vests).

Grand Bourgtheroulde has its own yellow vests movement: a demonstration last weekend ended in clashes with police. Graffiti scrawled over protective boarding on a local butcher's window reads "The era of the kings is over" - a reference to Macron, criticised as imperious by many French and derided by the yellow vests as "president of the rich".

His arrival in the company of 600 mayors from across France was not without drama. Security was tight and demonstrations banned, as were sales of flammable products for several days before. Nevertheless, there were confrontations between the local gendarmes and a handful of yellow vests.

There was tear gas in the air and two men were arrested as Macron spoke.

In an open letter on Sunday, Macron - whose ratings are hovering around 30pc - called for "a new contract for the nation". In Grand Bourgtheroulde, he repeated that while his government was prepared to listen to grievances, it would not tolerate violence. "Anger never constituted a solution," he argued.

In the nine weeks of its existence, the yellow vests - so named because they wear the high-visibility vests French motorists are required to carry in their vehicles - have evolved from a leaderless and largely spontaneous movement initially sparked by fuel tax hikes to a more fractious blend of significant far-right and far-left components, largely inchoate but united by anti-establishment sentiment.

As the number participating in their protests has shrunk - after Macron announced a series of concessions including suspending the fuel levy - from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands, an uglier face has emerged.

Several rallies have turned violent, with 'casseurs' or wreckers looting shops, attacking government buildings and clashing with police.

Some linked to the movement have been openly racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim. Dozens of parliamentarians have been threatened or had their offices and homes vandalised.

Polling suggests about 40pc support the far-right National Rally, the new incarnation of the Front National led by Marine Le Pen, Macron's main challenger in the 2017 presidential election.

Macron has said the national debate, which will take place online and in French municipalities over the next two months, will focus on four key themes: taxation, the environment, reform of state institutions and public services and the future of democracy and the role of citizenship.

Nothing, Macron has claimed, is "taboo" but he has already ruled out reintroducing the wealth tax he cut early in his presidency in a bid to promote investment.

To the chagrin of many of his more liberal supporters, Macron included the question of immigration in his open letter outlining the nationwide consultation, asking whether citizens wanted annual immigration quotas.

He said France had a long history of welcoming refugees fleeing war or persecution. It was open to economic migrants seeking a better life but "this tradition is being shaken by tensions and doubts over immigration and the failings of our system of integration".

The issue of immigration has not been a headlining demand for the yellow vests but Macron clearly feels it will chime with those who support Le Pen and her party, which has long had an anti-immigration platform.

The question of what the yellow vests want can be a vexed one, given how inchoate the movement has been.

A popular online petition by one prominent figure in the yellow vests included three key demands: lowering taxes, cutting the salaries of elected representatives and establishing citizens' initiative referendums with powers to propose or halt legislation, amend the constitution and remove a member of government.

Others - particularly those who say they will not be satisfied with anything less than Macron's departure - are boycotting the national debate, claiming it is nothing more than government manipulation. These more conspiracy-minded elements are also deeply suspicious of the media and their online vitriol has tipped into physical attacks on journalists covering the protests.

Polls show the yellow vests - despite the violence that has often marked their protests -still retain significant support among the wider population. If Macron's national debate fails to shift the mood, France faces a distinctly yellow-tinged 2019.North Korea's biological weapons pose a more serious military threat than its nuclear programme, according to defence analysts, while intelligence assessments have identified a sharp increase in internet searches originating in North Korea for "advanced gene and germ research".

A study conducted by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in the US in December concluded that North Korea is accessing the work of foreign researchers to develop its existing biotechnology skills and construct the equipment to produce more biological weapons, the 'New York Times' reported.

The suggestion is that while the administration of US President Donald Trump is pushing Pyongyang hard on its nuclear weapons and the associated intercontinental ballistic missile programme, it is making no demands that North Korea comes clean on its suspected stockpiles of thousands of tonnes of biological agents .

The 'New York Times' quoted Andrew Weber, a Pentagon official in charge of nuclear chemical and biological defence programmes under former president Barack Obama, as saying: "North Korea is far more likely to use biological weapons than nuclear ones. The programme is advanced, underestimated and highly lethal."

Analysts claim the threat of a "devastating germ counter-attack" is designed to deter the North's enemies, although biological agents can also be used as offensive weapons.

Among the most potentially lethal agent in the North's biological armoury is likely to be smallpox, which kills one-third of the people who contract the disease, while the regime also has the ability to manufacture anthrax. Chemical agents that have been weaponised are believed to include hydrogen cyanide, phosgene, sarin, tabun and chlorine.

News of the study came as the White House yesterday announced that President Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to broker a deal to coax the North to give up its nuclear programme.

In its latest assessment of Pyongyang's military capabilities, the South Korean Ministry of National Defence stated in its defence white paper that the North is believed to have produced and stockpiled as much as 5,000 tonnes of chemical weapons and has the ability to produce a further 2,000 tonnes a year.

The North has made no secret of its bio-weapon programme, with state media in 2015 showing images of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator, touring a biological plant.

Amplyfi, a Cardiff-based artificial intelligence company, last year carried out a search of the "deep web" in search of North Korean interest in biological weapons.

The investigation identified hundreds of thousands of hits, the 'Washington Post' reported, with computer users in North Korea particularly interested.

A number of North Korean defectors, including former members of the military, have claimed during questioning that the North tests biological and chemical weapons on citizens who have been sentenced to death.

On Thursday a North Korean envoy arrived in Washington for talks with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo aimed a laying the groundwork for a second US-North Korea summit.

The envoy arrived on the same day Mr Trump unveiled a revamped US missile defence strategy that singled out North Korea as an ongoing and "extraordinary threat", seven months after he declared after his first summit with Mr Kim that the North Korean threat had been eliminated.

The North Korean visit could yield an announcement of plans for another summit between Mr Trump and Mr Kim, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

 Daily Telegraph LondonRobots are increasingly being tasked with jobs once done by humans. Stock image.

A high-tech hotel in Japan has been forced to lay off half of its robot staff after finding they were incompetent and created more work for humans.

The robots were introduced partly as a novelty and partly to reduce the need for human staff at the Han na Hotel, in a bid to make it "the most efficient hotel in the world".

There were robotic dancers in the lobby, dinosaur-shaped robot receptionists and egg-shaped bots to act as assistants in guest rooms.

The hotel started out with 80 robots but this quickly grew to more than 243.

Expand Close "At the front desk, you will be greeted by three friendly robots who will handle the check-in and check-out process for you". PIC: Hen na Hotel / Facebook

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The website promised: "Excitement meets comfort. Introducing state-of-the-art technologies, Henn na Hotel is the world-first hotel staffed by robots.

"At the front desk, you will be greeted by multi-lingual robots that will help you check in or check out. At the cloakroom, the robotic arm will store your luggage for you.

"Mechanic yet somehow human, those fun moments with the robots will warm your heart. Furthermore, once you register your face with our face recognition system, you will be free from the hassle of carrying the room key around or worrying about losing it."

The hotel in western Japan is located near a theme park, so there is a major shortage of workers.

But now more than half of the robotic "staff" have been cut.

Robotic concierges were unable to answer simple questions, the dinosaurs at check-in needed human help for many menial tasks, and the robotic dancers broke down.

The Churi or egg-shaped robot in guest rooms was criticised for chiming in with "Sorry, I couldn't catch that. Could you repeat your request?" all night - apparently triggered by snoring.

Another guest said that it tried to join in random conversations - but then couldn't answer simple queries when it was needed.

In a world where workers are increasingly worried that their jobs will be automised, the lessons learned in the hotel offers some hope. Once the novelty of robotic workers fades, it seems that people still need other human beings to get the job done.

"When you actually use robots you realize there are places where they aren't needed - or just annoy people," said hotel owner Hideo Sawada, speaking to the Wall Street Journal.Up to 117 migrants might have died when a rubber dinghy capsized in the Mediterranean off Libya

Up to 117 migrants might have died when a rubber dinghy capsized in the Mediterranean off Libya, survivors said.

Flavio Di Giacomo, of the International Organisation for Migration, said three survivors were plucked to safety by an Italian navy helicopter on Friday, and they said 120 were aboard when the dinghy left Libya.

The navy said its plane launched life rafts after it spotted the sinking dinghy with about 20 people on board. It was not clear if some migrants had already fallen off.

The Italian Coast Guard said Libya asked a nearby cargo ship to search for survivors but no one was found.

The Italian news agency ANSA quoted Libyan authorities as saying a Libyan coastguard boat turned back after mechanical problems.Unrest: An injured man is helped at a private hospital after an alleged assault by a group of uniformed soldiers in Harare. Photo: AP

Zimbabwe was under an internet blackout yesterday after authorities extended a communications ban to cover emails, while the United Nations urged an end to a security crackdown on civilians triggered by days of deadly protests.

The government has said three people died during demonstrations that broke out on Monday after President Emmerson Mnangagwa raised fuel prices by 150pc.

Lawyers and activists say the toll was much higher and that security forces used violence and carried out mass arrests to quell the unrest. In Geneva, the UN human rights office called on the government to stop the crackdown and denounced allegations of "generalised intimidation and harassment" of protesters.

As life returned to a semblance of normality in Harare, civilians ventured outside to stock up on food and other supplies while police continued to patrol the streets.

Jacob Mafume, spokesman for the main Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition party, said he feared the web blackout was a prelude to more violence. "The total shutdown of the internet is simply to enable crimes against humanity," he said.A staggering 74 per cent of Wicklow commuters are unhappy with their commute and 33 per cent would consider taking a pay cut if it meant being able to work in the Garden County.

Location intelligence company Gamma was deployed by Wicklow County Council to prepare a study on the commuting patterns of the Wicklow public, the results of which were revealed at Monday's County Council meeting. Over 6,000 commuters took part in the survey over two weeks.

65,759 of County Wicklow residents regularly commute either to work, representing 92 per cent of the working population. Of these, 44 per cent remain in Wicklow and 56 per cent leave the county. Of those who commute to work, 68 per cent of them drive to work.

Describing how such data will prove useful, Wicklow County Council Chief Executive Frank Curran said: 'The idea for the commuter survey came about from discussions with the IDA and Enterprise Ireland about attracting jobs. We need this information to showcase the amount of people leaving Wicklow each day. They are also more likely to be traveling for more than an hour compared to other parts of the county'.

74 per cent of the people who participated in the survey said they were unhappy or very unhappy with their commute, with only one in eight happy or very happy. 70 per cent of workers working outside of Wicklow said they would be likely or very likely to consider a switch to a job in County Wicklow if it became available. A further 33 per cent said they would be likely or very likely to consider a lower salary if they meant they could work in Wicklow.

48 per cent of survey respondents said they would be likely or very likely to consider working from an e-hub or teleworking location in the County.

Eleven per cent of commuters have to leave home before 6.30 a.m. to get to work, while 15 per cent leave from 6.30 a.m. to 7 a.m., 14 per cent from 7 a.m. to 7.30 a.m., 16 per cent from 7.30 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 14 per cent from 8 a.m. to 8.30 a.m.

Cllr Gerry Walsh felt park and ride stations and dedicated bus lanes would help reduce the travelling times for commuters.

He noted: 'The figures seem to suggest that not many people aren't car pooling. There is also a feeling of a lack of reliability over public transport. People would use it more if it was more frequent and reliable'.

Cllr Jennifer Whitmore said such large numbers of people commuting each day was having an impact on local towns and villages.

'One of the biggest issues facing residents and the council is the viability of our towns. These long commutes impact on the lives of people and their work and life balance ends up skewed. It also undermines our towns because you don't have many people left and spending the day there and shopping'.

Cllr Derek Mitchell said: 'It's useful to have this sort of data and stats when dealing with Government agencies, even if they show what we already know'.

He also criticised the lack of local rail services during the peak time of rush hour.

Cllr John Ryan suggested Clermont, the home of Wicklow County Campus, as an ideal location for an e-hub.

'Even getting ten per cent of people off the road could help with the traffic flow,' added Cllr Ryan.

Cllr Edward Timmins was interested in the idea of co-working spaces.

He said: 'In west Wicklow we have no train network. Wicklow probably has the longest commute times in the whole country, therefore Wicklow is in a position to demand investment to reduce community times. I have an interest in the idea of co-working spaces. Clare actually has three such locations even though their commute times are a lot shorter than Wicklow'.

Mr Curran stated that a co-working place would be included as part of the redevelopment of Arklow's historic town core which could act as a pilot model for similar spaces.

He also outlined some other moves the Council are making to try and cut down on commute times, including pushing for an upgrade of the rail line south of Greystones and lobbying for a Luas link to both Fassaroe in Bray and Blessington.Declan Murphy and Eanna Ni Lamhna from RTEs Mooney Goes Wild show during a recent recording in the Wicklow woods

Declan Murphy, best known for his memoir 'A Life in the Trees', is well on his way to literary stardom with the release of a new edition of his book, commissioned by Lilliput Press.

'A Life in the Trees' was released in 2017 and centred on Declan's love and appreciation for the Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Originally the Great Spotted Woodpecker was considered a vagrant species primarily during the winter months. However in 2009, after years of observation and study, there was evidence that they had returned to Ireland to breed, much to the excitement of Declan and the entire Irish bird-watching community.

Since then, the author has followed the daily lives of this species, some of whom had taken up residence in a wind-torn Spanish chestnut tree near his home in Glendalough.

Describing 'A Life in the Trees', Declan said: 'It's a personal account of a family of woodpeckers raising their young. It brings the reader deep into the sphere of this fascinating species: a world of hope, love, death, and new life'.

The book was first published in October 2017 and launched in the Glendalough Hotel. Celebrity guests were ten a penny, with John Boorman having written the foreword, and the late Garech Browne a devoted fan of the memoir. National media coverage followed, with Declan appearing on Mooney Goes Wild and Liveline. The book also received rave reviews from both The Irish Times and the Irish Independent.

The book sold well both locally and nationally, and was subsequently picked up by The Lilliput Press, Ireland's leading independent publisher. Antony Farrell, the editor- in-chief, saw the potential of this poignant and moving story to capture a whole new audience, on both a national and international level.

The book was released this week and is available from all good bookshops and from www.lilliputpress.ie.The first online course aimed at designing the next generation of self drive vehicles was officially launched by the Minister of State for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O'Connor last Friday at IT Sligo.

The new part-time Masters of Engineering programme brings together interdisciplinary concepts such as computer vision, artificial intelligence, vehicle dynamics and advanced sensor systems to provide engineers with the skills required to design the next generation of self-driving cars.

Minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor said: "Autonomous vehicles are the future of the motor industry and IT Sligo is at the forefront of online education in Ireland.

"To have such a futuristic course delivered around the world to industry leaders, highlights how far third level education has come in Ireland. Thanks to IT Sligo's embracing of online learning, we can now deliver ground breaking courses to industries around the world."

The new online Master of Engineering in Connected and Autonomous Vehicles programme has been closely developed with the motor industry on the west coast of Ireland as well as with input from German automotive manufacturers and suppliers such as BMW and Continental AG through IT Sligo's partner University of Applied Sciences, Kempten, Germany.

Almost half of IT Sligo's 6,000 students are now studying online. President of IT Sligo, Dr Brendan McCormack thanked Minister Mitchell O'Connor for her support and praised the work of the Faculty of Engineering and Design at IT Sligo for the innovative new online course: "We are delighted to be the first third level institute in Europe to offer an online Masters course in Autonomous Vehicles."A new video aimed at promoting the uptake of the flu vaccine among healthcare workers features Mr Fergal Hickey, Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Deirdre Staunton, Resuscitation Training Officer from Sligo University Hospital.

The flu vaccine message is equally important for people who are vulnerable to the complications of flu such as the over 65s, those with a chronic illness, those with weakened immune systems and pregnant women.

Dr Anthony Breslin, Department of Public Health Medicine, HSE North West advised, "Flu cases are on the rise in Ireland, with a significant increase in cases of the H1N1 strain reported at hospitals in recent days. This is expected to continue over the next 6 to 8 weeks.

"The H1N1 strain is a very dangerous strain of influenza especially for at-risk groups, which may result in hospital admission, long-term medical complications or even death. This year's flu vaccine is a good match for circulating flu strains.

"The flu vaccine cannot give you the flu as it does not contain any live flu virus and all those at risk should get vaccinated as soon as possible.

"Seasonal flu vaccine can be given at any stage of pregnancy and also protects the baby".

The HSE provides the flu vaccine free of charge for all those in the at-risk groups.

The vaccine and consultation are free for those with a medical card or GP visit card.

Those without a medical card or GP visit card will be charged a consultation fee.

Those aged 18 years or older in the at-risk groups may attend either their GP or pharmacist for vaccination and those under 18 years should attend their GP.

Meanwhile, Meningitis Research Foundation (MRF) is reminding people in Ireland to be alert to the symptoms of meningitis and septicaemia, after the Health Service Executive (HSE) has reported an increase in meningococcal disease (the leading cause of meningitis in Ireland) in recent weeks.

The HSE states that there have been 11 cases reported since week 52 of 2018. Sadly three of the people diagnosed with meningococcal disease have died.

This compares to five cases for the same time period last year.

In 2018, a total of 89 meningococcal cases were reported compared to 76 in 2017.

The recent cases are said to have affected all age groups, ranging from infants to elderly. The disease and deaths have not been caused by a single strain of meningococcal bacteria, but have been caused by multiple strains.

Diane McConnell, Regional Director at MRF said, "We are saddened to learn that a number of people have been affected by meningitis and septicaemia in recent weeks. Our thoughts and condolences go out to these individuals and their family and friends.

"Sadly we see more people affected by meningitis and septicaemia during winter, particularly around Christmas.

"This is thought to be due to the bacteria being able to invade the body more easily via the nose and throat at this time of year due to recent infection with flu virus, and because the bacteria can spread more rapidly when people spend longer periods indoors in close proximity.

"Meningococcal bacteria are transmitted from person to person by close contact with others such as coughing, sneezing, kissing etc, but usually we have to be in very close or regular contact with someone for the bacteria to pass between us. Even when this happens, most of us will not become ill because we have natural immunity.

"The bacteria cannot live longer than a few moments outside the human body, so they are not carried on things like clothes and bedding, toys or dishes."

Anyone with questions or concerns can call the free MRF helpline on 1800 41 33 44 (Ireland) or 080 8800 3344 (UK) or email helpline@meningitis.org or visit meningitis.org.A boil water notice has been issued once again for the Lough Talt Regional Water Supply Scheme.

Following advice from the Health Service Executive, Irish Water, working in partnership with Sligo County Council, reissued the notice. This has been issued with immediate effect following the detection of cryptosporidium in the treated water coming from the plant.

Anthony Skeffington, Regional Operations Manager from Irish Water, said "Cryptosporidium has once again been detected in the treatment plant and two cases of illness have presented to the HSE.

"Public health is our number one priority and it is imperative that people adhere to the boil water notice. We will be contacting vulnerable customers supplied by this scheme who have self-declared to Irish Water directly by telephone.

"Irish Water sincerely apologises for the inconvenience that will be caused and we will work closely with local stakeholders and elected representatives to keep the local community updated".

A Boil Water Notice was originally issued for Lough Talt Public Water Supply on 5th February 2018.

The notice was lifted on the 25th October 2018 following a consultative meeting between Irish Water, the HSE and Sligo County Council, where it was agreed to lift the notice as there were no reported cases of illness in the community and zero detections of cryptosporidium over a continuous monitoring period. In the interim Irish Water continued to monitor this supply closely which led to the current detection?

A population of approximately 13,000 people are affected including the towns of Tubbercurry and Ballymote and a large rural hinterland including the villages of Annagh, Aclare, Curry, Lavagh, Ballanacarrow, Carrowneden, Kilmacteige and Coolaney.

A map of the scheme will be made available on this site as well as the Sligo County Council's website.

The Boil Water Notice also includes consumers supplied by the Ogham Group Water Scheme and the following areas in Co, Mayo: Cloontia, Doocastle and Quarryfield.

Irish Water made a planning application to Sligo County Council in May 2018 seeking permission for an upgraded treatment plant.

As requested by Sligo County Council, as part of its assessment of the application, Irish Water submitted further information to the Council in December 2018.

Irish Water is liaising with the HSE and an incident management team has been set up to give full attention to this incident.

Water must be boiled for:

Drinking

Drinks made with water

Preparation of salads and similar foods, which are not cooked prior to eating

Brushing of teeth

Making of ice

Discard ice cubes in fridges and freezers and filtered water in fridges. Make ice from cooled boiled water.

What actions should be taken:

Use water prepared for drinking when preparing foods that will not be cooked (e.g. washing salads).

Water can be used for personal hygiene, bathing and flushing of toilets but not for brushing teeth or gargling.

Boil water by bringing to a vigorous, rolling boil (e.g. with an automatic kettle) and allow to cool. Cover and store in a refrigerator or cold place. Water from the hot tap is not safe to drink. Domestic water filters will not render water safe to drink.

Caution should be taken when bathing children to ensure that they do not swallow the bathing water.

Prepare infant feeds with water that has been brought to the boil once and cooled. Do not use water that has been re-boiled several times. Bottled water can be used to make up infant formula. All bottled water, with the exception of natural mineral water, is regulated to the same standard as drinking water. It is best not to use bottled water labelled as 'Natural Mineral Water' as it can have high levels of sodium (salt) and other minerals, although it rarely does. 'Natural Mineral Water' can be used if no other water is available, for as short a time as possible, as it is important to keep babies hydrated. If bottled water is used to make up infant formula it should be boiled once (rolling boil for 1 minute), and cooled in the normal way.

Anyone suffering from diarrhoea for more than two days should contact their general practitioner and provide a stool sample for testing. They should continue to drink plenty of boiled or bottled water.

Great care should be taken with boiled water to avoid burns and scalds as accidents can easily happen, especially with children.

More information and advice is available on our Boil Water Notice section of the Irish Water website www.water.ie . Customers can also call our customer care team on Callsave 1850 278 278 for any queries on this notice.You are here: China

Legal aid institutions across China handled a total of 413,000 cases involving migrant workers, and 515,000 migrant workers benefitted from legal assistance, according to China's Ministry of Justice.

In 2018, the ministry initiated a campaign directing local legal aid institutions to provide migrant workers with timely legal assistance, while appointing capable lawyers to handle disputes regarding unpaid wages and other issues.

The campaign is among the latest efforts enhancing the legal support system. China handled more than 1.45 million legal aid cases in 2018, benefitting about 1.52 million people.

In addition, 5,900 legal aid stations have been set up at criminal detention centers and courts to improve the duty-lawyer system, according to the ministry.The nurses and midwives who are due to commence strike action are deserving of the support of all who believe in justice and a decent public health system, said Cllr Declan Bree, when he addressed a meeting of activists in the Matt Merrigan Hall in Dublin last Saturday.

"The fact that nurses have been forced to take this drastic action reflects a deep frustration that can no longer be ignored by government.

"The Irish National Nurses and Midwives Organisation, which represents more than 40,000 nurses, has made it clear that the crisis in the health service and the ongoing failure to recruit and retain nurses has made it almost impossible to provide safe care for patients.

"Today nurses face enormous stress due to overcrowding in our hospitals. Over 100,000 patients were obliged to use trollies when admitted to hospitals last year which makes it impossible for nurses to give the standard of care they are trained to provide.

"Over the past ten years the number of staff nurses employed in our hospitals has fallen by l,154.

"This is at a time when our aging population is growing make the health service busier than ever before. In addition the HSE now admits that there is only one application for every four available nursing posts.

"This level of understaffing is what lies behind many of the headlines we regularly see about our health service including long waiting lists and record trolley statistics.

"It is now abundantly clear that the staff shortages are caused by low pay, which is making it impossible for the HSE to recruit and retain enough nurses and midwives to safely care for patients.

"In other countries, nurses are respected. They are paid the same as those with the same degree requirement, such as physiotherapists and occupational therapists.

"Here in Ireland the starting salary of a nurse is more than 7,000 lower than these health professionals, despite having similar degrees and working longer hours.

"For the past decade Irish nurses have well-articulated their frustration at what has been happening to our health services.

"This is not just about pay, it is about the kind of health service we want in Ireland.

"To date the government has refused to address the crisis in our health service and the plight of our nurses. In fact the government is threatening that nurses will lose pay increments if they strike. This is clearly unacceptable.

"If we want a decent public health service and if we want a standard of care provided that we can be proud of then we must support the nurses in their strike action." said Cllr Bree.The driver of a car which overturned in the early hours of the morning was found 150 yards away sitting on a wall.

Robert McManus (33) of Cartronwilliamoge, Drumcliffe was subsequently arrested for drunk driving but when asked for a sample at Sligo University Hospital stated that he was giving them a sample of nothing.

"I'd rather keel over and die. I'm still in Malta," he stated, also denying he had been driving.

The court heard that the previous day the defendant had returned from a holiday in Malta.

Garda Dermot Fearon told Sligo District Court last Thursday he went to the scene of a single vehicle accident at Coolbeg, Drumcliffe at 1.20am on December 6th 2016. A car had hiot the wall of a house and had overturned. There was no one in the car and a neighbour told them they saw a man walking in the direction of Carney who was wearing a white hoodie and jeans and there was blood on his head.

Garda Fearon, whilst checking the car found a letter in the defendant's name while there was also a phone there.

About 150 yards away the Garda saw a man sitting on a wall. He appeared very drunk and wobbly. There was a lot of blood on his head and there was glass in his hair and face. He was wearing a white hoodie and jeans.

Garda Fearon said he rang for an ambulance and went with it to hospital, arriving there at 1.55am. A doctor subsequently made a demand from the defendant to provide a sample of his blood or, at his option a sample of urine.

McManus replied: "I'm giving you a sample of nothing. I'd rather keel over and die. I'm still in Malta. Matthew P. Murphy is a d**k. I'm driving no car."

The Garda agreed with Mr Eddie Henry, solicitor (defending), that what the defendant had said didn't make sense.

The wall of the house had been hit in three places and had been a severe impact.

McManus subsequently gave a statement at Grange Garda Station in which he said he had been coming from a friend's house in Sligo and going to his girlfriend's home.

"The back of the car came out on me and I grabbed the steering wheel to try to correct it and this put me into the ditch.

"All I remember was hitting the ditch and closing my eyes and glass flying everywhere.

"I remember climbing out of the car and the next day waking up at home," he said.

McManus told the court he had come back from Malta the previous morning on a midday flight after being there for a month with friends.

He was collected at Dublin airport and spent the day at a friend's house in Sligo watching motorbike racing. |

He had nothing to drink and left the house at midnight. He said he was familiar with the road and it wasn't one for driving fast on.

"You'd never know what you'd meet on it," he said. He believed something broke in the back right hand side of his BMW causing it to go out of control and crash.

"I didn't think I was getting out of it to be honest," he said.

All he could recall was being upside down and getting out the passenger window. The ambulance crew are the only people he could recall and that was only in flashbacks a couple of weeks later.

He didn't recall going to hospital but did remember waking up the next morning at home with heart stickers on and going out looking for the car and it not being tehre.

He did not know how he had got home.

Inspector Paul Kilcoyne put it to the defendant that Garda Fearon stated he got a strong smell of alcohol from him at the scene.

The defendant replied that as far as he was concerned he never met any police officer at the side of the road.

He told the Inspector he did not know who Matthew P. Murphy was but it was suggested to him that he knew well who he was, and that it was a Garda who had prosecuted him previously.

Judge Kilrane said the defendant would have been up at possibly 5am to catch his 8am flight and it was his view he was on a drinking session with "the boys" and didn't go to bed at all.

He was picked up at the airport and he had no doubt he had some alcohol taken but it was his view that he fell asleep. It was a combination of tiredness and the residue of alcohol.

Mr Henry submitted that the defendant wasn't in a fit state to comply with the doctor's request to give a sample given the severity of the crash.

Judge Kilrane agreed the defendant suffered a head injury. The fact he left his phone behind in the car was significant.

"We don't forget our phone and one would image he would reach for that to bring with him," said the Judge.

He said he would have to have a doubt on the refusal to give a sample charge. It had been a very heavy impact. He had demolished a wall and the car slid down the road.

Concussion, he added can be very dangerous. The refusal to give a sample charge was dismissed but the Judge said he was convicting him of dangerous driving.

The court was told McManus had 16 previous convictions, the last being in 2010 for speeding. They were largely all road traffic, said the Inspector.

Judge Kilrane fined McManus 500 and banned him for two years.With bitterly cold temperatures forecast in the UK this month, County Wexford is likely to experience a cold snap this winter after an unusually balmy start to 2019.

Wexford County Council have stocked up on salt and put in place emergency weather plans to ensure staff and vehicles can remote and high traffic access areas better than last year.

Snow arrived in abundance in December 2017 and again in April of last year Co. Wexford experienced its worst storm in 70 years when The Beast From The East and Storm Emma swept through the country. The piercing cold weather saw Wexford Harbour freeze and ice floes drift along the coast as the water temperature dropped to a freezing -0.8C. Ambulances were unable to get to patients and if not for the selfless efforts of farmers many people would not have been able to get to hospital.

Tractors and diggers were in short supply and the roads were a no-go zone for most. Up to 20,000 people were without power and the sight of water tankers in villages was a common sight.

The 3rd Battalion of the Defence Forces were drafted in to assist council workers in clearing roads, while several homeless people were given shelter at the Presentation Centre in Enniscorthy.

People living in rural county Wexford were snowed in for a week, often without running water or electricity. Their daily routine involved trudging through the snow to collect water for tankers, bringing their quarry home to boil before using.

Senior roads engineer Noel O'Driscoll said the big lesson learned last year was to have a plan b to ensure freak weather events like last year's storms can be managed.

Mr O'Driscoll said: 'We had a plan in place last year but pretty quickly we had to go back, nearly to the drawing board. We had crews on 12 hour shifts and they would get eight hours rest and go back out.'

Due to the severity of the snow fall many crew members couldn't get home and were put up in hotels instead. Meanwhile the crews who were at home couldn't get to work.

'We had to change things around quickly. After three or four days we got over it. It worked out. We had to act on the hoof.'

The council used contractors and sourced trucks with ploughs fitted with hydraulic snow blades which could turn to 45 degree angles to clear snow from the county's roads.

'We had tractors with blades also but the snow was so heavy the blades weren't powerful enough to shift it so we had to go to quarries and get industrial load shovels. We have them if we need them this year and we have a list of people we can call on. We will either do plan a or plan b.'

The council's two salt barns, containing 1500 tonnes of salt between them (costing approximately 120,000), are fully stocked after an unusually mild winter which saw salt spread on only eight mornings.

'We start our normal salting operation in October and over Christmas and New Year's we were only out once. We have hardly dipped into our reserves from last year. I don't think we will ever be hit as hard and if we could handle that situation we can handle what comes.'

He said in the event of a snow storm farmers can get grit from quarries.

Mr O'Driscoll said power cuts led to the lack of water in homes, adding that ESB workers prioritised areas without water.

'We got word to them and they did prioritse getting these areas back.'

The council prepared a 51-page winter service plan for 2018 and 2019 in the autumn. It states that the local authority owns five demountable salt spreaders, with two drivers assigned to each route. The local authority has one standby demountable salt spreader which is to be used in emergencies and in the event of breakdowns of other salt spreaders. The council also has snow blades fitted to privately hired tractors during snow emergencies and the local authority has contingency plans in place to hire in agricultural contractors to assist with gritting operations.

The plan prioritises 'Priority 1' roads: the N11, N25, N30 and N80, which have mobilisation times of one hour and treatment times of within two and a half hours.

Large, busier regional roads are given a 'Priority 2' status, followed by smaller regional roads, which may or may not be salted depending on the severity of the weather and the availability of salt spreaders.

A winter services manager oversees operations and a rota of duty engineers is included in the plan. At 2 p.m. each day from October 15 last until April 15, 2019, a designated duty engineer examines the Vaisala Manager Weather Protection System.

The council plans to treat the roads prior to the time of the forecast snow, frost, ice formations.

The salting of the Gorey Bypass is overseen by BAM from the Clough roundabout to the county bounds in north county Wexford and by Kilkenny County Council from O'Hanrahan Bridge in New Ross to the Kilkenny county bounds.

Businesspeople in towns and villages across the county are being advised by the council to assist by clearing snow from outside their properties. They have been assured that no legal liability exists in carrying out these clearance works, with the caveat that this is the case when such work is carried out in a safe manner.

No hot water is to be used to melt ice as this will only exacerbate the initial problem and create a slippier surface.

Wexford County Council will be assigned an allocation of salt by Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

Grit has been delivered to depots across the county and the 14,000lt fuel tank for salting and council vehicles has been half filled, with spare parts kept in storage at the council's machinery yard in the Old Dublin Road in Enniscorthy.Councillor Michael Sheehan has launched a ten-point plan to improve New Ross on the retail, social and aesthetic front post bypass.

The Fianna Fail councillor was responding to a front page article in last week's newspaper highlighting changing times on the retail front in New Ross, as several landmark businesses have closed or are closing like Walshe's hair salon and The Cloth Hall, while other businesses like Emerald dry cleaners and French's chemist are amalgamating with other business locations in the town or have moved to Waterford city like Purple Lotus.

Cllr Sheehan said: 'We need to create an enticing town centre through capital money from the county council and Government. I'd like to see North Street/John Street, Quay Street, South Street and Barrack Lane developed as if we can develop growth in those areas the rest of the town will be buoyed up. We need a better vision for the next decade based on meaningful consultation, meaningful conversation and an acceptance of an all-encompassing vision based on the founding axis - what William Marshall termed, Slighe Chualann. A north, south, east and west axis,'

He said visitors to New Ross should have a pleasant, clean, secure experience. 'We need an investment in the public realm to include more art, lights, seating contained within uniform design reflecting our unique heritage. A modern, illuminated, well designed urban area will entice and keep people in the town. In the next decade, we need to balance the development of the town centre on three lines, then connect the remainder of the area to those three areas. William Marshall understood this when he developed along a north/south and east/west axis.'

He said a large glass canopy over Quay Street making the street an attractive social hub, would be a huge statement to anyone entering the town via the old bridge.

'Anyone familiar with the food court in Kilkenny's Mc Donagh Junction, would know what it feels like to eat in a courtyard under a large glass canopy. Quay Street lends itself perfectly to such a canopy where people can eat, socialise or have festivals under a heated pavilion all year long, irrespective of the weather. Imagine coming over the bridge in December to see a winter festival bustling with people in a warm environment, properly lit and designed.'

He said the bypass will see people who want to stay, shop and eat in New Ross visiting the town, with far less through traffic, adding that they need to be in a vibrant, attractive town. 'We need to give grants for new and existing businesses, a rate holiday for new businesses to give them time before they have to pay commercial rates, and encourage people to live over shops through tax breaks and incentives. A shop front renewal scheme, giving business owners small grants, is also needed.'

Cllr Sheehan called on the council to use derelict sites like the courthouse on Cross Street for youth groups to foster a strong connection with the town. Another strand of his plan involves developing a one-stop-shop enterprise office and more incentive schemes to get elderly people shopping local, through schemes run through the chamber of commerce.

Cllr Sheehan is appealing to people to contact him 2020vision@michaelsheehan.ie with their ideas about improving New Ross for locals and also for visitors.The arrival of the Normans in Bannow 850 years ago is being commemorated with a series of events, beginning with a weekend of activities in Carrig on Bannow on the May Bank Holiday Weekend.

Speaking at the New Ross Municipal District meeting, district manager Sinead Casey said: '2019 is the 850th anniversary of the Normans arrival in Ireland at Bannow. Wexford County Council are organising a series of events throughout the year in conjunction with the county librarian.'

Ms Casey said council officials have been working on a series of events for 2019, and 2020 when the Normans made their second landing in Baginbun. A programme of events is planned for New Ross, Wexford, Ferns and Enniscorthy also, the meeting heard. 'We are working closely with a local group in Bannow to organise public events in the area to commence the commemorations for the county. Among these are a sportive cycle, historical talks and demonstrations, music, concerts and landing re-enactments.'

Ms Casey said a full programme of events to take place across the county will be released shortly. She said Hook Tourism has applied for funding to run events marking the 850th anniversaries. 'I am working with them on other events at the lighthouse. Different sites will be commemorated.'

Cllr Martin Murphy called for the 50th anniversary of the unveiling of a plaque marking the 800th anniversary of the landing at Baginbun to be celebrated.

Cllr Murphy said the plaque was erected by Hook Tourism. 'What happens now. There is a massive gate erected. Will there be anything planned for the Baginbun area?'

Ms Casey said: 'There are no plans for Baginbun this year but that's not to say there won't be.'

District director Eamonn Hore said the 850th anniversary of the Baginbun landing is next year when it will be commemorated. He agreed with Cllr Murphy that it would be nice if plaques highlighting the area's rich history would be cleaned more often and Ms Casey said she will look into ensuring this happens.

Cllr Michael Whelan said Hook Tourism submitted an application to Failte Ireland for funding, which was unsuccessful.

Cathaoirleach Cllr John Fleming said the New Ross district should be the main area commemorating the Norman landings. Cllr Willie Fitzharris said Clonmines was the Normans real home.A scattering of flowers placed on the side of a peaceful country road in the shadow of the wind turbines at Ballyandrew, Ferns, was the only lingering evidence yesterday (Monday) of the tragic story that had emerged there. A week previously, gardai had cordoned off the road and were carrying out technical examinations at the scene as the skeletal remains of a woman in her fifties were discovered in a ditch bordering a field of winter crops.

Gardai had visibly cut the hedges right back while carrying out their examinations and it had become clear that the woman had most likely crawled into a hollow space between two ditches, whether to rest or seeking shelter, and it was to be here her remains were found by two local people out walking. A spokesman for Enniscorthy Gardai said that they are working to establish how long the woman's body had lain undiscovered, but said that it could have been up to a year. He also said that it could be 'some time' before they are in the position to release the woman's name.

The community of Ferns were horrified by the discovery and the fact that someone could have died so utterly alone in their midst. Compelled to do something and mark this woman's passing, a crowd gathered at St Aidan's Church last night to take part in a candlelit vigil and offer prayers for the mystery woman, who was seemingly unknown to locals and whose identity is yet to be revealed by gardai.

'It's a real community effort,' said Eleanor Moynihan, one of those behind last night's vigil. 'We were driven to do something. I think for a woman to die on her own in a ditch like that really stirred something in me. Then she's in her fifties and I'm in my fifties myself. We felt, as a village, we just had to do something.'

A sense of mystery still surrounds the woman's identity. While an English passport was among the personal items found among her scant belongings she was said to have been living under an Italian identity and spoke with an Italian accent when she rented a room briefly from a pensioner in nearby Clonattin.

'Nobody seems to know who this woman was locally,' said Eleanor. 'Whoever she was though, she was somebody's loved one at some stage. Everyone was deeply shocked by the discovery. To think that someone could die like that in our own community...it's frightening. It's a lovely part of the country that she was found in as well. Very quiet and peaceful. It's just so sad.'

Local Parish Priest, Fr Paddy Cushen added that, while there are many unanswered questions, sometimes these things just happen.

'The whole place here was shocked,' he said. 'The fact that this woman died on her own out there is very sad. Things like this used to be a more common occurrence. Sometimes people just want to go off by themselves and don't want to be known to anybody. I think sadly that was the case here.'

The woman's remains were eventually discovered by locals out walking the road. A lady out for a Christmas Eve stroll noticed a piece of tarpaulin in the hedge on the land of local farmer Martin Doyle. When it was still there two weeks later, she decided to take a closer look and saw enough to know that a body lay beneath the plastic, a glimpse of nail polish suggesting the deceased was female.

However, the remains were so decomposed that they were skeletal; a post-mortem later confirming that they were those of a woman in her 50s. Gardai do not suspect any foul play in the woman's death and believe that she died where she lay.

In a bag lying next to the woman's remains were some documents which hinted towards her identity - among them believed to be a UK passport and a curriculum vitae, listing places she had worked - something which gardai are said to be following up. While the post-mortem suggested that the woman's body had lain in the hedge for 'approximately 12 months', reportedly among the documents recovered was a rent receipt dated last May for 60.

A 90 year-old man, who wished to remain anonymous told the Sunday Independent over the weekend that it was he who the woman had been lodging with and that he was 'horrified' when gardai knocked on his door. He described an unkempt woman of average height and slim build who really valued her privacy. She gave an Italian name and told him she was from a region between Naples and Rome. She also told him that she worked in a restaurant at the other end of the county that was run by Italians.

'Her main objective, when she came in, would be to get up to her bedroom without my even noticing her,' he said. 'I would just see a wisp of a black shadow going up the stairs. She must have had very soft shoes too because you wouldn't hear her coming in. And she made no noise at all in the room.'

'It later transpired that she was a woman of the roads,' he continued. 'She walked, she walked, she walked. I said to her, if you want me to give you a lift to any place when you are looking for a job, I will give you a lift.'

While the woman was said to have paid rent 'sporadically', she always insisted on a receipt and towards the end she stopped paying and the man said that he never chased her for the money. Then she departed in a manner as mysterious as she had arrived.

'She came down and she was in the hall at the front door and she turned around with a smile on her face and said "thanks",' he recalled. 'She just said one word going out the door, "thanks". That was the last I saw of her. I got the notion that she was walking away. I never asked her for the keys. She had two - the key to her room and the key of the hall door. I never got those back, so I was half expecting her to come back and let herself in. As days passed, I thought, well, perhaps she has got more suitable accommodation or something like that.'

Sadly that, seemingly was not the case and the elderly man was just as shocked as the rest of the North Wexford community last week when details of the grim find began to emerge.

Gardai have said that they are awaiting the results of further tests to establish exactly how the woman died and DNA tests to establish her exact identity. The HSE and social services are also trying to establish if she was a client, while inquiries have been made to the UK and Italy through Interpol.

'Somewhere out there, someone is missing a family member,' a garda spokesman said. 'It's just a matter of tracking them down now at this stage and that's what we're working on.'

However, one of the things puzzling locals in the Ferns area is how the woman lay undiscovered for so long without coming to the attention of walkers, dogs or local farmers. Mr Doyle pointed out that the stretch of hedge near where she was found had only been cut back in November and nothing had been seen.

While there are a lot of unanswered questions, what is certain is that a short journey from the close-knit town of Ferns, a woman died a tragic and lonely death. It was with this in mind that locals gathered, lit a candle and offered their own silent prayers at St Aidan's Church last night.Tintern run: The Tintern Abbey Trail Run takes place at 11 a.m. on Sunday, January 27, in Tintern Abbey.

Due to popular demand Gusserane Coiste na nOg have announced the sixth staging of the Tintern Run, in the medieval grounds of Tintern Abbey. There are two courses to choose from - a 5km and a 8km.

Both courses capture the best of the stunning trails that surround Tintern Abbey. The event caters for all levels of fitness, from elite runner to casual walker.

Registration can be done by logging on to the Tintern Run Facebook page or go to active.com. You can also register on the day from 10 a.m.

The race commences at 11 a.m.

The entry fee is 10 for all persons over 16 years of age. The cost is 5 for under-16s and there is a family rate available of 25 for two adults and two + under-16s.

Complimentary refreshments are available in the registration marquee during the event. Secure car parking in the Boormalt compound (concrete yard) which will be stewarded till all vehicles are left. The organisers would ask all people attending to follow parking signs in the interest of road safety. Participants are advised to please allow plenty of time as the car park is about five to 10 minutes walk from the registration marquee.

Bridge Club

The club results for December are: December 6: First Breda O'Connor and Martin Forristal, second Sile Hayden and Frances O'Brien; December 13: first Jane Parker and Davy Doran, second Garry O'Farrell and Breda O'Connor; December 20: first Rossarii Donovan and Dora Furlong, second Sile Hayden and Helen Murphy.

Duiske Abbey historical talk

The next Graiguenamanagh Historical Society talk will be 'The story of Duiske Abbey' and will be given by historian and author Colm Walsh.

Duiske Abbey is the Catholic parish church in the town of Graiguenamanagh and has served its people as a continuous place of Catholic worship for over 800 years.

The talk will be held in the library on Friday, January 25, at 8 p.m.

In this talk Colm will deal with the history of this venerable 800-year old abbey. Included in his talk will be information on its foundation in 1204 when the Norman Cistercians from Stanley Abbey in Wiltshire, at the invitation of Earl of Pembroke William Marshal, founded Duiske Abbey and some details of the famous quarrel with Jerpoint Abbey. He will discuss what happened after the dissolution of the abbey in 1536 and its first restoration in 1812 followed by the restoration and grand opening on June 1, 1980.

Ross bridge club results

The New Ross Bridge Club results for December 2018 are: December 3: First Carmel Delaney and Breda O'Connor, second Annette Kelly and Breda Kehoe; third Alice O'Connor and Kitty Boden; December 10: first Collette Aylward and Fergal Weatherhead, second Gary O'Farrell and Elizabeth Roberts, third Betty Kelly and Kathleen Woodcock; December 17: first Mary Murphy and Kathleen Woodcock, second Alice O'Connor and Kitty Boden, third Breda Farrell and Gary O'Farrell.

Hall meeting

Ballykelly Hall AGM takes place on Thursday, January 31, at 8.30 p.m.

Open day

Catherine McAuley Junior School is open for enrolment for September 2019. Please visit the school for an application form or contact 051 425586 or newrossjuniorschool@gmail.com. The office is open from 8.15 a.m. to 3.15 p.m. every day.

An open day takes place on Tuesday, January 29.

Everyone is welcome to come and have a look at the facilities and the approach, between 12.30 p.m. and 2.30 p.m. The school will also open in the evening on January 29, from 6 p.m. till 7 p.m. for anybody who cannot make it during the day.

Rose run

Wexford Rose Saoirse Walsh is holding a 5km run in the John F Kennedy Arboretum park for Sunday, January 20, for a Chernobyl Children's Asylum in Belarus which she is volunteering at in February. The 2018 winning Rose of Tralee Kirsten Mate Maher and 18 other Roses including Saoirse, are travelling to Belarus to volunteer at the Vesnova Asylum for five days in February.

The run is in aid of Adi Roche's Chernobyl Children International and all funds raised will go to the asylum.

St Canice's enrolment

The closing date for the receipt of applications for enrolment into junior infants for August or September in St Canice's NS is Friday, February 8.

Application forms can be obtained from the school office by phoning 051 422813 or email stcanicesns@gmail.com.

Study group

There are still some places available in the Campile parents supervised study group for third, fifth or sixth year students in Campile Hall every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening from 6 p.m. till 9 p.m. at a cost of 20 per month. If anyone is interested in joining for the new school term just ring Nicholas to book in or to make enquiries at 087 9418661 or Campile Hall at 087 2183300.

Historical society lunch

New Ross Historical Society is holding its annual Christmas lunch on Sunday, January 20, at 1.30 p.m. in the Horse and Hound Hotel. It will be followed by a lecture, 'Everyday life in the 1830s' by Frank Clarke.

Bookings to chairman Peter McDonald, 087 9279029 or email napo@eircom.net.

CV prep talk

As part of the nationwide Work Matters initiative, business consultant Alan Maher of Maher Consulting will be in New Ross Library to help people refine their interview skills and prepare their CV on Tuesday, January 22, at 7 p.m. To book phone 051 421877. Should you require any supports to fully participate in this event, please contact the librarian.

Creative Exchange

The Creative Exchange group meets in Colclough Hall from 10 a.m. till 1 p.m. on Fridays.

The group wrapped up for Christmas but have two new projects they'll be putting their creative minds to in early 2019.

Garda policy

New Ross gardai are appealing to people to highlight issues they want to include in the local force's policing plan for the New Ross district for this year.

Sergeant Eddie Wilde said: 'We are asking for the public to highlight issues that they wish New Ross gardai to deal with.'

He said submissions will be treated in the strictest of confidence.

Sgt Wilde said: 'This will give people the opportunity to contribute to the policing plan in the district.'.

Contact 051 426030 to let local gardai know how you feel they can improve policing in the area in 2019.

Ramsgrange concert

Ramsgrange Community School is putting on a variety concert on Thursday, January 24.

Tickets cost 8 each and a family ticket costs 20 and are available to purchase at the school.

Ploughing match

The 16th annual Tullogher Glenmore Ploughing match takes place on Saturday, January 26, at 11 a.m. on lands kindly provided by the Grennan family in Ballyreddy.

Pre-entry only by Wednesday, January 23. Contact Nicholas at 087 2567866 or Edward at 087 9240019.

Gymboree

On Saturday, January 19, at 2 p.m. children can look forward to Gymboree at New Ross Library.

Gymboree programmes are specially designed to help young children learn and develop as they play. To book phone 051 421877.The death occurred recently of Carmel Ryan, a New Ross woman who was life long president of the London Wexford Association.

Carmel Ryan (nee Barron) died in London on December 7 aged 75 following an illness.

Formerly of Rosemount, New Ross, Carmel was the only child of Jack and Bridie Barron.

She was predeceased by her husband Jim who was originally from Donard, Clonleigh, and her son John who died in April 2015.

A devoted wife and mother, Carmel nursed all her life and was a district nurse in the London area for a long number of years.

Carmel worked in the nursing profession for most of her life dedicating her time and skills to a vast array of people down through the years. She was a very highly respected lady and very professional in all that she did.

She returned to Wexford every year visiting her many cousins and friends in The Rower and Enniscorthy.

A bubbly woman, Carmel loved holidaying, especially going on cruises.

She devoted over fifty years of her life to The London Wexford Association, taking an active role in the organisation of events especially at the London Irish Festival at Roundwood Park where she dearly enjoyed the craic, while meeting friends from her native County Wexford.

The association released a statement following her passing saying: 'It is with great sadness that we have been informed of the death of our life long President Carmel Ryan (nee Barron) late of Kingsbury, North West London and formerly of New Ross. Predeceased by her husband Jim, a long established member and ex-chairman of the Fr Murphy's Hurling Club and also her son John. London Wexford Association would like to extend our sincere condolences to all the family and friends.'

A huge crowd attended Carmel's funeral Mass at St Sebastian & St Pancras R.C. Church, Hay Lane, Kingsbury, where one of her favourite songs, the Rose of Mooncoin was played.

Carmel will be sadly missed by her son Kenny; daughters Finola and Margaret; daughters-in-law Jackie and Lorraine, sons-in-law Killian and Colin; grandchildren; great-grandson and wide circle of friends.

May her gentle soul Rest In Peace.World famous Killarney which has been described as the "golden goose" of tourism, is being choked by traffic congestion and cannot grow its tourism product.

Killarney Chamber of Commerce and Tourism expects to grow the number of visitors by 30 per cent by 2025 from 1.1million visitors to 1.4million but this growth will be hindered unless traffic congestion in the town is resolved.

The warning from Killarney Chamber of Commerce and Tourism and the Kerry Hotel Federation comes as the town has been designated as a Wild Atlantic Way 'Gateway Destination' status.

Chairperson of the Kerry branch of the Irish Hotel Federation, Niamh O'Shea, said this week that tourism, which is the "economic life-blood" of the south-west region, has huge potential for growth but more visitors cannot come to the town if traffic issues are not resolved.

"Growth can only be achieved if the chronic problem of traffic congestion is tackled as a matter of urgency," said Ms O'Shea.

Ms O'Shea and Paul O'Neill of Killarney Chamber of Commerce and Tourism came before Killarney Municipal District meeting to call for the local authority's help to ensure the town is looked after.

"Killarney's tourism product is too important to be left to chance," said Ms O'Shea.

The TEIR one report into tourism in the town found that visitors wanted better traffic management and parking facilities.

Cllr Niall Kelleher said that Killarney is suffering and will continue to do so unless traffic problems are resolved.

"We have the golden goose of tourism and it is being choked," he said.

"If this town is to prosper issues need to be addressed."

Killarney Chamber of Commerce and the Kerry branch of the Irish Hotel Federation called on council management to address traffic management in the town. Among the key projects to address these issues is the development of a multi-storey car park and a relief road in the town.

Funding of 500,000 has been granted for the outer relief road from Farranfore to Lissivigeen. This section is on the capital investment list. However, Killarney Chamber and the Kerry Branch of the Irish Hotel Federation, are also calling for the Lissivigeen Muckross route to be included.

Council management said that a traffic study has been completed for this section of the relief road.

Town manager, Angela McAllen, said that the funding for the relief road from Farranfore to Lissivigeen shows the "strong commitment to the project" and she said progress was being made on other junction improvements including the Lewis Road Junction which is seen as a "large capital project" and which would help improve traffic flow in the town.

She said that she wanted to reassure Killarney tourism interests that traffic management and parking are priorities for the local authority.

A traffic management plan was drawn up for the town of Killarney and several projects were outlined in this to help alleviate traffic problems in the town. This includes improvements at the Muckross road Hahah with the public consultation commencing early this year.

Land negotiations are also being undertaken to construct an inner relief road from Monsignor O'Flaherty road to New Street via Bohereen na Goun and funding for this has been applied for under the urban regeneration fund and 1m was granted for Killarney Smarter Travel.You are here: Business

China-Europe freight trains made 6,363 trips in 2018, surging 73 percent from 2017, according to the China Railway Corporation.

Freight traffic has been more balanced, with the number of trips from Europe to China accounting for 72 percent of trips, up from 53 percent in 2017.

The trains connect 59 Chinese cities with 49 cities in 15 European countries.

The freight service, a crucial part of the Belt and Road Initiative, began operation in March 2011.

For the past years, trains have rumbled along the route, taking garments, auto parts, chemicals and other Chinese goods to European consumers, while bringing back European food, machinery, equipment and timber.An Bord Pleanala has upheld a decision by Kerry County Council to refuse a wind farm in Ballylongford.

The Ballylongford Windfarm Group had applied to Kerry County Council to construct eight wind turbines at Aghanagran Lower and surrounding townlands in Ballylongford; each with a ground-to-blade tip height of 126.5 m.

Kerry County Council refused permission last year, a decision that was appealed to the Bord by the Ballylongford Windfarm Group on December 4 last.

However, An Bord informed the appellant last week that its appeal was unsuccessful, in a decision that was to have been made public today (Wednesday).

An Bord Pleanala confirmed the refusal to The Kerryman last week, but that was all a staff member said it could communicate until the publication of the full decision, to be released after time of press.

The refusal was welcomed by a local group opposed to the further development of renewables in the area and whose members had objected to the Aghanagran plan.

NMWT@Ballylongford (No More Wind Turbines at Ballylongford) issued a statement on Friday in which it set out its members' satisfaction with the ruling.

It claimed the Bord came to the decision amid concerns for the environment locally, and in the absence of a key assessment having been provided by the wind farm firm.

Chair of NMWT@Ballylongford Tony Dowd said: 'In their ruling, ABP were concerned about the impact...on the Ballylongford Creek' and that 'the application by the Ballylongford Wind Farm Group did not contain a Natura Impact Statement.'An Post has issued a letter of offer to Nicholas Browne's Foodstore in recent days as the campaign to keep postal services in Ballinskelligs received another boost.

It follows an on-site meeting with An Post last week, and the store will now liaise with An Post-appointed officials on changes needed to the layout of the store to provide the service.

Postal services were originally scheduled to be moved to Waterville this month after An Post listed Ballinskelligs last August as one of 12 post offices in Kerry to lose its post office in 2018 and 2019. This was part of the Irish postal service's restructuring plan.

Locals did not take the decision lying down, however, with 200 people attending a public meeting last September and calling for the locality to retain its postal services.

An Post then re-examined its decision and advertised a contract. The prospect of moving the service from the Gaeltacht area to non-Gaeltacht Waterville was seen as a crucial aspect of changing the decision.

Councillor Norma Moriarty explained to The Kerryman that a contract and its specifics, should the final stages of the process prove successful, would be issued to Nicholas Browne's on the opening of the service.

"They are hoping to be open in the second or third week of February so there can be a seamless transition after the retirement of the postmistress, Mary Leane," Cllr Moriarty said. "It's great that a local business has shown faith in the community, and I'm sure that faith will be paid back by the locals".

Michael Healy-Rae TD has welcomed the development, explaining that he has known and worked with Mr Browne for many years, and he described him as a reliable part of the local community. Meanwhile, there are concerns for Mastergeehy - which was granted a similar lifeline to Ballinskelligs - after an applicant described it as "unlikely" that they would continue with the process.

After the application was submitted to An Post, an on-site visit took place with the interested party. However, The Kerryman contacted the applicant, who said: "It's very unlikely that we'll be continuing with the process. I don't think what's on the table would be viable."

Applications can be made to An Post until January 25.

Councillor Moriarty said more applications may go forward before the closing date and that she's sure the people of the locality would give their full support should the process ultimately prove successful. Mr Healy-Rae TD, who told The Kerryman that he contacted An Post to have the application process open until January 25, said he is "gravely concerned" about the future of the post office and described the coming days before deadline as "a last chance" for a local postal service.Members of Tralee Men's Shed are among the 11 sheds in Kerry to welcome news of funding this week. Pictured are: John Goddard, Frank Faherty, Thomas Murphy, John Dunne, Tony McMahon, Liam Gunn, Tom Maloney and Tony Moriarty

Over 17,000 is to be divided between 11 Men's Sheds in Kerry, thanks to funding from the Department of Rural & Community Development. The funds will now be used to purchase essential machinery and to make necessary improvements to shed infrastructure.

The spike in interest in Men's Sheds in Kerry in recent years has created a valuable social outlet for hundreds of men throughout the county. Each shed makes its own unique contribution to the social fabric of the community as men get involved in making various items such as park benches; and bird, bee and bat boxes as part of important conservation projects. Most of the sheds in Kerry received an average of 1,500, with the highest bursary (2,000) going to Killarney and Barraduff Men's Shed for rewiring and tiling works.

In north Kerry, Men's Sheds in Ballybunion, Ballyduff and Ballyheigue received 1,500 each for a roller door and basic refurbishments. Tralee Men's Shed received funding for woodworking supplies and equipment, while Dingle gets 1,600 to install new toilet facilities. The KC Men's Shed in Castlemaine will now be able to purchase a new computer, printer and make repairs to a portakabin, thanks to the injection of money. Moreover, sheds in Cahersiveen, Kenmare and Sneem will replace doors and windows, buy a printer and social activity equipment.

Men's Sheds are classified as charity organisations and must generate revenue through their own projects and ideas. With over 310 Men's Sheds nationally, Minister for Rural and Community Development Michael Ring TD announced an allocation of 500,000 under the Men's Sheds stream of the Community Enhancement Programme. This initiative was developed in association with the Irish Men's Sheds Association.

Irish Men's Sheds Association (ISMA) CEO Barry Sheridan welcomed the funding, saying he was extremely heartened by the take-up and response to the Men's Shed fund among its member sheds.

"We were delighted to be able to work with the Department of Rural and Community Development to bring this fund to fruition, and I know that the support of Minister Ring and his Department means a lot to our members," he said.County Wexford could become a vibrant hub within the financial services sector as a result of Brexit if a strategy being worked on by Wexford County Council achieves its targeted goal.

Speaking to this newspaper the local authority's chief executive officer, Tom Enright, said that while there are many negative aspects to Brexit there are also some possible reasons to be optimistic.

'I think there are some opportunities [from Brexit] as well,' he said.

'A lot financial services companies are setting up in Ireland and moving out of the UK because of Brexit,' he added.

'There have been a large number of licence applications to the Central Bank from these companies and I can see potential there.'

Mr Enright highlighted that there are already a large number of financial services companies and businesses operating out of Wexford and he said the local authority is actively engaged in developing property solutions that could entice more of those types of companies to relocate to the Model County.

'We have property solutions coming on-stream such as the two buildings beside the Hatch Lab in Gorey,' he said.

He also commented on planning for two new buildings in the technology park in Enniscorthy and the fact that the Trinity Wharf plan will be going to An Bord Pleanala within the next few months.

Mr Enright said the local authority will be working on attracting financial companies into Wexford and said the hope is that some of the businesses leaving the UK will relocate here.

However, he said Brexit also poses a lot of challenges for Wexford based businesses especially those involved in the food sector.

'We have a lot of food producers in Wexford and lot of the food that's produced here goes to the UK so that is a challenge,' he said.

'There could be trade restrictions,' he added.

Mr Enright said that beef and fish exporters along with those involved in the aquaculture industry are among the companies that could face big challenges in the months ahead.

Mr Enright said there is an opportunity to develop Rosslare Europort in a way that maximises its potential.

'It's a strategically important port and is the closest direct link between Ireland and mainland Europe,' he said.

He said funding has been secured to design the new harbour access road and added there is potential to get better port-side facilities.

Mr Enright said the port needs to have an operating management structure that is separate to Iarnrod Eireann.

'It would mean you can invest profits back into the port and it needs to operate as a standalone facility,' he said.

Wexford County Council, along with other local authorities in the south east, has also appointed a consultant to look at the issues as part of the regional action plan for jobs.

'We need to have a properly functioning port,' said Mr Enright.

Wexford County Council members agreed to set up a taskforce to look at the overall situation with regard to Rosslare and Mr Enright said he will be addressing that body later this month.

A meeting of the task force hasn't taken place yet but its full structure and membership was due to be agreed upon at this month's meeting of the local authority.

Mr Enright said he expected a meeting of the task force will take place very soon after the council meeting.

'The withdrawal of Irish Ferries is significant and there is a need to invest in the port,' he said.

He added that the opening of the bypasses around New Ross and Enniscorthy in July will also 'open up the entire county' and make Rosslare Harbour even more accessible.

'It is much quicker to travel by road through Rosslare than into Dublin [Port],' he said.

Mr Enright emphasised that the local authority is working on developing supports for local small to medium sized enterprises that face serious challenges because of Brexit.

'The Local Enterprise Office has developed programmes to address concerns for SMEs around Brexit and Enterprise Ireland also has supports in place as well,' he said.Members of the Irish Road Hauliers Association (IRHA) have grave concerns about the possible implications of Brexit especially in view of the fact that with the proposed March deadline fast approaching the British government seems to be in turmoil with no agreement yet reached on an exit strategy.

The president of the IRHA, Verona Murphy, said there is real fear about repercussions for the transport industry here, especially if Irish Ferries goes ahead with its plan to pull services out of Rosslare Harbour, and the knock-on affect that will have on hauliers operating out of Co. Wexford.

Ms Murphy, who is also co-owner of Drumur Transport Ltd, said most of the problems stem from the fact that there is still no deal.

'That's the big problem,' she said.

'Everyone was banking on the deal being accepted,' she added.

She agreed that options are limited for British Prime Minister Teresa May and that an extension of Article 50, to allow time to look for a new deal, or another referendum are among the only options that would give the embattled politician hope but the likelihood of either - especially a second referendum - is highly unlikely.

In addition to the current 'no-deal' situation Ms Murphy said fluctuation in the Sterling is also a major cause of concern.

At present 1 is worth 1.10 and if the value of the British pound decreases further - which is very likely to occur under the current circumstances - it would be a disaster for haulage companies here.

'If you deliver a load you might not get paid for that for a few weeks and in that time the value could fluctuate enormously and that could have very serious repercussions,' said Ms Murphy.

She gave an example of a load delivered in November and paid for in December that ultimately was a transaction that operated at a loss because of fluctuation.

'Sometimes you might not get paid for a load for two months,' she said.

'That ultimately means it costs more for the haulier who has to cater for the fluctuation in Sterling,' she added.

Ms Murphy also suggested that many British people don't realise what they're in for when Brexit finally happens and said there will be some similar repercussions here.

'The cost of living will go up and the standard of living will go down,' she said.

'We will not see the full effect until Brexit actually happens,' she added.

'There are no real positives to Brexit. English people want it but they have no idea what they are in for.'

She said profit margins are minimal enough at the best of times, but if a haulage company increases its rates to cover increased costs it won't get business.

Ms Murphy said the latter point is particularly relevant for smaller operators.

'Goods will become more expensive because the increased costs will be passed on to customers and consumers,' she said.

She said the collapse of the mushroom industry was a good example of the negative affect that Brexit is having here.

Ms Murphy said the Government needs to adopt an holistic approach to dealing with the Brexit fallout and she was critical of the decision by Irish Ferries to cease services out of Rosslare which she described as being one of the most important ports in the country - especially for the entire south east region.

'The N25 is extremely busy and there are still Stena Line services out of Rosslare which is good but if you have to go through Dublin it's an added cost and added time, and that really impacts on hauliers,' she said.

She said New Ross is one of the busiest towns in the country in terms of trucking with thousands of trips being organised to-and-from the town each week.

'There would be an additional cost of around 500 for a truck having to go to Dublin from here instead of being able to use Rosslare,' she added.

When asked if she saw any potential positive aspects to Brexit Ms Murphy said the reintroduction of duty free might be a positive but added that the negatives far outweigh any possible positives.Minister Kehoe and Taoiseach Varadkar present Ireland jerseys worn by the players in a recent game to the troops courtesy of the FAI

Enniscorthy TD Paul Kehoe swapped the relative safety of Enniscorthy for one of the most dangerous countries in sub-Saharan Africa last week as he accompanied Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on a diplomatic mission to Mali. The Minister of State with Special Responsibility for Defence joined the Taoiseach in meeting with the President and Prime Minister of Mali, along with Irish troops who are taking part in the EU Training Mission Mali (EUTM) to train the Malian armed forces.

The EUTM was founded in 2013 in response to an attempt by rebels to annex the northern part of the country and declare it an independent state. Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world and, thus, is prone to Islamic extremism.

Minister Kehoe said that security was tight as he flew into the country with the Taoiseach.

'It's a very dangerous region,' he said. 'Security was very tight as we arrived. We were not allowed out on the street and we were taken around in armoured vehicles. Mali is so dangerous that there's currently no Irish Aid agency operating there. Accommodation plans were changed this time. The place we were before had been shot up in the meantime. They went around room to room and executed ten people.'

'We were always very safe on this trip though,' Minister Kehoe said. 'We also had the Irish Rangers with us and fortunately everything went off without a hitch.'

Minister Kehoe said that he and Taoiseach Varadkar were greeted at the airport by the Malian Prime Minister and he and the President are grateful for the work being done by Ireland in the region.

'Ireland is very well respected out there,' he said. 'For a small country, they understand that we make a big contribution.'

As well as meeting Malian representatives, the Taoiseach and Minister also had the chance to meet the 20 Irish troops who are in the process of training the Malian Defence Forces, one of whom, Seamus McManus, is from Wexford.

The Minister and the Taoiseach said that they were delighted to see first-hand the good work that the troops were doing in Mali, as discussions are now taking place about potentially sending more troops to the poverty-stricken region. While Minister Kehoe flew home last Tuesday, the Taoiseach continued on his journey to Ethiopia where he was to meet with NGOs operating there.A Fingal student has finished top of the pile once again in this year's BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition as Skerries Community College student, Adam Kelly took the overall prize and proclaimed he was 'in total shock'.

Adam was crowned champion at the weekend for his project on quantum computers and was quick to thank everyone who helped him along the way, not least his family and his teachers in Skerries.

'What inspired me was all my teachers and the people who helped me along the way inspired me,' he told reporters as he collected the top prize.

He already has plans to spend his winnings on a new iPad, not for himself but for a friend.

The Skerries student said: 'Quantum computing is when you're talking about the psychics of things that are very small like electrons. My project is about mathematically modelling quantum computers in the most efficient way.

'I sacrificed a lot of time over Christmas to work on this so I'm delighted all the work paid off.'

On Monday, Skerries Community College was a place of celebration as teaching staff and fellow students gathered around to congratulate Adam.

The RTE cameras were there to capture the unforgettable scenes as the school capped a proud tradition in the competition by taking away the top prize.

It is just three years since a Fingal student won the competition when in 2016, Maria Louise Fufezan and Diana Bura claimed the overall prize for Loreto Secondary School in Balbriggan.

Adam is 17, and a 5th year student from Skerries Community College.

His project was called 'Optimizing The Simulation Of General Quantum Circuits'. The coveted prize was presented to the winner at the wee4kend in the BT Arena by Minister for Education and Skills, Joe McHugh TD, and Managing Director of BT Ireland, Shay Walsh.

Adam presented his project in the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences section in the Senior category.

Adam's award includes the prize of 7,500 and the BTYSTE perpetual trophy. In addition, Adam will represent Ireland at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists, taking place in Bulgaria in September 2019.

Shay Walsh, Managing Director, BT Ireland said: 'I want to congratulate every student that entered, and Adam, our overall winner.

'His work shows terrific initiative, dedication and brilliance in tackling an immensely complex area of modern computing.'An enduring relationship has built up between the country of Lesotho and the students of Portmarnock Community School over several years ago and the students have often found ingenious ways to help the developing country and this year is no different.

Two Portmarnock Community School students entered the Young Scientist Exhibition with a simple but ingenious idea to help with a huge problem int he African country, that of soil erosion.

Their invention is a cheap and effective way of tilling the soil without digging too deep and making that same soil vulnerable to erosion.

One of the students, Caitline Murphy explained: 'We just wanted to come up with an idea that could increase the standard of living over there. Over there, agriculture is a bit part of their livliehood. 71 per cent of people in Lesotho live in rural areas and depend on the land.'

So an agricultural project seemed the way to go and the Caitlin and her project partner, Joshua Fitzgerald wanted to come up with something that could help farmers turn the soil but not as crudely as with a shovel or as expensively as using machinery. Their ingenious bike with spikes to turn the soil was the answer, built in consultation with Teagasc and our own Country Crest.

The student brought the bike to Lesotho to test it last year and since then, a local farmer in Lesotho has been trying it out, and by all accounts the results have been positive.

Joshua said: 'We have tested it. We travelled to Lesotho last year and conducted some experiments. We came to conclusion that our bike is useful technology.'

He added: 'Someone has been using it consistently for a year. We have heard back that they have adapted to using it often and they are seeing, in their opinion that soil erosion is happening less.'

The students see an opportunity to use the invention all over the developed world on small farms but have no interest in making a fast buck from their invention.

They have deliberately not patented the idea and plan to distribute blueprints for the invention in Lesotho and hope that the bike can be manufactured sustainably by the people of Lesotho themselves. The Portmarnock students are hoping to return to Lesotho this year to see the bike in action.Fingal County Council is celebrating 25 years since its inaugural meeting back on January 7, 1994.

The meeting took place in Newbridge House, Donabate as the newly established county council got up and running.

It was here that councillors and key staff of the new council gathered for the first time.

This meeting saw Councillor Sean Ryan elected as the first Cathaoirleach of Fingal. The first County Manager of Fingal was Davy Byrne.

A specially designed chain of office to be worn by the Cathaoirleach was commissioned on November 2, 1993, for Fingal County Council.

Renowned goldsmith Patrick Flood designed a chain in nine-carat gold with a Shield showing four symbols associated with the new county - the Raven, Wheat, a Cross and a Boat. It was presented to the first Cathaoirleach, Councillor Sean Ryan, at the inaugural meeting.

Fingal County Council was created after the 1993 Local Government Act which abolished the previous local authority, Dublin County Council.

Fingal took over the administrative duties from Dublin County Council of the area composing of the old county of Fingal.

The areas falling under its authority included the likes of Swords, Balbriggan, Blanchardstown, Castleknock, Howth, Skerries, Donabate, and Malahide. Dublin Airport also came under the authority of the council, providing a significant economic block for the area.

Since that first meeting, Fingal has grown massively, in terms of its population and the number of council seats.

The population of the county in 1994 was close to 150,000 people, but according to the last Census in 2016, the figure has nearly doubled and now has a population closer to 300,000 people.China and Germany are committed to expanding two-way opening-up and deepening cooperation to bring bilateral financial relations "to a new high", according to a joint statement issued after a high-level dialogue on Friday.





Further cooperation in finance includes developing a new capital market connection mechanism and encouraging banks and security and insurance companies from each country to open in the other country, according to the statement of the second China-Germany High Level Financial Dialogue. Another measure would be to promote use of Chinese currency in a German offshore yuan center.





This round of the dialogue, a key platform for communication and policy coordination, was co-chaired by Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He and German Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz in Beijing.





China welcomes qualified German-invested banks in China to apply for depository business licenses for Chinese Depository Receiptscertificates that allow investors to hold shares listed across borders, such as US depositary receipts, according to the statement, released on the website of China's Ministry of Finance.





Both sides welcomed the signing of the Memorandum on D-share Project Cooperation, between the Bank of China and the China Europe International Exchange, supporting the listing of Chinese enterprises on Germany's financial market, it said.





Leaders from the two sides agreed that the exchange will be an important platform for launching China A-shares index derivatives and to support the development of the offshore yuan market in Frankfurt. Through it, German issuers can also issue yuan-denominated bonds and Chinese issuers can list stocks and bonds in Germany.





The two countries are committed to ensuring nondiscriminatory, open market access and a stable institutional framework, and to easing existing market access and investment barriers to improve the environment for foreign companies in both countries, Liu said at a news conference after the dialogue.





"With uncertainty in the global economy growing, it is significant for both sides to enhance macroeconomic policy cooperation and coordination between China and Germany, and it is also important for the economic development of Europe and the whole world," Liu said.





The two sides will make joint efforts to improve international economic governance, maintain the global multilateral system, combat trade protectionism, support the rules-based multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization as its center and promote an open world economy and global economic growth, he said.





Central bank Governor Yi Gang, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission Vice-Chairman Wang Zhaoxing and China Securities Regulatory Commission Vice-Chairman Fang Xinghai signed memorandums of understanding on regulatory cooperation with their German counterparts as a result of the dialogue.





Steps for German financial institutions to further enter the Chinese market and enhance cooperation with institutions there were clarified after the dialogue, Scholz said. That may also further promote a fair business environment for companies in both countries and tighten economic ties, he said.





China and Germany share strong trade and economic ties, with both economies becoming highly complementary, experts said. China became Germany's biggest trading partner for the first time in 2016, and Germany has been China's largest trading partner in Europe for 43 years.





Li Zhenjing, economic counselor for the Chinese embassy in Germany, said the two countries have achieved a high degree of consensus on promoting bilateral trade and investment and financial cooperation.





As comprehensive strategic partners, China and Germany have a highly complementary economic relationship and bilateral cooperation in broad fields, Li said. "Along with the implementation of more significant opening-up policies in China, German companies are showing greater enthusiasm to participate in the Chinese market."



Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 19)  President Rodrigo Duterte hinted at limiting constitutional changes to the economic provisions, as he spoke before Cotabato City residents on Thursday.

Duterte pitched for the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law for the last time, citing that Filipinos are being accustomed to electing their leaders.

"We have been used to it. We are the people governed by elections and we elect leaders. The leaders must be the choice of the people. I am sure that with that --- the fundamentals provided by the law and hopefully if we can amend the Constitution, not all, but a few of the economic provisions and some...," Duterte said.

Duterte has since batted for a shift from a unitary to a federal form of government, even forming a Constitutional Commission to review the current charter. Congress, however, has yet to pass the amendments to the 1987 Constitution.

The House of Representatives passed to the Senate in December the Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 15, the proposed constitution seeking the federal shift. The Senate, however, said there is no more time to tackle charter change within the 17th Congress due to budget deliberations.

Duterte did not elaborate further on this plan.

"Well, I do not want to discuss it with you now because 'yun na ang sunod natin and hindi na ninyo problema 'yun [that's what's next for us and it's no longer your problem]. Yours would just really be to ask for the law that will further enhance the governance of the Bangsamoro law," he said.Several local community groups and sports organisations are to benefit from almost 500,000 in funding under the Government's Community Enhancement Programme.

Over 477,189 was provided to communities in rural and urban areas in Fingal through the Community Enhancement Programme (CEP), local Senator James Reilly (FG) has revealed.

Beneficiaries of the programme include: Skerries Men's Shed 16,800, Skerries Gymnastic Club 5,000, Balbriggan Men's Shed 16,800, Balbriggan FC 60,000, Donabate Community Leisure Centre 5,000, as well as a number of other community groups in Fingal who will all put the money to good use on behalf of their communities.

Senator Reilly said: 'This Community Enhancement Programme provided funding to communities in order to enhance facilities in disadvantaged areas.

'It was great to see the wide variety of local projects supported.'

He added: 'This programme helps support important work by communities across Fingal by allocating funding worth 477,189 to 123 local projects.

'Fine Gael is committed to ensuring that rural Ireland is given the support it needs, so that it can achieve its full potential across a wide-range of areas.'

Minister for Rural and Community Development, Michael Ring said: 'Having allocated over 12.5 million under the Community Enhancement Programme in 2018, I am delighted to be able to announce the more than 3,000 projects which are set to benefit from it.

'A relatively small amount of money can go a long way, and this investment will greatly benefit local community projects throughout the country.'

Deputy Ring said that funding had been allocated 'in a way that takes deprivation levels into account, and that he was confident that communities 'who need it most, whether in cities, towns or rural areas' would benefit.

The application process for the CEP is administered by Local Community Development Committees (LCDCs) in each local authority area.

An open application process for the funding was held when the Community Enhancement Programme was originally launched in back in May of 2018, according to Senator Reilly.A burglar who broke into a house, ransacked it and stole items claimed he was forced to commit the offence after he had a gun held to his head because of a drug debt.

Just hours beforehand, John Finn (32) went into a hardware store and stole three screw drivers and gloves to be used in the burglary.

He has been sentenced to four months in prison for the offence after a judge told him it is 'horrific and unforgivable' to invade someone's sanctuary.

The defendant, of Cromcastle Close, Kilmore West pleaded guilty to burglary at a house on Limetree Avenue in Portrane on May 14, 2018.

He also pleaded guilty to the theft of three screwdrivers worth 45 and a pair of Maxiflex gloves worth 10 from Woodies in Coolock on the same date.

The defendant has nine previous convictions including road traffic and drug offences.

Sergeant Anthony McNulty gave evidence that two neighbours had observed the burglary. The house was ransacked and there was damage done to the house. The occupants of the house were not at home at the time of the burglary.

A culprit had fled the house carrying a suitcase. Finn was subsequently identified on CCTV and arrested.

During the defendant's detention gardai identified him from CCTV committing the theft earlier in the day at Woodies DIY.

Defence barrister Annette Kealy said the defendant made full admissions in the garda station and told gardai he had a gun put to his head as he owed money.

Reading from his statement given to gardai, Ms Kealy said the defendant said: 'I had no choice. I had a gun put to my head two days ago. I am very sorry.'

When asked if he wanted gardai to investigate who put the gun to his head, the defendant replied: 'No, I'll get myself killed.'

Sgt McNulty confirmed that no complaint was made to gardai in relation to that incident.

Ms Kealy said the defendant, who lost his job as a carpenter, got involved in taking drugs in 2017.

'He began to involve himself with certain people and was asked to hold drugs. He didn't want to do that and passed the drugs to someone else. That person left with the drugs, leaving the defendant owing the debt,' Ms Kealy explained.

She said the defendant 'knows the trauma' a burglary would cause to house owners.

'He is not taking drugs anymore and rarely drinks,' said Ms Kealy, adding that the defendant is applying for jobs.

'He wants to compensate the owners for the damage he caused and he bitterly regrets his actions. He realises how very serious it is and apologises.'

Judge Gerry Jones said he regards 'someone breaking into a home most serious'.

'For a person living in the house to be confronted by a stranger is horrific and unforgivable. People have died because of similar,' remarked Judge Jones, adding that it was 'lucky no resident was home'.

But they came home to find their house ransacked and burgled,' he said.

'To invade someone's sanctuary results in prison and I am sentencing you to four months,' said Judge Jones and ordered gardai to 'put him in custody straight away'.

He fixed recognisances in the event of an appeal.Going through bereavement for a loved one can be a very difficult and traumatic time for families. When the death occurs abroad however, bringing a loved one home can be a minefield of bureaucracy, red tape and unnecessary distress as one Balrothery family can sadly attest to.

One charity, the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust, helps families bring their loved ones home from overseas, and helps alleviate the burden of what can otherwise be a very long and upsetting process and the family of Balrothery man, Paul Coffey who died last September in Spain, will be forever grateful to the charity.

Speaking to the Fingal Independent, the Balrothery man's step-son Glenn gave an account of what happened when Paul passed away last year while on holiday in Guardamar, Spain, and how the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust helped his family cope with the ordeal of bringing him home.

Glenn said: 'Paul was on holidays with my mam, and they were looking at places in Spain to eventually retire to.

'On the last night of the holiday, they both went out for a meal, but he wasn't feeling very well afterwards.

'They came home and he didn't know if it was indigestion or something, and my mam told him to have a cup of tea and maybe that would help. He was a bit restless in bed that night, and then just passed away in his sleep after having a heart attack.'

'He hadn't been sick before that, and had a good bill of health, so it was just one of those things.

'My mam was surrounded by Spanish-speaking people who didn't have much English, so the whole thing was very traumatic for her.

'They were trying to get her to sign lots of different forms, and she didn't really understand what was going on.

'They brought my step-dad into hospital, and then to a funeral home; my mam was able to go up and see him, but the funeral home didn't prepare him or anything like that, so it was a really horrific experience for her.'

He said: 'The funeral home let him sit out for six or seven hours, which you're not supposed to do.

'It was around that time that a family member got in touch with the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust charity, and they were absolutely brilliant.

'They just stepped in and pretty much had their team on the ground very quickly and took over the whole repatriation process.

'The Trust managed to negotiate with the Spanish authorities to work on getting Paul home in a way that we could have an open casket here in Ireland, which was very important to us.'

Glenn says the family felt 'utterly helpless' when they found out.

Glenn was on the phone to his mother from Sydney, where he works, while his sister tried to comfort her from her home in Ashbourne.

Glenn's mam was alone in a foreign country, with only a worker on night duty on the night of the death to explain to her what was happening and to work as interpreter.

The assistance from the charity was vital, Glenn says, in both reassuring his mother and in organising the eventual repatriation of his step-dad back to Ireland.

The repatriation process itself was something Glenn's family weren't familiar with, and as they soon found out, was a quite expensive process, with the Spanish authorities having his mother sign off on fees totalling 11,000.

It was also the logistics involved, Glenn says, of bringing his step-dad home, as it would need to be cleared by customs and would require a special plane to accommodate a coffin.

The family would have to pay for the coffin, of course, and to make things worse, Glenn says the authorities in Spain were not handling things very well.

Glenn says: 'My uncle worked in Beaumont Hospital, and he was telling my sister about a charity that brings deceased people back from overseas, so she got in touch with them.

'We got a phone call from them soon after that, and immediately, they said they were on the way, that they'd get it all sorted and bring my step-dad home.

'All they asked was where he was, which funeral home he was in, and then they contacted the Spanish authorities to arrange the repatriation.

'The longest wait was with the Spanish authorities, and they were kind of messing about, but once the charity took over, it didn't take very long at all, and they had him home within a week.'

The death, Glenn says, was a big shock to the family, who are still coming to terms with their loss.

It was particularly tragic also, in that Paul and Glenn's mam had only married last year, having been together for 20 years.

Glenn says the family are eternally grateful, for the assistance the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust provided in getting Paul home and said the family would have been lost without them.

He says: 'It's been hard, because my step-dad's mam died in November, so his side of the family are taking it really, really hard because they had to bury their brother and now their mam.

'So, the end of 2018 was a really sad time for them.'

At the weekend, the whole family were united around a single cause and that was to thank the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust with a huge fundraiser for the charity which was held in the Bracken Court Hotel in Balbriggan on Saturday night.

Speaking ahead of the event, Glenn said: 'The whole family are rallying behind the fundraiser on Saturday, in order to raise enough money that we can bring someone else home.

'Myself and my wife did a fundraiser in Australia, and we raised $17,000 for the charity, which will go into the pool that we generate from the fundraiser in the Bracken Court Hotel.

'All of our family will be there on Saturday night and all of my step-dad's family, in terms of his sisters, cousins, uncles and everyone else, and we should have about 250 or 300 people there on the night.

'My mam was in shock for the first couple of months or so, because she had given up her job and everything because they were both planning to start a new chapter when they moved to Spain.

'When it happened, she really struggled, because she always had my step-dad here in the house. I think having us home for Christmas helped, but still it's very hard.'

Paul's funeral was held in Dardistown Cemetery & Crematorium, which, Glenn says was 'absolutely packed' on the day, between family, friends and work colleagues.

He was, says Glenn, 'one of the most happy-go-lucky people you'd meet in your life'.

A delivery driver with Tesco in Balbriggan, Paul had, in the short time he had worked for the store, gained a large number of friends, who all showed up at the funeral to pay their respects.

Glenn says: 'He was so unassuming, he'd never let you know he had so many friends in work, then he'd come home and look after my mam and would never want praise or anything.

'He was a great musician as well. He played in a few bands, and everyone would know him in the music scene.

'He used to tour with the bands, but he gave it all up to raise us and to be with my mam.

'You'd really miss him around the house. It's hard coming home when you've been overseas and him not being there any more, and obviously my mam is finding it very hard.

'The kids are all raised now, so that was Paul and my mam's plan, to find a place abroad to live in after they retired.

'It'll take a long time to get over it, but we really want to thank the charity because they really were incredible.'

The Bracken Court Hotel in Balbriggan played host to the family's fundraising night in aid of the charity on Saturday night, which proved a huge success. Organised by Paul's family, the event was held in an effort to help others going through similar difficulties and pay forward the kindness shown to them.The number of participants in the Seniors Alert Scheme in the Dublin region, including Fingal has increased by 160%, according to the most recent figures for the last year, a Fine Gael Senator has said.

Figures to end of October, last year show that 7,858 people in Dublin were registered participants on the scheme compared to 3,029 participants at the same stage of 2017.

This is an increase of 4,829, on the previous year.

Senator James Reilly said: 'The Senior Alerts Scheme supports vulnerable older people in our communities by providing them with a free monitored alarm which they wear on their person and which they can activate if they need assistance.

'This community led scheme, which is funded by my colleague Minister Michael Ring's Department of Rural and Community Development, enables people over 65 to live securely in their homes with confidence, independence and peace of mind.

'I am delighted to see that the number of Dublin Fingal people participating in this scheme has increased.

'It is clear evidence that older people are feeling the benefits of the scheme.

'This level of increase is being mirrored across the country where we have seen a 112% increase in applications nationally.'

He added: 'The Department has been allocated 2.3 million this year to administer the Scheme and I was delighted to hear Minister Ring confirm he is determined to secure additional funding to ensure we continue to meet the demand.

'I urge more people to avail of the Seniors Alert Scheme and I call on people with older relatives or neighbours to alert people to the scheme and, if necessary, to help them sign up.

'It is worth noting that demand peaks during the winter months when older people feel particularly vulnerable.'

The personalised alarms are provided for free by the Department of Rural and Community Development and monitoring is free for the first year.

From the second year on a modest yearly monitoring fee is charged.

People looking to find out more about the scheme should contact Pobal on 01 511 7222 or visit www.pobal.ie.

For the participant in the scheme, it is a no lose deal as the first year is free and you can try the system out and see how you get along with it.

From then on, the fees are modest and it gives both you and your family some valuable peace of mind.The community throughout Bunclody was shocked and saddened to learn of the passing, following a very brief illness, of Agnes Raleigh from 16 St Mary's Villas.

One of the most highly respected members of the community Agnes, who was very well known and had many good friends in the town, passed away peacefully at 2.45 a.m. on Christmas Day in University Hospital Waterford, surrounded by her loving family.

Kind-hearted and gentle by nature she was someone who adored her family and doted on her grandchildren.

Everyone around Bunclody knew Agnes as being 'the most inoffensive and gentle lady' a person could meet.

Married to George Raleigh, the couple met at a dance in Tombrack in 1968 and were married two years later; on January 13 they would have celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary.

Originally from Ballyminoge, Tombrack, Agnes was a person who lived all her life locally and though she didn't have too much of an interest in travelling she loved walking and part of her daily routine in Bunclody was walking down the town for shopping and along the way stopping to chat to the many friends she would meet.

She attended school locally and also worked locally at Michael Kavanagh's and with Mrs Dean on Church Road.

To her family she was 'one-in-a-million' but that was also the view held by her friends and neighbours around the town.

She always put others before herself and she possessed that inherent homely quality that made people feel instantly at ease when in her company.

In the Raleigh home the kettle was always on and visitors never left without having a cuppa and bite to eat.

Friendly and amiable by nature Agnes was always willing to help people if she could and there was an unofficial open door policy in the Raleigh household where visitors were always welcome; Agnes was the type of person for whom visitors were just friends she was meeting for the first time.

It was her sincere, genuine and down-to-earth nature that endeared to everyone she met and while her family was her true passion in life she loved attending her weekly bingo sessions in Riversedge.

Such was the respect afforded her there and the regard in which she was held by everyone involved with the bingo that a minute silence was observed as a tribute to her following her passing.

She was also proud of her appearance and always liked to look her best. She had an interest in fashion and also loved getting her hair done in Marita's in Bunclody.

Agnes always had a smile on her face and although she was ill for a short period of time before passing away she never once complained.

She bore her illness with the dignity and lady-like manner with which she had lived her entire life.

Her requiem mass took place on December 28, in Bunclody, following which her remains were laid to rest in Calvary Cemetery.

Agnes' family was very appreciative of the care and respect shown to her in the professionalism of Dr Stratton and his team of doctors and nurses in University Hospital Waterford, Pat Lennon's funeral home in Bunclody, Fr Laurence O'Connor PP, Bunclody, for a beautiful funeral ceremony and Fr Michael Byrne.

The family also thanked Dale Hennessy, Pat Gormon and everyone who helped in any way during Agnes' short illness and commented: 'We are so grateful and will never forget such kindness.'

Agnes is survived by her husband, George, children, Joan, George, David, Linda, Noel and Evey, sisters, Bridget, Sally, Margo and Frances, brothers, Mick, Jimmy and Willie, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, 13 grandchildren, nieces, nephews, relatives, neighbours and large circle of friends.

She was predeceased by her grandson, Jason, and by her brother, Tommy, and sisters, Josephine and Marie.

Agnes' months mind mass will be celebrated in the Church of the Most Holy Trinity, Bunclody, at 12 noon on Sunday, January 27.Garda Chief Superintendent Christopher Mangan, Superintendent Gerard Curley and Superintendent Desmond McTiernan, with Martina McGarvey, Mary Flaherty, Eilis O'Connor and Helena Grenham, Tusla at the official opening of the Louth Division Protective Services Unit at Castlebellingham Garda Station

The launch of the new dedicated Louth Gardai Divisional Protective Services Unit was held in Castlebellingham on Friday last.

Louth's Chief Supt. Christy Mangan officially launched the unit's new premises adjacent to Castlebellingham garda station.

A team of ten gardai and two Detective Sergeants are based at the newly refurbished offices.

Supt. Mangan explained the unit had been working from the base at Dundalk Garda Station, but has moved into the purpose built unit at Castlebellingham station.

The dedicated team would, he added 'provide a consistent and professional approach to the investigation of domestic and sexual crimes across the country.'

Dundalk was one of the first locations in the country when in 2017 the specialised Divisional Protective Services Unit (DPSU) was launched.

Supt. Mangan said the work of these units was focused on sexual crime, human trafficking, child abuse and domestic abuse. It will also focus on the provision of support for vulnerable victims of crime, including enhanced collaboration with the Child and Family Agency to safeguard children.

'Today marks a significant step forward in the provision of protective services for vulnerable people,' said Supt Mangan. He added that a 'huge amount of work has gone in over the last two years' in setting up the team and in the refurbishment of the building, which had previously been used as garda accommodation.

He acknowledged the efforts by the Office of Public Works in the delivery of the newly renovated premises. He added that the DPSU would provide for people who are victims of a range of crimes, including sexual, domestic or child abuse, prostitution, historical sex abuse and human trafficking 'the professional and consistent service from the Gardai that they expect and deserve.'

The Chief Supt. said that Louth gardai have had dealt with investigations in the deaths of three women in recent times, including most recently the murder of a woman in Ardee. He added that these investigations 'present a disturbing picture of the way in which women are treated.'

And he offered reassurances to the victims of domestic violence that crimes of this nature are 'very, very high up on the list of priorities.'

'We are here because we care about victims. We care about human beings,' he stated.

He said it was hoped that this new policing approach would encourage victims to come forward.

Also attending the launch was Det. Supt. Declan Donnelly, head of the National Protective Services unit at Harcourt Street in Dublin.

He said that the concept of the DPSU is that it would bring specially trained gardai into contact with 'the most vulnerable in society.' 'Victims deserve and expect a professional level of service,' said Det. Supt Donnelly.

He added that the year long advanced garda training includes 'for the first time ever a victims perspective of the crime, which is really very important.'

Many of the local services which are working closely with the DPSU were also in attendance at the launchStudents in three Drogheda schools got a taste of European and World Affairs last Friday with visits from Ireland's top overseas political figures.

Drogheda's Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ireland's Representative to the United Nations, visited her Alma Mater, Our Lady's College in Greenhills and truly inspired the girls when launching the Global Schools Initiative. Earlier that morning she was at the Drogheda Grammar School, also as part of the initiative.

'Global Ireland' is an ambitious All-of-Government programme to double Ireland's impact in the world by 2025 and Ireland's UN representative is playing a key role in that.

'Global Ireland' sets Irelands' global footprint into three broad areas, namely, how we trade, the bilateral and multilateral partnerships we build, and our wider contribution to the world.

During the course of the 'Global Schools' programme, which will run throughout 2019, it is planned that staff from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade who have served abroad, accompanied by Irish UN peacekeepers, will visit each of the 770 secondary schools in Ireland to engage students in the concept and ambition of 'Global Ireland', and present each school with a copy of the UN Charter.

Ms Byrne Nason outlined the work of the UN, why we are members, and how the UN touches all our lives.

She also explained the nature of diplomacy, and bilateral and multilateral partnerships as basis for Irelands trade.

Ardee's Mairead McGuinness MEP and first Vice-President of the European Parliament paid an official visit to St Mary's Diocesan School, Drogheda where she spoke with transition year students participating in the Ambassador Schools Programme.

Under the programme Senior Ambassadors (teachers) take students (Junior Ambassadors) through the Ambassador School Workbook provided by the European Parliament. And participating schools are encouraged to twin with other participating schools across the EU.

Sixty transition year students assembled in the library with teacher Jennifer Gregory who is Senior Ambassador and Principal Ciaran O'Hare.

"It's a very practical learning experience and great credit is due to St Mary's which is now one of 58 schools nationwide taking part in the programme. It gives students a great insight into what it means to be European, and it gives them a terrific opportunity to explore all aspects of EU membership, to debate, question, participate in, and learn how to influence change. It's about active citizenship at its best," she said.The founder and CEO of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd said the difficulties the tech giant faces today will not have a big effect on its business in the long term, predicting revenue will double within five years.





The smartphone maker predicted more than 10 years ago the challenges it may face today, according to 74-year-old Ren Zhengfei.





"We are not completely unprepared to deal with the situation. The difficulties will affect us but not to a large extent. No grave problems will emerge," he said in an interview with the media in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on Thursday.





Ren said that the company will invest $100 billion over the next five years to make the world's best telecom network and to make it extremely safe.





"After five years, annual revenue is likely to more than double today's figure," Ren added.





The company posted $108.5 billion in revenue in 2018, and said the figure is likely to hit $125 billion this year.





It was the second media briefing for the reclusive head of Huawei within three days, highlighting that the world's largest telecom equipment maker is embracing an increasingly open approach to counter allegations by taking the initiative to respond to concerns.





In a one-and-half-hour interview, Ren said he has never supported "self-innovation", adding people should not do everything on their own.





"Science and technology are the commonwealth of mankind and we should stand on the shoulders of our predecessors to advance. That way we can bridge the distance we have with the world's best," Ren said.





"When others innovate, we must respect others' intellectual properties and pay to get their permission. If we redo (something), we also must get their permission and pay them. That's the law," he said, clarifying he was talking about engineering innovation at enterprises, not scientific innovation.





Founded in 1987, Huawei's business has gradually expanded to cover telecom equipment, semiconductors, smartphones and big data solutions. Its products and services are now available in more than 170 countries and regions, with about 180,000 employees around the world.





In response to Western accusations that Chinese companies have stolen intellectual properties, Ren said Huawei has had several big cases in the United States, which all concluded successfully.





"Huawei now has 87,805 patents and 11,152 of them were granted in the United States. Our technical patents are of value to the US information society. We also have cross-patent admissions with many Western companies. We absolutely respect others' IP," Ren noted.





Xiang Ligang, CEO of industry website Cctime, said it would not be easy for outside pressure to topple Huawei, given the company's huge size and its growing technological weight in the global arena.





In the third quarter of 2018, Huawei commanded a 28 percent share of the global telecom equipment market, according to data from research company Dell'Oro Group.





In the same period, it shipped 14.6 percent of all smartphones worldwide, said International Data Corp.



Now in its 22nd Year, the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2019 programme has officially opened for nominations. The theme of this year's programme is "Be Brave, Be Bold" and all sectors and businesses of all sizes across the island of Ireland are invited to submit their nominations until 15 February.

The 24 finalists for 2019 will be announced on 23 April.

Louth's entrepreneurs are encouraged to put themselves forward to follow in the footsteps of well-known Louth business people, Peter Keeling, Diaceutics, Alan Clarke, STATSports Technologies, John Boyle, BoyleSports, who were finalists in 2018, 2015 and 2003, respectively. Louth have had two EY Entrepreneur Of The Year category winners; Tom McGuinness, Horseware Products, collected the Industry award in 2001, while Patrick Joy, Suretank, won the International award and the Overall award in 2013.

Operating in more than 60 countries worldwide, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year is recognised as the most prestigious business accolade for entrepreneurs. The programme is open to entrepreneurs from all sectors and growth stages, across the island of Ireland. The awards programme is divided into three categories - Emerging, Industry and International - with eight finalists chosen per category.

The 24 finalists will be selected by an independent panel of judges, comprising former winners and chaired by Anne Heraty of CPL Resources plc. For further information or for people who wish to put themselves forward or nominate an entrepreneur with their consent can fill out the online nomination form at www.eoy.ie.Inspirational local priest Fr Larry McDonnell, who played a pivotal role in the growth and development of thousands of Swazi boys passed away in Swaziland on Christmas day.

Only recently, he had his life been told in a formidable biography that was published late last year, written by one of his pupils and was entitled Larry, Simply Larry.

Born in 1935, at St Catherine's, Mell, he was the son of Micheal and Mary McDonnell. Fr. Larry was ordained in Turin, Italy as a Salesian priest and spent the majority of his life educating young boys in South Africa. He left Ireland in 1970 and since then as well as contributing enormously to the community in Manzini, he also, perhaps unwittingly, played a crucial role in the liberation of Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe where he was totally against apartheid.

A deeply religious person, caught up in struggle politics, while trying to give the boys in his care the best possible start in life, he did this through the Bible and the chalk board. He also set-up innumerable community projects and businesses in Manzini, constantly seeking the support of those who could afford it to assist those less well-off in life. He was an idealist in so many ways.

The current Prime Minister of Swaziland Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini is a former pupil of Larry's and paid a glowing tribute to his former teacher, 'Fr. Larry - Inyoni (as he was fondly called by most of us who were his students) faithfully fulfilled his ministry up until the last few months of his life, when ill-health finally overcame him. He was well known and loved by us students and the entire Eswatini nation. Father Larry was an extra ordinary person. His accomplishments and impact in the country will be felt by many generations to come.,

Fr Larry would come home every two years for a two-month break and he would spend that time with his sister Mary Reilly (nee McDonnell) in Marian Park, from where he would regale his listeners with his herculean exploits in far off Swaziland and always highlighting the need for support.

As was his desire, he was buried in Swaziland with his adopted people.

His popularity was evidenced by the huge crowds that came to his final send-off.

A special mass for Larry to celebrate his life will be held on Saturday 26 January at 4pm in the Holy Family Church Ballsgrove and everybody is welcome.On Friday 25 January at 7:30pm in St Peter's Church of Ireland, violinist Lynda O'Connor and the Wolfgang Ensemble, which includes some of Ireland's finest musicians, will open a new year of great classical music in the region with a performance of one of the most famous and loved works of all time, Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

In recognition of Fleadh Cheoil's return to Drogheda in 2019, Lynda will be joined by leader of the RTE Concert Orchestra, Mia Cooper for Bill Whelan's Inishlacken.

Lynda O Connor is one of the leading Irish violinists of her generation. Showing early promise, she made her debut appearance at the National Concert Hall when she was just four. Subsequently Lynda developed a career as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral musician. She wowed Drogheda audiences and received an immediate standing ovation for her performance of Monti's Czardas in St Peter's Church of Ireland as part of a concert with soprano Celine Byrne.

The Four Seasons, composed in 1723, is one of Baroque legend Vivaldi's most famous works for violin and is familiar to audiences through its uses in advertising and radio play. Nigel Kennedy made his breakthrough with his recording of the work thirty years ago. This same recording earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling classical work of all time and has sold in excess of two million copies.

Audiences at the Fleadh Cheoil in Drogheda last year will recall one of the many highlights of the week being the performances of Bill Whelan's music by the RTE Concert Orchestra, and so in anticipation of the Fleadh's return to Drogheda in 2019, violinist Mia Cooper will join Lynda for Bill Whelan's Inishlacken. Inishlacken, a concerto for two violins (one in the classical style and one traditional), was named after an island off the Galway coast which has been an inspiration to Bill Whelan since living in Connemara.

Tickets are 19 / 17 conc (in advance) or 20 / 18 (on the door). Student / child ticket 5. Booking is highly recommended and available through Droichead Arts Centre on 041 9833946 or www.droichead.com

Drogheda Classical Music is presented in partnership with Droichead Arts Centre and funded by the Arts Council and Create Louth with sponsorship from the d hotelSteve Coogan and John C Reilly as Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in Stan & Ollie

Director Jon S Baird calls lights, camera, action on a golden era of studio system Hollywood in his affectionate and heart-warming biopic of the English and American comedy duo, who shared the screen for almost 30 years.

Penned by Jeff Pope, Stan and Ollie is a handsomely crafted valentine to a double-act, who earned legions of adoring fans with pratfalls and slapstick.

The film focuses predominantly on the UK leg of a 1953 theatre tour, which was dominated by Hardy's failing health.

A lean script replays some of the couple's greatest hits including the 1932 short film County Hospital, which finds Oliver in bed with a broken leg and Stan wreaking havoc with a jug of water, a bed pan and a bag of hard-boiled eggs.

These moments of nostalgic recreation are joyful and Baird revels in the connection between the two performers, convincingly played by Steve Coogan and John C Reilly, concealed beneath layers of latex prosthetics.

The film opens in 1937 California.

Laurel and Hardy are two of cinema's biggest names but they don't command the financial clout of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd because they don't own their pictures.

The duo resolve to demand a better deal from Hal Roach (Danny Huston), who has them under contract, and subsequent wrangling for a bigger slice of the Hollywood pie creates a fissure in the duo's relationship.

Fast-forwarding to 1953, Stan and Oliver tour the UK and Ireland with a stage show of skits that promises to let them 'go out with a bang... in Hull'.

Theatre impresario and tour promoter Bernard Delfont (Rufus Jones) is more interested in a 'bright new talent' named Norman Wisdom than the duo, who have survived the ravages of time.

'I think it's wonderful you're still going,' coos a London jewellery shop assistant.

'Rigor mortis hasn't set in... yet,' smiles Stan plaintively.

Wives Ida Laurel (Nina Arianda) and Lucille Hardy (Shirley Henderson) offer moral support as the tour continues and Oliver's health suffers.

'You loved Laurel and Hardy but you never loved me,' laments the American during one lively exchange.

As the title suggest, Stan & Ollie is anchored by Coogan and Reilly, who are fiercely committed, catalysing an old-fashioned bromance that ensures after Oliver's death.

They are almost upstaged by a tour-de-force performance from Arianda as Stan's wife, a Russian glamour puss of few words - most of them biting - who stands defiantly by her man, especially for a photo opportunity. 'Where do you want me? I give them my good side,' she trills excitedly.

Baird's film repeatedly tips a bowler hat to its subjects, who got into one fine mess after another so long as it made the world laugh.The life and legacy of one of the most pivotal figures of the Irish War of Independence will be remembered with two events taking place in Mitchelstown next Wednesday.

During the day a plaque will be unveiled at Glenahulla National School, honouring the memory of Major General Liam Tobin, whose father was from Cloghleafin and whose family home was situated less than a kilometre from the site of the school.

The erection of the bronze plaque has been organised by local historian Bill Power, Archdeacon Gerard Casey (retired parish priest of Mallow and native of Mitchelstown) and Dr Gabriel Doherty of UCC, in association with the Tobin family and school principal Padraig Fitzgerald.

Later on that evening, a public lecture will take place at 8pm in the Town Hall on Thomas Street at 8pm, to coincide with the centenary of the first sitting of Dail Eireann the following day.

Entitled 'Liam Tobin and the Intelligence War In Ireland (1919-1921)', it will be delivered by Dr Doherty, a specialist in the Irish revolutionary period and the co-ordinator of a programme devised by the University's School of History to commemorate events of the time.

He has also served as the historical advisor to the Oireachtas on events being held to mark the Dail Eireann centenary. A fascinating character, Liam Tobin was the Deputy Director of Intelligence under Michael Collins during the War of Independence and led the secret unit known as 'The Twelve Apostles'.

The unit assembled detailed profiles of everyone remotely connected with the British Government and was responsible for the selection and assassination of British soldiers, informants, RIC members and operatives of the British intelligence service, MI5.

In October 1921, Tobin travelled with the Irish Treaty delegation to London as part of Michael Collins personal staff and subsequently the Free State soldiers that took over Fermoy after it was abandoned by Republicans in the Civil War, leaving a trail of destruction behind them.

Based on intelligence information received in Fermoy, Tobin dispatched troops to Lismore Castle where a fire-fight ensued with the Republicans. This ultimately saved Lismore Castle from the same fate as Mitchelstown Castle, and dozens of other buildings which had been looted and burned by Republicans a few days later. After Collins was killed in August 1922, Tobin was chief pallbearer of Collins' coffin through Cork and afterwards to Glasnevin Cemetery.

He was appointed to succeed Collins as Director of Intelligence and later became Aide-de-Camp to the new Governor General, Tim Healy. However, at the end of the Civil War in 1923, Tobin became deeply disillusioned with the new Free State government and after repairing his relationship with Eamon de Valera joined the newly formed Fianna Fail party.

In the 1930's he helped form the Irish Hospital's sweepstake and served as the Superintendent of the Oireachtas from 1940 to 1959. He died in April 1963 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.The IFA is holding a number of open farmer meetings around the country to update farmers on the state of play with the CAP negotiations.

The first of these meetings for Cork will take place this Thursday, January 17th in the Castle Hotel, Macroom, and the following week in Corrin Mart, Fermoy on Wednesday 23rd January, both starting at 8pm.

IFA President Joe Healy and senior officers will be in attendance at these meetings.

The purpose of these meetings is to update farmers on the IFA's campaign to protect farmers' direct payments and to appraise farmers of the key dates in 2019 that they need to be aware of.

"The medium-term outlook for agriculture is very uncertain, not least as a result of policy and trade issues stemming from Brexit," said IFA President Joe Healy.

"2019 is a critical year, given the decisions that will be made on CAP post-2020. The outcome of the CAP process will decide the Budget for Ireland and the level of support for Irish farmers for the next seven years. Direct payments are critical for farmers' incomes and we expect the Government to fight for an increase in the CAP Budget."

In addition, farmers will also be updated on what the recent ANC review means for them and how they can appeal the outcome if they were excluded.

The meetings are open to all.A blitz on bicycle thefts in Mallow brought some welcome, if somewhat unexpected, results for local Gardai last weekend.

Responding to the recent increase in the number of bicycles being stolen the Castlepark area of the town, Gardai initiated an operation targeting the theft and resale of bikes, mounting extra patrols in the area.

It was during one of those patrols during the early hours of last Sunday morning that officers stopped and search a vehicle on Castlepark Avenue, the diver of which, a male in his 20's, was arrested and subsequently appeared before the courts in relation to road traffic offences.

During a follow-up operation Gardai, acting on foot of a search warrant, entered a house at Maple Square and during the subsequent search seized five bicycles. One of the recovered bicycles, which it is believed had been stolen in the town over previous days, was valued at 3,500.

During the search Gardai also seized cannabis and cocaine with a street value of 3,000, which has been sent to their forensic labs for analysis.

Two males, one in his 20's and the other in his 30's were arrested at the scene and detained for a period at Mallow Garda Station under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act (1984). They were both released without charge and a file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

John Kelly, the Fermoy-based Garda crime prevention officer for north Cork, urged bike owners to familiarise themselves with their national 'Lock It or Lost It' campaign launched last September to raise awareness of better bicycle security.

According to figures released at the time of the launch more than 14,000 bikes had been stolen since 2016. That number of thefts had increased by 7.5% last year was likely to increase again in 2018.

Statistics showed that almost one third of bikes were taken from homes, the majority were taken between the hours of 8am and 5pm and the average cost of a bike stolen was around 510.

"We would advise that people spend up to 20% of the value of their bike on buying two locks and local your bike to an immovable object indoors or in a well-lit area if possible," said Sgt Kelly.

He advised people to take a photo of their bike, note the serial number and email back to themselves so they have a permanent record of it.

"I would also ask anyone who may have had their bicycle stolen recently and may have not reported it to Gardai to do so immediately," said Sgt Kelly.

"We regularly post photos of recovered bicycles at www.garda.ie to try to reunite them with their owners. People should also check on online trading websites as stolen high value bikes can often be put up for sale on them," he added.For any emigrant returning home from abroad the first question is 'what are your plans?'.

This is something that Brian Carey of Mallow and Martina O'Riordan, Kilbrin faced when they returned home in recent years and their stories are now helping other returning emigrants.

Both took part in an initiative to help returning emigrants start and develop their businesses, the 'Back for Business' entrepreneur mentoring programme', which ran for six months.

The programme is funded by the Dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade and there is no charge for those selected to participate. The programme was run on a pilot basis last year to support entrepreneurial activity among those recently returned or planning to return to live and set up business in Ireland. The call is now open for applications for the 2019 programme, which will run from February until July.

Brian returned from Asia to set up CareerVim, which is an interactive tool to allow companies demonstrate a transparent career path to employees. He also runs CoWork, which is a co-working space in Mallow based at O'Brien Street, in the same building where his late father, Eugene, was a well known legal eagle for many years.

Brian had worked for 12 years in the oil and gas industry, which took him to Europe, Africa, America and South East Asia where he held roles in business development and project management. It was the gra for Mallow and family which brought him back home. For him, there is an "emotional connection" to the town and there is nowhere else he would want to raise his family.

Brian said the Back for Business programme helped his business become a "revenue generating company in six months."

Prior to undertaking the programme he was already working professionally and was confident with his business.

However, he did point out that for someone who is working abroad and who returns back to Ireland and if they don't have a strong business network or if they have a business idea but are unsure what next to do, the programme is ideal.

"I met some really good people through the programme and prior to me doing the course my business was already reasonably advanced. However, networking certainly helps a business as does the exposure of a business," he said.

Kilbrin native Martina O'Riordan runs MartinO, which is a wedding planning company and is, coincidentally, based at CoWork in Mallow.

Martina told The Corkman that she returned home two years ago after six years in Sydney, where she worked in events and marketing. Martina has over 10 years experience and has a Business degree and a Diploma in Wedding & Event planning.

When asked why she returned home to set up her own business, she said that it was simply the pull of home and family made her make the move.

"I was at the stage where I was a senior leader in my job and I knew I wanted to set up my own business. While it would have without question been easier to set up in Sydney, where I had a strong and robust network, I just knew deep down that I wanted to come home and so I did," said Martina.

"I love my family and I knew that I could get support and I just love Ireland and knew that I wanted to bring people here for their wedding and to see all that we have. Despite being at home for two years, I am still beaming at being back.

"As I live in Kilbrin, it is so central to me, whether it is going to Cork, Killarney or Limerick," she said.

Prior to Sydney, she had lived in Dublin for five years so when she returned back to Rebel soil she found her network was in short supply.

"I really enjoyed the course as I found that when I came back I had been gone for so long that I had to start networking. I really learnt a lot from the programme and, luckily enough, my business was already up and running. But what the programme really did provide was a huge mix of people who were either at the idea stage of their business or else their business idea was progressing but hadn't yet gone live," she said.

Martina's clients at present are either Irish couples who are living abroad and want to have their wedding day back in Ireland, or else American couples who also want to mark their very special day.

"I am 100% delighted that I returned home and don't have any regrets," said Martina who added that she found the mentoring in the programme excellent.

According to the Dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the programme is specifically designed for recently returning emigrants who have lived abroad for at least a year and have returned in the last three years. However, those planning on returning in the near future will also be considered.

Those interested in the programme this year must apply before January 25 and should visit www.backforbusiness.com.There was an attendance of up to one hundred people at the Charleville Park Hotel for Charleville GAA Club's announcement of their major fund-raising venture, 'Hollywood Comes to Charleville,' which promises to be a gala event taking place in the hotel on March 22.

The event is guaranteed to bring Hollywood magic to the community as it will recreate iconic scenes from seven classic movies starring local people as actors and actresses. Auditions took place last Friday evening with a fantastic turnout of almost a hundred people. It was a great fun evening with rivalry already building for the titles of best film and best actor.

Rehearsals will begin this Sunday followed by filming of the movies in locations across Charleville. This event is a critical part in the development plan for the club's playing pitches and facilities for all players from juvenile to senior level. If you would like to be a part of this fun event, either on screen or behind the scenes, you can contact on Facebook 'Hollywood comes to Charleville'.

Tickets will be on sale in the coming weeks.

Vandals put ETB course in jeopardy

Vandals in Charleville have put at risk the future of a horticultural course organised by the ETB after a polytunnel especially erected for the purpose was severely damaged at their campus in the former Mannix College over the Christmas period.

The damage to the rigid polythene poly tunnel was discovered by the caretaker, Jim Hanley, who immediately notified the ETB course co-ordinator for the North Cork area, Brendan Glynn. He travelled to Charleville to view the destruction of the structure, which had holes punched or kicked in the skin, while a knife was also used to slit the polythene covering. At one corner of the 50ft by 30ft structure a traffic cone was driven through the heavy polythene wall.

The horticulture course, which has ten participants, was started last September in conjunction with the members of Charleville Tidy Towns committee and Charleville Men's Shed. "This development will put the whole course in jeopardy as the damaged skin will have to be patched and this renders it less effective," said Brendan Glynn, while the actions were also condemned by Paul O'Flynn, Mallow, who is tutor for the horticulture course for the past 18 years with the Cork ETB. He agreed that this was a major set-back for the venture.

"This was a major positive collaborative effort between the ETB and the two local committees and preparatory work for the course started last May.

The fact that the polytunnel, which was erected at a cost of 600, was the target for this vandalism could result in the putting the future of the course in doubt, said Mr. O'Flynn.

Members of Charleville Men's Shed committee, who were also on site, were at a loss as to why this damage has been done to the polytunnel, which is located in the campus of the former Mannix College adjacent to their widely used playing field, and in full public view of people using the busy Old Buttevant Road that leads on join the main Cork/Limerick Road.

Fr John OCallaghan in Kenya

The January/February edition of 'Africa', the magazine of St. Patrick's Mission, Kiltegan, Co. Wicklow contains an article on Reverend Father John O'Callaghan, a native of Gariencoona, Effin, Kilmallock, and a past pupil of Charleville CBS.

Fr. O'Callaghan has ministered in the diocese of Lodwar in Kenya since 1967, and is presently part of the pastoral team in the Holy Family parish in Kanamkamer, Lodwar, located south of Kitale on the banks of the Turkwell river.

This is the region where the bones of Homo Erectus were found on the shores of Lake Turkana in the middle sixties. The lake was then known as Lake Rudolph, but reverted to Lake Turkana when Kenya won its independence in 1963.

In an interview he gave to the Charleville CBS Yearbook 2004/'05, Fr. O'Callaghan related how when he first went to Kenya in 1966, Kenya had achieved its independence from Britain in December 1963 and the native government was led by the legendary Jomo Kenyatta, the revered freedom fighter and leader of the Mau Mau movement, who led the country until his death in 1978.

Ordained in 1966, John attended the Convent of Mercy Primary School and the C.B.S. Charleville, prior to going on to the Limerick Diocesan College at Mungret, Co. Limerick and thence to St. Patrick's seminary in Kiltegan to study for the priesthood.

He left on his ordination for the Kiltegan Mission in Kenya, where he has spent the entirety of his priestly mission, only returning to Ireland for the occasional holiday.

Today, Fr. John has overseen many developments in the diocese, including the schools programme in the expanding Holy Family parish in Kanamkamer, which is a suburb of Lodwar. 'The need for education is great with more than 20 primary schools in the parish, a few with over 1,000 children enrolled there, and five of the 40 secondary schools are in Kanankamer,' states the Africa article.

"We are blessed with good donors, including St. Patrick's Missionary, Kiltegan and our main sponsors, Shalom in Nairobi, Misean Cara from Ireland and a very generous layman from a Catholic parish in Geneva, and the local people who hold collections. We still need a laboratory for science subjects and more staff houses, and there is pressure from many quarters to add boarding facilities for students from our outstations, who now live locally with friends. No doubt, all will come with time," said Fr. O'Callaghan.Resolutions align with the month of January and quite often quitting smoking leads the way.

However, four groups are well ahead of the posse and they all recently picked up their certificates after they took part in the Irish Cancer Society's 'We Can Quit' smoking cessation programme. The participants took part in courses held in Mallow, Farranree, Mayfield and Ballyphehane.

The society has also launched the next round of 'We Can Quit' courses in Cork, which will begin in February 2019 in Ballyphehane, Mallow and Mayfield with a new course in Farranree following a little later.

Women are invited to register their interest now for the programme which supports women in joining forces to quit smoking together.

Participants in the We Can Quit programme attend weekly group sessions and receive one-to-one support. They will also be offered 12 weeks of free nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). Research has shown that smokers who use a combination of group support and two NRT products for a 12 week period are four times more likely to quit and stay smoke-free for good.

Recent analysis shows that around half of the total participants in the overall We Can Quit programme had quit smoking at the end of the 12 week course.

Eimear Cotter, Community Cancer Prevention Officer at the Irish Cancer Society said: "We Can Quit has gone from strength to strength since it was set up in Cork in 2016. The current programme, which comes to an end in 2018, has resulted in 149 women completing the 12 week courses and, most importantly, our analysis of the programme shows it has a very positive quit rate.

"The Society has worked in partnership with the Cork Cancer Action Network, the HSE and a wide range of community and local organisations to achieve its great successes.

"Giving up smoking is extremely difficult and a huge challenge for people, but We Can Quit offers women the support and encouragement to get through it. I want to congratulate all of the women who have completed this programme. I know it's not an easy thing to do and they should be very proud of themselves," she said.

We Can Quit is open to all female smokers in Cork who are over the age of 18 years and are interested in quitting smoking. A calendar of programmes will run in Ballyphehane, Mayfield. Mallow and the Northside from February through the springtime.More than 500 companies from all over the world have confirmed participation in the second China International Import Expo (CIIE), scheduled in early November this year, its organizers said Friday.

The companies are from more than 40 countries and regions, including over 70 Fortune Global 500 firms and leading enterprises in various industries, according to Zhou Lingyan with the CIIE bureau.

About 80 percent of the companies participated in the first CIIE, and most of them plan to expand their exhibition area this year, said Zhou.

A total of 172 countries, regions and international organizations and more than 3,600 enterprises participated in the first CIIE, held on Nov. 5-10 in Shanghai. It was the world's first import-themed national-level expo.Young quiz whizzes from the Mallow area are being challenged to test their brainpower and see if they have what it takes to get to the national final of the 2019 Credit Union Schools Quiz.

Now in its 28th year, the quiz is open to primary schools from across the country, with more than 25,000 pupils taking part in last year's competition.

All schools with Mallow Credit Union's common bond are welcome to register teams of four for the 2019 edition, with the local branch urging children to start forming their teams to show what they can achieve with 'the power of four.'

The road to April's grand final at the RDS in Dublin will start on Monday, February 4 with the local knock-out stage at the Hibernian Hotel, the winners of which will qualify for the regional final in March.

This year a total of 4,000 will be for grabs for the national winners across the different age categories.

Ciara Fitzgerald, marketing manager with Mallow Credit Union said the 'power of four' theme for this year's quiz is aimed at encouraging children to work together and see what can be achieved when they work as a team.

"We see the annual quiz as a fantastic opportunity for schools in the area to nurture a culture of partnership among students, and we would really encourage all schools to get registered for the 2019 event. A core focus of this event is to encourage learning as part of a team to help equip children from a young age with the skills necessary for successful teamwork in the workplace," said Ciara.

"Questions will cover a wide range of topics including geography, history, music, literature and sport, and we have no doubt that all of our budding geniuses will rise to the challenge," she added.

Registration for the 2019 Schools Quiz is now open, and local schools and children interested in participating can contact Mallow Credit Union on 022 21121 for entry forms and for further information.Outdoor entertainment of a different kind will be coming to the Cork Racecourse in Mallow for two evenings in March - offering movie buffs the chance to interact with one of the biggest films of last year.

Following their sold-out, outdoor screenings of the blockbuster 'A Star Is Born' in Dublin over the festive period, Retro Drive-In Movies has announced it will host screenings of the movie at Cork Racecourse on March 23 at 6pm and the following evening at 8pm.

The multi-award-winning film, starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, will be projected onto a gigantic LED screen, allowing people to enjoy, and even sing along to, the movie from the comfort of their own cars.

To add to the atmosphere there will also be American-style food favourites including burgers, hot dogs, pizza and doughnuts available to buy on both nights.

Ryan O'Neill of Retro Drive-In Movies said the group is looking forward to holding one of the largest 'Caroke' sing-along events ever held in Cork. Tickets for each night, priced at 32.50 for a car with five occupants, are available at www.retrodrivein.ie.The programme for the fourth annual Blackwater Valley Fit-Up Festival has been unveiled, with five plays set to run at seven intimate venues along the course of the River Blackwater over the next four weeks.

A colourful feature of Irish country life during the post-war period, fit-up theatre saw professional companies, featuring popular actors of the day touring the country, bringing productions of plays to small venues in rural towns and villages. In 2009 the West Cork-based Blood in the Alley Theatre Company, in association with Cork County Council and the Arts Council, resurrected the tradition of bringing contemporary Irish plays to the stages of venues across the region.

In 2016 the initiative was successfully expanded, with the inaugural Blackwater Fit-Up Festival bringing communities across the North Cork region together though the medium of theatre.

The festival's artistic director, Geoff Gould, said fits-ups were a hugely popular part of rural life during the middle part of the last century.

"Popular actors of the day such as Harold Pinter and Andrew McMaster would regularly visit small towns and villages, often performing plays in tents or even on the back of trucks," he explained.

He said that since its inception, the Blackwater-based festival had proved to be "an unqualified success" and that he anticipated this year's events to be just as popular with theatre-goers.

"The festival is a wonderful opportunity for people across the region to see some great new Irish plays performed by a talented groups of exceptional actors," he said.

The 2019 festival will kick off this coming Sunday with a production of 'Forgotten', written and performed by internationally acclaimed Cork actor Pat Kinevane, at the Palace Theatre in Fermoy.

A unique fusion of Kabuki dance and Irish storytelling, it is a captivating portrayal of four elderly characters living in retirement homes, bringing life to these often forgotten voices of society. The play will also run at the Muintir na Tire in Buttevant on Tuesday and at Meelin Community Hall on Thursday.

Kinevane's award-winning 'Silent', a one-man play, will run at the Ballynoe Community Hall on Wednesday; the Kades County in Glenville on Friday; and the Town Hall in Mitchelstown on Saturday.

It is a touching and challenging story of homeless McGoldrig, who once had it all but has lost everything - including his mind. It now delves into the wounds of his past through the romantic world of Rudolph Valentino.

Week two of the festival will feature performances of Seamus O'Rourke's 'From Under the Bed', a touching tale of two ageing, rural, bachelor brothers, where decisions have to be made about certain things that would have been better 'left under the bed'.

It will run over consecutive nights from Tuesday, January 29, in Buttevant; Ballynoe; Meelin; the Fruits Arts Centre in Watergrasshill; Mitchelstown and Fermoy.

Week three will feature 'Small Halls and Potholes', an evening of 'eccentric songs and strange stories' in the company of Irish musician and poet Little John Nee.

It will kick off in Buttevant on Tuesday, February 5 before moving onto Ballynoe, Meelin, Watergrasshill, Mitchelstown and Fermoy.

The final play of the 2019 festival will be Noni Stapleton's award-winning black comedy 'Charoiai', a surreal tale of female jealousy with an unexpected twist. It will run in Buttevant, Ballynoe, Meelin and Glenville, before bringing the curtain down on this year's festival in Mitchelstown.

For more information about the festival - including venues, times and tickets for each of the performances - visit www.fit-uptheatrefestival.com.Bryan Fennell, Rural Recreation Officer with County Wicklow Partnership, Robert Brandon, chairman of Mountain Meitheal,Helen McDonald, Madge Kenny and Hugh Coogan at the new section of the Wicklow Way, between Tinahely and Crossbridge

A new section of the Wicklow Way has been officially opened in south Wicklow as the popular trail was re-routed to make it safer for users.

The community of Crossbridge gathered on Monday to attend the launch of the new section of the Wicklow Way, which saw part of the route removed from the R747, meaning that walkers and hikers are no longer required to cover a dangerous section of public road from Tinahely to Crossbridge.

The project was coordinated by County Wicklow Partnership (CWP), which manages the National 'Walk Scheme' for the county, and was supported by the Wicklow Way Partnership, the management body for the Wicklow Way which includes representatives from Coillte, CWP, Wicklow County Council, Dublin Mountain Partnership, Mountain Meitheal and the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

The majority of the work was constructed by the volunteer group Mountain Meitheal over the course of four weekends.

These volunteers undertake projects to protect and conserve mountain and forest areas in Ireland.

Their aim is to counteract the pressures which are evident on fragile landscapes by building and maintaining trails which are sympathetic to the surrounding countryside. Additional support was received by volunteers from Crossbridge, Wicklow County Council, and the Rural Social Scheme, operated by CWP.

Bryan Fennell, Rural Recreation Officer for CWP, said: 'Projects like these are a verification of a community's goodwill to visitors to their local area. This re-route was made possible by the kind permission of a private landowner, who has allowed us to re-route the Wicklow Way through their lands. This was a result of positive and active engagement with the landowner from the local community group. This new section of the Wicklow Way will help prevent a fatal injury by removing the need for walkers to traverse around a very dangerous bend'.

Mr Fennell acknowledged the tremendous work by Mountain Meitheal and expressed thanks to the goodwill of all private landowners currently providing recreational access through their lands for hillwalkers in Co Wicklow.Artist John Rooney working on a new mural of iconic books at the library in St Kilians Community School

Artist John Rooney took residence in St Kilian's Junior Certificate Schools Programme library over the past weeks to decorate the wall with a 10 metre long mural.

Originally from Derry and now living in Berlin, Rooney's art work was commissioned by the library as part of the drive to promote reading and print to all students of St Kilian's.

The piece references classic works of fiction including Tolkien, Harry Potter, C.S Lewis and many others.

John was drawing on the wall for 18 hours over two days. Prior to that he was sketching and designing at home.

He was approached by art teacher Joan Murray to produce a literary theme. As he was drawing, some students askked for requests and some were granted, including an Orc from Lord of the Rings, a mockingbird, and Captain America shield.

Yes, all work was done while the students worked and read in the library below him. It was his first job in a school and he was concerned that the students might heckle him; instead he found them to be great fun and a source of inspiration.

The mural is proving to be a huge hit with the students and a further inspiration to get reading at St Kilian's.

There are 30 JCSP libraries across the country. These high quality libraries are staffed by a full time librarian to produce a creative learning space designed to increase literacy levels and provide an enhanced learning experience.Gardai believe the fire which claimed the lives of five adults and five children in the early hours of October 10, 2015, was probably started by a chip pan being left on a hot plate, an inquest has heard.

The blaze claimed the lives of Thomas Connors (28), his wife Sylvia (30), and their children Jim (5), Christy (3) and five-month-old Mary.

Also killed were Willy Lynch (25), his partner Tara Gilbert (27) who was pregnant, and their daughters, Jodie (9) and Kelsey (4). Jimmy Lynch (39), a brother of Sylvia and Willie, also lost his life.

Baby Mary, the youngest victim, was initially rescued from her parents' cabin and brought to the apparent safety of a neighbouring unit - however, the inferno spread rapidly to that unit.

Like the rest of the victims, her cause of death was given as carbon monoxide poisoning due to smoke inhalation.

Jim Connors Junior told gardai that he was woken by the screams of his wife Katie, in the early hours of October 10, 2015, and saw his brother Thomas's portacabin ablaze.

'I could see the flames from my back door, the flames were in the kitchen of Thomas and Sylvia's cabin,' the inquest in Dublin heard. 'I went to the front door and kicked it in. I could feel myself burning and I had to go back out.'

He said he broke a window of a bedroom to try and let the smoke out and reached in to try and grab someone out.

He managed to grab baby Mary who later perished as the inferno swept the site.

A taxi driver who came upon the scene that morning said that the flames were the height of a two-storey house.

14-year-old John Keith Connors climbed into a burning portacabin to try and rescue his family. He rescued seven-year-old Thomas but was unable to lift his brother Thomas Connors Senior and his wife Sylvia who were unconscious.

Detective Inspector Martin Creighton told the inquest the fire probably started due to a chip pan being left on a hot plate at full power.

Conor Peoples, a senior staff officer at the Traveller Accommodation Unit at Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, told how the temporary halting site was extended to accommodate Thomas and Sylvia Connors.

He said the original plan had been for the family's cabin to be placed perpendicular to the Glenamuck Road, however it ended up being craned in to a parallel position due to the gradient of the land.

It meant the Connors' cabin was placed a metre away from the neighbouring unit, which also caught fire as the blaze spread.

Asked by Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane if there were regulations about distances between units, Mr Peoples said: 'My understanding now is the optimum distance was six metres.'

Niamh Foley, barrister for the Lynch family, put it to Mr Peoples that an expert commissioned by An Garda Siochana to carry out a report on the fire found there were no fire blankets, fire extinguishers or smoke alarms.

Mr Peoples said he was 'surprised' to hear that as all these items had been supplied at the halting site and there were documents to show this.

Brian Kennedy, a senior caretaker with the council, said a fire extinguisher was put in the bay occupied by the Connors' cabin and a smoke alarm was fitted inside the cabin.

The inquest continues before a jury of eight men and four women.The post office at Kilbride will be moving to the Boghall Shopping Centre this year as the incumbent postmistress retires.

According to a spokesman for An Post, Ballywaltrim post office will be located on the same site as Centra, with an entrance of its own, separate to the store off-licence. While there are some concerns about the capacity for parking at the centre, the spokesman said that they have looked at the area and are happy enough that it can take customer traffic.'It's a good move for the local community. A lot of local business is done there, which is where a post office should be.'

He said that it is hoped that the current post office will remain in place until the new one is ready. A start and finish time are not yet fastened down. Deputy John Brady thanked staff there for their many years of service so far. 'Hoefully the existing staff can be redeployed to the new post office,' he said. Deputy Brady said that he will continue to engage with An Post as plans move ahead.

Staff at the post office declined to comment when contacted.Tributes have flown in across the political divide to Cllr Mark Dearey after the Green Party councillor announced that he will not be contesting the 2019 local elections in May.

The Omeath resident and owner of the popular Spirit Store pub in Dundalk revealed his decision on Saturday when he tweeted: 'I won't be running in the Local Elections later this year. It's been a true honour to have served the people of the area this past 15 years.'

Among those who paid tribute to him were Fianna Fail TD Declan Breathnach who said he was sorry to hear that he would not be contesting the May elections. 'You served your town and county well and it was always a pleasure working with your constructive no nonsense approach in the interests of making Louth and Dundalk a better place for all.'

Drogheda Labour Cllr Pio Smith described Mark as a 'great councillor, with good values, a sense of honour and a deep commitment to his community' while Fine Gael Cllr Dolores Minogue said he was 'a voice of reason on many occasion' at County Council meetings.

David Healey Green Party councillor for Fingal said: 'It's a pity to lose such an effective councillor, not just on Louth issues but also other topics such as nuclear and public banking. But looking forward to seeing how else you put your skills to use!'

Dublin FG TD Noel Rock said he 'always thought you served your area and your party with distinction. Plus your venue is class. Wish you the very best with the future!'

Speaking to The Argus on Monday, Cllr Dearey thanked all those who had supported him and voted for him over the years.

He hoped that they wouldn't feel let down by his decision not to stand .

'For a whole range of reasons I have decided to make way for the next wave of young green councillors.'

Having first got involved in politics due to his concern about climate change, as well as being one of the local residents who took legal action against the expansion of Sellafield, he said that he was confident that the Green party's agency was well established and many of the issues he had campaigned for were now policy.

He had never thought of his role as public representative as a lifetime commitment to politics and, having served three times as a county and town councillor, he had decided to step down so can he could spend more time with his family and business.

He had, he admitted, found public life 'very demanding' and he was at a stage in his life where he wanted to be able to put his family and business first.

Being involved in local government 'is not easy' and he felt it would be good to stand aside so some 'fresh blood' could come onto the council.

He paid tribute to his party colleague, Cllr Marianne Butler, who will be standing for Dundalk South in the forthcoming local elections and he said that candidates to contest Dundalk/Carlingford and Ardee will be announced in the coming weeks.

Cllr Dearey also revealed that the expectation for councillors to constantly report what they were doing on social media had also played into his decision.

He was, however 'absolutely sure' that he was doing the right thing. But he won't be resting on his laurels just yet, as he working on a submission on the Draft Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy which he feels will be of enormous benefit to Dundalk.

His decision not to contest the election means that three of the councillors elected in the Dundalk Carlingford electoral area last time will not be seeking re-election. Veteran Fianna Fail Cllr Peter Savage confirmed that he is standing down while Sinn Fein's Jim Loughran retired in 2016.The family of a Dundalk woman who faced eviction from her home yesterday (Monday) say they are appealing the decision by housing body Cluid.

Catherine Kavanagh received notice that she would have to hand over the keys to the property, which had been her home for the last 14 years.

But relatives say that as Catherine has learning difficulties, she should have had an advocate help her in any communication with Cluid about her home.

Geraldine Kavanagh told The Argus: 'We only became aware that there were issues with arrears. Catherine has been under so much stress. She has nowhere to go.'

Relatives had advised Catherine not to leave the property, as an appeal is set to be launched on her behalf. 'We have told Cluid that Catherine should have had an advocate with her in any dealings they had. They should have had least contacted some of her family.

A group of anti-eviction protestors turned up outside the property in Farndreg to voice their opposition to the move.

A spokesman for Cluid told the Argus: In order to protect the privacy of all our residents, Cluid is not in a position to discuss individual cases.China has launched an annual "Happy Chinese New Year" global celebration campaign as the 2019 Spring Festival draws near.

More than 1,500 live performances, exhibitions and temple fairs, among other celebration events, are scheduled to take place in 396 cities in 133 countries and regions across the globe during the campaign.

The combination of cultural exchanges and tourism will be heavily featured in the campaign, with major activities scheduled to be held in tourist destinations along the Belt and Road, including Cairo and Dubai.

The campaign will also feature activities celebrating the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and countries including Russia, Mongolia and Bulgaria.

The "Happy Chinese New Year" global celebration, a series of cultural events celebrating the Spring Festival worldwide, was first initiated in 2010 to promote cultural exchanges between China and other countries.

It's no surprise that Dundalk fashion designer Andrew Bell has been included in the Irish Times' list of '50 people to watch in 2019: Ireland's hottest young talent.'

Now in the final year of a two-year MA course at the world famous Royal College of Art in London, the 27-year-old has been making headlines for some time now, catching the attention of fashion editors and bloggers.

The Carrick Road native says he owes his passion for fashion to his teachers at Dunalk Grammar School, where he went after attending St Malachy's NS.

'I have fantastic memories of my years in the Grammar School art room,' he says. 'Jacqui Gray and Roisin Cox were an inspiration to me, and were always putting new visuals under my nose.'

He explains that Toisin was the first person to show him how to thread a sewing machine.

'She was always sharing images by Erte and Tamara de Lempicta, I was obsessed with these Art Deco images at the time,' he remembers. 'Jacqui also had a beautiful collection of old National Geographic magazines, some that dated back as far as the 1930s right through to the '50s and 60s.' 'I loved the fashion imagery in these magazines and when I left school Jacqui let me pick six, one for each year I had studied there. They are among my most prized possessions still.'

These teachers encouraged him when he was applying to the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), and helped him prepare his portfolio.

'Looking back it was a very exciting and formative time for me; it was like discovering and learning your own visual language for the first time.'

He was short listed for the Persil Irish Fashion Awards in 2014 while he was a second year student - a early indication that his talent would attract attention.

Andrew loved his time at NCAD. 'It was a very different college back then, there were only 15 people in my class in fashion,and we had a lot of one-on-one teaching from the tutors there. I learned a lot and gained excellent skills in cutting and construction which allowed me to materialise my ideas.'

While still a student, he honed his skills as an intern with J.W.Anderson, the internationally renowned award-winning London-based brand.

Just two weeks after graduating from NCAD, he started working as a design assistant for Dunnes Stores. '

I gained fantastic 'real world' experience there, and had the chance to work directly with the creative Director Carolyn Donnelly on her brand 'The Edit'. It was really inspiring to work for someone that has her own clothing and homewares brand, alongside her role as creative director of the entire company,' he recalls.

He then took the bold step of leaving the job to launch 'Pulling Strings, a collaborative fashion and multimedia installation, which he staged in spring 2016, which raised his profile in the fashion industry.

Fast forward to now and Andrew is currently studying an MA in Fashion at the Royal College of Art in London, which ranks as the world's number one postgraduate art and design institution.

'The Masters is a two year long course and I was lucky enough to win the Kildare Village Fashion Scholarship which allowed me to take my place there. The scholarship is worth 20,000 which covers the full fees for two years.'

'I still pinch myself sometimes when I think about how much money that is! It really is a life changing scholarship and it means a lot to be supported by a company from home,' he says.

It means he can concentrate on preparing for his degree show without worrying about money.

Andrew appreciates the college's location in the heart of Kensington and its amazing views over Hyde Park and the Royal Albert Hall, which will be the venue for college's graduation ceremony in July.

'The last year and a half have been a whirlwind of creative opportunities and experiences,' he says. 'In my first year I had the opportunity to work with machines that I didn't know existed , like sonic welding and taping machines,' he explains. 'I am now fusing these new technologies with my traditional background in tailoring; creating what I hope will be a new form of luxury tailoring, or a "future tailoring aesthetic".

This means that the pieces he is creating are entirely made without sewing or thread.

'I am also working on a print collaboration with a student from the textiles department and I am dying all of my own fabrics to the exact colours that I want. Again all of the facilities at the Royal College of Art mean that almost anything is possible.

Last year, the students had the opportunity to work on an eyewear project, which saw Andrew designing a collection and making a final prototype by hand.

'I had no idea how specialised and technical eyewear design could be, and I really enjoyed the project.'

This year the students are working on a very conceptual fragrance competition, which will see three winners travel to Paris to have their fragrance produced in April, so Andrew is keeping his fingers crossed that he will be among the lucky winners.

At the moment Andrew is working non-stop towards his main collection for the college's graduate show which will be due in June.

'There will be many long nights between now and then though!'

He plans on keeping his options open when he completes his studies although it's safe to say that we will be hearing a lot more about him.

'I would love to work in a design house in Pairs or Milan, or maybe I'll stay in London and continue to develop my own design work,' he says.

Those interesting in following Andrew's journey in the coming months should check out his instagram account @andrew_bell_design.On Friday night I headed for the Ballymascanlon Hotel where the Dundalk Grammar School Graduation Ball was being held and by the time I got there the place was packed with party revelling couples.

I was only in the door when I met up with Jamie Gogan from Drogheda who had brought Laoise Dunne Ward originally from Galway but now living in Drogheda who told me they were looking forward to a really great night.

Not too far away I then got a word with Finn Reilly from Blackrock who had asked Emma Cheshire from Monasterboice and were both looking extremely well and assured me they'd do their best to make the night a huge success.

Meanwhile over at one of the tables I then got talking to Conor Rice who was down from Dublin and was on the arm of the lovely Lucy Kinneally from Castlebellingham and they were armed and ready for a night of fun together.

After this I headed over for a word with SNA Mairead Malone from Drogheda who had brought Shane Smith also from Drogheda who was on his best behaviour and he told me he'd be in need of assistance later on and couldn't think of anyone nicer to help him than Mairead.

Making my way through the crowds I then met up with Caragh O'Reilly and Fintan Logue both from Dunleer and they said they were definitely looking forward to a mad one with all their friends.

Easily the furthest travelled to be there on the night award went to Brigid Slevin who used to live in Darver but now resides in New York and had travelled back specially to be there for her 'very special friend' Sean Durnin from Knockbridge, and no I refrained from the joke about an expensive taxi home for Brigid!

Not too long later I caught up with Penny Morris from Blackrock who was there with Ucheibeh also from Blackrock and assured me it was going to be an insane night.

After this I headed over for a quick word with Tadhg Cunningham from Lower Point Road who was on his best behaviour because the lovely Leah Curley from Greenacres had brought him and she said they were on for a mad one together for sure.

Heading for one of the tall tables I got a quick word with Tom Morris from Dunleer and Ruairi McKeown from Carlingford who told me they hadn't bothered with any female accompaniment because they were 'hell bent on a lads night out' and felt the ladies just might slow them down.

I then headed for another table where I got talking to Ayiesha Marron Boyle from Essexford who was Ife Folikwe from Lios Dubh who were looking extremely well together and were ready to party the night away with Carolyn Matthews from Louth Village and Aoibheanna Campbell from Dunleer who eventually told me she was actually there with Cillian Jevins from Lordship and that Carolyn was with Jingxi Wu from Blackrock, but I felt the lads had a bit of work to do to stop a girls night out, losing their ladies.

One man who was looking exceptionally well on the night was Niall McBride from Knockbridge who was flying solo and was more interested in mingling with everyone there and having a laugh while he was doing it.

At an adjacent I had the pleasure of talking to three ladies who were looking exceptionally well and they were Chidera Okoh from Tallaght, Ruth Wangaruro from Avenue Road and Zoha Khan originally from Pakistan but now from Dublin and they assured me this was definitely going to be a major girls night out.

Next, I caught up with Board of Governors member Philip Keegan from Carrickmacross who had brought Michelle McHugh also from Carrickmacross and when I asked him if it was going to be a wild and crazy night, he replied 'no more of a refined, respectable evening' but he did say he expected his son Leon Keegan who was with Amy Buckley also from Carrickmacross would fit more comfortably into the other category.

I then managed a swift word with one of the busiest men in the place Dave Symmons who was the main organiser and was going around making sure the night ran as smoothly as possible.

Easily the award for the best tuxedo of the evening had to go to Johnny Woods from Drogheda, the white trim really set it apart from all the rest. He told me it was going to be nothing short of an epic night and he had brought along wingman Colum Kierans also from Drogheda to make sure it was.We are all environmentalists now, aren't we? We are all converts to the idea that we must save the planet by living sustainably. Young people, in particular, are embracing a "greener" lifestyle. Climate change, we are told, is the greatest threat to our universal civilisation.

And there is one simple alteration that each one of us could make, daily, in our lives to contribute to the reduction of environmental harm: do not take a daily shower.

Showering (and taking baths, too) is one of the major sources of energy usage. Climate change and water usage are inextricably linked says Aaron Burton, the Australian-born world expert on water efficiency - and Australians have learned a lot from the experience of droughts. One of the lessons learned is that we could use a lot less water than we do.

The target for personal water usage should be a maximum of 100 litres a day. Even better would be 70 litres, and during droughts, 50 litres have been perfectly acceptable. At present, the average Irish person uses 129 litres of water a day, and the average Irish household between 342-358 litres, depending on how it's calculated. (In a reassuring vignette of cultural continuity, if not outright stereotyping, Cavan has proved to be the most parsimonious in its water usage.)

I'm not getting into the various protests about water charges and water meters: but the bigger picture is that everyone in the western world should use less water.

So, if you want to do something for the planet, restrict your showers. A shower every other day is quite sufficient. For older people, a shower once every three days is fine, a policy I usually practice. If you feel a tiny bit grubby, you can always do a "top and tail" wash in a basin, which is what people did, routinely, until about 40 years ago.

The difficulty in reducing the showering (or bathing) habit is "cultural expectations", according to Dr Alison Browne, lecturer in sustainable consumption at Manchester University. Younger people are accustomed to showering not only every day, but sometimes twice a day - even three times daily. This is using up tons of water and energy - since it takes energy to produce and heat water - and thus promiscuously wasting the earth's resources.

Nobody needs three showers a day, unless they're doing three shifts digging a tunnel. Most showers are taken because it's a pleasant experience to feel warm water on bodies, not because we need to get cleaner. Moreover, we spend too long in the shower. The average is about seven minutes. A shower should be under three minutes - I would favour 90 seconds myself. And by the way, the bar of soap is having a revival, ousting the plastic bottle of shower gel.

So, how do you shift the "cultural expectations" that come with a daily, or maybe a twice-daily, shower? We have to go back to being a bit less fastidious. Cleanliness is not next to Godliness. A measure of dirt never did anyone any harm. What's wrong with an odour of healthy sweat? Napoleon thought it sexy. James Joyce thought dirty knickers were a turn-on.

It is suggested by some food experts that the alarming rise in allergies among children could be linked to the fact that babies aren't encountering enough dirt to build up their resistance. An old Cockney saying had it that "every child needs his peck of dirt", and perhaps there was wisdom in that notion.

Not only is there too much showering, but there's probably too much laundering, too. People wash their clothes more often than they used to just because there's a washing machine available. It's squandering water resources and, incidentally, increasing the housework load, usually borne by women.

Some of the cultural changes advanced for reducing water usage might be a tiny bit harder to, er, swallow. One way to make better usage of our daily water allowance of 70-100 litres is to pee in the shower. It's very environmental. Maybe a target too far, however: the flushable toilet must be one of the greatest contributions to civilisation. When Constance Markievicz and her husband Casimir attended glittering balls at Dublin Castle in the 1900s, there was only one toilet for hundreds of assembled grandees (deplorable, too, the shared loos for numerous families in the Dublin tenements).

But we've gone to the other extreme in our daily hygiene habits with en suites everywhere - the Green Party, which should be focused on saving water, introduced the mandatory en suite bathrooms in every bedsit, thus both contributing to the student housing shortage and encouraging more daily, or twice-daily, showering as well. Politicians who champion green causes should be actively reducing the cultural expectations of twice- or thrice-daily showers among the young - and the rest of us, too.

So, the next time that idealistic, angel-faced parliamentarian Richard Boyd-Barrett waxes moralistic about how climate change is the biggest challenge we face, ask the lad this: "When did you last take a shower?" The correct answer should be "yesterday". Ditto the venerable Mrs Mary Robinson, that global champion of environmentalism: hopefully, she too is allowing a little more dirt back into her life so as to save the planet.Since I was four years old I have been having a love affair with London. My mother's descriptions of St Martin-in-the Fields, of Hyde Park Corner, of the pit in the Royal Albert Hall during the Proms, stimulated my imagination beyond description. The imagery of London has extended to the rest of Britain and ultimately become reality for me. I was privileged to be able to afford a small flat in London 10 years ago. Because of my strong bond to London and to Britain itself, I am horrified at the stereotyping of the British people that Brexit has stimulated in the coverage of it in Ireland.

Mostly the view here is that Brexiteers are either rich dim-wits or uneducated racists. Progressives they are not, according to the spokespeople in the media. The stereotypical well-heeled, posh toffs such as Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg wanting Old England to rule the waves are juxtapositioned alongside the working classes of Humberside wishing to quell immigration lest they lose jobs to foreigners.

Yet, many academics voted for the measure. For example, Cambridge-based economist Dr Graham Gudgin and Emeritus Professor of French history Professor Robert Tombs developed a website briefingsforbrexit.com to assist people in understanding the arguments.

Polls showed that while some 32pc of Brexit voters did so for reasons of immigration, the majority voted as they did for other factors. These might include the wish for Britain to retain its independence from a large political behemoth of mainly unelected members. According to a recent study, most Brexit voters were more concerned about identity than about financial matters, believing that the European project encroached upon this.

Yet, my own country, once a world exemplar of hard-fought independence, is now kowtowing to the powers that be in Europe. To even question the European project in Ireland is to be labelled an inward peering regressive. But a country that has no inferiority complex and that is not a sleeveen to diktats imposed by unaccountable bureaucrats has my admiration.

Many years of hearing my mother's romantic stories of London during the blitz, my childhood experience of travelling to Britain for family holidays year in year out for a decade, nine years living there as I became a psychiatrist, marrying an Englishman 35 years ago after a brief romance, having annual trips to the Edinburgh festival for the past 12 years, owning a flat in London now, and spending long periods there for business and pleasure have done nothing to dim my admiration for the British people and their culture. Indeed I am comfortable there, never having experienced any hint of anti-Irish sentiment, even when I anticipated it most.

Attributes that were ostensibly Irish are now British and vice versa. Take religion as an example. The British are now more religious than are the Irish. Religious schools, denominational in ethos, are hugely valued and very prestigious there. Here the Government is doing its best to remove all traces of religion from education and increasingly there are attempts to remove denominational education from Catholic schools.

Members of parliament, even the prime minister, have no difficulty extending thoughts and prayers to the people when national tragedies occur. In Ireland, when similar situations arise, the "p" word is omitted lest it be interpreted as a sign of Catholic Church interference in the affairs of State.

And the Queen's Christmas Day message speaks of the birth of Jesus, while in Ireland the President's message is bland and secular and could be delivered at a horse show.

Sure, the British don't do 'craic' in the way we Irish do, but when we display it to them, by golly do they enjoy it too. They may be slightly reserved when you are first introduced but that fades over time. Their reticence aside, architectural and artistic icons are cultivated even in industrial cities and towns. In Liverpool and Birmingham, old architecture has been preserved. Small municipal galleries, free to enter, have their Lowrys, Monets and Raeburns. The National in Trafalgar Square was founded to enable the masses to access the finest in world art. The people are friendly and accepting and far from being racist are open and warm, at least as far as my personal experience is concerned.

In their villages, thatched houses are preserved and plentiful, not as museum pieces, but as lived in homes with families. We, on the other hand, demolished ours en masse in the 1960s and 1970s when we wanted rid of old Ireland.

Of course the British and their way of life is imperfect. Just as we have gangland killings, so do they. They have the same problems of homeless in their cities. They have liberal abortion laws that destroy the unborn in vast numbers, although ours are now more liberal than theirs.

They have a history that brutally overwhelmed less powerful nations and that engaged in slavery. But one of theirs, Wilberforce, led the way to its abolition while Dickens cast a harsh eye on Victorian poverty. Brit-bashing became a thing of the past when the Troubles ended with the Good Friday Agreement.

Our apparent openness is now under threat as crass stereotypes suffuse our relationship with Britain. It would be ironic if the European project, and a democratic debate about its relevance, fanned the old flames of division.Brexiteers said it would never happen. Some of them laughed at us for being silly sausages even to think such a thing was possible. But a disagreeable vision loomed into our sightlines this week - a hard Border on the island of Ireland.

It's becoming increasingly likely as a consequence of that cliff-face Brexit towards which Britain is lurching, and even without the barbed wire and watch towers of former years it is uninvited, undesirable and unwelcome.

The first proof of its arrival was signalled this week by the Motor Insurers' Bureau of Ireland - not a body we associate with political predictions, but the smoke signals are revealing. Motorists from the Republic are told a green card or proof of insurance will be required when driving in the North, while vice versa applies to Northern-registered vehicles passing beyond the Border.

Make no mistake, this will have cost implications - and not just financial, although that seems probable too. And it's just the beginning.

What about your pet dog in the back of the car? Will it need paperwork such as a vet's certificate?

That green card can only be interpreted as a hardening of the Border. Any unilateral change to its status represents a breach of the Good Friday Agreement, an international treaty. Ireland and Britain are already on negative terms over Brexit and pillaging the Good Friday Agreement will drive a poisonous wedge between us and our neighbours.

Inevitably, a hard Border will lead to a Border poll and nobody knows how such a plebiscite will play out or the repercussions from the vote. That shouldn't prevent us from having one, in due course, but the groundwork must be laid first.

On this island, we all know - even the DUP knows - what needs to be agreed for an orderly Brexit to proceed: Britain must remain in the customs union and the single market, allowing the North to be treated the same as Britain while minimising differences with the Irish Republic.

Such a course neuters the backstop as an issue. But the British Cabinet is so racked by division that consensus on anything seems an impossible ask - even on what kind of biscuits they'd prefer with their coffee.

Does Theresa May realise yet that the jig is up for her premiership? Without Jeremy Corbyn onside she cannot harness the numbers for cross-party support to smooth out the Brexit chaos. But the Labour leader won't support any revised version of her Withdrawal Agreement because he has prioritised a general election above all else. And so nothing can come of nothing.

She is a tenacious politician but, at a certain stage, persistence solidifies into obduracy. Despite winning a no-confidence vote, I think the point has now arrived at which she needs to resign as prime minister of Britain.

A dangerous drift has taken hold of the Brexit process. Mrs May can't deliver her version, which means crashing out without a transition period is the default. If she steps aside now, it has the advantage of being a time she chooses herself. A dignified departure, for the greater good, would benefit both the attempt to hammer out a cross-party Brexit solution - something she is ill-equipped to negotiate - and her reputation.

Regardless of what any politician says, if Britain topples out nose-first it will have to enforce its boundary with the EU at the Irish Border.

As for the EU, it will do likewise, meaning Ireland will be obliged to introduce some infrastructure along crossing points. Technology at some remote location cannot accomplish everything deemed necessary.

Signs of progress are thin on the ground in Westminster and it seems over-optimistic to anticipate all hurdles will be cleared by Monday, when Mrs May is due to return to the House of Commons with another version of her threadbare plan.

Nobody wants a hard Border, we hear time and time again. It's beginning to sound a lot like a meaningless incantation - the only word missing is 'abracadabra'. Nobody wants illness but it happens. Nobody wants to lose their job but it happens. Saying the words doesn't eliminate the spectre - it's as effective as three year olds insisting they won't go to bed when it's long past pyjama time.

Right now, Mrs May remains in office courtesy of the DUP Ten - the numbers were so tight that if they'd voted against her, she'd have been ousted. The party's "blood red" line has watered down a bit. Pinkish? Perhaps not a DUP colour, but the party of Nigel Dodds and Arlene Foster certainly wants a solution. Its MPs return home to anxious constituents at weekends.

The DUP's visceral identification with Britain doesn't prevent its members from recognising the potential damage from a no-deal Brexit. They are a pragmatic group of people. The party can live with a less hard Border than it once envisaged and wouldn't oppose customs union and single market alignment, so long as the rest of Britain had the same arrangements.

The DUP only voted for Mrs May to keep Labour out of government. Its MPs have some influence over her and instinctively are closer to the Tories - whose official title is the Conservative and Unionist Party - plus they're afraid if Mr Corbyn gets into 10 Downing Street he'll hand the North over to the Republic.

Speaking of which, Sinn Fein is now saying a no-deal Brexit should pave the way for a Border poll, while the Scottish National Party is calling for another independence referendum. Never rains but it pours. Britain is flailing around, caught fast in a net it fashioned itself.

Even if Mrs May keeps the DUP in humour, she has so many other groupings to placate that the Twelve Labours of Hercules look rather more manageable. A change of leader or a general election are possible ways past the deadlock.

But the situation cannot continue. A prime minister without control of her own party, let alone parliament, is disastrous for Britain - intensifying its problems at a vulnerable juncture. She did her best but chose the wrong strategy, seeking agreement from within the Conservatives rather than cross-party backing. Now, the clock against her, it's too late to change course. Before she stands down she has a duty to seek an extension to Article 50 because the time pressure is intolerable and heightens the panic.

As for Mr Corbyn, while he is no Remainiac (as protesters outside the Palace of Westminster are calling those who want to stay in the EU), he needs to take a step which will not meet with approval on all sides. But it is advisable before Britain takes an irretrievable step, despite the howls it will generate in some quarters.

He needs to commit to another referendum.The word from inside Leo's inner sanctum is once the Euro and local election hurdles are cleared the June reshuffle will see Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy shifted out of the portfolio.

The housing crisis, unlike Brexit, is a disaster visited on ourselves by ourselves.

There's no reason - unlike the interminable war-zone in health - the incumbent housing minister shouldn't be a popular, dynamic deliverer.

And yet by any analysis the policies to radically increase output of affordable rental and social houses simply aren't working. I would argue changes among senior civil servants in Custom House are also required, along with the politicos. Specifically, the guidelines emanating from the chief planning officer Niall Cussen must be reappraised.

Constraints inhibit new housing development. As he moves to become an independent planning regulator, the policy must change.

Construction in 2018 once more fell well short of admittedly overblown Government promises. The approximately 18,000 new units include 12,000 one-off owner/occupier homes, retrofits and renovations.

The most recent Dublin Task Force data on housing supply reveals a 20pc decrease in the total number of units "under construction" in the latter part of 2018. The numbers of extant planning permissions, which have yet to begin construction, reveals a 36pc increase - suggesting the real problem is viability.

Last April, the Housing Department published its own review of the delivery costs and viability for affordable residential developments. It correctly noted that housing should comprise 40pc of the 20bn overall construction sector; this currently falls well short, with half the proportion that occurred in 2005/6.

The commercial/office development sector continues to rocket ahead. Thus total construction activity barometers miss dysfunction in residential construction.

Land banks have become investment commodities rather than potential building sites, as vacant site levies have had no impact. Rental yields and market values of apartment blocks are below the cost of construction. Despite Government promises to grow the city populations of Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway by 50pc, developers aren't proceeding because they can't recoup costs until the entire development is completed.

The Government promised the establishment of a housing finance agency as far back as October 2017. No working/development capital has been made available. Banks are still reluctant to provide finance outside the Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), PLCs and largest developers.

It is housing department policy to be complacently content with 20,000 units per year. They're actively preventing the building of traditional estates of three- or four-bedroom semi-detached houses.

The current housing density guidelines of 35-50 units per hectare prevent planning permission being granted for anything other than apartments.

Traditional phased developments, selling up to 30 units at a time, are choked by new legislation coming into effect last December which empowers An Bord Pleanala to prevent councils applying commonsense, localised flexibility.

New development on green field sites in the Dublin area cannot happen before 2026. The next capital development plan is to be reviewed in 2020, meaning it'll be 2022 at the earliest before more land can be re-zoned.

Given it takes two years for planning permission and a further two years to build, it'll be several years before land acquired by major residential developers can yield house keys to tenants.

Fine Gael in government has done nothing to reduce the cost of affordable homes.

Houses costing 300,000 contain a tax surcharge of 20pc or 60,000. There's been no VAT reduction or contribution rebate initiative to stimulate a one-off supply of accommodation. Development and social housing related levies are combined with infrastructural costs to make the end purchaser price well beyond the 3.5 times Central Bank mortgagors' limits.

Social and rental housing needs to increase by a factor of 10. But even bringing State-owned land to the market that could provide 70,000 units is endless delay. The new Land Development Agency awaits its first board meeting this month. It should fast-track the facilitation of construction with contract tendering.

Politicians are downright disingenuous on meeting the urgent need for housing. Public representatives campaign to stymie new houses by pandering to Nimby-ism.

The latest minister to oppose the construction of 377 apartments in Marino is local deputy Finian McGrath. Previously, in adjoining Raheny, politicians also sided with residents to enhance existing high-end property values at Griffith Avenue.

The permanent Government is happy with the housing crisis; content that large REITs (real estate investment trusts) and a coterie of developers build on large-scale sites in Dublin, which will eliminate smaller builders in a decade.

The biggest myth of all is that supply will come right if we're patient.

The truth is Brexit-related labour market requirements, homelessness pressures, demographics and repossessions will compound an ever-worsening shortage. The provision of the 35,000 units remains a political pipe-dream."It says a great deal for the power which Ireland has, both Nationalist and Orange, to lay its hands upon the vital strings of British life and politics.''

Winston Churchill went on to say the Irish are able "to hold, dominate and convulse, year after year, generation after generation'' political life in Great Britain. Such sentiments were uttered in 1922, as discussions intensified over a proposed Irish Border.

In a seminal House of Commons debate, Churchill famously referred to the "dreary steeples'' of Fermanagh and Tyrone. His much-quoted metaphor suggested that the recent World War I had made little difference to the age-old quarrel between Catholic and Protestant in Ireland.

The ghost of Churchill, who had a perceptive understanding of the Irish psyche, must be watching the current Brexit drama with a deep sense of deja vu. History is repeating itself in a most remarkable way. A cataclysm of sorts is engulfing Europe.

Yet, on a certain level, the old nationalist and unionist Irish divide is dominating the agenda, by way of the endlessly diagnosed backstop.

Fixating on this issue suits hardline Tory Brexiteers, venomously opposed to any middle-of-the-road break from the EU. There is a huge chasm between these extremists and those of more moderate views.

An unfair focus has been put on the backstop. This has tended to cloak the central issue in the Brexit debacle. A majority of Tory MPs are convinced Britain simply cannot afford to completely depart. Some are in favour of leaving - but they still want to retain close links with the EU.

This is pivotal to the logjam in the process. The party is convulsed by a bare-knuckle internal battle for dominance. Yet neither grouping has the numbers to prevail, leaving Prime Minister Theresa May immobilised.

Brexit battles are an ongoing reminder of how Trump-style isolationism is gaining traction in Western liberal democracies.

Within the EU there are some ominous stirrings, notably in Poland and Hungary.

Meanwhile, it should not be forgotten that in Ireland, despite the hysteria of our times, the politics of the extreme have made little advance. A broad-based political consensus survives. No wonder the old catchcry - that there is hardly a scintilla of ideological difference between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail - continues to hold true.

So we look on with some wonderment at our nearest neighbour. Can a clearly jaded prime minister, by force of will, achieve the nigh-impossible? Her primary problem is that she is swarmed by the sheer momentum of events outside her control.

In that sense the British ship of state is rudderless. It is sailing full steam ahead towards uncharted waters.

Yet, from an Irish perspective, there remains grounds for optimism that all will work in our favour in the end. The EU remains steadfast in its support. It is also surely inconceivable that an institution such as the House of Commons will allow a kind of national hara-kiri in the form of an extremist Brexit.

But when the dust settles things can never be quite the same again. The Irish Government has shipped a lot of criticism over its backstop stance; there is work to be done in bringing some warmth back into Anglo-Irish relations.

Meanwhile, some relationships within the Conservative fold must be irretrievably damaged. However, talks about a new party are over-speculative; it's pretty much impossible to break the electoral mould in Britain, given the first-past-the-post voting system.

All the while, soundings from Sinn Fein and the DUP remain dispiritingly tribal and predictable. For the latter, embracing the 'lunatic fringe' in the Tories with such fervour risks damaging interaction with mainstream British politicians. The jibe from Conservative grandee Ken Clarke that the DUP is a "sectarian Protestant party in Ireland" will have hurt.

Unionism may soon be forced to have a major rethink about future strategies, given the shifting sands of mainstream British politics. But as the ghost of Churchill reminds us, the "dreary steeples" will most likely still cast a long shadow.On January 21, 1969, chaos reigned on the streets outside Dublin's Mansion House as a young generation demanded radical social change. Inside the Mansion House that day, inertia reigned as a selected audience sat through a dull oration in Irish by Ireland's elderly President.

Eamon de Valera's speech was often inaudible and primarily geared towards Fianna Fail attendees in the Round Room where, 50 years previously, the first Dail held its inaugural session. RTE cameras showed some TDs looking bored as the government's commemoration meandered on, labelled by one newspaper as "historic, yet thoroughly uninspiring".

With the centenary of the first Dail occurring this month, much attention will be paid to what that momentous event told us about Ireland in 1919. Less attention will be paid to the lacklustre 50th anniversary celebrations in 1969, but they are also fascinating in revealing the generational conflicts in Ireland a half-century ago.

The Civil War bitterness lingering among the elderly Mansion House attendees in 1969 is summed up in how, after the speeches, the surviving veterans of the first Dail diverged into two dinner groups. Six dined in the Mansion House itself, where Fine Gael leader Liam Cosgrave made a speech to praise them. Two other survivors, Sean McEntee and James Ryan, attended a separate dinner in Leinster House, organised by Fianna Fail, with Jack Lynch making a similar speech.

Meanwhile, well away from these hermetically sealed diners, groups protested on the streets against the Government, claiming that the first Dail's ideals had not been upheld; especially its 'Democratic Programme' - an outline of social reforms adopted in 1919, largely as a sop to the Irish Labour Party for not running candidates in the 1918 election to give Sinn Fein a free run.

Eight people were arrested when the Dublin Housing Action Committee protested outside the Custom House, one protester being pushed down the steps by a garda. A group named Students for Democratic Action held a mock trial outside the GPO and, unsurprisingly, found the Mansion House attendees guilty and likely to be swept away by "the eventual anger and vengeance of the people against whom they have committed their crimes". Sinn Fein held its own commemoration at the Mansion House after the official event and invited the protesters outside to enter and discuss Dublin's housing crisis, although only a small number fitted into the allotted room, and calls to occupy the building were ignored.

Compared to the triumphalist Easter Rising 1966 commemorations, the 50th anniversary of the Dail slipped under the radar. But the Government's reasons for commemorating it offer an interesting insight into the politics of commemoration. Commemorations of the first Dail were rare before 1969 - partially because the War of Independence coincidentally began on the same day. They were generally partisan. In 1929, Sinn Fein commemorated the 10th anniversary to present itself as the true heir to the first Dail. Fianna Fail responded with minor commemorations in 1936, 1944 and 1959.

By 1968, Jack Lynch's Fianna Fail Government realised it needed to commemorate the 50th anniversary or else Fine Gael might commemorate the third Dail, formed in December 1922, after the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which led to the Irish Free State. Fianna Fail felt any public commemoration of the third Dail would undermine the authority of the previous two, with military activity undertaken by party members during the War of Independence perceived as having been done to defend a non-existent government. As one civil servant wrote, the first Dail's anniversary could not pass without the party "establishing the historical position". By honouring the first Dail, the Government hoped to also avoid commemorating the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

Charles Haughey was tasked with organising this commemoration. Then finance minister, he showed little interest and decided on no input from historians because commemoration was not "the metier of historians". The event would be downplayed, unlike 1966, because he argued that the commemoration was "political, rather than cultural or historical". He rejected ideas of the Abbey Theatre re-enacting the first meeting, and initially tried to prevent his event - a succession of Mansion House speeches to invited guests - being televised.

He was successful in ensuring that the commemoration roused little public interest, even if the Mansion House event had small dramas like when the veteran Joseph Clarke shouted in Irish that it was "a mockery", before being ejected. But its drabness can be gauged by how the British ambassador Andrew Gilchrist remarked to De Valera that "this time the British are with you". It served its purpose for Fianna Fail in avoiding having to commemorate more contentious anniversaries like the Treaty. In 1994, the government appeared to forget the 75th anniversary.

Hopefully in this month's centenary commemorations, historians won't be shunned and the focus will be more on events 100 years ago rather than contemporary political point scoring."They do tourism right," you said.

It's hard to argue with that. "Every view is a framed picture," readers told us, noting the Kingdom's "fjord-like coastline" and breathtaking range of natural wonders, from the Skelligs to Slea Head, from killer beaches to Killarney National Park.

"If Kerry had six uninterrupted weeks of sunshine, it would be world famous," you said. "The people, the beaches, the islands, the views, the stars, the wildlife, the food and the pubs... it has everything."

And a little extra, too.

Lots of readers listed Kerry's unrivalled array of activities, from surfing and scenic drives to its Dark Sky Reserve. Kerry has "the friendliest people to welcome you," you added, "great pubs and restaurants along the way", and a "cosmopolitan" tone to its food, eateries, atmosphere and craic.

Nostalgia was important too, with many evoking "childhood memories" and family holidays now being recreated with new generations.

Kerry sounds like an obvious pick, but our judges noted that the county refuses to rest on its laurels. It wrote the rule book for Irish tourism, but it also continues to innovate - be it via thriving food scenes in Dingle and Kenmare, off-season festivals like Other Voices, or re-brands like the 'Reeks District' (pictured top) - named by Rough Guides as one of the best places in the world to visit this year.

Good old-school Kerry confidence never really seeps into complacency, we reckon - and it's worth noting that Killarney, Dingle and Kenmare all ranked in your Top 20 home holiday destinations in their own right. You also singled out its islands and "bustling towns" like Listowel and Tralee.

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"Outstanding natural beauty, hauntingly so in places... and yet the people and towns are oddly cosmopolitan, with the range of food influences and ease with different people so lovely... the best of the local and the global are on offer here."

"We visit nearly every year. Never looks the same, never changes, never get tired of it," you said. You noted "hospitality at its best" and "the particular calming Irish feeling that comes over you" on a holiday here. "There is something magical about the place that makes everyone happy with life."

"It's like being away, but not."

Top 10 Home Holiday Destinations

1. Kerry

"What Ireland is all about... an Irish welcome with top-class scenery and food."

2. Galway

"The beaches, the scenery, the sexy accents, the wee pubs and the ceol agus craic!"

3. Cork

"Homely and welcoming foodie heaven... Pure beauty... Costa del Cork is paradise!"

4. Wexford

"Culture, friendly and beside the sea... not as busy as the west coast... if you don't know, you're missing it."

5. Donegal

"Best beaches, unspoiled countryside and an abundance of sincere hospitality and charm... the accent and scenery are beautiful things."

6. Westport

"A small town with a big heart... everything needed for a weekend away."

7. Clare

"Beautiful, peaceful... fantastic beaches, great craic with the local people."

8. Dublin

"Cosmopolitan, diverse city... so much to do and never short of ambience."

9. Kilkenny

"A medieval marvel that is brimming full of culture, art, music food and sport... plus it's only 45 minutes to the nearest beach!"

10. Waterford

"Ireland's most underrated city... Winterval and Waterford Greenway, great people, amazing food culture and fantastic festival vibes!"

NB: The Irish Independent Reader Travel Awards 2019 are sponsored by Iarnrod Eireann. Read the full list of winners here.

Read more:"It's Ireland," one reader said simply.

Aer Lingus may be owned by IAG, but it's clear the airline retains a unique place in the hearts of our readers.

"It feels like you're home when you step on board," you told us. "You don't feel like a statistic... they're actually human."

Some of you are new customers. Others have been flying with the former national airline since the 1950s. But there was a consistency to your comments. Aer Lingus now charges for baggage, seat selection, food and drink on many routes, but you still value its "genuine" aura, often lauding it in terms of feelings and emotions - nowhere moreso than in your stories of the kindnesses that make flying with the airline so special.

Expand Expand Previous Next Close Aer Lingus's new livery and logo. Pic: Aer Lingus First Officer Niall McCauley;First Officer Laura Bennett;Sean Doyle, Aer Lingus Chief Executive;and First Officer Paul Deegan. Pic: Naoise Culhane / Facebook

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"You feel you start your holiday as soon as you board the plane with the welcoming crew," you said, highlighting their "unbelievable service" in actions ranging from replacing lost boarding passes to helping with buggies, from bumping one injured passenger up to business class, to going the extra mile for another on dialysis.

"I was travelling back to Paris, where I was living, and was very upset to leave family and friends behind. The flight attendants gave me tea and biscuits 'on the house'. A little bit of kindness goes a long way."

This is Aer Lingus's third time to win 'Ireland's Favourite Airline'. This year, our judges noted its growing role as an ambassador for Irish tourism, not just in flying more visitors into the country, but in the tone it sets for them.

"On one occasion I spoke with an elderly lady as we waited for our luggage," one reader told us. "She said that if the people she met on the rest of her holiday were anything like the crew, she and her friend were in for the trip of a lifetime."

"It's common sense service, with a human touch."

Travel Trends: Neo frontiers

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Three years since its acquisition by IAG, Aer Lingus is soaring.

New routes this year include Montreal and Minneapolis-St Paul, a brand refresh includes new uniforms by Louise Kennedy, and more than a dozen new aircraft are on the way to help fuel its transatlantic expansion.

Aer Lingus will take delivery of 14 new A321LR 'neo' aircraft by 2023. The single-aisle planes are 20pc more fuel efficient and will not only fly transatlantic, but bring Business Class back to its European short-haul flights.

'Smart Flies' seems an appropriate tagline. However, our judges note that Brexit and economic uncertainties, together with fuel price fluctuations, mean nobody in the airline industry can rest on their laurels.

Travel Trends: Rating Ryanair

Expand Close In 2014, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary landed at Dublin airport with the first of Ryanair's new Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft from Seattle. The aircraft has become a staple for Irish travellers. / Facebook

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Whatsapp In 2014, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary landed at Dublin airport with the first of Ryanair's new Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft from Seattle. The aircraft has become a staple for Irish travellers.

2018 was in many ways a typical year for Ryanair - PR disasters, new fees, a falling number of votes in our Reader Travel Awards... and booming profits and passenger numbers.

"Without them I would not be able to visit home as often as I have done," you told us, bemoaning its bag charges but recognising its "value", punctuality and unmatched range of European destinations. "Ryanair is just like taking a taxi," you told us. "It has nothing to envy of Aer Lingus. There are more routes, prices are cheaper... and it's rarely late."

"It keeps other airlines on their toes," you said. "What you see is what you get. They broke the mould."

"Without them, we could not afford to go anywhere," readers added, hailing an airline that "does what it says on the tin".

While many readers voted Aer Lingus No.1 "because it's not Ryanair," there was also a wide recognition of how Ryanair "reinvented" the airline business.

"Without them we could not afford to go anywhere. You gave us cheap flights. Before that it would cost a week's wages to fly from Dublin to London."

NB: The Irish Independent Reader Travel Awards 2019 are sponsored by Iarnrod Eireann. Read the full list of winners here.Irish Red Cross Carer of the Year Eileen Cunniffe is a full-time carer for not just one, but two people.

Eileens husband Liam had a stroke eight years ago and her mother Colleen Curley was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia six years ago.

Eileens daughter Emma said: Although Dad is independent in a lot of ways, brain injury has affected his coordination, and his personality is altered a lot. With Granny, her short-term memory isnt great, and some nights shed be up five or six times a night, so Mam doesnt really get to sleep much at night.

She has two people with mental health issues which is a lot to take on when youve your own family and grandkids as well.

Eileens week is a whirlwind of constant appointments  both in hospital and with the doctor, while Eileen also ensures Liam and Colleen take all of their medication.

Shes the kind of person who would put everybody before herself, says Eileens other daughter Colleen. Shes always been that way inclined, its just in her personality, its in her nature.

Obviously there are days where it would be quite stressful and it is exhausting, it is tiring for her but she just does it, she gets on with it, even if there are days where shes sick herself or theres things going on, she just  they just dont make them like her anymore!

Eileen has also become involved in an Alzheimers Association Memory Cafe which was set up by Fiona Carmody and Aoife Tynan and meets once a month.

Mam volunteers there because she knows what other families are going through and she bakes for that, says Emma.

She goes down and chats with those who need to talk - its an outlet for other families who are struggling with a family member being diagnosed. With all that shes doing  shes trying to give a bit back to the community as well. Shes great, shes very much a selfless person and I would say definitely a person whos full of empathy. Shes always able to feel what other people are going through.

The Irish Red Cross Carer of the Year Awards acknowledges the vital role carers play in looking after the most vulnerable members of our society. This is an annual award open to all voluntary carers in Ireland. This award acknowledges the dedication of carers at home and in the community, who display true humanitarian values.

Its nice for her, just to say thank you, and for her to be acknowledged for the work she does in the background, explains Emma. A lot of people probably wont even know what goes on behind closed doors or what people have to go through on a daily basis - there is a lot to be dealt with. Even at night time, most people are able to lay their heads down and get a good nights sleep whereas Mam still has a full-time job throughout the night making sure that granny is ok and that shes safe, and to comfort her.Legal battle: Algerian-Irish jihadist Ali Charaf Damache was sentenced to 15 years in jail in the USA in October after pleading guilty to terrorism charges. Picture: Patrick Browne

The State is seeking to strip an imprisoned jihadist of his Irish citizenship, the Irish Independent can reveal.

But the move is set to be challenged by lawyers for Algerian-born Ali Charaf Damache, who is serving a 15-year sentence in the US after admitting to providing material support to Islamic terrorists.

As part of a plea-deal, the 53-year-old agreed to be deported to Ireland or Algeria after completing his sentence.

However, if he loses his Irish citizenship, Damache faces being sent to Algeria, where he fears he would be detained and mistreated.

Damache was raised in France from the age of six and moved to Ireland in 2000.

He lived in Waterford City and gained citizenship in 2008 after marrying an Irish woman.

Authorities would later link him to al-Qa'ida and a jihadist cell that was plotting attacks in Europe and southern Asia.

He conspired with Colleen LaRose, a Pennsylvania woman also known as 'Jihad Jane', in a plot to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks in retaliation for a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad as a dog.

US prosecutors alleged Damache preyed on vulnerable Americans to get them to fly to Europe and join a violent terrorist cell he was forming.

The decision of the State to seek to revoke Damache's citizenship was revealed in papers filed in the High Court by his lawyers earlier this week.

Damache's legal team is seeking an order restraining Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan from revoking his citizenship. The action also seeks to strike down a section of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, which gives the minister powers to revoke citizenship.

His lawyers claim a section of the act is repugnant to the Constitution and incompatible with the requirements of EU law and the Charter of Fundamental Freedoms of the EU.

Damache fought a long battle against extradition to the US. Although extradition was refused by the Irish courts, he would later be arrested in Barcelona and extradited by Spanish authorities in 2017.

He pleaded guilty in a Federal Court in Philadelphia last July to a charge that while resident in Ireland in or around 2010, he materially assisted an Islamic terrorist conspiracy.

Last October, shortly before he was sentenced, he was informed of the minister's intention to revoke his citizenship on the grounds he had failed in his duty of loyalty and fidelity to the State.

In a statement to ground an application for a judicial review, Damache's lawyers said the deprivation of citizenship would lead to "extremely negative consequences" for Damache, including restriction on his entry to the EU.

They said Damache had children living in France.

The statement said he would also be liable to be deported to Algeria at the end of his sentence.

"The applicant fears that he may be detained there and mistreated by the Algerian security services, having regard to the nature of the offence he has been convicted of," it said.

The statement went on to say Damache rebuffs the contention that he failed in his duty of fidelity to the State.

It said that it was worth considering whether Damache's guilty plea proved he had engaged in conduct which demonstrated a lack of fidelity to the State or was the result of his desire to avoid a 45-year prison sentence if he had unsuccessfully contested the charges.

The statement said that historically there has been a negligible chance of successfully defending federal terrorism charges.Josepha Madigan has declared herself to be a dedicated feminist as she called for more feminist women in leadership roles, saying that we have not achieved full equality in this country.

Speaking at the Fem Fest, hosted by Orla OConnor for the National Womens Council of Ireland, the Culture Minister said that, 100 years after the first Dail sitting, there is a need for more feminists in power.

I was interested in hearing what Orla OConnor said earlier, she said.

That its not just about having more women in leadership, its about having more feminist women.

I can assure you ladies, I am a dedicated feminist.

The Dublin Rathdown minister, whose department funded the Fem Fest, highlighted the historical inequality that once faced women in Ireland, who have shared equal voting rights with men for less than 100 years.

Mrs Madigan, who is just the 19th female Minister in Irish cabinet, hailed the work of the first, Countess Markievicz, but claimed that full equality has yet to be achieved. Countess Markievicz stood for election just over 100 years ago and was the first woman elected, in 1919, with 7,835 votes or 65.9pc of the poll in the constituency of Dublin St. Patricks.

I regret having to say, 100 years on Countess Markievicz's work remains unfinished, Ms Madigan said.

One hundred years on, we have not achieved full equality in this country. At 22pc in Dail Eireann and 32pc in Seanad Eireann, female representation in the houses of the Oireachtas is way behind what it should be.

We must take up the mantle once worn by Countess Markievicz and so many inspiring women like her and work to ensure that our progress continues.

It is not that women are better or worse than men, but that we do bring a different prospective, a prospective that is sorely needed not just in government but throughout our society.

We know from experience that diversity of opinion leads to better decision making and the good news is that we are making progress.Emotional: Brian Crowley says he had no choice but to give up his role as an MEP. Photo: Provision

Veteran MEP Brian Crowley fought back tears yesterday as he revealed his long-standing medical issues are forcing him to quit.

The Ireland South MEP confirmed he will be stepping down after 25 years' service and will not contest next May's Euro elections.

Mr Crowley (54), who told the Irish Independent in 2013 that he asked in vain for doctors to amputate his legs, has been unable to attend a single session of the current European Parliament.

He has used a wheelchair since 1980, when a freak fall left him paralysed.

Since 2014, he has undergone 30 surgeries, mostly for pressure sores on his legs.

The Cork politician's decision not to contest the 2011 Presidential election led to a clash with Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin.

In 2014, he was suspended from Fianna Fail after he joined the European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament. Fianna Fail said the principles of the ECR were incompatible with the party.

Mr Crowley has not met Mr Martin since 2014.

But he said of the party leader: "We are not enemies - we are not at loggerheads with each other. I hold no grudge."

Mr Martin, along with Irish MEPs, last night paid tribute to Mr Crowley's public service.

Mr Crowley, who topped the poll in all five European Parliament elections he contested since 1994 was devastated his health left him unable to fulfil his lifelong ambition of contesting a Presidential election.

"Is this what I wanted? No, it is not," he said. "I wanted to be out in Brussels and Strasbourg but I was not able to. My legs, my hips and my thighs are like a relief map of Ireland from before the Ice Age.

"Am I hurt at how things worked out? Yes I am. It is incredibly frustrating. I wanted to do my best for my constituents and the people who voted for me.

"Do you think this does not hurt me? The fact that I cannot do what I was doing all along? The job I loved? Of course I wanted to do better for people.

"I have never kept my health issues a secret. It breaks my heart to leave a job that I have loved since I was first elected.

"But I have been in hospital for a long period of time - over three-and-a-half years with a number of surgeries.

"I will continue in my term of office up until May but I won't be putting myself forward as a candidate for election or selection for May."

The MEP rejected criticisms that he should have retired before now.

"Over the period of time I was in hospital, the work has not stopped. I was working from hospital and via my staff," he said.

"I was working through my contacts within the EU Commission and EU Parliament that I have built up for almost 30 years."

"Yes, people did deserve better. I tried to do my very best. But I couldn't physically do it and it is not what I wanted."

Mr Crowley's voice wavered as he said he hoped that planned surgery this year would finally solve his problems.

"I did not want to be in a hospital bed. I loved my job. I loved the excitement of what I was doing every single day in Brussels in Strasbourg because I was defending Ireland's interests."Vicky Phelan, pictured at FemFest, the national Women's council of Ireland flagship event for young women aged 16 to 25 Picture credit: Damien Eagers / INM

Vicky Phelan, pictured at FemFest, the national Women's council of Ireland flagship event for young women aged 16 to 25 Picture credit: Damien Eagers / INM

Vicky Phelan, pictured at FemFest, the national Women's council of Ireland flagship event for young women aged 16 to 25 Picture credit: Damien Eagers / INM

Vicky Phelan has said that she would like to see Simon Harris as a future Taoiseach.

The Limerick woman said that Mr Harris has the qualities needed for leadership as she admitted that she has become and "accidental leader".

"To be honest, from my dealings with him, I think Simon Harris would make a great Taoiseach," she said, just days after she criticised Taoiseach Leo Varadkar for his handling of the CervicalCheck scandal.

"He has stood up to the plate and made some tough decisions even when they werent popular.

"I think he has empathy and at the same time hes honest. Thats what I think is lacking in some of our politicians.

"Id rather if people would say look Vicky, we cant do this or this will take 6 months. Promising and not delivering is worse when youre breaking promises to people, particularly in cases like our where there are women dying," she said.

Mrs Phelan criticised Taoiseach Leo Varadkar for being "all talk and no action", last week before collecting the Fitzgerald Bible Bruff Award.

She added today that the Fine Gael leader has broken promises to the CervicalCheck Scandal victims.

"Im not sure if it is honesty that he [Leo Varadkar] is lacking," she said.

"I think a lot of it is dealing with things as it happens. He thinks that if he promises something, this will go away and that people are not going to follow through on it.

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"At the start of the year I just saw that things werent happening fast enough.

"We had been promised this tribunal and then it was pushed out until the end of the year and women have been in touch with me that dont want to go to court. Theres a human story, these are not just numbers they are women."

The 44-year-old mother-of-two put the scandal in the media spotlight when she refused to sign a confidentiality clause following her High Court case against CervicalCheck in April, despite the added compensation that the clause may have brought.

Speaking about women in leadership at Fem Fest, the National Womens Council of Irelands flagship event, Mrs Phelan said that she went public with her issue to help other women.

"I was trying to distill it down, as to why I did what I did," she said.

"I wanted to help other women because I knew that there were other women like me out there and its not like I wanted to become a leader to get this position of power. I wanted to help other women.

"It was like Russian roulette. I really thought I had a matter of weeks left. The only way I can describe it, was that, because I knew I only had a matter of weeks left at that point, when youre faced with that kind of prognosis, nothing else matters except for doing the right thing.

"I wasnt going to be bought.

"Im an accidental leader. I think you just have to step up to the mark," she continued.

"Its a hard thing to do to come out and tell your story because theres always going to be a bit of a backlash.

"When its coming from your heart and when you feel so strongly about something you dont really care about what you look like. Im about two stone heavier than I was before I had cancer. I couldnt give a s**t."

Mrs Phelan said that her role model as a girl was Mary Robinson and while she said that the former presidents praise inspired her to continue in her role as a leader for young women, it is for her daughter and other girls that she continues her work.

"Mary Robinson was one of the leaders I would have looked up to when I was young," she reminisced.

In 1990, she became president and I was 15, so she would have been one I would have watched growing up. To meet her and to have her say to me that she admires what Im doing was fantastic and it spurs you on.

"At the end of the day though, its the message that counts. I have a 13 year-old daughter and thats what Im doing all of this for. If I die, I want to make sure that something I can leave behind is a health system that I can say, hand on heart, Ive made better for her.

"Women need to help each other out, and when women help each other out were better than any men. If you start making small changes the big ones will start to follow."Mother-of-four Teresa Ross has to pay 6,500 for two of her children's dental treatments and it will take up to two years to pay off the costs.

Her daughters Holly (18) and Lucy (13) need braces and she says it is important that her children are fully confident when they smile.

Teresa, from Tallaght, Dublin, who also has a son, Sam (9), said she prioritises her children's health needs over her own.

The sales worker said herself and the children's father have both made sacrifices for the cost and are sharing the financial burden.

"If I cracked a tooth tomorrow, I wouldn't go and see about it because it's just too expensive," Teresa said.

"And the children come first. I'm working full-time and there's bills to pay and a mortgage, so my children's dental care is a priority above my own.

"Lucy needed her teeth done, she didn't qualify for any reduction and I wanted her to be confident in her smile, so I had to pay 3,000, 100 for a mould, a 500 deposit, then I pay 150 every five weeks. She needs teeth taken out, two or three, so that's around another 100. Holly's getting measured for a brace and that will cost around 3,500. Her's is more technical work, so that's 100 today and a 500 deposit.

"It'll work out 300 a month for Holly and Lucy together and will be paid off in about two years."

Teresa said she feels the Department of Health should roll out a programme to provide free dental care for all young people.

"Dental care is only free for children in primary school," she said. "There should be more help for families because so many just can't afford to go to the dentist and in the end that's bad for society that people are delaying healthcare or neglecting it."Some pregnant women whose unborn baby has been diagnosed with a major foetal abnormality may still have to travel abroad for a termination, according to new guidelines issued to obstetricians.

The guidelines, from the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, point out the new abortion law restricts termination in this country to diagnosed foetal abnormalities that are likely to be fatal.

Obstetricians in maternity units across the country were only issued with the guidance on how to manage cases of fatal foetal abnormality under the new abortion law yesterday. It follows the claims made in the Dail earlier this week that a pregnant woman, who was told by doctors in the Coombe Hospital in Dublin that her unborn child had a fatal foetal abnormality, was refused an abortion.

Confusion remains about the exact details of the case, and the full diagnosis which was given to the woman when she went for a scan at 13 weeks into her pregnancy.

The document makes clear that not all foetal abnormalities can be diagnosed as fatal early on and cases should be discussed by a multi-disciplinary team of doctors to reach a consensus and prognosis.

It lists 14 fatal foetal abnormalities and life-limiting conditions which are highly likely to lead to death in the womb, or in the newborn period in the first 28 days of life.

"The prognosis may become clearer as the pregnancy progresses," the document pointed out.

The document also states that surgical terminations after 12 weeks of pregnancy are unlikely to be "widely available" in maternity services in 2019. This may also be the case for dilation and evacuation after 14 weeks of pregnancy "but this might change over time".

If a pregnant woman has a scan and major foetal anomaly is suspected, she should be referred to a specialist on foetal medicine within 24 to 72 hours.

Last Thursday, the Dail was told by Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger and People Before Profit TD Brid Smith the woman who was attending the Coombe was informed the organs of the foetus were outside the body.

They said the woman was advised to wait a number of weeks for to see if she had a "spontaneous miscarriage".

Women who are turned down by doctors for an abortion have the right under legislation to apply for a review under the new law with different specialists deciding their case. The Coombe is providing terminations to women who seek a termination after a diagnosed fatal foetal abnormality which has been certified by doctors under the new legislation.

The Coombe Hospital has had to limit the full range of services it is providing under the new law since January 1. It has informed the HSE it hopes to be able to provide a full service in the first week in February. Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has told obstetricians that doctors carrying out terminations under the new law will not be prosecuted.

The Association for the Improvement of Maternity Services in Ireland has also called on the Rotunda and National Maternity Hospital to accept referrals for abortions from outside their catchment areas.The Dublin Well Woman Centre, which had a 31pc rise in women coming for cervical screening since the CervicalCheck scandal in May, said it is concerned the results of some tests carried out in November have still not come back.

They are among a national backlog of test results that was sparked by the surge in women seeking free screening.

All of the testing for the Well Woman Centre has been carried out in the Coombe Hospital laboratory in Dublin since 2014.

Medical director Dr Shirley McQuade said: "Since the start of 2014, all of our smear tests have been sent to the Coombe laboratory. We greatly value the importance of having smears analysed in Ireland; it's easier for us to communicate with the laboratory, and the turn-around time had always been quick.

"Before the crisis of confidence in the system, we were getting results back from the lab in about four weeks. However, since last May, the delay has been running at about 10 weeks.

"We are concerned this lengthy delay is still a feature of the service. Even now, we have not received results from smears taken in early November. The delay in analysis increases the sense of worry many women can feel about their smear test."

Regular cervical smear tests are still the best way to prevent cervical cancer, says the Well Woman Centre.

Chief executive Alison Begas said that in May, when the scandal broke, the centre conducted 1,188 smear tests, compared to 563 for the same month in 2017 - a 111pc increase. Between May and December 2018, there was a 31pc rise. "Some were women who had not had a smear test in a while; others may have received a invitation letter from CervicalCheck and put it on the 'long finger'," she said.I think this is a very necessary conversation people need to be having in Naperville and the Chicago area because we are still so segregated, she said. There are many schools in Naperville that have almost no black students in them and many schools where there is not a single black teacher teaching.Irish nurses held a demonstration in Sydney today after of the upcoming strikes Photo: Support for Nurses, Midwives and Frontline Staff in Ireland/Facebook

HUNDREDS of Irish nurses in Australia have challenged the Irish Government to give them a reason to come home.

Organisers said that 250 nurses attended a demonstration in Sydney on Saturday to show solidarity with striking nurses in Ireland.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and the Psychiatric Nurses Association have both announced industrial action in a row over pay and conditions.

The INMO will begin their strike on January 30, with five more days planned in February; while the PNA has put an overtime ban in place on January 31 and is also planning further industrial action next month.

Hundreds of nurses gathered on the steps of the iconic Sydney Opera House on Saturday holding an Irish flags and signs that read "Give us a reason to come home."

The Support for Nurses, Midwives and Frontline Staff Facebook page shared a video from one of the organisers of the rally talking about her reasons for being there.

She explained: "Today over 250 Irish nurses working in Sydney stand together to send a message of support to all Irish nurses and midwives striking on January 30.

"We stand with the INMO and the PNA, who are fighting for us.

"We will not come home until our skills are recognised and we are paid equally with other allied health professionals.

"It is not competitive pay rates that Ireland is offering and therefore there is a recruitment issue and a crisis in Ireland.

"At the end of the day this directly affects patient safety and that's why we're here.

"We send a message to Leo, Simon and all of the Irish Government - give us a reason to come home."

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has ruled out a 12pc pay hike for nurses to avert strikes because of the "great risk" of knock-on claims by public servants.

Mr Donohoe claimed every other public servant would be demanding the same judge-led assessment.

"That route will spell massive difficulty for the ability of this wage agreement to stay in place, the ability of any further wage agreement to be negotiated at a time we are facing such risk to our economy," he said.ORLA Church, one of the 221 women caught up in the CervicalCheck controversy, has died days after the Health Service Executive and a US laboratory agreed to settle her legal action.

Ms Church, 54, was one of the 221 women with cervical cancer found to have received incorrect smear tests during a clinical audit of past tests by the CervicalCheck screening programme.

Ms Church, from Beaumont in north Dublin, died yesterday morning at the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin, surrounded by members of her family.

She was told last May that her cancer was terminal. In her final months, she campaigned behind the scenes for better services for the women who were impacted by the screening failures.

In her own case, Ms Church had two smear tests in 2011 and 2014 which found no abnormalities. She was referred to hospital in December 2015 with pelvic pain and was later diagnosed with cervical cancer when a tumour of over 4cms showing up in a scan.

Ms Church advocated for promoting awareness of cervical cancer and services for women who were caught up in the CervicalCheck controversy.

She worked closely with Dr Peter McKenna, of the Health Service Executive, on guidance notes for doctors and also, with the Irish Cancer Society. She also gave an interview to Joe Duffys RTE Radio programme, although not giving her full name.

Ms Church sued the Health Service Executive and the US laboratory Quest Diagnostics over the alleged misinterpretation of her smear tests.

The defendants denied the claims.

She was in the High Court last week before Mr Justice Kevin Cross, who acknowledged the extreme urgency of her case. Mr Justice Cross sent the case for mediation.

Talks took place on Thursday and it is understood that an agreement was reached that is due to be ratified by the High Court next week.

However, Ms Churchs health had deteriorated last week. She was hospitalised and died shortly before 7am yesterday.

Tributes have been paid to Ms Church this evening and she has been remembered for her courage.

Vicky Phelan, whose court case brought the CervicalCheck scandal to light, has spoken of the importance of Ms Church's campaigning.

She said: "So very sad to hear this news today. Deepest sympathies to Orla's family.

"What many people won't know is that Orla campaigned fiercely for better screening for women, like her, with adenocarcinoma, a more aggressive form of cervical cancer and the HPV vaccine."

Stephen Teap, whose wife Irene died from cervical cancer, said: "Very sad to hear of Orla's passing.

"Another brave woman leaves us on the back of this #cervicalcheckdebacle. My deepest sympathies to all of Orla's family."

221Plus, the CervicalCheck patient support group also paid tribute to Ms Church this evening.

The group said in a statement: "We have just learned with great sadness of the death of Orla Church, a member of the 221+ CervicalCheck Patient Support Group.

"We offer deepest sympathy to her entire family and friends at this very difficult and sad time. Many of us got to meet and know Orla in the past months and she was just such a wonderfully courageous, strong and inspiring person.

"She campaigned tirelessly on behalf of all us affected by the CervicalCheck debacle and we are and will continue to be so grateful to her for this outstanding work.

"All of us in the 221+ CervicalCheck Patient Support Group will be thinking about Orla's family in the coming days and will be available to assist them in any way we can."

Ms Church will repose at Kirwan Funeral Home, Fairview Strand on Monday and will be buried on Tuesday at Balgriffin Cemetery following funeral Mass at the Church of Our Lady of Consolation, Donnycarney.A woman was left dangling half way out of a moving getaway car after she chased down the man who had snatched her wallet, a court has heard.

Tony Carrick (41) was given a partially suspended sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after he admitted robbing Aoife O'Reilly as she was standing in line for a coffee at a petrol station in Finglas, north Dublin.

After asking her for the time Carrick grabbed her wallet and fled to a car. Ms O'Reilly pursued and ended up half in and half out of the vehicle.

Both Carrick and the driver shouted at her to get out or I'll fucking kill you and Carrick punched her in the head.

The driver drove 200 yards while Ms O'Reilly's legs were dangling outside of the car. Carrick told her that if she got out of the car he would throw her the wallet, but the driver pushed her out and drove away.

Carrick of Knowth Court, Poppintree, Dublin pleaded guilty to robbery and endangerment on December 13, 2016.

Carrick is already serving a five and a half year jail term for burglaries and an attempted car-jacking. Judge Karen O'Connor yesterday directed that the sentence for these latest crimes run consecutive to this sentence, as Carrick was out on bail for the earlier crimes when he offended again.

This brings Carrick's total sentence to eight years for all matters. Judge O'Connor suspended the final two and a half years from the total sentence of eight years. She backdated the sentence to December 2016 when Carrick went into custody.

Carrick also admitted a second robbery at another filling station on the same day in which he only managed to make off with an apron.

Detective Sergeant Shane McCartan told Sinead McMullan BL, prosecuting, Barbara Macken was starting work at Topaz in The Ward, Dublin, when she was approached by Carrick.

Carrick again asked for the time and then attempted to grab her handbag but only succeeded in taking her apron. When he realised this he threw it down before jumping into the same car as the earlier robbery.

The court heard the driver, who was involved in both incidents, is now deceased.

Carrick's 110 previous convictions include assault, criminal damage, burglary, endangerment, robbery and unlawful possession of ammunition.

Det Sgt McCartan agreed with Luigi Rea BL, defending, that Carrick was in a drug induced state at the time of the incidents. Mr Rea remarked that his client had been using crack cocaine which drives people a little bit crazy, people say.

Mr Rea said that Carrick was seeking treatment for his addictions. He handed into the court a two-page letter of apology written by his client.

Judge O'Connor described the incidents as horrendous behaviour. She noted that Ms O'Reilly has recurring nightmares, suffers panic attacks in crowded places and has lost confidence.

She further noted that Ms O'Reilly had stated that she is unlikely to help strangers as a result of feeling unsafe.

The judge accepted that Carrick has poor cognitive functioning, has a significant history of substance abuse and institutional abuse and that he had entered an early plea.A truck driver who crashed into a broken-down car on the M50 causing the death of its driver has received a fully suspended sentence.

Barry Grogan (38), of Thornville Avenue, Kilbarrack, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to careless driving causing the death of Martina Loughlin near the M50 Lucan junction on November 11, 2015.

Judge Martin Nolan sentenced Grogan to one year's imprisonment but suspended the entirety of the sentence for a year providing he keeps the peace and is of good behaviour. He also suspended Grogan from driving for four years, starting on March 18 this year.

Sergeant Padraig Jennings told Paul Murray SC, prosecuting, that just before 5am on the morning in question, Ms Loughlin was driving to her job in UCD when her car broke down and stopped on the M50 near the Lucan junction.

She sat in her car for around 17 minutes prior to the incident, attempting to contact her insurance company while vehicles navigated around her.

Witnesses reported being able to see the car's hazard warning lights, despite the torrential rain.

Grogan was driving a Volvo lorry which struck Ms Loughlin's car and propelled it 60 metres forwards down the road. A second vehicle drove into Ms Loughlin's car around seven seconds after the first crash. The driver of this truck does not face prosecution.

Ms Loughlin was taken from the scene and pronounced dead on November 14, 2015 as a result of injuries caused by the collision.

In a voluntary statement to gardai a month after the accident, Grogan said he did not see the hazard warning lights before the crash. He said he "really wished" the crash had never happened.

In a victim impact statement which was read out in court, Ms Loughlin's partner and extended family described the "devastating loss" they had suffered and said that Ms Loughlin had been "the link who kept us all together".

"Our hearts froze in November 2015 and we fear they may never thaw," they revealed.

Sgt Jennings agreed with John D Fitzgerald SC, defending, that the crash had been caused by inattention. Mr Fitzgerald extended an apology on behalf of his client to the Loughlin family and remarked that Grogan was "visibly upset in court".

Grogan is married with two children and has no previous convictions.

In considering the sentence, Judge Nolan said he took into account Grogan's plea of guilty, his co-operation and his obvious remorse.

He remarked that he did not think "there is a person in this court who hasn't been inattentive".A SON of Sinn Fein TD Aengus O Snodaigh has been accused of assaulting a garda and causing a public order disturbance in north Dublin.

Fearghal O Snodaigh (23) is alleged to have become threatening before resisting arrest and assaulting the officer in an incident at a garda station.

The case against him was adjourned when he appeared before Dublin District Court accused of three offences.

Mr O Snodaigh, of Naas Road, Dublin 8, was summonsed before the court on Thursday to face an allegation that he assaulted Gda Niall Carolan at Ballymun Garda Station.

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The offence is alleged to have happened on February 28 last year.

Mr O Snodaigh is further charged with obstructing Gda Carolan and using threatening, abusive and insulting words or behaviour, with intent to provoke a breach of the peace.

Thursdays appearance was Mr O Snodaighs first court date in relation to the case, and Judge Anthony Halpin adjourned it until a date next month, when the accused is expected to indicate whether he intends to plead guilty to the charges or contest them.

Mr O Snodaigh is not required to be on bail as he was brought to court by way of summons rather than being formally charged.

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He has not yet entered a plea to the charges.

A section two assault charge, unlike the more serious charge of assault causing harm, does not allege any injury was caused and the maximum sentence on conviction is six-month imprisonment.

The offence of obstructing a peace officer also carries a maximum jail term of six months, while those found guilty of breaching the peace can be sentenced to up to three months.

The alleged offences, all of which can only be dealt with summarily in the non-jury district court, are also punishable by fines on conviction.

The accuseds father, Aengus O Snodaigh, has been a TD for Dublin South-Central since 2002.A rapist who had part of his prison term suspended will be released today, despite an allegation that he did not participate adequately in a sex offender treatment programme.

On the night of August 9, 2013 the man, who cannot be named to protect the anonymity of the victim, broke into his ex-partner's home and repeatedly raped her during a five-hour ordeal.

Armed with a hatchet, the Cork man forced his way into her home and threatened to kill her by driving them both into the sea. He also cut her off her hair with a scissors because she wasnt performing sexual acts to his liking.

The 58-year-old had initially denied the attack but later pleaded guilty to rape at the womans Cork home in the early hours of August 9, 2013. He has no previous convictions.

In October 2013, Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan imposed a ten-year sentence but suspended the last three years on condition that the man be of good behaviour for the ten years. He also set a condition that the man engage with the Better Lives sex offender treatment programme while in custody.

With remission the man is due for release today and yesterday the DPP made an application at the Central Criminal Court for the suspension to be revoked on the basis that he had not participated fully in the programme.

A revocation by the court would have seen him serving out the remaining three years in custody.

Joseph McCarthy, a senior probation officer at Arbour Hill prison, told the court it was the view of the clinical team dealing with the offender that the conditions attached to the suspension were not met.

He said the man was in significant denial about substantial elements of his offending.

He has profound difficulty acknowledging the sexual harmful behaviour in his offending, the witness told Mr Justice Paul McDermott.

He added that the man initially engaged with the programme until it moved to a second level involving group work. He said the man has not progressed sufficiently with offence disclosure work.

Mr Justice McDermott asked if was part of the State's case that the man posed a public safety threat. Dara Hayes BL, for the DPP, said this was not the case.

Counsel told the court that a report from the psychologist who engaged with the man as part of the treatment programme would take more time to produce. The judge said he needed this report and needed to know the reasons for the limited engagement.

He said he didn't think this was a case of wilful refusal to engage and said he suspected there was an inability to engage with the next level of the treatment. He noted that had been a degree of participation by the man and he had cleared the first hurdle in the programme but that a problem arose at the next stage.

Blaise O'Carroll SC, defending, told the court the man had somewhere to go in Cork and would stay with his brother.

Justice McDermott said he would let the sentence stand and rule on the alleged breach at a future hearing. He adjourned it to March to allow time for the psychologist's report.The State's longest-serving prisoner is seeking extra time to appeal his unsuccessful High Court bid for two days temporary release per year.

English national John Shaw (73) has been in custody in Ireland since September 1976 when both he and another English man, Geoffrey Evans, were arrested for the abduction, rape, torture and murder of Elizabeth Plunkett (22), in Wicklow, and Mary Duffy (24), in Mayo, that year.

Shaw and Evans were both given life sentences at the Central Criminal Court on February 9, 1978.

Evans died in 2012 from an infection after spending more than three years in a vegetative state.

Over the years, Shaw's case has been the subject of a number of reviews first by the Sentence Review Group and subsequently the Parole Board.

In April 2016, the Prison Review Committee noted Shaw was "very frustrated that he has never got a day out of prison in his 38 years in custody He has no family in Ireland and has only received one family visit over the course of his sentence."

The following June, a dynamic risk assessment of Shaw found him to be at a "high-level risk of re-offending". Areas of particular concern to the assessors were "poor problem-solving skills; negative emotionality; deviant sexual preference; co-operation with supervision; significant social influences; hostility towards women; general social rejection; and lack of concern for others".

In 2016, the Parole Board recommended Shaw remain in Arbour Hill prison to allow speedy access to medical treatment and that he be granted two days of escorted outings per year.

However, the justice minister did not support the recommendation for two days of escorted outings, which Shaw's lawyers challenged in the High Court.

In a judgment delivered last March, Ms Justice Mary Faherty said she was satisfied that Shaw had been afforded the full panoply of fair procedures due to him.

She said the function of the Parole Board was to provide an advisory role to the Justice Minister in the exercise of the minister's discretion. There was no suggestion that the Parole Board did not abide by the processes set in place in order for it to be in a position to assist the minister in the consideration of the management of Shaw's sentence.

Ms Justice Faherty dismissed his application for judicial review.

Shaw lodged an appeal against the High Court judgment six months out of date. He is seeking an extension of time to appeal the High Court judgment, which lawyers for the State are opposing. February 4 was fixed yesterday as the date for the hearing of the application to extend time to appeal.However, inside the apartment deputies found a juvenile who had been reported as missing as well as three firearms and narcotics, charges for which are pending, the release said. The missing teen was returned to her guardians.One of very few consolations to be wrenched from the horrors of warfare is the creation of great art in response to it, and World War II has produced its fair share. Gunter Grass's novel The Tin Drum is maybe the greatest; but in terms of popularity, reach, emotional power and deeply abiding impact, all are surpassed by the adolescent scribblings of a Jewish girl locked inside an Amsterdam hideaway.

Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl has long been more than just a book. She and it have become testament, inspiration, icon, warning, liturgy, keening lament.

She began writing the celebrated diary in June 1942, her hometown under occupation by the hated 'Moffen'. After two years in hiding, the Frank family and their friends - eight in all - were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Anne died of typhus, a few months before her 16th birthday, in Bergen-Belsen. Only her father Otto came out alive.

It's an unbearably painful and poignant story, and this smart, perceptive, sometimes spiky teenager now personifies the most grievous crime in human history: the Holocaust.

It takes a certain kind of bravery, then, to write something like Annelies. To venture into the life, the inner thoughts, of Anne Frank - a secular saint of the modern world - takes courage.

David Gillham's novel turns on one of those momentous-but-simple questions so beloved of the publishing industry: what if? What if Anne Frank hadn't died in the death camp, alongside her older sister Margot, but had survived, come home to Amsterdam, been reunited with Otto (she calls him "Pim") and tried to adjust to some semblance of normality?

Annelies - that was her full name in reality - begins with a brief prologue, Anne lying in the mud of Bergen-Belsen, millimetres from death. Something calls her back to life, and we return, in the opening chapters, to events as they actually happened.

Anne receives a tartan-backed diary for her 13th birthday. An increased threat against Jews culminates in the Franks and associates going into hiding in an apartment annex, hidden behind a bookcase in the spice-factory managed by Pim. They're aided by a handful of incredibly courageous Dutch men and women, but existence is a tense, boring ordeal.

Finally, their secret is betrayed. A few short chapters capture the hellish conditions at Auschwitz, Anne and Margot's first camp.

The longest section of Annelies details what we might term "life after death". Anne moves back in with Pim, whose stoicism and determination to carry on enrage her. In fact, she's angry at everything: the Nazis, the Dutch, the world for letting this happen to them, her fellow Jews for not being as angry as her, and perhaps most of all, herself. Anne feels regret for mistreating her mother Edith in life. She has survivor's guilt - why should I live when so many didn't? And she's haunted by Margot, literally: her sister appears as a ghost throughout the story, a kind of disembodied Greek chorus - pestering, questioning, challenging and comforting Anne.

Through all this, the famous diary remains lost, or so Anne believes. The urge to be a writer hasn't been quashed, though; like most teenagers, she wants to express her true self, move to a glamorous city (New York) and basically change the world.

Annelies was reasonably engaging and made me want to keep going but it has, in my opinion, two quite significant problems.

The first is quality. It is, for large parts, well written. But the prose at times is overcooked, the descriptions samey, the dialogue sometimes stilted and didactic.

That long middle section, meanwhile, is much too long and repetitive to the point of tedium: Anne argues with her dad, Anne talks to Margot's ghost, Anne hates her new stepmother, Anne argues with her dad again, and again and again. She comes across as petulant, self-centred, even stupid; the brilliant ingenue talent of real-life has been flattened to an adolescent caricature.

The second problem is ethical. Is it permissible to use real horrors and tragedies for fictional purposes? I believe it isn't. Whatever about imagining this hypothetical "second chance" for Anne, the earlier parts reinterpreting the actual events of her life gave me a certain moral queasiness.

However, I admire the American author's obvious sincerity, and the amount of hard work and respectful care that he's put into the book. I'm just not sure that work should have been done in the first place.Italy is considering merging troubled banks Monte dei Paschi and Banca Carige with healthier rivals such as UBI Banca as it scrambles to avert a new banking crisis, sources familiar with the matter said.

Monte dei Paschi, rescued by the state in 2017, and Carige, recently put into special administration by the European Central Bank (ECB), are struggling with bad debts and the prospect of asset writedowns that would eat into their capital.

Their problems threaten to reignite a banking crisis that Rome thought it had ended two years ago and could further damage an economy already at risk of slipping back into recession.

According to one of the sources, the options being considered even include the possibility of a three-way merger that would bring together Monte dei Paschi, Carige and UBI. The banks and the Italian treasury declined to comment. Discussions are at a very early stage and no final plan has been drawn up by the anti-establishment government, which has criticised past bank bailouts and wants to avoid spending taxpayer money to rescue lenders.

Several government officials have publicly voiced support for mergers that would strengthen the banking industry. Stefano Buffagni, cabinet undersecretary and a prominent member of the ruling 5-Star Movement, said this week the government should play a leading role in engineering such tie-ups.The Dublin market always has a knock-on effect on the Wexford market, and the last 12 months have been no different. Local agents have noticed a slow down in the amount of Dubs looking for a home in Wexford.

This means that house values have risen slowly in the county with no change in some categories like the three-bed semi, but a rise of between 15 to 20pc in apartments, taking a one-bed from 100,000 last year to 120,000 this year.

"The prices dropping and levelling out in Dublin have had a knock-on effect on the market down here," says Niall Slattery of Warren Estates.

"With things being slightly more affordable in the city, there was no reason for buyers to move down and face the commute when they could stay put in the capital. Or then there were the people who expected to sell quickly in Dublin, but the sale took longer than expected, or they didn't get the price they thought they would for the house, so plans changed," says Slattery.

Wexford

House Type 2018 2019 2020 3-BED SEMI IN TOWN 220,000 220,000 220,000 4-BED SEMI IN TOWN 260,000 270,000 270,000 4-bed Detached In Town 280,000 280,000 280,000 4-bed Detached Out Of Town 310,000 325,000 325,000 3-bed Bungalow In Town 230,000 240,000 250,000 3-bed Bungalow Outside Town 200,000 220,000 230,000 4-bed Bungalow In Town 250,000 270,000 280,000 4-bed Bungalow Outside Town 230,000 260,000 270,000 Detached 2000+ Sq Ft 350,000 370,000 380,000 One-bed Apartment 100,000 120,000 130,000 Two-bed Apartment 130,000 150,000 160,000 2up/2Down 120,000 125,000 125,000 3-bed Terrace 150,000 160,000 170,000 Ex-council 3-bed 150,000 160,000 160,000

Locals in towns like Gorey don't have high-paying jobs because employment mostly comes from the service or tourist industries, or trades. These people struggle to get mortgage approval, and the people who can afford a house already have one, according to Slattery, who finds it's getting harder to find buyers in the county.

"The supply is fine for the demand that's out there," he says. "But there aren't as many people looking at the town properties - the traditional easy sellers like the three-bed semis don't seem to interest as many buyers as they used to."

Property Hotspot: Gorey

Popular with the Dublin worker looking for an affordable home within reach of the city

First-time buyers are keen to buy new homes so they can get the A-rating and avail of the help-to-buy scheme.

The holiday home market was more buoyant than the local market in Wexford last year. "In terms of holiday homes, the real good stuff is still selling well and increasing in price. The smaller, more affordable ones are quiet. People are now buying houses in Ballymoney as permanent homes, whereas this always would have been seen as a holiday village.

"Before the boom, they were probably 40,000 more expensive than a house in Gorey, whereas now they're about 40,000 cheaper, so that market has changed. This is good for the development and the town though because now it's busy all year round instead of just in the summer," says Slattery.

Rents in Gorey are at a record high, which is also impacting the local market. A new three-bed semi is renting for 1,350. Slattery states that it's the people paying these rents that are being told by the banks that they can't get a mortgage that would cost about 800 a month.

The builders are back on sites in Gorey and north of the county, but further down, it doesn't make sense because prices would not be high enough to make it viable for the developer.

Slattery predicts that prices will stay where they are over the next 12 months for many house types, while others, like apartments, should see a rise of 6pc to 8pc.Bank lending restrictions are having an effect on the market in south Tipperary, with many first-time buyers on an average wage struggling to get mortgage approval.

The area is crying out for stock, but no builder is willing to take the risk on starting a new development because prices are not where they need to be for them to make a profit with the extra costs associated with new building regulations and they fear that locals would struggle to get lending to make the purchase.

Values went up by an average of 3pc last year, bringing a three-bed semi in town to 170,000 and a four-bed detached out of town to 180,000. There was most activity at the bottom end of the market last year, according to agent John Stokes and REA Stokes and Quirke.

"The first-time buyers was very active, as was the investor," says Stokes. "They were buying up cheap properties in Clonmel and Cashel and Cahir. There is good employment around in places like Boston Scientific and Abbott so the demand is high for rentals. Investors are aware of this and buying the kind of houses that would rent well." Tipperary South House Type 2018 2019 2020 3-BED SEMI IN TOWN 165,000 170,000 175,000 3-bed Semi Out Of Town 135,000 140,000 145,000 4-bed Semi In Town (estate) 190,000 200,000 206,000 4-bed Semi Out Of Town 155,000 160,000 165,000 4-bed Detached In Town 235,000 250,000 258,000 4-bed Detached Out Of Town 175,000 180,000 185,000 5-bed Detached In Town 300,000 310,000 320,000 5-bed Detached Out Of Town 220,000 230,000 237,000 3-bed Bungalow In Town (outskirts) 200,000 205,000 211,000 3-bed Bungalow Outside Town 180,000 185,000 190,000 4-bed Bungalow In Town (outskirts) 230,000 240,000 247,000 4-bed Bungalow Outside Town 195,000 205,000 211,000 Detached 2000+ Sq Ft 335,000 345,000 355,000 One-bed Apartment 45,000 47,000 48,000 Two-bed Apartment 58,000 60,000 62,000 3-bed Terrace 105,000 110,000 114,000 2-bed Cottage 105,000 110,000 114,000 Ex-council 3-bed 75,000 85,000 88,000 Eastern Europeans are not biased about which area to live in, which Stokes thinks is a really good thing for the county. They are moving into smaller rural towns and helping expand the communities that all but disappeared over the years. Coleville Road and Powerstown Way in Clonmel have been the most in-demand places for buyers because they are close to the schools and facilities in the town. The main street has been struggling for a few years, but the possible opening of a new 114-bedroom hotel in the town on the former site of the Clonmel Arms Hotel paired with other projects like the Flights of Discovery tourism initiative and a Bulmer's visitors' centre at Dowd's Lane, should bring a boost to south Tipperary. Property Hotspot: Clonmel Coleville Road and Powerstown Way in Clonmel are always in demand with buyers The houses at the higher end of the market were more difficult to sell in 2018. "Bigger homes have been hard to sell because there aren't that many buyers out there in the area with that money. In the past these would have been sold to UK buyers, but they just aren't around anymore." A detached 2,000sq ft house is now averaging at 345,000, up 3pc from last year. Stokes thinks it will be more of the same for the next 12 months, with lack of stock driving prices up by another 3pc.There has been a lack of supply in Roscommon Town in the past few years so locals were excited when a new development was launched last year.

The new three-bed bungalows were priced higher than their second-hand counterparts because of their A-rating and high spec. At 235,000, only those trading up or retirees were buying them. First-time buyers were still looking at the older model that had a much lower price tag of 160,000. It was only when the old stock dried up that the first-timers started looking at the new builds.

They might be sorry they didn't jump when they had the chance though, because local agent David Diffley of Property Partners Earley says there won't be another new development in a while.

"All lands have been de-zoned so next window for zoning is 2021," says Diffley. "There cannot be more supply in the meantime, only in existing sites. The building and planning phase could take another two years before anything new will come to the market." House values went up by an average of 7pc last year in Roscommon, which Diffley puts down to the lack of supply. Roscommon House Type 2018 2019 2020 3-BED SEMI IN TOWN 115,000 125,000 130,000 4-bed Estate House Town 135,000 145,000 150,000 4-bed Estate House Out Of Town 100,000 110,000 115,000 3-bed Bungalow In Town 150,000 160,000 165,000 3-bed Bungalow Outside Town 110,000 120,000 125,000 4-bed Bungalow In Town 175,000 185,000 205,000 4-bed Bungalow Outside Town 165,000 175,000 185,000 Holiday Home 80,000 90,000 95,000 Two-bed Apartment 60,000 70,000 75,000 2-bed Terrace 75,000 85,000 90,000 3-bed Terrace 105,000 115,000 120,000 4-BED SEMI IN TOWN N/A 155,000 160,000 If there's not much to buy in the county, there's even less to rent because owner-occupiers are buying up properties at the lower end of the market that would have traditionally been rentals. An average three-bed in Roscommon would be about 850 to rent, going up to 1,000 for better addresses. After Roscommon Town, Diffley says sales in Strokestown were strongest. Many homeowners in the county work in Athlone which is only half an hour from Roscommon town or 40 minutes from Strokestown. Property Hotspot: Ballyfarnon The small village near Boyle is always in demand with local buyers There weren't too many holiday home sales in 2018, but those that did sell were in either Ballyfarnon near Kilronan Castle or Boyle. Land sales were strong last year with Diffley noting that a number of young clients bought land holdings, which he believes is a positive for the county as young people commit to living and working there. In the coming year, he predicts the lack of stock will push prices up by another 4pc on average.The shadow of Brexit in the border counties has become oppressive in the last 12 months, with so much uncertainty surrounding the final outcome.

"It is always there," says Dermot Conlon of REA Gunne Property.

"It has so much relevance to us and our economy because of our agri-food business and farming, which will be directly affected by it. The volatility of sterling is very worrying for businesses which are exporting their goods. People are extremely worried about their future, so this nervousness is definitely impacting on the property market in Monaghan."

Last year was a busy one for Conlon however, with a lull in the middle of the year which he puts down to the exceptional summer. Prices were up by an average of 7pc and builders decided to test the market. Monaghan House Type 2018 2019 2020 3-BED SEMI IN TOWN 165,000 185,000 185,000 3-bed Semi Out Of Town 150,000 165,000 N/A 4-BED SEMI IN TOWN 200,000 220,000 220,000 4-bed Semi Out Of Town 170,000 180,000 N/A 4-bed Detached In Town 260,000 285,000 295,000 4-bed Detached Out Of Town 240,000 260,000 270,000 5-bed Detached In Town 325,000 350,000 350,000 5-bed Detached Out Of Town 300,000 310,000 320,000 3-bed Bungalow In Town 225,000 240,000 240,000 3-bed Bungalow Outside Town 200,000 220,000 230,000 4-bed Bungalow In Town 265,000 275,000 295,000 4-bed Bungalow Outside Town 220,000 240,000 260,000 Detached 2000+ Sq Ft 320,000 330,000 N/A Holiday Home 110,000 120,000 N/A Two-bed Apartment 85,000 100,000 130,000 2up/2Down 110,000 120,000 N/A 3-bed Terrace 130,000 140,000 160,000 1-bed Cottage 80,000 90,000 100,000 2-bed Cottage 130,000 150,000 150,000 Ex-council 2-bed 120,000 130,000 N/A Ex-council 3-bed 130,000 150,000 N/A "In Carrickmacross there were two new developments for sale," says Conlon. "These were the first developments in nearly 12 years. It has taken a long time for us to get back to this, but we're getting there. The response to the lack of supply is starting to be met so that will make it a healthier market." New semis are being priced at about 230,000 because of the A-rating. Conlon says that first-time buyers are willing to pay this because it's such a novelty for the county to have good-quality new builds, even though second-hand semis are selling for a lot less at 185,000. Buyers are still coming from Dublin, not only for an affordable home, but also for cheaper rent. Conlon says they are saving themselves up to 700 a month on rent, which enables them to save for a deposit to eventually buy a home of their own. Property Hotspot: Carrickmacross Buses leaves the town every morning with commuters going to work in Dublin There are buses leaving Carrickmacross every 15 minutes on weekday mornings, full with people heading to work in Dublin, willing to take on the hour and a half commute in the name of affordability. Conlon expects a similar year ahead with an average rise in house values of about 7pc and with Brexit still leaving a lot of questions unanswered.Housing stock levels are low in Co Louth and demand is high, which means prices have been rising steadily with an average increase of values of 8pc in the last year.

Cheaper properties at the low end of the market (such as apartments) saw a much bigger jump with two-beds going up over 30pc, from 110,000 to 145,000.

The county currently has about 16 new home developments, but needs more building to meet the demand that's out there.

"There are currently about 10 new home developments in Dundalk and Ardee, and six to come on in Drogheda this year, but it's still not enough," says Brian Carroll of Sherry FitzGerald Carroll. "Demand is definitely there. We're predicting that about 18,000 housing units will be built in 2019, but it needs to be up at about 35,000 to meet demand due to population in the county."

Louth

House Type 2018 2019 2020 3-BED SEMI IN TOWN 180,000 205,000 220,000 3-bed Semi Out Of Town 175,000 185,000 200,000 4-BED SEMI IN TOWN 235,000 250,000 265,000 4-bed Semi Out Of Town 205,000 220,000 230,000 4-bed Detached 290,000 305,000 325,000 5-bed Detached 350,000 360,000 395,000 3-bed Bungalow In Town 235,000 245,000 265,000 3-bed Bungalow Outside Town 210,000 230,000 260,000 4-bed Bungalow In Town 265,000 285,000 310,000 4-bed Bungalow Outside Town 245,000 275,000 310,000 Detached 2000+ Sq Ft 345,000 360,000 380,000 Two-bed Apartment 110,000 145,000 157,000 2up/2Down 110,000 125,000 140,000 3-bed Terrace 145,000 150,000 170,000 1-bed Cottage 90,000 115,000 125,000 2-bed Cottage 120,000 165,000 180,000 Ex-Corporation 2-bed 80,000 100,000 115,000 Ex-Corporation 3-bed 100,000 135,000 155,000

Drogheda is the busiest town for sales and commands the highest prices because of its proximity to Dublin, with first-time buyers being the most active in the market there.

Towns like Dundalk, Ardee and Termonfeckin are close behind in terms of demand because of high employment around Dundalk.

Property Hotspot: Blackrock

Well-heeled professionals buying up family houses in the seaside town

Mr Carroll believes that there is currently a positive impact from Brexit in Dundalk as more companies move in search of an Irish base.

Wuxi Biologics is building a facility there and will bring 450 jobs to the area. Pharma company Wasdell has invested 30m in a factory in Dundalk and Almac is on track to employ more than 100 people in its new plant in the town as part of its global expansion strategy.

This is on top of big companies like National Pen and Paypal which are already big employers in the town. Many western Europeans have moved to Ireland to work for these companies and have decided to settle in Louth and buy a home, according to Mr Carroll.

The seaside village of Blackrock, just outside Dundalk, has its own micro market where good family homes are always in demand with professionals living in the area. It tends to command the highest prices. A detached 2,000sq ft house in the rest of the county would average about 360,000, whereas a detached house with sea views at Chapel Pass in Blackrock sold for 731,150 last year.

Termonfeckin is another area where buyers are prepared to spend big for the right family home - for example, a Georgian-style, four-bed family home sold there last year for 540,000.

However, there is still some nervousness about Brexit and what lies ahead.

Mr Carroll believes this will impact the property market in the coming year and predicts an average rise of 5pc in property values around Louth.22 O'Kelly's Villas, Rock Road in Killarney was sold in September for 201k by Sherry Fitz Coghlan

The market is Killarney is separate to the rest of Kerry because the tourism sector has never flagged and the town withstood the crash better than the rest of the county.

House prices have continued to rise year on year, with local agent Michael Coghlan of Sherry FitzGerald Coghlan reporting a rise of 4pc last year and thinks prices will go up a modest 3pc on average in the next 12 months.

"Things are starting to level out," says Coghlan. "The huge lack of supply will drive prices up slightly again next year because there is very strong demand out there."

Demand is coming from all directions, with first-timers buymaking up about 35-40pc of buyers. According to Coghlan, the market is about 85pc local and 15pc outsiders. Killarney House Type 2018 2019 2020 3-BED SEMI IN TOWN 250,000 260,000 265,000 3-bed Semi Out Of Town 220,000 230,000 240,000 4-BED SEMI IN TOWN 265,000 274,000 280,000 4-bed Semi Out Of Town 230,000 240,000 250,000 4-bed Detached 380,000 400,000 420,000 5-bed Detached 410,000 425,000 430,000 3-bed Bungalow In Town 290,000 300,000 310,000 3-bed Bungalow Outside Town 245,000 260,000 270,000 4-bed Bungalow In Town 355,000 370,000 380,000 4-bed Bungalow Outside Town 260,000 275,000 280,000 Detached 2000+ Sq Ft 400,000 420,000 420,000 Holiday Home 175,000 190,000 190,000 One-bed Apartment 100,000 120,000 130,000 Two-bed Apartment 160,000 180,000 185,000 2up/2Down 175,000 200,000 210,000 3-bed Terrace 185,000 200,000 210,000 2-bed Cottage 160,000 170,000 175,000 Ex-council 2-bed 125,000 135,000 150,000 Ex-council 3-bed 165,000 175,000 180,000 Buyers are coming from Australia, America, Canada and Dublin. "Some of the better sales we've had are people with roots in the county who've decided that the time is right to get out of the UK with Brexit looming and return home to bring their kids up in Ireland," says Coghlan. There were no big surprises in the market in Killarney last year for Coghlan. "Lending rules are working for the market in Killarney. I know not everyone agrees with them, but I do. It's keeping the market nice and steady and predictable." Property Hotspot: Aghadoe and Muckross The two old reliables remain most popular with buyers at the high end of the market There is building in the popular parts of Killarney like Aghadoe and Innisfallen, where two developments have sold out. A new development of three-bed semis in Barraduff is selling well. Aghadoe is at high end of market with prices starting at 450,00 to 480,000, but Coghlan believes the demand is definitely there for them.Kilkenny is crying out for new homes, particularly around the city. The lack of stock and the increased interest in the county, pushed prices up by an average of 22pc last year, taking the county's prices slap bang into bank lending ceilings for average earners. "Second-hand properties are selling very quickly and there is still a pent-up demand. We are hopeful, however, that there are a number of schemes in the making that should come on track in the third quarter of 2019," says Peter McCreery of Sherry FitzGerald McCreery.

The expected new homes plus the fact that this year's big hikes take most types slap bang into lending limit boundaries for average earners, mean that conversely, little in the way of growth is expected for this year. A couple of new developments came to the market last year, like Beechwood on Castlecomer Road where a four-bed bungalow comes with an asking price of 675,000. At Friary Walk in Callan three-bed terraced homes started at 179,950. The first phase of Friary Walk is sold and work has started on the second phase.

Not all property types saw prices move at the same pace with four-bed detached houses going up by 6pc, from 330,000 to 350,000, while at the other end, more affordable two-bed apartments in the city rose by 36pc, and are now selling at an average of 150,000.

Mr McCreery noted that there was strong interest at all ends of the market last year. "We would say that we've had a consistent flow of sales right through from the 80,000s to a couple at 1m-plus. There's a good, strong demand all over." Kilkenny House Type 2018 2019 2020 3-BED SEMI IN TOWN 185,000 235,000 245,000 4-BED SEMI IN TOWN 240,000 300,000 310,000 4-bed Detached 330,000 350,000 350,000 5-bed Detached 410,000 440,000 440,000 3-bed Bungalow In Town 180,000 225,000 230,000 3-bed Bungalow Outside Town 180,000 220,000 225,000 4-bed Bungalow In Town 300,000 350,000 360,000 4-bed Bungalow Outside Town 265,000 325,000 330,000 Detached 2000+ Sq Ft 450,000 500,000 500,000 Two-bed Apartment 110,000 150,000 160,000 2up/2Down 130,000 175,000 175,000 3-bed Terrace 165,000 180,000 185,000 2-bed Cottage 145,000 180,000 190,000 Ex-Corporation 3-bed 155,000 180,000 185,000 Towns like Thomastown and Callan were popular with Dublin buyers in search of a better quality of life. "There is definitely evidence of people getting out of the rat race and traffic jams and selling up in Dublin," says McCreery. "They are coming down here with a few bob in their pocket and buying a very fine house for between 400,000-500,000." Large homes in these parts have been selling for big prices with 16 Foxes Covert on the Mount Juliet Estate fetching 1.1m and Mallardstown House in Callan making f715,000. Property Hotspot: Kilkenny City All types of buyers want a home close to the city on roads like Castle Road and College Road Mr McCreery believes Brexit will make Ireland a more attractive place to relocate to. "We've seen a flow of Americans and Australians in the past year looking for an Irish base. These buyers from overseas are looking at the more substantial houses at the high end of the market." McCreery predicts an average rise of 3pc in values of properties in Kilkenny, with some expected to stay static and others, like the four-bed semis in the city, to go up by 7pc in 2019.Conveyancing delays are now a big feature of the market in Dublin 9, with transactions taking an average of four months from the acceptance of an offer to closing.

Local agent Vincent Kelly says the delays are a result of a strong recovery in the market.

"It can be hard to manage," he says. "The economic upturn means more people - buyers, vendors, solicitors, agents - take more holidays, and it slows things down. It's really down to vendors and their agents to try and ensure that all the documentation is ready to go before a property is placed on the market."

In common with many other areas in Dublin, 2018 started out with a strong and active market in Dublin 9.

Dublin 9

House Type 2018 2019 2020 3-bed Semi 525,000 550,000 550,000 4-bed Semi 750,000 775,000 775,000 5-bed Semi 928,000 965,000 965,000 3-bed Bungalow 443,000 450,000 450,000 4-bed Bungalow 525,000 525,000 525,000 One-bed Apartment 233,000 250,000 250,000 Two-bed Apartment 292,000 325,000 325,000 2up/2Down 384,000 400,000 400,000 3-bed Terrace 461,000 475,000 475,000 1-bed Cottage 326,000 335,000 335,000 2-bed Cottage 408,000 420,000 420,000 Ex-Corporation 2-bed 367,000 375,000 375,000 Ex-Corporation 3-bed 461,000 475,000 475,000 2-bed Townhouse 345,000 375,000 375,000 3-bed Townhouse 461,000 475,000 475,000 3-bed Mews 449,000 475,000 475,000 3-bed Duplex 408,000 425,000 425,000 Period 2/3 Storey-over Basement 933,000 975,000 975,000 Large Detached Own Grounds 1,633,000 1,750,000 1,750,000

Attendances at viewings were consistent with the previous year (2017) until the end of the second quarter, but things slowed right down in terms of the number of transactions in the third quarter, with a 'little bounce' towards the end of November/beginning of December. Kelly reports strong attendance at viewings right up until the week before Christmas last year.

"The major difficulty we had was in managing expectations, once values had stabilised and stopped increasing."

Property Hotspot: Charlemont, Griffith Avenue

The estate has good access to pubic transport and the children of families living at Charlemont do not have to cross a main road to get to school from the age of four all the way through to eighteen.

There was not much in the way of new housing in Dublin 9 last year, although the Hampton development on Gracepark Road in Drumcondra came to market.

"For first and second-time buyers the estates built by Sheelin Homes at Charlemont on Griffith Avenue in Drumcondra and Collinswood on Collins Avenue are very popular," notes Kelly. "As against a brand new house, purchasers get to move into an attractive established community. Charlemont in particular is close to great schools."

In general, the older red-brick houses on the primary roads of Dublin 9 such as Iona are more expensive than houses on estates.

The average price for a four-bedroom semi-detached house in the table opposite refers to one of these period houses as there are more of them in Dublin 9 than there are more modern four-bedroom semi-detached houses on estates, which would be valued at an average of 600,000.

Kelly notes that mews houses were popular with those trading down and showed a good increase in value over the past twelve months.

Apartments at Griffith Hall and Hampton Lodge were also sought after by down-sizers.

Kelly says that there are very few large detached houses on their own grounds in Dublin 9, and that sales of these were 'few and far between' during 2018.

In terms of what lies in store during the course of 2019, Kelly says that he, like everyone else, would like Brexit over so that there can be a stable market, and that recovery remains affordable.

He predicts a small bounce early in the year, but taking the year as a whole expects prices in Dublin 9 to remain relatively static.VALUES in D6 are up 6pc, a significant jump, but just half of the 12pc recorded the previous year. This cooling is largely because investors are no longer active.

But homes of all types showed steady growth over 12 months, apart from a dip in September/October that is. The market bounced back in November, but in common with many other parts of the capital, the lower end was particularly strong. There was good activity in the middle market and on homes between 1m and 2m. Properties over 2m however were slower to sell and there was almost no growth in this segment.

"Strong demand, fuelled by full employment and a continuing influx of people into the country, was the driving force behind growth during 2018," reports local agent Pat Mullery. "There was a good pool of buyers for four-bedroom semis in particular. Dublin 6 benefits from proximity to the city centre, good transport links - particularly the Luas - and a better selection of schools than D4. "Ranelagh has always had a buzz about it, but now Rathmines has really taken off. There are more traders both in the Swan Centre and around the village. Rathmines is just going to keep doing better and better."

Mullery notes that most restoration projects in Dublin 6 require planning permission, which can be challenging with a listed building. Dublin 6 House Type 2018 2019 2020 3-bed Semi 730,000 800,000 850,000 4-bed Semi 825,000 875,000 925,000 5-bed Semi 900,000 954,000 1,000,000 5-bed Detached 1,400,000 1,484,000 1,503,000 3-bed Bungalow 578,000 613,000 650,000 4-bed Bungalow 633,000 671,000 711,000 One-bed Apartment 276,000 293,000 305,000 Two-bed Apartment 440,000 466,000 480,000 2up/2Down 494,000 524,000 545,000 3-bed Terrace 644,000 683,000 688,000 2-bed Cottage 484,000 513,000 534,000 Ex-Corporation 2-bed 468,000 496,000 516,000 Ex-Corporation 3-bed 605,000 641,000 643,000 2-bed Townhouse 523,000 554,000 571,000 3-bed Townhouse 605,000 641,000 643,000 2-bed Mews 523,000 554,000 571,000 3-bed Mews 699,000 741,000 740,000 3-bed Duplex 605,000 641,000 643,000 Period 2/3 Storey-over Basement 1,725,000 1,829,000 1,738,000 Detached House On Own Grounds 4,950,000 5,250,000 4,462,000 "It can take up to a year to get a builder, and their prices seem to be back up to Celtic Tiger levels," he says. Provided that there is no impact from forces "outside of our control", Mullery expects 2019 to be another year of steady but sustainable growth.

Please register or log in with Independent.ie for free access to this article Register Already have an account? Log inA year ago, this report noted the sale during 2017 of a one-bedroom apartment without parking at The Gasworks in Dublin 3 for 365,000. In 2018 a similar apartment with parking made just 2,000 more, evidence of the decline in interest from investors.

"The rent cap has had a big impact," says Chris Bradley of Sherry Fitzgerald. "Apartments are not as attractive to investors as they once were."

Bradley says that 2018 was a "strange" year, with the impact of tighter lending rules felt across the board.

"We were very busy at the lower end of the market," he reports, "with lots of interest in two-up two-down houses in Ringsend and in apartments. Those both performed very well, and there is still a lot of demand for family homes, the three- and four-bed semi-detached houses. There are very few new homes in Dublin 4, so these values are not being impacted as they are in other parts of the city."

Dublin 4

House Type 2018 2019 2020 3-bed Semi 900,000 925,000 925,000 4-bed Semi 1,025,000 1,050,000 1,050,000 5-bed Semi 1,350,000 1,400,000 1,350,000 5-bed Detached 1,450,000 1,550,000 1,550,000 3-bed Bungalow 800,000 805,000 805,000 4-bed Bungalow 900,000 920,000 920,000 One-bed Apartment 320,000 330,000 330,000 Two-bed Apartment 475,000 490,000 490,000 2up/2Down 490,000 510,000 510,000 3-bed Terrace 550,000 570,000 570,000 2-bed Cottage 495,000 510,000 510,000 2-bed Townhouse 475,000 495,000 495,000 3-bed Townhouse 550,000 570,000 570,000 2-bed Mews 825,000 870,000 870,000 3-bed Mews 1,000,000 1,080,000 1,080,000 3-bed Duplex 625,000 645,000 645,000 Period 2/3 Storey-over Basement 1,620,000 1,750,000 1,650,000 Period 4/5 Storey-over Basement 2,025,000 2,150,000 2,050,000 Large Detached Period Own Grounds 3,375,000 3,500,000 3,400,000

Dublin 4 is a perennially popular location for professional families, thanks to the proximity to the city centre, good public transport links and the accessibility of good schools, including St Michael's, St Conleth's and The Teresian School and others accessible via the Dart.

Even though Dublin 4 has more than its share of high-end properties, there are more three-bedroom homes here than any other property type and plenty of apartments, hence the average price listed here. On average, property values in Dublin 4 are up by 3pc over the past year, and Bradley is predicting a similar level of growth in 2019.

Property Hotspot: Pembroke Cottages, Donnybrook

It's all about the location at Pembroke Cottages in Donnybrook, with the shops a couple of minutes' walk away and Herbert Park immediately adjacent. The attractive small houses are always in demand.

In a location which has had problems with vendors asking too much, those who priced realistically generally won out.

In the last quarter of 2018, a rash of more expensive properties began to sell. The house at 29 Park Avenue made its asking price of 3.25m, and 13 Elgin Road in Ballsbridge sold for 2.365m (more than its asking price) and close to the Aviva Stadium, 30 Vavasour Square made 815,000.

Bradley anticipates the development of new high-end apartments and penthouses will bring more upper-tier properties to the market as the downsizers prepare to move to cosy A-rated homes. "Issues that affect everyone - Brexit, stock, the Central Bank lending rules and consumer confidence - impact on Dublin 4 but as new properties that are priced correctly come to the market, the postcode starts to look like it is offering some better value."Dublin 24 is still affordable compared to many other Dublin postcodes and prices are up 8pc across different property types as a result. The bulk of this increase in value occurred in the first half of 2018.

"We had a very strong first quarter with lots of transactions and strong prices," reports local agent Marc Browne. "Q2 was okay, but the market stagnated in the third quarter. October and November were our busiest months. It was a funny year, and the second half was definitely more challenging."

Browne says that prices fell back slightly on higher-priced properties in the second half of the year, and the market for entry-level properties stagnated. Viewing numbers were noticeably down.

Buyers in Dublin 24 are seeking out three-bedroom semi-detached homes built in older 1970s estates, and newer four-bedroom homes in areas such as Kingswood, Ballycullen and CityWest. New developments in Dublin 24 are impacting the price of second-hand homes, leading to some readjustment of prices in pockets of the postcode. Affordable new three-bedroom homes were to be found in Elder Heath, Temple Woods, Dodderbrook and Ballycullen Green. Dublin 24 House Type 2018 2019 2020 3-bed Semi 324,000 350,000 364,000 4-bed Semi 377,000 400,000 416,000 4-bed Detached 401,000 425,000 442,000 3-bed Bungalow 306,000 330,000 343,000 One-bed Apartment 155,000 165,000 172,000 Two-bed Apartment 210,000 230,000 239,000 2up/2Down 232,000 255,000 265,000 3-bed Terrace 250,000 275,000 286,000 Ex-Corporation 2-bed 165,000 180,000 187,000 Ex-Corporation 3-bed 195,000 215,000 224,000 2-bed Townhouse 245,000 265,000 276,000 3-bed Townhouse 280,000 315,000 328,000 3-bed Duplex 255,000 275,000 286,000 Detached 2000+ Sq Ft 630,000 650,000 650,000 Bungalow Acre 410,000 410,000 410,000 Bungalow Acre+ 460,000 450,000 450,000 Two-bedroom apartments in Dublin 24 sold for prices ranging between 175,000 and 272,000. Apartments in Belgard Square were in particular demand. Built in 2006/7, these are considered spacious and achieved strong prices, the majority going to owner-occupiers in receiver sales of Section 23 properties. It is cheaper for owner-occupiers to buy than it is to rent, if they can secure a mortgage. There have not been too many sales to investors in Dublin 24 since the introduction of rent caps and Browne notes that many small private landlords are now getting out of the sector altogether. "We are now selling for landlords as opposed to selling to landlords," he says. Property Hotspot: Belgard Square, Tallaght The values of apartments in Belgard Square in Central Tallaght were up in 2018, breaking 250,000 for the first time in many years. When launched, these sold for around 400,000. The price of detached houses fell back in the latter part of 2018, which Browne attributes to the fact that buyers prefer to be close to amenities and public transport, particularly the LUAS. Detached properties tend to be in a country setting and further away from these. Browne notes that these properties are also less attractive to buyers because they require more maintenance - for which banks often won't lend. Our expert predicts an exemptions bounce in Q1 and expects values to increase by an average of 4pc over the coming year.32 Cherrywood Drive in Clondalkin was sold in May by Property Partners O'Brien Swaine for 290k

While the early part of 2018 saw values surge by 9pc in Dublin 22, there was some sharp corrections in the second half of the year, leading to an average increase in values over the course of the year standing at about 5pc.

Local agent Paul O'Brien puts this down to an increase in the amount of housing stock coming to the market in Dublin 22 and the fact that the banks' exemptions had run out by the summer.

"The weather didn't help either," he says. "The good summer meant that people wanted to be out enjoying the sunshine rather than trekking around looking at houses. There was a bit of a pick-up in values in the autumn, but not to levels that we would have expected.

"The expectations of vendors are always 10pc ahead of the market, and that slows down the pace of transactions." Dublin 22 House Type 2018 2019 2020 3-bed Semi 280,000 300,000 295,000 4-bed Semi 340,000 350,000 340,000 4-bed Detached 413,000 420,000 415,000 3-bed Bungalow 250,000 270,000 250,000 4-bed Bungalow 281,000 290,000 285,000 One-bed Apartment 150,000 150,000 150,000 Two-bed Apartment 175,000 175,000 180,000 3-bed Terrace 230,000 240,000 235,000 2-bed Cottage 200,000 210,000 205,000 Ex-Corporation 2-bed 170,000 180,000 175,000 Ex-Corporation 3-bed 190,000 200,000 195,000 2-bed Townhouse 190,000 200,000 195,000 3-bed Townhouse 210,000 210,000 205,000 3-bed Duplex 210,000 220,000 210,000 Detached 2000+ Sq Ft 415,000 420,000 420,000 Mr O'Brien expects the market to perform in a similar fashion this year, and is predicting increases in values of a further 5pc this year. "Our attitude in terms of 2019 will be to get properties on the market and get them sold in the first six months of the year, then we'll see what happens. Property Hotspot: Monastery Road, Clondalkin Three-bedroom semi-detached family houses in the older, more mature areas of Clondalkin within walking distance of the village were particularly in demand during 2018. "I'm hoping that what has happened is just a speed bump. There are still plenty of first-time buyers out there who want houses. "The big elephant in the room is of course Brexit. No one knows what is going to happen and what effect that is going to have on the market." O'Brien says that the pace of bank sales continues to make the closing of transactions take much longer than they should throughout 2018. "Those sales can take an agonisingly long time to conclude," he says. On a more positive note, he says that some 'normal' (ie non-bank) closings happened relatively quickly, and he is hoping that the emergence of new companies offering fast track services to deal with closings will help to speed things up. "As I understand it," says Mr O'Brien, "it's effectively a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system that tracks what everyone is doing and makes sure that everyone involved - from solicitors to surveyors to banks - are doing what they are supposed to be doing at the time that they are supposed to be doing it." Mr O'Brien notes that the traditional pattern of house sales in D22, which used to follow the spring and autumn auction season, has now been disrupted. "Sales are more consistent throughout the year now," he says, "with activity in the late spring and throughout the summer."The market in Dublin 18 is performing sustainably overall with values increasing by an average of 4pc across what is a large and diverse postcode.

At the lower (sub-500,000) end of the market some house types recorded higher increases in certain areas. Houses in Stepaside and developments such as The Gallops in Leopardstown were in demand, thanks to proximity to the Luas. Competition from a number of new home developments such as Clay Farm impacted on the value of second-hand homes nearby.

"The front half of last year was busy," reports local agent Serena Maguire, "with good activity until the exemption lending ran out at the start of the summer.

"In September there was an increase in supply, which gave more choice to buyers and meant that the overhang of stock from the spring and summer took longer to sell. October and November were very busy months, but we found the market to be very price-sensitive. Affordability is clearly an issue. We find that adjusting prices downwards in some cases leads to an increase in viewings, which in turn leads to bidding situations that bring prices back up to their original level. Vendors with realistic expectations are selling their properties." Dublin 18 House Type 2018 2019 2020 3-bed Semi 510,000 530,000 550,000 4-bed Semi 590,000 625,000 625,000 5-bed Semi 720,000 760,000 760,000 4-bed Detached 820,000 850,000 850,000 5-bed Detached 1,000,000 1,050,000 1,000,000 3-bed Bungalow 600,000 600,000 600,000 4-bed Bungalow 900,000 925,000 925,000 One-bed Apartment 200,000 210,000 225,000 Two-bed Apartment 300,000 325,000 335,000 Ex-Corporation 3-bed 400,000 420,000 435,000 2-bed Townhouse 340,000 380,000 400,000 3-bed Townhouse 420,000 450,000 465,000 2-bed Mews 550,000 600,000 600,000 3-bed Duplex 400,000 425,000 435,000 Detached 1500-2000 Sq Ft 820,000 850,000 850,000 Detached 2000+ Sq Ft 1,175,000 1,200,000 1,150,000 Bungalow Acre 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 Bungalow Acre+ 1,100,000 1,100,000 1,100,000 Large Detached Period Own Grounds 2,250,000 2,250,000 2,000,000 Maguire says that Stepaside in particular is one of the most popular areas of Dublin 18, thanks to its 'lovely community feel' and good schools. The village even has its own St. Patricks's Day parade. Our expert notes that the middle market saw single digit growth during 2018 and there have been a similar number of transactions in the 1 - 2m bracket, year on year. But north of 2m things are much quieter, with sales taking longer to conclude and fewer transactions generally. "Thanks to weaker sterling, there are fewer ex-pat or Brexit-driven buyers. For home-grown buyers at that level there is plenty of choice." Property Hotspot: Belarmine, Stepaside There is strong demand for houses in the Belarmine development which is very popular with first-time buyers because it is within walking distance of the Luas and Stepaside village, which has a good se Sales of bungalows are going strong, with one at The Coppins fetching 1.2m, another at 1.116m and an off-market sale at The Thicket achieving 1.5m (this latter sale has not yet appeared on the Property Price Register). Big houses on an acre in Foxrock are now no longer considered to be residential properties but development land. Our expert predicts another front-loaded year in 2019, with growth in the region of 4pc on average but with no price movement at all at the upper end.Property values in Dublin 1 are up by an average of 5pc with properties at the lower end of the market (priced at under 320,000) definitely performing best. Value growth in the last 12 months has been just under half that achieved the previous year because of an increase in the number of properties coming to the market, affordability issues as the Central Bank's lending rules become more of an obstacle, and significantly less demand from investors.

One-bedroom apartments have increased by most with prices rising from an average of 215,000 a year ago to 242,000 today, an increase of over 12pc.

Growth was slower in the mid-range, with properties priced between 325,000 and 400,000 attracting less interest, and properties priced over 400,000 showing the least value growth. Indeed this segment has been flat since last spring.

Dublin 1 is still relatively affordable, and the growth in value of one-bedroom apartments in particular, is evidence of a strong rental market in this segment, which is still somewhat attractive to investors, as well as to owner-occupiers for whom it is cheaper to buy than to rent. Rents are up 7pc. Dublin 1 House Type 2018 2019 2020 3-bed Semi 385,000 404,000 416,000 One-bed Apartment 215,000 242,000 254,000 Two-bed Apartment 320,000 331,000 344,000 2up/2Down 325,000 342,000 359,000 3-bed Terrace 365,000 383,000 394,000 1-bed Cottage 215,000 242,000 254,000 2-bed Cottage 297,000 311,000 323,000 Ex-Corporation 2-bed 296,000 310,000 322,000 Ex-Corporation 3-bed 330,000 346,000 359,000 2-bed Townhouse 327,000 343,000 357,000 3-bed Townhouse 380,000 399,000 407,000 2-bed Mews 360,000 375,000 382,000 3-bed Mews 400,000 400,000 406,000 Large Period Over Basement 470,000 480,000 480,000 Local agent Owen Reilly says that first-time buyers were active in the market in Dublin 1 during 2018, and that 60pc of sales were made to that cohort, up from 50pc the year before. Many investors are now buying through their pensions, encouraged by the strong rental market. Mr Reilly notes that the growth of the private rental sector (PRS) in Dublin has started and will continue to have an impact on the market in Dublin 1. By way of example, he cites the Dublin Landings development by Ballymore, where 268 apartments are now for sale in one lot. Reilly believes that it is likely that all remaining apartment developments in Dublin 1, whether planned or already under construction, will now be sold in one block to an institutional investor. Property Hotspot: the area around Connolly Station It's all about convenience in Dublin 1, with first-time buyers opting to ditch the commute. 25 parties turned up to view a modern town-house off Amiens St. asking 260,000; it sold for 290,000. Though this will help alleviate pressure in the rental sector, it does mean that owner-occupiers do not have the opportunity to buy in these developments. Meanwhile, it is notable that despite the large amount of new office space completed and occupied in Docklands during 2018, not one new apartment was delivered. Mr Reilly is predicting increases averaging 5pc, with one-bedroom apartments again likely to show the biggest hike. The continuing development in the Northern Docklands means that property values in Dublin 1 are likely to show higher-than- average increases in value for some time to come.Brexit has hit the holiday home market hard in Donegal.

Traditionally most buyers Prices tend to be higher in the northern half of the county towards Donegal Town, where a three-bed semi is valued at 150,000. This same house type would only be 100,000 as you go further south towards Bundoran.

Agent Cormac Meehan of Sean Meehan & Co in Bundoran said the exceptional weather last summer was good for business. This helped the flagging holiday home market, which saw buyers come to the surfing town from Australia and the US.

"Most people who would have bought holiday homes in Donegal would have come from the north," says Meehan.

Donegal

House Type 2018 2019 2020 3-BED SEMI IN TOWN 135,000 125,000 142,000 4-BED SEMI IN TOWN 160,000 153,000 157,000 4-bed Detached 188,000 210,000 235,000 5-bed Detached 210,000 220,000 237,000 3-bed Bungalow In Town 160,000 145,000 172,000 3-bed Bungalow Outside Town 188,000 165,000 185,000 Detached 2000+ Sq Ft 340,000 318,000 340,000 Holiday Home 180,000 180,000 180,000 Two-bed Apartment 50,000 63,000 60,000 2-bed Apartment (coastal) 60,000 65,000 77,000 3-bed Terrace 86,000 83,000 97,000 2-bed Cottage 80,000 80,000 92,000

"Last year though, thanks to the strength of the surfing business here, we've had a few people from Australia and the States buying up some small places so they have a base here and can work in the surf schools during the summer months."

The other active buyers in the market in Donegal last year were eastern Europeans. "They've been living here for 10 years or more and are now keen to put down roots because they have school-going kids, much in the same way as young Irish people did in the States in the 60s," says Meehan. "It's beautiful to see. They're a joy to deal with. They buy a fixer-upper and their eight or 10 friends gather around and help them with the carpentry and electrics. Locals are looking thinking, 'why didn't I do that?'."

Property Hotspot: Bundoran

Popular surf location draws buyers from all over the world who want a base there for summer months

Up in Letterkenny, Joe Reynolds of Property Partners Paul Reynolds says prices have not changed much in the past year. He observes that UK and northern buyers aren't the only ones worried by Brexit, it's affecting everyone in the county.

"Brexit is hitting hard," says Reynolds.

"The UK buyer has fallen off but there's a nervousness amongst locals too. A no-deal Brexit will have a detrimental affect on our industries up here so there is a real lack of confidence in the market at the moment."

There is little building going on in the county and Reynolds points out that there is very little stock for sale at the moment in the second-hand market too.

Big sales at the high end of the market are rare for either agent these days. One of the more expensive houses to sell in the county last year was Hillmount Manse in Letterkenny which sold for 670,000.

Both agents agree that the only way is up now for Donegal and are hopeful that prices will rise by 7pc in the coming year.

Once the uncertainty around Brexit clears, the buyers that have been sitting on the fence should be ready to jump off and invest in the unspoilt county.West Cork was always been seen as a place at the end of the world, to which you could escape and switch off. That was before the days of the remote worker who is today keen to have the scenic surrounds and an income earned locally. Thanks to the Ludgate Hub, that's now wholly possible.

Located in Skibbereen, the hub is a co-working space with a 1,000mb connection that aims to bring people together for job creation and innovation. An investment of 2m from the Government for Ludgate was announced recently to help create 500 direct jobs and 1,000 indirect jobs in West Cork by 2020.

Like past years, prices haven't changed much in either direction in West Cork. The only type predicted to rise this year is the three-bed semi in town - to go up 10k to 195,000 this year - with better types rising higher.

This part of West Cork has always attracted UK buyers so local agent Sean Carmody from Charles McCarthy Estate Agents is relieved that uncertainty around Brexit hasn't turned everyone off buying. Cork County West House Type 2018 2019 2020 4-bed Detached Coastal 505,000 505,000 495,000 4-bed Detached Inland 352,000 352,000 345,000 5-bed Detached Coastal 633,000 633,000 633,000 Holiday Home 605,000 605,000 605,000 Detached 2000+ Sq Ft 528,000 528,000 515,000 3-bed Bungalow In Town 304,000 304,000 295,000 3-bed Bungalow Outside Town 396,000 396,000 385,000 4-bed Bungalow In Town 320,000 320,000 320,000 4-bed Bungalow Outside Town 418,000 418,000 410,000 3-BED SEMI IN TOWN 185,000 185,000 195,000 4-BED SEMI IN TOWN 227,000 227,000 230,000 Two-bed Apartment 100,000 100,000 110,000 3-bed Terrace 180,000 180,000 180,000 1-bed Cottage 130,000 130,000 130,000 2-bed Cottage 316,000 316,000 316,000 5-bed Waterfront N/A 850,000 850,000 "With Brexit, we've noticed that people from the UK who were holding off are starting to come back into the market," says Carmody. "They are saying, 'We want to move on with our lives'. If it wasn't for the sterling rate, I think we'd see a lot more people moving across because they don't want to live there anymore." Property Hotspot: Baltimore and Glandore Rural spots along the coast with sea views are always in demand There is no such thing as a typical buyer in west Cork, so Carmody says they just take it as it comes. "There have been a number of Germans lately who've decided they want to move here," he says. "Then two weeks ago, an English couple visited Skibbereen for the first time and they decided to buy a house on the spot. You just can't predict it. A couple were over from Switzerland looking at one house, they didn't like it, looked at a second, and bought it. And then we have they buyers who think they want to move here, look at 25 houses and leave." Tourism is strong in summer months but the local businesses like restaurants, bars and independent stores are kept busy all year round. He reports a lot of interest in high-end properties over the last 12 months, with deals done in excess of 1m on properties along the coast. Towns like Baltimore, Schull and Glandore were most popular with buyers last year, with Carmody claiming that there's something for everyone in his neck of the woods. Forecasts are for no rise or fall in prices around West Cork in the coming 12 months, aside from the three bed semis in town.PRICES in Cork city centre have risen by 5pc through the past 12 months, slightly less than the 6pc experienced the previous year. This leaves the value of the average home standing at 228,000 compared with 217,000 a year ago. The continued rate of increase reflects the fact that Cork City Centre is still seeing growth in new commercial activity, thanks largely to ambitious new office schemes recently completed or now underway.

More workers based in the centre has led to a greater demand for homes both to buy and to let. It means that two-bed apartments have just pushed through the 200k ceiling for the first time since the crash and three-bed semis are set break through the 300k barrier some time this year.

According to Michael O'Donovan of Savills in Cork, there has also been a general increase in interest in city centre living as a lifestyle choice, particularly among first-time buyers who have been getting younger (mid to late-twenties) thanks to enhanced employment prospects in the city centre and a particular willingness by the banks to favour them for loans up to 300,000.

While there were almost no new homes developed in the city centre through the last year, big bold new office schemes like Navigation Square (310,000 sq ft) are doing their bit to bringing more workers into the area. Cork City Centre House Type 2018 2019 2020 3-bed Semi 272,000 286,000 300,000 4-bed Semi 290,000 305,000 320,000 One-bed Apartment 165,000 173,000 182,000 Two-bed Apartment 195,000 205,000 215,000 2-bed Terrace 240,000 252,000 265,000 3-bed Terrace 260,000 273,000 287,000 Ex-council 2-bed 215,000 225,000 236,000 Ex-council 3-bed 225,000 236,000 248,000 3/5 Storey Over Basement 450,000 450,000 472,000 Other new commercial schemes include a huge development underway at Penrose Quay by John Cleary's JCD Group. There's a new Maldron Hotel while Park Place Technologies is to open its new European, Middle East and African headquarters in the City Quarter. Home sales here are being driven by those who have already been renting in the centre, have new confidence in their circumstances, and want to stay put. These include foreign-born workers who have relocated to Cork for jobs with international firms. Property Hotspot: Albert Road Once again Albert Road, with its mix of small affordable period terrace homes is proving a big hit with city buyers with two and three bed homes in good condition still available for under 260,000 wh Favourite property types for younger buyers include the two-bedroom apartments found in newer schemes and older two and three-bedroom terrace houses. With no room for new builds save for redevelopment potential in a few 1970s buildings, rents are now rising steadily in Cork city centre. At this point the location could likely do with a few big apartment blocks going forward. There are no vacancies today at the swishy Elysium Tower and its surrounding blocks, a favourite for big firm workers and those interested must now go on a waiting list. More than any other building it perhaps demonstrates Cork city's rapid return from the crash. Once Ireland's tallest empty building, it is now owned by Kennedy Wilson with a "super landlord" trend moving across the main cities. In the Elysium, two-bed units here will now set you back 1,500 per month. Investors are coming back into the city centre market but there's a different profile with pension funds now coming to the fore rather than small investors. The City Council too has been making its presence felt, buying here for social housing. Whereas buyers for the council had been falling out of bidding processes last year, they have been more resolute through the last 12 months and more successful in their purchases. The values of larger period houses in need of work have remained stagnant for the third year running thanks to a reluctance of banks to lend combined with a fear costs enforcing heritage rulings. While dereliction is not yet a concern, their case will need to be addressed soon.This house on Main St, Ballyvaughan, Co Clare was sold by DNG Brian MacMahon in October for 145k

Ennis's popularity with workers in neighbouring Limerick, Galway and Shannon has meant that there has been a need for new building to keep up with demand.

It commenced in Ennis in 2018 for the first time in over 10 years, and sales have been strong.

Diarmuid McMahon of Sherry FitzGerald McMahon is delighted to see the builders move in.

"We're nearly a suburb of Limerick at this stage in Ennis," says McMahon. Clare House Type 2018 2019 2020 3-BED SEMI IN TOWN 170,000 190,000 190,000 3-bed Semi Out Of Town 150,000 160,000 160,000 4-BED SEMI IN TOWN 200,000 220,000 220,000 4-bed Semi Out Of Town 175,000 185,000 185,000 4-bed Detached 245,000 255,000 255,000 5-bed Detached 275,000 285,000 285,000 3-bed Bungalow In Town 215,000 230,000 230,000 3-bed Bungalow Outside Town 200,000 210,000 210,000 4-bed Bungalow In Town 235,000 245,000 245,000 4-bed Bungalow Outside Town 205,000 220,000 220,000 Detached 2000+ Sq Ft 350,000 360,000 360,000 Holiday Home 180,000 195,000 195,000 Two-bed Apartment 80,000 95,000 110,000 2up/2Down 110,000 120,000 120,000 3-bed Terrace 130,000 140,000 150,000 2-bed Cottage 100,000 110,000 110,000 Ex-council 3-bed 85,000 100,000 100,000 "People are living here and working in Shannon, Limerick and Galway. We were losing potential buyers who worked in these places because we didn't have the stock for them to buy so it's great seeing new homes coming on. We've good employment around us. Galway is about 35-40 minutes to Oranmore, Limerick is about 20 minutes away and Shannon is 15." First-time buyers are most active when it comes to the new builds, even though they are about 15pc higher in price than second-hand. Property Hotspot: Ennis Workers from Galway, Limerick and Shannon looking to buy into Ennis The average growth in 2018 was 12pc, with certain areas going higher. Brexit doesn't seem to be having much impact either. "We haven't really felt a hit from Brexit," says McMahon. "The Irish Open is coming to Lahinch this year and there's a great buzz." If UK buyers have fallen away, they've been replaced by Americans. "There are a lot of foreign buyers at the moment, particularly US for the first time," says McMahon. "In the early Noughties, they wouldn't touch Irish property... but now they think it's a good time to buy in." Highest price on the register was Ballyhannon Castle in Quin sold to a US buyer last June for 1.175m. A five-bed detached with sea views went for 615,000 in Lahinch.Need to know: There is an option to defer payment of the property tax if you are struggling financially, which could help you in the short-term

Q: I am 74, and a widower and I pay the full local property tax on my house in Bray, Co Wicklow, which I bought with my wife when we moved here in 1965. I live on a small private pension, and it is a big bill to pay each year. Are there any conditions that allow for widowed people to pay a lower amount of tax, given that they bought the house as a couple, but now have to maintain the property on a sole income/pension?

A: The law states that any property used for residential purposes on the valuation date of May 1, 2013 is liable for local property tax (LPT).

As the owner of a liable property on the liability date, you are liable to pay, according to Eileen Devereux, Commercial Director, Taxback.com.

Unfortunately, there are no deductions in LPT available for widowers. But there is the option to defer payment if you are struggling. Full or partial deferring for a period of time can help as a short-term measure until financial circumstances improve, or until you sell the property, if that is an option you consider at some point.

To qualify for a deferral you must be an owner occupier and your gross annual income from all sources must not exceed certain amounts.

As a widower, the deferral will remain in place until the next valuation date (currently November 1, 2019) and your income is not considered until then, according to Ms Devereux.

On November 1, 2019, you can make a claim for deferral of the tax. If you satisfy the conditions, you will qualify. If you do not qualify, the amount that was deferred up to the end of 2019 may continue to be deferred. Interest at 4pc a year will continue to be charged on the deferred amount.

Q: My husband and I had our second child three months ago, and I've decided to take a break from work to mind the children. My husband has life cover through work, but I am wondering if that's enough? Should I have any extra cover even though I am not working?

A: It is so easy to underestimate the cost of being a stay-at-home parent, and most people do.

But stay-at-home parents make a huge hidden financial contribution to their family, says director of KM Financial Mike Knightson. Leading life insurers Royal London recently undertook a cost-analysis of 11 major roles that the typical stay-at-home parent would perform, for example, cooking, cleaning, driving etc. It found that it would cost in the region of 42,000 a year to pay someone to come in and do this work.

Mr Knightson recommends that you discuss life cover options with a broker to assess what would be a suitable level of cover to provide a safeguard for your family in the event of an untimely death.

Q: Our Irish-born son is married to an American and living in the US as a legal permanent resident. As their first baby is due in 2019 we would like to give them a substantial sum as part of his inheritance. As a beneficiary from an Irish donor, what are the tax implications for him under US tax laws and what documentation needs to be completed to be tax-compliant?

A: In the US you can receive up to $14,000 a year tax-free, and a married couple can receive twice this amount without having to file a US tax return.

Depending on the family's circumstances, this might be an option, according to Susan Murphy of MakeMyWill.ie.

If it is a more substantial amount you wish to gift, perhaps the most straightforward approach would be to gift him the money into his Irish account, so he can receive the Irish capital acquisitions tax (CAT) threshold of up to 320,000 before he is liable for tax, and file the Irish self-assessment tax return before the end of October.

He can also claim the annual small gift exemption of 3,000 on the tax return. Anything above this would be taxed at 33pc, Ms Murphy said.

Then he can transfer over to the US from his own Irish account as and when he wants it.

However, this gift will be taken into account on a later inheritance, and she must bear this in mind.

His wife can also receive a gift of up to 16,250, plus the annual small gift exemption of 3,000.

And her grandchild can receive up to 32,500, plus the annual small gift exemption of 3,000. There should not be any double-taxation. If the amount is more than the CAT threshold, it would be best to have a chat with an accountant about the most tax-efficient way to transfer the gift.

Ms Murphy says it would best to contact the helpline of the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) in the US and seek their confirmation, preferably in writing, before anything is transferred over to the US.

There is an option to defer payment of the property tax if you are struggling financially, which could help you in the short-term

It it would cost in the region of 42,000 a year to pay someone to come in and do this work of a stay-at-home parent, research has found.Pharma giant: Perrigos operational centre in Allegan, Michigan. The company employs around 180 workers in Ireland

One day in late November, a surprise caller turned up at Perrigo's Dublin headquarters, close to the so-called 'Googletown' neighbourhood.

Informed that the drug-maker's chief financial officer, Ron Winowiecki, wasn't around, the visitor dropped off a letter at its second-floor office in the Treasury Building, famed for 'Aspiration', the sculpture of a naked woman scaling its exterior walls.

Inside the envelope was a tax demand for a whopping 1.6bn, the second-largest in Irish history, according to an account of the episode given to the Government.

Weeks later, Perrigo revealed the assessment to shocked investors, sending its shares plunging 29pc.

That came shortly after semiconductor business Analog Devices told its shareholders the company faces a much smaller, but potentially significant, tax battle of its own with Ireland.

Taken together, the cases may signal a tougher line Ireland is taking with US companies using the nation to lower its taxes and as a gateway to Europe.

"There is a more challenging environment out there," said Joe Tynan, head of tax at PWC Ireland in Dublin.

"Tax authorities are asking tougher questions and are less accepting of the answers."

While Revenue didn't say whether there had been a change in its approach, it noted in an emailed response for comment that multinationals "are subject to the same level of risk analysis and intervention scrutiny as any other commercial entity".

Investment professionals are worried, though many are waiting for a third case to emerge before reaching a definitive conclusion.

"There may be political reasons - tax authorities are keen to show they are treating all taxpayers the same," said Mr Tynan.

"That just doesn't apply in Ireland, we are seeing it globally."

Ireland is batting against a perception it's a tax haven - in 2017, US President Donald Trump named it as a key country drawing US firms in search of lower taxes. From Europe, too, there's been pressure. In 2018, the corporate tax rate in Ireland was 12.5pc, compared with an EU average of about 21.9pc, European Commission figures show.

The Commission ordered Ireland to recover 13bn in arrears from Apple and the Government has been one of the leading opponents of a digital tax France is pushing.

In all, about 20pc of all Irish workers are employed, either directly or indirectly, in 700 US firms peppered around the Republic, according to the American Chamber of Commerce.

One area close to the south docks in Dublin is dubbed Googletown, to reflect the search giant's sprawling campus. Just around the corner is Perrigo's global headquarters.

Six years ago, the maker of pain-reliever Solpadeine bought the Irish biotechnology firm Elan and moved its base to Dublin to enjoy lower tax rates. Months earlier, Elan had sold intellectual property tied to Tysabri, a treatment for multiple sclerosis to Biogen.

Perrigo treated revenue from the sale as trading income, which is taxed at 12.5pc. Authorities here say it should be treated as "chargeable gains" and taxed at 33pc - and made the demand just before a five-year statutory limitation period ended.

In filings just before Christmas, the drug-maker vowed to fight the finding - which it called "incorrect and without merit".

A month earlier, Irish officials told chip-maker Analog that it owed about 43m linked to inter-company transfers stretching back to 2013.

Analog, headquartered in Norwood, Massachusetts, employs around 1,200 people in Ireland's south-west, and promised investors that it would fight the case. For Ireland, the question is: will investment be hurt?

Perrigo reviewed plans to add jobs in Dublin before electing to push on with some hires, according to a source, who asked not to be named because the matter is private.

Perrigo's operational base is in Michigan, with about 180 people employed in Ireland. The numbers employed by overseas firms operating in Ireland rose to a record last year, according to the IDA.

Yesterday, Salesforce laid out one of the biggest jobs expansions in the nation's history, as it prepares to add about 1,500 Irish employees.

Yet, the tax question isn't going away. Tax "is one of the features that makes Ireland so competitive, so of course, it's going to remain in focus," Moody's Investors Service analyst Sarah Carlson, who covers Ireland, said, in an interview in Dublin.

"Watching corporate tax policy in Europe and US is important. It's a risk we are well aware of."Shares in Ryanair sank below 10 for the first time in four years yesterday after the airline issued its second profit warning in three months. Photo: Reuters

Shares in Ryanair sank below 10 for the first time in four years yesterday after the airline issued its second profit warning in three months.

Europe's biggest low-cost carrier now expects its full-year profit to be between 1bn and 1.1bn, compared to a previous estimate of between 1.1bn and 1.2bn.

It has blamed winter fares that are expected to fall by 7pc - more than three times the 2pc decline it had originally pencilled in.

Chief executive Michael O'Leary said the airline was "disappointed" with the lower profit guidance and warned that the carrier couldn't rule out another cut if there are "unexpected Brexit or security developments which adversely impact yields between now and the end of March".

He has also insisted that the tough winter trading period will result in a shake-out in the European airline sector, especially among smaller rivals. "We believe this lower fare environment will continue to shake out more loss-making competitors, with Wow, Flybe, and reportedly Germania for example, all currently for sale," said Mr O'Leary.

Iceland's Wow Air has tried to grab a share of the low-cost transatlantic market by using Reykjavik as a hub for travel between Europe and North America. A planned sale to bigger rival Icelandic recently fell through, with Bill Franke's Indigo Partners then coming to the rescue. Indigo plans to take a 49pc stake in Wow via a convertible loan.

UK carrier Flybe is being acquired by a consortium that includes Stobart and Virgin Atlantic, whilst Germania is also looking for a buyer amid financial difficulties, it's been reported.

Scandinavia's Norwegian Air has also been wrestling with financial woes. Norwegian has also announced plans to close bases in top tourist destinations such as Rome, Gran Canaria, Tenerife and Palma, where, as Davy Stockbrokers pointed out, it had competed head-to head with Ryanair.

Mr O'Leary warned that while Ryanair has "reasonable visibility" over forward bookings for the period to the end of March, it can't rule out further cuts to air fares and, or, lower guidance.

"There is short-haul over capacity in Europe this winter, but Ryanair continues to pursue our price passive/load factor active strategy to the benefit of our customers who are enjoying record lower air fares," he said. The airline will fill its planes at whatever price it needs to sell tickets to do so.

While Ryanair recently reported that its total passenger traffic for calendar 2018 was up 8pc at 139.2 million, the pace of growth was slower than the 10pc it notched up in 2017, and the 17pc advance recorded in 2016.

Ryanair shares fell 5.2pc before closing up slightly.Irish oil and gas explorer Providence Resources is a step closer to drilling a prospect off the south-west coast. Stock photo

Irish oil and gas explorer Providence Resources is a step closer to drilling a prospect off the south-west coast.

The company and its partners have had their interest in the project upgraded to a so-called frontier exploration licence, which paves the way for an exploration well.

The acreage involved is in the southern Porcupine Basin, and the primary target is known as 'Avalon'.

The licence is operated by French giant Total, which has a 50pc interest.

Total has also agreed to pay 60pc of a well on the licence, up to a cost cap of $42m (37m). Providence has a 40pc share in the licence.

"We are very pleased to confirm approval from the Minister to progress the Avalon licensing option to frontier exploration licence status," Dr John O'Sullivan, technical director at Providence, said.

"Avalon is a very large and exciting prospect, which lies adjacent to Dunquin North, and the joint venture partners look forward to progressing it further under the operatorship of Total."

Last year the Dublin-listed company signed a farm-out agreement with Chinese company Apec Energy at the potentially huge Barryroe field off the coast of Co Cork.

The agreement comprises the drilling and testing of five wells plus an option for two more.

The company is also evaluating whether it can generate electricity from billions of barrels of boiling water found under the sea bed.Neonicotinoid insecticides have been cut from the armoury of cereal growers as of the end of 2018, with the impact expected to be seen in this year's winter wheat and barley crops

Storm clouds are gathering over the Irish tillage sector: a drop-off in the availability of vital chemicals is threatening to dampen yields.

The main driver is potential bans on insecticides, herbicides and fungicides and a dwindling pipeline of new products.

Neonicotinoid insecticides have been cut from the armoury of cereal growers as of the end of 2018, with the impact expected to be seen in this year's winter wheat and barley crops.

Teagasc now expects the crucial fungicide chlorothalonil also to be removed as an option within a few years. Field trials Teagasc ran showed a huge potential cut in yields of barley and wheat if chlorothalonil is removed from market.

The herbicide stalwart glyphosate is being looked on unfavourably in Europe, and could be on its way out. The cupboard is getting bare.

"The situation with cereals is on the cusp of getting serious in terms of the major chemistries available and the impact this could have in terms of yield," says Dr Michael Hennessy, head of crops knowledge transfer at Teagasc.

The EU has shifted from hazard-based to risk-based scenarios, so anything that looks like a problem is being put on a potential list for being benched.

Also, up until now, each time pests or diseases became resistant to an agrichemical, there was a steady stream of new chemistries to replace it.

Struggled

Companies such as BASF, Dow and Syngenta have "struggled to get new chemistry through the new regulatory process, and due to these regulatory difficulites many of these companies are reluctant to prioritise registrations of new material in Europe over other parts of the world, never mind Ireland," says Dr Hennessy.

"It's a double whammy: the EU declassifying chemistry on one side, and not many new products coming to the market on the other."

The winter of 2018 was the last time cereal growers here could use neonicotinoids, an insecticide effective at tackling aphids on cereal crops. The EU ban came into place due to environmental concerns about their impact on bees.

Experts warn that the move steps up the risks of a considerable fall in yields of wheat and barley.

"Neonicotinoids were vital for the control of harmful insects such as aphids that lead to some of the viruses in crops," says agricultural consultant Pat Minnock.

"There is no replacement being brought in, so there is going to be a major problem for the production of cereals in this country."

British researchers predict that wheat farmers could be looking out at yellowing fields of winter wheat by February and March next year.

The concern is that a lapse in controlling aphids will lead to the spread of barley yellow dwarf virus, which can slash yields significantly.

"Next year (2019) could be the last good year for European wheat harvests for some considerable time," Dr Kim Hammond-Kosack, senior scientist at Rothamsted Reasearch, warned in November.

Yield threat

High aphid numbers can spread barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) on winter cereals, which if untreated can reduce yields by 40 to 50pc for a grower.

One step growers can take is to plant winter cereals later in the year, to avoid the flying aphids, but this delay can mean planting in trickier weather or soil conditions and result in patchier crop and lower yields.

"The break-even yield for winter wheat here is around 8.4 tonnes per hectare. Every tonne above this helps pay for overheads, and profitability, so a tillage famer has to achieve high yields in Ireland to make money," says Dr Hennessy.

This new situation without neonicotinoids is going to be difficult, but not impossible, he adds.

The big unknown is what will happen to the aphid population when neonics are removed; control of aphids relied on a combination of neonics and pyrethroids, which are sprayed onto crops.

Teagasc estimates that perhaps 40 to 50pc of the aphid population is resistant to pyrethroids, but crop scientists are unsure what will happen to resistance once pyrethroids alone are sprayed.

The worry is that if resistance increases and there are no other useful tools to control aphids, growing some cereals may become impossible.

"This is always the problem of getting rid of potential pest control tools. You become over-reliant on one or two groups of chemistries to control the pest - we essentially are limited to one group of aphicide for aphid control in cereals now," says Dr Hennessy.

"The more often you use any pesticide, the quicker resistance will build up in the pest population, and over time the control measure may become ineffectual."

Careful use and a combination of other control measures can prolong a pesticide's usefulness.

One alternative is to breed crops resistant to BYDV, but it can take seven to eight years to bring a new variety to market. Scientists across Europe are working to integrate resistance/tolerance to BYDV into cereals, says Dr Hennessy.

Teagasc too is working with on a number of research projects with commercial companies to develop improved breeding populations for cereals that are more suitable in an Irish farming context.

Fungicides

Irish tillage farmers especially must worry about fungal diseases. Our wet maritime climate offers ideal conditions for them to proliferate.

The biggest threat to winter wheat in Ireland is the foliar fungal disease Septoria tritici, which can cause yield losses ranging from 30pc up to 50pc. The infection reduces photosynthesis in the leaf layer, impairing growth and grain fill.

A key fungicide to control septoria is chlorothalonil, a broad-spectrum fungicide that is the active ingredient of Bravo.

Syngenta, which first brought chlorothalonil to the Irish market, told a Teagasc conference last September that the re-registration process for the chemical was becoming more and more difficult.

Dr Steven Kildea, plant pathologist at Teagasc, described chlorothalonil as essential for septoria control.

A Teagasc study found that wheat not treated by chlorothalonil could take a yield hit of around 2.5 t/ha - but up to 5/ha - with resulting reduction in profitability of over 60pc from the crop.

"Essentially the wetter the weather, especially around May, the more septoria you are going to have. In our climate we have moderate to high levels of septoria every year in Ireland," says Dr Hennessy.

In December, the European Commission postponed a decision until March to re-register the fungicide.

"If you cannot control septoria on wheat, you can lose half your crop. So why would you grow it?" asks Pat Minnock.

The margins for cereals crops are tight, so substantial yield declines are not going to cut it with growers.

In the past, chlorothalonil was used in a fungicide mix to best control the disease. Often it is used with the azole and SDHI fungicides.

"We try to use multiple-action fungicides. By having a diverse fungicide mix on crops, the more chance you have of avoiding potentially resistant strains of a fungus," says Dr Hennessy.

Chlorothalonil has been increasingly important in direct disease control and for maintaining yields, however. For this reason, Teagasc recently looked at the impact of its removal on wheat and barley (see box).

Another devastating fungal disease of cereals is ramularia, which starts as small brown spots and hits barley yields especially hard.

Beneficial

"It is very difficult to control," notes Pat Minnock. "Chlorothalonil is a product that gives some beneficial effects, though."

The disease is not such a big deal across in the rest of Europe. Most problems are in Ireland, Scotland, and parts of southern Germany.

"It is very difficult for a small country like ours to keep necessary tools vital for Irish agriculture, compared to a big country like France," says Dr Hennessy, who sees another downside to Brexit here.

"We lose a close ally who is looking for the same types of ag-chem tools, as we share similar weather conditions, disease and produce similar product labels to the UK.

"It is possible there will be less interest by ag-chem companies in bringing new products to a small market like Ireland."

'It's madness - they are tying farmers' hands in knots'

An alternative strategy to using ag-chemicals is to breed more disease resistant varieties, something Teagasc has been doing that for wheat and barley, particularly with a view to increase resistance to septoria and ramularia.

"We have been working hard to identify pre-breeding lines for companies, but this takes years," says Dr Michael Hennessy, head of crops knowledge transfer at Teagasc, as it can take seven to ten years for a breeding programme to succeed.

The situation has been made worse, say many crop scientists, by the decision last July to place gene editing under the same strict regulations as GMOs.

"This was just madness," says Dr Hennessyof the gene editing decision. "They are tying the hands of farmers in knots in terms of producing food."

He points also to the situation with glyphosate:, the active ingredient in the Roundup product. It has become controversial, with links to cancer in the public's mind.

"Everyone has their mind set against it, no matter what information comes out. All the reports I've read, bar one which on my reading has been discredited, said it is one of the safest herbicides available," says Dr Hennessy.

Last November, EU member states agreed on a five-year renewal period. If removed, the notice period for growers would likely be less than two years. If the EU moved against glyphosate, the import of food and fibre grown using the herbicide would be unlikely to be banned given how widely it is used outside of Europe.

"The rules are farcical," says Dr Hennessy. "On one side they want to ban it. On the other side, they want to import (foods made with) it."

Europe has a huge and expanding deficit in protein production, to feed both animals and people. The majority of that protein is grown in South America, which is not subject to the same regulatory regime as European farmers.

This apparent disconnection between various parts of EU regulations will then become more transparent and perhaps lead to very difficult decisions about these imports in future, Dr Hennessy warns.Staff members taking part in the experiment on automated farming machinery load fertilizer onto an automated tractor near a field in Xinghua, Jiangsu province, China October 30, 2018. Picture taken October 30, 2018. REUTERS/Hallie Gu

A brand new combine harvester buzzes up and down a field in eastern China without a driver on board, chopping golden rice stalks and offering a glimpse of what authorities say is the automated future of the nation's mammoth agricultural sector.

The bright green prototype was operating last autumn during a trial of driverless farm equipment as the government pushes firms to develop within 7 years fully-automated machinery capable of planting, fertilising and harvesting each of China's staple crops - rice, wheat and corn.

That shift to automation is key to the farming sector in the world's No.2 economy as it grapples with an ageing rural workforce and a dearth of young people willing to endure the hardships many associate with toiling on the land.

Other countries like Australia and the United States are taking similar steps in the face of such demographic pressures, but the sheer scale of China's farming industry means the stakes are particularly high in its drive to automate agriculture.

"Automated farming is the way ahead and demand for it here is huge," said Cheng Yue, general manager of tractor maker Changzhou Dongfeng CVT Co Ltd, which provided an autonomous vehicle that was also used at the trial in the rice field in Xinghua, a county in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

However, the road to automation is long and littered with obstacles such as high costs, the nation's varied terrain and the small size of many of its farms.

"I have heard of driverless tractors. But I don't think they are practical, especially the really large ones," said Li Guoyong, a wheat farmer in China's northern Hebei province.

Most farms in his area are only a few hectares in size, he said by phone.

GOING LOCAL

To try to achieve its ambitious 7-year goal, Beijing is supporting trials of local technology across the country organised by industry group Telematics Industry Application Alliance (TIAA).

Members include state-owned tractor maker YTO Group, navigation systems producer Hwa Create and Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co Ltd, which helped develop the combine harvester used in the Xinghua trial along with Jiangsu University.

The next trials are slated for the northeastern province of Heilongjiang and for the hills around the southwestern city of Chongqing in the first half of this year.

Those come after a string of automated developments in the sector.

YTO developed its first driverless tractor in 2017 and is aiming to start mass production soon, depending on market demand, said Lei Jun, an executive at the firm's technology centre, without giving a more detailed timeline.

Lovol Heavy Industry Co Ltd signed a deal with Baidu in April to apply the tech giant's Apollo automated driving system to its agricultural machinery.

"China is expected to climb the autonomous technology ladder very quickly, mainly because Chinese companies can access the local navigation satellite system, which gives them an advantage over their international peers," said Alexious Lee, Head of China Industrial Research at Hong Kong brokerage CLSA.

He was referring to China's 'Beidou' homegrown satellite navigation system, a rival to the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS).

Beijing has included agricultural machinery in its 'Made in China 2025' campaign, meaning the vast majority of its farm equipment should be produced at home by that time.

Semi-automated technology is already fairly common on farms in places such as the United States, but fully-automated tractors and combines have yet to be mass-produced anywhere.

TOO SMALL

But with many Chinese farms still too small for a regular tractor, driverless ones that could be as high as four times more expensive at around $90,000 will be a long way out of reach for many in the short-term.

More than 90 percent of farms in China are less than 1 hectare, while in the United States nearly 90 percent are larger than 5 hectares.

"It is not about whether you have the product. It is about the entire system. It is about commercialising agriculture," said Lee.

Although analysts and industry officials said that the underlying trend would be for farms to get larger as ongoing reforms to land rights should allow farmers to lease more space.

Sensors in equipment that help monitor crop conditions also need to be improved so that machines can adjust more quickly to different situations, said Wei Xinhua, deputy director of the school of agriculture equipment engineering at Jiangsu University.

China's $60 billion farm machinery industry has been burdened by overcapacity and low profit-margins after a years-long subsidy scheme to promote mechanisation in farming led to mass production of low-quality tractors. Analysts said it was too early to say how much the automated farming machinery sector could eventually be worth.

Automated farming machines are also useful in recording data on details such as volumes of fertilisers or other materials used in churning out crops, potentially helping farmers target consumers demanding higher-quality produce as some of that information could be included on food labels.

"Take a bowl of rice. I want to know exactly how it was planted, and how much fertiliser or pesticide was applied to it," said Cheng at Changzhou Dongfeng.An artists impression of the new Salesforce Tower in Dublin. Photo: PA

Salesforce, the business software company, is to add 1,500 jobs to its Dublin operation at a new 'urban campus' in the docklands.

The new development is the single biggest commercial letting deal in Irish history, with the 430,000 sq ft development possibly to be joined by an additional 100,000 sq ft of space subject to planning permission.

This is larger than the previous largest commercial letting, Facebook's 350,000 sq ft campus development as its European headquarters on the site of the AIB Bank Centre in Ballsbridge. Both developments are in collaboration with developer Johnny Ronan.

The Salesforce Dublin development deal was originally reported by the Irish Independent last July.

However, its new 'Salesforce Tower' will only be six storeys high, unlike the similarly named 'Salesforce Tower' buildings in San Francisco and London, which are those cities' tallest and third-tallest buildings, respectively.

Salesforce already employs 1,400 people in Dublin. The move follows announcements from Google, Facebook, Amazon and WeWork, which will see a handful of tech giants dominate Dublin's city workforce.

Expand Close Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar; Salesforce Ireland country leader Dr David Dempsey and Salesforce president and CFO Mark Hawkins at the Convention Centre. Photo: Julien Behal / Facebook

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Whatsapp Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar; Salesforce Ireland country leader Dr David Dempsey and Salesforce president and CFO Mark Hawkins at the Convention Centre. Photo: Julien Behal

"This is one of the largest jobs announcements in Ireland in recent years," said Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, speaking at the launch event.

The announcement indicates that tech companies are starting to spread to Dublin's northside, having filled the south docklands.

The highly paid jobs are expected to put new pressure on rents around Dublin's centre.

"Europe is Salesforce's fastest growing region, and Ireland has been a significant part of our success. We are excited to be announcing our continued commitment with this investment in Dublin as we grow our team in the coming years," said Miguel Milano, President, International, Salesforce.

The company's philanthropic arm also announced an 880,000 grant to Educate Together, an educational charity that operates schools in Ireland with 84 primary schools and 13 second-level schools, providing education for more than 28,000 pupils.Members of British Prime Minister Theresa May's party are peddling a "toxic lie", EU Commissioner Phil Hogan has said.

In a scathing attack on the UK political system, Mr Hogan also lashed out at Mrs May for her management of the Brexit crisis and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn.

He says it "beggars belief" that the prime minister is only now looking to consult with other parties in the House of Commons to try to find a consensus on the way forward.

"There is precious little time left to sort out this mess, and if a breakthrough is to happen, UK politicians need to get over their unwillingness to acknowledge certain uncomfortable truths," Mr Hogan writes in today's Irish Independent.

The strength of his attack on the key players in Westminster is likely to raise eyebrows in Brussels and Dublin.

Irish ministers have repeatedly been warned by Tanaiste Simon Coveney not to comment directly on the state of UK politics for fear of making negotiations even more difficult.

Mr Hogan is Ireland's nominee to the European Commission but is not answerable to the Government here.

He has called on Mrs May to roll back her red line of leaving the customs union, adding: "It is high time she marginalised the extremists within her own party."

Mrs May is spending the weekend discussing the crisis with European leaders ahead of presenting her latest Brexit vision on Monday.

Yesterday she took part in phone conversations with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Diplomats were left "rolling their eyes in disbelief" after phone calls from Mrs May in which she failed to change her demands, despite her Brexit plan being voted down this week.

Senior EU sources said Mrs May's unchanged stance was "greeted with incredulity".

"It was the same old story - the same set of demands - all unchanged despite the defeat," said the source.

Efforts to end the Brexit stalemate remained deadlocked last night, with neither Mrs May nor Mr Corbyn shifting from their entrenched positions. The opposition leader has refused to meet Mrs May unless she rules out the possibility of Britain leaving the EU with no deal.

At home, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has invited the leaders of other parties to a meeting next Tuesday to discuss preparations for a hard Brexit.

He is hoping they will agree to facilitate the easy passage of emergency legislation through the Dail in March.

While the Government hopes the UK will find a way of agreeing to the Withdrawal Agreement, contingency plans for a worst-case scenario are now being actively implemented.

Mr Hogan says today that the only way of preventing the UK from crashing out of the EU is for more mainstream politicians in London "to drop the fanciful rhetoric and start speaking the plain, unvarnished truth".

"Then, at last, we might be able to find a way out of this messy situation," he says.

"Too many Conservative MPs continue to peddle the toxic lie that a hard Brexit would be the best outcome for the UK. It would not."

The former minister says Mr Corbyn's assertion that he could secure a better deal is also wrong.

Meanwhile, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern said Mrs May was "senseless" to trigger Article 50 - the formal process of leaving the EU - before working out her strategy.

Speaking to the BBC's 'Inside Politics' show last night, Mr Ahern said "poor decisions had been made," which led the UK to the situation it finds itself in today.

He said Mrs May should now call a series of "indicative votes" in the House of Commons to see which Brexit option had most support - and that he believes this could be done in "four hours".

Asked if Ireland was ready for 'no deal', he replied: "I don't think anybody is prepared for a 'no-deal' Brexit."'The battered British currency was headed for its best week against the euro in over a year, which likely says more about how far it has fallen than how far it has to rise.' Stock photo: Bloomberg

The pound staged a mini rally after UK Prime Minister Theresa May won a confidence vote this week, although that was as much to do with euro weakness as any positive sentiment towards the currency, or on clarity over Brexit.

The battered British currency was headed for its best week against the euro in over a year, which likely says more about how far it has fallen than how far it has to rise.

The best course of action is to avoid sterling if you can, but if you do have exposure as an Irish exporter, to use any rallies to lock in hedging as the Brexit process still has a long way to run. While the consensus is that a cliff-edge will be avoided, it is not a given.

"After remaining in a 89-91p range for most of December, this break lower in EUR/GBP through 89p has seen a pickup in customer activity as Irish exporters look to take advantage of sterling strength against what remains a very uncertain backdrop regards the next steps in the Brexit process," said Philip Hartley, head of FX & emerging markets, Bank of Ireland Global Markets. "Importers should be cognisant of the upside risks for sterling however we are not complacent about the current situation, significant downside risks still remain."

Since the 2016 referendum, the UK has sunk from being one of the top-performing developed economies to close to the bottom of the pack and the risks from Brexit look like being prolonged.

The bullish case for UK economic growth is that once the uncertainty is removed, even in the case of a hard Brexit, growth will resume and asset prices, including the pound, can recover.

The problem with that view is that the consensus has proved to be horribly wide of the mark.

And financial markets have a terrible record when pricing political risk, whether it was shock election victory of Donald Trump, or Britain's 2016 referendum.

The pound is down 16pc since the referendum and while resolving Brexit will set the tone for markets, finalisation of Brexit may well produce yet more uncertainties.

The 'Financial Times' reported on Friday that Britain had failed to secure most of its post-Brexit trade deals, something the government had boasted would be easy to do.

Brexit may also usher in a Labour government under Jeremy Corbyn, who promises a radical departure from the free-market policies that have held sway since the 1980s and it is he who likely holds the key to unravelling the relationship with the EU.

"Up to now, his strategy has been to sit on the political fence throughout the entire Brexit process and wait for the Conservatives to make such a mess of Brexit that he could win the next election," said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington, DC, based think tank.

"Now the polls suggest the voters are ready to reject him over his apparent passivity, if not impotence."

Mr Corbyn has been in the British parliament since 1983, but has never been in government and has defined himself in terms of his opposition to Conservative policies and to many of those from Labour when they were in power.

His approach to the EU would be to hold more talks, stop free movement and to remain in a customs union, although many of his policies would run foul of EU rules.

With global growth slowing, and credit markets tightening, the room for tolerance of radical policies looks set to diminish.

And Mr Corbyn's plans for higher business taxes, more government spending and a nationalisation programme may well mark the start of another downturn in the pound's fortunes.It was heartbreaking when a year into the Me Too and Times Up movements, after all the marches, the street protests and the chants, some of those same women who bravely shared their powerful stories with the world said they felt like no real changes had been made.

As a result though, the Womens March was the biggest single-day protest in US history. It boosted morale, spreading important messages and saw countless inspiring bystanders. Ive been a part of many womens marches myself  whether it was campaigning against everyday sexism, fighting for gender equality in all its forms, or getting behind the women of MeToo. Today, there will be another series of marches, but I feel they have served their purpose for a time, and now its time to start talking. The marches can and have only taken us so far.

Theres power in conversation. Theres power in coming together with men in conversation to move forward to educate others on the injustices a lot of women continually face. Theres power in the spoken word, as well as the stomp of the foot.

The Young Womens Trust (YWT)  a charity which supports young women on low or no pay  has released a recent report which finds that one year from the start of the Me Too movement, 32 per cent of young women dont know how to report sexual harassment at work, while 24 per cent say that they would be reluctant to do so for fear of losing their job.

The reality is that MeToo, anti-Trump and feminist marches havent changed the day-to-day realities of being a woman for most of us. Marches have helped womens anger become a public conversation, but the question still exists as to whether our marching can become a true catalyst for political change. I read that protest is the new brunch, that people are only marching for the Instagram feeds, or those marching are simply members of the ticked off snowflake generation as they protest about some offence taken, instead of demonstrating for political change. While I disagree with this outlook, change has been painfully slow and womens anger, however justified it may be, has not automatically converted into progress.

Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Show all 70 1 /70 Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London A protester with a banner chants slogans as she takes part in the Women's March calling for equality, justice and an end to austerity in London Reuters Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The 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calling for equality, justice and an end to austerity Reuters Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Reuters Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Reuters Womens March  bread and roses rally in London A woman dressed as suffragette gestures Reuters Womens March  bread and roses rally in London Reuters

Today, I will still get that creepy catcall down the street by a man twice my age, I will still be faced with that guy who thinks its OK to walk past me in a bar with his hands wrapped tightly just above my bum, I will still experience guys at the gym telling me how to lift weights and Ill still come across embarrassing machismo and misogyny.

Everyday sexism is still very much living and breathing, and its perpetrated by men who arent affected by our cries and emotive posters  that much is clear. I believe having a conversation with them might, though.

Recommended The brutal abuse of women politicians must be urgently addressed

Nathan Heller wrote in The New Yorker that: Activists today speak more about numbers and reach than about lasting results. Is protest a productive use of our political attention? Or is it just a bit of social theatre we perform to make ourselves feel virtuous, useful, and in the right?

In Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work, a book published in 2015, then updated in 2018, Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams question the power of marches, protests, and other acts of what they call folk politics. They say these methods are more habit than solution and that protest is too fleeting. It ignores the structural nature of problems in a modern world. The folk-political injunction is to reduce complexity down to a human scale, they write.

This is politics transmitted into pastime  politics-as-drug-experience, perhaps  rather than anything capable of transforming society, Srnicek and Williams write. If we look at the protests today as an exercise in public awareness, they appear to have had mixed success at best. Their messages are mangled by an unsympathetic media smitten by images of property destruction  assuming that the media even acknowledges a form of contention that has become increasingly repetitive and boring.

This year Im going to skip marching, but have challenged myself to have a real and honest conversation with every man who I have a run-in or disagreement with  whether thats in the gym, at work, or a coffee shop.

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Some of my favourite people in my life are men and when us women come together with them, were stronger. We complement each other. Were better when were in the fight together. Joining forces not just for marches, but in conversations too, to take on the different issues and ignorances that are happening right now with other men. We need to make the chat wide, accessible and inclusive for everyone.

The author Linda Lambert famously once said, One good conversation can shift the direction of change forever. Shes quite right.A year later, there has been no official word on how Trump will mark the occasion, if at all. Holed up inside the White House as the partial government shutdown approaches its fifth week, the president may decide to keep things low key.

One thing we can be sure of is that as Trump embarks on the second half of his term  he was inaugurated at noon EST on 20 January 2017 in a ceremony in which he delivered a bellicose address vowing to end this American carnage  it will be anything but low key.

With so many challenges confronting him, so many pitfalls to face, and so much likelihood he will be pressured in a way he does not like, we can expect two years of hard fighting and ugliness from the White House. If these first two years appeared chaotic, then it would make sense to buckle up.

We have had divided government before, but I dont think we have ever had such divisive government, said Jeanne Zaino, professor of political science at Iona College in New York. People are not talking to the other side, and this is playing out in public.

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She said if Trump finds himself with his back to the wall as a result of the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, which inches ever nearer to the Oval Office, things will get very ugly. If we think things have been divisive over the government shutdown, that will look like childs play.

The investigation by Mueller, himself a former FBI director, has so far resulted in indictments against at least 33 people and three companies. Five former associates of Trump, including his former campaign manager, have pleaded guilty to a variety of crimes, and the 74-year-old has not finished yet. It is known he is considering not just whether Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 election and if there was collusion with the Trump campaign, but also whether the president obstructed justice. Prosecutors are also said to be looking into the Trump Organisation and any role it played.

Trump and his legal team have always dismissed the probe as a witch hunt and denied any collusion. But this week saw two interesting developments: a vow from Trumps new pick for attorney general, William Barr, that he will let the Muller investigation be completed, and an apparent admission from Trumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani  clarified the following day  that somebody in the campaign may have colluded with Moscow.

I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign, he told CNN. He added: I said the president of the United States. There is not a single bit of evidence the president of the United States committed the only crime you could commit here, conspired with the Russians.

Two other things are going to further unsettle the president. One is the fact that the Democrats now control the House of Representatives and everything that means.

With Democrats now crucially charing various oversight committees, they can hold hearings, demand documents and subpoena witnesses. Trump will not like it one little bit if Ivanka Trump or Jared Kushner are subpoenaed by the likes of congressman Adam Schiff, and demanded to explain various aspects of the administration.

Of course, the House is also where any impeachment proceedings against Trump would begin. For now, speaker Nancy Pelosi has barely mentioned that potential weapon, skillfully allowing Trump to stew as the shutdown drags on and he remains no nearer getting his border wall. (She also knows that the Republicans 1998 impeachment of Bill Clinton backfired electorally.)

But if Mueller comes back with something really damaging on Trump, it may be Pelosi is unable, or does not wish to, hold off going down that route. One can only imagine the noise Trump and his supporters would make, if impeachment proceedings were filed.

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

Kathleen Clark, professor of law at Washington University in St Louis, said Mueller has revealed more and more on the behaviour of those close to Trump by filing so-called talking indictments, that include details about their alleged offences, and not simply the charge themselves.

She wondered whether Muellers probe will reveal more about Trumps business dealings, an area he has always claimed is off limits. Will he reveal the president of the United States owes money to powerful Russians, she asked? We dont know how money Trump owes, or who he owes it to.

The final factor that will trigger reverberations from the White House is the 2020 election. With senator Elizabeth Warren formally entering the race on New Years Eve, the battle for the White House essentially got under way.

Since then, a handful of other candidates  Kirsten Gillibrand, Juan Castro and Tulsi Gabbard  have also declared, and many more are expected to follow. Depending on whom the Democrats pick, Trump can expect a tough challenge, and a hard-fought campaign. Incumbent presidents usually win a second term  George HW Bush was the last single-term commander-in-chief  but nothing is certain.

But if Trump fights the 2020 campaign as he did the one in 2016, we can expect it to be unpleasant, toxic and ill tempered. The name-calling he deployed against people such as Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz will be the least of it.

Instead, we can expect the kind of racist and xenophobic language that Trump knows appeals to part of his base, and puts off others from voting. The challenge for whoever is the Democratic challenger will be not to get tarred with the same negativity.

When you get into the mud with somebody [theres always that danger], said Christina Greer, associate professor of political science at Fordham University in New York.

The first two years of Trumps presidency have rushed past. Given the pace of developments, and allegations, and the presidents tactic of seeking to control the news agenda by constantly making headlines, it has been nothing less than exhausting. The next two years will only be worse.The tribalism that Patrick Gilbert has referred to in his article is what I myself have been afraid we may descend into, due to the painfully divisive actions of this government. It seems the prime minister now is basically a hopeless pied piper leading us deep into the mountain, apparently hell-bent on self-destruction.

The word tribalism suggests in a lot of peoples minds a step backward from civilisation. Certainly, I think, that was the sense in which the Queen meant it in her speech at Christmas.

But, in another sense, as a concept, it is no bad thing  people gathering together in communities and collaborating with each other, and making sure they are kept safe from other tribes who might want to inflict terrible woe on them.

The gathering together of various disparate tribes into organisations we now call nations or federations is surely the definition of civilisation?

And now our government wants us to break away from the federation which has united all of us, for more than half a century, after the previous few hundred years of ridiculous wars.

To my mind this is not civilised behaviour, and the people indulging in it are, therefore, not civilised themselves.

Chris Bonfield

Address supplied

Why the big deal over no deal?

I was 28 when Edward Heath signed up to the Treaty of Rome leading to the EEC and subsequently the EU. For almost the first three decades of my life, therefore, I lived in a no-deal situation. Yet by that time I had worked for nine years in a city shipping and forwarding agents, exporting goods to every part of the world (without help of trade deals between countries).

I had made my first visit abroad  with a theatre company to a European country, the Netherlands, for a weeks tour of Twelfth Night. I had completed three years of teacher training, and when we entered the European Economic Community, I was installed at a school in the bush of northern Zambia beginning a three-year contract as an English teacher. How on earth did I survive living a no-deal life?

Edward Thomas

Eastbourne

Its time for Theresa May to take responsibility

Michael Gove was devastatingly correct when he said Jeremy Corbyn is about the worst possible leader to lead the Labour Party. But now Gove needs to accept that Theresa May is also about the worst possible person to lead the Conservative Party.

Surely historians will label this stubborn and foolish woman the Betrayer of Britannia  a democratic vote by the public more than two years ago instructed the ruling elite that they clearly wanted to leave the EU. So why is Theresa May now pursuing her deal which nobody voted for?

It is shameful that she blames both parliament and the EU for not fully supporting her deal  indeed, she should take on board that it is only a weak, inept and shameless captain that blames the crew when the ship strikes an iceberg.

Dave Haskell

Cardigan

A peoples vote is the only democratic option

Well done for all your efforts in bringing a second referendum closer and closer. As I listen to, watch or read about debate on the issue I am consistently irritated by the assertion that 52 per cent of the population voted for Brexit.

As I have previously highlighted and, as you have from time to time repeated, only 37 per cent of the electorate voted for Brexit. The rights of the other 63 per cent need to be defended, particularly as a significant number of those who voted have likely since died and an equal number attained voting age. To assert that another referendum is undemocratic is tantamount to saying a new vote is unfair, as those who have died can no longer vote.

Your efforts now should be to debunk Theresa Mays claim that a new referendum would take 13 months to organise. If a general election with numerous manifestos and campaigns to organise can be achieved in six weeks, it is an affront to suggest that a single-issue referendum has to take any longer.

Andrew Erskine

Abergavenny

Facts seem to no longer matter in todays politics

Boris Johnson seems to be taking a Trumpian approach to politics and the media  lie and deny you ever said something. Both know that statements are fact-checked these days, but seem not to care. We are in a new and disturbing time in politics.

JR

Birmingham

Does anything really change?

Our politicians are but weasels fighting in a hole. And there lurches past, his great eyes without thought / Under the shadow of stupid straw pale locks / That insolent fiend Robert Artisson.

These are the words of WB Yeats a century ago in the Irish Civil War, in his poem Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen.

Oswyn Murray

BanburyIndia's main opposition parties joined forces against prime minister Narendra Modi at a rally which attracted hundreds of thousands of people months ahead of elections.

The 23 regional groups said they forged a common front to stop Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which beat the main opposition Congress and regional parties in 2014.

Rural anger over weak farm prices and sluggish job creation mean Mr Modi's BJP faces a tough challenge to stay in power after electoral losses in three key states last month.

Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to Kolkata from rural Bengal for the rally, bringing disruption to the city.

Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of the state of West Bengal, called on regional party leaders to join a single platform to defeat the anti-people government of Mr Modi, which the 64-year-old said was nearing its end.

A poll last month by ABP News forecast Mr Modi's party could fall about 25 seats short of a majority in national elections and Banerjee is among the few opposition leaders who could emerge as a prime ministerial candidate if the BJP loses.

Regional parties hold the key as they dominate the eastern states of West Bengal, Odisha, and the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, which together send 161 members to the 543 constituencies of parliament's lower house.

Missing from Saturday's lineup was Rahul Gandhi, president of the main opposition Congress party and leaders of the left parties, reflecting tensions among opposition parties on who would be their prime ministerial candidate against Mr Modi.

Mr Gandhi sent his representatives and a letter of support.

After the formation of a strong alliance between Samajwadi and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) last week in the state of Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 members to the lower house, Mr Modi's party faces a risk of losing elections, Mr Banerjee said.

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

Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of Delhi, said Mr Modi had failed to fulfil his promises including job creation.

Modi had promised to create 20 million jobs a year but after a faulty launch of national sales tax and demonetisation in 2016 more than 10 million jobs were lost, he said.

India's unemployment rate hit 7.4 per cent in December, its highest level in 15 months, while the number of people employed fell by nearly 11 million from a year ago, a report by the Mumbai-based Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, said this month.

Politicians at the rally, whose organisers said was attended by more than a million people, said India's growth had slowed during Mr Modi's term and their first priority was to defeat him, adding a replacement would be decided after the elections.

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The BJP dismissed the prospects of an opposition alliance, questioning who would lead such a coalition.

Mr Modi is expected to detail a package worth more than 1 trillion rupees ($14bn) in his last budget on 1 February, including benefits for farmers and other taxpayers.

ReutersRobert Mueller has issued a rare statement dismissing a news report that claimed Michael Cohen had informed prosecutors Donald Trump had told him to lie to Congress.

After Democrats seized on the report by BuzzFeed News and said they would open hearings into whether the president had indeed ordered his former personal lawyer to lie about a Trump Tower project in Moscow, the special prosecutor appeared to pour cold water on the story.

BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the special counsels office, and characterisation of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens Congressional testimony are not accurate, Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mr Muellers office, said in a statement emailed to the media on Friday evening.

Mr Muellers statement, one of just a handful that have been issued since he was appointed in May 2017 to investigate Russias alleged interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign, was leapt on by Mr Trump and his supporters.

The president retweeted a comment posted underneath a post by BuzzFeed saying that it had updated its story with Mr Muellers comment. Sadly so many will never get the memo that it was fake, the person had written.

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His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, tweeted: I ask is that CNN gives equal time to the retraction....(um obliteration you got hit with from Special Counsels Office) that you gave to the #fakenews part of the story you all so desperately wanted to be true. Seems fair, right?

The statement by Mr Mueller was issued several hours after Mr Trumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, had issued a categorical denial of the claim.

Any suggestion  from any source  that the president counselled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false, he said. Cohen has traded on a pattern of lies and dishonesty over an extended period of time and he is going to pay a very, very serious price. Todays claims are just more made-up lies born of Michael Cohens malice and desperation in an effort to reduce his sentence.

On Thursday night, when the article was first published, Mr Giuliani, had said: If you believe Cohen I can get you a great deal on the Brooklyn Bridge.

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

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters of the claim: Look, thats absolutely ridiculous.

At the same time, BuzzFeed News said it was was standing by its report.

BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief Ben Smith tweeted: In response to the statement tonight from the special counsels spokesman: we stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the special counsel to make clear what hes disputing.

Cohen is due to show up to prison in March to serve a three-year sentence as part of the deal brokered last November in which he admitted arranging payments to Stormy Daniels and former model Karen McDougal  a breach of campaign finance laws  on the eve of the 2016 election.

During his guilty plea negotiation, Cohen, 52, admitted he lied when he told Congress in August 2017 that the Moscow Trump Tower project, an idea that dated back as far as 1996, had collapsed by the end of January 2016, when Trump was one of just many candidates seeking the Republican nomination.

In fact, it did not end until June 2016, by which point Trump was the only candidate still in contention, other than John Kasich.

In truth and in fact, Cohens representations to the Senate select committee on intelligence and the House committee about the Moscow Project were false and misleading, said a document filed by federal prosecutors in the southern district of New York.

BuzzFeed said the two sources had revealed Cohen also told special counsel Robert Mueller that after the election, the president personally instructed him to lie in order to obscure Trumps involvement.Michael Cohen has said he is prepared to reveal the truth about Donald Trump during a televised hearing next month  but first, the presidents former personal lawyer required surgery.

Cohen was spotted returning home from a pre-scheduled hospital visit on Friday afternoon after receiving surgery on his shoulder, his adviser Lanny Davis confirmed.

Photos showed the presidents former fixer clutching a full-size pillow that was held in front of his left arm, which was in a sling. He appeared to have bandages covering an incision from intravenous therapy (IV) and was quickly assisted into the residence by a doorman.

The surgery arrived the same day an explosive report in BuzzFeed News suggested Mr Trump told Cohen to lie to Congress  an illegal and arguably impeachable offence  about a Trump Tower project in Moscow he was supposedly working on throughout the 2016 presidential election.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the presidents lawyer Rudy Giuliani have both called the report categorically false, though a spokesperson for the White House stopped short of denying the assertion that Mr Trump coerced Cohen into committing perjury.

The premise is ridiculous, White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said on Friday. We're also talking about a person, in Michael Cohen, who quite frankly has now been proven to be a liar. He self-admits that he's a felon.

Cohen is not one of the anonymous sources included in the report, according to the outlet.

Mr Trump shared quotes from Fox News attacking his longtime confidant on Friday morning, quoting Kevin Corke with a tweet that read, Dont forget, Michael Cohen has already been convicted of perjury and fraud, and as recently as this week, the Wall Street Journal has suggested that he may have stolen tens of thousands of dollars.

Lying to reduce his jail time! The president added.

Michael Cohen arrives at his home in New York with his left arm in a sling supported by a pillow Friday (AP)

Cohen will speak to the House Oversight Committee on 7 February to discuss his tenure serving as one of Mr Trumps closest aides.

In furtherance of my commitment to cooperate and provide the American people with answers, I have accepted the invitation by Chairman Elijah Cummings to appear publicly, he said in a statement earlier this month.

He pled guilty to campaign finance violations, as well as tax evasion and bank fraud, before later also pleasing guilty to lying to Congress about the timeline surrounding the Trump Tower proposal in Moscow.

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

I look forward to having the privilege of being afforded a platform with which to give a full and credible account of the events which have transpired, he added in his statement.

Cohens testimony will arrive before he begins serving his three-year prison sentence.

The president responded to questions about the upcoming testimony last week, telling reporters, Im not worried about it at all.A United Airlines pilot who was charged with indecent exposure after being seen naked in his hotel room has asked for the case to be dismissed due to outrageous governmental misconduct.

Andrew Collins was arrested after standing nude in front of a 10th floor hotel window, which overlooks the Denver International Airport terminal.

He pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanour charge.

A police probable cause statement said Mr Collins opened the window to his hotel room and knowingly and wilfully exposed his genitals to the general public last September.

However, defence attorney Craig Silverman denied the window was opened and said Mr Collins believed the hotel windows were tinted so the public could not see inside his room.

Mr Collins admitted he was naked in his room with the curtains open, but said he was unaware anyone could see him as he walked around the room having a phone conversation.

Before his arrest, the pilot had been engaged in a 20-minute phone call with fellow pilot Jamie Ferguson to discuss a pilot union election Mr Collins was running in, according to a motion by his attorney.

Mr Ferguson said he was prepared to testify that there was nothing sexual about the conversation.

It is not a crime to be naked in Denver, even if you are a man, Mr Silverman said in the motion to dismiss the case.

It is certainly not a crime to be naked in Denver in ones lawful dwelling, which includes lawful occupancy of ones own hotel room.

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

Colorado state law requires a person to knowingly expose his or her genitals in a way that is likely to offend with the intent to arouse or to satisfy sexual desire of anyone for them to commit indecent exposure.

Mr Silverman said Denver police officers were unnecessarily aggressive to Mr Collins and failed to read him his Miranda rights or produce a probable cause warrant.

He also alleged officers mistakenly believed somebody saw Mr Collins performing a sex act, which Mr Silverman said there was no evidence for.

United Airlines has suspended Mr Collins, a 22-year veteran of the airline, according to The Denver Post, pending an internal review.

If Mr Collins is convicted for indecent exposure, he could be sentenced to two years in jail and would have to register as a sex offender, according to Mr Silverman.A Nashville police officer has been indicted on a first-degree murder charge after footage showed him shooting a black man in the back.

Andrew Delke, a white officer, is one step closer to facing an unprecedented criminal trial over the fatal shooting of Daniel Hambrick during a foot chase in North Nashville in July 2018.

Surveillance footage from the incident showed Mr Delke chasing Hambrick after spotting him at a car park of an apartment building while looking for stolen vehicles in the area.

During his pursuit, Mr Delke noticed Hambrick was armed and gave him several verbal commands, including: Drop the gun or I'll shoot, the police warrant obtained by CNN states.

When Hambrick continued to run, the officer aimed his gun and fired four times. Hambrick fell to the ground after being struck in the back of his head, his back and the left torso.

This is the first time an on-duty Nashville police officer has been charged following an on-duty shooting.

District Attorney Glenn Funk decided to pursue a criminal homicide charge after reviewing evidence collected by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

There were a number of options that were available, Mr Funk said during the hearing, suggesting Mr Delke could have stopped or sought cover.

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 Delkes lawyer David Raybin said he planned to plead not guilty and will continue to defend himself on the basis that he acted in accordance with his training and Tennessee law in response to an armed suspect who ignored repeated orders to drop his gun.

However, activists insist Hambrick's death was a prime example of racial bias within the police force.

Nashville Organized for Action and Hope, a faith-based coalition that advocates for police reforms, praised prosecutors for taking the case to the grand jury.

 Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events

The group, known as NOAH, said in a statement: No one is above the law. Officer Delke should stand trial just like anyone else would have to under these circumstances  so that a jury can determine his guilt or innocence.

Mr Delke is expected to be arraigned on the first-degree murder charge later this month.

He is still employed by the Metro Nashville Police Department but has been put on administrative assignment while the case is pending.Since the filing of the lawsuits, the school district has sought to work with plaintiffs, through their attorneys, to resolve these matters and avoid costly and drawn out litigation, he wrote. Through the parties dialogue, the plaintiffs and the school district have reached a unique settlement that meets both the plaintiffs and the school districts goal to create a positive solution out of intolerable circumstances.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 19)  The Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge or the Rockwell Bridge is now closed for reconstruction.

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) advised motorists that the bridge will be closed for 30 months, starting 4 a.m. of January 2019. It is expected to reopen in 2021.

The bridge connects Estrella Street in Makati and Barangka Drive in Mandaluyong. An estimated 120,000 vehicles will be affected once repairs and widening begin.

Motorists are advised to take alternative routes.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said the two-lane bridge will have two more lanes. DPWH Engineer Virgilio Castillo said the Mandaluyong City government is funding the widening of the landing roads in the Pantaleon area.

Funded by China, the reconstruction of the bridge costs P1.4 billion.A prison officer has been fired after using excessive force on an inmate in a wheelchair.

Deputy Aaron Hull was captured on CCTV during a confrontation with the convict at Pinellas County Jail on 24 September 2018.

In the surveillance video, Mr Hull, who was counselling a group of inmates during a lockdown, can be seen approaching Taylor Schuessler, 24, grabbing him by the neck and striking him in the face multiple times.

The former Pinellas County Jail employee poked Schuessler several times in the neck after he spat in the deputy's face.

Footage also shows Mr Hull placing Schuessler him in a headlock during another altercation after moving the inmate's wheelchair from the area.

During an internal investigation, it was determined that things escalated between the pair after Schuessler, 24, started to speak out against Mr Hull and the other prisoners.

According to the report, the deputy told the insubordinate inmate to stop and became aggressive when Schuessler refused to comply.

Mr Hull admitted to losing his patience, overreacting and responding inappropriately to the Schuesslers 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

Kicking a chair is not the best action I could have taken, he said during an interview with a review board. Poking him in the head while not a use of force, per se, was probably inappropriate contact.

Officials described the footage as troubling to watch and insisted that there was no excuse for Mr Hulls behaviour.

Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said: One of the most troubling parts of it is it was done out of anger and he was going after a disabled person who cant walk and cant defend himself.

He continued: There's no excuse for it, no reason for it. It's not justified. It's flat out wrong.

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It's black and white. Absolutely, no reason. No justification. It's not permitted. He put his hands on an inmate, poked him in the face, slapped him in the head, got into a fight with a guy that can't walk in a wheelchair.

Mr Hull was fired on Thursday for violating sheriffs regulations.

Schuessler, who was arrested in January 2018 by St Petersburg police on a charge of discharging a destructive device, was released from the jail on 16 November.At least 71 people have been killed after a pipeline exploded in central Mexico.

More than 85 other people were listed as missing a day after the blaze in the town of Tlahuelilpan, in Hidalgo state, around 62 miles north of Mexico City.

The pipeline was ruptured by suspected fuel thieves, according to state and federal authorities.

Dozens of people had been trying to fill up buckets, plastic jugs and garbage cans with spilling petrol when the fire broke out on Friday evening, officials said.

Mexican television footage showed large flames and screaming people running away from the blaze.

Recommended Mexico call on US to investigate use of tear gas at border

Images showed people at the scene with severe burns as the government sent in ambulances and doctors to treat the victims.

It came just weeks after new president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador launched a major crackdown on fuel theft, which the government has said cost the country more than $3bn (2.3bn) last year.

Hidalgo state police said the leak was first reported at about 5pm local time.

Residents were on the scene trying to obtain fuel, according to a police report. Two hours later, the pipeline burst into flames.

Marciel Cervantes fears his brother, Isaac Aurelio Cervantes, is among those lost in Fridays blast. He found the 26-year-olds car parked on the road next to the field, and said his brother has not answered his phone.

The ruptured pipeline was near the Tula refinery of Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, Mexicos state-owned company, which in a statement blamed the incident on illegal tapping.

And another pipeline burst into flames in the neighbouring state of Queretaro on Friday, because of an illegal tap. However, Pemex said the fire near San Juan del Rio posed no risk to human beings.

Firefighters work to extinguish the Tlahuelilpan blaze (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

The explosion in Tlahuelilpan was one of the worst in recent history in a country that has suffered hundreds of illegal ruptures to its network of oil and gas pipelines.

Omar Fayad, Hidalgos governor, warned that the number of victims could still rise depending on what emergency services discovered where the blaze had been hottest.

On Twitter, Mr Fayad said: I urge the entire population not to be complicit in fuel theft. Apart from being illegal, it puts your life and those of your families at risk.

Mr Lopez Obrador tweeted: I greatly lament the grave situation Tlahuelilpan is suffering because of the explosion of the duct. He called on all branches of government to assist the victims.

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 president, who took office in December, has deployed 3,200 marines to guard pipelines and refineries as part of his crackdown on illegal taps.

His administration has also shut down pipelines to detect and deter illegal taps, relying more on delivering fuel by tanker truck.

However, there are not enough trucks, which has caused long lines at gas stations in several states.

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Mr Lopez Obrador, who has said he will step up the security presence in sensitive areas, said: Far from stopping the fight ... against fuel theft, its going to become stronger, well continue until weve eradicated these practices.

Additional reporting by agenciesA former Chicago police officer has been jailed for more than six years for the 2014 murder of a black teenager.

A day after three officers were cleared of accusations they had covered up the killing of Laquan McDonald, former officer Jason Van Dyke was sentenced to the best part of seven years. He was convicted last year of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery, one count for each bullet he had fired.

The Associated Press said shortly being told of his sentence, Van Dyke, a white officer, acknowledged the black teenagers death, telling the judge that as a God-fearing man and father, I will have to live with this the rest of my life.

Earlier, several black motorists testified that the former office used a racial slur and excessive force during traffic stops in the years before the 2014 shooting.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Vincent Gaughan sentenced Van Dyke to 81 months in prison and said he would have to serve at least two years before he was eligible for parole.

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Van Dyke, 40, appearing unshaven and wearing a yellow-orange jail uniform in court, faced up to 20 years in prison for his second-degree murder conviction and up to 30 years for each of 16 counts of aggravated battery. Mr Gaughan did not rule on the aggravated battery charges, explaining that the second-degree murder was the more serious crime, Reuters said.

It said last Octobers verdict marked the first time an on-duty Chicago police officer had been held criminally accountable for the killing of an African-American, and touched off celebratory street demonstrations.

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

At the sentencing, the teenagers uncle read a letter written from the slain boys perspective, telling the court that Van Dyke killed him without provocation.

I am a 17-year-old boy, and I am a victim of murder, Marvin Hunter said. I am unable to speak in my own voice because an officer thought he would become judge, jury and executioner.

In asking for a long sentence, Mr Hunter added: Why should this person who ended my life forever ... who has never asked for forgiveness ... be free when I am dead for forever?

The news agency said that Van Dykes relatives and sought to defend and humanise him, saying he was a good father and husband.

His wife said her life has been a nightmare since her husband was charged. She said she was denied a job and her daughter was not accepted into a dance group because of their last name.E-cigarettes and vaping products face an "existential threat" in the US if their use among young people continues to rise, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned.

Scott Gottlieb spoke on Friday at a public hearing in Maryland focused on eliminating the use of "electronic cigarette and other tobacco product use" among American youth, at a time when the agency has threatened stores selling e-cigarettes to minors and seized thousands of documents from Juul Labs, the maker of a popular vaporising product, during a surprise inspection of the company's corporate headquarters.

Ill tell you this. If the youth use continues to rise, and we see significant increases in use in 2019, on top of the dramatic rise in 2018, the entire category will face an existential threat, Mr Gottlieb said. It could be game over for some these products until they can successfully traverse the regulatory process. I think the stakes are that high.

The commissioner added the possible removal of e-cigarette products would be a blow for adult smokers, who he said could potentially benefit from these products.

Mr Gottlieb pointed to the Juul brand when discussing the rise of e-cigarette use among high school youth, saying, Indeed, the ubiquity of this one product became so entrenched so quickly that it gave rise to its own verb  julling.

The company responded with a statement denouncing e-cigarette use among minors, calling it completely unacceptable and directly opposed to our mission of eliminating cigarettes by offering existing adult smokers a true alternative to combustible cigarettes.

We are moving full steam ahead on implementing our action plan to limit youth usage, Ted Kwong, a spokesperson for Juul Labs, told The Hill. This is unchanged since we announced our plan in November.

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. 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We will be a transparent, engaged, and committed partner with FDA, state attorneys general, local municipalities, and community organizations in the effort to combat underage use, he added.

The FDA previously released a slate of restrictions on e-cigarette flavours and proposed a ban on menthol cigarettes and flavoured cigars  a move that would possibly require accompanying legislation.

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The agency stopped just short on a reported consideration to ban e-cigarettes from being sold in stores where they could be accessible to minors, instead allowing them to continue being sold with the exception that they are in closed-off areas and out of reach from teens.Six people suspected of terror offences, including a Canadian national, have appeared in court following a devastating attack at a Nairobi hotel.

Prosecutors in Kenya allege that the suspects are responsible for "aiding and abetting" extremists who stormed the DusitD2 hotel complex on Tuesday afternoon.

Gunmen entered the hotel lobby and opened fire on people inside during the attack, while one militant blew himself up near a restaurant.

The extremists killed 21 people and carried out an overnight siege. Al-Shabaab, the Somali Islamist extremist group, claimed responsibility for the attack.

By Wednesday morning all four of the gunmen had been killed by Kenya's special forces.

Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures Show all 23 1 /23 Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures Cars are seen on fire at the scene where explosions and gunshots were heard at the Dusit hotel compound, in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures An injured man is evacuated from the scene of an explosion at a hotel complex in Nairobi's Westlands suburb AFP/Getty Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures A soldier takes cover next to a bullet ridden window EPA Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures People run for cover during gunfire and explosions in Nairobi EPA Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures Kenyan security forces take position following an explosion at a hotel complex in Nairobi's Westlands suburb AFP/Getty Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures Security forces on the scene of an explosion in Nairobi AP Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures Cars burn at the scene of an explosion in Nairobi AP Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures People are led away from the scene of an explosion at a hotel complex in Nairobi AFP/Getty Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures A soldier takes cover as gunfire continues at the scene of a suspected terror attack in Nairobi EPA Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures Armed plain clothes officials secure the damaged entrance of a hotel during ongoing gunfire and explosions in Nairobi EPA Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures Members of security forces take cover at the scene Reuters Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures People are evacuated from the scene of a suspected terror attack in Nairobi Reuters Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures Cars burn after an explosion in Nairobi AP Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures A member of security forces holds a weapon at the scene Reuters Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures Security forces advance at the scene of a suspected terror attack in Nairobi Reuters Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures Cars burn at the scene of an explosion in Nairobi Reuters Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures A glass damaged by bullets at the scene Reuters Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures Security personnel on the scene of a suspected terror attack in Nairobi Reuters Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures A woman is helped at the scene of an explosion in Nairobi Reuters Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures Security forces advance at the scene of a suspected terror attack in Nairobi Reuters Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures Security personnel on the scene of a suspected terror attack in Nairobi Reuters Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures Undercover police are on the scene of a blast in Nairobi AP Nairobi hotel attack  in pictures Security personnel on the scene of a suspected terror attack in Nairobi AP

On Friday a judge decided that five of the additional suspects should be held for 30 days. while authorities investigated the massacre.

Prosecutors confirmed they were pursuing more suspects both within Kenya and abroad.

The group of suspects were idenitified in court as Joel Nganga Wainaina, Oliver Kanyango Muthee, Gladys Kaari Justus, Osman Ibrahim and Guleid Abdihakim.

Two of the suspects are taxi drivers, one is an agent for a phone-based money service and Mr Abdihakim is a Canadian national.

Recommended Nairobi attack a grim reminder of spectre of terrorism over Kenya

Officials in Ottawa are aware of reports that Mr Abdihakim is Canadian and are in touch with Kenyan authorities, said government spokesman Philip Hannan.

A total of 11 people have been detained as part of the investigation.

"The attackers were in constant communications with several phone numbers which are located in Somalia," prosecutors said.

"The investigations into this matter are complex and transnational and would therefore require sufficient time and resources to uncover the entire criminal syndicate," said Noordin Haji, Kenya's director of public prosecutions.

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Mr Haji said he had appointed a team of prosecutors so that the investigation would be "meticulous and fast-tracked".

Additional reporting by agenciesTheresa May will fail if she tries to force her Brexit deal through parliament a second time, Labours shadow Brexit secretary will warn today.

Sir Keir Starmer will use a speech in central London to tell the prime minister her proposed agreement has no chance of being passed by parliament.

Instead, he will call for MPs to have an open and frank debate about how to break the deadlock gripping the Commons.

Sir Keir will speak as Ms May prepares to update MPs on how she plans to proceed after her deal was overwhelmingly rejected just days ago.

The prime minister will make a statement in the Commons on Monday to outline the governments proposed next steps, after she held talks with MPs from all parties to try to find a compromise solution.

Jeremy Corbyn ordered Labour MPs not to take part in the talks and said he would not hold discussions with the prime minister until she agreed to rule out a no-deal Brexit  something she said was impossible. In a letter to the prime minister on Friday he said her offer of talks was "not genuine".

Sir Keir will tell the Fabian Societys new year conference that there are no easy routes out of the crisis the government has got us into on Brexit and accuse Ms May of being reckless.

He will say: The prime minister suffered the largest defeat of any government in history and did so on the defining issue of this parliament. In normal times, that would mean a new prime minister and a new government. But these arent normal times.

We have a government that cant govern, a Brexit deal that has no chance of getting through parliament and a prime minister who stubbornly refuses to drop the very red lines that led to this crisis.

People often praise the prime minister for her resilience. But, what the prime minister is doing right now is not resilience. Its reckless. Ploughing on without a plan while the country lurches from one crisis to another.

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As MPs prepare to debate the governments proposed plan B, culminating in a vote on 29 January, Sir Keir will call for parliament to come up with credible solutions to the current crisis.

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He is expected to say: Its now time for an open and frank debate about how we break the deadlock. There are no easy routes out of the mess this government has got us into on Brexit. Difficult decisions are going to have to be made by parliament.

For too long the prime minister has offered the country false hope and false promises. She has failed to be straight with the public about the consequences of the choices she has taken.

Now is the time for an honest debate and for credible solutions to emerge.Jeremy Corbyn has said that Theresa Mays cross-party Brexit meetings are not genuine talks but instead designed to play for time, in a letter sent to the prime minister on Friday.

Mrs May made the offer to enter talks with other party leaders on Wednesday, in an effort to break the Brexit stalemate currently gripping the House of Commons.

But the Labour Party leader has refused to accept her offer unless the prime minister agrees to rule out a no-deal Brexit.

The prime minister has resisted doing so, despite criticism from her own back benches.

In his highly critical letter Mr Corbyn said that MPs who had met with Mrs May were left disappointed by her refusal to discard the terms of her comprehensively rejected deal.

He also criticised the prime ministers refusal to consider a new customs union with the EU and said that the government must now be open to other options.

Mr Corbyn wrote: Your own chancellor recognises that it is possible to rule out no deal. which is why he told businesses that parliament would stop no deal. The government can take a lead and rule out no deal now, in the process ending the grotesque waste of 4.2bn on no deal planning.

It is also not encouraging that, as well as refusing to take no deal off the table, No10 spokespeople and cabinet members have so far ruled out any movement on a new customs union with the EU, which would be necessary for a new deal to win support in parliament.

Downing Streets refusal to budge on its so-called red lines reinforces the view that these are not genuine talks, the Labour leader added.

Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford and Plaid Plaid Cymrus Liz Saville-Roberts were among the parliamentarians who met with Mrs May following her offer.

But there seems to be little progress on a fresh Brexit plan after the Conservative governments Withdrawal Agreement was rejected by 230 votes in the Commons.

The prime minister remains caught between two warrring factions of her own party.

Adding to her problems, Nick Boles, an influential Conservative MP, warned on Friday that members of the government would resign to support a cross-party members bill aimed at preventing a no-deal Brexit.

The MP told the BBC that non-Cabinet ministers had told him that they would would quit if required to vote against a bill allowing MPs to demand Article 50 be extended for fresh talks with Brussels.

There is a bandwagon rolling, its got a lot of momentum behind it and I very much hope that any MP who shares my view that a no-deal Brexit would be a disaster, will jump on board, he said.

The bill is due to be tabled by Yvette Cooper on Monday.

Meanwhile, the plan for further cross-party talks appears to have fizzled out.

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No further meetings are planned and Downing Street said the prime minister would instead be meeting with a large number of her cabinet this week, both in small groups and in one-to-one conversations.Theresa May hopes of avoiding a chaotic Brexit face another blow from a House of Lords ambush that would stop the imposition of essential new trade rules.

The government is set to be defeated on Monday when peers rebel over ministers refusal to guarantee food safety, animal welfare and the power of parliament to block a free-for-all, The Independent has learned.

In an extremely rare move, the Lords is poised to vote to shelve the Trade Bill unless the government agrees to put flesh on the skeleton  something ministers have failed to do for 15 months.

Crucially, Liam Fox, the trade secretary, has admitted that preparations for a no-deal Brexit  by falling back on World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules  are impossible unless the bill passes.

They need the Trade Bill for Brexit and we are extremely confident this vote will be successful, unless the government stops just saying trust us, said a Lords source.

Recommended Tory MPs turn on May over threat to scrap Human Rights Act

Under the plan, detailed scrutiny of the legislation will be abandoned until the government explains how future trade agreements will be agreed and scrutinised.

Ministers have stoked controversy about whether they would allow the import of chickens soaked in chlorine, beef fed with hormones and genetically modified crops, in the desperation for a US trade deal.

Last year, the prime minister, asked if parts of the NHS would be up for sale, said it was too early to judge what requirements the US would have in those post-Brexit talks.

Now the passage of the bill is in jeopardy with the potential derailing of an already extraordinarily tight timetable, with just 69 days until departure on 29 March.

Without the bill, the government cannot roll over 40 trade deals with other countries enjoyed through EU membership that will lapse if the UK leaves without a deal.

It will also be unable to sign up to the WTOs general procurement agreement (GPA), in order to buy goods and services, presented by Brexiteers as the route to a no-deal future.

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Certainly, it wouldnt be possible to have the UK membership of the GPA without the legislation of the trade bill going through, Mr Fox told MPs last month.

Explaining the move, Baroness Smith, Labours leader in the Lords, said: Its nearly 15 months since the Trade Bill was introduced to parliament.

With just 10 weeks until Brexit day, ministers must explain urgently how trade policy will work after Brexit, including how parliament will be engaged and the role of the devolved administrations.

We also need to know whether or not the government will agree to our call for guarantees on workers rights and food safeguarding standards.

If passed with the support of independent peers, Labours procedural motion would prevent the bills report stage starting on 25 February until a white paper  or similar detailed proposals  have been published.

It comes after a leaked memo from Mr Foxs department revealed that the UK will not be close to finalising replacements for the EUs 40 existing agreements with leading global economies by Brexit day.

Compiled by civil servants at the Department for International Trade, it warned that most would be lost without the planned 21-month transition period.

Mr Fox blamed the other countries, saying: Our side is ready. It is largely dependent on whether other countries believe that there will be no deal, and are willing to put the work into the preparations.

A Department for International Trade spokesperson said: The aim of the Trade Bill is to ensure the continuity of our existing trading relationships and it is not an opportunity to renegotiate the terms of the EUs agreements.

We have been absolutely clear that we will maintain the UKs high food standards in both our existing and future free trade agreements. To suggest that the Trade Bill will do otherwise is completely false.Senior Conservative MPs have joined criticism of Theresa Mays fresh threat to axe the Human Rights Act after Brexit, one warning it would be a big mistake.

Dominic Grieve, a former attorney general, told The Independent that repeal would force British people to head to the human rights court in Strasbourg for justice, where hundreds of cases would pile up.

And Andrew Mitchell, the ex-international development secretary, said MPs would refuse to scrap the act because the government had failed to set out anything better  despite years of trying.

They spoke out after a minister revealed the government would decide on the future of the landmark legislation once the process of leaving the EU concludes.

A House of Lords committee warned this would cast doubt on pledges to protect the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which was incorporated into domestic British law by the Human Rights Act.

It would imperil human rights if the government intended to break the formal link between the UK courts and the EHCR, warned the committee headed by the barrister Helena Kennedy.

Mr Grieve said: If there is an intention of replacing the Human Rights Act, it would be an incredibly big mistake and entirely pointless because we would remain adherents to the ECHR.

It would introduce a new level of complexity for no conceivable benefit for either the government or the public whatsoever.

It appears a bit desperate. Unless there is a British bill of rights, it would see hundreds of cases from here starting to pile up at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Show all 20 1 /20 Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Brexit supporters outside parliament PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament An anti-Brexit protester adjusts her pro-EU wig AFP/Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A message to Jeremy Corbyn in support of a peoples vote Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A mock Titanic captained by Theresa May heads towards an iceberg in a stunt by campaigning group Avaaz AP Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Anti-Brexit protesters outside parliament PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Protesters of opposing sides are in close contact outside of parliament PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Paintings of Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage speaks to the media at the protests outside parliament Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A pro-Brexit protester in Parliament Square Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Opposing protesters share the space outside parliament Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament An anti-Brexit protester holds EU balloons outside parliament Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Anti-Brexit protesters stand on Westminster Bridge PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage speaks to the media at the protests outside parliament Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Anti-Brexit protesters demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament EPA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A pro-Brexit protester sets up outside parliament Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament An Avaaz campaigner holds a Peoples Vote life float Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A demonstrator holds a sign advocating a no-deal Brexit outside parliament AFP/Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament An anti-Brexit protester waves an EU flag on Westminster Bridge PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Protesters of opposing sides demonstrate outside parliament AFP/Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Protesters of opposing sides stand near parliament Reuters

Mr Mitchell said: It is perfectly reasonable for the government to suggest amending or replacing the act, but parliament will expect a clear proposition for something better which improves it.

So far nothing of that nature has been put forward and I very much doubt therefore that parliament would agree to its repeal.

David Cameron first floated a new British bill of rights as long ago as 2007, with a background threat to dump the ECHR as well, but no firm policy ever emerged.

The UK said last summer that it would remain in the ECHR, after the EU warned that pulling out would jeopardise a future security deal.

However, the current prime minister tore into the Human Rights Act in 2013, blaming it for the long delay in extraditing hate preacher Abu Qatada to Jordan to face terrorism charges.

In her 2016 Conservative leadership campaign, Ms May said she believed ECHR membership had made it harder to deport terror suspects and criminals.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson told The Independent: The UK has a longstanding tradition of ensuring rights and liberties are protected here and abroad  leaving the European Union will not change this.

The UK is committed to membership of the European Convention on Human Rights and will remain a party to it after we have left the EU.

We will also ensure the robust protections and rights for LGBT+ people and other minority groups are protected.The crushing defeat that MPs inflicted on Theresa Mays Brexit deal this week prompted renewed calls for the public to be given the opportunity to help break the deadlock in parliament.

Supporters of a fresh Brexit referendum insist it is the best way of resolving how Britain leaves the EU  or indeed whether it should do so at all.

Some Independent readers have asked what would happen if a second referendum delivered another Leave vote. How would that solve anything? Would it not require a fresh set of negotiations with the EU, therefore taking Britain back to square one?Theresa May must give her ministers free votes on all the Brexit options and relegate herself to being a mediator to solve the crisis, says John Major.

The prime minister was urged to recognise that MPs had killed her deal and that attempts to revive it with minor tinkering  while sticking to her strict red lines  were doomed to failure.

Instead, Sir John called for a radical act of statesmanship that would see all MPs freed from party whips to vote freely on whether any alternative could deliver a majority.

All party leaders would permit a free vote so we can get an honest representation of parliament, said the former Conservative prime minister.

And that is in the prime ministers interest for this reason  its the only way to get an absolutely honest answer from members of parliament.

It removes the danger of resignations from the government, or the opposition front bench, because they disagree with the leaders policy.

The call comes as Ms May appeared to have abandoned attempts to find a cross-party consensus, with no further talks expected before her plan B statement to the Commons on Monday.

Instead, she spent Friday meeting various cabinet ministers  which underlined the deep split between those urging compromise and those warning the Tory party will implode if she makes concessions.

The prime minister has ruled out Labour demands for a customs union and to rule out a no-deal Brexit  and is also opposed to a single market membership, or a Final Say referendum.

All would be put forward as options if the Commons carries out indicative votes, as others have proposed, but only lifting the party whips would reveal where all MPs stand.

Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Show all 20 1 /20 Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Brexit supporters outside parliament PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament An anti-Brexit protester adjusts her pro-EU wig AFP/Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A message to Jeremy Corbyn in support of a peoples vote Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A mock Titanic captained by Theresa May heads towards an iceberg in a stunt by campaigning group Avaaz AP Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Anti-Brexit protesters outside parliament PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Protesters of opposing sides are in close contact outside of parliament PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Paintings of Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage speaks to the media at the protests outside parliament Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A pro-Brexit protester in Parliament Square Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Opposing protesters share the space outside parliament Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament An anti-Brexit protester holds EU balloons outside parliament Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Anti-Brexit protesters stand on Westminster Bridge PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage speaks to the media at the protests outside parliament Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Anti-Brexit protesters demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament EPA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A pro-Brexit protester sets up outside parliament Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament An Avaaz campaigner holds a Peoples Vote life float Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A demonstrator holds a sign advocating a no-deal Brexit outside parliament AFP/Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament An anti-Brexit protester waves an EU flag on Westminster Bridge PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Protesters of opposing sides demonstrate outside parliament AFP/Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Protesters of opposing sides stand near parliament Reuters

Sir John told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: The prime minister argued valiantly for her deal. She fought for it but the House of Commons killed it and killed it comprehensively.

So her deal is dead and I dont honestly think that tinkering with it is going to make very much difference.

The prime minister still needs a deal. If she cant deliver one that parliament accepts, then she needs to become a facilitator, a mediator, to find out what parliament will accept.

Ms May is spending the weekend at her Chequers retreat, before what is likely to be simply a holding statement on Monday  rather than including any proposed changes to her deal.

Cabinet ministers urging her to stand firm include Andrea Leadsom, the Commons leader, who told The Daily Telegraph that a no-deal exit had to remain an option.

No deal is not the desired outcome, but it would be incompetent for any responsible government to rule it out, and there are very good reasons for that, she said.

If we rule out no deal, we can forget about the EU taking us seriously. We weaken our negotiating hand.Parts of Britain will be hit by freezing fog, sleet and snow this weekend, as the first cold spell of the winter sets in.

Outbreaks of rain and wintry showers will begin to fall overnight on Friday, mostly over higher ground in northern England while heavy thundery showers and hail are expected in the southeast.

Temperatures will plummet to -8C in Scotland and to 0C in the southeast of England, forecasters said.

In Birmingham overnight temperatures will hover at 2C and in Scotland people will wake to widespread patches of frost on Saturday.

Freezing fog is also likely in northern Scotland but the day will be largely cold and dry, with some sunshine across the country and in East Anglia.

Snow falls across the UK: in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Snow falls across the UK: in pictures Snow falls across the UK: in pictures Tynemouth beach, Northumbria PA Snow falls across the UK: in pictures Brecon Beacons PA Snow falls across the UK: in pictures Whitley Bay, Northumbria PA Snow falls across the UK: in pictures Porlethen, Aberdeenshire Daniel Diack Snow falls across the UK: in pictures North Shields, Northumbria PA Snow falls across the UK: in pictures Whitley Bay, Northumbria PA Snow falls across the UK: in pictures High Wearmouth, Sunderland magswonnowt / twitter Snow falls across the UK: in pictures Whitley Bay, Northumbria PA Snow falls across the UK: in pictures Brecon Beacons PA Snow falls across the UK: in pictures Whitley Bay, Northumbria PA

So far this winter has been pretty mild, said Alex Burkill, a meterologist at the Met Office .

But now temperatures are getting colder and will continue to do so over next week.

This is the first cold spell of winter.

Hill snow is expected to fall in eastern and southeastern parts of England on Saturday and average temperatures across the whole of the UK are expected to hit highs of just 9C.

Many places will struggle to get over 5C or 6C during the day, Mr Burkill added.

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He said that while Sunday would be brighter, wintry showers would push southwards from northern Scotland.

Patches of rain are also expected across the southeast.

It is possible that we will see disruptive amounts of snow in the UK in the coming week, as temperatures continue to fall, Mr Burkhill said.The Home Office has been ordered to pay 90,000 in damages to a homeless Polish couple who were unlawfully detained for more than five months due to rough sleeping.

Iowna Deptka, 33, and Henry Sadlowski, 38, were held for 154 days as part of a policy to deport European Economic Area (EEA) nationals found rough sleeping, known as Operation Gopik.

In December 2017, the High Court said the policy was discriminatory and unlawful under EU law.

At a hearing on Friday, Mr Justice Soole awarded Ms Deptka and Mr Sadlowski 44,500 each.

However, damages for Mr Sadlowski, who died shortly after Christmas, will be paid to his family in Poland.

Recommended Activists replace Tube adverts with tips on how to stop deportations

The couple were first detained in March 2017 and initially separated at different immigration removal centres (IRCs) for four weeks.

Following the High Courts December ruling, the Home Office admitted the pair had been unlawfully detained.

Shortly before the 2017 High Court ruling, the European Commision said EU citizens had a right to live in other EU countries irrespective of whether they are homeless or not.

Ms Deptka said she was absolutely terrified while being held in a separate centre to Mr Sadlowski.

I was so scared. The banging of the doors and the shouts of those detained, I was suicidal, she said in her witness statement.

 Hilary Ineomo-Marcus speaks to LBC about his constant anxiety whilst facing imminent deportation

Mr Sadlowski said a detention officer told him they could crush Ms Deptka if they wanted to.

The couple were awarded basic damages of 35,000 each and an additional 8,500 each in aggravated damages as a result of the Home Offices undue delay in admitting liability and its delay in making any apology until this present hearing.

Although the couple were eventually reunited in a family unit at Yarls Wood IRC after repeated requests, Mr Justice Soole ruled they were entitled to aggravated damages for their separation.

The judge said the distress from the separation was heightened by [Ms Deptkas] emotional vulnerability and Mr Sadlowskis knowledge of her vulnerability.

The couple were also awarded 1,000 each for the imposition of unlawful reporting requirements when they were released from detention.

Agencies contributed to this reportI havent been sleeping properly, says Naija*, 34, zipping her smiley five-month-old into a donated puffer coat. Its 8am in Stoke-on-Trent, and the single mother has been ordered to report to a Home Office centre 50 miles away in three hours time or risk being detained.

The Nigerian national is too nervous to eat. Im so anxious about my asylum claim anyway. This has made me more stressed, she says, placing two bottles of milk in a bag. The journey is to Manchester  a five-hour round trip on multiple trains and trams  and with no childcare, she is going to have to take her baby.

Naija is one of around 500 asylum seekers in Stoke-on-Trent forced to take this journey after the Home Office closed their local immigration reporting centre. Over the past year, centres have been closing across the country, including in Portsmouth, Bristol and Nottingham, as a way to more effectively manage the reporting population, which includes thousands of asylum seekers.

Charities say the closures mean disabled people and parents with young children must make long and expensive journeys to sign on in compliance with immigration rules  already a traumatic experience for many  but the Home Office refuses to cap the distance they can be told to travel.

Naijas other daughter Olusola, aged nine, is getting ready for school. She wears a blazer and tie and packs her school books from the window sill in her tiny, sparse bedroom. Its hard living here. My friends rooms are full of teddy bears and theyre painted, but I cant do that, she says in an eloquent northern accent. There isnt room to do very much. I do my homework on the floor.

(May Bulman (May Bulman)

Olusola has been in Britain since the age of four, but has only known what its like to live in asylum accommodation. Her baby sister, Chinara, sleeps in a Moses basket that is too small for her because they cant fit a proper cot in her mothers bedroom. With no bath, Naija has to bathe her in a tub on the bathroom floor.

A recent government-commissioned found that asylum seeking families in Britain are residing in unsuitable housing that failed to their meet basic needs, with almost half of asylum properties deemed not fit for purpose. The Home Affairs Select Committee meanwhile accused the Home Office of failing to act on warnings that mothers with small children were living in homes with vermin, damp and inadequate facilities and furnishings.

Recommended Mother and baby forced to travel 100 miles to sign on with Home Office

But Naija explains that the alternative  to return to Nigeria  is not a viable option. She left in 2014 after years of sexual and emotional abuse from her mother and stepfather, which culminated when they insisted that Olusola undergo female genital mutilation (FGM)  a procedure Naija underwent as a child and one which still causes her pain today. Her asylum claim was recently rejected on the grounds that she had a lack of evidence, and she is now going through the appeals process.

Fewer than a third of asylum claims in the UK were granted last year, down 4 per cent on the year before. The final grant rate increases to around 50 per cent following appeal  with record levels of refusals being overturned in court. Lawyers have raised concerns about this, warning that each error or delay can have a devastating effect on someones life.

Naijas journey begins at 8.20am. She wont have time to walk Olusola to school, so drops her at the home of a local friend who has agreed to take her. It is cold and the wind bites. She pulls the prams rain cover over Chinara and after kissing Olusola goodbye, embarks on the 15-minute walk to Stoke-on-Trent station.

On arriving, she buys her train ticket: 12 for a return ticket to Manchester Piccadilly, a third of her weekly support from the Home Office. Under current rules, people seeking asylum are prevented from working while their claims are being processed. Despite the Home Office target time for decisions being six months, almost half wait for longer, with some waiting years. In the meantime they receive a weekly sum of 37.75 to live on.

Its not enough, says Naija, sitting in the waiting room. Baby milk alone is 11 each week. The church and charities give us clothes and sometimes food. I dont know how we would live otherwise.

The train pulls into the station at around 9.20am and Naija hurriedly wheels the pram out onto the platform. Passengers pile in ahead of her until a man finally helps her board, only for her to realise that shes on a carriage with no area for pushchairs. She hastily gets back off and rushes to embark on the next carriage.

I couldnt believe it when I saw the letter. I was pregnant, says the 35-year-old, still out of breath and sitting on a fold-out seat so she can tend to Chinara. I said OK, I will go. But every time I think about it, I feel stressed. I was afraid  why Manchester?

Naija gazes out of the window as the train rolls northwards, checking the time at regular intervals. I worry about getting there, she says. I dont want to be stressed. I just want to sign and come back. Going to another place to sign makes you worried, you dont know whats going to happen. And the letter I saw said that I could be denied or I could be detained.

The Home Office has the power to detain people while they are signing on at reporting centres, and regularly does so with no warning. The Independent has reported on numerous cases whereby parents of young children have been detained in this way  sometimes leading to their children being taken into care.

Once in Manchester station, Naija asks a member of staff how to get to Dallas Court and is waved in the direction of the trams. A man working at the tram stop tells her to get off at Salford Quays, and charges her for a 3.20 return ticket  taking another chunk out of her weekly funds.

On arriving at Salford Quays it becomes clear that the mans instructions were wrong. Google Maps shows that Dallas Court is several stops further. If I was on my own, I dont know how I would do this, says Naija, bent over her pram as she feeds Chinara on the tram platform. I dont have internet on my phone. And imagine what its like for people who dont speak English.

Naija arrives at Dallas Court just before 11am to find a queue outside. She files to the back but a Somali man close to the front of the line kindly beckons her to stand in front of him because she has a baby.

The atmosphere outside the reporting centre is sombre. Nobody speaks. Everyone clutches their papers nervously, in the knowledge that, as their documents state, the Home Office can detain them at that moment. People coming out say they waited inside for a long time  some more than two hours.

The queue outside Dallas Court reporting centre (May Bulman)

Some of those reporting live locally and were able to walk, but the majority have had to take at least one bus, with the average distance travelled around an hour. Despite claims by the Home Office that they reimburse peoples travel costs, several people in the queue say they havent yet received any money back from the last time they reported.

I had to take three buses to get here, says one man, who didnt want to be named. Last time I was told the Home Office would reimburse me, but a month later Ive received nothing.

When Naija reaches the front of the queue, the officer on the door looks at the journalist standing with her and says something to the officers inside. She is taken straight to a counter to sign on, and re-emerges within 15 minutes clutching her immigration papers, and smiling for the first time that day.

I thought I was going to take two hours, she says, relieved. A girl was in front of me said she had been coming every two weeks and said it normally took two hours. But they said they would attend to me quickly, because they thought I had a lawyer here.

The 35-year-old holds up a bus travel card dated 11 July which is her next reporting date, but she has been given no reimbursement for todays travel nor money for the train she will have to take to get to her appointment in six months time. All she can think about, though, is making the long journey home.

I feel relieved now. I was very lucky. I can go home in time to pick up my daughter, says Naija, wheeling the pushchair away from the reporting centre. She leaves behind many others who, not so fortunate as to be accompanied by a legal representative or journalist, are likely to be waiting in the cold for a lot longer.

*Names have been changed to protect people's identityA man has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of 14-year-old Jaden Moodie, who was run over and stabbed to death in a frenzied attack in east London last week.

Scotland Yard said the 18-year-old suspect was arrested at an address in Wembley, west London, on Saturday morning and was taken into custody for questioning.

Jaden died in the street in Leyton after being rammed off a scooter by a Mercedes car and stabbed at least eight times. Police believe his murder on 8 January was a targeted attack.

The Metropolitan Police has been hunting five men in connection with the teenagers death.

Detective Chief Inspector Chris Soole, who is leading the investigation, said: Although one man has been arrested in connection with this murder, we remain fully focused on locating and arresting others connected to this deadly attack.

Our effort to bring them to justice continues; a number of active enquires are in hand.

I would urge anyone with any information about this crime to contact us without delay. I understand that some people may have reservations about contacting the police, but please be assured that any information provided will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Jaden was reportedly riding a stolen moped when he was rammed from behind by a black Mercedes B class in Bickley Road at 6.30pm. Three men climbed out of the car and stabbed to teenager to death.

Police said all five men who were in the vehicle were considered suspects in a barbaric murder which had left the community up in arms.

Mr Soole said: They are as disgusted as we are regarding this crime  this tragic, cowardly crime  as, quite rightly, a community up in arms about the death of a 14-year-old boy should be.

Jaden Moodie had moved to London for a fresh start about six months before his murder (Metropolitan Police) (PA)

The Mercedes used in the attack was found in nearby Carlisle Road the next day and was seized for forensic examination.

Detectives want to speak to anyone who may have seen a suspicious black vehicle in the area. There are thought to be witnesses who have not come forward.

We have a number of enquiries that we are pursuing, however, we cannot solve this alone, we need the public to help us, Mr Soole said. Due to the location and time of the attack we know there are a number of people out there who either witnessed the incident or who have information about this heinous crime and we would like to hear from them.

I firmly believe that someone out there knows the people who are responsible for Jadens murder.

Mr Soole said one line of inquiry was that the suspects were connected to drugs, but Jadens family said he had absolutely no affiliation with gangs.

The teenager had moved from Nottingham to London about six months ago.At a meeting of Putney Conservative Association, Justine Greening, the local MP, was promoting the need for social mobility. It was vital for the wellbeing of the nation, she said, that more people like her, a state-educated Northerner, were able to get on, to be presented with opportunity and fulfill their ability.

When it came to questions, a hand went up. Social mobility was all very well, said her interrogator, but what did she feel about the closure of the Putney branch of Marks & Spencer? There were murmurs of approval in the room  this was a subject dear to the audiences heart.

What was particularly galling, it turned out, was not only that the southwest London suburb was losing its cherished store, but that Putney was bracketed with a host of industrial towns in the North and Midlands that were being dropped by M&S, the once bellwether of prosperity. It was shaming, humiliating.This years London Womens March was dubbed the Bread and Roses Rally in honour of the Polish-born American suffragette, Rose Schneiderman.

Schneiderman famously coined the phrase in 1911 by saying, The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too.

Organisers chose the theme in the hope that it would remind people of the protests that revolutionised workers rights for women in the early 20th century and galvanise marchers to rally against austerity in the United Kingdom.

Participants were encouraged to dress according to the theme for Saturdays march, which started at noon in the city centre.

From the flower crowns to the neck garlands, see some of the most beautiful and creative looks on display by clicking through our gallery below.

Most beautiful 'bread and roses' costumes at the Women's March 2019 Show all 12 1 /12 Most beautiful 'bread and roses' costumes at the Women's March 2019 Most beautiful 'bread and roses' costumes at the Women's March 2019 Angela Christofilou/The Independent Most beautiful 'bread and roses' costumes at the Women's March 2019 Angela Christofilou/The Independent Most beautiful 'bread and roses' costumes at the Women's March 2019 Angela Christofilou/The Independent Most beautiful 'bread and roses' costumes at the Women's March 2019 Angela Christofilou/The Independent Most beautiful 'bread and roses' costumes at the Women's March 2019 Rex Features Most beautiful 'bread and roses' costumes at the Women's March 2019 Angela Christofilou/The Independent Most beautiful 'bread and roses' costumes at the Women's March 2019 Rex Features Most beautiful 'bread and roses' costumes at the Women's March 2019 Angela Christofilou/The Independent Most beautiful 'bread and roses' costumes at the Women's March 2019 Rex Features Most beautiful 'bread and roses' costumes at the Women's March 2019 Rex Features Most beautiful 'bread and roses' costumes at the Women's March 2019 Angela Christofilou/The Independent Most beautiful 'bread and roses' costumes at the Women's March 2019 Angela Christofilou/The Independent

Now in its third year, the Womens March has become one of the most important rallies for social change, with events taking place around the world and attracting thousands of people.

It began as a protest in response to the inauguration of President Trump, but has since evolved and now addresses a number of key issues affecting women.Windsor Davies, the star of sitcom It Aint Half Hot Mum, has died.

The 88-year-old was best known as Battery Sergeant-Major Williams in the TV series that ran from 1974 to 1981. He died on Thursday 17 January, his family said.

Davies was retired from acting and lived with his wife of 62 years. She died in September.

Jane Davies, their daughter, said her parents left a large family who will all remember them with love, laughter and gratitude.

Born in Canning Town, London, in 1930, Davies worked as a coal miner and did national service in Libya and Egypt with the East Surrey Regiment in the eary 1950s before deciding to become an actor. One of his first credits was in a 1967 episode of Doctor Who.

He appeared in It Aint Half Hot Mum alongside Melvyn Hayes and Don Estelle. It was created by Dads Armys David Croft and Jimmy Perry. His character was best known for dryly delivering the phrase Oh dear, how sad, never mind whenever someone around him had problems.

Davies and Estelle scored a number 1 hit in 1975 with novely single Whispering Grass, which they performed in character. It sold more than one million copies.

Windsor Davies  star of sitcom 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Windsor Davies  star of sitcom 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' in pictures Windsor Davies  star of sitcom 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' in pictures 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' 1974 The 88-year-old was best known as Battery Sergeant Major Williams in the TV series that ran from 1974 to 1981 Getty Windsor Davies  star of sitcom 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' in pictures 1976 Born in Canning Town, London in 1930, Davies worked as a coal miner and did national service in Libya and Egypt with the East Surrey Regiment in the eary 1950s before deciding to become an actor. One of his first credits was in a 1967 episode of Doctor Who Getty Images Windsor Davies  star of sitcom 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' in pictures 'Carry On Behind' 1975 His film credits include two Carry On films. Windsor Davies and Jack Douglas in 'Carry On Behind' Rex Windsor Davies  star of sitcom 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' in pictures 1980 Windsor Davies (top right) appearing in pantomime costume on the Christmas edition of Blankety Blank with (left to right) host Terry Wogan, David Hamilton, Shirley Anne Field, Katie Boyle, Jimmy Tarbuck and Sandra Dickinso PA Windsor Davies  star of sitcom 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' in pictures 'Never the Twain' 1981 -1991 Following It Aint Half Hot Mum, he played Oliver Smallbridge in the long-running ITV sitcom Never The Twain, which followed two rival antique dealers. The other was played by Donald Sinden Rex Windsor Davies  star of sitcom 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' in pictures 1981 Windsor Davies with wife Lynn Davies and their grandson Joe Rex Windsor Davies  star of sitcom 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' in pictures 'Never the Twain' 1981 -1991 Rex Windsor Davies  star of sitcom 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' in pictures 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' 1982 He appeared in It Ain't Half Hot Mum alongside Melvyn Hayes and Don Estelle. It was created by Dads Army's David Croft and Jimmy Perry. His character was best known for dryly delivering the phrase "Oh dear, how sad, never mind" whenever someone around him had problems Rex Windsor Davies  star of sitcom 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' in pictures 'It Runs in the Family' 1992 Ray Cooney, Windsor Davies, Henry McGee and John Quayle Rex Features Windsor Davies  star of sitcom 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' in pictures 1992 His later career was dedicated to providing voice work for adverts and audiobooks PA

Following It Aint Half Hot Mum, he played Oliver Smallbridge in the long-running ITV sitcom Never The Twain, which followed two rival antique dealers. The other was played by Donald Sinden.

His film credits include two Carry On films, and his later career was dedicated to providing voice work for adverts and audiobooks.(The Center Square)  A bill that recently passed in both state legislative houses outlaws the use of deception in criminal interrogations of juveniles and is the first of its kind in the nation.800 N. Michigan Ave., No. 4601, Chicago: $4,795,000 | Listed: May 8, 2021



This three-bedroom home has four bathrooms, one half-bath, oversized windows and views of Lake Michigan and the city skyline. The living room features natural herringbone floors, a soft barrel ceiling, cove lighting, custom window treatments and a fireplace. Custom sliding doors lead to the dining room, which has an imported chandelier. The kitchen is outfitted with top-quality appliances and an island with seating. A butlers pantry with a built-in wine refrigerator doubles as a bar for entertaining, and a built-in desk in the family room offers the flexibility to work from home. There are three bedrooms, including a spacious primary suite with dual baths, a dressing room, and a walk-in closet. A laundry room and two garage spaces complete this home.



Agent: Jennifer Ames of Engel & Volkers, 312-440-7525



*Some listing photos are virtually staged, meaning they have been digitally altered to represent different furnishing or decorating options.



To feature your luxury listing of $800,000 or more in Chicago Tribunes Dream Homes, send listing information and high-res photos to ctc-realestate@chicagotribune.com.



Join our Chicago Dream Homes Facebook group for more luxury listings and real estate news.The teen found an unlocked car with the key inside on the 1200 block of Saunders Road, according to Dayno. He then drove the car onto the Tri-State Tollway where police attempted to stop him on the Edens Spur.Community Information

If you would like to submit an upcoming event or community announcement, please contact our staff at 208-232-4161 or send an email to cjohnson@journalnet.com. We will also accept news from local clubs and engagement, wedding and anniversary announcements. You can post your community or club events on our calendar.

Obituaries

Submit an obituary/notice All obituaries must be placed by your mortuary or onlineDeadline is 3 p.m. for publication the next day. The ISJ is not responsible for spelling, grammar, or basic mistakes.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.And it ultimately did affect the march. Not only were some residential streets taken off the march route because of the snow, the length of the route was shortened from a mile to a half mile and limited to the paved areas in the Village Commons.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.

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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.E-Verify

Regarding E-Verify tops a wall (Editorial, Thursday): But E-Verify will not keep out fentanyl, stop human trafficking, nor stop criminals. How about both? Now theres a solution. Assuming, of course, that you are really interested in a solution.

Galynn Ferris, Montgomery

Thinking ahead

In 10 more years, the world will go from roughly 7 billion people to approximately 8 billion people. We now see millions fleeing poverty and violence. If people are fleeing poverty and violence now, think what will happen soon when there are even fewer resources to feed, house and clothe the hundreds of millions of additional people. That will lead inevitably to violence among millions of desperate people. We then will certainly have to have a wall.

If Congress does not want to fund a wall today, they have an alternative: dealing with the corruption which is at the root of the poverty and violence. Congress must require the United Nations to use its authority to step into countries like Honduras and see that the people of these countries have honest government and officials who will not sell out their own people.

We cannot continue to accept millions of people from all over the world without damaging our environment and our social welfare system. A nation without borders is neither governable nor sovereign.

John T. Morris, Humble

Census 2020

Regarding Checks, balances (Editorial, Wednesday), the editorial about adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census questionnaire ends with the comment the courts have done their job - now it is time for Congress to step in and restrain this increasingly lawless White House.

A more appropriate statement would be to have Congress update the immigration laws to know how many are in this country without proper documentation. Doesnt it seem obvious that we should know a little more about who these people are? At a minimum, shouldnt we have the same type of data about them that the government has about its citizens ?

Philip Tereskiewicz, Houston

Shutdown

This whole shutdown argument is silly. The federal budget is about $3 trillion. We are arguing over less than $6 billion. We are arguing over 0.2 percent of the budget. That seems insignificant. That small of a percentage does not seem like it is worth all the fuss.

If we spent a mere $6 billion it will not destroy the moral character of the country. Nor will spending a mere $6 billion guarantee the continued survival of the country.

Peter H. Wilson, HoustonUpdate 11:09 p.m.: This editorial has been updated to reflect changes in the piece as it was made ready for Sunday's newspaper. Those changes were inadvertently left out of the version that published online. The updated version, in print and now online, reflected doubts raised Friday by the special prosecutor about unspecified aspects of the BuzzFeed News report.

Democrats ended last week with loud new calls to investigate and possibly impeach President Donald Trump. As the volume of these calls has risen, the silence of the Republicans has only deepened.

Its time for that to change. A functioning democracy demands respect for the rule of law from Republicans and Democrats alike.

The renewed calls this week were touched off by an explosive report by BuzzFeed News on Thursday that claims the president ordered his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress when Cohen appeared before members in 2017. Cohen has already admitted lying to Congress, but the new report cites two unnamed federal investigators who say he did so on explicit orders by Trump, who was seeking to tamp down concerns about his efforts to build a Trump Tower hotel in Moscow.

That story has not yet been independently confirmed by other media, and on Friday a spokesman for the special prosecutor said some aspects of it were wrong. Time and testimony will tell whether its underlying claim  namely that when Trumps lawyer lied to Congress, he did so under pressure from his client  holds up, and whether Democrats calls are premature. If they are, they will pay a political price for crying wolf.

But Republicans take a much graver risk by refusing to acknowledge that the waters around Trumps muddy legal footing are rising  and have been for some time.

Given the sky-high stakes for Trump and his presidency if the reporting is accurate, its no surprise that Democrats have quickly called for hearings. The Republicans have instead sat on their hands, when they should be joining the calls for hearings  even if they believe the reporting is flawed. One way or another, America needs to know the truth about these and other claims.

After all, these allegations are only the latest in a long line of potential legal traps for the president.

For instance, we know that he asked former FBI Director James Comey to go easy on Michael Flynn, his felonious national security adviser. We know that he pressured Comey to kill the broader Russian inquiry  and when he didnt, Comey was fired.

We know that Trump told Russian officials visiting the Oval Office that relations between the two countries would improve after Comey was fired.

We know that his campaign chiefs, including some family members, eagerly accepted a 2016 meeting in Trump Tower with Kremlin-connected Russians in hopes of hearing dirt from Moscow about Hillary Clinton.

We know that Trumps former campaign chairman Paul Manafort is in prison, and that he was paid millions for work on behalf of pro-Russian political leaders in Ukraine before he was hired, without salary, to resuscitate Trumps flagging general election campaign.

And we know that despite his denials, Trump was pushing a hotel in Moscow deep into 2016, and that Cohen was lying when he told Congress in 2017 that those efforts had ceased long before the primaries.

At almost every turn, the president and his surrogates have sought to downplay these facts and have called for the investigation  the witch hunt, in the presidents lexicon  to end.

At each of these moments, prominent Republicans should have joined with Democrats to resist that narrative and remind Americans that only a thorough investigation can remove the taint of suspicion from Trump and satisfy voters that their president is not a crook.

The good news is that in the past several weeks, signs of independence among Republican lawmakers began to emerge, albeit only timidly.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn helped rally Texas GOP lawmakers to push back against any effort to use storm relief funds appropriated by Congress to build the Mexican border wall. Good job.

Republican leaders in the House, after years of supine silence, finally took action against U.S. Rep. Steve King of Iowa, who was caught defending outrageous comments he made about white supremacy. Leadership would have meant acting before King became a political liability, but in a land of silence, even a murmur gets attention.

Republicans must find their voice  and use it. We may be headed for perilous times, constitutionally speaking, and while its certainly fair to demand allegations about the president be proven, its long past time to acknowledge that the waters are rising. Leaders, demand the truth, no matter how severe the consequences.New members of Congress typically keep a low profile as they learn their new jobs.

Not so for Houstons Dan Crenshaw.

Two weeks into his first term, Crenshaw has already publicly challenged rising Democratic star and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to debate her dangerous ideas, hes traded Twitter jabs with other new members of Congress over virtue signaling about the shutdown. Hes also called Beto ORourke weird, suggesting ORourke should never run for president because of some of his views.

Crenshaw has bristled at fellow Republicans, too. Before he even was sworn in, Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL, penned a letter published by the Washington Post disagreeing with President Donald Trump over the consequences of pulling out of Syria. Later, he shamed U.S. Sen. Rand Paul on Twitter for giving Trump bad foreign policy advice.

He has been featured on national Sunday morning talk shows and the Today Show. Conservative social media sites like Townhall, the Washington Examiner and The Daily Caller rave about him nearly daily as their counterpoint to Ocasio-Cortez.

Texas Take: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

Crenshaw says none of his disagreements clash with his highly-publicized call for civility in modern politics, and that hes not just trying to pick fights. When people look closely at his comments, he said theyll see hes never taking personal shots at people, just challenging them on policy.

I am doing exactly what I said I would do, confronting the ideas of the other side, not taking political cheap shots, Crenshaw said.

While Ocasio-Cortez gets a lot more publicity, Crenshaw is also violating a long-held belief on Capitol Hill that new members should be seen and not heard from, said Larry Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. Of the 33 new Republicans in Congress, Crenshaw stands out, he said.

Hes riding the wave of his new fame skillfully, Sabato said.

Sabato said as rare as it is to see a freshman member of Congress get so much attention, Crenshaws personal story and his ability to handle television is serving him well.

Crenshaw, 34, gained national political notoriety because of his improbable primary election victory in Houston and its suburbs by prevailing over eight other candidates. But then, Saturday Night Live inadvertently made him even more famous with a joke about his eye patch. Crenshaw wears it because he lost his right eye in 2012 when a roadside bomb nearly killed him in Afghanistan. The resulting backlash led to Crenshaw appearing on the show the next week, on the eve of Veterans Day, to accept an apology. Crenshaw used the moment to call for more civility in politics, awareness of veterans and to crack a few jokes of his own.

For subscribers: Dan Crenshaws next mission: Make conservatism cool.

He says he is still adjusting to all this media attention.

In some ways, its a little added pressure, but it's a good thing, Crenshaw recently told an interviewer with Turning Point USA, a conservative organization.

In that same interview, Crenshaw said he would relish a debate with Ocasio-Cortez, calling some of her policy positions radical.

These are not well-thought-out ideas, he said. I dont like being hyperbolic in my language, but theyre dangerous. Theyre dangerous ideas."

Earlier this month, Crenshaw got into it with another rising voice among Democrats in Congress, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Crenshaw posted on Twitter he was giving up his congressional pay while government workers are on furlough, adding that Democrats could end the shutdown if they came forward with a border security plan. Omar called out Crenshaw for virtue signaling and said Republicans needed to end the shutdown.

Next up: Beto ORourke, who told the Washington Post that he questions whether modern problems in the U.S. can still be managed by the same principles that were set down 230-plus years ago.

Crenshaw shot back in an interview with the Washington Examiner.

Anybody who questions the validity of the Constitution  whether it works in the modern era  should never be president," he said.

Crenshaw added that ORourkes decision to post photos of his teeth being cleaned did not make the former El Paso congressman relatable.

It just makes you weird, Crenshaw said.With all due respect to law enforcement, if an officer gets shot, theyll announce the name of the suspect and put him on TV, Kulis said. But here you have an innocent person get shot by the police, two months have gone by, and they wont even tell you who shot him.Nyla Johnson stepped up onto the platform with her head held high, her floral crystal hairpiece sparkling as it caught the light. She took in a deep breath, puffed up her chest and opened her mouth.

The voice of the 11-year-old boomed amid the stunned silence of the crowd, bouncing off the stained glass windows and creaky, wood pews of the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, built in downtown Houston by former slaves in 1866.

"Ive BEEEEEEEN to the mountaintop," Nyla sang out. "And Ive looked over, and Ive SEEEEEN the promised land."

Now Playing: 2019 Foley Gardere MLK, Jr. Oratory Competition winner Nyla Johnson performs her piece. Video: Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle

Her chest puffed out a little extra and she rocked onto her tiptoes as her voice bellowed, stressing different vowels. It was a technique used by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his speeches.

"I may not get there with you," she continued. "But I want you all to know today that WEEEEEERE a nation that will get to the promised land."

Her speech, greeted with roaring applause and a standing ovation, won the Lockhart Elementary School fifth-grader first-place honors in the 23rd annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Oratory Competition, held annually by the Houston Independent School District on the Friday before Martin Luther King Day.

Twelve fourth- and fifth-graders were finalists in the competition, which asked the question, "What would Dr. King say to the children of todays world?" Their speeches touched upon the federal government shutdown, family separations at the border, mass incarceration, police brutality and even the digital ages obsession with screens.

"Education, determination, compassion and courage," Raheem Khokhar said, listing the values he believes King would tweet, had the social media platform existed in the civil rights leaders era..

Then he looked down at his hands, counting on his fingers.

"Only 45 characters. Phew!" he said, wiping the imaginary sweat off his forehead.

"I always want to hear how young people see things," said Jolanda Jones, first vice president of the HISD board. "Theyre very sophisticated thinkers. Theyre very observant. Theyre not nearly as dumb as we think; they are paying attention and were able to convey messages better than most adults."

For the kids, the year leading up to the event required exhaustive preparation.

Leik Mire, 10, researched Kings speeches, taking notes on the content and the delivery. She prepared for her speech every day, staying late at school, practicing with her teachers and in front of her classmates and church members to make sure she had her minutes-long speech perfectly memorized.

"Everybody wants to focus on the good things, but they dont bring up the bad things that are happening," Leik said. "People think they have equality, but its not really equality  we have other people being left out."

When Alexandria Zelaya took the stage, her first words were, "I am the daughter of immigrants."

She pounded her chest  "I," pound, "AM," pound, "the daughter of immigrants."

"My parents were born and raised in Mexico and El Salvador," she continued. "I stand before you today as a representation of the many hopeful families who have come to this land with heavy hearts, clinging to the American Dream for a better life. I am a product of the American Dream."

There was disappointment in the childrens speeches  disappointment in partisan politics, disappointment in a hardened stance on immigration, disappointment in mass incarceration and police brutality, in online bullying and rising rates of depression and suicide.

But there was also hope.

"I am positive that (King) would say, My dear children, although we have not fulfilled the dream we cannot lose hope," Jones, the HISD trustee, said in her speech. "You must keep fighting. You must continue the work of your ancestors. You must rise and get out of this place of complacency."

massarah.mikati@chron.com

twitter.com: @MassarahMikatiRegina Moctezuma came to the Houston Womens March alone on Saturday, excited to attend the progressive demonstration for the first time.

I just feel like its my duty to be here, the 18-year-old said shortly before the march set off from the Buffalo Bayou visitor center. People deserve to be equal. It doesnt matter  gender, race.

Now Playing: Participants of the Houston Women March On rally at the Houston City Hall on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019, in Houston. Video: Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle

Moctezumas parents both live outside the United States: When she was a child, her mother was deported to Guatemala, and her dad was later unable to re-enter the U.S. after leaving to visit Mexico. So it was the hardline immigration stance taken by President Donald Trumps administration that persuaded Moctezuma to turn out Saturday.

IN WASHINGTON: A scaled-down, but still angry Women's March returns

Pinned to her jacket was a button playing off a comment directed by then-candidate Trump toward Hillary Clinton. Nasty Women Get S- Done, the button read.

That message all but summed up the attitude of thousands of pink hat-wearing, sign-hoisting feminists who, even amid a biting wind, assembled for the third straight year to march in downtown Houston Saturday, largely to protest the current presidential administration.

With an unmistakable public enemy No. 1  Trump  the march brought out people concerned about a slew of issues aside from womens rights, including climate change, immigration and voting rights, most of which protesters linked to the president.

We need to make sure that were doing stuff that lets everybody have a voice and a vote, said Todd Litton, who was working the crowd to gather signatures in support of an independent redistricting commission to draw legislative and congressional districts.

In November, Litton lost the election for Texas gerrymandered 2nd Congressional District to Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw.

Nearby, Roxanne Taylor, a 68-year-old Katy resident, was holding a sign that read, Families Belong Together.

Immigrants have been a huge part of our nations success and I believe immigrants should continue to be a huge part of our nations success, Taylor said. I would like our immigration laws to be reformed to encourage more immigration, not less.

Still, for all the other topics, the marchs focus on womens rights and empowerment was evident. Protesters raised signs with messages including: Empowered Women Empower Women, Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights, and UGH! Where do I even START?

Lauren Harris, 23, stood in front of the Buffalo Bayou visitor center early Saturday with a sign that read, Black women are 3-4 times more likely to die during childbirth than women of any other race! We deserve much better.

Im just very happy to see so much support here in Houston, so many diverse people here with diverse ideas, said Harris, who studies maternal health at the UTHealth School of Public Health. Its very comforting that I dont have to basically hide things that I believe in. All I want is health equity across all spectrums.

Despite robust turnout from Houston residents, the national Womens March movement has experienced a new level of tumult this year, with members of the National Womens March Inc. facing charges of anti-semitism. An organizer received backlash for participating in an event hosted by Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader known for his anti-semitic comments.

On the steps of City Hall, where the brief march ended with a series of speeches and performances, Houston Women March On board member Robin Paoli put some separation between the local group and its national counterpart.

You may have seen questions about racism, bigotry, anti-semitism in the Womens March, she said. Heres what I want you to know. This global movement is not defined by one or two people, whether theyre in (Washington,) D.C. or wherever the heck they are.

We win by being united and loving our neighbors, she added. Thats it, right there.

After, Abbie Kamin, an associate regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, criticized what she called a stunning failure and an outright refusal by national march leadership to denounce anti-semitism and repudiate bigotry.

For Jewish people, the lesson of thousands of years of murderous persecution is that there can be no justice if we do not speak out, said Kamin, who is Jewish. There can be no justice if we do not speak out for other people.

For now, Paoli said, Houston Women March On plans to continue holding the annual march.

As long as there is a system of injustice, were going to keep encouraging and registering voters and encouraging them to find causes and candidates to support, she said. And we will continue to march and continue to register voters until theres justice.

jasper.scherer@chron.com

twitter.com/jaspschererGALVESTON  The coyotes Ron Wooten spotted on Galveston Islands west end had eye-catching dark, reddish fur and long, slender builds. In the golden dusk of that July evening in 2013, about a dozen of the animals rested in what appeared to be a wetland dried by a seasonal drought.

These canids  mammals of the dog family  looked different. Most coyotes that inhabit this region have gray or pale-brown fur. And while coyotes typically scavenge alone or in pairs, these appeared to be traveling and interacting as a pack.

Wooten had a hunch he had stumbled onto something more important than satisfying his hobby as a wildlife photographer.

They didnt look like coyotes at all. I thought they actually looked like a big Great Dane or something like that, Wooten said. I looked at some images of red wolves and it kind of looked like they might have been leaning more towards red wolves than coyotes, so thats when I started pursuing somebody to take a look at these animals.

Nearly six years later, Wooten learned that his photographs played a significant role in a groundbreaking genetic study released in December by a group of scientists led by biologists from Princeton University. The study suggests that canids native to Galveston Island carry DNA elements of the red wolf, an animal declared extinct in the wild nearly 40 years ago but whose ancestry has endured in parts of the eastern United States and Gulf Coast, including southern Texas and Louisiana.

Red wolves inhabited the southeastern United States before being declared extinct in the wild in 1980 due to habitat loss, predator control programs, disease, and, ironically, interbreeding with coyotes. A captive breeding program developed in the 1970s helped stave off total extinction, with 14 red wolves able to reproduce.

That success led to the reintroduction of red wolves into the wild in North Carolina. That experimental population immediately dwindled, with fewer than 40 pure red wolves now surviving in the wild.

Read more: After decades of rescuing stranded sea turtles, Galveston lab plans to scale back

Some scientists theorized that red wolves began interbreeding with coyotes, in part, as a means of survival. The study that Wooten contributed to, published in Genes, a scientific journal, further reinforces the notion that red wolves have persisted through interbreeding.

Dead coyotes prompt inquiry

This latest discovery began with road kill.

Several months after spotting the pack of coyotes in Galveston, Wooten, a regulatory specialist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, spotted two dead coyotes with similar reddish fur on his commute along FM 3005. Intrigued, Wooten scooped up the remains, hoping the carcasses might pique the interest of someone who studied wolves and coyotes professionally. He preserved the tissue samples the only way he knew how  in his freezer.

Of course, my wife loved that, Wooten said.

Several wildlife agencies rebuffed Wooten before he finally connected with a group of wolf biologists who put him in touch with Bridgett vonHoldt, a biologist at Princeton University. VonHoldt had been studying genetics shared between North American canids for a number of years, and Wootens tissue samples and photos presented possible evidence of ghost alleles  surviving red wolf genes different from those of the red wolves in zoos or those in the wild in North Carolina.

VonHoldt, in an interview conducted via email, said it was phenomenal that Wooten had both pictures and tissue samples of the canids found in Galveston. The eye-catching photos he took of the pack of coyotes with reddish fur caught her her interest.

Coyotes have a wide range of variation in colors and markings, vonHoldt said. But the photo from Ron just somehow caught my interest as being unique in a very specific way.

VonHoldt and her team extracted and processed the DNA from Wootens samples and compared it to each of the legally recognized wild canid species in North America, including samples from 29 coyotes from Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas; 10 gray wolves from Yellowstone National Park; 10 eastern wolves from Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario; and 11 red wolves from the captive breeding program.

They found that the Galveston Island animals were more similar to captive red wolves than to typical southeastern coyotes  one of Wootens samples was 70 percent red wolf, while the other was 40 percent red wolf.

Downplays his role

Wooten learned of the discovery when the study was published. Although he downplayed his role, he was credited in the study as a wildlife biologist  prestigious nomenclature for a part-time naturalist.

I was kind of hoping they might be 100 percent red wolf. That wasnt the case, Wooten said.

The latest red wolf gene study, along with a similar discovery of red wolf genes in the Louisiana canid population, has piqued the interest of wolf experts like Ron Nowak, a former zoologist for the U.S. Fish Wildlife Service and an expert on the species.

Nowak cautioned that while the gene study does not represent a rediscovery of an extinct species, it should prompt further genetic studies to determine the prevalence of red wolf DNA across the country.

Whether this is simply a persistence of genes because theyve maintained some adaptive benefit to the animals or whether there just might be some population that might be still predominantly red wolf, this has not been thoroughly investigated and we still hope some further study might be done to see what we might learn, Nowak said.

Nowak added that the National Academy of Sciences has a Congressional mandate to study the taxonomy of red wolves, with a final report due sometime in the spring that could yield additional information.

VonHoldt said her top priority is to avoid inbreeding while maintaining and increasing genetic diversity in the wild canid population.

For his part, Wooten believes the red wolf gene discovery could eventually lead to further ecotourism along the Texas coast and specifically in Galveston, already a nesting ground for native endangered species like the Kemps Ridley sea turtle.

We have the red wolf hybrids which are some of the most endangered canines in the world; that really puts Galveston in quite a light, Wooten said. Its very special and you have to approach it from that aspect, you have to make sure that were pushing this in a positive way and try to make this something good for everybody here in this area.WASHINGTON - The tweet landed Sunday evening and instantly triggered an online melee over age, class and politics.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez "was so fiscally irresponsible that she hadn't saved up enough money to rent an apartment in the Washington D.C. area," wrote conservative commentator Candace Owens, adding the hashtag #SocialismSucks, as she blasted the New York freshman for complaining that some members of Congress have trouble paying for two residences. "But sure, let's trust her with the future fiscal-planning of America."

Ever since she burst onto the national political scene as a socialist Democrat with a knack for making headlines, Ocasio-Cortez has been an obsession for many on the political right.

As a 29-year-old of Puerto Rican descent, a lawmaker from an ethnically diverse urban district and an outspoken liberal on issues of race, gender and class, she has in effect emerged as a living counterpoint to today's heavily white, male and rural Republican Party - and has drawn ire from seemingly all corners of the conservative movement.

Commentators and politicians have criticized her intelligence, her clothing, even her claims of working-class roots. There are new examples all the time.

Republicans Ed Rollins and Rush Limbaugh recently dismissed Ocasio-Cortez as a "little girl" and "some young uppity." The Washington Examiner's Eddie Scarry tweeted a photo of her in November and wrote that she doesn't "look like a girl who struggles." The Daily Caller promoted what it described as a possible "nude selfie" of her last week before walking back its headline.

The trend has been so relentless that even some Republicans are starting to come to her defense.

"Why do people persist in these shallow attacks on @AOC?"Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., tweeted early Monday, referring to Owens's comment. "Let's discuss philosophical and policy differences (and areas of agreement), not her rent."

Ocasio-Cortez, who has amassed more than 2 million Twitter followers and has emerged as one of her party's most prominent national figures, seems to relish beatingback the attacks.

"It's encouraging because this is my sixth day in Congress and they're out of all their artillery," she said in a recent interview. "The nude is supposed to be like the bazooka. You know, like, 'We're going to take her down.' Dude, you're all out of bullets, you're all out of bombs, you're all out of all this stuff. What have you got left?"

Conservatives say they target Ocasio-Cortez because she is a rising star who promotes socialist views, occasionally botches facts and attracts widespread attention on social media.

In interviews, they defended their approach as fair game.

"This is called scrutiny for public figures," said Scarry, rejecting the idea that conservatives are fixated on Ocasio-Cortez. "This is just part of the bag . . . She's 29. She's a woman. She can take care of herself. She can answer for herself."

The youngest-ever female member of the House, Ocasio-Cortez arrived in Washington in an unusual position: without hard power but at the center of the political zeitgeist. Since her election, in which she defeated a high-ranking incumbent in a primary, she has been parodied on "Saturday Night Live" and defended by Paul Krugman in the New York Times. Sunday political panels discuss her views. Fact-checkers point out her errors and misstatements.

She sat for an interview on CBS's premier news program, "60 Minutes," that aired days after her swearing-in, generating buzz with her call for raising taxes on the super-rich. And when she cast her vote for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Republican lawmakers were heard in the chamber groaning with disapproval.

When Trump was asked recently about Ocasio-Cortez calling him a racist, he said, "Who cares?" and made a dismissive gesture. She tweeted in response, "We got under his skin."

Social media has become her preferred platform for calling out political opponents, knocking competing ideas and highlighting comments she sees as unfair or biased.Ocasio-Cortez called the right's coverage of her "completely disgusting" on Twitter last week after the Daily Caller promoted the story about a fake "nude selfie" of her in a way that suggested the image might be authentic, making it go viral online.

Geoffrey Ingersoll, editor in chief of the Daily Caller, said he changed the story's headline to ensure it was not misleading but defended his writer's choice of topic.

"The article itself was abundantly clear about it being a vile hoax perpetrated by anonymous trolls," he wrote in a private Twitter message to The Washington Post while comparing Ocasio-Cortez's skill on social media to Trump's.

"The difference is Trump was forced to adapt to changing media, and Ocasio-Cortez grew up with it. Trump is just snorkling [sic], while Ocasio-Cortez has gills," he wrote.

Figures on the right said her style invites attack.

"If you put yourself out there and throw stones, you're going to get stones thrown back at you," said Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, who has sought to engage with Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter about tax policy. "She operates in the same style that, say, President Trump does. Throw stones, stones get thrown right back."

Other Republicans said they engage her because it is necessary to challenge her views.

"It's important any time that a sitting member of Congress promotes socialist ideas to at least expose what it would do to destroy the ability for people to move into the middle class," said House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., who recently tweeted his opposition to the idea of a 70 percent marginal tax rate.

Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who was defeated in November, on Tuesday mocked Ocasio-Cortez for her tax proposal and suggested it was an elementary-school understanding of the issue. "Even 5th graders get it," he tweeted.

Ocasio-Cortez replied that her position was about taxing "the billionaire in town because he's making tons of money underpaying the townspeople."

Often, the right's response to Ocasio-Cortez goes beyond normal political posturing.

The congresswoman has faced conspiracy theories since she entered the political spotlight in June. Critics have argued that her story of working-class roots is fake, picking apart her clothes, education and even an apparent former nickname for evidence. An anonymous Twitter account affiliated with the far right sought to shame her this month by tweeting a video of her dancing "Breakfast Club"-style during college.

Ocasio-Cortez said nothing about her style or views merits crude personal attacks.

"Of course the right would say I'm asking for it, right?" she said. "That doesn't surprise me that that's the tact that they're going with. It's pretty transparent and very much shows the constructs of where they come from."

But Crenshaw also said Ocasio-Cortez overstates Republicans' negative feelings toward her. He referred to her tweet - "I hear the GOP thinks women dancing are scandalous" - after the anonymous account circulated the video.

"We don't care and stop accusing us of caring," he said. "No GOP member has said anything as far as I'm aware . . . Don't paint the whole other side like that just because you got a mean tweet and now you're like, 'Now the whole GOP thinks that.' That's not true. I don't do that to you, so don't do it to me."

Ingersoll said the coverage of Ocasio-Cortez is necessary to hold a novice politician with unusual power to account.

"Her appeal is obvious," he wrote to The Post. "She's telegenic, refreshingly candid, and hilariously reckless with facts."

- - - The Washington Post's J.M. Rieger contributed.John Gibson sees carbon tax credits as a step toward what he calls a new atmospheric services industry.

As chairman of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.s energy technology efforts, Gibsons job is to help Houstons emerging technology companies with investment bank advisory services. The E-Tech team also focuses on introducing breakthrough companies to energy clients.

Gibson also shares his thoughts in occasional e-newsletters. And in a recent edition, he talked about a possible transformation of the oil and gas industry, using its core competencies to save the planet from greenhouse gases. His thinking stems from the 45Q tax credit, which is a financial incentive encouraging oil and gas companies to capture and store carbon dioxide. Some see it as burdensome regulation. He sees it as opportunity.

Texas Inc. recently sat down with Gibson whothe first decade of his energy career working for Gulf/Chevron. He is also a former president and chief executive officer at Landmark Graphics, Paradigm Geophysical, Tervita and Halliburton.

Q: You recently wrote that the fear of climate change is misplaced. What did you mean?

A: What I mean is that the fear of climate change is normal. In Charles Darwins book, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Darwin writes about being at the London Zoo with his hand on a plate of glass with a puff-adder behind it. And he wanted to hold his hand there while the snake struck at it, and he knew he was perfectly safe because he had glass in place. He found he couldnt do it. He immediately jerked away. He couldnt stop himself. Climate change to me is very difficult for mankind to understand yet. But weve evolved understanding snakes and developed a natural reaction to a threat from snakes - whether its venomous or not venomous, we have an identical reaction. Theres a reason for that. Being able to jump away from a snake made you live longer. As a consequence, I look at climate change and I dont want to argue whether its venomous or not, I just want to tell you that our survivability will be greatly enhanced if we jump away from it, if we react to it, no matter what you believe.

Q: How should people react to it?

A: I think we should respond to it as though it was real, whether you believe it is or isnt. Its in our best interest for the planet to treat climate change as though it is venomous. Because I think our survivability will be much greater if we just react to it as if it could harm us. And if it cant, then so what? We have a better place to live. And whats the problem with that?

Q: Is fear the best motivator to get people to address climate change?

A: Fear to me is the greatest motivator. We got Sarbanes-Oxley, not out of the thinking that everything was great, but out of the fear that people were purposely misstating information. We got the Patriot Act out of the fear that our citizens might be involved in terroristic acts in America. Almost everything that we see that has the kind of significance that climate does is motivated by fear.

Q: What about fear mongering?

A: You have a group of people who exploit it for their benefit. Weve had people who have financially benefited and gained research dollars by trying to use climate just for the purpose of fear. And theyve gotten beyond the science, and that hurts their credibility. Just like it hurts the credibility of people who deny it by not looking at the data. Im a scientist at heart and I just want to look at the facts and I want to react in an appropriate way to the snake. I think you have to treat is as though it can hurt you and then its okay.

Q: How has oil and gas industry reacted to this?

A: Slowly at first. I would say it has gone from denial to acceptance and I think were about to move into sort of the commercialization of atmospheric services. Weve gone from this is not a problem to were beginning to understand this is a problem and we need to deal with it to we need to be a part of this to solve the problem.

Q: Explain atmospheric services.

A: To really understand where the world is going, lets start with the atmosphere. Weve got molecules that probably have a negative impact on the planet in one way or another and we want to manage those.

Q: You mean taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

A: Right now, the most intriguing is C02 because thats what were emitting. And actually, the oil and gas industry, oddly enough, is not the problem. Its the transportation and the power industry. Its just happens that we extract the fuel that they use. Were not the ones creating the C02 but we are the ones uniquely qualified to deal with it.

Q: How so?

A: There was a study done at the Bureau of Economic Geology (in Houston) of offshore Miocene gas reservoirs. What they did was think through what the best containers are to put C02 in. Youd like to know that when you put it there it will stay. Well it turns out that if you put it into a gas reservoir, which had already been holding gas for millions of years, it should be able to hold it for millions of years. This is not rocket science here. Were going to look for something that had gas and were going to put gas back.

Q: Where are some of the best reservoirs to turn into C02 storage containers?

A: Youd like to have really good data so that you can understand the container and the faulting and the lateral extent of it. In offshore Texas Gulf of Mexico waters, we have beautiful seismic data so its a lot easier to image and to continuously get images offshore than it is to work onshore where you have obstructions like roads and buildings. Youve also got thousands of wells and well logs that allow you to characterize these containers and then the most significant thing of all is youve only got one owner that you need to deal with and thats the state of Texas. It simplifies things when youre not having to deal with 50 landowners with varying emotions. You can actually deal very scientifically with the state. And you have very little to no risk of drinking water contamination by putting it offshore. You also have huge amount of C02 generation right along the Gulf Coast, because thats where the refineries are, thats where your power generation plants are, so youve got C02 sources along the Gulf Coast.

Q: How much storage is there and how much is needed?

A: The atmosphere carries about 750 to 800 gigatons of C02 naturally. Fossil fuels annually contribute about 30 to 35 gigatons of C02 into the atmosphere to produce energy. So about 5 percent of the C02 in the atmosphere is being generated above the carbon cycle. Weve been adding C02 to the atmosphere over the last 100 years as a result of using hydrocarbons. Weve been blessed because the ocean has been able to take up some of it and the soil has been able to take up some. We now have the ocean probably carrying too much C02. Were going to have to deal with the oceanic levels of C02 someday as well.

Now the (the Bureau of Economic Geology) estimates that Miocene reservoirs (in the Texas Gulf of Mexico), which are at depths of 1,000 feet to 3,000 feet, have a storage capacity of 30 gigatons. Thats a years worth of fossil fuel C02 emissions on the planet. And thats just one set of containers in a place where everything lines up to where it looks like you could put it there. Now the estimates for the U.S. are that we have somewhere between 2,000 and 22,000 gigatons of C02 storage available to us in the subsurface. Say we have just 3,000 gigatons of storage available, thats 100 years of C02 storage available to us in North America alone. Thats at the low end. If we get up to 20,000, thats 600 or 700 years.

Q: So the problem is obviously not having enough space to dispose of the C02.

A: Our problem is getting it out of the atmosphere and transferring it or changing what were doing for emissions so that we capture it. There are two things that we need to do: We need to reduce the amount that were creating, and that doesnt mean getting rid of it entirely, necessarily, it means converting it to a capturable form rather than releasing it to the atmosphere. And then we need direct-air capture so that we can actually modify the atmosphere itself. And this is what makes it so cool to me.

Q: Any examples on how to capture C02 before it releases into the atmosphere?

A: When you get into your car, and you fill up your tank, lets say you have a 20-gallon tank. Gasoline weighs about 6.3 pounds per gallon, so youve got about 120 pounds of gasoline in your car. Now for every gallon of gasoline, you create about 20 pounds of C02, so its about a three times expansion in terms of the amount of C02 by weight that you created in gallons of gasoline. If you had a car that was 100 percent efficient and capturing C02, youd put 20 gallons on one side and put a tank on the other side that when you got done, youd have 400 pounds of C02 in it to dispose. Thats how much youre emitting out of your car from the tailpipe into the atmosphere because of how the molecules combine. Youd have to change the way you think about things, but you could actually use gasoline on one side of the car and capture C02 on the other. Thats not an outrageous vision.

Q: What about capturing C02 from the atmosphere?

A: We havent had a president like (John F.) Kennedy in half a century. He said were going to go to the moon and come back safely. And we need somebody that says, Were going to manage this atmosphere because this is a great planet for life indefinitely and were going to do it in the next decade. Thats a great vision. It aligns research, it aligns industry. Its a vision where globally you can execute that. What Kennedy did with his vision for space was he transformed things where he had no idea what would happen, like telecommunications. We now have revenue-generating objects that are not on the planet. Thats awesome. And the same thing is going to happen when we tackle the atmosphere. Were going to have capabilities that take us well beyond where we are today. Its going to be an enabler for us for colonization of other planets.

Q: How far away are we to this being a reality?

A: My whole goal is to have us think. Its not rational with the technology we have today. But its a way of educating people about what they do when they combust gasoline. In five years, youre not going to see the progress we all want. Well still be fighting (about climate change). But in 10 years, I think were going to have abilities that will surpass your imagination.

Q: What industry do you think has the best shot at being in the atmospheric business?

A: The oil and gas industry will lead this because they own the containers, they own the knowledge of how to fill those containers. Theyre the ones with the competencies to put things in there and take them out. Theyre the ones that understand how to make things stay there, how to abandon wells, how to avoid contamination of aquafers and how to maintain the integrity of the wellbore. The oil and gas industry knows more about putting stuff in the ground and taking it out than any other industry. Period. And thats where we are if we want to manage the climate.

Q: What would it take to get the oil and gas industry to take this on?

A: Its not going to be altruism. Theyve got to make a return to shareholders. The real crux to this is how do we create a carbon industry? Its not just having 45Q (the recently passed tax credit that calls for deployment of carbon capture and storage projects), its making that permanent, so people can count on it long-term for a business. Otherwise, they wont invest in it. I think on the carbon side, were going to have to see a move from policy to permanence. If people can count on this for 50 years, then they can try to understand the viability of it financially. But we really need financial incentives, or nothing changes.

john.roper@chron.comThe record federal government shutdown, entering its fifth week, is beginning to ripple through the Houston economy, disrupting small business lending, pushing government contractors to the verge of missing payrolls and draining sales from restaurants, retailers and other businesses that cater to federal employees.

While the impact to the overall economy is expected to be slight  barely noticeable to most people  some companies are feeling the effects acutely as they struggle to find the money to keep operating as government payments are halted and loans are stalled. And with no end to the political standoff in Washington in sight, companies say they are starting to run out of options.

Frank Hughes, president of Tietronix, a company near the Johnson Space Center, said his firm has not been paid for the software that it creates for NASA since the shutdown began, cutting his cash flow by some $650,000 and forcing the company to borrow to keep paying employees. NASA accounts for about 75 percent of the companys business.

He said he wont be able to keep paying workers if the shutdown drags on much longer, and plans to begin furloughing employees on Feb. 1 if political leaders cant resolve their differences.

Hughes, who worked as a NASA flight instructor for more than 30 years before joining Tietronix in 1999, said hes lived through plenty of government shutdowns, but this one is different  and far more worrisome.

Every time we had a shutdown before, everybody tried to end it, said an exasperated Hughes. We are being impacted terribly.

No money to spend

The shutdown is not only putting pressure companies like Tietronix that do business directly with federal agencies, but also other businesses across the economy, including restaurants, bars and retailers stores in the Clear Lake area that count on NASA employees as customers and small businesses that cant secure government-backed loans. Even some lenders are starting to sweat because they dont earn their fees until loans close.

Frankie Camera, owner of Frenchies Italian Restaurant on NASA Road 1 in Webster, has been serving meals to NASA employees and astronauts for 40 years. He said his lunch business is down by nearly half since the shutdown began on Dec. 22 and some 800,000 federal workers stop getting paid.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Federal workers squeezed as payday passes without paycheck

People are not going out as much as they did before, Camera said. Not just here but everywhere. If you dont have the money, you dont go out to spend it.

Some small businesses also are running short of cash. Tim Jeffcoat, the district director of the Small Business Administration in Houston, said at least $80 million in loans to Houston companies are on hold because of the shutdown.

Mark Danford, president and CEO of Waterstone, a Houston company that facilitates SBA loans for community banks, said his company has 32 small business loans valued at $28 million that are not getting processed. One loan sitting on Danfords desk, for $4.2 million, is holding up construction of a hotel in Katy.

One of those small businesses could lose it all because they cant get their loan processed by the SBA, Danford said.

Terry Hale hopes he can avoid that. The company that he bought in 2017, InkBox Printing 2.0, is waiting for a $650,000 SBA loans to help pay off losses from his first year in business, consolidate debt and provide a line of credit to manage cash flow. He had expected to get the loan by Christmas. He didnt.

InBox targets commercial customers and prints everything from business cards to billboards to fleet vehicle wraps. Hale said recently he had to walk away from a $170,000 order because he didnt have the money to pay some vendors needed for the project. He has also had to cut the hours of some of his nine employees.

Ive got nine families totally dependent on the success of this company and its a horrible spot to be in, Hale said. Im literally at a complete standstill. Its like Im being held hostage.

Paycheck to paycheck

Economist say the the impact of shutdown is mainly felt in these small corners of the economy. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and others have estimated the shutdown will initially reduce the economic growth one-tenth percentage point, a loss that could be regained once the government reopens.

The furloughed federal employees represent only a tiny fraction of the nations 150 million payroll workers. Federal employment accounts for 204,000 or 1.6 percent of the jobs in Texas. In Houston, the 30,300 workers on the federal payrolls account for 1 percent of the regions 3.2 million jobs.

More than 5,000 federal employees in Texas have filed a claim for unemployment insurance and 621 have so far received benefit payments, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Bill Gilmer, an economist at the University of Houston, said he doubts the effects of the shutdown will appear in the regions economic data, other than perhaps as a temporary blip in unemployment.

Most of the impact, Gilmer said, is personal hardship in the paycheck-to-paycheck sense.

Related: I feel helpless

Economists say that the real trouble will hit the U.S. and local economies if funding is cut off for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program known as SNAP. The food stamp program is funded through February. But if the shutdown extends into March, Texas stands to lose about $1.3 billion each month that SNAP is not funded, according to personal finance website The Ascent.

The longer the shutdown drags on, the more threat it poses to the economy, said Patrick Jankowski, an economist and senior vice president of research for the Greater Houston Partnership. The risk comes if worried businesses and consumers pull back on investment and spending.

The danger is what it could do to business and consumer confidence if (the shutdown) goes on too long, Jankowski said.

john.roper@chron.comGucci Mane and his baby mama, Sheena Evans, have been hashing things out in court after Evans sued Guwop for an increase in child support payments. While Gucci's been trying to get the case tossed out, Evans' is hard at work trying to turn the monthly payments of $2026 to $20K for their son Keitheon. During a recent court hearing, Evans' revealed some pertinent information that could have the judge siding with her.



Theo Wargo/Getty Images

According to The Blast, Evans' lawyer told the judge that she's currently living off of government assistance, receiving food stamps, on Medicaid and living in Section 8 housing while Gucci Mane is racking up millions of dollars. In her original suit, Evans claimed Gucci's income has increased significantly since his release from prison in 2011. Evans took aim at Gucci's seemingly luxurious lifestyle that he flaunts on social media pretty frequently. She cites the fact that he's spent a large amount of money on jewelry and even brought up his wedding. She claimed Gucci spent $1M for his wedding which was televised on BET. Evans said that's more than enough evidence to prove that he's capable of paying more than $2K a month.

In response to her claims, Gucci Mane denied that his lifestyle is luxurious and further denied that $1M spent on the wedding. The rapper continued to claim that his income hasn't changed already and that he's also paying for their child's health insurance and medical bills.

Gucci doesn't think Evans needs a raise in child support payments and wants the entire case thrown out.Two simple words were all it took for Ariana Grange to pass a moratorium on her frantic lifestyle, on the birthday of her beloved Malcolm James McCormick. Her Twitter posting of "miss u." elicited a chain reaction of fan support, unlike anything she'd been subjected to following his untimely death. That's to say, the positive regard certainly goes a long way in consoling her sadness and regrets. Mac Miller would have been 27 years old today.

Shortly thereafter, Ariana posted what appears to be a photo of better times (spent together) in the studio. After bravely taking the stand, so to speak, in the immediate aftermath of his death, Ariana's messages to Mac Miller no longer require a deeper subtext. Comparatively-speaking, the video caption Ariana posted a week after Ma's death pushed the character limit on IG to its final threshold. See with your own two eyes.

"i adored you from the day i met you when i was nineteen and i always will. i can't believe you aren't here anymore. i really can't wrap my head around it. we talked about this. so many times," she captioned. "i'm so mad, i'm so sad i don't know what to do. you were my dearest friend. for so long. above anything else. i'm so sorry i couldn't fix or take your pain away. i really wanted to. the kindest, sweetest soul with demons he never deserved. i hope you're okay now. rest."

As TMZ has stated, Ariana Grande continues to grapple with the loss of her ex-lover. And though many hip-hop fans feel entitled to the same intimacy, channeled through Mac's deep convictions as an artist, Ariana Grande has the memory of past gift exchanges and such, to grovel over. Happy Birthday Mac Miller, and all the best to Ariana Grande, and those entrusted with the McCormick family crest.Covey was identified Friday by Midlothian police and in an amended lawsuit filed by the Roberson family as the officer who fired the shot that killed Jemel Roberson, of Chicago, Nov. 11 as he was detaining a person believed to have been involved in a shooting incident at the bar. The officer fired despite the fact that Jemel Roberson was wearing clothing that identified him as security.By this time tomorrow, the effects of 50 Cent's domineering tactics will have worn off. The victims targeted by 50 Cent this week (Jan 13th-present) are eerily similar to those depicted in previous smear campaigns, save for a couple of unrelinquishing guests.

For starters, it was Floyd Mayweather who stepped back into the "Red Herring" role for the umpteenth time, without any provocation from 50 Cent. Incidentally, Fif bit back while the City slept, before turning his attention over to Wendy Williams, for whom he still burns all kinds of envy. Wendy's husband was outed as a cheater, which in the mind of her gutless opponent, was too good a rub to pass up.

Then again, a few of 50's online skirmishes in the past week actually revolved matters of personal concern. In the instance of a favorable verdict over Teairra Mari in her revenge porn suit, 50 Cent showed himself to be a sore winner. Then there was the issue Dame Dash opening old "Roc-A-Fella" wounds, and 50 Cent entering the discourse uninvited. So, don't believe for a second that 50 Cent wasn't on his worst behavior this past week. Soulja Boy may have captured our hearts and minds with his bemusing press-run, but it was 50 Cent, who once again, spoke the lewdest.

It's hard to believe the 50 Cent vs. Floyd Mayweather hasn't grown stale with the boxer's retirement. But therein lies the issue: Floyd isn't actually retired. Floyd gives himself up to opportunity, by declaring himself an inactive fighter, so he can wield a "comeback" sales pitch when the moment is right. 50 Cent's employment status is altogether different. We know 50 gets money, but Mayweather remains unconvinced. The "unretired" boxer made those feelings known this past week as 50 Cent was showing off his luxury watch collection, a boxset which includes a diamond-encrusted AP within its ranks.

That's precisely when things went South; Floyd calls BS on the watch's authenticity, with 50 Cent searching for a sales receipt in response. As history would have it, it was 50 Cent who incited all this talk of cubic zirconia in 2018, when he mocked Floyd's purchase of an $18 million dollar Jacob & Co refurb - in yet another case of LAMB TALK gone foul.

Teairra Mari & Lisa Bloom

50 Cent had a $30,000 cash pot tacked on to his not-guilty verdict in the revenge porn suit mounted byTeairra Mari. He celebrated his victory at base camp, where else but on Instagram, the sweltering sauna where dreams are born out of chaos. The losing party, Teairra Mari and attorney Lisa Bloom, were powerless as 50 Cent reveled in victory by posting his ransom demands in plain view. 50 Cent had little interest in assuming a babyface character for more than half-a-second.

"Look Tiearria if you dont pay me the money. Im gonna get paid directly from Love & hiphop," 50 Cent wrote in an Instagram post intended for both his own pleasure and his own expedient demands. "The Lawyers are now watching your social media post so this could lead to you having tax issues for unreported income."

50 Cent made certain Lisa Bloom conceded defeat in the public eye - insisting that Bloom only took on Teairra Mari as a client, in reaction to his vocal support of Trey Songz. So there's that.

The most duplicitous and heartwrenching of 50 Cent's bully moments comes in the way of a bedridden friend losing his soft-spot for his captor. Longtime G-Unit foot soldier Young Buck, who was seemingly in the process of crafting his next album with 50 as a co-executor, opened up to his social media followers about a defamation suit mailed to his address by his G-Unit patron - to what end..it's hard to say exactly.

As Buck would suggest in the following dashcam recording, this ain't the first time 50 Cent flexed his power of attorney on somebody in a helpless position, much less himself. This debacle is only heating up.

Dame Dash

Dame Dash stepped back into the media spotlight this past week by revisiting old wounds. The basis of the conversation concerned R. Kelly (what else) and his past dalliances with Jay-Z, from which a duet album came about in 2002 to medium fanfare. Of course, 50 Cent had no business entering the discourse at all. But under the pretense of a hip-hop history lesson, 50 Cent felt an obligation to address the matter as a representative of the sparse Gen X-Y discursive - he and Funk Flex both.

As a result, Dash is calling for an in-person debate with 50 Cent to settle the discord, of which Funk Flex has been denied any participation. Dame Dash vs. 50 Cent has the making of a perfect storm. Lest we forget, Dame Dash bullied his way to success, an evolutionary strategy co-opted by 50 Cent some years later.

and of course, Wendy Williams..Pipeline

18 January 2019

RIU Hotels & Resorts has announced the construction of a hotel in its Riu Plaza urban line, in Toronto, the largest city in Canada and the cultural, business and financial centre of the country. The Spanish company intends to invest around 100 million dollars in the project, that will establish the first RIU hotel in Canada and will add continuity to the hotel company's plan to expand into the world's great cities.

The project, designed in a sophisticated avant-garde style, as a part of the Riu Plaza line, is now near the end of the design phase and is set to open in 2021. The building, a newly-built modern tower block, will be located in the city's financial district and is mixed use. RIU's investment in the part intended for the hotel will have 350 rooms, meeting rooms, a gym, bar and restaurant; while the upper floors will be for residential use.

Luis Riu, CEO of RIU Hotels & Resorts, has made it clear that the opening of the first hotel in Toronto "is a big step forward in our commitment to expanding the Riu Plaza hotel line in the world's key cities, establishing the RIU brand beyond more traditional vacation destinations. We hope this hotel attracts RIU customers around the world to discover the city of Toronto with us, and also hope that the loyal customers we have in Canada decide to discover our urban product. This project means a new drive to raise awareness of our brand within and beyond the country."

RIU Hotels & Resorts has had a relationship with Canada for years, with the country being one of the main markets for RIU hotels in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America, but it is only now with the opening of this new hotel that it is physically establishing its presence in the country.

The Riu Plaza line has important projects in store for upcoming years. The first to be opened, next spring, is Riu Plaza Espana, the first RIU urban hotel in the country, located in the iconic Edificio Espana in the city of Madrid. In London RIU has acquired a building in one of the best areas of the city, beside Victoria Station, in order to open a hotel in its urban line there in 2020, while in New York, Riu Plaza's second hotel is already under construction and is set to open in 2021.

Toronto is the fifth largest city in North America and is considered one of the best large cities in the world to live in; it is famous for the CN Tower, that at 553 metres tall, lets you see the whole city, Thousand Islands and the Royal Ontario Museum are a couple of the attractions you can visit. The city is considered to be at the heart of Canadian culture and plays host to many national and international celebrations including the Toronto International Film Festival, one of the most important in the world; being close to Niagara Falls means visiting this natural wonder is a must.

RIU currently has six Riu Plaza hotels worldwide, as well as three under construction: Riu Plaza Espana, Riu Plaza London and a second one in New York. The first city hotel opened its doors in Panama in 2010 and has since been joined by the Riu Plaza Guadalajara hotel in Mexico, Riu Plaza Miami Beach and Riu Plaza New York Times Square in the USA, Riu Plaza Berlin in Germany and Riu Plaza The Gresham Dublin in Ireland.Enter the Once Upon A Child Spring Style Sweepstakes today for the chance to WIN! Refresh your child's wardrobe! You could be the LUCKY WINNER of $200 in Store Cash!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.Friends on the mend; Woman airlifted from Independence stable after injury has deep bond with rescue horseCopyright  2018 at Sun Newspapers/ APG Media of East Central Minnesota. Digital dissemination of this content without prior written consent is a violation of federal law and may be subject to legal action.Please be aware that Cache Valley Publishing does not endorse, and is not responsible for alleged employment offers in the comments.

Recommended for youSpecial Counsel Robert Mueller took the rare step of denying a media report about his Russia investigation, rejecting a story by BuzzFeed News saying that President Donald Trump instructed his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress.

BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the Special Counsels Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens congressional testimony are not accurate, Peter Carr, a Mueller spokesman, said Friday night in a statement.

The BuzzFeed report, published Thursday night, set off criticism of Trump from congressional Democrats -- although most took care to say that the allegations were disturbing if true.

Mueller and his staff have seldom made any public comment except through court filings as he has pursued indictments and won guilty pleas in his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Cohen has pleaded guilty to nine felonies and is due to turn himself in on March 6 to begin serving a three-year prison sentence. He admitted to lying to Congress by testifying that negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow ended early in 2016, when they actually continued well into the 2016 presidential campaign.

BuzzFeed reported that Trump directed Cohen to lie about the Trump Tower negotiations, citing federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter who it didnt identify. BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith said on Twitter after the Mueller statement that we stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what hes disputing.

Cohen Testimony

Cohen is scheduled to testify publicly before the House Oversight Committee on Feb. 7. But that panel will be constrained from asking him about matters still under investigation by Mueller. The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Friday that Cohen also is expected to return before that panel early next month for questioning behind closed doors.

Senator Mark Warner of Virginia said that he wanted to question Cohen about the BuzzFeed report, while adding that we dont know whether the new report about Cohen being told to lie by the president is true or not.

Trump has called Cohen a rat and a liar. Rudy Giuliani, who represents the president in the Mueller inquiry, said Friday that any suggestion  from any source  that the president counseled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false.

After the statement from Muellers office, the presidents son, Donald Trump Jr., said on Twitter that the media should quit even pretending to be unbiased unless it spends minute for minute  the same amount of time on the death of the latest #FakeNews from @BuzzFeed (RIP) that they did speculating about IF ITS TRUE!In a rare development, the office of US special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 polls, disputed a BuzzFeed news report that alleged President Donald Trump had directed his one-time lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to the Congress about a Trump Tower project in Moscow.

The first such denial by Muellers office was cheered by the president, his aides and supporters who claimed vindication of their long-standing complaint about hostile media coverage, but it also raised questions if all other previous news reports about and related to the probe were accurate then.

BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the special counsels office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens congressional testimony are not accurate, Peter Carr, spokesperson for Muller said in a statement that came almost 24 hours after the article was posted online late Thursday,

The report had alleged, citing two federal law enforcement officials, that the president had instructed Cohen to lie about the Moscow project during his testimony to Congress and that earlier, as a candidate, Trump had asked the lawyer to plan a visit for him to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The publication had gone on to allege that the special counsel knew of the presidents instruction to Cohen to lie through interviews with Trump Organization individuals, company emails, texts and other documents. Also, that Cohen acknowledged it in his interviews with Muellers office.

The publication of the report had sent shockwaves as it was variously described as explosive and bombshell report by other media outlets, some of whom however, pointed out either that they were not able to confirm the revelations independently and others ran it with reactions from lawmakers.

Calling it one of the most serious instance of alleged obstruction of justice by the president, Democratic lawmakers vowed to investigate it  get to the bottom of it, as one of them put it. The president may have suborned perjury, another leading Democrat wrote on Twitter.

The White House had denied the allegations and called the report ridiculous. Trump pointed to Cohens credibility problem  the one-time lawyer had pleaded guilty to lying and was sentenced to 3 years for it and other charges in November. And the presidents attorney Rudy Giuliani called the report categorically false.

Their response to the statement from the special counsel Friday evening was predictably robust. The president retweeted told-you-so posts decrying the report as fake news, before sending a tweet himself: Fake News is truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!

And Saturday morning the president asked if the knocked down report should cast a shadow on the the entire media. Many people are saying that the Mainstream Media will have a very hard time restoring credibility because of the way they have treated me over the past 3 years (including the election lead-up), as highlighted by the disgraceful Buzzfeed (sic, the name is BuzzFeed) story & the even more disgraceful coverage!

Major announcement coming on shutdown: Trump

President Donald Trump will make a major announcement, he has said, later Saturday regarding the shutdown, as Democrats added more than $1 billion to the $1.3 billion they have set aside for enhanced border security. Trump has sought $5.7 billion and wants the money for a border barrier  or a wall  and has dismissed other security measures as meaningless bells and whistles.

Trump supports anti-abortion protesters

The president conveyed his support to anti-abortion marchers, who held their annual rally Saturday, in a surprise video address. When we look into the eyes of a newborn child, we see the beauty and the human soul and the majesty of Gods creation. We know that every life has meaning, he said and went on details the measures takes by his administration. This rally has been held every January for over 45 years to protest a 1973 Supreme Court ruling that established a womans legal right to abortion.The British Sikh Association has signed a memorandum of understanding with Pakistans multinational company Hashoo Group to develop infrastructure for the Kartarpur corridor, for which the ground-breaking ceremony was held in November.

The MoU was signed by noted entrepreneur Rami Ranger on behalf of the association, and Murtaza Haswani, deputy chairman of the Hashoo Group at an event in parliament organised by Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi.

Gurdwaras at the event were represented by Gurmail Singh Malhi, president of the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara, Southall, London. The Pakistan delegation included ambassador Hameed Kidwai and Steven Henderson, the Hashoo Groups chief commercial officer.

Ranger, who is also chairman of the award-winning company Sun Mark Ltd, said the MoU confirmed the commitment of Pakistans leading business and British Sikhs to work together to develop the corridors infrastructure and other sites of religious importance in Pakistan for Sikh pilgrims.

This is a historic opportunity and one that I did not expect to see in my lifetime. We are proud of the steps taken by Prime Minister Imran Khan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The corridor will be of great benefit to both countries and is a blessing for the Sikh community, Ranger said.

Kidwai added: I am very happy to have been greeted with such warmth and support from the Sikh community in Britain and I am confident that this initiative of Prime Minister Imran Khan will be appreciated by Sikhs throughout the world, as well as providing an opportunity for greater relations between Pakistan and India.

Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar, governor of Pakistans Punjab, also visited the Sri Guru Singh Sabha in Southall, and offered all amenities and facilities to the Sikh community across the globe in the Kartarpur corridor.President Donald Trump promised a major announcement on the government shutdown Saturday as he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi headed into a long holiday weekend with no sign their increasingly acrimonious standoff is any closer to an end.

The president plans to renew his demand for a wall on the US border with Mexico, but also offer incentives for congressional Democrats, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Although Trump has hinted that he might declare a national emergency to bypass Congress and fund the wall if other options failed, he does not plan to do so on Saturday, according to the person, who was granted anonymity to discuss the announcement beforehand.

The person would not discuss what Trump plans to offer to the Democrats who now control the US House, beyond saying that it may have something to do with immigration.

The Democrats, who have adamantly refused his demands for $5.7 billion for the wall, have called for protections for young immigrants who came to the US as children and other immigration reforms.

Trumps tweet late Friday previewing the announcement capped three days of dramatic twists in a clash between the president and the speaker thats become highly personal.

The president blocked Pelosi and a congressional delegation from visiting US troops Afghanistan over the weekend, a day after she said he should postpone his Jan. 29 State of the Union address. On Friday, Pelosi abandoned an attempt to fly there on commercial flights, saying that administration leaks about the trip endangered the lives of the participants.

It was very irresponsible on the part of the president, Pelosi told reporters.

In canceling the military flight, Trump said he wanted her to remain in Washington to negotiate. But as of Friday, Pelosis office had received no White House invitation for further talks, even as Trump moved on other fronts, including scheduling a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the end of February.

The White House didnt respond to a request for comment on the possibility of Pelosi being invited for meetings over the weekend.

They dispute over the wall led to the impasse, which has closed nine government departments and dozens of agencies since December 22. Democrats are trying to craft their own border security plan that doesnt include new wall funding, though the White House didnt indicate any softening of the presidents stance.

What really has to happen is Nancy Pelosi needs to come back to the White House or send others here who are actually willing to converse and negotiate and come up with the money for border security, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said in an appearance on Fox Business Network. Our doors are open.

In Ankara, Turkey, Republican Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina said the stalemate could be resolved soon, citing behind the scenes meetings hes had with Democrats and Vice President Michael Pence.

I believe there is a deal that can be reached fairly quickly, Graham told Bloomberg Saturday after meetings with Turkish leaders. I think this can be done in a couple of weeks, not a couple of months.

Democrats have rallied around the position that only after the government opens would they be willing to talk about increased border security. Republicans said Democrats would have to offer more than the $1.3 billion in border funds they have already put on the table.

Border Tactics

Pelosi said this week that her party is willing to talk about increased border security money but not to fulfil Trumps campaign promise to build a 2,000 mile wall.

In case I wasnt clear, 90 % of the drugs coming into the country come through the ports of entry. Lets use resources to expand the ports of entry, she told reporters. This has to be evidence-based, not notion-mongered.

By coming up with their own proposal, Democrats can inoculate themselves against charges by Trump and his supporters that theyre in favour of open borders.

Weve got to say what were for, not just what were against, former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential challenger to Trump in 2020, said in an interview in Washington.

Pelosi, House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey of New York and Homeland Security subcommittee Chairwoman Lucille Roybal-Allard of California and their staffs are seeking to draft the plan by Tuesday.

A lot of members are asking what is our plan here, Roybal-Allard said. We are looking at all the options.

A Homeland Security spending bill could be voted on by Friday and perhaps become the basis of any Democratic offer in talks once the government opened, according to two Democratic aides.

The amount of funding for the border could approach the $5.7 billion Trump is seeking but none of it would be for a wall, according to one of the aides.

Roybal-Allard said that she would be looking at adding personnel, technology, and infrastructure at the border as well as securing ports of entry and funding more immigration judges to process backlogs of immigration cases.

Humanitarian aid for asylum-seekers and aid for Central American countries to encourage migrants to remain at home are also on the table, as is facilitating trade between the U.S. and Mexico.

A House vote on the bill could help lawmakers get out of the impasse by presenting an offer without violating the Democratic pledge not to give in to a White House that provoked the shutdown. Democrats say that could set a precedent that would encourage Trump to use the debt ceiling or future spending bills as leverage.

Separately, Democrats are adding border provisions to a package of six bills funding other parts of the government and set for a vote next week. Totaling about $1 billion, half the money would be used to strengthen security at ports of entry and half to fund more immigration judges.

Developing a House plan could ease the concern of moderate Democrats that the party is not doing enough to try to resolve the impasse. This week, members of the Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, met with Trump in the White House but didnt emerge with any potential solution.

We were there to say there are enough of us who want to sit down and find an agreement, Representative Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat, said after the meeting.US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will hold their second meeting at the end of February, the White House announced Friday, in a development that will be expected to move talks that have shown little progress since the first and historic summit in Singapore last summer.

The announcements came after a 90-minuted meeting between President Trump and secretary of state Mike Pompeo met and Kim Yong Chol, North Koreas top nuclear negotiator and Vice Chairman of the Workers Party of Korea and Chairman of the Korea Asia Pacific Peace Committee, at the White House.

Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, said in a statement discussion were focussed on denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February. The venue will be announced later. Danang in Vietnam was among some names speculated about in reports.

Weve continued to make progress, Sanders told reporters later, adding, the United States will continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea until we see fully and verified denuclearization.

After the hype and promise of the Singapore summit, negotiations have not shown demonstrable progress despite President Trumps repeated claims that North Korea is less of a threat today. A missile defense review unveiled he unveiled on Thursday said that despite the talks North Korean continues to pose an extraordinary threat and the United States must remain vigilant.

The North Korean negotiator was meeting the US president for the second time; at their first, he had delivered an outsized envelope containing a letter from Chairman Kim, as was seen in pictures they posed for after their meeting. This time, there were no photo-ops or press interactions.

Talks have floundered over US demand for a list of North Korean sites associated with its nuclear and ballistic missiles programmes, which Pyongyang has found problematic to hand over. And the Trump administration has come under attack thus from critics to have been played by Kim.

But allies of the president welcomed the announcement of a second summit for now. Great news that there will be a second summit with President @realDonaldTrump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, wrote Lindsey Graham, Republican senator who heads the Senate judiciary committee, on Twitter.

President Trump deserves great credit for getting us to this point, he added.Bhabiji Ghar Par Hain actor Saumya Tandon, better known to the shows fans as Anita bhabhi, has welcomed a baby boy. According to reports, the baby was born on January 14 and both the child and mother are home now. The actor had earlier said that her new role as a mother doesnt mean that she will give up acting, dismissing reports to the contrary.

Earlier, Saumya had announced her pregnancy on Instagram with a photo and a caption, Woke up feeling like a magician, feel like a superhero without a cape most days now, filled with blessing and godliness. Constantly excited by the buzzing in my head and the sudden pump of hormones. This promises to be a fascinating ride. The big news -- Im pregnant and trying to soak in every moment of it! Need your best wishes throughout.

She has been updating her fans with photos of her fitness regimen as well as moments from her special pregnancy shoot. Before I say goodbye to my bump. I thought let me get clicked. #newbeginings, she wrote with a photo from her photoshoot.

Also read: Why is Saumya Tandon leaving Bhabiji Ghar Par Hai!? Heres the real reason

Saumya married banker Saurabh Devendra Singh in December 2016. Other than her hit TV show, she is remembered for playing Kareena Kapoors sister Roop in Jab We Met.Thanks to the credulous Judge Stephenson, the record will show that everyone else acted in good faith, that there was no subsequent cover-up, not even a tacit conspiracy in the department to excuse Van Dykes actions. The police stories dont line up with what we can all see in that remarkably vivid dashcam video, sure, but memories of witnesses are not infallible. The fact that all these errant memories happened to favor Van Dyke is just one of those interesting coincidences.Airport Authority of India (AAI), will begin the phase two of solar power plant installation by installing a 100 kWp (kilowatts) capacity flexible panel solar power plant, making Lohegaon airport the first in the country to have this facility.

The decision was announced by Ajay Kumar, Pune airport director at the airport advisory committee (AAC) meeting held on Thursday. Kumar said, After the successful operations of the first solar power plant, we are beginning the installation of phase two of the new 100 kWp solar power project, at the airport. The work for the 100 kWp capacity flexible panels, solar power plant has already been allocated.

According to Kumar, this facility is being introduced for the first time in India at the Lohegaon airport and will be installed on the roof top of terminal building.

He said,While the average solar energy requirement at the airport is 600-700 kWp, we aim to increase the capacity of the power plant and eventually run the airport on solar power.

A senior airport official on the condition of anonymity said, The solar power would be used as the primary source of electricity at the airport; regular electrical power supply will be kept as backup in case of unforeseen circumstances.

The move is expected to further help the airport authority save on electricity bills, official added.

Previously, Cochin International Airport had implemented a solar power plant and had become the Indias first airport to run on solar power. Lohegaon airport will be the first in the country to have a 100 kWp (kilowatts) capacity flexible panel solar power plant unit.

Meanwhile, airport authorities have also taken the decision of reduce the parking fares at the airport.

According to airport officials, the rates for vehicles parked for 30 minutes will continue to remain the same. However, the charges for parking between 30 minutes and 120 minutes will be brought down.

Major upgrades to Lohegaon Airport

* Increase in number of Check in Counters from 29 to 52

* Increase in seating capacity from 650 to 1,960

* Increase in number of trolleys from 400 to 700

* Increase in number of Boarding Gates from 6 to 9

* Establishment of international cargo, flight kitchen, food court, art work in building green belt developed in premisesElectronic voting machines (EVMs) are here to stay for the upcoming Lok Sabha (LS) elections in Bihar, but with voter verifiable paper audit trial (VVPAT) machines at all booths. There will be no going back to the era of paper ballots.

Chief election commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora told this to the media persons here on Friday after holding deliberations with representatives of political parties and reviewing the state of electoral preparedness with senior government officers in the past two days.

The conduct of EVMs was hardly questioned in the past assembly elections or the by-elections held in different parts of the country. The commissioner received complaint of irregularities at six booths out of to the total 1.67 lakh booths in the five states. Moreover, even the Supreme Court refused to interfere in the matter, said Arora, claiming that a high-level team of technocrats including former IITians were taking care of making the system tamper proof.

To keep the electoral system more effective and robust, Arora said, the election commission of India (ECI) would launch a mobile appcVIGILto empower and enable the electors to report about any attempt to vitiate the poll process. The app was first introduced at Bangalore and successfully operated during the recently held elections in five states, said Arora.

The CEC said that the state election officer has been told to ensure irregularities in the electoral rolls by resorting to the practice of door to door verification of the registered voters. Besides, the ECI has already operationalised a helpline number 1950 to help electors track their names in the electoral rolls and locate their booths, said Arora.

The commissioner hinted that the ECI might go for phase-wise elections in Bihar, saying that some areas of the state were still under the influence of Maoists and the Central Para Military Forces (CPMF) take time to shift from one location to another and be familiar with the locality. Number of polling booths may also be increased to ensure that people from the weaker sections have booths in their vicinity, said the CIC, adding that currently there are a total of 72723 polling stations at 46478 locations in the state.

The chief secretary has been told to ensure strict adherence to the norms of transfer of the officers. All those continuing on the same post for the past three years will have to be shifted. Number of poll observers will be increased for the upcoming LS polls, vis-a-vis the last elections in 2004. For the first time, accessibility observers will also be disputed to help physically challenged persons exercise their franchise, said Arora, adding that the political parties were told to appoint their booth-level agents to that they could be trained.

Senior deputy election commissioners Umesh Sinha and Ashok Lavasa, chief electoral officer of Bihar HR Srinivas and senior other officers of ECI were present during the briefing. Earlier, CEC held discussions with chief secretary Deepak Kumar, additional chief secretary, home, Amir Subhani, DGP KS Dwivedi and district magistrates (DMs) and superintendents of district police (SPs) to assess the poll related preparations.

Total number of electors: 6,97,38,208

Women voters: 3,27,77,668 (47% of total electors)

Third genders: 2,299 (0.01%)

Total number of polling stations: 72,723

Number of Lok Sabha seats: 40

endsFor 28-year-old Bhavana Jaiswal, growing up in an orphanage turned out to be better, she says, as she might not have become the person she is today if she had stayed with her parents.

Today, she works in Poland as the project head of a multinational company. Jaiswal is in the city to get engaged to Andres Schaufelberger, 33, a Swiss national.

I was seven and my sister Priyanka was six when our father left us. My mother could not raise us and sent us to Ma Niketan - Society of the Helpers of Mary orphanage in Thane. My brother was merely two years old at the time and therefore stayed with my mother, says Jaiswal.

The first few months at the orphanage were difficult, Jaiswal admits. When people came to celebrate their childrens birthday, there was always a feeling of longing and despair among us.

She, however, decided to accept the situation and soon fell in love with the orphanage. In a family, I would be loved by merely four or five people but here, there were 300 friends and many moms who loved us, she says.

Being independent was imbibed at a very young age.

The sisters always taught us that we have to face the world alone when we grow up, she says.

As many people from across the globe would visit the orphanage,Jaiswal was introduced to different cultures. I thought children these days go with their parents to see the world, in our case, the world came to us.

Jaiswal was mature from a very young age, remembers Sister Reshmi of Ma Niketan orphanage. She never broke rules. After coming home from school, she used to even teach the younger girls.

When Jaiswal went to college, she topped in two subjects of her Class 12 exams. When the college wanted to felicitate her she took one of the sisters from the orphanage to the event and was overwhelmed by the appreciation of the people. This was when I chose the academic path, she says. At the age of 18, Jaiswal started working as a receptionist at a doctors clinic, along with pursuing her bachelors in commerce. I then went to stay with my mother and decided to take care of my family. I also worked at call centres. Sisters from the orphanage provided financial help when I decided to pursue a Masters in Business Administration (MBA). After I completed my MBA, I joined a chemicals manufacturing company in Airoli. They recognised my talent and the company sent me to Poland, where I head one of their projects.

On one of her official trips to Switzerland she met and fell in love with Schaufelberger, says a happy Jaiswal.

Jaiswal advises orphans to not worry about what other people have. Focus on your life and believe there is happiness at the end for you too.One former prime minister, three chief ministers, six former chief ministers and five former Union ministers are attending a mega rally hosted by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee at Kolkatas Brigade Parade ground.

On stage along with Banerjee, who arrived around 11am, are former prime minister and Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) chief H D Deve Gowda, former Uttar Pradesh CM and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, former Maharashtra CM and ex-Union minister Sharad Pawar and former Arunachal Pradesh CM Gegong Apang. Omar Abdullah of the National Conference Party landed at the Kolkata airport a short while ago.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi will not be attending the rally but had extended support through a letter to Mamata yesterday. A rainbow of 22 parties is replacing dark clouds hovering over the country, party leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who is representing the Congress at the rally, said.

The Bengal chief minister invited Patidar leader Hardik Patel to be the first speaker at the rally, followed by Dalit activist Jignesh Mevani.

Subhas Chandra Bose had given slogan to fight against goro (Britishers), we are fighting against choro (thieves), Patel at said while addressing the public.

Meanwhile, Pu Lalduhoma of Zoram Nationalist Party of Mizoram claimed that minorities were not safe under the NDA government.

In the audience are singers, poets and personalities from the Bengali film and television industry.

Roads leading to the Brigade Parade ground are clogged with processions and vehicles carrying people to the rally.

Lakhs of people have arrived for the oppositions show of strength and many are waiting outside of the venue. The crowd will surpass all earlier records, said minister and senior Trinamool leader.

The country is waiting for a new Prime Minister, said Akhilesh Yadav on his arrival.

We have understood that Mamata Banerjee has taken all initiatives to bring all of us together, said Deve Gowda.

Also Read | Rahul backs Bengal rally in show of unity

Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Karnataka CM H D Kumaraswamy, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, Congresss Mallikarjun Kharge arrived on Saturday morning.

As a welcome gesture, Trinamool Congress (TMC) has put up flexes and posters containing photos of these regional leaders on road dividers from the airport to the rally venue at the heart of the city.

Featuring in these flexes are the likes of former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Farooq and his son Omar Abdullah of National Conference (NC), Tejashwi Yadav of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), former Union minister and Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) chief Sharad Yadav and Tamil Nadus Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president M K Stalin.

Former Jharkhand chief minister Babulal Marandi, senior Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Satish Chandra Mishra, former BJP ministers Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie, Ram Jethmalani and dissenter BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha also arrived today.

For the first time, all regional parties will be coming under one umbrella. Its going to be a historic event and millions of people will be present to witness it. This rally will mark the beginning of a New India, said TMCs virtual second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee, the chief ministers nephew and the partys youth wing chief.

Also Read | Country waiting for new prime minister: Akhilesh Yadav before mega Opposition rally in Kolkata

According to leaders of Bengals ruling party, they want to make leaders of regional parties feel at home. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee herself has said that she would prefer to play the role of a listener.

Leaders of all regional parties will deliver speeches. We would not like to talk much. I am waiting in eagerness to listen to them, Banerjee said on Thursday while checking the arrangements at the venue.

She met Pawar, Apang and Deve Gowda soon after they arrived in Kolkata.

Saturdays rally is scheduled to start at 12 noon. Mamata will host a tea party for the leaders in the evening.

TMC, by bagging 34 Lok Sabha seats, emerged as the third largest party in the Parliament in 2014. This year, Mamata Banerjee has set her eyes on winning all of Bengals 42 seats to ensure it maintains the status of the third largest party, and more importantly, the largest among all regional parties.

Over the past few weeks, Abhishek Banerjee has repeatedly urged people to vote for Mamata Banerjee to ensure TMC has enough seats to give Bengal the first Prime Minister from the state.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)s state unit chief Dilip Ghosh mocked the TMC for putting up placards containing photos of regional party leaders.

You May Also Like | Send powerful message: Rahul Gandhi writes to Bengals Mamata Banerjee on opposition rally he will skip

TMC has put up photos of leaders some of who are tired while others are retired. Is this Didis army? She wants to win this battle with generals who have been trounced on their own turf? Ghosh said on the eve of the rally.

He argued that TMC wanted to create a perception that all these leaders wanted to see Mamata Banerjee as the Prime Minister.

TMC is inviting so many parties because its own leaders have lost the ability to attract crowds. Its proactive role in national politics is only to divert attention from the point that its own ship is sinking, Ghosh said.Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu continued his attack on Prime Minister Modi at the mega opposition rally called by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The Andhra Pradesh chief minister said India needs a performing PM not a publicity one.

This Prime Minister is a publicity PM, not a performing PM. The GST is a fraud, economic growth is stagnant. The govt is interfering in the federal set up, said Naidu, adding that the opposition needs to have only one goal to defeat the BJP. (Follow live updates here)

Also read: At Mamatas rally Shotgun Sinha stops short of endorsing her as PM

Naidu alleged that the BJP has divided the nation in the last four-and-a-half years of its rule. The government is interfering the federal structure .

Also Watch: India is facing big challenge after 70 years, says Farooq Abdullah

The TDP chief invited opposition leaders for another meeting in Andhra capital Amravati. We have think of nation first, individuals next, he added.

Also read: Who is their leader? BJP calls Mamatas rally anti-Modi stuntBasking in the congratulations participants heaped on her at the mega opposition rally on Saturday, Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was at her best as she energetically conducted the proceedings and used rhetoric and hyperbole to attack the Narendra Modi government.

The government is past its expiry date. We will again meet at these grounds after the formation of a new government. And I invite all the leaders in advance, said the 63-year-old leader who paced up and down the huge dais for more than four hours without seeming to lose her energy.

Watch: We will throw out BJP from power with our unity, roars Mamata Banerjee

Also read: Anti-Modi alliance is also anti-people, says PM as oppn meets in Kolkata

Clad in her customary white sari and chappals, the Trinamool Congress chief was the 23rd and the last speaker at the rally, and lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Modi in her own style .

Speaking in a mixture of Bengali, Hindi and English, something she has rarely done before, Banerjee, in every other sentence, broke into extempore couplets that appeared to be her own composition.

We have heard raths of Lord Jagannath and Sri Krishna. What is this rath of yours? Its just a five star hotel? We will not allow anyone to engineer riots, she said.

Also read: At opposition rally, Shotgun Sinha takes aim at PM Modi over Rafale deal

Quoting a song of Tagore, she said the opposition front has a number of leaders and the BJP need not needle it on who will be the prime minister.

Your party has become leaderless. Therefore, you have only one prime minister and one (party) president. We have a lot of leaders. We will decide later, she said taking a jibe at the frequent question who will be the prime ministerial candidate from the opposition camp.

She also targeted Modi and said the Centre has not spared Bahujan Samaj party supremo Mayawati, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, Samajwadi Yadav president Akhilesh Yadav and even herself. Why would we spare you now? she remarked.

Also Watch: Subhash Bose fought against British, we have to fight against theives: Hardik Patel

She also earned two sobriquets during the day. Former BJP Union minister Arun Shourie called her the tigress of Bengal while DMK chief MK Stalin said she is the iron lady.

Banerjee took up the microphone even before the start of the proceedings that were supposed to kick off at 12 noon and conducted the rally as a master of ceremonies.

She introduced each speaker  as many as 22 of them excluding her  and even did a bit of crowd management, asking those at the back rows to sit down when they got too excited and stood up to get a better view of the speaker.

You have heard the names of many leaders present here, though you might not have heard them speak in front of you. Be patient and listen to them carefully, she admonished those too restless.

Not a single vehicle will leave this place before 4 pm. So dont worry, she was also heard telling the crowd.

She also had a word of comfort for Lalu Prasads son Tejashwi Yadav. They have sent Lalu Prasad to jail. Dont worry. After the government changes, who knows who will go where, she quipped.As Trinamool Congress geared up to host the mother of all gatherings in Kolkata, the authorities turned the meeting venue at Brigade Parade ground and adjacent areas, considered the lungs of the city into a virtual fortress.

About 20 leaders of parties opposed to Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, including one former prime minister and three chief ministers, are supposed to be present at the Brigade Parade Ground on Satuday afternoon.

From Friday, the grounds were out of bounds for the common people. Kolkata Police bomb squad personnel and dog-squads periodically examined the venue that has the iconic Victoria Memorial Hall in the backdrop.

Follow LIVE updates here.

About 8,500 policemen will be deployed for security at the venue.

A Kolkata Police statement said the meeting venue had been divided in 22 zones. A team consisting of both men in uniform and plain clothes headed by an officer of the rank of deputy commissioner will be in charge of each zone.

The overall supervision will be done by five senior officers, two additional commissioners and three joint commissioners.

The commissioner will be in charge of overall supervision from the control room of the city police headquarters, said a senior official of Kolkata Police, who did not wish to be named.

Five watchtowers, each 35 feet high, have been erected at different locations on the grounds. Drones will also be used for surveillance.

Also Read | Opposition unity rally today is Mamata Banerjees crowning glory

Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee said there will be five stages for the rally. The main stage will be occupied by the chief minister, party MP Abhishek Banerjee (chief ministers nephew) and the invited leaders from different parties, he said.

One stage will be reserved for the ministers of Bengal and one more for persons from the cultural world. The remaining two stages will be reserved for party MPs and MLAs.

State food & supplies minister, Jyoti Priya Mullick said that 5,000 volunteers of Trinamool Congress will be assisting the police in all the 22 zones that the meeting venue has been divided into.

For the sake of those who will not be able to enter the meeting venue, 20 giant LED screens and 1,000 loudspeakers will be put up at the venue, so that all can hear what the different leaders will say, Mullick said

The roads adjacent to the meeting venue will be declared as no parking zone from 8 AM to 8 PM on Saturday and traffic movement will be restricted in some other streets.

Also Read | Mamatas Oppn meet venue in Kolkata has a legacy of mammoth anti-govt rallies, political statements

Senior officials of the Kolkata Police, including the city police commissioner, Rajeev Kumar took turns in visiting the meeting venue to monitor and supervise the security arrangements.

Trinamool supporters have been converging in the city from different districts since Thursday. They were accommodated in temporary shelters at Central Park in Salt Lake and Gitanjali Stadium in Kasba.

Giant kitchens were set up to cook for the supporters.The oppositions efforts to form a grand alliance is not an attempt to remove Prime Minister Narendra Modi but to get rid of a mindset, former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said at Mamata Banerjees rally of opposition leaders on Saturday. (Follow live updates here)

Sinha, a former minister in the NDA government and a known critic of the PM, said democracy has been under attack in India for the last few years when criticising the government makes a person anti-national.

Live updates here

Under the current regime, the democracy is under danger. BJP leaders will say that we have gathered here to remove PM Modi. But, its not about him, but about the mindset, we are here to oppose the mindset, he said.

Yashwant Sinha batted for a united opposition candidate against the BJP in 2019 elections.

Also watch: Opposition leaders arrive for Mamata Banerjees United India Rally

The former Union Minister made fun of Modis governments slogan of sabka saath sabka vikas and said the apt slogan would be sabka saath sabka vinash.

He said now he is left with no personal desire but to see that this anti-people government is ousted from power.

Also read: Mamatas show of unity a show of hypocrisy, says BJPs Babul Supriyo

Sinha, who was in a committee to find solution to the Kashmir problem said when he had suggested to talk to the cross-section of people in the environment of love, he was branded a Pakistani agent.

Sinhas former colleague in the NDA, Arun Shourie said that a never before in the history of India has institutions be so undermined. From CBI to RBI, all institutions have been subverted, he said."I'm going to tell you the real reason," Wilson said. "A young man named Eric  I think he's in here now  he wrote an article about me that said, 'Look, he calls himself a doctor.' He dissed this and that.  To have someone to talk that negative about me from the Tribune, why should I release anything I have to the Tribune?"Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 19)  A low-pressure area (LPA) has entered the country on Saturday and weather officials said this could develop into the Philippines' first storm for this year.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said the LPA came in at 10 a.m., and was last spotted 585 kilometers east southeast of Hinatuan, Surgao del Sur.

PAGASA said the LPA may develop into a tropical depression in the next 24 hours. If that happens, it will be named "Amang," and signal No. 1 may be raised in some provinces in the Eastern Visayas and Caraga regions.

Meanwhile, moderate to heavy rains are expected to pour in Caraga, Davao Oriental, Compostela Valley, Camiguin and Misamis Oriental starting tonight.

Sea travel is risky now over the northern seaboard of Luzon and the eastern part of the country, PAGASA said.

The state weather bureau said it may hit land earlier than expected  on Sunday instead of Monday  in Surigao del Norte and/or Siargao.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to counter the Mamata Banerjees opposition unity show in Kolkata with a series of public meetings by the partys national leaders in all 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state by February 8, the partys state leadership said on Saturday evening.

The series of rallies will start with (BJP president) Amit Shahs five rallies between January 22 and 24. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing three rallies, on January 28, 31 and February 8. In between, other national level leaders including Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and Yogi Adityanath will be addressing rallies, said BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha.

In Bengal, there will be a ban on use of loudspeakers from February 9 to March 13 due to the state board exams.

Partys state unit chief Dilip Ghosh said that all district units have been asked to launch intense campaign to counter the allegations made by various opposition party leaders from the rally ground.

The partys youth wing will undertake bike rallies and cycle rallies to campaign for the meetings in every Lok Sabha constituency. Our message is very clear  all corrupt and discredited leaders have united against Modi because the Prime Minister has robbed them off their sleep, Ghosh said.

BJP has also decided to campaign to expose Congress fake opposition to Trinamool Congress dictatorial regime in a bid to ensure it gets lions share of anti-Trinamool votes.

We are also working on engineering a defection among aggrieved TMC leaders. One sitting TMC MP (Saumitra Khan) has already joined us. We are trying our best to present a few more TMC leaders on our dais in these meetings, said a state committee member who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Party president Shah has tasked the state unit with winning 22 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats. Presently the party has only two, the highest it ever had in the state.

The battle between Trinamool and BJP in Bengal is about setting the proper narrative. While Trinamool wants to portray this election as the one to throw out the party and Prime Minister, BJP plans to utilise the election to script the beginning of the end of the Mamata Banerjee regime in Bengal, said political analyst Biswanath Chakraborty, a professor of political science of Rabindra Bharati University.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday slammed the proposed mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) of opposition parties, saying it was not just anti-Modi but against the people of India , and his political rivals have joined hands to save themselves from his campaign against corruption.

Modis remarks came at a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rally in Silvassa, in the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli as opposition parties staged a show of strength in Kolkata. Poori jamaat (whole opposition) had gathered in West Bengal,and was pleading for help, said Modi.

The PM projected the coming general election as a fight between positivity and negativity, development and corruption and mahagathbandhan and the people of India.

People who used to slam the Congress left, right and centre, are today standing with that party. This mahagathbandhan is not just against Modi but also against the people of India, Modi said.

Also Watch: Mahagathbandhan is not against Modi but against people of India: PM Modi

A party with only one MLA (in West Bengal) is giving them sleepless nights. This is because we are followers of truth... Today, the entire opposition has come together and is shouting bachao, bachao, bachao, he said.

Modi arrived in Silvassa from Gujarat, where he was on a two-day visit to participate in the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2019. He used his speech at the rally to hit out at Mamata Banerjees West Bengal government, which has opposed the BJPs plans to organise a yatra (journey) in the state.

Where the BJP is not allowed to take out a yatra, where candidates in local body elections are killed and where democracy in being crushed, (opposition) leaders there are preaching about saving democracy. Its truly ironical. After watching this, the nation will say  wah kya scene hai.

Coming back to opposition unity, the PM said his actions against corruption have infuriated some people. Its but natural for them to get angry as Ive prevented them from looting public money. Consequently, they have now formed an alliance called mahagathbandhan, whose only job is to oppose me. No matter how many gathbandhans they forge to save their families and kingdoms, they cannot run away from their misdeeds, he said.

Modi said that by opposing him, the mahagathbandhan may grab newspaper headlines, but the people would not accept such an alliance. The people of India cannot accept those who have destroyed the country, he said.

Reacting to Modi, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the prime minister was scared of the opposition unity and his comments showed his desperation. What he fails to see is that he has been exposed fully by the opposition leaders and he knows the BJP cannot win next Lok Sabha elections, he said in Kolkata.Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rebel leader Shatrughan Sinha who showed up at Mamata Banerjees United India rally Saturday refused to be drawn into endorsing the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee as the next Prime Minister and remained ambivalent.

She is a national leader in true sense. She is really a tried, tested and experienced leader... Still there is time for people see the writing on the wall. There is a long gap between performances and promises. That gap needs to be handled well. The people will decide who will be the next Prime Minister, it is not our job, ANI quoted him as saying. (Follow live updates here)

Along with the actor-turned-politician, two former Union ministers from the previous NDA government - Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shouries are also attending the mammoth rally. Sinha, who regularly baits his own party, said he did not come to the rally as a BJP MP.

I am not talking to you as the representative of the Bharatiya Janata Party, but at the moment I have come under the leadership of Yashwant Sinha, who has just created Rashtra Manch. It is not a political party, it is a movement. The issue of most of the people who have come here is not Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Our issues are demonetisation, complicated GST, among others, Sinha said.

He also refused to answer queries about the Ayodhya land dispute case. The Patna Sahib MP simply said, Khamosh (quiet) in his trademark style and walked away when asked about the Ram Temple.

Earlier this week, BJPs Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi had asked Sinha who has been a vocal critic of his party, to quit.

During a TV debate on Tuesday Modi said Sinha has fallen into the bad company of Yashwant Sinha.

Shatrughan Sinha is also my icon but the manner in which he is targeting the BJP, he should quit, Modi said.Leaders of 18 opposition parties, cutting across regional and ideological barriers, resolved on Saturday to put up united fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and oust it from power in the upcoming general election, as they staged a massive show of strength at Kolkatas Brigade Parade Ground.

An estimated half-a-million people were in attendance at the rally  the biggest organised at the historic venue in recent years. Political leaders from 14 states shared the stage at the event, an initiative of West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, which virtually kicked off the oppositions election campaign.

The BJP government has crossed its expiry date, said Banerjee, who was the last to speak. Hardik Patel, a leader of the powerful Patidar community in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modis homestate, was the first to address the audience, which also heard BJP dissidents Arun Shourie, Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha call for the ouster of the Modi government .

Havent seen anyone run a country in a such a fascist manner, said Banerjee, who ended her speech with the slogan BJP hatao, desh bachao (remove BJP, save the country), followed by Jai Hind, Vande Mataram..

Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha, read out a letter from United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chief Sonia Gandhi in which she urged the people to save the Constitution and the basic ethos of the nation. Kharge represented the Congress at the rally in the absence of party president Rahul Gandhi.

Watch: I am ashamed that PM Modi follows abusive people on Twitter, says Kejriwal

Opposition leaders decided to hold at least two more such rallies -- in Andhra Pradesh and Delhi -- as the country prepares for the next general election, in which farm distress, lack of sufficient jobs for new entrants to the workforce, alleged wrongdoing in a Rs.59,000 crore deal for the purchase of Rafale fighter jets, and economic disruptions caused by the November 2016 invalidation of high-value bank notes and the July 2017 implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) are looming as the major issues.

All the issues figured in speeches at Saturdays rally, where former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda of the Janata Dal (Secular) suggested specific action points.

A small group of leaders must immediately be formed to draft an election manifesto and policy document. Leaders must work on seat sharing in every state. This is a Herculean task and there is little time left. BJP is saying that this alliance has no leader or agenda we must come up with a clear-cut programme to instill confidence among the people, said Deve Gowda.

At a press conference after a tea party attended by the invitees,,Banerjee said a four-member committee comprising the Congresss Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, the Bahujan Samaj Partys Satish Mishra and Aam Aadmi Party national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will discuss the perceived vulnerability of electronic voting machines (EVMs) to tampering and draft opposition arguments against the machines.

At the rally,,former Jammu and & Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah labelled the EVM a chor machine.

The BJP on Saturday tried to appear unfazed by the show of Opposition unity.

Is it a rally of United India or of Divided Leadership?, the partys Rajiv Pratap Rudy asked journalists, asserting that the BJP will form the next government under Modi after winning the general election by a landslide. He termed the Kolkata rally a summit of contradiction and conflicting ideologies.

He also questioned who was leading the oppositions conclave, Is it Mulayam Singh, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata or who?

Speakers at the rally including Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Deve Gowda and Kejriwal said there was no need to speculate on a prospective prime ministerial candidate now and the need of the hour is opposition unity.

Your party has become leaderless, Banerjee said of the BJP. Therefore, you have only one Prime Minister and one (party) president. We have a lot of leaders. Collective leadership is the base of our gathbandhan (alliance). We will sit together after the elections to choose the next prime minister.

Nation first, individuals next, said Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.

The elections are going to be the second struggle for Independence, remarked Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief MK Stalin.

The purpose of this rally should be to prevent a split in opposition votes, said Yashwant Sinha.The Telangana Rashtra Samithi on Saturday said that party president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao could not attend the rally of opposition parties held by Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee due to ongoing assembly session in the state.

KCRs daughter and TRS MP from Nizamabad Kalvakuntla Kavitha told media on the sidelines of Telangana Jagruthi International Youth Leadership Conference-2019 held at Novotel that her father was not in a position to attend the Kolkata rally as he was busy with the Telangana assembly session being held for the first time after the recent elections.

The assembly session is in progress and it is very important for the party. We shall definitely participate in such rallies in future. However, the TRS is against both the BJP and the Congress, Kavitha said.

On the Kolkata rally, she said it also had to be seen how serious these parties (who attended the rally) were. The pre-poll alliances among the parties should have to continue post-poll also, she said.

However, TRS spokesman and MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy gave a different reason for the TRS president skipping the Kolkata rally, despite getting an invitation from Banerjee. We did not want to share the dais with TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu and also the Congress leaders. So, we abstained from the rally, he said.

Last month, the TRS president had gone to Kolkata to meet Banerjee and discuss the formation of federal front of regional parties. She, however, did not speak to the media on KCRs proposal.A doctor from Srinagars Lal Ded Hospital  the largest government maternity hospital in the Valley  has been removed on Saturday after she allegedly refused to admit a woman from remote Mooree area of Kupwara district in Jammu and Kashmir. The woman later delivered a stillborn on Thursday night by the roadside as the city was shivering at -0.7 degrees Celsius. The government has ordered a probe into the matter.

The incident came to light on Friday after the family appeared before a media channel accusing the doctor of using objectionable language and denying them admission despite the patient being in pain and travelling more than 130 km.

The doctor is doing her MD and is in her third year. She has been shunted out. We wont allow such behaviour. I have recommended strict action against her, said Shabir Sediqui, superintendent of Lal Ded Hospital. He added that there are standing instructions that if any patient comes from a faraway place, whether she is in labour or not, they should be allowed to stay overnight.

Suraya Begum, a resident of Moori, had labour pain at her home on Thursday morning following which she was carried by her husband Wazir Ahmad and other relatives for 10 km to the nearby medical facility at Kalaroos.

Moori is a remote place covered under five feet snow. We left at 4 am after she developed pain and took her on our shoulders to the nearby medical facility at Kalaroos where doctors saw her and told us to go to Kupwara Hospital. At Kupwara the doctors gave us ambulance and referred us to Srinagars Lal Ded Hospital where we reached at 4 pm, They did some tests and then wrote a prescription telling us to go home at 8 PM. We requested them thrice to allow us stay for the night but the doctor used very objectionable language and forced us out of the hospital, said Khane Zaman, brother-in-law of Begum..

The relative said that they boarded an auto and reached Bemina where the patient went into labour and gave birth to a stillbirth.

The incident has created furore in Kashmir with politicians seeking strict action from the Governor.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti said that it was heart wrenching that a pregnant woman was turned away from a hospital, which ironically is named after the great Kashmiri mystic Lal Ded . She later gave birth to a still born in frigid temperatures. Cannot even begin to fathom the pain and trauma the parents must feel, she tweeted.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah hoped the state functionaries working under the command of Jammu and Kashmir governor will take immediate action.The BJP today dismissed any threat to the party by the opposition in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections after Mamatas Banerjees United India rally drew a range of opposition leaders to it.

People have seen the performance of the Narendra Modi government ... We will form the next government with full majority, BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said at a press conference today.

Live updates here

Rudy said the opposition efforts are simply an exercise by an anti-Modi front.

Also watch: Opposition leaders arrive for Mamata Banerjees United India Rally

Who is their leader? This is just an anti-Modi exercise and the people of the country can see through it, he said.

Asked about rebel MP Shatrughan Sinhas presence at the opposition rally in Kolkata, Rudy described him as opportunistic.

Sinha has been regularly baiting the BJP which provoked Bihars deputy chief minister earlier this week to suggest that the actor-turned-politician would be better off quitting the party.Less than a week after a Class 8 student in Odishas Kandhamal district delivered a baby inside the hostel of her school toilet after being sexually assaulted, two more cases of schoolgirl pregnancies were reported from two different districts today.

While in Dhenkanal district, a class 8 student of a tribal residential school run by state SC/ST department was found to be pregnant, another student of the same class in a residential school in Kalahandi district has been admitted to a hospital after her condition deteriorated following intake of abortion pills.

In Dhenkanal district, Sevashram schools headmaster Janardan Samal today lodged a complaint with the local police alleging that a class 8 girl student of the school was found pregnant. In his complaint, he said the girl had gone to her relatives house during the summer vacation. After she returned to the hostel, her health condition deteriorated. She was admitted to a local hospital, where doctors declared her to be pregnant.

In another incident, a class 8 girl student of a Navodaya school in Kalahandi was found to be pregnant. Kalahandi sub collector Mirdha Toppo said the girl was first admitted in the district headquarters hospital on January 14 after her conditions worsened following intake of abortion pills. Mirdha said the girl was then admitted to VIMSAR hospital in Sambalpur district on January 16 where the doctors terminated her pregnancy. The girl, a native of Sheikhpura in Bihar, was pregnant for 8 weeks.

We came to know about the incident today. However the girls family members have not lodged any police complaint so far. We have asked the Navodaya administrator to submit a report on the incident, said Toppo.

Early this week, the National Human Rights Commission had issued notice to Odisha chief secretary calling for a detailed report on the incident of a 14-year-old girl student of a tribal school in Kandhamal delivering a baby girl in the school hostel last Saturday. The girl, who was allegedly raped by a 22-year-old college student of the same district eight months ago had delivered a baby girl but the grossly underweight newborn died in the hospital a day later. The district yesterday observed a shutdown over the issue.

Meanwhile in Jajpur district, a 14-year-old girl working for a railway contractor today delivered a baby girl in a community health centre. The victim was employed by Pintu Jena who used to pay her Rs 1,000 per month to do his household chores. However, he lured the girl into a sexual relationship by promising to marry her. He also threatened her with dire consequences if she revealed the affair.

In another case, police in Kalahandi district today arrested a man on charges of raping a class seven girl. The girls family members noticed some changes in her body following which they questioned her and she revealed that she had been allegedly raped by a neighbour, a married person. The family members then rushed the girl to MKCG hospital in Berhampur for medical examination and also filed a complaint in with police in Kalahandi district under Pocso Act.

Kalahandi superintendent of police B Gangadhar said the the accused is being interrogated in police custody and a detailed investigation into the matter is underway.

Reacting to the cases of pregnancies among schoolgirls, Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Pitambar Acharya said within a week four such incidents have been reported. Is this how (chief minister) Naveen Patnaik protecting the interest of girl students, women & tribals, he asked.Three more youth from Assam have left to join ULFA(I), the banned militant outfit, recently, Assam police said.

According to officials, Hriday Sarkar from Golakganj in Dhubri district of lower Assam along the border with Bangladesh left his home on January 15, as the state celebrated Bhogali Bihu, the annual festival of harvest and feasting.

He sent a text message to his family saying he has left to join the ULFA(I), said Longnit Terong, Superintendent of Police, Dhubri.

Pallab Bhattacharyya, Director General of Police, in-charge of special branch, the intelligence wing said Sarkar has indeed left to join the militant outfit. He has gone with two others. We are still trying to identify the particulars of the other two, he said.

A police official in Dhubri said the other two came youth come from Dhemaji and Goalpara districts.

Sarkar (27) graduated from a local college in Dhubri and was unemployed, according to Terong.

Bhattacharyya said the police had been following but they still managed to travel to Mon in Nagaland. Mon is on the border with Myanmar where the militant outfit has its camps. We informed the authorities in Nagaland but they could not be apprehended, said Bhattacharyya.

Assam and other North East states have seen another spate of protests since Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed by Lok Sabha earlier this month.

Bhattacharyya said, it is yet not clear if that was the reason why the three youth decided to join the militant. However, the official from Dhubri said the timing is significant.The Centre is all set to introduce re-grassing  a technique to reclaim land by growing grass on land affected by mining activity  as a mandatory condition for mining leaseholders in the National Mining Policy, 2019, which is being drawn up.

This is being considered on a suggestion made by the Supreme Court on Thursday.

Hearing a case of environmental violations by Odisha miners, a bench comprising justice SA Bobde and justice Deepak Gupta suggested, In the course of hearing, the issue of deleterious effect of mining on vegetation in the area came up before us. In particular, it is well known that mining results in a complete elimination of grass in the area, which results in denial of fodder to herbivores...re-grassing technology is in existence today and it should be used.

The court then directed the Odisha government to look into the matter and make appropriate suggestions for implementing this proposal of re-grassing after termination of mining activities.

Senior advocate Ashok Kumar Panda, appearing for the Centre, informed the court that this would be included as part of the 2019 national mining policy that was being formulated.

Earlier, by its 2017 judgement in the Odisha mining case, the top court had imposed a fine of Rs 19,174.83 crores on mining leaseholders for environmental and forest clearance violations.

It had also directed the Centre to revisit the National Mineral Policy, 2008 as it was then almost a decade old. ...it is high time that the Union of India revisits the National Mineral Policy...and announces a fresh and more effective, meaningful and implementable policy within the next few months ...before 31st December, 2017.

Justice Bobde, while hearing the matter on Thursday, remarked, When mining happens, there is large-scale de-grassing, due to which the habitat is destroyed and the fodder for bovines, which is freely available, is lost forever...

...One should be clear as to how a mining site will be utilised after closure of the mine.... said Kanchi Kohli, legal researcher with Centre for Policy Research."I am a 17-year-old boy. I am a victim of murder in the second degree, said McDonalds great uncle, the Rev. Marvin Hunter, who was reading a letter written in the spirit of his now-deceased grand nephew. "I am unable to speak with my own voice. ... What happened to me can never be changed, but other young black men and women will not have to face Jason Van Dyke and his evil and selfish ways.  Im a real victim of murder and that can never be changed. Please think about me and my life when you sentence this person to prison.The British capital has long been the base from where pro-Khalistan leaders and groups have functioned, particularly after the 1984 Operation Bluestar. Over the decades, while the Khalistan issue ceased to be a factor in India, its leaders and supporters based in the UK and elsewhere continued to face so-called blacklists at Indian missions that prevented them from visiting the homeland, besides facing other issues with New Delhi.

It was against this backdrop that the first engagement during the first visit of Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister in November 2015 was with a delegation of overseas Sikhs. One of the key interlocutors in the talks was Jasdev Singh Rai, a doctor and former president of the International Sikh Youth Federation, which is banned in India and several countries (the ban was lifted in the UK in 2016).

Rai, who has since been involved in talks with Indian functionaries, had described the 2015 meeting as a turning point in the relationship between overseas Sikhs and the Indian state since Operation Bluestar. Rai spoke with Hindustan Times ahead of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections on what has been achieved since the talks and what remains to be done.

Excerpts:

In November 2015, you described the talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a turning point. What is the current state of talks?

The talks in London in 2015 were indeed a turning point after 32 years of hostile relations between the Indian State many Sikhs and Sikh organisations both inside and outside India. It offered an opportunity towards resolution of some allegedly intractable issues and embark on a road towards reconciliation and constructive solutions. Although some discreet discussions had begun during the previous Manmohan Singh government, it did not seem to have the political will to make any real effort. The first and most important step was for the Indian State to admit that there is a substantive issue between itself and worldwide Sikhs arising from the attack on Sri Darbar Sahib in 1984. Governments had been pretending that it was a domestic issue, to be dealt with within the remit of law and order. The Indian State remained in denial of its responsibility both in the attack and the Sikh massacres in Delhi.

Prime Minister Modi showed boldness and goodwill to offer discussions unconditionally and work towards removing some of the obstacles. He admitted openly at the Wembley Stadium that here are issues from 1984 that need to be resolved. That was the crucial door to further engagement. The discussions are ongoing with the PMs representatives. Such talks take a few years as there are a number of administrative hurdles as well as suspicions and political pressures to deal with. One of the mature leaders of a Sikh organisation, Joga Singh, said to me at the time, Dr Rai, dont expect this to go smoothly and resolve matters over a few weeks. This can take a few years.

What has been achieved so far, and which issues remain to be taken forward?

There have been some important developments. The first was when Prime Minister Modi expressed personal pain and his governments cognizance of the 1984 attack on Sri Darbar sahib and the massacres of Sikhs in November, which was later described as genocide by home minister Rajnath Singh. The use of the word genocide was significant.

Secondly, the Sikhs on the indiscriminate exclusion list, the black lists, have mostly been given visas to go to their homeland and pilgrimages. There are some who have had cases registered against them that have still to be dealt with. Unfortunately, there are still people in some countries in Europe and Canada who face problems.

Third, the Indian State has prosecuted a number of Punjab police officers who had been involved in extra-judicial executions. Independent convictions have also been facilitated. The recent life sentences given to two police officers on cases brought by a British barrister now resident in India, Satnam Singh Bains, is crucial in restoring some trust in the judicial process and to achieve justice. That he is allowed to continue his work there is significant, it would not have been thought of during early Congress years.

The convictions of a number of people  I understand the figure to be above 400  for the genocide of Sikhs in Delhi 1984 is a major step. A number of prisoners serving life sentences have been released on permanent parole. The parole of Davinderpal Singh Bhuller was another milestone, although he is awaiting permanent parole as are some other, particularly Lal Singh. We call these individuals political prisoners as they have been in detention long after serving minimal sentences.

Which issues of overseas Sikhs are yet to be resolved or taken up?

There are three important issues yet to be taken forward are: Permanent parole of some remaining prisoners; an official process of dialogue between representatives of the government and the Sikh organisations; and a process and road map to make worldwide Sikhs inclusive in the decisions of Sri Akal Takht Sahib, the selection of the Jathedar who is representative of the worldwide Sikh community and the autonomy of Sri Akal Takht Sahib from political and legal shadows. There also needs to be a worldwide inclusion of Sikhs in the management of Sri Darbar Sahib complex in recognition of its status as the central institution of the global Sikh community.

What are the key hurdles in resolving the outstanding issues - is it the lack of a representative group of people with whom New Delhi can speak to?

There are hurdles on both sides and some by other interventional third parties, possibly because a resolution between Sikhs and India is inimical to their agendas.

On the part of the Indian State there are some political forces that have been either opposed to the process or resistant. Some have vested political interest to keep these issues on the boil, some fear that their own political interests could face challenges and sometimes the government machinery, particularly in India, works at a snails pace with usual obfuscations.

The Sikh organisations were taken by surprise by the Modi governments offer. They had been used to 32 years of hostile language, labelled as terrorists, or when talks were offered, to the usual deceptions of governments. Hence, there was and still remains a large trust deficit to overcome, ingrained and entrenched over 31 years before 2015. Some of the organisations still feel that they are being taken for a ride.

Moreover, Sikh organisations do not work in consensus, they are often divided, as usually happens among non-State actors anywhere, by internecine struggles, by punitive issues and fear of being called traitors. There is a lack of sophisticated leadership with deep and political understanding of other struggles in the world: so small obstacles become big issues. Then, there are third parties who have created unnecessary obstacles or have been discreetly intervening in frustrating dialogue.

How was the court verdict on Sajjan Kumar received in the Sikh community in the UK and outside India?

The Sajjan Kumar verdict is a major milestone. It is the first time that a heavyweight political leader, usually protected by the State machinery, has been convicted for a crime which was clearly a crime against humanity. He enjoyed impunity during the Congress years. Ironically, Congress not only failed to prosecute him, but was even going to promote people like him.

While the Modi government itself is not the prosecutor, most seasoned Indian observers know that various parts of the Government machinery can put obstacles in the process of justice. In this case all those obstructive thorns have been removed and Sajjan Kumar has been successfully prosecuted on the same evidence that existed before.

Some more high-level prosecutions will go a long way to restore justice and will be a deterrent in future against State-led massacres in what are gingerly and deliberately called riots. A similar conviction of some high-level police officers responsible for extra judicial executions and tortures in Punjab will go a long way.

Are any talks with Indian government functionaries scheduled during your visit to India for the Pravasi Bharat Diwas (PBD) later this month?

Nothing is planned. I have been invited to PBD and was a bit surprised particularly given that I can be quite critical of State politics. I suspect I will have discussions on the sidelines as there are bound to be ministers and senior officials present. I am not sure why I have been invited. I cannot offer any technological skills to India as that is not my field. However, I do feel that the civilisations of India, the Sanatan Dharmas, Buddhism, Jain and Sikhi have extraordinary depth and wisdom that the world is in desperate need of. Today, the worlds biggest problems are peoples violation of nature and coexistence as the State everywhere is becoming multicultural, multiethnic and multiracial. Indian traditions have long experience of co-existence, of pluralism of respect for each other and of some deep understanding of human relations with nature. However, India has to start adopting these first and then offer that wisdom to the world. It could be the century of Indian wisdoms that can save the world, but India has to recognize and give expression to the first.MK Stalin of the DMK, speaking in Tamil at Kolkatas Brigade ground, today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is afraid of a few people, among them West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who he called an iron lady.

Banerjee returned the goodwill, saying Stalin will sweep the elections, congratulations in advance.

The Bengal chef minister was Stalins host at a mega opposition rally of 22 parties where leaders called for joint efforts to defeat the ruling BJP and PM Modi in national elections later this year. (Follow live updates here)

The DMK president said the elections will be akin to the second freedom struggle for people of India to fight against the radical Hinduism of the BJP.

Watch: I am ashamed that PM Modi follows abusive people on Twitter, says Kejriwal

The next (Lok Sabha) elections will be the second fight for Independence. We will stop this poison of Hindutva and radical Hinduism from spreading. Our call is to defeat Modi and save the country, he said at the Brigade Parade Grounds here.

Stalin accused the BJP government of working for corporate houses and PM Modi of converting the country into a private limited company of which he is the MD.

Modi has realised that defeat is certain, he said, also adding that he has no personal animosity against Modi, but I oppose his policies.

Leaders of all the opposition parties, except the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the CPI(M)-led Left Front, are taking part in the rally.

Also read: At mega Opposition rally, emcee Mamata Banerjee has the spotlightCeasefire violations along Indias border with Pakistan and the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir more than doubled in 2018 from the previous year to reach the highest this decade, according to data compiled by Indias security and military establishment.

The ceasefire violations, with increased Pakistan sniper activity, touched 2,140 last year, increasing from 971 in 2017 and 449 in 2016, according to the data seen by HT. This led to a decadal high of 30 civilian casualties and 29 casualties among security personnel manning the border with Pakistan and the LoC.

Every Tuesday, for the past three Tuesdays, Indias Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) has red-flagged a massive escalation of ceasefire violations along the international border and the LoC to his Pakistani counterpart. This isnt new, but indicates no change in Islamabads approach under a new government, with Indian security officials saying all monitored parameters have touched all-time highs. The Pakistan DGMO, on his part, and as in the past, has flatly denied all charges.

Analysts say the Imran Khan government may have been emboldened by the lowering of pressure from the US as the latter needs Islamabad when it exits from Afghanistan. That the US needs Pakistan to start the peace and reconciliation dialogue between the Taliban and the Ashraf Ghani government was evident during the meetings between US Special Envoy on Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad,and Indian interlocutors including NSA Ajit Doval on January 10-11. According to officials familiar with the matter, the Indian side made it clear to the US interlocutor that its humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan was linked to Kabul containing terrorism and that New Delhi would explore other options if the peace dialogue is not inclusive and not pro-Afghan. Although Pakistan submitted its risk assessment report on action taken against terrorist groups to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) at a meeting in Sydney on January 7-8 , Indian security officials say it continues to provide a base for terrorists targeting India.

Terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir is at levels not seen in a decade: 614 attacks in 2018 with 38 civilians and 257 Islamic extremists killed. FATF, on its part, found the Pakistan assessment unsatisfactory and asked the Imran Khan government to make required changes in its anti-terrorism strategy before it grants any relief to Islamabad. Adverse action by FATF could have consequences for Pakistans already troubled economy with a possible downgrade of Islamabads debt ratings and restrictions being placed on how much it can borrow from global monetary institutions.

Chances of Pakistan being downgraded to a black list and be clubbed with Iran and North Korea are, however, remote.

The data shows that cross-border infiltration attempts are the one area in which there has been improvement. While 302 attempts were made by Pakistan-based terrorist groups till November 2018, the figure stood at 397 in 2017 and 371 in 2016 during the same period. Still, there was a spike in infiltration attempts in December and the BSF says there has been no let-up in January. In 2018, 27 Pakistani extremists were killed during infiltration attempts, compared to 59 in 2017 and 35 in 2016. With the PDP and the BJP ending their alliance in June, and the state coming under Governors Rule, incidents of stone pelting, often aided and abetted by Pakistani agencies, touched 1,666 till November compared to 1,196 during the same period in 2017. This figure touched an all-time high of 2,808 in 2016.

 Structurally, Pakistan cannot change its policy towards India. The armed forces, the religious organisations , the political forces and the ideology that created the country will not allow this, former Indian foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal said . Imran Khan is a product of these forces.

In the current difficult circumstances, Imran Khan is making soft noises, but these are tactical in nature. China also will not allow a real improvement of relations with India as Pakistan will begin to balance India and China.

Former Indian ambassador to US and Pakistan expert Arun Singh said : It is clear that the Imran Khan government remains dependent on the Pakistan army for its stability, including so as to remain in majority with a coalition. Policies on India, US and Afghanistan will be determined by the Army, whatever the sense of formal activism by the civilian establishment. In Afghanistan, the Pakistan establishment is continuing with its policies of supporting the Taliban, as they continue with violent attacks on the ground, even as reconciliation talks are being pursued with the US. On India, the attempt would be to maintain some activity on LoC and in Kashmir, to leverage potential positions post general elections in India.A special court that declared business tycoon Vijay Mallya as Fugitive Economic Offender (FEO) has held that his claim for one time repayment of dues has nothing to do with the proceedings to declare him a fugitive and confiscate his properties. It also held that Mallyas conduct suggested that he had no intention to return to India.

Mallya was declared as Fugitive Economic Offender under the FEO Act by special judge, Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases, MS Azmi on January 5. The order running into 55 pages was signed on Saturday where the court has rejected Mallyas defence that he wanted to repay the loan amount.

The ruling was the second blow suffered by him within a matter of weeks.The Westminster Magistrates Court in London on December 10 ordered his extradition to India on an application by the Indian government. Its now up to the UK foreign secretary to decide whether he should indeed be sent back to India .

Mallya, 63, who in his flamboyant heydays was known as the king of good times, flew out of India to the UK in March 2016 as banks owed Rs 9,000 crore by his Kingfisher Airlines, grounded in 2012, closed in on him. The businessman is also sought by the ED, which investigates foreign exchange rule violations and money laundering.

Mallyas legal team, while contesting EDs demand to declare him fugitive, argued that they are ready to sign a consent term and settle the loan. Mallya had also announced that he would return after March 2016 as he was trying to make arrangement to repay the loans. The court had discarded all his pleas claiming it to be nothing but his tall claims.

In his (Mallyas) reply to the ED, he suggests that he was taking efforts for one time settlement and therefore he is unable to attend personally for investigation. The reason given itself suggests that Mallya was avoiding to join the investigation. He had not given any definite date when he will join the investigation, the order said.

It goes on to state that Mallya had not given any time frame to settle his dues, and by his own admission to the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), Mallya was to return at the end of March 2016, and that his failure to return demonstrates that he had no intention to do so.

The special court has also rejected Mallyas defence that he had left India to attend a prescheduled event and did not return out of fear. It observed that had it been the case that he departed India to attend a prescheduled meeting and was a law abiding citizen, he would have immediately informed the authorities about the schedule to return to India. Therefore, in spite issuance of repeated summons and warrants of arrests, he did not give a date of return. Therefore it would be unsafe to accept the argument that he departed India only to attend the prescheduled meeting. His overall conduct suggests his refusal to return of India to face criminal prosecution.

Mallyas lawyers had contended that the agencies had concealed the facts that he wanted to make one time settlement with banks and creditors and proceeded against him by filing cases out of political vendetta.

The court has dismissed this too, holding that a, mere statement that the Government of India has pursued a political vendetta against him and initiated criminal proceeding and investigation against him cannot be ground for his stay in UK. The courts in India have to discharge their judicial functions as per law.

Besides this statement there is nothing to support as to how Government of India has initiated investigation and proceedings to pursue the political vendetta. Hence this argument in this regard is mere fiction of his imagination to pose himself as a law abiding citizen, the judgment said.Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday linked the Oppositions criticism of the government over the Rafale fighter jet deal with possible corporate espionage, saying: None of us should play party to an international corporate warfare.

The defence minister also questioned whether the attack on the government over the purchase of the fighters was aimed to cancel the purchase. If the intention is to sabotage even this procurement thats the icing on the cake as regards to disservice to this nation, Sitharaman said.

The Opposition, especially the Congress, has accused the Modi government of corruption and wrongdoing in the purchase of 36 Rafale fighters from France.

Her comments on corporate rivalry was also in regards to questions about why a 20% discount offered by one of the contenders  Eurofighter Typhoon manufactured by EADS  for the purchase of 126 fighters being negotiated by the previous government was not accounted for when the current government decided to buy the 36 planes from France.

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Friday dismissed a news of price escalation in the deal. He said SC had examined the prices and CAG is examining it. The new article on Rafale is based on fudged arithmetic, ignore the escalation of the 2007 non-deal offer and compare it with the 2016 price and invent a scam, he said.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated the Armoured Systems Complex of Larsen and Toubro in Gujarat, the first private facility in the country where the K9 Vajra self-propelled Howitzer guns will be manufactured.

L&T had in 2017 won the Rs 4,500-crore contract from the Ministry of Defence to supply 100 units of K9 Vajra-T 155 mm/52 calibre tracked self-propelled gun systems to the Indian Army under the Centres Make in India initiative.

I congratulate the entire team of Larsen & Toubro for building the state-of-the-art K-9 Vajra Self Propelled Howitzer. This is a significant contribution towards Indias defence sector and protecting the country, Modi tweeted.

Boosting Make in India in the defence sector is our endeavour. I am glad that the private sector too is supporting this pursuit and making a valuable contribution, he said in another tweet.

The prime minister shared a short video on his Twitter handle of himself standing in a tank. Checking out the tanks at L&Ts Armoured Systems Complex in Hazira, he said in the tweet.

The company has set up the facility in Hazira, around 30km from Surat, to manufacture and integrate advanced armoured platforms, such as self-propelled artillery Howitzers, future infantry combat vehicles, future-ready combat vehicles and future main battle tanks.

Spread over 40 acres within L&Ts 755-acre Hazira Manufacturing Complex, the ASC is executing the K9 Vajra guns programme. The K9 Vajra contract involves delivery of 100 such systems in 42 months, which is the largest contract awarded to a private company by the Ministry of Defence.

L&T had signed a transfer of technology contract for guns with South Korean company Hanwha Corporation.

Present at the function were Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Defence Acquisition of the Republic of Korea Wang Jung Hong, and L&T Group Chairman A M Naik. The facility has been developed to make full-fledged battle tank manufacturing possible in India, a senior L&T Defence official told PTI.

By involving 400 SMEs and developing 13,000 parts indigenously, the company is moving in the direction of manufacturing a totally indigenous battle tank without having to depend on external help, said J D Patil, senior executive vice president, L&T Defence.

For now, we have to depend on external technology. Under the programme, we have partnered with South Koreas largest defence company Hanwha. We had offered the programme to the government and Army tested the prototype for 3.5 years. After success of the testing, the order was placed, Patil said.

The gun weighs 50 tonnes and can fire 47kg bombs at a 43-kilometre distance target. It can turn around at zero radius. Fire technology system and major electronics and enhancements are indigenous, Patil said.

Of the total 100 tanks, 10 have been delivered by September last year. The company also tests tanks at its armoured systems complex in Hazira by running it for 80-100 kilometres in different simulated terrains, he said.

The biggest benefit of the indigenisation process is to the Army, which will not have to depend on foreign nations for spare parts during its 40-year life cycle. The Armys life cycle cost will be drastically reduced and we will not be held ransom by any country, Patil said.

L&Ts ASC in Hazira is the first manufacturing facility in the private sector to produce advanced armoured platforms for the defence sector. This is the 10th manufacturing unit of the technology, engineering, construction, defence and services conglomerate.Leaders to now attend tea party in Alipore

The opposition leaders will now attend a tea party in Alipore in south Kolkata.

Havent seen anyone run a country in a such a fascist manner: Mamata

Havent seen anyone run a country in a such a fascist manner, said Mamata Banerjee, while ending her speech with BJP hatao, desh bachao and Jai Hindh, Vande mataram chant.

Modi unable to take everyone along: Mamata Banerjee

Modi is unable to take everyone along. One who cant take everyone along, cant be a leader. This is the beginning of BJPs end, said Mamata Banerjee.

No more acche din for BJP: Mamata

The people have already made their minds, acche din (good days) not going to come back for BJP, said Mamata Banerjee.

Wont allow riots in the name of rath yatra: Mamata

We believe in lord Jagannaths rath yatra. What is your rath? We will not allow you to engineer riots in Bengal. We wont allow riots in the name of rath yatra, said Mamata Banerjee at mega opposition rally.

BJP humiliated every institution: Mamata

They humiliated CBI, ED, RBI. They undermined banks. Remember, if you vote BJP to power this time, you wont get any of your money back, said Mamata Banerjee.

Everybodys a leader in our gathbandhan: Mamata

They say we dont have any leaders, but we have so many. They just have one PM and one party president. Everybodys a leader in our gathbandhan. There is no need to discuss our PM candidate right now, said Mamata Banerjee.

No jobs, whats the point of reservation?: Mamata Banerjee

Farmers dont have money. There are no jobs, whats the point of reservation? We will work together to bring a new dawn for the country, said Mamata Banerjee.

They are changing everything, their govt has to change too: Mamata

This govt is trying to change everything- the law, the Constitution, and now this government has to change too, said Mamata Banerjee.

What Pakistan has not been able to do in 70 years, this govt has achieved in 4 years: Mamata Banerjee

What Pakistan has not been able to do in 70 years, this govt has achieved by dividing the people, said Mamata Banerjee,

Modi govt is past its expiry date: Mamata Banerjee

23-24 parties have taken part in this rally. The Modi government is past is expiry date, said Mamata Banerjee

This rally will rob Modi of his sleep: Tejashwi Yadav

This rally will rob Modiji of his sleep. I want to tell Modiji, you can be chowkidaar, but people of this country are thaanedaar (cops), said Tejashwi Yadav.

There are a lot of promises but no delivery: Shatrughan Sinha

There are a lot of promises but no delivery. We will ask questions but they will try to divert public attention. People will call you chowkidaar till the time you dont answer these questions, said Shatrughan Sinha at Mamata Banerjees mega rally.

Tejashwi Yadav arrives at the venue

RJDs Tejashwi Yadav has arrived at the venue of Mamata Banerjees mega rally in Kolkata

People want a new leadership: Shatrughan Sinha

Mood of the nation is Parivartan. Parivartan. Parivartan. People want a new leadership, said Shatrughan Sinha .

There was democracy during Vajpayees time, now theres anarchy: Shatrughan Sinha

There was democracy during Vajpayees times, now its anarchy, said Shatrughan Sinha

If speaking the truth is rebellion, I am a rebel: Shatrughan Sinha

People ask me why I speak against the BJP. I do that because I cant be against truth. If speaking truth is rebellion, I am a rebel. Before being a member the BJP, I am a Bharatiya, said Shatrughan Sinha..

We have gathered here to save the constitution: Shatrughan Sinha

We have gathered here together to save the constitution, to save the country and to lead the country to a right path, said Shatrughan Sinha

Seat sharing issue in different states is a Herculean task: Deve Gowda

The seat sharing issue in different states is a Herculean task and should be decided by the leaders themselves. There is no senior leaders like JP or Acharya Kripalani anymore. We have to give confidence to the people of this country on how the coalition will move forward. But, all the leaders have come together to give a befitting reply to Modi:, said H D Deve Gowda

A chargesheet was filed on flimsy grounds a day after SP-BSP alliance was announced in UP: HD Deve Gowda

A chargesheet was filed on flimsy grounds a day after SP-BSP alliance was announced in Uttar Pradesh. The Centre is victimising Opposition leaders using all machinery, H D Deve Gowda

PM promised to generate 20 million jobs every year, but 16 million people have lost jobs: Kharge

The PM promised to generate 20 million jobs every year, but 16 million people have lost jobs. Farmers are distressed, there are no jobs, but the Centre is just thinking about 2019, said Mallikarjun Kharge at Mamatas mega rally.

Mallikarjun Kharge reads out Sonia Gandhis message for the rally

Mallikarjun Kharge reads out Sonia Gandhis message for the rally - The upcoming general elections will be on the faith of restoring democracy in our country. This rally marks an important attempt to galvanise leaders to fight the Modi govt.

We want to protect interests of youth, women and farmers: Sharad Pawar

We want to protect interests of the youth, women and farmers. BJP leaders said we will fight for the PMs post, but we have gathered to save the country, said Sharad Pawar.

Your show of unity is giving us hope: Sharad Pawar

Your show of unity today is giving us hope. I congratulate Mamata for organising this meet, said NCPs Sharad Pawar at Oppn rally at Kolkata.

Farmers distressed under BJP rule: Sharad Pawar

At Mamata Banerjees mega rally, NCPs Sharad Pawar said, Farmers are distressed under BJP rule, they are committing suicide.

Just like animals they are trying to buy MLAs: Naidu

Speaking over Karnataka poaching row, Chandrababu Naidu said, Just like animals they are trying to buy MLAs.

EVM is a big fraud, we have to go back to paper ballot, he added.

This Prime Minister is a publicity PM, not a performing PM: Chandrababu Naidu

This Prime Minister is a publicity PM, not a performing PM. The GST is a fraud, economic growth is stagnant. The govt is interfering in the federal set up, said Chandrababu Naidu.

We have one goal, we want to unite India: Chandrababu Naidu

We have one goal. BJP has divided the nation, we want to unite India, said Chandrababu Naidu.

The venue has a historical significance, If there is any crisis for the nation, this ground has hosted a rally, he added.

If Modi-Shah come back in 2019, they will destroy this country: Arvind Kejriwal

If Modi-Shah come back in 2019, they will destroy this country. They will break the country to pieces. They will do what Hitler did, they will change the Constitution, they will abolish elections. We need to uproot them, said Arvind Kejriwal.

Everyone is distressed under BJP rule: Arvind Kejriwal

The women, farmers of the country are distressed under this government, The Dalit community is distressed, they are being lynched. The Muslims are distressed as they are being cornered, said Arvind Kejriwal at Mamatas mega rally.

You wipe out BJP from UP, we will do so in Bengal: Mamata tells Akhilesh

You wipe out BJP from UP, we will do so in Bengal, Mamata told Akhilesh at mega rally.

This new year, will have a new PM: Akhilesh Yadav

This new year, will have a new prime minister. Whoever the people choose will become the PM, said Akhilesh Yadav, adding, The BJP will not open its account in Tamil Nadu.

To tease us,they (BJP) say weve a lot of contenders for PMs post, we say people will decide wholl become PM. As elections are approaching,youre forming alliance with CBI&ED while were forming alliance with ppl of India, he added.

BJP thought that there cant be any alliance, but we proved them wrong: Akhilesh Yadav

The issues which will be raised in Kolkata will find resonance across the country. They thought that there cant be any alliance, but we proved them wrong, said Akhilesh Yadav.

BJP encouraging horse trading in Karnataka: HD Kumaraswamy

BJP is encouraging horse trading in Karnataka. The legislators are being treated as commodities, said HD Kumaraswamy.

BJP has dictatorial attitude: HD Kumaraswamy

The BJP has dictatorial attitude. The country, today, is at crossroads because of their policies, said HD Kumaraswamy.

Didi a role model for the country: Kumaraswamy

Didi is a role model for the country. H D Deve Gowda, my father taught me to be humble and simple like Didi, Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy.

Anti-Modi exercise: BJPs take on Mamatas Oppn rally

The BJP termed Mamata Banerjees rally of opposition parties an anti-Modi exercise and said that the people of the country are wise enough to see the plan.

Who is their leader? BJPs Rajiv Pratap Rudy asked Mamatas opposition rally anti-Modi stunt

BJP is lying to the people for votes: BSP MP Satish Misra

The BJP is lying to the people for votes. Unemployment is rising. Farmers, labourers, minorities, Dalits are being persecuted, said BSP MP Satish Misra

Stalin will sweep elections: Mamata Banerjee

Stalin will sweep the elections, he may win all the seats. Congratulations to him, in advance, said host Mamata Banerjee at the mega rally.

Mamata one person Modi afraid of: MK Stalin

Hitting out at prime minister Modi, MK Stalin said, Mamata is one person Modi is afraid of.

Wherever PM Modi is going he is fiercely attacking the Opposition, Modi is fearful of Opposition and that is why he is also cursing us, he is afraid of our unity, we must come together to safeguard India, he added.

Modi has realised that defeat is certain: MK Stalin

Modi has realised that defeat is certain. I have no personal animosity against Modi, but I oppose his policies. Modi has converted the country into a private limited company of which he is the MD. Modi is the fountainhead of corruption, said MK Stalin at Mamata Banerjees mega rally.

Send Modi home, save the country: MK Stalin

At Mamatas rally, MK Stalin set the tone for 2019 polls and said, Send Modi home, save this country, adding, The Lok Sabha elections in May will be Indias second freedom struggle

Farooq Abdullah hits out at BJP, rakes up EVM tampering issue

Raking up the issue of EVM tampering, Farooq Abdullah called for the use paper ballots

Undeclared emergency in country: Farooq Abdullah

Theres undeclared emergency in the country. They are killing people in Kashmir, calling them Pakistani. I am Muslim too, but part of this country: Farooq Abdullah hits out at NDA. 70 years after Independence the country is again facing a challenge. We have to fight together to uproot BJP, said Farooq Abdullah.

This not about removing one man, this is about saving this country: Farooq Abdullah

This not about removing one man, this is about saving this country. A lot of people sacrificed, then this country got independence. But,this government is dividing people on communal, caste lines. You need to be ready for sacrifice. The BJP is dividing people on the basis of religion. We must all come together to defeat the divisive forces, said Farooq Abdullah at Mamatas mega rally.

Not one institution is left, which hasnt been destroyed by Centre: Sharad Yadav

Not one institution is left, which has not been destroyed by the current government at Centre, said said LJPs Sharad Yadav.

Country is in danger: Sharad Yadav

Country is in danger, farmers are in a bad state. Everywhere theres destruction. The Centres move of demonetisation and GST have ruined the country. The Centre was supposed to provide 20 million employment, but it destroyed many jobs, said LJPs Sharad Yadav.

Only the BJP will benefit from division of votes: Abhishek Manu Singhvi

Only the BJP will benefit from division of votes. The aim of this rally is to stop the division of votes. Wherever this happened, we saw the benefits, said Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

Rainbow of 22 parties replacing dark clouds: Abhishek Manu Singhvi

At this rally, I am seeing a rainbow of 22 parties is replacing dark clouds. Clouds are parting. A rainbow of political parties is forming. The time for a coalition has arrived, said Congress Abhishek Manu Singhvi at Mamatas mega rally.

Never before were institutions undermined in this manner: Arun Shourie

No other government has said so many lies. Never before were institutions undermined in this manner, said Arun Shourie

I have only one battle to fight - to uproot BJP from the Centre: Yashwant Sinha

I have only one battle to fight - to uproot BJP from the Centre. They have given the slogan of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, but they took everyones support, but in return ruined everyone, said Yashwant Sinha at Mamata rally.

Democracy under danger: Yashwant Sinha

Under the current regime, the democracy is under danger. BJP leaders will say that we have gathered here to remove PM Modi. But, its not about him, but about the mindset, we are here to oppose the mindset. Democracy is under attack, we have gathered here to save democracy, said Yashwant Sinha.

The next govt will be of famers, poor: Jayant Choudhary

The next government will be of famers, poor and the marginalised. Today, from this dias, I want to urge PM Modi to apologise to the country for demonetisation and GST, but he wont do it, said Jayant Choudhary.

What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow. Mamata Didi has shown it today, he added.

RLDs Jayant Choudhary congratulates Mamata for organising sea of humanity

RLDs Jayant Choudhary is the 6th speaker and he congratulated Mamata Banerjee for organising the sea of humanity.

Minorities not safe under this govt: Pu Lalduhoma

The minorities are not safe under this government. Hence, we are coming here for a purpose. Citizenship Bill has to be withdrawn or exemption has to be given to the North East, said Pu Lalduhoma of Zoram Nationalist Party of Mizoram.

Mamata invites former Arunachal Pradesh CM Gegong Apang to speak as the 4th speaker

Mamata Banerjee invited former Arunachal Pradesh CM Gegong Apang to speak as the 4th speaker. He resigned from the BJP earlier this week.

Last 4 years have been a testing time for Indian democracy, said Apang.

All institutions under attack under Modi govt: Hemant Soren

All institutions are under attack under the Modi govt. Their regime should be uprooted not just from the centre but from every state, said Hemant Soren.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Hemant Soren addresses rally

Mamata Banerjee invites third speaker - Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Hemant Soren to the dais.

The manner in which the country is run, is dangerous for the nation, said Hemant Soren.

All parties have to come together to defeat BJP: Mevani

The country is passing through an unprecedented crisis. All parties have to come together to defeat BJP and RSS, said Jignesh Mevani

Hardik Patel first speaker at the rally

At mega Kolkata rally of top oppn leaders, Mamata invited Hardik Patel to speak first, Jignesh Mevani was the next.

M K Stalin reaches rally venue

DMKs MK Stalin has reached the United India rally venue.

More than a dozen leaders have arrived at the dais, announced Mamata Banerjee.

The rally is being attended by the whos who of Indian politics -- a former prime minister, several current and former chief ministers and stalwarts from various political outfits from across the country.

Leaders of all opposition parties except BJD and CPI(M) to attend the rally

Leaders of all the opposition parties except the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the CPI(M)-led Left Front will be taking part in the rally, which the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has said will sound the death knell for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Separate entrances for five dais, no food stall near the venue: Bengal officer

Separate entrances have been arranged for the five dais that would be looked after by around 15 teams of police officers, he said adding that commandos and other officers would also be posted there.

We are not allowing any food stall near the venue. Only water tanks are being allowed at a safe distance from the dais. Nobody will be allowed to light fire near the venue for cooking or any other purpose, the officer said.

Omar Abdullah lands at Kolkata airport

J-K National Conferences Omar Abdullah landed at Kolkata airport to attend Mamata Banerjees United India rally at the Brigade grounds.

Meanwhile, all the roads leading to the Brigade Parade ground are clogged with processions and vehicles carrying people to the rally.

Mamata Banerjee arrives at rally venue

TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee has arrived at the United India rally venue.

Meanwhile, cultural programme has started at the United India rally venue.

Mamata Banerjee sets out for the rally venue

Mamata Banerjee sets out for the rally venue from her home amid blowing of conch shells by supporters.

Crowd at Brigade ground will surpass all earlier records: TMC leader

Brigade Parade Ground is filling up fast. It is certain that lakhs who have set out for the venue will not be able to enter. The crowd will surpass all earlier records, said TMC leader Arup Roy.

This is a historic decision of Mamata, said HD Deve Gowda on Friday

Mamata Banerjee has taken lead in bringing all the parties together and also she is working hard to throw this government and bring a secular government. This is a historic decision of Mamata and people of the country will respond, said HD Deve Gowda after arriving at Kolkata airport on Friday afternoon.

Arvind Kejriwal arrives for Mamata Banerjees United India rally

Delhi chief minister and AAP Supremo has arrived in Kolkata for Mamata Banerjees United India rally. TMC welcomed Kejriwal to the historic rally at Brigade Parade Grounds.

Fight against TMC will continue: Bengal Congress

With Congress chief Rahul Gandhi extending his support to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjees mega Opposition rally, the West Bengal Congress said Friday their fight against the misrule of the Trinamool Congress would continue as the high command had not asked them to stop it.

Our party president Rahul Gandhi has extended support to the anti-BJP platform. Our fight against the BJP and TMC in Bengal would continue. The party high command has not asked us to stop it, state Congress president Somen Mitra said.

Also Read | Send powerful message: Rahul Gandhi writes to Bengals Mamata Banerjee on opposition rally he will skip

Beats of dhamsa-madol reverberate at Brigade Parade

The beats of dhamsa-madol are reverberating in the air at Brigade Parade Grounds ahead of the mega rally led by West Bengal CM and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.

The beats of dhamsa-madol are reverberating in the air at Brigade Parade Grounds. #UnitedIndiaAtBrigade pic.twitter.com/HY33X6Ssfd  All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) January 19, 2019

Members of the Lepcha community arrive at Brigade ground

Members of the Lepcha community have arrived at Brigade ground to attend TMCs mega rally.

Members of the Lepcha community at #UnitedIndiaAtBrigade rally pic.twitter.com/kzmHEVhVyh  All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) January 19, 2019

The Adivasi delegation from Jangalmahal, who walked all the way to Kolkata, are about to reach United India rally venue.

The Adivasi delegation from Jangalmahal, who walked all the way to #Kolkata, are about to reach #UnitedIndiaAtBrigade rally venue pic.twitter.com/rOoE6R2Mn5  All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) January 19, 2019

Key opposition leaders met Mamata Banerjee ahead of the mega rally

Key opposition leaders including SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav, DMK president MK Stalin, former prime minister Deve Gowda, and TDP Chief Chandrababu Naidu met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ahead of the TMC-led mega rally

Traffic restrictions in place for Mamata Banerjees rally

Mamata Banerjees United India rally might affect traffic in the city as restrictions and diversions will be put in place.

Routes you need to avoid:

Route of the processions within Kolkata City in connecti - https://t.co/OnU8QSONWh  DCP Traffic Kolkata (@KPTrafficDept) January 18, 2019

Thick security blanket over sprawling Brigade Parade Ground

A thick security blanket has been thrown on the sprawling Brigade Parade Ground  the venue for the mega rally  to prevent any untoward incident. Hundreds of TMC volunteers will be on the grounds to take care of supporters.

As many as 10,000 police personnel will be deployed and around 400 police pickets have been set up to ensure foolproof security, police said.

The mood is exhilarating at Brigade Parade Grounds. People are determined for #Poriborton at Centre #UnitedIndiaAtBrigade pic.twitter.com/W8WKeycTDH  All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) January 19, 2019

Policemen in plain clothes, personnel of the Rapid Action Force and Quick Response Team would be deployed at the rally venue.

Police posting would start from as early as 4am with senior officials in the rank of assistant commissioners in charge of the five dais set up for the rally, a senior police officer said.

Large scale preparations made to ensure that rally is a complete success

Large scale preparations have been made to ensure that it is a complete success. Besides the huge stages, 20 watch towers have been erected and 1,000 microphones and 30 LED screens put up so that the spectators can see and hear the speeches of the leaders clearly.

Lakhs of TMC supporters and workers are expected to attend the rally and huge numbers of them from various corners of the state have already started pouring into the city. They have been put up in the outskirts of the city and in some auditoriums and stadiums.

Kolkata, India - January 18, 2019: Posters of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Hemant Soren, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seen ahead of the United India Rally, in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, on Friday, January 18, 2019. (Photo by Arijit Sen / Hindustan Times) ( Arijit Sen/HT Photo )

BJP govt failed on all fronts, said Naidu on Friday after arriving in Kolkata for Mamatas mega rally

The BJP government has failed on all fronts and they have been misusing all the constitutional institutions of the country, said Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

Crowd begins to gather for Mamatas United India rally

Crowds have begun to gather for TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee-led United India rally in Kolkata, today.

Mama Banerjees mega rally is being presumed to kick-start the oppositions campaign ahead of the coming general elections.A day after the Karnataka Congress moved its MLAs to a resort in Bengaluru to thwart a rebellion in the ranks, state BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa asked his legislators to return to Bengaluru. The BJP MLAs are currently staying at a luxury hotel in Gurugram, a move the party says is meant to prevent Congress poaching attempts.

Our MLAs are returning to Bengaluru from Delhi. We will tour the state and analyse the situation of drought. We will not destabilise this govt at any cost. The Congress and the JD(S) need not worry, said Yeddyurappa.

The Congress decided to shift its legislators after four MLAs  Ramesh Jarkiholi, B Nagendra, Umesh Jadhav and Mahesh Kumathahallgave its legislature party meeting a miss.

The absence of four lawmakers posed no imminent threat to the seven-month old Congress-JD(S) government in the numbers game but suggested that all was not well within the Congress.

Congress leader and state minister DK Shivakumar confirmed that the MLAs will be taken to Eagleton resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Eagleton is the same resort where Gujarat Congress MLAs were kept in 2017 during the Rajya Sabha elections.

Of the four rebel MLAs, B Nagendra had sought to skip the meeting due to a court hearing he had to attend, whereas Umesh Jadhav sought to be excused as he was unwell and far away. Ramesh Jarkiholi and Mahesh Kumathahalli did not contact the leadership

Former chief minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah said notices will be send to all the four MLAs and their responses will be discussed with the party president.

The four rebel MLAs were reported to have been staying at a Mumbai hotel and have been in touch with the BJP.

As the Congress meet was underway, Yeddyurappa said several legislators appeared to be attending the meet out of compulsion.

Let them indulge in squabbles....we have nothing to do with it. He said the ruling coalition was claiming the support of some BJP MLAs and it was because of this that the party had decided they should stay together in a hotel in Gurugram.

In the 224-member Assembly, BJP has 104 members, Congress-79, JDS 37, BSP, KPJP and Independent one each, besides Speaker. BSP is supporting the government.A committee investigating the killing of tigress Avni, or T-1, in a Maharashtra forest has determined that controversial hunter, Asghar Ali Khan, was guilty of shooting her to death without being authorised to do so by the states chief wildlife warden (CWLW)  a conclusion that concurs with the finding of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) .

The committee said in its report that the hiring of Asghar Ali Khan and his father, Shafath, was a violation of the Wildlife Protection Act because only the CWLW is entitled to hire personnel from outside the forest department to carry out such an operation. In this case, the hunters had been hired by the chief conservator of forest (territorial) in Yavatmal district, a relatively junior official.

This is a clear violation of the law as the CWLW is the only authority to identify and choose external help for tranquilising or shooting down a problem animal, a member of the committee said, requesting anonymity. Activists Sarita Subramaniam and Dr PV Subramaniam had filed a Right To Information application for a copy of committees report, which they shared with Hindustan Times.

The finding raises questions over the forest departments claim that the animal, an alleged maneater, had been killed in self-defence by the hired hunters. The committee members interviews with field staff, villagers and forest officers indicated that Avni was not aggressive and had not attacked the hunters , said the report. T1 was shot dead in Ralegaon taluka of Yavatmal district on November 2 by Asghar Ali Khan after a months-long search in which 200 hunters were deployed. The big cat was accused of killing 13 people and labelled a problem tigress.

On November 9, after a wildlife conservationist raised an alarm over the killing, the state government appointed a committee to investigate the operation. The committee was headed by principal chief conservator of forests (production & management) SH Patil, and its member were Anish Andheria, president of Wildlife Conservation Trust Bilal Habib, a scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun; Parag Nigam, a senior veterinarian from WII; Ullas Karanth of the Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bengaluru; and additional PCCF Nitin Kakodkar, who served as the panels coordinator.

The teams report said the hunters may have tampered with evidence that could prove they followed illegal procedures in killing T1. For reasons explained in our findings it is clear the Asghar Ali Khan is guilty of unauthorised shooting and killing of tigress T-1, the reports summary read.

He appears to have clandestinely removed the weapons and scheduled drugs used in the operation [to kill Avni] to Hyderabad without informing authorities. This opens up the possibility of such important evidence being tampered with as seen in our findings.

According to the report, the position of the shooter, the car he was travelling in and the path of the bullet reconstructed by veterinarians indicate that the animal was heading away from the vehicle when shot. We also noted that tigress T-1s carcass was moved away from its initial position subsequently, the report said.

There was no line of command during the entire operation, orders were dictated in an uncoordinated and unorganised manner, which left the entire field staff confused, leading to chaos during the operation, the report concluded. Lack of clarity in assigning local leadership of the operation to the deputy conservator of forests (executive officer on the field) appears to be the major reason for operational drift and errors in decision making, it said.

The report said three acts  Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, Arms Act, 1959, and Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985  were violated during the operation. Asghar Ali did not submit his weapon or licence during the investigation and told the committee he did not remember which gun he used to shoot the tiger, its make or type.

Asghar Alis explanation on why the ejected cartridge was not collected and submitted minutes after the tigress was shot was not convincing. This is a clear breach and serious lapse on the part of Ali, his team and forest officers, the report said. In his statement to the committee, Asghar Ali Khan said he does not remember the technical details and weapon numbers of the licensed weapons. I shall be submitting the same. I was in possession of two licensed weapons on the night of November 2, 2018, and I used one of them for the operation that night, the details of which I dont remember, the statement read.

The report said that cases should be registered against Ashgar Ali Khan by forest and police authorities and the role and culpability of his father, Shafath Ali, and other private hunters involved in the operation should be investigated.

Maharashtras forest minister, Sudhir Mungantiwar, said the government was aware of the issues raised by the report. The details have already been shared with the state law and judiciary department. Once they respond, informing us about section wise violations as per law, follow up action will be initiated. As far as future instances of conflict cases are concerned, several committees within the forest department are currently working in tandem to ensure amicable solutions, said Mungantiwar.

The report confirmed that the tigress had killed 13 people between June 2016 and August 2018. Avni, along with male tiger, T-2 ,and cubs, T1C1 and T1C2, had also killed 74 cattle since 2015. A state official said the government was still examining the details of the case and independent accounts of senior forest officers.

We have recently received the response from CWLW for his version about both NTCA and the state report. We are examining it and future course of action will be decided soon. We may take the opinion of the law and judiciary department, said Virendra Tiwari, additional principal chief conservator of forests (Mantralaya).A day after the synod of the Catholic church warned agitating nuns and priests, the four nuns of the Missionaries of Jesus congregation, who supported their fellow nun after she filed a rape complaint against the former bishop of Jalandhar, has written to the chief minister narrating their plight and sought his help to continue in the convent.

In the letter the nuns who were asked to vacate convent by the church said they were facing serious threat to their lives and fear the fate of Father Kurialkose Kattuthara, one of the witnesses in the case against the deposed Jalandhar Bishop Fraco Mullakkal, who died under mysterious circumstances three months ago.

The accused bishop is very powerful in all aspects. His aim is to sabotage the case and go scot free. Our lives are in danger. If our transfer is affected we will not be in a position to give evidence in the case daringly, read the letter signed by four nuns (Sister Anupama Kelamangaletuveli, V Josephine, Alphi Pallasseril and Sister Ancitta Urumbil).

They also mentioned the isolation and stepmotherly attitude they face at the convent. Covent authorities are not providing minimum requirements for our sustenance, including treatment. If we are sent out of Kerala it would definitely affect the prosecution. Their aim is to single out the victim and weaken the case, said the letter. They also sought the CMs help to continue in the convent till the case against the deposed bishop met its logical conclusion. We once again praying for justice to ourself and the victim. We have no other place to go or means to support us. So compassion may be shown on us, they said in the letter copies of which were also sent to the state police chief and state women commission chairperson.

In last June, a mother superior had complained to police that Mullakkal had raped her 13 times between 2014 and 2016. Five nuns later staged a sit-in protest in Kochi seeking his arrest. Police had arrested him in September after several rounds of questioning. After spending three weeks in judicial custody, he later secured bail. Two weeks after his release, the main witness in the case of Father Kurialkose Kattuthara was found dead in Punjab.Dislike of him should be tempered by this consideration: He is an almost inexpressibly sad specimen. It must be misery to awaken to another day of being Donald Trump. He seems to have as many friends as his pluperfect self-centeredness allows, and as he has earned in an entirely transactional life. His historical ignorance deprives him of the satisfaction of working in a house where much magnificent history has been made. His childlike ignorance  preserved by a lifetime of single-minded self-promotion  concerning governance and economics guarantees that whenever he must interact with experienced and accomplished people, he is as bewildered as a kindergartner at a seminar on string theory.The families of four of the 15 miners trapped in a rat-hole coal mine in Meghalaya have requested the rescue teams and the district administration to retrieve the dead body spotted by the Navys Remotely Operated Vehicle on Wednesday even as government officials warned that it would be extremely difficult to retrieve the body.

State government officials also suggested that rescue operation is still under way only because of the Supreme Court order. The matter will be heard again on Monday.

We want the body, said Manik Ali, whose 20-year-old brother Monirul Islam is among at least 15 miners who were trapped as the rat-hole mine was flooded on December 13. Even if they manage to get a finger or a bone out of the shaft, it is fine for us. We will at least be able to bury the dead with some respect, said Manik Ali.

A joint rescue operation involving local workers, National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) and Indian Navy among others, has been on at the illegal rat-hole mine at Khloo Ryngksan in Meghalayas East Jaintia Hills district.

Ali, representing the three trapped miners from Assams Chirang district and Aminul Uddin, from Hojai district were called by the district administration and the NDRF on Thursday to see the footage of the dead body and help with mapping of the mine. The dead body is yet to be identified.

Naval divers look at the captured pictures of one of the 15 miners trapped in illegal rat mines since Dec. 13, in Ksan area of East Jaintia Hills. (PTI)

They showed us the video. The body is swollen. Its face is not seen so we cannot make out who it is, said Aminul Uddin, who worked at the same coal mine with his elder brother Kuti Miya. He was lucky as he went home on December 7 to vote in Assams Panchayat elections. On the evening of December 13, I got to know that my brother is trapped, he said.

Kuti Miya from Hojai in Assam does not figure in the official list of 15 trapped miners. Sayeb Ali, who managed to get out of the mine just in time as it got flooded had said 17 people were trapped inside. Aminul said the family is yet to get the Rs 1 lakh interim compensation from the state government.

The district administration and rescuers have told the families that the body could disintegrate if it is pulled out and that it would be difficult to retrieve it. The families, however, say it wont be difficult to identify it.

It does not matter. We are Muslims. According to Quran we have to bury the dead. I can recognize if its my brother even if I get to see the ring on his finger, said Ali.

I have lived with my brother all my life. I will be able to recognize him, said Aminul.

Both of them said they have conveyed the message to the district administration.

The state government, meanwhile, seems to be reluctant to retrieve the dead body. The deputy commissioner is talking to the next of kin and trying to convince them that it is very difficult to retrieve the dead bodies, said Peter Ingty, Additional Chief Secretary, who is overseeing the rescue operation.

He said it is because of the Supreme Court order that the operation has not been called off. It is only because of the Supreme Court order that we are hanging on. Submissions will be made before the court and lets see what happens, Ingty said.

The expenditure is heavy. But we are lucky that it is borne by the Government of India but locally also there is a lot of expenditure, he said.

At least 200 rescuers from the Navy, NDRF, the Odisha Fire Service, State Disaster Response Force, states Fire service and others from CIL and KBL are involved in the multi-agency rescue operations.

Last week, the Supreme Court pulled up the state government for its inaction against illegal miners while saying that rescues efforts must continue.

The top court asked the Centre and the Meghalaya government to take help of experts and continue efforts to rescue the miners. Carry on with your rescue efforts, what if all or at least some are still alive? Miracles do happen, a bench headed by Justice AK Sikri said.If the Tamil Nadu government is hiring Bengali teachers, attribute it to two fundamental demographic shifts: the South is getting older; and the natural growth rate of population is also the lowest in the region.

The regional disparity in Indias population pyramid is increasing according to a research note by Soumya Kanti Ghosh, chief economic advisor of the State Bank of India (SBI). More than 20% of the population in southern states will be older than 65 years by 2050.

In Bihar, Assam, and Uttar Pradesh, the corresponding proportion is around 10%. According to the 2011 census, 65-plus population did not have a more than 10% share in any major Indian state.

The note predicts that these developments will trigger a huge wave of North-South migration. This, it says will create pressure on both social and physical infrastructure in the southern states.

As shown by the example of the Bengali teachers in Tamil Nadu, this has already started happening. In Erode and Karur in the state, both places where semi-skilled or unskilled labour is in demand, there has been an influx from East and Northeast India. To cater to these migrant families, the state is hiring Bengali teachers for government schools.

An HT analysis shows that the signs of such a process are already visible in the Indian economy. Southern states such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu, which have the lowest population growth rates, also have the highest unskilled wage rates. This is the biggest economic incentive for large scale North-South migration. The bulk of this migration is often circular in nature. This means that workers travel to other states for work, but do not settle their permanently. However, census data also points towards a slow but steady permanent migration from northern/eastern regions to southern/western regions between 1991 and 2011.

Cheap supply of unskilled labour from northern states benefits the south today. These gains will increase in the future as the share of post working-age population increases in the southern states. But this cheap workforce also has the potential of triggering social unrest. As migration changes linguistic profiles and puts pressure on employment opportunities for unskilled native workers, discontent is bound to rise. These flashpoints will develop simultaneously with two other North-South tensions that are also associated with the growing population disparity in India. They pertain to distribution of central taxes among states in the Fifteenth Finance Commission and a possible revision in how Lok Sabha seats are allocated among states in 2026, which could significantly increase the share of northern states.

The government of the day could choose to defer this contentious issue and push forward the date, much like it has happened in the past. In 1976, the government had put a freeze on the total number of MPs from each state until the 2001 census. This was extended to 2026 in 2000. Still, both could result in a redistribution that goes against the southern states on the grounds that their population share has come down compared to earlier.

According to the 2011 census, southern states have the highest relative share in working-age (21-65 years) and post working-age (66 years and above) population in the country. They also have the lowest relative share in pre working-age (up to 20 years) population. Relative share is defined as the ratio of a regions all-India share in population in a given age-group and its share in total population. As has been pointed in the SBI note, this imbalance will worsen for the South in the future.

Southern states also have the lowest natural growth rate of population in India. Natural growth rate is defined as the difference between the birth rate and the death rate. Hence, this is a good proxy for population growth at a given point of time. These statistics have been taken form the latest available (2106) Sample Registration Survey (SRS) bulletin issued by the Registrar General of India. The natural rate of growth of population (per thousand people) was lower in all major south Indian states compared to the all-India average of 14. In Tamil Nadu, for instance, it was 8.7. And, in Kerala, 6.8. A comparison of state-wise natural growth rate figures with the latest average daily rural wage rates, which is a good proxy for unskilled wages, shows that Kerala and Tamil Nadu have the highest rural wage rates among large non-hill region states in India. These two are also the states with the lowest natural growth rate of population. As share of working population decline further, it is to be expected that the unskilled worker wage-gap between these states and rest of India will increase further.

That workers from less well-off states north of the Vindhyas migrate to southern and western states for jobs is not an unknown fact in India. A lot of this migration does not involve immigrant workers permanently settling into these regions. This does not mean that the cultural impact of such migration is insignificant.

A comparison of language data from 1991 and 2011 census gives interesting insights in to this phenomenon. All major languages spoken in the northern/eastern region  Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Assamese and Odia  have seen an increase in their share of speakers outside their native states. An example can make this clearer. For Odia, this value would be share of persons who speak Odia as their mother tongue outside Odisha among total Odia speakers. For all major languages spoken in the western/southern region  Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam  these values have come down during this period.

These figures suggest that more people from northern/eastern India have settled in western/southern India in the post-reform period, while the reverse holds true for movement from south/west to the north/east.

While large sections of the society welcome cheaper migrant labour for economic reasons, they are not immune to welcoming the cultural change in matters such as language or erosion in bargaining power of local labour force which comes with such movements. Such discontent can express itself as straightforward demands for slightly better jobs to be reserved for locals or attacking petty businesses run by migrant workers. Experiences from the infamous 2016 rape and murder case in Kerala and the rape of a woman in Gujarat last year are examples that pent-up discontent against migrant workers is also unleashed when an individual act can be used to target an entire bunch.

If these latent anti-migrant tendencies are clubbed with structural north-south fault lines regarding tax devolution and recalculation of parliament seats, matters could become even worse. This underlines the need for taking a macro view of the challenges which could emerge from an older South India which needs the Norths cheap labour, but might not be willing to concede its existing political and economic bargaining power in Indias democratic set-up.India and Denmark have politically resolved the issue of extraditing Niels Holck alias Kim Davy, the prime accused in the 1995 Purulia arms drop, and now plan to elevate their relations to a strategic partnership, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lkke Rasmussen said on Saturday.

The Danish judiciarys decision in 2011 to bar Davys extradition on the ground that he could be exposed to inhuman treatment in an Indian jail sent ties into a tailspin for more than five years. Davy was accused of playing a key role in the dropping of a large cache of arms from an An-26 aircraft in Purulia district of West Bengal in December 1995.

Rasmussen also said India should do more on the global stage to ensure a level playing field and a rules-based order, against the backdrop of China taking on a larger role as the US ceded its leadership position in international affairs.

Rasmussen said he and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi had agreed that we should bring our relations to a higher level, tasking our staff to prepare a truly strategic partnership. Denmark, he added, currently has such a partnership with China and South Korea.

Though there are still questions to be solved regarding the issue of Davy, Rasmussen said he and Modi had concurred during a meeting in April last year that independent authorities in both countries could address the matter. The unresolved issues will be handled on a judicial track, he said. So I regard this problem as solved in the political sense, so to speak, said Rasmussen, who met Modi on the sidelines of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in Gandhinagar on Friday. There is a dialogue between our authorities, he said.

Rasmussen noted Davy hadnt figured in his latest meeting with Modi, saying this was a true signal that we have overcome that, and agreed that this is a separate question.

While welcoming Chinas desire to play a bigger role on the global stage at a time when US President Donald Trump is turning his back to the rest of the world, Rasmussen said Modi and the Indian leadership should also turn their face towards the world. Its not only about India first, its also about the Indian contribution to the rest of the world, and the way he (Modi) engages in this SDGs and sustainable development agenda is something that I want to welcome very much, he added.A Delhi court Saturday rapped the Delhi Police on the knuckles for filing a chargesheet against former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in a sedition case without approval of the legal department.

You dont have approval from legal department, why did you file chargesheet without approval? the court said according to ANI. Delhi Police told the court that it will get approval in 10 days.

The court fixes the matter for February 6 and asked the Delhi Police to get required sanction approval by then.

Watch: Court pulls up Delhi Police over chargesheet in JNU sedition case without sanction

On January 14, the Delhi Police charged Kanhaiya Kumar and nine others, including Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, with sedition three years after they allegedly raised anti-India slogans at an event at the university.

The police submitted a 1,200-page charge sheet in the Patiala House court over the JNU event that was held on February 9, 2016 to protest the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

Kumar said that the chargesheet was politically motivated given the filing of its timing. The chargesheet also drew fire from the Congress with Kapil Sibal accusing the government of using the sedition law to muzzle dissent in the country.Canadas denial of a visa to a UK-based interlocutor has stalled backchannel talks between India and one-time proponents of Khalistan, a hypothetical Sikh homeland, with no meetings or discussions having taken place for two years, people familiar with the development said.

The outreach was launched by India in late 2015, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited London and met, among others, Jasdev Singh Rai, director of the Sikh Human Rights Group, who emerged as a key person for contacts with Sikh groups.

Following that meeting, Rai, a British citizen, visited Canada and met former pro-Khalistan elements willing to engage in talks with New Delhi.

However, in late 2016, Rai was denied electronic travel authorisation (ETA) by Ottawa as he was once associated with the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), a banned terror group in Canada. Before that, Rai had travelled to Canada at least 25 times and kept the Security Intelligence Service of Canada informed about his contacts with Sikh groups.

As a result, Rai and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Ram Madhav, could not go ahead with a planned meeting in Toronto with radical Sikh groups. With Sikh groups unwilling to hold talks in Rais absence, there were no more meetings or discussions with the Indian government, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity.

Indian officials confirmed the talks ceased after Rai was prevented from travelling to Canada and were privately critical of that action by Ottawa.

A spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, responding to queries from Hindustan Times, said, Due to privacy laws, we cannot comment on specific cases without signed consent.

Among those who participated in the initial talks with Rai was Harjit Atwal, based in the British Columbia town of Surrey. Atwal said there had been nothing in terms of progress with regard to the talks. I havent talked to Rai for a long time, almost a year, he said. Atwal, once a votary of Khalistan and a member of ISYF, attributed the lack of progress to Rais absence: Hes the one who was in the front seat.

The denial of a visa to Rai, first reported by HT in February 2018, was one of the factors believed to have contributed to the frosty reception accorded to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his visit to India about a year ago.

The people cited above said Rai was informed by Canadian authorities that he was denied permission to enter the country as he was seen as a threat to a friendly democratic government that he was working to overthrow. Though the Canadian authorities didnt name any country, they were referring to India, the people said.

Ironically, Rai is among the official invitees to Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD)  the governments main outreach event for the Indian diaspora  in Varanasi between January 21 and 23. How can Rai be seen as a threat if the Indian government is inviting him to the PBD? a person said.

The people said there had been success in talking to UK-based Sikh groups but there is a greater need to focus on groups in Canada, where there continues to be support for Khalistan among more radical elements.

Sikh groups, including Sikh Human Rights Group, have welcomed the life sentence given to former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar for his role in the 1985 anti-Sikh riots. They have also welcomed the removal of names of many Sikhs from a so-called black list maintained by the Indian government.

Atwal benefited from the Indian governments outreach effort, and visited India in 2017 after a decade. The 63-year-old appeared to be in favour of the outreach, as he said, As long as in India people dont get discriminated [against], people want peace.

Pro-Khalistan groups such as Sikhs for Justice opposed the talks but Atwal felt they were in a minority, ...[A] majority of people want peace, he said.

A second person familiar with developments said meetings will pick up pace and the talks will gain momentum. We have done a lot of work with these groups in London, US and Canada. Follow up is needed and a group is coming next week from abroad to thank PM Modi and home minister Rajnath Singh for opening the Kartarpur corridor, among other things, the second person said, referring to the recent move by India and Pakistan to open a corridor to allow pilgrims to visit the Kartarpur Gurdwara in Pakistan.

Gurdarshan Singh Dhillon,a Sikh historian and retired Panjab University professor, said: It is not justified on the part of the Canadian government to deny visa to Jasdev Singh Rai, because denying entry means a curb on freedom of expression.Rebel BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha today tore into Prime Minister Narendra Modi over demonetisation, the Goods and Services Tax and the Rafale deal as he called for a new leadership at the Centre.

Speaking at the Trinamool Congress United India Rally in Kolkata, the actor-turned-politician echoed Congress president Rahul Gandhis chowkidar chor hai (the watchman is a thief) refrain as he took on Modi for evading questions on the Rafale deal.

He asked the PM to answer the oppositions questions on Rafale and put to rest speculations of a scam in the mega deal for the 36 French fighter jets. (Follow live updates here)

Sinha also took on Modi over said that demonetisation and the GST which he said choked the economy and put the countrys entire population in distress.

Watch: If speaking truth is rebellion then I am a rebel, says Shatrughan Sinha

Also read: At mega Opposition rally, emcee Mamata Banerjee has the spotlight

As if demonetisation wasnt bad enough, we also had a hastily prepared GST imposed in the country with such fanfare at midnight that was projected as the countrys second independence. Instead it brought miseries to traders. The GST had to be revised so many times and it underlined that the government simply hadnt thought about it properly. And to think that Modi himself was so opposed to the GST when he was the Gujarat chief minister, he said.

Sinha who had been described as opportunistic by BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy earlier in the day said he is not bothered about a rebel tag because he speaks the truth.

People ask me why I speak against the BJP. I do that because I cant be against truth. If speaking truth is rebellion, I am a rebel. Before being a member the BJP, I am a Bharatiya, he said.

Sinha also called for a new leadership at the Centre. Mood of the nation is Parivartan. Parivartan. Parivartan. People want a new leadership, he said.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the target of sharp attacks at Mamata Banerjees rally in Kolkata, ran down the effort of opposition leaders to gang up against him. PM Modi, who spoke at a public meeting in Silvassa, said the big difference between the opposition leaders and him was that they were trying to save themselves while, he was spending his time, in interest of the country. It was a reference to PM Modis engagements during the day. He had inaugurated the first private facility in the country where the K9 Vajra self-propelled Howitzer guns will be manufactured.

My actions against corruption have infuriated some people. Its but natural for them to get angry as Ive prevented them from looting public money. Consequently, they have now formed an alliance called mahagathbandhan, he said.

This grand alliance is not just against me but the people of this country. All of them havent come together yet but they are already negotiating their share in the spoils of power, PM Modi said even as the Kolkata rally was underway.

Watch: Mahagathbandhan is not against Modi but against people of India: PM Modi

Also read: At mega Opposition rally, emcee Mamata Banerjee has the spotlight

The Kolkata rally, proposed in July last year, is seen as an attempt to place Mamata Banerjee in a leadership role for the opposition alliance that has been in the making. The opposition parties had decided against settling for a presumptive prime minister before the results of the Lok Sabha elections are out.

In his speech after laying the foundation stone for a medical college in Silvassa, Dadar and Nagar Haveli, PM Modi made several references to the mega opposition meet in Kolkata against him.

Also read: Who is their leader? BJP calls Mamatas rally anti-Modi stunt

At one point, he suggested that opposition leaders from across the country were in Kolkata because the Bengal BJP, which has only one lawmaker in the state assembly, to help Trinamool Congresss Mamata Banerjee stop its march in Bengal.

A one-MLA party is giving them such sleepless nights that though it is only one MLA... they are shouting bachao bachao (save us, save us), he said.

He also attacked Mamata Banerjee government for not allowing the BJPs rath yatra, saying it was ironical that those who crush democracy in their own state are now preaching about saving the democracy.

Also Watch: BJP slams Shatrughan Sinha for attending United India rally in KolkataSamajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav today charged the BJP of forming an alliance with the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) ahead of the next general elections and took a swipe at the ruling party in the Centre over its jibe about the oppositions prime ministerial candidate.

They (BJP) say weve a lot of contenders for PMs post... we say people will decide wholl become PM. As elections are approaching, you are forming alliance with the CBI and ED while we are forming alliance with the people of India, Akhilesh said at the mammoth United India rally in Kolkata. (Follow live updates here)

Like other opposition leaders, he called for the BJPs defeat in the general elections.

The issues which will be raised in Kolkata will find resonance across the country. They thought that there cant be any alliance, but we proved them wrong, said Akhilesh Yadav.

Watch: BJP forming alliance with CBI & ED, Opposition allying with people of India: Akhilesh Yadav

Akhilesh said the people across the country were celebrating the arrival of the New Year and this happiness will increase manifold when they will have a new prime minister.

Also read: What Pak couldnt do in 70 years, Modi and Shah did in 5 years: Kejriwal

The SP chief said that his partys alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has left the BJP scrambling to devise a strategy to win even one seat in Uttar Pradesh.

Last week, the SP and the BSP announced an alliance for the general elections under which they would contest 38 seats each and leave four of 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh for other parties including two for the Congress.

The BJP had described the SP-BSP alliance as a desperate survival strategy.

Also read: At Mamatas rally Shotgun Sinha stops short of endorsing her as PMThe government of Kerala told the Supreme Court on Friday that 51 women of menstruating age had entered the Sabarimala temple since a landmark top court order in September 2018 scrapped the decades-old ban on such devotees from offering prayers at the hill shrine. Until now, it was known that just two women devotees of menstruating age  Bindu Ammini and Kanaka Durga  had entered the temple on January 2, triggering violent protests across the state.

Senior advocate Vijay Hansarias submission before the SC bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, came on a plea by the two women devotees seeking adequate hearing. The court ordered round-the-clock security for the two women, who have gone into hiding since violence broke out in the state two weeks ago. Hindu groups, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress have opposed the entry of women of menstruating age, blaming the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) government of disrespecting traditions.

Read more| 2 Kerala women who entered Sabarimala to get 24X7 security: Supreme Court

Hansaria made an attempt to widen the scope of the petition by mentioning that 51 women (of menstruating age) have entered the temple, indicating the state was implementing the top court verdict in full spirit. The bench, however, retorted: We are not concerned whether there were 51 or 500. You have made your point. We do not deem it necessary to entertain anything further.

Hansaria offered to forward the list of women devotees but the court rejected it. The figure was, however, questioned by the lawyers appearing for Lord Ayyappa Devotees, referring to the presiding deity of the shrine.

The senior counsel defended the states role in giving security to the two women.Excellent then! Give them full protection! You are responsible for their life and safety! We will direct that the petitioners be given security...If you are already doing that without the courts intervention, then keep doing it. And we do not feel necessary to comment on any other matter, the CJI observed.

The bench directed police protection and refused to entertain other prayers made by the women, including a direction to stop the temple authorities from conducting purification rite that was carried out post their entry. We deem it appropriate to close the present writ petition by directing that the state shall accord adequate security to the petitioners round-the-clock. Security would be provided round the clock. Beyond the above we do not consider it necessary to go into any other issues, said the court, dismissing senior advocate Indira Jaisings request to tag the womens petition with the review petitions, which shall be heard in open court.

In Kerala, opposition parties criticised the government and alleged that the list of women had mistakes. It is shameful the government stooped to such a level, said senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said. A wrong statement was given to influence the verdict on review petitions, said BJP state president PS Sreedharan Pillai.

Some of the women, and their relatives, mentioned in the list also said their ages were not recorded correctly. Padmavati Dasari, a resident of Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, said she was 55 but her age in the government list was 48. Chinta Kalavatis nephew Gopal said his aunts age was 52.

We have no idea how her age was reduced to 43, added Gopal, a resident of Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu. The list, which was circulated by the state government and contained the names, ages, addresses and phone numbers of the devotees, contained no resident of Kerala.

The list was released by state devasom minister Kadakampally Surendran, who explained that neither Bindu Ammini nor Kanaka Durga figured in the list because they did not apply through virtual queue, an online system to control rush during the annual pilgrimage. The government denied the allegations and said the devotees were scared, and were trying to protect their loved ones.It is a survival instinct. They have seen the volume of violence here and are scared to speak up, said Travancore Devasom Board member Shankar Das.Twenty-one Bangladeshi nationals lodged in a detention centre in Assam were repatriated on Saturday, Assam police said. The group included one Hindu.

According to officials, the group comprising 19 males and two females were sent back through the Sutarkandi immigration check point in Karimganj district of Barak Valley after the Bangladesh government sent their travel permits.

The 21 Bangladeshi nationals were lodged in Silchar Central Jail in Cachar district of Barak Valley. All of them were convicted by local courts in Cachar and Karimganj and had served their sentences. Litun Kanti Das, the only Hindu in the group, was convicted in 2017, according to government records available with Hindustan Times.

Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, additional director general of police (border), said, They completed their sentences and have been sent back today after Bangladesh verified their details and sent travel documents.

According to Mahanta, in 2018, as many as 65 persons were repatriated from Assam. These included mostly Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingyas who were sent to Myanmar.

According to state government records, as on February, 2018, there were 899 persons in six detention centres in the state, out of which 172 served their sentences after being convicted. The rest 727 persons had been declared foreigners in trials across 100 tribunals in the state.

Earlier in January, five Rohingyas lodged in the detention centre in Tezpur were repatriated to Myanmar via the Indo-Myanmar border immigration check point in Manipurs Moreh.The first look of the newly announced film took us back 20 years when Kuch Kuch Hota Hai released. It definitely felt like a memory refresher as soon this post by Bhumi Pednekar popped up on our Instagram account. The fashion was a lot different back then, but Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was in many ways a pioneer for high-fashion in Bollywood, something that impacted our otherwise busy-at-school minds in 1998.

Bhumi is dressed in full-length dungarees that she has teamed a denim crop and off-shoulder top with. This by and large tonal dressing gets a bit of pop through her shocking pink heels with embellished straps and ombre middle-parted hair.

The dungarees that are making a comeback along with other interesting clothing trends of the late eighties and the nineties can be traced back to the British colonial presence in India. Dungarees originate from the word Dungri, a Hindi name for a type of thick, durable cotton cloth exported from India to England in the 18th century, which was used to make sails and tents.

Ananya Pandey, soon to make her debut in Bollywood, with a Dharma productions film looks pretty and chic in a silvery white full-sleeve crop-shirt with an interesting drawstring. She teams this with mauve pants and has left her hair open and free.

Why do we feel these looks tell a story about the characters theyll be playing?

The film, a probable remake of the 1978 Sanjeev Kumar starrer, will see an interesting twist to the quintessential Bollywood love triangle. Where Bhumi Pednekar looks more prim and proper, despite the casual dressing, Ananya keeps it simpler and keeps the young-girl vibe going. Bhumi makes a statement through her shoes and done up hair, thats been blow-dried with enough product to give her hair the settled look.

On Ananya, however, theres more comfort and ease which hints at a more friend-evolving-into-significant-other vibe.

Interestingly, a difference between the looks of two women in a love triangle was seen in another Dharma Productions film, not so long ago.

What did you make of both Bhumi and Ananyas look? Do let us know.

Follow more stories on Facebook and TwitterAll Indian Institute of Medical Science or AIIMS Patna has invited applications for 165 vacancies in various posts on its official website-- aiimspatna.org. The posts include account officer, chief nursing officer, nursing superintendent, assistant nursing superintendent, office assistant group B and other.

AIIMS Patna announced vacancies to 35 posts in a notification published on Employment News this week.

According to the notification in employment news, the last date for receipt of application from the eligible candidate is the 45th day from the date of publication of the advertisement in the Employment News i.e. March 5, 2019 up to 5.00 PM.

Duly filled-in application along with attested copies of all relevant certificates are to be sent to Administrative Officer, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Phulwarisharif, Patna, Bihar- 801507 superscribing the envelope Application for the post of AIIMS Patna by Speed Post/Registered Post only.

AIIMS Recruitment 2019: Vacancy details

Account Officer

Chief Nursing Officer

Nursing Superintendent

Assistant Nursing Superintendent

Office Assistant Group B

Chief Pharmacist

Pharmacist Grade 1

Private Secretary Group BFifteen students, all boys, scored a perfect 100 in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Main that is used as a benchmark for admissions to Indias top engineering colleges, according to results declared on Saturday.

It marks the first time the test was conducted by the newly created National Testing Agency (NTA), which will hold the exam in two parts  engineering aspirants will get another shot to take the test in April.

In the first phase held between January 8 and 12, roughly 8,75,000 students took part in the online examination. The toppers included four from Telangana, three from Maharashtra, two each from Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and one each from Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Karnataka. All of them were in the 100 percentile category.

An overall ranking, which will be the basis for admissions to premier institutes like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), will be declared once the second phase is completed.

For the first time, students have chance to improve their performance, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said, adding it was part of the governments move to reduce exam stress.

Similar to the top 15, all state toppers too were male. The topper from Delhi, Navneet Jindal, was in the 99.999083 percentile while the topper among girls in the region, Nikita, was in 99.9714843 percentile.

I did not really have a fixed schedule, said Jindal, 17, adding that he studied for around 5-6 hours a day. With his hometown in Haryanas Hisar, Jindal lives with his relatives in Delhi and studied at the Jai Hind Public School in Bawana.

The only regional segment with a female topper was the foreign/OCI/PIO/Nepal/Bhutan category where Ananya Amancherla was in the lead at 99.8928714 percentile. The topper among boys in this segment is Yash Gupta, at 99.8421648.

The male dominance in the scores, according to experts, could be chalked up to the fact that many attend preparatory classes, some of which often stretch on till late  something that could deter girl students.

Prof Sanjay Dhande, a former director of IIT Kanpur, said that based on his 40 years of experience in the field, he could say that the scholastic level of girls was no way less than that of boys. He suggested that more weightage could be given to board exam results where girls did better.Cold comfort does not necessarily have a negative connotation. It certainly doesnt for 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed. The mercury in Toronto may have already plunged below zero, and will plummet further over the weekend, but the teenaged Saudi is basking in the warmth of liberty provided by Canada.

Rahaf has already dropped her family name Al-Qunun, just as she dropped her family, as she made her dramatic escape. For now her interest lies in living the normal life of a young woman. As she has renounced her religion and her region, there will be no turning back.

Thats the sort of heart warming tale that a New Years frigid harshness can do with. Canada will certainly face some heat from Riyadh, with what calls itself a human rights organisation already accusing nations of provoking unrest among female delinquents. But if Ottawa were to take a measure of the domestic political temperature, the Justin Trudeau government could find it quite clement. It has started an election year with steps that underlined the Liberal in the name of the party that governs the country.

Over previous months, Trudeaus administration has faltered and flailed, and failed to enthuse the electorate. But as 2019 commenced, Rahafs rescue is nothing but a positive for it. The government eagerly took ownership of the event, with Canadas foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, welcoming the young Saudi at Torontos Pearson Airport.

Elsewhere too, standing up to bullies plays well. Which is why the briefest of messages posted on the Canadian governments travel advisory website was just as telling: Exercise a high degree of caution in China due to the risk of arbitrary enforcement of local laws.

That came just as a Canadian accused of smuggling drugs was sentenced to death in China, after Beijings envoy to Ottawa made the outrageous comment in an opinion piece, that countries like Canada were displaying Western egotism and white supremacy. All that chagrin because Canada seeks the release of two of its citizens, including a diplomat, suddenly arrested in China, as it lashed out after a senior executive of the Chinese telecom firm, Huawei, was detained in Vancouver. The Huawei executive is out on bail in her mansion, benefiting from due process that the Canadian system offers. The arrested Canadians in China, meanwhile, are rarely even allowed consular access. In recent telephonic conversations with leaders as far flung as those of Argentina, Finland and New Zealand, Trudeau has harped upon Chinas hostage diplomacy (though not in those terms) through leveraging its legal system. In contrast, Canada is now preparing to extradite two residents to India to face trial in a case relating to a 2000 hate crime.

As his government weans itself off authoritarian states and regains some of the chutzpah of the early months of its tenure, there ought to be a natural progression towards mending relations with countries like India, where the rule of law and institutions function in a manner familiar to democracies.

Anirudh Bhattacharyya is a Toronto-based commentator on American affairs

The views expressed are personal256pp, Rs 500; Rupa

Author, diplomat and parliamentarian K Natwar Singh maintained friendships with some of the most prominent personalities of the last century. He corresponded with Indira Gandhi, in whose secretariat he worked for five years, with C Rajagopalachari, Han Suyin, Jawaharlal Nehrus sisters Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit and Krishna Hutheesing, Lord Mountbatten, and eminent authors like RK Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand, EM Forster and Nirad C Chaudhuri. The two letters reproduced here, from Forster and Chaudhuri, each mentioning the other, reveal facets of both these great writers.

K Natwar Singh with EM Forster (Courtesy Rupa)

31 March 1959

My dear Natwar,

A line  which ought to have come before, but advancing years makes one slack  to thank you for your good and seasonable wishes, also for your nice article on me; though am I all that shy? My birthday festivities went well, and I enjoyed them, and they ended in quite a magnificent concert given by the College Musical Society. I keep very good health for my age, and I hope you do for yours.

I have just finished B Rajans The Dark Dancer. What do you think of it? I am much impressed. I have seen a proof copy of Chaudhuris Passage to England. What a talented but spikey chap he is? He actually goes out of his way to warn us British against the myth of Indo-British friendship, which I do think is a bit much. I must try to find out something more about him, apart from what he himself tells.

Harsha is out of college and working hard I fancy  anyhow I dont see as much of him as I should like. Mrs Pandit has passed with benignity. There has been some good Indian music. And I have tried to talk to the Cambridge Majlis, but the exigencies of influensa have compelled us to postpone till next term.

Oh! Yes, and Mahalenobis of Calcutta has become Hon. Fellow of Kings College  thats all the strictly or semi-strictly Indian news that I can think of, so I will now conclude with my love.

Yours ever

EM Forster



41 Harefields,

Oxford, OX2 8HG

My Dear Natawar Singh,

Thank you very much for your letter and for the proof copy of your piece on me. I found it very interesting, and what you have written about EMFs review about my Passage (A Passage to England, 1959) justifies my poor opinion of his character. He aired condescension towards me, which showed what a fool he was. But he was trying to square his account with me.

I follow different principles. I had an article ready pointing out what a poor novel his Passage (A Passage to India, 1924) was, apart from his shoddy theme, it was full of howlers about Indian life. He made a Shudra the brother in law of a Brahmin (both Bengali) and gave the name of Amrit Rao to a Bangali barrister from Calcutta. But I never tried to publish it, because I hold that if I have personal relations of a satisfactory character with a man I dont criticize him unless it is a matter of duty.

Even when it is a duty, I dont criticize anyone if people might think that I have a personal reason to write unfavourably. The New York Review of Book offers me $500 to write a review of Ved Mehtas book on India. Since he was blind that book could not be authentic. But I told the editor that since VM has spread calumnies (all falsehoods) about me in his book, people might misunderstand me. I cannot understand how you could write favourably about his book on Gandhi. What can a potboiler (efficient) writing for an American public (who will never buy a book on India which is authentic) -- and a Punjabi at that, understand about Gandhi  especially about his sexual obsession. Gs sexuality is not to be understood in terms of the Kinsey Report, or the Psychopathia Sexualis. Hindu sensuality is of a brand and with is its own. When you read my book on Hinduism, you will get a glimpse of its real character and be startled.

K Natwar Singh (Raj K Raj.Hindustan Times)

You want an advance copy to read? If so, let me know if I can send it to you through the High Commission here. Though you come from Vrij, you do not know what Krishna of Vrij is. (Braj, as in the langauge of a region comprising Vrindavan, Gokul, Goverdhan and Barsana - K Natwar Singhs footnote)

Read more: Why letter-writing still holds relevance in this day and age

You want to know what I think of Amita Maliks piece on me in the Times of India. Well, I am certainly flattered, but I also know what others write about me must be their image of me. I have readymade formulae to embody my view of other peoples view of me. I am often asked: We hear so many stories about you. Are they true? I reply: If they are from me, you should discount 95%, but if against, the whole 100%.

Yours very sincerely,

(Nirad C Chaudhuri)Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the National Museum of Indian Cinema in Mumbai on Saturday. The inauguration ceremony was attended by a host of Bollywood stars including veteran actor Manoj Kumar, Aamir Khan, Kangana Ranaut, filmmaker Karan Johar, Simmba director Rohit Shetty and Zero director Aanand L Rai. Poonam Dhillion also attended the event along with producers Nikhil Dwivedi and Mahavir Jain.

At the start of his speech, the prime minister invoked the popular line from the recently released film Uri: The Surgical Strike. How is the josh, he asked, drawing laughter and applause.

Films and society are a reflection of each other. What you see in films is happening in society and what is happening in society is seen in films. This shows India is changing. Earlier, poverty was considered a virtue... Films were about poverty, helplessness. Now, along with problems, solutions are also being seen. If there are a million problems, there are a billion solutions, he said.

He added, Once only rich people from tier 1 cities could enter the film industry, but now artistes from tier 2 and tier 3 cities are getting a foothold on the strength of their artistic abilities.

Films used to take 10-15 years to get completed. Famous films were actually known for the (long) time taken for their completion... Now films get finished in a few months and in a stipulated time-frame. Similar is the case of government schemes. They are now being finished in a stipulated time-frame. Modi said.

Minister of State for I & B Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore greets Kangana Ranaut as she arrives for the opening of the National Museum of Indian Cinema in Mumbai, Saturday, Jan 19, 2019. (PTI Photo/Shirish Shete) (PTI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi looks at the statue of showman Rajkapoor during the opening of the National Museum of Indian Cinema in Mumbai, Saturday, Jan 19, 2019. (PTI Photo/Shirish Shete) (PTI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the childre's film section at newly opened National Museum of Indian Cinema in Mumbai, Saturday, Jan 19, 2019. Minister of State for I & B Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore is also seen. (PTI Photo/Shirish Shete) (PTI)

Mumbai: Minister of State for I & B Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore greets veteran actor Manoj Kumar as he arrives for the opening of the National Museum of Indian Cinema in Mumbai, Saturday, Jan 19, 2019. Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar is also seen. (PTI Photo/Shirish Shete) (PTI1_19_2019_000152B) (PTI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses at the inauguration of National Museum of Indian Cinema, in Mumbai on Jan 19, 2019. Also seen Maharashtra Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, filmmaker Shyam Benegal and Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) Chairperson Prasoon Joshi. (Photo: IANS/PIB) (IANS)

He also urged filmmakers to make films on history as well as science and innovation. He said, Film personalities should tell youngsters, through social media, about their hardships and struggle before they made it big so as to inspire them, he said. This will help our youth in their life-building, character-building and prevent them from going astray.

Films also play a big role in the growth of the tourism sector, which gives employment to even the poorest people, even chaiwala makes money when tourism grows, he said.

He also assured the film industry that effective steps are being taken to curb piracy and camcording. A single-window system for obtaining permissions for film shoots and related matters are on the anvil, he said. He also suggested that a global film summit could also be organised in India.

The prime minister mentioned that the museum has 30-hour-long digitised footage of World War II. With this, the valour of 1.5 lakh Indian soldiers who died in that war will be known to the world, he said.

According to a report in Times of India, the museum is built across two buildings -- a five-storey new museum building and Gulshan Mahal that is over a 100 years old. The museum will the take the visitors on a journey from the silent era of the Indian cinema to the current hi-tech studios.

Also read: Alia Bhatt looks gorgeous as a bride in leaked photo from Kalank, her dance number online too

Also read: Malaika Arora, Arjun Kapoor twin in black as they attend a party together. See pics

The museum has four halls named Gandhi and Cinema, Childrens Film Studio, Technology, Creativity and Indian Cinema and Cinema across India. It is also reported that a committee headed by the Central Board of Film Certification chief Prasoon Joshi helped upgrade NMIC. The museum is said to house artefacts, cameras, editing and recording machines, projectors, costumes, photographs related to filmmaking in India.

PM Modi had earlier met two delegations of Bollywood personalities. While a delegation of younger actors including Ranveer Singh, Vicky Kaushal, Alia Bhatt, Rajkummar Rao, among others, met the PM in Delhi, an earlier panel, which included names like Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, filmmakers Karan Johar and Siddharth Roy Kapur, was criticised for not including any women.

(With PTI inputs)

Follow @htshowbiz for more13 hours ago

| June 17th | 2021 8:38 AM

Does Nike (NYSE: NKE) Have What It Takes To Get Back Running Again

For a company whose shares powered to new highs on what felt like a daily basis for much of last year, Nike (NYSE: NKE) has surprised many with its sluggish performance in the first half of 2021. Their shares are trading down more than 10% from the most recent all time high that they tagged at the end of December. In the grand scheme of things, thisA woman has been cited following a car crash earlier this month.

Andrea Mechelle Royal, 31, of Cohutta, Georgia, was driving in the left lane on the eastbound side of I-40 in Hildebran before 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 9 when she lost control of her car, sending her car toward the median near the Burke/Catawba county line.

Royals car started rolling through the median, eventually sending it into the westbound lanes where a car driven by Laura Rebecca Craft, 41, of Taylorsville, hit it. Royals car then flipped over a guardrail before coming to a rest.

Royal had a 12-year-old, 11-year-old, 6-year-old and a 30-year-old person with a disability in the car with her. Two people were airlifted from the scene of the crash.

Troopers found that the 11-year-old and 6-year-old were not properly restrained and were ejected from the car.

Craft had a 5-year-old passenger in her car with her. They both were transported to Catawba Valley Medical Center in Hickory with non-life threatening injuries.

Seven people were injured in the crash, but everyone has been released from the hospital, said Trooper J.S. Swagger with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.A software error caused public school students around North Carolina to receive incorrect end-of-term grades this school year, state education officials said.

The Department of Public Instruction said it has been advising districts about the problem with PowerSchool software since December, after many schools sent home first-quarter report cards. The error could have affected as many as 109 school districts and 59 charter schools in the state, but its not clear exactly how many students were impacted.

The software incorrectly rounded class grades up or down after teachers entered individual assignments into the PowerSchool software, department spokesman Drew Elliot said. A department news release said the error comes from a change this school year in the softwares grade calculation methods.

It could either increase or decrease a students final grade, Elliot said.

All the North Carolina school districts can use PowerSchool to tally grades. So far, none of the six school districts in the area have reported any issues. This includes Hickory Public Schools, Catawba County Schools, Newton-Conover City Schools, Alexander County Schools, Burke County Schools and Caldwell County Schools.BETHLEHEM  Jeremy Starnes was presented his Eagle Scout Award, the highest rank in scouting, at a ceremony held at Mt. Pisgah Lutheran Church on Dec. 20, 2018. Only about 5 percent of all Boy Scouts attain the Eagle Rank according to Piedmont Council Vice President for Membership Warren Hollar.

Boy Scout Troop 275 is sponsored by the Bethlehem Ruritan Club and Mt. Pisgah Lutheran Church. Starnes began his scouting experience in Cub Scouts sponsored by Mt. Bethlehem United Methodist Church. He began his boy scouting career in troop 275 with scout leaders Robbie Huffman and Allen Garren. He finished his scouting career with Scoutmaster Robert Duncan and a strong supporting group of leaders and committee members including his father, Chris.

Each Eagle candidate must earn 21 merit badges and successfully complete a community or church-related service project to earn his Eagle. Nationally, Eagle Scouts and their volunteers completed 8,461,760 hours of service in 2017. That works out to about 152,5 hours per project.Matthew Umstead

mumstead@herald-mail.com

MARTINSBURG, W.Va.  A motorist passing a Bunker Hill, W.Va., club early Friday avoided injury after a bullet fired during an altercation struck her rear window and went through the windshield, police said.

Michael Nicholas Calder, 32, of Globe Street, Martinsburg, is accused of firing the shot. He was being held in Eastern Regional Jail Friday night on $60,000 bond.

Michele Alizabeth Wagner, 33, of Pendleton Drive, Martinsburg, was charged with prohibited person in possession of a firearm and providing false information to police, records said. Calder was described as her on-and-off boyfriend.

Wagner was being held in jail Friday night on $15,000 bond, records said.

At about 4:25 a.m., Berkeley County Sheriffs Office deputies and West Virginia State Police investigated a report of five or six gunshots in the 9700 block of Winchester Avenue, with people fighting outside Elysium Gentlemens Club at 9734 Winchester Ave., according to court records.

A female repeatedly told police that a male who ran off was wearing a red jacket and had a firearm.

Officers found Calder slumped over a riding lawnmower at a nearby residence on the east side of Winchester Avenue, according to court records.

Berkeley County Sheriffs Office Deputy J.A. Swartz wrote in a complaint that Calder did not respond to repeated orders to show his hands. Officers ultimately lifted him from the mower.

A silver-and-black pistol was lying on the mower where the defendants chest had been. The firearm, a Taurus .45-caliber semi-automatic, had been reported stolen, records said.

Swartz noted that Calder had a small plastic bag of suspected crystal methamphetamine while at the jail, records said.

Swartz reported that Calder has a substantial criminal history, including a July 2014 felony drug-trafficking conviction, and has been on parole.

Wagner told police that she and Calder had an altercation and she was outside the business when the shots were fired, State Police Trooper D.M. Simerly wrote in a complaint.

Wagner initially identified herself as a club employee and said she knew the shooter only by a nickname, records said.

Police found that Wagner had a 9mm Taurus pistol loaded with one round in the chamber tucked into her waistband, records said.

Calder is charged with wanton endangerment, prohibited person in possession of a firearm, transport controlled substance into jail, transferring and receiving stolen property and possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine), according to Berkeley County Magistrate Court records.Matthew Umstead

mumstead@herald-mail.com

MARTINSBURG, W.Va.  A handful of Eastern Panhandle lawmakers formally called on the state Division of Highways last week to update its study on the cost and benefits of extending a four-lane form of W.Va. 9 from Martinsburg to Berkeley Springs while bypassing Hedgesville, W.Va.

Introduced on Thursday, House Concurrent Resolution 8 is sponsored by Republican Dels. Larry D. Kump, Tom Bibby, S. Marshall Wilson, Eric Householder and John Hardy.

Passage of concurrent resolutions introduced in the House or State Senate require adoption by both chambers of the Legislature. The first regular 60-day session of the 84th Legislature ends on March 9.

HCR 8 notes that increased intrastate travel will promote tourism, reduce traffic congestion, increase safety and promote economic growth within the state and specifically asks the DOH commissioner to update a previously conducted preliminary engineering study and report findings, conclusions and recommendations to lawmakers no later than Jan. 1, 2020.

Kump, whose house district includes portions of Morgan and Berkeley counties, is the resolutions lead sponsor.

The introduction of the resolution comes after Berkeley and Morgan county leaders as well as Hedgesville municipal officials called on state transportation officials last month to make improvements to W.Va. 9, citing increasing congestion and safety concerns.

The Hedgesville Town Council voted last month in support of a bypass around the small Berkeley County municipality, where residents experience congested traffic conditions on W.Va. 9 as the road winds through the community of about 300 residents.

Berkeley County Council members told West Virginia Transportation Secretary Tom Smith in a Dec. 20 letter that the traffic congestion has resulted in hazardous traveling for school buses servicing the Hedgesville (W.Va.) school campuses, as well as commuters traveling to and from their homes.

Meanwhile in the State Senate, Eastern Panhandle state Sens. Patricia Rucker, John Unger and Craig Blair signed on as sponsors a concurrent resolution that urges Congress to pass fully funded, long-term surface transportation and infrastructure funding measures that address the nations crucial infrastructure needs.

Introduced on Friday, Senate Concurrent Resolution 11 notes that the Mountain State faces unique challenges maintaining its infrastructure, including bridges and roads, due in part to its topography, location, industries, and population.

The resolution also asserts that a recent infrastructure report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers found that 17.3 percent of West Virginias 1,247 bridges are structurally deficient and 19 percent of West Virginias 38,770 miles of public roads are in poor condition.Matthew Umstead

mumstead@herald-mail.com

MARTINSBURG, W.Va.  U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin in Martinsburg on Friday met with about 100 people at a roundtable with federal workers affcted by the government shutdown.

Im so sorry that you have to be out here under these conditions, because this is not the way to run a country, especially the superpower of the world Manchin, D-W.Va., told them.

From President Donald Trump on down, everybodys guilty, regardless of political party, for the prolonged impasse over funding for constructing secure barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border, Manchin said.

During his presidential campaign and as president, Trump has committed to addressing border security by building a wall. He posted on Twitter Friday evening that he would be making a major announcement the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border, and the Shutdown at 3 p.m. Saturday from the White House.

Manchin, who also visited Hazelton (W.Va.) federal pentitentiary on Friday, said the border needs to be secured and immigration reform should be addressed.

You cant just do one without the other, he said.

Federal workers attending Fridays forum sought assurances from Manchin that they wouldnt again be subjected to such a financial strain because, as one person at the roundtable said, lawmakers couldnt get their act together.

Manchin encouraged those affected to contact his office for any assistance they might need. Later on Friday, his office released information about how to obtain unemployment benefits, food assistance and loans and how to work with utility, cellphone, and other companies on bills. The list is online at https://bit.ly/2SZhUTO.

I remain committed to finding a solution that reopens the federal government and funds our border security to keep Americans safe, Manchin said in a news release. I believe that federal workers should not pay the price for Congressional inaction, which is why I worked with my colleagues to introduce legislation  which was signed by the President and passed into law on (Wednesday)  that guarantees back pay as soon as possible for federal workers who are furloughed or working without pay during the shutdown.

Manchin described a proposal by three Republican state lawmakers to allocate $10 million in state revenue toward construction of a barrier at the Mexico border as crazy.

Ive heard of crazy things, but, by God, that one went over the top, he said.

Asked if he had spoken to U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., about the partial government shutdown, Manchin said they have a a little different opinion, but they also continue to work well together.

Regardless, Manchin emphasized that he didnt agree with House Speaker Nancy Pelosis position on what she apparently wants, which he said is nothing, nothing, nothing and have sanctuary cities and basically everything else thats going on in the country.

Rather than declare a national emergency to construct a barrier, Manchin said, the president should let Congress work for two or three weeks on a comprehensive resolution on border security and immigration issues.

If we cant make it happen, then do what ya gotta do, Manchin said.Joyce F. Nowell

jnowell@herald-mail.com

GREENCASTLE, Pa.  A $97 million railroad terminal touted as a milestone and a landmark project when it was built six years ago in Antrim Township will halt operations for at least a year.

Norfolk Southern has informed Franklin County officials and developers in the area of the intermodal facility on Antrim Commons Drive that it will wind down operations over the next several months.

L. Michael Ross, Franklin County Area Development Corporations president, said this is not the end for the facility built with private and public money.

They are not necessarily going to close it permanently. They are going to idle it, Ross said. Theyre doing some internal restructuring.

They got a lot of federal and state dollars to build this intermodal. They are sensitive to that. With the restructuring, probably within the next 12 to 18 the Greencastle intermodal will be back in use.

A call and an email to Norfolk Southern were not immediately returned Friday.

When it opened, it was reported that the facility created 126 jobs.

Ross expects the idling will occur in April.

The opening of the terminal in 2013 came with great fanfare after Norfolk Southern searched up and down the eastern part of the U.S. to locate a new terminal. It was reported then that about half of the terminal price tag came from Pennsylvania.

Norfolk Southern financially did very well last year, but the year before, they were fighting off an acquisition that I think diverted a lot of time and energy, Ross said. They are looking now at how they are going to restructure a lot of their train movements.

They have been disappointed that they havent been able to drive more traffic to this intermodal at this point.

In contrast, Ross said the CSX intermodal in Chambersburg is looking to expand. He added that Norfolk Southern has two train yards in Harrisburg that are very busy.

Part of this reorganization will see, at a minimum, Greencastle as an overflow for Harrisburg within the next 12 to 18 months, Ross said.

Pat Coggins of Atapco, owner of Antrim Commons Business Park, said two tenants use the railroad, but do not depend on the intermodal facility.

We thought the intermodal would attract more tenants to our property, he said. We havent found that yet.

NorthPoint Development is currently building its second million-square-foot warehouse for a so-far unnamed business. Our tenant for that building is upset, NorthPoint Vice President Brent Miles said of the development.

Ross said he was taken aback by the news, but the facility is still a benefit.

That gets peoples attention, Ross said. There must be something going on if Norfolk Southern invested $100 million there. These projects build on one another.

I think it will have a nominal effect on what were doing. It will likely be back in full operation by the time anyone whos building would be done anyway.C.J. Lovelace

cj.lovelace@herald-mail.com

A mess of wintry precipitation is on its way to the Tri-State area, with close to a foot of snow possible in southcentral Pennsylvania and icy conditions likely to cause problems south of the Mason-Dixon Line this weekend, according to forecasters.

The National Weather Service has issued winter weather warnings Saturday into Sunday for Herald-Mail Medias coverage area.

The warning for Washington County and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia will be effect from 10 a.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Sunday, while the warning for Franklin and Fulton counties in Pennsylvania runs from 1 p.m. Saturday to 1 p.m. Sunday.

Forecasters expect heavy mixed precipitation across the region, with higher snow totals of 6 to 10 inches in Franklin and Fulton counties.

The bulk of those impacts will probably be in the late afternoon and evening hours, said Mike Colbert, a meteorologist with the weather services forecast office in State College, Pa. There will be heavy snow bands that move through during that time frame.

Colbert said hourly snow accumulations should be more than one inch and possibly up to two inches per hour during that time frame before it changes over to a wintry mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain.

Snow totals are expected to be highest in the northern areas of Franklin and Fulton counties, up to 10 inches or so, with 6 to 8 inches more likely in the southern portions.

There will be a gradient across those counties, Colbert said.

For Washington County and West Virginias Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties, snow will begin around 10 a.m. Saturday. It will switch over to a wintry mix expected to produce one-quarter to one-half inch of ice in most areas, making travel treacherous and causing possible power outages.

Once you start getting that much freezing rain, you start getting power issues and tree limbs down, said Cody Ledbetter, a meteorologist with the weather services forecast office in Sterling, Va. It could definitely be a hazardous situation. Its just going to be a mess of wintry precipitation for a solid 18-hour period.

Snow totals will range from 1 to 4 inches, with higher amounts in the northern and western portions of the four-county area, prior to the changeover to sleet and freezing rain, Ledbetter said.

That freezing rain will last for several hours into early Sunday morning, he said. We have precipitation ending probably by daybreak (on Sunday).

Once the storm moves out Sunday, a bitter cold front coupled with gusty winds will blow into the area and bring a deep freeze, plunging overnight low temperatures into the single digits with subzero wind chills.

High temperatures are expected to hit the mid-20s on Sunday afternoon, then fall into the single digits in the evening. With winds gusting up to 25 or 30 mph, wind chills could be around minus 10 or lower.

As the Monday morning commute arrives, Colbert cautions residents about slushy or wet areas that refroze overnight and snow drifts as a result of the high winds.

At the least, you will need extra time to warm up the cars Monday morning, he said.

The cold air will slowly move out of the area early next week as daytime highs return to the mid-30s by Wednesday.The Herald-Mail

ANNAPOLIS  One of the most critical tasks for the governor and the Maryland General Assembly each year is approving a budget for the following fiscal year.

In Maryland, the governor must submit a balanced budget every year. The General Assembly can reduce or restrict spending, but cant move money from one program to another. Lawmakers can only add to the budget by providing a funding source for the extra expense.

This week, Gov. Larry Hogan submitted an operating budget of $46.6 billion for Fiscal Year 2020, which begins July 1. Hes also offered a capital budget totaling nearly $2 billion.

Of that, more than $800 million is targeted for various agencies in Washington County. But in the whole of the state budget, its just a trickle  less than 2 percent.

Legislators havent yet had a chance to fully digest the budget proposal, but Sen. George Edwards, R-Washington/Allegany/Garrett predicted Friday that squabbling over the details would be minimal this year.

I dont think therell be, based on what was said, a whole lot of squabbling because hes funding all the mandatory funding and increasing some of that, which is good, Edwards said. Mandatory funding involves funding formulas set by law.

Hes putting a lot more into the Rainy Day fund (a cash reserve), which is good, Edwards added.

The budget documents mark some victories for local interests, and at the top of that list, perhaps, is a surge in highway user revenues being returned to local governments.

These funds, collected in the Transportation Trust Fund from gasoline taxes, titling fees and other vehicle-related activity, help pay for state and local transportation projects. But in 2010, the local share was drastically cut.

Last year, the General Assembly approved a measure requiring more of that money to go back to local governments.

Under the new formula, legislative analysts projected that beginning in Fiscal Year 2020, each county would see significantly more in highway user revenues. In FY 2020, for example, revenues for Washington County were projected to grow from $1.4 million distributed between the county and municipal governments in FY 2019 to $4.3 million in FY 2020. And thats just about whats been included in the FY 2020 budget proposal.

I know that last year when we passed that bill that a lot of that stuff was supposed to be increasing, but I hadnt seen specifically that that had gone up in this budget, said Del. Paul Corderman, R-Washington.

Thats great news, obviously, he added. The restoration of highway user funds has been something all the locals have been asking for and quite frankly deserve.

As we all know, highway user funds have been raided over the years, and its good to see that restoration because whats happened is with those funds not being restored, our locals have had the burden of that cost  which takes away from other things locally, public safety and things of that nature.

Washington County also is in line for nearly $20 million in capital improvement projects, including continued funding for the Urban Improvement Project in downtown Hagerstown and construction money for Sharpsburg Elementary School and the Center for Business and Entrepreneurial Studies at Hagerstown Community College.

As far as Washington County, the governor has continued his support for all parts of the state and the rural areas have not been forgotten, said Sen. Andrew Serafini, R-Washington. We appreciate support for education from K-12 to Hagerstown Community College to the University of Maryland System at Hagerstown.  The citizens of our community showed overwhelming support for Gov. Hogan and he has proven to warrant that support.

Happy campers

Of Washington Countys six legislators, four serve on the committees that will review the budget. Corderman and Del. Mike McKay, R-Washington/Allegany, serve on the House Appropriations Committee. Edwards and Serafini serve on the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee.

So far, they like what they see in Hogans budget proposal.

The budget revealed today shows Gov. Hogans commitment to all of the state of Maryland, McKay said Friday. Washington County did well and I look forward to making sure that the budget stays as close as the governor proposed.

Once again Gov. Hogan has put together a common sense budget that addresses the needs and desires of the citizens of our state, Serafini said. I believe Gov. Hogan has done this in a measured approach that also recognizes the need to prepare for an economic slowdown that could be on the horizon. The challenge for the legislature will be to maintain the extra funds committed to the Rainy Day fund.

From making Maryland open for business with the Opportunity Zones (development zones with tax credits for new businesses) to funding for developmentally disabled to additional capital and operating funds for education, this budget is sound, he added. The governor has once again proposed targeted tax relief. While his efforts last year to return the entire windfall from federal tax reform was rejected, he continues to provide tax relief where possible.

This will be Cordermans first year on a budget committee, and he says hes up for the challenge.

Im very excited for the opportunity, he said. Its going to be a learning experience, obviously, but its something I asked to be involved in. I wanted to see where the money goes, so to speak, and how we can capitalize on that for Western Maryland and the city of Hagerstown.Dan Dearth

ddearth@herald-mail.com

A 17-year-old accused of participating in an armed carjacking in Hagerstown will be tried as an adult.

Washington County Circuit Court Judge Mark K. Boyer said during a hearing Friday that he considered several factors before he denied a motion to transfer Xavier Leon Smiths case to the juvenile justice system.

This was absolutely an overt act of violence, Boyer said. The victim feared for her life.

Boyer said he also weighed Smiths extensive criminal history as a juvenile, and mentioned that the defendant will turn 18 on Sunday.

I can say that Xavier is no babe of the woods, Boyer said.

He ordered that Smith be transferred from juvenile custody to the Washington County Detention Center.

Smith and Ashur Komaki Hooper, also 17, were charged as adults with stealing a female security guards vehicle at gunpoint on June 4, 2018, in Hagerstown.

In addition to armed carjacking, Smith faces several other counts, including kidnapping and use of a firearm in a crime of violence.

Police said that Smith and Hooper left a Baltimore County group home, stole a car and drove it to Hagerstown.

The duo then fled an attempted traffic stop by a Washington County sheriffs deputy, wrecked the stolen car and allegedly stole another at gunpoint from a female security guard at a Hagerstown business.

Hooper walked her into a wooded area at gunpoint before he and Smith left with her vehicle, according to information discussed during a previous court hearing. The victims cellphone was still in the car and police tracked it to the group home.

In December, Hooper pleaded guilty to carjacking and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with 10 years suspended.Don Aines

daines@herald-mail.com

Prior to Kevin Butlers arrest on an outstanding warrant last year he, his fiance Kimberly Adams, and their children were essentially homeless; staying wherever they could find a roof over their heads from night to night.

Butler said he spent eight months in the county detention center after entering a plea agreement on drug-related charges, but he still wanted to help his family.

Even though its jail, I got three meals a day and a cot. They didnt, Butler said of his familys situation.

He reached out to detention center staff to find out what help was available for Kimberly and their four children, and they connected him with the Family Strong Program offered through Potomac Case Management.

Butler was released from detention in October and has been working. Kimberly said she recently signed a lease on an apartment, thanks to the help provided by the Family Strong Program.

Almost everyone who goes to jail or prison will one day be released and they usually return to their communities. In many cases the offender has a spouse or significant other and children on the outside. Keeping those families intact and helping them meet educational, economic, housing, transportation and other needs is the goal of the Family Strong Program, according to Philip Scolaro, the integrated services program manager for Potomac Case Management.

On any given day, approximately 90,000 children and youth in Maryland have a parent under some form of correctional supervision, Scolaro said in an email. The Family Strong program focuses on serving the needs of these families through family strengthening activities, the navigation of academic success, and encouragement of nurturing family activities.

The need doesnt exist within a single person in a family. Its a family service, Scolaro said last week. Family Strong coordinates services and programs for the children, the incarcerated parent and the other parent or caregiver, to keep the family intact, he said.

When youre enrolling in school and youre homeless, its not easy, he said.

Case managers work with families to address individual needs and help connect them to the resources they need, Scolaro said.

At any one time, Family Strong is working with 15 to 25 families, Scolaro said. Most of those families have a parent incarcerated at the detention center, or assigned to the Day Reporting Center, he said.

While Butler was incarcerated, Adams said Family Strong assisted in finding temporary housing and meeting other needs for her and the children, ages 4 to 12.

Butler said that even having a Family Strong caseworker keep his rambunctious kids occupied with games or reading during their video visitations at the detention center made the experience better. He and Adams got some time for a real conversation without disruption, and he would get individual time with the children, rather than having to watch Kimberly trying to keep track of four kids at once.

There was a big change, a big difference in the childrens behavior during the visits, Butler said. I didnt like the kids coming to jail to see me, but at the same time, I wanted to see them.

The more contact an incarcerated person has with their family, the more likely they are to have a better outcome when released, Scolaro said.

When her oldest son was having difficulty socializing with others and problems at school, Family Strong was able to act as an advocate for him with the school and other programs to help, Adams said.

Family Strong can also connect parents with parenting programs, Scolaro said.

A Family Strong caseworkers day can be a full one, said Sherry Thomas, the family services case manager. It might include taking someone to a medical appointment or food bank, meeting with school officials about an individual education plan for a student, or taking a family to visitation at the detention center.

The program began about a year and a half ago, Scolaro said. Funding for Family Strong comes through grants from the Governors Office for Children, he said.

Families wanting to know more about the services provided through the Family Strong Program can call 301-791-3087, or go to the Potomac Case Management offices at 324 E. Antietam St. Scolaro said families can also apply online at pcmsinc.org.DONNA SCHERER

Penn State Extension Client Relationship Manager, Area 8

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa.  The 2019 Pennsylvania Farm Show was another success, with more than half a million people attending.

This years theme, Inspiring Pennsylvanias Story, showcased the diversity of Pennsylvanias production in agriculture and agribusiness.

Pennsylvanias agriculture and food industry contributes $137.5 billion each year to the state economy and more than 580,000 jobs.

The annual farm show boasts more than 6,000 animals, hundreds of exhibitors, vendors, contests and demonstrations..

Franklin County residents showcased their talents with a total of 240 entries, earning 228 awards. Of those awards, 73 were for first place.

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture communications office shared the following results.

At the time this article was written, the results for livestock were not included in the awards, due to discrepancies. Those results will be outlined in a separate story.

The Friends Thru Fiber Group has competed in the Sheep to Shawl competition for many years. Out of eight participants, they took home first-place honors this year. They also received a first-place Fleece Award.

Dwight Mickey of Shatzers Orchards in Chambersburg brought home numerous first-place ribbons in the fruit department competition.

In addition, the Franklin County Horticulture Society earned the Gabriel Heister Award with its fruit entry.

Julianna Myers of Chambersburg earned first place with her gingerbread house in the 15-and-younger category.

Rebekah Aldrich of Chambersburg earned several awards for her many entries. She received blue ribbons for her textile and fiber art-tie dye entries.

Aldrich is a member of the Franklin County 4-H Pumphouse Gang, 4-H Thimble Gang, 4-H Eastern Dairy Club and Teen Council. She also serves on the Adams County 4-H Teen Senate Club.

Members of the Franklin County Career Technology Center FFA club entered numerous projects and represented the county well. Blue ribbons were awarded to Alaina Crist for her spring bulb mix; Camille Smith for her hanging basket; Rebecca Gabler for her poinsettias and a Best of Show award in the houseplant and design section; Kenny Hershey for his miniature landscape display; and Shane Cursey for his fresh vase arrangement.

The Franklin County CTC earned first-place awards in landscape exhibit, best nonliving materials selection and best landscape blueprint.The Herald-Mail

ANNAPOLIS  More than $796 million in operating funds would come back to Washington County in Gov. Larry Hogans $46.6 billion operating budget.

Thick budget documents were released Friday morning from the Department of Budget and Management. Lawmakers were getting a first glance as the books were delivered to their offices.

But while Hogan conducted a breakfast meeting with fiscal committee leaders Friday morning, most legislators hadnt taken a hard look at the budget yet.

Sen. George Edwards, R-Washington/Allegany/Garrett, attended the meeting with Hogan and got a quick review by the secretary of budget and management, he said.

It looks pretty good at this point, he said, but I need to look at the details and see how it impacts our part of the state.

One impact for Washington County is the substantial increase in highway user revenues to local governments, which has been a priority for local officials.

Washington County is allotted more than $1.9 million in the Fiscal Year 2020 budget proposal. Municipalities in Washington County will share more than $2.4 million.

Highway user revenues come from gasoline taxes, titling fees and other assessments associated with transportation in the state.

During Gov. Martin OMalleys administration, the portion usually returned to local governments dropped by about 90 percent as the administration used the money to balance other portions of the budget. Local governments have been fighting to get the money back ever since.

The FY 2020 figures represent an increase of more than $1 million over the current budget for the county government, and nearly $2 million for local municipalities.

The largest allocation in the operating budget is for education. The budget earmarks nearly $182 million for K-12 education in Washington County, an increase of almost $6 million.

The University System of Maryland at Hagerstown is allotted nearly $3 million, an increase of nearly $200,000. Hagerstown Community College would get $8.5 million, an increase of about $336,000.

Other local budget allocations include:

 Disparity grant of more than $2 million, an 8.2 percent increase. The disparity grant program provides aid to low-wealth jurisdictions for county government purposes.

 Maryland Emergency Management Agency fire, rescue and ambulance fund, $337,711; no change from the current funding level

 State aid for police protection, $1.5 million; down slightly from current funding

 Employee bonus program for correctional institutions, $450,000

 Tax credits for urban enterprise zones, $241,332; a decrease of about 18.6 percent

Members of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee and the House Appropriations Committee will be briefed on budget details during a joint meeting Monday afternoon.

The House Appropriations Committee then will review the budget first, making recommendations and amendments. Del. Mike McKay, R-Washington/Allegany, and Del. Paul Corderman, R-Washington, serve on that committee.

The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee will then accept or reject those amendments and make its own before the budget goes to the full legislature for approval.

Lawmakers can cut the budget and move money around, but cant add to it unless they identify a funding source for the addition.

Unlike most bills that go to the governor upon passage, the budget bill becomes law as soon as both chambers of the General Assembly approve it  usually late in the 90-day legislative session.Joyce F. Nowell

jnowell@herald-mail.com

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa.  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued notices of serious work-condition violations to Letterkenny Army Depot, following a July 19, 2018, explosion and fire that killed two workers and injured three others.

The explosion occurred in the paint shop of Building 350. One OSHA notice lists five serious violations relating to the storage and handling of materials used there, precautions taken and lack of training.

The notice, issued Jan. 15, noted that all violations were corrected during an inspection by OSHA, an arm of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Two employees died from injuries suffered in the 7:20 a.m. industrial accident. Another man was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Two others were treated locally for their injuries.

A call and an email to Letterkenny's Office of Public Affairs were not immediately returned Friday.

No penalties are associated with federal agency notices, according to Lenore Uddyback-Fortson in the Office of Public Affairs for OSHA's regional location in Philadelphia.

OSHA does not issue monetary penalties to other federal agencies, Uddyback-Fortson said. OSHA may conduct a follow-up investigation to ensure abatement continues to be in compliance.

A second notice of violation was deemed other-than-serious, stating that investigative reports were not made available to the OSHA representative when requested.

A serious violation in the report stated that 550 gallons of paint, epoxy hardener, polyurethane reducer and liquid paint waste were not properly stored.

Another noted that flammable liquids with a flashpoint below 100 degrees F were not kept in covered containers when not in use.

Employees performed paint kitchen operations in the paint kitchen structure, and the small steel thinner pot that was used to supply the polyurethane reducer for flushing the paint pump that was used to pump tan paint into the pressurized paint pot was not kept covered when not in use, the report said.

Employees routinely filled pot liners with polyurethane reducer from a 55 gallon drum and placed the liner in the spray booth without a cover where it would remain under the spray cart until ready to be used for flushing the spray guns, according to the finding.

Adequate precautions were not taken to prevent the ignition of flammable vapors, according to another serious violation. The report said, The employer did not ensure that employees utilized non-sparking tools to remove and install bungs and also the syphon connection in the tops of the 55 gallon drums of paint and paint related materials used in the paint kitchen.

In addition, the citation said flammable liquids were dispensed into containers without the nozzle and container electrically interconnected.

OSHA also found that Letterkenny did not provide specialized job safety and health training appropriate to the work performed by the employee.

Uddyback-Fortson said the OSHA investigation is complete.

Letterkenny has 15 days from the date the citations were received to have a meeting with the Area Director to discuss the notices, she said.It was one of the few times where there were multiple generations represented, multiple factions, different organizations  sometimes who are at odds  came together because a young black teenager was killed by police, Enyia said. And at that point in time, it didnt matter what your political leanings were, it didnt matter who was running for mayor, all that mattered was that there was a young black child who was failed at every level, not just by the Police Department, but by our educational system, by the social service safety net that did not catch him and then by elected officials for which he was a political inconvenience in an election.Matthew Umstead

mumstead@herald-mail.com

MARTINSBURG, W.Va.  A correctional officer at Vicki V. Douglas Juvenile Center in Martinsburg was terminated last month after allegedly using obscene images to seduce a 14-year-old girl at the detention facility.

Casey Christopher Cottrell, 24, of Elmer Lane, Martinsburg, was terminated on Dec. 4, after an investigation by West Virginia State Police, according to Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety spokesman Lawrence Messina.

Cottrell was released on $10,000 bond Friday after he was arraigned. He is charged with one felony count of use of obscene matter with intent to seduce minor.

West Virginia State Police Cpl. J.D. See wrote in a complaint that on Dec. 3, she investigated allegations that Cottrell had sexual conversations with the girl on Dec. 2 and showed the girl inappropriate images.

The trooper wrote that Cottrell showed the girl two photos of a woman in her underwear on his Apple watch, records said.

He also showed her a picture of his naked body, See wrote.

See wrote that Cottrell told the girl that she was cute for her age and if she were older, he would talk to her and hang out with her, records said.

Cottrell talked about having sex with the girl and another woman and told the girl to leave her bra off when she came out of the shower, records said.

The girl told See that Cottrell flirted with her and made sexual comments. She said he showed her a nude image of him with an emoji over his face and another woman.The Ethics Board found probable cause that Burns violated a city rule prohibiting former aldermen from lobbying the city for a year after they leave the City Council. In agreeing to the settlement, however, Burns did not admit to wrongdoing and maintained he acted in a manner that he believed, in good faith, was in compliance with the requirements of the Governmental Ethics Ordinance.In honor of Gen. Robert E. Lee and all veterans:

Robert E. Lee was born at Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on Jan. 19, 1821. He married Mary Anna Custis, granddaughter of George and Martha Washington and they had seven children. He served with Grant during the Mexican-American War and became a decorated war hero defending this country.

Lee believed slavery was a great evil and when he inherited 10 slaves before the Civil War, he set them free. His wife, Mary Anna broke the law by teaching slaves to read and write. After the Civil War, he worked with Andrew Johnsons program of reconstruction. He became very popular with the northern states and in 1962, the Barracks at West Point were named in his honor.

His memorial is now being called blight. This is no better than ISIS trying to rewrite history by destroying historical artifacts. Is that really who we want to emulate?

As they tear down this blight, keep these few historical facts in mind: No military veteran or highly decorated war hero should ever be treated as such. This is not Iraq and this is not a statue of Saddam Hussein. Lee was also torn about the prospect of the South leaving the Union. He believed that, ultimately, states rights trumped the federal government, and he chose to lead the Southern Army.The state asked Ballad to confirm how travel distance of affected families will be tracked, how metrics of proposed changes would be measured, including health outcomes of mothers and infants as well as ongoing patient, staff and community satisfaction.

In its previous reply to a question about NAS babies, Ballad said it will encourage providers to transfer NAS babies back home to local hospitals, once it is safe to do so. The state wants to know whether it has ever been the policy of Ballad or its predecessor companies to transfer NAS babies from a NICU to a local hospital. It specifically asks for the percentage of NAS babies born at Johnson City and Holston Valley transferred to a lower level facility and the average length of stay at both the NICU and the local facility.

There are also follow-up questions regarding the reported $1.5 million operating loss of Holston Valleys NICU and how much it could be offset by reducing its level of capability and how that might impact staffing.

The state also requested the financial analysis, clinical analysis and needs assessment related to plans to establish two pediatric emergency rooms at Holston Valley and Bristol.

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.A Bristol flight surgeon assisted in efforts to rescue a plane crew that crashed in the European Alps in January 1949.

Dr. James Rhea, known as Dutchie to his friends in Bristol, served as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Army Air Corps and was stationed just outside of Vienna, Austria, according to an article in the Bristol Herald Courier.

He often wrote to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. James W. Rhea of Bristol, about his experiences in Europe and one of the most interesting concerned a flight in search of survivors of a C-53, which had been forced down in the Alps.

Ive been pretty busy again the past week, Rhea wrote to his parents. Last Tuesday night, we heard about the C-53 that went down in the Alps. So I got together a great quantity of stuff to drop the survivors  blankets, medical supplies, food, warm clothes, sleeping bags, et cetera, and loaded them onto the B-17.

The surgeon said he collected the items between midnight and 3 a.m. one morning in preparation for a 6 a.m. flight. The crew headed to the Italian Alps to look for the stranded plane and its survivors.

Thats where they thought they were so thats the position they radioed, Rhea said.Both districts have limited public outreach, releasing only one written statement about a case in Virginia.

About 30 percent of the employees at the U.S. attorneys office have been furloughed.

In the event that civil briefings and hearings cannot be rescheduled, these employees are permitted to perform work duties, as needed, to satisfy those obligations, Rottenborn said.

Federal law enforcement officers with the Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are considered excepted staff and are required to continue their duties.

A local U.S. Marshals Service deputy declined comment on the shutdown and referred questions to a national public affairs officer.

According to a contingency plan, all U.S. marshals have duties directly related to the protection of life and property; therefore, they are excepted from furlough and continue to work.BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn.  Robert Seth Denton testified in his own defense Friday that it was his grandfather, Curtis Rose, who murdered his mother, but said he doesnt know how his grandmother and stepfather died.

I heard the rifle click, like he was putting rounds in it, he said. I had stepped in the house, and then I heard the gunshot go off.  I thought he was going to kill me. I just saw him shoot my mother, so thats just what I assumed.

After the shooting, Denton said he ran out of the house and down the driveway to his car, where he called 911 to report there had been a murder.

Denton, 22, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his mother, Toshya Millhorn, his stepfather, James Millhorn, and his grandmother, Lena Marie Rose, on Aug. 29, 2015. He is accused of killing them in front of six children ages 2 to 12, one who was injured, which added two counts of aggravated assault and one count of reckless endangerment to Dentons charges.Mell said she supports reforming the 2015 Affordable Requirements Ordinance, known as the ARO, so that developers are forced to build more family-sized units. The ARO requires that developers include residences that rent for less than the market rate in the area when they put up new buildings or pay fees instead of building those affordable units themselves. The Tribune previously reported that most units produced under the ARO are too small for families who find themselves priced out. But she noted there are currently limits to what an alderman can do on housing.BRISTOL, Va.  A founding partner in Bristol Motor Speedway and a longtime Tennessee politician was honored on Friday with the Bristol Chamber of Commerces Lifetime Achievement Award.

Carl Moore received the award during the chambers annual awards luncheon at the Holiday Inn at Exit 7.

Moore grew up in the region and graduated from Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport. He later went to the University of Alabama before returning to the area.

He was first elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1964. He was later elected as a state senator representing Sullivan County.

He helped pass legislation in 1984 that formally recognized Bristol as the Birthplace of Country Music.

Moore was the former chairman and co-founder of BMS and the dragway. He was inducted as a legend at Thunder Valley in 2015 and still attends races, even after he sold the track.

He also spent countless hours doing community service and serving on a variety of boards.

Family and friends surprised Moore by being at the event and joining him on stage.

Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}The Bristol Hotel has been named one of the top 10 best new hotels in the country by USA Today.

A panel of travel experts was asked to assemble 20 nominees in a variety of categories, including best new hotel. The Bristol Hotel was one of 20 new hotels nominated. Readers were asked to vote on the nominees to whittle the list down to the top 10.

When the winners were announced on Friday, The Bristol Hotel was among them.

Im still shocked, said Kevin Kruse, the hotels general manager. Im so humbled. There are a couple of things I attribute it to. Number one is the staff.  Number two is the support of the community. This is a reader-based poll. The people in the community in Bristol and Gray and the Tri-Cities and Abingdon are such great supporters of the hotel.

Readers of the USA Today were asked to vote daily on their favorites. When the votes were tallied, The Bristol Hotel finished in eighth place, above the Bobby Hotel in Nashville and the Alohilani Resort in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}Anderson, IN (46016)

Today

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 69F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 69F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.Shane Ragsdale, formerly of Greenville, beloved son of Sheila June Winters and father Sariah Vanderwal-Ragsdale, passed away May 31, 2021 in the ICU of Hilo Hawaii hospital of pneumonia. Hi memorial service was held June 12, in Makapala, Hawaii. His fellowship on Earth will be missed; anticiMegan Owens traveled all the way from downstate Quincy on the train Friday night to take part in the rally. It was her first Womens March event  she said she didnt understand the magnitude of the movement in 2017 and had to work in 2018. If youre not going to stand up for what you believe in, thats when complacency sets in, she said.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 19) Malacanang joined the business community in mourning the passing of Henry Sy, Sr., calling him "a pillar of the Philippine economy."

Sy, the richest man in the country and founder of the largest retailer SM Group, passed away in his sleep Saturday morning. He was 94.

"The Palace expresses its deepest and heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of SM Group Founder, Mr. Henry Sy Sr., as well as to the legions whose lives have been touched by him," Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement.

He said the Filipino-Chinese taipan who also has stakes in banking and property sectors, "exemplified the hardworking Filipino," noting his rags to riches story that began with a small shoe store in Quiapo, Manila.

"A grateful nation respects and admires the man for his lasting legacy which he attributed to hard work," Panelo added.

READ: Retail icon Henry Sy Sr. passed away at age 94

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said Sys biggest contribution was providing employment to millions of Filipinos.

He made his billions working hard, first selling shoes, to build a current conglomerate of giant malls, real estate, banks, financial services, insurance, retail, and a dozen of other businesses, he noted.

Senator JV Ejercito said Sy was definitely a mover and a game changer of the Philippine economy.

Sy topped Forbes Magazines 2018 list of the wealthiest people in the Philippines with a net worth of $18.3 billion or roughly 986 billion. He also dominated the 2017 list with a net worth of $18 billion.

Before his death, Sy  also known for his rags to riches story had vacated his post as Chairman Emeritus of SM Investments Corporation, SM Prime Holdings, Inc., SM Development Corporation, Highlands Prime, Inc., and BDO Unibank, Inc. He was also Honorary Chairman of China Banking Corporation.RTHK: Location of next summit with Kim chosen: Trump

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the location has been decided for his next summit with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un, around the end of February.

"We picked a country," Trump told reporters, without giving more details.

A Vietnamese government source earlier told the AFP news agency that "logistical preparations" were under way to host the encounter, most likely in the capital Hanoi or coastal city of Danang.

The White House on Friday confirmed that the second Trump-Kim meeting would occur next month, following a rare visit to Washington by a senior North Korean general.

Vice Chairman Kim Yong-chol, a right-hand man to the North Korean strongman, met Trump at the White House on Friday for an unusually long 90 minutes as the countries seek a denuclearisation accord that could ease decades of hostility.

On Saturday, Trump said a "lot of progress" has been made on the issue.

Kim Jong-un and Trump first met in June in Singapore, where they signed a vaguely worded document in which Kim pledged to work toward the "denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula."

Progress stalled soon afterward as Pyongyang and Washington - which has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea - disagree over what that means.

The United States expects Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arsenal, doggedly built by the Kim dynasty despite sanctions and nationwide famines.

Kim, whose family has brutally ruled North Korea for three generations, is seeking guarantees of the regime's survival as well as relief from biting UN sanctions.

Analysts say that a second summit has to make tangible progress on the issue of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons if it is to avoid being dismissed as "reality TV." (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2019-01-19. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.A truck driver who crashed into a broken down car on the M50, causing the death of its driver, has received a fully-suspended sentence.

Barry Grogan (38), of Thornville Avenue, Kilbarrack, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to careless driving causing the death of Martina Loughlin near the M50 Lucan junction on November 11, 2015.

Judge Martin Nolan sentenced Grogan to one year's imprisonment but suspended the entirety of the sentence for a year, providing he keep the peace and be of good behaviour.

He also suspended Grogan from driving for four years, starting on March 18 this year.

Sergeant Padraig Jennings told Paul Murray SC, prosecuting, that just before 5am on the morning in question, Ms Loughlin was driving to her job in UCD when her car broke down and stopped on the M50 near the Lucan junction.

She sat in her car for around 17 minutes before the crash, attempting to contact her insurance company while vehicles navigated around her.

Witnesses reported being able to see the car's hazard lights, despite torrential rain.

Grogan was driving a Volvo lorry, which struck Ms Loughlin's car and propelled it 60 metres down the road.

A second vehicle drove into Ms Loughlin's car around seven seconds after the first impact. The driver of this truck does not face prosecution.

Ms Loughlin was taken from the scene and pronounced dead on November 14, 2015.

In a voluntary statement given to gardai a month after accident, Grogan said he did not see the hazard warning lights before the incident.

He said it had changed his life forever and he "really wished" it had never happened.

Devastating

In a victim impact statement read out in court, Ms Loughlin's partner and extended family described the "devastating loss" they had suffered.

"Our hearts froze in November 2015 and we fear they may never thaw," they said.

In considering the sentence, Judge Nolan remarked that he did not think "there is a person in this court who hasn't been inattentive" and said that he himself had been guilty of inattention while driving.Global technology company Salesforce has announced 1,500 jobs will be created in Dublin.

Salesforce Tower Dublin, which will be located at the city's North Quay, was announced yesterday, significantly expanding the company's regional headquarters in Ireland.

Founded in 1999, Salesforce helps companies including Ulster Bank and Brown Thomas to take advantage of techno- logies such as cloud, mobile, social and artificial intelligence to get closer to their customers.

The announcement was made before Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and nearly 1,000 Salesforce employees at an event in the Convention Centre detailing the new plans.

Deprivation

Mr Varadkar welcomed the news and highlighted that Dublin's north inner city is one of the most disenfranchised areas of the capital. He urged the company to reach out to the local community.

"As you know, your new building is located in part of the city where many large inter- national businesses have chos-en to locate. However, this part of the city is also one of some very stark contrasts," he said.

"There is enormous wealth here, cheek by jowl with deep deprivation, and many people who live in this part of the city in the north inner city have experienced deprivation, lack of opportunity and inter-generational poverty.

"As Dublin rises, and this part of the city rises, we should all rise together. I want to invite you to be very much part of this community that's going to be your new home.

"Salesforce is an important part of our technology sector, helping Ireland become the tech capital of Europe and one of the most globalised and open economies in the world.

"Ireland is open to investment, to capital, to trade, to talent and to creativity."

As part of the expansion, Salesforce.org, the charity arm of Salesforce, has already announced a $1m (880,000) grant to Educate Together, supporting the opening and running of schools in Ireland.

Salesforce's executive vice- president of real estate, Elizabeth Pinkham, said the housing crisis and lack of affordable accommodation in Dublin had been looked at before the ann- ouncement was made.

Employees

"Many of our employees do already live in the city, so we will look at that when we do move into the building," she said.

Salesforce already has more than 1,400 employees in Dublin, at its premises in Leopardstown, and more than 34,000 employees worldwide.

Employees are due to start moving into the new campus in mid-2021.The DUP's Ian Paisley has been urged by a fellow MP to reimburse a charity for the price of a first-class plane ticket to New York.

The North Antrim representative travelled to New York last February to participate in a seminar about Northern Ireland's peace process on the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

According to the House of Commons register of interests, he received 6,327.34 (7,165) to cover a 5,925.11 flight and 402.23 (455) for accommodation from the peace building charity Co-operation Ireland.

Sinn Fein MP Michelle Gildernew has called on Mr Paisley to reimburse the costs to the charity.

Sickened

She claimed she has been contacted by people who have participated in Co-operation Ireland fundraising events, and said they are "absolutely disgusted and sickened that this expense was covered".

Co-operation Ireland said it did not wish to comment.

It was reported that others who attended the New York event, including Tanaiste Simon Coveney, flew economy on the budget airline Norwegian Air.

Mr Coveney's expenses were covered by the Government.

The SDLP said another attendee, former Foyle MP Mark Durkan, also flew economy to New York. This cost was covered by Co-operation Ireland.

Mr Paisley refused to make any comment. The DUP also declined to comment.

Last year, Mr Paisley was suspended from the House of Commons for 30 days for "ser-ious misconduct" for failing to declare two family holidays to Sri Lanka in 2013.The State's longest-serving prisoner is seeking extra time to appeal his unsuccessful High Court bid for two days of temporary release per year.

Englishman John Shaw (73) has been in custody here since September 1976 when he and fellow countryman Geoffrey Evans were arrested for the abduction, rape, torture and murder of Elizabeth Plunkett (22), in Co Wicklow, and Mary Duffy (24), in Co Mayo, that year.

Shaw and Evans were both given life sentences on February 9, 1978.

Evans died in 2012 from an infection after spending more than three years in a vegetative state.

Shaw's case has been the subject of a number of reviews, first by the Sentence Review Group and subsequently the Parole Board.

In April 2016, the Prison Review Committee noted Shaw was "very frustrated that he has never got a day out of prison in his 38 years in custody".

The following June, a dynamic risk assessment of Shaw found him to be at a "high-level risk of re-offending".

Areas of particular concern to the assessors were "poor problem-solving skills, negative emotionality, deviant sexual preference, hostility towards women, general social rejection and lack of concern for others".

Treatment

In 2016, the Parole Board recommended Shaw remain in Arbour Hill Prison to allow speedy access to medical treatment and that he be granted two days of escorted outings per year.

However, the justice minister did not support the recommendation for the escorted outings, which Shaw's lawyers challenged in the High Court.

In a judgment delivered last March, Ms Justice Mary Faherty said she was satisfied that Shaw had been "afforded the full panoply of fair procedures due to him". She dismissed his application for judicial review.

Shaw lodged an appeal against the High Court judgment six months out of date. He is seeking an extension of time to appeal the High Court judgment, which lawyers for the State are opposing.A Dublin mother whose grieving son missed almost 300 days of school has been spared jail for neglecting his education.

The woman pleaded guilty at Dublin District Court to breaking the Education (Welfare) Act by not complying with official warnings about school attendance.

Her son, who will turn 16 later this year, was described as having "no education" as a result of truancy.

The court also heard he had struggled after the death of a close family member.

Judge Anthony Halpin heard the teenager had fallen so far behind at school that he would not be able to catch up with continual assessment work which is now part of the new Junior Certificate curriculum.

Prosecuted

The minimum school leaving age is 16 years, or the completion of three years of post-primary education.

The penalty on first conviction is a fine of up to 1,000 and a possible one-month sentence per charge. She was prosecuted by the Child and Family Agency (CFA).

An education and welfare officer told the court the third-year pupil had missed 292 days since he began sixth class in primary school.

The boy missed 59 out of 181, 33pc of days, in sixth class and 78 out of 167 days in his first year of secondary school a absentee rate of 37.5pc.

In his second year of secondary school he was not present on 95 out of 162 days, a rate of 59pc.

So far, in third year, he had missed 60 days and has an absentee rate of just over 70pc, Judge Halpin heard.

His mother had been invited to attend several meetings at the school but only attended one, the court heard.

The defence asked the court to note the mother was apologetic and did not have a previous conviction for this type of offence. Her other children had finished school with Leaving Certificates.

The mother explained her son had not understood when he was previously offered a place in an alternative to mainstream education on a training course. However, he now would like to try it, she said.

Judge Halpin fined her 100.Paul Behan was unhappy about coverage of his case

A man with anger management issues who was in court for throwing a chocolate bar at a shop worker interrupted his own case when he began shouting at a journalist to stop writing about him.

Paul Behan (44) was before the court for a probation report when his outburst happened and he was taken outside by his solicitor.

Judge Mary Cashin adjourned the case for the att- ention of the judge who had originally dealt with it.

Behan, of no fixed address, had pleaded guilty to threatening and abusive behaviour.

Dublin District Court heard Behan was having an argument with staff at Spar on Nassau Street last November 23 when he threw a chocolate bar at the shop assistant.

A probation report had been ordered by Judge Ann Ryan, but Judge Cashin was presiding when the case came back before the court.

Embarrassed

Defence solicitor Matthew De Courcy began addressing the court, saying the probation report was positive, when Behan sat down beside a journalist and shouted at him to "stop writing about me".

He had been "embarrassed" by previous coverage of the case and was "not a criminal".

He shouted to the judge to "tell him to stop writing about me" and "can you ask him to stop plastering it all over the papers?"

Mr De Courcy led the def-endant out of the courtroom, and when the case resumed, he said "there are difficulties" before the case was adjourned.

The court previously heard in the public order incident that Behan had been trying to buy a bar of chocolate and in the course of an argument he threw it at the staff member.Tens of thousands of children are in need of dental services

At least 84,000 children are waiting for dental services, with half of them on lists for more than a year.

The figures have been described as "truly scandalous".

They include children eligible for routine screening and follow-up treatment as well as those who need orthodontic measures such as braces.

The figures were provided to Fianna Fail by the HSE's nine Community Healthcare Organisations (CHOs).

They show, among other things, that at least 84,000 children are on waiting lists for dental assessment or treatment and 42,000 have been waiting more than a year for dental services.

Severe

The HSE provides free orthodontic treatment for patients with the most severe and complex needs.

Routine preventative and treatment services are available to children in primary schools, typically first, second and sixth classes.

Fourth class children are also being seen in some parts of the country. These services are free.

Waiting figures for routine primary school assessments may be far higher.

The CHO that covers Dublin North City and County said 24,000 primary schoolchildren were eligible for screening appointments in second, fourth and sixth classes.

It said that due to staff shortages, some of these children cannot be offered an appointment but did not say how many.

Fianna Fail's children spokesperson Anne Rabbitte said the number waiting for dental care, and the length of time they are on lists is "truly scandalous".

"The system appears to be completely haphazard, with some children not even receiving an appointment in their targeted school year," she said.

A statement from the HSE said emergency relief of pain, infection and trauma is available to all children at local HSE dental clinics on a same day or following day basis. It said around 70,000 children present each year under such circumstances.

It also said nearly one million children up to and including 15-years-old are eligible for free dental services.

The HSE said the number of dentists and consultant and specialist orthodontists employed by the HSE increased last year.

Tallaght mum-of-four Teresa Ross, who is set to pay 6,500 for braces for daughters Holly (18) and Lucy (13), said the Department of Health should provide free orthodontic dental care for all young people.After his conviction, Van Dyke was being held in isolation at a Quad Cities-area jail. The move was part of an arrangement Cook County has with other jails to move prisoners who are either high-profile, dangerous or working as cooperating witnesses in other cases.Free access for current print subscribers

As a home delivery subscriber, you get free unlimited digital access to premium content on HenryHerald.com, including local news, local sports, obituaries, legal notices, local features, and the e-edition.

All you need is your print subscription account number and your last name.

Don't know your subscription number? Email access@henryherald.com with your delivery address.

Activate your account now.To observe the deep-seated wiring of a mouses brain, Scherrer partnered with Schnitzer, who had developed a miniscope  a microscope about the length of a small paper clip, which could be affixed to a mouses head to record activity in its brain. They positioned the device strategically to visualize the amygdala. The mouse, alive and well, could stroll as it pleased, while the miniscope recorded calcium flux in the neurons, a proxy for cell activity.

The scientists monitored the mouse brains with the microscope, watched the mice detect something uncomfortable, observed the aversive reactions and then checked which neurons were active. With this setup, we identified a set of neurons in the amygdala that selectively encodes signals related to the emotional aspects of a painful experience, Schnitzer said.

When the mice touched a drop of uncomfortably hot or cold water (neither of which were severe enough to injure the mice) they withdrew, signaling to the scientists that the rodents were not pleased. Upon this withdrawal, the microscopes recording showed a bundle of neurons firing in the amygdala  specifically in the basolateral region  suggesting that these neurons were specifically responsible for the emotion of pain.

It was, however, still possible that this basolateral ensemble was simply firing to relay general emotion, rather than specifically the unpleasantness of pain. So, the researchers fed the mice sugar water  a sweet treat known to bring joy to any mouse  and kept an eye on the collection of neurons suspected to relay displeasure. As expected, those neurons stayed silent.

Theres also a difference between experiencing pain and experiencing something annoying, so we further wanted to test if the amygdala neurons active during pain were also associated with overall negative emotion, rather than pain particularly, Scherrer said.

What miffs a mouse? The same things that might bother a sibling: tiny puffs of air to the face, an unappetizingly bitter taste or a very bad smell. While bothering the mice, the researchers again monitored the basolateral amygdala pain ensemble, and here, too, the neurons remained subdued.

Tracking the perception of pain

After all of that, we concluded that this ensemble of neurons selectively responds during pain, Scherrer said. But it still didnt fully demonstrate that they underpinned the emotional response.

To investigate that question more deeply, the researchers set up a walking track with three invisible lanes: On the far left was a cold strip, on the right, a hot one; and in between the two was a temperate middle ground. (For context, walking in the two outer lanes was comparable to briefly walking barefoot on pavement in the midst of winter or summer, respectively  uncomfortable, but not permanently damaging.)

Patients who take opioids for pain report that they can still feel the sensation of pain but say its less bothersome  the emotions of pain are different.

Normal mice that walked on the track gradually learned that the middle lane was tolerable, while the outer two were unpleasant. But in a select group of mice, the researchers temporarily disabled the bundle of amygdala pain neurons thought to relay feelings of physical discomfort. These mice  free of pain-incited unpleasantness  skittered around the outer regions, undeterred by the extreme temperatures.

Whats intriguing about this, Scherrer said, was that these mice werent bereft of physical feeling. Pain was just no longer unpleasant for them, he said. The rodents could still feel and respond to physical sensations, but the stimuli they once perceived as unpleasant (hot or cold drops of water) were no longer bothersome. When exposed to a drop of hot water, for example, the mice with a muted basolateral neural ensemble would move their paw away from the dropper, signaling that they felt the stimulus  but they would move their paw back to its original position, something that normal mice did not do. This is a crucial part of harnessing the ensemble as a tool in pain therapy, Scherrer said, as an animal, or human, without the ability to physically feel anything at all leaves them vulnerable to injury.

Long term, Scherrer aims to confirm that the function of the basolateral ensemble in mice is the same as it is in people, and then down the line, find a safe and effective way to silence the ensembles function without interfering with other neurons.

Theres really no good treatment for chronic pain in humans, and thats a major driver of the opioid epidemic, Scherrer said. But youll notice, patients who take opioids for pain report that they can still feel the sensation of pain but say its less bothersome  the emotions of pain are different. Our big future hope is that the cells in the basolateral ensemble could be a tactic to curb the ailment of pain without causing addiction and thus, ideally, act as a possible substitute for opioid treatment.

Other Stanford authors of the study are former Stanford postdoctoral scholar Benjamin Grewe, PhD; and research scientist Dong Wang, PhD.

Scherrer and Schnitzer are members of Stanford Bio-X and the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grants R00DA031777, R01NS106301, K99DA043609, F32DA041029 and T32DA35165), the New York Stem Cell Foundation, the Rita Allen Foundation, the American Pain Society, the National Science Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Stanfords departments of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, of Neurosurgery, of Biologyand of Applied Physics also supported the work.These workers are not only falling behind on their bills, they are arriving to work stressed out and some struggle to concentrate, the collective of employees told the delegation of congressmen. The greater public suffers too, when air and water arent being inspected and monitored, the countrys financial systems arent being policed, and airport workers are more worried about how they will cover day care and put gas in their cars than they are about security and air traffic control, they said.



Haiti - News : Zapping...





Army : Towards the creation of a professional navy

Thursday at the military base of Gressier at the launch of the training of 250 military aspirants, https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26689-haiti-army-250-aspiring-soldiers-of-the-fad-h-in-training.html Enold Joseph, the Minister of Defense, said "today is a very important and historic day for us [...] We will build an armed force to protect the country and serve in case of natural disaster [...]" adding "The road is long, but we are working on the creation of a professional marine."



New postponement of trial Clifford Brandt

At the hearing of the former police inspector, Edner Come on January 15 and 16, after postponement to eight weeks https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26618-haiti-news-zapping.html , following a discomfort of the former inspector, Judge Denis Pierre Michel of the Criminal Court of Gonaives, decided again to postpone the session to Wednesday, January 23. See https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26412-haiti-justice-clifford-brandt-admits-to-having-sponsored-the-kidnapping-of-children-moscosso.html



The UN mission assesses the PNH

On Thursday, the diplomats of the UN strategic assessment mission met Michel-Ange Gedeon , the Director General and Commander-in-Chief of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) to assess the progress of the institution including professionalisation. The Strategic Assessment Mission concluded its second day in Haiti by meeting members of the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSPJ), a key institution to advance the rule of law in Haiti. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26681-haiti-politic-president-moise-met-a-high-level-delegation-of-the-un.html



Umpteenth plan against prolonged pretrial detention

Friday and Saturday, January 19 at the Marriott Hotel took place the launch of the Plan 2019 on the fight against prolonged pre-trial detention, by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25622-haiti-justice-the-procuratorate-of-croix-des-bouquets-tackles-prolonged-pretrial-detention.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23929-haiti-justice-3-years-of-preventive-detention-for-a-stolen-phone.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23393-haiti-justice-the-opc-wants-to-tackle-prolonged-pre-trial-detention.html



Future orientation of cooperation with the UN

Thursday in Parliament the re-elected President of the Chamber of Deputies, Gary Bodeau https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26673-haiti-politic-results-of-the-elections-of-the-bureau-of-the-chamber-of-deputies.html , met with the United Nations Mission in the country https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26681-haiti-politic-president-moise-met-a-high-level-delegation-of-the-un.html to discuss the future direction of cooperation between Haiti and the United Nations.



For a better Senate

The office of Garcia Delva congratulated the Senators for the confidence placed in the elected of the Artibonite as Vice-Questor https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26690-haiti-politic-results-of-the-elections-of-the-new-senate-bureau.html while renewing its commitment in the fight for a Senate more efficient and more indebted towards the Haitian society.



HL/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - Politic : Prevention and fight against violence in schools





The prevention and fight against violence in schools has been the focus of an important meeting between officials of the Ministry of Education and sector partners concerned with the problem of violence in schools, particularly UNICEF and Save the children https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26469-haiti-social-unacceptable-corporal-punishment-of-children-in-schools.html



Chaired by Jacques Yvon Pierre, Technical Coordinator of the Minister's Office, this meeting provided an update on the implementation of the School Code of Conduct to Combat School Violence, which is awaiting its popularization in schools, public and private to bring different actors to take action to counter violence in schools.



Following discussions around this Code and the project Action Against Violence In Haitian Schools (ACVEH), it was decided in particular:



To transform the ACVEH project into a program that will be the subject of a major popularization campaign;



Carry out a multi-sectoral workshop on the prevention and fight against violence in schools;



To set up a Committee of 6 people to work, under the coordination of the General Direction of the Ministry, on the elements of orientation of the program and the terms of reference of the Workshop whose date has not been fixed yet ;



To carry out a workshop of restitution of the existing tools with regard in particular to the Laws, the Code of conduct relating to the prevention and the fight against violence in the Haitian school.



Other working sessions should follow in the perspective of implementation of the resolutions adopted.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26469-haiti-social-unacceptable-corporal-punishment-of-children-in-schools.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-13375-haiti-education-the-minister-manigat-launches-the-fight-against-school-violence.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-13326-haiti-security-school-violence-2-students-stabbed.html



HL/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - Washington : Consensus on the disbursement of 16.5 million of support to education





After 3 days of participation in a High Level Technical Workshop at the invitation of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington DC https://www.haitilibre.com/article-26668-haiti-politique-vers-un-deblocage-de-16-5-millions-pour-des-projets-d-education.html Pierre Josue Agenor Cadet, the Minister of National Education, at the head of a delegation and the representatives of the World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF and the European Union adopted a road map on the next steps to be taken in order to make the desired changes in the Ten-Year Plan for Education and Training (PDEF) and achieve expected disbursements for education projects in Haiti.



Thus, by June 2019, the sectoral analysis of sector, a fundamental step in the PDEF's development, should be completed and finalized, a key step in the revision of the Plan to allow the disbursement of EU budget support, in particular the variable portion of funds to be allocated to education.



Minister Cadet welcomed the consensus and took the opportunity to thank the leaders of the GPE who have found a "modus vivendi" to continue to support Haiti's efforts in education.



Alice Albright, the CEO of the GPE, applauded the quality of the work done by the two teams on the US $16.5 million support for Haiti and the problems resulting from certain flaws in the process of developing of the project PDEF. She welcomed the agreement that will enable the GPE to continue to support Haiti in the field of education.



Other working meetings are planned in Port-au-Prince for the continuation of the process.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/article-26668-haiti-politique-vers-un-deblocage-de-16-5-millions-pour-des-projets-d-education.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/article-26655-haiti-education-importante-mission-du-ministre-cadet-a-washington-dc.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/article-25804-haiti-politique-derniere-ligne-droite-pour-le-plan-decennal-d-education-et-de-formation-2018-2028.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25349-haiti-politic-end-of-consultations-on-the-10-year-education-plan.html



HL / HaitiLibre





















Have any questions? Please give us a call at 520-625-5511Samsung's Galaxy M10 and M20 have been leaking left and right lately, ahead of their official unveiling on January 28. One detail that hasn't been convincingly outed so far is how much they are going to cost.

Today from "a source close to Samsung's pricing strategy" for the upcoming Galaxy M series comes news that the M10 will start at only INR 8,990 in India. That's about $126 or 110 at the current exchange rates. The M20 on the other hand will start at INR 12,990 ($182 or 160). That's definitely some bold pricing right there, but Samsung has no choice since it's feeling a lot of pressure in the subcontinent from Chinese brands such as Xiaomi and Realme.

The new Galaxy M line is expected to replace the previous Galaxy J, Galaxy C, and Galaxy On families in a bid to simplify the company's smartphone roster. A previous rumor suggested the M10 would cost INR 7,990 and the M20 would go for INR 10,990, but apparently that's not realistic, nor is the March 5 release date for the two, reported by the same outlet. Hopefully Samsung won't let more than a month pass between the official announcement of these devices and their actual availability in the market.

The Galaxy M10 will sport a 6.2-inch HD+ display with Infinity-V notch, a 13 MP + 5 MP dual rear camera system, a 5 MP selfie snapper, the Exynos 7872 SoC with hexa-core CPU, 2/3 GB of RAM, 16/32 GB of storage, and a 3,400 mAh battery. It will run Android 8.1 Oreo.

The Galaxy M20 will boast a 6.3-inch FHD+ touchscreen (also with an Infinity-V notch), the Exynos 7885 chipset at the helm, 3GB of RAM, 32/64 GB of storage, the same rear cameras as the M10, an 8 MP front-facing shooter, and a 5,000 mAh battery.

SourceThe weariness of Laquans friends and family has been evident all along. It was compounded Thursday when a judge acquitted three Chicago police officers of covering up the murder. And then Friday, at the end of the day, another judge sentenced Van Dyke to only six years and nine months, far less than was widely expected. With good behavior, he could get out of prison in just about three years.BuzzFeed News' apparently mistaken story about Michael Cohen and President Donald Trump is the highest-profile misstep yet for a news organization during a period of heightened and intense scrutiny of the press, as the special counsel's office issued a thorough rebuke of the website's story published Thursday.

Reporters at the Guardian, CNN, McClatchy News and other outlets have published disputed, suspect or uncorroborated stories about Trump and the investigation swirling around him since special counsel Robert Mueller began his probe 21 months ago. Each instance has elicited cries of "fake news" from the president and his supporters, stoking the claim that the mainstream media is biased and irresponsible.

But these disputed stories have tended to be about distinct events or actions; they were effectively clues rather than conclusions about Trump's potential criminality.

BuzzFeed's story on Thursday, written by Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier, was of a different nature and magnitude: It reported that prosecutors had detailed evidence that Trump had directed Cohen to lie to Congress about Trump's proposed office tower project in Moscow in 2016 - a direct accusation of presidential criminality. Democrats argued that would be an impeachable offense, if proved.

The big claim led to a big fall on Friday. In an extraordinary statement, Mueller's office cast doubt on BuzzFeed's report.

"BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the special counsel's office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's congressional testimony are not accurate," the statement said, challenging the central thrust of BuzzFeed's explosive story - that Mueller's team had detailed evidence of felonious acts by the president.

The fact that the normally buttoned-up special counsel's office felt compelled to issue a statement suggests that the story's conclusions were too baldly stated and too consequential to stay unchallenged. In effect, Mueller's office seemed to be saying that BuzzFeed went too far and got some things wrong, though it did not say how or what.

In fact, what it didn't say was important, too. It didn't say Mueller had no evidence that Trump had sought to influence Cohen - just that BuzzFeed's description of such statements was inaccurate. Nor did it spell out which reported statements were inaccurate and in what way. Further, it offered no details about how BuzzFeed had mischaracterized any evidence that Mueller has collected.

This gave the online news organization a small bit of daylight and some hope of vindication. In response to Mueller's office, Editor Ben Smith issued a statement saying BuzzFeed stood by its story. He urged Mueller "to make clear what he's disputing."

The Washington Post's reporting on Friday indicated that "the special counsel's office seemed to be disputing every aspect of the story that addressed comments or evidence given to its investigators."

BuzzFeed has been in the uncomfortable position of being alone on its Cohen story. No other news organization has confirmed or duplicated the story through its own reporting since BuzzFeed published it - typically a bad sign for the veracity of any reported allegation because scoops are often matched within hours when a major story breaks.

Under Smith's tenure, BuzzFeed News has split from the main BuzzFeed site and become a source of serious investigative journalism and political reporting. Its series on assassinations of people opposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize last year.

Mueller's spokesman, Peter Carr, has been a font of "no comments" to reporters since the special counsel's office began looking in May 2017 into Russian involvement in the 2016 election. He has remained silent amid tens of thousands of stories about Mueller's investigation, even as some of these press reports appeared to go off track.

No news outlet, for example, has been able to corroborate the Guardian's story in late November about a secret meeting between Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and Julian Assange, who heads WikiLeaks, the online organization that leaked thousands of emails apparently stolen by Russian hackers from the Democratic National Committee. Manafort and WikiLeaks disputed the story, which implied a connection between the Trump campaign and the leaks. The Guardian has stood by the story.

Last month, McClatchy reported that unidentified intelligence agencies had picked up cellphone signals indicating Cohen had traveled to Prague at the height of the presidential campaign in 2016, lending credence to claims in the disputed "Steele dossier" that Cohen had met secretly there with Russian officials to coordinate with Trump's campaign. Cohen has denied the story, which also hasn't been confirmed by another news organization.

CNN has published at least two disputed stories on the Russia probe.

The first, in June 2017, reported that Congress was investigating a Russian investment fund with ties to Trump transition officials. CNN retracted the article, which was based on a single anonymous source, but never said it was inaccurate; it also forced three journalists responsible for its publication to resign.

A second CNN article in July reported that Cohen intended to tell Mueller that Trump had approved a fateful meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 between Russian operatives and his top campaign officials, Manafort, Donald Trump Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner. Although one of the story's key sources - Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis - recanted his support for the claim after publication, CNN has also stood by this story, which was co-written by Carl Bernstein, one of The Post's legendary Watergate reporters.

BuzzFeed has also faced a buzz saw of criticism from Trump supporters for publishing the dossier, a collection of unconfirmed reports alleging that Russian officials held compromising information about Trump that was compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer. Trump has repeatedly denounced it as "bogus" and "a pile of garbage."

Ironically, Trump can now rely on his nemesis, Mueller, to advance his critique of BuzzFeed and the press.

Speaking to reporters Saturday, Trump called the BuzzFeed story "phony" and said the media has lost its credibility.

"I think that the Buzzfeed piece was a disgrace to our country. It was a disgrace to journalism, and I think also that the coverage by the mainstream media was disgraceful, and I think it's going to take a long time for the mainstream media to recover its credibility," he said.

Trump, who has called Robert Mueller's investigation a "witch hunt," said he appreciated the special counsel's statement: "I appreciate the special counsel coming out with a statement last night. I think it was very appropriate that they did so; I very much appreciate that."It is known in newsrooms around the country as the money shot: a photograph of local politicians holding either an oversized check or gold-plated shovels, symbols of their abilities to put tax dollars to good use. They are akin to signs posted at most public building sites: "Putting your hard-earned tax dollars to work."

Such a photo ran in this newspaper January 9. There they were, five local Republican elected officials, holding or standing next to a prop check for $17 million from the State of Connecticut as part of its payment for the ludicrously large and expensive building that will become New Lebanon School.

The photo opportunity was a chance for the now former state representative, Michael Bocchino, to claim credit for securing $17 million from the state to cover construction costs, with a promise of about $8 million more when the final bills are submitted. And, it gave First Selectman Peter Tesei a nice prop if he decides to pursue reelection.

But, in what would have been the memo section of a real bank check, the prop check read "New Lebanon School. Investing in our childrens future!" That is a deeply cynical description of what the town has, in fact, done. All the town has invested in is a new, oversized building that, when it opens, will have as many as 9 empty classrooms. Those classrooms were to house students from other parts of town, attracted by the schools phantom magnet program

The town secured the generous state funding by making an obviously phony promise to the state Board of Education that the new building would help solve a racial imbalance in the Byram neighborhood school population. To be fair, the state legislature and local school boards encouraged such schemes because they know how politically unpopular bussing and/or redistricting are with most voters. If it is claimed that a new building is designed to solve a racial imbalance issue, the state decided, a town can receive compensation for 80 percent of eligible costs; the state reimburses most school construction costs at much lower percentages and, sometimes, there is no reimbursement at all.

It has been obvious from the very start that the new New Lebanon building would not create an educational paradise, a school so outstanding that parents of elementary school children in other neighborhoods would put their children on busses for the very long journey across town.

A new building has never worked that kind of magic anywhere in Greenwich. Nor has any enriched or enhanced "magnet" curriculum ever led to school integration. Magnets have worked in overcrowded districts, but that is not Greenwichs problem. The town has empty classrooms in many elementary schools, and enrollment projections predict a stable population.

And, if you have any doubt that the school board knew it was scamming the state, you just have to consider its actions since the money was approved. New Lebanon has been a magnet school for years, with an International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum that did not attract any child outside its district. The board has had little or no discussion about a new curriculum. Recently, one school board member wondered when the town was going to start "marketing" the new magnet program to parents. Well, you cannot market what you have not yet created.

Plus, the new master plan for Greenwich school facilities, which cost $500,000 and took two years to complete, calls for spending hundreds of millions over the next 15 years to add capacity in eastern Greenwich elementary schools. If the school board really expected its shiny new Byram bauble to attract students from eastern Greenwich, why would it plan to add huge capacity to those schools? There is no expectation of any huge population increase.

Greenwich is not the only affluent Connecticut town that has taken state money under the guise of building its way out of the racial imbalance issue. But it is the only town that has had a reliably Republican state delegation for decades that has railed against runaway state spending and high taxes, and claimed the state treats Greenwich like its own ATM. That carping rings hollow when they allow themselves to gloat over taking badly needed millions of dollars from the state treasury with little more than a wink at solving a serious educational deficit. The town has stiffed several generations of students at New Lebanon, but that does not make for a good political photo op.

Depending on how one counts, the new school building has nine to 16 more classrooms than the current school population requires. Do not be surprised if all Pre-K classes move from their current home in backcountrys Parkway School to Byram.

When the check photo appeared, people turned to Twitter and Facebook to reiterate their claims that the school was too big and would not function as planned. At least state Rep. Fred Camillo was honest in defense of his position.

"I dont think any of us disagree with your school size points," Camillo replied to a tweet from Byram resident Alex Popp, who attributed Bocchinos loss in his home neighborhood, in part, to his support of the wasteful building project. "But I dont think people (voters) in any of the neighborhoods were even focused on this, which I think is wrong because Mike worked really hard to overcome the governors objections and secure the funding."

Camillo may be right, but those voters have watched construction for more than a year now, and Bocchino took every opportunity he could to highlight his "heroics" in getting state funding. It is possible voters realize that they pay state taxes, too. And a wasted state tax dollar is still a waste, even if it is spent in Greenwich.

A veteran Democratic legislator who headed the state Education Committee in the House also lost at the polls. State Rep. Andrew Fleischmann did not even make it past the Democratic primary, even though he campaigned largely on his ability to secure state funds for West Hartford.

I give Camillo credit for not whitewashing his vote. But that was the easy way out. His future criticisms of wasteful state spending will ring all the hollower because he supported what he knew to be an unnecessary and expensive project, just because he thought his hometown voters supported it.

Bob Horton can be reached at bobhorton@yahoo.com.Morris, a 42-year-old racial and social justice advocate, said the harassment escalated from the time she won the Democratic primary for reelection in 2016 until her resignation last September. Swastikas appeared on trees along walking trails near her property, she said. Her car and her home were broken into, she reported to police. When she went to cast a vote at her polling place in November 2016, Misch was there staring at her, according to Donovan's report.

That's when she decided to seek the restraining order, which a judge granted. But as soon as it expired a year later, Misch continued targeting her, according to the report.

"You will never silence me," he wrote to her on Twitter, the report says. "Every time you attend a political rally at the Four Corners or another local venue and I'm aware of the event, I will troll the hell out of you and the other subversives there. Maybe I'll bring a friend or three with me too."

He said in another tweet, "Stop pushing 'social justice' on your nearly entirely White constituency in Bennington, VT."

Once Morris resigned in September, one person wrote to her, "Thanks for resigning, now please move out of my state," said her husband, James Lawton, who read the messages aloud at the news conference.It's an area that cuts a wide swath through the heart of Greensboro, where the U.S. Census Bureau said nearly one in five families had annual incomes of less than $15,000.

Last year, the United Way selected the Salvation Army to run a second site at its Center of Hope on Eugene Street  which already provides help for the needy  in order to offer job training, GED classes and other programs to those who want it.

"There's a lot of work to get done, to be done, but we are up for the challenge," said Lucas, the Center of Hope's executive director.

As lead agency, the Salvation Army plans to hire a full-time project manager instead of tacking on the responsibility to Lucas or someone else on staff.

The transition has been taking place for months. Some of the nonprofit's administrative offices were moved to another part of campus to make room for participating partners. Some of the space is taken up by the children's center, which will provide free care while parents are taking classes, on job interviews or participating in related activities.

Lucas expects a lot of incremental steps for some people while others take off.In 1915, Germany carried out its first air raid on Britain during World War I as a pair of Zeppelins dropped bombs onto Great Yarmouth and Kings Lynn in England.

In 1937, millionaire Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record by flying his monoplane from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.

In 1942, during World War II, a German submarine sank the Canadian liner RMS Lady Hawkins off Cape Hatteras, N.C., killing 251 people; 71 survived.

In 1944, the federal government relinquished control of the nations railroads to their owners following settlement of a wage dispute.

In 1953, CBS-TV aired the widely watched episode of I Love Lucy in which Lucy Ricardo, played by Lucille Ball, gave birth to Little Ricky. (By coincidence, Ball gave birth the same day to her son, Desi Arnaz Jr.)

In 1955, a presidential news conference was filmed for television and newsreels for the first time, with the permission of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In 1966, Indira Gandhi was chosen to be prime minister of India by the National Congress party.In August 2018, Regester traveled to Senegal to gather data that would help NASA plan this New Years flyby of Ultima Thule. He and other scientists measured the size, shape, reflectivity and position of the object by observing it pass in front of a distant star. By pinpointing the exact length of time the stars light was blocked, they calculated these figures and collected information about possible moons, rings or debris that could be collision hazards for New Horizons.

As the spacecraft made its closest approach to Ultima Thule, Regester reflected on the significance of the moment.

Science is about expanding the boundaries of human knowledge, and with New Horizons we are literally exploring the boundaries of our solar system, he said. The people who built, launched and operate New Horizons are a dedicated and hardworking team. It has been a privilege to contribute.

Regester explains that the data collected during the flyby of such a distant space object  about 4 billion miles away  will lead to a greater understanding of how the planets were formed.

Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.Daphne Technology SA, an innovator in emissions mitigation technology for the shipping industry, closed a series A financing round led by Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures (SAEV), the corporate venturing subsidiary of Aramco, and joined by The Innovation Fund, a Belgian fund active in the fields of chemistry and life sciences.

Daphne Technology SA is developing a catalyst-free scrubber technology to help the petrochemical, power and transportation industries to reduce air emissions to the levels required by international and national regulations. Daphne Technologys patented nanotechnology based solutions can be miniaturized and is especially well-suited to meet the requirements of marine vessels.

Daphne Technologys innovation allows marine vessels to be compliant with current and pending International Maritime Organisation (IMO) regulations economically and sustainably.

The technology transforms the pollutants into valuable by-products (agricultural fertilizers) and thus is fully circular, producing no waste.

This is in contrast with current solutions that produce waste chemicals that are discharged in expensive facilities or into the ocean when allowed.

Daphne Technology SA is a spin-off from The Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne (EPFL) incorporated in 2017 with headquarters at the EPFL Innovation Park. Our technology is being developed with support from the Swiss Plasma Center and the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN).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.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Brexit negotiator says EU to change agreement if UK's red lines change: report

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 07:22, January 18, 2019

LISBON, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- European Union (EU) Chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said here on Thursday that the EU will immediately change the exit agreement if the UK's red lines change, Portuguese Lusa News Agency reported.

"The red lines are from the UK, they are not ours, and they d doors" in negotiating the exit agreement, Barnier said in Portugal's parliament while defending the agreement already negotiated as "the best possible".

"If the United Kingdom fiddles with the red lines, we move immediately. If they want more, we're ready," he said, cited by Lusa.

The EU official said that all models are available but he stressed that "everyone has rights and obligations."

"We respect the British will and respect the red lines, as we respect the principle of the single market and the indivisibility of the four freedoms," he said.

At a joint press conference with Barnier on Thursday, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said that Portugal is fully politically aligned with European Union institutions on the UK's departure from the EU.

"The attitude of the (European) Council and Commission has been exemplary and what we want is for the United Kingdom to be able to respond to the professional, responsible and clear way in which negotiations on the European side have been conducted by Michel Barnier," Costa said.

The British parliament rejected on Tuesday the UK's exit agreement negotiated by the government of Prime Minister Theresa May with Brussels by a 432-202 vote.US Senator Meets Turkish Leader to Defuse Tensions

By Dorian Jones January 18, 2019

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with visiting U.S Senator Lindsey Graham in Ankara Friday, in the latest effort to defuse bilateral tensions over Syria.

Turkish forces remain massed on the northeast Syrian border, poised to launch an offensive against the YPG Kurdish militia, a critical American ally in the war against Islamic State. Ankara deems the YPG terrorists linked to an insurgency inside Turkey.

Differences over Syria saw Erdogan shun U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton earlier this month when he visited Ankara. Graham met not only with Erdogan but withTurkey's defense and foreign ministers and intelligence chief.

"At our meeting, w/ U.S. Senator @LindseyGrahamSC discussed recent developments in #Syria and #Turkey -#US bilateral relations," tweeted Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Ahead of his visit, Graham appeared to reach out to Ankara by addressing key Turkish concerns.

"I have long contended that there are elements among the Syrian Kurds that represent a legitimate national security threat to Turkey. Turkey's concern regarding YPG elements must be addressed in a real way to ensure that Turkey's borders are secure and are protected from any threats," wrote Graham.

The meeting marks the senator's second with Erdogan in six months. Graham is a member of three powerful Senate committees: Foreign Relations, Budget, and Appropriations. Analysts suggest the senator's relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump explains Ankara's warm reception.

"He is very close to Donald Trump, he is a man of confidence to Trump," said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara's Middle East Technical University. "He is more politician than John Bolton who is considered more a diplomat. So Graham's visit is a higher level of meeting in Ankara's eyes, so it's welcomed in Ankara. I am sure Trump has sent him." Bagci added.

Analysts point out Erdogan sees Trump as his only trusted interlocutor, blaming U.S. officials for the current bilateral tensions. Erdogan welcomed Trump's decision to withdraw from Syria; however, the Turkish president condemned what he said were attempts by senior U.S. officials to delay the withdrawal and link it to conditions including guaranteeing YPG security.

Graham has criticized Trump's decision to withdraw from Syria, claiming it was premature in the war against Islamic State. The senator's talks in Ankara reportedly focused on America's Syria withdrawal and Ankara's threatened military operation in Syria.

"We won't stop until we drain the terrorist swamp next door (referring to Syria). We won't rest until justice is served," presidential communications director Fahrettin Altun wrote on Twitter Friday. "Terrorists have killed more than 2,000 innocent people in Turkey since 2015. Many of those attacks were planned in northern Syria. The Turkish people suffered more than their fair share," Altun added.

Analysts suggest Ankara is not looking for a confrontation with Graham. "I expect Turkey will offer some concessions to the United States," said Bagci, "because even though Turkey has the military capability to intervene in Syria and control the area, without American green light, it would be very difficult for Turkey."

Ankara is seeking common ground with Trump's proposal to create a buffer zone in Syria between the Kurdish militia and the Turkish border.

Erdogan welcomed the proposal but maintains that Turkish forces will create the 30-kilometer deep zone into Syria. The YPG leadership is strongly opposed, warning it would resist.

"If Turkish forces created the 30-kilometer buffer zone, the YPG forces would have nowhere to go; there is only desert beyond," said Aydin Selcen, a former senior Turkish diplomat. "The alternative is for them to disarm."

Turkish pro-government media are filled with reports of American conspiracies. "Their steps with respect to forming a 32-kilometer safe zone on our Syria border is a new distraction trick," wrote columnist Tamer Korkmaz in Turkey's Yeni Safak newspaper, Friday. "They want to delay Turkey's possible military operation, and if possible, prevent it. Would they accept the kind of buffer zone Turkey wants?" he continued.

Since Trump has proposed the Syrian buffer zone, no details have been provided by Washington on how it will be created or enforced. Graham reportedly discussed the zone during his talks in Ankara.

Analysts warn Ankara could also face pushback from Arab countries in the region if it acted unilaterally.

"Turkey ultimately will not be allowed to control this area," said Bagci. "Some Arab countries will consider this an occupation of Arab lands. So that Turkey would be viewed as an aggressive revisionist state, from a historical perspective, as this is all formally land belonging to the Ottoman empire. Turkey has to convince the world that Turkey is protecting the Kurds from the Syrian Assad regime, rather than just fighting terrorism," he said, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia too has voiced concern about a Turkish incursion, saying Syria has to approve of it. Erdogan is due to visit Moscow next week to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. "Turkey has a weak hand, with Russia, America and Damascus opposed to any Syrian military operation," said Bagci.Turkish Troops Open Retaliatory Fire on Kurds in Tall Rifat  Defence Ministry

Sputnik News

20:24 18.01.2019

ANKARA (Sputnik)  The Turkish troops, deployed in Syria's Afrin, opened fire on Friday at the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in response to the latter's fire from the city of Tall Rifat, the Turkish Defense Ministry said in a statement.

"Units of the Turkish Armed Forces, deployed in Afrin, gave a relevant response to the attack by YPG terrorists from Tall Rifat," the statement said.

The ministry's comment comes after in early December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Ankara was ready to launch a military operation against Kurdish militias  which it considers to be terrorist groups  on the eastern bank of the Euphrates as well as in Syria's Manbij, located near the Turkish border, if the United States did not facilitate the pullout of the militia from the region.

Erdogan later said that the operation had been postponed following his December 14 phone conversation with US President Donald Trump, who later announced plans to withdraw US troops from Syria.

 SputnikUS May Send Warship Through Taiwan Strait Amid China Tensions - Navy Chief

Sputnik News

19:23 18.01.2019(updated 19:26 18.01.2019)

In late October 2018, the Pentagon sent two US Navy vessels through the Taiwan Strait, in the second such operation that year. Beijing voiced serious concern about the move, while Taiwanese officials claimed that the island's defence ministry was in full control of the situation and "has the ability to maintain the security of the seas".

The US Navy doesn't rule out sending an aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait despite risks related to China's increasing military capabilities, Admiral John Richardson, chief of the US's naval operations, said.

"We don't really see any kind of limitation on whatever type of ship could pass through those waters. We see the Taiwan Strait as another [stretch of] international waters, so that's why we do the transits," he told a Tokyo news briefing.

Richardson also stressed that the US is opposed to any unilateral action by Beijing or Taipei, urging China to stick to international rules during unplanned naval encounters at sea.

His remarks came after Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated earlier this month that Beijing would not rule out the use of force in the Taiwan Strait and insisted the island should ultimately be reunited with the mainland.

Earlier, Beijing expressed concern over the presence of a US vessel in the Taiwanese port of Kaohsiung and called on Washington and Taipei to cease all military contacts.

Commander Nate Christensen, deputy spokesman for US Pacific Fleet, in turn said that "the ships' transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific," adding that "the US Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows".

Last year, the US Navy sent warships through the Taiwan Strait three times, but it has not dispatched an aircraft carrier to the strategic waterway in more than ten years.

China has consistently said that Taiwan is the most sensitive issue in its diplomatic ties with the United States, with the second biggest economy in the world viewing the island as a wayward Chinese province.

The United States, along with many other countries, does not recognise Taiwan as a sovereign nation and officially sticks to the "One China" policy. Despite this, Washington has kept informal relations with the island nation after severing diplomatic ties with it in 1979.

Donald Trump was the first president since Jimmy Carter to directly speak with the Taiwanese leader, and in 2017, the US Congress passed the National Defence Authorisation Act which authorised naval military cooperation between the US and Taiwan.

 Sputnik'One country, two systems' is not viable for Taiwan: MAC

ROC Central News Agency

2019/01/18 20:24:57

Taipei, Jan. 18 (CNA) China's "One country, two systems" formula has long been a failed policy and is never going to work, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said Friday.

The statement was a response to comments made by China's Taiwan Affairs Office Director Liu Jieyi () Thursday, in which he called the "one country, two systems" formula the best arrangement for national reunification.

MAC characterized Liu's statement as being full of "deception and lies," adding that asking Taiwan to accept the formula is like asking a tiger for its hide.

China's one-party dictatorship does not promote democratic and civilized ideas, nor foster accountable governance and institutions, MAC said.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) cannot be trusted, and the "one country, two systems" formula ensures no democratic freedoms, the statement added.

Moreover, Taiwan's constitutional system does not allow the implementation of "one country, two systems," MAC noted.

The formula aims to undermine Taiwan's sovereignty and democratic institutions, the statement said.

The statement also noted that polls in Taiwan consistently show that more than 80 percent of Taiwanese reject the formula.

In addition, China's political and social system is rigid and full of defects making it unable to integrate with a democratic system, added MAC.

Finally, the statement reiterated that the Republic of China (Taiwan) is a sovereign country and as such democracy and freedom are core values Taiwanese society holds dear and will fight to keep.

"We have already seen the deception of the CPC and will never accept the 'one country, two systems' formula," MAC said.

"The international community is also aware of China's attempts to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait," the statement said.

(By Miao Zong-han and Chung Yu-chen)

Enditem/AWIsrael Reveals More about Its Military Engagement with Iran in Syria

By Jamie Dettmer January 18, 2019

Israel has been conducting military operations against Iran on Syrian soil for more than two years.

Many missions have been shrouded in secrecy, but this week the Israelis offered rare confirmation of an airstrike on an Iranian weapons cache located near Damascus' international airport.

And Israel's outgoing military chief, General Gadi Eisenkot, went into greater public detail about the conflict before handing off to his successor, General Aviv Kochavi, a 54-year-old former paratrooper.

With Syria's long-running civil war winding down and Israel determined to thwart Iran from entrenching militarily near its borders, the unusual admission about the air raid last Sunday and the readiness of Eisenkot to discuss how Israel has been striking at Iran inside Syria highlights the risks of escalation, say analysts.

Eisenkot, who retired Tuesday after 40 years of service in the Israeli Defense Force, told Britain's Sunday Times, "In January 2017 we began attacking the infrastructure the Iranians were building in Syria. The critical mass was from mid-2017. We began attacking systematically a number of times each week. Without making any statements. Beneath the radar."

Both Israel and Iran, Russia's partner in propping up the government of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, are maneuvering as they draw up their strategies to secure their national interests for dealing with post-civil war Syria. Israel's Institute for National Security Studies, an influential research institute with Tel Aviv University, argued this week in its annual assessment that "Israel needs to prepare for the possibility that its battle to keep Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria may have to be expanded to Lebanon or to Iran directly."

"Most of the fronts facing Israel are very volatile: Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. In all three, despite the existence of mutual deterrence between the sides, there is a potential for escalation toward a broad confrontation and a general war, more than one front at a time," the institute said.

According to the institute's report, which was released at the official residence of Israel's prime minister, the most serious threat facing Israel would be an all-out war in the north that would include Iran, Hezbollah and Syria.

"Such a confrontation would also likely spill over to the south, and Israel would additionally find itself battling terrorist organizations from the Gaza Strip," it warned.

Israel's strikes against Iran inside Syria began around 2013, when Israel bombed convoys carrying Iranian weapons to its ally Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi'ite militia which fought a bloody war with Israel in 2006. Eisenkot acknowledged that Israel had also supplied some anti-Assad rebel groups with small arms, something long suspected but not confirmed by Israeli officials.

Russia's role

The airstrikes since 2017 have directly targeted Iranian bases. One air raid in May was mounted on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Moscow to visit Russian leader Vladimir Putin, a trip designed to gain from the Kremlin a promise to try to restrain Iran from establishing permanent bases in Syria.

Putin agreed to try to ensure that Iranian forces would stay at least 15 kilometers away from Israel's border with Syria. His foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, publicly announced that "only representatives of the Syrian Arab Republic's army should stand at Syria's border with Syria."

Most analysts say the Kremlin, which has done much to woo Israel, has limited influence on Tehran and that Russia's balancing act among Israel, Assad and Iran is likely to test even Putin's diplomatic agility. In September, Russia ignored longstanding Israeli objections and announced the delivery of S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Syria.

Israel's intentions

In the meantime, Netanyahu's public confirmation of last Sunday's airstrikes near the Damascus international airport and Eisenkot's outlining of operations are clear indications that Israel has no intention of letting up.

Eisenkot said Israel has "carried out thousands of attacks without taking responsibility and without asking for credit." He said Israel dropped 2,000 bombs on Iranian targets inside Syria in 2018 alone. Missile strikes have also been launched and he acknowledged some special forces ground operations have been conducted.

Israeli officials say they hope Syria's Assad may want to restrain the Iranians, too, once he has consolidated his grip on the country, even though Iran will seek strategic returns for its backing of him. Regardless of what Assad does, Netanyahu emphasized at a Cabinet meeting this week that Israel would continue with airstrikes as long as an Iranian presence remains in Syria.

That drew a chorus of public threats from Iranian military commanders, including from Mohammad Ali Jafari, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who warned, "Know that you are playing with the tail of the lion. Fear the day Iran's precision missiles land on your head."Turkey Warns Syrian Army Against Entering Manbij

Sputnik News

14:59 18.01.2019

The statement came a few days after at least four US servicemen were killed in a suicide bombing in the northern Syrian city of Manbij. Daesh* (ISIS) reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred amid the ongoing US troop withdrawal from Syria, announced by President Trump in December 2018.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy has warned Syrian government forces not to take over the city of Manbij in northern Syria.

"The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) should not be allowed to let forces of the regime [of Syrian President Bashar Assad] enter Manbij," Aksoy told a news briefing on Friday.

He also noted that "the withdrawal of American troops from Syria should not play into the hands of YPG terrorists and the [Kurdish] Democratic Union Party (PYD)".

The remarks came after an Operation Inherent Resolve spokesperson tweeted earlier this week that several US servicemen had been among the 16 people killed in a suicide bombing in the northern Syrian town of Manbij. The terrorist group Daesh reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.

The spokesperson added that the US servicemen were killed during an explosion while conducting a routine patrol in Manbij.

The bombing occurred following US President Donald Trump's announcement in December that Washington plans to withdraw roughly 2,000 US troops from Syria within the next several months, in a move that Trump claimed can be explained by the fact that American forces had implemented their task of obliterating Daesh in the Arab country.

In early June, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglug agreed on a roadmap related to the pullout of YPG forces from Manbij in order to maintain stability in the area.

In mid-January, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Ankara will create a 32-kilometre safe zone in Syria, earlier suggested by the US, and that the zone may be expanded in the future.

Ankara has repeatedly expressed concerns over US support for the YPG, which is viewed by Turkish authorities as an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), designated as a terrorist organisation in Turkey.

Ankara blames Washington for failing to fulfil its promises regarding the withdrawal of the YPG, which liberated Manbij from Daesh in June 2016.

*Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State), a terrorist group banned in Russian and a host of other countries

 SputnikTurkey Opposes Damascus' Control Over Syrian Manbij

Sputnik News

16:40 18.01.2019(updated 16:58 18.01.2019)

ANKARA (Sputnik)  Ankara opposes the presence of Syrian government troops in Manbij and considers clearing the region of the Kurdish-led People's Protection Units (YPG) a matter of national security, the Turkish Foreign Ministry's spokesman Hami Aksoy said Friday.

"In no case can we facilitate provocations by the Syrian regime [Damascus] in Manbij, as well as attempts by members of the YPG to open the door to the regime's forces. Clearing the YPG out of Manbij is a matter of national security for us. The terrorist attack in Manbij once again showed the importance of clearing the region of terrorists and the need to implement the road map for Manbij," Aksoy told reporters.

His comments come after on Wednesday, about two dozen people, including up to five US servicemen, were killed in Manbij in an explosion for which the Daesh* terrorist group claimed responsibility.

In December, the YPG announced its withdrawal from Manbij and called on Damascus to take control of the city to protect the area in the event Ankara launched a military operation against the Kurds.

*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organization banned in Russia

 SputnikLebanon FM calls on Arab League to restore Syria's membership

Iran Press TV

Fri Jan 18, 2019 04:21PM

Lebanon's Caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil has called on the Arab League to restore Syria's membership in the regional organization, describing attempts to block the move as a "historic mistake."

"We Arab nations don't know how to look out for each other. Arab states continue to trade blame for suffering across the region rather than assembling plans to alleviate it," Bassil said as he opened the first session of an Arab economic summit in Beirut on Friday.

Among the biggest challenges facing Arab nations, the top Lebanese diplomat said, are war, malnutrition and poverty, in addition to extremism and the denial of women's basic rights.

"Let's build a united Arab economic vision, based on the political principle of not attacking each other," Bassil said.

"Syria should return to us... Syria should be in our embrace instead of throwing it into the embrace of terrorism," he pointed out.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammad al-Hakim recently said the Baghdad government supports the restoration of Syria's membership in the Arab League.

"We discussed solutions to eliminate terrorism in Syria and support the Syrian government, its territorial integrity and sovereignty," Hakim said at a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in Baghdad on Monday.

"We also discussed supporting Iraq's efforts to restore Syria's (membership) to the Arab League," he added.

On January 8, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said the incumbent Damascus government needs to implement a number of measures toward the political settlement of the ongoing Syrian crisis in order for the conflict-plagued country to reinstate its membership in the Arab League.

Speaking at a joint press conference with his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita in Cairo, Shoukry said such measures are required "in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolution 2254," which endorses a road map for a peace process in Syria, and sets out the outlines of a nationwide ceasefire.

"There's a need to get out of the current crisis in Syria within the political framework sponsored by the UN envoy in Geneva," the top Egyptian diplomat 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."

Bahrain's Foreign Ministry announced in a statement on December 28, 2018 that work at the kingdom's embassy "in the Syrian Arab Republic was going on whilst the Embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic to the Kingdom of Bahrain was carrying out its duties and flights connecting the two countries were operational without interruption."

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 last year, 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 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 have been aiding Takfiri terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the country.20 Syrian civilians killed as new US-led airstrikes target Dayr al-Zawr

Iran Press TV

Fri Jan 18, 2019 06:24PM

Nearly two dozen civilians, mostly women and children, have been killed after the US-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group carried out a series of aerial assaults in Syria's troubled eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.

Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Syria's official news agency SANA on Friday that 20 people were killed when US-led warplanes bombarded residential buildings in al-Baghuz al-Tahtani village.

The US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against what are said to be Daesh targets inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate.

The military alliance has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of achieving its declared goal of destroying Daesh.

Syria has on numerous occasions condemned airstrikes by the US-led coalition, asking the UN to force Washington and its allies to put an end to their military intervention in the Arab country.

On November 13, the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates stated that continued airstrikes by the US-led coalition against ordinary people and civilian targets show the alliance's reckless disregard for the UN Charter as well as international law.

The ministry, in two separate letters addressed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the rotating president of the Security Council Francisco Antonio Cortorreal, said that the crimes being perpetrated by the US-led coalition attested to the fact that the alliance had only sought to nurture Daesh and help it expand.

The ministry then called on the UN Security Council to shoulder its responsibilities, and adopt immediate and effective measure to stop US-led airstrikes, mass killings and systematic destruction of Syria's infrastructure.

It also demanded the establishment of an independent and impartial international mechanism to investigate the crimes, punish the perpetrators and compensate the families of victims.

The letters highlighted that the continued silence of the Security Council against these attacks, neglect of its responsibilities to maintain international peace and security and its inaction to prevent war crimes and crimes against humanity would lead to a very disturbing culture of impunity and would thus undermine the Council, the UN General Assembly and other major world bodies.Syrian civilians martyred in US-led coalition airstrikes

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Jan 18, IRNA -- Twenty civilians, including women and children, have been killed in new airstrikes carried out by the US-led international coalition in al-Baghouz Foqani village, in Deir Ezzor south-eastern countryside.

Local sources said that 20 civilians were martyred, including women and children, and several more were injured on Friday as a result of airstrikes by the US-led international coalition on al-Baghuz Foqani village and its surrounding in Soseh township, al-Boukamal area in Deir Ezzor south-eastern countryside, the Syrian News Agency (SANA) reported.

The sources pointed out that the aggression targeted dozens of families while trying to escape from the areas where Daesh terrorists are positioned.

According to the sources, the death toll is likely to rise as most of the wounded sustained serious injuries.

The US-led coalition regularly carries out airstrikes and commits massacres under the pretext of fighting against Daesh terrorist group.

Since it was illegally formed outside the jurisdiction of the UN Security Council in August 2014, under the pretext of fighting Daesh, the coalition has been committing massacres against innocent civilians, killing hundreds of people, injuring others and destroying infrastructure.

Syria has repeatedly demanded, through dozens of letters to the UN Secretary General and UNSC President, a serious and an immediate action to stop such attacks and massacres and to take necessary measures to set an independent international mechanism to probe into these crimes.

8072**1771Manbij Blast Reflects IS's Deep Reach in Syria

By Jeff Seldin January 17, 2019

With a single deadly blast Wednesday, the Islamic State group did more than rattle the calm in the northern Syrian town of Manbij. The terror group also rekindled the debate over its much-heralded demise.

Moments after a suicide bomber was sent into a patrol of U.S. troops and their Syrian counterparts, four Americans and five U.S.-backed fighters lay dead or dying, while images of bodies and blood-splattered walls were being shared across social media, finding their way into news articles and broadcasts.

But to officials and analysts who have been studying the collapse of the self-declared caliphate, the attack, while brutal, likely was not shocking.

"ISIS maintains the capacity to pursue opportunistic attacks and present itself as an enduring security challenge in Syria," said Nicholas Glavin, formerly a researcher at the U.S. Naval War College's Center on Irregular Warfare and Armed Groups, using an acronym for the terror group.

For more than a year, U.S. intelligence and defense officials have warned publicly that IS was finding ways to adapt to its mounting losses, sustaining enough manpower and resources to do damage.

IS in Iraq

In Iraq, where the caliphate had collapsed, IS cells carried out attacks on critical infrastructure, targeting water supplies, power lines and cell towers.

Local officials said other cells carried out campaigns of assassinations and kidnappings.

"They have deep, in some cases, familial links," Christopher Maier, the director of the Defense Department's Defeat ISIS Core Task Force, told VOA. "It's going to be fundamentally, I think, hard to see what these threats look like until they manifest."

U.S. officials have yet to confirm Wednesday's deadly attack in Manbij was indeed the work of IS, though they believe it likely was.

Yet they worry that the way in which it was carried out and the way in which IS moved to capitalize on it could be a sign the group's network of family, friends and sympathizers are well-placed for a long fight in Syria as well.

For example, despite having been kicked out of Manbij in 2016, IS knew when and where to strike, targeting the patrol near the restaurant where U.S. troops were known to stop to meet with their coalition counterparts.

"There's a good chance the group had spotters engaged in surveillance in the immediate vicinity who informed Islamic State's local intelligence and security officials in real time to dispatch the suicide bomber," said Jade Parker, a former counterterrorism analyst in support of U.S. military activities.

"If this is the case, it appears as though the Islamic State intelligence and security services have not been as thoroughly degraded as some have claimed," Parker added.

Abilities of IS

The ability of IS to quickly claim responsibility, sharing details such as the name of the suicide bomber and the U.S.-backed coalition's immediate response, also indicates its propaganda machine is still dangerous.

"Propaganda-wise, ISIS remains extremely intact," said Raphael Gluck, co-founder of Jihadoscope, a company that monitors online activity by Islamist extremists.

"They may not be releasing the amount of videos they once were, and perhaps content might not be lingering on social media as it used to, but a very steady flow of Islamic State media remains," Gluck said.

It is those types of indications of the Islamic State's resiliency that have long worried defense and intelligence officials, who have repeatedly argued that no one should confuse the collapse of the terror group's caliphate with its lasting defeat.

"We're under no illusion that we're dealing with a long-term challenge," Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a conference on defeating IS in October. "We know from previous experience that when you relieve pressure on the threat, they will take the ability to reconstitute."Russia Accuses US of Creating Medium and Short-Range Missiles, INF Fate in Limbo

Sputnik News

13:33 18.01.2019(updated 15:48 18.01.2019)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his German counterpart Heiko Maas discussed the future of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, the situation in Syria and the Nord Stream 2 project at a joint press conference in Moscow.

Sergei Lavrov said the United States has already started working on the creation of medium- and short-range missiles.

"In the event of the collapse of this document, our practical actions will depend on how other countries, which already possess such weapons," Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow.

Lavrov added that Russia tested the 9M729 missile at the range allowed under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, and has so far received no proof of the alleged range violation.

"Only last fall, they [the United States] named two dates when, according to their estimates, tests that violated the INF treaty took place. We explained to them that the tests had indeed taken place, but the range was allowed by the treaty. We asked them to provide some concrete proof of the range violation, such as satellite pictures or something else, but have not received anything," Lavrov told a press conference after talks with his German counterpart Heiko Maas.

Russia is ready to continue the dialogue with the United States in order to save the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, Sergei Lavrov said.

"Despite the failure, due to the ultimatum-like position of the United States, of consultations that took place between Russian and American experts in Geneva on January 15, we are still ready to continue a professional, concrete conversation with facts in hand in order to try to save this crucial treaty, which provides a significant degree of strategic stability," Lavrov told reporters.

He said the Russian and German sides, at the talks in Moscow, had considered the situation resulting from the US decision to withdraw from the INF in detail.

"The entire architecture of arms control, including the New START, including the prospects for further nuclear disarmament and the sustainability of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, is in jeopardy," Lavrov said.

Commenting the INF treaty, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that that the scope of the treaty should be expanded by means of a new document that would include other countries, such as China, in the agreement.

"Today, there are too many new [weapons] systems, such as autonomous weapons systems and weapons in cyberspace, so that a treaty is necessary that would go beyond the scope of INF Treaty regulations and would regulate new technological capabilities," Maas said at a press conference after a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Maas noted that besides Russia and the United States, other states developing weapons systems, such as China, should be subject "to a new form of international arms control and new architecture in this area."

He added that Germany if afraid of a new round of the arms race.

Earlier, EU member states voiced concerns over the US pull-out of the INF Treaty. In December, Heiko Maas stressed that Berlin would oppose the deployment of new medium-range missiles on European soil in the event of the INF Treaty's dissolution.

In October 2018, US President Donald Trump said that Washington intended to leave the INF Treaty, accusing Russia of violating it numerous times. In turn, Moscow rejected all the accusations, noting that Russia would be forced to take measures to ensure its security if the treaty was terminated by the United States.

Recently, US Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson announced that the US is planning to commence its withdrawal from the INF Treaty beginning 2 February.

The INF Treaty, signed by the United States and Soviet Union in 1987, bans ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 300 miles to 3,400 miles.

Ceasefire in Syria's Idlib De-Escalation Zone

Commenting the situation in Syria, the Russian foreign minister stressed that Jabhat al-Nusra* now occupies 70 per cent of Idlib Province, the demilitarised zone in northwestern parts of the Arab state.

"It also worries us that in Idlib, contrary to the agreements on creating the demilitarized zone there, Jabhat al-Nusra dominates and violates the demilitarized zone. About 70% of this territory is already occupied by terrorists; they are trying to attack the Syrian army's positions, settlements and they are trying to threaten our military air base in Hmeymim," Lavrov said.

According to him, this is one "of the acute problems, because it is infinitely impossible to maintain this last major hotbed of terrorism in Syria."

Idlib remains the last major insurgency stronghold in Syria. Russia along with Turkey and Iran are guarantors of the ceasefire regime in Syria.

Nord Stream 2 Project

Speaking about the Nord Stream 2 project, Lavrov said that Russia appreciates Germany's support and values Berlin's understanding that the pipeline is a commercial project aimed at boosting Europe's energy security.

"We appreciate it that the German government continues to support construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and sees it as a commercial initiative aimed at diversifying natural gas supply routes and ultimately improving Europe's energy security," the minister said at a press conference with his German counterpart Heiko Maas in Moscow.

Nord Stream 2 is a joint venture of Russia's Gazprom and five European companies: French Engie, Austrian OMV AG, UK-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, German Uniper, and Wintershall.

*Jabhat al-Nusra is a terrorist group banned in Russia

 SputnikGerman Foreign Minister Urges Russia To Save INF Treaty

January 18, 2019

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has urged Russia to help prevent a new arms race by saving a key arms treaty with the United States.

Speaking during a visit to Moscow on January 18, Maas called on Moscow to destroy a type of missile that Washington alleges violates the treaty.

U.S. President Donald Trump last year announced that the United States will pull out of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty because of Russian violations.

Reacting to Maas's remarks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied Russia had violated the INF treaty.

In comments quoted by Russia media, Lavrov said U.S. officials had informed Moscow that their decision was final and not open to negotiation.

Washington has said it will exit the treaty in early February if Moscow does not end its violations.

Russia denies the missile in question -- referred to as the 9M729 -- violates the INF treaty.

Maas also said the INF treaty was necessary but not sufficient given the emergence of new technologies since the treaty was originally signed.

Maas highlighted cyberwarfare as an example of such new technologies.

The INF bans ground-launched cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. Nearly 2,700 missiles were eliminated by the Soviet Union and the United States -- most of the latter in Europe -- under the treaty.

Russia has warned that if the United States abandons the pact and deploys such missiles in Europe, Moscow will respond in kind.

Based reporting by Reuters, AP, Interfax, and TASS

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/german-fm-urges-russia-to- save-inf-treaty/29717455.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.Chino, CA (91710)

Today

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 68F. W winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph..

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 68F. W winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 19)  Former Social Welfare and Development Secretary Judy Taguiwalo has had enough of President Rodrigo Duterte's accusations.

In a strongly-worded statement Friday night, Taguiwalo denied the President's repeated allegations that she only used her government post to help armed communist rebels. Duterte has said that instead of giving conditional cash grants to the poor, Taguiwalo handed it all to members of the New People's Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

"No, Mr. President, I did not give money to the NPA nor did I enroll them in the 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program). In fact, it was the families of soldiers killed-in-action that were enrolled in the 4Ps upon your explicit instructions," Taguiwalo said in a Facebook post.

Taguiwalo was among the left-leaning individuals Duterte appointed to his Cabinet in 2016 as he reached out to communist rebels to talk peace. But peace negotiations have been called off and officials with leftist affiliations have either been fired, rejected by the Commission on Appointments (CA), or resigned. Taguiwalo was rejected.

READ: Duterte relieved Congress rejected appointment of leftist Cabinet members

"I wonder why I continue to be the subject of unfounded and completely false accusations by no less than the President," Taguiwalo said, noting that these were never brought up during hearings at the powerful CA.

"I have been very open and transparent during my term. The President knows very well how I assiduously and continuously reported to him the services and activities of the department," she added.

Duterte in a speech in Cotabato City that night said Taguiwalo "was only taking care of the needs of the NPAs" during her stint as head of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Taguiwalo called on the President to stop "demonizing me and other upright civil servants like my fellow teachers whose only crime, if it can be considered a crime, is to exercise our democratic right to be critical of policies and programs that are anti-people and anti-poor."

She could be referring to members of the militant group Alliance of Concerned Teachers who face alleged profiling from the police for supposed ties with the communist group.

"While I should be used by now to the President's penchant for 'hyperbole,' 'jokes' and such other justification for his ramblings, the current political atmosphere of red- and 'terrorist' tagging, killings and illegal arrests of those arbitrarily tagged as NPA or NPA supporters requires that I make this rejoinder," she said.Chinese Firm Offers New Iranian Oilfield Deal Amid US Sanctions  Report

Sputnik News

18:23 18.01.2019

The offer is part of an existing contract between state-run Chinese energy giant Sinopec and the National Iranian Oil Company to operate the lucrative Yadavaran oilfield in the Islamic Republic's southwestern area.

The China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) has urged Tehran to agree to a $3-billion deal on the Yadavaran oilfield, an Iranian oilfield the two countries are already developing, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

The WSJ cited a source as saying that Sinopec notified the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) of its intention to acquire a share of the Yadavaran oilfield, in line with a US waiver allocated to China.

The source added that Sinopec offered the new deal in late December 2018, when Washington allowed Beijing to keep buying as much as 360,000 barrels of Iranian oil per day thanks to the waiver. The first investment in Yadavaran, worth about $2 billion, was made by Sinopec in 2016.

If implemented, the new deal may double production at Yadavaran to more than 200,000 barrels a day within just six months.

Yadavaran remains one of the world's biggest undeveloped oilfields, with reserves standing at about 31 billion barrels of light and heavy crude oil.

After leaving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and restoring its energy sanctions against Iran in November 2018, the US gave temporary waivers to eight major clients of Iranian oil: China, India, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Greece, Taiwan and Turkey.

The waivers are due to expire after a period of 180 days, thought Washington is reportedly mulling the extension.

The US exit from the JCPOA was announced by President Donald Trump on 8 May, when he also vowed to reinstate economic sanctions against Tehran and all those companies that continue to cooperate with the Islamic Republic. The first round of restrictions were implemented by Washington in August, while the second package of sanctions came into effect on 5 November.

 SputnikCruel, Not Unusual: Iran Prosecutor Backs Off Hint Of Fewer 'Divine' Amputations

By Golnaz Esfandiari January 18, 2019

Iran's chief prosecutor has tried to walk back his own suggestion that the country's courts sometimes avoid amputations or controversial punishments when sentencing criminals due to UN human rights criticisms.

Mohammad-Jafar Montazeri was initially quoted expressing regret at a law enforcement conference in the capital that such pressure had forced Tehran to limit the number of "divine punishments" it carried out, referring to the severing of convicted thieves' hands.

Many rights groups in Iran and abroad say such punishments amount to torture.

Iran's religiously dominated system frequently organizes hangings and corporal punishments as public spectacles to discourage would-be criminals and has been called out over its rights record, including the frequent use of the death penalty and occasional reports of blindings or stonings.

The January 16 comments appeared to be a rare acknowledgement by an Iranian official that international pressure can be effective in forcing the heavily Shi'ite country to improve its human rights record.

"One of the mistakes we have is that we are worried about propaganda under the excuse of human rights -- that they say we treat thieves with violence," Montazeri said on January 16, according to the semiofficial Fars News Agency.

He added that the Koran prescribes that any man or woman caught stealing and meeting certain Islamic criteria must have their hand chopped off.

"But, unfortunately, to avoid being condemned for human rights issues by the United Nations, we stopped implementing some divine punishments," he said.

The remark caught the attention of close followers of Iran's legal and rights policies, who noted hundreds of amputation sentences in the decade to 2017, for instance.

But Montazeri appears to have quickly walked back his comments.

Quoted elsewhere on the sidelines of the same conference, Montazeri said human rights concerns will not compel the powerful Judiciary branch into leniency when implementing religiously prescribed punishments.

"We do not retreat from the implementation, or moderate treatment, of our punishments," another semiofficial agency, ISNA, quoted Montazeri as saying.

ISNA added that Montazeri's comments came in response to a question about whether "human rights excuses" would push the Judiciary to adjust Islamic punishments.

In 2010, the secretary of Iran's state High Council for Human Rights, Mohammad Javad Larijani, told the UN Human Rights Council that many of the much-criticized punishments handed down in Iran were "culturally and religiously justified."

Iranian officials publicly condemn human rights concerns expressed by rights organizations and Western governments as interference in the country's internal affairs, and they frequently jail or harass Iranian rights activists or their lawyers.

Yet they are also sensitive to how the country is seen by the outside world.

Montazeri suggested that fewer offenders might get sentenced to hand amputations because "the rules of Islamic jurisprudence" make it less likely that a convict meets all the criteria.

Nevertheless, he added, once the decision is made by a judge, the Judiciary "is not wary of implementing the law."

In the past, Iran has imposed multiple Koranic punishments that are described by rights groups as "cruel" and "inhuman," including stonings, amputations, blindings, and floggings.

In 2002, the Judiciary introduced a moratorium on stoning. Such cases are difficult to track in Iran's secretive judicial system, but several stoning sentences were said to have been issued and carried out in the years since.

In 2010, following an international outcry, a stoning sentence was overturned for an Iranian woman accused of adultery.

Only a small number of the reported amputations are carried out publicly.

In January 2018, local media reported that a 34-year-old man had one of his hands chopped off publicly as punishment for stealing livestock in the northeastern province of Razavi Khorasan. The amputation was condemned by Amnesty International as an "unspeakably cruel" punishment that highlighted Iranian authorities' "complete disregard for human dignity."

In one particularly gruesome case, authorities in Shiraz amputated the hand of a man convicted of robbery in April 2017 before executing him 10 days later for murder.

At the January 16 conference, Montazeri also acknowledged a rise in property crime in Iran and hinted that the country's economic situation was a contributing factor.

"The crime rate increases when people and the society face economic problems," he said.

Joblessness and price rises have sparked angry protests over the past 13 months -- sparking mass arrests -- and Iran's currency has plummeted as the United States returned to economic sanctions to punish what Washington sees as Iranian misbehavior.

Montazeri said prison sentences are not enough to fight theft and robbery.

"Jailing has negative consequences for the prisoner and for the family of the prisoner. And increasing the number of prisoners is not in our interests," Montazeri told journalists. "It is not logical for us to think that we can stop a thief from committing the crime of theft through imprisonment."

He added that "there are definitely other" methods to discourage crime and urged pundits to send their suggestions.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/cruel-not-unusual -iran-prosecutor-backs-off-hint-of-fewer- divine-amputations/29718095.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.China offers Iran $3bn oilfield deal despite US sanctions: Wall Street Journal

Iran Press TV

Fri Jan 18, 2019 07:43AM

State-run Chinese energy giant Sinopec has offered Iran a $3-billion deal on further development of an Iranian oilfield the two countries are already working on, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

The offer made by the China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) is part of an existing contract to operate the Yadavaran oilfield in southwest Iran on the Iraqi border, the report said.

The Chinese believe the offer wouldn't violate a US ban on signing new development deals with Iran because the Yadavaran contract goes back to 2007, according to people familiar with the matter.

Sinopec has told its Iranian counterpart, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), it wants its share of the field's production to be granted under the US waiver allocated to China, one person said.

The new deal was offered by Sinopec in late December 2018 when the US allowed China to keep purchasing as much as 360,000 barrels of Iranian oil a day, the Journal said.

If implemented, the deal offered by China would double production at Yadavaran to more than 200,000 barrels a day (bpd) within six months.

China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and Sinopec have invested billions of dollars in Yadavaran and North Azadegan oilfields.

Yadavaran is one of the world's biggest undeveloped oilfields with reserves of 31 billion barrels of light and heavy crude oil, while North Azadegan is estimated to hold 5.7 billion barrels of reserves.

Yadavaran was launched with a production of up to 115,000 bpd and around $2 billion of investment by Sinopec in November 2016. CNPC brought online the first phase of North Azadegan with 75,000 bpd in early 2017.

The United States gave waivers to eight major clients of Iranian oil - China, India, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Greece, Taiwan and Turkey - after restoring energy sanctions in November.

China's proposed deal comes as Italy, Greece, and Taiwan, all of which had obtained similar exemptions for importing oil from the Islamic Republic, have reportedly stopped buying Iranian oil, according to oil executives.

The Journal said the three countries made the decision after "they failed to find ways to comply with other US sanctions  including bans on shipping, insuring and banking with Iran."

However, Asian buyers of Iranian oil have overcome final hurdles to resuming shipments from the country, with first cargoes set to arrive in Japan as early as this month.

According to media reports, China took 576,000 barrels per day of Iranian oil in December, while South Korea discharged 300,000 barrels, its first cargo since July.

Oil pricing agency S&P Global Platts quoted presidents of Japan's JXTG Holdings and Cosmo Oil as saying that the refiners will resume loading from Iran at the end of this month.

China and India continued to import Iranian oil from November while Turkey resumed imports in December.

The US waiver, issued in November, is for a period of 180 days but American officials are reportedly considering extending it.

On Friday, Reuters confirmed those reports, saying the United States is likely to extend waivers but will reduce the number of countries receiving them to placate top buyers China and India.

The news agency cited US-based analysts at Eurasia Group as saying that China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey are likely to be given waivers after they expire in May.

"Other geopolitical priorities will moderate the administration's desire to halt Iranian exports, particularly with Iran's top two purchasers, China and India," they said.

Amos Hochstein, the former international energy envoy who ran Iran sanctions under the Obama administration, said the real reason Trump is giving the waivers is because he is unable to force China and India to stop buying oil from the country.

"There will 100 percent be exemptions in May," Hochstein said.Mogherini, EU ministers to snub US summit against Iran

Iran Press TV

Fri Jan 18, 2019 11:32AM

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini will not take part in an anti-Iran conference to be held by the US in the Polish capital of Warsaw in mid-February, Iranian and US media reports say.

An EU official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Iran's official news agency IRNA that Mogherini will not be able to attend the conference due to her tight schedule.

Mogherini will be "traveling in those days, hence her attendance is not foreseen," the official told IRNA's correspondent in London.

A senior EU official also confirmed IRNA's report on Thursday, saying Mogherini will not attend the gathering because of a prior engagement, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The meeting is to be held in Poland on February 13-14 as part of US efforts to increase global pressure on the Islamic Republic.

However, ministers from several European Union countries will likely skip the summit, the Wall Street Journal quoted officials as saying.

There is "a lot of uncertainty about participation of many other EU member states at ministerial level," one official told the newspaper.

European diplomats have said in recent days that France is unlikely to send its foreign minister. The UK and Germany haven't decided who will represent them. Luxembourg's foreign minister said he would miss the event because of a prior arrangement.

One European diplomat said the bloc will not be "joining an anti-Iran coalition."

A group of activists in the United States and other countries recently signed a petition, calling on European countries to boycott an anti-Iran summit.

The activists started the petition on the website of the anti-war group Code Pink to ask European countries not to attend the summit.

More than 3,400 people have so far signed the online petition, which urges EU countries to skip Pompeo's "belligerent conference" and "instead host an alternative one with all nations of the region, including Iran."

The European Union is a strong supporter of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and is seeking to help retain economic ties with Tehran despite renewed US sanctions on Iran following US President Donald Trump's decision in May to withdraw from the accord.

Mogherini has spearheaded EU efforts to sustain the 2015 deal, which offered Iran relief from sanctions in exchange for steps to curb its nuclear program.

The summit, which will be co-hosted by Poland and the US and take place in Warsaw, was announced during Pompeo's tour of the Middle East last week.

Iran has expressed its strong protest at the planned summit, with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denouncing it as a "desperate anti-Iran circus."

The Iranian Foreign Ministry also summoned Polish charge d'affaires in Tehran, Wojciech Unolt, to protest the conference.

"This is a hostile measure by the United States against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Poland is expected to avoid assisting the US in holding the conference," an Iranian Foreign Ministry official told Unolt last Sunday.

Unolt provided explanations regarding the upcoming summit and said that it was not against Iran.

"He said Poland's stance is different from that of the US and does not conform with the recent remarks made by US officials," the agency added.

The Iranian official, however, rejected the explanation as insufficient, saying the Poland government should immediately compensate for the move or have Iran "inevitably take reciprocal measures."Rafale Deal Becoming Modi's Nemesis as Opposition Steps Up Probe Demand

Sputnik News

21:25 18.01.2019

The deal between India and France to purchase Rafale fighter jets is proving to be the proverbial albatross around Prime Minister Modi's neck as new facts emerge, putting him under further scrutiny.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  The Indian opposition has stepped up its demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale deal amid reports that Prime Minister Modi's decision to buy 36 aircraft instead of the 126 asked for by the Indian Air Force (IAF) pushed the price of each jet up by 41.42 per cent.

India signed a contract with Dassault Aviation to buy 36 Rafale warplanes for 7.87 billion euro in 2016.

According to a report in the The Hindu newspaper, the prime minister's acceptance of the 1.3 billion euro cost for the design and development of 13 India-specific enhancements to be spread over a mere 36 jets instead of the original 126 was the key reason for the per unit price hike.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision, announced out of the blue in Paris on 10 April 2015, to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France instead of the 126 asked for by the Indian Air Force for six squadrons pushed the price of each fully fitted, combat-ready aircraft up by 41.42 percent. It was the National Democratic Alliance government's acceptance of the cost of 1.3 billion Euro claimed for the design and development of 13 India Specific Enhancements and the distribution of this non-recurring cost over 36 instead of 126 bare-bones aircraft, that became the major reason for the big increase in price," says the report.

The report, published by veteran journalist N Ram, whose reports earlier had formed the basis of the erstwhile Bofors expose that had brought down former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's government, looks into how procedures and objections were bypassed. The report focuses on how and why the price of the F3-R standard Rafale fighter jets, with practically the same configuration and capabilities, changed substantially at three different times, namely in 2007, 2011 and 2016.

The report says that in the 2007 bid by Dassault, the design and development cost of 1.4 billion euro was to be spread over 126 aircraft that were negotiated by the for United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2007.

Although this fixed cost was negotiated down to 1.3 billion euro in the 2016 inter-governmental deal, it was distributed over 36 fighter jets. This straightway meant an increase of 25 million euro in the price of each aircraft when compared to the original deal, which assumed the design and development costs would be spread over 126 aircraft, The Hindu reported. Modi's government had also negotiated a 9 per cent discount on the 2011 Dassault bid price for bare-bones aircraft.

Ram reported that the increase of 25 million euro was far greater than the 9 per cent reduction in the price of a bare-bones aircraft offered by France in 2016. The nine percent discount on the 2011 Dassault bid applied to the price of a bare-bones and not fully fitted and combat-ready aircraft, as confirmed by Dassault Aviation Chairman and CEO Eric Trappier in a November 2018 interview.

This report has become a rallying point for Indian opposition parties.

Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram alleged that the NDA government has wronged the country by reducing the number of aircraft in the deal as it denied the Indian Air Force the fighter jets it desperately needs. Moreover, it gave a windfall to Dassault Aviation by paying a higher price.

CPI General Secretary Sitaram Yechury alleged that the Rafale deal was done in a great hurry by Modi so that an individual businessman could benefit.

"We demand JPC to examine the Rafale scam," Yechury tweeted.

 SputnikMacron says France seeks to remain in Syria, 'militarily engaged' in Mideast

Iran Press TV

Fri Jan 18, 2019 08:11AM

President Emmanuel Macron says France will keep its forces in Syria and remain "militarily engaged" in the Middle East despite US plans to withdraw from the Arab country.

Addressing military officials at an army base near the city of Toulouse, Macron said "the fight [in Syria] is not over" and that "any rush to withdraw would be a mistake."

He also criticized US President Donald Trump's call for an alleged troop withdrawal from the war-torn country.

"The retreat from Syria announced by our American friends cannot make us deviate from our strategic objective  eradicating Daesh," the French president claimed.

Macron also hinted at an extended regional agenda beyond fighting Daesh, claiming that while France seeks to revise its "global military deployment", it shall "remain committed to participating in the stabilization" of the Middle East.

Amid waning US influence in the Middle East, France is seeking to expand its military ambitions in the region.

A 2017 report showed France had doubled arms sales to the Middle East, bolstering its allies, including Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Since 2014, France has also engaged in aerial bombing campaigns in Syria and Iraq and has deployed hundreds of troops on the pretext of fighting the Daesh terrorist group.

Some 1,200 French troops remain deployed in the region, seeking to prop up the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed anti-Damascus alliance of mainly Kurdish militants in northern Syria.

Also in December, France pledged backing for the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces.

The war against Daesh has become an excuse for the Western countries to intervene in Syria and deploy troops without an authorization from Damascus or the UN.

A senior Syrian official said late last year that the US and France were carrying out illegal excavations in ancient sites in northern Syria with the help of Kurdish militants.

Much of the digging work was conducted on the Um al-Sarj mountain near Manbij, head of Syria's Directorate-General for Museums and Antiquities Mahmoud Hammoud said in December.

As recently as last month, Manbij was controlled by Kurdish militants who were heavily armed and supported by US and French troops illegally deployed to northern Syria.

Paris has also backed Israeli airstrikes against alleged "Iranian interests" in Syria.

Last year, France stressed its "unwavering commitment to Israel's security" and condemned "any attempt to undermine it," after Israeli launched deadly airstrikes against Syria.

Macron's comments came after Trump initially called for a "swift" troop withdrawal from the country, drawing criticism from many in Washington and its international allies.

Trump has, however, backtracked on his statements, saying that the pullout would be "slow and coordinated" with regional allies.

Visiting Israel earlier this month, US National Security Adviser John Bolton suggested that American troops may remain at a US military base at the Syrian al-Tanf border crossing with Jordan to protect Israel from "Iranian expansion."

Last week, the Pentagon confirmed that American troops would not withdraw from al-Tanf.Second Trump-Kim Summit Planned for Late February

By Patsy Widakuswara January 18, 2019

The White House has announced that a second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will be held at the end of February, at a place to be announced "at a later date."

The announcement was made after Trump met Friday with Kim Yong Chol, North Korea's top nuclear envoy in the Oval Office, which the White House said was to "discuss efforts to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear program."

Trump's meeting with the former North Korean spymaster, who often is referred to as Kim Jong Un's right-hand man, lasted 90 minutes.

After the meeting, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters the administration is continuing "to make progress" on this front.

"The United States is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea until we see full and verified denuclearization," Sanders said, adding they have seen "good faith from the North Koreans in releasing the hostages and other moves."

Earlier on Friday, Kim Yong Chol met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a Washington hotel. The meeting's aim was to revive nuclear negotiations, which have been postponed for months over what U.S. officials say is Pyongyang's refusal to meet Washington's demand for a detailed inventory of its nuclear and missile programs.

The latest announcement is being met with some skepticism by analysts about whether enough progress has been achieved in the negotiations to justify a second summit.

There is a "missing ingredient," said Scott Snyder, senior fellow for Korea Studies at the Council for Foreign Relations. "Is there some kind of understanding behind the scenes, even at the framework level, that provides a basis or justification for going forward that simply can't be seen based on public evidence today?"

Snyder said that from Trump's perspective, a second summit is to be expected because the first summit generated "good ratings." He noted, however, that in order for a second summit to be successful, "the bar will be higher."

Denuclearization

On several occasions Trump has expressed his confidence about North Korean denuclearization.

"With North Korea, we have a very good dialogue," the president said Jan. 6, adding that it's "very special" and that with "anybody else but me, you'd be in war right now."

But critics point out that Pyongyang has not taken measurable steps toward disarmament since the first Trump-Kim historic summit in Singapore last June.

At the United Nations on Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres encouraged both countries to continue talks.

"We believe it's high time to make sure the negotiations between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea start again seriously and that a road map is clearly defined for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Guterres told reporters. "We won't advocate for any anticipation of other measures before a clear negotiation is put in place, aiming at denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula with a road map."

The White House has not confirmed the location of the next Trump-Kim summit, but American media reports have quoted sources as saying that Danang, Vietnam, is being discussed as one of the likely venues.

Margaret Besheer at the United Nations contributed to this report.US Puts Intl Security at Risk Claiming Russia Provided Missile Tech to N Korea

Sputnik News

06:46 18.01.2019(updated 07:21 18.01.2019)

The US Defense Department has unveiled a new plan to strengthen and expand the US missile defense capabilities on land, sea and in space amid fears of sparking a nuclear crisis with Russia and China.

Russian Envoy to Pyongyang Alexander Matsegora slammed on Friday the claims that Pyongyag has obtained Russian missile defense technology as "absolutely unfounded".

"I would like to state with all my responsibility that the allegations against Russia about the alleged purchase of missile and air defense technology by North Koreans from us are contrived and absolutely unfounded. Washington fails to find pretexts for accusations against us that is why they are making up another hoax. By this unfair way, [the United States] is also trying to justify its destabilizing policies in the area of international security", Matsegora told Sputnik on Friday.

The new US missile defense review says that "North Korea has acquired Russian missile defense technology and is developing its own mobile missile defense capabilities, specifically, a mobile air and missile defense system [] While indigenously produced, its interceptors and radar system share similarities with Russian systems".

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy John Rood told reporters on Thursday that as North Korea produces additional systems and they grow in sophistication, the United States response must be robust and effective.

The situation on the Korean Peninsula remained tense for decades over the North Korean missile and nuclear tests carried out in violation of the UN Security Council's resolutions.

The first ever US-North Korean summit was held in Singapore on 12 June. Following the meeting, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un confirmed his intention to denuclearize, and US President Donald Trump pledged to provide security guarantees to Pyongyang.

The parties have already begun to discuss the second summit, but no specific results have been reportedly achieved yet. Trump's top security aide John Bolton said in December that Washington intended to hold it in January or February. At the same time, he noted that US administration did not plan to lift sanctions against Pyongyang.

In his New Year's address to the nation, Kim confirmed that he was ready to improve relations with South Korea and the United States, and meet with US President Donald Trump "at any time."

However, he added that if Washington failed to deliver on its promises and continued enforcing sanctions, Pyongyang would have "no other choice but take a different path." In particular, Kim urged Washington not to deploy strategic weapons to South Korea and not to conduct drills that could be aimed against Pyongyang.

In early January, Russian Envoy to Pyongyang Alexander Matsegora discussed the Korean Peninsula denuclearization issues with North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui.

"During the meeting, they discussed some topical questions regarding path searching for settlement of the Korean Peninsula nuclear problem. Choe Son Hui emphasized that tactics and strategy of the DPRK foreign office on the #denuclearization track will be fully and entirely based on the principles designated by the DPRK leader Kim Jong Un in his New Year address," the embassy wrote on Facebook.

The ambassador, in turn, reiterated Russia's support for initiatives aimed at reducing tensions in Northeast Asia and finding a complex solution to the Korean issues, with due respect for concerns of all parties.

 SputnikUS-North Korea Summit Scheduled for Late February - White House

Sputnik News

22:29 18.01.2019(updated 02:25 19.01.2019)

US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have agreed in principle to meet near the end of February, the White House announced Friday.

"President Donald J. Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and a half, to discuss denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February," the White House said in a statement. Kim is Vice Chairman of the Worker's Party of Korea. He is also in charge of nuclear talks with the United States.

"The President looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date," according to the announcement.

After the meeting at the White House, the North Korean envoy was invited to lunch at the State Department by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

On June 12, 2018, Trump and Kim held their first meeting in Singapore, where a peaceful solution to the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula was discussed.

"The way to come here was not easy. The past falters in our names and the old prejudices and practices work as obstacles on our way forward. But we overcame all of them," Kim said at the Singapore summit.

On Friday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Trump's meeting with the vice chairman was productive and that the two sides will keep up the dialogue.

 SputnikTrump's new missile policy deems North Korea 'a threat'

Iran Press TV

Fri Jan 18, 2019 02:44AM

US President Donald Trump has unveiled a revamped missile policy that deems North Korea an "extraordinary threat," months after a historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un aimed at finding a diplomatic solution to tensions between the two countries.

The Missile Defense Review plan, which Trump introduced at the Pentagon on Thursday, included extensive concerns about the growing missile capabilities of Iran, Russia and China.

The plan also called for developing space-based alarm systems to detect incoming missiles and space-based weapons that could intercept incoming threats among a series of other steps to defend the US mainland.

"Our goal is simple: To ensure we can detect and destroy any missile launched against the United States  anywhere, anytime, anyplace," Trump said at the event.

To achieve this, the plan called for investments in space-based sensors that could better detect and track incoming missiles.

It also doubled down on Washington's need to develop technologies that could counter incredibly fast hypersonic weapons that Russia and China have been working on.

"The US will now adjust its posture to also defend against any missile strikes including cruise and hypersonic missiles," Trump said.

The document also pointed to projects by Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and other US weapons makers to develop better missile defense systems, a possible hint at Washington's plans to abandon an international treaty with Russia that bans such plans.

"We are committed to establishing a missile-defense program that can shield every city in the United States. And we will never negotiate away our right to do this," Trump said.

North Korea threat

He did not directly talk about the missile threat coming from North Korea but his acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said Pyongyang's arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles caused a "significant concern" in Washington.

"While a possible new avenue to peace now exists with North Korea, it continues to pose an extraordinary threat and the United States must remain vigilant," the report said.

The report's timing was odd as it coincided with new efforts by the US and North Korea to facilitate a second meeting between Trump and Kim.

Senior North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chol was due in Washington on Thursday to discuss the matter with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and possibly Trump himself the next day, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Trump wrote in a tweet after the June 2018 summit with Kim in Singapore that there was "no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea."

The meeting followed an intense war of words between the two leaders over Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Both leaders threatened each other with nuclear annihilation back then.Buena Vista, CO (81211)

Today

A few clouds. Low 54F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 54F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph.Top North Korean official in US to prepare new Trump-Kim summit

Iran Press TV

Fri Jan 18, 2019 01:39PM

A senior official from North Korea is in Washington for a rare visit, during which he is expected to meet US President Donald Trump as the two countries seek to finalize a new summit aimed at denuclearization.

Kim Yong Chol, a military general and right-hand man to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, arrived Thursday in the US capital.

The North Korean negotiator abruptly canceled his last planned talks in the United States, a meeting set two months ago in New York with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Pompeo would welcome the North Korean on Friday for a meal in Washington before the two are expected to head together to the White House.

Meanwhile, high-ranking diplomats from the United States and North Korea are holding talks in Sweden, a diplomatic source told Reuters on Friday.

The delegations that traveled to Stockholm included North Korea's vice foreign minister, Choe Son Hui and Stephen Biegun, the US special representative for North Korea.

The high-level meeting could mean the two countries are nearing a compromise following a months-long standoff over how to move forward in denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

Earlier this month, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said that he thought a second summit between Trump and Kim was "imminent."

Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to meet Kim Jong Un again after their landmark June summit in Singapore, the first meeting ever between sitting leaders of the US and North Korea.

The United States and North Korea were foes throughout the Cold War and fought on opposite sides of the Korean War from 1950 to 1953.

Washington and Pyongyang have never formally ended the 1950-53 Korean War. When the three-year war ended, the two countries agreed to a truce agreement but not a peace treaty.

Trump has repeatedly claimed his diplomacy as a triumph, recently boasting there would have been "a nice big fat war in Asia" if it were not for him.

US media have cited Vietnam and Thailand as candidate venues for a second summit, but North Korean state-run news agency Yonhap speculated that there is a possibility that the truce village of Panmunjom along the inter-Korean border will be picked.

North Korean authorities have complained about continued US and UN sanctions on their country, calling them a "source of mistrust." They have also denounced what they have called "gangster-like behavior" by the US.

Pyongyang says Washington has betrayed the spirit of the June summit by making unilateral demands on the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization, while putting the sanctions in place.Trump to meet N Korea's Kim in February: White House

Iran Press TV

Fri Jan 18, 2019 09:39PM

US President Donald Trump will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in February for the second time after they held their first summit in Singapore last year, says the White House.

The announcement comes after North Korean Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol paid a rare visit to Washington and met with Trump and other top US officials on Friday.

"President Donald J. Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and half, to discuss denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February. The President looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date," White House spokesman Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

Meanwhile, a government source in Vietnam told AFP that "logistical preparations" were being made to host the summit, probably in the capital Hanoi or coastal city of Danang, however, no official decision had been made.

Also, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said in an interview with Bloomberg TV that Hanoi would welcome the two leaders.

"We don't know the final decision. However, if it happens here, we will do our best to facilitate the meeting."

In spite of the summit announcement, there was no indication that differences over Washington's demands that Pyongyang abandon a nuclear weapons program had been settled, with Sanders saying the US would continue to put pressure on the Asian country over the issue.

"We continue to make progress. We continue to have conversations. The United States is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea," she said.

Prior to his meeting with Trump, the North Korean envoy met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Pompeo had a "good discussion" with Kim Yong Chol "on efforts to make progress on commitments President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un made at their summit in Singapore," according to the State Department.

Trump has claimed that Washington's diplomacy with Pyongyang has eliminated a purported threat posed by North Korea to the US national security.

In their first summit, Trump and Kim agreed to work toward denuclearization, but that agreement, made in a written document, was broadly worded.

Denuclearizing North Korea has made little progress in recent months.China's police must guard against color revolution: top official warns

Iran Press TV

Fri Jan 18, 2019 09:11AM

A senior Chinese official says Beijing needs to focus on withstanding "color revolutions," as part of a broader strategy by President Xi Jinping, who warned that the country must do more to resist "Western" influence.

Chinese Public Security Minister Zhao Kezhi (seen below) told the ministry's annual national meeting that police must "stress the prevention and resistance of 'color revolutions' and firmly fight to protect China's political security."

He also urged police to "strike back against all kinds of infiltration and subversive activities by hostile foreign forces."

"(We) must firmly defend our national security, with state and system security at its core, and firmly defend the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and our nation's Socialist system," he added.

China has intensified efforts to counter influence of "Western values" under President Xi. The move has put the country at the top of US foreign policy priorities.

A recently published US official government report went far to name China among what it called as top 26 perceived security threats.

"China is marshaling its diplomatic, economic, and military resources to facilitate its rise as a regional and global power," said the report entitled "Long-range emerging threats facing the United States."

The US has stepped up efforts to counter China's growing influence in the world and has even brushed off Beijing's constant warnings against expanding ties with Taiwan.

China says Taiwan is historically part of its territory, with no right to formal diplomatic ties of its own with other countries. Almost all countries, including the US, recognize Chinese sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan. Washington, however, has long courted Taipei in an attempt to counter China.

Sending warship through Taiwan Strait possible: US navy

The US Navy said on Friday it has not ruled out sending an aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait.

The chief of US naval operations John Richardson said that the US does not "really see any kind of limitation on whatever type of ship could pass through those waters."

"We see the Taiwan Strait as another (stretch of) international waters, so that's why we do the transits," he added.

The US sent ships through the Taiwan Strait three times last year, but has not dispatched a carrier in more than 10 years. China, in the meantime, has modernized its forces with missiles designed to strike enemy ships.

Earlier this month, it scrambled warplanes and vessels to warn off a US guided-missile destroyer that was sailing near the disputed islands in the South China Sea.

China has also reaffirmed that it is not afraid to protect itself when necessary, after acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan said earlier that his top priory was to counter China.

Shanahan said earlier this month that he's committed to carrying out President Donald Trump's vision at the Pentagon, which includes protecting Taiwan and the South China Sea from what he called Chinese military aggression.From Alaska to Outer Space: Key Takeaways of New US Missile Defence Review

Sputnik News

10:21 18.01.2019(updated 10:28 18.01.2019)

US President Donald Trump has unveiled the country's new missile defence strategy, aimed at destroying enemy missiles "anywhere, anytime, anyplace". Here are the highlights of the review, which has been the first to be presented since 2010.

"Our strategy is grounded in one overriding objective: to detect and destroy every type of missile attack against any American target, whether before or after launch," President Trump said on Thursday when presenting Washington's new missile defence review (MDR).

The document specifically singles out four countries which it claimed pose a missile threat to Americans on home soil: North Korea, Iran, Russia and China.

The MDR claimed that Russia and China continue to expand and modernise their strategic offensive missile systems, including the development of advanced technologies.

"The United States counts on nuclear deterrence to prevent potential Russian or Chinese nuclear attacks using their extensive and well-developed intercontinental missile systems," the document said, describing Moscow and Beijing as two "separate challenges".

New MDR's Key Points

Trump singled out at least six priorities of the MDR, the first of its kind since 2010.

These include putting the defence of Americans first, investing in "new technologies", being prepared for all types of missile attacks, recognising that space is now a 'new war-fighting domain, removing obstacles to US projects, and demanding "burden sharing" from allies.

"We are committed to establishing a missile defence program that can shield every city in the United States. And we will never negotiate away our right to do this," Trump said.

New Interceptors in Alaska

In contrast to the previous MDR, the new one specifically stipulates the deployment of 20 new ground-based interceptors at Fort Greely in Alaska as well as new radars and sensors "to immediately detect foreign missiles launched" against the US.

When touching upon new technologies related to the new MDR, Trump stressed that "it is not enough to merely keep pace with our adversaries" and that the US "must outpace them at every single turn".

"We must pursue the advanced technology and research to guarantee that the United States is always several steps ahead of those who would do us harm," he underscored.

According to him, the new MDR's goal is to protect American from any missile strikes, including ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles. Trump underscored that the US is "by the way very advanced also on hypersonic technology" and "will always be at the forefront of everything".

Weaponising Space

The US President also noted that in line with the new MDR, Washington "will recognise that space is a new war-fighting domain with the Space Force leading the way".

"My upcoming budget will invest in a space-based missile defence layer technology. It's ultimately going to be a very, very big part of our defence and obviously of our offence", he said.

Trump also pledges to ensure that "enemy missiles find no sanctuary on Earth or in the skies above", which he said is the direction that he is currently heading.

Laser Technology

Under the new MDR, the Pentagon also hopes to develop "scalable, efficient, and compact high energy laser technology" in order to destroy enemy missiles in the boost phase.

Right now, the US Defence Department pins its hopes on the F-35 stealth fighter, which it claimed can "track and destroy adversary cruise missiles today", and could be equipped with "a new or modified interceptor capable of shooting down adversary ballistic missiles in their boost phase" in the future.

Previous MDR

The previous document was compiled by the administration of former US President Barack Obama in February 2010.

In particular, the MDR noted at the time that Washington is focused on cooperating with Russia in the field of missile defence and that the United States is working with Russia on a "broad agenda related to early warning of missile launches, as well as possible technical cooperation and operational cooperation".

The document also prioritised the deployment of non-strategic missile defence elements outside the United States, the further technical improvement of existing anti-missile systems, an increase in the flexibility and speed of deployment of missile defence and a commitment to the implementation of the European step-by-step approach to missile defence.

The MDR also described Russia and China as the only countries to have the capacity to carry out a large-scale attack against the United States using ballistic missiles.

However, American experts reportedly said at the time that such a scenario is "very unlikely and not in the focus of attention" of the US plans in the field of missile defence.

 SputnikUS Missile Defence Strategy May Trigger Arms Race, Undermine Stability - Beijing

Sputnik News

15:25 18.01.2019(updated 15:31 18.01.2019)

Earlier, President Donald Trump unveiled Washington's new missile defence strategy, boasting that it would allow the US to destroy enemy ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles launched from anywhere in the world, "whether before or after launch."

China is firmly opposed to the new US plan to boost its missile defence capabilities, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson has told Sputnik.

"The American report is full of outdated 'cold war' and 'zero-sum game' concepts. The document exaggerates the geopolitical confrontation and rivalry of powers, and speaks unreasonably of a threat from China," the spokesperson said.

Washington's plans outlined in the new strategy are not constructive, the Foreign Ministry stressed, and "can damage regional peace and security, influence the process of international nuclear disarmament, lead to an arms race, and undermine the strategic balance and stability in the world."

"China is expressing its extreme discontent and strong objection," the spokesperson concluded.

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump presented the country's new missile defence strategy. The document outlines six major policy changes, and includes the deployment of new ground-based interceptors in Alaska, new radars and sensors to detect missile launches, and plans, over the long term, to shield every city in the United States with a missile defence umbrella consisting, in part, of space-based missile defence systems.

Trump's policy is a throwback to President Ronald Reagan's 'Strategic Defence Initiative', a program announced in 1983 and aimed at the deployment of offensive and defensive systems in space which would render the Soviet nuclear deterrent obsolete. The program proposed space-based combat lasers, orbital mirrors, neutron particle emitters and other objects, but was discarded as it was both technically impossible and deemed unnecessary following the end of the Cold War.

 SputnikMoscow Calls New Pentagon Report 'Relaunch of Reagan-Era Star Wars Programme'

Sputnik News

18:41 18.01.2019(updated 21:02 18.01.2019)

The Russia Foreign Ministry has reacted to the new US Missile Defence Strategy, presented by Trump on Thursday. The policy, as the US president described it, "recognises that space is a new war-fighting domain with the Space Force leading the way".

"Contrary to the claims of the authors of the Review, the realisation of the plans and approaches it contains will in no way strengthen the security of either the United States or its allies and partners. Attempts to move along the marked path will have the opposite effect. They will deal another significant blow to international stability, which is already cracking at the seams as a result of Washington's irresponsible actions. It is clear that no one will benefit from such a scenario," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The mentioned document, the Missile Defence Review, was presented by US President Donald Trump yesterday. Among the regular accusations against North Korea, Iran, Russia and China, which "pose a threat" to Washington, it contains new points; namely, the recognition of space as a "new war-fighting domain" and demanding "burden sharing" from allies.

Reacting to the document, Moscow warned the US side against "starting on a new, high-tech level unforgettable Reagan-era 'star wars' program".

"The provisions stipulating the development of the space segment of the US missile defence network are particularly alarming. Along with the improvement of space-based sensors, the Review actually gives the green light to the prospect of deploying missile defence systems in space designed to hit various types of missiles during the booster stage of the flight," the ministry said in a commentary.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has called on the US to jointly search for ways to solve problems in the strategic sphere.

"We urge the US Administration to show political will and, finally, to seriously pursue a joint search for ways to solve the accumulated problems in the "strategic" sphere while it's not too late," the ministry added.

Moscow warned that the logic of the document might bring the world to the brink of collapse.

"It was precisely this logic that originally underlay a large-scale nuclear-missile arms race, which has more than once brought the world to the brink of disaster," it said.

In conclusion, Moscow has called Washington to resume a full-format dialogue.

"We consider it necessary to emphasise that the appearance of such documents as the US Missile Defence Review once again demonstrates the need to immediately resume a full-format Russia-US dialogue on the whole range of issues related to arms control and strengthening international security and stability. We are ready for such a discussion," the ministry said.

In the report, Russia was singled out as one of the countries that allegedly poses a missile threat to the US. As the document says, Moscow continues to expand and modernise its strategic offensive missile systems, including the development of advanced technologies. The review deemed Russia and China to be the only countries in the world capable of conducting a large-scale attack against the United States using ballistic missiles.

The US Plans to Destroy Missiles Prior to Launch Dangerous

The ministry has also touched upon the idea, voiced in the document, to neutralise offensive missile threats prior to launch means a preventive strike.

"It is noteworthy that the United States ranked preventive destruction of missiles threatening it prior to launch among legitimate methods of missile defence This wording means delivering preventive 'disarming' strikes on the territory of countries that the United States considers its adversaries," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The review, in particular, says a comprehensive approach to missile defence "integrates offensive and defensive capabilities for deterrence, and includes active defence to intercept missiles in all phases of flight after launch, passive defence to mitigate the effects of missile attack, and attack operations during a conflict to neutralise offensive missile threats prior to launch."

 SputnikU.S. Missile Strategy to Unleash Space Arms' Race, Relaunch Cold War Era -Russia Says

Saudi Press Agency

Friday 1440/5/12 - 2019/01/18

Moscow, Jan 18, 2019, SPA -- Russia said on Friday Washington's new missile defense strategy would lead to a dangerous arms race in space and amounts to a relaunch of the Cold War-era "Star Wars" program.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday unveiled a plan which called for developing space-based sensors to detect incoming enemy missiles and exploring space-based weapons to shoot down missiles, among other steps to shield the United States.

In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry described the U.S. plan as confrontational and said it would deal a blow to already-fragile international stability.

The ministry urged Washington to engage with Russia in constructive talks about the nuclear arms balance "before it's too late".

-- SPA

21:23 LOCAL TIME 18:23 GMT

0010Moscow: New US missile strategy will spark space arms race

Iran Press TV

Fri Jan 18, 2019 07:03PM

Moscow says America's newly unveiled space-based military strategy will unleash a dangerous arms race, urging Washington to settle arms treaty disputes "before it's too late."

"The implementation of these ideas will inevitably lead to the start of an arms race in space, which will have the most negative consequences for international security and stability," read the statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday.

The statement came a day after United States President Donald Trump unveiled a space missile defense layer that seeks to develop space-based sensors to detect incoming missiles.

The project will also explore other ways to intercept missiles, including space-based weapons, a development Russia describes as confrontational and damaging to international stability.

"We would like to call on the U.S. administration to think again and walk away from this irresponsible attempt to re-launch, on a new and more high-tech basis, the still-remembered Reagan-era 'Star Wars' program," added the Russian statement.

The ministry urged Washington to engage in constructive talks about the disputed arms developments "before it's too late."

The newly announced space-based program comes as the White House has been repeatedly accusing the Kremlin of violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). Moscow, for its part, has strongly rejected such allegations, calling them unfounded.

Washington said last month it would withdraw from the INF within 60 days if Russia did not dismantle missiles that the US claims breach the deal.

The INF banned all land-based missiles with ranges of 310 to 3,420 miles and included missiles carrying both nuclear and conventional warheads. The original ban between Moscow and Washington led to the elimination of 2,692 missiles.

Tensions have boiled over the fate of the INF, with Russian President Vladimir Putin threatening a new arms race if the agreement collapses.

The Cold War-era treaty, which rid Europe of land-based nuclear missiles, has also come into question against a backdrop of renewed tensions between the West and Russia.US missile defense plan reveals illusion disguised as safety net

People's Daily Online

(Global Times) 08:45, January 18, 2019

US President Donald Trump laid out his administration's Missile Defense Review during a speech at the Pentagon on Thursday local time, declaring the US will develop a more advanced defense system to counter hypersonic and cruise missile threats from competitors and adversaries.

Trump also said the US will do whatever it takes "to ensure that we can detect and destroy any missile launched against the United States anywhere, anytime, any place."

The Missile Defense Review makes clear the system will be aimed at protecting the US against existing threats from North Korea and Iran, and countering advanced weaponry developed by Russia and China.

Today, US missile defense systems have a greater presence in many countries and regions. Chinese and Russian targets are within its range, a vital component of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system found in neighboring countries. Additionally, the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System (aka Sea-Based Midcourse) is connected to THAAD, helping to make it even more efficient.

Analysts have said that the US defense systems can act as a form of insurance against small-scale missile attacks from North Korea and Iran, but their Achilles' heel will be revealed when confronted with dense missile strikes from China or Russia. The development of Chinese and Russian hypersonic missiles will be a threat for US defense systems.

Since the beginning, when "Star Wars" was launched during the Reagan era, the US government has focused on developing anti-missile defense systems at various degrees of importance. Throughout, the project has functioned as a form of psychological deterrence while having a political influence in creating closer alliances with deploying nations.

Missile defense and other systems are the modern equivalents to spears and shields. While technological progress is balanced, with the development of technology interception, offensive tactics have grown simultaneously. Attack missiles are flexible and can travel unexpectedly, unlike a defense mechanism, which will always win favor in any competition.

The purpose behind this latest US defense upgrade is to eliminate the possibility of mutually assured destruction, a Cold War-era principle followed tacitly by nuclear weapon states. It is to make itself the only country with nuclear capabilities that could destroy a nation while simultaneously making itself immune from foreign nuclear weapon strikes. Overall, it would give the US a unique strategic advantage against adversarial threats.

For the US, whether missile interception is successful or not, is not the main priority. Instead, it looks forward to garnering diplomatic advantages through the deployment of the system. Since intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) loaded with nuclear warheads have the capability to annihilate civilization, the US is aware its missile defense systems will never be used.

Domestic approval, foreign sentiments, and the effect such a plan would have on Trump's approval ratings are the real questions to consider.

Should Washington actually follow through, no other power in the world be able to stop it. The US has already threatened to withdraw from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. In paradoxical US fashion, they accuse China of developing an advanced missile program while preparing to release a new missile defense plan of its own. Thursday's announcement serves as a declaration that the US is now leading a missile defense systems race.

However, there is practically zero hope the US could ever become an entirely secure nation, one that would possess the freedom to attack major powers like Russia and China. Security is meant to be interrelated among all nations, and it cannot belong solely to the US at the expense of other countries. Regardless of budget, the US will never be satisfied with "security hegemony," an unprecedented goal that has never been attained throughout human civilization. The US will remain at a great distance from this goal.

The widening chasm that exists between the US and the world is not rooted in their technological advances as they would like for everyone to think, but can be found within its lack of sincerity when it comes to making positive contributions or easing global tension.

US missile defense systems are nothing more than attempts at keeping up appearances. They provide Washington the chance to flex their muscles on the global stage. This latest missile defense system will neither discourage Russia or China, nor benefit the US in negotiations with North Korea and Iran. It seems the real purpose of any US missile defense system is nothing more than a tool used by White House leaders to help fool the American public.Identity of Nairobi Attack Suspect Shocks Neighbors

By Mohammed Yusuf January 18, 2019

Seven people have been arrested following Tuesday's terror attack at the DusitD2 complex in Nairobi that killed at least 21 people, Kenyan media reported.

Five suspects appeared in court Friday, and Kenyan security agencies are seeking more suspects in the attack claimed by al-Shabab. Officers requested the four men and one woman be detained for 30 days while an investigation is completed.

Authorities searched a house northwest of Nairobi on Thursday, where one suspect is believed to have lived.

Neighborhood butcher Paul Kariuki was shocked to find out the suspect  Salim Guchunge  had visited his shop many times.

"I could not believe he did that," Kariuki said. "I am surprised."

But not all Guchunge's neighbors are rushing to judgment.

"It's quite uncertain," said one woman, who did not wish to be identified. "It's quite shocking. It was very unexpected.  he was also on our WhatsApp group for the estate [and] has made a contribution toward some of the activities and projects we have."

The suspect's last message to the group was a comment on improving neighborhood security.

Sleeper cells

Somali terrorist group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack.

Security analyst Mwenda Mbijiwe says the militant group is changing tactics to use so-called sleeper cells within Kenya.

"They were able to camouflage and hide to stay among that community without anybody ever detecting that these people are living in our midst," Mbijiwe said.

Nairobi's Eastleigh neighborhood, which has a large ethnic Somali population, is sometimes vilified as a haven for terrorists. But on Friday, Nairobi's Somali community rallied in a show of solidarity against terrorism.

Crowds chanted "We will defeat them!" and shops closed their doors for an hour to honor victims of the attack.

"We feel that we stand together with the rest of Kenyans. We are part and parcel of Kenya," said Yusuf Hassan, a Somali-Kenyan lawmaker. "The problems of Kenya [are] our problems, the successes of Kenya are our successes. And we cannot be separated as a community and, therefore, the community is here to say no terrorism, no to extremism."Marianne Katte, one of the first members to join Monarch Quilters in 1983, holds her first project, a quilted bag . The snowman quilt is another of her projects.Bulgarian Police Make Terrorism Financing Arrests

January 18, 2019

Bulgarian special police forces have dismantled a suspected terrorism financing ring and detained 43 people in coordinated raids across the country.

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev said on January 18 that one of the suspects was a Syrian citizen permanently residing in Bulgaria who allegedly transferred money to people abroad linked to militant groups.

Geshev told a news conference in Sofia that "the main suspect has been in touch and has financed people who provide logistics to international terrorist groups."

He did not reveal the names of the groups or the countries where they allegedly operate, but explained that the funds had been sent through the traditional Muslim hawala system that uses individual brokers rather than banks.

Geshev said that the bust follows a yearlong investigation in several European Union member states.

He added that the investigation was not about any direct terrorist activities in Bulgaria.

The police raids took place at more than 50 sites and 26 cars in seven Bulgarian cities. Some 32,000 euros ($36,000) were seized together with documents and other evidence.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/bulgarian-police-make- terrorism-financing-arrests/29718194.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.Zimbabwe, DR Congo Top Human Rights Watchdog Concerns

By Anita Powell January 18, 2019

The human rights issues of 2018 have spilled over into current events, particularly in two African nations, rights advocates said as they launched the annual Human Rights Watch Africa roundup Thursday in Johannesburg.

This year's report was meant to be released in Nairobi, Kenya's capital, but was moved after a terror attack on a luxury hotel this week that left more than 20 people dead.

The report raises concerns about violence and suppression in several African nations, including Burundi, Mozambique and eSwatini, the former Swaziland.

But two countries  the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe, both of which had troubled elections in 2018  stood out, experts said.

"We have received reports of serious human rights abuses, including beatings, abductions, torture and the involvement of ZANU-PF, the ruling ZANU-PF Party, groups beating up people in the high-density suburbs around Harare," said Dewa Mavhinga, the rights' group's Southern Africa researcher.

Mavhinga said he's disappointed to report that the new administration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, elected last year, has not brought improvement to Zimbabwe.

"Initially, in terms of pronouncements and talks by the new president, Mnangagwa, there were promises that things would improve, that the new dispensation would be respectful of human rights. But that has not been with the case, beginning with the post-election violence of the 1st of August, 2018," he said. "And there has been no accountability for past abuses and also, the serious abuses of the last few days involving the state security forces have really undermined any efforts at improving human rights in Zimbabwe."

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, rights officials say a chaotic, delayed election has raised fears of politically motivated human rights abuses. Carine Kaneza Nantulya, the group's Africa advocacy director, pointed to a recent U.N. report alleging nearly 900 people were killed in rural eastern Congo.

"So, you have an environment where elections were held but marred with, obviously, violence, voter suppression, etc., that has just heightened the tensions within communities which were, obviously, tense before the election," Nantulya said.

These two African nations, the rights experts said, share certain worrying characteristics: Free speech has been clamped down on; citizens are angry; and politics are bitter, divisive and increasingly authoritarian. And this, they cautioned, is a worrying global trend.AU Pushes DRC to Suspend Election Announcement

By Anita Powell January 18, 2019

The African Union surprised observers this week by calling for a suspension of the announcement of poll results after a troubled election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The nation hit back at the AU statement, adding another wrinkle to an already complicated situation.

Last month's long-delayed poll was marked by chaos, irregularities, delays, technical difficulties, uncertainty and rampant rumors that the government of longtime President Joseph Kabila would manipulate election results in its favor.

On Friday, the U.N. human rights arm said it had documented 34 killings and nearly 250 "arbitrary arrests" since provisional results were issued last week. Those results sparked surprise and outrage, defying predictions and naming opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi as the winner.

That result contrasted with predictions by research organizations and the Catholic Church that opposition coalition candidate Martin Fayulu had won decisively.

Last Saturday, Fayulu requested that the Constitutional Court order a recount. Electoral officials have said a new president will be inaugurated Jan. 22.

The African Union had been silent up to now, but late Thursday, the continental body held an urgent meeting in Addis Ababa and released a statement.

"The heads of state and government attending the meeting concluded that there were serious doubts on the conformity of the provisional results, as proclaimed by the National Independent Electoral Commission, with the votes cast," the statement read. "Accordingly, the heads of state and government called for the suspension of the proclamation of the final results of the elections."

DRC analyst Stephanie Wolters of the Institute for Security Studies said such strong words were not often heard from the AU. Its election observer missions, in fact, often praise African polls that other observer missions have found to be troubled.

The AU's decision "to ask for a suspension of the proclamation of the final results is really quite a departure. It's a bold move," she told VOA. "And I understand they're going to be following up with a mission that will be visiting in the next few days, and I think it's a very strong, unexpected move from the AU."

More expected, however, was the government's initial reaction. It appeared to reject the AU's advice, according to local media reports. The Congolese government has made a habit of angrily rejecting what it deems foreign interference in the poll, going so far as to fund this election without donor assistance.

Analyst Claude Kabemba, who has long maintained that Congo's neighbors, especially Rwanda, have outsized influence in Congolese politics, said he was still thinking through what he, too, thought was a surprising statement from the AU.

"Looking at what happened, it could seem to be a correct decision from a continental body like the AU," he said. "But it raises questions because of the people who have decided, who took part in that decision. ... What is the reason, the real reason behind such a decision?"

He said he believed that the government's reaction would fill in that part of the story. If the government continued to hold firm against a Fayulu victory, he said, that would mean the AU statement was not genuine. But if the government appeared to relent  by delaying or by nullifying the election  that would mean powerful leaders like Rwandan President Paul Kagame were behind the AU's push, and that the organization meant business.

Wolters noted that the AU's statement was essentially unenforceable. It's not clear, she said, what it will do now.

"I think this is precedent-setting, but I think it's too early to say what this means, because we have to see what happens next," she said. "We have to see what happens with the visit, whether Congo even accepts the visit of the chairperson [of the AU] and other people who are meant to be going, and then what the AU does if Congo doesn't accept that. And then we'll know a little bit more about whether this is precedent-setting. But I do think that it is a very important step forward. It's certainly stronger pressure than we've seen the AU apply in similar situations elsewhere."Democrats to Probe Report That Trump Told Cohen to Lie to Congress

By VOA News January 18, 2019

Democratic lawmakers say they will investigate whether U.S. President Donald Trump directed his attorney to lie to Congress about efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, following allegations in a news report.

The House Intelligence Committee chairman, Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Friday that the allegation was "among the most serious to date." He said "we will do what's necessary to find out'' if the report is true.

BuzzFeed News reported late Thursday that two anonymous federal law enforcement officials were the sources for the report about the president and his former lawyer Michael Cohen.

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said in a statement Friday that "any suggestion  from any source  that the president counseled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false.'' White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the story was ridiculous.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said that directing a subordinate to lie to Congress would be a federal crime and that his committee's job "is to get to the bottom of it."

Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas posted on Twitter that if the BuzzFeed story was true, Trump "must resign or be impeached."

BuzzFeed reported that Cohen told special counsel Robert Mueller that the president told him to lie to Congress about Trump's dealings with Russia.

The news site said its anonymous sources were also "involved in an investigation of the matter."

According to the BuzzFeed account, Trump and two of his children  Ivanka and Donald Jr.  "received regular, detailed updates about the real estate development from Cohen, whom they put in charge of the project."

At the same time Cohen was providing the Trumps with news about the business negotiations with Russia, BuzzFeed said, Trump was engaged in his successful presidential election and denying that he had any business deals with Russia.

BuzzFeed said investigators learned about Trump's effort to get Cohen to lie to Congress "through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages and a cache of other documents."

Trump tweeted Friday that Cohen is "Lying to reduce his jail time!''

Cohen pleaded guilty of lying to Congress about the Trump Tower project in Moscow. He has been sentenced to three years in prison for crimes that include paying hush money to women who allegedly had sexual encounters with Trump.

Cohen is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight and Reform Committee in February, when he will likely be questioned about the report.

Mueller and his team of prosecutors have been investigating Trump campaign links to Russia as well as looking into whether Trump, as president, obstructed justice by trying to thwart the probe.

Trump has repeatedly denied collusion with Russia and has called Mueller's investigation a "witch hunt." Russia also has rejected U.S. intelligence findings that Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election in an effort to boost Trump.ICC Grants Prosecution Request to Keep Ex-Ivory Coast President Gbagbo in Custody

By VOA News January 18, 2019

The International Criminal Court (ICC) Appeals Chamber granted a prosecution request that ex-Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo remains in custody until a new hearing in February, the court said Friday in a statement.

Earlier this week, judges acquitted Gbagbo and a top aide, Charles Ble Goude, of crimes against humanity stemming from 2010 election violence.

Prosecutors immediately appealed Tuesday's verdict and argued the pair may refuse to return to The Hague for trial if the not guilty verdict was overturned.

The three-judge panel called the prosecution's case "exceptionally weak."

Gbagbo lost to his bitter rival, current President Alassane Outtara, but refused to concede. The standoff led to violence that killed 3,000 people and sent thousands of others fleeing the country for their lives.

Opponents and prosecutors blamed Gabgbo and Ble Goude for the deadly unrest. But the three-judge panel ruled Tuesday there was not enough evidence they were responsible to convict the pair.

Gbagbo's daughter told reporters her father planned to return to Ivory Coast when he was finally released.

But if he went back, he would face 20 years in prison on charges of misusing funds from a West African central bank.

An Ivorian court convicted him in absentia last year, but the government has not said if it will enforce the sentence.Vietnam Gains Bargaining Power Over China in Conduct at Sea Talks

By Ralph Jennings January 18, 2019

Vietnam's tough stance against China over sovereignty of the South China Sea will put Beijing on the defensive during regional talks on easing the regional maritime dispute, people who follow the process say.

Officials in Hanoi have suggested establishing a code of conduct that, among other things, would bar construction on artificial islands in the South China Sea and ban militarizing disputed features, said Carl Thayer, a University of New South Wales emeritus professor, in an online commentary about a preview of a draft code text written last year. Vietnam, he added, wants to ban any blockades of vessels and nix the possibility of any single country's air defense identification zone.

Vietnam also would deem "unacceptable" any agreement excluding the sea's Paracel Islands, which it claims but China effectively controls, according to a report posted by Gregory Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative think tank project in the United States.

China's island building

Analysts say China has landfilled and militarized more of the 3.5-million-square-kilometer sea than any of the other five claimants. It will oppose the Vietnamese agenda, further setting back the 23-year-old code of conduct process but keep it at the bargaining table to show it's a good neighbor, they expect.

"Chinese hegemony of the South China Sea is not accepted by any of the states within the region," said Stephen Nagy, senior associate politics and international studies professor at International Christian University in Tokyo.

"The problem is, their asymmetric capabilities basically mean that they can't push back," he said. "The only way they can push back is to try to forge consensus on code of conduct or at least raising awareness that these issues still remain a core challenge to security and territorial sovereignty within the region."

Code of conduct

After 23 years of on-again, off-again efforts, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China decided in 2017 to restart talks on a code of conduct aimed at preventing accidents while leaving sovereignty issues aside. China has said a final code should be signed by 2021.

Four association countries and Taiwan dispute China's claims to about 90 percent of the sea. China and Vietnam have gotten into three clashes there since the 1970s.

Vietnam's suggestions for the code, if they carry forward, would affect China the most because of its reach over the sea valued for fisheries, shipping lanes and energy reserves. China has reclaimed about 1,200 hectares of land to build out tiny islets and placed military hardware such as aircraft on some, maritime scholars believe.

The wording from Hanoi would spotlight China's expansion at sea, a trend Beijing seldom publicizes. It might also serve as a bargaining chip during later stages of talks about the code of conduct, they say.

"Vietnam is in a difficult position as perhaps the country that is pushing back most vociferously against the gradual expansion of Chinese control over the South China Sea," said Denny Roy, senior fellow at Honolulu-based research organization the East-West Center.

"Hanoi must draw the attention for playing the role of standing up to China," Roy said. "Otherwise China will meet less resistance from ASEAN. In that sense Vietnamese pushback might make a difference."

Hanoi lost control of the Paracel chain of some 130 islets to China in the 1970s. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam vie with China sovereignty in the Spratly Island chain.

Chinese reaction

China would oppose Vietnam's ideas for the code, experts say. Beijing is unlikely to show foreign policy "weakness" this year before celebrations of its 70th anniversary of Communist Party rule, said Alexander Huang, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan.

"I expect if the Vietnamese government continues to insist (on) putting language that the Chinese cannot tolerate, it would be more like a kind of bargaining chip," he said. "It's going to touch the nerve of the central leadership."

China bases its maritime claims on fishing records it says date back some 2,000 years.

But China will keep negotiating the code of conduct because it's under "tremendous pressure" to reduce tensions in Southeast Asia so it can focus instead on ties with the United States, Nagy said. The U.S. government helps train troops in the Philippines and periodically passes ships through the sea to show it's open to all.

Despite historical jousting between China and Taiwan over territory, the two countries' communist parties regularly discuss maritime issues. They have agreed the Paracel dispute should stay between them, said Termsak Chalermpalanupap, fellow with the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

Vietnam's conditions for the code would delay code negotiations, he said.

"I think it will be slow, because the Chinese side already said three years' time frame, so they will just go through the motions of having meetings," Chalermpalanupap said.US Syria Withdrawal Risks Vital Strategic Interests

By Brian Padden January 18, 2019

The U.S. withdrawal from Syria may bring to a close an open-ended and strategically unclear military commitment and likely put at risk vital national security interests, according to some analysts.

"I guess the problem is that whereas our involvement doesn't necessarily make things better, our lack of involvement doesn't either," said Mark Katz, a Russia and Middle East scholar and professor of politics at George Mason University in Virginia.

U.S. President Donald Trump surprised allies and adversaries with his decision in December to bring home the approximately 2,000 U.S. forces in Syria to help local militias defeat efforts by the Islamic State militant group to establish an Islamic extremist state.

US withdrawal

Trump's justification for a U.S. military withdrawal from Syria is that IS has been defeated or at least no longer controls any significant territory in Syria or Iraq; however, a deadly IS attack in Syria on Wednesday that killed four Americans, two service members and two civilians in Defense-related jobs, showed that the militant group remains active.

Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday reiterated the Trump administration's reassurance that the Syria withdrawal does not mark the beginning of the end of U.S. involvement in the region.

"We will protect the gains that our soldiers and our coalition partners have secured; but, this president has often spoken about his desire to bring an end to endless wars in America," said Pence in a speech to diplomats at the State Department.

Critics worry the decision to leave Syria will undermine key U.S. strategic objectives: to prevent the threat of terrorism at home, to deter Iran's growing military influence and power, and to defend U.S. ally Israel.

Terror threat

The IS attack does demonstrate that pockets of militants in Syria are still a threat. Without the American military presence, there is great concern that Islamic extremists could regroup and renew efforts to export terror attacks in Europe and the United States.

"My concern by the statements made by President Trump is that you have set in motion enthusiasm by the enemy we are fighting," said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on Wednesday in response to the attack.

At the same time, the limited U.S. commitment in Syria is seen by many security analysts as insufficient to completely root out insurgents hiding within the civilian population in dysfunctional regions of Syria. A significant surge of military forces and expensive nation building efforts would likely be needed to pacify the country and deny IS any havens.

"A new Syria is required if you really want to get rid of ISIS, and that is well beyond our capacity to achieve. We are not going to spend $200 billion reconstructing Syria and certainly not in this administration," said Aaron David Miller, the Middle East program director at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. He was using an acronym for Islamic State.

Allies and adversaries

U.S. adversaries Syria, Russia, Iran, as well as American ally Turkey would likely continue military efforts to target ISIS militants.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies would also be free to brutally crush moderate opposition to his authoritarian rule that was aiding the U.S. in Syria. And Turkey may confront the Syrian Kurdish militia that it sees as fighting for an independent Kurdish homeland that would include parts of Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran.

Trump, in a Tweet, threatened to impose crippling economic sanctions on Turkey if it attacked the Kurds.

The Trump administration has come under strong criticism for abandoning American allies in Syria. Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis resigned over the Syria withdrawal, and in a letter to the president said the U.S. standing in the world depends on maintaining its alliances and commitments.

"We cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies," Mattis wrote.

A U.S. Syria pullout would also pose a major threat to American strategic interests by ceding territory and influence to Iranian forces and allied militias, from which to launch attacks against Israel, creating the potential for a wider military conflict.

"Maybe this is the strategy, in other words, that let other people do the fighting. And then, you know, either they'll want us back to calm things down, or they won't, and they can just fight amongst themselves," Katz said.Thousands returning to Nigeria's restive Borno state 'at risk'; UN 'gravely concerned'

18 January 2019 - Amid reports that Cameroon is forcing several thousand Nigerians to return to Borno state in the country's crisis-gripped north-east, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) deplored the move, saying it has put lives "at risk".

"We are gravely concerned for the safety and well-being of all these people", UNHCR said in a statement.

On 16 January, 267 Nigerian refugees, who had crossed into Cameroon in 2014, were forcibly returned.

And at dusk on 14 January, militants attacked and ransacked the small border town of Rann, about 10 kilometers from the Cameroon border, which continued into the next day, targeting military installations, civilians and humanitarian facilities. At least 14 people were reportedly killed and an estimated 9,000 fled to Cameroon.

"This action was totally unexpected and puts lives of thousands of refugees at risk," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

Cameroon is currently home to more than 370,000 refugees, including some 100,000 from Nigeria.

"I am appealing to Cameroon to continue its open door and hospitable policy and practices and halt immediately any more returns and to ensure full compliance with its refugee protection obligations under its own national legislation, as well as international law", Mr. Grandi stressed.

North-eastern Nigeria has been particularly hard-hit by the insurgency being waged in the region since 2009.

Attack spreads fear among vulnerable population

Meanwhile, according to Edward Kallon, the country's UN Humanitarian Coordinator, the deadly attack interrupted aid delivery to some 76,000 internally displaced people in Rann.

"The attacks on Rann, that are increasingly frequent, are having a devastating impact on the civilians taking refuge in this isolated town and severely affecting our ability to deliver life-saving aid to women, men and children in need," he said.

The attackers looted or destroyed a medical clinic, humanitarian supply warehouses and aid workers' accommodations, and burned down the nearby market and camp shelters.

At present Rann is inaccessible to international humanitarian organizations both by road and by air.

"This attack has spread fear among an already vulnerable population, and humanitarian assets were also targeted", stated Mr. Kallon. "I urge the Government of Nigeria to protect civilians, including aid workers".

Now in its tenth year, the conflict in north-east Nigeria has triggered massive displacement and caused a severe humanitarian crisis with more than seven million people in need.

In addition to the Rann attack, clashes in other local government areas in northern Borno state have forced more than 43,000 people to flee their homes since November, with more than 32,000 taking refuge in Maiduguri, the Borno capital  many converging on already congested camps.UN rights office calls on Zimbabwe Government to end 'crackdown' in response to fuel protests

18 January 2019 - In Zimbabwe, violence and the reported use of live ammunition by State security officials against protesters that has led to "a number of deaths" should be investigated thoroughly and transparently by the Government, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Friday.

"We are deeply troubled by the socio-economic crisis that is unfolding in Zimbabwe and the repression of large-scale protests in the country, following the Government's decision to increase fuel prices," said spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani.

"We call on the Government to find ways of engaging with the population about their legitimate grievances and to stop the crackdown against protesters."

Speaking to journalists in Geneva at the regular biweekly press briefing, Ms. Shamdasani called on the authorities to ensure that the country's security forces handle protests and exercise their power  especially the use of firearms and live ammunition  strictly in accordance with the country's international human rights obligations and the relevant principles.

These include legality, necessity, proportionality, precaution and accountability, she explained, before noting that there had also been also allegations of "generalized intimidation and harassment" by security forces, who had allegedly carried out door-to-door searches.

Last month, a national commission appointed by the Government of President Emmerson Mnanagagwa found that the military's use of live bullets during deadly post-election violence in August was disproportionate and unjustified, Ms. Shamdasani noted.

"The bottom line is that the use of live ammunition by security forces was used, excessive force was used," she stressed in relation to the latest protests. "We don't have verification on the exact number of people who were killed or injured, but there are doctors' associations that are putting numbers out there, likely more than 60 people were treated in hospital for gunshots wounds. This is not the way to react to the expression of economic grievances by the population."

Countrywide, more than 600 people have been arrested in the demonstrations to date, according to Zimbabwe's Minister of National Security.

Among those detained are opposition leaders and prominent civil activists, Ms. Shamdasani said, before appealing for the prompt release of all those held for exercising their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression.

Reports that access to the Internet had been cut were also of concern, the UN official added. "We understand that access to WhatsApp and Facebook was also blocked at some point, internet access was shut down and it apparently resumed," she said. "There are reports that it has been shut down again. The Government has been saying that this is to deal with misinformation that is spreading on social media."

Asked about the nature of the demonstrations, Ms. Shamdasani explained that some reports suggested protesters had burned tires and barricaded roads, while others had set buildings on fire and carried out looting, although it was difficult to identify those responsible.

"There was some use of violence by the protesters as well, fires were set," she said. "Shops and businesses were looted; as always, it's difficult to determine who did this. Was it opportunist taking advantage of the chaos to do that? Was it the demonstrators themselves? It's very difficult to understand that. It's very difficult to manage a situation like that."Norway Beefs Up Arctic Defences at Russia's Doorstep

Sputnik News

10:01 18.01.2019

Having partially dismantled its northern defences in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Norway now seeks to re-establish its presence in the strategic area amid rising tensions between NATO and Russia.

The Norwegian Defence Ministry plans to invest nearly NOK 2.5 billion ($290 million) rebuilding and expanding its Cold War-era military facilities in the far north.

"Our assignment is to establish a presence", Colonel Jrn Erik Berntsen, the leader of the newly established unit Finnmark Ground Defence, said, as quoted by the daily newspaper Klassekampen. "We'll be there to discourage (any prospective invaders) and to defend ourselves against any threats".

The investment will focus on Norway's most northern and eastern region of Finnmark, which shares borders with Finland and Russia. More than 500 soldiers will be stationed at Porsangermoen, once a bustling camp, later used only for drills and now slated for revival. The defence department plans to pump around NOK 1.5 billion ($176 million) into Porsanger alone, including NOK 500 million ($58 mln) on housing for military employees. The first 150 soldiers will be in place at Porsanger by the end of the month.

Porsanger once had a force of 1,500 military personnel. Following the end of the Cold War, the Norwegian state gradually reduced both activity and its presence, since the perceived threat from the Soviet Union no longer existed. Oslo's new plans call for some facilities to be rebuilt and others demolished and replaced with a recruitment facility and a school for weapons training, complete with more modern and better-suited accommodations.

Military activity will be also boosted in the bordering county of Sr-Varanger, where millions of kronor have already been spent on two new border stations and the electronic surveillance of the Russian border.

In recent years, Norwegian-Russian relations have been marred by the increasing US military presence in Norway, which now includes 330 US Marines; Oslo hopes to see this number doubled. NATO has also increased its activity via major drills, such as the recent Trident Juncture, the largest on Norwegian soil in decades; Norway also plans to become part of the US missile shield.

A number of spying cases have also rattled the traditionally peaceful relations. A former Norwegian border inspector is being held in Moscow on suspicion of being a courier of cash and secret documents on a mission from Norway's intelligence. Last autumn, a member of the Russian delegation was arrested in Oslo on suspicions of espionage in the Norwegian parliament, but later released.

 SputnikColombian Defence Min.: ELN Rebels Behind Car Bomb on Police School in Bogota

Sputnik News

14:42 18.01.2019(updated 20:57 18.01.2019)

Colombian authorities have established that 56-year-old Jose Aldemar Rojas was driving the car that exploded at a police academy in Bogota. He died, while the motives of his actions are not yet known.

Colombia's Defense Minister Guillermo Botero stated Friday that ELN rebel group was behind the recent car bomb attack on a police academy that killed at least 21 and injured 68.

"Those lives were claimed by the National Liberation Army's terrorist attack," Botero said at a press conference in Bogota.

He added that the Colombian authorities had identified the perpetrator as 56-year-old Jose Aldemar Rojas Rodriguez, who was thought to have direct links to the ELN, and specified that he died in the incident.

Colombian Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez, in turn, named Colombian citizen Ricardo Carvajal, who was detained shortly after the attack, as a second plotter.

"Carvajal will be charged with murder and terrorism," Martinez indicated.

Earlier in the day a man suspected of involvement in the attack was reportedly detained in the city. The man, about 50 years old, was detained Friday morning in downtown Bogota, Noticias Caracol reported.

The attack he is suspected to be involved in took place on Thursday when a car bomb broke through a checkpoint near the police school building and exploded.

Colombian authorities have established that 56-year-old Jose Aldemar Rojas was driving the car. He died, and the motives of his actions are not yet known. According to the latest data, 20 people died as a result of the explosion and another 68 were injured.

Colombian President Ivan Duque has declared a three-day mourning for the victims of the terrorist attack.

The National Liberation Army (ELN), mentioned by the defence minister, consists of some 2,000 fighters and considered to be a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union. In February 2017 the group started peace talks with the government of former President Juan Manuel Santos, but the negotiations have been put on hold by President Ivan Duque.

 SputnikBelarus Looking Into Russian Detention Of Former Model Who Claimed Kremlin Election Meddling

By RFE/RL January 18, 2019

The Belarusian Embassy in Moscow says it is looking into the case of a Belarusian model who was detained by Russian authorities after landing in Moscow following her deportation from Thailand.

Anastasia Vashukevich, who claimed last year to have evidence of alleged Kremlin efforts to help Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election, was detained at Sheremetyevo Airport on January 17 along with three others who had also been deported.

Moscow police said in a statement that Vashukevich, also known on social media as Nastya Rybka, was held on prostitution-related charges along with the other three, including Aleksandr Kirillov, a self-styled sex guru also known as Alex Lesley.

A spokesperson for the Belarusian Embassy in Moscow said it was looking into the information about the detention of Vashukevich and Kirillov, also a Belarusian citizen.

"The embassy is studying this information," the spokesperson told Interfax on January 18.

A lawyer for Vashukevich rebuked Russian authorities for questioning his client without him present.

Dmitry Zatsarinsky said late on January 17 that any information gathered from such questioning would not be admissible in any possible court proceedings.

A video has emerged on social media appearing to show Vashukevich's arrest at Sheremetyevo airport. In it a woman yells "I don't want to go anywhere" as she struggles with a group of men, one of whom is dressed in a police uniform.

It was not immediately clear why she was put on a flight to Russia.

Vashukevich earlier claimed to have recordings of Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska talking about interference in the 2016 U.S. election, but never released them.

Deripaska is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and also had a working relationship with Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign manager who was investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller and convicted last year of tax and bank fraud.

In February 2018, Russian anticorruption activist Aleksei Navalny published an expose appearing to show a former deputy Russian prime minister off the coast of Norway on a yacht belonging to Deripaska.

Navalny's report, which drew on photographs and video that Vashukevich published on Instagram in 2016, appeared to show then-Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko being offered lavish treatment on Deripaska's yacht. The two also appear to discuss U.S. politics.

Vashukevich, who was pictured on the yacht, says she had an affair with Deripaska.

Vashukevich and Kirillov made international headlines again when they asked for asylum in the United States while detained in Thailand.

Vashukevich claimed that she could reveal details about Russia's alleged meddling in the U.S. election.

Deripaska, one of several Russian tycoons hit by U.S. sanctions, was once an associate of Manafort.

Vashukevich has more than 120,000 followers on Instagram and authored a book about seducing oligarchs.

But she faces legal problems in Russia as Deripaska won an invasion of privacy lawsuit against her and Kirillov in July over a video that showed Deripaska vacationing with Prikhodko.

With reporting by AFP, Meduza, REN-TV, and Interfax

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/belarus-looking- into-russian-detention-of-former-model-who-claimed-kremlin -election-meddling/29717246.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.Explainer: New Hague Tribunal Looks To Avoid Mistakes Of Past Kosovar Prosecutions

By Alan Crosby, Amra Zejneli January 18, 2019

This time it will be different.

At least that's the hope of the United States and European Union with the start up of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) in The Hague.

Tasked with confronting one of the most painful periods of Kosovo's troubled history, the Specialist Chambers were heralded by the West as a vital step forward, even if it comes almost two decades after the end of the armed conflict between Kosovar Albanians and Serbian forces.

On January 14, the court finally began operation with the questioning of Rrustem Mustafa, a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) about his role during the bloody 1998-99 Kosovo independence war that pitted forces of Yugoslavia -- by that point consisting of Serbia and Montenegro -- against the Kosovo Albanian rebel group.

The new court to try war crimes that took place in Kosovo follows the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, and the EU Police and Justice Mission, or EULEX.

But how will the KSC differ from its predecessors?

Its supporters say this time, its specific mandate and jurisdiction will ensure trials avoid the witness-tampering alleged during previous attempts to prosecute defendants such as current Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, who was twice acquitted on charges amid allegations that two critical witnesses were intimidated.

Its detractors -- mainly Kosovo's dominant ethnic Albanian community -- say it won't differ and see it as little more than a witch hunt that ignores Serbian crimes against ethnic Albanians.

So what is the Kosovo Specialist Chambers? And how does it actually differ from the ICTY?

The KSC was created in 2015 when Kosovar lawmakers amended the constitution to allow for the passage of the Law on Specialist Chambers and the Specialist Prosecutor's Office.

Unlike the ICTY, which was established as an ad hoc court by the United Nations and prosecuted cases according to international law, the KSC is guided by Kosovo's legal statutes and mirrors each level of the Kosovar court system: the Basic Court of Pristina, the Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court, and the Constitutional Court.

The court may be located on Dutch soil, funded by the European Union, and staffed completely by an international legal team, but it is nonetheless a Kosovar court. Think of it in similar terms to how an embassy is still its own sovereign territory although located in a foreign country.

The KSC also has a very targeted mandate of investigating incidents outlined in a 2011 report by Council of Europe Special Rapporteur Dick Marty that expressed concerns that "serious crimes" had been committed in Kosovo between January 1998 and December 2000, against Serbs, Kosovar Albanians suspected of being collaborators, and other individuals who had remained in Kosovo at the end of the armed conflict. The allegations include trafficking in human organs by the KLA.

"The jurisdiction of the Specialist Chambers is not limited by any amnesty that may be granted under the constitution of Kosovo. Judgments of the Specialist Chambers are also not subject to any pardon that may be granted under the constitution," notes Robert Muharremi, a professor at the European School of Law and Governance in Pristina.

While it may escape much of the political influence from inside Kosovo, one of the main challenges facing the KSC is convincing witnesses to testify, and then shuttling them to the Netherlands to do so.

During trials in national courts in Serbia and Kosovo, as well as international institutions such as the ICTY, which wound down its operations last year, witness intimidation and interference are a well-documented problem.

The problem became so bad in her dealings with Kosovo war crimes that former ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte once complained publicly that "the investigation of the Kosovo Liberation Army fighters appeared to be the most frustrating of all the investigations done by the ICTY," in large part because "witnesses were so afraid and intimidated that they even feared to talk about the [UCK] presence in some areas, not to mention actual crimes."

Securing the support of witnesses before the Kosovo Special Court for war crimes will undoubtedly be a challenge and a complex process, experts say.

Mark Ellis, head of International Bar Association based in London, has seen how hard it can be to build a solid case when witnesses feel pressured in such tight-knit communities where the person they testify against may be seen locally as a war hero.

Ellis, who acted as legal adviser to the Independent International Commission on Kosovo from 1999 to 2000, says failing to pay enough attention to witness protection was a mistake in the past and a lesson that appears finally to have been learned as the EU is dedicating more funds to address the issue because "it will be too late later on."

"You don't have to look too far to understand the challenges that the Chambers has versus the failure of the ICTY in ensuring that witnesses are protected and that there's no intimidation, because it existed at the ICTY, and the Special Chambers now hopes that it will not have to repeat those mistakes," he told RFE/RL in an interview.

"It's providing more attention on the issue of protecting witnesses, protective measures, ensuring there's no intimidation of witnesses probably than any other court in the past because it knows how complex Kosovo is and how complex the conflict was. They know that if they're going to be successful, they have to ensure that there are witnesses who are going to testify, even though it's going to be very challenging and very complex," he added.

The KSC has measures in place to protect witnesses, including hiding their identity, giving testimony in private and closed court sessions, and one-way closed-circuit video links to keep the location of witnesses from being known.

"Protective measures are usually ordered before the witness testifies, to allow time for their implementation. However, there may be instances where such measures are ordered by the judges during the testimony to protect certain information," according to Angela Griep, spokeswoman for the chambers.

But even with safeguards for witnesses, some legal experts say the court will have difficulty convincing some to come forward, even though those asked to come are compelled to do so and face fines and possible imprisonment if they avoid the court.

Mustafa, who says he was invited as a "suspect witness," and his attorney spent about 17 hours being interviewed this week.

An interview with Sami Lushtaku, another former UCK commander, began on January 16, according to one of his lawyers, Arian Koci. Briton Geoffrey Nice, who led the ICTY prosecution of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, is also representing Lushtaku.

Others, including Raimonda Rreci, the first female UCK member to be summoned, have been invited for interviews but say the intent of the interview is unclear.

Rreci, who lives in the United States, says she has nothing to hide and will answer any questions she faces, even though she's unsure of her status.

Some 13,000 people died in Kosovo's war for independence, most of them ethnic Albanians.

The conflict ended in June 1999 following weeks of NATO air bombardments against the Yugoslav Army and allied police forces that are accused of committing atrocities against ethnic Albanian civilians.

Despite its international support, few inside the country are happy about the KSC.

Twice in recent years, Kosovar lawmakers have tried to repeal the law on the KSC, saying it discriminates against former Kosovar Albanian guerrillas, whose ranks included President Hasim Thaci.

"The jurisdiction is framed in a unique way. It is essentially focused on one side of the conflict, namely the [UCK]. This is novel in the sense that it focuses on accountability of the 'victors' of the conflict, rather than the 'vanquished,'" according to Carsten Stahn, professor of international criminal law and global justice at Leiden University, just outside The Hague.

"The absence of domestic judges avoids inequalities between judges. But it might also entail downsides in terms of diversity of expertise and local perception," he adds.

It's those perceptions of the court that may ultimately decide whether it is judged as a success or a failure.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/explainer-new- hague-tribunal-looks-to-avoid-mistakes-of-past- kosovo-prosecutions/29718149.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.UN monitors biased toward Saudi Arabia: Yemen's Houthis

Iran Press TV

Fri Jan 18, 2019 11:14AM

Yemeni officials have voiced concern over a UN mission's ignorance of Saudi violations of the Hudaydah truce deal.

Yemen's Supreme Revolutionary Committee head Mohammed Ali al-Houthi highlighted the failure of the UN mission to support the Hudaydah Agreement (UNMHA) to hold the Saudis accountable after one of its own vehicles was targeted in the port city of Hudaydah.

The attack, which happened earlier on Thursday, caused no casualties. The UN declined to identify the party behind the shooting.

Al-Houthi believes Saudi-led forces were responsible for the attack and the UN's silence may indicate the monitoring mission is not prepared to carry out its duties correctly.

Al-Houthi suggested that the silence was more probably a case of the UN's intentional bias in favor of the Saudi-led forces.

Supreme Political Council member Mohammed al-Bukhaiti also echoed al-Houthi's comments, adding that the UNMHA chief monitor Patrick Cammaert has "sought to see the Stockholm agreement fail" ever since he was appointed to the mission.

"We will not accept dialogue around increasing the number of international monitors until the problem of Patrick Cammaert is resolved," said al-Bukhaiti.

Also on Thursday, seven Yemeni army personnel were killed following two Saudi airstrikes north of Hudaydah, according to Yemen's Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree.

Saree described the attacks as a blatant violation of the truce and urged UN monitors to hold the coalition accountable for the attack.

He further highlighted that vague responses from the UN only impeded the Yemeni military's right to retaliate.

Yemen's warring parting withdrew forces from strategic port city of Hudaydah following a peace deal signed in the Swedish capital of Stockholm on December 13.

Hudaydah, a lifeline for millions of Yemenis, has seen some of the heaviest fighting in the Saudi-led war, which Riyadh began in March 2015.

The war initially consisted of an aerial campaign, but was later coupled with a naval blockade and the deployment of ground mercenaries to Yemen.

Since the onset of the aggression, Yemeni forces, backed by Popular Committees fighters, have defended the impoverished nation.

The aggression is estimated to have taken the lives of 56,000 Yemenis and pushed another 14 million to the brink of famine in what the UN has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.USNS Brunswick Arrives in Bitung

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS190118-06

Release Date: 1/18/2019 11:19:00 AM

From CTF-73 Public Affairs

SINGAPORE (NNS) -- The Military Sealift Command expeditionary fast transport ship USNS Brunswick (T-EPF 6) arrived in Bitung, Indonesia, Jan. 14 for a scheduled port visit.

The ship's crew hosted a number of ship tours and participated in various community events throughout the port visit.

"We're very much looking forward to experiencing the local culture and getting to meet the people here in north Sulawesi," said civilian mariner Capt. Adam Streeper, ship's master for USNS Brunswick. Upon arrival, the ship's crew met with members of the Indonesian Navy's Main Naval Base VIII and enjoyed cultural performances by a local Minahasa dance troupe and elementary school students from Bitung.

During the ship's visit, distinguished guests had the opportunity to tour Brunswick, to include Steven O. E. Kandouw, deputy governor of North Sulawesi, Maximiliaan Jonas Lomban, Mayor of Bitung and First Admiral Gig Jonias Mozes Sipasulta, Main Naval Base Commander VIII, Manado.

Kandouw thanked Streeper for the opportunity to visit the ship and said he views the port visit as a symbol of U.S. commitment to Indonesia.

Brunswick is the sixth Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport, currently in service with the MSC and is the fourth ship in naval service named after Brunswick, Georgia.NATO Secretary General thanks EUROCONTROL for continued cooperation

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

18 Jan. 2019

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL) on Friday (18 January 2019) to meet Director General Eamonn Brennan and reaffirm the close collaboration between the two organisations.

The Secretary General thanked EUROCONTROL for their continued commitment to the Memorandum of Cooperation, in place since 2003. The Alliance's partnership with EUROCONTROL is crucial in protecting civil and military aviation activities from common threats such as cyber-attacks, but also in the preparation and execution of exercises, such as Trident Juncture 2018, NATO's biggest exercise since the Cold War. This operational and technical collaboration has increased over the years, owing to the very sharp growth in civil air traffic and the need to take account of military requirements, particularly those of NATO's Strategic Commands. "It is that civil-military cooperation in air traffic management that is at the heart of relations between our two organisations" Mr. Stoltenberg said, stressing NATO's commitment to pursue enhanced cooperation in the future.

Through close collaboration with EUROCONTROL, the Alliance achieved a milestone at the NATO Summit in July in its ability to move planes at the speed of relevance  or Rapid Air Mobility. Allied aircraft supporting NATO missions will be given a NATO Call Sign. This means that they will receive priority handling by Air Traffic Control in Europe.In the heart of the jungle, Army helps thwart illegal trafficking networks

By Destinee Sweeney January 18, 2019

DARIEN PROVINCE, Republic of Panama -- Deep in the jungles of Panama, National Border Service agents, also known as SENAFRONT, await in a clearing, anticipating construction supplies that will help them, as they prepare to take down illicit drug and human trafficking networks that span the Americas.

The dense wilderness surrounding the agents seems alive- the breeze rustles the trees making them dance, the mountains stand tall in the distance guarding over the valley below, and the air is filled with the sounds of nature.

A whirring noise appears in the distance, seeming at first to be a trick of the senses. Gradually, the whisper evolves into a roar, overtaking the area as a CH-47 Chinook peeks over the jungle canopy and the clearing erupts into chaos as the strength of the aircraft blades whips up the dust and debris that previously lay stagnant.

"Bravo Company of the 1st (Battalion) 228th Aviation (Regiment) assigned to Joint Task Force-Bravo is part of a broader U.S. effort to assist the Panamanian government and their national border police with setting up a remote operating base out in the Darien jungle," said Capt. Jennifer West, 1-228th Avn. Regt Bravo company commander and Chinook pilot.

The 1-228th Avn. Regt Chinook crews provided air transportation assistance from Jan. 4-12 for the first phase of the operation, named "Darien Lift."

"A SENAFRONT installation is under construction and a lot of equipment must be moved to build it," said Juan Carlos Varela, President of the Republic of Panama. "We do not have the equipment to transfer that amount of cargo in order to install this new SENAFRONT station, they are cooperating in that."

Due to the outpost being located far past where the road ends, JTF-Bravo's maneuverable rotary wing-assets can carry more weight in a faster manner than the alternative, which is to either backpack the nearly 2 million pounds of needed supplies, such as concrete and cinderblocks, or to navigate them through the jungle waterways via boats.

West described the mission as one that would be extremely challenging without the airlift support and considers it "satisfying to know we're actually making an impact and helping the Panamanians establish a security presence in the Darien, where there's really nothing out there but jungle."

She explained the presence will help SENAFRONT combat narco-drug traffickers and prevent their smuggled contraband from getting onto the Pan-American Highway, the transcontinental road exploited by well-financed and heavily-armed transnational criminal groups who fuel insecurity and instability as they continue their trafficking operations towards countries north of Panama.

Last year alone, the Panamanian Security Services confiscated more than 72 metric tons of narcotics, keeping them off the streets of the Americas.

"With this being a binational issue that also has regional effects, the U.S. government has kindly offered to support us in this effort," said Jonattan Del Rosario, Public Security Minister of Panama. "It is closely related to the binational posts that we are building in collaboration with Colombia, mainly because of the phenomenon of drug trafficking, although the irregular flow of migrants is also monitored from these centers. That is why we have developed an important effort to also pursue human trafficking networks in this administration, resulting in the effective dismantling of 22 of these networks."

JTF-Bravo operates out of Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras, supporting its Central American neighbors as the partner of choice and helping allies to develop capabilities and improve regional security. This year will mark the fourth Darien Lift the U.S. Army has supported. So far, the crews have been able to transport 305,000 pounds of materials and are scheduled to return to continue the operation.

The Chinook is a multi-role helicopter used in a variety of situations from carrying Soldiers to their destinations to aiding combat missions. Aside from supporting this operation, the CH-47 was also used to combat Darien wildfires in 2016.

"The relationship between Panama and the United States is certainly a strong one, (us) being the partner of choice," said West. "When the Panamanians request help from the United States government I think it hits home that we are here to help."Chance of Rain: 1% Sunrise: 05:47:56 AM Sunset: 08:42:36 PM Humidity: 18% Wind: E @ 10mph UV Index: 0 Low

Thursday Night

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low near 70F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph.Japanese firm to deliver artificial meteor shower over Hiroshima using satellite News oi-Vishal Kawadkar Japanese firm Ale has a new kind of on-demand service.

A rocket on a mission to create history's first artificial meteor shower, blasted into space said, Japanese scientists. A micro-satellite developed for the mission to shower meteors over Hiroshima as a part of the initial experiment for what it calls a "shooting stars on demand" service.

The satellite releases small balls that glow brightly as they move at high speeds through the atmosphere, resembling a meteor shower. It was attached to a small-size Epsilon-4 rocket which was recently launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The rocket also carried other six ultra-small satellites that will showcase different "innovative" technologies, JAXA spokesman Nobuyoshi Fujimoto told AFP.

"I was too moved for words," Lena Okajima, president of the startup behind the artificial meteor showers, told the Jiji Press agency."I feel like now the hard work is ahead."

The firm plans its first-ever out-of-this-world show over Hiroshima in the spring of 2020. The satellite has 400 tiny balls whose formula has been kept under the wraps. These balls will make for at least 20-30 events, as one shower includes up to 20 shooting stars, says the company.

The company is planning for a second satellite launch in mid-2019 and is targeting "the whole world" with its new concept of artificial shooting stars. Hiroshima is chosen as the first location because of its good weather, landscape, and cultural assets. The company is also working with scientists at Japanese universities as well as the officials from the government. The company is yet to reveal the pricing for the artificial meteor shower.

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Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow NotificationsCortana is an app not a standalone assistant: Satya Nadella News oi-Karan Sharma Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella officially confirmed that Cortana is going to be an app, or skill, not a standalone assistant.

Officials at Microsoft have invested their one year working on the public repositioning of Cortana from standalone digital assistant to assistance aide. This week Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella officially confirmed that Cortana is going to be an app, or skill, not a standalone assistant like Amazon's Alexa Google Assistant or Apple's Siri.

Earlier this week Nadella spoke to some selected journalist on the Microsoft campus. "One thing that I feel like at Microsoft we made a bunch of mistakes by just saying let's just enter every category, just because we're a software company," ZDNet quotes Nadella as saying.

"Sometimes, it's sensible to do so because there are big TAMs [total addressable markets], but at the same time, if you don't have some unique thing to contribute, you usually fail," he added.

According to Nadella speakers are an example where the company needs to stand back. He asked instead of speakers what we can do in that same category which turns to be unique.

He said "would we be better off, for example, to make Cortana a valuable skill that somebody who is using Alexa can call? Or should we try and compete with Alexa? And we decided we would do the former which is because Cortana needs to be that skill for anybody who's a Microsoft 365 subscriber. You should be able to use it on Google Assistant, you should be able to use it on Alexa, just like how you use our apps on Android and iOS so that's at least how we want to think about where it'll go."

Microsoft has not announced any partnership with Google so fat. But it does have joined hands with Amazon to get Cortana to interoperate with Google Assistant. Let's see what the company is planning to do with its Cortana.

Source

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Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow NotificationsVivo Republic Day Sale 2019: Crazy discounts on Vivo Smartphones that you cannot ignore News oi-Rohit Arora Vivo Republic Day Sale dates on Amazon- Jan 20th to Jan 23rd. The sale on Flipkart will start from January 20th till January 22nd, 2019.

The first sale extravaganza of the year 2019 is already upon us and it has been kick-started by Vivo. The smartphone brand has announced the four days 'Vivo Republic Day Sale' on Amazon and Flipkart to offer special discounts, exchange offers and No-cost EMI option on a range of Vivo smartphones. Vivo Republic Day sale will commence on Amazon from January 20th till 23rd whereas the sale on Flipkart will start from January 20th till January 22nd, 2019.

Like previous times, Amazon Prime members will get 12-hour early access from 12 noon January 19. Flipkart Plus members will also be offered the same treatment and will get early access from 8 pm onwards on January 19. Consumers who purchase any Vivo smartphone during the sale period can also avail 10% Discount using HDFC Cards on Amazon.in and SBI Credit Card on Flipkart.com.

Notably, Vivo has launched a range of smartphones last year, including the flagship Vivo Nex that offers a slider selfie camera, industry's first in-display fingerprint scanner, Snapdragon 845 CPU and an edge-to-edge AMOLED display. Vivo Nex will be available at a discount of Rs. 5,000 exclusively on Amazon.in. For the complete list of discounts on Vivo smartphones during the Republic Day Sale, follow the below list.

List of offers on Vivo Smartphones

Model MOP (Rs.) Sale Price Exchange discount (Rs.) Platform Offers on Amazon.in and Flipkart V9 Pro (4GB) 15,990 13,990 1,000 Flipkart  Flat discount of Rs 2,000 for limited time.

 Exchange and No Cost EMI also available. 4GB variant on Flipkart and 6GB variant on Amazon

V9 Pro (6GB) 17,990 15,990 Amazon  Flat discount of Rs 2,000 for limited time.

 Exchange and No Cost EMI also available. 4GB variant on Flipkart and 6GB variant on Amazon

Nex 39,990 5,000 Amazon  Price drop of INR 5,000 exclusively on Amazon

 Additional INR 5K off on Exchange

V11 Pro 25,990 3,000 Flipkart & Amazon  Additional INR 3,000 off on Exchange

 No Cost EMI Up-To 18 Months

V11 20,990 3,000 Flipkart & Amazon  Additional INR 3,000 off on Exchange

 No Cost EMI Up-To 18 Months

Y83 Pro 13,990 3,000 Flipkart & Amazon Extra INR 3,000 off on Exchange

 No Cost EMI

Y95 15,990 2,000 Flipkart & Amazon  Extra Rs 2,000 off on Exchange and No Cost EMI Y93 (4GB) 13,990 2,000 Flipkart & Amazon  Extra Rs 2,000 off on Exchange and No Cost EMI Y93 (3GB) 12,990 2,000 Flipkart & Amazon  Extra Rs 2,000 off on Exchange and No Cost EMI Y81 (3GB) 10,990 2,000 Flipkart & Amazon  Extra Rs 2,000 off on Exchange and No Cost EMI Y91 10,990 1,000 Flipkart & Amazon  Extra Rs 1,000 off on Exchange and No Cost EMI

Now when Vivo has reduced the prices of the company's 2018 smartphones for consumers in India during the sale period, we expect more brands to follow the trend. We can expect Honor, Xiaomi, Asus, and Samsung to announce some similar discounts and offers on their respective mobile products in the coming week. Stay tuned on Gizbot.

Best Mobiles in IndiaSamsung Galaxy S10 spotted on Geekbench with Exynos 9820 SoC News oi-Abhinaya Prabhu Samsung Galaxy S10 visits the Geekbench platform.

Recently, the Galaxy S10+ variant with the model number SM-G975U was spotted at the Geekbench database with a Snapdragon 855 SoC and 6GB RAM. Now, the regular variant of the upcoming flagship device has visited the same benchmarking platform with the model number SM-G973N.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 variant that has visited the Geekbench database now with is listed to get the power from an octa-core Exynos 9820 SoC based on the 7nm process. Similar to the Plus variant, we can expect this one to also use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset in the US market and the Exynos chipset elsewhere.

The other aspects as revealed by the benchmark listing include 6GB RAM, a single-core performance of 4382 points and a multi-core performance of 9570 points. In comparison, the single-core score appears to be relatively higher than that of the Snapdragon 855 variant while the multi-core score seems to be slightly lower.

What to expect from Samsung Galaxy S10

Samsung Galaxy S10 is believed to feature a 6.1-inch Infinity-O Super AMOLED display. It is expected to feature a QHD+ resolution and an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. There are claims that the company might incorporate a untrasonic fingerprint sensor in this smartphone unlike the in-display fingerprint sensor seen earlier.

Besides this, the upcoming Samsung smartphone - the Galaxy S10 is believed to feature a triple camera module at its rear. At the front, the Galaxy S10 is said to feature a single camera for selfies while the Galaxy S10+ is said to have a dual selfie camera module.

Going by the recent leaks, the Galaxy S10 will arrive with a 3500mAh battery, which is better battery life as compared to its predecessor. On the other hand, the Galaxy S10 Plus is believed to feature an impressive 4000mAh battery for a better battery life and performance. Being flagship models, we can expect these to run Android 9 Pie based on the newly launched One UI out of the box.

Samsung is expected to unveil the Galaxy S10 smartphones at the Unpacked Event to be hosted in San Francisco on February 20.

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Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow NotificationsDo not use Windows 10 Mobile after 10th December 2019: Microsoft explains why? News oi-Vivek Windows Phone 8.1 reached the end of support on July 11, 2017

Back in 2017, Microsoft confirmed that the company would no longer develop new features for the Windows 10 Mobile platform. However, the company continued to provide security and software updates for the select smartphones running on the Windows 10 Mobile Platform.

Microsoft has now officially confirmed that the company will stop supporting these devices by 10th of December 2019. Henceforth, no smartphones running on Windows 10 Mobile, version 1709 (released October 2017) will receive software or security updates what so ever.

Microsoft is now recommending users to switch to an Android or iOS device. According to the company, after December 2019 some features like device backup for settings will work until March 10th, 2020. Similarly, features like photo uploads and restoring a device from an existing device backup may continue to work for up to another 12 months from the end of support.

In the last few years, Microsoft stopped developing new features for the Windows 10 Mobile Platform, and the brand is now focused on offering a suite of Microsoft apps on both Android and iOS platform.

Why should you not Windows 10 smartphones after 10th December 2019?

A smartphone without the latest security update will be vulnerable to hacking. So, the device will have compromised security features, especially for those who save sensitive data on their smartphones.

Buy a new smartphone of your choice (Android or iOS) and copy your entire data to be on the safer side. Lastly, do you still use a Windows 10 Mobile OS powered smartphone? If yes, how is your overall user experience? Share your views in the comment box.

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Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow NotificationsLocal

YMCA board hires law firm for investigation at Y

Angela Major The YMCA of Northern Rock County in downtown Janesville.

JANESVILLE

The YMCA of Northern Rock Countys board of directors has hired a law firm to assist in an investigation of the YMCA, new board President Steve Yeko Jr. said in a written statement issued Friday afternoon.

The board has retained law firm Foley & Lardner to assist in an investigation, according to the statement. The law firm has offices in Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago and 18 other American cities and three offices outside the United States, according to the firms website.

In a three-paragraph statement, Yeko said that the Board of Directors of the YMCA of Northern Rock County is aware of the concerns raised by members of the organization and of our community.

Yeko said in his statement that based on the results of that investigation, the Board will take further action and communicate next steps to YMCA members and the community.

Its not clear what other measures the YMCAs board might have taken in connection with launching an investigation.

The Ys leadership has come under scrutiny in recent weeks as members and former board members have raised concerns over the Ys governance and transparency in its financial dealings, including the recent dismissal of several board members.

In the statement, Yeko said the YMCA accepted the resignation of Jason Engledow, the former board president who three former Y board members say terminated them from the board unilaterally and without a board vote between 2017 and 2018. The board members say Engledow terminated them after they pressed Engledow and Y CEO Tom Den Boer for more transparency over the Ys governance.

Yekos statement came after a YMCA board meeting Friday. The meeting included Yeko being elected and sworn in as the new board president. The statement was released to the media through Mueller Communications, a third-party public relations firm.

A spokesperson for the public relations firm said he was not authorized to release details of the investigation but indicated an investigation would address concerns members have brought to the board and have discussed in public in interviews with local media outlets.

Yeko is a longtime board member and served an earlier stint as board president. According to board meeting minutes obtained by The Gazette, Yeko also has served on the boards finance committee in recent years, including a period when a former board member, Dan Honold, said he questioned Den Boer and Engledow over a $1.2 million bank loan refinance Honold said eventually was awarded to Engledows banking company.

Yeko replaces outgoing board President Jeff Jensen, who resigned last week, saying in a statement that the Ys board was divided and that he lacked the expertise to help it deal with complex, emotional issues he said predated his time on the board.

The Y has been in a state of upheaval over the last few weeks. This week, the United Way Blackhawk Region announced it has barred the Y from United Way funding for the next two years over concerns of the validity of grant application materials the Y supplied the last few years.

On Thursday, the Boys & Girls Club of Janesville, which runs out of the same building as the Y in downtown Janesville, distanced itself from the Y in a news release it issued for the sole purpose of telling the public the Boys & Girls Club has no ties to the YMCA.

That came after a group of 52 Y members had threatened a lawsuit over financial records, board meeting minutes and other documents the group said it had requested in December 2018 but was denied by the Ys board.

Yeko on Friday did not immediately respond to a Gazette inquiry for comment on member concerns at the Y and for more details on the investigation and reasons why it is being launched.

In the statement, he said: The all-volunteer Board of Directors believes strongly in the mission of the YMCA. We are committed to working together to strengthen the trust and confidence in the organization among our members and the broader community.

Outside of Yekos statement Friday, the Ys board has not responded to repeated phone calls and emails from The Gazette seeking comment on member and former board member concerns and the Y being barred from United Way funds.

Jon Agnew, the YMCA of the USAs resource director for Wisconsin, on Friday did not respond to an email and phone call from The Gazette seeking comment on the national YMCAs stance on Y member concerns in Janesville and Milton.

Paul Murphy, a member of the Y who said he had his membership suspended late last year after asking Y officials for bylaws and information on board elections, called Yekos statement Friday a step forward.

Its allowing the YMCA to function and move forward. I dont know all the details, but the initial blush, its a step in the right direction, Murphy said.

Murphy said he hopes the board can begin to manage communication more openly and freely with members who have concerns.

I know they did issue a statement through a public relations firm. But hopefully, now that theyve had this meeting, theyll start talking with us (members). Its something that hasnt taken place in the past.The Jan. 14 editorial DUII Proposal in Legislature is Premature properly calls attention to the way limited traffic safety resources are being deployed in the state. New policies and programs intended to increase road safety should be scrutinized accordingly and proven effective before being implemented.

Lowering the legal blood-alcohol limit from 0.08 to 0.05 BAC  as one Oregon lawmaker has proposed  does not meet that criteria. A vast majority of alcohol-related traffic fatalities occur well above the current 0.08 limit. In fact, 92 percent involve someone with a BAC of 0.10 or above. This is the group that should be targeted with limited traffic safety resources.

Instead, lowering the legal limit will only create criminals out of consumers who currently drink responsibly subjecting them to jail time, loss of license, higher insurance rates and thousands of dollars in fines and legal fees. For many, consuming a drink or two over dinner is enough to reach this newly proposed level.

Utah has already made the mistake of targeting light alcohol consumers rather than seriously drunk drivers. One clear example of twisted priorities is their ignition interlock law, which has the second worst compliance rate in the country.Resurrection discussed: Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church, 2650 NW Highland Drive in Corvallis, will share God's Word and Holy Communion at 9 a.m. Sunday.

Pastor Eric Bohlmann's message will be "Joy of the Resurrection." Fellowship and refreshments will follow the service. The multigenerational Sunday school will begin at 10:30 a.m., and will be a time of remembering the life of a saint. Information: 541-753-2816 or www.svlc-corvallis.org.

Taoist meditation group: The group will meet at 9 a.m. Sunday at the First Alternative Natural Foods Co-op north store, 2855 NW Grant Ave. in Corvallis.

The event features Taoist Quiet Sitting meditation, also known as Preserving the Light of the One. Information: docneedlestcm@gmail.com.

Series starts: A new reflection series will begin at the 9:30 a.m. service on Sunday at First United Methodist Church, 1165 NW Monroe Ave. in Corvallis.

This week's topic will be "Words Matter."

Baha'i devotional gathering: Unity of Religion" is set for 9:45 a.m. Sunday at 5006 SW Hollyhock Circle, Corvallis.Wyden related the story of his late brother who battled schizophrenia and said mental illness is something I feel strongly about. I want to make 2019 the year when the country steps up and makes a difference. Insurance companies should treat mental illness the way they treat physical illness. Its not even close, and Im going to be coming after them.

Wyden then praised the young woman for putting her hand up and speaking.

You dont know how much that means to me, the woman answered.

Health care was a recurring theme during the town hall. Wyden told a story about trying to assist a federal employee in Lake County, Jasmine Toole, who has an inoperable brain tumor and needs regular nutritional supplement infusions. She was caught in a bureaucratic nightmare in which she was told her health care had lapsed but only her employer could fix the problem. Unfortunately, the employer, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was not answering the phones because of the shutdown.

Wyden made a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday about the issue and Toole got her health care. I was ready to drive to Lake County until she gets it. This is too big and strong and rich a country for us to be doing this.Developer and publisher Wargaming.net has launched patch 0.7.12, the latest content update for their globally popular free-to-play naval combat game, World of Warships, on PC. This new update arrives with a slew of new content, challenges, and changes for players to enjoy.

Just in time for the Holidays, Santa has shipped some special gifts for players on his nice list! First, theres a new in-game event, dubbed, In the Name of His Highness. A series of challenges and missions await players, with an ultimate prize of obtaining a brand new German Premium Tier VI battleship  the Prinz Eitel Friedrich! Additionally, Santa has prepared Containers with awesome unlockables. Just for logging in and heading to their ports, players unlock two free Santa Claus Containers. After that, these festive holiday Containers are earned for completing Missions. Santa Claus Containers offers recipients a chance to unlock rare premium ships, flags, ship camouflages, and more.

The Belle Epoque Collection also arrives in this update, which is quite possibly the most beautiful collection in World of Warships so far. Through this collection, developers are paying tribute to the glorious historical period on the turn of the 20thcentury, a pre-dreadnought era when lavishly decorated coal-powered ships sailed the seas.

For players who have earned the Prinz Eitel Friedrich battleship, this update will introduce the Mighty Prinz Campaign. It will contribute to the good old New Years tradition celebrated in World of Warships by offering players a rewarding gameplay experience, as well as the following five researchable Tier VI ships with permanent New Year-inspired camouflage patterns: Hatsuharu, Nurnberg, Icarus, Dallas, and Normandie. Completing the campaign earns players a unique permanent camouflage for their Prinz Eitel Friedrich battleship.

A purchasable premium campaign, the Steel Monsters, is also part of the update and offers players a great way to stock up on camo, signals, Secret Santa containers, and Steel  a valuable resource for use in the Arsenal.

For those looking to speed up their XP earning potential in World of Warships, theres now a new World of Warships Premium Account option. Separate from the Wargaming Premium Account, the Warships Premium option allows for even faster XP gain for players, helping them unlock ships and train crews more quickly.

Lastly, the Snowflakes event launches exclusively with this update. Players will now be able to earn valuable Coal and Steel simply by playing the ships that are marked with a snowflake. The one-time bonus will be obtained after a victorious battle and dependent on the type and tier of each ship.We need the coastal spine, but with modificationsA celebration of life for Barabra Zackery, 79, of Gainesville, will be held at a later date. A full obituary will be published when service times have been scheduled. Barbara passed away on June 15, 2021 in Gainesville. You may sign the online registry at www.geojcarroll.com.The hackers managed to compromise utility control rooms. Similar efforts, believed to be the work of Russians, caused a major blackout in Ukraine in 2015.

In the U.S. case, The Wall Street Journal recently reported, the culprits used a variety of common tactics: The hackers planted malware on sites of online publications frequently read by utility engineers. They sent out fake resumes with tainted attachments, pretending to be job seekers. Once they had computer-network credentials, they slipped through portal used by utility technicians, in some cases getting into computer systems that monitor and control electricity flows.

One cybersecurity firm said the attack breached systems at some two dozen utilities. But the government admits it doesnt know how many companies were penetrated. More alarming, some of the hackers may still have access to such systems, waiting patiently for the right moment to strike.

The danger has been apparent for some time, but our leaders have not impressed on the public the urgency of the challenge. A recent draft report of the Presidents National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee said it is one the United States simply must enduringly address as a matter of national strategic imperative.I KNOW Ive discussed this government shutdown before and maybe youre tired of reading about it. But every time I turn on the TV or read a newspaper, everyone else is talking about it, too.

Why? Because this is a really important issue that is affecting more and more people every day. Weve got to come to some resolution pretty soon or this partial federal shutdown is going to do real financial damage to our country, not to mention that it is making America the laughingstock of the world.

In other words, this is big time stuff and we need a solution. And since neither the Democrats nor the Republicans will budge, I guess it falls to We, the People to straighten things out.

Being a good Americanand neither a Democrat nor a RepublicanI have given this issue considerable thought and I believe I have come up with the answer.

The one part of this stalemate that both sides keep banging their heads against is the wall along the Mexican border. President Trump demands that $5 billion be included in the federal budget to accommodate construction.

Most Republicans in Congress probably dont want the wall, but will not buck a president who is a member of their party. The Democrats think the wall is a waste of money.By Richmond TimesDispatch

For the second year in a row, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax left the dais where he presides over the state Senate when senators honored Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Sen. Richard Stuart, RStafford, gave a brief speech in support of Lee and asking that the Senate adjourn Friday in his honor. Saturday is Lees birthday.

I rise today to celebrate the 212th birthday of Robert E. Lee and, Mr. President, I rise to celebrate his birthday because he was a great Virginian and a great American, and not because it has anything to do with slavery, Stuart said. I celebrate Lee on his birthday because he was a man with the strength of his convictions, and that is a rare trait, either in yesteryear or today.

Fairfax, elected in 2017 as the second black lieutenant governor in Virginia history, left the dais in anticipation of the speech. Sen. Steve Newman, RLynchburg, the president pro tempore in the Senate, replaced him.

Fairfax called the decision to honor Lee unfortunate but not surprising, and said he wanted to be firm and respectful in his protest.

Particularly in this year which is obviously the 400 year commemoration of the first enslaved Africans being brought to Virginia, in Hampton and Point Comfort, I think it stings a lot of people in particular in a year like this, he said. To constantly look backwards to a very divisive time and conscript people into honoring someone whohad he prevailed and gotten his way I would not be standing up there on that dais as lieutenant governor of Virginia I think is something that we should not be doing.They were very quiet, private people, he said. They didnt want to go to the Supreme Court. Totally the opposite.

The couple told him they didnt want to come to listen to his arguments before the Supreme Court. He asked if there was anything they wanted him to convey to the justices, and Richard Loving said, Mr. Cohen, tell the Court I love my wife, and it is just unfair that I cant live with her in Virginia.

Cohen included the message in his arguments.

The Cohens kept in touch with the Lovings for the rest of their lives. When Richard was killed by a drunken driver in 1975, in an accident that also left Mildred blind in one eye, they attended his funeral.

And when Mildred was dying in 2008, her former lawyer was on her mind.

She asked for Bernie right before she passed, Rae Cohen said.

After watching the documentary Thursday, Spring Arbor resident Ruth Roesler told a story about having dinner with Cohen soon after he moved in.

His career came up in conversation.A Gloucester County pedestrian and bike path project also made the list for the district and would get $7.3 million through the Smart Scale program.

The 10 projects total $40.5 million, down from the first two rounds. The amount of money available for the program has dropped across the board since the inaugural year, when the funding was $1.4 billion.

The second round of smart scale funds totaled $1 billion. This year, approximately $780 million was divvied up between 98 projects across Virginia. All told, the state scored 433 projects, which totaled $7.4 billion in requests.

Its the reality we face, Secretary of Transportation Shannon Valentine told the CTB at a work session in Richmond this week, when Deputy Secretary of Transportation Nick Donohoe presented the recommended list. She added that state transportation officials have to find a way to pay for the projects. Theres nowhere else to kick the can.

Paul Agnello, the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization administrator, echoed Valentines take that lack of funding means worthy projects didnt get funded this time around. He said five regional projects for I95 were submitted to improve near-term safety and capacity needs based on our recent I95 studies, but unfortunately none of them scored well.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.More information

Gov. Larry Hogan (R) plans to invest most of Maryland's capital budget toward transportation in 2020. In all, $3.3 billion of the $5.2 billion budget is slated for road and mass transit projects.

Frederick County could benefit from at least four of Hogan's current transportation priority projects: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UNION COUNTY, SC (FOX Carolina)- The Union County Sheriff's Office says that it arrested two suspects that are accused of attempted murder and murder for shooting incidents that occurred in 2015, according to a release.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 19)  The government is investigating the data breach that hit pawning and remittance company Cebuana Lhuillier.

Over 900,000 clients were affected, compromising information such as birthdays, addresses and source of income, the P.J. Luillier Group of Companies said in a statement on Saturday.

"We also notified all affected clients and provided them guidance on how to further protect their personal information," the firm said.

It assured clients that their transaction details were not affected and that the company's main servers remain safe and protected.

Privacy Commissioner Raymund Enriquez Liboro said the government was informed about the compromise of clients' information last Thursday.

"This incident is now under investigation," Liboro said. "We await further details as to scope and severity of the breach."

He said the company also asked a third party information security provider to help out with response and mitigation.Special counsel Robert Mueller's office is disputing a BuzzFeed report that President Donald Trump directed his then-personal attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the proposed Moscow Trump Tower project.Two doctors who led care for a woman who gave birth after being sexually assaulted at an Arizona health care facility are no longer treating its patientsLewiston, NY (WKBW) -- A Town of Lewiston police officer has been arrested after allegedly spying on a woman in a changing area.

According to New York State Police, 31-year-old Alexander Ruckh is charged with three counts of unlawful surveillance in the second degree, to use or install an imaging device for sexual arousal, a class E felony.

The Niagara County District Attorney's Office says Ruckh video recorded one victim changing her clothes in a locker room on three or four occasions from Spring 2017 to Summer 2017.

According to documents obtained by 7 Eyewitness News, Ruckh used his iPhone 6 to record the victim changing clothes in the female locker room at the Upper Mountain Fire Company on Moyer Road in the Town of Lewiston.

He was arrested in December and arraigned in the Town of Niagara Court.

The two Lewiston Town Justices have recused themselves and the case has been transferred to the Town of Wheatfield.

The-CNN-Wire &  2019 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.BALDWIN COUNTY, Ala. -- Early Saturday Alabama State Troopers responded to the scene of a fatal, single-vehicle crash on Moog Avenue in northern Baldwin County.

Troopers say Adrian Baugh Johnson, 19, of Stockton, was traveling north in a 2014 Ford F-150 when his vehicle left the roadway and struck a tree.

Despite using a seat belt, Johnson suffered fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene of crash which occurred shortly before 1:30 a.m., according to authorities.

Troopers continue to investigate the crash.MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Parole was denied for a serial killer convicted of murdering two people on Dauphin Island in 1969.

The state opposed several requests by Charles Lee citing his violent temperament and threat to society.

In 1972, Lee confessed to killing Carolyn Burnett and Kit Harrington. According to police records, both victims were beaten and stabbed repeatedly. The female victim was bound, gagged, and left nude.

According to the Mobile County District Attorney's Office, Lee also confessed to two other murders, one in Illinois and another in Wisconsin.

Prosecutors said during his trial, Lee threatened people involved in his arrest and conviction. In 1980, Lee escaped custody and was seen stalking a prosecutor who helped convict him for the murders.

Lee will be up for parole again in 2024.It was a line that was worth the wait at the Coast Guard Aviation Training Center in Mobile on Friday as federal workers got food boxes from Feeding the Gulf Coast.

We love our federal workers and our coast guard, what they do for our community is huge and we just want to make sure that we're taking care of them, said Cathy Pope, President & CEO of Feeding the Gulf Coast.

Fridays food giveaway was for all federal workers.

In all about 300 families were helped on Friday.

Feeding the Gulf Coast gave out canned goods, fresh fruits, vegetables, and meat.

We were thrilled to be out there and honored to be able to give back to them and just alleviate the partial government shutdown just a little bit for them, Pope said.

The longest government shutdown in U.S. history is putting Feeding the Gulf Coast in overdrive as they help federal workers and continue to supply food for their normal partners.

We already serve 400 agencies along the Gulf Coast so we want to make sure they have food for the people they normally serve plus any others that are going to be affected by the government shutdown, Pope said.

While this shutdown continues, the food bank said they stand ready to give food to those who need it.

We are absolutely happy to go back to the same location that we were at if this continues we're just going to make sure we're there when they need us, Pope said.

Feeding the Gulf Coast said they cannot do this without help from the community.

If you want to help you can donate here.Check out the latest Southern Company earnings call transcript.

If you look into giant U.S. utility Southern Company (NYSE:SO), one of the first things you'll read about it is the troubles it has had building the Vogtle nuclear power plant. It's been an expensive and contentious process trying to get the project done, and it's still a few years away from completion. But that's a small part of Southern Company's business, and the stock's hefty 5.1% yield is probably worth the risk for investors willing to take on some near-term uncertainty. Here's why Southern Company is a buy for income investors despite all the bad press.

About that nuclear power plant

Vogtle is actually two projects in one, with the first nuclear reactor projected to be in service in 2021 and the second following in 2022. There's no way to candy coat it -- the project is behind schedule, and materially over budget. The company's original contractor, Westinghouse, even went bankrupt along the way. Shareholders have taken a hit, too, with a number of one-time charges related directly to Vogtle. The most recent charge of $1.1 billion was taken in the second quarter. In short, it has been a rough ride.

All of that said, Southern has stepped in and taken greater control of the Vogtle project. That should help ensure a smoother process from here on out. And it has also agreed to take on additional costs if there are further overruns. So at this point, there is little question of this project getting done -- it's just a matter of when. Nuclear power plants of the same design, meanwhile, have successfully started up in China, suggesting that the technology that Southern is betting on is sound.

So the Vogtle issue is far from ideal, but it looks like Southern is muddling through. Eventually, this too shall pass. When the reactors are finally up and running Southern will have two carbon-fee power plants to operate for decades into the future. And while investors are worried about this project, the stock is offering up one of the highest yields in the utility space.

The rest of Southern

The thing is, aside from Vogtle, Southern Company is a pretty boring utility. It owns eight regulated electric and natural gas utilities serving around nine million customers, largely in the southeastern United States. It also has a renewable merchant power businesses and long-haul transmission assets with revenues backed by long-term contracts. These are very stable operations that Southern has a long history of running very well.

Over the 10 years through 2017 Southern's revenues grew at an annualized rate of around 4%. Incredible? No. But about what you'd like to see from a conservatively run utility. With operations focused around regions that are expected to see population growth in the future, there's no reason to expect a change of course here. This is doubly true since Southern's rates are largely regulated, meaning that price hikes are pretty much baked in so long as it can prove to government regulators that they are justified. The utility has a long history of achieving this end as it spends to upgrade its systems. Believe it or not, Vogtle is part of that spending.

One of the big problems, however, is that the Vogtle project has been a huge cash drain, pushing Southern's free cash flow into negative territory for many years now. Since it is spending more cash than it is generating, the utility has been adding leverage to pay for its building plans and to cover the dividend. Long-term debt stood at about 60% of the company's capital structure at the end of the third quarter.

However, the $41.4 billion of long-term debt on the balance sheet was down nearly 7% from the start of the year. Management is aware of the debt issue and is trying to do something about it, notably including selling non-core assets.

The nature of the utility business is also important to consider here. Southern is regulated because it has a monopoly in the regions it serves. Those nine million customers noted above have no choice but to keep paying if they want their electricity and natural gas. And that means revenues are pretty consistent from year to year, allowing Southern to carry a heavier debt load than companies that lack such revenue consistency. Sure, it would be nice to see lower levels of debt, but there's no particular reason to worry about the current leverage statistics. In fact, its leverage is roughly in line with that of close peers like Duke Energy and Dominion Energy, which also have multi-billion dollar, multi-year investment plans in the works. And once Vogtle is complete, those nuclear plants begin adding to Southern's cash flows for decades into the future.

The takeaway

There's no question that Southern investors are facing some risks as the giant utility works to complete the troubled Vogtle project. But those risks aren't as bad as they may at first seem when you dig in a little.

Southern's largely regulated business continues its slow growth path. The Vogtle project is a near-term drain on resources, but the company is directly dealing with the problems. Debt is making up the difference financially because of Vogtle costs, but leverage appears to be a manageable issue. And while investors are fearing the worst, you can collect a fat dividend yield from what is really a pretty boring regulated utility at its core.It's a classic investment conundrum: Do you want to buy a stock that has near-term headwinds, but still looks like a good value nonetheless? That's the question that faces investors and potential investors in Illinois Tool Works (NYSE:ITW). Unlike shares of a peer such as 3M Company (NYSE:MMM), there's still a strong case to be made for buying Illinois Tool Works' stock. Here it is.

Illinois Tool Works has near-term headwinds

Check out the latest Illinois Tool Works earnings call transcript.

Along with much of the industrial sector, the stock was sold off aggressively in 2018 on fears of an upcoming cyclical slowdown in the economy. Moreover, it was a particularly brutal year for companies with significant exposure to the automotive industry, given that U.S. light vehicle sales looked like they'd passed cyclical peak, and end-market conditions are likely to get worse in 2019.

For reference, Illinois Tool Works' automotive OEM (original equipment manufacturer) segment generated more than one-fifth of operating income in the first nine months of 2018:

Moreover, if prices for commodities (particularly oil) remain relatively low, then some of the company's businesses with exposure to heavy industries (such as welding, and test and measurement) are likely to come under pressure. Throw in any negative impact from the China-U.S. trade dispute, and it's clear that the company faces some cyclical risk in 2019. As a consequence, analysts have been downgrading the stock.

Clearly, there are question marks around the company's prospects in 2019, but there are two reasons why the stock is still attractive.

Illinois Tool Works stock looks like a good value

First, the company's valuation gives it a significant margin of safety to deal with any disappointment. For example, the chart below shows how its price-to-FCF (free cash flow) valuation started to drop significantly as FCF improved and the stock price dropped in 2018. In contrast, 3M is looking expensive, even as it faces many of the same cyclical headwinds as Illinois Tool Works:

To put this into context, the company's FCF expectation for 2018 puts it at a price-to-FCF valuation of around 17. Even if Illinois Tool Works generates zero growth in FCF in 2019, it's still a good value. For 2019, management is currently forecasting organic revenue growth of 2% to 4%, and EPS (earnings per share) growth of around 6%.

Illinois Tool Works' self-help initiatives

Second, a distinguishing characteristic of the company's performance in the last five years is the margin expansion that management has squeezed out of the business by applying its enterprise strategy. The chart below shows just how much of it has come from enterprise initiatives, compared to price/cost and volume improvements:

In a nutshell, management has taken the knife to underperforming businesses and trimmed unprofitable product lines, while focusing on its most profitable customers. The results have been startling: From 2012 to 2018, operating margin has improved from 15.9% to between 24% and 25%, and EPS has improved at a compound annual growth rate of 15%. Management expects even more to come in the next few years.

For example, operating margin is expected to improve to 28% in 2023, with strategic initiatives and strategic sourcing contributing 2% to 3% growth. In other words, even with zero revenue growth, margin expansion should lead to growth in earnings and cash flow.

Is this a stock to buy?

Putting these two points together creates a picture of a stock that trades at an attractive valuation (even with no growth in 2019), and has prospects of margin expansion through self-help initiatives. In other words, Illinois Tool Works can still do well in 2019 even in a difficult environment.

Moreover, the assumption that the economy will slow down in 2019 doesn't mean a recession is around the corner. Illinois Tool Works can grow earnings in a slowing growth environment, and given its valuation, there's plenty of upside potential if the economy avoids a recession. On a risk-reward basis, Illinois Tool Works is attractively priced for long-term investors.WHY DONT YOU READ THESE?A massive fireball that engulfed people fed by fuel spilling from a pipeline ruptured by thieves in central Mexico killed 21 people and badly injured 71 others in what was a chronicle of a tragedy foretold.

Mexico City: A massive fireball that engulfed people fed by fuel spilling from a pipeline ruptured by thieves in central Mexico killed 21 people and badly injured 71 others in what was a chronicle of a tragedy foretold.

It came just three weeks after new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador launched an offensive against fuel theft gangs that drilled dangerous, illegal taps into pipelines an astounding 12,581 times in the first 10 months of 2018, an average of about 42 per day.

With crowds of townspeople often involved, either aiding thieves or collecting spilled fuel in primitive containers, it was only a matter of time before a fire occurred.

In fact, they have occurred before, but seldom with the scale and horrifying death toll of Fridays fire in the state of Hidalgo, which came as people collected the spilled gasoline in buckets, plastic jugs and garbage cans.

The leak was caused by an illegal pipeline tap in the small town of Tlahuelilpan, about 100 kilometres north of Mexico City, according to state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex. Video footage showed dozens of residents in an almost festive atmosphere as whole families gathered in a field as a geyser of fuel spouted dozens of feet into the air from the tap.

Footage then showed flames shooting high into the air against a night sky and the pipeline ablaze. Screaming people ran from the flames, some themselves burning and waving their arms.

Hidalgo governor Omar Fayad said 21 people were killed immediately and 71 suffered burns in the blast at the duct that carries fuel  apparently gasoline  from the Gulf coast to Tula, a city just north of Mexico City. Pemex attributed the blaze to the manipulation of an illegal tap. Hidalgo state police said the leak was first reported at about 5.00 pm local time.

There was a report that residents were on the scene trying to obtain fuel, according to a police report. Two hours later, the pipeline burst into flames.

And another pipeline burst into flames in the neighboring state of Queretaro on Friday, because of another illegal tap. Pemex said the fire near the city of San Juan del Rio was in an unpopulated area and there is no risk to human beings.

In December 2010, authorities blamed oil thieves for a pipeline explosion in a central Mexico near the capital that killed 28 people, including 13 children. That blast burned people and scorched homes, affecting 5,000 residents in an area six miles (10 kilometers) wide in San Martin Texmelucan.

The blast will further focus attention on Lopez Obradors fight against the $3 billion per-year illegal fuel theft industry. I greatly lament the grave situation Tlahuelilpan is suffering because of the explosion of the duct, Lopez Obrador tweeted. He called on all branches of government to assist the victims.

He launched the offensive after taking office 1 December, deploying 3,200 marines to guard pipelines and refineries. His administration also shut down pipelines to detect and deter illegal taps, relying more on delivering fuel by tanker truck. There arent enough trucks, however, and long lines at gas stations have plagued several states.

But Lopez Obrador faces resistance in his battle against fuel theft. Gangs have been able to win the loyalty of whole neighbourhoods, using free gasoline and getting locals to act as lookouts and confront military patrols carrying out raids against the thefts.

It is unclear whether Fridays tragedy will turn the tide of opinion against the gangs in the impoverished villages that lie above the underground pipelines. I am calling on the entire population not to be accomplices to fuel theft, Fayad wrote. What happened today in Tlahuelilpan must never happen again.The Associated Press

Oxford University says it is suspending research grants and funding donations from Huawei amid growing security concerns about the Chinese telecom giant.

Its another setback for Huaweis image in Europe, an important market for the company, which has been effectively blocked in the US over concerns its technology poses a cybersecurity risk. Its now facing increasing scrutiny in Europe, where it is expected it to play a major role in building new fifth-generation mobile networks.

The university decided on 8 January that it will not pursue new funding opportunities with Huawei or related companies, it said in a statement on 17 January.

The decision, which applies to both funding of research contracts and philanthropic donations, was made in the light of public concerns raised in recent months surrounding the companys UK partnerships.

Two existing research projects worth a combined 692,000 pounds ($8,95,000) will continue, it said.

We hope these matters can be resolved shortly and note Huaweis own willingness to reassure governments about its role and activities, the university said.

Huawei said it was not informed of this decision and awaits the universitys full explanation.

Britains defense secretary and its intelligence chief both voiced concerns last month about Huaweis involvement in the countrys rollout of 5G networks.

Huaweis troubles are expanding elsewhere in Europe. The company fired its sales director in Poland last week after authorities there arrested him on charges of spying for China. The Czech Republic has warned against using Huawei equipment because of security fears and Norway is rethinking the companys role in its telecom networks.

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei said in a rare interview this week that his company would never share secrets about its customers and their communications networks. Rens daughter, who is also the companys chief financial officer, is fighting a US request that she be extradited from Canada on charges related to Iran sanctions violations.tech2 News Staff

No institution in India has had a full-fledged course on artificial intelligence, until now. The Indian Institute of Technology in Hyderabad is reportedly launching a Bachelor of Technology program in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the following academic year, that is 2019-2020.

The course will have an intake of 20 students who can take the program via JEE-Advanced, which is an annual engineering college entrance examination in India conducted by IIT.

According to a report by the Times of India, it will be the first Indian institution, to offer such a course. Globally, it will rank the third after Carnegie Mellon University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

IIT Hyderabad already offers a Masters of technology program in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning.

Professor UB Desai, who is the director at IIT Hyderabad said that, "the basic aim is to create a complete ecosystem for Artificial Intelligence Academics and Research at IIT Hyderabad. This involves B Tech, M Tech and different minor programs in AI."

One of the key components of the program is the ethical impact of artificial intelligence on areas like privacy, bias and more. It will also focus on areas such as healthcare, agriculture, smart mobility, among others.

Artificial intelligence is now being used in an ever-expanding array of products: cars that drive themselves; computers able to distinguish dangerous skin cancers from benign moles, thermostats, speakers and digital assistants that are bringing the technology into homes.

The expanding applications for AI have also created a shortage of qualified workers in the field, according to Reuters. There are too few potential employees with training or experience in AI.

In that scenario, introducing a course in AI seems like the right way forward for India.tech2 News Staff

For the past few years, leading smartphone brands have been sweating their palm off developing prototype smartphones with foldable and flexible display. But the flexible display technology took a concrete shape this year when Royole, a five-year-old company showcased the worlds first true foldable phone FlexPai at CES 2019.

The China-based company astounded the smartphone industry with its flexible display phone last October, a few days before Samsungs foldable display smartphone was introduced.

The phone measures a 7.8-inch diagonally and serves as a tablet when opened while closing it shrinks the display to roughly 5-inch. With the use of Royoles flexible film technology, the sides can fold 180 degrees. To ones wonder, the spine of the flexible display phone serves as a third small display and pop-up notification.

Royole cited that the display will survive even after 2,00,000 bends, however, early adopted criticised about the cheap plastic OLED panel. Underneath the phone sits a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor. The Royole FlexPai runs the proprietary Water OS which is layered on top of Googles Android 9.0 Pie.

It features dual 16 MP + 20 MP camera sensors, 3790 mAh battery and supports Royoles custom Ro Charge technology.

Smartphone manufacturer ZTE unveiled a folding display phone as well last year called the ZTE Axon M. But although the phone offered dual displays its clamshell design didnt justify the flexibility that we saw on the FlexPai.

But while this small start-up from China managed to outrun the tech giants; Samsung, Huawei and few major smartphone brands are tying up their laces to join the foldable display technology bandwagon.

Speaking of the South Korean tech company first, Samsung as we mentioned earlier showcased its first consumer foldable display phone at its annual developer conference last year. The company rather keeping it a mystery show a disguised version of the phone on stage. However, Samsung back then did mention that it created Infinity Flex display for its upcoming foldable phone. While little is known about the mysterious phone, reports are now claiming that Samsung might unleash the device at its Galaxy Unpacked event on 20 February.

LG is another OEM in the line said to be planning to introduce a foldable phone this year. The LG Display division has been profoundly working on flexible display technology. The leakster Evan Blass earlier claimed that LG could showcase a foldable phone at the Consumer Electronics trade show but the phone never showed up on stage.

Besides Samsung and LG, Huawei has also confirmed its plan to launch a foldable phone this year. The companys CEO earlier said that the foldable phone will support 5G. Catching up the list, Xiaomi and Motorola are two new contenders said to be developing their individual foldable phone. Evan Blass earlier this month posted a video in his Twitter handle that showed a phone with a flexible display. Although the video barely gave an insight on the phones brand name, he stated that the video was allegedly made by Xiaomi.

Motorola is rumoured to be working on its own foldable phone as well. In its report, The Wall Street Journal cited that the upcoming Motorola foldable phone would be sold in exclusively by the US mobile carrier Verizon Wireless.

Interestingly, the phone will likely use the companys once so popular RAZR branding, a name that was known for sleek flip phones. As per the report, Motorola is said to be planning to launch this early February for a price of $1,500.

But until these phones are made available as fully functional commercial device, Royoles phone-tablet hybrid FlexPai will revel in as a unique foldable and flexible display phone. However, the biggest question here remains is whether the foldable display technology will be the smartphone towns next hot trend (besides hole-punch display) in 2019.tech2 News Staff

In April 2012 a lawsuit was filed against Facebook, saying that it let children use their parents credit and debit cards to buy the virtual currency called Facebook Credits, and that it violated California law by refusing refunds under its "all sales are final" policy when the parents complained.

Now, a wealth of documents, which are a part of the same class-action lawsuit against the social media giant, have been revealed and they detail how it made money off children.

According to a report by Reveal, a federal judge announced the existence of these documents which will soon be released. The report also notes that Facebooks own employees worried they were tricking children and making thousands of dollars in game charges.

The court documents were revealed on 14 January, after being hidden for years. The publication Reveal which is an outfit run by The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization California, had requested for these records to be unsealed in 2018. "There is increased public interest in Facebooks business practices in the wake of high-profile scandals, including fake news published on the site and the leaking of user data," it says.

A few documents uncovered regarding the same case, last year in October, reveal that, in general, there is a massive confusion that both children and their parents have about being charged on Facebook for playing games. They do not understand how they are charged.

It's like Facebook found the vulnerability of its consumers and used it to its benefit by letting advertisers target them even better. Company employees themselves were concerned that people were being charged without their knowledge.

Bohannon vs Facebook

In the 2012 case, the lead plaintiff was a child who used his mother, Glynnis Bohannon's credit card, without his knowledge, to pay while playing a game. He "believed these purchases were being made with virtual currency, and that his mothers credit card was not being charged." When Bohannon requested for a refund, Facebook denied it.

Steven Wright, another plaintiff, went through something similar with his child and was charged over $1,000.

Bohannon v. Facebook by on Scribd

US District Court Judge Claudia Wilken, had then ruled that the minors, but not their parents, could fight Facebook for refunds.

It was contended in the Bohannon vs Facebook case that Facebook "routinely refuses requests by children and their parents and legal guardians to provide refunds for transactions that are subject to disaffirmance under California law."

Finally, the case was settled, and the plaintiffs received refunds. Also, Facebook Credits were discontinued in 2013 and replaced with Facebook Payments.

What now?

After the revelation that documents detailing how it made money off children exist, the court has ordered that the social media company has a total of 10 days to make the documents public.

One internal memo was found stating that "in nearly all cases the parents knew their child was playing Angry Birds, but didnt think the child would be allowed to buy anything without their password or authorization first."

Further, even though a company representative said that children get confused by the in-game purchases. It doesn't occur to them that it's real money and not virtual money, Facebook continued the practice.

Facebook is definitely expected to face a backlash in the coming week.Mamata Banerjee said the mega Opposition rally being hosted by the Trinamool Congress in Kolkata on 19 January would sound the 'death knell' for the BJP.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said the mega Opposition rally being hosted by the Trinamool Congress in Kolkata on Saturday would sound the "death knell" for the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls and regional parties would be the deciding factor.

She also claimed that the BJP's seat count in the general election will not cross more than 125. The number of seats that the state parties will win will be much more than the BJP's, she further claimed.

Who's in?

Among the list of politicians who will attend West Bengal chief minister's rally on Friday are Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who have already arrived in West Bengal for the Friday rally, reported Times Now.

Banerjee said that Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi will attend the rally.

Chief Ministers Arvind Kejriwal, H Kumaraswamy, N Chandrababu Naidu, former prime minister HD Devegowda, former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, DMK's MK Stalin, BSP's Satish Mishra, besides dissident BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha, are among those likely to attend the mega rally.

Former BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie will also attend the rally.

Who's out?

The most conspicuous absence from Banerjee's rally will be that of Congress president Rahul Gandhi and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

According to PTI, West Bengal Congress had wanted the Gandhis to stay away from the rally and send in another leader as Banerjee had also skipped the swearing-in ceremony of Kamal Nath as Madhya Pradesh chief minister last month and had instead sent party MP Dinesh Trivedi.

Odisha chief minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief Naveen Patnaik will also not be attending the event.

Another important politician who has decided to skip the rally is BSP chief Mayawati. "BSP chief Mayawati is known for her political ambitions. And she is known to give events a miss if she is not the centre of attraction. Mayawati has not been seen at a rally where she does not have an upper hand," said this article in India Today.

Leaders from CPM and CPI will also not attend the rally. Sources told NDTV that they were not invited for it too.

Even though Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao had met Banerjee last month, he will also not be attending the rally.

With inputs from PTIThe BJP on Saturday described the united Opposition rally organised by TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee 'a rally of self interest and of conflicting ideologies', and exuded confidence of forming the next government in the country.

New Delhi: The BJP on Saturday described the united Opposition rally organised by TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee "a rally of self interest and of conflicting ideologies", and exuded confidence of forming the next government in the country.

Speaking at a press conference at the party office in Delhi, BJP's national spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy termed the rally an anti-Modi exercise and said the party was not threatened by such events.

Mamata on Saturday organised the 'United India' rally against the Narendra Modi government in Kolkata, which was attended by more than a dozen leaders of opposition parties, including SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, NCP president Sharad Pawar, TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy and BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha.

"Don't know where the threat to unity is. While Mamata calls it United India, we can clearly see a divided leadership. It's a summit of contradictions and conflict. They talk of a new front but I am not sure if it's even the second or the third front," Rudy said.

He further said this rally has also exposed divisions in the Opposition camp, and that "many of these parties are just snubbing each other." "The Left refused their invitation. The SP-BSP alliance snubbed Congress in UP, which has now extended support to the rally. This is a rally of self interest," he said.

People have seen the performance of the Narendra Modi government and the BJP will form the next government with full majority, Rudy said.

"Today's Opposition rally in Kolkata is an anti-Modi exercise. Who is their leader?" he asked.

On the question of BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha attending the Opposition rally, he said BJP will take cognisance of it. "They make it a point to be present after party issues whip so that they don't lose their membership. At the same time, they are so opportunistic that they want to climb the stage and be present at a conclave."Forget reinventing politics, national or otherwise. Mamata Banerjee and KCR have reinvented themselves.

Hum aap se ek mat hain. Aap ke saath rahengey (I am in agreement with you. I will work with you).

This was what West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said to her Telangana counterpart K Chandrashekar Rao in March last year, after he hit upon the brainwave of a federal front without Congress and BJP.

Two weeks later, KCR (as Rao is known) said after meeting Banerjee in Kolkata that the front he wanted was an amalgamation of like-minded people who are determined to reinvent national politics.

Forget reinventing politics, national or otherwise. Mamata and KCR have reinvented themselves since then. Instead of walking into KCRs front, Mamata sought to launch her own in the West Bengal capital on Saturday. And it was in the fitness of things that KCR made himself scarce at Mamatas rally, with the Telangana Assembly session coming as a convenient ruse.

So what happened between Mamata and KCR?

For one thing, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader wants to be as far away as possible from any front which has even a remote connection with Congress, his main rival in Telangana. And he wants to have nothing whatsoever to do with any grouping where his sworn enemy and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu hangs out.

With both Congress and Naidu marking their presence at the United India Rally, there was no way the Telangana satrap could be part of it. Even Mamata has no love lost for Congress, a party she has been fighting in West Bengal, but she suffers from no qualms in rubbing shoulders with it nationally.

Thats the politics of it, from the outside. And now, dig deeper.

Aside from the fact that both Mamata and KCR believe that they are of the stuff prime ministers are made of, they are differently inclined towards Congress and BJP, despite their history of past associations with the two parties.

But in the aftermath of the 2014 poll result and depending on who musters how many seats, the impetuous Didi is perhaps more inclined to go the Congress way and continue to fight that party locally  that is if she cant manoeuvre herself into the South Block. And KCR may head in the direction of Modi. That is when opportunism puts on a dress with the convenient label of conditional support. In the end, the idea of a Congress-mukt and BJP-mukt front may not be as exciting or suffocating as the more elastic conception known as keeping options open.

This is not to suggest that the whole rigmarole of Opposition unity centres round the chief ministers of West Bengal and Telangana or that the battle for Delhi hinges on an East-versus-South tussle. Its also not the case that all those who were present at the Kolkata rally were bubbling with enthusiasm for having Mamata, who anointed herself as a national leader, as the champion of Opposition unity (= future prime minister). Mamata and KCR are just two examples of clashing ambitions and conflicting interests in the whole bizarre drama over cooking up a chowchow of sundry parties to take on Narendra Modi in 2019.

The likes of Mamata, however, may end up committing the mistakes of their political lives if they dismiss offhand the likes of KCR as poor Opposition cousins from South. Nobody should forget how, in 1996, Deve Gowda became an accidental prime minister, a title bestowed upon Manmohan Singh for different reasons later by a book and a movie.

Mind-boggling permutations

But numbers cant be accidents, though what they lead up to might be. Mamata can reasonably hope to muster 30-plus Lok Sabha seats of West Bengals total of 42, if her Trinamool Congress does as well as it did in the 2014 election. Telangana has 17 seats and, if the voting pattern of Decembers Assembly election repeats, KCR may walk away with nearly all of them. But he wont be happy with that.

Thats a good reason why KCR is allying with Jaganmohan Reddy of YSR Congress Party of the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, though the arrangement hasnt been formalised yet. KCRs calculation is that if Jagan  as Reddy is known  wins some 15 seats of 25 in Andhra Pradesh, they might have between the two of them 30-plus strength in Lok Sabha. That wont be a bad figure in a hung House.

This is the best KCR could get, at least for the time being, even if KCRs proposition of a federal front didnt exactly take India by storm. In the mind-boggling permutations and combinations that could crop up in case of a fragmented Lok Sabha result, having a front with two and a half parties, if you count KCRs friend and ally Asaduddin Owaisi of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, is better for than ploughing a lone electoral furrow.

Deputy PM job beckons too

The job of a prime minister is a pretty good thing for KCR, but if things dont exactly work out that way, its more than likely that he may not be too fussy about demanding and accepting the next best post of a deputy prime minister. And if he goes to Delhi, his son KTR (short for KT Rama Rao) who was recently made the working president of TRS, is all set to step into the fathers formidable shoes in Hyderabad.

There is another reason why KCR wants to team up with Jagan, Naidus chief rival in Andhra Pradesh. By extending all help to Jagan to win the Assembly election there  which will be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha poll  the Telangana chief minister wants to kill two birds with one stone. Trouncing Naidu is an ambition almost as important for KCR as grabbing a high office in Delhi. Thats the return gift KCR promised to Naidu in Andhra Pradesh for poking his nose in the recent Telangana election.

For the Telangana leader, the local cake comes with a national icing. KCR, who shares Deve Gowdas rustic simplicity and political cunning, knows what to do if he isnt part of Mamatas front, or if she isnt part of his.

Author tweets @sprasadindiaDefence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday wondered whether these parties were becoming pawns in corporate rivalry.

New Delhi: Accusing the Opposition of spreading misinformation in the Rafale deal, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday wondered whether these parties were becoming pawns in corporate rivalry and whether the procurement of 36 fighter jets was being "sabotaged".

During her address at an event in New Delhi, Sitharaman said ever since the Modi government assumed office, there has been a conscious effort to keep middlemen at bay from the corridors of the defence ministry.

"I want every strand of this debate to be explained, as much as it can be, without any of us playing into the hands of international corporate warfare. None of us should play party to any corporate warfare."

"We cannot become pawns in the hands of the corporate giants to constantly bully the government, to constantly throw misinformation at the public, to misinform the public," she said.

Her attack on the Opposition parties comes a day after a newspaper report claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to buy 36 Rafale jets, instead of 126 as negotiated by the previous UPA government, was taken while bypassing mandated procedures, pushing the price of each aircraft by 41.42 percent.

The Congress has launched a fresh salvo at the government on the Rafale deal citing this report.

Sitharaman was addressing a seminar on 'India's Strategic Interest in Context of the Rafale Deal'. She accused the Opposition of doing a "disservice" to the nation by misinforming the public on the fighter jet deal.

"You (Opposition) are misinforming the public and doing disservice to the country if you are becoming pawns in corporate rivalry. Is India's interest at the top of your agenda or are you becoming a partner to some kind of corporate rivalry," she asked.

"Is your intention to sabotage this procurement? If the intention is to stop the purchase, (then) that's disservice to the nation," she said.

Responding to a question that before the announcement in 2015 to procure 36 jets in an inter-governmental agreement (IGA) was made, Dassault CEO Eric Trappier had stated negotiations for the procurement of 126 jet were on and then suddenly the deal was called off, Sitharaman said, "Dassault (Aviation) chief said negotiations were on. That's all true. Such things go on in a bureaucratic process."

She added that the Expression of Interest was signed since there was a deadlock in the negotiations that lasted for over a decade.

"After that the earlier RFI (Request for Proposal for 126 aircraft) was cancelled and IGA (Intergovernmental Agreement) was signed," she said.

Asked why the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was not present when Modi announced it, she said there was "nothing illegal" in it.

"The (then) Defence Minister signed the deal. To say there was a corruption since the defence minister was not there during the Expression of Interest is wrong," she said.

The negotiations took 14 months before the two sides signed the agreement, she said.

Sitharaman also hit out at the opposition for calling Chief of Air Force BS Dhanoa a liar for his statement that Rafale was a good aircraft.

"He didn't say he loves PM Modi or he likes BJP. He just said it is a damn good aircraft, that's his business to say," she said.Key opposition leaders including SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, DMK president MK Stalin, former prime minister Deve Gowda, and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu met West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee ahead of the TMC-led mega rally on Saturday. Taking to Twitter, the TMC chief welcomed the leaders' participation in the 'United India Rally'.

Kolkata: Key opposition leaders including SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, DMK president MK Stalin, former prime minister Deve Gowda, and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu met West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee ahead of the TMC-led mega rally on Saturday. Taking to Twitter, the TMC chief welcomed the leaders' participation in the 'United India Rally'.

"Only few hours to go for the historic 'United India Rally' at Brigade Parade Grounds. I welcome all national leaders, supporters and lakhs of people to participate in today's rally to pledge to build a stronger, progressive and united India." she tweeted.

Among those who are expected to be a part of the rally include National Conference supremo Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejaswi Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Satish Misra, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh and leader Jayant Chaudhary, former union minister and BJP dissident Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie, Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel, Opposition leader in Mizoram Lalduwahawma, former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Gegong Apang, former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, and Gujarat independent MLA and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani.

Though Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi will be skipping the rally, the party will be represented by senior Congress leaders like Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi. On Friday, Rahul wrote to the TMC chief extending support to the mega rally.

"We commend the great people of Bengal who have historically been at the forefront of defending our ideals. I extend my support to Mamata Di on this show of unity and hope that we send a powerful message of a united India together," the letter read.

Anticipating heavy rush of commuters in the wake of the TMC-led rally at the Brigade Parade Ground, the Kolkata Metro, which operates under the Ministry of Railways, has beefed up its security arrangements by deploying additional forces apart from the regular contingent.

Additional RPF Personnel including officers and staff have been roped in for strategic deployment at all stations to tackle any untoward incident. Commandos will be deployed at Dum Dum, Esplanade and Maidan Stations.

Women RPF personnel will also be deployed in adequate numbers at various stations.

Mamata has been touring the country since the last one year in an effort to shore up a strong and united opposition front to fight the Lok Sabha elections against the BJP.Different messages were sent out to two distinct audiences from the 'sea of humanity' at Mamata Banerjee's 'United India Rally'.

Different messages were sent out to two distinct audiences from the 'sea of humanity' at Mamata Banerjee's 'United India Rally'. The first message was for the people of West Bengal. It was unambiguously broadcast that with the Kashmir to Kanyakumari assemblage of leaders, India was prepared to accept the state chief minister for a bigger role. Even if this was the for just the rally at the present, this could just be the beginning.

The dream of the All India Trinamool Congress supporters and large sections of the state's people is to see their leader as India's next prime minister. Chances of this hope being realised shall increase with every step the party takes towards an unprecedented hundred percent performance or winning all the 42 two seats from the state.

The message from Brigade Ground is that Opposition representative from other parts of the country have endorsed Banerjee's leadership. This includes almost every state, even symbolically from Arunachal Pradesh whose Gegong Apang, in 1998, became the first non-Hindi heartland party leader to align with the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led BJP. Now, it is the turn of the people of the state to maximise the chances of Mamata Banerjee at the Centre.

The second message which has gone out this Sunday from Kolkata is to the rest of India. This states that disparate leaders from different regions and diverse social following can come together despite a formal declaration of a nation-wide alliance. And, all with one agenda  to vote out the present government because its policies have been ruining the lives of the people and it has destroyed the inclusive fabric of the nation. The last words at the rally said it all: "badal do  badal do, Dilli mein sarkar badal do (change it  change it, change the government in Delhi)."

It is only the absence of the Left parties which prevented the rally from being labelled as one which encompassed the entire anti-BJP Opposition. But this is understandable, given the peculiar political balance and equation in West Bengal where there is yet no need for an all-out combination against the BJP. The AITC and the Left remain sworn enemies despite the surge in political violence in the state between the former and the BJP. The situation is similar to what it is in Kerala where despite the surge of the BJP, the principal adversaries remain the Congress-led United Democratic Front and the CPM-led Left Democratic Front.

Significantly, Mamata Banerjee set aside the debate of leadership and the BJP's effort to reduce the impending election from being an issues-centric poll to a presidential style contest between Modi and an indentified face. She unambiguously stated that the BJP needn't raise the bogey of leadership as "we are all leaders." On the most significant question that the BJP has begun playing, who will be the replacement, the chief minister reiterated what has already been stated previously: "Post-elections, we will decide who is to become prime minister."

Certainly, BJP leaders' efforts to deride the rally and the coming together of parties who shall even lock horns in a limited manner in a few weeks from now is an attempt to shore up the cadre's enthusiasm and ensure they do not get disheartened at the emerging Opposition unity for programmatic success.

The just-vanquished Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, still trying to find his feet in his new job, invoked the imagery of Mungeri Lal's haseen sapne (daydreams), arguing that 22 parties with four MPs were dreaming of becoming prime minister. But this statement, and that of other leaders and spokespersons, manifest the impending worry for the BJP.

Building the scenario of the BJP being up against a grand alliance or mahagathbandhan, the Narendra Modi-led electoral machine is now increasingly facing the prospect of being forced to grapple with multiple alliances across different states. Because the character of these alliances would be different, even including parties that are opposed to each other in a different region or state, the nature of the contest will vary from one part of the country to another and the BJP will be unable to run a unitary campaign.

It is certain now that the contest will be between the BJP's machine-managed centralised narrative and a disaggregated campaign that would be run differently by a motley lot in multiple styles. The more the heads that the BJP has to counter and disparage, the greater the chances of its campaign becoming diffused.

True, there are contradictions within the Opposition ranks, the biggest question mark being on whether the Congress would be part of the BSP-SP led front in Uttar Pradesh or not. On this would depend a lot of issues, including if the Congress will be willing to take a back seat and support a third alternative. Furthermore, the 'half-participation' of the Congress at Mamata Banerjee's show of strength underscores the dilemma that is plaguing the party.

It was token presence because the big guns  both Rahul and Sonia Gandhi stayed away. Yet they deputed senior enough leaders to mark presence on their behalf and also sent personal messages ensuring the door remains open for a few seats to be left to them in West Bengal.

The Congress of 2019 is nowhere near the party of 2004 which under Sonia Gandhi discreetly put together such a formidable alliance that it pulled the rug from beneath Atal Bihari Vajpayee's feet. The Congress has failed in seizing the initiative to forge alliances and this is being done by state allies or other Opposition parties.

Between 2004 and 2014, not only has the BJP emerged as a more credible fulcrum of Indian politics and a more potent force, but the Opposition to it has also fragmented further. This will make the contest of 2019 much keener than anyone expected. It must be kept in mind that eventually, the results of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan were more because the BJP lost the state and not because the Congress won these.

It would be passe to say that "certainty of 2019" which was harped by one and all, most embarrassingly by Omar Abdullah, after the BJP's sweep of Uttar Pradesh, was a false reading of political reality. But there is no denying that the United India Rally has made the challenge for the BJP and Modi one notch graver.At the United India Rally in Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee said the Opposition would decide on its candidate for the prime minister's post after the Lok Sabha election.

More than 20 national political leaders on Saturday attended West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's United India Rally at Kolkata's Brigade Parade Ground. The event was organised with the aim to unite Opposition parties against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The attendees included former prime minister HD Deve Gowda; former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha and Arun Shourie; three present chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal, N Chandrababu Naidu and HD Kumaraswamy; and former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Akhilesh Yadav and Gegong Apang, among others. All the leaders addressed the gathering, which some estimated to be at over 50 lakh, and noted the BJP government's missteps in its four years of being in power.

Mamata says Opposition's PM candidate to be revealed after polls

The Trinamool Congress chief was the last to address the gathering. Asserting that the "expiry date" of the Modi government was here and a united Opposition will win the upcoming general elections, she promised to work with other Opposition parties.

Noting that the present situation in the country is of a "Super Emergency", Mamata said it is worse than the one imposed by Indira Gandhi and raised the slogan of 'Badal do, badal do, Delhi mein sarkar badal do' (change the government).

Addressing the BJP's concerns about who will lead the united Opposition in the Lok Sabha election, she said the prime ministerial candidate will be decided after the polls.

Mamata spoke for nearly 25 minutes as the rally neared its end. She claimed the BJP does not respect many of its own senior leaders, and that politicians like Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari were ignored in the saffron party. "Modi and his associates are now talking about a collective leadership, but if the BJP wins the Lok Sabha polls, these leaders will be ignored again," she said.

'Sabka saath, sabka vinash': BJP rebels bear down on government

Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, who had quit the party on 21 April, 2018, came down heavily on the Narendra Modi government, saying this was the first government after Independence that has been playing "mischief" with development statistics.

"After Independence, this is the first government that has been presenting decorated and inflated developmental statistics to befool people," said Yashwant, who served in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Cabinet, referring to the NITI Aayog downgrading the GDP growth rate during the UPA tenure.

He also rephrased the government's slogan of "sabka saath, sabka vikas" and said the actual slogan was "sabka saath, sabka vinash". Yashwant clarified that he has no personal vendetta against the Centre, but only wanted to ensure that the "anti-people" government is ousted from power.

He was followed by former Union minister Arun Shourie, who urged the Opposition to work together to throw out the BJP government at the Centre in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. He said Opposition parties should unitedly pitch single candidates against BJP contestants to win the polls.

"It will not be an easy task, pitching a single Opposition candidate in each seat against the BJP. But we must sacrifice for the country, with a sense of love for it," said Shourie, who also was a minister in the Vajpayee government.

A vocal critic of the BJP, Shourie has previously accused the prime minister of being personally responsible for the Rafale deal. He, along with Yashwant, have also accused the prime minister of "compromising national security" by unilaterally finalising the deal, shunning every rule of military procurement.

Rahul, Sonia Gandhi skip event, send Mallikarjun Kharge with letter instead

While Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi did not attend the United India Rally, Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge represented the party at the rally. He read out a letter penned by Sonia, which detailed the "immense strain" that India is facing.

"Economically, our citizens have been squeezed. Politically, our institutions have been undermined. And socially, our fabric stands eviscerated," Kharge read from the letter. "The upcoming general elections will be on the faith of restoring democracy in our country."

Continuing his speech, he said it is essential for the Opposition to maintain unity if the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo is to be defeated. "The BJP is trying to break parties; it is trying to break everyone," he said. "Modi may not be corrupt personally, but he is letting his friends have all privileges."

Deve Gowda calls for Opposition manifesto

Former prime minister HD Deve Gowda said with the general elections close at hand, Opposition parties should forget their differences and come together to fight the BJP unitedly. The Janata Dal (Secular) supremo said a small group of senior leaders should be formed to decide on a roadmap on how they will ensure good governance.

The herculean task of seat-sharing for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections has to be addressed to ensure a direct fight against the BJP, he said. "A stable government is needed to build a strong nation, but after getting 282 seats in the 2014 elections, Narendra Modi, instead, of building a strong nation, wants to destroy the secular nature of the country and destroy all constitutional institutions," Gowda said.

He further urged senior regional leaders to prepare a manifesto together to take the united Opposition forward. "I was the prime minister for a short time. I know that a stable nation is important to build the a country," he said. "We need to instill confidence among the people by telling them about our action plan."

Referring to the often asked question on who follow Modi in the prime minister's office, he said Opposition leaders must be confident of being able to form a stable government for five years, and the leaders congregated at the rally must ensure this.

Shatrughan Sinha attacks BJP; party 'takes cognisance'

After senior BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha launched an attack on the Centre over various issues, including the Rafale deal, the party said that it will "take cognisance" of his presence at the rally and termed the actor-turned-politician an "opportunist".

Addressing a press conference at the party office in New Delhi, BJP national spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said Shatrughan was in the party to enjoy the perks of being an MP, but at the same time was seen making different voices at various platforms.

"Shatrughan has been speaking against the party at various platforms. And it is always important for the BJP to act against such people and the party will take cognisance of it," Rudy said.

Taking a dig at Shatrughan, Rudy added that some people are "intelligent in different ways". They abide by the party's whip so that they don't lose their membership. "At the same time, they are so opportunistic... and can be present at any conclave. The BJP will take cognisance of it," he said.

Shatrughan has spoken against the BJP top leadership on a number of occasions, which provoked Bihar's deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi earlier this week. Sushil Modi had suggested that Shatrughan should quit the party.

'Defeat the dangerous BJP government'

Among the others who addressed the rally were Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, DMK chief MK Stalin, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

MK Stalin said the upcoming general elections will be akin to the second freedom struggle for the people of India to fight against the "radical Hinduism" of the BJP. Criticising the central government, Stalin also accused it of working for corporate houses. "If Modi is back in power, the country will go back 50 years," he claimed.

Kumaraswamy said India is one of the strongest democracies in the world, "but today, we are witnessing a day where the democratic government (at the Centre) is headed by some undemocratic persons". He also said that demonetisation had taken a toll on the poor and those in the rural areas were the most affected.

"It is unfortunate that the Union government has turned deaf and mute to the needs of the people of the country," Kumaraswamy said. "The present government gives incentives, tax rebates and subsidies to industries, but farmers are treated differently."

Akhilesh Yadav claimed that the coming together of the Samajwadi Party and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party had led to a wave of happiness in the country and left a worried BJP to hold meeting after meeting to devise a strategy to win even one seat in Uttar Pradesh. Attacking the BJP over the infighting in the CBI, Akhilesh said the BJP had formed its "own gathbandhan" with the investigative agency and the Central Vigilance Commission.

Furthermore, Chandrababu Naidu said the BJP had betrayed the people of the country by reneging on all the promises it had made before the 2014 general election. He said the BJP has failed on its promises of forming a corruption-free government, on bringing back black money from foreign shores and doubling farmers' income, among several other assurances.

Reiterating Naidu's statement, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal called upon the people of India to defeat the "dangerous BJP government" at the Centre at any cost.

Farooq Abdullah, Hardik Patel among several other speakers

Patidar leader Hardik Patel said all non-BJP parties had united to defeat the BJP government. "We must save our country and democracy for the welfare of the nation," he said. Stating that Opposition parties are fighting against "thieves", he said just like Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had fought the Britishers, the Opposition is fighting against "thieves".

Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani said the coming together of so many Opposition leaders at TMC's rally sends a message for change in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha working president Hemant Soren added to the attack, accusing the ruling party of "spreading hate". He said Opposition parties together "will remove these negative forces" and "remove the BJP from the entire nation".

National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah batted for the ballot system for the election. Accusing the BJP of stealing votes, he called EVMs "chor machines" and demanded that the ballot paper system be brought back for the sake of transparency.

Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi clarified that the aim of the "rainbow alliance" was to defeat the BJP and form a secular government. "Never before have we seen such vendetta politics... When Amit Shah held 100 rallies in Uttar Pradesh, no one questioned him, but when the RJD organised a rally, it got an income tax notice," he said.

The event concluded with Mamata's speech and chants of "badal do, badal do, Dilli mein sarkar badal do" and "Jai Hind".

BJP hits back

The ruling party hit back at the Opposition's barbs, calling the united Opposition rally "a rally of self interest and conflicting ideologies". The BJP also expressed confidence of forming the next government in the country.

At his press conference, Rudy called the rally an anti-Modi exercise and said the party was not threatened by such events.

BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya took to Twitter to comment on the Opposition's show of strength, saying that while Opposition parties continue to be embroiled in scams, the Narendra Modi government continues to have a clean rap sheet.

Shortly after the United India Rally came to a close, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also commented on the Opposition show of strength on Twitter. "Too many saints can ruin a monastery," he wrote, adding that "Twenty-two parties, a few MPs and a few prime minister aspirants... Who can stop one from dreaming big?"

The prime minister himself hit back at the united Opposition while addressing a gathering at Silvassa in Gujarat: "This mahagathbandhan is not just against Modi, but also against the people of this nation."

He added that Opposition parties were only looking to save themselves, while the BJP was looking to bring progress to the nation. Taking a dig at Mamata without naming her, he said the BJP has only one MLA in the state, "but still they are so afraid of us that they are saying 'bachao' (save us)".

With inputs from PTIMamata Banerjee rally in Kolkata LIVE updates: Shortly after the United India rally came to a close, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took to Twitter to respond to the Opposition show of strength. 'Too many saints can ruin a monastery,' he wrote adding that '22 parties, a few MPs and a few prime minister aspirants...who can stop one from dreaming big?'

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In addition, commandos will be deployed at Dum Dum, Esplanade and Maidan Stations. A dog squad will also be deployed.

Additional Railway Protection Force (RPF) Personnel, have been deployed at all stations to tackle any untoward incidents. Women RPF personnel will also be deployed in adequate numbers at various stations.

Anticipating a heavy rush of commuters in view of the TMC mega opposition rally at the Brigade Parade Ground on Saturday, the Kolkata Metro, which operates under the Ministry of Railways, has beefed up its security arrangements by deploying additional forces apart from the regular contingent.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday met with leaders of various Opposition parties, including AIADMK chief MK Stalin and TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu, in Kolkata. The meeting comes a day before the TMC supremo's mega Opposition rally on Saturday against the Narendra Modi government.

More than 20 national leaders, including former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha and Arun Shourie; three present chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal, Chandrababu Naidu and HD Kumaraswamy; and former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Akhilesh Yadav and Gegong Apang will attend the meeting, TMC sources said. Most of them have already arrived in the city.

"By putting the traffic on standstill and harassing the general public, TMC wants to stand up for the states well fare? How ironical! I urge all to share their today's traffic woes," he tweeted, with the hashtag #NaMoAgain.

BJP leader Babul Supriyo on Saturday launched an attack on the TMC government for holding the rally in Kolkata and disrupting traffic.

(They are all tired and defeated heavyweights looking to try their luck in the ring. If the first Opposition alliance (in Karnataka) is in such a dire condition, what will happen henceforth?)

Union minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, while speaking to ANI about the Opposition rally in Kolkata, said: "Ye sab thake huye pite huye pehelwan hain jo akhaade mein ja kar phir apni qismat aazmana chahte hain. Pehla gathbandhan (in Karnataka) hi is haal mein hai toh aage kya hoga."

The most conspicuous absence from Banerjee's rally will be that of Congress president Rahul Gandhi and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Among the list of politicians who will attend West Bengal chief minister's rally are Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who have also met Banerjee ahead of the event.

As hundreds of people are marching towards the Brigade Parade ground to attend the TMC-led rally from across the city, the Kolkata traffic police took to Twitter to warn commuters of potential traffic hotspots in the city.

Shourie has been a vocal critic of the BJP government, and has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being personally responsible for the Rafale deal . he , along with Yashwant Sinha have also accused Modi of "compromising national security" by unilaterally finalising the deal, shunning every rule of military procurement.

Speaking about the BJP's shady dealings in terms of the defence agreement, Shourie said, "no government that destroyed the defence sector as much as this government has, no government was involved in as big a corruption scandal as this government is. Had opposition been united, they wouldn't have been able to win Gujarat."

Former BJP leader Arun Shourie brought up the controversial Rafale deal in his address, and said that "no other government has said so many lies. Never before were institutions undermined in this manner."

He also accused the BJP of stealing votes, and condemned the EVM system for polls. "EVMs should be destroyed because they are being used to steal votes... we should all go to the Election Commission," he said.

"Fires are being spread in Assam in North East. We have to sacrifice, before asking people we should lead by making the sacrifice. Every community will have to make sacrifices. Look at Jammu and Kashmir. At what state has it been left in. People are being killed everywhere. And it is said that they are Pakistanis, they are traitors," he said.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah accused the BJP of dividing the nation on the basis of caste and religion, and blamed it for the condition of his home state.

"Our only aim is BJP hatao, Modi Hatao, desh bachao," (Get rid of the BJP, Get rid of Modi, save the nation) he said.

AIADMK chief MK Stalin said that the upcoming Lok Sabha polls will be the nation's second freedom fight, adding that the BJP is only attacking the Opposition as the party is well aware that it cannot win.

After Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati's press conference, Rahul had said he "won't be disappointed about the BSP-Samajwadi Party alliance as long as the BJP does not come to power", adding that contesting the elections solo would have the same end result  "the BJP won't get their seats".

The Congress has appeared nonchalant about the BSP-SP alliance , with party president Rahul Gandhi saying soon after the announcement on Saturday that being left of the alliance in Uttar Pradesh was not a "setback" for the Congress, exuding confidence that the results of the elections "would surprise people".

Satish Mishra of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the party which recently pushed out the Congress joined hands with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, said that the nation "cannot tolerate the NDA government any longer" because the government is "fooling the Indian people."

Mamata Banerjee responded immediately, saying" "You get BJP down to zero seats in UP and we'll do the same in Bengal."

"People used to think that an alliance is not possible but when SP and BSP tied up on 12 January, we received a good response from people around. Now, we are focusing on a bigger alliance here. Imagine, the kind to heartfelt response we'll get," he said.

Speaking about the SP's alliance with the BSP, Yadav said: "Since we allied, BJP is holding meetings after meetings, to find how to win one seat in UP."

Launching an attack on the BJP over the ongoing infighting with the CBI, SP president Akhilesh Yadav said that the BJP has formed its own gathbandhan with the investigation agency and the CVC.

"Women, who had accumulated some wealth for their families' benefit by hiding cash in drawers and behind closets, were left in limbo when note ban happened. Their savings all vanished," Sinha said, adding that even before people could get over demonetisation, GST happened.

He further criticised the BJP's plan for demonetisation and said it was announced in haste. "They announced without considering the people and other senior party leaders," he said.

BJP rebel and veteran party leader Shatrughan Sinha also addressed the gathering, and said that he has not seen such a lively and huge crowd before, and credited it to "the magic of our leader, Mamata Banerjee."

"I understand it is election time. New promises and conversations are being brought up, but no performance can be seen. There is a large gap between the BJP's promises and performance.

Urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come clean about the details of the Rafale deal, Shatrughan Sinha said that unless the Centre does not speak now, they will continue to hear Congress' "chowkidaar chor hai" slogan.

Narendra Modi may be the chowkidaar (watchman), but the masses are the thanedaar (station officer), says Tejashwi Yadav. "If you make a mistake, the thanedaar will make sure you see consequences," he added.

Shortly after arriving at the Brigade Parade grounds, RJD leader Tejashwai Yadav reiterated that the Opposition must remain united, adding that the masses will not be intimidated by the BJP's tactics.

"The Narendra Modi's government has an expiry date. I promise we will work together and fight together. I am taking a vow today that we will work together. Kejriwal said right things: Pakistan failed in its motive but Modi did the damage. Modi thinks he is saint and rest are corrupt."

Saying that the Opposition party is hitting out at the Prime Minister because he has been doing the same, TMC leader Mamata Banerjee addressed the crowed in Bengali. "There is a lakshman rekha in politics that you should not cross. PM targeted everyone. Then why should we not target him? He claims he is clean but look at all the scams his govt is involved in. Things change, even weather changes, then why shouldn't the government change," Banerjee said.

Responding to the BJP's inquiry about the leader of the united Opposition front, the TMC leader said: "They are worried who will become our leader. We all are leaders here. You don't have to worry. Post elections we will decide who to become prime minister. BJP has become leaderless. That is why they have one party president and one prime minister

West Bengal BJP leader and former TMC leader Mukul Roy on Saturday took to Twitter to condemn the Opposition met, saying that West Bengal is once again witnessing a "circus" under Mamata Banerjee's rule, similar to what Jyoti Basu had faced.

Shortly after the United India rally came to a close, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took to Twitter to respond to the Opposition show of strength. "Too many saints can ruin a monastery," he wrote adding that "22 parties, a few MPs and a few prime minister aspirants...who can stop one from dreaming big?"

"I congratulate Mamata didi for getting all of us together. The BJP has disappointed the people of the nation. They have no answers to any of our questions," he said.

As united Opposition leaders spoke to media, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav thanked West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for organising the United India rally, and accused the BJP of letting down the people.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah reiterated the Opposition's demand for elections that are free of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), and are only paper-based.

Reiterating the BJP's questions about who will lead the Opposition parties, he said: "Someone said in a very funny manner that our leader will be elected by the people of India, you have to name your leader to be elected by the people of India. Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati, Mamata Ji and some regional players too, all have prime ministerial ambitions.

Speaking to ANI , Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the Opposition parties' united front is only to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and that they have "no future road-map for the development of India."

Responding to the BJP's inquiry about the leader of the united Opposition front, the TMC leader said: "They are worried who will become our leader. We all are leaders here. You don't have to worry. Post elections we will decide who to become prime minister. BJP has become leaderless. That is why they have one party president and one prime minister

The event concluded shortly after within chants of "badal do, badal do, Dilli mein sarkar badal do" and "Jai Hind".

Emphasising the Opposition parties' unity, Mamata Banerjee said that it is 'inevitable' that a new government will be formed at the Centre, adding that this is the people's verdict.

BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya took to Twitter to comment on the Opposition's show of strength, and said that while the Opposition governments continue to be embroiled in scams, the Narendra Modi government continues to have a clean rap sheet.

West Bengal is again witnessing a circus under @mamataOfficial s rule similar to what Jyoti Basu had started. Various jokers and lying artists coming together to destroy India again. #UnitedAntiNationalsAtBrigade pic.twitter.com/A7XaOBg0ip

West Bengal BJP leader and former TMC leader Mukul Roy on Saturday took to Twitter to condemn the Opposition met, saying that West Bengal is once again witnessing a "circus" under Mamata Banerjee's rule, similar to what Jyoti Basu had faced.

Gujarat BJP secretary Pradipsinh Vaghela tweeted a fresh attack on the Opposition parties that took part in the TMC-led United India rally, and said that they are all just scared of the BJP's strength.

Shortly after the United India rally came to a close, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took to Twitter to respond to the Opposition show of strength. "Too many saints can ruin a monastery," he wrote adding that "22 parties, a few MPs and a few prime minister aspirants...who can stop one from dreaming big?"

"I congratulate Mamata didi for getting all of us together. The BJP has disappointed the people of the nation. They have no answers to any of our questions," he said.

As united Opposition leaders spoke to media, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav thanked West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for organising the United India rally, and accused the BJP of letting down the people.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah reiterated the Opposition's demand for elections that are free of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), and are only paper-based.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Oppositions rally in Kolkata: Those who could not see eye to eye have come together & from the speech it was evident that their only agenda is to remove Narendra Modi, they have no future road-map for the development of India. pic.twitter.com/cHNfC5tjKU

Reiterating the BJP's questions about who will lead the Opposition parties, he said: "Someone said in a very funny manner that our leader will be elected by the people of India, you have to name your leader to be elected by the people of India. Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati, Mamata Ji and some regional players too, all have prime ministerial ambitions.

Speaking to ANI , Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the Opposition parties' united front is only to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and that they have "no future road-map for the development of India."

Mamata Banerjee rally in Kolkata LATEST updates: Speaking to ANI, Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the Opposition parties' united front is only to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and that they have "no future road-map for the development of India."

Reiterating the BJP's questions about who will lead the Opposition parties, he said: "Someone said in a very funny manner that our leader will be elected by the people of India, you have to name your leader to be elected by the people of India. Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati, Mamata Ji and some regional players too, all have prime ministerial ambitions.

As united Opposition leaders spoke to media, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav thanked West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for organising the United India rally, and accused the BJP of letting down the people.

"I congratulate Mamata didi for getting all of us together. The BJP has disappointed the people of the nation. They have no answers to any of our questions," he said.

Shortly after the United India rally came to a close, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took to Twitter to respond to the Opposition show of strength. "Too many saints can ruin a monastery," he wrote adding that "22 parties, a few MPs and a few prime minister aspirants...who can stop one from dreaming big?"

Emphasising the Opposition parties' unity, Mamata Banerjee said that it is 'inevitable' that a new government will be formed at the Centre, adding that this is the people's verdict.

The event concluded shortly after within chants of "badal do, badal do, Dilli mein sarkar badal do" and "Jai Hind".

Responding to the BJP's inquiry about the leader of the united Opposition front, the TMC leader said: "They are worried who will become our leader. We all are leaders here. You don't have to worry. Post elections we will decide who to become prime minister. BJP has become leaderless. That is why they have one party president and one prime minister

Saying that the Opposition party is hitting out at the Prime Minister because he has been doing the same, TMC leader Mamata Banerjee addressed the crowd in Bengali. "There is a lakshman rekha in politics that you should not cross. PM targeted everyone. Then why should we not target him? He claims he is clean but look at all the scams his govt is involved in. Things change, even weather changes, then why shouldn't the government change," Banerjee said.

"The Narendra Modi's government has an expiry date. I promise we will work together and fight together. I am taking a vow today that we will work together. Kejriwal said right things: Pakistan failed in its motive but Modi did the damage. Modi thinks he is saint and rest are corrupt."

Shortly after arriving at the Brigade Parade grounds, RJD leader Tejashwai Yadav reiterated that the Opposition must remain united, adding that the masses will not be intimidated by the BJP's tactics. He said Narendra Modi may be the chowkidaar (watchman), but the masses are the thanedaars (station officers), adding: "If you make a mistake, the thanedaars will make sure you face consequences."

Former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, whom Mamata Banerjee described as "a farmers' prime minister, not an accidental one", told the crowd: "The Centre is victimising leaders of Opposition parties using all machinery". He also urged senior regional leaders to prepare a manifesto together to take the united Opposition forward. "I was the prime minister for a short time. I know that a stable nation is important to build the a country," he said. "We need to instill confidence among the people by telling them about our action plan."

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge read out a letter from UPA president Sonia Gandhi, which detailed the "immense strain" India is facing. "Economically, our citizens have been squeezed. Politically, our institutions have been undermined. And socially, our fabric stands eviscerated.... The upcoming general elections will be on the faith of restoring democracy in our country."

He added that it is essential for the Opposition to be united if the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo is to be defeated. "The BJP is trying to break away parties, it is trying to break everyone," he said. "Modi may not be corrupt personally, but he is letting his friends have all privileges."

More than 20 national leaders, including former prime minister HD Deve Gowda; former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha and Arun Shourie; three present chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal, N Chandrababu Naidu and HD Kumaraswamy; and former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Akhilesh Yadav and Gegong Apang; are at the rally.

Though Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi skipped the rally, the party is represented by senior Congress leaders like Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi. On Friday, Rahul had written to the TMC chief, extending support to the mega rally. "We commend the great people of Bengal who have historically been at the forefront of defending our ideals. I extend my support to Mamata Di on this show of unity and hope that we send a powerful message of a united India together," the letter read.

"I have met Deve Gowda-ji, Hemant-ji (Hemant Soren of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha) and Akhilesh Yadav. I will meet other Opposition leaders too," Banerjee told reporters. With Bharatiya Janata Party's recent defeats in the Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Banerjee has raised the pitch to be united against the saffron party in the 2019 general election. Bahujan Samaj Party general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, too, have already arrived. The other leaders will either arrive on Friday night or by Saturday morning, the sources said.

Large scale preparations were made to ensure the success of the rally. Besides the huge stages, 20 watch towers, 1,000 microphones and 30 LED screens have been put up so spectators can see and hear the speeches of the leaders clearly. Lakhs of TMC supporters and workers attending the rally, a huge number of them from various corners of the state, have been accommodated in the outskirts of the city and in some auditoriums and stadiums.

As many as 10,000 police personnel have been deployed and around 400 police pickets have been set up to ensure foolproof security, police said. Policemen in plain clothes, personnel of the Rapid Action Force and Quick Response Team have been deployed at the rally venue. Police postings began at 4 am, with senior officials in the rank of assistant commissioners in charge of the five daises set up for the rally, a senior police officer said.

Also, anticipating heavy rush of commuters in the wake of the TMC-led rally at the Brigade Parade Ground, the Kolkata Metro, which operates under the Ministry of Railways, beefed up its security arrangements by deploying additional forces apart from the regular contingent.

With inputs from PTIFor a host of reasons, Mamata Banerjee's 'United India Rally' in Kolkata is as much a show strength for the Opposition allies as it is for the nation at large. In a way, it is the West Bengal chief minister announcing her arrival as a national leader.

There was an old joke that a Bengali's ambition is limited to being the president of The Calcutta Club. But then Pranab Mukherjee broke the jinx. Now, Bengalis are bracing themselves for the tantalising prospect of having one of their own as a prime minister. Ask any Bengali who has seen Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee up close. She will not dismiss the possibility as far-fetched.

Before Mamata, Mukherjee was the only Bengali politician of note to have revolted against the Congress. He had formed his own party  the Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress  only to make a quiet return in a few years.

Much earlier, in the mid 1960s, a breakaway group called the Bangla Congress was formed. But that was neither fish nor fowl. It was part of the first two short-lived United Front governments with the Left under Ajoy Mukherjee. The Bangla Congress was subsequently subsumed in the fire of the Naxalbari movement that had engulfed Bengal then, and Ajoy Mukherjee faded into the sunset, while the younger lot like Siddhartha Shankar Ray, ABA Ghani Khan Chowdhury and Pranab Mukherjee went back to the new Indira Congress, or the Naba-Congress as it came to be known in Bengal.

Thus, when Mamata Banerjee walked out of the Congress in 1988, many thought it was just a matter of time before she, too, went home like the prodigal daughter. But people had underestimated both her foresight and tenacity. Even though the Trinamool Congress was gaining traction in West Bengal, largely at the expense of a decaying Bengal Congress, few expected her to achieve the near miracle of uprooting the Marxist hegemony in the state.

One may recall that when Mamata gave a call of "Ebar (this time) or Never" in the run up to the 2011 Assembly elections, a famous television anchor had joked on a live broadcast that what she actually meant was "Never, Ever". He could not have been more wrong.

Even after she had firmly ensconced herself in the chief minister's chair, not many would have thought she would be audacious enough to set her eyes on Delhi. The conventional assessment was that she would emerge as a powerful regional leader like former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa who would conveniently switch affection between the ruling coalition at the Centre based on her interests.

So even in 2014, there was speculation about the Trinamool Congress re-joining the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. But Mamata was in politics for the longer haul and would not let herself be lost in the rainbow of a coalition.

To her credit, when all parties were reeling in the aftermath of the Modi tsunami in 2014, the Trinamool Congress had maintained its ground. Mamata could justifiably take pride in restricting the BJP to just two seats in West Bengal, even though the party's vote share had risen, negating all speculation of a Hindu push-back in certain parts of the state.

In the high-decibel politicking of the past few months, one may have forgotten that it was one of Mamata's emissaries in Delhi who had first mooted a formula to defeat the BJP in 2019. At that point, few took him seriously, besides a few of his friends in the media.

However, Mamata had sensed an opportunity in the decimation of the Congress and the dismembering of the Bengal unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Hindi heartland parties were putting their pieces together after suffering a further setback in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, and the Congress looked broken beyond repair.

Sharp as she is, Mamata would have also figured that it was only a matter of time before the Modi sheen wanes and some degree of anti-incumbency sets in. While other parties (except Mayawati's BSP) had displayed a degree of ambivalence on demonetisation, especially after it failed to work in the Opposition's favour in Uttar Pradesh, Mamata was consistent in her attack on what turned out to be Narendra Modi's hubris.

That was the time for her to strike and occupy centre-stage on the national scene.

In politics, nothing remains static, and the plates have shifted. From the looks of it, the relaunch of Rahul 2.0 has worked for the Congress. After its wins in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the grand old party has regained much of its old chivalry, and the Bua-Bhatija alliance in Uttar Pradesh  the alliance between Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party and Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party  looks good to go.

In this situation, Mamata needs to make her moves carefully to maintain her primacy in the anti-BJP front. With the enigmatic Naveen Patnaik keeping his cards close to the chest, N Chandrababu Naidu looking unsure on this own turf, the wily KCR keeping everyone guessing, and DMK prematurely throwing in its lot with Rahul as a prime ministerial nominee, Mamata has some tricky navigation in store for her.

Altogether, these make the Trinamool-sponsored "United India Rally" in Kolkata on Saturday as much a show strength for the Opposition allies as it is for the nation at large. In a way, it is Mamata announcing her arrival as a national leader.

But what does it hold for the ordinary Bengali? It will be a stretch to think that a Bengali will get carried away and start viewing Mamata as a potential prime minister from tomorrow, but it can certainly reinforce their faith in her playing a far more important role in national politics.

For far too long, Bengalis have suffered from an inferiority complex of not getting their due share and recognition because of their lack of political clout in Delhi. Didi now holds out that hope in the image of a strong leader of "Maa, Maati, Manush". This can give her unexpected dividends in the upcoming Lok Sabha election in warding off any inroads by the BJP on her home ground.

Therefore, the "United India Rally" may have been well worth the investment for Mamata.Senior Congress leader and Karnataka minister DK Shivakumar on Saturday said all ministers in the party, including him, were ready to step aside from the cabinet in the interest of the party to accommodate those MLAs who are dissatisfied.

Bengaluru: Senior Congress leader and Karnataka minister DK Shivakumar on Saturday said all ministers in the party, including him, were ready to step aside from the cabinet in the interest of the party to accommodate those MLAs who are dissatisfied.

"We are loyal soldiers of the party. When the Dharm Singh government was there, I was kept out of the government for political reasons... In the last regime, I was an MLA for the sixth term. Siddaramaiah could not include me in his cabinet (initially)," Shivakumar said.

Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, he said this time. it was a coalition government, and several legislators, who were senior to him  V Muniyappa, Ramalinga Reddy, Roshan Baig, HK Patil  are not part of the government.

"If need be, including myself, I'm telling you, we are ready to sacrifice for the party, for the workers, for legislators. Nothing is important. The party is important to us. We want to bring back our party with flying colours," he said in response to a question. Shivakumar also said the "decision" was arrived at a meeting of Congress ministers held a few days ago.

He said "I voluntarily have offered (to step down)... In the interest of the party, if my leaders want, I'm ready." To a question on how many ministers were ready to resign, he said "All of us are ready..."

The statement by the Congress' "trouble shooter" gains significance as there is simmering discontent within a section in the party over not getting a cabinet berth during the recent rejig.

To a question about getting in touch with MLAs, including Nagendra and Umesh Jadhav who were absent from the Congress legislature party meeting on Friday, Shivakumar said, "I'm in touch with all MLAs... I don't want to disclose."

He said there were no "rebels" in the party and downplayed dissatisfaction within the party. "Who is a rebel? I don't know, I have not seen any rebels," he said.

To a question how long Congress legislators will stay in the resort, Shivakumar said, "Let me see... Discussions are on district by district, constituency-wise discussions are on (regarding the parliamentary election), also about the development work in each constituency."

Asked whether MLAs would return from the resort on Sunday, without giving any direct response, he said "Can they stay there itself?"

The Congress, on Friday, had shifted all its MLAs to a resort to allegedly "escape" from the BJP's "onslaught".

On the BJP going for a statewide tour to study drought, Shivakumar, terming it a "good" move, assured full cooperation from the government. He also asked BJP legislators still in Delhi to pressure the prime minister and rural development minister "to get back our MNREGA money" of about Rs 1,500 crore that is pending with the Centre.Ahead of the general election, the BJP needs Karnataka for two reasons  one, to dislodge the idea that a coalition government can function well so the party leadership gets to snub the mahagatbandhan (grand alliance) at the national level, and two, to carry on its Hindutva politics.

Ahead of the general election, the BJP needs Karnataka for two reasons  one, to dislodge the idea that a coalition government can function well so the party leadership gets to snub the mahagatbandhan (grand alliance) at the national level, and two, to carry on its Hindutva politics.

Backpedal to 2008

Operation Kamala, Hindutva politics, the craving for power and the general election  these form the common thread for the BJP between the current state of affairs and that way back in 2008-09 ahead of the general election then, except that the BJP is not in power now.

When the BJP first came to power in Karnataka in 2008, it set a similar tone ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha election. The coastal districts were polarised. The partys win triggered a series of incidents of violence. The attacks on churches and Christian institutions in southern Karnataka, as well as the case of the Mangalore pub assault, where women were beaten and dragged by their hair for merely attempting to have a night out, were the talking points ahead of the 2009 general election.

In both cases, instead of taking strict action against the perpetrators, the then chief minister BS Yeddyurappa blamed the victims.

In the case of the attacks on churches, he accused Christian groups of triggering disturbances in Karnataka and distributing literature insulting Hindu gods. In the pub attack case, he had refused to ban the outfits behind the assaults on the women  Sri Ram Sena and Bajrang Dal  and instead said going to pubs was against Indian culture and won't be allowed in Karnataka.

The violence and Operation Kamala  a successful endeavour by the Yeddyurappa government to circumvent the anti-defection law and woo Opposition MLAs to join the BJP to ensure the stability of its government  did not hit the party hard in 2009 partly because the BJP had been in power for less than a year in the run-up to the general election. In fact, the party went on to win 19 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, the highest for the BJP in the state till date. The Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) together grabbed the other nine seats.

This, perhaps, is why there is a pressing need for national leaders to focus on Karnataka to increase their tally in 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Can the coast lead the way in 2019?

A decade later, things have changed.

For the BJP, which is losing steam across the country, as indicated in the recent Assembly elections, bringing up the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya seems to be the focal point, and Karnatakas coastal region will be the testing ground to push this agenda.

In the Assembly elections last year, the BJP won 28 of the 33 seats in Karnataka's coastal and Malnad regions. At both the national and state level, the party played up the killing of RSS workers to draw the vote bank in its favour.

Sitting in the Opposition, the BJP, which emerged the single largest party in Assembly in the election held in May 2018, is desperately seeking to unseat the coalition government in Karnataka run by the JD(S) and the Congress.

"We will form the government in the state soon. There's no denying it, and we are strategising for it," said CT Ravi, Karnataka BJP's general secretary and former district in-charge minister of Dakshina Kannada.

"We still are riding on the Modi wave, and Hindutva will play a key role for us in the general election. On the Ayodhya front, people wish to have a Ram Mandir. Whether it is through a court order or by way of an ordinance, the decision will favour us," he added.

Moreover, sitting BJP legislator from Udupi Raghupathi Bhat echoed the Hindutva point and said coastal Karnataka will play a significant role in the general election, and Hindutva politics and "Modinomics", along with the Ram Temple issue, will be the campaign points for the BJP.

However, the Congress is not unfazed by the Sangh's attitude in the coast.

Taking at dig at the recent incident where an RSS worker was arrested for allegedly plotting against its leaders, including Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, Mankal Vaidya, the Congress MLA from Bhatkal said: "The target and the one plotting to kill are in the same party. All they know is to manufacture lies. They cannot play the Hindutva card again to win."

"Either they talk about what they can do for the people, or tell lies and cry foul to win votes," he added. "They are building an attitude to convey that courts can have no say in a matter of faith, such as in the Sabarimala and Ayodhya cases."

BJP president Amit Shah's advice to the judiciary to not give orders that can't be implemented in Sabarimala is a case in point.

Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, an RSS idealogue in coastal Karnataka. said: "We cannot go against the Supreme Court verdict, but the court should decide on certain cases based on the importance of the matter. The Ayodhya case is an important one, and they should have heard it much earlier. Ahead of the election, Ram Mandir is an important issue for the RSS."

However, analysts believe that the Hindutva card emerging in the coast may work if the party continues its tirade against the Congress and topples the ruling government by way of coercion.

"Unlike in other southern states, regional parties are not strong here. So the BJP is focussing on Karnataka to make a dent in the South. But the BJP leadership is turning weaker, and it's unsettled in the state. There's a lot of propaganda, and they will look at places where they had succeeded earlier," political analyst Harish Ramaswamy said. "Both Congress and JDS are consolidating their votes rather than breaking into the BJP votes. That is what is threatening the BJP now. The combined force could affect their chances in the Lok Sabha election."

Even as the BJP is struggling to put its team together, sitting in a resort in the outskirts of Bengaluru, Congress leaders are all set to counter the BJP's attempts to foil their plans. They say the Ayodhya issue and Hindutva politics are nothing new for the Congress as they have tackled the two for three decades now.

"For the BJP, Hindutva is their core competency as they have proved incompetent in all other areas. Hindutva politics is their go-to modus operandi when all else fails. They don't have any other card to play this time," said Srivatsa YB, national campaign coordinator for the Youth Congress.

"The Congress will tackle it politically. Their (BJP's) agenda is to win, and for that, they need to distract people as they are doing now. But their plans will fall flat soon."(Above: Hot Ladki Here, 2009. Photo: Students of Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology with Blank Noise) The Hot Ladki Here intervention, built with students at Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bengaluru, was an iteration of the broader initiative I Never Ask For It (INAFI), which started in 2005 and is still ongoing. As part of its earliest Actions, INAFI invited women to bring forth clothes they wore when they experienced sexual violence. Most women and girls, in India and beyond, have been raised in an environment that repeatedly warns them to, be careful, to protect yourself , and to not draw attention to yourself by the way you look or what you wear, explains Patheja, whose 23-year-old self started BN in 2003, as part of her graduation project at Srishti. Survivors of sexual violence tell us that this translates to: If youve experienced sexual violence, you werent careful enough and you deserve it. An environment of victim blame only justifies and therefore perpetuates sexual violence. In 2023, ten thousand such garments, contributed by project participants, will be assembled in sites of public significance in an effort to arrest the conversation on victim blame.

(Above left: Anonymous Action Shero, I Never Ask For It, Montreal, 2017. Above right: Action Sheroes build I Never Ask For It, Walking Towards Healing, Bengaluru, 2018) Taking off on the subject of BNs long and complex journey Patheja says, To begin with, the agenda was to start the conversation around gender-based violence in public spaces, Blank Noise has since evolved into tackling attitudes of victim blaming that dominate our culture and can be found across spaces. Another important aspect of this evolution has entailed, moving beyond occupying to healing and empathy. To observers, like this writer, Talk to Me  also an iteration of INAFI first undertaken in collaboration with students from Srishti in 2012  is a moment telling of this transition. Yelahanka Action Heroes came together as part of a course, taught by Patheja, who since 2013 has been artist-in-residence at the institute.

(Above: Talk to Me, 2012. Photo: Vishaka Jindal) In the Yelahanka suburb of Bengaluru, a stretch of a dimly lit road near Srishti, where incidents of sexual harassment were rife, earned itself the unofficial name Rapists Lane. The Action Heroes, female and male, sat across tables from complete strangers, young men who frequent the lane, and had open and freewheeling and revealing conversations with them. Most of the men, who hung out in the shadows, came from a social class that was removed from the Action Heroes at Srishti. The safe space created by the dialogue went beyond simply calling out patriarchy and acknowledged existing differences. The occasion also allowed the action heroes to confront their own fears and prejudices of the other/unknown. The demand to live without fear here was accompanied by the realisation that some of these fears could also be biases, and that every figure in the shadow is not an assailant, and that the Rapists Lane tag is misguided much like Delhis rape capital tag.

(Above: Talk to Me, 2012. Photo: Jasmeen Patheja) Each conversation ended with the Yelahanka Action Heroes offering a flower to their interlocutor. On conclusion of the intervention, the Heroes started referring to the road as the Safest Lane. BN is part of, and has also contributed to the production, of a zeitgeist that is standing up to and pushing back at patriarchy, and more recently the rise of right-wing chauvinism; the two, after all, are heavily enmeshed. This zeitgeist is increasingly propelled by ideas such as those of empathy, care and inclusiveness. However, the current cultural moment, which includes the new wave of feminism, has been in the making forever. Reflecting on the prehistory of feminism that has enabled BN, Patheja says, We are standing on the labour (invisible and visible) of what the womens movement has been doing for decades, their work has enabled what has now become a more mainstream awakening, change is visible. I am thinking of artists that inspired me, Suzanne Lacys work, especially Three Weeks in May: Speaking Out On Rape, A Political Art Piece, 1977. I am thinking about the Guerrilla Girls, their rage and tactics to affect the consciousness of the art world. We need collective and multiple efforts, greater solidarity, and moving forward, a space for plural feminisms to emerge. Work has been done and there is still much to be done. In a climate such as, the seemingly simple act of walking can entail a whole bunch of holding ground. First of all, there is the suspensive freedom that comes by walking, even a simple short stroll: throwing off the burden of cares, forgetting business for a time, writes Frederic Gros in his delightful book A Philosophy of Walking. You choose to leave the office behind, get out, stroll around, think about other things. The freedom to move without care is the freedom to imagine. Walking defenceless. Mobility equals autonomy. Reclaiming city streets so that the mind is without fear and the head held high can be life-affirming. In 2016, BN initiated Walk Alone: Akeli Awaara Azaad and invited individuals from across the world to be Action Sheroes/Theyroes/Heroes by walking in places they fear, or desire, or a place that is unknown to them, anytime between 8 pm and midnight. Action Heroes walked their streets in Chhattisgarh, Jaipur, Medellin, Mumbai, Berlin, Allahabad, Goa and more.

BN is a massively nested project. A closer look reveals that versions of low-key versions of Walk Alone were already happening in first year of BN. Over the years several such walks have taken place. These early iterations lay the ground for the 2016 intervention. The feminist impulse of openness to constant rewriting and negotiation has enabled BN to march on for sixteen years but sixteen years is a real long time. ----- GD: Do you ever feel like its been too long? Of course, Blank Noise is always evolving and you are committed but you are also human and a project like this can be demanding in the huge amounts of 'wokeness'. JP: Demanding? Yes. Is work ever done? No. Are there burnouts? Yes. Am I in it alone? No. Do I rely on community? Yes. Do I rely on forms of support? Yes. Newer groups and collectives have emerged. Furthering the understanding around multiple approaches / multiple kinds of strength. When I remind myself of the multiple methodologies that have been practiced over time, it does not take a toll; it feels like we collectively got somewhere. BN community has also been a source of learning, friendships, community and joy. Woke is good. There are many stages of woke. Wokeness means that we are no longer dismissing the issue, nor pushing it under the carpet. Recognising injustice and bringing it to the foreground as a new norm will lead to more conversations. Denial is breaking and it must break at every step. We need to facilitate listening. Being woke has the potential to move beyond recognising injustice to taking agency towards it. ----- But even the woke need to sleep. Our brain literally starts to eat itself when it does not receive enough sleep. Poor sleep causes the brain to destroy a significant amount of neurons and cut millions of synaptic connections. Sleep is a fundamental right. Meet To Sleep has been asserting this right since 2016.

(Above: Meet to Sleep, Muzaffarpur, 2018. Credit: Aakansha Seva Sadan, Muzaffarpur, in association with CREA) Meet to Sleep (MTS) invites women, girls and all persons beyond the gender binary to take sleep in public parks, states the BN site. We sleep, asserting our right to live defenceless, and free from fear. Speaking on the subject of key moments, Patheja explains her own encounter with fear through MTS, which is the second of the two core initiatives undertaken by BN. I lay in a park, negotiating my own relationship with fear as I tried to nap. Waking up to sounds, realising it was a leaf or a dog passing by and not a predator. It made me think about the fact that there are more of us in fear of each other than with the actual intention to harm. And how would this premise of trust instead of threat inform our work. What would it do if thousands of women were found sleeping in public parks instead of clenched fists matched with a fast-paced walk. Over 500 Conversations have transpired across media and spaces including public talks and blog projects. With Actions taking place across streets, conference rooms, the internet, classrooms, art institutions, mainstream media and the collective conscience, across 66 cities and towns, in India and globally. Sidebar: Just to quickly flag that the line/distinction between conversation and action is always blurred. In 2018 alone, over 1500 Action Heroes, including event volunteers, stepped up to the various tasks at hand. Over the years, the count runs into thousands with participation from those between the ages of 9 and 87. All participants have been instrumental in shaping Blank Noise. Finding a better way to archive each Action Shero/Theyro/Heros contribution is something I would have done differently, Patheja admits. Work is underway now though to redress this situation with an initiative called Action Sheroes Oral Herstories. No intervention is too big, or too small. Going at the opponent from every direction possible is a given, in this case. The inclusion of Shero and Theyro happened in the recent years because it got to a point where Action Hero just sounded wrong to my ears, Patheja weighs in on the semantic shifts within the project. (Above: Kamala Bhasin championing Meet To Sleep, 2017) Detailing the thought processes behind the transition she concludes, I was keen on putting into play a different heroism narrative by allowing room for vulnerability. The hero as an individual willing to be vulnerable, someone who challenges themselves. However, the hero is located in a narrative of masculinity. In recent years, feminists, Srilatha Batliwala and Kamla Bhasin, questioned the word hero, as well. Shero was new, but it sounded right. And just like anything new, it takes repeating it to making it familiar and making it normal. As for Theyro, it might sound odd to the uninitiated ear just now but the singular they is coming our way faster than you know. Dictionaries and linguists are gearing up for the singular non-gender specific pronoun, as should you. *** Artist in focus: Jasmeen Patheja is an artist, and also the founder director of Blank Noise. Patheja is also a photographer. She collaborates with her grandmother, Inderjit Kaur on a series of photo performances. More here and here. ** Gitanjali Dang is a curator, writer and shape-shifter. In 2012, she founded Khanabadosh, an itinerant arts lab. More here.It is often extremely bizarre how stories, anecdotes in random conversations leave a considerably deep impression in our minds. Sometimes, so much so that we start pursuing them as a challenge, as another exciting story and most importantly, another experience. More so, if one is a journalist by profession, a tad (read: extra) bit inquisitive one, like me. I remember the celebrated photographer Chirodeep Chaudhuri once mention a chapter in Amit Chaudhuri's book Calcutta: Two Years In The City [Penguin India, 2014] which has a picture of a man photographed with his dead wife in the eeriest fashion. But what is even more astounding is the fact that the picture was taken in a studio in Kolkata's Hooghly area, minutes before the dead wife's funeral. Amit Chaudhuri, in his book, writes about it saying, "Pictures of this kind are unusual, but not unheard-of," and that is what piqued my interest and I embarked upon this journey to find one (or more) of these 'photographers of the dead'. *** Death, in India, is often seen with the lens of spirituality and mysticism. West Bengal, in fact, the entire belt of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, is considered a hotbed for practices like necromancy, sorcery etc. There are many tales of how funeral grounds, especially during the night, would become notorious sites for tantriks and cult groups who would engage in cannibalism and consumption of illicit drugs and liquor. Keoratala cremation ground, one of Kolkata's largest, was once one of these haunting grounds where people would hardly ever come except for conducting the last rites of their deceased near and dear ones. In this Keoratala crematorium, were once a set of five photographers whose daily job was to shoot pictures of dead bodies  day in and day out. As morbid as it may sound, it was a popular and flourishing business in the area. Shanti Ghosh, aged 57, is probably one of the last from the quintet who still can be seen at Keoratala, once in a blue moon. He doesn't shoot pictures anymore; he just comes to his shop once a week, or sometimes even less frequently, to check his its condition, which is no less than around 200 years old.

"People used to say we are photographers of the dead. They would often mock us socially. We felt bad, but then what else can we do?" says Ghosh, who is the third and last generation of photographers from a family that had otherwise no links to the art of writing with light. Originally, a resident of the village named Sashan (ironically translates to funeral ground) in West Bengals Baruipur district, Ghosh's grandfather came to the city of Kolkata in search of work and chose the then just-in art of photography as a means to livelihood. Why he confined himself to clicking pictures of the dead is not something Ghosh is aware of. The other four photographers  who Ghosh mentions by the surnames include a certain Datta, a Mukherjee, another Mukherjee and a Manna  have left the place; sold the shops and settled either in their ancestral villages or taken other jobs. Some are dead. Today, with the advent of smartphones with smarter camera specifications, the need for a photographer to document a dead family member seems to be both an insensitive as well as redundant. But until a few years ago, around 2007, these photographers were rather in vogue. They made money out of this generation-spanning business; bought lands and properties back in their native lands. Today when there is no job, they are living off on all the savings from years of clicking pictures.

Ghosh says in their heydays, these photographers used to be treated like VIPs and were given "jamai aador" (translated: the love and privilege of an Indian son-in-law). "They used to literally beg in front of us to go and click pictures of their deceased relative. We used to be too busy anyway during the busier days, but they would offer us pick and drop services and what not," fondly reminisces Ghosh. He further informs that equipment from their studios were also used in films (including the 1969 Bengali film Shesh Theke Shuru) and several stage dramas. "I have also shot pictures for a wedding or a family function. Travelling with the entire camera set up (including a heavy large-format camera along with its iron stands) used to be one hell of a lot of effort, but it was good money," he adds. Otherwise, on any ordinary day, they preferred to stick around their area of comfort  the burning grounds of Keoratala and Shirdi Shimultala, a little further away. "Those days, we had a turn system; each of us would go out one day to shoot. And mind you, our duty lasted for the entire day, which is full twenty-four hours. There were five of us, so each of our turns would come after a gap of five days. Clicking these last-moment pictures were in rage those days. Suppose my shift ended at 10 am and a body arrived at 10.01 am, we literally would get into fist fights to decide who gets the slot. You see, there was a crisis of photographers those days," recalls Ghosh. And this dearth of photographers always worked for their favour. "The fare for these photographs, during the time of my grandfather, used to be somewhere around Rs 30, which was a huge amount then. We would make three copies of a single picture in black and white... I am talking about the pre-Independence days. When I was photographing, we used to charge somewhere around Rs 150 per picture and make at least Rs 3000 a day. Our rates were higher than many photographers in the city; people used to haggle but the rates were fixed. Both photographing and availability of photographers were a rarity those days, unlike today where everybody is clicking a picture every now and then."

Charging hefty money for the last picture of a person with their close ones might come across a little insensitive, but doing whatever it took to make their ends meet was their only option, as this was their only occupation. Behind this professional viewfinder and the task of capturing death, these photographers also had a human, living heart. "Initially we used to take 80 percent of the money beforehand and the remaining after handing them the pictures. But later, people didn't bother to come and collect their pictures and we lost on money gradually. So then, we made it a rule that we were paid first and only then we would click pictures. In some cases, where we could see that the customer doesn't belong to a financially-strong background, we clicked pictures at very cheap rates. After all, humanity always precedes monetary gains, more so at the gates of death," says Ghosh. Capturing dead bodies  day after day, year after year  has sort of made them "used to" death. "We've seen burnt bodies, rotten bodies, infected bodies; bodies of men and women; bodies of stillborn," mentions Ghosh and elucidates his various experiences in the job. He adds, "There used to be dead bodies [of people] who had been either murdered or burnt alive. Their relatives would ask us to click their pictures after they stripped the bodies off any clothes so that those pictures could later be used as pieces of evidence. In the case of dead bodies of women, we would refuse straight away; we could never click pictures of women in that state, not even for money. Then, there were many who would ask us to click the pictures of the dead body alone, without any living relative around. These pictures were clicked because there wouldn't be any other picture of the deceased while he was alive. So we would click one last and probably the only picture of the departed which was used to perform all the final rituals. You see, people then worshipped parents like gods and goddesses. Today none of that happens."

Speaking to Ghosh, one can almost trace the evolution of photography  both as an art as well as a practice  over the turn of a century and a half. While clicking pictures on camera phones today might seem like a complete no-sweat, back then when the camera, as equipment, was itself evolving, photography was a complex as well as a cumbersome activity. Starting from cameras with glass slides to the ones with negative films, Ghosh explains how more than the equipment, their technical expertise mattered in capturing the pictures. "The technology of the camera wasn't as sophisticated as that of today. We had to be very careful about the aperture: while we had to arrange for an external shutter arranged with a light bulb (in older days, a mixture of magnesium and potassium chlorate, called the flash powder was burnt as an external flash) during the night; it was pretty normal photography with natural light during the day. At night, we used hurricane lamps to mark positions in a frame. You see, in pitch darkness, a lot can get cut out if not marked properly. More so, if there were a large number of people. Sometimes, more than a hundred folks of the deceased would come to pay their last respects. So we had to use those hurricane lamps to ensure that anyones head, and more importantly the dead body, is not cropped out of the frame," says Ghosh.

Since keeping photographs of oneself wasn't something common those days, for some, these pictures (clicked after their death) were their only photographs ever, their last image. So, any goof-ups while photographing them meant there wont be any token of remembrance of the deceased for the posterity. "Today, one has a picture on their voter card, PAN card etc, but those days all of this wasnt around. So, for them, this last picture was all they ever had  or all that they left back as a visual memory of themselves. In many instances, we had to guarantee the relatives of the dead that we will click usable pictures; we wrote this in their bills!" he says. While three generations of Ghosh's family earned money and recognition with photographing dead, this practice somehow lost its need and relevance with the pacing time. Why did Ghosh's offsprings not take up this as a profession? "This will not work in todays day and age. I have no sons, but only a single daughter. And, girls dont do this kind of a job... clicking pictures of dead bodies... not at all. But majorly, if you see, with time the practice of clicking these pictures is dead. Today people have smartphones; they can click pictures whenever they want  of the dead and the alive  at equal convenience. But, clicking pictures of someone you love being dead is difficult. Maybe thats why people prefer not to click them and hence it has become obsolete these days. Plus, if they want us to click pictures they also need to pay for our services and why would someone do that when their smartphones can do it for them for free?" says Ghosh, while unlocking his bicycle and shutting his shop for the day.

All the archival pictures are shot by Shanti Ghosh. The exact year when each photograph has been shot isn't known. By and large, the above pictures were shot over five decades, from the late 1960s to early 2000s. Other pictures (of Shanti Ghosh) were photographed by the author.The body which was detected 160 feet under water have not been recovered yet because of its fragile state. According to NDRF officials, the body will start disintegrating if it is pulled too hard.

Three days after rescuers detected one body trapped in at the accident site of Ksan coal mine in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills, the family members of 17 ill fated coal miners have urged the rescuers to recover the bodies in whatever shape they are. The body which was detected 160 feet under water have not been recovered yet because of its fragile state. According to NDRF officials, the body will start disintegrating if it is pulled too hard.

"We want the bodies, if you cannot pull out the bodies, even a bone will do, for we need to perform their last rites," says Nurkamal Sheikh, uncle of Moinul Islam and Amir Hussain, two of the coal miners who were trapped in the illegal rat-hole mine on 13 December.

Manik Ali, brother of Moinul Islam, has been stationed at the accident site for the past four days in the hope that his brother's body may be found. "I go to the site early morning and spend my whole day helping with the rescue operation and talking to the officers there. At night, I and one of my friends Amin Uddin sleep in a Mosque as arranged by the SP (Superintendent of Police) Sir of Khlierhriat police station."

Amin Uddin, a 22 year-old coal miner had proved to be crucial in spotting the body inside the mine as he was one of the 17 miners who were involved in digging the 320-feet-deep rat-hole mine. Amin was fortunate as he had left for his home town in Assam's Hojai district six days before the tragic accident.

"Ten days ago, Manik Ali asked me to go with him to help the rescue team with the knowledge I had of the mine. I knew the directions of the mine that leads to the basin. I and others had dug the mine for months and I was also involved in taking out coal. But I came to my home on 7 December as I wanted to vote in the Panchayat Elections. Because of the elections I could escape the tragedy," says Amin.

With the help of the input of Amin, Sayeb Ali  another survivor  and some other coal miners involved in digging of the mine, the joint rescue team was able to detect the first body, 34 days after the accident.

"After the first 30 feets the vertical rat-hole forks into two directions, left and right. Both the paths go down up to 300-350 feet deep. I could guess where the workers might be trapped. We prepared a map with the rescue team and accordingly they could trace the body. There will be more bodies nearby" Amin says.

Although many family members of the trapped miners have been stationed at the site, no one has been able to identify the body that was spotted on Wednesday with the help of an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) at a depth of 160 ft. It was found in the left fork of the coal mine. The deceased person could be seen wearing a black pant and a red shirt. However, the body could not be pulled out as it has started to disintegrate.

Santosh Kumar Singh, Assistant Commandant of the 1st Battalion of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), who is currently heading the rescue team said, "Input from those who had worked in the coal mine are extremely important and has been of great help in detecting the body. We do not have a compass to detect the different routes where the bodies could be stuck. But with the inputs from those who knew the mine well, we could detect the body."

Singh said, at present, the rescue heads are holding meetings almost every day to decide on the future course of rescue operation. However, the district authorities have refused to reveal any more details.

Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma said on Friday, "There is a need to have regulated mining in Meghalaya with utmost care of safety of miners and environment. The ban on mining has affected the socio-economic condition of the people, who are dependent on coal, as well as caused a loss of revenue for the state."

Sangma on Friday held a meeting with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss the issue of coal mining in the state in presence of official from the Ministry of Home and Department of Mining, Government of Meghalaya. The Supreme Court has meanwhile stopped transportation of already extracted coal in the state.Protests against the Citizenship Amendment Bill showed no sign of waning in Assam on Saturday as agitators staged semi-clad protests in Tezpur, organised citizen's meeting in Guwahati and women held a rally in Tinsukia.

Guwahati: Protests against the Citizenship Amendment Bill showed no sign of waning in Assam on Saturday as agitators staged semi-clad protests in Tezpur, organised citizen's meeting in Guwahati and women held a rally in Tinsukia.

In Tezpur town of Sonitpur district in lower Assam, activists of the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) staged a semi-clad protest. Shirtless male members of the organisation demonstrated with messages painted on bare bodies as they held a massive rally through the main thoroughfares, demanding that the bill be scrapped immediately.

Protesting in front of the deputy commissioners office, the demonstrators raised slogans against Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and state Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

They also demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi explain to them how the people of Assam and the country benefited from demonetisation.

In Tinsukia district of upper Assam, women came together to take out a protest rally and also blocked National Highway-37 for some time.

In Guwahati, a citizens' protest meeting was organised, at which prominent personalities from the Assam Sahitya Sabha, AJYCP, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), among others, spoke against the bill and demanded that it be scrapped.

The controversial bill, passed in the Lok Sabha on 8 January, seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 years, which is the norm currently, even if they do not possess any document.The newly constituted Supreme Court collegium with the induction of Justice Arun Misra in it, upon the retirement of the then senior-most judge Justice Madan B Lokur, has rescinded the decision of the collegium taken on 12 December, 2018.

Supreme Court collegium  a body constituted by the judges for the judges and of the judges, is once again in news for all the wrong reasons. On 10 January, 2019, collegium comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, Justices AK Sikri, SA Bobde, NV Ramana and Arun Mishra decided to recommend name of Chief Justice of Karnataka Dinesh Maheshwari and Delhi High Court judge Sanjiv Khanna for their elevation to the Supreme Court. Both sitting and retired judges have expressed displeasure at the collegiums decision.

A two-page resolution of the collegium put out in public domain to this effect reveals whimsical and highly arbitrary functioning of the Supreme Court collegium though it has been so always, but has come out in black and white for the first time. All thanks to the then CJI Dipak Misra who had taken the decision of putting the collegium's recommendations in public domain.

Collegium's meeting on 12 December, 2018

Supreme Court collegium's decision signed off by the present collegium judges on 10 January, 2019 divulges that collegium had a meeting on 12 December, 2018 wherein certain decisions were taken. It reads The then collegium on 12th December, 2018 took certain decisions. However, the required consultation could not be undertaken and completed as the winter vacation of the Court intervened. By the time the Court re-opened, the composition of the collegium underwent a change. After extensive deliberations on 5th / 6th January, 2019, the newly constituted collegium deemed it appropriate to have a fresh look at the matter and also to consider the proposals in the light of the additional material that became available.

Collegium had recommended the names of Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Justice Rajendra Menon and Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court, Justice Pradeep Nandrajog for their elevation to the Supreme Court. Now, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Sanjiv Khanna have been sworn in as the judges in the Supreme Court superseding the judges who were to becomes judges in the apex court.

A section of media had also widely reported at that time that the Supreme Court collegium had recommended the names of Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Justice Rajendra Menon and Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court, Justice Pradeep Nandrajog for their elevation to the Supreme Court. However, the resolution of the collegium was not put on the Supreme Courts website, nor was it communicated to the Union Law Ministry.

It may be noted that at no point of time after 12 December, 2018, Supreme Court refuted the media reports on the collegium recommending names of Justices Menon and Nandrajog. In fact, sources close to the author with credible information have revealed that the resolution was indeed signed by the collegium consisting of CJI Gogoi, Justices Madan B Lokur, Sikri, Bobde and Ramana.

However, CJI Gogoi did not communicate the collegiums decision taken on 12 December, 2018 to the Union Law Minister for processing the file.

Rescinding of the previous decision

The newly constituted Supreme Court collegium with the induction of Justice Arun Misra in it, upon the retirement of the then senior-most judge Justice Madan B Lokur, has rescinded the decision of the collegium taken on 12 December, 2018. The collegium has instead recommended names of Justice Maheshwari and Justice Khanna for elevation to the apex court who are junior to Justices Menon and Nandrajog.

Incomplete Consultation and fresh material

Supreme Court collegium as constituted afresh after winter vacations says that the required consultation could not be undertaken and completed as the winter vacation of the court intervened. This explanation does not appeal at all. One fails to understand, how could the earlier collegium have signed the decision on 12 December, 2018 if the so called "required consultation could be undertaken and completed."

In addition, another flimsy ground is given to cancel the previous recommendation of the collegium that it got some "additional material" that required fresh consideration for the names of elevation to the Supreme Court. Nobody has been made aware of this "additional material". Moreover, the Supreme Court judges who are not part of the collegium too would not be knowing what was that "additional material" that compelled the collegium to revoke its earlier recommendation. The height of opaqueness in the functioning of the collegium is unmatched. With no transparency and accountability in its functioning, its every recommendation is a reflection of its whimsical and arbitrary functioning.

Complete opaque system of collegium

Supreme Court of India in State of UP versus. Raj Narain, (1975) 4 SCC 428, observed: "In a government of responsibility like ours, where all the agents of the public must be responsible for their conduct, there can but few secrets. The people of this country have a right to know every public act, everything, that is done in a public way, by their public functionaries. They are entitled to know the particulars of every public transaction in all its bearing. The right to know, which is derived from the concept of freedom of speech, though not absolute, is a factor which should make one wary, when secrecy is claimed for transactions which can, at any rate, have no repercussion on public security. To cover with veil secrecy the common routine business, is not in the interest of the public. Such secrecy can seldom be legitimately desired. It is generally desired for the purpose of parties and politics or personal self-interest or bureaucratic routine. The responsibility of officials to explain and to justify their acts is the chief safeguard against oppression and corruption."

The Supreme Court collegium is perhaps the only institution which appears to have shown utter contempt to its own observation in Raj Narain case. The institution of collegium, as of now, is beyond public scrutiny. Secrecy is the norm. Not only its functioning is opaque but even its decisions have at times intrigued one and all. Justice J Chelameswar (Retd.) in the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) verdict mentioned that the records related to collegiums proceedings are absolutely beyond the reach of any person including the judges of Supreme Court not lucky enough to be the Chief Justice of India.

There are no parameters available in public domain as to how the collegium assesses the suitability, integrity and merits of the judges sought to be elevated to the apex court. The entire process is whimsical, random and highly arbitrary.

Meanwhile, Justice Maheshwari has been accused of communicating with the government directly behind the back of the collegium. The allegation was made by none other than the then collegium judge Justice Chelameswar. However, the collegium suddenly found him a man of integrity to be appointed as judge of the Supreme Court. Moreover, a judge who openly said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was his role model was appointed few months back, as the judge of the Supreme Court on the recommendation of the collegium headed by the present CJI Gogoi. Therefore, it appears that collegium seems to have its own mysterious criteria of assessing "integrity" and "suitability" of a candidate to be elevated to the Apex Court or for that matter to the High Courts.

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 applies to the judiciary as well. In 2009, Justice S Ravindra Bhat of the Delhi High Court in his landmark verdict had ruled against the Supreme Court and had declared the office of the Chief Justice of India is a public authority under the Right to Information Act. He incidentally has been superseded by Justice Khanna.

Perhaps, Justice Bhat has been punished for pushing the limits of peoples right to know to embrace authorities which are bent on keeping their affairs under cover. The authorities have struck back in the only way they can deny him his well deserved elevation to the Supreme Court.

The attitude of the Supreme Court towards RTI Act, 2005, has been one of acute discomfort. Right to Information Act has been diluted by the Court through judicial interpretations. The stay order granted by the Supreme Court way back in 2009, against Delhi High Court judgment holding office of the Chief Justice of India subject to the RTI Act, is still in operation. Hence, the application of the RTI Act has been made wholly defunct when it comes to the Supreme Court that includes its collegium too.

The root of the problem is opaqueness in the functioning of the collegium. Unless collegium adopts a fair and transparent mechanism to recommend name of candidates for elevation, every decision is suspicious, capricious and arbitrary

Though the Supreme Court struck down the 99th Constitutional Amendment Act (commonly known as NJAC) that attempted to tinker with the collegium system, the majority judgment, however, opined that it needed to improve its functioning. However, court has not honoured its own words till date. There has not been any attempt on the part of the Supreme Court to rationalise the functioning of the collegium.

The root of the problem is opaqueness in the functioning of the collegium. Unless collegium adopts a fair and transparent mechanism to recommend name of candidates for elevation, every decision is suspicious, capricious and arbitrary. After all, transparency is an aspect of rationality and the collegium system is devoid of this very aspect.

This article first appeared on The Leaflet.inWith the detection of the first body inside the 320-feet-deep illegal rat-hole coal mine in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district, the families of the 15 workers trapped inside the quarry are prepared for the worst.

Shillong: With the detection of the first body inside the 320-feet-deep illegal rat-hole coal mine in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district, the families of the 15 workers trapped inside the quarry are prepared for the worst.

On Thursday, the Indian Navy's remotely operated vehicle (ROV) detected a body 160 feet away from the main shaft. However, the body has not been retrieved or identified yet.

The agonising wait of over a month to know the fate of the 15 lives raises many questions on the will and preparedness of the state and Central governments to deal with such mining accidents.

Initially, the Meghalaya government's response to the disaster was lethargic. Coal India Limited received a formal request from the Meghalaya government on 26 December  13 days after the tragedy  for certain equipment, including high-pressure pumps, and a team of experts to assist the rescuers at the mine.

It also took nearly 10 days for the pumps to reach the site. Despite the number of men and machines pressed into action to de-water the main shaft and nearby abandoned mines, the water level remains the same.

Even after India's best rescue agencies and experts from prestigious organisations involved in mining and mining-related operations converged at the mouth of the now ill-famous rat-hole mine, all that this month-long rescue operation could get out of the mine is crores of litres of water.

Talking about the stages of the botched-up rescue operation, mining expert and award-winning rescuer Jaswant Singh Gill opined that the approach of the operation was directionless, and there was no proper plan to de-water the mine.

"Pumping out water will not help until the rescuers find the source of water and plug the route," Gill said.

Gill had saved the lives of 65 miners in a similar incident back in 1989 when he was the chief mining engineer with Coal India at Raniganj in West Bengal.

On condition of anonymity, a sordar, or mine supervisor, in East Jaintia Hills said there are hundreds of coal mines in the area where the rescue operation is underway, and it would take more than 30 days to empty water from all these mines. He explained that it was tough to empty water from coal mines, and the government would require crores of rupees as all the mines are interconnected.

Meanwhile, Agnes Kharshiing, an activist who is has been advocating against illegal coal mining in Meghalaya, said rescue efforts had been delayed since the tragedy struck.

"In such an emergency situation that pertains to the safety of human lives, it seems the state government was not keen on an effective rescue operation right from the beginning, and it shows that there is no coordination at all," she said.

Agnes added that the Meghalaya government had failed the miners, and the absence of a blueprint of the illegal mine was an excuse. The government's failure to respond to Gill's advice to call for high-powered pumps from Coal India was one of the main reasons for the nearly-failed operation, the activist said.

Another activist, Angela Rangad, believes that the present operation to rescue the trapped miners is a face-saving attempt of the government.

More than 200 personnel from the navy, National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, Odisha fire and disaster management services, Coal India, Kirloskar Brothers Limited and Pune-based KSB  two companies that supply pumps  are at the site of the disaster.

Coal India, Kirloskar Brothers and KSB supplied around 20 high-power pumps, and the Indian Navy deployed a 15-member diving team that arrived with specialised diving equipment, including a re-compression chamber and ROVs capable of searching underwater. The team from Odisha, which brought around 10 25 horse power pumps, is assisting them.

Time to call off the operation?

It has been 36 days since the tragedy. Although intensive efforts to rescue the trapped miners are still on, authorities have made no headway yet.

Deputy Chief Minister of Meghalaya Prestone Tynsong said the government will seek the opinion of the experts who have been engaged in the rescue operation before deciding on calling it off. Tynsong said the district administration and the department concerned will consult the experts on ground zero to assess the situation in the next few days.

"They tried their best, and they are doing it even today. Let us see for how many more days (the operation will continue," he added.

Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Kyrmen Shylla said the decision to call off the operation would be discussed at a later stage.

A costly affair

A month after the tragedy, there are a number of experts camped at the site. These include Dr Dewashish Kumar, a senior scientist at Hyderabad-based Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-National Geophysical Research Institute, and his team; his colleague Dr Niraj Kumar, a scientist with CSIR's Gravity and Magnetic Group, and his team; Jayanti Gogoi of Ground Penetrating Radar; Vineet Upadhyay, who is part of the ROV team from Chennai-based LCAP; and Dr Sudhir Kumar, a scientist with the National Institute of Hydrology in Roorkee.

Authorities involved in the rescue operation said that so far, they had spent around Rs 4 to 5 crore.

"The expenditure involved is for the pipes, petrol and diesel to run the pumps and the generators, and logistics for the rescuers," said an official of the Meghalaya government who is involved in the operation.

The state government also has to pay for the stay of the experts coming to the accident site in Meghalaya.

A mine owner, L Suchiang, explained that de-watering a mine shaft is an expensive affair. "We don't usually pump out water from the mines on our own. All of us, the mine owners, would collaborate to de-water the mines. It normally cost us around Rs 1 crore, that too when it was a shallow mine," he said, adding that the expense would also involve paying for the four-wheelers, powerful pumps, cranes and labour.

CM assured to adhere to environmental, safety norms

Chief Minister pf Meghalaya Conrad K Sangma met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss the long-pending issue of illegal coal mining in the state. Claiming that the ban on mining had affected the socio-economic condition of the people, who are dependent on coal, as well as loss of revenue for the state, Sangma expressed his concerns on restarting regulated mining in Meghalaya.

Sangma assured Rajnath that the state will adhere to all the environmental and safety norms framed by the Government of India in permitting mining activities in Meghalaya.

The home minister has taken Sangma's request into consideration and is believed to have given a positive response, assuring the delegation from the North East that he would look into the matter.Four nuns from Kerala's Missionaries of Jesus congregation, who had participated in a protest against rape accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal, on Saturday wrote to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan

Four nuns from Kerala's Missionaries of Jesus congregation, who had participated in a protest against rape accused bishop Franco Mulakkal, on Saturday wrote to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan appealing to him to allow them to stay together in the same convent in Kuruvilangad, after they received transfer orders from a senior. The rape survivor also wrote a separate letter to Vijayan, asking him to intervene in the situation.

According to reports, the nuns claimed that they fear for their lives and are feeling threatened. They also said that Mulakkal is "very powerful" and "can sabotage" the case. They referred to the death of Father Kuriakose Kattuthara, a priest who had also testified against Mulakkal. Kattuhara had been found dead under mysterious circumstances in Jalandhar in October.

Currently, the nuns are living in the St Francis Mission home in Kuruvilangad, and have argued that they alone are each other's moral support at a time when many people are against them. As Firstpost reported earlier, the nuns have claimed that there might not be a direct threat to their life because there's too much media scrutiny, but they said they are being mentally harassed in such a way that they may be forced to commit suicide.

Last year, the nuns took to the streets after the Kerala Police delayed taking action on a complaint filed by the rape survivor in June 2018. She had accused the bishop of raping her 13 times at the mission home at Kuravilangad in Kottayam district between 2014 and 2016.

The four nuns who are currently living with the rape survivor at a mission home under the Missionaries of Jesus Congregation established by the Jalandhar diocese view the transfer order as part of a well-planned attempt to alienate the survivor and the select few who support, and also torpedo the case against the bishop who is now out on bail.

Sister Anupama, who was transferred to Jalandhar, told Firstpost, "We had launched the protest to ensure justice to our fellow nun. We will not move out of Kuravilangad until we achieve our objective."

The nuns say that they have not been feeling safe even at the Kuravilangad convent. Three nuns who were brought from Punjab to Kuravilangad in the wake of the protests have taken control of the convent, isolating them totally.

Sister Anupama claims they were enduring the harassment for the sake of the rape survivor. She fears that the mental trauma that the rape survivor is undergoing will worsen if they leave her at this stage. "Our company is the only relief to her now. We will not abandon our sister in such a precarious condition. We will continue to live at Kuravilangad at all costs until the case is settled, asserted Anupama. Church activists supporting the nuns also firmly believe that the actual intention behind the transfer is to torpedo the case.

With inputs from agenciesThe AAP government and the Delhi Police engaged in a blame game on Saturday after a court questioned the department for filing a chargesheet in the sedition case against former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and others without procuring the required sanction from authorities.

New Delhi: The AAP government and the Delhi Police engaged in a blame game on Saturday after a court questioned the department for filing a chargesheet in the sedition case against former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and others without procuring the required sanction from authorities.

An AAP government spokesperson said no file seeking any prosecution sanction in any JNU-related case had so far been brought to the notice of any Delhi minister. "If the Delhi Police are making any such claim, it is a complete lie and they are hiding something," he said.

However, a senior Delhi Police official said prosecution sanction is required at the stage of taking cognisance. He said that while filing the chargesheet, the investigating officer had mentioned that he has applied for sanction from the Delhi government.

"It was applied for on the same day," the spokesperson said.

Sources said the file for sanction was received by the home department and forwarded to the law department for necessary action.

Earlier on Saturday, a Delhi court questioned the police for filing a chargesheet against Kanhaiya and others in the sedition case without procuring the required sanction. "Why did you file (the chargesheet) without approval? You don't have a legal department," the court said.

On 14 January, the police filed the chargesheet against Kanhaiya and others, saying he had led a procession and supported seditious slogans raised on the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus during an event on 9 February, 2016.

They previously claimed before the court that Kanhaiya had raised anti-India slogans "to incite hatred and disaffection towards the government".

The police also charged former JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans during the event to mark the hanging of Parliament attack mastermind Afzal Guru.

The event had taken place despite the university administration cancelling the permission, following a complaint from ABVP, which had termed it "anti-national".

A case was registered on 11 February, 2016 under sections 124A and 120B of the IPC against unidentified persons at Vasant Kunj (North) Police Station, following complaints from BJP lawmaker Maheish Girri and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.Those clueless about caste will never know why scores of DBA students never make it to the finish line in higher education, and why Rohith Vemula took his own life three years ago.

A worry that hasnt left me since I began teaching seven years ago is that I am not good enough.

The beginning of that worry came from the fear of not being good enough for students who are good enough. It changed faces over the years: That girl writes beautifully, what can I possibly have to teach her? I dont know what this word means - let me just say something so they dont think I am stupid - If I am wrong, I will come back tomorrow and say coolly So I did some research and this word actually means this! Why is that girl with great English sulking? Maybe she already knows what I am talking about - let me throw in some big words so shell wake up - That boy is rolling his eyes - maybe I should talk less Ferrante, more Bukowski? Chuck this - I should just get married. I am useless.

From there, I am now in a place where I shamelessly share lived experiences with my students. When I read something that sends shivers down my arms, I take it to my class immediately. Today teaching has come to mean this  sharing my goose bumps with my students, hoping they catch those goose bumps too. These goose bumps are rare  when they come, life is clearer, meaning is unnecessary and living is love. They come when I read something and life starts making sense, they come when I struggle with writing a piece for weeks together and one morning suddenly, it finds a voice clear as water.

My own student life was a long stretch of a wasteland where I didnt read, didnt write, but fell in love, and that was my only achievement from 16 to 25  that I was able to manage a relationship well.

My real learning began when I started teaching  meaning it was too late. Because here I was teaching students who had written poetry when they were eight, small novels when they were 18, had read Shakespeare in school and knew how to spell Dostoevsky without looking constipated. I was a State Board gal, meaning we didnt read Julius Caesar (even as omnipresent as he was across CBSE and ICSE).

But so what if I didnt read Shakespeare? I read nice stories of young Chinese women named Tsu who took to weaving while they waited years together for husbands named Yohyoo to return. In class, a boy and I were made to read this story out loud and our classmates began teasing us together. I felt shy and the boy wept until his ears were red. Its probably the only reason why I remember the names and this may not be much but its enough that I also remember the weaving bit and that it came back to me with force. It means that if my mind is able to smile at some story I read when I was 12, I am not entirely useless.

But its not enough. At least for students who want more. They need to be challenged, pushed to extraordinary discoveries. Added to that was my shame that their parents and even great-grandparents would know a lot more than what I had to offer, and this scared me to bits.

***

One morning in 1998, I woke up panicking because it was Teachers Day and all the students in Class Five had to write a composition on S Radhakrishnan and bring it to school. I searched for the name in old textbooks; couldnt find him. Then I ran to my mother who had no clue too. She didnt know who he was. Dad had heard of him but didnt know enough for a composition. So, my mother suggested I go next-door and ask my friends grandfather. She had apparently heard him speak Good English.

I was embarrassed. His grand-daughter and I were nemesis. She hated me and I envied her. I didnt want to be caught going to her house for help but I had to, so I did. That morning, I sat down on the carpet in their veranda even as my friends grandfather closed his eyes and recited whatever he knew. I wrote in pencil so I could scribble fast, take it back home and then write it neatly in ink pen.

Needless to say, the school gave us cakes and sent us back home and my friends grandfathers S Radhakrishnan essay sat sadly in my bag.

***

This story was a big part of my growing fear  that not much had changed since that morning in 1998. That I would always have to go elsewhere to learn, to find answers  unlike most of my students who just have to reach inside, within their own bodies and find everything they need. And because my learning did not happen at home  and definitely not at the right time  I was convinced that it was too late to be rescued. And I would have given up long ago if it hadnt been for a few Dalit/OBC students who were struggling like I was; from them, I learnt to shut up and carry on.

These students are often first-generation learners in their family; the first ones to get a college education, the first ones to know English and just the fact that they are here  in an English-speaking classroom, working hard, invested in their own learning, swallowing knowledge in whatever way they are able to gather  gives me the energy to go back to the classroom every morning.

Despite reservation, despite borrowed social capital and so much more  there is something a lot more powerful that holds us back. And because so much power cannot sustain on its own and be visible at the same time: this power is invisible.

When invisible power lays its hands on you and pulls you back, you will turn around, scream back, become angry, mad, irrational and throw desks and benches like Pariyerum (From Mari Selvarajs Pariyerum Perumal) did. But to an outsider, you are a mad person who is hallucinating danger that nobody else can see. Thats why for a lot of clueless people like Manu Joseph in this piece, caste is a hallucination; it doesnt exist.

Also read  Pariyerum Perumal: Examining the anti-caste perspective of Mari Selvaraj's critically acclaimed film

And thats why they will never know why Pariyerum throws desks, why scores of DBA students never make it to the finish line in higher education, and why Rohith Vemula took his own life three years ago.

Although in Vemulas case, power was not only not invisible, it also had total institutional support.

***

In Pariyerum Perumal, on the first day of his college, Pariyerum is sitting in the classroom with his new notebook and pen, waiting to write. He is lost because he doesnt know what to write; the teacher is speaking in English. And through the film, he is lost and hitting real brick walls.

Its hilarious and ironic that in the same college there are students who are protesting, questioning, intellectualising  in short, doing activist things but refusing to see or be of help to Pariyerum in any real way. As a thumb rule, the first rule of such activism is to make insect-like, upper-caste noise. The second is to completely ignore the fact that caste is sitting in your own choices of food, your friendships, your classrooms, and your utter inability to take Dalit/OBC teachers and students seriously.

***

I teach Creative Writing to undergraduate students. Over the years it has become comical to teach a certain brand of upper-caste students who like to believe that learning to write can happen only once in life and that because they have already done it, there is absolutely nothing left for them to learn. This romantic notion of writing is borrowed from Rahul (Shah Rukh Khan in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai) who cutely declared that we live once, die once, fall in love once, and get married once. But in academia, this is tragedy. Tragic cuteness.

Because learning to write happens every day  no matter who you are and where you come from  thats why you are a writer.

In the department where I teach, we have had a long tradition of recognising and practising that good English doesnt always mean good writing. And when a student like the one in the previous paragraphs is made to confront this revelation, they take it badly. Its like telling a believer: Dude, there is no God.

When I talk about writing to my students, I do what I wish someone had done for me when I was 16: made me believe that I could write. But if a student comes to the classroom believing they dont need to be told that, everything else I do in the classroom becomes manipulation. Suspicion is the birth right of Savarnas. Especially if they have to learn how to write from a Dalit woman.

Seven years of standing in the classroom and feeling euphoric and defeated at the same time  I can now identify things like hunger and gratitude a lot more easily when I see it. For a DBA student, these two are inseparable from learning. For a Savarna student, these two are burdens.

At the writing workshop for Dalit women at AIDMAM (All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch, Delhi), they have taught me more than I have taught them. And when I talk to them about writing, I feel like I have come home. They sit like sponges in front of me, absorbing every little thing I am telling them  whether they are far away stories of Marquez and Etgar Keret, or someone close to us like our own Gogu Shyamala or Ambedkar. It feels like magic  that I speak to them in my broken Bollywood Hindi and they catch my words fiercely with open arms and full of love.

The women here are much older than I am. Their stories have the power to rock your insides. Despite this, and the years of experience they have had  they are still able to trust me. In this room, we are all untouchables of a different kind... we are superheroes from Marvel. There is no suspicion or manipulation in this classroom. They want to learn and I want to learn. No smirks, no hisses. Just that feeling of total aliveness in body and mind.

Its what we see in Pariyerums eyes when he discovers that there are books on law in Tamil. (I can now read and teach anyone else also.)

Its what we see in Rohiths words: I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan.

"I always wanted to be a writer."

When you give hunger food, it will swallow it whole with everything it has. Its what Rohith Vemula would have done if he had the time, the space, and the energy that millions of spoilt Savarna kids have.

Today, classroom spaces are under the threat of producing people like Nandini Krishnan, Raksha Kumar and Amba Azaad who will say things like honest opinions and get away with spewing entitlement.

I never thought Id say this but over the last couple of weeks, after having seen what people with caste privilege do  I am glad I am not Savarna.

To be Savarna is to believe that you are doing the world a favour when you write, that without your noble contribution, plenty of subaltern lives and minds would be empty. It is to be pissed off when you are told, Please dont teach us how to do our jobs, thanks very much but we can manage. We dont need your revolution

At this point, it is not entirely unfair to ask the question  is the Savarna student in the classroom more invested in learning or teaching? Nandini Krishnans Invisible Men set out as a way of learning but as many reviews have pointed out, it didnt want to learn; it wanted to summarise, analyse, explain, preach. This belief that she is a necessary medium between the speciality of trans-ness and laypeople is at the heart of why Invisible Men fails, as Malur writes in her review.

***

To be Dalit in urban academia today is to want to learn  from wherever whoever whenever. This learning neednt be an explosion of the mind; it can be that faint tingle in the back of your neck that you feel when you read something great. Its believing that you have been given the world when someone shows you a way to write, a way to live.

Its what I felt when I discovered that its not too late to learn how to read and write, that generations of DBA writers had taught themselves to read, to write and when they did  they all wrote powerfully.

Does this mean that no Savarna student is capable of learning? No. Does this mean that they shouldnt be ambitious and ask for more? No. It is not privilege to ask for more, it is privilege to assume that what is being offered to you is useless. You are not casteist for not liking a DBA teacher.

But I am curious  when you are perfectly willing and capable of ignoring the load of incompetent Savarna teachers everywhere, if their incompetence does not bother you, then why does mine bother you? Is it because when I teach, write, laugh, fart, and live, you feel as though I have taken something of yours and your fathers?

Editor's note: This article has been amended to remove a phrase that might have been construed as a personal attack.US president Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in late February on Pyongyang dismantling its nuclear and missile programmes, the White House has announced.

Washington: US president Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in late February on Pyongyang dismantling its nuclear and missile programmes, the White House has announced.

The two leaders had met on 12 June 2018 in Singapore for the first summit. The White House, however, did not identify a location for the second setting between the two leaders.

The announcement came after Trump met with North Korean envoy, Kim Yong Chol, on Friday for a discussion that included talk about Kim Jong-un's unfulfilled pledge to dismantle his country's nuclear weapons programmes.

President Trump sat down with Kim Yong Chol, a high-level official in North Korea's Communist government, in the Oval Office, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. "President Donald J Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and half, to discuss denuclearisation and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February.

"The president looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date. she said in a statement. The press secretary told reporters: "We continue to make progress, we continue to have conversations."

The US is going to continue to keep "pressure and sanctions" on North Korea until "we see fully and verifiable denuclearisation", she said.

"We had very good steps and very good faith from the North Koreans with the release of hostages and other moves and so we'll continue this conversation. And the President looks forward to it next in February," Sanders' told reporters.

The North Korean envoy arrived at the White House after a closed-door meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US special envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun at a hotel.

Following the White House meeting the North Korean official and a delegation he was leading were invited to lunch by Pompeo at Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.

The Secretary, Special Representative Biegun, and Vice Chairman Kim discussed efforts to make progress on the commitments President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un made at their summit in Singapore. At the conclusion of the Secretary's meeting with Vice Chairman Kim, the two sides held a productive first meeting at the working level, State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino said.

Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman said that in Singapore, Trump capitulated to Kim Jong-un  handing North Korea a propaganda coup in exchange for empty words. During a second summit, he must deliver concrete, verifiable commitments from Pyongyang, he demanded.

Last year in Singapore, Trump had described his first-ever historic meeting with Kim Jong-un as "really fantastic" and said they had agreed to "sign" an unspecified document after their "very positive" summit, aimed at normalising ties and complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

The US president had said he believed he and Kim Jong-un will "solve a big problem, a big dilemma" and that by working together, "we will get it taken care of".

The summit at Singapore's Sentosa island  the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader  had marked a turnaround of relations between Trump, 72, and Kim, 36, after a long-running exchange of threats and insults. The US insists it will accept nothing less than complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.Daily bulletin: Mamata banerjee's Opposition rally is likely to see participation from 20 national leaders; JNU sedition case to be taken by Delhi court today; day's top stories

Mamata Banerjee-led Opposition's 'United India Rally' scheduled for today

The stage is set for West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee's mega Opposition rally against the Narendra Modi government. The public meeting is scheduled to start around noon, and a joint press conference is likely to happen in the evening.

More than 20 national leaders, including former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, former Union ministers and BJP rebels Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha and Arun Shourie; three present chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal, Chandrababu Naidu and HD Kumaraswamy; and former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Akhilesh Yadav, and Gegong Apang will attend the meeting, according to reports.

With Bharatiya Janata Party's recent defeats in the Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Banerjee has raised the pitch to be united against the saffron party in the 2019 general election.

Large scale preparations have been made to ensure that it is a complete success. Besides the huge stages, 20 watch towers have been erected and 1,000 microphones and 30 LED screens put up so that the spectators can see and hear the speeches of the leaders clearly. Lakhs of TMC supporters and workers are expected to attend the rally and huge numbers of them from various corners of the state have already started pouring into the city. They have been put up in the outskirts of the city and in some auditoriums and stadiums.

Karnataka Congress shifts 75 MLAs to resort after four legislators defy whip, skip party meeting

Exposing chinks in the ruling coalition in Karnataka, four dissidents Friday skipped the Congress Legislature Party meeting that was called as a show of strength against an alleged bid by the BJP to dislodge the HD Kumaraswamy government. Following this, the Congress promptly shifted its legislators to a luxury resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru for an unspecified period.

The absence of four lawmakers posed no imminent threat to the seven-month old Congress-JDS government in the numbers game but suggested that all was not well within the Congress which is still wrestling with dissidence.

The Congress will issue notices to absentee MLAs Ramesh Jarkiholi, who was dropped as minister in the recent cabinet rejig and is said to be extremely unhappy over it, B Nagendra, Umesh Jadhav and Mahesh Kumatahalli, CLP leader Siddaramaiah told reporters after the meet.

Narendra Modi to visit Maharashtra and Gujarat

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Silvassa during his trip to Gujarat on Saturday. The prime minister will lay the foundation stone of Medical College in Dadra and Nagar Haveli's Sayli. The prime minister will also unveil the plaque to inaugurate various development projects in Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

He will also launch the 'm-Arogya' app to aid with door to door waste collection, segregation and processing of solid waste in Dadra and Nagar Haveli digitally. The prime minister will also release the IT policy of the Union Territory.

JNU sedition case to be taken up by Delhi court today

The sedition case against former JNU students Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, and eight others is likely to be taken up at the Patiala House court at 2 pm on Saturday, after it took cognisance of the case last week. The Delhi Police, which filed the chargesheet three years after the students were accused of raising anti-India slogans, has not got sanction from the Delhi government's law department, according to reports.

Microsoft wants to bring Cortana as an app or skill on other products and platforms

At a media event held in the US, Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella announced that the company no longer sees its digital assistant, Cortana as a competitor to Googles Assistant or Amazons Alexa. As reported by The Verge, Nadella explained that he wants Cortana to be a skill that will be available for anyone who subscribes to Microsoft 365, which is a combination of Windows 10 and Office subscriptions, currently available only for commercial customers.

Microsoft recently moved Cortana out of its AI research division and is now focussed on making its assistant available not just on Windows 10-powered laptops and desktops, but on other platforms and products as well. The software giant has already partnered with retail giant Amazon to enable Cortana and Alexa integration, letting both assistants summon one another.Recent developments suggest that state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) may have taken the largest hit of the massive fraud by fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi but other banks too were targeted by one of the biggest banking swindler in India.

New Delhi: Recent developments suggest that state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) may have taken the largest hit of the massive fraud by fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi but other banks too were targeted by one of the biggest banking swindler in India.

Four public sector banks, Dena, Corporation, Union Bank of India and Bank of India, are scrambling to recover money after lending branch reported fraud by Nirav Modi.

Mangalore-headquartered Corporation Banks Bandra branch in Mumbai started doing business with Nirav Modi-owned Firestar International Private Limited in August 2017. On 25 September 2017, the Corporation bank sent a communication through SWIFT to Israel Discount Bank of New York (IDB Bank) for extending the credit facility to the diamond consignment that was supposed to be delivered to another Nirav Modi company Firestar Diamond in US.

Now, technically, the banks having credit facility arrangements for international trade are required to honor the letters of credit. However, instead of genuine purchase and export, round-tripping of diamonds and jewels were consigned and credit facilities were obtained over them, which were eventually siphoned off. The investigation in Nirav scam had zeroed on several transactions where fake invoices were raised to camouflage the round-tripping as authentic deal. Even though the credit extended to his company was genuine, unlike the PNB loans where fraudulent Letters of Undertakings (LoUs) and Swift messages were used to create a sense of false security, this time the modus operandi was to back up the transactions through alleged fake invoices.

In September 2017, two credits were extended to Nirav's firms through IDB Bank on the 25 and 27th of the month. In October 2017, the frequency was increased to five credits on behalf of Firestar International and the last communication to extend credit facility was on 31 January 2018 just days before the PNB scam surfaced in the public domain. In total, the Corporation Bank was defrauded to the tune of more than Rs 39 Crore.

Union Bank of India (UBI) was defrauded by Firestar Diamond BVBA, Nirav Modi's Antwerp, Belgium based company. The consignment against which the credit was issued was meant for the same US based company with its office at 48th street in New York. UBI's London representative office, Union Bank of India (UK) Limited had entered into a facility agreement with Nirav's company in October 2014 and the bank, as the financer, had pledged an on demand invoice discounting facility. Although, the agreement signed by Nirav's younger brother Neeshal Modi had a clause for collection of receivable in case money remain unpaid on their due date, the bank lost more than Rs 22 crore in the fraud.

A certificate signed by Neeshal and Shailesh Anand Jha, Chief Manager Union Bank of India (UK) Limited said: "This is to declare and certify that Firestar Diamond BVBA has pledged all its receivables and claims in accordance with a pledge of receivables agreement to Union Bank of India (UK) Limited. Further to the pledge of receivables agreement, you are hereby instructed to make any and all payments owed by you to Firestar Diamond BVBA solely in accordance with any instructions you may receive of Union Bank of India (UK) Limited or its duly authorised agent."

The circumstances and agreement format make it amply clear that Nirav Modis intent since the beginning was to defraud the bank in the long run because drawer and drawee were the same set of individuals running various entities. Around the time Corporation Bank started issuing credit to Firestar International Limited, Bank of Indias mid-corporate branch at Bandra, Mumbai was also approached by the company. And since September 2017, Bank of India has been defrauded to the tune of Rs 6.8 Crore by Nirav. In this case too, the credits were raised for the same set of companies- Firestar International and Firestar Diamond, USA.

Bank of India's London branch was also targeted. Nirav Modi's Firestar Diamond FZE, based in Dubai, entered into an agreement with the bank's London branch in July 2012 under which the bank agreed to extend the secured overdraft facility. The Firestar Diamond FZE had agreed to pay the bank all financial indebtedness, which may be due or incurred to the bank under the facility. The overdraft limit as per the agreement was capped at $ 5 million and Firestar Diamond FZE was supposed to submit local and export sales invoices duly designated to be charged to the bank. However, despite a clause inserted in the agreement that insulated the bank, Nirav's company failed to pay back the loan. The clause had said: "The rights and remedies of the bank in respect of any misrepresentation or breach of warranty on the part of the borrower shall not be prejudiced or affected by any investigation of the borrower or any other person by or on behalf of the bank or without limitation any other act or matter which, but for this provision, would or might prejudice or affect any such rights or remedies."

Dena bank's Homji Street branch in Mumbai too was deceived using similar modus operandi of credits and seven invoices raised since October 2017 remain unpaid. The credit was extended to Firestar International but Nirav Modi fled with more than Rs.3.8 Crore.

A report by prepared by John J Carney, an examiner appointed by US bankruptcy court investigating three US-based jewellery companies owned by Nirav, sheds further light on his modus operandi. The report identified tens of millions of dollars of purported diamond sales by Nirav's companies to various shadow entities, where payment can be traced to proceeds from the alleged bank fraud. The examiners investigation confirmed that criminally derived proceeds from these sales flowed from India into the USA and in numerous instances were returned to Firestar in India or were used to fund the debtors operations, including making payments on loans taken from banks in the USA.

The report also indicated how banks might have been duped since the diamonds sold to or purchased from shadow entities were routinely shipped out the same day or within days after arrival, without ever being opened or inspected by employees to ascertain the contents of the packets. This practice was in complete contrast to shipments that were made to or received from non-shadow entities. The report had also indicated round-tripping of high-value diamonds raising questions over the invoices raised to the public sector banks. It had said that the same diamond seems to have been bought and sold multiple times at varying prices, often at wildly inflated prices, in order to create the appearance of millions of dollars in legitimate transactions and to purportedly facilitate the movement of funds.Mukesh Ambani's comments come amid a debate over balancing user protections with support for the fast booming digital economy.

Gandhinagar: Richest Indian Mukesh Ambani on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take steps to end increasing "data colonisation" by global corporations, saying Indians should own and control their own data.

Speaking at the 9th Vibrant Gujarat Summit here, Ambani drew parallels to Mahatma Gandhis movement against political colonisation to call for a revolution against data colonisation.

Data is the new oil (in the new world order). And data is the new wealth. Indias data must be controlled and owned by Indian people  and not by corporates, especially global corporations, the Reliance Industries chairman said.

The comments come amid a debate over balancing user protections with support for the fast booming digital economy. Foreign giants and hundreds of home-growth startups have flourished amid a dearth of regulation.

Today, we have to collectively launch a new movement against data colonisation. For India to succeed in this data-driven revolution, we will have to migrate the control and ownership of Indian data back to India - in other words, Indian wealth back to every Indian, he said. Honourable Prime Minister, I am sure you will make this one of the principal goals of your Digital India mission.

This is the second time within a month that Ambani has backed Indian authorities efforts to get companies to store data locally.

The government wants companies doing business in India to store all customer data locally. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in April 2018 ordered companies to store the the entire data relating to payment systems operated by them... in a system only in India so as to ensure unfettered supervisory access for better monitoring.

The government is considering a draft data security law that requires data centres for all companies be physically located within India. Also under consideration is an e-commerce policy that requires the storage of customer data in the country.

The draft data privacy bill recommends restrictions on the transfer and storage of information by global giants from Facebook to Google.

An e-commerce policy last month tightened rules to disallow foreign-owned online retailers from pushing merchants to sell exclusively through their platforms. It also barred them from selling products via companies in which they own equity.

Ambani, who had himself supercharged internet adoption by helping crash data prices with the launch of his telecom venture Jio in 2016, had last month in Mumbai stated that data colonisation is as bad as the previous forms of colonisation.

He is also planning to create an online-to-offline platform that would take on the likes of Amazon and Walmart, which are both betting big on Indias e-commerce market.

Speaking at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit on Friday, he outlined plans for his online shopping platform. Without giving timelines, he said Jio and Reliance Retail, which has over 9,000 stores across 6,500-plus towns in the country, will launch a unique new commerce platform to empower and enrich our 12 lakh small retailers and shopkeepers in Gujarat, who are part of over 3 crore community in India.

Ambani had previously spoken of leveraging the Jio network for launching some sort of an e-commerce venture. Jio has over 280 million subscribers with internet access.

(Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd)

To keep watching Indias No. 1 English Business News Channel  CNBC-TV18, call your Cable or DTH Operator and ask for the Colors Family Pack (inclusive of 24 channels), available for Rs. 35/- per month, or subscribe to the channel for Rs. 4/- per day.

To keep watching the Leader in Global Market & Business News  CNBC-TV18 Prime HD, call your Cable or DTH Operator and ask for the Colors Family HD Pack (inclusive of 25 channels), available for Rs. 50/- per month, or subscribe to the channel for Rs. 1/- per day.(Reuters) - Shares of Netflix Inc fell nearly 5 percent on Friday, as investors looked past its record subscriber numbers and instead focused on its lower-than-expected revenue forecast for the first quarter. The video streaming pioneer's shortfall in revenue expectations disappointed investors looking for a bigger payoff from the company's recent decision to raise prices as much as 18 percent for its U.S. customers

(Reuters) - Shares of Netflix Inc fell nearly 5 percent on Friday, as investors looked past its record subscriber numbers and instead focused on its lower-than-expected revenue forecast for the first quarter.

The video streaming pioneer's shortfall in revenue expectations disappointed investors looking for a bigger payoff from the company's recent decision to raise prices as much as 18 percent for its U.S. customers.

"Many investors we spoke with in recent days expected the price increase to flow through to improved free cash flow guide. That didn't happen," Bernstein analysts wrote in a note to clients.

Even so, Netflix remains the best performing FAANG stock this year with more than a 30 percent surge. Its shares recently traded at about 83 times expected earnings for the next 12 months. Stocks trading at high earnings multiples are more prone to sell off if growth targets are missed.

While investors seemed a bit disappointed, Wall Street analysts remained unfazed by the shortfall in the company's forecast.

At least 14 analysts raised their price targets, with RBC Capital Markets pushing its estimate by $30 to $480, well past the stock's median target of $410.

"Netflix offers a truly compelling value proposition with global appeal," analyst Mark Mahaney wrote in a note to clients.

"(The company) still only accounts for perhaps 10 percent of all TV viewing hours in the U.S. This is growth defined, in our view."

Netflix has seen blistering growth in the past few years and has bet heavily on international subscriber additions, spending billions of dollars to bolster its original content.

It boasts of award-winning shows such as "Stranger Things" and "Wild Wild Country" that has helped it fend off intensifying competition from Amazon.com's Prime Video service and Hulu. The company reported 139 million paid customers at the end of December.

But that growth has come at the cost of a rising debt pile - its long-term debt at the end of 2018 rose to a staggering $10.36 billion from $3.36 billion in 2016.

Wedbush analysts, however, said that if "Netflix is able to improve its free cash flow by $1 billion per year, it will see its debt peak at $13 billion, and will be debt free in 2026".

The company said it expects free cash flow in 2019 to be similar to 2018, but sees improvement each year thereafter.

"Judging by recent moves, the rest of the media industry is more than happy to sell Netflix whatever they want as long as the bid is high enough and the check clears," MoffettNathanson analysts said.

Shares of the company fell as much as 4.6 percent to $336.73 in early trading and were on track for its worst day in 2019.

(Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma and Jasmine I S in Bengaluru; Writing by Sweta Singh; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.SAO PAULO (Reuters) - ArcelorMittal SA , the world's largest steelmaker, is set to build its first-ever desalination unit in Brazil to handle unforeseen water needs at its plant in the eastern state of Espirito Santo, senior company executives said in an interview on Friday. The unit is aimed at lessening the company's dependence on state water utility company Cesan and avoiding production cuts at times of water crises as the state suffered in 2015 and 2016, said Jorge Ribeiro, president of operations at ArcelorMittal's Brazilian flat steel division. While the plant is ArcelorMittal's first, desalination facilities have already become fixtures at some rival steelmakers and multiple mining operations, which tend to be water-intensive

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - ArcelorMittal SA , the world's largest steelmaker, is set to build its first-ever desalination unit in Brazil to handle unforeseen water needs at its plant in the eastern state of Espirito Santo, senior company executives said in an interview on Friday.

The unit is aimed at lessening the company's dependence on state water utility company Cesan and avoiding production cuts at times of water crises as the state suffered in 2015 and 2016, said Jorge Ribeiro, president of operations at ArcelorMittal's Brazilian flat steel division.

While the plant is ArcelorMittal's first, desalination facilities have already become fixtures at some rival steelmakers and multiple mining operations, which tend to be water-intensive.

The company is in the final stages of picking a firm to build the plant, Ribeiro said, adding that the decision will likely be taken next month, with companies from India, the United States and Spain among those interested.

The planned investment is about 50 million reais ($13.32 million) and the project should start operating in two years, he said.

In an initial module, the plant will be capable of desalinating 500 cubic meters (132,100 gallons)of sea water per hour.

"It's a modular process, more modules can be added in the future," said Ribeiro.

ArcelorMittal Brazil's chief executive, Benjamin Baptista Filho, noted that during the 2015 water crisis in Espirito Santo, the company was told by the state government to reduce its consumption from Cesan by 30 percent.

"What we are doing is insurance, because if there is another rationing event, we can respond ... If there is another rationing, without the desalination, we would have to stop some of the production," said Filho.

According to Filho, the desalination plant will be the first in Brazil to operate exclusively with seawater. The plant will use reverse osmosis technology and consume electricity produced by the steel mill itself.

(Reporting by Alberto Alerigi Jr.; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.This News Release is Intended for Distribution in Canada Only and is not Intended for Distribution to United States Newswire Services or Dissemination in the United States

TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / January 18, 2019 / Pelangio Exploration Inc. (PX:TSX-V; OTC PINK:PGXPF) ("Pelangio" or the "Company")is pleased to announce that it has closed the final tranche of its non-brokered private placement announced November 12, 2018, December 18, 2018, and January 11, 2019 (the "Private Placement").

In this final tranche, the Company raised a total of $270,000 from the issuance of 1,800,000 units (the "Units") at a price of $0.15 per Unit. Each unit consists of one common share of the Company (a "Common Share") and one Common Share purchase warrant ("Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Common Share at a price of $0.20 for a period of two years from the initial closing date of the Private Placement.

The Company paid finder's fees to Zuri-Invest AG, Leede Jones Gable Inc., and PI Financial, each an arm's length finder, consisting in the aggregate of $15,600 in cash and 104,000 non-transferable warrants ("Finder Warrants"). Each Finder Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Common Share at a price of $0.20 for a period of two years from the initial closing date of the Private Placement.

All securities issued in this tranche of the Private Placement are subject to a statutory hold period expiring on May 19, 2019. The Company intends to use the proceeds from the Private Placement for exploration projects and for working capital purposes.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdictions in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Any offering made will be pursuant to available prospectus exemptions and restricted to persons to whom the securities may be sold in accordance with the laws of such jurisdictions, and by persons permitted to sell the securities in accordance with the laws of such jurisdictions.

About Pelangio

Pelangio acquires and explores large land packages in world-class gold belts in Canada and Ghana, West Africa. In Canada, the company is focusing on the 25 km2 Birch Lake Property located in the Red Lake Mining District and the Dalton Property located 1.5 km from the Hollinger mine in Timmins. In Ghana, the Company is focusing on two 100%- owned camp-sized properties: the 100 km2 Manfo Property, the site of seven recent near-surface gold discoveries, and the 284 km2 Obuasi Property, located 4 km on strike and adjacent to AngloGold Ashanti's prolific high-grade Obuasi Mine. Ghana is an English-speaking, common law jurisdiction that is consistently ranked amongst the most favourable mining jurisdictions in Africa.

For additional information, please visit our website at www.pelangio.com, or contact:

Ingrid Hibbard, President and CEO

Tel: 905-336-3828 / Toll-free: 1-877-746-1632 / Email: info@pelangio.com

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements herein may contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements or information appear in a number of places and can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate" or "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements and information include statements regarding the Private Placement generally, the proposed use of proceeds and the Company's exploration plans. With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, we have made numerous assumptions. Such forward-looking statements and information are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statement or information. Such risks include the ability of the Company to meet the conditions of closing, our ability to conduct our exploration programs as planned, changes in equity markets, share price volatility, volatility of global and local economic climate, gold price volatility, political developments in Ghana, increases in costs, exchange rate fluctuations, speculative nature of gold exploration and other risks involved in the gold exploration industry. See the Company's annual and quarterly financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for additional information on risks and uncertainties relating to the forward-looking statement and information. There can be no assurance that a forward-looking statement or information referenced herein will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements or information. Also, many of the factors are beyond the control of the Company. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. We undertake no obligation to reissue or update any forward-looking statements or information except as required by law. All forward-looking statements and information herein are qualified by this cautionary statement.

SOURCE: Pelangio Exploration Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/533096/Pelangio-Closes-Final-Tranche-of-750000-Private-PlacementKapil Sharma has been hitting headlines for a long time for one or the other reason. The actor-comedian is on cloud nine these days. Post his wedding with his long-time girlfriend Ginni Chatrath, the actor returned to the television with the second season of The Kapil Sharma Show. The show is appreciated by fans and it got a massive opening! It is one among the top 3 shows on the TRP chart. But according to media reports, Kapil has yet again landed in trouble!

Apparently, Kapil got into trouble by going off the script and making a distasteful comment on a woman. It is being said that the comedian told the lady in the audiences, "Agar papa saath mein nahi aaye hote, to main aur baatein karta."



Although this comment might not have offended the woman, The Kapil Sharma Show's crew members were not happy about Kapil's comment. According to India Today report, the crew members complained to Salman Khan about Kapil and told him that 'the comedian should not digress from the script and make comments that might land him in trouble'.

Kapil Sharma has a great sense of humour. He has been flirting with almost every lady on the sets, but never crossed the line. Although Kapil is trying his best to be in news for good reasons, one or the other negative report pop up.

Well, it has to be seen what Kapil or Salman has to say about the same!

Most Read: Lions Gold Awards Winners List: Harshad Chopda, Jennifer Winget, Surbhi Chandna & Others Bag AwardsKangana Gets Felicitated By The President Of India

The 'Manikarnika' actress looked regal in an ivory silk sari and was all smiles for the camera.

Prasoon Joshi Also Attended The Special Screening

CBFC chairperson Prasoon Joshi, who has also written Manikarnika was also a part of the special screening at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Kangana's team too shared this pictures and captioned them as, "The Queen and the honorable President of India along with eminent leaders, and dignitaries attend the historic screening of Manikarnika at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. A historic moment for the Hindi film industry."

The Controversy Around The Film

Recently, the film hit a controversy when the Karni Sena protested against the film raising objections to certain scenes of the film. However, the organisation has now said that it is not opposing the film.

When Kangana Went All Guns Blazing

Kangana had lashed out at Karni Sena and was quoted as saying, "Four historians have certified Manikarnika, we have got censor certificate as well, Karni Sena has been conveyed this but they are continuing to harass me if they don't stop then they should know I am also a Rajput and I will destroy each one of them."Ankita Lokhande is all set to make her debut in Bollywood with Manikarnika, which will release in just a few days. Manikarnika is a movie based on the life of warrior queen Jhansi Laxmibai, when she rebelled against the British Empire. Ankita will be essaying the role of Jhalkari Bai, a trusted aide of Laxmibai (played by Kangana Ranaut), who used to disguise herself as the queen and go into battles. Ankita had to pick up many skills to effectively portray the character on screen, and one of the skills she mastered was sword fighting. Ankita took to her Instgram to share a video of her sword fighting skills on display, and we must say, it is impressive. Check it out!

TV actress turned soon to be Bollywood actress, Ankita Lokhande posted a video of her sword fighting skills on display. Ankita ha to pick up the skill for her role in Manikarnika. Dressed in an orange kurta, black leggings and sporting a pair of snazzy sunglasses, Ankita looks like a cool urban warrior as she battles it out with a man who seems to be her trainer. Check out the video below!

Posting this video, Ankita captioned it, "And the war begins!!#5daystogo #jhalkaribai#manikarnikaon25thjan2019@manikarnikafilm #swordfightingskills" (sic). Manikarnika is set to have a Republic Day release on January 25th, 2019. What better day to pay a tribute to India's most famous warrior queen.

Talking about the similarities between herself and her character Jhalkari Bai, Ankita had told Mumbai Mirror in an interview, "There are some similarities between us. The moment I heard about Jhalkari Bai, I fell in love with her. She was a brave woman and so am I. In fact, I think every woman is brave. Jhalkari was never scared to take a stand and I too take my own decisions. For me, there is no grey. It's either black or white."

MOST READ: Hardik Pandya Snapped At The Airport; Sunny Leone & Hubby Are All Smiles At The Airport2020 was a year marked by hardships and challenges, but the Fauquier community has proven resilient. The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you for your continued support, wed like to offer all our subscribers -- new or returning --

4 WEEKS FREE DIGITAL AND PRINT ACCESS.

We understand the importance of working to keep our community strong and connected. As we move forward together into 2021, it will take commitment, communication, creativity, and a strong connection with those who are most affected by the stories we cover.

We are dedicated to providing the reliable, local journalism you have come to expect. We are committed to serving you with renewed energy and growing resources. Let the Fauquier Times be your community companion throughout 2021, and for many years to come.New net zero fund opens for Scottish island farmers

Grants of up to 150,000 are availableThe number of meat products recalled in the US due to contamination has increased by 83 percent since 2013, according to a consumer watchdog.

US PIRG's (Public Interest Research Group) new report 'How Safe is Our Food?' reveals how 'fundamental flaws' in the US food safety system have led to a jump in these recalls since 2013.

From E. coli-infected romaine lettuce to Salmonella-tainted beef, contaminated foods lead to illnesses that sicken as many as 1 in 6 Americans annually, according to the group.

In 2018, this epidemic helped spur major recalls, which caused stores and restaurants to throw away millions of pounds of meat and produce.

Key findings from this years report include an 83% increase in meat and poultry recalls that can cause serious health problems.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Class 1 recalls involve a health hazard situation in which there is a reasonable probability that eating the food will cause health problems or death. This includes recalls of beef for E. coli, poultry for Salmonella, and others.

'Archaic laws'

The report criticises 'archaic laws' which allows meat producers to sell contaminated products. According to the watchdog, it is currently legal to sell meat that tests positive for dangerous strains of Salmonella.

For example, a case study of the recent recall of 12 million pounds of beef sold by food processing company JBS could likely have been prevented if it this policy was changed.

The report also highlights how bacteria-contaminated water has been used on vegetables and produce. It uses an example of how irrigation water polluted by faecal matter from a nearby cattle feedlot likely contaminated romaine lettuce with E. coli in the spring of 2018.

Adam Garber, US PIRG Consumer Watchdog, said: The food we nourish our bodies with shouldnt pose a serious health risk. But systemic failures mean were often rolling the dice when we go grocery shopping or eat out.

Viveth Karthikeyan, US PIRG Consumer Watchdog Associate, added: These recalls are a warning to everyone that something is rotten in our fields and slaughterhouses. Government agencies need to make sure that the food that reaches peoples mouths wont make them sick.

UK-US standards

The report's release will likely fuel concern in the British farming industry as the UK looks to the US to strike up a free trade deal.

There are concerns that an influx of cheap and lower welfare meat could substantially disadvantage the industry.

Government Ministers have insisted that they will protect British agricultural standards in all trade negotiations, but US president Donald Trump's commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, has said that any post-Brexit deal with Washington would hinge on the UK scrapping the kind of standards operated under membership of the European Union.

Meanwhile, US pig producer group the National Pork Producers Council said that any trade agreement with the UK and US post-Brexit needs to be based on US production practices.

Chlorine washed chicken and hormone injected beef have been cited as examples of the food that could find its way onto the UK market following any deal.

'Europeanisation benefits'

Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, London, has warned that post-Brexit trade with the United States could result in imports of pork produced using growth promoters and gestation crates banned in this country.

Years of effort by UK NGOs, public and scientists pushed EU to better welfare. It must not be horse-traded away, said the professor on his twitter account after raising his concerns in a national newspaper interview.

The UK must defend europeanisation benefits. UK versus CAFO-farming USA will be unequal contest. Does Mr Fox know this? he said.

His concerns echo those of the National Pig Association (NPA), which says that, according to 2017 figures, US pig farmers can produce pork for 50 pence per kilogramme less than British producers because of the methods they use.

Our costs are vastly inflated by standards. Unlike US pig farmers, were not allowed to use hormones, ractopamine or keep pigs in stalls, said NPA vice chairman Rob Mutimer.WOOSTER, Ohio  One of the largest John Deere dealerships in northeast Ohio, and with a history dating back to 1937, has entered into a plan to sell its assets to Georgia-based Ag-Pro.

Ag-Pro has also purchased a second, and yet unconfirmed, Ohio John Deere dealership. Phone calls to Ag-Pros headquarters were not returned.

Shearer Equipment announced its intent to sell in a letter to customers Jan. 17, and in a Facebook post dated Jan. 18. The target date for the sale is Jan. 30.

According to the letter from Shearer Equipment, Shearer formed a new ownership team 14 years ago, with the goal of expanding the companys footprint in northeast Ohio, and several additional locations were purchased.

Shearer currently has over 160 employees with seven locations in Wooster, Mansfield, Mt. Vernon, Monroeville, Copley, Burbank and North Royalton, Ohio.

Tara Sheldon, spokesperson and marketing manager for Shearer, said the sale should provide a bright future for employees and John Deere customers in the area.

We were looking for growth and ways we can offer better pricing and new opportunities for our customers, she said. It wasnt a quick decision by any means.

Sheldon said she expects the new owners to meet with existing employees soon, but expects the same employees will continue with the company.

Theyre (Ag-Pro) definitely looking forward to moving forward with our employees, Sheldon said.

History

Shearer was started in 1937 by Clark Shearer and his son, Gerald Shearer, in Wooster, near the Wayne County Fairgrounds as an Oliver Dealer. In 1969, Shearer Farm Equipment was incorporated as Shearer Farm Implement Inc.

The John Deere location in Wooster has been located north of Wooster, along state Route 3, since 1989.

Other sales

Ag-Pro Ohio acquired Ohio-based JD Equipment in an announcement made in December.

The acquisition of JD Equipment was Ag-Pros first expansion in the Midwest, and at the time, Ag-Pro had sales of over $800 million.

Ag-Pro has been aggressively adding dealerships and stores, and its stable of 71 locations is up from just 49 in October 2017. The company, which says it is the largest privately held John Deere dealer in the U.S., has primarily been focused in the South, with locations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas.

(Below is the letter from Shearer Equipment, with the announcement.)by Sean Fitzpatrick | Fri, Jan 18th 11:48pm EST

Kenneth Faried has been waived by the Brooklyn Nets on Friday and he will sign with the Houston Rockets once he clears waivers. Faried will have to wait until Monday to join the Rockets who could use him with Clint Capela out. (Adrian Wojnarowski on Twitter)by Alex Murray | Heat Correspondent | Fri, Jan 18th 6:59pm EST

Dewayne Dedmon (ankle) is listed as probable for the Hawks' matchup with the Celtics on Saturday. (Brad Rowland on Twitter)

Fantasy Impact:

Dedmon missed about a week but it looks like he'll make his return against Boston. Alex Len has been great in this recent absence for Dedmon, but Dedmon will most likely slide back into the starting lineup, bumping Omari Spellman out and taking a big hack out of Len's value. Dedmon could be dealt soon but he's still worth owning in most leagues.HELENA -- A loose-knit, ever-evolving group of Republican legislators is making waves and causing headaches in the 66th Montana Legislature.

They call themselves the solutions caucus.

Its not a traditional caucus by any means: No barriers to entry, no specified leaders, nor a roster. Simply put, its a group of legislators who meet informally and talk about issues. Theyve branded themselves as independent, realistic thinkers in an environment that often feels deeply divided along party lines.

One such lawmaker is Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, who used the phrase radically transparent to describe the groups sharing of ideas with anyone whos interested. That also means creating an atmosphere in which people are willing to offer up new concepts, Jones said.

You cant get people to speak freely and engage in the sausage-making if theyre not comfortable, Jones said.

Solutions caucus members have been planning for this session for months now, Jones said. Members call each other on the phone, eat meals together or gather casually to talk and debate. Jones said freshman legislators are encouraged to ask members for help on policy questions. He estimated the caucus to be comprised of about 25 representatives and 10 senators.

In the first week, this group proved to have significant pull.

The debate over the rules governing the House of Representatives was the first big fight of the session. Democrats wanted the rules amended to allow for a simple majority, 51 votes, to blast a bill stalled in committee to the full House for debate. A previous rule had dictated a 60-vote majority for a blast motion. In the weeks leading up to this session, it looked like Democrats had struck a deal with moderate Republicans to change the rules.

However, the night before the session began, moderates and conservatives found a compromise: a 58-vote majority for blast motions. The bill passed 88-to-12 on day four.

Great Falls Republican Rep. Ed Buttrey, another key member of the solutions caucus and also the House Rules Committee, said these compromises are important to keep business moving.

We come up with some dang good stuff. We just saw that in the rules, and we solve problems because weve allowed people have different viewpoints, Buttrey said.

Some legislators, however, have mixed feelings about compromises like these.

Rep. Derek Skees, R-Kalispell, said if a lawmaker is voted into office as Republican on the ballot, he or she should vote with party leadership. Skees, who holds a party leadership position as a majority whip, said he worries that when he goes home and talks with constituents, theyll question the integrity of the Republican party if legislators break on votes.

It makes a component of our service a lie to our constituents, Skees said.

Skees said national GOP guidelines and state party leadership define how Republicans should vote. There is a little leniency -- he said the party should agree and vote together on 80 percent of issues. He said he hopes Republicans can unify this session.

I would suggest thats the way that a caucus should behave, Skees said.

Speaker of the House, Greg Hertz, R-Polson, declined to be interviewed for this story and would only say that conservatives have a unified Republican caucus. The party has held control of Montanas lawmaking body for the past four sessions, since 2011.

Republican Rep. Nancy Ballance from Hamilton is a senior legislator and chair of the Appropriations Committee. Shes a newer member to the solutions caucus, after having sided with conservatives in 2015 and voting against the bill that expanded Medicaid.

This session, Ballance said, she wants to work with the caucus to share expertise and create bills that are realistic for a Republican-majority Legislature and a Democratic governor to pass. She disagreed with Skees assertion that Republicans need to vote on party lines under the leadership orders, saying thats not the way it is at all.

In fact, one of the basic things that draws people to Republicanism is that independent thinking, Ballance said.

Montanas Legislature meets for only 90 days every other year, and legislators have term limits, which Ballance said motivates the group to keep each other grounded in what can be accomplished and not focus on the things that represent the world as you wish it was.

Past sessions have shown a clear division in the conservative party, and moderates and Democrats working together is not new. In 2013, Skees had served a term in the House and suggested at a GOP state convention the party should rate candidates on how well they uphold GOP principles, and cut off support for those who dont meet standards.

The next election cycle, a number of conservatives targeted some moderate Republicans in opposition, including Jones. At the time, Jones called moderates in his party responsible Republicans. He was nevertheless re-elected.

In 2015, Buttrey carried the Medicaid expansion bill with bipartisan support in the House: All 41 Democrats and 13 Republicans voted in favor of the state-federal partnership program. Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock commended the effort while Republican leaders worked throughout the session to oppose the measure.

The rift appeared to close temporarily in 2017 when Republicans united during the special session to find consensus on a budget.

However, with Montana Medicaid expansions expiration date nearing, its being billed by both sides as one of this years top issues and it could again divide the party. With roughly 95,000 Montanans enrolled in the program, lawmakers have polarized concerns.

Republicans have said Montana cannot afford to subsidize program enrollment this size in the future, and that the program needs more recipient oversight. Democrats and Gov. Bullock are touting the economic and social benefits of Medicaid, and announced their own bill last week to re-authorize expansion called the Keep Montana Healthy Act.

Democrats are in the minority and know they need to reach across the aisle to pass expansion, which Minority House Leader Casey Schreiner, D-Great Falls, said is a paramount goal for the party.

We know everything we want to pass has to have bipartisan support, Schreiner said.

The most winning method for Democrats to find a majority in the past has been to team up with moderate Republicans, many of whom make up the solutions caucus.

Senate Minority Leader Jon Sesso, D-Butte, and House Minority Leader Casey Schreiner, D-Great Falls, oppose to the use of the word solutions by the Republican group, saying its what Democrats strive for, as well. But in the grand scheme of things, Sesso said the name issue isnt a big deal.

I have joined hands with the solutions caucus to forge solutions, to address problems constituents bring to us, Sesso said.

Members of the moderate group made clear they arent trying to alienate themselves from their party, but that the goal is to engage in conversations with all who are interested in exploring compromise and listening to a variety of viewpoints.

The only requirement is to come with an open mind, ready to work, and instead of defending the status quo, to say, hey, can we make it better? Buttrey said. Sometimes you can and sometimes you cant.

Shaylee Ragar is a reporter with the UM Community News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism and the Montana Newspaper Association. Shaylee can be reached at shaylee.ragar@umontana.edu.Ferrellgas Partners, L.P. distributes and sells propane and related equipment and supplies. The company transports propane to propane distribution locations, tanks on customers' premises, or to portable propane tanks delivered to retailers. It conducts its portable tank exchange operations under the Blue Rhino brand name through a network of independent and partnership-owned distribution outlets. The company's propane is primarily used for space heating, water heating, cooking, outdoor cooking using gas grills, crop drying, irrigation, weed control, and other propane fueled appliances; as an engine fuel for combustion engine vehicles and forklifts; and as a heating or energy source in manufacturing and drying processes. It serves residential, industrial/commercial, portable tank exchange, agricultural, wholesale, and other customers in the United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. As of July 31, 2018, it operated 72 service centers and 859 propane distribution locations. The company is also involved in the sale of refined fuels; provision of common carrier services; and retail sale of propane appliances and related parts and fittings, as well as other retail propane related services and consumer products. Ferrellgas Partners, L.P. was founded in 1939 and is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas.

Read MoreWall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI Switzerland 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 MSCI Switzerland ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.Did you know that Martin Luther King Jr. spent time in Connecticut in the 1940s? As Fairfield schools are closed on Monday to remember his legacy, here is a look back on his experiences in Simsbury, and how they may have shaped his life.

According to the Simsbury Historical Society, when King was just 15 years old he spent a summer in the town working for the Cullman Brothers in their tobacco fields. The year was 1944, and King had been admitted to Morehouse College. He came to Connecticut with a group of Morehouse students prior to the start of his freshman year. He returned again in 1947, the summer before his senior year.

At that time, according to the Historical Society, Simsbury was a rural community dependent on agriculture (dairy, corn and shade tobacco). ... The importation of labor from the South for seasonal agricultural work had a long history in Connecticut. The partnership between Morehouse College and the Cullman Bros. had benefits for each. Cullman was assured of a workforce that was motivated  their salaries went towards tuition at Morehouse and their board  and the chance to travel to a non-segregated area of the United States was attractive to college students  their train fare was paid if they stayed until the harvest was complete. Morehouse students had an opportunity to travel and interact with a community that allowed more personal freedom than most had ever encountered before.

The students worked long days and lived in either a boarding house or a camp. Dinner was served and the lights were out at 10pm. During that summer, King was known as Michael, his birth name.

Kings travels to the North made a big impact on him, particularly when he experienced his first non-segregated venues. He wrote in his autobiography: After that summer in Connecticut, it was a bitter feeling going back to segregation. It was hard to understand why I could ride wherever I pleased on the train from New York to Washington and then had to change to a Jim Crow [racially restricted] car at the nations capital in order to continue the trip to Atlanta. He also wrote to his mother about eating in one of the finest restaurants in Hartford and how he was able to go to the same church as whites.

The Simsbury Historical Society notes that the impact of a non-segregated Simsbury and Hartford made a lasting impression on the young man. The return was difficult for him and has been described by him as pivotal in laying the groundwork for his later civil rights work. In his autobiography he wrote: The first time I was seated behind a curtain in a dining car, I felt as if the curtain had been dropped on my selfhood. I could never adjust to the separate waiting rooms, separate eating places, separate rest rooms, partly because the separate was always unequal, and partly because the very idea of separation did something to my sense of dignity and self respect.

About the Simsbury Historical Society

The Simsbury Historical Society is a non-profit educational corporation founded in 1911 through a bequest of Abbie Sexton Barber to begin a Historical Room in Simsbury. Our first and current permanent home was acquired in 1962, through the gift of the Phelps family homestead. The Simsbury Historical Society collections now include more than one dozen structures, significant regional artifacts and important period and thematic collections.Since 1959, I have taken part in what I consider a valuable asset: the close family relationships that Texas and Mexico share. Traveling across the border was not much different from crossing Commerce Street.

Therefore, a wall is inappropriate and offensive to those of us who enjoy this and want to continue for the sake of the family ties that exist now, and have since the Spanish settled here and mingled with the indigenous Native Americans.

This area of the United States is heavily populated with both Anglo and Mexican people, and, of course, those who are a mixture of both. The word Anglo refers to the German, French, English and other Europeans who settled here as the U.S. expanded its territory.

I value that there are people on both sides of the Rio Grande with family on both sides. In effect, there is no border when it comes to maintaining those familial relations. To forcefully separate us from Mexico would be shameful and cruel. The present relationship is almost like having a dual citizenship, and for 200 years now, people have enjoyed that.

If we have to protect our border and guard against invasion, then another method needs to be employed, not a wall. And we cannot be accused of being racist because we are all of the same blood line, one way or another.

The other border states have more or less the same problem. And residents there would also resent not being able to visit family in Mexico or vice versa.

William Montjoye

Lady Liberty says

Re: U.S. not responsible, Your Turn, Monday:

Mike Gonzales stated that the kids who passed away while in custody of Border Patrol did not belong here, claiming both parents and kids were criminals and subject to deportation.

Thousands are fleeing the violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. They are pursuing a journey full of perils to seek asylum in America, hoping for a better life, a new beginning, a chance to give their remaining sons and daughters the chance to pursue a better future through hard work and education.

The Statue of Liberty, which has stood since 1886 on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, shreds and debunks your letter, Mike. You do not decide who comes to America and on what condition. This beautiful lady accepts the poor and destitute of the world, immigrants seeking freedom and a better future.

My family on both sides came from Mexico looking for better a way of life. Sure, they had very little education, but they had what all immigrants throughout the world have: hope.

We are no different from the millions of immigrants who came through Ellis Island. Our skin is brown, and we are proud of who we are. There is no drop-off of what we can do and accomplish. If there is one thing I would tell Mike it is: Give them a chance; somebody gave you one.

Pedro Martinez, Jourdanton

Same old, same old

I noticed Julian Castro on Face the Nation spouting the same old lines you hear from Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders and all the rest of their ilk  open borders, bad Donald Trump, universal health care for all. Nothing ever changes with these people, just the faces blabbing.

Jack Hardy, Adkins

In the middle

While I am thrilled to see our own Julian Castro in what will surely be a crowded field of Democratic contenders, I have a heartfelt plea for him: Please dont be another candidate who forces me out of the center.

Dont try to please a Democratic base that wants immediate single-payer insurance, doubled minimum wage and no international military presence, and dont be a candidate who wont listen to a word any Republican has to say. Let Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren handle that end of the spectrum.

I want to vote for a sane, bipartisan, solution-oriented candidate who knows how to work with disparate points of view. Someone who is an adult while the other kids are screaming and fighting over toys.

Now, if we could just convince Will Hurd to oppose Donald Trump, those of us in the center would really have something to think about!

Susan Hull

Still getting paid

If our federally elected legislators and president can stop the governments funding, why do they continue receiving their paychecks? They are federal employees as well.

Rebecca baker

Selfless act

Re: 2 Texans in Congress file bills to stop own pay in shutdowns Metro, Jan. 11:

Did John Cornyn actually do something selfless? Im stunned, but relieved, to see that he co-sponsored the No Work, No Pay Act with Steve Daines, R-Mont. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, even wants to amend the Constitution, withholding salaries for all of Congress throughout any full or partial government shutdown  now and in the future.

Will Congress have the courage to pass a veto-proof bill?

Patricia A. Ireland

Flip of the wrist

Dear drivers on San Antonio highways:

If you are traversing a road and decide to veer off on a different road  maybe one marked with an exit sign  this would be a good time to use a turn signal.

This lets other drivers know your intentions. It is a courtesy and can help prevent accidents. The same thing can be done if you are driving down the highway and need to be in a different lane. It only takes a simple flip of the wrist to activate the turn signal, and the good news is, all cars are equipped with this device!

I would like to encourage all drivers who may not be familiar with this process to give it a try! And I thank you.

Linda LarsonA number of months ago, I listened to a podcast that has haunted me since  because it captures something essential about our culture warrior moment. It was from NPRs always excellent Invisibilia series and it was about a woman named Emily.

Emily was a member of the hard-core punk music scene in Richmond, Virginia. One day, when she was nearly 30, she was in a van with her best friend, who was part of a prominent band. They were heading to a gig in Florida when the venue called to cancel their appearance. A woman had accused Emilys best friend of sending her an unwelcome sexually explicit photograph.

His bandmates immediately dismissed her allegations. But inwardly Emily seethed. Upon returning to Richmond, she wrote a Facebook post denouncing her best friend as an abuser. I disown everything he has done. I do not think its OK  I believe women.

The post worked. He ended up leaving the band and disappeared from the punk scene. Emily heard rumors that hed been fired from his job, kicked out of his apartment, had moved to a new city and was not doing well. Emily never spoke with him again.

Meanwhile, she was fronting her own band. But in October 2016, she, too, got called out. In high school, roughly a decade before, someone had posted a nude photo of a female student. Emily replied with an emoji making fun of the girl. This was part of a wider pattern of her high school cyberbullying.

A post denouncing Emily also went viral. She, too, was the object of nationwide group hate. She was banned from the punk scene. She didnt leave the house for what felt like months. Her friends dropped her. She was scared, traumatized and alone. She tried to vanish.

Its entirely my life, she told Invisibilia tearfully. Like, this is everything to me. And its all just, like, done and over.

But she accepted the legitimacy of the call-out process. If she was called out it must mean she deserved to be rendered into a nonperson: I dont know what to think of myself other than, like, I am so sorry. And I do feel like a monster.

The guy who called out Emily is named Herbert. He told Invisibilia that calling her out gave him a rush of pleasure, like an orgasm. He was asked if he cared about the pain Emily endured. No, I dont care, he replied. I dont care because its obviously something you deserve, and its something thats been coming.

When the interviewer, Hanna Rosin, showed skepticism, he revealed that he, too, was a victim. His father beat him throughout his childhood.

In this small story, you see how zealotry is often fueled by people working out their psychological wounds. You see that when denunciation is done through social media, you can destroy people without even knowing them. Theres no personal connection that allows apology and forgiveness.

You also see how once you adopt a binary tribal mentality  us/them, punk/non-punk, victim/abuser  youve immediately depersonalized everything. Youve reduced complex human beings to simple good versus evil. Suddenly theres no distinction between R. Kelly and a high school girl sending a mean emoji.

The podcast shows what its like to live amid a terrifying call-out culture, a vengeful game of moral one-upsmanship in which social annihilation can come any second.

Im older, so all sorts of historical alarm bells were going off  the way students denounced and effectively murdered their elders for incorrect thought during Maos Cultural Revolution and in Stalins Russia.

The Invisibilia episode implicitly suggests that call-outs are how humanity moves forward. Society enforces norms by murdering the bullies who break them. When systems are broken, vigilante justice may be rough justice, but it gets the job done.

But, really? Do we really think cycles of cruelty do more to advance civilization than cycles of wisdom and empathy? Id say civilization moves forward when we embrace rule of law, not when we abandon it. Id say we no longer gather in coliseums to watch people get eaten by lions because clergy members, philosophers and artists have made us less tolerant of cruelty, not more tolerant.

The problem with the pseudo-realism of the call-out culture is that it is so naive. Once you adopt binary thinking in which people are categorized as good or evil, once you give random people the power to destroy lives without any process, you have taken a step toward the Rwandan genocide.

Even the quest for justice can turn into barbarism if it is not infused with a quality of mercy, an awareness of human frailty and a path to redemption. The crust of civilization is thinner than you think.The FBI took it upon itself to determine whether the president of the United States is a threat to national security.

No one had ever before thought this was an appropriate role for the FBI, a subordinate agency in the executive branch, but Donald Trump isnt the only one in Washington trampling norms.

The New York Times reported the astonishing news. Counterintelligence investigators, the paper writes, had to consider whether the presidents own actions constituted a possible threat to national security.

U.S. presidents over the decades have made many foolhardy decisions that have undermined our security; never before have they been deemed a fit subject for an FBI investigation.

The proximate cause for the probe into Trump was his firing of FBI Director James Comey, which the FBI considered both a potential crime and a national security matter because it might shut down the investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election.

Even if they were shocked by the treatment of Comey, top FBI officials should have been able to quickly ascertain that the Russia investigation continued unimpeded  indeed, it is still ongoing today.

If the Times reporting is correct, the FBI grew more suspicious of Trumps conduct based on comments that have been widely misunderstood. Among the bill of particulars:

During the campaign, he urged the Russians to hack Hillary Clintons email. Trump clearly meant this line sardonically, though.

The GOP platform allegedly was softened toward Russia. Never mind that, as Byron York of the Washington Examiner has demonstrated, this didnt actually happen.

And in his Lester Holt interview after the Comey firing, Trump said that this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. The president added, its worth noting, that he knew firing Comey probably extended the investigation rather than shortened it.

More legitimately, agents were disturbed by Trumps continual praise for Vladimir Putin. These comments were blameworthy, but not a federal offense.

The Times implies that foreign policy played into the FBI internal debate whether to investigate Trump. Many involved in the case, the paper reports, viewed Russia as the chief threat to American democratic values. That is an entirely defensible and perhaps correct view (China is the other candidate for the dubious distinction). But there is no warrant for the FBI letting it influence the momentous decision whether to investigate a president of the United States.

As part of the executive branch, the FBI should brush up on the powers of the chief executive. The president gets to fire subordinate executive branch officials. He gets to meet with and talk to foreign leaders. He gets to make policy toward foreign nations. Especially important to the current investigation, he gets to say foolish, ill-informed and destructive things.

If the president wants to tilt toward Russia (not that Trump has, except in his words), he can. If he wants to butter up Chinas dictatorial president during high-stakes trade negotiations, he can. If he wants to announce a precipitous withdrawal from Syria and make it slightly less precipitous in a fog of confusion, he can.

And the FBI should have nothing to say about it.

The Times story is another sign that we have forgotten the role of our respective branches of government. It is Congress that exists to check and investigate the president, not the FBI. Congress can inveigh against his foreign policy and constrain his options. It can build a case for not re-electing him and perhaps impeach him. These are all actions to be undertaken out in the open by politically accountable players, so the public can make informed judgments about them.

Perhaps the Times report is exaggerated, or the FBI has serious evidence of a criminally corrupt quid pro quo between Trump and Moscow that theres no public indication of yet.

Otherwise, the Times story is a damning account of an offense against our political order  and not by Donald Trump.

comments.lowry@nationalreview.comOver the past month, West Side voters have been gearing up for what promised to be an intense clash between incumbent Councilwoman Ana Sandoval and former state Rep. Diana Arevalo.

Arevalo, a dogged political warrior, had been laying the foundation for a District 7 council challenge, meeting with potential donors to gauge their interest, receiving the tentative support of the San Antonio Police Officers Association and even discussing the race with Bexar County Commissioner Paul Elizondo, a friend and mentor, in the days before his passing Dec. 27.

The Sandoval camp braced for a fight.

Well, it wont be happening. Over the past week, as Arevalo got close to declaring her candidacy, she had second thoughts. By the end of the week, she decided not to run. By all accounts, it was an emotional decision for her.

Arevalo, 37, concluded that she needed a break from politics after a trying 18 months that saw her lose her beloved father (who passed away while Arevalo was consumed with the Legislatures 2017 special session); drop a heartbreakingly close Democratic primary re-election bid to Trey Martinez Fischer (the man she had succeeded in Texas House District 116); watch her then-fiance/current husband battle cancer; and grapple with the death of Elizondo (only three weeks after she co-hosted a holiday party with him at St. Lukes Parish Hall).

She cleaned out her office at the state Capitol last month at the same time she was planning her wedding. (She and her husband got married only a week ago.)

While I was approached by many community leaders to run for City Council District 7, I feel that at this time that I would like to focus on my family, Arevalo said in a statement provided exclusively to the San Antonio Express-News.

A Sandoval/Arevalo contest probably would have been the most intriguing council district race during this election cycle, and it would have been a hard one to handicap.

In her first term, Sandoval, 44, has emerged as a rising star on the council and a point person for Mayor Ron Nirenberg on a variety of issues, ranging from housing affordability to climate change to transportation.

An engineer and urban planner with degrees from MIT, Harvard and Stanford, Sandoval was a classmate and friend of Julian and Joaquin Castro at Jefferson High School, where she was the 1993 class valedictorian. The grassroots fervor and unabashed idealism that accompanied her 2017 upset victory over District 7 incumbent Cris Medina stirred memories of Julian Castros first campaign, a 2001 win in District 7 when he was fresh out of law school.

Just this week, the council unanimously passed a resolution, crafted by Sandoval, calling for new guidelines to improve public participation in San Antonio.

Under most scenarios, Sandovals re-election would be a slam-dunk certainty. But Arevalos interest in the race threw conventional wisdom into spasms of doubt.

Arevalo has demonstrated, both in her 2016 election to the Texas House and her near victory last year, that she is a formidable retail politician who delights in mingling with constituents. She is the former secretary of the Bexar County Democratic Party and maintains the support of former party Chairman Manuel Medinas cadre of loyalists.

When the community calls on you to take action, you have to respect their concerns and seriously consider their wishes, Arevalo said, by way of explaining her interest in the District 7 seat.

So, while I did spend a great deal of time listening to their worries about the future, I feel that our current councilwoman, who is only in her first term, is capable of addressing the challenges that our neighborhoods and families are facing.

Sandoval and Arevalo have a complicated history.

Arevalo encouraged Sandoval to seek the District 7 seat in 2017 and introduced her to some community leaders in the district. A rift developed, however, when Arevalo urged Sandoval to hire former interim Councilwoman Leticia Cantu as her campaign manager and Sandoval declined.

The dynamic became more fraught last year when Sandovals boyfriend, environmental activist Mario Bravo, challenged Arevalos hero, Elizondo, in the race for county commissioner.

While Arevalo wont be on a local ballot this year, its hard to imagine her staying out of politics for long. Elizondos appointed successor, Justin Rodriguez, will have to defend his Commissioners Court seat next year, and Arevalos name could come up as a possible challenger.

I will always look for opportunities to serve our community, whether in elected office or by becoming more involved in my church or neighborhood association, Arevalo said. For now, and at least today, I am focused truly on enjoying this new chapter of life.

Gilbert Garcia is a columnist covering the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470All along the border, immigration agents are watching.

With underground sensors and infrared cameras. With enormous radar blimps 15,000 feet in the air. With drones and 160-foot radar towers. With gunboats on the Rio Grande and surveillance aircraft above. And with around-the-clock patrols by thousands of Border Patrol agents, Customs officers and Texas state troopers.

The U.S.-Mexico border is the most fortified in the Americas and one of the most militarized in the world. Federal and state taxpayers have poured billions of dollars into equipment and manpower to search for unauthorized immigrants, terrorists and drug traffickers.

President Donald Trump has partially shut down the government over his demand to build a wall. Yet there are already 654 miles of wall, fencing and others barriers along the 1,994-mile border.

The security presence is so intense that many who live and do business in the borderlands view it as a massive infringement on their privacy.

And it's happening despite a long decline in the number of arrests for unauthorized entry, from almost 1.7 million in 2000 to 396,579 last year.

Trump's wall "has been sold as a very simplistic answer to a very complex problem," said Gil Kerlikowske, former commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol in the Obama administration.

Immigration policy scholars and former CBP officials say the idea of a wall is based on faulty assumptions about who is crossing into the United States and why, and about what might deter them.

For instance, most of the drugs smuggled into the country enter through legal ports of entry  not through the borderlands in between.

"The greatest danger in terms of what's coming across the border is drugs, not people," said U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, who called for enhanced technology at the international bridges. "But a wall across rural and remote parts of the border  those aren't the drug routes that cartels are using by and large to get drugs into the United States."

Despite claims by the Trump administration, only a handful of suspected terrorists entering the country have come through the U.S.-Mexico border.

"The border is incredibly secure. And you can count that in a lot of ways," said Kerlikowske, who is now a fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute. "Not only compared to other borders (around the world) but compared to what it was."

In 2000, the U.S had 9,212 Border Patrol agents. By the 2017 fiscal year, the number had more than doubled, to 19,437.

Most of them patrol the Southern border: 8,580 agents in 2000 and 16,605 in 2017.

Efforts to fortify the boundary go back decades. Border fencing was erected under Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Congress passed a budget last fall with $1.6 billion toward a new wall  the same as the previous fiscal year  but Trump blocked funding for Homeland Security and other departments over his demand for $5.7 billion for the wall.

Some 33 miles of fencing that already was funded is set to go up in the Rio Grande Valley this year. A segment of wall will cut through sensitive habitats, including the National Butterfly Center and Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park. In Hidalgo County, a planned 25-mile wall of concrete and steel will be built on Rio Grande levees as high as 36 feet tall.

RELATED: Border wall will not hinder access to National Butterfly Center, agency says

These three projects have already been funded and will proceed whether or not Trump prevails in his showdown with Congress over additional wall funding.

Kerlikowske said no single strategy, equipment or method of deterrence should be applied unilaterally across the border. "If you've seen one part of the of border  you've seen one part of the border," he said.

Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, who was the Border Patrol chief in McAllen and El Paso, said he advocated for fencing in El Paso in the early 1990s because it made sense in that urban environment.

"So somebody jumps ahead of common sense and says, 'Well, if fencing worked there, why don't we fence the whole border?' And that's totally ludicrous," said Reyes, who worked in the Border Patrol for 26 years.

In a proposal Saturday to reopen the shuttered government agencies in exchange for more border funding, Trump appeared to edge closer to that view, saying the wall would be steel barriers in high-priority locations.

But the president's concept of the wall has shifted before, from the "big beautiful wall" largely made of concrete of his 2016 campaign, to "beautiful steel slats" similar to the bollards already in place in many locations.

Federal spending on Customs and Border Protection rose from $10 billion in 2010 to $12 billion in 2017. The administration sought $14 billion this year and has also asked Congress for money to hire 5,000 more Border Patrol agents and 10,000 immigration and customs agents.

Presidents and governors have launched a succession of colorfully named initiatives to strengthen border security. In 2006, Bush deployed U.S. National Guard troops to support Border Patrol and Custom agents and build segments of wall in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. It was called Operation Jump Start.

The same year, Texas' Operation Linebacker gave money to border sheriffs in the Rio Grande Valley for equipment and personnel.

In the early 1990s, the Border Patrol's Operation Rio Grande paid for watchtowers, spotlights and boat ramps.

Texas has spent more than $2 billion on border security since 2006, and there's no talk of turning off the spigot. In the last legislative session, Texas approved $800 million for border security, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has said he wants that same amount this year.

Most of the money goes to the Texas Department of Public Safety, which had 5,000 cameras, 13 boats, 8 helicopters, 3 planes and more than 1,000 troopers at the border as of October.

It's difficult to pin down the full scope of federal and state spending. There's no comprehensive list of all the surveillance equipment and technology in use at the border. Nevertheless, indications are that the mounting layers of security have had an effect.

Apprehensions of people crossing the southern border illegally are down 75 percent from their peak in 2000. And the composition of those crossing the border has changed. Once, they were mostly adult men from Mexico looking for work. Now, they are predominantly families and children from Central America seeking asylum in the United States.

The uptick in asylum claims has resulted in long wait times at legal ports of entry and further burdened the nation's already overloaded immigration courts and detention centers.

Some lawmakers and activists argue that more humane and efficient system for processing asylum applications should take precedence over beefing up border security.

"There's nothing that can't be managed if you get out of the way and give the Border Patrol the resources they need, and you work to solve the humanitarian problem so it doesn't become a Border Patrol problem," Reyes said.

He said there is a crisis  "And it's sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."

'Fighting the last war'

When he was the sector chief in the 1990s, Reyes advocated for a wall in El Paso. But first, he lined the border with agents in an operation known as Hold the Line.

Beginning Sept. 19, 1993, agents systematically turned back illegal immigrants who had crossed the Rio Grande to work in the city.

The focus on "deterrence instead of apprehension" fundamentally changed the agency's strategy and became a model for border security, he said.

After 26 years in the Border Patrol, Reyes was elected to the House in 1996 and continued to push for more law enforcement along the border. He helped secure funding for fencing between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, which sits across the Rio Grande in Mexico.

Today, immigration experts largely agree that limited fencing in urban areas can be effective.

Existing portions of US/Mexico border fence This map shows the precise boundaries for the existing portions of US/Mexico border fence as collected by The Center for Investigative Reporting. Source: Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and OpenStreetMap contributors

Reyes said only about 10 percent of the border should have a barrier. Fencing and barriers now cover about a third of the Southwest border, much of which he says "doesn't make sense."

"I've worked the border, I know the border, and it's ridiculous and ludicrous for the president of the United States to try to sell such a load of crap to the American people," Reyes said.

But Brandon Judd, head of the National Border Patrol Council, the agency's union, praised Trump for demanding more wall construction.

"I can personally tell you, from the work I've done on the Southwest border, that walls actually work," he said.

A man on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande looks across to U.S. Border Patrol agents at a known smuggling point near Peitas, Texas, Thursday, July 19, 2018. A man on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande looks across to U.S. Border Patrol agents at a known smuggling point near Peitas, Texas, Thursday, July 19, 2018. Photo: JERRY LARA, San Antonio Express-News Photo: JERRY LARA, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close Far from open, the U.S.-Mexico border is the most fortified in the Americas 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

Over a decade ago, when most of the immigrants crossing the border were Mexican men seeking jobs building some fencing was reasonable, said Randy Capps, director of research for U.S. programs at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.

But it doesn't make sense now that many immigrants are fleeing violence or poverty in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador and looking for legal entry into the U.S.

"The wall is like fighting the last war," Capps said. "The idea that the wall or fence is a solution to a border security problem is not true. It's the right solution in some places and it's not the right solution in others."

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, recently crafted his own proposal for border security. It calls for more funding for security  $6.7 billion  but none of it for a physical barrier.

Most of the money would go to help Mexico fortify its border with Guatemala and to help the State Department engage with Central American countries over immigration.

The rest of the $6.7 billion would pay for more immigration judges, improved health care and oversight at detention facilities. Cuellar's plan also envisions 1,000 more CBP officers and more high-tech equipment.

The 48 ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, where most illegal drug seizures are made, have become a focus of attention.

Cuellar said the ports are underfunded, and McAllen Mayor Jim Darling said the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge, owned by his city, has equipment dating to the 1960s that hinders the ability of Customs officers to do their jobs.

CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan has said the ports need billions of dollars of improvements, and that CBP needs thousands of additional inspectors.

Darling, a proponent of enhanced border security, sees the idea of a wall spanning the length of the border as impractical.

When Trump was in McAllen recently to make his case for the wall, he tried to gauge whether Darling was on his side.

"He said, 'Are you a good Republican?'" said Darling,. "And I said 'Sometimes.'"

The asylum crisis

After a decade with no child deaths in CBP custody, two 7-and 8-year-old migrant children died in government care in December.

Overall, six adult immigrants died in government custody in the 2018 fiscal year.

RELATED: Widespread medical exams of migrant children launched after second death

Detention centers are overcrowded, and the process for asylum claims can take several years. The number of families coming to the border has soared, and CBP officials have acknowledged that their facilities are inadequate.

The courts are clogged with hundreds of thousands of cases.

Many border experts argue that the real crisis is the plight of the asylum-seekers.

"Technology, a wall, more Border Patrol agents  none of that is going to help with that problem," said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who specializes in U.S. immigration policy.

"You could put all sorts of technology in, and make it completely impenetrable, and all these asylum-seekers would keep coming because they would go to the ports," Capps said. "They're not trying to go over or around the wall, or through the desert, they're just trying to present themselves and claim asylum."

Kerlikowske said the country doesn't have a security problem, but a "management problem."

He said the asylum-seekers aren't running from the U.S. government  they're running toward it, seeking refuge.

"If you think about the cost, of what it costs right now to secure the border... I think a lot of that could be better spent improving the quality of life in those three Central American countries," Kerlikowske said.

'One culture, one people'

The concentration of security is evident along Highway 83 as it snakes through the Rio Grande Valley, following the river.

Rising thousands of feet just east of Rio Grande City is a huge, white airship using radar to detect low-flying aircraft within a 200-mile range. The Southwest border has six of them, costing CBP tens of millions of dollars a year.

Maria Parra, 64, is used to seeing them.

"There's a lot of technology around us," she said in Spanish, in a parking lot just outside the Rio Grande City port of entry. "With pure technology, well used, we don't need a wall."

East of Rio Grande City, steel bollard fencing rises at varying heights. Border Patrol vehicles are parked nearly every half-mile along Military Road, a dusty lane south of the city of La Joya that runs parallel to the wall. Communication towers topped with cameras are scattered throughout the river valley.

Parra crosses into Mexico once or twice a month to visit her daughter in Saltillo, about a four-hour drive.

A legal resident of the United States, she said she loves Mexico and America, and the border region has a bit of both.

"We're one culture here, one people. We have the same traditions and we have ties, through family or through work," she said. "You can't just separate us with a wall."

sfosterfrau@express-news.net | @SilviaElenaFFA Bexar County jury took just 25 minutes Friday afternoon to sentence a San Antonio man to 70 years in prison for killing his ex-girlfriend.

Antonio Nunez Jr., 63, had been on trial in Felony Impact Court since Tuesday. After closing arguments, jurors deliberated for about five hours Friday before finding him guilty in the death of Lisa Carter, 47, on Aug. 17, 2015.

The punishment phase began shortly after the verdict was read. Nunez will have to serve at least 30 years before hes eligible for parole.

Details of the gruesome case emerged during testimony. Carters body was set on fire and then dumped on a Southeast Bexar County road.

In closing arguments, prosecutors Leo Gonzalez and Melissa Saenz told the jury that Nunez had motive to kill his ex-girlfriend because Carter had accused Nunez of assault, and he spent three months in jail before the case was dismissed.

She had a case on him, he was in jail for 90 days, and then shes dead right after he gets out of jail, Gonzalez told the panel. He was the only person who was a threat to her.

Gonzalez asked the jury to dismiss the argument put forth by defense attorney John Economidy that a member of the Aryan Brotherhood who lived near where the body was found likely killed Carter, whom he called a snitch because she was an informant for the Bexar County Sheriffs Office.

The prosecutor also reminded the panel that Nunez admitted to relatives that he killed his ex-girlfriend, doused her body with gasoline and set her afire.

Economidy argued throughout the trial that his client didnt kill his ex-girlfriend and accused the Sheriffs Office of coercing those relatives into making their statements by implying they could lose their children if they didnt. He asked that they find Nunez not guilty.

On Thursday, before prosecutors and the defense rested their case, jurors saw a video of the defendant telling Sheriffs Detective John Perez that he didnt kill Carter. Perez also told the jury Nunezs sister told authorities her brother admitted to the killing and burning of Carters remains.

But Nunez insisted his sister didnt understand what he meant.

I didnt kill her, he told Perez on the video. I threw her out. I killed her by throwing her out to the wolves.

Nunez went on to explain that he viewed the wolves as people she ratted out to authorities.

Around 4:45 a.m., Aug. 17, 2015, Bexar County Sheriffs Office deputies were called to the 8200 block of South W.W. White Road in Southeast Bexar County, where a man on his way to work saw a burning body on the side of the road.

The case went cold until Dec. 19, 2016, when authorities positively identified the woman as Carter by using DNA testing and a partial fingerprint and jewelry recovered from the body at the scene.

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file

This week, the getaway driver in the killing of a San Antonio police officer who was gunned down as he chased a couple on a robbery spree through three counties was sentenced Monday in Atascosa County to life in prison.

Jenevieve Ramos, 33, drove the car while her boyfriend fired a 9 mm Ruger semi-automatic pistol out of the back window of the Mitsubishi Lancer that killed Officer Robert Deckard. She was the last person to be sentenced in the killing.The owners of a San Marcos apartment complex where someone intentionally set a catastrophic fire that killed five people and critically injured a sixth victim are seeking to construct two new apartment buildings on the property.

Officials with San Marcos Green Investors, the company that owns Iconic Village Apartments, presented plans to the San Marcos Zoning Board of Adjustments to put up two three-story buildings containing a total of 60 apartments at 222 Ramsay St. Those units will replace 60 apartments destroyed by the fire in July.

The company also is considering building a memorial on the grounds to honor the victims and will seek input from their families and friends, as well as current and past tenants, said William Bill Bennett, one of the owners.

After a public hearing Thursday, the zoning board allowed the companys plans to proceed. The company can now apply for city permits for the project.

On ExpressNews.com: That minute of escape was the fastest, most terrifying experience of my entire life  a close look at the deadly San Marcos fire

The development must comply with the citys building and fire codes, including a requirement to install fire sprinklers in newly constructed buildings.

San Marcos Green Investors also is exploring the installation of fire sprinklers in the older apartment buildings still standing at Iconic Village, Bennett said Friday. Each individual apartment was recently equipped with fire extinguishers, he said.

Now on ExpressNews.com: A fire killed Zachary Sutterfield's friends. A leap saved his life. After 23 surgeries, his recovery is grueling but with significant victories.

Were working with the San Marcos Fire Department and the city on trying to come up with the best solutions we can to further upgrade the buildings for fire prevention and life safety, Bennett said.

Bennett said his company has no plans to sell the property. He hopes the two new apartment buildings will open by fall 2020.

On ExpressNews.com: Victims families stunned that deadly San Marcos apartment fire was deliberate

Lindsay Philippus, a former Iconic Village resident who attended Thursdays public hearing, said she was distraught but not surprised that the zoning board approved the plans. She said she appreciated the idea of a memorial honoring the victims.

Investigators havent made any arrests in the case. They said someone intentionally set the fire but havent revealed where or how it was ignited.

Bennett urged anyone with information about the fire to call the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives tip line at 1-888-ATF-TIPS.

This is a tragedy and were devastated by it, he said.

On ExpressNews.com: Parents describe brutal aftermath of San Marcos fire that critically injured their son and killed his friends

The ATF is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for tips leading to the identification or arrest of whoever started the fire.

The blaze erupted at 4:27 a.m. July 20 as most residents were asleep. The inferno killed five people in several apartments on the second floor of Building 500  Dru Estes, 20, of San Antonio; Belinda Moats, 21, of Big Wells; Haley Michele Frizzell, 19, of San Angelo; David Angel Ortiz, 21, of Pasadena, and James Phillip Miranda, 23, of Mount Pleasant.

Another victim, Zachary Sutterfield, 20, of San Angelo, escaped the blaze, but suffered third-degree burns to 70 percent of his body and a traumatic brain injury. He remains hospitalized in San Antonio.

Peggy OHare is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pohare@express-news.net | Twitter: @Peggy_OHareSan Antonios Cowboys Dancehall has avoided the foreclosure auction block  at least for the time being.

Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ronald King this week signed an order giving the Northeast Side honky-tonks owner more time to line up a buyer.

Last week, lead lender Crossroads 2004 asked for court approval to foreclose on the venue as early as next month. Crossroads accused Arlington-based partnership Cowboys Far West, which owns the property, of failing to make payments on a $5 million loan.

On ExpressNews.com: Lender wants approval to foreclose on Cowboys Dancehall

The parties, though, announced in court Monday that they had reached an agreement that allows Crossroads to post the property for the April 2 foreclosure auction if Cowboys Far West has not closed on a sale by March 1. The property is at 3030 NE Loop 410.

Attorneys for Cowboys Far West and Crossroads didnt respond to requests for comment before deadline.

Cowboys Far West said in a court filing that its in serious negotiations with a prospective purchaser.

Cowboys Far West filed for bankruptcy in August to prevent Crossroads from foreclosing at the time. It marked the second time in a little more than two years that the partnership had sought refuge in bankruptcy to thwart a foreclosure.

During the first bankruptcy, Crossroads acquired the $5 million note and went along with a reorganization plan that required Cowboys Far West to make monthly payments.

Cowboys Far West, though, defaulted before the ink dried on the order, Crossroads said in a Jan. 2 court filing. The partnership has remained perpetually in default and paid Crossroads nothing.

In October, after the second bankruptcy filing, Cowboys Far West disclosed it had hired Texas Heritage Brokers Inc. to sell the property. The listing price has been $12 million.

On ExpressNews.com: Cowboys Dancehall put up for sale

King, the bankruptcy judge, admonished Cowboys Far West at a Nov. 8 hearing that it had to have a signed sale contract by the end of 2018.

The end of the year has come and gone. There is no signed contract, Crossroads said in its court filing asking for approval to proceed with a foreclosure. Cowboys Dancehall is collateral on the lenders loan. The monthly installments on the loan exceed $58,500.

Under the agreed order that King signed Thursday, Cowboys Far West must have entered into an earnest money contract to sell the property by Feb. 1. The price must at least equal what is owed to various creditors. The partnerships three largest creditors are owed more than $8.2 million.

If it meets that condition, Cowboys Far West must have a court order approving the sale by March 1. If a deal has not closed by that date, then Crossroads can post the property for foreclosure.

The venue earned almost $20,500 on nearly $482,000 on revenue in November, the most recently reported financial results. By comparison, it lost more than $83,000 on about $364,000 in revenue in October.

Meanwhile, the Texas Department of Transportation has indicated it wants to condemn part of the Cowboys Dancehall parking lot for a right of way for proposed Interstate 35 improvements. The state has offered about $600,000 for the property, which represents about a fifth of the 16.6-acre site.

Patrick Danner is a San Antonio-based staff writer covering banking and civil courts. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPDUPDATE: The US Dollar (USD) started Mondays session on the back foot against the Euro (EUR) despite dismal German PPI figures (-0.4%), with the EUR to USD exchange rate retreating from the vicinity of a two-week low.

EUR/USD was last seen trading at $1.13763.

For the US Dollar (USD), US-China trade relations remain a primary driver of risk appetite and in turn investor sentiment towards the Greenback alongside continued political upheaval in the US with the government shutdown, now the longest in history, continuing despite efforts to reach a compromise between President Donald Trump and the Democrat-majority lower house.

Trading sessions over the course of the week saw a slight firming of the US Dollar (USD) which kicked off the year on a broadly soft footing as financial markets re-priced lower expectations for Fed-induced stimulus, who themselves downgraded rate hike forecasts to two, if any.

In particular, the Euro (EUR), which rebounded considerably against the Greenback over recent weeks, came under pressure with the Euro US Dollar (EUR/USD) exchange rate slumping 0.47% over the week.

While the jury remains out on whether or not Fed rates will see any hikes, the economic pinch of the continued partial federal government shutdown looks to be making its effects felt as the record-long shutdown rolls into its 28th day.

The shutdown commenced late in December as President Donald Trump clashed with Democratic representatives over their refusal to approve a request for $5.7B to build a US-Mexico border wall. With neither side willing to budge, appropriations for a number of US Federal departments lapsed, furloughing 800,000 federal workers.

While the impact of 800,000 less consumers spending at normal levels has a very direct negative drag on the consumer spending front, economists have highlighted the impact of individuals and businesses alike being unable to claim tax refunds, dampening both retail and business sales expectations.

As it stands, consumer spending accounts for around two thirds of economic activity in the U.S with both ends of the spectrum expected to be feeling the squeeze. Reuters economic correspondent, Howard Schneider, wrote warning signs span the income spectrum - from the well-heeled possibly cutting back after their stocks got hammered last fall, to the poor potentially getting squeezed if a lingering government shutdown delays food assistance payments.

The fiscal impact of the shutdown on the overall US economy is expected to be marginal, however, commentary from the Chicago Federal Reserve President, Charles Evans, highlighted the potential for a lingering impact on consumers and businesses alike worsening the longer the shutdown continues, Consumers get risk averse and start hunkering down, businesses start planning to do less, and you start magnifying these effects.

Speaking at a retail trade show in New York, former Federal Reserve chair, Janet Yellen, commented that "We are hearing anecdotal reports about businesses beginning to put investment plans on hold because of (economic) uncertainty.

While long-term, any negative impact is expected to be smoothed out of trends as figures rebound in the aftermath, KPMG chief economist, Constance Hunter told reporters that should the government shutdown continue into February, we will shave a couple of percentage points from first quarter (gross domestic product).

December, before the US government shutdown even came into effect, saw prominent US retailers such as Macys and Nordstrom report challenging conditions with regards to retail spending which given the current shutdown should only deteriorate further. Commenting on the impact, chief US economist at TS Lombard, Steven Blitz, told reporters Some of it will come back in the second quarter, but there will be some industries that will see lasting damage such as restaurant operators.

For businesses, the continued political uncertainty is expected to dampen the appeal of US companies for investment. Commenting on the likely impact, Senator Kevin Cramer, commented Every day the government isnt servicing industry is a day lost forever All of it creates uncertainty that is always an enemy to investment.

While the US Dollar (USD) firmed partially during the weeks sessions, the prospect of the government shutdown continuing looms large for investors as President Donald Trump reaffirmed his commitment to securing border wall funding earlier in the week. The longer the situation continues, the worse the US Dollar (USD) impact will be as consumers are forced to focus on core essentials - versus a tax-rebate spurred spending splurge usually associated with this time of year - leading to an overall drag on consumer-prompted contributions to US economic growth.The Pound New Zealand Dollar (GBP/NZD) exchange rate fell towards the end of last week as UK retail sales  excluding fuel  for December plummeted -1.3%, dampening investors confidence in the UK economy amidst continuing Brexit uncertainty.

Pound (GBP) Exchange Rates Fluctuate Over Mays Brexit Rollercoaster

The Pound (GBP) was beset by fluctuations last week as investors absorbed the implications of the humiliating defeat of Prime Minister Theresa Mays Brexit deal in Parliament on Tuesday, with the vote losing by a huge majority of 230.

Monday saw the Pound start off relatively buoyed after the previous weeks reports that Brexit could be delayed, however, gains were quickly muted over speculation about Tuesdays vote.

On Tuesday the Pound held relatively steady for most of the day, despite expectations running high that Mays UK-EU withdrawal deal would be rejected by Parliament.

The Pound, however, shot down once it was reported that Mays Brexit deal had been rejected by Parliament, although it managed to climb back as investors considered that the alternatives  such as a possible second referendum or extension of Article 50  would lower the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit.

Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, immediately tabled a no-confidence vote in the government on Tuesday evening, which caused some anxiety for Pound investors.

Wednesday saw the Pound struggle as prospects of a no-deal Brexit diminished, with MPs being given more say in the Brexit process.

Wednesday also saw the publication of the UK CPI figure for December which fell to 2.1% - a 22-month low - weakening Sterling.

Theresa May survived Wednesdays no-confidence vote, leaving the Pound buoyed slightly as it seemed a general election had been avoided.

On Thursday the Pound began to stabilise as May engaged in cross-party talks on Brexit which temporarily capped movement in GBP, with some investors still remaining optimistic about the possibility of a second referendum.

Friday, however, saw the Pound begin to fall on the publication of the UKs December retail sales figures, which plummeted, while former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson presented a major speech in which he accused May of kowtowing to Brussels, shaking confidence in the PMs Plan B which she will present to Parliament on Monday.

New Zealand Dollar (NZD) Exchange Rates Remain Sensitive to Chinese Economy

The New Zealand Dollar (NZD) started the week slightly down against the Pound after the publication of some weak Chinese data limited the demand for risk-sensitive currencies.

Tuesday saw the New Zealand Dollar rise after the Global Dairy Trade price index increased to 4.2%, providing uplift for the Kiwi on signs of higher export prices.

However, some of the Kiwis gains were muted after the publication of domestic retail card spending figures, which plummeted in December.

Wednesday saw NZD continue to weaken with ongoing signs of a weakening Chinese economy.

On Thursday NZD staged a fightback after the publication of New Zealands Business NZ PMI for December, which showed an increase to 55.1, restoring some confidence in the Kiwi.

Friday saw the New Zealand Dollar gain against a weakening Pound, still benefiting from its business PMI hitting its highest level since April 2018, and signs of easing trade tensions between the US and China.

GBP/NZD Exchange Rate Forecast: Pound Could Rise if Mays Plan B is accepted by Parliament

GBP investors will be looking ahead to Monday when Theresa May is due to present her Brexit Plan B to Parliament, although if there are any signs of increasing tensions in the House of Commons, Sterling could potentially see a decrease.

Monday will also see the publication of Chinas GDP figures for Q4; any indication of resilience here is likely to support the New Zealand Dollar which is sensitive to the fortunes of the Chinese economy.

Tuesday, meanwhile, will see the publication of the UK average earnings figures, with any signs of an increase potentially lending some uplift for Sterling.

NZD traders will also be looking ahead to Tuesdays publication of New Zealands Q4 CPI figures.

The rest of the week is quiet on the data front, however, with Theresa Mays Plan B being revealed on Monday, the GBP/NZD exchange rate is likely to be largely driven by political sentiment rather than economic data in the coming week.Herpetologists at The University of Texas at Arlington have described a previously unknown species of snake that was discovered inside the stomach of another snake more than four decades ago.

The new snake has been named Cenaspis aenigma, which translates from Latin as "mysterious dinner snake." It is described in a recent paper in the Journal of Herpetology titled "Caudals and Calyces: The Curious Case of a Consumed Chiapan Colubroid." The paper was co-authored by Jonathan Campbell, UTA professor of biology; Eric Smith, UTA associate professor of biology; and Alexander Hall, who earned a UTA doctorate in quantitative biology in 2016.

The researchers' work identifies Cenaspis as not only a new species but also an entirely new genus.

The specimen was found in the stomach of a Central American coral snake -- a species that has been known to eat smaller snakes -- by palm harvesters in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas in 1976. The 10-inch long specimen was preserved in a museum collection. Amazingly, a live specimen has never been found in the ensuing 42 years.

"This small snake was obtained now over 40 years ago, and the report of its discovery has been a long time in coming," the co-authors wrote in the Journal of Herpetology paper. "We were optimistic that additional specimens might be secured, but after at least a dozen more trips into the region spanning several decades, we have been unrewarded."

Cenaspis has several unique features that defy placing it in any known genus and clearly distinguishes it from all known genera. These include undivided subcaudal scales, or enlarged plates on the underside of its tail; a lack of spines and presence of cup-like structures called calyces on its hemipenes, or paired male reproductive organs found in snakes and lizards; and the shape of its skull.

The first two of those features are not found in any other known snake in the family Colubridae in the Western Hemisphere. Colubridae is the largest snake family and includes just over 51 percent of all known living snake species.

Utilizing the vast resources of UTA's Amphibian and Reptile Diversity Research Center for comparative purposes, the researchers made CT scans of dozens of specimens of snakes. The biologists believe that due to some of the specimen's physical features, Cenaspis is likely a burrowing snake that feeds on insects and spiders. Campbell believes that Cenaspis is not extinct but has eluded capture due to its burrowing lifestyle and other elusive habits.

"This provides evidence of just how secretive some snakes can be," Campbell told National Geographic, which ran a story about the discovery in its Dec, 19, 2018, edition. "Combine their elusive habits with restricted ranges and some snakes do not turn up often."

He noted said that because of the snake's unique nature, the Chiapas highlands area of southern Mexico where it was found all those years ago should be considered for protected status, so that more unknown species can be discovered and not face possible extinction.

###

Campbell is one of the world's pre-eminent herpetologists and has spent over 45 years discovering, studying and describing the herpetofauna of North, Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean and West Africa. He earned a doctorate in systematics and ecology from the University of Kansas in 1982 and came to UTA in 1983. He has overseen the tremendous growth of UTA's Amphibian and Reptile Diversity Research Center from a modest collection into one of the top centers for herpetology in the world, with one of the largest collections of specimens anywhere. His work has described more than 100 new species, some of which were on the brink of becoming extinct without ever being known.

Smith came to UTA in 1992 for graduate school and has been here ever since. He earned an master's degree in biology in 1994 and a doctorate in quantitative biology in 2001, then worked as a postdoctoral associate and research associate before joining the Department of Biology faculty as an assistant professor in 2006. He has conducted extensive research of snake species in North and Central America and Indonesia, conducting frequent field and collection work and publishing dozens of journal articles. He also collaborates with other researchers on large-scale temporal and spatial biogeography and biodiversity studies.

Hall worked as a postdoctoral researcher at UTA in 2017 after receiving his doctorate, then accepted a position with Thermo Fisher Scientific, a biotechnology product development company, as a product application specialist. At UTA he won a prestigious National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant in 2015 and a UTA Office of Graduate Studies Dissertation Fellowship in 2016, among various other awards.

- Written by Greg PedersonThe Artic experienced an extreme heat wave during the February 2018. The temperature at the North Pole has soared to the melting point of ice, which is about 30-35 degrees (17-19 Celsius) above normal. There have also been recent studies, indicating the mass of Arctic glaciers has declined significantly since the 1980's by more than 70%. These sudden climate changes affected not just the Arctic regions, but also the water, food, and energy security nexus throughout the globe. This is why climate scientists from around the world are paying increasing attention to this accelerated warming pattern, commonly referred to as 'Arctic Amplification'.

An international team of researchers, including Professor Sarah Kang and DoYeon Kim in the School of Urban and Environmental Engineering at UNIST, has unveiled that local greenhouse gas concentrations appear to be attributable to Arctic Amplification.

Published in the November 2018 issue of Nature Climate Change, their study on the cause of Arctic Amplification shows that local greenhouse gas concentrations, and Arctic climate feedbacks outweigh other processes. This study has been led by Assistant Project Leader Malte F. Stuecker from the IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICCP) in Busan, South Korea and participated by researchers around the globe, including United States, Austrailia, and China.

Long-term observations of surface temperatures show an intensified surface warming in Canada, Siberia, Alaska and in the Arctic Ocean relative to global mean temperature rise. Arctic Amplification is consistent with computer models, simulating the response to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. However, the underlying physical processes for the intensified warming still remain elusive.

Using complex computer simulations, the scientists were able to disprove previously suggested hypotheses, that emphasized the role of transport of heat from the tropics to the poles as one of the key contributors to the amplified warming in the Arctic.

"Our study clearly shows that local carbon dioxide forcing and polar feedbacks are most effective in Arctic amplification compared to other processes", says Assistant Project Leader Malte F. Stuecker, the corresponding author of the study.

Increasing anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) concentrations trap heat in the atmosphere, which leads to surface warming. Regional processes can then further amplify or dampen this effect, thereby creating the typical pattern of global warming. In the Arctic region, surface warming reduces snow and sea-ice extent, which in turn decreases the reflectivity of the surface. As a result, more sunlight can reach the top of layers of the soil and ocean, leading to accelerated warming. Furthermore, changes in Arctic clouds and of the vertical atmospheric temperature profile can enhance warming in the polar regions.

In addition to these factors, heat can be transported into the Arctic by winds. "We see this process for instance during El Nino events. Tropical warming, caused either by El Nino or anthropogenic greenhouse emissions, can cause global shifts in atmospheric weather patterns, which may lead to changes in surface temperatures in remote regions, such as the Arctic", said Kyle Armour, co-author of the study and professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Oceanography at the University of Washington.

Moreover, global warming outside the Arctic region will also lead to an increase in Atlantic Ocean temperatures. Ocean currents, such as the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic drift can then transport the warmer waters to the Arctic ocean, where they could melt sea ice and experience further amplification due to local processes.

To determine whether tropical warming, atmospheric wind and ocean current changes contribute to future Arctic Amplification, the team designed a series of computer model simulations. "By comparing simulations with only Arctic CO 2 changes with simulations that apply CO 2 globally, we find similar Arctic warming patterns. These findings demonstrate that remote physical processes from outside the polar regions do not play a major role, in contrast to previous suggestions", says co-author Cecilia Bitz, professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington.

In the tropics - fueled by high temperature and moisture - air can easily move up to high altitudes, meaning the atmosphere is unstable. In contrast, the Arctic atmosphere is much more stable with respect to vertical air movement. This condition enhances the CO 2 -induced warming in the Arctic near the surface. In the tropics - due to the unstable atmosphere - CO 2 mostly warms the upper atmosphere and energy is easily lost to space. This is opposite to what happens in the Arctic: Less outgoing infrared radiation escapes the atmosphere, which further amplifies the surface-trapped warming.

"Our computer simulations show that these changes in the vertical atmospheric temperature profile in the Arctic region outweigh other regional feedback factors, such as the often-cited ice-albedo feedback" says Malte Stuecker.

The findings of this study highlights the importance of Arctic processes in controlling the pace at which sea-ice will retreat in the Arctic Ocean. The results are also important to understand how sensitive polar ecosystems, Arctic permafrost and the Greenland ice-sheet will respond to Global Warming.

###

Notes for Editors The above material has been provided by Institute of Basic Science.

Author contact

Malte Stuecker, IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICC), Busan, South Korea; email: stuecker@pusan.ac.kr; phone: +82-51-510-7862.

Journal Reference

Stuecker, M. F., C. M. Bitz, K. C. Armour, C. Proistosescu, S. M. Kang, S.-P. Xie, D. Kim, S. McGregor, W. Zhang, S. Zhao, W. Cai, Y. Dong, and F.-F. Jin, "Polar amplification dominated by local forcing and feedbacks", Nature Climate Change (2018), doi:10.1038/s41558-018-0339-y

About the Institute for Basic Science (IBS)

IBS was founded in 2011 by the government of the Republic of Korea with the sole purpose of driving forward the development of basic science in South Korea. IBS has launched 28 research centers as of August 2018. There are nine physics, one mathematics, six chemistry, eight life science, one earth science, and three interdisciplinary research centers.Heavy traffic on narrow roads could be one of the leading causes of traffic congestion and this applies to communication networks, as well. If more data is collected than the allowed data capacity, communication latency appears. This has a devastating effect on the 5G-based internet services, such as self-driving cars, autonomous robots, and remote surgery.

A research team, led by Professor Kyunghan Lee in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UNIST has proposed a novel technique that can reduce the congestion issues in the network environment. The team presented their latest work, known as 'ExLL: An ultra low-latency congestion protocol for mobile cellular network' at the ACM CoNEXT' 18, held in Heraklion, Greece on December 6, 2018.

According to the research team, the new technique is noted for its superior performance over Google's Biblio (BBR), which is known as the best low-latency transmission protocol. The performance evaluation and verification of communication protocol were undertaken both at home and abroad in collaboration with Professor Sangtae Ha's research team from University of Colorado Boulder, which boasts a mobile communication network testing facility.

Communication delay is a phenomenon in which when untreated data accumulates in the network, data transmission is delayed when more data than the network can handle. This is also called a 'buffer bloat'. When buffer bloats are observed in the data center or the mobile communication network, the transmission of packets is delayed and the efficiency of data exchange and service quality are lowered.

A solution to this is a 'low-delay transmission protocol' technique. It is a method to grasp the network situation and adjust the data transmission amount and reduce the delay. In order to understand the amount of data transmission (network bandwidth) that can be handled by the network in the past, a method of probing the network state has been used by increasing or decreasing the transmission amount per unit time. The amount of data transmission is controlled while considering the change of the delay performance according to the increase or decrease of the transmission amount. However, Google's BBR has not reached the ideal minimum (slowest) performance while sending the maximum data allowed by the network (maximum data rate).

"It is difficult to achieve the ideal performance due to the inefficiency of the search itself in the existing technique," said Shinik Park, the first author of the study. "This technology is a smart phone, "We have solved the problem by changing only the transmission protocol of mobile communication terminals."

The researchers focused on elaborating the 'allowed network capacity' for an efficient low-latency transmission protocol. If data is sent only as much as the network bandwidth allowed by the mobile communication terminal, the data will not be unnecessarily accumulated. To do this, we observed the pattern of packets received by the mobile communication terminal and directly infer the bandwidth of the mobile communication network.

"In LTE networks, the pattern of the amount of data received per millisecond and the interval of arrival of packets during this time is different," says Junseon Kim in the Ph.D. program in Computer Science. "This depends on the resources allocated to the base station and the channel conditions, so it is possible to know the allowed network capacity by analyzing it, and if the observation time is different, it can be applied to the 5G network."

Once you know only the allowed network capacity (baseline), the next step is easy. The mobile communication terminal directly transmits the calculated reference to the server, and the server directly controls the data transmission amount of the mobile communication terminal. If the current throughput is less than the allowed network capacity, it will increase the throughput rapidly. If the current network capacity is almost reached, it will be increased finely.

"ExLL can eliminate inefficiencies in the search process and implement ultra-low latency networking," says Professor Lee. "It is an existing low-latency transmission protocol that plays a major role in remote surgery, remote drone control, and 5G-based autonomous navigation."

Meanwhile, the study of low-latency transmission protocol was steadily developed after the buffer buffer concept was defined in 2011, leading to Google's BBR. Google has included BBR as one of its transport protocols since 2016, and recently added BBR to the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This is reminiscent of Google's adoption of its own development protocols (SPDY, QUID) in the HTTP / 2 and HTTP3 standards, which are Web transmission technologies.

###

Journal Reference

Shinik Park et al., "ExLL: An Extremely Low-latency Congestion Control for Mobile Cellular Networks", ACM CoNEXT '18 Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on emerging Networking EXperiments and Technologies, (2018).Download our free EDR Vendor Report based on nearly 300 real user experiences.

Endpoint security offerings from FireEye and Carbon Black both appear on eSecurity Planets list of top endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions, and each product has a lot to offer enterprise customers. What follows is a look at each solutions key features and recent improvements, along with an assessment of their strengths and weaknesses.

The Bottom Line

Both solutions get positive reviews from industry analysts and from users, the vast majority of whom say theyd recommend both products to others. FireEyes offering benefits significantly from Mandiant threat intelligence and from its new MalwareGuard detection and prevention engine. Carbon Blacks recent shift of its EDR solution to the CB Predictive Security Cloud is a key differentiator for organizations seeking the flexibility and ease of use of a cloud-based deployment. Carbon Black comes out on top in detection and response capabilities, but users pay a premium for that added security.

FireEye Product Highlights

Overview: FireEye Endpoint Security brings frontline intelligence and experience to the endpoint, using several combined protection engines to block malware and exploits  the solution leverages a multi-level defense that includes signature-based and behavioral-based engines as well as intelligence-based indicators of compromise.

Recent developments: The most significant addition to FireEye Endpoint Security over the last year is the machine learning-based MalwareGuard detection and prevention engine, the result of a two-year research project from FireEye data scientists and testing and real-world incident responses. The machine learning model leverages both public and private data sources, including data gathered from over 15 million endpoint agents, attack analyses based on more than one million hours spent responding to attacks to date, over 200,000 consulting hours every year, and adversarial intelligence collected from a global network of analysts. That data is then used to train MalwareGuard to make intelligent malware classifications on its own and without human involvement.

Other recent enhancements include Policy Manager, which enables varying levels of access, allowing administrators to balance the needs of security and performance; Alert Workflow Update, which provides the necessary context for organizations to respond rapidly to alerts that matter; and Cloud Identity and Access Management, which enables a higher level of authentication for cloud-based deployments.

Analysts take: Gartner notes that FireEyes global managed detection and response service, FireEye as a Service, is available to help clients that are short on resources. The company benefits from threat intelligence from Mandiants breach investigation team and iSIGHT Threat Intelligence service, as well as from FireEye products shared threat indicators. Still, the research firm says most EDR data is stored on the endpoint, making it difficult to perform a full root cause analysis involving compromised endpoints that are offline.

Carbon Black Product Highlights

Overview: CB ThreatHunter, a recent upgrade to Carbon Blacks CB Response EDR solution, brings the companys EDR capabilities to the CB Predictive Security Cloud platform. Security teams can leverage CB ThreatHunter to record all endpoint activity, overlay custom and out-of-the-box sources of threat intelligence, and visualize the activity to easily identify the root cause of an attack. Analysts can quickly jump through each stage of an attack to gain insight into the attackers behavior and close security gaps.

Recent developments: The release of CB ThreatHunter brought the core functionality of CB Response to the PSC cloud platform, including the ability to capture and search unfiltered data from endpoints throughout the enterprise, and to maintain customizable watchlists, third-party threat intelligence feeds, automatic upload of each unique binary, expandable process tree visualization, and integrations with Splunk and IBM QRadar.

Because it was built on the companys multi-tenant cloud platform, CB ThreatHunter now benefits from a lightweight sensor, cloud-powered deployment and elastic scalability, rapid release cycles, more granular control over watchlist and threat feed alerts, and enhanced search capabilities.

Analysts take: Writing about CB Response, Gartner said Carbon Black has earned a strong reputation as one of the leading EDR solutions, with a streamlined console that gives administrators simplified views of threats via visual alerts and triage, resulting in faster detection and response. Still, the research firm said Carbon Black continues to be at the premium end in terms of cost per endpoint to acquire and operate.

See user reviews of FireEye Endpoint Security vs. Carbon Black CB Response

EDR Product Ratings

Here are eSecurity Planets ratings of each solutions key features.

Performance

FireEye: Very Good

Carbon Black: Very Good

Customers of both vendors report solid performance, with minimal impact on endpoints. The most recent Forrester Wave report on EDR solutions gave FireEye a rating of 3.08 out of five and gave Carbon Black 3.48 out of five (though the research firm evaluated CB Response, not CB ThreatHunter). The rating is based on a range of criteria including configurability, agent effectiveness, forensic capabilities, deployment options and response actions.

Detection and Response

FireEye: Good

Carbon Black: Very Good

In recent testing, Forrester rated Carbon Blacks detection capabilities at 4.0 out of five, and FireEyes at 3.0 out of five. Similarly, Carbon Blacks response capabilities were rated at 3.8 out of five, while FireEyes were rated at 3.4 out of five.

Value

FireEye: Good

Carbon Black: Good

Customers of both companies report satisfaction with pricing and value for the money, though Gartner says Carbon Black is more expensive than most.

Implementation and Management

FireEye: Good

Carbon Black: Very Good

Users of both solutions report relatively easy deployment experiences, far easier in Carbon Blacks case by being fully cloud-based. Both solutions require skilled technical staff to manage and use.

Support

FireEye: Very Good

Carbon Black: Good

FireEye users report positive experiences with customer support. While some reviewers say the same of Carbon Black, others report frustration with relatively slow response times.

Cloud Features

FireEye: Good

Carbon Black: Best

While FireEye offers a cloud-based option, Carbon Blacks recent release of CB ThreatHunter moves the entire solution to the companys cloud platform.

Deployment

FireEye Endpoint Security supports cloud, on-premises and hybrid deployments. Agents are available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

As part of the CB Predictive Security Cloud, CB ThreatHunter is cloud-based, with no need for any on-premises infrastructure.

Pricing

FireEye Endpoint Security is purchased through a subscription model based on the level of protection and investigation tools available  the Essential Edition starts at $39 per endpoint, and the more advanced Power Edition starts at $58.50 per endpoint, with volume discounts available for both. Free trials are available.

CB ThreatHunter leverages a tiered yearly subscription pricing model.

Other EDR product comparisonsThe 10% quota for higher-caste EWSs discredits the moral foundation of the principle of social justice.

The legislation granting a 10% quota in employment and education for higher-caste aspirants from the economically weaker sections (EWSs) was passed in both houses of Parliament. This swift move on the part of the central government is within the compelling context of the forthcoming 2019 Lok Sabha general election, which is why most of the parties found it politically inconvenient to oppose it. Although, some of them did express their reservations about the way in which the legislation was introduced in Parliament. They opposed it on the grounds that the government in power at the centre did not give enough time for discussion on it before it was tabled in Parliament for its final approval. Similarly, an objection was also raised about the procedure that the government adopted in order to fix the criteria for educational and economic backwardness. How has the government arrived at the figure of 10%, without any proper and thorough documentation by a duly constituted commission? Although the legislation suffers from these problems and is awaiting clearance from the apex court, the 10% quota may, at this point in time, deserve some reflection on the possible gains that might flow from such a legislation.

If the Court assents to the legislation and it is implemented by the government, it is expected to help the needy among the higher castes. In some cases, it is also expected to eliminate the desperation of those who, in the past, would resort to obtaining fake Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) certificates that were used to seek entry into professional courses

under the SC/ST quota. The legislation is also expected to keep savarna-caste aspirants from seeking adoption into SC/ST families in order to procure SC/ST certificates. Such a legislation would help them not resort to such deceptive self-characterisation. Ironically, the 10% quota can help these savarnas retain their authentic caste identity. In this way, they can now avoid facing humiliation in courts of law on account of being exposed as fake caste certificate holders. The 10% quota is expected to reinforce the urge among the higher castes to be a part of the reservation fraternity, along with the SCs, STs, and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).YPG is clearly affiliated with the terrorist PKK, says Graham

US Senator Graham stated that US should protect Turkey and solve YPG/PKK problem that was created for Turkey in Syria in his meeting with Defense Minister Hulusi Akar.

YPG/PYD is 'clearly' tied to globally recognized terrorist group PKK, says Senator Lindsey Graham during Ankara visit. By arming the YPG group in Syria, Washington created a nightmare for Turkey, said a senior US senator during a visit to the Turkish capital on Saturday.

THE IMPORTANCE OF PROTECTING TURKEY

Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters that the US strategy in Syria has the potential to cause harm to Turkey. The South Carolina senator stressed the importance of protecting Turkey and solving the problem the US created for Ankara, referring to Us support for the terrorist YPG/PYD in the name of fighting Daesh terrorists.

Graham, a member of Congress since 1995 and a senator since 2003, serves on the Senate's Armed Services Committee. Turkey has long objected to the US giving support and weapons to the YPG/PYD, arguing that using one terrorist group to fight another makes no sense. Turkey has said it will soon launch a counter-terrorist operation against the YPG/PYD in Syria, east of the Euphrates River, near the Turkish border.

There has been friction between Ankara and Washington over the upcoming operation amid the withdrawal of US forces from Syria.

Grahams visit to Turkey came amid attempts by the two sides to reach an agreement on the expected withdrawal of US forces. US President Donald Trump announced his plans to immediately withdraw the approximately 2,000 US troops deployed in Syria last December.We have legitimate reasons to be getting out of Syria: USs ex-general

Daesh terrorist group 'not an existential threat to the United States,' says former brigadier general Mark Kimmitt said on Friday.

Last month, US President Donald Trump surprised many, including his own cabinet, when he announced plans to withdraw all American forces from Syria. The decision came during a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in which the two leaders agreed on the need for more effective coordination over the civil war-torn country.

"DAESH IS NO LONGER A THREAT TO US"

Mark Kimmitt, who also served as a top defense official under former President George W. Bush, spoke at a panel discussion hosted by the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), a think tank based in Washington, DC. "There remain legitimate reasons, and overwhelmingly positive reasons, for the US to be getting out of Syria rather than staying in it," said Kimmitt.

Kimmitt laid out the reasons for defending the decision, saying that for one thing, the Daesh terrorist group is no longer a threat to the US. "ISIS may not be defeated. But it is certainly degraded. The caliphate is gone," said Kimmitt, using another name for the Daesh. "They are not an existential threat to the United States."





"WE HAVE TO MAKE A CHOICE BETWEEN TURKS AND YPG"

Echoing comments by US Special Representative to Syria James Jeffrey, the former defense official also noted that the nature of the US alliance with the YPG/PKK terrorist group was temporary, transactional, and tactical. This notion that somehow the YPG are brave, democratic-seeking allies of the United States, I think, needs to be questioned," he added.

Kimmitt also said the US did not want to get into a confrontation with Turkey, a NATO ally. "We have to make the choice: Do we fight the Turks? Do we defend the YPG? Who owns what territory?" he said.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 18)  The Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) is envisioned to be a major step towards finally achieving lasting peace in Mindanao.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who vowed to end the decades-long conflict in the region, formally signed Republic Act No. 11054 or the BOL in July 2018.

Once ratified, the landmark legislation will abolish the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to make way for the creation of a new autonomous Bangsamoro region.

Before the law can be fully implemented, voters in some parts of Mindanao will take part in a two-day plebiscite to ratify the law and determine the areas that will make up the new region.

READ: Road to peace in Mindanao: The Bangsamoro Organic Law

Here's a rundown of what you can expect from the Bangsamoro plebiscite:

WHAT: Plebiscite for inclusion in the Bangsamoro region

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced in December the holding of the plebiscite in January and February to determine the areas to be covered by the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

The poll body split the referendum into two dates to allow for the participation of voters in areas which petitioned for voluntary inclusion in the region.

"The reason we split the plebiscite is because we want to give enough time to deal with the issues being raised, in the different petitions. We don't want to summarily dismiss everything," Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said.

WHEN: January 21 and February 6

The plebiscites will be done on Monday, January 21, 2019, and Wednesday, February 6, 2019.

Polling precincts will open at 7 a.m. and close at 3 p.m. for both days.

WHERE: ARMM, other parts of Mindanao

If the BOL is ratified, it will automatically include the entire ARMM -- Sulu, Basilan except for Isabela City, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and Tawi-Tawi.

Cotabato City and Isabela City in Basilan will also vote if they want to be part of BARMM.

Here's the list of areas which will join the two-day plebiscite:

January 21, 2019 (Monday)

ARMM

Cotabato City

Isabela City, Basilan

February 6, 2019 (Wednesday)

Lanao del Norte

Tagoloan

Balo-i

Pantar

Munai

Tangcal

Nunungan

North Cotabato (Aleosan, Carmen, Kabacan, Midsayap, Pigkawayan, Pikit, Tulunan)

WHO

Comelec expects about three million Mindanaoans to participate in the plebiscite.

The Armed Forces and the National Police say some 20,000 troops would be deployed to provide security.

How will the January 21 plebiscite run?

Voters will be asked to write either "YES" or "NO" on the ballot asking if they want to be part of BARMM. Except for Basilan, ARMM will vote as one geographical area.

Basilan voters will be asked two questions: (1) do they agree to ratify the BOL; and (2) Do they approve of Isabela City's inclusion in BARMM.

Voters in Isabela City, on the other hand, will be asked if they want to be part of BARMM.

According to Article 15 Section 3 of the BOL, Isabela will join BARMM if the majority of voters in the city choose to be included AND majority of Basilan voters agree.

Voters in Cotabato City, which is not part of ARMM but hosts its regional office and line agencies, will also be asked if they want to be part of BARMM. Cotabato Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi is against joining BARMM.

If the "Yes" vote prevails in the January 21 plebiscite, there will be another one on February 6.

How will the February 6 plebiscite run?

Lanao del Norte voters will be asked if they agree to include the towns of Tagoloan, Balo-i, Pantar, Munai, Tangcal, and Nunungan in BARMM.

Those in the municipalities of Aleosan, Carmen, Kabacan, Midsayap, Pigkawayan, Pikit, and Tulunan, North Cotabato will decide if they will allow 67 of their barangays (villages) to separate and be part of BARMM.

Voters of Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato will also have to vote if they are willing to let go of these areas.

READ: The Bangsamoro Organic Law: Everything you need to know

Duterte will then appoint members of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), which will include incumbent officials of the regional government.

The BTA will have legislative and executive powers during the transition period. It will be considered the Bangsamoro government during the transition and will have exclusive powers over budgeting, justice, agriculture, human rights, and tourism, among others.UN chief backs Turkey's legitimate security concerns

The endorsement comes amid US proposal for a 20-mile safe zone in northern Syria.

Turkey has justifiable security interests in northeastern Syria, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday amid calls for a buffer zone the area.

THE PROPOSAL WILL BE DISCUSSED AT THE SUMMIT

Guterres said any solution must take into account Syria's territorial integrity, the "legitimate security concerns" of Turkey, and recognition of Syria's diversity. "These are the three criteria that we have in analyzing any proposal that might eventually exist," Guterres said.

In a Twitter post on Monday, US President Donald Trump proposed the establishment of a 20-mile (32-kilometer) wide safe zone in Syria's eastern Euphrates region. Later, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a phone talk with his U.S. counterpart and evaluated the details of the safe zone.

The proposal will be discussed during an upcoming Russian-Turkish presidential-level meeting, according to Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kaln.Turkish Defense Minister Akar meets US Senator Graham

Defense Minister Hulusi Akar says Turkey and US can solve problems with cooperation.

Turkey's national defense minister said Friday promises made in Syria's Manbij were not kept and his country would not allow the establishment of a terror corridor on its southern border.

"TURKEY WILL NOT ALLOW A TERROR CORRIDOR"

"The promises made in Manbij weren't kept, the YPG and PKK are two sides of the same coin, and Turkey is fighting PKK/YPG, Daesh and FETO terror groups," Hulusi Akar stressed during a meeting with US Senator Lindsey Graham in capital Ankara, according to a written statement by the ministry.

Akar also noted that Turkey would not allow the establishment of a terror corridor along its southern border and the two countries would solve the problems by working together. It added that the latest developments in Syria and Turkey-US cooperation were among the topics discussed during the meeting.

Manbij remains under the control of the PYD/YPG, the Syrian affiliate of the PKK terrorist organization. During its 30-year terrorist campaign against Turkey, the PKK has taken some 40,000 lives

On Wednesday, a suicide attack in Manbij killed three US soldiers. The attack came after US President Donald Trump's surprise announcement last month of the withdrawal of American forces from Syria.Turkish Central Bank distributes $6.3B advance dividend

Bank holds its Extraordinary General Assembly meeting on Friday.

The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) decided to start the distribution of 33.7 billion liras ($6.3 billion) advance dividend to shareholders.

THE CBRT'S GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING

The decision was made in the bank's Extraordinary General Assembly meeting on Friday, according to a written statement. The bank's statement also said: "An amendment was made to the Articles of Association of the Bank, allowing the General Assembly to convene within three months."

In 2019, the meeting was held in January to provide liquidity for the market earlier, Turkish Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said last week.Erdogan attends famous Turkish pianist Fazl Says concert

President Erdogan attended a concert by Turkish pianist and composer Fazl Say in the capital Ankara on Friday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken up the invitation of one of Turkeys greatest pianists and composers, Fazl Say, to attend his concert on Friday.

The famed Turkish pianist had invited Erdogan to his concert after the president expressed his condolences over the death of Says mother. The world-famous pianist thanked Erdogan for attending his concert at the ATO Congresium in Ankara before performing his new composition, Trojan Sonata, to a packed audience.

SAY: IM EXPERIENCING ONE OF THE EXCEPTIONAL NIGHTS OF MY LIFE

First Lady Emine Erdogan was also in attendance, as a special guest. Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham joined Erdogan for the concert, shortly after a meeting in which they discussed regional issues and bilateral relations.

As he took the stage, Say said tickets for the event had sold out three months before the concert. "I think this is one of the most exceptional nights of my life," Say said at the concert. "I hope you are thinking the same."





Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and Education Minister Ziya Selcuk attended the concert with Erdogan.The services celebrating the life of Johnny Rains Jr., 55, of Enid, will be held Monday June 21 in the Brown-Cumming Funeral Home Chapel with burial in the Banner Cemetery. Condolences may be shared at www.Brown-Cummings.com.United check-in kiosks are closed inside Terminal B at George Bush Intercontinental Airport Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019, in Houston. The security checkpoint inside the terminal has been closed for several days. The partial government shutdown is starting to strain the national aviation system, with unpaid security screeners staying home, air-traffic controllers suing the government and safety inspectors off the job.A Paksitani University will observe 14th February as Sisters Day, when world celebrate Valentines day. Pakistan's University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) will observe Valentine's Day as Sisters' Day "to promote Eastern culture and Islamic traditions among the youth. The University wants to promote Islamic traditions in youths to lieu of the traditional day for displaying love and affection as celebrated elsewhere in the world. In our culture, women are more empowered and earn their due respect as sisters, mothers, daughters and wives, UAF vice chancellor Zafar Iqbal is quoted as saying on the institutions website.



"We were forgetting our culture, and Western culture was taking root in our society," he continued.

"UAF was mulling a plan to distribute scarves, shawls and gowns printed with the UAF insignia among female students" on February 14, the statement on the website added.

Female students can be gifted scarves and Abayahs (clothes) as decided by Vice Chancellor Zafar Iqbal Randhawa of the University of Agriculture in Faisalabad and other decision makers, Dawn News reported. The vice chancellor believes it was "compatible with Pakistan's culture and Islam", the report said.

The Valentine's Day is increasingly popular among younger Pakistanis, with many taking up the custom of giving cards, chocolates and gifts to their sweethearts to mark the occasion. UAF is seeking donations as it aims to give headscarves to at least 1,000 of its 14,000 female students, University spokesman Qamar Bukhari said.

"These scarfs will be distributed by the university administration and not their fellow male students," he added, saying that the goal is to ensure respect for women.

Also read: Shocking! Queen Elizabeth's 97-year-old husband Prince Philip met with a car accident in eastern England; see picIn this Oct. 20, 2014, file image taken from dash-cam video provided by the Chicago Police Department, Laquan McDonald, right, walks down the street moments before being fatally shot by Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke in Chicago.Cindy Hall, left, has taught elementary school for 18 years. She is currently the director of the Dyslexia Center at Lindsay Lane Christian Academy. She and her husband, Charles, right, have three children and three grandchildren.Marty R. Montgomery, 63, of Athens, passed away on Tuesday, June 15, 2021, at his residence. Mr. Montgomery was born on September 10, 1957, to John Montgomery and Lawson Farris Montgomery. Mr. Montgomery is survived by his son, K.B. Montgomery (Elizabeth); grandchildren, Madelyn Montgomery aPuppet theatre to perform at six primary schools

An imaginative, explorative and educational live theatre experience will return to island schools later this month.

Lempen Puppet Theatre Company will make its annual visit to perform at six local primary schools from Wednesday 30th January to Thursday 7th February. The husband and wife duo will perform Carboard Carnival, a wordless show using the music from 'The Carnival of the Animals' by French composer Camille Saint Saens.

Liz Lempen from Lempen Puppet Theatre Company, said: 'Cardboard Carnival is a playful production carefully designed to inspire children to be more creative and explorative, and encourage play using simple materials. We're delighted to bring the show back for those who missed out on the 2018 tour and are looking forward to spending some more time on the beautiful Isle of Man.'

Cardboard Carnival will be performed at Foxdale School, Jurby School, Braddan School, Manor Park School, St Johns School and Bunscoill Ghaelgagh.Photo: The Canadian Press President Donald Trump speak to reporters before leaving the White House in Washington, Saturday.

Seeking a shutdown solution, President Donald Trump was expected to announce Saturday that in exchange for money for his promised U.S.-Mexico border wall he was open to trading protections for young people brought to America illegally as children. Democrats have previously rejected such a deal and it was not clear whether Trump's offer would make headway.

Trump planned a speech from the White House Diplomatic Reception Room at 4 p.m. ET.

His emerging proposal was confirmed by three people familiar with his thinking. They were not authorized to publicly discuss the plans before his remarks and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Vice-president Mike Pence, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney have been working on the proposals, according to one of the people.

Trump was expected to offer support for bipartisan legislation, known as the Bridge Act, that would extend protection to some 700,000 young immigrants already in an Obama-era program shielding them from deportation, said one of the people. The president also planned to include protections for those with temporary protected status after fleeing countries affected by natural disasters or violence.

Trump, however, is known to change his mind and could decide on another course. His refusal to sign spending bills without the $5.7 billion he is demanding to start constructing the border wall prompted the shutdown.

"We need the help and the backup of a wall," the president said earlier Saturday.

Trump's overture was greeted initially with skepticism by some Democrats, who were not consulted beforehand, according to a congressional aide who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Democrats made their own move late Friday to break the impasse that has kept the government shut down for a record 29 days when they pledged to provide hundreds of millions of dollars more for border security.

It was unclear whether the developments, following days of clashes between Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, represented serious steps toward resolving the partisan fight or instead were acts of political posturing.

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have gone without paychecks, with many enduring financial hardship. Many public services are unavailable to Americans during the closure.

The White House has declined to provide details about what the president would announce. Trump was not expected to declare a national emergency, which he has said was an option to circumvent Congress, according to two people familiar with the planning.

"I think it'll be an important statement," Trump told reporters Saturday before travelling to an air base in Delaware to honour four Americans killed in a suicide bomb attack in Syria this week.

Whatever the White House proposes will be the first major overture by the president since Jan. 8, when he gave an Oval Office address trying to make the public case for the border wall. Democrats have said they will not negotiate until the government reopens, raising questions about how Trump might move the ball forward.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has also previously said that funding for the wall and legal protections for those immigrants known as "Dreamers" should not be linked.Ronald E. O'Dell, 60, of Altamont, died at 1:08 p.m., Sunday, June 13, 2021 at home surrounded by his family. Graveside services will be held at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, June 19, 2021 at Sidener Cemetery, rural St. Elmo with Robert O'Dell officiating. Visitation will be from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m., FIf you're interested in submitting a Letter to the Editor, click here.

SubmitPhoto: The Canadian Press Richard T. Lee

The federal Liberals have named a new candidate to run against NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh in the Burnaby South byelection.

They say former provincial legislator Richard T. Lee will replace Karen Wang on the ballot on Feb. 25.

Wang stepped aside Wednesday after she urged Chinese people to vote for her, the "only" Chinese candidate, instead of Singh, who she described as "of Indian descent."

The Liberals say Lee represented Burnaby in British Columbia's legislature for 16 years, serving for a time as deputy speaker.

They note that he has lived in the city for more than three decades.

The decision for them to run a candidate in the riding was not a given: Green Party Leader Elizabeth May urged the Liberals to follow her party's lead in offering a "leader's courtesy" to Singh by not running against him.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!Photo: The Canadian Press

Authorities in southern Spain said Saturday they hope to soon reach the spot where they believe a two-year-old boy is trapped after falling in a deep borehole six days ago.

Angel Garcia, the leading engineer co-ordinating the search-and-rescue operation, said that they hope to reach the spot in 35 hours  though that depends on everything "going favourably."

Garcia said a drill is perforating a hole, after which two or three experts will be lowered in a cage so they can begin digging a horizontal tunnel to the location where they believe the toddler is.

There has been no contact made with Julen Rosello, who fell into the 110-metre (360-foot) deep, 25 centimetre-diameter (10-inch) waterhole on Sunday during a family meal in the countryside northeast of Malaga. The only sign of him search-and-rescue teams have found so far is hair that matched his DNA.

Rescuers hope to find the boy at a depth of 72 metres, where the hole is blocked by soil.

The entire country remains gripped by the plight of the boy and his family. Efforts to reach him have been excruciatingly slow because of the difficulty of the rocky terrain.

"We are hopeful that we can get to him as soon as possible and bring him to his parents," Garcia said.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Weather has been one of the most consistent topics of discussion in Dundalk as long as I can remember but these days I suspect that much of this is carried out between friends in texting on their I phones or similar electronic equipment.

Weather forecasting has become a very complicated business, with contrasting long-range forecasting now being normal, but that does not stop people remarking on unusual conditions.

Everybody I have spoken to recently seems think that the conditions in these parts over the Christmas period has been the mildest in their memories.

Whether or not it has anything to do with it or not, I am not entirely sure, but it is true that the barometric pressure over Dundalk for that past month or so has been extremely high for the time of year!

Atmospheric pressure, in simple terms the weight of the air pressing down on everybody, is a difficult enough concept but it does effect everybody in one way or the other and it is true that this pressure has been at an exceptionally high level for a month or so.

All of which has reminded me that last week, on the Feast of the Epiphany January 6, was the 180 anniversary of the what is known as 'Oidhche na Gaoith Mor', or the Night of the Big Wind, when a hurricane of immense force roared over the island of Ireland, causing death and destruction on a scale that has never been seen since.

Whether or not this was a precursor of the Great Famine, the greatest disaster that ever struck the country which came within the next ten years, is a matter for debate.

It is true that the Night of the Big Wind killed many able bodied young people, destroyed many homes, practically destroyed our fishing industry and did serious damage to agriculture.

One of the most notable features of the storm was that it uprooted millions of mature tress which must have transformed the landscape for many years to come!

The storm did not do as much damage in and around Dundalk as was reported in other parts of the country but still must have been a frightening experience for the inhabitants of the Town.

Reports of the time say that the hurricane was preceded by strange weather conditions.

Firstly there seems to have been a period of exceptionally mild weather and then, on the day before the storm, there was an unexpected heavy fall of snow which was followed by a sudden rise in temperature before the hurricane roared in from the Atlantic Ocean.

A report in Padraic ua Dubhthaigh's 'Book of Dundalk' states ---

'The hurricane came on the morning of 6th January between three and four o'clock but, from 10.30 on the previous night, there had been a violent storm, increasing in intensity as the night passed.

In Dundalk chimney stacks came tumbling down, one of them collapsing on the Postmaster and his assistant while waiting anxiously for the Mail Car, while the streets were littered with debris of all kinds.'

The incident relating Postmaster happened at Roden Place where the Post Office was located at the time. The building was wrecked but the two men escaped without serious injury although they had to scramble out of the debris of a collapsed stairway.

There are no reports of anybody in the area being killed but many lost their homes, as thatched roofs were set on fire and there was no fire service to put them out.

This latter part of the story surprised me as I could not understand how a high wind could start at fire but then, quite recently, I got the explanation when I attended a lecture at the Famine Village in County Donegal.

The speaker said that the houses in this village had been burned when the low pressure which caused the storm sucked the ashes from the fires up the chimneys and the sparks had rained down on the thatched roofs, setting them alight!

It was the custom in those days to leave the turf fire smouldering all night to make it easier to start the hearth fires in the morning. He also mentioned that the hurricane had wrecked the fishing boats which had prevented them from catching fish to eat during the Famine years.

Pension applications

The Night of the Big Wind had another effect in the Dundalk area sixty years later when the first old age pensioners were applying for their allowances.

Very few people over the age of 70 were able to provide Birth Certificates to prove their age, so it was decided that the test would be that they could give an accurate account of the great storm in January 1839.

It strikes me that this scheme might not have been particularly fair as a lot might depend on a person's education and their ability as a 'story teller' but it certainly did make a great difference to the income of many homes in Dundalk at the time and old people were more welcome in homes with large families!Stanley and Cheyanne Woods are just one of the families who have found love, compassion and support through the case program.

The Woods family, originally from Panama City, was displaced by Hurricane Michael, but said through the grace of God and the love provided through SEACH and The Harbor, the family has not only witnessed Gods grace, but also his loving mercy at work.

While the Woods family sought shelter from Hurricane Michael, the worry and dread brought on the early birth of the Woods daughter, Summer.

When we were told our area was issued a mandatory evacuation, we knew we needed to find somewhere safe, said Cheyanne Woods. We sent our children to stay with my husbands family. We knew they would be safe with them. Unfortunately, our personal car was down, and we were using a rental. Our goal was to try to make it to Dothan. However, while traveling to Dothan I went into labor. We had to turn around and head back. Once we arrived at the hospital in Panama City, they told me we could not stay. I could not deliver there. The building was unsafe. It did not have running water and the generators were going on and off. We didnt know what to do.

Cheyannes husband, Stanley, placed her in the vehicle, and they headed to Marianna with the hope of finding a safe hospital to deliver the baby.An IT Sligo Creative Design student has been shortlisted for the Institute of Designers of Ireland 2018 annual IDI Irish Design Awards.

Paul Roper a native of Cliffoney, Sligo was notified of his nomination recently for his re-design of the humble clothes peg.

Paul hasnt taken a traditional route to design but has shown some incredible initiative. Having left school at 15, he took up an apprenticeship as a carpenter which he worked at for many years. When the economy slumped, Paul emigrated with his family to Canada where he worked in multiple jobs before returning to Ireland. He was also one of the best poker players in Europe and has played at some of the biggest tournaments in the world. However, Paul wanted to change his career path completely.

After some consideration, Paul decided to return to college as a mature student at the age of 43. He started studying Quantity Surveying. He received his degree in QS last year and then transferred to study Creative Design after he won an Enterprise Ireland Award for his Lock-on invention. This ingenious device allows the hitching of trailers to vehicles with a press of a button. The invention wowed the judges and inspired Paul to consider a career in design.

Now Paul is back with his next invention and this time he has completely redesigned the simple clothes peg. After witnessing his ill mother struggling to hang washing on the line, Paul promised to invent an improved clothes peg which any person, regardless of ability, would be able to use easily.

In his first attempt, Paul created a simplified version made of hinges, wood and magnets. Both his mother and partner were incredibly impressed with his crude prototype. Encouraged by early responses, Paul developed his designs and quickly accumulated a considerable amount of investment to create fully working prototypes. Within a few months Paul sourced tool makers in China and created fully working products of his new clothes peg which he has named Magpin. The name comes from Mag for magnet and Pin is what most Americans call pegs.

Throwing away the rule book

Great designers throw away the rule book and can completely divorce their design from tradition, and that is exactly what Paul has achieved. This product is a complete redesign of the clothes peg. It is much bigger than a peg, is designed to always be on your line and is T shaped. This unique design means clothes are hung from the side as opposed to being clamped on top as you would with a traditional peg.

The design has function but is also beautifully formed. Each curve, angle and bend has a purpose to either add strength or to allow easier usability. It is an incredible product which has three different hanging methods on one device. As well as the magnetic clamp option, it also offers a hole for hanging smaller items and a hook for trousers or shoes.

One of the best parts of Pauls design for this country, is how easy it is to take the clothes off the line when clouds gather. Just a quick sharp pull and your clothes are released from the line. Unlike traditional pegs you can leave the Magpin on the line thanks to its sturdy design and high quality build.

Sadly the person he first designed them for, his mother, passed away from cancer before seeing the final product. But her inspiration and support throughout Pauls life spurred him on. Today, he is in talks with a major retailer and distributor with access to an international market.

Speaking from IT Sligo, Paul thanked the IDI for recognising his design: Im very humbled to be nominated by IDI Ireland. I have researched the other candidates and I cant believe Im among this high a calibre of designers. This idea came from seeing my poor mother struggle with this simple task when she suffered with cancer. I hope this product will help others with similar issues.

The IDI Ireland Awards will take place on the 24th of January at Dublins Custom House Quay and the winners will be announced that evening.Photo: The Canadian Press

Inside a sunlit co-operative housing complex in Burnaby, federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh knocked on doors of residents whose first languages included Croatian, Filipino and Spanish. Often, to their surprise, Singh greeted them or said goodbye in their mother tongue.

The leader is staking his political future on a byelection in Burnaby South, an extremely diverse riding where nearly 55 per cent of residents were born outside Canada. But recent missteps by his former Liberal opponent, Karen Wang, highlight why politicians must be careful when discussing issues of identity.

Singh said he learned to say, "Hello, how are you?" in about 40 languages because when he was young, someone unexpected greeted him in Punjabi and he appreciated it as a sign of respect.

"I feel like it's my way of saying, 'I respect where you come from and your history, and who you are, and a part of what makes you, you. It says a lot without saying a lot. It just says, 'I value you,' " he said while on his recent door-knocking campaign.

The Liberals still have not said whether they plan to replace Wang, who stepped aside Wednesday after she urged Chinese people to vote for her on social media platform WeChat. She contrasted herself, the "only" Chinese candidate, with Singh, who she described as "of Indian descent."

Wang held a tearful news conference a day after dropping out, in which she said a volunteer wrote the post and it's common in Chinese culture to mention someone's ethnicity. She said the Liberals asked her to resign, then wrote her apology, and she's considering running as an Independent.

The turmoil has sparked debate about how racial identity fits into Canadian politics. Some observers say parties have a long history of cynically appealing to the so-called "ethnic vote," and Wang's only fault might have been putting the strategy in writing. Others say her post crossed a line by pitting two groups against each other.

Peter Julian, the New Democrat MP for nearby New Westminster-Burnaby, said his party's approach is to consider how best to communicate with every community.

"There are over 100 languages spoken in Burnaby South. It is a remarkably diverse riding. So, what we talk about is how best to reach out to all of those 100 communities, and make sure that we're reflecting what the needs of the communities are," he said.

Wang's post was not at all in that spirit, as she didn't mention the needs of the community or the issues within it, said Julian.

"She was just really trying to divide people in Burnaby South, and that's why I think the reaction has been negative. People don't want to see division. They want to feel in unity or in solidarity with their neighbours."

The Liberals swiftly condemned the post and said it wasn't aligned with their values, adding they have long supported full and equal participation of all Canadians in democracy. Wang said the party did not have a strategy to capture Chinese-Canadian voters.Ad Legacy Research New this week - 1,055 interested

Wall Street Legend Who Picked Bitcoin in 2016 Shares #1 Pick for the 2020s

Picking the right investment of the decade can transform your life Microsoft in the 80sAmazon in the 90sApple in the 2000sBitcoin in 2016... Any one of these could have made you a millionaire many times over. Today, the Wall Street legend who picked the last investment of the decadeWall Street analysts have given iShares Europe 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 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 following companies are subsidiares of Illinois Tool Works: A V Co 1 Limited, A V Co 2 Limited, A V Co 3 Limited, ACCU-LUBE Manufacturing GmbH - Schmiermittel und -gerate -, AIP/BI Holdings Inc., Accessories Marketing Holding Corp., Advanced Molding Company Inc., Allen Coding GmbH, Allen France SAS, Alpine Automation Limited, Alpine Engineered Products, Alpine Holdings Inc., Alpine Systems Corporation, Anaerobicos S.r.l., AppliChem GmbH, AppliChem Inc., Arylux Hungary Elektromechanikus Alkatreszgyarto Kft, Avery Berkel France, Avery India Limited, Avery Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avery Weigh Tronix, Avery Weigh-Tronix (Suzhou) Weighing Technology Co. Ltd., Avery Weigh-Tronix Finance Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Holdings Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix International Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix LLC, Avery Weigh-Tronix Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Properties Limited, Azon Limited, B.C. Immo, Beijing Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Berkel (Ireland) Limited, Berrington UK, Brapenta Eletronica Ltda., Brooks Instrument, Brooks Instrument (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Brooks Instrument B.V., Brooks Instrument GmbH, Brooks Instrument KFT, Brooks Instrument Korea Ltd., Buell Industries Inc., CAPMAX Logistica S.A. de C.V., CCI Realty Company, CFC Europe GmbH, CS (Australia) Pty Limited, CS (Finance) Europe S.a.r.l., CS Mexico Holding Company S DE RL DE CV, CSMTS LLC, Calvia Spolka z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnosci, Capital Ventures (Australasia) S.a r.l, Capmax Logistica S.A. de C.V., Celeste Industries Corporation, Cetram Pty Limited, Coeur, Coeur (Shanghai) Medical Appliance Trading Co. Ltd, Coeur Asia Limited, Coeur Holding Company, Coeur Inc., Compagnie Hobart, Compagnie de Materiel et d'Equipements Techniques-Comet, Constructions Isothermiques Bontami C.I.B., Crane Carrier Company, Densit Asia Pacific Sdn Bhd, Despatch Industries, Diagraph Corporation Sdn. Bhd, Diagraph ITW Mexico S. de R.L. De C.V., Diagraph Mexico S.A. DE C.V., Dongguan Ark-Les Electric Components Co. Ltd., Dongguan CK Branding Co. Ltd., Dorbyl U.K. (Holdings) Limited, Duo Fast de Espana S.A.U., Duo-Fast Korea Co. Ltd., Duo-Fast LLC, E.C.S. d.o.o., ECS Cable Protection Sp. Zoo, ELRO (Holding) AG, ELRO Grosskuchen GmbH, ELRO-WERKE AG, Elga Skandinavian AS, Elro Group, Eltex-Elektrostatik-Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Envases Multipac S.A. de C.V., Eurotec Srl, FEG Investments L.L.C., Fasver, Filtertek, Filtertek De Mexico Holding Inc., Filtertek De Mexico S.A. de C.V., GC Financement SA, Gamko B.V., Gun Hwa Platech (Taicang) Co. Ltd., HOBART Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Hartness International, Hobart (Japan) K.K., Hobart Andina S.A.S., Hobart Brothers International Chile Limitada, Hobart Brothers LLC, Hobart Dayton Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Hobart Food Equipment Co. Ltd., Hobart Foster Belgium, Hobart International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Hobart Korea LLC, Hobart LLC, Hobart Nederland B.V., Hobart Sales & Service Inc., Hobart Scandinavia ApS, Hobart Techniek B.V., Horis, ILC Investments Holdings Inc., ITW (China) Investment Company Limited, ITW (Deutschland) GmbH, ITW (EU) Holdings Ltd., ITW (European) Finance Co. Ltd., ITW (European) Finance II Co. Ltd., ITW (Ningbo) Components & Fastenings Systems Co. Ltd., ITW AEP LLC, ITW AOC LLC, ITW Aircraft Investments Inc., ITW Airport Ground Equipment (Beijing) Co. Ltd., ITW Alpha Sarl, ITW Ampang Industries Philippines Inc., ITW Appliance Components EOOD, ITW Appliance Components LLC, ITW Appliance Components S.A. de C.V., ITW Appliance Components S.r.l.a, ITW Appliance Components d.o.o., ITW Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, ITW Australia Property Holdings Pty Ltd., ITW Australia Pty Ltd, ITW Automotive Components (Chongqing) Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Components (Langfang) Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Japan K.K., ITW Automotive Korea LLC, ITW Automotive Parts (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, ITW Automotive Products GmbH, ITW Automotive Products Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Bailly Comte, ITW Befestigungssysteme GmbH, ITW Belgium, ITW Brazilian Nominee L.L.C., ITW Building Components Group Inc., ITW CER, ITW CP Distribution Center Holland BV, ITW CS (UK) Ltd., ITW Canada Inc., ITW Celeste Inc., ITW Chemical Products Ltda, ITW Chemical Products Scandinavia ApS, ITW Colombia S.A.S., ITW Construction Products (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW Construction Products (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., ITW Construction Products AB, ITW Construction Products AS, ITW Construction Products ApS, ITW Construction Products CZ s.r.o., ITW Construction Products Italy Srl, ITW Construction Products OU, ITW Construction Products OY, ITW Contamination Control (Wujiang) Co. Ltd., ITW Contamination Control B.V., ITW Covid Security Group Inc., ITW DS Investments Inc., ITW DelFast do Brasil Ltda., ITW Delta Sarl, ITW Denmark ApS, ITW Dynatec, ITW Dynatec Adhesive Equipment (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., ITW Dynatec GmbH, ITW Dynatec Kabushiki Kaisha, ITW EF&C France SAS, ITW EF&C Selb GmbH, ITW Electronic Business Asia Co. Limited, ITW Electronic Components/Products (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW Electronics (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., ITW Epsilon Sarl, ITW Espana S.A., ITW FEG Hong Kong Limited, ITW FEG do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW Fastener Products GmbH, ITW Finance Designated Activity Company, ITW Finance Europe S.A., ITW Fluids and Hygiene Solutions Ltda., ITW Food Equipment Group LLC, ITW GH LLC, ITW GSE ApS, ITW GSE Inc., ITW Gamma Sarl, ITW German Management LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings Y Compania Sociedad en Comandita por Acciones, ITW Global Investments II Inc., ITW Global Investments LLC, ITW Global Tire Repair Europe GmbH, ITW Global Tire Repair Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Japan K.K., ITW Graphics (Thailand) Ltd., ITW Graphics Asia Limited, ITW Graphics Italy S.R.L. in liquidazione, ITW Great Britain Investment & Licensing Holding Company, ITW Group France (Luxembourg) S.ar.l., ITW HLP Thailand Co. Ltd., ITW Holding Quimica B.C. S.L. Sole Shareholder Company, ITW Holdings Australia L.P., ITW Holdings I Limited, ITW Holdings II Limited, ITW Holdings III Limited, ITW Holdings IV Limited, ITW Holdings IX Limited, ITW Holdings Inc., ITW Holdings LP, ITW Holdings UK, ITW Holdings V Limited, ITW Holdings VI Limited, ITW Holdings VII Limited, ITW Holdings VIII Limited, ITW Hungary Finance Beta Kft, ITW ILC Holdings I Inc., ITW IPG Investments LLC, ITW Imaden Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW India Private Limited, ITW International Holdings LLC, ITW International Intellectual Property LLC, ITW Invest Holding GmbH, ITW Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, ITW Ireland Unlimited Company, ITW Italy Finance Srl, ITW Italy Holding Srl, ITW Japan Ltd., ITW Korea LLC, ITW LLC & Co. KG, ITW Limited, ITW Lombard Holdings Inc., ITW Lys Fusion S.r.l., ITW M FILMS II LLC, ITW MH LLC, ITW Marking & Coding (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW Medical Group de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Meritex Sdn. Bhd., ITW Metal Fasteners S.L., ITW Mexico Holding Company S. De R.L. de C.V., ITW Mexico Holdings LLC, ITW Morlock GmbH, ITW Mortgage Investments II Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments III Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments IV Inc., ITW Netherlands Beta B.V., ITW Netherlands Finance Alpha BV, ITW New Universal LLC, ITW New Zealand, ITW Novadan Sp. Z.o.o., ITW PPF Brasil Adesivos Ltda., ITW Participations S.a r.l., ITW Pension Funds Trustee Company, ITW Performance Plastic (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Japan Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Korea Limited, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids OOO, ITW Performance Polymers (Wujiang) Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers ApS, ITW Performance Polymers and Fluids Group FZE, ITW Peru S.A.C., ITW Philippines Holdings LLC, ITW Poly Mex S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Polymers Sealants North America Inc., ITW Pronovia s.r.o., ITW Pte. Ltd., ITW Qufu Automotive Cooling Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Real Estate Germany GmbH, ITW Residuals III L.L.C., ITW Residuals IV L.L.C., ITW Rivex, ITW SMPI, ITW SPG Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Simco-Ion (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., ITW Slovakia s.r.o., ITW Spain Holdings S.L., ITW Specialty Film LLC, ITW Specialty Films France, ITW Specialty Materials (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., ITW Spraytec, ITW Sverige AB, ITW Sweden Holding AB, ITW Test & Measurement Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, ITW Test & Measurement GmbH, ITW Test and Measurement Italia Srl, ITW Test and Measurement Services Industry and Trade Ltd., ITW Texwipe Philippines Inc., ITW Thermal Films (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW UK, ITW UK Finance Beta Limited, ITW UK Finance Delta Limited, ITW UK Finance Gamma Limited, ITW UK Finance Limited, ITW UK II Limited, ITW Universal II LLC, ITW Welding, ITW Welding AB, ITW Welding GmbH, ITW Welding Products B.V., ITW Welding Products Group FZE, ITW Welding Products Group S. DE R.L. De C.V., ITW Welding Products Italy Srl, ITW Welding Products Limited Liability Company, ITW Welding Produtos Para Solgdagem Ltda., ITW Welding Servicios Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Welding Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW de France, ITW do Brasil Industrial e Comercial Ltda., ITW haubold Paslode GmbH, Ideal Molding Technologies LLC, Illinois Tool Works (Chile) Limitada, Illinois Tool Works (ITW) Nederland B.V., Illinois Tool Works Norway AS, Impar Comercio E Representacoes Ltda., Industrie Plastic Elsasser GmbH, Inmobiliaria Cit. S.A. de C.F., Innova Temperlite Servicios S.A. de C.V., Innovacion y Transformacion Automotriz S.A. de C.V., Instron (Shanghai) Ltd., Instron (Thailand) Limited, Instron Brasil Equipamentos Cientificos Ltda., Instron Foreign Sales Corp. Limited, Instron France S.A.S., Instron GmbH, Instron Holdings Limited, Instron International Limited, Instron Japan Company Ltd., Instron Korea LLC, International Leasing Company LLC, International Truss Systems Proprietary Limited, Isolenge - ITW Sistemas de Isolamento Termico Ltda., KCPL Mauritius Holdings, Kester, Kester Components (M) Sdn. Bhd., Kleinmann GmbH, Krafft Argentina S.A., Krafft S.L., Lock Inspection Systemes France Sarl, Loma Systems (Canada) Inc., Loma Systems BV, Loma Systems sro, Lombard Pressings Limited, Lumex Inc., Luvex - Industria De Equipamentos De Protecao Ltda., Lys Fusion Poland Sp. z.o.o., M&C Specialties (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., M&C Specialties Co., MAGNAFLUX GmbH, MEHB Holdings Limited, MGHG Property LLC, Magna Industrial Co. Limited, Manufacturing Avancee S.A., Meritex Technology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Meurer Verpackungssysteme GmbH, Miller Electric Mfg. LLC, Miller Insurance Ltd., NDT Holding LLC, NOVADAN APS, Norden Olje AB, North Star Imaging Europe, North Star Imaging Inc., Nova Chimica S.r.l., Odesign Inc., Orbitalum Tools GmbH, PENTA-91 OOO, PR. A. I. Srl, PT ITW Construction Products Indonesia, Pacific Concept Industries Limited (Enping), Panreac Quimica S.L., Paslode Fasteners (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Peerless Machinery Corp., Penta Dnepr LLC, Penta Sever OOO, Penta Volga OOO, Polyrey, Premark FEG L.L.C., Premark HII Holdings LLC, Premark International, Premark International LLC, Prolex Sociedad Anonima, QSA Global Inc., Quimica Industrial Mediterranea S.L., Ramset Fasteners (Hong Kong) Ltd., Rapid Cook LLC, Refrigeration France, S.E.E. Sistemas Industria E Comercio Ltda., ST Mexico Holdings LLC, Salter India Limited, Sealant Systems International Inc., Sentinel Asia Yuhan Hoesa, Shanghai ITW Plastic & Metal Co. Ltd, Simco (Nederland) B.V., Simco Japan Inc., Societe de Prospection et dInventions Techniques  SPIT, Speedline Holdings I Inc., Speedline Holdings I LLC, Speedline Technologies GmbH, Speedline Technologies Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Speedline Technologies Mexico Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Stokvis Celix Portugal Unipessoal LDA, Stokvis Danmark ApS, Stokvis Holdings S.A.R.L., Stokvis Promi s.r.o, Stokvis Prostick Tapes Private Limited, Stokvis Tape Group B.V., Stokvis Tapes (Hong Kong) Co. Limited, Stokvis Tapes (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes (Taiwan) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes BVBA, Stokvis Tapes Benelux B.V., Stokvis Tapes Deutschland GmbH, Stokvis Tapes France, Stokvis Tapes Italia s.r.l., Stokvis Tapes Limited, Stokvis Tapes Limited Liability Company, Stokvis Tapes Norge AS, Stokvis Tapes Oy, Stokvis Tapes Polska Sp Z.O.O., Stokvis Tapes Sverige AB, Stolvis Holdings II S.A.R.L., Tarutin Kester Co. Ltd., Technopack Industria Comercio Consultoria e Representacoes Ltda., Teknek (China) Limited, Teknek (Japan) Limited, Teksaleco Ltd., The Miller Group Ltd, Thirode Grandes Cuisines Poligny, Tien Tai Electrode (Kunshan) Co. Ltd., Tien Tai Electrode (Qingdao) Co. Ltd., Tien Tai Electrode Co. Ltd., Tregaskiss Welding Products, US Finance Gamma LLC, Unichemicals Industria e Comercio Ltda., VR-Leasing Sarita GmbH & Co. Immobilien KG, VS European Holdco BV, Valeron Strength Films B.V.B.A., Veneta Decalcogomme S.r.l., Versachem Chile S.A., Vesta, Vesta (Guangzhou) Catering Equipment Co. Ltd, Vesta Global Limited, Viltronics Soltec, Vitronics Soltec B.V., W Packaging Technology (China) Co. Ltd., Wachs Canada Ltd., Wachs Subsea LLC, Weigh-Tronix Canada ULC, Weigh-Tronix UK Limited, Wilsonart International Holdings LLC, Wujiang Advanced Cleaning Co. Ltd., Wynn Oil (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd., Wynn's Automotive France, Wynn's Belgium BVBA, Wynn's Italia Srl, Wynn's Mekuba India Pvt Ltd, ZF TRW (Engineered Fasteners and Components), and Zip-Pak International B.V..File photo

A WestJet Encore flight from Edmonton to Kelowna was diverted to Calgary after a dual generator failure.

Aeroinside.com reports the Jan. 6 flight was climbing to cruise level when several electrical system caution messages indicated a dual generator failure.

The de Havilland Dash 8-400 had 57 people on board,

The crew declared pan pan, the radio signal for an urgent situation, and despite working the related checklists, numerous caution indications remained.

The flight diverted to Calgary due to its anti-ice system no longer being functional, and landed safely in Calgary.



The Transportation Safety Board reported that maintenance workers found evidence of electrical arcing.

Aeroinside's report contains information from the Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Report System.

Transport Canada endeavours to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the data contained within CADORS, however, the information within should be treated as preliminary, unsubstantiated and subject to change.SALT LAKE CITY  A hidden compartment inside a Salt Lake City apartment, found to contain the remains of a slain South Jordan realtor, complicated an investigation that started with a missing person report but eventually led to the arrest of three people early Saturday morning.

Salt Lake police detective Greg Wilking said Manuel Velasquez, 31, was arrested for investigation of murder and other charges while Jessica Miller, 38, and Diana Hernandez, 30, were both arrested on suspicion of obstruction of justice around 6 a.m. Saturday morning at an apartment in South Salt Lake. All three arrests were in connection with the Thursday death of David Stokoe, who was first reported missing Friday.

Police believe Stokoe's death, from a gunshot wound, was the result of an altercation over rent.

Wilking said Stokoe's body was found Friday in a hidden area of an apartment he owned near Windsor Street and Princeton Avenue, hours into the investigation. While investigators had already been in the apartment, and found evidence that someone had suffered a serious injury, Wilking said the area where they discovered Stokoe's remains was difficult to find.

"The victim in this homicide, David, was actually in that apartment," Wilking said. "There was an area that was not obvious when we went into in that apartment and searched it initially. It was a secret place, a crawl space type of area. Once we began processing that scene we discovered that secret passage, or secret door, and then discovered his remains."

Stokoe's Cadillac Escalade was found Saturday in West Valley City, where two people were taken into custody but later determined not have had any role in Stokoe's death. One of the individuals was released and the other arrested for allegedly violating parole, according to Wilking.

Friends told police Stokoe had gone to check on a property he owned in Salt Lake City before he disappeared.

"My understanding is he showed up there for rent or to have a conversation about (the tenants) continuing to rent there and an altercation took place resulting in his death," Wilking said.

Wilking also noted that the three people arrested were suspected drug users but that Stokoe was merely connected to them through the apartment rental.

"The people that we're dealing with are drug users," Wilking said. "Drugs were part of the world that they were involved in.

"Our victim was an innocent person that didn't have anything to do with the drug world, but just happened to be interacting through renting an apartment with people who were involved with the drug world."

Wilking said that while police belive they've apprehended the principal suspects in Stokoe's death, the investigation is ongoing and that there were "still people we need to talk to."

Stokoe's family released a statement Saturday evening expressing their sorrow and asking that he be remembered "the way he deserves to be remembered, as a hero and champion."

"We know we will see him again someday, and that families are forever. We are choosing to focus on the love we feel from everyone, and the love we feel for Dave, rather than resentment surrounding the circumstances of his death. He's cheering for us, watching over us, and wants us to love life and love each other. We are so grateful for the overwhelming love and support we've received through prayers, service, emails, posts and texts. We feel your prayers and appreciate the outpouring of love and charity from friends, neighbors and strangers."

Stokoe's Utah real estate profile indicates he has been a licensed realtor in the state since 2005. According to the profile, Stokoe is married with four children.

Contributing: Amy Joi O'DonoghueSALT LAKE CITY  A young adult activist group founded just three years ago by a 16-year-old girl turned out hundreds of people Saturday for the 2019 Women's March in downtown Salt Lake City.

People For Unity founder Colette Raptosh told the crowd their work is not done.

"Keep showing up," she shouted.

Raptosh founded People For Unity while a resident of Boise and has since moved to Utah to attend school.

It now has a chapter on campus at the University of Utah.

The march, which started at Washington Square Park at Salt Lake City hall, ended at the Utah State Capitol where several women spoke, including Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski.

Biskupski told the crowd she repeatedly encountered gender discrimination as she campaigned for elected office by people who asked why she wasn't staying home with her son.

The march, she emphasized, is a way for women to speak with one voice.

"We are united and we are strong."

She noted the strides women have made, despite obstacles.

At the Utah Legislature, 25 women now hold seats  the most in history.

"It is not enough," she said, noting that there are more than 100 legislators in Utah. "We must keep going."

The Salt Lake City march coincided with others around the country, including in Washington, D.C., where the inaugural event was held two years ago in a rebuke to President Donald Trump.

Since then the movement has been mired in controversy because its co-president, Tamika Mallory, has ties to the Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan, one of the country's leading anti-Semites.

The Women's March has issued statements denouncing anti-Semitism.

Saturday's crowd in Salt Lake City ignored the national controversy and instead engaged in boisterous chants and waved their signs.

"Love, not hate, makes America great," they yelled.

One man held a sign that said, "Men of quality don't fear equality."

Speaker Jennifer Boyce spoke of the plight of indigenous women around the country who end up missing or murdered  and overlooked.

Boyce, who leads the PANDOS Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women + Relatives Committee, has been working with the Salt Lake City Police Department to bring awareness to the issue and partnering with other native-led organizations.

Martie Goodrich from South Salt Lake braved the weather to participate in Saturday's event.

"I have always been for women's rights. It has improved, but we still have a long ways to go."SALT LAKE CITY  Police say they are investigating a homicide after finding the body of a man who had gone missing.

Salt Lake police asked for the public's help early Friday afternoon finding David Stokoe. They said they were helping South Jordan police in the search.

By late afternoon, the Salt Lake Police Department tweeted that there were "suspicious circumstances" surrounding his disappearance.

Before Stokoe was found, South Jordan Police Lt. Matt Pennington said Stokoe was last in contact with his wife Thursday night. He works in real estate and had gone to check on a property in Salt Lake City.

"Our condolences to family and friends. We will work hard to bring those responsible to #Justice," Salt Lake police tweeted.

Additional details about Stokoe or the circumstances surrounding his death were not immediately available.BOUNTIFUL  An apartment fire in Bountiful seriously injured a woman and displaced two families Friday, police said.

Crews were called to 100 N. 168 East at 1:35 p.m. and found four units threatened by the blaze, said South Davis Metro Fire Chief Jeff Bassett.

A woman in the top unit burned her face while trying to put out the fire, Bassett said, and she was taken to a local hospital in serious condition.

Bassett said the top apartment unit is considered a total loss after the fire. The unit underneath it was damaged by water. The other two units threatened by the fire remain "habitable," Bassett said.

The Red Cross will help the occupants of the damaged units.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.Photo: Facebook Stephan Rauner

A former downtown Kelowna drug dealer with 48 criminal convictions says he has connected with a higher power while in custody, and he's committed to turning his life around.

On Friday, Justice Gary Weatherill sentenced Stephan Rauner to an additional 10 months in jail, taking into account the many addiction recovery programs Rauner has completed during his year of pre-sentence custody at Okanagan Correctional Centre. The jail term is in addition to the year he's spent in pre-sentence custody, which he was granted enhanced credit for at 1.5 times actual time served.

The two charges of trafficking a controlled substance, to which Rauner pleaded guilty last month, stem from two separate undercover police sting operations in downtown Kelowna, on July 8 and Dec. 14 2017.

In the first instance, Rauner sold 0.2 grams of heroin, which also contained the much stronger opioid carfentanil, to an undercover officer in City Park.

After he was arrested and released on bail, Rauner again sold an undercover officer drugs in downtown Kelowna, this time a small amount of methamphetamine.

Rauner was addicted to crack cocaine when he was dealing the drugs in Kelowna, but he told the court he is just days away from being one year sober.

While Rauner has 46 prior convictions dating back to 1991, including three other trafficking-related offences and several drug possession charges, his defence attorney Jordan Watt spent Friday morning outlining Rauner's steps to rehabilitation which he has undertaken while in custody.

He wants to constantly educate himself and get better to ensure that when he is released from custody, that he will not fall back into the holes that he has in the past, Watt said, adding Rauner has spearheaded a Narcotics and Alcoholics Anonymous group at OCC and leads a church service at the jail.

The Crown had been seeking 36 months in jail for trafficking the carfentanil-laced heroin in addition to 18 months for trafficking the meth, while Rauner's defence had urged Justice Weatherill consider either a suspended sentence, or at most, an additional 6 months imprisonment.

The sentence that (the Crown) wants your Lordship to impose on these two offences will be an absolutely crushing blow to Mr. Rauner and will have a devastating impact upon all of the steps he has made towards his rehabilitation, Watt said.

During his sentencing submission last month, Crown prosecutor Justin Dalton highlighted the particular harm that drugs like fentanyl and carfentanil have had in B.C. in recent years. In 2017, 75 people died from illicit drugs in Kelowna.

I truly am ashamed, embarrassed and remorseful that I have allowed myself to hit such a low, I know the devastation that drugs cause, Rauner told the court. I cannot believe I have allowed myself to be a contributing part to other people's brokenness.

Justice Weatherill ultimately sentenced Rauner to 28 months for the heroin offence and 10 months for the meth, but ruled that the sentences will be served at the same time.

Both indictments arose out of an ongoing pattern of drug trafficking, Justice Weatherill said, adding that ordering Rauner to serve the sentences consecutively would ignore his rehabilitative steps.

Rauner will remain on probation for two years following his release.SALT LAKE CITY  Gov. Gary Herbert and GOP legislative leaders see eye to eye about broadening the state's sales tax base to include some still-to-be specified services  but not on where the 2019 Legislature should cut taxes.

At Friday's 2019 Economic Outlook and Public Policy Summit, both incoming Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, and House Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, said they'd like to see the state income tax rate lowered.

In his proposed budget released last month, the governor called for a net $200 million sales tax cut, while at the same time beginning to impose taxes on some services, to lower the state's 4.7 percent sales tax rate below 3.9 percent.

"We can try to lower the rate on sales tax, but it basically makes the problem worse," Adams told the 1,000 business and community leaders gathered at the Marriott Hotel at the City Creek Center.

The new Senate leader said states that focus on lowering income tax rates have better economies, calling it "just statistically true that income tax is an economic driver. So if we're going to lower taxes, that's what tax we're looking at."

Wilson said there are a lot of options on the table when it comes to cutting taxes during the 45-day session that begins Jan. 28. This year, there's more than $1 billion in budget surpluses and revenue growth available.

"You're going to see some interesting discussion over the legislative session of how we move into a more service-oriented sales tax and broaden that sales tax base but lower the rate. We're not attempting to generate new revenue," he said.

But when it comes to a tax cut on top of that, the new speaker also preferred to look at the state's 4.95 percent income tax rate, already reduced from 5 percent by the 2018 Legislature.

He said any changes to the tax structure need to continue to support the state's "vibrant economy, and we will continue to have employers that want to be here and grow here. So that's why you're seeing conversation about the income tax."

Earlier, the governor told the summit audience that now is the time to make changes to the state's tax structure, particularly what he called an "out of balance" sales tax base.

"We don't want to wait until we're in a crisis," he said. He reminded everyone of the last major tax cut under then-Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., when the top income tax rate was cut from 7 percent to a single rate of 5 percent.

Herbert, who served as Huntsman's lieutenant governor, said it's sales taxes that need attention now.

"We ought to take a look at, in fact, our sales tax, which is getting more and more unsustainable," the governor said, noting the base has shrunk from goods making up about 70 percent of spending in the 1980s to just 40 percent now.

"We've lost about 30 percent of the economy paying its fair share to help us run government. Sales tax is not keeping up  as the economy grows by 5 percent, we only pick up about 3 percent on the sales tax," he said.

While state income taxes go toward education, sales tax makes up the bulk of the state's general fund that pays for much of the rest of the budget, even a significant chunk of transportation costs despite gas tax revenues.

The governor has not yet offered details of which services should be taxed, although he has talked about limousine rides. He said imposing a tax on all services would allow the rate to drop to below 2 percent and still bring in the same revenue.

There is no price tag on the proposal outlined in his budget, but it's been estimated that some $800 million in new sales taxes would have to brought in to be able to lower the rate to 3.9 percent.

"We're going to be working closely with the Legislature to see what we can do to broaden the base and lower the rate and give at least a $200 million tax cut back to the people of Utah," Herbert said.

He said he wants to avoid a "sudden shock to the economy" by ensuring the changes to the tax system are sustainable long term, fair to all taxpayers and simple to administer.

The governor also offered an upbeat assessment of Utah's economic future.

"We're on the right road and we're going in the right direction. I understand the ups and downs of the business cycle," Herbert said, adding that a downturn doesn't mean a recession is imminent.

"We, in fact, don't allow anyone in the administration to use the 'R' word. I don't want it to become a self-fulfilling prophecy," he said, citing Utah's quick recovery from the Great Recession a decade ago.

"I certainly reject any kind of gloom and doom," the governor said. "But I'm also wise enough to know that we need to make sure that we do what we can do to insulate ourselves and prepare ourselves as we go forward."

Herbert's deputy chief of staff, Paul Edwards, said in a statement that, "Admittedly, tax reform is complex and everything is on the table. What changes should be made depends on the objectives of tax reform."

He said "lower- and middle-income households make disproportionately large contributions to the state's general fund; remedying that unfairness is very important to the governor."

Simplifying how taxes are collected by reducing compliance costs is also something Herbert is eager to do, Edwards said, as well as reducing what he described as the volatility that comes from changes in the business cycle.

He said "there could be adjustments to both sales and income tax that return $200 million of this year's surplus to taxpayers, but those adjustments will need to be demonstrably more equitable, simple and sustainable than our current system."

During the legislative panel discussion at the summit, incoming House Minority Whip Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said that tax policy will the be the top topic for lawmakers this session.

"We've been hearing it for years," Schultz said of the concerns about the tax system, including the instability of the sales tax base. "We've been talking about it for years and years. It's time to address it."SALT LAKE CITY  As Salt Lake City International Airport undergoes a massive $3.6 billion redevelopment, the leader of the nation's second-largest air carrier is touting improved passenger experiences on the ground and in the air when the new facility comes online.

Speaking Friday to an audience of business leaders at the Salt Lake Chamber's annual Economic Outlook and Public Policy Summit in downtown Salt Lake City, Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian said the expansion of the international terminal and upgrading of other amenities will greatly enhance air travel for passengers.

"We believe at Delta, and we fight against the notion that air travel is just something that must be endured," he told the audience gathered in the main ballroom of the Salt Lake Marriott Downtown at City Creek. "It should be part of an experience that you look forward to along the journey."

He said the carrier is implementing plans to replace dozens of older aircraft with new jetliners that will provide more comfort and room for domestic passengers.

"It's coming to Salt Lake in May," he told moderator Natalie Gochnour with the Kem Gardner Policy Institute. "It's a 110-seat airplane that will be the most comfortable domestic product you fly."

The Airbus A220-100 will have the widest seats in the Delta system, he said.

"There is larger overhead bin space, there's Wi-Fi, live TV, even the lav(oratory) has a window," he added.

Bastian noted that the airliner is 25 percent more fuel-efficient than the planes that it is replacing, which will help the airline significantly impact operational expenses. The first replacement jets are expected to arrive in Utah in May, he said.

He mentioned plans for a potential direct flight to Asia once the first phase of the redevelopment of the Salt Lake airport is completed in fall 2020 with an enlarged and enhanced international terminal. He also said the airline's member-only passenger lounge at the airport, the Delta Sky Club, will triple in size to accommodate more patrons and increase customer comfort.

Delta is contributing millions of dollars to the redevelopment budget of the airport, and he said that money will help the airline sustain and grow its operation at its Utah hub.

"This is a multigenerational investment that we're building so we need to make certain we're building the airport not just of today, but for tomorrow as well," he said.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta operates a fleet of 800 aircraft and employs more than 80,000 workers globally. The airline carries approximately 180 million passengers annually operating 1,500 daily flights to more than 315 destinations worldwide.

The airline has U.S. hubs in Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York, Salt Lake City and Seattle, as well as Amsterdam, London, Mexico City, Paris, Sao Paulo, Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo abroad.

The first phase of airport remodel will include a central terminal, the west end of two concourses and a parking garage. The initial phase is scheduled for completion in fall 2020, with the second phase scheduled to be finished in late 2024.

Bastian said the redevelopment will allow the airline and other carriers at the airport to maintain their high level of operational efficiency, as noted by recent reports.

Last November, the Air Travel Consumer Report from the U.S. Department of Transportation indicated that 90.4 percent of total flights at Salt Lake City International Airport arrived on time in September. Honolulu's Daniel K. Inouye International Airport was a close second at 90.2 percent.

The U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported that Honolulu, at 88 percent, and Salt Lake City, at 85.3 percent, had the highest on-time arrival performance of the 30 busiest airports for the nine-month, January-September period, while Newark, New Jersey, had the lowest at 66 percent.

Correction:An earlier version incorrectly identified the updated aircraft as the Airbus A330-200. It is actually the Airbus A220-100.SALT LAKE CITY  For parents of children with undiagnosed genetic disorders, it can be extraordinarily painful not knowing the reason for a child's symptoms  delayed speech, seizures, heart defects or extra fingers, according to clinical geneticist Dr. Karen Gripp.

Now, new artificial intelligence technology can identify genetic disorders using just a photo of a patient's face, potentially bringing peace of mind to some parents of children with rare disorders. A new study published this month in the peer-reviewed medical journal Nature Medicine found that an algorithm was better than clinicians at accurately identifying genetic syndromes with recognizable facial features. The algorithm powers an app called Face2Gene.

In one test, the AI program achieved 96.88 percent accuracy when identifying patients with Cornelia de Lange Syndrome, a developmental disorder characterized by facial features including thick, arched eyebrows, low-set ears, and a small, upturned nose. By comparison, 65 experts examining the same set of photos had a 75 percent accuracy rate. In a clinical-setting experiment involving 502 images of people with different disorders, Face2Gene correctly identified the correct syndrome in its top 10 suggestions 91 percent of the time.

Eight percent of the population is affected by syndromic genetic conditions, according to the study, which was conducted by artificial intelligence and precision medicine company FDNA. While some conditions are invisible to the eye, about 30 to 40 percent come with alterations in the face and skull, a 2014 University of Oxford study said. For example, Down syndrome is characterized by a round face, almond-shaped eyes and a protruding tongue.

The study comes at a time when applications for artificial intelligence in medicine are rapidly expanding. Research suggests AI is better than doctors at detecting lesions likely to develop into cervical cancer, flagging abnormal chest X-rays and even predicting Alzheimer's using brain imaging.

The technology behind Face2Gene program was created using a data set of 17,000 photos of people diagnosed with over 200 distinct genetic syndromes, according to the study. The program crops an image of the patient's face into different regions, assessing the probability that each part of the face matches each syndrome, and then aggregates those results to see which syndrome is the best fit.

Today, the app is being utilized by thousands of clinical geneticists around the world, according to Gripp. Each time a doctor uploads a new photo and inputs additional information about a patient, the program's suggestions become more accurate. In a little over a year, the program has gone from being able to identify about 200 conditions to more than 1,000, she added.

"Its using existing AI technologies on a problem they havent been used for before," said David Forsyth, professor of computer science at University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, whose primary research area is computer vision. Face classifier programs have been used in the past to help Facebook users know who to tag in a photo, for example, but this is the first time Forsyth has seen the technology applied in the medical field, he said.

Gripp, chief of the division of medical genetics at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware and chief medical officer for FDNA, said the program is a valuable tool in the hands of trained clinicians who can evaluate contextual information, order additional testing and ultimately provide a diagnosis.

For example, Gripp used Face2Gene to diagnose a young boy with Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome, a genetic disorder that results in an enzyme deficiency and affects growth. The boy's family came to Gripp "desperate for a diagnosis," she said. Their child was born underweight, required several surgeries and was experiencing delayed development. "But when you looked at him, his facial features did not look particularly unusual," Gripp said.

Not having a specific diagnosis can be very unsettling.  Clinical geneticist Dr. Karen Gripp

The doctor took a picture of the boy on her phone and used Face2Gene to evaluate facial clues in real time. The program, able to detect subtle characteristics that were not immediately apparent to Gripp, suggested Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome was the closest match.

"We were able to do much more targeted testing and ultimately diagnose him in that way," Gripp said.

The program saved Gripp time and guesswork, and more importantly, provided the family with the answer they were searching for, she said.

According to one European survey, 40 percent of rare diseases are initially misdiagnosed. Accurate, early diagnosis for children with certain genetic conditions can make a difference. For example, some therapies or treatments, like enzyme replacement, are more effective the earlier a kid starts, said Gripp. In addition, misdiagnosis by a clinician can affect a family's decision to have more children based on misinformation about the recurrence risk.

But according to Gripp, lack of diagnosis is a much more common problem than misdiagnosis.

"Not having a specific diagnosis can be very unsettling," she said. "Moms think about what happened during the pregnancy and might feel guilty thinking something they did or did not do caused the disorder," Gripp said.

The AI technology is not only being used for children but also adults who have grown up without a diagnosis.

Without a doubt, algorithms will play a vital and growing role in health care.  Dr. Lloyd Minor, professor of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery, at Stanford University,

Christoffer Nellaker, a research fellow at the University of Oxford and expert in rare diseases, told New Scientist, The real value here is that for some of these ultra-rare diseases, the process of diagnosis can be many, many years. This kind of technology can help narrow down the search space and then be verified through checking genetic markers, he said. For some diseases, it will cut down the time to diagnosis drastically.

Because of the complexities of genetic diagnoses, Gripp doesn't imagine jobs for doctors in this field will ever become obsolete, despite the fact that AI surpasses human ability to perform specific tasks.

Dr. Lloyd Minor, professor of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery, at Stanford University, wrote he started to sense anxiety about job security among researchers in 2017, when Stanford Medicine announced it had developed an algorithm that could interpret chest X-ray images to diagnose more than a dozen medical conditions.

"Without a doubt, algorithms will play a vital and growing role in health care. However, while they may soon become superhuman at performing certain tasks, algorithms do not have the general intelligence that people do," Minor wrote for Stanford Medicine's blog, Scope.

"Somebody needs to examine the patient, interpret results and talk to the family," said Gripp. "You could never take away the element of human interaction."

In fact, as a clinical geneticist for the past 20 years, Gripp has seen the field change dramatically. But as technologies have improved, work hasn't slowed down for clinicians. The opposite has occurred.

"Now that there are more things to consider, you need more geneticists and genetic counselors to explain what is going on and help people make choices based on the risks," Gripp said. "I think the way we do our job will continue to change dramatically, for the better, with the help of AI tools."LINDON  The Utah County Judicial Nominating Commission has scheduled a meeting on Monday, Feb. 4, to select candidates for the vacancy in the Pleasant Grove Justice Court.

The successful candidate will replace Judge Brent Bullock, who will retire effective Feb. 28. The commission will begin the meeting at 8 a.m. in the Lindon City Center, 100 N. State.

The early portion of the meeting is scheduled for public comment about issues facing the Utah judiciary and improvements to the system. Public comments will be accepted from 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Following the public comment period, the meeting will be closed to allow commission members to review applications for the vacancy.

Individuals interested in appearing before the commission during the public comment portion of the meeting should contact Amy Hernandez at 801-578-3809 or amymh@utcourts.gov to request an appointment.SALT LAKE CITY  Since the first round of rallies in January 2017, the Women's March has grown into a powerful political movement, inspiring women to vote, run for office and advocate for societal change.

And yet, ahead of its third year of events, which will take place Saturday, the organization may be better known for scandal than success. Its leaders face accusations of anti-Semitism and broader intolerance, and they're struggling with a loss of funding and rise of competing marches.

"Allegations of bigotry against leaders of Women's March, Inc., the national group formed by organizers of the 2017 march, threaten to overshadow the work of grassroots activists," CNN reported this week.

The Democratic National Committee is no longer partnering with the event in Washington, D.C. Chicago organizers decided to cancel this year's march due to lack of funding and volunteers. And in New York City, potential participants must choose between two separate events.

Today's struggles originated more than two years ago, when a group of women gathered in a New York food court to brainstorm what the Women's March could be, according to Tablet, an online Jewish magazine. Participants clashed over whether America's Jewish community has done enough to support black people or acknowledged their privileged status in the U.S., but they agreed to work together to organize rallies across the country.

The Women's March's first year of events surpassed expectations, bringing around 1 percent of the U.S. population into the streets, Vox reported. Soon after, the initial group of organizers split up, partly because of racial and religious tensions, including ongoing disagreements stemming from how some leaders approached the Jewish community.

Building this world will take a long time and will require patience and empathy for each other.  Women's March organization in a March 2018 statement

Some of the women "trademarked the name 'Women's March' and formed the group Women's March, Inc.," Vox reported. Others "split off and formed  March On, which aimed to focus on winning elections in red states."

Over the last two years, Women's March, Inc., struggled to maintain unity among a diverse network of participants. Leaders faced criticism for excluding women who oppose abortion rights and for apparent anti-Semitism, or at least standing by people widely viewed to be anti-Semitic, such as Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam.

In February 2018, co-chair Tamika Mallory sparked an outcry when she attended a Nation of Islam event and posted about it on social media. Farrakhan is "known for hate speech aimed at the Jewish community" and said "the powerful Jews are my enemy" at the event Mallory attended, CNN reported.

After the event, the Women's March organization issued a statement distancing itself from Farrakhan's remarks and asking supporters to be patient in the midst of growing paints.

"Building this world will take a long time and will require patience and empathy for each other," the statement explained.

However, some people's patience ran out last month, when Tablet and then The New York Times published investigations into ongoing conflict between the Women's March and the Jewish community. Some women's rights activists have expressed frustration with how march leaders responded to past missteps and some even called for current organizers to step down.

"In opposition to our Unity Principles, (leaders) have allowed anti-Semitism, anti-LGBTQIA sentiment and hateful, racist rhetoric to become part of the platform," wrote Teresa Shook, who is credited with first proposing a march for women, on Facebook in November 2018.

Others are more depressed than angry, worried that Women's March supporters are allowing outside forces to tear them apart.

"There's a larger issue at stake and that's the policy coming out of D.C.," said Kathy Wray Coleman, one of the organizers of Women's March Cleveland to CNN. "That was the premise of the march in the first place. We have to place our eye on the prize."

The Women's March was an important development after the election of President Donald Trump, allowing those who rejected his political agenda and hurtful rhetoric to come together, heal and forge a path forward. In 2017, participants told the Deseret News that the Women's March was empowering and exciting.

"The diversity of opinions expressed was unbelievable. The whole feeling was 'We're all in this together,'" said Jody England Hansen of Salt Lake City to the Deseret News at the time.

This year, there will still be events affiliated with the Women's March, Inc., in Washington, D.C., New York, Salt Lake City and dozens of other cities. The organization plans to use the rallies to encourage political activism around issues like universal health care and hate crime prevention.

In 2019 and beyond, the Women's March needs to be willing to have tough conversations and do better, learning from past successes and past failures, said Jody Rabhan, director of government relations and advocacy for the National Council of Jewish Women, to CNN.

"To move our collective agenda forward, we need to be in communication and relationship with one another  no matter how complex it may be. This leads to stronger partnerships and outcomes. What unites us is far greater than what divides us," she said.What will the home of the future look like?

That's what's on the mind of tech industry leaders right now, as they debate how to best incorporate artificial intelligence into our daily lives, hoping it will one day influence the way we live, work and play.

On Friday afternoon at the Silicon Slopes tech summit, Robert Rueckert, the managing director of Sorenson Capital, hosted a conversation with two leaders  Vivnt's Matthew Mahar and Health Catalyst's Dale Sanders. The trio spoke candidly about how AI will influence our worlds moving forward.

Mahar said adding artificial intelligence into the home adds a tremendous value to customers and families, which is why it's an area that needs more AI.

"The home is one of the best spots to start, really," he said. Theres so much opening in the home.

Right now, smart homes work to make people's lives easier. But Mahar said that AI can make it feel like people have a smart home without going into a series of apps to control everything.

He said he'd like to see AI manage energy of the home, giving people back time. He also hopes it would help people obtain more control of their home.

For example, Mahar said he'd like to see smart home artificial intelligence become personalized. He said he and his wife have different preferences, and it'd be nice to see a smarthome AI system understand those differences.

What I think the opportunity is to make it specific between myself and my wife," he said.

Mahar said he anticipates a pretty active smart home in close to five years. In the future, he does expect smart homes to have extra security systems to protect homes with defense.

Sanders quipped, When are you guys going to shave for me?

Sanders said he hoped for something similar in the health care industry. He said it'd be great to see artificial intelligence predict no-shows for doctor appointments or even theorize about possible diseases people will have before they walk into a doctor's office.

Both admitted that there seems to be an ebb-and-flow of interest in AI. It's not a new term, and sometimes it becomes more popular than not.

And neither expect to see AI take over all aspects of our lives. At least not yet, anyway. Futuristic artificial intelligence won't have the emotions that humans do, either, which will limit them.

But the future looks bright.

Were probably in something of renaissance," Mahar said. "Were definitely at a point where somethings going to happen."Photo: Colin Dacre

Crown prosecutors are seeking an 18-24 month sentence for a man who broke into the Penticton home of his ex-spouse and assaulted her before taking off with the pairs two-year-old.

Mitchell Racine, 35, pleaded guilty to one count of break and enter and one count of assault stemming from the Nov. 19, 2015 incident.

Police were called to a Penticton home that morning for a domestic assault and arrived to find a smashed window, door and television as well as a crying woman.

Court heard Racine had broken into the home and took the pairs young child, assaulting the mother in the process. The victim sustained a large black eye and significant swelling and bruising to her face.

Racine had been barred from the home by the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

When police attended the motel where Racine lived, the child was found unharmed. Racine was arrested for assault.

One of the most serious and aggravating aspects of this case is the fact that a young child was taken without permission from the mother it is extremely troubling, said Crown prosecutor Kurt Froehlich.

The Crown requested an 18 to 24 month jail term and two years probation.

Defence lawyer Tiffany Zanatta told the courts her client is extremely regretful about the incident and wants to attend treatment for alcohol addiction so he can be a part of his daughters life again.

He hasnt seen her for quite some time and this has been very tough on him, because that little girl, he informs me, is his life, Zanatta said.

The defence argued that the 134 days worth of prison time Racine has already served should be enough of a sentence. At the time of the offence, Racine had just one prior criminal conviction for mischief, although he has since caught new cases in Alberta where he returned to after being released on bail.

Zanatta called the Crowns suggested sentence excessive and unreasonable.

I just apologize for everything. I just want to go home and start my treatment and be with my daughter eventually, Racine said when given the chance to speak.

The judge reserved her sentence for a later date.The Washington Posts Julie Tate and Dan Lamothe in Washington and Alex Horton in Dubai contributed to this report.Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal. His e-mail is lhenry@lincolninstitute.org.crime

Ridley bar dispute results in myriad charges against two Chester womencommunity

Five Women Wearing the Same Dress on stage at Players ClubThe two leaders had met on June 12 last year in Singapore for the first summit.(Photo:File)

Washington: US President Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in late February on Pyongyang dismantling its nuclear and missile programmes, the White House has announced.

The two leaders had met on June 12 last year in Singapore for the first summit. The White House, however, did not identify a location for the second setting between the two leaders. The announcement came after Trump met with North Korean envoy, Kim Yong Chol, on Friday for a discussion that included talk about Kim Jong-un's unfulfilled pledge to dismantle his country's nuclear weapons programmes.

President Trump sat down with Kim Yong Chol, a high-level official in North Korea's Communist government, in the Oval Office, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

"President Donald J Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and half, to discuss denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February.

"The president looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date. she said in a statement. The press secretary told reporters:

"We continue to make progress, we continue to have conversations." The US is going to continue to keep "pressure and sanctions" on North Korea until "we see fully and verifiable denuclearization", she said.

"We had very good steps and very good faith from the North Koreans with the release of hostages and other moves and so we'll continue this conversation. And the President looks forward to it next February," Sanders' told reporters.

The North Korean envoy arrived at the White House after a closed-door meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US special envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun at a hotel here. Following the White House meeting the North Korean official and a delegation he was leading were invited to lunch by Pompeo at Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.

The Secretary, Special Representative Biegun, and Vice Chairman Kim discussed efforts to make progress on the commitments President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un made at their summit in Singapore. At the conclusion of the Secretary's meeting with Vice Chairman Kim, the two sides held a productive first meeting at the working level, State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino said.

Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman said that in Singapore, Trump capitulated to Kim Jong-un  handing North Korea a propaganda coup in exchange for empty words. During a second summit, he must deliver concrete, verifiable commitments from Pyongyang, he demanded.

Last year in Singapore, Trump had described his first-ever historic meeting with Kim Jong-un as "really fantastic" and said they had agreed to "sign" an unspecified document after their "very positive" summit, aimed at normalising ties and complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. The US president had said he believed he and Kim Jong-un will "solve a big problem, a big dilemma" and that by working together, "we will get it taken care of".

The summit at Singapore's Sentosa island - the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader - had marked a turnaround of relations between Trump, 72, and Kim, 36, after a long-running exchange of threats and insults. The US insists it will accept nothing less than complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.Washington: Thousands of anti-abortion activists rallied in Washington on Friday at the annual March for Life -- with the staunch support of President Donald Trump.

Trump, who became the first sitting president to address the demonstration last year, appeared once again by videolink, and Vice President Mike Pence made a surprise appearance at what organizers call "the world's largest pro-life event."

"Today, I have signed a letter to Congress to make clear that if they send any legislation to my desk that weakens the protection of human life, I will veto," Trump said.

Pence, with his wife Karen at his side, assured demonstrators: "From the White House to your house, life is winning in America once again." The march is organized each year on or near an anniversary that infuriates anti-abortion activists -- the Supreme Court's ruling in Roe v. Wade, which legalized the procedure nationwide on January 22, 1973.

The anniversary offers the religious right an opportunity to rally its forces and demand that the law be changed. "Every life matters from the moment of conception until natural death, not just babies but every human being," Mary Ryback, a mother who traveled from Milwaukee to participate in the rally, told AFP.

She said she came to Washington to "pray to end the horrible things going on with the people in this country that think they have the right -- which is only God's -- to give life and take it away."

The crowd, which included students from religious schools around the country, carried many signs with various slogans: "Defend Life," "Love Life, Choose Life" or "Let God Plan Parenthood." Indiana resident Dave Doran called the decision in Roe v. Wade "an atrocity."

He said that even if it is never reversed, "we can provide new laws that will define personhood and give the fetus and child the protection of our US Constitution." As it does each year, the march left the National Mall, and ended at the Supreme Court behind the Capitol building.

Since taking office in 2017, Trump has named two justices to the Supreme Court who oppose abortion, leading activists who support abortion rights to fear that Roe v. Wade could be overturned. While Roe v. Wade remains the law of the land, numerous states have taken measures to limit access to abortions.

In November, voters in Alabama approved an amendment to the state constitution that affords a fetus the same rights as a newborn child. The text also says that the state does not protect the right to an abortion. Alabama does not make exceptions in cases of incest, rape or danger to the mother's life.New York: Elon Musk's electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors announced Friday it was cutting its workforce by about seven percent in a push to keep the Model 3 affordable for middle-income consumers.

Shares plunged following the announcement, which also signaled a tough profit road ahead for Tesla. The round of job cuts -- which follow an earlier downsizing announced in June -- comes as the envelope-pushing company faces pressure in its home market on prices from the phasing-out of a tax credit for electric car purchases.

Musk did not release an estimate of the employment hit but the company had 45,000 employees in October, suggesting about 3,150 would be cut. Musk, who originally conceived of the Model 3 as a reasonably priced option for consumers who could not pay the lofty prices of its first two vehicles, said action was needed if the company was to succeed in its mission of challenging conventional autos.

"While we have made great progress, our products are still too expensive for most people," Musk said in a blog post announcing the layoffs. "We need to continue making progress towards lower priced variants of Model 3."

Tesla's most affordable offering is currently a less-endowed version of the Model 3 at USD 44,000, a car that sells for as much as USD 59,000 with more features. Tesla originally discussed a price-tag of USD 35,000 for the car.

Selling the Model 3 at the higher price has enhanced profitability at the expense of access to the vehicles' intended market. Complicating matters further is the phasing down from USD 7,500 per vehicle of a US tax credit to encourage more sales of the environmentally friendly cars.

The need for "lower-priced variants of Model 3 becomes even greater on July 1," when a US tax credit drops by half, making the car USD 1,875 more expensive, and again at the end of the year when it goes away entirely, said the flamboyant Musk, who also heads SpaceX.

Rival automakers such as General Motors and Volkswagen are introducing more electric models that are priced competitively, a dynamic made possible by their fleets of conventional autos, including sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, which have wide profit margins. Tesla shares sank 13.0 percent to USD 302.26.

"Tesla probably increased its employee base by more than it needed to last year and is laying off some of those workers to bring down costs," said CFRA Research analyst Garrett Nelson.

"For most auto manufacturers, the cost-cutting would be received positively but in Tesla's case, investors start to second guess whether the real issue is demand." The job cuts announced Friday follow Tesla's move in June to trim its workforce by about nine percent.

Musk described that round of belt-tightening as necessary to enhance profitability, a goal that he said was essential to demonstrate that environmentally friendly autos could be a viable business. In October, Tesla reported third-quarter profits of USD 312 million.

In Friday's blog post, Musk said preliminary results indicated that fourth-quarter profits would be smaller than in the prior quarter and that the outlook was tougher still for the first quarter of 2019 as it delivers its first Model 3 sales in Asia and Europe at higher price points. Musk hopes for a "tiny profit" in the current quarter, something that will require "great difficulty, effort and some luck," he said.

"Musk is right to say in the memo that Tesla's products are 'still too expensive for most people,'" said Morningstar analyst David Whiston, who predicted the company would face more "growing pains" and competition.

"If it can stay viable, we think (Tesla) can enjoy strong momentum with the Model 3 for a while because the vehicle is just now being sold in foreign markets and the entry-level version is not available anywhere," Whiston said.

Tesla last month named two independent directors, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Walgreens Boots Alliance Executive Vice President Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, as part of an agreement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to settle fraud charges against Musk after his quickly aborted effort last summer to take Tesla private.

Musk has been a polarizing figure in corporate America over the last couple of years, winning praise from many over his trailblazing entrepreneurship but frequently turning heads over his unconventional and sometimes bizarre behavior, as when he appeared to be smoking marijuana during an interview that was webcast.Washington: United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said multilateralism is needed to solve global challenges such as climate change and terrorism. Convinced that simply saying this will not make it happen, he said dismissing or vilifying the doubters of multilateralism will lead nowhere.

The truth is that many people around the world are not convinced of the power and purpose of international cooperation. We need to understand why - and act on that understanding, he told reporters Friday at a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York.

Guterres said that as "we look to the challenges we face  from climate change to migration to terrorism to the downsides of globalisation  there is no doubt in my mind that global challenges require global solutions." No country can do it alone.

"We need today multilateralism more than ever, he said. The UN secretary general said when he served in the government in Portugal in the 1990s, there was a "sense, a naive sense as it turned out," that globalisation and technological progress would solve all the problems in the world and the benefits would ultimately reach all.

Now, a generation later, the world has seen indeed many benefits. There has been a dramatic increase in global wealth, infant mortality is down, life expectancy has increased and there has been significant reduction in extreme poverty, he said. But, inequalities have grown among countries, even more so within them.

People, sectors, entire regions have been left behind, Guterres rued. "They have been left behind in an atmosphere of overall global prosperity -- adding to their hurt and sense of unfairness. When people see a global economy that is out of whack, when they feel they have no chance, no hope, and no leader or institution tuned to their problems, instability and mistrust are sure to follow, he said.

Observing that there is a huge deficit of trust in governments, political establishments and international organisations, he said at such times, explanations can sound like excuses, and people can become easy targets for nationalists, populists and all those who profit from fear.

The best-selling brand in our world today is indeed fear. It gets ratings. It wins votes. It generates clicks. So I believe the biggest challenge that governments and institutions face today is to show that we care -- and to mobilize solutions that respond to people's fears and anxieties with answers, concrete answers, Guterres said.

The secretary general said the UN needs to demonstrate through concrete solutions that it is standing up for the people left behind and is connected to their needs, aspirations and everyday problems. The key is a fair globalisation, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is the UN's blueprint for that fair globalisation, he said.

The world body also need to ensure education, training and safety nets to support all those who are sidelined by change and help them regain opportunity and hope for their future.

Second, we need to show the added value of the United Nations, Guterres said. Finally the UN needs to enlist every segment of society in the battle for values that the world faces today. In particular, to tackle the rise of hate speech, xenophobia and intolerance, he said.

We hear troubling, hateful echoes of eras long past. Poisonous views are penetrating political debates and polluting the mainstream, Guterres said He added that hate speech and crimes are direct threats to human rights, sustainable development and peace.Toronto: Canada's public safety minister said on Friday that the country won't be deterred by Chinese pressure after China threatened reprisals if Huawei was banned from supplying equipment for 5G networks, highlighting the growing rift between America's neighbor and the emerging superpower.

There are accusations that the telecom giant is controlled by China's ruling Communist Party or is required to facilitate Chinese spying. The U.S., Australia, Japan and other governments have imposed curbs on use of its technology. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Canada has been abundantly clear it will not compromise national security.

"It's a difficult challenge but we'll not be deterred by what we believe to be right and what we believe to be in the interests of Canada," Goodale said. Lu Shaye, China's ambassador to Canada, warned Thursday of repercussions if Canada bars the firm from its new 5G network.

"One of the things that is of concern in this situation is the blending of Chinese commercial interests with Chinese political positioning and consequences. That's something that I think should be of concern to Canadians and people around the world," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

Canada and its security agencies are studying whether to use equipment from Huawei as phone carriers prepare to roll out fifth-generation technology. 5G is designed to support a vast expansion of networks to facilitate medical devices, self-driving cars and other technology.

That increases the risk of potential security failures and has prompted governments to treat telecom communications networks as strategic assets. But the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Canada on Dec. 1 at the request of the United States has created a growing diplomatic rift between China and Canada.

Meng is the chief financial officer of Huawei and the daughter of its founder. The U.S. wants her extradited to face charges that she committed fraud by misleading banks about Huawei's business dealings in Iran.

China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor 10 days after Meng's arrest on allegations that they were "engaging in activities that endanger the national security" of China in an apparent attempt to pressure Canada to release her.

China also sentenced another Canadian, Robert Schellenberg, to death Monday in a sudden retrial of his drug-smuggling case. John McCallum, Canada's ambassador to China, said the path that China is on is not in their interest.

"It's not in the interests of corporate China if when they run into trouble internationally the Chinese government arrests people to use as bargaining chips," McCallum said.

"That is the perception of much of the world and that is not good for the reputation of Chinese business people." On Thursday, Lu warned Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland not to use next week's World

Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, to press for support against China. He also said Canada's arrest of Meng was an act of "backstabbing" by Canada and called it "politically motivated."

Freeland has said the detention of two Canadians will be at the top of her agenda in Davos and didn't back down from her position after hearing about the ambassador's remark. Canada maintains Meng's arrest is a matter of rule of law and says it is acting according to its international treaty obligations. Trudeau said Canada would continue to speak out. "A lot of countries share the concern," Trudeau said.

Huawei's image suffered a new blow last week when Polish authorities announced that a Chinese employee was arrested on spying charges. Huawei said it fired the employee and the allegations were unrelated to the company. Meng is now out on bail in Canada and is awaiting extradition proceedings. A hearing is scheduled for next month.

McCallum said his top priority is to get the detained Canadians home and save the life of the third Canadian. He briefed lawmakers on Parliament Hill on Friday and said he's been talking to Canadian businesses that work in China.

He still thinks China will play an important role in Canada's future, noting that the country's tourism industry, farmers and universities are all highly dependent on China.

"I think it is best we move forward as much as we can under the circumstances," he said. Canada had previously talked about doing a possible free trade teal with China, but McCallum said that's certainly not an issue Canada is considering now.The state-run China Securities Journal cited an internal company report on corruption, which said that more than 40 people at privately-held DJI had been investigated.

Chinas SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd, the worlds largest maker of consumer drones, has discovered several cases of serious corruption at the company and expects 2018 losses of more than 1 billion yuan ($150 million) as a result, it said on Friday.

The company said it was investigating the cases, which came to light during routine quality control in 2018, and that it had handed a number over to the authorities.

DJI condemns any form of corruption strongly and has set up a high-level anti-corruption task force to investigate further and strengthen anti-corruption measures, it said.

A number of corruption cases have been handed over to the authorities, and some employees have been dismissed, it added.

The state-run China Securities Journal cited an internal company report on corruption, which said that more than 40 people at privately-held DJI had been investigated.

Several Chinese technology companies have recently launched initiatives to stamp out corruption, and earlier this month Beijing-based ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing said it had dismissed more than 80 employees in 2018 over corruption.

DJIs human resources department was quoted by the newspaper as saying it employed 12,000 people at the end of 2018 and expected to grow to 14,000 by the end of the year.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.Chinas ambassador to Canada issued the threat on Thursday as relations between the two nations continued to deteriorate after a senior Huawei executive was arrested in Vancouver last month on a US extradition warrant. China has also detained two Canadians.

Canadas government dismissed Chinas warning of repercussions if Ottawa banned Huawei Technologies Co Ltd from supplying equipment to 5G networks, saying it would not compromise on security.

Chinas ambassador to Canada issued the threat on Thursday as relations between the two nations continued to deteriorate after a senior Huawei executive was arrested in Vancouver last month on a US extradition warrant. China has also detained two Canadians.

Canadian officials are studying the security implications of 5G networks, the latest generation of cellular mobile communications, but their report is not expected in the immediate future, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

Some Canadian allies have already imposed restrictions on using Huawei equipment, citing the risk of espionage.

Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, asked at a cabinet retreat about the Chinese ambassadors remarks, said Ottawa had already made clear it would not cut corners on national security.

We understand that those sorts of comments will be made in the process, but we will make our judgment based on what is right for Canada and not be deterred from making the right decision, he told reporters.

We are determined to stand our ground based on what is right for Canada ... this is a tough and turbulent world.

Goodale noted that China had made similar comments after Australia banned Huawei from supplying 5G equipment last year.

Western intelligence agencies have for years raised concerns about Huaweis ties to Chinas government and the possibility its equipment could be used for espionage.

China detained the two Canadians last month after Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei, was arrested in Vancouver on a US extradition request.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later told reporters he was concerned about the apparent blending of Chinese commercial interests with Chinese political positioning.

Trudeau has called several world leaders in recent weeks to raise concerns about the case of the two Canadians. The Chinese ambassador on Thursday advised Canada to stop seeking support from allies.

We are going to continue to stand up for the rule of law ... this is something we continue to impress upon the Chinese authorities, firmly and respectfully, Trudeau said at the end of a cabinet retreat in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.As part of the transaction, a portion of Fossil Groups research and development (R&D) team currently supporting the transferring IP will join Google.

Fossil Group announces its plan to sell to Google for $40 million, intellectual property (IP) related to a smartwatch technology currently under development by the Fossil Group. As part of the transaction, a portion of Fossil Groups research and development (R&D) team currently supporting the transferring IP will join Google. Fossil Group retains more than 200 R&D team members to focus on innovation and product development. The transaction showcases Fossil Group and Googles shared investment in the wearables industry. In recent years, smartwatches have become Fossil Groups fastest growing category. The company successfully developed and launched smartwatches across 14 of its owned and licensed brands.

Fossil Group has experienced significant success in its wearables business by focusing on product design and development informed by our strong understanding of consumers needs and style preferences, said Greg McKelvey, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Digital Officer, Fossil Group.

Weve built and advanced a technology that has the potential to improve upon our existing platform of smartwatches. Together with Google, our innovation partner, well continue to unlock growth in wearables." Wearables, built for wellness, simplicity, personalization and helpfulness, have the opportunity to improve lives by bringing users the information and insights they need quickly, at a glance.

The addition of Fossil Groups technology and team to Google demonstrates our commitment to the wearables industry by enabling a diverse portfolio of smartwatches and supporting the ever-evolving needs of the vitality-seeking, on-the-go consumer, said Stacey Burr, Vice President of Product Management, Wear OS by Google. The transaction is expected to close this month.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.The issue with the Angara A5 was brought to attention by scientists at rocket engine manufacturer Energomash in a paper ahead of a space conference later this month.

Scientists have discovered a defect in the engines of Russias new flagship heavy lift space rocket that could destroy it in flight, an apparent setback to a project President Vladimir Putin has said is vital for national security.

The Angara A5, which was test-launched in 2014, is being developed to replace the Proton M as Russias heavy lift rocket, capable of carrying payloads bigger than 20 tonnes into orbit. A launch pad for the new rocket is due to open in 2021.

In July, Putin said the Angara A5 had huge significance for the countrys defense and called on space agency Roscosmos to work more actively on it and to meet all its deadlines.

The issue with the Angara A5 was brought to attention by scientists at rocket engine manufacturer Energomash in a paper ahead of a space conference later this month.

The paper, reported by RIA news agency on Friday and published online, said the engines of the Angara A5 could produce low frequency oscillations that could ultimately destroy the rocket.

A special valve had been fitted to mitigate the issue, but in some cases the oscillations continued, it said. Energomash did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Russias space program has been dogged by mishaps in recent years, including failed cargo delivery missions into space and the aborted launch in October of the manned Soyuz mission to the International Space Station.

Russias current heavy lift rocket, the Proton M, has had a nearly 10 per cent failure rate in more than 100 launches since it entered service in 2001, creating pressure to reorganize and improve the space program.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.Assam has been on the boil ever since the Lok Sabha passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016. Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, AGP leader and former chief minister, who was a signatory to the Assam Accord in 1985, spoke with Manoj Anand on the issue.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill is an all-India Act. Why is it being opposed only in Assam?

In the entire nation, determination of citizenship is done under the Citizenship Act, 1955. After our anti-foreigners movement against lakhs of illegal migrants from Bangladesh who settled in Assam, we got the Assam Accord in 1985 and a new cut-off date, March 24, 1971, to determine citizens. Though we wanted that the cut-off date should be 1951 but the then Congress government imposed a new cut-off date for Assam  March 24, 1971. Thereby, we were forced to take the burden of immigrants for 20 more years.

The Assam Accord says that anyone who has entered Assam after March 24, 1971, would be treated as an illegal migrant and will be deported. But now this government wants us to take the burden of more people who have entered Assam upto December 2014.

The AGP entered into an electoral alliance with the BJP. Was this issue not a part of the agreement?

Yes. We did bring up the issue of the Assam Accord and we said that it has to be protected and implemented. The BJP promised us that they would implement the Accord, word by word, in letter and spirit, but they brought this Bill by the backdoor. If the Bill is passed, it will not only violate the provisions of the Accord but because of this legislation, the indigenous people of Assam will lose their linguistic and cultural identities, and even their political rights. They will become minorities in their own homeland as the amendments will make more illegal migrants Indian citizens. Assam will become an overpopulated state.

Formation of the state was done on the basis of language, like West Bengal for Bengali speaking and Tamil Nadu for Tamil-speaking people. If the Citizenship Bill, after its amendment with a new cut-off date, is implemented, Assam will no longer be a state of Assamese-speaking people.

The AGP had joined the alliance after meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Did the AGP approach the top BJP leadership to express their concerns?

I would like to remind Prime Minister Narendra Modi just to assess the promises that he had given to the people of Assam as a prime ministerial candidate in 2014. I was present in many of his public meetings. He had promised that after May 16 that year, after he assumed charge as Prime Minister, all illegal Bangladeshis living in Assam would be deported, bag and baggage. Has he been able to keep that promise? Instead, he has now welcomed them and wants to give them citizenship. Even the land border agreement with Bangladesh, which he opposed during the elections, was signed soon after assuming office. We met Union home minister Rajnath Singh soon after the BJP introduced the Citizenship (amendment) Bill 2016. The Union home minister had assured us of not pushing the Bill, but subsequently they betrayed us by passing it in Lok Sabha.

In fact, we expected that the BJP government would help in correcting the injustice that was done by imposing a separate cut-off date for Assam.

Now the AGP has broken the alliance with the BJP. What will be the future course of the AGP?

I have noticed some speculation in the media indicating that the AGP is moving closer to the Congress. It is mere speculation by the media. The AGP will never go with the Congress under any circumstances. We had chosen the BJP as a natural ally but they have betrayed us. The Prime Minister and top BJP leaders ignored us on many issues but it was most disheartening that on a crucial issue like the Citizenship Bill they chose to ignore us. We are in touch with many regional parties, but the AGP has not taken any decision on joining any specific alliance at the national level. We are going to discuss this issue soon at our party forum. We will also take the opinion of intellectuals, social activists and non-political forces involved in the anti-Citizenship Bill movement in the state and region. Our prime focus is to block this Bill in Rajya Sabha.

You are one of the signatories to the Assam Accord and served as chief minister for two terms. Did you ever imagine that the cut-off date for identification and deportation of foreigners could be extended upto December 2014?

Never. The Assam Accord, after it was signed, received unanimous support from all parties in Parliament. There was no apprehension then. Now, there are many people who are questioning us on accepting March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date. They are just trying to take advantage of the situation. In fact, we have been pushing for 1951 as the cut-off date, but the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had sent us a message through the then governor L.P. Singh that the government is planning to propose 1966 as cut-off date. Will the AASU leadership agree to it? The meeting in which Congress leaders, including former chief minister Tarun Gogoi, were also present could not create consensus. Mr Gogoi was among those who opposed the 1966 cut-off date and demanded 1971. You must have seen that even now, in the forefront of changing the cut-off date, are some ex-Congress leaders, now in the BJP. (Mr Mahanta said this in an obvious reference to BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma).

What now for Assam with protests refusing to die out? What could be its fall out?

What can the people of Assam do when they have a government in New Delhi which does not understand the language of democracy? They have been trying to impose this Bill forcibly. If the Bill is passed, people of Assam will have one option  to approach the court. However, our democratic protests will continue. Because of such governments, which do not understand the language of democracy, so many undemocratic movements are growing in the region as well as the country today.

There has been complete harmony between Assamese and Bengali speaking people in Assam but through this amendment a division is sought to be created between the two communities.The dancing women move from one area to the next after a few songs, unless there is someone who is paying a lot of money for someone particular to remain.

The tradition and culture of the dance bar originated in Mumbai, particularly the area around Mumbai Central. Similar (and larger) places exist in the suburbs of the city and outside of Mumbai, but even their origin was in the area described above. The tradition may have to do with the public performance called Lavani, which is unique to Maharashtra.

The formats of the places are similar. Small groups of men, and sometimes their families, sit around tables facing a small open area where half-a-dozen women dance to Hindi songs. The women are dressed fully. The waiters serve alcohol, and even soft drinks are priced at the same level as beer. The women who are dancing are sometimes showered with currency notes by men who leave their table and go to the open area. The men are discouraged from touching the women, and there are a few bouncers who regulate what is going on. There is probably a simple system for working out how the money that has been thrown is distributed and who gets what, though I do not know what it is. The women do not reach out or collect the fallen notes; someone else does that.

The dance bar usually has multiple areas and the ones on the higher floors are reserved for clients willing to pay more money for privacy. The dancing women move from one area to the next after a few songs, unless there is someone who is paying a lot of money for someone particular to remain.

I went to one place many years ago out of curiosity when I was editing a newspaper in Mumbai and I did not find the experience unpleasant. Similar places exist in other parts of the world, for example in Thailand and even in Japan.

However, these places have not faced the anger of the state as they have done in India. In Mumbai, under the Congress government of Vilasrao Deshmukh, the dance bars were first banned about 15 years ago. This happened at the instance of the home minister, R.R. Patil, who was from a village and did not like the ways of the big city. His particular objection was to women working at night and he claimed he was doing it to protect them. The bar dancers, who were aware of the politics around their issue, protested to him but he did not listen.

The dance bar went underground after this and places continued to function, though the famous ones in Central Mumbai had to shut down or change the nature of their work, because they were operating legally.

The constituency that was affected by the ban was not big, and the public at large does not sympathise with them, and so the political parties kept figuring out ways to keep the ban going. This has changed with the Supreme Court saying this week that the ban was illegal. The state can regulate but it cannot prohibit. In particular, I was interested in the language that the judges used. They said that a practice which may not be immoral by societal standards cannot be thrust upon society as immoral by the state with its own notion of morality and thereby exercise social control and that standards of morality in a society change with the passage of time.

The court said that the ban on alcohol at the dance bars was totally disproportionate, unreasonable and arbitrary, and the requirement for a licensee to be of good character too vague. It also said that the government could not insist on CCTVs to regulate the places because this was a violation of privacy.

The court upheld the ban on throwing or showering coins, currency notes, etc that could lead to any untoward incident, but said that handing over of the notes to the dancers personally is not inappropriate. I find this strange because showering of money on individuals is an Indian tradition and happens even at weddings.

Overall, the judgment is very liberal and it will be interesting to see what sort of places will come up in Mumbai because of it. The court rejected the requirement for a monthly salary, saying this would restrict the womens option of performing at more than one bar. Many of us will not like the fact that places like dance bars exist, because we see them, in some way, as corrupting the society and a bad influence. We are convinced that what goes on is morally wrong and the women are exploited, though we do not ask the women participating in this if they enjoy their work or are proud of it.

Whether we like it or not, whether we see it this way or not, social progress is linked to morality and particularly to how we view women. This is why conservative nations that avoid difficult debates are usually the ones which are last to make progress.

The same instinct that thinks that women should remain at home and not be at the workplace objects to the dance bar. That is why, even if it makes many uncomfortable, what India has allowed through this judgment is absolutely the right thing.The Niti Aayogs strategy document Strategy for New India@75 has recommended several measures to reform the Indian bureaucracy. Among them is compulsory retirement for underperforming babus, reducing the number of existing civil services, and bringing down the age limit for general category candidates from 32 years to 27 years, among many others. The thinktank has also suggested one all-India examination for both state and central civil services.

While many of these suggested reforms would be just what the doctor ordered to revive the ailing civil services, sources say that the government is unlikely to take them up for fear of having to pay a political price during the general elections, barely a few months away. The Niti Aayog is not the first to make these recommendations. Several committees and the Second Administrative Reforms Commission have done so earlier, but these reports were shelved for fear of disturbing the status quo. The earlier reports are reportedly languishing since the government fears the political ramifications. In all likelihood, the Niti Aayogs suggestions will meet the same fate.

Medical service cadre in limbo

In 2017, the Modi sarkar moved a proposal to set up an All India Medical Service (AIMS) cadre along the lines of the IAS and IPS. Though a long-pending demand of medical professionals, the proposal is still to make any meaningful headway. Health being a state subject, the government is awaiting the views of the states to the proposal.

According to sources, though the Union health secretary had written to all chief secretaries soliciting their response, only six states have responded so far. These include Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Sikkim, Goa and Mizoram. Two union territories  Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Andaman and Nicobar  have also replied. But even among these states, Andhra Pradesh has sought a more comprehensive proposal from the Union Health Ministry before signing on. And since any further development will depend on the responses of the various state governments, it does seem that the proposal may take a long while before it comes through.

IPS shocker

Indian Police Service (IPS) officers are reportedly upset with the recommendations made by a parliamentary committee headed by former Union minister P. Chidambaram, which asked the government to end their hegemony over the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF). The Parliamentary Committee for Home recommended that the services of IPS officers in these forces be gradually phased out, and their deputation be reduced to just 25 per cent.

While the report has come as a vindication of the sentiments of CAPF officers, IPS officers have declared the recommendation unnecessary and dangerous. While each force consists of its own cadres, they are all, as a rule, headed by IPS officers, who occupy the position of the director-general (DG). Even other positions like the additional DG, inspector-general and deputy IG are mostly reserved for IPS officers. This has led to enormous resentment among officers of the CAPF cadre, who believe their exclusion from the top ranks in their own forces is discriminatory and unfair.

The panel, however, felt that allowing CAPF cadre officers to head their own forces would not only go a long way to boost the morale of the CAPFs but will also provide a bigger pool of qualified officers.

Dismayed by the recommendations of the committee, the IPS Association is contemplating writing to Mr Chidambaram and the other members. Not surprisingly, they are being supported by the IAS Association.In his compilation, Mishkat al-Masabih, an anthology of authentic prophetic traditions, Khatib al-Tibrizi quotes Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as saying: Your leaders will be a reflection of yourselves.

What we learn from this hadith is an interface between two distinct things: politics and ethics. On the one hand, there is the mentality of people, their likes and dislikes, and so on; and, on the other hand is the leadership of a society. The political structure and the nature of the leadership of any society are indelibly shaped by the former, as the above hadith tells us. Thus, we also infer from this hadith that spiritual masters, Sufis and mystics are impelled to shape peoples minds and guide their souls on the path of love, leaving the task of governing people to political leaders.

It can be understood in this context as to why the head of the Sufis, Ibn Arab? persistently focuses on the wadat-ul-wujd (unity of existence). He actually seeks to reduce mans moral and ethical choice to an illusion until s/he realises himself or herself to be one with the Divine.

Ethics and politics occupied a central position in the thought of another Sufi giant and the 11th centurys Islamic philosopher, Imam Ghazali. Most of his books on ethics, theology and metaphysics offer a candid exposition of his Sufi ideas on ethics. In his magnum opus entitled Ihya ul-uloom (Revival of Sciences), Ghazali defined ethics as the science of the secrets of religion (ilm asraf al-Deen) and the science of the path of hereafter (ilm tareeq al-Akhirah).

Contemporary Sufi thinkers like Abdullah bin Bayyah and his disciple Shaykh Hamza Yusuf who loosely adhere to the Ghazalian school of Sufism, observe a distinction between ethics and politics. Some Sufis even warn of the toxic effects of mixing religion with politics. But this is not a complete rejection of politics, given that Indian Sufis like Shaikh Sirhindi and Shah Waliullah termed politics as Siyasat-e-Batiniya (internal politics or self-governance). They encouraged the ulema to engage in the right sort of government and believed that if peoples thoughts are corrupted, their rulers will be no different. Therefore, these Sufis charged themselves with the task of Siyasat-e-Batiniyah to improve the condition of what they called Siyasat-e-Kharijiya (external politics).

In fact, a number of Sufis led a non-violent resistance against the colonial forces. The first fatwa in the 1857 revolt against the British in India was issued by the Sufi ulema  Sadruddin Azurdah Dehlvi, Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi, Inayat Kakorvi and many others who became prisoners in the Andaman and Nicobar islands because of their contributions to the Freedom Movement.

Amadou Bamba, the founder of the Muridiya Sufi order in West Africa, led a non-violent resistance against the French colonial forces and penned this poetry:

They said to me, dwell at the doors of Sultans:

You will receive enriching bounties every now and then.

I said: God alone suffices me and I am content with Him.

I only covet knowledge and my faith.

I plead not, nor fear except my King,

Because only Almighty can enrich me and save me.Finance minister Arun Jaitleys blog post on Thursday  where he hammered the governments critics as being compulsive contrarians  and his speech from America, where he has gone for treatment, the same day for an awards function where he took to task the nawabs of negativity  playing on the expression nattering nabobs of negativism coined by former US vice-president Spiro T. Agnew to condemn a very critical media, is all good fun. But the same cant be said of the hints he threw in that speech that on February 1 he is likely to present a regular Budget, not a vote-on-account. This will be doing violence to a long-held parliamentary convention which has roots in constitutional morality.

In our parliamentary system, taken from the Westminster model, its only an elected government that has the right to impose taxes. This is why the convention grew that an outgoing government, shortly before a general election, issues no fresh proposals regarding taxation.

However, in order to run the government and manage the affairs of state in the final days of its elected term, the finance minister seeks Parliaments approval for a vote-on-account in lieu of a regular Budget, that is, the permission to spend already-earmarked funds. The Budget proper  with indications on major policies to be adopted, taxation and expenditure proposals  is rightly understood to be the incoming governments domain.

A government whose term is ending soon must not saddle its successor with bills it runs up according to its lights. Thus Mr Jaitleys hint that he might bypass convention to help out farmers and take other measures is veering in the wrong direction.However, there is little chance of getting the Democrats to do anything but disrupt the operation of the U.S. government and refuse to deal realistically with the crisis at our southern border. The $5 billion wall funding represents about 0.1 percent of the budget (hardly enough to notice compared to the profligate spending by our Congress for too many years), yet it could save taxpayers tens of billions now being spent on undocumented immigrants who infiltrate our borders and would give us the security we deserve as a nation.Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here.The meeting of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) working president K.T. Rama Rao and Yuva Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy in Hyderabad on Wednesday may appear strange on the face of it.

Political observers comparing the probable alliance between the two parties with that of the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is understandable, though it was off the mark. Congress president Rahul Gandhi and TDP president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had formed an alliance to oppose the BJP-led NDA of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but the anti-Modi sentiment was missing in the Rao-Reddy meeting.

They have indicated that their combined strength of 42 Lok Sabha members  Andhra Pradeshs 25 and Telanganas 17  will be used to protect and promote the interests of the two Telugu states. This presupposes that the YSRCP and the TRS hope to win the maximum number of seats in the April-May Lok Sabha polls. It also leaves the door open for the two regional parties to deal with whichever coalition emerges as the victor at the Centre. The other difference between the Congress-TDP alliance and the bid of the TRS and YSRCP to form a partnership is that the Congress is a national party while the TDP is a regional party, while in the case of the TRS and YSRCP, both are regional parties. Second, the YSRCP does not have a presence in Telangana and the TRS is perforce absent in Andhra Pradesh, while the TDP is present in Telangana and the Congress in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and in the rest of the country. Their exclusive spheres of influence and dominance makes it easier for the TRS and the YSRCP to deal with each other.

The hypothetical federal front mooted by Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao remains nebulous as yet. Odisha chief minister and Biju Janata Dal president Naveen Patnaik has declared that he will go it alone and not joint any front. Earlier this month, Mr Chandrasekhar Rao met West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata and he was reaching out to the BSPs Mayawati and Samajwadi Partys Akhilesh Yadav as well, and Ms Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav on their part were keen to meet Mr Chandrasekhar Rao as well.

With the BSP and SP keeping the Congress out from their alliance in Uttar Pradesh, the two UP leaders should have no problem in joining the TRS and YSRCP to form a common front. That would leave the Congress and the TDP isolated. It is to be noted that the TDP has not joined the UPA.

This splintered Opposition is good news for the BJP and Mr Modi. The BJP will also try to woo the TRS and YSRCP with promises of economic packages for both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. If the Indian political scene could be inferred from coalition arithmetic alone, then it is easy to predict the outcome of the parliamentary election. But coalitions do not determine voters choice. All that the TRS and YSRCP can hope for at this stage is to win the largest number of the 42 Lok Sabha seats from the two states, and then use the combined strength to bargain with those trying to form a government at the Centre. The fact that Jagan Mohan Reddy and K. Chandrasekhar Rao are not hostile to Mr Modi as such makes them potential allies of the BJP.

That brings us to the question about the ideology of the regional parties. What then is the ideology of the TRS and the YSRCP? It seems that these two parties do not entertain any ambitions at the national level, though there is speculation about K. Chandrasekhar Rao leaving Telangana to his son, K.T. Rama Rao, and looking for greener pastures at the national level. But there is no indication of that yet.

Even Mr Chandrababu Nadu restricts himself to the role of the kingmaker, and shows no signs of wanting to be a Prime Minister. So, there are three aspiring kingmakers from the two Telugu states  Mr Naidu, Mr Rao and Mr Reddy. And we are tempted to ask  is southern ambition then limited to playing the role of kingmakers and not reaching out to the crown itself the way Mr Modi reached out for it from 2013 onwards? Of course, Mr Modi belonged to a national party, which was an advantage.

At ground zero, Mr Naidu, Mr Rao and Mr Reddy are fighting to control their own territory. Mr Rao has managed to emerge with an undisputed victory in the Telangana Assembly polls last month. Mr Naidu and Mr Reddy will fight it out in the Assembly elections this summer. For them, the Lok Sabha election is not a matter of do-or-die as the Assembly election is. Because of their local commitments and distractions, the TDP, YSRCP and TRS have reduced themselves to playing the role of marginal players. The time when the marginal players with smaller numbers become important is when the two big parties, the BJP and the Congress, fail to score reasonably well enough.

The coalition calculations then are up in the air. It is not the cunning of the political leaders that counts, it is the preference of the people as expressed in an election that will determine who will govern the country at the Centre. But political leaders have to do their bit in the drama and make moves and counter-moves as if that is all that matters.

At the end of the day, the best laid plans of politicians come to nothing. But their actions matter most before the finale. Some of the observers are likely to argue that it is the positioning of the parties that will determine the final shape of things. It is a plausible argument. But right now what matters is the fight between Mr Naidu and Mr Reddy in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections.Hyderabad: TPCC leaders are confident that no MLA will leave the party. Congress Legislative Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said the ruling party should wish for a strong Opposition. The ruling party is playing a mind game. No MLA of the Congress will fall in the trap of Operation Akarsh of the TRS. No MLA will join the TRS but they are deliberately creating speculation, Mr Bhatti said.

Congress MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy condemned speculation that he would be joining the TRS. He told mediapersons at the Legislative Assembly: Speculation that I would leave the Congress are being heard since the death of Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy in 2009. I will never leave Congress. He asked the party cadre not to believe the rumours.

Meanwhile, Congress legislators hailed the decision of party president Rahul Gandhi declaring Mr Mallu Bhatti leader of the Congress Legislative Party. This included those who were contenders for the post. Welcoming the decision, Mr Rajagopal Reddy told mediapersons that Mr Bhatti, a former deputy speaker, was the right choice. MLAs Danasari Anasuya (Seethakka), Athram Sakku and Kantha Rao thanked Mr Gandhi for choosing Mr Bhatti.

Mr Bhatti also said, I thank Mr Rahul Gandhi and the state leadership for selecting me as the CLP leader. All Congress MLAs will work together for the people.

We will represent the voice of the people in the Assembly. The Congress will ensure that all promises made by the TRS will be implemented. The CLP submitted the letter to Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy that Mr Bhatti would be its leader. TPCC leaders later felicitated Mr Bhatti for becoming the CLP leader.VIJAYAWADA: Save democracy and save Bharat is the aim of all political parties for the welfare of the public, said N. Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of AP during the United India rally held in Kolkatta on Saturday.

He alleged that the NDA was dividing the country on caste and religious lines, and stated that the country would see a new Prime Minister in 2019. He appreciated the initiative taken by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and said that a similar rally would be organised in Amaravati, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh, to bring together all non-BJP political parties in the country to save India, save democracy and unite India. All national and regional leaders of political parties in the country would be invited for the rally.

All non-BJP parties are ready to send the Narendra Modi-government packing as he has failed on all fronts. We want a performing Prime Minister and not a publicity PM. The NDA did not implement any of its promises like bringing back black money or giving two crore jobs. On the other hand, it came up with demonetisation, leaving no money in ATMs and banks, and the GST, which is also a big fraud, Mr Naidu said.Hyderabad: Kalvakuntla Kavitha, TRS MP from Nizamabad, said on Saturday that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao did not attend the opposition parties rally in Kolkata, organised by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, because of the ongoing session of the state Assembly.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the Telangana Jagruthi International Youth Leadership Conference-2019, held in the city, she said, The Assembly session is in progress and it is very important for the party. We shall definitely participate in such rallies organised by the parties without reference to BJP and Congress in future.

On the Kolkata rally, she said it also had to be seen how serious the participating parties were. She said that Mr Chandrasekhar Rao is keen on a Federal Front at the national level to fight against the BJP and the Congress, as the people of the country are fed up with the two main parties.

There is no proper face or leader of the Federal Front for now, as they have to work on issues, but the pre-poll alliance will definitely be strong. The pre-poll alliances among the parties should have to continue post-poll also, she said.Hyderabad: The Opposition on Saturday said Governor E.S.L. Narasimhans address to the joint sitting of the legislature was like reading out the TRS manifesto.

The Congress said there was nothing new in the speech. CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said, The Governor spoke about the promises made in the past. It would have been nice if the Governors speech contained the truth about unemployment. There was nothing about pensions and unemployment allowances.

Congress MLC Shabbir Ali said it was a copy paste of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Raos campaign speech. The Governor should have stated when the government would waive farm loans, enhance pensions and give 2BHK houses. There is no clarity on unemployment allow-ance and providing jobs. Regarding Muslim reservations, the Governor termed them as minorities, he should be more clear.

On the power front, the party accused the Gover-nor of lying. Congress MLA D. Sridhar Babu said the Governor had blamed the previous governments for mistakes. The credit for surplus electricity should be given to the Cong-ress. The policies taken by the Congress resulted in producing more electricity, he said.

Congress MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy said the speech was not completely true and asked when the government would enhance pensions.

BJP MLA Raja Singh, who took oath earlier in the day, repeated the claim that Mr Narasimhan had read out the TRS election manifesto.HYDERABAD: Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan said the state governments welfare schemes had created a sense of self-confidence and security among the people. With the benedictions of the people who were benefited by the welfare measures, the TRS returned to power for a second term, with a much higher majority in this House, the Governor said in his adress to the joint sitting of the Legislative Council and Assembly on Saturday.

My government registered great success in robust administrative policies, strict financial discipline and corruption-free governance. This has resulted in substantive growth in state tax and non-tax revenues. Telangana has achieved one of the highest growth rates in the country, Mr Narasimhan said.

He noted that the state had achieved 17.17 per cent compound annual revenue growth rate between 2014 and 2018. During 2018-19, the growth rate so far stands at 29.93 per cent. Even in GST collections, TS stands first among all states in the country.

The Governor spoke extensively on the initiatives taken up by the government from 2014 to 2018 in the irrigation, power, education and health sectors and welfare schemes, including Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bhima, Asara pensions, double bedroom houses and Kanti Velugu, sheep distribution and fish seeding and prawn seeding in all water bodies.

He recalled that the people of Telangana had achieved a separate state for themselves after six decades of relentless struggle. The first-ever government was formed in June 2014 under the leadership of Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao who spearheaded the Telangana Movement.

He said, Taking into consideration the dimension of neglect of resources and culture in the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh, my government commenced its well-planned journey in earnest keeping in mind existent conditions. The process of reconstruction was taken up straightaway.

He assured, My government is committed to implementing all the promises made during the elections.

He said that the government would continue to raise the demand with the Central government for 10 per cent reservation to STs and 12 per cent reservation to minorities and for the SC categorisation resolution.

The Governor said the government had strengthened the hereditary professions that had become extinct. Several programmes were initiated to provide employment opportunities to youth through expansion of industrial and IT sectors.

He said due to strengthening of police, the law and order situation was on an efficient and effective track.It is Chief Minister Kumaraswamy who is indulging in horse-trading. He himself is offering money and ministerial posts to our MLAs, former CM and BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa said. (Photo: File)

Bengaluru: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Karnataka State President and former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa on Saturday called back all BJP MLAs camping in Gurgaon.

The BJP MLAs from Karnataka said they were in Gurgaon since Monday evening to devise strategies for the coming Lok Sabha polls, and not to avoid being "poached" by the ruling Congress-JDS alliance.

Earlier in the week, Yeddyurappa had alleged that Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy was indulging in horse-trading by offering money and ministerial posts to BJP MLAs.

"We are not indulging in any poaching. It is Chief Minister Kumaraswamy who is indulging in horse-trading. He himself is offering money and ministerial posts to our MLAs," he had said.

Read: K'taka CM offering money, ministerial posts to BJP MLAs: Yeddyurappa

The charges of horse-trading were triggered after three Karnataka Congress MLAs visited Mumbai on Monday, reportedly along with some BJP MLAs. This was followed by the Congress' allegation that the BJP was trying to poach the ruling party's MLAs to destabilise the ruling coalition government in Karnataka.

Political turmoil intensified after two independent MLAs in the Karnataka Assembly - R Shankar and H Nagesh - withdrew their support from the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in the state on Tuesday.

The two MLAs had gone incommunicado two days ago before announcing their decision at a press conference in Mumbai.

In the 224-member Assembly, JD(S) has 37 MLAs and the Congress 80. The Congress-JD(S) alliance has the support of some Independents in the House where the majority figure is 113 stay in power.It is worth mentioning that the Rajya Sabha passed the Constitution 108th Amendment Bill in 2010. However, the Bill lapsed after the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha in 2014. (Photo: File)

Jaipur: Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot on Friday said that Congress will take forward the demand of 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state legislature and try its best to bring it in all Congress-ruled states.

Addressing the media here, Pilot said: "Congress promised 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state legislature in its manifesto. A Cabinet meeting was held and we have planned how take a step forward in this direction. If not across India, we will try our best to bring it in all Congress-ruled states."

Criticising the Centre for not giving proper attention to this matter, Pilot said: "BJP government brought in so many constitutional amendments in five years but their dual face came out in this matter."

"UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi continuously wrote to them in these five years but they (Centre) didn't implement it because they never intended to," he added.

Earlier, Punjab Vidhan Sabha passed a resolution in which they have urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the government to provide 33 per cent reservation to women in Parliament and state assemblies.

Punjab government response comes after Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had written to Captain Amarinder Singh on December 6 to seek support for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies.

It is worth mentioning that the Rajya Sabha passed the Constitution 108th Amendment Bill in 2010. However, the Bill lapsed after the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha in 2014.

The Legislative Assemblies of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh have already taken a lead and passed a resolution calling on the Central government to enact the Women's Reservation. Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev had also written to all Congress-led state governments regarding Women's Reservation Bill.Hyderabad: Urdu is a Lashkari (mixed dialect). It is a Persianised standard register of Hindustani language.

It has 30 consonants, 20 vowels, two diphthongs; non-tonal; stress being on the penultimate syllable. Urdu is intelligible with Hindi, but its formal vocabulary is borrowed from Arabic and Persian. Its Dakhini dialect has fewer Persian and Arabic loans than Urdu. Rekhta is a form of Urdu used in poetry.

Fresh data from the 2011 census says that Urdu is the seventh most spoken language in India. Over eight crore people speak Urdu in India alone. It is one of the 22 official languages recognised in the Constitution of India, having official status in Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal and Delhi, while it has the status of official language of Jammu and Kashmir. Urdu is the national language of Pakistan and is a registered regional language of Nepal.

According to the 2018 edition of Ethnologue, a language reference published by SIL International, Urdu is the 11th most spoken language in the world with approximately 16.32 crore speakers.

Urdu is one of the most sophisticated languages, defining beauty and grace. It is so beautiful that it has a unique way of conveying an aura of elegance and gentility that mark the courteous from the unlearned and the noble from the ordinary. It is known to touch the soul the way it imparts hidden meanings in a prose or poetry like no other language can.

Urdu is a major language of South Asia and has been gaining popularity in UK, USA, France and Germany apart from the Gulf region. Urdu is also spoken in Guyana, Mauritius, Nepal and South Africa. More than one billion people speak Urdu all over the world.

Urdu language gained prevalence first in the South. Alauddin Hasan Bahmani, who set up the Bahmani kingdom by rebelling against Mohammed Tughlaq, played an important role in popularising Urdu in the Deccan. In Deccan, Urdu came into contact with Marathi, Telugu and Kanarese spoken by the local people. It is believed that one of the first treatises written in Urdu or Rekhta is Meraj ul Aashiqeen by Khawaja Banda Nawaz Gesu Daraz whose shrine is in Gulbarga.Chennai: The government departments themselves set a bad precedent in grabbing water bodies and contributed to the menace of encroachments.

This information was revealed in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

The report said the Tamil Nadu Protection of Tanks and Eviction of Encroachment Act, 2007, provided for survey of all tanks under water resources department to mark the boundaries. Considering the fact that 49 percent of the total objectionable encroachments were on water bodies and the threat posed by these encroachments, the state government banned (January 1987) regularization of these encroachments. Although survey by revenue authorities was the starting point for protecting the tanks under WRD, the achievement in surveying the tanks during the last 10 years, since notification of Act in 2007 was very poor, the report added.

The report said the system envisaged in the Act to protect the tanks from encroachments did not help in protecting the tanks as WRD did not fix boundaries for all the water bodies through survey, which was the first step in prevention of encroachments and eviction of already existing encroachments. Audit observed that the property details, which included extent of land, usage, encroachment details etc., were compiled only by 4 zones out of the 15 zones in Greater Chennai Corporation as of May 2017, the report added. The report said to protect the water course lands such as channel and other catchment areas and to avoid encroachments on such lands, the government issued ban orders for regularization of such encroachments. Audit, however noticed cases of ineptness in addressing this issue. Instances of encroachment by public buildings on water bodies highlight the self-defeating nature of the government in preventing encroachments by its own department, report added.We know that one person died of gun violence last year. We know that is fewer than the previous year, but we suspect we do not know how to prevent future deaths. And we know that guns are used in other crimes and no one dies.Accordingly, a team of 71 fishermen from Rameswaram was put together to make the trip, said Sesuraj, secretary of the Rameswaram Fishermens Association. (Representational image)

Rameswaram: In a significant development that may help ease tensions across the Palk straits for Indian fishermen, a team of fishers from Rameswaram permitted to visit a boat yard in northern Sri Lanka where seized boats of mainly Tamil Nadu fishermen are dumped, have managed to salvage nine of their boats.

This follows the Sri Lankan governments recent communique to the Indian government that a team of fishermen be sent from Tamil Nadu to retrieve one lot of 12 mechanised boats from Rameswaram, seized by the Island-navy for allegedly poaching into their waters while fishing, in what they term is a first phase exercise to return the boats. It is believed that Sri Lankan navy has seized over 200 boats of Tamil Nadu fishermen over the last three years alone.

Accordingly, a team of 71 fishermen from Rameswaram was put together to make the trip, said Sesuraj, secretary of the Rameswaram Fishermens Association. The visiting fishermen from here were thoroughly frisked and checked by various security and related agencies before the Indian Coast Guard accompanied the nine boats carrying them and handed them over to the Sri Lankan authorities at the IMBL on January 17 for being escorted to the boat yard at Karainagar where seized boats are dumped.

Thanks to the inventive and industrious spirit of the Rameswaram fishermen, Sesuraj said in the last two days, they were able to salvage nine of the seized fishing boats by pumping out the sea water from the vessels and setting right to minor repairs. This would help them to bring the boats back home, Sesuraj said, adding, they were expected to return to Rameswaram on January 21.

FISHERS RETURN TO SEA: Meanwhile, Rameswaram fishermen gave up their four-day-old strike on Saturday and returned to the sea after the body of Muniyasamy, one of the fisherman from Ramanathapuram district who was killed in a mid-sea boat mishap, had been flown from Colombo to Tiruchy.The police had formed a special team, which traced and arrested him.

Bengaluru: The Mahalakshmi Layout police arrested a 39-year-old thief and recovered valuables worth Rs 8 lakh from him. With this, the police have solved four house break theft cases, all of which were committed during the day.

The accused has been identified as Manju alias Parivala Manja, a resident of Kurubarahalli and hailing from Tamil Nadu.

The police said that Prabhu, a resident of Mahalakshmi Layout, had filed a complaint that on January 4, he had gone to work and returned home around 1.45 pm when he noticed that his was broken into and gold and silver valuables were stolen.

The police had formed a special team, which traced and arrested him. The police said that the accused broke into houses during the day. With his arrest, they have solved two cases in Nandini Layout, one in Girinagar and one in Mahalakshmi Layout police limits.

The police recovered 250 gm of gold ornaments and 1 kg silver articles from the accused. In another incident, the RT Nagar police arrested two interstate bike thieves and recovered three bikes worth Rs 4.5 lakh.

The accused have been identified as Mohammed Umraz Pasha (32) and Jaheer (35), both from Uttar Pradesh. The police said that a victim, Salman, had filed a complaint that his KTM Duke bike was stolen from outside his paying guest accommodation in RT Nagar on January 10.New Delhi: Miffed over the presence of its Patna Sahib MP, Shatrughan Sinha at the TMCs Brigade Ground rally, the BJP on Saturday made it clear that the party will take cognisance of his presence at the united opposition rally against the Narendra Modi government and termed the actor-turned-politician an opportunist.

Sharing the stage with opposition leaders in Kolkata, disgruntled BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha Saturday called for changing the government in the 2019 Lok Sabha election and said he was not afraid of being removed from the ruling party.

My elder brother Yashwant Sinha was saying that after this I will be definitely removed from the party, I told him koi baat nahi hai (no problem), he said.

Known for his powerful dialogues in Hindi movies, Sinha said, He is in Bharatiya Janata Party but before that he is with Bharat ki janata.

Describing Mr Sinha as an opportunist, BJPs national spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said he was in the party to enjoy the perks of being an MP, but at the same time seen making different voices at various platforms.

Sinha has been speaking against the party at various platforms. And it is always important for the BJP to act against such people and the party will take cognisance of it, Mr Rudy said.

Taking a dig at the Patna Sahib MP, Mr Rudy said some people are intelligent in different ways. They abide by the partys whip so that they dont lose their membership. At the same time, they are so opportunistic... And can be present at any conclave. The BJP will take cognisance of it.

Mr Sinha has been regularly speaking against the BJPs top leadership which provoked Bihars deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi earlier this week, who suggested that Mr Sinha should quit the party.Sources said the police would call the people directly and ascertain the facts about age and gender before finalising the fresh list.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After facing massive embarrassment in connection with age and gender discrepancies on the list of young women pilgrims to Sabarimala submitted in Supreme Court, the government has directed police to prepare a fresh list by removing all anomalies.

It will re-examine the entire list, cross-check the information given during online registration with details available in the Aadhaar, ration card and voter ID. The men who figured on the list would be taken off.

Sources said the police would call the people directly and ascertain the facts about age and gender before finalising the fresh list.

The list submitted by the LDF government in the apex, claiming that 51 women aged less than 50 had darshan at Sabarimala temple this season triggered a controversy following discrepancies related to age and gender.

Discrepancies came to light when media persons cross-checked the list. Some of the young women on the list were actually above 50, and some were men.

The government sought to steer clear of the controversy by shifting the entire blame on the police. Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran said his department was not responsible for the discrepancies.

He said there shouldnt be any confusion since the list was prepared as part of online registration. Industries minister E. P. Jayarajan said the government submitted a report which was prepared based on the digitally created records and documents.

However, CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran said the government should have been more cautious while submitting an affidavit in the highest court of the country. It cannot be done in a slipshod manner.

CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the government didnt prepare the records. As per the verdict lifting the age barrier, the list containing age and gender are irrelevant.

Amid all this hullabaloo, the question as to who prepared the list remains unanswered. What was the logic behind preparing the list without verification?

Bindu Ammini, who created history having darshan at Sannidhanam along with Kanakadurga, said the government should have been more discreet while submitting the list. By making not just the names of the women but also their address and telephone numbers public, the government has put them in a problem.

She said the SC had heard their plea and provided round the clock security.

The government had submitted that a total of 7,564 female devotees in 10-50 group had registered for darshan and as per the digitally scanned records around 51 of them had already visited the shrine and had darshan without any issue.

The government submitted before the SC that in the digital queue management system run by Kerala police, which is an online system for booking for darshan, 16 lakh devotees had registered this year. Of these around 8.2 lakh visited the shrine.Kolkata: Setting the tune for a change of government in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday described the Modi government as an expired government.

She underlined collective leadership while giving a clarion call for unity among all Opposition parties to take on the BJP.

Addressing her United India rally at the historic Brigade Parade Ground, to stich an alliance among Opposition parties, the Bengal Chief Minister, however, kept mum about her ambition to become the Prime Minister.

She said that the prime ministerial candidate would be decided after the elections, since there was no dearth of leaders.

Inspired by the massive crowd that thronged the rally, Ms Banerjee even declared that the formation of a new government with the BJPs defeat in the Lok Sabha elections would be celebrated at the Brigade Ground by all political parties. She announced that she would invite a galaxy of Opposition leaders, who were present on the dais, to attend the celebrations then.

When will the next Brigade rally be held? It is the beginning of the end for the BJP from today. Remember, when the country will see a change in future and a new government will be formed, we will organise a rally at the Brigade again to thank Maa Mati Manush.

Turning to the leaders on the dais, she said: And I will invite all of you. Please join us after the victory in the elections, because there will be a change in India. Nobody can stop it. It is the peoples verdict. They have expired the date. They are the expired government.

Stressing on unity, she said: If needed, everyone has to come together to a common platform.

On the importance of regional parties strength, she said, Credit has to be given to those who are powerful in their turf. They should be allowed to contest the polls. They also have to be supported.New Delhi: One clear message that came out of Mamata Banerjees mega Opposition rally on Saturday was that the Trinamul chief was ready for the most coveted office in national politics  that of Prime Minister. As Ms Banerjee led the charge with her slogan Delhi Chalo, she was flanked by virtually all top Opposition leaders.

However, missing in action were Congress President Rahul Gandhi and BSP chief Mayawati, the other two most probable PM faces of the Opposition conglomerate she had managed to assemble on the dais. Though both had sent senior leaders to represent their parties, their absence spoke out loud.

The more than 20 top Opposition leaders on the dais reiterated the oft- repeated position that the prime ministerial face would be decided later and the one-point agenda was now to defeat the Modi-led BJP government.

This along with the stand that any PM candidate would be decided post-polls based on what each party brings to the table has been the cornerstone of Opposition agenda to fight the BJP juggernaut. This position, however, gives an edge to the Congress, which as of now is the only party with a national presence.

As a TD MP put it, If we are talking about numbers, then the maximum Lok Sabha seats Ms Banerjee can hope to win are all the 42 in West Bengal. Another MP, this time from the Congress itself, who did not wish to be named told this newspaper, What is sure is that we will not get a repeat 44 Lok Sabha seats in this election and people should not forget that.

While the Congress is confident of emerging at least as the single largest party in the Opposition block, many other regional parties have also thrown in their lot with it.

DMK chief M.K. Stalin was the first to officially propose the name of Congress President Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Ministerial face of the Opposition and TD chief Mr Naidu has also said publicly that the Congress needed to take over the leadership role.

A senior Opposition leader, who has been in the thick of coalition building in the past, says the question is whether it would be a repeat of 1996 when the Congress backed a minority government or of 2004 when smaller parties backed a Congress-led government.

The sense of the Congress leadership this time, however, seems to be that all parties should participate in government for the sake of stability going by the experience of both 1996 and 2004 experiments.

However, going by the Karnataka experiment, the party might be willing to take a backseat as far as the Prime Minister post is concerned.Kolkata: Setting the tune for a change of government in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Trina-mul chief Ms Mamata Banerjee on Saturday described the Modi government as an expired government. She said One is not important, but this country is important. Please realise it. Collective leadership is very important.

Referring to leaders of various parties on the question of prime ministerial candidate, Ms Banerjee said: Sometimes someone points out: who will be our leader? We have so many leaders. The BJP has become leaderless. They have only a PM and a President. But in our coalition, everyone is a leader, worker and organiser. There is no need to worry who will be the PM. After the elections, we will decide the PM.

The Trinamul chief said: I will request Chandrababu Naidu to organise a meeting in his state. Let Arvind Kejriwal hold a meeting in New Delhi. We will attend it. If Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar call a meeting in Kashmir, they can call us. We will go. We will also go to Assam.

She also accused the BJP of not following courtesy. There is a courtesy in politics. You do not know the courtesy. There is also a lakshmanrekha in politics. You do not accept it, she said.Vijayawada: The AP High Court rejected the house motion petition of AP government against a NIA probe into the knife attack on YSR Congress president and opposition leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Saturday. This gave a big jolt to Telugu Desam government which planned to halt the NIA probe in the knife attack case.

The AP government had filed a house motion petition objecting to the handing over of the knife attack case to NIA. The court directed the AP government to present their arguments about the NIA case on Monday in the court.

Earlier AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had conducted a meeting with senior police officials and legal experts about filing a house motion petition in the High Court objecting to the NIA probe.

But in a setback to the TD government, the bench that took up the hearing on Saturday and rejected the petition and made it clear that it did not require to be urgently inquired into.

Mr Jagans advocate K.V. Sujata Sarma alleged that the Telugu Desam filed the petition conspiring to create hurdles in the ongoing NIA probe. She explained to the media that the court had made it clear that the petition need not be inquired to on an emergency basis.

She pointed out that earlier Mr Naidu said that as the incident had taken place inside the airport, it would come under Central government but now frightened that his plot would be out he is trying to stop NIA investigation. She alleged that the government was making all efforts not to bring out the facts of the case. She added, The arguments regarding the case are strong from our end and they are going to present their arguments in the court on Monday.The backside of the bike was completely damaged, police sources said. Sairam was soon arrested and an inquiry is on. (Representational Image)

Chennai: A drunk man set fire to a vehicle in Adambakkam on Saturday morning causing a stir in the area.

The man, identified as Sairam Dharunchand, 22, resident of Nanganallur is a techie at a call centre at Tidel Park. On Friday he had gone to a bar at New Colony after work.

The incident occurred when Sairam had paid the bill for his drinks through an app but alleged that excess money was deducted from his account. During a heated argument with the bar manager Karthik, Sairam hurled abuses at him, police sources said. Upset, Sairam left from the premises. However, at around 3.30 am, still heavily inebriated, he returned to the spot and set Karthiks two-wheeler on fire.

Karthik immediately alerted the police who rushed to the spot. After the fire was put off, a complaint was registered with the Adambakkam police. The backside of the bike was completely damaged, police sources said. Sairam was soon arrested and an inquiry is on.New Delhi: On a day when many opposition parties came together on a common platform in Kolkata, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at their proposed mahagathbandhan or grand alliance, saying it is a combine of those whom he had prevented from looting India and it is not against him but people of the country.

He took a dig at the opposition rally organised on Saturday by the Trinamul Congress (TMC) in Kolkata as well as as at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, without taking her name, saying the BJP has only one MLA in the state, but still they are so afraid of us that they are saying bachao (save us).

The mahagathbandhan or grand alliance is not against Narendra Modi but people of India, Modi said.

My actions against corruption made some people angry as I prevented them from looting public money. They have formed the mahagathbandhan, Modi said, adding that these leaders have come together out of fear.

Against the backdrop of the West Bengal government denying permission to BJP to organise yatras in West Bengal, the PM said political parties in the TMC-ruled state are not even allowed to carry out their programmes.

Party workers are killed there during elections and they talk about saving democracy. When those involved in suffocating democracy talk of saving it, then people will say wah kya baat hai..., he said mocking the parties opposing the BJP.

Meanwhile, other BJP leaders played the nationalist card to undermine the rise of a major threat to its return to power.

Using the hashtag #UnitedAntinationalsBrigade to deride the Oppositions rally which was using the hashtag #UnitedIndiaAtBrigade, the BJP dubbed the rally as a rally of self interest and of conflicting ideologies.

Alleging that as Mr Modi's is fighting against the corrupt and corruption, therefore, corrupt leaders are against him, the BJP asserted that the Brigade Grounds rallys only motive was to defeat Mr Modi in the coming Lok Sabha polls.

Wondering who was the leader of the opposition's alliance, BJPs national spokesperson Rajiv Prat-ap Rudy termed the rally an anti-Modi exercise and said the party was not threatened by such events. Former TMC heavyweight and now a BJP leader Mukul Roy labelled the event as a circus and tweeted: Various jokers and lying artists coming together to destroy India again. #UnitedAntiNat-ionalsAtBrigade.In its proposal, the commission has called for an increase of $325 million in state spending in the budget for the coming year that would be focused on specific priorities, including providing more money for pre-kindergarten for four-year-olds and a 3 percent increase in pay for teachers, with half of that to come from the state and half from local governments. The commission also recommends new spending for school-based health centers and for initiatives to support community schools with large numbers of poor students.Guwahati: The All Assam Students Union (AASU) spearheading agitation against the citizenship bill has turned down the offer of union home ministry to resolve the differences over the amendment bill through dialogue.

Informing that Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh contacted the AASU seeking a solution through dialogues, sources said that AASU leadership told Mr Singh that scrapping the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 and total implementation of the Assam Accord are the only solution to the foreigners problem in the state and the movement against the Bill would continue till the government rolls it back.

The student body has clearly conveyed to the Union government that scrapping this bill, which blatantly violates the Assam Accord and protects the illegal migrants, is the only option, AASU leaders said. We will not deviate from our stand at any cost, the students leaders said.Inspector Singh died of a bullet wound below his left eyebrow, confirmed the autopsy report. (Photo: File)

Bulandshahr: Apart from Rs 50 lakh offered by the Uttar Pradesh government, the family of slain Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh on Friday received a sum of Rs 70 lakh from the state police as compensation, ADG, Meerut Zone, Prashant Kumar confirmed.

The incident occurred on December 3, with violence flaring up after the carcasses of around 25 cattle were found in a forest close to a police post.

Inspector Singh was trying to control the mob and was wounded in the head with a stone. His driver bundled him into a car and tried to take him to a hospital, although the mob followed the car, cornered it in a field and shot the police officer.

Inspector Singh died of a bullet wound below his left eyebrow, confirmed the autopsy report.

One of the prime accused of the case, BJPs Yuva Morcha leader Shikhar Agarwal was on January 10 arrested by the police from Hapur.

So far over 35 people, including Haroon and Prashant Natt, have been arrested in connection with the violence.

Natt, who allegedly shot the police inspector had confessed his crime.Amaravati: TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu Saturday cited the tension in Kerala over the entry of women of menstruating age into the Sabarimala temple to accuse the BJP of creating "strife" in temples across the country.

Naidu, who is in Kolkata for a mega rally of anti-BJP parties, addressed Telugu Desam Party leaders via teleconference and asked them to inform people about BJP's "vicious politics", a party release said.

He asked every TDP worker to become a "mobile media" and carry out door-to-door campaigns.

"The BJP is creating strife in temples. It is provoking tension in Sabarimala. It is raising the Ram temple issue once again. We have to be cautious against this," he told TDP leaders.

Referring to the political turmoil in Karnataka, he alleged that the BJP was trying to "purchase" legislators to dislodge the JD(S)-Congress government in the state.

"The BJP is making a mockery of democracy by indulging in vicious politics," the release quoted Naidu as saying. Naidu termed "ridiculous" BJP's claim it gave "special treatment" to Andhra Pradesh.

"Is giving us an empty hand despite my 29 trips to New Delhi the special treatment? Is sprinkling chilli powder on injuries the special treatment?" he added. He asked TDP workers to inform people about Telangana Rashtra Samiti leaders' alleged attacks on Andhra Pradesh and expose how YSR Congress president Jaganmohan Reddy was rubbing shoulders with them.

"Jagan compromised with (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi for his cases and with (Telangana Chief Minister) KCR for his ill-gotten wealth. You have to take this to people," he added. Naidu said the target for the party is to win all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the general election and at least 150 out of the total 175 assembly seats in the state.

"We have to achieve this," he stressed. Referring to the Kolkata rally, the TDP president said except KCR and Jagan, leaders of over 20 parties were attending it.

"All those who came to Kolkata are Anti-Modi. It is clear that KCR and Jagan are with Modi. The so-called Federal Front is a big zero. It is only for the support of Modi and not an opposition to the BJP," Naidu claimed.The girls mother, a daily wage worker, had left her daughter with a neighbour before going out on Thursday. She took along her three-year-old daughter. The minor girls father is dead. (Representational Image)

Chennai: A tea shop worker was arrested on Saturday for raping a mentally challenged minor in Mathuranthakam. Police identified the accused as Horun, 28, who works in the tea shop in Malrosapuram in Kanchipuram.

The girls mother, a daily wage worker, had left her daughter with a neighbour before going out on Thursday. She took along her three-year-old daughter. The minor girls father is dead.

When the mother returned, the neighbours informed her that her daughter had gone missing a while ago. She and a few neighbours immediately went around inquiring with the shops nearby and allegedly found Horun in a compromising position with the girl. They dragged him out and beat him up before handing him over to the Maraimalai Nagar police station.

The police filed case against Horun under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and investigation is on. The girl has been sent to the Chengalpattu Government College and Hospital for treatment and medical check-up.

The girls mother alleged that Horun, who is from Thiruvottiyur, had been convicted for a sexual harassment case earlier and had come out on bail recently.Washington: A new Michigan-led international study suggests that sleeping more than nine hours per night during pregnancy may be associated with late stillbirth.

Researchers analysed online surveys involving 153 women who had experienced a late stillbirth within the previous month and 480 women with an ongoing third-trimester pregnancy or who had recently delivered a live born baby during the same period.

The findings, published in journal, Birth, suggest an association between lengthy periods of undisturbed maternal sleep and stillbirths that were independent of other risk factors. However, researchers caution that further research is needed to better comprehend the relationship and what it signifies for pregnant women. Speaking about the study, lead author of the study Louise O'Brien, from the University of Michigan said, "Pregnant women often report waking up and getting up in the middle of the night."

Brien is a researcher in the Division of Sleep Medicine, Department of Neurology and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, at Michigan Medicine. The researcher said that further studies need to delve deeper into what may drive the relationship between maternal sleep and stillbirths, with particular focus on how the autonomic nervous system - the control system that regulates bodily function - and the hormonal system are regulated during sleep in late pregnancy.

She notes that blood pressure reaches its lowest point during sleep but when someone is awakened, there is a surge in the nervous system activity that causes transient increases in blood pressure. It's possible that these brief increases in blood pressure are able to prevent long periods of relatively low pressure. This is important, O'Brien says, because low blood pressure has been linked with foetal growth problems, preterm birth, and stillbirth.

O'Brien also cautions that "pregnant women should not be waking themselves up at night." Very disruptive sleep has also been associated with poor pregnancy outcomes, including growth restriction and preterm growth. She further notes that while there already is evidence that disrupted sleep and clinical sleep disorders are associated with poor pregnancy outcomes, few studies looked at the opposite end of the spectrum, such as long periods of undisturbed sleep.

"Our findings add to research indicating that maternal sleep plays a role in foetal wellbeing," she says, adding, "Studies aiming to reduce stillbirths should consider maternal sleep as this is a potentially modifiable risk factor. Understanding the role of maternal sleep may help us identify interventions that would put us in a better position to advise women."

Smoking, advanced maternal age, diabetes, obesity and drug abuse are among well-established risk factors for stillbirths. Maternal sleep practices, however, cover a relatively new area of investigation. The new study follows other research looking at possible ties between maternal sleep and foetal well-being in recent years, including studies suggesting that women who report that they sleep on their backs have an increased risk of stillbirths. While the current study asked about maternal sleep position, not enough women reported sleeping on their backs for any meaningful analysis.Stockholm: The scandal-plagued Swedish body that awards the Nobel Prize for literature said on Friday that one of its members would leave after an investigation determined she had leaked the names of winners.

The poet Katarina Frostenson and her photographer husband Jean-Claude Arnault, who was jailed last year for rape, have been at the centre of turmoil at the Swedish Academy, which led to it awarding no Nobel Prize in literature last year. Two prize winners will be picked this year.

The Academy said it would pay Frostenson, who denied breaching secrecy rules, a monthly pension worth around $1,400 and rent subsidies in a settlement. Katarina Frostenson now chooses to leave the Swedish Academy, it said in a statement.

The Academy, founded in the 18th century to safeguard the Swedish language, picks the winner of the Nobel Prize only in the field of literature. Prizes in science, medicine and economics are awarded by other Swedish bodies and the peace prize winner is selected by a Norwegian committee.

Last year, Frostensons husband Arnault was convicted of two counts of rape and sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison. Arnault, who ran a culture institute that had dealings with the Academy, was also accused of having leaked the names of the winners of the Nobel prize on several occasions after learning of them from his wife. He denied the accusation.

Several members of the Academy left in the wake of the scandal. The Academy has since appointed several new members and set up a new prize committee, aiming to restore public confidence and retain the right to pick the winners of the worlds most prestigious literary award.Rating:

Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Shreya Dhanwanthary, Snigdhdadeep Chatterjee

Director: Soumik Sen

Dreams, aspirations, competition, achievements and all that fills the minds of the young in India forms a dangerous concoction that kills creativity, encourages baser instincts to come to the fore, and that snowballs into a major crisis eventually. Thanks to newspaper reports, we are all aware of some young minds in a bid to outdo their peers, or not being able to live up to the expectations of their parents who invest in their childrens careers, becoming hapless victims who fall prey to the growing demands of their families to become engineers, doctors and MBAs. Out of the multitude, the ones who make it, by hook or by crook, are survivors the entire nation looks up to; the ones who dont are losers who have nowhere to go. As many reports suggest, quite a few from among them, commit suicide too!

Education, that is, perhaps, societys most critical responsibility, is at its lowest ebb. So, then, is the faulty education system? Or the over ambitious parents who are to be blamed for all the disastrous mess? Whatsoever is the cause, its the scariest situation that needs immediate attention, and hardly anything is being done to address it!

If you thought that Soumik Sens Why Cheat India comes up with an answer, or at least looks at the aforementioned psychological concerns among children and their behavioural issues that often lead to suicides with grave concern, youd be disappointed. While it does focus on a number of existing malpractices in our countrys education system, or the whole concept of buying ones way through education, jobs and earnings, it loses track midway, and becomes yet another film where there is a hero who may have erred, but still has a heart of gold. In any case, whatever wrong he commits, it wasnt only because the education system has not been evolving, but it was the combined misfortune of too many helpless victims that made him go wrong.

As a theme, Why Cheat India picks one of the most pressing stories on the education system of India, with more and more gullible students desperate to please their families dream get trapped in the quagmire of cheating, only to procure a seat in their desired college. It also focusses on the small towns of Jhansi and Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh where multinational companies have not heralded a vision for middle-class Indians to the extent that they have in cities like Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, to name a few.

Despite three attempts, Rakesh Singh (Emraan Hashmi) could not make it to the medical exams. On the other hand, his brother who earned himself a degree in medicine makes a fortune in the US. He is quick to divert his attention to running a business that decidedly, helps many students attain their achievable dreams: by enrolling some of the brightest students into his game plan, he makes them sit for proxy exams for rich, but undeserving students who are unable to clear the entrance test. And thus, he makes them earn a degree. His so-called humanitarian act serves a twofold purpose: some unworthy students go on to fulfil their parents ambitions and become the prized catch for many. It also fills the coffers of many in the close nexus  professionals, ministers, school authorities, not to forget the go-getting pushy parents, even as quality education goes downhill and scams flourish in the country.

One such bright boy, Satyadeep alias Sattu (Snigdhadeep Chatterjee), comes from a middle-class family and lives in morbid fear of his strict fathers aspirations to dream of a better life. His impressionable mind serves as the most likely prey to Rakeshs scheming plan.

Singh becomes almost ruthlessly smug (both as a character and as an actor too) to spearhead his ambition as the lead of the education mafia, and even behaves as if the entire nexus of many powers that are central to the scam are under his thumb.

To be fair, Why Cheat India opens with some believable shots of Jaunpur and the intricacies associated with the aspirational middle class family. It soon, falls short of ideas to take it forward. Where it also falters is its skin-deep study of the wrongs in the system. The story fails to dig deep into what ails the entire world of men and women that ends in a malaise few can recover from.

Hashmi may not be in his erstwhile mode of gangster-romantic-eternal lover that he has always played. But his slick fixer look is less earnest, and more swag. Whosoever gets into a fulltime business of making millions fraudulently runs the risk of looking hassled and bogged down by pressure, no matter how many strings he could pull to escape any eventuality. Not Hashmi. He delivers lines with an arrogant brash throughout. On the other hand, some unknown faces, especially those of Singdhadeep Chatterjees as Sattu and Shreya Dhanwantharys as Sattus sister Nupur, who falls for the charms of Singh, are far more convincing. One wished there was a little more of them.

For a narrative that has all the elements culled out from real incidents (almost everyday the newspapers are replete with stories of many teenagers unable to cope with the pressures of exam and parents, and taking their own lives) writer-director Sen has not invested much on the underlying grey area of drive, determination and desire getting eclipsed by malpractices. Or, the justification that most people tend to offer and turn dishonest and deceitful. In the climax  taking place in a typical courtroom  Hashmis submission is as dramatic and theatrical as for one who was accustomed to seeing Sunny Deol in the 90s in potboilers. The only difference is: Hashmis decibels dont hurt your ears. Or your sensibilities.

The overstretched film also makes you wonder why the CBFC insisted on affixing Why before the title Cheat India, when in reality, the title serves as a homonym: the first meaning eggs you on to go ahead, and deceive and double-cross to ones detriment or to ones hearts content; the other gives the image of the vast country as the one with unscrupulous morality as the basic fibre. No, I dont subscribe to the latter, but I respect any writer and filmmakers creative efforts, and hence, would not be judgmental about their intents!Mumbai: Ayushmann Khurrana has now geared up for his next quirky drama Dream Girl, as the team Dream Girl kick start their shoots in film city Mumbai.

After treating the audience with the insight of shooting in Mathura, Ayushmann Khurrana has kick started Mumbai schedule a testimony of which is seen in his social media handle.

The actor shared some snipped on the social media with a celebratory backdrop captioning: "Among all these lights I am only interested in moon".

Ayushmann Khurrana's Instagram story from the sets of 'Dream Girl'.

On 3rd December, Ayushmann Khurrana shared the first look poster of his upcoming film - 'Dream Girl'. Sharing the poster, he tweeted, As whacky as it can get! Here's the first glimpse of my look in and as #DreamGirl. Thoughts?

The earlier released poster in which, a saree-clad Ayushmann is seated on a scooter. Wearing yellow glass bangles and slippers, he is seen hiding his worried face under his pallu (veil) has created huge anticipation amongst the audience. In the backdrop, the poster has a temple and the boards of two establishmentsJeewan Maran Shop and Shri Ram Leela Seva Samiti.

The king of unconventional cinema, Ayushmann Khurrana will be teaming up with the Nushrat Bharucha.

Written and directed by Raaj Shaandilyaa, the film stars Nushrat Bharucha as the female lead. Produced by Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor and Aashish Singh, it is Ayushmanns first collaboration with Balaji Motion Pictures.The Toyota is also more affordable and packs more features than the Honda.

The Accord Hybrid is longer, wider and taller than the Camry.

The Toyota is more powerful than the Accord, albeit marginally.

The Toyota is also more affordable and packs more features than the Honda.

Toyota has launched the eighth-gen Camry in India at Rs 36.95 lakh (ex-showroom pan-India). Unlike its predecessor, which was available as a petrol as well as a hybrid model, the new Camry is available with a hybrid powertrain only. Hence, it has only one true rival in the country, the Honda Accord Hybrid, which is priced at Rs 43.21 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). So, lets see how the new Camry fares against the Accord on paper.

Dimensions

2019 Camry Hybrid Honda Accord Hybrid Length 4885mm 4933mm (+48mm) Width 1840mm 1849mm (+9mm) Height 1455mm 1464mm (+9mm) Wheelbase 2825mm 2776mm (-49mm)

The Accord is longer, wider and taller than the Camry. However, the Toyota takes the lead when it comes to the length of the wheelbase.

Engine

2019 Camry Hybrid Honda Accord Hybrid Engine 2.5-litre petrol 2.0-litre petrol Electric Motor 88kW 135kW (Two motors combined) Power (Combined) 218PS 215PS Torque (engine) 221Nm 175Nm Torque (motor) 202Nm 315Nm Transmission e-CVT e-CVT

The Camry is powered by a higher capacity petrol engine than the Accord. But the Accord gets two electric motors that make more power than Toyotas single unit.

The Camry is the more powerful sedan in terms of total power output.

When it comes to torque, where the Camrys 2.5-litre unit has a better torque output, the Accords 135kW motors trumps the Camrys 88kW unit.

Power from the hybrid powertrain is sent to the front wheels via an e-CVT unit in both premium sedans.

Features: Since both of these cars are premium sedans, they are loaded with features.

Safety: Both sedans get ABS with EBD, ISOFIX child seat anchors, vehicle stability program, traction control, hill hold assist and rear parking sensors. Over these, the Camry comes with nine airbags and a tyre pressure monitoring system. The Accord gets six airbags, front parking sensors and Hondas lane watch system.

Infotainment: The Accord gets a 7-inch touchscreen infotainment system while the Camry is equipped with an 8-inch unit. Sadly, the Camry misses out on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto while Accord Hybrid gets the must-have smartphone connectivity options. The Camry, however, gets a 9-speaker JBL sound system.

Lights: Both sedans are equipped the auto LED headlamps with LED DRLs and LED fog lamps.

Comfort:

2019 Camry Hybrid Honda Accord Hybrid Powered front seats 10-way (both driver and co-passenger) 8-way driver. 4-way co-passenger Auto AC Three-zone Two-zone Rain sensing wipers Yes Yes Power adjustable tilt and telescopic steering Yes No Heads-up display Yes (10-inch) No Wireless mobile charging Yes No Push Button start Yes Yes Cruise Control Yes Yes Power reclinable rear seats Yes No Infotainment and AC controls on rear centre armrest Yes (touchscreen) No Sunroof Yes Yes

Tyres: Both premium sedans are offered with 235/45 R18 tyres.

Price: Toyota has priced the Camry at Rs 36.95 lakh (ex-showroom pan-India), which is 6.26 lakh less than the Honda Accord Hybrid (Rs 43.21 lakh, ex-showroom Delhi). On paper, this makes the Camry a better option than the Accord because it is better equipped, more powerful and even more affordable than the Honda.

Also Read: Toyota Camry Old Vs New: Major Differences

Disclaimer: This article has not been edited by Deccan Chronicle and is taken from a syndicated feed. Photos: CarDekho.Cohen admitted that he lied when he told lawmakers he had never agreed to travel to Russia in connection with the Moscow project and when he said that he'd decided by the end of January 2016 that the "proposal was not feasible for a variety of business reasons and should not be pursued further."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.Do you support a Jefferson County judges decision to overturn a 2017 Alabama law that prevents the removal of Confederate monuments from public property?HARTFORD  Four lawmakers representing Stratford have requested the governor award $5 million in state bonding assistance to rebuild the towns iconic Shakespeare Theater, which burned to the ground last weekend.

State Sen. Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford, Rep. Joe Gresko, D-Stratford, Rep. Ben McGorty, R-Shelton, and Rep. Phil Young, D-Stratford, sent a letter to Gov. Ned Lamont and Melissa McCaw, secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, laying out their join request on Friday.

The Shakespeare Theater was once one of Connecticuts top tourist destinations, the legislators wrote. Rebuilding would be an opportunity to revitalize the arts, boost our economy and commemorate an integral piece of our history.

The request will be analyzed by government staff before being presented to Lamont and McCaw, who will decide whether the item will appear on the state Bond Commission agenda for a vote, said Chris McClure, a spokesman for the governors office and OPM.

Lawmakers have previously asked for $1.5 to $5 million to invest in the theater  which was mostly idle for nearly 30 years before the fire  under previous administrations.

Kellys first job was at the theater, working alongside his mother and aunt.

The tragic loss of our theater, a integral part of our community history, is devastating, he said in a written statement.

The theater, which opened in 1955, was modeled after the Globe Theatre in London, built in 1599. In its heyday, many Oscar-winning actors performed at the Stratford landmark. It closed after its last run of productions in 1989, though special events and fundraisers had been held there in the years since.

The town of Stratford acquired the theater in 2005, along with the 14 acres of waterfront property it sits on. The theater had fallen into disrepair before it caught fire early Sunday morning.

Conversations about how to revitalize the property are beginning.

emunson@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @emiliemunsonBRIDGEPORT  City officials are poised to try to bump up the size of another high school on the premise that if they build it, students will come.

The School Building Committee voted Thursday to ask the City Council to increase the size of the new Bassick High School to accommodate 1,000 students  rather than the 911 students an enrollment study estimated the school would have at its maximum in 10 years.

The supersizing could increase the cost of the project by $8.4 million, a jump the city alone would have to pay unless the state can be convinced the additional space is warranted.

I personally feel it is not unreasonable to consider that, City Finance Director Ken Flatto said of the larger sized enrollment. Flatto made the remarks after talking with Schools Superintendent Aresta Johnson.

Johnson is pushing for the larger size, theorizing that a new school with an advanced manufacturing focus would likely draw back neighborhood students who now attend the citys Fairchild Wheeler campus as well as Bullard-Havens Technical High School, local charter schools and private schools.

The new Harding High School was held out as an example. Originally designed for 850 students, Harding plans were redrawn to accommodate 1,150 at the urging of the school board. In the 2017-18 school year, enrollment at Harding stood at 967. The building committee was told on Thursday that Harding is now filled to capacity.

Bassicks enrollment has dropped slowly over the last five years, but last year stood at 970 students.

The state is on track to pay up to 70 percent of the new schools $115 million construction cost, but will only contribute to the 911 students reflected in the independent enrollment study it required last fall.

My concern is that while the (independent) study shows 911, there could be more students in the pipeline over the next 10 to 20 years, Flatto said.

The City Council has already committed to bonding $28 million toward the project. Adding 89 students would potentially increase that commitment to more than $36 million.

I dont want to bond extra money unless we have to, City Council President Aidee Nieves said.

She and other members of the City School Building Committee also dont want to lose their place on the states capital project priority list.

If we make changes now, we risk losing our position, said John Ricci, the citys public facilities chief.

City Council member Christina Smith, a chairwoman of the School Building Committee, said she has no problem asking for more, as long as the reasoning is solid.

The committee agreed to ask the project architect to start drawing schematics based on a 1,000-student enrollment, contingent on City Council approval for the extra funding. If the council rejects the increase, the architects would be asked to scale back the drawings.

In the meantime, city officials plan to ask the enrollment consultant to double check projections. If the consultant agrees that the school should be larger, city officials say they would ask the state to revise its grant to cover the additional students  but only after it clears the legislative process.

The difference could shift $6 million of the additional cost to the state, the committee was told.

lclambeck@ctpost.com; twitter/lclambeckGREENWICH  Greenwich Public Schools announced the appointment Friday of Toni Jones of Fairfield to be the next superintendent of Greenwich schools, effective July 1.

But for the first time, the vote of the Board of Education on a new school leader was not unanimous. The outcome was 7-1, with board member Peter Sherr dissenting.

Jones is currently the superintendent of the Fairfield Public Schools and will be the 14th superintendent to lead Greenwich in the last 20 years. She has eight years of experience as a superintendent, two of which she spent in Fairfield.

She has successfully initiated personalized, digital and virtual learning strategies in the districts she has led, Greenwich school board Chair Peter Bernstein said. She is well acclimated to Connecticut, and understands the value of open dialogue and involvement with and from the community.

Her starting salary will be $236,640 a year, plus benefits, as part of a three-year contract.

The school board will also award her a retention bonus of $50,000 if she is still employed and in good standing five years from now, a common practice in the corporate world but a first in the education sphere, according to board member Kathleen Stowe, head of the superintendent search committee.

Interim Superintendent Ralph Mayo will continue in his role for the rest of the school year.

The Board of Education would like to thank Interim Superintendent of Schools Ralph Mayo for his unyielding commitment to the Greenwich Public Schools and his steady leadership this year, Bernstein said. We look forward to him continuing as a senior leader in the school system thereafter.

Mayo, a Greenwich native who had been the principal at Eastern Middle School, took over the post last summer after the unexpected resignation of Jill Gildea after less than a year on the job.

More Information In the past 40 years, 14 superintendents have led the Greenwich school district. Ernest Fleishman's 13-year tenure was the longest stint during that period. 1976-1989: Ernest Fleishman 1989-1990: Douglas Fainelli (interim) 1990-1997: John Whritner 1997-1998: Karen Lang (interim) 1998-2002: Roger Lulow 2002-2003: Herb Pandiscio and Maria Melendez (interims) 2003-2006: Larry Leverett Summer 2006: Mary Capwell 2006-2009: Betty Sternberg (Kathy Grieder was acting superintendent in the summer of 2008) 2009-2011: Sidney Freund 2011-2012: Roger Lulow (interim) 2012-2016: William McKersie 2016-2017: Sal Corda (interim) 2017-2018: Jill Gildea 2018-2019: Ralph Mayo (interim) 2019- : Toni Jones See More Collapse

While Im disappointed that I was not chosen to be the new superintendent, Im grateful to be working with the new superintendent to continue to make our district great, Mayo said after the appointment.

The first thing (I would tell Jones) is how wonderful our children, staff and parents are. Those are our best resources, he said.

The board is making a mistake in not appointing Mayo, Sherr said.

We have a great superintendent who is making tremendous progress, but my colleagues have decided to hit the reset button yet again, he said. Meanwhile, we are telling every principal and administrator who aspires to be superintendent or cabinet that you have no future here in Greenwich.

Sherr pledged to support Jones, but he said the decision begs the question whether the school board has learned anything from the last five times a superintendent was hired.

Three permanent superintendents have cycled through Greenwich in the last decade: Sidney Freund, who stayed for two years before departing over strained relationships with members of the board; William McKersie, who remained for four years before moving to Weston Public Schools; and Gildea, who lasted less than one year before relocating to Park City, Utah.

In between, the school board hired three interim superintendents to lead while members searched for replacements.

The dissension shows that Sherr has a different vision of the future of Greenwich public schools, Bernstein said.

While we value the stability that Ralph has brought to the district in this year of transition, we continue to look to the future, Bernstein said. Ralph will still be a part of our leadership and will still share his calmness and knowledge while we bring in Jones to drive forward student growth, achievement and personal-interpersonal skills.

The national average retention rate for superintendents is three years, with urban districts holding superintendents for an average of two years, Stowe said.

The search for a new superintendent was essentially free, with the board covering minimal costs, Director of Communications for Public Schools Kim Eves said. The committee footed the search bill because Gildea stayed for less than a year, she said.

Ray and Associates  the company that the district has previously used to conduct searches  pooled together candidates from across the country, including many in Connecticut.

The quantity and quality of the candidates demonstrated the strong brand of the Greenwich Public Schools and, ultimately, made for a very difficult decision, Stowe said. Dr. Jones stood out for her positive attitude, forward thinking approach, proven success in comparable districts, and the value she places on community involvement.

Jones had leadership experience in Australia, Oklahoma and northern Virginia, in both private and public schools, before settling in Connecticut.

She has led elementary and middle schools, and has worked at the high school and district levels, an unusual array of experiences among superintendents, Jones said.

I understand what you need in an elementary school, but also what a high school needs, she said.

Jones has been thinking about leading Greenwich schools since Gildea announced her retirement, she said. Gildea sent a message to all Fairfield County superintendents notifying them of an opening, she said.

Philip Dwyer, a Fairfield Board of Education member, said he will miss Jones, but wishes her well.

She achieved the board goals set for her, managed the district well and was especially good at communicating with parents and the school staff, Dwyer said. Fairfield has an excellent school system. However, Dr. Jones challenged us to constantly find new ways to improve our programs.

Jones signed a three-year agreement through June 30, 2022. Her starting salary is $236,640 for 2019-20, up for negotiation after that. She will receive $30,600 a year in annuities.

She will also receive a $3,000 a month housing allowance, provided she lives in Greenwich.

Gildea left to take the superintendent job in Park City, Utah, after her family relocated there. Her annual salary in Greenwich was $250,000, along with a $15,000 annuity and a $3,500-per-month housing allowance.

The move to Greenwich made sense for Jones personally and professionally, as her husband, John Jones, is a science teacher at Greenwich High School.

The Jones live in Milford, so the new superintendent is excited to have her family work and live in the same corner of Connecticut.

Its wonderful, Jones said. July 1 seems so far away.

jo.kroeker@hearstmediact.comGREENWICH  The official presentation of the 2019-20 municipal budget is still days away, but a fight may already be brewing over Greenwichs proposed capital spending over the start of such possible projects as replacing the ice rink and the Eastern Civic Center.

At a public hearing last month, several members of the Representative Town Meeting spoke out against town spending and urged restraint in the budget. And this could lead to much debate after First Selectman Peter Tesei introduces a proposed budget Thursday night that includes $53 million to $54 million in spending on capital projects.

That figure includes $26 million in capital spending from the Board of Education, but it also has many capital projects that Tesei considers to be priorities. He is looking for money to further develop projects, including building a new municipal ice rink, replacing the Eastern Greenwich Civic Center, enhancing Roger Sherman Baldwin Park and seeking property for a new Northwest fire station.

Id like to think there is support for this, Tesei said late last week. The only way youre going to know is if you put it forward. I am confident and grounded in what I believe members in our community are looking to see. Thats my responsibility.

But there could be a lot of opposition to the strategic investments Tesei is likely to include in the budget. The budget needs approval from both the Board of Estimate and Taxation and the RTM. And last month, RTM members came out swinging against high capital spending.

On Friday, RTM Budget Overview Committee Chair Lucia Jansen noted the discussion in December was over an initial budget draft with $80 million in proposed capital spending.

Committee members have not seen the first selectmans proposed budget that would have more complete information, Jansen said. It appears that many of the capital projects in fiscal year 2020 will be initial startup projects, she said, and the BOC will review the complete operating and capital costs of these projects.

Jansen said the BOC wants a full review of the towns operating budget, too, specifically looking at what steps have been taken to increase productivity and delivery of services in Town Hall while reducing costs.

The details of the budget proposal are still being finalized. Tesei will make his formal presentation to the Board of Estimate and Taxation at 6 p.m. Thursday, followed by a presentation of the school budget and a public hearing.

The BETs Budget Committee will then begin weeks of hearings, starting on Feb. 4, on the proposed budget. Committee Chair Leslie Moriarty said all capital and operational budgets will be discussed as each department went in for a hearing.

The town needs to invest in its infrastructure and schools so that we have well-maintained buildings and services that meet our residents needs, Moriarty said. The Budget Committee will be evaluating both the budget year and forecast years for the scope and timing of all projects. It will examine the towns ability to implement and finance each plan.

Moriarty added the committee will want an update on approved but not completed projects and will discuss the items in Teseis budget along with the Board of Education master plan.

These plans combine to significantly increase the total amount of capital spending, which will need to be balanced against our funding strategy, Moriarty said. I expect a good exchange of information during the upcoming budget meetings.

The budget for the current fiscal year totals $40.7 million in capital spending for the town and the schools. Initially, the proposed capital spending for 2019-20 was higher, but the Board of Education deferred funding for a new field at Central Middle School and remediation at Western Middle School.

Tesei said he understands the concerns. The towns operating budget will basically reflect only contractually mandated salary increases and continued full town funding of fixed costs such as post-employment benefits, said Tesei, who said he is committed to managing costs.

You have to make a judgment, he said. The budget is a series of judgments. When you see us being affirmed by rating agencies as Triple A, and you see them talk about strong management and fiscal operations, you know were not being irresponsible in what were doing. Were being visionary in knowing the amenities were talking about are things that people look to when they consider communities.

And if there is opposition to his budget plan, Tesei said there will be a mechanism for it.

These are amenities and services we have had before, Tesei said. My question for (opponents to the spending) is, Are you saying you do not want these things? If you dont want them then vote accordingly. Ive always said that if people dont want something then vote accordingly.

He urged town officials to focus on the towns needs.

It seems weve gotten to a point where people do not remember how to have a discourse and a differing opinion without negativity, said Tesei, defending his budget plans.

I think these are amenities these people have really come to enjoy. Theyre an integral part the communities and neighborhoods and I think weve been very fortunate over time to have them continue, he said.

The facilities at the civic center and the rink are no longer adequate, Tesei said. The funds in the 2019-20 budget would not be for actual construction but for preparations. And replacing these amenities, as well as other projects like improvements to Roger Sherman Baldwin Park, would be a long-term investment that would bring in new residents and make Greenwich a more marketable town, Tesei said.

Greenwich stands out among other communities, he said, pointing to credit rating agencies that state the town is in extremely strong condition.

People have to know that their community has a solid track record when it comes to maintaining public infrastructure and quality service as well as managing their finances, Tesei said. I think weve done all of that. Youll have people who argue, No, you havent, and you can always find areas to improve. But overall the independent satisfaction surveys (of residents) give us the feedback that affirms the actions that were taking.

Within the next month or so, Tesei intends to formalize a portfolio of town capital projects to attract new residents and enhance the quality of life. His ultimate goal is to look for corporate sponsorships.

Im talking about sponsorship and naming for the civic center or the rink, Tesei said. The new ferry boats could also fall into that. This is a real opportunity and I want to address that in the coming months by finding people who will help me.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.comBRIDGEPORT  A male victim was shot twice in the city Friday night, officials said.

Around 9:45 p.m., police officers responded to Washington Terrace for a report of a person hit by gunfire. Responding officers found a male victim who had been shot twice in the leg, according to city spokesman Av Harris.

The victim was treated by medics at the scene and then taken to a local hospital.

After the shooting, police blocked off Washington Terrace between Washington Place and Park Avenue because as detectives investigated. Cars driving on Park Avenue slowed as they approached the flashing lights of the police cruisers.

No suspects had been apprehended as of late Friday evening.

The investigation into the shooting is ongoing.The sign, filled with history about religion, education and the Freetown community, is one of 10 to be placed around Anne Arundel County as part of the historic sign initiative launched by the cultural resource section of the Office of Planning and Zoning. Over 50 members of Freetown and Pumphrey gathered together Tuesday to recognize and celebrate the past, present and future of the communities.Book World: An arson conviction that throws into doubt the science of criminal investigationAlzheimers disease is the only leading cause of death in the U.S. that cannot be prevented, cured or even slowed. It is imperative that we have elected officials who are working to make Alzheimers a national priority.

As an Alzheimers Ambassador, I have been fortunate to meet with members of Congress to discuss the staggering impact of Alzheimers on Virginia and across the nation. I am thankful that Congress just passed the Building Our Largest Dementia Infrastructure for Alzheimers Act, which had strong bipartisan support. The act will allow our nation to address Alzheimers as the urgent public health crisis it has become.

I hope new Rep. Denver Riggleman will work with his colleagues in Congress to address Alzheimers as a public health crisis  not just from a funding standpoint, but also from a caregiver standpoint.

In my roles at RoseWood Village Assisted Living & Memory Care and Park Street Senior Living, I see firsthand the tragic effects that Alzheimers has on the residents we are privileged to care for and the toll it takes on the amazing associates who work passionately every single day to make a meaningful difference.Development of the 13-acre site will be in three phases with phase one scheduled to begin soon with phase two estimated to be completed in mid-2022.For the second year in a row, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax left the dais where he presides over the state Senate when senators honored Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Sen. Richard Stuart, R-Stafford, gave a brief speech in support of Lee and asking that the Senate adjourn Friday in his honor. Saturday is Lee's birthday.

"I rise today to celebrate the 212th birthday of Robert E. Lee and, Mr. President, I rise to celebrate his birthday because he was a great Virginian and a great American, and not because it has anything to do with slavery," Stuart said. "I celebrate Lee on his birthday because he was a man with the strength of his convictions, and that is a rare trait, either in yesteryear or today."

Fairfax, elected in 2017 as the second black lieutenant governor in Virginia history, left the dais in anticipation of the speech. Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, the president pro tempore in the Senate, replaced him.

Fairfax called the decision to again honor Lee in the Senate unfortunate but not surprising, and said he wanted to be firm and respectful in his protest.

"Particularly in this year which is obviously the 400 year commemoration of the first enslaved Africans being brought to Virginia, in Hampton and Point Comfort, I think it stings a lot of people in particular in a year like this," he said. "To constantly look backwards to a very divisive time and conscript people into honoring someone who - had he prevailed and gotten his way I would not be standing up there on that dais as lieutenant governor of Virginia - I think is something that we should not be doing."Friday, January 18, 2019 at 9:43PM

Google continues to bring in some of Wazes features to Google Maps. The latest one is speed trap warnings. It started showing up for some users in November and December. But now there seems to be more sightings of the feature within the app and the reports are made by other drives within the area. What this feature does is give warnings to drivers about areas where they might get a speeding ticket. Its not a feature thats particularly popular with law enforcement, as expected.

The warnings show up as orange markers along the drivers route. If you tap on one of them, youll get information such as whether its a speed camera as well as when the alert was last updated. Theres also a new speed limit icon being displayed at the bottom left corner of the navigation screen, and an audio notification will also sound off when theyre near speed cameras. According to BGR, it isnt clear when the feature will come to all Google Maps users, but for now its available in specific locations in the US. If you want to use the feature now though, you can still turn to Waze.

Source: Slash GearBourne, a former member of the Richmond School Board, said in a phone interview: I think the research tells us that young people are picking up smoking and tobacco use at alarming rates, and public officials have a moral imperative to do what they can to stop it.

In December, the National Institute on Drug Abuse said U.S. teens reported a dramatic increase in their use of vaping devices in a single year, with 37.3 percent of 12th-graders reporting any vaping in the past 12 months, compared to just 27.8 percent in 2017.

Under the Virginia legislation, a first violation by an individual or a retail establishment would be punishable by a civil penalty of up to $100, rising to a maximum of $200 for a second violation and up to $500 for a third violation.

The legislation includes higher civil penalties for purchases and sales of bidis, defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as small, thin, hand-rolled cigarettes imported to the United States, primarily from India and other Southeast Asian countries, in which tobacco is wrapped in a leaf and can come with flavoring such as chocolate or cherry.As it girds for a busy holiday weekend for travel, the nation's airport security screening system continues to struggle with high absenteeism as a result of officers having to work without pay during the partial government shutdown.

On Thursday, 6.4 percent of U.S. airport security officers were off the job, almost twice the 3.8 percent on the same day a year earlier, the Transportation Security Administration said in a release. The agency said it anticipates clearing more than 8 million people in the four days of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, an increase of nearly 11 percent over last year.

"Airports may exercise contingency plans due to call-outs and traveler volume in order to maintain effective security standards," the agency said. "Travelers should seek current airline and airport information and should allow enough time to get through the airport and board their flight."

Thursday's absentee rate was slightly higher than the level recorded on Tuesday and Wednesday, but below the spike over the weekend after the more than 51,000 TSA screeners missed their first paycheck on Jan. 11.A Barboursville man died Thursday night when the vehicle he was driving went off Route 20 and crashed.

State Trooper J.W. Allen said Whitney D. Herring, 55, was thrown from his 2000 Chevrolet Suburban and died at the scene of the crash around 8:35 p.m. at Route 20 and Cleveland Drive.

Herrings vehicle ran off the right side of the road and overturned before it struck a tree. He was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from the vehicle.

The crash remains under investigation but police said alcohol was a factor.

The Orange County Sheriffs Office, Barboursville Volunteer Fire Department and the Virginia Department of Transportation assisted state police with the investigation, traffic control and securing the scene.

Send news tips to news@dailyprogress.com, call (434) 978-7264, tweet us @DailyProgress or send us a Facebook message here.

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(North West) Limited, PPL Pty Limited, PT Network Services Limited, PTI Telecom Limited, Peoples Phone Limited, Pinnacle Cellular Group Limited, Pinnacle Cellular Limited, Plex Limited, Plustech Mercantile Company Private Limited, Prime Metals Ltd., Project Telecom Holdings Limited, Quickcomm Software Solutions, Radio Opt GmbH, Rian Mobile Limited, SBC SMART CITY 1517 B.V., SMMS Investments Pvt Limited, Safaricom Limited, Safenet N.P A., Sarmady Communications, Scarlet Ibis Investments 23 (Pty) Limited, Scorpios Beverages Pvt. Ltd, Silver Stream Investments Limited, Singlepoint (4U) Limited, Singlepoint (4U) Ltd., Singlepoint Payment Services Limited, Siro Limited, Spar Aerospace (Nigeria) Limited, Sport TV Portugal S.A, Starnet, Stentor Communications Limited, Stentor Limited, Storage Technology Services (Pty) Limited, T.W. Telecom Limited, T3 Telecommunications Limited, TKS Telepost Kabel-Service Kaiserslautern Beteiligungs GmbH, TKS Telepost Kabel-Service Kaiserslautern GmbH & Co. KG, TNAS Limited, TSM NZ Limited, Talkland Airtime Services Limited, Talkland Australia Pty Limited, Talkland Communications Limited, Talkland International Limited, Talkland Midlands Limited, Talkmobile Limited, Tele2 Italia SPA, Tele2 Spain, Telecom Investments India Private Limited, Telecommunications Europe Limited, Ternhill Communications Limited, The Cobra Group, The Eastern Leasing Company Limited, The Old Telecom Sales Co. Limited, Thus Group Holdings Limited, Thus Group Limited, Thus Limited, Thus Profit Sharing Trustees Limited, TnT Expense Management LLC, Tomorrow Street GP S.a r.l., Tomorrow Street SCA, Torenspits II B.V., Townley Communications Limited, Trans Crystal Ltd., UMT Investments Limited, UPC Nederland Holding I B.V., UPC Nederland Holding II B.V., UPC Nederland Holding III B.V., Unified Communications, Uniqueair Limited, Urbana Teleunion Rostock GmbH & Co.KG, Usha Martin Telematics Limited, VAPL No. 2 Pty Limited, VBA (Mauritius) Limited, VBA Holdings Limited, VBA International (SL) Limited, VBA International Limited, VEI S.r.l., VM SA, VND S.p.A, VSSB Vodafone Shared Services Budapest Private Limited Company, Verwaltung Urbana Teleunion Rostock GmbH, Victus Networks S.A., Vizzavi Finance Limited, Vizzavi Limited, Voda Limited, Vodacall Limited, Vodacash s.p.r.l., Vodacom (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Business (Angola) Limitada, Vodacom Business (Ghana) Limited, Vodacom Business (Kenya) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa (Nigeria) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa Group (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa Group Services Limited, Vodacom Business Cameroon SA, Vodacom Business Cote Divoire S.A.R.L., Vodacom Congo (RDC) SA, Vodacom Financial Services (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Group Limited, Vodacom Insurance Administration Company (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Insurance Company (RF) Limited, Vodacom International Holdings (Pty) Limited, Vodacom International Limited, Vodacom Lesotho (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Life Assurance Company (RF) Limited, Vodacom Payment Services (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Properties No 1 (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Properties No.2 (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Tanzania Limited Zanzibar, Vodacom Tanzania Public Limited Company, Vodacom UK Limited, Vodafone (NI) Limited, Vodafone (New Zealand) Hedging Limited, Vodafone (Scotland) Limited, Vodafone 2, Vodafone 4 UK, Vodafone 5 Limited, Vodafone 5 UK, Vodafone 6 UK, Vodafone Albania Sh.A, Vodafone Alternatif Telekom Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Americas 4, Vodafone Americas Virginia Inc., Vodafone And Qatar Foundation L.L.C, Vodafone Asset Management Services S.a r.l., Vodafone Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Automotive Deutschland GmbH, Vodafone Automotive Electronic Systems S.r.L, Vodafone Automotive France S.A.S, Vodafone Automotive Iberia S.L, Vodafone Automotive Italia S.p.A, Vodafone Automotive Japan K.K, Vodafone Automotive Korea Limited, Vodafone Automotive SpA, Vodafone Automotive Technologies (Beijing) Co Ltd, Vodafone Automotive Telematics Development S.A.S, Vodafone Automotive Telematics S.A, Vodafone Automotive UK Limited, Vodafone Belgium SA/NV, Vodafone Benelux Limited, Vodafone Bilgi Ve Iletisim Hizmetleri AS, Vodafone Business Services Limited, Vodafone Business Solutions Limited, Vodafone Canada Inc, Vodafone Cellular Limited, Vodafone Central Services Limited, Vodafone China Limited (China), Vodafone China Limited (Hong Kong), Vodafone Connect 2 Limited, Vodafone Connect Limited, Vodafone Consolidated Holdings Limited, Vodafone Corporate Limited, Vodafone Corporate Secretaries Limited, Vodafone Czech Republic A.S., Vodafone DC Pension Trustee Company Limited, Vodafone Dagitim Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Data, Vodafone Distribution Holdings Limited, Vodafone Egypt Telecommunications S.A.E., Vodafone Elektronik Para Ve Odeme Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Empresa Brasil Telecomunicacoes Ltda, Vodafone Empresa Mexico S.de R.L. de C.V., Vodafone Enabler Espana S.L., Vodafone Enterprise Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Austria GmbH, Vodafone Enterprise Bahrain W.L.L., Vodafone Enterprise Bulgaria EOOD, Vodafone Enterprise Chile SA, Vodafone Enterprise Communications Technical Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Corporate Secretaries Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Denmark A/S, Vodafone Enterprise Equipment Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited  Czech Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited  DubaiI Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Finland OY, Vodafone Enterprise France SAS, Vodafone Enterprise Germany GmbH, Vodafone Enterprise Global Businesses S.a r.l., Vodafone Enterprise Global Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Global Network HK Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Global Network Pte. Ltd., Vodafone Enterprise Hong Kong Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Italy S.r.L, Vodafone Enterprise Korea Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Luxembourg S.A., Vodafone Enterprise Netherlands BV, Vodafone Enterprise Norway AS, Vodafone Enterprise Regional Business Singapore Pte.Ltd., Vodafone Enterprise Singapore Pte.Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Spain S.L.U.  Portugal Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Spain SLU, Vodafone Enterprise Sweden AB, Vodafone Enterprise Switzerland AG, Vodafone Erste Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Vodafone Espana S.A.U., Vodafone Euro Hedging Limited, Vodafone Euro Hedging Two, Vodafone Europe B.V., Vodafone Europe UK, Vodafone European Investments, Vodafone European Portal Limited, Vodafone Finance Limited, Vodafone Finance Luxembourg Limited, Vodafone Finance Sweden, Vodafone Finance UK Limited, Vodafone Financial Operations, Vodafone Financial Services B.V., Vodafone Fixed Ltd, Vodafone Foundation, Vodafone Foundation Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Gestioni S.p.A, Vodafone Ghana Mobile Financial Services Limited, Vodafone Global Content Services Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise (Hong Kong) Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise (Italy) S.R.L., Vodafone Global Enterprise (Japan) K.K., Vodafone Global Enterprise (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Vodafone Global Enterprise Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise Russia LLC, Vodafone Global Enterprise Taiwan Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise Telecommunications (Hellas) A.E., Vodafone Global Network Limited, Vodafone Global Network Limited  Slovakia Branch, Vodafone Global Services Private Limited, Vodafone GmbH, Vodafone Group (Directors) Trustee Limited, Vodafone Group Pension Trustee Limited, Vodafone Group Services GmbH, Vodafone Group Services Ireland Limited, Vodafone Group Services Limited, Vodafone Group Services No.2 Limited, Vodafone Group Share Trustee Limited, Vodafone Hire Limited, Vodafone Holding A.S., Vodafone Holdings (Jersey) Limited, Vodafone Holdings (SA) Proprietary Limited, Vodafone Holdings Europe S.L.U., Vodafone Holdings Luxembourg Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Finance Pty Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Receivables Pty Limited, Vodafone IP Licensing Limited, Vodafone India Digital Limited, Vodafone India Limited, Vodafone India Services Private Limited, Vodafone India Ventures Limited, Vodafone Institut fur Gesellschaft und Kommunikation GmbH, Vodafone Intermediate Enterprises Limited, Vodafone International 1 S.a.r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone International 1 S.a r.l., Vodafone International 2 Limited, Vodafone International Holdings B.V., Vodafone International Holdings Limited, Vodafone International M S.a r.l., Vodafone International Operations Limited, Vodafone International Services LLC, Vodafone Investment UK, Vodafone Investments (SA) Proprietary Limited, Vodafone Investments Australia Limited, Vodafone Investments Limited, Vodafone Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Vodafone Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone Ireland Distribution Limited, Vodafone Ireland Ltd., Vodafone Ireland Marketing Limited, Vodafone Ireland Property Holdings Limited, Vodafone Ireland Retail Limited, Vodafone Italia S.p.A., Vodafone Jersey Dollar Holdings Limited, Vodafone Jersey Finance, Vodafone Jersey Yen Holdings Unlimited, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland Field Services GmbH, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland GmbH, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland Kundenbetreuung GmbH, Vodafone Kenya Limited, Vodafone Leasing Limited, Vodafone Libertel B.V., Vodafone Limited, Vodafone Luxembourg 5 S.a r.l., Vodafone Luxembourg 5 S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone Luxembourg S.a r.l., Vodafone Luxembourg S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone M-PESA SH.P.K., Vodafone M-Pesa S.A, Vodafone M.C. Mobile Services Limited , Vodafone Magyarorszag Mobile Tavkozlesi Zartkoruen Mukodo Reszvenytarsasag, Vodafone Malta Limited, Vodafone Marketing UK , Vodafone Maroc SARL, Vodafone Mauritius Ltd., Vodafone Mobile Commerce Limited, Vodafone Mobile Communications Limited, Vodafone Mobile Enterprises Limited, Vodafone Mobile NZ Limited, Vodafone Mobile Network Limited, Vodafone Mobile Operations Limited, Vodafone Mobile Services Limited, Vodafone Multimedia Limited, Vodafone Nederland Holding I B.V., Vodafone Nederland Holding II B.V., Vodafone Nederland Holding III B.V., Vodafone Net Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Network Pty Limited, Vodafone New Zealand Foundation Limited, Vodafone New Zealand Limited, Vodafone Next Generation Services Limited, Vodafone Nominees Limited1, Vodafone ONO S.A.U., Vodafone Oceania Limited, Vodafone Old Show Ground Site Management Limited, Vodafone Overseas Finance Limited, Vodafone Overseas Holdings Limited, Vodafone Panafon International Holdings B.V., Vodafone Panafon UK, Vodafone Partner Services Limited, Vodafone Payment Solutions S.a r.l., Vodafone Portugal  Comunicacoes Pessoais S.A., Vodafone Procurement Company S.a r.l., Vodafone Property Investments Limited, Vodafone Pty Limited, Vodafone Qatar Q.S.C., Vodafone Retail (Holdings) Limited , Vodafone Retail Limited, Vodafone Roaming Services S.a r.l., Vodafone Romania S.A, Vodafone Romania M - Payments SRL, Vodafone Romania Technologies SRL, Vodafone Sales & Services Limited, Vodafone Satellite Services Limited, Vodafone Servicios SL.U, Vodafone Servizi E Tecnologie S.R.L, Vodafone Servicos Empresariais Brasil Ltda., Vodafone Shared Services Romania SRL, Vodafone Specialist Communications Limited, Vodafone Stiftung Deutschland Gemeinnutzige GmbH, Vodafone Technology Solutions Limited, Vodafone Teknoloji Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Tele-Services (India) Holdings Limited, Vodafone Telecel-Comunicates Pessoais S.A., Vodafone Telecommunications (India) Limited, Vodafone Telekomunikasyon A.S, Vodafone Towers Limited, Vodafone UK Content Services Limited, Vodafone UK Investments Limited , Vodafone UK Limited1 , Vodafone US Inc, Vodafone Ventures Limited1 , Vodafone Vierte Verwaltungs AG, Vodafone Worldwide Holdings Limited, Vodafone Yen Finance Limited , Vodafone m-pesa Limited, Vodafone-Central Limited Vodaphone Limited, Vodafone-Panafon Hellenic Telecommunications Company S.A., VodafoneZiggo Group Holding B.V, Vodata Limited , Vouchercloud SA (Pty) Ltd, Wataneya Telecommunications S.A.E, Waterberg Lodge (Proprietary) Limited, Wayfinder, Wheatfields Investments 276 (Proprietary) Limited, Wireless Interactions & NFC Accelerator 2013 B.V., Woodend Cellular Limited, Woodend Communications Limited, Woodend Group Limited, Woodend Holdings Limited, XB Facilities B.V, XLink Communications (Proprietary) Limited, Your Communications Group Limited, ZUM B.V., ZYB, Zelitron S.A., Zesko B.V., Ziggo B.V., Ziggo Bond Company B.V., Ziggo Deelnemingen B.V., Ziggo Finance 2 B.V., Ziggo Financing Partnership, Ziggo Holding B.V., Ziggo Netwerk B.V., Ziggo Netwerk II B.V., Ziggo Services B.V., Ziggo Services Employment B.V., Ziggo Services Netwerk 2 B.V., Ziggo Zakelijk Services B.V., and Zoranet Connectivity Services B.V..Friday, January 18, 2019 at 10:02PM

The time has come to say goodbye to your Windows 10 Mobile device. Microsoft has stopped developing new features or hardware for Windows 10 Mobile back in 2017. Now, the company is ready to end support for security and software updates. Starting December 10, 2019, Microsoft will no longer issue these updates. The company is recommending its users to switch to Android or iOS. After it pulls support in December though, device backups for settings and some apps will continue to run for three more months until March 10, 2020. Microsoft also notes some services including photo uploads and restoring a device from an existing device backup may continue to work for up to another 12 months from end of support.

Source: The VergeI only buy one kind of stock. 37 of these cash cows are in my portfolio right now... and for every dollar invested in them they are sending us 69 cents in dividends. That's an effective yield of 69% a year-every year. All without leverage, options, or gimmicks.

AstraZeneca PLC discovers, develops, manufactures, and commercializes prescription medicines in the areas of oncology, cardiovascular, renal and metabolism, respiratory, infection, neuroscience, and gastroenterology worldwide. The company's marketed products include Tagrisso, Lynparza, Imfinzi, Enhertu, Koselugo, Lumoxiti, Equidacent, Zoladex, Faslodex, Iressa, Arimidex, Casodex/Cosudex, and others for oncology diseases; Onglyza, Bydureon, Lokelma, Byetta, Qtern, Symlin, and others for cardiovascular, renal, and metabolism diseases; and Symbicort, Pulmicort, Fasenra, Daliresp/Daxas, Duaklir, Tudorza/Eklira, Bevespi, Breztri, Anifrolumab, and others for respiratory and immunology diseases. It also offers other medicines and COVID-19 products, including Synagis, Fluenz Tetra/FluMist Quadrivalent, Seroquel IR/Seroquel XR, Vimovo, Movantik/Moventig, Nexium, Losec/Prilosec, and COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca. The company serves primary care and specialty care physicians through distributors and local representative offices. It has a collaboration agreement with Daiichi Sankyo to develop and commercialize DS-1062 for the treatment of trophoblast cell-surface antigen 2 (TROP2) tumor; AliveCor, Inc. to develop non-invasive potassium monitoring solutions; Massachusetts General Hospital to accelerate digital health solutions; Sanguina on smartphone application study for hemoglobin management in patients with anemia of chronic kidney disease; Alchemab to enhance prostate cancer research; and Proteros biostructures GmbH to discover and develop novel small molecules for the treatment of various types of cancer. The company was formerly known as Zeneca Group PLC and changed its name to AstraZeneca PLC in April 1999. AstraZeneca PLC was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Cambridge, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreLear Corporation designs, develops, engineers, manufactures, assembles, and supplies automotive seating, and electrical distribution systems and related components for automotive original equipment manufacturers in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. Its Seating segment offers seat systems, seat subsystems, key seat components, seat trim covers, seat mechanisms, seat foams, and headrests, as well as surface materials, such as leather and fabric for automobiles and light trucks, compact cars, pick-up trucks, and sport utility vehicles. The company's E-Systems segment provides electrical distribution and connection systems that route electrical signals and networks, and manage electrical power within the vehicle for various powertrains, such as traditional internal combustion engine architectures, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery electric architectures. This segment's products comprise wire harnesses, terminals and connectors, engineered components, and junction boxes; electronic system products, including body domain control modules, smart and passive junction boxes, gateway and communication modules, integrated power modules, and high voltage battery management systems. It also offers software and connected services comprising Xevo Market, an in-vehicle commerce and service platform that connects customers with the brands and services by delivering sales offers through vehicle touch screens and vehicle-branded mobile applications; and software and services for the cloud, vehicles, and mobile devices that enable consumer e-commerce, multi-media applications, and enterprise services. In addition, this segment provides cybersecurity software; advanced vehicle positioning for automated and autonomous driving applications; and short-range communication and cellular protocols for vehicle connectivity. It offers its products and services under the XEVO, GUILFORD, EAGLE OTTAWA, ConfigurE+TM, INTUTM, LEAR CONNEXUSTM, EXOTM, JOURNEYWARE, ProTec, SMART JUNCTION BOXTM, STRUCSURETM, AVENTINO, and TeXstyleTM brands. Lear Corporation was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Southfield, Michigan.

Read MoreRobert Half International Inc. provides staffing and risk consulting services in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The company operates through three segments: Temporary and Consultant Staffing, Permanent Placement Staffing, and Risk Consulting and Internal Audit Services. It places temporary services for accounting, finance, and bookkeeping; temporary and full-time office and administrative personnel consisting of executive and administrative assistants, receptionists, and customer service representatives; full-time accounting, financial, tax, and accounting operations personnel; and information technology contract consultants and full-time employees in the areas of platform systems integration to end-user technical and desktop support, including specialists in application development, networking, systems integration and deployment, database design and administration, and security and business continuity. The company also offers temporary and full-time employees in attorney, paralegal, legal administrative, and legal secretarial positions; and senior level project professionals in the accounting and finance fields for financial systems conversions, expansion into new markets, business process reengineering, business systems performance improvement, and post-merger financial consolidation. In addition, it is involved in serving professionals in the areas of interactive media, design, marketing, advertising, and public relations; and placing freelance and project consultants in various positions, such as creative directors, graphics designers, Web content developers, Web designers, media buyers, brand managers, and public relations specialists. Further, the company provides business and technology risk consulting, and internal audit services. It serves clients and employment candidates. Robert Half International Inc. was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Accenture: 2nd Road, 2nd Road Pty Ltd., ?What If!, ?What If! China Holdings Ltd, ?What If! Holdings Limited, ?What If! Innovation Singapore Holdings Pte, ?What If! Limited, ?What If! Shanghai Co. Ltd, ?What If! USA LLC, ACN Consulting Co Ltd, AD Dialeto Agencia de Publicidade SA, AD.Dialeto (Digital Agency acquired by Accenture), AGS Business and Technology Services Limited, ASM Research Inc., ASM Research LLC, ATAN, Accenture (Beijing) Mobile Technology Co Ltd, Accenture (Botswana) (Proprietary) Limited, Accenture (China) Co Ltd, Accenture (Shenzhen) Technology Co. Ltd., Accenture (South Africa) (Proprietary) Limited, Accenture (South Africa) Pty Limited, Accenture (UK) Ltd, Accenture 2 Business Process Services S.A., Accenture 2 LLC, Accenture A/S, Accenture AB, Accenture AG, Accenture AS, Accenture Africa Pty Ltd, Accenture Australia Holding B.V., Accenture Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, Accenture Australia Pty Ltd, Accenture Azerbaijan Ltd, Accenture BPM Operations Support Services S.A., Accenture BPM S.C.R.L., Accenture BV, Accenture Branch Holdings B.V., Accenture Bulgaria EOOD, Accenture Business Services for Utilities Inc, Accenture Business Services of British Columbia Limited Partnership, Accenture Business and Technology Services LLC, Accenture C.A, Accenture CAS GmbH, Accenture Canada Holdings Inc., Accenture Capital DAC, Accenture Capital Inc, Accenture Central Europe B.V., Accenture Chile Asesorias y Servicios Ltda, Accenture Cloud Services GmbH, Accenture Cloud Software Solutions Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions Australia Pty Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions LLC, Accenture Cloud Solutions Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Co Ltd, Accenture Co Ltd., Accenture Communications Infrastructure Solutions Ltd, Accenture Company Ltd, Accenture Consulting Services Ltd Tanzania, Accenture Consultores de Gestao S.A., Accenture Consultoria de Industria e Consumo Ltda, Accenture Consultoria de Recursos Naturais Ltda, Accenture Credit Services LLC, Accenture Customer Services Distribution SAS, Accenture Customer Services Limited, Accenture Danismanlik Limited Sirketi, Accenture Defined Benefit Pension Plan Trustees Ltd, Accenture Defined Contribution Pension Plan Trustees Ltd, Accenture Delivery Poland sp. z o.o., Accenture Dienstleistungen GmbH, Accenture Digital France Holdings SA, Accenture Digital Holdings GmbH, Accenture East Africa Limited, Accenture Ecuador S.A., Accenture Egypt LLC, Accenture Enterprise Development (Shanghai) Co Ltd., Accenture Federal Services LLC, Accenture Finance (Gibraltar) III Ltd, Accenture Finance GmbH, Accenture Finance GmbH in liquidation, Accenture Finance II GmbH, Accenture Finance II GmbH in liquidation, Accenture Finance II Ltd, Accenture Finance Limited, Accenture Finance and Accounting BPO Services S.p.A., Accenture Finance and Accounting Services Srl, Accenture Flex LLC, Accenture GP LLC, Accenture Ghana Limited, Accenture Global Holdings Ltd., Accenture Global Services Ltd, Accenture Global Solutions Ltd, Accenture GmbH, Accenture HR Services Ltd, Accenture HR Services S.p.A., Accenture Healthcare Processing Inc., Accenture Holding GmbH, Accenture Holding GmbH & Co. KG, Accenture Holding GmbH in liquidation, Accenture Holdings (Iberia) S.L., Accenture Holdings B.V., Accenture Holdings France SAS, Accenture Holdings plc, Accenture Hungary Holdings Kft, Accenture Inc, Accenture Industrial Software Limited Liability Company (Accenture Endustriyel Yazylym Cozumleri Limited irketi), Accenture Industrial Software Limited Liability Company (Accenture Endustriyel Yazlm Cozumleri Limited Sirketi), Accenture Industrial Software Solutions Kft, Accenture Industrial Software Solutions SA, Accenture Insurance Services LLC, Accenture Insurance Services SAS, Accenture Insurance Services SpA, Accenture International BV, Accenture International Capital SCA, Accenture International LLC, Accenture International Limited, Accenture International Sarl, Accenture Japan Ltd, Accenture Korea BV, Accenture LLC, Accenture LLP, Accenture Lanka (Private) Ltd, Accenture Limited, Accenture Ltd, Accenture Ltda, Accenture Maghreb S.a.r.l., Accenture Managed Services SRL, Accenture Managed Services SpA, Accenture Management GmbH, Accenture Middle East B.V, Accenture Middle East BV, Accenture Minority I BV, Accenture Minority III Ltd, Accenture Mozambique Limitada, Accenture Mzansi (Pty) Ltd, Accenture NV/SA, Accenture NZ Limited, Accenture Newco LLC, Accenture Nova Scotia Unlimited Liability Co., Accenture OOO, Accenture Operations Sp. z o.o., Accenture Outsourcing SRL, Accenture Outsourcing Services, Accenture Outsourcing Services S.A., Accenture Oy, Accenture Panama Inc, Accenture Participations BV, Accenture Participations II Limited, Accenture Peru S.R.L, Accenture Peru S.R.L., Accenture Post Trade Processing SAS, Accenture Post-Trade Processing Limited, Accenture Process Ltd, Accenture Product Lifecycle Services, Accenture Properties, Accenture Pte Ltd, Accenture Puerto Rico LLC, Accenture S.A., Accenture S.C., Accenture S.L., Accenture S.R.L., Accenture SAS, Accenture SG Services Pte Ltd, Accenture SRL, Accenture Saudi Arabia Limited, Accenture Sendirian Berhad, Accenture Service Center SRL, Accenture Services (Mauritius) Ltd, Accenture Services AB, Accenture Services AG, Accenture Services AS, Accenture Services GmbH, Accenture Services Ltd, Accenture Services Morocco SA, Accenture Services Oy, Accenture Services Pty Ltd, Accenture Services S.r.l., Accenture Services SRL, Accenture Services Sp. z o.o., Accenture Services Sp. z.o.o., Accenture Services and Technology Srl, Accenture Services fur Kreditinstitute GmbH, Accenture Services s.r.o., Accenture Servicos Administrativos Ltda, Accenture Servicos de Suporte de Negocios Ltda, Accenture Solutions Co Ltd, Accenture Solutions Private Limited, Accenture Solutions Pte Ltd, Accenture Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Solutions Sdn Bhd, Accenture Sp. z o.o., Accenture Sp. z.o.o., Accenture SpA, Accenture State Healthcare Services LLC, Accenture Sub II Inc., Accenture Sub Inc, Accenture Sub LLC, Accenture Systems Integration Limited, Accenture Sarl, Accenture Tanacsado Kolatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Accenture Tanacsado Kolatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag KFT, Accenture Technologia, Accenture Technologia Consultoria e Outsourcing S.A., Accenture Technology Infrastructure Services Pty Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions (Dalian) Co Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions (HK) Co. Ltd., Accenture Technology Solutions (Thailand) Co. Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions - Solucoes Informaticas Integradas, Accenture Technology Solutions - Solucoes Informaticas Integradas S.A., Accenture Technology Solutions GmbH, Accenture Technology Solutions Oy, Accenture Technology Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions S.A. de C.V., Accenture Technology Solutions SAS, Accenture Technology Solutions SRL, Accenture Technology Solutions Sdn. Bhd., Accenture Technology Solutions Slovakia s.r.o., Accenture Technology Ventures BV, Accenture Technology Ventures S.P.R.L., Accenture Uruguay SRL, Accenture Vietnam Co., Accenture Vietnam Co. LTD, Accenture Zambia Limited, Accenture do Brasil Limitada, Accenture plc, Accenture s.r.o., Acceria, Acquity Customer Insight Limited, Acquity Group, Adaptly LLC, Adaptly UK Limited, AddVal Technology, Adqptly, Advantium Inc., Agave Consultants Limited, Agilex Technologies Inc., Allen International, Allen International Consulting Group Ltd, Alnova Technologies Corporation S.L., AlphaBeta Advisors, Altima, Altima Asia Ltd., Altima SAS, Altitude, Altitude LLC, Analytics 8 LP, Analytics 8 Pty Ltd, Analytics8, Aorui Advertising (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Apis, Appaloosa Technology SAS, Arca, Ariba - BPO, Arismore, Aspiro Solutions (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Avanade, Avanade (Guangzhou) Computer Technology Development Co. Ltd., Avanade (Thailand) Co Ltd, Avanade Asia Pte Ltd, Avanade Australia Pty Ltd, Avanade Belgium SPRL, Avanade Canada Inc., Avanade Denmark A/S, Avanade Denmark ApS, Avanade Deutschland GmbH, Avanade Europe Holdings Ltd, Avanade Europe Services Ltd, Avanade Federal Services LLC, Avanade Finland Oy, Avanade France SAS, Avanade GZ Computer Technology Development Co. Ltd. (SH), Avanade Guangzhou, Avanade Holdings LLC, Avanade Hong Kong Ltd, Avanade International Corporation, Avanade Ireland Limited, Avanade Italy SRL, Avanade KK, Avanade Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avanade Netherlands BV, Avanade Norway AS, Avanade Poland Sp. z o.o., Avanade Poland Sp. z.o.o., Avanade Schweiz GmbH, Avanade South Africa, Avanade South Africa Pty Ltd, Avanade Spain SL, Avanade Sweden AB, Avanade UK Ltd, Avanade do Brasil Limitada, Avanade Osterreich GmbH, AvantBiz Consulting Limited, Avenai, Axia Ltd., BABCN LLC, BCT Solutions, BCT Solutions Pty Ltd, BPO Servicos Administrativos Ltda, BRIDGE Energy Group, Beacon Consulting Group Inc., Beijing Genesis Interactive Technology Co. Ltd., Boomerang Pharmaceutical Communications, Boomerang Pharmaceuticals Communications Ireland Limited, Bow & Arrow, Brand Learning, Brand Learning Group Limited, Brand Learning LLC, Brand Learning Ltd, Brand Learning Partners Limited, Brand Learning Pte Limited, Bridge Energy Group LLC, Brightstep AB, Byte Prophecy, CAS, CRMWaypoint, CadenceQuest Inc., Capable Marketer Limited, Capgemini - North American health practice, Capital Consultancy Services Inc., Certus Solutions Consulting Services Ltd, Certus Solutions Ltd, ChangeTrack Research Pty Ltd., Chaotic Moon Studios, Chengdu Mensa Advertising Co. Ltd., Cimation, Cimation UK Limited, Cirruseo, Cirruseo SAS, Clarity Insights, Clearhead, Clearhead Group, Clearhead Group LLC, ClientHouse GmbH, Cloud Sherpas, Cloud Sherpas (GA) LLC, Cloud Sherpas (SN) (PTE.) Limited, Cloud Sherpas New Zealand Ltd., Cloud Talent Limited, Cloudsherpas, Cloudsherpas Inc., Codagenic Pty. Ltd., Computer Research and Telecommunications LLC, Concrete Desenvolvimento de Sistemas Ltda., Concrete Solutions, Concrete Solutions Ltda., Context Information Security, Coritel S.A., Corliant Inc., CreativeDrive, CustomerWorks Europe SL, Cutting Edge Solutions Ltd, D5 Global Holdings LLC, DAZ Systems Inc, DAZ Systems LLC, DAZSI Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd., DMA Solutions Limited, Davies Consulting, DayNine Consulting, DayNine Consulting (Australia) PTY LTD, DayNine Consulting (Deutschland) GmbH, DayNine Consulting (New Zealand) Limited, DayNine Consulting France SAS, DayNine Consulting Japan K.K., DayNine Consulting LLC, Declarative Holdings, Declarative Holdings LLC, Defense Point Security, Deja vu Security, Design Strategy and Research de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Designaffairs LLC, Digiplug S.A.S., Digiplug SAS, Digital Consulting & Software Services LLC, Droga5, Droga5 LLC, Droga5 Studios LLC, Droga5 UK Ltd., Duck Creek Technologies, Duck Creek Technologies LLC, Deja Vu Security LLC, ESR Labs, Elcurator SAS, Enaxis Consulting, Enaxis Consulting L.P., End-to-End Analytics, Energuia Web, Energuia Web S.A., Energy Management Brokers Ltd., Energy Quote Private Ltd., EnergyQuote JHA, EnergyQuote JHA Ltd., EnergyQuote Trading Ltd., Enimbos, Enkitec, Enterprise System Partners, Enterprise System Partners B.V. , Enterprise System Partners Bilisim Danismanlik Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Enterprise System Partners Global Corporation, Enterprise System Partners Limited, Enterprise System Partners PR LLC, Enterprise System Partners S.A.S., Epylon, Evopro Group, Exactside Limited, Fairway Technologies Inc, Fairway Technologies LLC, Filmproduction ApS, First Annapolis Consulting, First Annapolis Consulting Inc., First Annapolis Consulting LLC, First Annapolis International, Fjord, Focus Group Europe, Focus Group Europe Limited, Formicary, Formicary Holdings Limited, Formicary Limited, FusionX, FutureMove Automotive, Gapso Servicos de Informatica Ltda., Genfour, Genfour Limited, George Group Consulting L.P., Gestalt LLC, Gestion Altima Canada Inc., Global Public Firm S.L., GlobalView SAS, GoodFilm GmbH Filmproduktion Stuttgart, H.B. Maynard and Co. Inc., Hagberg Consulting Group, Hangzhou Aiyunzhe Technology Co. Ltd., Happen, Hjaltelin Stahl, Hjaltelin Stahl K/S, Hytracc Consulting AS, Hytracc Consulting Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Hytracc Consulting UK Limited, Hytracc Holding AS, I-Faber S.p.A., IBB Consulting, IMJ Corp, IMJ Corporation, INCAD, INSITUM, IT One Company Limited, ITBS Servicios Bancarios de Tecnologia de la Informacion SL, Icon Integration, Imagine Broadband (USA) Ltd, Imagine Broadband USA LLC, Imaginea Inc, Industrie&Co, Infoman AG, Infoman Schweiz AG, Informatica de Euskadi S.L., Infusion Development Inc., Infusion Development UK Limited, InfusionDev LLC, Innoveer Solutions India Pvt Ltd, Insitum Consultoria Argentina SRL, Insitum Consultoria Brasil LTDA, Insitum Consultoria Colombia SAS, Insitum Consultoria Europa SL, Insitum Consultoria Peru SAC, Insitum Consultoria S.A. de C.V., Intrepid, Intrigo Systems Inc, Intrigo Systems India Pvt. Limited, Intrigo Systems LLC, Inventor Advertisement (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inventor Technology Limited, InvestTech, Investtech Systems Consulting LLC, Javelin Group, Javelin Group (Bulgaria) EOOD, Javelin Group Limited (UK), Javelin Group SASU, K Comms Group Limited, KCS.net AG, KCS.net AG West, KCS.net Deutschland GmbH, KCS.net Holding AG, KCS.net Osterreich GmbH, Kaper Communications Limited, Karma Communications Debtco Limited, Karma Communications Group Limited, Karma Communications Holdings Limited, Karmarama, Karmarama Comms Limited, Karmarama Limited, Knowledge Rules Inc., Knowledgent, Knowledgent Group LLC, Kogentix, Kogentix LLC, Kogentix Ltd, Kogentix Singapore Pte. Ltd, Kogentix Technologies Private Limited, Kolle Rebbe, Kolle Rebbe GmbH, Kream Comms Limited, Kunstmaan, Kunstmaan NV, Kurt Salmon, Kurt Salmon Canada LTD, Kurt Salmon UKI, Kurt Salmon UKI Ltd., Kurt Salmon US LLC, LINKBYNET, LabAnswer, LabAnswer Government, LemonXL Limited, Logistics Market Place Limited (UK), Loud & Clear Creative Pty Ltd, MAXIM Systems Inc., MCG US Holdings LLC, Mackevision CG Technology and Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Mackevision Corporation, Mackevision Japan Co. Ltd., Mackevision Korea Ltd, Mackevision Medien Design, Mackevision Medien Design GmbH, Mackevision Singapore Pte. Ltd., Mackevision UK Ltd, Maglan, Maglan Information Defense Technologies Research Ltd., Maihiro, Matter, Matter Llc, Maud Corp Pty Limited, Maxamine International, Media Audits Ltd., Media Hive, Mediasenz Pty Ltd., Meredith Specialty LLC, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing Corporation, Meridian Informed Purchasing Ltd., Mindtribe, Mindtribe Product Engineering LLC, MobGen, MobGen Technology S.L, Moonrise NV, Mortgage Cadence, Mortgage Cadence an Accenture Company, Most Champion Ltd, Mudano, N3 LLC, NBS Marketing Inc., NYTEC, Nanjing Demeng Advertising Co. Ltd., Nashco Consulting, NaviSys Inc., Neo Metrics Analytics S.L., Neo Metrics Chile, Neo Metrics Chile S.A., New Content, New Content Chile SpA, New Content Editora e Produtora Ltda., New Energy Aborda, New Energy Associates Ltd, New Energy Group, New Energy S.r.l., NewsPage, NewsPage (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, NewsPage China Ltd., NewsPage Pte Ltd, Nice Agency Limited, Northstream, Northstream AB, Northstream Holding AB, OCTO Technology, OPS Rules Management Consultants, Octagon Research Solutions Inc., Octo Technology LTDA, Octo Technology Pty Ltd, Octo Technology SA, Octo Technology SPRL, Octoman SAS, Odgaard ApS, Olikka, Operaciones Accenture S.A. de C.V., OpusLine, Orbium, Orbium Consulting Ltd, Orbium GmbH, Orbium Holding AG, Orbium Inc., Orbium International AG, Orbium International sp. z o.o., Orbium Licences AG, Orbium Limited, Orbium Pte. Ltd., Orbium Pty Ltd, Orbium Services sp. z o.o., Orbium Sarl, Origin Digital, PCO Innovation, PCO Innovation Canada Inc., PCO Innovation EURL, PIXO PUNCH Limited, PLM Systems S.r.l, POC Holdings, PRION GmbH, PT Accenture, PT Asta Catur Indra, PT Kogentix Teknologi Indonesia, Pach Invest SARL, Pach Invest SAS, PacificLink Group, PacificLink iMedia Ltd., Paja Finanssipalvelut Oy, Parker Fitzgerald Inc, Parker Fitzgerald Inc., Parker Fitzgerald International Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Limited, Parker Fitzgerald PTY Ltd, Parker Fitzgerald Services Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Solutions Limited, Partners Technology Mexico Holdings BV, Pecaso Ltd., Pegasus Production K/S, Perseroan Terbatas. Accenture, Phase One Consulting Group, Pillar Technology, Pollux, Pragsis Bidoop, Pragsis Bidoop UK Ltd, Pragsis Technologies S.L, PrimeQ, PrimeQ Australia Pty Ltd, PrimeQ Ltd, PrimeQ NZ Pty Ltd, Procurian Germany GmbH, Procurian Inc., Procurian International I LLC, Procurian International II LLC, Procurian LLC, Procurian Singapore Pte. Ltd., Procurian Switzerland GmbH, Procurian USA LLC, Proquire LLC, PureApps Ltd., Qi Jie Beijing Information Technologies Co Ltd, Radiant Services, Radiant Services LLC, Random Walk Computing Inc., Reactive Media Limited, Reactive Media Pty Ltd., Real Protect, Realworld OO Systems Ltd., Redcore, Redcore (Asia) Pte Ltd, Redcore (India) Private Limited (India), Redcore (New Zealand) Limited, Redcore Group Holdings Pty Ltd, Redcore Pty Ltd, Renacentis IT Services, Revolutionary Security, RiskControl, Rothco, Rothco Holdings Designated Activity Company, Rothco Unlimited Company, S.C. EnergyQuote S.r.l., S3 TV Technology Limited, S3 TV Technology Ltd., SALT Solutions GmbH, SEC Servizi, SEC Servizi S.p.A., SOPIA Corp., Sagacious Consultants, Sagacious Consultants LLC, Sanchez Capital Services Pvt Ltd, Schlumberger Business Consulting, Seabury Airline Planning Group, Seabury Aviation & Aerospace (UK) Limited, Seabury Aviation & Aerospace Asia (Hong Kong) Limited, Seabury Aviation Consulting LLC, Seabury Cargo Advisory B.V., Seabury Consulting, Seabury Corporate Advisors LLC, Seabury Human Capital LLC, Seabury Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Seabury Structured Finance LLC, Search Technologies BPO, Search Technologies BPO Inc., Search Technologies GmbH, Search Technologies International LLC, Search Technologies LATAM, Search Technologies LATAM S.A., Search Technologies LLC, Search Technologies Limited, Sente Partners LLC, Sentelis, Servicios Tecnicos de Programacion Accenture S.C., Shackleton, Shackleton Barcelona S.L., Shackleton Chile S.A., Shackleton Madrid S.L., Shackleton S.A., Shanghai Baiyue Advertising Co. Ltd., Shun Zhe Technology Development Co. Ltd., Silveo, Simian Pty Limited, SinnerSchrader AG, SinnerSchrader Commerce GmbH, SinnerSchrader Content GmbH, SinnerSchrader Deutschland GmbH, SinnerSchrader Praha s.r.o., SinnerSchrader Swipe GmbH, Sinnerschrader, Sistemes Consulting S.L., Solutions IQ, Solutions IQ LLC, SolutionsIQ, SolutionsIQ India Consulting Services Private Limited, Storm Digital, Storm Digital B.V., Structure Consulting Group, Structure Consulting Group LLC, Sutter Mills, Systor AG, TQuila Limited (UK), Tadata Creative Unlimited Company, Tara Insurance DAC, Tara Risk DAC, TargetST8, TargetST8 Consulting LLC, Tech - Avanade Portugal Unipessoal Lda, Tecnilogica Ecosistemas S.A., Tecnilogica Ltd., Tecnilogica, The Brand Learning Partners Limited, The Callisto Integration Corporation, The Monkeys, The Monkeys Pty Limited, The Myrtle Group, Total Logistics, Total Logistics Supply Chain Consultants Limited, Tquila, Troop Studios Pty Ltd, VanBerlo, Verax Solutions, Verax Solutions Corporation, Vertical Retail Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd., Vertical Retail Consulting Hong Kong, Vertical Retail Consulting Hong Kong Ltd., Vertical Retail Consulting Ltd., Vivere Brasil Servicos e Solucoes SA, Vivere Brasil Solucoes De Credito Ltda., Weblinc Pty Ltd, Wire Stone, Wire Stone LLC, Wire Stone Sarl, Wolox, Yesler, Zag, Zenta, Zenta Global Philippines, Zenta Global Philippines Inc., Zenta Mortgage Services LLC, Zenta Recoveries Inc, Zenta US Holdings Inc., Zielpuls, Zielpuls (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zielpuls GmbH, avVenta, designaffairs, designaffairs Business Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., designaffairs GmbH, designaffairs group China Co. Ltd., dgroup, i4C Analytics, iDefense, and solid-serVision.com GmbH.There is absolutely no question the group is better off than their counterparts from last year were, when those rookies spent their first NFL offseason entirely in the virtual realm thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.The following companies are subsidiares of The Kroger: 84.51 HQ Building Company, 84.51 LLC, Agri-Products, Alpha Beta, Alpha Beta Company, Ansonborough Square Investors I, Ansonborough Square Retail, Ardrey Kell Investments, Bay Area Warehouse Stores, Beech Tree Holdings, Bell Markets, Bleecker Ventures LLC, Bluefield Beverage, Bluefield Beverage Company, Box Cutter, Brier Creek Arbors Drive Retail, CB&S Advertising Agency, Cala Co., Cala Foods, Cheeses of All Nations, Country Oven, Crawford Stores, Creedmoor Retail, Dillon Companies, Dillon Real Estate Co, Dillon Real Estate Co., Dillons, Distribution Trucking Company, Dotto, Edgewood Plaza Holdings, Embassy International, FM, FMJ, Farmacia Doral, Food 4 Less GM, Food 4 Less Holdings, Food 4 Less Merchandising, Food 4 Less of California, Food 4 Less of Southern California, Fred Meyer, Fred Meyer Jewelers, Fred Meyer Stores, Gerbes Supermarkets, Glasswing Labs, Glendale/Goodwin Realty I, Grubstake Investments, HT Fuel DE, HT Fuel MD, HT Fuel NC, HT Fuel SC, HT Fuel VA, HTGBD, HTP Bluffton, HTP Plaza, HTP Plaza LLC, HTP Relo, HTPS, HTTAH, Harris Teeter, Harris Teeter LLC, Harris Teeter Properties, Harris Teeter Supermarkets, Harris-Teeter Services, Healthy Options, Healthy Options Inc., Henpil, Home Chef, Hood-Clayton Logistics, Hood-Clayton Logistics LLC, Hughes Markets, Hughes Realty, I.T.A., IRP, ITAC 119, ITAC 265, Infusion Solutions of Puerto Rico, Inter-American Foods, Inter-American Products, J.V. Distributing, Jondex Corp, Jondex Corp., Jubilee Carolina, Junior Food Stores of West Florida, KCDE, KCDE  2012, KCDE  2013, KCDE-2 LLC, KCDE-3 LLC, KCDE-4 LLC, KCDE-5 LLC, KGO, KGO LLC, KP Sourcing, KPF, KPF Insurance Services, KPF Insurance Services LLC, KPS, KPS AG, KRGP, KRGP Inc., KRLP, KRLP Inc., Kee Trans, Kessel FP, Kessel Pharmacies, Kessel RCD, Kessel Saginaw, King Soopers, Kiosk Medicine Kentucky, Kirkpatrick West Retail, Kroger, Kroger Community Development Entity, Kroger Dedicated Logistics Co, Kroger Dedicated Logistics Co., Kroger Fresh Fare, Kroger G.O., Kroger G.O. LLC, Kroger Limited Partnership I, Kroger Limited Partnership II, Kroger MC Holdings, Kroger MTL Management, Kroger Management Co, Kroger Management Co., Kroger Management  Corryville, Kroger Management  NMTC Athens I, Kroger Management  NMTC Champaign I, Kroger Management  NMTC Champaign II, Kroger Management  NMTC Cincinnati I, Kroger Management  NMTC Dallas I, Kroger Management  NMTC Danville I, Kroger Management  NMTC Griffin I, Kroger Management  NMTC Logansport I, Kroger Management  NMTC Missouri I, Kroger Management  NMTC Oak Ridge I, Kroger Management  NMTC Olney I, Kroger Management  NMTC Omaha I, Kroger Management  NMTC Portsmouth I, Kroger Management  NMTC Starkville I, Kroger Management  NMTC Topeka I, Kroger Management  NMTC Warrenton I, Kroger NMTC Fremont I, Kroger OZ1 Inc., Kroger OZ1 LLC, Kroger OZ2 Inc., Kroger OZ2 LLC, Kroger OZ3 Inc., Kroger OZ3 LLC, Kroger Opportunity Fund I, Kroger Prescription Plans, Kroger Specialty Infusion, Kroger Specialty Infusion AL, Kroger Specialty Infusion CA, Kroger Specialty Infusion Holdings, Kroger Specialty Infusion TX, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy CA, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy CA 2 LLC, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy FL 2 LLC, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Holdings, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Holdings 2, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Holdings 3, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Holdings I, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy LA, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy TN, Kroger Texas L.P., LCGP3 Home Cooking, Local Mkt LLC, Main & Vine LLC, Matthews Property 1, Mega Marts, Michigan Dairy, ModernHealth LTC, Murrays Cheese LLC, Murrays LIC LLC, Murrays Table LLC, Pace Dairy Foods Company, Paramount Logistics, Pay Less Super Markets, Peytons Fountain, Peytons-Southeastern, Plum Labs LLC, Pontiac Foods, Queen City Assurance, RBF, Ralphs Grocery Company, Relish Labs LLC, Rocket Newco, Roundy's, Roundys, Roundys Acquisition Corp., Roundys Illinois, Roundys Supermarkets, Second Story, Shop-Rite, Smiths Beverage of Wyoming, Smiths Food & Drug Centers, Southern Ice Cream Specialties, Stallings Investors I, Sunrise R&D Holdings, Sunrise Technology LLC, THGP Co., THLP Co., TLC Corporate Services LLC, TLC Immunization Clinic LLC, TLC of Georgia LLC, The Kroger Co. of Michigan, The Little Clinic LLC, The Little Clinic Management Services LLC, The Little Clinic of Arizona LLC, The Little Clinic of Colorado LLC, The Little Clinic of IN LLC, The Little Clinic of Kansas LLC, The Little Clinic of Mississippi LLC, The Little Clinic of Ohio LLC, The Little Clinic of TX LLC, The Little Clinic of Tennessee LLC, The Little Clinic of VA LLC, Topvalco, Turkey Hill, Ultimate Mart, Ultra Mart Foods, Vine Court Assurance Incorporated, Vitacost, Vitacost.com, Woodmont Holdings, and YOU Technology.Northrop Grumman Corporation operates as an aerospace and defense company worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Aeronautics Systems, Defense Systems, Mission Systems, and Space Systems. The Aeronautics Systems segment designs, develops, manufactures, integrates, and sustains aircraft systems for strategic and tactical intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions; and long-range strike aircraft systems, tactical fighter aircrafts, and airborne battle management systems. The Defense Systems segment offers weapon and mission systems for the U.S. military and civilian agency customers. Its principal products and services include integrated battle management systems, weapons systems, information technology services, and intelligence operations. This segment provides command and control and weapons systems, including munitions and missiles; precision strike weapons; propulsion, such as air-breathing systems; and gun systems and precision munitions. It also offers life cycle service and support for software, weapons systems, and aircraft; security services, including information and cyber operations; intelligence analysis and support; and IT infrastructure, such as cloud. The Mission Systems segment offers command, control, communications, and computers ISR systems; radar, electro-optical/infrared, and acoustic sensors; electronic warfare systems; communications and network systems; processing systems; navigation; and maritime power, propulsion, and payload launch systems. This segment also provides airborne sensors and networks; cyber and intelligence mission solutions; maritime/land systems and sensors; and navigation, targeting, and survivability solutions. The Space Systems segment offers satellites and payloads; ground systems; missile defense systems and interceptors; launch vehicles and related propulsion systems; and strategic missiles. Northrop Grumman Corporation was founded in 1939 and is based in Falls Church, Virginia.

Read MoreSince 2016, Teeka Tiwari has trumped the stock market. His investment recommendations have each averaged 281%. Thats 17 times the S&P. And 112 times the average investor, according to JPMorgan! However, one investment Teeka just uncovered could top them all It involves former President Biden, billions of dollars, several large banks, and a super-rich family. As well as a MAJOR potential upgrade to our credit cards. Teeka, who ended up correctly picking the last investment of the decade, is declaring this his top pick for the 2020s.

Robert Half International Inc. provides staffing and risk consulting services in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The company operates through three segments: Temporary and Consultant Staffing, Permanent Placement Staffing, and Risk Consulting and Internal Audit Services. It places temporary services for accounting, finance, and bookkeeping; temporary and full-time office and administrative personnel consisting of executive and administrative assistants, receptionists, and customer service representatives; full-time accounting, financial, tax, and accounting operations personnel; and information technology contract consultants and full-time employees in the areas of platform systems integration to end-user technical and desktop support, including specialists in application development, networking, systems integration and deployment, database design and administration, and security and business continuity. The company also offers temporary and full-time employees in attorney, paralegal, legal administrative, and legal secretarial positions; and senior level project professionals in the accounting and finance fields for financial systems conversions, expansion into new markets, business process reengineering, business systems performance improvement, and post-merger financial consolidation. In addition, it is involved in serving professionals in the areas of interactive media, design, marketing, advertising, and public relations; and placing freelance and project consultants in various positions, such as creative directors, graphics designers, Web content developers, Web designers, media buyers, brand managers, and public relations specialists. Further, the company provides business and technology risk consulting, and internal audit services. It serves clients and employment candidates. Robert Half International Inc. was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.

Read MoreMizuho Financial Group, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in banking, trust, securities, and other businesses related to financial services in Japan, the Americas, Europe, Asia/Oceania, and internationally. It operates through five segments: Retail & Business Banking Company, Corporate & Institutional Company, Global Corporate Company, Global Markets Company, and Asset Management Company. The company provides deposit products; syndicated, housing, and card loans; business matching services; and advisory services related to overseas expansions, and mergers and acquisitions-related services. It also offers consulting services, including asset management and asset succession; payroll services; and sells lottery tickets issued by prefectures and ordinance-designated cities. In addition, it offers financial solutions, such as fund management, underwriting of equity and bonds, M&A advisory, and risk hedging products, etc. for corporate customers to meet their needs in fund-raising, investment management, and financial strategies; solutions based on their capital management, business strategy, and financial strategy; solutions related to real estate; advisory services and solutions, such as advice on proposals on various investment products; and financial services that include funding support. Further, the company offers sales and trading services to meet risk hedging and investment needs; investment products for individual customers; and consulting services for institutional investors. Additionally, the company provides products and services related to trust, securitization and structured finance, pension, and stock transfers; securities services; and research, private banking, and information technology-related services. As of March 31, 2020, its branch network included 464 Mizuho Bank, 60 Mizuho Trust and Banking, and 256 Mizuho Securities; and 7,200 automated teller machines in Japan. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

Read MoreThe circled portion of the map represents an uncertainty in the snowfall forecast. Snow and ice totals will be dependent on the timing and duration of the precipitation type. Highest uncertainty is for locations along the rain/wintry mix line. If sleet and freezing rain occurs for a longer period, snow accumulations will decrease but overall impacts will remain significant. (GRAPHIC: NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE)The following companies are subsidiares of Amphenol: ARCAS Automotive Group (Luxco 1) S.a.r.l., AUXEL FTG, AUXEL FTG India Pvt Ltd., AUXEL FTG Shanghai Co., AUXEL S.A.S., Air LB International Development S.A., All Systems Broadband, Amphenol (Changzhou) Advanced Connector Co., Amphenol (Changzhou) Connector Systems Co., Amphenol (Changzhou) Electronics Co., Amphenol (Maryland), Amphenol (Ningde) Electronics Co., Amphenol (Qujing) Technology Co., Amphenol (Tianjin) Electronics Co., Amphenol (Xiamen) High Speed Cable Co., Amphenol Adronics, Amphenol Advanced Sensors Germany GmbH, Amphenol Advanced Sensors Puerto Rico, Amphenol Air LB GmbH, Amphenol Air LB North America Inc., Amphenol Air LB SAS, Amphenol Alden Products Company, Amphenol Alden Products Mexico, Amphenol Antenna Solutions, Amphenol Assemble Tech (Xiamen) Co., Amphenol Australia Pty Ltd, Amphenol Automotive Connection Systems (Changzhou) Co., Amphenol Bar-Tec, Amphenol Benelux B.V., Amphenol Borisch Technologies, Amphenol CNT (Xian) Technology Co. Ltd., Amphenol Cables On Demand Corp., Amphenol Canada Acquisition Corporation, Amphenol Canada Corp., Amphenol Comercial, Amphenol Commercial Interconnect Korea Co., Amphenol Commercial Products (Chengdu) Co. Ltd., Amphenol Commercial and Industrial UK, Amphenol ConneXus AB, Amphenol ConneXus Ou, Amphenol Custom Cable, Amphenol DC Electronics, Amphenol Daeshin Electronics and Precision Co., Amphenol EEC, Amphenol East Asia Electronic Technology (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Amphenol East Asia Limited, Amphenol FCI, Amphenol FCI Asia Pte. Ltd., Amphenol FCI Connectors Singapore Pte. Ltd., Amphenol Fiber Optic Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Amphenol Finland Oy, Amphenol France Acquisition SAS, Amphenol France SAS, Amphenol Germany GmbH, Amphenol Gesellschaft m.b.H., Amphenol Goldstar Electronic Systems (Baicheng) Co. Ltd., Amphenol Goldstar Electronic Systems (Yulin) Co. Ltd., Amphenol Holding UK, Amphenol Intercon Systems, Amphenol Interconnect India Private Limited, Amphenol Interconnect Products Corporation, Amphenol Interconnect South Africa (Proprietary) Limited, Amphenol International Ltd., Amphenol Invotec Limited, Amphenol Italia S.r.l., Amphenol JET (Haiyan) Interconnect Technology Co., Amphenol Japan Ltd., Amphenol Kai-Jack (Shenzhen) Inc., Amphenol LTW Technology Co., Amphenol Limited, Amphenol MCP Korea Limited, Amphenol Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Amphenol Middle East Enterprises FZE, Amphenol Nelson Dunn Technologies, Amphenol Netherlands Holdings 1 B.V., Amphenol Netherlands Holdings 2 B.V., Amphenol Omniconnect India Private Limited, Amphenol Optimize Manufacturing Co., Amphenol Optimize Mexico S.A. de C.V., Amphenol PCD, Amphenol PCD (Shenzhen) Co., Amphenol Phitek Limited, Amphenol Printed Circuits, Amphenol Provens SAS, Amphenol RF Asia Limited, Amphenol Sensing Korea Company Limited, Amphenol Shouh Min Industry (Shenzhen) Co., Amphenol Singapore Pte. Ltd., Amphenol Socapex SAS, Amphenol Sunpool (Liaoning) Automotive Electronics Co., Amphenol T&M Antennas, Amphenol TCS (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Amphenol TCS Ireland Limited, Amphenol TCS de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Amphenol TFC Fios E Cabos do Brasil Ltda., Amphenol TFC MDE Participacoes Ltda., Amphenol TFC do Brasil Ltda., Amphenol Taiwan Corporation, Amphenol Technical Products International Co., Amphenol Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Amphenol Technology (Zhuhai) Co., Amphenol Technology Macedonia Dooel Kocani, Amphenol Tecvox LLC, Amphenol Tel-Ad Ltd., Amphenol Thermometrics, Amphenol Thermometrics (UK) Limited, Amphenol Times Microwave Electronics (Shanghai) Limited, Amphenol Tuchel Electronics GmbH, Amphenol Tuchel Industrial GmbH, Amphenol Tunisia LLC, Amphenol USHoldco Inc., Amphenol-Borg Limited, Amphenol-Borg Pension Trustees Limited, Amphenol-TFC (Changzhou) Communication Equipment Co., Anytek Electronic Technology (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd, Anytek International (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Anytek International Co. Ltd., Anytek Technology Corporation Ltd, Asia Connector Services, Berg UK Ltd., Blueline Product Limited, C&S Antennas, C&S Antennas Limited, CSA Limited, Casco Automotive (Suzhou) Co., Casco Automotive Group, Casco Automotive Singapore Pte., Casco Automotive Tunisia S.a.r.l., Casco Holdings Co. Limited, Casco Holdings GmbH, Casco Imos Italia S.r.l., Casco Logistics GmbH, Casco Products Corporation, Casco Schoeller GmbH, Casco do Brasil Ltda., Cemm Thome Corporation, Cemm Thome SK, Cemm-Mex, Changzhou Amphenol Fuyang Communication Equipment Co., ContactServe (Proprietary) Limited, East Asia Connector Services, Edwin Deutgen Kunstofftechnik GmbH, Ehrlich Werkzeug & Geratebau GmbH, FCI Besancon SA, FCI Connectors (Shanghai) Ltd., FCI Connectors Canada, FCI Connectors Dongguan Ltd, FCI Connectors Hong Kong Limited, FCI Connectors Italia S.r.l., FCI Connectors Korea Ltd., FCI Connectors Malaysia Sdn Bhd, FCI Connectors Sweden A.B., FCI Connectors UK Ltd., FCI Deutschland GmbH, FCI Electronics Hungary Kft, FCI GBS India Private Limited, FCI Japan K.K., FCI Nantong Ltd, FCI OEN Connectors Limited, FCI PRC Limited, FCI Taiwan Limited, FCI USA LLC, FCIs-Hertogenbosch B.V., FEP Fahrzeugelektrik Pirna, FEP Fahrzeugelektrik Pirna GmbH & Co. KG, FEP Fahrzeugelektrik Pirna Verwaltungs GmbH, Fiber Systems International, Filec Production SAS, Filec SAS, Friedrich Gohringer Elektrotechnik GmbH, GE - Advanced Sensors Business, Guangzhou Amphenol Electronics Co., Guangzhou Amphenol Sincere Flex Circuits Co., Guangzhou FEP Automotive Electric Co., Hangzhou Amphenol JET Interconnect Technology Co., Hangzhou Amphenol Phoenix Telecom Parts Co., Holland Electronics, Intelligente Sensorsysteme Dresden GmbH, Invotec Circuits Holdings Limited, Invotec Circuits Limited, Invotec Group Limited, Invotec Holdings Limited, Ionix Aerospace Limited, Ionix Holdings Limited, Ionix Systems Limited, Ionix Systems Ou, Jaybeam Limited, Jaybeam Wireless SAS, KE Elektronik GmbH, KE Ostrov  Elektrik, KE Presov Elektrik, Konnektech, Kunshan Amphenol Zhengri Electronics Co., LPL Technologies Holding GmbH, LTW Technology (Samoa) Co., LTW Top Tech (Samoa) Co., Lectric SARL, Martec Limited, Mocorp Holding A/S, Nantong Docharm Amphenol Electronics Co., PROCOM, PT Casco SEA, PerLoga Personal und Logistik GmbH, Piezotech, Piher Sensors & Controls S.A., Piher Sensors And Controls, Precision Cable Manufacturing Corp. de Mexico, Procom A/S, Procom Antennas AB, Procom France SARL, Pyle-National Ltd., RSI International Limited, S.C.I. Palin, SEFEE SA, SGX Europe SP. z.o.o., SGX Sensortech (IS) Limited, SGX Sensortech China Holdco Limited, SGX Sensortech China Limited, SGX Sensortech GmbH, SGX Sensortech SA, SSI Control Technologies, STEMFI SA, SV Microwave, Shanghai Amphenol Airwave Communication Electronics Co., Shanghai Amphenol Electronics Technology Co., Shanghai Tecvox Trading Co., Shenyang Amphenol Sunpool Automotive Electronics Co., Sine Systems Corporation, Skymasts Antennas Ltd., Societe dEtudes et de Fabrications Electroniques et Electriques, Spectra Strip Limited, TCS Japan K.K., TFC South America S.A., Tecvox Europe S.r.l., Telect, Telect Mfg., Telect de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Teradyne Connection Systems, Thermometrics Mexico, Tianjin Amphenol KAE Co., Times Fiber Canada Limited, Times Fiber Communications, Times Microwave Systems, Times Wire and Cable Company, U-Jin Cable Industrial Co., Zhongshan Feisaide Electromechanical Co., and i2s-sensors.Matador Resources Company, an independent energy company, engages in the exploration, development, production, and acquisition of oil and natural gas resources in the United States. It operates in two segments, Exploration and Production; and Midstream. The company primarily holds interests in the Wolfcamp and Bone Spring plays in the Delaware Basin in Southeast New Mexico and West Texas. It also operates the Eagle Ford shale play in South Texas; and the Haynesville shale and Cotton Valley plays in Northwest Louisiana. In addition, the company conducts midstream operations in support of its exploration, development, and production operations; provides natural gas processing and oil transportation services; and offers oil, natural gas, and salt water gathering services, as well as salt water disposal services to third parties. As of December 31, 2020, its estimated total proved oil and natural gas reserves were 270.3 million barrels of oil equivalent, including 159.9 million stock tank barrels of oil and 662.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas. The company was formerly known as Matador Holdco, Inc. and changed its name to Matador Resources Company in August 2011. Matador Resources Company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

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Lassonde Industries Inc is a Canada-based company, which develops, manufactures and markets a range of ready-to-drink fruit and vegetable juices and drinks. The Company is a producer of store brand shelf-stable fruit juices and drinks in the United States and a producer of cranberry sauces. The Company operates in two market segments: the retail segment and the food service segment. The retail segment consists of sales to food retailers and wholesalers, such as supermarket chains, independent grocers, superstores, warehouse clubs and pharmacy chains. The food service segment consists of sales to restaurants, hotels, hospitals, schools and wholesalers serving these institutions. It also develops, manufactures and markets specialty food products, such as fondue broths and sauces, packaged corn-on-the-cob and pasta sauces. The Company also imports selected wines from various countries of origin for packaging and marketing purposes. It also produces apple cider and cider-based beverages.

Read MoreSouthern Copper Corporation engages in mining, exploring, smelting, and refining copper and other minerals in Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, and Chile. The company is involved in the mining, milling, and flotation of copper ore to produce copper and molybdenum concentrates; smelting of copper concentrates to produce blister and anode copper; refining of anode copper to produce copper cathodes; production of molybdenum concentrate and sulfuric acid; production of refined silver, gold, and other materials; and mining and processing of zinc and lead. It operates the Toquepala and Cuajone open-pit mines, and a smelter and refinery in Peru; and La Caridad, an open-pit copper mine, as well as a copper ore concentrator, a SX-EW plant, a smelter, refinery, and a rod plant in Mexico. The company also operates Buenavista, an open-pit copper mine, as well as two copper concentrators and two operating SX-EW plants in Mexico. In addition, it operates five underground mines that produce zinc, lead, copper, silver, and gold; a coal mine that produces coal and coke; and a zinc refinery. The company has interests in 59,252 hectares of exploration concessions in Peru; 503,104 hectares of exploration concessions in Mexico; 229,312 hectares of exploration concessions in Argentina; 27,353 hectares of exploration concessions in Chile; and 7,299 hectares of exploration concessions in Ecuador. Southern Copper Corporation was incorporated in 1952 and is based in Phoenix, Arizona. Southern Copper Corporation is a subsidiary of Americas Mining Corporation.

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Click here to find out 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. Remembrance: Joan Deeter, who served on the executive staff of the Church of the Brethren, died Jan. 8 at Timbercrest in North Manchester, Ind. During her tenure on the denominational staff she filled two different executive roles, from 1988-92 as executive of the Parish Ministries Commission and then from 1992-97 as associate general secretary for the World Ministries Commission. She retired in 1997 and then worked as chaplain at Timbercrest Senior Living Community until 2008. Among her many contributions to the Church of the Brethren she served on the study committee that developed the 1979 Annual Conference paper on Biblical Inspiration and Authority, authoring a study guide for the statement after its adoption; served on the Standing Committee of district delegates to Annual Conference; led Annual Conference Bible studies; and contributed to numerous denominational publications including the Church of the Brethren magazine Messenger, Brethren Life and Thought, the Deacons Manual, Fresh from the Word, and Who Are These Brethren? She also had been a pastor, an adjunct faculty for Bethany Theological Seminary, one of the faculty for Bethany Extension at Bridgewater (Va.) College, a member of the Brethren Health and Welfare Board, the Brethren Journal Association, and the New Church Development Committee, among others. She held leadership roles in South Central Indiana District, including moderator of the district conference. In the late 1960s she was executive director of the Mental Health Association in Wabash County, Ind. In the mid-1960s and again in the early 1980s she was staff for Brethren Colleges Abroad in Marburg, Germany. In 1976 she was one of seven representatives of the Church of the Brethren to the Irish Peace March. She held degrees from Manchester University (then Manchester College), Northwestern University, and Bethany Seminary, and studied at Phillipps University in Marburg. She was preceded in death by her husband, Allen Deeter. She is survived by sons Michael (Abby Alpert) Deeter of Evanston, Ill.; Dan (Jamie Marfurt) Deeter of Spartanburg, S.C.; David (Serena Sheldon) Deeter of Irvine, Calif.; and grandchildren. A memorial service will be held Saturday, Feb. 23, at 2 p.m. at Manchester Church of the Brethren with visitation to follow. Memorial gifts are received to Manchester Church of the Brethren and to Timbercrest Senior Living Community. A full obituary is at www.mckeemortuary.com/notices/Joan-Deeter .

 Remembrance: Dr. John L. Hamer, 95, former Nigeria mission worker, died on Jan. 15 at Timbercrest Senior Living Community in North Manchester, Ind. A physician and an ordained minister, he and his wife, Esther Rinehart Hamer, worked in a hospital in Lassa, Nigeria, for 16 years from 1953-1969. Following the illness and subsequent death of a nurse co-worker at the hospital, Laura Wine, his insistence that further testing be conducted led to the discovery of the deadly viral disease Lassa Fever. He was born in 1923 in Waterloo, Iowa, to parents O. Stuart Hamer and Gertrude (Sharp) Hamer. In his youth the family moved to North Manchester where he served on the churchs Middle Indiana Youth Cabinet. His life was influenced by church leaders including Heifer founder Dan West and Nigeria mission leader Desmond Bittinger. He earned degrees from Manchester University (then Manchester College), and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where he met his wife, who was attending the School of Nursing. Upon returning from Nigeria in 1969 he joined a group family practice in LaGrange, Ind., and then had his own family practice of 18 years in Fort Wayne, Ind. He was the first hospice physician when the Parkview Hospital Hospice Program began. He was a member of Beacon Heights Church of the Brethren in Fort Wayne. He is survived by his wife; daughters Harriet Hamer (Abram Bergen) of South Bend, Ind., and Krista Hamer-Schweer (Thomas Schweer) of Colbe, Germany; step-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren. Service arrangements are pending. Memorial gifts are received to the John L. and Esther L. Rinehart Hamer Endowed Professorship in Music at Manchester University; to Timbercrest; and to Beacon Heights Church of the Brethren. A full obituary is at www.mckeemortuary.com/notices/John-Hamer .

 Remembrances: Brethren Press is remembering three former long-term employees who have died over the past month:

Winfield (Dick/Win) Knechel, 95, died Dec. 20, 2018, in Allentown, Pa. He worked for the Church of the Brethren publishing house in Elgin, Ill., as a bindery operator for 30 years, from 1958 until his retirement in 1988. During World War II he was a conscientious objector and served in Civilian Public Service (CPS) assignments on both coasts. Following the war he accompanied a shipment of relief animals to Poland. Services were held in Allentown on Dec. 24.

Loring Pease, who had lived in West Dundee, Ill., passed away on Jan. 4. He served at the Church of the Brethren General Offices in Elgin as a press operator for 28 years, from 1959 until the presses were closed in 1987. His wife, Catharine Pease, also worked for the Church of the Brethren denomination. She died in 2004.

Ruby Mae (Koehnke) Warnke, 94, of Fort Collins, Colo., died Jan. 14. She was born in Elgin in 1924 to Charles and Neva (Schairer) Koehnke. As a young adult she became involved with Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren and became a devoted member of the denomination. She worked as a cost accountant for Brethren Press over a span of 40 years starting in 1946, spending one interlude as a switchboard operator and receptionist. In 1968 she married Lee Warnke, a widower with three daughters, and they enjoyed 38 years together before his death in 2006. When they retired in 1986, they moved to Colorado and found a church home at Peace Community Church of the Brethren in Windsor. She was preceded in death by her husband, stepdaughter Jean Kay and husband Willy. She is survived by stepdaughters Dianne and husband Roger Perry, and Andrea Warnke and husband Geoff Brumbaugh, step-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren. A full obituary is at www.legacy.com/obituaries/coloradoan/obituary.aspx?n=ruby-warnke&pid=191277764&fhid=16071.

Manchester University is hosting a presentation by David Pilgrim, founder and curator of the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University, on holding difficult conversations about race, using lessons from the museum. The museum in Big Rapids, Mich., holds the nations largest collection of racist artifacts, said a release. On Feb. 1, 1968, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to an overflow audience at the campus of what was then Manchester College in rural Indiana. What no one would have predicted then was that this was to be Kings last campus address before his death. Manchester marks the occasion each year with a keynote address for the MLK Remembrance and Rededication Ceremony, the release said. Pilgrim is a leading expert on issues relating to multiculturalism, diversity, and race relations, currently serving as vice president for Diversity and Inclusion at Ferris State, and is the author of the books Understanding Jim Crow and Watermelons, Nooses, and Straight Razors. The Jim Crow Museum is a 12,000-piece collection of racist artifacts that is used to educate, teach tolerance, and promote social justice. The presentation at Manchester is sponsored by the universitys Office of Multicultural Affairs with support from the Ira W. and Mable Winger Moomaw Lectureship/Seminar Fund and the Manchester Peace Studies Institute. The presentation is 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31, in Cordier Auditorium on the Manchester University campus in North Manchester, Ind. It is free and open to the public.

Celebrating the Dream, Continuing the Journey of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is the theme as Bridgewater (Va.) College invites congregations of Shenandoah District to a day of events on Monday, Jan. 21. Beginning at noon at Oakdale Park in Bridgewater, the day will include a community march to the Bridgewater College campus; an afternoon workshop with Derek Greenfield, a popular speaker who has led a wide range of conferences and gatherings of companies and colleges including McDonalds Corporation, NCAA, International Conference on Cultural Diversity, Hilton Hotels, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, National Dropout Prevention Conference, Progress Energy, and the NBAs Milwaukee Bucks; and An Evening of Poetry, Love, and Enlightenment led by Nikki Giovanni, a renowned poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. All events are free and open to the public. A schedule and more information are at http://wp.bridgewater.edu/mlk2019 .

 Virlina District has called Mary Sink St. John to serve as director of District Conference, Nurture, and Witness beginning March 1. This new part-time position replaces the former associate district executive minister position. St. John is a member of Ninth Street Church of the Brethren in Roanoke, Va. She formerly served the district as the first full-time program director at Camp Bethel from 1991 to 1996 and as director of Children, Youth, and Young Adult Ministries from 2007 to 2016. In denominational volunteer positions, she has served on the Outdoor Ministries Association Steering Committee and on the National Junior High Conference team.

 Shine: Living in Gods Light seeks a part-time contract content editor. Shine is a cooperative curriculum project of Brethren Press and MennoMedia. Contract content editors report to the project director, work closely with curriculum writers, and edit manuscripts in accordance with Shine editorial and production guidelines. Applicants must have excellent editorial and writing skills, understand faith formation and developmental stages, operate well in a collaborative environment, and be well-grounded in Anabaptist beliefs and practices. A bachelors degree is required, a graduate degree in theology or education is preferred. Application documents are available online and will be received through Jan. 31 at www.ShineCurriculum.com/jobs . Email Joan Daggett at joand@mennomedia.org with questions.

 The Brethren Historical Library and Archives seeks an archival intern to work at the Church of the Brethren General Offices in Elgin, Ill. The Archival Internship Program develops interest in vocations related to archives, libraries, and Brethren history. The program will provide the intern with work assignments and with opportunities to develop professional contacts. Work will include processing archival materials, writing descriptive inventories, preparing books for cataloging, responding to reference requests, and assisting researchers in the library. Professional contacts may include attending archival and library conferences and workshops, visits to libraries and archives in the Chicago area, and participation in a Brethren Historical Committee meeting. The Brethren Historical Library and Archives is the official repository for Church of the Brethren publications and records with a collection of more than 10,000 volumes, 3,500 linear feet of manuscripts and records, 40,000 photographs, plus videos, films, DVDs, and recordings. The term of service is one year, beginning June 2019 (preferred). Compensation includes housing at a Church of the Brethren volunteer house, stipend of $550 every two weeks, and health insurance. Requirements: a graduate student is preferred, or an undergraduate with at least two years of college; interest in history and/or library and archival work; willingness to work with detail; accurate word processing skills; ability to lift 30-pound boxes. Submit a resume to COBApply@brethren.org or to the Office of Human Resources, Church of the Brethren, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120; 800-323-8039 ext. 367. All submissions must be completed by April 1.

 Christian Peacemaker Teams Palestine needs you! said a recent announcement from CPT. The urgent call for reservists and interns has been made due to last years denials at the border, CPT Palestine is at risk, said the announcement. We call on the CPT community for immediate action, so that we may continue to be present with our partners in al-Khalil/Hebron. The organization is requesting new presence on the Palestine team by the fourth week of January. Both trained CPT volunteers and untrained interns are welcome. The CPT Palestine team works in English. Airfare and costs on the ground will be covered by CPT, with a three-month commitment. Contact Mona el-Zuhairi at monazuhairi@cpt.org .

 Also from CPT, the organization has announced peacemaking opportunities in 2019 and opportunities to join a CPT delegation. This year, take another step into the world of nonviolent direct action, and stand in solidarity with CPTs partners, said an invitation. Engage with the work of CPT, witness our commitment to nonviolent action firsthand, and share new insights into global peace work! Find out more about how to join a CPT delegation to the areas of Iraqi Kurdistan, the US/Mexico borderland, Colombia, Palestine, and areas where CPT works in solidarity with indigenous peoples, at https://cpt.org/delegations .

 Nathan Holser of the Church of the Brethren Office of Peacebuiding and Policy has been in Nigeria for the past week or more. So far, his trip has included visits with Ekklesiyar Yanuwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria); participation in the first International Religious Freedom Roundtable held in Nigerias capital city Abuja, along with two members of EYN from Abuja; and visits to two camps for internally displaced people (IDPs). In addition, Hosler has been engaging in discussions and gathering perspectives regarding the upcoming elections and the ongoing conflict in the country; visited Dutse Uku in Jos, Plateau State, and listened to how crisis has affected the area; visited the National Mosque in Abuja; and attended a meeting at the US Embassy where he was able to discuss the trip as well as the concerns of EYN and the Nigeria Working Group. His trip will feed into the continued advocacy of the Office of Peacebuilding and Policy on Nigeria in Washington, D.C., as it convenes the Nigeria Working Group. Watch for a blogpost from Hosler once the trip is complete.

 The United Nations representative for the Church of the Brethren, Doris Abdullah, has reported a name change for the department where the churchs membership resides. As of Jan. 1, the name of the department is the Department of Global Communications. The new name anticipates the new ways of working underscoring the interactivity and co-operation in information management between the United Nations and its stakeholders, said an announcement. The name of the NGO Relations unit is being changed to become the Civil Society Unit. The liaison functions of the former Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS) are a new addition to the unit, which will allow for a well-rounded coordination of the civil society engagement in UN activities, the announcement said. The conference that Abdullah has attended in past years as the churchs representative will now be called the United Nations Civil Society Conference. This year, the 68th United Nations Civil Society Conference (formerly known as UN DPI/NGO Conference) will take place in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Aug. 26-28.

 The best in classical music will fill Bethany Seminarys Nicarry Chapel in early 2019 through the seminarys new partnership with the Richmond (Ind.) Symphony Orchestra, said a release from Bethany. The seminary and the orchestra have announced the Recital Series, a collaborative performance series that is free and open to the public. It will feature musicians from the orchestra in three performances, including a string quartet, a brass ensemble, and a woodwind ensemble. Concerts will be performed at the seminary chapel. The first of these free Sunday concerts are scheduled for Feb. 10 and March 24 at 4 p.m. (A concert this weekend has been canceled because of the weather forecast for heavy snow.) For more information, email contactus@bethanyseminary.edu .

 The Western Plains District Office has moved from McPherson (Kan.) College to the Cedars Retirement Community at 1021 Cedars Dr., McPherson, Kan. The move took place Monday, Jan. 14. The district office mailing address remains the same: P.O. Box 394, McPherson, KS 67460. The district office email address is no longer wpcob@sbcglobal.net but has changed to office@wpcob.org .

 McPherson (Kan.) College assistant professor Kirk MacGregor, who chairs the philosophy and religion department, recently published a textbook titled Contemporary Theology: An IntroductionClassical, Evangelical, Philosophical, and Global Perspectives. He also created a 38-lecture video series to accompany the text, according to a release from the college. Published by Zondervan, the book :provides a chronological survey of the major thinkers and schools of thought in modern theology. The text is described as an accessible, wide-ranging overview of the contemporary theological scene, the release said. MacGregor joined the McPherson faculty in 2016 and was recognized as Professor of the Year in 2018 and received the Non-Tenured Faculty Teaching Award in 2017. He has taught at James Madison University, Radford University, the University of Northern Iowa, Western Illinois University, and Quincy University.

 Another Prayer and Worship Summit is planned for this spring. The event will focus on Praying for the Vision and will be held on March 29-30 in Harrisonburg, Va. This is an informal gathering inviting Church of the Brethren members to devote time for worship and prayer over the visioning process, said an announcement. Annual Conference moderator Donita Keister and moderator-elect Paul Mundey are among the speakers. The event is free but registration is required. For more information go to www.brethrenprayersummit.com .

 The Dunker Church (a Brethren meetinghouse) at Antietam is featured in the January 2019 edition of Brethren Voices, the community television program produced by Portland (Ore.) Peace Church of the Brethren. This current program is a step back in time as Brethren Voices visits the National Park of the Antietam Battlefield near Sharpsburg, Md., where an estimated 23,000 soldiers were killed or wounded between 9 a.m. and noon on Sept. 17, 1862. For the rest of the story about the Dunker

Church, Jeff Bach of the Young Center of Elizabethtown College shares more about this congregation, as it dealt with the Civil War on its doorstep. Brent Carlson, host of Brethren Voices, places this battle in the perspective of perhaps our greatest challenge of today, climate change. Youtube.com/Brethrenvoices is the home of over 80 Brethren Voices programs for easy viewing and has nearly 400 subscribers. For a copy of this current program, contact groffprod1@msn.com .

 Following presidential and parliamentary elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Dec. 30, 2018, the World Council of Churches (WCC) is calling for a peaceful democratic transition of power. The DRCs National Electoral Commission announced election of opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi as president. This is a pivotal moment in the history of the DRC, said WCC general secretary Olav Fykse Tveit. If confirmed and if no violent unrest ensues, it will be the first since the DRCs independence in 1960. The WCC and its member churches have been praying for peace and stability in the DRC, said a release.

 In more news from the World Council of Churches, the theme for the WCCs 11th Assembly, to be held in Karlsruhe, Germany in 2021, has been announced. Christs Love Moves the World to Reconciliation and Unity will be the theme used in development of programs and other preparations. The theme will help to focus on the ecumenical movement as a movement of love, seeking to follow Christ and witness to Christs loveexpressed in the search for justice and peace, and unity based on that, said WCC general secretary Olav Fykse Tveit in a release. The one human family needs love and needs to love to face our future together. The assembly is the supreme legislative body of the WCC, and meets every eight years to review programs and determine the overall policies of the WCC as well as to elect presidents and appoint a Central Committee to serve as chief governing body of the WCC until the next assembly.

 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity devotions are offered this year by four heads of communion in the United States and Canada: Elizabeth A. Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA); Michael B. Curry, presiding bishop and primate, the Episcopal Church; Fred Hiltz, primate, Anglican Church of Canada; and Susan C. Johnson, national bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. The series of devotions are for the ecumenical celebration on Jan. 18-25. Each year, churches from around the world mark a week to pray together for Christian unity. The theme for 2019 is based the 16th chapter of Deuteronomy, which states, Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue. The ELCA is providing a download of the devotions at https://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/Four-Way-Week-Devotionals-2019.pdf .

 Jennie Waering, a member of Central Church of the Brethren in Roanoke, Va., made the front page of The Roanoke Times when she retired after 35 years as a federal prosecutor, at the end of 2018. The extensive piece published on Dec. 29 focused on her retirement plans to do more social justice work, to support more deeply the missions and ministries in the Roanoke Valley that oppose hate, help the poor, and reach across the divisions of faith and ethnicity. She told the newspaper: Seems to me we need to stand up to violence and hate in all its forms. I dont know all the answers yet. I just know I want to explore it. The piece highlighted various social justice ministries in Roanoke including that of the Church of the Brethren. Read the article at www.roanoke.com/business/news/roanoke/retiring-federal-prosecutor-plans-further-pursuit-of-justice/article_cf8ad61d-c08e-5f82-9a1b-abe506227730.html .DTE Energy Company engages in the utility operations. The company's Electric segment generates, purchases, distributes, and sells electricity to approximately 2.2 million residential, commercial, and industrial customers in southeastern Michigan. It generates electricity through fossil-fuel, hydroelectric pumped storage, and nuclear plants, as well as wind and other renewable assets. This segment owns and operates approximately 698 distribution substations and 445,800 line transformers. The company's Gas segment purchases, stores, transports, distributes, and sells natural gas to approximately 1.3 million residential, commercial, and industrial customers throughout Michigan; and sells storage and transportation capacity. This segment has approximately 20,000 miles of distribution mains; 1,308,000 service pipelines; and 1,305,000 active meters, as well as owns approximately 2,000 miles of transmission pipelines. Its Gas Storage and Pipelines segment owns natural gas storage fields, lateral and gathering pipeline systems, and compression and surface facilities, as well as has ownership interests in interstate pipelines serving the Gulf Coast, Midwest, Ontario, and northeast markets. The company's Power and Industrial Projects segment offers metallurgical coke; pulverized coal and petroleum coke to the steel, pulp and paper, and other industries; and power, steam and chilled water production, and wastewater treatment services, as well as supplies compressed air to industrial customers. It also owns and operates 5 renewable generating plants with a capacity of 139 MWs; 22 gas recovery sites; and 10 reduced emissions fuel facilities. Its Energy Trading segment engages in power, natural gas, and environmental marketing and trading; structured transactions; and the optimization of contracted natural gas pipeline transportation and storage positions. The company was founded in 1903 and is headquartered in Detroit, Michigan.

Read MoreEnerSys provides various stored energy solutions for industrial applications worldwide. It operates in three segments: Energy Systems, Motive Power, and Specialty. The company offers uninterruptible power systems applications for computer and computer-controlled systems, as well as telecommunications systems; switchgear and electrical control systems used in industrial facilities and electric utilities, large-scale energy storage, and energy pipelines; integrated power solutions and services to broadband, telecom, renewable, and industrial customers; and thermally managed cabinets and enclosures for electronic equipment and batteries. It also provides motive power products that are used to provide power for electric industrial forklifts used in manufacturing, warehousing, and other material handling applications, as well as mining equipment, diesel locomotive starting, and other rail equipment. In addition, the company offers specialty batteries for starting, lighting, and ignition applications in transportation; and energy solutions for satellites, military aircraft, submarines, ships, and other tactical vehicles, as well as medical and security systems. Further, it provides battery chargers, power equipment, battery accessories, and outdoor cabinet enclosures, as well as related after-market and customer-support services for industrial batteries. The company sells its products through a network of distributors, independent representatives, and internal sales forces. The company was formerly known as Yuasa, Inc. and changed its name to EnerSys in January 2001. EnerSys was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Exxon Mobil: AKG Marketing Company Limited, Aera Energy LLC, Al-Jubail Petrochemical Company, Ampolex (Cepu) Pte Ltd, Ancon Insurance Company Inc., Barnett Gathering LLC, Barzan Gas Company Limited, Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Celtic Exploration Ltd., Coral FLNG S.A., Cross Timbers Energy LLC, Ellora Energy Inc., Esmeroon Oil Transporta Imperial Oil Limited, Esso (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd, Esso Deutschland GmbH, Esso Erdgas Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 15) Limited, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 17) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Angola (Overseas) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Chad Inc., Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Deepwater) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Offshore East) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, Esso Exploration and Production UK Limited, Esso Global Investments Ltd., Esso Italiana S.r.l., Esso Nederland B.V., Esso Norge AS, Esso Petroleum Company Limited, Esso Raffinage, Esso Societe Anonyme Francaise, Exxo Holdings Inc., Exxon Azerbaijan Limited, Exxon Chemical Arabia Inc., Exxon International Finance Company, Exxon Luxembourg Holdings LLC, Exxon Mobile Bay Limited Partnership, Exxon Neftegas Limited, Exxon Overseas Corporation, Exxon Overseas Investment Corporation, ExxonMobil (China) Investment Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil (Taicang) Petroleum Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil Abu Dhabi Offshore Petroleum Company Limited, ExxonMobil Alaska Production Inc., ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., ExxonMobil Australia Pty Ltd, ExxonMobil B Resources Company, ExxonMobil Capital Finance Company, ExxonMobil Capital Netherlands B.V., ExxonMobil Central Europe Holding GmbH, ExxonMobil Cepu Limited, ExxonMobil Chemical France, ExxonMobil Chemical Gulf Coast Investments LLC, ExxonMobil Chemical Holland B.V., ExxonMobil Chemical Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil China Petroleum & Petrochemical Company Limited, ExxonMobil Development Africa B.V., ExxonMobil Development Company, ExxonMobil Egypt (S.A.E.), ExxonMobil Exploracao Brasil Ltda., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Norway AS, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Romania Limited, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Tanzania Limited, ExxonMobil Finance Company Limited, ExxonMobil Financial Investment Company Limited, ExxonMobil France Holding SAS, ExxonMobil Gas Marketing Europe Limited, ExxonMobil General Finance Company, ExxonMobil Global Services Company, ExxonMobil Golden Pass Surety LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Company Holland LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Norway AS, ExxonMobil Hong Kong Limited, ExxonMobil International Services SARL, ExxonMobil Iraq Limited, ExxonMobil Italiana Gas S.r.l., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures Inc., ExxonMobil LNG Services B.V., ExxonMobil Lubricants Trading Company, ExxonMobil Oil Corporation, ExxonMobil PNG Limited, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical BVBA, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical Holdings Inc., ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, ExxonMobil Production Deutschland GmbH, ExxonMobil Production Norway Inc., ExxonMobil Qatargas (II) Limited, ExxonMobil Qatargas Inc., ExxonMobil Ras Laffan (III) Limited, ExxonMobil Rasgas Inc., ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, ExxonMobil Russia Kara Sea Holdings B.V., ExxonMobil Sales and Supply LLC, ExxonMobil Technology Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Funding Ltd., Fujian Refining & Petrochemical Co. Ltd., Golden Pass LNG Terminal Investments LLC, Golden Pass LNG Terminal LLC, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures LLC, Imperial Oil Limited, Imperial Oil Resources Limited, Imperial Oil Resources N.W.T. Limited, Imperial Oil/Petroliere Imperiale, Infineum Italia s.r.I., Infineum Singapore Pte. Ltd., InterOil Corporation, Jurong Aromatics Corporation Pte Ltd, MPM Lubricants, Marine Well Containment Company LLC, Mobil Australia Resources Company Pty Limited, Mobil California Exploration & Producing Asset Company, Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company, Mobil Chemical Products International Inc., Mobil Corporation, Mobil Equatorial Guinea Inc., Mobil Erdgas Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Mobil Exploration & Producing Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil International Petroleum Corporation, Mobil Oil Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil Oil Exploration & Producing Southeast Inc., Mobil Oil New Zealand Limited, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Mobil Producing Texas & New Mexico Inc., Mobil SerLimited, Mobil Venezolana De Petroleos Inc., Mobil Yanbu Petrochemical Company Inc., Mobil Yanbu Refining Company Inc., Mountain Gathering LLC, Mozambique Rovuma Venture S.p.A., Palmetto Transoceanic LLC, Papua New Guinea Liquefied Natural Gas Global Company LDC, Permian Express Partners LLC, Phillips Exploration LLC, Qatar Liquefied Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (II), SPI Limited, Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery Company Ltd., Saudi Yanbu Petrochemical Co., SeaRiver Maritime Inc., South Hook LNG Terminal Company Limited, Tengizchevroil LLP, Terminale GNL Adriatico S.r.l, Trend Gathering & Treating LLC, Wolverine Pipe Line Company, XH LLC, XTO Delaware Basin LLC, XTO Energy Canada, XTO Energy Inc., and XTO Holdings LLC.Banco Santander (Brasil) S.A. provides various banking products and services to individuals, small and medium enterprises, and corporate customers in Brazil and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Commercial Banking and Global Wholesale Banking. It offers deposits and other bank funding instruments; debit and credit cards; digital pre-paid solutions; payment platform; loyalty programs; employee benefit vouchers; payroll loans; digital lending and online debt renegotiation services; mortgages; home equity financing products; consumer credit; and local loans, commercial and trade finance, guarantees, structured loans, and cash management and funding solutions, as well as on-lending transfer services. It also provides funding and financial advisory services related to projects, origination and distribution of fixed-income securities in the debt capital markets, financing of acquisitions and syndicated loans, other structured financing arrangements, and subordinated debt and energy efficiency transactions; advisory services for mergers and acquisitions, and equity capital markets transactions; and stock brokerage and advisory, equity, and equity research services. In addition, the company structures and offers foreign exchange, derivative, and investment products for institutional investors, and corporate and retail customers; and provides market making services. Further, it offers instant payment services; range of products and services focused on the agribusiness sector; microfinance services; and online automotive listing and digital car insurance solutions, as well as digital trading platform. The company provides its financial services and products to its customers through multichannel distribution network comprising branches, mini-branches, ATMs, call centers, Internet banking, and mobile banking. Banco Santander (Brasil) S.A. was incorporated in 1985 and is headquartered in SAo Paulo, Brazil.

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Click To See This #1 Pick.Citizens Financial Group, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Citizens Bank, National Association that provides retail and commercial banking products and services in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Consumer Banking and Commercial Banking. The Consumer Banking segment offers traditional banking products and services, including checking and savings accounts, home and education loans, credit cards, business loans, mortgage and home equity lending, and unsecured product finance and personal loans, as well as wealth management and investment services to retail customers and small businesses. This segment also provides indirect auto finance for new and used vehicles through auto dealerships. The Commercial Banking segment offers various financial products and solutions, such as loans and leasing, trade finance, deposit and treasury management, cash management, and foreign exchange and interest rate risk management solutions; and loan syndications, corporate finance, merger and acquisition, and debt and equity capital markets capabilities. It serves government banking, not-for-profit, healthcare, technology, professionals, oil and gas, asset finance, franchise finance, asset-based lending, commercial real estate, private equity, and sponsor finance industries. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. operates approximately 2,700 ATMs and 1,000 branches in 11 states in the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest regions, as well as through online, telephone, and mobile banking services; and maintains approximately 130 retail and commercial non-branch offices. The company was formerly known as RBS Citizens Financial Group, Inc. and changed its name to Citizens Financial Group, Inc. in April 2014. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. was founded in 1828 and is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island.

Read MoreThe Branson Board of Aldermen on Thursday (now postponed to July 28) will consider an ordinance that would require face coverings in public spaces. The aldermen might approve it, disapprove it, or approve an amended version. Would you be in favor of some form of mandatory face covering ordinance in the city of Branson?

You voted:PetroChina Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in a range of petroleum related products, services, and activities in Mainland China and internationally. It operates through Exploration and Production, Refining and Chemicals, Marketing, and Natural Gas and Pipeline segments. The Exploration and Production segment engages in the exploration, development, production, and marketing of crude oil and natural gas. The Refining and Chemicals segment refines crude oil and petroleum products; and produces and markets primary petrochemical products, derivative petrochemical products, and other chemical products. The Marketing segment is involved in marketing of refined products and trading business. The Natural Gas and Pipeline segment engages in the transmission of natural gas, crude oil, and refined products; and sale of natural gas. As of December 31, 2020, the company had a total length of 31,151 km, including 22,555 km of natural gas pipelines, 7,190 km of crude oil pipelines, and 1,406 km of refined product pipelines. The company is also involved in the exploration, development, and production of oil sands and coalbed methane; trading of crude oil and petrochemical products; storage, chemical engineering, storage facilities, service station, and transportation facilities and related businesses; and production and sales of basic and derivative chemical, and other chemical products. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People's Republic of China. PetroChina Company Limited is a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation.

Read MoreMorgan Stanley, a financial holding company, provides various financial products and services to corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The company operates through Institutional Securities, Wealth Management, and Investment Management segments. The Institutional Securities segment offers capital raising and financial advisory services, including services related to the underwriting of debt, equity, and other securities, as well as advice on mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, real estate, and project finance. This segment also provides sales and trading services, such as sales, financing, prime brokerage, and market-making services in equity and fixed income products consisting of foreign exchange and commodities; corporate and commercial real estate loans, which provides secured lending facilities and financing for sales and trading customers, as well as asset-backed and mortgage lending; and wealth management services, investment, and research services. The Wealth Management segment offers various financial services and solutions covering brokerage and investment advisory services; financial and wealth planning services; stock plan administration services; annuity and insurance products; securities-based lending, residential real estate loans, and other lending products; and banking and retirement plan services to individual investors and small to medium-sized businesses and institutions. The Investment Management segment provides various investment strategies and products comprising equity, fixed income, liquidity, and alternative/other products to benefit/defined contribution plans, foundations, endowments, government entities, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, and third-party fund sponsors and corporations through institutional and intermediary channels. The company was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Read MoreRogers Communications Inc. operates as a communications and media company in Canada. It operates through three segments: Wireless, Cable, and Media. The company offers mobile Internet access, wireless voice and enhanced voice, device and accessory financing, wireless home phone, device protection, text messaging, e-mail, global voice and data roaming, bridging landline, machine-to-machine and Internet of Things solutions, and advanced wireless solutions for businesses, as well as device delivery services; and postpaid and prepaid services under the Rogers, Fido, and chatr brands to approximately 10.9 million subscribers. It also provides Internet and WiFi services; smart home monitoring services, such as monitoring, security, automation, energy efficiency, and smart control through a smartphone app. In addition, the company offers local and network TV; on-demand television; cloud-based digital video recorders; voice-activated remote controls, and integrated apps; personal video recorders; linear and time-shifted programming; digital specialty channels; 4K television programming; and televised content on smartphones, tablets, and personal computers, as well as operates Ignite TV and Ignite TV app. Further, it provides residential and small business local telephony services; calling features, such as voicemail, call waiting, and long distance; voice, data networking, Internet protocol, and Ethernet services; private networking, Internet, IP voice, and cloud solutions; optical wave and multi-protocol label switching services; IT and network technologies; and cable access network services. The company also owns Toronto Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre event venue; and operates Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet World, Citytv, OMNI, FX (Canada), FXX (Canada), and OLN television networks, as well as 55 AM and FM radio stations. Rogers Communications Inc. was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

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Click here to see this video before it's removedSince 2016, Teeka Tiwari has trumped the stock market. His investment recommendations have each averaged 281%. Thats 17 times the S&P. And 112 times the average investor, according to JPMorgan! However, one investment Teeka just uncovered could top them all It involves former President Biden, billions of dollars, several large banks, and a super-rich family. As well as a MAJOR potential upgrade to our credit cards. Teeka, who ended up correctly picking the last investment of the decade, is declaring this his top pick for the 2020s.

Ally Financial Inc., a bank holding company, provides various digital financial products and services to consumer, commercial, and corporate customers primarily in the United States and Canada. It operates through four segments: Automotive Finance Operations, Insurance Operations, Mortgage Finance Operations, and Corporate Finance Operations. The Automotive Finance Operations segment offers automotive financing services, including providing retail installment sales contracts, loans and operating leases, term loans, financing dealer floorplans, warehouse lines to automotive retailers, and fleet financing. It also provides financing services to companies and municipalities for the purchase or lease of vehicles, and vehicle-remarketing services. The Insurance Operations segment offers consumer finance protection and insurance products through the automotive dealer channel, and commercial insurance products directly to dealers. This segment provides vehicle service and maintenance contract, and guaranteed asset protection products; and underwrites commercial insurance coverages, which primarily insure dealers' vehicle inventory. The Mortgage Finance Operations segment manages held-for-investment consumer mortgage loan portfolio that includes bulk purchases of jumbo and low-to-moderate income mortgage loans originated by third parties, as well as direct-to-consumer mortgage offerings. The Corporate Finance Operations segment provides senior secured leveraged cash flow and asset-based loans to middle market companies; leveraged loans; and commercial real estate product to serve companies in the healthcare industry. The company, through its subsidiary, Ally Bank, also offers commercial banking products and services. In addition, it provides securities brokerage and investment advisory services. The company was formerly known as GMAC Inc. and changed its name to Ally Financial Inc. in May 2010. Ally Financial Inc. was founded in 1919 and is based in Detroit, Michigan.

Read MoreAlexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE:ARE), an S&P 500<sup>A</sup> urban office real estate investment trust ("REIT"), is the first, longest-tenured, and pioneering owner, operator, and developer uniquely focused on collaborative life science, technology, and agtech campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, with a total market capitalization of $31.9 billion as of December 31, 2020, and an asset base in North America of 49.7 million square feet ("SF"). The asset base in North America includes 31.9 million RSF of operating properties and 3.3 million RSF of Class A properties undergoing construction, 7.1 million RSF of near-term and intermediate-term development and redevelopment projects, and 7.4 million SF of future development projects. Founded in 1994, Alexandria pioneered this niche and has since established a significant market presence in key locations, including Greater Boston, San Francisco, New York City, San Diego, Seattle, Maryland, and Research Triangle. Alexandria has a longstanding and proven track record of developing Class A properties clustered in urban life science, technology, and agtech campuses that provide our innovative tenants with highly dynamic and collaborative environments that enhance their ability to successfully recruit and retain world-class talent and inspire productivity, efficiency, creativity, and success. Alexandria also provides strategic capital to transformative life science, technology, and agtech companies through our venture capital platform. We believe our unique business model and diligent underwriting ensure a high-quality and diverse tenant base that results in higher occupancy levels, longer lease terms, higher rental income, higher returns, and greater long-term asset value.

Read MoreA10 Networks, Inc. provides networking solutions in the United States, Japan, other Asia Pacific, and EMEA countries. The company offers Thunder Application Delivery Controller (ADC) that provides advanced server load balancing; Lightning ADC, a cloud-native software-as-a-service platform to boost the delivery and security of applications and micro services; and Thunder Carrier Grade Networking product, which offers standards-compliant address and protocol translation services for service provider networks. It also provides Thunder Threat Protection System (TPS) for the protection of networks and server resources against massive distributed denial of service attacks; Thunder Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Insight solution that decrypts SSL-encrypted traffic and forwards it to a third-party security device for deep packet inspection; and Thunder Convergent Firewall, which addresses various critical security capabilities in one package by consolidating various security and networking functions in a single appliance. In addition, the company offers intelligent management and automation tools comprising harmony controller that provides intelligent management, automation, and analytics for secure application delivery in multi-cloud environment; and aGalaxy TPS, a multi-device network management solution. The company delivers its solutions on optimized hardware appliances, bare metal software, containerized software, virtual appliances, and cloud-native software. It serves cloud providers, service providers, government organizations, and enterprises in the telecommunications, technology, industrial, retail, government, financial, gaming, and education industries. The company markets its products through sales organizations, as well as distribution channel partners, including distributors, value added resellers, and system integrators. A10 Networks, Inc. was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.

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If you own a cell phone, then mobile service providers hope you never get to see this video that could soon go viral. His experiment could strike a bad chord with mobile phone companies. But youve got to see what this man discovered and what it means for phone users in the weeks ahead.First Republic Bank, together with its subsidiaries, provides private banking, private business banking, and private wealth management services to clients in metropolitan areas in the United States. It operates through two segments, Commercial Banking and Wealth Management. The company accepts deposit products, such as checking, money market checking, savings, passbook deposits, and individual retirement accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It also offers a range of lending products that comprise residential mortgage loans, home equity lines of credit, multifamily loans, commercial real estate and construction loans, personal and business loans, single family construction loans, and other loans and lines of credit to businesses and individuals. The company's loans are secured by single family residences, multifamily buildings, and commercial real estate properties. In addition, it provides wealth management services, which include various investment strategies and products, online investment management services, trust and custody services, full service and online brokerage, financial and estate planning, and access to alternative investments, as well as investing, insurance, and foreign exchange services; and treasury services. Additionally, the company offers online and mobile banking services; refinancing services; and ATM and debit cards. As of December 31, 2020, the company offered its services through 92 offices, including 80 licensed deposit-taking offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Newport Beach, and San Diego, California; Portland, Oregon; Boston, Massachusetts; Palm Beach, Florida; Greenwich, Connecticut; New York, New York; and Jackson, Wyoming, as well as 12 additional offices that provided lending, wealth management, and trust services. First Republic Bank was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Read MoreUnder Armour, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops, markets, and distributes branded performance apparel, footwear, and accessories for men, women, and youth primarily in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. The company offers its apparel in compression, fitted, and loose types to be worn in hot and cold. It also provides various footwear products for running, basketball, cleated sports, slides, training, and outdoor. In addition, the company offers accessories, which include gloves, bags, headwear, and sports masks; and digital fitness subscriptions, as well as digital advertising through MapMyFitness platform. It primarily offers its products under the HEATGEAR, COLDGEAR, RUSH or RECOVER, UA HOVR, UA Logo, UNDER ARMOUR, UA, ARMOUR, PROTECT THIS HOUSE, I WILL, ARMOUR BRA, and ARMOUR FLEECE brands. The company sells its products through wholesale channels, including national and regional sporting goods chains, independent and specialty retailers, department store chains, mono-branded Under Armour retail stores, institutional athletic departments, and leagues and teams, as well as independent distributors; and directly to consumers through a network of 439 brand and factory house stores, as well as through e-commerce websites. Under Armour, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.

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Limited, Concentrix Beteiligungen GmbH, Concentrix Brazil Outsourcing of Processes , Concentrix Business Services UK Limited, Concentrix CMG Canada ULC, Concentrix CMG Insurance Services LLC, Concentrix CRM Services Germany GmbH, Concentrix CRM Services Germany GmbH Belgium Branch, Concentrix CRM Services Germany GmbH Greece Branch, Concentrix CRM Services Germany GmbH Merkezi Almanya Istanbul Merkez Subesi, Concentrix CRM Services Germany GmbH Netherlands Branch, Concentrix CRM Services Germany GmbH Netherlands Branch , Concentrix CRM Services Germany GmbH Russelsheim Switzerland Branch Zug, Concentrix CRM Services Germany GmbH Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia Oddzia w Polsce, Concentrix CRM Services Germany GmbH Sucursal en Espana, Concentrix CRM Services Hungary Kft, Concentrix CRM Services RO S.R.L., Concentrix CRM Services UK Limited, Concentrix CVG (Mauritius) Ltd, Concentrix CVG Brite Voice Systems LLC, Concentrix CVG CMG UK Limited, Concentrix CVG Contact Tunisie S.A.R.L., Concentrix CVG Corporation, Concentrix CVG Customer Management Australia Pty. Ltd., Concentrix CVG Customer Management Delaware LLC, Concentrix CVG Customer Management Group Inc., Concentrix CVG Customer Management Group Inc. Costa Rica Branch, Concentrix CVG Delaware Inc., Concentrix CVG Delaware International Inc., Concentrix CVG Delaware International Inc. French Branch, Concentrix CVG Egypt Limited Liability Company, Concentrix CVG France S.A.R.L., Concentrix CVG Funding Inc., Concentrix CVG Global Services AZ Inc., Concentrix CVG Global Services El Salvador S.A. de C.V., Concentrix CVG Global Services Honduras S.A., Concentrix CVG Global Services Hong Kong Limited, Concentrix CVG Government Solutions LLC, Concentrix CVG Group Limited, Concentrix CVG Group Servicios de Apoyo Informatico S.L., Concentrix CVG Holding LLC, Concentrix CVG Intelligent Contact Limited, Concentrix CVG International Bulgaria EOOD, Concentrix CVG International Holding Ltd., Concentrix CVG International Holding Ltd. Dominican Republic Branch, Concentrix CVG International Sp. Z.o.o., Concentrix CVG Italy S.R.L., Concentrix CVG LLC, Concentrix CVG Learning Solutions LLC, Concentrix CVG Malaysia (Philippines) SDN. BHD. Philippine Branch, Concentrix CVG Malaysia (Phillipines) Sdn. Bhd., Concentrix CVG Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Concentrix CVG Nicaragua S.A., Concentrix CVG Philippines Inc., Concentrix CVG Pte. Ltd., Concentrix CVG Services Singapore Pte. Ltd., Concentrix CVG Services Singapore Pte. Ltd. ROHQ, Concentrix CVG Singapore Holdings Pte. Ltd., Concentrix CVG Singapore Holdings Pte. Ltd. ROHQ, Concentrix CVG Tunisie BPO S.A.R.L., Concentrix CVG Tunisie S.A.R.L., Concentrix Coop Holdco Limited, Concentrix Corporation, Concentrix Costa Rica S.A., Concentrix Daksh Services India Private Limited, Concentrix Daksh Services Philippines Corporation, Concentrix Digital Services Limited, Concentrix Duisburg GmbH, Concentrix Dusseldorf GmbH, Concentrix Europe Limited, Concentrix Frankfurt a. M. GmbH, Concentrix Free Trade Zone S.A., Concentrix GBS Limited, Concentrix Gera GmbH, Concentrix Global Holdings Inc., Concentrix Global Services GmbH, Concentrix Gmbh, Concentrix HK Limited, Concentrix Halle GmbH, Concentrix Insurance Administration Solutions Corporation, Concentrix International Europe B.V., Concentrix International GmbH, Concentrix International Services Europe B.V., Concentrix Investment Holdings Corporation, Concentrix Investment Holdings Singapore 1 Pte. Ltd, Concentrix Investment Holdings Singapore 2 Pte. Ltd, Concentrix Investment Holdings Singapore 3 Pte. Ltd, Concentrix Investments Europe B.V., Concentrix Ireland Contact Services Limited, Concentrix Ireland Limited, Concentrix Leipzig GmbH, Concentrix Logistics Corporation, Concentrix Management Holding GmbH & Co. KG, Concentrix Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V, Concentrix Munster GmbH, Concentrix New (BVI) Corporation, Concentrix NewHK Limited, Concentrix Nicaragua S.A., Concentrix Osnabruck GmbH, Concentrix Rechenzentrum GmbH, Concentrix Romania S.R.L., Concentrix Schwerin GmbH, Concentrix Service Hungary KFT, Concentrix Services (Colombia) S.A.S., Concentrix Services (Dalian) Co. Ltd., Concentrix Services (Dalian) Co. Ltd. Beijing Branch, Concentrix Services (Dalian) Co. Ltd. Shanghai Branch, Concentrix Services (Germany) GmbH, Concentrix Services (Ireland) Limited, Concentrix Services (Netherlands) B.V., Concentrix Services (New Zealand) Limited, Concentrix Services (Poland) spolka z o.o., Concentrix Services (Saudi Arabia) Corporation LLC, Concentrix Services (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Concentrix Services (Thailand) Co. Ltd, Concentrix Services (Uruguay) S.A., Concentrix Services Bulgaria EOOD, Concentrix Services Corporation, Concentrix Services Corporation Philippines Branch, Concentrix Services Germany GmbH Sverige filial, Concentrix Services GmbH, Concentrix Services Holdco (Netherlands) B.V., Concentrix Services India Private Limited, Concentrix Services Korea Limited, Concentrix Services Mexico S.A. de C.V., Concentrix Services Philippines Inc., Concentrix Services Portugal Sociedade Unipessoal LDA, Concentrix Services Pty Ltd, Concentrix Services Pty Ltd ROHQ, Concentrix Services Slovakia s.r.o., Concentrix Services Spain S.L.U., Concentrix Services UK Limited, Concentrix Services US Inc., Concentrix Technologies (India) Private Limited, Concentrix Technologies Limited, Concentrix Technologies Services (Canada) Limited, Concentrix Technology FZ-LLC, Concentrix VN Technologies Services Company Limited, Concentrix Verwaltungs GmbH, Concentrix Wismar GmbH, Concentrix Wuppertal GmbH, Convergys, Convergys Customer Management Colombia S.A.S., Convergys Customer Management Group Canada Holding Inc., Convergys Customer Management Group Inc. Philippines Branch, Convergys Customer Management International Inc., Convergys Customer Management International Inc. - Regional Operating Headquarters, Convergys Customer Management Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Convergys France S.A.R.L. (Mauritius Branch), Convergys Holdings (GB) Limited, Convergys Holdings (UK) Limited, Convergys Hungary Kft., Convergys India Services Private Limited, Convergys International Inc., Convergys International Nordic AB, Convergys Netherlands Investments B.V., Convergys Services Denmark ApS, Convergys Software Service (Beijing) Ltd., Convergys South Africa (Pty) Ltd., CyberLogistics Corporation, Dalian Jumeng Information Services Ltd., Dalian Jumeng Technology Development Ltd., EMJ America Inc., Encore Receivable Management Inc., Encore Receivable Management Inc. Philippines Branch, Foshan Jumeng Information Technology Service Co. Ltd, GLS Software S. de R.L., Guiyang Jumeng Technology Development Ltd., Hyve IT Solutions Israel Ltd, Hyve IT Solutions South Africa (PTY) Ltd., Hyve SNX Solutions Ireland Limited, Hyve Solutions (Taiwan) Corporation, Hyve Solutions Canada Limited, Hyve Solutions China Limited, Hyve Solutions Corporation, Hyve Solutions Europe Limited, Hyve Solutions HK Limited, Hyve Solutions Holding Company Limited, Hyve Solutions India LLP, Hyve Solutions Japan K.K., Hyve Solutions Korea Limited, Hyve Solutions Malaysia SDN.BHD., Hyve Solutions New Zealand Limited, Hyve Solutions Singapore Pte. Ltd, Hyve Solutions US Global Holding Corporation, IBM World Wide Customer Care, Intervoice Acquisition Subsidiary Inc., Intervoice Colombia Ltda., Intervoice GP Inc., Intervoice GmbH, Intervoice LLC Canada Branch, Intervoice LP Inc., Intervoice Limited, Intervoice Limited Partnership, Intervoice do Brasil Comercio Servicos e Participacoes Ltda., Jack Of All Games Inc., Japan Concentrix KK, LATAM HoldCo Limited, Lasting Holdings Corporation, License Online Inc, Minacs, Minacs Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., PT Concentrix Services Indonesia, PT Convergys Customer Management Indonesia, Pegasus Telecom LLC, SCGS (Malaysia) SDN. BHD., SGS Holdings Inc., SGS Tunisie S.A.R.L., SIT Funding Corporation, SYNNEX Canada Limited, SYNNEX Finance Hybrid II LLC, SYNNEX Information Technologies (Beijing) Ltd., SYNNEX Information Technologies (Chengdu) Ltd., SYNNEX Information Technologies (China) Ltd., SYNNEX Japan Corporation, SYNNEX Japan Holdings K.K., SYNNEX Servicios S.A. de C.V., SYNNEX Software Technologies (HK) Limited, SYNNEX de Mexico S.A. de C.V., SYNNEX-Concentrix UK Limited, Sennex Enterprises Limited, Servicios Afinasis S.A. de C.V., Shenzhen Shunrong Telecommunication Technologies Ltd., Shenzhen Shunrong Telecommunication Technologies Ltd. Foshan Branch, Sichuan 86Bridge Information Technology Ltd., Stream Business Process Outsourcing South Africa (Proprietary) Ltd., Stream Florida Inc., Stream Global Services - US Inc., Stream Global Services Danmark ApS, Stream Global Services Inc., Stream Holdings Corporation, Suzhou Ke Wei Xun Information Services Co. Ltd., The Global Email Trustee Limited, Tigerspike Co. Ltd, Tigerspike FZ LLC Rep. Office, Tigerspike FZ-LLC, Tigerspike Holdings Pty Ltd, Tigerspike Inc., Tigerspike Ltd, Tigerspike Products Pte. Ltd., Tigerspike Pte. Ltd., Tigerspike Pty Ltd, Velami Holdings Corporation, Vietnam Concentrix Services Company Limited, VisionMAX, WG-UK Holding Company Limited, WG-US HoldCo Inc, Westcon Brasil Ltda., Westcon CALA Inc., Westcon Canada Systems (WCSI) Inc., Westcon Corporation Ecuador WCE Cia. Ltda, Westcon Group Colombia Limitada, Westcon Group Costa Rica S.A., Westcon Group El Salvador S.A. de C.V., Westcon Group Inc., Westcon Group North America Inc., Westcon Group Panama S.A., Westcon Mexico S.A. de C.V., Westcon-Comstor, Xi'an Jumeng Technologies Development Ltd, and eTelecare Philippines Inc..Wall Street Legend Who Picked Bitcoin in 2016 Shares #1 Pick for the 2020s (Ad)

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Could This Be the Biggest US Gold Discovery in Years?

See how this tiny, unknown gold company secured a prime land package right next door to the worlds two largest gold producers in Nevadas famed Carlin Trend where 84 Million gold ounces have already been extracted. Best of all, investors can still get in well below US$0.50 per share.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.

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For a company whose shares powered to new highs on what felt like a daily basis for much of last year, Nike (NYSE: NKE) has surprised many with its sluggish performance in the first half of 2021. Their shares are trading down more than 10% from the most recent all time high that they tagged at the end of December. In the grand scheme of things, thisDont Buy Options. Follow My #1 Rule Instead. (Ad)

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Get the full details hereAt least 66 people have been killed and 76 others injured in a devastating oil pipeline explosion in central Mexico, authorities said.

It is believed the blast occurred after the pipeline was ruptured by suspected oil thieves in the town of Tlahuelilpan, in Hidalgo state, on Friday night, the BBC reported.

The pipeline went ablaze at around 7 p.m. (local time), when dozens of people were scrambling around a leak spot to collect fuel in the presence of the armed forces. TV footage showed large flames and people at the scene with severe burns as well as what appeared to be smouldering corpses scattered on the ground near the blaze.

Hidalgo Governor Omar Fayad told the media that the explosion was followed by the fire. The footage prompted questions about why authorities did not act.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pledged to step up efforts to stamp out fuel theft after the tragedy.

He had launched a crackdown on December 27 and ordered pipelines to be closed temporarily to stop illegal taps draining billions of dollars from the heavily-indebted state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

"Far from stopping the fight ... against fuel theft, it's going to become stronger, we'll continue until we've eradicated these practices," said Obrador.

The government said soldiers reached the scene after Pemex detected the illegal tap, but could not secure the area in time.

Public Security Minister Alfonso Durazo told broadcaster Televisa: "At some point there were too many people there and the Army and military personnel withdrew to avoid problems."

"It was just as they were withdrawing that the explosion occurred."

Authorities have blamed fuel theft for previous explosions in Mexico. In 2010, a pipeline blew up in the state of Puebla, leaving 28 people dead and scores wounded.With an eye on Delhi, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is all geared up for Saturday's "united opposition rally", which party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said would sound the "death knell" for the BJP in the coming Lok Sabha polls.

Leaders of over 20 opposition parties are expected to attend the rally at the iconic Brigade Parade Ground here on Saturday to vow to put up a united fight against the "misrule" of the saffron party.

The TMC hopes to use the rally as a platform to prop Banerjee as a leader who can "take along other parties" and challenge the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the general election.

Banerjee, the brain behind the mega opposition rally, on Thursday said the regional parties would be the deciding factor in the Lok Sabha polls.

"It will be a 'United India Rally' against the misrule of the BJP. It will sound the death knell for the BJP ... The saffron party's seat count in the general election will not cross 125. The number of seats the state parties will win will be much higher than that of the BJP's.

"The federal parties, that is the regional parties, will be the deciding factor after the elections," she claimed.

Chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal, H D Kumaraswamy, N Chandrababu Naidu, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's (DMK) M K Stalin, besides dissident BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha are among those billed to attend the mega rally.

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and his party colleague Abhishek Manu Singhvi will also take part in the rally.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar, Rashtriya Lok Dal's (RLD) Ajit Singh, former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, Patidar leader Hardik Patel, Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani and Babulal Marandi of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha will also be present on the stage alongside the TMC supremo.

Former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Gegong Apang, who quit the BJP on Tuesday, is also set to attend the meet.

The rally will, however, miss the presence of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and BSP supremo Mayawati. They have deputed senior party leaders to attend the programme.

The three politicians had attended the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy last year.

According to state Congress sources, the party unit was not very keen on Kharge and Singhvi attending the rally as it would send a wrong message to its workers who are fighting against the TMC in West Bengal.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), along with the other Left parties, has decided to give the rally a miss.

Asked to comment on Mayawati skipping the rally, Banerjee said BSP's "senior leader Satish Chandra Mishra will be attending, which is a big thing for us".

About the TMC's ambitions in the national arena, a senior party leader said, "Nobody can deny that Mamata Banerjee is one of the most popular Opposition leaders in the country and can take others along with her to fight the BJP. She has experience both as a (former) central minister and as a chief minister. The rest is for the people to decide."

Several top TMC leaders, during the campaign meetings for the rally, had claimed that the "people are waiting for Mamata Banerjee" and urged the party workers to ensure that the next government at the Centre was formed under her leadership.

The BJP leadership predictably mocked the rally, saying the Opposition should first decide on its prime ministerial candidate and then think of ousting Narendra Modi and the ruling party.Similarities between Hinduisms Krishna and Christianitys Jesus Christ show that basic principles of faith have universal appeal, says Dr Asha Goswami

It is interesting to note that there are many similarities which are commonly shared by two great personas in religions of the world  Shri Krishna and Christ. Both great Personas are similar in their names, have similarities in their teachings as well as in some of their life traits. It is learnt that the foreign missionary in India during the 18th and the 19th centuries found in Krishna, a peculiar Personae emerging from the nations myths. He sometimes resembled the Greek Sun God Apollo of great beauty. On other instances, it would touch the mythico-epic tradition of Indo-European people whose God Odin, too, has many analogies with Krishna. Much has been said on the issue of similarities between Krishna and Christ for the last two centuries. Hence, such views gave vent to the controversies among the scholars when some agree upon that the religion of Krishna or Krishnaism in its developed stage and form was a borrowed version of Christianity and similarly Krishna is a symbolic adaptation of Christ. Moreover, it is also held that striking similarity exists between childhood exploits of both of them and also among their teachings enshrined in Gita and Bible. This notion of similarity between Krishna and Christ was framed by foreign scholars when they challenged the historicity of the child god Krishna of the Puranas on the basis of the missing links which suggested that such a conception of the child god Krishna of Vrindavan-Gokul cannot be justifiably identified with the Vasudeva Krishna of the Mahabharata who was a Yadava Prince and had established kingdom far off at Dvaraka. Thus, it was thought that the concept of child cowherd Krishna is adapted from Christian belief of the child Christ. Let us then first ascertain the issue of the similarity that exists in their names which has been suggested on the grounds that the name Krishna is a corrupt form of the word Christ implying the sense of The Savior, and that makes clear why these both great men of world history befitting the role of the savior of the world have performed mostly such deeds which very well correspond to their names implying the sense of the saviors. To strengthen this point, it was also held that around first century AD, the Abhiras migrating from central Asia to Mathura might have brought with them the legends related to some boy god, which could be possibly be Christs earlier age acts. It is also thought that the notion of child Christ has similarity with the concept of the Abhiras Child God.

In order to make a thorough assessment of the issue, it may be emphasised that similarity assumed between Krishna and Christ mainly centers around a) similarity between their names; b) similarity between their early age deeds; and c)similarity between their teachings.

Now, with regard to the issue of the similarity between their names, it be ascertained that it is constructed on the basis of the fact that the Bengalis and Goanese mostly pronounce Krishna as Kushto or Krishto, and the Tamils pronounce Kitto or Kittu in place of Krishna. This very well explains the obvious similarity of sound between both the names Krishna and Christ. Next, with regard to the view that the childhood events of Krishna agree with the Christian traditions, it be cited that there exists similarly between their childhood events/exploits. For instance, Herods massacre of innocents can be well compared with massacre of all newly born boys by Kansa at Mathura. Child Christs flight to Egypt be found similar with child Krishnas flight to Gokul. Christ being the fore-runner in St John can be well compared with Krishna always being accompanied by his elder brother Balarama. Krishna and Christ both are said to be descendants of the royal clan. Both grew up in a stable. Both of them were worshiped by cowherds and the shepherds. Moreover, tales like restoring the life of the son of a bewailing woman by Christ, Christs pouring of a box of anointment, and Christs healing of a crippler are quite similar to Krishnas exploits. Also, a new and different role was assigned by the Puranas to the Krishna of the Mahabharata. He was asked to be a great teacher and a warrior. This, too, is assumed to bear an impact of Christian notions. So, it was assumed that the later Puranic narratives referring to such a changed Personae of Krishna may have borrowed from Christian narratives. Hence, a sudden transformation in the character of Krishna of the Mahabharata as a child god of Gokula and Vrindavana is held to bear the impression of the child Christ. So much assumption of similar features in their traditions goes that even the dual motif of Radha Krishna is traceable in the Christian tradition of Virginia and Paul. Besides, similarity is also cited between the word Yadava, Arjuna and Durvasa of the Krishna legend and those of Christian traditions like Juda, John and Peter. Likewise, interaction of Krishnas Gita teachings with Christianity is assumed by citing analogy between Gita maxims and the maxims in Bible. Besides, there also exists similarity of concepts such as faith or shraddha and bhakti in both systems of belief.

While summing up the ideas on the issue of similarity between the names Krishna and Christ and the parallels of thoughts in their teachings and some of the analogical traits in their childhood episodes, it be ascertained that these are justified as reflecting a common fount of oriental thoughts, traditions and ideologies as well as the conceptions which further developed into different traditions that follow the lives of Krishna and Christ. Although there exists phonetic similarity between both the names, it is obviously certain that Krishna is a native Indian name and Christ is a Greek word.

The views expressed are the writersThe loss of Uttarakhand Vidhyalayi Shiksha Parishad (UVSP), popularly called Uttarakhand Board, has become a gain for the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). On one hand, the Ramnagar- based UVSP is consistently losing students while the comparatively new- Dehradun region  is, on the other hand, showing steady increase in the student enrolment.

The data of the Uttarakhand board suggest that while 143915 students had enrolled for its class XII examination in 2015 the number dropped to 135650 in 2016 and in 2017, the enrolment further slipped to 133417.

Last year, 132281 students were enrolled for class XII examination and data released by board this year indicate that the drastic reduction of over 8000 students has occurred with only 124183 enrolment.

In stark contrast, the CBSE Dehradun region which consists of all 13 districts of Uttarakhand and 15 districts of western Uttar Pradesh, 125311 students have been enrolled for class XII examination this year. Last year, the student enrolment in class XII in CBSE Dehradun was 119364. A similar trend is noticed in class X enrolment of both these boards.

The experts list a variety of factors responsible for this decline in the interest of students in the state board. They cite the lack of infrastructure in the government schools, politicisation of teaching community, migration from villages and lack of discipline in the government schools as reasons for this loss in the number of students. Many schools, located in the far- flung and hard to access areas, face acute shortage of teaching staff.

The teachers who are posted in these schools take frequent leaves and lobby for their transfers to the places of their choices. The school building and other facilities in the government schools are not improving even though the huge budget of state education department keeps on increasing every year.

To compound thing further for Uttarakhand Board, more and more private schools are coming up in the rural areas. These schools are opting for a more popular board like CBSE and display an affiliation granted by central board as USP to attract students.

The private schools seldom opt for the state board as they find more liberty and convenience with the central boards. Most of the private schools opt for Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and ICSE board due to the better curriculum and textbooks, said a retired government school principal, V S Rawat.No new districts from Chhattisgarh are being included in the National Horticulture Mission (NHM) as this may result in thinning out of already limited resources, the Central Government has informed.

The ersthwile Chhattisgarh Government had earlier requested the Central Government to include eight districts of Chhattisgarh namelyJanjgir-Champa, Mahasamund, Dhamtari, Dantewads, Kanker, Bijapur, Narayanpur and Sukma, in the National Horticulture Mission (NHM).

On the issue of inclusion of more districts under NHM, the view of the Department is that while finalising/identifying districts for inclusion under NHM, a cluster approach for developing potential horticultural crops for ensuring backward and forwarded linkages was adopted, it stated.

The selection of the district was decided on the comparative advantage of crops based on agro climatic conditions and potential for developing marketing opportunities.

However, there is a provision under NHM scheme for setting up of infrastructure units relating to post harvest management, marketing and other project based activities in non-NHM districts, provided there is a clear linkage of the units with the horticulture produce. Apart from this, activities for development of horticulture in non-NHM districts can be carried out under other Government schemes like Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) etc, it stated.Chief Minister Kamal Nath left for Davos from Delhi early on Saturday to take part in the 49th meeting of the World Economic Forum. This meeting has been organised to decide the global agenda.

President of World Economic Forum Borge Brende has specially invited Nath to take part in the forum in Davos from January 22 to January 25. This meeting is significant to fix the global agenda. The participants of the meeting will be familiarised with the perspective and reforms taking place in Madhya Pradesh.

Brende hoped that under the guidance of Nath, Madhya Pradesh will attain unprecedented levels of progress and prosperity. The World Economic Forum as an international organisation encourages public-private sector that will help the State in its endeavour, he said. There will be support of the state to fulfill the possibilities of development of the State.Raipur Smart City Ltd (RSCL) is in the process for constructing a Multi-level Parking at EAC colony near District Collectorate in the city, officials informed.

RSCL will be developing a Smart Parking System under Smart City Mission on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, they informed.

One of the primary objective of RSCL is to develop Smart Parking. Smart parking can be defined broadly as the use of advanced technologies to help motorists locate, reserve, and pay for parking.

The project will include, implementation of Smart Parking technology solutions, to provide information on the availability of parking slots in real time, Monitoring of entry and exit, Card based and other payment options, Mobile App based parking guidance system.

Notably, Raipur city was selected among 100 cities to be developed as smart city in India due to various achievements, initiatives and all-inclusive approach. Accordingly Raipur city had submitted Smart City Proposal (SCP) for Raipur City to Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India with required consent of Government of Chhattisgarh and statutory authority of Raipur Smart City.

The city of Raipur has been selected to be developed into a smart city under the fast track mode of first phase of the Smart Cities Mission.

The Smart City Proposal of Raipur includes the smart city solutions which involve the use of technology, information and data to improve infrastructure and services with in the city of Raipur (The Smart Solutions Projects).

Raipur City is to promote Non-Motorized Transport (NMT) withdedicated pedestrianised corridors and enhanced walk ability options.

The NMT mode had been focussed to bring pollution levels further down in the city, officials informed.

The citizens of Raipur foresee themselves living in environmentally clean, socially cohesive, sustainable, using renewable energy sources, utilising scientific water and waste management, employing smart transportation and a safe city with a responsive Smart Governance Framework, the document mentioned

The Chhattisgarh Government will encourage use of public transport by way of allowing more density along the public transport corridors which makes public transport financially sustainable and on the other hand, reduces the usage of personal vehicles in its new capital city, officials here informed.Terming the Mahagathbandhan of the opposition parties as an achievement for BJP, the BJPs national general secretary Saroj Pandey said that the parties with divergent ideologies are coming together with the sole motive to grab power.

Addressing the media persons at the state party office here on Saturday, the Lok Sabha MP said that the BJP government has rolled out as many as 129 social welfare schemes which have helped the poor and the last man on the social ladder. She said that during the past four and half years of its rule, the BJP has embarked on the policy of development and has ensured that politics does not interfere in the realm of development.

The BJP leader termed the Narendra Modi governments decision to provide 10 percent reservation in jobs and educational institutions for the poor among the upper castes as a historical one. She said that the party has not played politics of appeasement but it has given every section of the society its rightful due. Providing constitutional status to OBC Commission is another instance of this no-appeasement policy, she commented.

Taking a dig at the Trinamool Congress ( TMC), Pandey said that its leader Mamta Banerjee has not been allowing the opposition to function in West Bengal. She is adopting every possible measure to gag the voice of the opposition in her state, she added.

Quizzed on the question of Rafale, the BJP leader said that Supreme Court (SC) ruling and the debate in the Parliament on the issue has exposed the Congresss vicious policy on the matter.

Dwelling on the preparation of the party for Lok Sabha elections, Pandey said that the party would soon organise six special programmes all over the country. Such programmes would be held in every Lok Sabha constituency. She said that the party would organise  Trishakti Sammelan, Yuva Sammelan and Bhuddhijivi ( intellectual) Sammelan in the coming days. Similarly, from January 12 to January 25,  Mera Parivar BJP Parivar programmes are being organised.

The BJP leader further informed that from January 26,  Kamal Jyoti Prajjavalan programmes would be held at the residences of the beneficiaries of various schemes rolled out by the government. Pandey added that on March 2, the BJP workers would take out bike rallies in all the Assembly constituencies.Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) leader Shivpal Singh Yadav dismissed the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance as a mismatch, charging that the leaders of both the parties were unreliable as both had betrayed Mulayam Singh Yadav.

You cannot trust people who sell tickets and who used to abuse Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav). She used to call samajwadis goonde (hoodlums). Today they have come together. Can she be trusted? She wont win many seats, the PSPL leader said.

Shivpal Yadav, who has floated Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) after parting ways with the Samajwadi Party, hit out at his nephew and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, alleging that he had ditched not only his father Mulayam Singh Yadav but also the Congress party.

The BSP-SP alliance is a mismatch... their leaders Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav are unreliable as they have betrayed SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav, said Shivpal in Ballia on Saturday.

After forming the government with the SP in 1993, the BSP had betrayed Mulayam Singh Yadav in just 17 months, said Shivpal, while recalling Mayawatis association with the Bharatiya Janata Party in the past.

On Akhilesh Yadav, he said that the SP president not only betrayed his father but also the Congress with which he fought the last assembly polls in UP by going ahead and entering into an alliance with the BSP, leaving the Congress out.

The PSPL leader claimed that backbiters and sycophants have brought the party to a situation where senior leaders are parting ways with it.

He accused SP Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav of damaging the party and blamed him for the SPs defeat in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

Shivpal Yadav also gave an unsolicited advice to his nephew and warned him against trusting the BSP chief.

Shivpal referred to the Lucknow Guest House incident and urged his nephew to be wary of Mayawati, who, he said, had then levelled allegations against SP leaders including him.

Behenji (Mayawati) had levelled allegations of sexual harassment against me. I had said at the time that I am ready for an inquiry; I am ready for a narco test. But I wanted Mayawati to also have a narco test done. She refused, Shivpal Yadav said.Police in Texas were handed a gift from the gods this week as suspects they were chasing suffered a mishap straight out of the movies.

Officers from Dallas arrested a group of people suspected in a series of bank robberies after the bonnet on the car they were using to flee authorities popped up and covered the windscreen, obscuring the road.

Authorities said the suspects were under surveillance by law enforcement officials on Thursday when they attempted to rob a bank north-east of Fort Worth.

One woman was arrested at the bank, while three other suspects fled.

The car was speeding from police on Interstate 30 when the bonnet snapped back.

The car exited and continued for several more miles before the three people inside ran into a field and were apprehended.The Duke of Edinburgh has been told he has no injuries of concern after undergoing a precautionary hospital check-up following his car crash.

Philip visited a local hospital on doctors advice after the collision, which left two people needing hospital treatment and is being investigated by Norfolk Constabulary.

The duke has also made contact with the driver and passenger of the other car, who were injured, and best wishes have been exchanged.

Philip, 97, walked away unhurt from the accident after the Land Rover Freelander he was driving rolled across a busy A-road following a collision with a Kia, close to the Queens Sandringham estate on Thursday.

A Palace spokeswoman said: On doctors advice, the Duke of Edinburgh visited the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kings Lynn this morning for a precautionary check-up.

This confirmed His Royal Highness had no injuries of concern. The duke has returned to Sandringham.

The Duke of Edinburgh has undergone a precautionary check-up after crash (Aaron Chown/PA Wire)

The Palace spokeswoman added: Contact has been made privately with the occupants in the other car and well-wishes exchanged.

A nine-month-old baby boy also survived unhurt in the Kia, police said.

Eyewitness Roy Warne helped the stricken duke out of his car and said the royal, who was left very shocked by the accident, asked if everybody was all right.

Norfolk Police said two women  the 28-year-old Kia driver, who suffered cuts to her knee, and a 45-year-old passenger who broke a wrist  were treated at the local Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kings Lynn that day and discharged.

The crash happened on Thursday afternoon as Philips Freelander pulled out of a side road onto a stretch of the A149 which was earmarked by the local authority for possible safety measures.

At a meeting, coincidentally scheduled for Friday, Norfolk Country Council approved plans to lower the speed limit from 60mph to 50mph, backed by speed cameras.

Norfolk Constabulary said in a statement: As is standard procedure with injury collisions, the incident will be investigated and any appropriate action taken.

We are aware of the public interest in this case, however, as with any other investigation it would be inappropriate to speculate on the causes of the collision until an investigation is carried out.

Theresa May has offered her support to the duke, who retired from public duties in 2017 but remains active, following the accident.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said: The Prime Minister has sent a private message wishing him well.

The police are expected to take statements from the duke, the female driver of the Kia involved in the crash and any other relevant witnesses during their investigation.

Mr Warne, who was one of the first motorists on the scene, told The Sun newspaper he overheard Philip telling police he had been dazzled by the sun.

Mr Warne said he helped the duke get out of his wrecked Freelander through either the sunroof or windscreen after it had rolled all the way over before coming to rest on its side.

Asked if Philip was trapped, Mr Warne said: Yes, he was. I asked him to move his left leg and that freed his right leg and then I helped him get out.

He added: He was obviously shaken, and then he went and asked if everyone else was all right.

Mr Warne said the duke was able to stand and walk immediately after getting out of the car, but he appeared to suggest the senior royal may have been cut, possibly by broken glass.

There was a little bit of blood and one of the royal entourage gave me a wipe to wipe my hands, he said.

Buckingham Palace said that after the accident, the duke saw a doctor as a precaution and the doctor confirmed he was not injured.

Commenting on the circumstances of the crash, Mr Warne added: I think theres no doubt that it was hit (by the dukes car). Thats my recollection.

Speaking about Philips Freelander, he added: I didnt see it come from the side road, I saw it careering and tumbling across the road and ending up on the other side.A Belarusian model who claimed she had evidence of Russian interference in the election of Donald Trump has been arrested on her arrival in Moscow following deportation from Thailand.

Moscow police said that Anastasia Vashukevich was detained in Moscows Sheremetyevo airport on charges of inducement to prostitution along with three people deported alongside her.

Vashukevich, who has been in a Thai prison since February last year, was given a suspended sentence on Tuesday and ordered to be deported after she pleaded guilty to soliciting and conspiracy along with several co-defendants in a case related to holding a sex training seminar in Thailand.

Vashukevich, also known on social media as Nastya Rybka, earlier claimed to have recordings of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska talking about interference in the 2016 US election, but never released them.

Mr Deripaska is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and also had a working relationship with Paul Manafort, Mr Trumps former campaign manager who was investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller and convicted last year of tax and bank fraud.

Russian news agencies said that four of the seven people deported from Thailand who arrived in Moscow on Thursday were detained, including Vashukevich and Alexander Kirillov, her mentor in the sex training business. They may face up to six years in prison if convicted on charges of inducement to prostitution.

In the early stages of their detention in Thailand, the sex training group sent a note to the US Embassy via an intermediary seeking help and political asylum.

Vashukevich indicated she would turn over the recordings she claimed to have if the US could help secure her release but she later withdrew the offer, suggesting that she and Mr Deripaska had reached an agreement.

Belarusian model Anastasia Vashukevich sits in a van leaving the Immigration Detention Centre for the airport in Bangkok (Sakchai Lalit/AP)

A public scandal erupted in early February last year when Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny published an investigation drawing on Vashukevichs social media posts suggesting corrupt links between Mr Deripaska and a top Kremlin official, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko.

The investigative report featured video from Mr Deripaskas yacht in 2016, when Vashukevich, who has also worked as an escort, was aboard.

On Wednesday in Washington, the US Senate narrowly upheld a Treasury Department decision to lift sanctions from three companies connected to Mr Deripaska.

The Treasury Department says the Russian companies have committed to separating from Mr Deripaska, who will remain blacklisted as part of an array of measures announced in early April that targeted tycoons close to the Kremlin.

Mr Deripaska was one of 24 Russian officials and tycoons faced with sanctions imposed by the United States as Washington stepped up its condemnation of Russias actions in recent years, including its 2014 annexation of Crimea, support for Syrian president Bashar Assad, hacking attacks and meddling in Western elections.

The metals tycoon controls a business empire with assets in alumiium, energy and construction and is worth 5.3 billion dollars, according to Forbes magazine.The Prince of Wales raised concerns about the Duke of Edinburghs driving five years ago when his father was still travelling around the capital in his famous black cab.

Charles told the son of a D-Day veteran about his fears when he met the pair in France in June 2014, during commemorations marking the 70th anniversary of the Second World War offensive.

At the time Philip, who is 97, was approaching his 93rd birthday, celebrated on June 10, and would drive around the capital in relative anonymity in a black taxi.

The Queen accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales (Andrew Milligan/PA)

During commemorations in the Normandy town of Bayeux the prince met Ivor Thomas, a former Corporal in the Royal Engineers from Gloucester who landed on Gold Beach on D-Day.

Philip Thomas, the son of the veteran, told Charles his father, who was at the event in a wheelchair, continued to drive and owned a 1985 Ford Sierra.

The prince replied: So does my father. Im always worried, before gesturing towards Mr Thomas, and asking: But his eyesights all right?

The Duke of Edinburgh (Gareth Fuller/PA)

The duke gave up his London black cab, fuelled by liquefied petroleum gas, a few years ago and it is now featured in the Sandringham museum.

The Queens consort still drives himself around Sandringham and Windsor Castle and is known to prefer the Land Rover Freelander 2.

Philip has been driving Land Rovers for decades and is probably drawn to their durability, off-road capabilities and his familiarity with them.President Donald Trump has met a North Korean envoy in the Oval Office to discuss efforts to get the country to give up its nuclear programme.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Mr Trump was meeting Kim Yong Chol to discuss relations between the two countries and continued progress on North Koreas final, fully verified denuclearisation.

The former North Korea former spy chief earlier met Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a Washington hotel.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Kim Yong Chol, a North Korean senior ruling party official (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

Mr Trump has spoken several times of prospects for a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un early this year.

He has also exchanged several letters with Mr Kim despite little tangible progress on a vague denuclearisation agreement reached at their historic first meeting last June in Singapore.

Since then, several private analysts have published reports detailing continuing North Korean development of nuclear and missile technology.

A planned meeting between Mr Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol in New York last November was called off abruptly. US officials said at the time that North Korea had cancelled the session.

The talks have stalled over North Koreas refusal to provide a detailed accounting of its nuclear and missile facilities that would be used by inspectors to verify any deal to dismantle them.

The North has demanded that the US end harsh economic penalties and provide security guarantees before the North takes any steps beyond its initial suspension of nuclear and missile tests.

Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday that the Trump-Kim Jong Un dialogue was promising but that we still await concrete steps by North Korea to dismantle the nuclear weapons that threaten our people and our allies in the region.

Mr Trump has offered assurances that a second summit would allow him and Mr Kim to seal a deal resolving the nuclear stand-off and improving a relationship marked by decades of animosity and mistrust since the Korean War.

Mr Kim expressed frustration in an annual New Years address over the lack of progress in negotiations. But on a visit to Beijing last week, he said North Korea would pursue a second summit to achieve results that will be welcomed by the international community, according to Chinas official Xinhua News Agency.

Mr Kims latest trip to China, his fourth since last year, came as the Norths strongest ally has encouraged negotiations with the US while at the same time arguing in favour of immediate easing of sanctions.

The US and North Korea seemed close to war at points during 2017. The North staged a series of weapons tests that brought it closer to its nuclear goal of one day being able to target anywhere on the US mainland.

The two sides then turned to insulting each other, as Mr Trump called Mr Kim Little Rocket Man and North Korea said Mr Trump was a dotard.

Mr Kim abruptly turned to diplomacy with Seoul and Washington last year, possibly fearing the economic effect of the penalties imposed over the weapons tests.

Still, even after the Singapore summit, the first between US and North Korean leaders, there has been little real progress in nuclear disarmament.

Independent analysts are highly sceptical that North Korea will easily abandon a nuclear arsenal constructed in the face of deep poverty and probably seen by Mr Kim as his only guarantee of his governments survival.Three men who ran a dark web business which sold potentially deadly drugs around the world were told their actions had brought misery as they were jailed.

Lee Childs, 45, Jake Levene, 23, and Mandy Lowther, 22, were told by a Leeds Crown Court judge that they had run a sophisticated operation involving the mass distribution of dangerous substances.

Operating under the name UKBargins, the trio sold fentanyl, a drug which is prescribed for severe pain relief and is said by the National Crime Agency (NCA) to be around 50 times stronger than heroin, as well as its analogue, carfentanyl, which is described as being considerably stronger.

Jake Levene, Lee Childs and Mandy Lowther (National Crime Agency/PA)

The court heard how the business, which generated 163,474 in five months, sold to customers as far away as Australia, Canada, Argentina and Singapore, operating from an industrial unit in Peel Street, Morley, Leeds, where they mixed the drugs with bulking agents and packaged them.

Prosecutors said that over 2,800 packages were sent by the trio, and at least 635 grams of pure carfentanyl, which is described by some experts as being between 3,000 and 5,000 times stronger than heroin, was found at the premises following their arrests.

An exact measurement of the quantity could not be provided as forensic scientists deemed the drug, which is used to put large animals like polar bears to sleep, to be too dangerous to handle.

A raid on the premises by officers following the defendants arrests in April 2017 is believed to be the largest single seizure of the two drugs in Europe.

The unit where Levene, Childs and Lowther mixed their drugs (NCA/PA)

The chemicals that the trio were involved with were so strong that in February 2017 Lowther was admitted to Leeds Accident and Emergency in a coma, caused by a hypoxic brain injury linked to exposure to the two synthetic opioids.

The men had all previously admitted two counts of supplying and two counts of exporting Class A drugs between December 1 2016 and April 30 2017.

On Friday, Levene, of Turner Close, Wakefield, and Lowther, of Cottingley Springs, Morley, Leeds, were jailed for 16-and-a-half years each, and Childs, of Bedale Court, Morley, Leeds, was handed a 10-and-a-half-year jail term.

Delivering the sentences, Judge Mushtaq Khokhar told them: This was a sophisticated operation. Small, I accept, but nevertheless sophisticated because one only has to look at what officers found when they raided the unit.

The judge called it a `sophisticated operation (NCA/PA)

Drugs cause misery, not only on those who have an affliction to them, but to those close to them.

Paul Mitchell, prosecuting, said the trio were aware of the potentially fatal nature of the drugs they were selling, and their website ran the disclaimer: I will not give any information about fentanyl or its analogues as the customer should already have (researched) these chemicals before even contemplating using them as they are extremely dangerous & lethal in the wrong hands.

According to the NCA, six people from their 443-strong customer list died from fentanyl-related injuries, although it could not be proved that the final, lethal doses were supplied by Levene, Childs and Lowther.

Charlton Livick (Kathy Livick/PA)

One of those customers was Charlton Livick, known by his family as Charlie, who died in March 2017 at the age of 33 after taking carfentanyl.

It has never been proved that the lethal dose was supplied by the gang, but his mother Kathy Livick, 62, told how she will live with the pain of his death until I meet my end.

Prior to the sentencing, she said: All I want is my son back, and I cant have that, but its good to see some justice done.

Kathy Livick (Henry Clare/PA)

The court head how Levene, described by Michael Gomulka, his defence, as being a former aero-engineering student who enjoyed the challenge of setting up the business, was spearheading the operation.

Mr Mitchell explained how Childs had been employed by the other two, and claimed to be a cleaner when he and his colleagues were arrested on April 24 2017.

Alessandro Di Francesco, defending Lowther, explained how the defendant was a young man without the mentality required to prevent him from falling into this activity.

Following the sentencing, Greg McKenna, regional head of investigations for the NCA, revealed that the gang was first identified in early 2017 following a spike in drug-related deaths in Yorkshire.

He said he could not overemphasise how dangerous carfentanyl is, saying: Carfentanyl in very, very small doses is lethal.

NCA senior investigating officer Graham Roberts added: Childs, Lowther and Levene knew these drugs were life-threatening yet they continued to sell them for their own financial gain.

The lengthy jail terms handed down to them today are a reflection on their dangerous and careless actions.Callum McGregor is looking to continue his fine record in the William Hill Scottish Cup when Celtic host Airdrie on Saturday evening.

The 25-year-old Hoops midfielder has never lost a tie in 90 minutes  albeit he was part of the Parkhead side which was beaten by Rangers in the semi-final on penalties in 2016  and is targeting his third successive winners medal.

The Scotland international, who scored in each of the last two semi-final wins over Old Firm rivals Rangers and notched the opening goal in the 2-0 victory over Motherwell in last seasons final at Hampden Park, hopes to help Celtic take the next step towards the domestic treble-treble.

It is always good when you are successful and you try to keep the run going as long as you can, McGregor said.

It is a competition we have done well in, in recent years, so we want to start well on Saturday and see how far we can go in terms of the trophy as well.

We know how difficult it is to win these trophies and continually putting in good performances.

Callum McGregor looking to continue Scottish Cup success with Celtic (Jane Barlow/PA)

We know it will be tough but our aim is to go as far as we can.

Brendan Rodgers side are overwhelming favourites against the Ladbrokes League One outfit but Hoops academy graduate McGregor stressed that there will be no sense of complacency at Parkhead.

You are never too big for anybody to come and beat you. You always have to guard against it, he added.

You have to prepare properly, work hard on the day and want it more than your opponent, and also play well.

You have to approach it professionally and look to get through to the next round.

We have done our stuff this morning tactically and in terms of what they can bring to the table, we prepare the same as any other game.

We have been fortunate that in the big games and cup games we have brought our A-game in terms of getting through so it is the same idea on Saturday.

Celtic skipper Scott Brown has been linked with a move to newly-formed Western Melbourne in Australia and some quotes from interim chief executive Maurice Bisetto in the Sydney Morning Herald suggested that deal was getting closer.

And McGregor admitted the loss of the 33-year-old midfielder would be a significant blow to the Parkhead club.

We think Scott Brown has a lot of positives and could make a significant contribution to a new clubas a leader (on and off field), he said.

He has been a massive part of this club for 11 years and if you ask any player in there in terms of the character and how good a player he is, he would be a massive loss for Celtic.

I think we would be doing everything we can to keep him.

He is such a big character on and off the field. He helps everyone, older lads, and younger lads coming through.

He is that figurehead for the boys in the changing room. Ask any player, they definitely want him to stay.The Welsh Government is preventing investment into the military in Wales by snubbing talks with Westminster, the UKs Defence Secretary has claimed.

Gavin Williamson said the UK Government wanted to develop new barracks at MOD St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan, but accused ministers in Wales of resisting talks.

Mr Williamson was speaking at St Athan on Friday where he met with representatives of the Welsh-based RAF and army along with Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns to discuss the future of the base.

Speaking of his proposal for new barracks at the site, he said: We want to see more service personnel based here in Wales and were looking at how we can explore options.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson (left) and Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns during a visit to MOD St Athan in Wales (Ben Birchall/PA)

Sadly all the options we keep putting forward to see more army personnel based here  bringing wealth, bringing prosperity, and bringing opportunity  is something the Welsh Government are resisting and not properly engaging with us about.

Weve put forward a set of proposals about having a new barracks here on this site making sure that in future more service personnel can be based here.

This will have an enormous impact on the local economy, guaranteeing jobs, guaranteeing prosperity, but sadly at the moment the Welsh Government is refusing to look at the options that we really need them to look at to make that investment happen.

A spokesman for the Welsh Government said it welcomed investment into the military in Wales, but pointed out a 14bn defence training academy at St Athan which promised to create 2,000 jobs was scrapped back in 2010 after the UK Government announced cuts in its defence budget.

The spokesman said: Our interests in St Athan result from the Defence Training Academy, a legacy defence project which was costly for Wales and which the MOD subsequently cancelled before completion.

We have promoted the area as a business park, the result of which brought Aston Martin to Wales on the understanding we would maintain our commitment to developing it.

We welcome the UK Governments investment into the military in Wales. We have hundreds of acres available to the MOD, including around 50 acres within and adjacent to West Camp, which would accommodate the new influx of personnel while not compromising the business park.

We look forward to working closely with the UK Government and the MoD to find a mutually beneficial solution.Bereaved families will not give up their long fight for justice, a campaigner against security force abuses, who turned 80 on Friday, said.

The site of the former Andersonstown police station will be named Groves Reilly Corner on Saturday, after Clara Reilly and her late friend, plastic bullet victim Emma Groves, in celebration.

Relatives for Justice chairwoman Ms Reilly established the first monitoring organisation of alleged human rights infringements by the security forces during the earliest days of the Northern Ireland conflict.

She said: Anybody deserves justice if they lost a loved one and they have not gotten the truth and answers  that is all they want.

People are not afraid to go up front and fight for justice.

Ms Groves was blinded by a security force plastic bullet in 1971.

She and Ms Reilly founded the United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets.

Andersonstown was where one victim, John Downes, was killed by the RUC with a plastic bullet in 1984.

Ms Reilly said she was honoured by Saturdays ceremony.

They said no matter where you go in West Belfast it is royal this and royal that, they wanted to bring the names back to the ordinary people.

The married mother of six lived in Turf Lodge in West Belfast in 1969 and was the only person with a phone.

The red phone, they called it the hotline.

At that time there were a lot of arrests and complaints of ill-treatment, in Castlereagh and different holding centres, and we felt that there was a need for a human rights organisation monitoring all this.

They formed the Association for Legal Justice in 1971, in the early days of the Troubles.

From that day on my house was like an advice centre.

People were coming to say that their father, their son, their daughter had been arrested and were not getting any information from the police.

She drew up a list of lawyers, including the murdered Pat Finucane, who could find out what had happened to them.

He was a solicitor in a million, he went a step further in challenging things in the courts.

That is why he was selected to be murdered.

She said Emma Groves was standing in her own living room when a soldier fired a rubber bullet through the window and she was blinded.

Ms Groves went on to lead the campaign against their use.

Ms Reilly concluded: I was doing this since 1969 and I would do every minute of it again.

It is our history and what the nationalist people suffered, and I was not prepared to take it lying down.

I thought you had to speak out no matter what.Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino says Harry Kanes injury absence does not put pressure on his side to sign a striker in the January transfer window.

Kane has been ruled out until early March after suffering ankle ligament damage in Sundays loss to Manchester United.

And with Son Heung-Min away on international duty at the Asian Cup and Lucas Moura still struggling with a knee injury it leaves Spurs short up top.

They have been linked with a whole host of names, including free agent Giuseppe Rossi, but Pochettino says his transfer plans this month are not affected by Kanes injury ahead of Sundays Premier League visit to Fulham.

I think its not going to change our mind about the view of the squad, he said. Always were open to improving our squad, to adding players that can improve us.

But I think thats not going to put pressure on us to sign some players. We know very well the market now is so difficult, and the circumstance that we have.

Of course, like always I tell you, if we identify the player that is going to help us and can add qualities that we dont have in the squad, were more than open to trying [to make] that happen.

But at the moment I think theres not too many possibilities to add this type of player that can improve us.

Asked Giuseppe Rossi about his next move & fitness levels as he continues to train with former club Manchester United. Tottenham are reportedly interested in the free agent ( @VJRichMcCarthy) pic.twitter.com/8EqtV0LXOZ  Simon Peach (@SimonPeach) January 17, 2019

Rossi, 31, is a free agent and has been training with Manchester United to keep fit following his release by Genoa in the summer, but Pochettino said he will not be coming to north London.

I think theres many names that appear in every transfer window. Hes another name to add on the list but its only a rumour, he revealed.

We are not considering him. Its a rumour like another but if you ask me, I think no, its not a possibility.

Kane, who has suffered a similar sort of injury in each of the last two seasons before this one, has a history of returning quicker than predicted and has vowed to get back as soon as possible.

Lucas Moura, right, is also injured for Spurs (Adam Davy/PA)

I think hes very positive, Pochettino added. Of course we are going to see, the time to recover and have the full recovery.

But always its an easy thing with Harry because hes a very positive person that in the moment he got injured started to think about his recovery as soon as possible.

But of course its going to be an important player out for a time.

Hes one of the best strikers or players in Europe or the world and always its going to affect the performance, but we think and we are in the same way, positive, that we can cope with the situation.

We have enough players to cover that place and of course its not going to change our approach in the different games were going to play without him.

Another player who will not be featuring at Craven Cottage on Sunday is midfielder Mousa Dembele, who left to join Chinese Super League club Guangzhou R&F on Thursday.

The 31-year-old joined Spurs from Fulham in 2012 and made 250 appearances, but had not played since November 3 due to an ankle injury.

Pochettino paid tribute to the Belgians time at the club.

I think he is a player and a person that we are going to miss, he said. You know very well my feeling about him, he was one of the greatest players that I met in my career.

Of course I wish him all the best, his wish was to move to China, his dream became a reality now. It was a pleasure to share with him an unbelievable time here in Tottenham.

Moussa Sissoko has been ruled out for two weeks with a groin injury also picked up against United last weekend.

Fellow midfielder Eric Dier has returned to training after having his appendix removed but will not start in west London.Dramatic video of police shooting a suspect who swigged whisky, crossed himself and raised his weapon at armed officers has been released after he was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order.

Samuel Houlihan, 25, was described in court as remarkably lucky to suffer only a flesh wound when he was shot at close range by an officer armed with a pistol.

Had a fellow officer next to him fired his carbine rifle instead, he was unlikely to have survived the shooting in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, in May, Durham Crown Court heard.

Houlihan, who has since been diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia or episodic psychosis, was hit in the shoulder when the round deflected off the widow of the taxi in which he was sitting.

Screengrab taken from police bodycam footage of Sam Houlihan in the taxi (Durham Police/PA)

He spat at officers as they tried to give him first aid immediately after he was shot.

Paul Gardner, the taxi driver who had to flee his minibus when it was surrounded by police was left traumatised by the incident, and died in a motorbike accident last Tuesday, the court heard.

Houlihan was sentenced by Judge Christopher Prince after he admitted possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and possessing a firearm when prohibited.

On the morning he was shot, Houlihan had bought a Sig Sauer air pistol after lying to the shop assistant that he was not banned from owning a firearm, and was warned to keep it out of sight or he could be caught in a police firearms incident.

Taxi driver Paul Gardner, who managed to flee (Northumbria Police/PA)

Houlihan was seen by people in town centre shops and a local working mens club to be carrying the weapon, although he made no threats to anyone.

As Mr Gardner, 49, was driving him home armed police, who had been alerted by people in Bishop Auckland, surrounded the vehicle when it stopped at temporary traffic lights.

The terrified taxi driver complied with the commands to put his hands on his head but Houlihan refused, opened his bottle of whisky and picked up his air gun.

(Durham Police/PA)

Mr Gardner heard a click as Houlihan appeared to cock the gun  although he had not bought any ammunition  and the cabbie fled to safety.

Officers had seen the driver was petrified, the court heard, but his passenger remained calm despite the number of armed police pointing their weapons at him.

Richard Bennett, prosecuting, said: He then picked up his whisky bottle and promptly drank three-quarters of it in front of the officers.

The officers were concerned he was drinking in order to prepare himself for doing something serious or life-threatening.

He was shot with a pistol round after he was seen to pull the cocking lever on his air gun and cross himself before appearing to raise the weapon towards the officers.

Mr Bennett said: He was remarkably lucky, it was a flesh wound.

Before the shooting Houlihans relationship had broken down and he had voluntarily admitted himself to a local hospital because he was mentally unstable.

But two days before the incident, he was released from the hospital despite a family member telling nurses he remained unwell.

The judge heard a victim statement from Mr Gardner saying he was left unable to pick up strangers in his cab, suffered from flashbacks, required medication for anxiety and was displaying signs of suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

There were also statements from armed officers, named C2 and C4, who expressed their disgust at being spat at when they tried to save his life.

C2, who fired the shot which hit Houlihan, said: At the time I was genuinely in fear for my own safety and that of my colleagues.

C4, who was beside him, said officers had not had time to don protective equipment and added: I believed he was going to shoot at us, we didnt have any time to take any form of cover.

Judge Prince praised the police for their response, saying: They did not shirk from their unenviable duty, to both risk taking and saving a mans life.

They were calm, they were composed, despite having to overcome that personal fear that a firearms officer would fear as much as anyone else.

Houlihan appeared via a videolink to a secure hospital and was said by Rod Hunt, defending, to be a model patient who wants to get well.

The defendant has a previous conviction for dressing up as a PCSO and had sparked a previous armed response incident in his street when he brandished a BB gun.Experts have been piecing together Dippy the dinosaur before he goes on public display on the only Scottish stop of his UK tour.

The Natural History Museum Londons 21.3-metre diplodocus skeleton arrived at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow earlier this month after sailing across the Irish Sea.

Specialists are now unpacking the 292-bone structure and undertaking the giant jigsaw of putting the dinosaur back together.

The Natural History Museums head of conservation Lorraine Cornish cleans Dippys skull (Jane Barlow/PA)

Lorraine Cornish, the Natural History Museums head of conservation, said: As Dippy on Tour approaches the halfway point, having proved a huge success at the first three destinations, it seems very fitting that the next stop is a homecoming of sorts.

The Scottish leg of the tour, where the creation of the NHM Dippy cast was first discussed, is the perfect destination to reflect on the many people Dippy has so far inspired to explore their own natural world.

We hope the visitors to Dippy in Glasgow will be equally enthralled by this Jurassic ambassador.

Before arriving in Glasgow, Dippy was on display in Belfast and travelled to Scotland by ferry in 16 bespoke crates.

Dippy will be on display at the Kelvingrove from January 22 until May 6.

Before then, visitors can watch him being put together from the balcony around the main hall.

The dinosaur is being pieced together by a team of experts (Jane Barlow/PA)

Before the tour, the dinosaur had never been on public display outside of London.

David McDonald, chair of Glasgow Life, said: Dippy is here. The excitement is palpable. Like thousands of other visitors Im relishing the unique opportunity to see this impressive creature take shape before my eyes.

Its a pleasure to watch the skilled team from Natural History Museum bring Dippy to life in Glasgow. We look forward to welcoming his many adoring fans to Kelvingrove Museum over the coming months.

Once he leaves Glasgow, Dippy will visit Newcastle, Cardiff, Rochdale and Norwich on the tour which finishes in October next year.More needs to be done to tackle the problem of homelessness in Belfast after the death of a rough sleeper in the city centre, a charity has said.

The man, believed to be aged in his mid-30s, was found dead in a shop front on High Street by workers from the Welcome Organisation on Friday morning.

Police are investigating the circumstances of the death, which happened during a cold night in the city.

Distraught friends of the man gathered at the police cordon on Friday as forensic officers examined the tented scene on what is a busy shopping street.

Sandra Moore, CEO of homeless charity the Welcome Organisation, near the scene of the death of a rough sleeper in Belfast. (David Young/PA)

Sandra Moore, chief executive of the Welcome Organisation, said the workers who found the man were very upset.

Working in this field is challenging at the best of times, but when you have to deal with a situation like this, its so tragic, she said.

The workers are shaken. The last thing they expected when they tried to rouse this young man was that he passed over.

They had known this person, which makes it that bit more traumatic and personal.

Ms Moore said about 80 individuals were known to be rough sleepers in Belfast, with about 25 on the streets at any one time. She said the majority were single young men.

There is still something not right, this is one of the best cities in terms of homeless services, and being a small city, services work well together, but we obviously still havent got it right, she said.

In terms of the wider issues, Ms Moore said there was a need for better resourced and more responsive drug and alcohol rehabilitation services, as well as greater efforts to address accommodation shortages.

North Belfast MLA Caral Ni Chuilin said: No-one should ever have to sleep on the street, particularly in the cold weather.

But sadly, over recent years, we have seen rising levels of homelessness around the city centre and across the north.

Homeless charities have been doing great work but it is important that the Housing Executive and statutory bodies continue providing support to people sleeping on the street.

My thoughts are with this mans family and friends at this difficult time.

Alliance Party MLA Paula Bradshaw also expressed her sympathy.

This is a tragedy and my thoughts go out to this mans friends and family, the South Belfast representative said.

While many organisations and agencies are doing good work on the issue of homelessness, this fundamentally represents a failure to tackle its root causes.

We need to see more investment in support mechanisms, with resources put into mental health, addiction services, family reunification and other practical support. However, unfortunately that is all too late for this poor man.

PSNI Detective Inspector Kerry Brennan said: Police attended a report of a sudden death of a man at the High Street area of Belfast this morning.

A post-mortem is due to be carried out to establish the cause of death.A leading psychiatrist has been appointed to oversee an independent review of the mental health support services available to young people behind bars.

Consultant forensic child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr Helen Smith will oversee work examining the care of young people who are detained at Polmont Prison and Young Offenders Institution.

The parents of a 21-year-old woman who took her own life at Polmont welcomed the move as an important first step.

But Linda and Stuart Allan insisted they also want to see longer term plans for the inspection of prisons across Scotland.

Our statement issued on behalf of the family of Katie Allan- on announcement by Justice Minister @HumzaYousaf of independent expert review of mental health support of young people in prison, following suicides of #KatieAllan #WillliamLindsay https://t.co/kMvgMfxmLW  Aamer Anwar#BlackLivesMatter (@AamerAnwar) January 18, 2019

The Scottish Government ordered a review of mental health services for young people in custody following the death of Katie Allan and 16-year-old William Lindsay, who took his own life at Polmont 48 hours after being sent there on remand.

Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf announced this will look into a range of matters, including the background information given to prison service staff ahead of a young person being admitted to custody.

It will also consider the reception procedures when someone arrives at Polmont, and the ongoing support and supervision available there.

Mr Yousaf said: This review will focus specifically on young people in custody and will draw directly on the views and lived experiences of staff, young people and their families at Polmont.

It will require a wide-ranging approach with a specific understanding of the particular difficulties faced by young people, so I am pleased that Dr Smith, with her considerable experience and knowledge, has been appointed to provide expert counsel.

He stressed that any death by suicide is tragic and the impact on family and friends is unimaginable for most of us.

While there are other Government initiatives working to cut suicide rates and improve mental health, Mr Yousaf said it is imperative that we take a focused approach to addressing concerns that have been raised about support for young people in custody.

The Justice Secretary met Ms Allans parents in November, five months after she died while serving a sentence at Polmont.

Lawyer Aamer Anwar, who is acting for the parents of Ms Allan and Mr Lindsays mother, said: There was nothing inevitable about William and Katie taking their own lives, it was clear to anybody that cared to look that they were vulnerable and at risk of taking their own lives.

Today is an important step forward in ensuring a legacy of Katie Allan, William Lindsay, and all those whose cries for help went unheard.

Lawyer Aamer Anwar (centre) with Katie Allans parents. (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Katies parents welcome todays wide-ranging review of mental health provision for young people in prison custody, as a response to our meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for Justice on November 13 last year.

At that meeting over 15 points of action for Scottish prisons were presented to him and several of those have been taken on board.

But the family also want to hear about longer term plans on inspection of prisons across Scotland.

Mr Anwar added the Allans believe radical change is necessary to stop young people like Katie and William Lindsay taking their own lives.

Dr Smith, the clinical lead for West of Scotland Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services who is also an honorary senior clinical lecturer at the University of Glasgow, said she is looking forward to working with both Polmont and the local health board NHS Forth Valley to examine the support given to vulnerable young people at a very difficult time in their lives.A trio of exceptionally callous and deceitful killers have been jailed for life after murdering five people in a bomb-like shop blast.

Aram Kurd, Hawkar Hassan and Arkan Ali destroyed a Polish supermarket on Hinckley Road in Leicester in a 300,000 insurance scam.

They plotted to douse the basement of the building in many, many litres of petrol in an arson attack on Kurds supermarket in Leicester  destroying the shop and the flat above.

(left to right) Hawkar Hassan, Arkan Ali and Aram Kurd have all been jailed for life at Leicester Crown Court (Leicestershire Police/PA)

Shop worker Viktorija Ijevleva, 22, was left to die in the explosion by the men because she knew too much about the insurance policy, taken out less than three weeks earlier.

Ms Ijevleva, Mary Ragoobeer, 46, her teenage sons Shane and Sean, and 18-year-old Leah Beth Reek, who was Shanes girlfriend, were all killed in the blast on Sunday February 25 last year.

Ali, 38, Hassan, 33, and Kurd, 34, were unanimously convicted of five counts of murder and a further charge of conspiring with Ms Ijevleva to make a gain, by dishonestly pursuing an insurance claim in respect of the fire.

Ali, of Drake Close, Oldham, and Kurd, of Hillary Place, Leicester, were both jailed for a minimum of 38 years, and Hassan, of Eld Road, Coventry, was handed a 33-year sentence.

Brothers Sean Rajoobeer, 17 (left) and Shane Rajoobeer, 18, and their mother Mary (Leicestershire Police/PA)

The judge described Ali and Kurd as the ones centrally involved in the planning  calling their behaviour highly manipulative and cunning.

Passing sentence at Leicester Crown Court on Friday, Mr Justice Holgate said: None of the defendants has shown the slightest bit of remorse for their wicked crimes. They were exceptionally callous and deceitful.

I agree with the prosecution that it is plain beyond doubt that Kurd and Ali were both centrally involved in the planning of these crimes.

It is plain from the way they both behaved in court and outside that they are highly manipulative and cunning individuals.

Leah Beth Reek, 18, was one of the five victims of the explosion (Leicestershire Police/PA)

The judge added: The arson attack on this terraced building was exceptionally dangerous and put the lives of neighbours and other members of the public at a high level of risk.

The defendants caused an exceptionally high level of harm.

The three defendants were flanked by eight dock officers throughout the hearing, which they all followed through a Kurdish interpreter.

Shopkeeper Kurd wept throughout as victim impact statements were read out and his mitigation was put forward.

The families of the victims were also emotional as the killers were jailed.

Ali smirked as he left the court, while weeping Kurd and Hassan, who had showed no emotion throughout, looked at the floor.

Viktorija Ljevleva, 22, was left to die by the three men because she knew too much about the insurance scam plot (Leicestershire Police/PA)

Before the defendants were sent down, the statements of the victims families were read to a packed courtroom by prosecutor David Herbert QC and Joanne Reek, Leahs mother.

A statement read on behalf of Jose Ragoobeer by Mr Herbert said: The events of that day have changed our lives forever.

All of our hopes and dreams for the future have been completely shattered.

Mrs Reek, who went into the witness box to read her statement, said: Seeing the men on trial, showing no remorse for our and the Ragoobeers loss, truly broke our hearts and disgusted us, showing that they have no value of human life.

Leah would have made a difference in this world. She was a positive, kind, beautiful human being who was cruelly taken for no reason other than greed.A one-armed explosives expert belonging to Colombias last remaining rebel group has been blamed for a car bombing against a police academy that left 21 people dead.

Defence Minister Guillermo Botero said the man who carried out Thursdays attack, Jose Aldemar Rojas, was a member of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and known by his alias Mocho Kiko.

Even though Rojas had no criminal record, intelligence reports and testimony in legal cases indicate Rojas lost his arm making explosives during a long career in the ELN rebel cell near the border with Venezuela, Chief Prosecutor Nestor Martinez said.

Overnight, the death toll from the Thursday morning bombing more than doubled to 21, making it the deadliest attack in Colombia in over a decade.

It proved especially unsettling because the target, the General Santander school, is one of the most protected installations in the capital and indications it may have been the result of a suicide bombing  something unprecedented in decades of political violence in the South American nation.

President Ivan Duque, visiting the academy in the aftermath, was careful not to attribute blame to any armed group even while condemning what he called a miserable terrorist act that recalled some of the bloodiest chapters of Colombias recent past.

The terrorists are looking to intimidate us as a society and attack the state, Mr Duque said in a televised address in which he declared three days of mourning. Colombia will demonstrate that it is a strong state, united and wont break in the face of the dementia of these aggressions.

Family members of victims of a bombing gather outside the entrance to the General Santander police academy (John Wilson Vizcaino/AP)

Among those killed was a top-of-class female cadet from Ecuador, while two visiting students from Panama were among those injured

With the help of security cameras, authorities identified the bomber as 56-year-old Rojas, who also died in the attack.

Mr Martinez said Rojas drove a 1993 Nissan pick-up loaded with 80 kilograms of explosives past a security checkpoint and on to the schools leafy campus, where a start-of-the-year ceremony had just finished.

There were reports that when bomb-sniffing dogs detected the explosives the driver got nervous and floored the vehicle past the barrier and on to the campus, where it exploded moments later in front of a red tile-roofed dormitory for female cadets.

Little is known about Rojas. Records show he bought the car last year and had it inspected six months ago in the eastern city of Arauca, near the border with Venezuela.

The same volatile area is a stronghold of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, the countrys last remaining rebel group following a 2016 accord between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) that saw some 7,000 rebels disarm.

Investigators are reportedly looking into Rojas possible ties with the rebel group after reports that he was an explosives expert for an ELN cell who went by the alias Mocho Kiko.

The ELN has been stepping up its attacks on police targets and oil infrastructure amid a stand-off with the conservative Duque government over stalled peace talks.

A year ago, the group claimed responsibility for the bombing of a police station in the coastal city of Barranquilla that left five officers dead.

But until now the Cuban-inspired group, which is believed to have around 2,000 guerrilla fighters, has never been capable or much interested in carrying out such a high-profile act of violence.

Thursdays attack was the deadliest since a 2003 car bombing against the elite Bogota social club El Nogal that left 36 dead, an incident that hardened Colombians resolve against the Farc.

Mr Duque has demanded the ELN cease all attacks and kidnappings as a condition for restarting the talks and has condemned Venezuela and Cuba for allegedly providing a safe haven for rebel leaders even as their troops continue to sow violence in Colombia.The wilful neglect of Lauren Wade by her mother Margaret Wade and partner Marie Sweeney has been described as one of the most challenging cases in the last 50 years of Scottish child protection.

The two-year-olds death became the subject of a significant case review by the Glasgow Child Protection Committee, with the findings made public after Wade and Sweeney were jailed.

What happened to Lauren?

Lauren was found unresponsive on the couch of her home in Sighthill, Glasgow, and an ambulance was called. She died half-an-hour later and a post-mortem examination indicated she was emaciated and infested with head lice.

Wade and Sweeney, from Townhead, were each sentenced to six years and four months in prison at the High Court in Glasgow on Friday.

How did Wade and Sweeney get away with it for so long?

Colin Anderson, independent chair of the committee, explained: After around 50 years in the business, this is the most challenging case Ive come across.

This is a unique set of circumstances, thankfully. Its the most deviant and devious parenting couple Ive ever encountered. The way they criminally neglected this child, wilfully, and the way they then masked that from not only professionals but from extended family.

Not only was there disguised compliance  they appeared to show some improvement on the back of a checked-visit  but then they reverted to wilfully neglected Lauren to the extent of causing her death.

Hostile parents are easier to work with than those who disguise their compliance.

Margaret Wade and Marie Sweeney have been jailed for neglect which led to their daughters death (Police Scotland/PA)

What other questions does the review not answer?

Among the unanswered questions is why the extended family did not intervene or recognise the state of living conditions at the home.

It also remains unknown why Wade said she was a single parent and did not reveal her 14-year relationship with Sweeney. Nor is it clear how much day-to-day involvement Sweeney had.

Wade administered a head lice treatment to two other children involved in the case, but not at all to herself or to Lauren. It remains unclear why this was the case.

Mr Anderson commended the panel in including an unanswered questions section of the report (Glasgow City Council/PA)

How did the review address these remaining concerns?

Mr Anderson commended the panel for including an unanswered questions section in the review, saying: To be fair to the panel there were constraints  this is not unusual within Scotland.

In this case we could not interview extended family members, we could not interview key people as we would do in a normal review. We were constrained by the fact they would then be involved as witnesses in criminal proceedings, which is a challenge in itself.

Some of these unanswered questions from three-plus years ago would have been answered were we empowered to do a deeper dive into some of the surrounding circumstances.

The Child Protection Committee totally accepts the conclusions, key issues and learnings identified.

As a collective profession we need to get back to putting the child at the centre, making child protection everyones business. We need to develop professional curiosity and professional nosiness, if you like, and workers need to own responsibility for concerns and not pass it off.A man who died following a five-vehicle crash has been named by police.

Robert Bowmer, from the village of Alves in Moray, had been airlifted to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary after the collision at around 5pm on Thursday.

The 61-year-old was driving a red Ford C-Max when the crash occurred on the A96 Forres to Elgin Road, near Forres Enterprise Park.

Three other males taken to Dr Grays Hospital in Elgin for treatment have since been discharged.

Sergeant Scott Deans said: Our thoughts at this difficult time remain with those involved.

Our investigations continue and in order to help piece together exactly what happened, I would urge anyone who may have seen the red Ford C-Max prior to the collision, or who saw the incident itself and who hasnt yet come forward, to contact police on 101.Lauren Wade should have been setting off for another day of school on Friday morning, but instead her parents Margaret Wade and Marie Sweeney were being jailed for neglect which led to her death.

On March 20, 2015, the two-year-old was found unresponsive on the couch of the family home in Sighthill, Glasgow. An ambulance was called and her mother administered CPR on the advice of paramedics.

Thirty minutes later, after being taken to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Yorkhill, Lauren was pronounced dead at 8.07am.

According to Glasgow Child Protection Committees significant case review, a post-mortem examination a few days later showed Lauren had been filthy with severe head lice infestation and extremely thin.

A further double-doctor post-mortem examination carried out on April 2 revealed Lauren was 80% of the expected weight for her age  with her ribs, shoulders and backbone very visible through her skin.

Her hair was reported as heavy and matted, appearing unbrushed for a substantial period, with multiple ulcers and crusted scabs over her body. The pathologist estimated an infestation period of head lice of at least six months  possibly up to 17 months or longer.

Margaret Wade and Marie Sweeney have been jailed for neglect which led to their daughters death (Police Scotland/PA)

The home in which the toddler lived with the women was described as uninhabitable by the investigating police officer.

Head lice were apparent even from the outside door frame  and the couch on which Lauren lay was so ridden with head lice it had a large hole in it and had disintegrated.

Rubbish bags with food and waste dating from 2013 were found in the kitchen, which was difficult to gain entry to because of the volume of bags, the review said.

Both adults and two older children involved in the case were also found to have extensive head lice, which were so visible officers could see them.

The police office and vehicle in which the women had been transported had to be treated by pest control firm Rentokil, while the ambulance and paramedics uniforms had to be cleaned.

Police referred the case to the Child Protection Committee and the review was undertaken.

Due to the criminal proceedings against Wade and Sweeney  who was employed as a cleaner  family members were not interviewed and the details have only now emerged after their sentencing.

The family was not known to police until Laurens death in March 2015, and the 14-year relationship between her mother, 38, and partner Sweeney, 36, only emerged at that point as it had previously been perceived Wade was a single parent. The reasons for this fact being hidden remain unclear.

Initial health visits recorded Lauren as appearing well, gaining weight and meeting expected targets.

In November 2012, a month after she was born, a health visitor conducted a series of home visits and noted an improvement in conditions over the period.

Various other health visits followed but some were not recorded, or cancelled by Wade.

After July 4 2014, Lauren was not seen by a health visitor and there is no evidence suggesting anyone outside the family saw her between July 9 and when she died on March 20, 2015.

When Lauren was five months old in March 2013, the health plan indicator was recorded as core  meaning she was not at risk and the next planned review of conditions was due in April 2015 when she was aged 30 months.

Lauren died aged 29 months.

Colin Anderson, independent chair of Glasgow Child Protection Committee, called it one of the most challenging cases he had seen in his 50 years in social care.

He said: This is a unique set of circumstances, thankfully. Its the most deviant and devious parenting couple Ive ever encountered.

This heart-breaking case involved a number of different agencies and lessons have already been learned and applied through various dissemination and training activities.

Measures have been, and will continue to be, put in place to improve information sharing between agencies and to ensure concerns about a child or children are identified and jointly acted upon at an early stage.

Child protection is a matter for everyone  whether it is lead professionals, extended family members, neighbours or the wider community.The UKs most senior judge has highlighted a storyline in The Archers when reviewing the development of the law relating to womens rights during a lecture.

Lady Hale, president of the Supreme Court, twice mentioned the BBC Radio 4 soap operas 2016 account of domestic violence involving fictional couple Rob Titchener and Helen Archer when delivering a lecture to lawyers called Celebrating Womens Rights.

She outlined a number of issues when discussing the development of the law over the past three decades in a talk at the Birmingham Law Society.

Lady Hale, the most senior woman judge in British history, referred to the storyline when explaining how the law had historically failed to recognise that domestic abuse might cover controlling behaviour other than physical violence and the phenomenon of women being so oppressed by their abuser that they felt unable to escape.

Women are afraid of many more subtle forms of behaviour  the forms of behaviour which listeners to The Archers heard over many months in 2016  cutting off contact with friends and family, constant belittling, destroying confidence, depriving of money and employment outside the home, rendering powerless, she said.

The Archers wins Outstanding Contribution Award for the Rob and Helen storyline and we are thrilled #thearchers https://t.co/6stoH8fx8K pic.twitter.com/yll8BX2Y3A  The Archers (@BBCTheArchers) February 4, 2017

Mention of The Archers of course leads to the other problem which was just beginning to be recognised in 1984  the phenomenon of women who were so oppressed by their abuser that they felt unable to escape and seek help elsewhere and were eventually driven to attack or even kill him.

Lady Hale, president of the Supreme Court (Lauren Hurley/PA)

Lady Hale said no-one could claim that the battle for womens rights was over but she said there were many reasons to be cheerful.

There are now far more women in senior ranks in the public sphere, she said.

Feminist legal studies are taken seriously in university law schools  they are not just the preserve of a few weird women meeting in a basement room at the LSE (London School of Economics).

She said serious analysis of issues would continue.

The text of her lecture has been posted on the Supreme Court website.

In 2016, officials at a specialist organisation set up to safeguard the interests of children embroiled in family court proceedings said the storyline featuring Rob and Helen was intelligent and welcome.

Bosses at Cafcass  the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service  said the storyline raised awareness of family, social and legal issues which affected many people.Boris Johnson has called on Theresa May to stop dithering and tell the EU that Britain will not accept the controversial backstop arrangement designed to avoid a hard border in Ireland.

The former foreign secretary dismissed calls for the Prime Minister to rule out a no-deal Brexit, insisting it was overwhelmingly likely Brussels will offer an improved agreement following the crushing defeat of Mrs Mays plan in Parliament.

Speaking as Mrs May continued intensive discussions to draw up a Plan B to be unveiled on Monday, Mr Johnson insisted that the UK must go ahead with EU withdrawal on March 29, insisting it would be shameful to seek to delay Brexit by asking for an extension of the Article 50 negotiation process.

The Prime Minister was meeting Cabinet ministers individually and in groups at 10 Downing Street to discuss talks she has held over the past two days with opposition party leaders and MPs from all sides of the Brexit debate.

After surviving a no-confidence vote in the Commons on Wednesday, Mrs May spoke with all party leaders except Jeremy Corbyn, who snubbed the talks because the PM refused to rule out no deal.

She also spoke by phone on Thursday evening with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

A spokesman for the European Commission said that president Jean-Claude Juncker expected to speak to Mrs May, at her request, on Friday afternoon.

Following reports of civil servants being asked to draw up contingency plans for an early general election, a Downing Street spokeswoman said that Mrs May was ruling out a snap poll.

Mr Johnson declined to say whether he would back Mrs May to lead the Tories into an election if one was called.

Boris Johnson arrives to make a speech at the headquarters of JCB in Rocester, Staffordshire (Peter Byrne/PA)

Answering questions following a speech at JCB headquarters in Staffordshire which was widely seen as a leadership pitch, Mr Johnson said: I think most people in this country feel they have had quite enough elections  A snap election is not the right way through.

The former figurehead of the Vote Leave campaign sought to distance himself from controversial adverts about immigration from Turkey during the 2016 campaign.

Vote Leave adverts posted widely on social media stated that Turkey (population 76 million) is joining the EU and Britains new border is with Syria and Iraq. Some included maps with large red arrows pointing towards the UK.

But Mr Johnson insisted: I didnt say anything about Turkey in the referendum  Since I made no remarks, I cant disown them.

He said he had always made clear that immigration can be a wonderful thing, so long as it is controlled.

Mr Johnson rejected warnings about the possible impact of a no-deal Brexit, insisting: Whatever the doomsters may say  there will be no shortage of Mars bars, we will still have potable drinking water in Britain. The planes will fly, the ferries will ply.

He called on the Government to fire up the engines, stop dithering, emulate the spirit of JCB and remove from our path the backstop that is the last Brussels-built blockage in the path of a global Britain.

Dismissing the EUs repeated insistence that it will not agree a deal without a backstop arrangement to protect the Irish border, Mr Johnson said: I think they will be flexible, because  its only in the last few days and weeks of a negotiation that the big concessions are really made.

Mr Johnson said the unprecedented 230-vote defeat of the Withdrawal Agreement on Tuesday had given Mrs May a mandate to go back to Brussels and say that the UK does not accept the backstop.

He said she should demand a new agreement, retaining the 21-month transition period following March 29, during which he said tariff-free trade should continue.

He said that this time should be used to negotiate a free trade deal, with the UK withholding half of its 39 billion financial settlement until it is completed, in order to put a tiger in the tank of talks.

Labour MP Virendra Sharma, a supporter of the Best for Britain campaign for a second referendum, dismissed Mr Johnson as a helpful clown, distracting from the Governments failures by pushing a no-deal that Parliament wont let happen.

Its time to stop giving his ill-thought through ideas oxygen and hand the Brexit decision back to the public through a peoples vote, said Mr Sharma.

The comments came as International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said it is largely down to other countries to put the work in to ensure the UKs free trade agreements continue to apply after a no-deal Brexit scenario.

Dr Fox told the BBC: They are not just dependent on the UK, our side is ready. It is largely dependent on whether other countries believe that there will be no deal and are willing to put the work in to the preparations.

(PA Graphics)

Meanwhile, Labour former minister Yvette Cooper tabled a Bill with cross-party support that would give MPs more power in the Brexit decision-making process.

Her European Union Withdrawal (Number 3) Bill will be presented when the Commons next sits on Monday and MPs are expected to use an amendment to a Government motion to try to secure time for it to be debated in the chamber.

It replaces a previous Bill by Tory Nick Boles that would allow MPs to demand an extension to the Article 50 process.

Downing Street said it is impossible for the Government to rule out a no-deal Brexit as such a move could only be done by securing parliamentary approval or overturning the referendum result.

However, the Daily Telegraph reported that up to 20 middle-ranking ministers could resign unless they are given a free vote on a backbench bid to rule out no-deal.

According to the Guardian, Mr Corbyn faces up to a dozen resignations from his front bench if he comes out in favour of a second Brexit referendum.A senior BBC executive has told a court how he did not question the script of a live radio broadcast that named a rape victim because he trusted his journalist and not naming complainants of sex offences was as basic as it gets.

BBC Asian Network head of news Arif Ansari, 44, was giving evidence at his trial at Sheffield Magistrates Court about a broadcast by reporter Rickin Majithia from outside Sheffield Crown Court in February last year.

A district judge has heard how Mr Majithia made a genuine mistake when he included the real name of the complainant in the trial he was covering.

The reporter told the court on Thursday how he made the error as he wrongly believed the name the woman had been referred to in court was a pseudonym.

Arif Ansari, head of news at BBC Asian Network, arrives at Sheffield Magistrates Court (Danny Lawson/PA)

The court has heard how Mr Majithia explicitly said in his report that the name was a pseudonym and Ansari said he had no reason to doubt this.

On Friday, Ansari said: I trusted his journalism. He was a good journalist. This was not a complex legal issue.

This is as basic as it gets. This is what journalists are taught at journalism school.

Ansari said: It just struck me as 100% accurate.

Rickin was a senior journalist, one of my senior reporters.

He had a background, professional relationship with the victim in question. I didnt. I had never met her. I was in London.

Furthermore, I knew that he knew that he could not name her, use her real name.

Put all these factors together, it did not occur to me that this could be wrong.

The editor added: I trusted my reporter and the reason I sent him to Sheffield was to make sure he got it right.

Ansari explained to the district judge about conversations he had with Mr Majithia about legal aspects of the case before he travelled to Sheffield.

He said his main legal concerns were over the reporters plan to interview the woman and whether any report would prejudice a future, linked trial.

Ansari said: The fact we couldnt name the victim is just straightforward and very obvious.

That wasnt my concern.

Mr Majithia has told the court that the trial in Sheffield was the first court case he had ever covered as a journalist.

Ansari said he did not know this until his reporter returned to London very badly shaken and in a really bad way after the mistake became clear.

I remember being somewhat shocked that he hadnt previously told me that, he told the court.

He agreed that he had described Mr Majithia as a bit of a loose canon but said this referred to him not always communicating about stories he was researching.

Ansari  who was BBC North-West Political Editor for seven years  described how the first he knew about the mistake was when Mr Majithia rang him 10 minutes after his live broadcast.

He said: He was in a state of panic  Ive got the name wrong. He just said it wasnt a pseudonym, that was her real name.

Ansari, of BBC Portland Place, London, denies breaching the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992 which affords lifelong anonymity to anyone who complains of being the victim of a sexual offence.During the celebration marking the start of the 52nd Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Francis said It is a grave sin to belittle or despise the gifts that the Lord has given our brothers and sisters, and to think that God somehow holds them in less esteem. When we entertain such thoughts, we allow the very grace we have received to become a source of pride, injustice and division. And how can we then enter the promised kingdom?

Rome (AsiaNews)  Pope Francis kicked off the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity with evening Vespers celebrated in Romes Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. An ecumenical delegation from Finland and students from the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey took part in the service.

In his address, the pontiff noted that Solidarity and shared responsibility must be the laws that govern the Christian family who must acknowledge the gifts God gives to the various Christian communities and must desire to share them. His inspiration came from a reflection on the topic Try to be truly just (Deut. 16-18-20), proposed by an Indonesian ecumenical group

The Christians of Indonesia, said Francis in his homily, reflecting on the theme chosen for this Week of Prayer, decided to draw inspiration from these words of Deuteronomy: Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue (16:20). They are deeply concerned that the economic growth of their country, driven by the mentality of competition, is leaving many in poverty and allowing a small few to become immensely wealthy. This jeopardizes the harmony of a society in which people of different ethnic groups, languages and religions live together and share a sense of responsibility for one another.

But that is not simply the case in Indonesia; it is a situation we see worldwide. When society is no longer based on the principle of solidarity and the common good, we witness the scandal of people living in utter destitution amid skyscrapers, grand hotels and luxurious shopping centres, symbols of incredible wealth. We have forgotten the wisdom of the Mosaic law: if wealth is not shared, society is divided.

Saint Paul, writing to the Romans, applies the same thinking to the Christian community: those who are strong must bear with the weak. It is not Christian to please ourselves (15:1). Following Christs example, we are to make every effort to build up those who are weak. Solidarity and shared responsibility must be the laws that govern the Christian family.

As Gods holy people, we too constantly find ourselves on the threshold of entering the Lords promised kingdom. Yet, since we are also divided, we need to recall Gods summons to justice. Christians too risk adopting the mentality known to the ancient Israelites and contemporary Indonesians, namely that in the pursuit of wealth, we forget about the weak and those in need. It is easy to forget the fundamental equality existing among us: that once we were all slaves to sin, that the Lord saved us in baptism and called us his children. It is easy to think that the spiritual grace granted us is our property, something to which we are due, our property. The gifts we have received from God can also blind us to the gifts given to other Christians. It is a grave sin to belittle or despise the gifts that the Lord has given our brothers and sisters, and to think that God somehow holds them in less esteem. When we entertain such thoughts, we allow the very grace we have received to become a source of pride, injustice and division. And how can we then enter the promised kingdom?

The worship befitting that kingdom, the worship demanded by justice, is a celebration that includes everyone, a feast in which gifts received are available to and shared by all. To take the first steps towards the promised land that is our unity, we must first of all recognize with humility that the blessings we have received are not ours by right, but have come to us as a gift; they were given to be shared with others. Then, we must acknowledge the value of the grace granted to other Christian communities. As a result, we will want to partake of the gifts of others. A Christian people renewed and enriched by this exchange of gifts will be a people capable of journeying firmly and confidently on the path that leads to unity.Zimbabweans faced a total internet shutdown after a violent crackdown on people protesting against a dramatic rise in fuel prices.

Badly injured people streamed into a hospital in the capital Harare after alleged assaults by security forces.

Our country is going through one of the most trying periods in its history, the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference said in a statement lamenting the governments intolerant handling of dissent and its failure to halt economic collapse.

Media group MISA-Zimbabwe shared a text message from the countrys largest telecom company, Econet, calling the governments internet order beyond our reasonable control.

The High Court will hear a challenge to the shutdown on Monday, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said.

A prominent pastor and activist who faces a possible 20 years in prison on a subversion charge arrived at court, one of more than 600 people arrested this week.

Pastor and activist Evan Mawarire arrives at court in Harare (Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP)

Evan Mawarire has called it heartbreaking to see the new government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa acting like that of former leader Robert Mugabe.

Mawarire is accused of inciting civil disobedience online. Its a shame whats happening, the pastor said.

International calls for restraint by Zimbabwes security forces are growing, while Mr Mnangagwa prepares to plead for more investment at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

He announced the fuel price increase on the eve of his overseas trip, leaving hardline former military commander and Vice President Constantino Chiwenga as acting president.

Petrol in the economically shattered country is now among the most expensive in the world. Zimbabweans heeded a nationwide stay-at-home call earlier this week in protest.

Rights groups and others have accused security forces of targeting activists and labour leaders in response, with the United States expressing alarm.

The UN human rights office on Friday urged Zimbabwe to stop the crackdown, noting reports of intimidating door-to-door searches by security forces.

The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights has said it had treated 68 cases of gunshot wounds and 100-plus other cases of assaults with sharp objects, booted feet, baton sticks and more.

An injured man is helped at a private hospital after an alleged assault by a group of uniformed soldiers in Harare (Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP)

Injured people streamed into a private hospital in the capital, Harare, on Thursday. Some had broken legs. A nurse attended to a man with a broken spine.

Albert Taurai said he had ventured out to look for bread when plainclothes officers wearing masks beat him up, accusing him of barricading roads.

Keith Frymore, a 21-year-old security guard, had a torn lip. He told the AP a group of uniformed soldiers attacked him at work.

Other hungry Harare residents who ventured out seeking food have reported being tear-gassed by police. Soldiers were still controlling long fuel queues in the capital on Friday, and many wary residents stayed at home.

Zimbabweans had briefly rejoiced when Mr Mnangagwa succeeded Mr Mugabe, who was forced out in late 2017, thinking the new president would deliver on his refrain that the country is open for business.

But frustration has risen over the lack of improvement in the collapsed economy, which doesnt even have a currency of its own.

The internet shutdown cuts off crucial access to the mobile money that Zimbabwes government uses to pay teachers and other public workers. Some said they can no longer afford fares for public transport, and some shops have run out of basics such as bread.Colombian authorities are trying to work out who was responsible for a car bombing at a police academy in Bogota that left 21 dead.

Overnight, the death toll from the Thursday morning bombing more than doubled to 21, making it the deadliest attack in Colombia in over a decade.

It proved especially unsettling because the target, the General Santander school, is one of the most protected installations in the capital and indications it may have been the result of a suicide bombing  something unprecedented in decades of political violence in the South American nation.

President Ivan Duque, visiting the academy in the aftermath, was careful not to attribute blame to any armed group even while condemning what he called a miserable terrorist act that recalled some of the bloodiest chapters of Colombias recent past.

The terrorists are looking to intimidate us as a society and attack the state, Mr Duque said in a televised address in which he declared three days of mourning. Colombia will demonstrate that it is a strong state, united and wont break in the face of the dementia of these aggressions.

Family members of victims of a bombing gather outside the entrance to the General Santander police academy (John Wilson Vizcaino/AP)

Among those killed was a top-of-class female cadet from Ecuador, while two visiting students from Panama were among those injured

With the help of security cameras, authorities identified the suspected bomber as a 56-year-old man with no criminal record named Jose Aldemar Rojas. He died in the attack.

Chief Prosecutor Nestor Martinez said Rojas drove a 1993 Nissan pick-up loaded with 80 kilograms of explosives past a security checkpoint and on to the schools leafy campus, where a start-of-the-year ceremony had just finished.

There were reports that when bomb-sniffing dogs detected the explosives the driver got nervous and floored the vehicle past the barrier and on to the campus, where it exploded moments later in front of a red tile-roofed dormitory for female cadets.

Little is known about Rojas. Records show he bought the car last year and had it inspected six months ago in the eastern city of Arauca, near the border with Venezuela.

The same volatile area is a stronghold of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, the countrys last remaining rebel group following a 2016 accord between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) that saw some 7,000 rebels disarm.

Investigators are reportedly looking into Rojas possible ties with the rebel group after reports that he was an explosives expert for an ELN cell who went by the alias Mocho Kiko.

The ELN has been stepping up its attacks on police targets and oil infrastructure amid a stand-off with the conservative Duque government over stalled peace talks.

A year ago, the group claimed responsibility for the bombing of a police station in the coastal city of Barranquilla that left five officers dead.

But until now the Cuban-inspired group, which is believed to have around 2,000 guerrilla fighters, has never been capable or much interested in carrying out such a high-profile act of violence.

Thursdays attack was the deadliest since a 2003 car bombing against the elite Bogota social club El Nogal that left 36 dead, an incident that hardened Colombians resolve against the Farc.

Mr Duque has demanded the ELN cease all attacks and kidnappings as a condition for restarting the talks and has condemned Venezuela and Cuba for allegedly providing a safe haven for rebel leaders even as their troops continue to sow violence in Colombia.Brexit is posing a ridiculous and false challenge, the director of Irelands leading theatre said.

Neil Murray from the Abbey said it was a farce which could not have been envisaged by even the most foresighted script writer.

He warned that actors faced additional tax and currency issues amid the UKs pending EU divorce.

The Dublin venue co-produced recently with colleagues from the Old Vic and Hammersmith in London. It draws talent from around the world.

The Old Vic has co-produced recently with the Abbey Theatre (Yui Mok/PA).

Mr Murray said: The idea that we suddenly have to work in a completely different way to make this happen is a ridiculous challenge and almost a false challenge, we have to fight incredibly hard to protect that.

The Common Travel Area (CTA) agreement between Ireland and the UK is unrelated to the EU and allows free movement of nationals across the Irish border and from Great Britain as well as employment rights.

A conference in Belfast organised by actors union Equity raised the prospect of new and ever-increasing visa fees for artists wanting to work elsewhere as a result of the separation.

Mr Murray moved from a theatre in the UK to the Abbey.

He said: I moved to Ireland two and a half years ago to work in a national and international theatre company with colleagues in Ireland, both south and north, as well as retaining connection with colleagues in the UK.

I am determined that whatever happens the Abbey has a key role, particularly on the island of Ireland to ensure that we advocate collaboration and that we fight as hard as we can to ensure that the Abbey remains a presence, both in Dublin and up here in Belfast.

Karan OLoughlin, from the Irish Equity union, said a no-deal Brexit would be devastating for the theatre industry in Northern Ireland and the Republic (Brian Lawless/PA).

Irish Equity said a no-deal Brexit would be devastating for the theatre industry in Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Karan OLoughlin, from the trade union, said: A no-deal Brexit would be absolutely catastrophic for people.

Their members often collaborate on productions across both parts of the island.

She added: No-deal means restrictions on travel and freedom to work, it reduces diversity in work and creates funding difficulties for co-productions, and reduces the capacity for people to work and create.

Under the gaze of Co. Down native, actor Jamie Dornan, with #Brexit and the Arts Seminar Organiser Karen OLoughlin @SIPTU at @LyricBelfast



This is my first visit to Northern Ireland as Minister and I was honoured to open the @EquityUK @IrishEquity Conference & discuss #Brexit pic.twitter.com/7SS5KmSNQl  Josepha Madigan  (@josephamadigan) January 18, 2019

The seminar organised by acting unions in the UK and Ireland was held at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast on Friday.

Ms OLoughlin added: I think that is incredibly poor and irresponsible of the British Government to keep this ongoing farcical situation where everybody lives with uncertainty.

Uncertainty is as bad as a bad Brexit.

Chloe Alexander, policy development officer at Equity UK, said a no-deal Brexit could mean an absence of arrangements for workers in the UK to work on mainland Europe other than Ireland.

That would be disastrous for a lot of members who have a good chunk of their incomes from work on the EU.

It would also mean there would be no transition so there would be no time for the industry to adjust to the new circumstances plus we would be out of all the funding bodies that play such an important part.Andy Murray is yet to make a final decision on whether to have hip surgery but has pulled out of a tournament in Marseille next month.

The former world number one headed home from Melbourne earlier this week, following his emotional first-round defeat by Roberto Bautista Agut at the Australian Open, weighing up whether to have a resurfacing operation that could extend his career or end it completely.

Britains Andy Murray lost in the first round in Melbourne (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Even if Murray does not have the operation, he has stated he would spend the time getting ready for a farewell appearance at Wimbledon, so it was no surprise to see a statement from the Open 13 in Marseille announcing Murrays withdrawal.

He will also miss tournaments he had committed to in Dubai and Montpellier but Murrays management insisted he has not made a final decision about surgery.

The 31-year-old strongly hinted ahead of his departure from Melbourne that he would have the operation, and was encouraged to do so by American doubles great Bob Bryan, who is playing at the Australian Open five months after undergoing the same procedure.Swedish MPs have approved a centre-left minority government led by caretaker prime minister Stefan Lofven, ending a four-month political deadlock.

The vote in parliament was 153-115 in favour of Mr Lofven, with 77 abstentions.

His own Social Democrats and the Greens backed him, with the centre-right bloc voting against the arrangement in Fridays ballot. Three smaller parties abstained.

The move ends a four-month impasse (AP)

In Sweden, a prime minister can govern as long as there is no majority against him or her.

Swedish politicians have been trying to form a government without the Sweden Democrats, which has neo-Nazi roots.

Parties have refused to cooperate with Swedens third-largest party, which made great strides in the September 9 national election.

Jan Bjorklund of the Liberals, whose party supported Mr Lofven by abstaining, noted how racist and populist parties have strengthened their positions across the world.

He cited US president Donald Trump, Frances National Rally led by Marine le Pen and Hungarys nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban as examples.

We have chosen another path, he said.

Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson, who had hoped for more political influence, repeatedly used the word absurd to describe the coalition talks.

My ambition now is that the Sweden Democrats will be a dominating forced in a new strong centre-right opposition, he said.

It will be a tough four-year period, Mr Lofven told a news conference, adding Sweden is getting a powerful government that is not dependent on the Sweden Democrats.

The September election produced a hung parliament with the left-leaning side and the centre-right bloc securing about 40% of the vote each, leaving neither with a majority and paving the way for months of complex coalition talks.

To get the support from two centre-right parties, Mr Lofven had to compromise over labour laws, causing irritation from his partys union backers and the Left Party.

Mr Lofven who heads Swedens largest party but has no majority, will present his government and start his second term as prime minister on Monday.A Banksy artwork painted on the side of a steelworkers garage has been sold to an art dealer for a six-figure sum.

John Brandler, 63, who owns Brandler Galleries in Essex, said he had agreed the mural could be kept in its current location in Port Talbot, South Wales, for a minimum of two years.

The artwork, which shows a child dressed for snow playing in the falling ash and smoke from a skip fire, is Banksys first to appear in Wales and is believed to be a comment on pollution linked to its steel plant.

The artwork has drawn a great deal of attention since it first appeared in late 2018 (Ben Birchall/PA)

Steelworker Ian Lewis, 55, said it was like Christmas had come early after the work appeared on the side of his garage in the Taibach area on December 18, but later confessed he was struggling to manage with the attention.

New owner Mr Brandler said he already owned several Banksy pieces, and suggested putting five or six more of the artists works on public display in the Welsh town to help tourism.

Mr Brandler, from Brentwood, said: Im so chuffed to have it, you have no idea.

This isnt the most valuable Banksy I own but its certainly the one Im most proud of. Because its so brilliant. It has an instant message, and its punchy. Its not just a girl holding a balloon or a bunch of flowers or something. This is a really strong social message.

Ian was getting offers from people who wanted to take it away and not work with the town.

Michael Sheen has contributed towards security costs to protect the artwork (Ian West/PA)

But I want to make Port Talbot a go-to place rather than a go-from place.

Within a short time Im thinking of bringing five or six more Banksys to Port Talbot. Lets do an exhibition.

If we all work together I think we will get tonnes of people coming to Port Talbot.

The art dealer said he had given a written guarantee the artwork would stay in Port Talbot for a minimum of two to three years, and added: If it works, it can stay longer. If it doesnt work then Ill move it to a different industrial city.

Mr Brandler said he was in Cardiff on Friday morning to meet with representatives from the Welsh Assembly today to see what happens next.

Hollywood actor Michael Sheen has been contributing towards security costs to protect the artwork in his hometown, which included a donation to a protective plastic screen currently covering the artwork.The ailing radical cleric who inspired the Bali bombers and other extremists in Indonesia is to be released from prison halfway through a 15-year jail term, the countrys president said.

The announcement of Abu Bakar Bashirs imminent release came during campaigning for a presidential election due in April in which opponents of President Joko Widodo have tried to discredit him as insufficiently Islamic.

I have considered this decision for a long time, involving the National Police chief and legal experts, Mr Widodo told reporters. This release was decided because of humanitarian considerations and also related to his healthcare.

A total of 202 people were killed in the Bali atrocity (Steve Parsons/PA)

The 2002 bombings on the popular tourist island of Bali by al Qaida-affiliated Jemaah Islamiyah militants killed 202 people, many of them foreigners including dozens of Australians.

Australia urged Indonesia last March against any leniency towards Bashir when the government was considering house arrest and other forms of clemency.

Stunned that he is about to be released, said Jan Laczynski, an Australian who lost five friends in the bombing of the Sari Club and narrowly avoided being at the venue himself.

Truly devastating news as effectively he gets on with his life whilst everyone else suffers from seeing him walk out of jail, he said.

Bashirs lawyer Muhammad Mahendradatta said that Bashir, who was sentenced and imprisoned in 2011, would be released within days.

We havent had the exact date of his release, but because Bashir badly needs serious health care the release will be carried out no later than next week, he said.

Also due to be released from prison next week is the former governor of Jakarta, a Widodo ally and minority Christian who was toppled by a conservative Islamic movement in 2016 and subsequently sentenced to two years in prison on blasphemy charges.

Mr Mahendradatta said he wanted Bahirs release to be without any conditions, enabling him to meet supporters and give sermons.

However, another Bashir lawyer who is also an adviser to Mr Widodo, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, told Indonesian TV that the cleric accepted conditions and would do nothing except rest and be close to his family.

Mr Widodo said Mr Mahendra was among the legal experts he sought advice from.

The firebrand cleric was arrested almost immediately after the Bali bombings but prosecutors were unable to prove a string of terrorism-related allegations. He was instead sentenced to 18 months in prison for immigration violations.

In 2011, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for supporting a military-style training camp for Islamic militants.

The 2002 bombings were a turning point in Indonesias battle against violent extremists, making heavy security a norm in big cities and forging closer counter-terrorism cooperation with the US and Australia.High-level talks aimed at finalising a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are planned for this week in Washington, US officials said.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to meet former North Korean spy chief Kim Yong Chol at a Washington hotel on Friday.

The meeting will likely be followed by Kim Yong Chol visiting the White House, where he could meet with Mr Trump, according to two officials.

Neither the US nor North Korea has announced any meetings, although Kim Yong Chol arrived earlier on Thursday in Beijing, where he was booked on a flight to the US, South Koreas Yonhap News Agency reported.

A motorcade that included the North Korean ambassadors car and a Chinese car with a sign reading state guest could be seen departing from a VIP area at the airport.

North Korean official Kim Yong Chol prepares to leave the Beijing International Airport (Kyodo News via AP)

Mr Trump has spoken several times of having a second summit with Mr Kim early this year and has exchanged multiple letters with the North Korean despite little tangible progress on a vague denuclearisation agreement reached at their first meeting in Singapore last June.

Since then, several private analysts have published reports detailing continuing North Korean development of nuclear and missile technology.

At a conference of US diplomats at the State Department on Wednesday, vice president Mike Pence acknowledged the lack of progress.

He called the Trump-Kim dialogue promising but stressed that we still await concrete steps by North Korea to dismantle the nuclear weapons that threaten our people and our allies in the region.

A meeting between Mike Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol last November was called off (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool/AP)

A planned meeting between Mr Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol in New York last November was called off abruptly. US officials said at the time that North Korea had cancelled the session.

A White House official, while not confirming plans for Fridays meeting, said a lot of positive things are happening related to North Koreas denuclearisation.

The official said Mr Trump and Kim Jong Un had established a good relationship and that US-North Korea conversations were continuing.

The official said the two sides were working to make progress on the denuclearisation goal and that Mr Trump looks forward to meeting Chairman Kim again at their second summit at a place and time yet to be determined.

The talks had stalled over North Koreas refusal to provide a detailed accounting of its nuclear and missile facilities that would be used by inspectors to verify any deal to dismantle them.

The North has been demanding that the US lift harsh sanctions and provide it with security guarantees before it takes any steps beyond its initial suspension of nuclear and missile tests.

Kim Jong Un expressed frustration in an annual new years address over the lack of progress in negotiations.

But on a visit to Beijing last week, he said North Korea would pursue a second summit to achieve results that will be welcomed by the international community, according to Chinas official Xinhua News Agency.The fastest councils in Britain aim to fill severe potholes within minutes  but others take more than a day, new figures show.

Analysis by motoring research charity the RAC Foundation found that Cumbria, Flinstshire and South Lanarkshire try to act immediately to repair road defects which pose the greatest safety risk to drivers and riders.

(PA Graphics)

Harrow Council has a target repair time of half an hour, while a further 16 councils aim to patch things up within an hour.

The most common response time is two hours, with 79 local authorities looking to patch up their roads within this period.

Coventry City Council has the longest target time for severe pothole repairs, aiming to respond within five days.

Response times are influenced by how many miles of road a council has to manage and the size of the council area.

The figures are based on data provided by 190 of the 207 local highway authorities in Britain.

RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: It is understandable that large rural authorities set themselves longer response times, simply as a result of having to travel further to effect repairs, but motorists might still be surprised to see such a wide variation across the country.

Those particularly vulnerable to potholes  cyclists and motorcyclists  might ask whether the speed of pothole investigation should be based solely on the risk to users.

 These are the councils with the quickest target response times for serious potholes:

Immediately: Flintshire, Cumbria and South Lanarkshire

30 minutes: Harrow

One hour: Slough, Walsall, Sheffield, Rochdale, Bracknell Forest, Hartlepool, Warwickshire, Swindon, Worcestershire, Derby, Ealing, Bexley, Birmingham, Stoke on Trent, Wirral and Isle of Anglesey.

 These are the councils with the slowest response times to serious potholes:

Five days: Coventry

72 hours: Leicestershire

48 hours: Cornwall and Isles of Scilly

36 hours: Bournemouth

Further analysis by the RAC Foundation found that local highway authorities are increasingly adopting a risk-based approach to fixing road defects.

This means the volume of traffic and mix of road users is taken into account when deciding how quickly to act, as well as the size of a pothole.

Almost all authorities set minimum sizes for potholes before they will take action.

These vary from between 20-30mm deep at 37 councils to at least 50mm at 26 others.

One in five local roads in England and Wales is in a poor condition, and the frequency of road resurfacing has declined, a report by the Asphalt Industry Alliance warned.

Damaged shock absorbers, broken suspension springs and distorted wheels are among the most common vehicle problems caused by potholes.

The AA has called for learner drivers to have to prove they can spot potholes to pass the driving test.

Martin Tett, the Local Government Associations transport spokesman, said: Keeping roads safe for all users is one of the most important jobs councils do and is reflected in the fact that local authorities are fixing a pothole every 21 seconds, with priority given to repairing potholes that pose the greatest risk based on their size and location, as recognised in this report.

He added that councils need consistent and fairer government investment in local road maintenance.Boris Johnson is calling on the Government to use Brexit to unite the country and focus on the issues that drove the vote for EU withdrawal.

The pointed intervention comes as Prime Minister Theresa May scrambles to try and get the Brexit agenda back on track after the Commons overwhelmingly rejected her plans.

Speaking at JCB headquarters in Rocester, Staffordshire on Friday, Mr Johnson will say: Yes, it (Brexit) was about democracy.

But that vote was also triggered by a feeling that, in some way, the people of this country have been drifting too far apart and in areas where we need to come together.

The move follows a bid by Mrs May to talk to prominent MPs and opposition leaders about Brexit in the wake of the Governments crushing Commons defeat, a change of political tack that Jeremy Corbyn branded a stunt

Mr Johnson will also use his keynote address to call for action on the pay gap and careful thinking on immigration.

He will say: We all know about boardroom pay and the huge expansion in the last 25 years of the gap between the remuneration of FTSE100 CEOs and the average workers in their firms.

We know one of the ways big corporations have held wages down is that they have had access to unlimited pools of labour from other countries.

Now, I am a free-market capitalist and a passionate believer in the benefits of migration, but there must be a balance and if an influx of labour is being used not only to prevent investment in capital equipment but also in the skills and prospects of young people, then we need to think carefully about how we control immigration.

If we want the people of Britain to have a pay rise, as I do, then we cant expect to do it by simply controlling immigration, we have to address all the causes of the productivity gap that has so massively expanded.

Mr Johnson will say that more must be done to help the UKs regions, and that there should be a halt to income tax rises.

He will say: We must create the most favourable tax environment with no new taxes and no increases in rates and no one rich or poor to pay more than 50% of their income in tax, not because we want to create a tax haven for the rich but because that it is the way to stimulate the income we need to pay for this national programme of cohesion.

Prime Minister Theresa May (Yui Mok/PA)

Meanwhile Labour former minister Yvette Cooper has tabled a Bill with cross-party support that would give MPs more power in the Brexit decision-making process.

Her European Union Withdrawal (Number 3) Bill will be presented when the Commons next sits on Monday.

It replaces a previous Bill by Tory Nick Boles that would allow MPs to demand an extension to the Article 50 process to allow negotiations to continue beyond the scheduled date of Brexit on March 29.

A provision of his Bill that gave more power to the cross-party Liaison Committee was criticised by some of its members, with chairwoman Sarah Wollaston indicating it would not accept the role.

Mr Boles, who withdrew his Bill on Wednesday, tweeted late on Thursday: Just to clarify: @YvetteCooperMP EU Withdrawal No 3 Bill removes the provisions relating to the Liaison Committee and will replace my EU Withdrawal No 2 Bill.

Same group of MPs sponsoring new bill.

With Mrs May set to present a Brexit Plan B to the Commons on Monday, Labour former prime minister Gordon Brown used a speech in Edinburgh on Thursday to call on the Government to extend Article 50 by a year in order to consult the public.

Mr Brown said Mrs Mays Brexit stalemate has left Britain more divided than during the three-day week of the 1970s or during the miners strike of the 1980s.

The PM was expected to use the next few days to continue talks on Brexit and make telephone calls to other EU leaders.

Mrs May will not be attending the Davos summit in Switzerland next week, Downing Street confirmed.

Labour leader Mr Corbyn said he would not take part in Brexit talks with the PM as Mrs May would not take a no deal option off the table.

(PA Graphics)

Downing Street said it is impossible for the Government to rule out a no-deal Brexit as such a move could only be done by securing parliamentary approval.

However, the Daily Telegraph reported that up to 20 middle ranking ministers could resign unless they are given a free vote on a backbench bid to rule out a no-deal exit from the EU.

And, according to the Guardian, Mr Corbyn faces up to a dozen resignations from his front bench if he comes out in favour of a second Brexit referendum.

Meanwhile, former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said Brexiteers should get ready for the possibility of a second referendum.

He told a Leave Means Leave gathering in Westminster: Let us prepare, let us organise.

If I have to fight again against this lot, then believe me, next time, as far as Im concerned, its no more Mr Nice Guy.The Duke of Edinburghs car crash at the age of 97 has prompted debate around the safe age of drivers.

 What are the rules around older drivers?

When motorists reach the age of 70 in Britain they are required to renew their licence, and must do so every three years thereafter.

There is no driving test or medical examination, and it is down to drivers to declare whether or not they are fit to drive.

Applicants are urged to check with their doctor before applying and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) may make further investigations based on the declaration made.

 What about eyesight?

The only mandatory examination of vision takes place during the practical test, when learners must read a number plate from 20 metres.

Once someone has obtained their licence, it is up to them to tell the DVLA if they have a problem with their eyesight.

Road safety charity Brake has called for a vision test to be required at least every 10 years when drivers renew their licence photocard.

 Is the duke known to be a keen motorist?

Philip is no stranger to the driving seat, and has previously been seen with very famous passengers in a Range Rover.

The duke driving his wife and their guests from the US (Pool/PA)

He showed former US president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle the personal touch when he drove them and the Queen to Windsor Castle after the presidential helicopter Marine One had landed close to the monarchs Berkshire home during their visit to the UK in April 2016.

The gesture was akin to picking up guests from the airport, although the journey only lasted a few minutes. Mr Obama looked delighted when he discovered Philip would be driving them.

As the Queen and Mrs Obama sat in the rear seats, the duke looked composed at the wheel of the Range Rover as it made its way around the castles quadrangle and stopped outside the sovereigns entrance.

 Why has Philips crash sparked debate?

The AA said car crashes involving older drivers can sometimes lead to calls for tighter rules or even bans.

But AA president Edmund King aid GP and family advice is more significant than a persons age when it comes to how long someone should keep driving.

A licence must be renewed every three years past the age of 70 (PA)

Mr King said: We wish the Duke of Edinburgh well. Many commentators use high-profile car crashes involving elderly drivers as a reason to call for bans or restrictions on older drivers.

If driving restrictions based on age and safety were introduced we would be more likely to restrict young drivers rather than older drivers.

Young, predominantly male, drivers are much more likely to crash within six months of passing their test than older drivers within six months of hanging up their keys.

Older drivers often self-restrict their driving by not driving at night and only driving on familiar roads.

The decision to hang up your keys is a tough one but should be based on personal advice from your GP and family rather than being based on some arbitrary age.

We all age differently and the car is an essential lifeline for many elderly people.

 Are there many people over the age of 90 who still have a driving licence?

Figures from the DVLA in November showed 110,790 people aged 90 or over still held driving licences.

There were 314 licence holders aged at least 100. The oldest were four people who were 107.

 What did the police do after the dukes accident?

As is force policy, officers from Norfolk Police carried out roadside breath tests on the drivers of both vehicles, which proved negative.

They are now investigating the circumstances.

We've released a statement following a collision at #Sandringham earlier today. You can read it here >> https://t.co/gpTkpPU3Q1  Norfolk Police (@NorfolkPolice) January 17, 2019

 What advice is there for older people who do give up their driving licence?

Age UK said such a decision can be difficult but that stopping driving does not have to mean the end of independence or mobility.

The charity said on its website: If youve decided to stop driving, or been advised to by the DVLA, there are many ways you can get around and there may be help with transport costs.

You may feel worried about the costs of giving up driving and having to pay for public transport, but if you add up the amount you spend on car tax, insurance, fuel and maintenance you may find that using alternatives work out to be less expensive than running a car.

Most people find adjusting to life without a car is difficult at first. If youre finding life without a car tough and causing you to feel down, talk to a family member, friend or your GP.Jonny Bairstow fell two short of a century as Englands batsmen completed their preparations for this months first Test against the West Indies.

After helping themselves to 19 wickets on Wednesday the tourists ended their second full day of batting against a CWI Presidents XI on 379 for 10, with Bairstow narrowly missing out on the first ton of the trip and Rory Burns adding 68.

The Yorkshireman, who scored a fine hundred at number three in Englands previous Test in Colombo and will take up the same slot in the coming series, hit 10 fours and two sixes in a confident innings lasting almost two-and-a-half hours. His crisp timing and willingness the force the tempo leave him well placed going into the meaningful contests ahead, but he missed out on the psychological boost of reaching three figures when he was caught deep on the leg side off Raymon Reifer.

Reifer, one of two full internationals in the home attack along with Miguel Cummins, also dismissed Keaton Jennings and Jos Buttler in single figures as he did his bit for the Caribbean cause.

Jennings will be particularly disappointed not to make his mark, with questions lingering over his long-term prospects at opener despite a highly impressive 146 not out in Galle two months ago.

The Lancashire batsmans Test average sits at a modest 26.62 after 15 caps and, after being dismissed for 10 in his first knock of the tour, he was pinned lbw for just seven here playing an indeterminate stroke.

Jonny Bairstow made 98 as England geared up for the first Test against the West Indies (Mike Egerton/PA).

Joe Denly, the spare batsman on tour, missed his chance to add further pressure on Jennings when he was clean bowled by Chemar Holder for 12 and a debut for the Kent man continues to look a distant prospect.

Buttler, captaining in the absence of the rested Joe Root, nicked to slip for three and will head into the series opener having spent just 14 balls in the middle. Yet, after a consistent 2018 and a successful recent stint in Australias Big Bash League, his readiness is of no real concern.

Rory Burns moves to 50 with a boundary off Bryan Charles.

England 121/1 pic.twitter.com/g30Zj0oIWu  Rory Dollard (@thervd) January 17, 2019

While Bairstows demeanour on a sluggish pitch was comfortably the best of the day, Burns also left a strong impression. The Surrey skipper is still awaiting a major score at the highest level, with a best of 59 in his first six attempts, but he has looked the part and set up nicely at the 3Ws Oval.

He took only 65 deliveries to post his half-century, reaching the landmark with a hearty pull, and scored at a brisk rate throughout before being stumped off the gentle spin of Bryan Charles.

Englands lower order chalked up some useful runs in a low-key evening session, Sam Curran throwing the bat for his 47 while Chris Woakes (43) and Adil Rashid (48) enjoyed themselves late on.Gordon Brown said he had never seen the country more divided as he called for the Government to extend Article 50 by a year to consult people on Brexit and give the public the final say.

The former prime minister said Theresa Mays Brexit stalemate has left Britain more divided than during the three-day week of the 1970s or during the miners strike of the 1980s.

Never have I seen a Parliament so deadlocked and never have I seen the country so divided and never has there been so much mistrust between who governs and the people of this country, he added.

Speaking in Edinburgh, Mr Brown suggested having consultations with representative groups across the country to discuss issues such as migration, sovereignty and the NHS and for them to suggest ways to resolve the situation.

My view is that when Parliament receives the result of that consultation they will find that its necessary to renegotiate with the European Union and perhaps in the end put it to the people in a referendum, he said.

You cannot solve this problem now by small initiatives  by amending this proposal here or there  youve got to look at the big picture.

Were talking about the future of Britain, were talking about the integrity of Britain, were talking about our relationship with the rest of the world and not just Europe.

Whats clear is that we cannot reunite the country just by another attempted Westminster face-saving fix concocted behind closed doors.

We cannot rebuild unity without repairing the breakdown of trust across the country, and we cannot move forward without involving the people as well as the politicians.

The people of Britain must be brought back into this debate.

(PA Graphics)

Addressing a crowd of about 350 people at a meeting entitled Brexit  What next?, Mr Brown condemned the paralysed and immobilised Parliament in Westminster and said there was rising anger from the public who want to be involved in the decision-making process.

He warned: It is the lethal combination of a deadlocked Parliament, an ever-more divided country and the mounting distrust between Parliament and people that makes me fear for our cohesion.

Mr Brown also backed Labour leader Jeremy Corbyns decision to demand the Prime Minister rule out a no-deal Brexit, and said: She should take no deal off the table  its a terrible, catastrophic result to end up with a no deal and end up with businesses at risk, with trade at risk, with the supplies of health service products at risk.

Of course, the reason why she cant say that is because her party is divided, with half of them wanting to have a no-deal option and half not.

She is trying to hold what is basically a very divided party together.

This spat will be forgotten in a day, the most important thing is we get to a position where people looking at this at home at night can think there is a way forward, because at the moment the Government is offering no way forward.

Asked about SNP leader Nicola Sturgeons comment that every day of Brexit deadlock in Westminster increases support for Scottish independence, Mr Brown said: If it is very difficult for Britain to leave the European Union, it is very difficult also for Scotland to leave the United Kingdom.

So I think people will say yes, were frustrated with whats happening in Westminster, but yes, if one country decides to break with another, there are huge implications.

Five times more trade is with England than with the rest of Europe from Scotland and these are big questions about the future of hundreds of thousands of jobs, so I think she should be very careful about what she says

We see the effects  when one country breaks or tries to break away from established relationships.President Donald Trump has denied the use of a government aircraft to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi in an apparent response to her attempt to delay his State of Union address amid their government shutdown clash.

The nations two most powerful leaders appeared to be engaged in a game of Constitutional one-upmanship, as negotiations to end the four-week stalemate failed to produce results.

In a letter to Ms Pelosi on Thursday, Mr Trump said that, due to the shutdown, a trip to Egypt, Brussels and Afghanistan would be delayed, declaring: In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, Im sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate.

While the shutdown dragged on, the US State Department instructed all US diplomats in Washington and elsewhere to return to work next week with pay, saying it had found money for their salaries at least temporarily despite the ongoing government shutdown.

In a notice to staff posted online and sent to employees, the department said it had found money to pay most of its employees beginning Sunday or Monday for their next pay period.

They will not be paid for time worked since the shutdown began in December until the situation is resolved, said the notice, which was signed by William Todd, the deputy undersecretary of state for management.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

It was not immediately clear where the money was found, but the department said it would use existing funds as well as other available fiscal authorities to shift existing balances to restart payroll funding.

Salaries cannot be guaranteed beyond the next pay period, which ends on February 14, if the shutdown does not end by then, the department said.

However, it said it would review its balances and available legal authorities to see if other flexibilities may be available.

The department said it was taking the step because it had become clear that the lapse in funding is harming essential diplomatic and national security objectives.

President Donald Trump, right, and Vice President Mike Pence (Susan Walsh/AP)

While the department has done its best to address matters essential to achieving US national security and foreign policy objectives during the ongoing lapse, it has become clear as the lapse has continued to historic lengths that we need our full team to address the myriad critical issues requiring US leadership around the globe and to fulfil our commitments to the American people, it said.

It added that the departments leadership was deeply concerned about the financial hardships faced by its employees.

Why is Nancy Pelosi getting paid when people who are working are not?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2019

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had raised eyebrows among the US diplomatic corps last week when he proclaimed that morale at the State Department was good despite the shutdown and the fact that 40% of its employees in the US and nearly 23% overseas had been rested and the rest were working without pay.

His comments also touched a nerve as he said he planned to go ahead with a previously scheduled conference of all US ambassadors in Washington this week despite the funding constraints affecting employees.

Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan announced the return to work with pay instructions to that conference on Thursday and was greeted with two rounds of sustained applause, according to one diplomat who was present.

Outside the State Department other agencies continued to operate under the shutdown constraints.

Demonstrators call for an end to the shutdown (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

Ms Pelosi, whose role as House speaker makes her second in line to the presidency after Vice-President Mike Pence, said Mr Trump has yet to respond to her request that he postpone his State of the Union address until the government is reopened so workers can be paid for providing security for the grand Washington tradition.

We havent heard  very silent, she told reporters on Thursday.

Lets get a date when government is open. Lets pay the employees.

Maybe he thinks its OK not to pay people who do work. I dont.

The presidents planned January 29 address became a potential casualty of the four-week partial government shutdown after the Democratic leader cited concerns about whether the hobbled government can provide adequate security.

Republicans cast Ms Pelosis move as a ploy to deny Mr Trump the stage.

Mr Trump declined to address the stalemate over the speech on Thursday during a visit to the Pentagon, simply promising that the nation will have powerful, strong border security.

The President of the United States just compared visiting our troops in a war zone to a "public relations event." Another sad day for our nation when that's how the Commander in Chief sees such a visit. https://t.co/I7F6jlJUBF  John Kerry (@JohnKerry) January 17, 2019

The uncertainty surrounding the annual address also underscored the unravelling of ceremonial norms and niceties in Mr Trumps Washington, amid the shutdown over the presidents demand for money to build a US-Mexico border wall.

The impasse is draining the finances of hundreds of thousands of federal employees going without pay cheques.

Today, I wrote to @realDonaldTrump recommending that we delay the State of the Union until after government re-opens, as the @SecretService, the lead federal agency for #SOTU security, faces its 26th day without funding. https://t.co/K2oL8WGvqo pic.twitter.com/g3fIlxDbbK  Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 16, 2019

Ms Pelosi reiterated she is more than willing to negotiate money for border security once the government is reopened, but she said Democrats remain opposed to Mr Trumps long-promised wall, one of his signature campaign promises.

Im not for a wall, Ms Pelosi said twice, mouthing the statement a third time for effect.

Pressure on Mr Trump intensified, as politicians from both parties scrambled for solutions.

The shutdown, already the longest ever, entered its 27th day on Thursday.

While Mr Trumps own advisers said the shutdown was proving a greater drag on the economy than expected, Mr Trump showed no signs of backing off a fight that he views as vital for his core supporters.A pensioner has been left seriously injured after a road crash in Co Down.

A woman in her 80s was injured in a one-vehicle collision on the Bangor Road in Newtownards on Thursday evening.

One man aged in his 50s has been arrested and is helping police with their inquiries.

The Bangor Road, Ards remains closed following a one vehicle road traffic collision this evening. A woman in her 80s has been taken to hospital after being struck by a car. Her condition is described as serious. A man in his 50s has been arrested and is in police custody.  Police Service NI (@PoliceServiceNI) January 17, 2019

A Police Service of Northern Ireland spokesman made an appeal for witnesses.

Inquiries are continuing and police would appeal to anyone who witnessed the incident or who may have dashcam footage available to contact police on 101, quoting reference number 776 17/1/19, he said.The Duke of Edinburgh retired from his decades of royal duty around 18 months ago.

His decision to retire was made in a surprise announcement by Buckingham Palace in May 2017, and he carried out his final official royal engagement on August 2 that year, stepping down from a lifetime of public service at the age of 96.

Having bowed out of public life it was expected Philip was likely to keep busy with his many hobbies, including carriage driving, oil painting and bird watching.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh during the annual Remembrance Sunday Service at the Cenotaph memorial in 2017 (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

In November 2017 Philip and the Queen marked 70 years of marriage, their platinum anniversary, with a black tie dinner for friends and family at Windsor Castle.

While Philip attended the Cenotaph service and the traditional Christmas church service in Sandringham in 2017, he was absent from both events last year.

In early April 2018 he spent a week and a half in hospital following a hip replacement operation.

Just a month later Philip managed to attend the Windsor Castle wedding of his grandson Prince Harry, now the Duke of Sussex, who married former actor Meghan Markle.

The Duke of Edinburghs final individual public engagement, at Buckingham Palace in London (Hannah McKay/PA)

In October 2018 Philip joined his family for the second royal wedding of the year when he watched his granddaughter Princess Eugenie tie the knot with Jack Brooksbank.

The duke admitted ahead of his 90th birthday in 2011 that he wanted less responsibility, less rushing about.

In a BBC interview, he said: I reckon Ive done my bit, I want to enjoy myself for a bit now.

With less responsibility, less rushing about, less preparation, less trying to think of something to say.

On top of that your memorys going, I cant remember names.

Yes, Im just sort of winding down.Oxford University is suspending research grants and funding donations from Huawei, amid growing security concerns about the Chinese firms telecommunication technology.

Existing research contracts already received or committed with Huawei will go ahead, but the university will not pursue new funding opportunities with the company.

There are two ongoing projects in which Huawei has committed 692,000, the university said.

Oxford University decided on January 8 this year that it will not pursue new funding opportunities with Huawei Technologies Co Ltd or its related group companies at present, an Oxford University spokesman said in a statement.

Huawei has been notified of the decision which the university will keep under review. The decision applies both to the funding of research contracts and of philanthropic donations.

The decision has been taken in the light of public concerns raised in recent months surrounding UK partnerships with Huawei. We hope these matters can be resolved shortly and note Huaweis own willingness to reassure governments about its role and activities.

The university will continue with existing research contracts where funding from Huawei has already been received or committed. We currently have two such ongoing projects, with a combined funding from Huawei of 692k. Both projects were approved under the iniversitys regulatory processes before the current levels of uncertainty arose.

(Martyn Landi/PA)

Huaweis latest setback in the west comes after Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said he had very deep concerns about the Chinese companys involvement in the UKs rollout of 5G.

In December, the head of MI6, Alex Younger, said the UK would have to make some decisions about such firms after other governments had taken steps to block Huawei.

Huawei was founded by Ren Zhengfei, a former officer in the Peoples Liberation Army, leading to questions about possible improper links to the Chinese state, something Huawei has always denied.

Mr Zhengfei carried out a rare interview earlier this week in which he was quoted as saying he had never been asked to share improper information.

Huawei has partnered with a number of UK universities on academic research in recent years, including the University of Surrey, the University of Cambridge, the University of Manchester and Imperial College London.

A Huawei spokeswoman said: We were not informed of this decision and await the Universitys full explanation.

As a private, employee-owned technology company, with a strong track record in R&D we believe partnership decisions should, like research, be evidence based.

We have operated in the UK since 2001, employ 1,500 people here and have long standing collaborations with 20 other UK universities, working with them to research the technologies of the future.Gordon Brown has called for Britains Brexit deadline to be extended by a year, as he warned the country is now more divided than at the time of Margaret Thatchers poll tax.

The former PM said MPs should force the Government to extend Article 50 and then give the public the final say on a renegotiated Brexit deal.

Speaking in Edinburgh on Thursday evening, Mr Brown condemned the paralysed and immobilised Parliament in Westminster and said there is rising anger from the public who want to be involved in the decision-making process.

Mr Brown warned: It is the lethal combination of a deadlocked Parliament, an ever-more divided country, and the mounting distrust between Parliament and people that makes me fear for our cohesion.

He claimed the aftermath of the referendum had further eroded trust in the political system, and said: The UKs deadlock has led to the degradation of our public discourse.

It is so toxic that accusations from both sides of betrayal and even treason are now a stock in trade of our public square  claims of bad faith from which it will take years to recover.

Britain is already more divided than during the three-day week of the 1970s or during the miners strike of the 1980s.

We are more divided than over the poll tax, whose troubles came to a head in the early 1990s.

Citing a poll commissioned for Hope Not Hate that suggested two-thirds of people want to be involved in the decision-making process of Brexit, he said: Our crisis is now so profound that Parliament cannot now solve it on its own.

Mr Brown said unity cannot be restored until the breakdown of trust has been repaired (PA)

Indeed whats clear is that we cannot reunite the country just by another attempted Westminster face-saving fix concocted behind closed doors.

We cannot rebuild unity without repairing the breakdown of trust across the country, and we cannot move forward without involving the people as well as the politicians.

The people of Britain must be brought back into this debate.

Although there is no quick fix to the political deadlock, Mr Brown said he believes the EU would be willing to extend Article 50 to allow the public to be consulted on the next steps.

He said he has taken soundings from Europe, and added: As someone who spent years in government negotiating with them, I feel confident they would accept.

And then, if it is established that the situation has changed, give the British people the right to the final say.A quarter of Scottish prisoners have suffered a traumatic brain injury at some point in their lives, new research has indicated.

The study, a joint venture by the University of Glasgow and the Scottish Prison Service, looked at all the countrys inmates along with electronic records of hospital admissions.

It also estimated 10% of prisoners have suffered a severe head injury during their lives  or multiple injuries likely to lead to a disability.

Traumatic brain injuries can result in emotional and personality changes such as impulsiveness, aggression or poorer judgment of control or temper.

Tom McMillan, university professor of clinical neuropsychology, said: It is accepted that there is a need to understand head injury in prisoners in order to plan interventions to reduce associated disability and risk of reoffending.

This study demonstrates just how prevalent serious head injury is in prisoners in Scotland.

The study looked at all prisoners in Scotland (Danny Lawson/PA)

And this, combined with the knowledge we have regarding the effects of serious head injury on behaviour and personality, suggests further research and work is needed to support these prisoners and potentially stop them reoffending.

The prevalence of hospital admissions was also found to be high in prisoners (25%) compared to the general population from similar backgrounds (18%).

The study also suggested having three or more head injuries resulting in a hospital visit was more common among inmates.

Prof McMillan added: To adequately address these issues we needed to estimate not just how many prisoners may have had a head injury at some point in their lives, but how many are likely to have persisting disability and need help  many people recover after a single, non-serious head injury.

Our programme is working towards development of education and training media for staff and prisoners about head injury and its effects.

This will help prisoners who are at risk of further head injury, and help staff to identify and manage prisoners with head injury.

We are also developing triage and screening in prisons to identify those who would benefit from more intensive support or intervention.

The paper  The Lifetime Prevalence of Hospitalised Head Injury in Scottish Prisons: A Population Study  is published in PLOS ONE and is funded by the National Prisoner Healthcare Network.Sinn Feins deputy leader Michelle ONeill has said the public are aghast at the Brexit pantomime at Westminster.

Ms ONeill said she had warned Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley in a frank telephone conversation that she must listen to the fears of the public.

It comes after a dramatic 24 hours at Westminster during which Theresa Mays Withdrawal Agreement was rejected by MPs.

Prime Minister Theresa May speaking in the House of Commons (HouseofCommons/PA)

The Prime Minister then narrowly survived a confidence motion put forward by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The United Kingdom is set to leave the European Union in just over two months on March 29.

Ms ONeill said the business community, farmers, and the community and voluntary sector were growing more concerned every day over Brexit.

I had a frank discussion with the British Secretary of State and I told her that her government is clearly still not listening to fears of the public who are aghast at the pantomime currently playing out in the Westminster parliament, she said.

With each passing day, our business community, our farmers, our community and voluntary sector are growing more concerned at where this shambles will ultimately end up. And it is they who will pay the price of a no-deal crash Brexit.

Unfortunately that is where we are likely to end up if Karen Bradleys government pursues a solution by attempting to placate and appease the DUP and the hard Brexiteers.

Ms ONeill added a plea that the backstop remained in any new withdrawal deal agreed between the UK and EU.

It is crucial, now more than ever, that the Dublin Government and the EU27 stand firm on the position that there can be no agreement without a backstop that prevents a hard border in Ireland and protects our peace and political process, she said.An agreement in principle has been reached in a bid to bring an end to Glasgows long-running equal pay dispute.

Susan Aitken, the leader of Glasgow City Council, confirmed the authority has agreed an offer with the organisations representing the thousands of workers affected.

The council stressed, however, that the agreement is not the end of the process and a number of steps need to be taken before payments can be made.

Ms Aitken said: After a decade of obstruction and inaction, in a relatively short space of time we have now reached agreement which delivers the pay justice these women long have fought for.

She said she is proud to be able to recommend a settlement to right this historic injustice.

Ms Aitken had pledged to settle the historic dispute when she became the first SNP leader of the council in 2016.

Thousands of council workers in Glasgow went on strike in support of the equal pay claim (Andrew Milligan/PA)

She added: Its been a difficult journey but I have never once hesitated in my commitment to deliver pay justice in Glasgow.

My statement on the #EqualPay settlement. This battle was won the day I became Leader of GCC. Its been a difficult journey but I have never once hesitated in my commitment to deliver pay justice in Glasgow. This is the right outcome for the claimants, the Council and the city. pic.twitter.com/wEHLcnH5Vp  Susan Aitken (@SusaninLangside) January 17, 2019

The agreement in principle comes after some 8,000 Glasgow council workers walked out on strike for 48 hours in October last year in a bid to settle the pay claim.

Around 12,500 workers, mostly women, were proceeding with claims against the council following a Court of Session ruling in 2017 that female workers had been discriminated against.

The council adopted the Workforce Pay and Benefit Review (WPBR), implementing its job evaluation-based pay and grading system in 2006 with the aim of ensuring men and women received equal pay for jobs of the same value.

However, some women claim they were paid 3 an hour less than men in similarly graded roles.

Council bosses said at the time of the October strikes that such action was unnecessary, and they hoped to reach a settlement in the following months.

Stefan Cross QC from Action4equality, which represented some of the claimants, said. Since the strike there has been real and constructive negotiations.

Neither side has got everything it wanted and both sides have made serious concessions so that we can both be satisfied that this is a fair deal.

Before the payments can be made, the deal has to be approved by members of Glasgow City Council.

The authority is also completing the process of raising the necessary funding to cover the cost of the payments.

Historic #equalpay deal at Glasgow City Council ! pic.twitter.com/8IaIg4jEmc  Unite Scotland (@UniteScotland) January 17, 2019

Wendy Dunsmore, regional industrial officer for the Unite union, hailed it as a day of celebration for the workers in Glasgow City Council who were unfairly treated and discriminated against.

She said: These workers have been financially disadvantaged for years. The deal addresses these historic wrongs. Unite members will be delighted that the many years of wait is almost at an end.

GMB Scotland organiser Hazel Nolan said: This is a significant moment and is recognition of the value of women in this city, brought about by the women themselves understanding their own value and fighting for it together.

What is important now is that the claimants and their families can have confidence in this agreement and in the process of delivery in the coming weeks and months.The Duke of Edinburgh has been involved in a road accident while driving close to the Sandringham Estate.

Philip, 97, was not injured in the crash on Thursday afternoon, Buckingham Palace said.

Norfolk Police said officers were called to the Sandringham Estate shortly before 3pm following reports of a collision involving two cars.

A spokesman added that police and ambulance crews attended and two people in one of the vehicles suffered minor injuries.

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman confirmed the duke was driving when the accident happened.

(PA Graphics)

She added: He saw a doctor as a precaution and the doctor confirmed he was not injured.

The spokeswoman would not comment on who Philips passenger was but it is likely the duke was travelling with his close protection officer.

Archbishop of York John Sentamu said on Twitter: Almighty God, the Fountain of all Goodness,We humbly beseech thee to bless Philip Duke of Edinburgh:Endue him with thy Holy Spirit; enrich him with thy Heavenly Grace; prosper him with all happiness; and bring him to thine everlasting kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Almighty God, the Fountain of all Goodness,We humbly beseech thee to bless Philip Duke of Edinburgh:Endue him with thy Holy Spirit; enrich him with thy Heavenly Grace; prosper him with all happiness; and bring him to thine everlasting kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  John Sentamu (@JohnSentamu) January 17, 2019

God of Love and Compassion reach out with your Peace to the people who were in the car involved in the traffic accident with Prince Philips vehicle.Amen.  John Sentamu (@JohnSentamu) January 17, 2019

The duke is no stranger to the driving seat, and was seen with very famous passengers in a Range Rover in 2016.

Philip showed the former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle the personal touch when he drove them and the Queen to Windsor Castle after the Marine One presidential helicopter landed close to the monarchs Berkshire home during their visit to the UK in April 2016.

The duke driving the Queen and the Obamas in 2016 (Pool/PA)

Even in his 80s, the duke continued to compete in demanding carriage driving competitions, and has previously pulled muscles in his back while driving his horse-drawn carriage.

In 2017, he joked how the rough and tumble of carriage driving left his Balmoral dog cart smashed up regularly.

The duke was fond of carriage driving (Steve Parsons/PA)

In his first interview since he announced his retirement, Philip told how he took up the sport of carriage driving when he gave up polo aged 50.

He was instrumental in helping to establish the sport and took part well into his 80s, but gave up competitions some years ago.

Philip retired from official royal engagements in August 2017.A Dublin hospital has denied a claim made in the Irish parliament that it refused a woman an abortion.

Irish Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Ruth Coppinger told Dail Eireann on Thursday that a woman carrying a baby diagnosed with a fatal foetal abnormality had been denied a termination at the Coombe Hospital.

It comes two weeks after abortion became legal in Ireland.

I've just raised the case of a women who was denied a termination for fatal foetal abnormalities despite 2 consultants agreeing. The hospital asking for her to wait 4 weeks, where it's likely she'll miscarry. Woman is considering travel to UK. #repealedthe8th #dubw #legisl8  Ruth Coppinger (@RuthCoppingerSP) January 17, 2019

Ms Coppinger told the Dail: I have been contacted by a woman who has a fatal foetal abnormality that has been certified by two consultants  and now it appears that the board of the Coombe Hospital is refusing her constitutional right, which we all voted for, to have an abortion at a time she chooses.

Instead they have told her that she must wait another four weeks to see if there is a spontaneous miscarriage.

Irish Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger claimed that a woman had been denied a termination by a Dublin Hospital. (Oireachtas/PA)

Ms Coppinger said the woman is considering travelling to Great Britain to get an abortion.

Speaker Sean O Fearghail told Ms Coppinger it was not appropriate to discuss a medical situation in the Dail.

Ms Coppinger insisted: This is about the law.

Ms Coppingers party colleague Brid Smith said the woman had asked for the case to be raised in the Dail.

Coombe Womens Hospital in Dublin (PA)

A spokesman for the hospital said the claim is untrue.

A statement said that in the context of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 and the latest draft guidelines, the board of guardians and directors of the Coombe Women & Infants University Hospital has no role whatsoever in certifying a termination of pregnancy.

It added: Insofar as recent media coverage has stated that the board has had a role in determining whether or not the criteria for certification have been met, those reports are untrue.

Legislation providing for abortions up to 12 weeks without restriction was signed into law in the Republic of Ireland on December 20 by President Michael D Higgins, following a landslide vote in favour of liberalising the countrys laws.

Abortion services were introduced on January 1.Theresa May has said it is impossible for the Government to rule out a no-deal Brexit.

In a letter to Jeremy Corbyn, the Prime Minister said it was not within the Governments power to guarantee no-deal, as this could be done only by securing Parliaments approval for a withdrawal agreement or by overturning the result of the 2016 referendum, something she was not prepared to do.

The Labour leader has snubbed talks offered by Mrs May to parliamentarians from all sides of the Brexit debate following the humiliating rejection of her Brexit deal in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

A number of Labour MPs defied a request from Mr Corbyn not to engage in discussions designed to find a plan which might command a majority in the House of Commons.

All the other party leaders have now met the Prime Minister to discuss Brexit since she survived a no-confidence vote on Wednesday evening.

Mrs May has indicated that she is sticking to the principles behind her Withdrawal Agreement, of taking control of money, borders and laws and having an independent trade policy.

The EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier indicated that Brussels was ready to respond to any revision of Mrs Mays demands, telling MPs in Portugal: If those red lines move, we will also move, immediately.

The starting point for any talks to break the Brexit deadlock must be to rule out a disastrous No Deal outcome.



My letter to Theresa May... pic.twitter.com/vQvUV87mpk  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) January 17, 2019

MPs attending the talks in the Cabinet Office and Downing Street were shown a civil service assessment suggesting it would take more than a year to stage a second EU referendum, and Mrs May made clear that a public vote was not Government policy.

The discussions took place as a new opinion poll showed a 12-point lead for staying in the EU if a fresh vote was held.

The YouGov survey for the Peoples Vote campaign, conducted after Mrs Mays Brexit plan went down to a humiliating 230-vote defeat in the House of Commons, put Remain on 56% against 44% for Leave.

Meanwhile, it was announced that military reservists have been put on standby for up to a year of permanent service in to handle the possible fallout from a no-deal Brexit.

Reservists will make up around around 10% of the 3,500 armed forces personnel held at readiness ahead of the scheduled Brexit date on March 29.

Eurosceptic Tory MPs Owen Paterson, Iain Duncan Smith, David Davis, Mark Francois and Steve Baker attend Brexit talks in Whitehall (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Speaking in the marginal Conservative seat of Hastings, Mr Corbyn dismissed the cross-party discussions as a stunt and said the PM seemed unable to grasp the fact that her Withdrawal Agreement was now dead.

She seems to be prepared to send the country hurtling towards a cliff edge, said Mr Corbyn.

To get a deal that can command a majority in Parliament, Theresa May has to ditch the red lines and get serious about proposals for the future.

Mrs May insisted her door remained open for talks with the Labour leader, but told him: That is an impossible condition because it is not within the Governments power to rule out no deal.

There was little sign of movement as a series of parliamentarians from both Leave and Remain camps emerged from talks conducted by Mrs May herself, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay and Cabinet colleagues Michael Gove and David Lidington.

Number 10 said that the Prime Minister was in listening mode and wanted to hear views and opinions from every side of the debate before drawing up the Plan B which she is due to present to Parliament on Monday.

The PMs motion, and any amendments tabled by MPs, will be the subject of the latest in a series of crunch Brexit votes in the Commons on January 29.

The one-page document shown to MPs, entitled referendum timings, said that seven months would be needed to pass primary legislation paving the way for a new poll, followed by 12 weeks for a question to be tested and selected, six weeks for secondary legislation, six weeks to designate lead campaigns and 10 weeks for the campaign.

But former attorney general Dominic Grieve, a supporter of the Peoples Vote campaign, said the suggested timetable was simply wrong.

If Parliament wishes to have a referendum and the Government is prepared to facilitate it, it could be carried out swiftly and within a limited time extension of Article 50, he said.

It is neither helpful nor right to have misleading information of this kind put out.

Caroline Lucas said the Prime Minister showed little sign of shifting from her Brexit position (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Emerging from Downing Street, Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster said the issue of the Irish backstop needed to be dealt with in a very clear way if Brexit negotiations were to make progress.

Green MP Caroline Lucas said the Prime Minister had shown little sign she was ready for compromise on the Withdrawal Agreement she reached with Brussels in November.

Im not convinced shes willing to loosen any of the red lines shes set herself, Ms Lucas said.

She still thinks its going to be possible to tweak this deal sufficiently to get the MPs that voted against it to swing behind it  I remain pretty sceptical about that.

Speaking after a meeting with Mr Lidington, Labour MP Yvette Cooper said: The most important thing now is that the Government actually listens and it doesnt just think that a defeat that was that huge can simply be dismissed.

She and fellow Labour MP Hilary Benn said they had attended in their capacity as parliamentary committee chairs.

Labours former prime minister Tony Blair said Mr Corbyn was wrong to refuse to meet Mrs May.

If, in a moment of national crisis, the Prime Minister asks the Leader of the Opposition to come and talk, of course he should, Mr Blair told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

Conservative chairman Brandon Lewis accused Labour of trying to frustrate and avoid Brexit.

Jeremy Corbyn needs to get off the fence. The country doesn't want chaos. It wants to come together again and a People's Vote is crucial for that. pic.twitter.com/KZ2gRTNzby  Vince Cable (@vincecable) January 17, 2019

Sir Vince Cable, who spoke with Mrs May on Wednesday evening, accused Mr Corbyn of playing party political games and said the Liberal Democrats would no longer join Labour in no confidence votes in the Government.

I believe other parties are taking the same view, the Lib Dem leader said.

Its time Mr Corbyn got off the fence and made his position plain.

Lib Dems said they used a meeting on Thursday to press the case for a second referendum.

The Government now needs to get serious about making significant changes to their own position, a spokesman said.

The ball is ultimately in their court.

A Conservative Right To Vote campaign for a second EU referendum was launched by MP Phillip Lee, who claimed support for a so-called Peoples Vote was growing fast among his colleagues on the Tory benches.Irelands Foreign Affairs minister has said a no-deal Brexit would become an exercise in damage limitation for the country.

Simon Coveney also said the Irish Government would be intensifying its contingency preparations for a no-deal outcome.

Mr Coveney made the remarks in the Dail on Thursday during statements on Brexit preparedness.

Read the opening statement by Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade @simoncoveney on the Government's #Brexit Preparedness here:



https://t.co/cSaS92fybr



To learn more about Getting Ireland Brexit Ready check out: https://t.co/49RHbsd9dC + @BrexitReadyIRL pic.twitter.com/qSn7crA6AA  Irish Foreign Ministry (@dfatirl) January 17, 2019

Managing a no-deal Brexit would be an exercise in damage limitation, he said.

It would be impossible in a no-deal scenario to maintain the current seamless arrangements between the EU and UK across a full range of sectors, which is currently facilitated by our common EU membership.

Mr Coveney said the EU would continue to seek to be as helpful as possible but the Withdrawal Agreement was not open for renegotiation.

The backstop is an essential part of the Withdrawal Agreement, he told the Dail.

It acts as an insurance policy, to ensure that there is no hard border on this island following Brexit. It is essential.

(PA Graphics)

Mr Coveney said if the UK chose to shift its red lines on leaving the customs union and the single market, and opt for a more ambitious relationship beyond a basic free trade agreement, the EU would be happy to evolve its position.

He said the Irish Government remained focused on securing an orderly and agreed Brexit but, given the uncertainty in London and the increased risks of the UK crashing out of the EU, Dublin would continue to intensify its contingency preparations.

He added that Irelands number one protection from Brexit was the countrys membership of the EU and reiterated that no future relationship between the EU and UK would be as good as the status quo.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald told the Dail that in a no-deal scenario there would be a hard border on the island of Ireland.

Ms McDonald said: In the absence of a backstop  if there is a crash  there will be a hard border, and of course there will be checks.

She accused Mr Coveney and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar of evading the issue time and again.

Ms McDonald said: I appreciate you dont want to be seen as a government that even countenances a hard border on this island but thats what will happen because thats what the EUs rulebook dictates.

So isnt it now time to say out loud, in the absence of a deal there will be a hard border, and to reassert that is unacceptable and unconscionable for everybody here in the Oireachtas and for the Irish people?

She added that the backstop remained the only guarantee there would be no hard border on the island.

That backstop must be defended and it cannot be watered down under any circumstances, she said.

Ms McDonald said the threat posed by Brexit had intensified since the UK Parliament voted against the Withdrawal Agreement, and criticised DUP leader Arlene Foster.

The level of delusion amongst ardent Brexiteers is perhaps best summed up in the commentary of the DUP leader earlier this week, who enlightened us all that, in fact, there was no hard border on the island of Ireland, that it was a figment of our collective imagination.

This is, of course, blatantly untrue and illustrated clearly that Brexiteers are not in the realm of reality.

In a no-deal situation, Ms McDonald said, the only sensible response was for a referendum to be called to give the people in Northern Ireland the right to vote on Irish unity.

Mr Coveney said: This assumption, that if theres a no-deal Brexit because we have an obligation to protect the EU single market and customs union, which we do, well somehow be forced by default to reintroduce border infrastructure, I dont accept that premise because when it comes to the border we have competing responsibilities towards the peace process, towards peaceful relationships, towards an all-island economy.

He said that was understood in London and in Brussels.

He also rejected the argument that there would be no hard border because no one wants one as bogus.

Fianna Fails Lisa Chambers said it was not up to Ireland to bend and weave just because politicians in the UK cannot make up their minds.

The partys Brexit spokeswoman said: The chaos in Westminster provides a stark contrast to the political stability and united front weve displayed here in Ireland.

She added: The UK government now needs to get its act together for all of our sakes.An investigation has been launched after a body was found in the central reservation of the Edinburgh city bypass.

Emergency services were called to the scene between the Sheriffhall Roundabout and the Gilmerton Junction at around 8.20am on Thursday.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police Scotland believe the man may have been there since between 12am and 2am.

DISCOVERY OF BODY ON EDINBURGH CITY BYPASS - APPEAL FOR INFORMATION



We are appeal for information following the discovery of a man's body on the A720 at around 8.20am this morning. Anyone with information is asked to contact us on 101 Read more here - https://t.co/qkM9VY08Fr  Midlothian Police (@MidLothPolice) January 17, 2019

Detective Inspector Keith MacKay said: This is a tragic incident and our thoughts are with the family and friends of the man.

We are eager to establish the full circumstances of this incident. I would ask for anyone who was on the Edinburgh city bypass between 12am and 2am on Thursday and has information that can assist our inquiries to get in touch with us.

Police are investigating the `unexplained death (PA)

I would also appeal for anyone who has a dash-cam with any pertinent footage to get in touch with us and allow us to view it.

The bypass was closed in both directions for around eight hours while initial investigations took place, however it reopened at 4.15pm.

The death is currently being treated as unexplained and a report will be sent to the procurator fiscal.A council worker has died after being hit by a bin lorry in South Lanarkshire.

Emergency services were called to Mount Cameron Drive North in East Kilbride at about 10.15am on Thursday after reports of a man being struck by the vehicle.

Police Scotland and ambulance crews attended but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Council spokesman Michael McGlynn said: We are deeply saddened at the death of our colleague and our sympathies go out to his family, friends and workmates.

We are providing support to those affected by this tragic incident, and the council will of course assist the police with their inquiries.

The health and safety executive has been informed.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene (Niall Carson/PA)

Police Scotland has appealed for anyone with information to come forward.The Scottish Government is working on plans to reintroduce a procedure for removing blood clots from the brains of stoke victims.

Stroke doctors say thrombectomy surgery reduces disability and improves recovery chances, but the procedure was withdrawn in Scotland last year despite being available in other parts of the UK.

Scottish stroke doctors wrote to the Government earlier this week calling for the operation to be available in Scotland again.

At First Ministers Questions on Thursday, Nicola Sturgeon was asked about the Governments response to the plea by Conservative MSP Miles Briggs.

He said: As it stands, Scotland has no thrombectomy services whatsoever  NHS Lothian having withdrawn that service last year.

Ms Sturgeon said an advisory group is working on a plan to reintroduce the operation, and added: We recognise it can significantly improve outcomes and quality of life for people whove suffered an ischemic stroke.

Asked whether she would guarantee stroke victims in Scotland will be able to receive a thrombectomy this year, Ms Sturgeon was unable to give a date for when the operation could be reintroduced but said: What we are working towards is the provision of a service.

This is a relatively new clinical intervention and to ensure services are safe and they deliver high quality to patients, that the proper planning is undertaken.

The advisory group have produced a national planning framework that will provide the basis for developing a framework in Scotland and that framework will be presented to the national planning board this month, and at that point we will be able to take decisions about how we are then going to roll that out.

That is something the Health Secretary will keep the chamber fully updated on.

Stroke patients and their families have waited long enough for a commitment on a #thrombectomy service. After today's #FMQs they still dont have a clear idea of whether we will see a Scottish service in 2019. Help us keep up the campaign https://t.co/pHXYC7e3l2 #NoLifeHalfLived  Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland (@CHSScotland) January 17, 2019

The letter mentioned at FMQs was written by the Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland (CHSS) charity and was signed by 25 doctors who urged the Scottish Government to fund the surgery and set out a timetable for the procedure to be brought back.

CHSS estimates the annual cost of treating the 600 patients who could benefit from the procedure would be between 7.5 million and 10 million, but it argues there would be savings from the reduced need for complex hospital care.

The charitys chief executive Jane-Claire Judson said: It is vital that a thrombectomy service is up and running in 2019.

Too many stroke patients have already been denied this life-changing treatment. They cant wait any longer.

The reality is that right now people with stroke across Scotland are missing out on their best chance of recovery simply because they live north of the border.

That is the worst kind of situation for both doctors and their patients.

This is taking longer than patients would expect and every delay will have real consequences on peoples lives.

Thanks to @MilesBriggsMSP and @MonicaLennon7 for raising with @ScotGovFM today the importance of @scotgov establishing a national thrombectomy service for stroke patients this year - in the meantime 600 people a year are missing out & Scotland lags behind rest of UK and Europe  Kath Byrne (@CHSSKath) January 17, 2019

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: I want us to be able to offer this service in appropriate sites across Scotland.

I asked for the work of the directors of planning looking at that to be brought forward so we have a conclusion from them in January, at which point we will be able to make some decisions about how we are then going to roll that out.A homeless dog cuddled by the Duchess of Sussex during a visit to an animal welfare charity has generated hundreds of enquiries from potential owners.

Meghan took a shine to one-year-old Minnie, a female Jack Russell Terrier, when she toured Mayhew on Wednesday and gathered the dog into her arms when she noticed she was shivering.

With her large baby bump on show, the duchess told staff at the London-based charity she supports as patron: We cant get another dog before the baby, our hands are full.

Harry and Meghan already have a beagle called Guy, a rescue dog the duchess brought from America, and a black Labrador.

You may recognize Minnie, as she received the royal seal of approval yesterday.  We're delighted to say that this sweet-natured 1-year-old Jack Russell Terrier is now ready to find her forever home!

Head here to get to know Minnie.  https://t.co/AyUto5uiLt pic.twitter.com/4O2bgpXhcq  Mayhew  (@themayhew) January 17, 2019

Minnie has now been reserved by one animal lover who is being vetted.

Her adoption profile was posted on the charitys website on Wednesday and a spokeswoman said: Weve enjoyed an approximate 40% increase in calls, not just relating to adoption but across all our service areas  from people requiring veterinary help, to wanting to arrange a visit from our therapy dogs and asking for advice on reporting strays.

The Duchess of Sussex meets a Jack Russell called Minnie during a visit to Mayhew, an animal welfare charity she is now supporting as patron. Eddie Mulholland/Daily Telegraph

Weve had hundreds of calls about Minnie specifically, and are currently speaking to a potential owner to arrange a home visit and suitability checks.

Minnie has been reserved in anticipation of these being completed over the coming weeks.

From volunteering to attending an event to becoming a foster carer  do something amazing for animals in need and support the fantastic work of @TheMayhew: https://t.co/ZGwXSqUk83 pic.twitter.com/yFPxEWCp7X  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) January 16, 2019

The profile for the dog, taken to the charity in November after it was no longer wanted by its owner, said: Sweet-natured Minnie is a shy and sensitive girl who can be timid around strangers and gets spooked by loud noises.

However once she knows you shes extremely affectionate and likes to climb up on to your lap to give kisses, and she also loves a tummy rub!

Mayhew was founded in 1886 and today sees itself as an animal welfare social worker, keeping cats and dogs  whether family pets or companions for the homeless  safe and well alongside their owners, and supporting communities.

It has a pet refuge service, provides vet services to vulnerable owners and has a team of animal welfare officers who work in the community.

The spokeswoman said the charity had also seen an increase in walk-ins on Thursday afternoon with people wanting to meet all available animals for adoption.A critically ill rare turtle is being cared for at a Co Down seal sanctuary.

The young loggerhead turtle was found by a father and daughter off the coast of Co Donegal in the Irish Republic on Sunday.

It is believed the turtle got lost after being carried hundreds of miles by the Gulf Stream from its native warmer waters to the west coast of Ireland.

A spokeswoman for Exploris Aquarium said its seal rescue team made a five-hour trip from to Donegal from their Portaferry base in the early hours of Monday after receiving reports of the stranded turtle.

She described the incident as very rare for Northern Ireland.

The condition of the turtle has been described as critical and it is receiving round-the-clock care for cold stunning.

Loggerhead turtle are accustomed to warmer waters (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Juvenile loggerhead turtles should be in the middle of the Atlantic in warm waters where there is plenty of food, not returning to shores until they are approximately seven to 12 years old, she said.

The individual currently at Portaferry is likely to have been caught in the Gulf Stream, travelling several hundred miles away from its home.

Aquarium curator Peter Williams has issued an appeal to the public to watch for any other loggerhead turtles off the Irish coast.

If you come across anything please get in touch with Exploris Aquarium immediately on 028 4272 8062, he said.

The aquarium says that due to its critical condition the loggerhead cannot be seen by visitors.A 21-year-old woman has been charged after a six-year-old was injured in a road collision in Aberdeen.

The incident happened on Skene Street, behind His Majestys Theatre, at around 4.40pm on Wednesday.

Police Scotland said the boy suffered minor injuries in the collision involving an Audi car.

Sergeant Peter Henderson said: We are grateful to members of the public who assisted while inquiries were carried out.Jeremy Corbyn has urged his MPs not to engage with the Government over a Brexit deal after at least three prominent backbenchers took up an offer of talks with ministers.

The Labour leader sent a letter to members of the parliamentary party after Hilary Benn, Yvette Cooper and John Mann all visited the Cabinet Office in Whitehall on Thursday.

Their visits came just hours after Mr Corbyn had used a speech in Hastings to reiterate his demand that a no-deal Brexit must be ruled out before he would take up Theresa Mays offer of talks.

In front of around 200 activists in Hastings he blasted the offer of cross-party Brexit talks as a stunt, before being applauded by Labour supporters for saying that a second referendum was still an option.

In his letter to MPs Mr Corbyn thanked them for their support in the debates against Mrs Mays Withdrawal Agreement and then in the defeated no confidence vote on Wednesday.

Corbyn's message to Labour MPs telling them not to "engage" with the government until the threat of "no-deal" is removed comes in a full letter to the PLP.



See message telling them to refrain from talking to May/ Barclay/ Lidington right at the end  pic.twitter.com/jS5GLRJTSR  Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) January 17, 2019

In signing off he said no-deal would be disastrous and must be off the table, adding: I urge colleagues to respect that condition and refrain from engagement with the Government until no deal is taken off the table.

Both Mr Benn, who said he wanted to see if there was an open mind behind the offer of talks as he went in, and Ms Cooper echoed Mr Corbyns demands on no-deal as they left the Cabinet office later on Thursday afternoon.

Labour MPs Hilary Benn and Yvette Cooper in Whitehall, London outside the Cabinet Office, after the Prime Minister announced that she would invite party leaders in the Commons and other MPs in for discussion to get a Parliamentary consensus on the way forward over Brexit (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The chairman of the Exiting the EU Committee told reporters: The Government knows as well as anybody else the damage that would be caused by no deal so why continue to pretend that they might be prepared to take the UK out of the EU on March 29 without an agreement?

The essential first step is for the Government to say we will not do that because its in nobodys interest for that to happen.

Ms Cooper, the Home Affairs Committee chairwoman, added: I think the damage no deal would do would be so huge to our manufacturing industry, but also our policing and security, and thats why we had a vote in Parliament to say the Government should not be going ahead with no deal.

The opposition leader had earlier told an audience in East Sussex that the Prime Minister had made no serious attempt to engage with the new reality that is needed to get a Withdrawal Agreement through Parliament.

In a direct message to Mrs May, Mr Corbyn said: Take no-deal off the table now please, Prime Minister.

He reiterated Labours preference for a general election and a Brexit deal on its terms, including a permanent customs union, close links to the single market and protections for workers and the environment.

Jeremy Corbyn was applauded when he said all options, including a second referendum, remained open (Gareth Fuller/PA)

To clapping from the floor, he added: If the Government remains intransigent, if support for Labours alternative is blocked for party advantage and the country is facing the potential disaster of no-deal, our duty will then be to look at other options which we set out in our confidence motion, including that of a public vote.

However, taking questions after his speech at the venue on Hastings seafront, he left open the question of which side Labour would campaign on in a public vote.

If a second referendum should take place, then obviously the party will decide what role we will play in that and what our view would be, he said.

But I cant really go along with the idea it should simply be a re-run of what happened in 2016. There has to be a discussion about the options that we put forward and weve put forward the three options that Ive outlined.

.@Theresa_May, take a No Deal Brexit off the table. pic.twitter.com/VFwXR8hmRC  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) January 17, 2019

Mr Corbyn said he had written to the Prime Minister on Thursday setting out his position.

He confirmed that Labour will table amendments to Mondays motion, putting forward its preferred solution of a customs union with a voice for the UK in future EU trade deals, a close single market relationship and protections for rights.

He held open the possibility of an extension of the Article 50 negotiation period, saying: Quite clearly, if no agreement has been reached within the time it could be implemented by the end of March, the issue of extending the exit date, extending Article 50, does come into play.

Indications are that that may well be the case.

Labour MP John Mann leaving the Cabinet Office (Victoria Jones/PA)

Mrs May later replied to his letter and questioned his decision to ask MPs not to take part in talks.

She wrote: You have always believed in the importance of dialogue in politics.

Do you really believe that, as well as declining to meet for talks yourself, it is right to ask your MPs not to seek a solution with the Government?

Mr Mann, a Leave-supporting Labour MP and long-term Corbyn critic, came out of the Cabinet Office an hour after the leaders speech.

Apparently Corbyn is prepared to hold talks with Hamas, Hezbollah, Assad and Iran without preconditions. But not with the UK Prime Minister. Why ? https://t.co/zcvxkptw7U  Mike Gapes (@MikeGapes) January 17, 2019

Another backbench Labour critic, the east London MP Mike Gapes, criticised the party leaders attitude to talks, tweeting: Apparently Corbyn is prepared to hold talks with Hamas, Hezbollah, Assad and Iran without preconditions. But not with the UK Prime Minister. Why?Everton manager Marco Silva admits there will be more departures than arrivals this month as he has been told by the clubs board that finances are not available for new signings.

Out-of-favour striker Oumar Niasse is edging closer to a loan move to Cardiff, which would leave the Toffees boss with Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Cenk Tosun and winger-turned-forward Richarlison as his options up front.

The trio have just 17 goals between them  of which Richarlison has scored nine  but there will be no reinforcements coming in January.

It is not my job to change my mind, said Silva.

When you asked me the last few weeks the possible players coming or not in the market, I told you that you just cant sign someone if someone leaves the club or we sell someone.

We dont have the financial conditions to go in the market, (that) is the feedback I have at the moment. I have to find different solutions.

Evertons Oumar Niasse is set for a loan move to Cardiff (Dave Howarth/PA)

That will not prevent Niasse leaving if a deal is thrashed out with their Premier League rivals.

The 28-year-old Senegalese has had a bit-part role at the club since arriving in a 14million deal in January 2016, going out on loan to Hull two years ago.

He has made just seven appearances this season but only one start and has featured in the matchday squad just 10 times in 25 games this season.

Strong interest coming from Cardiff. But nothing is done yet, Silva added.

We have to wait to see if the teams go this way or not but I can tell you the interest is strong.

Silva, however, is not planning a huge clear out and insists the likes of Phil Jagielka, currently injured, and midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin still have a future at the club.

Club captain Jagielka has made just two appearances, the last in November, and has featured in the squad a total of five times.

Schneiderlins record is not much better with nine appearances, all-but one of which came before November, and 11 squad selections in 25 matches.

Their future is here with me, every day working hard like they are, the Portuguese manager said.

Jagielka started playing the first game, Schneiderlin played the first few games. After that it is a matter of performance.

Their future will be here to play again and help us win matches.

Jagielka is our captain and is an important player in our dressing room. Morgan is a senior player also.

I can only put 18 in the squad list. If you look at other squads in the Premier League and they play with two central defenders, most of them, one on the bench and the other one will be out.

I think it is not just us.The Education Authority has defended dropping an Irish language translation from its logo.

The public body, which administers the education system in Northern Ireland, was created in 2015, replacing the five former Education and Library Boards following the Review of Public Administration.

It previously used branding which included Irish and Ulster Scots translations.

The Education Authority previously used a logo which included Irish and Ulster Scots. (EA/PA)

But the Education Authority (EA) now uses a logo which does not include any additional translations.

The EA said when it was established in April 2015, logos with both mono-lingual and tri-lingual options were drafted in line with Northern Ireland Executive guidelines.

But in 2016, its then chief executive Gavin Boyd took the decision to use the mono-lingual option in line with the Department of Education practice at the time.

An EA spokeswoman added: The style and use of a corporate logo is entirely an operational matter for EA.

Democratic Unionist MLA Peter Weir was education minister in 2016, replacing Sinn Feins John ODowd who served in the post from 2011 to 2016, and had been an advocate of the Irish language.

Former education minister Peter Weir (PA)

There has not been a minister heading the department since January 2017 when powersharing government in Stormont collapsed due to a breakdown in relations between the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein.

Numerous attempts at political talks to resurrect the Northern Ireland Assembly have been unsuccessful, with the Irish language among the sticking points between the two leading parties.

Sinn Fein MLA Karen Mullan has called for the logo decision to be reversed.

The education system must be inclusive and for everyone in our society, including those who wish to be educated through the medium of Irish, she said.

Government departments also have a duty to promote the Irish language and that includes the use of bilingual logos and Irish on official documentation.Irish airline Aer Lingus has unveiled its first rebrand in over twenty years to reflect a new, changing Ireland.

A promotional video documenting the process of making the changes to the brand, referenced the marriage equality and the abortion referendums, seen as seismic changes in the country in the last five years.

Just as Ireland continues to evolve, inspire and continues to define its place in the modern world, so should our airline, as Ireland strives, so strive Aer Lingus, the video stated.

Bosses at the airline spoke about the importance of passengers emotional connection to the brand, while cementing the companys place on the world stage as a leading value carrier.

Mike Rutter, chief operating officer, said: Any new imagining of the brand must remain true to those who feel the brand is part of their life and landscape, were also deeply aware the brand must reflect Ireland in 2019, a society that is open, progressive, liberal, outward-looking and dynamic.

An Ireland that is proudly European and has become the destination of choice for inward investment where English language, a high quality educated workforce and a commitment to Europe are the key decisioning points.

A view of an Aer Lingus A330 displaying the new branding (Brian Lawless/PA)

Mr Rutter added staff are being put through training and cultural change programmes.

The changes, which were undertaken following results from 26 focus groups across different sections of passengers, include a new version of the iconic shamrock logo and colour scheme for aircraft.

It was noted the original colour scheme proved much beloved in Ireland. However internationally, respondents said that it looked like the airline could get you to Ireland but not to New York.

The unveiling, which happened at Dublin airport on Thursday, displayed a newly painted A330-300 series aircraft.

A new look, for a new ambition #ThisIsAerLingus pic.twitter.com/3ZCdq19K7P  Aer Lingus (@AerLingus) January 17, 2019

The airline claims the aim of the update is a refreshed vision of modern Ireland, to give the brand a more dynamic image as it continue expanding into the North Atlantic market.

The 400-plus changes are in the early stages but the air carrier hopes to have the new look across the business completed by 2021.

The website and app will see the changes instantaneously, beginning on Thursday, as will passenger check-in areas and boarding gates.

New uniforms, designed by Irish designer Louise Kennedy, will be unveiled later in the year.

Chief executive officer Sean Doyle would not say how much the rebrand cost, but added that reports suggesting it was in the region of two million euro were false.

He said the overall price was less than that and was value for money.US President Donald Trumps lawyer has said he has never said there was no collusion between Russia and members of Mr Trumps 2016 presidential campaign.

Rudy Giulianis comments on CNN directly contradict the position of his own client, who has repeatedly insisted there was no collusion during his successful White House run.

Mr Giuliani himself has described the idea of Russian collusion as total fake news.

It was not clear whether Mr Giuliani was reflecting a new position or talking point from the Trump legal team or was making a strategic attempt to get ahead of potentially damaging findings from special counsel Robert Mueller.

Mr Mueller has been investigating potential co-ordination between Russia and the presidents campaign.

Mr Giuliani said that even if some on the campaign did something wrong, the president was not part of any collusion.

Rudy Giuliani (John Stillwell/PA)

There is not a single bit of evidence the president of the United States committed the only crime you could commit here, conspired with the Russians to hack the DNC, Mr Giuliani said, referring to the Democratic National Committee.

In a statement aimed at clarifying the comments, Mr Giuliani said: I represent only President Trump not the Trump campaign.

There was no collusion by President Trump in any way, shape or form.

Likewise, I have no knowledge of any collusion by any of the thousands of people who worked on the campaign.

He repeated, without elaboration, his claim of collusion between Hillary Clintons campaign and Russia that he said had been ignored.

The comments on collusion came after Mr Giuliani was reminded of prosecutors allegations that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had lied about sharing campaign polling data with an associate US authorities have tied to Russian intelligence.

So far, Mr Mueller has charged 33 people, including five Trump associates and 32 Russians accused of interfering in the election either through hacking or through a hidden social media campaign aimed at swaying American public opinion.

Mr Giuliani also said the Trump legal team had told Mr Mueller that the president would not answer any additional questions from prosecutors.

Mr Trump has so far answered only a limited number of questions in writing.

Mr Trumps lawyers have balked at the idea of a face-to-face interview with Mr Muellers office or having Mr Trump questioned about potential obstruction of justice or other actions he took as president.

William Barr, Mr Trumps nominee for attorney general, told the Senate Judiciary Committee this week that he would not interfere with a Mueller request to subpoena the president to compel his testimony if there was a factual basis for doing it.Planning for Brexit has been a game-changer for Scotlands police force as it prepares to recruit 120 more officers, the Justice Secretary has said.

Humza Yousaf told MSPs the draft would take place in this financial year to ensure capacity and resilience is in place to prepare against a range of contingencies associated with Brexit.

Mr Yousaf was questioned about budget plans at a meeting of the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing at Holyrood on Thursday.

Labours Daniel Johnson asked about future spending deficits given that the Scottish Police Authority overspent by 38 million in 2017-18.

Humza Yousaf was questioned by MSPs at Holyrood (Andrew Milligan/PA)

The Justice Secretary replied: No-deal Brexit planning, and Brexit planning generally, has been a complete game-changer.

Any reduction in police officer numbers, its my understanding, for the next financial year, or the first half of that financial year, will be halted.

So therefore, potentially has the impact of having an impact on the deficit reduction plans.

Until we know what kind of Brexit we are looking at, what kind of deal were looking at, clearly thats going to have an impact on every single one of our public services, and Police Scotland is not immune to that.

Tory MSP Margaret Mitchell asked whether the Scottish Government had looked at recruiting retired officers to bring in their expertise over the Brexit period.

Mr Yousaf said that would be a decision for the chief constable and Scottish Police Authority.

He said: My understanding is that they are in a good position to bring forward the recruitment of those 120 officers.

I dont know whether theyre looking at retired officers. I dont think thats the case but Id have to get further clarification.

There were 17,147 full-time equivalent officers in Scotland at the end of September  the lowest level in almost a decade.

Police Scotland had previously announced it would slow recruitment between 2018 and 2020 amid a funding gap.

Responding to a question on whether Brexit could impact on any future recruitment, Mr Yousaf said: Police Scotland have been doing a trawl of the staff and officers to determine how many EU citizens they have as part of Police Scotland.

Theres no doubt from earlier work I have seen around our Brexit planning, that EU citizens make a great contribution to our police service, both in staff and in officer terms.Electronics giant Philips is to close its Glemsford factory and transfer its operations to the Netherlands, putting 430 jobs at risk and dealing a major blow to Brexit Britain.

Philips said that it is proposing to close the site near Sudbury in Suffolk, which makes baby bottles, in 2020 and to transfer the majority of its operations to a manufacturing factory in Drachten, the Netherlands.

The decision comes just months after the companys chief executive Frans van Houten expressed his concerns about Britain maintaining frictionless trade following Brexit.

He said in November that the UK as a manufacturing hub for the world would be at risk without a customs union as a minimum.

If that were not to happen we would need to rethink our manufacturing footprint, Mr van Houten said at the time.

The Glemsford site manufactures products for export outside the UK, which is now in jeopardy as Theresa May looks to extricate the UK from the EU single market.

Bye bye baby: bottle making factory to close (PA)

Philips also said the UK factory closure is part of plans to reduce its global industrial footprint from 50 sites to 30.

Staff are now in redundancy consultation.

I recognise that our proposed plan will have a profound impact on our colleagues working at the Glemsford site, and our manufacturing presence in the UK, said Neil Mesher, chief executive of Philips UK & Ireland.

We have announced the proposal after careful consideration, and over the next period, we will work closely with the impacted colleagues on next steps.

Philips has a long, established history of serving customers within the UK, and we remain committed to them. The UK is an important market for us, and we will continue to invest in our commercial organisation and innovation programmes in the country.A teenage girl has been arrested after an alleged knife attack on a boy at school.

The incident happened at around 10am on Thursday in Dumfries and Galloway.

Police Scotland said the boy suffered a superficial injury in the incident.

Officers recovered a blade and the girl was arrested.

A report is to be sent to the procurator fiscal.

A Dumfries and Galloway Council spokesman said: The incident was dealt with quickly and appropriately. The school operated normally for the rest of the day.

The incident occurred on Thursday morning (PA)

Police Scotland is investigating the matter and a report is being prepared for the procurator fiscal.

It would be wholly inappropriate for us to make any further comment.

Local councillor John Martin said: Its a very rare occurrence and I just hope it wont happen again.

Conservative Dumfriesshire MSP Oliver Mundell said: It is always disturbing to learn of any such incident in a school, particularly one in my own constituency.

Thankfully such reports are rare and the police will have to complete their investigation to establish the circumstances.

My thoughts are with pupils, staff and parents at a difficult time.Leicester manager Claude Puel is happy for punters to keep wasting their money by betting on his future.

The Frenchman has been under fire at the King Power Stadium, despite the Foxes sitting eighth in the Premier League.

They were booed off after a 2-1 defeat to Southampton on Saturday and head to Wolves this weekend.

Puel is the 2/5 favourite to be the next Premier League manager to lose his job and wants any bets to lose.

The common thread, in all the press conferences, I cannot manage this speculation, he said.

Its often people have a lot of bets about my future, I am sorry for people who made this bet because they lost a lot of money. I hope this situation continues.

Leicester manager Claude Puel has been under fire from fans (Mike Egerton/PA)

Ive not got a problem with the fans feelings, we have the same feeling. We were angry about our last performance and we lost the credit of our last (home) result (a 2-1 win over Manchester City).

But Puel remained calm after Jamie Vardy attempted to scare him in training on Thursday.

The striker dressed up as Spiderman and jumped out at the boss from behind the bushes at Belvoir Drive, which was filmed by the club, but Puel was unmoved.

He said: We need a superhero I think and he dressed up. Its a good thing to smile about. They had a day off yesterday and came back with a smile.

We know Jamie, he wanted to take the focus off the team. I am not surprised about him.

Puel has been boosted by Jonny Evans swift return from a toe injury after missing the Southampton defeat.

Defender Evans was expected to be missing until the end of February but the injury is not as bad as first feared.

He can come back to the squad, said Puel, who is without Daniel Amartey (broken ankle).

It was not a serious injury and he will be in the squad tomorrow. Of course its a boost when a player comes back quicker, I am happy.An emotive and provocative television documentary about the work of a charity led to alleged abuse victims coming forward and sparked thousands of requests for access to records, an inquiry has been told.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) heard the BBC documentary from the mid-1990s on the work of Barnardos triggered 5,500 requests for the paperwork over a couple of years.

It prompted a quick learning process within the organisation and took several years for all the inquiries to be worked through, the probe was told.

It was also claimed that some of the former Barnardos residents involved in the documentary were traumatised by the making of the programme.

The SCAI in Edinburgh has been conducting a case study since October examining the care given to youngsters living in non-religious and voluntary residential institutions, namely Aberlour, Quarriers and Barnardos.

Giving evidence to the inquiry on Thursday was Kate Roach, a service manager with Barnardos working in the field of after care.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry continues to hear evidence in front of Lady Smith (Nick Mailer/PA)

James Peoples QC, a senior counsel to the inquiry, told the hearing the documentary on the past and then-present work of Barnardos was aired in July 1995.

Reading from a statement submitted by the organisation, he said: By December, Barnardos had received 4,000 inquiries for access to records from former residents. When the documentaries were repeated in 1997, a further 1,500 inquiries were received.

Ms Roach told how a producer with the broadcaster had gone to view Barnardos photograph archive when they were looking to make a programme about Diana, Princess of Wales.

On becoming captivated by the old pictures, they decided to make a documentary about the history of Barnardos.

She told how, during a difficult process, the BBC advertised for people who had lived with Barnardos to take part in the filming and around 800 people put their names forward.

However, only a small handful were taken on, including a group from a home in England where quite a lot hadnt been right for a while.

Ms Roach said the charitys then head of after care had been present at some of the filming and was eventually able to forge relationships with these people who had been totally traumatised by the making of the programme.

She said: We did our best to try and support those individuals.

She described the first two episodes of the documentary as extremely emotive and provocative and said a support system was put in place, including publication of a telephone number.

The witness said: At the end of the programme, as soon as the phone number was put up, all the lights lit up for days afterwards with inquiries coming in.

Because of the emotive nature, many of those inquiries were people who had experienced abuse.

We had to learn very quickly how to respond to those people.

We knew there would be people who would respond. I dont think we knew quite how many would respond.

The 4,000 inquiries with us werent all people who had experienced abuse  far from it. We took the decision to prioritise those who made allegations of abuse.

It took us several years to work through all of those inquiries.

David Beard, Barnardos head of corporate safeguarding, later talked through the systems in place to address any allegations of abuse against current or former employees.

He told how the organisation would still conduct its own internal review of processes, regardless of what police or other agencies decide to do.

A key principle is to listen to allegations of historical abuse, take them seriously and take action, the inquiry was told.

Mr Beard said: Children and young people who have been in the care of Barnardos, if they have suffered abuse then we have an organisational responsibility to support them and investigate it.

If they have had a negative experience in our care then thats something we have a responsibility to own, to investigate, to apologise for if its proven.

The inquiry, before Lady Smith, continues on Friday.The National Trust is launching a project inspired by the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre to explore landscapes and places linked with dramatic social change.

Projects involving artists including Jarvis Cocker and Bob and Roberta Smith will take place at five National Trust properties for the peoples landscapes programme, with Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller as artistic adviser.

They include two properties, Dunham Massey and Quarry Bank in Cheshire, which have links to the protest in Manchester in 1819, when a cavalry charge of thousands of pro-democracy and anti-poverty protesters left 18 dead.

View of the south front of Dunham Massey (National Trust Images/Matthew Antrobus)

Kinder Scout, in the Peak District, site of the mass trespass in 1932, the Tolpuddle Martyrs tree in Dorset, the symbolic birthplace of the trade unions movement, and the Durham coast which has been shaped by its mining heritage will also be in the spotlight.

The massacre of protesters gathered in St Peters Field in Manchester, which also injured nearly 700 people, was a catalyst for movements for parliamentary reform and workers rights.

Samuel Greg, founder of Quarry Bank cotton mill 12 miles from Manchester, and his son Robert saw the clash from close quarters and opposed the subsequent cover-up of events.

George Harry Grey, 6th Earl of Stamford and Warrington and owner of Dunham Massey in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, was Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire and head of the countys magistrates and militia, though he was not there on the day.

The National Trust is working with artist family Grace Surman and Gary Winters and their two young children Hope and Merrick on artwork inspired by conversations with people about rights and power to create change.

The Tolpuddle Martyrs were six agricultural labours who met under a sycamore tree in Tolpuddle in Dorset to discuss poor wages and conditions, and were sentenced to seven years hard labour in Australia for swearing a secret oath as part of forming a union.

Tolpuddle Martyrs Tree, Dorset (National Trust Images/Andrew Butler)

Artist Bob and Roberta Smith will look at how ordinary people, such as the Tolpuddle Martyrs whose conviction prompted mass protest which saw them pardoned and freed, can create change.

Kinder Scout, which is cared for by the National Trust, will be the focus of a series of events exploring the protest in which a group of walkers trespassed onto private land  which led eventually to public access to the countryside and the creation of the national parks.

The Trust is working with Jarvis Cocker, who has personal connections with the Peak District which he used to visit as a child, on bringing people on a journey of discovery from nearby towns and cities to the landscape.

The peoples landscape programme will also focus on five miles of the Durham coastline looked after by the National Trust, which has transformed from an industrial area with black beaches to become a haven for wildlife.

Easington was once home to one of the largest coal mines in Europe, and film and photography collective Amber will work with local people to explore its mining heritage, the impact of the miners strike and its aftermath.

John Orna-Ornstein, director of culture and engagement at the National Trust, said the peoples landscape programme would use contemporary arts to celebrate places which served as a backdrop to social and political change.

Our places are so much about that connection between people and an individual place and individual stories that come out of that.

The Peterloo Massacre seemed a challenging but appropriate launch point, he said.

He said it was important to have a theme that resonated outdoors as well as with collections in houses, but said the Trust was not aligning itself with left-wing politics in its choice of the peoples landscape programme.

Its just a conscious decision to find the stories that resonate most closely with our places and to do so in an interesting way with contemporary artists.

Theres absolutely no intention to take one particular focus or another in terms of politics.Spanish rescuers frantically racing to reach a two-year-old boy trapped in a borehole are clinging to the hope of finding him alive despite massive setbacks in getting to the bottom of the deep and narrow cavity.

The operation to rescue Julen Rosello from the shaft has gripped Spain since he fell into it on Sunday during a family meal in the countryside north east of Malaga.

Adults cannot fit in the 110-metre (360ft) deep, 25 cm (10in) diameter hole and machinery hit an obstruction of hardened soil and a stone about two-thirds of the way down.

Rescue teams have been unable to break through without endangering the child.

Maria Gamez, the Spanish governments representative in the Malaga province, vowed the search would continue until the boy is saved.

We are not going to stop even one minute, Ms Gamez said.

Nobody in the rescue team is putting in doubt that we will bring him out, and we all remain confident that he will be alive.

No vocal contact has been made with Julen.

The only sign of him that search-and-rescue teams have found so far is hair that matched his DNA.

Emergency services near the scene in Totalan, Malaga (Gregorio Marrero/AP)

Officials think he might have slid under the obstruction that is blocking the way down.

The leading engineer in the search, Angel Garcia, said that creating an alternative access point involved days of digging work that normally would take months and technical surveying of terrains.

Mr Garcia, head of the provincial civil engineers association, told reporters at the site in Totalan that workers will dig two parallel vertical tunnels.

That plan came up after a horizontal hole bored in the past 24 hours from a hillside hit heavy stone.

The digging will not begin until at least early on Friday so a platform for heavy machinery can be put in place, Mr Garcia said.

The engineer warned the work was extremely difficult and could be hampered by rain that is forecast for coming days.A woman has been refused an abortion at a hospital in Dublin, the Irish Parliament has been told.

The claim comes just two weeks after abortion became legal in Ireland.

Irish Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Ruth Coppinger said the pregnant woman received news that her foetus had fatal abnormalities.

She described the matter while speaking in Dail Eireann on Thursday as the first test case for the new abortion legislation, which became law on January 1.

I've just raised the case of a women who was denied a termination for fatal foetal abnormalities despite 2 consultants agreeing. The hospital asking for her to wait 4 weeks, where it's likely she'll miscarry. Woman is considering travel to UK. #repealedthe8th #dubw #legisl8  Ruth Coppinger (@RuthCoppingerSP) January 17, 2019

I have been contacted by a woman who has a fatal foetal abnormality that has been certified by two consultants  and now it appears that the board of the Coombe Hospital is refusing her constitutional right which we all voted for, to have an abortion at a time she chooses, Ms Coppinger told the Dail.

Instead they have told her that she must wait another four weeks to see if there is a spontaneous miscarriage.

Now, this is precisely the case that was brought to national attention that led to pressure and demands for repeal of the eighth amendment.

Coombe Womens Hospital in Dublin (PA)

At 13 weeks, this woman went for her 12-week scan. They could clearly see at that point that the organs of the foetus were outside the body.

Ms Coppinger said the woman is now considering travelling to Great Britain to get an abortion.

The Dails Speaker (Ceann Comhairle) Sean O Fearghail told Ms Coppinger that it was not appropriate to discuss a medical situation in the Dail.

Ms Coppinger insisted: This is about the law.

Her Irish SolidarityPeople Before Profit colleague Brid Smith also spoke up for the woman, who is believed to be from Dublin.

Shes pregnant on a much wanted baby. But she is being told by doctors you can go to England, she said,

Her words to me were this is not what I voted for. I have constitutional rights.

Legislation providing for abortions up to 12 weeks without restriction was signed into law in the Republic of Ireland on December 20 by President Michael D Higgins, following a landslide vote in favour of liberalising the countrys strict laws.

Abortion services were introduced on January 1 .Shes won a confidence vote but seen her Brexit deal eviscerated by MPs in the greatest parliamentary humiliation of a serving prime minister in the modern era.

So where now for Theresa May and where now for the UK?

Reminder: there are now just 71 days until Brexit.

Prime Minister Theresa May speaking outside 10 Downing Street in London after MPs rejected Labours motion of no confidence by 325 votes to 306 (Yui Mok/PA)

Here we look at what could happen next:

 Theresa May resigns: About as likely as a calm, logical tweet from US President Donald Trump. While the PM has said she will not lead the Tories into another general election, she has consistently ruled out quitting before Brexit.

 Plan B is activated: The Prime Minister has yet to reveal what her fallback position is, assuming she has one. Not even senior Cabinet ministers seem to know. Under the terms of an amendment tabled by Dominic Grieve last week and controversially passed by MPs, she has until Monday to present a new plan to the Commons.

(PA Graphics)

-Its good to talk: Mrs May has offered to talk to opposition parties and groups with different desires and views to find consensus in Parliament. But her refusal to abandon no-deal Brexit and other leaders refusal to speak properly until she does, suggests they will be butting heads like furious elephant seals unless one of them yields the metaphorical beach.

 Confidence vote 2.0: The opposition can in theory call as many of these votes as they like, although the Lib Dems have said they will not support another as they believe it is a waste of time. Such a vote could trigger a general election but this is very much the nuclear option for Tory rebels and the DUP have already said they will not vote with Labour, so it appears to be a forlorn hope.

Prime Minister Theresa May and EU President Jean-Claude Juncker at a press conference at the EU Commission in Brussels last year (Etienne Ansotte/EU/PA)

 Back to Brussels for more talks: The EU has said repeatedly that it will not reopen negotiations on the Withdrawal Agreement, and assurances on the Irish border backstop were dismissed by Brexiteers on Monday. There is little time and no clear indication what more the EU can or wants to offer. France has stepped up its no-deal preparations.

 Asking for an extension of Article 50: Mrs May has previously insisted almost to the point of foot-stamping that Britain will leave the EU on March 29, and a U-turn here would enrage already puce Brexiteers.

 Halting Article 50: A court case last year ruled that, while all 27 other EU states have to agree to extend the Article 50 process of leaving, the UK can unilaterally reverse it. Neither the Tories nor Labour support a halt but Philip Hammond reportedly told business leaders in a conference call on Wednesday that a bill being rustled up by backbenchers would have this as its aim.

The ticket barriers at Westminster Underground station in London with advertisements for the Peoples Vote campaign, which calls for a second referendum on membership of the European Union (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

 A second referendum: Labour members at conference left the door open to supporting a new vote on leaving if the party could not trigger a general election. Mr Corbyn was applauded by Labour activists when he pointed this out in a speech on Thursday. But he also indicated he would rather leave with a Labour-flavoured Withdrawal Agreement.

 A game of Boles: Tory former minister Nick Boles has plans for a new bill that would basically allow backbench MPs to wrestle control of the Brexit process if Theresa May loses Tuesdays vote and cannot come up with a viable alternative. But it appears to have very little support.

 No-deal Brexit: If Theresa May loses and Parliament cannot come together behind an alternative, the UK will leave the European Union on March 29 without a deal. This is something to either be afraid of, or not afraid of, depending on your view of Brexit.The organisers of a Brexit conference have defended not inviting unionist politicians, insisting the event will instead rebalance their misrepresentation of public opinion in Northern Ireland.

The Beyond Brexit gathering in Belfast is the latest initiative by Irelands Future  a collective of Irish citizens living in the region seeking to highlight the potential impact of Brexit on their rights and livelihoods.

The movement has already sent a number of open letters outlining its concerns to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar signed by a range of prominent figures, including actors, academics, musicians, business leaders, professional athletes, entrepreneurs, lawyers, teachers and doctors.

Among the confirmed speakers at the conference at the Waterfront Hall on Saturday January 26 are Irish Education Minister Joe McHugh, Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald, Fianna Fails deputy leader Dara Calleary and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood.

A major conference, Beyond Brexit: The Future of Ireland, described as the most important constitutional gathering in a generation, will take place in Belfasts Waterfront on Sat 26th January. All are welcome to attend this momentous gathering organised by Irelands Future pic.twitter.com/LIqeVAelS5  Ireland's Future - Todhchai na hEireann (@IrelandsFuture) January 17, 2019

At a launch event in Belfast on Thursday, co-organiser Niall Murphy confirmed unionist politicians had not been asked to address the audience.

The Belfast-based solicitor said representatives of civic unionism would be participating in panel discussions and insisted the conference was open for everyone to attend.

There are people of unionist heritage who will be on some of the panels but the reality of the situation is that political unionism has presented an expression in the debate in Westminster which is not representative of how the referendum unfolded here, he said.

We collectively voted to remain in the EU and political unionism has given a definitive expression to promote Brexit.

We think that that is inconsistent with the majority view and we consider that the convention of this conference provides an opportunity to rebalance that inequity.

He added: Political unionism has set its face against rights, against progressive, inclusive politics and has misrepresented the outcome of the referendum. This jurisdiction voted to remain and that is not being appropriately represented.

Solictor Niall Murphy accused unionist politicians of misrepresenting Northern Irelands position on Brexit (David Young/PA)

Mr Murphy, who launched the event alongside political commentator Brian Feeney, denied the movement was a front for a pro-united Ireland agenda.

The lawyer, who made clear Irelands Future would not be organising as a political party, said the issue of reunification would likely feature in the conference, but it was not its primary purpose.

The purpose of the conference is to specifically consider and debate what Brexit is imposing on us and for us to have a mature opportunity to respond to that, he said.

That a border poll might feature in part of that response is entirely foreseeable and reasonable.

When the first of three letters to the Taoiseach was published the grouping was referred to as a representation of civic nationalism.

Mr Murphy said they were attempting to move away from that description, claiming the movement had become much broader.

Its responsive to the engagements we have been having, he said.

Going forward this is a conversation which is for all of society. This conversation is open for everybody and we hope and trust that everybody will partake it.

He added: It is a movement for everybody that wants to embrace their EU citizenship via their Irish citizenship.The number of people from Europe visiting Scotland rose 22% in the year to the end of September, according to the latest figures.

Over that period spending by European visitors in Scotland also increased, rising by 7%, from 1.08 billion to 1.15 billion.

Culture and tourism secretary Fiona Hyslop said overseas visitors are a huge asset.

She also said the Scottish Government will do all it can to ensure that European visitors can continue to travel to Scotland freely despite the challenges posed by Brexit.

There were 2.26 million visitors from Europe in the year to the end of September 2018.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed a 14.3% increase in overseas overnight visits to Scotland, which rose from 3.1 to 3.5 million over that period.

The number of European visitors to Scotland rose in the year to the end of September 2018 (Jane Barlow/PA)

There was a 3.3% increase in overseas tourism expenditure in Scotland, which rose from 2.18 to 2.25 billion.

Ms Hyslop, said: I am pleased that Scotlands tourism industry continues to perform strongly, despite the challenges posed by Brexit.

She added: Our tourism industry is of vital importance to the Scottish economy.

As visitors continue to come to Scotland, spending more time in the country and travelling to more destinations, this is a welcome boost for tourism businesses across all of Scotland.

European and international visitors are a huge asset to our tourism sector, economy and wider wellbeing.

As set out in our recent discussion paper, all the scenarios point to Brexit  and the end of free movement of people  having a damaging effect on the recruitment and retention of EU staff in the tourism sector.

We will do all we can to ensure European visitors can continue to travel to Scotland freely and provide the certainty that people and businesses want.Nicola Sturgeon has promised to reveal her plans for a second Scottish independence referendum in a matter of weeks, regardless of what happens with the Brexit deal.

The First Minister met Theresa May on Wednesday following the historic Commons defeat of the Prime Ministers Withdrawal Agreement, and afterwards she said she would soon announce the timing of a second independence vote.

Speaking at First Ministers Questions on Thursday, Ms Sturgeon reiterated her pledge and said: I think the Prime Minister is very well aware of my views on independence, I support independence and I think the sooner Scotland is independent the better for all of us.

I think it is essential, given the catastrophe that Scotland faces  to our economy, to our society, to living standards, to prospects for the next generation, to our reputation in the world  that the option of independence must be open to people in Scotland.

When people in Scotland have the ability to choose independence, I believe that the country will opt to be an independent country.

Pushed on the issue by Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie, who asked whether her plans for indyref2 would be affected by the inevitable extension of the Brexit process, Ms Sturgeon said: Extension of Article 50 is essential now. The Prime Minister has wasted time.

It seems to me that her tactic has been to run down the clock to hope she can try to panic people into backing her deal  the one that was rejected in a historic defeat in the House of Commons this week.

There is water to go under the bridge in the next matter of weeks and when it has done so, I will make my views on the timings of a choice on independence clear.

It is then of course for all of us who support independence to get out there and make the case because I believe that case has been strengthened by what has happened in the last two-and-a-half years, and if we get out and make that case then people in Scotland will choose to be an independent country and we can get on with building a better future than the one offered to us by the chaos and incompetence of Westminster.

Scottish Green co-convener Patrick Harvie questioned the timing of a second referendum on Scottish independence (PA)

The pro-independence Mr Harvie said: Wed be forgiven for thinking that the country wasnt facing the biggest political crisis for generations.

Perhaps that tells us something about why a Parliament dominated by those two parties has brought us to a situation in which the word omnishambles sounds like timid understatement.

I recognise the First Ministers position that extending or revoking Article 50 are necessary and that a peoples vote is necessary. These options clearly must be taken.

But the First Minister has also said for a long time the case for Scottish independence depends on a material change of circumstances.

Given the level of chaos, there is no single aspect of these circumstances which hasnt changed beyond recognition since 2016.

Ms Sturgeon added she believes support for independence is growing with every day that passes.

But that claim was rebuffed by Pamela Nash, chief executive of Scotland in Union, who said after FMQs: These were reckless and ill-advised comments from Nicola Sturgeon, who simply cant accept that the majority of people in Scotland want her to drop her threat of a divisive and unwanted second independence referendum.

It is not the case that support for independence grows with every day that passes  every single opinion poll in 2018 found majority support for remaining in the UK.

Brexit has demonstrated how hard it is to leave a political union, and the SNP and Greens should recognise that.

Whatever your views on Brexit, independence is not the answer and could be eight times as damaging to our economy as the worst-case Brexit. We are better off as part of the UK.

Scottish Liberal Democrat Leader Willie Rennie said: Nicola Sturgeon is threatening the prospect of another unwanted independence referendum when she should be focused on securing a peoples vote on Brexit.

The SNP need to learn the lessons of Brexit. Breaking up is hard to do.Disgraced MP Fiona Onasanya will appeal against her conviction for perverting the course of justice after lying to police to avoid a speeding charge.

The Peterborough MP, who faces a possible prison sentence, was expelled from the Labour Party after being found guilty at the Old Bailey in December.

The Court of Appeal said that Ms Onasanya had lodged an application against her conviction and that this was received by the court on New Years Eve.

A court officer said the application was in the early stages, and that no date has been set for a hearing.

It is not known on what grounds the application has been made.

Onasanya has indicated she intends to stay in the House of Commons, writing in her column in the Peterborough Telegraph that constituents should rest assured that she would remain their representative fighting injustice in the corridors of power.

Former Labour whip Fiona Onasanya leaving the Old Bailey after she was found guilty of perverting the course of justice (Dominic Lipinski/ PA)

The 35-year-old solicitor took the marginal Peterborough seat with a majority of just 607 from Tory Stewart Jackson at the 2017 election just 18 months ago.

Under parliamentary rules, Ms Onasanya would lose her seat in the Commons only if she is jailed for 12 months or more at her sentencing.

But if the sentence is less than that, a recall petition can force a by-election if it is signed by more than 10% of the electorate in the Cambridgeshire seat.

She was convicted after a retrial of colluding with her brother Festus after her car was clocked going 41mph in a 30mph zone in the village of Thorney near Peterborough in July 2017.

The court was told that she was sent a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) to fill out, but it was sent back naming the guilty driver as Aleks Antipow, an acquaintance of her brother Festus, who was away visiting his parents in Russia.

Festus pleaded guilty to three counts of perverting the course of justice over speeding, including over the July 24 incident.Authorities in Austria have cleared the roads to reach dozens of Catholic nuns whose Alpine monastery has been cut off from the world for days because of heavy snowfall.

But the nuns are staying put at the cloister, saying that they have enough food and fuel.

The Marienparadies cloister, about 50 kilometres (31 miles) south of Salzburg, is home to 30 nuns and one priest.

There has been heavy snowfall in parts of Europe (Amel Emric/AP)

Public broadcaster ORF quoted the prioress, Sister Laure-Marie, saying that the nuns had considered leaving but since the sun returned and the road will be clear again soon, we are very, very grateful were allowed to remain with God.

Manfred Brugger, the mayor of nearby St Veit im Pongau, said later that the road had been cleared and the nuns were staying, the Austria Press Agency reported.

The nuns are in good spirits, he said.

It is important for them that they have a connection to us in the valley.

Heavy snow has caused problems and fatalities in numerous European countries in recent weeks.

In Norway, rescuers have recovered two more bodies after four skiers were swept away in an avalanche in the northern part of the country more than two weeks ago.

Rescue workers in the Tamok valley, near the northern city of Tromsoe (Rune Stoltz Bertinussen/NTB Scanpix)

The bodies were flown by helicopter down to a valley, where they will be transported to the city of Tromsoe in a hearse.

The first body was recovered on Wednesday.

Police tweeted that the search for the last victim was continuing.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.West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini is confident wantaway striker Marko Arnautovic will not follow Dimitri Payets lead and go on strike.

Arnautovic wants to quit West Ham for a big-money move to China with Shanghai SIPG believed to be offering to almost treble his wages.

Two seasons ago France midfielder Payet, another fans favourite at the London Stadium, refused to play until he got a move back to his former club Marseille.

Pellegrini says he does not blame Arnautovic for having his head turned but is convinced the Austrian forward will continue to do his best for the team, even if the move does not come off.

Marko is working with the team without any problem, said Pellegrini.

When you have such a high offer, everyone wants to leave but he has a contract here and we will know what will happen about it in the coming days.

Marko Arnautovic wants to bid farewell to West Ham (Yui Mok/PA)

Of course you cant blame him, he knows what is the best option for him and now we will see what happens between the clubs.

I dont think that the player will refuse to play.

Arnautovic appeared to wave goodbye to the fans when he was substituted during West Hams home win over Arsenal last weekend, but as things stand he will be in the squad which travels to Bournemouth on Saturday.

Javier Hernandez will also be involved after overcoming back and hamstring problems, and Pellegrini brushed off speculation linking the Mexico striker with a January move away from east London.

These are all just rumours, about so many players that will come to West Ham or go from West Ham, added Pellegrini.

Javier is part of the squad. Unfortunately for him he has had two long injuries this season for about five weeks every time.

He will continue to be an important player for us.

Ryan Fredericks has also resumed training following an ankle injury but Jack Wilshere will again miss out against the club where he spent a season on loan due to his ankle problem.Prime Minister Theresa May is holding consultations with party leaders and other senior MPs representing the various strands of opinion in the Commons in an attempt to find a way forward on Brexit.

These are the main parties and cross-party groupings at Westminster:

The Government: Theresa May says she wants a deal that gives the UK control of its money, its laws and its borders, protects the Union and enables it to pursue an independent trade policy  effectively ruling out a customs union. Has repeatedly rejected calls for a second referendum, an extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process or to rule out no-deal.

Labour Party: Labour wants a deal based on a new customs union with the EU, a close relationship with the single market and protection of workers rights and the environment. Jeremy Corbyn says he will not meet Mrs May unless she takes no-deal off the table. Party policy allows for a second referendum but Mr Corbyn has been reluctant to call for one, despite strong support from MPs and activists.

Jeremy Corbyn says he will not meet Theresa May unless she rules out no-deal (Gareth Fuller/PA)

SNP: Opposes Brexit. Says the options of ruling out no-deal, extending Article 50 and staging a second referendum must all be on the table if there is to be any further negotiation.

DUP: Strongly pro-Brexit. The party, which props up the Government in the Commons, says the Northern Ireland backstop must go if it is to support any agreement.

Liberal Democrats: Oppose Brexit. Their key demands are a second referendum and taking no-deal off the table. Party leader Sir Vince Cable has said he is prepared to carry on talking.

The European Research Group wants a simple free trade agreement and an end to the backstop (John Stillwell/PA)

European Research Group: Strongly pro-Brexit group of Tory MPs led by Jacob Rees-Mogg. Favours a looser Canada-style free trade agreement but many members woule be content to see a no-deal Brexit if that proves impossible. Strongly opposed to any extension of Article 50 and insists the backstop must go.

Norway Plus: A loose cross-party grouping of mainly Remain-supporting MPs  including Conservative Nick Boles and Labours Stephen Kinnock  who want a closer future relationship with the EU based on a customs union and membership of the European Free Trade Area, along with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

Peoples Vote: A pro-Remain cross-party campaign in support of a second referendum. Backed by almost 100 Labour MPs as well as the Greens, Plaid Cymru and a handful of Conservatives such as Anna Soubry.Gatwicks drone chaos was not an unforeseen incident and technology to identify flying gadgets has existed for several years, according to the head of a Government body.

Professor Iain Gray, chairman of the Drones Industry Action Group, said many commentators have been talking for quite some time about the potential of disruption from drones near airports.

The lack of information about the devices used at the West Sussex airport last month suggests any detection systems in place were of a very primitive nature, Prof Gray claimed.

He added that pretty good technologies exist to identify drones, such as holographic radar which can analyse different objects in airspace.

The technology has been around for a number of years. Why have we not implemented some of those technologies faster?, he said.

Around 10 of Britains busiest airports, such as the main London airports, Manchester, Newcastle and Edinburgh, all told ministers last week that they have drone detection equipment in place or are planning to install it.

Multiple drone sightings caused flights to be grounded over 36 hours at Gatwick in the run-up to Christmas, affecting the travel plans of 140,000 passengers.

Counter-drone equipment on a rooftop at Gatwick (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Departures at Heathrow  the UKs busiest airport  were suspended for an hour last week after a drone was spotted.

The police and Government were criticised by some Gatwick passengers who felt they were too slow to ground the drones or apprehend their operator.

Devices which detect, track and ground drones have since been installed at the airport.

Prof Gray, director of aerospace at Cranfield University, said the length of Gatwicks closure suggests there was not a good understanding of the procedure for giving permission for flights to resume.

For it to have been closed for three days implies there was not a good resilience plan in place, he warned.

At some point that type of incident was going to happen.

The question is why werent people better prepared?

He added: This was not an unforeseen incident.

Queues during the disruption at Gatwick (Isabel Infantes/PA)

He compared the situation to the volcanic ash cloud which brought chaos to the European air industry for a week in 2010.

Last week, the Government announced a package of measures designed to give police extra powers to combat drones.

The exclusion zone around airports will be extended to approximately a 5km-radius (3.1 miles), with additional extensions from runway ends.

Ministers also announced that from November 30, operators of drones weighing between 250g and 20kg will be required to register and take an online drone pilot competency test.

But Prof Gray noted that the Gatwick incident was caused by a rogue drone operator.

He added: Whatever laws, whatever technologies you do put in place, there will be people out there who want to try and disrupt, and do bad.More than 3,000 new homes are to be built along with state-of-the-art schools in a multimillion-pound development in West Lothian.

Winchburgh Developments Limited will go ahead after owners West Coast Capital (WCC) agreed a joint venture with Cala Homes for the 347-hectare site.

As well as 3,450 homes and the school buildings, infrastructure including improved transport links, a marina, a 75-acre park and 35 acres of employment land will also be included.

Around 700 of the properties will be affordable houses, while more than 400 will be made available for social rent.

Sir Tom Hunter, WCC founding partner, said: Both West Lothian Council and the Scottish Government have played a critical role in securing this long-term development for Scotland.

Having already delivered over 558 homes in the first phase with five national house builders, we now look forward to moving forward with many more house builders to deliver much needed homes for West Lothian in the next phase of development.

David Dodds, West Lothian Council; Fiona Hyslop MSP; John Hamilton, Winchburgh Developments Limited; Derek Mackay, Cabinet Secretary; and Sir Tom Hunter (Peter Devlin/PA)

The Scottish Government is to provide a 26.8 million loan through the Building Scotland Fund to support the development.

Finance Secretary Derek Mackay visited the side with developers, West Lothian Council and other stakeholders on Thursday.

He said: As we support the continued growth of the Scottish economy, developments like Winchburgh are crucial.

I am pleased the Building Scotland Fund has been able to support this development, to unlock the construction of 3,450 new homes and the infrastructure required to make Winchburgh a reality.

Finance Secretary @DerekMackaySNP welcomes the announcement in #Winchburgh this morning. It is one of the UKs biggest housing-linked infrastructure projects. https://t.co/wVjJZUX7iP pic.twitter.com/4tiR1jXwya  Scot Gov Economy (@scotgoveconomy) January 17, 2019

The Winchburgh development is a leading example of a joined up approach between the private sector, Government and local council. It will help stimulate the economy and bring new homes, schools, transport and community facilities to the area.

As well as being great for wider economic development, over 700 affordable houses, including 400 for social rent, will be built as part of the development, which is excellent news for the region.

West Lothian executive councillor for education David Dodds added: We are delighted to have reached a deal with the Scottish Government and Winchburgh Development Ltd that supports the plans to expand Winchburgh.

Key to the development is the delivery of new state-of-the-art schools for Winchburgh in the councils largest ever single capital investment.

West Lothian already has one of the best school estates in the country, giving a platform to help our young people achieve their full potential and support life-long learning for the whole community.More than 10,000 students have skipped school again in Belgium to join a march demanding better protections of the globes fragile climate.

Despite the rain and cold, the colourful protest march in Brussels was bigger than the initial one last week.

Students hold up placards during the demonstration in Brussels (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP)

Banners reading School strike 4 Climate and Skipping school? No. We fight for our future highlighted the march, which was free of incidents.

Some schools have shown understanding over the no-shows.

There was a bigger turnout than for the first protest (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP)

Patrick Lancksweerdt, a director of a local school, told De Standaard newspaper that education has to turn youngsters into mature citizens. By their actions, they proved that they are.

The students hope to turn the rallies into weekly events.Theresa May and senior Cabinet ministers were engaged in intensive discussions with MPs from all sides of the Brexit debate, as the Prime Minister fought to find a deal which could command support in Parliament.

But Jeremy Corbyn and his front bench continued to snub the talks, which the Labour leader dismissed as a stunt.

Speaking in the marginal Conservative constituency of Hastings, Mr Corbyn said Labour was determined to get a deal and called on Mrs May to ditch her negotiation red lines and rule out a no-deal Brexit.

The Prime Minister seems completely unable to grasp what has actually happened, he said. She seems to be prepared to send the country hurtling towards a cliff edge.

To get a deal that can command a majority in Parliament, Theresa May has to ditch the red lines and get serious about proposals for the future.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks in Hastings (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Liberal Democrats accused the Labour leader of playing political games and said he could no longer rely on their support in future no-confidence votes, after he failed to throw his party behind calls for a second EU referendum.

A new opinion poll showed a 12-point lead for staying in the EU if a fresh vote was held. The YouGov survey for the Peoples Vote campaign, conducted after Mrs Mays Brexit plan went down to humiliating defeat in the House of Commons on Tuesday, put Remain on 56% against 44% for Leave.

(PA Graphics)

Peoples Vote supporter Chuka Umunna said the poll showed that more than three-quarters of Labour voters back a referendum, warning Mr Corbyn: To ignore those calls now would be an historic mistake for which Labour would not be forgiven.

A Conservative Right to Vote campaign for a second EU referendum was launched by MP Phillip Lee, who claimed support for a so-called Peoples Vote was growing fast among his colleagues on the Tory benches.

Mrs May invited MPs and leaders from across the Commons for talks to find a way forward on Brexit after fighting off a no-confidence motion on Wednesday.

But she told the House of Commons she was holding to the principles behind the Withdrawal Agreement which was roundly rejected by MPs on Tuesday, including control of borders, laws and money and an independent trade policy.

Aides later said that the requirement for an independent trade policy was incompatible with membership of a European customs union  something which Labour regards as essential.

The EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier indicated that Brussels was ready to respond to any revision of Mrs Mays red line demands, telling MPs in Portugal: If they change, well change.

Mr Barnier said that getting an agreement was in everybodys interest and that something has to change to secure a divorce deal.

Shadow cabinet minister Barry Gardiner said Mrs May was clinging to her red lines because she knew that any compromise on them would break the Conservative Party by pushing eurosceptic backbenchers in the European Research Group (ERG) to desert her.

If she wants to negotiate with all parties in Parliament, and if she wants to do that in good faith, she has to say OK, Im not sticking to every single one of the red lines that Ive established, he told ITVs Good Morning Britain.

But Labours former prime minister Tony Blair said Mr Corbyn was wrong to snub the talks, telling BBC Radio 4s Today: If, in a moment of national crisis, the Prime Minister asks the Leader of the Opposition to come and talk, of course he should.

And Conservative chairman Brandon Lewis accused Labour of trying to frustrate and avoid Brexit.

Mrs May has said that the door remains open to Labour for talks ahead of the deadline for her to present her Plan B to MPs on Monday.

Her motion is expected to be amended by MPs seeking parliamentary support for a range of options, from ruling out no-deal to extending the two-year Article 50 process or calling a second referendum.

The Commons will vote on the proposals on January 29, in a full day of debate expected to shed light on what Brexit solutions may be able to command a majority in Parliament.

Mr Corbyn confirmed that Labour will table an amendment setting out its favoured outcome of a customs union with a UK say over future trade deals, a close single market relationship and safeguards for rights.

Another amendment from Tory backbencher Nick Boles will offer to put Parliament in control of the Brexit process and extend the negotiation process beyond the scheduled date of EU withdrawal on March 29.

(PA Graphics)

Chancellor Philip Hammond admitted in a phone call with business leaders that the Government was not in control of the process and suggested Mr Boles amendment could lead to Article 50 being rescinded, according to a transcript obtained by the Daily Telegraph.

Downing Street said meetings would be held with MPs representing the whole range of opinion across the House, including some backbench Labour MPs.

Some MPs were meeting with the Prime Minister and Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay while others were seeing Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington and Environment Secretary Michael Gove.

The DUPs Arlene Foster and Nigel Dodds attended Brexit talks in Downing Street (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Among those arriving for talks were a group of eurosceptic Tories including former Brexit Secretary David Davis and ERG vice-chairman Steve Baker, as well as Green MP Caroline Lucas, Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price and the DUPs Nigel Dodds and Arlene Foster.

Emerging from her meeting, Mrs Foster said the issue of the Irish backstop needed to be dealt with in a very clear way if Brexit negotiations are to make progress.

Ms Lucas said the PM was refusing to take the possibility of no deal off the table and was reluctant to extend Article 50.

Im not convinced shes willing to loosen any of the red lines shes set herself, said the Green MP. She still thinks its going to be possible to tweak this deal sufficiently to get the MPs that voted against it to swing behind it  I remain pretty sceptical about that.Jeremy Corbyn has blasted Theresa Mays offer of cross-party Brexit talks as a stunt  as he was applauded by Labour supporters for saying that a second referendum was still an option.

In front of a crowd of around 200 activists in Hastings, he said the Prime Minister had made no serious attempt to engage with the new reality that is needed to get a Withdrawal Agreement through Parliament.

In a direct message to Mrs May, Mr Corbyn said: Take no-deal off the table now please, Prime Minister.

He reiterated Labours preference for a general election and a Brexit deal on its terms, including a permanent customs union, close links to the single market and protections for workers and the environment.

But, to clapping from the floor, he added: If the Government remains intransigent, if support for Labours alternative is blocked for party advantage and the country is facing the potential disaster of no-deal, our duty will then be to look at other options which we set out in our confidence motion, including that of a public vote.

.@Theresa_May, take a No Deal Brexit off the table. pic.twitter.com/VFwXR8hmRC  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) January 17, 2019

However, taking questions after his speech at the venue on Hastings seafront, he left open the question of which side Labour would campaign on in a public vote.

If a second referendum should take place, then obviously the party will decide what role we will play in that and what our view would be, he said.

But I cant really go along with the idea it should simply be a re-run of what happened in 2016. There has to be a discussion about the options that we put forward and weve put forward the three options that Ive outlined.

Jeremy Corbyn was applauded when he said all options, including a second referendum, remained open (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Mr Corbyn is now the only Westminster party leader who has not held discussions with Mrs May, after she held out an olive branch across the Commons on Wednesday.

Speaking in the heart of an East Sussex constituency that voted 55%-45% in favour of Leave in 2016, he said: Last nights offer of talks with party leaders turned out to be simply a stunt, not the serious attempt to engage with the new reality that is needed.

He added: I say to the Prime Minister again: I am quite happy to talk but the starting point for any talks about Brexit must be that the threat of a disastrous no-deal outcome is ruled out, taken off the table, and we can talk about the future of the plans that we will put forward and the future relationship with Europe.

A reporter who asked Mr Corbyn whether other Labour MPs were also barred from meeting Mrs May or other Ministers was met with audible discontent from Labour activists.

Labour MPs Yvette Cooper and Hilary Benn were among those seen going to the Cabinet Office for talks.

Speaking on the way in, Mr Benn said: The really important question is, theres an open door, is there an open mind to a change?

Ms Cooper added: We want to see if the Government is actually prepared to make some changes.

Theyve lost the vote by 230. Thats obviously a very substantial loss.

Labour MP John Mann leaving the Cabinet Office (Victoria Jones/PA)

A smiling John Mann, a Leave-supporting Labour MP and long-term critic of Mr Corbyn, was spotted coming out of the Cabinet Office in Whitehall at around 12.20pm, an hour after the leaders speech.

Another backbench Labour critic of Mr Corbyn, the east London MP Mike Gapes, criticised his decision not to talk to Mrs May without preconditions, tweeting: Apparently Corbyn is prepared to hold talks with Hamas, Hezbollah, Assad and Iran without preconditions. But not with the UK Prime Minister. Why?

Mr Corbyn said he had written to the Prime Minister on Thursday setting out his position.

Apparently Corbyn is prepared to hold talks with Hamas, Hezbollah, Assad and Iran without preconditions. But not with the UK Prime Minister. Why ? https://t.co/zcvxkptw7U  Mike Gapes (@MikeGapes) January 17, 2019

He confirmed that Labour will table amendments to Mondays motion, putting forward its preferred solution of a customs union with a voice for the UK in future EU trade deals, a close single market relationship and protections for rights.

He held open the possibility of an extension of the Article 50 negotiation period, saying: Quite clearly, if no agreement has been reached within the time it could be implemented by the end of March, the issue of extending the exit date, extending Article 50, does come into play.

Indications are that that may well be the case.A Northern Irish cancer charity gave children who lost their mother the skills and resilience to go on, their father has said.

Mother-of-five Anna Harte died in 2010 when her youngest child was aged just three.

Cancer Focus NI is celebrating 50 years of helping families like them, and has launched a major campaign to raise 100,000 for pioneering breast cancer research.

Mrs Hartes widower Donald said: You have to be honest and up front and they will cope, they will cope, that is the one thing I have found out of this process.

It is not a straight road and there will be bumps, but they will cope and they will get out of the other side of it and the fact they have been supported through that by Cancer Focus makes that process quicker and makes them stronger.

We are 50!!!!! 50 years supporting local people affected by cancer.

Have you been helped by us? Or helped us? Share your stories with us  let's celebrate together! @publichealthni @CrescentArts @Translink_NI @MediCare_Group @BelfastLive pic.twitter.com/Fvkv9Zg2Nw  Cancer Focus NI (@CancerFocusNI) January 17, 2019

The trade union official from Craigavon attended the charitys group for the bereaved, planning for the first anniversary, Christmas and birthdays.

Donald Harte (right) said Cancer Focus NI helped him support his children through the loss of their mother in 2010 (Michael McHugh/PA)

He added: It is a great support to know that people have been through it and come out of the other side of it. There is light at the end of the tunnel, and it takes a while and is very difficult, but that support was incredible for me.

It allowed me to support my children through that process and made it easier on them.

At the time of their mothers death, his oldest girl was aged 15 and his youngest boy just three.

He said: It is not a process that ends, it is a process that continues and they were given the skills and tools through others experience to do that and that is wonderful.

Debra Rice, 47, from Belfast, was diagnosed with breast cancer caused by a faulty gene in 2015.

She had lost her hair due to chemotherapy.

She said: Once I did not look like myself any more it was very, very hard.

She was invited to a beauty day with make up artists organised by Cancer Focus NI.

Ms Rice recalled: I had a lovely facial, had my make up done, and did not recognise myself.

I had eyebrows and eyelashes for the first time in months, it was just a lovely experience and helped boost my confidence.

That gave me little tips and tricks for my make-up to progress and put on my make-up and feel normal again, that was a big bonus for me.

A Cancer Focus-funded research project based at Queens University Belfast will study women who have developed cancer in their second breast, and aims to develop a test to identify those who are at greatest risk of developing a second breast cancer.

By testing DNA, it could deliver more personalised medicine and avoid women like her daughter having to undergo preventative surgeries unnecessarily, Ms Rice said.

Ms Rice added: She has a 50/50 chance of inheriting that gene, so for me, anything we can do that is going to benefit her in the long run and anyone like her. I would like to think she will not face the choices that I had to make, that there will be other things available to her.Bosses at a struggling health board knew their former chief executive should only have been paid three months notice  but they gave her six months amid concerns she could bring age and sex discrimination claims against them, a Holyrood committee has heard.

Labour MSP Jenny Marra said former NHS Tayside chief executive Lesley McLay had presided over a board in financial chaos and was way behind on meeting health service targets.

The sum she received when she was replaced in April 2018 included a payment of more than 64,000  which equated to six months notice, but her contract only had a notice period of three months.

John Brown, the chair of NHS Tayside, conceded mistakes were made in the payment, which was awarded after then health secretary Shona Robison described Ms McLays position as untenable.

The golden handshake also included more than 19,000 in pension contributions that spending watchdogs at Audit Scotland said should not have been made.

Mr Brown confirmed the pension payment has now been repaid to the board.

Lesley McLay was given the payout last April (PA)

But Ms Marra, convener of Holyroods Audit Committee, said: The increase you put on this golden handshake is the equivalent to a teacher in a Dundee primary school, that teachers annual salary. How is that a reasonable decision?

Ms Marra, who represents the North East of Scotland, added: I dont think the public in Tayside were looking for a golden handshake for a former chief executive who had presided over severe financial mismanagement on the board.

Senior figures at the cash-strapped health board, which was facing a budget deficit of almost 19 million in 2018-19 despite receiving just over 50 million of Scottish Government brokerage loans in the previous six years, appeared before MSPs on the Audit Committee.

This week the Committee continue their scrutiny of the 2017/18 audit of NHS Tayside with the board of @NHSTayside @PAG1962 @AuditorGenScot @AuditScotland giving evidence. Watch live on Parliament TV on Thursday from 9.00am. Meeting papers are here - https://t.co/B4uWH6w1s2 pic.twitter.com/9ysA1t0KIp  Public Audit & Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee (@SP_PAPLS) January 15, 2019

Ms Marra pressed them on the payout given to Ms McLay, asking: You were aware the contractual entitlement was three months but you increased it to six months as part of the settlement agreement?

Former chief executive Malcolm Wright confirmed: That is correct.

MSPs heard from Hazel Craik, who advised the board over Ms McLays departure, that her solicitors had indicated she could bring sex or age discrimination claims against NHS Tayside.

Dr Annie Ingram, strategic director of workforce at NHS Tayside, said Ms McLay had indicated she would resign if the board would agree to six months notice.

Mr Brown said the board had had to balance the cost of agreeing a payout to Ms McLay against the cost of going down the alternative route.

Mr Wright added: If this had gone to an employment tribunal  without any comment on the merit of whatever legal case might be brought  the value of a settlement an employment tribunal can give, if it was for age, if it was for sex, the caps are lifted on that.

Ms Craik went on to state: My view was that for the additional money that was being sought, it was a way of bringing certainty and conclusion to matters.

She added that as money would be spent either getting to a termination of employment or defending claims, it was good value to come to an agreed payout.

Mr Brown later apologised to patients in Tayside who had waited too long for treatment, as he insisted the health board now has a recovery plan in place.

Labours Anas Sarwar questioned him on waiting lists in the area, saying at the end of September last year almost 3,000 people had waited more than the legally guaranteed time of 12 weeks for treatment.

He added that most shockingly of all, the heath board only met the 18-week target of providing an appointment at Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for 39% of young people needing help  well below the Scottish Government target of 90% being seen in this time.

Mr Sarwar said: That is simply not good enough and there are thousands of people in Tayside who are owed an apology.

Mr Brown told him: I agree with you entirely Mr Sarwar, it isnt good enough.

The performance of the health board is of major concern to the board and everyone who works in NHS Tayside.

Thats why we have taken such a fundamental look at what the underlying problems are, how the organisation is structured, how it is funded, how it is resourced, and tried to develop from that analysis a process of change which will deliver the services in a different way so we can improve that access.

Weve also got additional funding from the Scottish Government, 2.74 million in recent weeks has come in from the Scottish Government to improve the waiting times in particular, including the CAMHS.

The health board believes its financial situation has now stabilised, he added, and could balance its books within three years.

Mr Brown accepted: We need to improve access to services, we need to improve our mental health services in particular, we need to integrate health and social care at a bit more pace, and we need to develop the workforce required to support this.

This level of change wont happen overnight, there is a long history of problems in Tayside going back six years, so I think for us realistically to be aiming to be in financial balance and have performance improved in the next three years is a realistic ambition for us.More than 15% of students entering university in Scotland last year were from the countrys most deprived areas, new figures show.

The percentage applies to full-time students who embarked on their first degree in 2017/18.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency said 15.6% hailed from the 20% most deprived areas. The previous years figure was closer to 14%.

The Scottish Government hailed the positive progress on equal access to higher education.

Last year also saw an increase in the total number of Scottish students enrolling in Scottish universities.

Higher Education Minister Richard Lochhead said: Im pleased to see more Scots going to university here and a record increase in entrants from our most deprived areas.

More young people from Scotlands deprived areas are going to university (Chris Radburn/PA)

Higher Education Minister @RichardLochhead welcomes latest @ukhesa statistics showing progress on widening access to university in Scotland.



Read more: https://t.co/q2PtZDbhzH pic.twitter.com/8IWbkzMBs4  ScotGov Education (@ScotGovEdu) January 17, 2019

Combined with recent Ucas statistics, this shows demonstrable progress towards giving every young person in Scotland an equal chance of success, no matter their background or circumstance.

It is also great to see a record number of enrolments and an increased number of qualifications achieved in 2017/18. All of this speaks to the level of excellence found across our higher education institutions.

The Scottish Government hopes to meet a 2021 target that 16% of students entering university will be from the most deprived backgrounds, increasing to 20% by 2030.Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom has set the date for MPs to debate the Governments Brexit plan B after the Prime Ministers deal suffered a historic defeat on Tuesday.

In the wake of the defeat, opposition parties called on the Government to take a no-deal Brexit off the table in a bid to work cross-party on a way forward but Mrs Leadsom said that was not possible.

The Cabinet minister told MPs that removing no deal as an option would be an incompetent thing to do.

Mrs Leadsom, speaking at Business questions in the Commons, said: Having passed the EU (Withdrawal) Act, it is the case that the legal default is that the UK will leave the European Union on March 29, and if a deal has not been voted for then it will be with no deal unless other alternative arrangements are put in place.

The people have spoken and it is our job to fulfil in line with the requirements of the people, this House is a servant of the people of this country, the entire United Kingdom.

She later added: If you take no deal off the table and you stop preparing for no deal, then for a sensible Government that would be totally an incompetent thing to do.

Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom

Government has to continue to prepare for all eventualities including no deal, it is not possible to remove no deal from the table and still abide by the will of the people as expressed in the referendum.

The rebuttal came after shadow Commons leader Valerie Vaz asked Mrs Leadsom if the Government would consider extending Article 50.

Ms Vaz used Business questions to highlight the Governments record-breaking run, and said: This is the first Government to be held in contempt of Parliament, the Prime Minister had a vote of no confidence from within her own party, a vote of no confidence in the Government which they won yesterday because they have a confidence and supply agreement, but, yet again breaking records, 432 MPs voted against the Prime Ministers deal  the biggest defeat of a government in history.

SNP Commons leader Pete Wishart also mocked ministers, who he said were treating the Brexit defeat as a mere flesh wound  Like Monty Pythons Black Knight  armless and legless and fights on prepared to bite the nation into submission.

Mrs Leadsom earlier told MPs they will debate the Governments proposed Brexit next steps on January 29.

She said: A statement and a motion on the Governments next steps under Section 13 of the EU (Withdrawal) Act will be tabled on Monday.

A full days debate on the motion will take place on Tuesday January 29, subject to the agreement of the House.

Mrs Leadsom went on to quote from Winnie-the-Pooh and also wished happy birthday to Speaker John Bercow.

The pair have clashed several times of late in the Commons.

She said: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift, which is why we call it the present.

On the eve of AA Milnes birthday thats a favourite quote from Winnie-the-Pooh and, as Eeyore said, it never hurts to keep looking for sunshine and so can I wish you, Mr Speaker, a very happy birthday for Saturday.

Finally, can I leave the House with an uplifting and rather wise thought from Winnie-the-Pooh  If the person you are talking to doesnt appear to be listening, be patient, it may simply be he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.

Shadow Defra minister David Drew (Stroud) raised fears that the Commons would run out of time to get the necessary legislation through before the UK is due to leave the EU.

He said: Before March 29, Defra alone has something like 80 statutory instruments to get through and weve also got the Agriculture Bill and Fisheries Bill to come back on report and third reading.

The Leader of the House might be Superwoman but how is she going to do that?

Mrs Leadsom replied that she was absolutely not Superwoman but did review the timetable daily and was satisfied there was enough time.

Obviously we are not flush with time, she said. I do believe, however, we have enough time to get all of our secondary legislation through, and indeed the primary legislation that needs Royal Assent, by departure date.

I continue to keep that under review and it will require the cooperation and support of the House.Flurries of snow have fallen across parts of Britain as freezing wintry conditions grip much of the country, but those expecting a thick blanketing could be disappointed.

The Met Office has issued an ice warning for most of England and all of Wales and Northern Ireland that also reaches up into southern Scotland.

A further warning of snow and ice has been issued for the rest of Scotland, including Shetland and the Outer Hebrides, and another spanning Englands eastern coast.

Met Office spokeswoman Nicola Maxey said the snowfall is the first at low level for 2019 and also marks the first cold spell of the year, with the mercury across much of Britain set to stay in single figures on Thursday.

(PA Graphics)

She said: What we have had is a band of showers that have amalgamated, and that has brought a bit of heavier snow for a short period in Newcastle. And that band of showers is going to move down the coast.

That band will move south throughout the day, bringing some heavier showers, and we are looking at accumulations of maybe 1cm-3cm  but short-lived. So it is not going to hang around for a long time.

Ms Maxey said the band, as it gets further south and progresses down the coast, is more likely to bring hail rather than snow to parts of East Anglia.

Snowfall on Tynemouth beach on the North East coast (Owen Humphreys/PA)

So far, falling snow has been seen in parts of London, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and in the North East of England, where images show a white blanket on Tynemouth beach and Whitley Bay after snowfall of between 1cm-3cm (0.4in-1.2in).

Ms Maxey said 4cm (1.6in) of snow has been recorded in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, and that the weather for this time of year across the UK is fairly typical.

(PA Graphics)

She revealed that the recent mild temperatures and warm ground, alongside rain, mean that generally nothing is settling in some parts.

Throughout Thursday the mercury is expected to stay in single figures, with up to 6C (42.8F) expected in London, 4C (39.2F) for northern England and 6C (42.8F) in Northern Ireland.

Overnight temperatures could dip as low as minus 11C (12.2F) in Aviemore, Scotland, which, if reached, would make it the coldest night of the winter after minus 10.5C (!3.1F) was recorded in Braemar, Scotland.

Ms Maxey said that across much of the country it will be below freezing overnight, with a widespread frost expected on Friday.

A man cycles through the snow in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside (Owen Humphreys/PA)

The yellow snow and ice warning for Scotland is due to remain in place until midday on Thursday, and the yellow ice warning for Northern Ireland, Wales and England  excluding the far South East and Cornwall  expires at 12pm.

A yellow snow and ice warning for coastal areas across the east of England will remain in place until 10am on Friday.European Union nations are spending millions, hiring thousands of workers and issuing emergency decrees to cope with the increasingly likely possibility that Britain will leave the bloc on March 29 without a plan.

A no-deal Brexit would shake up the rest of the continent in ways that many Europeans have not even fathomed.

France is spending 50 million euros (44 million) to beef up security at airports and the Eurotunnel and hiring hundreds of extra customs officers.

Portugal is opening special airport lanes for British travellers, the nations main source of tourists.

Germany is fast-tracking a debate on solving bureaucratic problems if there is no Brexit deal.

Governments from the Netherlands to Romania and the Czech Republic are preparing rules for British citizens to live and work in their countries once they no longer enjoy EU residency rights  and expecting that Britain is doing the same for their citizens.

(Edouard Philippe/Twitter)

Britain, which would face by far the biggest disruption, has devoted thousands of civil servants and several billion pounds on measures to mitigate the worst effect  although officials can only speculate about what will actually happen on March 30 if Brexit happens without a deal.

After the British Parliament overwhelmingly rejected Prime Minister Theresa Mays Brexit divorce deal this week, other European governments are now bracing for chaos too.

We strongly believe Britain will leave with no exit deal, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said, unveiling a raft of emergency measures to cope with that prospect.

Under these conditions, our responsibility  is to ensure that our country is ready, that the interests of our citizens are preserved and defended, he said.

The French government will hire nearly 600 extra customs officers and veterinary inspectors and invest in new infrastructure at airports and ports, all to be in working order by March 30.

Special security measures will be put in place for the tunnel beneath the English Channel.

The company that operates the Eurotunnel says a quarter of all UK-EU trade passes through the tunnel, which could be a major chokepoint in a no-deal Brexit.

Frances emergency decrees will allow British workers and retirees living in France to continue staying there for a year after March 29  but only if the British Government agrees to do the same for French citizens in the UK.

The decrees will temporarily let British companies transport goods in France, and allow certain British insurance and other financial activities to continue in France despite Britains loss of access to the EU financial market.

The compromise reached after 18 months is the best compromise. It is the result of constructive work and attitude, which we will maintain until the end: calm, unity, dialogue and transparency. It is now for the UK to clarify how it wishes to proceed"@MichelBarnier #Brexit pic.twitter.com/VFEtEH9TKe  European Commission  (@EU_Commission) January 16, 2019

The exceptional transfer of military equipment between the two countries will also be allowed.

In Berlin, German politicians debated a bill that aims to solve bureaucratic issues arising from Brexit.

We want to keep the damage  and there will certainly be damage from Britains departure  as small as possible, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday.

Thats why we will of course do everything to find an orderly solution, but we are also prepared if there is no orderly solution.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said 80% of British tourists arrive at airports in Faro, the Algarve and Funchal in the Madeira Islands, where dedicated lines for them will help prevent delays.

Romanian leaders have sought to reassure the estimated half a million Romanians living in Britain that they will not be left in the lurch  but have not provided specifics.

Romania currently holds the EUs rotating presidency.

The Czech Republic and Slovakia are working on legislation to deal with the short term rights of British citizens in a no-deal Brexit, while the Dutch will let British citizens living in the country remain for 15 months and offer them the chance to apply for residency permits.

In Britain, the Government has begun to recruit hundreds of extra customs officers and border staff and has passed laws to help cross-border trade continue to flow, such as permits for long-distance truckers.

Britain says EU citizens will be able to stay temporarily despite a no-deal Brexit.

A high-level EU official is now touring all the capitals of the blocs 27 nations other than Britain to assess Brexit preparations and provide help where it is needed, EU Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said.

The EU has produced 88 notices how specific sectors should deal with possible Brexit emergencies.

Were not taking any chances, said Mr Schinas.A Tokyo court has rejected another appeal by lawyers of Nissans former chairman Carlos Ghosn to have him released on bail.

The lawyers had appealed against a rejection by Tokyo District Court two days earlier of their request that Ghosn be granted bail.

He has been held at a Tokyo detention centre since his arrest on November 19.

Ghosn has been charged with two alleged crimes  falsifying financial reports by allegedly under-reporting his income over the past eight years, and breach of trust for allegedly causing Nissan to shoulder his personal investment losses and make payments to a Saudi businessman who helped out.

The 64-year-old has led Nissan for two decades.

Courtroom sketch of Carlos Ghosn at Tokyo District Court (Nobutoshi Katsuyama/Kyodo News via AP)

He asserted his innocence in court last week, his first public appearance since the arrest.

Frances economy minister has asked Nissans alliance partner Renault to choose a successor to Ghosn.

So far it has only named an acting chairman.

Nissan dismissed him as chairman days after his arrest.

Suspects and defendants in Japan can be detained for months before trial, and legal experts say bail requests for those who deny their allegations are less likely to be granted than for those who confess.

Japanese prosecutors have a more than 99% conviction rate in criminal cases and suspects are generally not presumed innocent until proven guilty.Millions of UK motorists wanting to drive in the EU will need to arrange extra documentation in the event of a no-deal Brexit, insurers have warned.

Holidaymakers and businesses intending to use their vehicles on the continent, or anyone crossing the Irish border by road, have been advised they will need a Green Card if the UK crashes out of the EU on March 29.

Private motorists and companies have been recommended to contact their providers around a month before they plan to travel to get one  or risk breaking the law.

The same rules apply to European Economic Area (EEA) motorists travelling to the UK.

Huw Evans, director general of the Association of British Insurers (ABI), said: As it looks increasingly possible that a no-deal Brexit may happen, we want all insurance customers to know the facts about what this means for them.

If you live in Northern Ireland and drive to the Republic of Ireland, or if you plan to drive your vehicle to mainland Europe after a no-deal Brexit, you will need a Green Card to prove you are insured.

The extra documentation will be needed in the event of a no-deal Brexit (PA)

You should contact your insurer before you travel in order to get one. This advice applies to businesses as well as individuals.

An agreement between UK and European insurance authorities was struck in May 2018 to waive the need for Green Cards in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

However the agreement has not yet been ratified by the European Commission.

There is currently a Green Card-free circulation area covering the EEA and Andorra, Serbia and Switzerland.

Systematic border checks of the document as proof of third-party motor insurance have been abolished in the area.

However, in the event of no-deal this would cease to apply for UK drivers.

The Department of Transport (DfT) issued guidance to motorists and insurers in September.

It said that the cards would be issued free of charge, although insurers may increase their administrations fees to reflect the cost of providing them.

Commercial operators with fleet insurance were advised they will need a card for each vehicle.

For countries that require separate trailer insurance, a separate Green Card may be required for the trailer.

Without a Green Card, motorists would have to be covered by third-party insurance bought in the country they are driving in.

Without it drivers may not be able to drive and could also be fined.

The ABI said it is against the UK leaving the EU without a deal, with Mr Evans warning such an outcome would be bad for the economy and bad for our customers.

We continue to hope these arrangements are never needed and urge the Government, UK Parliament and EU27 to agree an orderly way forward, he said.The Brexit negotiations are in a mess and a delay to Britains withdrawal from the EU is almost inevitable, Tony Blair has said.

The former prime minister said MPs were right to reject Theresa Mays deal in the Commons on Tuesday and that a second referendum now offered the best way forward for the country.

This is a complete mess now, given everything that has happened, given the state of our knowledge now, it is not unreasonable to ask people if they want to think again, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

Mr Blair criticised Jeremy Corbyn for refusing to meet the Prime Minister and said the Labour leader needed to make clear where his party now stood.

If, in a moment of national crisis, the Prime Minister asks the Leader of the Opposition to come and talk, of course he should, he said.

It is quite hard to read the runes sometimes in Labour policy right now, but as I understand our position is that if the no confidence motion fails, as it has, then there is an overwhelming majority for supporting putting this back to the people.

With Parliament apparently deadlocked over the way forward, Mr Blair said he believed the Government would have to seek an extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process.

Ex-PM Tony Blair said MPs were right to reject Theresa Mays Brexit deal (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

I think that is inevitable now virtually whatever you do. If I was the government now, I would already be having discussions with Europe about the terms of an extension, he said.

He dismissed claims that Mrs May needed to maintain the option of a no-deal Brexit in order to retain leverage in the negotiations with Brussels, saying it was not a credible threat.

If you do no-deal you are going to do major damage to the British economy, he said.

If you are threatening the person sitting across the table from you that you are going to jump out of the window if they dont do what you say, they probably dont want you to jump out of the window, it is going to do them harm, but it is going to do us a lot more harm.

He said Mrs Mays negotiating strategy had been flawed from the outset which was why MPs were right to vote down her deal.

What she tried to do was negotiate the unnegotiable, which is to have access to the market without abiding by the rules, he said.

When MPs came to look at this, they said What is the point of this? It doesnt bring closure.

You are going to get the other side of March 29, we have lost our bargaining power, we will then be, frankly, at the mercy of the European system over which we have no control. That is a bad deal.

He said Parliament was now facing a choice between a hard Brexit, which would be economically painful, or a soft Brexit, which would be pointless as the UK would still be tied to EU rules without any say over them.

At some point you are going to have to decide do you want a Norway-type solution, which is your soft Brexit, which leads to the charge that it is pointless, or do you want your Canada-style free trade agreement, in which case thats going to be painful, he said.

What she (Mrs May) has got to do now is take a step back, run the options through Parliament and Parliament has got to come to a decision.

It can either do a soft Brexit, which is Norway, it can do a hard Brexit, which is Canada, or, frankly, it can go back to the people, which I think is the most sensible.A longstanding member of the UK Cabinet has effectively ruled out holding a second European referendum  saying while the Prime Minister is willing to discuss anything in talks with other parties, the discussions would not be a cover for trying to stop Brexit.

David Mundell also said calls to take a no-deal brexit off the table  as demanded by Labours Jeremy Corbyn  were the wrong starting point, adding that he did not believe the European Union would extend the timetable for the Article 50 talks.

The Scottish Secretary spoke out after Mrs May saw her proposed Withdrawal Agreement defeated by a record margin in the House of Commons, before going on to survive a vote of no confidence.

Mr Mundell, who has been in the Cabinet since the Tories came to power in 2010, admitted he had not anticipated the scale of the defeat the Government suffered on Tuesday night.

Immediately after Wednesday nights no confidence vote, Mrs May announced she would invite party leaders in the Commons and other MPs for talks, in a bid to find a deal that could command the support of Parliament.

But SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said those discussions must include extending Article 50, ruling out a no-deal Brexit and the possibility of staging a so-called Peoples Vote.

Scottish Secretary David Mundell has effectively ruled out a second Brexit vote (Jane Barlow/PA)

Mr Blackford told BBC Radio Scotlands Good Morning Scotland programme: We will accept our responsibility to engage positively in talks but it has to be on the basis that there is a positive engagement.

Ive written to the Prime Minister overnight and said that what has to happen is there has to be an agreement that we can have discussions about extending Article 50, about taking no deal off the table, and about having a Peoples Vote.

Mr Blackford continued: I actually think on the basis of where we are a Peoples Vote is the right way to go, I think on the basis of the paralysis in Parliament we ought to put that back to the people.

Im not saying that is a position the Prime Minister would support but if she is serious about engagement, if she is serious about trying to find a way through this, she has at least got to have that discussion about these options.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: So everything is not on the table. PMs offer of talks is a promise to listen, but only if we all agree with her. The SNP wont be complicit in more time wasting.

So everything is not on the table. PMs offer of talks is a promise to listen, but only if we all agree with her. @theSNP wont be complicit in more time wasting. Rule out no deal, be prepared to extend Art 50 and agree to at least consider another referendum - then well talk. https://t.co/6ZRtoEfqxT  Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) January 17, 2019

But Mr Mundell stressed the aim of discussions would be to get a deal through Parliament so we can have an orderly exit from the EU.

The Tory MP, also speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, conceded that after the scale of Tuesday nights defeat the Government could not just bring back exactly the same proposal.

He stated: I had not anticipated the scale of the defeat, it means that there will have to be changes.

But he also said the talks had to take place on the basis of getting to a deal, not getting to a point of stopping Brexit.

Speaking about the Prime Minister, Mr Mundell said: Shes not going down a route to stop Brexit, she is willing to discuss anything people want to put on the table to get us to a point where we can get a majority in Parliament to support a deal to allow an orderly Brexit.

Everything is up for discussion but what isnt going to be an outcome is arrangements that seek to stop Brexit, which I believe the Peoples Vote is designed to do.

Not only that it would be extremely divisive in our country. Weve had a Peoples Vote, people voted across the United Kingdom and a United Kingdom-wide vote to leave the EU, and we are respecting the result of that and seeking to deliver Brexit, but an orderly Brexit.

Thats what discussions are about. Of course people can raise any issues that they want, but the discussions are not a cover for trying to stop Brexit.

Conservative Party chairman Brandon Lewis has also insisted that the Government did not believe a Peoples Vote was the right way to go.

Mr Lewis also said ministers were determined the UK should be able to have an independent trade policy after leaving Europe  adding this ruled out any suggestion of remaining in the customs union.Staff shortages within the NHS risk undermining the Scottish Governments 100 million cancer strategy, a new report has found.

A review of the five-year plan at its half-way point found the majority of its objectives were on track, but it raised concerns about the ability of the workforce to meet rising demand on services, particularly across diagnostics.

Around 32,000 people in Scotland are diagnosed with cancer each year, expected to reach 40,000 by 2027.

The Scottish Parliaments Cross Party Group on Cancer, which compiled the report, heard evidence that efforts to increase diagnostic capacity were being hindered by staffing levels.

Gregor McNie, head of external affairs in Scotland for Cancer Research UK, said: A great deal of progress has been made in the implementation of the strategy and were really pleased to see the Scottish Government is on course to meet its 100 million funding commitment.

However, significant staffing shortages remain a serious concern and the Scottish Government must now plan and deliver for a fully resourced Scottish cancer workforce both now and in the future.

A new report raises concerns about staffing levels within NHS Scotland (Peter Byrne/PA)

The strategy, due to be fully implemented by 2021, is aimed at getting more cancers diagnosed and treated quicker.

A large majority  47 out of 54  of its actions and investments have been completed or are on track, the report found.

It highlights progress in areas including tackling obesity, and tobacco and alcohol use  all linked to cancer.

But the groups co-convenors, Miles Briggs and Anas Sarwar, said urgent action was needed to address staff shortages.

Labour MSP Mr Sarwar said: The laudable aims of the Cancer Strategy simply cant be delivered unless the staffing crisis in our NHS is addressed.

The extra investment in cancer services is welcome, and a lot of progress has been made, which this report recognises.

But years of workforce mismanagement are taking their toll, and it is cancer patients who are being let down as a result.

Tory MSP Mr Briggs said: The SNP government has been warned for years about the dire consequences of poor workforce planning and the Cross Party Groups inquiry highlights this neglect.

If Ministers continue to ignore these warnings, cancer patients across Scotland will pay the price.

The Scottish Government now needs to show some leadership in the delivery of cancer services across Scotland if the SNP is actually going to meet the targets it has set out in the Cancer Strategy ahead of 2021.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman was due to meet members of the Scottish Cancer Coalition on Thursday to discuss the strategy.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: As the cross-party groups report recognises, 87% of the actions in the strategy have either been completed or are on track.

We recognise there can be challenges in recruiting the right specialist staff for some services.

Thats why the Scottish Cancer Taskforce is feeding into the development of the Scottish Government Integrated Workforce Plan, which aims to address workforce needs across Scotland.

Under this government there has been a 66% increase in consultant oncologists and a 45% rise in consultant radiologists in Scotlands NHS  which as a whole has seen seven consecutive years of growth in workforce numbers, to historically high levels.Tributes have been paid to a young rider who died following an accident involving a horse.

Iain Jardine Racing said that team member Natasha Galpin, 22, died following a tragic accident at the grass gallops on Tuesday when a horse suffered a ruptured artery.

She was taken to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow where she died on Wednesday.

The horse also died following the incident at the Hetland Hill Stables, Carrutherstown in Dumfries and Galloway.

In a statement issued through the National Trainers Federation, Iain Jardine Racing said: Our main priority throughout has been Natasha and the rest of our staff, who are distraught at the loss of a colleague and friend but have been extremely supportive of each other.

As a team here, we are doing our best to get through and cope with this devastating situation.

Police said Natasha Galpin died on Wednesday (Joe Giddens/PA)

Natasha was an experienced and valued full-time member of Team IJR. She was an accomplished event rider and ran her own livery yard. She worked alongside her boyfriend Olyn.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Natashas parents and sisters at this very sad time and we hope you will join us in respecting their privacy.

We are so shocked and sorry to hear the awful news about Natasha Galpin, work rider for @jardineracing.

Our deepest condolences and thoughts go to her family, friends and all the team at the yard.  Scottish Racing (@ScottishRacing) January 16, 2019

Police said the Procurator Fiscal has been told about the incident.

Members of the racing community have sent messages of support to the yard.

Scottish Racing tweeted: We are so shocked and sorry to hear the awful news about Natasha Galpin, work rider for @jardineracing.

Our deepest condolences and thoughts go to her family, friends and all the team at the yard.

Nick Rust, chief executive of the British Horseracing Authority, said: I know I speak for everyone at the BHA when I say we are truly shocked and devastated about this tragic news.

While such incidents are extremely rare there is an element of risk every time a rider sits on any horse and as such we must never take for granted the bravery and commitment of our workforce.

Our sport relies on their dedication in providing first-class care for our horses and we are grateful to them all.

Our deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of Natasha Galpin and the yard of Iain Jardine.

We will work with the authorities and provide support to the yard at this difficult time.Plans for a multibillion-pound new nuclear power station have been suspended, delivering a huge blow to the industry.

Japanese firm Hitachi announced it was not continuing with work already under way at Wylfa on Anglesey in North Wales.

The company said it had made strong progress on the project, but had not been able to reach agreement on financing and associated commercial arrangements.

Duncan Hawthorne, chief executive of Hitachis nuclear business, Horizon Nuclear Power, said: We have made very strong progress on all aspects of the projects development, including the UK design of our tried and tested reactor, supply chain development and especially the building of a very capable organisation of talented and committed people.

We have been in close discussions with the UK Government, in co-operation with the government of Japan, on the financing and associated commercial arrangements for our project for some years now. I am very sorry to say that, despite the best efforts of everyone involved, weve not been able to reach an agreement to the satisfaction of all concerned.

Hitachi said it will also suspend work on another site, in Oldbury in Gloucestershire, until a solution can be found.

Wylfa power station plans have been suspended (Horizon)

In the meantime, we will take steps to reduce our presence but keep the option to resume development in future, said Mr Hawthorne.

We will begin consultation on the implications immediately with our staff who have shown extraordinary talent, resilience and determination to take this complex and exciting project to this stage.

We will also engage closely with the many international and UK-based stakeholders who have strongly supported the projects development, especially our lead host community of Anglesey in Wales, represented by the Isle of Anglesey County Council and Welsh Government, and the key representatives around Oldbury.

A Business Department spokesman said: As the Business Secretary set out in June, any deal needs to represent value for money and be the right one for UK consumers and taxpayers.

Despite extensive negotiations and hard work by all sides, the Government and Hitachi are unable to reach agreement to proceed at this stage.

This Government is committed to the nuclear sector, giving the go-ahead to the first new nuclear power station in a generation at Hinkley Point C, investing 200 million through our recent sector, which includes millions for advanced nuclear technologies.

We are also reviewing alternative funding models for future nuclear projects and will update on these findings in summer 2019.

Hitachis move follows a decision by Toshiba not to go ahead with a nuclear power station at Moorside in Cumbria.

Justin Bowden, national officer of the GMB union, said: Hitachis announcement, coming so soon after the Moorside fiasco, raises the very real prospect of a UK energy crisis.

As coal is taken out of the equation in the next few years and the existing nuclear fleet reaches the end of its natural life after 50 years, decisions are already long overdue for construction to be completed in time and not leave the country at risk of power cuts or reliant on imported electricity, much of it from unreliable regimes.

While the Government has had its head up its proverbial backside over Brexit, vital matters like guaranteeing the countrys future energy supply appear to have gone by the wayside.

Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long Bailey said: The Governments new nuclear strategy, adopted by the Conservatives and spearheaded by their Liberal Democrat coalition partners in 2013, is now lying in tatters.

Just two months ago, the Governments lack of clarity over funding for new nuclear led Toshiba to withdraw from Moorside. That was a blow to the UKs energy security, its decarbonisation goals, and the economy of Cumbria.

But with Hitachis decision to withdraw from the Wylfa nuclear power plant, this triple blow has escalated into a full-blown crisis.

Unite national officer Peter McIntosh said: The decision is a disaster for the UK economy and future energy needs of the country. It is the latest chapter in the sorry saga of recent UK energy policy.

This Government should be held to account as it has no coherent policy and has, yet again, let the country down. The lights are going out when it comes to energy policy.

There are very real concerns over how we will keep the lights on for industry and consumers in the coming decades.

Our Chief Executive, @tomjgreatrex: Wylfa remains strong site for vital new nuclearhttps://t.co/VlYt6vandy  Nuclear Industry Association (@NIAUK) January 17, 2019

Tom Greatrex, chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, said: Its regrettable that this project has been suspended, especially as a considerable amount of groundwork has already taken place on the Wylfa project, including creating a supply chain to deliver the project.

Nuclear at Wylfa has with local support, and the Horizon project would provide 60 years of reliable, secure, low carbon power for homes, businesses and public services.

Sue Ferns, of the Prospect union, said the news will be deeply worrying for communities and workers that will be most affected.

She said: Our research shows that unless we get moving on nuclear projects like Wylfa, the UK will face a potential peak electricity gap of up to 21% by 2030. If the jobs and skills are lost from the sector then they cannot be easily replaced.

Thousands of jobs were set to be created building Wylfa and hundreds of employees would have been based at the site.

Hitachi has already spent over 1 billion on the project, which would have been expected to cost around 15 billion on completion.Chancellor Philip Hammond told business leaders that a no-deal Brexit could be taken off the table and Article 50 rescinded, according to a transcript of a leaked conference call.

The transcript, obtained by The Telegraph, details Mr Hammond speaking with 11 business leaders just hours after Theresa May lost the parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal.

Mr Hammond began the call by explaining that the defeat raised two questions; can Article 50 be revoked and whether we can somehow take the option of no deal off the table.

The Chancellor said the EU would not consider extending Article 50 unless or until we have a clear plan to go forward and the large majority in the commons are opposed to a no-deal in any circumstances.

He referred to a cross-party Bill, from Tory MP Nick Boles, which aims to force the Government to extend Article 50 if a Brexit deal cannot be reached, according to The Telegraph.

(PA Graphics)

On Monday, MPs will vote on an amendment that will pave the way for the Bill, the paper said.

Mr Hammond said: What this group of backbenchers has been doing is seeking to find a mechanism by which the House of Commons can express that view in a way which is binding and effective.

The business leaders sought assurances from Mr Hammond, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay and Business Secretary Greg Clark, who were also on the call, that a no-deal could be ruled out.

Doug Gurr, head of Amazon UK, reportedly said ruling out a no deal would give comfort to global boards.

But Mr Hammond said it would not be until next week that things became clearer.

John Allan, chairman of Tesco and president of the CBI, asked if taking a no-deal Brexit off the table reduced the UKs negotiating power with the EU.

Mr Hammond said removing options had consequences.

Mr Hammond added: The Government is not in control of this.

I am only telling you what information I have been able to glean.

My understanding is that because the bill being brought forward will simply and solely rescind the Article 50 notice, the legal opinion that they have is that that will meet the test that the European Court of Justice has laid down for unilateral recision of an Article 50 notice.

It is not within their power to mandate any future course of action, that would be for a Government to do.

A Treasury spokesman confirmed the phone call took place shortly after the vote on Tuesday, but would not confirm any details.

Labour MP Rupa Huq, a supporter of the Best for Britain campaign for a second referendum, said: Its ridiculous that its taken two-and-a-half years of uncertainty, job losses and no-deal threats before the Chancellor has made efforts to reassure businesses his Government wont throw the economy over a cliff-edge.

From Tesco and top FTSE companies to small businesses in my constituency, they are all aghast at the mismanagement of this process by this Tory Government. The most democratic thing to do now is to give the decision back to people.Campaigners calling for a second referendum to resolve the Brexit deadlock are claiming they have growing support.

But how could a second referendum come about?

Holding a referendum requires an Act of Parliament. The most obvious way would be for the Government to table a simple stand-alone Bill, as was the case for the 2016 referendum. However, Prime Minister Theresa May has made clear she is firmly opposed to the idea.

An alternative route could be for MPs to try to amend another piece of relevant legislation.

 How long would it take?

In the case of the 2016 referendum, it took seven months to get the Bill through Parliament  although in practice it could be done much more quickly.

The Electoral Commission then has a statutory duty to assess the referendum question to ensure it is intelligible and free from bias  a process which would normally take up to 12 weeks, although again it could be shortened.

The legislation would specify the length of the referendum campaign. All recent campaigns have lasted at least 10 weeks.

Overall, the Institute for Government estimates the whole process could take up to five months.

 What would that mean for the Brexit timetable?

On current plans, Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, so it could not be completed by then.

Therefore, for a referendum to be held, the Government would have to go to Brussels to ask for an extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process  something the EU may or may not grant.

For a second referendum to be held, the Government would have to go to Brussels to ask for an extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process (John Walton/PA)

 What would be the question on the ballot paper?

This is where it gets complicated.

Generally referendums offer a simple choice between two options  as in 2016 when it was Leave or Remain. However, most MPs accept that there would have to be at least three options  leave with a deal, leave without a deal, or remain in the EU.

 How would that work?

Various ideas have been floated.

One would be for voters to rank the options in order of preference. If none of the options gained an overall majority of first preference votes, the one with the fewest votes would be eliminated and its second preference votes would be distributed among the other two.

Alternatively, voters could just be given one choice. If none received an overall majority, the one with the fewest votes would again be eliminated, but under this scheme the other two options would then go forward to a final ballot a week later.

A third way could be to have a two-question ballot. The first would ask if voters wanted to Leave or Remain. The second would ask them to choose between a deal and a no-deal Brexit in the event that there is still a majority for Leave.

A counter tallies ballot papers after the referendum on the UKs membership of the EU in 2016 (Liam McBurney/PA)

 Where do the political parties stand?

The Conservatives officially oppose a second referendum, arguing that voters made their views clear in 2016 and that another ballot would simply exacerbate the bitter divisions opened up by the Brexit debate.

However, a growing number of mainly Remain-supporting backbench Tory MPs are warming to the idea, believing it offers a way out of the current impasse.

Labour says it wants a general election, but if that is not possible all options are on the table  including a second referendum.

Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, a longstanding Eurosceptic, has, however, shown little enthusiasm for the idea, while some of his supporters fear it could alienate traditional Labour voters in Leave-supporting areas.

However, he is facing a groundswell of support from within the party for another vote, including from many of the young Momentum activists who propelled him to the leadership and who are passionately opposed to Brexit.

Scotlands First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the SNP  which opposes Brexit  will back a second referendum in the Commons.

(PA Graphics)

 Are there any precedents for a second referendum?

In the UK, not really. However in other countries, where referendums are more common, there is a history of giving voters a chance to think again.

In Ireland, for example, in 2009 voters supported ratification of the EU Lisbon Treaty, having rejected it at the first time of asking.

Similarly, in 2002, the Irish voted for the Nice Treaty on the second occasion.NEW YORK (AP) - Actor Anthony Rapp said he came forward with sexual misconduct allegations against Kevin Spacey because he feared assaults could "keep happening" if he said nothing.

The younger actor spoke about the incident on the red carpet for the second season of his streaming series, "Star Trek Discovery" on Thursday in New York. He said he hoped he did his part to "change the culture."

In 2017, Rapp alleged that Spacey made an unwanted sexual advance during a house party in 1986 when he was 14 and Spacey was 26. Rapp sought legal counsel at the time, but no charges were filed.

The incident was dormant until a flurry of sexual misconduct allegations surfaced about Harvey Weinstein, prompting Rapp to come forward. Spacey responded that he did not remember such an encounter but apologized if the allegations were true.

More than a year later, Rapp is proud of the decision to tell his story. "I know that it's something that needs continued movement forward and I'm going to keep doing my best to be a part of the movement forward," Rapp said.

"I was just concerned that that it would be something that could keep happening, so if I could do something that could make a difference, I was eager to."

Actor Anthony Rapp attends the "Star Trek: Discovery" season two premiere at the Conrad New York on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

His "Star Trek Discovery" co-star Wilson Cruz said Rapp was being humble.

"What he did was incredibly brave, and he really allowed countless men to be able to tell their stories. You know, for the most part we were hearing stories about women and those are important stories to tell," Cruz said. "But there's a lot of stigma around abused men, sexually abused men and sexual harassment of men, and it was going to take a brave person to be able to start that conversation."

More than a dozen accusers came forward after Rapp's allegations, causing Spacey to lose his starring role on the Netflix series "House of Cards."

Earlier this month, Spacey was arraigned on felony indecent assault and battery charges after a Massachusetts man alleged that he was assaulted inside a Nantucket bar in July 2016. He was 18 years old at the time.

___

Follow John Carucci at http://www.twitter.com/jacarucci

Actor Anthony Rapp attends the "Star Trek: Discovery" season two premiere at the Conrad New York on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)ST. LOUIS (AP) - A Missouri congressman who yelled "go back to Puerto Rico" at Democrats during a heated House floor debate over the partial government shutdown has apologized to a colleague who perceived the comment as a racial slur directed at him.

Rep. Jason Smith, a Republican from Salem, said when he yelled the comment Thursday he was referring to a group of about 30 Democrats who went to Puerto Rico last weekend in the midst of the shutdown, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported .

But Rep. Tony Cardenas, a Democrat from California, said he believed the comment was directed at him. Cardenas, who organized the Puerto Rico trip, said he heard "go back to Puerto Rico" several times while he was growing up in Pacoima, California.

Smith, the House Republican conference secretary, said he didn't know Cardenas organized the trip and the comment was not directed at any individual. He said he quickly apologized to Cardenas.

"I should not have done it, the outburst on the floor," Smith said. "It was a reaction to them vacationing while the government was shut down. I was up here last weekend working with (Republican House Leader) Kevin McCarthy and everyone else, trying to come up with a plan" to end the shutdown.

Cardenas said he appreciated Smith's call, and the two plan to get together when the House returns to session Tuesday to become better acquainted.

___

Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.comPHILADELPHIA (AP) - Newly inaugurated state attorneys general said they plan to continue investigations of clergy abuse in the Roman Catholic church as thousands of victims reach out to state hotlines and online systems to report past abuse.

At least 14 attorneys general around the country have confirmed investigations or reviews of clergy abuse in the wake of a shocking Pennsylvania grand jury report in August detailing seven decades of child sexual abuse by more than 300 predator priests. Six of those offices - New York, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Florida and Delaware - are helmed by newly elected attorneys general, including three of the states reporting the largest numbers of victims contacting them.

Almost 3,000 calls, emails and online reports of clergy abuse have been made in the last five months. Nearly half of those calls were made to the Pennsylvania attorney general's office after its investigation was released.

That number doesn't account for reports made to seven states that declined to disclose numbers from their reporting systems to The Associated Press, including states with large Catholic populations like New Jersey and California with a dozen dioceses. The number could be much higher with those included. Several states are seeing lower responses; Delaware reported only five victim contacts as of the beginning of the year.

"We have an entire team of people dedicated to investigating the allegations of sexual abuse by priests in Michigan's seven Catholic dioceses," said new Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, whose office had received more than 300 victim calls and emails in just a few months. "I am committed to ensuring we leave no stone unturned as we continue to receive additional information on our tip line and review the hundreds of thousands of pages of documents obtained in search warrants executed last fall."

In New York, more than 550 people had submitted tips in the four months since former Attorney General Barbara Underwood launched a civil investigation in September. The investigation will continue under new Attorney General Letitia James, though the office would not discuss details about what has been found so far or what might come from the investigation.

FILE- In this Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, file photo, New York Attorney Letitia James smiles during an inauguration ceremony in New York. Newly inaugurated state attorneys general, like James, said they plan to continue investigations of clergy abuse in the Roman Catholic church as victims reach out to state hotlines and online systems to report past abuse.(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A hotline started by former Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan had received more than 350 calls as of the beginning of the year. Madigan released a preliminary report of findings in December - less than a month before leaving office - including that the state's dioceses had received allegations against 500 priests that had not been made public in disclosures of credibly accused clergy. The report also found that investigations into some of those claims were "inadequate" or had not happened at all.

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests have been meeting with attorneys general across the country to provide them with survivor accounts and to call on states to conduct investigations similar to Pennsylvania's. The number of survivors contacting the group has also increased since that report, said SNAP President Tim Lennon.

"I would say a very significant increase, at least four times (at least) as many calls, emails, contacts, to me, to SNAP, and to other SNAP leaders," Lennon wrote in an email.The legal pressure on the prominent family behind the company that makes OxyContin, the prescription painkiller that helped fuel the nation's opioid epidemic, is likely to get more intense.

The Sackler family came under heavy scrutiny this week when a legal filing in a Massachusetts case asserted that family members and company executives sought to push prescriptions of the drug and downplay its risks. Those revelations are likely to be a preview of the claims in a series of expanding legal challenges.

Members of the family that controls Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma are also defendants in a lawsuit brought by New York's Suffolk County. Few, if any, other governments have sued the family so far.

But Paul Hanly, a lawyer representing the county, said he expects to add the Sacklers to other opioid suits. He explained last year that he was targeting the family, known for its donations to some of the world's great museums and universities, in part because they took "tens of billions" of dollars out of Purdue Pharma.

Looming as potentially the biggest legal and financial risk for the family is a massive consolidated federal case playing out in Ohio.

More than 1,000 government entities have sued Purdue, along with other drugmakers and distributors, claiming they are partly culpable for a drug overdose crisis that resulted in a record 72,000 deaths in 2017. The majority of those deaths were from legal or illicit opioids.

FILE - In this Aug. 17, 2018, file photo, family and friends who have lost loved ones to OxyContin and opioid overdoses leave pill bottles in protest outside the headquarters of Purdue Pharma, which is owned by the Sackler family, in Stamford, Conn. A new filing in a Massachusetts case ramps up the legal and financial pressure against the Sackler family, which owns the company that makes OxyContin. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)

The company documents at the heart of the Massachusetts claims also could be evidence in the Ohio lawsuits, which are being overseen by a federal judge. The allegations ramp up pressure on the industry - and perhaps the Sacklers - to reach a settlement, said Paul Nolette, a political science professor at Marquette University who studies the role of state attorneys general.

Having Sackler family members named as defendants in Massachusetts "indicates that the government attorneys believe they have the 'smoking guns' necessary to broaden the potential liability of those at the top of the organization," he said in an email.

The allegations could tarnish a name that is best known for its generosity to museums worldwide including New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has a Sackler wing, and London's Tate Modern. The Sackler name also is on a gallery at the Smithsonian, a wing of galleries at London's Royal Academy of Arts and a museum at Beijing's Peking University. The family's best known and most generous donor, Arthur M. Sackler, died nearly a decade before OxyContin was released.

The Cleveland-based judge, Dan Polster, has been pushing for a settlement since he took over the federal cases a year ago, arguing that the parties involved should find ways to end this man-made crisis, rather than hold years of trials. A court order prohibits participants from discussing most aspects of settlement talks publicly.

In its lawsuit filed last year, the Massachusetts attorney general's office went after members of the Sackler family and Purdue, which is structured as a partnership and is not publicly traded.

The company's flagship drug, OxyContin, was the first of a generation of drugs that used a narcotic painkiller in a time-release form. That meant each pill had a larger amount of drug in it than other versions and could get abusers a more intense high if they defeated the time-release process.

Many of the attorney general's specific allegations - based on company documents - were blacked out at the request of Purdue and the Sackler family. The state recently filed a new version of its complaint that made public many of their allegations for the first time.

The state is asserting that Richard Sackler, a son of a company founder and at the time a senior vice president for Purdue, as well as other family members pushed selling OxyContin even when they knew it could cause problems. When the drug was first sold in 1996, the filing said, Sackler told the sales force "the launch of OxyContin Tablets will be followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition."

In 2007, the company and three current and former executives pleaded guilty to criminal charges that they deceived regulators, doctors and patients about the drug's addiction risks. The company agreed to fines of $634 million.

The next year, according to the Massachusetts lawsuit, the company pressed ahead with a new version of the drug designed to be harder for abusers to crush. It did so without first conducting trials and despite a warning from the company's CEO that the new version "will not stop patients from the simple act of taking too many pills."

Purdue responded to the Massachusetts filing with a strong statement: "In a rush to vilify a single manufacturer whose medicines represent less than 2 percent of opioid pain prescriptions rather than doing the hard work of trying to solve a complex public health crisis, the complaint distorts critical facts and cynically conflates prescription opioid medications with illegal heroin and fentanyl."

A spokesman for the Sackler family declined to comment separately.

Abbe Gluck, a Yale law professor who is following the federal case in Ohio, said the documents could make Purdue seem more liable or bring the Sackler family into the case in a way that presents obstacles to a settlement. But she said that might not change things for the other companies involved.

"The drug companies have an interest in settling their own claims globally," she said.

___

Follow Mulvihill at http://www.twitter.com/geoffmulvihillUNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. envoy for Libya says the United Nations is seeking to bring Libyans together in the coming weeks to agree on a national agenda to rebuild the fractured north African nation and spell out the path to elections.

Ghassan Salame told to the Security Council on Friday that the U.N. will announce the date and place of the National Conference once Libyan representatives agree on "the essential ingredients for a new consensus on a national agenda."

He said only Libyans can plot a way out of the political deadlock in the country which "has been underpinned by a complex web of narrow interests, a broken legal framework, and the pillaging of Libya's great wealth."

Libya plunged into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Moammar Gadhafi.Richard Phillips said he didn't mope much during the 45 years he wrongfully spent in prison.

He painted watercolors in his cell: warm landscapes, portraits of famous people like Mother Teresa, vases of flowers, a bassist playing jazz.

'I didn't actually think I'd ever be free again. This art is what I did to stay sane,' the 73-year-old said.

Phillips could be eligible for more than $2million under a Michigan law that compensates the wrongly convicted, but the state so far is resisting and the matter is unsettled.

So he's displaying roughly 50 of his more than 400 watercolors at a Detroit-area gallery and is willing to sell them.

Scroll down for video

Richard Phillips, who spent 45 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, stands next to some of his artwork during an interview at the Community Art Gallery in Ferndale, Michigan on Thursday

Back in the day: Phillips, who had worked as a clerk typist for Chrysler, was a 26-year-old father of two when he was hit with a life sentence

His paintings are precious to him, but he said he has no choice: He needs money.

Phillips was released from custody in 2017 and, in 2018, became the longest-serving U.S. inmate to win exoneration.

He was cleared of a 1971 homicide after an investigation by University of Michigan law students and the Wayne County prosecutor's office.

Phillips showed his work at an art gallery inside Level One Bank in Ferndale, a Detroit suburb, on Friday night.

'Are you the artist? God bless you. Beautiful,' a bank customer said while admiring a painting of five musicians Thursday.

Phillips said he bought painting supplies by selling handmade greeting cards to other inmates.

Phillips was released from custody in 2017 and, in 2018, became the longest-serving U.S. inmate to win exoneration. He was cleared of a 1971 homicide after an investigation by University of Michigan law students and the Wayne County prosecutor's office

Free at last: He was cleared of a 1971 homicide after an investigation by University of Michigan law students and the Wayne County prosecutor's office

He followed a strict routine of painting each morning while his cellmate was elsewhere.

He was sometimes inspired by photos in newspapers and liked to use bright colors that didn't spill into each other.

But a cramped cell isn't an art studio.

Phillips said prison rules prevented him from keeping his paintings so he regularly shipped them to a pen pal.

After he was exonerated, Phillips rode a bus to New York state last fall to visit the woman. He was pleased to find she still had the paintings.

'These are like my children,' Phillips, a former auto worker, said during a tour with The Associated Press.

'But I don't have any money. I don't have a choice. Without this, I'd have a cup on the corner begging for nickels and dimes. I'm too old to get a job,' he said.

Phillips could be eligible for more than $2million under a Michigan law that compensates the wrongly convicted, but the state so far is resisting. So he's displaying roughly 50 of his more than 400 watercolors at a Detroit-area gallery and is willing to sell them

Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy supports Phillips' effort to be compensated for his years in prison.

Michigan's new attorney general, Dana Nessel, is reviewing the case.

It's complicated because he has a separate disputed conviction in Oakland County that's still on the books, spokeswoman Kelly Rossman-McKinney said.

Phillips' attorney, Gabi Silver, who has helped him adjust to a life of freedom, said the paintings are inspirational.

'To suffer what he has suffered, to still be able to find good in people and to still be able to see the beauty in life - it's remarkable,' she said.

Phillips was a father of two who was 26 years old and already in jail for an armed robbery conviction when local Detroit detectives arrested him for murdering the brother-in-law of a man he knew from the streets.

'In the spring of 1972 I was sitting in prison and detectives told me that a friend of mine told them that I helped murder a guy with another man, Richard Palombo,' he told DailyMail.com after his release.

'A guy I formerly ran around with, Fred Mitchell told detectives that me and Palombo murdered his brother-in-law, Gregory Harris in the summer of 1971.'

Fred Mitchell had just been arrested on a burglary charge and told cops of the murder in order to help himself out, Phillips claims.

Based on Mitchell's testimony, both Phillips and Palombo were found guilty of first-degree murder on June 26, 1971 and sentenced in October 1972 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Richard Palombo is currently serving a life sentence, but last month, Wayne County Circuit Judge Kevin J. Cox finally dismissed the murder charges against Phillips.

For years he has maintained that Mitchell, who has since passed away, and Palombo murdered Harris and dumped his body in a field that June. Phillips denied knowing anything about the murder at the time.

Mitchell was already in prison for a previous charge when Harris allegedly stole money from his mother. He later killed Harris, his own brother-in-law, when he was released from jail as payback, Phillips claims.

'I don't like what Mitchell did [lie in court] but I half way understand what he did, it was self-preservation. It's the first law of nature, especially in the streets, especially in the hood where I come from, where you have to fight your way in the door and out of the door. I forgave him (Mitchell) over the years. He had to save himself.'

When he first heard the verdict for the murder conviction, Phillips said: 'I just felt like life was over, I was in shock. But at same point I had to come to the realization that life isn't over I have to fight and keep going forward so that is what I tried to do.'

Phillips, who had worked as a clerk typist for Chrysler, spent time in nine different prisons in Michigan over the past 45 years, 'I spent 19 years in one prison here in Detroit and 10 years in one cell. I never left (living in) that cell in 10 years.'

'I've been in the hole three times and only had four write ups in 45 years, I was basically a model prisoner.'

After all of his court appeals ran out with no luck, he started praying, going to church, and taking up painting as a hobby.

'A good amount of time being imprisoned I spent painting with watercolors alone in my cell,' he said.CHICAGO (AP) - A look at some of the key players in the murder trial of Jason Van Dyke, the white Chicago police officer who was convicted of second-degree murder in October for fatally shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald.

LAQUAN MCDONALD

On the October 2014 night Laquan McDonald was shot to death, he was like so many other children of broken homes on the city's fringes. He spent most of his 17 years as a ward of the state, shuttled between different relatives' homes and foster care from the time he was 3. McDonald wound up in juvenile detention after an arrest for marijuana possession in January 2014. But school officials, relatives and his family's attorney say there were signs that he was trying to get his life back in order. An autopsy showed McDonald had a small amount of the hallucinogenic drug PCP in his system when he died.

JASON VAN DYKE

Before the shooting, Jason Van Dyke never saw his name in the paper. Van Dyke, now 40, was just one of the 12,000 Chicago police officers who showed up to work, worked their shifts and went home to his wife, Tiffany, and their two school-age daughters. He also worked a part-time security job. He had been on the force for 13 years when the shooting happened and was automatically kicked off it once he was convicted. According to a database that includes reports from 2002 until 2008 and 2011 until 2015, he was the subject of at least 20 citizen complaints - eight of which alleged excessive force. Though he was never disciplined, a jury did once award $350,000 to a man who filed an excessive force lawsuit against him. In October, a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder in McDonald's death.

LEAD DEFENSE ATTORNEY DANIEL HERBERT

FILE - In this Aug. 4, 2016 file pool photo, Judge Vincent Gaughan presides over a hearing for Jason Van Dyke at the Leighton Criminal Courts Building in Chicago. Gaughan rejected allegations that the shocking video of Laquan McDonald's death proved that Chicago police officers tried to stage a cover-up in the fatal shooting of the black teen. Now another judge must decide how long the officer who pulled the trigger spends behind bars. (Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune, Pool, File)

It makes perfect sense that Daniel Herbert should specialize in representing police officers in everything from civil rights lawsuits to divorce cases, and for arrests for crimes ranging from drunken driving to murder. A Chicago kid, Herbert got out of college and followed his father into the police department before he got his law degree and joined the Cook County state's attorney's office. When he set out on his own about eight years ago, he contracted with the police officer's union, which has led to a steady stream of cases defending officers.

SPECIAL PROSECUTOR JOSEPH MCMAHON

Every day, Joseph McMahon comes to the courthouse on Chicago's South Side from his home in Kane County, where he is the county's state's attorney. Appointed special prosecutor when then-Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez recused herself and her office from the politically charged case, the career prosecutor strikes a far calmer, less flashy figure in court than Herbert, who routinely verbally spars with the judge. Though he often appears unflappable and his questioning of witnesses is typically a quiet march through the evidence he wants to cover, McMahon has also shown a dramatic side, as he did during his opening statement to jurors when he rapped his knuckles on the lectern once for every shot Van Dyke fired.

COOK COUNTY JUDGE VINCENT GAUGHAN

Make no mistake about Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan: He is in charge of Van Dyke's trial. A judge since 1991, the 77-year-old Gaughan is a stern taskmaster, lecturing attorneys for failing to get to the point, spectators for not standing when he takes the bench, and even reporters whom he suspected of sticking chewed gum on the bottom of their seats. He was a decorated soldier in the Vietnam War and as a judge appears fearless, as he has presided over some of the county's biggest trials in recent years.PRAGUE (AP) - Czech officials say a man has been seriously injured after he set himself on fire in downtown Prague amid commemorative events to remember a student who burned himself to death 50 years ago to inspire resistance against the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Police say the man born in 1964 poured an unspecified flammable liquid on himself at Wenceslas Square and set himself on fire Friday. They say that people who were nearby extinguished the fire.

Prague's rescue service says the man suffered burns on about 30 percent of his body and was transported to a hospital in an artificially-induced coma.

Jan Palach set himself on fire on Jan. 16, 1969 after the Warsaw Pact countries crushed liberal reforms known as the Prague Spring. He died three days later.

Police officers secure an area next to the Saint Wenceslas statue at upper part of Wenceslas Square in Prague, Czech Republic, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. Officials say a man has tried to burn himself at Prague's downtown square amid commemorative events to remember a student who burned himself to death 50 years ago to inspire resistance against the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. (Vit Simanek/CTK via AP)

Police officers secure an area next to the Saint Wenceslas statue at upper part of Wenceslas Square in Prague, Czech Republic, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. Officials say a man has tried to burn himself at Prague's downtown square amid commemorative events to remember a student who burned himself to death 50 years ago to inspire resistance against the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. (Vit Simanek/CTK via AP)

Police officers secure an area next to the Saint Wenceslas statue at upper part of Wenceslas Square in Prague, Czech Republic, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. Officials say a man has tried to burn himself at Prague's downtown square amid commemorative events to remember a student who burned himself to death 50 years ago to inspire resistance against the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. (Vit Simanek/CTK via AP)TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's foreign minister has mocked the U.S. national security adviser's calls for a strike on Iran, in a play on the viral 10-year challenge meme on social media.

In a tweet Friday, Mohammad Javad Zarif posted the titles of two separate articles by John Bolton from 2009 and 2019, both calling for strikes on Iran.

"Same bull. Same bully. Same delusion," Zarif wrote.

Earlier this week, reports surfaced that Bolton asked the Pentagon in September to prepare military options for attacking Iran after attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites in Iraq.

Social media users taking the 10-year challenge are comparing their profile photos from 2009 and 2019.

Tensions between Iran and the U.S. have been heightened after President Donald Trump withdrew America from the nuclear deal and re-imposed sanctions on Iran.WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Church bells tolled as tens of thousands in Poland's northern city of Gdansk walked in a procession Friday bringing the coffin of the city's slain mayor to a basilica on the eve of his burial.

Mayor Piotr Adamowicz, 53, died Monday after being stabbed Sunday night at a charity event by an ex-convict with a grudge against an opposition party that Adamowicz once belonged to. The assailant is under arrest. The slaying took place as Poland faces a deep political divide over actions by the conservative ruling Law and Justice party.

Naval officers in dress uniforms escorted the black hearse on its way from the museum of the Solidarity freedom movement, where the coffin of the six-term mayor had lain in state, to the Gothic St. Mary's Basilica, where Adamowicz will be laid to rest on Saturday.

Led by Gdansk Archbishop Leszek Slawoj Glodz and other prominent figures, the procession winded down the streets that Adamowicz had once walked, past his childhood home where his parents still live and past schools that he once attended.

Adamowicz's wife and daughters walked among the crowd.

In a moving gesture, the coffin was brought into the basilica by six city mayors, including Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.

Mayor Pawel Adamowicz's coffin lies in state in the European Solidarity Centre in Gdansk, Poland, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Residents of a Polish city are paying respects at the coffin of the longtime mayor who was killed in a stabbing attack. Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz will lie in state until Friday at a museum is devoted to the history of Poland's anti-communist Solidarity movement, which started in the city. (AP Photo/Wojciech Strozyk)

European Union top official Donald Tusk, a personal friend of Adamowicz, attended a Catholic Mass that Glodz celebrated at the crowded basilica, to the sound of Mozart's Requiem in D Minor.

European Parliament head Antonio Tajani said on Twitter that Polish and European Union flags were to be lowered to half-staff at the parliament for Adamowicz "in solidarity with his loved ones and the people of Gdansk."

Earlier Friday, around 300 city mayors and councilors from across Poland gathered to honor Adamowicz with a special session at the port city's historic shipyard where Poland's anti-communist Solidarity movement was born in 1980. An epitaph written after his death was played on a church carillon that Adamowicz had helped to restore.

Tusk, the nation's former prime minister, as well as Poland's current and previous presidents and prime ministers and other top figures from abroad are expected at the funeral Saturday.

Istvan Nagy, Ambassador of Hungary to Switzerland, signs the condolence book for Pawel Adamowicz, Mayor of Gdansk, at the residence of Poland's Ambassador in Switzerland in Bern, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. The Polish embassy opened a condolonce book after the tragic death of Pawel Adamowicz, Mayor of Gdansk. (Peter Klaunzer/Keystone via AP)BEIRUT (AP) - Lebanon used an Arab economic meeting Friday to urge the Arab League to restore Syria's membership, calling it a "historic shame" to keep the Arab country out of the forum.

The Lebanese Foreign Minister, Gebran Bassil, spoke before Arab ministers meeting in Beirut ahead of a regional summit that has been overshadowed by divisions and controversy over Syria's participation.

Organizers of the Arab Economic and Social Development Summit, or AESD, initially said that seven Arab heads of state would attend Sunday's summit which is being held in Lebanon for the first time. But only two heads of state are now expected, the leaders of Somalia and Mauritania, after several others pulled out despite previously having confirmed their attendance.

Their absence appeared to be a snub to Lebanon, where pro-Syrian groups led by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah have insisted that the Syrian government should be invited.

"Syria is the biggest absentee in our conference ... Syria should be in our arms rather than throwing it in the arms of terrorism," Bassil said in his speech Friday. "We should not wait to get permission for its return so that we don't commit a historic shame by suspending a member because of external orders."

Syria's membership in the 22-member Arab League was suspended in 2011 after the Syrian government's military crackdown on protesters calling for reforms. The protests later turned into an armed insurgency and full blown war. With crucial political and military backing from Russia and Iran, Syrian President Bashar Assad is largely seen as having won the war, and some Arab states are calling for readmitting Syria back into the Arab fold.

The chair of the Syrian Arab Republic is empty at the opening session of the Arab foreign ministers meeting ahead of a weekend Arab Economic Summit, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. The Arab Economic and Social Development Summit, or AESD, is being held in Lebanon for the first time amid sharp divisions in the country and among Arab countries. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit told reporters during a news conference that there was no clear Arab position regarding reinstating Syria's membership. "There are different points of views," he said.

He spoke hours after assistant Arab League chief Houssam Zaki told reporters that "Syria's return is inevitable," pointing out that Syria was never expelled, only suspended.

The summit, which Lebanon had hoped would boost Lebanon's sinking economic credentials, has been marred by controversy days before delegates arrive. Inviting Syria was only one issue. A days-long debate raged over whether Libya should get an invitation, because of the unresolved mystery surrounding the disappearance of a Lebanese cleric in Libya four decades. Libya decided to stay away from the meeting after Lebanese supporters of the cleric tore down a Libyan flag on a Beirut street.

The AESD was formed in 2009 as an exclusively economic and development conference that tends to involve the private sector, including banks, chambers of commerce, industry and agriculture. The agenda does not include the reconstruction of Syria, much of it ruined in nearly eight years of civil war.

Cars pass next of a picture of Shiite Muslim spiritual leader, Imam Moussa Sadr, who disappeared on a trip to Libya in 1978, left, and a giant Arabic banner, right, that reads:"Normalization (with Israel) is treason," which set against the Arab economic development summit, at the airport highway where some of the Arab leaders who will attend the summit will pass by, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. The summit that Lebanon is hosting this weekend has been marred by controversy days before delegates arrive. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A giant Arabic banner the reads:"All of Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine" with pictures of Shiite Muslim spiritual leader Imam Moussa Sadr, top, who disappeared on a trip to Libya in 1978, set against the Arab economic development summit, at the airport highway where some of the Arab leaders who will attend the summit will pass by, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. The summit that Lebanon is hosting this weekend has been marred by controversy days before delegates arrive. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Cars pass next to an Arabic banner that reads: "Normalization (with Israel) is treason," set against the Arab economic development summit, at the airport highway where some of the Arab leaders who will attend the summit will pass by, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. The summit that Lebanon is hosting this weekend has been marred by controversy days before delegates arrive. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanese Prime Minister Gibran Bassil, right, speaks with Arab League Secretary-General, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, left, during the opening session of the Arab foreign ministers meeting ahead of a weekend Arab Economic Summit, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. The Arab Economic and Social Development Summit, or AESD, is being held in Lebanon for the first time amid sharp divisions in the country and among Arab countries. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanese Prime Minister Gibran Bassil, right, speaks with Arab League Secretary-General, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, left, during the opening session of the Arab foreign ministers meeting ahead of a weekend Arab Economic Summit, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. The Arab Economic and Social Development Summit, or AESD, is being held in Lebanon for the first time amid sharp divisions in the country and among Arab countries. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)BANGKOK (AP) - Thailand's military held its annual Armed Forces Day parade on Friday as the country prepares for expected elections more than four years after soldiers overthrew an elected government.

Army Commander in Chief Gen. Apirat Kongsompong, who presided over the ceremony, declined last October to rule out future army interventions in Thai political life, raising a storm of controversy.

But his speech to soldiers on Friday steered clear of politics, making instead routine exhortations of loyalty to the king and the country.

"We will sacrifice our physical and mental strength to protect the country and revere the king, and look after the people," he said.

With elections expected shortly, political temperatures are rising, and pro-democracy activists have been demonstrating to pressure the government not to backslide on its promise to hold polls. Several times it has set dates for elections but then found excuses for pushing them back. It recently announced that a Feb. 24 election date it set months ago will not be possible.

Apirat earlier this week warned protesters not to step over the line of acceptable dissent. There have been small but spirited protests lately in Bangkok and several other cities over the failure to keep the election schedule.

A Buddhist monk splashes holy water to Thai soldiers during the Royal Thai Armed Forces Day ceremony at a military base in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Friday's march by soldiers on a parade ground on the outskirts of Bangkok was a reminder that the army is a major force in Thai political life, regularly leaving the barracks to topple civilian governments. Since the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932, it has conducted 12 successful coups. The current prime minister, former Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, led the last one in 2014. .

Armed Forces Day marks the anniversary of a battle 500 years ago in which King Naresuan is said to have slain a Burmese prince in a duel on elephant back.

Thai army chief Gen. Apirat Kongsompong delivers a speech during the Royal Thai Armed Forces Day ceremony at a military base in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thai army chief Gen. Apirat Kongsompong reviews the guard of honor during the Royal Thai Armed Forces Day ceremony at a military base in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thai soldiers parade during the Royal Thai Armed Forces Day ceremony at a military base in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A Buddhist monk splashes holy water on to Thai soldiers during the Royal Thai Armed Forces Day ceremony at a military base in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thai soldiers parade during the Royal Thai Armed Forces Day ceremony at a military base in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thai soldiers parade during the Royal Thai Armed Forces Day ceremony at a military base in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)PARIS (AP) - French President Emmanuel Macron meets Friday with mayors of southwestern France as part of a grand debate aimed at appeasing the yellow vest movement, as protesters call for new actions this weekend.

Macron is due to answer the mayors' questions about daily life and local politics in Souillac. Dozens of protesters also gathered in the small town but police blocked their access to the meeting's location.

The three-month-long debate consists of a series of meetings to be organized by ordinary citizens, associations and elected officials to enable the French to express their views on the economy and democracy.

Yellow vests have called for a tenth straight weekend of demonstrations on Saturday in Paris and other cities to protest against Macron's policies, seen as favoring the rich.

French President Emmanuel Macron arrives to visit a school in Saint-Sozy, southwestern France, ahead of his meeting with about 600 mayors and local officials in Souillac as part of a national "grand debate". (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP)

Police block the access to the congress hall in Souillac, southern France, ahead of French President Emmanuel Macron' s visit, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. Macron is meeting Friday with about 600 mayors and local officials in Souillac, a small town in southwestern France, as part of a national "grand debate".(AP Photo/Fred Scheiber)GYOR, Hungary (AP) - Some 4,000 workers held a warning strike at Audi's manufacturing plant in Hungary, demanding higher wages and other benefits from the German carmaker.

Union leader Sandor Nemeth said that Friday's two-hour work stoppage was "exceptionally successful," proof that the workers support the union's demands. Those demands include a monthly base pay hike of 18 percent, or at least 75,000 ($268), and at least one free weekend a month.

Audi said it would continue the wage negotiations, saying the strike did not affect the firm's ability to supply customers.

Carmakers like Audi, Mercedes, Suzuki and Opel have been among the main drivers of Hungary's economic growth in recent years.

In 2018, the Audi plant in Gyor in western Hungary built 1.95 million engines and 100,000 vehicles, while employing 13,000 workers.

Employees of the Gyor plant of German car maker Audi AG hold a two-hour warning strike organised by the Audi Hungaria Independent Union (AHFSZ) in Gyor, 120 kms west of Budapest, Hungary, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. The union demands a wage increase of at least 18 percent, but no less than HUF 75,000 a month. Audi Hungaria employs more than 11,500 people at its base in Gyor. (Csaba Krizsan/MTI via AP)BERLIN (AP) - The far-right Alternative for Germany party said Friday it's exploring legal action against the country's domestic intelligence agency after a report examining extremist tendencies within the party was leaked to the media.

Co-leader Alexander Gauland said the BfV agency had refused to give him a copy of a report justifying its recent decision to monitor the party more closely.

According to German weekly Der Spiegel, the confidential report concluded that Gauland used some of the same aggressive language as a party faction known for its ethno-nationalist rhetoric. Security officials say the faction, 'The Wing,' and the party's youth branch will be scrutinized particularly closely in future, including through the possible use of covert surveillance.

Alternative for Germany came third in the country's 2017 election after campaigning strongly against immigration, and is now the biggest opposition party in parliament. But its rightward drift has prompted some prominent members over the years to quit the party, which is also known by its German acronym AfD.

"I've been warning about possible surveillance by the BfV since the start of 2016," said former leader Frauke Petry, who left the party in 2017, citing what she described as "totalitarian structures" emerging from the Wing.

Gauland and others had "spectacularly underestimated and downplayed" the risk, Petry told The Associated Press.

In this Monday, March 12, 2018 photo the co-chairmen of the Alternative for Germany, AfD, party, Alexander Gauland, speaks during a press conference in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, file)

"It's sad to see what's become of AfD," she added.

Meanwhile, the party refused to comment Friday on reports that it has handed parliament a list of 14 individuals it claimed were behind a 130,000-euro ($146,500) donation it received from Switzerland before the last election.

German law only allows parties to receive funds from European Union citizens.

German and Swiss media reported that the donors were all registered in the EU, raising the question of why the money was funneled through a non-EU country.

"AfD's statement of accounts has as many holes as a Swiss cheese," said Ulrich Mueller, an analyst at transparency group Lobby Control. He called for an overhaul of Germany's system of party financing to prevent donors from secretly influencing parties and elections.COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - A North Korean diplomat has arrived in Sweden to take part in an unannounced meeting in Stockholm, officials said Friday.

Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman Vilhelm Rundquist said Deputy Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui has landed in Sweden "to take part in talks in a minor format where international experts take part."

He declined to give further details. Sweden's TT news agency said Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom would also attend the event.

It is possible that U.S. special envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun would join the meeting later, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

"I have nothing to say presently. It's up to the parties and the countries whether there will be a result," Wallstrom told the TT news agency. "We are proud if we can contribute. If they want us to contribute, we do it."

The location for the talks wasn't immediately disclosed. Swedish officials have declined to confirm any further details about the meeting, including whether it is underway.

Sweden has had diplomatic relations with Pyongyang since 1973 and is one of only a few Western countries with an embassy there. It provides consular services for the United States.

In March, Wallstrom held talks with her North Korean counterpart, Ri Yong Ho, in Stockholm, leading to the first-ever meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in June in Singapore.

___

Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the talks are not high-level and that it's possible that the U.S. special envoy would attend, not that he is already attending.WHITEVILLE, N.C. (AP) - A federal judge has chastised election officials in North Carolina who let a Korean woman with a green card vote in three elections.

The News & Observer reports Hyo Suk George had lived legally in the country for nearly two decades before a town council member at church encouraged her to vote. She registered in Columbus County with a driver's license, Social Security number - and a green card. George voted in 2008, 2010 and 2016.

On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle said the board of elections in Whiteville "ought to be a little smarter than" accepting a green card as proof of voter eligibility. Green card holders are not U.S. citizens.

George, 70, faced prison for illegal voting, but Boyle let her go with a $100 fine.

___

Information from: The News & Observer, http://www.newsobserver.comLONDON (AP) - A British art dealer says he has bought a mural stenciled by street artist Banksy on a garage wall in Wales for more than 100,000 pounds ($129,000).

The artwork in Port Talbot shows a child playing in falling ash from a dumpster fire, an apparent reference to the steel town's air pollution.

Security guards were hired to protect the work after it appeared in December on a steelworker's garage.

John Brandler of Brandler Galleries in eastern England said Friday he has agreed that the mural will stay in place for at least two years.

He said "I want to make Port Talbot a go-to place rather than a go-from place. Within a short time I'm thinking of bringing five or six more Banksys to Port Talbot. Let's do an exhibition.THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - A salvage operation to lift scores of shipping containers from the seabed off the northwestern coast of the Netherlands has begun more than two weeks after they tumbled off a cargo vessel in a storm.

Security Region Friesland, the local authority that is coordinating the operation, says on its website that the operation got underway Friday after repeated postponements because of bad weather.

The MSC Zoe lost 291 containers early this month as it sailed from Portugal to the German port of Bremerhaven. Some of them burst open, scattering their contents along nearby beaches.

Two ships are being used to lift sunken containers to the surface. The Dutch water authority says fishing vessels are standing by near the operation to scoop up any cargo that spills out of open containers.

In this image released by the Kustwacht Nederland, or Netherlands Coastguard, the MSC Zoe is seen after losing 291 containers in a storm earlier January 2019. A salvage operation to lift scores of shipping containers from the seabed off the northwestern coast of the Netherlands has begun Friday Jan. 18, 2019, more than two weeks after they tumbled off the cargo vessel in a storm. The local authority that is coordinating the operation says on its website that the operation got underway Friday after repeated postponements due to bad weather. (Kustwacht Nederland/Netherlands Coastguard via AP)GENEVA (AP) - The World Health Organization said Friday that it's seeing increasing reports of misconduct reported by staffers within the U.N. health agency, describing the trend as "a positive thing."

WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said at a press briefing in Geneva the agency has been investigating misbehavior for "years and decades" and would continue to do so.

The comments came after an Associated Press story Thursday which reported that WHO's director-general had ordered an internal probe into claims the agency is rife with racism, sexism and corruption.

The AP obtained three anonymous emails addressed to senior WHO managers charging that there were numerous problems at the agency, including "systematic" racism against African staffers and allegations that some money intended to fight Ebola in Congo was misspent.

Last month, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus instructed the agency's internal office of oversight to investigate the allegations, announcing his decision at a staff meeting in Geneva.

The first email, which was sent last April, claimed there was "systematic racial discrimination against Africans at WHO" and that African staffers were being "abused, sworn at (and) shown contempt to" by their Geneva-based colleagues.

FILE - In this Tuesday Aug. 14, 2018 file photo, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on WHO Ebola operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The World Health Organization says it is seeing increasing reports of misconduct reported by staffers within the U.N. health agency, describing the trend as "a positive thing." WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said Friday, Jan. 18, 2019 the agency has been investigating misbehavior for "years and decades," following the publication of an Associated Press story Thursday that reported WHO's director-general had ordered an internal probe into claims the agency is rife with racism, sexism and corruption. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/keystone via AP, File)

Two further emails addressed to WHO directors complained that senior officials were "attempting to stifle" investigations into such problems and also alleged other instances of wrongdoing, including allegedly misspent Ebola funds.

The last email, sent in December, labeled the behavior of a senior doctor helping to lead the response against Ebola as "unacceptable, unprofessional and racist," citing a November incident where the doctor reportedly "humiliated, disgraced and belittled" a Middle East subordinate.

Some staffers feared that funds donated to help stop Ebola in Congo "have not been used judiciously," the email said, warning such blunders could undermine WHO's credibility.

Tedros - a former health minister of Ethiopia and WHO's first African director-general - said during the staff meeting that investigators looking into the charges "have all my support" and that he would provide more resources if necessary.

WHO spokesman Jasarevic said WHO has "established procedures and people can report on any concern they may have," and that all such allegations would be assessed by its office of internal oversight.

"There are more reports of concern, and this is a positive trend. It's important for us to know where there are cases of misconduct so we can address them," Jasarevic said. He added the increased reports also suggest staffers feel "more confident to report concerns."

But critics questioned whether WHO could effectively investigate itself, pointing out that it was WHO's internal oversight office that botched the initial investigation into sexual harassment allegations at UNAIDS, which is technically part of WHO.

WHO's internal investigation dismissed those claims, but an independent report concluded last year there was a culture of impunity and toxic working environment at UNAIDS, which ultimately led its chief Michel Sidibe to announce his resignation last month, effective in June.

"Having an internal investigation at WHO is as good as doing nothing," said Ed Flaherty, a lawyer who represents Martina Brostrom, the UNAIDS whistleblower whose sexual harassment charges prompted the report.

Jasarevic said WHO's internal investigation office reports "to (an) independent expert oversight advisory committee, and that's not a WHO body." He said reports on "substantiated allegations" would be publicly submitted to the World Health Assembly.

But according to a report from WHO's internal auditor, the office reports directly to WHO's director-general. And WHO's 2015 "Accountability Framework" said the office is responsible both to WHO senior management and to the U.N. agency's governing bodies.

Flaherty disputed Jasarevic's assertion that WHO staffers have confidence in internal misconduct reporting methods.

"Whistleblowers at WHO get crushed," Flaherty said. "The fact that people have resorted to anonymous emails to report these allegations is a sign of desperation."

___

Maria Cheng reported from London.Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:

1. TRUMP, PELOSI FEUD HEATS UP

The president denies the House speaker the use of a military aircraft to visit troops abroad. This, after Pelosi sought to have Trump postpone his Jan. 29 State of the Union address.

2. BREXIT STALEMATE DRAGS ON

The British prime minister is unwilling to compromise on her "red lines," which include taking Britain out of the bloc's customs union, while the opposition leader wants assurances there will not be a "no deal" Brexit.

3. WHITE HOUSE HOPEFULS TACKLING DIVISIVE ISSUE

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., pauses as she speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Monday's observance of what would have been Martin Luther King Jr.'s 90th birthday is prompting Democratic candidates to talk about race.

4. PALESTINIAN FORCES SOLDIER ON

Palestinian security forces press on despite Israeli raids in Ramallah and a looming cutoff in U.S. aid many fear will obliterate any remaining hope for a two-state solution.

5. OFFICER TO LEARN FATE IN LAQUAN MCDONALD SHOOTING

Jason Van Dyke was the first Chicago officer found guilty in an on-duty shooting in a half century and probably the first ever in the shooting of an African-American.

6. IRAN STATE TV: US-BORN NEWSCASTER TO APPEAR IN DC COURT

Marzieh Hashemi's son says his mother was arrested this past weekend in St. Louis by the FBI on a material witness warrant.

7. 'ROAD AHEAD IS VERY DIFFICULT'

The electric car and solar panel maker Tesla, hoping to post a "tiny profit," says it plans to cut its staff by about 7 percent.

8. DEATH TOLL RISES IN COLOMBIA

Colombian authorities say the fatalities from a car bombing at a police academy in Bogota have more than doubled to 21.

9. POLICE: ARIZONA OFFICER KILLS TEEN BOY CARRYING REPLICA GUN

Police in Tempe say a suspected burglar shot to death by an officer was a 14-year-old boy carrying a replica 1911 airsoft gun.

10. 'THIS ONE IS PARTICULARLY GOOD'

The moon, Earth and sun will line up this weekend for the only total lunar eclipse this year and next. An added bonus: It'll be a supermoon.

Family members of victims of a bombing embrace outside the entrance to the General Santander police academy where the bombing took place in Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/John Wilson Vizcaino)BRUSSELS (AP) - The European Union insisted Friday that agriculture be kept out of the EU-U.S. trade negotiations, despite Washington's wishes to include the vast sector, and said any overall deal will be limited in scope.

The EU Commission announced its proposals for a negotiating mandate from the 28 member states and said that the EU negotiations will be "strictly focused on the removal of tariffs on industrial goods, excluding agricultural products."

EU Trade Chief Cecilia Malmstrom also said that she is preparing a target list of American products it will hit with punitive tariffs if the Trump administration goes through with its threat to impose duties on European auto imports.

Last July, during a period of heightened tensions over trade, U.S. President Donald Trump and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed to start talks meant to achieve "zero tariffs" and "zero subsidies" on non-automotive industrial goods.

With the U.S. criticizing the Europeans for allegedly dragging their feet in the talks, Malmstrom said "the EU is committed to upholding its side of the agreement reached by the two Presidents."

Any agreement would fall well short of the scope of the free trade deal that had been discussed in recent years - but paused in 2016 after Trump slammed such wide-ranging international deals as unfair to the U.S.

European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom speaks during a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. The European Union is insisting to keep agriculture out of the EU-US trade negotiations despite the wishes from Washington to include the vast sector. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Instead, Malmstrom said, the deal both sides are now looking at could be concluded "quite quickly. We could finalize this and it would be beneficial to all of us."LONDON (AP) - The Latest on Brexit (all times local):

11:45 a.m.

Former British foreign secretary Boris Johnson has urged Prime Minister Theresa May to use her crushing parliamentary defeat as leverage to get a better Brexit deal from European Union leaders.

Johnson said Friday that May would be able to persuade EU leaders to substantially modify the withdrawal plan if she shows enough "gumption" in crisis EU talks.

He says the scope of her historic defeat in Parliament means EU leaders will know they have to make concessions in order to come up with an agreement that would win parliamentary approval.

Johnson dodged a question as to whether he would support May as Conservative Party leader if she calls a sudden election to try to end the Brexit stalemate.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks about the decision by British lawmakers to oppose the agreement negotiated by British Prime Minister Theresa May and the EU, during a statement at a parliament building in Berlin, Jan. 16, 2019. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

He said he didn't think an election would be called.

___

11:30 a.m.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman says the German leader has discussed Brexit by phone with British Prime Minister Theresa May but isn't giving details.

Spokesman Steffen Seibert said the two leaders spoke on Thursday. Officials stressed Friday there has been no change in Berlin's position that it's hard to imagine reopening the withdrawal agreement rejected this week by British lawmakers, and that it's waiting for Britain to say what it now wants.

Seibert said Merkel and May discussed what happens next, "but that can't be resolved in a telephone call between the chancellor and the prime minister - what we need first is the basis of a new proposal, a new direction that Britain has said will come on Monday."

___

11 a.m.

France's prime minister is inspecting his country's preparedness for a no-deal Brexit, visiting the Eurotunnel complex and meeting with small businesses on the English Channel coast.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe made the trip to the Calais area Friday under heavy security. A day earlier, the French government activated its contingency plans for the possibility that Britain leaves the European Union on March 29 without rules in place for cross-border trade and travel.

France and other European countries are hiring thousands of customs and border agents and bolstering security at airports and ports to gird for a cliff-edge Brexit. Such a possibility is increasingly likely after the British parliament this week rejected a lengthy EU-Britain divorce deal that would have eased the transition.

France is paying special attention to the Eurotunnel beneath the English Channel, which carries millions of passengers annually and freight trucks that play a significant role in Britain's trade with the continent.

___

10:05 a.m.

Talks to end Britain's Brexit stalemate appear deadlocked, with neither Prime Minister Theresa May nor the main opposition leader shifting from their entrenched positions.

May has been meeting politicians from several parties in a bid to find a way forward after her European Union divorce deal was rejected by Parliament this week.

But she is unwilling to move her "red lines," which include taking Britain out of the bloc's customs union. And Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn refuses to meet May unless she rules out the possibility of Britain leaving the EU with no deal.

Amid the impasse, May's opponents are gathering. Ex-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is making a speech Friday in an attempt to burnish his position as a leading Brexit champion, and potential replacement for May.

FILE - In this Monday, Dec. 10, 2018 file picture European and French flags are flapping at the Elysee Palace in Paris, during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and local, national political leaders, unions, business leaders and others to hear their concerns after four weeks of protests. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced Thursday that the government will start hiring 600 extra government employees including customs agents to handle cross-border trade and security. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)

British Prime Minister Theresa May turns away after speaking outside 10 Downing street in London, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. May's government survived a no-confidence vote Wednesday called after May's Brexit deal was overwhelmingly rejected by lawmakers. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

A pro European demonstrator holds a banner near parliament in London, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. British Prime Minister Theresa May is reaching out to opposition parties and other lawmakers Thursday in a battle to put Brexit back on track after surviving a no-confidence vote. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Member of European Parliament Nigel Farage speaks at a pro-Brexit, Leave Means Leave rally at Central Hall in London, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. (Kirsty O'Connor/PA via AP)LONDON (AP) - Budget airline Ryanair, Europe's biggest carrier by passengers, has warned its profits will be lower than expected - the second such downgrade in four months - because of weaker fares over the winter.

The company said Friday it expects full-year profit of between 1 billion euros and 1.1 billion euros, down from a range of 1.1 billion euros to 1.2 billion euros previously. It said that while traffic is up, winter fares are expected to fall 7 percent.

CEO Michael O'Leary noted there was stiff competition and expects some rival budget carriers to fall out of the market. Companies like WOW and Flybe have been up for sale after struggling financially.

O'Leary warned profits could be hit further if Brexit complicates air travel between the U.K. and other European countries.BERLIN (AP) - German lawmakers have approved a government plan to declare three North African nations and Georgia safe countries of origin, a move meant to deter migrants from those countries and streamline the handling of asylum applications.

Parliament's lower house on Friday voted 509-138, with four abstentions, to back declaring Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Georgia safe countries.

But the government's chances of getting the legislation on the books look questionable at best because it requires approval by parliament's upper house, where the country's 16 state governments are represented. Many of those governments include the opposition Greens, who object to declaring the North African countries safe. As it is, very few citizens of those countries obtain asylum.

The upper house shot down a similar move in 2017.BERLIN (AP) - Thousands of students held rallies Friday across Germany and Switzerland to protest the lack of action against climate change.

The demonstrations in dozens of cities were inspired by student Greta Thunberg , who has been staging a weekly "school strike" in Sweden. Many used the Twitter hashtag #FridaysForFuture to give their offline protests visibility online.

In Berlin, protesters focused on an upcoming political decision about when to end the use of coal in the country. Germany still relies heavily on lignite coal, a fossil fuel that produces large amounts of greenhouse gases that heat the atmosphere.

An expert panel is expected to publish non-binding recommendations later this month on how Germany can achieve the transition from using coal to using renewable energy in the coming decades.

A woman works on a giant poster reading 'Climate Strike' during the 'Youth For Climate' strike protest in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Students demonstrate during a 'Youth For Climate' strike urging pupils to skip classes to protest a lack of climate awareness in Lausanne, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (Valentin Flauraud/Keystone via AP)

A woman with a poster reading 'Safe the climate' attends the 'Youth For Climate' strike protest in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Students demonstrate during a 'Youth For Climate' strike urging pupils to skip classes to protest a lack of climate awareness in Lausanne, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (Valentin Flauraud/Keystone via AP)

Students demonstrate during a 'Youth For Climate' strike urging pupils to skip classes to protest a lack of climate awareness in Lausanne, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (Valentin Flauraud/Keystone via AP)GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Thousands of Palestinians have gathered for a weekly protest along the fence between Gaza and Israel.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says that Israeli gunfire wounded 14 Palestinians and that three medics suffered from a barrage of tear gas that targeted their ambulance.

The protest appeared subdued compared to last week's violence, in which one woman was killed and more than two dozen Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were wounded, prompting retaliatory Israeli air strikes.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israel would decide whether to allow the latest delivery of economic aid from Qatar to flow into Gaza based on the level of escalation Friday.

Israel has been allowing Qatar to transfer batches of $15 million in aid, intended for the salaries of Gaza's civil servants, directly to Hamas since November. But the shipment was delayed earlier this month after a rocket was fired from Gaza that caused no casualties but threatened to spike tensions between the bitter enemies.

Gaza's Hamas rulers have orchestrated the weekly protests, in part to call for the lifting of a crippling Israeli and Egyptian blockade imposed when the militant group seized power in 2007. The blockade has devastated the local economy in Gaza, where unemployment exceeds 50 percent.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019 file photo, Israeli forces deploy during a raid in the West Bank City of Ramallah. Israel has been launching raids into the heart of Ramallah, and the U.S. is cutting off aid and taking actions that many fear will obliterate any remaining hope for a two-state solution. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed, File)

Israeli forces have killed more than 185 Palestinians and wounded thousands since the demonstrations began last spring. An Israeli soldier was killed in July.

Israel accuses Hamas of using the protests as a cover for attacks and says it only uses force to defend its borders. But Palestinians and rights groups accuse it of using excessive force.

Earlier Friday, Israeli forces demolished the family home of a Palestinian charged with fatally stabbing an American-Israeli settler several months ago.

Israeli soldiers surrounded Khalil Jabarin's home in the southern West Bank village of Yatta and destroyed the apartment with explosives after his family cleared out.

Jabarin, 17, was accused of killing the U.S.-born settler activist Ari Fuld at a mall near a West Bank settlement in September. Footage showed Fuld firing at his attacker before collapsing.

The military says dozens of Palestinians protesting the demolition hurled rocks toward the forces, who responded with "riot dispersal means," which usually refers to rubber-tipped bullets and tear gas.

While Israel claims home demolitions serve as a deterrent to potential attackers, critics say the tactic amounts to collective punishment that inflames hostility.CHIANG MAI, Thailand (AP) - Foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Friday hewed to the group's practice of reaching the least provocative consensus possible in discussions of such divisive issues as Myanmar's Rohingya crisis and China's territorial claims in the South China Sea.

A two-day Foreign Ministers' Retreat was the regional group's first meeting since Thailand took over its annual chairmanship.

The host's summary of the meeting emphasized the humanitarian role ASEAN members could play in Myanmar's Rakhine State, where more than 700,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority fled from a brutal government counterinsurgency campaign.

Standard ASEAN practice is to avoid criticizing what are considered each country's domestic affairs. But Myanmar's Rohingya crisis is also a regional problem, because of the hundreds of thousands of refugees it has generated, justifying discussion by the group.

ASEAN has plans to send a team to Rakhine, but Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai at a closing news conference said its mission had been delayed because of a stalemate on the ground.

"Once things are cleared, then you will be seeing more visibly the presence of the collective ASEAN efforts in Myanmar and Rakhine State," he said.

Don said the group suggested that Myanmar should "address the root causes of the conflict" and create "a conducive environment" so that affected communities can rebuild their lives.

Myanmar has previously acknowledged similar suggestions but done little to act on them.

ASEAN offered to act as a coordinator with U.N. agencies on the planned future repatriation of the Rohingya currently sheltering at camps in Bangladesh, Don said.

Many Rohingya are reluctant to return without more guarantees of safety and the prospect of obtaining citizenship, which is generally denied to them.

Myanmar was represented at the meeting by Minister for International Cooperation Kyaw Tin. Its foreign minister is Aung San Suu Kyi, but she is also the country's executive leader and often delegates foreign minister duties to others.

The ministers also claimed progress on concluding a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, long touted as a way of avoiding volatile confrontations in the disputed waters.

Several ASEAN countries, especially Vietnam and the Philippines, have the territorial interests directly threatened by Chinese claims in the sea, while others, either nervous about offending their giant neighbor to the north or maintaining vital economic ties with Beijing, are less concerned.

The meeting statement gave a nod to China's critics by saying the ministers "took note of some concerns on the land reclamations and activities in the area." By extending the size of reefs and islands and establishing military and civilian facilities on them, Beijing strengthens its claims to the adjacent waters.Spearfish, SD (57783)

Today

Mostly clear. Low 57F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low 57F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.by Wang Zhicheng

Berlin studies ways to exclude the Chinese company from the 5G network. The University of Oxford bans donations and research grants from Huawei. Ren Zhengfei, the founder, promises to invest even more funds in network security.

Beijing (AsiaNews) - More bad news for Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant. According to press rumors, Germany is studying ways to exclude the Chinese company from the 5G network.

Officially, the German foreign ministry has declared that it is opposed to the ban of any competitor. But a series of security requirements is being investigated that could exclude Huawei, suspected and accused of espionage in favor of China.

United States, Australia and New Zealand have blocked the use of its technology for the new 5G mobile phone generation. Britain has also expressed concerns about its security and Canada wants to revise its relationship with the company.

Meanwhile, yesterday Oxford University announced a ban on the receipt of donations and research grants from Huawei. The academic center's spokesman stated that the decision was made "in light of the public concerns that emerged in recent months regarding the collaboration between Great Britain and Huawei".

Ren Zhengfei, the founder of the technological giant, broke the silence for the second time this week, releasing another interview yesterday, one of the few in all these years.

Days ago, meeting the international media at Huawei's Shenzhen headquarters, he defended himself against espionage charges. Yesterday, meeting with Chinese media, he said that he wants to remain a commercial ally of the US and has promised to invest even more funds on network security.

The United States warned against using Huawei products for security reasons and opened an investigation that would incriminate the company for stealing trade secrets. In Poland, a Huawei employee, Wang Weijing, was arrested for spying and in Canada, the daughter of Ren Zhengfei, Meng Wanzhou, who is the company's financial director, was arrested  later freed on bail - for violating the US embargo on Iran. Meng could be extradited to the United States, where she faces a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.MADURAI, India (AP) - As drums beat and the crowd cheers, a man leaps onto the back of a large bull and hangs tightly to its hump as the animal bucks and jumps.

If he can hold on to the bull for three jumps or for 30 seconds or for a distance of 15 meters (49 feet) he'll have a chance at winning prizes handed out by sponsors such as cooking pots, clothes, bicycles, motorbikes or even a car.

He's just one of the hundreds of bull vaulters who are competing in a Jallikattu festival in southern India. Taking place in amid a carnival-like atmosphere, the events are part rodeo and part running of the bulls and are held across India's Tamil Nadu state during the four-day Pongal, or winter harvest festival.

The event can be dangerous, and not just for the vaulters, as the bulls often fore bystanders as they to escape through the crowded area.

The Jallikattu has its roots in Tamil culture and a centuries-old religious ritual.

The events were banned in Tamil Nadu in 2014 for two years after India's Supreme Court found them cruel, acting on petitions by animal rights activists. That sparked protests and eventually new legislation that exempt the event from animal cruelty laws.

In this Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, photo, an Indian tamer tries to control a bull during a traditional bull-taming festival called Jallikattu, in the village of Palamedu, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu state, India. Jallikattu involves releasing a bull into a crowd of people who are expected to hang on to the animal's hump for a stipulated distance or hold on to the hump for a minimum of three jumps made by the bull. The sport, performed during the four-day "Pongal" or winter harvest festival, is hugely popular in Tamil Nadu. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Still, Nikunj Sharma of PETA in India said the event leads to deaths for both people and the bulls.

"Our major focus is to make people aware that these games are not just cruel for animals but they are also cruel for humans," Sharma said.

Others disagree.

"Jallikattu and bulls are like God to us," said M. Jayakumar, who was taking part in an event in the village of Allanganallur. "Even if we get injured while performing the sport we make sure not to harm the bulls."

In this Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, photo, a bull charges towards tamers during a traditional bull-taming festival called Jallikattu, in the village of Allanganallur, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu state, India. Jallikattu involves releasing a bull into a crowd of people who are expected to hang on to the animal's hump for a stipulated distance or hold on to the hump for a minimum of three jumps made by the bull. The sport, performed during the four-day "Pongal" or winter harvest festival, is hugely popular in Tamil Nadu. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

In this Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, photo, members of Jallikattu organizing committee attend traditional bull-taming festival called Jallikattu, in the village of Palamedu, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu state, India. Jallikattu involves releasing a bull into a crowd of people who are expected to hang on to the animal's hump for a stipulated distance or hold on to the hump for a minimum of three jumps made by the bull. The sport, performed during the four-day "Pongal" or winter harvest festival, is hugely popular in Tamil Nadu. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

In this Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, photo, a bull charges towards a tamer during a traditional bull-taming festival called Jallikattu, in the village of Palamedu, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu state, India. Jallikattu involves releasing a bull into a crowd of people who are expected to hang on to the animal's hump for a stipulated distance or hold on to the hump for a minimum of three jumps made by the bull. The sport, performed during the four-day "Pongal" or winter harvest festival, is hugely popular in Tamil Nadu. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

In this Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, photo, Indian tamers react as a fellow tamer tries to control a charging bull during a traditional bull-taming festival called Jallikattu, in the village of Allanganallur, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu state, India. Jallikattu involves releasing a bull into a crowd of people who are expected to hang on to the animal's hump for a stipulated distance or hold on to the hump for a minimum of three jumps made by the bull. The sport, performed during the four-day "Pongal" or winter harvest festival, is hugely popular in Tamil Nadu. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

In this Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, photo, a bull is decorated with currency notes before taking part in the rituals during a traditional bull-taming festival called Jallikattu, in the village of Palamedu, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu state, India. Jallikattu involves releasing a bull into a crowd of people who are expected to hang on to the animal's hump for a stipulated distance or hold on to the hump for a minimum of three jumps made by the bull. The sport, performed during the four-day "Pongal" or winter harvest festival, is hugely popular in Tamil Nadu. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

In this Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, photo, spectators watch bulls perform during a traditional bull-taming festival called Jallikattu, in the village of Palamedu, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu state, India. Jallikattu involves releasing a bull into a crowd of people who are expected to hang on to the animal's hump for a stipulated distance or hold on to the hump for a minimum of three jumps made by the bull. The sport, performed during the four-day "Pongal" or winter harvest festival, is hugely popular in Tamil Nadu. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

In this Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, photo, an Indian tamer holds on to a bull's hump during a traditional bull-taming festival called Jallikattu, in the village of Palamedu, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu state, India. Jallikattu involves releasing a bull into a crowd of people who are expected to hang on to the animal's hump for a stipulated distance or hold on to the hump for a minimum of three jumps made by the bull. The sport, performed during the four-day "Pongal" or winter harvest festival, is hugely popular in Tamil Nadu. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

In this Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, photo, Indian tamers react as a bull comes charging towards them during a traditional bull-taming festival called Jallikattu, in the village of Palamedu, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu state, India. Jallikattu involves releasing a bull into a crowd of people who are expected to hang on to the animal's hump for a stipulated distance or hold on to the hump for a minimum of three jumps made by the bull. The sport, performed during the four-day "Pongal" or winter harvest festival, is hugely popular in Tamil Nadu. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

In this Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, photo, legs of organizers dangle as they sit on a wall painted with a mural during a traditional bull-taming festival called Jallikattu, in the village of Allanganallur, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu state, India. Jallikattu involves releasing a bull into a crowd of people who are expected to hang on to the animal's hump for a stipulated distance or hold on to the hump for a minimum of three jumps made by the bull. The sport, performed during the four-day "Pongal" or winter harvest festival, is hugely popular in Tamil Nadu. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

In this Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, photo, an Indian tamer reacts as a bull charges towards him during a traditional bull-taming festival called Jallikattu, in the village of Allanganallur, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu state, India. Jallikattu involves releasing a bull into a crowd of people who are expected to hang on to the animal's hump for a stipulated distance or hold on to the hump for a minimum of three jumps made by the bull. The sport, performed during the four-day "Pongal" or winter harvest festival, is hugely popular in Tamil Nadu. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

In this Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, photo, owners and others use ropes to control a bull during a traditional bull-taming festival called Jallikattu, in the village of Palamedu, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu state, India. Jallikattu involves releasing a bull into a crowd of people who are expected to hang on to the animal's hump for a stipulated distance or hold on to the hump for a minimum of three jumps made by the bull. The sport, performed during the four-day "Pongal" or winter harvest festival, is hugely popular in Tamil Nadu. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

In this Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, photo, a bull runs away from tamers during a traditional bull-taming festival called Jallikattu, in the village of Palamedu, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu state, India. Jallikattu involves releasing a bull into a crowd of people who are expected to hang on to the animal's hump for a stipulated distance or hold on to the hump for a minimum of three jumps made by the bull. The sport, performed during the four-day "Pongal" or winter harvest festival, is hugely popular in Tamil Nadu. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

In this Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, photo, motorcycles and bicycles are displayed before gifting them to bull owners and tamers during a traditional bull-taming festival called Jallikattu, in the village of Palamedu, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu state, India. Jallikattu involves releasing a bull into a crowd of people who are expected to hang on to the animal's hump for a stipulated distance or hold on to the hump for a minimum of three jumps made by the bull. The sport, performed during the four-day "Pongal" or winter harvest festival, is hugely popular in Tamil Nadu. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

In this Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, photo, a photo of a bull is displayed on the mobile phone of Indian tamer M. Jayakumar at a traditional bull-taming festival called Jallikattu, in the village of Allanganallur, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu state, India. Jallikattu involves releasing a bull into a crowd of people who are expected to hang on to the animal's hump for a stipulated distance or hold on to the hump for a minimum of three jumps made by the bull. The sport, performed during the four-day "Pongal" or winter harvest festival, is hugely popular in Tamil Nadu. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

In this Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, photo, owners line up with their bull to participate in a traditional bull-taming festival called Jallikattu, in the village of Palamedu, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu state, India. Jallikattu involves releasing a bull into a crowd of people who are expected to hang on to the animal's hump for a stipulated distance or hold on to the hump for a minimum of three jumps made by the bull. The sport, performed during the four-day "Pongal" or winter harvest festival, is hugely popular in Tamil Nadu. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

In this Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, photo, a bull comes out to charge towards tamers at a traditional bull-taming festival called Jallikattu, in the village of Allanganallur, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu state, India. Jallikattu involves releasing a bull into a crowd of people who are expected to hang on to the animal's hump for a stipulated distance or hold on to the hump for a minimum of three jumps made by the bull. The sport, performed during the four-day "Pongal" or winter harvest festival, is hugely popular in Tamil Nadu. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - The ailing 80-year-old radical cleric who inspired the Bali bombers and other violent extremists in Indonesia will be released from prison, Indonesia's president said Friday, slashing a 15-year sentence.

The announcement of Abu Bakar Bashir's imminent release came during campaigning for a presidential election due in April in which opponents of President Joko Widodo have tried to discredit him as insufficiently Islamic.

"I have considered this decision for a long time, involving the National Police chief and legal experts," Widodo told reporters. "This release was decided because of humanitarian considerations and also related to his health care."

The 2002 bombings on the popular Indonesian tourist island of Bali by al-Qaida-affiliated Jemaah Islamiyah militants killed 202 people, many of them foreigners including dozens of Australians.

Australia urged Indonesia last March against any leniency toward Bashir when the government was considering house arrest and other forms of clemency.

"Stunned that he is about to be released," said Jan Laczynski, an Australian who lost five friends in the bombing of the Sari Club in Bali and narrowly avoided being at the venue himself.

FIEL - In this March 1, 2018, file photo, ailing radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, center, arrives for medical treatment at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia. A lawyer for the ailing radical cleric who inspired the Bali bombers said Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, the Indonesian government will release him from prison next week. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)

"Truly devastating news as effectively he gets on with his life whilst everyone else suffers from seeing him walk out of jail," he said.

Bashir's lawyer, Muhammad Mahendradatta, said Bashir, who was sentenced and imprisoned in 2011, would be released within days.

"We haven't had the exact date of his release, but because Bashir badly needs serious health care the release will be carried out no later than next week," he told The Associated Press.

Also due to be released from prison next week is the former governor of Jakarta, a Widodo ally and minority Christian who was toppled by a conservative Islamic movement in 2016 and subsequently sentenced to two years in prison on blasphemy charges.

Mahendradatta said he wanted Bahir's release to be without any conditions, enabling him to meet supporters and give sermons.

However, another Bashir lawyer who is also an adviser to Widodo, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, told Indonesian TV that the cleric accepted conditions and would do nothing except rest and be close to his family.

Widodo said Mahendra was among the legal experts he sought advice from.

The firebrand cleric was arrested almost immediately after the Bali bombings. But prosecutors were unable to prove a string of terrorism-related allegations. He was instead sentenced to 18 months in prison for immigration violations.

In 2011, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for supporting a military-style training camp for Islamic militants.

The 2002 bombings were a turning point in Indonesia's battle against violent extremists, making heavy security a norm in big cities and forging closer counterterrorism cooperation with the U.S. and Australia.RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - On a cold winter's night earlier this month, a convoy of 10 Israeli armored jeeps drove into the heart of the West Bank city of Ramallah and parked in front of the Palestinian police headquarters.

Soldiers fanned out, searching nearby shops for security cameras after a pair of recent shooting attacks against Israelis in the occupied territory. The raid attracted dozens of stone-throwing Palestinians, and the Israelis responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

It was the latest in a series of Israeli raids into urban areas that the Palestinians say undermine their own U.S.-trained security forces. Those forces have been coordinating operations with Israel in the West Bank for years but ties have frayed as the peace process ground to a halt.

"This humiliates the Palestinian Authority," said Zakariya Musleh, head of Palestinian military intelligence. "It's a clear message from the occupying power that we are not a partner for peace."

The Palestinian Authority has faced mounting protests over the security coordination as the Trump administration pursues policies seen by critics as obliterating whatever chance remains for a two-state solution, from recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital to cutting off economic aid to the Palestinians.

And yet the security coordination with Israel has endured for more than a decade, through one crisis after another, including three wars in Gaza and clashes at Jerusalem's holiest site.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019 file photo, Israeli forces deploy during a raid in the West Bank City of Ramallah. Israel has been launching raids into the heart of Ramallah, and the U.S. is cutting off aid and taking actions that many fear will obliterate any remaining hope for a two-state solution. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed, File)

This is in part because the Palestinian Authority and Israel have a shared enemy in the Hamas militant group, which drove Palestinian security forces from Gaza in a week of street clashes in 2007, less than two years after Israel withdrew from the territory.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the recent raids or the security cooperation.

Alon Eviatar, a retired Israeli colonel who served in the Palestinian territories for nearly three decades, said Israel is aware of the political pressure the Palestinian Authority faces. He said Israeli forces only launch their own West Bank raids in "sensitive cases" when they need to quickly apprehend an assailant or act on highly classified intelligence.

"The Israeli side was afraid (of) a real escalation in the West Bank, especially in Ramallah," he said, referring to last month's shootings, in which gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers at a West Bank bus stop and wounded seven Israelis outside a settlement, including a pregnant woman whose baby later died. Israeli forces killed one of the suspected gunmen in December and arrested the other earlier this month. Both were found north of Ramallah.

Palestinian security forces will face another setback at the end of January, when the U.S. is required to cut off its financial assistance because of a law known as the Anti-Terrorism Cooperation Act that was passed with bipartisan support last year.

Under the law, the Palestinian Authority would be disqualified from receiving any U.S. aid unless it agrees to pay court judgments of up to hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of American victims of Palestinian attacks. The deadline for accepting that condition is Jan. 31. The administration and some pro-Israel members of Congress have been looking for ways to preserve the aid, but it's unlikely a fix will be found until after the shutdown ends.

The court settlements far exceed the aid itself, which totaled $61 million last year. The U.S. has provided more than $850 million to support the Palestinian security forces since 2007, when it ramped up assistance after Hamas seized Gaza.

Nabil Shaath, an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the looming cuts should be of more concern to the United States and Israel than to the Palestinians.

"They want that security support," he said. "The most unpopular thing we are doing now here is security coordination with the Israelis. Believe me, that's not the way to put pressure on us."

The U.S. aid is mainly spent on training and equipment, and salaries will not be affected. Israel is believed to support the U.S. assistance, but the prime minister's office declined to comment on the looming cuts.

As unpopular as the security coordination is, no one expects it to end anytime soon. The Palestine Liberation Organization's mini-parliament called for ending security coordination with Israel last year, the latest in a long line of heated statements and empty threats.

Abbas has always been staunchly opposed to violence. Cutting ties with Israel would presumably lead to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority. Israeli forces are deployed across the occupied West Bank, at military bases and checkpoints between and around nearly every Palestinian town and city.

The funding and training of Palestinian security forces was historically seen as part of the process of building an independent state. But there have been no meaningful peace talks in a decade, and the Palestinians cut all contacts with the Trump administration when it recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, effectively siding with Israel on one of the most divisive issues in the decades-old conflict.

These days, Abbas relies on the security forces to preserve his increasingly unpopular rule. The security forces have helped keep a tight lid on Hamas in the West Bank, where they have been accused of human rights abuses. They have also used force to break up protests against Abbas' policies.

Alaa Lahlouh, a former Palestinian officer who now researches security issues at the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, says the security coordination is deeply unpopular, but that authorities maintain it for political and personal reasons.

"The Palestinian Authority believes the security cooperation with Israel and the United States will enhance its role as a political partner," he said, adding that they also cooperate for personal reasons. Israel grants special movement privileges to senior Palestinian officials, allowing them to avoid crowded checkpoints.

The raids in Ramallah meanwhile cause "huge damage," Lahlouh said. "It shows the (Palestinian Authority) is useless in the face of Israel and only powerful when it comes to confronting its own people."BEIJING (AP) - China and Germany promised Friday to open their markets wider to each other's banks and insurers, giving Beijing a burst of positive trade news amid conflicts with Washington and Europe.

The two sides also affirmed support for a global trading system that other governments worry is threatened by President Donald Trump's "America first" policies. That followed an annual financial dialogue led by German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and China's economy czar, Vice Premier Liu He.

The initiatives reflect Beijing's determination to make its state-dominated economy more productive and reduce reliance on the U.S. market by building commercial ties with other countries.

Chinese regulators have suspended issuing licenses to American companies in finance in response to tariff hikes imposed Trump in the fight over Beijing's technology ambitions.

No details of market-opening were announced, but Scholz said German banks and insurers "now have easier access" to the Chinese industry.

"This is an important step that we have been waiting for for a long time," the German minister said.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, left, and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He arrive for the China-Germany High Level Financial Dialogue at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, Pool)

China has tried without success to recruit Germany as an ally against Trump. Berlin expresses support for free trade but Chancellor Angela Merkel has stressed her government is not taking sides.

"We agree that multilateralism is the right answer to the problems of our time," said Scholz. "We know that nationalist selfishness is damaging to all."

The two delegations signed agreements to cooperate more closely on financial regulation.

Beijing welcomes German banks to "participate in the opening and innovation of China's financial market," said Liu. He promised more "cross-border business" in banking, securities and insurance.

Beijing has promised repeatedly to carry out long-delayed commitments made when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 to open its banking, insurance and securities markets.

The government promised in 2017 to allow full foreign ownership of financial institutions for the first time but business groups say they need to see details of regulations to know whether those opportunities are worth pursuing.

Beijing also faces pressure from the European Union over technology. The 28-nation trade bloc filed a challenge in the WTO in June to Chinese rules it says hamper foreign companies in protecting and profiting from their own technology.

Friday's talks come at "just the right moment," when the global economy faces challenges including Britain's withdrawal from the EU and trade disputes, Scholz said.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, left, shakes hands with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He after they witnessed a signing ceremony for the China-Germany High Level Financial Dialogue at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, Pool)

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, center, and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, third right in the back, witness a signing ceremony after the China-Germany High Level Financial Dialogue at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, Pool)

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, center, and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, right, applaud as they witness a signing ceremony after the China-Germany High Level Financial Dialogue at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, Pool)

Screens show German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz speak during the China-Germany High Level Financial Dialogue with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, Pool)WASHINGTON (AP) - One of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's guiding principles is: "There's no education in the second kick of a mule."

Now, deep into a government shutdown he cautioned President Donald Trump against, McConnell is not about to let himself be kicked again.

The Republican leader has been conspicuously deferential to Trump since the shutdown began. He's waiting on the president and Democrats to make a deal to end it. The result is an unusually inactive profile for the GOP leader who's often the behind-the-scenes architect of intricate legislative maneuvers to resolve bitter partisan stalemates.

Democrats complain publicly - and some Republicans grumble privately - that the Senate is not fulfilling its role as a co-equal branch of government, a legislative check on the executive. They worry about ordinary Americans facing hardship waiting for a resolution to the standoff over Trump's demand for money to build the border wall with Mexico.

But the Kentucky Republican, who is up for re-election in 2020 in a state where Trump tends to be more popular than he is, sees no other choice than to stand back and let the president who took the country into the shutdown decide how he wants to get out of it.

McConnell said the "solution to the problem" is for the president, who he reminds is the only one who can sign a bill into law, to reach an agreement with Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. "There's no way around that," he told reporters this week.

An electronic billboard, sponsored by the Democratic Coalition, shown Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019 in Nicholasville, Ky. McConnell, who is up for re-election in 2020 in a state where Trump tends to be more popular than he is, sees no other choice than to stand back and let the president who took the country into the shutdown decide how he wants to get out of it. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

Democrats wonder whatever happened to the mastermind of earlier legislative logjams. After all, the 30-year veteran of the Senate devised the way out of a debt ceiling crisis when tea party Republicans challenged then-President Obama; he brokered the deal with then-Vice President Joe Biden to avert the so-called "fiscal cliff."

"A few years ago, Leader McConnell remarked, 'Remember me? I'm the guy that gets us out of shutdowns,'" said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, unearthing an interview McConnell did some years ago. "Well, Leader McConnell, now's the time.... allow a vote on legislation and reopen the government."

McConnell has plenty of solutions at the ready, allies say. But he sees no value in trying to execute a deal that Trump may not ultimately endorse. It's not only a waste of time, in his view, it potentially exposes Republican senators up for re-election in 2020, including himself, as sideways to Trump's wishes.

"Everyone is demanding that McConnell 'do something.' What?" asked GOP strategist Scott Jennings, a longtime McConnell ally. "What is McConnell - or anyone else - going to tell Trump? Hey man, give up on the wall? That's crazy."

Jennings said rather than being seen as weak leader, the opposite is true: McConnell is showing strength by protecting Republicans from taking votes on bills that put them or the president on the spot as they try to force Democrats' hand.

"He's not going to undercut the president of his own party," he said.

No sense being on the other side twice. Days before the shutdown, McConnell started executing the plan Republicans had largely agreed upon.

The strategy was simple: Give Trump a runway to take the case to the American people - including during his State of the Union address - before the next round of voting in February, according Republicans familiar with the plan.

All systems were go until the morning of final passage, but Trump opposed it.

McConnell was frustrated. "He wasn't very happy about it to say the least," said retiring GOP Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas. "He's a very crafty individual... very strategic... Mitch, if something doesn't work, he finds a way to make it work."

But this time, McConnell is not providing the way out. Yes, he's appearing at White House negotiating sessions. His staff meets for bipartisan talks with others. McConnell talks most every day to by phone to Trump. Asked about the senator's role during the shutdown, the president heaped on praise: "He's really been fantastic."

Yet the leader, who was required to sit still as a child battling polio, is nothing if not a patient person. And so he waits.

Not all Republicans embrace the strategy. Some are growing anxious that Senate is essentially idle while hundreds of thousands of federal employees go without pay, wreaking havoc on their households and putting the broader economy at risk.

"Right now, it's the Senate that really isn't doing anything, I think we should do something," said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who is trying to build support for his bill to pay federal employees, including TSA airport security screeners, who are forced to work without paychecks.

"I'm very sympathetic with the fact that we do need the president to sign something - so what's the point of bringing something up that's DOA -- but we certainly can show some leadership here," he said. "We could bring that up for votes."

As #MitchShutdown billboards dot the Kentucky countryside, McConnell, who will likely want Trump by his side as he runs for re-election, has given no indication he's feeling the heat.

He's likely more interested in voters like Mike Bickers of Lexington, a 65-year-old retired sales rep for Coca-Cola.

"I don't want Mitch McConnell to cave on this," Bickers said. "I want him to stick to his guns."

Trump won Kentucky in 2016 with nearly 63 percent of the vote, some 400,000 more votes than McConnell in his last Senate election. In 2018 Kentucky voters again embraced Trump in re-electing GOP Rep. Andy Barr, the congressman who was in a tight race until Trump visited, beginning a surge in Barr's favor.

McConnell's approval ratings, nationally and in Kentucky, have never been high. But he has consistently been re-elected by running disciplined, well-funded campaigns.

One of the #MitchShutdown billboards is in Owensboro in western Kentucky, once a Democratic stronghold. Now its Republican mayor, Tom Watson, says he and many of the city's voters are happy to see McConnell and Trump "totally agree on something" over the border wall.

"Senator McConnell," said Watson, "I believe, is doing exactly what the Senate is supposed to do."

___

Mascaro reported from Washington and Beam reported from Frankfort, Kentucky.

___

Follow on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lisamascaro and https://twitter.com/adambeam

___

For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. government shutdown: https://apnews.com/GovernmentShutdown

An electronic billboard, sponsored by the Democratic Coalition, shown Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019 in Nicholasville, Ky. McConnell, who is up for re-election in 2020 in a state where Trump tends to be more popular than he is, sees no other choice than to stand back and let the president who took the country into the shutdown decide how he wants to get out of it. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)TOKYO (AP) - Mitsubishi Motors held a board meeting Friday to examine the latest allegations of unreported compensation against Carlos Ghosn, who led Nissan for two decades and forged the alliance between the Japanese automakers.

The allegations center around a 7.8 million euro ($8.8 million) payment made to Ghosn last year by a 50-50 venture between Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., set up in 2017 in Amsterdam, and only Ghosn and a handful of aides knew about the money, Mitsubishi Chief Executive Osamu Masuko told reporters after the meeting.

The payments surfaced as a result of investigations by Nissan and Mitsubishi, which began last year. Nissan also announced similar findings in a release.

There have been no formal charges on the latest allegations. Masuko and Nissan Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa were directors at the joint venture called NMBV, in addition to Ghosn. But they both didn't know about the payments, and received no payments from the joint venture, according to the companies.

Masuko said he thought the purpose of the joint venture was to explore "synergies" between Nissan and Mitsubishi. He stressed he found out only afterward how it had been used to make what he called "dubious" payments to Ghosn.

The money paid was categorized as salaries and bonuses, according to Kei Umebayashi, a lawyer who was part of Mitsubishi's investigation.

Mitsubishi Motors CEO Osamu Masuko bites his lips during a press conference at its headquarters in Tokyo Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. Masuko said the Japanese automaker's board met and discussed new allegations of wrongdoing by its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

"If I can say how I feel, I am truly sad," Masuko told reporters at a Tokyo showroom, saying he was stunned by the news of Ghosn's arrest.

Ghosn, 64, held in detention since his Nov. 19 arrest, has been charged with falsifying financial reports in underreporting his compensation from Nissan, and with breach of trust in having Nissan shoulder personal investment losses and pay a Saudi businessman.

Ghosn asserted his innocence in a courtroom appearance earlier this month, saying the compensation was never decided, Nissan never suffered losses and the pay was for legitimate services in the Gulf region.

Nissan's alliance with Mitsubishi was set up in 2016. Mitsubishi dismissed Ghosn as its chairman shortly after his arrest. Nissan is also allied with Renault SA of France, which owns 43 percent of Nissan.

Ghosn's salary was long a sticking point at Nissan. Executives at Japanese companies are paid far less than their American and other Western counterparts. Ghosn has repeatedly expressed his view that he was entitled to income comparable to those of executives at other top global automakers. Renault has said no wrongdoing has been found with its payments to Ghosn, who also heads Renault.

According to Nissan's investigation, millions of dollars of Nissan's funds were used to purchase Ghosn's homes in Rio de Janeiro, Beirut and Paris. The homes are not part of any formal charges, and the source close to him and his family say they were needed for security reasons.

His home in Lebanon was purchased in 2012, for $9.5 million and renovated at a cost of $7.2 million, and the purchase went through an Amsterdam-based Nissan subsidiary and so the board didn't know, according to Nissan's probe.

The company investigation has also disclosed emails, reviewed recently by reporters including The Associated Press, that show an invoice for expensive chandeliers for the Lebanon home, and Ghosn asking to hurry with delayed payments to interior decorators.

Ghosn freely used company emails for such correspondence, making little effort to hide them. Nissan still owns the homes.

Also Friday, Ghosn's lawyers filed a second request for his release on bail from the Tokyo Detention Center. The first request was rejected on Thursday.

Ghosn's chief lawyer Motonari Ohtsuru told reporters his client could be detained for half a year or longer because his trial is complex. If convicted of breach of trust and falsifying financial reports, he could end up with a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

Saikawa has denounced Ghosn as "the mastermind" behind schemes to use company money and assets for personal gain.

"Nissan views the payments Ghosn received from NMBV to be the result of misconduct and will consider measures to recover from Ghosn the full sum," the company said in a statement.

___

Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

On Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/yurikageyama/?hl=en

Mitsubishi Motors CEO Osamu Masuko speaks during a press conference at its headquarters in Tokyo Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. Masuko said the Japanese automaker's board met and discussed new allegations of wrongdoing by its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)Monday's observance of what would have been Martin Luther King Jr.'s 90th birthday is emerging as an important moment for Democrats eyeing the White House to talk about one of the most divisive issues in American politics: race.

At least a half dozen declared or potential presidential candidates will attend events and talk about what King's legacy means to Americans in 2019.

Among them is former Vice President Joe Biden, who, amid intense speculation over whether he'll seek the presidency, will make his first public appearance of the year at the National Action Network's annual King breakfast in Washington with its founder, the Rev. Al Sharpton, and Martin Luther King III. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, still considering a bid, is also on the schedule. And New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who jumped in the 2020 race this week, will appear with Sharpton later in the day in Harlem.

Meanwhile, Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Bernie Sanders of Vermont will attend events in South Carolina, where black voters make up 60 percent of the Democratic primary. And Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is expected to speak in Boston, where King attended seminary.

The King holiday marks the first time in the early days of the Democratic primary that so many White House hopefuls are holding public events on the same day. That reflects the wide-open nature of the 2020 field, which is likely to include several candidates of color for the first time. Some Democrats say the party's presidential nomination could ultimately go to the person who best navigates racial issues.

"On King Day, they should all have messages for how we enable people who live on the outskirts of hope to come back into the circle of opportunity," said Democratic strategist Donna Brazile. "That's what Dr. King would do."

In this Jan. 15, 2019, photo, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., questions Attorney General nominee William Barr as he testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. Monday's observance of what would have been Martin Luther King Jr.'s 90th birthday is emerging as an important moment for Democrats eyeing the White House to talk about one of the most divisive issues in politics: race. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Politics loom large over this year's remembrances. In a tweet earlier this week, President Donald Trump again mocked Warren, using the slur "Pocahontas" and referring to the 19th-century Battle at Little Bighorn and Wounded Knee Massacre. Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican, prompted bipartisan criticism with racist remarks that questioned how white supremacy and white nationalism became offensive terms. King has said his comments were taken out of context.

Against that backdrop, Sharpton said it's crucial for the candidates speaking on Monday to directly address racial politics.

"It will be telling if they do not represent an alternative to the situation we're in," he said, referring to the country's racial divisions. "They've got to deal with the issues in a way that we know that they're not just making a one-day-a-year speech."

"The challenge," he added, "is how you distinguish yourself without appearing disunifying."

Last fall's midterm elections show the potential for assembling such coalitions, with several minority congressional candidates winning in mostly white districts. And while black Democrats suffered defeat in Georgia, Florida and Missouri, the gains they made show promise for minority candidates eyeing 2020.

Andrew Gillum, who lost his Florida gubernatorial bid in November by 30,000 votes, has met with several potential 2020 candidates in recent weeks, and he said the topic of race has come up. The issue was unavoidable in his own bid to become Florida's first African-American governor.

"Under no circumstance could I deny my race and how that has informed who I am today," Gillum said. "People aren't stupid. I don't want anyone to pull any punches about how race shows up in society and how it impacts us."

But the balance is tricky, particularly for candidates of color, he said.

For them, navigating race "is like walking on a lake freshly frozen," Gillum said. "You never know what step might take you under."

Regardless of their race, Democratic candidates will have to find a way to appeal to a broad coalition of voters with a message that energizes a diverse base without alienating whites whose support will also be crucial.

In a video accompanying the launch of her presidential exploratory committee, Warren included a chart outlining the disparate household wealth between white and black families and called for an economy that "works for all of us."

A similar video from Gillibrand included broad appeals such as a pledge to support the middle class, along with a clip of her saying, "It is outrageous to ask women of color to bear the burdens of every single one of these fights over and over and over again."

Alabama Sen. Doug Jones, who is white, defeated African-American challengers in his primary before going on to win a special election in 2017, becoming the first Democrat in a generation to represent the solidly Republican state. Jones said his background as the prosecutor who brought the 16th Street Baptist Church bombers to justice was an advantage with black voters, but added that he also had a proven track record on issues of equality, respect and voting rights long after that case.

"Folks are going to be looking at candidates and saying, 'Have you got a history of this, or is it just the first time you're looking at it?'" Jones said in an interview. "I talked about issues important to the African-American community, but they were really a lot of the same issues that were important to the white community: health care, jobs, education, those kitchen-table issues that cross all manner of racial lines and get to the heart of the matter."

Authenticity will be important for candidates, regardless of color, in delivering a message that resonates with voters, Jones said.

"If you're talking to the black preachers in the Black Belt of Alabama, you ought not be afraid of giving the same speech to the Chamber of Commerce in Madison County," he said. "It's a matter of messaging. You've got to be who you are. ... Not trying to pander to anyone, not to appear that you're pandering to anyone or not trying to minimize your support."

___

Whack is The Associated Press' national writer on race and ethnicity. Follow her work on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/emarvelous.

FILE - In this Dec. 13, 2018, file photo, fFormer Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Monday's observance of what would have been Martin Luther King Jr.'s 90th birthday is emerging as an important moment for Democrats eyeing the White House to talk about one of the most divisive issues in politics: race. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) - At 36, Pete Buttigieg is just over the minimum age required to be president of the United States. Outside South Bend, Indiana, the Rust Belt community where he's been mayor since age 29, few people know his name. Those who know it struggle to pronounce it. (It's BOO'-tah-juhj.)

None of that has deterred Buttigieg - a Democrat, Rhodes scholar and Navy veteran known to most people as "Mayor Pete" - from contemplating a 2020 presidential bid against a crowd of much better-known lawmakers with more experience and more money.

He's among a number of potential candidates who believe the 2016 and 2018 elections showed that voters are looking for fresh faces and that the old rules of politics, in which lawmakers toil for years in statehouses or in Congress before aspiring to higher office, may no longer apply. They're benefiting from Democrats' fears about running another member of the party's old guard against President Donald Trump in 2020.

The group includes Julian Castro, the 44-year-old former San Antonio mayor, and Tulsi Gabbard, the 37-year-old congresswoman from Hawaii, who've already said they're running. Yet to decide is perhaps the biggest breakout star of the midterm elections, former three-term Rep. Beto O'Rourke, 46, who ran a tougher-than-expected race against Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, a 38-year-old Iowa native, has also been spending time in the state with the nation's first caucuses.

They would provide several potential "firsts" in what's already shaping up to be an unusually diverse field. Castro could become the first Latino to win his party's nomination, while Buttigieg - who married his husband last year - would be the first openly gay nominee from a major political party.

"I think most people are thinking: 'Why not?' They think all the rules have been broken, that anybody can run," said Buttigieg, who has said he'll announce his decision on whether to run for president soon. "I think some of the rules have been broken, but there's only one way to find out which ones."

Mayor Pete Buttigieg listens to an AP reporter at his office in South Bend, Ind., Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019. Few people know Pete Buttigieg's name outside the Indiana town where he's mayor, but none of that has deterred him from contemplating a 2020 Democratic presidential bid. He's among the potential candidates who believe 2016 and 2018 showed voters are looking for fresh faces. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

There's no question these relative newcomers face extremely long odds, running in a field that could include heavyweights like former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Also in the mix are more than a half-dozen U.S. senators.

Critics question whether people such as Buttigieg and Castro are entirely serious or whether they're trying to position themselves for a Cabinet position or maybe just trying to sell more of their books. (Castro's came out last fall; Buttigieg's is due for release next month.)

But these upstart candidacies aren't being ignored as they once would've been.

The 2018 election helped break that mold, as a diverse group of hopefuls - many running for their first political office - fueled Democrats' takeback of the House. Turnout among voters ages 18 to 29 increased to 31 percent, its highest level in a midterm election in a quarter century, according to a Tufts University voting analysis.

Buttigieg raised his national profile when he left his day job to serve as a lieutenant with the Navy Reserve in Afghanistan in 2014, and again with an unsuccessful 2017 bid for Democratic National Committee chairman. President Barack Obama mentioned him post-2016 as a politician to watch. (U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, another possible 2020 candidate, was another.) O'Rourke used social media in 2018 to build a name - and raise millions - far outside Texas. Next month he'll sit for an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

"Certainly the results of 2018 made candidates like Pete (Buttigieg) think 'There's a place for me in there,'" said Doug House, a longtime Democratic county chairman from Rock Island, Illinois, along the Iowa-Illinois border.

Buttigieg, who turns 37 on Saturday, says there's potential for younger voters to gravitate toward a younger candidate. He says he's also had strong support from older voters, who helped him easily win two terms.

Older voters were "a big part of how I got elected here," he says while eating lunch at a cafe tucked inside South Bend's indoor farmers market, one of the sites he says have helped bring life back to the city of about 100,000 people. The city, which neighbors the University of Notre Dame, was hit hard by the decline of manufacturing, dating back to the closing of the Studebaker plant in 1963. Now that campus is home to a technology park.

His parents both worked at Notre Dame, but he left town to attend Harvard in part because he believed people who said there was no future in South Bend.

Buttigieg argues that, as a younger candidate, he brings a forward-looking view to politics and a personal awareness that the consequences of climate change or huge deficits will be more than theoretical.

"You just have a certain mindset based on the fact that - to put it a little bluntly - you plan to be here in 2050," he said.

He talks about being part of a generation that's supplied most of the troops for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he says there are advantages to not being the star candidate right out of the gate.

"The longer you can go into this process without being famous, the more you can drive around in your Chevy and say 'hi' to people," said Buttigieg, who drives a Chevy Cruze.

House got to know Buttigieg last year when the mayor filled in for Biden as speaker at an annual gathering of Illinois Democrats.

Afterward, people in the crowd of 3,000 "said time and time again they came to the event very interested in seeing an important, historic person in our party - Joe Biden - and what they saw was the future of our party," House said.

___

Associated Press researcher Jennifer Farrar contributed to this report.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg talks with an AP reporter at his office in South Bend, Ind., Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019. Few people know Buttigieg's name outside the Indiana town where he's mayor, but none of that has deterred him from contemplating a 2020 Democratic presidential bid. He's among the potential candidates who believe 2016 and 2018 showed voters are looking for fresh faces. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Mayor Pete Buttigieg talks with an AP reporter at Farmers Market in South Bend, Ind., Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019. Few people know Buttigieg's name outside the Indiana town where he's mayor, but none of that has deterred him from contemplating a 2020 Democratic presidential bid. He's among the potential candidates who believe 2016 and 2018 showed voters are looking for fresh faces. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Mayor Pete Buttigieg talks with an AP reporter at Farmers Market in South Bend, Ind., Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019. Few people know Buttigieg's name outside the Indiana town where he's mayor, but none of that has deterred him from contemplating a 2020 Democratic presidential bid. He's among the potential candidates who believe 2016 and 2018 showed voters are looking for fresh faces. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Mayor Pete Buttigieg talks with an AP reporter as he walks in downtown South Bend, Ind., Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019. Few people know Pete Buttigieg's name outside the Indiana town where he's mayor, but none of that has deterred him from contemplating a 2020 Democratic presidential bid. He's among the potential candidates who believe 2016 and 2018 showed voters are looking for fresh faces. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Mayor Pete Buttigieg talks with an AP reporter at his office in South Bend, Ind., Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019. Few people know Pete Buttigieg's name outside the Indiana town where he's mayor, but none of that has deterred him from contemplating a 2020 Democratic presidential bid. He's among the potential candidates who believe 2016 and 2018 showed voters are looking for fresh faces. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

FILE - In this Dec. 17, 2018, file photo, South Bend (Ind.) Mayor Pete Buttigieg announces that he will not seek another term as mayor during a news conference at his office in South Bend, Ind. Few people know Buttigieg's name outside the Indiana town where he's mayor, but none of that has deterred him from contemplating a 2020 Democratic presidential bid. (Robert Franklin/South Bend Tribune via AP)NEW YORK (AP) - Conflicts over control, inclusivity and alleged anti-Semitism will mean that women protesting on the second anniversary of the Women's March on Washington are faced with competing demonstrations this weekend in New York City.

One procession, around the edge of Central Park and down Sixth Avenue, is being organized by the Women's March Alliance, a nonprofit group whose leaders are putting on their version of the demonstration for the third straight year.

Another event, a downtown rally held at roughly the same time Saturday, is being organized by the New York City chapter of Women's March Inc., the group formed to help organize the 2017 demonstration in Washington, D.C., the day after President Donald Trump's inauguration.

Talks between organizers aimed at linking the groups in New York didn't go anywhere, the reasons varying between overstepping and indifference depending on who's asked. And hanging overhead that has been a controversy playing out nationwide of concerns related to race and religion.

Women's March Inc. co-leader Tamika Mallory, who is black, has come under her fire from Jewish groups for her support of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who is known partly for his anti-Semitic rhetoric and condemnations of homosexuality.

The criticism dates back months but got additional attention after Mallory appeared Monday on ABC's "The View" and, while disavowing Farrakhan's language, wouldn't condemn him when confronted by hosts Meghan McCain and Sunny Hostin.

FILE - This March 8, 2017, file photo shows civil rights leader and activist Linda Sarsour, far left, during the International Women's Day rally and sit-down protest outside Trump International Hotel at Columbus Circle, in New York. Conflicts over control, inclusivity and alleged anti-Semitism mean that women protesting on the second anniversary of the Women's March on Washington will have competing demonstrations Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019, in New York City. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

Some Jewish groups have pulled support for Women's March Inc. A Washington state chapter disbanded in protest. In November, Teresa Shook, the Hawaiian woman whose viral Facebook post is credited with launching the original Women's March, called on Mallory and her co-chairwomen Linda Sarsour, Carmen Perez and Bob Bland to resign.

"They have allowed anti-Semitism, anti- LBGTQIA sentiment and hateful, racist rhetoric to become a part of the platform by their refusal to separate themselves from groups that espouse these racist, hateful beliefs," she wrote.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Sarsour acknowledged "valid criticism" that the organization had been "delayed in our unequivocal response in denouncing anti-Semitism." But she said it was part of the growth process in building a movement comprised of many different groups of people. "We believe in this movement."

Katherine Siemionko, the white, former Goldman Sachs vice president who leads the Women's March Alliance, told the AP that the charges of anti-Semitism were "just an additional on top of all the behavior, on top of the ego" while not the main issue dividing the women's march events in New York.

Friction between Siemionko's organization and the national group began last year, when a New York chapter of the national Women's March group, led by Agunda Okeyo, a writer and activist born in Nairobi, began to plan events around the 2019 march anniversary.

Sarsour said she reached out to Siemionko to see if her group and Okeyo's group could work together. Sarsour said she wanted to make sure the concerns of immigrant and minority women were heard in New York City protest efforts.

The two women differ on what happened next.

Siemionko said Sarsour was insistent that Okeyo's group needed to be involved in planning the city's march. Siemionko described the national group as "bullies."

"If you wanted to be a coalition, you would never host a counter-event," Siemionko said. "Why would you do that?"

Sarsour denied that account.

"I am not a threatening person. I came in as a mediator," she said. Sarsour said Siemionko told them she'd check with her board, but then never got back to her, with the end result that both events are moving forward separately.

The leaders of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, a Reform Judaism congregation in Manhattan, urged its members to take part in the uptown march, affiliated with Siemionko's group. Rabbi Samantha Natov said she still has problems with the Women's March Inc.'s reaction to allegations of anti-Semitism.

"The leadership has not assuaged our most serious concerns," she said.

But Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, said her group would be out with some other Jewish organizations at the downtown rally organized by Okeyo's group, Women's March NYC.

Women's March Inc. leaders have "apologized for the harm that they have caused and we are taking those apologies and the actions they have taken to include Jews ... seriously," Vilkomerson said.

There is also a third event in the city at 2 p.m. Saturday, the Non-March for Disabled Women at Grand Central Terminal. That event is being put together by Rise and Resist, with co-sponsorship by Okeyo's Women's March group.WASHINGTON (AP) - One group went to the White House with Republicans to talk about border security and reopening shuttered parts of the government.

Another, led by social media stars, marched around Capitol Hill in a widely-posted but futile search for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell - hashtag #WheresMitch.

The Democrats' two paths within a 12-hour stretch this week demonstrated the dramatic differences emerging among members of the historic freshman class of House Democrats that - together - helped flip the House from Republican control in November's elections. The celebrity-studded group includes a record number of women, a new crop of veterans and diversity never before seen in Congress.

But the freshmen never were a monolith, and they're not acting like one now. Two weeks into their congressional careers, with a partial government shutdown at hand President Donald Trump in the White House, they're cutting different paths on Capitol Hill.

"There's a sorting process," said George Miller, a retired California congressman who was one of the reform-minded "Watergate babies" elected to the House in the aftermath of President Richard Nixon's resignation. It quickly became clear that campaigning and governing require different skill sets, he said, with learning how to operate effectively on Capitol Hill key among them. "You've got to make new friends, you've got to make decisions about trusting (other people's) judgment, you gotta make decisions about what's good for you and about what's good for the caucus."

There's evidence that these choices and more are leading lawmakers who accomplished so much together into organizing themselves according to politics, experience and especially governing style. Policy questions over such campaign-friendly ideas as "Medicare for all" and a "green new deal" for climate change pose other potential areas for disagreements. And where some freshmen are emphasizing their newness to Washington, a healthy portion of their classmates are pointing to their long careers in the military and government as they cut a more traditional path in office.

In this Jan. 16, 2019, photo, freshman Congressmen led by Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., center, walk through the Capitol Rotunda as they deliver a letter calling to an end to the government shutdown to the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., on Capitol Hill in Washington. Also pictured is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., center left, Rep. Veronica Escobar, second from left, and at front left Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Conn. Two weeks into their congressional careers, newly elected House Democrats are cutting different paths on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Wednesday alone provided a notable example. Perhaps the most famous new lawmakers - Reps. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan - led the second protest march in as many days from the House to the Senate to personally urge McConnell to help end the partial shutdown. They didn't find him - but they left contact information in his office, were admitted to the floor of the Senate and at one point had trouble navigating back to the House.

The forays weren't a bust: An accompanying media horde recorded the whole thing, lending it a reality show quality that likely burnished their brand of storm-the-palace authenticity.

Not marching along was another group of freshman Democrats who are taking a more traditional approach to their congressional careers, some of them informed by their prior service in government and the military.

The day's big media moment for Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., for example, came from an event that wasn't even on-camera. She was among the freshmen Democrats and Republicans invited to the White House to talk to Trump about the effect the shuttered agencies were having on constituents. Spanberger, a former CIA agent who voted against Nancy Pelosi for speaker, refused to even confirm she had been invited while the event was being organized, and tweeted about it afterward with emphasis on her experience.

"As a former federal employee, I know the hardships our public servants face as they work without pay or are furloughed," she wrote.

Other freshman members who came to Congress from government careers tweeted similar sentiments.

Tweeted Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill.: "I know the impact of a shutdown - back in 2013 during my time at @HHSgov, I was furloughed for about three weeks without pay."

Another split has opened in freshmen ranks over the politics of any talk of impeaching Trump. Hours after the new Congress was sworn in Jan. 3, Tlaib was recorded telling a friendly interest group that "We're gonna impeach the mother----er," referring to Trump. More than the expletive, her vow to impeach Trump incensed Democrats who had labored to abstain from any such talk until special counsel Robert Mueller reports on his investigation into Russian election meddling. As the story overtook the party's messaging on the government shutdown the next day, Tlaib took what she described as an "intense" round of schooling from veteran Democrats about the consequences of speaking bluntly while a member of Congress. Tlaib said she was sorry for the distraction.

Other freshmen strove to avoid commenting on the upheaval largely because they think such talk right now would detract from their mission to preserve national health care and other priorities they had campaigned on. Some even went so far as to say they'd prefer Trump as their foil to Vice President Mike Pence, the former Indiana governor and House member who would be president in the so-far unlikely event that the House impeaches Trump and the Senate removes him from office.

"That guy," said Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, said of Pence, "knows what he's doing."

Despite the emerging differences, there remains some overlap between groups, as well as mutual admiration and learning. Underwood, for example, was among those marching to find McConnell. So was Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., who also is a liaison for the freshman class to Democratic leaders. And though two freshmen who are military veterans - New Jersey's Mikie Sherrill and Pennsylvania's Chrissy Houlahan - were assigned leadership roles in the New Democrat Coalition, they're leading two dozen other freshmen, including some marchers.

On Thursday morning, Ocasio-Cortez taught a class to other members about how to use Twitter more effectively, and why. In return, House Democratic White James Clyburn taught her something.

"Now Majority @WhipClyburn is teaching me what all the bells mean in the Capitol," she tweeted with a laughing-

face emoticon.This photo gallery highlights some of the top news images made by Associated Press photographers in Latin America and the Caribbean that were published in the past week.

The leader of Venezuela's opposition-controlled congress said he was prepared to assume the role of interim president in a deepening confrontation with socialist President Nicolas Madura, who was called illegitimate by the Lima Group of South American nations.

In Honduras' capital, a mother wept beside the coffin of her son in the same street where he and four other young people were slain.

An Associated Press report from Haiti detailed the slaughter of at least 21 unarmed civilians by men wearing police uniforms in Port-au-Prince last November, underling the erosion of security since U.N. peacekeepers ended a 13-year mandate a year earlier.

More Central American migrants formed a new caravan in Honduras and began the long trek toward Mexico's border with the United States.

An Argentine judge ordered 85 residents of the remote Patagonian town of Epuyen to stay in their homes for at least 30 days to help contain an outbreak of hantavirus in which nine people have died.

In this Jan. 11, 2019 photo, Juan Guaido, President of the Venezuelan National Assembly delivers a speech during a public session with opposition members, at a street in Caracas, Venezuela. The head of Venezuela's opposition-run congress says that with the nation's backing he's ready to take on Nicolas Maduro's presidential powers and call new elections.(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

The Dakar Rally came to an end with cars, motorcycles and trucks dashing across the unforgiving sands of Peru's desert.

In Paraguay, the volunteer firefighters of San Roque Gonzalez began raising funds for their station by selling calendars with nude pictures of themselves.

Lin-Manuel Miranda reprised his lead role in the hit musical "Hamilton" to start a two-week run in Puerto Rico to raise money for artists and cultural groups.

In Brazil, the National Museum opened its first exhibition since a devastating fire.

___

Curated by photojournalist Jorge Saenz in Asuncion, Paraguay.

In this Jan. 11, 2019 photo, Santos Isabel Escobar weeps beside the coffin of her son, Eddy Fernando Cabrera, 18, during his wake in the same street where he was executed the night before along with four other young people in the Villanueva neighborhood of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. A bleak combination of powerful drivers like poverty and gang violence leads many Hondurans to see emigration as the only possibility for a decent life.(AP Photo/Fernando Antonio)

In this Jan. 11, 2019 photo, a boy plays as floodlights from the United States filter through the border wall in Tijuana, Mexico. The partial U.S. government shutdown was on track Friday to become the longest closure in U.S. history as President Donald Trump and nervous Republicans look for a way out of the mess. A solution couldn't come soon enough for federal workers who got pay statements Friday but no pay. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

In this Dec. 16, 2018 photo, an armed gang member poses for a picture on the south side of La Saline slum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, almost a month after a massacre on Nov. 13. La Saline is mostly controlled by armed young men allied with opponents of President Jovenel Moise. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

In this Jan. 11, 2019 photo, a fruit harvester wearing a face mask looks out the window of his car in Epuyen, Argentina. An Argentine judge has ordered 85 residents of a remote Patagonian town to stay in their homes for at least 30 days to help halt an outbreak of hantavirus in which nine people have died. (AP Photo/Gustavo Zaninelli)

In this Jan. 16, 2019 photo, Jan Brabec of Czech Republic falls from his Husqvarna motorbike during the stage nine of the Dakar Rally in Pisco, Peru. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

In this Jan. 16, 2019 photo, competitors ride their motorbikes across the dunes during stage nine of the Dakar Rally in Pisco, Peru. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

In this Jan. 16, 2019 photo, Salvadoran migrants talk as they prepare to set off for the U.S. border with others in a caravan, in San Salvador, El Salvador, at dawn. Migrants fleeing Central America's Northern Triangle region comprising Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala routinely cite poverty and rampant gang violence as their motivation for leaving. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

In this Jan. 13, 2019 photo, firefighter Daniel Rodriguez sells calendars to a couple of women in Asuncion, Paraguay. Firefighters in the town of San Roque Gonzalez launched a campaign to sell calendars featuring nude pictures of themselves, to help fund their fire station. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

In this Jan. 11, 2019 photo, Lin-Manuel Miranda, composer and creator of the award-winning Broadway musical, Hamilton, proudly waves a Puerto Rican flag after receiving a standing ovation at the end of the play's premiere held at the Santurce Fine Arts Center, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The musical is set to run for two weeks and will raise money for local arts programs. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Australian police arrested a man Friday for questioning over the death of an Israeli student in Melbourne, while the victim's tearful father visited the flower-strewn crime scene where her body was found.

Aiia Maasarwe was slain at 12:10 a.m. on Wednesday shortly after she got off a tram in the Melbourne suburb of Bundoora.

A 20-year-old was taken into custody on Friday morning in the neighboring suburb of Greensborough, a police statement said. Police did not say if any charges have been filed.

The 21-year-old victim was studying at La Trobe University in Melbourne as an exchange student from Shanghai University in China.

Her father Saeed Maasarwe arrived in Melbourne on Thursday to bring her body home. He cried Friday when he saw an impromptu floral memorial arranged by members of the public at the site where her body was found behind a hedge not far from the tram stop.

"This is the last place my daughter - was here," the father told reporters. "I had many dreams to be with her."

Two women stand at a floral tribute, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, at the scene where the body of Israeli student Aiia Maasarwe was found earlier in the week in Melbourne, Australia. Maasarwe, a 21-year-old student who had been studying at La Trobe University in Melbourne, was slain at 12:10 a.m. on Wednesday shortly after she got off a tram in the suburb of Bundoora, according to police. (Ellen Smith/AAP Image via AP)

The father was also among hundreds of people who attended a vigil later on the steps of the Victoria state parliament in honor of the victim and in a protest against male violence.

Saeed thanked the crowd for coming and said if someone else had died, his daughter would "be the first" to come to the vigil.

"This is Aiia," he said before breaking down in tears.

Police have not detailed the attack on Maasarwe, which they assume was random and opportunistic.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed that she had been raped.

"I just want to begin by saying how devastated I am by the despicable, tragic and violent killing and rape of Aiia Maasarwe," Morrison told reporters in Fiji.

"Every woman in Australia - every person in Australia - should be able to travel home in safety. I can't begin to think of what I could say to her family," he added.

Her uncle, Abed Kittani, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that Maasarwe was speaking by phone to a younger sister when she was attacked.

"She heard the cars passing by and she was helpless, she couldn't do anything," Kittani said of the sister. The sister sent messages, but there was no response.

"Instead of coming home with a diploma, she is coming back in a coffin," Kittani said.

Another uncle, Rame Maasarwe, said: "We cannot believe that something like this happened in Australia; we think it's very safe there."

___

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the father's surname to Maasarwe.

In this Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, photo, police investigators work at the scene where the body of Israeli student student Aiia Maasarwe was found in Melbourne, Australia. Australian police are looking for at least one attacker who killed the Israeli woman as she was walking on a city street speaking to her sister by phone. (Stefan Postles/AAP Image via AP)FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - Lawyers for Florida school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz said Friday that his confidential medical records were improperly disclosed to a state investigative panel by someone in the Broward Sheriff's Office.

The attorneys asked Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer to hold another hearing on whether the sheriff's office should be held in contempt of court for providing the records to the state commission investigating the shooting. They say access was limited by Scherer's court order to only certain authorized investigators and prosecutors in the criminal case.

"Not only is it a violation of the court order, but it's a violation of federal law," said Cruz attorney Melisa McNeill, referring to federal protections of medical and mental health records. The law "encourages people to get treatment knowing that those records will be kept confidential."

Sheriff's office attorney Christian Tsoubanos said there was no intent to violate any court orders or federal law, and he's been unable to determine who at the agency may have given the records to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission.

"This is not the Broward Sheriff's Office deflecting blame. If we did release those records, it was a mistake," Tsoubanos said. "We would not purposely or knowingly violate the court's order or try to circumvent the court's order."

Scherer did not immediately issue a ruling on the defense request for a full hearing on how the medical records were released. They were not made public. A person found in criminal contempt of court can face fines or even a jail sentence of up to a year. A judge could also require that any other requests for Cruz's records must be approved by court order.

Parkland school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz enters the courtroom for a hearing at the Broward Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019. Cruz returned court this week for hearings on the Valentine's Day 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and on accusations he assaulted a corrections officer. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)

Cruz, 20, faces the death penalty if convicted in the February 2018 massacre at the high school that killed 17 people and wounded 17 more. His lawyers have said he'll plead guilty in return for life in prison, but prosecutors say that is unacceptable.

The records in question come from a psychiatrist - identified in court documents only as "Dr. BN" - who had treated Cruz before the shooting. Scherer's order last May restricted all such Cruz records only to investigators and prosecutors directly involved in the criminal prosecution, as well as Cruz's defense lawyers. The state commission was not on that list.

Beyond the psychiatrist's records, numerous investigators, school officials, family members and others have publicly said Cruz was a mentally unstable teenager, prone to a fascination with weapons, violence and images of cruelty and death.

_____

Follow Curt Anderson: http://twitter.com/Miamicurt.WASHINGTON (AP) - Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard will host his U.S. counterpart Mike Pompeo at the end of this month to work on development projects in Central America and southern Mexico.

Mexico's ambassador to the U.S. Martha Barcena said Thursday that the goal of the meeting will be to identify infrastructure and energy projects that are viable in southern Mexico and could be financed by the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

The ministerial meeting will be the first since the United States pledged $5.8 billion in aid and investment last month for strengthening government and economic development in Central America, and another $4.8 billion in aid for southern Mexico.

Barcena did not provide a date for the meeting.NEW YORK (AP) - A man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of actor Morgan Freeman's step-granddaughter in New York City.

Prosecutors say 33-year-old Lamar Davenport stabbed his girlfriend E'Dena Hines multiple times while under the influence of alcohol and drugs in August 2015.

Davenport issued an apology during his sentencing hearing Thursday, and said, "I don't remember what happened."

Davenport was convicted of first-degree manslaughter in May.

Hines was an aspiring actress and played a small role in the movie "5 Flights Up" along with Freeman and Diane Keaton.

Freeman said in a statement after her death that "the world will never know her artistry and talent."

FILE - In this May 22, 2018 file photo, actor Morgan Freeman attends the 2018 PEN Literary Gala at the American Museum of Natural History, in New York. A man has been sentenced on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, to 20 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of Freeman's step-granddaughter in New York City. Prosecutors say 33-year-old Lamar Davenport stabbed his girlfriend E'Dena Hines multiple times in August 2015 while under the influence of alcohol and drugs. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

His publicist previously said that while Hines was Freeman's step-granddaughter, he referred to her as his granddaughter.NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A New Orleans school board member withdrew from consideration for the board presidency Thursday night amid a flurry of criticism over her record of resistance to protections for LGBT students, but that didn't stop a torrent of vehement criticism that nearly led to her losing her current post as the board's vice president.

When the debate was over, Leslie Ellison remained the board's vice president - elected in an unexpectedly narrow 4-3 vote after close to two dozen speakers, including gay and transgender students and adults, voiced their displeasure.

Immediately prior to the debate, the seven-member board made an apparent attempt to defuse the expected rancor by unanimously voting to suspend its rules and allow the current president, John Brown, and vice president, Ellison, to remain in their current posts for another year.

But Ellison's critics didn't relent, saying she should be ousted as vice-president as well.

"There are countless numbers of LGBTQ students who yearn for the day that will allow them to walk fearlessly into their truth and be their best selves," said Gary Briggs, a former teacher and a gay man. "Because how can we expect our students to perform at their highest levels when they cannot live authentically?"

A handful of speakers supported Ellison, none mentioning gay or sexual identity issues as they praised her dedication and competence.

People in support of the LBTQ+ community laugh and cheer on people speaking against Leslie Ellison, vice president of the Orleans Parish School Board before the vote for the Orleans Parish School Board president at the Orleans Parish School Board in New Orleans, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Ellison, a New Orleans school board member, withdrew from consideration for the board presidency Thursday night amid a flurry of criticism over her record of resistance to protections for LGBT students, but that didn't stop a torrent of vehement criticism that nearly led to her losing her current post as the board's vice president. (Sophia Germer/The Advocate via AP)

After sometimes blistering criticism from a majority of speakers, the board stuck with its decision to keep Brown as president for another year with a unanimous vote. But members re-opened nominations for vice president. Member Sarah Usdin nominated colleague Nolan Marshal Jr. to replace Ellison. But Ellison won another year as vice president by a 4-3 vote. She did not immediately address the criticism before the board moved on to other issues.

Ellison's record on LGBT issues goes back several years but only recently had been drawing greater scrutiny.

Opponents cite a 2012 legislative committee hearing in which she opposed language in state charter school contracts explicitly forbidding discrimination based on sexual orientation. News reports from 2013 indicate she also opposed language including protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity in a board anti-bullying policy that year.

Ellison didn't respond to an emailed request for comment.

The 2012 bill, which did not become law, said the non-discrimination language in state contracts must include non-discrimination language protecting people on the bases of race, religion, national ancestry, age, sex or disability, but prohibited any other factor - thereby excluding protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

At the time, according to news accounts and an archived video of the committee hearing, Ellison said she could not sign a renewal application for a state-chartered public school she was leading because it contained "sexual orientation" protections. Ellison, an administrator at Gideon Christian Fellowship International in New Orleans, said at the time that she is "strongly opposed to discrimination at every level." But, she said, the state Department of Education's insistence on sexual orientation language constituted "unjust demands on individuals and education leaders who for religious purposes and religious freedom will not sign off on such a policy."

LGBT rights groups said in statements this week that Ellison has not backed away from her earlier position.

"Just this week, after the Forum and many other leaders from our community engaged with Ms. Ellison, she pointedly declined to retract or even reflect upon here past statements," the New Orleans-based Forum for Equality said on its website.

School Board members listen to public comment before the vote for the Orleans Parish School Board president at the Orleans Parish School Board in New Orleans, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Leslie Ellison was voted vice-president of the Orleans Parish School Board. (Sophia Germer/The Advocate via AP)

Tanisha Harris, of BreakOUT! speaks at the podium against Leslie Ellison before the vote for the Orleans Parish School Board president at the Orleans Parish School Board in New Orleans, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Ellison was voted vice-president of the Orleans Parish School Board. (Sophia Germer/The Advocate via AP)WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump canceled House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's planned trip to Belgium and Afghanistan just hours before the congressional delegation, known as a CODEL, was set to depart. The AP explains:

CAN HE DO THAT?

Yes, and not just because he's the commander in chief. The military maintains a fleet of converted passenger jets used by the President, Vice President, Cabinet officials and other officials, from the iconic modified Boeing 747s known as "Air Force One" when the president is on board to smaller, modified Gulfstream jets. They're based at Joint Base Andrews just outside of Washington. The assignment of the jets is at the discretion of the White House Military Office and, ultimately, the President.

HOW IS THIS SUPPOSED TO WORK?

There are a limited number of planes available for travel and a large number of potential travelers. The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs signs off on CODEL requests for military flights. The Office of the Assistant Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Special Air Missions Division, is responsible for matching the request with the appropriate aircraft, prioritizing those from the White House, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and others.

HAS THIS HAPPENED BEFORE?

An Air Force bus waits on the plaza of the Capitol after President Donald Trump used his executive power to deny military aircraft to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just before she was depart to visit troops abroad, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019.(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

If no aircraft are available, lawmakers can be accommodated on a cargo aircraft if available or declined travel on a military aircraft all together. In such cases the trip may be canceled or carried out on commercial planes. It is not uncommon for there to be jockeying and lobbying of the White House among members of Congress and even Cabinet secretaries to secure the best aircraft. What is extraordinarily rare is for the president to personally intervene, and to announce in writing that he was denying an official a plane for nonoperational reasons, especially after it normally cleared channels.

CAN PELOSI DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT?

Not really. She could try to secure other commercial or private air travel to make the trip, but a stop in a war zone by the second person in the presidential line of succession is traditionally carried out in secret - likely taking a stop in Afghanistan off the table altogether.

President Donald Trump speaks about American missile defense doctrine, Thursday, Jan 17, 2019, at the Pentagon. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)PHOENIX (AP) - An Arizona man facing a terrorism charge for brandishing a knife in an encounter with a sheriff's sergeant was carrying out a "lone wolf" attack, authorities said Thursday.

Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone said at a news conference that 18-year-old Ismail Hamed of Fountain Hills told a dispatcher before the Jan. 7 attack that he had an affiliation with a terror group.

Hamed was previously charged with aggravated assault for allegedly throwing rocks at the sergeant and brandishing a knife outside a sheriff's substation in Fountain Hills, a Phoenix suburb.

Investigators said the sergeant shot Hamed after he ignored repeated warnings to drop the weapon.

A terrorism charge accusing Hamed of assisting the Islamic State was filed Tuesday.

County court records state that Hamed allegedly provided "advice, assistance, direction or management to the Islamic State of Iraq" and ISIS on or about Jan. 7.

This undated photo provided by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office shows Ismail Hamed. The Arizona man facing a terrorism charge for brandishing a knife in an encounter with a sheriff's sergeant was carrying out a "lone wolf" attack, authorities said Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. (Maricopa County Sheriff's Office via AP)

A woman at the office of Hamed's attorney, Faisal Ullah, said the law firm had no comment on the case Thursday.WASHINGTON (AP) - She imperiled his State of the Union address. He denied her a plane to visit troops abroad.

The shutdown battle between President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is playing out as a surreal game of constitutional brinkmanship, with both flexing their political powers from opposite ends of Pennsylvania Avenue as the negotiations to end the monthlong partial government shutdown remain stalled.

In dramatic fashion, Trump issued a letter to Pelosi on Thursday, just before she and other lawmakers were set to depart on the previously undisclosed trip to Afghanistan and Brussels. Trump belittled the trip as a "public relations event" - even though he had just made a similar warzone stop - and said it would be best if Pelosi remained in Washington to negotiate to reopen the government.

"Obviously, if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative," wrote Trump, who had been smarting since Pelosi, the day before, called on him to postpone his Jan. 29 State of the Union address due to the shutdown.

Denying military aircraft to a senior lawmaker - let alone the speaker, who is second in line to the White House, traveling to a combat region - is very rare. Lawmakers were caught off guard. A bus to ferry the legislators to their departure idled outside the Capitol on Thursday afternoon.

The political tit-for-tat between Trump and Pelosi laid bare how the government-wide crisis has devolved into an intensely pointed clash between two leaders both determined to prevail. It took place as hundreds of thousands of federal workers go without pay and Washington's routine protocols - a president's speech to Congress, a lawmaker's official trip - became collateral damage.

Internal Revenue Service employees, front row from the left, Brian Lanouette, of Merrimack, N.H., Mary Maldonado, of Dracut, Mass., and Maria Zangari, of Haverhill, Mass., display placards during a rally by federal employees and supporters, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, in front of the Statehouse, in Boston, held to call for an end of the partial shutdown of the federal government. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said the speaker planned to travel to Afghanistan and Brussels to thank service members and obtain briefings on national security and intelligence "from those on the front lines." He noted Trump had traveled to Iraq during the shutdown and said a Republican-led congressional trip also had taken place.

Trump's move was the latest example of his extraordinary willingness to tether U.S. government resources to his political needs. He has publicly urged the Justice Department to investigate political opponents and threatened to cut disaster aid to Puerto Rico amid a spat with the island territory's leaders.

Some Republicans expressed frustration. Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted, "One sophomoric response does not deserve another." He called Pelosi's State of the Union move "very irresponsible and blatantly political" but said Trump's reaction was "also inappropriate."

While there were few signs of progress Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence and senior adviser Jared Kushner dashed to the Capitol late in the day for a meeting with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. And the State Department instructed all U.S. diplomats in Washington and elsewhere to return to work next week with pay, saying it had found money for their salaries at least temporarily.

For security reasons, Pelosi would normally make such a trip on a military aircraft supplied by the Pentagon. According to a defense official, Pelosi did request Defense Department support for overseas travel and it was initially approved. The official wasn't authorized to speak by name about the matter, so spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said the president does have the authority to cancel the use of military aircraft.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California slammed Trump for revealing the closely held travel plans. "I think the president's decision to disclose a trip the speaker's making to a war zone was completely and utterly irresponsible in every way," Schiff said.

Trump's trip to Iraq after Christmas was not disclosed in advance for security reasons.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump wanted Pelosi to stay in Washington before Tuesday, a deadline to prepare the next round of paychecks for federal workers.

"We want to keep her in Washington," Sanders said. "The president wants her here to negotiate."

The White House also canceled plans for a presidential delegation to travel to an economic forum in Switzerland next week, citing the shutdown. And they said future congressional trips would be postponed until the shutdown is resolved, though it was not immediately clear if any such travel - which often is not disclosed in advance - was coming up.

Trump was taken by surprise by Pelosi's move to postpone his address and told one adviser it was the sort of disruptive move he would make himself, according to a Republican who is in frequent contact with the White House and was not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

While he maintained a public silence, Trump grew weary of how Pelosi's move was being received on cable TV and reiterated fears that he was being outmaneuvered in the public eye. Trump was delighted at the idea of canceling Pelosi's trip, believing the focus on the resources needed would highlight her hypocrisy for cancelling his speech, according to the Republican.

Trump has still not said how he will handle Pelosi's attempt to have him postpone his State of the Union address until the government is reopened so workers can be paid for providing security for the grand Washington tradition.

Pelosi told reporters earlier Thursday: "Let's get a date when government is open. Let's pay the employees. Maybe he thinks it's OK not to pay people who do work. I don't."

Trump declined to address the stalemate over the speech during a visit Thursday to the Pentagon, simply promising that the nation will have "powerful, strong border security."

Pelosi reiterated she is willing to negotiate money for border security once the government is reopened, but she said Democrats remain opposed to Trump's long-promised wall. "I'm not for a wall," Pelosi said twice, mouthing the statement a third time for effect.

In a notice to staff, the State Department said it can pay most of its employees beginning Sunday or Monday for their next pay period. They will not be paid for time worked since the shutdown began in December until the situation is resolved, said the notice.

The new White House travel ban did not extend to the first family.

About two hours after Trump grounded Pelosi and her delegation, an Air Force-modified Boeing 757 took off from Joint Base Andrews outside Washington with the call sign "Executive One Foxtrot," reserved for the first family when the president is not traveling with them. It landed just before 7 p.m. at Palm Beach International Airport, less than two miles from the president's private club.

A White House spokesperson did not answer questions about the flight.

___

For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. government shutdown: https://apnews.com/GovernmentShutdown

___

Associated Press writers Jon Lemire, Matthew Daly, Mary Clare Jalonick and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

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, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, in front of the Statehouse, in Boston, held to call for an end of the partial shutdown of the federal government. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Internal Revenue Service employee Mary Maldonado, of Dracut, Mass., center, displays a placard during a rally by federal employees and supporters, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, in front of the Statehouse, in Boston, held to call for an end of the partial shutdown of the federal government. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)CHICAGO (AP) - Three Chicago police officers have been acquitted of charges that they tried to cover up the 2014 shooting death of black teenager Laquan McDonald to protect the officer who pulled the trigger.

Cook County Judge Domenica Stephenson on Thursday acquitted former Officer Joseph Walsh, former Detective David March and Officer Thomas Gaffney on charges of conspiracy, official misconduct and obstruction of justice. The officer who shot McDonald 16 times, Jason Van Dyke, was convicted of murder in October and is due to be sentenced Friday.

Some key moments in the case:

2014

Oct. 20: Van Dyke fatally shoots McDonald after responding to a call about a teenager breaking into vehicles in a trucking yard. Other officers back Van Dyke's claim that McDonald, who had a small knife with its blade folded, posed a threat to Van Dyke's life.

2015

FILE - This combination of Nov. 28, 2018 file photos shows former Chicago Police officer Joseph Walsh, left, former detective David March and former officer Thomas Gaffney, accused of trying to cover up the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, during a bench trial before Judge Domenica A. Stephenson at Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago. Judge Domenica Stephenson said Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, that after considering all of the evidence, including police dashcam video of the killing, she did not find that officer Thomas Gaffney, Joseph Walsh and David March conspired to cover up the shooting. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool, File)

April 15: The Chicago City Council approves a $5 million settlement with McDonald's family.

Nov. 24: Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez announces that she is charging Van Dyke with first-degree murder. Hours later, the city responds to a judge's order and releases dashcam video of the shooting that shows McDonald veering away from officers. The footage contradicts the accounts of Van Dyke and other officers on the scene that he lunged at them with the knife. The video's release sparks days of protests.

Dec. 1: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel fires police Superintendent Garry McCarthy after a public outcry over the handling of the McDonald case.

Dec. 7: The U.S. Department of Justice announces that its civil rights division will investigate the police force, looking for patterns of racial disparity in its use of force.

Dec. 9: Emanuel apologizes for McDonald's killing in a speech before the City Council. He says Chicago's police force needs "complete and total reform."

Dec. 16: A grand jury indicts Van Dyke on charges of first-degree murder and official misconduct.

2016

Feb. 16: The city of Chicago says it will release videos of police shootings and in-custody deaths within 60 days, after being criticized for refusing to release the McDonald shooting video for more than a year.

March 16: Alvarez loses the Democratic primary to challenger Kim Foxx, who goes on to become the first African-American woman to lead the Cook County state's attorney's office.

April 12: A task force established by Emanuel to look into police practices in the wake of the McDonald shooting says the department must acknowledge its racist past and overhaul its handling of excessive force allegations. It also recommends abolishing the Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates officer misconduct.

April 21: Emanuel announces changes to how police shootings and misconduct cases are handled, but draws criticism for stopping short of abolishing the Independent Police Review Authority.

May 13: Emanuel announces that he is abolishing the Independent Police Review Authority and replacing it with the Civilian Police Investigative Agency, which will have more independence and resources.

June 3: Chicago releases hundreds of videos that offer startling glimpses into violent encounters involving police, including the fatal shooting of a robbery suspect speeding toward officers in a van and an incident in which an officer slammed his night stick against a man's head at a party.

Aug. 18: Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson says seven Chicago police officers should be fired for filing false reports in the McDonald shooting.

Oct. 7: Johnson releases details of a proposed new policy that would require officers to use the least amount of force necessary and emphasizes the "sanctity of life."

Nov. 16: A special prosecutor says a grand jury has been impaneled to hear evidence into a possible cover-up by Chicago police officers in the McDonald shooting.

2017

Jan. 13: The Justice Department announces the findings of its civil rights investigation. It says the Chicago Police Department has violated the constitutional rights of residents for years - permitting racial bias against blacks, using excessive force and killing people who didn't pose a threat. It concludes that the pattern was attributable to "systemic deficiencies" within the department and the city, including insufficient training and a failure to hold bad officers accountable for misconduct.

March 23: A grand jury adds 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm to the first-degree murder charges against Van Dyke in the McDonald shooting.

May 17: The Police Department releases a new use of force policy that requires its officers to undergo de-escalation training and imposes stricter rules on when they can fire their weapons at fleeing suspects.

June 3: Media reports say the city of Chicago and the Justice Department have negotiated a draft agreement that calls for an independent monitor to oversee changes for the police force, which is the nation's second largest. But it is unclear whether there will be court oversight at some stage in the future.

June 14: Leading community groups, including a Black Lives Matter organization, file a class-action lawsuit against Chicago in a bid to bypass or scuttle a draft agreement between the city and the Justice Department that seeks to reform the police without federal court oversight.

June 27: Three Chicago police officers are indicted on felony charges that they conspired to cover up Van Dyke's actions in the killing of McDonald.

Aug. 28: The city of Chicago changes course and says it wants to carry out far-reaching reforms of its police under strict federal court supervision, abandoning a draft deal on reforms with President Donald Trump's administration that envisioned no court role.

Nov. 14: The grand jury that indicted three Chicago police officers on charges that they conspired to cover up what happened when Van Dyke fatally shot McDonald disbands without indicting anyone else in the department.

Dec. 11: The Chicago Police Department says all patrol officers are now equipped with body cameras.

2018

March 20: The American Civil Liberties Union and several community organizations say that they have reached an agreement to provide input into changes being proposed for the Chicago Police Department.

Sept. 13: Lawyers finish choosing 12 jurors and five alternates for Van Dyke's murder trial. Emanuel and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, meanwhile, unveil an updated plan to reform the city's police, saying it will ensure permanent, far-reaching changes within a 12,000-officer department that has a long history of committing serious civil rights abuses. The more than 200-page document is submitted to U.S. District Judge Robert Dow for his consideration.

Sept. 17: Testimony begins in Van Dyke's trial. He is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery and official misconduct.

Oct. 4: Jury begins deliberations after being told that they can consider the lesser charge of second-degree murder if they do not find Van Dyke guilty of first-degree murder.

Oct. 5: Van Dyke is found guilty of second-degree murder.

Nov. 27: The bench trial of ex-Officer Joseph Walsh, former Detective David March and Officer Thomas Gaffney begins. They are charged with lying to protect Van Dyke from criminal prosecution after he fatally shot McDonald.

Dec. 6: After hearing a week's worth of testimony, Cook County Judge Domenica Stephenson says she will analyze the evidence before delivering her verdict to the three.

Jan. 17: Stephenson acquits Walsh, March and Gaffney of trying to cover up the shooting death of McDonald.

___

For the AP's complete coverage of the Jason Van Dyke case: https://apnews.com/tag/LaquanMcDonald

remaining of

Thank you for supporting local, independent 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.BEIJING (AP) - The latest on the fight between China and Canada over the arrest of a Chinese technology executive (all times local):

5:15 a.m.

China's ambassador to Canada says the arrest by Canadian authorities of a Huawei Technologies executive was an act of "backstabbing" by a friend and he warns of repercussions if Canada bars the company from its new 5G network for security reasons.

In a rare interview with Canadian journalists Thursday, Chinese Ambassador Lu Shaye also warned Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau against recruiting international support in Canada's feud with China. He says it would be a bad idea for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland to use the upcoming World Economic Forum summit in Davos to press that case.

The arrest of Chinese executive Meng Wanzhou while she was traveling through the Vancouver airport Dec. 1 created a growing diplomatic rift. Meng is the chief financial officer of Chinese telecom giant Huawei and the daughter of its founder. The U.S. wants her extradited on fraud charges.

China detained two Canadians shortly after her arrest in an apparent attempt to pressure Canada to release her.

___

5 p.m.

China has rejected the Canadian foreign minister's statement that Chinese detentions of Canadians pose a threat to all countries.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Thursday that Canada instead poses a threat to Chinese by detaining a Chinese citizen for "no reason." She was referring to the arrest of a Chinese telecoms executive at the request of the United States.

China detained two Canadians shortly after the executive's arrest in what Western analysts see as an attempt to pressure Canada to release her.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said earlier this week that "the arbitrary detentions of Canadians ... represent a way of behaving which is a threat to all countries."

Hua said Freeland may have spoken without thinking, and that such remarks won't help settle the issue.ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum wants to know why the federal Environmental Protection Agency opted against filing formal comments with Minnesota regulators when the state was considering whether to issue a key water pollution permit for the PolyMet copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota, and she is questioning whether the agency is hiding information.

McCollum, a critic of the project who chairs an appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the EPA now that Democrats have taken over the House majority, said she found it "remarkable" that the federal agency did not formally weigh in before the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued the final water and air permits for the project last month.

The Minnesota Democrat issued her statement this week in response to concerns raised by the environmental group WaterLegacy, which is fighting the mine project. Paula Maccabee, the group's attorney, said documents she obtained from the state agency through an open records request suggest that regional EPA career staffers told the state agency's staffers as recently as last fall that they had "substantial questions" about the water permit, and that they indicated at least earlier in the year that they wanted to submit formal comments.

But Maccabee said in an interview Thursday that she determined last week that the EPA never filed them. She said she's been unable to get EPA documents that might shed light on the decision despite multiple requests under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

"Why were those comments not provided?" Were they suppressed? And was this a pattern to prevent the EPA from effectively exercising its oversight role?" Maccabee asked.

EPA officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press on Thursday. The agency's press office is closed due to the partial federal government shutdown. Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler came under fire from Senate Democrats at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday for regulatory rollbacks under his watch.

FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2016, file photo, the closed LTV Steel taconite plant is abandoned near Hoyt Lakes, Minn. An influential congresswoman wants to know why the Environmental Protection Agency opted against filing formal comments with state regulators when they were was considering whether to issue a key permit for the PolyMet copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota. Minnesota Democrat Betty McCollum says it's "remarkable" that the EPA did not formally weigh in before the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued the final water permit for the project last month. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)

Maccabee first raised her concerns in a letter Tuesday to McCollum and other House committee chairs who oversee the EPA. She wrote that her group has reason to believe that EPA regional staffers prepared final written comments on the draft water permit, "but that they were directed by someone within the agency not to provide those comments to Minnesota regulators in a written form accessible to the public."

The attorney suggested to the lawmakers that this might be "part of a larger pattern where EPA regional staff has been constrained or directed to withhold written comments from states and from the public or otherwise hamstrung in their ability to ensure compliance with federal environmental laws."

Emails and handwritten notes from phone conversations by Minnesota agency staffers show that EPA staffers specifically raised concerns about effluent limits, monitoring plans and the effects of mercury on downstream communities, Maccabee wrote.

The congresswoman said she would request that the EPA publicly release any PolyMet-related comments prepared by its staff, and that she planned to address the matter with her colleagues.

"If the EPA is hiding information related to PolyMet, what other critical information is being kept from the American people?'" McCollum asked. "We must ensure that the EPA operates in a transparent manner and that EPA scientists and professional staff can do their job of protecting human health and safety without political interference."BARRON, Wis. (AP) - The Wisconsin man suspected of kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs and killing her parents apparently applied for a job online the day that Jayme escaped, calling himself an "honest guy" even though his resume contains inaccuracies about his work experience.

Jake Patterson is charged in an Oct. 15 home invasion at the Closs home near Barron in northwestern Wisconsin. According to a criminal complaint, Patterson told investigators that he broke into the house in the middle of the night, gunned down Jayme's parents and made off with the teen, hiding her in a remote cabin for nearly three months. Jayme escaped Jan. 10, and deputies arrested Patterson minutes later relying on her description of him and his car.

Patterson, 21, graduated from Northwood High School in Minong in the spring of 2015. His activities between then and the day he was arrested have largely not been made public, including his employment and how he supported himself. He had been living in the cabin in Gordon, Wisconsin, where he kept Jayme captive.

Officials with Saratoga Liquor Co. in Superior, Wisconsin, said Thursday that they received an online job application from Patterson around midday on the day Jayme escaped.

According to the application supplied to The Associated Press by the company, Patterson was trying to land a night position at the company's warehouse. Company officials said they wouldn't have hired him due to his lack of experience.

On the resume Patterson submitted in his application, he describes himself as an "honest and hardworking guy. Not much work experience but I show up to work and am a quick learner." He notes he worked as a "laborer" from April 2018 to November 2018, but Saratoga officials redacted the employer's name in the provided resume.

In this image made from a pool video by KSTP-TV, Jake Thomas Patterson, 21, who is accused of abducting 13-year-old Jayme Closs and holding her captive for three months, makes his initial court appearance Monday, Jan 14, 2019, via video feed from the Barron County jail during his bond hearing in Barron, Wis. Judge James Babler set his bail at $5 million. (KSTP-TV via AP, Pool)

Patterson states he served in the U.S. Marines for nine months from April 2017 to December 2017. Marine spokeswoman Yvonne Carlock has told AP that Patterson did serve, but only for about five weeks in the fall of 2015. Carlock said his early discharge indicated the "character of his service was incongruent with Marine Corps' expectations and standards."

Patterson also stated he was a "production worker" from October 2016 to January 2017, specializing in packaging screens. His employer has been redacted. He goes on to say he graduated from high school in 2016, even though he actually graduated in 2015.

Patterson's defense attorneys haven't responded to an email request to confirm the resume.

Patterson worked for little more than a day in 2016 at the Jennie-O turkey plant in Barron where Jayme's parents worked. Investigators have said he did not know them. He also worked for two days at a cheese factory near Almena, Wisconsin, just west of Barron. He was on his way to work there in October when he spotted Jayme getting on a school bus and decided he wanted to kidnap her.

Patterson faces two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, both punishable by life in prison, one count of kidnapping and one count of armed burglary. He's due back in court Feb. 6 for a preliminary hearing.

___

Associated Press writer Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.

___

For more stories on Jayme's abduction and her parents' deaths: https://apnews.com/JaymeClossNEW YORK (AP) - The Latest on Michael Cohen's work with a tech firm to rig two online polls for Trump (all times local):

3:20 p.m.

Rudolph Giuliani says President Donald Trump "had no knowledge" of any effort to manipulate polling data on his behalf.

Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen acknowledged on Twitter Thursday that he paid a technology company to rig Trump's standing in two online polls before the presidential campaign.

The Wall Street Journal reported Cohen had promised the tech firm $50,000 but failed to pay the full amount.

Cohen tweeted that "what I did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of" Trump.

FILE - In this Dec. 7, 2018 file photo, Michael Cohen, former lawyer to President Donald Trump, leaves his apartment building in New York. Cohen is acknowledging that he paid a technology company to falsely improve Trump's standing in two online polls. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Giuliani, one of Trump's current lawyers, says that's not true.

He called Cohen a "liar" and a "thief" and said the president had no knowledge of any payment.

Cohen has pleaded guilty to charges not related to his dealings with the technology company.

He's scheduled to report to prison in March.

___

11:40 a.m.

President Donald Trump's estranged former lawyer is acknowledging that he paid a technology company to rig Trump's standing in two online polls.

Michael Cohen tweeted Thursday that "what I did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of" Trump.

Technology company owner John Gauger told The Wall Street Journal that Cohen promised him $50,000 for work including using computers to enter fake votes for Trump in a 2014 CNBC poll asking people to identify top business leaders and a 2015 poll of potential presidential candidates. Gauger says Cohen paid him about a quarter of the money in cash, then stiffed him on the rest.

The Trump Organization later paid a $50,000 reimbursement to Cohen. It didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.HONOLULU (AP) - Divers monitoring a rotting whale carcass off the shores of Oahu this week found themselves face-to-face with a massive great white shark, prompting state officials to warn recreational divers and snorkelers to stay out of the water near the dead sperm whale amid reports some people have climbed onto the carcass to take its teeth as souvenirs.

Smaller tiger sharks left when the possibly pregnant great white came to dine on the dead whale Tuesday, diver Ocean Ramsey told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser .

"She was just this big beautiful gentle giant wanting to use our boat as a scratching post," said Ramsey, who posted images of the encounter. "We went out at sunrise, and she stayed with us pretty much throughout the day."

Ramsey studies sharks, advocates for their conservation and leads cage-free shark diving tours. Ramsey and her team observe and identify sharks and share that data with state and federal partners.

Hawaii waters are usually too warm for great whites compared with California's Pacific coast, where they feed on sea lions and elephant seals, Ramsey said. She estimated this shark was more than 20 feet (6 meters) long and 8 feet (2.4 meters) across.

The giant white might have headed to Hawaii because of hunger and a need for extra nutrients in pregnancy, Ramsey said.

The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources said in a statement Wednesday that the decomposing whale carcass had drifted to about eight miles (13 kilometers) south of Pearl Harbor after being towed 15 miles (24 kilometers) offshore days earlier.

The department said tiger sharks have been "almost continuously" feeding on the whale and said it was aware of photos of the great white.

The agency's Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement, Chief Jason Redull, said people should stay out of the water around the dead whale.

"We don't want anyone to get hurt if a shark swimming around the carcass mistakes them as food. Understandably, some people want to get into the water either out of fascination or to get photographs, but it is truly dangerous to be around this carcass with so much shark activity," he said.

The agency said there are reports people climbed on top of the whale carcass and removed its teeth, which may be a violation of state and federal laws.

Officials said the carcass it is currently drifting away from shore, but a predicted shift in the winds could once again push it back toward Oahu.

The shark could be the famed Deep Blue based on her size and markings, Ramsay said. Deep Blue is believed to be the largest white shark ever recorded. Ramsey previously swam with the huge shark on research trips to Guadalupe Island, Mexico.

"Big pregnant females are actually the safest ones to be with - the biggest, oldest ones - because they've seen it all, including us," Ramsey said. "That's why I kind of call her, like, a grandma shark."

Sharks usually only bite when they're curious or mistake people for their natural prey but are unpredictable, she said.

___

This story corrects that Ramsey shares data with federal partners but did not require and was not operating under a federal permit when she encountered the great white.

___

Information from: Honolulu Star-Advertiser, http://www.staradvertiser.comMADISON, Wis. (AP) - A federal judge on Thursday struck down early-voting restrictions Wisconsin Republicans adopted in a December lame-duck legislative session, saying the limits mirror restrictions he blocked two years ago.

Republicans voted in December to limit in-person early voting to no more than two weeks before an election. The move came after a difficult midterm election in November in which the overwhelmingly Democratic cities of Madison and Milwaukee held early voting for six weeks - far longer than in smaller and more conservative communities.

The GOP lost every statewide race but retained majorities in the Legislature and quickly convened the lame-duck session to pass bills that Gov. Scott Walker - also defeated in the election - could sign before leaving office.

Walker and Republicans argued the early-voting window should be uniform across the state, not left up to each community to determine. Walker argued it was an issue of fairness, and that local communities could decide when within the two-week period to offer early voting.

A coalition of liberal groups with the support of former Democratic U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder asked U.S. District Judge James Peterson to strike down the restrictions three days after Walker signed them into law.

Peterson blocked similar two-week early voting restrictions along with a number of other Republican-authored voting laws in 2016. State attorneys have asked the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse Peterson.

The appellate court has yet to rule but Peterson wrote Thursday that he can still enforce his own orders in the 2016 ruling. He said the lame-duck early-voting restrictions clearly mimic the limits he blocked in 2016.

"This is not a close question," Peterson wrote. Later, he added: "Defendants do not even attempt to show that there is a material difference between the number of days permitted under (the lame-duck law) and the number of days permitted under the previous law."

Peterson also blocked provisions in the lame-duck law that prohibit voters from using expired student IDs and temporary IDs older than 60 days as identification in the polls. He said those restrictions too closely mirror statutes he struck down in 2016 that blocked expired student IDs and invalidated temporary IDs older than 180 days.

Kit Beyer, a spokeswoman for Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Alec Zimmerman, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, had no immediate comment.

Scot Ross, executive director of One Wisconsin Institute, one of the groups who brought the challenge, said in a statement that Peterson told Vos and other Republicans "in no uncertain terms that they are not above the law. The Republican attacks on voting rights were unconstitutional when they were passed, they were unconstitutional when the judge struck them down and they are unconstitutional now."

Martha Laning, chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, which is not a party in the legal challenges, said in a statement that Democrats will continue to meet Republican attempts to "rig the system in their favor and sabotage our democratic processes with strong opposition."

___

Follow Todd Richmond on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trichmond1WASHINGTON (AP) - A group of 47 Democratic members of Congress urged President Donald Trump on Thursday to impose sanctions on corrupt officials in the government of Guatemala and suspend assistance to the Central American nation.

The legislators, led by Reps. Norma Torres and Jim McGovern of California, said the Trump administration has turned a blind eye while Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales has sought to end a United Nations-backed anti-corruption commission working in his country.

The commission has angered Morales by investigating him, his sons and his brother

"We are deeply concerned that, absent a strong U.S. response, the current government's pattern of anti-democratic behavior will continue to escalate, and that Guatemala will descend into lawlessness," the legislators wrote in a letter to Trump.

They said the Trump administration should address the situation in Guatemala with sanctions similar to those applied to government officials in Venezuela and Nicaragua.

The White House did not immediately provide a reaction when contacted by The Associated Press.

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales, left, and Foreign Minister Sandra Jovel leave the National Palace after attending a welcoming ceremony for ambassadors, in Guatemala City, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019. Guatemala's Constitutional Court overruled Morales' decision after all-night deliberations on five appeals, blocking Morales' decision to unilaterally end a U.N. anti-corruption commission. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Some Republican members of Congress, such as Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, have raised questions about the commission's activities.

Guatemala's highest court last week blocked Morales' decision to unilaterally end the anti-graft commission, known as the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala.

Morales contends the commission violated Guatemala's sovereignty and the rights of suspects.

Although backed by the high court, the commission has withdrawn its members from Guatemala because the government refused to guarantee their security.

During its 11 years of operating in Guatemala, the commission has worked with Guatemalan prosecutors to press corruption cases that have implicated some 680 people, including top elected officials, business executives and bureaucrats. The panel said in November that it has won 310 convictions and broken up 60 criminal networks.

The commission participated in investigations that forced former Vice President Roxana Baldetti and President Otto Perez Molina to step down from office in 2015 to face fraud and corruption charges.

___

Luis Alonso Lugo on Twitter: twitter.com/luisalonsolugoBATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The firing of a Louisiana police officer who shot at a driver running from a traffic stop has been overturned by a city civil service board.

News outlets report the Municipal Fire and Police Civil Service Board voted 3-2 Thursday to reverse Yuseff Hamadeh's termination from Baton Rouge police. Police Chief Murphy Paul says the department will appeal, so Hamadeh won't immediately return to work.

The board says Hamadeh's rights were violated in the department's internal investigation. It found he wasn't allowed to have a lawyer present during a polygraph examination.

Hamadeh shot at 21-year-old year-old Raheem Howard in August. Hamadeh initially said Howard shot at him first.

Howard was jailed, but prosecutors dropped the case. District Attorney Hillar Moore says there was no evidence to support Hamadeh's account.SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) - Authorities say a man who tried to rob a Maryland bank before a police officer shot and killed him also is suspected of robbing a different bank last month.

The Montgomery County Police Department on Thursday identified 31-year-old Mikyas Mehary Tegegne as the suspect in Wednesday's attempted robbery of a BB&T bank in Silver Spring. Police say Officer Christopher LaPointe shot him.

Police say Tegegne told a bank manager he had a bomb in his backpack and showed a handgun before fleeing without any cash. The officer confronted him in a nearby parking garage and shot him, according to authorities.

The department says investigators believe Tegegne also robbed a Sandy Spring Bank branch in Silver Spring on Dec. 24.

LaPointe has been placed on administrative leave.INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A nonprofit group that had been denied a state license to open a South Bend abortion clinic reapplied for one Thursday instead of challenging the decision in court.

Texas-based Whole Woman's Health Alliance reapplied for the license Thursday, avoiding what it feared would be a lengthy legal battle, the South Bend Tribune reported. .

An Indiana State Department of Health administrative panel voted 2-1 in November to reject the nonprofit's request to open an abortion clinic, saying necessary information wasn't disclosed on its initial application in October 2017.

After weighing the pros and cons of a court battle, Whole Woman's Health Alliance decided to follow the health department's recommendation of reapplying for a license, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, the nonprofit's CEO and founder.

She said her group relies heavily on donations and wanted to avoid a costly legal battle.

"Most people say when you (go to court), it's a couple of years of back and forth. ... I can't sustain financially a process that's going to take years," she said. "And while it seems a bit strange because we wouldn't change any information from the first time, the department has told us repeatedly to fill out a new application. So we decided that's the best course of action."

The nonprofit's clinic would offer medication-induced abortions to women who are up to 10 weeks pregnant. The building already has been equipped and furnished.

The new application contains additional information that could be helpful, Hagstrom Miller said. It includes more information about the nonprofit's pair of existing clinics in Virginia and Texas, including reports from inspections that were performed after it submitted its first application.

"We chose to write a pretty comprehensive cover letter and offer information that isn't asked for in the application," Hagstrom Miller said. "Because over the past year, we've learned there's information they want but that isn't asked for."

Indiana's abortion rate has plummeted in recent years as abortion facilities have shuttered. The proposed South Bend clinic would be the first to open in roughly a decade, advocates have said.

The rejection of the nonprofit's initial license application a year ago by the health department stated that it failed to meet requirements of having "reputable and responsible character" and that it didn't disclose necessary information on its application.

In September, Indianapolis administrative law judge Clare Deitchman disagreed. Deitchman said the agency failed to show the application was "incomplete or inaccurate" and issued an order that said a license should be granted. The health department then appealed to the three-member administrative panel.Xem them

...

Tin bai cuoi cung

Khong con du lieu e loadSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - The federal government shutdown could delay the outcome of a major debt restructuring case in Puerto Rico, leaving many in suspense after a long-awaited hearing on the deal ended Thursday without a ruling.

The deal involves more than $17 billion worth of government bonds backed by a sales-and-use tax. Opponents urged a federal judge to wait until the Internal Revenue Service can decide whether the exchange of those bonds should be treated as taxable or tax-free. And the IRS is among the agencies affected by the shutdown.

Judge Laura Taylor-Swain said she would not immediately rule on the deal, which was recently approved after more than 8,000 bondholders voted on it.

"I thank you all for the privilege of being in the entirely challenging position of making these important decisions for the future of Puerto Rico," she told the court.

If approved, Puerto Rico would pay $32 billion in the next 40 years. Senior bondholders, who hold nearly $8 billion, will be first to collect, receiving 93 percent of the value of the original bonds. Junior bondholders, many of whom are individual Puerto Rican investors and overall hold nearly $10 billion, will collect last and recover only 54 percent.

Junior bondholders who oppose the deal told the judge on Thursday that they were not adequately represented during the mediation process before it was approved.

"Puerto Rico took our money. Now it just wants to keep it," said Peter Hein, an attorney and junior bondholder who spoke from New York. "If Puerto Rico can just brush off ... bondholders ... respectfully, Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut are not going to be far behind."

Also speaking from New York was Lawrence Devores, another junior bondholder. He reiterated that his group was not given opportunity to participate in the deal and criticized what he called "secret bargaining."

"Not only are we not getting a same recovery as the seniors ... but we're also being treated in a very miserable, shoddy way," he said. "It was a settlement imposed only by people looking out for themselves."

The elderly man said the bonds they would receive if the deal is approved would "mature well after I'm gone."

Several attorneys, including Dennis Dunne with Ambac Assurance, rejected the accusations and said no one was forbidden from participation. Dunne said everyone had a choice between protracted, costly litigation or a settlement, adding that the deal is not ideal "but the alternatives were worse."

Government officials also have said that Puerto Rico would receive an initial $350 million that will grow as part of the deal, money they say is urgently needed amid a 12-year recession and in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

But a group of activists that includes economists and attorneys who have long sought an independent analysis of Puerto Rico's debt argue that a portion of the sales-tax-backed debt is illegal. They also noted that nearly half of the debt is in hands of only 17 companies, including hedge funds.

Peter Friedman, a government attorney, said the lengthy litigation has already served as an audit, saying that everyone has examined the debt's validity in "extreme detail."

On Monday, the control board asked Swain to invalidate $6 billion worth of debt issued by Puerto Rico, including all general obligation bonds issued in 2012 and 2014, alleging that issuance violated debt limits established by the island's Constitution. Swain is holding a hearing on the issue at month's end.

If the deal involving sales-and-use-tax-backed bonds is approved, it would be the second debt-restructuring agreement since Puerto Rico announced it was unable to pay its debt in June 2015. In November, it completed the first with creditors holding more than $4 billion in debt issued by the now-defunct Government Development Bank.

During Thursday's public speaking period, Puerto Rico resident Rafaela Estevez said she opposes the deal in part because she does not trust the government's intent.

"Certain individuals are looking to make profit off the misery of our people," she said. "The people of Puerto Rico have had enough."LUMBERTON, N.C. (AP) - One investigator has been fired and another resigned from a North Carolina sheriff's office following an internal investigation into evidence linking the suspect in a teen girl's slaying to another attack.

Former Robeson County District Attorney Johnson Britt has said evidence linked the suspect in last year's death of 13-year-old Hania Aguilar to a 2016 rape. Britt said a DNA match from that rape was given to the sheriff's office, but deputies apparently didn't follow up before Aguilar's disappearance.

The county's sheriff's office announced Thursday it had terminated Investigator Darryl McPhatter and accepted the resignation of Maj. Anthony Thompson. They had been suspended following a probe of information from the prosecutor.

An agency spokesman didn't immediately respond to a message asking what role the two played in the 2016 investigation.HAVANA (AP) - The Trump administration is weighing what could become the most serious tightening of the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba in more than two decades - a move that could unleash a flurry of lawsuits against foreign companies that have invested on the island.

A 1996 law known as the Helms-Burton Act give Americans the right to sue companies profiting from properties confiscated by Cuba's government after its 1959 socialist revolution. That potentially could allow hundreds of lawsuits against corporations around the world, from Spanish companies that run Cuban hotels to Chinese and Turkish firms renovating Cuban ports.

But every U.S. president since Bill Clinton has suspended the key clause, known as Title III, because of its potential to alienate U.S. allies and complicate any future American detente with Cuba.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday appeared to open the possibility that the U.S. government might allow that clause to take effect. He said the administration was suspending Title III again, but only for a month and a half instead of the six-month suspension that has been constantly renewed since 1996.

Pompeo said the administration was conducting a careful review of Title III "in light of the national interests of the United States and efforts to expedite a transition to democracy in Cuba and include factors such as the Cuban regime's brutal oppression of human rights and fundamental freedoms."

Both advocates of better US-Cuba relations and opponents of the communist government said Thursday that they expected the Trump administration to allow at least some lawsuits against companies doing business in Cuba when the 45-day review ends. The lawsuits that follow could create a huge obstacle to foreign investing in Cuba - a major escalation of Trump's relatively cautious approach so far to unwinding President Barack Obama's historic detente with the island, which began in December 2014.

In a tweet, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio described Pompeo's statement as "is a strong indication of what comes next. If you are trafficking in stolen property in #Cuba, now would be a good time to get out."

The major American companies doing business in Cuba - AirBnB, airlines and cruise companies - could emerge unscathed because the 1996 law contains exemptions for business related to legal travel to Cuba, said Pedro Freyre, a Miami attorney who represents some of the largest foreign companies in Cuba. Still litigation against foreign companies would be a serious blow to a centrally planned economy that's entering its fourth consecutive year of economic stagnation and struggling to attract badly needed foreign investment.

The Cuban government launched waves of confiscations and nationalizations after the 1959 revolution that ended decades of U.S. domination of the island. Vast swathes of the island were taken from U.S. corporations, U.S. citizens and Cubans who worked closely with the U.S., and were placed into state hands.

Many of those properties, from grand hotels to sugar plantations to ports and airports, are now used in joint ventures between the Cuban government and companies, mostly European and Asian, whose governments place no prohibitions on business with Cuba.

"This will have a chilling on anybody who is thinking about doing business," Freyre said. "It just makes engagement extremely difficult."

He described the end of Title III suspension as the most serious U.S. measure against the Cuban government since the passage of the original Helms-Burton law.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez described the Pompeo announcement as "political blackmail and irresponsible hostility aimed at hardening the blockade on Cuba."

President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Twitter that "we vigorously reject this new provocation, meddling, threatening and bullying, in violation of international law."

Until now, the Trump administration had taken a measured approach to the Obama detente, tightening some rules on travel to Cuba and escalating rhetoric against the island, but mainly leaving Obama's measures alone.

"If they take this decision they will be moving from a policy of limiting U.S. engagement with Cuba to a policy of very actively trying to disrupt the Cuban economy," said Phil Peters, a longtime Cuba expert and consultant for U.S. businesses in Cuba.

____

Michael Weissentein on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mweissensteinPHOENIX (AP) - Police in a Phoenix suburb say a burglary suspect shot to death by an officer was a 14-year-old boy carrying a replica gun.

Authorities say officers in the city of Tempe reported a suspect burglarizing a car Tuesday and that he ran away holding what appeared to be a handgun.

During the chase, police say he turned toward the officers. One officer perceived that as a threat and shot the suspect, who died at a hospital.

Police said Wednesday that the teen had a replica 1911 airsoft gun in his possession, which they determined he had taken from vehicle along with some other items.

They say the shooting was captured on the officer's body camera. The police department did not immediately respond to a request by The Associated Press for access to the video.

The name of the teen and the officer who opened fire haven't been released.

Sandra Gonzalez, left, mother of slain 14-year-old boy shot by Tempe Police, joins another family member, right, and others in front of the Tempe Police headquarters to hold a protest and vigil for the boy shot to death as police say they were pursuing a burglary suspect who they thought had a handgun, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, in Tempe, Ariz. It turns out, according to police, the teen had a replica gun. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

But the ABC15 Arizona station interviewed a man and a woman identified as the boy's brother and mother, who said they wanted police to explain what happened.

The boy's brother Jason Gonzalez said, "A police officer has a Taser gun right? Why not shoot a Taser at him? He sees a young boy, my brother wouldn't shoot. I know he wouldn't shoot."

Speaking through a Spanish-English interpreter, the teen's mother Sandra Gonzalez said: "If they want to tarnish my son, they are wrong."

"Apart from the fact that they killed him, they want to destroy him," she said. "No. I won't allow it, I want justice."

A Facebook page believed to be the teen's shows photographs of a baby-faced boy with a peach-fuzz mustache, a few snaps with relatives and friends and a big, green truck. Friends of the family were putting together a GoFundMe page to pay for the teen's funeral costs.

The department said it will conduct its investigation in conjunction with the Maricopa County Attorney's office, as is customary in officer-involved shootings.

A self-described socialist group rallied in Tempe to draw attention to the case.

"We want to bring an end to the police brutality in Maricopa County and lock up killer cops," said activist Alexia Isais. "We are demanding that police be held accountable for the killings they are committing, mostly against unarmed, marginalized people."

A vigil was held Thursday outside the Tempe Police headquarters.

Since the beginning of the year, there has been at least one other police shooting that killed a teen in Maricopa County, Arizona's largest.

Earlier this month, a Phoenix police officer shot and killed a 19-year-old Jacob Michael Harris after surveillance officers reportedly saw him and three others carry out an armed robbery. Police say they were watching the group because they were suspects in several other robberies.

Also this month, an officer in the Phoenix suburb of Peoria shot and wounded a 17-year-old boy after getting a call about a robbery at an auto supply store. Officers said the boy had a gun. He was shot in the shoulder.

This photo shows part of South Fair Lane in Tempe, Ariz., Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Police in the Phoenix suburb say a burglary suspect shot to death by an officer was a 14-year-old boy carrying a replica gun. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Family members and others stand in front of the Tempe Police headquarters to hold a protest and vigil for a 14-year-old boy who was shot to death by Tempe Police on Tuesday, as police say they were pursuing a burglary suspect who they thought had a handgun, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, in Tempe, Ariz. It turns out, according to police, the teen had a replica gun. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Gov. J.B. Pritzker authorized state regulation of firearms dealers Thursday in a reversal of his predecessor's policy and prompting a gun owners group to threaten legal action against Illinois.

Pritzker, sworn in on Monday, chose an elementary school in Chicago to sign legislation meant to cut down on illegal purchases of firearms through video monitoring, tighter inventory control and gun-shop employee training.

"We can prevent someone from buying a gun for someone else who is not legally allowed to own a gun," said Pritzker, standing next to Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, whose force confiscated 10,000 illegal guns last year. "Many of the incidents of gun violence that occur in our city and all across our state occur with illegal guns."

The law affects about 2,400 firearms dealers and its provisions take effect in six months. Each must show it is licensed with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and purchase a five-year state permit - $1,500 for retail shops and $300 for independent dealers. Each must install videotaping in retail sections of the store, maintain an electronic inventory and require annual employee training in spotting so-called straw purchases.

The Illinois State Rifle Association promised a lawsuit challenging the plan.

"The federal government already licenses gun dealers. There is no need to add yet another layer of bureaucracy on gun dealers," executive director Richard Pearson said in a statement. "The only thing this measure is going to do is make it cost more money for gun dealers to do business in Illinois, which is going to hurt the smaller dealers.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker holds paperwork after he signed legislation that requires gun stores to get state licenses, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019 at Young Elementary School in Chicago. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via AP)

"The action taken today is another assault on our 2nd Amendment rights."

Pritzker, who already this week reversed course on GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner's policies toward labor with pro-union action, said gun-rights organizations are "just wrong" in their criticism of the licensing bill. He added, "I'm going to continue to make sure that we're standing up to the voices like the Illinois State Rifle Association and the National Rifle Association to protect our families and our children."

Lawmakers endorsed the idea twice last year. Rauner vetoed the first version in March. Democrats who control the General Assembly, led by Sen. Don Harmon of Oak Park, OK'd it again in May but never sent it to Rauner for consideration.

"Thank you for figuring out in four days what some other people couldn't figure out in four years," Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said to Pritzker. "You don't need a Ph.D. from Harvard to figure out that if you're going to regulate a barber shop and a bar, maybe you should regulate a gun dealer."

Harmon, who first introduced the idea in 2003, said the law is more about allowing the state to gather information on straw purchases through video monitoring and electronic inventory and sales records than it is about punishing dealers. While the ATF audits gun shops, Harmon said the federal agency has fewer than two dozen agents to oversee all of Illinois' dealers. He contended audits occur only once every three to five years and only verify whether a gun is in the dealer's inventory or has been sold, not examining patterns or regularity of purchases.

"We can't think that this bill, however important it is, is the solution," Harmon said. "It will help but there's more work to be done."

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The bill is SB337 .

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Follow Political Writer John O'Connor at https://twitter.com/apoconnor .TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - Workers who sued General Motors after nooses and racist graffiti were found at its largest U.S. transmission plant nearly two years ago are still facing racial harassment, their attorney said Thursday.

Just this week, one of the workers found a monkey doll and a racist drawing near his work station, said attorney Michelle Vocht.

The harassment has been ramping up since December - including threatening and racist messages left on restroom and factory walls and near machines where the employees work - after workers began speaking out publicly, she said.

Nine workers sued GM last April, saying the company didn't do enough to stop racial harassment that stretched over four years and included the discovery of five nooses in the spring of 2017.

The Ohio Civil Rights Commission said last year its investigation found GM seemed indifferent to the racial harassment and that its minimal steps didn't end the problems. The automaker disputed the findings.

GM said Thursday it is taking the matter seriously and has taken several steps to address harassment at the plant, including mandatory training. It also said it's continuing to investigate but has not yet identified those responsible.

"Discrimination and harassment are not acceptable and in stark contrast to how we expect people to show up at work. We treat any reported incident with sensitivity and urgency, and are committed to providing an environment that is safe, open and inclusive," the company said in a statement.

The latest racist messages, Vocht said, show that GM still is falling short when it comes to protecting the workers and needs to increase security.

"They say they're working on it, but it's still occurring," she said. "One would think GM would take stringent, remedial measures to address this problem."

The racist notes apparently are being left by more than one person, based on the handwriting, and are being found in a few departments, not the entire plant, Vocht said.

In the federal lawsuit filed last year, workers described finding three nooses attached to the plant ceiling in March 2017 and then two more nooses in the following months.

Nazi symbols and "whites only" were written in the plant's restrooms and white workers would call black employees racist names, the lawsuit said.

It detailed a long list of other instances of racial harassment and discrimination, saying they had created a hostile work environment.BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - The Latest on the car bombing at a police academy in Colombia (all times local):

1:40 p.m.

Colombian authorities said they have identified the likely perpetrator of a car bombing on a Bogota police academy that left 9 dead and dozens more injured.

Chief Prosecutor Nestor Martinez says a man identified as Jose Aldemar Rodriguez entered the police academy around 9:30 a.m. Thursday in a Nissan pick-up loaded with 80 kilograms of explosives made of pentolite. He says the vehicle had its last official check sometime last year in the state of Arauca, along the eastern border with Venezuela.

President Ivan Duque stood alongside Martinez at the blast scene and said he would spare no effort trying to identify the masterminds of the attack, which is the bloodiest against a military or police target in the capital in more than a decade.

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In this image provided by military personnel, flames rise from a deadly car bombing at a police academy on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, in Bogota, Colombia. (AP Photo)

12:01 p.m.

Authorities say at least nine people have been killed and more than 20 injured in a car bombing at a Colombian police academy in Bogota. The attack recalls the high-profile attacks associated with bloodiest chapters of the country's guerrilla and drug conflicts.

The scene outside the General Santander police academy in southern Bogota is chaotic in the immediate aftermath of the mid-morning explosion, with ambulances and helicopters rushing to the normally tightly controlled facility.

Witnesses say they heard a loud blast that destroyed windows in adjacent apartment buildings several blocks away. Pictures on social media showed a charred vehicle surrounded by debris on the academy's leafy campus.

The police said at least nine people were killed and 22 injured. Among the dead were a Panamanian and an Ecuadorian national.LONDON (AP) - The Latest on misconduct allegations at the World Health Organization (all times local):

6:15 p.m.

The World Health Organization has confirmed it is investigating allegations of misconduct following an Associated Press story that revealed its chief ordered an internal probe to examine explosive charges made in emails to the agency's top managers.

The U.N. health agency said in a statement issued Thursday that charges of racism, sexism and corruption "are being investigated according to WHO's established procedures."

The statement says the allegations had been circulating internally and addressed by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at several staff meetings.

In audio recordings provided to the AP, Tedros thanked the author of the emails and said he had ordered an internal probe.

FILE - In this Tuesday Aug. 14, 2018 file photo, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on WHO Ebola operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has ordered an internal investigation into allegations the U.N. health agency is rife with racism, sexism and corruption, after a series of anonymous emails with the explosive charges were sent to top managers last year. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/keystone via AP, File)

Critics doubt WHO can investigate the allegations properly and have called for the investigation to be made public.

___

11 a.m.

The head of the World Health Organization has ordered an internal investigation into allegations the U.N. health agency is rife with racism, sexism and corruption, after a series of anonymous emails with the explosive charges were sent to top managers last year.

Three emails addressed to WHO directors - and obtained by the Associated Press - complained about "systematic racial discrimination" against African staffers and alleged other instances of wrongdoing, including claims that some of the money intended to fight Ebola in Congo was misspent.

Last month, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told staffers he had instructed the head of WHO's office of internal oversight to look into the charges raised by the emails.

Critics, however, doubt that WHO can effectively investigate itself and have called for the probe to be made public.GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - The owner of a dilapidated Gaza zoo is blaming stormy weather for the death of four lion cubs.

Fathi Jumaa said Thursday that he covered the cage of the day-old lions with blankets ahead of Wednesday's winter storm, but found them dead the next morning at the small zoo in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.

Most of the animals in the zoo were smuggled into Gaza from Egypt via underground tunnels a few years ago, before the Egyptian military destroyed the tunnels running beneath the border.

The wintry weather sweeping the region has made it especially hard for animals that lack proper care.

International animal care groups have carried out several evacuation missions in recent years to relocate animals and birds in poor condition to sanctuaries outside Gaza.COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Two lawsuits alleging Ohio State University ignored or failed to stop sexual misconduct decades ago by a team doctor are headed toward mediation.

Federal Judge Michael Watson on Thursday told attorneys involved to recommend potential mediators for the lawsuits brought by scores of men who say the late Dr. Richard Strauss abused them, mostly in the 1980s and 90's.

A law firm is investigating the Strauss allegations for the university. Watson says he wants to privately review the resulting report as soon as it's available.

Ohio State argues the lawsuits weren't filed within the statute of limitations and should be dismissed. The plaintiffs contend the clock on those limits didn't start until the investigation was announced last spring.

Strauss died in 2005. No one has publicly defended him.And his sermons were always on the short side and to the point, yet fully informative, he wrote in an email. His use of inflection would take the written word and make it jump off of the page. He could put you in the room at the Last Supper. He rarely dodged the tougher Gospel messages and instead he would tackle them by focusing on the positive.MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - A detained Spanish-language reporter facing deportation after he was arrested while covering an immigration rally in Tennessee was denied release Thursday, his lawyers said.

An immigration judge denied bond for Manuel Duran during a hearing in Jena, Louisiana, the Southern Poverty Law Center said in a statement.

Duran is being held in Louisiana as the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta reviews his case for asylum. Duran's lawyers claim conditions have worsened for reporters in El Salvador and he could be in danger if he returns. The appeals court has granted Duran an indefinite stay from deportation.

Duran has been in custody since he was arrested at an April rally protesting immigration policies the day before the 50th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in downtown Memphis.

Charges related to the protest were dropped, but he was picked up by immigration agents after he was released from jail and detained. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has said Duran was taken into custody because he had a pending deportation order from 2007 after failing to appear for a court hearing.

Duran has said he did not receive a notice to appear with a time and date on it.

FILE - In this April 3, 2018 file photo, Memphis police arrest Spanish-language reporter Manuel Duran during an immigration protest in Memphis, Tenn. Lawyers for Duran, facing deportation, say he has been denied release from detention. The Southern Poverty Law Center said in a news release that an immigration judge denied bond for Duran during a hearing Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, in Jena, Louisiana. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal via AP, File)

Duran is from El Salvador and he has lived in Memphis for years. He ran the Memphis Noticias online news outlet and reported on the effects of U.S. immigration policies on the Hispanic community. Duran's lawyers have said he came to the U.S. without permission in 2006 after receiving death threats related to reporting on corruption in El Salvador.

The SPLC, which has been representing Duran in his immigration case, has argued that Duran is not a flight risk. Gracie Willis, a staff attorney for the center, said Duran's lawyers were heartbroken that he was denied release to his family in Memphis.

"The prolonged detention of a journalist who has been granted a stay of removal by a higher court is unjust, unreasonable, and a waste of resources," Willis said in a statement.

Lawyers could appeal the ruling to deny bond, but a decision from the Board of Immigration Appeals could take months, Willis said in a phone interview later Thursday. ICE also could release Duran under an order of supervision that would require him to check in regularly with the agency as he fights his case. However, ICE has denied similar requests for that type of release for Duran, Willis said.PARIS (AP) - French President Emmanuel Macron says France will remain militarily involved in Syria this year regardless of the U.S. intention to withdraw its troops from the country.

In his New Year speech to the armed forces in Toulouse, in southern France, Macron said Thursday President Donald Trump's decision "must not make us deviate from our goal: eradicating Daesh." He used the Arabic acronym to refer to the Islamic State group.

He added: "Any hasty decision to withdraw would be a mistake."

France has been involved in Syria since 2015, mostly through airstrikes, as a member of the international coalition fighting IS.

Macron also expressed support for French troops fighting extremism in Africa and protecting France against terrorism at home.

He reiterated his ambition to establish a European military force for rapid intervention in case of conflict.

French President Emmanuel Macron meets paratroopers of the 11th Brigade of the Paratroopers of the Infantry before delivering his new year address to military forces at Toulouse-Francazal air base, near Toulouse, southern France, Thursday, Jan.17 Jan. 2019. (Guillaume Horcajuelo, Pool via AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron, third left, attends a presentattion as he meets paratroopers of the 11th Brigade of the Paratroopers of the Infantry before delivering his new year address to military forces at Toulouse-Francazal air base, near Toulouse, southern France, Thursday, Jan.17 Jan. 2019. (Guillaume Horcajuelo, Pool via AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron, second right, meets paratroopers of the 11th Brigade of the Paratroopers of the Infantry before delivering his new year address to military forces at Toulouse-Francazal air base, near Toulouse, southern France, Thursday, Jan.17 Jan. 2019. (Guillaume Horcajuelo, Pool via AP)TSA officials say the rate of airport screeners missing work during the partial government shutdown has stabilized - but still at unusually high numbers - just before a three-day holiday weekend that is likely to bring bigger airport crowds.

The Transportation Security Administration said Thursday that 6.1 percent of its airport screeners missed work Wednesday.

That's higher than the 5 percent absentee rate on the same day last year but the second-straight decline after the sick-out rate surged to 7.7 percent Sunday.

A TSA official said screeners this week should have received $500 bonuses and, for some, an extra day's pay, for working over the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

Meanwhile, air traffic controllers who are also working without pay lost an effort to force the government to pay them. A federal judge Tuesday rejected their union's request for an immediate temporary restraining order.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association and the Treasury Department employees' union argued that the Trump administration is violating the Constitution and federal labor law by requiring members to work without pay. Another hearing in the case is set for Jan. 31.

A TSA worker helps passengers at the Salt Lake City International Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, in Salt Lake City. The government shutdown has generated an outpouring of generosity to TSA agents and other federal employees who are working without pay. In Salt Lake City, airport officials treated workers from the TSA, FAA and Customs and Border Protection to a free barbecue lunch as a gesture to keep their spirits up during a difficult time. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

The ranks of unpaid federal workers are growing. This week, the IRS said it will recall thousands of workers to handle tax returns, and the Federal Aviation Administration plans to bring 2,200 safety inspectors back to work.

The percentage of TSA officers missing work rose steadily last week but has declined slightly this week, according to the agency.

The agency said that only 4.6 percent of passengers - or about 80,000 out of 1.79 million people screened- waited 15 minutes or longer in checkpoint lines Wednesday.

The TSA security checkpoint and ticket counter at Terminal B in Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport remained closed Thursday. The checkpoint has been closed since Sunday amid staffing issues associated with the partial government shutdown.

An airport tweet Thursday said scheduled flights were not impacted and that passengers continue to be routed to Terminal C and/or Terminal E for check-in and security.

TSA could be facing a test by Friday of its ability to process airport crowds with fewer workers. Last year, nearly 8 million people flew between Friday and Monday of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday. While that is less than the 9 million who flew around the Memorial Day holiday, it is busier than most January weekends.

TSA Administrator David Pekoske announced last weekend that the agency would pay each officer a $500 bonus and that TSA processed pay for screeners who worked Dec. 22, the first day of the shutdown. An agency spokesman said officers should have received the money by Wednesday.

Pekoske said he was able to make the payments "because of unique authorities provided TSA in law." He said he hoped they would ease the financial hardship facing many of the workers. Most of them earn between $26,000 and $35,000 a year, according to a TSA spokesman.

____

Associated Press writer Diana Heidgerd in Dallas contributed to this story.

A TSA worker helps passengers at the Salt Lake City International Airport Wednesday Jan., 16, 2019, in Salt Lake City. The government shutdown has generated an outpouring of generosity to TSA agents and other federal employees who are working without pay. In Salt Lake City, airport officials treated workers from the TSA, FAA and Customs and Border Protection to a free barbecue lunch as a gesture to keep their spirits up during a difficult time. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

A TSA worker helps passengers at the Salt Lake City International Airport, Wednesday, Jan., 16, 2019, in Salt Lake City. The government shutdown has generated an outpouring of generosity to TSA agents and other federal employees who are working without pay. In Salt Lake City, airport officials treated workers from the TSA, FAA and Customs and Border Protection to a free barbecue lunch as a gesture to keep their spirits up during a difficult time. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)BRUSSELS (AP) - Amid deep concerns about the rule of law in Hungary and Poland, European Union lawmakers want to suspend EU funds to states that interfere in their courts or fail to tackle corruption.

The lawmakers on Thursday endorsed planned new rules by a 397-158 vote with 69 abstentions. The rules must now be agreed upon with member countries.

Under the plan, the EU Commission and independent experts would identify any rule of law weaknesses and decide what penalties would be appropriate, including suspending or reducing budget payments to EU nations.

Sanctions could be imposed on those who undermine the independence of the judiciary, fail to properly investigate tax fraud or misuse EU money.

The move comes amid negotiations on the EU's long-term budget, which are expected to conclude in the fall.JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Nissan Motor Co. announced Thursday that it's cutting up to 700 contract workers at its Mississippi assembly plant, citing slowing sales for vans and Titan pickup trucks that it makes there.

The move follows Nissan's December announcement that it's cutting 1,000 jobs at two Mexican factories. Reports in May indicated the Japanese automaker would cut production by up to 20 percent in North America, citing low profits.

Thursday's move comes after the arrest in Japan of former chairman Carlos Ghosn, who led a production expansion in Nissan's largest market. The company has struggled to sell all those vehicles in recent years, turning heavily to incentives and fleet sales to soak up the excess. Spokeswoman Lloryn Love-Carter said the cuts are unrelated to Ghosn's ouster as chairman and new managers taking over at Nissan.

Nissan has 6,400 direct employees and contract workers who labor side-by-side on production lines in Canton, Mississippi, just north of Jackson. The company has long prided itself on a no-layoff pledge for its direct employees in Canton, and Love-Carter said any affected direct employees would be moved to new jobs. But that doesn't apply to contract workers, who were cut sharply during the recession.

Love-Carter said the company is offering a buyout to workers 55 or older, and that at least some layoffs over the next 60 days could also be averted as workers quit through attrition.

"We are doing all we can to mitigate the impact to the associate workforce," Love-Carter said.

FILE- In this March 19, 2018, file photo truck chassis roll down an assembly line at Nissan's Canton, Miss., assembly plant. Nissan Motor Co. announced Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, that it's cutting up to 700 contract workers at its Mississippi assembly plant, citing slowing sales for vans and Titan pickup trucks that it makes there. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, file)

The company will reduce production of NV cargo and passenger vans from two shifts to one. It will reduce production of Frontier and Titan pickups from three shifts to two. Sales of the larger Titan fell 5 percent in 2018 to about 50,000, while sales of the smaller Frontier rose 7 percent to 80,000. The Frontier will also face challenges in coming months, as Ford and Fiat Chrysler's Jeep division introduce new small trucks. Nissan plans a new-model Frontier to be made in Canton, which has a 450,000-vehicle capacity.

The company also assembles Altima sedans and Murano SUVs in Mississippi.

Love-Carter said production will fall and some jobs will be cut by attrition at Nissan's 1,600-employee engine factory in Decherd, Tennessee, but that Thursday's announcement doesn't affect its 8,400-employee Smyrna, Tennessee, factory.

Mississippi officials have pointed with pride to Nissan, the state's first major automaker. The company says it has invested $3.4 billion in Canton since it opened in 2003, and the company has received what could be more than $1 billion worth of subsidies and tax breaks over 30 years.

Nissan went through a bruising union election at the Canton plant in 2017, with workers rejecting United Auto Workers representation. At the time, 3,700 of the workers on the campus were direct Nissan employees. More than 62 percent of those direct Nissan employees voted against the union.

___

Associated Press writer Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report.

___

An earlier version of this story has been corrected to show slow sales for Nissan Titan pickups, not Frontier pickups.

FILE- In this March 19, 2018, file photo technicians make final inspections to vehicles on the assembly line at the Nissan Canton Assembly Plant, in Canton, Miss. Nissan Motor Co. announced Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, that it's cutting up to 700 contract workers at its Mississippi assembly plant, citing slowing sales for vans and Titan pickup trucks that it makes there. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)WASHINGTON (AP) - Thousands more migrant children may have been split from their families than the Trump administration previously reported, in part because officials were stepping up family separations long before the border policy that prompted international outrage last spring, a government watchdog said Thursday.

It's unclear just how many family separations occurred at the U.S.-Mexico border; immigration officials are allowed under longstanding policy to separate families under certain circumstances. Health and Human Services, the agency tasked with caring for migrant children, did not adequately track them until after a judge ruled that children must be reunited with their families, according to the report by the agency's inspector general.

Ann Maxwell, assistant inspector general for evaluations, said the number of children removed from their parents was certainly larger than the 2,737 listed by the government in court documents. Those documents chronicled separations that took place as parents were criminally prosecuted for illegally entering the country under President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" policy.

"It's certainly more," Maxwell said. "But precisely how much more is unknown."

Maxwell said investigators didn't have specific numbers, but that Health and Human Services staff had estimated the tally to be in the thousands.

Lee Gelernt, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who sued on behalf of a mother separated from her son, said the separation policy "was a cruel disaster from the start. This report reaffirms that the government never had a clear picture of how many children it ripped from their parents."

File-In this Dec. 13, 2018, file photo, teen migrants walk in line inside the Tornillo detention camp in Tornillo, Texas. Government investigators say many more migrant children may have been separated from their parents than the Trump administration has acknowledged. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton, File)

Most of the tens of thousands of children who come into government custody cross the border alone. But the report found that in late 2016, 0.3 percent of children turned over to Health and Human Services had crossed with a parent and were separated. By the summer of 2017, that percentage had grown to 3.6 percent, officials said. The watchdog did not give exact numbers, but the total number of migrant children who passed through the agency's care during the 2017 budget year was 40,810. The separated children had already been released to sponsors, who are generally parents or other close relatives.

The inspector general did not say why the children had been separated before the zero-tolerance policy. Immigration officials are allowed to take a child from a parent in certain cases - serious criminal charges against a parent, concerns over the health and welfare of a child or medical concerns. That policy has long been in place.

Katie Waldman, a spokeswoman for Homeland Security, said the report reinforced what officials have long said. "For more than a decade it was and continues to be standard for apprehended minors to be separated when the adult is not the parent or legal guardian, the child's safety is at risk" or there's a record of a "serious criminal activity by the adult," she said.

In some cases, however, Homeland Security officials said a parent had a criminal history but did not offer details on the crimes, the watchdog reported.

The number of families coming across the border has grown even as overall illegal border crossings have decreased dramatically compared with historic trends. Over the past three months, families made up the majority of Border Patrol arrests.

The Administration for Children and Families, the division under Health and Human Services that manages the care of unaccompanied minors, said it generally agreed with the findings and noted the report did not find that the agency lost track of children under its care. It also noted new policies were in place to help track newly separated children. And the court never instructed officials to determine the number of children separated before the June 26 ruling.

Last spring, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions said anyone caught crossing the border illegally would be criminally prosecuted. Families were brought into custody by U.S. Border patrol officials, then their parents taken to criminal court. If the parents were gone longer than 72 hours - the length of time Border Patrol is allowed to hold children - the children were transferred to the custody of Health and Human Services.

The practice prompted an outcry, with church groups and lawmakers calling the separations inhumane. Trump ordered an end to the separations on June 20. At the time, a federal judge who was already hearing the case of a mother separated from her son ruled that children must be reunited with their parents. Since the court order, 118 children have been separated.

Despite "considerable" effort by Health and Human Services to locate all the children placed in its care, the report said officials were still finding new cases as long as five months after the judge's order requiring reunifications.

"There is even less visibility for separated children who fall outside the court case," investigators concluded.

They said it's not clear the system put in place to track separated children is good enough. And the lack of detail from immigration authorities continues to be an issue.

The border remains a crucible for the Trump administration, with a partial government shutdown that has dragged on nearly a month over the president's demand for $5.7 billion for a border wall that congressional Democrats are unwilling to provide.

The inspector general's office was also looking into other aspects of the separations, including the health and mental well-being of the children who had been separated. It expects to have other reports on the topic.

Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he would hold the government accountable in the matter. "The Trump administration, with its unique blend of incompetence, cruelty, and disregard for basic decency, misled the American public on one of its most heinous policies to date," he said in a statement.RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Human Rights Watch is criticizing new Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro over his proposals on prisons and security.

Brazil's prison population is estimated at 841,000 - double its listed capacity. Bolsonaro has proposed "piling on" yet more prisoners as a solution to budget constraints in the penitentiary system.

The right's group's annual report released Thursday also expresses concern over Bolsonaro's proposals to encourage shoot-to-kill policing tactics. It notes that Rio de Janeiro experienced a record-high 1,444 police killings last year.

The group also criticized Bolsonaro's proposal to arm women to protect themselves from would-be abusers. It said the idea was "not a serious response" to violence against women.

Latin America's largest nation leads the world each year in total homicides.LIMA, Peru (AP) - Nasser Al-Attiyah won his third Dakar Rally crown while Toby Price won his second motorbike title in a race which featured one last twist on Thursday.

Price came to the 10th and last stage after racing almost 5,200 kilometers with only one minute's lead over Pablo Quintanilla. Then just 10 kilometers into the dune-heavy, 112-kilometer course from Pisco to Lima, Quintanilla fell off his bike and injured his foot.

The chances of winning a first Dakar evaporated instantly, but the Chilean got back on his Husqvarna to try and save a podium place. He lost 19 minutes, though, and dropped to fourth overall.

Al-Attiyah could sit back and play it safe thanks to a 51-minute lead overall. He let others race for the stage win, which went to Carlos Sainz, last year's champion.

Al-Attiyah rolled in nine minutes later in his Toyota, and won the Dakar by 46 minutes from Nani Roma, the 2014 champion.

Runner-up to Sainz last year, Al-Attiyah regained the title he earned in 2011 and 2015, when the Qatari also won with French co-driver Mathieu Baumel.

Toyota driver Nasser Al-Attiyah, of Qatar, gestures after winning the Dakar Rally at the arrival of the last stage in Pisco, Peru, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

"It's fantastic, no mistakes," Al-Attiyah said. "The good thing was that from day three we were leading and we built on our time every day until we came to the last day with a big, big lead. We felt that a 100 percent Peru rally, with no other country, there would be a lot of sand dunes, so we could do what we know we're good at."

Roma, who won two motorbike titles before switching to four wheels in 2005, was second after a busier-than-usual year of rallying to rebound from crashing out early in the Dakar last year. Sebastien Loeb, who was in title contention until electrical problems on Monday, was third at his fourth Dakar.

After Quintanilla crashed, Price won the last stage, his first of this Dakar.

Price broke the scaphoid bone in his right wrist weeks before the Dakar. The Australian thought he would endure two stages then pull out, but support and luck kept him going. The 2016 champion went for broke on Tuesday to take the overall lead.

"The pain and torture has been worth it," Price said. "(The pain) feels like there are about five people driving a knife in my wrist. It's not very comfortable, it's not very enjoyable.

"It's very crazy to sit here and say that we won the Dakar Rally with no stage victories until today. It's really crazy. I'm over the moon."

Defending champion Matthias Walkner, only six minutes behind overall, threatened early but faded on the stage and arrived two minutes behind in third.

Walkner was second overall, nine minutes behind, and Sam Sunderland was third, 13 minutes down.

Sunderland was penalized an hour before the stage on Wednesday for deliberately causing an electrical fault in his navigation tracker on Tuesday so he wouldn't have to open the way. But the Briton won his appeal to finish only his second Dakar in six attempts. The other was winning in 2017.

The top three rode KTMs, which won an 18th successive motorbike class.

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More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Driver Nasser Al-Attiyah, of Qatar, right, and co-driver Matthieu Baumel, of France, left celebrate with Toyota team manager Glyn Hall winning the Dakar Rally at the arrival of the last stage in Pisco, Peru, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Toyota car driver Nasser Al-Attiyah, of Qatar, celebrates winning the Dakar Rally at the arrival of the last stage in Pisco, Peru, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Toby Price of Australia, who took first on his KTM motorbike, left, celebrates with Matthias Walkner of Austria who took second on his KTM motorbike, after their arrival in the last stage of the Dakar Rally in Pisco, Peru, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Toby Price of Australia, who took first on his KTM motorbike, left, celebrates with Matthias Walkner of Austria who took second on his KTM motorbike, after their arrival in the last stage of the Dakar Rally in Pisco, Peru, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Mini car driver Nani Roma, of Spain, celebrates finishing second at the arrival of the last stage of the Dakar Rally in Pisco, Peru, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the Trump administration's missile defense strategy (all times local):

11:40 a.m.

President Donald Trump is calling for an expanded missile defense program to better protect the United States.

During an appearance at the Pentagon, he says "our goal is simple: that we can detect and destroy" any incoming missile.

Part of the new strategy is to create a level of sensors in space.

The president says that America's adversaries are "increasing their lethal strike capabilities" and that his "first duty is defense of our country."

FILE - This Dec. 10, 2018, file photo, provided by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA),shows the launch of the U.S. military's land-based Aegis missile defense testing system, that later intercepted an intermediate range ballistic missile, from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. The Trump administration will roll out a new strategy Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, for a more aggressive space-based missile defense system to protect against existing threats from North Korea and Iran and counter advanced weapon systems being developed by Russia and China. (Mark Wright/Missile Defense Agency via AP)

The administration's Missile Defense Review is the first such program since 2010. The strategy pushes for studies. No testing is mandated, and no final decisions have been made.

The goal is to better defend the U.S. against potential adversaries who are developing and fielding a much more expansive range of advanced offensive missiles.

___

12:10 a.m.

The Trump administration is calling for expanding defense technologies in space to better protect the U.S.

A new strategy says a layer of sensors in space must quickly detect, track and ultimately defeat incoming missiles.

Details about the administration's Missile Defense Review are expected to be released during President Donald Trump's visit to the Pentagon. It's the first such review since 2010.

The strategy pushes for studies. No testing is mandated, and no final decisions have been made.

The goal is to better defend the U.S. against potential adversaries who are developing and fielding a much more expansive range of advanced offensive missiles.NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Google plans to buy power from Tennessee and Alabama solar farms under a deal with the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Google announced Wednesday that it will buy 413 megawatts of output from 1.6 million solar panels at several new Tennessee and Alabama solar farms the combined size of 65,000 home rooftop systems.

The two largest will be able to produce about 150 megawatts each in Hollywood, Alabama, and Yum Yum, Tennessee.

Google is building data centers in Clarksville, Tennessee, and Jackson County, Alabama. The company plans to match 72 percent of the facilities' hourly electricity use with carbon-free sources, supporting its goal of sourcing carbon-free electricity around the clock.

TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said the deal shows the federal utility's renewable energy efforts help it attract and retain top-tier companies.In a dramatic moment when Maryland legislators were considering the ban last year, then-Del. Meagan Simonaire told colleagues her mother and father  himself a state senator who had spoken in favor of keeping the practice legal  had suggested to her when she was in her early 20s that she try the therapy to fix her bisexuality. Sen. Bryan Simonaire, an Anne Arundel Republican, later said he and his wife wanted their daughter to seek Christian counseling, not conversion therapy.ROME (AP) - The first-ever scientific study of the oldest known drawing by Leonardo da Vinci has found that he added details to an earlier sketch of a countryside landscape, said the Uffizi Galleries, whose collections include the fragile work.

The Galleries said the 1473 "Landscape Drawing for Santa Maria della Neve" was taken on Thursday to a Florence restoration laboratory for study, which began right away with microscopic examination.

Aided by sophisticated, non-invasive instruments, such as infrared light, the experts on Thursday scrutinized the front of the drawing. Later they will study the back, where there is a sketch of a human figure, the prestigious Florence art museum said in a statement.

Art historian Cecilia Frosinini, who is supervising the scientific study, said that initial examination showed that Leonardo worked in two different phases.

"It's possible that Leonardo went back to the drawing in a second moment, maybe right after his studies of geology and rocks," she said.

The drawing, dated Aug. 5, 1473, in the upper left corner, depicts a bucolic scene, with a castle on a hill in the background and a valley dominating the design's center.

In this photo provided by the Opera Laboratori on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, a drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci is observed after being removed from a briefcase which carried it from the Uffizi Gallery to the Opificio delle Pietre Dure where it will undergo scientific analysis, in Florence, Italy. First-ever scientific study of a Leonardo drawing done in his youth shows the artist added details to earlier sketch. The Uffizi Galleries said that 1473 "Landscape Drawing for Santa Maria della Neve" was taken on Thursday to a Florence restoration for scientific analyses. (Opera Laboratori via AP)

Leonardo is celebrated as a Renaissance genius who excelled as an artist and who had creative scientific curiosity as well.

Some have hypothesized that the drawing depicted an actual place in Leonardo's native Tuscany, or as Uffizi director Eike Schmidt said, "was a kind of 'photograph' of this or that valley, of these or those mountains."

But the discovery that Leonardo worked on the drawing in two distinct phases "tilts the scale toward interpretations that underline the imaginative aspect and the character of intellectual speculation by the artist," Schmidt said in a statement.

The Uffizi only occasionally displays the work, Leonardo's earliest known drawing, because it is so fragile. But on April 15 it will go on display for five weeks in Vinci, the artist's hometown, as Italy marks the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death.

The landscape, done when he was 21, is Leonardo's earliest known dated drawing. Until recently, it had also long been considered his earliest known dated artwork.

Then, in 2017, a painted terracotta tile was attributed to Leonardo. Painted when he was 19, it depicts the Archangel Gabriel and is dated 1471.

___

Frances D'Emilio is on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/fdemilioCHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Authorities believe a suspect in a pair of armed robberies was armed with a knife when a police officer shot and killed him in the parking lot of a North Carolina shopping center.

Lt. Brad Koch of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said Thursday that investigators believe 32-year-old Michael Daniel Kelley brandished a knife before Officer Timothy Kiefer fatally shot him Wednesday.

A department statement says Kiefer shot Kelley after the suspect ran toward him and ignored the officer's commands. The statement also says investigators recovered a knife at the scene of the shooting.

Kiefer is a dog handler and a 12-year veteran of the department. He has been placed on administrative leave, a standard procedure for police shootings.

Koch says the officer is white, and so was Kelley.ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Greece's government is to print tens of thousands of copies of an agreement to normalize relations with Macedonia, to inform the public ahead of a parliamentary debate on ratifying the deal.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' office said Thursday the document will be distributed with Sunday newspapers so that "every last Greek" can read up on the agreement.

Tsipras very narrowly won a confidence vote Wednesday after his right-wing partner left the governing coalition to protest the agreement.

Greeks are deeply divided over the deal, under which Macedonia will be renamed North Macedonia and Greece will remove its objections to its neighbor joining NATO and, eventually, the European Union.

A nationwide poll this week found 70 percent of respondents oppose the agreement. The poll gave a maximum 3.4 percent error margin.GENOA TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - More than 200 items belonging to "Little House on the Prairie" star Melissa Gilbert and her husband, Emmy-winning actor Timothy Busfield, have been purchased in an estate sale in Michigan.

Items sold in the American Eagle Auction & Appraisal Company online auction this month included a red wedding dress, signed memorabilia and awards Gilbert received, The Livingston Daily Press & Argus reported.

Interest in the sale exceeded expectations, said auction house owner Kenny Lindsay. The online auction catalog received about 58,000 views and more than 300 bids were placed.

"The amount of exposure the auction got was off the charts," Lindsay said, though he declined to disclose how much money was raised during the auction.

Lindsay said one standout item was a photograph signed by the cast of "Little House on the Prairie" that the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Minnesota purchased for $1,200.

"Another cool piece was sheet music signed by composer David Rose, who wrote music and the theme song for 'Little House on the Prairie' ... it went for $1,100," Lindsay said.

In this Monday, Jan. 14, 2019 photo, Stacy Luoma, right, holds up the hand-made roses and butterflies knit top nightgown she bid on and won in the Gilbert/Busfield estate auction, against her grandmother Arbilla Moore, in Genoa Township. (Gillis Benedict/Livingston County Daily Press & Argus via AP)

Redford resident Stacy Luoma was one of the bidders. The 45-year-old took home a variety of items, including a nightgown, dresser, quilts and boots. Luoma said she grew up watching Gilbert, who is one of her favorite actresses.

"You're buying the story to go with it," Luoma said. "I don't think I would have bought as much as I did if it weren't them (Gilbert and Busfield)."

Gilbert and Busfield had been living in Livingston County since 2013, but relocated this year to New York City.

___

Information from: Livingston Daily Press & Argus, http://www.livingstondaily.com

In this Monday, Jan. 14, 2019 photo, Kenny Lindsay, owner/auctioneer of Kenny Lindsay's American Eagle Auctions and Appraisals Co., holds an original cast and crew photo from the production of the television show, "Little House on the Prairie," in Genoa Township, Mich. The photo sold for $1200 to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum from the estate of Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield. (Gillis Benedict/Livingston County Daily Press & Argus via AP)CHICAGO (AP) - News coverage of last month's 40th anniversary of serial killer John Wayne Gacy's arrest has meant dozens of more tips for Illinois investigators trying to identify victims.

The Cook County sheriff's lead investigator tells the Chicago Sun-Times that about 10 of the 25 tips he's received are worth pursuing. Gacy was convicted of killing 33 young men and executed in 1994, but Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart reopened the case in 2011 .

The reopened investigation has so far resulted in two bodies being identified. Six others remain nameless.

The most recent identification was 16-year-old Jimmy Haakenson, whose body was among dozens found in a crawl space of Gacy's Chicago-area home in 1978. The teen was identified in 2017 after his family submitted DNA for testing and Dart's office received a match.

___

Information from: Chicago Sun-Times, http://chicago.suntimes.com/WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of furloughed federal employees seeking unemployment benefits jumped in the first two weeks of the shutdown, topping 10,000 during the week of Jan. 5.

The Labor Department said Thursday that is double the number of federal workers who sought aid in the previous week. Typically fewer than a thousand former federal employees apply for jobless benefits each week.

Federal employees who aren't working during the partial government shutdown are eligible to claim unemployment aid, while those working without pay are not, the Labor Department has said. Yet even those sent home will have to repay the unemployment aid if they receive back pay once the shutdown ends.

The number of Americans overall who sought unemployment benefits last week declined 3,000 to 213,000, the government said. That figure doesn't include federal beneficiaries, who are tracked in a separate category. Applications by federal workers are reported with a one-week delay.

More furloughed federal workers could apply for unemployment benefits in the weeks ahead. The Labor Department will release data for the week ending Jan. 12, the third week of the shutdown, next week.

The shutdown that began Dec. 22 caused roughly 420,000 federal employees to work without pay. Another 380,000 are not at work and not being paid. Those numbers have shifted a bit in recent days as the IRS and some other agencies have called more employees back to work.

FILE- In this Jan. 8, 2019, file photo dawn arrives at the Capitol in Washington. On Thursday, Jan. 17, the Labor Department reports on the number of people who sought unemployment benefits last week, a figure likely to be inflated by applications from federal employees who aren't working because of the partial government shutdown. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Applications rose last week in states with a large number of federal contractors, many of whom are also working without pay. In Washington D.C., unemployment claims rose to 2,158 from 1,190, while in Virginia they jumped to 5,966 from 3,497 and in Maryland to 4,949 from 4,467.

The overall data suggests the job market remains healthy, with few layoffs. Employers added a strong 312,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate stood at a very low 3.9 percent.WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the partial government shutdown (all times local):

9:50 p.m.

President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are both flexing their political powers as the negotiations to end the monthlong partial government shutdown remain stalled.

Trump issued a letter to Pelosi on Thursday, just before she and other lawmakers were set to depart on the previously undisclosed trip to Afghanistan and Brussels. Trump belittled the trip as a "public relations event" and said it would be best if Pelosi remained in Washington to negotiate to reopen the government.

Pelosi called on Trump the day before to postpone his Jan. 29 State of the Union address due to the shutdown.

Denying military aircraft to a senior lawmaker is very rare, and lawmakers were caught off-guard.

President Donald Trump speaks about American missile defense doctrine, Thursday, Jan 17, 2019, at the Pentagon. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

__

6:20 p.m.

President Donald Trump has canceled the U.S. delegation's trip later this month to an economic forum in Davos, Switzerland.

It was the latest development in Thursday's back-and-forth over whether lawmakers and Trump administration officials should travel during the partial government shutdown.

Earlier, Trump postponed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Afghanistan. That was in response to Pelosi asking Trump to postpone his State of the Union address to the nation - set for Jan. 29 - until the government reopens.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that out of consideration for the 800,000 federal workers not getting paid, the president has nixed his delegation's trip to the World Economic Forum. Trump had earlier pulled out of attending the forum because of the shutdown.

__

4:50 p.m.

The chairman of the House intelligence committee says that President Donald Trump's decision to reveal House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Brussels and Afghanistan is "completely and utterly irresponsible in every way."

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff says he won't comment on whether the trip is still on. Trump announced Thursday afternoon that he was denying Pelosi an aircraft to visit troops abroad and reassure NATO allies. That move came after Pelosi suggested delaying his State of the Union address.

Schiff says Trump is acting "like he's in the fifth grade." The California Democrat said that "we're determined our oversight will continue no matter what the president's action are."

Schiff said the congressional delegations had anticipated defense and intelligence briefings in Afghanistan.

___

3:45 p.m.

A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the trip that President Donald Trump is canceling was intended to express appreciation to U.S. troops and reaffirm the United States "ironclad commitment" to the NATO alliance.

Trump wrote Pelosi on Thursday and said he was denying military aircraft for a trip to Egypt, Brussels and Afghanistan amid the government shutdown. The notice came after Pelosi attempted on Wednesday to delay Trump's State of Union address.

Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill tweeted that the previously unannounced trip was to Afghanistan, including a stop in Brussels. He said it did not include a stop in Egypt.

Hammill said Pelosi was to meet with top NATO commanders and troops and "obtain critical national security & intelligence briefings from those on the front lines."

___

3:25 p.m.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham says President Donald Trump's decision to deny House Speaker Nancy Pelosi aircraft for her upcoming trip abroad is "inappropriate."

The Republican and frequent Trump ally also criticized Pelosi for her attempt to delay Trump's State of Union address amid their government shutdown clash. He called that "blatantly political."

Graham said "one sophomoric response does not deserve another."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer criticized Trump's decision, calling it "petty," ''small" and "vindictive." The Maryland Democrat said it was "unbecoming of the president of the United States."

In turn, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy blasted Pelosi, asking why she would leave the country when the government is shut down.

McCarthy said to Pelosi: "You're speaker of the house."

___

3 p.m.

The House has withdrawn passage of a bill to reopen shuttered portions of the government and will vote again on the measure next week.

The Democratic-controlled House passed the bill by voice vote on Thursday, but Republicans objected, saying they wanted a roll call tally.

Democratic Rep. G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina, who was presiding at the time, said he did not hear any Republicans request a roll call vote.

After a flurry of objections from both sides, the House briefly adjourned while party leaders huddled. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland then requested that the vote be withdrawn, with a new vote scheduled for Wednesday.

The bill would reopen the government through Feb. 28, but appears doomed in the GOP-controlled Senate and faces a veto promise from President Donald Trump.

___

2:30 p.m.

President Donald Trump is postponing what he's calling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's "seven-day excursion" to Egypt, Afghanistan and Brussels in apparent payback for asking him to reschedule his State of the Union speech because of the partial government shutdown.

Trump wrote a letter to Pelosi on Thursday informing her that her trip had been postponed and would be rescheduled after the shutdown.

He called Pelosi's trip a "public relations event."

He says she should stay in Washington to negotiate ways to end the shutdown, which is at a stalemate over federal funding for his desired border wall. Trump says that if she wants to make her trip by flying commercial that would "certainly be your prerogative."

___

1:10 p.m.

The State Department is telling all U.S. diplomats in Washington and at embassies abroad to return to work starting next week and that they will be paid despite the ongoing government shutdown.

In a notice to staff, the department said it had found money to pay its employees beginning Monday for the next two-week pay period. They will not be paid for time worked since the shutdown began until it ends, according to the notice, which was posted to the department's website and sent to employees. It was not immediately clear where the money was found, but the department said it had taken steps to "make available additional funds to pay the salaries of its employees, including those affected by the current lapse."

The department said it was taking the step because it had become clear that the lapse in funding is harming efforts "to address the myriad critical issues requiring U.S. leadership around the globe and to fulfill our commitments to the American people." It added that the department's leadership was "deeply concerned" about the financial hardships its employees are facing.

___

1 p.m.

The Democratic-led House has again passed a bill to reopen the shuttered portions of the government, but like its predecessors the measure appears doomed in the GOP-controlled Senate and faces a veto promise from President Donald Trump.

The House passed the measure by voice vote. Thursday's bill would reopen the government through Feb. 28.

It's the latest in a series of attempts to reopen the government, but Trump and his GOP allies refuse to go along without funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, insist on reopening the government before negotiating the budget for border security.

Democrats rejected a GOP attempt that would have restored back pay for some 800,000 federal workers who missed a paycheck last week while keeping the government closed going forward.

___

11:55 a.m.

President Donald Trump says the Democratic Party has been "hijacked" by those opposed to his plan for a U.S.-Mexico border wall as he seeks to turn up pressure on his political rivals over an ongoing partial government shutdown.

Trump said at the Pentagon on Thursday the government remains shut down because congressional Democrats refuse to approve border security. He claims without evidence that Democrats in the House and the Senate are willing to negotiate with him to make a deal to reopen the government but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (puh-LOH'-see) "will not let them negotiate."

Pelosi is refusing money for the wall, which she views as ineffective and immoral. Democrats have been largely unified in opposition to the wall, which Trump is insisting on funding as a condition of reopening the government.

Democrats say they'll discuss border security once the government reopens.

The shutdown is the longest ever, entering its 27th day Thursday.

___

11:50 a.m.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn't saying what she'll do if President Donald Trump insists on delivering a State of the Union address during the partial government shutdown.

The California Democrat said Thursday she's received no response to her letter suggesting Trump postpone the address while thousands of federal workers are unpaid. Asked whether she'd allow the speech to go forward Jan. 29 if Trump insists on delivering it, Pelosi replied, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Pelosi says the federal employees required to secure the event in the House of Representatives should be paid for the work.

The U.S. Constitution says the president "shall from time to time" deliver a state of the union address to Congress.

The shutdown is the longest ever, entering its 27th day Thursday. Trump wants $5.7 billion to help fund a U.S.-Mexico border wall, which Democrats oppose.

___

10:50 a.m.

The number of furloughed federal employees seeking unemployment benefits jumped in the first two weeks of the partial government shutdown and topped 10,000 during the week of Jan. 5.

The Labor Department says that's double the number of federal workers who sought aid in the previous week. Typically, fewer than 1,000 former federal employees apply for jobless benefits each week.

The department says federal employees who aren't working during the partial government shutdown are eligible to claim unemployment aid. But those who are working without pay are not.

Even those sent home will have to repay the unemployment aid if they get back pay once the shutdown ends.

The shutdown began Dec. 22 and is the longest ever, entering its 27th day Thursday.

___

7:30 a.m.

Officials say the rate of airport screeners missing work during the partial government shutdown has stabilized just days before the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, which is likely to mean bigger airport crowds.

The Transportation Security Administration says 6.1 percent of its airport screeners missed work Wednesday. That compares with 5 percent on the same day last year. The sick-out rate was 7.7 percent on Sunday.

An agency official says screeners this week should have received $500 bonuses and, for some, an extra day's pay, for working over the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

___

1:10 a.m.

The government shutdown is taking a toll on a wildfire fight that hasn't even started yet.

Wildfire training courses are being canceled, piles of dead trees are left untended in federal forests and controlled burns to thin fire-prone forests aren't happening.

The winter months are critical for fire managers. They use it to prepare for the next onslaught of flames. But much of that work has ground to a halt on federal land because of job furloughs.

Wildfire managers are worried about hiring, training and forest management as the shutdown drags into a fourth week.

While the furloughs only affect federal employees, the collaborative nature of wildland firefighting means the pain of the shutdown is having a ripple effect.

___

12:15 a.m.

President Donald Trump's Republican allies say it's a political ploy - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's request that he postpone his planned State of the Union address, which is set for Jan. 29.

Pelosi says the Secret Service and the Homeland Security Department are entangled in the shutdown and she's suggesting in a letter to Trump that he should address Congress another time.

Neither Trump nor the White House has responded to the suggestion.

A top House Republican, Louisiana's Steve Scalise (skuh-LEES'), tweets that Democrats are interested only in obstruction.

Trump could delay the address or deliver it in writing as was the norm before the 20th century.

The tradition for generations has called for a nationally broadcast address that provides the president a massive audience.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)PARIS (AP) - The Paris prosecutor's office says a former security aide to French President Emmanuel Macron has been taken into police custody in an investigation of possible misuse of diplomatic passports.

The prosecutor's office said Thursday that its original investigation of Alexandre Benalla's passport use was extended to an alleged forgery involving an official document. The French presidency flagged the document.

Benalla was fired in July 2018 following revelations he had received a two-week suspension for beating a protester at a May Day rally. French authorities have said he was asked to surrender his diplomatic passports when he was sacked.

Benalla acknowledged in a recent interview to French newspaper Journal du Dimanchehe that he used them to travel for his personal convenience after his firing.

The beating revelations caused Macron's first major presidential crisis.

FILE - In this Sept.19, 2018 file photo, former President Macron's security aide Alexandre Benalla appears before the French Senate Laws Commission prior to his hearing, in Paris. The Paris prosecutor office said Thursday Jan.17, 2019 a former security aide to French President Emmanuel Macron was in police custody Thursday in the investigation on the possible misuse of diplomatic passports. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)PHOENIX (AP) - The Latest on a dead newborn found at an Amazon facility (all times local):

8:50 a.m.

Phoenix police say investigators have located and contacted the mother of a newborn baby girl found dead in a women's restroom inside an Amazon distribution center.

A police statement doesn't say whether the woman of the baby discovered Wednesday night is an Amazon employee and that her identity is being withheld.

The statement issued Thursday said the police investigation will continue in consultation with the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office.

The massive distribution center on the city's southwest side is one of several Amazon sites in metro Phoenix.

___

6:30 a.m.

Phoenix police say a newborn baby was found dead in a women's restroom inside an Amazon distribution center.

Sgt. Vince Lewis says the baby was found Wednesday evening and that Phoenix firefighters responded and confirmed that the baby was deceased.

Lewis says a death investigation is underway.

Amazon says in a statement it's working with police to support their investigation and calling the incident "terribly sad and tragic."

The massive distribution center on the city's southwest side is one of several Amazon sites in metro Phoenix.

The gender of the baby was not disclosed.MEXICO CITY (AP) - The lower house of Mexico's Congress has passed a measure creating a National Guard, though it was quickly criticized by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for weakening controversial proposals to give the military a greater formal role in policing.

Lopez Obrador said Thursday he hopes the Senate will modify it to restore a greater role for the armed forces.

"It's going to end up as if it were a replay of the Federal Police, which we already know didn't work," Lopez Obrador said the morning after the measure passed.

He called on the Senate to reinsert language that puts the military in charge of the guard's training and clearly defines the armed forces' ability to intervene in public security matters. "I am not satisfied," he said.

Lopez Obrador originally proposed a National Guard under military command as the central feature of his security strategy. Last week, his administration bowed to concerns by saying the force would be placed under civilian command.

Mexico's military has been spearheading the drug war for years. Citizens have grown accustomed to seeing soldiers performing more of a policing role, and generally see them as more trustworthy than police. However, the military has faced a number of allegations of human rights violations arising from the policing role, from extrajudicial killings to torture.

United Nations human rights officials have called on Mexico for years to send the military back to its barracks.

Many saw Lopez Obrador's announcement of the new security force as abandoning any hope of creating an effective civilian police force.

The military would hardly be absent in what passed Wednesday though. The National Guard would initially include military police officers from the Army and Navy as well as Federal Police.

The bill passed Wednesday also gives the armed forces representation on the board overseeing the National Guard, though it would legally be considered a police force.

Creating the National Guard requires a constitutional reform, so passage by the Senate would then require approval by the majority of Mexico's state legislatures.On Twitter, the Democrats in the House of Delegates wrote: We are happy Gov. Hogan has included in his budget much of what the legislature has required him to fund. We will continue to advance our Caucus priorities and make changes needed to strengthen MDs middle class families.HOUSTON (AP) - Houston police say a 9-year-old child was fatally shot by a 9-year-old cousin while playing with a gun the children found in a local apartment.

Police Lt. Larry Crowson says the Wednesday shooting was a "tragic accident." He says the cousin cannot be charged because state law does not allow charges for anyone younger than 10.

Police say investigators are trying to determine how the children got the gun. Police say the Harris County district attorney will decide whether parents or guardians face charges in the shooting.

The children's names haven't been released.AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - The Latest on developments in Yemen (all times local):

8:05 p.m.

The U.N. spokesman says the head of its Yemen mission charged with monitoring a cease-fire and withdrawal of rival forces from Hodeida was leaving a meeting with Yemeni government representatives when a U.N.-marked armored vehicle in his convoy was hit with one round of small arms fire.

Stephane Dujarric told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York that "we do not have information as to the source of the fire."

He said retired Dutch Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert was not in the vehicle that was hit and he and his team returned to their base safely.

Dujarric said Cammaert "has reiterated his appeal for calm and the strengthening of the cease-fire by all sides in the wider interests of all the people of Yemen."

"I can assure you that general Cammaert and his team are supplied with the strongest possible security measures the U.N. can supply," Dujarric said. "But it is important to add that all the parties in Yemen are also responsible for the safety of all U.N. personnel in Yemen."

He added: "We are dealing with a highly volatile environment in Hodeida."

___

5:25 p.m.

The U.N. spokesman says the head of the U.N. mission charged with monitoring a cease-fire and the withdrawal of rival forces from Yemen's key port of Hodeida and his team are safe following a reported shooting incident.

Stephane Dujarric said the United Nations is seeking details of Thursday's incident involving retired Dutch Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert and his staff.

Reports said it took place while Cammaert was in a vehicle heading to a meeting in Hodeida.

Cammaert has been in Hodeida since late December trying to get the government and Houthi Shiite rebels to strengthen a cease-fire agreed to in Stockholm on Dec. 13 and agree to arrangements for the deployment of their forces.

___

12:05 p.m.

Representatives of Yemen's warring sides are meeting for a second day in the Jordanian capital for talks on implementing a prisoner exchange agreed to in Sweden last month.

The office of U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths has described the two-day meeting between the Houthi rebels and the internationally recognized government as a "technical one." The International Committee of the Red Cross is also attending, and a closing statement is expected later on Thursday.

Yemen plunged into civil war in 2014, when the rebels captured the country's capital, Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition intervened a year later, fighting alongside government troops.

In Sweden in December, the two sides agreed to confidence-building measures, including an exchange of thousands of prisoners. But the implementation of that deal has been slow and marred by violence.BEIRUT (AP) - Syrian activists are reporting intense airstrikes on the last area held by the Islamic State group in the country's east where the extremists' control has been shrinking over the past weeks.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday the airstrikes hit the 15 square kilometers (5.8 square miles) controlled by IS in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour after U.S.-backed Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces scored gains in recent weeks.

Europe-based activist Omar Abu Layla of the DeirEzzor 24 monitoring group confirmed intense airstrikes are ongoing, adding that they were triggered by a counter-offensive carried out by IS during a strong fog.

The airstrikes came a day after a suicide attack carried by IS insurgents killed 19 people, including four Americans, in the northern town of Manbij.SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) - The man who killed a Louisiana police officer as she left for work was her boyfriend and the father of her child, authorities said.

At a news conference Wednesday, Shreveport Police Chief Ben Raymond said Treveon Anderson, 26, shot and killed Officer Chateri Payne on Jan. 9.

"We believe Anderson shot and killed her, then concocted the false narrative of her being murdered by an unknown suspect," Raymond told news outlets.

Anderson's cousin, Lawrence Pierre, 22, identified him as the shooter and told police where to find the handgun used to kill Payne outside her home. Anderson, Pierre and another cousin, Glenn Frierson, 38, were arrested Tuesday.

Pierre, a Caddo Parish Juvenile Court clerk, told officers he and Frierson were present during the shooting and left afterward. Pierre hid the .40-caliber handgun, which was not Payne's service weapon.

The couple's 2-year-old daughter was inside their home during the shooting, but Raymond doesn't believe she witnessed it.

Police have not released a motive.

All three men are currently charged with second-degree murder.

"It is still an ongoing investigation," Raymond said. "Just because we make arrests doesn't mean we are done at this point. And certainly, the district attorney's office, when reviewing the case, always has the option of amending charges."

Funeral services for Payne will be held this weekend. The officer graduated from Shreveport's police academy Nov. 16.NEW DELHI (AP) - An Indian court sentenced a popular and flamboyant spiritual guru and three followers to life in prison on Thursday in the murder 16 years ago of a journalist who published a letter about the guru's alleged sexual exploitation of women.

The guru, who calls himself Dr. Saint Gurmeet Singh Ram Rahim Insan, received the sentence through a video link from a prison where he is serving a 20-year sentence in a separate case involving the raping of two female followers.

Judge Jagdeep Singh convicted the guru and his three followers on murder charges last Friday. The followers were present in the court in the northern Indian town of Panchkula.

"This is the triumph of truth, I feel relieved today. The prosecution had demanded capital punishment but we're satisfied with the punishment," the Indian Express newspaper quoted Anshul Chhatrapati, the son of the slain journalist, as saying.

The guru is imprisoned in the northern India town of Rohtak after being sentenced last August in the rape case. His conviction sparked violent protests by his followers that left at least 38 people dead and hundreds injured in Panchkula.

Before his imprisonment he played himself in biopics and courted powerful politicians. He lived with tens of thousands of his followers on a sprawling 400-hectare (1,000-acre) ashram in Haryana state.PHOENIX (AP) - A newborn baby girl was found dead in a women's restroom inside an Amazon distribution center and investigators have located and spoken with the mother, Phoenix police said Thursday.

Sgt. Vince Lewis said police were not commenting on whether the mother is an Amazon employee to prevent her identity from being revealed. No charges have been filed.

Firefighters confirmed that the baby was dead and that the investigation is continuing in consultation with the Maricopa County medical examiner's office, a police statement said.

Amazon said in a statement that the company is working with police to support the investigation and called the incident "terribly sad and tragic."

The company's massive distribution center on the city's southwest side is one of several Amazon sites in metro Phoenix.

Under Arizona law, mothers can anonymously leave unharmed newborns at designated "safe haven" locations.

They include hospitals, ambulances, churches, on-duty fire stations and adoption agencies. The baby must be under 72 hours old and given to a person.

The law, which was passed in 2001, also states the mothers who follow those instructions will not face prosecution.BEIRUT (AP) - Lebanon's army intelligence have detained a man on suspicion that he crossed into Lebanon from Israel, a military official said Thursday. The country's state news agency said the detainee is a U.S. citizen.

Lebanon and Israel are in a state of war and each bans its citizens from visiting the other country. There are no border crossings at the tightly-controlled frontier.

The military official, who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, gave no further details saying the man is being questioned and once they have information the army will release a statement.

State-run National News Agency said the man who was detained is a U.S. citizen adding that he was detained in the southern port-city of Tyre where he had been staying since Tuesday. It added that the man is being questioned under the supervision of judicial authorities.

The U.S. Embassy said in a statement: "We've seen media reports of the arrest of a U.S. citizen. We take our obligation to assist U.S. citizens abroad seriously and stand ready to provide all appropriate consular services."

It added that due to privacy considerations, "we have no further comment."

Suspicion about someone crossing the tightly guarded border known as the Blue Line began to surface on Tuesday.

The Israeli military said: "Israeli army troops identified a break in the fence and signs that point to the suspicion of a person crossing the border from Israel into Lebanon. The incident is under investigation."

___

Associated Press writer Ilan Ben Zion contributed to this report from Jerusalem.DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Another Saudi woman has turned to social media for protection from her father, just days after Canada granted refuge to Rahaf al-Qunun, the 18-year-old Saudi who fled her family.

Identified only as Nojoud al-Mandeel on Twitter, her case differs from that of al-Qunun. She has not fled the kingdom, has not revealed her face and has only made her pleas for help on Twitter in Arabic.

While their circumstances are different, the claims of abuse by the two women mirror those of other female Saudi runaways who have used social media to publicize their escapes.

There has been speculation that al-Qunun's successful getaway will inspire others to copy her. However, powerful deterrents remain in place. If caught, runaways face possible death at the hands of relatives for purportedly shaming the family.

Saudi women fleeing their families challenge a system that grants men guardianship over women's lives. This guardianship system starts in the home, where women must obey fathers, husbands and brothers. Outside the home, it is applied to citizens, often referred to as sons and daughters by Saudi rulers who demand obedience.

Hala Aldosari, a Saudi scholar and activist, said the male guardianship system replicates the ruling family's model of governance, which demands full obedience to the king, who holds absolute power in decision-making.

FILE - In this Jan. 15, 2019, file photo, Rahaf al-Qunun makes a public statement in Toronto. Another Saudi woman has turned to social media for protection from her father just days after Canada granted refuge to Rahaf al-Qunun, the 18-year-old Saudi who fled her family. (Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

"This is why the state is keen to maintain the authority of male citizens over women to ensure their allegiance," she said, adding that this "hierarchical system of domination" necessitates "keeping women in line."

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who's introduced social reforms loosening restrictions on women, told The Atlantic that doing away with guardianship laws has to be done in a way that does not harm families and the culture. He said abolishing these laws would create problems for families that don't want to give freedom to their daughters.

The issue of guardianship is extremely sensitive in the kingdom, where conservative families view what they consider the protection of women as a man's duty.

More than a dozen women's rights activists have been detained, many since May, after they campaigned against the guardianship system. Some had also wanted to create alternative shelters for women runaways.

Regardless of their age, women in Saudi Arabia must have the consent of a male relative to obtain a passport, travel or marry. In the past, a travel permit was a paper document issued by the Interior Ministry and signed by a male relative.

Today, Saudi men download a government mobile app that notifies them of a woman's travel. Through the app, men can grant or deny a woman permission to travel. Some young women who have fled the country had managed to access their father's phone, change the setting and disable its notifications.

In a statement read to reporters in Canada on Tuesday, al-Qunun said she wants to be independent, travel and make her own decisions.

"I am one of the lucky ones," she said. "I know there are unlucky women who disappeared after trying to escape or who could not change their reality."

That's especially true for women from conservative tribal families, like al-Qunun's.

Al-Qunun, one of 10 children, posted online that her father, Mohammed Mutliq al-Qunun, is the governor of the city of al-Sulaimi in the hilly hinterland of Ha'il - a province where nearly all women cover their face in black veils and wear loose black robes, or abayas, in public. The family belongs to the influential Shammar tribe, which extends to Iraq, Syria and other parts of the Middle East. Her father has considerable clout as a prominent town official and member of a powerful tribe.

Al-Qunun, who barricaded herself in an airport hotel room in Thailand last week to avoid deportation, said she was abused by a brother and locked in her room for months for cutting her hair short. She said she would have been killed if sent back to her family.

According to government statistics, at least 577 Saudi women tried to flee their homes inside the country in 2015, though the actual number is likely higher. There are no statistics on attempted or successful escapes abroad.

Shahad al-Mohaimeed, 19, who fled abuse and an ultraconservative family in Saudi Arabia two years ago, said fear is a powerful deterrent.

"When a Saudi girl decides to flee, it means she's decided to put her life on the line and take a very, very risky step," said al-Mohaimeed, who now lives in Sweden.

Al-Qunun's plight on social media drew international attention, helping her short-circuit the typically complex path to asylum. A little more than a week after fleeing Saudi Arabia, she was in Canada, building a new life, posting pictures of wine, bacon and donning a dress above the knees.

Back in Saudi Arabia, the woman identified as Nojoud al-Mandeel posted audio on Twitter on Monday alleging her father had beaten and burnt her "over something trivial". She posted a video looking onto a neighbor's gated pool, where she says she jumped from her bedroom window before a friend picked her up and they escaped.

"Don't tell me to report to police," she said, explaining that in a previous attempt, police just had her father sign a pledge saying he would not beat her again.

After her story gained some traction online, she was promised attention by a protection hotline in Saudi Arabia for domestic abuse victims. Prosecutors also reportedly began looking into her allegations of abuse, according to Saudi news sites.

She was placed in a domestic abuse shelter, but on Tuesday complained on Twitter about the shelter's restrictions over her movements.

Al-Mohaimeed said Twitter is where Saudi women can share stories and be heard. She and two other Saudi women took over al-Qunun's Twitter account, writing messages on her behalf during the height of her pleas last week to avoid deportation.

"I was not born in this world to serve a man," al-Mohaimeed said. "I was born in this world to fulfill my dreams, achieve my dreams, grow, learn and be independent - to taste life as I hold it in my hands."

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Follow Aya Batrawy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ayaelb .

FILE - In this June 22, 2018, file photo, women wait in line to ride go carts at a road safety event for female drivers launched at the Riyadh Park Mall in Saudi Arabia. Another Saudi woman has turned to social media for protection from her father just days after Canada granted refuge to Rahaf al-Qunun, the 18-year-old Saudi who fled the country to escape her family. This latest plea comes from inside Saudi Arabia. The attempted escapes challenge a system that grants men guardianship of women who must obey fathers, husbands and brothers. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)COLUMBIANA, Ala. (AP) - An Alabama man accused of placing a child in a clothes dryer and turning it on is charged with aggravated child abuse.

Court documents allege 25-year-old Steven Garrett Todhunter of Wilsonville repeatedly put a child in a dryer or washing machine, over the course of a year.

A warrant filed in Shelby County claims the man sometimes would use a chair to secure the dryer's door and turn it on.

Police in Alabaster tell news outlets the man also sometimes placed the child in a washing machine and threated to turn it on, saying the water was going to be "very hot."

Court documents don't list an attorney for Todhunter, who is free on bond following his arrest Saturday. He's been ordered to avoid any contact with the child.LIBREVILLE, Gabon (AP) - Gabon's ailing President Ali Bongo Ondimba has returned to Morocco to continue his recovery after a brief visit home, an official and a relative said Thursday.

The relative said Bongo returned to Morocco late Tuesday after swearing in a new government. A Cabinet member confirmed it. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

The Cabinet member said Bongo's recovery from a reported stroke has been strong.

Bongo had been out of the country since October, and his brief return came a week after a Jan. 7 attempted coup by officers with the Republican Guard.

The opposition has expressed concern about Bongo's ability to lead the oil-rich Central African nation and has asked that a vacancy of power be declared.

Omar Bongo, the president's father, led Gabon for 41 years and died in 2009. His son succeeded him after a disputed election and was re-elected in 2016 for a renewable seven-year term.

___

Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_AfricaAllan Hendler, the principal at Allstate in Hampstead, said around the age of 1 is when a childs fingerprints become permanent. An Amber Alert safety form contains a picture of the child and their 10 fingerprints. The center, a setup at the Allstate office that also is portable and can be taken to community events, prints out one sheet with all of this information for parents to take home.MADRID (AP) - Spanish rescuers on the fourth day of a frantic race to reach a 2-year-old boy trapped in a borehole clung to hope of finding the toddler alive despite massive setbacks in getting to the bottom of the deep and narrow cavity.

The operation to rescue Julen Rosello from the shaft has gripped Spain since he fell into it Sunday during a family meal in the countryside northeast of Malaga.

Adults can't fit in the 110-meter (360-foot) deep, 25 centimeter-diameter (10-inch) hole and machinery hit an obstruction of hardened soil and a stone about two-thirds of the way down. Rescue teams have been unable to break through without endangering the child.

Maria Gamez, the Spanish government's representative in the Malaga province, vowed the search would continue until the boy is saved.

"We are not going to stop even one minute," Gamez said. "Nobody in the rescue team is putting in doubt that we will bring him out, and we all remain confident that he will be alive."

No vocal contact has been made with Julen. The only sign of him search-and-rescue teams have found so far is hair that matched his DNA. Officials think he might have slid under the obstruction that's blocking the way down.

Emergency services look for a 2 year old boy who fell into a well, in a mountainous area near the town of Totalan in Malaga, Spain, Monday, Jan. 14, 2019. More than 100 firefighters and emergency workers in southern Spain are searching for a 2-year-old toddler who fell into a narrow and deep well on Sunday. Rescuers believe the boy fell into the 100-meter-deep well after walking away from his parents. (AP Photo/Gregorio Marrero)

The leading engineer in the search, Angel Garcia, said Thursday that creating an alternative access point involved days of digging work that normally would take months and technical surveying of terrains.

Garcia, head of the provincial civil engineers' association, told reporters at the site in Totalan, that workers will dig two parallel vertical tunnels. That plan came up after a horizontal hole bored in the past 24 hours from a hillside hit heavy stone.

The digging won't begin until at least early Friday so a platform for heavy machinery can be put in place, Garcia said. The engineer warned the work was "extremely difficult" and could be hampered by rain that is forecast for coming days.

Emergency services look for a 2 year old boy who fell into a well, in a mountainous area near the town of Totalan in Malaga, Spain, Monday, Jan. 14, 2019. More than 100 firefighters and emergency workers in southern Spain are searching for a 2-year-old toddler who fell into a narrow and deep well on Sunday. Rescuers believe the boy fell into the 100-meter-deep well after walking away from his parents. (AP Photo/Gregorio Marrero)COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - A man was charged Thursday with stealing a jeweled crown and two other pieces of Swedish royal treasure from a cathedral where the pieces worth 65 million kronor ($7.2 million) were on display.

The objects taken on July 31 during a daring daytime heist - the jeweled crown, another crown and an orb made in 1611 for the funerals of King Karl IX and Queen Kristina - haven't been recovered, national police investigator Filippo Bassini said.

"We cannot exclude that the objects have left Sweden," Bassini said.

Investigators think two men stole the funeral regalia from Strangnas Cathedral, a red-brick church built between 1291 and 1340 west of Stockholm. The second man was detained but hasn't been charged.

The thieves smashed a security case and then fled by motorboat via the vast system of lakes around Strangnas, authorities said at the time.

DNA found at the crime scene and on a bicycle used as part of the getaway linked the 22-year-old suspect charged Thursday to the theft, prosecutor Isabelle Bjursten said during a news conference.

A media conference about the Sweden royal Jewel heist, with left to right, Filippo Bassini of the Swedish police authority cultural heritage crime group, Prosecutor Isabelle Bjursten and Prosecutor Reena Devgun at the Police Headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, Thursday Jan. 17, 2019. A man was charged Thursday with stealing 65 million kronor (dollars 7.2 million) worth of Swedish royal treasure including a jewelled crown from a cathedral where they were on display. (Stina Stjernkvist/TT via AP)

The suspect, who wasn't named publicly, denied the theft, Bjursten said. A trial date hasn't been announced.

Blood was found on an object investigators believe the thieves tried to steal, she said.

The display case containing the royal regalia was alarmed. Police said after the theft that the stolen artifacts were of great historic and cultural value, but would be very difficult to sell because of their uniqueness and visibility.

While some funeral regalia are kept in the cathedrals of Strangnas, Uppsala and Vasteras, the vast majority of Sweden's crown jewels are in vaults under the Royal Castle in Stockholm.

The heist was logged at Interpol, which enables an international search for the missing jewels.THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Defense lawyers on Thursday again called for the immediate release of former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and an ex-government minister from detention at the International Criminal Court following their acquittal this week on charges of involvement in deadly post-election violence.

The lawyers' written pleas to judges were the latest salvo in legal wrangling between defense and prosecution lawyers over whether strict conditions should be imposed on Gbagbo and former youth minister Charles Ble Goude if they are freed to ensure they return to court. Prosecutors plan to appeal both men's acquittals.

Judges ordered the men released on Tuesday and again a day later after rejecting a prosecution request to impose strict conditions on their freedom. On Wednesday night prosecutors asked for the release to be suspended while an appeal on the issue is heard.

The wrangling has kept Gbagbo and Ble Goude locked up despite their acquittals on crimes against humanity charges including murder, rape and persecution.

Gbagbo has been in the court's custody since November 2011 and Ble Goude since March 2014.

Their trial, which started nearly three years ago, was halted Tuesday when two of the three judges hearing the case ruled that prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to support their charges.

Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo enters the courtroom of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019, where judges acquitted Gbagbo and ex-government minister Charles Ble Goude of crimes committed during the 2010 election for lack of evidence. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, Pool)

Prosecutors alleged Gbagbo and Ble Goude were involved in a plot to unleash violence in order to cling to power in the West African nation after Gbagbo lost the 2010 presidential election.

More than 3,000 people died in post-election fighting and rights groups say the acquittals of Gbagbo and Ble Goude, combined with an amnesty announced last year by President Alassane Ouattara, mean that victims have been deprived of justice.

___

Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa

Former Ivory Coast government minister Charles Ble Goude hugs his legal team at the courtroom of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019, where judges acquitted former president Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Ble Goude of crimes committed during the 2010 election for lack of evidence. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, Pool)

Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo enters the courtroom of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019, where judges acquitted Gbagbo and ex-government minister Charles Ble Goude of crimes committed during the 2010 election for lack of evidence. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, Pool)

Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo greets his legal team as he enters the courtroom of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019, where judges acquitted Gbagbo and ex-government minister Charles Ble Goude for lack of evidence. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, Pool)BERLIN (AP) - Authorities on Thursday cleared the road to reach 30 Catholic nuns whose Alpine convent was cut from the outside world by heavy snowfall for more than 10 days.

But the nuns were staying put at the cloister, saying that they have enough food and fuel. The convent run by the "Sisters of Bethlehem" order, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Salzburg, is home to 30 nuns and one priest.

Public broadcaster ORF quoted the prioress, Sister Laure-Marie, saying that the nuns had considered leaving but "since the sun returned and the road will be clear again soon, we are very, very grateful we're allowed to remain with God."

Manfred Brugger, the mayor of nearby St. Veit im Pongau, said later Thursday that the road had been cleared and the nuns were staying, the Austria Press Agency reported.

"The nuns are in good spirits," he said. "It is important for them that they have a connection to us in the valley."

Heavy snow has caused problems and fatalities in numerous European countries this month.

Rescue workers carry a victim after a 300-meter (990-foot) wide avalanche that hit the Tamok Valley, near the northern city of Tromsoe, Norway, Thursday Jan. 17, 2019. Norwegian police say they have located the bodies of three ski tourists that were hit by an avalanche in northern Norway on January 2, and a police spokesman said Wednesday they would continue search efforts for the fourth victim weather permitting. (Rune Stoltz Bertinussen/NTB Scanpix)

In Norway, rescuers have recovered two more bodies after four skiers were swept away in an avalanche in the northern part of the country more than two weeks ago.

The bodies were flown by helicopter down to a valley where they would be transported to the city of Tromsoe in a hearse on Thursday. The first body was recovered Wednesday.

Police tweeted that the search for the last victim was continuing.

Rescue workers carry a victim after a 300-meter (990-foot) wide avalanche that hit the Tamok Valley, near the northern city of Tromsoe, Norway, Thursday Jan. 17, 2019. Norwegian police say they have located the bodies of three ski tourists that were hit by an avalanche in northern Norway on January 2, and a police spokesman said Wednesday they would continue search efforts for the fourth victim weather permitting. (Rune Stoltz Bertinussen/NTB Scanpix)

Rescue workers after a 300-meter (990-foot) wide avalanche that hit the Tamok valley, near the northern city of Tromsoe, Norway, Thursday Jan. 17, 2019. Norwegian police say the body of one of the four skiers who were taken by an avalanche in northern Norway on January 2, has been recovered. A police spokesman said Wednesday they would continue search efforts weather permitting, citing poor visibility. (Rune Stoltz Bertinussen/NTB Scanpix)

Rescue workers after a 300-meter (990-foot) wide avalanche that hit the Tamok valley, near the northern city of Tromsoe, Norway, Thursday Jan. 17, 2019. Norwegian police say the body of one of the four skiers who were taken by an avalanche in northern Norway earlier this year, has been recovered. A police spokesman said Wednesday they would continue search efforts weather permitting, citing poor visibility. (Rune Stoltz Bertinussen/NTB Scanpix)DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - She is largely unknown in the United States. But the American anchorwoman for Iran's state-run broadcaster, detained last weekend by U.S. authorities, is a familiar face on its English-language channel.

As a newscaster for Press TV, Marzieh Hashemi has been conducting interviews and reading the news as written by government loyalists in the Islamic Republic. It's a long way from New Orleans, where she was born Melanie Franklin in 1959 to a Christian family.

In college in Louisiana, encounters with Iranian students in the wake of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution saw her convert to Islam. A marriage brought her to Iran, where she learned fluent Farsi and began working for the country's state broadcaster 25 years ago.

Her journalism and her public comments mirror her host country's official ideology.

"When I got familiar with Islamic Revolution in Iran, and I saw it was a political and religious revolution, I was attracted to this," Hashemi once told an interviewer in Farsi. "I saw this as a political movement to the revolution."

Now, after her apparent arrest by the FBI, her family is questioning why the 59-year-old grandmother was imprisoned by the U.S. Her detention comes at a time of escalating U.S.-Iran tensions, including President Donald Trump's maximalist approach to Iran after pulling America out of its nuclear deal.

In this image provided by Hossein Hashemi, Marzieh Hashemi, poses for a photo. Marzieh Hashemi, a prominent American anchorwoman on Iranian state television has been arrested by the FBI during a visit to the U.S., the broadcaster reported Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, and her son said she was being held in a prison, apparently as a material witness. (Hossein Hashemi via AP)

Hashemi was detained Sunday in St. Louis, where she had filmed a Black Lives Matter documentary after visiting relatives in the New Orleans area. She was then taken to Washington by the FBI on a material witness warrant, according to her elder son, Hossein Hashemi.

The FBI said in an email that it had no comment.

Federal law allows judges to order witnesses to be arrested and detained if the government can prove their testimony has extraordinary value for a criminal case and that they would be a flight risk and unlikely to respond to a subpoena. The statute generally requires those witnesses to be promptly released once they are deposed.

Hashemi studied journalism at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. A yearbook photo shows her smiling with other colleagues at WPRG, now KLSU, the student-run radio station.

"When we were in school together, that was during the Iran hostage crisis. LSU had a sizeable number of Iranian students who were going to school there," said radio newsman Jim Engster of Baton Rouge, who was also in the photograph.

"The time we were in school was less than 25 years from LSU being an all-white school. So Melanie was a trailblazer too as a black female journalist. There were a few others but not many."

Hashemi said that's where she learned about Iran's revolution, which saw Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi replaced by an Islamic Republic led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a Shiite cleric who had final say on state matters as the country's supreme leader.

"I started to ask them about the revolution, because there were many demonstrations by pro-Khomeini demonstrators and also against the revolution in that university," she later recounted. "I wanted to know that what they are doing and find out who is the Ayatollah Khomeini, and it was very interesting for me as an activist."

Hashemi ended up in Iran working at Iran's state broadcaster, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, or IRIB.

There are no private television or radio stations in Iran. Satellite dishes, while widespread, also are illegal. That leaves IRIB with a monopoly on domestic airwaves.

Since the revolution, IRIB has been in the hands of hard-liners who back Iran's government. Their broadcasts mirror those of other state-run channels across the Mideast, with direct criticism of leaders incredibly rare.

Press TV, launched in June 2007, is IRIB's English-language service. While airing in Iran, it focuses predominantly on international affairs through the lens of how leaders in the Islamic Republic see the world. The hashtag "FreePalestine" accompanies stories on the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Fierce criticism of British and American foreign policy is common.

Its broadcasts have drawn Western criticism.

In 2012, the Anti-Defamation League described the channel as "one of the world's leading dispensers of conspiratorial anti-Semitism in English."

The channel was pulled from the air in Britain in 2011 after a complaint by Maziar Bahari, a Canadian-Iranian journalist for Newsweek who was imprisoned by Iran after the 2009 disputed re-election of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became the Green Movement protests. Bahari said the channel aired an interview that had been scripted by his captors, who threatened to execute him unless he cooperated.

For her part, Hashemi both helmed newscasts critical of the West and offered her own criticisms as well.

In 2009, she said she believed Western media exaggerated popular support in Iran for Mir Hossein Mousavi, a reformist who was later put under house arrest, where he has languished for years after challenging Ahmadinejad in 2009 and leading the Green Movement protests.

"What is shown many times in the West, for example, when people saw that there was a very large demonstration supporting Mr. Mousavi, people got the feeling that the country was falling apart and that the majority of Iranians actually supported Mr. Mousavi," Hashemi told NPR. "No, the majority of them did not, and the other side of the spectrum has not been shown as much, I believe."

It remains unclear why Hashemi was arrested. However, it isn't the first time she's been questioned by U.S. authorities, her son said.

For the past decade, "she has been harassed on a regular basis when she goes to airports," he said. "Whenever she boards a plane, prior to it she will have interviews or interrogation, if we might call it that- things that are not very typical is what she's had to deal with for some time."

___

Associated Press writers Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans and Michael Balsamo and Monika Mathur in Washington contributed to this report.CAIRO (AP) - Islamic militants on Thursday kidnapped a Christian man traveling in a communal taxi in the turbulent north of Egypt's Sinai peninsula, according to security officials, an incident that raises the specter of renewed attacks on minority Christians in the region after a two-year lull.

The officials did not identify the man, but said police pursued the kidnappers into the desert to which they fled after the incident, killing one of them and wounding two others in a firefight, but could not free the hostage. Two policemen were also wounded in the firefight, said the officials.

There was no word on whether any of the other passengers traveling in the taxi, a minibus, were harmed, suggesting that the kidnapping of the Christian man could have been planned. The attack took place about 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of el-Arish, northern Sinai's largest city, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

A spate of attacks on Christians in northern Sinai in late 2016 and early 2017 forced nearly 300 families to flee their homes there and find refuge elsewhere in Egypt. Those killed included a cleric, workers, a doctor and a merchant. The last Christian to be killed in Sinai was in January 2018, when militants gunned him down as he walked on the street in el-Arish.

The militants, now led by the Islamic State group, say they are punishing the Christians for their support of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi who, as defense minister, led the military's overthrow of an Islamist president whose one year in office proved divisive.

The spiritual leader of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Christians, whose ancient church is the country's predominant Christian denomination, is a close ally of el-Sissi, who has made sectarian harmony a cornerstone of his domestic policy. His patronage of the community has given Christians a measure of protection but did little to protect them from Islamic radicals, particularly in regions south of Cairo where Christians are a sizable minority.

FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2018 file photo, a choirboy holds a cross during Christmas Eve Mass at the Virgin Mary Church, in Cairo, Egypt. Egyptian security officials said Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, that Islamic militants kidnapped a Christian man traveling in a communal taxi in the turbulent north of Egypt's Sinai peninsula. Since 2016, militants have killed more than 100 Egyptian Christians in attacks targeting churches and buses carrying pilgrims to remote desert monasteries. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)

Since 2016, IS militants have killed more than 100 Christians in attacks targeting churches and buses carrying pilgrims to remote desert monasteries. Radicals in provinces like Minya, south of Cairo, whip up anti-Christian sentiments among Muslims, frequently leading mobs that torch Christian homes and businesses or run families out of villages and small towns.

Christian activists charge that some elements in law-enforcement agencies often take the side of Muslims in Muslim-Christian disputes in Minya, turning a blind eye to Muslim transgressions or insisting on resolving them through reconciliation councils rather than enforce the law and prosecute the attackers.

Also on Thursday, according to the officials, suspected militants sneaked into the parking lot of the main hospital in the city of Rafah on the Sinai border with the Gaza Strip and torched two vehicles before escaping. The incident was the latest in a recent spate of violent incidents in Rafah, most of whose residents have been evicted and compensated over the past year to deny the militants hiding places.

Nearly a year ago, the government threw into the battle against the Sinai militants thousands of troops, heavy armor, helicopter gunships and jet fighters in a bid to end the insurgency. The operation has significantly reduced the number of attacks and restored a near total normal life in el-Arish, on the Mediterranean coast.WINCHESTER, Tenn. (AP) - A Tennessee man is accused of ignoring deputies at a crash scene and leading them on a short-lived car chase after which he shot an arrow at them with a compound bow.

The Franklin County Sheriff's Office says 39-year-old James Michael Ferguson approached the crash scene Sunday night and told deputies his car was in the wreck but then fled. Spokesman Sgt. Chris Guess tells the Chattanooga Times Free Press deputies knew who Ferguson was and decided to nix the chase and go to his home.

Guess says deputies found Ferguson's car blocking his driveway and noticed Ferguson hiding in weeds growing nearby with a compound bow in hand. Ferguson shot an arrow, striking a cruiser and fled on foot. He was caught and arrested on charges including domestic assault.

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Information from: Chattanooga Times Free Press, http://www.timesfreepress.comDAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Drastic changes are under way at Florida's Bethune-Cookman University due to crippling debts and a looming deadline to shore up finances.

Interim President Hubert Grimes outlined plans for salary cuts, employee layoffs and unpaid furloughs in a letter to employees on Tuesday.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports the letter didn't specify the number of layoffs or the extent of salary cuts. The letter said furloughs would take place over spring break, although employees have the option of using paid vacation.

In the letter, Grimes said the moves come despite adjustments already made to the university's organizational makeup over the past few months.

The university is suing its ex-president and other officials, alleging fraud in brokering a student housing project that leaves the school on the hook for $300 million.WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - A 35-year-old computer engineer working on contract for Immigration and Customs Enforcement is accused of trying to lure a Florida girl to California to fulfill a "daddy-daughter" sex fantasy.

The Palm Beach Post reports that Majid Dedihban exchanged phone calls and thousands of text messages with someone he thought was a teen-aged girl. It was a Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputy all along. Federal court records show Dedihban made contact with the deputy posing as the girl in December.

Dedihban was arrested in San Diego and has agreed to be brought to Florida to face charges of attempted enticement of a minor and attempted transportation of a minor to engage in sexual activity. He's being held without bond. A lawyer isn't listed on records.HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - The Latest on Zimbabwe unrest (all times local):

8:30 p.m.

The UK's minister for Africa says she has summoned Zimbabwe's ambassador to discuss the country's growing crisis and "disturbing reports of use of live ammunition, intimidation and excessive force" against protesters.

Harriett Baldwin's statement notes the deaths of several people this week during a nationwide stay-at-home action protesting a dramatic rise in fuel prices.

She says that "we are deeply concerned that Zimbabwe's security forces have acted disproportionately in response" to actions such as arson and looting.

Baldwin says Britain urges Zimbabwe to reign in its security forces and restore full internet service for people's freedom of expression.

Pastor and activist Evan Mawarire arrives at the magistrates courts in Harare, Zimbabwe, Thursday, Jan, 17, 2019. A Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights says in a statement that Mawarire who is among the more than 600 people arrested this week has been charged with subverting a constitutional government amid a crackdown on protests against a dramatic fuel price increase.(AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

___

4:30 p.m.

The Zimbabwe pastor and activist facing a charge of subversion has arrived at court and says the country's new government is behaving like that of former longtime leader Robert Mugabe.

Evan Mawarire faces 20 years in prison if convicted. He is among more than 600 people arrested this week amid protests against the government's dramatic fuel price increase. Gasoline in the economically shattered country is now the most expensive in the world.

Mawarire told reporters asking about his treatment by police: "Not very good. I could be better." The United States and others have warned against Zimbabwean security forces targeting activists for beatings.

The pastor adds that "I cannot tell you how heartbreaking it is. We thought we had a new country and a new way of doing things. None of what I am being accused of is what I have done at all."

___

2:25 p.m.

A Zimbabwe lawyers' group says a prominent pastor and activist has been charged with subverting a constitutional government amid a crackdown on protests against a dramatic fuel price increase.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights says in a statement that police have added the new charge against Evan Mawarire, who is among the more than 600 people arrested this week.

Mawarire, who famously launched a campaign that led to nationwide anti-government protests in 2016, already faced a charge of inciting violence.

The unrest in Zimbabwe is the most serious since deadly post-election violence in August and poses a major challenge for President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has failed to deliver on promises to revive the collapsed economy.

___

12:15 p.m.

The U.S. Embassy in Zimbabwe says it is "alarmed" by credible reports that security forces are targeting and beating activists and labor leaders. A local doctors' rights group says it has treated 68 gunshot cases.

The U.S. statement on Thursday also urges Zimbabwe's government to restore access to social media as the country faces its worst unrest since deadly post-election violence in August. Zimbabweans this week heeded a nationwide stay-at-home call after the government dramatically increased fuel prices in the economically shattered country.

Prominent pastor and activist Evan Mawarire is currently in court in the capital, Harare, accused of inciting violence. Zimbabwe's state security minister has said more than 600 people have been arrested.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa while traveling overseas has denounced what he called "wanton violence and cynical destruction."Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorneys Office in Baltimore, said Friday no additional information would be released about the search until the warrants were unsealed, adding that any person involved is innocent until they are convicted in court. There is no timeframe or guarantee the case will be unsealed, she said.LONDON (AP) - Facebook said Thursday it removed hundreds of Russia-linked pages, groups and accounts that it says were part of two big disinformation operations targeting users outside the U.S.

The social media company said its latest effort to fight misinformation came after it found two networks "that engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior" on Facebook and its Instagram service.

Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said in a blog post that one network operated in countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltics, Central Asia and the Caucasus. The other focused on Ukraine.

"We didn't find any links between these operations, but they used similar tactics by creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing," Gleicher said.

U.S. tech companies have stepped up their work against disinformation campaigns, aiming to stymie online troublemakers' efforts to divide voters and discredit democracy. Facebook's purge is part of countermeasures to prevent abuses like those used by Russian groups two years ago to sway public opinion ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Though much of the attention has been on Russian-linked campaigns in the U.S., Facebook has identified and blocked such tactics around the world. The Menlo Park, California, company has been disclosing such purges regularly in recent months, as its systems get better at detecting and removing malicious accounts. But those behind the campaigns are sharpening their attacks, too.

FILE - In this March 29, 2018, file photo, the logo for Facebook appears on screens in New York's Times Square. Facebook announced Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019, it would invest $300 million over three years in news initiatives with an emphasis in local coverage. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

According to Facebook, the people running the accounts represented themselves as independent news sources and posted on topics like anti-NATO sentiment and protest movements.

Gleicher said one network of 364 pages and accounts was linked to employees of Sputnik, a Russian state-run English-language news site. About 790,000 accounts followed one or more of the network's pages. The operation spent about $135,000 over six years for Facebook advertisements, which it paid for in euros, rubles and dollars. The most recent ad ran in January.

Sputnik criticized Facebook's takedown.

"The decision is clearly political. This is tantamount to censorship," Sputnik said in a statement to The Associated Press, adding that Facebook blocked the accounts of seven of its bureaus in former Soviet republics. "Sputnik editorial offices deal with news and they do it well. If this blocking is Facebook's only reaction to the quality of the media's work, then we have no questions, everything is clear here. But there is still hope that common sense will prevail."

Acting on a tip from U.S. law enforcement, Facebook shut another 148 pages, groups and accounts, including 41 on Instagram, that were part of a second network that spent $25,000 on ads in 2018, paid for in rubles. Gleicher said Facebook "identified some technical overlap with Russia-based activity we saw prior to the U.S. midterm elections, including behavior that shared characteristics with previous Internet Research Agency activity."

The Internet Research Agency is a Russian troll farm indicted by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller for its actions aimed at influencing the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The disclosure is the latest in a series of fake account purges in recent months. Facebook has been stepping up its scrutiny after being criticized for its slow response to foreign attempts to influence the 2016 vote.

In another measure aimed at increasing transparency, Facebook last year started requiring all political ads taken out in the U.S., Britain and Brazil to disclose who paid for them.

___

Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this report.BRUSSELS (AP) - More than 10,000 students skipped school again in Belgium to join a march demanding better protections of the globe's fragile climate.

Despite the rain and cold, the colorful protest march in Brussels was bigger than the initial one last week.

Banners reading "School strike 4 Climate" and "Skipping school? No. We fight for our future," highlighted the march, which was free of incidents.

Some schools show understanding for the no-shows.

Patrick Lancksweerdt, a director of a local school, told De Standaard newspaper that "education has to turn youngsters into mature citizens. By their actions, they proved that they are."

The students hope to turn the rallies into weekly events.

Students and others hold up placards with climate messages during a demonstration against climate change in Brussels, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Thousands of students as part of the Youth for Climate movement took time off school Thursday to call for stronger action against climate change. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Two girls hold up a banner during a demonstration against climate change in Brussels, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Thousands of students as part of the Youth for Climate movement took time off school Thursday to call for stronger action against climate change. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

A girl wears a face mask and has a message written on her forehead that reads 'no planet B' during a demonstration against climate change in Brussels, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Thousands of students as part of the Youth for Climate movement took time off school Thursday to call for stronger action against climate change. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Students and others hold up placards with climate messages during a demonstration against climate change in Brussels, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Thousands of students as part of the Youth for Climate movement took time off school Thursday to call for stronger action against climate change. Banner at right in Dutch reads 'we are truant for more forests' and at center rear reads 'no money if it melts'. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)BERLIN (AP) - Germany's biggest rail company, under fire for its unpunctual service, is trying to mollify one disgruntled commuter by buying her "delay scarf."

Deutsche Bahn, which on Thursday announced plans to hire 22,000 more staff, bought the hand-made scarf in an online auction for 7,550 euros ($8,600). The money is being donated to a charity for the homeless.

According to her daughter, Sara Weber, the Munich commuter had knitted the grey, pink and red scarf last year, with each color reflecting the amount of time her journey had been delayed. Weber's social media post about the scarf drew widespread attention this month, reflecting Deutsche Bahn customers' frustration at the company's persistent delays.

Less than three quarters of Deutsche Bahn's long-distance trains arrived on time last year, debunking cultural assumptions about German punctuality.WARSAW, Poland (AP) - The slain mayor of Gdansk lay in state Thursday at a museum devoted to Poland's pro-democracy Solidarity movement, which started in a local shipyard and the late city leader was active in as a student.

Residents lined up to file past the coffin of Mayor Pawel Adamowicz, which was surrounded by white-and-green flowers and draped in the flag of the city that re-elected him to a sixth term in the fall.

Adamowicz, 53, died Monday after being stabbed at a charity event by an ex-convict who shouted he was taking revenge against the centrist political party that previously ruled Poland.

The popular mayor will lay in state until Friday afternoon at the European Solidarity Center, which tells the history of Solidarity, the trade union that resisted Poland's Soviet-backed communist regime in the 1980s.

Shipyard electrician Lech Walesa led the union into a movement for democracy, won the Nobel Peace Prize and later served as Poland's elected president. Walesa, 75, still lives in Gdansk and has joined residents mourning Adamowicz this week.

Most of the people who paid respects at the museum made the Catholic sign of the cross, bowed their heads and touched the casket.. Girl Scouts stood at attention.

Mayor Pawel Adamowicz's coffin lies in state in the European Solidarity Centre in Gdansk, Poland, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Residents of a Polish city are paying respects at the coffin of the longtime mayor who was killed in a stabbing attack. Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz will lie in state until Friday at a museum is devoted to the history of Poland's anti-communist Solidarity movement, which started in the city. (AP Photo/Wojciech Strozyk)

Outside, residents arranged mourning candles in the shape of a heart for the second night in a row. On Friday, a procession will carry the coffin to St. Mary's Basilica, passing by sites connected to Adamowicz's life, before a funeral Mass.

The suspect in the mayor's death stabbed Adamowicz three times in the heart and abdomen while on stage during the charity event. He told the audience he did it for revenge on Civic Platform, the party that governed Poland when he was sent to prison in 2013 for bank robberies.

Adamowicz belonged to the party until 2015.

The killing comes as Poland finds itself riven by bitter ideological divisions and large amounts of hate speech appearing online, mirroring trends in the United States and other places.

Amid that backdrop, many Poles have made appeals for calm and reconciliation since the mayor's assassination, including the suspect's family in their entreaties.

Gdansk Deputy Mayor Piotr Kowalczuk has met with the suspect's mother and said the family was in shock and needed protection because of threats.

"We need to make sure that they don't fall victims to hate," Kowalczuk said.

Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said that before the suspect's release from prison, his mother warned authorities about his psychological condition and some plans he talked about that she believed were a threat to general security.

A spokeswoman for prison authorities, Lt. Col. Elzbieta Krakowska, said officials and a psychologist repeatedly talked to the prisoner before he was freed, but found nothing to justify delaying his release.

Polish media have reported that he spent some time in a prison hospital for psychiatric issues.

But Krakowska said the suspect was seen 20 times by psychiatrists and psychologists during his more than five years in prison and they never suggested he should be treated in any special way.

Prosecutors have requested having him examined by psychiatrists for the investigation of the mayor's assassination.

Meanwhile, opposition politicians and thousands of Poles called for the firing of the head of state broadcaster TVP over a program on hate speech in politics that it ran after Adamowicz died. The only examples in the program selectively quoted opposition politicians.

The government's critics accuse the broadcaster, which is controlled by the right-wing ruling party, Law and Justice, of fueling the divisions in society.

Polish media report that even government ministers want TVP head Jacek Kurski to go.

Before the museum in Gdansk became a place for Poles to grieve Thursday, the Gdansk City Council held a special memorial session in the late mayor's honor.

A friend of almost 40 years, Aleksander Hall, described Adamowicz as a brave man who defended the highest values and sought compromise, as well as an optimist with a great sense of humor.

People stand by a heart shaped with candles as a tribute to slain President of Gdansk Pawel Adamowicz in Gdansk, Poland, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Wojciech Strozyk)

FILE - July 16, 2013 file photo shows Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz as he visits the city hall of Luebeck, northern Germany. Poland's health minister says that Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz has died from stab wounds a day after being attacked onstage by an ex-convict at a charity event. (Markus Scholz/dpa via AP)

People stand by a heart shaped with candles as a tribute to slain President of Gdansk Pawel Adamowicz at the Square in the Old Town, Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019.(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Lech Walesa, the former Polish democracy activisit and ex-president, signs a condolence book for Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz, who died earlier this week after being stabbed by an ex-convict with a grudge against his former party, in Gdansk, Poland, on Wednesday Jan. 16, 2019. In the condolence book at the European Solidarity Center, Walesa, 75, wrote: ""Farewell, my friend, in this vale. We will meet soon in a better place.".(AP Photo/Anna Rezulak/KFP) POLAND AUTLONDON (AP) - The head of the World Health Organization has ordered an internal investigation into allegations the U.N. health agency is rife with racism, sexism and corruption, after a series of anonymous emails with the explosive charges were sent to top managers last year.

Three emails addressed to WHO directors - and obtained by the Associated Press - complained about "systematic racial discrimination" against African staffers and alleged other instances of wrongdoing, including claims that some of the money intended to fight Ebola in Congo was misspent.

Last month, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told staffers he had instructed the head of WHO's office of internal oversight to look into the charges raised by the emails. He confirmed that directive to the AP on Thursday.

A WHO statement issued after the AP story was published said the agency was "aware" of such allegations and has "zero tolerance for misconduct or discrimination of any kind." The statement said Tedros has "championed openness, transparency and diversity" since he became WHO's chief.

However, critics doubt that WHO can effectively investigate itself and have called for the probe to be made public.

The first email, which was sent last April, claimed there was "systematic racial discrimination against Africans at WHO" and that African staffers were being "abused, sworn at (and) shown contempt to" by their Geneva-based colleagues.

FILE - In this Tuesday Aug. 14, 2018 file photo, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on WHO Ebola operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has ordered an internal investigation into allegations the U.N. health agency is rife with racism, sexism and corruption, after a series of anonymous emails with the explosive charges were sent to top managers last year. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/keystone via AP, File)

Two further emails addressed to WHO directors complained that senior officials were "attempting to stifle" investigations into such problems and also alleged other instances of wrongdoing, including allegedly misspent Ebola funds.

The last email, sent in December, labeled the behavior of a senior doctor helping to lead the response against Ebola as "unacceptable, unprofessional and racist," citing a November incident at a meeting where the doctor reportedly "humiliated, disgraced and belittled" a subordinate from the Middle East.

Tedros - a former health minister of Ethiopia and WHO's first African director-general - said investigators looking into the charges "have all my support" and that he would provide more resources if necessary.

"To those that are giving us feedback, thank you," he told a meeting of WHO's country representatives in Nairobi last month. "We will do everything to correct (it) if there are problems."

But Tedros refuted claims that WHO's hiring policies are skewed, arguing that his top management team was more geographically diverse and gender-balanced than any other U.N. organization after adopting measures to be more inclusive.

"There is change already happening," he said during the December staff meeting, according to an audio recording provided to the AP.

WHO's in-house investigation into misconduct comes after other U.N. agencies have been rocked by harassment complaints.

At UNAIDS, chief Michel Sidibe agreed to step down after an independent report concluded in December that his "defective leadership" had created a toxic working environment, with staffers asserting there was rampant sexual harassment, bullying and abuse of power.

The author of the anonymous WHO emails also charged there were "crooked recruitment and selection" processes that were "tantamount to fraud, corruption and abuse of authority."

In the latest anonymous message, the author singled out the supposedly flawed hiring process of a senior director in WHO's emergencies department, suggesting that might have led to mistakes being made by incompetent officials involved in efforts to stop Ebola in Congo.

Some staffers feared that funds donated to stem the spread of the deadly virus "have not been used judiciously," the email said, warning such blunders could undermine WHO's credibility.

"A plane was hired to transport three vehicles from the warehouse in Dubai at the cost of $1 million. Why would WHO ship vehicles from Dubai? We would appreciate the rationale when jeeps in DRC (Congo) can be purchased at $80,000 per vehicle," the email said, claiming that "corruption stories about logisticians and procurement in WHO's (Geneva emergencies department) are legendary."

Sarah Russell, a WHO spokeswoman, said WHO shipped 10 vehicles out of Dubai last May because there were no vehicles available for sale in Congo that met minimum safety standards at the time. She said it cost $237,801 to transport them.

David Webb, director of WHO's office of internal oversight, told staffers that Tedros had asked him "to conduct an appropriate investigation" into the issues raised in the emails. Webb said he and his team would scrutinize those accusations, in addition to the approximately 150 other claims that have been reported to his office this year.

"My team is trying their best to go to DRC (Congo), to go to where the allegations are with an effort to find the facts," he said.

The revelations about the alleged wrongdoing were likely to prompt discussions next week at WHO's executive board meeting at its Geneva headquarters. Russell said WHO regularly reports on "substantiated allegations arising from independent investigations" at its executive meetings.

Webb said the investigation would be conducted independently even though it would be done by WHO staffers.

Critics outside the organization felt that was not enough.

Paula Donovan, co-director of AIDS-Free World and its Code Blue campaign, which works to end impunity for U.N. personnel who commit sexual abuse, said Tedros was right to be concerned but "dead wrong to 'instruct' WHO staff to investigate allegations made against WHO."

As one of the defendants, Tedros "obviously cannot be involved in assessing, investigating, prosecuting or judging," Donovan said.

Oyewale Tomori, a Nigerian virologist who previously worked at WHO and now serves on several of its advisory groups, wasn't surprised by the emails' claims of racism, sexism and corruption.

"After what I've seen at WHO, I have no doubt that everything in those emails is true," he said, although he had no evidence to prove the specific claims.

Tomori said he and his African colleagues had often been subjected to "slights that turned to slurs, embarrassing humiliations and rudeness that escalated to abuse" from fellow WHO staffers.

He predicted that without an independent investigation, more complaints would continue to spill out.

"People have known about these problems for a long time," he said. "But nobody wants to talk because they're afraid."

____

Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.MADRID (AP) - Spain's maritime rescue service says it has saved 472 people who were trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe over the past two days.

The service says that 17 people, including one woman, were rescued early Thursday from two inflatable rafts like those used at beaches and swimming pools.

The spokeswoman, who wasn't authorized to be identified in media reports, said that 455 migrants were rescued Wednesday - 124 in the Strait of Gibraltar, and 331 further east.

The service says two of the rescued, who were suffering severe hypothermia, had to be evacuated from rescue vessels by helicopters.

The United Nations estimates that 2,262 migrants died while crossing the Mediterranean in 2018, when 57,000 migrants reached Spanish shores despite unauthorized border crossings into Europe hitting a five-year low.STUART, Fla. (AP) - Officials say a Florida deputy has been fired, and nine people he arrested on drug charges have been released from jail.

Treasure Coast Newspapers reports that Martin County Sheriff Will Snyder announced Deputy Steven O'Leary's termination during a news conference Tuesday.

The sheriff didn't release any information about the nine people arrested. He said in three separate cases, O'Leary reported positive field tests for drugs, but those substances came back from laboratory testing lacking any narcotics.

O'Leary has made 80 drug-related arrests in the 11 months he worked for the sheriff's office. Snyder says detectives combing through all those reports to make sure there aren't any other discrepancies.

No charges were immediately filed against O'Leary. Snyder says a charge of official misconduct is possible.

___

Information from: The Stuart (Fla.) News, http://www.tcpalm.comATHENS, Greece (AP) - Striking school teachers and other Greek civil servants shut down central Athens for hours Thursday during a protest of new hiring criteria for teachers that were under consideration in parliament.

About 3,000 people took part in the protest outside the parliament building, disrupting public transportation for about five hours while police diverted traffic away from Syntagma Square. They planned to stay until lawmakers voted on the proposed hiring system.

Greece's left-wing government has promised to hire 15,000 full-time teachers over the next three years, starting this fall. Unions say the hiring system is unfairly weighted against teachers who have worked for years on short-time contracts. They also want more teachers to be hired.

The umbrella civil servants' union, Adedy, called a 24-hour public sector strike for Thursday to back the teachers' demands, although the walkout mainly affected schools. Classes were canceled in most public schools in Athens and many were elsewhere in Greece.

A few dozen protesters briefly clashed with police officers blocking their access to parliament, but no injuries or arrests were reported.

Teachers previously held two protest marches in Athens over the hiring plan. Both resulted in clashes between some demonstrators and riot police.

School teachers protest in central Athens, on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Hundreds of striking Greek civil servants, mostly school teachers, are marching through central Athens to protest the proposed new hiring criteria for state school teachers. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

A military officer guides a Presidential Guard or Evzonas to move from his position as protesters approach the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside the Greek Parliament during a rally by school teachers in central Athens, on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Hundreds of striking Greek civil servants, mostly school teachers, are marching through central Athens to protest proposed new hiring criteria for state school teachers. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Riot police officers secure the Greek parliament as school teachers protest in central Athens, on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Hundreds of striking Greek civil servants, mostly school teachers, are marching through central Athens to protest the proposed new hiring criteria for state school teachers. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

School teachers protest in central Athens, on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Hundreds of striking Greek civil servants, mostly school teachers, are marching through central Athens to protest the proposed new hiring criteria for state school teachers. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

School teachers protest in central Athens, on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Hundreds of striking Greek civil servants, mostly school teachers, are marching through central Athens to protest the proposed new hiring criteria for state school teachers. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)DARWIN, Australia (AP) - The body of a 62-year-old German tourist was found beneath a tree in the searing heat of the central Australia Outback on Thursday, eight days after she was reported missing, police said.

Desert Palms Resort staff in Alice Springs reported guest Monika Billen missing on Jan. 9, but her last reported sighting was on Jan. 1, a police statement said.

Her body was spotted by searchers in a helicopter under a tree far from hiking tracks and 3 kilometers (2 miles) west of Emily Gap in the East MacDonnell Ranges, police said.

The location had already been searched twice in a 16-square kilometer (6-square mile) targeted area but was densely covered with trees and foliage, Police Superintendent Pauline Vicary said.

Police worked with Billen's German mobile phone provider to narrow the search to the targeted area over the past two days, Vicary said.

When asked why it took eight days to find her, Vicary said the search involved "a lot of technology and information and extensive work, interpreting data" and using outside experts.

Billen's extended family in Cologne has been told the news, police said.

Police do not believe the death was suspicious and a coroner will investigate the cause of her death.

The last reported sighting of the keen hiker was on Jan. 1 at Emily Gap, 15 kilometers (9 miles) east of Alice Springs. Security video showed her leaving the Desert Palms Resort that morning.

There was confusion last week when a woman told police she had given a dehydrated and disoriented-looking Billen a lift in the area on Jan. 2. But the woman later told police she was mistaken and that she had encountered Billen two days earlier, on Dec. 31.

That would suggest Billen had headed out on a walk again in 44 degree Celsius (111 degree Fahrenheit) heat a day after she had appeared dehydrated.

"It was 44 degrees that day and other factors such as the heat radiating off the road makes it even hotter," Vicary told reporters.

Deaths and injuries occur around Alice Springs during the southern hemisphere summer, with walkers heading out in extreme heat.

Police rescued a 60-year-old hiker last weekend on the 223-kilometer (139-mile) Larapinta Trail which heads west from Alice Springs. The woman was found injured and dehydrated on the same day rescuers called off a search for Billen. The search was restarted on Tuesday based on the new phone data.

This time last year, a 33-year-old Californian man died after talking a wrong turn while hiking the Larapinta Trail.SANAA, Yemen (AP) - The head of the U.N. mission In Yemen charged with monitoring a cease-fire between rival forces in a key port city was leaving a meeting with government representatives Thursday when a U.N.-marked armored vehicle in his convoy was hit with one round of small arms fire, the spokesman for the world body said.

Stephane Dujarric told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York that "we do not have information as to the source of the fire" in the Red sea port city of Hodeida.

Retired Dutch Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert was not in the vehicle that was hit and he and his team returned to their base safely, he said. "I can assure you that general Cammaert and his team are supplied with the strongest possible security measures the U.N. can supply."

"But it is important to add that all the parties in Yemen are also responsible for the safety of all U.N. personnel in Yemen." He added: "We are dealing with a highly volatile environment in Hodeida."

Cammaert has been in Hodeida since late December trying to get the internationally recognized government and the Shiite rebels known as Houthis to strengthen a cease-fire negotiated in Sweden last month and agree to arrangements for the redeployment of their forces.

Both the rebels and officials associated with the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis alongside the government blamed the other for the shooting.

The Houthi rebel delegation, and delegates of the internationally recognized Yemeni government meet for a second day for talks on implementing a prisoner exchange agreed to in Sweden last month, in Amman, Jordan, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. The office of U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths has described the two-day meeting as a "technical one." The International Committee of the Red Cross is also attending. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)

A rebel spokesman, Yania Sarie, denied media reports that the rebels opened fire on Cammaert and his team. He said workers trying to remove barricades to allow Cammaert and his team to cross into the part of Hodeida controlled by government forces came under fire.

Military officials linked to the coalition said it was the Houthis who opened fire on the convoy. Reports of Cammaert coming under rebel fire were broadcast by television networks owned by or loyal to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a key alliance member.

Thursday's incident followed criticism earlier this week on the Houthi television channel al-Masirah, which branded Cammaert as "biased" in favor of the government.

Cammaert expressed disappointment at the rebels' failure to open humanitarian corridors between Hodeida, which they control, and Sanaa, the capital. Instead, the Houthis pretended to cede control of the port to naval forces when in fact they handed over control of the facility to their fighters after they donned coast guard uniforms.

The Dutch officer diplomatically called them out, saying every redeployment move must be agreed to in advance by all parties and subject to verification.

Separately, representatives of Yemen's warring sides met in Jordan for a second day Thursday for talks on implementing a prisoner exchange also agreed to in Sweden.

The office of U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths has described the two-day meeting between the rebels and the government as a "technical one." The International Committee of the Red Cross was also attending, and a closing statement was expected later in the day.

Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, urged the international community to pressure both sides to exercise restraint and stop selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, which leads a coalition fighting on the side of the Yemeni government.

"Governments around the globe can either do nothing while millions sink closer toward famine or use the leverage at their disposal to press the warring parties to end their abuses and impose sanctions on those obstructing aid," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Mideast and North Africa director at the New York-based watchdog.

Yemen, the poorest Arab country, plunged into civil war in 2014, when the rebels captured the capital, Sanaa. The Saudi-led coalition intervened a year later.

The fighting has taken a terrible toll on civilians, with thousands killed and a catastrophic humanitarian crisis underway. Millions suffer from food and medical care shortages and the country has been pushed to the brink of famine.

In Sweden in December, the two sides agreed to confidence-building measures, including the exchange of thousands of prisoners. But the implementation of that deal has been slow and marred by violence.

___

Lederer reported from the United Nations in New York. Associated Press writer Maggie Michael contributed to this report from Cairo.A man and a woman were taken to the hospital with serious injuries Friday after two separate crashes on Generals Highway and Interstate 97 southbound in Crownsville led to traffic backups, officials said.LONDON (AP) - Work on a major new nuclear power station in Britain was suspended after the developer, Japan's Hitachi, said Thursday it had been unable to agree on financing with the U.K. government.

Hitachi said Thursday that it was halting work already underway on the Horizon Project, located in Wylfa, on the Welsh island of Anglesey. It will also suspend work on another site located in England.

The company had been in talks with the British government for years about how it might support the project financially, including through stock and debt investments.

The suspension is a blow to the British government, which is in the midst of political chaos over Brexit and under pressure to show it is open to business deals with companies and countries beyond the European Union. It also comes just two months after another Japanese company, Toshiba, decided to not go ahead with a power station it was looking to build in Britain.

Hitachi President Toshiaki Higashihara told a news conference in Tokyo that the company judged that "further investment is beyond its capacity as a private company."

Hitachi has reportedly already spent over 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) on it, which would have been expected to cost around 15 billion pounds ($19.5 billion) on completion.

Hitachi's President Toshiaki Higashihara speaks at a press conference in Tokyo Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Work on a major new nuclear power station in Britain was suspended after the contracted developer, Japan's Hitachi, said Thursday that it has been unable to agree on financing with the U.K. government. (Yohei Nishimura/Kyodo News via AP)

The British government's business department said that "any deal needs to represent value for money" but remains committed to nuclear power as a source of energy, without suggesting how it might break the impasse with Hitachi.

Hitachi says it will continue to try to find adequate financing for building and operating Horizon Project, though it was unclear what the prospects were. It said it may sell off Horizon if necessary.

Higashihara said nuclear power plants have become more expensive than other sources of energy in Britain, where the cost of renewable energy has come down considerably since 2012, when the project started.

Nuclear power plants are a decades-long project and seeking ways to finance the project is a big challenge, he said.

Hitachi will post a 300 billion yen ($2.75 billion) loss for halting the British project, but Higashihara said it was necessarily to avoid further losses. With the nuclear project in Britain suspended, Hitachi will focus on possible reactor restarts and decommissioning in Japan, he said.McLEAN, Va. (AP) - A Virginia judge has ordered the mental evaluation of a woman charged in the fatal shooting of her two daughters.

The Washington Post reported last week that the judge ordered the evaluation of competency to stand trial for 33-year-old Veronica Youngblood after she refused to attend court Friday. Youngblood's defense attorney, Dawn Butorac, said at the Friday hearing that Youngblood also has attempted to kill herself and has been speaking incoherently about the case.

Youngblood is charged with murder in the 2018 slaying of her 5-year-old daughter, Brooklynn, and her teenage daughter, whose identity hasn't been released. Police haven't released a motive in the August slaying. At the time, Youngblood and her husband had recently divorced and were fighting over the custody of the children.

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Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.comNAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Kenyan authorities on Thursday arrested nine more people for their alleged involvement in the deadly extremist attack on a luxury hotel complex in Nairobi this week, bringing the total number of suspects detained to 11, police said.

The suspects, "are being questioned on their specific roles in the terrorist attack" at the dusitD2 complex on Tuesday, said a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Two people were taken into custody on Wednesday.

The attack took the lives of 20 civilians, one police officer and five attackers.

Kenyan bomb disposal experts, meanwhile, found and safely detonated an explosive left over from the attack, and the Kenya Red Cross said no one appeared to be missing after it checked nearly 100 reported cases.

The Kenyan government said its quick reaction to the assault reflected improvements in its ability to respond to such brazen attacks on civilian targets. It was "much better handled" in comparison to the 2013 attack on the nearby Westgate Mall, said Joseph Mucheru, the information minister. Police took hours to respond to that attack and official information was scarce or conflicting, leading to reforms.

"The speed, the response and the conclusion of this matter was swift," Mucheru told journalists.

A unidentified relative is helped by Red Cross workers as she grieves after visiting the morgue in Nairobi, Kenya Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Extremists stormed a luxury hotel complex in Kenya's capital on Tuesday, setting off thunderous explosions and gunning down people at cafe tables in an attack claimed by Africa's deadliest Islamic militant group al-Shabab. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Al-Shabab, the al-Qaida-linked extremist group that carried out the 2013 attack that killed 67 people, claimed responsibility for the hotel assault.

In contrast to the government's fumbling response to the 2013 attack, the better-coordinated operation at the hotel was under the "central command" of the head of the paramilitary wing of the Kenyan police known as the General Service Unit, according to The Standard, a Kenyan newspaper. It also said there were "fewer implausible narratives from senior security officials than happened in 2013."

Still, the newspaper said, there were hard questions including: "How did the assailants manage to move their weaponry through the numerous roadblocks to their hideout and to the scene of crime undetected?"

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday declared that the security operation to retake the complex was over, around 20 hours after the attack started.

With the attack, al-Shabab showed it can still strike despite heavy pressure by U.S., Somali and African Union forces against its strongholds in neighboring Somalia.

While U.S. airstrikes have kept al-Shabab on the run, the new attack shows the group is still capable of carrying out spectacular acts of violence in retaliation for Kenya sending troops to Somalia to fight it. The Islamic extremist group's deadliest attack in Kenya was the assault on Garissa University in 2015 that claimed 147 lives, mostly students.

This week's bloodshed in Kenya's capital appeared designed to inflict maximum damage to the country's image of stability and its tourism industry, an important source of revenue.

The information minister, however, said he had been impressed by Kenyans who posted images highlighting wildlife and other attractions on social media in reaction to the attack. He noted that the Nairobi stock exchange made gains on Wednesday.

"There's that positivity," he said.

U.S. ambassador Robert F. Godec said the United States was working closely with Kenyan authorities, and he dismissed "false reports on social media" that the U.S. knew about the attack in advance.

Of the dead, 16 were Kenyan, one was British, one was American and three were of African descent but their nationalities were not yet identified, Kenyan police said late Wednesday. Twenty-eight people were hospitalized.

Four of the 100 hotel employees who were on duty were killed, said general manager Michael Metaxas. Another three were injured. The hotel conducted an evacuation drill as recently as December, he said.

A company that provides security for the complex confirmed that two employees had been killed. Michael Ruto of Senaca International Security Ltd. described them as "very good officers."

The East African operation of LG Electronics mourned the death of an employee. It described James Radido as "a truly inspiring and genuine human being."

In his last tweets, Radido talked about being "trapped in our buildings" and reported gunfire and "non-stop explosions."

His last words on Twitter were: "Any news from out there?"

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Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa

A unidentified relative is helped by a Red Cross worker as she grieves after visiting the morgue in Nairobi, Kenya Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Extremists stormed a luxury hotel complex in Kenya's capital on Tuesday, setting off thunderous explosions and gunning down people at cafe tables in an attack claimed by Africa's deadliest Islamic militant group al-Shabab. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

A unidentified relative is helped by Red Cross workers as she grieves after visiting the morgue in Nairobi, Kenya Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Extremists stormed a luxury hotel complex in Kenya's capital on Tuesday, setting off thunderous explosions and gunning down people at cafe tables in an attack claimed by Africa's deadliest Islamic militant group al-Shabab. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Michael Metaxas, the general manager of the dusitD2 hotel which was attacked by terrorists on Tuesday, speaks at a press conference where he said that four of the 100 hotel employees who were on duty at the time of the attack were killed, in Nairobi, Kenya Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Kenyan bomb disposal experts on Thursday found and safely detonated an explosive left over from the deadly extremist attack on the Nairobi luxury hotel complex. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Michael Metaxas, the general manager of the dusitD2 hotel which was attacked by terrorists on Tuesday, speaks at a press conference where he said that four of the 100 hotel employees who were on duty at the time of the attack were killed, in Nairobi, Kenya, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Kenyan bomb disposal experts on Thursday found and safely detonated an explosive left over from the deadly extremist attack on the Nairobi luxury hotel complex. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)BERLIN (AP) - German authorities say they have arrested a suspected member of the Tamil Tigers alleged to have been involved in the 2005 assassination of Sri Lanka's foreign minister.

Federal prosecutors said Thursday that police arrested 39-year-old Navanithan G. in southwestern Germany Wednesday and searched his home.

The man, whose surname wasn't released because of Germany privacy laws, is accused of membership in a foreign terrorist organization, murder and attempted murder.

Prosecutors said the suspect was part of the group's secret police, participating in the killing of Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kathirkamar in August 2005 and the attempted killing of Eelam People*s Democratic Party leader Douglas Devananda.

It wasn't immediately clear how long the suspect had been in Germany.BERLIN (AP) - The world is seeing growing resistance against the abuses of autocrats as states, civic groups and popular movements all push back against populists who are seeking to curtail freedoms, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

In its annual assessment of rights around the world, the advocacy group said rising opposition to authoritarian governments has been the most important development in the past year.

"The same populists who spread hatred and intolerance are fueling a resistance that keeps winning battles," agency director Kenneth Roth said. "Important battles are being won, re-energizing the global defense of human rights."

The report, released in Berlin, said the pushback can be seen in efforts to resist attacks on democracy in Europe, to prevent a bloodbath in Syria or to stop the Saudi-led bombing and blockade of Yemeni civilians.

In Europe, support for rights took many forms, on the streets and in institutions, the report said.

Large crowds protested Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's increasingly authoritarian rule and his limits on academic freedom. Tens of thousands took to the streets in Poland to protest the government's attempts to erode the independence of the judiciary. On the government level, Germany, Denmark and Finland stopped arms sales to Saudi Arabia following the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi.

Ken Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, poses for a photo prior to an interview with the Associated Press in Berlin, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

In the United States, the opposition Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives in the midterm election, with voters rejecting what it called "fear-mongering" by President Donald Trump, "who sought to mobilize his support base by trying to portray asylum-seekers fleeing Central American violence as a crisis."

Voters in Malaysia and the Maldives ousted their corrupt prime ministers, Armenia's prime minister stepped down amid massive protests over corruption, and Ethiopia, under popular pressure, replaced a long-abusive government with a prime minister who embarked on an impressive reform agenda.

"If you're an autocrat, it's very convenient to violate human rights - it's the way you stay in power, it's the way you fill up your bank account, it's the way you pay off your cronies," Roth told The Associated Press.

But, he added, "the role of the human rights movement is to raise the cost of these human rights violations - that's not something that's done overnight ... but we know that if you do raise the cost of abuse, ultimately, governments realize it is not paying and they start to curb these abuses."

Still, there have been setbacks on the human rights front.

China increased its repression over the last year to the worst level in decades. Roth expressed concern that President Xi Jinping ended term limits on his presidency and Chinese officials vastly expanded the country's surveillance of ordinary people.

"This year it became clear that he is detaining 1 million Uighur Muslims for so-called re-education, which basically means forcing them to renounce Islam and to renounce their ethnicity," Roth said.

Roth said if any other country was doing this "it would be an outrage, but China, because of its economic clout, has been getting away with it."

Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, talks to the Associated Press during an interview in Berlin, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Iran kept up its criticism Thursday of the FBI's apparent arrest of an American anchorwoman from Iran's state-run English-language TV channel, with its foreign minister saying "she's done nothing but journalism."

The hard-line Vatan-e Emrooz paper criticized the detention of Press TV's Marzieh Hashemi as "Saudi-style behavior with a critical journalist." That's a reference to the Oct. 2 assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Press TV that "we have a right to continue to look after her interests" as Hashemi, born Melanie Franklin in New Orleans, also holds Iranian citizenship.

Iranian law, however, does not recognize dual nationalities, an issue that comes up in its arrest of those with Western ties.

"She is a famous journalist, she's done nothing but journalism," Zarif told the broadcaster from a visit to Iraq. "The arrest of Ms. Hashemi is a very clear affront to freedom of expression, a political abuse of an innocent individual and I believe the United States should release her immediately without further delay."

Hashemi was detained Sunday in St. Louis, where she had filmed a Black Lives Matter documentary after visiting relatives in the New Orleans area. She was then taken to Washington by the FBI on a material witness warrant, according to her elder son, Hossein Hashemi.

This undated photo provided by Iranian state television's English-language service, Press TV, shows American-born news anchor Marzieh Hashemi at studio in Tehran, Iran. The elder son of Hashemi says his mother is being held in the United States, but has not been charged with anything. Hussein Hashemi says she was detained Sunday, Jan. 13, 2019, as she was leaving St. Louis for Denver. He says she had filmed a Black Lives Matter documentary in St. Louis after visiting family in New Orleans. (Press TV via AP)

The FBI said in an email that it had no comment.

"We still have no idea what's going on," said Hashemi, a research fellow at the University of Colorado who was interviewed by phone from Washington. He also said he and his siblings had been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury.

The incident comes as Iran faces increasing criticism of its own arrests of dual citizens and other people with Western ties. Those cases have previously been used as bargaining chips in negotiations with world powers.

Federal law allows judges to order witnesses to be arrested and detained if the government can prove their testimony has extraordinary value for a criminal case and that they would be a flight risk and unlikely to respond to a subpoena. The statute generally requires those witnesses to be promptly released once they are deposed.

___

Associated Press writer Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans contributed to this report.

Hossein Hashemi, from Denver, son of American-born news anchor Marzieh Hashemi, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. The elder son of Marzieh Hashemi, a prominent American-born news anchor for Iran's state television broadcaster, says she is being held in a U.S. prison, apparently as a material witness. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

In this undated photo provided by Iranian state television's English-language service, Press TV, American-born news anchor Marzieh Hashemi, right, smiles as she stands with her son in Tehran, Iran. The elder son of Hashemi says his mother is being held in the United States, but has not been charged with anything. Hussein Hashemi says she was detained Sunday, Jan. 13, 2019, as she was leaving St. Louis for Denver. He says she had filmed a Black Lives Matter documentary in St. Louis after visiting family in New Orleans. (Press TV via AP)WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - Authorities in Pennsylvania still are searching for a man they say led authorities on a multi-state car chase that caused two crashes, injuring several people including officers and a 3-year-old boy.

The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware, reported Wednesday that Philadelphia police spokeswoman Tanya Little says 20-year-old Dejuan Robinson is still on the loose. Authorities have said Robinson should be considered armed and dangerous.

Police say Robinson is a person of interest in several homicides in Delaware and is wanted in Pennsylvania on charges including eluding police. Robinson pleaded guilty in 2017 to illegal gang participation and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.

The toddler's mother, Meghan Stone-Kirts, said this week that her son has been hospitalized with several injuries including a traumatic brain injury.

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Information from: The News Journal of Wilmington, Del., http://www.delawareonline.comCAIRO (AP) - Yemen's Houthi rebels hold dozens of women without bringing them to trial or charging them with a crime, often torturing the detainees and blackmailing their families, activists said on Thursday.

The allegations were first raised over the weekend by the Yemen Organization for Combating Human Trafficking, based in the capital, Sanaa. The group's founder, Nabil Fadel, told The Associated Press that he received information from families, former female detainees, and other sources showing that over the past months, the Houthis have been rounding up women over allegations of prostitution and collaboration with the Saudi-led coalition, which is at war with the rebels.

The rebel-run Interior Ministry responded Monday by saying the allegations were rumors from the "mouthpieces of the mercenaries" that are "tarnishing the image of security apparatus." It also denied the existence of secret prisons and illegal and arbitrary detentions and vowed to prosecute those behind the reports.

A Yemeni rights lawyer on Thursday told the AP the women were rounded up from cafes and parks the past months. Speaking on condition of anonymity for fears for personal safety, he said their families are searching for their missing daughters.

The Yemeni anti-trafficking group said it obtained new information showing that the rebels were carrying out atrocities such as "abuse, torture, and forced disappearances of women and girls in secret and illegal prisons."

The rebel leader, Abdul-Malek al-Houthi, had recently warned in televised speeches about a so-called "soft war" against the Houthis by their enemies, pointing to their "corrupt morals and sins."

The Yemeni Houthi rebel delegation, background, and delegates of the internationally recognized Yemeni government, foreground, meet for a second day for talks on implementing a prisoner exchange agreed to in Sweden last month, in Amman, Jordan, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Yemen's Houthi rebels hold dozens of women without bringing them to trial or charging them with a crime, often torturing the detainees and blackmailing their families, activists said on Thursday. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)

Fadel, of the anti-trafficking group, said the arrests started after the Houthi appointment a year ago of Sultan Zabin as head of the Sanaa criminal investigation division.

Zabin promptly launched a crackdown on prostitution and smuggling. Women who had been rounded up in the crackdown and subsequently granted release were sent to secret detentions in villas across the Yemeni capital, instead of being set free.

An AP investigation last month showed that thousands of Yemenis have been imprisoned by the Houthi militia during the four years of Yemen's grinding civil war.

Many of them suffered extreme torture - being smashed in their faces with batons, hung from chains by their wrists or genitals for weeks at a time, and scorched with acid.

The revelations about women detainees come as representatives of Yemen's warring sides are in Jordan for talks on implementing a prisoners exchange deal agreed to in Sweden last month.

Yemen plunged into civil war in 2014, when the rebels captured the capital, Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition intervened a year later, fighting alongside government troops.

In Sweden, the two sides agreed to confidence-building measures, including an exchange of thousands of prisoners. But the implementation of that has been slow marred by violence.JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Officers at a Mississippi police department are accused of fatally injuring a man while taking him into custody.

Jackson Police Chief James Davis told news outlets on Wednesday that allegations shared online have prompted the department to investigate the death of George Robinson. Davis says Robinson was arrested Sunday night on a misdemeanor charge and released, with the expectation that he would return to court. He later died. It's unclear what charge he was arrested on.

Davis says Robinson was arrested while officers were searching for suspects in the fatal shooting of an area pastor. He declined to specify how many officers were involved or release their identities. He says no official complaints have been filed, so the involved officers won't be placed on leave during the investigation.ISLAMABAD (AP) - U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad arrived in Pakistan on Thursday, the last leg of a regional tour aimed at finding a negotiated conclusion to Afghanistan's 17-year war, which would end the U.S.'s longest military engagement.

Khalilzad has accelerated efforts to end the war since his appointment last September. On his previous visits he held talks with the Taliban in their Middle Eastern headquarters in Qatar, but a Taliban official said Khalilzad canceled meetings originally scheduled for Jan. 9-10 with its leadership. No explanation was given, he said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. Khalilzad is reported to be annoyed with the Taliban's relentless refusal to meet directly with the Afghan government representatives.

He is reportedly in Pakistan to seek Islamabad's help in getting the Taliban leadership into direct talks with President Ashraf Ghani's representatives. Pakistan says its influence over the Taliban is overstated, yet the arrest earlier this week in Pakistan's border city of Peshawar of Taliban leader Hafiz Mohibullah, ahead of Khalilzad's visit, has been seen as a likely attempt to pressure the insurgent group into talks.

Mohibullah is a member of the Taliban's political commission in Pakistan and a former Taliban military commander overseeing operations in 18 Afghan provinces, mostly in the east and north of the country.

The Taliban have been steadfast in their refusal to talk to the government, even issuing a statement earlier this week threatening to halt talks with the United States. They say Washington has sought to expand the scope of talks beyond the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan and ways of ensuring Afghanistan is not again used as a staging arena to attack another, as al-Qaida did on 9/11.

The Taliban statement did not specify what else the U.S. had sought, but Afghanistan's new peace envoy Mohammad Omar Daudzai has told The Associated Press that Khalilzad expected the Taliban to meet Ghani's representatives in November in the United Arab Emirates. According to Daudzai, Khalilzad had received guarantees from Saudi Arabia that the Taliban would enter into direct talks. They refused, which reportedly infuriated Afghanistan's president Ghani who had sent his National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib to the UAE.

FILE - In this March 13, 2009 file photo, Zalmay Khalilzad, special adviser on reconciliation speaks during a news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan. Khalilzad arrived in Pakistan on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019 on the last leg of a regional tour aimed at finding a negotiated end to Afghanistan's 17-year war, which would allow American troops to go home, ending the U.S.'s longest military engagement. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Since taking on the job of peace envoy, Khalilzad has met on several occasions with Taliban officials in their political office in Qatar but the Taliban leaders in Pakistan are considered influential.

Earlier on Thursday, Ghani called Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan, and while details were sketchy, a press statement from Khan's office said the discussion centered on finding a peaceful end to the protracted war in Afghanistan.

"Prime Minister Imran Khan assured President Ghani that Pakistan was making sincere efforts for a negotiated settlement of the conflict in Afghanistan through an inclusive peace process, as part of shared responsibility," according to the statement.

Pakistan has repeatedly said its influence over the Taliban is exaggerated. Still, Khan __ even before his election last year __ had called for negotiations to end the war.

Reports that the U.S. is planning to begin withdrawing its troops in the summer and U.S. President Donald Trump's statements that he has grown weary of the Afghan war has lent a sense of urgency to each new round of talks spearheaded by Khalilzad.

Trump has expressed his frustration with the progress of the war, even chastising his generals, telling his Cabinet earlier this month that "they didn't do such a good job in Afghanistan."

After 17 years and nearly $1 trillion in U.S. spending, Washington's own watchdog says the Taliban control or hold sway in nearly 50 percent of the country. Other estimates put it even higher. Punishing near daily attacks by insurgents on Afghanistan's National Security and Defense forces has taken a heavy toll on manpower and morale.Alarm launched by the bishops of the "Coordination of support" of the Holy Land at the end of their visit. Christians have the task of living as "full citizens", in the context of a "plural and democratic" society. The appeal to world governments to redouble "efforts for a diplomatic solution" with two states.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews) - Israeli Christians wish to live "as full citizens", with the "recognition of their rights" in the context of a "plural and democratic" society. This is what the Coordinating Group of Episcopal Conferences in support of the Holy Land states in the final communique at the end of their visit to Israel and Palestine. By showing "solidarity" to all Christians in the region, the members stress that they "are facing profound difficulties in all aspects of their lives".

Among the members of the Coordination there is great concern because "together with other Palestinian and migrant Arab citizens" in Israel, many Christians are "discriminated and marginalized". Among the elements that create particular apprehension is the law of the nation-state that creates "a real constitutional and legal basis for discrimination" against minorities.

This law, brought in by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and supported by the right wing of the country and the Jewish religious wing, undermines "the ideals of equality, justice and democracy". This is why Christian leaders reaffirm their support for Israeli Christians and for those who "challenge discrimination, in support of their plea for the protection of pluralism in the country".

The delegation was composed of a total of 15 members and was led by Msgr. Declan Lang, of England and Wales, president of the Holy Land Coordination. Among the prelates there was also the German bishop Stephen Ackermann, the Archbishop of South Africa Stephen Brislin, the American prelate Timothy Broglio, the Portuguese Jose Ornelas Carvalho and the Italian Rodolfo Cetoloni.

As the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity approaches - which begins today - the Coordination reaffirms "solidarity with all the Churches present here" and strengthens prayer so that we can work with greater vigor "together in the pursuit of justice and peace". The delegation visiting the region in recent days also went to Palestine where " here despite the faith and resilience of those we met, the misery of occupation has been deepened by severe cuts to humanitarian funding by the US government.Healthcare, education and other basic services for refugees are being increasingly threatened, exacerbating the ongoing violations of their fundamental human dignity. This cannot be ignored or tolerated." Hence the invitation to world governments to "fill the funding gaps" of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and redouble "efforts for a diplomatic solution, with two sovereign states".

Lastly, the visit also brought positive elements into perspective: among these "the presence of Israeli citizens of different backgrounds who live together and work together for the common good of their society". "We recognize that Israel - concludes the Coordination - was founded on the basis of declarations of principles of equality among all its citizens. These principles must urgently become effective ".ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Turkey deported a Dutch journalist on Thursday after receiving information about her from prosecutors in the Netherlands involved in a terrorism investigation. A Dutch prosecutor's office spokeswoman said the reporter is a suspect in an investigation, but not for terrorism offenses.

The spokeswoman declined to elaborate on the nature of the suspicions against the reporter, Ans Boersma.

Boersma, who worked for respected newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad and other news outlets in Istanbul, was detained by authorities on Wednesday while submitting documents at an immigration office to extend her Turkish residence permit.

The newspaper said in a statement that Boersma believes her deportation may be linked to a past relationship she had with a Syrian man suspected in the Netherlands of being a former member of a jihadist group.

Fahrettin Altun, the communications director for the Turkish presidency, confirmed Boersma's deportation in a message to foreign journalists in Turkey.

He said her ouster was "in no way related to her journalistic activities during her stay in Turkey" but was based on intelligence received from Dutch police "that Ms. Boersma had links to a designated terrorist organization."

Dutch police had "requested information about her movements in and out of Turkey," Altun added.

Later, Altun tweeted that the Netherlands had informed Turkey that the journalist had links to the jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra.

"If a credible foreign government agency tells you that one of their citizens has links to terrorism, you don't take any chances," he tweeted. "The Dutch authorities alone are in a position to explain why they arrived at that conclusion. We won't speculate on the credibility of their intelligence."

Jeichien de Graaff, a spokeswoman for the Dutch National Public Prosecutor's Office, said that prosecutors asked for information from Turkish authorities as part of a terror investigation and passed on information about Boersma. She would not confirm further details released by Turkish authorities.

"We would very much like to talk to her," De Graaff said, adding that Dutch authorities did not ask Turkey to deport her.

In a statement on the Financieele Dagblad website, the newspaper's editor Jan Bonjer said it remains unclear why Dutch police shared information about Boersma with Turkey.

"Ans herself considers it possible her deportation is related to the fact that until the summer of 2015 she had a relationship with a Syrian who was arrested in the Netherlands last autumn for former membership of the Syrian terror network Jabhat al-Nusra," the newspaper statement said.

Boersma's collegues in Istanbul said the journalist left with just a backpack and the clothes she had on.

Before the Dutch prosecutors' statement, Boersma's deportation was cast as the latest crackdown by Turkey on media freedom.

Since a 2016 coup attempt, Turkey has jailed thousands of people including journalists, academics and human rights activists for alleged ties to the coup or for terror-related charges. The Turkish Journalists' Syndicate says 141 journalists are currently behind bars, leading other media groups to describe Turkey as "the world's top jailer of journalists."

In a report released Thursday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said: "Prolonged and arbitrary jailing of critics on bogus terrorism charges has become the norm in Turkey."

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Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands.CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Australia's prime minister sidestepped a diplomatic dispute over a suspected extremist's nationality and brushed off criticism that he is burdening Pacific neighbors with unsustainable debt as he began a two-day visit on Thursday to Fiji.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is visiting Fiji and Vanuatu this week as both Australia and China strive to increase their influence among South Pacific island nations.

Morrison said his Fijian counterpart, Frank Bainimarama, had not raised with him the status of Neil Prakash, an Australian-born alleged extremist whom Australia stripped of citizenship on the basis that he was a Fijian dual national through his Fijian-born father. Fiji denies that 27-year-old Prakash, who is currently being held in a Turkish prison on terrorism charges, is Fijian.

"He did not raise it with me because this matter had already been dealt with," Morrison told reporters in the Fijian capital, Suva.

"We're here about a much bigger partnership than that. We work through those issues and move forward and I think that's a tremendous thing," he added.

It was not immediately clear whether the two nations had reached agreement on Prakash's citizenship. Bainimarama did not take reporters' questions during media events with Morrison. Australia's international obligations prevent it from rendering its citizens stateless, so only dual nationals can lose their Australian citizenship.

Fiji stands to benefit from a 2 billion Australian dollar ($1.4 billion) Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific announced by Morrison in November to provide grants and long-term loans for investments in telecommunications, energy, transport and water infrastructure.

China protested a year ago when then Australian Minister for International Development and the Pacific Concetta Fierravanti-Wells said Chinese aid programs in poor Pacific island countries were creating "white elephants" that threatened economic stability without delivering benefits.

On Thursday, Fierravanti-Wells - who remains a government senator but is no longer a minister - wrote an opinion piece in The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper asking, "why are we even contemplating saddling our neighbors with more debt?"

"We might argue that our debt is more transparent than Beijing's and therefore 'better debt,'" Fierravanti-Wells wrote.

"This is not only disingenuous, but it is not in the long-term interests of Pacific Island countries," she added.

Morrison noted that Australia's financing facility includes AU$500 million in grants that would not have to be repaid.

"I don't agree with the perspective that she's offered, and for this reason: I would agree with the perspective that has been shared with me not just by Pacific leaders across the region but our allies and partners well beyond our region," Morrison said.

Bainimarama said his discussions with Morrison focused on security and defense cooperation as well as border and maritime security.

"I am confident when I say that today's bilateral was not only a clear success, it truly marks a new chapter in the Fiji-Australian relationship," Bainimarama told reporters.LONDON (AP) - The Latest on Brexit (all times local):

4:40 p.m.

Theresa May's office says the British prime minister will skip the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, next week to focus on resolving the Brexit crisis.

May had been expected to attend the gathering of world leaders and global power players in the Swiss ski resort. But her Downing Street office says she is "focused on matters here."

Britain's Brexit process is gridlocked, 10 weeks before the country is expected to leave the European Union on March 29.

May saw her Brexit deal rejected by Parliament and narrowly won a no-confidence vote this week. She was meeting Thursday with opposition leaders and other lawmakers in a bid to find agreement on a new Brexit plan.

FILE - In this Monday, Dec. 10, 2018 file picture European and French flags are flapping at the Elysee Palace in Paris, during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and local, national political leaders, unions, business leaders and others to hear their concerns after four weeks of protests. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced Thursday that the government will start hiring 600 extra government employees including customs agents to handle cross-border trade and security. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)

May is due to publish a revised Brexit blueprint on Monday, before Parliament debates it on Jan. 29.

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2:50 p.m.

Britain has put military reservists on standby for permanent service in the event the country leaves the European Union without a divorce agreement to smooth the way.

A cliff-edge "no-deal" Brexit on March 29 could bring gridlock at ports and disruption to the supply of goods because of the sudden need for customs checks and other measures.

Armed Forces Minister Mark Lancaster says an order has been made allowing reservists to be called up for a year of permanent service as part of "contingency planning for a no-deal EU exit scenario."

The Ministry of Defense has said 3,500 soldiers will be available to help if needed after a no-deal Brexit.

Opposition politicians condemned the move. Labour lawmaker Ian Murray said it was "staggering that soldiers are being put on standby because of the risk of a constitutional crisis of the government's own making."

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1:55 p.m.

Germany's parliament has approved legislation regulating a putative transition period following Britain's departure from the European Union, a bill described as obsolete by an opposition lawmaker.

Lawmakers passed legislation Thursday under which Britain would essentially still be treated as an EU member during the nearly two-year transition foreseen by the withdrawal agreement that the British Parliament rejected this week. It's unclear whether and to what extent that deal can be salvaged.

Alexander Lambsdorff of the opposition Free Democrats said that the legislation "is completely obsolete. We are voting on a bill that will never take effect."

But Florian Hahn, a lawmaker with Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right bloc, said authorities want to continue preparing for all eventualities and it's a signal that Germany wants to pursue the deal.

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1:10 p.m.

The leader of the Welsh political party Plaid Cymru has said it was "good to talk" to Prime Minister Theresa May about the Brexit deadlock.

Party leader Adam Price said Thursday after meeting with May that the discussions focused on what he called "the surest way" to break the stalemate: a so-called "people's vote" on Brexit.

Price said that "we had a fairly lengthy discussion about that and we set out some of the criteria which could be adopted. We are available to continue those discussions."

He also said it is "essential" that May take the no-deal option off the table.

The prime minister is meeting with various opposition parties as she seeks a consensus in Parliament on how to proceed. She has thus far ruled out a second referendum.

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12:40 p.m.

Germany's foreign minister says a delay to Britain's withdrawal from the European Union could be considered only if Britain first clearly states where it is heading.

Britain is currently due to leave the EU March 29, with or without a deal. An extension would require approval from the other 27 EU countries.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Germany's parliament that the EU is prepared to consider carefully a new British proposal but it's "barely conceivable" that the withdrawal deal rejected by British lawmakers this week could be reopened.

He added that "a clear perspective" from Britain was needed "to answer the question of whether and how long" there could be an extension.

Maas said his message to British lawmakers is: "You've impressively demonstrated your sense of black humor in recent days, now we're counting on your legendary pragmatism and sense of reality."

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11:35 a.m.

Britain's main opposition leader says Prime Minister Theresa May's offer of cross-party talks on a new Brexit deal is a "stunt" because she will not rule out leaving the European Union without an agreement.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is refusing to meet May until she takes no-deal "off the table."

After May's EU divorce deal was resoundingly rejected by Parliament, she said she would talk to opposition leaders and other lawmakers in a bid to find consensus on a new plan.

But Corbyn said that May has shown no sign of lifting her "red lines," which include leaving the EU's customs union and single market.

Corbyn said in a speech Thursday that May "seems prepared to send the country hurtling toward a cliff-edge." He told her to "ditch the red lines and get serious about proposals for the future."

___

11:15 a.m.

The British Parliament expects to vote on Brexit again on Jan. 29 following extended debate on the government's plans and possible amendments.

Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom told Parliament Thursday that the date has been set aside for a full day of debate and voting.

Prime Minister Theresa May plans to return to Parliament on Monday to present her revised Brexit plan following the crushing defeat of her withdrawal plan.

She will announce her "Plan B" after meeting with a variety of opposition parties in the coming days with the goal of finding some sort of consensus.

Main opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party has thus far declined to meet with the prime minister.

___

10:15 a.m.

The European Union's Brexit negotiator says he hopes British Prime Minister Theresa May's consultations with national political leaders can help break the deadlock over the terms of the U.K.'s departure from the EU and herald "a new stage" in Brexit negotiations.

Michel Barnier said Thursday that "getting an agreement is in everybody's interest" and that "something has to change" to secure a divorce deal.

Barnier told Portuguese lawmakers during a visit to Lisbon that in the absence of an agreement, negotiations between the U.K. and EU on contingency measures to prevent the breakdown of common infrastructure won't take place in "a climate of confidence."

Barnier says he hasn't spoken about the possibility of postponing Brexit because the March 29 departure date was chosen by Britain and is written into U.K. law.

___

10 a.m.

France's government is kicking off a 50 million-euro (about $57 million) plan to prepare for the increasingly likely possibility that Britain will leave the European Union on March 29 without a plan.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced Thursday that the government will start hiring 600 extra government employees including customs agents to handle cross-border trade and security.

He said the plan also includes money for airports and ports, which are "most concerned" by the prospect of a so-called hard Brexit.

He said "we strongly believe" Britain will leave with no exit deal, notably after the British parliament this week overwhelmingly rejected a divorce agreement worked out with the EU.

France's parliament approved a special law this week allowing for the government to impose emergency measures to deal with a no-deal Brexit.

___

9:30 a.m.

The European Union's Brexit negotiator says the U.K.'s so-called red lines on how much ground it is willing to give in negotiations for its departure from the EU have "shut doors" to a broader agreement.

Michel Barnier says of the EU's negotiating position, "If (the red lines) change, we'll change."

He told lawmakers in Lisbon, Portugal that the withdrawal agreement is "balanced, respectful," adding that the EU hadn't reached such an "ambitious" agreement with any other non-EU country.

In general, EU negotiators have found Britain to be inflexible in its desire to retain some of the economic advantages of trading freely with the bloc's countries while ending the free movement of European citizens into Britain and abiding by other EU guiding principles.

Barnier was in Lisbon on a longstanding invitation to meet with local officials.

Barnier said Wednesday in Strasbourg that he was more concerned than ever about the possibility of Britain leaving the EU without an agreement following Tuesday's parliamentary defeat for Prime Minister Theresa May's divorce deal.

___

8:10 a.m.

France's prime minister is a holding a special government meeting on how his country will cope with a possible "no-deal" Brexit.

The French parliament adopted a law Wednesday allowing emergency measures after March 30 in the event Britain leaves without a deal.

Such measures could aim to reduce problems in cross-border trade and transport, notably through the Eurotunnel beneath the English Channel, and allow British workers and retirees based in France temporary permission to stay until a longer-term deal is worked out.

Britain's Parliament rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal with the European Union on Tuesday night. Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn immediately called for a no-confidence vote, but May's government survived it on Wednesday night.

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8:05 a.m.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is reaching out to opposition parties and other lawmakers in a battle to keep Brexit on track after surviving a no-confidence vote.

European Union countries are also debating Thursday on how to move forward now that the U.K. Parliament has rejected May's Brexit deal with the bloc and with the March 29 exit date looming.

Parliament overwhelmingly rejected the deal on Tuesday night, in a crushing defeat for May. Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn immediately called for a no-confidence vote, but May's government survived it on Wednesday night.

May invited opposition leaders for talks about how to secure another Brexit deal and avoid leaving the EU without a deal. But Corbyn has declined unless May takes the "no-deal" possibility off the table.

Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks during a debate before a government no-confidence vote in the House of Commons, London, Wednesday Jan. 16, 2019. Prime Minister Theresa May has won a no confidence vote later Wednesday. (Jessica Taylor, UK Parliament via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, centre left, speaks in the House of Commons, after MPs rejected a no-confidence vote against the government, in London, Wednesday Jan. 16, 2019. Prime Minister Theresa May won the no confidence vote called for by opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, following the dramatic failure of the government Brexit vote. (Mark Duffy, UK Parliament via AP)

French Government's Spokesperson Benjamin Griveaux, left and French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe attend the French National Assembly's questions to the government in Paris, Wednesday, Jan.16, 2019. France's parliament is expected to adopt a law allowing for emergency measures to deal with Britain's March 29 exit from the EU. The National Assembly is voting Wednesday on the final reading of a special law drafted to handle a 'no-deal' Brexit. The law includes things like extra customs officers after Brexit day, and a temporary rule allowing Britons employed in France to keep their jobs after March 29 even though they will no longer be EU citizens. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier listens during a debate on Brexit at the European Parliament, Wednesday, Jan.16, 2019 in Strasbourg, eastern France. Barnier says the bloc is stepping up preparations for a chaotic no-deal departure of Britain from the bloc after the rejection of the draft withdrawal deal in London left the EU "fearing more than ever that there is a risk" of a cliff-edge departure. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

British Prime Minister Theresa May arrives to speak outside 10 Downing street in London, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. May's government survived a no-confidence vote Wednesday called after May's Brexit deal was overwhelmingly rejected by lawmakers. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, centre left, speaks in the House of Commons, after MPs rejected a no-confidence vote against the government, in London, Wednesday Jan. 16, 2019. Prime Minister Theresa May won the no confidence vote called for by opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, following the dramatic failure of the government Brexit vote. (Mark Duffy, UK Parliament via AP)

Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks during a debate before a government no-confidence vote in the House of Commons, London, Wednesday Jan. 16, 2019. Prime Minister Theresa May has won a no confidence vote later Wednesday. (Jessica Taylor, UK Parliament via AP)

Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow speaks during a debate before a government no-confidence vote in the House of Commons, London, Wednesday Jan. 16, 2019. Prime Minister Theresa May won a no confidence vote later Wednesday. (Jessica Taylor, UK Parliament via AP)LONDON (AP) - A weakened but defiant Prime Minister Theresa May met lawmakers from Britain's rival Brexit factions Thursday to try to forge a replacement for her rejected European Union exit plan.

But the country's main opposition leader branded the talks a "stunt," and May gave little sign she would make major changes to the divorce deal tossed out by Parliament this week. A new Brexit showdown between Parliament and government looked to be looming in the House of Commons before the end of the month.

"The really important question is, 'there's an open door, is there an open mind to a change?'" said Labour Party lawmaker Hilary Benn, who heads Parliament's Brexit committee and met with May on Thursday.

With Britain's Brexit process gridlocked, EU countries stepped up preparations for a disorderly British exit on March 29. The nations were spending millions, hiring thousands of workers and issuing emergency decrees to cope with the possibility that Britain will leave the bloc without an agreement to smooth the way.

British lawmakers threw out May's Brexit deal Tuesday, a defeat that triggered a no-confidence vote in the government. May's minority Conservative administration narrowly survived with backing from its Northern Irish ally, the Democratic Unionist Party.

A chastened May promised that she would hold talks "in a constructive spirit" with leaders of opposition parties and other lawmakers in a bid to find a way forward for Britain's EU exit.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, left, arrives at 10 Downing street as Environment Secretary Michael Gove leaves the Prime Minister's residence in London, Thursday Jan. 17, 2019. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May is reaching out to opposition parties and other lawmakers Thursday in an effort to put Brexit back on track, after surviving a no-confidence vote Wednesday. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

The government confirmed that May will meet a Monday deadline to publish a Brexit "Plan B," and that lawmakers will have a full day to debate it - and, crucially, amend it - on Jan. 29.

May so far has showed little inclination to make major changes to her Brexit deal or lift her insistence that Brexit means leaving the EU's single market and customs union.

Many lawmakers think a "soft Brexit" that kept Britain in the EU's single market or customs union is the only plan capable of winning a majority in Parliament. A smaller but substantial group of Brexit-backing lawmakers is strongly opposed to that idea.

May and other senior ministers met Thursday with representatives from several of Parliament's feuding Brexit factions: Northern Ireland's compromise-rejecting Democratic Unionists, Euroskeptic "hard Brexit"-backing Conservatives, those urging Britain to hold a second EU membership referendum and supporters of a close economic relationship with the EU.

May claimed to be listening, but she can't please everyone.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, said he wouldn't meet with May until she took a no-deal Brexit "off the table."

"To get a deal that can command a majority in Parliament, Theresa May has to ditch the red lines and get serious about proposals for the future," Corbyn said during a speech to supporters in the English seaside town of Hastings. "Last night's offer of talks with party leaders turned out to be simply a stunt, not the serious attempt to engage with the new reality that's needed."

In a letter to Corbyn, released by the prime minister's office, May said it was "not within the government's power to rule out no deal" because by law Britain will leave the EU on March 29 "unless Parliament either agrees a deal with the EU or the U.K. ... chooses to stay in the EU permanently."

She said it would be wrong to stay in the EU and "overturn the referendum result."

As Britain flounders, the 27 other EU countries have stood firm, saying they won't renegotiate the withdrawal agreement and insisting that the British government and its lawmakers need to decide what they want to do.

EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, who said Wednesday that he was more concerned than ever that Britain could crash out of the EU without an agreement, said the red lines set out by Britain's negotiators on issues such as the customs union and limiting immigration had "shut doors."

Barnier said Thursday that "something has to change" to secure a divorce deal.

"If (the red lines) change, we'll change," Barnier said after meeting with Portuguese officials in Lisbon.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe held a special government meeting Thursday on planning to cope with a "no-deal" Brexit. France is spending 50 million euros ($57 million) to increase security at airports and the Eurotunnel, and it is hiring hundreds of extra customs officers. The French parliament adopted a law Wednesday allowing emergency measures after March 30 in the event that Britain leaves without a deal.

Such measures could aim to reduce problems in cross-border trade and transport, notably through the Eurotunnel beneath the English Channel, and allow British workers and retirees based in France temporary permission to stay until a longer-term deal is worked out.

Britain has already devoted thousands of civil servants and several billion pounds (dollars) to no-deal planning, amid warnings from businesses and economists that the country faces disruption to trade, goods shortages and a deep recession if it crashes out of the bloc without a deal.

The government said Thursday it had issued an order allowing military reservists to be called up for a year of full-time service in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Opposition politicians condemned the move.

"It is outrageous," said Liberal Democrat armed forces spokesman Jamie Stone. "What kind of message to the country is this? It does nothing to alleviate the worry and uncertainty people feel."

___

Associated Press writers Gregory Katz and Frank Griffiths in London, Angela Charlton in Paris and Barry Hatton, in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the meeting in France was held by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, not President Emmanuel Macron.

Britain's Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay arrives at Downing Street. London, Thursday Jan. 17, 2019. British Prime Minister Theresa May is reaching out to opposition parties and other lawmakers Thursday in a battle to put Brexit back on track after surviving a no-confidence vote. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

DUP Party leader Arlene Foster and Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds, left, make a statement to the media after exiting 10 Downing Street. London, Thursday Jan. 17, 2019. British Prime Minister Theresa May is reaching out to opposition parties and other lawmakers Thursday in a battle to put Brexit back on track after surviving a no-confidence vote. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, arrives at Downing street in London, Thursday Jan. 17, 2019. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May is reaching out to opposition parties and other lawmakers Thursday in an effort to put Brexit back on track, after surviving a no-confidence vote Wednesday. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Britain's Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks during a visit to Hastings, south east England, Thursday Jan. 17, 2019. Jeremy Corbyn said Prime Minister Theresa May's offer of cross-party talks on a new Brexit deal is a "stunt" because she will not rule out leaving the European Union without an agreement. Corbyn is refusing to meet May until she takes no-deal "off the table." (Gareth Fuller/PA via AP)

Britain's Environment Secretary Michael Gove arrives at Downing Street. London, Thursday Jan. 17, 2019. British Prime Minister Theresa May is reaching out to opposition parties and other lawmakers Thursday in a battle to put Brexit back on track after surviving a no-confidence vote. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

A European flag waves in front of German flags at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019 prior to a debate of the German parliament, Bundestag, about a law regulating the rights of British nationals during the Brexit transition period. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Britain's Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn after his speech during a visit to Hastings, south east England, Thursday Jan. 17, 2019. Jeremy Corbyn said Prime Minister Theresa May's offer of cross-party talks on a new Brexit deal is a "stunt" because she will not rule out leaving the European Union without an agreement. Corbyn is refusing to meet May until she takes no-deal "off the table." (Gareth Fuller/PA via AP)

Britain's Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn pauses during a speech in a visit to Hastings, south east England, Thursday Jan. 17, 2019. Jeremy Corbyn said Prime Minister Theresa May's offer of cross-party talks on a new Brexit deal is a "stunt" because she will not rule out leaving the European Union without an agreement. Corbyn is refusing to meet May until she takes no-deal "off the table." (Gareth Fuller/PA via AP)

European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier gets out of his car as he arrives to meet Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa at the Sao Bento palace in Lisbon, Thursday, Jan. 17 2019. Barnier says he hopes British Prime Minister Theresa May's consultations with national political leaders can help break the deadlock over the terms of the U.K.'s departure from the EU and herald "a new stage" in Brexit negotiations.(AP Photo/Armando Franca)

European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, left, and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa pose for the cameras before their talks at the Sao Bento palace in Lisbon, Thursday, Jan. 17 2019. Barnier says he hopes British Prime Minister Theresa May's consultations with national political leaders can help break the deadlock over the terms of the U.K.'s departure from the EU and herald "a new stage" in Brexit negotiations.(AP Photo/Armando Franca)

European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, left, and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa pose for the cameras before their talks at the Sao Bento palace in Lisbon, Thursday, Jan. 17 2019. Barnier says he hopes British Prime Minister Theresa May's consultations with national political leaders can help break the deadlock over the terms of the U.K.'s departure from the EU and herald "a new stage" in Brexit negotiations.(AP Photo/Armando Franca)

European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier gets out of his car as he arrives to meet Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa at the Sao Bento palace in Lisbon, Thursday, Jan. 17 2019. Barnier says he hopes British Prime Minister Theresa May's consultations with national political leaders can help break the deadlock over the terms of the U.K.'s departure from the EU and herald "a new stage" in Brexit negotiations.(AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond arrives in Downing Street. London, Thursday Jan. 17, 2019. British Prime Minister Theresa May is reaching out to opposition parties and other lawmakers Thursday in a battle to put Brexit back on track after surviving a no-confidence vote. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

The sun shines through a European Union flag tied onto a railing near parliament in London, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. British Prime Minister Theresa May is reaching out to opposition parties and other lawmakers Thursday in a battle to put Brexit back on track after surviving a no-confidence vote. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Britain's Environment Secretary Michael Gove in Downing Street, London, Thursday Jan. 17, 2019. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May is reaching out to opposition parties and other lawmakers Thursday in a battle to put Brexit back on track, after surviving a no-confidence vote Wednesday. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)BEIJING (AP) - The top U.S. and Chinese trade envoys will hold talks in Washington this month in a possible sign of progress toward ending a costly tariff battle over Beijing's technology ambitions.

The Ministry of Commerce announcement of the Jan. 30-31 event was the first sign of a next step by the two sides following negotiations in Beijing earlier this month between lower-level officials.

China's economy czar, Vice Premier Liu He, was invited by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, the ministry said.

Economists and business groups said earlier that a decision by Liu and Lighthizer to take part in person would indicate technical discussions made enough progress to require high-level political decisions.

The two sides have imposed tariff hikes of up to 25 percent on tens of billions of dollars of each other's goods in the fight over U.S. complaints Beijing steals or pressures companies to hand over technology. Washington also is pressing China to roll back plans for state-led industry development that its trading partners say violate its market-opening obligations.

The Washington talks are aimed at carrying out the Dec. 1 agreement by Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping to suspend further tariff increases for 90 days while they negotiate, said Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng.

FILE - In this Jan. 2, 2019, file photo, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He attends an event to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Message to Compatriots in Taiwan at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. China's economy czar, Liu will visit Washington on Jan. 30-31 for talks aimed at ending a costly tariff war over U.S. complaints about Beijing's technology ambitions. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool, File)

They are likely to take up more complex U.S. complaints about Chinese policy on which lower-level officials "couldn't give a clear response," said Yu Chunhai, a trade expert at Renmin University in Beijing.

Chinese officials have suggested Beijing might adjust its industry plans. But they reject pressure to abandon what they consider a path to prosperity and global influence.

Liu probably will tell U.S. officials "what China can and can't do," said Yu.

For their part, Chinese leaders object to U.S. export controls on "dual use" technology with possible military uses. They say Chinese companies are treated unfairly in national security reviews of proposed corporate acquisitions, though almost all deals are approved unchanged.

"Such communication must be made between officials at a higher level," said Yu.

Neither side has shown any sign of changing its basic position. Economists say the 90-day window is too short to resolve conflicts that have strained their relations for nearly two decades.

Chinese exports to the United States held up through much of 2018 despite Trump's tariff hikes but contracted by 3.5 percent in December compared with a year earlier as the penalties began to depress demand.

Liu held talks in June in Beijing with U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross as trade tensions mounted. They failed to produce a settlement and Trump went ahead the next month with his first tariff hikes.

Liu made a surprise appearance at this month's talks in Beijing. Financial markets took that as a positive sign. Global stock markets rose but then fell back after the meeting produced no agreements.

U.S.-Chinese relations are increasingly strained over technology, trade and cyber-spying.

This month's talks in Beijing went ahead despite the arrest of an executive of Chinese technology giant Huawei in Canada on Dec. 1. The United States wants her extradited on charges that she lied to a bank about dealings with Iran.

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported U.S. prosecutors are investigating whether Huawei stole trade secrets from U.S. companies.

The investigation was prompted in part by a lawsuit brought by T-Mobile U.S. Inc. that accused two Huawei employees of stealing technology for a robotic arm used to test mobile phones, the Journal said, citing unidentified sources. The two companies settled their dispute in 2017.

"We doubt the intentions behind this," said a foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying. She said it would be "inconsistent with the rules of free and fair competition" if U.S. authorities "arbitrarily used the state apparatus to suppress Chinese enterprises."

Beijing has tried to defuse pressure for more sweeping changes by emphasizing its growing importance as an import market and promising more access to its auto and some other industries.

Trump has complained repeatedly about the U.S. trade deficit with China. China reported Monday its 2018 trade surplus with the United States swelled to a record $323.3 billion.

Beijing also faces complaints from the European Union. The 28-nation trade bloc has filed a challenge in the World Trade Organization against Chinese licensing rules it says hinder foreign companies from protecting and profiting from their own technologies.SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The storm that pummeled much of California for three days began moving east Thursday after causing at least six deaths, forcing wildfire victims threatened by floods to flee their homes and plunging nearly 300,000 utility customers into darkness.

The winter storm is forecast to unleash heavy rain, snow and wind in Colorado and "will be slamming the East Coast by Sunday," National Weather Service forecaster Steve Anderson said. "From Maine to Florida."

Anderson said most of California should be dry and sunny by Friday.

The three-day drenching put a dent in California's drought, dumping as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain in parts of Southern California, and between 3 and 6 inches (7.6 and 15 centimeters) in Los Angeles. Government and university researchers who maintain the U.S. Drought Monitor map now classify most of the state as abnormally dry or in moderate drought. Only about 6 percent is in severe or extreme drought, compared to nearly a quarter of the state last September.

Rain and snow fell from one end of the state to the other, canceling flights, uprooting trees, knocking down power lines and causing localized flooding.

In Malibu, a boulder hit a 57-year-old woman while she was hiking Thursday. She was in critical condition Thursday night.

A work crew removes branches from a tree on Mission Street in San Francisco, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Heavy rain, snow and wind pummeled much of California Thursday, causing at least five deaths, leaving thousands without power and forcing wildfire victims threatened by floods to flee their homes. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In Riverside County, firefighters rescued 12 homeless people stranded on an island in the Santa Ana River bottom, while 25 other transients were evacuated from the river banks. Farther upstream in San Bernardino, firefighters rescued one person trapped on an island while a second was able to swim to shore.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department posted a dramatic video on Twitter showing the helicopter rescue of a person caught in the rising San Gabriel River.

Also in Los Angeles, about 20 residents were evacuated from their homes in the Hollywood Hills when mud slid from beneath a house. No one was hurt and the residents were allowed to return home several hours later.

In Ventura County northwest of Los Angeles, 4,500 gallons (17,000 liters) of sewage flowed into the Ventura River when an RV park became flooded. Health officials urged people in the area to avoid touching any storm runoff or ocean water for several days.

In San Francisco, fallen trees blocked the city's iconic cable car tracks for hours Thursday and similarly delayed other commuter trains in region.

A 200-year-old oak tree towering 100 feet (30 meters) over James Holmes' suburban San Francisco home toppled over in the wind Wednesday night.

"My family lived under it in our house for 70 years," he said.

In the Marin County community of Mill Valley, just north of San Francisco, a man was killed when he jumped into the street to dodge a falling tree Wednesday night and was struck by a van, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Earlier Wednesday, a branch from a falling tree killed a 42-year-old homeless man in Oakland. The man may have been "just trying to stay dry" under the tree, CHP officer Herman Baza said.

CHP reported that four people were killed in separate Northern California crashes caused by rain-slickened roads this week, including a 1-year-old who was among three people in a vehicle who died Tuesday from a crash in the Sierra Nevada foothill town of Placerville.

Southern California authorities concerned with rising streams and excessive runoff ordered evacuations in parts of Malibu and other areas scarred by wildfires. Malibu schools canceled classes. Santa Anita racetrack canceled its slate of horse races Thursday.

In the Southern California hillside community of Oak Park, where residents used pumps and sandbags to hold off rushing storm water, longtime resident Diane Starzak said her neighborhood "kind of dodged the bullet" as the storms began to taper off.

"We actually had our suitcases in the car and were ready to leave," said Starzak, who is volunteer coordinator for Oak Park's community's emergency response team.

Instead the family used pumps to divert water cascading down a hillside behind their home. "We are really, really happy, really excited," she said.

Meanwhile, blizzard conditions blanketed the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada and the region's ski resorts with as much as 4 feet (1.2 meters) of snow just in time for the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.

So much snow accumulated on the tail of an executive jet parked at the Tahoe Truckee Airport that it caused the plane's nose to tilt skyward in a stationary wheelie.

Pacific Gas & Electric said 280,000 customers lost power at some point since Wednesday. PG&E spokeswoman Mayra Tostado said 26,432 customers remained without power Thursday afternoon.

___

Antczak reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Janie Har in San Francisco and John Rogers in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Department of Water and Power employees work in the pouring rain to clear a fallen tree from a road in the Hollywood hills in Los Angeles, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. The latest in a series of Pacific Ocean storms pounded California with rain and snow Thursday, prompting officials to put communities on alert for mudslides and flooding and making travel treacherous. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

In this Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019 photo, Shane Francis of Guerneville, Calif., steps out of his SUV after making sure it started up after a large tree fell on it during a wind storm that tore through Sonoma County and northern California. Rain and snow fell from one end of the state to the other, canceling flights, uprooting trees, knocking down power lines and causing localized flooding. (Kent Porter/The Press Democrat via AP)

Pedestrians make their way along a rain soaked Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. The latest in a series of Pacific Ocean storms pounded California with rain and snow Thursday, prompting officials to put communities on alert for mudslides and flooding and making travel treacherous. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

A pedestrians makes his way along a rain soaked Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. The latest in a series of Pacific Ocean storms pounded California with rain and snow Thursday, prompting officials to put communities on alert for mudslides and flooding and making travel treacherous. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Department of Water and Power employees work in the pouring rain to clear a fallen tree from a road in the Hollywood hills in Los Angeles, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. The latest in a series of Pacific Ocean storms pounded California with rain and snow Thursday, prompting officials to put communities on alert for mudslides and flooding and making travel treacherous. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Department of Water and Power employees work in the pouring rain to clear a fallen tree from a road in the Hollywood hills in Los Angeles, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. The latest in a series of Pacific Ocean storms pounded California with rain and snow Thursday, prompting officials to put communities on alert for mudslides and flooding and making travel treacherous. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Department of Water and Power employees work in the pouring rain to clear a fallen tree from a road in the Hollywood hills in Los Angeles, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. The latest in a series of Pacific Ocean storms pounded California with rain and snow Thursday, prompting officials to put communities on alert for mudslides and flooding and making travel treacherous. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

A man shares a part of his sandwich with birds as they seek partial shelter from rain at Grand Park in Los Angeles Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Rain and snow fell from one end of the state to the other, canceling flights, uprooting trees, knocking down power lines and causing localized flooding. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

A man sleeps on top of a vent in rain at Grand Park in Los Angeles Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Rain and snow fell from one end of the state to the other, canceling flights, uprooting trees, knocking down power lines and causing localized flooding. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

A work crew removes branches from a tree on Mission Street in San Francisco, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Heavy rain, snow and wind pummeled much of California Thursday, causing at least five deaths, leaving thousands without power and forcing wildfire victims threatened by floods to flee their homes. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

A work crew removes branches from a tree on Mission Street in San Francisco, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Heavy rain, snow and wind pummeled much of California Thursday, causing at least five deaths, leaving thousands without power and forcing wildfire victims threatened by floods to flee their homes. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

This Wed. Jan. 16, 2019 photo shows an overnight accumulation of about 20 inches of heavy wet snow dubbed "Sierra cement" causing a Cessna Citation X business jet at an outdoor parking spot to do a tail stand at Truckee Tahoe Airport in Truckee, Calif. Airport official Marc Lamb photographed the aircraft before mechanics cleared the snow. No injuries were reported. (Marc Lamb via AP)

The strong wind catches a woman's umbrella as she walks along the beach just north of the Huntington Beach Pier in Huntington Beach on Thursday morning, Jan. 17, 2019, as another storm brought more rain to Orange County and Southern California. (Mark Rightmire/Orange County Register via AP)

A kitesurfer took advantage of the high winds to ride the waves just north of the Huntington Beach Pier Rain in Huntington Beach on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, as another storm brought more rain Orange County and Southern California. (Mark Rightmire/Orange County Register via AP)

A work crew removes branches from a tree on Mission Street in San Francisco, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Heavy rain, snow and wind pummeled much of California Thursday, causing at least five deaths, leaving thousands without power and forcing wildfire victims threatened by floods to flee their homes. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - In a story Jan. 17 about a fatal police shooting on Thanksgiving night, The Associated Press reported erroneously that testimony showed a man killed by police in an Alabama shopping mall was standing over a shooting victim. The statement was made by a defense attorney, not a witness.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Lawyer: Man shot by Alabama police held gun over victim

A defense lawyer said video shows that a man who was fatally shot by police who mistook him for a suspect in an Alabama shopping mall last year was standing over a shooting victim with a gun moments before he was killed

By JAY REEVES

Associated Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - A man killed by police who mistook him for a suspect in an Alabama shopping mall on Thanksgiving night was standing over a shooting victim with a gun drawn moments before he was fatally wounded, a defense attorney said Thursday.

Details of the video surrounding the police shooting of Emantic "EJ" Bradford Jr., 21, came out during a hearing for Erron Brown, 20, who is charged with attempted murder in the gunfire that preceded the killing.

With a state police investigator, Pete DaCosta, on the stand, Brown's attorney, Charles Salvagio, suggested that surveillance video showed Bradford standing with a gun after Brian Wilson was shot and wounded at a mall in Hoover, a suburb of Birmingham. The shooting came at the start of holiday shopping.

Within moments, police shot and killed Bradford, whose death sparked days of protests.

Outside court, the state attorney general's office said DaCosta did not agree to Salvagio's description of what the video showed.

Roosevelt Poole, a friend of Brown, testified that two groups of men met up at the mall near a shoe store after Bradford sent him a Facebook message asking about their location.

As the groups came together, Poole said, Bradford shook his hand. About the same time, a smiling Wilson punched or slapped Brown in the face.

Eric Parker, who was with Poole and Brown, testified he saw Bradford move forward about the same time and appear to be pulling out a gun as shots rang out. People scattered after the gunfire, and Parker said he heard more shots as he fled - possibly the sound of police shooting Bradford.

Police shot Bradford three times on the back side of his body, a medical review released by his family found. Attorneys for his parents have portrayed Bradford as a "good guy with a gun" who was trying to protect others when police killed him.

But the attorney for Brown, Salvagio, argued that his client fired in self-defense after a confrontation sparked in part by Bradford.

"If they put on the evidence we hear today, the grand jury isn't going to indict (Brown)," Salvagio told Judge William A. Bell Jr.

Assistant Attorney General Andrew Arrington argued that prosecutors had enough evidence for a grand jury to consider indicting Brown in Wilson's shooting, and the judge agreed.

The judge also agreed with a defense request to lower Brown's bail from $125,000 to $60,000.

Brown was arrested at a relative's home near Atlanta days after the shooting. He has remained in jail since.WASHINGTON (AP) - High-level talks aimed at finalizing a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are planned for this week in Washington, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to meet former North Korean spy chief Kim Yong Chol at a Washington hotel on Friday. The meeting will likely be followed by a Kim visit to the White House, where he could meet with Trump, according to two officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Neither the U.S. nor North Korea has announced any meetings, although Kim Yong Chol arrived earlier Thursday in Beijing, where he was booked on a flight to the U.S., South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported. A motorcade that included the North Korean ambassador's car and a Chinese car with a sign reading "state guest" could be seen departing from a VIP area at the airport.

Trump has spoken several times of having a second summit with Kim early this year and has exchanged multiple letters with the North Korean despite little tangible progress on a vague denuclearization agreement reached at their first meeting in Singapore last June. Since then, several private analysts have published reports detailing continuing North Korean development of nuclear and missile technology.

At a conference of U.S. diplomats at the State Department on Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence acknowledged the lack of progress. He called the Trump-Kim dialogue "promising" but stressed that "we still await concrete steps by North Korea to dismantle the nuclear weapons that threaten our people and our allies in the region."

A planned meeting between Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol in New York last November was called off abruptly. U.S. officials said at the time that North Korea had canceled the session.

North Korean official Kim Yong Chol, right, prepares to leave the Beijing International Airport in Beijing Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Kim arrived in Beijing on Thursday, reportedly en route to the United States for talks ahead of a possible second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (Kyodo News via AP)

A White House official, while not confirming plans for Friday's meeting, said "a lot of positive things" are happening related to North Korea's denuclearization. The official said Trump and Kim Jong Un had established a "good relationship" and that U.S.-North Korea conversations were continuing.

The official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the two sides were "working to make progress" on the denuclearization goal and that Trump "looks forward to meeting Chairman Kim again at their second summit at a place and time yet to be determined."

The talks had stalled over North Korea's refusal to provide a detailed accounting of its nuclear and missile facilities that would be used by inspectors to verify any deal to dismantle them. The North has been demanding that the U.S. lift harsh sanctions and provide it with security guarantees before it takes any steps beyond its initial suspension of nuclear and missile tests.

Kim Jong Un expressed frustration in an annual New Year's address over the lack of progress in negotiations. But on a visit to Beijing last week, he said North Korea would pursue a second summit "to achieve results that will be welcomed by the international community," according to China's official Xinhua News Agency.

North Korean official Kim Yong Chol, right, prepares to leave the Beijing International Airport in Beijing Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Kim arrived in Beijing on Thursday, reportedly en route to the United States for talks ahead of a possible second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (Kyodo News via AP)

Kim Yong Chol, left, a North Korean senior ruling party official and former intelligence chief, is shielded with umbrellas as he arrives at the VIP terminal of the Beijing International airport in Beijing Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Kim arrived in Beijing on Thursday, reportedly en route to the United States for talks ahead of a possible second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Kim Yong Chol, a North Korean senior ruling party official and former intelligence chief, gets into a car upon his arrival at the Beijing International airport in Beijing Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. (Kim Jin-bang/Yonhap via AP)MOSCOW (AP) - A Belarusian model who claimed last year that she had evidence of Russian interference in the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president was arrested immediately upon her arrival in Moscow on Thursday following deportation from Thailand.

Moscow police said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that Anastasia Vashukevich was detained in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on charges of inducement to prostitution along with three people deported alongside her.

Vashukevich, who has been in a Thai prison since February last year, was given a suspended sentenced on Tuesday and ordered to be deported after she pleaded guilty to soliciting and conspiracy along with several co-defendants in a case related to holding a sex training seminar in Thailand.

Vashukevich, also known on social media as Nastya Rybka, earlier claimed to have recordings of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska talking about interference in the 2016 U.S. election, but never released them.

Deripaska is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and also had a working relationship with Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign manager who was investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller and convicted last year of tax and bank fraud.

Russian news agencies said that four of the seven people deported from Thailand who arrived in Moscow Thursday were detained, including Vashukevich and Alexander Kirillov, her mentor in the sex training business. They may face up to six years in prison if convicted on charges of inducement to prostitution.

Belarusian model Anastasia Vashukevich talks to journalists as she is escorted from the Immigration Detention Center towards a vehicle to take her to an airport for deportation in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Thai officials say they are deporting Vashukevich who claimed last year that she had evidence of Russian involvement in helping elect Donald Trump president. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

In the early stages of their detention in Thailand, the sex training group sent a note to the U.S. Embassy via an intermediary seeking help and political asylum. Vashukevich indicated she would turn over the recordings she claimed to have if the U.S. could help secure her release, but she later withdrew the offer, suggesting that she and Deripaska had reached an agreement.

A public scandal erupted in early February last year when Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny published an investigation drawing on Vashukevich's social media posts suggesting corrupt links between Deripaska and a top Kremlin official, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko. The investigative report featured video from Deripaska's yacht in 2016, when Vashukevich, who has also worked as an escort, was aboard.

On Wednesday in Washington, the U.S. Senate narrowly upheld a Treasury Department decision to lift sanctions from three companies connected to Deripaska.

The Treasury Department says the Russian companies have committed to separating from Deripaska, who will remain blacklisted as part of an array of measures announced in early April that targeted tycoons close to the Kremlin.

Deripaska was one of 24 Russian officials and tycoons faced with sanctions imposed by the United States as Washington stepped up its condemnation of Russia's actions in recent years, including its 2014 annexation of Crimea, support for Syrian President Bashar Assad, hacking attacks and meddling in Western elections.

The metals tycoon controls a business empire with assets in aluminum, energy and construction and is worth $5.3 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

___

Kaewjinda reported from Bangkok. Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report. This story has been updated with the correct spelling of Vashukevich's surname.

Belarusian model Anastasia Vashukevich, left, and Russian self-styled sex guru Alexander Kirillov, right, look out of a van leaving the Immigration Detention Center for an airport for deportation, in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Thai officials say they are deporting Vashukevich who claimed last year that she had evidence of Russian involvement in helping elect Donald Trump president. Kirillov was arrested for holding a sex training seminar in Pattaya, Thailand, in February 2018. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Russian self-styled sex guru Alexander Kirillov, second from right, looks out of a van leaving the Immigration Detention Center for an airport for deportation, in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Kirillov was arrested for holding a sex training seminar in Pattaya, Thailand, in February 2018. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Belarusian model Anastasia Vashukevich sits in a van leaving the Immigration Detention Center for an airport for deportation in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Thai officials say they are deporting Vashukevich who claimed last year that she had evidence of Russian involvement in helping elect Donald Trump president. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Belarusian model Anastasia Vashukevich, center, speaks to journalists while being escorted by Thai Immigration police officers from the Immigration Detention Center towards a vehicle to take her to an airport for deportation in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Thai officials say they are deporting Vashukevich who claimed last year that she had evidence of Russian involvement in helping elect Donald Trump president. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Belarusian model Anastasia Vashukevich is escorted by Thai Immigration police officers from the Immigration Detention Center towards a vehicle to take her to an airport for deportation in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Thai officials say they are deporting Vashukevich who claimed last year that she had evidence of Russian involvement in helping elect Donald Trump president. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Belarusian model Anastasia Vashukevich sits in a van leaving the Immigration Detention Center for an airport for deportation in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Thai officials say they are deporting Vashukevich who claimed last year that she had evidence of Russian involvement in helping elect Donald Trump president. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Belarusian model Anastasia Vashukevich sits in a van leaving the Immigration Detention Center for an airport for deportation in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Thai officials say they are deporting Vashukevich who claimed last year that she had evidence of Russian involvement in helping elect Donald Trump president. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Russian self-styled sex guru Alexander Kirillov, second from right, is escorted by Thai Immigration police officers from the Immigration Detention Center towards a vehicle to take him to an airport for deportation, in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Kirillov was arrested for holding a sex training seminar in Pattaya, Thailand, in February 2018. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Belarusian model Anastasia Vashukevich is escorted by Thai Immigration police officers from the Immigration Detention Center towards a vehicle to take her to an airport for deportation in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. Thai officials say they are deporting Vashukevich who claimed last year that she had evidence of Russian involvement in helping elect Donald Trump president. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) - When Sen. Elizabeth Warren took the stage earlier this month at this city's ornate Orpheum Theatre, Tricia Currans-Sheehan posed a pointed question to the expected presidential contender.

"Why did you undergo the DNA testing and give Donald Trump more fodder to be a bully?" the Iowa college professor asked, referring to a genetic analysis the Massachusetts Democrat released last fall to rebut President Donald Trump's repeated jabs about her Native American ancestry.

Warren had a simple response: "I can't stop Donald Trump from doing what he's going to do." After another woman in the crowd retorted, "Yes, you can," Warren gently reiterated that "I can't stop him from hurling racial insults. I don't have the power to do that."

The scene demonstrates the challenge Warren, who has launched a presidential exploratory committee, and dozens of other White House hopefuls will face as the Democratic primary gets underway. They must decide how - and whether - to respond to Trump's pugnacious and insensitive attacks on his political opponents. If they punch back too hard, they could be accused of playing Trump's game. If they ignore him entirely, they risk appearing unprepared to take on a president who knows few boundaries.

Warren was tested again late Sunday when Trump seized on one of her social media videos to issue a tweet that made light of two massacres of Native Americans. South Dakota's two Republican senators distanced themselves from Trump's comment, which drew condemnation from Native American officials. But Warren herself didn't immediately engage.

In an interview this week, Warren called the tweet "disgusting" for mocking "one of the darkest moments in American history," the deadly assault on hundreds of Native American women and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Yet she also hinted at a bigger reason for not responding right away.

FILE - In this Jan. 5, 2019, file photo, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, waves to the crowd during an organizing event at Curate event space in Des Moines, Iowa. Some of the Democrats considering running for president in 2020 say they plan to ignore personal needling from President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Matthew Putney, File)

"He needs to focus on getting the government open, on doing his job," she said. "He hopes that he can draw attention elsewhere, but it's not working."

Others considering 2020 campaigns also indicate that, whenever possible, they plan to ignore Trump's personal needling and focus on issues.

"I don't want to waste my time on negativity" when voters "want to hear positive," Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey said in an interview in which he also commended Warren, his likely rival for the Democratic nomination.

"What's more important is what Sen. Warren is talking about, and she's putting great ideas out there," Booker said. "Why let anybody distract from the compelling things she's saying and how she's presenting herself?"

But Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, another potential 2020 candidate, suggested Democrats face a tricky challenge.

"You have to stand your ground" in response to Trump, she said in an interview, but also take care about "how you do it, because he wants you to go down in the rabbit hole. He wants to define the agenda every single day."

While "everyone makes their own decision" on replying to a Trump taunt, she added, "I think it is very important to put it in its place and, while you respond, you do not spend weeks talking about him. Because that is exactly what he wants."

Other possible Democratic candidates haven't hesitated to tangle with Trump. Sen. Sherrod Brown recalled that when Trump slammed him over the closure of a General Motors plant in his home state, he poked the president for seeking "an Ohio Democrat to blame" while the GOP held power in the state.

Asked how he would respond if Trump got more personal, Brown didn't shrink. The president "talks like an idiot," Brown said. "And I don't think that serves anybody well to answer every time he says something stupid, or something that's a lie." Democrats, he added, should "talk about the issues that matter to the public."

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is mulling another presidential campaign, said last March that he would have "beat the hell out of" Trump if they were in high school together, citing Trump's now-infamous 2005 comments about assaulting women with impunity.

Inside the White House, Trump's Sunday tweets mocking Warren were widely joked about by staff weary from the government shutdown, according to two aides, and the president repeatedly mocked Warren's video in private conversations with aides and outside advisers. White House officials and Trump allies said the president is already an active participant in the Democratic race.

The aides spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House dynamics.

Attention from Trump can drive up fundraising and elevate a candidate above a crowded field. But responding to attacks also distracts from a candidate's message, as Trump's rivals in the 2016 GOP primary learned as he bedeviled them with name-calling. Trump goaded Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida into making a thinly veiled insult of his manhood that quickly backfired, and weeks later sucked Texas Sen. Ted Cruz into a brutal back-and-forth about an insult he leveled at Cruz's wife.

Beyond Warren, Trump has hurled insults at other Democrats, labeling Sen. Bernie Sanders as "crazy." Trump once asked a crowd to choose between two demeaning names for Biden and deployed innuendo when saying Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York "would do anything for campaign contributions."

In 2016, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was the subject of a near-daily barrage of personal attacks from Trump. Her team decided she would ignore personal insults and criticisms of her husband and of the Clinton Foundation, according to her 2016 communications director Jennifer Palmieri.

However, Clinton publicly defended parents of a Muslim U.S. Army captain killed in Iraq and former Miss Universe Alicia Machado after Trump criticized them. Those instances were aimed at standing up for others, Palmieri said, while a candidate who responds to a personal taunt risks appearing small and distracted from the more important issues facing the nation.

"It comes across as very self-absorbed. Then the campaign ends up in this tit-for-tat with Donald Trump, and not about the voters," Palmieri said.

Responding to an attack on someone else in "defense of inclusivity or some larger truth" is a good idea, Palmieri said, but "don't do it in defense of yourself. Then you're sinking to Trump's level."

Warren's release of the DNA test remains a concern for some voters as she hits the trail. Tricia Currans-Sheehan, the Iowa teacher who asked Warren about it in Sioux City, drew a contrast between what she described as Warren playing "into Trump's hand" and the "poise" that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi displayed in another showdown with the president in December.

Retired Sioux City teacher Colleen Sernett-Shadle said after Warren's event ended that "I worry" the Democratic candidate might "give in" to Trump on other attacks.

Other Iowa activists shared the call for discretion.

"We're wrong if we're going to go out and be as visceral as Trump is," said Nancy Bobo, a Des Moines Democrat and early 2008 backer of former President Barack Obama. "It's going to come down to soft skills to pull off a win. By that, I mean style, someone who can show real strength to be a counter to all the divisiveness."

___

Schor reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.WASHINGTON (AP) - It took President Donald Trump one day to flex his executive power back at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, denying her an aircraft for a planned trip abroad in apparent response to her attempt to delay his State of Union address amid their government shutdown clash.

The nation's two most powerful leaders appeared to be engaged in a game of Constitutional one-upmanship, as negotiations to end the 4-week stalemate failed to produce results.

In a letter to Pelosi on Thursday, Trump said that due to the shutdown a trip to Egypt, Brussels and Afghanistan would be delayed, declaring: "In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I'm sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate."

While the shutdown dragged on, the State Department on Thursday instructed all U.S. diplomats in Washington and elsewhere to return to work next week with pay, saying it had found money for their salaries at least temporarily despite the ongoing government shutdown.

In a notice to staff posted online and sent to employees, the department said it had found money to pay most of its employees beginning Sunday or Monday for their next pay period. They will not be paid for time worked since the shutdown began in December until the situation is resolved, said the notice, which was signed by William Todd, the deputy undersecretary of state for management.

It was not immediately clear where the money was found, but the department said it would use "existing funds as well as other available fiscal authorities to shift existing balances to restart payroll funding."

A portion of a letter sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to President Donald Trump, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019 in Washington. A day after Pelosi sought to delay President Trump's State of Union address amid their government shutdown clash, the president flexed his executive power right back, denying her an aircraft for a planned trip abroad. (AP Photo/Wayne Partlow)

Salaries cannot be guaranteed beyond the next pay period, which ends on Feb. 14, if the shutdown does not end by then, the department said. However, it said it would "review its balances and available legal authorities to see if other flexibilities may be available."

The department said it was taking the step because it had become clear that the lapse in funding is harming essential diplomatic and national security objectives.

"While the department has done its best to address matters essential to achieving U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives during the ongoing lapse, it has become clear as the lapse has continued to historic lengths that we need our full team to address the myriad critical issues requiring U.S. leadership around the globe and to fulfill our commitments to the American people," it said.

It added that the department's leadership was "deeply concerned" about the financial hardships faced by its employees.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had raised eyebrows among the U.S. diplomatic corps last week when he proclaimed that morale at the State Department was "good" despite the shutdown and the fact that 40 percent of its employees in the U.S. and nearly 23 percent overseas had been furloughed and the rest were working without pay.

His comments also touched a nerve as he said he planned to go ahead with a previously scheduled conference of all U.S. ambassadors in Washington this week despite the funding constraints affecting employees.

Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan announced the return to work with pay instructions to that conference on Thursday and was greeted with two rounds of sustained applause, according to one diplomat who was present.

Outside the State Department other agencies continued to operate under the shutdown constraints.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says President Donald Trump has yet to respond to her request that he postpone his State of the Union address until the government is reopened so workers can be paid for providing security for the grand Washington tradition.

"We haven't heard - very silent," she told reporters on Thursday. "Let's get a date when government is open. Let's pay the employees. Maybe he thinks it's OK not to pay people who do work. I don't."

The president's planned Jan. 29 address became a potential casualty of the four-week partial government shutdown after the Democratic leader cited concerns about whether the hobbled government can provide adequate security. Republicans cast Pelosi's move as a ploy to deny Trump the stage.

Trump declined to address the stalemate over the speech Thursday during a visit to the Pentagon, simply promising that the nation will have "powerful, strong border security."

The uncertainty surrounding the annual address also underscored the unraveling of ceremonial norms and niceties in Trump's Washington, amid the shutdown over the president's demand for money to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall. The impasse is draining the finances of hundreds of thousands of federal employees going without paychecks.

Pelosi reiterated she is more than willing to negotiate money for border security once the government is reopened, but she said Democrats remain opposed to Trump's long-promised wall, one of his signature campaign promises.

"I'm not for a wall," Pelosi said twice, mouthing the statement a third time for effect.

Pressure on Trump intensified, as lawmakers from both parties scrambled for solutions. The shutdown, already the longest ever, entered its 27th day Thursday.

While Trump's own advisers said the shutdown was proving a greater drag on the economy than expected, Trump showed no signs of backing off a fight that he views as vital for his core supporters.

___

For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. government shutdown: https://apnews.com/GovernmentShutdown

___

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Chris Rugaber, Darlene Superville, Matthew Daly, Jonathan Lemire, Alan Fram, Colleen Long, Andrew Taylor, Laurie Kellman, Elana Schor and Ken Sweet contributed to this report.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo greets Vice President Mike Pence at the Global Chiefs of Mission Conference "One Team, One Mission, One Future" at Department of State on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Donald Trump speaks about American missile defense doctrine, Thursday, Jan 17, 2019, at the Pentagon. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks about American missile defense doctrine, Thursday, Jan 17, 2019, at the Pentagon. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., center, speaks to reporters as she leaves an event with furloughed federal workers amid the partial government shutdown, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

FILE - In this Jan. 30, 2018 file photo, President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Several dozen federal employees and supporters demonstrated at the Sacramento International Airport calling for President Donald Trump and Washington lawmakers to end then partial government shutdown, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., left, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., right, laugh as they wait for other freshman Congressmen to deliver a letter calling to an end to the government shutdown to deliver to the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. Also pictured is Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, right. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

A portion of a letter sent to President Donald Trump from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019 in Washington. Pelosi has asked President Trump to postpone his State of the Union address to the nation, set for Jan. 29, until the government reopens. (AP Photo/Wayne Partlow)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., center, speaks to reporters as she leaves an event with furloughed federal workers amid the partial government shutdown, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., center, walks through the halls of the Capitol Building in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

In this Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019, photo, trout roil the surface of the water as a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee feeds the young trout at the Norfork National Fish Hatchery in Mountain Home, Ark. As the partial government shutdown continues, the hatchery is closed to the public but employees there continue to care for the fish. (Josh Dooley/The Baxter Bulletin via AP)

On day 26 of the partial government shutdown, Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., assemble outside the Capitol holding photographs of their constituents affected by the impasse between Congress and the White House, in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

People wait in line at Chef Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen for free meals to workers effected by the government shutdown, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019 in Washington. Andres opened his World Central Kitchen feeding site on Pennsylvania Ave., to provide food to furloughed workers and their families. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

In this Jan. 10, 2019 photo, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meets with reporters in her first formal news conference, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Pelosi has asked President Donald Trump to postpone his State of the Union address to the nation, set for Jan. 29, until the government reopens. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

In this Friday, Jan. 11, 2019, photo a statue of a panda bear is seen behind the closed gate of the Smithsonian's National Zoo that is closed because of the partial government shutdown in Washington. The Baked by Yael bakery is located across the street. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

FILE- In this Monday, Jan. 14, 2019, file photo security lines at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta stretch more than an hour long amid the partial federal shutdown. As the partial government shutdown moves through its fourth week with no end in sight, the economic blow is being felt not only by federal workers but also by business people, households and travelers across the country. (John Spink/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders talks with reporters outside the White House, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders talks with reporters outside the White House, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)TOKYO (AP) - A Tokyo court rejected Thursday another appeal by lawyers of Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn to have him released on bail.

The lawyers had appealed a rejection by the Tokyo District Court two days earlier of their request that Ghosn, held at a Tokyo detention center since his arrest on Nov. 19, be granted bail.

Ghosn, 64, has been charged with two alleged crimes - falsifying financial reports by allegedly underreporting his income over the past eight years, and with breach of trust for allegedly causing Nissan Motor Co. to shoulder his personal investment losses and make payments to a Saudi businessman who helped out.

Ghosn has led Nissan for two decades. He asserted his innocence in court last week, his first public appearance since the arrest.

France's economy minister has asked Nissan's alliance partner Renault SA to choose a successor to Ghosn. So far they only have named an acting chairman. Nissan dismissed him as chairman days after his arrest.

Suspects and defendants in Japan can be detained for months before trial, and legal experts say bail requests for those who deny their allegations are less likely to be granted than for those who confess.

FILE - This Jan. 8, 2019, file courtroom sketch, depicts former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn in a courtroom at the Tokyo District Court in Tokyo. Ghosn's lawyers appealed on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, to a court rejection earlier this week to their request for his release on bail. The appeal comes two days after the Tokyo District Court turned down a bail request by Ghosn's lawyer, prolonging his detention. (Nobutoshi Katsuyama/Kyodo News via AP, File)

Japanese prosecutors have a more than 99 percent conviction rate in criminal cases and suspects are generally not presumed innocent until proven guilty.ATLANTA (AP) - A Georgia man who traded his car for an antitank rocket, guns and explosives in a plot to storm the White House is under arrest, authorities said.

Hasher Jallal Taheb, 21, of Cumming, was arrested in an FBI sting operation Wednesday and is charged with attempting to damage or destroy a building owned by the United States using fire or an explosive, U.S. Attorney Byung J. "BJay" Pak said.

It wasn't immediately clear whether Taheb had an attorney who could comment on the allegations.

The FBI set up the sting after a local law enforcement agency said in March that it got a tip from someone who said Taheb had become radicalized, changed his name and planned to travel abroad, according to an FBI agent's affidavit filed in court. A confidenctial FBI source and an undercover agent both made contact with Taheb after he advertised his vehicle for sale in August.

Special Agent Chris Hacker, who oversees the FBI office in Atlanta, said they believe Taheb was acting on his own.

The affidavit says Taheb told the FBI source in October that he planned to travel abroad for "hijra," which the agent wrote refers to traveling to territory controlled by the Islamic State. Because he didn't have a passport, he couldn't travel abroad and told the FBI source that he wanted to carry out an attack in the U.S. against the White House and the Statue of Liberty.

He later mentioned other sites he'd also like to target, including the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and a specific synagogue, the affidavit says.

He met with the undercover agent and the FBI source multiple times last month and was also in frequent contact using an encrypted messaging application, the affidavit says.

During one meeting with the agent and the source, Taheb "advised that if they were to go to another country, they would be one of many, but if they stayed in the United States, they could do more damage," the affidavit says. Taheb "explained that jihad was an obligation, that he wanted to do as much damage as possible, and that he expected to be a 'martyr,' meaning he expected to die during the attack."

At another meeting, he showed the undercover agent a hand-drawn diagram of the ground floor of the West Wing of the White House and detailed a plan for attack, the affidavit says. He asked the undercover agent to obtain the weapons and explosives needed to carry out the attack, and they discussed selling or exchanging their cars to pay for them.

Taheb told the undercover agent they needed a "base" where they could regroup and where he could record a video to motivate people: "He stated he would be the narrator, clips of oppressed Muslims would be shown, and American and Israeli flags would be burned in the background."

Last week, Taheb told the undercover agent he wanted to pick up weapons this week and drive directly to Washington to carry out the attack, investigators said.

Taheb said they would approach the White House from the back road, causing a distraction for police and then would proceed into the White House, using an antitank weapon to blow open a door and then take down as many people and do as much damage as possible, the affidavit says.

Despite his detailed attack plans, Taheb told an undercover FBI agent he had never shot a gun but could learn easily and also said he had watched some videos of how grenades explode, the affidavit says.

Taheb met with the FBI source and undercover agent on Wednesday in a parking lot in Buford to exchange their cars for semi-automatic assault rifles, three explosive devices with remote detonators and an anti-tank rocket, the affidavit says.

A second FBI source met them and inspected the vehicles, and a second FBI undercover agent arrived in a tractor trailer with weapons and explosives that had been rendered inert by the FBI. The undercover agent and Taheb talked about the guns, how to arm and detonate the explosives and how to use the antitank rocket, the affidavit says.

Taheb and the undercover agent and FBI source whom he believed to be part of his group turned over their car keys to the second confidential source and then loaded the inert explosives and guns into a rental vehicle, the affidavit says. Then, after they got into the car and closed the doors, agents arrested Taheb.NEW YORK (AP) - In a story Jan. 16 about testimony in the trial of alleged drug cartel leader Joaquin Guzman, The Associated Press erroneously spelled the last name of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent. He is Victor Vazquez, not Vasquez.

A corrected version of the story is below:

US agent: Mexican police excluded from 2014 El Chapo manhunt

An American drug enforcement agent says he purposely kept Mexican police in the dark about efforts in 2014 to hunt down the drug lord known as El Chapo

NEW YORK (AP) - A U.S. agent testified Wednesday that Mexican police were purposely kept in the dark about secret efforts in 2014 to hunt down notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman because they couldn't be trusted.

Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Victor Vazquez told a jury in Guzman's trial that he was the American liaison for an operation to try to capture the top leadership of the Sinaloa cartel. He demanded only Mexican marines on his team because he believed, unlike the police, they wouldn't tip off the cartel.

Involving police "was not going to work" because of the "corruption level," Vazquez testified in federal court in Brooklyn.

Deep-rooted corruption and ineffectiveness among police forces has led Mexico to rely heavily for years on the military - and particularly the marines - to combat drug cartels in parts of the country.

Using DEA intelligence about the whereabouts of the cartel bosses, a strike force of about 100 marines in helicopters and trucks first tried to capture Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, but failed to find him in a raid at a ranch in Sinaloa, he said.

The trial day ended before Vazquez could describe efforts to find Guzman. The notorious kingpin was caught in 2014 but ended up escaping through a tunnel that was dug into his prison cell.

Guzman was recaptured in 2016 and sent to the U.S. to face drug-trafficking charges carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison. He says he's being framed by shady cooperators.

Earlier Wednesday, cooperator Alex Cifuentes acknowledged on cross-examination that he had told investigators that his Colombian cartel once paid for protection with a "monthly allowance" to "General Naranjo" - an apparent reference to Gen. Oscar Naranjo Trujillo. The former general, who was known in his country for fighting drug-traffickers, denied the allegation on social media.NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A prominent American anchorwoman on Iranian state television has been arrested by the FBI during a visit to the U.S., the broadcaster reported Wednesday, and her son said she was being held in a prison, apparently as a material witness.

Marzieh Hashemi, who worked for the network's English-language service, was detained in St. Louis, where she had filmed a Black Lives Matter documentary after visiting relatives in the New Orleans area. She was then taken to Washington, according to her elder son, Hossein Hashemi.

The FBI said in an email that it had no comment on the arrest of the woman who was born Melanie Franklin in New Orleans and has worked for Iran's state television network for 25 years.

Hossein Hashemi said his mother lives in Tehran and comes back to this country about once a year to see her family, usually scheduling documentary work somewhere in the U.S. as well.

"We still have no idea what's going on," said Hashemi, a research fellow at the University of Colorado who was interviewed by phone from Washington. He also said he and his siblings had been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury.

The incident comes as Iran faces increasing criticism of its own arrests of dual citizens and other people with Western ties. Those cases have previously been used as bargaining chips in negotiations with world powers.

In this image provided by Hossein Hashemi, Marzieh Hashemi, poses for a photo. Marzieh Hashemi, a prominent American anchorwoman on Iranian state television has been arrested by the FBI during a visit to the U.S., the broadcaster reported Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, and her son said she was being held in a prison, apparently as a material witness. (Hossein Hashemi via AP)

Federal law allows judges to order witnesses to be arrested and detained if the government can prove their testimony has extraordinary value for a criminal case and that they would be a flight risk and unlikely to respond to a subpoena. The statute generally requires those witnesses to be promptly released once they are deposed.

Marzieh Hashemi, an American citizen, had not been contacted by the FBI before she was detained and would "absolutely" have been willing to cooperate with the agency, her son said.

Asked whether his mother had been involved in any criminal activity or knew anyone who might be implicated in a crime, Hashemi said, "We don't have any information along those lines."

Hashemi said his mother was arrested as she was about to board a flight from St. Louis to Denver. A spokesman for St. Louis Lambert International Airport declined to comment and referred questions to the FBI.

The constitutionality of the material witness law has "never been meaningfully tested," said Ricardo J. Bascuas, a professor at the University of Miami School of Law. "The government only relies on it when they need a reason to arrest somebody but they don't have one."

No matter the reason for Marzieh Hashemi's detention, she should have been granted a court appearance by now, Bascuas said.

She apparently was unable to call her daughter until Tuesday night. The family is trying to hire an attorney, but it has been difficult because she has not been charged with a crime, her son said.

Iran's state broadcaster held a news conference and launched a hashtag campaign for Hashemi, using the same techniques families with loved ones held in the Islamic Republic use to highlight their cases.

"We will not spare any legal action" to help her, said Paiman Jebeli, deputy chief of Iran's state IRIB broadcaster. Iran's Press TV aired footage of her anchoring news programs and discussing the war in Syria, set to dramatic music.

There were no references to any case against Hashemi in U.S. federal courts, nor in Missouri.

Hashemi describes herself online as having studied journalism at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She converted to Islam in 1982 at age 22 after meeting Iranian activist students in Denver.

She married a man she met while in journalism school. They had two sons and a daughter. Her husband is dead, said Hashemi's brother, Milton Leroy Franklin of the New Orleans suburb of Metairie.

Last week, Iran confirmed it is holding U.S. Navy veteran Michael R. White at a prison, making him the first American known to be detained under President Donald Trump's administration.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told state TV that Hashemi's arrest indicates the "apartheid and racist policy" of the Trump administration.

"We hope that the innocent person will be released without any condition," Ghasemi said.

At least four other American citizens are being held in Iran, including Iranian-American Siamak Namazi and his 82-year-old father, Baquer, both serving 10-year sentences on espionage charges. Iranian-American art dealer Karan Vafadari and his Iranian wife, Afarin Neyssari, received 27-year and 16-year prison sentences, respectively. Chinese-American graduate student Xiyue Wang was sentenced to 10 year in prison.

Also in an Iranian prison is Nizar Zakka, a permanent U.S. resident from Lebanon who advocated for internet freedom and has done work for the U.S. government. He was sentenced to 10 years on espionage-related charges.

Former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007 while on an unauthorized CIA mission, remains missing as well. Iran says that Levinson is not in the country and that it has no further information about him. His family holds Tehran responsible for his disappearance.

___

Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo in Washington, Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Jim Salter in St. Louis, Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

In this image provided by Hossein Hashemi, he and his mother, Marzieh Hashemi, pose for a photo. Marzieh Hashemi, a prominent American anchorwoman on Iranian state television has been arrested by the FBI during a visit to the U.S., the broadcaster reported Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, and her son said she was being held in a prison, apparently as a material witness. (Hossein Hashemi via AP)

In this undated photo provided by Iranian state television's English-language service, Press TV, American-born news anchor Marzieh Hashemi, right, smiles as she stands with her son in Tehran, Iran. The elder son of Hashemi says his mother is being held in the United States, but has not been charged with anything. Hussein Hashemi says she was detained Sunday, Jan. 13, 2019, as she was leaving St. Louis for Denver. He says she had filmed a Black Lives Matter documentary in St. Louis after visiting family in New Orleans. (Press TV via AP)

This undated photo provided by Iranian state television's English-language service, Press TV, shows American-born news anchor Marzieh Hashemi at studio in Tehran, Iran. The elder son of Hashemi says his mother is being held in the United States, but has not been charged with anything. Hussein Hashemi says she was detained Sunday, Jan. 13, 2019, as she was leaving St. Louis for Denver. He says she had filmed a Black Lives Matter documentary in St. Louis after visiting family in New Orleans. (Press TV via AP)

Paiman Jebeli, deputy chief of Iran's state IRIB broadcaster gives a press briefing about American-born news anchor on Iranian state television's English-language service, Marzieh Hashemi, shown in banner, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. Hashemi has been arrested after flying into the U.S., the broadcaster reported Wednesday. The reported detention of Press TV's Hashemi, born Melanie Franklin of New Orleans, comes as Iran faces increasing criticism of its own arrests of dual nationals and others with Western ties, previously used as bargaining chips in negotiations with world powers. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Paiman Jebeli, deputy chief of Iran's state IRIB broadcaster gives a press briefing about American-born news anchor on Iranian state television's English-language service, Marzieh Hashemi, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. Hashemi has been arrested after flying into the U.S., the broadcaster reported Wednesday. The reported detention of Press TV's Hashemi, born Melanie Franklin of New Orleans, comes as Iran faces increasing criticism of its own arrests of dual nationals and others with Western ties, previously used as bargaining chips in negotiations with world powers. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A woman weeps while a video clip is shown about an American-born news anchor working for Iranian state television's English-language service, Marzieh Hashemi, during a press briefing by Paiman Jebeli, deputy chief of Iran's state IRIB broadcaster, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. Hashemi has been arrested after flying into the U.S., the broadcaster reported Wednesday. The reported detention of Press TV's Hashemi, born Melanie Franklin of New Orleans, comes as Iran faces increasing criticism of its own arrests of dual nationals and others with Western ties. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A video clip is shown about American-born news anchor on Iranian state television's English-language service, Marzieh Hashemi, during a press briefing by Paiman Jebeli, deputy chief of Iran's state IRIB broadcaster, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. Hashemi has been arrested after flying into the U.S., the broadcaster reported Wednesday. The reported detention of Press TV's Hashemi, born Melanie Franklin of New Orleans, comes as Iran faces increasing criticism of its own arrests of dual nationals and others with Western ties. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Constitution spells it out clearly in Article II, Section 3: 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."

But the modern State of the Union address - the pageantry, the televised address and the agenda-setting message - is a far more recent tradition.

A look at the history of the State of the Union address as the White House weighs its response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's suggestion that President Donald Trump delay this year's address or give it in writing due to the partial government shutdown:

Q: Who delivered the first State of the Union address?

A: George Washington on Jan. 8, 1790, in New York.

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FILE - This Jan. 25, 1988 file photo shows President Ronald Reagan holding up 14-pound continuing resolution for the budget, part of a total package weighing 43-pounds, which the president said was two months late from Congress, during his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington. Vice President George H.W. Bush, left, and House Speaker James Wright of Texas listen behind him. (AP Photo/Bob Daugherty, File)

Q: Does it have to be a speech?

A: No. For his first address on Dec. 8, 1801, Thomas Jefferson sent written copies to both houses of Congress to be read by each chamber's clerks. Jefferson wanted to simplify what he believed was an aristocratic imitation of the British monarch's speech from the throne, which he thought ill-suited for a republic. The practice of sending written copies to Congress continued for more than a century.

Woodrow Wilson later resumed the tradition of delivering the annual message in person on April 8, 1913. He's also credited with transforming the speech from a report on executive branch activity into a blueprint for the president's legislative agenda for the year.

___

Q: When did the annual message become known as the "State of the Union" address?

A: Franklin D. Roosevelt applied the constitutional phrase "State of the Union" to both the message and the event. It became the popular terminology from then on.

___

Q: How has the speech been affected by advances in communications technology?

A: Calvin Coolidge delivered the first speech broadcast on radio in 1923. Harry Truman's address in 1947 was the first broadcast on television. Lyndon B. Johnson recognized the importance of having a national audience when he moved the speech from midafternoon to 9 p.m. in 1965 to attract the largest number of TV viewers. George W. Bush's 2002 speech was the first available as a live webcast on the White House website.

___

Q: Has the speech ever been postponed?

A: Ronald Reagan's 1986 address was postponed after the Challenger space shuttle exploded in flight on Jan. 28 of that year.

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Q: Is there a State of the Union speech every year?

A: No. Recent presidents - Reagan in 1981, George H.W. Bush in 1989, Bill Clinton in 1993, George W. Bush in 2001, Barack Obama in 2009 and Trump in 2017 - chose not to give an official State of the Union address their first year in office. That speech would have come soon after their inaugural addresses. However, many of them still gave a major speech soon after their inauguration.

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Q: Has the State of the Union speech always been delivered in person since Wilson resumed the practice?

A: No. Truman sent his final message in print, as did Eisenhower in 1961 and Carter in 1981. As Eisenhower recovered from a heart attack in 1956, he prepared a seven-minute, filmed summary of the message from his retreat in Key West, Florida, that was broadcast nationwide. Richard Nixon sent a printed message in 1973; his staff said an oral message would have come too soon after his second inaugural address.

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Q: Which presidents didn't deliver a State of the Union message?

A: William Henry Harrison, who died 32 days after his inauguration in 1841, and James A. Garfield, who was assassinated in 1881 after 199 days in office.

___

Q: Could Trump choose an alternative?

A: There's no reason why not. Trump could deliver a speech from the Oval Office or organize an alternative event on Jan. 29 - the date Pelosi had originally invited Trump to deliver his address before a joint session of Congress. The White House also could choose to delay the speech, as Pelosi has suggested. It was unclear how the White House planned to respond.

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Sources: Congressional Research Service, White House.

FILE - In this Jan. 30, 2018 file photo, President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

FILE - This Jan. 8, 1951 file photo shows President Harry S Truman giving his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Byron Rollins, File)AGUA CALIENTE, Guatemala (AP) - More than 1,700 Hondurans were walking and hitchhiking through Guatemala on Wednesday, heading toward the Mexico border as part of a new caravan of migrants hoping to reach the United States.

Over 1,700 migrants passed through the Agua Caliente border crossing under the watchful eyes of about 200 police and soldiers. Some migrants told The Associated Press that they crossed informally elsewhere.

Guatemala's National Immigration Institute said there were 325 children or youths under 18 in the caravan. There were also just over 100 people from El Salvador.

Miria Zelaya, who left the Honduran city of Colon and was traveling with 12 relatives, said she did not know what sort of work she hopes to find in the United States but was not dismayed by tougher immigration policies under President Donald Trump.

"That does not discourage me," Zelaya said. "The need is greater."

Migrants leaving Central America's Northern Triangle nations of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala routinely cite widespread poverty, lack of opportunity and rampant gang violence as their motivation.

Honduran migrants walk along the roadside through Esquipulas, Guatemala, as they make their way toward the U.S. border, early Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. The latest caravan of Honduran migrants hoping to reach the U.S. has crossed into Guatemala. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Many in the group registered for 90-day visas in Guatemala, saying they felt it would offer peace of mind on the 300-mile (540-kilometer) trek to Mexico's southern border.

Hector Alvarado, a 25-year-old announcer, said he had been shut out of job opportunities for belonging to the political opposition and felt forced to leave to find work. He learned about the caravan on Facebook, said goodbye to relatives and hit the road.

"My loved ones have already cried over of my leaving," Alvarado said. "Now I have to press on."

The latest trek north comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has been working to convince the American public that there is a crisis at the southern border to justify construction of his long-promised border wall. Trump's demand for billions of dollars to that end has resulted in a standoff with Congress that has forced a partial government shutdown.

The fate that awaits the migrants at the Mexico-U.S. border is uncertain. Previous caravans that were seized upon last year by Trump in the run-up to the 2018 midterm election have quietly dwindled, with many having gone home to Central America or put down roots in Mexico. Many others - nearly half, according to U.S. Border Patrol arrest records - have sought to enter the U.S. illegally.

About 6,000 Central Americans reached Tijuana in November amid conflict on both sides of the border over their presence in the Mexican city across from San Diego. As of earlier this week, fewer than 700 remained at a former outdoor concert venue in Tijuana that the Mexican government set up as a shelter to house them.

Mexico has issued humanitarian visas to about 2,900 migrants from last fall's caravan, many of whom are now working legally there with visas.

Also Wednesday about 100 migrants set out as a group from the capital of El Salvador, hoping to join the larger group from Honduras. Their numbers represent less than a third of the estimated 350 migrants who leave El Salvador each day.

"I can't stay. I'm leaving because the gangs have threatened me - either I join them, or they'll kill me," said Adonay Hernandez, 22, who was carrying just $20 in his pocket but was confident he will make it to relatives in North Carolina. "God is my shield."

Others hoped to find a better life in Mexico, where they have options for applying for refuge and work permits.

"I know that in Mexico they are helping us," said Franklin Martinez, a 34-year-old traveling with his partner and their 2-year-old daughter. "We are going to ask for refuge and we are going to stay and work. After we have saved enough, perhaps we will go to the United States, but our goal is to make it to Mexico."

Liduvina Margarin, vice minister for Salvadorans abroad, met with the migrants before they left a downtown plaza to warn them about the dangers of the northward route. She told them that more than half the Salvadorans who left in caravans have returned to the country.

"Our duty is to say to you that you are never going to be better off than in your homeland, in your communities of origin," Margarin said.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Wednesday that Mexico has been monitoring the latest caravan closely.

He said the best option is for Central American governments to persuade their citizens to stay. Those who don't will be allowed to enter Mexico in an orderly fashion and presented with options, and their human rights will be respected, Lopez Obrador added.

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Associated Press writers Marcos Aleman in San Salvador, El Salvador, Elliot Spagat in Tijuana, Mexico, and Christopher Sherman in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Salvadoran migrants talk as they prepare to set off for the U.S. border with others in a caravan, in San Salvador, El Salvador, at dawn Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. Migrants fleeing Central America's Northern Triangle region comprising Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala routinely cite poverty and rampant gang violence as their motivation for leaving. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

Honduran migrants walk at dawn along the roadside through Esquipulas, Guatemala, as they make their way toward the U.S. border, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. The latest caravan of Honduran migrants hoping to reach the U.S. has crossed into Guatemala. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

A Honduran migrant shields himself from a light rain as he walks north with other migrants along the roadside through Esquipulas, Guatemala, early Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. The latest caravan of Honduran migrants hoping to reach the U.S. has crossed into Guatemala. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Honduran migrants shield themselves from a light rain as they walk north along the roadside through Esquipulas, Guatemala, early Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. The latest caravan of Honduran migrants hoping to reach the U.S. has crossed into Guatemala. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Honduran migrants carry their belongings on their backs as they walk at dawn along the roadside through Esquipulas, Guatemala, as they make their way toward the U.S. border, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. The latest caravan of Honduran migrants hoping to reach the U.S. has crossed into Guatemala. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Police stand by as locals begin their journey north toward the U.S. border, during a migrant caravan passing through the capital of San Salvador, El Salvador, early Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. Migrants fleeing Central America's Northern Triangle region comprising Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala routinely cite poverty and rampant gang violence as their motivation for leaving. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

A man hugs his family before setting off toward the U.S. border with a migrant caravan from San Salvador, El Salvador, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. Migrants fleeing Central America's Northern Triangle region comprising Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala routinely cite poverty and rampant gang violence as their motivation for leaving. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

Locals, some with their faces covered to avoid identification and gang threats, prepare to set off toward the U.S. border with a migrant caravan, in San Salvador, El Salvador, at dawn Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. Migrants fleeing Central America's Northern Triangle region comprising Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala routinely cite poverty and rampant gang violence as their motivation for leaving. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)A member of the Tripoli Protection Force militia alliance takes a position south of the Libyan capital during clashes with the Seventh Brigade group

A Libyan photographer who worked for Associated Press news agency was killed Saturday south of Libya's capital Tripoli where he was covering militia clashes, a medical source and family said.

Mohamed Ben Khalifa was killed by shellfire that hit the positions of a Tripoli militia that he was accompanying, security sources said.

A photographer and cameraman for AP since 2014, 35-year-old Khalifa was married and father to a six-month-old baby.

The clashes have since Wednesday pitched militias from the capital against the Seventh Brigade, an armed group from Tarhuna in western Libya.

Libya's health ministry said on Friday night that the violence had killed at least 13 and wounded 52 people.

The latest fighting follows clashes in and around Tripoli that killed at least 117 people and wounded more than 400 between late August and late September.

Libya has been torn between rival administrations and a myriad of militias since the overthrow and killing of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

The main armed groups in Tripoli say they are loyal to the internationally backed Government of National Accord (GNA), but officials have struggled to exert real control over the fighters.

The GNA announced security reforms in the wake of the bloodshed last year, aimed at curbing the power of militias in the capital.

A rival administration in the east of Libya is backed by strongman Khalifa Haftar and his self-proclaimed Libyan National Army.A retired Algerian general on Saturday became the first candidate to announce a run for president in April elections, as ailing incumbent Abdelaziz Bouteflika's intentions remain unknown.

Ali Ghediri, a former defence ministry personnel director, threw his hat into the ring after the North African country on Friday called the much anticipated election for April 18.

Bouteflika, 81, who uses a wheelchair and has rarely been seen in public since a stroke in 2013, is due to complete a fourth term in office on April 28.

Despite his advanced age and poor health, some of his supporters have called for him to stand for a fifth term.

But the president himself is yet to make his plans clear.

By law, would-be candidates now have until March 4 to register with the constitutional court.

Uncertainty over whether Bouteflika will stand for re-election has frozen Algerian politics for months.

Ghediri was the first to seize the initiative, declaring in a statement to Algerian media that "I have decided to take up the challenge by running in the presidential election".

"This major challenge... involves questioning, without any taboos, the established order," said the 64-year-old, who retired in 2015.

Ghediri has bolstered his profile with a series of prominent media appearances in recent weeks.

In an interview with El Watan newspaper last month he hit out at speculation that the polls might be postponed and Bouteflika's mandate extended, saying he expected the army to stop any such move.

These comments earned him a rebuke from the defence ministry, which threatened to go to court if rules on the conduct of former military officers were breached.

Algerian politics is notoriously opaque and the winner of every multiparty presidential election has been pre-selected by a shadowy elite, beginning in 1995 with victory by retired general Liamine Zeroual.

The president's brother and special adviser Said has been widely seen as Algeria's de facto ruler since Abdelaziz's stroke, which severely impaired the president's speech.Nigeria troops, like those seen here in exercises, fought to keep Boko Haram jihadists from overrunning their base in the northeast

Nigerian troops fought off Boko Haram militants as they tried to attack a military post near the home of the country's most senior army officer, security sources and residents said on Friday.

Jihadist fighters attacked the position on Thursday night in Kamuya village, in the northeastern state of Borno, near where Chief of Army Staff Tukur Yusuf Buratai has a home.

"The terrorists made a failed attempt to overrun the military location" in preparation for an attack on the village, a military officer in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, told AFP.

"The soldiers stood their ground and fought the terrorists for close to three hours and forced them to flee," he said.

Civilian militia leader Mustapha Karimbe said the attack began at about 5pm (1600 GMT) on Thursday and lasted until about 8pm.

"Luckily the gunmen met stiff resistance from the soldiers," said Karimbe from the town of Biu, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) away.

There were no immediate details about casualties.

It was also not clear which Boko Haram faction was behind the attack, although the IS-affiliated Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) is known to operate in the area.

Kamuya is the home town of Buratai's mother and was twice raided by Boko Haram in December 2015, not long after the lieutenant general was appointed chief of army staff.

Nearby Buratai village, 10 kilometres away, was also hit.

The latest attack came days after Boko Haram overran a military base in the town of Rann, near the border with Cameroon, forcing thousands of civilians to flee.

Fourteen people, including three soldiers, were said to have been killed, while aid workers said buildings used by humanitarian organisations were razed to the ground.

The UN's humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, on Friday said the attacks -- and others like it -- were having a "devastating impact" on civilians and the relief effort.

Some 1.8 million people are still homeless because of the insurgency, which began in 2009 and has killed more than 27,000.

The Rann attack was blamed on ISWAP but on Thursday night, the Boko Haram faction loyal to long-time leader Abubakar Shekau claimed responsibility in an eight-minute video. The video showed footage purportedly from the attack.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says it's 'high time' the United States and North Korea got down to serious negotiation about denuclearizing the Korean peninsula

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday urged the United States and North Korea to agree on a roadmap for serious negotiations on scrapping Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic weapons.

"We believe it's high time to make sure that the negotiations between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea start again seriously and that a roadmap is clearly defined for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," Guterres told a news conference.

His remarks came as top North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chol was in Washington for talks with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to prepare a second summit, probably in Vietnam.

Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a historic summit in June in Singapore -- the first ever between the two countries -- where they signed a vaguely worded denuclearization deal.

But there has been no progress made since then, with both sides disagreeing over what was signed in Singapore.

Asked about a possible easing of sanctions, Guterres said he would not "advocate for any anticipation of other measures before a clear negotiation is put in place" but added that "the two things will be inevitably interlinked."

The United States has insisted that "maximum pressure" from a raft of tough sanctions imposed on North Korea by the Security Council must remain in place until Pyongyang has fully scrapped its nuclear and ballistic missiles program.

But North Korea insists that easing sanctions would build trust along the way to denuclearization - a stance that has won support from China and Russia.

Guterres also said humanitarian aid to North Korea should not be held hostage to political considerations.

The United States this month agreed to begin lifting a hold on several requests to the UN sanctions committee from aid agencies for exemptions that would allow them to ship goods needed for relief work in North Korea.

"We should never refuse humanitarian aid to any country in any circumstance, for the people of that country," said Guterres.

The UN chief said the United Nations would not seek to play a bigger role in efforts to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, leaving the diplomacy firmly in the hands of Washington and Pyongyang.Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, pictured in Brasilia in January 2019, was reported to be "surprised" by the trip

A trip to China by lawmakers from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's party has stirred anger in the far-right leader's entourage, partly because of his wariness of the Asian power but also because of the group's stated mission.

The delegation of eight members of Bolsonaro's ultraconservative Social Liberal Party (PSL) said it was on the visit to check out Chinese facial-recognition technology, with a view to it maybe being used in Brazil to combat crime.

A Brazilian writer regarded as part of Bolsonaro's brain trust, Olavo de Carvalho, slammed the trip as "craziness" and the lawmakers taking part as "hayseeds," "semi-illiterates" and "idiots."

Bolsonaro himself was reported to be "surprised" by the trip.

That fury stemmed from fears that the lawmakers -- who are to take up their seats in Brazil's new congress from next month -- were naively being used by Beijing, and that sensitive data generated by the facial-recognition technology could end up in Chinese hands.

Underlying that was Bolsonaro's scepticism of China, which is Brazil's biggest trading partner and foreign investor.

He has accused China of wanting to "buy Brazil" by taking control of strategic companies, raising friction with Beijing but alarming his economic team.

There is also the fact that China is governed by its Communist Party -- and that Bolsonaro is ferociously opposed to all leftwing ideology.

In a video posted on social media on Wednesday, Carvalho -- nicknamed "Bolsonaro's guru" -- ranted against the traveling lawmakers.

"You are handing Brazil over to China.... Are you going to let these guys hand Brazil over the Chinese system in this way?" he said.

A PSL deputy, Daniel Silveira admitted the trip was being paid for by the Chinese government, but stressed the goal was simply a fact-finding mission to learn more about a technology "we want to apply in Brazil."

He added that it was in Brazil's interest to maintain open channels with other countries, even those with different ideologies, such as North Korea where Brazil has a diplomatic mission, so it can seek to "improve" those countries.

Another PSL deputy, Soraya Thronicke, tweeted: "Who is going to bear China withdrawing from the (Brazilian) market? The 'hayseeds' here have a lot to learn from them (the Chinese)."

A PSL colleague, Carla Zambelli, was quoted in Brazilian media saying that the brouhaha was due to a "big communication error" and that, in any case, the lawmakers were not qualified to sign any technology deal with China.A diplomatic row between Beijing and Ottawa began in December with the arrest of Huawei's chief financial officer

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale on Friday said Canada won't be browbeaten by Beijing as it mulls whether or not to ban Huawei equipment from new telecommunication networks.

His comments come after China's ambassador to Ottawa, Lu Shaye, on Thursday warned of "repercussions" if Canada joins intelligence-sharing allies in barring the Chinese telecom firm from its 5G cellular networks over security concerns.

Ottawa and Beijing are locked in a diplomatic row that began in early December with the arrest in Canada of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou on US fraud charges related to alleged Iran sanctions violations.

"We've made abundantly clear that we will not compromise national security. We will take the appropriate analysis and take the decision ultimately that we believe to be in Canada's interest," Goodale said, adding that Ottawa "will not be deterred" by China's threats over 5G.

Fifth generation or 5G mobile networks promise a quantum leap in wireless communication speed, and will be key to developing the internet of things, including self-driving cars.

Several countries have followed Washington's call for a Huawei ban, but the picture in Europe is more nuanced because Huawei's 5G capabilities are well ahead of Sweden's Ericsson, Finland's Nokia and South Korea's Samsung, analysts say.

Goodale said Canada's evaluation of 5G continues.

"We are examining the security issues as well as the technical issues with a great deal of care," he said.

Goodale dismissed China's threat of retaliation, saying the same was made against Australia, for example, before it joined New Zealand and the United States in banning Huawei gear over its alleged links to Chinese intelligence services.

Last month, Britain's largest mobile provider BT said it would remove existing Huawei equipment, leaving Canada the only country in the "Five Eyes" intelligence network not to take steps against the Chinese firm.

Huawei's reclusive founder Ren Zhengfei stepped out of the shadows this week to give a rare media interview, forcefully denying accusations that his firm engaged in espionage on behalf of the Chinese government.

The company also fired a Chinese employee arrested in Poland on espionage allegations.

In October, Canada's spy agency urged top Canadian universities to be cautious about their extensive research relationships with Huawei.

Oxford University in Britain this week said it has decided to forgo further funding from the firm.

In a move observers see as retaliation for the Meng case, Chinese authorities detained two other Canadian citizens -- a former diplomat and a business consultant -- on suspicion of endangering national security.

A third Canadian was sentenced to death on Monday for drug trafficking, increasing an earlier 15-year prison term.Brett McGurk, testifies in Congress in this 2016 file photo

President Donald Trump's decision to pull US troops from Syria was made without deliberation, left allies "bewildered" and has rejuvenated the Islamic State group, the official formerly in charge of fighting the jihadists said Friday.

Brett McGurk, who quit as America's envoy to the anti-IS coalition after Trump declared victory over the group last month, warned a US withdrawal would shore up President Bashar al-Assad and lessen America's leverage with Russia and Iran.

And "the Islamic State and other extremist groups will fill the void opened by our departure, regenerating their capacity to threaten our friends in Europe -- as they did throughout 2016 -- and ultimately our own homeland," McGurk wrote in an opinion piece in The Washington Post.

McGurk, a Barack Obama-era appointee whom Trump kept on, said he was in the US embassy in Baghdad on December 17 when he got an urgent call from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo informing him of Trump's decision.

Two days later, Trump tweeted, "We have defeated ISIS in Syria."

"But that was not true, and we have continued to conduct airstrikes against the Islamic State," McGurk said.

The decision came just days after National Security Advisor John Bolton had suggested an indefinite US troop presence in Syria, and as McGurk and then defense secretary Jim Mattis met coalition partners to confirm commitments for at least the next year.

"My counterparts in coalition capitals were bewildered," McGurk said.

"The president's decision to leave Syria was made without deliberation, consultation with allies or Congress, assessment of risk, or appreciation of facts."

Mattis quit after Trump's decision.

- Female sailor killed -

McGurk said Trump had made his decision after a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had said Istanbul would lead the fight against IS remnants in Syria.

But Turkey has also vowed to take action against US-backed Syrian Kurds who have conducted the fight against IS and lost thousands of troops as they slowly wrested territory from the jihadists.

"The irony is that defeating the Islamic State is what the president said from the beginning was his goal," McGurk said.

"His recent choices, unfortunately, are already giving the Islamic State -- and other American adversaries -- new life."

Just one month after Trump declared victory over IS, the jihadists claimed responsibility for a brutal attack in Syria this week.

Four Americans, including two services personnel, were among those killed when a suicide bomber hit a restaurant in the key city of Manbij in Syria's north -- the deadliest attack against US forces since they first deployed in the war-torn nation four years ago.

The Pentagon on Friday identified three of those killed.

Among them was Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician Shannon Kent of New York. Her death marked the first time a female US service member was killed in Syria.A man is loaded into a car after allegedly being assaulted on Wednesday by soldiers in Bulawayo's Sizinda township

The men wearing police and military uniforms came in the middle of night, forcing their way into the home where Brighton, 35, lives with his young family outside Harare.

First his wife was beaten, then they turned on him, kicking him and hitting him with sticks after dragging the couple -- who have a one-month old child -- out of their bed.

The attack was just one of dozens of testimonies depicting a brutal crackdown after protests erupted this week over the government's decision to more than double petrol prices.

"I was sleeping around 02:00 am and they were banging at the door," Brighton said, as he waited in a Harare hospital for treatment for bruising on his face.

Wardens at Harare Law Court stand guard over men awaiting a hearing after being arrested during the protests

"They first beat up my wife. When they realised that she was carrying a baby, they stopped and ordered her to come out to watch while they beat me.

"I was the only man there. All the other tenants were out. They said 'we will beat you on behalf of the other men absent'.

"They told me to stoop and then they started beating me, kicking me," he said, recalling the assault in the early hours of Thursday morning.

"I don't know why they beat me," said Brighton, who is employed by a engineering company, adding he had been busy at work on Monday, the main day of the protests.

- Witness accounts suppressed -

Doctors' groups say they have treated hundreds of casualties this week.

Information has been scarce after authorities cut the internet in an apparent attempt to suppress details and halt accounts spreading on social media of police and soldiers indiscriminately raiding homes.

For some critics, the repression echoes the grim brutality of Robert Mugabe's era.

The UN's human rights office on Friday urged Harare to "stop the crackdown".

It voiced alarm over the security forces' "excessive use of force," which included reported use of live ammunition.

"They broke a window to the spare bedroom where my children were sleeping, the kids started screaming and ran to our bedroom," truck driver Rogers, 40, told AFP.

"They said if we refused to open up, they would fire teargas.

"I was beaten by three soldiers and one policeman -- they beat me with thick sticks and batons, while one of them poured water all over my body."

Another victim, Somandla, 19, who is unemployed, spoke softly and was visibly in pain, with a cotton bud in his ear.

"My ear got it worse as they used a gun to beat me there. It was hard for me to hear in the morning.

"They were saying 'you are guys that were starting fire in the streets'. I believe they were soldiers because they were wearing camouflage uniforms."

Human Rights Watch accused the police of shooting people in broad daylight, while Amnesty criticised Zimbabwe to end its "repressive measures".

- Echoes of Mugabe era -

The crackdown has spread from Harare's residential districts to provincial towns.

In the northern city of Chinhoyi, one pregnant woman was attacked and suffered a miscarriage, according to a neighbour.

Zimbabwean cleric and activist Pastor Evan Mawarire, right, arrives at Harare Magistrates Court. He was arrested at his home in Harare on Wednesday and charged with subversion

Some victims said they avoided seeking treatment at public hospitals in case they were asked to sign affidavits. Activists have put the death toll at between five and 16.

"They beat up my brother's son and they beat me on my buttocks after they saw (opposition leader) Nelson Chamisas poster in my dining room," said one 44-year-old mother. "They said I must tear it up."

One doctor told AFP that the scale of injuries was far worse than when security forces shot dead six protesters in Harare on August 1, two days after the election.

He compared it to the 2008 election when then opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the presidential run-off against Mugabe as hundreds of people were killed.

The government has denied any wrongdoing.

Home Affairs minister Cain Mathema has praised security forces for the "joint efforts to ensure that peace is restored."Sudanese protestors burn tyres during an anti-government demonstration on January 18, 2019 in Khartoum

Rights group Amnesty International called on Sudan Friday to halt a crackdown on anti-government protests after a doctor and child were among three shot dead in fresh demonstrations.

"Sudan's security forces must stop their ongoing deadly onslaught on protesters and medical personnel," the London-based group said in a statement.

Demonstrations have rocked Sudan since December 19, when the government raised the price of bread. They have escalated into broad demonstrations against President Omar al-Bashir's three-decade rule.

Bashir has defied calls to step down, and rights groups say security forces have responded with deadly force.

A doctors' committee linked to the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) that is spearheading the protest movement said a child and doctor were killed by live ammunition Thursday during demonstrations in the capital Khartoum.

An SPA spokesman said later that another protester had also died during the day.

Sudanese officials have not confirmed the three deaths, but earlier said 24 people had died in protest-related violence since December.

Amnesty said last week that over 40 people have been killed in the unrest, with more than 1,000 arrested.

Sarah Jackson, Amnesty's deputy director for East Africa, said Friday it was an "outrage that Sudanese security forces continue to use lethal force on protesters and key service providers like doctors".

She accused security personnel of "killing people in an unbridled spree that is even affecting children".

Amnesty has reported repeated raids on medical facilities by the security forces, saying they have fired teargas and live bullets inside hospitals as well as arresting and beating doctors.

"By participating in these protests, the people of Sudan are exercising their legitimate rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly," Jackson said Friday.

"Instead of trying to curtail these rights, the government should address the root causes of the economic crisis that has driven the people to the streets."

In a separate statement Human Rights Watch also called on the government to "immediately release or charge those detained in relation to the ongoing protests".

"Those arrested include protesters, journalists, doctors, lawyers, and opposition party leaders," a statement said.

The group said the number of people detained was "most likely far greater" than the official figure of 816 given on January 7.

"Many of those arrested remain in incommunicado detention, without access to family or lawyer visits," it said.Palestinian protesters take cover during a demonstration along the demarcation line with Israel, east of Gaza City, on January 18, 2019

Fourteen Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire in new clashes along the Gaza border Friday, said the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave, rocked by ongoing weekly protests.

The ministry said the 14 were shot, including two medics, but did not report that any were in life-threatening condition.

Thousands of demonstrators gathered in multiple locations along the border, though clashes were less intense than in previous weeks, AFP correspondents said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said approximately 14,000 Palestinians took part in "riots" along the border, with protesters "burning tyres and hurling rocks at (Israeli) soldiers".

Troops responded "in accordance with standard operating procedures", she said.

Palestinians have held often violent demonstrations along the Israel-Gaza border since March 2018.

At least 243 Palestinians have since been killed by Israeli fire, the majority during protests and clashes. Others have died in airstrikes or shelling.

Two Israeli soldiers have been killed over the same period, one by a Palestinian sniper and another during a botched special forces operation inside Gaza.Members of the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) of strongman Khalifa Haftar attend a graduation ceremony in Benghazi on December 31, 2018

The forces of Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar said they killed on Friday three jihadists including a senior Al-Qaeda member in the south of the country days after launching a security operation.

Ahmad al-Mesmari, a spokesman for Haftar's self-proclaimed Libyan National Army, described the three as "terrorists" and identified them as Abdel Monem al-Hasnaoui, also known as Abu Talha al-Libi, Al-Mahdi Dengo and Egyptian citizen Abdullah al-Dessouki.

He said they were killed during "a special operation... Friday in Al-Qarda al-Chatti region of southwestern Libya".

Abu Talha -- a Libyan whose death was reported on several past occasions including in an 2016 air raid by unidentified aircraft -- is said by Libya to be a senior operative of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Mesmari gave no further details on the other two suspects.

Libyan authorities use the word "terrorists" to refer to jihadists.

Libya has been gripped by chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, with rival administrations and multiple militias vying for control of the oil-rich country.

Jihadists and people-traffickers have taken advantage of the chaos to gain a foothold in the North African country.

Haftar supports an administration in the east of the country that is opposed to the internationally backed Government of National Accord in Tripoli.

On Wednesday his self-style LNA forces announced they had launched a military operation to "purge" jihadists and criminal gangs from the south of Libya.

Mesmari said at the time that the operation was aimed to assure security "for inhabitants in the south-west from terrorists, be they the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda, as well as criminal gangs".

The LNA said it was also looking to secure petroleum facilities and tackle flows of clandestine migrants heading northwards to the Mediterranean coast.European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom outlines plans for a limited, goods only trade deal with Washington

The EU pressed on Friday with plans to forge a trade deal with the US, part of an effort -- backed by Germany -- to avert a trade war with President Donald Trump.

Negotiating a deal was the key to a transatlantic truce secured last year after the US slapped tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from the EU and others, alarming the world.

The effort is also part of a strategy to stop Trump from slapping damaging duties on car imports from Europe, a danger that has especially unnerved Berlin.

"It is not a traditional (trade deal)... it is a limited but important proposal engaged on industrial goods tariffs only," EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told reporters.

The process has got off to a rocky start, however, with the US side last week including agricultural products in their plans, which is an absolute no-go for the Europeans.

"In this mandate, we are not proposing any reduction of tariffs on agriculture. That area was left outside," Malmstrom insisted.

The 17-page proposal submitted by the US also included other demands that are unacceptable for the EU, including that Europe stop "manipulating" foreign exchange rates.

Given the split, the EU is entering the negotiations with trepidation, especially since the threat of auto duties is still very much alive in Washington.

The commission said it was open to slashing tariffs for US car imports as part of the deal, though Washington has proved reluctant, unwilling to expose its crucial small trucks market in return.

The commission handles trade negotiations for the EU's 28 member states and the plans must now be approved by the national governments before negotiations start with Washington.

The deal attempt is widely understood to be pushed behind the scenes by Berlin, eager to shelter its auto giants from the wrath of Trump.

German Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier welcomed the deal and looked forward to talking "concretely" with the US.

- 'No basis' -

Other member states -- mainly France -- are dubious that the talks are worth the trouble, especially amid populist anger ahead of European elections in May.

Paris is especially wary after the failure of talks on TTIP, a far more ambitious transatlantic trade plan, which stalled amid fears a deal with Washington would undermine EU food and health standards.

France's junior trade minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said the EU had to think carefully about timing and whether there was enough trust between the two sides to negotiate.

"From the French point of view it is not desirable to negotiate under duress and unfortunately the United States continues to threaten unilateral customs duties on cars," he said.

Opposition by activists has already resurfaced with Friends of the Earth Europe warning that "there can be no trade-offs on food standards" in the deal.

"The commission has... still not learned the lessons of its hasty approach to trade agreements. It remains locked in a dogmatism that is destructive to the European project" said Greens MEP Yannick Jadot.

Others doubt Washington's good faith.

"I do not see any basis for negotiations," said MEP Bernd Lange, chairman of the trade committee at the European Parliament.

"The Trump government is obviously not ready to withdraw their illegal tariffs on steel and aluminium and, on the contrary, threatens further illegal customs duties that would affect workers in Europe," the powerful German MEP added.

EU governments were shell-shocked last year when Trump imposed tariffs on metals imports as part of his "America First" protectionist vision.

Brussels responded by slapping counter-tariffs on more than $3 billion in US exports like bourbon, blue jeans and Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

But Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in July called a truce, agreeing that as both sides pursued a trade deal, neither would impose additional tariffs.

"This is simply the commission trying to show it is abiding by the White House accord with Juncker," an EU diplomat told AFP.Flags of the Arab League states are seen on display ahead of a regional economic summit in Beirut -- more than seven years after the suspension of Damascus's membership

Lebanon's foreign minister on Friday called for the Arab League to readmit Syria ahead of a regional economic summit in Beirut, more than seven years after it suspended Damascus' membership.

"Syria is the most notable absentee at our conference, and we feel the weight of its absence," Gibran Bassil said.

"Syria should be among us... without us having to wait for a permission for it to return," he added at a meeting with other ministers from Arab League nations.

The Arab League suspended Syria in November 2011, as the death toll rose in the regime's brutal repression of anti-government protests.

But in recent years, President Bashar al-Assad's forces have gained the military upper hand against rebels and jihadists, and efforts to bring his government back into the Arab fold appear underway.

In December, Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir made the first visit by any Arab leader to the Syrian capital since 2011, and the United Arab Emirates reopened its embassy in Damascus after closing it in 2012.

On Thursday, the head of the Arab League, Ahmed Abul Gheit, said member states have not reached a consensus on Syria's return to the 22-member bloc.

"When there is an Arab consensus, and when we are sure there is no objection from one side or the other, it will be as simple as putting it on the agenda of a meeting" of Arab foreign ministers, he said.

Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since it started with anti-government protests.

Only the presidents of Somalia and Mauritania are expected to attend the Arab Economic Summit on Sunday.

Lebanese newspapers ran despairing headlines on Friday.

"The Beirut shock... a summit without heads of state," the country's oldest Arabic-language newspaper An-Nahar said.

The conference is set to discuss the digital economy, as well as a long-suggested project for an Arab free trade zone.

Lebanon also hopes to put forward an initiative calling on countries in the region to help spread the burden of 1.5 million refugees living on its soil.The outcome of the presidential election in Democratic Republic of Congo lies in the hands of the Constitutional Court, where the declared runner-up Martin Fayulu has filed an appeal.

Here are the figures which lie at the heart of his claim:

- Election board -

On January 10, the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) issued provisional results giving victory to opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi with 38.57 percent of the vote, followed by rival opposition candidate Fayulu with 34.8 percent.

In a distant third place came hardline former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, backed by outgoing President Joseph Kabila, with 23 percent

- Fayulu -.

Fayulu has appealed to the Constitutional Court in the hope of forcing a manual recount.

He claims to have won 61 percent of the votes on December 30, compared to 18 percent each for the other two main candidates.

- Researchers -

The Congo Research Group (CRG) at the University of New York says it acquired, through a whistle-blower, the count of 86 percent of the vote as recorded on CENI's central data base.

It also says it has obtained the count of 43 percent of the vote, as monitored by 40,000 observers deployed on polling day by CENCO, the influential Catholic Church's episcopal conference.

Comparisons of the two documents "suggest that Martin Fayulu won the elections by a wide margin," the CRG says.

The leaked CENI figures give Fayulu 59.42 percent, followed by Tshisekedi on 18.97 percent and Shadary 18.54 percent.

The CENCO figures give 62.8 percent to Fayulu, 15 percent to Tshisekedi and 17.99 percent to Shadary.

The CRG acknowledges that the data came into its possession via aides to Fayulu.Grace Meng, facing away from the camera, says she has feared for her life after her husband, former Chinese Interpol chief Meng Hongwei, was arrested in China in September

The wife of the former Chinese Interpol chief being held in his home country on corruption charges has applied for asylum in France, media reports said Friday.

Grace Meng has remained in the French city of Lyon, the site of Interpol's headquarters, since her husband Meng Hongwei disappeared -- and was later revealed to have been arrested -- while visiting China in September.

She told Franceinfo radio and the Liberation newspaper that she fears for her life and that of their twin sons, despite being under French police protection.

"I need the French government to protect me, to assist me, to help me and my children," she said.

"I am afraid of being kidnapped."

She was expected to officially apply for asylum on Friday.

Meng Hongwei, a former vice-minister for public security in China who rose through the ranks of the country's feared security apparatus, was the first Chinese head of the international police organisation.

He was last heard from on September 25 as he left Lyon for China, when he sent his wife a social media message telling her to "wait for my call," and then a knife emoji signifying danger.

Grace Meng later reported he was missing, and after several days without news Interpol said it had received a short message from Meng saying he was resigning.

- 'Kidnap attempt' -

She told Liberation that two Chinese businessmen, one of whom she knew, had visited her at home in early October, before China revealed her husband had been arrested, and invited her to travel with them by private jet to the Czech Republic.

They asked her for investment advice because she was trained as an economist, but she turned them down, she said.

"That's what I call a kidnap attempt," she said, adding that this was when she asked for police protection.

She also said that in late October the Chinese consulate in Lyon said they had a letter for her from her husband, but insisted she show up in person to collect it.

She asked that they hand the letter over to French police, or that French police be allowed to go with her to the consulate. She did not receive a response.

In the interview to Franceinfo and Liberation, given on January 10, she said that she had received no news of her husband or of her family back home, and that her Chinese phone and internet accounts had been blocked.

She had also received "strange phone calls", she said, and was once followed into a hotel by a Chinese couple who attempted to gather information about her.

China's public security bureau has linked Meng's detention to a broader initiative to "completely remove the pernicious influence" of Zhou Yongkang, a former security czar who was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for bribery, abuse of power and leaking state secrets.

Meng was appointed vice-minister of security by Zhou in 2004.

He was replaced as Interpol chief by South Korea's Kim Jong-yang.Sharon Lin prepares a sign for the Women's March in New York at a workshop -- this year is the third year for the major nationwide demonstration

As organizers of the Women's March gear up for their third major day of protest on Saturday across the United States, there is one big question -- how many people will answer the call for a #WomensWave?

Two New Yorkers, who attended a sign-making workshop ahead of the big rally, talked to AFP about why they are marching again this year, despite controversies at the heart of the movement:

- 'Wake-up call' -

Sharon Lin, 40, a doctor and mother of two who recently moved from California to New York, prepares a sign with her son Hudson for the Women's March in New York

Sharon Lin, a doctor and mother of two, will march with her children on Saturday in the Big Apple.

She says she remains convinced of the need to show up, and not be a silent bystander in the middle of the political firestorm sparked two years ago when President Donald Trump took office.

That "wake-up call," as she calls it, prompted a major life change: she and her husband gave up their jobs and a home in "comfortable suburbia" in San Francisco in August for a new life in New York.

"We moved to New York so I could expose my kids to a more global environment," Lin told AFP -- a decision that was "directly linked to Trump."

While Lin believes that turnout will be lower on Saturday than in the past two years, perhaps because a record number of women were elected to Congress in the November midterms, she still thinks participation is key.

"I think the momentum needs to keep going, at least until the next election" in 2020, when Trump will face re-election, says Lin, who will act as a volunteer on Saturday to make sure the march goes off smoothly.

- Optimism despite divisions -

Round Three of the Women's March could see sagging enthusiasm, given the various issues that have tainted the movement in recent months.

Accusations of anti-Semitism have rattled the national movement's top brass, and despite repeated denials, a parallel group known as March On was created.

In New York, two rallies will take place in Manhattan, in separate neighborhoods -- which could impact attendance and weaken the message.

Lin says the divisions don't really matter to her as the "original intent" is intact: "The masses coming together and saying, 'We don't like the way our country is going.'"

Jean Laupus cuts out letters for a sign she is preparing ahead of the Women's March in New York -- she calls herself a "concerned citizen" who wants to see improvements in public schools

But Jean Laupus -- a 59-year-old self-described "concerned citizen" who wants to see better public schools and access to contraception -- fears the "schism" at the heart of the Women's March will be an issue.

"It is making people have to choose," she told AFP. However, she hopes to bridge the gap and make it to both rallies, proudly, in her pink "pussy hat" -- the de facto symbol of the movement.

She is also getting her signs ready for Saturday.

No matter how many people show up, both Lin and Laupus say they are optimistic about the future.

And they are particularly impressed with 29-year-old progressive New York lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.

"She represents a breath of fresh air but also a sense of humanity -- understanding more about people who represent a greater part of society," Laupus says.

For Lin, Trump is "giving us a gift: the doors are opening for women who would never thought of entering politics."The 73-year-old's hopes of an emotional homecoming to Abidjan after seven years in jail have been dashed

Ivory Coast ex-strongman Laurent Gbagbo will stay behind bars until at least February despite his acquittal on charges of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal court, the tribunal said Friday.

Judges in the Hague cleared Gbagbo and his right-hand man Charles Ble Goude on Tuesday over a wave of violence after disputed elections in 2010. The crisis claimed around 3,000 lives.

But the 73-year-old's hopes of an emotional homecoming to Abidjan after seven years in jail have been dashed by a last-minute request by ICC prosecutors to keep him detained.

The prosecution said there was a "concrete risk" Gbagbo -- the first national leader to stand trial at the ICC -- would fail to return to the court if it later overturned Tuesday's decision to acquit them.

"The detention of Mr Laurent Gbagbo and Mr Charles Ble Goude shall be maintained pending the consideration of the present appeal" against his release, the ICC's appeals judges said in a statement.

They will hold a fresh hearing on February 1 "in order to hear further submissions on the appeal", although they did not say when they would reach a decision.

Gbagbo and Ble Goude could then be freed unconditionally as judges ordered on Tuesday, released on condition that he does not go to Ivory Coast, or kept in jail.

Gbagbo's daughter said this week -- during what turned out to be premature celebrations outside the ICC -- that he intended to return to the Ivory Coast if released.

- 2020 elections -

The pair had been on trial for two years over violence in Ivory Coast after Gbagbo refused to concede defeat in an election to bitter rival and now-president Alassane Ouattara.

Atrocities were allegedly committed on both sides as the bloodshed turned Abidjan into a war zone and destabilised the African economic powerhouse, the world's largest cocoa-producing nation.

Gbagbo was captured in 2011

Gbagbo was captured in 2011 by Ouattara's troops, aided by UN and French forces, and sent to stand trial at the International Criminal Court.

However judges stopped the trial midway citing an "exceptionally weak" prosecution case and ordered his immediate release.

The case was a severe blow for ICC prosecutors after similar failures with former DR Congo warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba in 2018 and Kenyan leader Uhuru Kenyatta in 2014.

Stung by the decision, ICC prosecutors said they would appeal the acquittal and called for Gbagbo and Ble Goude to stay in detention.

ICC prosecutors cited the case of Gbagbo's wife Simone as an example of why he is a flight risk, saying that despite an outstanding ICC warrant for her arrest, the Ivorian government has not surrendered her.

The delay in Gbagbo's release at least puts off for now the political uncertainty over his possible return.

His acquittal comes at a sensitive time with Ivory Coast facing fresh elections in 2020 to elect a successor to Ouattara, who has said he will not stand for re-election after serving two five-year terms.

While preaching "reconciliation", Ouattara's government would only say this week that it was Gbagbo's choice about whether he returned to Ivory Coast.

Gbagbo also faces a 20-year prison term in his homeland for "economic crimes", although his wife Simone was last August granted an amnesty by Ouattara for a similar sentence.Vashukevich was a part of a group participating in a seminar led by Russian self-styled seduction guru Alex Kirillov

A Belarusian model who claimed she had proof of Russian collusion with the Trump election campaign was in custody Friday after police "dragged" her from a transit zone in Moscow's airport, her lawyer told AFP.

Anastasia Vashukevich, known as Nastya Rybka, was in jail in southern Moscow after being detained with several others at the airport.

They flew in after being deported from Thailand where they had spent a year in prison for participating in a "sex training course".

A Russian lawyer representing Vashukevich branded the arrest an "international scandal," saying his client had "committed no crimes" and was planning to travel on to Belarus.

Instead she was "moved from the transit zone onto the Russian territory by unidentified law enforcement employees," said Dmitry Zatsarinsky.

He said employees in civilian clothes "dragged her out of the transit zone" and added that he was planning to lodge an official complaint.

Zatsarinsky posted a video on his Instagram that shows five or six men trying to force a young woman resembling Vashukevich into a wheelchair as she tries to break free.

They then abandon their efforts and simply carry her through what appear to be one-way double doors typically used in airports.

Vashukevich was convicted in Thailand earlier this week after nearly a year in jail following her arrest in a seaside resort of Pattaya.

She pleaded guilty to multiple charges including soliciting and illegal assembly.

Vashukevich was a part of a group participating in a seminar led by Russian self-styled seduction guru Alex Kirillov. The court convicted her and seven co-defendants.

She had travelled to Thailand after sparking a political scandal when she posted a video allegedly showing tycoon Oleg Deripaska and an influential Russian deputy prime minister relaxing on a yacht.

Deripaska later sued her for invasion of privacy.

While in Thai custody, she claimed she had information about alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US elections and pleaded for US help, fearing prosecution in Russia.

Zatsarinsky said that some people in the group had been deported to Belarus via Ukraine, rather than Russia, and faced no problems at the airport in Kiev.

Russian police late Thursday confirmed Russian and Belarusian citizens were detained in Sheremetyevo airport on arrival from Thailand as part of an ongoing probe into "coercing into prostitution."

On Friday morning, two men and two women remained in police custody, the interior ministry said, Russian agencies reported.A member of Manbij's security forces patrols the site of a suicide attack targeting US-led coalition forces in the flashpoint northern Syrian city

Charred walls, shattered windows, uncooked kebabs still on the counter -- the blast that hit US forces at this small restaurant in northern Syria has left residents fearful for the future.

Wednesday's suicide bombing, claimed by the Islamic State group, was the deadliest to hit US troops since they deployed to Syria in 2014.

Nineteen people, including four Americans, were killed in the attack on the grill house in the central market of the flashpoint northern town of Manbij.

"We come to the market but we are afraid. We go to work and we are afraid... we don't know what could happen," says Jomaa al-Qassem, eyeing the shops from his car along with his three-year-old son.

In front of the blackened storefront, armed security forces hustle curious onlookers away and are quick to prevent them from taking photos with their cellphones.

US military vehicles patrol Syria's flashpoint northern city of Manbij on December 30, 2018

Behind its twisted metal exterior, a clump of raw red meat lies abandoned on a counter, covered with dust. Tables and cookware from the kitchen have been twisted into a tangled mess on the floor.

Run by a Washington-backed town council since the US-led coalition and its ground partners pushed out jihadists in 2016, Manbij has been a realm of relative quiet.

The town was considered sufficiently secure that a group of top US military commanders and lawmakers strolled through the same market place without body armour during a tour of the area last summer.

But the US military presence in the town has been thrown into question after President Donald Trump's shock announcement last month that he would pull all American troops from Syria, claiming the IS had been "largely defeated".

Senator Lindsey Graham, a longtime Trump supporter who was among this summer's visitors, has been one of the most vocal critics of the president's decision and was in Ankara for talks with top officials on Friday.

- 'Fireball' -

Next to the blast site, Abu Abdel Rahman lifts an armful of red teddy bears out of his storefront display, carefully avoiding the shattered glass.

Just metres (yards) away from the restaurant, his shop was also hit by the blast.

Abu Abdel Rahman lifts an armful of red teddy bears out of his storefront display

"I was at the door of my shop and saw a fireball come out of the restaurant. Then, there were body parts on the ground," he told AFP, a red keffiyeh headscarf wrapped around his face to help fend off the cold winter air.

The four Americans killed in the blast were two soldiers, a civilian defence department employee and a Pentagon subcontractor.

The US Defence Department has previously reported only two American personnel killed in combat in Syria, in separate incidents.

The attack came as tensions between Washington's Syrian Kurdish ground partner and its NATO ally Turkey flare.

Ankara views the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) as a "terrorist offshoot" of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a deadly insurgency for self-rule in southeastern Turkey since 1984.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened an all-out offensive to clear the group from its border.

At the town's entrance, security checkpoints manned by forces of the US-backed Manbij Military Council meticulously check vehicles and the IDs of people entering and exiting the town.

Regular patrols move through the streets.

- 'Sabotage' -

But for Malek al-Hassan, it is not enough.

The 45-year-old was in the market that day to buy books for his children.

"When the explosion happened, I don't know how we managed to escape," he says.

"We hope the forces will be more vigilant at the roadblocks, and that they will work hard to prevent these infiltrators from committing these acts of sabotage," he says.

After sweeping across swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, the jihadists' cross-border "caliphate" has been erased by multiple offensives and is now confined to a tiny embattled enclave in eastern Syria close to the Iraqi border.

The bombing, claimed by the Islamic State group, comes after US President Donald Trump's shock decision last month to order a full troop withdrawal from Syria

But despite the stinging defeats, IS has proved it is still capable of carrying out deadly attacks using hideouts in the sprawling desert or sleeper cells in the towns.

One day after the blast, Naassan Dandan's eyes well up with tears when he remembers the attack.

"I was outside when the explosion happened and was thrown to the ground," says the man in his 40s, still clearing shards of glass from his nearby photography studio.

On the walls of his shop, child portraits he has taken throughout his career are covered in black dust.

"I saw the bodies -- the dead and the wounded," he says, as two young passers-by stop to lend a hand with the clean up.Algeria's veteran President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, seen here in a rare public appearance in 2016, has left everyone guessing whether he will seek a fifth term in an election called for April 18

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika issued a decree on Friday calling a much anticipated presidential election for April 18 but without saying whether he will seek a new term.

The ailing 81-year-old, who uses a wheelchair and has rarely been seen in public since a stroke in 2013, is due to complete a fourth term in office on April 28.

Despite his advanced age and poor health, there have been calls from his supporters for him to stand for a fifth term.

But the president himself is yet to make his intentions clear.

By law, would-be candidates now have until March 4 to register with the constitutional court.

Uncertainty over whether Bouteflika will stand for re-election has frozen Algerian politics for months.

No candidate of note has thrown their hat into the ring while the president's intentions remain in doubt.

For the last presidential election in 2014, Bouteflika left it until just days before the deadline to register.

Algerian politics is notoriously opaque with the winner of every multiparty presidential election pre-selected by a shadowy elite, beginning in 1995 with victory by retired General Liamine Zeroual.

For this year's election, the membership of the kingmaking elite has changed.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika voting at a polling station in Algiers for local elections on November 23, 2017

During his fourth term, Bouteflika finally made good on a longstanding pledge to reduce the power of the traditional powerbrokers by disbanding the DRS intelligence agency in 2016.

But under his watch, business networks have become increasingly entwined with the political structure, leaving it difficult to judge with confidence who would be put to voters as the regime's anointed candidate in the event that Bouteflika does not run.

The president's brother and special adviser Said has been widely seen as Algeria's de facto ruler since Abdelaziz's stroke, which severely impaired the president's speech.

But many believe Said will wish to remain in the shadows behind the throne, rather than be the public candidate, should the incumbent throw in the towel.

- 'Hard to see' alternative -

Abdelaziz Bouteflika has proved himself a wily political survivor, navigating Arab Spring inspired riots in 2011 by promising reforms that were never enacted and by playing on fears of a repeat of Algeria's 1991-2002 civil war.

Bouteflika's stewardship was key to the country's emergence from that conflict, as he introduced a civil reconciliation programme that offered partial amnesty to Islamist extremists.

In this file handout picture released by the official Algerian Press Service (APS), Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika arrives for the inauguration of a mosque and the extension of the Algiers metro, in the capital Algiers, on April 9, 2018

But his decision to seek a fourth mandate in 2014 after 15 years in power sparked both derision and criticism from those who questioned his ability to rule.

There has been constant speculation over his health and his fourth term has been marred by falling oil prices, exposing the country's heavy dependence on hydrocarbons.

The ruling National Liberation Front's Secretary General Djamel Ould Abbes said in October last year that Bouteflika would be the party candidate.

But Abbes' words appeared premature, when he was forced to admit that he had simply asked the president whether he intended to run, without receiving an answer -- an admission that was followed by his resignation 15 days later on "health" grounds.

Some observers believe it will be difficult for the elite to settle on an alternative candidate, given that the poll date is looming.

"It is hard to see how another candidate could be promoted a few weeks before the start of the election campaign", said online media outlet TSA in mid-January.A WEF survey this week found the Davos community worried most about climate change among sources of political and economic anxiety

Organisers of next week's annual Davos conclave put on a brave face Friday after US President Donald Trump withdrew his entire delegation, insisting the forum still had plenty of political and corporate firepower in its debating armoury.

Trump himself had already pulled out of attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) for a second year, having shut down the US government over his demands for Congress to fund a wall on the Mexican border.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US trade chiefs had been slated to attend the WEF instead, alongside other heavy hitters such as Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan, as Beijing and Washington try to negotiate a truce to their trade war.

But the White House announced the cancellation of the delegation's trip to the Swiss Alps "out of consideration for the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay".

In Trump's absence, Brazil's new far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, will grab the Davos limelight when he outlines his economic agenda in a keynote address during his first trip abroad since taking office earlier this month.

- 'Globalisation 4.0' -

The week of networking and socialising kicks off Monday and will feature an eclectic lineup of discussions devoted to issues such as mindful parenting in the digital age, chronic loneliness, and harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) without destroying jobs.

It is expected to draw some 3,000 political and business figures, including 65 government leaders from Germany, Israel, Zimbabwe and elsewhere. It begins with a report card on the world economy from the International Monetary Fund.

In a statement, the WEF said it understood the White House reasoning and stressed that other governments together representing one-quarter of global GDP would still be represented.

"With more than 800 participants from the US, including the leaders of top global companies across all sectors based in the US, we feel that the meeting is well placed to be a platform for relevant discussions on Globalisation 4.0," it said.

That refers to WEF founder Klaus Schwab's belief that despite the upsurge of angry populism in many countries, a new era of globalisation driven by AI and other technological advances is upon us.

But Schwab, the forum's 80-year-old executive chairman, also said the elite gathering needs to reflect on the "losers" of globalisation and find ways to look after "those who have been left behind".

The "left behinds" figured heavily in the anti-establishment wave that in 2016 powered Britain's referendum decision to quit the European Union.

Brexit is meant to take effect on March 29. There will be a chill in Davos about the prospect of Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal in place, after Prime Minister Theresa May's preferred divorce terms were roundly defeated in parliament.

May will be another Davos no-show as she tries to unpick the deadlock in London, but International Trade Secretary Liam Fox will make the trip to try to sell a post-Brexit future for Britain.

Another absentee is President Emmanuel Macron, who has been grappling with French-style populism in the form of the "yellow vest" movement.

"With Brexit, trade wars and populism -- politics is totally driving the (Davos) discussion this year when usually it's economics that drives the politics. Amazing times," a senior European diplomat told AFP.

- War on corruption -

In advance of the meetings, a WEF survey this week found the Davos community worried most about climate change among sources of political and economic anxiety.

The survey highlighted fears of extreme weather patterns and the risk of disruption in an array of sectors including transport and logistics. On cue, heavy snowfall and deadly avalanches have hit the Alps this week, cutting off the train line to Davos at one point.

But like Trump, Bolsonaro is a climate change sceptic. His pro-business agenda and appointment of a like-minded rightwinger as environment minister have done nothing to ease concerns about deforestation in the Amazon.

The new leader of Latin America's largest economy will speak in Davos on Tuesday. He has vowed to showcase "a different Brazil, free of ideological ties and widespread corruption".

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will be making his first trip abroad since taking office this month

Bolsonaro has also echoed Trump in bashing China, even as the world's second-biggest economy boosts Brazilian farm imports -- sourced in part from cleared Amazon lands -- as an alternative to US commodities in the midst of Trump's trade war.

"Bolsonaro's history doesn't suggest he's going to be a fervent adopter of the World Economic Forum's mantra of cross-border, stakeholder cooperation," Douglas Rediker, chairman of International Capital Strategies in Washington, said in a phone interview.

However, Bolsonaro will be accompanied by his US-educated economy minister, Paulo Guedes, who speaks the kind of investment-friendly language that is music to Davos ears.Zimbabwean anti-riot police forces watch men arrested during violent protests triggered by a sudden rise in fuel prices announced by Zimbabwean president, before their hearing at the Law Court in Harare on January 16, 2019

Zimbabwe imposed a "total shutdown" of the internet on Friday, a major provider told customers, after protests early this week triggered a ruthless security crackdown.

The internet had been partially restored after a first shutdown started on Tuesday.

"We were served with another directive for total shutdown of the internet until further notice," Econet, the country's biggest provider, said in a text message on Friday.

"Our lawyers advised we are required to comply with the directive pending the court decision on its legality. The earlier directive(s) are already the subject of pending high court application.

"We sincerely apologise for all inconveniences caused by the acts of government."

The EU on Thursday joined the US and Britain in criticising the authorities' response to the protests.

"The escalation of violence in Zimbabwe over recent days has been aggravated by the disproportionate use of force by security personnel," European Commission spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said in a statement.

"The shutdown of access to the internet should also be reversed."

The US embassy in Harare it was "alarmed by credible reports that security forces are targeting and beating political activists and labor leaders".

Nationwide demonstrations erupted on Monday after President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced that fuel prices were being doubled in a country suffering regular shortages of fuel, food and medicine.

Mnangagwa, who succeeded ousted authoritarian president Robert Mugabe in 2017, had promised a fresh start for Zimbabwe after decades of repression and economic decline.

Trade unions called the national strike on Monday and the demonstrations took place in several cities with widespread rioting and looting.

Security forces have made about 600 arrests.

Police and soldiers have been accused of indiscriminately dragging people from their homes and beating them.General Tun Tun Nyi said the army had killed 13 rebels while some officers and soldiers also lost their lives, although he did not give figures

Myanmar's army said Friday it killed 13 ethnic Rakhine fighters in counterstrikes after the well-armed group carried out deadly attacks on police posts earlier this month.

Rakhine state has seen new levels of violence in recent weeks between the Arakan Army (AA) -- insurgents fighting for greater autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists -- and security forces.

Many of the battles are taking place in the same region from which more than 720,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh after August 2017 when the army launched a crackdown the UN deemed ethnic cleansing.

The AA are a more formidable force than the fighters claiming to represent the Rohingya and have inflicted historically higher death tolls on the military.

On January 4, also Myanmar's independence day, the AA launched pre-dawn raids that killed 13 police officers and wounded nine before the army stepped in, setting off violence that has displaced thousands.

But the army hit back, killing the same number of AA rebels in total in operations from January 5-16.

"We got 13 dead bodies of enemies and seized three weapons," Major General Tun Tun Nyi said in a rare press conference in the capital Naypyidaw.

"Some officers and soldiers from our side were killed," he added, without releasing the figures.

Myanmar's military almost never provides statistics on casualties suffered in fighting against the country's myriad ethnic armed groups.

The army called a temporary ceasefire against different insurgents in northern Myanmar last month but Rakhine state was excluded from the move because of the AA and the Rohingya militant group, which is called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).

The troubled state is a complex patchwork of Rakhine, Rohingya, and other ethnic minorities that intercommunal violence has largely driven apart.

- 'Suffered enough' -

The United Nations special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, said that all the minority groups in Rakhine have "suffered enough" and urged the AA and the army to do more to protect civilians as the violence persists.

She raised specific alarm over a decision by the Rakhine state government earlier this month to restrict humanitarian access to areas affected by the conflict.

"I remind the government and the (army) that blocking humanitarian access is a serious violation of international humanitarian law," Lee said.

Most of the Rohingya in the northern part of the state have been pushed into Bangladesh, where they refuse to return to Myanmar without guarantees of safety and citizenship.

The UN has called for Myanmar's top generals to be investigated for genocide as a result of the operations in Rakhine but they reject the accusation.

The fighting with AA rebels complicates an already fraught repatriation process for the Rohingya.

Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun blamed the AA insurgents for the police post attacks earlier this month and accused them of "stabbing from the back".Abu Bakar Bashir, 80, is believed to have been a key figure in terror network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which was blamed for the 2002 bombings on the holiday island which killed more than 200 people

A radical cleric thought to be the spiritual leader of the Bali bombers will be released from prison on medical grounds, Indonesia's president said Friday.

Abu Bakar Bashir, 80, is believed to have been a key figure in terror network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which was blamed for the 2002 bombings on the holiday island which killed more than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists.

It was Indonesia's deadliest militant attack and prompted Jakarta to beef up anti-terror cooperation with the US and Australia, which has previously opposed clemency for Bashir.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Friday that he had agreed to order the ailing preacher's release from a prison on the outskirts of the capital.

"The first reason is humanitarian," Widodo told reporters.

"He is old... and his health condition was also part of the consideration."

Widodo did not say when Bashir would be released, but one of the cleric's lawyers said it could be as early as next week.

Bashir, speaking from Gunung Sindur prison, welcomed the news.

"If I am released, I'll praise Allah," he told reporters, adding he was not hostile to the state.

In 2011, the firebrand preacher -- once synonymous with militant Islam in Indonesia -- was sentenced to 15 years in jail for helping fund a paramilitary group training in the conservative Islamic province of Aceh.

Bashir, the co-founder of an infamous Islamic boarding school known for producing militants, was jailed after authorities in the world's biggest Muslim majority country broke up the camp.

Several militants convicted over their involvement in the Bali bombings have been executed while two others, including Malaysian Noordin Mohammed Top, were killed in police raids in 2009 and 2010.

Bashir, who has repeatedly denied involvement in terror attacks, was also previously jailed over the Bali bombings but that conviction was quashed on appeal.

Al-Qaeda-linked JI was founded by a handful of exiled Indonesian militants in Malaysia in the 1980s, and grew to include cells across Southeast Asia.

As well as the 2002 Bali bombings, the radical group was blamed for a deadly 2003 car bomb at the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta and a suicide car bomb the following year outside the Australian embassy.

An anti-terror crackdown weakened some of Indonesia's most dangerous networks, including Jemaah Islamiyah.

The Islamic State (IS) group proved to be a potent rallying cry for Indonesia's radicals, with hundreds travelling to the Middle East to join the jihadists.

Last year, a wave of deadly suicide bombings at churches and a police post rocked Indonesia's second biggest city Surabaya.

Those attacks were carried out by families -- including children -- linked to local extremist network Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, which has pledged allegiance to IS.Father of four Abu Ihab paddles his boat through the twisting alleyways of his Syrian hometown of Darkush, inundated by the floodwaters of the Orontes River after days of torrential rain

The alleyways of the Syrian town of Darkush are normally thronged with pedestrians but since the swollen Orontes River burst its banks, Abu Ihab's boat has provided the main way of getting around.

The 49-year-old farmer normally takes a well-earned rest in January when winter frosts turn his fields as hard as rock.

But this year, days of torrential rain in the mountains of Lebanon has sent a deluge downstream, submerging the streets of his hometown under as much as a metre and a half (five feet) of water.

With water up to a metre and a half (five feet) deep inundating streets and the ground floors of many houses, the 49-year-old provides a valuable public serice to fellow townspeople -- and for free

So instead the father of four is working long hours each day paddling his boat around the streets helping stricken residents to get their children to school, do the shopping or check on relatives.

"In winter, I don't usually leave the house much as it is cold and it rains. But this year I felt that people needed me," he says as he provides yet another ferry ride to grateful fellow townspeople.

Abu Ihab normally uses his boat for summer fishing on the Orontes to supplement his farm produce.

A child waits excitedly to join the unaccustomed school run by boat

He is one of the few in the town to own one so he offers his services for free, delivering fresh bread from the bakery or ferrying excited children on an unaccustomed school run by boat.

"Today, people are staying at home. They can't even get to the shops to buy food," he says, wearing a woolly hat and jacket against the cold.

Abu Ihab says most years see spates on the Orontes River that flows through Darksuh, but this year's is exceptional

It is not the first year that he has provided his free boat service. "Most years there are spates but this year is a really big one because of the torrential rains," he says.

The ground floors of houses close to the river have been inundated.

The mainly Sunni Arab town close the Turkish border lies in Idlib province which is largely under the control of jihadists led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria branch.

Bags of freshly baked pitta -- Abu Ihab provides free delivery to flood-stricken households unable to reach the shops

Across the province, the torrential rains have triggered flash floods that have caused widespread hardship, particularly in the vast tent cities set up for the displaced.

Civilians who have fled other parts of Syria recaptured by government forces make up around half of the resident population of Idlib and neighbouring rebel-held areas.Children wade through flood waters at an informal tent settlement housing Syrian refugees following winter storms in the area of Delhamiyeh, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on January 17, 2019

Snowstorms and weeks of bad weather have turned Lebanon's lush Bekaa Valley into an unliveable swamp for tens of thousands of Syrian refugees.

The Litani river flooded many of the fields stretching across the two majestic mountain ranges flanking the Bekaa after this year's second major storm hit on Wednesday.

Some families had barely finished repairing their tents when the most severe winter they have faced yet unleashed another crushing night of snow, wind and flooding.

"We spent all night emptying the tent but the water kept coming in," said Thaer Ibrahim Mohammed, a red and white headscarf wrapped around his head.

"This is the worst winter," said the greying man.

Gaggles of children made the most of the afternoon sun and pulled rubber boots on their bare feet to romp in the camp's sludgy alleys and have snowball fights.

Children wade through flood waters at an informal tent settlement housing Syrian refugees following winter storms in the area of Delhamiyeh, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on January 17, 2019

The shelters in "Camp 040", which lies on the edge of the village of Delhamiyeh and is one of the many informal settlements that dot the valley, are all the same.

They were erected on concrete slabs and their roofs are held down with used tyres.

Their tarpaulin walls provide a flimsy protection against strong winds and freezing temperatures.

The camp looks like it could have sprung up just weeks earlier but many of its residents have lived there since 2012, when the Syrian conflict escalated.

- Aid scramble -

Abu Ahmad, a native of Homs spending his seventh winter in Lebanon, said aid was inadequate.

An aerial view shows an informal tent settlement housing Syrian refugees flooded by winter storms in the area of Delhamiyeh, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on January 17, 2019

"This year there was a lot of rain. But humanitarian organisations have reduced aid," he said, standing on a brick placed as a stepping stone in a muddy puddle.

"You just need to look: do you think this sheeting keeps us warm or keeps the water out? They gave us nothing, no new tarps, no firewood, nothing," the young man said.

Aid organisations say they are doing their best to distribute emergency aid to the most vulnerable among the estimated 340,000 refugees living in the Bekaa valley.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said close to 24,000 people were affected by extreme weather conditions.

A man and his family ride on a motorbike through flood waters at an informal tent settlement housing Syrian refugees following winter storms in the area of Delhamiyeh, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on January 17, 2019

Some tents were destroyed by the storms that elsewhere in Lebanon have cut the main road to Syria several times, flooded the highway north of Beirut and forced schools to close.

Relief agencies have had to relocate families who were left homeless, once again, in several feet of snow.

Fatima, a 20-year-old refugee originally from the main northern Syrian city of Aleppo, had to leave her tent with her family but opted to squeeze in with neighbours.

"The tent is totally flooded, we can't live in it. So we took our things and left, what else can we do?"Bindu Ammini (L) and Kanakadurga (R) went into hiding after entering the hilltop temple

India's Supreme Court on Friday ordered southern Kerala state to provide "round-the-clock" security to two women who enraged conservatives by entering one of Hinduism's holiest temples earlier this month.

The court in September overturned a ban on women aged between 10 and 50 from entering the hilltop Sabarimala temple, but the devotees refused to accept the ruling and prevented female worshippers from entering.

News that two women had managed to enter the shrine on January 2 triggered days of violent protest, with one person killed and dozens injured in clashes with police that saw buses torched and bombs hurled.

The women, Bindu Ammini and Kanakadurga, went in hiding and later approached the top court, claiming their lives were in danger.

"Having heard the lawyers we deem it appropriate to close this petition at this stage by directing Kerala to provide adequate security to both. The security would be provided round the clock," the court said.

Kanakadurga, who goes by one name, was allegedly attacked by her mother-in-law on Tuesday after returning home and was admitted to hospital for her injuries.

She had been on the run for days with Ammini, with the pair changing safe houses more than 10 times to avoid being tracked down.

The temple -- considered among the holiest in Hinduism and set on top of a hill in a tiger reserve -- receives millions of pilgrims a year.

It is dedicated to the celibate deity Ayyappa, and followers believe letting in women of menstruating age goes against his wishes.

It is one of the few Hindu temples with restrictions on the entry of women.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear legal challenges to its September order overturning the ban on women entering Sabarimala next week.Abubakar (pictured) is standing against President Buhari at next month's election

Nigeria's main opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar has put paid to rumours that he is unable to travel to the United States because of corruption allegations, by jetting to Washington for meetings with US counterparts.

The wealthy businessman, who is standing against President Muhammadu Buhari at next month's election, arrived in the US capital on Thursday night, his media team announced.

The trip, which was shrouded in secrecy, effectively ends speculation that he could not obtain travel documents or feared being arrested over the graft claims.

"Former Nigerian Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has arrived in the United States," his media team said in a short statement.

The 72-year-old Abubakar and his delegation were later seen in photographs at the airport and arriving at the Trump International Hotel, a stone's throw from the White House.

Among those travelling with him was Senate leader Bukola Saraki, who is Nigeria's third-most senior politician behind Buhari and his deputy Yemi Osinbajo.

Like Abubakar, Saraki defected from Buhari's ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), after strained ties with the government.

Meetings are planned with "a high-powered, bi-partisan delegation of US congressmen who are deeply concerned and troubled about the future of democracy in Nigeria", the statement said.

- 'Harassment of opposition leaders' -

Abubakar, Saraki and Nigerian senator Ben Murray-Bruce were later pictured dressed in Western business suits with Republican party politician Chris Smith.

Smith, who chairs the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, last month said he was "very concerned by the current trajectory in Nigeria" and Buhari's "apparent crackdown on non-violent protests and harassment of opposition leaders".

He said the assets of Abubakar's running mate Peter Obi had been frozen and the home of two of Abubakar's sons had been raided.

Abubakar has also alleged the ruling party has intimidated opposition candidates and claimed the APC is looking to rig the result.

Smith has previously spoken out on extremist violence in Nigeria.

Abubakar's visit will also see him meet "business leaders, high ranking US government officials" as well as member Nigerian in diaspora," his media team said.

Abubakar has faced repeated claims of corruption from his time as head of Nigeria's customs service and as vice-president to Olusegun Obasanjo from 1999 to 2007.

He has never been charged and denies all allegations.

In 2010, a US Senate investigation cited him in a money-laundering case.

Between 2000 and 2008, his fourth wife, a US citizen, helped Abubakar funnel $40 million in suspect funds to the United States via offshore accounts, the report said.

Abubakar earlier this week pledged to fight corruption, which has been a key plank of Buhari's administration since his election in 2015.

Buhari, 76, has pledged to recover what he said were "mind-boggling" sums of looted public funds, leading to the arrest of dozens of former government officials.

But his fight against graft has been criticised as a political witch-hunt against the PDP.

Nigerians go to the polls to elect a new president and parliament on February 16. Governorship and state assembly elections follow two weeks later.Singapore has chosen the US-built F-35 fighter jet over rivals from Europe and China

Singapore has chosen the F-35 warplane to replace its ageing fighter jets, opting for the US aircraft over European and Chinese models, the defence ministry said Friday.

The affluent city-state, which has one of Asia's best equipped militaries, had earlier said it was evaluating Lockheed Martin's F-35 along with Europe's Eurofighter Typhoon and Chinese-made stealth warplanes.

"The F-16s will have to retire soon after 2030 and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has been identified as the most suitable replacement to maintain the RSAF's (Republic of Singapore Air Force) capabilities," the ministry of defence said in a statement.

The ministry said the air force should first buy "a small number" of F-35s "for a full evaluation of their capabilities and suitability before deciding on a full fleet".

Australia, Japan and South Korea are among countries in Asia-Pacific that have already acquired F-35s.

It took Singapore more than five years to make a decision on which planes to buy as they had to look carefully at specifications and what was needed, said Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen in a Facebook post.

"Our agencies will now have to speak to their US counterparts to move the process forward," Ng said, adding it could be up to a year before any planes are purchased.

The F-16s are due to be taken out of service in around 10 years' time, meaning it was time to acquire their replacement and begin training pilots, he said.

The F-35 is a supersonic plane whose advanced stealth characteristic allow pilots to avoid detection by radars, according to Lockheed Martin.

Its advanced electronic warfare capabilities enable F-35 pilots to locate and track enemy forces, jam radars and disrupt attacks.

The Singapore military also has F-15 fighter jets, Apache helicopters and submarines in its arsenal.An onlooker inspects the remains of the apartment of a Palestinian accused of the fatal September stabbing of an Israeli-American after it was demolished by the Israeli army

Israeli forces demolished the West Bank home on Friday of a Palestinian accused of the fatal September stabbing of an Israeli-American.

Residents of the town of Yata, near the flashpoint city of Hebron, said that troops arrived at the home of Khalil Jabareen and were met by stone-throwing Palestinians.

The Israeli army said the structure destroyed was an apartment where Jabareen lived.

"During the operation, several violent riots were instigated with the participation of dozens of Palestinians who hurled rocks at soldiers," it said. "The troops responded with riot dispersal means."

There were no reports of casualties on either side.

Ari Fuld, 45, was a father of four who lived in the Israeli settlement of Efrat, near the shopping mall in the occupied West Bank where he was stabbed.

Jabareen, 17 at the time of the incident, was shot and moderately wounded near the scene after a brief chase and placed under arrest.

Israeli forensic police inspect the site outside a shopping mall in the occupied West Bank where Israeli-American father of four Ari Fuld was fatally stabbed on September 16, 2018

He was allegedly identified as the assailant from footage on security cameras outside the mall at Gush Etzion Junction south of Bethlehem.

There is frequent friction between Israelis and Palestinians at the junction, which lies near a major Israeli settlement bloc and has been the site of numerous lone-wolf Palestinian attacks.

Fuld, was a right-wing activist who had appeared regularly on television.

Police have said there was no indication he was targeted for that reason, although they classified the stabbing as a "terrorist attack".

Israel has a policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinians accused of deadly attacks against Israelis, saying it acts as a deterrent.

Critics denounce it as a form of collective punishment that makes families homeless and can provoke further violence.

Israeli forces routinely demolish the homes of Palestinians accused of deadly attacks against Israelis, saying it acts as a deterrent, but critics denounce it as a form of collective punishment that leaves innocent family members homeless

The demolitions often spark clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.

In 2005, Israel halted the policy but in 2014, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that demolitions would resume after a wave of attacks.President Donald Trump has said he is eager to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again after their historic summit in Singapore

Vietnam's premier has said his country is willing to host a much-anticipated second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

One of North Korea's top generals Kim Yong Chol is expected to meet with Trump at the White House on Friday to hash out details of a second meeting with Kim, including a potential venue.

The second round of talks follow a historic summit in Singapore last year and are aimed at denuclearisation and ending decades of enmity between the two nations.

Vietnam has cropped up in the swirl of rumours and conjecture over a possible site for the meeting, with the capital Hanoi or the coastal city of Danang seemingly the most likely bases for the summit.

On Thursday Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said he would be open to hosting it.

"We don't know the final decision. However, if it happens here we will do our best to facilitate the meeting," he said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

"Vietnam has cooperated well with the US in developing economic and trade relations, as well as in other areas."

The coastal city of Danang has been mentioned as a possible venue for the second Trump-Kim summit

A Vietnamese government source who wished to remain anonymous told AFP "logistical preparations" were under way for a Trump-Kim summit although "no official decision" had been made.

"There is lots of work to be done, not only for Danang but some other locations for the event. The Vietnamese side is ready to host... but it is not up to us to decide."

Like several other Southeast Asian countries, Vietnam maintains diplomatic ties with both communist-run Pyongyang and Washington and is keen to host major global events as it tries to project a more confident global profile.

Communist Vietnam hosted a major Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in the central city of Danang in 2017 attended by global leaders, including Trump.

Hanoi also welcomed North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho in November for a visit reportedly aimed at sharing lessons from its economic success story.

Hosting a meeting of this calibre that will draw attention -- and scrutiny -- from around the world will be "very significant", said Nguyen Vinh Quang, an analyst at Vietnam's Center for Strategic Studies and International Development.

"It will show Vietnam's contribution to global peace. Secondly, Vietnam can affirm its role as a reliable partner for countries around the world," he told AFP.

Trump has said he is eager to meet with Kim again after their historic summit in June, the first ever meeting between two sitting leaders from two countries that never formally ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

The leaders agreed on a vaguely-worded statement in which Kim pledged to work towards "the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula".

But progress has since stalled with the two sides sparring over what that means.

Kim is hoping for an easing of international sanctions but the United States insists on maintaining maximum pressure until Pyongyang moves forward on giving up its nuclear weapons.South Africa's Daryl Impey gave his hopes of becoming the first rider to go back-to-back in the race's 21-year history a massive boost with his fourth stage victory

South Africa's Daryl Impey surged into contention to defend his Tour Down Under title with a thrilling win ahead of race leader Patrick Bevin in Adelaide on Friday.

The Mitchelton-Scott rider claimed the fourth stage to move to second overall just seven seconds behind New Zealand's Bevin (CCC Team) with two stages left in the UCI season-opening world tour event in South Australia.

Impey gave his hopes of becoming the first rider to go back-to-back in the race's 21-year history a massive boost with his stage victory.

Astana's Leon Luis Sanchez went early but was caught by Impey and Bevin in the last 20 metres to finish third on the 129.2-kilometre (80-mile) stage through the Adelaide Hills from Unley to Campbelltown.

"I'm so stoked to have done something like this, it's so special," Impey said.

"I knew if I lined up Paddy Bevin, I'd have a good shot at winning, so I'm super-happy to win today."

The stage featured the challenging Corkscrew Road ascent as a final test some six kilometres from the finish.

Wout Poels (Team Sky), George Bennett (Team Jumbo-Visma), Richie Porte(Trek-Segafredo) and Michael Woods (EF-Education First) attacked on the final climb.

The peloton arrives in Stirling on the 129.2-kilometre (80-mile) stage four through the Adelaide Hills from Unley to Campbelltown

But they were caught by the chasing bunch, led by Impey and Bevin, on the descent resulting in an exciting 20-rider finish.

Poels, Bennett, Porte and Woods announced themselves as the top climbers ahead of Sunday's challenging final stage at Willunga, where the Tour winner will be anointed.

"It's (points lead) still not a huge buffer," Bevin said.

"Those four (Porte, Bennett, Woods and Poels) showed themselves as the best pure climbers in this race, but this race fortunately is about being an all-rounder.

"Basically you've got to sprint better than the climbers and climb better than the sprinters."

Australia's Jason Lea (UniSA-Australia) retained the King of the Mountain jersey after stage four from Bennett and Italy's Manuele Boaro (Astana Pro Team).

Former triple world champion Peter Sagan (BORA-hansgrohe) fell back in race contention following Thursday's stage win and finished 29th in Friday's leg to be 20th overall.

Bevin took over the sprint leader's jersey by 12 points from Sagan and Sanchez.

Saturday's Stage 5 over 149.5 kilometres begins in Glenelg and finishes in Strathalbyn.Oxford University says it will "not pursue new funding opportunities" with Chinese telecoms group Huawei

Oxford University has decided to forgo further funding from Chinese tech giant Huawei as scrutiny grows in Europe over the telecom company's relationship with the Beijing government.

Huawei has been under fire in recent months with the arrests of a top executive in Canada and an employee in Poland, along with a worldwide campaign by Washington to blacklist its equipment.

And in the latest blow for Huawei, Oxford University said it had decided it would "not pursue new funding opportunities" for both research contracts or philanthropic donations from Huawei and related group companies -- though existing projects would continue.

"We currently have two such ongoing projects, with a combined funding from Huawei of 692,000 ($898,000)," a university spokesman said Thursday, adding that Huawei had been informed of the decision to turn away future funding.

Oxford said it had made the decision in "light of public concerns raised in recent months surrounding UK partnerships with Huawei."

But a Huawei spokesman said the company had not been informed and would "await the University's full explanation."

"We have operated in the UK since 2001, employ 1,500 people here and have long standing research collaborations with 20 other UK universities working to develop the technologies of the future," he said.

Huawei faces unprecedented challenges to its business amid a global campaign by Washington to push nations to reconsider using the telecom giant's equipment in their cellular networks over security concerns.

Australia and New Zealand banned its gear last year and a top British operator moved to remove its existing equipment, while concerns grow in Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and other countries.

Huawei's reclusive founder Ren Zhengfei stepped out of the shadows this week to give a rare media interview, forcefully denying accusations that his firm engaged in espionage on behalf of the Chinese government.

The company fired the Chinese employee in Poland who was arrested on espionage allegations.

Ren's daughter and Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou was detained in Canada last month on US fraud charges related to Iran sanctions violations.Hundreds of Australians gather in Melbourne for a silent vigil in memory of murdered Israeli student Aiia Maasarwe

Hundreds of Australians dressed in black gathered in Melbourne on the steps of Victorian state parliament late Friday for a silent vigil in memory of murdered Israeli student Aiia Maasarwe.

The 21-year-old was killed on the way home from a comedy show in Melbourne just after midnight Tuesday.

Her body was found in bushes near a tram stop by passers-by several hours later on Wednesday morning.

"It's a sad reason that we are here today," one man attending the vigil told Channel Seven TV news. "To sit and stand in anger for what has happened."

A woman holding back tears at the event said: "It's just so sad, she seemed like such a lovely girl."

Attendees will later fill the 86 tram, which Maasarwe was believed to have ridden on her way home, with red roses that were reportedly her favourite flowers.

Maasarwe's father Saeed, visited the crime scene Friday, where dozens of flowers and messages from the public have been left nearby in support.

"I feel very very sad from one side, but from another side, when I get this support and this help -- from the people, from the community, from the police -- it makes the suffering to feel a little more better," he told reporters.

"This is the last place my daughter... was here," he added, breaking down in tears. "I want to be with her for more time, but someone decided I cannot be."

Maasarwe was killed in a late-night attack while she was speaking on the phone with her sister.

Police, who have described the attack as "horrific", arrested a 20-year-old man in the outer suburbs of Melbourne on Friday in connection to the murder.

"Homicide Squad detectives have arrested a man as part of the ongoing investigation into the death of Aiia Maasarwe," Victoria Police said in a statement.

Campaigners have called for an end to the "epidemic of violence against women" in the city.

Some of the vigil organisers were the ones who had arranged a similar tribute for Eurydice Dixon, a 22-year-old local comedian who was killed in a Melbourne park last year as she was going home.

"We're as angry as we were last time," organiser Jessamy Gleeson told Melbourne's Herald Sun on Friday, adding more needed to be done to keep women safe.

"We shouldn't have these one-off vigils. There needs to be continued engagement and conversation about violence against women."

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison took to Twitter on Friday, calling the crime "an incredibly shocking, despicable and tragic attack".

"My heart goes out to Aiia's family and friends and everyone whose life she touched."Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has warned that Pacific island nations are increasingly threatened by rising sea levels

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's Pacific charm offensive went off course on Friday when he was forced to defend Fiji's accusations of inaction over climate change.

As Morrison pushed Canberra's message of a new Pacific focus with increased security and enhanced trade opportunities, he was called out by Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, who turned the spotlight onto climate change.

Bainimarama said if Australia shifted away from its coal and mining industries it would help the survival of Pacific island countries threatened by rising sea levels.

"From where we are sitting, we cannot imagine how the interests of any single industry can be placed above the welfare of Pacific peoples and vulnerable people in the world over," Bainimarama said in a speech late Thursday.

"Rising seas threaten whole communities, forcing them to endure the trauma of relocating from land they've endured for generations.

"Fijian farmers are watching their crops perish in soil that has been spoiled by the heightened salinity that is associated with sea level rise."

Morrison, wrapping up a three-day visit to Fiji and Vanuatu, told reporters on Friday that Australia had commitments on emissions reductions in a "comprehensive response" to climate change, but he gave no specifics on clean energy plans.

"Well, we are already pursuing those policies in a way that I believe is consistent with what (Bainimarama) is expecting of Australia," the prime minister said.

"They were discussions we had yesterday, and we have been having very positive discussions about our future investments in this area."

Morrison stressed the importance of the Pacific to Australia at a time China is increasing its presence in the region.

He avoided any mention of China, but in a keynote speech in Suva he spoke of strengthening "defence and security co-operation" in the region.

He also reaffirmed Canberra's commitment to extending trade opportunities in the Pacific, where Australia is often viewed as an unwelcome big brother.

Australia has in the past been accused of paying little regard to the region, while China maintains it is promoting "peace, security and prosperity" and fostering "wide-ranging friendly and co-operative ties".

On the first visit by an Australian leader to Vanuatu and Fiji, Morrison said he was turning his nation's attention to the Pacific where it "should always have been".

He reiterated plans to establish five new diplomatic missions in the region and said Australia was also establishing an Office of the Pacific within the department of foreign affairs and trade "to give a loud and authoritative voice... following my commitments to step up our Pacific engagement."

Fiji's relationship with China blossomed after Bainimarama seized power in a 2006 coup. While Beijing did not comment on Fiji's political upheaval, Australia was highly critical.

However, relations between Canberra and Suva appeared to have normalised last August when Australia beat China for the right to redevelop Fiji's Blackrock Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Camp, which trains police and troops for missions.

Fiji military chief of staff for co-ordination, Captain Eronia Duaibe, said Australia's bid was successful because they took a "holistic" approach to construction, rather than the "bits and pieces" tabled by China.

Morrison said that once the facility is completed it "will provide an unprecedented level of assistance and safety to Fiji and the Pacific region".Singaporean presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bock (2nd-L) greeting his supporters in 2011 when he stood as candidate of the presidential elections in Singapore

A former stalwart of Singapore's long-ruling government and ex-presidential candidate said Friday he is seeking to form a new party ahead of elections expected as early as this year.

Analysts said the move by Tan Cheng Bock, who almost beat the ruling party's de facto candidate in the 2011 presidential race, could represent a challenge to the government's dominance of the political system.

The People's Action Party (PAP) has ruled the affluent city-state since 1959 and has a tight grip on power. The forthcoming election, which they are widely expected to win, must be held by 2021 -- but speculation is mounting it will be this year.

Tan's move will heap extra pressure on the government, however, with the poll coming at a sensitive time as the country's founding Lee family prepares to hand over the premiership to a new generation of leaders.

Announcing he had applied Wednesday to register the new group, called the "Progress Singapore Party", Tan said the move was out of a "sense of duty" to address concerns of ordinary Singaporeans.

He said 12 people had filed the application, including other former ruling party members.

"Over the years a group of us have been walking the ground, meeting many Singaporeans from all walks of life," said the medical doctor, 78, who was a ruling party lawmaker for over two decades.

Tan said he decided to form his own party despite offers from other groups, but added that "we will extend our hand of co-operation in the future".

- 'Legitimate alternative' -

His return to politics may help revive Singapore's fragmented opposition. Several groups have been trying with little success to make headway against the PAP for years, with The Workers' Party the only one to have won any parliament seats.

They have won six, compared to the ruling party's 82.

Last year, local media reported that seven opposition parties discussed the possibility of forming a coalition headed by Tan.

Lee Morgenbesser, a Southeast Asia expert from Griffith University in Australia, said the move was "significant, mainly because Tan Cheng Bock has been such an influential PAP figure".

"It could provide a legitimate alternative to the PAP," he said, but cautioned this was unlikely to happen immediately.

Bridget Welsh, a Southeast Asia expert from John Cabot University, said the important question now was whether Tan "works for fostering greater unity in the opposition as a whole and whether he can continue to attract support from the PAP's political base".

"The opposition is highly unlikely to win government, but the chance of strengthening opposition representation in parliament has gained traction," she added.

Under the PAP, Singapore has become one of the world's wealthiest societies and the party still enjoys solid support.

But critics accuse them of tactics such as gerrymandering and seeking to bankrupt opponents through civil lawsuits to maintain their hold on power.The milky way and meteors of the April Lyrids annual meteor shower in the night sky over the Baltic Sea

A rocket carrying a satellite on a mission to deliver the world's first artificial meteor shower blasted into space on Friday, Japanese scientists said.

A start-up based in Tokyo developed the micro-satellite for the celestial show over Hiroshima early next year as the initial experiment for what it calls a "shooting stars on demand" service.

The satellite is to release tiny balls that glow brightly as they hurtle through the atmosphere, simulating a meteor shower.

It hitched a ride on the small-size Epsilon-4 rocket that was launched from the Uchinoura space centre by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on Friday morning.

The rocket carried a total of seven ultra-small satellites that will demonstrate various "innovative" technologies, JAXA spokesman Nobuyoshi Fujimoto told AFP.

By early afternoon, JAXA confirmed all seven satellites had successfully been launched into orbit.

"I was too moved for words," Lena Okajima, president of the company behind the artificial meteor showers, told the Jiji Press agency.

"I feel like now the hard work is ahead."

Lena Okajima, CEO of a space technology venture ALE is hoping to deliver shooting stars on demand and choreograph the cosmos

The company ALE Co. Ltd plans to deliver its first out-of-this-world show over Hiroshima in the spring of 2020.

The satellite launched Friday carries 400 tiny balls whose chemical formula is a closely-guarded secret.

That should be enough for 20-30 events, as one shower will involve up to 20 stars, according to the company.

ALE's satellite, released 500 kilometres (310 miles) above the Earth, will gradually descend to 400 kilometres over the coming year as it orbits the Earth.

- Worldwide meteor shower shows -

The company plans to launch a second satellite on a private-sector rocket in mid-2019.

ALE says it is targeting "the whole world" with its products and plans to build a stockpile of shooting stars in space that can be delivered across the world.

The annual Perseid meteor shower -- seen here over eastern France -- is a highlight for sky-watchers

When its two satellites are in orbit, they can be used separately or in tandem, and will be programmed to eject the balls at the right location, speed and direction to put on a show for viewers on the ground.

Tinkering with the ingredients in the balls should mean that it is possible to change the colours they glow, offering the possibility of a multi-coloured flotilla of shooting stars.

Each star is expected to shine for several seconds before being completely burned up -- well before they fall low enough to pose any danger to anything on Earth.

They would glow brightly enough to be seen even over the light-polluted metropolis of Tokyo, ALE says.

If all goes well, and the skies are clear, the 2020 event could be visible to millions of people, it says.

A multiple exposure picture of the Perseids meteor shower, seen over Spain

Okajima has said her company chose Hiroshima for its first display because of its good weather, landscape and cultural assets.

The western Japan city rose from the ashes after the 1945 US atomic bombing and faces the Seto Inland sea where the floating gate of Itsukushima Shrine is.

ALE is working in collaboration with scientists and engineers at Japanese universities as well as local government officials and corporate sponsors.

It has not disclosed the price for an artificial meteor shower.Protesters demonstrating in San Diego in June 2018 against the Trump administration policy of separating families who entered the United States illegally

Thousands more children were forcibly separated from their parents after illegally crossing the US-Mexico border from 2017-2018 than originally admitted by President Donald Trump's administration, an official report said Thursday.

The inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which was given responsibility for the children, said the total number separated under the administration's "zero-tolerance policy" toward illegal immigrants remains unknown.

But the department said that so far it has identified 2,737 separated children placed in its care before the controversial policy was officially declared over in May 2018, a number not previously divulged.

After the zero-tolerance announcement was made, and before the policy was halted under political and legal pressure, another nearly 3,000 minors were separated from their parents or adult guardians who illegally crossed into the United States.

The policy was declared amid White House frustration over a resurgence of illegal immigration in the first half of 2018 following a decline the previous year.

Border officials were told to strip children from their parents to be sent to camps run by the HHS' Office of Refugee Resettlement, eventually to be placed in US relatives' homes.

Meanwhile, their parents were to be arrested and charged with illegal entry into the country.

Many parents spent months searching for their children.

The policy outraged immigrant and children's advocates and was branded a crime by international rights activists.

Ordered in June 2018 to better account for the children in its care, HHS identified 2,737 it was caring for at that time.

"However, thousands of children may have been separated during an influx that began in 2017, before the accounting required by the Court, and HHS has faced challenges in identifying separated children," the department said.

The report added that the Office of Refugee Resettlement had dozens and possibly hundreds of children whom it did not know had been separated from their parents.

The report contradicted statements by administration officials -- including Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen -- that there was a clear system in place for dealing with the children and that there was not a "policy" of separations.

"The OIG report released today shows that the Trump Administration, with its unique blend of incompetence, cruelty, and disregard for basic decency, misled the American public on one of its most heinous policies to date," said Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson, who heads the House Committee on Homeland Security.

"Thousands more children were separated from their families than we were previously told -- and we still don't even know exactly how many kids have been ripped from their families because the Administration has failed to keep track."

Late Thursday, Democratic New Jersey Senator Cory Booker branded as a "lie" a tweet by Nielsen in June stating there was no separation policy -- and called on her to resign.

"Not only was this a lie -- today's shattering government watchdog report on family separation shows the more we dig, the worse it is," he wrote on Twitter.

"We've seen nothing but a horrifying display of cruelty and incompetence from DHS Secretary Nielsen -- she needs to resign."An officer guards the US embassy in Montenegro after an attack in February 2018 travelled to Iraq and Syria.

The US State Department said Thursday it had found money to bring back full staff to ensure the smooth running of US foreign policy despite a month-long political impasse that has shut down Washington.

The department sent out orders for all staff to return as of Sunday, the start of the next pay period. With the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday on Monday, staff will effectively be back at work on Tuesday.

Unlike many federal employees such as airport security screeners and Coast Guard members who are working without pay, the State Department said it would pay all of its 75,000 employees using available funds it has located.

An official said it had become clear as the shutdown dragged on that the full departmental workforce was needed to address the "myriad critical issues requiring US leadership around the globe."

"We are also deeply concerned about growing financial hardship and uncertainty affecting department employees whose salaries and well-being are affected by the unprecedented length of the lapse," he added on condition of anonymity.

The State Department said it would still use its resources sparingly and would not immediately pay back salaries to workers that had been furloughed -- or ordered home without pay -- for the first month of the shutdown.

It also said it was unsure whether it could continue paying employees if the shutdown lasted beyond the next month.

As of Thursday, 23 percent of the State Department's directly employed workers overseas and 40 percent of them in the United States have been furloughed.

The shutdown has not affected non-American employees of US embassies, whose pay has already been assured through early March.

The State Department had held off on furloughs of local staff overseas, mindful that many countries have laws that prohibit work without pay -- as well as the potential impact to the US image.

The US government ran out of appropriated funding on December 22 as President Donald Trump demands $5.7 billion to build a wall on the border with Mexico -- a signature promise in 2016 when the mogul ran for president on an anti-immigration platform.

Amid the shutdown, the United States has kept up basic functions overseas such as issuing visas but has been notably absent in some areas, with US embassies for example not updating social media.US President Donald Trump speaks during the Missile Defense Review announcement at the Pentagon

President Donald Trump vowed Thursday to boost America's missile defense systems, including by investing in technology to protect against the growing threat of hypersonic weapons and cruise missiles.

Speaking at the Pentagon, Trump unveiled the Missile Defense Review, a long-awaited analysis of the defensive network of US interceptors that are designed to shoot down an incoming ballistic missile.

Top among the concerns highlighted in the review is the speed at which rivals, particularly China and Russia, are pushing ahead with hypersonic missiles, which can thwart traditional defense systems.

"The US will now adjust its posture to defend against any missile strikes including cruise and hypersonic missiles," Trump told the military audience.

"We will terminate any missile launches from hostile powers or even from powers that make a mistake. It won't happen, regardless of the missile type or geographic origins of the attack."

Flying at low altitude and at many times the speed of sound, hypersonics are able to change direction and don't follow a ballistic arc, so are much harder to track and cannot currently be intercepted.

As a result, the Pentagon is urgently looking at ways to enhance its ability to track hypersonic missiles, primarily by using existing sensors that are deployed in space.

"These new technologies produce new threats, and these threats are harder to see, harder to track and harder to defeat," Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said.

"To our competitors: we see what you are doing and we are taking action."

Russian President Vladimir Putin last month boasted of a new hypersonic missile that could fly at about 20,500 miles (33,000 kilometers) per hour and is unstoppable.

Acting US Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, pictured on his first day on January 2, 2019, warned that new missile threats are "harder to see, harder to track and harder to defeat"

While Trump blasted Iran for developing missile technology, he did not mention Russia or North Korea.

Pyongyang has developed a ballistic missile arsenal now capable of hitting the United States.

Trump ordered the missile defense review in 2017, amid heightened tensions with Pyongyang over its nuclear program -- the first such review of America's ballistic defenses since 2010.

But Trump has since met North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un in a bid to end the crisis, and he was expected to welcome a top North Korean official in Washington on Friday.

Still, the review itself stresses that North Korea is "an extraordinary threat and the United States must remain vigilant."

- Missiles in space -

Currently, ground-based anti-missile technologies, like this one pictured during a 2017 test in California, focus on intercepting warheads while they are in the "midcourse" phase, flying through space

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA), which conducted the review, said it would study the feasibility of creating a space-based interceptor system, in which an orbiting craft of some sort would be equipped with missiles that could destroy an incoming warhead while it was in space.

Another focus for the MDA will be developing ways to knock out a ballistic missile immediately after it has launched.

Currently, ground-based anti-missile technologies focus on intercepting warheads while they are in the "midcourse" phase, flying through space.

By attacking the missiles while they are still in their slow-moving "boost phase" at launch, the MDA could add a new layer of defense for America and its allies.

One way of doing this could be by adding a new type of missile to F-35 stealth fighters patrolling near a suspected launch site, such as in a hypothetical conflict with North Korea, the MDA said.

North Korean reach

"Intercepting offensive missiles in their boost phase would increase the likelihood of successfully countering missile threats, complicate an aggressor's attack calculus... and reduce the number of midcourse or terminal active defense interceptors needed to destroy the adversary's remaining offensive missiles," the MDA said.

The MDA is also looking at ways of boosting its "directed energy" -- or laser -- capabilities to take out ballistic missiles.

The review was due to be released last year, but its publication saw repeated delays.Two days of clashes between rival militias near Libya's capital Tripoli have left 10 people dead and 41 wounded, the health ministry said Thursday.

Fighting between armed groups erupted Wednesday despite a truce deal four months ago that had halted deadly battles in the city.

A medical source told AFP that fierce clashes hit an area some 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Tripoli on Thursday, after fighting around an airport 25 kilometres from the capital the previous day.

The violence has pitted the Tripoli Protection Force, an alliance of militias from the city, against the Seventh Brigade group from the town of Tarhuna.

The health ministry said that there were women and children among the wounded.

Tripoli was plagued by militia clashes that killed at least 117 people and wounded more than 400 between late August and late September.

The United Nations mission in Libya on Wednesday condemned a "military mobilisation" in southern Tripoli and warned groups not to break a ceasefire agreement it brokered in September.

The Seventh Brigade has maintained its positions around Tripoli since the accord was reached, a move that has angered rival militias.

Libya has been torn between rival administrations and a myriad of militias since the overthrow and killing of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

The main armed groups in Tripoli say they are loyal to the internationally backed Government of National Accord (GNA), but officials have struggled to exert real control over the fighters.

The GNA announced security reforms in the wake of the bloodshed last year, aimed at curbing the power of militias in the capital.

A rival administration in the east of Libya is backed by strongman Khalifa Haftar and his self-proclaimed Libyan National Army.

The UN is pushing for elections to help stabilise Libya, but chronic violence has delayed plans for the vote.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 29, is the youngest member of the US Congress

US Congress' youngest member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shared her Twitter savvy with Democratic colleagues Thursday, giving fellow representatives a taste of her influence on the social media platform -- and how to take selfies.

The 29-year-old progressive New Yorker appeared with several Democratic members of the House of Representatives in a photo posted by California's Ted Lieu.

"Representatives at a training session on Twitter for Democratic Members of Congress. The pic below is called a selfie," he joked.

Twitter employees also attended the training, according to Lieu.

"Class was in session this morning! I was thrilled to offer some insights on Twitter and social media to my colleagues this morning," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted from her "@AOC" account, which has nearly 2.5 million followers.

Ocasio-Cortez, who represents an area of New York City which includes parts of the Bronx and Queens, often tweets several times a day.

Her social media know-how could benefit Democratic colleagues as they try to take on the policies of another prolific tweeter -- President Donald Trump.

"AOC" regularly posts on Instagram, too, sharing "stories" about her new life on Capitol Hill with her 1.8 million followers.

Her policy positions, frequently considered to the left even of other Democrats, have also made her the target of social media criticism during her first few weeks in Congress.

A video showing Ocasio-Cortez and others dancing on a roof as a student surfaced on Twitter in early January with a caption from an anonymous poster: "Here is America's favorite commie know-it-all acting like the clueless nitwit she is."

Instead of joining in the mockery, however, many internet users cheered her "impressive" choreography and "dope" friends.

Ocasio-Cortez published her own response on Twitter, posting a video of her dancing outside her office with her new congressional nameplate in full view.

"I hear the GOP thinks women dancing are scandalous. Wait till they find out Congresswomen dance too!"

It's unclear whether Thursday's congressional Twitter instruction also included a lesson on how to dance, but Ocasio-Cortez appeared the use the opportunity to learn.

"Now Majority (Whip James Clyburn) is teaching me what all the bells mean in the Capitol," she tweeted with a cry-laughing emoji.Anastasia Vashukevich, known as Nastya Rybka, was held in a police raid last February in the sleazy Thai seaside resort of Pattaya

Russia on Thursday detained a Belarusian model who claimed she had evidence of Russian efforts to help Donald Trump win office, witnesses told AFP.

Anastasia Vashukevich, known by her pen-name Nastya Rybka, was held for questioning at a Moscow airport on Thursday evening after she was deported from Thailand as part of a group convicted of participating in a "sex training course," other passengers on the flight told AFP.

Russian authorities detained her and several others including Alex Kirillov, a self-styled Russian seduction guru, witnesses said.

Plain-clothes officials led away four of the group including Vashukevich and Kirillov, a woman who gave her name as Kristina told AFP after emerging at Sheremetyevo airport arrivals.

Describing herself as Kirillov's wife, Kristina said she heard the group shouting and asking for an explanation of "why they were being detained" and saying they were suspected of recruiting for prostitution, a crime punishable by up to six years in jail.

A law enforcement source told TASS state news agency that four including Vashukevich and Kirillov were detained at the airport over recruiting for prostitution.

Vashukevich was held with several others in a police raid last February in the sleazy seaside resort of Pattaya.

- Between salacious and bizarre -

In a case that veered between salacious and bizarre, Vashukevich said she had travelled to Thailand after becoming embroiled in a political scandal with Russian aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska -- a one-time associate of Trump's disgraced former campaign director Paul Manafort.

She then set tongues wagging by promising to reveal "missing puzzle pieces" regarding claims the Kremlin aided Trump's 2016 presidential election victory.

But the material never surfaced and critics dismissed the claims as a publicity stunt.

In the risque Pattaya seminar led by Kirillov, some participants wore shirts that said "sex animator" -- though one person at the time described it as more of a romance and relationship course.

Vashukevich pleaded guilty alongside seven others to multiple charges, including solicitation and illegal assembly at a Pattaya court on Tuesday, which ordered the group be deported.

Kirillov, who has served as a quasi-spokesman for the mostly Russian group, told reporters as they arrived at court Tuesday that he believed they were set up.

"I think somebody ordered (our arrest)... for money," he said.

Vashukevich looked sombre as she entered the courthouse and did not respond to questions from the media.

- Book about seducing oligarchs -

On Thursday afternoon, Vashukevich and the majority of the convicted were put on an Aeroflot flight for Moscow, bringing to an end the Thai side of a baffling case.

Thailand's immigration chief Surachate Hakparn said the last of the group would leave the country later that evening.

They were also blacklisted from returning to Thailand.

Anastasia Vashukevich said she had information on claims the Kremlin aided Trump's 2016 election victory

It was unclear what would happen to them on arrival in Moscow but as a Belarusian citizen, Vashukevich was expected to transit to Belarus.

Vashukevich, who has more than 120,000 followers on Instagram and penned a book about seducing oligarchs, already faces legal problems in Russia.

Deripaska won an invasion of privacy lawsuit against her and Kirillov in July after a video apparently filmed by the model showed the tycoon vacationing with an influential Russian deputy prime minister at the time.

"I don't think she wants to get out in Moscow," a Russian friend in Thailand who helped with the case told AFP on Thursday.

Both Washington and Moscow publicly shrugged off Vashukevich's story, which the US State Department described as "bizarre".

Kremlin-connected Deripaska and Manafort, Trump's ex-campaign manager, did business together in the mid-2000s.

Manafort has since been convicted in the US of financial crimes related to political work he did in Ukraine before the 2016 election as well as witness tampering.

burs-video-am/pvhFormer CBS CEO Leslie Moonves was fired after a dozen wome came forward with allegations of sexual abuse against him

CBS's former CEO Leslie Moonves, fired over sexual abuse allegations, is taking the television network to arbitration to try to get $120 million in severance it refused to pay him.

CBS and Moonves had agreed in September when he was fired that he had the option to go to arbitration to settle any differences over his severance, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Following an independent investigation, CBS's board of directors said in December they had "determined that there are grounds to terminate (Moonves) for cause."

The board cited Moonves's "willful and material misfeasance," "breach of his employment contract" and "willful failure to cooperate fully" with the investigation, meaning he would "not receive any severance payment" from CBS.

Under his contract, Moonves was entitled to a $120 million severance package unless he was terminated for cause.

He was accused by 12 women of sexual harassment and assault in two New Yorker magazine articles published in July and September.

Since joining CBS in 1995, Moonves transformed the corporation into the most-watched television network in the country and one of the media industry's best-performing businesses.

A one-time actor, he was promoted to president and CEO of CBS Television in 1998, and became chairman in 2003.Sudan has been rocked by anti-government protests for nearly a month that have left at least 24 dead, but rights groups say the toll is higher

Sudan faced calls from Western powers at the UN Security Council on Thursday to respect the rights of anti-government demonstrators and investigate violence that has left at least 24 dead.

The council was meeting to discuss the situation in Sudan's troubled Darfur region but the United States, France, Britain and others raised serious concerns about the protest violence.

Britain slammed as "unacceptable" the use of deadly force by Sudanese security troops against the demonstrators and called for those responsible for the deaths of protesters to be held accountable.

"Security forces' use of lethal force and arbitrary detentions in response to peaceful protests is unacceptable and it should stop," said British Deputy Ambassador Jonathan Allen.

"We are appalled at reports that security forces have used tear gas and violence within hospitals against those being treated and against doctors providing medical assistance."

In Khartoum earlier, police fired tear gas to break up a demonstration that headed toward the presidential palace to demand President Omar al-Bashir's resignation.

Sudan has been shaken by the protests that began on December 19, initially to vent anger over a hike in bread prices but which have since morphed into a challenge to Bashir's rule.

Clashes have killed 24 people, according to an official toll. Rights groups say many more have been killed.

Sudan's ambassador told the council that his government was "fully committed to giving citizens a space to peacefully express their views" but would act to "protect lives and public property against sabotage and arson and all other forms of violence perpetrated by some demonstrators."

Ambassador Omer Dahab Fadl Mohamed complained that the demonstrations "were not related remotely" to the topic of the council meeting.

The United States urged Sudan to respect the right to freedom of association, called for the release of detained protesters and activists, and said the deaths of demonstrators should be quickly investigated.

A transparent investigation should be "followed by accountability for any excessive use of force," said US political coordinator Rodney Hunter.

France called for restraint from all sides to bring calm to the situation and said the government must respect the right to freedom of assembly and to freedom of expression.

Russia echoed Sudan's complaint, saying the protests were a "purely national Sudanese issue" and should not be discussed at the Security Council.A man from the US state of Georgia seeking to undertake "jihad" was arrested after buying weapons and explosives for an attack on the White House on January 17, 2019

Authorities in the US state of Georgia have arrested a 21-year-old man who sought to buy explosives and an anti-tank rocket for a "jihad" suicide attack on the White House planned for Thursday.

Byung Pak, the US attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, announced the arrest of Hasher Taheb of Cumming, Georgia late Wednesday after a monthslong FBI investigation sparked by a tip from the local community "that Taheb had become radicalized."

According to the indictment, Taheb tried to recruit an informant and an undercover FBI agent into a plan to attack the White House and other targets in Washington, including the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and an unnamed synagogue.

Wanting to fulfil his "duty" to conduct jihad and expecting to become a "martyr," Taheb originally hoped to travel to Islamic State-held territory in the Middle East, he told the FBI source, the indictment said.

But because he had lost his passport, Taheb told the informant it would be better to launch attacks inside the United States.

On December 7, 2018, he met the undercover agent and revealed a hand-drawn diagram of the White House West Wing, where the president's office is located.

In the subsequent weeks, Taheb detailed what weapons he wanted to acquire for the plot, and assigned the FBI agent to obtain them: semi-automatic weapons, grenades and an AT-4 shoulder-mounted anti-tank weapon.

His plan was for the trio to jointly launch the attack on what he referred to as "game day," eventually pinpointed as January 17.

"Specifically, he described his plan to use the AT-4 to blow a hole in the White House so that the group could enter," the indictment said.

Taheb advised the source "that jihad was the best deed in Islam and the peak of Islam," the indictment said.

On Wednesday, the three met in the parking lot of a store in Buford, Georgia where the FBI agent was to hand over the explosives and weapons, all of which had been rendered inert.

When Taheb took delivery of the weapons, he was arrested.

Officials and the indictment provided no background on Taheb or whether he had made any contact with jihadist groups abroad.

But Pak said no targets in Washington or Georgia were ever truly threatened by the plot.

In a separate case, on Thursday a 49-year-old man, Demetrius Nathaniel Pitts or Abdur Raheem Rafeeq, was arrested in a Cleveland, Ohio suburb and charged with planning a terror attack on the city on July 4, the US Independence Day holiday.

Undercover FBI agents communicated with Pitts for months on the plot before arresting him.

"Pitts, a US citizen living in Ohio, pledged his allegiance to Al-Qaeda," a Justice Department statement said.Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th US president on January 20, 2009, but 10 years later the shadow of racism still hangs over the American political process

Barack Obama's trailblazing presidency, a first for an African-American, began 10 years ago Sunday, a historic moment that some believed ushered in a post-racial America.

But given the racial politics amplified in the era of successor Donald Trump, the hope and change of 2009 has led to mixed results.

Advances in gender and racial equality have been unmistakeable over the past decade, and continue today, with multiple men or women of color -- notably senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris -- likely to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.

But the Obama years also have given way to a more combative, partisan cultural environment and a Trump presidency -- about to enter its third year -- that has left politics and society bruised and divided.

As the nation marks the birthday this week of slain black civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr, congressional Republicans are struggling over what to do about an unapologetic white nationalist in their midst who was recently re-elected in Iowa.

Congress is the most diverse it has ever been, but that is due almost exclusively to the rainbow coalition of Democrats, including the record numbers of women, blacks and Hispanics elected last November.

The Republican Party has mostly failed to meet the challenge of a more inclusive union.

Trump has done his share of antagonizing minority voters. In 2017 he sparked outrage by claiming there were good people "on both sides" at a violent white nationalism rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

One of his fiercest defenders, anti-immigration congressman Steve King, has received a bipartisan rebuke for his recent remarks defending white supremacy.

House Democrat Joyce Beatty said that while it felt "exhilarating" to witness Obama's inauguration in 2009, she has been discouraged by King's remarks and the tone set by Trump.

The president "has not been held accountable for those divisive things," Beatty, a leader in the Congressional Black Caucus, told AFP in an interview.

"I am not surprised" that House Republicans have few women and minorities in their ranks, she added. "They're going backwards as we are advancing."

- Republicans must 'do more' -

US President Donald Trump came to power eight years after the election of the country's first black commander in chief, and minority candidates are expected to enter the 2020 race to challenge him

Race-related tensions have risen. A Pew Research Center study showed the share of Americans who believe racism is a "big problem" doubled from 2011 to 2017, to 58 percent, mostly among Democrats.

While Republicans pride themselves as being the party of Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War-era president who ended slavery, there is only one black Republican in the 435-seat House of Representatives, compared to 55 African-American Democrats.

The Senate too has a single black Republican.

"I fully believe that the Republican Party needs to do more to reach minorities and women and young people," said House Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who until this month was the highest ranking GOP woman in Congress.

Trump regularly professes to be helping African Americans, either by reducing black unemployment or signing a prison reform law that received broad bipartisan backing.

But as he ran for president, he promoted the birther conspiracy that Obama was born in Africa, and during his presidency some state legislatures have moved to suppress votes of minorities, said Lara Schwartz, a government professor at American University.

"Trump represents a strong, strong reaction to Obama's presidency, while at the same time the population has become more diverse," she said.

But Schwartz made clear that Trump "did not invent racism in America," and that it would be a mistake to assume no Democratic voters are racist.

"I just wouldn't say we've got this party of racists and this other party that always gets it right."

- 2020 liability? -

Still, it is the Democrats who may put forward another black president, if Booker or Harris seek and win the 2020 nomination. And Obama protege Julian Castro, who is Hispanic, has jumped into the contest.

US Senator Kamala Harris, symbol of an increasingly diverse Congress, is considering running for the Democratic nomination to challenge President Donald Trump in 2020

Their minority status should not be a hindrance in 2020, argues politics professor Jennifer Lawless of the University of Virginia.

"There's nothing to suggest that it would be a liability, in the Democratic primary anyway," she said.

Would non-white heritage be a burden for a post-Trump Republican candidate?

Nikki Haley, until recently Trump's United Nations ambassador, has an inspiring back-story as the child of Indian immigrants.

Should she ever run for president, as some observers predict, she will be closely watched for how she presents her ancestry, and for whether conservatives will come out in force to support her.

Obama's historic turn was a huge advance, but it would be naive to believe the nation is post-racial, said Senator Tim Kaine, who was Hillary Clinton's 2016 running mate.

"There is no easy next chapter to life in America where we don't think about racial issues," Kaine told AFP, adding that the country is experiencing a counteraction to Obama's presidency.

"I just look at it as you make an advance, there's a backlash," he said. "You never go back as far as you did, and you start advancing again."President Nicolas Maduro, pictured in Caracas on January 10, 2019, is widely blamed for Venezuela's economic meltdown

Brazilian and US officials met Venezuelan opposition leaders in Brasilia Thursday to discuss the political crisis in the oil-rich country ruled by President Nicolas Maduro, an opposition source told AFP.

The gathering was chaired by Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo and took place without figuring on official agendas and with no access for journalists.

Brazil's government news agency Agencia Brasil said the participants discussed "alternatives to the political and economic crisis in Venezuela, which has caused shortages, the fleeing of migrants and complaints of human rights violations."

The agency did not detail who took part in the meeting, at the Brazilian foreign ministry.

Venezuelan opposition activist David Smolansky, a former mayor who heads a technical group in the Organization of American States on the Venezuelan crisis, told AFP his side was "meeting with many countries to increase pressure on Nicolas Maduro's regime."

He called Brazil "a country with a big influence in the region."

The Venezuelan leaders who participated were Julio Borges, the former head of parliament who lives in exile in Colombia, Antonio Ledezma, a former Caracas mayor now based in Spain, and Carlos Vecchio, a political coordinator for the opposition Popular Will party.

Venezuela's economy under Maduro

US embassy officials were present, although the mission was unable to confirm which because of a US government shutdown affecting some services, including media relations.

Agencia Brasil and other Brazilian media said other representatives from the "Lima Group," a grouping of 14 countries in the Americas that views Maduro's rule as anti-democratic, also were there.

- Isolating Venezuela -

Maduro and members of his government are already under US and EU sanctions.

Brazil's new government, under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, has said it will vigorously challenge Venezuela's regime.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's far right administration has said it will vigorously challenge Venezuela's regime

Bolsonaro has also said he wants much closer ties with the United States, which has been pushing for a more forceful regional campaign against Maduro.

Thursday's meeting came a day after Bolsonaro hosted Argentine President Maurcio Macri and both leaders condemned Maduro's "dictatorship."

The Lima Group, the European Union and the United States view Maduro's presidency as illegitimate after he took up a new mandate last week following May 2018 elections branded fraudulent by the opposition.

Maduro and his government frequently accuse the United States of wanting to foment an uprising.

"Venezuela demands respect for its democracy," Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza tweeted on Wednesday, denouncing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and "other extremist voices looking to destabilize the country and incite violence."

Maduro is widely blamed for Venezuela's economic meltdown that sees the oil-reliant country wallowing in a fourth year of recession as crude production is at a 30-year low, while poverty is widespread and millions have fled the country.A United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol walks along the demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon on January 11, 2019

An American has been arrested after illegally entering Lebanon across the border with Israel, the Lebanese army said Thursday, a rare incident between the two countries still technically at war.

"Following extensive search operations, an Intelligence Directorate (security service) patrol found American citizen Colin Emery hiding in Tyre and arrested him," a statement from the military said.

It added that Emery, who had entered Lebanon on Tuesday, would be questioned under the supervision of a judge.

A military official told AFP that Lebanese authorities were in contact with the United Nations peacekeeping mission UNIFIL over the incident.

Lebanon and Israel are separated by the so-called "blue line", a demarcation line drawn by the UN to verify Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000.

Incursions across the heavily guarded frontier are rare. In 2014, an Arab Israeli said to be suffering from psychiatric issues crossed into Lebanon before being repatriated by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The Israeli military occasionally arrests shepherds around the disputed Shebaa Farms area.

Apart from a few incidents, the border has remained calm since a 2006 war between Israel and Lebanese militia group Hezbollah, which killed 1,200 in Lebanon and 160 in Israel.

Israel is currently building a wall along the 130 kilometre (80 mile) frontier to block Hezbollah attempts to infiltrate.

The Israeli army said in December it had blown up a cross-border tunnel dug by Hezbollah, one of four it had uncovered -- and pledged to destroy -- in the preceding weeks.In Kandahar, the southern cradle of the Taliban, protesters marched holding placards saying: 'No War', 'We want ceasefire' and 'We want Peace'

Several hundred protesters marched in three cities in southern and eastern Afghanistan to call for a ceasefire and an end to the 17-year war Thursday, the latest action of a movement launched in May 2018.

In Kandahar, the southern cradle of the Taliban, and in the eastern cities of Khost and Jalalabad, they marched holding placards saying: "No War", "We want ceasefire" and "We want Peace".

The peace marches began in May 2018 when a handful of civilians travelled 700 kilometres (430 miles) from Lashkar Gah, in the southern province of Helmand, to end their journey in June in the capital Kabul, joined along the way by hundreds of other marchers.

Since then, many others have been organised, including a wheelchair peace march by amputees between the western city of Herat and Kabul in August.

"Afghans want an absolute ceasefire as soon as possible. The government had agreed a one-year ceasefire and the Taliban must accept their demand," Bismillah Watandost, a member of the People for Peace Movement, told AFP.

"We call on the Taliban to come to the peace talks with the Afghan government and have mercy on the Afghan people. Our men, women, children and widows want peace. We are tired of war," said Haji Farhad, a protestor in Jalalabad.

Diplomatic efforts are being stepped up to try to end the long-running conflict.

The US envoy in Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad is currently in Pakistan for talks after a regional tour that took him to China, the United Arab Emirates, India and Afghanistan.

Khalilzad, a former US ambassador to Kabul, said in the Afghan capital Wednesday he hopes for fresh talks with the Taliban "very soon", after meetings with them in late 2018 in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The United States is not alone in its diplomatic overtures to the Taliban. Russia and Iran have also held meetings with the militants in recent months and China has also invited them for discussions.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Pakistan are participating in the US peace efforts.Sopporters of the Rwanda National Congress opposition party set up in exile protest in January 2014 at the murder of founding member Patrick Karegeya.

Five years after Rwandan dissident Patrick Karegeya was strangled in a Johannesburg hotel, the regime of Rwanda's President Paul Kagame casts a long shadow over the South African investigation.

The lifeless body of the Rwandan former spy chief in charge of foreign intelligence was found in the luxury Michelangelo Hotel of the Sandton business district on January 1, 2014.

"He was lying on the bed. I could not recognise him. His face was so dark," said Karegeya's nephew David Batenga, who was first to formally identify the man behind the "Do not disturb" sign still on the door.

In the safe of Room 905, police found a length of rope and a blood-stained towel.

An autopsy determined that Karegeya, who had served as a close aide to Kagame, died on December 31, 2013, but no one has been charged with his death.

The South African judiciary decided to hold a court hearing this month to try to identify the killer or killers.

By the end of January, 30 witnesses are due to give evidence at Johannesburg's Randburg court, but thus far, none has appeared.

- 'They have no right' -

"The family knows who killed him," Karegeya's widow Leah told AFP on Wednesday, fresh off a plane from the United States, where she lives in exile.

"But we want the law to do its work and the rest of the world to know," she added. "Even the country Rwanda would know that they have no right to come and... kill the people in a country that is not theirs."

In a small, crowded court, Karegeya family lawyer Gerrie Nel set the tone of debate on Wednesday.

"We will be arguing that this assassination is intrinsically linked to the political situation in Rwanda," said Nel, famed for his role as prosecutor in the trial of athlete Oscar Pistorius.

Karegeya was a comrade-in-arms of Paul Kagame when the latter led a rebellion by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, which brought an end to the 1994 genocide in which Hutu militias and troops slaughtered about 800,000 people, mainly minority Tutsis, in three months.

Under Kagame's regime, Karegeya took charge of foreign intelligence services for a decade, until he fell into disgrace. He was jailed twice, in 2005 and 2006.

- Challenging Kigali's rule -

In 2007, Karegeya went into exile, heading for South Africa on the heels of the Rwandan former chief of army staff, Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa.

The two men founded the Rwandan National Congress (RNC) in opposition to the Kagame regime, which has kept a firm hold on the small central African nation.

In their absence in 2011, a Rwandan court sentenced the pair to long jail terms on conviction of state security offences.

In South Africa, both men faced numerous threats.

General Kayumba Nyamwasa survived several assassination bids, which led in 2014 to the expulsion of several Rwandan diplomats by Pretoria.

Karegeya did not escape the trap laid for him on New Year's Eve, 2013, but the Kigali government swiftly denied any involvement and said the former intelligence chief was himself to blame.

"Treason brings consequences," Kagame warned. Defence Minister James Kabarebe was equally blunt: "If you choose to be a dog you die like a dog."

"They deny they had anything to do with it but they rejoice in the fact that this happened," said Human Rights Watch (HRW) observer Lewis Mudge.

"If this inquest is independent, I think there is a very good chance that the lines are going to point towards the Rwandese government," he told AFP.

The proceedings could "outline this pattern in Rwanda of a very repressive government," he added.

- 'Prosecute now' -

Karegeya and Kayumba Nyamwasa are among the most prominent figures from Kigali to be targeted by killers, but Mudge said that many other people who have become dissidents face reprisals.

If the judge decides, the hearing could lead to a trial.

Nel pushed for immediate prosecution, warning, "We are wasting our time."

He pointed out that four Rwandan suspects were implicated in Karegeya's murder, including his friend Apollo Gafaranga Ismael, who booked the hotel room.

All four men hastily left South Africa after the murder, and the country made "no attempts to extradite the suspects," Nel added.

"We should prosecute now," he said.Renault and the French government are looking for a successor

French carmaker Renault on Thursday launched the search for a successor to Chairman Carlos Ghosn, only hours after a Tokyo court quashed his appeal for bail as he faces three charges of financial misconduct.

Renault said in a statement its governing bodies were now "actively working to find the best solution for the future governance of the group, with a view to preserving the company's interests and strengthening the Renault Nissan Alliance".

The statement comes a day after French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said that if Ghosn was prevented from doing his job "for a lengthy period of time, I have always said that we have to move on to a new stage. This is now the case".

The French government, which owns 15 percent of Renault's shares and 22 percent of voting rights, has called for a board meeting "in the coming days".

French daily Le Figaro said Sunday was a likely date, but on Thursday no invitations had been sent out to board members who must be informed 48 hours before a meeting.

Since his stunning arrest on November 19 the auto tycoon -- who still officially heads up Renault -- has languished in a Tokyo detention centre, facing questioning over allegations he under-reported his salary and tried to shift personal losses on to the company.

The court had previously refused to release the 64-year-old Franco-Lebanese-Brazilian businessman on the grounds that he could present a flight risk and destroy evidence.

Last week he was formally charged on two of the counts and his request for bail was denied. Even his own lawyer has admitted he is likely to be kept behind bars until a trial -- which could take six months.

His legal team said they would now appeal to the Supreme Court.

Japanese firms Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors jettisoned him as boss almost immediately after his arrest, but Renault was more cautious and appointed an interim leader while Ghosn fought the charges.

With the latest rejection he faces at least a two-month period in pre-trial detention. This can be extended almost automatically by one month at a time.US President Donald Trump attends the Missile Defense Review Announcement at the Pentagon

President Donald Trump vowed Thursday to boost America's missile defense systems, including by investing in technology to protect against the threat of sophisticated "hypersonic" weapons.

Speaking at the Pentagon, Trump unveiled the Missile Defense Review, a long-awaited analysis of the defensive network of US interceptors that are designed to shoot down an incoming ballistic missile.

Top among the concerns highlighted in the review is the speed at which rivals, particularly China and Russia, are pushing ahead with hypersonic missiles, which can thwart traditional defense systems.

"The US will now adjust its posture to defend against any missile strikes including cruise and hypersonic missiles," Trump told the military audience.

"We will terminate any missile launches from hostile powers or even from powers that make a mistake. It won't happen, regardless of the missile type or geographic origins of the attack."

Flying at low altitude, many times the speed of sound, and able to change direction, hypersonic weapons don't follow a ballistic arc so are much harder to track and cannot currently be intercepted.

As a result, the Pentagon is urgently looking at ways to enhance its ability to track hypersonic missiles, primarily by using existing sensors that are deployed in space.

"These new technologies produce new threats, and these threats are harder to see, harder to track and harder to defeat," Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said.

"To our competitors: we see what you are doing and we are taking action."

Acting US Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, pictured on his first day on January 2, 2019, warned that new missile threats are "harder to see, harder to track and harder to defeat"

Trump blasted Iran for developing missile technology but notably, he did not mention North Korea, which has developed a ballistic missile arsenal and has conducted several nuclear tests.

Trump ordered the missile defense review in 2017, amid heightened tensions with Pyongyang over its nuclear program -- the first such review of America's ballistic defenses since 2010.

But Trump has since met North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un in a bid to end the crisis, and he was expected to welcome a top North Korean official in Washington on Friday.

Still, the review itself stresses that North Korea is "an extraordinary threat and the United States must remain vigilant."

- Missiles in space -

Currently, ground-based anti-missile technologies, like this one pictured during a 2017 test in California, focus on intercepting warheads while they are in the "midcourse" phase, flying through space

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA), which conducted the review, said it would study the feasibility of creating a space-based interceptor system, in which an orbiting craft of some sort would be equipped with missiles that could destroy an incoming warhead while it was in space.

Another focus for the MDA will be developing ways to knock out a ballistic missile immediately after it has launched.

Currently, ground-based anti-missile technologies focus on intercepting warheads while they are in the "midcourse" phase, flying through space.

By attacking the missiles while they are still in their "boost phase" soon after launch, the MDA could add a layer of defense for America and its allies.

One way of doing this would be by adding a new type of missile to F-35 stealth fighters patrolling near a suspected launch site, such as in a hypothetical conflict with North Korea, the MDA said.

North Korean reach

"Intercepting offensive missiles in their boost phase would increase the likelihood of successfully countering missile threats, complicate an aggressor's attack calculus... and reduce the number of midcourse or terminal active defense interceptors needed to destroy the adversary's remaining offensive missiles," the MDA said.

The MDA is also looking at ways of boosting its "directed energy" -- or laser -- capabilities to take out ballistic missiles.

The review was due to be released last year, but its publication saw repeated delays.Retired Dutch General Patrick Cammaert (C) arrives at the Yemeni port of Hodeida on December 29, 2018 to head a United Nations mission to monitor a ceasefire

A United Nations mission tasked with overseeing a truce in war-torn Yemen came under fire but was unharmed in the flashpoint city of Hodeida Thursday, the UN said.

The head of the mission, Patrick Cammaert, and his team were "safe in Hodeida following reported shooting incident", tweeted the spokesperson of the UN secretary general.

Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, a UN official confirmed that "shots were fired" at Cammaert's convoy and that the retired Dutch general was "safe".

The shooting comes one day after the UN Security Council unanimously approved an extended mission of up to 75 unarmed monitors to shore up a fragile ceasefire between the Iran-aligned Huthi rebels and government forces backed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The ceasefire and observer mission was agreed on during talks last month in Sweden between the internationally recognised authorities and rebels.

The new monitors will be sent to Hodeida city and port as well as to the ports of Saleef and Ras Issa for an initial period of six months.

The port of Hodeida is the entry point for the bulk of Yemen's supplies of imported goods and humanitarian aid, providing a lifeline to millions on the brink of starvation.

The Huthis control most of Hodeida, while government forces are deployed on its southern and eastern outskirts.

The UN says the ceasefire, which went into force on December 18 in Hodeida, has been generally holding despite some clashes.

There have been delays in the redeployment of rebel and government forces from the city.

burs-ny/delBenny Gantz, a widely respected former Israeli military chief of staff, launched a social media campaign Thursday ahead of April 9 elections

A former Israeli military chief seen as a potential challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has generated buzz without even campaigning, but on Thursday he took a step towards entering the fray.

Benny Gantz opened his social media campaign with a 17-second video clip that pledged "something different" for Israel, but which shed no light on his political beliefs -- the source of intense speculation ahead of April 9 elections.

He launched himself into politics in December with opinion polls suggesting his new party, Israel Resilience, could win a signficant number of seats. But he has yet to make any detailed policy statement or reveal who its other members will be.

The widely respected former military chief of staff is thought to hold centrist political beliefs, but he has kept his cards close to the vest.

His wry video statement Thursday on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram played to his so-far taciturn image, in marked contrast to the wordy speeches of political rivals.

It began with him introducing his election slogan, "Israel Before Everything."

"Join me and we'll set out on a new road because we need something different and we'll do something different," he said.

He then concluded with a smile: "I think I spoke too much."

His first public comments since registering his party came on Monday, when he addressed Israeli Druze leaders outside his home.

He reassured them that he would work to amend a contentious law defining Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people.

Israeli Druze, who unlike Israeli Muslim or Christian Arabs are subject to the same compulsory military service as Jews, have been at the forefront of protest against the law, which also makes Hebrew the official language and downgrades the status of Arabic.

His statement Monday prompted the Israeli right, including Netanyahu's Likud Netanyahu, to brand him a leftist.

Gantz's campaign put out a statement in response saying: "They shot our Druze brothers in the back. We will heal them."

- Centre-right alliance? -

Gantz, 59, was military chief of staff from 2011-15, during two wars in the Gaza Strip

Gantz, 59, was military chief of staff from 2011-15, during two wars in the Gaza Strip.

According to official party registration documents, Israel Resilience aims at "strengthening the Jewish and democratic character of the state of Israel".

Opinion polls so far show Netanyahu winning the April elections, but the long-serving premier is facing potential corruption charges that could shake up the campaign.

Polls published Wednesday evening by state-owned radio and TV broadcaster Kan and by the private Hadashot news company showed that Israel Resilience could win 13 seats in the 120-member parliament, with Likud scoring 31 or 32 seats.

The two polls put Gantz's party in either second or third place behind Likud.

The Kan poll said Gantz was favoured as a potential premier by 31 percent of respondents, second to Netanyahu, who scored 42 percent.

Some political commentators have suggested that Gantz could join another former armed forces chief, Moshe Yaalon, in a centre-right alliance.

Yaalon served as Netanyahu's defence minister from 2013 to 2016 but has since become a critic of the premier. He unveiled his own party, Telem, in December.Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir addresses his supporters during a rally in the capital Khartoum on January 9, 2019

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, long wanted on genocide and war crimes charges, has rejected calls to step down in the face of mounting anti-regime demonstrations that have challenged his iron-fisted three-decade rule.

Demonstrators first took to the streets on December 19 to protest against a government decision to triple bread prices, as the African country grapples with an economic crisis.

On Thursday, Sudanese police fired tear gas at protesters marching towards the presidential palace, according to witnesses.

Officials say at least 24 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in unrest that first erupted in towns and villages, before spreading to the capital Khartoum.

Human Rights Watch says at least 40 people have been killed, including children and medical staff.

Over the past month, the demonstrations have also spread to key towns like Port Sudan, Madani, Gadaref and Kassala near the Eritrean border.

Although protests against his regime also took place in September 2013 and January 2018, analysts say the current demonstrations are the biggest challenge since Bashir swept to power in a coup backed by Islamists in 1989.

Indicted by the Hague-based International Criminal Court in 2009 on war crimes charges over a long-running conflict in Darfur, the president has since been re-elected twice in polls boycotted by opposition groups.

In 2010, he was also indicted by the ICC for alleged genocide.

The 75-year-old has proved a political survivor, evading not only the ICC but also a myriad of domestic challenges.

Supporters of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir wave the national flag in Khartoum on January 9, 2019

On Monday, dancing and waving a stick in his trademark style, Bashir greeted hundreds of supporters at a rally in Darfur and said that protesters will fail.

"Demonstrations will not change the government," a defiant Bashir said as supporters, some on camels, chanted "Stay, stay".

"There's only one road to power and that is through the ballot box. The Sudanese people will decide in 2020 who will govern them," said Bashir, who is planning to run again next year.

- Career soldier -

Despite the ICC indictments, Bashir has regularly visited regional countries and also Russia.

Days before the protests erupted he visited Damascus to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, becoming the first Arab leader to do so since that country's own conflict began.

At home, Bashir last year hosted talks between neighbouring South Sudan's leaders, helping to broker a tentative peace deal after five years of intense conflict in the world's newest country.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir swept to power in a 1989 coup

South Sudan had gained its independence in 2011, when Bashir surprised his critics by giving his blessing to a secession that saw the south take the bulk of Sudan's oilfields, some six years after a peace deal ended two decades of north-south conflict.

The president also joined a Saudi-led coalition against Shiite rebels in Yemen, improving ties with the resource-rich Gulf nations, although the policy has been criticised by his opponents at home.

A career soldier, Bashir is well known for his populist touch, insisting on being close to crowds and addressing them in colloquial Sudanese Arabic.

Bashir, who has two wives and no children, was born in 1944 in Hosh Bannaga, north of Khartoum, to a farming family.

He entered the military at a young age, rising through the ranks and joining an elite parachute regiment.

He fought alongside the Egyptian army in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

In 1989, then a brigade commander, he led a bloodless coup against the democratically elected government.

Bashir was backed by the National Islamic Front of his then mentor, the late Hassan al-Turabi.

- Hosting bin Laden -

Under Turabi's influence he led Sudan towards a more radical brand of Islam, hosting Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden and sending jihadist volunteers to fight in the country's civil war with the south Sudanese.

In 1993, Washington put Sudan on its list of "state sponsors of terrorism" and four years later slapped Khartoum with a trade embargo -- only lifted in 2017 -- over charges that included human rights abuses.

Raising sticks and swords, a group attends a rally in support of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum on January 9, 2019

Bashir sought to end Sudan's isolation in 1999, ousting Turabi from his inner circle.

But when insurgents launched a rebellion in Darfur in 2003, his government's decision to unleash the armed forces and allied militia saw him face further international criticism.

More than 300,000 people have been killed in the Darfur conflict, the UN says, and more than two million displaced.

Since 2011, Bashir has also faced insurgencies in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, launched by the Sudan People's Liberation Army-North.

Although he has weathered multiple challenges in his three-decade rule, analysts question whether he will survive the latest bout of protests.

"The demonstrations have weakened his position," said Khalid Tijani, editor of economic weekly Elaff.

"President Bashir was about to get consitutional amendments to permit him to run for the presidency again in 2020, but he will now have to reconsider that," he said.Last March, jihadists attacked Burkina's military headquarters and the French embassy in Ouagadougou, leaving scores of casualties

A Canadian geologist kidnapped at a remote gold mine in northeast Burkina Faso by suspected jihadists has been found dead, the authorities said on Thursday.

A body discovered with gunshot wounds late Wednesday is that of Kirk Woodman, "the Canadian who was kidnapped the day before yesterday," the spokesman for the security ministry, security, Jean-Paul Badoum, told AFP.

Foreign Minister Alpha Barry said the country felt "deep emotion and great sadness" over the killing.

"The Burkina government condemns this cowardly murder with its utmost energy, and assures that an investigation is under way and that every measure will be taken to find and punish those responsible," Barry said.

A security official said the body had been found in Soum province, at a location called Beiga-Salmoussi. The site was previously identified as Siega.

Woodman's co-workers formally identified the body on Thursday, Barry said. Another security source said the remains would be flown by helicopter to the capital Ouagadougou.

His colleagues said they are "heartbroken by the tragic loss," remembering Woodman as "an incredibly accomplished and highly respected geologist with a career spanning over 30 years, with 20 years spent in West Africa."

Woodman's grieving family also said in a statement that he was a "loving and hardworking husband, father, son and brother. Not a day will go by that he won't be missed."

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said her country was "appalled and deeply saddened" by the killing.

"Canada condemns those responsible for this terrible crime. We are working with the government of Burkina Faso and other international partners to pursue those responsible and bring them to justice," she said.

Canada has 250 soldiers and eight army helicopters deployed in neighbouring Mali as part of a UN peacekeeping mission.

Woodman is one of two Canadians who have gone missing in Burkina Faso, a poor country in the front line of a jihadist rebellion in the Sahel.

He was vice president of a Canadian company, Progress Minerals, which owns a gold mine at Tiabangou, located in Yagha, a volatile province near the Niger and Mali border.

He was at the mine when the site came under attack by about 10 armed men, Security Minister Clement Sawadogo said on Wednesday.

The assailants "rounded up the staff. They searched the base camp and made off with some equipment. They took the expatriate with them," he said.

The assailants were last seen heading towards the Niger border to the east but this was "probably to cover their tracks", for Beiga-Salmoussi lies to the west of the mine, a security official said.

On December 15, 34-year-old Canadian aid worker Edith Blais was reported missing with an Italian friend, Lucas Tacchetto, 30, as they were travelling between the western town of Bobo-Dioulasso and the capital Ouagadougou.

- Troubled region -

The Sahel, a vast, dusty region on the southern rim of the Sahara, is struggling with a bloody Islamist insurgency and a wave of lawlessness.

After chaos engulfed Libya in 2011, an Islamist insurgency gained ground in northern Mali, while Boko Haram rose in northern Nigeria.

Jihadist raids began in northern Burkina Faso in 2015 before spreading to the east, near the border with Togo and Benin.

Most of the attacks have been attributed to Ansarul Islam and the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (JNIM).

Smaller groups are also active, with the overall number of fighters estimated to be in the hundreds, according to security sources.

Map locating Soum province in Burkina Faso

The groups are believed to be responsible for more than 270 deaths since 2015.

Ouagadougou has been hit three times, including a coordinated attack last March that targeted the French embassy and devastated the country's military headquarters.

The head of the armed forces, Major General Oumarou Sadou, was sacked on January 10 and replaced by General Moise Minoungou.

Eight foreigners have been abducted in the last four years, according to an AFP tally.

Among them is 84-year-old Australian doctor worker, Kenneth Elliott, who was kidnapped with his wife Jocelyn in April 2015 in Djibo, where the pair ran a clinic for the poor.

Jocelyn Elliott was released after a year. Her husband, whose whereabouts remain unknown, has been declared a citizen of Burkina Faso, under a decree issued last November.The militant attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in 2016 (pictured in 2017) left 22 hostages dead, including 18 foreigners

Bangladesh has banned a film based on a 2016 cafe attack claimed by the Islamic State group that left 22 people dead, saying it would damage the country's reputation.

The Film Censor Board denied the theatrical release of "Shonibar Bikele", a decision the movie's director criticised as "unhealthy for artistic expression".

The title of the film translates to "Saturday Afternoon" and dramatises the July 2016 attack on an upmarket cafe by Islamist militants who killed 22 of their hostages, including 18 foreigners.

The state's censor board said the film -- a Bangladesh-German co-production -- could incite religious fervour in the Muslim-majority nation of 165 million.

"The board did not sanction permission for the movie's exhibition, both at home or abroad, as it would disrupt internal security and also tarnish the country's global image," the censor board's vice chairman Nizamul Kabir told AFP on Thursday.

Bangladesh has suffered from homegrown extremism for decades, but the Holey Artisan Cafe attack was the worst in years and seen as a major blow to the country's image as a moderate Muslim nation.

The government has always denied the five young men who seized the cafe for hours before killing many hostages and dying themselves were linked to the Islamic State group.

Director Mostofa Sarwar Farooki criticised the decision to ban his film.

"Filmmakers should feel free to take inspiration from any incident that happens around them," the eminent Bangladeshi director said.

"They don't tarnish an image. They only interpret events. It's real world actions that can damage an image," he told AFP.

He said they would appeal against the decision in the hope of gaining a theatrical release.

The mastermind of the cafe attack was killed in a subsequent crackdown on homegrown militancy that has left at least 100 alleged homegrown fighters dead.Ans Boersma, who was deported from Turkey on Thursday, is a Dutch freelance journalist who was based in Istanbul and wrote articles for the Het Financieele Dagblad financial newspaper

Turkey deported a Dutch journalist on Thursday after Turkish officials said Ankara received a tip-off from police in the Netherlands that she had suspected links to a jihadist group in Syria.

However the Dutch prosecutor's office said that while it had provided information to the Turkish authorities, it had not requested her arrest and the journalist was not suspected of "a crime with terrorist intent".

Freelance journalist Ans Boersma, 31, was based in Istanbul and contributed articles to the Dutch financial newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad.

"I got arrested yesterday (Wednesday), got deported this morning. Flying out now," she said in a messaging group for foreign journalists in Turkey.

Fahrettin Altun, communications director at the Turkish presidency, said her expulsion was "in no way related to her journalistic activities during her stay in Turkey".

"The Turkish authorities have recently received intelligence from the Dutch police that Ms Boersma had links to a designated terrorist organisation and a request for information about her movements in and out of Turkey," he said.

Writing on Twitter, Altun said she was suspected of links to the Al-Nusra Front, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate operating in Syria now known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

"The Netherlands told Turkey that the reporter, who was deported today, had links to Jabhat al-Nusra," he wrote, using another name for the group.

"We acted on intelligence from the Netherlands and took a precautionary measure."

- Relationship with Syrian man -

Boersma's newspaper Financieele Dagblad reported that she was in a relationship until the summer of 2015 with a Syrian man who was arrested in the Netherlands last autumn for being a member of the Al-Nusra Front.

"And Ans thinks it is possible that her deportation is linked" to that relationship, said the newspaper where she started working in February 2017.

The Dutch prosecutor's office confirmed it had provided information to Turkish authorities concerning the journalist "in the frame of an ongoing criminal inquiry".

"The investigation concerns terrorism suspicions against other suspects," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

"The suspicions against the woman do not concern a crime with terrorist intent. No request for her arrest, expulsion or extradition has been made."

Turkey, which shares a long border with war-torn Syria, has been hit by a spate of terror attacks in recent years from groups including the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Islamic State.

"Due to the seriousness of the threat, we work closely with our friends and allies, including the Netherlands, and rely on their insights to identify and neutralise threats against Turkish and European security," Altun said.

Turkey, with help from their international partners, has blacklisted tens of thousands of individuals with links to terrorist organisations as part of an ongoing effort to combat extremism, he added.

Another Turkish official, who wished to remain anonymous, told AFP that the authorities would not have issued Boersma a press card if they had "national security concerns" about her.

The official said Boersma's press credentials were valid until January 31, 2019.

Human rights defenders have raised concerns over a clampdown on freedom of expression in Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with dozens of journalists and civil society activists put behind bars.

Turkey is ranked 157th out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders 2018 World Press Freedom Index.

In December, a Turkish court ordered the release from jail of an Austrian student and journalist charged with being a member of a terror group.

Max Zirngast, who writes for the far-left German-language magazine Re:volt, had been formally arrested by an Ankara court in September.

burs-fo/dlYemen government representatives and a Huthi rebel delegation meet in the Jordanian capital Amman on January 17, 2019

Yemeni government and rebel representatives met in Jordan on Thursday for a second day to thrash out the details of a major prisoner exchange, a UN source said.

The swap, which could involve up to 15,000 detainees from both sides, was agreed in principle as a confidence-building measure ahead of peace talks in Sweden last month.

But the details were left to afterwards as UN mediators focused on brokering breakthrough truce deals for the aid lifeline port of Hodeida and the battleground third city of Taez.

The talks in the Jordanian capital Amman come as international donors meet in Berlin to set up a fund to support the fledgling peace process in Yemen.

Representatives of the United Nations, which brokered the swap agreement, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, which will supervise its implementation, are taking part in the Amman talks.

During a first day of talks on Wednesday, the warring parties met separately with the mediators and submitted lists of prisoners they want to see released.

On Thursday, they were expected to meet face-to-face to hammer out the details of its implementation.

Yemeni rebels leave Hodeida port on December 29, 2018, the first day of an agreed withdrawal which has since slowed ahead of the deployment of more UN monitors

The new meetings come after the UN Security Council on Wednesday unanimously approved the deployment of up to 75 monitors to oversee the truce in Hodeida, which has largely held despite delays in the agreed withdrawal of combatants.

- International support fund -

In Berlin, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas pledged 4.5 millions euros as the opening contribution to the new peace process support fund.

"In Yemen, a humanitarian catastrophe threatens to unfurl if we do not manage to bring this conflict to a definitive end," Maas said.

"The important thing right now is to seize this small but real opportunity and work to ensure that international support for the peace process is as constructive and resilient as possible."

The truce in the largely rebel-held Red Sea port city was the centrepiece of a series of breakthrough agreements brokered by the United Nations in Sweden last month in what is widely seen as the best chance yet of ending the devastating four-year civil war.

But in a sign that much work still needs to be done before formal peace negotiations can begin, UN envoy Martin Griffiths said last week that he had postponed until February a planned second round of talks between the two sides.

Yemeni Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yamani (L) shakes hands with rebel negotiator Mohammed Abdelsalam watched by UN chief Antonio Guterres at breakthrough talks in Sweden on December 13, 2018

In an interview with Deutsche Welle radio on Wednesday, Griffiths said he was guardedly optimistic.

He said he had been pleasantly surprised that the truce had held in Hodeida so far despite the "currently very weak" UN monitoring.

He said he was "keeping his fingers crossed" that would continue while the new observer mission is put in place.

The Yemen conflict has killed some 10,000 people since a Saudi-led military coalition intervened in support of the beleaguered government in March 2015, according to the World Health Organization.

Human rights groups say the real death toll could be five times as high.

The war has pushed 14 million Yemenis to the brink of famine in what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.Pedersen (L), who started his new job last week, is the fourth UN envoy to seek a solution to Syria's conflict

The new UN envoy to Syria ended his first visit to the war-torn country Thursday, stressing the need for a UN-brokered political solution to the eight-year conflict.

Geir Pedersen, a seasoned Norwegian diplomat, concluded his three-day visit and headed to the Lebanese capital Beirut, a UN source told AFP.

The new envoy on Twitter late Wednesday said he had a "constructive meeting" with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem during his stay in Damascus.

During it, he stressed the need for a "Syrian-led and -owned political solution facilitated by the UN", he added.

Pedersen, who started his new job last week, is the fourth UN envoy to seek a solution to Syria's conflict, after endless rounds of failed UN-brokered peace talks.

In recent years, UN-led efforts have been overshadowed by separate negotiations led by regime allies Russia and Iran, as well as rebel backer Turkey.

After Damascus, Pederson said he was off to meet the Syrian Negotiations Committee, Syria's main opposition group.

But he "agreed to come back to Damascus on a regular basis to discuss commonalities and progress on points of disagreement", he added.

On Tuesday, Muallem expressed Syria's "readiness to cooperate with him... in his mission to facilitate Syrian-Syrian dialogue with the objective of reaching a political solution to the Syrian crisis", a foreign ministry statement said.

Pederson takes over from Staffan de Mistura, a Swiss-Italian diplomat who stepped down at the end of last year over "personal reasons".

Officials in the government of President Bashar al-Assad had set the tone for the new envoy's tenure shortly after his appointment was announced in October.

"Syria will cooperate with the new UN envoy Geir Pedersen provided he avoids the methods of his predecessor," Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Meqdad said.

De Mistura ended his four-year tenure with an abortive push to form a committee tasked with drawing up a post-war constitution.

Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since the war started with the repression of anti-government protests in 2011.

With key military backing from Russia, Assad's forces have retaken large parts of Syria from rebels and jihadists, and now control almost two-thirds of the country.

A drive to bring the Syrian regime back into the Arab fold also seems underway, with the United Arab Emirates reopening their embassy in Damascus last month.Burkina Faso's northern Soum region has been hit by a string of jihadist attacks

The body of a "white man with gunshot wounds" has been found in a northern region of Burkina Faso where jihadists have carried out attacks, a security official told AFP Thursday.

The body was found late on Wednesday in Siega in Soum province, "and is being taken to Dori for identification," the source said.

Last month, 34-year-old Canadian aid worker Edith Blais, was reported missing with an Italian friend, Lucas Tacchetto, 30, as they were travelling between the western town of Bobo-Dioulasso and the capital Ouagadougou.

Separately, Canadian geologist Kirk Woodman was kidnapped from a gold mine in the east of the country late on Tuesday.

His abductors were last seen heading towards neighbouring Niger, a direction that would not have taken them through Soum, officials said.

Burkina Faso lies in the heart of the vast Sahel region, which is struggling with a bloody Islamist insurgency.

The region turned into a hotbed of violent extremism and lawlessness after chaos engulfed Libya in 2011.

An Islamist insurgency began in northern Mali, while Boko Haram rose in northern Nigeria.

Jihadist raids began in northern Burkina Faso in 2015 before spreading to the east, near the border with Togo and Benin.

Most of the attacks have been attributed to Ansarul Islam and the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (JNIM).

Smaller groups are also active, with the overall number of fighters estimated to be in the hundreds, according to security sources.

The groups are believed to be responsible for more than 270 deaths since 2015. Ouagadougou has been hit three times and almost 60 people have died there.

Eight foreigners have been abducted in the last four years, according to an AFP tally.

Among them is 84-year-old Australian doctor worker, Kenneth Elliott, who with his wife Jocelyn, was kidnapped in April 2015 in Djibo, where the pair ran a clinic for the poor.

Jocelyn Elliott was released after a year. Her husband, whose whereabouts remain unknown, has been declared a citizen of Burkina Faso, under a decree issued last November.A. Mohanraj admitted breaking animal cruelty laws by causing unnecessary suffering to the cat in the self-service laundry outside Kuala Lumpur

A Malaysian taxi driver who killed a pregnant cat by putting it into a laundrette dryer was jailed for two years Thursday, official media reported, in a case that sparked national outrage.

A. Mohanraj admitted breaking animal cruelty laws by causing unnecessary suffering to the cat in the self-service laundry outside Kuala Lumpur in September, official news agency Bernama reported.

Netizens reacted with fury last year when CCTV footage went viral showing two men in the laundrette throwing the cat into the dryer late at night.

They then inserted tokens into the machine to set it running and left. A female customer later found the animal's carcass and the matter was reported to the police.

Mohanraj, 42, had originally pleaded not guilty to the crime but on Thursday changed his plea, and a judge handed down the two-year jail term. He was facing a maximum three years in prison.

"I feel regret. I apologise to all Malaysians and I promise not to do this again," he told the court before he was sentenced, The Star newspaper reported.

"When I was detained, I was jeered and insulted by other inmates for the crime."

Prosecutors had called for a harsh sentence, arguing the case was "of public interest as it involves torturing a defenceless animal", the paper reported.

Two other people were detained along with Mohanraj for the crime. Prosecutors last year dropped the case against one of them, while the second has pleaded not guilty.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pictured here at a cabinet meeting on January 6, 2019, is set to visit Chad

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will embark upon the first-ever visit by an Israeli premier to Chad in the coming days as the two countries move to renew diplomatic ties, his office said Thursday.

Netanyahu's trip to the Muslim-majority central African nation on Sunday comes after Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno visited Israel in November.

The prime minister's office had not yet provided further details on the trip, though it was expected to be only a one-day visit.

Israeli media said it would be the first by a premier.

Netanyahu said during Deby's November visit that he intended to announce the resumption of diplomatic ties during an upcoming trip to Chad.

The two leaders at the time declined to comment on whether their talks have included arms deals.

Chadian security sources say the country has acquired Israeli equipment to help battle rebels in the country's north.

Chad is also one of several African states engaged in Western-backed operations against Boko Haram and Islamic State group jihadists.

Pressure from Muslim African nations, accentuated by the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973, led a number of African states to sever relations with the Jewish state.

But in recent years, Israel has held out the prospect of cooperation in fields ranging from security to technology to agriculture, to improve ties on the continent.

Diplomatic relations between Israel and Chad, a country of some 15 million people, were severed in 1972.

Deby is one of Africa's longest-serving leaders.

He took over the arid, impoverished nation in 1990 and won a disputed fifth term in April 2016.Hindu devotees went on a violent rampage after Bindu Ammini (R) and Kanakadurga entered a holy Hindu temple in January

Two women who enraged conservatives by entering one of Hinduism's holiest temples have asked India's highest court for round-the-clock police protection, saying their lives are in danger.

Hindu devotees went on a violent rampage after Bindu Ammini and Kanakadurga entered Sabarimala in January -- a hilltop shrine in southern Kerala state that for centuries was off-limits to nearly all women.

The Supreme Court in September overturned a ban on women of menstruating age from praying at Sabarimala but temple devotees refused to accept the ruling and prevented female worshippers from entering.

News that Ammini and Kanakadurga reached the shrine triggered days of violent protest, with one person killed and dozens injured in clashes with police that saw buses torched and bombs hurled.

The women's lawyer, Indira Jaising, told the country's top court on Thursday that the pair needed state protection as their welfare is in jeopardy.

Kanakadurga, who goes by one name, was allegedly attacked by her mother-in-law on Tuesday after returning home and was admitted to hospital for her injuries.

She had been on the run for days with Bindu Ammini, with the pair changing safe houses more than 10 times to avoid being tracked down.

The Supreme Court is expected to resume hearing their appeal for police protection on Friday, just days before it is due to start hearing a legal challenge on its ruling to lift the ban on female worshippers.

The temple -- considered among the holiest in Hinduism and set on top of a hill in a tiger reserve -- receives millions of pilgrims a year.

It is dedicated to the celibate deity Ayyappa, and followers believe letting in women of menstruating age goes against his wishes.

After Bindu and Kanakadurga entered the temple, the head priest shut the temple doors for an hour-long "purification ceremony", in line with the widespread belief that menstruating women are impure.

Those wishing to visit Sabarimala undergo a 41-day period of introspection and detachment known as vratha, abstaining from sex, meat, intoxicants and even shaving.

Only those who have observed the vratha and carry the irrumude, a symbolic offering, can enter the main courtyard up 18 divine golden steps.Mozambique's former finance minister Manuel Chang was arrested over the Christmas holidays, triggering a political crisis for the ruling Frelimo party

When former Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang was arrested at Johannesburg airport over the Christmas holidays, it triggered a political crisis ahead of the country's elections later this year.

Chang was detained over alleged secret loans to state companies totalling $2 billion in a widening scandal that is set to shake the Frelimo party that has ruled since 1975.

Currently held in custody, he is due back in court in Johannesburg on Friday over a US request for South Africa to extradite him on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering.

The case could blow open the extent of government corruption in Mozambique, which relies on donor aid and is one of the world's poorest countries.

"This is the biggest crisis in the Frelimo party," Adriano Nuvunga, professor of political science at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, told AFP.

"There is no longer one Frelimo. There are many Frelimos."

Nuvunga predicted that President Filipe Nyusi would still lead Frelimo to election victory when the polls are held in October, but said opposition to the ruling party was growing.

"The youth are revolting against Frelimo," he said.

- Party silence -

In 2016, Mozambique into its worst financial problems since independence from Portugal more than 40 years ago

Chang was Mozambique's finance minister between 2005 and 2015 under former president Armando Guebuza.

Between 2013 and 2014, Mozambique state-owned security companies borrowed about $2 billion (1.75 billion euros) from Credit Suisse and Russia's VTB Bank.

But the government only disclosed most of the debt in 2016.

The hidden debt plunged Mozambique into its worst financial problems since independence from Portugal more than 40 years ago.

Frelimo and the government have remained tight-lipped since the arrest of Chang, but some party members have spoken out.

"He will be tried, whether in Mozambique, South Africa or the USA," Tomaz Salomao, himself a former finance minister, told state broadcaster Radio Mocambique.

"It is good that he is tried for this to serve as an example."

US prosecutors allege that Chang received $12 million for agreeing to sign the loan agreements that were supposedly to finance a tuna-fishing fleet and maritime surveillance project.

Joaquim Chissano, president of Mozambique from 1986 to 2005, also called for justice over the case. "If there are crimes committed, people should be punished," he said.

Current president Nyusi was defence minister when the loans were agreed and he signed important contracts over the deals.

- Offering a scapegoat? -

Mozambique defaulted on its debt last year with the repayments threatening to swallow up future revenue from natural gas deposits discovered in the country's north

"The arrest of Chang suggests that Nyusi is prepared to offer him up as a scapegoat... to avoid blame for the hidden debt scandal," the London-based Maplecroft Risk consultancy said in a briefing note, describing the strategy as "precarious."

"International criticism of Nyusi will damage his authority within Frelimo ahead of the October general election," it added.

Mozambique defaulted on the debt last year, and repayment could swallow up future revenue from natural gas deposits discovered in the north of the country.

But civil society groups say the loans were illegal and that impoverished Mozambicans must not be burdened with years of hefty repayments.

"The debt was not based on the national interest," the Centre for Public Integrity said in a statement to AFP.

"It was the result of a corruption scheme engendered by employees of Credit Suisse... in collusion with senior Mozambican officials and politicians.

"This debt is not ours, we do not accept paying it."

Since Chang's arrest on December 29, three former employees of Credit Suisse have also been arrested in London for possible extradition after being charged in New York.

Lebanese businessman Jean Boustani, accused of helping coordinate the alleged fraud, was also arrested in January in the Dominican Republic and sent to the US.

About $200 million was spent on bribes and kickbacks, according to the US indictment.An image released on January 17, 2019 by Horizon Nuclear Power shows an artist's impression of the new Wylfa nuclear plant in Anglesey, north Wales due to be built by Hitachi

Hitachi said Thursday it would freeze construction of its stalled nuclear power station in Wales due to problems financing the project, a blow to Britain's nuclear strategy and a costly decision for the Japanese firm.

The company said in a statement the decision was made "from the viewpoint of Hitachi's economic rationality as a private enterprise".

Shelving the project at the Wylfa Newydd plant on Anglesey, a small island off the Welsh coast, will cost the Japanese firm 300 billion yen ($2.8 billion), it said.

Hitachi launched the planned construction after acquiring Britain-based Horizon Nuclear Power in 2012.

The British government had reportedly agreed to finance two thirds of the three trillion yen construction cost, with Hitachi as well as Japanese and British investors scheduled to cover the balance.

But Hitachi's fund-raising efforts have been deadlocked at home while its request for additional investment from the British government has been shelved with London consumed by Brexit.

Hitachi said the decision to freeze the Anglesey project was made "from the viewpoint" of the firm's "economic rationality as a private enterprise"

"Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of everyone involved, the parties have not been able to reach an agreement to the satisfaction of all concerned," Hitachi said.

The Japanese firm added: "As a result, Hitachi has decided to suspend the project at this time... as it is now clear that further time is needed to develop a financial structure" for the project.Anastasia Vashukevich, known as Nastya Rybka, was held in a police raid last February in the sleazy Thai seaside resort of Pattaya

A Belarusian model who claimed she had evidence of Russian efforts to help Donald Trump win office was deported from Thailand on Thursday after being convicted of participating in a "sex training course".

Anastasia Vashukevich, known by her pen-name Nastya Rybka, was held with several others in a police raid last February in the sleazy seaside resort of Pattaya.

In a case that veered between salacious and bizarre, Vashukevich said she had travelled to Thailand after becoming embroiled in a political scandal with Russian aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska -- a one-time associate of Trump's disgraced former campaign director Paul Manafort.

She then set tongues wagging by promising to reveal "missing puzzle pieces" regarding claims the Kremlin aided Trump's 2016 presidential election victory.

But the material never surfaced and critics dismissed the claims as a publicity stunt.

In the risque Pattaya seminar led by Alex Kirillov, a self-styled Russian seduction guru, some participants wore shirts that said "sex animator" -- though one person at the time described it as more of a romance and relationship course.

Vashukevich pleaded guilty alongside seven others to multiple charges, including solicitation and illegal assembly at a Pattaya court on Tuesday, which ordered the group be deported.

Anastasia Vashukevich said she had information on claims the Kremlin aided Trump's 2016 election victory

On Thursday afternoon, Vashukevich and the majority of the convicted were put on an Aeroflot flight for Moscow, bringing to an end the Thai side of a baffling case.

Thailand's immigration chief Surachate Hakparn said the last of the group would leave the country this evening.

It was unclear what would happen to them -- including Vashukevich -- on arrival in Moscow.

Vashukevich, who has more than 120,000 followers on Instagram and penned a book about seducing oligarchs, also faces legal problems in Russia.

Deripaska won an invasion of privacy lawsuit against her and Kirillov in July after a video apparently filmed by the model showed the tycoon vacationing with an influential Russian deputy prime minister at the time.

Both Washington and Moscow publicly shrugged off Vashukevich's story, which the US State Department described as "bizarre".

burs-apj/joe/tom/kaf/qanA cotton seedling sprouted in a mini biosphere on the far side of the moon, but is expected to die during the long lunar night

A cotton seedling that sprouted on the moon has been left to die as China's historic lunar lander continues a freezing night-time nap that will last as long as two earth weeks, scientists said.

The Chinese space agency announced earlier this week that the seed had germinated inside a special canister aboard the Chang'e-4 probe, after the spacecraft on January 3 made the first-ever landing on the far side of the moon.

The mini biosphere -- which operated for over 212 hours -- was shut down as planned on Saturday, said Chongqing University, which designed the experiment.

The lander also carried potato and arabidopsis seeds -- a plant of the mustard family -- as well as fruit fly eggs and yeast.

Temperatures inside the ecosystem were expected to plunge below minus 52 degrees Celsius (minus 61.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and the organisms will be "in a frozen state", the university said in a statement on Tuesday.

The experiment ended hours before Chang'e-4 entered "sleep mode" on Sunday as the first lunar night fell since the probe's landing. Temperatures plummet to about minus 170 degrees Celsius (minus 274 degrees Fahrenheit).

A lunar night lasts for about two earth weeks, after which the probe is expected to wake up, the statement said.

"Life in the canister would not survive the lunar night," Xie Gengxin, who led the design of the experiment, told the official Xinhua news agency.

Once the temperatures start to rise next month, the organisms will be allowed to "slowly decompose" in the permanently sealed canister.

Chang'e-4 is also equipped with instruments developed by scientists from Sweden, Germany and China to study the lunar environment, cosmic radiation and the interaction between solar wind and the moon's surface.

The lander released a rover, dubbed Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit), that will perform experiments in the Von Karman Crater.

China's space agency said it is planning four more lunar missions, confirming the launch of a probe by the end of the year to bring back samples from the moon.

Beijing wants to establish a lunar research base one day, possibly using 3D printing technology to build facilities, the agency said Monday.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (3rd R) visited the resort at least three times last year according to state media

A giant beach resort in North Korea is nearing completion, a US monitor said Thursday, with satellite pictures showing rapid progress on the sprawling development, now equipped with a water slide and cinema.

The seaside strip known as the Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Area is squeezed between a new airport and the country's east coast, in an area that has previously been used for artillery drills and ballistic missile launches.

It is intended as a centrepiece of the isolated country's nascent tourism industry as Pyongyang seeks to develop its economy despite international sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons programmes.

North Korea receives an estimated 100,000 foreign tourists a year, the vast majority of them Chinese, according to industry sources, but Pyongyang issues no official figures itself.

The site's construction has been closely overseen by leader Kim Jong Un and plans have been announced for a grand opening in October, when the country marks the 74th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.

The respected 38 North website released satellite images taken as recently as December showing that most buildings previously under construction were "nearing external completion and several new or redesigned buildings were in advanced stages".

Kim, who reportedly spent his childhood summers in the area, visited the site at least three times last year according to state media, sometimes berating officials in charge of the works and issuing detailed orders.

Kim "found that the whole street was not perfect in the artistic aspect", the official KCNA news agency reported after his October inspection.

"He instructed officials to envisage the construction of more hotels and inns with over 30 floors," it added, along with more games arcades, movie theatres and an "all-event stadium", plus a "large water park and funfair".

Satellite photos from December 28 indicated the resort was growing into a "vast beach complex", 38 North said.

- 'Great beaches' -

US President Donald Trump, a former real estate developer turned billionaire, applauded North Korea's tourism potential last year following his landmark summit with Kim in Singapore.

After a four-minute screening of a bizarre Hollywood-style trailer -- apparently part of an overall pitch that the US could help the North advance technologically and economically -- Trump pointed to potential property projects in the cash-strapped nation.

"As an example, they have great beaches," he told reporters.

"You see that whenever they are exploding their cannons into the ocean. I said, 'Boy, look at that view. Wouldn't that make a great condo?'"

Kim mentioned the Wonsan-Kalma project in his key New Year speech and 38 North said the push on the development showed "a desire to demonstrate that North Korea, despite the economic sanctions in place, has an economy that is moving forward and showing signs of prosperity.

"It may also reflect an expectation that as the country improves its external political relations, tourism will follow," it added.

At present the US bans its own citizens from tourism in the North.

Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans used to visit Mount Kumgang near the inter-Korean border every year, travelling to a Seoul-funded tourist resort that was the first major cooperation project between the neighbours.

The trips came to an abrupt end in 2008 when a North Korean soldier shot dead a South Korean tourist who strayed off the approved path and Seoul suspended travel.Progress has stalled since the first Kim-Trump summit in June when the two leaders signed a vaguely worded document on denuclearisation

A top North Korean official left for Washington on Thursday, reports said, for talks with his US counterpart ahead of an expected summit between President Donald Trump and Pyongyang's leader Kim Jong Un.

Kim Yong Chol, Kim's right-hand man and the counterpart to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in denuclearisation talks, was seen getting into a vehicle at Beijing airport after flying in from Pyongyang, pictures showed.

Hours later, he left the Chinese capital on a United Airlines flight which is expected to land in Washington at 6:50 pm local time, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, adding that he was accompanied by two North Korean officials.

He was expected to meet Pompeo on Friday before paying a courtesy call on Trump, it said, and appeared to be carrying another letter from his leader for the US commander in chief.

Kim's trip comes as expectations grow for a second US-North Korean summit after Kim Jong Un last week went to Beijing, long Pyongyang's key ally, for talks with President Xi Jinping.

The summit, which observers say will probably be held in either Vietnam or Thailand, is expected despite a lack of progress in denuclearisation negotiations.

At their first meeting in Singapore in June the two leaders signed a vaguely worded document in which Kim pledged to work towards "the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula".

But progress has since stalled with the two sides disagreeing over what that means.

Pyongyang is seeking sanctions relief and rejects demands for what it calls its "unilateral" disarmament, while Washington insists that the punitive measures must stay in place until it gives up its nuclear arsenal.

Another North Korean official, Choe Son Hui, travelled through Beijing earlier this week en route to Sweden, where she could meet the US special representative on North Korea, Stephen Biegun.A woman is in a critical condition in hospital after being shot in the head in NSW's south.

Emergency services were called to a property at Pretty Pine, north of Deniliquin, just after midnight on Saturday morning, where a 31-year-old woman sustained a gunshot wound to her head.

She was airlifted to Royal Melbourne Hospital.

A 32-year-old man, the woman's husband, was arrested and taken to Deniliquin Police Station, where he is assisting with inquiries.

Four other witnesses, two men and two women, are also speaking to police.Australian sprint ace Caleb Ewan will aim to turn around a frustrating Tour Down Under with a stage win in Saturday's fourth stage.

The Lotto-Soudal team leader and Italian star Elia Viviani will be two riders to watch in the 149.5km stage from suburban Glenelg to Strathalbyn, south of Adelaide.

Race leader Patrick Bevin and defending champion Daryl Impey will also be on the lookout for bonus seconds ahead of Sunday's Queen Stage at Willunga.

Sunday will decide the tour winner and its summit finish will be the stage for climbing specialists such as Australian star Richie Porte.

Bevin leads Impey by seven seconds, but they have Porte and the other mountain goats only 21 seconds behind on general classification.

It would be a major boost for Bevin and Impey if they can finish in the top three at Strathalbyn, because of the time bonus they would gain.

Meanwhile, Ewan would love the stage win on Saturday, the last chance for the sprinters, after his rough start to the Tour.

The Australian won the Down Under Classic last Sunday, but he and his team were caught badly out of position on stage one and he finished 23rd.

It emphasised how Ewan's move to Lotto-Soudal this season as their team leader is a work in progress, after his difficult exit from Australian team Mitchelton-Scott.

Ewan was in a much better position for the finishing sprint in stage two, but Bevin shot past him to take the win and the overall lead.

Viviani already has a successful Tour after winning the first stage.

While Saturday should not affect the overall standings too much, the title contenders will need to be on guard.

The stage swings through the coastal towns of Victor Harbor and Goolwa before heading inland to Strathalbyn.

If the coastal crosswinds are up, teams will try to exploit the conditions by forcing the pace and trying to splinter the peloton.With Scott Morrison returning from a trip to the Pacific, both he and Bill Shorten will be on home soil over the weekend but not in their home towns.

The prime minister is set to spend Saturday and Sunday in Melbourne, while the opposition leader continues his tour of Queensland.

Neither has laid bare his exact plans but Mr Morrison will be involved in events across the weekend.

Mr Shorten on the Sunshine Coast on Sunday, is in the midst of a nine-day trip across Queensland in which he plans to hit 16 electorates.

Climate change was front and centre of Mr Morrison's trip to Vanuatu and Fiji this week, thanks partly to Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama's speech on Thursday urging Australia to move to clean power sources.

"From where we are sitting, we cannot imagine how the interests of any single industry can be placed above the welfare of Pacific peoples and vulnerable people in the world over," he said.

Mr Morrison is sticking with Australia's climate change targets despite the strong criticism, saying money will be spent to help Pacific nations tackle the effects of climate change.

The murder of an international student in Melbourne has also been front of mind for both Mr Morrison and Mr Shorten in recent days.

The body of Aiia Maasarwe was found not far from where she hopped off a tram in north-suburban Bundoora late on Tuesday night.

The prime minister said his heart went out to the 21-year-old's family, though he could not begin to think what he would say to them.

"I know what I'm thinking about her attacker. I expect it's the same thing that all other Australians are thinking today," he told reporters in Fiji on Friday.

"I know the police will do their job and they'll deal with it but the rest of Australia has to wake up today and deal with the most despicable of crimes.

Mr Shorten said the murder doesn't reflect the Australia or Melbourne he grew up in.

He said his feelings for the grief of Ms Maasarwe's family were strong but he wanted to reassure them Australia's police are among the best in the world.

"They will successfully catch, and our legal system will punish, the wrongdoer," he told reporters in Brisbane.The opposition will wait until after the federal election to decide if and when a Labor government would make changes to the negative gearing tax break.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has confirmed a proposed timeframe for the reforms won't be established until after the poll, likely to be in May.

"We will do it after the election, in consultation. The shadow treasurer will have more to say on it," he told reporters in Brisbane on Friday.

Labor wants to retain negative gearing only for newly-built homes - with the policy grandfathered so the changes won't apply to existing investors - and make changes to capital gains tax.

The federal government argues the move would be "bad policy" that would reduce the value of people's homes and raise rental costs.

That comes as house prices in Australia's big cities are tipped to continue declining in 2019.

Dwelling prices already dropped by 4.8 per cent nationally in 2018, according to CoreLogic data.

But Mr Shorten says the changes would be a "fairness measure" and that the government is trying to distract from its own shortcoming.

"The current government is pulling a sort of pea and thimble trick, where they want you to look over here at Labor's future policies so as to take your attention from the fact that under the current government this economy is not working properly," he said.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says the there's a growing list of independent economists and property analysts warning against the concept and that most people who use negative gearing "are not rich".

"Two in three people who negative gear have a taxable income less than $80,000," he told AAP on Friday.

"It's an inconvenient truth for Labor, but the people they claim to represent are those who will be hurt by their plan."The latest round of interstate firefighters will get to work on the Tasmanian fires to help crews tackle scores of blazes.

Some of the 78 extra personnel from across Australia are due to arrive on Saturday to join more than 160 firefighters, support staff and air crew already on the ground.

The full team of interstate experts will continue to fly in over the coming week to join about 50 colleagues from outside Tasmania already tackling the blazes.

The call for extra hands on deck comes as about 70 fires burn across the state, with the Tasmania Fire Service trying to get on top of the blazes and put them out.

Two major fires are still burning, with one scorching more than 20,000 hectares of wilderness near Gell River northwest of Hobart since it started on December 28, and another near Lake Fergus in the state's centre.

Both remain on advice alert levels along with another fire in the southwest.

"We have been lucky to have reasonably had favourable conditions that has allowed us to focus on our suppression efforts and containing and extinguishing many of these fires," the service's deputy chief officer Bruce Byatt told reporters on Friday.

A smoke alert is still active for the Derwent Valley, Greater Hobart area, Huon Valley, Bruny Island and D'entrecasteaux Channel.

There is no rain expected to fall over the weekend to break up the conditions.Australian Open finalist Marin Cilic has clawed his way to a fourth round berth, saving two match points to overcome Spanish veteran Fernando Verdasco.

The sixth-seeded Croatian, who lost last year's final to Roger Federer, triumphed 4-6 3-6 6-1 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 in their Margaret Court Arena clash on Friday night.

Ferdasco shockingly double-faulted on his second match point and Cilic made the most of his good fortune, pounding a big forehand to steal the fourth set.

The serve will haunt 35-year-old Ferdasco, who fired down 27 aces and just five double faults for the match in an otherwise superb showing.

The 26th seed imploded, earning a code violation after pumping the ball into the crowd in disappointment.

Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion, had his own challenges in the fifth when leading 4-2, offering up Verdasco three break points at 0-40 which he failed to convert.

"It was a definitely tough match," Cilic said.

"My emotions were up and down when I was down two sets to love it was a big hill to climb.

"I stayed with my game, played positive, saved one or two match points and I played another great fifth set."

Cilic's round four meeting is with another Spaniard in Roberto Bautista Agut, who earlier accounted for Russian Karen Khachanov in straight sets.A serial stalker who targeted women with sexually explicit letters and phone calls thought they were bored in their jobs and it would "tantalise" them, a court has been told.

Ian Talbot, 69, of Essendon, pleaded guilty on Friday to 10 counts of stalking between 2005 and 2018.

The Melbourne Magistrates Court heard Talbot typically wrote handwritten letters to his nine victims, aged 20 to 71, which were of explicit nature.

He would then follow up with explicit phone calls to the unknown women, asking if they had received his letters.

In all, Talbot wrote 22 letters and made eight calls to women who variously worked in clothes shops, a post office, beauty salon and newspaper.

In one of the calls to a female employee at a Torquay beauty salon, he asked if she wanted to see his penis.

He also told a Coburg clothing store worker he fantasised about having sex with her.

In one case, he sent explicit letters to a suburban newspaper journalist noting displeasure at her articles about illegal brothels and massage parlours.

Prosecutor Karen Molloy said the victims felt fearful, anxious and paranoid that the accused was watching them.

She asked Magistrate Duncan Reynolds to view the letters to understand how "severe" they were.

The court heard Talbot, who made the calls from public pay phones, made full admissions and expressed remorse for his behaviour.

He told investigators that after retiring, he became bored and began frequently viewing pornography. He believed the victims were bored in their jobs and his letters would "tantalise them and make them excited", the court was told.

Talbot's lawyer said he had apologised for his behaviour and was seeking counselling.

"My client's been a stupid old man, but he's not been an evil monster that deserves to go to jail," he said.

The court heard Talbot, a regular talkback caller to radio's Ross and John show on 3AW, had no prior convictions and enjoyed strong family support.

The defence asked that the matter be dealt by way of a fine, but Mr Reynolds refused the request.

Instead, the magistrate ordered Talbot be assessed for a community correction order and return to court next week for sentencing.A 37-year-old man was sleeping in his car on the NSW north coast when he was woken by an unknown assailant who shot him in the face, police say.

The man was asleep in his station wagon at Brunswick Heads Nature Reserve when he was woken by someone tapping on the vehicle before 6am on Friday, according to NSW Police.

Officers have been told he got out of the car and was threatened by a man who had his face covered and was holding a handgun.

The unknown man fired two shots towards the car owner who was struck in the forehead by one round.

The injured man ran from the scene and sought help from Brunswick police before being taken to Byron Bay Hospital, where he's in a stable condition.

Investigators are still looking for his shooter, who is described only as speaking with an Australian accent and carrying a dark-coloured handgun.The father of slain international student Aiia Maasarwe has stopped by a Melbourne memorial set up in her honour, as police arrested a man in connection with her death.

The 21-year-old's father Saeed on Friday waited for crowds to leave the La Trobe Univrsity campus before viewing the candles and flowers which surrounded a framed photo of his daughter, who was an exchange student there.

While avoiding media, his attendance was confirmed by university officials.

Earlier, rain did not deter hundreds of mourners from gathering to remember the young woman whose body was found at the northern suburb of Bundoora earlier this week.

Police said she had been assaulted.

Fellow student Ashleigh Brandse said she was attacked at the same tram stop in 2016 in an unprovoked attack by a random woman in in broad daylight.

"What happened to me was nowhere near as bad, of course, but I just feel like if more was done about these little things that these bigger incidences could be prevented ... there needs to be cameras at tram stops and bus stops," the 21-year-old told reporters.

She has not caught public transport since her attack.

The security of students was being ramped up, university vice chancellor John Dewar told the vigil.

"I am absolutely determined that the La Trobe community will do everything in our power to ensure that this never happens again," Professor Dewar said.

"Women must be able to feel safe, to walk in this city after dark and we will do everything we can to ensure that that happens, that is my promise to you."

The student-organised vigil is one of several events planned to honour Ms Maasarwe, a Palestinian Arab of Israeli citizenship.

A silent vigil will also be held later on Friday on the steps of Victoria's parliament with attendees asked to wear black, followed by a trip on the 86 tram.

"Tonight, on the steps of parliament, Victorians will gather to remember Aiia Maasarwe. Positive. Fun. 'The kindest girl.' A 21-year-old just making her way in the world, with her whole life ahead of her. A student on her way home after a comedy show with friends," Premier Daniel Andrews tweeted on Friday.

"Victorians are united in sadness. In anger that this bright young woman's life was taken from her."

Police confirmed they have arrested a 20-year-old man in connection with Ms Maasarwe's death and he is being questioned by detectives.Public spaces across Australia would be made more accessible for people living with disability through a $1.5 billion fund under a Greens proposal.

Another $400 million would be spent on making public transport more accessible under the plan which is aimed at levelling the playing field for the more than four million Australians living with disability.

"What we are announcing today is nothing more or less than a civil rights package," Acting Greens Leader Jordon Steele-John told reporters in Perth on Friday.Murdered student Aiia Maasarwe should have been safe in Victoria, the state's premier Daniel Andrews says, as he slammed a culture of violence against women.

The 21-year-old Palestinian Arab of Israeli citizenship was studying in Melbourne when viciously attacked and killed in the city's northern suburbs earlier this week.

"She should have been safe here. And I am heartbroken she wasn't," Mr Andrews, currently on leave, tweeted on Friday.

Police are hunting Ms Maasarwe's killer and say she suffered a horrific assault before her body was found at Bundoora near where she had alighted a tram.

"Victorians are united in sadness. In anger that this bright young woman's life was taken from her. I hope we are also united in determination. That we can - and must - end this culture of violence against women," Mr Andrews wrote.

"But nothing will change until we change, too. Until we stop blaming 'bad men' - while ignoring the sexist attitudes in our society that created them.

"Until we recognise that while not all disrespectful behaviour towards women leads to violence, all violence towards women starts with disrespect."

It's not the first time Victoria has been left reeling by the killing of a young woman.

Ms Maasarwe's murder follows those of aspiring comedian Eurydice Dixon, 22, last year and previously the deaths of Masa Vukotic, 17, and Jill Meagher, 29.Prime Minister Scott Morrison has deemed the murder of an international student in Melbourne a "shocking, despicable and tragic attack".

The body of Aiia Maasarwe, 21, was found in scrub not far from where she got off a tram at the northern suburb of Bundoora late on Tuesday night, with police saying she suffered a "horrific" assault.

"My heart goes out to Aiia's family and friends and everyone whose life she touched. An incredibly shocking, despicable and tragic attack," Mr Morrison wrote on Twitter on Friday.The cardinal led the ordination Mass of the new archbishop of Mosul and auxiliary of Baghdad in St Joseph cathedral. He asked Mgr Najij to rebuild trust with Muslims as well as the social and ecclesiastical fabric of Iraqs largest northern city, once a stronghold of the Islamic State group. He appealed to the faithful to support their bishops in their mission.

Baghdad (AsiaNews)  Fr Najib Mikhael Moussa and Fr Robert Jarjis were ordained today respectively as archbishop of Mosul and auxiliary of Baghdad. During the Mass for the episcopal ordinations, celebrated today (pictured) in Saint Joseph Cathedral, Card Louis Raphael Sako, delivered the homily.

In it, the Chaldean Patriarch urged the two new bishops to love the Chaldean Church "by strengthening its unity" and the relationship with the patriarch and all its members. He told the two to love their "homeland", Iraq, source of "our identity" and "work hard for its stability", so that "it can achieve peace" and "move towards progress and stability".

Noting that they have "inherited the faith of Saint Thomas", the apostle of the Eastern Church, the head of the Chaldean Church said that they will have to "lead" their "people to the Lord".

For Iraqs Chaldean community as well as the country as a whole, today is a day of celebration because it marks the full return of a pastor to the old stronghold of the Islamic State (IS) group, a place that for years was the scene of their terrible atrocities.

Fr Najib Mikhael Moussa, a Dominican, is tasked with rebuilding Mosuls social and ecclesial fabric as well as re-establishing relations with the Muslim population.

Addressing him, Card Sako stressed the difficulties awaiting the prelate in a "devastated" diocese. Nevertheless, his mission is to "deepen the joy of liberation and establish the hope of returning of Christians.

To do this he will have to work closely with those of good will", including Muslims, to build trust among Mosuls various communities.

The bishop, warned the Chaldean primate, must promote coexistence and dismantle what is left of the Islamic State, such as ideology, customs and traditions.

This great challenge, he noted, will require the "active participation of the Church and Christians in public life" in a city whose ancient churches were "almost fully destroyed.

We pray that you will be the new Jonah for Nineveh, the patriarch said to the new bishop.

Card Sako then turned to the new auxiliary bishop of Baghdad, Mgr Robert Jarjis, reminding him of his successful years as parish priest when he lived almost "independently".

Now, instead, he will have to adopt a more communal approach to life and become an active member of the "patriarchal team" working with "eagerness, understanding, love and humility".

Bishops from all over Iraq attended todays ceremony, as did ambassadors, government ministers, Shia and Sunni religious leaders, family members and friends.

Card Sako asked those present to accompany and support the two new prelates in their mission "with love, respect and prayers" because "the people around" the clergy can provide strength.

The episcopal rank, the Chaldean primate noted, is a calling, not a privilege and the bishop "is nothing but a servant of people".

In fact, in the Assyrian-Chaldean tradition, the bishop is called "Abun Maalia" which means "higher father" who treats his children "equally with love and tenderness" without any discrimination.

Last but not least, the bishop must realise that people are his partners and associates working as one team for the growth and prosperity of the Church through wisdom, listening, patience and consultation with his assistants.Doctors have thrown their support behind pill testing, writing to state and territory leaders declaring there is enough evidence it can reduce harm to at least warrant a trial.

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians, which represents more than 17,000 physicians and paediatricians, has sent an open letter to NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and her counterparts urging them to follow the lead of the ACT.

"The RACP's experts in addiction medicine and public health medicine believe the evidence currently available justifies the introduction of carefully designed pill testing trials in Australia," Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones said on Friday.

"Ideally, we would all like young people and the wider public not to use drugs illicitly, however, the reality is that they do in large numbers and the moral message to abstain from taking drugs is not getting through."

Five people have died after taking drugs at music festivals in NSW alone since September.

Ms Berejiklian has consistently rejected calls to introduce pill testing, despite emotional pleas from the families of some of those who have died.

She believes there is not enough evidence to show it can save lives.

But the RACP says evidence to date shows that existing policies at festivals to discourage drug-taking, including heavy police presence, sniffer dogs and searches, are not effective.

"These policies are failing our communities and our young people, leading to unnecessary deaths," Dr Lloyd-Jones said.

He wants pill testing to be trialled in purpose-designed facilities by qualified technical specialists and be accompanied by appropriate advice and information.

It should be developed in consultation with physicians, pharmacologists, toxicologists and other experts, he said.

"Pill testing is by no means a panacea; it needs to be implemented in conjunction with other evidence-based harm minimisation measures that prioritise the health and safety of festival goers over criminal and legal measures."

The NSW coroner is looking into the recent five music festival deaths, with a directions hearing to be held next Tuesday ahead of a likely inquest.Scott Morrison has no margin for error if he wants to win the next federal election.

Unfortunately for the prime minister, a lot of people are being unhelpful to his cause.

It starts with his own side.

Ahead of a key overseas trip to Fiji to officially repair a rocky relationship, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton threw a spanner in the works.

Stripping terrorist Neil Prakash of his Australian citizenship is legal if the minister believes he can get citizenship somewhere else.

The Melbourne-born ISIS fighter has a Fijian father - but Fiji is extremely unlikely to give citizenship to such a security risk.

Dutton's move ensured Morrison had awkward questions to answer in the lead up to his Fiji visit, rather than clear air to speak about his Pacific "step up" initiative.

Another Liberal colleague couldn't help but throw stones while Morrison was talking up Australia's commitment to the Pacific.

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells resigned as international development minister rather than support Malcolm Turnbull.

Morrison kept her on the backbench, and on Thursday she wrote an opinion piece slamming the government's $2 billion Pacific infrastructure loan program

"Given the Pacific's debt is already about $5.5 billion, including $2 billion to the ADB and World Bank, and $1.5 billion to Beijing, why are we even contemplating saddling our neighbours with more debt?" Senator Fierravanti-Wells wrote.

Morrison disputed her figures - $500 million in the fund is grant money, which won't be repaid - but the point was made.

The article was deliberately timed to achieve maximum impact on Morrison. Extremely unhelpful.

Back home, Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer floated the idea of using the Future Fund as a default superannuation fund.

Morrison and the coalition are fighting a battle on superannuation and they can potentially win an advantage, with Labor looking shaky about taking on underperforming union funds.

But O'Dwyer's idea is a step away from where the coalition is looking.

"I'm aware of that proposal. It's not government policy," Morrison told reporters.

Not completely terrible, but not exactly helpful.

As Morrison ramped up the culture wars rhetoric about Australia Day, one of his key supporters Alex Hawke was letting a little bit of air out of the tyres.

Hawke said he would advocate against changing the date of Australia Day if it was put to a public test, but there was a catch.

"Of course if the overwhelming majority of the Australian public take a view that it should be a different day that's what will happen," Hawke told the ABC.

"But this government supports it staying on January 26 and we think it's in step with the majority of public opinion."

Morrison has been trying to wedge Labor leader Bill Shorten on support for the date, but Hawke's comments showed there was another way out.

It wasn't as unhelpful as some of the others, but it wasn't helpful either.

It's not just his own party giving Morrison trouble.

At an official dinner in Morrison's honour in Fiji, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama took him to task over climate change and fossil fuels.

"I urged your predecessor repeatedly to honour his commitment to clean energy," Bainimarama said on Thursday night in Suva.

"From where we are sitting, we cannot imagine how the interests of any single industry can be placed above the welfare of Pacific peoples and vulnerable people in the world over."

Climate change is a sore point in the Pacific and Morrison has been notably friendlier on the topic than he usually is in Australia.

But such a public call-out guaranteed it would make news back home and bring back the issue tearing apart his party.

On a day when Morrison had announced more than $100 million in programs to help Fiji, it wasn't what you'd call 'helpful' to hear.

The polls show the coalition is heading to a solid defeat at the next election.

Shorten is talking up his united team as a vote winner.

He has a point.

While Shorten is campaigning without distractions, Morrison is realising good help is hard to find.US President Donald Trump has issued stark warnings to allies and adversaries while unveiling a new missile defence plan, partly built in space, aimed at destroying "any missile launched against the United States anywhere, anytime, any place".

In a speech at the Pentagon the president detailed a six-point plan and warned allies they needed to share the financial burden of defence pacts with the US because America "cannot be the fools for others".

Trump's plan includes 20 new ground base missile interceptors in Alaska and a space-based missile defence layer aligned with the president's new Space Force.

"So, wealthy, wealthy countries that we are protecting are all under notice," Trump said on Thursday.

"... I'm asking them to step up."

Trump's speech follows warnings the US is trailing Russia and China in the development of hypersonic missiles.

The president, however, said the US was "very advanced on hypersonic technology".

Trump has repeatedly called out NATO and Asian allies for not paying their way in military alliances with the US, and reportedly has mulled pulling out of NATO, a move that would be celebrated in Russia.

The president attempted to quell such suggestions.

"We are going to be with NATO 100 per cent, but as I told the countries you have to step up," Trump said.

"You have to pay minimum numbers, actually.

"The numbers should be much higher."

Trump's new six-point missile plan is:

- Build 20 new ground base missile interceptors at Fort Greely, Alaska, and create a missile shield "to protect every city in the US".

- Develop new technology because the "world is changing and we are going to change much faster than the rest of the world".

- Protect America from all types of missile attacks, including cruise and hypersonic.

- Recognise space as a war fighting domain, with Trump's new Space Force leading the way. Upcoming defence budget will invest in space-based missile defence.

- Remove bureaucratic obstacles.

- Insist on fair burden sharing with allies.Two psychiatrists have told an Israeli court that former school principal Malka Leifer is fit to be extradited to Melbourne to face child sex abuse charges.

The psychiatrists appeared for the state prosecution at a closed-door extradition hearing on Thursday local time.

Leifer's lawyer Yehuda Fried says the defence will argue Leifer is mentally unfit for extradition.

The defence is expected to present three psychiatrists, beginning next Thursday, and the hearing is expected to go until mid-year.

"It will not finish next Thursday, this will continue with other experts," Mr Fried told AAP after the hearing.

"I think this will go on until at least May or June this year."

Victorian police want to bring Leifer, who was arrested in Israel in February, back to Australia to face 74 charges of child sexual abuse.

The allegations are linked to her time as head of Adass Israel School's girls' campus in Melbourne in the 2000s.

Leifer flew to Israel but was later arrested there and last August was deemed mentally fit to face the extradition hearing.

Dassi Erlich, who has accused Leifer of abusing her, stayed up to the early hours on Friday AEDT for news from the latest proceedings.

"With several expert witnesses still to take the stand, we pray that the judge will come to the right decision and find Malka Leifer extraditable," she told AAP.

Ms Erlich expressed frustration with the "seemingly endless" case.

"Yehuda Fried has promised to bring everything needed under the sun, not just his three expert witnesses, in order to delay the process," she said.

Leifer is currently being held in Israel's Ramla prison.Unacceptable revelations of mistreatment and neglect of older Australians in aged-care homes point to chronic system failures in the sector, the Council on the Ageing says.

Ahead of Friday's opening of the federal government's royal commission into the aged-care industry, council chief executive Ian Yates says the inquiry is a "watershed moment" for older Australians and their families.

"Every single resident in a nursing home and every person receiving aged care at home has the right to be treated with the utmost dignity and respect," Mr Yates said.

"Our aged-care system has been plagued with issues for many years.

"We are looking forward to the royal commission addressing some of the key issues, including properly financing the sector, building and supporting a better skilled and compassionate workforce, improving medication management and restraint practices, and providing equitable access to mental health and palliative care services."

The nearly year-long inquiry will examine the extent of sub-standard care and will consider how services can be improved.

The royal commission, which will be based in Adelaide but hold hearings in other states, will also look at dealing with dementia, people who want to live at home, and a sustainable funding model for care and facilities.

It was sparked in part by the revelations of abuse and poor treatment of dementia patients at Adelaide's state government-run Oakden nursing home.

When details were announced, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia should brace for some "difficult stories" but believed the investigation could rebuild trust.

The aged-care industry says it does not fear the scrutiny of the investigation.

"We have zero tolerance for abuse and neglect where it occurs, and we are committed to continuous improvement to address problems as they arise," Aged and Community Services Australia chief executive Pat Sparrow said.Top Australian cyclist Richie Porte will keep a close watch on Canadian rival Michael Woods when the Tour Down Under turns the screw.

The steep Corkscrew climb inside the last 10km is the main feature of the fourth stage from Unley to Campbelltown on Friday.

Woods lit up stage three with a big attack about 2km from the finish.

It did not work, with Slovakian star Peter Sagan winning the stage.

But Porte said pre-race that Woods was one of his main rivals for the overall title and on Thursday the Canadian showed he had come to Adelaide in good form.

"If there's one thing to take out of it (stage three), it's that Woods is the strongest," Porte said.

"He did a good attack there. We'll see how he goes on stage four."

New Zealander Patrick Bevin (CCC Team) retained his overall lead by finishing fifth on stage three.

Porte is 27th overall, among 37 riders who are within 15 seconds of the lead.

The Tasmanian star finished outside the top 10 in stage three, but he remains very much in the overall hunt.

Porte said the high-speed run to the foot of the Corkscrew climb will be nearly as important as the hill itself.

"It's the first real test, I guess," Porte said of Corkscrew.

"The thing with the Corkscrew is the run down from the gorge and it's fast.

"If you can get in there in a good position then it's the hardest part done.

"I don't feel bad."Newcombe Medallists Ashleigh Barty and Alex de Minaur are out to lead the local brigade into the Australian Open fourth round on Friday.

Australia's top-ranked player Barty is looking to eclipse her best finish at a home grand slam after reaching the third round at Melbourne Park in her previous two appearances.

She takes on Greece's Maria Sakkari, ranked world No.43, in the first match up on Rod Laver Arena.

Teen sensation de Minaur has already eclipsed his previous best Australian Open result and will have his work cut out against world No.2 and 17-time major winner Rafael Nadal.

The Spaniard is taking on his third Australian in as many matches after already accounting for James Duckworth and Matthew Ebden.

Another member of Australia's Gen Next, Kimberly Birrell has a chance to notch another big scalp in a breakout summer.

The 20-year-old faces Germany's Angelique Kerber, the reigning Wimbledon champion and 2016 Australian Open winner.

Kerber has been in ominous form, cruising past two lowly-ranked opponents in straight sets in her opening matches.

In other matches, a spicy encounter is looming between defending Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki and 2008 title-holder Maria Sharapova.

The pair have traded barbs over the last few years but haven't played each other since 2015.Prime Minister Scott Morrison says it is up to animal activists who reportedly offered money to whistleblowers for incriminating live exports footage to explain themselves.

Animals Australia sent emails discussing possible payments to a worker on the Awassi Express, the ship from which footage emerged of thousands of sheep dying in their own filth, The Daily Telegraph reported on Thursday .

"I'm very disappointed that the politics of this issue has led to that sort of behaviour," Mr Morrison told reporters in Fiji on Thursday.

"What I'm focused on, and what my government is focused on, is dealing with the actual issue.

"I'm disappointed that those who seem only interested in playing the activist politics in this issue are more focused on those issues but I'll leave them to explain themselves."

Whistleblower Fazal Ullah took video of the horrific scenes that was aired on 60 Minutes, prompting widespread outrage and an overhaul of the industry.

Animals Australia said Mr Ullah had obtained indisputable evidence of abuse, corroborated by other workers on the ship who were also concerned about animal welfare.

"The overwhelming evidence of suffering across five voyages, confirmed in End of Voyage Vet Reports, was accepted by industry associations and government regulators," a spokesman said in a statement.

"Mr Ullah was a brave whistleblower who came forward because of his genuine concerns about the suffering of animals in this disgraceful trade."

But with Mr Ullah a key commonwealth witness in a major criminal investigation into the Awassi, the lobby group refused to comment further.

"However we reserve all of our rights with respect to any allegations made, defamatory or otherwise," the spokesman said.

The operators of the Awassi, Emanuel Exports, reiterated on Thursday they had been saddened and distressed by the footage aired on 60 Minutes.

The company said it has begun a transparency project, which included 30 politicians touring a vessel to see the livestock sheep export process on Wednesday.

"We have reached a new era where transparency and technology will be the new normal," Emanuels managing director Nicholas Daws said on Thursday.World No.1 Novak Djokovic has made short work of French veteran Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to advance to the Australian Open third round.

Amid Australia's Davis Cup drama at Melbourne Park, Djokovic accounted for Tsonga in a clinical performance 6-3 7-5 6-3 in just over two hours on Thursday night.

The six-time Australian Open champion next faces Canadian 25th seed Denis Shapovalov, who had a straight sets win over Japan's Daniel Taro.

Djokovic was happy with his game against a crowd favourite.

"It's always tough playing Jo," said Djokovic, who beat Tsonga to win his first title at Melbourne Park in 2008.

"He struggled with injuries in last 12 months and his ranking doesn't do justice for him at the moment - he's always been a top player in my eyes."

Djokovic said he'd never lost belief he'd return to the top of the sport after his ranking dipped to as low as 22 midway through the year.

"I have to be honest - I always believe in myself," said the 31-year-old, who battled a persistent elbow injury.

"I think that's an emotion that is always dominant."

Fourth seed Alexander Zverev also booked safe passage into round three with a grinding win over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.

After almost four hours on court Zverev finished with a flourish to land a 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 5-7 6-7 (8-6) 6-1 victory.

Zverev next takes on Australian surprise packet Alex Bolt, who upset French 29th seed Gilles Simon in five sets.Australia's pets could be at risk as increasing numbers of veterinarians leave the industry amid ongoing stress and poor pay, a new survey has found.

The Lincoln Institute survey found nearly 90 per cent of veterinary business owners and managers reported unprecedented difficulty filling vacancies over the past two-to-three years.

Of those, 41 per cent waited longer than six months to fill positions while 18 per cent waited up to two years or more to find new vets for their clinics.

Lincoln Institute co-director and veterinary surgeon Gary Turnbull says the shortage isn't because there's a lack of recent graduates but because people are leaving the profession in "droves".

"I have been a vet for 23 years, personally I'm starting to back away from the industry," Dr Turnbulll told AAP.

"I feel like I can't keep going at the pace I have for so long.

"Seeing the pain that veterinary business owners and their teams are going through right now is alarming."

A separate survey of working vets found about 37 per cent were considering leaving the industry within a year, while 40 per cent were contemplating leaving their current job.

Stress, poor work conditions and low renumeration were listed as the top reasons.

The survey also found 40 per cent would not recommend being a veterinarian.

The government has flagged the shortage, with data from the Department of Jobs and Small Business revealing 28 per cent of vet vacancies were filled last year, with about 1.5 applicants per vacancy.

Dr Turnbull is calling on the government to help fast-track and encourage foreign vets to fill vacancies.

Vets are four times more likely to commit suicide than others, which is double the rate of doctors, pharmacists, dentists and nurses.

"We're dealing with emotion and grief all day every day and it's hard not to take some of that on board," Dr Turnbull says.

"A lot of practices are struggling to be profitable at all. For those that do, the owners are often not paying themselves an appropriate salary."

It costs about $1-2 million to set up a clinic, he added.

In order to be registered, clinics have to offer out-of-hours emergency care.

And while there are specialist emergency clinics in capital cities, Dr Turnbull says regional and rural areas don't have the numbers to support it.

Even on late-night call outs pet owners often complain to vets about the cost, he says.

"This is the attitude that wears you down. You don't feel particularly appreciated."

"The closest comparison that people typically have is their own medical care, which in some aspects is so heavily subsidised."

An industry steering group is currently working through the issues flagged, with a working paper with recommendations expected for release in March.An Australian man visiting his girlfriend in Kenya was one of 21 people killed in an attack by al Shabaab militants on a hotel in the capital Nairobi, Kenyan media reports say.

Police Inspector General Joseph Boinnet gave the nationalities of some of those killed in Tuesday's attack, including an American and a Briton.

"An Australian man who was on his first trip to Kenya to visit his university girlfriend was also among the dead," Kenya's The Daily Nation reported on its website.

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said in a statement the high commission in Nairobi continued to seek further information from local authorities on whether any Australians had been affected by the attack.

"This includes urgently seeking to verify reports that an Australian has been killed."A Brisbane doctor has been charged with 17 counts of fraud and forgery over allegations he used patient records to write prescriptions for himself.

Police allege the 50-year-old Carindale man accessed the records of four patients at the Chermside medical facility he worked at between March and November 2017.

They say he obtained the name, address and health information of the patients to write prescriptions for himself and filled these prescriptions on 17 separate occasions.

He has been charged with multiple counts of fraud, uttering, obtaining or detailing with identification, forgery and the falsification of records.

He is due to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court in February.Decisions made by Peter Dutton when immigration minister show the hypocrisy of Australia claiming to have a "non-discriminatory" immigration policy, according to a leading human rights group.

Human Rights Watch has expressed the sentiment in its annual assessment of more than 100 countries.

"The hypocrisy of Australia's professed 'non-discriminatory' immigration policy was evident when it was revealed that then-Immigration Minister Peter Dutton intervened to grant tourist visas to foreign nannies on 'public interest' grounds in 2015, while his office denied medical transfers to Australia for asylum seekers in offshore detention," the 674-page report states.

In its chapter dedicated to Australia, the report says the nation has a strong record of protecting civil and political rights but has stressed serious human rights issues remain.

Those include the nation's "draconian offshore processing and settlement policy" for asylum seekers who arrive by boat, it says.

There were 570 refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and about 600 on Nauru at the time of the report's writing.

"Many refugees and asylum seekers suffer from poor mental health or mental illness due to, or exacerbated by, years of detention and uncertainty about their futures, the report states.

The significant over-representation of indigenous Australians in the prison system has also been highlighted in the annual assessment.

So too have some cybersecurity and surveillance measures.

They include draft laws - introduced to parliament in February - that would allow government agencies, banks and phone companies to use facial recognition to identify customers using identity matching services.

"The proposed laws lack adequate safeguards against abuse," the report said.

More broadly, the report has found there is a growing global trend towards confronting the abuses of autocrats.Australia must not put the interests of a single industry above the lives of Pacific nations battling climate change, Scott Morrison has been firmly told.

At an official dinner in Fiji to mark a newly announced partnership between the two nations, Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama explicitly told Australia to do better.

He said the only way to guarantee the survival of Pacific island countries was for Australia to shift away from fossil fuels.

"I urged your predecessor repeatedly to honour his commitment to clean energy," Mr Bainimarama said on Thursday night in Suva.

"From where we are sitting, we cannot imagine how the interests of any single industry can be placed above the welfare of Pacific peoples and vulnerable people in the world over.

"Rising seas threaten whole communities, forcing them to endure the trauma of relocating from land they've endured for generations.

"Fijian farmers are watching their crops perish in soil that has been spoiled by the heightened salinity that is associated with sea level rise."

Mr Bainimarama said the evidence of climate change was clear in the disappearing coastlines in Bangladesh and worsening flooding in the United States.

"And in Australia as well, where soaring temperatures have reached record highs in several major cities just this week," he said.

"This cannot be written off as a difference of opinion.

"Consensus from the scientific community is clear and the existential threat posed to Pacific island countries is certain."

Mr Morrison responded in his speech, praising Mr Bainimarama for Fiji's global leadership on climate change.

"I pay respect in particular to Mr Bainimarama's international leadership on climate change and oceans," Mr Morrison said.

"You have heard him speak passionately about this this evening and it was that same passion he took into the leadership of the COP process over the past 12 months."

In Vanuatu on Wednesday, Mr Morrison promised Pacific nations Australia would directly fund projects tackling the impact of climate change.

But he said Vanuatu's leaders had not asked Australia to do more to curb emissions.A body believed to be that of a German tourist missing in Central Australia was discovered by police well away from recognised walking tracks after help from her mobile phone provider.

Monika Billen, 62, was found on Thursday after she was reported missing by hotel staff nine days earlier, on January 8, but she had not been seen since New Years Day.

She was spotted by searchers in a helicopter at 3.15pm under a tree 2.9km west of Emily Gap in the East MacDonnell Ranges.

The location had already been searched twice in a 16sq km area but was densely covered with trees and foliage, Superintendent Pauline Vicary said.

Police had been working with Telstra and Ms Billen's German mobile phone provider to help track her down, she said.

When asked why it had taken nine days to find her, Supt Vicary said it had involved "a lot of technology and information and extensive work, interpreting data" and using outside experts from the telcos.

However it had helped narrow down the search before finding Ms Billen.

Ms Billen's extended family in Cologne have been told the deeply upsetting and sad news", police said, and had earlier been in contact with her during her trip.

Police do not believe the death is suspicious and a report will be prepared for the coroner.

The last known alleged sighting of her was on the afternoon of New Year's Day at Emily Gap after CCTV footage showed her leaving the Desert Palms Resort in Alice Springs in the morning.

There was confusion last week when a woman told police she had given a dehydrated and disoriented-looking Ms Billen a lift in the area on January 2 but she later admitted she was mistaken and that had taken place on December 31.

If true, that would mean Ms Billen had headed out walking again in 44C temperatures a day after she had been dehydrated.

"It was 44 degrees that day and other factors such as the heat radiating off the road makes it even hotter," Supt Vicary told reporters.

Deaths and injuries are common around Alice Springs at this time of year, with walkers heading out in extreme heat.

Police rescued a bushwalker, a 60-year-old woman last weekend, on the Larapinta Trail, injured and dehydrated, on the same day rescuers called off a search for Ms Billen.

This time last year a 33-year-old American man died while hiking the Larapinta Trail.The saying goes, bros before girlfriends.

But Joe Jonas managed to perfectly combine both, as he stepped out with Sophie Turner and his brother Kevin on Friday.

The 29-year-old popstar and his 22-year-old actress girlfriend were looking happy as they were spotted picking up coffee in New York City.

Family time: Joe Jonas (R) stepped out with Sophie Turner and his brother Kevin on Friday in NYC

Game of Thrones star Sophie was bundled up against the bitter cold, in a thick padded North Face jacket.

She added black skinny jeans and studded biker boots.

The blonde beauty - who plays Sansa Stark in the HBO fantasy drama - teased her hair into a high ponytail and sensibly kept her hands in pockets.

Cute couple: The 29-year-old popstar and his 22-year-old actress girlfriend were looking happy as they were spotted picking up coffee in New York City

Joe - who proposed to Sophie in October 2017 - was wearing a very warm looking black coat.

He risked a chilly ankle, choosing cropped jeans by Mother with no socks.

The Jonas Brothers star held on to a hot drink, and they were joined by his brother Kevin.

Bundled up: Joe - who proposed to Sophie in October 2017 - was wearing a very warm looking black coat with Mother denims

Joe and Kevin, 31, recently returned from a boys-only ski trip to Mammoth Lakes with recently-married brother Nick.

Before that they hit the slopes in a number of European countries over the New Year break.

Joe spent New Year's Day hiking to the top of a mountain in Verbier with brother Nick during a trip which included their loved ones Priyanka Chopra and Sophie Turner.

Boy's trip: Joe spent New Year's Day hiking to the top of a mountain in Verbier with Nick Jonas when they went out on holiday with Priyanka Chopra and Sophie Turner

Loved-up: In one image, Joe and Sophie shared a sweet kiss from atop a mountain

He shared a glimpse of his holiday with a number of snaps and videos from Mont Fort in Switzerland, which included his fiancee, Game of Thrones star Sophie.

Kevin has been married to his wife Danielle Deleasa since 2009, and they have two daughters, Alena, who turns five next month, and three year old Valentina.

The Jonas Brothers first broke through in 2005 and they released four albums between 2006 and 2009.

Joe joined the Australian version of The Voice in 2018, while Nick continues to both sing and act, starring in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle in 2017, while Kevin founded a real estate development company.Little Britain star Matt Lucas has joked his mother still hopes hell date a woman after revealing she struggled with his sexuality once he came out as gay.

The actor, 44, also explained how his mother Diana, 73, found his popular comedy show too smutty, reported The Mirror.

He said: It was a tough time. My mum really struggled with my sexuality. She has accepted who I am  but theres a part of her I think that probably wishes Id one day take home a girl.

'Tough time': Little Britain star Matt Lucas has joked his mother still hopes hell date a woman after revealing she struggled with his sexuality once he came out as gay

Speaking at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern cabaret club in south London, Matt quibbed his mother might change her view if he introduced her to a drag queen.

He joked: I think Im going to call my mum and say, This is unexpected. Ive met a girl

My mum would be like, Oh shes very nice. Bit opinionated. Whatever happened to that nice boy you met?

Not a fan: The actor, 44, also explained how his mother Diana, 73, found his popular comedy show too smutty

Matt also recalled his mother disliking Little Britain, labelling it too smutty and had to keep this in mind when asking her to help with The Matt Lucas Awards show.

He said: I didnt want it to be so rude. It was fun having her on.

Meanwhile, following an eight-year rift with his comedic partner David Walliams, fans were delighted to discover the pair had made up in December, amid plans to work together again this year.

Sources close to the pair said that they are working on a television comeback for the 2019 Comic Relief extravaganza in March.

Bitter rift: David Walliams and Matt Lucas are seen at a party in 2009 - the two fell out around eight years ago putting an end to the hilarious partnership that brought us Little Britain

A source revealed to The Mail On Sunday: Its all very quiet, and very recent, but Matt and David have started speaking again.

'Theyve made up, which is amazing and whats even better is that they are in serious discussions to work together next year. Both realise they missed one another a lot and realise how much joy they can bring themselves and the general public by making a comeback.

'They are not sure they can make Little Britain work today, as it has come under so much scrutiny, so toned-down Come Fly With Me is seeming the best option at the moment.

The pair's Little Britain first launched on BBC3 in 2003 and went on to have six seasons made.Malin Akerman and Jack Donnelly tied the knot in 2018 but seem to still be in the honeymoon phase.

The actors glowed as they attended the grand opening of Raspoutine Los Angeles with treats! Magazine on Friday.

The blonde 27 Dresses star was also seen mingling with Rachel McCord and Lady Victoria Hervey.

Power couple: Malin Akerman and Jack Donnelly tied the knot in 2018 but seem to still be in the honeymoon phase. The actors glowed as they attended the the grand opening of Raspoutine Los Angeles with treats! Magazine on Friday

Malin looked stylish in a low-cut top and leather slacks with low cowboy boots and a purse slung over her shoulder.

The native of Sweden wore her hair short and added a pop of pink lipstick.

Her husband showed off his chest in an unbuttoned top and black blazer.

Scandi sizzle: Malin looked stylish in a low-cut top and leather slacks with low cowboy boots and a purse slung over her shoulder

Inside, music by Zen Freeman had the guests moving to the beat while treated with bottle service and specialty cocktails.

Matthias Schoenarts was seen laughing and chatting with Treats! Magazine founder and editor, Steve Shaw.

Also there was power publicist Dawn Miller - she works with celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Boy George, Tyga and Chanel West Coast.

They have friends: The newlyweds talking to Paul Johansson as they get Photobombed by a pretty girl

Now a proper pose: Jack, Malin and Paul all side by side inside the venue

McCord had on a racy see-through beige top that left little to the imagination. She added a black see-through skirt.

And Hervey was easy on the eyes in a party dress.

Shaun Ross, Matthias Schoenarts, Chuck Liddell (UFC), Alex Da Kid (DJ), Paul Johansson, Tyler Hoechlin, Ian Bohen, Kaila Methven, Amy Grabow Freeman and Vaja rounded out the celebrity guest list.

Bare: Rachel McCord had on a racy see-through beige top that left little to the imagination. She added a black see-through skirt

A look to notice: The blonde also had a coat on her shoulders with matching pumps

With her pals: McCord with Lady Victoria Hervey with celebrity stylist Derek Warburton and Shaun Ross

Happy lady: The blonde beauty smiled as she took her time on the red carpet

A winter look: Ross wore a long brown coat over a black outfit and white sneakers

A trio of men: (L-R) Alex da Kid, Johansson, and Ross sharing a laugh

Lean on me: McCord with a male friend at the posh event

Guests were admiring the unique place with the same baroque-cozy-glamorous scarlet and gold decor inspired by the original creation of the artist, Erte, who designed the original Raspoutine in Paris 53 years ago.

With a packed house, the Los Angeles elite partied into the early hours of the morning, living up the decadent name Raspoutine clubs have become famous for.

Raspoutine West Hollywood is French excellence personified by the savoir-faire of Alexander Ghislain and Logan Maggio.

The dudes: CEO of treats! Magazine Steve Shaw (L) and Alexander Ghislain

He wore leather for the night out: Matthias Schoenaerts attends in his motorcycle jacket

It is where the party spirit, the talent to be unique and the embodiment of chic evolve within a unique fur-lined, scarlet velvet, lace and bronze embroidery cadre.

Located at 8623 Melrose Avenue, the prestigious address is packed with Hollywood history.

This was the place that received the first liquor license in Los Angeles in 1919 before transforming itself into a speakeasy, frequented by the cream of Hollywood when Prohibition was enforced.

She has the look: Also there was power publicist Dawn Miller - she works with celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Boy George, Tyga and Chanel West Coast

She sizzles: Kaila Methven is the heiress to KFC and the fashion designer of Madame Methven

Raspoutine partners, Alexander and Logan, have transformed this historic address into a luxurious and unique venue on Los Angeles nocturnal landscape.

Raspoutine is already known for its prestigious venues in Paris, Rome, and Marrakesh where offbeat sophistication and effortless distinction reign.

Now the owners bring that sophisticated nightlife to West Hollywood with the same door policy and world class DJs, providing a sensual deep house musical atmosphere.

Pals: Ian Bohen (L) and Tyler Hoechlin took a seat side by side

Men in suits: Logan Maggio (L) and Alexander Ghislain of Raspoutine Los AngelesBlanca Blanco was having some fun with makeup on Saturday.

The Spychosis actress applied heavy black liquid liner and made her eyebrows into a dramatic arch to look like one of her favorite icons, Cleopatra.

The brunette beauty who dates Hollywood vet John Savage said, 'Cleopatra vibes, dream role' in her caption. Angelina Jolie and Lady Gaga are both presently trying to get movies about the queen made.

Queen of the Nile: Blanca Blanco was having some fun with makeup on Saturday. The Spychosis actress applied heavy black liquid liner to look like one of her favorite icons, Cleopatra

She did it best: Elizabeth Taylor playing the queen in the 1963 movie Cleopatra

Cleopatra was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, nominally survived as pharaoh by her son Caesarion.

She was also a diplomat, naval commander, linguist, and medical author.

The ruler was best known for her romantic liaisons with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony.

She was last seen at a screening of If Beale Street Could Talk.

And the leggy wonder took a moment to pose with Brad Pitt, who is in the process of divorcing Angelina Jolie. Pitt's Plan B production company made the film.

Good to know: Blanco was making the round. The beauty - who has appeared in dozens of films like Mission: Possible - stopped by a massive bash in the hills on Saturday. And the leggy wonder took a moment to pose with Brad Pitt

Another Oscar winner: At a bash for the film Roma, the dark-haired looker was seen next to Charlize Theron who also had on black

Also there were Timothee Chalamet, writer/director Barry Jenkins and Stephan James.

At another party, this one for the film Rome, the dark-haired looker was seen next to Charlize Theron who also had on black.

Blanco also posed alone as she stood in front of an incredible view in Bel Air.

The actress kept things 'casual' by her standards, donning a leather dress in photos she shared to her Instagram.

More big names: Pitt with Timothee Chalamet, writer/director Barry Jenkins and Stephan James

'Tonight's casual look dress,' he captioned an image on social media.

The Eva Varro frock fell to the middle of Blanca's thighs, highlighting her long, slender stems.

A corset was tied around her waist, highlighting her slender figure, and her brunette tresses tumbled across her shoulders in loose waves.

The 5ft 9in star added a couple inches with sparkling pointy black heels as the lights of the city danced behind her.

The Bermuda Tentacles star painted her lips a glistening pink and added just a touch of blush to her towering cheekbones.

Top of LA: The star was on the top of Los Angeles on Saturday night as she stood in front of an incredible view in Bel Air

The beauty had spent her holidays in Malibu. where she and longtime love John Savage lost their home in the Woolsey Fire in November.

'I have been heart broken about losing my home but I am recovering and what gave me comfort is knowing that what happened was beyond my control,' she told DailyMail.com.

Blanco said that she was 'still at a hotel and will be moving to [a] permanent home soon' as she remained patient in the process.

Broken heart: The beauty had spent her holidays in Malibu. where she and longtime love John Savage lost their home in the Woolsey Fire in November

She said she felt 'felt trapped and claustrophobic when [she] was trying to escape' the home, and that she and her spouse are 'considering living in Beverly Hills or Brentwood' moving forward.

'For me, I have been having a hard time sleeping and having nightmares,' she added.

It's been a busy year in front of the camera for Blanca, who's appeared in films such as Woman on the Edge, Mission Possible, Daddy Don't Marry Again and The Fabulous Christmas Holidays.

And it was just announced that Blanca signed with Swedish fashion brand Chiquelle for a new fashion campaign.As one of Hollywood's favorite actresses, she's used to the VIP treatment.

And Julia Roberts looked like quite the star when she emerged from her Calabasas hair salon after a bit of pampering Saturday morning.

Though the Homecoming star's outfit was simple, the 51-year-old actress's hair was full of glamour, freshly styled in bouncy curls.

Best tressed: Julia Roberts showed off her freshly styled hair while out in Calabasas on Saturday

While Julia's hair was red carpet-ready, her outfit was cute but understated.

The Pretty Woman star teamed skinny jeans and boots with a white tee shirt and little grey cardigan.

Adding an eclectic touch, Roberts wrapped a colorful scarf around her neck and carried a large leather purse with a braided shoulder strap.

Curly girly: The Homecoming actress' honey-colored hair featured bouncy curls

Simply stylish: The Pretty Woman star teamed skinny jeans and boots with a white tee shirt and little grey cardigan

The busy star recently surprised fans when it was revealed she would not be returning to the Amazon drama Homecoming for its second season.

According to a story for The Hollywood Reporter, the series - which is based off a Gimlet Media podcast of the same name - only made a one-season commitment to the show.

Roberts will still stay on as an executive producer along with creator Sam Esmail, however.

Esmail, who also created hits like Mr. Robot, explained how the show had to make changes after evolving beyond the source material.

Off screen: Julia will not act in season two of Homecoming (above), but will still stay on as an executive producer

'We've deviated from very much of the podcast,' he said, 'So [season two of] the podcast doesn't really have anything to do with the way the show is going. We're working on a second season, but we have a very different trajectory for our show.'

Julia will be onscreen in several other projects this year.

The film Ben Is Back is currently in limited release in the United States after making the rounds on the film festival circuit last fall.

Beyond that she is set to appear in the film Little Bee, an adaptation of the Chris Cleave novel, which is currently in pre-production.by Paul Nguyen Hung

Social workers and diocesan Caritas volunteers are committed to end social discrimination. Trained in the basics, "community volunteers" help the poor and abandoned find work and fit in the workplace. For Vicar of Thuy Yen, volunteers are a sign of God's love and the Churchs presence.

Hanoi (AsiaNews)  Disabled people "need more than money and material things; they also need love, care and attention, this according to Fr Peter Huynh Trong, vicar of Thuy Yen and head of the social and charity committee in Hai Van district, Diocese of Hue.

"In society there are many poor, sick and disabled people, he said at a meeting with diocesan Caritas volunteers. Dear brothers and sisters, we are engaged in charitable and social activities fully conscious that we are Christians. Thus, you are a sign of God's love and the Churchs presence among these unhappy people,

Catholics number almost 70,000 or 4 per cent in a population of 1.75 million people. The diocese includes the provinces of Thua Thien-Hue and Quang Tri.

In the first province alone, there are 40,000 people with disabilities, according to the latest statistics. Most of them live in precarious economic conditions and their access to training and health care services is limited.

Social workers and diocesan Caritas staff are involved in the fight against the social discrimination that touches the disabled, both in the cities and the countryside.

In order to empower the disabled and their families, in 2009 Caritas Hue set up a local network of parishes to train volunteers.

As Tet Nguyen an, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year (5 February) approaches, the humanitarian branch of the Diocese of Hue is working with parishes to encourage Catholics to visit, support and donate to the less fortunate.

In 2018, the nine parishes in the Hai Van district helped 135 people with disabilities. At present, the charity is working to help disabled people, both Catholics and non-Catholics, to fit in to nine local centres in their respective communities.

Some 24 community volunteers are involved in small projects in the parishes of Phuoc Tuong, Chanh Xuan, Thuy Yen, Thua Luu and Truoi, trained in the basic notions of welfare outreach to help abandoned or very poor people find a job and adapt to the workplace.

Last year, the diocesan Caritas also organised a meeting between volunteers and 65 disabled people in order to discuss experiences and initiatives.

"We need cooperation and support from parishes and local communities, said Fr Anthony Nguyen Ngoc Ha, head of the diocesan Caritas. Therefore, the role of [our] partners and young volunteers is fundamental ".

Thomas Hoang Kim Khanh, in charge of disabled people at Caritas Hue, noted that although only nine parishes out of 19 took part in charitable activities, volunteers worked hard and showed love, creating good conditions to help people get back on their feet.The family are back on home turf after their glorious getaway to Barbados.

And Simon Cowell's girlfriend Lauren Silverman, 41, and son Eric, 4, paid him a visit when he got back to work for the second day of BGT filming on Saturday.

Eric looked sweet in a blue jumper and jeans as he joined his glamorous mum when they clambered out of the taxi together on arrival at The London Palladium.

What a family! Simon Cowell's love Lauren Silverman, 41, and son Eric, 4, paid a visit to the music mogul as he got to work on second day of BGT filming on Saturday

Lauren made a stylish arrival as she stepped out of the car in her jeggings, patterned blouse and steep burgundy heels.

Simon showed off his dashing good looks and Colgate-white advert-worthy smile when he joined forces with his BGT co-stars including Ant McPartlin.

The BGT boss stayed true to his signature style in a plain white T-shirt, wide-legged jeans, dark shades and Cuban heel shoes.

Sensational: Simon showed off his dashing good looks and Colgate-white advert-worthy smile when he joined forces with his BGT co-stars including Ant McPartlin

Spotted: The BGT boss stayed true to his signature style in a plain white T-shirt, wide-legged jeans, dark shades and Cuban heel shoes

On Friday, Simon was compared to a Madame Tussauds' waxwork by trolls as he made a boozy departure after Britain's Got Talent filming.

The music mogul, 59, showed off his new look when he returned to the London Palladium to shoot for the first day of the ITV talent show.

Keyboard warriors viciously targeted the BGT judge as they claimed his new look was 'fake' and 'weird' while likening him to a waxwork.

All about the glamorous life: Lauren made a stylish arrival as she stepped out of the car in her jeggings, patterned blouse and steep burgundy heels

Giddy: The mother-of-one looked delighted to be joining her husband at work for the day as she brought her son to visit his dad

'Simon Cowell now looks like the Louis Tussauds version of Simon Cowell.' One fan wrote, leading the troops on social media.

The television personality joined forces with hosts Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly as well as the judging panel David Walliams, Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon.

While troubled star Ant returned to work, fans were distracted by Simon's new look as they took their thoughts to social media.

Back on the scene: Ant McPartlin put his troubles behind him as he beamed for the cameras on arrival for the Britain's Got Talent filming

He's so stylish: Dec's partner looked sharp when he wore a navy jacket and a fashionable baker boy cap

Pleased to be back! Ant was the picture of happiness when he returned to work in the company of his co-stars on the Britain's Got Talent set

Another added: 'Been having some work done Simon? @SimonCowell @BGT.'

'Is that a fake Simon Cowell.' Others remarked. 'Simon's face look weird AF.'

This was backed by more fans, who added: 'What has @SimonCowell done to his teeth?'

Friendly face: The comedic presenter waved to the cameras as he arrived

Playful: As the auditions resumed judge David Walliams also took to social media to share yet another snap of Ant and Dec together

Showman: David also met up with Keith Lemon performer Leigh Francis, as he also paid a visit to the auditions

Not nice: Simon's new look was compared to a Louis Tussauds' waxwork by cruel trolls...as he made a boozy departure after BGT filming

Cruel: Keyboard warriors viciously targeted the BGT judge as they claimed his new look (L) was 'fake' and 'weird' while likening him to a waxwork

'He looks like a wax work': While troubled star Ant returned to work, fans were distracted by Simon's new look as they took their thoughts to social media

'And why are they with a crap waxwork version of Simon Cowell?'

'Has someone replaced Simon Cowell with his wax work double?'

'I cant help but think how much Simon Cowell looks like a wax work!'

Simon previously admitted he had splashed out on a non-surgical face lift to maintain his smooth visage which is reported to have cost around 2,000.

History: Simon previously admitted he had splashed out on a non-surgical face lift to maintain his smooth visage which is reported to have cost around 2,000

He told The Sun on Sunday: 'There's lots of things you can do now, you don't just have to stuff your face with filler and Botox.

'It hurts like hell but it gets rid of sun damage and unplugs all the c**p.

'For me now, it's all about having clean skin, if you have clean skin, you look better.'

A confident Simon proudly showed off a blinding white smile on London's Harley Street on Tuesday.

The dad bore a resemblance to Ross Geller, who infamously resorted to using bread, a wine glass and his hand to cover up his scarily bleached smile in Friends.

Pictured: The music mogul, 59, showed off his new look when he returned to the London Palladium to shoot for the first day of the ITV talent show

Fresh from Barbados, Simon returned home from his envy-inducing getaway with his partner Lauren Silverman, her eldest son Adam, 13, and their son Eric, four.

The foursome have been soaking up the sun with the music mogul's beloved dogs during their annual festive trip.

It was recently reported the television personality was added to his family by adopting a stray dog.She recently fought with Blac Chyna over new boyfriend Rob Kardashian.

But it was her connection to an old beau causing trouble for Alexis Skyy on Thursday night, when the 24-year-old Love & Hip Hop: New York star had a knife pulled on her by ex Fetty Wap's baby mama, according to TMZ.

The gossip site reported 'Lezhae Lowder allegedly pulled out a knife, asking for Alexis' during an altercation in a New Jersey White Castle parking lot, which ended in Lowder's arrest.

Trouble: Alexis Skyy [with ex Fetty in July 2016] had a knife pulled on her by ex Fetty Wap's baby mama on Thursday night, according to TMZ

The trouble apparently began when Skyy attended a NJ bar where Lehzae works.

The 21-year-old 'tried to fight Alexis as soon as she arrived' according to TMZ and 'threw a bottle' at her car as the actress drove off.

The two women then ended up in a White Castle parking lot, where a fight broke out, and Lowder 'ended up in handcuffs'.

Lowder shares two children with the 27-year-old Trap Queen hitmaker, who is a father of seven.

Fetty also shares a daughter, Alaiya, one, with Alexis.

Oh baby! Fetty also shares a daughter, Alaiya, one, with Alexis

Blac Chyna and Alexis Skyy's feud at a party last weekend was solely over Rob Kardashian, reports TMZ.

Sources close to the women alleged that Blac invited Alexis to a house party so she could 'set the record straight' about the Love and Hop Hop star's past dalliances with Rob, which she found inappropriate.

It was claimed that Alexis and Rob, 31, have been in contact since 2016, when he was still with Chyna, 30. The former couple share two-year-old daughter Dream.

In demand: Blac Chyna and Alexis Skyy's feud at a party last weekend was solely over Rob Kardashian, reports TMZ. Rob seen here May 2016

Chyna reportedly wanted to clear the air between the pair, but Alexis reportedly lost her temper during the discussion, leading Chyna to throw a drink at her.

Skyy then set forth with a blistering tirade against her love rival on Instagram, demanding that Chyna 'come ya punk a** outside!!!'.

'B***h u tried the right b***h but ran!!! I promise u I'm not leaving this b***g until it punk crack head ass come outside!!!Rachael Ostovich shared a pinup photo of herself to Instagram on Friday.

The 27-year-old UFC fighter was in a crop top as she posed at The Oculus in NYC. Designed by Santiago Calatrava, the transport hub serves the new World Trade Center.

The siren - who has recovered from her brutal beat down by her MMA fighter husband Arnold Berdon in November - is set to fight Paige VanZant in New York on Saturday.

Knockout: Rachael Ostovich shared a pinup photo of herself to Instagram on Friday. The 27-year-old UFC fighter was in a crop top as she posed at The Oculus in NYC

Ready to punch: The siren - who has recovered from her brutal beat down by her MMA fighter husband Arnold Berdon in November - is set to fight Paige VanZant in New York on Saturday

The beauty was nicely made up with her long hair styled just so. She was beaming as she posed with the airport in the background.

Rachael was in a light blue crop top with matching sweatpants and a long jacket with a fur trim collar.

Her caption read, 'Just a vampire who decided to go for it.  LMAO......'

She often poses with her daughter Ruby on Instagram. In early January the star shared a photo with her mini me as they had on matching makeup while in NYC.

Baby Rachael: The athlete put makeup on her mini-me daughter Ruby for cute photo

The fighter thanked a member of her glam team for giving both of the girls new haircuts.

Her fight with Van Zant was initially cancelled due to Ostovich's injuries, which were sustained in the alleged attack in Hawaii.

But soon after Ostovich's manager Brian Butler-Au told ESPN she was cleared t.

'She never really wanted to be off of this fight,' Butler-Au said. 'When everything happened, it was very emotional.

All made up: The fighter thanked her glam team for giving both of the girls new haircuts as she worked in New York City

'The injuries were significant enough that, combined with the emotions of everything that was going down, we made a decision to pull out of the fight,' Butler-Au continued.

'Now that things are settling out and the swelling of the injury is going down, Rachael got a second opinion and everything will work out to where she can keep this fight.'

ESPN also confirmed with UFC president Dana White that the fight is back on.

Onwards: Ostovich is not letting the beating hold her back as she shared a very upbeat Instagram note about her fight with Paige VanZant

The beauty said to quit the fight would allow him to 'mess with her dreams,' she told KHON2 in Hawaii earlier.

The star spoke on camera, revealing she still has a black eye.

'This is something that cant be taken away from me,' said the UFC fighter. 'I want to use this big worldwide UFC platform to show people that dont let anyone or anything come between you and your dreams and your career.'

She also said she wants to be a role model for women suffering from domestic abuse.

The past: Ostovich has moved on with her life after she was savagely beaten to a pulp by her MMA fighter husband Arnold Berdon in November

'I felt that it was extremely important to me to follow through with it and not only for me but for my daughter and other people that might be going through similar situations,' Ostovich told KHON2.

'I want to take a stand against domestic violence and show others that its okay to come out and speak about it and not be quieted.'

She also said, 'I feel like I have to do this.'

And she thanked her family. 'Im extremely grateful and blessed for my support system. My family, who has done so much for me and has kept me together and kept me strong.'

Berdon was taken into custody by Honolulu police and charged with second-degree assault.

Ostovich was also granted a restraining order against Berdon.

She suffered a broken bone near her eye and was heavily bruised.

Still recovering: The 27-year-old UFC fighter suffered a broken bone near her eye and was heavily bruised; here she is seen with a black eye on KHNO 2

In December she shared an upbeat note.

The beauty said God was 'sooooo good' to her and 'the best is yet to come' as she shared a photo of her ESPN cover with Paige.

The caption read, 'First ever ESPN UFC event at the Barcalys Center!!!! Making History. God is sooooo good to me.' She added a prayer emoji.

'The best is yet to come!' she also noted.

'New York here we come!! Thank you Sizlak008 for the graphic! And suckerpunchent for having me REPRESENTED.'

She added, 'We keep it movin.'

Her fans loved her note.

One said, 'You are incredibly inspiring!' while another added, 'I wish you well and best of luck in your next fight!'







They've been more than friendly since ending their relationship in 2016, often coming together for the sake of their three kids.

And Kourtney Kardsahian and Scott Disick proved that they were amicable exes once again while the Kardashian family shot KUWTK at Color Me Mine Ceramic Studio in Calabasas on Friday.

The entire family was out for the artsy trip which included with sister Kim, Kanye West and kids in addition to Kourtney and Scott's two youngest Penelope, six, and Reign, four.

Friends: Amicable exes Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick joined forces to take their kids to Color Me Mine Ceramic Studio in Calabasas on Friday

Kourtney dressed in a billow black blouse and dark bell bottoms.

The 5foot1 star carried son Reign into the building in her arms while daughter Penelope held mom's arm and walked to the side.

Penelope proved that she already had mom's eye for style, the little lady rocked a flouncy green dress with white cowboy boots.

Later on while the kids played inside, Kourtney made sure she had enough energy for the evening scene with a cup of coffee.

Pick me up: Later on while the kids played inside, Kourtney made sure she had enough energy for the evening scene with a cup of coffee

Mommy duty: The 5foot1 star carried son Reign into the building in her arms while daughter Penelope held mom's arm and walked to the side

Scott walked into the establishment separately, looking understated in a pair of skinny jeans and a logo-free grey hoodie.

Inside the ceramics studio the kids looked like they were having the time of their lives as they romped around with cousins North, five, Saint, three, and Chicago, one.

While Scott didn't at all mind teaming up with his ex, there was no sign of Scott's significant other Sofia Richie.

Flying under the radar: Scott walked into the establishment separately, looking understated in a pair of skinny jeans and a logo-free grey hoodie

Parenting: Kim carried daughter Chicago while leaving the ceramics studio with niece Penelope and her eldest North

Kourtney recently gave Scott and Sofia her stamp of approval while on Andy Cohen's Watch What Happens Live on Monday night.

Andy asked Kourtney how she's react if rumors the pair were getting engaged turned out to be true, she responded with a hearty 'Congratulations!'

Kim made sure to add her two cents, telling Andy: 'We vacation together. Its all good!'

Kourtney, Scott and Sofia recently vacationed to Mexico with their kids together in late December. After that they enjoyed the snowy mountains of Aspen as a modern family.Ferne McCann has reportedly angered her fitness DVD bosses after she lent all the credit to the Herbalife supplement for her amazing figure.

Fit As Ferne DVD, which trumped yet-to-be released award-winning film Bohemian Rhapsody in the Amazon best sellers' charts, documents the star's fitness quest.

The former TOWIE personality, 28, promoted the supplement alongside a very svelte picture of the star lounging on the beach in a sunshine yellow bikini in Dubai.

Sparking outrage: Ferne McCann 'angered fitness DVD bosses' by crediting Herbalife supplement for her INCREDIBLE figure as she shared a steaming hot bikini snap

A source told The Sun: 'Ferne's fitness DVD bosses are fuming. They can't believe she has credited Herbalife with helping her get her pre-pregnancy body back.

'Her DVD has been promoted as the 'workout that got her into the best shape of her life' after having Sunday.

'Yet, she's also saying that a meal replacement shakes and bars were the trick to achieving her post-baby body. It's a nightmare.'

Claims: An insider said, 'Ferne's fitness DVD bosses are fuming. They can't believe she has credited Herbalife with helping her get her pre-pregnancy body back'

In the post in question, Ferne wrote on January 4: 'I look like this because I decided to do a 30 day challenge [with Herbalife] this time last year in Jan.'

The post was shared on her @fernutrition account which has 100,000 followers compared to the 2,200,000 admirers on her official Instagram account.

Herbalife member Ferne claimed her journey with the supplement began when she was pregnant and she was 'blown away' by her BFF Danielle Armstrong's figure.

Abs-olutely amazing: Fit As Ferne DVD, which trumped yet-to-be released award-winning film Bohemian Rhapsody in the Amazon best sellers' charts, documents the star's fitness quest

She wrote on the official website: 'My Herbalife Nutrition journey began when I was pregnant. I was blown away by my friend Danielle Armstrong's body transformation.

'She had completely changed her body shape by dropping 21 lbs in body weight & gained 7 lbs of lean muscle.

'She was glowing and looked absolutely incredible. I couldn't believe this was all down to Herbalife Nutrition.'

Sizzling: Herbalife member Ferne claimed her journey with the supplement began when she was pregnant and she was 'blown away' by her BFF Danielle Armstrong's figure

Ferne's representative told the newspaper: 'This is nonsense. Of course Universal were aware of all Fernes partnerships ahead of working with her. Fernes always been honest about her entire lifestyle package thats lead to her feeling and looking great!'

MailOnline has reached out to Ferne McCann's representatives for further comment.

As well as her fitness DVD, the reality star mum has been filming a second series of First Time Mum which documents her life with her daughter Sunday.

Father of her daughter and Ferne's ex love Arthur Collins is serving his time behind bars for hurling acid on innocent club-goers in a horrific targeted attack.Roxy Jacenko has opened up about the hardships her daughter Pixie Curtis, seven, experienced after Oliver Curtis was jailed for insider trading in 2016.

Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald, the glamorous PR mogul revealed that Pixie endured a 'challenging' time at school when her father was serving time.

The 38-year-old says: 'Parents were clearly speaking about our situation and doing so in front of their children, Pixie's fellow students, which made her time in school very challenging for her.'

'She was told her dad was a very bad person': Roxy Jacenko reveals how her daughter Pixie, 7, (right) was bullied at school after dad Oliver Curtis (left) went to jail for insider trading

Pixie heard all sorts of rumours about her father, the PR mogul went to on reveal to the publication.

'One minute she was told her dad broke out of jail, and the next that her dad was a very bad person - not something you want any child to hear, especially when they are so impressionable and it's their father,' Roxy said.

Oliver, 32, was released from prison in June 2017 after serving 12 months of a two-year sentence for conspiracy to commit insider trading.

Difficult: 'One minute she was told her dad broke out of jail, and the next that her dad was a very bad person - not something you want any child to hear,' Roxy Jacenko (left) said

He served his time at Cooma Correctional Centre.

During his imprisonment, Roxy lied to Pixie and son Hunter, four, telling them that their father was in China on business.

Speaking to Studio 10, Roxy revealed Pixie had been told at school about Oliver's imprisonment and was 'upset'.

Prison: Oliver, 32, was released from prison in June 2017 (pictured) after serving 12 months of a two-year sentence for conspiracy to commit insider trading

Tough times: Speaking to Studio 10, Roxy revealed Pixie had been told at school about Oliver's imprisonment and was 'upset'

However, Roxy added that the pair 'worked through it' and that Pixie is now enjoying her time at school.

The mum and daughter have also put Pixie's experiences of bullying on the page, working on a book together called Penelope's Playground.

Penelope's Playground will be available at Booktopia for $19.95 from February 1.They enjoy a quiet family life with their child and keep their romance very low-key.

Yet Noel Fielding was spotted on a rare outing with his ladylove Lliana Bird, 37, to grab the essential groceries, in North London on Friday.

The Great British Bake Off host, 45, stayed warm in the chilly capital in a furry cream coat and a bright blue turtleneck with a striking pink stripe across his chest.

Staying warm: Noel Fielding stepped out for rare shopping trip with his girlfriend Lliana Bird in North London on Friday as he took time away from parenting duties

The presenter toted a turquoise rucksack and his mobile phone when he made his way home from doing the weekly shop.

Lliana showed off her wonderful winter chic with a deep blue velvet coat with a faux fur collar and cuffs as well as boots in the same shade to match.

The author dazzled in a shimmering golden top which she wore beneath all of her layers that were keeping off the frosty bite to the air.

On the move: Lliana showed off her wonderful winter chic with a deep blue velvet coat with a faux fur collar and cuffs as well as boots in the same shade to match

Freezing! The Great British Bake Off host, 45, stayed warm in the chilly capital in a furry cream coat and a bright blue turtleneck with a striking pink stripe across his chest

Noel and Lliana made the most of their time together as they stepped away from parenting duties to their only child Dali.

Serge Pizzorno claimed the Bake Off host was a big admirer of the Surrealist painter Salvador Dali.

An insider told The Sun at the time of revealing the child's name: 'Noel thought the name was a perfect fit. Salvador has played a big part in his life, so its no surprise to his friends hes named a baby after him. Its a cute name and really suits the tot.'

Time out: Noel and Lliana made the most of their time together as they stepped away from parenting duties to their only child Dali

The couple began began dating in 2010, not long after Noel found fame with psychedelic comedy The Mighty Boosh.

Though little is known about their relationship and whether they have married, it is understood that they do not have any other children.

Fielding's girlfriend Lliana is an author, an activist and a presenter for Radio X and they live together in north London.She looks fabulous whether it's a red carpet event or a day out with pals.

And Sofia Vergara looked breathtaking when she arrived for a lovely lunch at La Scala, in Beverly Hills, California on Friday.

The Modern Family star, 46, teased a glimpse of her toned stomach in a skimpy sweater which she paired with distressed jeans.

Looking wonderful: Sofia Vergara, 46, flashed a glimpse of her toned stomach as she stepped out for lunch in Beverly Hills on Friday

As one of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood, of course the actress kept up her chic image as she perfectly styled her locks and added make-up.

The mother-of-one boosted her average height of 5"5' with tremendously high platform sandals which were in the same shade of her handbag.

Sofia stepped out without her lovely husband Joe Manganiello, with whom she has found true love since they tied the knot in 2015.

Looking fabulous: As one of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood, of course the actress kept up her chic image as she perfectly styled her locks and added make-up

In recent days, the beauty documented her date night look before she headed out for the evening with her husband.

The actress gushed over her love's dashing good looks and six-pack when she discussed how much she still fancies him.

She told Health in September last year: 'Hes fit and hes good-looking and everything, but he is very not into itlike, he doesnt really know how handsome and big he is.

Happiness: Sofia stepped out without her lovely husband Joe Manganiello, with whom she has found true love since they tied the knot in 2015

'He works out for health and for strength, not for a six-pack. You never hear him talking about stuff like that. Its all about health and strength.'

The Modern Family star raises her only child Manolo Gonzalez-Ripoll Vergara, 26, with her first husband Joe Gonzalez.

Former flames Sofia and Joe were married for three years between 1991 until 1993.Channel Ten's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! has been promoting an arrival of an ex Footy Show star over the past few days.

But it appears fan-favourite and NRL star Beau Ryan won't be the athlete to become the first 'intruder' in the South African jungle camp.

According to TV Blackbox, the real contender will be Hawks legend Shane Crawford.

Scroll down for video

So it's not Beau Ryan? AFL legend and Footy Show star Shane Crawford to head into South African jungle for I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

Inside sourced apparently confirmed to the publication that the Brownlow medal winner was expected to make his debut on Monday night.

Shane appeared on The AFL Footy Show, while Beau appeared on the NRL version.

Beau at first seemed the most likely choice as he recently signed with Channel 10 to appear on Sunday Night Takeaway which, coincidentally, is hosted by I'm A Celebrity presenters Julia Morris and Dr Chris Brown.

Intruder alert! According to TV Blackbox , the real contender will be AFL Hawks legend Shane Crawford (Pictured in 2001)

Beau previously worked on Channel Nine's The NRL Footy Show for years, alongside the likes of Erin Molan and Paul Vautin.

Since rising to fame as a rugby league star, the father-of-two has enjoyed an impressive career in television and radio.

Dr Chris previously praised Beau, who is known for his on-screen pranks, when it was announced last year he was joining Sunday Night Takeaway.

So it's NOT him? Beau Ryan at first seemed the most likely choice as he recently signed with Channel 10 to appear on Sunday Night Takeaway which, coincidentally, is hosted by I'm A Celebrity presenters Julia Morris and Dr Chris Brown

'He's a first-class live performer and brings warmth, charm and humour that'll make our Takeaway the complete family experience,' he said.

Julia added: 'We are so excited to have Beau joining our little family. The laughter will be flowing and I will be in the ultimate showbiz sandwich.'

I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! returns to Ten on Sunday from 7.30pmIn June, the couple were suddenly forced to vehemently deny speculation that they were heading for a divorce.

And Victoria Beckham has branded persistent marital rumours surrounding her husband David 'annoying and frustrating' amid her 'stressful life' in a very candid interview.

The fashion designer, 44, also went on to reveal the real reason why she's not taking part in the Spice Girls tour this summer and ruled out any suggestion of a cameo.

Hitting back: Victoria Beckham has branded persistent marital rumours surrounding her husband David 'annoying and frustrating' amid her 'stressful life' in a very candid interview

Claims that Victoria and David, 43, were planning to divorce circulated on social media earlier in the summer, prompting high street bookmaker Paddy Power to suspend betting on them separating.

Paddy Power's move came despite there having been no suggestion the couple were having any marriage difficulties.

While rumours were fuelled once more about the state of their 19-year marriage when David was mysteriously absent from the family front cover of British VOGUE magazine.

Talking about the rumours surrounding her marriage to David, 43, in the Guardian's Weekend magazine, Victoria said: 'It can get quite frustrating. But I leave it to my PR team. I don't get involved.'

Viva Forever: The fashion designer, 44, also went on to reveal the real reason why she's not taking part in the Spice Girls tour this summer and ruled out any suggestion of a cameo (pictured in 2000)

Girl power: It was revealed in November that the Spice Girls were reuniting once again for a live tour but Victoria wouldn't be joining (pictured in 2012)

It was revealed in November that the Spice Girls were reuniting once again for a live tour but Victoria wouldn't be joining Mel B, Geri Horner, Emma Bunton and Mel C on stage.

Addressing why she wasn't joining her former bandmates and ruling out any chance of making a cameo, she told the publication: 'Not at all. What I do now is my passion and a full-time job. I'm excited to see it, though.

'And I'm sure when I'm there and they are on stage, there will be a part of me that feels a bit left out. Because even after all this, a part of me will always be a Spice Girl.'

Victoria went on to discuss her hectic schedule, where she is required to be at the front of the house and also behind the scenes.

Hitting back: Talking about the rumours surrounding her marriage to David, 43, in the Guardian's Weekend magazine, Victoria said: 'It can get quite frustrating. But I leave it to my PR team. I don't get involved.'

Talking about having to wear 'both hats', the mother-of-four admitted that it 'can be stressful'.

Victoria added that living such a busy lifestyle also requires her to 'expect a lot from her body' and that she follows a disciplined healthy diet and work out, which makes her the 'happiest'.

At the time of the divorce rumours - which seemed to involve speculation about David's faithfulness to his wife - Jo Milloy, a spokesman for Victoria, told the Daily Mail the gossip was 'absolute nonsense'.

Meanwhile, former England football captain David's spokesman, Simon Oliveira, dubbed the claims embarrassing and laughable.

Busy bee: Victoria went on to discuss her hectic schedule, where she is required to be at the front of the house and also behind the scenes

'There is no statement due, no divorce, and a lot of Chinese whispers and fake social media news,' he said. 'This is all very bizarre and an embarrassing waste of time.'

He then added, bluntly, that the rumours were 'a crock of s**t'.

Meanwhile, at the start of November, the Spice Girls confirmed that they had reunited for a six-date UK tour this summer, following months of relentless speculation.

Hectic: Talking about having to wear 'both hats', the mother-of-four admitted that it 'can be stressful'

Family: Victoria pictured with husband David and children - Brooklyn, 19, Romeo, 16, Cruz, 13, and Harper, seven,

Mel B, 43; Emma Bunton, 42; Geri Horner, 46, and Mel C, 44, took to their official Twitter and Facebook accounts to announce the highly anticipated roadshow, which is set to kick off in Manchester on June 1.

And while Victoria won't be a part of the lineup hitting the road in a tour that's expected to net them 10m each, she still took time out to release a statement on the exciting announcement.

'Being in the Spice Girls was a hugely important part of my life and I wish my girls so much love and fun as they go back on tour,' said the mother-of-four. 'I know they will put on an amazing show and the fantastic fans past and present are going to have a wonderful time!'The refugees are from far away Indian Kashmir. To reach south-east Bangladesh, refugees cross the Indian states of Assam, Tripura or West Bengal. On January 3, New Delhi arrested and repatriated five Rohingya.

Dhaka (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Since last December, 1,300 Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh from India, for fear of being repatriated to Myanmar. In recent weeks, the number of arrivals has increased dramatically, following a crackdown on immigration by the Hindu nationalist government of New Delhi. This was stated by Mohammad Abul Kalam, commissioner for the rescue and rehabilitation of the refugees.

"The Rohingya began to arrive in May 2018 - says the official - and now they were hosted in a refugee center in transit in Ukhia, in the southeastern district of Cox's Bazar, under the supervision of the UN High Commissioner for refugees (Unhcr) ".

"They entered Bangladesh through several points on the porous border and have ID cards provided by UNHCR in India," says Kalam. The documents were released on humanitarian grounds to those who had previously fled sectarian violence in the Burmese State of Rakhine.

Humanitarian workers and some of the new arrivals say that the refugees, originating from far-away Indian Kashmir, face the long journey because they fear the fate of the five Rohingya arrested and extradited from New Delhi on 3 January. To reach south-east Bangladesh, refugees cross the Indian states of Assam, Tripura or West Bengal.Simon Cowell was compared to a Madame Tussauds' waxwork by trolls as he made a boozy departure after Britain's Got Talent filming on Friday.

The music mogul, 59, showed off his new look when he returned to the London Palladium to shoot for the first day of the ITV talent show.

Keyboard warriors viciously targeted the BGT judge as they claimed his new look was 'fake' and 'weird' while likening him to a waxwork.

Not nice: Simon Cowell's new look was compared to a Louis Tussauds' waxwork by cruel trolls...as he made a boozy departure after BGT filming

Cruel: Keyboard warriors viciously targeted the BGT judge as they claimed his new look (L) was 'fake' and 'weird' while likening him to a waxwork

'Simon Cowell now looks like the Louis Tussauds version of Simon Cowell.' One fan wrote, leading the troops on social media.

The television personality joined forces with hosts Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly as well as the judging panel David Walliams, Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon.

While troubled star Ant returned to work, fans were distracted by Simon's new look as they took their thoughts to social media.

Another added: 'Been having some work done Simon? @SimonCowell @BGT.'

'Is that a fake Simon Cowell.' Others remarked. 'Simon's face look weird AF.'

This was backed by more fans, who added: 'What has @SimonCowell done to his teeth?'

'He looks like a wax work': While troubled star Ant returned to work, fans were distracted by Simon's new look as they took their thoughts to social media

'And why are they with a crap waxwork version of Simon Cowell?'

'Has someone replaced Simon Cowell with his wax work double?'

'I cant help but think how much Simon Cowell looks like a wax work!'

Simon previously admitted he had splashed out on a non-surgical face lift to maintain his smooth visage which is reported to have cost around 2,000.

History: Simon previously admitted he had splashed out on a non-surgical face lift to maintain his smooth visage which is reported to have cost around 2,000

He told The Sun on Sunday: 'There's lots of things you can do now, you don't just have to stuff your face with filler and Botox.

'It hurts like hell but it gets rid of sun damage and unplugs all the c**p.

'For me now, it's all about having clean skin, if you have clean skin, you look better.'

A confident Simon proudly showed off a blinding white smile on London's Harley Street on Tuesday.

The dad bore a resemblance to Ross Geller, who infamously resorted to using bread, a wine glass and his hand to cover up his scarily bleached smile in Friends.

Pictured: The music mogul, 59, showed off his new look when he returned to the London Palladium to shoot for the first day of the ITV talent show

Fresh from Barbados, Simon returned home from his envy-inducing getaway with his partner Lauren Silverman, her eldest son Adam, 13, and their son Eric, four.

The foursome have been soaking up the sun with the music mogul's beloved dogs during their annual festive trip.

It was recently reported the television personality was added to his family by adopting a stray dog.Don't get on the bad side of this mom.

Vanessa Hudgens revealed she was cussed out by a superfan's mom after denying the mother a photo.

'Parents will do anything for their kids,' Vanessa, 30, said on The Late Late Show With James Corden. 'I remember one time in particular I was running to my gate at the airport, literally running, and this woman was like, "OH MY GOD MY DAUGHTER LOVES YOU!"

'"YOU'RE A B**CH!"': Vanessa Hudgens revealed she was cussed out by a superfan's mom after denying her a photo

'And I was like, "thank you!" And she was like, "I need a picture!" And I was like, "I really can't right now, I'm trying to get to my gate."'

Vanessa then revealed the mother called her the b-word after she refused to stop for a photo.

'And she was like, "COME ON, YOU OWE THIS TO ME!" And I was like, "I don't owe you anything." And then she goes, "YOU'RE A B**CH!" And I was like, "I'm sorry."'

Fans may best remember Vanessa from her roles in the High School Musical films, and most recently, Second Act.

'I don't owe you anything!' Hudgens then revealed the mother called her the b-word after she refused to stop for a photo

Intense! The actress was taken aback by the woman's response

All for a photo! And I was like, "I don't owe you anything." And then she goes, "YOU'RE A B**CH!" And I was like, "I'm sorry"'

It's set to be another busy year for the actress.

Vanessa is kicking off 2019 with a busy month of January, starring as Maureen Johmnson on Rent: Live, Fox's live musical event that airs January 27.

She also stars in the new Netflix movie Polar, based on the Dark Horse Comics graphic novel, which debuts January 25.

The actress also recently signed on to star in Bad Boys For Life, playing part of an elite police unit in Miami who assists Will Smith and Martin Lawrence's characters.

Perplexed: The 30-year-old could not believe the woman's over-the-top reactionAriel Winter rocks an all-black look before getting her nails done on Friday afternoon in Los Angeles.

The 20-year-old actress showed off her flawless complexion as she went makeup-free while heading into a Studio City, California nail salon.

She was holding her phone with earbuds plugged in, as she listened to something while heading into the salon.

Ariel in black: Ariel Winter rocks an all-black look while heading to a nail salon in Studio City

The Modern Family star was wearing a black hoodie with black yoga pants and black and white Nike running shoes.

She was also seen reaching into her Yves Saint-Laurent purse for something, while carrying her phone in a Playboy bunny phone case.

The actress was also wearing a thin pair of glasses as she headed into the salon.

All black: The Modern Family star was wearing a black hoodie with black yoga pants and black and white Nike running shoes

The actress was stepping out solo, without boyfriend Levi Meaden on Friday, who she's been dating since November 2016.

She was spotted out with Meaden, 31, running errands on Thursday, and running more errands last week with her beau.

Winter will celebrate her 21st birthday next week, on January 28.

On the town: She was also seen reaching into her Yves Saint-Laurent purse for something, while carrying her phone in a Playboy bunny phone case

Winter also shared an amusing video with her Instagram followers on Wednesday, taken from the InStyle Golden Globes after party.

The after party had an elaborate elevator set-up for stars to take their own unique videos in, with Winter sharing hers where the elevator opens and Meaden gives her a dip and kisses her.

But after the kiss, she gives him a peck on the cheek and waves goodbye, walking out of the elevator, leaving Meaden confused.

Globes kiss: The after party had an elaborate elevator set-up for stars to take their own unique videos in, with Winter sharing hers where the elevator opens and Meaden gives her a dip and kisses her

'OKAY guys. OKAY,' Winter joked on Instagram. 'The rumors are true. We did go home together. How could I not???'

'He loved me and wanted me back even with my chronic awkward leg! A keeper,' she concluded in her Instagram video, which has over 1.1 million views.

Winter is currently filming the 10th season of Modern Family, which airs Wednesday nights at 9 PM ET on ABC.Lottie Moss was putting on a leggy display on Friday night, as she stepped out in London's Chelsea for dinner in Albert's restaurant.

The stunning model, 21, showed off her trim pins in a satin red mini dress despite the chilly January climes as she strolled through the capital.

Lottie only recently return to London after a sun-soaked Mexican getaway, and the star took to social media last week to lament the end of her break with Scott Disick's ex Ella Ross.

Gorgeous: Lottie Moss was putting on a leggy display on Friday night, as she stepped out in London's Chelsea for dinner in Albert's restaurant

Highlighting her amazing physique Lottie made a bold statement in the pillarbox red dress with frilled sleeves, with the dress also boasting a tiny split to further accentuate her slender pins.

The little sister of supermodel Kate Moss' frock also had ruching at the bottom, and she further showed off her holiday tan by going bare-legged for the outing.

Accessorising her look Lottie was sporting black thick-strapped heels and a matching cross-body handbag.

Gorgeous: The stunning model, 21, showed off her trim pins in a satin red mini dress despite the chilly January climes as she strolled through the capital

Statement: Highlighting her amazing physique Lottie made a bold statement in the pillarbox red dress with frilled sleeves, with the dress also boasting a split to accentuate her pins

Lottie also had her long blonde tresses styled into effortless waves for the occasion, and sported dewy makeup to highlight her flawless complexion.

The star only return from her break to Cancun last week, and took to social media to lament the end of her trip.

Clad in a tiny grey bikini for one last day of sunbathing, she told fans: 'Don't wanna leave', alongside a crying emoji.

Dressed to impress: Accessorising her look Lottie was sporting black thick-strapped heels and a matching cross-body handbag

Beautiful: Lottie also had her long blonde tresses styled into effortless waves for the occasion, and sported dewy makeup to highlight her flawless complexion

Back in Blighty: The star only return from her break to Cancun in Mexico last week, and took to social media to lament the end of her trip

Lottie kept her Instagram followers updated as her holiday drew to a close and she shared a wind-swept snap of her villa.

The model also shared a photo of her fast-food dinner, consisting of a greasy burger and crimped chunky chips.

During her time in Mexico, Lottie chartered her trip with many a mirror selfie on Instagram and hit the beach with her bevvy of pals.

On the town: Several other stars were also seen leaving Albert's restaurant on Friday evening, including Made In Chelsea star Emily Blackwell

Legs for days: Fellow Chelsea star Sophie Habboo also made her exit from the eatery, sporting a tiny black mini dress with thigh-high boots

Pals: Love Island's Tina Stinnes was also leaving the restaurant hand-in-hand with actress Millie Wilkinson90 Day Fiance star Larissa Dos Santos Lima has been charged with domestic violence after allegedly attacking estranged husband Colt Johnson.

The 32-year-old reality star was charged with a misdemeanor on Wednesday in Las Vegas, according to an article on Friday by TMZ.

The criminal complaint alleged that Larissa 'Did willfully and unlawfully use force or violence against or upon the person of her spouse'.

Misdemeanor charge: Larissa Dos Santos Lima, shown in an undated booking photo provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, has been charged with domestic violence

The Brazil native was arrested on January 11 after allegedly punching Colt in the face at their marital home in Las Vegas.

Colt quickly filed for divorce in Nevada after the incident.

He told authorities that Larissa threatened suicide before being arrested, according to TMZ.

Colt, 33, said Larissa ingested a half-full bottle of antidepressant pills and locked herself in the bathroom, according to a police report.

Facial injury: Colt Johnson took to Instagram and showed a facial injury after the alleged attack

The report stated that Larissa accused her husband of cheating after discovering he'd purchased porn and allegedly punched him in the mouth before inflicting injuries on herself.

Larissa previously was arrested twice in 2018 - in June and November - on domestic violence charges, but both misdemeanor cases were later dismissed.

It was revealed in December that Larissa and Colt had secretly married in June 2018.

Reality stars: The computer programmer and the Brazil native met via an online dating website and appeared on the recently concluded sixth season of the TLC reality show 90 Day Fiance

Colt and Larissa starred on the recently concluded sixth season of TLC's 90 Day Fiance.

The reality show follows couples who have applied for or received a K-1 visa available to foreign fiances of US citizens.

They have 90 days to decide to marry before the visa expires and the foreign half must leave the country.

Computer programmer Colt who lived with his mother and three cats met Larissa from Brazil via an online dating website.

Colt after 11 days together proposed marriage and Larissa moved to Las Vegas.Question Time and Fiona Bruce couldn't have wished for a better, more momentous, week to be staging her second episode as its new host.

A seismic 48 hours in British politics inevitably generated extra interest and viewers, which in turn meant the perfect platform for it and she to show doubters like myself that she had been the best candidate to succeed David Dimbleby.

She was plainly, gamely, giving it her all which was to her credit but ultimately something that actually convinced me even more that choosing Fiona Bruce had not just been a mistake but disastrous.

Controversial: Question Time and Fiona Bruce couldn't have wished for a better, more momentous, week to be staging her second episode as its new host

In fact it showed that now more than ever, the country's foremost political debate programme needed a strong presenter - and a stronger personality than Fiona Bruce.

Several times you could see Bruce checking her notes, even while she was making a point to one of the panel  not something you imagined predecessors like Sir Robin Day, Peter Sissons, or Dimbleby doing or needing to do so often, if at all.

This week's show only confirmed the feeling that Bruce was not tough enough to follow in their footsteps.

Women such as Emily Maitlis, Kirsty Wark, and Mishal Husain had stronger news credentials.

After all not for nothing did the BBC's director of news and current affairs Fran Unsworth have to rebuff what she called 'the perception that Bruce is a bit of a lightweight.'

Rough: A seismic 48 hours in British politics inevitably generated extra interest and viewers, which in turn meant the perfect platform for it and she to show doubters like myself

Unsworth claimed this was 'rubbish', which rather dismissed the fact the most high-profile/successful roles in Bruce's career were as a newsreader and presenting Crimewatch and the Antiques Roadshow.

It did make you wonder about her passion for politics. It was certainly difficult to imagine Jeremy Paxman, Jon Snow, and Andrew Neil being content to sacrifice their appetite to be involved to read an autocue or present Fake Or Fortune.

Fiona Bruce was also surely the first Question Time presenter to have won 'Rear of the Year' (2010). She later admitted this award was 'demeaning' and that accepting it in person had been 'hypocritical.'

Rough ride: This week's show only confirmed the feeling that Bruce was not tough enough to follow in David Dimbleby's footsteps

Fiona Bruce also had to deny she was too 'soft.' But the fact that in a recent interview she admitted she did not apply for the Question Time job seems to indicate even Bruce didn't consider herself right for such a prestigious, heavyweight position.

Instead she said, she was 'encouraged' to do so by the powers-that-be at the BBC  something that, again, depicts her more as the corporate choice, the safe option.

The way she kept interrupting the three MPs and journalist Isabel Oakeshott in particular was one clear example of Bruce trying to be 'forceful' or 'authoritative'  trying too hard though, not least because the face of Question Time shouldn't have to try.

The programme had been going about thirty seconds before she interrupted Tory MP Rory Stewart's answer to the first question ('is there any deal that can achieve a parliamentary majority?'), and then continued this way so regularly you practically interrupted herself.

Hard: The fact she made so many interjections and asked so many questions was inevitably at the audience's expense  inexcusable when almost the entire programme was about Brexit

The fact she made so many interjections and asked so many questions was inevitably at the audience's expense  inexcusable when almost the entire programme was about Brexit.

In particular she gave far too much time to the subject of the negotiations' 'red lines'  asking the panellists which they would be prepared to compromise.

Her protracted efforts to extract any specifics from Stewart (a Government minister) or Diane Abbott predictably proved futile. Oakeshott's response was even more damning/humiliating, telling Bruce 'I don't accept the premise of the question!'

'The whole point of this programme is the audience asks the questions!' Bruce protested, to no avail.

Although she hogged too much of the limelight, critically, Bruce rarely seemed in control - of the panellists' answers or the audience's.

Wrong: In particular she gave far too much time to the subject of the negotiations' 'red lines'  asking the panellists which they would be prepared to compromise

For the second week running, it fell someone in the crowd to deliver the most articulate hit against a politician  in this case Diane Abbott, when a young Labour supporter skewered her and Jeremy Corbyn for failing to lead, or even get behind, the campaign for a second referendum, even though most of their members wanted it.

Even more shamefully, while Abbott stuttered a response, Bruce let her off the hook declaring they would come back to the subject later on.

The fact that Diane Abbott somehow escaped her appearance on Question Time without it becoming yet another car-crash contribution that make headlines and go viral told you just how weak Fiona Bruce's performance had been.

Narrow escape: The fact that Diane Abbott somehow escaped her appearance without it becoming yet another car-crash told you just how weak Fiona Bruce's performance had been

At times her rambling became so ridiculous, even Abbott herself was virtually laughing  when she claimed the polls showed Labour were 'kind of level pegging' with the Tories for example. And as she tried to insist that Jeremy Corbyn had always been prepared  and trying  to work with Theresa May on the Brexit deal.

Fiona Bruce's inability or unwillingness to press Abbott on the gaping holes in her arguments, particularly on Labour's policy regarding 'a People's Vote', was so poor it became embarrassing.

Bruce's best moment was asking Abbott about the possible inconsistency/blatant hypocrisy of Jeremy Corbyn's refusal to talk to the Prime Minister considering he had once said, she quoted, 'you have to talk to people with whom you profoundly disagree' (referring to Hamas and Hezbollah).

Hilarious: At times her rambling became so ridiculous, even Abbott herself was virtually laughing

Finally, it seemed she had Abbott on the spot. But instead Abbott just made a joke out of it, smiling 'let's just to get back to Brexit' and Bruce  fatally - let her get away with it, failing to demand a proper answer.

Abbott returned to waffling away about Labour's endorsement of a second referendum having been established at its party conference.

'Let me say this and I've said it in public before...' she began airily, giving Bruce the chance to interject: 'actually before you say that, can I just say this?'

Her point was a good one when she said that, whilst Abbott might be right about the party's policy, the Labour leader himself hadn't exactly been an ardent advocate of it publicly.

But the way Diane Abbott patronisingly smiled, shrugging: 'it's fine to have jibes at Jeremy' without the slightest intention or concern about having to defend Corbyn on his tricky position, on such a delicate issue, told you everything.

Even she didn't take Fiona Bruce very seriously.Ariana Grande released her new tune 7 Rings on Thursday night.

And on Friday, artist Princess Nokia took to Twitter and Instagram to accuse the 25-year-old songstress of ripping off her song called Mine from her 1992 mixtape, which she released in 2017.

The 26-year-old shared a clip of herself listening to a sample of Ariana's single then to a sample of her song.

Drama: Artist Princess Nokia took to Twitter and Instagram to accuse the songstress of ripping off her song called Mine from her 1992 mixtape, which she released in 2017

Princess Nokia said during Ariana's sample: 'Ohhhh' before she stopped it and played her tune Mine.

'Does that sound familiar to you? 'Cause that sounds really familar to me. Ain't that the lil'song I made about brown women and their hair.'

Adding: 'Hmm... sounds about white.'

Ariana's song was reportedly inspired by a shopping spree she took with her six best friends after she split with fiance Pete Davidson.

Interesting: The 26-year-old shared a clip of herself listening to a sample of Ariana's single then to a sample of her song

Her thoughts: Princess Nokia said during Ariana's sample: 'Ohhhh' before she stopped it and played her tune Mine

Princess Nokia shared the video and tagged Ariana Grande.

In her song, the rapper says 'it's mine, I bought it, it's mine, I bought it.'

As well as: 'Rock my many styles then go natural for the summer/ Hair blowing in the hummer/ Flip the weave, I am a stunner.'

Ariana's was described as an 'anthem for female empowerment,' according to TMZ.

Her song is set to the classic tune My Favorite Things from The Sound Of Music; the song was written by: Ariana, Charles Anderson, Kimberly Krysiuk, Michael Foster, Njomza Vitia, Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rogers, Tayla Parx, Tommy Brown and Victoria Monet.

The friends who Ariana actually bought the rings for are Alexa Luria, Courtney Chipolone, Tayla Parx, Victoria Monet, Njomza Vita and Kim 'Kaydence' Krysiuk, according to PopCrush.

Action: Her song is set to the classic tune My Favorite Things from The Sound Of Music; the song was written by: Ariana, Charles Anderson, Kimberly Krysiuk, Michael Foster, Njomza Vitia, Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rogers, Tayla Parx, Tommy Brown and Victoria Monet

The song begins with Grande describing some of her 'favorite things,' including, 'breakfast at Tiffany's and bottles of bubbles/Girls with tattoos who like getting in trouble/Lashes and diamonds, ATM machines.'

Instead of saying 'These are a few of my favorite things,' Grande mixes it up by saying, 'Buy myself all of my favorite things.'

'Been through some bad s***, I should be a sad b***h/Who woulda thought it'd turn me to a savage?,' she sings, before teasing that she might even be into bondage.

This leads into the chorus, where she basically states that anything she wants, she gets, while she's seen in the video dancing in the front yard of her pink house with her friends, along with other scenes inside the house where she's holding a glass with pink champagne.

In motion: The song begins with Grande describing some of her 'favorite things,' including, 'breakfast at Tiffany's and bottles of bubbles/Girls with tattoos who like getting in trouble/Lashes and diamonds, ATM machines'

'I want it, I got it, I want it, I got it/I want it, I got it, I want it, I got it/You like my hair? Gee, thanks, just bought it/I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it (Yeah).'

Wearing a ring but ain't gon be no Mrs.' and then hinting at the shopping spree with 'Buy matching diamonds for six of my b****es.'

Grande goes on, seemingly preferring to spoil her friends instead of worrying about a relationship, singing, 'I'd rather spoil all my friends with my riches/Think retail therapy my new addiction.'She asked him point blank if he planned to ask her out, so he did.

And since their flirtation via podcast earlier this month, Kaitlyn Bristowe, 33, and Jason Tartick, 30, have officially become an item.

On Thursday, banker Jason took to Instagram Stories to share video of his night out, which included a surprise appearance by Kaitlyn.

Falling: Kaitlyn Bristowe, 33, headed to Seattle to surprise her new boyfriend. She is seen in March of last year

Jason's evening out appeared to be a guy's night at first.

'There's my boy Nate. He's on the phone with his sweet girlfriend,' he began, as he filmed his friend in the middle of a conversation.

'There's Derek,' said Jason, as he panned his camera phone towards his other pal. Finally, the reality star turned the camera towards himself.

'And there's me. I'm just drinking a little...' before Kaitlyn cut in: 'With his sweet girlfriend.'

New: The Bachelorette star is dating Bachelor talent Jason Tartick, 30

Direct: This came after the beauty asked him earlier this month if he was 'finally' planning on asking her out

Last week, Jason appeared on Kaitlyn's podcast, Off the Vine, where she asked if he planned on asking her out.

'Jason, are you finally going to ask me on a date?' she inquired.

'You're making me blush over here, Kaitlyn!' he began. 'If we're both going to be in the same city, at the same time, I see no reason why we shouldn't go to dinner and grab drinks. What do you think?'

Kaitlyn agreed, and the two have documented their outings since online.

New romance: He obliged, and said that they should 'go to dinner and grab drinks'

No hiding: Since their meet-up earlier this month, the duo have documented their time together on Instagram Stories

It was only recently that Canada native Kaitlyn was in a three-year relationship.

The beauty was engaged to trainer Shawn Booth, whom she gave her final rose to on season 11 of The Bachelor.

The couple split last November, and according to Us Weekly, Shawn has reportedly moved on with WWE announcer, Charly Arnolt, whom he met a month later.She has only just turned one.

But baby Chicago might well have enough kicks from her dad's Yeezy range to wear a different pair every day until she hits two.

Kim Kardashian West took to her Instagram Story on Friday to show off her youngest childs extensive shoe collection from Kanye Wests line.

Glitter girl: Kim Kardashian West shared a snap ofherself modelling a revealing silver sequin dress by Versace on Friday, the same day she showed off daughter Chicago's shoe collection

After she can be heard patiently saying, 'No candy for breakfast'  presumably to son Saint, three, or daughter North, five  the reality star told her viewers, 'Im in Chicagos closet. Look at how cute all of her little Yeezys are.

'She literally has the best collection,' the 38-year-old raved as she panned the camera around to show off all the tiny kicks in rainbow colors.

Kim also showed off a sweet gift Kris Jenner got her granddaughter for her first birthday: a Louis Vuitton music box, which retails for $3,350.

'How cute is my mom? For Chis birthday, she got her this,' Kim said.

'She literally has the best collection,' the 38-year-old raved as she panned the camera around to show off all the tiny kicks in rainbow colors

Great shoe range: 'Im in Chicagos closet. Look at how cute all of her little Yeezys are,' the 38-year-old gushed

And when Saint pleaded 'I wanna see,' she handed the box to him adding, 'Whats in here Saint? I think you left some of your stuff in here.'

Chicago might be following in her big sister Norths footsteps when it coms to shoes  literally.

In a photo the reality star shared on Twitter last week, Norths feet were ween in her mom's flame-adorned patent-leather wedge sandals by Prada  one bright orange, one hot pink.

Pricey prezzie: Kim also showed off a sweet gift Kris Jenner got her granddaughter for her first birthday: a Louis Vuitton music box, which retails for $3,350

Sweet usic: The beautiful brunette opened the box to show off the delightful mechanism then gave it to son Saint, three, to play with

'North in my closet,' Kim tweeted alongside the cute snap.

Meanwhile she shared an Instagram snap of herself flashing her tiny waist in a silver sparkly cropped bodice and matching ankle-length skirt with a thigh-high split.

She captioned it: 'VERSACE FITTINGS' with two diamond emojis.Christie Brinkley opened up about her daughter Sailor Brinkley-Cook's move to Australia, revealing she got off to a 'rough start' when she found a masked man knocking on her door.

'Well, she had a rough start,' Brinkley told US Weekly at a screening of American Beauty Star at Hearst Tower in New York City on Thursday.

'She got there, she had some guy banging on her door in the middle of the night with no shirt and a ski mask on,' she added.

Christie and Sailor: Christie Brinkley opened up about her daughter's rough start when she found a masked man knocking on her door (pictured 2018 in New York)

'Terrifying,' Brinkley added. 'Can you imagine getting a call like that from your kids?'

Brinkley added that they quickly moved her daughter, her only child with fourth and current husband Peter Cook, into a new, 'safer' place.

Now, Christie says her daughter is as 'happy as a lark.'

New place: Brinkley added that they quickly moved her daughter, her only child with third and current husband Peter Cook, into a new place

It was reported in early December by Page Six that the 20-year-old model was moving to Australia for a photo shoot and various other projects.

'I've always wanted to go,' Brinkley-Cook said at the time. 'I want to expand out of New York and meet new people.'

The report said she was planning the move for after New Year's Eve, although there is no indication when the incident with the masked man took place.

Australia move: It was reported in early December by Page Six that the 20-year-old model was moving to Australia for a photo shoot and various other projects

Brinkley also opened up about her other daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, her only child with second husband Billy Joel, who is getting ready to plan her wedding to restaurateur Ryan Gleason.

'She's like ready to start,' Brinkely said, adding that while they haven't booked a venue yet, they're just starting to shop for wedding dresses.'

The couple got engaged in early January 2018, with Brinkley commemorating the occasion on Instagram.

Christie on Alexa: Brinkley also opened up about her other daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, her only child with second husband Billy Joel, who is getting ready to plan her wedding to restaurateur Ryan Gleason

'I am over the moon with joy for these two!' Brinkley said at the time about Alexa's engagement to Ryan.

'Ryan is the sweetest, kindest, hard-working man who sincerely loves and adores my precious Alexa Ray so I love him too and while we have always thought of him as family soon he really will be!,' Christie added.

Brinkley serves as one of the new judges on American Beauty Star, which debuted its second season on January 2 with new host Ashley Graham.The anniversary offers the religious right an opportunity to rally its forces and demand that the abortion law be changed.

Washington: Thousands of anti-abortion activists rallied in Washington on Friday at the annual March for Life -- with the staunch support of President Donald Trump.

Trump, who became the first sitting president to address the demonstration last year, appeared once again by videolink, and Vice President Mike Pence made a surprise appearance at what organizers call "the world's largest pro-life event."

"Today, I have signed a letter to Congress to make clear that if they send any legislation to my desk that weakens the protection of human life, I will veto," Trump said.

Pence, with his wife Karen at his side, assured demonstrators: "From the White House to your house, life is winning in America once again." The march is organized each year on or near an anniversary that infuriates anti-abortion activists -- the Supreme Court's ruling in Roe v. Wade, which legalized the procedure nationwide on January 22, 1973.

The anniversary offers the religious right an opportunity to rally its forces and demand that the law be changed. "Every life matters from the moment of conception until natural death, not just babies but every human being," Mary Ryback, a mother who traveled from Milwaukee to participate in the rally, told AFP.

She said she came to Washington to "pray to end the horrible things going on with the people in this country that think they have the right -- which is only God's -- to give life and take it away."

The crowd, which included students from religious schools around the country, carried many signs with various slogans: "Defend Life," "Love Life, Choose Life" or "Let God Plan Parenthood." Indiana resident Dave Doran called the decision in Roe v. Wade "an atrocity."

He said that even if it is never reversed, "we can provide new laws that will define personhood and give the fetus and child the protection of our US Constitution." As it does each year, the march left the National Mall, and ended at the Supreme Court behind the Capitol building.

Since taking office in 2017, Trump has named two justices to the Supreme Court who oppose abortion, leading activists who support abortion rights to fear that Roe v. Wade could be overturned. While Roe v. Wade remains the law of the land, numerous states have taken measures to limit access to abortions.

In November, voters in Alabama approved an amendment to the state constitution that affords a fetus the same rights as a newborn child. The text also says that the state does not protect the right to an abortion. Alabama does not make exceptions in cases of incest, rape or danger to the mother's life.She's heavily pregnant with her first child to husband Andrew Joblon.

And Vampire Diaries star Claire Holt, 30, showed she has not lost her wicked sense of humour on Saturday.

Taking to her Instagram Story, the actor revealed in a short video how two men went to catcall her from their car but stopped when they realised she was pregnant.

'It's really rude': Vampire Diaries star Claire Holt, 30, makes a tongue in cheek comment about two men who stopped catcalling her when they saw she was pregnant

Tongue firmly in cheek, Claire said: 'I know that this is not a very feminist thing to say but I'm going to say it: I was just walking home from coffee, minding my own business, and then these two guys went to catcall me from a car then they got a closer look and kind of paused and took it back.'

Keeping a straight face, Claire said: 'And I just think that's really rude to do to someone, you know, like who doesn't want all of this?', and moved the camera to show off her burgeoning baby belly.

She added: 'Especially the double chins.'

Joking around: Tongue firmly in cheek, Claire said: 'I was just walking home from coffee, minding my own business, and then these two guys went to catcall me from a car then they got a closer look and kind of paused and took it back'

It was a lighthearted moment for the actor, who in December last year confessed to feeling anxious about giving birth.

In a lengthy Instagram post, Claire wrote: 'To whom it may concern, if you would be so kind, please refrain from telling me how big/huge I am.'

'No, there are not two in there. No, my baby isn't coming at Christmas. Yes, I am sure of his due date. I'm well aware that I'm carrying a linebacker!'

The Originals star revealed how she's feeling nervous about giving birth because of the child's size.

'Please refrain from telling me how big/huge I am':In December last year, she confessed to feeling anxious about giving birth

'I'm understandably anxious about his exit strategy. Just pretend I've got a cute, barely noticeable bump and pass the ice cream,' she added.

It comes after Claire, who is based in America and expecting a son, joked that having a baby bump was hiding the fact she'd overindulged over Thanksgiving.

Claire announced she was expecting a baby on October 12, telling fans on social media that her 'heart [was] bursting' with happiness.

She and husband Andrew married on August 18, eight months after their engagement. The actress was previously married to Matthew Kaplan, who filed for divorce in April 2017.She's boldly gone where no man has gone before, and wowed audiences with her portrayal of Michael Burnham in Star Trek Discovery.

And Sonequa Martin-Green looked out of this world as she arrived on the red carpet for the series' season two premiere at the Conrad New York in New York City on Thursday evening.

The actress, 33, put on a glamorous display in a black asymmetric dress, which had a lace underskirt and cut-out panels that showed off her slender legs.

Live long and prosper: Sonequa Martin-Green upped the glamour in a black asymmetric dress as she arrived at Star Trek Discovery's season two premiere in New York City on Thursday

Sonequa's unique ensemble featured a chic blazer over one shoulder, while the other side saw her show off a glimpse of her cleavage in a black bralet.

Her quirky outfit also featured black layered skirt which was offset with lace detailing that fit snugly on her svelte physique.

Boosting her height in a pair of chic heels, she added a touch of glitter with a pair of gorgeous silver dangling earrings.

Striking: Sonequa's unique ensemble featured a chic blazer over one shoulder, while the other side saw her show off a glimpse of her cleavage in a black bralet

Dazzling: Sonequa added a touch of glitter with a pair of gorgeous silver dangling earrings

Gorgeous: Her quirky outfit also featured black layered skirt which was offset with lace detailing that fit snugly on her svelte physique

Working every angle: Sonequa posed up a storm on the red carpet

Sonequa wore her brunette locks in glamorous ringlets above her head, while she accentuated her plump pout with blue metallic lipstick.

She was joined on the red carpet by Rebecca Romijn, who brought husband Jerry O'Connell along for the premiere.

The 46-year-old stunner looked magnificent in a semi-sheer blue velvet dress, flaunting much of her sexy frame through the daring number.

Rebecca styled her luscious blonde locks into glamorous curls, while she wore a natural palette of make-up for the night out.

Gal pals: Sonequa was joined on the red carpet by her co-star Rebecca Romijn

Chic: The 46-year-old stunner looked magnificent in a semi-sheer blue velvet dress, flaunting much of her sexy frame through the daring number

Date night: Rebecca brought husband Jerry O'Connell along for the premiere

Gorgeous: Rebecca styled her luscious blonde locks into glamorous curls, while she wore a natural palette of make-up for the night out

Dapper: Rebecca's husband of 12 years looked sharp in a wine-coloured suit and white shirt, which he wore unbuttoned and without a tie

While her 44-year-old husband of 12 years looked sharp in a wine-coloured suit and white shirt, which he wore unbuttoned and without a tie.

He completed his ensemble by wearing a pair of white trainers, which was sure to make him stand out.

Also at the premiere, was Emily Coutts who was sure to turn heads in her striking metallic blue dress, which had a chic raised collar.

Beaming: Rebecca was in good spirits as she stepped out onto the red carpet

Wow: She flaunted much of her sexy frame through the daring number

Supportive: Sonequa held hands with Doug Jones as they saw each other at the event

Interstellar glamour: Also at the premiere, was Emily Coutts who was sure to turn heads in her striking metallic blue dress, which had a chic raised collar

Emily, who plays Starfleet Lieutenant Keyla Detmer in the franchise, wore her fiery red locks in a side-swept Marcel wave.

She completed her look by wearing a pair of simple black heels that helped to accentuate her long legs when paired with the ruched dress.

The actress wore bold red lipstick and, while she kept her accessories to a minimum, she used matching red nail polish to complete her look.

Stunning: Emily, who plays Starfleet Lieutenant Keyla Detmer in the franchise, wore her fiery red locks in a side-swept Marcel wave

Gorgeous: The actress (pictured Hannah Cheesman, Ronnie Rowe Jr. and Shazad Latif) wore bold red lipstick and matching red nail polish on her fingers

Glam: Emily (pictured with Mary Wiseman and Hannah) completed her look by wearing a pair of black heels that accentuated her long legs when paired with the ruched dress

Animated display: Co-stars Mary and Anson Mount wrapped their arms around each other

Also on the red carpet was Anthony Rapp, Discovery Chief Engineer Paul Stamets in the show, who looked handsome in a dark green suit.

The 47-year-old actor, who was the first to make sexual abuse allegations against Kevin Spacey in 2017, was joined by his boyfriend Teerakeni.

While Mary Chieffo, who plays Klingon Battle Deck Commander L'Rell, donned a pretty backless blue patterned dress.

Handsome: Also on the red carpet was Anthony Rapp, Discovery Chief Engineer Paul Stamets in the show, who looked handsome in a dark green suit

Supportive: The 47-year-old actor, who was the first to make sexual abuse allegations against Kevin Spacey in 2017, was joined by his boyfriend Teerakeni

Looking sharp: Anthony was joined by co-star Wilson Cruz on the red carpet

Stunner: Mary Chieffo, who plays Klingon Battle Deck Commander L'Rell, donned a pretty backless blue patterned dress

Iconic pose: Mary used Spock's signature Live Long And Prosper stance on the red carpet

And Mary Wiseman, who plays Starfleet Cadet Sylvia Tilly, rocked an eye-catching green gown which had a striped print.

A third interesting green ensemble  this time in suit format  came courtesy of Shazad Latif, who plays the dual roles of Kligon Voq and the human chief of Security Ash Tyler, who the character underwent surgery to pose as.

Anson Mount, who stars as Captain Pike, was accompanied by wife Darah Trang, who was another to flash plenty of cleavage in a black bra-top.

Chic: Mary Wiseman, who plays Starfleet Cadet Sylvia Tilly, rocked an eye-catching green gown which had a striped print

Quirky: A third interesting green ensemble  this time in suit format  came courtesy of Shazad Latif, who plays the dual roles of Kligon Voq and the human chief of Security Ash Tyler

Loved-up: Anson Mount, who stars as Captain Pike, was accompanied by wife Darah Trang, who was another to flash plenty of cleavage in a black bra-top

Anson put on a dapper display in a black suit, which he paired with a burgundy red shirt and a brown tie.

While Hannah Cheesman, who plays Airiam in the series, looked demure in a white midi-dress and see-through heels.

Wilson Cruz, who portrays Dr. Hugh Culber, looked handsome in a sleek blue suit and a white unbuttoned shirt.

Sharp: Anson put on a dapper display in a black suit, which he paired with a burgundy red shirt and a brown tie

Upping the glamour: Hannah Cheesman, who plays Airiam in the series, looked demure in a white midi-dress and see-through heels

Hunk: Wilson Cruz, who portrays Dr. Hugh Culber, looked handsome in a sleek blue suit and a white unbuttoned shirt

Photocall: The whole cast and crew posed for a photo together at the series' premiere

Sonequa will return to her character Michael in the second series, and she is the first female African-American lead in the widely acclaimed franchise.

The actresses outing comes after she defended Spock's 'hipster' beard in the new season of the show.

The actress was chatting to mega-Trekkie Stephen Colbert on Monday's Late Show, where they discussed the legendary Vulcan's new hirsute look.

'We laugh about it, we all do,' the actress joked. 'He doesnt laugh, he grew that beard very seriously.'

Making history: Sonequa will return to her character Michael, and she is the first female African-American lead in the widely acclaimed franchise

It's logical: Sonequa's outing comes after she defended Spock's 'hipster' beard in the show while being quizzed by mega-Trekkie Stephen Colbert

Ethan Peck, the grandson of actor Gregory Peck, plays the iconic emotion-less character on the latest incarnation of the sci-fi series.

The Starfleet First Officer was famously played by Leonard Nimoy opposite William Shatner's Captain James T Kirk in the Original Series, which ran from 1966 to 1969, as well as the many films it spawned beyond that.

'Because we're ten years before TOS (The Original Series), before people remember, we have some room to explore and its just one of those things,' Sonequa said.

'Theres time for him to shave. I think it looks amazing and youll see, it works perfectly in the story.'

Time: 'Because we're ten years before TOS (The Original Series), before people remember, we have some room to explore and its just one of those things,' Sonequa said

New guy: Ethan Peck, the grandson of actor Gregory Peck, plays the famous emotion-less character on the latest incarnation of the sci-fi series

The eternally serious Spock was always depicted clean-shaven, bar a single 1967 episode  Mirror, Mirror  in which a parallel universe version of the character appeared rocking a beard.

The episode even gave it's name to the LA rock band Spock's Beard.

Some fans were initially surprised when the younger bearded version of Spock first popped up in the trailers for the upcoming second season of the hit CBS sci-fi drama.

Star Trek: Discovery returned on January 17 on CBS in the US, while it airs on Netflix 24 hours after in the UK, and 187 other countries.The blonde beauty rose to fame on Love Island Australia's inaugural season last year.

And this week, Cassidy McGill let her most devoted fans choose a new hair colour via a day of Instagram polls.

The 23-year-old took to social media on Friday to debut her lavender locks, as she posed in a white lace bra and ripped denim shorts.

New hair don't care! Love Island Australia's Cassidy McGill has debuted her lavender locks on Instagram after letting her fans decide her hair colour. The 23-year-old took to social media to share a photo of herself wearing a lace white bra and ripped denim shorts.

'Aaaaand my purple hair makes it's official debut to my Instagram,' she wrote, before going on to promote a laser hair removal product.

The new look comes after Cassidy let her 240,000 followers decide her entire day with the help of her friend, Nina Palangetic, and votes made by her fans.

Among easier choices like what she would wear for the day, or what accent to use while ordering her daily coffee, the reality TV starlet also asked fans whether she should get a tattoo or a piercing.

'No dramas': During Cassidy's brave challenge, she let fans decide if she would get a tattoo or a piercing

Her legions of fans voted that she should get inked and the single Love Island star got the phrase 'no dramas' tattooed on her middle finger.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Cassidy McGill for comment.

Cassidy recently enjoyed a night out with her friends at the Boohoo x Afterpay House of Summer party.

Taking the plunge: Cassidy recently enjoyed a night out with her friends at the Boohoo House of Summer Party. At the event she showcased her trim and toned figure in a lilac frock, to match her new tresses, and a plunging neckline

Glam: She styled her new hair in a top knot, added a touch of glam with long false lashes and accessorised with gold hoop earrings

At the event she showcased her trim and toned figure in a plunging lilac frock, which conveniently matched the hue of her new tresses.

She styled her new hair in a top knot, added a touch of glam with long false lashes and accessorised with gold hoop earrings.

Cassidy is best remembered for her dramatic, teary eyed exit from Love Island when she was left single after her then-partner Grant Crapp chose Tayla Damir.Lawrence Mooney reckons he can take on Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson in the Sydney breakfast radio ratings.

On Friday, the 53-year-old comedian said he felt optimistic about helping Triple M grow its audience after joining revamped breakfast show, Moonman in the Morning.

'When I joined the Brisbane breakfast team it was 9.2 per cent [market share] and I left Brisbane on 14.1 per cent,' Lawrence told The Daily Telegraph, reflecting on his past success in Queensland.

Game on, Sandilands! Triple M's Lawrence Mooney (pictured in May 2017) has insisted he can take down 'King Kyle' in the breakfast radio ratings and reach No. 1 in Sydney

'I love the numbers, I get very involved in ratings  I want to go to No. 1 [in Sydney] and I think there's room for this show to grow,' he added.

'We [Lawrence and his wife] are absolutely looking to move here [to Sydney] but it's all dependent on how the show goes in the first place If we tank, I'm gone and that's radio,' he said.

Last year, KIIS 106.5's The Kyle and Jackie O Show ended 2018 on a ratings high.

New kid on the block: On Friday, the 53-year-old comedian said he felt optimistic about helping Triple M grow its audience after joining revamped breakfast show, Moonman in the Morning

According to the eighth and final ratings survey for 2018, Kyle and Jackie finished as the No. 1 rated FM breakfast show in Sydney with a 10.5 per cent audience share.

Despite Lawrence feeling confident he can turn the ratings around, some listeners have already expressed concerns about Moonman in the Morning.

Triple M's new breakfast show - which replaces The Grill Team and is hosted by Lawrence, Jess Eva, Chris Page and Gus Worland - launched earlier this week to a mixed reception.

Dominant: Last year, KIIS 106.5's The Kyle and Jackie O Show ended 2018 on a ratings high. Pictured: Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson

Some listeners were less than impressed by the new lineup, and took to social media to voice their opinions.

'Well that's it, Triple M. Count me out. "Moonman" is possibly the least funny person on the planet. I pity Gus [Worland],' wrote one listener.

'Tried the breakfast show yesterday. Sorry to say it's awful,' another added.

'Not a patch on the last few years. I love Triple M and have for a long time, however not the new crew at breakfast. [This] now has me trying elsewhere until 9am.'

'The least funny person on the planet': Triple M's new breakfast show - which replaces The Grill Team and is hosted by Lawrence, Jess Eva, Chris Page and Gus Worland - launched earlier this week to a mixed reception

Another listener told host Gus on Twitter that the new show wasn't their cup of tea.

'Sorry Gus, I lasted an hour, I'm out. Content and jokes are rubbish this show has taken [The] Grill Team in another direction I'm not interested in,' they wrote.

However, one Triple M supporter said they were willing to stick it out through the growing pains to see how the new lineup develops.

'The time I gave this morning was cringeworthy but will keep trying to listen as it's a work in progress,' they tweeted.Jacqui Lambie clashed with disgraced former senator Sam Dastyari over capital punishment during Thursday's episode of I'm A Celebrity... Get My Out Of Here!

The former politician, whose father's Scottish heritage made her ineligible for her Senate seat in November 2017, voiced her support for the death penalty and said some criminals are better off with a 'round' in their head during the episode.

'We have petty criminals out there because of drugs and alcohol because theyve got addictions. So instead of having prisons with rehab in them to fix those and having hardcore idiots,' Lambie told her campmates.

'You know, someone should put a round in their heads, because theyre never going to be worth anything to society most of them. Im happy to let them rot. I know, Im really hardcore like that,' she added.

Sam took umbrage with Jackie's position on capital punishment, however, and voiced his frustration to camera in the Tok Tokki room.

'Jacqui and I get along like a house on fire, but we disagree on so much. And as much as I respect Jacqui as a person, when it comes to the death penalty, thats a bridge too far,' Sam huffed.

'Im happy to let them rot': The former politician (pictured) launched into a tirade about the death penalty and said some criminals are better off with a 'round' in their head

'This is the problem...when you create a system, you will inevitably...the net will catch people who shouldn't be caught in it,' Sam explained.

Later, Jackie voiced her opinions on Australia's most prolific mass murderer, Martin Bryant, who shot 35 people to death and left 23 others injured in the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.

'Do you know what? That Martin Bryant, he should have had a round in his head,' she declared.

'When it comes to the death penalty, thats a bridge too far': Sam took great umbrage with Jackie's position on capital punishment

'Why should a taxpayer have to bloody put him in jail and pay for his meals for 60 years?' Jackie added.

Seconds later, Sam appeared to fact check Jackie's argument as he cited research which claims the death penalty is more expensive than lifetime imprisonment.

'Stop for a second. Stop for a second. This is one proven fact in the Western world: Putting someone to death costs more than lifetime imprisonment,' he said.

'Stop for a second. Stop for a second': Seconds later, Sam appeared to fact check Jackie's argument as he cited research which claims the death penalty is more expensive than lifetime imprisonment

'In any Western system thats going to give people proper judicial review. When you draw a line, the American system has unequivocally shown this, you get it wrong sometimes,' he claimed.

Jackie offered one final blow to the sacked Labor politician, sharing: 'But Sam, why do you politicians say that system does this instead of inventing a system that actually bloody works?'

'Typical political bloody thinking. People keep reoffending because the country doesnt put the fear up their backside.'

I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! continues on Channel 10 from Sunday-ThursdayThe Melbourne-based fashion blogger rarely makes a fashion faux pas.

But on Thursday, Rozalia Russian pushed the boundaries of style by sporting a pair of VERY long trousers at a cocktail party at the Australian Open.

While the 30-year-old was likely wearing a pair of heels to the event, her designer trousers still appeared more than a few inches too long for her, and were even seen dragging on the floor at the event.

No time for a tailor? Blogger Rozalia Russian, 30, pushed the boundaries of style by sporting a pair of VERY long trousers at a cocktail party at the Australian Open

Risking a wardrobe malfunction with every step, Rozalia appeared confident and comfortable in her all-black ensemble.

She paired the trousers with a black blouse, Chanel cross-body purse, two silver choker necklaces and multiple bracelets.

While she was joined on the red carpet by stylist Elliot Garnut - who has styled Rozalia in the past - it's unclear if he helped style her for the event.

Black on black! Rozalia paired the trousers with a black blouse, Chanel cross-body purse, two silver choker necklaces and multiple bracelets

The model is the mother to two young children - Kingston and Willow.

Rozalia married Melbourne nightclub owner Nick Russian in 2013 after meeting at his nightclub Eve five-and-a-half years prior.

In 2018, Rozalia spoke with Whimn about her experiences as an immigrant to Australia.

Un-suit-able? While she was joined on the red carpet by stylist Elliot Garnut(right) - who has styled Rozalia in the past - it's unclear if he helped style her for the event

The beauty was born in Uzbekistan, before her family fled the country with just two suitcases and $250 when she was three-years-old.

Touching on details of the family's escape, Rozalia recalled that the family were fleeing potential starvation and the horrors of a violent civil war.

'My mum, Jelena, tells the stories of being pregnant with me and queueing all day for meagre rations with my brother Stanislav, who was 12,' she told the publication.

She said the final straw came after school children 'were rounded up and had their ears cut off' by insurgents fighting the government.She's the bikini model known for flaunting her sensational figure in a tiny swimwear on idyllic beaches around the world.

And Natalie Roser brought the sunshine to the red carpet when she attended the Boohoo x Afterpay House of Summer party in Sydney on Thursday.

The 28-year-old model showcased her fabulous physique in a golden, thigh skimming wrap dress with a bow at the waist.

Here comes the sun! Model Natalie Roser, 28, brought the sunshine to the red carpet when she attended the Boohoo x Afterpay House of Summer party in Sydney on Thursday

Her frock featured frilled detailing on the skirt and sleeves for a flirty touch.

She accessorised the look with a pair of shell-shaped gold earrings, a pendant and a chain, and completed her outfit with a black heels.

Natalie's luscious blonde locks flowed past her shoulders, perfectly framing her bronzed makeup look.

Golden girl: The glamazon showcased her fabulous physique in a golden, thigh skimming wrap dress with a bow on her waist

Chic: Fitness guru Steph Claire Smith opted for in a backless slip dress with a chain around the waist

Fitness guru Steph Claire Smith opted for in a backless slip dress with a chain around the waist.

As she posed to her side the Keep It Cleaner co-founder showed off a cheeky thigh high slit.

The Instagram sensation accessorised her all-black ensemble with a small purse, boots and slim sunglasses.

Thighs the limit: As she posed to her side the Keep It Cleaner co-founder showed off a cheeky glimpse of thigh

Looking good: Home And Away actress Olivia Deeble also attended the event with her boyfriend Ethan Hay (right)

Home And Away actress Olivia Deeble also attended the event with her boyfriend Ethan Hay.

The couple put on a stylish display in black outfits, the 16-year-old starlet teamed her mini dress with a denim jacket.

Bachelor beauty Sophie Tieman opted for a sporty look with biker shorts and a cropped top.

She covered up the look with silver sequined shirt for a pop of sparkle.

Pop of sparkle: Bachelor beauty Sophie Tieman, 25, opted for a sporty look with biker shorts and a cropped top. She covered up the look with silver sequined shirt for a pop of sparkle

Tangerine dream! The Bachelor's Kiki Morris put on a racy display in an orange ensemble that featured a lingerie-inspired top and flare trousers

Kiki Morris put on a racy display in an orange ensemble, which consisted of a lingerie-inspired bodysuit that showcased her ample assets.

The reality TV star teamed the look with wide leg trousers and accessorised the look with heels and a gold clutch.

Bikini model Madi Edwards flaunted her figure in a red bodycon dress, teamed with elegant black heels.

Red hot: Bikini model Madi Edwards flaunted her figure in a red bodycon dress, teamed with elegant black heels

Edgy: Former Bachelor starlet Noni Janur put on a very busty display in a corset top that accentuated her ample assets

Former Bachelor starlet Noni Janur put on a very busty display in a corset top that accentuated her ample assets.

She teamed her saucy ensemble with a edgy ripped jeans, and accessorised with nude heels and a matching handbag.

Love Island Australia love birds Tayla Damir and Dom Thomas put on a loved up display at the event.

Tayla showcased her slender, bronzed physique in a white bralette top with a matching maxi skirt, while her beau kept it simple with a shirt, ripped jeans and a sneakers.Australian actor, Hugh Sheridan and Dynasty star, Rafael De La Fuente appear to have struck up an unlikely friendship in recent months.

The genetically-blessed thespians, who are both known for their dashing good looks, follow each other on Instagram and have been spied chatting in a series of comments on their public social media pages.

The House Husbands star, 33, even joked about saying 'I do' to the 32-year-old Latino hunk during an online exchange.

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Who knew they were friends? Hugh Sheridan (left) has sparked an unlikely friendship with Dynasty star Rafael De La Fuente (right) in recent months

'Paris Je t'aime (I love you),' Rafael captioned two images of him posing in Paris, France.

Responding to Venezuelan hunk Rafael's post, Hughwrote: 'I do,' alongside the engagement ring emoji.

Meanwhile, Rafael recently commented on a picture of Hugh cuddling his pet cat shared to his Instagram page last week.

Ring a ding ding! The House Husbands star, 33, even joked about saying 'I do' to the 32-year-old Latino hunk during an online exchange

'Coming home to a little heartbeat in your house may be the best gift you can give yourself, especially if you're living by yourself,' Hugh began.

'For those who've asked me for an Addie update, here she is. Such a loving and social cat, a little furry healer :) If you have the means, then adopt a cat or dog today. Happy memories await you now!'

'Second photo>rabbit feet,' Rafael remarked in the comment section of Hugh's post.

In September last year, the newfound friends were seen enjoying some fun banter under a picture of Rafael posing with an Alpaca.

Alpaca the laughs! In September last year, the newfound friends were seen enjoying some fun banter underneath a picture of Rafael posing with an Alpaca on Instagram

'Thought I'd give you an Alpaca to start off the week right,' Rafael wrote in the caption.

'Why am I not tagged in this?!' the former Packed To The Rafters actor replied alongside two laughing-crying emojis.

Earlier this week, Rafael was seen commenting the message, 'This is cute af', on a video of Hugh walking down the Hollywood walk of fame.

Another friendly comment! Earlier this week, Rafael was seen commenting the message, 'This is cute af', on a video of Hugh walking down the Hollywood walk of fame

In recent times, Rafael has had the pleasure of sharing smooches with some Australian locals, on screen at least, and he's developed a love for the land Down Under.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph in May last year, Rafael said his friends now refer to him as an 'honorary Australian'.

'I have a huge group of Aussie friends in LA, I've had two Aussie boyfriends on TV, I've been to Australia three times,' he told the publication at the time.

'My friends call me an honorary Australian,' the soap opera star adds.

International: The Australian actor is largely based in Los Angeles, but still finds time to return to Australia for work

Australian actor James Mackay, 33, plays Rafael's boyfriend Steven Carrington on the reboot of the classic 1980s soap opera (Dynasty), and the pair share some steamy scenes.

Rafael's love of all things Aussie extends to enjoying the country's favourite condiments and knowing the words to Advance Australian Fair.

The South American born actor says: 'I even know the Australian national anthem and I love Vegemite.'

'Towel man': The star was named 'Towel Man' for the brand's 2017 spring/summer campaign - a role he found to be daunting

Hugh is largely based in Los Angeles now however he returned home in November last year for a brief sundrenched sojourn.

When the talent actor is not alternating between acting and music projects, he is stripping down for homeware company Sheridan.

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 Australia.

'I was like, 'I'm going to do some sit-ups!' I've got my dad bod still in.'She is nearing the birth of her first child to fiance Chris Whearty.

And on Thursday, former Bachelor star Cobie Frost announced it wouldn't be long until she welcomed her bundle of joy to the world.

Posing within her bathroom in a string bikini, the 31-year-old showed off her burgeoning bump to her Instagram fans.

'Not long now little one' Former Bachelor star Cobie Frost flaunted her burgeoning baby bump in a bikini as her due date fast approached

In the photo, Cobie's pregnant belly was on display as she used her hand to keep her brunette locks from falling over her face.

'Not long now little one,' she captioned the photo.

Cobie previously revealed that her baby would be arriving in Autumn 2019, which could mean the baby could come as early as March.

Bumping along nicely! Cobie regularly gives updated on her pregnancy journey, with the baby likely to come between March and May

Cobie - who rose to fame during last year's season of The Bachelor- first announced she was expecting with fiance Chris Whearty at the end October.

'Everyone meet bump! Bump meet everyone. Autumn Collection 2019,' she captioned a sweet photo of her beau kissing her baby bump.

Chris is also dad to a four-year-old daughter, Harvie, who he shares with ex-wife and MKR star Della Muscat.

Baby on board: Cobie - who rose to fame during last year's season of The Bachelor - first announced she was expecting with fiance Chris Whearty at the end October

Getting married: Their baby announcement in October came just one month after the couple revealed they were engaged after a year of dating

Their baby announcement came just one month after the couple revealed they are engaged after a year of dating.

They announced their engagement via Instagram during a romantic beach holiday in September.

'One year marks the spot! I love you Beyond Words,' Cobie wrote underneath a beach snap of the pair kissing as she flashed her stunning diamond ring.

Two of a kind: The pair have already committed to each other by getting matching tattoos on their wrists, as well as purchasing a dog together

Cobie revealed that Chris surprised her with a trip to Whitehaven Beach, in Queensland's idyllic Whitsundays.

The pair have already committed to each other by getting matching tattoos on their wrists, as well as purchasing a dog together.

The couple, who became an item late last year, found each other after Cobie's stint on reality TV and after Chris' marriage to My Kitchen Rules star Della Muscat ended.Sean Thomsen has been mocked on social media over his appearance and fashion sense following his controversial stint on Married At First Sight last year.

And now, Sean's mother Carol Thomsen has revealed that her son has 'changed' since starring on the show.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph on Thursday, Carol explained that when Sean, 35, returned home to Queensland for the festive season last year, he seemed unusually 'distant.'

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'It's really affected him!' Sean Thomsen's mother says Married At First Sight turned him 'into a different person'

'It's changed him into a different person,' she told the publication this week, adding: 'For the last year it's really affected him'.

'The contestants know what they're going into but they don't sign up for all impacts after with no support.'

Sean's mother told the publication watching her son in the heavily 'edited' Channel Nine reality television series was particularly challenging.

'Changed' Speaking to The Daily Telegraph on Thursday, Carol (left) explained that when Sean, 35, returned home to Queensland for the festive season last year, he seemed unusually 'distant'

'Hard to take him serious': Meanwhile on Married At First Sight earlier this year, fans mocked Sean when he appeared on the show with blond highlights and a gold jacket, comparing him to Ellen DeGeneres (R)

During the 2018 season of MAFS, hordes of viewers took to social media to mock Sean when he appeared on the series with blond highlights and a gold jacket.

After villain Davina Rankin took a swipe at Sean during a dinner party and called him Ellen DeGeneres, 60, fans continued to mock him on social media.

One fan Tweeted: 'Hard to take Sean serious when he looks like Ellen DeGeneres', while another viewer shared pictures of the pair side-by-side along with the message: 'Judge calls for the photo'.

'Judge calls for the photo': Another shared a picture of Sean next to Ellen

After Sean debuted his relationship with ex Tracey Jewel on the show, one fan shared a shot of Tracey and Ellen, joking: 'Sooo (sic) happy for Tracey and Sean.'

Fans couldn't help but remark on Sean's gold jacket, with one writing: 'Sean looks like a gold bar, he just mined himself.'

Another user added: 'Sean is a tad Liberace with that questionable jacket.'

Taking a swipe: After Sean debuted his relationship with ex Tracey Jewel (L) on the show, one fan shared a shot of Tracey and Ellen, joking: 'Sooo (sic) happy for Tracey and Sean'

In April, 2018, Sean was forced to deny outlandish rumours he was undergoing gender reassignment surgery.

The FIFO worker told Woman's Day in April last year: 'I'm certainly not transitioning into a woman!'

The WA-based reality star told the publication he is a true-blue Aussie bloke, sharing: 'I work on the mines, love women and enjoy a beer with mates, so it's been really funny watching this rumour take off.'The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that there can be regulations but not total prohibition.

Mumbai: After the Supreme Court (SC) verdict paving the way for the reopening of dance bars in Maharashtra, the BJP-led state government is considering bringing an ordinance to stop them from operating.

The apex court Thursday ruled that there can be regulations but not total prohibition, making way for the reopening of dance bars in the state while setting aside some provisions of a 2016 law imposing restrictions on their licensing and functioning.

Senior BJP leader and finance and planning minister Sudhir Mungantiwar Friday said that the state government respected the SC decision but at the same time, it was firm on its stand that dance bars could not be allowed to operate.

The minister said that the issue would be discussed in the state cabinet meeting next week.

The cabinet will discuss the issue in minute details based on the written orders of the SC, he said. The government will not hesitate in bringing an ordinance to stop dance bars from operating in public interest and to save the cultural fabric of the state, he said.

Mr Mungantiwar said that once the state received the written orders of the court, its lawyers would study the same.

On the basis of the recommendations of our lawyers, we will come up with an ordinance in the next two weeks, making changes and strengthening the existing law," he said.

When asked whether the ordinance would violate the courts orders, Mr Mungantiwar said that the judiciary had given several rulings in favour of dance bars in the past as well.

He said that all parties had come together to formulate a law against dance bars. This time too, they would do it. The apex court allowed tips to performers but disallowed the showering of currency on them.Uber has said that it could be running a flying taxi service in four years.

Passengers using the smartphone app will be collected from pick-up points on the top of a tall office building, a multi-storey car park or a shopping centre.

And they will be able to beat gridlocked roads by flying in one of Uber's electric planes at speeds of between 150 and 200mph, the company said.

The planes could cover up to 60 miles on a single charge, with batteries boosted again within five minutes.

Passengers using the UberAir smartphone app will be collected from pick-up points on the top of a tall office building, a multi-storey car park or a shopping centre

The service is not intended for the elite. The company hopes to offer its flying taxi service at a price only a third higher than the cost of a normal taxi.

For example, it could cost 46 to complete a 25-mile journey in an ordinary Uber taxi, but 70 using UberAir.

A spokesman said UberAir will make its debut in the American cities of Los Angeles and Dallas in 2023, with global expansion planned in the years after that. It is hoping the taxis may fly in British skies in the next decade, but the UK debut will depend on successful launches in other locations first.

And it will probably be more difficult for Uber to launch them in British cities than abroad because of the UK's strict airspace regulations.

The electric planes, which will fly between 1,000 and 2,000ft above ground, have become 'a core need' in cities where traffic-congested routes are at breaking point, according to Uber.

Pilots will fly up to four passengers through 'virtual lanes' after collecting them from the pick-up points. Once the project is completed, users could order and board one of the 'flying cars' in as little as five minutes.

The company hopes to offer its flying taxi service (pictured) at a price only a third higher than the cost of a normal taxi

The average flight will be 25 miles. Uber says that such a journey might take 69 minutes in a traditional taxi but 33 minutes using UberAir.

The flight would be 11 minutes with the rest of the time taken walking or taking a traditional taxi to and from the pick-up and drop-off point.

Uber is working with five companies on designs for its flying taxis and is still developing plans on how and if the vehicles would be able to fly in bad weather. The company has conceded that it may need to train a new workforce of pilots. Thomas Prevot, its director of airspace systems, said Uber will initially work with trained ex-commercial airline pilots. But he added: 'As we build this out, we already have a pilot shortage, so we have to find ways to attract and train additional pilots.

'We hope that these vehicles can be flown more simply than helicopters and hopefully, over time, we could have a quicker training programme so that we can increase the pool of people.'

Uber was locked in a court battle last summer over whether it was a 'fit and proper' private hire company and should be allowed to continue operating in London. It was put on a 15-month 'probation period' by Transport for London.A small tab the size of a teabag which could spell the end of the shampoo bottle has been created by a leading cosmetics company.

The squares could end the plastic crisis for ever, according to Procter & Gamble, the giant behind brands such as Ariel and Pantene.

The new concept, DS3, allows consumers to select a little white swatch which then, as if by magic, transforms into a detergent when water is added.

To wash your hair with one of the products, you take one of the square pieces of material (pictured) and lather it up with water instead of relying on a plastic bottle of shampoo or conditioner

The pads (pictured) are mostly single use and dissolve when added to water. They have been created using a manufacturing process patented by P&G, which has spent a decade dreaming up the idea with experts

Samples of the products have already been shipped to a small number of buyers in the US. For a box of 120 tabs for personal care  a selection of shampoo (pictured), conditioner, face wash and shower gel  the test price was $29 (22)

To wash your hair with one of the products, you take one of the square pieces of material and lather it up with water instead of relying on a plastic bottle of shampoo or conditioner.

The pads are mostly single use and dissolve when added to water. They have been created using a manufacturing process patented by P&G, which has spent a decade dreaming up the idea with experts.

Different types of detergent carry pictures to show their intended use. For example, shampoo has a picture of a persons hair and laundry detergent shows a drawing of a shirt, while toilet cleaner depicts a lavatory.

The idea behind the concept is to dramatically reduce plastic waste and lessen the impact that cleaning products have on the environment.

Samples of the products have already been shipped to a small number of buyers in the US. For a box of 120 tabs for personal care  a selection of shampoo, conditioner, face wash and shower gel  the test price was $29 (22).

Different types of detergent carry pictures to show their intended use. For example, shampoo has a picture of a persons hair and laundry detergent shows a drawing of a shirt, while toilet cleaner depicts a lavatory

Other cleaning and grooming products in the range include hand wash, lavatory cleaner, laundry detergent, surface cleaner and shower gel. For the surface cleaner, one pod mixed into a bottle of water should last for weeks.

They come in a variety of scents, from pineapple to mint and sandalwood. Because the swatches contain no water, their production removes 80 per cent of the weight generated by traditional cleaning products and 75 per cent of emissions, according to Kathy Fish, chief research, development and innovation officer at P&G.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Mrs Fish said: This technology could transform many product categories. One liquid-free swatch works better than water-based cleaning products.

She added that in the US wide use of this technology could help reduce one million plastic bottles a year. It could also cut 12million pounds of carbon dioxide produced by 100,000 trucks and the 800million gallons of water required to make, ship and use everyday household and personal care products.

The pods are also much lighter and cheaper to ship than normal household cleaning products.

Because the swatches contain no water, their production removes 80 per cent of the weight generated by traditional cleaning products and 75 per cent of emissions, according to Kathy Fish, chief research, development and innovation officer at P&G

And they are made of all-natural ingredients, are preservative free, and come in bamboo boxes. Mrs Fish added: From a resource scarcity point of view it is really a breakthrough. Theres no plastic here, these are bamboo containers, they are totally plastic-free. Consumers want more natural products.

The concept comes after the Daily Mails Turn The Tide On Plastic campaign.

Readers have visited beaches and parks as part of a major clean-up operation, and the Government has announced a bottle deposit return scheme which will be introduced in England by 2023, as well as a ban on plastic straws and cotton earbuds.

P&G could one day use its new technique to dramatically reduce the amount of plastic used in goods found in homes across Britain.

So far, the line has been sold to just over 400 US customers on Indiegogo, a website which tests new products through crowdfunding, before a wider launch.

Eco-friendly cosmetics chain Lush launches its first packaging-free shop

By Sarah Rainey and Jake Hurfurt for the Daily Mail

Eco-friendly cosmetics company Lush is launching its first ever packaging-free shop.

As part of the war on waste plastic, it will open a naked store, where nothing at all is sold in any kind of packaging, on Market Street in Manchester today.

As part of the war on waste plastic, Lush will open a naked store, where nothing at all is sold in any kind of packaging (pictured)

It is part of the retailers campaign against plastic, particularly single-use plastic which  as the Daily Mail has highlighted in its Turn The Tide On Plastic campaign  is clogging up waterways and destroying wildlife habitats.

Lush co-founder Mark Constantine said: For too long we have had to suffer excessive amounts of packaging. The financial and environmental costs are obvious.

Turning gels and liquids into solids is the secret to selling the toiletries without plastic. The result is an array of rainbow-hued cosmetics that look like bars of soap but are anything from solid shampoo and conditioner to face serums. Lush says one shampoo bar lasts for around 100 uses.

Product inventor Alessandro Commisso said: We have taken the ingredients of our shower gels, for example, and turned them into solid bars by removing the water and adding stearate, a fine white powder which thickens and hardens liquids.

To make up for the lack of packaging, all the label information for each product is stored on a free app, called Lush Labs

Solid products need to be activated in different ways from traditional toiletries. Mr Commisso said: For instance, massage bars, facial balms and cleansers work with body heat. Other products need to be activated with water, like our shampoo bars. As soon as you rub them into wet hair, theyll foam up like bottled shampoo.

To make up for the lack of packaging, all the label information for each product is stored on a free app, called Lush Labs.

Shoppers can use their own containers to take purchases home, or the shop provides paper bags, metal soap boxes or trays made from recycled coffee pots.LG could be the next company to capitalize on the folding phone trend.

The South Korean smartphone giant is expected to release a new device next month that features an optional 'second screen' attachment, according to CNET.

It wouldn't be a folding phone like other firms have released; instead, it would be more akin to a phone case that has a second screen built into it.

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LG could be the next company to capitalize on the folding phone trend. The firm is expected to release a new device next month that features an optional 'second screen' attachment

The device could launch at the annual Mobile World Congress trade show, which kicks off on February 25th.

Scant details are known about the phone's specs or functionality beyond that it could be called the 'G8,' CNET reported.

It wouldn't be all that surprising if LG were to release a rollable, folding or dual-screen smartphone.

In an interview with Tom's Guide, the company confirmed that it's developing both rollable and foldable phones.

'We are exploring many different form factors for phones, including foldable and rollable,' Ip Park, CTO and president of LG Electronics, told Tom's Guide.

'Because display technology has grown so much that it can make it into very flexible form factors.

Justin Denison, Samsung's senior vice president of mobile product marketing, unveiled the firm's first folding phone onstage at the 2018 Developer Conference in San Francisco. It features a 7.3-inch screen that can transform into a phone or tablet

SAMSUNG'S FOLDING PHONE Samsung's foldable smartphone was announced last week and leaked reports from Korea are claiming it will be more expensive that its rival, the iPhone XS. It is believed the pioneering handset will cost approximately two million Korean Won, which is around 1,370 ($1,760), before taxes. The pricey gadget has been labelled the Samsung 'Galaxy F' and is expected to be available to buy in early 2019. iPhone's current marquee device, the XS, starts at 999 ($999) while the larger XS Max is available for a minimum of 1,099 ($1,099). It is believed the pioneering Samsung galaxy F will cost approximately two million Korean Won, which is around 1,370 ($1,760), before taxes. iPhone's current marquee device starts at 999 ($999) and the prices for the XS max begin at 1,099 ($1,099) Kim Jang-yeol, head of research at Golden Bridge Investment, told the Korean Times that the device will be so expensive as a result of it being the first mainstream device to enter the unknown territory of foldable handsets. According to the leak, the screen will expand to a 7.3-inch OLED screen when unfurled and it will shrink to a 4.5-inch display when closed. The device is shrouded in mystery and Samsung has yet to release any confirmed details about the gadget's specifications or release. Samsung's Developer Conference last week provided the first glimpse at the device when a prototype was displayed on a deliberately dark stage. The tech giant has already confirmed that the phone has an Infinity Flex Display, which enables it to transform into a phone or a tablet when it's opened and closed. Advertisement

'And with 5G, if the market requires much bigger screens, we'll need to fold it or roll it. So we'll explore,' he added.

Phonemakers have increasingly turned their attention to devices that feature a futuristic form-factor.

Samsung is expected to unveil its folding phone, reportedly to be called the Galaxy F, at its Unpacked event next month.

It provided the first glimpse at the device at its Developer Conference last year when a prototype was displayed on a deliberately dark stage.

The foldable phone allows you to turn a tablet into a pocket-sized device for the first time. And, the firm says, it still weighs less than typical phones or tablets

But Samsung was handily beat by China's Royole, which debuted its first commercially available flexible phone at the Consumer Electronics Show this month.

Its $1,300 FlexPai phone doubles as a tablet when its unfurled  making it, in that form, the biggest smartphone in the world right now.

And, the firm says, it still weighs less than typical phones or tablets.A peacocks multi-colored tail feathers are its most distinctive feature.

But, according to new research, they may also help to keep them hidden from predators in the wild.

While it might seem that these feathers would attract the attention of other animals, experts say their native threats, including big cats, lack the color receptors needed to distinguish a peacocks tail from its surroundings.

A peacocks multi-colored tail feathers are its most distinctive feature. But, according to new research, they may also help to keep them hidden from predators in the wild. File photo

Researchers argue the point in a new paper published pre-print to bioRxiv.

According to the team, a peacocks feathers may not stand out quite as much to animals in the wild, such as tigers or stray dogs, as they would to the human eye.

Feathers perceived by humans to be vividly colorful are often presumed to be equally conspicuous to other mammals, and thus to present an enhanced predation risk, the researchers write.

However, many mammals that prey on adult birds have dichromatic visual systems with only two types of color-sensitive visual receptors (one sensitive to ultraviolet light), rather than the three characteristic of humans and four of most birds.

As a result, the researchers argue, a male peacocks tail feathers may allow them to show off for a potential mate without catching the eye of predators.

In the study, the team investigated how peacocks tail feathers would appear to predators and to other birds of their kind.

Using multispectral imaging and reflectance spectroscopy, they compared the appearance of color, brightness, and texture contrast in relation to green background vegetation.

And, they found these features would look very different to mammals and other peacocks.

While it might seem that these feathers would attract the attention of other animals, experts say their native threats, including big cats, lack the color receptors needed to distinguish a peacocks tail from its surroundings

When viewed by tetrachromatic birds against a background of green vegetation, most of the feathers studied had color and brightness contrasts similar to values previously found for ripe fruit, the researchers write.

By contrast, when viewed by dichromat mammalian predators, the color and brightness contrasts of these feathers were only weakly detectable and often did not reach detection thresholds for typical viewing distances.

PEACOCKS HAVE RESONANT FREQUENCY All objects have a natural harmonic frequency at which they vibrate if not fixed in place. Smaller objects have a higher resonant frequency and vibrate faster, generating a high-pitched noise - such as a bicycle bell, which rings at a higher note than a church bell. Peacock tail feathers have resonant frequency lower than the lowest string on a bass guitar and only a little higher than the 20 Hz lower limit of human hearing. As an object such as a guitar string or peacock feather vibrates, certain locations called nodes remain stationary, while sections in between move with higher amplitude. Advertisement

The findings suggest peacocks most recognizable feathers may be more than just a mating display, but also a means of camouflage.

But, not everyone is convinced.

At the end of the day, its a great big bird, Marion Petrie of Newcastle University told New Scientist.

It shouts, it rustles its feathers, theres a lot of movement when its courting another bird. Its not skulking around in the bushes trying to hide away from predators.Jacob Rees-Mogg emerged last night as Theresa Mays best hope to avert a snap General Election  or her forced departure from Downing Street by the spring.

In the wake of the Prime Ministers crushing Commons defeat on her Brexit deal, a group of her most senior allies have war-gamed a scenario in which Mrs May would sue for peace with her rebellious backbenchers by offering to resign by May  in exchange for them dropping their opposition.

It comes as the same allies are frantically selecting policies to include in a short, sharp manifesto in the event that Mrs May is forced to call a snap Election.

But in a sign that the intensity of opposition could be lessening, Mr Rees-Mogg presents himself as a peacebroker committed to making Mrs Mays deal acceptable to her party.

The powerful chairman of the European Research Group of Tory MPs uses an article in todays Mail on Sunday to say: If I had to choose between no deal and Mrs Mays original accord, I would have no hesitation of opting for no-deal Brexit  but even Mrs Mays deal would be better than not leaving at all.

Downing Street was rocked by their loss on Tuesday by 230 votes, which made history as the biggest-ever government defeat.

Jacob Rees-Mogg emerged last night as Theresa Mays best hope

Mr Rees-Mogg, who infuriated No 10 by hosting a champagne party at his London townhouse to celebrate the loss, says: The biggest obstacles within the Prime Ministers current deal are the backstop [keeping Northern Ireland tied to EU rules] and the 39 billion we currently propose to give to Brussels but for which we get nothing in return.

If Mrs May can persuade the EU to show flexibility on these, we could get the deal through the Commons... It is high time for the Tory Party to come together in the national interest.

Mrs May, who will hold a conference call with her warring Cabinet today on the next steps for Brexit, is also offered an olive branch today by one of the EUs most influential figures.

Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliaments Brexit negotiator, writes in this newspaper that Mrs May would find an open door if she wanted to make changes to the deal but must act soon.

Tory key election manifesto issues Advisers are drawing up an incredibly short set of pledges in case of an early Election, said to be light on detail but big on vision. Heres what it could look like...... BREXIT To emerge from Brexit a strong and united nation, able to take a lead in the world to defend Britains interests and forge new trade deals with the EU and the wider world. ECONOMY To make sure our economy stays strong and to bring prosperity to the whole of our country, and build a fairer immigration system with the end of free movement. SOCIAL JUSTICE To overcome social divisions by giving people real opportunity and making Britain the worlds Great Meritocracy and a country that works for everyone. Theresa May suffered a loss of 230 votes, which made history as the biggest-ever government defeat SOCIAL CARE To restore the contract between the generations that provides security for older people while being fair to the young as well as continue to protect our world-leading National Health Service. PROTECTING CITIZENS To seize the opportunities of changing technology, while ensuring that our security and personal privacy  and the welfare of children and younger people  are still protected. Advertisement

He says that a request to delay Brexit would be assessed in good faith, but was unlikely to be allowed beyond July 1.

He adds: It is time for British leaders to lead.

Under the May goes in May plan, the Prime Minister would offer to step down in time for a new leader to take over for the trade talks.

One ally said: She would countenance going if it was the only way to protect her legacy.

And a powerful MP who resigned from Government over the deal said: Backstop or no backstop, if she promised to go in April, I would vote for the deal.

In a separate development, The Mail on Sunday can also reveal Mrs Mays private polling strategist James Johnson has been testing Election narratives and messages in preparation for Britain having to go back to the polls to break the Brexit deadlock.

And the Director of No 10s Policy Unit, James Marshall, has begun preliminary discussions about an incredibly short and sharp manifesto after consulting with Government departments over what legislation they would seek to implement in a new Parliament.

Mrs Mays political policy advisers Richard Chew and Olivia Oates are also understood to be involved in preparations  despite public denials Mrs May is preparing to face voters again.

However, Downing Street last night insisted that a snap Election was not on the table.

A No 10 spokeswoman said: Apart from anything else, there just wouldnt be time before March 29.

But a Downing Street source said: No one wants it but if you plot through every route where we are, it is very difficult to see how you get out of this.

The influential No 10 figure added: I think we can get the deal through Parliament with a heck of a lot of luck but thats not something we have had a huge supply of over the last two years, so it worries me.

They added: The biggest mistake we made last time was everyone was more prepared for an Election than the party that called one. So there is no point in burying our heads in the sand about this. Last night Tory MP for Battle Huw Merriman became the first Tory MP to call for an Election, saying: When Parliament cant pass laws, not just on Brexit but on other matters, and the Government cannot govern through that, then thats normally when you have a General Election.

No wonder the PM is looking to Rorkes drift for inspiration Historic sketches of the 1879 Battle of Rorkes Drift, drawn by the commander Lt John Chard, were shown round No 10 last week as part of plans to promote the treasures of the National Archives. Historic sketches of the 1879 Battle of Rorkes Drift Allies of Mrs May will hope that in her struggle to deliver Brexit against overwhelming odds, she draws inspiration from how 139 British soldiers fought off 4,000 Zulu warriors in a battle later immortalised in the 1964 film Zulu. Last ditch: Lt John Chard mapped Rorke's Drift and led his troops against seemingly insurmountable odds Advertisement

He admitted to the BBCs Sunday Politics South East that another Election would be a total failure, but added but it wont be the first time that weve had to do that.

But Tory MPs have erupted over the prospect of a fresh ballot in a their private Whatsapp group, declaring the idea dangerous. In messages seen by The Mail on Sunday, Mark Francois vowed never to stand for it, while Zac Goldsmith raged: Love to know what promises we would be standing on, while John Howell said we need this like a hole in the head.

Maria Caulfield added: My volunteers are on their knees and so fed up with the parliamentary party. They really cant take much more.

This week Mrs May faces a fresh battle with the House of Commons as Remainers led by Nick Boles and Dominic Grieve unleash a fresh bout of procedure warfare in a bid to wrestle control of Brexit policy from the Government.

In an incendiary development a leaked draft of a bill proposed by Mr Grieve would allow a minority of just 300 MPs to seize control of Commons business if it was passed and dictate what the Government must do, in a move one critic branded constitutional arson.

However, Labour whips have yet to decide if they will back the move to neuter the Government.

A source said: We could be in power within months in a minority government, is this really the best time to rip up the rulebook?

A Downing Street spokesman said it was totally untrue that Mrs Mays allies had discussed a deal under which she would resign by May.

Inside the Brexit bash where Jacob Rees Mogg's son Peter, 11, served Bollinger to the crowing Tory rebels

Jacob Rees-Mogg (pictured left)with his 11-year-old son Peter (right), dressed in the red breeches of his 15,000-a-year London prep school, who served drinks

A spur of the moment champagne soiree at the 5.6 million Westminster townhouse of Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg was compared to something out of The Great Gatsby as the party host was missing for most of the evening.

Just moments after inflicting a thundering defeat on Theresa Mays EU deal on Tuesday evening, the Brexit stalwart invited dozens of Tory colleagues to his home just 300 yards from the House of Commons to raise a glass, but they ended up raiding his kitchen.

And like F. Scott Fitzgeralds lavish anti-hero, who throws parties for his guests but stays mysteriously out of view, the North East Somerset MP was across the road at the BBCs television studios giving interviews.

Instead it fell to Mr Rees-Moggs 11-year-old son Peter, dressed in the red breeches of his 15,000-a-year London prep school, to serve 45 bottles of Bollinger to jubilant MPs.

Invitations to the bash were sent via a WhatsApp messaging group for Leave-backing MPs, with the Whos Who of the Tory Right including former Cabinet Ministers Boris Johnson, Iain Duncan Smith and John Whittingdale  attending.

The Mail on Sunday understands that as the champagne flowed, hungry guests raided the Rees-Mogg family fridge and even emptied his biscuit tin.

A source said: Labours Kate Hoey [a Leave supporter], who was invited for all her hard work on Brexit, led the charge as people got a bit peckish and a bit more p****d and discovered a stash of digestives.

Another MP present said the good stuff was flowing at the six-bedroom, Grade-II listed home that Mr Rees Mogg purchased with a mortgage from the Queens bank Coutts & Co last year.

Mr Rees-Mogg insisted it was a meeting with drinks, adding: We were chatting about what happened and having a drink at the same time.

Jacob Rees-Mogg talks with anti-Brexit protester outside the Houses of Parliament ahead of a vote on Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal

As The Mail on Sunday revealed last May, Mr Rees-Moggs Tory critics suspected that he would use the five-storey mansion as his own No 10 in the heart of Westminster in order to further his suspected leadership ambitions.

But he insisted he bought the 18th Century building because I have six children. Meanwhile, Tory Remainers were in similarly jubilant spirits, gathering on the House of Commons Terrace for their own celebration after the result sent shockwaves through Downing Street.

Pro-EU ringleader Dominic Grieve was seen sharing a pint of beer with Labour MPs after 118 Tory Brexiteers and Remainers united to give Mrs May the largest ever defeat for a government in parliamentary history, voting down her deal by 432 votes to 202.

Back Theresa May rather than lose Brexit: JACOB REES MOGG says the Tories must come together in the national interest

Jacob Rees-Mogg (pictured): 'there was no rejoicing at the scale of the Prime Ministers defeat, no revelling in her humiliation'

After the overwhelming defeat of Theresa Mays Brexit deal last week, I hosted an impromptu meeting for like-minded Tory MPs at my London house.

We were discussing over drinks the Commons decisive vote against a proposal that would have been damaging for this country.

However, there was no rejoicing at the scale of the Prime Ministers defeat, no revelling in her humiliation. I would have preferred a smaller margin.

Yes, we were happy that a proposal that would not have delivered Brexit had been comprehensively finished off.

Yet Tuesdays vote, large as it was, only closed off one course of action. It did not solve the key question of how we deliver Brexit and honour the verdict of the 2016 referendum.

It did not in one bound provide a satisfactory Brexit deal.

Mrs May reacted to her setback by opening talks with the Opposition parties to discuss possible changes to her proposals. That is a most statesmanlike approach.

At the Commons: the powerful ERG chairman said that Mrs May reacted to her setback with a most statesmanlike approach

However, in my unequivocal view the answer to this crisis still remains largely within the Prime Ministers own party. This is why.

As much as reaching out to Europhile Labour MPs may look attractive, only winning over her Tory rebels will get Mrs May over the line.

The simple arithmetic is that more than 110 Tory MPs and ten DUP MPs voted against Mrs Mays deal last week.

If they change sides, she wins.

Therefore, the energy of the negotiations to improve her deal must be with us and not with Labour MPs such as Yvette Cooper who cannot provide her with anything like the additional 115 MPs needed to reverse the result.

Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg leaves his house in Westminster in London

Then the question remains: what type of deal would we be willing to accept? What needs to be changed? The biggest obstacles within the Prime Ministers current deal are the backstop and the 39 billion we currently propose to give to Brussels but for which we get nothing in return.

If Mrs May can persuade the EU to show flexibility on these, we could get the deal through the Commons.

Most people in Parliament want a deal.

There are very few MPs who have adopted no deal as an article of faith. I have never been among them.

Here I must stress that reports I have gone soggy on Brexit are, as they say, exaggerated to the point of untruth.

If I had to choose between no deal and Mrs Mays original accord, I would have no hesitation of opting for no-deal Brexit but even Mrs Mays deal would be better than not leaving at all.

Even at this very late stage, I believe that with commitment and effort we can avoid such a choice.

I hope that if Mrs May were prepared to compromise on her plans, she could win over her party, get a revised deal through the Commons and secure agreement from Brussels.

It is high time for the Tory Party to come together in the national interest.A young boy has been airlifted to hospital after he was attacked by four dingoes on a family camping trip.

The six-year-old boy was returning to his family's campsite on Queensland's Fraser Island on Saturday when he was bitten on the leg.

Emergency services were called to the scene at around 6pm.

'The family had finished swimming when the young boy said he wanted to race up a sand dune,' RACQ LifeFlight Rescue aircrewman Dan Leggat said.

An afternoon swim almost ended tragedy for one boy on Fraser Island on Saturday

'Unfortunately, when he got to the top, there was a pack of four dingoes.

Paramedics treated and stabilised the boy to be transported by the Bundaberg-based RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter.

Queensland Ambulance said the patient was conscious and alert before he was flown to Hervey Bay Hospital in a stable condition.

Dingoes are a protected species on Fraser Island.

'Wildlife authorities recognise that Fraser Island dingoes may become the purest strain of dingo on the eastern Australian seaboard and perhaps Australia-wide,' the Queensland Department of Environment and Science website states.

Saturday night's incident was the seventh dingo attack at the popular tourist spot in the last 20 years.

One attack resulted in the death of nine-year-old Clinton Gage in 2001.

His death sparked the culling of 31 dingoes and caused an outcry among residents.

There have been seven dingo attacks on Fraser Island in the last 20 years, including one death

Clinton's death was the first fatal dingo attack since the disappearance of nine-week-old baby girl Azaria Chamberlain at Uluru in 1980.

Her mother Lindy Chamberlain was initially convicted and jailed over her daughter's death but was later cleared.

The last dingo attack on the island was of two women in 2014.

The boy was returning to his family's campsite on Fraser Island (pictured) when he was bitten

'On Fraser Island, they have become used to tourists as tourists tend to feed them. This has led to dingoes lurking around camping areas,' one woman commented on Facebook on Sunday.

The latest attack has prompted a plea from local dingo conservation groups for parents to keep a watchful eye on their children at all times when visiting the heritage listed island.

'This dingo can be saved by placing elsewhere. Where were the parents, where were rangers to stop interaction,' Fraser Island Dingo Conservation Action posted on its Facebook page.

The young boy was airlifted to hospital after he was attacked by a pack of wild dingoes

Save Fraser Island Dingoes Inc added: 'This is not the way we want to start the new year. Small children and dingoes should not be in close proximity, now we have an injured child and the fate of the animal is in the hands of the authorities!'

The last dingo attack in Australia was in Western Australia last July, where a woman required major surgery.Trooper Corrie-Alice Holmes, 25, molested her shocked comrade after returning to the regiments base in the early hours following a drunken night out last Sunday

A female soldier from the regiment that Prince William and Prince Harry belonged to has been disciplined after sexually assaulting a male colleague on guard duty close to Windsor Castle.

Trooper Corrie-Alice Holmes, 25, a private in the prestigious Household Cavalry, molested her shocked comrade after returning to the regiments base in the early hours following a drunken night out last Sunday.

Army sources have told this newspaper that Tpr Holmes forced herself against the younger soldier, tried to kiss him and rubbed her body against his before being pulled off by a furious officer who reacted to the male soldiers cries for help.

The following day, Tpr Holmes was hauled before senior officers who formally warned her that any further misconduct could result in her immediate dismissal from the Army.

But last night furious colleagues of the male soldier, who cannot be named for legal reasons, accused top brass of leniency because the offender was a woman and the victim was a man.

Household cavalry at the state visit by the President of the United Arab Emirates, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to Windsor Castle in April 2013

They claimed that if a male soldier assaulted a woman in the same way, they would be sent immediately to military prison and booted out of the Army. Last year, a private who groped a female officer in a nightclub when both of them were drunk was jailed for nine months by a military court and dismissed.

The outrage comes after defence bosses lifted a historic ban preventing female soldiers serving in combat units. Critics said the ground-breaking move could damage cohesion within regiments because of the likelihood that men and women would engage in sexual activity.

Veteran: Prince Harry served in the Household Cavalry

Last night, official defence sources confirmed the incident but insisted Household Cavalry officers had dealt with it appropriately. The Mail on Sunday has established that Tpr Holmes returned to Combermere Barracks  less than a mile from Windsor Castle  at around 3am last Sunday after drinking with friends.

She was seen approaching the guard room at the entrance to the barracks, where she demanded to speak to the male soldier.

Noticing she was drunk, the guard commander refused to let her in but she is said to have sneaked round the side of the guard room to another entrance.

A source at the barracks said: The male soldier was lying on a bed in the guard room. She leant over him, placing her arms either side of his head, basically pinning him down. He asked her to leave him alone but she carried on.

They then went outside and she was seen rubbing herself against him and trying to kiss him. He called out help me. Eventually the guard commander pulled her away.

The commander logged the incident and top brass began an investigation the following morning.

Tpr Holmes and the male soldier were interviewed separately by commanding officer Major Brian Rogers. Under military law, officers such as Major Rogers are authorised to rule on conduct issues without referring the case to the Royal Military Police.

But when word spread that he had decided to only warn Tpr Holmes about her behaviour, furious male soldiers tipped off military police officers, who arrived at Combermere Barracks to launch a criminal investigation.

A member of the prestigious Household Cavalry,where the reported incident took place

The source added: The blokes felt she had really been let off lightly and that if one of them had done it to a woman theyd have been in huge trouble.

A junior commander, not Major Rogers, also told the male soldier to man up and stop complaining. One even said he should have slept with her. So somebody notified the RMP. But the male soldier told them that he was prepared to accept Major Rogerss ruling. He was very upset but he had been got at.

Senior personnel had told him the case would follow him through his career  hed be the guy who complained about a woman making a very physical pass at him.

Evidence suggests there is a major discrepancy between sentences given to male and female soldiers for sexual assaults.

In November 2017, a male private who sexually assaulted a female officer was jailed for nine months then booted out

In November 2017, a male private who sexually assaulted a female officer was jailed for nine months then booted out. A military court heard he touched her breasts, which he insisted was an accident.

The male soldiers father contacted The Mail on Sunday after the court case because he thought his sons sentence was harsh.

Last night, the father said: This case is similar to my sons, yet he served five and half months of a nine-month sentence and his reputation was ruined. There is a double standard. Male soldiers dont get the same leniency.

An Army spokesperson said: We expect very high standards of behaviour of our personnel, whether on or off duty, and take complaints of this nature very seriously.Police in the former Soviet republic finally began a hunt for the wanted 31-year-old Jack Shepherd, pictured above, last week after being contacted by Interpol on Monday

Blundering Scotland Yard detectives have been accused of failing to act on information that fugitive speedboat killer Jack Shepherd fled to Georgia ten months ago.

Police in the former Soviet republic finally began a hunt for the wanted 31-year-old last week after being contacted by Interpol on Monday.

But Shepherd's wife told Metropolitan Police officers at least six months ago that he had fled to Georgia.

An investigation by The Mail on Sunday has also learnt that Shepherd, who failed to attend his Old Bailey trial for manslaughter, arrived in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, on a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul on March 21 last year.

He is believed to have travelled from Britain to Turkey a few days before. According to multiple sources, his passport was scanned at Tbilisi's international airport at 3.31am.

It is understood the passport has not been used since, suggesting that he is still in the country.

Shepherd fled last March to avoid standing trial over the death of Charlotte Brown, 24, who was killed when his defective speedboat crashed during a late-night drunken voyage on the River Thames. He was convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence

Last night a police source in Georgia said: 'Our border controls are very strict. Every passport is scanned when people go in and out of the country. So we believe he is here.'

Shepherd fled last March to avoid standing trial over the death of Charlotte Brown, 24, who was killed when his defective speedboat crashed during a late-night drunken voyage on the River Thames. He was convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence.

The website designer was jailed for six years in his absence last July after a jury found he was at fault for Miss Brown's death in December 2015.

A friend of Miss Brown's family last night said they are 'furious' about the delay in the Metropolitan Police and Interpol contacting the Georgian authorities.

'Charlotte's family cannot understand the reason for this delay. It's absolutely infuriating for them,' the friend said.

News of the blunder comes ahead of a meeting between Miss Brown's family and Home Secretary Sajid Javid on Tuesday.

It follows outrage over the grant of 100,000 in legal aid to fund Shepherd's appeal despite being on the run.

The website designer was jailed for six years in his absence last July after a jury found he was at fault for Miss Brown's death in December 2015. The defective speedboat is pictured above

When he failed to appear for his Old Bailey trial, detectives told Miss Brown's family that they had questioned Shepherd's wife about his whereabouts and had been told that he had fled to Georgia.

Despite that, several sources in Georgia insist the first they knew of the claim was last week.

One official said: 'Until the Georgian side was contacted by Interpol on Monday, we had no information about this case.'

Officers have been frustrated to learn CCTV footage at Tbilisi airport is wiped after 25 days.

The Met declined to comment on the delay but in a statement said it 'continues to work closely with the CPS, National Crime Agency and other agencies such as Interpol'.This is the shocking moment Kentucky students wearing Make America Great Again hats appear to mock a Native American man at a rally in Washington.

The footage shows one youth staring at and standing extremely close to the elderly man, identified as Vietnam veteran, singing and playing a drum.

Congresswoman Deb Haaland tweeted: 'This Veteran put his life on the line for our country. The students' display of blatant hate, disrespect, and intolerance is a signal of how common decency has decayed under this administration. Heartbreaking.'

Now a diocese in Kentucky is looking into the video that show students, possibly from the diocese's all-male high school.

Laura Keener of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington said Saturday it regrets the incident and is investigating but didn't comment further.

Kentucky students wearing MAGA hats have appeared to mock a Native American man

The elderly man has been indentified as Nathan Phillips, an Omaha elder and Vietnam veteran, who holds an annual ceremony honoring Native American veterans

The Indigenous Peoples March in Washington on Friday coincided with the March for Life, which drew thousands of anti-abortion protesters, including a group from Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills.

Videos circulating online show a youth staring at and standing extremely close to an elderly Native American who is singing and playing a drum. Other youths, some wearing clothing with Covington logos, surround them, laughing and shouting. Many of the youths are also wearing 'Make America Great Again' hats.

The Indian Country Today website identified the elderly man as Nathan Phillips, an Omaha elder and Vietnam veteran who holds an annual ceremony honoring Native American veterans at Arlington National Cemetery.

He said: 'I heard them saying 'build that wall'.'

State Rep. Ruth Buffalo, a North Dakota state lawmaker and member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, said she was saddened to see students showing disrespect to an elder at what was supposed to be a celebration of all cultures.

'The behavior shown in that video is just a snapshot of what indigenous people have faced and are continuing to face,' Buffalo said.

She said she hoped it would lead to some kind of meeting with the students to provide education on issues facing Native Americans.

The Indigenous Peoples March in Washington on Friday coincided with the March for Life, which drew thousands of anti-abortion protesters

A number of the students in the footage were wearing Make America Great Again hats

Some of the students were also wearing clothing with Covington logos

Nathan Phillips, the man in the video, said he heard people chanting 'build that wall'Sydney Templemans razor-sharp intellect earned him the epithet 'Sid Vicious'

As a judge and a law lord, Sydney Templemans razor-sharp intellect and quick ripostes earned him the epithet Sid Vicious among wary barristers.

Now, five years after his death, the High Court, where he earned his fearsome reputation, will provide the setting for a bitter family legal battle that will focus on the very soundness of his mind.

Lord Templemans barrister son, Michael, has launched a legal challenge to his final will, claiming the dementia his father suffered from in later life makes it invalid.

However, the step-daughters of Lord Templemans late second wife, who stand to inherit the proceeds of the sale of his home, insist he knew what he was doing when he left them the 580,000 property in Devon.

Sarah Edworthy and Jane Goss-Custard will use expert evidence to claim that because of Lord Templemans remarkable mental capacity, the effects of mild dementia would not be as marked compared to a less intelligent person.

Michael, 67, and his wife Lesley believe twice-widowed Lord Templeman was too confused to legitimately sign a will in 2008.

The High Court will provide the setting for a bitter family legal battle that will focus on the very soundness of Sydney Templeman's mind

But the sisters will submit a report from psychiatry expert Professor Robert Howard, who argues that while Lord Templeman was probably mildly affected by dementia at the time, his extraordinary pre-morbid intellectual ability left him with a significant cognitive reserve when he made the will.

Dr Howard added: This is a quality seen in people with superior intelligence  whereby the patient is able to compensate to some extent for the loss of cognitive function caused by the dementia.

Lord Templemans first wife, Margaret Rowles, died in 1988. They had two sons  Michael and Peter, a Church of England vicar.

In 1996, the judge married Sheila Edworthy and moved into her home which she bequeathed to him.

The dispute centres on his decision, two months after her death, to alter his will so that the property and its contents went to her daughters and the rest of his estate equally to his sons.

The dispute centres on his decision, two months after her death, to alter his will so that the property and its contents went to her daughters and the rest of his estate equally to his sons

The High Court has already heard that the new will was drafted by David Merrick, a solicitor in Exeter who was struck off in 2016 following allegations of dishonesty in an unrelated matter. A note made by Mr Merrick at the time says he produced the document at Lord Templemans request and that his client seemed very much better, while still obviously upset by the death of Sheila.

Rejecting a pre-emptive bid by Michael and Lesley to strike down the 2008 will, Judge Karen Shuman said there was a compelling reason why full evidence about Lord Templemans mental capacity in 2008 needed to be tested at a full High Court hearing next January.

The son of a coal merchant, Lord Templeman served as a law lord in the UKs highest court for 12 years until 1994.

His cases included the controversial Spycatcher case in 1987 that followed a Government ban on the publication of the memoirs of former MI5 officer Peter Wright.

Lord Templeman died in 2014 and his obituary in The Times recalled a case where he had savaged the lead counsel, before asking whether his junior would like to speak.

No, my lord, not without a helmet, he replied.The people are aware, can see that the only thing didi has given is big posters & nothing else, Babul Supriyo shared on social media.

Almost 25 opposition leaders are expected to share the stage with CM Mamata Banerjee at the 'United India Rally' aimed at galvanizing the opposition parties against the BJP. (Photo: ANI | File)

Kolkata: Union Minister and BJP leader Babul Supriyo, just spoke, lashing out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjees mega opposition rally in Kolkatas Brigade Parade Ground today. He let out a series of tweets and described the event as a "rally of unity of corrupt leaders and show of hypocrisy."

A rally of unity of corrupt leaders. Kolkata will witness a show of hypocrisy today. It is an unholy alliance of political parties for personal survival. #NaMoAgain #AbkiBaarPhirModiSarkar @narendramodi @AmitShah @BJP4India @BJP4Bengal @KailashOnline  Babul Supriyo (@SuPriyoBabul) January 19, 2019

Almost 25 opposition leaders are expected to share the stage with CM Mamata Banerjee at the 'United India Rally' aimed at galvanizing the opposition parties against the Narendra Modi and Amit Shah-led BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.

Over 44 BJP workers killed and several others injured by TMC goons over the years they have been in power. Theyve remained in power for so long, but at what cost? Is politics bigger than human lives?#UnitedAntiNationalsAtBrigade@BJP4India @BJP4Bengal  Babul Supriyo (@SuPriyoBabul) January 19, 2019

The union minister and the ruling Mamata Banerjee government in Bengal have been engaged in a verbal battle since the row over the BJP's planned 'rath yatra' in the state.

The Supreme Court, yesterday, ruled that the BJP cannot hold its yatra for now, stating that the concerns of the state government can't be ignored as "unfounded".

Babul Supriyo had earlier accused the Bengal Chief Minister of indulging in appeasement politics, while alleging that she deliberately added the word 'rath' to the BJP's planned yatra in the state to make it sound communal.

The BJP has largely downplayed the mega rally. "Leaders who are retired, tired or rejected in their own states are coming to attend Saturday's event," said Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh.

The BJP also plans to hold a rally headlined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Brigade Parade Ground on February 8.Blyton stayed at Knoll House Hotel four or five times a year during the 1950s and 1960s, always in Room 40. There, the views over the rugged Dorset coastline inspired some of her most famous works

It was the rural bolthole which inspired Enid Blyton to create her timeless Famous Five stories.

And now campaigners are showing the same pluck as her young adventurers as they fight to stop the authors favourite hotel from being turned into an eyesore holiday resort.

Blyton stayed at Knoll House Hotel four or five times a year during the 1950s and 1960s, always in Room 40. There, the views over the rugged Dorset coastline inspired some of her most famous works.

Five On A Treasure Island, the first of 21 books in the series, features a ruined castle based on nearby Corfe Castle, and Whispering Island in Five Have A Mystery To Solve is thought to have been modelled on the local Brownsea Island.

Knoll House is now owned by Kingfisher Resorts, which wants to turn it into a spa resort by building 25 villas and three apartment blocks of 38 flats in the grounds.

Among those fighting the plans is local councillor Peter Bowyer, who said the resort would destroy for ever the attraction of the area.

And retired engineer Andrew Parsons said proposed new construction cannot, by any generous stretch of the imagination, have derived any inspiration or reference from its surroundings. It would, however, be quite at home in communist-era Poland or some of the Brutalist buildings in Tower Hamlets.

The Famous Five were not Blytons only creations to have roots in the area. Christopher Rone, a former policeman in the nearby village of Studland, is rumoured to have been the inspiration for PC Plod in the Noddy books, and a balding guest at the hotel provided the basis for Bill Smugs in The Adventure Series.

Knoll House was built as a summer residence for an aristocratic family in the early 1900s. It became a hotel in 1931, attracting guests including Sir Winston Churchill, Roald Dahl and Vivien Leigh.

Two years ago it was sold by the children of Kenneth and Pauline Ferguson, who had owned it since 1959, to Kingfisher Resorts.

Knoll House is now owned by Kingfisher Resorts, which wants to turn it into a spa resort by building 25 villas and three apartment blocks of 38 flats in the grounds. A stock photo of the current hotel is pictured above [File photo]

The company says the hotel needs modernising and that the new proposed buildings would sit below the ground level of the main hotel.

Kingfisher also argues that 87 per cent of neighbours say that the proposals present a good opportunity to safeguard the future of the hotel.

But the National Trust and the Campaign To Protect Rural England are among those organisations which have issues with the plans.

Richard Brown, landscape planning officer of the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership, said: The result of the proposal would be an undue adverse effect on the character of the site and the wider designated landscape.

However, Kingfisher Resorts insisted: We will respect the character and charm of Knoll House while injecting a modern, luxury feel, so that guests and the community can enjoy the hotel well into the future.Sitting in a Birmingham cafe last year, just the two of us, there is an outpouring of emotion as we talk over tea. The arms of my companion are bandaged and bloodied from repeated bouts of self-harm  wounds that are hidden under long sleeves.

I hear about the last four years of torment, the prolonged bouts of anxiety and depression. At just 18, this bright young student, full of promise, was taken from home in Britain and forced to marry a complete stranger in a foreign land. There was shock and then denial, protestations and anger. But the familys iron will prevailed.

Yet with muscular limbs and shoulder-length dark hair, Suhail is not a conventional victim of this ongoing cultural practice.

For Suhail is a 22-year-old man, and as such, is one of thousands of forgotten victims of this cultural practice. The marriage, he tells me, is in name alone. I have never touched her. She is a victim too.

The Governments Forced Marriage Unit (FMU), a joint project between the Home Office and the Foreign Office, saw 1,200 forced marriage cases reported during 2017. Of those, 21.4 per cent involved male victims

While forced marriages are more commonly associated with vulnerable young women suffering at the hands of domineering male relatives, it is a significant problem in Britain for teenage boys too. Those affected have, perhaps more so than the women involved, been suffering in silence. And only now are they beginning to find their voices.

Ive been writing about forced marriages for more than 30 years. Along with other campaigners, I fought for government action to protect women being treated as nothing but property to be passed from their parents to husbands they didnt want. Then finally, in 2014, new legislation made it a criminal offence to force anyone to marry using coercion. The law gave rights to those young women and, in theory at least, liberated them from the shackles of their familys demands. Over the past year, three sets of offenders were convicted of such crimes against their own children.

But having investigated the current landscape once again, it is clear that too many ethnic minority families are still over-controlling their children. And too many of those suffering are boys and men, under the pitiless control of their own mothers and grandmothers. How big is the problem? The numbers are impossible to quantify.

The Governments Forced Marriage Unit (FMU), a joint project between the Home Office and the Foreign Office, saw 1,200 forced marriage cases reported during 2017. Of those, 21.4 per cent involved male victims. But these do not represent the true scale of the issue, and campaigners insist the real proportion of men is much higher.

British-born Sunny Angel (pictured), a middle-class Hindu woman, was groomed and abused by a much older man as a teenager. But she was later married off to a man with learning difficulties

Certainly, of the calls made to the FMUs helpline, a third are from men. Thousands more victims of both genders undoubtedly remain hidden. The Home Office estimates that between 5,000 and 8,000 people are at risk of being forced into marriage every year in Britain.

And the help being offered is still not enough. Earlier this month, it emerged that some British victims sent abroad for forced marriages are being asked to pay for their repatriation after being rescued by the Government. Women and men who have been treated as objects by families are then turned into paying customers of life-saving government rescue services.

Suhail got in touch with me after Id appeared on television speaking about forced marriage convictions. Born in Oxford and of Pakistani descent, he now works as a web designer. But nine years ago, on his 13th birthday, he was told he was engaged to a cousin in Kashmir.

It didnt go in, he told me of his initial incomprehension. I was a young lad, you know.

Despite his surprise, the practice was not unfamiliar to the young Suhail. His elder sisters and brothers had all acquiesced to similar arranged marriages with Kashmiri spouses, but Suhail could not believe he would suffer the same fate.

I was the baby of the family, spoilt by everyone, he recalls.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown talks to 22-year-old Suhail who is one of thousands of forgotten victims of this cultural practice. The marriage, he tells her, is in name alone. I have never touched her. She is a victim too

Both my brothers worked in the family shop, and my sisters were married off when they were quite young. At the time, I thought, Thats our culture. But I was the first professional of the family.

I never thought I would be packaged into a bridegroom and delivered to in-laws who didnt even speak English.

At 18, Suhail was told he was going on holiday to Kashmir to visit relatives and, perhaps naively, believed it. But on arrival, he found a big, brash wedding had been set up. His protestations were ignored. My uncles took my phone from me. I was told if I didnt obey I would bring shame on the family. My mother was hysterical. I was in shock. Both my sisters said I should do my duty, as they had done. I felt I was drowning and that I had no voice, no rights.

There are many reasons for the continued practice of forced mar-riage, including a desire by families to protect their property and land and to facilitate immigration. It is seen as protecting perceived cultural and religious ideals, and preventing unsuitable relationships with people outside their childrens own culture.

Today, the strongest driver is cultural panic, terror even.

As Britain becomes increasingly liberal, social conservatism deepens within some communities.

Elders become desperate to maintain links with those places they left behind. Forcing their children to marry, some believe, will lock them into the old ways.

Young Asian men such as Suhail are third-generation British and, having grown up in a liberal, Western culture, understandably expect the same rights as their peers. Discovering that their families have other ideas causes untold damage.

Dr Maz Idriss, a lecturer at Manchester Law School who has conducted research into this subject, told me the consequences are often devastating. Males are like princes in the home. When they have no say in who to marry, they go into shock and anger. They have no emotional tools to cope.

Suhail told me the scars on his arms were a substitute for the tears he hasnt felt able to shed because Pakistani men dont cry. Boys are often taught not to express their emotions, but to suppress them instead. Indeed, a troubling contradiction lies within attitudes towards forced marriage among female and male victims.

Sunny's marriage failed after four months when she returned home to her parents. Sunny described her experience of abuse and forced marriage in her book, Wings, and now spends her life campaigning against coerced marriages (Sunny Angel is pictured left and right)

Although young women are more commonly at risk, they are more rebellious than men when faced with the prospect of a forced marriage. The explanation is no less troubling. As girls, they have often spent their entire lives being treated as inferior to and less valuable than their brothers. Many carry a deep sense of anger within them as a result.

Boys, by contrast, are generally more cosseted. But the price they must pay is blind loyalty to the demands of their family and the rules of their community. It is why they are more likely to stay silent.

The power wielded by the matriarchs of such communities is often immense.

Most sons idolise their mothers and want desperately to make them happy and proud.

It means the pressure they exert, anxious to prevent shame being brought on the family, can have a profound impact.

I spoke to Prem, a Hindu man, who is a successful pharmacist. He told me: I killed my mother, my beloved mother. In fact, she died of a heart attack soon after he refused to marry the woman she had chosen for him. He blames himself and swears he will never marry anybody else.

Another friend of mine, Anand, consented to a marriage he did not want after his mother attempted to blackmail him by swallowing 15 painkillers. Eventually, some years later, when the marriage ended and his mother died, he was left with a bitter antipathy towards women.

The effects of forced marriage are far more wide-ranging than might be expected. It sounds shocking, but experts believe, for example, that such family pressures may be driving some men to groom young women, or become terrorists.

Dr Idriss told me that his university friend, Abu Adam al Britani, joined Islamic State after two failed forced marriages.

There are other brutal aspects to such a culture. Many Asian, African and Arab communities are homophobic. If they sense a boy or man is gay, they will push him into marriage.

Irfan, the son of a distant relative of mine, decided to come out at his own wedding. I will never forget the high drama, the hysteria. He did it so that others would not be put through the same blackmail and terror.

A Koranic scholar I know is dying of cancer. His son came out to him in hospital. The frail old man confessed he, too, was gay, but had married and lived a lie.

He told his son: You go be happy, God forgives everything.

Dont tell your mother. It will upset her too much.

Researchers at Nottingham University uncovered another disturbing reason for forced marriage  disability. Men with physical or mental disabilities are often deliberately married off to women from villages in the familys country of origin to ensure they have a carer for life. Parents worrying about their sons future think a wife will provide this lifetime care.

Polly Harrar (pictured) runs The Sharan Project, which was established to help female victims of forced marriage and honour-based violence. She hears from men who have endured unwanted marriages for years, and offers advice and help to them, too

The numbers are high, according to research. But some of those men not only do not understand what is happening to them, but have to be shown how to have sex.

British-born Sunny Angel, a middle-class Hindu woman, was groomed and abused by a much older man as a teenager. But she was later married off to a man with learning difficulties.

The mans family covered up his disabilities, including the fact that he could not read or write.

Horrifyingly, on their wedding night, his mother stood outside the door to instruct him on penetration. Talking last year of her ordeal, Sunny said: He was used as a pawn so that his parents could get money through the dowry.

They demanded a brand new Mercedes with a personalised number-plate as well as 10,000 cash. When he would call me on the phone, it was actually someone else pretending to be him. The cards he sent me were written by his mum.

During the wedding was the first time we spoke face to face and he asked me if I was going to be his wife. He had no idea what was going on. All he said was that his mum told him he had to consummate the marriage.

Disturbingly, Sunny describes how he forced himself on her and then spoke to his mother, asking: Mum, Ive done it. Can I have the chocolate now?

The marriage failed after four months when Sunny returned home to her parents. Sunny described her experience of abuse and forced marriage in her book, Wings, and now spends her life campaigning against coerced marriages.

I recently interviewed some Asian taxi drivers in Bradford and Manchester about their views on arranged marriages. All but two told me they believed people should choose their own spouses.

The remaining pair said they had married the women their mothers wanted and quoted the Prophets words: Heaven lies beneath the feet of mothers.

I was introduced to their formidable matriarchs, both of whom were charming and generous to me.

But their wives remained silent shadows in the background. Whether they, or their husbands, were happy with their arrange-ment was not clear.

What is clear, however, is that many men are coping by living secret, double lives.

Rafiq, who repairs computers, is pragmatic about his own duplic-itous situation. I made my family happy by marrying the girl they wanted, he said. I make me happy by spending time with the girl I want. They know, but they dont say anything. When I asked about his wife and her choices, he looked baffled, as though I had asked an unanswerable question.

Rafiqs mother, who spoke to me in Urdu, said: Very good boy he is, doing what I tell him to do. In this country, children dont respect parents or mothers. Our children do what we want. You think we should be like the English? No shame, no family duty?

These, in essence, are the deeply held values: children have no autonomy or rights. They are loved, but must surrender to the will of their community. Forced marriages are committed in the name of izzat, or honour. The good news is that there is now growing levels of support available to male victims, and the Forced Marriage Unit is also taking up their cases.

Polly Harrar runs The Sharan Project, which was established to help female victims of forced marriage and honour-based violence. She hears from men who have endured unwanted marriages for years, and offers advice and help to them, too.

More British Asian leaders must now speak out and defend all vic-tims of forced marriage, male as well as female. For Suhail, who also now lives a double life and has a Scottish girlfriend, Gina, it is obvious that his bride is also a victim.

He recognises, too, that she has even less power to seek comfort for herself outside their marriage.

He told me: On the wedding night, I told my wife, Samira, that I wanted out. She started crying. Ive never touched her. Four years shes been here, in the family home.

Suhail is paying for Samira to go to college so she can begin to live an independent life. Gina, meanwhile, became pregnant and has given birth to a son. My parents say, Thats your business. Just make a child with the wife too. A boy. Then we are happy.

To them, Samira is a thing, currency. I realised too late that thats how my sisters were also treated.

My son will be happier than I have ever been. I dont see my parents. At last I can live freely and be my own person.

I am working with social workers to end this abuse. But please write our untold, unseen stories.Melania Trump has been pictured dressed all in black taking a brisk walk around Mar-A-Lago after flying in on an Air Force jet earlier in the week.

The First Lady, 48, made the trip to Florida after her husband grounded Nancy Pelosi as the record-breaking government shutdown continues.

DailyMail.com pictures show Melania walking in a dark top, leggings and a cap at the couple's South Florida resort.

She has not been seen in public since she joined President Trump, 72, in a visit to Iraq to meet US troops stationed there on December 26.

An Air Force plane with the call sign EXEC1F was spotted Thursday by the CilMilAir Twitter account. That call sign is associated with a plane carrying the first lady.

Scroll down for video.

Melania was seen walking in a dark top, leggings and a cap after flying into Mar-A-Lago

The first lady was dressed all in black and was seen taking a brisk walk at the Florida resort

The president's wife was closely followed by her security as she took a walk at the resort, left. An Air Force plane with her call sign was spotted Thursday flying to Florida

Donald Trump grounded Nancy Pelosi but Melania was able to fly using an Air Force jet

The first lady spent most of the holidays in Mar-a-Lago without her husband

Melania Trump had half her office staff furloughed during the continuing shutdown

Her husband was today in Delaware for a repatriation ceremony in honor of the four Americans who were killed in a suicide bomb attack in Syria this week.

She made the trip just as her husband grounded Speaker Pelosi's government plane to Afghanistan and canceled his administration's trip to Davos.

A White House official argued it was not a vengeance move.

Press secretary Sarah Sanders said: 'Out of consideration for the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay and to ensure his team can assist as needed, President Trump has canceled his Delegation's trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.'

Before the Davos trip was cancelled Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff slammed the president for canceling his trip with Pelosi to Afghanistan.

He had said: 'The president's concern about a war zone apparently doesn't apply to a delegation of the administration going to Davos the following week. We got confirmation that is still planned. So, this is obviously an action directed at the speaker.'

The First Lady spent most of the holidays in Mar-a-Lago but the president canceled his Christmas plans to be there.

Trump speaks to the media as he prepares to leave the White House for a trip to Dover AFB to meet with the families of four Americans who were killed in an explosion last Wednesday

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, honor the four Americans killed in a suicide bomb attack

It comes amid reports half of Melania's office staff were furloughed as the effects of the government shutdown continue.

Her communications director Stephanie Grisham told DailyMail.com, adding: 'We have no advance teams or support staff.'

And congressional staffers have now warned it may take a situation causing nationwide panic to bring the shutdown to an end.

Trump, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer remain at odds over the president's requested $5 billion to fund a border wall.The U.S. military said it carried out an airstrike in Somalia that killed 52 al-Shabab extremists in response to an attack on Somali forces.

The U.S. Africa Command statement says the airstrike occurred on Saturday near Jilib in Middle Juba region.

The U.S. says Somali forces had come under attack by a 'large group' of the al-Qaida-linked extremists.

The U.S. military said it carried out an airstrike that killed 52 al-Shabab extremists days after deadly attack on a luxury hotel complex

A woman reacts after seeing the body of her family member who were killed in an attack

The statement does not say how many Somali forces were killed or wounded. There are no reports of Americans killed or wounded.

Al-Shabab controls large parts of rural southern and central Somalia and continues to carry out high-profile attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, and elsewhere.

The group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on a luxury hotel complex in Kenya's capital on Tuesday.

Al-Shabab via its Shahada news agency asserted that its attack on two Somali army bases killed at least 41 soldiers. It described the location as the Bar Sanjuni area near the port city of Kismayo.

The United States has dramatically stepped up airstrikes against al-Shabab in Somalia since President Donald Trump took office, carrying out at least 47 such strikes last year.

Some have targeted top al-Shabab leaders or key financial officials; the extremist group funds its attacks with an extensive network of 'taxation' and extortion.

A US made Reaper drone part of Operation Barkhane's aerial detachment flies over the Nigerian military airport

In October, the U.S. said an airstrike killed about 60 fighters near the al-Shabab-controlled community of Harardere in Mudug province in the central part of the country.

The airstrikes hamper the extremist group but have not 'seriously degraded al-Shababs capability to mount strikes either inside or outside Somalia', Matt Bryden of Sahan Research, an expert on the extremists, told The Associated Press after the Nairobi hotel attack.

Airstrikes alone cannot defeat the extremists, Bryden said, and must be combined with more ground-based attacks as well as a non-military campaign to win over residents of extremist-held areas.

The U.S. on Saturday said it is committed to 'preventing al-Shabab from taking advantage of safe havens from which they can build capacity and attack the people of Somalia.'BuzzFeed's bombshell report has riled up a Twitter war between Donald Trump Jr and CNN reporter Jake Tapper.

'Maybe the left will one day stop trying desperately to destroy my family and especially @realDonaldTrump. Till then they will keep failing miserably while also undermining themselves and our democracy,' the president's 41-year-old son tweeted on Saturday.

Don Jr mercilessly attacked news outlets sharing the controversial BuzzFeed piece that alleges Trump directed his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to lie about dealings with Russia before Congress on Twitter.

Donald Trump Jr, 41, and Jake Tapper, 49, got into a Twitter war Friday night after CNN covered BuzzFeed's bombshell report that alleged President Donald Trump forced his lawyer to lie before Congress about deals with Russia

Retract it! Don Jr demanded CNN retract the story and devote time to clearing the air about the BuzzFeed report he deemed '#fakenews'

On Friday he hit out at CNN for reporting on the piece, which Robert Mueller's office dismissed as 'inaccurate' Friday night.

'I ask is that CNN gives equal time to the retraction.... (um obliteration you got hit with from Special Counsels Office) that you gave to the #fakenews part of the story you all so desperately wanted to be true. Seems fair, right?' he tweeted.

Tapper, the Chief Washington Correspondent for CNN, defended CNN's report on the controversial article saying they expressed skepticism over the piece and didn't take it as truth.

Twitter war: The two went back and forth with Don Jr accusing Tapper of leading fake news and Tapper saying its the media's job to cover the president, the White House and Congressional leaders

'And this right here is exactly what's wrong with CNN and the rest of the #FakeNews media. If you're skeptical about the accuracy of a story, how about NOT giving it non-stop, wall to wall coverage on your network? You just can't help yourselves!!!' Don Jr wrote.

Tapper clapped back explaining it is simply the role of news to cover what's happening in politics, controversial or not.

'Your father, the White House and congressional leaders were talking about it and reacting to it so of course we covered it,' Tapper wrote.

Don Jr fired back saying 'you'd be more credible if CNN's two biggest bombshells about me had any merit at all'

Leave us alone! Don Jr reiterated his sentiments on Saturday saying 'maybe the left will one day stop trying desperately to destroy my family'

'Given the many lies you told the American people about the meeting at Trump Tower I dont really care to be lectured about anything by you,' he added.

The duo continued to fire back their rebuttals with Don Jr pointing past flawed CNN reporting.

'Youd be much more credible if CNNs two biggest bombshells about me had any merit at all. Your network ran with them with glee but they were both total cr**!' Don Jr said.

'1) The date of my @wikileaks info receipt 2) Lanny Davis admitting he was your source & was wrong (still not corrected)' he added.Farrah Rubani, 51, was arrested on December 18 on a first-degree grand larceny charge

The CEO of a New York home health aide company has been accused of embezzling $11 million from Medicaid to fund a lavish lifestyle with her NYPD cop husband.

Farrah Rubani, 51, was arrested on December 18 on a first-degree grand larceny charge in an alleged scam to submit false claims through her Brooklyn-based company Hopeton Care.

The New York Attorney General's office claimed in a civil suit that Rubani and her partners billed New York State Medicaid for home care for children when was none provided, then paid the kids' parents to stay quiet, the New York Daily News reported.

'Rubani misrepresented to parents that the Medicaid program permitted Hopeton to pay them directly to care for their children instead of sending a nurse, notwithstanding the fact that these parents were not qualified to provide the nursing services that their children required,' the AG said in the lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Rubani is the CEO of Brooklyn-based company Hopeton Care and her husband Richard Tricaro is an officer in the NYPD's 50th Precinct

Tricario has not been charged, but prosecutors say he spent some of the ill-gotten money on a $250,000 Bentley and a $1.8 million Cape Cod vacation home nicknamed 'Rich At Heart'

State investigators allege that Rubani, a native of Pakistan, stole nearly $4 million in that scheme alone.

Rubani's husband is 50th Precinct NYPD Officer Richard Tricario.

Prosecutors allege that he spent some of the ill-gotten money on a $250,000 Bentley, a $60,000 Dodge Ram pickup and a $1.8 million Cape Cod vacation home that the couple nicknamed 'Rich At Heart'.

Tricario has not been charged criminally. But the attorney general's office maintains that he wrote nearly $3 million in checks on the couple's joint bank account between 2016 and 2018.

Rubani and her husband are seen above. She is being held without bail on Rikers Island

Rubani's lawyer, Richard Harrow, said his client 'denies the allegations and looks forward to presenting evidence that will exonerate her.'

Meanwhile, Rubani's assets have been seized and the home health aides she employs have been faced with the tough decision between abandoning their patients and working without pay.

Among the patients in danger of losing their caregivers is Queens centenarian Rose Lawson, 102, the Daily News reports.

Lawson's only living family is niece Patricia Murphy, who lives in Texas and has been paying $180 a day out of pocket to contribute to her aunt's care.

On Friday, frustrated Hopeton Care employees gathered outside of the company's offices in Midwood to demand their paychecks.

'They lying every Friday,' Yolene Jean-Charles told the Daily News.

The AG's office says it has twice released funds so the home health aides could be paid.

A spokeswoman for the office said that complaints should be handled through the Medicaid managed care organization.

Rubani is considered a flight risk and is being held on Rikers Island without bail. She is next due in court on March 1.Advertisement

Scuffles have broken out in Leeds as British 'yellow vests' march through the city in protest at 'being treated like nothing' and against the 'corrupt government.'

Around 150 were seen in the city this afternoon, with West Yorkshire Police deployed to keep the situation under control - leading to six arrests for offences including assaulting a police officer.

At points during the march protesters were seen clashing with police, with pictures showing officers attempting to subdue several of those involved.

Police said around 100 of the protesters were from Yellow Vest UK and 50 were counter protesters - and were seen gathering outside the BBC Yorkshire building in St Peter's Square.

A Facebook event set for the event reads: 'We are tired of been treated like nothing, we work our a**** off to provide for our families. The cost of living increases with little increase in wages.

'Now is the time to stand up against this corrupt government thats making the working class less better off.'

West Yorkshire Police said around 100 of the protesters were from Yellow Vest UK and 50 were counter protesters. They gathered in Leeds city centre at around 12pm. Protesters are seen here attempting to block a major junction before a scuffle breaks out with police

Leeds District Police were supported by additional officers from across West Yorkshire. Officers made six arrests in total for offences including public order

At points, protesters were seen clashing with police. Pictures show officers attempting to subdue several of those involved

A protester has water poured in his eyes in an attempt to remove the pepper spray during a Brexit supporting 'yellow vest' protest through Leeds city centre this afternoon

A man is detained by police while on the ground. Around 150 protesters were seen in the city, with West Yorkshire Police deployed to keep the situation under control

A Facebook event set up for the event reads: 'We are tired of been treated like nothing, we work our a**** off to provide for our families. The cost of living increases with little increase in wages.' Pictured are 'yellow vest' protesters marching through Leeds city centre

Police said around 100 of the protesters were from Yellow Vest UK and 50 were counter protesters. They gathered outside the BBC Yorkshire building this afternoon. The protest is believed to have ended at around 2.30pm

A man is seen holding up a phone while protesting through Leeds city centre this afternoon. There were also a number of counter protesters seen in the city

A Facebook event set up prior to the protest reads: 'We demand better living for all British people. We have veterans homeless due to the government not helping them.' Pictured is a protester being detained by police

A scuffle broke out between British 'yellow vests' in Leeds as protesters gathered outside the BBC Yorkshire building this afternoon

Protesters are seen waving flags as they protest in Leeds city centre. As police officers stand guard to keep control of the situation

A group of British 'yellow vest' protesters are seen walking through the city centre. Several are seen filming the march on their phoneA plane from hell made an emergency landing in Russia today after passengers complained they were 'suffocating' and 'turning green'.

Panic swept through the cabin of the Ural Airlines flight from Moscow to Dubai with one passenger claiming sickly people had 'greatly dilated pupils'.

The pilot demanded an emergency landing in the southern Russian city of Volgograd around one hour 25 minutes into the flight amid fears of mass poisoning on board.

Videos show doctors and paramedics from five ambulances rushing on board the Airbus A321-211 after it landed.

Several passengers out of the 150 on board were taken for medical treatment. Their conditions were not immediately known.

The strange symptoms particularly affected passengers between rows 21 and 26 in economy class, those on board claimed.

A woman passenger from Sochi who left the aircraft in Volgograd said: 'I was woken by a young woman screaming for assistance.

'She yelled and screamed 'Help, help!' because her husband felt ill. He was feeling really bad. He was suffocating and he couldn't breathe in.

'His face went the colour green. Then a panic swept through the plane.'

Passengers with children moved them away from the rows blighted by the strange symptoms.

Panic swept through the cabin of the Ural Airlines flight from Moscow to Dubai after passengers said they were 'suffocating' and 'turning green'

'Others felt the same symptoms. I think it was some kind of plague. Everyone was going green and pale.'

Passenger Ilya Brinder, from Nizhny Novgorod, told TV360 a number of passengers began to feel 'sharply ill' some 40 minutes into the flight.

'All of them had greatly dilated pupils. They were suffocating.

'The flight attendants were in panic, and the aircraft captain decided to make an emergency landing in Volgograd.'

He said the condition was 'definitely not food poisoning' from the plane.

An airport official said that five people felt unwell when the plane landed and doctors looked at all of them.

Anastasia Golodova, airport spokeswoman, said the Ural Airline plane of landed at 3.23am today.

The strange symptoms particularly affected passengers between rows 21 and 26 in economy class

After treatment three decided to continue the flight but two refused and were admitted to hospital.

A 'drunk woman' aged 29 was also taken off the flight after she had allegedly 'attacked the crew'.

The plane, flight number U6-893, was thoroughly checked and left again for Dubai after two hours and 20 minutes.

There has been no official explanation so far for what caused the terrifying symptoms.

One theory was food poisoning hitting a group of passengers who had eaten together before the flight.As new details continue to emerge in the gruesome kidnapping of Jayme Closs, a relative of the 13-year-old says she was 'not prepared' to learn the truth.

Countless questions weighed on Jodie Arnold's mind in the months after the bodies of Denise, her cousin, and James Closs were found shot to death and their daughter went missing on October 15, 2018 in Barron, Wisconsin.

Now that Jayme has returned home and her alleged captor, 21-year-old Jake Thomas Patterson, is behind bars, Arnold is finding that the reality is far worse than she could have imagined.

'I was not prepared,' she told People.

As new details continue to emerge in the gruesome kidnapping of Jayme Closs, a relative of the 13-year-old's mother Denise Closs (left) has said she was 'not prepared' to learn the truth. Jodie Arnold spent the almost-three months that Jayme was missing wondering what had occurred on the night of October 15, when Denise and her husband James (right) were found shot dead at their home, and their daughter was nowhere to be found. Now that Jayme has returned home and her alleged captor is behind bars, those questions are being answered

Jayme finally returned home to Barron, Wisconsin, after escaping from her captor's lair on January 10, nearly three months after she witnessed her parents' murder before being abducted in a case that gripped the nation. Pictured with relatives after her rescue, Jayme is recovering from the traumatic abduction and will live permanently with her aunt in Barron

Jake Thomas Patterson, 21, was arrested on January 10 and has confessed to the murders and kidnapping. He is seen above during his first court appearance on Monday

The criminal complaint filed against Patterson details his confession to cops that he decided Jayme was 'the girl he was going to take' after a change sighting of her getting on the school bus when it stopped in front of him as he drove to work.

On the night of October 15, he stole his father's shotgun, donned a balaclava face mask and two pairs of gloves and drove to the home to carry out his plan.

As he approached the front door under cover of darkness, Patterson saw Jayme's father, James, standing in the large window.

Jayme told detectives that she had been woken by her dog Molly barking and noticed somebody coming up the driveway when she went to investigate.

She woke her parents and her father 'went to the door to see what was going on.'

Patterson claimed that he yelled at James Closs to get on the ground but that he 'kept shining a flashlight and looking outside' while pounding on the door. Peering through the window, James Closs asked to see his badge - assuming he was law enforcement.

In that moment, Patterson said, he raised his shotgun, pointed it at James Closs' head and pulled the trigger. James is described in the complaint as having 'significant trauma to his face and head.'

After hearing the gunshots, Denise Closs called the police and took her daughter into the bathroom to hide.

Arnold said she had long hoped that her cousin's death was quick, perhaps while she was sleeping.

She was horrified to learn that the 46-year-old spent her final moments in undeniable terror as she prayed that she and her daughter wouldn't be discovered.

Patterson allegedly told investigators that he decided Jayme was 'the girl he was going to take' after a change sighting of her getting on the school bus when it stopped in front of him as he drove to work. On the night of October 15, he stole his father's shotgun, donned a balaclava face mask and two pairs of gloves and drove to the home (above) to carry out his plan.

A massive manhunt was launched after police arrived at the Closs home four minutes after Denise called 911 and found the Jayme had disappeared

In a terrifying scene, Patterson shoved the bathroom door open and tore down the shower curtain, taking the rod with it and found Denise 'with her arms wrapped around Jayme in a bear hug'.

Patterson told Denise to place black duct tape over her daughter's mouth but when she 'struggled to do that' he put down his shotgun, took back the tape and wrapped it around Jayme's mouth and head.

He made the teen stand up while he 'took and placed [tape] around her wrists, with her palms together to restrain her hands and arms.'

Patterson then taped her ankles, removed her from the tub and, as she stood beside him, he took aim at her mother's head and pulled the trigger.

'Denises last thoughts were probably: "My daughter is next,"' Arnold said. 'It makes me so heartbroken. It just wrecks me

'When somebody dies, it just feels a million times worse when their last thoughts are of utter despair and terror. I had been hoping it had happened so fast that it wasnt time for her understand.'

Jayme's face was plastered on billboards across Wisconsin as the desperate search dragged on

Arnold has been haunted by the gruesome, blood and brain-spattered scene described in the criminal complaint in the week since it was released. The gunshot to the head left Denise 'with the rear backside of her head and skull plate completely removed and lying next to her body in the bathtub'.

'I wanted to know. I had to know  to give myself some closure. Unfortunately, with some closure came a whole new level of terror for me as a mom,' Arnold said.

'I lock my doors at night, but thats not good enough if somebody wants in,' she continued. '[Denise] did everything she could. They were barricaded in the bathroom hiding.

'When youre in your house, you do feel safe. That guy had a mission and there was nothing stopping that. Mothers everywhere, are feeling extra protective of their kids.'

She also pointed out the grim reality that even if she laid down her life to protect her own children, as Denise and James did, it doesn't necessarily mean they'll be safe.

'Yes, I will die for my kids, but then you realize that doesnt mean my kids are going to be okay,' she said.

Jayme was found at the Eau Claire Acres estate near the town of Gordon, which is about 70 miles away from her home in Barron where she was abducted

The image above shows the cabin in rural Wisconsin where Patterson allegedly held Jayme

After the cold-blooded murders, Patterson threw Jayme in the trunk of his car and drove her to his come in Gordon, Wisconsin, about 70 miles away.

For nearly three months he kept her in a space under his twin-sized bed and concealed her from view. She tried to escape at least twice, leading Patterson to throw a tantrum, hitting the wall and screaming to make her fearful to try to leave again.

On the day of her escape he told her he was leaving for a few hours. She stumbled out of the home on Thursday January 10 and approached a woman walking her dog in Eau Claire Acres in Gordon telling her she was kidnapped and her abductor killed her parents. The woman took her to a neighbor's house where they called police.

Patterson was arrested the same day and charged with two counts of first-degree homicide, one count of kidnapping and one count of armed burglary, according to the complaint. He is being held at Barron County Jail.

Arnold watched his court Monday court appearance on the news. She said: 'That was hard  just to see this guy. You feel like its happening all over again.'

Patterson was arrested the same day and charged with two counts of first-degree homicide, one count of kidnapping and one count of armed burglary, according to the complaint. He is being held at Barron County JailThe RAF are appealing for people to come to the funeral of a 101-year-old Dambusters engineer and his wife who have no family.

Victor and Edna Barnett, from Telford, Shropshire, met in the air force and were married for 68 years but have no children or surviving relatives.

Hundreds of people on social media have now shared an appeal for guests to attend the funeral of the couple.

Mr Barnett joined the RAF in 1937 and worked on the first radar system that detected German planes during the Battle of Britain, according the the BBC.

Victor (left) and Edna Barnett (right), from Telford, Shropshire, met in the air force and were married for 68 years but have no children or surviving relatives

The war hero then went on to help prep Lancaster bombers for the Dambusters for the 1943 raid on German dams.

He even went on to befriend 'bouncing bomb' inventor Barnes Wallis, according to the BBC.

Mr Barnett, also known as VJ, met his wife Edna, who worked in the air traffic control for the Women's Auxilliary Air Force, the following year.

But sadly Mr Barnett died on December 21 after 68 years of marriage with his wife dying just 10 days later on New Year's Eve.

Squadron Leader Chris Wilson told the BBC: 'The fact he was in the air force was enough for us, the fact he has done something extra special makes it all the more relevant.

Mr Barnett (pictured) joined the RAF in 1937 and worked and worked on the first radar system that detected German planes during the Battle of Britain

'The person who contacted us said they were utterly devoted to one another so it is unsurprising that she died so soon after her husband.'

RAF Cosford is planning to send servicemen to bear their coffins on a funeral on Tuesday after a friend informed them of their death.

RAF Cosford tweeted an appeal on Thursday. They wrote: 'There will be a service at Telford Crematorium for Victor (VJ) & Edna Barnett on Tue 22 Jan at 10.00 am.

'VJ was a radar technician on 617 Sqn and Edna was a WAAF air traffic controller. They died within 10 days of each other and have no surviving family.'

The tweet has already received an overwhelming response from users , with some offering to attend with cadets and others planning to travel across the country.

RAF Cosford tweeted an appeal on Thursday and is is planning to send servicemen to bear their coffins on a funeral on Tuesday after a friend informed them of their death

One user wrote: 'Awaiting approval off to attend with some of our cadets from 83 St Georges Sqn AT'.

Another said: 'I live in Telford and will make sure I am there to pay my condolences.. I am also sharing this on social media in Telford area'.

One said: 'I live in Telford and I will attend. This couple deserve respect and recognition for all their work. Bless them both'.

One wrote: 'Trying to sort train tickets now from London'.Bhaiyyaji clarifies if mandir work starts now, itll be ready by next Maha Kumbh.

New Delhi: In a desperate bid to keep the emotive Ram Mandir issue simmering ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the RSS on Friday had to issue a clarification after its second-in-command Bhaiyyaji Joshis remarks on setting a new 2025 deadline for the temple was perceived as a jab directed at the Narendra Modi government. Both the RSS and Mr Joshi later asserted that he had not said that the temple construction would begin in 2025, but that its construction should begin now so it is completed by the time the next Maha Kumbh takes place in 2025. The Sangh Parivar-affiliated dharamsansad of saints and seers is likely to make a major announcement during their conclave starting on January 31 in Prayagraj, the venue of the ongoing Kumbh Mela.

With the crucial Lok Sabha polls just around the corner, Mr Joshis remarks at Prayagraj on Thursday at an event setting a new 2025 deadline for the temple set political circles abuzz with the speculation that the RSS had lost hope that the temple would be built in the tenure of the BJP government. For the past few months, the RSS-led Parivar had been building up pressure on the Modi government to start the temple construction, with the VHP setting the recent Winter Session of Parliament as the deadline for an ordinance on the subject, which was criticised by the Opposition as a poll gimmick aimed at the BJPs core votebank and the Sangh Parivar cadre.

However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made it clear that an ordinance on the Ram Mandir would arise only the judicial process was over and the Supreme Court gives its verdict.

1952 mein Somnath mandir ki sthapna ke saath desh gati se aage badha... 2025 mein Ram Janmabhoomi ke upar mandir banane ke baad fir is disha ko aur gati prapt hone wali hai... Ayodhya ke mandir nirmaan ke baad desh agle 150 saalon ke liye punji praapt karega (With the construction of the Somnath Temple in 1952, the country grew... with the construction of the Ram Mnadir in Ayodhya in 2025, the country with again grow and will develop for the next 150 years), the RSS leader said at the Kumbh Mela event in Prayagraj on Thursday.

However, when asked about his remarks on Friday, Mr Joshi said the RSS wants the temple to be constructed and it should be built by 2025, but that it was up to the government to decide.

(20)25 ko shuru karne ki baat nahi ki hai... aaj shuru hoga to paanch varsho mein banega (I did not say that the construction should begin in 2025, but should be complete by then if it starts today), said Mr Joshi. The RSS also released a statement after Mr Joshis earlier remarks sent out a negative message on the issue.Advertisement

A bank was attacked, a government building was vandalised and rioting broke out next to Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb as 84,000 anti-government Yellow Vests demonstrated all over France for the 10th weekend in a row.

Protesters threw firecrackers, bottles and stones at police who used tear gas, water cannon, flash ball guns and baton charges to push them back at Les Invalides, where the body of the former French emperor and military leader lies in a sarcophagus underneath a golden dome.

According to official figures, the biggest demonstration on Saturday occurred in the southern city of Toulouse, where around 10,000 people took part. The demonstration turned violent as evening fell, as protesters vandalised a bank and other shops.

Eight people were injured and there were 23 arrests.

There were also disturbances in Bordeaux, Lyon and Marseille, while the local government building was attacked in Angers, northwest of Paris.

Protesters wearing yellow vests are seen behind a fire as they attend a demonstration of the 'yellow vests' movement in Angers, France

Riot police officer take position in front of the Invalides dome after a yellow vest demonstration, which is near to where Napoleon is buried

Firefighters douse flames outside a regional branch of the Banque de France (Bank of France) following clashes between protesters and gendarmes in Angers

The chaotic scenes came as 84,000 anti-government Yellow Vests demonstrated all over France for the 10th weekend in a row

A police officer walks by a fire at the scene of a demonstration by the 'yellow vests' in Angers, following another weekend of carnage all over the country

Police stand near a fire burning in the road during an anti-government demonstration by Yellow Vests in Bordeaux

In Paris, some demonstrators carried mock coffins symbolising the 10 people who have died during the protests, mainly due to accidents when demonstrators blocked roads.

Macron has launched a series of national debates to help quell public discontent and restore his standing.

However, Angers member of parliament Matthieu Orphelin, a member of Macron's ruling 'Le Republique En Marche!' party, said he would cancel talks with members of the Yellow Vest movement in light of the trouble in Angers.

'It fills me with fury to see our beautiful town attacked in this way, in particular the damage caused to symbols of the Republic,' Orphelin said in a statement.

A firefighter tries to extinguish a fire during the demonstration in Angers, one of several to take place all over France today

A protester hold a placard reading RIC, the acronym for Citizen's Initiated Referendum, near a fire facing police in Bordeaux

French riot police restrain a yellow vests protester before taking them into custody during a demonstration in Paris today

The protester, who was arrested, was restrained by several riot police officers and could be seen protecting their head on the ground

French yellow vests protester climbs a post during today's demonstration around Invalides Square in Paris

An injured yellow vests protester lies on the ground during demonstration against deteriorating economic conditions around Invalides Square in Paris

Today's ugly scenes came on the 10th Saturday in a row of violence that now routinely reduces the capital city to a war zone

The Vests have been protesting since November 17 and, despite a range of concessions by President Macron they continue to call for him to step down

By 5pm there had been around 30 arrests in the Paris areas, many of them of suspected rioters carrying potential weapons

'There are hundreds of CRS riot police and gendarmes engaged, and they are being attacked,' said an officer at the scene at Les Invalides.

'Thousands of demonstrators are in the area, and some are becoming very violent indeed. Everything is being done to protect Les Invalides.'

In previous weeks national monuments including the Arc de Triomphe itself have been vandalised during disturbances caused by the Yellow Vests, who are named after the high visibility motoring jackets they wear.

Today's ugly scenes came on the 10th Saturday in a row of violence that now routinely reduces the capital city to a war zone.

There were 5,000 police and gendarmes standing by for trouble in the French capital, and it started in the later afternoon when a march reached Les Invalides.

'Macron Resign', the crowd chanted, as they called for President Emmanuel Macron to resign, throwing bottles and any other missiles they could find.

Within minutes huge white clouds of tear gas were smothering the area, covering rioters, as well as tourists..

By 5pm there had been around 30 arrests in the Paris areas, many of them of suspected rioters carrying potential weapons.

Large parts of the Champs had been blocked off using armoured cares and water cannons, but the Yellow Vests still appeared in large numbers.

The Arc de Triomphe was severely vandalised and had graffiti sprayed all over it on December 1st causing a national outcry.

Mr Macron has since pledged that any attempt to damage it will be treated with the 'most severe action possible.'

There were 5,000 police and gendarmes standing by for trouble in the French capital, and it started in the later afternoon when a march reached Les Invalides

This protester, wearing a Scream mask, vandalises a vehicle during another day of passionate yellow vests protesting in Paris

The Yellow Vests have said that their protests would continue indefinitely as they campaign for even more concessions

A man waves a French flag on January 19, 2019 in Paris during a demonstration called by the yellow vests

'Street medics' give assistance to injured protesters on January 19, 2019 in Paris during a demonstration called by the yellow vests

A police officer aims after a yellow vest march. In previous weeks national monuments including the Arc de Triomphe itself have been vandalised during disturbances caused by the Yellow Vests

There were similar demonstrations other French cities and towns today, as more than 50,000 police and gendarmes were mobilised nationwide.

The Vests have been protesting since November 17 and, despite a range of concessions by President Macron including scrapping green taxes of diesel and petrol, continue to call for him to step down.

Protestors have been joined by extremists from the far Right and the ultra-Left, as well as anarchists intent on causing as much damage as possible.

Crisis-ridden Mr Macron has not only climbed down on imposing green surcharges, but increased the national minimum wage by seven per sent, and scrapped tax on bonuses.

But the Yellow Vests said their protests would continue indefinitely as they campaign for even more concessions.

The independent Mr Macron, leader of the Republic On The Move party, won the French presidential election in a landslide in 2017, but he is now dubbed the 'President of the Rich' with polls showing his popularity rating down to just 18 per cent.

A car is destroyed during the rioting in Paris by masked thugs, some of whom are wearing yellow vestsPresident Donald Trump's fury over a border wall continues to flare as he blames Mexico for failing to stop caravans from marching into the U.S.

'Mexico is doing NOTHING to stop the Caravan which is now fully formed and heading to the United States,' he tweeted Saturday morning.

'We stopped the last two - many are still in Mexico but cant get through our Wall, but it takes a lot of Border Agents if there is no Wall. Not easy!' he added.

His tweet comes as the partial government shutdown enters its 29th day and as he prepares to deliver a speech Saturday afternoon rallying yet again for his controversial border wall that Democrats have continuously rejected.

President Donald Trump has blamed Mexico for failing to stop migrant caravans from entering the U.S.

On Saturday he said 'Everybody knows that walls work' foreshadowing his 3pm EST speech where he'll talk about the border wall

On Saturday morning he briefly spoke to reporters foreshadowing his government shutdown remarks scheduled for 3pm EST where he'll fight for his border wall with the hopes that Democrats will meet him halfway.

'As you know the caravans are coming up, they have a big one coming up now. I'm disappointed that Mexico is not stopping them. I mean, Mexico seems unfortunately powerless to stop them,' he said.

'If you had a wall, we wouldn't have this problem. The walls we fixed and built hold beautifully, but we have a lot of open areas, and it is too bad,' he added.

Trump claimed that previous caravans were successfully stopped in Mexico and are now in Tujuana.

'I don't know what they're doing there, but they're not in our country, that I can tell you,' he said, urging reporters to tune into his speech.

'I hope that speaker Pelosi can come along and realize what everybody knows, no matter who it is, they know that walls work and we need walls. And whether it is personal or not, it is not personal for me,' he said, claiming the Speaker of the House is 'controlled by the radical left'.

On Monday the largest group of migrants ever entered the U.S. illegally through seven small openings (one seen above) that were burrowed under the border barrier

The group of 376 Central Americans 'inundated agents' agents after crossing the border near Yuma, Arizona on Monday. They are seen above on the US side in an aerial image

The migrants immediately surrendered to Border Patrol and requested asylum

CBP said 200 of the group were minors, and that nearly all the rest said they were their parents

The migrants in the group will likely be released into the U.S. within 20 days, due to rules that prevent detaining parents and children together for longer than that

'Everybody knows that walls work. You look at different places, they put up a wall, no problem. You look at San Antonio, you look at so many different places, they go from one of the most unsafe cities in the country to one of the safest cities immediately,' he added.

'We have to put them up and we will put them up. We have to. I think we're making a lot of progress. You know, we're building the wall as we speak. Nobody covers that, and I understand that, but we're building wall as we speak.'

The president echoed his previous statements saying that people coming from Mexico are human traffickers, drug pushers and criminals.

Just this week Border Patrol said what they believe is the largest single group of migrants ever crossed the border through illegal tunnels.

On Monday a massive group of 376 migrants - including 200 minors - squeezed past a 12-foot border fence near Yuma, Arizona by burrowing through tiny holes dug under the old barrier.

The Border Patrol has said that smugglers transport large groups to the border and then instruct them to cross and turn themselves in.

The migrants 'inundated agents' as they poured in one after one through the tiny crawl space and surrendered to Border Patrol to request asylum.

Customs and Border Protection said 200 of the group were minors, and that nearly all the rest said they were their parents, meaning that they will likely be released into the U.S. as their asylum claims are processed.

'If you had a wall, we wouldn't have this problem. The walls we fixed and built hold beautifully, but we have a lot of open areas, and it is too bad,' Trump said on Saturday morning

Honduran migrants heading to the U.S. with a second caravan rest on the international border bridge between Guatemala and Mexico

Honduran migrants hold their Visitor Pass for Humanitarian Reasons issued by the Mexican government on Friday before they head towards the U.S.

Officials said that most of the group entered the U.S. through seven small openings burrowed under the border barrier.

The crossings took place at a remote stretch of border where old fencing is about 12 feet high and the ground is sandy. Stretched thin, CBP has only three agents patrolling the 26-mile section of border.

President Donald Trump's administration had tried to forbid migrants from requesting asylum after crossing the border illegally, but that move was struck down by a federal judge in November.

'The only thing that solves that problem is a change in the law,' CBP Yuma Border Sector Chief Anthony Porvaznik told ABC News.

'The only reason they're trying to say that they're family units is that they know if they're a family unit, they're going to be released within 20 days,' Porvaznik said.

Porvaznik said that he had worked for CBP for 30 years and had never been part of an arrest of a group as large as the one on Monday.

He said that 87 percent of the apprehensions in Yuma Sector are family units and unaccompanied alien children

By Thursday, hundreds of the asylum seekers were being held in cinderblock cells with thick glass windows as CBP agents worked to process them and provide humanitarian needs, ABC reported.

The asylum seekers were separated into cells: fathers with sons, fathers with daughters, unaccompanied minors and mothers with children.

One man in the group told the network that he left Guatemala eight days ago and made most of the trip by bus along with his 12-year-old daughter, paying a coyote $5,000 to get them to the border.

He planned to travel to San Diego after leaving the processing center. The father said he left a wife and two younger daughters back in Guatemala.

On Wednesday, a separate group of 247 people illegally crossed into the U.S. near the Antelope Wells Port of Entry in New Mexico.

In New Mexico, a separate group of 247 (above) illegally crossed into the U.S. near the Antelope Wells Port of Entry on Wednesday

Border Patrol said that the group in New Mexico (above) immediately surrendered and requested asylum and medical care

The group, which included many juveniles, surrendered to authorities for processing and most requested immediate medical care.

The CBP said that since the beginning of October, 24 groups of more than 100 migrants have crossed the border near Lordsburg, New Mexico.

Parents with children now reportedly make up more than 80 per cent of those caught crossing the southern border illegally.

Last month, CBP said it took 20,000 juveniles into custody after illegal crossings, including both unaccompanied minors and those traveling with parents.

The vast majority surrender immediately upon crossing to claim asylum.

Trump has declared the situation at the border a national security and humanitarian crisis, and demanded $5.7 billion in border wall funding from Congress.

Deadlock over the demand led to the partial federal government shutdown, which entered its 29th day on Saturday and is now the longest in U.S. history.

Central American migrants heading to the United States with a new caravan walk alongside the road between Ciudad Hidalgo and Tapachula southern Mexico on Friday

The new caravan of Central American migrants is seen trekking north on Friday

The new caravan (above) crossed into Mexico on Thursday and is determined to reach the US

Caravan migrants load onto a truck in Tapachula, Chiapas State, Mexico on Friday

The showdown comes as another migrant caravan makes its way north toward the U.S. border.

Mexico's National Migration Institute said on Thursday that 969 migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua had crossed into Ciudad Hidalgo.

One recent study, by the New York-based Center for Immigration Studies, estimated that in 2017 more people entered the U.S. illegally by overstaying temporary visas than by crossing the border illegally.

That study also estimated the number of illegal immigrants currently in the U.S. at 10.7 million. Another recent study by MIT Sloan and Yale professors estimated that number at 22 million.Advertisement

A mother-of-two who broke her wrist after being involved in a terrifying car crash with Prince Philip on Thursday has revealed how she is 'lucky to be alive' after the collision and that the Duke of Edinburgh is yet to apologise to her.

Emma Fairweather, 45, was a passenger in the Kia involved and has told friends that she is 'unhappy' with the way Buckingham Palace has handled the accident, which took place close to Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

She added that she has heard nothing from the palace, despite officials previously saying that contact had been made and well wishes exchanged.

The Kia was driven by a 28-year-old woman, whose nine-month-old baby was also in the car.

Prince Philip was earlier spotted behind the wheel of his brand new Land Rover today just two days after flipping his car in a horror crash.

In photos taken by MailOnline, The Duke of Edinburgh, 97, can be seen driving into the main entrance gate to the Sandringham estate on his own without a seatbelt on Saturday afternoon.

Prince Philip has been spotted behind the wheel of his brand new Land Rover today just two days after flipping his car in a horror crash

Emma has reportedly complained to friends that she has been left feeling 'overwhelmed' by the experience of the crash, especially as it involved the Duke of Edinburgh.

Speaking in the Mirror, she described how the crash happened 'in slow motion' and says she 'couldn't stop screaming'.

The latest photos of Prince Philip come less than 48 hours after he was left bloodied and shaken when his car 'somersaulted across the road' after colliding with a Kia on the A149 in Babingley, Norfolk.

Witnesses revealed Philip was shaking and pleading 'get me out' after his Land Rover crashed while he was out driving alone without a protection officer.

A motorist who swerved around the wreckage said the duke was 'hanging from his seat' and saying 'my leg is trapped'. Four rescuers had to free him from his upturned vehicle.

And, astonishingly, the Queen was later pictured driving on a public road little more than a mile from the scene of the accident without a seatbelt.

Palace officials admitted last night that Philip was taken to hospital on doctors' advice, despite initially insisting he was unhurt.

It emerged last night that a nine-month-old boy and two women were in the car that hit the prince's vehicle as he pulled out onto a main road near the Queen's Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

The Duke of Edinburgh, 97, could be seen driving the car on his own without a seatbelt into the main entrance gate to the Sandringham estate on Saturday afternoon

It comes less than 48 hours after he was left bloodied and shaken after his car 'somersaulted across the road' after colliding with a Kia on the A149 in Babingley, Norfolk

None of the trio were seriously injured and the Duke of Edinburgh exchanged 'well-wishes' with them.

The duke passed a police eyesight test on Saturday, a source confirmed.

However he is now facing a police probe over the accident - which could lead to a charge of dangerous driving - and could be forced to surrender his driving licence.

Despite this, a replacement Land Rover Freelander, bearing his distinctive number plate, was delivered to Sandringham yesterday.

The female driver of the Kia, 28, sat in a police car wrapped in a paramedics jacket while cradling her nine-month-old son in the aftermath of the crash.

The shocked mother hurt her knee which had to be wrapped in a dressing.

Her 45-year-old mother suffered a broken wrist and was taken to hospital but was later discharged. The baby, who was rescued from the Kia's back seat, appears to have been unhurt.

A driver claims Prince Philip almost crashed into her as near Sandringham estate before his shocking crash on Thursday (pictured)

The female driver of the Kia, 28, can be seen sitting in a police car cradling her nine-month-old (circled) baby in the aftermath of the crash

Philip is believed to have just left Sandringham, marked in red, and was turning on to the A149 at this junction when he collided with a Kia and his car cartwheeled on to the other side of the road, circled blue

According to one eyewitness, the Kia, driven by a 28-year-old mother, 'T-boned' the duke's car and ended up in a hedge with smoke coming from the engine.

Norfolk Police said the force would investigate the crash, meaning the duke is likely to be interviewed by officers.

A statement said: 'As is standard procedure with injury collisions, the incident will be investigated and any appropriate action taken.'

Motoring experts said it was likely police would ask Philip to voluntarily surrender his driver's licence because of his age.

A royal spokesman confirmed that he was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn yesterday morning for a precautionary check-up on doctor's advice but 'had no injuries of concern'.

The spokesman added: 'Contact has been made privately with the passengers in the other car and well-wishes exchanged.'

The Queen was spotted driving her Range Rover without a seatbelt a day after Prince Philip's crash, little more than a mile from the scene of her husband's accident

Motoring experts said it was likely police would ask Philip (pictured at the wheel near Balmoral last year) to voluntarily surrender his driver's licence because of his age

Man claims Prince Philip almost ran his father off the road in the 90s near Sandringham - before sticking his MIDDLE FINGER up at the shocked driver A man has claimed that Prince Philip almost ran his father off the road near the Sandringham Estate in the 1990s. Rob Stevenson sensationally added that the Duke of Edinburgh stuck his finger up at him in the near-miss two decades ago. He claimed that his father was forced to dramatically swerve to avoid hitting Prince Philip. Rob, 29, from King's Lynn, Norfolk told the Mirror: 'He nearly ran my dad off the road in Sandringham years ago. 'It was back in the 90s when I was a child. 'It was on the back roads to the Sandringham Estate, he came speeding round a corner and forced my dad to swerve. 'As he passed my dad he stuck his middle finger up at him. My dad was driving a Ford Escort. Dad swerved to avoid a crash and hit the brakes, he didn't have time to react in any other way.' Advertisement

Under UK law it is compulsory to wear a seatbelt if there is one fitted but the Queen is immune from any civil or criminal proceedings.

Buckingham Palace insisted the monarch was careful to ensure she privately complied with the law.

When asked if Philip had ever passed a driving test, a royal spokesman made no comment.

It also emerged that in the aftermath of the accident, Philip was able to walk over and ask the occupants of the other car: 'Is everyone else alright?'

It is thought that his Land Rover may have been armoured, which could have helped protect him.

Retired barrister Roy Warne and grandfather Glenn Watson bravely rushed to help Philip out of the wreckage.

Mr Warne said: 'I was driving home and I saw a car  a black Land Rover  come out from the side road on the right and there was a huge collision with another car.'

Witnesses yesterday revealed the 97-year-old was shaking and pleading 'get me out' after his Land Rover crashed (aftermath pictured) while he was alone and without a protection officer

A motorist who swerved around the wreckage (aftermath of crash pictured) said the duke was 'hanging from his seat' and saying 'my leg is trapped'. Four rescuers had to free him from his upturned Land RoverThe ex-husband of a Texas mom found shot dead with her two young daughters has questioned the murder-suicide ruling by a medical examiner.

Carlos Montez said he knows Nichol Olsen, 37, would not have done anything to harm her two girls after all three were found shot dead inside their San Antonio home in a gated community.

The medical examiner ruled this week that Nichol's death was suicide, and her daughters London Bribiescas, 10, and Alexa Montez, 16, were homicides.

But Alexa's father, Carlos, told Khou 11 that Nichol was a 'good mother' and she 'could not have done this'. He said he wants 'the truth to come out'.

He said: 'Even to this day, our relationship as ex-spouses was great. We never fought or argued when it came to Alexa. I never doubted her choices as a mother. She always made great decisions.

'We all have our suspicions and what we suspect, but I'm not going to blatantly say what I think. But I can know and say Nichol could not have done this.

'The home she was living in, we just feel it wasn't a great place for our children to have been loved.'

Scroll down for video.

The deaths of Nichol's daughters, 10-year-old London, left, and 16-year-old Alexa, right in left photo, have been ruled as homicides. The death of Nichol, pictured with her boyfriend Charles Wheeler right, was ruled suicide by the medial examiner

Alexa's father Carlos Montez said Nichol would not have done anything to harm her two girls

It comes as authorities revealed Olsen fought with her live-in boyfriend, Charles Wheeler, 31, on the night of her death.

Wheeler, who is a person of interest but has not been named as a suspect, reportedly spent the night at a relative's residence out of town after the argument.

Friends of the couple are said to have told investigators that theirs was 'not the happiest of relationships'.

And Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar insisted it's too early to write the deaths off as a murder-suicide and revealed that the investigation was still ongoing.

He said: 'We can't just say, "Oh, well then she must've been the one that did this to these two little girls." We still have to go out and find out who it was that killed these two young ladies.'

'Our investigation may concur with the medical examiner,' the sheriff said. 'Or we may find something through the course of our investigation that may change that finding all together. At this point, it's just too early to tell.'

Nichol, left, lived in the $1m home with her daughters and her boyfriend Charles Wheeler, right. Wheeler called 911 at 9am, saying he had just returned home and discovered them

The home where Nichol Olsen, her 10-year-old daughter, London Bribiescas, and 16-year-old Alexa Montez were found

Both girls were shot in the head and London, left, also sustained a wounded to the neck. Alexa, right, was a high school cheerleader and London was in the fifth grade

Wheeler returned home at 9am the following morning and found Olsen dead of a gunshot wound to the head inside their $1million residence in the 11300 block of Anaqua Springs.

Both girls were also shot in the head, and London, a fifth-grader at Leon Springs Elementary School, also sustained a wounded to the neck.

A gun was recovered near Olsen's body, but no suicide note was found, reported the San Antonio Express-News.

Wheeler's attorney, Mark Stevens, asked the public not to jump to conclusions and demonize his client, who he said did not commit the crime.

Nichol's boyfriend Charles Wheeler, left, is considered a 'person of interest' but not a suspect in the case

Wheeler told police he returned to the $1million home where they lived on January 10 and found the bodies. His attorney said his client did not commit the crime

Wheeler owns an oil rigging and maintenance business. The couple had argued on the night of the three deaths, according to authorities

Friends of the mother-of-three told DailyMail.com: 'Nichol was a loving mother who cared deeply for her children. They were her entire world, and there was nothing she was more proud of than her kids.'

They have started a GoFundMe page called Searching For The Truth.

Before her marriage to Carlos, she was briefly married to James William Nobles. The pair have 22-year-old son together.

She did not marry London's father, Hector Bribiescas. He has not commented publicly since his daughter's death.

For confidential support call the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255This is the the first picture of a two-year-old Spanish boy who has been trapped in a 250ft well for nearly a week.

Rescue teams trying to reach the boy trapped inside a well in Spain are expected to start drilling a new vertical tunnel today.

Officials announced late last night that they were just 10 feet away from digging out an 82ft deep chunk in the hillside and creating a platform from which powerful drills will start the job of creating the new vertical tunnel running parallel to the one Julen Rosello has spent nearly a week in.

Rescuers hope the drilling will take around 15 hours - although the race against time to reach the youngster as soon as possible means proper surveys have not been carried out and rock underground could cause further delays.

First pictures of two-year-old Julen Rosello, the Spanish boy who fell down a 15 inch wide bore hole at a countryside property near Malaga

Drilling work at the area where Julen, fell into a deep well six days ago close to the private estate, in Totalan, southern Spain

Rescue workers continue efforts to find toddler Julen Rosello, who fell down a narrow, 100-metre-deep borehole last Sunday

One of the drilling machines, described as the most powerful in Spain, was taken off a job on a motorway near Madrid so it could be used in the rescue operation.

Stage three of the operation will involve mine rescue experts flown in from northern Spain earlier this week digging out a 13-foot-long horizontal tunnel by hand from the point the drills reach to the 10-inch-wide borehole Julen is in.

The miners are expected to start their dig around 250ft down the new tunnel, the same depth as a blockage of sand, earth and rocks Julen is thought to be trapped in or under.

The rescue operation is now focusing on the constructing of a vertical tunnel running parallel to the borehole after work on a horizontal tunnel faced technical difficulties

A special capsule capable of supporting the weight of two people and oxygen equipment has been created so Julen can be brought out alive if he survives what is set to be at least seven days underground.

Police and private sector experts involved in the extraordinary operation say they are still clinging to the hope the youngster is surviving in an air pocket with water and they can pull off what would undoubtedly be one of the most spectacular rescues of all time.

Thousands of well-wishers from around the world have also lent their support by posting pictures of their hands on social media alongside the hashtag: 'MimanoaJulen' which in English translates literally as 'MyHandtoJulen' and messages of encouragement.

A massive rescue operation is underway in a race to reach the two-year-old boy, who has been missing for five days

Julen's devastated parents Jose Rosello and Vicky Garcia, 29, are now staying at a house lent to them by a Good Samaritan after being asked to leave the hillside where they spent most of the past five days for their own safety.

The property is near the town of Totalan and close to the scene of the ongoing operation a half-hour drive north east of the Costa del Sol capital of Malaga where the couple are from.

The massive rescue operation swung into motion last Sunday afternoon after Julen plunged down a tiny 350ft borehole as his dad prepared a lunchtime paella on family-owned land.

Engineer Angel Garcia, in charge of the rescue operation, talks to the press about the building of a vertical tunnel to reach toddler Julen Rosello

The hole was made by a prospector at the request of Jose's cousin's boyfriend to search for water.

The prospector has told police he complied with the law by sealing the hole after it was made but Julen's family say it had simply been covered with stones that weren't properly laid.

Recalling the moment he realised Julen had disappeared down the borehole as he prepared lunch with friends and relatives including a cousin, Jose told a Spanish TV programme earlier this week: 'I was putting some more wood on for the fire and ran towards him.

This is the first footage of the inside of the 240ft stretch of tunnel separating rescuers from the two-year-old boy

'My cousin was a bit nearer and threw herself on the ground as I reached the orifice.

'He had already gone. I heard him cry at first but then I didn't hear him cry anymore.' In an interview with Malaga-based paper Sur he added: 'My wife went to phone into work to let them know she wasn't going.

'She was with Julen and asked me to keep an eye on him as she made the call. He was only a few feet away.

'I went to get a couple of logs for the fire for the paella and he began to run.

'We saw how he fell down the hole, my cousin more than me because she was closer.' Julen's brother Oliver died aged three two years ago after suffering a heart attack thought to be linked to a congenital heart defect.

The boys' gran Reme Garcia has been asking Oliver to protect his little brother from Heaven in heart-wrenching messages posted on social media.

Angel Garcia, the engineer leading the search and rescue teams who is updating journalists on progress every day from the scene, told reporters yesterday/on Friday: 'Right now it's as if Julen was the child of us all.

'If your child was there you'd do everything you could to look for him, wouldn't you!! Well, we're doing everything we can too.'Zia Rashid, 23, is only three inches shy of the being the tallest man

Zia Rashid, 23, is only three inches shy of the world record for the tallest man on earth

Pakistan's tallest man - who stands at a massive eight feet high - has admitted he is struggling to find love due to his size.

Zia Rashid, 23, is only three inches shy of surpassing the world record for the tallest man on earth.

But Mr Rashid, from Multan in Pakistan's Punjab province, said he has been unable to find a life partner who is tall enough for him.

He said: 'I've not been able to find my life partner so far. I've not find someone who is tall enough for me. It is almost impossible.

'Also, my family has struggled to find a match for me. They took my marriage proposal to several families but no one showed interest in me.

'Personally, I've stopped thinking about it.'

Apart from finding love, Mr Rashid also faces problems finding clothes that fit, shoes of his size and even being able to travel on buses.

He said: 'I can't find ready made clothes of my size in the market. A tailor makes clothes for me and I have to order shoes from Karachi.

'The biggest problem for me is I can't travel on public buses. I can't sit in the seats because there is not enough leg space in public buses.'

But Mr Rashid, from Multan in Pakistan's Punjab province, said he has been unable to find a life partner who is tall enough for him (pictured, Mr Rashid with his family members)

Mr Rashid said he was of a normal height during his childhood but things changed at the age of 10.

He said: 'At the age of 10, suddenly my height started increasing. My whole body became weak.

'Doctors said that the weakness was due to calcium deficiency and advised me to eat calcium rich food.

Apart from finding love, Mr Rashid also faces problems finding clothes that fit, shoes of his size and even being able to travel on buses

'But within a year, I became tallest person in our family.'

Mr Rashid has also not been able to find a job so far but is hopeful the local government will recognise his uniqueness and offer him a job.

But despite his height often causing him problems, it has also made Mr Rashid very popular.

Over the years, he has been invited to several private events in Dubai and Saudi Arabia and has recently received an invitation from Zimbabwe.

Mr Rashid (pictured at the Pakistan airport) said he was of a normal height during his childhood but things changed at the age of 10

He said: 'Despite all the odds, I feel proud of my height. I feel proud that I'm different from others.

'It gives me a lot of happiness that because of my height people come and take selfies with me.

'I get a lot of love and attention from people and that makes me feel proud.'

The tallest man on earth is currently Turkish farmer Sultan Kosen - who stands at 8 foot 2.82 inches tall.Advertisement

Unknown gunmen shot dead two Buddhist monks and injured two others in an attack at a temple in Thailand's mainly Muslim south, the first such killing of a Buddhist monk in the restive region in more than three years.

An abbot and vice abbot were killed when at least six assailants believed to be dressed as members of a government security force burst into the Rattanupap temple in Narathiwat province and opened fire late on Friday, police said.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha and religious leaders condemned the attack in the mainly ethnic Malay province, the scene of a long-running insurgency against Thai rule.

Two Buddhist monks have been shot dead and several have been wounded after gunmen attacked a monastery in Thailand

Six gunmen believed to be dressed as members of a government security force burst into the Rattanupap temple in Narathiwat province and opened fire late on Friday

Survivors pointed at bullet holes in the walls of the monastery which is in a southern region of Thailand

'The prime minister condemns this outrageous act and has ordered officials to quickly investigate the incident and apprehend these criminals,' the prime minister's office said in a statement.

Thai Muslim leaders also spoke out against the shooting of monks.

'We urge perpetrators of violence in the southern border provinces from all sides to stop killing innocent people and religious leaders,' the Sheikhul Islam Office, which represents Thailand's Muslim minority, said in a statement.

Police said the assailants were still at large.

A separatist insurgency has dragged on in southern Thailand for more than fifteen years. More than 6,900 people have been killed and 13,000 injured in the area since 2004 when violence intensified, independent monitoring group Deep South Watch says.

Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist country but Muslim Malays are a majority in three southern provinces bordering Malaysia.

The three provinces, and a small part of neighbouring Songkhla, were part of a sultanate annexed by Thailand in 1909. Separatist tensions have simmered ever since.

As with most violence in Thailand's deep south, there was no claim of responsibility for Friday's attack. Buddhist and Muslim leaders as well as state officials have often been targeted by insurgents.

At least 23 monks have been killed and a further 20 wounded between 2004 and 2015 during violent attacks

According to Rakchart Suwan of the Buddhist Network for Peace, many Buddhists are leaving the region out of fear of attack

An alms bowl at the temple, pictured, was riddled with bullets as a result of yesterday's attack

Military police have begun an investigation in an effort to track down the attackers, who are believed to be members of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN)

At least 23 monks have been killed and more than 20 wounded since 2004, but there has not been an attack on monks since 2015. An imam was shot on January 11, also in Narathiwat province.

The killings have added a religious dimension to a conflict that initially was rooted in ethnic and national tensions.

'Many Buddhists, not just in the south but across the country, are feeling aggrieved by Muslims, and it will take time for that to change,' Rakchart Suwan, chairman of the Buddhist Network for Peace, told Reuters.

Analysts said the latest incident showed that insurgent group Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) retained significant military capacity despite government efforts to wipe it out.

'Regardless of BRN's specific objectives with this attack, the Thai government would be very foolish not to consider the danger of a toxic communal atmosphere in the south which could get out of control,' Anthony Davis, an analyst with defence and security publisher Jane's, told Reuters.

The Thai military government has taken part since 2015 in talks brokered by Malaysia that aim to end the violence but the BRN has stayed out of the dialogue.

That process was stalled last year and Bangkok has signaled that it will return to the talks this year.A Tesco shopper has blasted 'patronising' customer service who gave her a lesson in Latin when she complained about an insect in her lunch.

Siobhan Neiles, from Ashford, Kent, was disgusted to find what she thought was a mosquito in her tomato and basil vegetable pot and decided to complain in the hope of an apology.

The 33-year-old was shocked when a member of the customer service team identified himself as 'somewhat of an entomologist' and corrected her.

Missing the point of her complaint, they resorted to Latin and added that the mosquito was in fact a fly from 'from the family Simuliidae'.

A Tesco shopper has blasted 'patronising' customer service who gave her a lesson in Latin when she complained about an insect (pictured) in her lunch

Siobhan Neiles (left), from Ashford, Kent, was disgusted to find what she thought was a mosquito in her tomato and basil vegetable pot (right)

They wrote: 'I'm somewhat of an amateur entomologist so you'll be pleased to know the insect is most certainly not a mosquito and appears to be a fly from the family Simuliidae.

'This doesn't make the discovery any more pleasant but hopefully your fears associated with it possibly being a mosquito have been quelled.'

They added: 'Our Great British climate makes it all but impossible for mosquitos to survive here.'

Ms Neiles said: 'To be honest I would have left the whole thing if they had sent me an apology in their response and a refund of the money I spent.

'I haven't received either and got the patronising response back.'

The 33-year-old was appalled when a member of the customer service team and identified himself as 'somewhat of an entomologist' and corrected her

She added: 'It's almost like he was making a joke of it. And he isn't even correct, there are over 30 species [of mosquito] in the UK.'

Ms Neil had posted about finding the insect in hr lunch on Facebook. She wrote: 'When you're at work tucking in to what you think is a healthy lunch to find a massive dirty mosquito in your veg pot.'

'Thanks Tesco - now I feel sick. Hopefully you wash and quality check these better next time. I've thrown the other two I have purchased in the bin.'

A Tesco spokesperson said: 'Although our customer service colleague was trying to help in his own way, we appreciate that this does not meet our usual high standards and we apologize to Siobhan for her experience.

'We are in contact with Siobhan so we carry out an investigation into the product as well as arrange a refund and gesture of good will.'Advertisement

Thousands of demonstrators marched through London today ahead of the anniversary of Donald Trump's inauguration as President.

The now-annual march first took place on January 21, 2017, with hundreds of thousands of women gathering across the world, including in London and in Washington DC.

This year's protest had the theme 'bread and roses', in honour of American Rose Schneiderman who fronted a rally of the same name in 1912.

Bread and roses originated from a speech by Ms Schneiderman, in which she said 'the worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too' - meaning workers should be entitled to a life where they are doing more than just surviving.

Protesters gathered in Portland Place, Marylebone, at 12pm, as part of a rally against austerity in the UK, before making their way towards Trafalgar Square.

Thousands of demonstrators held signs bearing slogans including 'austerity is misogyny', 'women's rights are human rights' and 'Brexit wrecks it'.

Writing about the event on the Women's March website, organisers said: '[Austerity] is the common denominator in the rise of economic oppression, violence against women, gender pay gap, racism, fascism, institutional sexual harassment, hostile environment and Brexit.

'Mostly impacting marginalised groups of people in the United Kingdom who are the many not the few.

'With the imminence of Brexit, we want austerity to end and are demanding specific assurances from the UK government.

'It is time to eliminate the dividing line between the "Haves" and "Have Nots". Equality demands that we all get to thrive and not just survive. We demand Prosperity not Austerity.'

Thousands of demonstrators marched through London today ahead of the anniversary of Donald Trump's inauguration as President

One woman held a sign referencing the outcry over the use of a rape victim's thong in a court case in Cork to imply she had consented

Another held a placard saying 'teach girls to be somebodies instead of somebody's' and 'men of quality don't fear equality'

The now-annual march first took place on January 21, 2017, with hundreds of thousands of women gathering across the world, including in London and in Washington DC

Transgender activist Munroe Bergdorf joined protesters for the women's march through central London today

A woman wearing a flower crown holds up a sign featuring a depiction of ovaries with an angry face and the caption 'we are not ovary-acting'

One woman criticized Theresa May's cabinet, while another used the explicit song My Neck, My Back by Khia for inspiration

One woman dressed up as a suffragette for the protest through central London earlier today. The march began at 12pm

Writing about the event on the Women's March website, organisers said: 'With the imminence of Brexit, we want austerity to end and are demanding specific assurances from the UK government'

This year's protest had the theme 'bread and roses', in honour of American Rose Schneiderman who fronted a rally of the same name in 1912

The theme of this year's march was 'bread and roses', and focuses on rallying against austerity in the UK

The title is in honour of American Rose Schneiderman who fronted a rally of the same name in 1912. Pictured: women holding up signs against the tampon tax, and referencing the Avril Lavigne song Girlfriend

Bread and roses originated from a speech by Ms Schneiderman, in which she said 'the worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too'

Protesters hold up signs from various charities including Refuge, who help with women and children affected by domestic violence, and Bloody Good Period, who provide sanitary products for those who can't afford them

Others held placards featuring Frida Kahlo, a feminist icon who used her art to explore gender and identity questions

Others held signs saying 'if you're not angry, you're not paying attention!' The rally was in support of equality and justice and against violence

Signs held by protesters today were provocative, hilarious and thought-provoking. One placard read 'viva la vulva', while another used rape conviction statistics to show that in just three out of 100 rapes the rapist will spend any time behind bars

This woman created a 'close the gap' sign using the Transport for London roundel as a reference to the pay gap between the genders

Others used quotes from Audre Lorde to say: 'I am not free while any woman is unfree even when her shackles are very different from my own.' Ms Lorde was a prominent American activist who focused on racism, sexism, classism, and homophobiaThe sister of slain Israeli student Aiia Maasarwe has revealed details of the chilling final phone call they shared moments before she was allegedly raped and murdered.

Ruba Maasarwe's recounting of her late-night safety call came after homeless rapper Codey Herrmann, 20, faced court on Saturday charged with killing her sister.

Aiia Maasarwe's body was found half-naked near the Polaris Shopping Centre in the northern Melbourne suburb of Bundoora on Wednesday morning after she was attacked while walking home the night before.

'We spoke on the phone on FaceTime. We spoke about the stand-up comedy she saw and when we would next meet,' Ruba told Israeli TV station Channel 13.

'Suddenly I heard her scream. I heard vehicles in the background of the call like there was a phone on the floor.

'There was no sign during the conversation of the horror about to happen.

'I heard her screaming and screaming and then the call was cut off.'

Ruba Maasarwe (left) the sister of murdered Israeli student Aiia Maasarwe (right) has detailed the chilling FaceTime call they shared before she was allegedly raped and murdered - which cut off to the sound of 'yelling and shouting'

Aiia Maasarwe's father Saeed said he was trying to stay strong for Ms Maasarwe's mother and his other three children

'We spoke on the phone on FaceTime. We spoke about the stand-up comedy she saw and when we would next meet,' Ruba said of the late-night call with her sister (pictured)

Ruba Maasarwe's recounting of her late-night safety call came after homeless rapper Codey Herrmann (pictured), 20, faced court on Saturday charged with killing her sister

It has also been revealed the 21-year-old exchange student died of head injuries and had suffered blunt-force trauma.

The 86 tram she caught home did not have CCTV installed but police no longer believe she was stalked on the way home, the Herald Sun reported.

It was previously suspected Ms Maasarwe was followed after a night out in the city watching a comedy show, but police now believe the attack was random.

Specific details of her gruesome killing have been removed from court documents at the request of police.

Senior Constable Craig Williams said he didn't think it was necessary for the details to be released.

'Some of the specific words in there aren't known to the family,' he said.

Self-described aspiring rapper Codey Herrmann (pictured), was charged with rape and murder on Saturday

Ms Maasarwe had spent the night at a comedy club before boarding the 86 tram from Bourke Street, heading to her home in Bundoora. She left the tram around midnight. Her body was discovered in scrub, nearby, the next day

Her father Saeed, who on Saturday met with Prime Minister Scott Morrison, said he was trying to stay strong for Aiia's mother and his other three children.

'It gives us a sense of comfort knowing that person has been charged,' Mr Maasarwe said.

'Our compass in this world and our life is not to point towards hatred and revenge.

'We don't have any other option but to be strong so we can pass through this very difficult time and painful stage and to continue living, providing for the other three girls, to support them and give them what they need.'

Ms Maasarwe's body has yet to be returned to Israel and is still with the Victorian Coroner.

Saeed Maasarwe has pleaded to be allowed to take his daughter home to Israel so she could be buried as soon as possible, in accordance with his Islamic faith.

Her father said he wanted her body to be given to the family earlier, but was hopeful authorities would do so by Monday.

Mr Maasarwe said his daughter had planned to extend her stay in Australia before she was violently killed.

Ms Maasarwe's cousin Manar said Aiia told her Australia was 'wonderful' and encouraged her to visit the country.

'I told her ''it's a long flight, it's going to take a long time''. She said ''I know but you have to come here and see this. It's wonderful. I am enjoying everything'',' Manar said.

The accused, who was arrested on Friday at a picnic shelter in Greensborough, ten kilometers away from the crime scene, wore a green t-shirt at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Saturday as he sat with his head lowered in the dock.

The particulars of the rape charge have not yet been released, with the court told some of the 'specific words' aren't yet known to the family.

Flowers were laid and candles lit to remember the tragic death of Ms Maasarwe in Bundoora on Friday

Mr Morrison and his family visited the memorial where Ms Maasarwe's body was found at the Bundoora shopping centre.

'Later today I'm going to be meeting with her father; words will fail me, I'm sure, as one father to another,' he told reporters.

'I think the country is very shaken by it but at the same time, as always, reaches out and seeks to comfort.'

Floral tributes continued to be laid at the site on Saturday after two vigils at nearby La Trobe University and in the Melbourne CBD.The Congress will be represented by senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

New Delhi/Kolkata: On the eve of Mamata Banerjees United India rally in Kolkata on Saturday Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday extended his support to Mamata Di by writing to her and saying that the event will send a powerful message of a united India together. The Congress chief is likely to skip the event and send senior party leaders to represent the Grand Old Party.

The rally, many feel, is a bid to project the West Bengal chief minister as the face of the Opposition and a possible prime ministerial candidate  an aspiration Ms Banerjee shares with Mr Gandhi. The Congress and Ms Banerjees Trinamul Congress are rivals in Bengal.

Mr Gandhis message to the Trinamul chief came a day after Ms Banerjee underlined the need for unity among regional parties to tackle the BJP instead of forging an alliance with the Congress which has recently been dumped by the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) as an alliance partner for the Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, who has already reached Kolkata, said that the nation is waiting for a new Prime Minister and a message of change would go out loud and clear from the mega Opposition rally.

The country wants a new Prime Minister. The country is waiting for a new Prime Minister, Mr Yadav said at the NSC Bose Airport.

The message that will go from Bengal and from Didi (Banerjee) will be the message for change, he said.

Ms Banerjee did not react to Mr Gandhis letter but her nephew and Trinamul MP from Diamond Harbour, Abhishek Banerjee, said, Many leaders from various political parties are coming to attend this rally. You have seen Rahul Gandhi has sent a message to the chief minister. So I think it is going to be a crucial political juncture.

The rally to be held at Kolkatas historic Brigade Parade Ground will be attended by more than 20 national leaders, including former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, former Union ministers and BJP rebels Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha and Arun Shourie; three present chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal, N. Chandrababu Naidu and H.D. Kumaraswamy; as well as former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Akhilesh Yadav and Gegong Apang, TMC sources said. DMK chief M.K. Stalin, BSPs Satish Mishra and RJDs Tejashwi Yadav will also be present. Most of the leaders have already arrived in the city.

The Congress will be represented by senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

In his letter to Ms Banerjee, Mr Gandhi wrote, I extend my support to Mamata Di on this show of unity and hope that we send a powerful message of a united India together.

In a Facebook post, he said, The entire Opposition is united in our belief that true nationalism and development can only be defended on the tested pillars of democracy, social justice and secularism, ideas that the BJP and Mr Modi are intent on destroying.

We commend the great people of Bengal who have historically been at the forefront of defending our ideals, wrote Mr Gandhi.

According to Trinamul sources, Ms Banerjee was keen that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi attends the rally. However, neither of the Gandhis would be present on the dais on Saturday.

Talking of Mr Gandhis letter, West Bengal Congress president Somen Mitra said, The Congress will offer moral support to those who will fight the BJP unitedly. This is the context of Mr Gandhis letter. The AICC has extended its moral support in the battle against the BJP.

The BJP took a swipe at the Congress president over his support to Ms Banerjees Opposition rally in Kolkata on Saturday, saying it is natural that he will remember didi after behenji, a reference to BSP supremo Mayawati who recently announced an alliance with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh after dumping the Congress.

At a press conference, BJP leader and Union minister Smriti Irani said the rally, which is expected to see the presence of a number of Opposition leaders, exposes the saffron partys rivals as it suggests that they cannot fight it on their own.

Asked about Mr Gandhis letter of support to the West Bengal chief ministers show of Opposition strength, she said, When behenji has abandoned (him), then it is natural that he will remember didi (Mamata).

A thick security blanket has been thrown around the sprawling Brigade Parade Ground. Besides huge stages, 20 watch towers have been erected and 1,000 microphones and 30 LED screens have been put up so that the spectators can see and hear the speeches of the leaders clearly.

Lakhs of TMC supporters and workers are expected to attend the rally and a huge number of them from various corners of the state have already started pouring into the city. They have been lodged in auditoriums and stadiums.

Hundreds of TMC volunteers will be on the grounds to take care of supporters. As many as 10,000 police personnel will be deployed and around 400 police pickets have been set up to ensure foolproof security, the police said.An imaginative portrait of Jeff Bezos surfing on a rocket was auctioned off at the Living Legends of Aviation Awards in Los Angeles.

The Amazon CEO was presented with the inaugural 'Jeff Bezos Freedom's Wings Award' during the event at the Beverly Hills Hilton on Friday night - his first public appearance since his divorce announcement and the reveal of his affair with Lauren Sanchez.

The sleek tuxedo he was sporting paled in comparison to the space suit seen in the jazzy portrait, painted by Michelle Rouch.

An imaginative painted portrait of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos surfing on a rocket was auctioned off at the Living Legends of Aviation Awards in Los Angeles on Friday night

The Amazon CEO was presented with the inaugural 'Jeff Bezos Freedom's Wings Award' during the star-studded event - his first public appearance since his divorce announcement and the reveal of his affair with Lauren Sanchez. Bezos is seen above with TV anchor Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe (right)

In the painting, a muscly Bezos is seen balancing atop a rocket bearing the name of the spaceflight company he privately funds, Blue Origin.

The wave he's riding blends into an abstract starry-sky background.

Around 25 Living Legends had signed the black and silver painting frame.

Artist Michelle Rouch is pictured above at the event. She is known for her space-inspired work

Artist Michelle Rouch is known for her space-inspired pieces. Her work is influenced by her background in engineering, according to her personal website.

She donates many of her paintings to philanthropies, including the Boy Scouts of America, Congressional Award Advisor, EAA & Kiddie Hawk Air Academy.

'In the past 6 years, her art-work has generously raised nearly $100,000 for kids, who are interested in learning about aviation,' her site says.

It's unclear how much the Bezos painting went for at auction, or who the lucky winner was.

Other artwork bearing the Amazon founder's face were also featured in the auction.

Photographer Hayman Tam shared photos from preparations for the ceremony - including snaps of some of the auction items on Instagram.

'Some very nice aviation art that will be auctioned off during the Living Legends of Aviation awards event. Jeff Bezos is one of this years inductees,' he wrote in the caption.

In the painting, a muscly Bezos is seen wearing a sleek blue and gold space suit and balancing atop a rocket named after the spaceflight company he privately funds, Blue Origin

Another painting of Bezos at the ranch in Texas where Blue Origin is based was shared by photographer Hayman Tam

Bezos gave a speech after receiving his award. The Living Legends of Aviation honors 'remarkable people of extraordinary accomplishment in aviation including: entrepreneurs, innovators, industry leaders, astronauts, record breakers, pilots who have become celebrities and celebrities who have become pilots', according to its website

Bezos wore a proud smile as he accepted his award and hung the medal around his neck.

In the future, he will select the award's recipient from nominees offered by the legends and The Washington Post, which Bezos owns.

According to its website, the Living Legends of Aviation honors 'remarkable people of extraordinary accomplishment in aviation including: entrepreneurs, innovators, industry leaders, astronauts, record breakers, pilots who have become celebrities and celebrities who have become pilots.

'The Legends meet yearly to recognize and honor individuals that have made significant contributions in aviation'.

The ceremony was hosted by Emmy-winning actor John Travolta, who recently debuted his new shaved head - joining the ranks of other bald men like Bezos.

Oscar-nominated actor Harrison Ford, a pilot, also presented an award.

The event was hosted by actor John Travolta, who recently showed off his new shaved head look

Not in attendance at the event was Bezos' new love, TV anchor Sanchez.

However, the pair are expected to attend this year's Oscar ceremonies on February 24, according to sources familiar with the relationship.

'Expect to see Lauren joining Jeff [at the Oscars]. They are an item and very much in love,' a source explained to Page Six.

'They were not hiding their relationship and were very relaxed at the [Golden] Globes.'

Bezos and Sanchez were practically joined-at-the-hip during the Golden Globes ceremony, just days before their affair was made public along with the news that he was divorcing wife MacKenzie.

Bezos has gotten well acclimated to the Hollywood award scene.

Last year, he attended an Oscar-eve bash that Patrick Whitesell - Sanchez's husband - hosted with WME and IMG.

Sanchez is still living with Whitesell in their LA home.

Not in attendance at the event was Bezos' new love, TV anchor Sanchez. They are pictured together at an event in 2016

Earlier on Friday, Bezos was spotted boarding his private luxury jet in Seattle and disembarking in LA.

The billionaire wore brown pants, a blue button-up shirt and a brown puffer vest for the flight.

It was the first time the 55-year-old had been seen since he and wife MacKenzie Bezos announced their divorce and after news of the CEO's affair was made public with salacious and racy texts.

Earlier on Friday, Bezos was spotted boarding his private jet in Seattle. It was the first time the 55-year-old was seen after he and wife MacKenzie Bezos announced their divorce

He was later seen disembarking in Los Angeles before heading to the award ceremony

According to sources, Bezos and Sanchez will appear at a number of events in the coming months, including the Oscars on February 24Four juvenile males between the ages of 14 and 12 have been charged with kidnapping and raping a girl.

Kabarshenay Ellis-Pinkney, 14, Louis Miller and Joseph James-Carter, both 13, and Ja'den Glover, 12 were arrested on Wednesday in New Castle County, Delaware on first-degree rape and kidnapping charges.

Police say that the four dragged a girl into a home in Bear, a suburban community about 11 miles southwest of Wilmington, on December 11 and forcibly raped her.

A police spokesman told DailyMail.com that the victim was under the age of 18, but could not reveal her specific age due to privacy concerns.

After the assault, Miller and James-Carter went on to threaten the victim with a weapon and warn her not to tell anyone what had happened, according to police.

Louis Miller, 13, (left) and Joseph James-Carter, 13, (right) were charged with threatening the victim with a weapon in addition to rape and kidnapping

Kabarshenay Ellis-Pinkney, 14, (left) and Ja'den Glover, 12, (right) were also arrested and charged with participating in the rape in New Castle County, Delaware

Detectives from the New Castle County Division of Police Family Services Squad launched an investigation and identified the four suspects.

After executing search warrants, police said they found further evidence tying the four suspects to the crime, and arrest warrants were obtained.

All four were arrested without incident and charged with felony counts of first-degree rape, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree conspiracy, and second-degree unlawful sexual contact, according to police.

Miller is also charged with one count of felony possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony, one count of felony aggravated menacing, one count of misdemeanor terroristic threatening, one count of misdemeanor theft under $1,500, and one count of misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child.

Police say that the four juveniles dragged the girl into a home in this neighborhood in Bear, Delaware and forcibly raped her

James-Carter is also charged with one count of felony possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony and one count of felony aggravated menacing.

Miller is being held in lieu of $65,500 secured bail. The other three suspects are being held pending cash bail of $104,000.

It was unclear whether the four had lawyers who could speak on their behalf.

Police say that the investigation led them to be concerned that there may be other victims.

Anyone with information pertaining to the case is urged to contact New Castle County Police at 302-395-2745.Cabinet minister Kelly O'Dwyer has revealed the heartbreaking reason she decided to quit politics.

Ms O'Dwyer made a shock announcement yesterday that she would not recontest her inner-Melbourne electorate of Higgins at this year's election.

She stressed the decision was not related to accusations of bullying against women in the Liberal party.

'I've made this decision for personal reasons that relate to me and my family and that's just the truth,' she said in a shock announcement to the press.

The 41-year-old revealed a history of struggling to try to start a family with her husband Jon, undergoing a series of IVF treatments and suffering a miscarriage in Parliament House.

'I never ever want that to happen again,' she said.

Cabinet minister Kelly O'Dwyer (pictured with husband Jon, son Edward and daughter Olivia) has revealed the heartbreaking reason she decided to quit politics

The Minister for Industrial Relations and Jobs and Minister for Women was in Parliament House when she tragically lost her baby.

Away from the support of her husband Jon and working at the highest levels of government only added to her heartbreak.

Ms O'Dwyer has had two children through IVF and said she and her husband hoped for another one, via the same treatment.

Her daughter Olivia is three-and-a-half years old and her son Edward is 20 months old.

'I am so thankful to have Edward and Olivia and I don't want to be greedy,' Ms O'Dwyer said.

Ms O'Dwyer (pictured with Edward and Jon) stressed the decision had nothing to do with speculations of a toxic gender culture in her party

The Liberal cabinet minister also said she wanted to escape the busy grind of politics to spend more time with her children.

'Their childhood is so short and I want to be there for them.'

Ms O'Dwyer's shock decision was kept so secret, her closest staff only found out an hour before the announcement - as it is, the Higgins seat is held by a 10.5 per cent margin.

She said she visited a 'supportive' Scott Morrison on Tuesday to inform the Prime Minister of her choice to leave the seat.

The 41-year-old (pictured with former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull) revealed a history of struggles in trying to start a family with a series of IVF treatments and a miscarriage along the way

On the day of the announcement, Mr Morrison heaped praise on Ms O'Dwyer and called her a 'great woman'.

While Ms O'Dwyer will not re-contest her seat, she said she would campaign for the Liberal Party at the upcoming election.

She will keep her ministerial duties for the rest of this term of parliament.

Her resignation comes on the back of a bumpy 2018 for the Liberal Party in which it went through a leadership change and faced allegations of bullying and intimidation against female party members.

On the day of Ms O'Dwyer's (pictured) announcement, Mr Morrison heaped praise on the cabinet minister and called her a 'great woman'Many city-dwellers have resided themselves to a lifetime of renting rather than buying thanks to ever-increasing property prices - but new analysis shows some suburbs could be affordable after all.

New data shows that in some suburbs of the country's capital cities it's actually more cost-effective to buy a home outright rather than rent.

Unfortunately for those in Sydney and Melbourne it might be time to consider relocating, as neither area is considered as affordable to buy - despite the recent plummet in property prices.

Fortitude Valley (pictured) and the historic riverside inner suburb of Teneriffe are two well-priced Brisbane suburbs

Brisbane (pictured) has 140 suburbs that are more beneficial to buyers rather than renters

While the New South Wales and Victoria capitals remain well-above the average person's price range, plenty of other places offer a great rate for would-be house buyers, according to news.com.au.

According to the data released by realestate.com.au, the Queensland capital comes up trumps in terms of having plenty of suburbs for house hunters to pick from.

There are 140 suburbs in Brisbane where data suggests buying would be more beneficial than renting.

The trendy Fortitude Valley and the historic riverside inner suburb of Teneriffe are just two places that top the list for wannabe home owners.

Another area that comes with a bargain price tag is the up-and-coming Newstead, with the analysis estimating the median property price is $647,500, which means homeowners could save $111 more a month than their renting counterparts.

Elsewhere in Adelaide's Kent Town, an inner urban suburb, if a perspective home owner borrowed 80 per cent up front to pay for a property a median price would work out at just $455,000, which would make the monthly repayments as little as $1673.

Buying in Kent Town (pictured) would save home owners around $775 per month compared to renters

Campbelltown and Kent Town are two areas of Adelaide wannabe home owners should pay a visit to

While renters in that area are expected to stomp up a staggering $2448, which means they'd lose an extra $775 every month.

And just 5km from Perth's Central Business District, in Glendalough, happy homeowners can expect to see a positive buy-to-rent ratio of $539.

25 suburbs of Canberra have a better deal for buyers rather than renters, and Hobart has a total of 35 suburbs which will save home owners some cash.

The up-and-coming Newstead (pictured) comes with a bargain price tag for house hunters

Longwarry (pictured) is cost-effective for house hunters but is over 30km away from the Melbourne city centre

And if house hunters refuse to leave Sydney or Melbourne, they may be forced to move further afield in a bid to get a bang for their buck.

Airds, which is a situated a staggering 56km from the cities Central Business District, is a suburb where property purchasers can get a better deal than renters.

While Diggers Rest and Longwarry are the only two areas in the Melbourne to offer a decent deal, but both places over are 30km away from the city centre.Barnaby Joyce is expecting a second baby son with partner and former staffer Vikki Campion.

The former Nationals leader, 51, broke the news to both the Joyce and Campion families, including his estranged wife Natalie and their four daughters.

Following weeks of speculation among party insiders Mr Joyce finally confirmed the news, The Sunday Mail reported.

The couple's second pregnancy has left his daughters fuming, as it has reopened old wounds for the family he left behind.

Barnaby Joyce shares Sebastian (pictured) with Vikki Campion following a controversial affair with the former staffer and the breakdown of his 24-year marriage

Odette Joyce, Bridgette Joyce, Natalie Joyce, Caroline Joyce and Jules Joyce (pictured) were reportedly 'disgusted' by a tell all interview involving Barnaby Joyce and his new partner Vikki Campion

A close friend said the new baby will be named Thomas after Mr Joyce's grandfather.

'The girls are rightly furious about their father's latest baby news,' the friend said.

The baby is believed to be a boy due in June, when the couple's first son Sebastian will be 14 months old.

The friend also said Ms Joyce had battled on through the love child scandal and had never been stronger.

'She's back working full time and spends every waking hour being the best mum she can for the girls. It has been a humiliating journey for the five of them but she's incredibly resilient,' the friend said.

Mr Joyce, who currently sits on the backbench, is rumoured to be preparing for a political comeback while Nationals leader Michael McCormack struggles.

Mr McCormack has reportedly lost support from colleagues following the 'sugar baby' scandal and revelations he knew about the incident before the story broke.

But it's believed Ms Campion may push to follow him on the campaign trail in a bid to work her way back to her old role as political adviser.

Following weeks of speculation among party insiders, Barnaby Joyce (pictured) finally confirmed the news

The former Nationals leader, 51, broke the news to both the Joyce and Campion families, including estranged wife Natalie (pictured left) and their four daughters (right to left: Odette, 16, Bridgette, 21, Julia, 20 and Caroline, 19)

'There is a real concern he may take Vikki on the campaign trail, which could really backfire and be the last nail in his political career,' the friend said.

Mr Joyce's political career took a hit when news of his relationship with Ms Campion broke, leading him to resign from his role as Deputy Prime Minister in February 2018.

Sebastian was born on April 16 after the couple's relationship went public in February, but the pair have since tried to keep their son out of the public eye.

Mr Joyce appears to have taken to his renewed role as a father figure, sharing a picture on Twitter of him washing his son on Christmas Eve.

'Bathing Seb and staring out window. Happy Birthday Jesus!' Mr Joyce wrote.

Mr Joyce (left), who currently sits on the backbench, is rumoured to be preparing for a political comeback amid the demise of Nationals leader Michael McCormack

His political career took a hit when the love child scandal broke, leading to Mr Joyce resigning from his role as Deputy Prime Minister in February 2018 (pictured Mr Joyce and Ms Campion

Mr Joyce and Ms Campion told their side of the love affair in June in a tell-all interview with Seven Night where they earned $150,000 - which went into a trust fund for their new baby son.

Ms Campion revealed she considered terminating the pregnancy but ultimately decided to keep the child, while Mr Joyce is opposed to abortion.

'Boy, man you caused me some problems,' Mr Joyce said of his baby son Sebastian during the interview.

'But it's all worth it. I just want him to be that little boy in the country.'

The couple revealed their relationship became romantic in late 2016 after becoming close while working together.

In April, Mr Joyce has said there were 'peculiar circumstances' surrounding the birth of his son, but his main focus is now being the 'best dad' he can be.

Following the affair, ex-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull introduced a ban on MPs having romantic or sexual relationships with their staffers.

Ms Campion said she considered getting an abortion but ultimately decided to keep the child

Mr Joyce admitted to 'living a lie' by continuing his public relationship with his wife while secretly being involved with Ms Campion.

The pair christened Sebastian in September, with images showing the pair lovingly holding their son out the front of Saints Mary & Joseph Catholic Cathedral in the northern NSW town of Armidale.

But Mr Joyce's daughters weren't in attendance for their stepbrother's big day.

Mr Joyce and his daughters have had a rocky relationship since the ex-National Party leader's highly-publicised affair tore his family apart.

The Joyce girls, Bridgette, 21, Julia, 20, Caroline, 18, and Odette, 15, were reportedly 'disgusted' by the $150,000 tell-all television interview with in June.

The interview reportedly created a further rift within the family that was torn apart over the affair.

In an interview with Women's Weekly in June, Ms Joyce said she was 'proud she stood up' to Ms Campion at his Tamworth electorate office last March.

'I was very measured. I didn't raise my voice. She and Barney were smoking outside. He bolted when he saw me,' Ms Joyce said.

'I turned to her and said, ''My husband is out of bounds, off-limits, he's a married man with four children'', and then I called her a home-wrecking wh***. It was not one of my finer moments but, looking back, I'm proud I stood up to her.'Imarni Chowdhury, 11, suffers from interstitial cystitis - a chronic disorder caused by deficiencies in the lining of the bladder

A girl who feels constant pain 'like having third degree burns' said she does not want to live to her next birthday.

Imarni Chowdhury, 11, suffers from interstitial cystitis - an incurable chronic disorder caused by deficiencies in the lining of the bladder.

The youngster, who also has epilepsy and narcolepsy, takes heavy doses of painkillers to deal with her condition as even passing urine can be excruciating.

Her father, Rahman Chowdhury, said she has 'not had a childhood' due to the extent of her pain.

He said: 'She has not had a childhood. People have no idea the extent of the pain. It is like having third degree burns or Stage Four cancer.

'When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday next week, she said she just wants to die.

'She is so poorly, she has missed a lot of her school classes. We can't do much as a family because we have to be beside Imarni constantly. All she can do is sit and watch cartoons on TV to take her mind off it.

'She suffers from epilepsy and narcolepsy. She used to love dancing and swimming and riding her scooter and it is hard for her to see her siblings jumping into a hot-tub or out riding on their bikes.'

The youngster, who also has epilepsy and narcolepsy, takes heavy doses of painkillers to deal with her condition as even passing urine can be excruciating

Mr Chowdhury said his family have been told there is a special gel available that could alleviate some of his daughter's pain.

But while specialists in Sheffield and Nottingham both agree this is available, they say it needs to be licensed so Imarni can be treated at home.

Mr Chowdhury said: 'We have been written to by the NHS who say it can only be provided by our primary carer, which in our case is Grimsby hospital. But they say they do not have the training to do so.'

Imarni's mother Susan, who suffers a similar condition, is treated at Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby. But the procedures she has access to aren't available to her daughter due to her age.

Irmani has a tube fitted in her stomach that allows her to pass urine into a bag.

Mr Chowdhury said this has been prone to infections over the past year - and he worries she could 'get sepsis and die'.

Her mother also said her daughter has been 'passed from one department to another' due to miscommunication at the hospital.

She said: 'It has been going on too long. It seems there is miscommunication and we get passed from one department to another.

Her father, Rahman Chowdhury, said she has 'not had a childhood' due to the extent of her pain

'It is so bad that she is terrified to go into hospital because she is in so much pain and knows all that has gone on in the past. It is difficult to explain to someone of such a young age. We want her to get the treatment she needs.

'Nottingham said they sent a letter to Sheffield and to Grimsby. They said they had not received a letter. Then five weeks letter they say they have got a letter but they do not have licence for the treatment to give to a child. I have seen the treatment that my daughter needs.

'The illness has no cure and most doctors don't have the knowledge about it and no one understands the pain the illness causes. I had the nerves around my bladder burnt off so that they do not spasm.'

Professor Prasad Godbole, Consultant Paediatric Urologist at Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust, said, 'At Sheffield Children's we work to provide the best treatment possible for our patients. We understand it can be frustrating to wait for specific treatment to be provided.

'Sometimes this is because the specialist treatments we recommend are not always available elsewhere. We are doing all we can to coordinate with local, regional and national NHS organisations in order to support our patients as safely and quickly as possible.'Donald Trump touched down at the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware where he respectfully saluted the caskets carrying the remains of the four Americans tragically killed in a suicide bomb attack in Syria.

The president visited the base to pay tribute to the lives lost in the deadly attack on Wednesday in the northern Syrian town of Manbij.

The president looked serious as he raised his arm during the moving ceremony that honored Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan R. Farmer, Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician Shannon M. Kent, former Navy SEAL and civilian Scott A. Wirtz and Arabic translator Ghadir Taher.

At least 19 people including the four Americans were killed when a suicide bomb detonated in a restaurant in the town on Wednesday, marking the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in Syria since American forces moved into the war-torn country in 2014.

President Donald Trump saluted the military honor guard that carried the remains of Scott Wirtz, one of the four Americans killed in a bomb blast in Syria on Wednesday. He honored them at a transfer ceremony at the Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware on Saturday

Prior to landing at the Dover Air Force base he told reporters: 'When I'm going to meet relatives of some of our great, great heroes that have fallen, I think it might be the toughest thing I have to do as president'

A U.S. Navy carry team moved the transfer cases of the American victims to the Dover Air Force base on Saturday, three days after the bomb blast in Syria

Trump and Secretary of Stat Mike Pompeo watched on as the Navy's carry team brought over the remains of Scott A. Wirtz who died in the violent suicide bomb attack in Manbij, Syria earlier this week

Victims Farmer, Kent, and Wirtz were identified by the Pentagon. The fourth victim was not named by the Pentagon but was said to be an interpreter.

She was later named as Ghadir Taher, a 27-year-old Arabic interpreter from Georgia.

Her brother confirmed her death in a statement issued by Valiant Integrated Services, the defense contractor that hired her, according to the Washington Post.

'We are extremely saddened by the tragic and senseless passing of Ghadir Taher. She was a talented and highly-respected colleague loved by many who will be dearly missed,' a Valiant spokesperson said.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack.

Prior to heading to the base Trump said: 'I think it is the toughest thing I have to do. When I'm going to meet relatives of some of our great, great heroes that have fallen, I think it might be the toughest thing I have to do as president.'

The Americans killed in a suicide bomb blast in Syria on Wednesday have been identified as Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan R Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Florida (left) and Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) Shannon M Kent, 35, (right) of upstate New York

Defense Department civilian Scott A Wirtz (left) of St Louis, Missouri, was also killed in the attack. The fourth victim is believed to be interpreter Ghadir Taher (right) of Georgia

President Donald Trump pictured boarding Air Force One Saturday morning to head to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to pay tribute to the four Americans who were killed during a suicide bomb attack in Syria on Wednesday

Trump walks with Pompeo (center) and acting U.S. Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan (second left) to meet the families of the four Americans who died in Syria after the suicide bomb attack

They walked onto a C-17 aircraft as the remains of the four Americans were returned to Dover Air Force Base from Syria on Saturday

With his eyes closed he paid his respects as guards moved the body of former Navy Seal who was working for the Defense Intelligence Agency

The transfer case was loaded into a vehicle then given a final salute

A member of the Air Force is seen securing the remains of Scott A Wirtz into a van during a dignified transfer ceremony

President Donald Trump pictured walking with acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan back onto Air Force One to return to Washington DC

'I've always said who are we killing ISIS for? You know, the worst enemy of Russia, Iran, Syria, you look at it, is ISIS. So we're killing ISIS for people that aren't necessarily always in agreement with us, let's put it that way. We have gone into Syria and in two years we have I guess reduced it to 99% of the territorial caliphate,' he added.

'We've been hitting ISIS very hard over the last three weeks ... and it's moving along very well,' the president said on American forces on the ground in Syria.

The attack comes about a month after Trump announced that ISIS militants were defeated and he will withdraw U.S. forces from Syria.

The bomb highlighted just how strong ISIS' grip on Syria still is and could complicate Trump's withdrawal plan. Some of his senior advisers have disagreed with the decision and have offered an evolving timetable for the removal of the approximately 2,000 U.S. troops.

Over the past month, Trump and others have appeared to adjust the Syria pullout timeline, and U.S. officials have suggested it will likely take several months to safely withdraw American forces from Syria.

In a December 19 tweet announcing the withdrawal, Trump had said, 'We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.'

He said the troops would begin coming home 'now.'

That plan triggered immediate pushback from military leaders and led to the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

A leading U.S. voice on foreign policy, Sen. Lindsey Graham, said during a visit Saturday to Turkey that an American withdrawal from Syria that had not been thought through would lead to 'chaos' and 'an Iraq on steroids.'

Graham urged Trump not to get out without a plan and said the goal of destroying IS militants in Syria had not yet been accomplished.

Trump stopped at the Dover Air Force Base to honor the four victims killed after a suicide bomber detonated explosives on Wednesday in Manbij, Syria

The attack took place after Trump announced he'd be pulling American troops from Syria

Aftermath of the deadly bomb in Manbij, Syria pictured above. It was the deadliest attack against Americans in Syria

Before Trump took off on Saturday, he briefly spoke with reporters, promising a speech at 4pm EST on the dragging government shutdown and border control.

He also shared some warning words for Pelosi from the White House lawn who he called 'controlled by the radical left'.

'I hope that Speaker Pelosi can come along and realize what everybody knows, no matter who it is, they know that walls work and we need walls. And whether it is personal or not, it is not personal for me,' he said Saturday morning.

'She's being controlled by the radical left which is a problem. She's under total control of the radical left. I think it is a very bad thing for her and very bad thing for the Democrats,' he added.

'Everybody knows that walls work. You look at different places, they put up a wall, no problem. You look at San Antonio, you look at so many different places, they go from one of the most unsafe cities in the country to one of the safest cities immediately,' Trump reiterated.

The government has been partially shut down for 29 days now, leaving hundreds of thousands of workers without pay.

Donald Trump said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is 'controlled by the radical left' while briefly speaking to reporters Saturday morning

He told reporters he'll speak on border control and the Shutdown on Saturday adding 'I hope that Speaker Pelosi can come along and realize ... walls work and we need walls'

On Saturday Trump is expected to present a third spending bill proposal, as his last two have been rejected Pelosi, according to CNN.

Raising the stakes in his heated dispute with Pelosi, a Democrat from California, the president abruptly canceled her military flight on Thursday, just hours before she and a congressional delegation were scheduled to fly to Afghanistan on a previously undisclosed visit to U.S. troops.

On Friday she accused Trump of threatening her security when he publicly revealed her plans to head to Afghanistan.

'When the Speaker of the House and about 20 others from Capitol Hill decide to book their own commercial flights to Afghanistan, the world is going to find out,' a senior White House official said to DailyMail.com via e-mail. 'The idea we would leak anything that would put the safety and security of any American at risk is a flat out lie.'

Trump also tweeted directly at her saying: 'Why would Nancy Pelosi leave the Country with other Democrats on a seven day excursion when 800,000 great people are not getting paid.'An Iowa couple convicted in the starvation death of their 16-year-old adopted daughter will likely spend the rest of their lives in prison.

A judge sentenced 41-year-old Misty Jo Bousman Ray to a life sentence without the possibility of parole and her husband, 43-year-old Marc Ray, to 80 years in prison.

They were arrested following the May 2017 death of Sabrina Ray, who weighed only 56 pounds and was severely malnourished when she died.

Misty Jo Bousman Ray pleaded guilty January 9 to one count of first-degree kidnapping and two counts of third-degree kidnapping involving two other adopted children who lived at her Perry home.

A judge sentenced Misty Jo Bousman Ray (left) to a life sentence without the possibility of parole and her husband Marc Ray (right) to 80 years in prison

Sabrina Ray, (pictured), who weighed only 56 pounds, was severely malnourished when she died

Prosecutors said the two girls and a third child who also lived with the Rays, a boy, are now thriving.

Marc Ray pleaded guilty last month to child endangerment causing death and three counts of third-degree kidnapping.

Judge Terry Rickers recounted disturbing details in a Dallas County courtroom as he handed down sentences to the couple, Des Moines Register reported.

'Sabrina lies there, malnourished, emaciated, diaper-clad, covered in various wounds and bruises. Her rash and skin barely cover her skeleton.

Judge Rickers added: 'Mr. Ray and Mrs. Ray, your actions and your treatments of your daughters in this case could be fairly described as both cruel and evil.'

Marc and Misty Ray sat less than 10 feet apart as prosecutors listed their crimes.

'Rather than love and care for these girls, the defendant locked them in a room, starved them, abused them, pitted them against each other, denied them basic necessities and used them as slave labor,' prosecutor Stacy Ritchie said.

The other adopted children delivered victim impact statements though representatives.

'You should have fed me,' one victim impact statement read. 'You should have given me something to drink.'

Both defendants broke down in tears during the sentencing but only Misty Ray chose to publicly apologize.

'It was my responsibility to protect and love our children and not cause them pain', she said. 'I failed as their mother.'

'All of this is my fault, and I want our children to know that they did nothing wrong. They were good kids who deserve better. I am so sorry.'

Family members cried in court as Judge Terry Rickers recounted disturbing details about Sabrina's death

Some family members cried in the gallery as the statements told horrors of abuse and neglect; one of the children wrote about wanting to kill herself.

One of the girls said in a statement: 'You caused so much trauma that I have flashbacks and nightmares.

'I have cut myself; I have run away; I have tried to tie shoestrings around my neck.'

Saying she and her siblings were never let out into the world, one girl wrote to the Rays: 'Now its your turn to be locked up.'

Prosecutors said the two girls and a third child who lived with the Rays, a boy, are now thriving.

Misty Jo Bousman Ray wipes a tear as she listens to victim impact statements in court

Marc Ray wipes his nose as he listens to victim impact statements prior to being sentenced

While they will live with long-lasting injuries, the girls are grateful for Sabrinas sacrifice 'so they could live', Assistant County Attorney Stacy Ritchie said.

Each parent will be ordered to pay restitution, including $150,000 both to the heirs of Sabrina.

Several family members were also accused of assisting in the abuse of Sabrina Ray.

Sabrina's brother, Justin Ray, 22, pleaded guilty in February to two counts of willful injury and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors said he drop-kicked Sabrina down a basement staircase, leaving her unable to walk, talk, eat or drink normally.

Sabrina's adoptive grandmother, Carla Bousman, 63, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to neglect of a dependent person and two counts of child endangerment, among other charges.

Judge Terry Rickers holds up a photo of Sabrina Ray prior to handing down sentences to her adoptive parents

Sabrina's adoptive brother 21-year-old Justin Dale Ray (left), grandmother Carla Bousman, 62 (center), and cousin Josie Raye Bousman, 20 (right) were charged in connection with the case

Prosecutors initially accused her of assisting in Sabrina's kidnapping and torturing before helping cover up her death.

Josie Raye Bousman, Sabrina's 21-year-old cousin, was charged with three counts of kidnapping, child endangerment causing death and obstructing prosecution.

Marc and Misty Ray, who ran a daycare center they called Rays of Sunshine Daycare at 1708 First Avenue in Perry, took in Sabrina as a foster child in 2011 and adopted her in 2013.

Officers found her adopted sisters in the room with her lifeless body when they arrived at the home.

In a report briefly unsealed in December, an officer called the home 'the most horrific scene in my entire career and life.'

Officer Josh Sienkiewicz said: 'It is hard to put into words the feelings that come over me  the smells, the pain, the anguish, the fear and the evil.'

In a statement, the new adoptive mother of one of the girls called Misty Ray a failed mother.

The woman said she hoped Misty thought daily about Sabrina and the milestones she would never see.

'You have earned the term monster,' she said. 'The remaining children, including my daughter, that were tortured in your care, have earned the term survivor.'Tory Dominic Grieve, pictured on Monday, is said to be working with a group of MPs, including Remain-supporting Labour rebels, to try and block a No Deal Brexit result

Plans to stop a No Deal Brexit by introducing a new amendment that would allow parliament to take control of the process have been revealed.

Tory Dominic Grieve is working with a group of MPs, including Remain-supporting Labour rebels, to try and block a No Deal result.

Under his amendment, a motion to stop No Deal could be put to Parliament if it is backed by 300 MPs. Legislation to stop No Deal by extending or revoking Article 50 would then be subject to a vote and would be likely to pass because a majority of MPs are against leaving the EU without a deal, according to Buzzfeed.

Traditionally only the government can propose legislation that changes UK policy and the move by Remain rebels is a challenge to the unwritten constitution on the UK.

Theresa May is due to address Parliament on Monday about Brexit 'Plan B' after her plan for leaving the European Union suffered a crushing defeat. A week of debate will then follow before MPs vote on their preferred Brexit option on Tuesday 29 March.

However this vote will have no binding power on May - and the plan by Grieve and his fellow Remainer backbenchers, from a range of parties, would be able to grab power from Theresa May's government and allow bills to be considered.

It is thought that the group of MPs will meet on Monday to discuss the plan again.

A senior parliamentary source told Buzzfeed the MPs plan was an attempt to change the referendum result.

Mrs May held talks with rival political leaders, pictured yesterday at Downing Street, to try to come up with a Brexit Pan B

They said: 'This is another example of centuries of procedure being overturned to suit an agenda that denies the referendum result.'

Last weekend, before the Brexit debate, it was revealed that the authority for drawing up a new negotiating plan could pass to a panel of backbenchers if Mrs May lost the vote.

The liaison committee, which is dominated by Remainers by a margin of 27 to nine, would be charged with coming up with a proposal supported by MPs.

The dramatic move would mean tearing up the Commons rule book  giving backbench MPs the power to propose legislation instead of the Government.

A senior minister described it as a copper-bottomed, bullet-proof plan to sink Brexit.

May's cabinet has been at war this week as they clashed over Britain's future.

Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt - a Brexiteer - went public in defence of crashing out of the EU - arguing it is better than accepting a bad deal.

But Amber Rudd, the Remainer Work and Pensions Secretary, hit back online tweeting a link to a CBI warning about the dangers of no deal to business.

Other ministers - led by Business Secretary Greg Clark and Justice Secretary David Gauke - have warned no deal is so bad they would resign to stop it.

Mrs May has held talks with rival political leaders to try to come up with a Brexit Pan B in the wake of her humiliating defeat.

She held a 'constructive' calls with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch PM Mark Rutte last night, and is expected to have more calls with EU leaders in the coming days.

Theresa May has also been dealt an ultimatum by her divided cabinet with pro-Leave ministers warning her not to water-down the deal.

What is an amendment and what is a motion? An amendment is a change to the wording of a Bill or a motion that is proposed by an MP or member of the House of Lords. A motion is a proposal put forward for debate or decision in the House of Commons or House of Lords. A motion must be proposed before any debate or vote can take place in Parliament. Source: Parliament.uk Advertisement

The Prime Minister has been told by Brexiteers she 'risks splitting the Conservative party' if she compromises and tries to gain Labour's support for her plan.

Mrs May has also faced questions from pro-EU ministers who want to vote on legislation that would mean Brexit isn't possible on March 29 without a deal.

Labour's conditions of support include pursuing a permanent customs union with the EU and removing the threat of leaving without a deal - which some Tory MPs would not be happy with, reports the Financial Times.

Mrs May faced rejection in the commons earlier this week when she was defeated by 230 votes - the biggest for a government in history, outstripping Labour in 1924.

However she defeated Jeremy Corbyn's no-confidence motion by 325 votes to 306 after the DUP and Tory Brexiteers came back into the fold despite dealing her a humiliation on her EU deal the night before.

EU officials have said they will not reopen talks on the deal until the government has worked out what could be approved in commons.President Donald Trump launched a blistering attack against fake news media and a 'disgraceful' BuzzFeed News report that claims he asked his lawyer to lie about Russia before Congress.

Trump briefly addressed reporters on Saturday before he boarded Air Force One for the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for a repatriation ceremony in honor of the four Americans who were killed in a suicide bomb attack in Syria this week.

'I thought that the BuzzFeed piece and maybe equally as bad the coverage of the BuzzFeed phony story... it was a total phony story... and I appreciate the special counsel coming out with a statement last night. I think it was a very appropriate they did so I appreciate that,' he said from the White House lawn.

'I think that the BuzzFeed piece was a disgrace to our country, it was a disgrace to journalism, and I think also that the coverage by the mainstream media was disgraceful,' he added.

He tweeted in a frenzy Saturday morning slamming the report that claims the president told his former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate project.

Robert Mueller's office has also released a rare statement disputing the accuracy of the report.

President Donald Trump headed to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware Saturday to honor the four Americans killed in a suicide bomb attack in Syria on Wednesday, and ranted about fake news media along the way

Before he boarded he dismissed the BuzzFeed report claiming he told his lawyer Michael Cohen to lie about Russia before Congress 'a disgrace'

President Donald Trump saluted the military honor guard that carried the remains of Scott Wirtz, one of the four Americans killed in a bomb blast in Syria on Wednesday. He honored them at a transfer ceremony at the Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware on Saturday

He paid his respects as guards moved the body of former Navy Seal who was working for the Defense Intelligence Agency

Trump and Secretary of Stat Mike Pompeo watched on as the Navy's carry team brought over the remains of Scott A. Wirtz who died in the violent suicide bomb attack in Manbij, Syria earlier this week

A U.S. Navy carry team moved the transfer cases of the American victims to the Dover Air Force base on Saturday, three days after the bomb blast in Syria

The surprise visit was not on the president's official schedule and he tweeted about the stop as he headed out of the White House Saturday morning

In his quick speech the president also teased his 4pm speech where he'll deliver remarks on the partial government Shutdown this afternoon, now in its 29th day, and attacked Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying she's 'controlled by the radical left'.

He's expected to deliver a third proposal to end the crisis and avoid declaring a national emergency. He's not expected to back down from his border wall demands.

Trump claimed on Saturday that his media coverage, including the controversial BuzzFeed report, has portrayed him as the worst leader in history.

'@newtgingrich just stated that there has been no president since Abraham Lincoln who has been treated worse or more unfairly by the media than your favorite President, me! At the same time there has been no president who has accomplished more in his first two years in office!'

His tweet came after Former Speaker of the House Gingrich slammed the BuzzFeed report as the 'equivalent of tabloids you buy at the grocery store'.

Minutes after announcing the trip, Trump continued Friday night's tirade against fake news media, saying Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich claims 'there has been no president treated worse or more unfairly by the media than me'

'You want to see a stock market crash, impeach Trump!' He continued to tout his success in office, saying the economy is its best in U.S. history

Fake news: Trump said media will have a hard time restoring credibility following news reports against him such as Buzzfeed's piece

Trump followed up with a tweet reiterating his fight for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border

Then he continued to tout his success in office, saying the economy is its best in U.S. history.

'The Economy is one of the best in our history, with unemployment at a 50 year low, and the Stock Market ready to again break a record (set by us many times) - & all you heard yesterday, based on a phony story, was Impeachment. You want to see a Stock Market Crash, Impeach Trump!' he added.

'Many people are saying that the Mainstream Media will have a very hard time restoring credibility because of the way they have treated me over the past 3 years (including the election lead-up), as highlighted by the disgraceful Buzzfeed story & the even more disgraceful coverage!' he tweeted Saturday morning.

The BuzzFeed piece claims the president directed Cohen to lie in his testimony to Congress about a Trump Organization tower deal in Moscow that continued through the summer of 2016.

Ben Smith, editor-in-chief at BuzzFeed, tweeted: 'In response to the statement tonight from the Special Counsel's spokesman: We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he's disputing'

BuzzFeed themselves posted the Peter Carr statement from the special counsel's office refuting their bombshell story

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office called the BuzzFeed story on Cohen lying on behalf of Trump 'inaccurate'

Ben Smith (left), editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed is sticking by the story co-written by Jason Leopold (right) and asking for clarification for what Mueller's office is disputing

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's department dismissed the BuzzFeed piece as false saying it is 'not accurate' but failed to point out any specific errors in a statement.

The special counsel's spokesman Peter Carr said: 'BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the Special Counsel's Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's Congressional testimony are not accurate'.

Despite such statements, BuzzFeed is standing their ground.

'As weve re-confirmed our reporting, weve seen no indication that any specific aspect of our story is inaccurate. We remain confident in what weve reported, and will share more as we are able,' BuzzFeed's Director of Communications Matt Mittenthal said to DailyMail.com.

The president called the report 'a very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country'.

Nicknamed the 'FOIA Terrorist,' Jason Leopold's colorful journalism career Jason Leopold is the senior investigative journalist for BuzzFeed who has worked with Anthony Cormier reporting on the Trump Tower Moscow project. He earned the nickname 'FOIA Terrorist' on Twitter due to a reputation for breaking stories from information found in Freedom of Information Act submissions. Leopold previously worked for or contributed to VICE News, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, LA Times, Truthout.org and Salon. In 2006 he wrote a book that detailed his battle with mental illness and suicide attempts, and also lying to employers about a larceny conviction on his record once. With BuzzFeed standing by the article, Leopold and Cormier are still heading the Trump/Russia beat. 2006 - Leopold working for Truthout.org reported Karl Rove's indictment over the Valerie Plame affair was 'imminent' but the Bush staffer never faced any charges

2002 - Salon.com removed a story Leopold wrote as a freelancer saying it was 'riddled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations' while also saying the piece contained 'an instance of plagiarism' Advertisement

He then followed that up by tweeting: 'Fake News is truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!'

'Remember it was Buzzfeed that released the totally discredited "Dossier," paid for by Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats (as opposition research), on which the entire Russian probe is based!' he fired back late Friday night.

Then he went on a retweeting spree, sharing the posts of people bashing BuzzFeed as a reputable news source.

Meanwhile Ben Smith, editor-in-chief at BuzzFeed, tweeted: 'In response to the statement tonight from the Special Counsel's spokesman: We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he's disputing.'

'We're really confident in these specific sources and in the stories these reporters told,' Smith added on CNN's Anderson Cooper, backing up his reporters Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier.

He referenced two unidentified law enforcement officials from the original story that reported Trump told Cohen to lie to Congress about the Moscow real estate project.

Smith also called into MSNBC to speak with Chris Hayes saying 'the special counsel issued this very vague statement, we are eager to know what he's talking about'.

Shortly after the statement from Mueller's office was released Trump retweeted: 'Sadly so many will never get the memo that it was fake!'

Trump blasted his former lawyer and fixer Cohen on Friday as a liar who was 'trying to reduce his jail time' when he reportedly told Mueller that a scheme to build a Trump Tower project in Moscow extended through the 2016 Republican National Convention and into the months before Trump became president-elect.

The president also retweeted the Newsmax host John Cardillo saying: 'I told you all that the BuzzFeed story was nonsense.'

On Friday New Yorker reporter Ronan Farrow had tweeted his own misgivings about the BuzzFeed story, writing: 'I can't speak to Buzzfeed's sourcing, but, for what it's worth, I declined to run with parts of the narrative they conveyed based on a source central to the story repeatedly disputing the idea that Trump directly issued orders of that kind.'

Friday night Trump called fake news the 'enemy of the people' yet again after BuzzFeed News published a report that alleged he told his lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about dealings with Russia

He called the report 'a very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country' after Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office disputed the report as inaccurate

Michael Cohen arrives home to his apartment in New York City. The longtime Trump lawyer appeared to have his arm in a sling and had a pillow on top of his arm

CNN had also written previously that the former Los Angeles Times, Dow Jones, and Vice News reporter Leopold had a 'checkered past' when it came to accuracy of his reports during the George W. Bush administration, prior to the Mueller office statement.

Leopold's investigative partner, Anthony Cormier, however, was a member of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team in 2016 at the Tampa Bay Times prior to joining BuzzFeed. He collaborated on an investigative series into the neglected mental health system in Florida. He joined BuzzFeed's investigative unit shortly afterwards.

The president's son, Donald Trump Jr., meanwhile, has been gleefully firing off tweets about the news outlet retweeting the Mueller office rebuttal with nothing but a series of 'crying laughing' emojis, and retweeting another post that had made the statement that either Trump is finished or BuzzFeed is with the comment 'You were saying??'

Anthony Cormier, shown, is the investigative partner on the Trump Tower story with Jason Leopold at BuzzFeed

Since the statement put out by Mueller's office, the President's eldest son Donald Trump Jr has been tweeting and retweeting rapidly taking shots at BuzzFeed and other media outlets reporting around the story including The Daily Beast and CNN.

While some are criticizing the reporting duo, others are praising them and backing their claims.

'The false BuzzFeed story shows that #FAKENEWS is real and so is the Deep State. Both are dangerous to our rights. Maybe those who can still think rationally despite their illness (Trump Derangement Syndrome) will tone back their misplaced hatred. Its hurting them big time,' Rudy Giuliani tweeted.

'@JasonLeopold and @a_cormier_ are the rest of the BuzzFeed News investigations team are some of the best in the business and have churned out scoops for years now,' CNN investigative reporter Andrew Kaczynski tweeted.

Still, many are questioning the veracity of the report.

Cormier appeared on CNN Friday morning and stated that he had not personally seen the documents behind the report.

'No, I've not seen it personally' he said, adding his sources are 'fully, 100 percent read-in to that aspect of the special counsel's investigation'.

'I dont think weve said we havent seen them. But I will say that Im confident that they exist,' he echoed on MSNBC.

Buzzfeed's report, if true, would constitute subornation of perjury  a felony crime. Obstruction of justice was the first order of impeachment against President Richard Nixon.

The White House has not officially denied the report.

As the Twitter war was unfolded, Cohen was seen returning to his Manhattan apartment on Friday after getting medical treatment and his arm appeared to be in a sling.

Cohen advisor Lanny Davis said Cohen had gone into the hospital for pre-scheduled shoulder surgery.

Cohen could be seen with his left arm covered, hanging in a sling. He was holding a full-size white pillow against his body. His right hand had a small bandage of the kind used to cover a small wound by an IV.

The Americans killed in a suicide bomb blast in Syria on Wednesday have been identified as Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan R Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Florida (left) and Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) Shannon M Kent, 35, (right) of upstate New York

Defense Department civilian Scott A Wirtz (left) of St Louis, Missouri, was also killed in the attack. The fourth victim is believed to be interpreter Ghadir Taher (right) of Georgia

Trump will stop at the Dover Air Force Base to honor the four victims killed after a suicide bomber detonated explosives on Wednesday in Manbij, Syria

The attack took place after Trump announced he'd be pulling American troops from Syria

Aftermath of the deadly bomb in Manbij, Syria pictured above. It was the deadliest attack against Americans in Syria

Saturday's Delaware visit is not on the president's official schedule. He's set to host a naturalization ceremony in the Oval Office by the afternoon and deliver a speech on the Shutdown.

In his speech he will place an offer on the table with the hopes of negotiating with Democrats on a government spending bill. However, he's not expected to back down from his U.S.-Mexico border wall demands.

'I'm not going to get ahead of the President but I can assure he's going to continue fighting for border security, he's going to continue looking for the solution to end the humanitarian and national security crisis at the border,' White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

The Wednesday bombing in Manbij was the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in Syria since American forces moved into the war-torn country in 2014.

The victims slain in the attack include Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan R. Farmer, Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician Shannon M. Kent, and civilian Scott A. Wirtz who was also a former Navy SEAL working for the Defense Intelligence Agency. they have all been identified by the Pentagon.

The fourth victim was not named by the Pentagon but was said to be an interpreter. She was named as Ghadir Taher by the Washington Post, a 27-year-old Arabic interpreter from Georgia.

The four victims died and three other Americans were wounded after a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to their chest in a restaurant where the group stopped following a meeting with local military officials.

A total of 19 people were killed in the attack.

The deadly bomb came about a month after Trump said the Islamic State group had been defeated and he was withdrawing U.S. forces from the country.

Prior to heading to the base he said: 'I think it is the toughest thing I have to do. When I'm going to meet relatives of some of our great, great heroes that have fallen, I think it might be the toughest thing I have to do as president.'

'I've always said who are we killing ISIS for? You know, the worst enemy of Russia, Iran, Syria, you look at it, is ISIS. So we're killing ISIS for people that aren't necessarily always in agreement with us, let's put it that way. We have gone into Syria and in two years we have I guess reduced it to 99% of the territorial caliphate,' he added.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Following the bombing the Pentagon spokesman released a statement saying ISIS 'remains a threat' in Syria.

'We will continue to hit the remnants of ISIS hard to destroy any residual networks and ensure its enduring defeat,' the spokesperson said in a statement.India said the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, which also includes the so-called Gilgit-Baltistan is an integral part of India.

New Delhi made it clear that the Pakistan SC order is an interference in Indias internal affairs and said the Pakistani Government and Judiciary have no locus standi over territory illegally occupied by Pakistan in 1947.

New Delhi: India on Friday summoned the deputy high commissioner of Pakistan and lodged a strong protest against a recent order by the Pakistan Supreme Court on theGilgit-Baltistan area in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

According to news agency reports, the Pakistani top court has said in an order that its jurisdiction extends to Gilgit-Baltistan.

New Delhi made it clear that the Pakistan SC order is an interference in Indias internal affairs and said the Pakistani Government and Judiciary have no locus standi over territory illegally occupied by Pakistan in 1947.

India said the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, which also includes the so-called Gilgit-Baltistan is an integral part of India. Islamabad was asked to vacate territories illegally occupied by it, with India also accusing it of grave human rights violations in these areas.

Pakistan government or judiciary have no locus standi on territories illegally and forcibly occupied by it. Any action to alter the status of these occupied territories by Pakistan has no legal basis whatsoever, the MEA said in a statement.

The MEA said Pakistan was trying to camouflage grave human rights violations, exploitation and sufferings of the people living there.

According to news agency reports, the Pakistan Supreme Court has also asked the federal government in Pakistan to promulgate a new law within a fortnight to grant more rights, including fundamental human rights, to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan in PoK.Patients have been stockpiling medicines over fears of shortages after a No-Deal Brexit.

Brits in desperate need of drugs reveal they have looked into day-trips to France or ordering illegal postal supplies from India.

Some patients admit they have already began hoarding medicines by ordering them from abroad or asking GPs for emergency prescriptions, The Guardian reveals.

Brits in desperate need of drugs reveal they have looked into day-trips to France or ordering illegal postal supplies from India

Ministers are now being urged by top doctors to be more transparent about national drugs stocks, in particular ones that are already in short supply or need refrigeration, such as insulin.

LEADING INSULIN MANUFACTURER STOCKPILES AHEAD OF BREXIT Britain's main supplier of insulin said in September it would be stockpiling the medicine in case Brexit disrupts the international supply chain. Around 4.6million people in the UK are thought to have diabetes and many of them rely on insulin to stay healthy. Danish healthcare company Novo Nordisk supplies more than half of the UK's insulin and revealed it would import enough of the vital medication to last four months. The move came just weeks after medical experts warned millions of diabetics' health would be at risk if there was an insulin shortage after Brexit. Novo Nordisk said it is committed to making sure its patients' health is not affected. The company said at the time it planned to have built up a 16-week reserve of insulin by this month. Advertisement

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP), which represents thousands of doctors, said it was essential that the government 'reassure patients'.

Prof Andrew Goddard, the RCP president, told The Guardian: 'Faith in the system will be created by openness and regular updates to trusts and clinicians; this will allow clinicians to reassure patients.'

Robin Hewings, the head of policy at Diabetes UK said patients hoarding drugs could result in NHS resources being needlessly wasted.

He told The Guardian: 'If we are in a situation where supplies are constrained and people then start trying to get a lot more insulin than they need ... I worry about the way that might play out.'

One diabetic patient had been stockpiling insulin for four months and ordering twice the amount needed.

Another patient, who wished to remain anonymous, admitted that users on diabetic forums said they were stockpiling insulin and this had caused shortages.

They said: 'We are used to getting insulin dispensed immediately or next day, but people say they are being asked to leave it a week.'

Speaking anonymously, the owner of a chemist in London said they had witnessed patients getting large supplies of medication but not because they were going on holiday.

But the chair of the Royal College of GPs, Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard, has urged patients not to stockpile medicines or put their 'healthcare professional in a difficult position'.

Medicine shortages are 'worse than ever' with rising numbers of common drugs being so hard to get hold of the Government is having to pay extra.

Eighty drugs are now so low in stock the Department of Health is, in some cases, paying a price 45 per cent higher than usual and racking up thousands in added costs.

Among them are blood pressure pills and anti-inflammatories, and some patients are being told to go back to their doctor to ask for something different.

Global demand, the cost of ingredients and new regulations are all possible reasons why pharmacies are struggling to get hold of certain medications.

'I CAN PROBABLY LAST ONE TO TWO WEEKS WITHOUT MY MEDICATION' Patients with serious medical conditions have spoken of their fear that a no-deal Brexit would leave them without vital medication. Writer Jennie Kermode, 45, from Paisley, has mixed connective tissue disease with elements of lupus, scleroderma and polymyositis - a condition that means her immune system attacks her skin, muscles and kidneys. She told the Press Association: 'I've lost so much muscle that I can no longer walk, but I'm not now losing more at a significant rate, and my kidneys are stable. 'This is thanks to a drug called tacrolimus which is manufactured in Turkey. 'Unfortunately, due to production issues, tacrolimus is already in short supply in the UK so there's no pre-Brexit NHS stockpile. 'If I can't get it, there's a chance that I'll be able to successfully transfer to another immunosuppressant, if that's available, but doing so will be risky and all the others in existence will make me much more sick than the tacrolimus does.' Jennie Kermode, from Paisley in Scotland, relies on medication made in Turkey which is already in short supply, and fears Brexit could make this worse. Ms Kermode said she could 'probably last one to two weeks without my medication' 'I can probably last one to two weeks without my medication before my kidneys fail,' Ms Kermode said. She added: 'I've spoken to my consultant rheumatologist who said: "Don't worry, somebody will think of something". 'I wasn't very reassured by that. I'm not aware of anybody working on any remotely practical solution.' Kieron Smith, 38, from Northumberland, takes medication to control his epilepsy. He said he has spoken to his pharmacist 'on a number of occasions', but believes 'the uncertainty is already tangible'. 'Unfortunately they are as in the dark as the general public,' he claimed. 'Even they have no idea what the deal is, despite chasing for info themselves.' He said the medication 'allows me to live a normal, unrestricted life free from both grand mal and petit mal seizures'. 'I have a full-time job and a young family and the ability to function without the shadow of epilepsy is critical in maintaining these things. 'There are many more serious cases than mine I'm sure, but the difference in my life without the ability to fill my prescription would be profound, my work and family life would become untenable.' AdvertisementBritain's most senior judge says that women's rising financial independence is putting their rights to divorce payouts at risk.

Lady Hale, the Supreme Court president, made the claim during a lecture on women's rights while talking to Birmingham Law Society in November.

The 73-year-old said it was an example as to how equality has not yet been achieved by women.

Lady Hale, the UK's most senior judge, was talking to Birmingham Law Society in November

The family law specialist said: 'Domestic violence and abuse is still all too common and, according to recent study, a frequent reason why women lose their children into the care system.

'But the improved financial rights available on divorce are under threat on the assumption that women no longer need their protection.'

She also bemoaned the lack of women in senior positions of some professions, despite saying it's getting better.

'No one can claim the battle is over,' she said.

She cited gender pay gaps between male and female workers, and systematic failures in rape investigations as well as low rates of successful sex assault prosecutions.

'We are just beginning to recognise the phenomenon of sexual of exploitation, not just of children but of vulnerable adults,' she added.

Lord Mance and Lady Hale, the vice President and President respectively, of the Supreme Court speak during a media briefing at the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

She continued that recent changes in the benefits system in the UK have had 'a much more serious impact on lone parents, who are overwhelmingly women.'

The 73-year-old was dubbed 'a hero of our times' by the world's biggest fashion magazine, Vogue, for promoting social diversity.

Lady Hale told the magazine that she was 'absolutely staggered' to have become a role model.

She also praised the court's recruitment of two further women for normalising a female presence in the country's highest court.

Baroness Hale of Richmond, also known as Lady Hale, has become a role model for young women

She said: 'This is not what I set out in life to be  but it's where I happen to be. I do feel I've got to set a good example, both in terms of doing a good job, but also in terms of encouraging young women to make the most of themselves.'

She is the subject of a comic book now being produced by a legal charity, called Judge Brenda: Equal to Everything, which is intended to inspire primary school children with the story of a girl brought up in the North Yorkshire countryside who went on to become president of the Supreme Court.

She added although there is a long way to go, women are now in a better position than they ever have been.

She said: There are now far more women in senior ranks in the public sphere - in Parliament, in the senior civil service, in the judiciary, in academia.

And she listed a series of changes to the law including the increasing recognition of domestic abuse; the introduction of gender-neutral sex offences; and the criminalisation of rape within marriage.

Lady Hale, whose list of female achievements did not refer to those of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first woman Prime Minister in 1979, has become a figurehead for some feminists both within and outside the legal profession.

The text of her lecture has been posted on the Supreme Court website.Advertisement

Orthodox Christians have been taking the traditional plunge into freezing waters as they celebrate Epiphany today - despite winter temperatures reaching -40C in some regions of Russia.

Police estimated that over 2.4 million people in the country took part in celebrations overnight, but it is not known how many of these made the customary three dips in water.

Authorities cut ice and sometimes install wooden steps to ease access for worshippers wanting to descend into icy rivers and lakes and immerse themselves, to remember the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan.

In a park in eastern Moscow, worshippers clad in bikinis or swimming trunks splashed and crossed themselves, shivering under the watchful eye of police and emergencies ministry workers.

Russian Orthodox Christians have been taking the traditional plunge into freezing waters as they celebrate Epiphany today. Pictured: a man taking a dip in Moscow's Vorontsovsky Park

Police estimated that over 2.4 million people in the country took part in celebrations overnight, but it is not known how many of these made the customary three dips in water. Pictured: an Orthodox Christian takes a dip in a lake near the village of Vorontsovka

Pictured: a group of men swim to retrieve a cross from the water in Visegrad, Bosnia and Herzegovina, earlier today

Authorities cut ice and sometimes install wooden steps to ease access for worshippers wanting to descend into icy rivers and lakes and immerse themselves, to remember the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan. Pictured: a child in Vorontsovka

Pictured: a family plunge into icy water during the celebration of Epiphany in Kiev, Ukraine

'It's great, it's the best Russian tradition,' Muscovite Yevgeny Goloshchapov said, a towel draped across his shoulders.

The tradition in recent years has been embraced by politicians and diplomats, with President Vladimir Putin participating last year, as well as the US Ambassador in Moscow Jon Huntsman Jr.

In Russia's coldest region of Yakutia, the local governor submerged himself in the Lena river despite temperatures of -42 degrees Celsius, his office said.

In Donetsk, Ukraine, a woman takes an icy dip in the pond of Shcherbakov Park

This aerial shot shows an Orthodox believe bathing a cross shaped ice hole in Kiev, Ukraine, earlier today

The tradition in recent years has been embraced by politicians and diplomats, with President Vladimir Putin participating last year. Pictured: priests blessing the water at the Kiziltash Monastery of St Stephen of Surozh in Sudak, Crimea

In a poll published on Friday a fifth of all respondents said they planned to take the Epiphany dive, up from 15 percent last year. Pictured: Semigorye, Russia

Traditionally, believers dip themselves into the water three times. Pictured: a man in the icy water of the Velikaya River in Pskov, Russia

Pictured: a man takes a dip in the icy water of a pond near Joseph Volokolamsk Monastery in Moscow

A woman reacts as she climbs out of icy water having taken a dip for Epiphany in Donetsk, Ukraine, earlier today

In a poll published on Friday a fifth of all respondents said they planned to take the Epiphany dive, up from 15 percent last year.

Ironically, some Orthodox clerics say the ice dive challenge is not actually a canonical tradition and dismiss it as a fad.

'There is a trend that external rites of big church holidays become national traditions, and the original meaning of the holiday is forgotten,' said Panteleimon, a high-ranking bishop in charge of charity at the Russian Orthodox Church.

'I never dive in an ice hole,' he told the Izvestia newspaper.

Pictured: an Orthodox Christian takes a bath in an ice hole in a bay of the Pacific Ocean outside the Russian town of Kholmsk

Pictured: servicemen of the Belarusian Interior Ministry's special unit queue to dip themselves in the icy water as one man crosses himself in Gorodishche, Belarus

This picture, taken with a drone, shows Orthodox Christians getting into the Bugaj River in Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland

A group of believers take a dip during celebrations of the Orthodox Christian feast of Epiphany in Kiev, UkraineTeenagers from high crime areas have been taking part in a mock trial to show them how gangs exploit youngsters and why they should stay on the right side of the law.

A group of 15 teenagers, aged between 14 and 16, spent a week with Merseyside police pretending to be detectives.

They were tasked with interviewing the victim and suspect, played by actors, before examining evidence and compiling a video ID parade, reports The Times.

The group then went to Liverpool Crown Court, where they saw Michael Keegan, played by Michael Moran, crack on the stand and confess to stabbing Thomas Smith.

A group of 15 teenagers, aged between 14 and 16, spent a week with Merseyside police pretending to be detectives before seeing a mock trial at Liverpool Crown Court (pictured)

Real judge Neil Flewitt and barrister Ken Grant helped out with the case, which is part of a scheme by Merseyside police to help vulnerable teenagers.

Chief constable Andy Cooke told The Times: 'Prevention for me is far more important than detecting. I get far more pleasure from knowing it's being prevented than from mopping it up afterwards.'

Merseyside police plan to share the scheme's details with other forces across the country.

They have already been rating 'outstanding' for their preventative approach in the past.

One of the teenagers, 16-year-old Abbie, said: 'It shows you the consequences of what happens, that you can make one bad decision and find yourself on that path.'

The teenagers have already been exposed to crime, with one saying there had been a gang-related gun shoot-out on her street, while another knew school students who bragged about carrying knives.Ireland's EU Commissioner Phil Hogan, pictured, has launched an astonishing attack on Prime Minister Theresa May

Ireland's EU Commissioner Phil Hogan has launched an astonishing attack on Prime Minister Theresa May claiming she should ignore 'the extremists within her party' and describing Brexit promises as 'fools' gold'.

Mr Hogan, who is a former Irish government minister, said it 'beggars belief' that Mrs May has only started talking to opposition politicians over Brexit.

He also suggested that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has no chance of negotiating a better deal with the EU.

Writing in the Irish Independent, Mr Hogan described hard-line Tories of 'peddling a toxic lie' that a hard Brexit is the best outcome for the UK.

He suggested that leaving the EU without a deal would leave Britain at the mercy of Donald Trump's 'America First' policy.

Mr Hogan, who was a close confidant of former Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny, wrote that Westminster needs a 'reality check'.

He said: 'There is precious little time left to sort out this mess, and if a breakthrough is to happen, UK politicians need to get over their unwillingness to acknowledge certain uncomfortable truths. Facts are still thin on the ground in parliamentary debates in London.

Mr Hogan, pictured with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin yesterday urged Mrs May to ditch 'the extremists within her own party'

Mr Hogan said it 'beggars believe' that PM Theresa May has only just approached opposition politicians to discuss Brexit with them with only two months remaining

Mr Hogan said Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, pictured, would have no chance in securing a better deal than Mrs May with the EU

'Too many Conservative MPs continue to peddle the toxic lie that a hard Brexit would be the best outcome for the UK. It would not.'

Mr Hogan said it would be 'impossible' for the UK to secure trade deals with as many benefits as it currently has with the EU.

He added: 'If Mrs May rolled back on her red line of exiting the customs union, most of the outstanding obstacles to a deal would be swept away. It is high time she marginalised the extremists within her own party and worked more closely with other parties across the Westminster aisles.'

He advised 'mainstream UK politicians' to drop the 'fanciful rhetoric' and start speaking the 'plain unvarnished truth' to find a solution to Brexit.

He claimed Britain was sailing 'uncertainly into the future without any compass'.A mother and her three children have narrowly escaped a near-fatal accident after a rock smashed into their car windscreen.

Lisa Olislaegers spoke of the terrifying moment a huge rock came crashing into the path of her vehicle, while on the Kwinana Freeway, in southern Perth.

Ms Olislaegers said the 'sickening' incident - which took place around mid-afternoon on Saturday after an unknown person through it from an overpass bridge - could've taken a deadly turn had she not reacted instantly.

Lisa Olislaegers (pictured) spoke of the terrifying moment a huge rock came crashing into her vehicle

'It's sickening  It could have hit one of the kids,' Ms Olislaegers told 7 News.

'I literally saw a rock coming towards the car  it hit the car with a mighty loud bang,' she added.

Unsurprisingly her children were alarmed by the startling incident and started screaming in fear.

Thankfully, Ms Olislaegers slammed on the brakes instantaneously and was almost hit by a truck driving behind her.

'That's the thing that I keep replaying over in my mind  if that truck had actually hit us,' she said.

'I don't think any of us would be here.'

Ms Olislaegers and her children were unharmed by the incident but her car windscreen (pictured) was left completely shattered

Ms Olislaegers and her children were unharmed by the incident but her car windscreen was left completely shattered.

A shaken Ms Olislaegers then drove to her father's house where she proceeded to alert the police to the incident.

According to reports, officers searched the area but are yet to find those responsible for throwing the stone.A five-year-old schoolboy was banned from the playground at break times due to his 'extreme' skin-fade hairstyle.

Josiah Sharpe was told he couldn't go out and play at Summerhill Primary Academy in Tipton because the back and sides of his hair were shaved.

His mother, Danica Sharpe, said the 'skin-fade style' haircut helped hide his traction alopecia and gave him a 'smart, tidy appearance'.

Josiah Sharpe was told he couldn't go out and play at Summerhill Primary Academy in Tipton because the back and sides of his hair were shaved

But Kerry Rochester, the executive head of his school, said the youngster's haircut went against school policy - which states pupils must not have 'hairstyles that will detract from learning'.

Guidelines also specify that cuts which fall below a grade two length are strictly forbidden.

Josiah lost his playtime until his hair grew back to a length deemed satisfactory by the school.

But his mother has now hit out at the 'harsh' treatment of her son - adding that the police was 'culturally biased' and 'dictating a hairstyle that's not suitable' for her son.

Ms Sharpe, a hair stylist, said: 'The hair policy lacks cultural awareness as a grade two haircut is not fair for Josiah's type of hair and others from different racial backgrounds.

'When he first started there, I did try a grade two haircut but within three days, it had started to grow out and it looked a total mess.

His mother, Danica Sharpe, said the 'skin-fade style' haircut helped hide his traction alopecia and gave him a 'smart, tidy appearance'

'In the Afro-Caribbean community, if a boy's hair is not long and plaited, or put in dreadlocks, we are expected to cut the hair very short for a smart tidy appearance.

'It's not a fashion statement, in our culture hair at a grade two or three is regarded out grown and untidy for a curly/coiled hair type.'

Ms Sharpe said Josiah has had the same haircut since he was one - and it had only been commented on once before at school.

Kerry Rochester, the executive head of the school, said the youngster's haircut went against school policy - which states pupils must not have 'hairstyles that will detract from learning'

She said: 'He's been having this haircut since he was one. The only time the school had said anything about it previously was when he was in reception and he had a patch on the back of his head. It wasn't there intentionally, it was because he'd moved while at the barbers.

'I've explained it all to Josiah but he's confused about why he's being singled out. I've told him he can grow his hair out and put it in plaits but he wants to keep it how it is.'

Ms Rochester said the school's uniform and presentation policy was 'inclusive for all children' at the school.

Josiah lost his playtime until his hair grew back to a length deemed satisfactory by the school

She said: 'The policy states "shaved heads or hairstyles that are deemed by the school to be extreme, are not acceptable" and "hair should be no shorter than 'number two' length."

'Unfortunately, Josiah's hair has been styled in line with what we understand to be the 'skin fade' style. His hair is tapered around the back and sides to what is known as 'zero fade' or 'bald fade'.

'Therefore, the manner in which Josiah's hair is styled, falls below the grade two length as set out in our policy.

What is a skin-fade haircut? The skin-fade haircut, also known as a zero fade and bald fade, is a popular men's taper fade cut. This recent trend comes in a variety of different styles - including a high, mid and low cut. Fade hairstyles originated in the US military in the 1940s and 50s due to strict rules on grooming. Many celebrities, such as One Direction's Zayn Malik and Justin Timberlake, have opted for this 'short on the sides, long on the top' look. Advertisement

'The school has tried to work with the family to fully explain the school rules to date and why the style is deemed to be extreme.'

Ms Rochester said the school consulted Afro Caribbean hairdressers in order to reach the decisions made.

'The family has had, in accordance with the school's complaints policy, opportunities to state their concerns, both in writing and via a meeting,' she said.

'Responses have been provided to the family at each stage of the complaints process, and it's unfortunate the family have taken this approach before the internal processes have been exhausted.

'The school has no record of any medical conditions the child suffers from, on medical forms provided by the parents, however as with other children in our school.

'When presented with medical information we are more than happy to work with parents to discuss amendments to policy, if this is deemed necessary and appropriate.

'We take our school policies and rules extremely seriously and impress the importance of both within our school community.

'Unfortunately, if the family continue to ignore the school rules then appropriate sanctions have to be made.

'Failure to implement the rules would be deemed unfair by the vast majority of parents and children who adhere to the school policy.'

Mother removes her two sons from school after they are put in isolation for their 'normal' hairstyles and refuses to get it cut because 'it's against their human rights'

An angry mother has taken her two children out of school after they were kept in isolation because of their 'extreme' haircuts.

Leroy Wilson, 13, and his younger brother TJ Wilson, 11, were taken away from the rest of their classmates at Kingswood Academy in Hull on Tuesday.

Their mother, Terri Lea Wilson, was told both boys needed to have their hair restyled - but she claimed it would be against their human rights if she forced them to have it re-cut.

Leroy Wilson, 13, and his younger brother TJ Wilson, 11, were taken away from the rest of their classmates at Kingswood Academy on Tuesday for their haircuts

But the 30-year-old mother sent her children back to school the following day with no changes to their hair and they were put back in isolation again, which resulted in Ms Wilson pulling both of the children out of school.

The mother-of-six, who lives in Hull, said: 'Its a normal hairstyle for boys but the school said they need to get their hair cut if they want to come back to school or else they will stay in consequences.'

She added: 'It's just wrong. They boys are not happy and have said they won't get it cut. I can't force them to, especially Leroy - he is 13 years old.

'I can't say to them to just go and get it cut because it's against their human rights and a lot of parents are kicking off.

'Until they get it cut they are not allowed to go back. I work full-time, I've got a day job as a care worker and a night job as cleaner so I can't really do anything with them.

'It's disgusting. It's a hairstyle and it's nothing big or major. I wouldn't like anyone telling you have got to get your hair cut. Why should I? They have no right to do that.

'It's a great school, they've got great policies and they are strict with the kids but this is just a bit over the top.'

The mother is adamant that her children should not be made to have their haircut again.

Leroy's hair is brushed to the side with a quiff while TJ's is short on the sides with a line in it.

Terri Lea Wilson (centre) with her sons TJ Wilson (left) and Leroy Wilson (right)

Ms Wilson added: 'My husband went to the headteacher and he said, "How can I drag a 13-year-old and an 11-year-old when they are going to fight with me and refuse? I'm going to get locked up, I just can't".

'It's ridiculous and cruel.'

TJ said: 'We should be able to have our own haircuts.'

A spokesman for Kingswood Academy school said: 'We at the academy have the highest of expectations regarding uniform - including hairstyles - which have been in place for the last three years.

'These expectations are made very clear in the uniform policy which is shared with parents and students annually, and is also displayed on the website.

'Any student who fails to meet the standard is allowed to go home to rectify the issue, if not they are placed in isolation.

'Out of the 804 students on roll, 801 students regularly meet the expectations consistently, lesson in, lesson out.

'In February 2018, Kingswood Academy was judged to be Good in all categories and Ofsted commented specifically on how proud students were of their school and their uniform, which they wear with pride.'Ministers have warned that a 'once unthinkable' general election might be the only option left for Theresa May - and it could be as soon as February 28.

Senior Tory sources last night admitted there was a growing feeling around the Cabinet table that an early poll could happen.

Theresa May could be forced to call one to break the deadlock that has followed the defeat of her Brexit deal as she's 'running out of road,' reports the Sun.

One Cabinet source questioned about the possibility of a snap poll told the Daily Mail: There is a dawning realisation its now not just possible but may be necessary.

Tory sources have admitted a growing feeling that an early poll could happen meaning the public would chose between May's (left leaving Downing Street yesterday) Brexit deal or two more years of EU talks with Jeremy Corbyn (right at a rally in Hastings on Thursday) as leader

A source claimed that Mrs May's election manifesto would be formed from an updated Brexit plan.

This would mean the public would chose between the new plan or two more years of EU negotiations with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Another source said that although 'once unthinkable, it is now a very likely option.'

However two thirds of MPs would have to vote for an election under the Fixed Term Parliamentary Act.

Downing Street yesterday attempted to dampen speculation by insisting Mrs May had ruled out a vote before 2022.

Number 10 said the Prime Minister, pictured speaking after a vote of no confidence on Wednesday, is ruling out a snap election

However, a similar denial was issued just before she called the 2017 election.

It was also revealed yesterday that civil servants had been ordered to draw up contingency plans in case the Prime Minister decides to go to the country.

When asked if Mrs May is ruling out a snap election, her spokesman said: Yes.

And an Eurosceptic Tory told the Sun that election talk was just part of 'Project Fear' to try and 'frighten' MPs into backing Mrs May's Brexit deal.

Ministers opposed to the idea have warned that calling an election could hand power to Labour  without any guarantees that it will change the parliamentary arithmetic that has led to the Brexit impasse.

An aide to one Cabinet minister said: Im not sure what a general election solves while risking a Corbyn government.

The New Statesman claimed that February 28 has been pencilled in as a possible date for a ballot.

It was also claimed last night that at least nine ministers, including three in the Cabinet, have told their constituency associations to prepare for an early general election.

They are said to have asked local parties to get ready for a campaign with February 28 as a possible poll date.

It said that one minister, who holds a marginal seat in the South, has already designed and written their election address  as has another with a safe seat in the South East.Boris Johnson feared extremist revenge attacks on the UK as well as 'reputational and policitcal risks' if two British terrorists nicknamed 'The Beatles' were handed the death penalty in the US.

In a letter from June last year, Johnson - then Foreign Secretary - expressed the concerns while discussing whether the UK should aid the US in executing the men, whom were British citizens.

Islamic State jihadists Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh were henchmen of Mohammed Emwazi  known as Jihadi John  who beheaded Western hostages on camera.

In a letter from June last year, Johnson - then Foreign Secretary - expressed the concerns while discussing whether the UK should aid the US in executing the men

Alexanda Amon Kotey, left, and El Shafee Elsheikh, who were allegedly among four British jihadis who made up a brutal Islamic State cell dubbed 'The Beatles'

They were nicknamed The Beatles by their captives due to their British accents.

The UK eventually agreed to waive usual death penalty assurances with the two men who were captured in Syria.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Mr Johnson said in his private letter: 'Because of our stance on the death penalty there is a wider reputational and political risk that would arise from executions in these cases following UK assistance.

'There is also a national security risk whereby there may be reprisals by extremists against British citizens at home and abroad, should the men be executed.'

Elsheikh (right) was part of the terror cell which also included Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John (left) who was killed in a US air strike in 2015

Alexanda Kotey (left) and El Shafee Elsheikh (right) were nicknamed The Beatles by their captives due to their British accents

He did however, end up in favour of waiving death penalty assurances because the case is 'unique and unprecedented' and in Britain's national security interests.'

Sajid Javid yesterday won a legal battle over sharing evidence with the US on the two terror cell members.

In a landmark case, senior judges rejected claims that the Home Secretary acted unlawfully by not seeking guarantees over the fate of Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh if they stood trial in America.

Then-15-year-old El Shafee Elsheikh, right, seen with his mother and younger brother Mahmoud, who was reportedly killed after also travelling to Syria

In July it was revealed that Britain had made clear it was ready to share confidential information with no such promises.

Elsheikhs mother, Maha Elgizouli, challenged the Governments decision in the High Court.

She argued that Mr Javid had secretly abandoned UK policy of passing on intelligence for prosecutions only in cases where there is no threat of capital punishment.

A Kurdish security officer escorts Alexanda Kotey, left, and El Shafee Elsheikh, at a security center in Kobani, Syria

But Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, sitting with Mr Justice Garnham, said Mr Javid had not broken the law.

He was within his rights to share with the US 600 witness statements gathered by the Metropolitan Police.

Kotey, 35, and Elsheikh, 30, are being held in Syria and have been stripped of their British citizenship.

They are accused of killing hostages, including British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning and US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

The Crown Prosecution Service decided there is 'insufficient evidence' to prosecute them in the UK.Two wild elephants have died after being electrocuted by 'dangerously low' hanging wires in India.

The mammals were found lying in a paddy field in Nepura village in Gurguripal in West Bengal, eastern India.

A herd of at least 80 elephants had been roaming around the village for two weeks before the elephants came into contact with the wires, which were lying only two feet above the ground, on Saturday morning.

Experts have criticised the state electricity board WBSEC, with one claiming they had been warned about the wire previously.

Two elephants were electrocuted in Gurguripal in West Bengal, eastern India, this morning

The animals had wandered into 'dangerously low' hanging electricity wires in Nepura village

Picutred: local villagers gather to watch the elephants be taken away by a JCB machine

Dr Pradeep Vyas, principal chief conservator of the forest chief wildlife warden, said: 'The animals were there for almost three weeks and were vandalising the shops and houses of local people and even stealing rice.

'They even destroyed the paddy field and other food grains. Two of them were electrified by the high tension wire, which was lying low.

'We told WBSEC they should fix the wire because it was an elephant zone on several occasions.

'But because of their negligence it happened again and again - last year another incident of this kind happened.'

The animals were found dead by local villagers who informed the forest department - with experts criticising the state electricity board WBSEC.

Rabindranath Saha, Divisional Forest Officer, said: 'The bodies of two full-seized elephants were found lying in the paddy field at Nepura village under Gurguripal police station area on Saturday morning.

'It seems they died from electrocution. Some of the high-voltage cables are sagging dangerously low in the area.

'These can cause death and damage to people working out in the field as well. We have informed the power department.'

Experts have criticised the state electricity board WBSEC, with one claiming they had been warned about the wire previously, and that it had happened beforeRahul Gandhi has given the rally a miss but on Friday he wrote to Mamata extending his 'support'.

Among the first to make an appearance were Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, DMK chief MK Stalin, former BJP leader Arun Shourie, Loktantrik Janata Dal chief Sharad Yadav and Nationalist Congress Party head Sharad Pawar. (Photo: ANI | Twitter)

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee convened a mega rally called the United India Rally at Kolkata's Brigade Parade Ground for a grand alliance of opposition parties against the Narendra Modi government.

Among the first to make an appearance were Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, DMK chief MK Stalin, former BJP leader Arun Shourie, Loktantrik Janata Dal chief Sharad Yadav and Nationalist Congress Party head Sharad Pawar.

However, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi have given the rally a miss but on Friday Gandhi wrote to Banerjee extending his support to the rally.

Read: Oppn is united: Rahul writes to 'Mamata di' a day before mega rally

The entire opposition is united. I extend my support to Mamata Di on this show of unity and hope that we send a powerful message of a united India together," Rahul Gandhi wrote in the letter.

Here are the updates:

'If speaking truth amounts to rebellion then, of course, I am a rebel,' says Shatrughan Sinha

Echoing Rahul Gandhi's 'Chowkidar Chor Hai' slogan, BJP's disgruntled MP Shatrughan Sinha attacked PM Modi while sharing dais with opposition leaders and said he was ready to be declared a "rebel" if speaking the truth amounted to rebellion.

"If speaking truth amounts to rebellion then, of course, I am a rebel," said Shatrughan Sinha.

Photo: ANI | Twitter

"I am in BJP but before that, I am with the people of the country. Party is bigger than individual and nation is bigger than the party," he said.

"I show the mirror to the party so that they see the truth," said Sinha. Comparing the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the present dispensation led by PM Modi, he said that the present regime is "dictatorial" and "autocratic".

'Whether our hearts meet or not, we should walk holding hands', says Mallikarjun Kharge

Representing the Congress at mega rally, Mallikarjun Kharge said party chief Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi had sent their good wishes for the rally.

At the rally, Kharge, the leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha, read out a message from Sonia Gandhi, highlighting the "crisis" looming over the country with farmers and fishermen living under immense strain.

Kharge as the emissary of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, said, "Till we (opposition parties) unite, we will have to continue seeing Modi and Shah trample democracy and the secular values of the country."

At the end of his speech, Kharge said in Hindi, "Manzil door hain, rasta kathin hain, phir bhi pahuchna hain. Dil mile na mile, kamse kam haath mila kar chalo (The destination is far and the road is difficult but still, we have to reach there. Whether our hearts meet or not, we should walk holding hands)."

Oppn parties should forget their differences, fight BJP unitedly, says Deve Gowda

Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda said with the general elections close at hand, the opposition parties should forget their differences and come together to fight the BJP unitedly.

The herculean task of seat-sharing for the coming Lok Sabha elections has to be addressed to ensure direct fight against the BJP, he said.

Stating that a question often asked is who would be the prime minister after Modi, he said the opposition leaders must have confidence that they can give a stable government for five years.

'Narendra Modi is a publicity PM, we want a performing PM,' says Chandrababu Naidu

"Narendra Modi is a publicity PM, we want a performing PM," said Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.

Photo: ANI | Twitter

"Five years ago, people gave the mandate for the BJP. They betrayed the nation. They gave slogans. Jan Dhan, mudra loan, good governance, smart cities, bringing back black money, two crore jobs, acche din. These are all slogans. None of these have been fulfilled," he pointed out.

"He (PM Modi) promised that the income of the farmers will be doubled but in reality, farmers are still reeling under the poverty, they are not getting Minimum Support Price and are also committing suicide due to weak policies. The agricultural growth rate of the country has also slowed down," Naidu added.

Talking on Rafale deal, Naidu said, "They have misled the nation on this issue too. They also misled the Supreme Court by filing the wrong affidavit. They have only bought 36 Rafale jets with a large sum of money. They are betraying the nation in a big way."

"Not only that, the present government is also misusing their powers by influencing premier institutions like CBI and ED," he added.

"In Karnataka, it is an elected government but they want to manipulate and destabilise the Karnataka government. They are going to pay a heavy price. BJP is offering bribes to MLAs in the state. Just like animals, they want to purchase the MLAs. They are misusing their powers. We have only one ambition - save India, save democracy, Naidu added.

'It was Pakistan's dream to split India into pieces but Modi government did,' says AAP's Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called upon people to defeat the "dangerous" BJP government at the Centre at any cost.

Photo: ANI | Twitter

"If the (Narendra) Modi-(Amit) Shah combine continues to rule the country by winning the 2019 elections, it will change the Constitution and further elections will never take place. A fascist regime will set in as was done by Hitler in Germany," Kejriwal said.

"It was Pakistan's dream to split this country into pieces. This BJP government is going ahead in that direction by creating enmity among people and dividing the nation on the lines of religion, language..." Kejriwal added.

SP-BSP alliance led to wave of happiness; BJP worried, says SP's Akhilesh Yadav

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the coming together of the SP and the BSP has led to a wave of happiness in the country and left a worried BJP to hold meeting after meeting to devise a strategy to win even one seat in Uttar Pradesh.

Photo: ANI | Twitter

"They ask, who is PM candidate of opposition parties... We say people will decide the PM candidate from our side. But from their side, this name (Narendra Modi) has disappointed the country, who is your another name?" Yadav said.

Democratic government at the Centre is headed by some undemocratic persons, says Kumaraswamy

Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said that in 70 years, the country has seen an emergence of strong regional parties which have played important roles to protect the interest of their own states and understanding the emotions of their own people.

Photo: ANI | Twitter

Stating that India is one of the strongest democracies in the world, Kumaraswamy said, "But today we are witnessing a day where the democratic government (at the Centre) is headed by some undemocratic persons."

"It is unfortunate that the Union government has turned deaf and mute to the needs of the people of the country," Kumaraswamy said.

The present union government gives incentives, tax rebates and subsidies to industries, but farmers are treated differently.

Upcoming LS polls will be second freedom struggle for India, says MK Stalin

DMK president M K Stalin said the upcoming general elections will be akin to the second freedom struggle for people of India to fight against the "radical Hinduism" of the BJP.

Photo: ANI | Twitter

"The next (Lok Sabha) elections will be the second fight for Independence. We will stop this poison of Hindutva and radical Hinduism from spreading. Our call is to defeat Modi and save the country," he said.

"If Modi is back in power, the country will go back 50 years," he said.

BSP-SP alliance started the process to uproot BJP govt, says BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra

Senior Bahujan Samaj Party leader Satish Chandra Mishra said the BSP-SP alliance in Uttar Pradesh has started the process of uprooting the "anti-Dalit" and "anti-Minority" NDA government at the Centre.

Photo: ANI | Twitter

Mishra said this "successful" rally has put its stamp that in order to keep safe Baba Saheb Ambedkar's constitution it is necessary to defeat the BJP government.

Mishra, who participated in the opposition rally as an emissary of BSP chief Mayawati sat next to Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on the dais.

He said the BJP which came to power by showing "false dreams" to the people, after coming to power it initiated "anti-people" policies like demonetization and GST which caused lot of "hardship" to common people, particularly dalits and minorities.

Pitch single oppn candidate in each seat against BJP to win LS poll, says Arun Shourie

Former union minister Arun Shourie asked the opposition to work together to throw out the BJP government at the Centre in the coming Lok Sabha polls. The opposition parties should unitedly pitch single candidates against the BJP contestants in the country to win the Lok Sabha poll.

Photo: ANI | Twitter

"It will not be an easy work - pitching a single opposition candidate in each seat against the BJP. But we must sacrifice for the country, with a sense of love for it," Shourie said.

"The Bengal tigress has given the call to oust BJP. I am sure it will be successful," he added.

NC leader Farooq Abdullah calls EVM a 'chor machine'

National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah called the EVM the "chor machine" and demanded that the ballot paper system should be brought back for the sake of transparency.

Photo: ANI | Twitter

"It is not the question of ousting any single person (PM Modi) but of saving the country and honouring the sacrifices of those who fought for its freedom. The EVM is chor machine. Honestly speaking, it is so. Its use must be put to an end. Nowhere in the world is the machine used. The opposition parties should approach the Election Commission and the President of India to stop the use of the EVM and bring back the old ballot papers for the sake of transparency," he said.

He blamed the BJP for the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and said people are being divided on religious lines.

He said BJP stood for the Triple Talaq Bill in Parliament but did not pass the Women's Reservation Bill.

"We have to fight and oust BJP. We have to come together to put up a one-to-one fight against it. We should fight together to strengthen our country," he said.

PM Modi, Amit Shah 'afraid' of the grand alliance, says Cong leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi:

Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said PM Modi and BJP president Amit Shah were "afraid" of the grand alliance and that's why they keep on poking fun at it.

"All the people (participating in the event) have the same agenda - to avoid the division of votes, which BJP has always been in favour of. The policies of this BJP-led central government need to end," Singhvi said.

"Today, there is a feeling of fear in the country, there is a feeling of vengeance. We have to come forward to stand against it as one," he added.

The aim of the rainbow alliance was to defeat the BJP and form a secular government.

The Congress was represented officially by Lok Sabha leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge.

Apt slogan for Modi govt would be 'sabka saath sabka vinash', says Yashwant Sinha:

Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha came down heavily on Modi government saying that this was the first government after Independence which has been playing "mischief" with the developmental statistics.

Photo: ANI | Twitter

Sinha, who was in a committee to find a solution to the Kashmir problem said when he had suggested talking to the cross-section of people in the environment of love, he was branded a "Pakistani agent".

While speaking, he urged NC leader Farooq Abdullah did he spoke wrong on this count, to which the NC leader nodded in negative.

The former Union Minister made fun of Modi's government's slogan of "sabka saath sabka vikas" and said the apt slogan would be "sabka saath sabka vinash".

Entire northeast 'burning' because of the Citizenship Amendment Bill: ZNP leader Lalduhawma

Zoram Nationalist Party leader Lalduhawma said the entire northeast was "burning" because of the Citizenship Amendment Bill.

"If the bill was enacted, India will no longer be the place that it used to be. So we want a secular government at the Centre so that this bill is withdrawn or exemption must be given to the northeast," he said.

Lalduhawma is also the Leader of Opposition in the Mizoram Assembly alleged that the BJP, RSS are trying to rewrite the history in their own way.

After Lalduhawmas speech, Banerjee said her party was against the Citizenship Amendment Bill.

Mahagathbandhan will ensure the defeat of RSS, BJP: Jignesh Mevani

Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani said leader coming to TMCs rally gives a message for change in the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Mevani said that the mahagathbandhan will ensure the defeat of the RSS and the BJP and expressed hope that it will form the government in the Centre, will ensure the upholding of the Constitution and will become a true socialist republic.

"The country is going through an unprecedented crisis with the exploitation of the poor, minorities and Dalits in the four-and-half-year rule of the BJP," the independent MLA from Gujarat said.

'We are fighting against thieves,' says Hardik Patel

Gujarat Patidar leader Hardik Patel said while Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had given a call to fight against the 'goro' (Britishers) "we are fighting against 'choro' (thieves)."

Photo: ANI | Twitter

Patel also thanked the West Bengal Chief Minister for bringing all the major opposition leaders on one platform and pointing towards 'jansalab' (mass gathering) said it was an indication that BJP is on its way out of power.For Mgr Georges Abou Khazen, the jihadist threat is still present but only the Syrian military should fight it. Jihadism is an ideology that must be eradicated. IS suicide bomber kills 21 people in Mandij. Refugees continue to leave eastern Syria. Erdogans attempt to create a buffer zone will likely trigger a new escalation.

Aleppo (AsiaNews)  Yesterdays attack in Manbij and the thousands of refugees fleeing from the east show that, despite Trumps proclamation, the Islamic State (IS) group "has not yet been defeated" in Syria, this according to Mgr Georges Abou Khazen, apostolic vicar of Aleppo of the Latins who spoke to AsiaNews.

"The presence of the jihadist group" is a "pretext to influence the country. IS and its leaders can [still] move around and those who claim to fight it [United States and Turkey] are actually preventing the Syrian government, the only one entitled to do so, from eradicating the threat".

"In Idlib and in the Mesopotamia region, where the Americans and the Kurds are deployed, these terrorist groups are increasing their attacks, the prelate said. The Islamic State is not just a group of fighters but has an ideology that must be fought and taken out at its roots, because it is and will always be a real threat to a future of peace in the country."

In this context, "the situation for civilians is complicated" because the latest attacks come on top of the ongoing war. In the last 24 hours, more than 2,000 people, including several IS fighters left the groups last Syrian stronghold in the eastern desert.

The US-backed Arab-Kurdish coalition is poised to launch its final assault east of the Euphrates. According to UN sources, at least 25,00 people have fled in the last six months and evacuation operations have markedly increased in the past week. Only the village of Sousa, now waiting for a final push by the Kurds, remains under the control of the "Caliphate".

Meanwhile, US air raids are intensifying, following yesterday's attack in Manbij, in the north-west of the country, claimed by the Islamic State, which saw at least four US soldiers killed (out of a death toll of 21).

A suicide bomber targeted the Qasr al-Umara (Fortress of the Emirs) restaurant in central Manbij, which is located north-east of Aleppo near the Euphrates River. Some analysts believe the attack was a response to President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw US troops after purportedly defeating the Islamic State.

A small US force is deployed in Manbij. The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) took the city from IS in the summer of 2016, more than two years after the jihadists had seized it.

Turkey, another stakeholder in what happens in the area, told Kurds to withdraw east of the Euphrates to let its forces take over the area. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the whole of northern Syria must return to the control of the central government.

"Erdogan wants to create a buffer zone (of about 32 km) to control the territory and attack the Kurds, said Mgr Georges Abou Khazen. This complicates the situation." Political and economic factors underpin the struggle.

"The Turkish president wants to hit the Kurds and get his hands on a strategically important territory that is rich in oil and natural resources." Such a "buffer zone" would also affect Aleppo and its region with tragic prospects.

For the prelate, "More interference is likely to follow. But only the Syrian government is entitled to control the territory and fight the jihadists". Such power games "end up complicating the situation".

What is worse, "People who until recently had glimpsed at prospects for peace and stability now seem to lose hope, fearing a new escalation of violence that would block the slow return to normal life, development and reconstruction".UNIST researcher recognized with 2018 Merck Life Science Awards

Jun Ho Lee, a doctroral student in Life Sciences at UNIST, has been named as a recipient of Merck's 2018 Life Science Awards in Tumor Biology, receiving the grand prize of $10,000.

This award has been given to Jun Ho Lee in recognition of his exceptional research work and advances in cancer applications, specifically relating to enhancing the understanding of hepatocellular carcinoma. Besides, this is the first time in Asian history that a student from South Korea has been honored with the grand prize of 2018 Merck Life Science Awards.

Since launching in 2016, this international awards competition aims to recognize postgraduate students from universities from across the globe who have demonstrated outstanding achievement, skill and commitment to excellence in the life science field through innovative, cutting-edge research.

This year's Life Science Awards were presented in three categories: bioseparations, food & beverage safety, and tumor biology. Winning projects in each category were chosen based on level of innovation, impact on the industry, scientific rigor and communication.

Jun Ho Lee entered UNIST in 2010 and joined Professor Hyug Moo Kwon's lab in his second year. There, he has demonstrated strong research and analytical skills through the study of significantly higher TonEBP expression in patients with liver cancer.

Jun Ho Lee entered UNIST in 2010 and joined Professor Hyug Moo Kwon's lab in his second year. There, he has demonstrated strong research and analytical skills through the study on the function TonEBP in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Tonicity-responsive Enhancer-Binding Protein (TonEBP) contributes to the regulation of urine and induces inflammation to fight off infections, caused by virus or bacteria. A recent study by Jun Ho Lee demonstrated that TonEBP expression was higher in tumors than in adjacent non-tumor tissues in 92.6% of patients with HCC regardless of aetiology associated. In addition, the study also unveiled other proteins that affect TonEBP in the progression of HCC.

"Through the observation of TonEBP expression, we may be able to predict the prognosis of HCC patients and find ways to prevent recurrence and metastasis of liver cancer," says Jun Ho Lee.

Jun Ho Lee hopes to further study the process of cancer development, as well as the biological phenomena, involving recurrence and metastasis. He believes that the cure for everything largely depends on finding the most basic and intrinsic part of the matter. Therefore, finding the root cause of the matter is important in finding cures for diseases that are incurable.

The Merck Group, branded and commonly known as Merck, is celebrating its 350th anniversary, this year. Founded in Germany in 1668, the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemicals business has evolved into a science and technology company in healthcare, life sciences and performance materials.

As part of the 2018 Life Science Awards, twelve finalists presented their research to an audience of Merck scientists and guests at the awards ceremony, held at the company's global headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany.

###

This story has been published on: 2019-01-19. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.MPs lined up to grill Matt Hancock in the House as he opened the debate on regulations that will formally extend the lockdown into next month. The Health Secretary defended pushing the date back, arguing the Indian - or Delta - variant has 'given the virus extra legs' and stressing that July 19 should be the 'terminus' for the restrictions. But former chief whip Mark Harper (bottom right) voiced scepticism that the latest promise will be kept, asking whether 'we are going to get to this point in four weeks' time and what we are going to be back here again'. And another ex-minister, Steve Baker (top right) complained about the two-week review of the change saying it only 'deepens despair' if the government 'creates hope and shifts the goalposts'. The Prime Minister was spared a defeat as Labour backed plans for a four-week delay to the end of lockdown measures, aimed at buying more time for the vaccine programme. MPs voted 461 to 60, a majority of 401, on Wednesday to approve regulations delaying the easing of the measures. There were 49 Tory rebels voting against the bill tonight, including Conservative heavyweights David Davis, Iain Duncan Smith, Chris Grayling and Esther McVey. Five no votes came from the Democratic Unionist Party, and six from Labour.Pro-Leave ministers are said to have warned Theresa May, pictured leaving Downing Street yesterday, not to water-down the Brexit deal or she'll risk 'splitting' the Tories

Theresa May has been dealt an ultimatum by her divided cabinet as she attempts to find a new Brexit plan - with pro-Leave ministers warning her not to water-down the deal.

The Prime Minister has been told by Brexiteers she 'risks splitting the Conservative party' if she compromises and tries to gain Labour's support for her plan.

Mrs May has also faced questions from pro-EU ministers who want to vote on legislation that would mean Brexit isn't possible on March 29 without a deal.

Labour's conditions of support include pursuing a permanent customs union with the EU and removing the threat of leaving without a deal - which some Tory MPs would not be happy with, reports the Financial Times.

A cabinet official said: 'A customs union would divide the party and is a total no-go.'

The ultimatum comes after a meeting at Downing Street on Friday where International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, the Leader of the House Andrea Leadsom, and Home Secretary Sajid Javid are thought to have been present.

Mrs May held a series of meetings with members of her cabinet yesterday, however she she did not intend to speak to any opposition, reports the Guardian.

Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt - a Brexiteer - went public in defence of crashing out of the EU on Twitter- arguing it is better than accepting a bad deal.

Brexiteer Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt, pictured leaving Number 10 yesterday, went public in defence of crashing out of the EU on Twitter, arguing it is better than accepting a bad deal

Ms Mordaunt insisted yesterday the EU had to believe a no deal Brexit was still an option to win new concessions from Brussels and make the deal acceptable to Tory rebels

Ms Mordaunt insisted today the EU had to believe a no deal Brexit was still an option to win new concessions from Brussels and make the deal acceptable to Tory rebels.

Before the meetings, Ms Mordaunt replied to a tweet by Times columnist Hugo Rifkind questioning support for no-deal among Thursday's Question Time audience.

Brexiteer Ms Mordaunt said: 'They might have judged that the upsides of leaving outweigh the downsides of staying/No Deal disruption, it's only when #nodealisbetter than a bad deal is believed by the EU that we'll maximise our chance of a deal (and) not honouring the result of the referendum would be appalling.'

Mrs May faced rejection in the commons earlier this week when she was defeated by 230 votes - the biggest for a government in history, outstripping Labour in 1924.

However she defeated Jeremy Corbyn's no-confidence motion by 325 votes to 306 after the DUP and Tory Brexiteers came back into the fold despite dealing her a humiliation on her EU deal the night before.

EU officials have said they will not reopen talks on the deal until the government has worked out what could be approved in commons.

This has sparked meetings within her divided cabinet to try and work out a way to get an agreement made.

Andrea Leadsom, left on Tuesday, and Sajid Javid, right with Jeremy Hunt on Tuesday, are said to have spoken with Theresa May yesterday after the ultimatum was given to her

A former cabinet minister told the Financial Times that if Mrs May made an agreement with Labour on a customs union, about 40 Eurosceptics would be ready to vote down non-EU legislation so government 'effectively grinds to a halt.'

Jeremy Corbyn has also reaffirmed his refusal to meet Mrs May for talks to discuss the way forward unless she takes the possibility of a no-deal Brexit off the table.

The Labour leader said the talks were 'not genuine' after No 10 made clear she would not accept a customs union with the EU.

He said this measure was 'necessary' for any new proposal to command the support of Parliament.

In a letter to the Prime Minister on Friday evening, Mr Corbyn, the only Westminster leader not to meet her, also complained she had ruled out any extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process or a second referendum.

'Whatever one thinks of those issues, that reinforces the view these are not genuine talks, but designed to play for time and give the appearance of reaching out, whilst sticking rigidly to your own emphatically rejected deal,' he wrote.

His intervention came as it was reported that pro-Brexit Cabinet ministers had warned her she risked splitting the Conservative Party if she gave way to calls for a customs union.

Ms Leadsom told the Daily Telegraph that no deal was the default position should no agreement be reached, adding: 'If we fail to prepare, we prepare to fail our country.'

Pro-Brexit Cabinet ministers warned Mrs May against giving way to calls for a customs union. Pictured is Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox at Number 10 on Tuesday

She told the paper: 'No deal is not the desired outcome, but it would be incompetent for any responsible government to rule it out, and there are very good reasons for that.

'If we rule out no deal, we can forget about the EU taking us seriously. We weaken our negotiating hand.'

While the Daily Mail reported that Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the Leave-inclined European Research Group said no deal was better than Mrs May's deal, but Mrs May's deal was better than not leaving at all.

The Prime Minister is spending the weekend at her official country retreat at Chequers working on a statement to MPs on Monday setting out her approach following the overwhelming rejection of her Brexit deal by MPs.

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer is set to say there are 'no easy routes' out of the current crisis.

In a speech to the Fabian Society new year conference in London on Saturday, he will say it is now up to Parliament to take the 'difficult decisions' needed to end the impasse.

In his speech, Sir Keir will lay the blame for her dilemma squarely at Mrs May's door, accusing her of having offered the country 'false hope and false promises'.

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer, pictured, will say in a speech today that it is up to Parliament to take the 'difficult decisions' needed to end the impasse on Brexit

'It's now time for an open and frank debate about how we break the deadlock,' he will say.

'There are no easy routes out of the mess this Government has got us into on Brexit.

'Difficult decisions are going to have to be made by Parliament.

'Now is the time for an honest debate and for credible solutions to emerge.'

Earlier Tory MP Nick Boles warned ministers were ready to resign if the Government tried to block moves to give MPs the power to block a no-deal Brexit.

In an interview with the BBC Radio 4 Political Thinking podcast, the former minister said their was a growing bandwagon behind plan which could enable parliamentarians to demand Article 50 is extended to allow fresh talks with Brussels.

'We have had indications that many ministers, including Cabinet ministers are very, very keen to see it pass and are telling the Prime Minister that they will not vote against it,' he said.

'There is a bandwagon rolling, it's got a lot of momentum behind it and I very much hope that any MP who shares my view that a no-deal Brexit would be a disaster, will jump on board.'Brazen drug smugglers have had their champagne moment ruined after border officers uncovered 96 litres of ecstasy inside bottles of sparkling wine.

Officers at Sydney's international mail centre first uncovered the racket when they found anomalies in bottles of champagne from Europe, and the cargo was later tested positive for MDMA.

The testing could allow users to anonymously submit drug samples such as ecstasy for analysis - and allow them to make an informed decision on whether to take them.

Brazen drug smugglers have had their champagne moment ruined after border officers uncovered 96 litres of ecstasy inside bottles of sparkling wine (pictured)

After officer's made the initial discovery of MDMA traces on December 29, another 23 shipments were flagged to authorities by X-ray imagery - containing 96 litres of the drug in total.

The majority of the packages were sent from Belgium, but some originated in the Netherlands, France and Germany.

3500 detections of MDMA were made by the Australian Border Force in the year leading up to July 2017 - and ABF Regional Commander NSW Danielle Yannopoulos said the findings showed the force's method were working.

'ABF officers have cutting edge technology and unique skills at their disposal, giving them the ability to see further into each package,' she said.

After officer's made an initial discovery of MDMA traces on December 29, another 23 shipments were flagged to authorities by X-ray imagery - containing 96 litres of the drug in total

'We've seen how dangerous this drug can be. It can have a profound and tragic impact on individuals, families and the broader community.'

The latest haul stopped the manufacture of tens of thousands of pills according to the ABF.

Thousands of ecstasy discoveries in the 2017/ 2018 financial year led to the seizure of one-and-a-half tonnes of the drug.

The find comes as hundreds of protesters gathered in Sydney on Saturday in a bid to pressure the NSW government to allow pill testing at raves and music festivals.

3500 detections of MDMA were made by the Australian Border Force in the year leading up to July 2017 - and ABF Regional Commander NSW Danielle Yannopoulos said the findings showed the force's method were working (part of consignment containing MDMA pictured)

Five people have died after taking drugs at music festivals in NSW alone since September, with some of the deaths linked to MDMA.

The rally in Sydney comes a day after a prominent group of doctors expressed their support of pill-testing trials.

They joined the Australian Medical Association and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, who are also urging governments to adopt pill testing.

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians has sent an open letter to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her counterparts urging them to follow the lead of the ACT.

A number of politicians, including David Shoebridge and Kerryn Phelps, were expected to address the crowd as campaigners for a harm minimisation approach.

The find comes as hundreds of protesters gathered in Sydney on Saturday (pictured) in a bid to pressure the NSW government to allow pill testing at raves and music festivals

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians has sent an open letter to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her counterparts urging them to follow the lead of the ACTThe mother-of-one sold the console along with expensive headphones and a bundle of games for 3 when she found out her long-term partner cheated on her while she was pregnant with their child.

Georgia Jackson advertised the bargain on 'Northumberland's Everything Must Go' Facebook selling site with a scathing message directed at her ex.

The 24-year-old said: 'Just learnt my partner put his penis in another girl so selling his pride and joy hence the price.

Georgia Jackson advertised the bargain on 'Northumberland's Everything Must Go'

'First one to collect can have it for 3.

'I would give it away but need to buy myself a new kitchen knife as mine is currently sticking out of his tyres.'

She ended her post with a smiling emoji and with a chorus of supportive messages.

Josh Maddock (right), 25, cheated twice, once when Georgia was pregnant with their first child

The care home worker, of Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, learned her partner of four years had cheated on her in 2016 for the first time, and also last year when she was pregnant

One Facebook user shared her post with the caption 'OMG I Can't Stop Laughing........' and it has been shared over 25,000 times.

The care home worker, of Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Northumberland, learned her partner of four years had cheated on her in 2016.

The culprit, Josh Maddock, 25, repeated the slimy feat again last year when Georgia was pregnant with their first child.

Her scathing post on 'Northumberland's Everything Must Go' was shared over 25,000 times

Georgia told The Sun: 'It was a massive betrayal.

'I always had in my head that if he did anything I would smash his Xbox up but I knew selling it would p**s him off more.

'I wanted to humiliate him. After I'd posted it I felt a lot better.'

She added that Josh had broken her heart and that although she was apprehensive about posting the message initially, it was her 'bit of revenge.'Survivors of the 2002 Bali bombing have criticised the controversial decision to let the radical cleric who inspired the attack walk free from prison.

Ailing Islamic terrorist Abu Bakar Bashir, who inspired the attack, is to be released from prison halfway though his 15-year jail term.

Bashir was the spiritual leader of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jemaah Islamiyah, who were responsible for bombing the Indonesian island and killing 202 people, many of which were foreign tourists.

The decision has sparked outrage around the world, in particular in Australia where 88 of the victims hailed from.

Abu Bakar Bashir, (pictured middle) who inspired the 2002 Bali attack, is to be released from prison halfway though his 15-year jail term

A single singed shoe sits on a table inside a destroyed bar at the site of a bomb blast in Kuta Beach on Bali in October 2002

Five of Melbourne's Jan Laczynski's closest friends died in the attack, and he said he was 'stunned' at Bashir's release.

'Truly devastating news as effectively he gets on with his life whilst everyone else suffers from seeing him walk out of jail,' told Fairfax.

Australia urged Indonesia last March against any leniency towards Bashir when the government was considering house arrest and other forms of clemency.

Mr Laczynski also said he believed Indonesia's president should have considered those still suffering.

'Who is next? Ali Imron, the guy who made the bomb? It's frightening,' he said.

'It's a slap in the face for so many Australians who are still injured and still recovering.'

Survivors of the Bali bombing have been left reeling after the controversial decision to let the radical cleric who inspired the attack walk free from prison

Indonesian man Dewa Ketut Rudita suffered severe burns to 35 per cent of his body and suffered injuries to his right eye.

He said was disappointed in the decision and although he empathises with Bashir's ailing condition but said the victims' families should have been given consideration.

'If humanitarian reasons are the reason given for his release, shouldn't it be asked where was his humanity when he committed the crime that took so many lives? [Many people are] suffering still, the survivors and families of the victims,' he said.

Bashir's imminent release comes ahead of April's presidential election, and the run-up has seen opponents of President Joko Widodo try to discredit him as being insufficiently Islamic.

Bashir's release comes ahead of April's election, and the run-up has seen opponents of President Joko Widodo (pictured) try to discredit him as being insufficiently Islamic

'I have considered this decision for a long time, involving the National Police chief and legal experts,' Mr Widodo told reporters.

'This release was decided because of humanitarian considerations and also related to his healthcare.'

Speaking from Gunung Sindur prison, Bashir welcomed the news: 'If I am released, I'll praise Allah.'

The 2002 bombings were a turning point in Indonesia's battle against violent extremists, making heavy security a norm in big cities and forging closer counter-terrorism cooperation with the US and Australia.Scotland Yard has issued mugshots of two suspects wanted for questioning in connection with the murder of a bouncer outside a sex party allegedly hosted by Lord 'Fast Eddie' Davenport.

Tudor Simionov, 33, was fatally stabbed outside Fast Eddie's 12-million mansion on Park Lane at 5.35am on New Year's Day.

Officers want the public's help to track down Ossama Hamed, 25, and 23-year-old Nor Aden Hamada, who they describe as extremely dangerous.

Scotland Yard said they want to speak to Ossama Hamed, left and Nor Aden Hamada, right, in connection with the murder of bouncer Tudor Simionov who was stabbed to death outside a sex party allegedly being hosted by Fast Eddie Davenport

Scotland Yard said anyone who spots either Hamed, circled, or Hamada should call 999 immediately as they are considered dangerous

Three other men and a woman also received stab injuries during the attack. They were released from hospital following treatment.

Detective Inspector Garry Moncrieff of the Met's Homicide and Major Crime Command said: 'Ossama Hamed and Nor Aden Hamada are dangerous individuals who need to be apprehended. I would urge anyone who has seen them, or knows of their whereabouts, to contact police immediately.

'These are live lines of enquiry, therefore I am not willing to speculate on where they may be but rest assured we are working with colleagues to ensure that if they are in this country, or overseas, we will track them down.

'Our investigation continues to move forward and a woman has now been charged with perverting the course of justice. However, we will not stop until we have apprehended all those who have played a part in Tudors murder.'

DI Moncrieff said he was also appealing to anyone who witnessed the attack or may have video footage of the incident to come forward and contact the incident room on 101 quoting reference 3276/1Jan, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

DI Moncrieff said anyone who spots either Hamed or Hamada to dial 999 immediately.

Tudor Simionov, pictured, was providing security outside the party when he was stabbed to death. Three other men and a woman also received stab wounds during the incident but they were released from hospital following treatmentDetainees at a Western Australia detention centre have gone on hunger strike in a desperate bid to be released.

The protest has lasted for six days, and those involved have performed an emotional haka a to give them 'strength' as they demand freedom from the Yongah Hill detention centre in Northam, a town 97km northeast of Perth.

The group of around 350 detainees have been campaigning against their indefinite imprisonment.

The protesters (pictured) were captured on video holding up signs which stated they had 'no human rights'

The ceremonial dance, traditionally from the Maori culture, has been performed on behalf of those who have made the decision to refrain from eating any food.

'This haka gives us strength. Everything we've tried to do in here has all failed,' detainee Paula Maka Smith told Newshub.

However, the strike could prove to have opposing consequences, with officials claiming it could have a detrimental impact on the protester's release dates.

'This hunger strike, we have been doing it since Monday, we've started losing weight because we're having only water,' protester Issa Andrwas said.

Many of the detainees (pictured) are held for different reasons with some boasting long criminal history, while others are asylum seekers

'Anyone who's protesting, they're going to ship to different centres, and we're not getting visas, because we're showing the world what's been happening in here,' Mr Andrwas said.

But officials from the Australian Border Force have since rebutted Mr Andrwas' claims and denied the existence of a hunger strike, insisting the detainees are eating - a claim Mr Andrwas denies.

Many of the detainee's are imprisoned for different reasons with some boasting long criminal history, while others are asylum seekers who arrived in the country via a boat.

Others have allegedly never committed a crime, but failed to meet the required threshold of a character test.

The detainees were protesting against their indefinite detainment at Yongah Hill detention centre (stock image)

A group of around 350 detainees have been campaigning this week (stock image)

The protesters were also captured on video holding up signs, while pleading against their captivity.

One sign read 'No human rights,' while another demanded 'stop force removals'.

A third said: 'Hunger strikes for justice'.Parents have clashed over claims the children's beloved lift-the-flap book Dear Zoo is 'biased' because all the animals are male.

Rod Campbell's 1982 book tells the story of a young boy who writes to a zoo to ask them to send him a pet.

He then receives a series of animals including a snake, a monkey and a 'too tall' giraffe before being given a 'perfect' puppy.

Rod Campbell's 1982 book tells the story of a young boy who writes to a zoo to ask them to send him a pet

Campaign group Let Toys Be Toys discusses the book in a blog post. The group, which calls for the toy and publishing industries to `stop limiting childrens interests by promoting some toys and books as only suitable for girls, and others only for boys,' describes the `skew' in children's books.

Blog poster Jess Day says: `Speaking personally, whats even odder is that Id read it to my small daughter about 200 times before I noticed.'

`Weve all been surrounded by this bias all our lives, and its hard sometimes even to see it.'

The blog says: `No female animals in this zoo.'

Some parents commented that they agreed, the Sun reported.

One, Eliza Howard, said the book needs a 'modern-day re-write' or to be taken off shelves entirely.

Campaign group Let Toys Be Toys have now claimed the story is 'biased' - because all the animals involved are male

But some, including father-of-two Reuben Williams, don't see a problem with the picture book - which has sold some eight million copies worldwide.

He said: 'It's a classic and a best-seller for a reason.

'There's no issue unless you make one.'

The Dear Zoo and Friends website describes the story, designed for three to five year olds, as 'a must have for every child's bookshelf'.

It says: 'Young children will love lifting the flaps to discover the animals the zoo has sent - a monkey, a lion and even an elephant!

'But will they ever manage to send the perfect pet?'

The popular story has inspired a series of spin-off tales and gifts, including pocket editions and a Dear Zoo live show.Advertisement

The third annual Women's March returned to Washington, DC, among other cities, today despite inclement weather, ideological schisms and the longest government shutdown in American history.

Among the famous faces seen at Women's March Saturday was wave-making Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 29, the youngest women ever elected to Congress, who spoke at both the New York City Women's March and the off-shoot Women's Unity Rally. Gloria Steinem, meanwhile, was also spotted at the Women's Unite Rally in NYC.

'We will not be quiet when it comes to the rights of black women,' Ocasio-Cortez said during one of the speeches Saturday. 'That means we will not be quiet when it comes to the rights of transwoman. That means we will not be quiet when it comes to the right of poor woman and working class and middle class women and all women in the United States of America and the world.'

Ocasio-Cortez also said, 'Last year we brought the power to the polls and this year we need to make sure that we translate that power into policy. That means we will not let anyone take our rights away, in fact we will expand them. That means we will pass and work to pass an equal rights amendment that ensures that all people, regardless of their gender identity, will be respected by the laws of this land.'

The original Women's March in 2017 drew hundreds of thousands of protesters; the exact size of the turnout is still subject to politically charged debate, but it's generally regarded as the largest Washington protest since the Vietnam era.

This year, organizers submitted a permit application estimating up to 500,000 people but the actual turnout is expected to be far lower. Parallel marches were held in dozens of U.S. cities.

Trump baby balloons were seen flying overhead during the 2019 Women's March on Saturday in Washington, DC, despite the government shutdown and forecasting of inclement weather

Snow and freezing rain predictions led march organizers to move the gathering place from the National Mall, which wouldn't be plowed due to the shutdown, to Freedom Plaza (pictured)

Wave-making Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 29, was spotted Saturday at the New York City Women's March where she's set to speak. She'll also speak at off-shoot Women's Unity Rally

Ocasio-Cortez was inundated by supporters and fans while she attended the Women's March in New York City Saturday

Ocasio-Cortez braved the cold to speak to two sets of protesters at the Women's March and Women's Unity Rally Saturday

Organizers had originally planned to gather Saturday on the National Mall, but with the forecast predicting snow and freezing rain Saturday and the National Park Service no longer plowing the snow, the march's location and route was altered this week to start at Freedom Plaza and march down Pennsylvania Avenue past the Trump International Hotel.

The 2019 year march has also been roiled by an intense ideological debate.

In November 2018, Teresa Shook, one of the movement's founders, publicly accused the four main leaders of the national march organization of anti-Semitism.

Shook, a retired attorney from Hawaii, has been credited with sparking the entire movement by creating a Facebook event that went viral and snowballed into the massive protest on January 21, 2017, the day after Donald Trump's inauguration.

Actor Connie Britton was among the bold face names that spoke at the Women's March in Los Angeles on Saturday

Also speaking at the Los Angeles Women's March were actors Lea Thomspon (left) and Evan Rachel Wood (right)

Attendees at the Women's March in Washington, DC, held up a variety of signs Saturday while gathered at Freedom Plaza

Thousands of protesters trooped down Pennsylvania Avenue during the 2019 Women's March Saturday afternoon

One woman was spotted wearing a coat referencing Melania Trump's infamous 'I really don't care do U?' coat which she sported in June during the height of the family separation crisis

The Washington, DC, march route took protesters down Pennsylvania Avenue, past the Trump International Hotel (shown)

Feminist and political activist Gloria Steinem was spotted at the off-shoot Women's Unite Rally in New York City on Saturday

*NSYNC's Lance Bass and actors Sarah Hyland (center) and Laverne Cox (right) gave speeches at LA's Women's March

In the November 19 Facebook post, she claimed Women's March leaders Linda Sarsour and Tamika Mallory, along with fellow organizers Bob Bland and Carmen Perez, had 'steered the Movement away from its true course' and called for all four to step down.

'In opposition to our Unity Principles,' Shook wrote, 'they have allowed anti-Semitism, anti- LBGTQIA sentiment and hateful, racist rhetoric to become a part of the platform by their refusal to separate themselves from groups that espouse these racist, hateful beliefs.'

This accusation was targeted specifically at two primary leaders: Sarsour, a Palestinian-American with a long history of criticizing Israeli policy, and Mallory, who has maintained a longstanding association with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

Farrakhan has been criticized for making anti-Semitic statements during speeches, including referencing 'Satanic Jews' and saying that 'powerful Jews are my enemy' at a February 2018 speech that Mallory attended, according to ADL.

Following a lengthy article highlighting accusations of anti-Semitism within the Women's March leadership, which appeared in Tablet in December, the Women's March organizers apparently added three Jewish women to its steering committee. Meanwhile, Mallory and Sarsour met with rabbis, many of who then encouraged Jewish women to participate in the 2019 march.

The 2019 march comes at a time when the Women's March organization leadership, including Linda Sarsour (left) and Tamika Mallory (right), faces accusations of anti-Semitism

There has been a call for the Women's March leadership, including Carmen Perez (left) and Bob Bland (right), to step down after steering 'the Movement away from its true course'

Women's March organizers adjusted the march route due to concerns about weather and the government shutdown. The new route, which passes the Trump International Hotel, is pictured here

However, Mallory recently came under fire after failing to condemn Farrakhan while appearing on The View on January 14.

Instead of trying to distance herself from Farrakhan or condemn his antisemitic views, she said she admired him not for 'rhetoric,' but for 'what he's done in black communities' and said, 'I dont agree with many of Minister Farrakhans statements.'

In the wake of Mallory's interview, the New York Times said that the Democratic National Committee appeared to publicly pull out of its partnership with the 2019 march, as did groups including Naral and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The four march organizers have denied the anti-Semitism charge, but Sarsour has publicly expressed regret that they were not 'faster and clearer in helping people understand our values.'

Despite pleas for unity, an alternate women's march has sprung up in protest and will be holding a parallel rally in New York on Saturday a few blocks away from the official New York Women's March protest.President Donald Trump outlined a plan to end the government shutdown on Saturday, offering congressional Democrats three years of legislative relief for 700,000 DACA recipients  including protection from deportation  and an extension of legal residence for people living in the country under 'Temporary Protective Status' designations.

He also offered $800 million in urgent humanitarian assistance and 75 new immigration teams to reduce the court backlog of 900,000 cases, which he called an 'impossible nightmare' in his late-afternoon remarks.

Speaking in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Trump said he wants $5.7 billion for the 'strategic deployment of physical barriers, or a wall,' that he will use to put 'steel barriers in high-priority locations' along the U.S.-Mexico border.

'I want this to end. It's gotta end now,' he said, ending a pained crescendo about drugs and related crime waves that flow northward from Mexico.

'These are not talking points. These are the heartbreaking realities that are hurting innocent, precious human beings every single day on both sides of the border,' the president said.

It's unclear if rank-and-file Democrats will find the proposal enticing enough to pressure House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to bring it to the floor. She called it a 'non-starter' before Trump's address.

In a briefing after Trump's speech, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said the president still has the authority to walk away from negotiating with Democrats and declare a national emergency on the border.

President Trump outlined a plan to end the government shutdown in a Saturday afternoon address, offering three years of legislative relief for 700,000 DACA recipients  including protection from deportation and a reprieve for Temporary Protective Status awardees

Trump billed his 13-minute speech Saturday as a major step forward in ending the four-week-old government shutdown but that depends on how Democrats in Congress interpret it

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Trump's offer was a 'non-starter,' issuing a statement before Trump spoke

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told reporters after Trump's speech that the president still has the power to declare a national emergency and build his border wall without any say-so from Congress

'I absolutely still believe that the national emergency is still a tool that's available to the president,' Mulvaney told DailyMail.com. 'He's just been very candid, very public in saying it's not his preferred course of action that's going to fix this, it's through legislation.'

That would be a precursor to diverting funds from the Pentagon and other agencies to the Army Corps of Engineers, which would dole out contracts and continue the border wall without congressional approval.

The president is putting forward a 'good faith proposal' to try to resolve the dispute legislatively, Vice President Mike Pence said at the same briefing, and included liberal priorities in his offer on Saturday.

He is offering protection for illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children and temporary protective status extensions after meeting last week with moderate Democrats.

DACA refers to the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which offered a no-deportation guarantee to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants whose parents brought them into the U.S. as minors.

TPS is a Justice Department program that grants residency and work permits to people from 10 countries affected by natural disasters or brutal armed conflicts. They include El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, Syria, Sudan, South Sudan and Yemen.

The Trump administration moved last year to end TPS status for Salvadorans and Hondurans, ending two decades of protected status. Both groups would gain extensions under the proposal the White House offered Saturday.

Salvadorans comprise the largest group, more than 268,000. Hondurans were offered the programs benefits after Hurricane Mitch struck the Central American country in 1998. Protection for Haitians is scheduled to end later this year.

The president last year referred to some of those countries as 's***hole' nations in a closed-door meeting.

Pence said that he has embraced the program, however, and believes it's 'absolutely the right thing to do' to extend the protections for another three years.'

'The president very early added that to our proposal,' Pence told a reporter during a post-speech roundtable.

The vice president did not deny that Trump made the widely-publicized remark.

'I would really take issue with your characterization of the president's attitude about people who came here under temporary protective status of any background,' he said of the suggestion that Trump would try to kick them out when the provision expires.

Conservatives immediately slammed the proposal as 'amnesty' for immigrants that would only fuel the crisis.

James Carafano, a national security expert at the Trump-supporting Heritage Foundation, said in a statement, that Trump 'should be applauded' for pursuing an end to the government shutdown and better border security.

'However, including amnesty in the new proposal is not the way to do it. Amnesty encourages further illegal immigration, incentivizes the tragedy of human trafficking, and undermines our citizens' confidence in the rule of law,' he argued.

In a tweets, right-wing author and political commentator Ann Coulter went after Trump for offering 'amnesty' to illegal immigrants to fund 100 miles of border barriers.

'So if we grant citizenship to a BILLION foreigners, maybe we can finally get a full border wall,' she tweeted.

Trump's latest proposal comes as a new 'caravan' of migrants is streaming north from Central America, hoping to cross the U.S. border and request permanent asylum

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pledged Saturday to put Trump's proposal on the floor for a vote, but Democrats have enough members to block him unless the White House converts at least seven of their 47 into believers

Trump's re-election campaign sees the wall as a winning political issue and launched a fundraising drive Friday asking for donations to 'send a brick' to Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer

Pence stressed to reporters that the president is not offering 'amnesty' to TPS recipients or Dreamers, because their protections will end in three years, as liberals opposing the plan have complained.

'This is not an amnesty bill,' the former Indiana lawmaker said.

The vice president has been working with Mulvaney and Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to the president and Trump's son-in-law, at Trump's behest to come up with a legislative solution to the shutdown.

He said that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell assured he and Kushner at a Thursday afternoon meeting that he would bring the president's proposal to the floor for a vote this week.

'Today's speech is very much intended to be a good faith proposal, incorporating ideas from both political parties to secure our border and end the partial government shutdown,' Pence said of Trump's offer to Democrats.

Kushner insisted that the president's proposal is a 'compromise solution' that could serve as a stepping stone to broad-based immigration reforms.

'Hopefully we'll get a successful vote and be able to end this shutdown,' he said.

Mulvaney was less than optimistic that the bill could clear an initial hurdle in the Senate, a motion to proceed to a vote on the bill.

'If the bill is filibustered on Tuesday, on the motion to proceed, people will not get paid,' he reminded.

He contended in response to a question from DailyMail.com that Democrats are holding up a bipartisan bill to pay members of the Coast Guard who have been working for a month without pay during the shutdown.

'So if Democrats are willing to stand in the way of that compromise, you know, but maybe things will be different, I hope that they will,' he mused.

TRUMP'S IMMIGRATION OFFER The president offered Democrats in Congress an immigration reform package on January 19, including some items from their wish-list. In exchange, he wants money to continue construction of a border wall that he has promised consistently since early 2015. The White House's proposal includes: $5.7 billion for a 'steel barrier system' along the U.S.-Mexico border

a three-year deportation reprieve for DACA recipients

a three-year extension of Temporary Protected Status for more than 300,000 people whose nations experienced disasters and war

$805 million for new technology, scanners, training, dogs and related staff to detect narcotics and guns

$800 million for humanitarian assistance and temporary housing

$782 million to hire 2,750 new border agents and other personnel

$563 million for immigration courts including 75 new 'immigration judge teams' Advertisement

Trump said Saturday that he was offering his compromise to 'break the logjam' over illegal immigration and provide a 'path forward to end a government shutdown.'

'It is time to reclaim our future from the extreme voices,' he said of liberals he's been haranguing for months over their alleged support for open borders. ''The radical left can never control our borders,' he later said.

In a slap at Pelosi, he declared: 'Walls are not immoral. In fact, they are the opposite of immoral.'

Trump said his compromise will provide the 'best chance in a very long time at real bipartisan immigration reform' in the U.S. Congress.

As it stands, America's immigration system is a 'source of shame,' he claimed, 'all over the world,' and 'not a symbol of unity' but one of government dysfunction.

'As a candidate for president, I promised I would fix this crisis, and I intend to keep that promise one way or the other. Our immigration system should be the subject of pride, not a source of shame, as it is all over the world. Our immigration system should be the envy of the world, not a symbol of disunity and dysfunction.

He promoted the plan as a 'common sense compromise' to conundrum that's been plaguing America for decades, even as he acknowledged t is 'not intended to solve all of our immigration challenges.'

President Trump (left), Vice President Mike Pence (right) and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen (2nd right) held a Naturalization Ceremony earlier Saturday in the Oval Office, swearing in five new U.S. citizens

President Donald Trump pictured arriving back at the White House on Saturday before his government shutdown address where he will give Democrats his new offer

Trump hosted a Naturalization Ceremony for new citizens originally hailing from across the globe an hour before he doubled down on his request for border wall to keep migrants coming from Mexico out.

Vice President Mike Pence, the president's senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and his acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney are leading the charge on Capitol Hill to get the deal passed.

Democrats were already panning the deal as dead on arrival even before Trump delivered his remarks.

'First, President Trump and Senate Majority Leader McConnell must open the government today. Second, I cannot support the proposed offer as reported and do not believe it can pass the Senate,' Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said. 'Third, I am ready to sit down at any time after the government is opened and work to resolve all outstanding issues.'

Saturday Trump urged Pelosi to accept his offer, claiming she's 'controlled by the radical left'

Trump indicated earlier in the day that he would be making the case for his wall in the remarks.

'We need the help and the backup of a wall,' the president said earlier Saturday.

The president had been mulling a national security declaration but did not take the step that would invite a vigorous court challenge on Saturday afternoon. He instead revealed a new deal for Democrats in the national address that came a week after he walked out of a meeting with party leaders.

He hasn't met with Pelosi or Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer since. He appealed to congressional Democrats this week that are a part of an ad hoc group that advised him that he'd be best served by reopening the government, and then continue negotiations.

'I think it'll be an important statement,' Trump told reporters as he departed the White House to receive the bodies of four Americans who were killed last week in an ISIS attack in Syria.

Pelosi said prior to Trump's speech that his expected proposal was 'unacceptable' and compromised of previously rejected solutions.

His offer may support the Bridge Act which will help 740,000 DACA recipients - people who came to the U.S. illegally as children. Pro DACA and Dreamer supports pictured protesting outside the U.S. capital

The proposal may extend deportation reprieves for Dreamers in exchange for his controversial $5.7billion U.S.-Mexico border wall

DACA protesters pictured above protesting on January 15

'Democrats were hopeful that the President was finally willing to re-open government and proceed with a much-need discussion to protect the border,' she said.

'Unfortunately, initial reports make clear that his proposal is a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and in total, do not represent a good faith effort to restore certainty to peoples lives.'

She noted that it doesn't include a 'permanent solution' for illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children or for Temporary Protective Status program participants.

Pence acknowledged Saturday that Pelosi wasn't read-in on the president's proposal beforehand. He told DailyMail.com that she told the president in a meeting he walked out on more than a week ago that she wouldn't give him the wall, even if he met her immigration demands.

'So that frankly, you're talking about moments, at that point, the president directed us to begin to talk to rank and file members in the House and in the Senate,' he explained.

The VP told reporters he believed that once Democrats could generally get past their initial reactions, they'll see that Trump is sincerely trying to come to an arrangement on immigration.

'We're going to reach out to every Member of Congress, to the leadership, and I expect the American people are going to be reaching out to them,' he said of the effort.

He declined to say which Democrats in the Senate, where the bill will get its first vote, that the White House was pressuring directly.

Democrats had asked for $563 million to hire 75 more immigration judges and $524 million to put toward securing ports of entry.

They have agreed to more money for border security personnel and technology such as drones and sensors but not the border wall that is at the center of the dispute with the president.The names of the candidates for the Lok Sabha polls will soon be announced by the party.

New Delhi: Putting an end to months of speculations, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday ruled out the possibility of any alliance with Congress for Lok Sabha polls, and added it will field candidates on all parliamentary constituencies in Delhi, Punjab and Haryana.

Senior AAP leader and partys Delhi unit convener Gopal Rai said the decision came in the wake of the recent statements of Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit.

In the interest of the country, we were ready to drink the poison of Congress, but the statements show that the Congress is still seeped in its arrogance. The AAP will contest all Lok Sabha seats in the three states on its own, Mr Rai said.

Ms Dikshit refused to comment on the development.

Mr Rai said AAP in collaboration with like-minded parties in the country, will defeat the BJP in Delhi and get a new government installed at the Centre.

He said the vision of an alliance with Congress came into being on suggestions of leaders like Mamata Banerjee, M K Stalin, Chandrababu Naidu and Farooq Abdullah.

Like-minded leaders like Farooq Abdullah, M.K. Stalin, Chandra-babu Naidu, Mamata Banerjee among others stressed that despite disagreements with Congress, we should fight the elections together in the interest of the country, he said.

The AAP, despite objections of its Delhi and Punjab units, was ready to go with the Congress to end the dictatorship of Modi-Shah combine, Mr Rai said.

The way Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh issued statement that AAP has no takers in Punjab and Sheila Dikshit said that Congress is a national party and it can not ally with a small party like AAP, made it clear that Congress kept its arrogance above the interest of the country.

Delhi Congress working president Devender Yadav said AAPs decision proved that only it was vying for an alliance for the coming polls.

They were running after us for an alliance and now rejecting it. It shows that they had interest in it and when we declined, they backed out, Mr Yadav said.

He said that Delhi Congress is of firm view that it will contest Lok Sabha polls alone.

The AAP, which is the main opposition party in Punjab, will launch its campaign for Lok Sabha polls in the state with a rally in Barnala on January 20 which will be attended by party chief Arvind Kejriwal.

The candidates on the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi will be announced soon, Mr Rai added.The California social media influencers who fell 800ft to their deaths at Yosemite's Taft Point as they snapped selfies were drunk, an autopsy has revealed.

A toxicology report from Stanislaus County Coroner's Office showed that Meenakshi Moorthy, 30, and her husband Vishnu Viswanath, 29, were 'intoxicated with ethyl alcohol prior to death'.

They died 'of multiple injuries to the head, neck, chest and abdomen, sustained by a fall from a mountain', the report said.

Dr. Sung-Ook Baik, a forensic pathologist confirmed no drugs were present in their bodies, but laboratory tests found the same element used in common alcoholic beverages beer, wine, hard liquor were present.

'We can only conclude that they had consumed alcohol but it is unknown to what level of intoxication,' assistant Mariposa County coroner, Andrea Stewart, told Mercury News in an email on Friday.

The couple, who were Indian expats living in California, died while taking a selfie, Viswanath's brother had said. Vishnu Viswanath, told the Associated Press that they had set up their tripod near the ledge when they plummeted to their deaths.

The autopsy on the Holidays and Happily Ever Afters Instagram duo was completed January 4.

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Meenakshi Moorthy, 30, and Vishnu Viswanath, 29, were intoxicated when they fell over the 800-foot drop in California last October, a toxicology report found

The autopsy found they died 'of multiple injuries to the head, neck, chest and abdomen, sustained by a fall from a mountain'. An unidentified couple got married there last September

Last shot: Drea Rose Laguillo and her fiance Sean Matteson were at Taft Point in Yosemite National Park when they snapped a selfie just after 5pm (above)

However the Mariposa County Sheriff's Office stated it's still unclear how exactly the pair with a following of more than 25,000 fell to their deaths of the steep cliff.

The month before a couple had been pictured getting married at the same point.

Pictured: Meenakshi Moorthy (above), whose body was discovered after the plunge

Moorthy described her and her husband as 'travel obsessed' on their blog, which has been taken down since their deaths.

It was filled with photos of the couple in front of snowy peaks and on romantic trips across Europe, where they took selfies from a gondola in Venice, at the Leaning Tower of Pisa and at the Vatican.

Moorthy had used her social media accounts to talk about her severe 'tentacles of depression' and mental health issues.

In a post from April, Moorthy apologized to readers for going silent and 'disappearing for more than a year'.

'Between battling the tightening tentacles of depression and blustering in the tempest of moving madness, I am afraid social media is taking a back seat??' she wrote.

In a May Instagram post, Moorthy shared her mental health woes and shared that she had been 'buried in a blanket for weeks', 'hurting in a whirl of hopeless dark thoughts.'

She added that she was 'paralyzed with anxiety', questioning whether her existence was 'helping my loved ones or harming' and said 'no one can figure out what is wrong with me.'

Tragic fall: Laguillo shared the photo and DailyMail.com's story (above) about the tragedy, revealing that she could estimate the time of death to be around 5.11pm

Moorthy wanted to work full time as a travel blogger, her brother-in-law said. She described herself in the blog as a 'quirky free spirit' and 'an ardent adrenaline junkie - roller coasters and skydiving does not scare me.'

She posed at the edge of the Grand Canyon wearing a Wonder Woman costume, writing, 'A lot of us including yours truly is a fan of daredevilry attempts of standing at the edge of cliffs - and skyscrapers. But did you know that wind gust can be FATAL??? Is our life just worth one photo?'.

Her husband's Facebook cover photo shows the couple smiling, with arms around each other standing at a Grand Canyon precipice. 'Living life on the edge,' he wrote.

In a post from July 2017, the couple celebrated their wedding anniversary by skydiving in Santa Barbara, California. Moorthy posted a video on Instagram that shows her in a T-shirt saying, 'Gimme Danger,' and flashing a thumbs-up as she jumps from the plane.

Meenakshi Moorthy (left) blogged about depression and spoke about mental health on her social media accounts

'I believe I can flyyy. I believe i can touch the skyyy,' she wrote in the post. 'Aaaand touch the sky I did from an effin' 18000 feet thanks to the unconditional love-ninja in my life, Vishnu, who literally took this year's anniversary surprise a notch 'higher' than last year's hot air ballooning adventure, by gifting this adrenaline junkie with one of the highest tandem skydives in the world!'.

Shortly after the couple's deaths, Drea Rose Laguillo and her fiance Sean Matteson realized they were at Taft Point on the day the couple died and realized they may have taken the final photo of the pair.

Laguillo posted the DailyMail.com story about the couple's tragic death to her Facebook page and revealed that she had a rough idea of when the pair likely went over the edge of the 800-foot cliff because she unknowingly captured one of them in her photo.

It was an image taken at 5.11pm that clearly shows the pink-haired Moorthy in the background of their photo at Taft Point.

Big apple: Moorthy, 30, and Visanath, 29, were married engineering students studying in the US who also had a travel blog

On the move: The engineering students had traveled to This year alone they had traveled to Vermont, Arizona, New Mexico, San Francisco, New Orleans, Brooklyn, Big Sur, Baltimore, Manhattan, Holland and India

That photo made it very clear that Moorthy and Viswanath were perilously close to the edge of the drop where there were no guards or rails to protect visitors.

Park visitors the next morning saw the camera and alerted rangers, who 'used high-powered binoculars to find them and used helicopters to airlift the bodies,' he said.

The funeral took place in the U.S. since the bodies were not in a condition to be flown back to India, Jishnu Viswanath said.Regulators with the U.S. government may slam Facebook with a record-breaking fine for violating a legal agreement to protect user's personal data and privacy.

The penalty, made through the Federal Trade Commission, is expected to exceed the $22.5million fine imposed on Google in 2012.

Google was hit with the steep fine for bypassing privacy controls in the Safari browser ran by Apple.

Facebook could be hit with a penalty that is expected to exceed the $22.5million fine imposed on Google in 2012. Zuckerberg testified before Congress in 2018 to discuss their breach in users' privacy

Two sources familiar with the situation told the Washington Post that the FTC's investigation findings and fine amount have not been finalized yet.

A third source said that commissioners have been briefed about the probe and a decision is to be made soon.

Federal Trade Commission is handling the fine

Facebook may be able to settle with the FTC, if they accept a significant financial penalty, and the tech giant has been in talks with the independent agency.

The agency could not be reached for a comment due to the government shutdown. Facebook also declined to comment.

The FTC began investigating Facebook after it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica siphoned information from as many as 87million users.

In 2011, Facebook reached a settlement with the FTC after the company was found to have repeatedly took advantage of users' data. The agency is trying to see if that settlement has been violated with the latest breach.

'The agency now has the legal authority, the evidence, and the public support to act. There can be no excuse for further delay,' said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Facebook may be able to settle with the FTC, if they accept a significant financial penalty

Under the stipulation of the agreement - Facebook was to get user permission before sharing any data with third parties that differs from current privacy settings.

It also required Facebook to inform the FTC if someone was misusing the information.

If Facebook is hit with the penalty, it would be the worst punishment enacted against the tech giant for horrible handling of users' data.

The U.K. handed Facebook a $640,000 fine that they are appealing.

Additionally, the attorney general of Washington D.C. is hoping to launch a massive lawsuit against the company.A 33-year-old man found dead in his own home has been named as Robert Charles Frescon.

Mr Frescon's body was discovered by his sister at unit 1/36 Hunter Street in the northern suburb of Kelvin Grove on Friday at 3pm.

She went to check on him after he did not turn up to work that day.

Police are treating the death as homicide after they launched a murder investigation working to determine the cause.

Properties on Hunter Street are currently being searched by police for any evidence that may have been left behind as part of 'standard procedure'.

Police were called to a house (pictured) in the northern suburb of Kelvin Grove at 3pm after the 33-year-old's sister discovered his body

A police spokesman said the cause of death is still unknown.

Detective Acting Inspector Christopher Toohey declined to reveal any details of Mr Frescon's injuries or the murder weapon.

'Forensic teams are still working within his unit and we hope to have an investigative search either late tonight or tomorrow morning,' he said on Saturday.

'Robert had not turned up for work and from then people were checking on his welfare,' said Inspector Christopher Toohey.

Police are specifically asking for the assistance of anyone who heard or saw anything on Hunter Street from 10pm on Thursday to Friday 3pm afternoon.

Police are searching every property on Hunter Street (pictured) for any useful evidence

Queensland Police said in a statement: 'Investigators have interviewed a number of people and all efforts are being made to identify the exact events leading up to the death.

Those with any information should contact Policelink on 131 444 or call Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000.The alleged secret workings of underground wannabe bikies have been revealed, as former members speak out about its alleged 'brutal dictatorship'.

Allegiance to the gang which was allegedly trying to earn a Rebels patch near the Queensland capital required obeying a strict code of conduct, a court has heard.

Included in the list of demands, it is alleged, were selling 100 pills of MDMA a week, a requirement to answer the phone when another gang member calls at all times and paying a $200,000 fee for those who wished to leave.

The gang is run by Ian Robert Crowden who reportedly doled out public bashings for members who don't follow the rules, Brisbane Magistrates Court heard.

Crowden is charged with extortion, grievous bodily harm, assault, torture, arson, intimidation, participating in a criminal organisation, threatening violence and drug trafficking.

The secret workings of an underground bikie gang allegedly formed to take over the Beenleigh chapter of the Rebels bikie club (pictured) have been revealed

The gang is allegedly run by Ian Robert Crowden who allegedly doled out public bashings for members who don't follow the rules (not pictured, stock image)

The court heard Crowden allegedly told a man: 'I know 1000 ways to kill someone' before bashing him until he was 'unrecognisable', the Courier Mail reported.

Matthew Grant Lambert and Robert Jamie Sorbello were also committed to stand trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court this week over offences including alleged drug trafficking and assault.

All three men are alleged to have bashed former gang member and drug trafficker, Shannon Arnold with a hammer.

Arnold, a bouncer at a Gold Coast nightclub, had provided a statement to police about an alleged assault where he worked.

The gang allegedly trafficked the drug MDMA at the Glitter Strip in Surfer's Paradise.

Sorbello was charged with grievous bodily harm, intimidating and extortion while Lambert faces charges including trafficking dangerous drugs and receiving property.

The court heard Crowden allegedly told a man: 'I know 1000 ways to kill someone' before bashing him until he was 'unrecognisable' (stock image, not pictured)

Gang rules Weekly membership dues of $100. Membership for life

Gang members to sell 100 MDMA pills per week at nightclubs

Meetings known as 'church nights' where club discussed criminal activity

Attendance ledger kept at 'church nights', recorded if they owed money to gang

Bikie terminology used to establish rank: Terms such as president, vice-president, treasurer, noms and sergeant-at-arms

Members must ride a Harley Davidson motorbike

Must answer phones when summoned

Violence used to intimidate conform and obey. Stepping out of line to be met with 'brutality'

Death threats made if those who left gang did not pay

Leaving group would result in a fine of $200,000, confiscation of property and bashings

Club to take 10 per cent of profit from drug trafficking According to evidence heard in Brisbane Magistrates Court Advertisement

Giving evidence, witness Jordan Brandy told the court he fled the group and recounted an alleged speech given by Crowden.

'These are the rules: You have to pay $100 a week at dinner to the club, you have to go out and earn for the club,' the alleged gang boss said.

'It (the club) is a dictatorship, you have to answer your phone. If you don't ring back after five minutes you will get a beating.'

Crowden allegedly claimed to be backed by former national Rebels bikie boss Alex Vella, and would be given a chapter if he pulled together 15 members.

The group's alleged boss, along with the other men, also are accused of offering to shake a man's hand before punching him and hitting him with a piece of wood at a timber mill on the Sunshine Coast in December 2014.

Brandy told the court Crowden then allegedly continued the assault by using timber to hit his victim.

Magistrates were also told Arnold and other members were allegedly bashed following them going to authorities about a nightclub incident.

Lambert and Sorbello's counsel said in an earlier committal hearing the two men were initially told the club was simply a group for those who were motorbike fans.

The case has now been committed to a trial which has been listed for a later date.A university lecturer who allegedly drank three bottles of wine before stabbing six teenagers has been charged with attempted murder.

Shannon Morrison, 34, allegedly attacked the youngsters in Turramurra, on Sydney's leafy north shore, after one of the youths told the man to 'stop staring at my sister.'

The pharmaceutical medicine and neuroscience masters graduate was charged with attempted murder, six counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and affray.

He is accused of stabbing the teens  all between the ages 15 and 19  in Gilroy Rd, Turramurra, around 11.40pm on January 12.

Shannon Morrison (pictured) has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly stabbing six teenagers in Turramurra, on Sydney's upper north shore

Shannon Morrison (pictured right) has been charged with with attempted murder, six counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and affray

A few hours earlier Morrison was refused service from neighbouring Kipling's Garage Bar due to his level of intoxication.

On Friday in Hornsby Local Court, police facts stated the incident in Turramarra escalated when Morrison pulled out a switchblade and slashed the youngsters before they then set upon him.

The prosecution said Morrison threw away his weapon when police arrived at the scene.

Bail was denied, despite Morrison's parents offering up a $1.2 million surety.

The Hornsby resident, who has a six-year-old daughter, appeared in court via phone link from Westmead Hospital.

He remains under police guard suffering head and chest injuries.

A Mt Ku-ring-gai boy, 17, underwent emergency surgery at Royal North Shore Hospital for stab wounds to his throat, chest and abdomen.

Shannon Morrison (pictured) is alleged to have attacked six teenagers in a frenzied attack recently on Sydney's north shore

A girl, 16, also underwent surgery for wounds to her neck and arm.

A 19-year-old Hornsby man, a 15-year-old Berowra boy and two 17-year-old boys from Berowra and Mount Colah have all been released from Westmead Hospital following treatment.

Michael Blair, Morrison's defence lawyer, said his client was defending himself at the scene, with the accused returning to court in March.Andrew Collins was arrested Sept. 20 for standing naked in front of his 10th-floor hotel window overlooking the Denver International Airport terminal

Footage has been released of the moment a United Airlines pilot was detained by police for indecent exposure, as his lawyers claim 'it is not a crime to be naked in Denver'.

Andrew Collins was arrested on September 20 for standing naked in front of his 10th-floor hotel window overlooking the Denver International Airport terminal. He has pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charge.

'It is not a crime to be naked in Denver, even if you are a man,' Denver attorney Craig Silverman wrote in a motion for his client, according to The Denver Post.

'It is certainly not a crime to be naked in Denver in one's lawful dwelling, which includes lawful occupancy of one's own hotel room.'

He added that Collins had no idea people could see him when he partially opened the curtains.

Silverman shared video from the arrest provided by two officers' body cams. The video had been edited down for time but showed a shirtless Collins getting detained.

At one point an officer has to help Collins put on a shirt.

Attorney Craig Silverman shared video from the arrest provided by two officers' body cams

The video had been edited down for time but showed a shirtless Collins getting detained

In a separate motion for dismissal, Silverman also says authorities lacked probable cause to prove the case.

'There is zero reference to any evidence, because there is no such evidence, that the naked man in Room 1017 did anything with the intent to arouse or satisfy the sexual desire of any person, which is essential to the crime of indecent exposure,' Silverman asserted.

'When Captain Collins asked Officer K. Coleman why he was being arrested, Coleman said he was being arrested for lewd acts and indecent exposure, and wrongly claimed there were incriminating photographs,' Silverman asserted.

At the time of his arrest, Collins had been engaged in a 20-minute phone call with United Airlines Captain Jamie Ferguson. The two were discussing Collins' run for president of the Air Line Pilots Association. He has since dropped out.

United Airlines has suspended Collins, of Leesburg, Virginia, pending an internal review.

'It is not a crime to be naked in Denver, even if you are a man,' Silverman said in a motion for his client

At one point an officer has to help Collins put on a shirt

Collins admitted to standing in the window but denied he was purposely parading himself, despite several witness accounts to the contrary. He pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charge Wednesday in Denver County Court.

A police probable cause statement said Collins 'knowingly and willfully' exposed his genitals to the general public at the Westin Hotel in September.

The Virginia man says he did not know people could see him when he opened the curtains to look at the landscape in the window of the 10th floor of his Westin Hotel room at the Denver International Airport.

'We're not disputing the fact that I was standing nude in front of the hotel window,' the 22-year veteran said of the September 20 incident, according to the Denver Post.

United Airlines spokeswoman Erin Benson said in November that the pilot had been suspended pending an internal review.

A TSA agent informed police that he saw Leesburg, Virginia, man 'touching himself' and waving at him from the 10th floor of the Westin Hotel at the Denver International Airport

A TSA agent informed police that he saw Leesburg, Virginia, man 'touching himself' and waving at him but Collins asserted that that wasn't the case.

'Some witnesses said I was dancing, gyrating and waving,' he added. 'I'm completely innocent. It's really unfortunate that it happened at all.'

Denver police said that Collins 'knowingly and willfully' exposed himself, reporting that two United employees and a passenger saw the man and gave credible statements as to what he was doing.

'From this hotel room, you cannot see people going about their business inside the concourse,' lawyer Craig Silverman claimed. 'The concourse windows are tinted green and are opaque and reflective. It's like looking at a green wall or a green mirror'

'The suspect did open the window to his hotel room, which overlooks the hotel plaza, and in full view of the public did stand in his window fully nude, exposing himself and his genitalia to the general public,' a police report stated.

On the day of the incident, Collins shared that he had been awake for more than 30 hours and had been sent to various airports while a severe thunderstorm pummeled the country. He didn't get up until 10.30am, very late for the pilot.

'I was getting ready for a shower and was talking on the phone,' he explained. 'It was a beautiful morning and I opened the curtains to my window. I couldn't see the terminal.'

The pilot claimed to have been on the phone for roughly 24 minutes.

Soon after, police began pounding on his door and had their guns drawn when he opened. Collins was handcuffed and taken to the airport jail.

'It was a surreal experience, I'll tell you,' he said.

Collins has been 'removed from his duties pending an internal review.'

Facebook indicates that the man is married to a flight attendant named Jill Babich

Craig Silverman, popular talk-show host and lawyer for Collins, said in November that he went to the hotel room where his client had been.

'From this hotel room, you cannot see people going about their business inside the concourse,' Silverman claimed. 'The concourse windows are tinted green and are opaque and reflective. It's like looking at a green wall or a green mirror.'

But Silverman did find that from the concourse, people could see inside the hotel.

'From inside the concourse, at that time of the morning, unbeknownst to my client, you can see into the Westin rooms, but the distance is such that you cannot see much other than a human form. My client had a reasonable expectation that no one could see into his window. He was unaware of any people looking at him as he focused on his important phone call while walking around his room,' Silverman said.

'There is zero evidence of any sexual activity demonstrating an intent to arouse or to satisfy the sexual desire of any person.'

Collins had been running for president of the Air Line Pilots Association, at the time of the arrest. Once he was arrested, Collins decided to pull his campaign even though there were only three weeks left.

'I shut the campaign down after that,' said Collins.

His Facebook profile suggests that that the man is married to a flight attendant named Jill Babich.A brave policeman was shot in the face by a crazed 74-year-old trophy hunter while responding to a domestic incident on Friday night.

Sergeant Mark Johnston and his partner Senior Constable Helen McMurtrie were airlifted to hospital after they were targeted with a rifle in Glen Innes, northern New South Wales.

Johnston is in stable condition but McMurtrie, who was shot in the throat, has been put into a coma by doctors.

Sergeant Mark Johnston (pictured) and his partner Senior Constable Helen McMurtrie were shot while attending a domestic incident in Glen Innes, norther New South Wales

Sergeant Mark Johnston (left with his wife and right) was airlifted to hospital after he was targeted with a rifle in Glen Innes, northern New South Wales

The officers were called to a house in the small town at 9.50pm on Friday.

They spoke to 74-year-old Eric Newman, a trophy hunter who retired ten years ago.

After the discussion they were shot at in the street with a 303 centerfire rifle.

The pair, with the help of an unharmed third colleague, escaped and gave each other first aid before paramedics arrived.

Shooter: Hunter Eric Newman, 74, with his wife Lesley Newman, 59

Police believe Newman shot the officers before turning the gun on himself. His body was found at the scene.

A 59-year-old woman, understood to be his wife Lesley, was found nearby with minor injuries after she begged neighbours for help.

Neighbour Daryl Craig heard the terrifying incident. He told the Daily Telegraph: 'I had just gone to bed and I heard "Put the gun down, put the gun down".

'I heard a bang and then another bang.'

He said he looked out of the window and saw officers 'dragging one of their coppers towards their car'.

Another neighbour said Mr Newman was a big game hunter who had been on several trips to Africa and had several animal skins in his house.

McMurtrie now faces a fight for her life in Gold Coast Hospital.

Assistant Commissioner McKechnie said in a press conference on Saturday: 'Our female officer has undergone some surgery and is currently receiving further medical treatment in relation to that very serious injury.'

'We hope and pray she makes a full recovery. There is certainly a road ahead for her in that regard.'

'We're very mindful we could have lost two officers here in that incident,' he said.

'The whole police family wishes them a speedy recovery.'

NSW Police Acting Commissioner Gary Worboys said the incident is now part of a critical incident investigation.

Both officers were airlifted to Gold Coast Hospital (pictured is the helicopter) in a stable condition, with the female officer said to be serious

'I want to offer my support and well wishes to these three brave officers, their families and colleagues on behalf of the entire police force,' Mr Worboys said.

'As an organisation, we are rallying around the officers and providing any support they need to assist in their recovery and we look forward to welcoming them back to work when they are ready.'

'Incidents like this highlight the very real dangers of policing and I thank everyone in the community for their support and well wishes,' he said.

'We will continue to support the officers and their families throughout their recovery.'An aspiring rapper has faced court charged with the 'horrific' rape and murder of Israeli exchange student Aiia Maasarwe as she walked home from a night out.

Codey Herrmann, 20, was largely silent during a brief hearing at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Saturday afternoon.

The magistrate told him: 'It's alleged you murdered Aiia Maasarwe and it's alleged you raped that person.'

When asked if he knew what he was being charged with, Herrmann replied: 'Yes.'

He was remanded in custody and will next appear in court on Monday after a mental health assessment.

The Prime Minister stressed everyone in Australia should be able to travel home safely and that the government must remain 'forever vigilant' to the issue of violence against women

A 20-year-old man has been charged with the 'horrific' murder of an Israeli exchange student. Pictured: Suspect Cody Herrmann who was arrested on Friday

Aiia Maasarwe was killed on Tuesday night after she caught a tram, as she made her way back from a comedy show at North Melbourne's The Comic Lounge

On Friday police arrested 20-year-old aspiring rapper Codey Herrmann (pictured)

Miss Maasarwe had moved to Melbourne on a one-year exchange program to study at La Trobe University. Pictured: The man charged over her death

Miss Maasarwe, 21, was attacked while walking home to her accommodation in Melbourne after a comedy show on Tuesday night.

Her half-naked body was found near a shopping centre the next morning.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Saturday attended the scene of the crime where dozens of floral tributes have been laid.

He said in a statement: 'Earlier today, with Jen and the girls, we visited the Polaris Town Centre at Bundoora with other families and fellow Australians to pay our respects and grieve the loss of Aiia.

'Later today I will meet with her father. I cannot imagine his loss.'

Saeed Maasarwe had planned to travel from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou to visit the Victorian capital city in two weeks and reunite with his daughter

Heartbroken residents gathered at the site of Aiia Maasarwe's murder at Bundoora

Miss Maasarwe had moved to Melbourne on a one-year exchange program to study at La Trobe University.

Her father Saeed had planned to travel from the Chinese city of Guangzhou to visit the Victorian capital city and meet with his daughter.

Instead of the dream reunion he had envisaged, Mr Maasarwe was joined by devastated Melbourne residents in an outpouring of grief at the spot her body was discovered.

Mr Maasarwe said he wanted his daughter to experience new cultures to broaden her horizons.

'She, all the time, smiled. She loved the people,' he said.

'She have very big opinions, the mind open for everything. She liked to study different cultures and different nationalities. She don't come with a locked mind from another culture: She respected all the people.'

What was supposed to be an overdue reunion between father, daughter and Aiia's older sister Noor turned into a tragic nightmare.

Mr Maasarwe had to identify his daughter's body after it was found on Wednesday morning.

Tears for Aiia: Hundreds mourned the murder of an Israeli student on Friday, hours after a 20-year-old man was arrested

Flowers were laid and a candles lit to remember the tragic death of Ms Maasarwe

'I have many dreams to be with her. I want to be with her more time, but someone decided I cannot be,' he said in halted English.

Mr Maasarwe also inspected the tributes left to his daughter at the crime scene and was pictured crying as he admired them.

'I wish, I pray she is in a more nice place than this place, and in the paradise.'

He spent part of the day visiting La Trobe University where a vigil was held for his slain daughter.

'This has given me (a) good feeling, but also from another way, I am sad because this is the last place my daughter  was here,' he said of the makeshift shrine.

'I have many dreams to be with her.'

Mr Maasarwe said he wished to take his daughter's body back to Israel and bury her as soon as possible in line with Islamic culture.

Ms Maasarwe had spent the night at a comedy club before boarding the 86 tram from Bourke Street, heading to her home in Bundoora. She left the tram around midnight. Her body was discovered in scrub, nearby, the next day

Earlier on Friday, Herrmann was arrested in Greensborough at a picnic shelter positioned close to a children's park which is a known hang out for youths to smoke drugs.

He was found by police in a shelter with a woman and a group of young men.

Neighbours said they saw plain clothes and uniformed police arrest the man about 11.20am after approaching him while he was in a rotunda at Pioneer Park.

Herrmann was arrested at a park in Greensborough on Friday and remains in custody

The shelter is a known hang out for local youths who smoke drugs

Tracey Neus said she saw the woman and had a gut instinct to call police.

But when she looked again, police had already converged on the location.

Shane Cairns said he was shaken to learn about the person's presence.

'I'm just shocked. We thought they would have just been some kids,' he said.

Up to eight police were involved in the arrest, the couple said.

He was identified as a person of interest after police forensically tested a hat and blood-stained T-shirt left at the crime scene, it is understood.

'The 20-year-old was arrested in Greensborough by local police working in partnership with homicide detectives about 11.20am,' police said in a statement.

Scene of the crime: Aiia Maasarwe's partially naked body was found in scrub (pictured) near where she got off a tram the night before

It is understood the man, 20, was identified as a person of interest after police forensically tested a hat and blood-stained T-shirt (above) left at the crime scene

Detective Inspector Andrew Stamper said it was believed to be a 'random attack' carried out by someone who was 'opportunistic'.

'This was a horrendous, horrific attack inflicted on a completely innocent young woman who was a visitor to our city,' he said.

Forensic officers were combing through a derelict property in the same suburb where the 20-year-old was arrested on Friday evening, according to The Age, and carrying evidence out of the building.

A Grimshaw Street property has been taped off and it is believed squatters used the graffiti-marked place.

Aiia's final moments: Tuesday Aiia was at the The Comic's Lounge in North Melbourne 11pm: Her friends dropped her to the tram stop Aiia caught the 86 tram from a Bourke Street stop, heading home Midnight: Aiia got off the tram in Bundoora, about a kilometre from her home Wednesday 7am: Her body is found in scrub near the tram stop and Polaris shopping centre Friday Aiia's father Saeed said he 'dreamed to be with' his daughter and looked at tributes left at the crime scene in her memory 11am: Codey Herrmann, 20, is arrested Advertisement

The case bears similarities to the rape and murder of 22-year-old comedian Eurydice Dixon who was attacked in June while walking home from a gig in Melbourne.

Australia's human rights commission said the country has a 'a disturbingly high rate of violence against women'.

Final moments: Ms Maasarwe getting off the tram before she was killed

Misss Maasarwe was at The Comic's Lounge in North Melbourne earlier on Tuesday night and caught the 86 tram from Bourke Street in the city.

She likely got off the tram in Bundoora near where her body was found, about a kilometre from her student accommodation.

Homicide detectives released CCTV images of Ms Maasarwe in the aftermath of her death, which show the clothing she was wearing that night, in the hope someone saw her and can help police track her exact movements.

Police said in the days after Ms Maarsarwe's death they were investigating if the student was stalked from the tram and were scouring a list of known sex offenders as an 'active line of inquiry'.

On Friday Prime Minister Scott Morrison was asked about the attack while in Fiji. He told reporters: 'It is just so shocking.'

The Prime Minister said his heart went out to Ms Maasarwe's family, though he can't begin to think of what he would say to them.

'I know what I'm thinking about her attacker. I expect it's the same thing that all other Australians are thinking today,' he said.

The Prime Minister stressed everyone in Australia should be able to travel home safely and that the government must remain 'forever vigilant' to the issue of violence against women.Federal Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O'Dwyer has dropped a bombshell after announcing she is quitting politics to spend more time with her young family.

Ms O'Dwyer, 41, confirmed the news at a media conference alongside Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Melbourne on Saturday.

She is expected to continue with her ministerial duties until the May election but will not re-contest her seat.

The exit of Ms O'Dwyer is a significant blow for a government desperate to hold onto the inner-Melbourne seat of Higgins, which had long been a safe Liberal seat but was now seen within reach of Labor due to the Coalition's poor polling in Victoria.

Kelly O'Dwyer (pictured left) has quit Australian federal politics to spend more time with her family

The seat would have been challenging for the Liberals to retain even with a long-term sitting member, but now they have lost even that asset.

Losing one of the few senior female ministers would also provide more fuel for those arguing that the Coalition does not have enough senior women MPs or candidates.

O'Dwyer said on Saturday she expects to see the Liberal Party pre-select another woman for the seat of Higgins.

'I'm incredibly confident that this seat will be represented incredibly well by one of the talented people who will come forward - and I have no doubt that will be a woman,' she said.

Kelly O'Dwyer (pictured right) dropped a bombshell after formally quitting federal politics

Ms O'Dwyer pointed to 'personal reasons' as the primary factor behind her decision, with her daughter Olivia, three and a half, and her son Edward, almost two.

'I no longer want to consistently miss out on seeing my children when they wake up in the morning or go to bed at night...I want to know that when I am around, my time is not constantly disrupted,' she said.

'There is another very personal reason. Like so many other families, our journey to parenthood has not been straightforward.

'We need to be very realistic. I turn 42 ... this year and everything has to go right.'

Ms O'Dwyer took over the seat from former Treasurer Peter Costello, whose office she had worked in.

She thanked Mr Morrison for his support, whom she worked closely with in his role as Treasurer from September of 2015 as well as Prime Minister.

Spending for time with her partner and young children was a factor in Kelly O'Dwyer (pictured right) stepping aside from federal politics

While sorry to see her go, Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured right) praised Ms O'Dwyer's contribution in Australian politics

'He is the right person to lead our nation,' she said. 'I will do all that I can, both locally and nationally, to ensure that continues.'

The PM praised Ms O'Dwyer, saying 'family is so important', and 'no one in Parliament has worked harder' to champion the cause of women.



Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's mistress, Lucero Guadalupe Sanchez Lopez revealed how in texts from seven years ago, the drug lord threatened the life of herself, other women and even his own family.

The 29-year-old testified in a Brooklyn, New York court Thursday and shared with jurors personal messages between the pair that prove he would ruthlessly have the rumored mother of his lovechild killed if need be.

'Look, the mafia kills people who don't pay or people who snitch but not if you're serious, love,' Chapo wrote in one 2012 message, it was revealed at his federal court trial.

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Lucero Guadalupe Sanchez Lopez was arrested in 2017 on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering leading her to turn witness against Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman (pictured December 2016)

He added: 'Lies are what cause problems. Don't lie and people will always see the good, love. Always remember that. I'm telling you this because I love you.'

His mistress said at the trial she was 'feeling threatened' and scared 'he could actually hurt me'. Sanchez told him she was 'not doing anything bad' but he was still suspicious.

The New York Post reports she said El Chapo would have his people confiscate her phone during visits.

Sanchez, 29, revealed details of texts between her and the drug lord on Thursday (pictured December 2015)

On one occasion when his secretary informed him his associate Tio Virgo had died, he delivered a chilling warning.

'He turned around and looked at me in a slow demeanor and then he said something I did not like,' she testified.

'He said from that point on, whoever betrayed him, they would die. Whether they were family or women, they were going to die.'

The revealing cell phone communications seemed to confirm rumors they share a lovechild.

One message from seven years ago read: 'This is your son.'

El Chapo was seemingly proud of the boy and replied to the news: 'Hello, my king. I congratulate you because you're a real man.'

The child  believed to named Rubencito - was sometimes referred to when they organized drug deals.

Alongside winking and kiss emoji, wrote: 'A kiss for each. For you and for Rubencito, two for you.'

Sanchez, a former legislator in Guzman's home state of Sinaloa, told the jury that the relationship mixed business with pleasure in a way that caused discomfort.

The (seen in 2017) former legislator in Guzman's (pictured January 2016) home state of Sinaloa, detailed her affair with the drug lord. He told her: 'The mafia kills people who don't pay or people who snitch'

She told the Brooklyn, New York court that at the time in 2012, she was 'feeling threatened' and worried 'he could hurt me'

'Until this day, I'm confused because I thought we were in a romantic relationship,' she said as Guzman's wife of more than a decade sat in the court gallery.

At another point, she said: 'Sometimes I loved him and sometimes I didn't.'

El Chapo's wife seemed unphased with the current state of her husband's trial and recent revelations by a woman claiming to be his mistress.

During the testimony, Coronel smirked as an emotional Sanchez broke down and wept.

She laughed as the witness left the courtroom sobbing with her lapel microphone still on, according to the NY Post.

Outside the court Coronel beamed as she left the hearing, flashing smiles for photographers.

The woman (left) claimed that after his colleague died he told his mistress whoever betrayed him would die even women and family. Texts seem to confirmed the pair had a son together

Sanchez (left) in this courtroom sketch, at one point broke down crying leaving the stand while El Chapo's wife Emma Coronel Aispuro (right) laughed on Thursday

Sanchez, once nicknamed 'Chapodiputada' (Chapo deputy) by local media, said she became involved with the married Guzman in 2011, about the time Coronel was pregnant with twin girls.

This undated photo provided by the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York shows Lucero Guadalupe Sanchez Lopez

The trouble began when Guzman drafted Sanchez to purchase marijuana for him, with instructions to ready 400 kilograms (882 pounds) for each plane used to transport it from the countryside.

Prosecutors showed the jury intercepted texts where the pair called each 'love' as they plotted how best to move drugs, though some of Guzman's messages sounded more menacing.

Sanchez said she would sometimes sweet talk Guzman 'so he didn't think I would rat him out'.

The romance began to sour toward the end of 2012 but 'seemed like it would never end,' Sanchez said.

She said she would visit him at one of his many hideouts in Cabo San Lucas and communicate with him by text on mobile phones he gave her. When he invited her to one of the safe houses in the Sinaloa city of Culiacan in 2014, she automatically accepted.

Earlier, a DEA agent described how Guzman eluded a manhunt in 2014 by escaping through a sewer system. U.S. authorities have said Sanchez was with him at the time.

Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, was in attendance on Friday

'I heard, like, a lot of thumps and helicopters. I heard yelling,' Sanchez told jurors about being in bed with Guzman on February 16, 2014, the New York Daily News reported.

A combined force of U.S. and Mexican authorities were trying to ram down the fortified door to the safe house when El Chapo, still naked, directed her to the bathroom where a button raised the bathtub to reveal a secret escape tunnel.

'It was very dark and I was very scared,' Sanchez said. 'He took off running. He left us behind.'

Sanchez followed Guzman through the tunnel away from the safe house, at some point feeling water on her legs.

When asked how long she had been traveling in the dark, she guessed that it was at least more than one hour or 'enough to traumatize me'.

Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent Victor Vazquez shows video of tunnels in this courtroom sketch in Brooklyn federal court trial of accused Mexican drug lord 'El Chapo' (right) on Thursday

US DEA liaison Victor Vasquez testified along with video footage about the failed arrest attempt to raid the spacious home Sanchez and Guzman had fled.

Guzman was ultimately caught but ended up escaping from a Mexican prison. He was recaptured and sent to the U.S. in 2017 to face charges he says are fabricated.

She said she also trafficked marijuana for him, with instructions to ready 400 kilograms (882 pounds) for each plane used to transport it from the countryside. He sought to purchase the marijuana on credit, but she refused because she was worried the growers would never get paid.

'I did not agree because it was unfair,' she said.

The former legislator was arrested by US authorities in San Diego, California, in 2017 after they discovered she helped launder cash and traffic drugs for the Sinaloa Cartel.

She admitted took a plea deal to cooperate with prosecutors to help reduce her own sentence.The discrepancies came to light when media persons cross-checked the list of 51 young women.

Thiruvananthapuram: Fifty-one female devotees in the age group of 10-50 years have entered the Sabarimala temple through an online process since the Supreme Court removed the bar on their entry in September last year, the Kerala government Friday told the apex court, kicking off a controversy.

The submission was made during the hearing of a plea filed by Bindu and Kanakadurga, the two women who had entered the temple on January 2, seeking security.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices L.N. Rao and Dinesh Maheshwari ordered the state to provide two of them round-the-clock foolproof security.

The list submitted by the LDF government in the Supreme Court, claiming that 51 women aged less than 50 have had darshan at Sabarimala temple this season has triggered a controversy following discrepancies related to age and gender.

The discrepancies came to light when media persons cross-checked the list of 51 young women. Some of the young women on the list were actually above 50.

But the most glaring misrepresentation was the case of Paranjothi, 47, who was listed as a female, 21st on the list. A TV crew traced Paranjothi who turned out to be a man and had gone to Sabarimala along with a group of 16 men. Im no woman, Im gents (sic), he told the TV channel.

The Asian Age checked a mobile number given against the entry of Ms Gowri Arumugam, 49, from Chennai, on the list. The number belonged to Mr Rajesh, a businessman from Bengaluru. I am distressed by so many calls. I am not Gowri. I was part of a 22-member group that booked online for the darshan. We had darshan on December 20. There were four women in the group and they were all above 50 years, Mr Rajesh said.

Many numbers were switched off, possibly after the controversy surfaced. Reporters contacted a few others on the list who turned out to be men who had registered for darshan online on behalf of women devotees. In such cases, the women devotees could not be contacted individually to cross-check their age.

One Vasanthaiyya said his relative had gone to Sabarimala but her age is 59. Sreeramulu from Andhra Pradesh said his relative Ramadevi, 54, visited the temple.

Kalavathy Manohar of Vasco in Goa, whose name figured in the list, is a woman aged 52. Similarly, Hyderabad resident Padmavathy said that she is 53 and her age on Aadhaar was wrong.

While the government says the errors could have crept in while feeding the information digitally, many say the authorities should have verified the details before submitting the list to the Supreme Court.

Earlier at a press conference, Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran said that 7,564 women had registered online for Sabarimala darshan. The reports received from the Virtual Queue system indicated that 51 women in the 10-50 age group visited the temple. We have no information whether all managed to have darshan at Sannidhanam, he said.

However, in the affidavit the government stated, It is submitted that a total of 7,564 women in 10-50 group had also registered for darshan and as per the digitally scanned records around 51 women in this group have already visited the shrine and had darshan without any issue.

The government submitted before the SC that in the digital queue management system run by Kerala police, which is an online system for advance booking for darshan, a total of 16 lakh devotees had registered this year. Of these around 8.2 lakh devotees visited the shrine.

Travancore Devaswom Board member K.P. Sankaradas denied the board had anything to do with the list. But he said such discrepancies were possible given the huge number of visitors.

Sabarimala Karma Samiti, which is spearheading the agitation at the hill shrine, and the Pandalam ex-royals rejected governments claim. They alleged that there were several inconsistencies in the list.

The BJP, Congress and Pandalam family came down heavily on the government for making false claims.

BJP state president said the CPM-led LDF government was rolling out lies following their abject failure in handling the Sabarimala issue.

KPCC president Mullapally Ramachandran held the chief minister responsible for misrepresenting facts and submitting an incorrect and misleading affidavit. The government has become a laughing stock.

Narayana Varma, a member of erstwhile Pandalam royal family, said they were not aware of the circumstances under which the government submitted the affidavit.A husband got a fright of his life after he discovered a huge carpet python relaxing inside his toilet bowl Brisbane home.

The snake was seen bathing in the toilet's water with its body positioned in an 's' shape after it slithered through an outdoor pipe.

Stewart Lalor from Brisbane Snake Catchers received an emergency call at about 6.45am on Saturday and drove to the Wynnum west family home within 20 minutes.

'They gave us a call to have it removed so they could finish their business in peace,' said Mr Lalor.

A carpet python (pictured) was found relaxing inside a toilet bowl after a husband lifted the lid

Stewart Lalor from Brisbane Snake Catchers put on a pair of gloves and took the serpent out of the toilet

'I just put on a pair of gloves and dunked my hand in to take the snake. Carpet pythons are very common in Queensland,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

Mr Lalor said it wasn't common to find snakes in toilets, with only two or three incidents every season.

'People think pythons always want to be in the sun but they can also overheat and need to find ways to cool down,' he said.

Snakes will often slither into homes through open drains and unsecured pipes common in older designed homes such as the family home Mr Lalor attended.

Carpet pythons are the most commonly caught non-venomous snaked in Queensland.

However, their bites leave a substantial laceration and will cause a fair bit of bleeding.

The snakes can grow up to more than three metres in length, according to the Queensland Museum.

Snakes (stock image carpet python) can slither into homes through unsecured pipes and open drains common in older designed homes

The post has garnered nearly 700 comments and 400 shares within four hours of being shared.

Many took to social media and to express their fear and horror from the discovery.

'Anyone else see this while they were sitting on the toilet?' one user wrote.

'I never turn the light on when I go to the toilet in the middle of the night!!!! I will be from now on!!!!' another wrote.A huge fire exploded at a pipeline leaking fuel in central Mexico on Friday, killing at least 21 people and badly burning 71 others.

The leak was caused by fuel thieves illegally tapping the pipeline in a small town in the state of Hidalgo, according to state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex.

Video footage showed dozens of residents near the town of Tlahuelilpan gathered to collect spilled fuel in buckets, garbage cans and other vessels.

'There was a report that residents were on the scene trying to obtain fuel,' according to a police report.

Two hours later, the pipeline burst into flames. The duct carries fuel, apparently gasoline, from the Gulf coast to the Mexico City area.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has declared an offensive against fuel theft, and on Friday he called on all branches of government to assist the victims.

VIDEO: Pipeline explodes in central Mexico, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 60 others https://t.co/aae2DWY78o pic.twitter.com/BdTOQM9bZe  BNO News (@BNONews) January 19, 2019

Fuel was seen spouting dozens of feet into the air from the tap.

Footage then showed flames shooting high into the air against a night sky and the pipeline ablaze.

Hidalgo Gov. Omar Fayad said: 'Caring for the wounded is our top priority.'

A huge fire exploded at a pipeline leaking fuel in Hidalgo state in central Mexico on Friday

BREAKING: Pipeline explodes in central Mexico, causing a large number of casualties https://t.co/aae2DWY78o pic.twitter.com/ty97oigf6v  BNO News (@BNONews) January 19, 2019

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has declared an offensive against fuel theft, and on Friday he called on all branches of government to assist the victims. Mexican soldiers are shown standing guard near the fire after a leaking gas pipeline triggered a blaze in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state, on Friday

Hidalgo state police said the leak was first reported at about 5pm Central. Mexican soldiers are shown standing guard near the fire after a leaking gas pipeline triggered a blaze in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state, on Friday

Pemex attributed the blaze to 'the manipulation of an illegal tap'.

Hidalgo state police said the leak was first reported at about 5pm Central.

It is not the first time such an accident has occurred.

In December 2010, authorities blamed oil thieves for a pipeline explosion in central Mexico near the capital that killed 28 people, including 13 children.

It is not the first time such an accident has occurred. In December 2010, authorities blamed oil thieves for a pipeline explosion in central Mexico near the capital that killed 28 people, including 13 children. The fire in Hidalgo on Friday is shown

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has declared an offensive against fuel theft, and on Friday he called on all branches of government to assist the victims of the Hidalgo fire (shown)

Lopez Obrador launched an offensive against the $3 billion per-year fuel theft industry after taking office on December 1. Friday's fire in Hidalgo is shown

That blast burned people and scorched homes, affecting 5,000 residents in an area six miles (10 kilometers) wide in San Martin Texmelucan.

Lopez Obrador launched an offensive against the $3 billion per-year fuel theft industry after taking office on December 1.

Thieves drilled about 12,581 illegal taps in the first 10 months of 2018 and the country has deployed 3,200 marines to guard pipelines and refineries.

The new administration has also shut down pipelines to detect and deter illegal taps, relying more on delivering fuel by tanker truck.

But there aren't enough trucks, and long lines at gas stations have plagued several states.

Hidalgo is about 62 miles (100 kilometers) north of Mexico City.A pregnant British woman at the centre of the gypsy saga gripping New Zealand says she has been vomiting blood since being locked up for stealing four cans of Red Bull.

Tina Marie Cash, who is seven months pregnant, claims to have been placed in a cell with a violent criminal after being arrested earlier this week.

'I was in a cell with a woman who got 13 years for armed robbery. I told her what I was in for and she burst out laughing,' Ms Cash told Daily Mail Australia on Saturday.

A pregnant British woman at the centre of the gypsy saga gripping New Zealand says she has been vomiting blood since being locked up for stealing four cans of Red Bull

The woman, 55, was captured alongside a 15-year-old girl in the small town of Levin, 90km north of Wellington, on Saturday morning

Although the family previously suggested they didn't have access to a car, the group was seen getting into a black seven-seat vehicle

The matriarch also claimed her family had been harassed by ordinary people, who had been taking photos of the group from their cars, yelling racist slurs and laughing at them

'I only pleaded guilty so I could pay a $55 fine and leave, otherwise they were going to keep me in for two weeks and deport me.'

Cash claims she has been vomiting blood since her arrest, and family patriarch James Johnson says he is out of heart medication, but both say they are too afraid to go to the doctor.

Ms Cash, who pleaded guilty to stealing four red bulls in Hamilton Court, on New Zealand's North Island last week, claims the family have been treated with no respect.

'If people come to the UK, they have rights,' she said. 'What are our rights here? We have none,' she said.

Since their arrival in New Zealand last week, the family have gripped the country's attention, beginning with a now-viral video which saw a child in the group threaten to 'knock the brains out' of locals on an Auckland beach.

Since their arrival in New Zealand last week, the family have gripped the country's attention, beginning with a now-viral video at an Auckland beach

Tina Marie Cash, who is seven months pregnant, claims to have been placed in a cell with a violent criminal after being arrested earlier this week

The now-viral video saw a child in the group threaten to 'knock the brains out' of locals on an Auckland beach

The family now say they have been inundated with death threats, sexist slurs and claim a $5,000 bounty has been put on the head of their 18-year-old son.

Now, Mr Johnson has claimed the clip was taken completely out of context and his own family had been the real victims.

'We had to flee for our life,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'Our seven-year-old grandson was hit at the beach. We asked 'could you stop hitting him and pinning him against the tree', and they called us all sorts of names and threatened us.

'That's why we couldn't pick the rubbish up.'

The group also rebutted allegations they are linked to a powerful British crime family, adding these claims have put them in even more danger with calls for them to be attacked by local gangs.

Mr Johnson said since reports on the family's alleged thieving and littering started gaining traction, they have been forced into hiding.

The woman, 55, was captured alongside a 15-year-old girl in the small town of Levin, 90km north of Wellington, on Saturday morning.

Although the family previously suggested they didn't have access to a car, the group was seen getting into a black seven-seat vehicle.

The establishments where the group of British tourists have reportedly had complaints about their behaviour during their stay in New Zealand

One family member said his family had saved for 'a year' to come to New Zealand, and their holidays had been ruined by white New ZealandersSchools in England will be able to apply for grants to take disadvantaged students on international exchanges, as part of a 2.5 million Government scheme.

The programme announced by the Education Secretary will allow pupils aged 11 and above to visit partner schools around the world.

It will enable them to experience different cultures, improve language skills and build independence.

Ahead of the Education World Forum in London, Damian Hinds stressed the importance of ensuring disadvantaged children do not miss out on the life and academic opportunities offered by overseas visits.

Ahead of the Education World Forum in London, Damian Hinds stressed the importance of ensuring disadvantaged children do not miss out on the life and academic opportunities offered by overseas visits

The British Council, who the programme is run in partnership with, found that 39% of secondary schools run exchange programmes, compared with 77% of independent schools.

Mr Hinds said: 'I want every child to have a world-class education, and that includes the opportunity to experience other cultures and go to places they wouldn't normally visit - whether that's practising their Mandarin in China or learning about American history in the US.

'School exchanges are so valuable, bringing subjects such as modern languages and international history to life as well as helping pupils develop into confident, independent and well-rounded young people.

'As Britain leaves the European Union, it's more important than ever to show how much we value international opportunities, language-learning, and ensuring our young people have a global outlook - something I'll be discussing with education ministers from around the world at Education World Forum.

'This investment will help schools who may not have much experience organising trips abroad to ensure their pupils don't miss out on all the fantastic benefits these experiences can bring, encouraging children to broaden their horizons and aim high throughout their education and beyond.'

Funding will be targeted at schools with above-average numbers of pupil-premium students.

It is estimated that over the course of the programme, trips could be funded for 2,900 pupils.

Schools will be able to register their interest on the British Council website from Monday.Leading banks are suffering at least one major security or IT glitch every week which stops customers making payments.

Around half of these meltdowns affect online banking, while a quarter impact on mobile banking.

Savers and businesses are increasingly reliant on making instant payments via computers and mobile phones  a trend fuelled by the closure of thousands of bank branches.

But todays figures will raise fears that this dependence makes the country vulnerable to technology failures and cyberattacks.

Leading banks such as Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland became the latest to suffer a major IT crash. (Stock image)

Yesterday Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland customers became the latest to suffer a major IT crash.

Lloyds Banking Group customers were unable to send money online after its faster payments service went down.

Many claimed on social media they were unable to pay their staff or their rent or fill up with petrol because they could not move money between accounts.

Under new rules, banks must disclose every major operational or security incident which prevents customers using payments services  anything from cyber hacks to IT malfunctions.

Analysis of 14 British banks reveals the rising number of incidents reported to the Financial Conduct Authority in the six months from April 1 to September 30.

Both Barclays and Lloyds reported more than 30, which equates to more than one major incident every week.

While some failures are quickly resolved, others cause chaos and leave millions locked out of their bank accounts or unable to make payments.

Many claimed on social media they were unable to pay their staff or their rent or fill up with petrol because they could not move money between accounts

Personal finance expert Andrew Hagger, of MoneyComms, said: More and more of us rely entirely on online and mobile banking which means its vital that the IT behind the services is robust and reliable.

The banks have been pushing customers down the online banking route for years. However, investment in IT must be a priority.

Barclays suffered the highest number of security and operational incidents in six months with 34, nine of which impacted online banking payments.

Lloyds had 31  22 of which prevented customers making payments through online banking.

Bank of Scotland and Halifax each reported 27, including 19 affecting online banking. These figures include some of the same crashes that affected Lloyds systems.

Both Lloyds and Barclays said many of the incidents were minor and had minimal impact.

Other rivals fared better: HSBC and First Direct experienced ten incidents between them with only one impacting online banking. Royal Bank of Scotland, which includes NatWest, had 17 incidents, five of which affected online banking.

While some meltdowns stemmed from bank failures, others were caused by payment providers.

Last June a Visa hardware failure left millions of customers unable to pay for goods. In April, 1.9million TSB customers were unable to access their money online.

Hannah Maundrell, editor in chief of Money.co.uk, said: I hope all banks invest in updating their old legacy systems. This is particularly important for customers in rural parts because branches are closing.

Almost two-thirds of Britains bank branches have closed over the past 30 years.

Lloyds said on Twitter yesterday that customers will not be left out of pocket by the latest IT issue.

A spokesman for UK Finance, which represents the banks, said: When incidents occur, firms work around the clock to get services running as quickly as possible.Australia's weather maps have turned black in places as the country remains in the grips of the most extreme heat since World War II.

Sweltering conditions have plagued the east coast since Tuesday, with temperatures in New South Wales exceeding 41C for most of the week.

In a stark visual reminder of its severity, a weather map showed much of the country's east as black and purple - signifying soaring temperatures.

In a stark visual reminder of its severity, a weather map showed much of the country's east as black and purple - signifying soaring temperatures

Sweltering conditions have plagued the east coast since Tuesday, with temperatures in New South Wales exceeding 41C for most of the week

While Sydneysiders may feel some temperate reprieve over the weekend, the scorcher is set to return by Monday and reach its peak days later.

Port Augusta in South Australia will once again be among the hottest places on earth with the coastal town set to reach a steamy 46C on Thursday.

Sydney's temperatures will hover around 30C all week while Melbourne's peak is forecast at 34C on Thursday.

Adelaidians are set to bake with highs of 40C while Perth's residents should see reprieve thanks to consistent weather in the mid to high 20s.

Thousands of people flocked to the country's picturesque beaches during the week in a bid to escape the scorching heat.

The hot weather proved to be too much for the Okley Highway near Wauchope, a town in the mid north coast region of NSW, where the bitumen was pictured melting under the blistering sun.

Motorists were warned of the deteriorating surface (pictured) on Thursday as an image posted online showed the tar beginning to melt

Walcha Council, which covers the far south-eastern corner of the New England region, told The Macleay Argus they would use a water cart to cool the road down

Walcha Council, covering the far south-eastern corner of the New England region, told The Macleay Argus they would use a water cart to cool the road down.

A Roads and Maritime Service statement acknowledged water was scarce in drought-stricken NSW, but was needed on the bitumen 'to ensure the safety of motorists and keep the road open'.

Playgrounds were also becoming dangerous, with the metal equipment too hot for children to play on.

Mother Nicky Tongapijit told ABC News she could not risk her kids playing on the scorching slides and other equipment.

Sydney has sweltered through temperatures of over 40C for five days, for the first time in 80 years

Sydney is set to reach a top of 33C on Friday and Adelaide will sweat through 32C

'It's very hot, [the slide] is going to burn their bum,' she said.

'I just want some more roofs for them to play under.'

Sydney had sweltered through temperatures of over 40C for five days, for the first time in eight years.

The last time Australia experienced a heatwave like this week was in 1939.

'When looking at average maximum temperatures across New South Wales, it is likely this will be the most significant heat event since 1939,' a Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.

An overall of 27 towns in NSW and ACT suffered through the roasting temperatures on Thursday

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Diana Eadie said 'severe to extreme heatwave temperatures are expected to persist across most of the country'

'...we're only talking about NSW (not Australia), and these are maximum temperatures averaged across the state  some areas haven't been impacted by the heat as much.'

By midday on Wednesday, the mercury had soared beyond 45C across much of NSW's central west and at 3pm Wilcannia, Mulurulu, Ivanhoe and Hay topped 47C.

The country is experiencing slight relief over the weekend with temperatures taking a slight dip, but a second heatwave will begin making its way across the country on Monday.

Perth will be the first to experience soaring temperatures before it gradually makes its way to the countrys east.

Lucky punters managed to get themselves to Bondi Beach to cool off during the sweaty weather

Sweltering conditions had plagued the country's east coast since Tuesday, with temperatures in New South Wales exceeding 41C for most of the week

Two women took to Bondi Beach during the intense weather over the last week, before a cooling off period hits on the weekend

Head of climate monitoring at the Bureau, Dr Karl Braganza, said the lack of rain in 2017 and 2018 has led to the drought conditions across Australia.

'This drought sits alongside historic droughts, like the Federation Drought, the World War II drought and the drought period in the 1960s,' Dr Braganza told the ABC.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Diana Eadie said temperatures climbed eight to 12C higher than average this week.

'We've already seen some January maximum temperature records fall and we're likely to see many more before this event is over.

'The humidity and 'feels like' temperature will make for really oppressive conditions.'Two prominent pro-Remain campaign groups paid the US firm to run the ads

Facebook was accused of pumping out fake news yesterday after the social media site ran adverts claiming animals were threatened by Brexit.

Two prominent pro-Remain campaign groups paid the US firm hundreds of thousands of pounds to run the ads intended to raise support for a second referendum.

Data from the social media site shows that Peoples Vote UK and Best for Britain spent 373,587 in the run-up to last weeks vote on Theresa Mays Brexit plan, according to the Daily Telegraph. Leave-backing groups spent 93,000.

Two prominent pro-Remain campaign groups paid the US firm hundreds of thousands of pounds to run the ads intended to raise support for a second referendum [File photo]

Facebook reveals who is buying political adverts on the site but groups do not have to reveal how the campaigns are financed.

The social media site is already being investigated over allegations that its service has been used to influence elections.

Best for Britains adverts targeted under-35s and featured orangutans, with the ad claiming they are in danger from Britains plans to reverse an EU pledge to ban palm oil.

Every day 25 orangutans are killed by palm oil deforestation, reads the caption. It asks: Help us stop this. Sign our petition.

Since November the series of ads featuring the apes has been posted 32 times racking up 32million views.

The pro-Remain group also posted stark warnings about the fates of bluefin tuna and sea turtles if Britain abandoned EU policy on plastics and big-game fishing.

Former Brexit minister David Jones accused Facebook of peddling fake news. He said: Facebook ought to be a bit more careful about the adverts they carry.

Facebook reveals who is buying political adverts on the site but groups do not have to reveal how the campaigns are financed. The social media site is already being investigated over allegations that its service has been used to influence elections [File photo]

Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, said: This is the same old scaremongering from the same people who didnt want us to leave the EU  it didnt work last time and wont work this time. Its not true that plastic straws and stirrers will be allowed after Brexit  in fact, we announced a ban before the EU and they are playing catch-up. Its not true that the EU is planning to ban palm oil  in fact, the UK already goes further than the EU.

All political adverts on Facebook are now marked as sponsored and clearly state who has paid for the posts.

In the three months since October, Facebook has been paid more than 1million for political adverts. Government, political parties and campaign groups have all used Facebook to spread their message on Brexit and other issues,

Britains Future, run by scriptwriter Tim Dawson, 31, is the biggest spender backing the Leave campaign. The group is not registered with Companies House but has spent 88,385 on Facebook in the past few months. It is not clear where the cash came from to fund Mr Dawsons campaign.

He said: We seem to have hit a point where Brexiteers are not expected to campaign at all. We have spent a fraction of the Remain establishment.An Australian university professor and her sister are missing after travelling to Argentina last week to visit a family member.

Dr Lily Pereg, 54, an associate professor of microbiology at the University of New England, and her sister, Pyrhia Sarussi, 63, were last seen in the Argentine city of Mendoza visiting Ms Sarussi's son, Gil Pereg, 36.

The pair were last heard from more than a week ago in the early hours of January 11, and local police have said they suspect foul play.

Australian university professor Dr Lily Pereg, 54, and her sister Pyrhia Sarussi, 63, (pictured together) have vanished seemingly without a trace after travelling to Argentina last week

Lily Pereg (left) and Pyrhia Sarussi (right) were last seen in the Argentine city of Mendoza visiting Ms Sarussi's son, Gil Pereg, 36

The two sisters were renting an apartment in Mendoza, a city of about 120,000 people in the centre of the Argentine wine region, Pyrhia Sarusi's daughter Vered said in a Facebook post.

Ms Sarusi's son, Gil Pereg, told police he saw the two sisters board a bus to return to their rented apartment in the early hours of Friday morning.

Mr Pereg, 36, is the local chairman of five companies established by his mother, Pyrhia, who lives in Israel, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

His home was reportedly raided by Mendoza Police.

The family has also hired a retired police officer who knows the two sisters personally, according to a GoFundMe page set up to help find the missing women.

The two sisters were renting an apartment in Mendoza, a city of about 120,000 people in the centre of the Argentine wine region (pictured), Pyrhia Sarusi's daughter Vered said

The pair (pictured) were last heard from more than a week ago in the early hours of January 11, and local police have said they suspect foul play

The Mendoza Police Force, Interpol, the Australian Police and the Israeli Police are currently investigating the disappearance.

Dr Pereg was brought up in Israel where she obtained her undergraduate degree, later moving to Australia in the mid 90s.

She completed a PhD in the Department of Agricultural Science at Sydney University and later moved to the University of New England where she was recently made a professor.

'Time is limited,' the GoFundMe page reads.

'Each day that passes without us hearing from these wonderful sisters, is heart wrenching.'

Anybody with any knowledge of the two is asked to contact lostinmendoza2019@gmail.com.Former Barnardo's executive Sara Clarke accepted that the charity was responsible for 'failures' that led to abuse of children

The UK's biggest childcare charity yesterday claimed there had been no 'malice' in the mistreatment of children - as it formally apologised to youngsters abused in its homes.

Former Barnardo's executive Sara Clarke now works for the organisation as a consultant, helping it to tackle historic allegations of child abuse and neglect.

She said the charity was 'deeply sorry' for any 'hurt' that children in its care had suffered - and accepted that the charity was responsible for 'failures' that led to abuse.

But Mrs Clarke claimed care failures had been caused by the 'practicalities' of looking after large numbers of youngsters in homes.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) has heard a series of allegations that children in its homes were beaten and raped.

Yesterday Mrs Clarke told the statutory probe that the charity 'acknowledged from the outset the courage and bravery' survivors had shown in recounting their ordeals.

But the former assistant director, who left the charity last year but continued working for it in a consultant role, said children had not been deprived of loving care because of malice.

She said: 'I don't think it was done with any malice, it was just the practicalities of having so many children to organise.'

At an SCAI hearing in Edinburgh, Mrs Clarke agreed with the inquiry's senior counsel James Peoples QC that it had been a 'huge challenge' looking after children in homes that were 'enormous places'.

Mrs Clarke also admitted that Barnardo's staff had been encouraged to take children they were looking after home with them

Some staff had been poorly trained and lacking experience, with limited time off, coping with children with behavioural problems, meaning children were starved of emotional care.

Mrs Clarke also admitted that Barnardo's staff had been encouraged to take children they were looking after home with them on occasion for weekends or nights away, leading to an allegation that one boy was raped by his male carer.

Asked by Mr Peoples if the concept of risk assessment had been 'primitive' in the 1970s and 1980s, Mrs Clarke said: 'It was not well-developed, I would have to say.'

She said staff were not always aware of the risk of staff being abusers, adding: 'It was a different mindset you did not go around looking at every situation as a potentially risky situation.'

Mrs Clarke said abuse had taken place because of 'ignorance' and 'denial', and it was only controversies such as the Jimmy Savile scandal which showed that abusers could be 'hiding in plain sight'.

And she said a growing trend for single men to work in care homes for children had left youngsters open to the risk of sexual abuse in 'closed environments', by staff who had not been subject to robust vetting.

Asked by SCAI chairman Lady Smith if staff 'just got used to certain types of conduct and ceased questioning themselves', Mrs Clarke said there was 'certainly far less scrutiny of process and far less openness and discussion'.

Mr Peoples said Barnardo's had claimed in a submission to the inquiry that it believed there was 'no pattern or underlying theme that would identify a systemic failure'.

Questioned if this could be the case, given the evidence the inquiry had heard, Mrs Clarke said 'Barnardo's has never shied away from history', and had been fully committed to the work of the inquiry.

She said: 'In general, the practice was good and in some areas progressive, but clearly through Barnardo's history there have been times in certain homes and in certain eras where children were let down, and Barnardo's failed to protect them, and as a result they experienced abuse'.

Mrs Clarke said: 'Whether that was a systemic failing is a bit more difficult to answer.'

She said the systems in place to look after children were 'good for the time' and the charity had been 'committed to improving and constantly looking at things and trying to make things better'.

But she added there were 'occasions' where children were 'let down', adding: 'Barnardo's realises that and are deeply sorry for any hurt to any child that came through the care of Barnardo's'.

Asked by Mr Peoples if Barnardo's was accepting that there were 'failures by the organisation', Mrs Clarke said: 'Yes.'

The inquiry continues.The Prime Minister (seen in May 2018) left EU diplomats in a state of 'disbelief' over her failure to shift her stance despite the historic defeat by a margin of 230 votes, a source said

Theresa May made no change to her Brexit demands in cross-Channel phone calls with European Union leaders despite her own plan being heavily defeated by MPs earlier this week, it has been reported.

The Prime Minister left EU diplomats in a state of 'disbelief' over her failure to shift her stance despite the historic defeat by a margin of 230 votes, a source said.

Mrs May's requests continued to focus around either a legally binding time-limit for the Irish backstop; a right for Britain to unilaterally withdraw, or a commitment to a trade deal finalisation before 2021 to prevent the backstop from coming into force.

She repeated her demands in talks with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, reported The Telegraph.

'It was the same old story - the same set of demands - all unchanged despite the defeat,' a source with knowledge of the calls said.

The solutions to the border issue were rejected by the EU at the European Council meeting in December after leaders expressed doubts that they would be enough to get the deal over the line in Westminster.

It comes as the Dutch and German governments publicly signalled their opposition to any new concessions for Britain, with Mr Rutte telling Mrs May the deal could not be 'tweaked'.

'I said: "I don't see how the current deal can be tweaked",' he told journalists after his phone call. 'She is really expecting Brexit to go ahead on March 29.'

Angela Merkel (pictured in Berlin on December 30) appears unwilling to allow Britain any new concessions

Mr Rutte said that any form of Brexit, with or without a deal, will damage the Netherlands, a major British trading partner and one of the world's top five export countries.

'It will cause disruptions and we are trying to minimise those,' he said. 'We need to look at the facts and prepare for all scenarios. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.'

Among measures taken by the Dutch government is the hiring of roughly 1,000 customs officials to deal with changes in border checks.

'I appeal to social organisations, companies and institutions, if they have not done so already, to inform themselves about what must be done to be prepared. Time is running out. March 29 is only 10 weeks away.'

Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (seen in Dublin on Wednesday) also spoke to Mrs May on the phone

The German government appears to be similarly unwilling to shift its stance, with foreign minister Heiko Maas saying Mrs Merkel had made it 'very clear' to Mrs May that she would not allow the deal to be changed.

There was little let up on the home front for the Prime Minister, with Tory MP Nick Boles warning that ministers in her Government are prepared to defy her and vote for a backbench plan to give MPs power to block a no-deal Brexit.

Nick Boles told the BBC that some non-Cabinet ministers had told him directly they would quit if whipped against a bill allowing parliamentarians to demand Article 50 be extended for fresh talks with Brussels.

Speaking to the Radio 4 podcast Political Thinking the Grantham and Stamford MP also said members of his local Tory party in Lincolnshire may try to deselect him because of his stance on Brexit and said he continued to receive death threats.

Mr Boles' dropped a planned bill giving more power to the backbenches on Wednesday but has swung behind the cross-party replacement European Union Withdrawal (Number 3) Bill, which is due to be tabled by Labour's Yvette Cooper on Monday.

He told the programme's presenter Nick Robinson: 'We have had indications that many ministers, including Cabinet ministers are very, very keen to see it pass and are telling the Prime Minister that they will not vote against it.

'There is a bandwagon rolling, it's got a lot of momentum behind it and I very much hope that any MP who shares my view that a no-deal Brexit would be a disaster, will jump on board.

'I have been told directly by ministers, not in the Cabinet, that they have said that they would resign if they are whipped to vote against it.'

But Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom hit back, telling the Telegraph that colleagues who want to stop no deal wrongly 'think they know better' than voters, but will 'fail our country' and weaken the UK's negotiating hand.

Emmanuel Macron (seen yesterday in Souillac, southern France) has long urged a tough stance against Britain

Ms Leadsom said: 'Parliamentarians are the servants of the people  and the people gave us a very direct answer to a direct question. We must leave the EU.

'No deal is not the desired outcome, but it would be incompetent for any responsible government to rule it out, and there are very good reasons for that. If we rule out no deal, we can forget about the EU taking us seriously. We weaken our negotiating hand.'

Ms Leadsom said people campaigning to block no deal were 'conveniently ignoring' the fact that Parliament had passed legislation which meant the UK will leave the EU on March 29 whether there is a deal or not.

She said: 'It's the legal default position between the UK and the EU. If we fail to prepare, we prepare to fail our country.

'The will of the people is not something that should be redefined by parliamentarians who think they know better, and want to pursue their own agenda.

'Anyone who wants to cheer the optimistic future we have ahead of us is worthy of our support, not our derision.'Comparing Modi governments initiatives to include the youth in creating a sashakt bharat, Irani also praised ISROs young scientists programme.

New Delhi: Indicating that the Narendra Modi led NDA government could announce some major decision for the farming community in the last session of the sixteenth Lok Sabha, head of the BJPs farmers wing, Virendra Singh Mast, on Friday assured that that a bahut bada faisla(big announcement) will be made by the government in the interim budget which will be presented in Parliament on February1, while asserting that farm loan waiver is not to solution to farmers woes.

The BJPs farmers wing is also organising a two day long national conclave from February 23 in Gorakhpur, which will also be addressed by the Prime Minister. There is a growing unrest among the farming community and the Modi government is desperately trying to assuage it before the country votes for the next government.

After BJP leadership asked its leaders and cadre to aggressively highlight the initiatives of the Modi government before the people, Union minister Smriti Irani credited the Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana for getting one crore people in the formal sector since April 2016. Senior leaders including Union ministers will hold press conferences to highlight the governments initiatives.

Comparing Modi governments initiatives to include the youth in creating a sashakt bharat, Ms Irani also praised ISROs young scientists programme.

While on one side BJP is committed to make India a strong and resurgent nation, on the other side the Congress is standing with those who raise the slogans like Bharat Tere Tukde Honge (India will disintegrate), Ms Irani said addressing the media.

Ms Irani also said that Ayushman Bharat health scheme has been hailed by the WHO and some global citizens like Bill Gates.An ABC TV reporter has quit after being accused of inappropriate conduct towards 12 colleagues and a senior Labor politician, it was reported on Saturday.

Allegations emerged in October that up to twelve female staff had made complaints against the man for inappropriate behaviour.

One senior Labor politician had reportedly complained about an 'out of order' advance at a function in 2017.

An ABC TV reporter has quit after being accused of inappropriate conduct towards 12 colleagues and a senior Labor politician, it was reported on Saturday (stock image)

The ABC investigated the allegations and the journalist has now left the company and is pursuing a career outside journalism, according to The Weekend Australian.

The publication did not name the journalist but said he declined to comment.

The journalist was not sacked but apparently chose to quit after having a promotion cancelled due to the allegations.

An ABC spokesman said: 'Any suggestion that (he) has been dismissed from the ABC is wrong.'

None of the women who made the allegations were willing to go on the record when contacted by The Australian.As federal workers continue to go without pay in the nation's longest government shutdown on record, congressional staffers have predicted it will take a situation causing nationwide panic to bring it to an end.

President Donald Trump, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer remain at odds over Trump's requested $5 billion to fund a border wall, which has delayed the passing of a spending bill that would reopen government.

Support staff told The Atlantic, on condition of anonymity, that they guess it will take something like a widespread food safety scare, plane crash or terrorist attack to get both sides to compromise on a budget that's needed to get things up and running again.

The Republican-controlled Senate, however, could cooperate with House Democrats to bring the shutdown to an end, but Majority Leader Mitch McConnell won't allow it.

As federal workers continue to go without pay in the nation's longest government shutdown on record, congressional staffers predict it will take nationwide panic to bring it to an end. President Donald Trump (pictured), Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer cannot agree on funding for a border wall, which has delayed the passing of a spending bill that would reopen government

'This is all pageantry,' a Democratic House aide said. 'Its going to take a big national event to move things. I mean, were at a standstill.'

The agencies that are affected by the shutdown right now are the Environmental Protection Agency, the IRS, and the departments of State, Housing and Urban Development; Treasury; Agriculture; Commerce; Interior; Justice; and Homeland Security.

Funding for food stamps will run out in March, which one senior Republican Senate staffer said may be enough to finally bring the stalemate to an end.

'Not only are there going to be a lot of hungry families,' he said, 'but there are going to be a lot of Walmarts and Safeways and Krogers that are missing revenue.'

Beyond the bottom line of major businesses, Republican strategist Doug Heye noted lapses in inspections by the FDA could causes enough uproar to make Congress and the president act.

'We saw what happened with romaine lettuce a few weeks ago,' Heye said.

'You give that same kind of scare to a ranch in California, and all of a sudden not only do everyones beef prices go up, but theres a mass panic.'

Other aides wondered whether a plane crash caused by an over-stressed air traffic controller, or terrorist incident would have to happen to end the shutdown.

Republican lawmakers close to the White House have ventured a guess that it will take TSA employees calling out sick and leaving 'American furious about their flights,' the Washington Post's Robert Costa tweeted on Tuesday.

For now, the military (aside from the US Coast Guard) and the departments of Veterans Affairs; Labor; Education; and Health and Human Services are not impacted, as they are being funded by a spending bill that doesn't expire until September 30.

At least at its current level, not everyone is worried about the appearance the deadlock is giving off.

'While it may be horrible for the country,' a Democratic staffer said of the shutdown, 'its fine for the party.'

Republicans could work with Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (left) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (right), without Trump, to pass a spending bill but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell won't allow it

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (pictured) has noted that he won't allow anything to come to a vote in the Senate that won't ultimately be signed into law by Trump, or that he says won't pass the Senate. The House and Senate could override a veto by Trump on a budget bill, but it would require a two-thirds vote in both bodies, and McConnell has exclusive control over what goes to a vote on the Senate floor, under its current rules

The staffer may be on to something, especially because Republicans actually could choose to work with Democrats on their own, without the president, to pass a funding bill.

McConnell, a Republican US Senator for the state of Kentucky, has now twice blocked a bill that had had passed in the Democratic-majority-controlled House which aimed to reopened all aspects of government, this second time except for the Department of Homeland Security.

McConnell has noted that he won't allow anything to come to a vote in the Senate that won't ultimately be signed into law by Trump, or that he says won't pass the Senate.

'The Senate will not waste its time considering a Democratic bill, which cannot pass this chamber and which the president will not sign,' McConnell said before the Senate on January 2, a mere 12 days into the shutdown.

What McConnell didn't say is that the House and Senate could override a veto by Trump on a budget bill, but it would require a two-thirds vote in both bodies.

And McConnell has exclusive control over what goes to a vote on the Senate floor, under its current rules.

'Under the rules of the Senate, McConnell can control which legislation reaches the floor, and he has chosen not to allow a vote on any bill that Trump would veto,' Amanda Frost, Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law, told WUSA9's Verify team.

'McConnell also refused to allow hearings or a vote on Obamas supreme court nominee. The Senate can change its rules anytime, but there is nothing unconstitutional about creating them and abiding by them.'

The federal government has been partially shut down since December 22, making Friday the 28th day that approximately 800,000 federal employees have been either required to work without pay for the time being, or be furloughed.

Congress has already passed a bill that guarantees that federal workers who are still showing up to their jobs without pay will be paid for their work once the shutdown ends.

The previous longest-lasting government shutdown in history happened at the end of 1995 and beginning of 1996, lasting 21 days under President Bill Clinton.

'The solution to this is a negotiation between the one person in the country who can sign something into law, the president of the United States, and our Democratic colleagues,' McConnell said on Tuesday.A father is demanding answers after his four-year-old son was allowed to wander out of school alone before almost being hit by a car.

The boy went unnoticed as he left Forest Lodge Academy primary school, in New Parks, Leicester.

The driver of the car said she was forced to 'slam on her brakes' to avoid hitting the four-year-old, whose father later said that the episode left him feeling 'physically sick'.

The boy went missing shortly after the end of the school day at 3pm.

The four-year-old was almost hit by the car, driven by another parent, near Forest Lodge Academy primary school, in New Parks, Leicester

He was almost hit by the car on Charnor Road, near the school.

According to his father, a member of staff had been standing at the door and reading a roll call.

When a parent picks up their child, their name is then called out.

The missing boy's name wasn't read out, leading staff to assume that he was still on the premises.

The school has now apologised to the boy's parents.

His father, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Leicestershire Live: 'It was at the end of the school day and when parents and guardians were collecting the children.

'Somehow my son, who is only four, managed to walk out of the school past teachers and school staff.'

He explained how the boy's aunt was picking him up from school had parked nearby.

She then saw the commotion in the road, prompting her to go over and notice that her nephew was involved.

The boy went missing shortly after the end of the school day at 3pm and the school has apologised to his parents

He said: 'The driver said she felt sick  I feel sick too that this was allowed to happen. It's disgraceful.

'I want answers. I don't know how he simply walked out.

'He could have been run over or abducted. And we'd have had no idea. It's only luck that prevented it from turning out very differently.

'I want assurances that it will not happen again. When you send your child to school you expect every precaution to be taken to make sure they are safe.'

The school later issued a statement where they said they would be increasing security.

Headteacher Claire Caldwell said: 'An incident took place after school on Thursday that was resolved quickly and effectively - of which we immediately informed the mother of the child.

'Following this, and in line with good practice, we informed all necessary authorities and a full staff briefing was held where a thorough risk assessment and review of the relevant policies was completed.

'We have already made and enforced proactive improvements and processes moving forwards.'The office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller has called the bombshell BuzzFeed report claiming President Donald Trump told his former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress false, and Trump has also fired back.

'Remember it was Buzzfeed that released the totally discredited "Dossier," paid for by Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats (as opposition research), on which the entire Russian probe is based!' he posted late Friday night.

'A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!'

He then followed that up by tweeting: 'Fake News is truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!'

The President's response comes after the special counsel's office issued a rare public statement disputing the accuracy of the news report saying that Trump told his personal attorney Cohen to lie to Congress.

The special counsel's spokesman Peter Carr says: 'BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the Special Counsel's Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's Congressional testimony are not accurate'.

Scroll down for video

President Trump speaks during a Missile Defense Review announcement at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on Thursday

The President made a direct comment regarding the allegation that BuzzFeed was not entirely accurate in their reporting late Friday night

President Trump has repeatedly used the phrases 'fake news' and 'enemy of the people' to reference unfavorable coverage in the mainstream press

Meanwhile Ben Smith, editor-in-chief at BuzzFeed, tweeted: 'In response to the statement tonight from the Special Counsel's spokesman: We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he's disputing.'

Making his way around to CNN's Anderson Cooper, Smith further requested clarification from the special counsel's office and defended his reporters, Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier.

'We're really confident in these specific sources and in the stories these reporters told,' Smith said after referencing two unidentified law enforcement officials from the original story that reported Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress about the Moscow real estate project.

Smith also called into MSNBC to speak with Chris Hayes saying 'the special counsel issued this very vague statement, we are eager to know what he's talking about'.

The statement by Robert Mueller's office on Friday night doesn't cite any specific errors.

Ben Smith, editor-in-chief at BuzzFeed, tweeted: 'In response to the statement tonight from the Special Counsel's spokesman: We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he's disputing'

BuzzFeed themselves posted the Peter Carr statement from the special counsel's office refuting their bombshell story

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office called the BuzzFeed story on Cohen lying on behalf of Trump 'inaccurate'

Ben Smith (left), editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed is sticking by the story co-written by Jason Leopold (right) and asking for clarification for what Mueller's office is disputing

Trump had earlier Friday evening spent several hours retweeting several supporters.

Shortly after the statement from Mueller's office was released Trump retweeted: 'Sadly so many will never get the memo that it was fake!'

Buzzfeed's bombshell report claimed the president directed Cohen to lie in his testimony to Congress about a Trump Organization tower deal in Moscow that continued through the summer of 2016.

The president also retweeted the Newsmax host John Cardillo saying: 'I told you all that the BuzzFeed story was nonsense.'

President Trump goes on retweeting marathon after Mueller statement on BuzzFeed President Trump begun a barrage of retweets after Mueller's statement before addressing the Buzzfeed article directly. He retweeted Newsmax host John Cardillo as the story broke. Cardillo had tweeted his skepticism about the BuzzFeed report prior to this development Trump then moved on to retweet Dan Bongino, former Secret Service agent and current podcaster who linked his own post about BuzzFeed Breaking from the BuzzFeed story, Trump retweeted a post by his former deputy assistant Sebastian Gorka from nearly two years ago showing his inauguration Back to Bongino, the president retweeted another favorite talking point that the real scandal was how his former opponent and predecessor behaved Then he posted another Bongino link, this time asserting his approval rating has increased with Latinos during the current government shutdown Brad Parscale, Trump's campaign manager for the 2020 presidential election, retweeted the fired-up eldest son of Donald Trump criticizing the media in general Ronna McDaniel, Republican National Committee chairwoman, was retweeted questioning the methods the BuzzFeed reporters utilized The president then retweeted a fan posting a thank-you to God and a meme of the figure of Uncle Sam kneeling in prayer Trump then posted a video with the snow backdrop of the White House making his case for a border wall again, the main sticking point in the government shutdown fight Returning to the matter of BuzzFeed, Trump retweeted co-founder of Students for Trump that expresses his opinion on what journalism 'isn't' Retweeting another supporter, Trump again returns to the topic of fake news This supporter who was retweeted appears to make an argument specifically dealing with the Trump Tower project in Moscow investigated by BuzzFeed It was at this point that President Trump issued his first direct response to the special counsel's dispute with the BuzzFeed story on Twitter before going on to retweet twice more and cap off the night with a final direct tweet Geraldo River was the last personality to get retweeted by President Trump expressing his own defense of the president and disdain for his detractors Advertisement

Nicknamed the 'FOIA Terrorist,' Jason Leopold's colorful journalism career Jason Leopold is the senior investigative journalist for BuzzFeed who has worked with Anthony Cormier reporting on the Trump Tower Moscow project. He earned the nickname 'FOIA Terrorist' on Twitter due to a reputation for breaking stories from information found in Freedom of Information Act submissions. Leopold previously worked for or contributed to VICE News, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, LA Times, Truthout.org and Salon. In 2006 he wrote a book that detailed his battle with mental illness and suicide attempts, and also lying to employers about a larceny conviction on his record once. With BuzzFeed standing by the article, Leopold and Cormier are still heading the Trump/Russia beat. 2006 - Leopold working for Truthout.org reported Karl Rove's indictment over the Valerie Plame affair was 'imminent' but the Bush staffer never faced any charges

2002 - Salon.com removed a story Leopold wrote as a freelancer saying it was 'riddled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations' while also saying the piece contained 'an instance of plagiarism' Advertisement

Then he also drew attention to podcaster Dan Bongino's commentary, 'We called it. FAKE NEWS! "More Buzzfeed B.S."'

He goes on to retweet Sebastian Gorka posting a photo of Trump's inauguration, and podcaster Bongino asserting Trump's job approval among Latinos is up during the government shutdown.

Earlier, New Yorker reporter Ronan Farrow had tweeted his own misgivings about the BuzzFeed story, writing: 'I can't speak to Buzzfeed's sourcing, but, for what it's worth, I declined to run with parts of the narrative they conveyed based on a source central to the story repeatedly disputing the idea that Trump directly issued orders of that kind.'

CNN also written previously that the former Los Angeles Times, Dow Jones, and Vice News reporter Leopold had a 'checkered past' when it came to accuracy of his reports during the George W. Bush administration, prior to the Mueller office statement.

Leopold's investigative partner, Anthony Cormier, however, was a member of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team in 2016 at the Tampa Bay Times prior to joining BuzzFeed. He collaborated on an investigative series into the neglected mental health system in Florida. He joined BuzzFeed's investigative unit shortly afterwards.

The president's son, Donald Trump Jr., meanwhile, has been gleefully firing off tweets about the news outlet retweeting the Mueller office rebuttal with nothing but a series of 'crying laughing' emojis, and retweeting another post that had made the statement that either Trump is finished or BuzzFeed is with the comment 'You were saying??'

Since the statement put out by Mueller's office, the President's eldest son Donald Trump Jr has been tweeting and retweeting rapidly taking shots at BuzzFeed and other media outlets reporting around the story including The Daily Beast and CNN.

Buzzfeed's report, if true, would constitute subornation of perjury  a felony crime.

Obstruction of justice was the first order of impeachment against President Richard Nixon.

Trump blasted his former lawyer and fixer Cohen on Friday as a liar who was 'trying to reduce his jail time' when he reportedly told Mueller that a scheme to build a Trump Tower project in Moscow extended through the 2016 Republican National Convention and into the months before Trump became president-elect.

Anthony Cormier, shown, is the investigative partner on the Trump Tower story with Jason Leopold at BuzzFeed

Since the statement put out by Mueller's office, the President's eldest son Donald Trump Jr has been tweeting and retweeting rapidly taking shots at BuzzFeed and other media outlets reporting around the story including The Daily Beast and CNN

Michael Cohen arrives home to his apartment in New York City. The longtime Trump lawyer appeared to have his arm in a sling and had a pillow on top of his arm

Earlier Friday Cohen returned to his Manhattan apartment Friday after getting medical treatment  with his arm appearing to be in a sling.

Cohen advisor Lanny Davis said Cohen had gone into the hospital for pre-scheduled shoulder surgery.

Cohen could be seen with his left arm covered, hanging in a sling. He was holding a full-size white pillow against his body. His right hand had a small bandage of the kind used to cover a small wound by an IV.

He also wore a red identification bracelet of the kind distributed by hospitals.Ryanair could be forced to slash fares again as it fights a vicious price war that is expected to cost it up to 180million.

Michael OLeary, the budget airlines boss, said passengers are getting record bargains, but this is hitting his firm in the pocket.

Return trips from London to other continental cities were yesterday being sold for as little as 18 by Ryanair, with comparison website Skyscanner saying average prices for some destinations have fallen by 26 per cent in a year.

That has eaten into its takings. Ryanairs announcement yesterday marked the second time it has cut profit forecasts in the past four months.

Michael OLeary, the budget airlines boss, said passengers are getting record bargains from the company

Whereas before it said it expected up to 1.1billion in annual profits, the firm now says they could be as low as 880million.

Mr OLeary said: While we are disappointed at this slightly lower full year guidance, the fact that it is the direct result of lower than expected air fares  is positive for the medium term.

'We believe this lower fare environment will continue to shake out more loss making competitors.

The cheapest getaways 18: London Stansted to Frankfurt, Germany, March 8-11, Ryanair 18: Doncaster to Debrecen, Hungary, March 19-26, Wizz Air 19: London Stansted to Reus, north-east Spain, March 2-9, Ryanair 20: Manchester to Palma, Mallorca, January 23-30, Ryanair 20: London Stansted to Luxembourg, March 19-26, Ryanair Source: Skyscanner Advertisement

He refused to rule out further cuts to fares, saying that Brexit disruption or unexpected security incidents could cause costs to go up. Fare prices are expected to fall by 7 per cent this winter, Ryanair said, compared to an earlier prediction of 2 per cent.

But while this will hit profits, the rock-bottom prices have attracted larger passenger numbers.

Around 142million people are expected to have travelled with the airline in the year to the end of March, up from 130million the previous year.

And as passenger numbers rise the airline said it expects to make even more money out of so-called extras, such as charging travellers to reserve a seat, bring a second bag on board, or have more leg room.

However, he has admitted that the cuts are hurting the budget airline's profits (file photo)

The Mail previously revealed Ryanair raked in more than 6million a day from these charges.

Ryanairs profit warning came after a year of turbulence for the company. Its schedules were thrown into chaos by repeated striking and it provoked fury when it changed its carry-on bag rules.

Aviation expert Alex Macheras said major airline groups driving down fares means that lower-cost competitors like Ryanair and Easyjet have got to go even lower.

He added: On top of that, Ryanair has had a very troubled year. Combined with the price cuts, that has hurt their bottom line.For decades it could be found on the shelves of just about every home in Britain.

But the number is finally up for Yellow Pages  once the go-to directory for everything from accountants to zoos.

The final copies were delivered yesterday as the publisher went fully digital. They were handed out by Cold Feet actor James Nesbitt, who starred in several of the brands most memorable adverts, in Brighton where it was first printed in 1966.

The final copies were delivered yesterday as the publisher went fully digital. They were handed out by Cold Feet actor James Nesbitt (pictured)

Nesbitt's adverts include a scene where he frantically searches for a hairdresser after making a horrible job of cutting his nieces hair (pictured)

Speaking yesterday, Nesbitt said: The Yellow Pages have been very good to me in my career. You wouldnt think youd get such recognition from doing a few silly commercials but they really stuck with people

Among those receiving a copy were two businesses that have been advertising in the telephone directory since the first issue. Since then a billion copies have been printed on a trillion pages and delivered to 27million addresses nationwide.

The first book was published by the Post Office, and today there are 104 editions for different areas.

Nesbitt, whose adverts include a scene where he frantically searches for a hairdresser after making a horrible job of cutting his nieces hair, said: The Yellow Pages have been very good to me in my career. You wouldnt think youd get such recognition from doing a few silly commercials but they really stuck with people.

His appearances were not alone in finding an audience. The mini-story featuring Norman Lumsden as a man who locates a rare copy of a book on fly fishing through Yellow Pages before revealing hes the author, JR Hartley, was voted Britains fifth most popular advert in 2015. It made such a mark after its first broadcast in 1983 that an angling book subsequently written under the name became a bestseller.

On the button: As well as its colour, Yellow Pages was known for its walking fingers slogan and logo, which was never trademarked and is used worldwide (advert released in 1970)

A fine catch: Actor Norman Lumsden uses Yellow Pages to trace a copy of a book on fly fishing  only revealing at the end that hes the author, JR Hartley (advert released in 1983)

Close call: With his parents away, a teenager holds a party at which a treasured table is scratched. He is saved by calling a furniture restorer in the directory (advert released in 1991)

Over the years the directory became useful for more than just its phone numbers  its size lent it to many purposes. Nesbitt joked: They were part of the furniture. My mother used to hit me with one. My girlfriend used to hit me with one. It was useful for all sorts of things.

In a Christmas advert broadcast in 1992, a small boy stands on a Yellow Pages so he can reach up to kiss a girl under the mistletoe.

But that trick would make little difference to the lads height nowadays. The famously fat book is drastically reduced in size as more companies switch to online advertising and set up their own websites. Yellow Pages can now be found online operated by marketing company Yell.

Chief executive Richard Hanscott said yesterday: It is with a hint of sadness that we hand out the last copies but we felt that this was the right time to focus ourselves on digital.Motorists could face a 1000 charge for parking at work in a drive to combat pollution, it was reported last night.

At least ten councils in England and Scotland are considering the parking levy in a bid to reduce congestion in some of Britain's most crowded cities.

The hefty fee - which will hit businesses with more than ten parking spaces  is designed to discourage drivers from driving to work.

It comes amid growing concern over levels of congestion and air pollution in city centres, which are particularly caused by slow-moving vehicles.

The hefty fee - which will hit businesses with more than ten parking spaces  is designed to discourage drivers from driving to work. But critics have said there is a lack of evidence to prove its effectiveness and that the fee could lead to people losing their jobs [File photo]

Britain has the worst congestion across western Europe with drivers spending an average of 31 hours a year stuck in peak-time traffic jams, according to traffic data company Inrix.

But the levy has been heavily criticised by AA who called it a 'poll tax on wheels'  adding that it's unfair for businesses to pass the cost on to staff.

Nottingham is the only city to bring in the fee so far, but around four in ten businesses in the city pass the charge on to workers.

The charge, which has seen hundreds of teachers pay to park in the city, has generated 53.7million since it first came to fruition in 2012, the Times reported.

NHS staff are exempt and a majority of the money raised goes towards improving the tram network.

But critics have said there is a lack of evidence to prove its effectiveness and that the fee could lead to people losing their jobs.

Robert Halfon, 49, Conservative chairman of the Commons education select committee, called it 'complete madness'.

He said: 'This is complete madness. It's yet another tax on motorists and all it will do is hit working people with the cost of living. It's entirely the wrong thing to do.'

Hounslow in west London is considering charge an annual fee of 500 to 1000 per parking space, which is expected to raise up to 3.8million each year.

At least nine other councils are also pushing for the introduction of the parking fee to help raise cash for improved roadworks and public transport.

Britain has the worst congestion across western Europe with drivers spending an average of 31 hours a year stuck in peak-time traffic jams, according to traffic data company Inrix [File photo]

In Scotland, Edinburgh and Glasgow have made clear they want to introduce the levy.

In England, cities including Reading, Cambridge, Bristol and the London boroughs of Merton, Brent and Camden are weighing up the prospect of introducing it. Brent and Camden are seeking consultation on bringing the charge into force.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling was yesterday urged to block plans to introduce a similar charge unless they could prove it will reduce congestion.

AA president Edmund King said: 'We need more incentives to switch to electric vehicles rather than a tax on work to drive businesses out of town or out of business. If it spreads to other cities, workplace parking levies could become the new 'poll tax on wheels'.'

David Liversidge, portfolio holder for transport at Nottingham city council, said: 'By investing in expanding our tram network, electric bus network and railway station improvements, we have been suc-cessful in constraining traffic growth, improving air quality through falling nitrogen dioxide emissions and having one of the highest levels of bus and tram usage outside London.

'There is lots of interest across the country from authorities looking to introduce their own levies, including Oxford, Cambridge, Reading and London, and we'll be interested to see who follows our lead.'

A Department for Transport spokesman said: 'Measures to tackle congestion in local areas are a matter for individual councils and we have been clear that councils must properly and effectively consult local businesses and address any proper concerns raised if they wish to seek to implement such a scheme.'Arizona police have released bodycam footage showing the fatal shooting of Antonio Arce, pictured

Police in Arizona have released bodycam footage showing the moment one of their officers fired multiple shots and killed a 14-year-old boy as he was running away.

Baby-faced Antonio Arce was carrying a replica handgun and breaking into a car when he was shot in the back from 50 meters away on Tuesday by an officer identified only as Jaen, according to cops.

The boy's devastated family have called for justice and around 100 people held a vigil outside the Tempe police headquarters on Thursday.

The footage shows Jaen, an officer for 17 years, arriving in a car and parking in an alley to investigate the reported burglary.

He sees the suspect in a gray pickup truck facing his squad car and crouches behind a big, black plastic trash barrel before calling out 'hey' and raising his handgun.

The suspect then gets out of the passenger side of the truck and starts running down the alley lined with wooden fence, chain link and concrete block.

Jaen fires two shots as the suspect runs away and shouts: 'Let me see your hands. Shot fired, shot fired.'

Body camera video shows Jaen arriving in a car and parking in an alley at a reported burglary

He sees the suspect in a gray pickup truck facing his squad car and raises his handgun before the teen begins to run away

The suspect gets out of the passenger side of the truck and starts running down the alley

Police have released bodycam footage showing the fatal shooting of Antonio Arce, pictured

The police chief said Jaen, left, has been an officer for 17 years and was placed on administrative leave. Antonio's family, including his brother Jason Gonzalez, right, have called for justice and held a vigil for the teen

He chases the teen through the alley, yelling: 'He's got a handgun, he's got a handgun.'

The video does not show the suspect - who does appear to be holding something in his hand - again after he disappears from view.

Antonio's brother, Jason Gonzalez, told KPHO-TV: 'A police officer has a Taser gun right? Why not shoot a Taser at him.'

His mom Sandra Gonzalez added: 'If they want to tarnish my son, they are wrong.'

Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir said: 'I must begin with expressing my condolences to the young man's family. The loss of his life is tragic. I am very sorry for their loss.'

She asked people to withhold judgment until an investigation is complete.

Sandra Gonzalez, mother of a slain 14-year-old boy shot by Tempe Police, said 'if they want to tarnish my son, they are wrong'

Antonio Arce's mom Sandra Gonzalez, left, joins another family member, right, and others in front of the Tempe Police headquarters to hold a protest and vigil for the boy

An evidence photo of what Tempe, Ariz., police say is the replica handgun recovered from a boy who was shot by an officer, left

Police Sgt. Ronald Elcock, flanked by photos, some of them stills from video from the body camera worn by the officer who shot the boy who was carrying a replica handgun

Police in this Phoenix suburb say the burglary suspect shot dead by an officer was a 14-year-old boy carrying a replica gun. The officer is now on administrative leave

Moir said one of the two shots hit the teen in the rear shoulder blade area and the other hit a wall. He died at hospital.

Jaen, who has completed one combat tour in Iraq for the Army National Guard, is now on administrative leave.

There has been at least one other police shooting that killed a teen in Arizona's largest county since the beginning of the year.

A Phoenix police officer shot and killed Jacob Michael Harris, 19, after surveillance officers reportedly saw him and three others carry out an armed robbery.

An investigation into the shooting has been launched in conjunction with prosecutors, which is customary in officer-involved shootings.A mistake made by solicitors for Australian actor Geoffrey Rush has revealed the huge amount of money the actor is suing for in his defamation case against a newspaper publisher.

The 67-year-old is suing Nationwide News and journalist Jonathon Moran after The Daily Telegraph ran a 2017 story that alleged he was inappropriate to a female cast member during a play at the Sydney Theatre Company in 2015-16.

A document uploaded to the online case file on the Federal Court's website and discovered by website Buzzfeed was improperly redacted, revealing the payout Rush is seeking to be as high as $25 million.

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A mistake made by the legal counsel for Australian actor Geoffrey Rush has revealed the huge amount of money the actor is suing for in his defamation case against a newspaper publisher

The document had black boxes over certain text that could easily be moved or, if the block of text was copied and pasted to another document, the boxes would disappear.

It is believed the document, which outlined closing arguments by the actor's barristers Bruce McClintock SC and Sue Chrysanthou, was uploaded by staff at the legal firm and not court staff.

The figure was calculated by accountant Terence Potter who estimated that a 75 per cent loss of work over the next ten years would result in $25.3 million in lost income.

The figure is over $17 million higher than the current record for a defamation payout which is held by radio host Alan Jones and stations 2GB and 4BC who were ordered to pay $3.4 million after Jones suggested the Wagner family of Queensland were responsible for a dozen deaths during the 2011 Grantham floods.

Actor Rebel Wilson briefly held the record for the highest payout after Bauer media were ordered to pay her $4.5 million for a series of articles in its magazines, however, an appeal reduced the amount to $600,000.

It was one of a number of scenarios the accountant hypothesised that resulted in predicted income losses that ranged to $2 million at the other end of the scale.

A 25 per cent loss in work would result in an income loss of about $7.5 according to the estimates by Potter.

The three week trial was held in the Australian Federal Court last year with testimony by actor Eryn Jean Norvill, who co-starred in the play with Rush, being the cornerstone of Nationwide News' defence.

The three week trial was held in the Australian Federal Court last year with testimony by actor Eryn Jean Norvill, who co-starred in the play with Rush, being the cornerstone of Nationwide News' defence

Ms Norvill, who the original story from 2017 was based on, claimed that Rush behaved inappropriately towards her during the play's run.

He is also claiming $800,000 in general damages, which accounts for damage to reputation rather than loss of income, and is usually capped at $398,500, however, his lawyers argued it should be higher due to aggravating behaviour by Nationwide News.

If he wins the case it would be up to Justice Michael Wigney to determine how much he should be awarded in damages.Mitt Romney has backed Donald Trump's push for a border wall saying he 'doesn't understand' Nancy Pelosi's position as government shutdown row rumbles on.

The Republican, who has been a harsh critic of the president in the past, said he 'doesn't understand' Nancy Pelosi's position.

US senator Romney questioned why the Democratic House Speaker won't agree to 'another few miles' of barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The 2012 GOP presidential nominee and new Utah senator acknowledged that it 'takes two to tango' but backed Trump's position and chided Pelosi for hers.

Its noteworthy given Romney's frequent attacks on Trump in the past.

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Mitt Romney has backed the president's push for a border wall saying he 'doesn't understand' Nancy Pelosi's position. The Republican has been a harsh critic Donald Trump, right

US senator Romney questioned why Nancy Pelosi won't agree to 'another few miles' of barriers

He said: 'You (Pelosi) and your fellow Democrats have voted for over 600 miles of border fence in the past, why won't you vote for another few miles now?

'I don't understand their position, I really don't.'

Romney said he plans to keep working with other senators to find interim solutions, such as legislation that would make sure essential government employees still working get paid now.

Romney was speaking in the northern Utah city of Ogden after visiting with county commissioners about the shutdown's impact on the community.

He implored the two sides to 'make a deal' and end the suffering of federal workers who aren't getting paid, suggesting Pelosi should offer a certain amount of money for the border wall and make a proposal to the president about border security. He said Trump is willing to allow participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to stay in the country.

'On policy, it strikes me like there's not a big gap but the politics have drawn people into different corners,' Romney said.

Romney said the country deserves border security, which includes more barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border. He said there is 'humanitarian pain' being suffered by people entering the country illegally and being stopped at the border.

His most recent critique of the Trump came two days before he took office in an op-ed for The Washington Post in which he said Trump's conduct in his first two years in office had 'not risen to the mantle of the office.'

U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, speaks with reporters after visiting with local officials to discuss how the four-week partial government shutdown is impacting an area

Mitt Romney, center, has been a harsh critic of the president in the past

Romney said he backs an idea by Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin that would ensure essential government workers who are still working, but without pay, get paid. He said the goal is to get legislation before the president.

'It doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me that we ask people to work, we insist that they work, we tell them that if they don't work they may lose their pension and may lose they their job, so they show up, but we aren't paying them,' Romney said. 'Somehow that just doesn't seem right.'

Romney met Friday with Weber County Commissioners about the impact on the city of Ogden, home to about 5,000 federal employers who work for the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Forest Service.

About 3,750 workers IRS workers in Ogden were on furlough, though about 1,000 were called back this week to prepare for tax-filing season.

The city of 87,000 residents is about 35 miles north of Salt Lake City.

After meeting with Romney, Weber County Commissioner James H. Harvey called it a 'desperate time' for federal workers and their families.

'We want those messages heard so that there will be some action,' Harvey said.AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu cited the tension in Kerala over the entry of women in Sabarimala Temple.

Amaravati: TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu Saturday cited the tension in Kerala over the entry of women of menstruating age into the Sabarimala temple to accuse the BJP of creating "strife" in temples across the country.

Naidu, who is in Kolkata for a mega rally of anti-BJP parties, addressed Telugu Desam Party leaders via teleconference and asked them to inform people about BJP's "vicious politics", a party release said.

He asked every TDP worker to become a "mobile media" and carry out door-to-door campaigns.

"The BJP is creating strife in temples. It is provoking tension in Sabarimala. It is raising the Ram temple issue once again. We have to be cautious against this," he told TDP leaders.

Referring to the political turmoil in Karnataka, he alleged that the BJP was trying to "purchase" legislators to dislodge the JD(S)-Congress government in the state.

"The BJP is making a mockery of democracy by indulging in vicious politics," the release quoted Naidu as saying. Naidu termed "ridiculous" BJP's claim it gave "special treatment" to Andhra Pradesh.

"Is giving us an empty hand despite my 29 trips to New Delhi the special treatment? Is sprinkling chilli powder on injuries the special treatment?" he added. He asked TDP workers to inform people about Telangana Rashtra Samiti leaders' alleged attacks on Andhra Pradesh and expose how YSR Congress president Jaganmohan Reddy was rubbing shoulders with them.

"Jagan compromised with (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi for his cases and with (Telangana Chief Minister) KCR for his ill-gotten wealth. You have to take this to people," he added. Naidu said the target for the party is to win all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the general election and at least 150 out of the total 175 assembly seats in the state.

"We have to achieve this," he stressed. Referring to the Kolkata rally, the TDP president said except KCR and Jagan, leaders of over 20 parties were attending it.

"All those who came to Kolkata are anti-Modi. It is clear that KCR and Jagan are with Modi. The so-called Federal Front is a big zero. It is only for the support of Modi and not an opposition to the BJP," Naidu claimed.Embossed bank cards have left a familiar feeling in our wallets since they arrived in the UK more than 50 years ago.

But banks are ditching the raised font in favour of slimline cards, which are said to be more durable and easier to read.

Bank cards have always been embossed because a physical impression of the card needed to be taken for payment to be processed.

Banks such as NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland are ditching the raised font in favour of slimline cards, which are said to be more durable and easier to read (file image)

However, this is now done digitally  so raised numbers are no longer necessary.

Trim debit cards are being sent to current account customers at NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland after the group trialled the design with premier account holders.

A brochure sent to customers reads: 'Your unembossed card may look and feel different, but it works just like your old card and is just as secure.

'With flat print, you will find that your account information is easier to read and the card will last longer.'

The group says it is issuing the cards in a 'phased approach', so not everyone will receive one at the same time.

But it says blind and partially sighted customers will always have embossed cards.

A spokesman added: 'These cards are more durable so people will not need to request replacement cards due to numbers rubbing off or tipping wearing off.'

The cards are made by French-Dutch digital security firm Gemalto, which last year won the contract to make the UK's post-Brexit blue passports.

Gemalto said: 'Embossed cards typically will last for three to four years, which in most cases is the lifetime of the card.'

Lloyds, Barclays, Nationwide, HSBC and Santander all say they currently have no plans to introduce such cards.President Donald Trump is teasing a 'major announcement' on Saturday afternoon.

He says he will be making a big reveal about the government shutdown and border security at 3pm EDT at the White House.

'I will be making a major announcement concerning the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border, and the Shutdown, tomorrow afternoon at 3 P.M., live from the @WhiteHouse,' he said in a Friday evening tweet.

His spokeswoman said she didn't want to get in front of his remarks as she encountered reporters shortly after.

Trump could be declaring a national emergency, though, so he can use military resources to build a physical barrier on the border.

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President Trump claimed Wednesday that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is 'groveling,' but fellow Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is refusing appeals to end to the government shutdown, because she's beholden to the radical left

A man stands in front of a border fence that divides a beach on January 18, 2019 in Tijuana, Mexico

He has resisted the action that will be aggressively challenged in court. The president has also said he will summon all of the powers of the executive branch to to build his border wall if Democrats will not give him the funds he's demanding, however.

They have been in a stand-off over border security for 28 days and remain at an impasse.

Congress is in recess until Tuesday of next week  Monday is a federal holiday  and many lawmakers are not expected to return until the following week unless there are votes.

The president took action on Thursday to keep House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at least, in town, so they could continue to negotiate, despite the fact that they have not met since he abruptly ended talks last week.

The president took action on Thursday to keep House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at least, in town, so they could continue to negotiate. She is pictured above on Friday on Capitol Hill in Washington

Trump recalled her congressional delegation's military escort to Afghanistan after they had already loaded a bus that was taking them to Joint Base Andrews.

She accused him Friday of endangering lawmakers with the public declaration that heightened the security risk for members who planned to make the trip commercially.

The trip to Afghanistan, as with most warzone visits, had been a secret.

In a Thursday tweet before he informed her the trip had been canceled, he claimed the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was 'groveling,' but the House leader was refusing appeals to end to the government shutdown, because she's beholden to the radical left.

He said later in a national security speech that Pelosi will not let lawmakers work with him to come to a border security solution.

'The party has been hijacked by the open borders fringe within the party, the radical left, becoming the radical Democrats,' he said. 'Hopefully Democrat lawmakers will step forward to do what is right for our country, and what's right for our country is border security at the strongest level.'

He added: 'Stop human hijacking, stop drugs, stop gangs, stop criminals. That's what we're gonna do. That was my pledge, and that's what we're going to do.'

Until then, the federal government will remain shutdown because congressional Democrats refuse to approve border security, he said.

'We're going to have border security. It's going to be tight. It's going to be strong. We're going to let people into our country gladly, but they're going to come in legally,' he contended.

The president brought up the situation at the southern border during a speech on his Missile Defense Review at the Pentagon.

'I would like to briefly address another matter of critical national security, the humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border,' he said leading into his daily pitch for a border wall. 'Without a strong border, America's defenseless, vulnerable and unprotected.'

He thanked the military for 'helping us out during the big caravan period' as he made reference to another group of Central American migrants that has reportedly formed.

'Thousands and thousands of people. We don't know where they're from, who they are, nothing,' he asserted. 'We need strong borders. We need strong barriers and walls. Nothing else is going to work. Everyone knows it. Everybody's saying it now. Just a question of time.'

This week the No. 2 Democrat in the House, Steny Hoyer, admitted that walls 'obviously' work sometimes and that the barrier is not 'immoral' on its face. Rep. Katie Hill, a California Democrat, has also said a physical barrier like Trump wants could be effective.

'While many Democrats in the House and the Senate would like to make a deal, Speaker Pelosi will not let them negotiate,' Trump said of the status of the shutdown. 'The part has been hijacked by the open borders fringe.'

Trump said earlier in a tweet that had no apparent connection to any news story, but appeared to be about immigration: 'The Left has become totally unhinged. They no longer care what is Right for our Countrty!'

The president misspelled the word 'country' in the message. He did not send out a corrected version of the tweet.

He went on to bash Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, in a tweet for 'groveling' for another meeting at the White House.

Trump walked out of their last one and hasn't spoke to the party leader since.

Schumer offered to come back to the table as he spoke to reporters on Tuesday, if Trump will have him.

'Ill meet with him anytime he wants. As you know, the last I spoke with him was when he walked out, threw a temper tantrum and walked out, so we havent heard from him since then.'

Trump said earlier in a tweet that had no apparent connection to any news story, but appeared to be about immigration: 'The Left has become totally unhinged. They no longer care what is Right for our Countrty!'

Schumer's office did not have a comment on the president's tweet. The senator has not commented, either, on the CoDel cancellations.

The argument over military-supported trips is part of a broader fight the president is waging right now against Democrats who will not give him the $5.7 billion he's demanding for his border wall.

He has overseen a partial government shutdown for nearly a month over their refusal to approve the funds.Gaille Bola (pictured), 22, stabbed Meschak Dos Santos Cornelio to death just to get his hands on the 18-year-olds mobile phone, which he used to sell cocaine and heroin

A ruthless crime lord who killed a teenager for the phone he used to run a county lines drugs operation was awarded 52,000 in legal aid  despite raking in 1,000 a day.

Gaille Bola, 22, stabbed Meschak Dos Santos Cornelio to death just to get his hands on the 18-year-olds mobile phone, which he used to sell cocaine and heroin.

The battered Nokia handset was so old it was practically worthless, but the telephone number was worth hundreds of pounds a day because it was the only link to scores of drug addicts.

It emerged yesterday that police have never recovered the phone and believe it is still being used in London to run a county line  the term for the dedicated mobile phone line used to sell, distribute and buy drugs.

Bola was found guilty of manslaughter at a retrial in November after being cleared of murder in a trial at the Old Bailey in July. He faces a life sentence when he is sentenced on February 1.

But there was fury last night at the decision to award the London gangster 34,127 to fund his defence after he boasted at his trial how much he made from selling drugs in Hertfordshire.

Following a freedom of information request from the Mail, it was revealed yesterday that Bola was granted a total of 52,779 in legal aid, including the 34,127 for his murder and manslaughter trials and 18,651 to cover the legal costs for 13 other cases involving 20 offences including knife crime.

The officer in the charge of the case said last night that Bolas boasts about his earnings stunned jurors at his manslaughter trial at Blackfriars Crown Court. Detective Sergeant Brett Hagen added: It was the phone that was the target. It was just a basic old Nokia but it was worth a small fortune.

The figures he boasted about in the witness box were staggering.

Everyone was incredulous at the sums and the incredible arrogance he displayed. The judge and jury raised their eyebrows at the money Bola was making  1,000 a day after he had paid his runners, dealers and wholesalers.

The battered Nokia handset was so old it was practically worthless, but the telephone number was worth hundreds of pounds a day because it was the only link to scores of drug addicts (pictured: Meschak Dos Santos Cornelio)

David Spencer, of the Centre for Crime Prevention campaign group, said: This highlights the farcical state the legal aid system is in. Far from being given thousands of pounds of taxpayer money to fund his defence, this career criminal should be forced to hand over his ill-gotten gains. Our legal system seems to help criminals far more than victims.

Jen Lock, of the Lives Instead of Knives Ealing group, said: This sends out the message that crime does pay.

John OConnell, of the TaxPayers Alliance, said: Authorities must make sure those claiming these payments are those most in need of support.

Bola  one of the biggest county lines drugs barons brought to justice so far  was running three rackets, supplying hundreds of addicts in Hertfordshire.

But profits of 365,000 a year werent enough for the Congolese gangster, who wanted to expand his territory into north-east London by taking over a county line run by Mr Cornelio.

Police believe it is the first time in the UK that anyone has been killed for a county line. Considered by Scotland Yard to be one of the most dangerous gangsters in Londons notorious Get Money Gang, Bola used an army of children to run his lucrative drugs chains.

He recruited Mr Cornelio when he was just 15. The schoolboy was groomed by Bola for years, working for him as a runner before establishing a busy county line of his own in October 2017. But after Bola realised how much he was earning  thought to be hundreds of pounds a day  he ambushed the young dealer as he was preparing for a night of sales on New Years Eve in 2017.

Bola repeatedly punched him in the head shouting, Give me the phone, but Mr Cornelio refused to hand over the Nokia handset and was stabbed in the chest. Bola then fled with the phone.

Anyone taken to a criminal trial is entitled to legal aid if their gross monthly income is below 3,125. In Bolas case, he was able to prove that he had no legitimate income because he had never held down a job in his life.

Yesterday a spokesman for the Legal Aid Agency said: We do not comment in individual cases. Anyone facing a Crown Court trial is eligible for legal aid, subject to a strict means test.

Depending on their means, applicants can be required to pay contributions up to the entire cost of the defence.

The failings of publicly-funded defences came under the spotlight this month when it emerged that Jack Shepherd, who is on the run from a jail sentence for drunkenly killing a passenger in his speedboat, had been granted legal aid to appeal against his conviction.

Shepherd, 31, was sentenced to six years at the Old Bailey in his absence last July for the manslaughter by gross negligence of Charlotte Brown, 24, while he was showing off on the Thames.Advertisement

Jeff Bezos looked to enjoy being the center of attention at a Beverly Hills award ceremony as he made his first public appearance since his affair with Lauren Sanchez was made public.

The Amazon CEO sported a sleek tuxedo as he posed for photos at the Living Legends of Aviation honors at the Beverly Hills Hilton on Friday

Sanchez did not appear to be nearby.

Earlier, Bezos had looked relaxed as he boarded a private luxury jet in Seattle and disembarking in LA  marking the first time he was seen since news of his divorce broke.

The Amazon CEO sported a sleek tuxedo as he posed for photos at the Living Legends of Aviation honors at the Beverly Hills Hilton on Friday

Lauren Sanchez didn't appear to be at the event with Bezos

There will be artwork auctioned off at the event. Bezos face is featured in several of the pieces

Bezos poses with John Travolta as he sports his new medal

The Living Legends of Aviation honors 'remarkable people of extraordinary accomplishment in aviation including: entrepreneurs, innovators, industry leaders, astronauts, record breakers, pilots who have become celebrities and celebrities who have become pilots'

Bezos wore brown pants accompanied with a blue button-up shirt and a brown puffer vest for the flight.

It was the first time the 55-year-old was seen since he and wife MacKenzie Bezos announced their divorce and after news of the CEO's affair was made public with salacious and racy texts.

Bezos was headed to Beverly Hills to accept the Living Legends of Aviation honors, hosted at the Beverly Hilton.

According to its website, the Living Legends of Aviation honors 'remarkable people of extraordinary accomplishment in aviation including: entrepreneurs, innovators, industry leaders, astronauts, record breakers, pilots who have become celebrities and celebrities who have become pilots. The Legends meet yearly to recognize and honor individuals that have made significant contributions in aviation'.

Photographer Hayman Tam shared photos from preparations for the ceremony. He included photos of artwork depicting Bezos that will be auctioned off at the event.

Jeff Bezos looked to be taking his marriage break-up scandal all in his stride as he headed to a Beverly Hills award ceremony on Friday

The Amazon CEO looked relaxed as he boarded a private luxury jet in Seattle, Washington

All alone: Bezos was headed to the Living Legends of Aviation honors at the Beverly Hills Hilton

Comfortable look: Bezos wore brown pants accompanied with a blue button-up shirt and a brown puffer vest

'Some very nice aviation art that will be auctioned off during the Living Legends of Aviation awards event. Jeff Bezos is one of this years inductees,' he said.

It is currently unknown whether the CEO's new love will be in attendance at the award ceremony.

'They're still figuring it out,' a source familiar with the relationship said to Page Six.

Bezos and Sanchez are expected to attend this year's Oscar ceremonies in February, according to sources familiar with the relationship.

It was the first time the 55-year-old was seen since he and wife MacKenzie Bezos announced their divorce and after news of the CEO's affair was made public with salacious and racy texts

Bezos landed safely in Los Angeles and appeared to still be in a good mood as he headed to the ceremony

It is currently unknown whether Lauren Sanchez will be in attendance. Pictured in 2016

The inseparable pair will appear at a number of events in the coming months, including the February 24 ceremony.

'Expect to see Lauren joining Jeff [at the Oscars]. They are an item and very much in love,' a source explained to Page Six.

'They were not hiding their relationship and were very relaxed at the [Golden] Globes.'

Bezos and Sanchez were practically joined-at-the-hip during the Golden Globes ceremony, just days before their affair was made public along with the news that he was divorcing wife MacKenzie.

Bezos has gotten well acclimated to the Hollywood award scene.

Last year, he attended an Oscar-eve bash that Patrick Whitesell - Sanchez's husband - hosted with WME and IMG.

Sanchez is still living with Whitesell in their LA home.

The inseparable pair will appear at a number of events in the coming months, including the Oscars. Lauren Sanchez is pictured right and Jeff Bezos leftThe husband of a woman who died after going for a run in remote bush land has paid tribute to his late wife and spoken out about her brave pregnancy battle.

Mother-of-two Felicity 'Flik' Shadbolt, 36, was reported missing after failing to return home from a run at Mount Nameless, in Western Australia, on Sunday.

Her body was found in shrub nearby three days later.

Ms Shadbolt's husband Drew revealed in a statement yesterday that the loving mother had been advised to abort one of her twin daughters to give the other a better chance of survival.

'That was not an option for Flik. She was determined she would walk out of hospital with two babies, not one, and her fight paid off,' Mr Shadbolt said.

Felicity Shadbolt (pictured right with her twin girls Macie and Harper) disappeared on Sunday after going for a run in the bush near her home. Her husband Drew (left) said she enjoyed the outdoors and 'died doing something she loved'

The couple had a difficult pregnancy but refused to give up and the unborn child hung on for four weeks as they fought to give her a chance to live - and they both survived

The twins (pictured) were born 10 weeks early in 2011, four weeks after doctors predicted one of them was too small to make it

Ms Shadbolt leaves behind her husband Drew and their two twin daughters after they moved to Tom Price in Western Australia's Pilbara region three years ago

Ms Shadbolt was remembered as a dedicated mother who 'lived her life for her girls'.

'When her girls were born, she would put them in their pram and run with them,' the family said in a statement on Friday.

'She has a love for life, love for the outdoors and she died doing something she loved. She ran until the very end.'

Her husband Drew said his wife had been fit since she was a teenager and had competed in Spartan events.

The family described Ms Shadbolt as 'tenacious, stubborn and focused' and also a best friend to her seven-year-old twins Macie and Harper.

The family described Ms Shadbolt (right) as 'tenacious, stubborn and focused' and also a best friend to her seven-year-old twins Macie and Harper

About 35 people had been involved in a ground search including police, SES and members of the local community

Ms Shadbolt with her two daughters at the beach in Exmouth at Christmas where they holidayed with close friends

'She talked of living in a big house so her girls could stay with her forever so they could always be together,' Mr Shadbolt said.

Family members - some of whom travelled to Tom Price from Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania - thanked everyone who helped search for Ms Shadbolt and the community for their support.

They said she would be remembered for her beautiful smile, immaculate appearance, desire to stay young and the smell of her favourite perfume.

Family and friends will need to wait for the results of an autopsy to determine what caused her death.

Ms Shadbolt's body was found in bushland four days after she went missing in a remote part of northern Western AustraliaSixteen soldiers have been kicked out of the Army after holding cocaine parties at two barracks.

The parties were held several days apart by two units in the Royal Logistic Corps. Seven men and one woman from each tested positive for Class A drugs and were booted out.

Sources claimed some may have deliberately taken the drugs to be discharged.

Troops in 9 Regiment RLC first staged a mess party at Buckley Barracks near Chippenham, Wiltshire, last month.

Troops in 9 Regiment RLC first staged a mess party at Buckley Barracks near Chippenham (pictured), Wiltshire, last month

Afterwards eight of them went back to their blocks and took Class A drugs, believed to be cocaine. Days later soldiers at 7 Regiment RLC held a similar party 130 miles away at Kendrew Barracks near Cottesmore, Rutland.

Eight were found to have taken the drugs. The two parties were not linked.

A source told The Sun: The soldiers had what can only be described as cocaine parties. Military police raided the barracks the next day and found evidence of drug use so the lot got tested. Sixteen failed and were immediately kicked out.

Sixteen soldiers have been kicked out of the Army after holding cocaine parties at two barracks (pictured stock image)

Under normal circumstances soldiers must wait a year from when they quit until they can leave.

The source suggested some of the troops may have broken the rules on purpose to leave immediately. They added: Why give a years notice when you can bang a load of hooter up your nose?

An MoD spokesman said: The MoD has a zero-tolerance drugs policy and will not tolerate misuse of drugs by service personnel in any form. Any personnel caught taking drugs will be discharged.

In October 2017 the Daily Mail revealed nine British servicemen were kicked off a nuclear submarine - the HMS Vigilant (pictured) - after testing positive for cocaine while on duty

In October 2017 the Daily Mail revealed nine British servicemen were kicked off a nuclear submarine after testing positive for cocaine while on duty.

In one of the worst scandals to hit the Navy, the crew from HMS Vigilant, which carries Trident, were discharged.

They were alleged to have had drug-fuelled parties while docked in the US to pick up nuclear warheads.Tracey Coreen Hobson, 20 (pictured), has been identified as the woman whose skeletal remains were found in Anaheim on August 30, 1987, after authorities said her body had likely been there for two months

A coroner's office in Southern California has confirmed the identity of a murder victim whose naked, dismembered body was found 31 years ago, with the help of the DNA Doe Project.

Tracey Coreen Hobson, 20, has been identified as the woman whose skeletal remains were found in Anaheim on August 30, 1987, after authorities said her body had likely been there for two months.

A total of nine agencies, including the Orange County Sheriffs Department and the DNA Doe Project, worked together to confirm that Hobson was the woman found naked, with her hands cut off, six teeth missing and a chipped front tooth, after having been stabbed in the torso.

Since its inception in 2017, the DNA Doe Project has successfully identified six cold case victims, using the same technology used to identify suspected Golden State Killer, Joseph DeAngelo.

The DNA Doe Project does not attempt to identify perpetrators of crimes.

Hobson's body was found naked, with her hands cut off, six teeth missing and a chipped front tooth, after having been stabbed in the torso. Hobson is pictured at left, and an approximation from 2017 of what the victim was thought to look like is shown at right

'The only items recovered near the body [of Hobson] were a red handkerchief and a length of cord,' OCSD said in statement released on Thursday.

'An anthropological examination of the remains confirmed the woman had been stabbed in the torso and her hands had been cut off. At the time the remains were discovered, experts estimated the body had been in the area approximately two months.'

The remains were found over three decades ago by a passerby, in a grassy area about 50 feet from Santa Ana Caynon Road, OCSD said.

That area is about one-half mile west of Gypsum Canyon Road in unincorporated Anaheim.

'Forensic genealogy has provided a new tool for investigators to work cases from a different angle to bring closure to families,' Sheriff Don Barnes said.

'We will never stop investigating these types of cases and seeking justice for victims of crime.'

The case of the Anaheim woman's identity has benefited from state of the art technology at a few points over the last 30 years.

In the the investigation's early stages, the first-ever clay model facial reconstruction in Orange County history was put to use to generate images of the victim's likeness.

But after yielding no results, the case went cold.

Then, in May of 2005, the California Department of Justice Bureau of Forensic Services was able to extract a DNA profile for the victim.

That profile was uploaded to uploaded to the California Missing Persons Database and the National Unidentified Persons DNA Index.

'Over the years, her DNA profile was compared to several possible subjects in an attempt to identify the victim, with no results,' OCSD said.

'In January 2017, an OCSD Investigator assigned to the Orange County Cold Case Homicide Task Force reviewed the case and worked in partnership with the Orange County Sheriffs Department Coroner Division, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the National Missing and Unidentified Person System (NamUs), to develop several new likenesses of the victim.'

Those images were also publicly released, but the victim still was not identified.

With new breakthroughs in investigative genealogy techniques, Sheriffs investigators partnered with the DNA Doe Project in an attempt to identify the victim.

On November 14, 2018, the DNA Doe Project tentatively identified the victim as Hobson.

With new breakthroughs in investigative genealogy techniques, Sheriffs investigators partnered with the DNA Doe Project in an attempt to identify the victim, and on November 14, 2018, the DNA Doe Project tentatively identified the victim as Hobson. The victim's identity was confirmed as Hobson by a coroner on January 15. An approximation of what the victim was thought to have looked like from the database of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is shown at left, and was also used in DDP's identification announcement from Thursday, shown at right

'DNA believed to be from a family member was submitted to the California Department of Justice (CalDOJ) and matched to the victim,' OCSD said.

'CalDOJ submitted their results to the OCSD Coroner Division for identity confirmation. Using forensic odontology, the Coroner Division confirmed on January 15 the victim to be 20-year-old Tracey Coreen Hobson, who was living in Anaheim at the time she disappeared.'

The DNA Doe Project had been working closely with OCSD on the Hobson case since July of 2018, the organization said.

The organizations that worked together to identify Hobson include the Orange County Sheriff's Department, the DNA Doe Project, NamUs, the Mohawk Valley Office of the National Center For Missing & Exploited Children, the OC Cold Case Homicide Task Force, the OCDA DNA Investigative Unit, CalDOJ, Fulgent Genetics and Full Genomes Corp.

'Our condolences go out to Traceys family,' DDP said, with the announcement of the confirmed identification.

OCSD said the investigation into who the killer might be remains ongoing.

Anyone with information related to this case is encouraged to contact Orange County Crime Stoppers at 1-855-TIP-OCCS or crimestoppers.org.Paul Hicks, 43, turned himself in to Clermont County Sheriff's Office Wednesday

An Ohio man turned himself in to police Wednesday after he was indicted on suspicion of masterminding an arson that law enforcement believes was to claim insurance and gain custody of his child.

Paul Hicks, 43, cooperated with Clermont County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday after the department asked the public for help finding him on Tuesday afternoon, almost four years after an inferno ravaged his house.

It stems from a June 15, 2015 incident where two suspects were seen on camera taking items from the property he owns before setting fire to the home on the 1900 block of Stumpy Lane Goshen Township.

He was indicted Tuesday for aggravated arson, insurance fraud and perjury

Police believe he was trying to gain custody of his child by alleging his ex-girlfriend started the fire on June 15, 2015. He claimed a woman in surveillance footage was his former partner

Cops are working to identify the suspects in the video seen taking items from the home

Law enforcement believe Hicks was behind the 1am incident despite him earlier accusing his ex-girlfriend, the mother of his child, of appearing in footage from a surveillance camera that was set up inside a fire-proof safe.

Hicks made his story more convincing by telling cops the woman had caused damage to his home in the months before.

A court date has not been set but he must report to a probation officer weekly

Two people wearing masks  who have so far not been identified - could be seen throwing gasoline around before setting the place alight.

While collaborating with the State Fire Marshalls Office in a probe, police later confirmed the female in the video was not the ex-girlfriend of Hicks.

A warrant was out for his arrest this week and police said he was at large in Huron County.

Hicks turned himself in after being indicted on two counts of aggravated arson  one in the second degree and one in the first degree, felony insurance fraud in the third degree and three counts of perjury classed as felonies in the third degree.

He was released on a bond of his own recognizance on Thursday.

However he has been ordered to make no contact with his ex and is not allowed to consume alcohol during a probation period where he must check in with an overseeing person each week.

A court date had not been set.

The Sheriff's Office is still investigating and ask anyone with information to contact them on 513-732-7545.Large crowds of activists and lawmakers made their way to the US capital on Friday for the annual rally against abortion called the March for Life.

Anti-abortion protesters gathered on the National Mall near the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, that legalized the procedure on January 22, 1973, for what the website bills as 'the world's largest pro-life event.'

The first march took place on the west steps of the Capitol in January 1974, the year after the landmark decision.

45 years later, thousands braved the cold to attend Friday's event themed 'Unique from Day One' a shift towards the message that 'pro-life is pro science.'

Though march organizers attempted to broaden their message to appeal to a bigger, non-partisan coalition, it was overshadowed by the surprise appearance of Vice President Pence and the second address to the rally by President Trump, this time by prerecorded video.

Donald Trump addressed his second March for Life via a prerecorded video played on the National Mall

The Supreme Court is reflected in the glasses of pro life prostester Kim Lockett who is wearing red tape that reads LIFE during the Right To Life March on January 18

Mike Pence, who made a surprise appearance onstage at the rally, introduced the video, calling Trump, who before entering politics said he supported abortion access, 'the most pro-life president in American history.'

'I will always defend the first right in our Declaration of Independence, the right to life,' Trump said in remarks recorded in the Oval Office, a right he said extended to 'unborn children.'

His video remarks also went on to discuss making permanent the Hyde Amendment, a prohibition against federal funding of abortion services, continuing the denial of funds to global charities that support abortion and writing a letter to Congress stating he would veto any bill he deemed would weaken 'the protection of human life.'

The March for Life featured a surprise appearance by Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence

Students and activists carry signs during the annual March for Life in Washington DC

Marchers walk past the U.S. Capitol during the 46th annual March for Life

Pence, with his wife Karen at his side, assured demonstrators: 'From the White House to your house, life is winning in America once again.'

Not everyone at the rally was happy with the political duo being so closely tied to the event, however.

'I think the most dangerous thing we ever did is make this a partisan issue,' said Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, 35, president of New Wave Feminists to the Washington Post. 'It's a human rights issue.'

While she agrees with keeping the Republican party on the side against abortion, the activist was also concerned about the current administration's positions on otehr issues, asking 'What about children at the border? ... They're doing a lot of things that are anti-life.'

Other participants did not appear as impressed with the scientific approach of this year's march, as march attendee Alan Anderson told the Post that if science reached a conclusion other than 'a full-blown human being' at conception, he would still oppose abortion based on his religious faith.Advertisement

Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's wife seems unphased with the current state of her husband's trial and recent revelations by a woman claiming to be his mistress, taking to Instagram to share photos of herself laughing as she left court.

Emma Coronel Aispuro posted the set of three photos showing her in light spirits as she left the New York City courtroom on Thursday. She captioned the photos only with a heart.

The early Friday morning post comes just a day after a woman who claimed to have an affair with the notorious Mexican drug kingpin and testified against him at his US trial.

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Emma Coronel Aispuro posted the set of three photos showing her in light spirits as she left the New York City courtroom on Thursday

Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's wife captioned the photos only with a heart

Lucero Guadalupe Sanchez Lopez, 29, a former legislator in Guzman's home state of Sinaloa, told a New York City jury that the relationship mixed business with pleasure in a way that caused discomfort.

'Until this day, I'm confused because I thought we were in a romantic relationship,' she said as Guzman's wife of more than a decade sat in the court gallery.

At another point, she said: 'Sometimes I loved him and sometimes I didn't.'

During the testimony, Coronel smirked as an emotional Sanchez broke down and wept and laughed as the witness left the courtroom sobbing with her lapel microphone still on, according to the NY Post.

Outside the court Coronel beamed as she left the hearing, flashing smiles for photographers.

A jovial Emma Coronel Aispuro, right, left the courthouse followed by reporters and photographers

Lucero Guadalupe Sanchez Lopez, a former legislator in Guzman's home state of Sinaloa, detailed her affair with the drug old on Thursday. 'Until this day, I'm confused because I thought we were in a romantic relationship,' she said (seen here in 2017)

This undated photo provided by the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York shows Lucero Guadalupe Sanchez Lopez

Sanchez, once nicknamed 'Chapodiputada' (Chapo deputy) by local media, said she became involved with the married Guzman in 2011, about the time Coronel was pregnant with twin girls.

The trouble began when Guzman drafted Sanchez to purchase marijuana for him, with instructions to ready 400 kilograms (882 pounds) for each plane used to transport it from the countryside.

Prosecutors showed the jury intercepted texts where the pair called each 'love' as they plotted how best to move drugs, though some of Guzman's messages sounded more menacing.

Sanchez said she would sometimes sweet talk Guzman 'so he didn't think I would rat him out. I thought he could hurt me.'

The romance began to sour toward the end of 2012 but 'seemed like it would never end,' Sanchez said.

She said she would visit him at one of his many hideouts in Cabo San Lucas and communicate with him by text on mobile phones he gave her. When he invited her to one of the safe houses in the Sinaloa city of Culiacan in 2014, she automatically accepted.

Earlier, a DEA agent described how Guzman eluded a manhunt in 2014 by escaping through a sewer system. U.S. authorities have said Sanchez was with him at the time.

Lucero Guadalupe Sanchez Lopez, (left) in this courtroom sketch, at one point broke down crying leaving the stand while El Chapo's wife Emma Coronel Aispuro (right) laughed on Thursday

Coronel, right, places her hand up to refuse a microphone as she leaves Brooklyn federal court

Sanchez, once nicknamed 'Chapodiputada' (Chapo deputy) by local media, said she became involved with the married Guzman in 2011, about the time Coronel was pregnant with twin girls

Guzman was ultimately caught but ended up escaping from a Mexican prison. He was recaptured and sent to the U.S. in 2017 to face charges he says are fabricated. His wife is pictured center above leaving the Brooklyn court on Thursday

'I heard, like, a lot of thumps and helicopters. I heard yelling,' Sanchez told jurors about being in bed with Guzman on February 16, 2014, the New York Daily News reported.

A combined force of U.S. and Mexican authorities were trying to ram down the fortified door to the safe house when El Chapo, still naked, directed her to the bathroom where a button raised the bathtub to reveal a secret escape tunnel.

'It was very dark and I was very scared,' Sanchez said. 'He took off running. He left us behind.'

Sanchez followed Guzman through the tunnel away from the safe house, at some point feeling water on her legs.

When asked how long she had been traveling in the dark, she guessed that it was at least more than one hour or 'enough to traumatize me'.

Emma Coronel Aispuro, center, leaves Brooklyn federal court, Thursday, after attending the trial of her husband Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman

Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent Victor Vazquez shows video of tunnels in this courtroom sketch in Brooklyn federal court trial of accused Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman (right) on Thursday

Emma Coronel Aispuro - El Chapo's wife. She's seen here Thursday morning arriving for the court hearing with an assistant

US DEA liaison Victor Vasquez testified along with video footage about the failed arrest attempt to raid the spacious home Sanchez and Guzman had fled.

Guzman was ultimately caught but ended up escaping from a Mexican prison. He was recaptured and sent to the U.S. in 2017 to face charges he says are fabricated.

She said she also trafficked marijuana for him, with instructions to ready 400 kilograms (882 pounds) for each plane used to transport it from the countryside. He sought to purchase the marijuana on credit, but she refused because she was worried the growers would never get paid.

'I did not agree because it was unfair,' she said.

The former legislator was arrested by US authorities in San Diego, California, in 2017 after they discovered she helped launder cash and traffic drugs for the Sinaloa Cartel.

She admitted took a plea deal to cooperate with prosecutors to help reduce her own sentence.The defence spokesman said that the incident was reported to the Army detachment at Khadung La Top by two civilian drivers at about 7.45 am.

Srinagar: Ten persons are feared dead after a snow avalanche buried the two trucks they were travelling in at Khardung La of Ladakh region in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday, officials said.

Bodies of five of the deceased have been recovered so far, while efforts are on to find the remaining five persons, whose chances of survival are bleak, a police official said.

A defence spokesman here said that victims were travelling in two civilian trucks when these came under a massive snow avalanche of approximately 200-foot deep at a place about 800 metres from the Khardung La top towards South Pullu.

Out of the 10 civilians reported to be buried under the avalanche, five bodies have, so far, been recovered. Also mangled pieces of one of the tippers was found on the steep slopes below the road, said the spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia. The police sources said that five bodies had been recovered till Friday evening.

The defence spokesman said that though the rescue operations were still in progress as reports last came in, it would take some more time before the rescuers could reach the other persons trapped under tons of snow as the run out zone of the avalanche is approximately 1,100 metres down the steep hill.

The official source said that apart from the J&K police and the Army, the Border Roads Organisation and Jammu and Kashmir Disaster Management Force are engaged in the rescue operation.

The defence spokesman said that the incident was reported to the Army detachment at Khadung La Top by two civilian drivers at about 7.45 am. Immediately after receiving information about the mishap all resources of the Fire & Fury Corps were activated. Army teams deployed near the incident site swiftly moved and commenced the search and rescue operations, he said, adding that the troops deployed at South Pullu and North Pullu were also moved to the incident site.

Simultaneously, the Army Aviation helicopters were pressed into action to move the highly trained avalanche rescue teams of the Army called Avalanche Panthers Teams from Siachen base camp and North Pullu. These teams are equipped with specialised avalanche rescue and medical equipment and avalanche rescue dogs, which are being utilised in the search and rescue operations, the Army said.

The Army Aviation helicopters were used also to move the deep search radars which can detect human beings through snow. Medical teams along with doctors and nursing assistants, heating blankets, medical equipment and warm clothing were moved to the avalanche site from the Army Hospital at Hunder, it said.

According to the Army, Lt. Gen. YK Joshi, the GOC of Fire & Fury Corps personally carried out an aerial assessment of the incident and issued necessary directions for the smooth conduct of the rescue operations.

J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik while expressing grief over loss of lives in the incident has announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 5 lakh for the next of the kin of those killed.The Obama-era program that shields young immigrants from deportation and that President Donald Trump has sought to end seems likely to survive for at least another year.

That's because the Supreme Court took no action Friday on the Trump administration's request to decide by early summer whether Trump's bid to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was legal. The program has been protected by several federal courts.

Based on the high court's usual practices, the earliest the justices would hear arguments in the case would be this fall, if they decide to hear the case at all. If arguments take place in October, a decision would not be likely before 2020, when it could affect the presidential campaign.

The administration 'never asked for a stay of the rulings below which to us indicated it has known all along that there's no real rush to resolve these important issues,' said Theodore Boutrous Jr., a lawyer in Los Angeles who represents some young immigrants who challenged the administration's plans.

Court decision: As the Supreme Court set its calendar for the first six months of the year, the justices declined to look at DACA and the military transgender ban

Clash: Trump wanted to abolish the program put in place by Obama but it prompted a huge backlash from this affected and from Democrats

Trump and Congress could take the issue out of the court's hands altogether if they strike a deal on the program known as DACA, perhaps even in negotiations to end the partial government shutdown.

The immigration case is among several high-profile issues the court has apparently decided not to add to its calendar for decision by late June.

Other pending appeals involve Indiana abortion restrictions, whether the main federal employment discrimination law protects LGBT people and Trump's policy to limit military service by transgender people.

The court also has yet to act on a separate administration request to let the transgender policy take effect, even before the case is decided.

On immigration, the administration sought to end DACA in 2017, but federal courts in California, New York and Washington, DC, have prevented it from doing so. A federal judge in Texas has declared the program is illegal, but refused to order it halted.

DACA has protected about 700,000 people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or came with families that overstayed visas.

The Obama administration created the DACA program in 2012 to provide work permits and protection from deportation to people who, in many cases, have no memory of any home other than the United States.

The Trump administration has said it moved to end the program under the threat of a lawsuit from Texas and other states, raising the prospect of a chaotic end.

Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions determined DACA to be unlawful because President Barack Obama did not have the authority to adopt it in the first place.

Trump's then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions determined DACA to be unlawful because President Barack Obama did not have the authority to adopt it in the first place.

Sessions cited a 2015 ruling by the federal appeals court in New Orleans that blocked a separate immigration policy implemented by Obama and the expansion of the DACA program.

Texas and other Republican-led states eventually did sue and won a partial victory in a federal court in Texas. Civil rights groups, advocates for immigrants and Democratic-led states all have sued to prevent the end of the program.

In November, a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled that the administration decision to end DACA was arbitrary and capricious.

The appeals court noted that the federal government has a long and well-established history of using its discretion not to enforce immigration law against certain categories of people.

While the federal government might be able to end DACA for policy reasons under its own discretion, it can't do so based on Sessions' faulty belief that the program exceeds federal authority, the court held.

The administration has twice tried to sidestep the appeals courts and win a swift ruling by the Supreme Court. The justices rejected a first attempt last year as premature. In taking no action so far on the second request, the high court is signaling that it considers the issue less urgent than the administration does.The gypsy family whose antics have captured the attention of New Zealand have now praised Maori culture, while slamming the country's white population.

Claiming to be 'like refugees', hiding out in mountains north of Wellington, the British family have detailed their experiences with locals since gaining infamy last week.

Patriarch John Johnson told News Hub while the family was desperate to return home following the media storm, their interactions with the Indigenous population had been universally positive.

The gypsy family whose antics have captured the attention of New Zealand have now praised Maori culture, while slamming the country's white population

Footage of a young boy in the group threatening to 'knock the brains out' of a woman who had filmed them littering on an Auckland beach went viral

'I swear from my heart and soul, I found the Maori people, when people start saying that Maori people are gang members and they are very ruthless, do you want me to tell who the ruthless people is? The ruthless people are the white Kiwis, not the Maori people,' he told the publication.

'The Maori culture is a beautiful culture and they are the ones that treated us in the right way.'

During their North Island holiday, which was supposed to centre on 'see(ing) the Hobbits and the mountains', the Johnsons have instead captured the country's attention.

Their well-documented antics have included allegedly scamming restaurants to avoid paying, leaving rubbish on beaches, swearing at locals and destroying a rental apartment.

After causing havoc in Auckland and Hamilton in the North Island, the family have now sought refuge in mountains outside the country's capital, Wellington.

Mr Johnson said he was hiding out with his mother and father, his sister-in law and his three children including one under the age of seven months.

Patriarch John Johnson said while the family was desperate to return home following the media storm, their interactions with the Indigenous population had been universally positive

Claiming to be 'like refugees', hiding out in mountains north of Wellington, (pictured) the British family have detailed their experiences with locals since gaining infamy last week

He claimed their family had been spat at, abused and called 'Irish scum', despite hailing from the UK.

Mr Johnson also said they have been followed by people driving cars.

The family has also been accused of a string of offences including putting ants and hair in their meals in an attempt to avoid paying and ordering more than $110 worth of food at a cafe before skipping out on their tab.

However, Mr Johnson has denied the allegations of theft and deception.

'No member of my family stole anything at any stage in New Zealand. We were not brought up that way,' he told News Hub.

The Johnsons first made headlines on Monday after footage of young boy in the group threatening to 'knock the brains out' of a woman who had filmed them littering on a picturesque Auckland beach went viral.

The group of around 12 includes brothers John and David Johnson, their partners, children, and mother, Eileen Doran, from Liverpool, who arrived in New Zealand on Friday last week.

The family's stint of mayhem across New Zealand led to the group being labelled 'a*******' and 'trash' by the Mayor of Auckland, Phil Goff

The establishments where the group of British tourists have reportedly had complaints about their behaviour during their stay in New Zealand

Their stint of mayhem across New Zealand led to the group being labelled 'a*******' and 'trash' by the Mayor of Auckland, Phil Goff. A petition calling for their deportation amassed more than 2,500 signatures.

In a radio interview, Goff said: 'These guys are trash. They are leeches. They're worse than pigs and I'd like to see them out of the country.'

New Zealand's assistant general manager of immigration, Peter Devoy, said the family had been issued with a deportation notice on the grounds of 'matters relating to character'.

The Johnsons now claim they have booked flights home departing from Wellington next week.A young woman has been jailed for six months for biting a police officer as she was being escorted out of a music festival.

Amina Robert Lowoja was sentenced this week for the December 2016 attack which occurred at the Origin NYE festival in Perth.

Ms Lowoja was involved in an incident that required officers speak to her during the event when she became violent towards them.

A young woman has been jailed for six months for biting a police officer as she was being escorted out of a music festival

Amina Robert Lowoja was sentenced this week for the December 2016 attack which occurred at the Origin NYE festival in Perth

'While obtaining her account of events, Ms Lowoja kicked a security officer to his abdomen,' a WA Police Union spokesperson told Perth Now.

'When the officer was placing her under arrest, Ms Lowoja lent in and bit his left upper bicep.'

The officer suffered a 4cm long gash in his bicep from the 24-year-old's attack.

Ms Lowoja appeared at Perth Magistrates Court on Wednesday and was found guilty of assaulting a public officer and common assault.

'It's a great result for one of our Members with an offender sentenced to six months in prison,' the WA Police Union spokesperson said.

She is the second woman to be jailed in Western Australia this month for biting a police officer.

She is the second woman to be jailed in Western Australia this month for biting a police officer

A woman from Halls Head, south of Perth, Chloe Shannen June Power-Leo, was sentenced to 12 months for biting a police officer on the neck.

The 18-year-old refused to leave a police vehicle while under arrest and as Constable Courtney Hay attempted to remove her she leant forward and bit the officer.

It is believed both officers did not suffer any permanent damage from the attacks.A self-confessed former playboy has ditched a rock star lifestyle to tame and train wild camels ahead of a 6600km trek across Australia.

Perth resident John Elliott, 36, built award-winning brokerage firm Elliott Insurance Brokers from the ground up and was soon living to excess.

Fast cars, fast women, a luxury apartment and money had him the envy of many in Western Australia.

Elliott then shocked many after deciding to walk away from a life of drug fuelled sex parties, as well as his glamourous ex-partner Dorota Dancewicz, to chase a new form of life happiness.

John Elliott (pictured second from left) has ditched a rock and roll lifestyle ahead of a 6600km trek across Australia with camels

John Elliott with one of the camels he is taming and training ahead of a trek around Australia

John Elliott (pictured right) lived a rock and roll lifestyle before choosing a new life focus

According to the West Australian, Elliott gave away his luxury Audi R8 to charity in 2016, split with Dancewicz before quitting as chief executive of his company a year later.

For the past 12 months Elliott has been rearing and taming four wild bull camels ahead of a 6600km trek across Australia.

'I found myself too reliant on money, so I made a decision to walk away,' he said.

'I just wanted to find different ways to feel happiness, success and achievement.

'After I made my decision (to walk away) I was driving to Gippsland in Victoria to learn how to tame and train wild camels.'

Elliott aims to cross five states across the country, averaging 20km a day.

His 'team' of camels will follow behind him, carrying up to 150kg in equipment and supplies.

Some of the obstacles Elliott could face are snake bites and wild bull camel attacks.

John Elliott (pictured second from right) was the envy of many due to his rock star lifestyle

John Elliott (pictured left) with former partner Dorota Dancewicz - the party boy has ditched his wild lifestyle for a new life challenge

John Elliott in his party days which made him a well known face on the social scene in Perth

'They are very territorial and they will assume I'm the lead camel and will come at me with brute force,' he said.

'I've been told to expect 50-70 attacks on the trip.'

Elliott will also be joined on by renowned filmmaker Cameron Watt.

The trek is set to begin from Elliott Heads in Queensland in a matter of weeks.Advertisement

Thousands of officers paid their respects at the funeral for a fallen cop gunned down just two weeks in the job during a routine traffic stop.

A young Natalie Corona would run around the house in police gear and loved watching the show 'Cops.' She always knew she wanted to be a police officer, her sister told the congregation in California on Friday.

Even before Corona joined the force a few months ago, she posted a Facebook tribute to the men and women who serve and who have died in the line of duty.

Family members, friends and thousands of officers from across the country packed into a memorial service to honor the 22-year-old.

Uniformed officers, hats in their white-gloved hands, filled about 8,000 seats at an indoor arena at the University of California, Davis, and overflowed into the aisles.

During a 90-minute service, a slideshow of family photos and Corona's brief professional life played on giant screens.

It ended with the image from her 2016 Facebook tribute to law enforcement.

The picture showed Corona beaming and wearing a floor-length blue gown as she held a 'Thin Blue Line' flag that shows support for officers.

'Little did she know that she and this picture would touch so many lives around the world,' her father, Merced Corona, said.

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Lupe Corona and Merced Corona kiss the flag draped coffin of their daughter, Davis Police Officer Natalie Corona, during funeral services for Natalie Corona at the University of California, Davis on Friday

Lupe Corona, left, listens as Merced Corona speaks during funeral services for their daughter, Davis Police Officer Natalie Corona, at the University of California, Davis on Friday

Uniformed officers, hats in their white-gloved hands, filled about 8,000 seats at an indoor arena at the University of California, Davis, and overflowed into the aisles on Friday

Thousands turned out from across the country to Davis, California on Friday to mourn the death of rookie officer Natalie Corona, 22, who died in the line of duty on January 10, two weeks into the job. Corona is shown in a 2016 Facebook tribute to law enforcement

Merced and Lupe Corona, both parents of the slain officer, were pictured together kissing their daughter's coffin at Friday's service.

He shared a story of a touching moment he shared with his little girl, after she had graduated from training.

'One of my proudest moments after pinning her badge was when she asked me, "Pop, can I now call you brother cop?" And after telling her no for so long, I finally told her, "Yes, Nat, you can now call me brother cop,"' Corona's father said.

During a 90-minute service, a slideshow of family photos and Corona's brief professional life played on giant screens.

Family members follow the flag draped coffin of Davis Police Officer Natalie Corona before funeral services for Corona at the University of California, Davis on Friday

Officers from as far as New York, Chicago and Boston came to honor the young policewoman killed last week in the Northern California college town

Officers lined walkways on the campus and saluted as family members followed Corona's casket into arena.

He added that he had tried to get his daughter 'Nat' to join the county force where he had worked but she told him she had 'found the perfect department in the perfect city.'

'She was so proud to be part of the law enforcement brotherhood,' Merced Corona said. 'Today we lay to rest our beloved sister cop.'

Officers from as far as New York, Chicago and Boston came to honor the young policewoman killed last week in the Northern California college town.

Officers bring in the flag draped coffin of Davis Police Officer Natalie Corona during funeral services for Corona at the University of California, Davis on Friday

Officers salute during funeral services for Davis Police Officer Natalie Corona at the University of California, Davis on Friday

Corona's slaying has shocked Davis, which prides itself on being a safe, family-friendly community anchored by one of the state's top universities.

The last time a police officer died in the line of duty in Davis was in 1959.

Officers lined walkways on the campus and saluted as family members followed Corona's casket into arena.

'It was truly in her blood,' Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said. 'I placed a bet that one day she'd be the police chief. I know what it takes, and she had it'

Colleagues recalled Corona's vibrant smile, her enthusiasm, compassion, dedication and a lifelong dream she had of joining law enforcement like her father, who spent 26 years as a Colusa County sheriff's deputy.

'It was truly in her blood,' Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said. 'I placed a bet that one day she'd be the police chief. I know what it takes, and she had it.'

Looking to her parents in the front row, Pytel said they had raised 'an incredible daughter.'

He apologized to Merced and Lupe Corona for the shooting that ended her life on January 10.

'You delivered to us the perfect cop. Our commitment to you was to get her home,' the police chief said. 'I'm so sorry that we didn't get her back home to you.'

A funeral procession then took the casket from Davis to the town of Arbuckle about 40 miles (65 kilometers) north, where the Corona family lives

Corona graduated from the Sacramento Police Academy in July and completed her field training in December. She was assigned to patrol on her own just weeks ago.

On the evening of January 10, there was no apparent danger when Corona responded solo to a three-car crash in downtown Davis, near the university.

But as Corona talked to the drivers, gunfire erupted.

Police say Kevin Douglas Limbaugh, 48, was not involved in the crash but rode up on a bicycle and opened fire on Corona without warning.

He hit her in the neck and fired more shots as she lay on the ground, reloading at least twice as he shot at passing vehicles, narrowly avoiding wounding others before he walked home.

Limbaugh dropped a backpack that allowed officers to trace him to his house, where he had a brief standoff with police, went back inside and killed himself, authorities said.

Police found two unregistered semiautomatic handguns and a handwritten note on the bed that claimed police had been bombarding him for years with ultrasonic waves and he 'can't live this way anymore.'

'We know who committed this atrocity, but we may never know why,' Pytel said. 'So far we have nothing to really explain it.'

In a surprise appearance, musician Billy Ray Cyrus strummed his guitar and sang a song he wrote for soldiers of the Vietnam War, saying 'the smile of this beautiful young lady touched my heart.'

The eldest of four girls, Corona was a role model, her sister Jackie (center) said. 'Ever since we were little, we knew Nat would become a police officer one day,' Jackie said, recounting how her sister would 'run around the house in police gear' and would watch 'Cops'

The eldest of four girls, Corona was a role model, her sister Jackie said.

'Ever since we were little, we knew Nat would become a police officer one day,' Jackie said, recounting how her sister would 'run around the house in police gear' and would watch 'Cops.'

Sharing some favorite memories, Jackie said Corona loved to dance, even though she lacked rhythm, and was a perfectionist who didn't tolerate a wrinkled bedsheet.

'She wanted everything to be perfect, including herself. And boy, in our eyes, was she,' Jackie said, flanked by her two other sisters, Cathy and Cindy.

After the memorial service, bagpipes played as police pallbearers carried Corona's casket to a white hearse on a road lined with saluting officers.

A funeral procession then took the casket from Davis to the town of Arbuckle about 40 miles (65 kilometers) north, where the Corona family lives.With porn shows, brothels and scores of sex workers on bustling streets, Sydney's Kings Cross in the 1980s was the prostitution capital of the southern hemisphere.

Young men and women would spill out of jam-packed bars into a world of flashing neon lights and endless opportunities for sex.

Along one roadside was an area known as The Wall where up to 60 gay sex workers would entice potential clients before agreeing a price and heading into the night.

Among them was Cameron Cox, a 17-year-old boy just starting his 40-year career in the world's oldest profession.

Veteran: Gay sex worker Cameron Cox fondly remembers his time as a 17-year-old boy just starting out on a 40-year career in the world's oldest profession

Sydney's Kings Cross in the 1980s - where Mr Cox plied his trade - had a wild reputation as a party strip

The teenager had moved to Sydney from country New South Wales after saving money for a train ticket by picking tomatoes.

He started working the streets as soon as he arrived, and quickly earned enough to rent a swanky apartment with a friend in the city centre.

'My clientele was so diverse,' he told Daily Mail Australia in an interview.

'It ranged from young guys who had been clubbing on Oxford Street to middle-aged men with baby seats in their cars who wanted a taste of the wilder side of life.'

Mr Cox said he's slept with men in a range of professions from plumbers to lawyers and even one prime minister.

'I'm not saying who but I'll tell you it wasn't Margaret Thatcher,' he said.

And some of his clients were grandfathers in their sixties or seventies.

'They were always the best sex,' Mr Cox said plainly.

'They have the most experience.

'I remember there was one older man in particular who would turn up and dozens of boys would rush over to him, hoping to get picked.

'Someone told me he's well-endowed, pays very well and gives lots in tips. So I had a session with him and that all turned out to be true. What's not to like?'

Bustling: Young men and women would spill out of jam-packed bars into a world of flashing neon lights and endless sexual possibilities

Now Mr Cox still does sex work but spends most of his time running the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) which promotes sex workers' health in New South Wales

Mr Cox said he's never experienced any violence and nearly all of his clients were pleasant.

'It was fantastic. I got paid to have sex and nice men gave me money,' he said.

'There was only one time where I felt uncomfortable - I went to leave a client's house but he had deadlocked his door and didn't want me to leave.

One older man was hung like a horse. He paid very well and gave lots in tips. What's not to like?

'But he kept giving me money and I agreed to stay longer. There was no violence and I left a happy man.'

Now Mr Cox still does sex work but spends most of his time running the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) which promotes sex workers' health in New South Wales.

'I do a bit less sex work now that I'm CEO - although I did swing from the rafters over Christmas and New Year,' he joked.

Explaining why he loves his profession, he said: 'There's a lot of job satisfaction from what we do - and I don't just mean in terms of the sexual pleasure.

'Couples can often be distracted from each other but with a sex worker you get their undivided attention.

Kings Cross (pictured here in 1970) was once the prostitution capital of the southern hemisphere

'It's great to see a client arrive grumpy after a stressful day and walk out with a big smile. In a way, what we do is a kind of therapy.'

Mr Cox now campaigns to end societal stigma against sex workers and is fighting for the profession to be legalised in more countries.

He said he first encountered stigma when he told his parents of his decision to become a sex worker.

'I remember the look on my mother's face when I told her - she had a bit of a fit,' the former law student said.

'I had always wanted to be lawyer - I was supposed to be a judge. But I became a whore instead.

'It's not the choice parents want their children to make. But since I've started helping others through SWOP, my mother has come around.'

Mr Cox said the toughest thing about the job is that it's illegal throughout most of the world.

'When your profession is illegal it affects your welfare including your mental state - sex workers don't have the same basic human rights that other people do,' he said.

He argues that a regulated sex work industry is much safer for society than an illegal one:

'There's no need for sex work to be illegal, there's no reason it needs to be controlled by police.'Shocking holes in Australia's airport security could mean a disaster like 9/11 is just around the corner, aviation experts have warned.

Passengers do not currently need to show any form of ID to catch a domestic flight, meaning airlines 'literally have no idea who is flying on their aircraft'.

This situation has been branded 'terrifying' and a 'dismal state of affairs' by former chief of security at the Federal Airports Corporation, Michael Carmody.

'Governments and departments of aviation security talk about the intelligence they've got in the background, but if you don't know who's on the bloody aircraft, what's the point of having intelligence on anyone?' he said.

Shocking holes in Australia's airport security could mean a disaster like 9/11 is just around the corner, aviation experts have warned

Mr Carmody's comments come after a terror attack in Melbourne, in November, in which one man died and two more were stabbed.

It later emerged that police knew that killer Hassan Khalif Shire Ali was a risk but did not have the resources to properly monitor him.

Three more suspected terrorists were arrested in Melbourne a week later after it was revealed they were planning on using a semi-automatic rifle to 'kill as many people as possible'.

Last year, two brothers were arrested for allegedly attempting to blow up an Emirates flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi by hiding a bomb in a meat grinder.

Passengers do not currently need to show any form of ID to catch a domestic flight, meaning airlines 'literally have no idea who is flying on their aircraft'

On September 11, 2001, several hijackers were allowed to board domestic flights in America without proper identification. The atrocities that followed killed almost 3,000 and it remains the USA's worst ever terror attack. After 9/11 America reformed its airport security measures

Last year, two brothers were arrested for allegedly attempting to blow up an Emirates flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi by hiding a bomb in a meat grinder (Pitcured: Khaled Mahmoud Khayat)

The device allegedly got as far as Sydney Airport's international check-in desk and was only discovered after the passenger - who had been carrying the device unknowingly - was told his bag was too heavy.

Security experts at the time said the incident was 'as close to a major terror attack as we have ever come'.

Australia's terror threat level is currently 'probable', meaning attacks are very likely to take place.

Mr Carmody - who has a long history in aviation security and has also worked in counter-terrorism - said lax security at Australian airports is irresponsible.

It means known terrorists could be flying without the airlines' knowledge, posing an 'enormous risk' to passengers.

'I know what the bad guys can do,' Carmody said.

'The only thing that fundamentally wakes a government up is a disaster. Unfortunately both governments and communities tend to operate in those cycles.'

On September 11, 2001, several hijackers were allowed to board domestic aircraft in America without proper identification.

Mr Carmody's comments come after a terror attack in Melbourne, in November, in which one man died and two more were stabbed. It later emerged that police knew that killer Hassan Khalif Shire Ali was a risk but did not have the resources to properly monitor him

Australia's terror threat level is currently 'probable' meaning attacks are very likely to take place. Former chief of security at the Federal Airports Corporation Michael Carmody said the lax security at Australian airports is 'terrifying' and a 'dismal state of affairs'

Mr Carmody and Professor Anthony Glees, director of Security and Intelligence Services at the University of Buckingham in the UK, agreed that the most important element for security is 'knowing exactly who is travelling'

The atrocities that followed killed almost 3,000 and it remains the USA's worst ever terror attack.

After 9/11 America reformed its airport security measures.

The country put an end to outsourcing security to private companies and the government took over.

In Australia airports still outsource security to private companies to save money.

'We put private security guards there on an hourly rate just marginally better than flipping burgers at McDonald's,' Mr Carmody said.

'Most of these folks have an attention span of about 10 minutes  and that's not a criticism against the individual, it's simply that the days of outsourcing this absolutely critical requirement at an airport are over.'

Mr Carmody added that security cards held by airport staff, pilots and crew can easily be passed from person to person.

This situation persists despite more sophisticated technology, which would stop the cards falling into the wrong hands, being readily available in shops like Kmart.

Mr Carmody said security cards held by airport staff, pilots and crew can easily be passed from person to person, and suggests simple biometric technology - like that used at places like Kmart - is all that is needed to solve the problem

In Australia airports still outsource security to private companies 'on an hourly rate just marginally better than flipping burgers at McDonalds,' Mr Carmody said

Staff members could be identified by his or her intrinsic physical or behavioural traits, such as face-recognition or fingerprint.

'All this technology is available from your local Kmart, and it means you're tracking the person and not the card,' he said.

'It's another very, very simple exercise to go through.'

Professor Anthony Glees, director of Security and Intelligence Services at the University of Buckingham in the UK, echoed Mr Carmody's concerns and said it is imperative for airlines to know who was travelling.

'The key thing is knowing exactly who is travelling. Who they are, where they live. Whether they need special screening and attention when they seek to travel, internationally or nationally,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

Mr Carmody also believes it's 'ludicrous' that airport security is contracted out, and says it should instead be run by 'highly trained, highly motivated government employees' to get the level of discipline required.

Full body scanners have been implemented in Australia's international airports and are slowly being deployed at some - but not all - domestic airports

Body scanning provides an additional security measure, but it's 'impractical' to scan everyone in the airport

'You're not going to get that at 15 bucks an hour from a private security company,' he said.

Full body scanners have been implemented in Australia's international airports and are slowly being deployed at some - but not all - domestic airports.

'Often, body scanners are deployed at certain times, depending on risk - it varies,' Mr Carmody said.

Body scanners provide an additional security measure as they can examine areas of the body which normal scanning may not detect.

However, Mr Carmody said it's 'impractical' to scan everyone in the airport, stressing that again, it comes down to having prior intelligence about who is boarding a flight.

Compared to aviation security strength across the world, Mr Carmody places Australia in the 'mid to lower third' and says that the country is 'struggling'

'They don't tolerate any of this bull*** - they cut to the chase very very quickly': Israeli airports were highlighted as 'world leaders' in terms of aviation security

Compared to aviation security strength across the world, Mr Carmody places Australia in the 'mid to lower third', and says that the country is 'struggling'.

'If you speak to the Israelis who are the world leaders in this space, they don't tolerate any of this bull***t, they cut to the chase very very quickly,' he said.

When the government has been approached on the topic, Mr Carmody said they often provide the same 'broad rhetoric' about what they're doing with technology and how much money they're spending.

'That's nice, it's good icing on the cake, but get the basics right first,' he said.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Australian Government for a statement.Top dollar: Melrose boss Simon Peckham took home 42.8 million in 2017  1,017 times more than the 42,000 average wage for workers at the firm

Britain's top bosses are being paid as much as 1,000 times more than the average wage of their employees, a Mail on Sunday investigation has found.

Analysis of accounts filed by the countrys 100 biggest listed companies showed bosses at private equity giant Melrose, housebuilder Persimmon and Ladbrokes bookmaker owner GVC last year had the largest disparities between the pay packages handed to their chief executives and their staff.

In the worst case, Melrose boss Simon Peckham took home 42.8 million in 2017  1,017 times more than the 42,000 average wage for workers at the firm.

At Persimmon, former boss Jeff Fairburn last year received 47 million, which was 882 times the salary for his workers, while GVC chief Kenny Alexander took home 18.8 million, or 484 times the average pay of his workforce. All three benefited from controversial long-term bonus schemes.

New rules introduced on January 1 require all large and medium-sized firms to begin calculating so-called chief executive pay ratios this year  and to start reporting them annually from 2020.

Some shareholder groups say they will urge investors to vote against chief executives whose pay packets are 20 times larger than the average for the company.

MPs and campaigners last night condemned the outrageous figures exposed by The Mail on Sunday and accused the worst offenders of living in cloud cuckoo land.

Rachel Reeves, chairwoman of the Commons Business Select Committee  which is in the midst of a widescale inquiry into fair pay  said: It beggars belief that these executives see fit to trouser pay packets vastly outstripping the pay of average workers in their own businesses.

The bosses in these companies must be living in cloud cuckoo land if they think they deserve their outlandish pay packages.

Excessive rewards for the few at the top mean less investment in the business, in capital or people, which could create value in the future.

If shareholders wont or cant hold these companies to account, then we will need Government to step in with tougher rules that clamp down on this kind of executive reward.

The Mail on Sundays research will pile pressure on firms at a time when executive pay is coming under increasing public scrutiny.

Shameless! The ten fattest fat cats  all paid at least 260 for every 1 workers get Nice little earner: Three have quit, but good times roll on for bosses on the gravy train

Last week, Spanish firm Santander ditched plans to appoint star investment banker Andrea Orcel as its new chief executive because it would have been forced to pay him 50 million (44 million) to compensate for pay awards he would have been due at his former employer, UBS.

Today we can also reveal that CYBG, owner of Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank, faces a shareholder revolt at its annual general meeting over excessive bonuses for bosses.

On Tuesday, Reeves and the Business Select Committee will grill the Governments Minister for corporate responsibility, Kelly Tolhurst, on fair pay in a session in Parliament.

The next day, Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh will be leading a debate on FTSE 100 company pay ratios in Westminster Hall.

She said: Whilst the FTSE 100 chief executives take home payslips which read more like telephone numbers than salaries, their hard-working employees have watched their salaries remain stubbornly low.

Its high time that all staff received a fair deal at work and the contribution of those at the bottom is recognised at the same time as those in the boardroom.

Pressure is also building from business academics, who argue that chief executives should be forced to wait far longer to earn performance rewards, which should also be shared by other staff.

The new rules introduced by Theresa Mays Government earlier this month will force all UK firms with 250 employees or more to start publishing their own ratios next year.

Arnold Donald of Carnival took hom 10.3million in 2017 - 400 times more than the average pay for employee at the company

But big City shareholders, led by the Investment Association, are urging listed companies to begin publishing their figures in annual reports this year.

Firms own figures will be based on median average numbers for UK employees  the salary of the employee halfway between the top of the scale and the bottom.

The Mail on Sundays figures are mean average numbers for all employees  including those based outside the UK  and have been calculated by dividing staff costs by headcount. So firms own figures are likely to differ.

The worst offender in our survey, Melrose, is the private equity firm that controversially bought engineering giant GKN last year.

The 42.8 million pay packet in 2017 for Simon Peckham, its chief executive, is the most recent figure provided by the company in its annual report. It was largely made up of a 41.8 million long-term performance bonus.

The companys 12,000-strong workforce  made up mostly of employees of US air conditioning manufacturer Nortek  shared 502.9 million overall in comprising salaries, pensions and social security costs. This means the average employee earned 42,048.49.

Peckham therefore was paid 1,017 for every 1 his typical employee earned.

A Melrose spokeswoman dismissed the figures as incorrect and out of date, instead pointing to Peckhams total pay for 2016, which was less than 1 million.

She added: The ratio is thus 20 to one, and definitely not the amount quoted. It seems entirely wrong and misleading to use pay levels in 2017.

Peckhams total package is set to be reduced significantly when 2018 pay figures are revealed  likely to be giving him one of the best ratios in the FTSE 100  but could rocket up again when future bonus schemes come to fruition.

The second-worst offender in our list, Jeff Fairburn, infamously took home 47 million in 2017, including a 44.9 million long-term bonus.

That meant the former boss of housebuilder Persimmon received 882 times more than the average for the firms 4,535 workers.

Their average package, which would have been skewed upwards by the 130 senior managers who benefited from a controversial long-term bonus scheme, was 53,362.73.

The scandal over Fairburns mega-bonus, first highlighted by The Mail on Sunday, led to him leaving the company at the end of last year.

However, Persimmons interim chief executive Dave Jenkinson  previously group managing director  also made 20.4 million in 2017.

And the firms 2018 annual report, which will be published in the coming months, will reveal further multi-million pound payments for Jenkinson and others under the controversial long-term bonus plan.

In total, three of the FTSE 100 chief executives who feature in our top ten list of worst pay ratio offenders have stepped down from their positions in recent months.

Long-serving Unilever boss Paul Polman, who left at the end of last year, notched up a pay ratio of 287 to one thanks to his 11.7 million (10.6 million) package. Like many ofther firms on the list, Unilever is a large international business, so is based in many countries where wage standards are lower.

Reckitt Benckiser boss Rakesh Kapoor, who said he would be leaving the consumer goods giant last week, made 12.5 million in 2017, which is 316 times more than his average employee. The company said it was a fair payer, and pointed out that most of its employees are based outside of the UK.

Last night, former Business Secretary Vince Cable, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: We can see that top executives are paying themselves more in a working day than their average employee earns in a year.

It is entirely right that investors should step in to stop excesses and that greedy bosses should be made to quit.

He added: I do believe that a combination of naming and shaming and compulsory shareholder votes on remuneration are working slowly to change boardroom culture.

But tougher measures, including employee or public interest representatives on boards and remuneration committees, will follow if excesses continue. GVC boss Kenny Alexander was paid a total of 20.7 million (18.8 million) in 2017, which was 484 times higher than the average employee pay of 38,814.73.

A spokesman said: Under Mr Alexanders leadership, GVC has grown considerably from an Aim company to a member of the FTSE 100, creating thousands of jobs and benefits to employees, as well as significant shareholder value.

GVC is likely to come under fire once again this year when it discloses another tranche of bonus payments, under the same long-term scheme, to Alexander.

Embarrassment of riches: Jeff Fairburn resigned following outrage over his 75 million bonus

Fourth in our pay ratio shame list is Andre Lacroix, chief executive of electronic equipment testing firm Intertek, who made 11.7 million, including a one-off 4 million fee for joining the company. The average Intertek worker earned just over 28,000, giving the firm a pay ratio of 414 to one.

Arnold Donald, the Miami-based chief executive of Carnival, which runs P&O and a number of other ferry brands, made $13 million (10.3 million), with a pay ratio of 400 to one.

We calculated that mining giant Evraz, which counts Roman Abramovich as a major shareholder, has a pay ratio of 307 to one, thanks to CEO Alexander Frolovs $5.5 million (4.4 million) remuneration. The firm did not respond to request for comment.

Tesco, which employs thousands of frontline supermarket employees in the UK and elsewhere, also made it into the top ten list, with Dave Lewiss 4.9 million package giving a ratio of 303 to one.

Compass Group, the hospitality giant, paid chief executive Dominic Blakemore 4.6 million last year, which was 260 times more than the average employee. The mean figure will have been driven down because Compass has many employees outside the UK.

Influential shareholder advisory group Pirc recommends that pay ratios should not exceed 20 times the average wage. It regularly tells investors to vote against remuneration at annual general meetings if this ratio is exceeded.

Luke Hildyard, director of the High Pay Centre, said: From a fairness perspective, huge pay differences perpetuate the economic divides in the Britain.

These divisions have painful consequences for society as a whole, and big businesses should take some responsibility by narrowing their own pay ratios.Sir Philip Greens retail empire is preparing for a major round of talks with its shop landlords as it emerged last night that leases on up to 200 stores are coming to an end.

The leases held by the billionaires Arcadia Group, many of which were signed decades ago in the 1990s when the high street was experiencing rapid growth, are understood to be up for renewal by the end of next year.

They include contracts on stores under the groups main brands Topshop, Top Man, Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge, Burton, Wallis and Evans.

Dynasty: Tina Green, Sir Philip Green and Chloe Green attend 70th annual Cannes Film Festival

The push comes as British retailers trigger talks with lenders and landlords to shed costs or restructure as the shift to online accelerates.

Last week, New Look said it had agreed terms with lenders that would cut its debts by 1 billion.

Dozens of other high street chains, including stores and restaurant businesses, are understood to be drafting in advisers to engage in talks with banks and property firms ahead of the next quarterly rent deadline at the end of March.

Store leases were traditionally agreed on terms of 25 years, with reviews every five years that allowed landlords to demand increases in rents.

But as visits to many high streets have fallen, the practice has strangled town centres caught between rising rents, business rates and dwindling demand from shoppers.

The new push by Arcadia means the group, owned by Green since 2002, could significantly reduce costs by closing stores or asking for rent reductions.

It is believed that as many as 100 leases will expire both this year and next.

A spokesman for Arcadias property department told The Mail on Sunday there was a significant opportunity to review leases as contracts end.

We have a large historic estate and, naturally, there is an ongoing dialogue with landlords, the spokesman said.

Penny-pinching: Arcadia could significantly reduce costs by closing expensive stores

According to its latest accounts, the groups annual lease payments are 183 million on sales of 1.9 billion. It has more than 1,000 UK outlets, including stores and concessions, and employs more than 20,000 staff globally.

In 2018, retailers delivered more profit warnings than at any time in the past decade, in what was an exceptionally tough year, according to new research.

More than a third of general retailers listed on the London Stock Exchange said profits were dwindling faster than expected, with half blaming a slide in consumer confidence.

The 36 retail profit warnings in 2018 eclipsed even the troubled travel and leisure sector, with its 29 warnings.

Firms are obliged to tell the stock market if profits are likely to fall more than 10 per cent short of expectations.

Alan Hudson, head of restructuring at accountant EY which carried out the study, said changes to shopping habits had brought into question the future of shops themselves.FOG ISLAND by Mariette Lindstein (HQ 7.99, 560pp)

FOG ISLAND

by Mariette Lindstein (HQ 7.99, 560pp)

This author was involved with Scientology for 25 years and worked with its infamous leader David Miscavige before she finally extricated herself.

But this book isnt actually about Scientology. It is an interesting exposition of the psychology and the insidious methods that govern cults.

Via Terra is a New Age movement led by the deeply creepy Franz. When Franz invites Sofia, a young university student, to visit its headquarters on a remote Swedish island, she is at first delighted and beguiled. Gradually Sofia realises she has become a prisoner and that no one ever leaves the island.

The decision to start the story with Sofia trying and failing to escape from the island robs the plot of much of its tension, but it still retains a sinister charm.

THE WOMAN IN THE DARK by Vanessa Savage (Sphere 12.99, 384pp)

THE WOMAN IN THE DARK

by Vanessa Savage (Sphere 12.99, 384pp)

There is a breezy confidence about Vanessa Savages writing style. This persuades you of the slightly preposterous notion that a family looking for a fresh start would choose a house where another family had been brutally murdered.

Patrick, Sarahs controlling husband, is determined, for reasons of his own, to buy what is known locally as the Murder House. Sarah is obviously a woman on the edge. She is struggling to deal with the death of her mother and a secret she is keeping from her stepson Joe. Patrick has his own secrets and the books conclusion is shocking and violent.

This is a vivid portrait of buried tensions in seemingly happy marriages. And, more interestingly, how those marriages can wreak havoc for everyone who is unlucky enough to come into contact with toxic couples.

SHE WAS THE QUIET ONE by Michele Campbell (HQ 7.99, 448pp)

SHE WAS THE QUIET ONE

by Michele Campbell (HQ 7.99, 448pp)

The set-up is promising. Twin 15-year-old orphan girls, Rose and Bel, arrive at a posh U.S. boarding school at the same time as a handsome new housemaster, Heath, and his wife.

They have been brought in to sort out the schools reputation for bad behaviour. The twins are troubled in different ways.

Soon we are told that one twin is dead  the other is suspected of murdering her. But we dont know which one is dead, and which alive.

The story continues in easy-to-follow flashbacks as we learn that a group of the wilder girls are in a race to seduce the new housemaster. There are some interesting insights into the poisonous culture that prevails in some U.S. elite schools.

Sadly, the creaky dialogue  particularly Heaths  deprives the characters of genuine intensity, and, in the end, a promising story stalls where it might have soared.A very reliable source tells us that Santa Johar took upon himself to take the entire Bollywood entourage to Delhi at his expense.

Guess who paid for the Mumbai film industrys visit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi last week? It was none other Bollywoods resident Santa Claus Karan Johar.

A very reliable source tells us that Santa Johar took upon himself to take the entire Bollywood entourage to Delhi at his expense. Karan hired a private plane which took the entire team of actors, directors and producers to meet the PM in Delhi, says the source who reveals that the airborne indulgence cost KJo around seven to eight lakh rupees. Thats nothing for him, dismisses a close friend of Johar, calling him the most generous person in Bollywood.

He is! He is constantly giving expensive gifts to all his friends. His favourite gift items are Louis Vitton and Gucci bags, each valued at around Rs one lakh. Sometimes he buys two and three bags for a friend. Then he also buys expensive designer clothes for friends like Ranbir and Ranveer Singh. Varun and Alia are like his own children. If they like something in his house or something that hes wearing he gives it to them on the spot, says a friend who has been at the receiving end.

A section of Karan Johars critics does not see his generosity in a positive light. This is nothing but an attempt to buy his so-called friends love and loyalty, says one of them.ONCE UPON A RIVER by Diane Setterfield (Doubleday 12.99, 432pp)

ONCE UPON A RIVER

by Diane Setterfield (Doubleday 12.99, 432pp)

One winters night in the mid-19th century, drinkers at the Thameside Swan Inn, known for its storytelling gatherings, are taken by surprise when a stranger bursts into their midst, carrying a drowned child.

They are more shocked when the dead child recovers. How is this possible? Who is she and why is she mute?

The Vaughans, whose daughter was kidnapped years earlier, believe she is theirs; the Armstrongs pray she is their illegitimate granddaughter, while Lily White longs for her to be her lost sister. Who is right?

The sustaining consolations of the story lie at the heart of this novel. Once settled to the different characters and their points of view, I found there were many to be had in a bold, gripping narrative which fuses science, mystery and myth.

BLACKBERRY & WILD ROSE by Sonia Velton (Quercus 14.99, 416pp)

BLACKBERRY & WILD ROSE

by Sonia Velton (Quercus 14.99, 416pp)

In 1768 country-bred Sara Kemp travels to London but, like many an innocent before her, is hoodwinked into working as a whore.

Meanwhile, in Spitalfields, Esther Thorel, the respectable wife of a master silk weaver, secretly yearns to design the patterns for the silks  an impossible ambition for a woman then.

The two meet when Esther is distributing bibles to the poor. Sara begs Esther to rescue her, which Esther does, and both women find themselves caught up in the increasing hostilities between the weaving hierarchies which threaten both their futures.

For all its colour and elegance, 18th-century London was an unforgiving society: hierarchical, cruel and indifferent to suffering.

This gritty reality is deftly conveyed through the prism of the weavers world along with a touching and unsentimental love story.

BLOOD & SUGAR by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Mantle 16.99, 448pp)

BLOOD & SUGAR

by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Mantle 16.99, 448pp)

Profits from slavery were so staggering that the battle for its abolishment was vicious. Could it be, then, that a financial imperative was behind the murder of Thaddeus Archer, barrister and known anti-slaver, in Deptford Dock in 1781? His friend Captain Harry Corsham, war hero and a promising member of Parliament, intends to find out.

Harrys ambitious society wife, Caro, warns that he will jeopardise his career and, as he unravels far-reaching corruption and vested business interests, his own secrets threaten to surface.

Deptford, a gateway to and from Britains expanding empire, is evoked in pungent detail. The British slave trade was an appalling episode in our history and the novel is unflinching in its refusal to sentimentalise motives or to row back on the savagery of the times.THE REDEEMED by Tim Pears (Bloomsbury 16.99, 400pp)

THE REDEEMED

by Tim Pears (Bloomsbury 16.99, 400pp)

You dont need to have read the preceding novels in Tim Pearss acclaimed West Country trilogy to relish this final instalment  but if you havent, it will almost certainly send you scuttling to seek them out.

Its 1916 and taciturn, working-class Leo is with the Royal Navy while Lottie, daughter of a wealthy landowner, is secretly pursuing her dreams of becoming a vet.

As the years roll, the gap widens yet further between these former childhood friends: Leo joins a private salvage operation at Scapa Flow, then returns to the West Country in search of some land to call his own. Lottie, after an abusive encounter with her veterinary mentor, goes it alone, running a practice from a cottage on the estate.

Pearss style is methodical rather than exciting (although there are some cracking set pieces) but the steadfast rhythms of his prose are an integral part of his Hardy-esque design, which is to honour ideas of continuity, the elemental relationship between man and beast and even the very soil itself. Its so deeply, pleasurably wholesome it should be prescribed on the NHS.

VIRTUOSO

VIRTUOSO by Yelena Moskovich (Serpents Tail 14.99, 256pp)

by Yelena Moskovich (Serpents Tail 14.99, 256pp)

This second novel from the Ukrainian author of The Natashas isnt so much a Marmite novel as a Schrodingers Cat one, meaning youll likely admire it and find it tiresome at the same time. Jana and Zorka are childhood friends in communist Prague during the Eighties; years later they meet again, at a house party in Paris.

Interwoven with their separate experiences of the diaspora is the story of Aimee and Dominique, the former a young medical assistant, the latter an older, depressive actress who, when the novel begins, has taken a fatal overdose.

The novel lurches about like a drunk, sometimes out of focus, sometimes startlingly sharp, as it switches between perspectives, time frames and ideas of reality itself to explore sexual politics and personal identity forged against a background of intense political instability.

Moskovichs often stunningly beautiful, artfully cinematic style is deliberately divisive, as perhaps befits a novel seeking to replicate the emotional experience of otherness and late 20th-century dislocation, but I found myself a mite more confounded than I did intrigued.

FOR THE GOOD TIMES by David Keenan (Faber 12.99, 368pp)

FOR THE GOOD TIMES

by David Keenan (Faber 12.99, 368pp)

This will blast away lingering January cobwebs: a nastily funny, ultra-violent account of Belfast in the Seventies by the author of the acclaimed This Is Memorial Device.

The narrator, Samuel, is an IRA footsoldier with a psychopathic dedication to the cause, which makes him right at home in the febrile atmosphere of the Ardoyne at the height of the Troubles, where men mutilating, torturing and blasting each other to smithereens has become a sort of daily Grand Guignol.

Delivered retrospectively from a Maze prison cell, Samuels hyper-adrenalised narrative blends hallucinatory visions, paranoid delirium and graphic descriptions with a Martin McDonagh-style feel for farce, as he repeatedly bungles executions while out on the rampage with his best mate Tommy, a Perry Como aficionado with a fine line in cultural malapropisms.

Samuels voice is shockingly alive and entertaining and, as the body count rises to preposterous levels, almost entirely desensitised to the bloody mayhem.

But then, and as Keenan makes grimly clear, for the perpetrators, exceptional violence is never a means to an end but the thing itself. Good times indeed.ADVANCED LOVE

by Ari Seth Cohen (Abrams 22.99, 240pp)

ADVANCED LOVE by Ari Seth Cohen (Abrams 22.99, 240pp)

Yes, Donny Osmond, we all know young love is a beautiful thing, but what about the more enduring sort of love that hits us when were older?

This adorable new book from photographer Ari Seth Cohen celebrates romance thats not bound by the constraints of either age or time.

From Nancy and Clovis from Brooklyn, who met 56 years ago in Jamaica, to Nikki and Martin (right), who met online in Brighton last year, this delightful book is filled with amazing stories and pictures, and is bound to cheer up even the bluest day in January.Seven years ago Stevie Jenkins (pictured above) lost her beautiful smile

Stevie Jenkinss beaming smile was, she felt, one of her greatest assets. In her days as a flight attendant, it was an essential tool of the trade, helping to defuse tension and soothe travellers nerves.

A simple smile can instantly make people feel relaxed, says the 69-year-old from Lymington, Hampshire, who is now retired.

And if a passenger was rude, I would just smile and say to myself, no point worrying about the little things.

But, seven years ago, everything changed. Stevie lost her beautiful smile for ever after surgery to remove a brain tumour resulted in the left side of her face being paralysed.

Despite trying everything to remedy the problem  from facial exercises to muscle-relaxing injections  nothing helped.

I felt like I just wanted to die, says Stevie. Every time I caught sight of myself in the mirror, I got a terrible shock. Worst of all, when I tried to smile, just half of my face moved. I looked like a ghoul.

I immediately lost my confidence and became very isolated.

When I was out with friends I would cover my face with my hand, or a napkin.

Several times I was even asked by total strangers if I had suffered a stroke.

Stevie Jenkins (pictured above) has been transformed thanks to the two-step facial surgery

But today there is little trace of the facial palsy, as it is known, that blighted Stevies life for so many years. She feels able to face the world with confidence again, thanks to a 1,500, two-step facelift procedure that has restored her appearance almost completely.

The technique involves injecting special gel filler to support the paralysed side of her face and trigger the growth of new collagen  the fibrous material that gives the skin firmness and structure  followed by a thread lift procedure. This involves the insertion of a fine plastic implant under the skin that lifts and holds the affected side of the face.

The treatment, called Silhouette Soft, is widely used as a rejuvenating procedure, and chosen by patients who dont yet feel ready for a full surgical facelift.

In 2012 Stevie had 15-hour surgery at Southampton General Hospital (pictured above)

But doctors are now offering it to sufferers of facial palsy, in a bid to restore their appearance. Although the treatment is not permanent and will have to be redone, patients have found it is transformative.

Weakness of the facial muscles can occur if the nerves that control the face are damaged. When a facial nerve is either not working or missing, the muscles in the face do not receive the necessary signals to function properly. This results in paralysis of the affected part of the face, which can affect movement of one or both eyes and the mouth, as well as other areas.

HOW CAN PARALYSIS BE TEMPORARY? Paralysis can be temporary, despite widespread beliefs that it is permanent and those who are given the diagnosis will never walk again. The term paralysis just refers to the inability to move some, or all parts, of the body, according to the NHS. It can come and go. There are several forms of paralysis, including paraplegia (both legs), tetraplegia/quadriplegia (both arms and legs), hemiplegia (one side of the body) and monoplegia (one arm or leg). Known causes include strokes, Bell's palsy, serious head or spinal cord injuries or multiple sclerosis. Physiotherapy can help victims regain strength and muscle mass, and help some patients to regain movement. However, recovery depends on several factors, including how severe the damage to the spinal cord is. It can take up to two years for victims to regain feeling. Medication is given to relieve sufferers of any pain they may feel. Advertisement

More than 100,000 Britons are thought to be living with facial palsy, and it can occur for a multitude of reasons, including surgery, injury, a stroke or infections.

There are different degrees of paralysis: sometimes only the lower half of the face is affected, sometimes one whole side of the face and in some cases both sides.

Stevies problems began when she was diagnosed with a benign brain tumour, called an acoustic neuroma, which was wrapped around her facial nerve.

In 2012, she had 15-hour surgery at Southampton General Hospital to remove it  and surgeons warned there was a 60 per cent chance of facial palsy.

When Stevie came round from the operation, she saw the left side of her face was sunken and her mouth was drooping heavily to one side.

Two years later, Stevies husband Peter was diagnosed with brain cancer and she nursed him tirelessly until he died. During her vigil she lost three stone and became visibly gaunt. I mourned my old face, she admits.

By chance, while browsing online she discovered a two-step facial palsy procedure being performed by Dr Victoria Manning at the River Aesthetics clinic in Poole, Dorset, and decided this could be her salvation.

The first step was to inject a tiny amount of a dermal filler called Ellanse, which boosted the left side of Stevies face and created more symmetry. It also stimulated the body, over several months, to produce more healing collagen.

Three months later, Stevie had top-up filler treatment to tweak her appearance before undergoing the most important part of the process. This involved inserting a special thread to lift and hold the collapsed side of the face. This thread is just a few inches long but has eight tiny cones threaded on to it. Four of these cones face one way, the other four  at the other end of the thread  face the opposite direction.

Using a special needle, Dr Manning inserted one end of the thread  with its four cones  just beneath the skin in the eyebrow. The cones anchor into the tissue as they pass through it, stopping them from being pulled back out. The other part of the coned thread was inserted under the skin at right angles to the eyebrow and up towards the scalp  forming an L-shape. The tension created pulls the drooped side of the face up and holds it in place.

As the thread and cones gradually dissolve over the next year or so, new collagen in the cheeks takes up some of the strain.

Book me in... The Truth About Fat, by Anthony Warner The author of the popular blog, The Angry Chef, reveals the truth behind the worlds ever-expanding waistlines and reveals why, contrary to Government advice, the food we eat may not be entirely to blame. 14.99, Oneworld The cover of 'The Truth About Fat' by Anthony Walker Advertisement

Evidence suggests the procedures need to be repeated every four years or so to maintain the look, as collagen tends to decline with age. Dr Manning says: Over four years Ive carried out about 25 similar procedures on patients with facial palsy. The results can vary but there is always an improvement.

The treatment is not routinely available on the NHS but plastic surgeon Nigel Mercer, an expert in reconstructive facial surgery, says: The thread lift is often used for cosmetic reasons but was invented for facial palsy. So its come full circle. Patients should apply for special NHS funding, as they may well fit the criteria.

Stevie, who has since met a new partner, insists the treatment has had a huge impact on her life.

After I had it done I came home and John saw me and said, Wow! Im not really able to cry properly any more because of the effects of the palsy on my eyes, but a single tear trickled down my face. I just couldnt believe someone would think I looked attractive again.Customers seeking Botox and dermal fillers on the high street must be psychologically assessed to see if they are mentally fit for the cosmetic procedures.

The NHS has demanded that Superdrug, which triggered a storm of criticism when it started offering the services, check for conditions such as body dysmorphic disorder.

Professor Stephen Powis, NHS England medical director, wrote to the firm after it launched its programme in August. Superdrug currently offers Botox for 99 and dermal fillers for between 125 and 349 for people aged 25 and over.

The NHS has demanded that Superdrug, which triggered a storm of criticism when it started offering the services, check for conditions such as body dysmorphic disorder

The procedures are available at its flagship London store on the Strand as part of a trial before being potentially rolled out to other stores.

Following the intervention by Professor Powis, Superdrug has agreed to put in place extra safeguards to protect those suffering from anxiety about their body  body dysmorphic disorder (BDD)  or other mental health conditions. The checks, which have been developed by psychologists, will be conducted by the nurses who carry out the cosmetic procedures. Questions include how often somebody feels anxious about certain parts of their body and how often they look at the part of their body they hate. Other questions focus on how often anxiety about their body interferes with day-to-day activities.

If a nurse practitioner suspects somebody is suffering from poor mental health, they can urge customers to visit their GP or get help from the charity Mind.

Professor Powis said: Pressures on young peoples mental health are greater than ever, with families and the health service too often left to pick up the pieces. The lack of tough checks on cosmetic surgery means that the public is dependent on businesses taking voluntary steps to get their house in order. Businesses that deal with people responsibly, work to prevent harm and set themselves a high bar for their practices should make others follow suit.

The procedures are available at its flagship London store on the Strand as part of a trial before being potentially rolled out to other stores

A Daily Mail investigation in 2017 revealed rogue beauticians were widely advertising cosmetic procedures with few checks. Superdrug stressed it had safety measures in place when it launched its service and already turns away about a fifth of people if nurses feel facial aesthetics are currently not appropriate for them.

The company said it had agreed to add questions about body anxiety to its screening. A spokesman said: We remain fully committed to including protections for mental health.We met with the NHS to ensure we have the highest safety standards and quality of patient care. Our consultations last an hour to allow our nurse practitioners time to undertake a full and extensive consultation. This enables us to ensure we understand our patients reasons for wanting aesthetic treatments. It also flags any risks or concerns related to a patients mental health.

BDD is thought to affect around one in 50 people. Kitty Wallace, trustee for the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation, said: Studies show that fewer than 10 per cent of patients with BDD are satisfied with the results of cosmetic procedures. Although their anxiety might reduce temporarily, they will often find themselves fixating on another part of their body that they want to change.The Sackler family, whose company, Purdue Pharma, stands accused of fueling the opioid epidemic allegedly wanted to sell OxyContin without any warnings or regulations in foreign countries, new court documents suggest.

But Oxycontin's inventor allegedly warned them that doing so would be extremely dangerous, flying in the face of the family's continued denials that they knew how addictive and potentially deadly the drug was.

Evidence of these events and other damning details came to light in the 274-page pre-hearing filing for the state of Massachusetts's suit against the Sacklers.

Massachusetts is one of dozens of state suing the Purdue Pharma and the family behind it for getting millions of people addicted to opioids via its blockbuster painkiller, OxyContin.

New Yorker writer Patrick Radden Keefe, who wrote a scathing profile of the family for the magazine, spotted the evidence that the Sackler family wanted the drug sold unregulated - and had been warned of the dangers by Purdue scientists.

The massive filing also contained evidence that, contrary to the Sackler family's claims, they did know their drug could lead to an addiction and overdose crisis, and even tried to distance themselves from the company ahead of the coming legal storm.

Court documents in the state of Massachusetts's cases against Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family allege that the family knew of OxyContin's dangers, wanted to sell market the drug as non-addictive outside the US and tried to cover their tracks (file)

About 75 percent of people with an opioid misuse disorder were first exposed to the addictive substances through prescription opioids - namely, Oxycontin.

Its maker, Purdue Pharma was purchased by brothers Arthur, Raymond and Mortimer Sackler, the co-founders of the company in its present form.

With it, they acquired a compound in development that would become OxyContin, which was launched in 1996.

The drug made the brothers their fortune and is the bread and butter of a multi-billion-dollar drug empire.

The descendants of Arthur Sackler, who died before OxyContin hit the market, are among the wealthiest families in the US, known as philanthropists as evidenced by wings in their name in institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of New York.

These members of the family have claimed they never profited from Purdue and had nothing to do with OxyContin, while other members have always occupied seats on the company's board of directors.

Everyone in the family has tried to distance themselves from the drug since the first hints of its contribution to an addiction crisis emerged, as the new filing alleges.

'In 2000, the Sacklers were warned that a reporter was "sniffing abut the OxyContin story." The Sackler family put the threat on the agenda for the next Board meeting and began covering their tracks,' the filing claims citing an email from Purdue's former CEO, Michael Friedman.

'They planned a response that "deflects attention away from the company owners,"' the filing states.

Former Purdue Pharma president Richard Sackler allegedly wanted to sell OxyContin as an uncontrolled substance in foreign countries, according to court documents

But in private the family appears to have been quite brazen about its efforts to profit from OxyContin.

According to the Massachusetts lawsuit, the FDA science tasked with reviewing the safety and efficacy of the drug advised that 'care should be taken to limit competitive promotion.'

But the Purdue went on to become infamous for its marketing strategies.

Now, the suit alleges that there were even more insidious schemes hatched - if not brought to fruition - behind closed doors.

According to court documents, correspondence between former chairman and president of Purdue, Richard Sackler and a staffer referred to selling OxyContin as an uncontrolled substance - branding it non-addictive - in countries outside the US represented an opportunity for 'a vast increase in market potential.'

The inventor of OxyContin as we know it himself, Richard Kaiko, allegedly wrote to Sackler that he was 'very concerned' about this idea, even acknowledging that drugs containing OxyContin's key ingredient are 'still among the most abused opioids in the US.'

Sackler's alleged response showed little concern for the abuse potential.

'How substantially will it improve your sales?' Richard allegedly answered.

As alarm over rising rates of addiction and overdoses continued to increase, the company began to look into reformulate the drug so it couldn't be crushed and and free-based in 2008.

But even then, Purdue executives and the Sackler family seemed to think the effort was mostly a waste of time, the filing suggests.

Then CEO John Stewart allegedly wrote to Richard Sackler that the reformulation 'will not stop patients from the simple act of taking many pills,' according to the lawsuit.

Meanwhile, the suit alleges that Richard insisted in an email that he and Mortimer speak over the phone, because 'he didn't want a paper trail,' as the filing describes it.

The allegations stand in stark contrast to the Sackler family's continued assertion that they had no knowledge of the harms OxyContin was causing, and the filing's allegations will certainly be hotly contested in the Massachusetts court.Yale University was forced to pull the plug on plans for vending machines that would dispense the 'morning after' pill because it does not comply with Connecticut law.

The machine, which has already been installed in a few other US universities, was being considered for Silliman College, the largest college in the center the Ivy League school.

Plan B, a $50 progestin-only pill which can be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex to prevent a pregnancy, has long been free of charge for Yale students, but it required a conversation with a nurse about their sexual activity and questions about sexual assault.

After months of consultation, the machine was approved and announced in late November.

But just a week later, the student council received word from a state official that Connecticut is one of just a few states that bans over-the-counter medicine from being sold in vending machines. While a condom dispensary would be permissible, it would not allow the sale of Plan B.

The student body has reached a compromise by confirming that Yale Health, the university's healthcare center, will provide emergency contraception for free, 24/7, without needing to speak to a clinician first.

Campuses across the US have been installing birth control vending machines that dispense Plan B (pictured: one in UC Davis). Yale was due to follow suit but was forced to pull the plans because Connecticut has laws banning the sale of over-the-counter medication in vending machines

HOW PLAN B CAME TO BE AVAILABLE OVER-THE-COUNTER FOR ALL WOMEN It was first approved for prescription use in 1999. From that moment, family planning advocates were petitioning to cut the need for prescription. In 2005, the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) filed a lawsuit against the US government to make emergency contraception available over the counter. In 2006, the FDA lifted the prescription requirement for women over 18. The ruling prompted another lawsuit to lower the age limit to 17, the legal age for sexual intercourse in most states, which was passed in 2009. But this was overruled 2011 by Kathleen Sebelius, then-Secretary for Health and Humans Services, in an unusual move backed by President Obama. Sebelius said she took the rare decision to veto an FDA decision because she feared more liberal restrictions could mean that girls as young as 10 could get hold of the drug, and end up having an adverse effect. The move sparked a legal brawl. The CRR relaunched its lawsuit against the FDA. Finally, in 2013, a judge ruled that there are risks to many over-the-counter drugs, many more severe than emergency contraception, and that removing all restrictions on the drug does more good than harm, by cutting the rate of unwanted pregnancies, particularly among young women and those without insurance. Advertisement

Wellness-2-Go machines were first installed at UC Davis, before Stanford, Dartmouth and some other Uni.

Although condoms and the morning after pill are legally available without a prescription, studies show they're not always accessible. A study of pharmacies in 2015 found 83 percent stocked emergency contraception - most, but not all.

What's more, while most universities offer contraception for free or at a reduced price, their health centers are not always open at all hours.

While that's not the case at Yale, which has a center called Acute Health open all hours, the growing publicity of birth control vending machines in other colleges was sparking interest in New Haven.

'The only way to obtain Plan B through [the Yale health centers] was going to Yale Health and having one or a series of conversation to obtain the actual pill,' Yale College Council President Saloni Rao told DailyMail.com.

Those conversations included how to use the pill, as well as information and questions about sexual misconduct.

For many students, Rao said, that level of intimacy felt like a deterrent. Once they have made their decision to get Plan B, the reasons that lead them there are not things they want to dwell on at length.

After the vending machine idea was brought forward by the Reproductive Justice Action League at Yale (RALY), two student senators were appointed to investigate, and conduct consultations with both the university and Vengo Labs, the company that has provided small, digital birth control vending machines to at least 10 campuses.

Rao says neither the university nor Vengo raised legal issues, adding: 'We're 20- and 21-year-olds, we're not lawyers, so we tried to consult as many as we could' to vet the venture. 'No red flag was raised until the last minute,' Rao said.

To circumvent the legal hiccup, the university has agreed that students - whether they have student insurance or not - can obtain Plan B 24/7 from Yale Health or Acute Health free of charge without having a conversation with a clinician.

Instead, when they arrive at the clinic to ask for Plan B, a clinician will lead them to a dispensary. They put their name into an anonymous database for record-keeping purposes, and they then receive the pill free of charge, along with printed pamphlets containing the information that was previously delivered verbally.Drugs could be delivered by microscopic, shape-shifting robots you swallow in the future, scientists believe.

Researchers have created the tiny gadgets, which are around 5mm in length and can navigate the narrow channels of the human body.

The tiny robots, developed by Swiss researchers, even change shape and speed as they travel through bendy blood vessels and thick bodily fluids.

Drugs may one day be delivered by microscopic robots (pictured) we swallow. The gadget travels to exactly where it is needed in the body and is controlled by an electromagnetic field

When tested in the lab, the robot adapted to squeeze through narrow tubes. This suggests it would be able to change shape according to its environment, like in narrow blood vessels

The engineers at ETH Zurich and Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) have released stunning footage showing the robots in action.

The robots, which are yet to be named, are made up of a gel that responds to heat, with added magnetic nanoparticles.

This allows them to be controlled by an electromagnetic field, the authors wrote in the journal Science Advances.

Using 'origami design principles', the researchers, led by Dr Bradley Nelson, folded the gel into 3D shapes.

To make the robots move effectively, inspiration was drawn from bacteria, which get from place-to-place via a propeller-like tail known as a flagellum.

This was mimicked to create an 'oar-like' extension from the nano-robot, to allow it to swim through the body.

Microorganisms also change shape to 'navigate complex environments and occupy a variety of ecological niches', the authors wrote.

'Nature has evolved a multitude of microorganisms that change shape as their environmental conditions change,' Dr Nelson said.

'This basic principle inspired our microrobot design.'

When tested in a sucrose solution 'with a similar viscosity to blood', the robots 'moved much faster compared to other prototypes', the authors wrote.

The robot has a cylinder-shaped 'tail' that helps it propel forward, like bacteria have

Pictured is the robot in a sucrose solution with a similar viscosity to blood. It 'moved much faster compared to other prototypes', suggesting it can adapt to different bodily fluids

They also changed shape to squeeze through glass tubes with lots of bendy passages, before reverting back to their original size.

The robots must be highly flexible if they are to travel through narrow blood vessels and dense fluids at high speeds.

'Our robots have a special composition and structure that allow them to adapt to the characteristics of the fluid they are moving through,' said Professor Selman Sakar, one of the researchers.

'For instance, if they encounter a change in viscosity or osmotic concentration, they modify their shape to maintain their speed and maneuverability without losing control of the direction of motion.'

Changes to the robot's shape can be 'programmed' in advance to maximise the robot's effectiveness without the use of bulky sensors or machinery.

They can then be controlled by an electromagnetic field or left to navigate their own way through the body by following fluid flow.

Either way, they automatically mould into the most efficient shape.

The researchers are working on improving how the robots swim through different fluids in the human body.

If studies are successful, they believe the gadgets will be relatively cheap to produce.The World Health Organization is underestimating how many people will die because of climate change, experts claim.

Researchers have picked apart the WHO's warning that global warming will lead to the deaths of an extra quarter-of-a-million people per year between 2030 and 2050.

This translates to approximately one in every 200 deaths  around 55million people die each year  but the true toll is now expected to be significantly higher.

As well as heat stress and malaria, people will also die because of extreme weather events, migration and reduced farm productivity, they said.

And rising temperatures and intense weather around the world will endanger the lives of 'many millions of people'.

The average surface temperature on Earth has risen by 0.9C (1.62F) since the late 1800s, mostly because of carbon dioxide and man-made pollution, according to NASA

Research led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine called the WHO's prediction 'conservative' but did not give an estimate of its own.

'We think the impact is more difficult to quantify,' Sir Andrew Haines, who reviewed various climate change predictions from international organisations, told CNN.

'There is also population displacement and a range of additional factors like food production and crop yield, and the increase in heat that will limit labor productivity from farmers in tropical regions that wasn't taken into account among other factors.'

Sir Andrew's article was written alongside climate change expert, Professor Kristie Ebi, from the University of Washington.

They said food shortages alone could lead to more than half a million (529,000) adults dying every year by 2050.

And the World Bank estimates 100million more people will be thrust into 'extreme poverty'  which the UN defines as deprivation of food, water, sanitation and healthcare  in the next 11 years, putting their lives at risk.

Sir Andrew said governments around the round must take 'decisive action' to limit greenhouse gas emissions and tackle the health effects of climate change.

The average surface temperature of the earth has risen by approximately 0.9C (1.62F) since the late 1800s, according to NASA.

The space agency says most of this increase is due to carbon dioxide emissions and other man-made pollution  and the rate of warming is increasing.

An article written by climate change experts Sir Andrew Haines and Professor Kristie Ebi has predicted 'many millions' of people's lives will be endangered by soaring global temperatures  people are expected to die because of heat-related illness, poor air quality, infected water supplies, malnutrition, and violence triggered by mass migration away from hard-hit areas

Global warming, according to the study, will lead to deaths from injuries in extreme weather events such as hurricanes, and heat-related illnesses.

People are also expected to succumb to lung conditions triggered by poor air quality  pollution tends to be worse in warm air  and less sanitary water spreading illnesses like cholera.

Violence sparked by forced migrations as people try to flee the hottest regions could also take the lives of those in hostile areas.

Deadly insect-borne viruses could also increase, and malnutrition and food poisoning may become more common, according to the report.

Sir Andrew claims the World Health Organization did not take all these factors into account when making its 250,000-deaths-per-year estimate.

The article authors wrote: 'This is a conservative estimate, because it does not include deaths from other climate-sensitive health outcomes and does not include morbidity or the effects associated with the disruption of health services from extreme weather and climate events.'

And they added: 'Climate change is causing injuries, illnesses and deaths, with the risks projected to increase substantially with additional climate change, threatening the health of many millions of people.

'The pervasive threats to health posed by climate change demand decisive actions from health professionals and governments to protect the health of current and future generations.'

Sir Andrew and Professor Ebi's piece was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will have a yoga studio at their new home, Frogmore Cottage in Windsor  and this week, Prince Harry revealed he meditates every day. But how can you achieve your Zen?

In an extract from his bestselling guide, influential Buddhist HAEMIN SUNIM reveals how the mindful approach can make your life better...

When we examine our lives, we see many imperfect things, like motes of dust on an old mirror.

Our words are often different from our actions, our relationships are strained by our mistakes, our best-laid plans for the future go awry.

On top of that, in the course of our lives we inflict various wounds on others, intentionally or unintentionally, causing us to feel guilt and regret.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will have a yoga studio at their new home, Frogmore Cottage in Windsor  and this week, Prince Harry revealed he meditates every day

As we become spiritually mature, we naturally develop more empathy and try to see things from others perspectives.

This, in turn, teaches us to accept the imperfections of others, and of ourselves, in a more graceful and compassionate way.

I have collected here my reflections on learning to look at the world, and myself, more compassionately. I pray that they can be a friendly hand for you in a moment of despair, and bring you peace in a time of difficulty.

LISTEN TO YOUR INNER VOICE

When there is someone who makes things difficult for you, do you try just to ignore it or put up with it, because it is not in your nature to do or say something that can potentially hurt someone?

I have met many good people who suffer from depression, panic attacks and other emotional disorders due to difficult human relationships.

Such people tend to be gentle, well-mannered and solicitous of others. They are the kind of self-sacrificing person who will habitually put other peoples wishes before their own.

As we become spiritually mature, we are able to develop more empathy and try to see things from others perspectives

Why, I wondered, do such good people often fall victim to mental and emotional suffering?

I, too, was introverted and meek as a child, and so was often praised for being good.

When I opened my heart and spoke honestly to an older friend, he gave me the following advice: Be good to yourself first, then to others.

It was like being struck by lightning.

By living in accordance with the demands of others, we unwittingly neglect our own desires and needs.

Before going along with what others wish you to do, please listen to the voice inside you, telling you what you truly want.

When someone asks for a favour, dont forget that you have the option to say: Im terribly sorry but I cant do that.

You have no obligation to take on a task that will be a great burden on you.

Just as, on a plane, you are told to put the emergency breathing mask on a child only after you have put one on yourself, there is nothing selfish about looking after yourself first.

Only if you are happy will you be able to make those around you happy. The true winner is the one who is happy with his life.

Dont let your difficult past define who you are today.

If you do, you will live your whole life as a victim of the past.

By living in accordance with the demands of others, we unwittingly neglect our own desires and needs

There is life force within you waiting to shoot out of the ground of the past. Please trust that force of renewal.

Bow respectfully to your past and proclaim: From now on, I have decided to be a little happier!

If someone is unable to think beyond himself, it could be because he didnt get enough love growing up.

Because he felt that the world was cold and uncaring, he had to be self-centred to take care of himself. If there is a selfish person in your life who makes things difficult for you, look deeply into his pain and try to understand where he is coming from.

If we examine what motivates us, we see that even as adults we want recognition from other people, and that so much of what we do comes from that desire to be recognised.

Shower your child with attention and make them feel secure in your love. This way, they wont grow up starved for other peoples acknowledgment.

The nice cutlery set, tea, wine, clothes, pen, quilt that you have been saving for a special occasion  use them whenever you get the chance. When you make use of something special, it makes the moment special.

The house is a mess but you dont have energy to tidy it up. In that case, invite your friends to your home. Suddenly, you will feel a surge of energy which can get the whole house tidied in 30 minutes!

When a beloved family member passes away, we feel sorry for not having looked after them better and guilty for not having protected them from harm.

If you cant stand to make mistakes, you will never learn a foreign language, an instrument, a sport, or how to drive or cook

Then, after many difficult and lonely nights, the spring, which we thought wed never see again, returns.

As the warmth of the spring sunshine touches our face, we feel as though the departed is still with us, wishing us happiness.We assumed we were alone but then realised we were not.

No matter how good a relationship is, it is inevitable that it will change over time.

A close friend may move to another city, or a family member may pass away. Your circumstances, too, can change. But dont let this make you too sad  because when one door closes, another opens.

If a relationship causes you pain, then draw a firm line and distance yourself from the other person.

Once you are apart, you will hear your internal voice and gradually become stronger and more independent. Do not lose your grip on the reins of your own life and allow yourself to be dragged around by someone else.

Before you go to sleep, recall three things you were thankful for today. If you continue to do this for two months, you will see an increase in your level of happiness because instead of focusing on what is wrong with your life, you look for what is good.

THE ART OF GOOD RELATIONSHIPS

Many people answer the question what is the most difficult thing in life? with relationships. Since it takes two people to make a relationship work, and a relationship can easily be disrupted by third parties, they are tricky things to nurture.

In my own experience, even relationships that were strong for a long time seemed to suffer when, unbeknown to myself, I started to feel disappointed in the other person. Whenever I feel disappointed, if I dont address the feeling, it always comes back to harm the relationship.

In other words, a feeling of disappointment is like a warning light, telling me that if I dont do something about it, the relationship could fail. But unlike other emotions, disappointment is very tricky to express: it comes out as petty, whereas if I keep it bottled up, it only gets worse  which makes it difficult to act either way.

Our feelings of disappointment stem from having expectations of another person that go unfulfilled. Such expectations are often unspoken, yet we wish that people would somehow figure them out.

If we do not express our feelings of disappointment, they will start to build up and transform into more difficult emotions such as anger, hurt or even betrayal, and we may come to hold a grudge.

And when you express your disappointment, be careful not to do so in a way that is aggressive or critical of the other person, or when the other person is angry.

Wait until both of you are calm, and talk about only how you feel right then, not what was done or said many years ago.

There are times when someone wants to talk and you give them the cold shoulder. But the longer this goes on, the worse it makes the problem.

And there are times when you deliberately avoid talking to someone but they dont even notice. Ultimately, you are the only one who suffers.

When a family conflict comes up, dont take sides; just listen to what both sides have to say.

Otherwise you will only make the problem worse and risk hurting a family member.

In the course of our lives, we meet people who aggravate our sense of inferiority: the friend with a more successful career, the colleague with a better education and looks, the in-laws with a lot more money. But look beyond these externals.

People who seem better off have other difficulties, brought on by the very things you envy them for.

HAVE COURAGE AND FOLLOW YOUR HEART

Many people have asked me: How did you find the courage to become a monk?

Well, I didnt want to waste my life any more wondering whether it tallied with some socially determined criteria for success.

I got tired of trying to satisfy other peoples expectations. Instead, I wanted to discover for myself the answers to questions such as Why was I born? and What happens when I die?

Even if others scorn me, only having done it can I look at myself and say with confidence that I have loved my life.

Many people who try to forge their own path come up against strong opposition. If your timid heart wonders, Is this really OK? have the courage to smile back at it and say firmly, Yes, it is!

Even if you fail, you will learn from your mistakes and try it differently next time. Besides, it is better to experience failure while you are young. If you are prepared to take responsibility for the consequences of your choices, you can follow your heart.

Dont assume another bus will be coming. Sometimes you will never get another chance to catch the bus you missed.

If an opportunity is presented to you, muster your courage and get on that bus.

If youve waited for someone to show up and change your life, and they still havent appeared, dont wait any longer. It probably means you need to become that person for yourself.

When you try to learn something new, you will inevitably feel embarrassed in the process. No matter how respected you are in your own field, you will be treated like a child and corrected every time you do it wrong.

If you cant stand to make mistakes, you will never learn a foreign language, an instrument, a sport, or how to drive or cook.

Its all right to start reading a book from the section you most want to read. Starting is often the most difficult part.

If worrying is not doing any good, say to your anxious mind: If what Im worried about actually happens, thats when Ill worry!

Distinguish between things you can control and those you cant. The past cannot be undone. You cant control what other people think of you. But you can control what you are doing right now.

The secret of embracing others

Of course it is easy to love the parts we agree with, but when we learn to embrace the parts we disagree with, that is when liking turns into loving.

When we find that things are getting tough, a warm, wordless embrace can have more healing power than a logical explanation of why things are so difficult. Although I cannot get rid of your pain, I will still stand by your side and stick with you. The warmest way of expressing this is through a hug.

If you want to express love to family or friends, really listen to them, devoting your whole mind and heart to their words.

If you listen with great care and interest, they will come to feel I am a precious being and this is what it feels like to be loved. Words hold great power.

If you love someone, rather than doing what you think they need, do what they themselves ask you to do. Though it comes from a good place, doing what you think someone needs can be the seed of wanting to control them, to make them a certain way to please yourself.

If you get angry, your anger creates an echo, bouncing back at you without fail. Your anger arouses anger in others, who retaliate either immediately with the same intensity, or indirectly over the course of many years in the form of gossip and passive-aggressive mind games.

So the next time you get angry, keep in mind the costs. If you point out someones faults, dont expect their behaviour to change. Often all that happens is they get hurt. Praise their strengths, which will grow to overshadow their weaknesses.

Extracted from Love For Imperfect Things: How to Accept Yourself In A World Striving For Perfection, by Haemin Sunim, published by Penguin Life on January 24 at 9.99.  Haemin Sunim 2019.

To order a copy for 7.99 (20 per cent discount) call 0844 571 0640 or go to www.mailshop.co.uk/books. Offer valid until 26/1/19, P&P free on orders over 15. Spend 30 on books and get FREE premium delivery.Bollywood actress and debutante author Manisha Koirala bares her heart in this candid chat.

Her voice sounds feeble on the phone. But as the conversation evolves, there is an inner strength and an indomitable spirit that shines through in her responses.

The Bollywood actress and cancer survivors debut book, Healed is a moving account of her battle with Ovarian cancer  one she has successfully overcome after being cancer-free for six years. But it still cant be easy to recount those painful moments? The memory is slowly fading, easier to deal with it now. I also realise the importance of sharing my story coz only then people will understand what a cancer patient goes through. Its also good to remember what all I went through because the human tendency is to forget bad memories. The protective layers of the mind, enable us forget the traumas of the past, says Koirala.

Healed by Manisha Koirala Penguin Books Pp. 240, Rs 499.

But why would one want to remember traumatic moments? She has a philosophical take to this. Whenever we are faced with a grave situation, we are reminded of our mortality, we tend to forget that we are here for a limited time. We need to realise that we are alive one day and someday will come when we have to go and when this awareness dawns upon us, we dont take life for granted, she explains.

Manisha recounts the time when she lost her young cousin, who she had met and bonded with in NYC while undergoing treatment for cancer, For a long time, there was a survivors guilt factor that I lived with. I kept asking myself why did I survive and why did she pass away even though she was much younger to me? I kept on praying for her soul to get mukti, and slowly started looking for the reason why I was alive and how I can make my life more meaningful. When the illness happened to me, it had shaken me up and I understood that my life could end anytime and if it can go any minute, what was I doing all these years?. How was I living and was I happy with the way I lived?

And it was this soul searching that led her on a spiritual quest, I always had spiritual lineage. My nanis sister was a well-known sadhvi. My maternal side is spiritually strong. My fathers side of the family was more rationale and well-read. I grew up amidst these dual cultures. There was a spiritual side to me but I never valued it. I was an atheist then I became agnostic. One day, I decided to read the scriptures. I slowly got into it but my heart was not into it. I was still leading my toxic life. But soon I realised that everything around has to change and become a way of life, and not only when I am reading a book or going to a place where I sit and meditate. I have to integrate that into my daily life, says the former A list star with more than 80 films to her credit.

The popular notion is that movie stars are wealthy so the revelation in the book, where she talks about seeking help from Sahara Sri Subrato Roy for financial help, comes as a surprise. The book works because unlike most biographies today that are packed with half truths, Manisha has been admirably honest about her life. It takes courage to share intimate details of relationships gone wrong, drinking binges, excessive weight gain or doing inconsequential roles. Isnt she worried about being judged harshly by being unflinchingly honest?

Let me give you a background to this. Several years ago, when I was working on one of my earlier films, a senior actress, who was number 1 at that time, would mix Coca Cola with Vodka and drink it quietly when she was at a public gathering. So one of the filmmakers told me, you can also enjoy your drink like this. Those days, I refrained from drinking at parties. My mother, who was visiting me in Mumbai at that time, told me clearly, Manisha if you want to drink or smoke, please be upfront, do not mix a drink with coke, and if somebody asks, say you are drinking Vodka. There is more shame in hiding it than drinking openly. That was the thought process, which gave me the courage to be what I was, she reveals.

Manisha though admits that she took her openness to another level, one that she is clearly not proud of. I cannot undo it. I have it ingrained in me to accept my flaws, that I have lots of them and I am a work in progress. Even after cancer I will never say I am Ms Perfect. I am human. For me, it is important to accept my flaws. It is my book that will last longer than me and hopefully be read by several generations. I prefer to be open, honest and earnest. I am fine with being judged. But by being honest about my life, I am giving closure to these incidents. I didnt want my readers to feel cheated, she shares.

Talking about the financial challenges she faced, Manisha points out, When I entered movies, we werent paid the way stars are paid today. I have done many movies free of cost as money has never been my priority. Even when my films were successful, I was only paid Rs 3 or Rs 4 lakh. Of course, I have invested my money well. During my illness, I broke my bonds and ensured I got the best treatment available in New York. I still have enough money to sustain my lifestyle and live with dignity. I dont need to maintain a flamboyant lifestyle, admits the star who was deeply touched by the Bollywood celeb turnout for her recent book launch.

Tell her that the film industry perhaps does not quite support its own people and she responds with objectivity. My observation is when you are riding high, there will be many admirers, their dreams and aspiration attached to you as you are in demand. But there is another lot that sustains a friendship no matter. I have been an outsider and didnt belong to any groups in the industry. Everyone would party and make films together, I didnt cultivate all that. I was travelling and there were no industry friends, in my zone. It is very unfair for me to say nobody from industry came to me when I have not been in touch with them. I didnt celebrate and mourn with them. I wasnt there myself. I am grateful that for my book launch so many well wishers still came, I feel loved, says Manisha.

There is this beautiful description of her landing in Nepal after her treatment ended. And you can understand why it is so special to her. Everything became precious to me and I would look at life as if it will not be there for me tomorrow. That became a habit for me. I try and be 100 per cent in the moment. I feel grateful in a strange way. I had everything but I wasnt grateful before, she says. And we leave her to revel in these precious moments. Finally, that is all we have left in life. Memories!Dear Bel,

I was born in 1945: my mother, 19, my father an American serviceman. I dont think he ever knew.

She doesnt think it important for me to know anything about him; she only seems to care about herself and the stigma she suffered.

My grandfather and step-grandmother consented to bring me up. Step-gran also had her own daughter, then five, and also my mothers brother, 24. I was very much second in her eyes  which has impacted on me during my life.

Thought for the week When its over, I dont want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular and real. I dont want to find myself sighing, or frightened or full of argument. I dont want to end up simply having visited this world. Mary Oliver (U.S. poet, born 1935, died January 17, 2019) Advertisement

Two years later, my mother got pregnant again  to a married man. This time she was banished to work in a hospital nearby.

After my brother was born, Mum was allowed to keep him in a cot in her hospital room, breastfeeding, knowing he was to be adopted. One day she found him gone. Six months old. I weep when I think of this.

When I was eight, my mother married (pregnant again) and they lived with her new husbands parents. I went, too, but it was a disaster and after seven weeks I was returned to my grandparents, stayed for four years until mother and stepfather got a council house, then went back to them. They now had a daughter, aged five.

Mother and stepfather never stopped criticising me. I became a British Airways stewardess (me with my inferiority complex!) for 17 years, earning a good salary. When I went back to the family in their council house, she sneered: Just because you have all the money.

I heard her telling neighbours BA probably only took me because they were running low on recruits! Why always belittle me?

Id also like you to explain the reasons I was so needy and chased men through my best years  and even when they rejected me, I carried on. It plays on my conscience and since I still meet up with some of these friends, I am acutely embarrassed, as some of the husbands were privy to my bad behaviour and, at the time (the Seventies), treated me with contempt.

Divorced, Ive shown my wonderful adult children love and affection and am grateful that I can.

My sister lives nearby. My mother is now 92 and nearly blind. I visit periodically, but hate it, as my mother talks only of her awful past. I dont think she loves me, only herself. I cant forgive and have lost all feelings for her.

The cards I was dealt at birth and through childhood have ruined my life, and I do feel some bitterness towards my mother. Can you pacify my tortured mind?

TESSA

This week, Bel Mooney advises a woman whose mother 'never stopped criticising' her and who now feels the cards she was dealt at birth and through childhood have ruined her life

First, I want readers (bound to be full of sympathy for you) to know Ive had to edit your original email from 2,341 words to 428.

The whole sad saga reads like the synopsis for a bleak modern novel  one in which the tragic theme is the sins of the fathers and misery handed on.

The key omission here is your mothers early life  which Ill sum up as poverty-stricken and unloved. Her mother died when she was four, her stepmother was harsh and there was no praise in her life, no more than in yours.

Thats the background to her fling with an American . . . and the start of the life which you call ruined. Did she think you ruined her life?

Perhaps every time you asked about your father, you inadvertently rubbed salt in her wounds. You present her rejection of your wish to know as evidence of selfishness  but might it not also suggest old trauma?

You suggest your own inferiority complex started there in childhood, in the cold, critical atmosphere at home.

Surely it must have had the same effect on your mother, leading her to make reckless choices with men? You wonder why you were so promiscuous (I supply that word, reading between the lines), but can you see a pattern here?

With zero self-confidence, women are likely to be needy  saying yes to anyone who asks, grateful for the attention. Guilt over this aspect of past behaviour is really bothering you.

Therefore I ask you to confront it, reflect on how hard it was for your mother in an age when women really were judged, recognise the pattern  and now try really hard to forgive her as well as yourself.

Surely there is nothing else to do at this stage of your life? I completely understand how hard it will be.

You had a terrible childhood: unwanted, shoved from pillar to post, picked on and never really loved. Thats so desperately sad  but I pity both the scared, unwed mother and the resented baby who took away her youth. Remember none of this is your fault.

On the contrary, you were a victim of sad circumstance, yet still made something of your life. Even if your marriage failed, it gave you two children  for whom you found wellsprings of love youd never before experienced.

Ill-treated, your mother passed on her misery to you. Treated badly in turn, you gave your children a good life. Untaught, you created love. That should be proof your precious life is not ruined.

You bitterly detest visits to your 92-year-old mother and say you have lost all feelings for her.

And yet . . . when you think of the ostracised 21-year-old returning to her room to discover her baby son taken away, you weep.

So in spite of all your anger, bitterness and grief you still have some empathy for the woman who gave birth to you in shame. Focus on that feeling, and even weep some more  for both of you.

Reading your story, I feel boundless pity for one motherless child (your mother) and for another (you) who was never mothered.

But stronger than that is my admiration for you  because you have used those bad cards you were dealt to set yourself in charge of your own good life.

I dream of living in England again

Dear Bel,

Im 63, writing from the U.S.  a dual UK/U.S. citizen, born in London, but moved to America aged two.

I grew up in New York and worked as a book editor. At 40, I found a similar job in London  thrilled to relocate. Life was good for 15 years.

I bought a flat, had a happy circle of friends, never found a partner. Then the company folded. I struggled to freelance.

Within a year Id sold my flat (which I bitterly regret) and moved back to the U.S., expecting family support.

Life here hasnt been great. I lost a full-time job two years ago and havent worked since. My parents are dead and my three siblings have their own lives. If it werent for some dear friends, none of whom live nearby, Id be even more depressed.

I dream of moving back to England, but how to start again? I only know London. I inherited some money  not masses, but enough. Yet Im afraid to make a move, though Im floundering here. Im aware life is short and getting shorter.

My work contacts in London have dried up, but Im fairly confident I could find freelance editing again. I have cousins in England  once close  but I feel awkward contacting them, as Ive been out of touch for years.

Im paralysed with indecision. I dont know how to move forward. What would you do?

RUTH

Faced with a long, complex letter like todays from Tessa, I reach yours with relief  knowing exactly what I would do in your place.

This is not to minimise your problem, but to suggest some clarity. I would certainly relinquish any fantasy of starting a new life in the UK at 63, because I doubt the English grass would be any greener and its more likely youd face a lonely older age here.

I often counsel courage in the face of possible change, but not in your case.

It was bad luck when the company folded, but even then, when you had many contacts, you discovered how tough freelance life can be. And I can tell you that it is worse now: think of all the arts graduates hoping for a (poorly paid) job around books.

To up sticks and shift back to London when you dont know people any more would surely be a terrible risk. As you say (and I am all too aware myself), life is indeed short, so you must ask yourself whether you want to waste the time you have making such a risky move. I repeat: I wouldnt.

Nevertheless, you do need a change, so I would do a number of things, in this order.

First, I would go and stay near the friend or friends you love most in the U.S. and seriously investigate moving to live near them  63 is a good age to create a new nest for yourself, near congenial people who will introduce you to others.

Having done that, I would also think of new things to do  like tutoring, or (say) helping young people with special needs with reading, or some other voluntary work that might give you untold satisfaction while drawing on your proven skills.

Then I would make contact with those long-lost cousins, saying you are researching family history and would like to meet them.

I expect theyll be delighted  and you could plan a good holiday in England, maybe with a friend, having created a fresh life in the States.

And finally... over 50s CAN learn now tricks

In an interview with People Magazine, the actor Idris Elba suggested you cant have new experiences after 50. Can it be true that the sexiest man alive believes such nonsense?

I havent stopped having new experiences and learning from them since my 50th birthday in 1996.

Heres a whistle-stop tour.

In my 50s, I learned how to roll with serious disappointment on various work fronts; how to cope with the sudden, heartbreaking end of a long marriage and grow stronger; how to steer my adult children through the same ending; how to become independent earning money; how to accept the limitations of many friendships; how to celebrate a second marriage  and give thanks; how to grasp with both hands a never-thought-of chance, and run with it, rejoicing in a new role in journalism I hadnt dreamed of (which leads neatly to this very column!).

Bel answers readers questions on emotional and relationship problems each week. Write to Bel Mooney, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT, or email bel.mooney@dailymail.co.uk. A pseudonym will be used if you wish. Bel reads all letters but regrets she cannot enter into personal correspondence. Advertisement

What else? In my 60s, I started going to a gym. I looked back with astonishment at my old Leftist notions and wondered that I could have been so naive.

Ive embraced Christianity while retaining my agnosticism; because ideas are gloriously complicated. Ive become a grandmother and learned a new kind of love as well as finding levels of patience inside myself I didnt know were there.

A deep, rich love of the countryside still moves this city-born woman  accompanying profound, perfect contentment in the life I share with my husband and our dogs (remembering that until 2002 I didnt even like the creatures).

Ive surveyed my wrinkles, sighed, regretted  then accepted. Resisted buying clothes, instead mending old ones. Realised imposing order on a cupboard can be sublime.

More negatively, I have learned to become more cynical  terminally disillusioned with politics and the elite class of politicians, commentators and writers I once socialised with.

Thanks for the emotional exercise, Idris! Its good for all of us to look back, assess  and give thanks.A stunning new photo series celebrates the beauty of black hair styling.

'The Hair Appointment' is a photo series and exhibit created by Josef Adamu, creative director of Sunday School, a Toronto-based agency focused on visual storytelling for and by people of color.

Adamu wanted to celebrate the beauty of black hair styling as an art form, and the results were stunning photos capturing the process in and outside of Brooklyn hair salons.

He said: 'Within the streets of Brownsville, a neighbourhood in eastern Brooklyn, we were thankfully invited by Alima of Alimas Hair Salon and Helena Koudou of Slayed in Braids.

'The story features a series of ladies ranging from hair stylists that offered their perspective on the development of their skills, to models that portrayed the different styles and spoke on the impact it has on their appearance.

'The project was executed through both photography and videography, with an aim to capture the joy a new hairstyle brings.'

Here are some of MailOnline's favorite shots from The Hair Appointment below, shot by photographer Jeremy Rodney-Hall.

A stunning new photo series (pictured) celebrates the beauty and artistry of black hair styling

'The Hair Appointment' is a photo series and exhibit created by Josef Adamu, creative director of Sunday School, a Toronto-based agency focused on visual storytelling for people of color

Adamu wanted to celebrate the beauty of black hair styling as an art form, and the results were stunning photos capturing the process in and outside of Brooklyn hair salons

he Hair Appointment was a visual series curated to demonstrate the beauty of hairstyling as a process, a lifestyle, and an overall experience

A mother and daughter sit on the floor. As the little girl's hair is braided she plays with her toy

The little girl grimaces in pain as her mother appears to pull too tightly on her hair

The photos were shot on and around the streets of Brownsville, a neighbourhood in BrooklynAustralian beauty aficionados have quite literally revealed their 'desert island' beauty products after a woman who works on a remote island asked for advice online.

Posting in an Australian Facebook group a woman explained that she works on Raoul Island, New Zealand's northernmost territory, so she has to order her skincare in six month blocks.

She asked the group to recommend go-to products for her to wear that don't sweat off while she's out in the sun.

'I also would love your ideas on what to treat my skin to in terms of masks and moisture kicks as I do get burnt a bit and in the sun all day,' she said.

Beauty lovers have revealed the only products they would take with them to a deserted island

'I currently use body shop peeling exfoliator once or twice a week and Mario Badescu cleanser every night which seems to work well so I probably wont bother changing that,' she said.

'Also in dire need of a good foot cream because hiking these slopes every week has left my feet wrecked.'

Luckily she was met with a variety of responses from fellow beauty lovers who were eager to share their advice.

A member of the group recommended Soap and Glory's Heel Genius, which costs $10 at Sephora

'The foot cream from Soap and Glory is amazing for its price!' One member responded.

The product in question is called Heel Genius, which can be bought for only $10 from Sephora.

The brand claims that it transforms rough feet in a single overnight session, doubles as a foot cream, and will fix even the roughest of cuticles.

It contains ingredients such as macadamia oil, bilberry and orange and lemon fruit acid smoothers.

One woman said the best mask she's ever tried is Doctor Jart Shake and Shot, which is a $12 gel mask that can be bought from Amazon

'The absolute best hydrating mask I've tried is Doctor Jart Shake and Shot. The blue one is hydrating and you can buy it online, I totally recommend Korean, Japanese and Chinese skincare,' one commenter said.

'The volcano foot mask from lush is heaven,' another group member said

These gel masks cost $32 on Amazon and infuse skin with potent actives to smooth for a healthy, dewy-looking complexion.

Dr Jart uses the same 'rubber mask' technique found in high-end Korean spas to achieve equivalent high-performance results.

'The volcano foot mask from lush is heaven ... it left my feet feeling sooo rejuvenated. My feet are ruined and they really felt lovely and fresh,' another woman said.

'It might be nice as an option when they're feeling really tired. I've also heard good things about Lush's Pink Peppermint Foot Lotion.'

As the original poster is exposed to the elements for her job another beauty aficionado recommended Aveeno for basic skincare.

As the original poster is exposed to the elements for her job another beauty aficionado recommended Aveeno

One recommendation was Aveeno's Daily Moisturising Lotion, which costs $11.87 from Big W stores.

'Its good for dry skin, I have eczema and its amazing, even when my skin gets dry and cracked its not stingy or anything,' they added.

Another person recommended Peter Thomas Roth's entire range and the range from Fresh as she said they are 'amazing'.

'The secret with foot cream is to slather on a ridiculous amount then put socks over while it soaks in,' one woman said.

'I use the unglamorous industrial strength stuff like Eulactol. Or sometimes really thick body butters that feel too gross for my actual skin.'When Jo Bennett Tronc gave birth to her second child in 2016, she was elated.

But just minutes later, the Australian mother's heart stopped and she died for four terrifying minutes, leaving her panicked husband frantically watching on as doctors tried to revive her.

Speaking to FEMAIL, the 37-year-old said she can't remember what happened after she gave birth to Adaline, now two, at the Mackay Base Hospital, in Queensland, but was told the harrowing details by her husband, Mitchell.

'He told me I asked him if he was going to get photos of her while the midwife had her to do tests,' Ms Tronc said.

Jo Bennett Tronc was in the intensive care unit for three days after she suffered from a amniotic fluid embolism after the birth of her daughter Adaline

As he was walking over, she said that her chest hurt and her husband Mitchell turned back to look at her.

'He said: "You were dead. You were just dead. Your tongue was hanging out and your eyes had rolled back, and the next thing was the alarms sounded. Your heart had stopped and people were rushing into the room everywhere",' she said.

The doctors were performing CPR on Ms Tronc while stitching her back up from the caesarean, however because she had no heart rate they could not see any bleeding and had to wait to see the damage.

'I think it was four minutes before they got my heart beat back. One of the anaesthetists said that someone was ready to call it [and pronounce me dead] and someone else said "no, let's keep going",' Ms Tronc said.

'So I am thankful for that.'

Two years on: The 37-year-old revealed she can't remember what happened after she gave birth to Adaline, now two, at the Mackay Base Hospital but just what her husband told her. Pictured with Adaline on the left, Adaline pictured now on the right

What is an amniotic fluid embolism? Amniotic Fluid Embolism is one of the leading direct causes of maternal mortality in Australia and New Zealand. An amniotic fluid embolism (AFE) is when amniotic fluid gets into the bloodstream and causes a collapse of the heart and lungs. The second stage of AFE is disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, meaning your blood is failing to clot. A shocking 23 women died in 2016 as a direct or indirect cause of giving birth, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. However this is one of the lowest rates in the world. Two women died of AFE in 2016, making it one of the most frequent causes of maternal death. In the ten years prior, 18 women died as a direct cause of AFE. Advertisement

Ms Tronc had suffered from an amniotic fluid embolism (AFE), which is when amniotic fluid gets into the bloodstream and causes a collapse of the heart and lungs.

After a few hours Ms Tronc was stabilised and taken into the intensive care unit (ICU) where she was hooked up to a ROTEM machine, which analyses blood for trauma patients and tells medical practitioners what components of blood is needed.

'They said this kept me going, so they weren't pumping me with unnecessary red blood cells,' she said.

That night they took her back down to theatre because her blood work was showing she had reached the second stage of AFE which is disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, meaning her blood was failing to clot.

She was taken back to the operating theatre to try and stop any 'bleeders' that they could see - Ms Tronc believes this happened twice.

Ms Tronc's heart rate rapidly dropped and it was four minutes before doctors revived her, with one believing it was time to pronounce her dead. Pictured with Adaline, husband Mitchell and son Hayden

She spent three days in ICU and given 22 units of blood and blood products during that time.

They were waking her up over the course of a day, lowering the anaesthetic levels to see how her body would work - this is where her memory begins as she revealed she has flashbacks from that time.

Thinking back on what happened to her Ms Tronc said she was shocked she'd never heard of AFE before.

'I suppose in pregnancy books they only put the good stuff, you know "a rare complication is you may bleed" and that is sort of as far as they go,' she said.

In terms of physical recovery, she said she was around three months behind a 'normal caesarean' she said, comparing it to the birth of her first child Hayden.

Her bowels and digestive system stopped working, leading for her stomach to swell to almost the same size she was when she was pregnant.

Ms Tronc now suffers from short-term memory loss and post-traumatic stress disorder

She was on a nasogastric tube and wasn't able to eat for seven days, with the tube being kept on a free-flow suction to keep removing her gastric contents while I healed.

This was paired with four haematomas which happened 'in the rush to put her back together' so she was on antibiotics for six weeks.

Mentally she deals with short-term memory loss as well as post-traumatic stress disorder, and she said while she is 'good' there are things that can trigger it still.

'You cope better at this stage too. You get used to post-it notes and calendar reminders,' she said.

Adaline celebrated her second birthday on October 5, 2018, and Ms Tronc said: This one was better because we [she and her husband] were both ready to revisit that day.'

'It was hard the first year because I wanted to be so happy, I guess you're here to celebrate her birth but at the same time you remember back to your life prior as well,' she said.

'You don't want those memories on your child's birthday but this year was better,' she said.

Ms Tronc had suffered from an amniotic fluid embolism (AFE), which is when amniotic fluid gets into the bloodstream and causes a collapse of the heart and lungs

Ms Tronc said he would give her updates telling her what was happening at that time on the day she gave birth.

She thanked the medical staff who were there that day who she said probably used training they never thought they would need.

'It gets people home to their loved ones sometimes,' she said.

This was not Ms Tronc's first difficult birth, when she gave birth to her son she had a delayed reaction to the anaesthetic and was forced to have a caesarian, but was in extreme pain.

Further information about amniotic fluid embolism can be found here.Emerging from a coffee morning with friends in Bettys, the famously twee and traditional tearoom in Harrogate, Jill Carrington fastened her quilted and fur-lined coat  bought on a shopping trip down south in Harrods  against the bitter chill.

Along with 49 per cent of the 96,000 voters in this genteel, prosperous, and quintessentially English town on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, she voted Leave in the 2016 referendum  placing her narrowly on the losing side of the debate in this bellwether Brexit community.

Of course, the views of this wealthy electrical contractors wife  who wants Britain to regain its sovereignty and see stricter curbs on immigration  prevailed in the wider poll.

Shambles. It is a word one hears time and again when discussing the Brexit fiasco with the people of Harrogate. Farce and disgrace are two others.

And this week, watching our spineless, self-serving politicians attempt to thwart the will of 17.4 million people, her anger reached boiling point.

I think theyve tret us very disrespectfully, she fumes, the brusque Yorkshire slang word for treated somehow serving to emphasise her fury.

I visit London quite a lot, but its very different living up here. When the poll result came through, those so-called experts on TV gave the impression that we were a lot of dumb Northerners who didnt know what we had voted for.

But we knew what we were doing, all right, and with whats going on now I feel Im even further from the Westminster bubble. It hasnt changed my opinions one bit. Its just made me even more bloody-minded.

It seems all the MPs are against Theresa May, but who is putting up any solutions? She is doing a good job, but I dont envy her. Nobody in their right mind would want her job in these circumstances. They should unite behind her and get on with it. The whole thing is a total shambles.

Shambles. It is a word one hears time and again when discussing the Brexit fiasco with the people of Harrogate. Farce and disgrace are two others.

Whichever way they voted, whatever their age, allegiances or personal bugbears, people here are sickened by the cynical endgame being played out in Parliament.

It may be only 210 miles away down the M1, but it now feels so remote from them, and their everyday concerns, that it might as well be the Moon.

Indeed, the one sentiment that unites the otherwise polarised residents of this timelessly elegant spa town  in many ways a throwback to the great days of England, with its fine Georgian terraces, traditional independently-owned shops, and polite but plain-speaking folk  is their utter contempt for our politicians.

The noes tweeted it: The picture posted on social media of MPs waiting to vote down Theresa Mays Brexit deal

That, and their widespread admiration for the courage, resilience and dutifulness (qualities that count for a great deal in these parts) of Mrs May.

Most townsfolk share the view of local Tory MP Andrew Jones, who backed Mrs Mays Brexit deal in the Commons despite voting Remain, saying he had pledged to honour the result of the referendum and politicians should keep their promises.

The prevailing opinion, even among Europhiles, was that Mrs May had obtained the best possible deal, that the time for talking was over and  as one office worker shopping during his lunch hour put it  we should damn well have done and get on with it.

Whiling away the morning in Caffe Nero, two friends, Fiona and Claire, said they felt betrayed by our MPs over Brexit. I think the standard of politicians has gone down 100 per cent, said Fiona, 45, who backed Leave partly because she believes the influx of wealthy foreign students deprived her son of a place at his chosen university.

You get the feeling that they are just out for themselves. You dont know who you can trust any more.

Claire, 39, whose uncertainty over the pros and cons of Brexit caused her to abstain from voting, agreed, saying it was embarrassing to have MPs who spent all their time squabbling over the Brexit process while ignoring peoples basic concerns such as the shortage of police officers and the state of the NHS.

A good many people I spoke to when visiting Harrogate this week were so disillusioned that they swore they would never vote again, whether in a general election or a second referendum, which nobody I met can bear to countenance.

Worryingly, that disillusionment seemed deepest among the generation who have most to gain  or lose  from our exodus from Europe, and will shape the nations future; teenagers such as Ellie Watson-Hornsby and Lauren Quandt, both 19 and visiting home from university.

Ellie, who was not old enough to vote in the referendum, feels so far removed from the uninspiring men and women who supposedly serve her interests that she admitted: I am oblivious to it all. The situation is a mess. We are the generation most affected by Brexit, but I feel we are not being made aware of whats really going on.

Although the referendum was intended to settle differences over Europe once and for all, thanks to the protracted wrangling in Westminster, the divisions in Harrogate are as intense as ever.

For three years running, the town  whose health-giving springs, stylish shops and restaurants, and proximity to the scenic Dales have been a magnet for tourists since Victorian times  was judged the nations happiest place to live.

It may be no coincidence that the last of these accolades was awarded in 2015, the year before the referendum; today the paroxysms of uncertainty over Brexit are spoiling friendships, causing schisms within families and even prising apart business partners.

The mood was described by Gemma Aykroyd, 42, owner of The Cheeseboard, a quaint town-centre shop offering British and European cheeses (this weeks specials include a semi-cured Spanish Manchego and a buffalo milk creation made across the Pennines in Preston).

When the referendum happened, we all felt very open to discussing it here, she told me. But now its become a case of lets just not talk about it, because we dont know whether we are going to upset people.

At the time we were voting it was an interesting dinner party topic. Now you cant mention it for fear of having an argument. Feelings are getting more heated than ever.

Smiling sardonically, she added: I go to a book club, and even they are split down the middle.

Eager to be free from Brussels bureaucracy, Ms Aykroyd, voted Leave in the referendum.

As the pound has since fallen against the Euro, she is now paying more for the cheeses she imports from France, Germany, Italy and Spain  which comprise almost half her stock  and, should we fail to do a trade deal with the EU, tariffs could make them so expensive that she can only sell British varieties.

She is not dismayed at this prospect; on the contrary, she says her French suppliers are more worried about losing her business than she is of losing theirs; and she is excited by the opportunity of supporting our own producers.

But as she enthuses about the emergence of homegrown cheeses to compare with continental offerings (such as a soft delicacy from Suffolk that substitutes for French Brie de Meaux) a customer walks into the shop  and the split she described is suddenly illustrated.

A woman of advancing years whose outfit and manner of speech suggest a New Age view of the world, Pat Barnes is from the other side of the divide.

Well, I voted Remain, she declares defiantly, ordering a chunk of pungent French cheese. Im very much a globalist. But its all the admin this Brexit process is taking that really gets me, she added, making clear her own disenchantment with events in Westminster.

My tour of the town had started that morning in a Wetherspoons pub, where the 4.99 full English breakfast pulls in a clientele whose bullish, pro-Brexit views chime with the groups chairman, Tim Martin (this week he declared that a no-deal exit would save Britain 39 billion, enable us to regain control of our fishing waters, and eliminate tariffs from thousands of everyday items).

Digesting his breakfast, the thoughts of Mark Woodhead, 62, a semi-retired IT worker who voted Leave  for greater autonomy  were with the Prime Minister.

I think Theresa May, bless, her, has had a rough ride, he said. She inherited a lot of things that were always going to happen, and now they are blaming her for them. Shes done the best she could.

Echoing Harrogates key refrain, he surmised: Its a shambles. I think the politicians themselves dont know whats going on.

Sharing his table, Chris, a 71-year-old software writer, nodded, harking back to the Sixties when French premier Charles de Gaulle stitched us up in negotiations to join the EEC  and to the ensuing decade when, Chris declared, Ted Heath sealed our demise by taking us fully into Europe.

For Mrs May, there were kind words even from lifelong Labour supporter Johnny Long, 57, a shaggy-haired pub band bassist.

I do feel she got the rough end of the stick because it was Cameron who left us in this mess and she is carrying the can. Shes doing the best job she could do, he said.

At the Turkish baths, another Harrogate landmark, Vivienne Elgie, 60, and her daughter Marie, 28, paused to express their unease before thawing out in the spa.

I voted Leave on the grounds of losing our democracy but Ive fought with my conscience ever since, and if I voted now I would back Remain, said the mother, who loves Europe and has many friends on the continent.

But she doesnt want a second referendum  she just wants our squabbling politicians to carry out the voters will.

As for her daughter, despite employing staff from Eastern Europe in her cleaning business, Marie also voted to Leave  yet, she admitted, she was still too embarrassed to reveal this to her Remainer friends.

However, the story that perhaps best encapsulates Harrogates enduring divide was to be found in a high-end boutique  on Parliament Street, aptly enough  where a pair of Italian jeans will set you back 270.

Before the referendum it was jointly owned by Paul Lown, 65, and Steve Mulhaire, who is in his 50s. Both voted Remain.

Yet the confusion over Britains relationship with Europe, where they bought many of the designer brands they sell, has proved so stressful that the two men parted company not long after the referendum, with one retaining the original shop and the other opening a rival store nearby.

The details of this acrimonious split are complex. Suffice it to say that Mr Lown wished to keep buying from Europe, despite the increased costs and inherent risks, while Mr Mulhaire preferred more stability and less flamboyance, as he puts it, arguing that they should switch to British suppliers.

In his new boutique, he has done precisely that. But his anger towards the politicians whose posturing and procrastination he blames for causing this upheaval remains undiminished.

It really is terrible, he told me. This just shows how it (the Brexit impasse) is hitting people in different ways. The thing that sticks in my throat is that the politicians dont seem to realise how they are affecting small people like us. They are making these crazy decisions that affect the whole country.

Shamefully, they are indeed. For when the tremors in Westminster become so seismic that they rattle cups and saucers in the civilized tearooms of Harrogate, we know our MPs are truly a shambles.Diane Pineiro-Zucker has been a reporter at the Daily Freeman since April 2013. Pineiro-Zucker worked as a reporter in the Freemans Rhinebeck bureau in the early 1980s, left to become executive editor at Taconic Newspapers in Dutchess County.The following items are based on information provided by officials in law enforcement and the criminal justice system.KINGSTON, N.Y.  A $2 million state grant to help build the Irish Cultural Center has not been handed over yet, according to Assemblyman KevinKINGSTON, N.Y.  Ulster County Executive Michael Hein will sit down with the Freeman at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 29, for an interview that will bThe Daily American

Service dogs can detect high blood pressure, calm sexual assault victims and perform everyday tasks, but first they need to be trained.

Most of these pups from Canine Partners for Life are trained by inmates at state prisons, including those in Somerset.

To get them into some more distracting circumstances, handlers such as retired corrections counselor Deb Rhoads take the pups to bowling alleys, restaurants and the Fire & Ice Festival.

On Friday, handlers brought eight pups to the Somerset festival to teach them to ignore the smells from food stands, wandering hands of children and loud, bright fireworks.

Thirteen-month-old Labrador Cleveland was noticeably excited. and Rhoads corrected Cleveland every time he started to whimper.

Hes a sweetheart, she said with a smile.

Cleveland and the other dogs are sent to stay with prisoners at 8 weeks old. They stay in a kennel in the inmates cell, and the inmates teach them various commands and other skills to be service dogs.

They love them, Rhoads said of the inmates. And theyre so gentle.

SCI-Somerset Deputy Superintendent Michelle Houser said the program also benefits the inmates.

Its a phenomenal program, she said. Inside the facility, it kind of changes the dynamic, the atmosphere. What can be a potentially negative situation is made better by the dogs there.

Its really made a difference in both institutions. Ive seen the impact.

She said the dogs give the inmates a purpose and responsibility over another living creature.

A lot of them have never been responsible for something else before, so this is a way for them to care about something else and be responsible for something else, Houser said.

The program has been in Somerset Countys prisons for about three years, and Houser said she just wants to let people know about it.

Were so proud of it and want to share it, she said.

After their training is complete and they pass their tests, the dogs will be donated to kids and adults ages 12 and older. It costs the group about $30,000 to train each dog, but they dont charge the dogs recipients.

And its not all work for these pups, Rhoads said.

When we go home and take off their vests and Halti (head collar) and say, All done, ... they go crazy, she said. Its like, let the fun begin. They run and play like a bunch of wild pups.

Theyre spoiled babies.Staff reports

The Daily American

The congregation of the Shanksville United Methodist Church will observe its 175th anniversary Sunday.

In 1844, Shanksville was visited by a traveling preacher representing the United Brethren Church. The Rev. John R. Sitman of Cambria County came to town and inquired for religious people with whom to confer on church matters and was directed to Daniel Shank. Shank was a grandson of the pioneer Christian Shank who laid out the town of Shanksville in 1829.

Daniel Shank and his wife invited nine others from the community to meet with Sitman in their home on Main Street and organized a class, as the early groups were called, on the third Sunday in January 1844. This was one of the first United Brethren classes organized in Somerset County.

Revival meetings, or Big Meetings as they were called, held in Shanksville during the next two years increased the size of the original class. That led to the appointment of the congregations first minister in 1846.

At first, meetings were held in homes and in any available building and in the Lutheran and Reformed Church after it was built in 1849.

In 1858 the United Brethren class along with others, took action to build a church on the corner of Main Street and Fourth Street in Shanksville. The Union Church built in that year was a simple frame structure with a centered gable-end entrance topped with a cupola and weathervane. The building was said to have cost $500 to build.

According to the deed, the church was to be open to all Orthodox denominations.

After worshipping in the Union Church for approximately 25 years, the United Brethren congregation decided to build a church of its own. They purchased a lot on the north side of Main Street in Shanksville, and the men and boys of the congregation began making bricks. The new church, sometimes called the chapel was completed in 1887.

This building served the congregations needs until 1911 when it was razed to make room for a larger church. The new building, which is the present United Methodist Church, was constructed at a cost of $7,500 and dedicated free of debt in 1912.

In 1946 the United Brethren in Christ denomination merged with the Evangelical Church to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church. Then in 1968, this denomination merged with the much larger Methodist Church to create the United Methodist Church, at that time the second largest Protestant denomination in the United States.

On Sunday, prior to the worship service at 10:45 a.m., the church bell will toll 175 times as the congregation pauses to recall all those who have labored for the cause of the church through the years. Banners announcing the anniversary will be placed both inside and outside of the church.

Former pastor, the Rev. Marlin Miller will challenge the congregation to embrace new opportunities for service in the coming year. The congregation will join for a soup and salad fellowship meal following the service.

Sunday school classes meet at 9:30 a.m. and worship service begins at 10:45 a.m. each week. The church, which is part of a charge with Central City United Methodist Church, is served by the Rev. John Hickman.

Other special events planned for 2019 include:

March 17: A showing of This is our Heritage, an original drama produced at the Shanksville church in 1994. A cast of 34 re-enacted scenes from the past ranging from testimony from John Wesley to sickbed recollections of Jacob Albright to a meeting of the local Trustees planning to build a new church, and even a quilting bee.

May 5: District Superintendent Chung will bring the morning message and lead the church in recognizing those who have been members for 50 or more years.

June 30: Western Pennsylvania Conference Bishop Moore-Koikoi will bring the morning message, share a luncheon, then join the congregation for a symbolic walk through time, visiting sites in Shanksville important in the history of the church and meeting characters from the past.

July 21: Former pastors and their families are invited back to Shanksville to share memories and inspirational thoughts at a fellowship meal in the Community Grove.

Sept. 29: A circuit-riding preacher (portrayed by the Rev. Doug Burns) will arrive in town to share a meal and bring the Good News.

Nov. 3: On All Saints Day the congregation will remember and honor those who have passed on during the last year.Kankakee, IL (60901)

Today

Partly cloudy skies early followed by scattered thunderstorms overnight. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. Low 73F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early followed by scattered thunderstorms overnight. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. Low 73F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.Virginia "Sue" Robinson of Cullman Alabama passed away June 10, 2021 at the age of 82. She was born January 14, 1939 in Cullman to E.R. and Gracie Nix Neal. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband Elwin Ray Robinson, daughter Sharron Fuller, sisters Evelyn Hardin and Norma BradfordNORWALK  Dozens of volunteers helped clean up a stretch of the citys riverfront on Saturday morning.

The estuary cleanup organized by the Surfrider Foundation Connecticut chapter and Skip the Plastic Norwalk stretched from the Maritime Aquarium area and throughout Ostershell Park.

Many of the volunteers were youngsters and parents from Cub Scout packs 97 and 68, and Scouts BSA troops 19 and 190. Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling and his wife, Lucia, also helped fill 5-gallon buckets with refuse (the organizers skipped using plastic trash bags).

The group collected piles of water bottles, beer and liquor bottles, plastic bags and polystyrene coffee cups from Dunkin Donuts. Among the stranger items found were an animal skull and a soggy red fabric bag filled with nickles and dimes.For the first time in Southeast Asia, two Princess Cruises ships, the Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess, have docked in several ports in Southeast Asia on the same day.

Both ships met in Phu My (Ho Chi Minh City) earlier this month, followed by Laem Chabang (Bangkok) and Koh Samui a day later.

The ships were also under the command of two brothers, Captain Paolo Ravera at the helm of the Sapphire Princess and his older brother Captain Stefano Ravera on the Diamond Princess when both ships met in Phu My and Laem Chabang.

Both ships finally met in Singapore on January 19 where over 5,000 guests disembarked at Marina Bay Cruise Centre.

The Sapphire will continue sailing in the region until March when she will return to Southampton for her second European season, embarking from Singapore on a 37-night Indian Ocean and Europe Grand Adventure Cruise. Meanwhile, the Diamond is getting set for an upcoming drydock.

This dual-ship homeporting marks our fifth year sailing out of Singapore, carrying over 200,000 guests during this time, marking a pivotal moment for Princess Cruises in Southeast Asia. Princess Cruises also contributed economic benefit from each homeporting season estimated to be about S$250 million in the region over the last five years. We certainly look forward to sailing in the region for many years to come, said Farriek Tawfik, Director Southeast Asia for Princess Cruises.

After the Diamonds drydock is completed in early February, she will embark on a 12-night sailing from Singapore to Phu My, Nha Trang, Hong Kong, Taipei, Osaka and Shimizu (Mount Fuji) before arriving in Yokohama on Valentines Day. She will then start her year-long program from Japan out of Yokohama and Kobe, featuring 60 departures on 40 unique itineraries, visiting 41 destinations in seven countries.Hutchinson, MN (55350)

Today

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low near 60F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low near 60F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.To enjoy our website, you'll need to enable JavaScript in your web browser. Please click here to learn how.The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of our partner offers may have expired. Please review our list of best credit cards , or use our CardMatch tool to find cards matched to your needs.

Its cold outside this week and Ive been bundled up indoors daydreaming about warm and sunny places. There is something about the winter blues that drives me to dream about blue seas and beach bungalows  and sometimes even book a direct ticket to the sunshine.

Get ready to trade in your boots for a bikini. Here are four exotic islands that should be on your winter rewards daydream list:

See related: How to travel better using your credit card rewards in 2019

Destination #1: The Seychelles

You cant get much further off the winter grid than to get lost in the Indian Ocean off the coast of East Africa. The Seychelles are exotic because theyre both stunning and remote.

There are only a handful of ways to get on and off the main island of Mah\xe9, and even fewer ways to get to the countys 114 islands that are covered in mountains, rainforests and white sand beaches. You can do everything adventurous in the Seychelles, or you can do absolutely nothing.

How to get there on points:

To get from the U.S. to the Seychelles, my preferred points currency is American AAdvantage miles, which I keep well stocked from spending on my AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard.

Through AA, book a partner redemption to fly to the capital of Mah\xe9 (SEZ) on either Qatar or Etihad.

Once youre on the main island, youve got hotel options from several of the large hotel chains.

The Hilton Seychelles Northolme or the Hilton Seychelles Labriz (on a neighboring island) are great places to try out the resort credit benefits of the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card.

Destination #2: Maldives

I talk about the Maldives a lot because they are my favorite sunshine and hammock-hanging destination in the world.

Just off the tip of India, the islands are pretty accessible from anywhere on the globe. When youre sitting on the deck of your bungalow watching the fish swim in the crystal water below you, youll feel like youre a million miles away from everything on your to-do list.

The swimming is magical, and the water comes in more shades of blue than your Pantone tracks.

Plus, there are plenty of options for rewards accommodations since nearly every island is its own resort. Id spend every cold winter there if I could teleport.

How to get there on points:

Since the Maldives are pretty much halfway around the world from the U.S., you have trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific rewards options.

Fly Singapore Airlines using points transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards or American Express Membership Rewards, if youre starting from the West Coast.

Start from the East Coast and fly any of the Middle Eastern carriers with points transferred from Capital Ones recently announced partner program earned on the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card.

Or go crazy, take advantage of both options one way with stopovers and make it a trip around the world.

Sleeping in the Maldives is a good use for the 50,000-point sign-up bonus you earn after meeting the minimum spend on The World of Hyatt Credit Card.

Destination #3: Zanzibar

Who doesnt dream of a weekend on the spice island, wandering through the streets of Stone Town, and wading in deep blue African waters?

Zanzibar is high on exotic, and believe it or not, high on accessibility.

You can be remote or in the center of it all with lots of accommodation options from backpacker to boutique and everywhere in between.

Plus, if youre up for a bit of more adventure that goes beyond the beach, ZNZ is just a stones throw from a Serengeti safari or a Kilimanjaro summit.

How to get there on points:

Use United miles to book a partner flight with Turkish Airlines directly into Zanzibar (ZNZ) via Istanbul.

You can fly there from nearly any U.S. gateway city for 40,000 Mileage Plus points each way.

You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United or earn United miles directly through the United Explorer Card.

To sleep, there are Hilton and Hyatt options in Stone Town that you can pay with points.

Alternatively, you can use cash back travel rewards from your Barclays Aviator card to stay beachside at Matemwe Lodge, my favorite boutique hotel on the island.

Destination #4 French Polynesia

Bora Bora receives a lot of screen time when we talk about amazing islands, but the reality is that this honeymooners hot spot is just one of the 118 islands of French Polynesia, and the archipelago has so much more to offer than overwater bungalows.

There are five different island groups that comprise Polynesia. The Leeward and Windward Islands of the Society Islands group are the most accessible from Tahiti for beginners.

If you want more exotic, head onward to the Marquesas. Try surfing, diving, or hike up some of the islands volcanic mountains, and stay awhile. Theres no chance of having to scrape the frost off your car windshield here.

How to get there on points:

Fly from the U.S. to Tahiti (PPT) on Uniteds nonstop flight from San Francisco for 54,000 miles economy one way  an easy redemption if you earn the 50,000 point sign up bonus from the United MileagePlus Club Card.

To sleep, spend a few nights in Tahiti proper at the Intercontinental or Le Meriden using IHG or Marriott points then catch the ferry over to the mountainous island of Moorea and check out the Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa  another great place to put the Hilton American Express Aspire resort benefits to use.

If you want to head to islands further afield, use the Ultimate Rewards travel portal to book the $220 Air Tahiti interisland flight with points.

Escape winter to any of these exotic islands by taking advantage of your rewards and miles during the low season. Just dont forget your sunscreen.We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Submit Community NewsPersonal Care and Homecare Ingredients (PCHi) is set to return for its 12th edition from Feb. 26-28, 2019, in Guangzhou, China, where it expects to welcome more than 25,000 trade professionals over three days.

Keep reading for a preview of what visitors can expect.

Industry Trends

Trending topics in China play into the personal care industry; according to PCHi, these consumer-driven trends are expected to be prominently featured at the event:

The effects of pollution and blue light exposureby-products of urbanization and increasingly digital lifestyleson the skin, hair and general health;

The influence of Traditional Chinese Medicine and indigenous botanicals in the naturals market; and

A growing concept that loosely translates to "light medical beauty" procedures, which refers to nonsurgical, medical methods that can reportedly supplement plastic surgical procedures.

Technology Launches

Exhibitors at this year's event can display signs that indicate that they export their products to help international visitors to better interact with Chinese companies.

PCHi will also feature a New Products Showcase, which will display global and Asian ingredient launches such as natural extracts, oxidative biofunctionals and actives for cell protection. Suppliers may also display a "New Launches" sign at their booths.

Educational Experience

The PCHi Annual Industry Conference 2019 will include a series of curated keynote presentations titled "PCHi Conference Plenary Talks: Trend-driven Innovations for a Smart Future." This plenary series is free to attend; will provide an overview of global trends and formulation technology; and will be held on Feb. 26 in two languages via simultaneous translation.

Breakout sessions will also be held in the following tracks:

Cosmetics Formulation;

Cosmetics Efficacy Evaluation and Testing Technology;

Dermo-cosmetics Clinical Research & Skin Care Products Foundation;

Rules & Regulations;

Market Trends; and

TCM Influences and Innovations in Cosmetics.

Other educational opportunities include PCHi x Exhibitor Talks on skin sensitivity, sustainability, biotechnology and more, which are free to attend. Visitors can also visit the show's Virtual Reality (VR) Zone to experience VR applications in the personal care industry.

PCHi will be held at the Guangzhou Poly World Trade Center from Feb. 26-28, 2019. More information can be found at www.pchi-china.com/en.David Langham Horace, 44, passed away June 9, 2021 in Lufkin. Viewing will be held on Friday, June 18, 2021 at Emanuel Funeral Home of Crockett from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Funeral will be held on Saturday, June 19, 2021 at Antioch Baptist Church in Pennington at 12 p.m. with burial to follow in A100%

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This CoolSocial report was updated on 2020-10-22, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.We are analyzing the site. Please wait a few seconds..25 questions about (another) early general election  and the horror show it could be for the Conservatives

I wrote in the Times last August about Brexit that the most likely cathartic event is neither a new prime minister nor a second referendum but a general election. Of which there is talk again in the Westminster Village. William Hague is reportedly saying that the media is underestimating the chances of a poll.

As Mark Wallace points out, the former Foreign Secretary pressed for an election before Theresa May obtained one in 2017. We know how that turned out.

For the record, this site believed that shed increase her majority, once she called it. But we were very dubious about her calling the poll in the first place. We take the same view now (as may Hague). For although an election could become unavoidable before too long, believing that one could happen isnt the same as thinking it should happen. Here are some questions that help illustrate why.

What would the manifesto say about Brexit?

If it repackaged Theresa Mays deal, how would Conservative MPs who believe that No Deal is now inevitable, or back Norway Plus, or a Canada-type deal, or a second referendum, respond?

If it didnt propose ruling out No Deal, what would the Cabinet group headed by Philip Hammond say and do?

If it did rule out No Deal, what would the Cabinet members who backed Leave in the EU referendum, plus Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt, do?

Would the manifesto rule out extending Article 50?

How would May go about seeking to prevent a 1997-election type revolt  that time round, it was about ruling out joining the Euro  from Leavers? Would she be prepared to bar the candidacies of hardline pro-Leave MPs?

By the same token, would she be prepared to bar the candidacies of their pro-Remain equivalents?

How would the Party handle Associations seeking to deselect their MPs?

What would the manifesto say about everything else bar Brexit? The spending review? Tax? Social care? Universal Credit? Reducing net migration to the tens of thousands? Health and food and lifestyle? Selective schools? Knife crime? The pursuit of British servicemen through the courts? Tuition fees? Home ownership? HS2? And what would it say about how Britain should be different after Brexit?

In particular, what would it say about Scotland, and what role would Ruth Davidson and/or Scottish Conservative MPs have in drawing up the contents, if any, especially about fishing?

Whats to stop the election turning into one on other matters than Brexit entirely, as the last one did?

Would the Party run candidates against the DUP in Northern Ireland?

Who would run the manifesto process  since Chris Skidmore, who was in charge of the Partys policy review, has now been made a Minister and not replaced?

Would the Pickles review recommendations for drawing up the next Conservative manifesto be implemented  in other words, would senior Ministers play a major part in overseeing it?

Who would write it?

Since successive Party leaders have outsourced the running of recent election campaigns, who would run this one? (Labours team from last time round would presumably remain much the same.)

Since Lynton Crosby is reported to be advising Boris Johnson, how could he return to CCHQ to spearhead a campaign?

Would such a solution be desirable anyway, given the Crosby/Textor/Messina contribution to the failure of the last campaign?

Even if it was, would Crosby accept this poisoned chalice in any event?

And why would anyone else do so, either  such as James Kanagasooriam? Dominic Cummings? (Who wouldnt be asked anyway.)

In the absence of anyone else, has CCHQ really got the capacity to run an election campaign in-house, especially at almost no notice?

Given almost no notice, is CCHQ in a position to identify the right target seats?

If it can, doesnt it need an equivalent of Team 2015 to help campaign in them and canvass them? (And there isnt one.)

Even if there was one, is the prospect of a Corbyn Government enough to get Party activists out campaigning, or will disillusion with the May Government hold them back?

Whats the answer to the same question when applied to donors?

And thats all more or less off the top of my head. There will be many more questions and better ones too.

P.S: And before you ask, the Fixed Terms Parliament Act isnt an insuperable barrier to an election, as the events of 2017 proved.

P.P.S: The Prime Minister has of course promised recently, as before the 2017 poll, that she definitely wont seek oneBrexit 1) Fox hopes free trade deals with 40 countries will be finalised in time for a no deal Brexit

Question Time audience in Derby cheers Oakeshott for declaring we should walk away  Daily Mail

Abbott accuses BBC Question Time of legitimising racism  The Guardian

The UK has yet to finalise agreements to replace existing free trade deals the EU has with 40 big economies if there is a no-deal Brexit. International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said he hoped they would but it depended on whether other countries were willing to put the work in. He said more deals were coming, after signing one with Australia. Concerns have been raised that the UK will leave the EU without a deal that would protect current arrangements. The UK is due to leave the EU on 29 March, under the Article 50 process and the UKs EU Withdrawal Act, with or without a deal  unless the UK chooses to revoke Article 50 and continues as a member of the EU.  BBC

>Today:

Brexit 2) Claims that Ministers have asked their constituency associations to prepare for a snap General Election

Three Cabinet ministers have warned their local activists to prepare for an election, it was claimed today despite Theresa May ruling out a snap poll. A further six junior ministers have alerted their constituency associations to the risk of a new general election as Westminster is deadlocked by Brexit. Mrs May has insisted she will not call an election for fear of causing even more chaos if the result is indecisive. But after her continued denials turned into a snap election in 2017, few in Westminster feel anything is certain. Britains top civil servant told Government departmental heads to be ready in case an election is needed to break the Brexit impasse.  Daily Mail

February 28th named as a possible date  The Sun

Its no more crazy than other scenarios, suggests Shapps  Financial Times

Brexit 3) Facebook accused of pushing out fake news funded by Remainers

UK patients stockpile drugs  The Guardian

Millennials targeted with warnings that orangutans and turtles will die  Daily Telegraph

Brexit 4) EUs disbelief at unchanged UK demands

Facebook has been accused of pumping out fake news after running political adverts claiming endangered animals were being threatened  by Brexit. The social media giant has been paid hundreds of thousands of pounds by Britains two most prominent Remain campaign groups to stir up support for a second referendum. Latest figures released by the Facebook show the two organisations  Peoples Vote UK and Best for Britain  spent 373,587 on Facebook ads in the run up to the parliamentary vote on Theresa Mays defeated Brexit deal. By contrast, Leave-supporting groups spent a little over 93,000, according to an analysis by the Telegraph of political income disclosed by Facebook.  Daily Telegraph

Theresa May has left European diplomats in a state of disbelief following a series of phone calls to EU leaders in which she made no change to her demands despite her Brexit plan being voted down by a 230-vote margin this week. Senior EU diplomatic sources said that Mrs Mays unchanged stance was greeted with incredulity following a call with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday night. It was the same old story  the same set of demands  all unchanged despite the defeat, said the source with knowledge of the calls. Mrs May is understood to have repeated the same performance in conversations with the French president Emmanuel Macron, the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte and the Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, provoking what one source called diplomatic eye-rolling in Brussels.  Daily Telegraph

Merkel is the key player  Daily Express

Dutch PM cant see how it can be tweaked  Daily Telegraph

Brexit 5) Boles claims Ministers will quit if they are prevented from backing his Bill to block no deal planning

Brexit 6) Delay may be necessary, says Ellwood

A Tory MP who has put forward a plan to block a no-deal Brexit says ministers have told him they will quit, if they are ordered to vote against it. His cross-party bill would force Theresa May to request an extension of Article 50 if she cant get a deal approved by MPs by the end of February. Mr Boles told the BBC his bill had a broad base of support from different sides of the Brexit debate. And he said he believed a number of ministers backed his plan.  BBC

A defence minister has become the first member of Theresa Mays government to break ranks and publicly urge her to delay Brexit if no deal can be reached. As Whitehall stepped up preparations for a possible snap election, Tobias Ellwood argued that extending Article 50 would be preferable to Britain leaving the European Union on March 29 without a deal. Leaving with no agreement would be an act of self harm with profound economic, security and reputational, consequences for the UK at the very time threats are increasing and diversifying, he told The Times.  The Times

Brexit 7) Go back a get a better a deal, urges Johnson

Mordaunt agrees  The Guardian

His weight loss was evident  Quentin Letts, Daily Mail

Carrie Symonds calls him my Bozzie Bear  Daily Mail

Boris Johnson has urged Theresa May to return to Brussels to demand a new deal without the controversial backstop  and mean it this time. The former Foreign Secretary urged her to use the mandate provided by MPs resounding rejection of her plan and a threat to withhold half the 39bn from the divorce settlement to secure a new deal without the backstop designed to avoid a hard border in Ireland. He said the Prime Minister needed to turn her focus on Brussels rather than having politicians battling each other or trying to heave MPs back into place behind a pseudo-Brexit. Speaking at the headquarters of Tory donor Lord Bamfords JCB plant in Stoke, he dismissed calls to rule out a no-deal Brexit, saying it was overwhelmingly likely Brussels would offer an improved agreement.  Daily Telegraph

>Yesterday: WATCH: Johnson  It would be shameful, at this late stage, to change that totemic date: March 29th

.as he is caught out over Turkish immigration claim

Boris Johnsons attempts to present himself as a future Tory leader were overshadowed when he falsely claimed never to have mentioned Turkey during the Brexit referendum campaign. A speech yesterday at JCBs headquarters in Staffordshire was meant to showcase Mr Johnson as a uniting figure for the party, but when asked about his claims in 2016 that up to 77 million Turkish people could come to Britain if the country were to join the European Union, he replied: Actually, I didnt say anything about Turkey in the referendum. Mr Johnson added: I think anybody who has followed my utterances over the last 20 years would know that Ive always been in the cap of those who defend and support [immigration]. Pressed by Channel 4 News on whether he was disowning his past comments, the former foreign secretary said: I didnt make any remarks about Turkey, mate. In April 2016, two months before the referendum, Mr Johnson, whose paternal great-grandfather was the Turkish interior minister, said: I am very pro-Turkish but what I certainly cant imagine is a situation in which 77 million of my fellow Turks and those of Turkish origin can come here without any checks at all. That is mad  that wont work.  The Times

Brexit 8) Compromise or risk a split, Watson tells Corbyn

Tom Watson will rally Labour moderates for a battle to determine the partys Brexit policy with a warning that it must widen its appeal to avoid a split. The deputy leader will make a speech today challenging Jeremy Corbyn, who is under intense pressure from the partys backbench MPs and ordinary members to back a second referendum. In his address to the Fabian Society conference in London, Mr Watson says that Labour must engage intelligently with Theresa May but stops short of criticising Mr Corbyns boycott of cross-party talks.  The Times

Corbyn missed an open goal  Peter Oborne, Daily Mail

Labour backing Brexit would lose votes  The Guardian

Interview with Tony Blair  The Times

>Today: Nick Hargrave on Comment: In an age of post-truth politics, moderate politicians must prepare to work across party lines

Brexit 9) Farage would start a new Party if Euro Elections are held

Nigel Farage says he is ready to fight the European elections in May if Brexit is delayed. The former UKIP leader, who quit his party in December, said he was seeking the right political vehicle. As things stand, the European Parliament is axing most of the UKs seats, with a small number to be re-allocated to other countriesMr Farage said he believed the UK should just leave the EU without a deal, on World Trade Organization terms, but he did not see the will to do so from the prime minister and the government.  BBC

>Yesterday:WATCH: Farage says he will stand for a new party at the European elections if Brexit is delayed

Brexit 10) Forsyth: Giving way on the Customs Union would not be a solution

Immediately after the Governments crushing defeat on Tuesday night, a slew of Cabinet ministers thought it inevitable that Mrs May would have to make some kind of concession on the customs union to get a deal through Parliament. But this option has run into two obstacles. First, Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell arent playing ball. Without their blessing, there is no way you could get 116 Labour MPs to vote with a Tory PM. As one of those doing the maths on this tells me: She cant do a deal without them. Secondly, it has become clear that agreeing to a customs union would not only split the Tory party and lead to at least one Cabinet resignation, it would also  according to one senior Cabinet minister  lose the support of 40 MPs who voted for the deal on Tuesday night. Mrs May is not keen on the idea either. She thinks having an independent trade policy is one of the main economic benefits of Brexit.  James Forsyth, The Sun

Foster rejects claims that the DUP would agree to softer Brexit  Belfast Telegraph

Brexit 11) Leadsom: Ministers back Remain think they know better than voters

Brexit 12) Moore: Parliament versus the people?

Ministers trying to block a no deal Brexit wrongly think they know better than voters, Andrea Leadsom has said as the issue prompted a public split among the Cabinet. Ms Leadsom, the Leader of the Commons, told The Telegraph that colleagues who want to stop no deal will fail our country and weaken the UKs negotiating hand. It comes after Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, said in a leaked conference call that the threat of a no deal Brexit could be taken off the table within days. Other ministers including Amber Rudd, the Work and Pensions Secretary, and David Gauke, the Justice Secretary, and Greg Clark, the Business Secretary, have also argued publicly that a no-deal Brexit must be stopped.  Daily Telegraph

It is grand to assert the rights of Parliament. Indeed, it was one of the main reasons for voting Leave. But against whom are those rights being asserted now? The Hammonds, Bercows and Boleses are trying to assert them against the people. Mrs May does not always find the right words, but at the beginning of this tumultuous week, she had a good answer when old Ed Miliband got up and asked her if she were the servant of the House. She replied she was the servant of the people. It is astonishing that Remainers are trying to split off the one from the other.  Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph

Other comment

Remainiac politicians are traumatised by ordinary people supporting Brexit  Leader, The Sun

The Conservative Party can only survive if it finally splits  Matthew Parris, The Times

Brexit isnt about the imperial past. Its about our democratic future  Leader, Daily Telegraph

Councils plan new 1,000 a year parking charges

Its good economics and will help to tackle toxic air  Leader, The Times

Salmond accuses Sturgeon of rewriting history

Motorists will have to pay up to 1,000 a year to drive to work under plans to cut congestion in Britains most gridlocked cities. A workplace parking levy is being considered by at least ten councils in England and Scotland to reduce traffic and pollution and to raise money for public transport. The charge would be imposed on businesses with more than ten parking spaces and is designed to encourage employees to leave their cars at home. Last night the AA described it as a poll tax on wheels and said that costs would be passed on to workers. In Nottingham, the only city to introduce the levy so far, about four in ten companies pass costs on to staff. Hundreds of teachers pay to park cars in the city but NHS buildings are exempt. It has raised 53.7 million since it was introduced in 2012, with most of the money spent on improving the tram network.  The Times

Hostilities between Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon have taken a fresh twist after the former first minister accused his successor of rewriting history by removing his name from the SNPs website. But Mr Salmond was accused of throwing a temper tantrum by political opponents as the fallout of the Scottish Governments botched sexual harassment inquiry into him continues. But Mr Salmond was accused of throwing a temper tantrum by political opponents as the fallout of the Scottish Governments botched sexual harassment inquiry into him continues.  The Scotsman

Second Trump/Kim summit within weeks

US President Donald Trump is to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a second summit by the end of February, the White House says. The announcement came after Mr Trump met top North Korean negotiator Kim Yong-chol at the White House. He had been expected to deliver a letter from Kim Jong-un to Mr Trump. Little progress has been made on denuclearisation since their historic summit in Singapore last June. No venue has been announced for the new summit.  BBC

as younger Republicans look to a new candidate

News in brief

Theresa May asks her MPs to think about history. She should do so too  Tim Bale, Evening Standard

Claire Lehmann: Warrior princess of the Intellectual Dark Web  Toby Young, CapX

Brexit will allow us to rebuild relationships in Africa and the Caribbean on an equal footing  Chloe Schendel-Wilson, Brexit Central

Whats the real reason Greg Clark doesnt like Brexit?  Rupert Darwall, The Spectator

Human Rights Act could be scrapped  Independent

Donald Trumps path to re-election looks increasingly rocky after a poll showed that younger Republican voters would prefer a fresh candidate for the partys 2020 presidential nomination. The prospect of a primary selection contest initiated by lesser-known personalities could tempt big names to join the fray, with the wish list of anti-Trump conservatives topped by Jim Mattis, the recently departed defence secretary, and Nikki Haley, who unexpectedly stood down as US ambassador to the United Nations in October. The desire for Mr Trump to prove himself under the primary system was greatest among those aged 18 to 37, with 52 per cent of Republican voters in the millennial age group backing a challenge, a Marist poll for the NPR/PBS public broadcasters showed. Generation X, those aged 38 to 53, also favoured a challenge, by 49 to 43 per cent, while older voters were against.  The TimesDanville, IL (61832)

Today

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.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.My name is Aabha Vora. Im the assistant photo editor at the Daily Collegian, and Im the only person of color on the 15-person Board of Editors.

Recently, the Collegian published an editorial criticizing the diversity report released by Penn State, calling it misleading and rightfully acknowledging the failures of the university to promote diversity. It also references a Letter to the Editor submitted to the Collegian by the only tenured African-American professor in the political science department, Dr. Errol Henderson, where he discusses the issues he faces every day, being Black at Penn State.

Being Black at Penn State | Letter to the Editor I have been at Penn State since 2002. I am the only tenured African American professor in th

I was not personally available to contribute to the conversation regarding this editorial, and while I still agree with what the editorial comments on, it concerns me the Board of Opinions published a statement criticizing the diversity of Penn State. The Daily Collegian newsroom is not as racially diverse as it should be  as it could be.

Dont get me wrong  I think its incredibly important to start a conversation about the shortcomings of our university regarding diversity. Im proud I work for the top student media outlet, one that engages in these difficult discussions and calls Penn State out on its bullshit.

Im also thankful that I even have the ability to criticize my own organization. There should be a greater effort made on the part of the Collegian to include people who have different life experiences into the conversation.

But this is not to say major strides havent already been taken to improve this aspect of the newsroom. Im proud of the fact that the Collegian has better relationships now than ever before with other student organizations on campus that represent minority groups.

I can see the conscious effort being made by our executive editors to make improving representation in our newsroom a priority. The fact of the matter is, though, the work isnt done yet.

I believe representation in media is an extremely important component to telling the stories of the community. However, I dont have all the solutions. Weve acknowledged our issues with racial diversity and representation in the newsroom in the past, which is great, but acknowledging it doesnt totally solve the problem.

The recent editorial makes a statement, If a student of color is here, its hard to comprehend what they endure on a daily basis, knowing that their own university hasnt made significant strides in diversity and inclusion.

It is hard to know what a student of color or anyone from any other minority group for that matter feels every day at this university when you arent one.

I dont think my opinion in the editorial would have been nearly enough either  I definitely cant claim to know the experience of every minority group at Penn State. I also understand that finding a way to better representation in our newsroom is a difficult task to undertake, and wont be solved overnight.

But, I truly believe the Collegian is actually the premiere student-run media outlet it touts being. Thats why I think we as an organization have the ability to do much better.A full crowd sat anxiously waiting in Heritage Hall for activist and shooting survivor David Hogg to sit on the lone stool on stage and speak about one of the most life-changing days he has ever experienced.

On Friday night, Hogg delivered a lecture in the HUB-Robeson Center explaining the importance of youth political activism and counteracting gun violence in schools as a part of the Student Programming Association's Distinguished Speaker Series.

Hogg, 18, is a survivor of the Feb. 14, 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 of his fellow students and faculty members died.

[That day] I saw the look of terror on some of my classmates faces, Hogg said. Its hard to believe when youre in one of those instances that its really happening.

Before the lecture, two groups of students held separate protests  one at the Allen Street Gates at the edge of campus and another at the HUB right outside the room in which Hogg would later speak. Both protests advocated for Second Amendment rights and displayed pro-gun signs.

Hogg co-founded March For Our Lives, a nonprofit organization that advocates for stronger gun control, and started the #NeverAgain movement with other youth. He has also co-published a novel, #NeverAgain, with his sister, Lauren. The novel details the creation of the hashtag itself. In addition, Hogg co-authored Glimmer of Hope: How Tragedy Sparked a Movement, with 25 of his fellow survivors-turned-activists.

On March 14, 2018, one month after the shooting at his school, Hogg and his newfound group held the National School Walkout to raise awareness surrounding gun violence in schools.

[It] was pretty damn remarkable, Hogg said of the first walkout that schools across the country participated in. If any of you here tonight participated in your schools walkout, youre awesome.

However, Hogg said he hopes no more walkouts are needed to change gun laws in the United States.

On March 24, 2018, Hogg and members of March For Our Lives held the first-annual gun-control rally in Washington, D.C.  one of the largest in U.S. history. Hogg emphasized the notion that youth are often ignored, especially when it comes to the discussion of the reformation of school security in relation to gun laws.

I want to make it clear  were not trying to take your guns away, Hogg said. Were trying to save lives. We need to stop school shooters before they show up in our school parking lots.

RELATED

Pro-gun student protest at Penn State met with resistance In response to Florida's Parkland shooting survivor and March For Our Lives co-founder David

Regarding specifics of a plan to counteract gun violence in schools, Hogg said no plan is perfect.

"But if it saves one person, one life, I think we should have it," Hogg said.

He also discussed the power of youth votes in elections as well as the direct impact those votes have in overthrowing corrupt politicians who ignore school shootings.

It is stupidly difficult for us to be able to vote, Hogg said. There is hope [for change] as long as we can vote.

Zachary Trask, a student who attended the lecture, said Hoggs words were informative and inspiring.

The points he brought up were really good and important, Trask (freshman-computer science) said. More people definitely need to hear [his points] and know about them. For me, this was more of an informational session so I could add to what I already knew  or thought I knew, anyway.

Shay Zhang said Hogg displayed intelligence beyond his years.

I thought [his lecture] was very interesting because hes such a young guy lecturing us college students on this huge movement hes involved in, Zhang (senior-finance) said. Hes bold and brave enough to come out and talk about this. Its tremendous of him and his entire organization to bring more awareness to the youth, especially with voting.

Hogg ended his lecture with words of encouragement for young people to become active in politics and or any issues important to them.

Dont wait for any issues you see to affect you before you create change, Hogg said.

RELATEDIn response to Florida's Parkland shooting survivor and March For Our Lives co-founder David Hogg speaking on Penn States main campus, some students chose to march from Grace Lutheran Church on South Garner Street to the Allen Street Gates to advocate for Second Amendment rights.

The protesters marched with flags and signs in hand, with statements such as if gun-free zones work, how come 98% of mass shootings happen in gun free zones? as well as gun rights are womens rights written across signs.

Aidan Mattis of the College Republicans and president of Young Americans for Liberty, was the organizer of the protest, and said they came out in support of the Second Amendment in response to the Student Programming Association bringing Hogg to campus.

We decided that in protest, partially of Hogg's opinions and partially of the Student Programming Association's absolute refusal to ever bring a conservative to speak, we would demonstrate our beliefs in one way they cant ignore, which is raising the flag and protesting, Mattis (junior-medieval studies) said.

The protesters originally planned to march with unloaded guns, sparking a lot of controversy among students on campus. Ultimately, Mattis decided not to include guns in the protest, which he claimed was unrelated to the backlash he received on Twitter.

We felt that some people were missing the forest for the trees [and] seeing only the guns, Mattis said. We wanted them to see what it was really about, which is the right to bear arms and to resist tyranny  not to scare a bunch of people.

Were not carrying the guns but we still have them, Mattis added. Thats the spirit of the protest.

Regardless of the lack of firearms, police were still present throughout the entire protest.

After marching from the church to the gates with their flags and signs in hand, Mattis spoke to the crowd, stating that this is not a matter of right versus left, before being interrupted by counter protesters.

One counter protester by the name of Callie Maier shared an emotional story of a friend that committed suicide with a gun  and proceeded to share her disdain for the way the protesters went about their beliefs.

Maier (graduate-rhetoric) said she normally does not show up to anti-gun protests because gun ownership is a complicated issue, but she went on to say that she felt the need to come out to this one in particular.

Maier felt the way the protesters were going about the issue was insensitive to Hogg, who has experienced gun violence firsthand.

I felt like it was my duty to point out that life is more important than guns, Maier said.

Another student present, Nakola Sheppard, expressed similar sentiments to Maier in terms of being more sensitive to Hoggs experience.

Im not mad at them, and Im trying to understand where theyre coming from, but I think its the wrong place wrong time, Sheppard said. [The protesters] are taking a stance against a person who lived through something they have probably never experienced before. You will never understand the pain that [Hogg] lived through in those moments.

Mattis responded to the statements from counter protesters by saying he is not surprised by the outrage, but that without Hoggs presence on campus, he doesnt think the protest would have gotten the same amount of attention.

We didnt bring guns, we were sensitive about that. Mattis said. But, at the same time, Hogg put himself on a national platform for this debate and made himself into the champion for this cause.President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he meets U.S. political and military leaders during an unannounced visit to Al Asad Air Base, Iraq December 26, 2018.

President Donald Trump on Saturday proposed limited legal protections for undocumented immigrants in exchange for money to build his proposed border wall, a plan meant to put pressure on congressional Democrats as the longest government shutdown ever drags into its 29th day.

In remarks at the White House, Trump again pushed for $5.7 billion in U.S. funding to build "steel barriers in high-priority locations"  different from the Mexican government-funded concrete wall across the entire southern border that he proposed as a candidate. But the proposal quickly came under fire from recalcitrant Democrats, as well as conservatives leery of any deal that embraced "amnesty."

The offer likely will not lead to a deal to reopen the nine U.S. agencies that remain unfunded as concerns grow about the 800,000 federal workers going without pay. Before Trump announced the proposal Saturday, Democratic leaders rejected it as inadequate or even "unacceptable" as details emerged in media reports.

The president backed legislation to give more than 700,000 immigrants, known as "Dreamers," temporary legal status and work authorization for three years if their protection gets revoked. He also supported a three-year extension of the legal status of immigrants temporarily protected from deportation.

The president called his plan "straightforward, fair, reasonable and common sense" with "lots of compromise." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pledged to bring the bill to a vote this week, which will fail unless seven Democrats support it. McConnell previously said he would not move a plan to end the government shutdown unless both the president and Democratic leaders back it.

Trump described his Saturday offer as a way to "break the logjam and provide Congress with a path forward to end the government shutdown and solve the crisis on the southern border." He did not mention the government worker furloughed or working without pay during his comments.

Trump said the proposal includes some other provisions:

$800 million in "urgent humanitarian assistance"

$805 million for "drug detection technology to help secure our ports of entry"

2,750 more border patrol agents and law enforcement officials

75 new immigration judge teams

A mechanism to allow Central American minors to apply for asylum in their home countries

The olive branch comes as Trump faces pressure to end the partial closure that has inflicted financial pain on government workers, and disrupted services from food inspection to airport security. The president's demand for money to construct the barrier  and Democrats' refusal to fund it  led to the funding lapse that polls say Americans are increasingly blaming on Trump.As the partial government shutdown slogs on, the Transportation Security Administration says an increasing number of its officerswho aren't being paid during the furlough  are facing financial difficulties, with some not showing up for work.

TSA officers, air traffic controllers and other federal workers who have been showing up for work at airports aren't getting paychecks. Yet across the country, they are getting lots of love, food and offers of assistance from a range of service providers and the general public.

At least so far, passengers aren't feeling the strain. The agency says security checkpoint wait times at most of the nation's largest airports remain within TSA's normal wait times of 30 minutes for standard lanes and 10 minutes for TSA Precheck lanes. The time passengers had to wait to pass through the checkpoints at Atlanta, Denver, Newark, Seattle and other airports exceeded those times on Friday.

Meanwhile, TSA staffers working without pay are struggling, which is prompting people around the country to rally behind them. At Bellingham International Airport in Washington, about 20 miles from the Canadian border, budget airline Allegiant Air provided pizza for TSA workers on Thursday.

tweet

In Las Vegas, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak visited with TSA workers at McCarran International Airport to express his appreciation for their service and commitment to the airport and to the community. He, too, came with hot pizzas in tow.

tweet2

The offers of free food are coming on the heels of last week's gesture of goodwill from Canadian air traffic controllers, who sent more than 300 pizzas to their counterparts in more than 40 airports in the United States. Air traffic controllers in the Canadian city of Edmonton got the (dough) ball rolling.

tweet3

Of course, TSA and FAA employees working without paychecks can't live by pizza alone. Enter Seattle Tacoma International Airport, where donations of non-perishable food and gifts cards are being collected and distributed daily.

tweet4

Separately, Seattle-based Washington Federal is offering interest-free, 90-day loans, with no loan fees or application fees, to some federal workers waiting for paychecks in eight western states.

"We are proud to step in and help our hard-working neighbors get through this uncertain time and support their financial needs," said Washington Federal president and CEO Brent J. Beardall in a statement, "We hope other financial institutions will do the same."

And in San Jose, California, the City Council this week endorsed Mayor Sam Liccardo's proposal to set up a no-interest short-term loan program for many of the 500 federal employees who have been working at Mineta San Jose International Airport without pay.

The program, which may be funded through airport revenues and administered in partnership with one or more financial institutions, proposes loans equal to monthly take-home pay for FAA air traffic controllers, TSA workers and officers working for Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

"We are going to do everything in our power to keep political dysfunction in Washington from creating service disruptions or safety issues here in San Jose," said Liccardo. Citing the local airport's integral role in the local economy, Liccardo added that the incentives were needed to "help keep these essential workers on the job."

With no end in sight to the stalemate, airports around the country continue to gather and distribute donations for federal employees affected by the partial government shutdown.

STLTweet

At Orlando International Airport, there has been overwhelming response to a donation drive headed up by the Airline Management Council. On Thursday, the airline tweeted a short video of a room with tables piled high with everything from donated diapers to toilet paper and canned goods.

tweet

As the shutdown continues, airlines, airport concessionaires and other groups are stepping up with donations, discounts and support. This week, the main airports of both Albuquerque and St. Louis offered up free food and goodies to beleaguered TSA workers.

ABQPresident Donald Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House in Washington, DC, on January 14, 2019 en route to New Orleans, Louisiana to address the annual American Farm Bureau Federation convention.

President Donald Trump said he will make a "major" announcement on Saturday about the border and ongoing government shutdown, amid reports that the White House could offer a major concession on its immigration hardline to end the standoff with Congress.

@realDonaldTrump: I will be making a major announcement concerning the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border, and the Shutdown, tomorrow afternoon at 3 P.M., live from the @WhiteHouse.

The president did not provide any further details on what he would discuss on what is set to be the 28th day of the partial government shutdown. The White House press team offered no further guidance to reporters when asked about the president's tweet late Friday.

However, both The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that the president is expected to offer protections from deportations for millions of immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally, in exchange for the nearly $6 billion he is seeking for a border wall.

Citing unnamed White House officials, the publications say the concessions on so-called "Dreamers" is seen as an olive branch to Democrats, and a potential way to end the nearly month-long stalemate that's shuttered the government.

Axios reported that Trump is prepared to throw his support behind the BRIDGE Act, which would provide three years of temporary legal status and work authorization for the Dreamers. The act was first proposed in 2016 by Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican close to Trump, and Democratic Senator Dick Durbin.

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is given to nationals from designated countries affected by armed conflict, natural disaster, or other strife. TPS holders are permitted to work and live in the United States for limited times.In July of 2018, the French government passed a law banning cell phones in schools. According to CNN, the law passed 62 votes to one. The policy came into effect during the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year and impacts students in kindergarten through the 9th grade. Some schools across the U.S. are enacting similar policies as a way to decrease distractions for students. "It was a constant distraction for kids and what it became is a constant discipline issue," Robin Kvalo, Principal of Portage High School, tells Wisconsin Public Radio. Kvalo says the school confiscated over 200 phones during the last school year, and that students and teachers are seeing results. "They are not distracted anymore," she says. "The phones are not their preoccupation. They know they can't have the phones in the classroom. If that had been the case years ago, we wouldn't have needed the policy." It doesn't take a scientist to tell you that cell phones can be distracting, but if you want do want confirmation from a scientist, it's not hard to find. Study after study shows that the powerful computers we keep in our pockets can be distracting for even the most disciplined of adults  not to mention students.

Hero Images | Getty ImagesFor its part, BuzzFeed steadfastly defended its reporting, and called upon the special counsel's office to clarify what parts of the story it was disputing. Prior to publication, BuzzFeed reached out to Mueller's office, and a spokesman declined to comment.

It was not immediately clear which parts of the BuzzFeed story the special counsel's office was disputing, but the statement itself constituted a rare public intervention into reporting about the wide-ranging probe that's engulfed the White House. It also raised the stakes on a story that lawmakers, legal analysts and reporters all agreed was, if true, potentially one of the most damaging of Trump's entire presidency.

Yet in a statement provided to CNBC, Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel's office, said that "BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the special counsel's office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's congressional testimony are not accurate."

In a development that sent shock waves through the political world, BuzzFeed News published a bombshell report that cited two unnamed federal law enforcement sources saying that the president directed Michael Cohen, his ex-lawyer, to lie about plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin during the 2016 campaign to discuss the Trump Tower proposal.

Special counsel Robert Mueller's office issued a rare public rebuke on Friday of elements of a stunning report alleging that President Donald Trump directed his former legal counsel to lie in sworn congressional testimony about the president's involvement in a Russian real estate deal.

Throughout the day Friday, many of the main characters in the story, including Cohen and Trump, speaking through their attorneys, declined to directly confirm or deny the claim that Trump directed Cohen to lie, instead focusing on peripheral aspects of the story.

Trump  a prolific user of Twitter who frequently uses his account to rail against opponents, issue policy and attack the Russia probe  did a victory lap of sorts on Friday, by retweeted a number of posts celebrating Mueller's rebuke of the BuzzFeed article. On Saturday, Trump said he was grateful to Mueller for a statement disputing BuzzFeed's report.

"I appreciate the special counsel coming out with a statement last night. I think it was very appropriate that they did so," Trump told reporters at the White House. "I think that the BuzzFeed piece was a disgrace to our country. It was a disgrace to journalism."

It constituted a sharp turnabout by the president and his defenders, who have denounced the special counsel's probe as a "witch hunt," and attacked Mueller himself in unusually personal terms.

Trump tweet

Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, attacked Cohen's credibility, saying that he wanted to sell the "Brooklyn Bridge" to anyone who believed Cohen. One of the authors of the report, Anthony Cormier, had told CNN Friday morning that he was "100 percent" confident in his sourcing. BuzzFeed tweeted later Friday that the roots of the story stretched back over a year.

For Trump's 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, the special counsel's statement presented an opportunity to attack the media at large. "So sad that so many journalists have lost their integrity," Parscale tweeted Friday.

Much like the original story amounted to a political spear for Democrats to wield against the president, Friday night's special counsel statement represented a political gift to Trump and his reelection campaign, giving fresh fodder to the well worn narrative that stories unfavorable to the president are "fake" and that the news media is "biased" against the Trump administration.

The report documented some of the most serious allegations made against Trump and Cohen since Mueller began his probe of Russian meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.

The report cited two law enforcement officials and also cited "multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents." In addition to the charge that Cohen lied to Congress at Trump's direction, the law enforcement officials alleged that Trump supported Cohen's plan for him to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin during the 2016 campaign to discuss the Trump Tower proposal.

The BuzzFeed report also sparked widespread reactions from Congressional Democrats vowing to investigate the story's central claims.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Friday that his committee will increase its efforts to investigate the aborted Moscow Trump Tower deal, while several other high-profile Democrats urged more hearings.

--Reuters contributed to this article.Looking for a change of pace? How about moving to an itty-bitty, historic hilltop town in the South of Italy? Four people will live in Grottole, Italy for free this summer, thanks to Airbnb and local non-profit Wonder Grottole. They will become part of the local community and work as experience and home hosts for Airbnb. How would you like to drop everything and move to Italy for three months? "Our dream is to repopulate the historical centre," Silvio Donadio, one of the founders of Wonder Grottole, said in a written statement about the program, which was announced Tuesday. Currently only 300 people live in the town (located in the arch of Italy's "boot"), which has more than 600 empty homes, after many residents left in search of economic opportunity. "In ten years we'd like to see the village full of people from different cultures perfectly integrated with the local community."

Andrea Paoletti, one of the founders of Wonder Grottole. Photo courtesy Airbnb

Applicants who are selected will have their travel expenses to and from Grottole covered by Airbnb and will get an Airbnb coupon to stay in a local accommodation, a spokesperson for Airbnb tells CNBC Make It. (One of the apartments where applicants will stay can be seen here, a spokesperson for Airbnb tells CNBC Make It, but the four selected won't all stay in the same accommodation.) Those selected will be expected to work for the nonprofit, Wonder Grottole. In addition to hosting visitors, they will lead experiences, or events for visitors. Experiences in Grottole will including historic skills like vegetable farming, honey harvesting, pasta making and olive oil production. "Visitors coming to Grottole will live in a quiet place, with slow living," says Vincenzo (no last name provided), the local olive oil producer, according to a written statement from Airbnb and Wonder Grottole. "There's no traffic, no chaos, no pollution, good food and above all welcoming people. People from abroad will bring a new energy to our village and they must be open to sharing their stories with us. We are good listeners."

Vincenzo, 21, and his father, Giuseppe, 54, are olive oil producers in Grottole. Vincenzo is a student at the University of Milan, but he returns home often to help with the olive oil business. Photo courtesy Airbnb

The Grottole partnership is part of a larger collaboration between Airbnb and the Basilicata region of southern Italy, where Grottole is located. In June, Airbnb announced the Southern region of Italy won the Airbnb Community Tourism Programme, an effort to support sustainable tourism. "At Airbnb, we believe that when travel is unique, authentic and local, everyone benefits. We know some of the best experiences are found beyond tourist hotspots  in the communities local residents call home," the travel company says on its website for the Community Tourism Program."

Rocco is the local hairdresser, saffron producer and beekeeper in Grottole, Italy. He's lived in the small town for 40 ears. Photo courtesy AirbnbClinton, IA (52732)

Today

A chance of some strong thunderstorms. Storms may produce large hail and strong winds. Low 72F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

A chance of some strong thunderstorms. Storms may produce large hail and strong winds. Low 72F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%.Beachwood, OH (44122)

Today

Clear this evening then becoming cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 64F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Clear this evening then becoming cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 64F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Todays the day: a low pressure system bringing along a winter storm entered Ohio on Saturday morning and reached the Cleveland area around noon.

If you woke up Saturday morning to a fresh blanket of about half an inch to an inch of snow, thats because a part of the system had already moved through, according to Patrick Saunders, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cleveland.

The main part of system will begin filling in the region throughout the morning, Saunders said. By the afternoon, the entire region will be under ongoing snow.

Ready...Set...SNOW! #HeavySnow will begin shortly in the next 15 to 30 minutes here in the #Cleveland metro area with visibilities down to a 1/4 of a mile at times and 1 inch per hour rates. #OHwx #PAwx #ThisIsCLE #CLEwx #WinterStorm #Ready  NWS Cleveland (@NWSCLE) January 19, 2019

The snow will continue late into Saturday night, accumulating to about 7 to 9 inches in the Cleveland area, Saunders said.

The snowfall totals will be higher southeast of Cleveland, with Canton and Youngstown set to receive up to 10 inches, Saunders said. Areas to the west, like Toledo, may see only 4 to 6 inches of snow accumulation.

In addition to the heavy snow, northeast winds will consistently blow about 15 to 25 mph sustained, with occasional gusts up to 35 mph, Saunders said. Blowing and drifting snow is expected to reduce visibilities.

Once the storm system moves off, were going to have Arctic air move in Sunday and Monday, Saunders said. Were going to get some pretty low temperatures and as we have residual wind gusts. Thosell bring wind chills even lower.

Temperatures will plunge into the teens and wind chill values will fall to between -5 and -20 below on Sunday night, Saunders said.

When that colder air hits any wet surfaces, they will freeze and become very slick, so expect slippery roads on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

But wait, theres more!

As the storm system moves off to our east, well get more of a northerly flow and thisll allow some narrow lake-effect bands that will move across the area on Sunday, Saunders said.

The lake-effect band will be pretty narrow, so its too early to pinpoint which areas will get additional snow.

Anywhere in the Cleveland metro area might receive an additional one to two inches, possibly localized more, on top of what were going to get with this storm system today, Saunders said.

As colder and drier air moves through, that lake-effect event will slowly taper off Sunday night into Monday, Saunders said.

A winter storm warning remains in effect until 4 a.m. Monday.

NWS also issued a lakeshore flood warning in effect until 7 a.m. Sunday for Lucas, Ottawa and Erie counties. Residents on or near the shore should be prepared for Lake Erie water levels to be higher than normal, NWS said.

NWS tweeted just after 2 p.m. Saturday about reports of sleet and freezing rain south and west of Mansfield and near Marion.

Here's our thinking of the line between all snow and mixed precip (freezing rain and sleet) given reports and radar data. South of black line is mixed precipitation and north of the line is all snow. This will not change the impacts though may slightly reduce snow totals. pic.twitter.com/nfrqeE6qja  NWS Cleveland (@NWSCLE) January 19, 2019

Areas with mixed precipitation should expect it to change back to snow around 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., NWS said.CLEVELAND, Ohio  President Trump may insist that we need a $5.7 billion wall to stop illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border, but immigration judges groups say that the prolonged government shutdown is making already overburdened and understaffed immigration courts even less efficient.

The longer that U.S. immigration courts stay largely closed, the more cases will be added to the national backlog of waiting-to-be-heard immigration cases and the longer people will wait to see judges who can determine their immigration status. That case backlog now stands at more than 800,000 nationwide  including 10,000 in Cleveland, according to the independent and nonpartisan TRAC Immigration Project at Syracuse University.

An estimated 800,000 federal employees nationwide are working without pay or being forced to take unpaid time off in what is now the longest shutdown in U.S. history. In Ohio, that includes more than 7,000 workers, from the IRS offices in Cincinnati, to NASA and TSA workers in Northeast Ohio, to judges and clerks in Clevelands immigration court.

Judge A. Ashley Tabaddor, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, said the only cases immigration judges are hearing now are those of people detained while awaiting their chance to appear before a judge. Those judges who are hearing cases  and working without pay  are having to make their decisions in less time and without the staff and translators they would ordinarily have access to.

That means other people who may have waited years to get a court date are in limbo until the courts reopen. Those whose hearings were scheduled during the shutdown wont automatically be first in line whenever the courts reopen. Instead, they will be put at the back of the line and might not get another court date until 2022.

The number of cases waiting to be heard stood at 640,000 in 2017, when more than 100 more immigration judges were hired to help alleviate the bottleneck. But despite their efforts, the backlog had been growing even before the shutdown, Tabaddor said.

The situation underscores why immigration courts should have been structured as truly independent and impartial, not treated as an extension of law enforcement under the U.S. Department of Justice. We should have been part of the Judicial branch, she said. Although that structure predates the current administration, under Trump, the problem has been amplified. Theyve just taken all the bad ideas and put them on steroids, she said.

The direct impact is that none of our judges are getting paid and three-fourths are furloughed and prevented from going to court and doing their jobs, she said. Judges who are dealing with detained docket are being asked to go to work, but are not given the administrative time to review cases and circumstances before and after court appearances. Under those conditions, its much more likely to lead to cases being continued because the judge needs time to review materials. Those cases are likely going to be delayed for years.

Paul Shearon, international president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, based in Washington, D.C., an affiliate of the AFL-CIO which represents more than 80,000 highly-skilled professional, technical and administrative workers in the U.S. and Canada, said: Every single day that this goes on, the situations getting worse.

This is a plan thats destined to fail. We have the president talking about border security when at the same time, we have half of the immigration judges furloughed, he said. Thats in addition to the border patrol agents, TSA and ICE agents who also prevent unauthorized entry. He said the issue is clearly about politics rather than national security, because of a huge election promise made to his base that Were going to build a wall, and Mexicos going to pay for it. and not getting money appropriated to build a wall.

David Leopold, a Cleveland immigration attorney and chair of the immigration law group at Ulmer & Berne LLP, said that Even under the best of circumstances, the court is overloaded and underfunded, made worse by the fact that now, "they dont have the time to carefully consider each case and the legal complexities of each case.

People think that all immigration court is about is deporting people, but its more complex than that, he said. Judges can grant asylum or relief from deportation, or resolve someones uncertain immigration status. And in most cases, postponing those hearings is not helpful. If a judge was supposed to grant someone a green card but couldnt, how will that person be able to legally work? For cases that rely on the testimony of expert witnesses, a psychiatrist or psychologist, those people need to be hired without knowing for certain if the case is going to happen.

Ive had clients who said, Screw this. One client applied for asylum to Canada [instead of to the U.S.], and just got it, Leopold said.CLEVELAND, Ohio  College will be free for virtually all Cleveland school district graduates starting with this years senior class, after the much-anticipated launch today of the Say Yes to Education college scholarship and student support program in the city.

A team of city, county, philanthropic and Say Yes leaders announced the scholarships at a rally at John Marshall High School to cheering students this morning, pledging that the ever-increasing cost of tuition will no longer block Cleveland school district graduates from attending college. Officials have already raised more than 70 percent of the $125 million they need to pay for scholarships for the next 25 years.

Though students and families will still have to pay living expenses, the new Say Yes scholarships will cover all remaining tuition costs once federal and state aid is used.

Related coverage: Say Yes to Education announces Cleveland will be the nonprofit organizations next site for its community efforts.

Today, we are guaranteeing that your dreams can come true, school district CEO Eric Gordon told students.

Say Yes founder George Weiss, a New York businessman, told students that he wants the scholarships to give students hope.

Its about raising expectations for the young people," he said.

Students were ecstatic about not having to worry about paying for college.

It will make a big difference," said John Marshall senior James Woolfolk Jr. "Now I dont have to work two jobs to make it through. I can just start and I dont have to worry about being in debt and owing anybody money.

And Yasmin Adam, an immigrant from Sudan, said the announcement will let her drop plans to work for a few years to save money before going to nursing school.

I was scared to go to college, because Im the first generation (in her family to go), she said. "When I came here I lost all hope that I would go to college and chase my dream.

And senior Lynae Howard called the new scholarships amazing.

Nobody wants to be paying loans for the rest of their life, she said. This given to us can stop that. I am very grateful that this is given to us.

Others said the scholarships will help more than just the students. By offering free college, they said, more students will be better educated and can improve the regions economy as adults.

This will provide access for low and middle-incomes students in a way they havent seen before, said Helen Williams of the Cleveland Foundation, a major partner in bringing Say Yes here.

Cleveland has long had lower rates of adults with college degrees than other cities. And while the district has been trying to push more students towards college or other training after graduation, it hasnt worked. The percentage of Cleveland school district graduates attending college has declined from 54 percent in 2011 to 40 percent in 2017.

Thats unacceptable, Gordon said. So he and others wanted to find a way to ease the financial barriers to students attending and eliminating the loans that cripple them later.

After two and half years of planning, Cleveland becomes the fourth city to partner with New York-based Say Yes to Education will be a spark to change that trend. Say Yes is one of more than 200 so-called College Promise programs in the country, where all students of a district are promised free tuition at certain colleges if they graduate from high school and are accepted and eligible colleges.

Say Yes is already in place in Buffalo and Syracuse, N.Y., and Guilford County, N.C.

Say Yes goes a step further than a typical promise program by helping communities add social support services to schools so students have a better chance of succeeding in school and reaching college.

The Say Yes national organization contributes $15 million to each citys efforts for organizational and administrative costs, while offering financial and planning expertise. But each community must raise its own scholarship money and arrange for services inside schools.

Donations from 40 Northeast Ohio companies, foundations and individuals have already covered $88.4 million of the programs $125 million scholarship fundraising goal  more than 70 percent of the total  putting it far ahead of other promise programs around the country that started with lower amounts raised and then struggled to pull in the final dollars.

We are very confident that we will do what we need to do, said Paul Clark, the regional president of PNC bank in Cleveland.

Cleveland Foundation CEO Ronn Richard told students today these donations should send them a clear message: Cleveland believes in you.

The amount from each donor has not been released, though the Cleveland Foundation is the dominant donor. Other well-known donors include the George Gund Foundation, Key Bank Foundation and Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslams Haslam 3 Foundation. Haslams brother Bill, the governor of Tennessee, started a statewide, but more limited, college promise program in that state.

Here are key details about the program. Information is also available at www.sayyescleveland.org.

Click here for video of the full announcement rally.

Whos eligible:

All Cleveland school district residents who attend a district high school for all four high school years, as well as charter high schools that formally partner with the district. That includes just two charter schools now, Horizon Science Academy and Northeast Ohio College Preparatory School.

It does not include residents of other districts attending a district school through open enrollment, but does include students living in the portions of Bratenahl, Brook Park, Linndale, Newburgh Heights, and Garfield Heights that are part of the district.

The program is also allowing all current district residents who attend district high schools to be eligible for the first round of scholarships, even if they have not been at a district school all four years. But after today, students must attend eligible schools for all four high school years.

We felt it was really unfair (to exclude more recent enrollees) and were trying to get results quickly, Williams said.

Gordon said parents of 8th graders can still pick high schools so that their child can receive the scholarships.

You can enroll yet this spring for next years ninth grade class and be eligible, Gordon said.

There are no income rules for eligibility.

What do they get?

If family income is below $75,000  the majority of Cleveland families  the Say Yes scholarship will cover all tuition costs at eligible two-year and four-year schools or recognized job certificate programs.

If family income is over $75,000, the scholarship is capped at $5,000.

Families must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and all state and federal aid is used first, before Say Yes money fills the gap.

For many low-income students, there will not be any gap to fill, or just a small one, but the scholarship makes sure families will not have tuition costs to pay.

Officials said there are about 125 Cleveland graduates a year that are accepted to school, but dont go because they cant afford it. Many more start, but decide after freshman year they cannot keep up with the bills, said Lee Friedman, CEO of College Now Greater Cleveland, the non-profit that handles college advising for the district.

Thats often because of an inability to pay the last few thousand in tuition that the scholarships will now cover.

This isnt a little thing, Friedman said. Its a huge, huge thing.

What colleges are eligible?

All state colleges and universities and a list of 116 private schools that have joined the Say Yes Compact. These include Ivy League universities and several Ohio schools, including Ashland, Baldwin-Wallace, Case-Western, Denison, Dayton, John Carroll, Kenyon, Notre Dame College, Oberlin, Ohio Northern, and Ohio Wesleyan, and Wooster.

Wraparound services:

The Cleveland schools already provides wraparound social services at about one fourth of its schools after launching them for several schools targeted for major improvements a few years ago. Under Say Yes, more schools will receive them  and more services too.

There is little new money budgeted for these added services and officials have yet to announce a detailed plan. Say Yes doesnt pay for these services, nor does the scholarship fund. The program instead aims to have existing agencies and non-profits in the city better organize to target services to help students.

The lone immediate new expense and the key to providing these services will be hiring social services coordinators known as family support specialists for every school in the district, much like the site coordinators in place at wraparound schools now. They will organize summer school, after school, tutoring and family programs for the schools.

These coordinators will be paid by Cuyahoga County using federal child welfare grants, said Matt Carroll, the countys interim director of health and human services.

This first step will be adding directors and basic services to schools over four years - 15% of schools in the fall, 25% the year after, then 30% in years three and four.

Once those are in place at a school, officials will look at where to add much larger services like the health and dental clinics in place at many of the schools in Buffalo and Syracuse.

Central Say Yes office:

Though the school district is a major player in organizing Say Yes, the program will be independent, so it can continue even if school leadership changes.

It has already hired Diane Downing as the local executive director. She will start work Feb. 12 and will be based out of. Say Yes office to be created out of the main Cleveland Public Library downtown.

Downing, who worked with former Cleveland mayors George Voinovich and Michael White, was most recently CEO of the Republican National Convention host committee for the 2016 convention in Cleveland.

She will be paid by the Say Yes national organization, but Say Yes CEO Gene Chasin said he did not know what she will be paid.Babies born to mothers with an opioid addiction cry constantly and cant be soothed due to postnatal drug withdrawal. Exhausted parents in this situation would pay anything to ease the babys distress, but a Massachusetts company has a solution  a gently vibrating mattress pad that costs just $200.

That was one of several examples of technological solutions to the opioid crisis highlighted at Startups vs. The Opioid Crisis, the first event in the UH Ventures presents Health Voyagers Series held Friday at University Hospitals.

The eight companies invited to the Health Voyagers Series have been recognized by the state of Ohio as having potential solutions for the opioid crisis.

These startups received $200,000 from the state of Ohio as part of the Ohio Opioid Technology Challenge, a multi-phase prize competition to find new ideas in the fight against opioid and drug addiction.

The Health Voyagers Series will help UH identify companies for future collaborations, said David Sylvan, vice president and executive director of UH Ventures, the commercialization arm of University Hospitals. Sylvan hoped that the participating companies would also form collaborations among themselves.

UH CEO Tom Zenty gave opening remarks. Dr. Randy Jernejcic, Dr. Jeanne Lackamp and Tom Kreutzberg of UH, along with Mark Richey of BioEnterprise, Mike Maczuzak of SmartShape and Todd Federman of North Coast Angel Fund, were on a panel that heard the pitches and gave feedback.

John Konsin, co-founder and CEO of Prapela of Concord, Massachusetts, explained that babies with postnatal drug withdrawal experience racing heartbeats and other symptoms. The companys vibrating pad helps improve babies breathing and heart rates.

The pad will be available for hospitals and home use in a folding baby box that will be available to consumers soon. We expect word of mouth to spread very quickly, Konsin said.

A team from UH explained UH Care Continues, a computer-aided logistics platform that gathers input from various health care providers to determine if a discharged patient really needs to go home with an opioid prescription, or if an alternative pain reliever would be best.

Apportis of Dublin, Ohio, has a website offering around-the-clock live video chat that connects people with opioid addiction and those in recovery with health care providers who can help them get into treatment, said chief technology officer Andee Peabody.

Ray Dalton, a serial entrepreneur, founded Relink.org of Aurora, Ohio, in 2017 because he frustrated when trying to find opioid addiction treatment services for a loved one. Relink.org wants to become a resource that lists all opioid addiction services in one place.

Three clicks in three seconds is what we continually say, said Relink.org executive director Barbara Campbell. Currently, the database has more than 6,000 service providers and is being used across the state by hospitals, courts, schools, libraries and other organizations, Campbell said.

Innovative Health Solutions, of Versailles, Indiana, is working on a small device, worn behind the ear, that contains electrodes that send signals to the wearers central nervous system. The electronic signals alleviate many of the worst symptoms of drug withdrawal.

Other startups at the Health Voyagers Series were DynamiCare Health of Boston; Brave Technology Coop of Vancouver, Canada; InteraSolutions of Orem, Utah; and OpiSafe of Denver, Colorado.CLEVELAND, Ohio  Attorneys for Frank Russo said prosecutors unreasonably undervalue the assistance the former Cuyahoga County auditor provided as part of a federal investigation into county corruption by only asking a judge to shave off up to six years of his 22-year prison sentence.

Attorneys Roger Synenberg and Clare Moran emphasized in a new court filing Friday that Russo deserves to have nearly half of his sentence lopped off because of how much information he provided to federal agents.

They wrote that prosecutors sought larger sentence reductions for other people, even though Russos help far exceeds the value of the cooperation provided by these defendants. Others were caught lying, while Russo was always truthful, the filing states.

(You can read the filing here or at the bottom of this story.)

The former county auditor is set to be re-sentenced on Feb. 21 by U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi in Akron.

Russo, 69, admitted he and his cohorts took more than $1 million in bribes, gifts and trips in exchange for jobs, contracts and political favors, among other crimes. Prosecutors said he was one of the most corrupt politicians in the county, right up there with his friend Jimmy Dimora, the former county commissioner and Democratic Party chairman.

The former auditor, who served from 1997 until 2010, pleaded guilty in September 2010 and later agreed to cooperate with the FBI and IRS as it built cases against dozens of others, including Dimora. He was sentenced in December 2010 and is serving his time in a medical prison in Devens, Massachusetts.

In all, more than 70 were convicted. Prosecutors agreed to seek a sentence reduction after Russo completed his cooperation.

Lawyers for Russo and the government filed sentencing memos on Dec. 21 stating their positions. Fridays filing was in response to the governments request for a much smaller sentence reduction than the one Russo wants.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Miller wrote in her filing in December that Russo provided valuable assistance which helped lead to convictions against multiple public officials and contractors. However, she noted that Russo didnt come forward right away, and said the delay meant the government was unable to take more proactive measures like having him wear a wire or provide information in real time.

Russos memo on Friday argued that timing is not as significant, as he still provided information that led 11 people to plead guilty, testified against four people who were later convicted and provided other information the government did not yet know.

The former auditor wrote in a letter attached to his sentencing memo in December that he is a changed man and participates in many activities in prison. His memo also said he suffers from serious health issues, including kidney disease and heart problems.

Even if the judge cut his sentence in half, he would still serve the second-longest sentence of anyone convicted as part of the probe. Number one is Dimora, who is serving 28 years.

Russo will not be at Februarys re-sentencing hearing in person. Instead, he will appear via videoconference.

If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Saturdays crime and courts comments section.BROOK PARK, Ohio -- Aggravated menacing, Richard Drive: A man and woman, traveling in a vehicle on Richard Drive, told police that another driver had threatened them with a knife at about 7:15 p.m. Jan. 7.

The other driver was a neighbor -- a 39-year-old Brook Park man -- with whom the man and woman had feuded. The neighbor was upset because the man supposedly had revved his engine in the middle of the night more than once.

The man said he knocked the knife out of the neighbor's hand, then drove away. The neighbor told police that he never had a knife. Police found no proof that the incident occurred as the man and woman claimed, so a prosecutor decided not to file criminal charges.

Overdose, Snow Road: A Carrolltown, Pa., man, 35, was found dead of a heroin overdose at about 8:20 p.m. Jan. 3 in a hotel room at Holiday Inn Express, 16330 Snow.

The man's co-worker had called police after finding the man unresponsive on the bathroom floor. Police and paramedics administered Narcan, a heroin-overdose antidote, to no avail.

Burglary, Zaremba Drive: Someone forced their way through the rear door of a home on Zaremba between 10:30 and 11:50 p.m. Jan. 5. No one was home at the time. Cash was stolen.

Sudden illness, Snow Road: A Brook Park man, 69, was injured at about 1:45 p.m. Jan. 4 after he accidentally backed his car into two parked cars outside Giant Eagle, 14650 Snow.

The crash happened after the man's foot became stuck on the car's accelerator. He was taken to Southwest General Health Center in Middleburg Heights.

Police said the man had recently undergone heart surgery. Witnesses said the man might have fallen while inside Giant Eagle, before he crashed his car.

Grand theft auto, Snow Road: A 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee was stolen between Dec. 13-27 from the parking lot of Howard Johnson by Wyndham, 16644 Snow. The vehicle was later found outside the same hotel.

Criminal damaging, Brookpark Road: A Lakewood man, 57, called police at about 5 p.m. Dec. 26 after finding his mother's grave defaced in Holy Cross Cemetery, 14609 Brookpark. Broken beer bottles and a pink substance were on the gravestone.Grace Louise Archer, age 90, a resident of Aurora, Colorado, a former resident of Chillicothe, Missouri, passed away on Wednesday, June 2, 2021, at Shalom Park, Aurora, Colorado. Grace was born the daughter of Maurice P. Martin, Sr., and Margaret (O'Connor) Martin on October 10, 1930, in ChiA decade ago, Margarita Lopez Torres tried to change how judges are elected in New York. A trailblazing civil court judge in Brooklyn, Lopez Torres wanted to move up to the state Supreme Court  the next leg up on New Yorks judicial ladder.

But getting a promotion, as Lopez Torres learned, doesnt always have much to do with acumen or temperament. The Brooklyn Democratic boss at the time, Vito Lopez, didnt like her. To even get the nomination, he told her she would have to hire his daughter as a law clerk.

Year after year, she was rejected at an annual judicial convention where elected delegates rubber stamp the Democratic Partys choice for the state Supreme Court. She decided to sue the state Board of Elections, charging that voters have no real say in judicial elections. The long-shot case found success: In the District Court and the Second Circuit, Lopez Torres won, and the case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

There, the justices ruled overwhelmingly against Lopez Torres, arguing that New Yorks arcane and inaccessible system was not a violation of the First Amendment. Justice John Paul Stevens, in his brief concurrence with the majority, quoted Thurgood Marshall: The Constitution does not prohibit legislatures from enacting stupid laws.

Indeed, it does not. But in 2019, we have an unprecedented opportunity in New York to bring real change to our sclerotic, antiquated judicial system, the last vestige of machine politics in our city and state. With an emboldened Democratic majority in the state Senate, its time to reform how we pick judges and consolidate a labyrinthine court system.

Few New Yorkers understand the nature of the judicial system, even as they come into contact with it. Within the five boroughs, criminal and family court judges are appointed by the mayor after going through a screening process and being recommended by the Mayors Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. Civil court and state Supreme Court judges, however, are elected.

Civil court elections are fairly straightforward. While they tend to not be competitive, candidates campaign in typical primaries for 10-year terms. Since the city is largely Democratic, winning the primary in most neighborhoods is tantamount to victory. In these low-turnout, low-information elections, the judicial candidates with the backing of the party machine or prominent elected officials usually win.

If a civil court judge, once elected, wants to become a state Supreme Court judge  perks include a higher salary and an ability to serve past the mandatory retirement age of 70  the process gets murkier. As Lopez Torres found out, New York is unique in America by electing certain judges without a normal primary system. Democratic candidates cannot vie against each other in an open election for the state Supreme Court.

Instead, obscure judicial delegates are elected from each state Assembly district and go to a judicial convention in the judicial district where they reside. Few voters know who these delegates are or which judges they intend to support. Contested primaries for judicial delegates are exceedingly rare.

New York state, confusingly enough, is divided into 12 judicial districts. At these conventions, the delegates select Democratic nominees for the Supreme Court. Party bosses can stage manage the conventions and outcomes are often preordained. In largely Democratic areas, once the convention nominates a Democratic judge, that judge is all but assured elevation to the Supreme Court.

Throughout the city and state, this has given rise to a culture of politically-connected judges of varying quality. In Queens, an unusual number of judges are related to prosecutors in the district attorneys office, creating conflicts of interest that put defendants at a disadvantage. Judges have also been at the mercy of party bosses who help elect them and later extort them for political favors.

Eliminating sham judicial conventions altogether is an easy first step the new legislature could take. By passing a constitutional amendment, Democrats in the Assembly and Senate could at least excise this strange ritual from New York politics, which has no equivalent in most others states.

A constitutional amendment could also consolidate New York states bizarre, unwieldy court system. There are 11 trial courts in New York, but only one in California, a state twice as large. This system creates many challenging hurdles for anyone who has the misfortune of coming into contact with it.

Divorces, for example, are judged in state Supreme Court, while domestic violence, child custody and maintenance of divorce agreements fall into the jurisdiction of Family Court. In New York, a family will have to go to multiple courts, pay multiple fees and take extra time off work just to navigate the logistical hurdles.

The Legislature should follow the recommendations of the New York City Bar Association, which has put forth a proposal to consolidate most of the lower courts into a Supreme or District Court, cutting down on the numbers of places a plaintiff or defendant has to go.

If judicial conventions, relics of the Tammany Hall era, are eliminated and the courts are consolidated, what is to be done next? Should state Supreme Court justices simply be elected in primaries like civil court judges? That would be the easiest answer, but it would not greatly reduce the role party bosses and their apparatchiks play in picking judges.

As the Fund for Modern Courts argues, in the era of Citizens United, judicial elections across the country have become expensive affairs, and newly-elected judges can become beholden to big donors. Campaign finance reform (a public matching funds system like we have for New York City candidates) can reduce some of their influence, but any amount of money can be corrupting.

Better to move to a full appointment system and let civil and state Supreme Court judges ascend to the bench like their colleagues in criminal and family courts. A merit-based appointment process, used in exclusively 16 states, would allow the selection of judges who do not have to kowtow to political bosses and their allies.

The state Legislature, particularly the state Senate, can lead the way. Judicial reform has never interested Gov. Andrew Cuomo, but Democrats can push him there. Transformation of our state is finally possible, and Democrats should not squander the opportunity.What is ITIL?

The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a library of volumes describing a framework of best practices for delivering IT services. ITIL has gone through several revisions in its history and currently comprises five books, each covering various processes and stages of the IT service lifecycle. ITILs systematic approach to IT service management can help businesses manage risk, strengthen customer relations, establish cost-effective practices, and build a stable IT environment that allows for growth, scale and change.

Developed by the British government's Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) during the 1980s, the ITIL first consisted of more than 30 books, developed and released over time, that codified best practices in information technology accumulated from many sources (including vendors' best practices) around the world. IBM, for example, says that its four-volume series on systems-management concepts, A Management System for Information Systems, known as the Yellow Books, provided vital input into the original ITIL books.

In April 2001, CCTA, along with several other agencies, were rolled into the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), which is now known as the Cabinet Office. The OGC adopted the project as part of its mission to work with the U.K. public sector as a catalyst to achieve efficiency, value for money in commercial activities, and improved success in the delivery of programs and projects.

The goal wasn't to create a proprietary product that could be commercialized; rather, it was to gather best practices that could assist with what the government recognized was an increasing dependence within the government on IT combined with a painful lack of standard procedures that were increasing costs and allowing errors to perpetuate. It quickly became apparent that distributing these best practices would profit both public and private-sector organizations.

Over the years, ITIL's credibility and utility became recognized, and in 2005 its practices contributed to and aligned with the ISO/IEC 20000 Service Management standard, the first international standard for IT service management; it is based on British standard BS15000.

Since 2013, ITIL is owned by Axelos  a joint venture between the Cabinet Office and Capita. Axelos gives businesses the license to use the ITIL framework, while managing updates and process changes. However, to use ITIL internally, organizations do not need a license. ITIL v3 was released in 2011, under the Cabinet Office, bringing updates to the 2007 version published under OGC.

In 2018, Axelos announced ITIL 4  a major overhaul to the entire framework and the biggest change since ITIL v3 was published in 2007. ITIL 4, which started rolling out in Q1 of 2019, offers a more agile, flexible and customizable version of ITIL that is updated for modern businesses. The latest version encourages less siloes, more collaboration, communication across the entire business and integrating agile and DevOps into ITSM strategies.

What's in the ITIL?

The ITIL has gone through several revisions in its history. The original 30 books of the ITIL were first condensed in 2000 (when ITIL V2 was launched) to seven books, each wrapped around a facet of IT management. Later, the ITIL Refresh Project in 2007 consolidated the ITIL to five volumes consisting of 26 process and functions  this is referred to as the ITIL 2007 edition. In 2011, another update  dubbed ITIL 2011  was published under the Cabinet Office. The five volumes remained, and ITIL 2007 and ITIL 2011 remained similar.

ITIL 4, which was released in 2019, maintains the same focus on automating processes, improving service management and integrating the IT department into the business. However, it also updates the framework to accommodate and answer to modern technology, tools and software. Since ITILs last update, the IT department has grown to become integral to every business and the new framework accommodates this by being more agile, flexible and collaborative.

ITIL 4 contains nine guiding principles that were adopted from the most recent ITIL Practitioner Exam, which covers organizational change management, communication and measurement and metrics. These principles include:

Focus on value

Design for experience

Start where you are

Work holistically

Progress iteratively

Observe directly

Be transparent

Collaborate

Keep it simple

The newest version of ITIL focuses on company culture and integrating IT into the overall business structure. It encourages collaboration between IT and other departments, especially as other business units increasingly rely on technology to get work done. ITIL 4 also emphasizes customer feedback, since its easier than ever for businesses to understand their public perception, customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

For more information on the benefits of the latest version of ITIL, see ITIL 4: ITSM gets agile.

How do I put ITIL into practice?

ITIL is a collection of e-books, but merely going on a reading binge won't improve your IT operations. First, you have to wrap your brain around the concepts and then get staff buy-in. Getting some IT personnel to adopt new procedures can be like herding cats, but there are tools that can help.

Along with the ITIL comes a whole suite of consulting, training and certification services. From the early 1990s, certifications were administered by two independent bodies: EXIN and ISEB, depending on your location. The two bodies formed an alliance at the end of 2006 to further IT service management.

Since 2014, Axelos is the owner of the ITIL personnel certification and exams are administered by Accredited Training Organizations (ATOs). Accreditations are administered by Strategic Examination Institutes (EIs). EIs need to be accredited directly by Axelos in order to offer accreditation to ATOs.

Before implementing ITIL at your organizations, there are several questions you should answer, such as what problems your organization is trying to solve and what is your route to continual service improvement.

For a deeper look at putting ITIL into practice, see "7 questions to ask before implementing ITIL" and "How to get started with ITIL."

What is ITIL certification and is it worth it?

The ITIL v3 certification scheme previously consisted of five levels: Foundation, Practitioner, Intermediate, Expert and Master. Each level required a stronger depth of knowledge and understanding of ITIL. The certification scheme under ITIL 4 has been streamlined to include the ITIL Foundation and the ITIL Master exams. The ITIL Foundation exam has two paths, ITIL Managing Professional (MP) or ITIL Strategic Leader (SL), which each have their own modules and exams.

The ITIL Managing Professional (MP) exam is designed for IT practitioners who are involved with technology and digital teams throughout the organization, not just in the IT department. This path will teach professionals everything they need to know about running successful IT projects, teams and workflows.

Modules include:

ITIL Specialist  Create, Deliver and Support

ITIL Specialist  Drive Stakeholder Value

ITIL Specialist  High Velocity IT

ITIL Strategist  Direct, Plan & Improve

The ITIL Strategic Leader (SL) exam is designed for those who deal with all digitally enabled services, and not just those that fall under IT operations. This path focuses on how technology directs business strategy and how IT plays into that.

Modules include:

ITIL Strategist  Direct, Plan & Improve

ITIL Leader  Digital & IT Strategy

Both paths can lead to the ITIL Master exam, which is the highest level of certification you can achieve with ITIL 4.

For those already in the middle of working towards a ITIL v3 certifications, credits will transfer over to the new certifications. Axelos recommends that all ITIL certification candidates continue the path towards ITIL master.

For in-depth analysis of ITIL certification, see "What ITIL certifications mean to your IT management practices."

How can ITIL improve my company's business performance?

A well-run IT organization that manages risk and keeps the infrastructure humming not only saves money, but it also allows the business people to do their jobs more effectively. For example, brokerage firm Pershing reduced its incident response time by 50 percent in the first year after restructuring its service desk according to ITIL guidelines, allowing users with problems to get back to work much more quickly.

ITIL provides a systematic and professional approach to the management of IT service provision, and offers the following benefits:

reduced IT costs

improved IT services through the use of proven best practice processes

improved customer satisfaction through a more professional approach to service delivery

standards and guidance

improved productivity

improved use of skills and experience

improved delivery of third-party services through the specification of ITIL or BS15000 as the standard for service delivery in services procurements

According to Axelos, ITIL can also help businesses improve services by:

helping businesses manage risk, disruption and failure

strengthening customer relations by delivering efficient services that meet their needs

establishing cost-effective practices

building a stable environment that still allows for growth, scale and change.

For a deeper look at how to get the most from ITIL, see "5 steps to successful ITIL adoption."

What will ITIL cost?

Getting started involves the purchase of the ITIL either as hardcopy, PDF, ePub or through an online subscription directly from Axelos. Then there's the cost of training, which fluctuates each year. The course leading to the initial Foundation Certificate typically runs for two days, and courses leading to higher certifications can be a week or more.

Add to that the inevitable cost of re-engineering some processes to comply with ITIL guidelines, and adjustment of help desk or other software to capture the information you need for tracking and generating metrics.

There is, by the way, no such thing as "ITIL-compliant" software; the ITIL is a framework, not a standard. Some help desk and management software has been engineered with ITIL practices in mind, however, and so will lend themselves better to teams working within the framework.

Examples of software and services designed with ITIL and ITSM in mind include:

Samange: Offers service desk automation with the ITIL framework in mind

InvGate Service Desk: A web-based ITIL-ready service that boasts a user-friendly interface

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus: Web-based help desk and asset management software that is available in an ITIL edition

Vision Helpdesk: A multifunction service desk solution with ITIL integration

How long will an ITIL project take?

ITIL is not a "project"; it's an ongoing journey to improve IT service management. Best practices have to be baked into everything, and they have to evolve as the enterprise evolves. With IT staff buy-in, changes can begin once staff are trained, and some results should be apparent within weeks or months. Process changes do take time, however, as entrenched bad practices are rooted out and modified (and, potentially, staff changes occur), but many companies have reported substantial savings after their first year.

To get a better idea of what it will take to adopt and implement ITIL, you can browse through case studies on the Axelos website. Recent case studies include companies like Sony and Disney  two companies with massive IT operations to manage.

What savings can I expect?

Corporations and public sector organizations that have successfully implemented ITIL best practices report huge savings.

For example, in its Benefits of ITIL paper, Pink Elephant reports that Procter and Gamble saved about $500 million over four years by reducing help desk calls and improving operating procedures. Nationwide Insurance achieved a 40 percent reduction in system outages and estimates a $4.3 million ROI over three years, and Capital One reduced its "business critical" incidents by 92 percent over two years. After three years of ITIL implementation, forest products company MeadWestvaco claimed to have eliminated more than $100,000 annually in IT maintenance contracts and recognized a 10 percent gain in operational stability thanks to ITIL.

Without buy-in and cooperation from IT staff, however, any implementation is bound to fail. Bringing best practices into an organization is as much a PR job as it is a technical exercise.

Other criticisms include the fact that its impossible to plan for every failure, event or incident so its not an exact science. In reality, you wont know the exact ROI on ITIL until you implement it within your organization and use it effectively. Ultimately, since ITIL is a framework, it can only be as successful as corporate buy-in allows. Embracing certifications, training and investing in the shift will help increase the chances of success and savings.A. There needs to be a traffic light there instead.

B. A roundabout will work just fine in that location.

C. Roundabouts are confusing and terrible. It shouldn't happen.

D. That intersection is not a priority for change, so just leave it the way it is.

Vote

View ResultsIn the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections, many Republicans tried to get out the vote by warning of a phrase they thought would strike fear (or at least intense distaste) in the hearts of party voters: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi."

"Nancy Pelosi will become speaker and you will not recognize America," cautioned former San Francisco first lady Kimberly Guilfoyle in one such statement intended to fuel Republican voter turnout.

MORE: If true, BuzzFeed story is most damning one yet for Trump

Now, of course, that's already come to pass. On Friday, with reports of damning findings in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation first published by BuzzFeed News, people are raising a possibility even more upsetting to many Republicans: President Nancy Pelosi.

Click through the gallery above for reactions from social media

The thinking is that the investigation could cause the political downfall and impeachment of both President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. As Speaker of the House, Pelosi is next in line for the presidency after Pence.

The BuzzFeed report alleges Mueller has discovered Trump instructed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a property in Moscow. Trump has said Cohen is lying to "reduce his jail time," although Cohen is not the source cited in the BuzzFeed story. It cites two anonymous law enforcement sources.

ALSO: Pelosi cancels Afghanistan trip, cites Trump 'leak'

Following the bombshell report, some congressional Democrats began alluding to getting the ball rolling on impeachment before the final Mueller report is issued, a marked shift.

The hashtag "#PresidentPelosi" started trending on Twitter Friday morning.

Many people expressed delight imagining Trump's outrage at the hashtag.

Others pointed out the fact that Republican control of the Senate made Trump and Pence's removal from office unlikely.

"The Senate holds the trial. The GOP controlled senate. Have a nice day," tweeted @DocVoliday.

Still, others referenced Trump's decision to withhold military travel from a congressional delegation that included Pelosi on a planned trip to Afghanistan and Brussels. He announced the decision shortly after Pelosi disinvited Trump from delivering the State of the Union address for the duration of the government shutdown.

"I think Speaker Pelosi should just wait a few weeks and travel to Afghanistan in her new plane" tweeted Doug Snider, accompanied by a photo of Air Force One.

Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on TwitterOur topic for today: three stories and a letter.

The stories all made recent headlines. The first was about the state of Florida posthumously pardoning the Groveland Four, a group of African-American men who suffered torture, prison and murder after being falsely accused of raping a white woman in 1949.

The second concerns broad Republican condemnation of one of their own, Rep. Steve King, for an interview with The New York Times in which he questioned why the terms white nationalist and white supremacist should be considered offensive.

The third involves a directive  since rescinded  NBC News sent its writers, reporters and anchors about King's words. Be careful to avoid characterizing King's remarks as racist, it said, suggesting that the remarks instead be described as what many are calling racist'.

As for the letter: It was written by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whose 90th birthday the nation commemorates Monday. King famously penned the epistle from a jail cell in Birmingham in response to a group of white clergymen, eight moderate, principled men, who had condemned as unwise and untimely his demonstrations against segregation in their city.

One passage of King's response seems especially apropos to this moment. In it, he confessed that he had become gravely disappointed with the white moderate. Too often, he said, they were more devoted to order' than to justice; and preferred a negative peace, which is the absence of tension to a positive peace, which is the presence of justice.

Added King: Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.

Make no mistake: King well knew that all over the South, liberal white kids were risking their lives for black freedom. He was calling out other white people, often older, more moderate white people like those eight men, for the tepidness and flaccidity of their commitment to racial reconciliation. This was 1963, but as the stories above suggest, that problem endures.

It is possible, for instance, to celebrate that Florida has finally done right by the Groveland Four  and yet, to also be disgusted that it takes 70 years for the state to belatedly admit its crimes and deliver some small measure of delayed justice.

It is possible to consider the GOP's condemnation of Steve King all well and fine, yet also a little arbitrary and affected given that King has a history of racist rhetoric that passed without his party seeming to much notice or care  and that the GOP itself has a long record of thinly-veiled racism as obvious as the writing on Barack Obama's birth certificate.

It is possible to concede that NBC has an interest in ensuring its people remain disinterested observers of events they report, yet feel that in asking them to refrain from calling obvious racism obvious racism, the network doesn't embody journalistic rigor so much as it does white peoples' too frequent refusal to call out such racism even when it's right in front of them.

We may safely assume most NBC executives, Republican lawmakers and Florida officials would say  and probably believe  all the right things if you asked about their commitment to racial justice. Yet given a chance to put force behind that commitment, they failed. In Florida's case, they failed for seven decades.

The ultimate tragedy, King once said, is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people. He was right.

If you are good, yet silent, maybe you're not really as good as you think.

Readers may contact Pitts via e-mail at lpitts@miamiherald.com.Rejecting an insanity defense, a jury Friday found a Houston man guilty of murder for setting fire to the son of a local defense attorney who let him live in his home.

Curtis Lee Holliman, 35, stood trial on murder charges filed after the Jan. 2016 death of Dexter Taylor, who was set on fire at his fathers home.

The guilty verdict came after a weeklong trial in which Hollimans defense attempted to convince the jury that he was not sane at the time of the crime. The jury reached their verdict after more than three hours of deliberations in state District Judge Kelli Johnsons court.

Holliman took the witness stand during his trial and admitted dousing both Dexter Taylor, 45, and his father, attorney Kirby Taylor, with gasoline and setting them one fire after claiming he received subliminal messages they intended to harm him. He testified he feared the attorneys familiarity with local police would make it easier to carry out what he felt at the time were actual threats.

I asked both of them if they were behind the threats, threats on my family, threats against me, and they both laughed, Holliman said. In the moment, I lost it. Something came over me. It was if my mind just went blank.

Holliman, who Kirby Taylor had counseled on a past drug charge, told the jury that after his housemates laughed at his questions he remembers running up the stairs at the house.

I got the gas and went downstairs and threw it, he said. In my right mind, I would never do something like that.

Holliman also told the jury that before the fatal fire, he had been exchanging emails with then-President Barack Obama.

I was hallucinating. I was paranoid. Im seeing shadow people everywhere, Holliman said on the stand. After doing some research online, I thought that I was the Messiah. That I was Jesus.

Houston defense attorney Kirby Taylor, who had met Holliman at a church, was burned over 30 percent of his body and survived the incident that took place on Martin Luther King Day in 2016. The attorney testified that neither he nor his son laughed at Holliman, and that his son simply smiled after Holliman confronted them with his wild-eyed accusations.

Taylor also disputed Hollimans assertion that they were living together in a dating relationship. He said they were friends from church and he was trying to help the younger man get on his feet after he got out of jail.

Johnson ordered the jury to return Tuesday for a hearing to determine Hollimans sentence.Transgender students at the University of Houston could start seeing their preferred names instead of legal names printed on diplomas and official transcripts, if the school adopts a recent proposal from the student government association.

The university already allows students to use preferred names through its "Cougar Card" database, which reflects on student's official ID card, class rosters, student milestones and other printer-friendly documents.

The proposal, which was approved by the SGA in October as part of the "Transgender Inclusion Act," aims to extend the opportunities to use preferred names to diplomas, official transcripts and financial aid forms.

OPINION: Changing attitudes on transgender issue, one teacher at a time

Those documents currently require a person's legal name, university officials said. To change it, students need official documents such as court orders, marriage certificates or divorce decrees.

"The end goal was to affect diplomas and to make students feel as comfortable as possible," said SGA Chief of Staff Allison Lawrence, who spearheaded the bill's creation.

University spokesman Chris Stipes said the bill hasn't been officially adopted by the university. He said it needs to be presented to department leaders for feedback and ultimately placed on President Renu Khator's desk for her final approval.

SGA officials also acknowledged the university's effort to include the LGBT community in student life before the proposal's approval.

Students had been able to fill in a "preferred name" in the MyUH system since 2007. And last fall, the student identification card system began using those preferred names on most university records, Stipes said.

"It's not just for transgender students," he said, adding that international students may also use different names on university documents.

It's unclear when the proposal may be officially implemented. SGA Vice Presidents Davis Darusman said it's logical change to make sure every is "identified as who they are."

"It makes sense," he said "The capacity for the preferred names across the entire university  from rosters to [diplomas]  wasn't always there, but the university has already been helpful in being able to better represent everyone in the community."

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

NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here.A man accused of slaying his estranged wife outside Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church in Cypress late Thursday took his own life as police confronted him at his hotel room Friday morning, officials said.

Deputies found 62-year-old Arthur Edigin at the Extended Stay America hotel he fled to after firing into a car carrying his wife, Graciela Torres, 66; his daughter, Penny Edigin-Zapata, 31; and his 17-month-old grandchild.

Edigin-Zapata was critically wounded in the shooting in a parking lot outside the church at 11500 block of Huffmeister Road. The toddler was not hurt, police said.

It shows you how heinous the crime was, Harris County Sheriffs Office spokesman Deputy Thomas Gilliland said. It kind of shows you the mindset of the person were dealing with.

A SWAT robot found Edigin in a bathtub dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound around 6:50 a.m., Gilliland said.

Parishioners at the Christ the Redeemer learned Friday morning Torres and her daughter were not members of their church. The two women were taking an ESL class Cypress Assistance Ministries was hosting at their community center and had just parked their car, Pastor Sean Horrigan said during the Friday morning mass.

The sanctuary was quiet and somber as congregants arrived for the church service. Horrigan led a prayer for those involved in the shooting, including Edigin.

It was a terrible act of violence against women and someone who was clearly, probably in a violent situation, Horrigan said. Therein lies the real travesty: the tragedy of domestic abuse and violence that is so often seen in society in this day and age. Our prayers must be with the family.

The reverend told his flock the domestic dispute between Edigin and Torres began a few weeks ago and it carried over into last night.

The shooting prompted a manhunt with authorities sharing Edigins photo on social media. He was tracked to the west Harris County hotel at 2424 West Sam Houston Parkway, where a SWAT team tried for nearly six hours to coax him out of his room.

Law enforcement officials fired multiple gas canisters into the fourth-floor room through a window. Some were treated for minor respiratory issues as a result of the gas, Gilliland said.

It is not known when Edigin shot himself. After he stopped communicating early on in the standoff, first responders began evacuating guests.

You have a very dangerous subject, and the most important thing was the citizens of the hotel, Gilliland said.

Guests were startled to learn there was a wanted man among them.

The guy, he could have went crazy and shooting wildly, Tommy Armstead said.

Don Thomas was reconsidering his move to Houston while waiting for the standoff to end. He was in town looking for a place to live.

We might have to go back to the country somewhere, Thomas said. Were not used to this at all.Nyla Johnson stepped up onto the platform with her head held high, her floral crystal hairpiece sparkling as it caught the light. She took in a deep breath, puffed up her chest and opened her mouth.

The voice of the 11-year-old boomed amid the stunned silence of the crowd, bouncing off the stained glass windows and creaky, wood pews of the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, built in downtown Houston by former slaves in 1866.

"Ive BEEEEEEEN to the mountaintop," Nyla sang out. "And Ive looked over, and Ive SEEEEEN the promised land."

Her chest puffed out a little extra and she rocked onto her tiptoes as her voice bellowed, stressing different vowels. It was a technique used by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his speeches.

"I may not get there with you," she continued. "But I want you all to know today that WEEEEEERE a nation that will get to the promised land."

Her speech, greeted with roaring applause and a standing ovation, won the Lockhart Elementary School fifth-grader first-place honors in the 23rd annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Oratory Competition, held annually by the Houston Independent School District on the Friday before Martin Luther King Day.

Twelve fourth- and fifth-graders were finalists in the competition, which asked the question, "What would Dr. King say to the children of todays world?" Their speeches touched upon the federal government shutdown, family separations at the border, mass incarceration, police brutality and even the digital ages obsession with screens.

"Education, determination, compassion and courage," Raheem Khokhar said, listing the values he believes King would tweet, had the social media platform existed in the civil rights leaders era..

Then he looked down at his hands, counting on his fingers.

"Only 45 characters. Phew!" he said, wiping the imaginary sweat off his forehead.

"I always want to hear how young people see things," said Jolanda Jones, first vice president of the HISD board. "Theyre very sophisticated thinkers. Theyre very observant. Theyre not nearly as dumb as we think; they are paying attention and were able to convey messages better than most adults."

For the kids, the year leading up to the event required exhaustive preparation.

Leik Mire, 10, researched Kings speeches, taking notes on the content and the delivery. She prepared for her speech every day, staying late at school, practicing with her teachers and in front of her classmates and church members to make sure she had her minutes-long speech perfectly memorized.

"Everybody wants to focus on the good things, but they dont bring up the bad things that are happening," Leik said. "People think they have equality, but its not really equality  we have other people being left out."

When Alexandria Zelaya took the stage, her first words were, "I am the daughter of immigrants."

She pounded her chest  "I," pound, "AM," pound, "the daughter of immigrants."

"My parents were born and raised in Mexico and El Salvador," she continued. "I stand before you today as a representation of the many hopeful families who have come to this land with heavy hearts, clinging to the American Dream for a better life. I am a product of the American Dream."

There was disappointment in the childrens speeches  disappointment in partisan politics, disappointment in a hardened stance on immigration, disappointment in mass incarceration and police brutality, in online bullying and rising rates of depression and suicide.

But there was also hope.

"I am positive that (King) would say, My dear children, although we have not fulfilled the dream we cannot lose hope," Jones, the HISD trustee, said in her speech. "You must keep fighting. You must continue the work of your ancestors. You must rise and get out of this place of complacency."

massarah.mikati@chron.com

twitter.com: @MassarahMikatiRegina Moctezuma came to the Houston Womens March alone on Saturday, excited to attend the progressive demonstration for the first time.

I just feel like its my duty to be here, the 18-year-old said shortly before the march set off from the Buffalo Bayou visitor center. People deserve to be equal. It doesnt matter  gender, race.

Moctezumas parents both live outside the United States: When she was a child, her mother was deported to Guatemala, and her dad was later unable to re-enter the U.S. after leaving to visit Mexico. So it was the hardline immigration stance taken by President Donald Trumps administration that persuaded Moctezuma to turn out Saturday.

IN WASHINGTON: A scaled-down, but still angry Women's March returns

Pinned to her jacket was a button playing off a comment directed by then-candidate Trump toward Hillary Clinton. Nasty Women Get S- Done, the button read.

That message all but summed up the attitude of thousands of pink hat-wearing, sign-hoisting feminists who, even amid a biting wind, assembled for the third straight year to march in downtown Houston Saturday, largely to protest the current presidential administration.

With an unmistakable public enemy No. 1  Trump  the march brought out people concerned about a slew of issues aside from womens rights, including climate change, immigration and voting rights, most of which protesters linked to the president.

We need to make sure that were doing stuff that lets everybody have a voice and a vote, said Todd Litton, who was working the crowd to gather signatures in support of an independent redistricting commission to draw legislative and congressional districts.

In November, Litton lost the election for Texas gerrymandered 2nd Congressional District to Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw.

Nearby, Roxanne Taylor, a 68-year-old Katy resident, was holding a sign that read, Families Belong Together.

Immigrants have been a huge part of our nations success and I believe immigrants should continue to be a huge part of our nations success, Taylor said. I would like our immigration laws to be reformed to encourage more immigration, not less.

Still, for all the other topics, the marchs focus on womens rights and empowerment was evident. Protesters raised signs with messages including: Empowered Women Empower Women, Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights, and UGH! Where do I even START?

Lauren Harris, 23, stood in front of the Buffalo Bayou visitor center early Saturday with a sign that read, Black women are 3-4 times more likely to die during childbirth than women of any other race! We deserve much better.

Im just very happy to see so much support here in Houston, so many diverse people here with diverse ideas, said Harris, who studies maternal health at the UTHealth School of Public Health. Its very comforting that I dont have to basically hide things that I believe in. All I want is health equity across all spectrums.

Despite robust turnout from Houston residents, the national Womens March movement has experienced a new level of tumult this year, with members of the National Womens March Inc. facing charges of anti-semitism. An organizer received backlash for participating in an event hosted by Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader known for his anti-semitic comments.

On the steps of City Hall, where the brief march ended with a series of speeches and performances, Houston Women March On board member Robin Paoli put some separation between the local group and its national counterpart.

You may have seen questions about racism, bigotry, anti-semitism in the Womens March, she said. Heres what I want you to know. This global movement is not defined by one or two people, whether theyre in (Washington,) D.C. or wherever the heck they are.

We win by being united and loving our neighbors, she added. Thats it, right there.

After, Abbie Kamin, an associate regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, criticized what she called a stunning failure and an outright refusal by national march leadership to denounce anti-semitism and repudiate bigotry.

For Jewish people, the lesson of thousands of years of murderous persecution is that there can be no justice if we do not speak out, said Kamin, who is Jewish. There can be no justice if we do not speak out for other people.

For now, Paoli said, Houston Women March On plans to continue holding the annual march.

As long as there is a system of injustice, were going to keep encouraging and registering voters and encouraging them to find causes and candidates to support, she said. And we will continue to march and continue to register voters until theres justice.

jasper.scherer@chron.com

twitter.com/jaspschererPolice are urging Houstonians to help them find a murder suspect after he allegedly killed a 19-year-old man after an argument in south Houston on Friday night.

Jalin Damone Charles, 18, was riding in a vehicle with the unidentified victim at about 9:30 p.m. on Scott near Luca, police said, when the two had an apparent argument and climbed out of the car, HPD homicide detective Kyle Heaverlo said.Colorful and original artwork, displayed in front of black fabric boards, took over The Woodlands High school foyer Friday afternoon as students, faculty and community members gathered to peruse 12 different artworks, a few of which have the potential to be installed permanently at the school.

The reception was for the 2019 slate of pieces selected by the schools Art Trust, which is in their ninth year of accumulating artwork to display around the campus.

We contact as many Texas-based artists as we can by looking up art leagues and seeing who will submit pieces, Morgan Howard said. Shes the art trusts co-president and a senior at The Woodlands High.

Howard said they received about 40 submissions this year, but the art trust members have narrowed the collection down to the selected pieces.

One of the artists this year is Debra Riley, who is on the board of the Conroe Art League. Shes been painting for six years, and this is the first time she has even submitted a piece to the art trust. Her painting of a wave, titled Ocean Dance, was selected.

I love whats being done for the students to encourage them to get interested in art. Its a really good thing to have in the school, Riley said.

The art trust idea came from a former parent at The Woodlands High, Ray Mt. Joy, who had been involved in a similar group at a high school in western Pennsylvania where he grew up. The program has evolved and been duplicated here.

Related: The Woodlands High senior claims victory at state debate competition

Now that the artist reception has been held, its students turn to get involved. At the end of the month, students at both the high school and ninth grade campus will have the opportunity to cast one vote each for their favorite piece.

After tabulating the votes, the trust takes what available money it has, which is usually about $3,000 set aside by the student council from the homecoming dance, and they purchase as many pieces as possible. Howard said they usually end up adding about five pieces to the collection each year.

Its really cool. What may be my favorite piece is obviously not someone elses. Its interesting to see what high schoolers, in particular, will pick over an adult, Howard said.

In this way, the art trust collection represents the students tastes and concerns through the years theyre in school.

Susan Cosculluela, who is the art trusts board president, said some of her favorite moments with the collection have happened when shes doing something like changing a lightbulb on one of the pieces.

She said that kids walk by a piece, and though they may not seem like the museum-going types, shell overhear them talking about the artwork.

Theyll elbow their friend and tell them they voted for that piecetheyre having a reaction to it, Cosculluela said.

A walk through the school reveals that so far, they have purchased 39 pieces by 34 different Texas artists. While the pieces are displayed all throughout the campus, the trust has also duplicated each piece to display at the ninth grade campus.

The trust also gives tours to elementary and intermediate students who take field trips to see the collection.

Our biggest goal is to expose students and faculty every day to art. Art is much like music, it kind of feeds your soul, Cosculluela said.

And the exposure art, she said, has an effect on students whether they realize it or not. In addition, incorporating art into a communitys everyday surroundings also mirrors the various outdoor sculptures that dot The Woodlands

Whether you stop and reflect on a piece or youre just walking by, you still have a reaction to it. It activates your brain, she said.

jane.stueckemann@chron.comRodeo and livestock afficianados in The Woodlands will now be able to get to the popular Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo a bit easier this year after township officials approved a new, pilot program to shuttle rodeo and country music fans from the township to NRG Stadium on Saturdays and Sundays.

The Woodlands Township Board of Directors unanimously approved the special bus service from the township to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo during their Wednesday, Jan. 16, meeting.

Nick Wolda, a spokesperson for the township, said the bus service is officially a go after officials with First Class Tours, which is the provider of service for The Woodlands Express, were able to secure a safe and approved drop-off point for the buses at NRG Stadium.

I think this is a great opportunity for our residents to not have to drive (their own vehicles) into Houston and be able to experience the greatest livestock show and rodeo in the world, Wolda said of the pilot service. We think it is something our community needed and we hope it will succeed. It allows residents to avoid traffic, the hassles of parking and lets them leave the driving to the shuttle service.

CONFIRMED: The RodeoHouston 2019 lineup has been officially revealed

During Wednesdays township board meeting, Ruthanne Haut  deputy director of Community Services for The Woodlands  unveiled the prelimary details of the proposal, which would see nine buses take passengers from the Sterling Ridge park and ride lot to a still-unknown location at the Livestock Show and Rodeo. The buses will likely drop off riders in one of two areas, either the existing tour bus lot or another area where other shuttles and public transportation drop passengers off.

The proposal listed several departure times from The Woodlands on weekend days, beginning at 9 a.m. each weekend day with the last departure from The Woodlands at 7:15 p.m. The return buses are scheduled to leave the event periodically throughout Saturdays and Sundays, with the last one departing NRG Stadium to return to The Woodlands at 11:15 p.m. each night.

Bus Service to Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo What: Nine buses per day will depart the Sterling Ridge Park and Ride and drop off riders at NRG Stadium. Dates: The service is available on Saturday & Sundays on March 2 and March 3; March 9 and March 10; and March 16 and 17. Cost: $25 per round-trip - riders will need to make reservations in advance through an online ticketing portal still being developed. Times: First bus will depart from The Woodlands at 9 a.m.; the last bus to leave NRG Stadium is set for 11:15 p.m. - Source: The Woodlands Township. See More Collapse

The service will only be offered on specific weekends, Wolda added, including March 2-3; March 9-10; and March 16-17. Riders will need to pre-reserve seats on the buses through an online ticketing portal, he noted, but that site has yet to be developed and should be online within the next week or so.

Township board Member Bruce Rieser, as well as fellow director John Anthony Brown, have been supportive of the proposal since it was first put forth by former township transit program manager Chris LaRue last fall. The Livestock Show and Rodeo was one of several special events put forth by LaRue in prior presentations as possible options for enhanced bus service outside the normal weekday commuting routes to downtown areas.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Houston Rodeo pledges more than $27 million for education

I think this is a great opportunity to see if it works, Rieser said of the pilot program.

Brown agreed, telling board members and attendees, I think these buses are going to be successful.

Under the plan, there would be nine buses per weekend day during the event, which is scheduled for Feb. 25 - March 17 this year. The events hours are 8 a.m. to midnight daily, with livestock show judging, food courts, concerts and of course, the rodeo. The township set the $25 round-trip ticket cost, which would allow the service to break even if an average of 23 riders per bus utilized the special service each weekend day.

Wolda said the reservation website should be online and working by Tuesday, Jan. 22, or Wednesday, Jan. 23, barring any technical issues.

jeff.forward@chron.comOne day soon, a patient suffering from coronary heart disease in The Woodlands may be treated with a method developed by one of their own.

Shobha Dasari, a senior at The Woodlands College Park High School, was named as a scholar in the Regeneron Science Talent Search with her project, Minimizing Arterial Damage Induced by Coronary Stenting. Dasari is one of 300 nationwide to receive the honor, and only one of 12 in Texas and the only one in the Houston area to be tabbed.

Dasari designed a similar project during her sophomore year, examining how pressure in the brain caused by tumors affected a patients brain function, so when the Science Talent Search call for applications went out, she was already finishing her research into stenting.

When it came time to find another thing to research, I knew I wanted to do something similar, Dasari said.

Coronary heart disease  the accumulation of plaque on artery walls  is the most prevalent form of heart disease and the leading cause of death in the United States, killing more than 370,000 people every year, according for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For the layman, a coronary stent is essentially a 2- to 5-millimeter metal, tube-shaped piece of mesh that is inserted, then expanded, into a blocked artery to keep it open. It is considered the most effective treamtment, but carries a high risk, with 20 to 30 percent of patients suffering from a collapse of the mesh, which puts pressure on the thin artery wall akin to a 200-pound person standing on one foot.

With her project, Dasari sought out to reduce that risk.

Theres no better option out there, Dasari said. After a certain point, if the amount of plaque is so great, the only solution is to go in there and (insert a mesh).

By manipulating coronary stents in latex tubes standing in for arteries, Dasaris model explored methods used in civil engineering to evaluate how structurally sound the meshes were and made suggestions on how to improve their structural integrity.

Dasais submission to the Science Talent Search was one of almost 2,000 across the country selected by biotechnology company Regeneron and science education non-profit Society for Science & the Public to compete on the scholar level, each of whom receives a $2,000 prize to go toward an education match with $2,000 to their schools STEM programs.

Dasari was motivated and inspired, said Maya Ajmera, president and CEO of Society for Science & the Public. She decided to go out and really dig deep into the research she did.

On Jan. 23, the 300 scholars  the elite of young scientists in the United States  will be whittled down to 40 finalists, who will meet in Washington, D.C. for a week at the beginning of March and compete for the $250,000 grand prize.

Regenerons Director of Corporate Citizenship, Potoula Gjidija said the selection process is rigorous, with 250 science, technology, engineering and mathematics experts serving as judges who evaluate each applicants research papers, scientific background, acaemic and extra-curricular history and potential for scientific leadership.

It provides a platform for us to celebrate and recognize future talent, Gjidija said. These are students that have their eyes on solving the problems of our world.

mrincon@chron.com(Image source from: TheIndianExpress.Com)

'Modi-Amit Shah Combo Destroyed Nation': Kejriwal in Mamata's Anti-BJP Rally:- West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday rolled the red carpet for several opposition leaders to take on the Narendra Modi-led government ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Several politicians and thousands of workers were gathered at Kolkatas Brigade Parade Ground for the United India Rally to prepare a roadmap for a coalition against the ruling BJP.

Taking to Twitter this morning, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo had said, I welcome all national leaders, supporters and lakhs of people to participate in todays rally to pledge to build a stronger, progressive and united India.

Over 20 national political leaders, including former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha and Arun Shourie; three present chief ministers Chandrababu Naidu, Arvind Kejriwal, and H D Kumaraswamy; and former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Akhilesh Yadav and Gegong Apang were present at the meeting.

Speaking to reporters earlier, Mamata Banerjee had said, It will be a historic mega rally. It will be a platform of all political parties to drive the BJP out. The nation will hear from leaders of different parties. The rally will mark the death knell for BJP. We (TMC) will hear what all parties have to say. Every political party has its own vision and ideology. We will not thrust our opinion on others. Let the leaders decide. This time regional parties will be the decision-maker. She added, BJP will not get more than 125 seats this time. I do not know how many seats Congress will get. Congress is sending (Mallikarjun) Kharge Ji and Abhishek Manu Singhvi for the rally.

Taking to Twitter, DMK chief M K Stalin said, "It has been a great pleasure meeting all leaders in Kolkata attending the United India rally. I look forward to the public meeting today that will send out a strong message to the BJP that it's days of dividing and ruling India, are numbered."

It has been a great pleasure meeting all leaders in Kolkata attending the #UnitedIndiaRally.



I look forward to the public meeting today that will send out a strong message to the BJP that it's days of dividing and ruling India, are numbered. pic.twitter.com/KwB13331KU  M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) January 19, 2019

A thick security blanket has been thrown around the sprawling ground to prevent any untoward incident.

Taking a dig at the Opposition leaders who are expected to turn up at the rally, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, "All of them (opposition leaders) are like tired, defeated wrestlers who want to get back into the ring to apply their luck again. When the first alliance in Karnataka itself is in such a shape, then what will happen in future?"

Former Union Minister and BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said, "I thank Mamata Ji for inviting me to this event. We have gathered here to defeat one person- Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We are here to protest against a certain set of ideas and ideologies. This is the first government who enjoys playing with facts and figures. Those who oppose the government are not anti-nationals." Raking up the Kashmir issue, he said, "I had earlier said that the problems in Kashmir cannot be solved through bullets but dialogue."

Thousands were gathered to witness opposition unity in Kolkata.

Karnataka Chief Minister Kumaraswamy said, "Regional parties have the strong instinct to connect with the people and protect the interests of their states."

By SowmyaJessica Torres Leos Facebook page features a photo of a throng of people behind her as she and her husband Rafael Leos-Trejo lock lips, their eyes closed, New Years Eve 2017 in New Yorks Time Square. The seemingly happy scene came to an abrupt end the afternoon of Feb. 16 when Leos-Trejo, 33, fatally shot Torres Leos, 27, in the face with an AR-15.

The Montgomery County District Attorneys Office recently indicted Leos-Trejo anew with murder in the case that goes to trial Tuesday with testimony expected to conclude within a week. Houston attorney George Jacobs is mounting an accidental shooting defense for his client Leos-Trejo while the prosecution will be presenting evidence from electronic communication, including social media, from the victim and the accused.

Its always been just an unfortunate accident. A very tragic situation for everybody, Jacobs said. Married for seven years, the couple had recently been getting along OK.

As Jacobs puts it, when Leos-Trejo fired a single bullet that perforated Torres Leos face below her right eye, he was merely cleaning and fiddling with a newly purchased rifle in the kitchen of their east Spring home.

LEOS-TREJO TRIAL: Trial set for January of man accused of fatally shooting his wife in Spring

The pair were firearm enthusiasts  he enjoyed guns and she accompanied him to the shooting range, firing them, too, Jacobs says. No disturbance calls to their residence in the Spring Trails subdivision, there were no divorce proceedings and the account of several neighbors can attest to this, Jacobs said.

From the moment a panicked Leos-Trejo made a 911 call about the shooting to when, still in a state of shock, officers and eventually the cases original prosecutor arrived at the scene, he has maintained the incident was accidental, Jacobs said.

Leos-Trejo kept saying, I accidentally shot her, I didnt mean to shoot her, Jacobs said. His client, Jacobs continued, pleaded to dispatchers, Please send somebody.

A grand jury reindicted Leos-Trejo on Dec. 20, charging him with three counts of murder for committing deadly conduct by intentionally discharging a firearm in the direction of Torres Leos. In response, on Jan. 7, Jacobs and co-counsel Joe Ray Rodriguez filed a motion with judge Patty McGinnis in the 435th district court to drop the counts because all three in a single trial would create prejudicial effect.

Jacobs is asserting the murder charges are attempts by the prosecution to extend sentencing beyond what a manslaughter conviction would obtain.

The prosecutors are charging that he did a dangerous act, an act that was clearly dangerous to human life and in the course of it a person died, Jacobs said. By going this route they leave open a wide range of punishment, which is Im sure what they want.

RELATED: Judge sets $500,000 bail for man accused of fatally shooting wife in Spring

The prosecutor on the case, Montgomery County assistant district attorney Shanna Redwine, is contending the states charges hinge on Torres Leos killing being by all accounts an intentional act.

The murder statute in all of its forms that were proceeding on in the indictment is intentional and knowing, Redwine said.

Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon followed up on Redwines points.

The states indictment speaks for itself. We believe it was an intentional act and thats eveidence we intend to introduce into trial, Ligon said.

Among some of the witnesses the prosecution will be calling to testify are three minors identified by first and last name initials only, according to documents filed with the district clerk. Several family and acquaintances appear to be listed to take the witness stand. Additionally, a family violence expert is also expected to testify.

Leos-Trejo is also being charged with tampering with a witness, a felony, for allegedly offering money to family members of Torres Leos to testify falsely.

Jacobs said that under the shock and stress of his wifes death, Leos-Trejo, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Monterrey, Mexico, conversed in Spanish during an incarceration visit as he was being recorded by Montgomery County Jail.

HAVE YOU SEEN THEM: Conroe police searching for suspects linked to string of apartment robberies

A truck driver by trade, Leos-Trejo was actually trying to ensure primary income earner Torres Leos then 11-year-old daughter would be financially looked after, Jacobs asserts. Though from a previous relationship, Leos-Trejo recognized the girl as his own, the lawyer added.

Jacobs thinks the only reason the original prosecutor added the charge was because he was aiming to block Leos-Tejos bond from being lowered and that he was basing his argument on what an employee monitoring the conversations at the Montgomery County Jail interpreted the conversation to consist of.

A pistol belonging to Leos-Trejo was also seized from the home by the police. Leos-Trejo underwent a blood test which found evidence of alcohol consumption, Jacobs said. Leos-Trejo, Jacobs explained, drank some beers while dining at a restaurant earlier in the day.

As the prosecution closely examines the email messages and social media posts of the couple, the defense team includes Jim Willis, a private investigator and former Houston Police Department officer. Willis is in part scouring social media activity as it relates to the relationship between the defendant and his late wife.

Among the information investigators for the states case found on social media, was a video-captured image shared through Leos-Trejos Facebook account minutes before he fatally shot Torres Leos. Displayed in the photo are firearms and alcohol on the kitchen table with a caption on the image reading traicionera, the feminine form in Spanish of treacherous or betrayer.

The District Attorneys office also gathered email messages between a female family member of Torres Leos, about an assault allegedly perpetrated by Leos-Trejo and 19 screenshot images of text messages between her and Torres Leos from summer 2017 discussing undisclosed marital issues between the couple and Torres Leos wanting a divorce.

Whatever may be revealed through evidence or testimony during the trial, one of Torres Leos last public Facebook posts gives a glimpse into her disposition only months before her violent death.

I'm Thankful for ALL of it. The Highs. The Lows. The Blessings. The Lessons. The Setbacks. The Comebacks. The Love. THE HATE. Everything, a status update by Torres Leos reads.

jose.gonzalez@chron.com

twitter.com/jrgzztxMore than 230 people attended the Katy Area Chamber of Commerce State of the City of Katy luncheon on Wednesday to listen to city officials discuss their priorities for region.

City of Katy Mayor Chuck Brawner, along with Director of Tourism, Marketing and Public Relations Kayce Reina and City Administrator Byron Hebert spoke at Wednesdays luncheon that took place at the Embassy Suites Hotel at 16435 Katy Freeway.

The final headcount for the luncheon was 233 people, said Denise Einkauf, Katy Area Chamber of Commerce board member. Einkauf is the owner at Waggin Tail Pet Ranch in Fulshear.

Brawner lead the discussion regarding Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts, local improvements within the city limits and said the citys strong relationships with other municipalities, organizations and governments has helped the city prosper, especially after many residents were flooded out of their homes after Harvey.

We are a very unique city and for us to be able to have relationships with our city is very valuable, Reina told the crowd. Everything we do directly impacts you as a citizen, you as a business owner - so we want to talk about our projects but it couldnt happen without the support of all of you.

Hebert said leading a city that has jurisdictional lines within three counties can be tricky.

Brawner echoed the statement and said that the relationships the city had with the commissioners, state and federal entities helped the city garner support following the flooding in Harvey.

It was during that time that city officials learned that the water that inundated the city of Katy came from north of the city.

Not only did it (flood) the city of Katy, the Houston area, Brawner said. The Cypress watershed was the actual culprit of a lot of the flooding.

Prior to the hurricane, the city signed a contract with a disaster debris removal company in an effort to prepare for the worst of it, Brawner said.

Within days, trucks like you see there with the big arm on it were cleaning our streets, Brawner said. We wanted to make sure we could get some semblance of order in our town. While other cities were waiting to figure out what they were going to do, we had the trucks.

The city was able to use our relationship with Gov. Greg Abbott who promised that (the state) would waive any requirements that would help us get cleaned.

It took 15 minutes to get the requirement waived to move the trash to the city landfill, Brawner said.

Brawner, Reina and Hebert gave brief updates on local improvements such as the Katy Boardwalk, street and drainage renovations within the city.The owner and master gelatician of Gelato & Co., Stefano Franceschi visited LaCenterra at Cinco Ranch Jan. 15 to attend the grand opening of his first gelato coffee bar in the United States: Gelato & Co. Cremeria Italiana.

We import the best ingredients from Italy, said Franceschi, listing pistachios from Sicily, hazelnut from Piedmont and coffee roasted in Italy as examples. We use the best of local ingredients, he added. We support the local community.

We prepare every day the gelato from scratch, said Franceschi, who about five years ago began Gelato & Co. in the Cayman Islands as the hub for a global chain that has locations in Puerto Rico, Aruba and Panama. Visit https://gelatoeco.com for details. A news release says the company plans to open more locations in the United States.

What you eat today has been prepared today, added Franceschi. It has less fat and less sugar. It doesnt need preservatives. I strongly believe in using only the highest quality ingredients for what were serving.

On his Facebook page, Franceschi wrote, It was a fantastic day!!! Gelato & Co. Katy Texas big opening!!! Thank you all!! We are open and awesome.

According to an Aug. 17, 2015 article in News is My Business, the Italian chef opened his first store in Italy in 1998.

The Cinco Ranch store is located at 23501 Cinco Ranch Blvd, Suite #100 and is owned by Andrea Tonelli. He said he began scouting the area for a location about six months ago. I fell in love with the (Cinco Ranch) location. Its a great place.

Tonellis business partners are Rodrigo Aviles and Javier Farinez. I worked for three years in London for our sister company named UNICO, said Tonelli.

In addition to world-class gelato, the business also has its own Italian roasted coffee beans that give their hot beverages a distinctive flavor that all coffee aficionados will crave, said Tonelli. They also have 6 non-dairy vegan flavors of gelato to please the growing number of plant-based eaters in the area.

The Italian gelato coffee bar offers 24 flavors of gelato, fruit sorbet and pastries. Store hours are 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.Let's not pretend that anything this episode was surprising. The lip sync twist. Farrah Moan vs. Valentina. The double save. Anyone who has kept up with "RuPaul's Drag Race" for a few seasons saw it all coming a mile away.

But it sure was fun to watch.

THE IN CROWD: Houston gay bars are among the most popular in the country

When we last left the girls, the eliminated queens had returned for a chance to reenter the competition. We also find out that last week's top two, Monet X Change and Manila Luzon, both planned to send Valentina home, who is convinced she was amazing and no one can tell her otherwise.

Related: I love Valentina so much.

Also related: Expect this to come up next week, once all the sparkle has settled.

All the girls air their grievances. Latrice Royale is in her feelings. Farrah is in her feelings. Jasmine Masters, however, just seems thrilled to be back. I see you, jush. Get your jush.

Ru announces that each eliminated queen must choose a remaining queen to battle in a lip sync LaLaPaRUza. To a RuPaul song, of course. The winner will stay in the competition. They will choose in order of elimination, starting with the most recent. This is all a set up for Latrice, who chooses first, vs. Monique Heart. Manila and Monet have immunity because of their wins.

NO MA'AM: Latrice Royale is not here for the buffoonery

You know what is the one surprising thing here? Latrice's cockiness. I've never really seen this side of her, and it's not cute, henny. Yes, you are a fierce queen and a "Drag Race" legend. But we don't need you to tell us that. Let us tell you. Also, even if Monique chose Monet to stay based on friendship, Latrice still deserved to go home when she did. Love you, mean it.

I'd give the runway to either Naomi Smalls or Valentina. Both work their brands with wit and humor. Manila's pasta look is very Manila. And I swear we've already seen Latrice in this outfit.

Jasmine vs. Trinity ("Peanut Butter"): I love Jasmine, but she has last pick and unfortunately gets stuck with Trinity the Tuck, who no one wants to lip sync against. Trinity is a fierce competitor. Jasmine just can't keep up. Trinity wins, despite that weak reveal.

Farrah vs. Valentina ("Kitty Girl"): Duh. Valentina wins. Despite Farrah's hairography. When Valentina is on, it's almost impossible to beat her. She avoids the usual tricks -- death drops, wig reveals, outfit changes -- and relies on her personality. It's glamourous and funny at the same time.

Gia vs. Naomi ("Adrenaline"): If there's any surprise here, it's this match up. Both queens give it their all. Gia turns it out from head to toe. It's the most effort she's ever given. And Naomi comes alive in a way she never has before. Her backward bends, facial expressions, arm and leg movements -- EVERYTHING. It's a star performances that sets her apart from the pack. Naomi wins.

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Latrice vs. Monique ("Sissy That Walk"): I am almost convinced that every part of this was planned way in advance by production. Every part. Latrice picking first but going last. The song, which is the most recognizable of the four. The double wig reveals. The double death drop.

And the double save. RuPaul wasn't going to send Monique home. And at least one queen had to be saved to justify the episode.

Shantay, they both stay. And we finally got to see what the show gives us too little of: lip-syncing!

The real gag, though, would have been saving Gia and Naomi.

"RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars" 4 airs at 7 p.m. Fridays on VH1.Cold weather is headed to Southeast Texas this weekend. While many of their customers associate hot temperatures with a rise in their electricity bill, Entergy Texas says sometimes they forget that very cold temperatures can also cause higher bills. The company suggests making a plan to manage your usage and your Entergy bill.

Its likely that many customers could see high bills if the cold weather sticks around. Thats because it takes more energy to keep a home comfortable at 68 degrees when its 15 degrees outside than when its 34 degrees. Simply put, the bigger the difference between inside and outside temperatures, the more energy consumers use. Using more electricity costs more money.Iraq's Archaeological Sites Face Looting, Urbanisation Threats

Treasure trove. Damaged statues at the UNESCO-listed ancient city of Hatra, south of Mosul. ( AFP) LONDON -- Anarchic development and looting in war-torn Iraq are the greatest threats to its treasure trove of archaeological heritage, warned Iraqi archaeologist Lamia al-Gailani.

Gailani, an associate researcher at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies, said more than one-third of the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh, on the outskirts of Mosul, has been covered with houses.

"Archaeology is never a priority for any government," Gailani said. "It has always been like that and now, with Iraq's financial difficulties, the last place they want to put money is into archaeology."

"However, there are a lot of rescue excavations. If a plot of land where archaeological objects can be found has been designated for new buildings, there are rescue excavations. I have been to the store rooms in the [National Museum of Iraq] where a lot of the rescued objects are stored."

Gailani, who left Iraq to live in Britain in the 1970s, has returned to her homeland for a few months every year to continue her work. She said she was particularly concerned about the looting and sale of artefacts, illicit trade among militiamen and Islamic State militants who destroyed many of Iraq's archaeological riches.

"One way to stop the looters is for the Iraq State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) to start digging for the objects looters are after," she said. "The board has a large excavations and survey department but it has to cover the whole of Iraq. We have thousands of archaeological sites and the department does not have enough staff. They can't stop the looting and much of the development on archaeological sites."

Another major problem is the lack of well-trained local archaeologists, Gailani said.

"During the time of the monarchy (1932-58) archaeologists were sent to the West for higher education and 17 graduates from overseas were employed by the SBAH," she said. "Training abroad continued during the '60s, '70s and '80s but after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 and sanctions were imposed, the brain drain started and the foreign trained archaeologists left the country. In 2002, there was only one graduate with a PhD from Europe in Iraq."

Gailani said Iraq has a lot of catching up to do after years of conflict and the dark period of the Saddam Hussein era when the country was closed to the outside world. However, she said she was hopeful that the "future is bright." Iraqi Minister of Culture Abdulamir Hamdani is an archaeologist and training programmes inside and outside Iraq have resumed.

Gailani noted that the British Museum organised a training excavation in southern Iraq at Tello, the modern Arabic name for the ancient Sumerian city of Girsu. It represents one of the earliest known cities of the world, revered in the third millennium BC as the sanctuary of the Sumerian heroic god Ningirsu.

The training is part of capacity building in SBAH. Approximately 50 staff members are being trained in a variety of sophisticated techniques of retrieval and rescue archaeology.

Security problems have had a negative effect on foreign excavations but increasing numbers of foreigners are returning to Iraq, Gailani said. Italians are working on several sites, including Ur and Kut. The British discovered a grand port city founded by Alexander the Great in 324BC near Basra and the Germans are working in Uruk, one of the world's oldest cities.

The Americans are also active. To help revitalise Mosul, the US State Department awarded the University of Pennsylvania $2 million for a 3-year, two-phase stabilisation project.

In phase one, already under way, a team led by archaeologists Richard L. Zettler and Michael Danti are conducting assessments and implementing small-scale repairs at 15-20 sites, mainly mosques and churches. The second phase will involve prioritisation of sites for conservation. The Al Nuri Mosque was destroyed by the Islamic State as the army closed in. The Church of Saint Ephraim was used as a flea market for household goods.

The Smithsonian Institution in Washington is trying to secure endangered artefacts from the ancient imperial city of Nimrud, 30km south of Mosul, and the British have almost completed setting up a museum in Basra.

Gailani is helping train Iraqi curators, a programme sponsored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. She is working on two books: a history of the National Museum of Iraq from 1923-58 and a picture book of the Iraqi royal family.

The history book will be based on museum archives that no one has looked at and will include accounts of excavations. "It will be a popular book with a chapter on how some of the objects ended up in the museum," Gailani said.UPDATE: This company has ceased treatments. Read more on HoustonChronicle.com.

Think young blood is the key to better aging? A new company based on that premise will now inject such blood into the veins of people in Houston who want to give the idea a try.

Fair warning: It'll cost you at least $8,000, payable online through PayPal.

Business Insider is reporting Houston is one of six U.S. cities where a startup called Ambrosia is providing the unusual therapy, inspired by a 2014 study with mice. There is no evidence it can rejuvenate normally aging people, say experts.

"That's a very expensive 'fountain of youth,' " said Dr. Mark Udden, professor of medicine in Baylor College of Medicine's section of hematology/oncology. "This is a legitimate area of research, but this company appears to be just hype."

According to Ambrosia's website, people in Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tampa and Omaha, Nebraska can receive intravenous infusions of plasma from donors between 16 and 25. It's $8,000 for one liter, $12,000 for two and "laboratory fees may be extra."

RELATED: Critics wary of stem cell clinics that promise big results

A liter of plasma usually goes for about $1,000, said Udden. He warned that more plasma than that can cause blood overload resulting in heart failure.

Ambrosia recently conducted a clinical trial  participants still had to pay at least $8,000 -- designed to find whether the procedure is beneficial, but hasn't published the results. The company's founder, Jesse Karmazin, told Business Insider the results were "really positive."

Blood transfusions from young donors are being tested in Alzheimer's patients. Udden said those have shown modest benefits in a small number of patients.

Ambrosia's for-profit business is legal despite the therapy still being in clinical trials because blood transfusions are already approved by federal regulators.

Todd Ackerman covers medicine for the Houston Chronicle. He can be reached at todd.ackerman@chron.com or twitter.com/ChronMed.Jason Momoa, the superhero star from Aquaman, will return to San Antonio for the 2019 Celebrity Fan Fest, according to a news release from PMX events.

Momoa, who was in the Alamo City for the inaugural festival last year, will be back this year's event, which will run between June 14 and 16. He will be joined by other celebrities who will be announced in the coming weeks.A Texas plastic manufacturer was slapped this week with a fine of more than $120,000 after spilling thousands tiny plastic pellets into a creek and bay on the Gulf Coast.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality found in a 2016 investigation that Formosa Plastics spilled plastic pellets into the Cox Creek and Lavaca Bay near the companys 2,500 acre complex in Point Comfort, about halfway between Houston and Corpus Christi. The commission this week approved the final penalty for Taiwanese company, which has its U.S. headquarters in New Jersey.

The Commission on Environmental Quality does not have an estimate for how many pellets were released, but it did require Formosa to collect and properly dispose of about 112,000 pounds of debris and plastic pellets from Lavaca Bay and about 327,000 pounds from Cox Creek.

The plastic pellets, called resins, are about the size of lentils. They can be ingested by fish and turtles, posing a threat to wildlife and the fishing and tourism industries along the Gulf Coast.

The fine came the same week that Formosa and dozens of other petrochemical companies with Gulf Coast operations committed to a $1 billion effort to end plastic waste. As environmentalists raise alarms about plastic waste choking the oceans and contaminating soil, pressure is building on chemical and plastic makers to address the issue.

As a result, plastic waste has become a growing concern for the energy industry, which has invested billions of dollars into building petrochemical plants in Texas and elsewhere to takes advantage of cheap supplies of ethane produced along with natural gas and oil in shale formations. Many of these plants make the chemicals and plastic pellets that ultimately are manufactured into consumer goods.

Activists shareholders last week filed resolutions with Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66 of Houston, Chevron and DowDupont demanding the petrochemical divisions of the companies disclose to shareholders when plastic pellet spills occur and what they were doing to prevent spills.

MORE: Industry-led effort commits $1B to curb plastic pollution

San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper, a local chapter of the New York environmental group Waterkeeper Alliance, argued the state fines were too low for a plant whose parent companys 2017 net income was $1.59 billion.

Its a pittance. Its less than a pittance, said Diane Wilson, executive director of San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper, about the state fines. The penalties for wastewater pollution need to be much higher for multinational corporations such as Formosa to take notice and change actions, Wilson said.

San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper is involved in a federal lawsuit against Formosa, alleging the companys Point Comfort plant has violated the Clean Water Act by polluting nearby waterways with plastic pellets for nearly 25 years. Her group says it has collected 2,154 samples of plastic pellets and powders from along 20 miles from Cox Creek and Lavaca Bay. A hearing in the case will occur this spring, Wilson said.

Company officials said they have installed multiple screening and control systems to control pollution. As a result of the investigation, the state also required the company to install pellet recovery system to minimize future spills.

Were not contesting it  certainly weve taken a lot of steps for the past three years to address this, including new technology to prevent it from happening, said Steve Rice, Formosa spokesman. Rice said the plant has 16 full-time contract employees whose main job is to clean up debris and pellets outside the plant.

The plant ships pellets to customers via rail. Sometimes when customers send those cars back, residual resins can spill out if the hatches of the cars arent properly sealed, Rice said.

The company has engaged customers in an initiative to prevent such spills and teach them how to be as responsible as they can be, just as we're trying to be as a responsible as we can be, Rice said.

marissa.luck@chron.com

twitter.com/marissaluck7What Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz said to his 9-year-old son when he said he didn't feel like going to church

When Hillsong NYC Pastor Carl Lentz's son, Roman, honestly confronted his father about not wanting to attend church, the father-of-three used the opportunity to teach his young son a valuable life lesson.

Lentz revealed on his Instagram account, "My son recently told me 'Dad, I don't feel like going to church. We are there ALL THE TIME."

The pastor explained that his son's comments were sincere, and so he decided to offer some valuable advice - which could be useful for many adults as well!

"I was able to tell him what apparently many of us adults still need to hear: 'feelings are great. They are important. But they are not the dominant factor in how we live our lives! If our feelings match our convictions? Fantastic. I've just found that it's often that is the exception, not the norm," he said.

Lentz explained that many of the most incredible things God asks His followers to do, do not produce a "good vibe". He went on to reference what Jesus says to do in the Bible: "Loving your enemy does not always feel good. Sacrificial giving does not always feel good. Forgiving people who hurt you almost NEVER feels right."

The father told his son: "Going to church doesn't always feel good! But these things are still RIGHT. When that day comes, when your feelings rage against your conviction, remember how blessed we are to control our feelings, rather than being controlled by them. It's worth it every time!"

Lentz later explained that his 9-year-old asked if he could greet the congregation during the Sunday service. The pastor said of his son: "He said, 'Dad I didn't really feel like it, but I'm glad I did, I think I helped people'."

Hillsong NYC Church is a branch of the Australian Hillsong Church, which was founded by Brian Houston and his wife, Bobbie, in 1983. The New York branch often attracts many A-list celebrities including Justin Bieber, Hailey Bieber, NBA star Kevin Durant, as well as singer Selena Gomez, to name but a few.Donald Trump's critics have him all wrong, says Os Guinness

Evangelical critics of President Donald Trump and his supporters are "dead wrong" in their prioritizing of concerns, according to British author and social critic Os Guinness.

Conservative Christian radio host and author Eric Metaxas interviewed Guinness on Metaxas' podcast that aired on Tuesday, partly in regards to Guinness' newest book, Last Call for Liberty: How America's Genius for Freedom Has Become Its Greatest Threat.

During the interview, Metaxas bemoaned the backlash he received from fellow Christians over his support for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

"I was vilified and since have been vilified as everything under the sun. Even my fellow Christians, or I should say, especially many of my fellow Christians, have said things I would have thought them incapable ever of saying," said Metaxas.

"You have many people who are professing evangelical Christians, serious Catholic Christians, who are as anti-Trump as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. That, to me, is the darkest of this, because I would think that the church would understand that the unborn and a number of other things are vitally important. Something has changed."

Guinness said he agreed with Metaxas on his assessment, saying that he believed anti-Trump evangelicals and Catholics "haven't analyzed the situation rightly."

"They've become obsessed with Trump, and they've failed to see that he's not the cause of the problem, he's the consequence, the symptom," Guinness responded.

"While they're being obsessed with him, the real problems are developing underneath. And Trump won't be forever. So he serves out two full terms and finishes in whatever way. Then you would still have the problem."

Labeling many of the evangelical and Catholic critics "friends" of both himself and Metaxas, Guinness went on to state that he felt they were "dead wrong" about their focus on Trump.

Metaxas then added that he found it "horrifying" that many of these evangelical critics of Trump were "demonizing" supporters of the president, arguing that their statements prevent civil discourse.

"They think that everyone who is a sane person must be viciously against Trump. If you're not that, then you're not part of the crowd anymore. And so, you can't even talk to those people," continued Metaxas.

Guinness believed that Christians needed to adopt "a better analysis of what's gone wrong" in the United States and to "respond to it in a much more Christian way" than attacking Trump supporters.

Better public discourse can emerge if Americans would "get it out of just the obsession with Trump" to better think about pressing issues, like whether to build a wall on the southern border, Guinness added.

"You think of the wall and the fact that here's a position which so many of the leading Democrats supported themselves, for the right reasons, not that long ago," said Guinness. "Now because Trump's in favor of it, they can't possibly admit anything like that. Well, this is an insanity for the nation."

Released last October by InterVarsity Press Books, Guinness' Last Call for Libertyfocuses on his concern about the recent decline in political civility.

"Our society's conflicts are rooted in two rival views of freedom, one embodied in '1776' and the ideals of the American Revolution, and the other in '1789' and the ideals of the French Revolution. Once again America has become a house divided, and Americans must make up their minds as to which freedom to follow," reads the book's Amazon description.

"[Guinness] calls for a national conversation on the nature of freedom, and poses key questions for concerned citizens to consider as we face a critical chapter in the American story. He offers readers a checklist by which they can assess the character and consequences of the freedoms they are choosing."

Metaxas recently garnered controversy for his interview last week with controversial right-wing figure Milo Yiannopolis, with Andrew Egger of The Bulwark joking that it proves "we live in the worst possible timeline."

"What's interesting is how quickly it becomes clear that Metaxasalthough he has apparently read and enjoyed Diabolicalseems to be blissfully unaware of most of the more revolting moments in the Milo oeuvre," wrote Egger.

"In a sense, though, Metaxas has done a real service by hosting Milo: He made clear that the political corruption of the modern evangelical movement is in its very late stages. Metaxas is for Trump. Milo is for Trump. So Metaxas assumes that he should be for Milo, too."

Courtesy of The Christian PostShe began her job on Jan. 1 at the peak of COVID-19s winter spike and has guided Kyrene SchDonald Trump tells anti-abortion rally he will 'always' defend the right to life

Donald Trump has told pro-lifers marching in Washington, DC that he will veto any legislation that 'weakens the protection of human life'.

The US President made the bold promise in a message broadcast to the March for Life rally against abortion on Friday.

'When we look into the eyes of a newborn child we see the beauty and the human soul and the majesty of God's creation,' he said.

'We know that every life has meaning and that every life is worth protecting.

'As President, I will always defend the first right of our Declaration of Independence, the right to life.'

Trump has moved to strengthen pro-life protections in the US since coming to office two years ago, including reinstating the Mexico City Policy which prevents US taxpayer dollars from being used to fund organisations or programs that support abortion.

He has also backed Little Sisters of the Poor in their legal battle to be exempt from offering birth control and sought to remove Title X funding from clinics that provide abortions.

In addition, the President has vowed to uphold the Hyde Amendment banning the use of federal funds for abortion, something the Democrats said this week they would seek to repeal.

Addressing thousands of people on the National Mall, Trump promised to veto all pro-abortion legislation.

'Today I have signed a letter to Congress to make clear that if they send any legislation to my desk that weakens the protection of human life I will issue a veto,' he said.

'We have the support to uphold those vetoes. Every child is a sacred gift from God.'

Vice President Mike Pence also addressed the rally, accompanied by his wife Karen.

'We know in our heart of hearts that life is winning in America once again,' he said, drawing cheers from the crowd.

He added, 'To all the pro-life elected leaders gathered here today, we say from the bottom of our hearts "thank you". Thank you for your stand, thank you for serving for life.'Brexit vote defeat: Theresa May's 'plan B' options explained

The heavy defeat for Theresa May's government on its Brexit plan is a further stumbling block on the path to the UK's exit from the EU. Given the scale of the defeat, by a majority of 230, it's unlikely that the prime minister will be able ask parliament to vote on her unrevised plan again  despite suggesting that this was her favoured option prior to the vote on January 15.

The UK government now has three working days to prepare a "plan B" and present it to parliament. MPs would then have the chance to scrutinise this plan.

As the UK's withdrawal date of March 29 is written into UK law, time is of the essence. There are six possible options for the prime minister at this stage.

Renegotiate with the EU27

Since postponing the first vote on the withdrawal agreement in December, May has sought reassurances from the heads of the other 27 member states about the UK's future relationship with the bloc and the nature of the so-called "Irish backstop" to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland.

While these discussions could continue, the timescale makes this unlikely. If the assurances the prime minister sought from Brussels in the four weeks since December were not sufficient to get the deal through parliament, it's unlikely she would be able to make significant further progress within three days that could revive the deal. This is not least because of the scale of the defeat suffered, with 118 Conservative MPs rebelling against their party.

Many EU member states have insisted the text of the agreement cannot be changed at this stage. Still, new negotiations, based upon new red lines, could be instigated. These would enable the government to seek an alternative deal based, for example, upon a Norway plus or a Canada model. However, the impending March 29 deadline suggests that this could only be done in conjunction with extending Article 50.

Extend article 50

Rather than focus on the nature of a new type of deal, the prime minister may ask the EU for more time to restart negotiations, extending the two-year article 50 deadline which governs the UK's withdrawal process. This would need the approval of other member states and MPs, but it could potentially avoid the hard deadline of March 29.

Even if such an extension were to be agreed, it's unclear what changes to the existing deal would be acceptable to the EU27, who have consistently refused to discuss options to alter the text. Any further negotiations would also have an added complication by overlapping with the next European parliamentary elections, scheduled for May.

Public vote

To overcome the deadlock in parliament, May has the option of suggesting another referendum or public vote  albeit this is something she has previously ruled out. Here, multiple options exist. One could be a referendum on the basis of the current withdrawal agreement  asking the public a simply yes/no "do you support this deal?" If accepted, this may give legitimacy to a deal that allows the UK to leave the EU on March 29. However, if May's deal is rejected in a public vote as well as in parliament, it would be very difficult to resurrect it in any form.

Others, including the People's Vote campaign, have proposed a public vote which includes the option of remaining in the EU  though Brexiteers would argue this is an attempt to overturn the result of the 2016 referendum.

General election

Another way of gauging the public's opinion without being seen to overturn the initial referendum result would be to call a general election. Political parties would be able to present competing Brexit proposals and the public could choose between these. It would also give the Conservatives a chance to change the arithmetic within the House of Commons, theoretically making it easier (assuming they won an election) for the new parliament to pass May's deal at a second attempt.

An election in itself would not solve the issues generated by parliament rejecting the deal. If the next parliament didn't immediately seek to extend article 50, it would still face the same March 29 deadline. Under British law there must be a minimum of 25 working days between the dissolution of parliament and the general election.

Cancel article 50

In December 2019, the European Court of Justice ruled that Britain could unilaterally revoke article 50, without affecting its membership of the union, providing there was a genuine intention to remain a member of the EU. This could not simply be used as an extension mechanism and would commit the UK to remaining part of the EU. However, this would be unpopular with MPs who have promised to respect the result of the referendum and is unlikely to gain a majority of support in parliament.

No-deal Brexit

If May loses the January 15 vote and none of the above options materialise, the UK will leave the EU at on March 29 without a deal, and with no transition period. This date can only be altered if parliament explicitly votes to do so.

Amid all the uncertainty, one thing is clear: each scenario presents its own questions and problems. In many ways these are the same questions that have been left unanswered since the 2016 referendum. For example, how can the UK talk of following the homogeneous "will of the people" given the different options discussed during the referendum campaign and the variety and complexity of issues that influenced voters' decisions?

Far from resolving the issue of Britain's membership of the EU, the questions raised by the referendum result must be explored and answered before the UK can agree upon a new relationship with the EU.

Christopher Kirkland, Lecturer in Politics, York St John University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.Christians attacked 25 times over Christmas in India; pastors dragged, bloodied by mob

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Christian communities in India were attacked at least 25 times over Christmas because of their faith, with pastors dragged by hundreds of radicals, beaten and bloodied.

International Christian Concern documented 25 instances of persecution over the holidays, including one particularly violent incident in Lakhan Mau village, Uttar Pradesh state. There, 200 Hindu radicals armed with clubs and iron rods attacked 50 Christians, including pastors Ashok Massih and Rajeev Kumar.

Massih and Kumar were reportedly dragged by the mob to an open place and beaten. They were accused by the radicals of committing blasphemy.

The image of the cross captured my mind as the blood was flowing from my nose and my mouth, Kumar said. It was horrible as [the] mob dragged me out into the open place.

Another documented attack occurred on Dec. 23, this time at New Life Fellowship Church in Kowad village, Maharashtra state, when masked radicals attacked Christian worshipers.

The believers were attacked with knives, swords and beer bottles, leaving several of them needing medical attention.

New Life Fellowship Church Pastor Bhinset Chowan further revealed that after having rented a building for church services for the past 17 years, the landlord has now evicted the congregation due to pressure from radicals.

ICC reported that it recorded 23 other attacks over the Christmas season, making it a "discouraging and painful" one for Christian communities in the Hindu-majority nation.

There has been a sharp rise in the total number of attacks on Christians in India in the past couple of years. For the first time, India was listed among the top 10 worst persecutors of Christians on Open Doors USA's World Watch List, which was revealed this week.

"The worlds two most highly populated countries rise on the World Watch List. For the first time since the start of the World Watch List, India has entered the top 10," the watchdog group said, referring also to China, at No. 27.

"Each of these countries is home to more than a billion people, so these trends are distressing. Hindu nationalists in India continue to attack Christians with what seems like no consequences," it noted.

Radicals have often accused Christians of attempting to forcefully convert Hindus to their faith, which church leaders have continuously denied.

Pastor Selva Raj of Amathur village in Indias Tamil Nadu revealed that children have also been targeted in attacks, including one incident on Nov. 11 when a mob of 300 Hindu extremists destroyed a shed near a Sunday school class and warned pupils against attending.

They took away the Bible storybooks and some song and activity books from the children and tore them into pieces, Raj told Morning Star News.

"They scared the children away by telling them that they will be beaten up if they are seen in the church premises ever again."Asia Bibi living like a prisoner in Pakistan, hiding from angry mobs who want her dead

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Three months after her acquittal of a blasphemy charge, Asia Bibi is still living like a prisoner, hiding from angry mobs in Pakistan who want her dead.

A friend of Bibi who wasnt identified told The Associated Press that the Christian mother of five  who was on death row for eight years  is living in fear of being killed and is guarded by security forces who've barred her from even opening a window.

Bibi was accused by Muslim farm laborers of having insulted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, which is an offence punishable by death in Pakistan. She was convicted despite denying the charges, and in October the Supreme Court overturned the guilty verdict.

The mother has been living in hiding ever since, with Islamic mobs demanding she be put back on death row and executed for her alleged crime.

Her children have been taken to Canada for their safety, though Bibi herself remains in hiding, awaiting a foreign nation to offer her asylum and secure her safety.

Bibi isn't allowed to give interviews for her own protection, and is with her husband, Ashiq Masih, who was shot and wounded by a protester demanding his wifes death.

Bibis friend said that while her hiding place is comfortable, she still sees it as a jail, with her only hope being to be reunited with her family one day.

The mother is also receiving medication for various illnesses she suffered while in jail. She is receiving medication for her heart, but she is still in pain, the friend said.

While various western countries, including Canada, Italy, Australia, and others have been mentioned as possible destinations that could grant Bibi asylum, her fate remains uncertain.

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May was questioned on Wednesday during a session of Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons about what the British government is doing to help Bibi.

May responded by saying that the well-being of Bibi and her family is of "primary concern," but refused to comment on whether the U.K. will offer the family asylum, explaining that engaging in speculation could compromise her "long-term safety."

In the U.S., former Arkansas governor and Southern Baptist pastor Mike Huckabee warned that America is "betraying" its principles by failing to offer asylum to Bibi.

President [Donald] Trump and his administration have been stalwart and vocal champions for religious freedom across the globe. And in Asia Bibis case, urgent action is needed RIGHT NOW, Huckabee said last month.

A letter sent to Trump through the My Faith Votes website further noted that the U.S. has been "conspicuous by its absence" in the discussion of granting Bibi asylum.

The United States is without question the safest place of refuge for Asia Bibi and her family. We have a 230-plus year commitment to religious freedom and tolerance. That the United States isnt being mentioned as her ultimate destination is a betrayal of those principles and an abdication of our responsibilities," reads the letter.Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

On January 9th, I took a poll on Twitter asking, In your view, who has it harder today, men or women? Please look at all four options and vote as per your biological sex. Thanks, as always, for your feedback!

Obviously, this was a totally subjective question and, in the end, all we have is opinions. Still, the response was illuminating.

Of those responding, 74 percent were men and 26 percent women. Of the men, slightly better than 2 out of 3 said it was harder for men today. (To be precise, it was 2.08 to 1.)

Of the women, the results were almost identical, except that the percentage of women saying it was harder to be a man was slightly higher than the percentage of men with the same point of view. (To be precise, it was 2.25 to 1.)

So, it was not just the men who felt it was harder to be a man today. The women agreed as well, slightly more emphatically.

Why did better than 2 out of 3 feel this way?

Its not hard to list the many challenges women face in America. (Although I failed to specify America in my poll, the great majority of my Twitter followers are American.)

You must have a perfect body.

You must forever look young.

Youre always in danger of being viewed as a sexual object  especially if youre considered attractive  rather than as a fellow human being with gifts and talents.

Theres much more possibility of you being sexually assaulted or harassed.

There are settings in which you will not be given an equal opportunity or compensated with full equality.

In the home, you might be expected to hold down a full-time job while still doing the work of a full-time homemaker and mother.

And the list goes on.

Why, then, did most of those responding to my poll say it was harder to be a man?

I believe it comes down to this: While a woman can freely be a woman without a lot of societal pressure, its hard for a man to know what he can and cant be. Or do.

In short, our society celebrates feminism. The word masculinism, which apparently exists on paper, is virtually never used.

As for masculinity  a word that we do use  it is almost a dirty word. It is toxic, the subject of college seminars where male students can address their fundamentally flawed nature.

What does it even mean to be a real man? Just being male is bad, while words containing man must be excised.

Little wonder, then, that people responded to my poll as they did.

As a male, if youre too friendly to women, youre sexist.

If youre not friendly enough, youre discriminating against them unfairly.

If you take a female employee or co-worker out to dinner, your ultimate goal is to get her in bed.

If you dont take her out, youre not giving her the same opportunity you give to men.

If youre nurturing and protective  or, if you simply open a door for a woman  youre an antiquated chauvinist.

If you dont open the door, youre selfish.

Today, as David French points out, its the American Psychological Association which wrongly declares war on traditional masculinity.

Something is fundamentally wrong with you as a traditional male.

French writes, It is interesting that in a world that otherwise teaches boys and girls to be yourself, that rule often applies to everyone but the traditional male who has traditional male impulses and characteristics. Then, theyre a problem. Then, theyre often deemed toxic. Combine this reality with a new economy that doesnt naturally favor physical strength and physical courage to the same extent, and its easy to see how men struggle.

Could this be why so many feel its harder to be a man today?

French also draws attention to two, anti-male razor ads, one by Gillette (from this month) and one by Harrys (in 2017), noting, "If you want to see the difference between a rather awkward attack on truly toxic masculinity and a frontal assault on actual masculine virtue, then look no farther than this 2017 Twitter ad from Harrys.

The Harrys ad, he explains, takes masculine aspirational statements  like be tough, be a rock, be a man, and be the breadwinner  and crosses them out. Its so over-the-top that its almost like a parody of modern woke attacks on masculinity. Whereas the Gillettes message is, Bad things are bad, Harrys message is, Good things are bad.

The tweet, since deleted, said this: Today is International Mens Day. Believe it or not, thats a thing.

Now more than ever, being a man demands introspection, humility, and optimism. To get to a better tomorrow, we need to take a look at today, and at the misguided stereotypes that got us here in the first place. . . .

There you have it, in a word: Just being a man demands introspection, humility, and optimism.

Of course, there are negative male stereotypes and destructive male behaviors. Not everything masculine is good or praiseworthy. (The same can be said about certain aspects of female behaviors.)

But, today, simply to be a man  whatever that may be  is bad. God forbid we celebrate that manhood.

Again, there are many challenges faced by females in todays society, and Im not minimizing them in the least. And there cannot be a definitive answer to the question posed in my poll (and in this article).

At the least, though, we should recognize the many challenges faced by males as well. Society cannot flourish with a generation of emasculated men.LifeWay Christian Stores to close some locations amid declining sales

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LifeWay Christian Store, the chain known for its Christian books, gifts and Bibles, will close some of its locations due to "an accelerated rate of erosion," the company's president has announced.

In an email sent to employees, LifeWay Christian Resources President Thom Rainer said the company had prayed that our investments in and commitments to the LifeWay stores would prove fruitful, but that just has not been the case, the Baptist Press first reported on Wednesday.

To the contrary, we not only continue to see an erosion in the brick-and-mortar channel, we have seen an accelerated rate of erosion in recent months. It was our hope that greater traffic would result in greater sales, and that with our expense reductions and product cost savings, we would be able to offset sales declines. That hope has not been realized with the declines we have seen since September.

"In simple terms, a strategic shift is required for moving more and more of our resources to a dynamic digital strategy," Rainer wrote. "We will be transitioning many of those resources from our LifeWay stores to digital channels. The good news is that we will be better prepared to meet the future. The challenging news is that some of our stores will have to close."

Carol Pipes, director of communications for LifeWay, told The Christian Post that the company is moving into a new era with a strategic focus on a dynamic digital strategy that will prepare us for the future and allow us to better serve our customers.

LifeWay is taking steps to meet customer demand for digital shopping experiences and to expand our reach globally, she said. As LifeWay expands its digital channels, the organization anticipates a smaller footprint in brick-and-mortar stores.

Like other retailers, LifeWay continues to evaluate the size of its retail footprint, she added. We continually make adjustments to our strategy as the market changes and to meet the needs of our customers.

LifeWay, a nonprofit organization founded in 1891, owns and operates more than 170 LifeWay Christian Stores across the nation, as well as the Ridgecrest Conference Center in North Carolina.

LifeWays website says the company is one of the world's largest providers of Christian resources, offering Bibles, Bible studies, church music, church supplies, and digital services.

Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, and operated by the Southern Baptist Convention, LifeWay is passionate about sharing the Gospel and providing biblically sound resources that exalt our Savior and encourage His followers," according to Rainer.

The Baptist Press notes that the last time LifeWay's sales exceeded its total operating expenses was 2009. Since then, total operating expenses exceeded sales each year, although total assets increased over the same period.

Due to the inability to compete with internet retail giants like Amazon, click ordering, and price competition, several prominent Christian bookstores have been forced to close in recent years.

In 2017, Family Christian Stores announced it was shutting its doors due to "changing consumer behavior and declining sales." The company, which employed more than 3,000 people in more than 240 stores across 36 states, had served as "the world's largest retailer of Christian-themed merchandise for more than 85 years.

A year earlier, Send The Light Distribution, a Tennessee-based distributor of Christian products, announced it would be going out of business. The company, which remained in operation for 42 years, shipped Bibles, Christian books and other Christian literature to over 10,000 stores across the United States.

In an August 2018 statement announcing his plans to retire from LifeWay, Rainer said he believed the company is poised for a great future with a new leader.

To be certain, LifeWay will have its challenges, he wrote. LifeWay is a ministry funded by a business model. It does not receive any outside funds. It has to compete with the behemoths like Amazon and Walmart. The next president will lead an organization poised for a great future, but it will be a future with challenges. Such is the nature of how this organization lives and works.Pastor claims upcoming 'blood moon' is 'sign' we're living in 'the last days'

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The forthcoming super blood moon eclipse, which will peak over the United States between Sunday and Monday nights, might signal the Second Coming of Christ, a pastor has claimed.

In a recent message posted on his YouTube channel, Pastor Paul Begley of West Lafayette, Indiana, argued that the blood moon  which occurs when Earth aligns to block the sun's light from the moon  is a fulfillment of the end times prophecy.

God is ready to show us that He is in control, and these are the last days, the pastor charged, calling the lunar eclipse a very significant sign, according to the Bible.

Begley noted that the blood moon will pass over Washington, D.C. on the second anniversary of President Donald Trumps inauguration. Additionally, he said, Trump was born on a blood moon on June 14, 1946, exactly 700 days before Israel was declared a nation.

Did President Trump just stumble into this situation? Begley asked. Well, hes the president that decides to go ahead and declare that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and then moves the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and dedicates it on May 14, 2018, the exact 70th anniversary of Israel as a nation.

Is this a sign? Is this a harbinger for America? Begley asked. It seems like the prophetic scriptures of the Bible are starting to play out right on the world stage, right before our very eyes.

Jesus, the pastor said, wants to be sure we understand that in the last days there will be signs in the sun, the moon, the stars and of course the stress of nations on the planet.

He went on to highlight the unrest seen across the world: Look whats going on in Europe as the protesting is breaking out ... not only in France, its now spread into the Netherlands, into Belgium, he said. It got very ugly, its getting dangerous in Germany, theyre starting in Italy. And even in Canada, and so we begin to see this unrest in the European nations.

Weve already seen the Middle East in a state of madness for seven years, and now Israel is being surrounded by the very nations that Ezekiel 38 says is going to surround Israel, he continued.

Washington, D.C., too, is in a state of political turmoil and anguish, the pastor said, adding: God is sending a message.

What does all this mean? he asked. Well back to the super blood moon. Wheres the blood moon in the Bible?

Begley claimed that Joel 2:28-31 specifically mentions a blood moon. The passage reads, in part: The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

A second reference to a blood moon is found in Revelation 6:12: "I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood."

Could judgment be coming? Is this super blood moon a sign of the prophetic End Times? he asked, adding he believes there is no question the answer is yes.

Were living in the end times, Begley concluded. Obviously these apocalyptic signs in the heavens are pointing to a catastrophic event that is just on the horizon. We dont know when. Just because youre going to have a super blood moon on January 20 and January 21, doesnt mean on January 22 all hells going to break loose. But then again it doesnt mean it wont.

"The urgency, folks, is now, he said. The urgency has begun."

Begley is not the only pastor to take the appearance of blood moons to be a sign that the apocalypse is drawing nearer; popular pastor and author John Hagee also frequently weaves together celestial events, Jewish history and prophetic theories.

However, astrophysicist and apologist Jeff Zweerink previously told The Christian Post he would be "very skeptical" of assertions that celestial events are tied to biblical prophecy.

"These things happen all the time, he said, explaining that while spectacular to behold, there's nothing out of the ordinary about them. "These have happened since the dawn of human civilization and they will happen until the end of humanity is here.

Still, Zweerink told CP that Christians should use celestial events as an opportunity to share the Gospel with nonbelievers.

"God has made a pretty spectacular creation for us to live in," said Zweerink, adding that these events give Christians "an opportunity to talk to non-Christians about the Gospel and the Creation that God has made. And Creation is remarkably reliable.

Sundays blood moon will be the last total lunar eclipse to grace Earths sky until May 26, 2021.Most pro-life, least pro-life states ranked: report

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Arizona is the most pro-life state in the United States, while Washington state is the most pro-choice, according to a report released by Americans United for Life.

The pro-life group earlier this month released its 14th annual edition of Defending Life, a publication that examines the state of abortion laws in all 50 states.

According to their research, AUL listed Arizona as the most pro-life state. This was based off the state having several restrictions on the practice, among them a ban on partial birth abortion, an ultrasound requirement, and strict licensing requirements for clinics.

Furthermore, Arizona does not specifically identify abortion as a right, meaning that if Roe v. Wade were overturned, abortion would likely be outlawed.

Arkansas was the second most pro-life state, followed by Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, Mississippi, Georgia, Michigan and, at No. 10, Nebraska.

On the opposite end of the spectrum was Washington state. According to AUL, the state has few regulations on abortion and allows for embryonic research and assisted suicide.

Washington does not adequately protect women from the negative consequences of abortion, nor does it protect unborn children from criminal violence, explained AUL.

Washington has failed to enact commonsense, publicly supported laws pertaining to informed consent, parental involvement, abortion provider regulations, or fetal homicide, and it does not regulate emerging biotechnologies.

California was the second most pro-choice state, followed by Vermont, New Jersey, Hawaii, Oregon, Nevada, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

The Center for Arizona Policy, a socially conservative organization, celebrated the news of AUL giving their state the No. 1 spot for the second year in a row.

We couldnt have done it without the support of our CAP friends, said Center for Arizona Policy President Cathi Herrod in a statement earlier this month.

It is not always easy to do the right thing when pro-abortion activists misrepresent their intentions. So I applaud the courage of Arizonas pro-life lawmakers to vote for pro-life laws, Governor Ducey for signing pro-life laws, and Attorney General Brnovich for defending pro-life laws in court.

The AULs Defending Life publication was released days before the annual March for Life event, the largest annual pro-life gathering in the United States, which takes place on or near the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.

Last October, the March for Life organizers revealed the 2019 theme for the march to be Unique from Day One: Pro-Life is Pro-Science.

Medical and technological advancements continue to reaffirm the science behind the pro-life cause  that life begins at fertilization. Life, in its most vulnerable form, should be protected, stated the March for Life.Iranian Christians refuse to renounce Christian faith in exchange for freedom from prison

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Two Iranian Christians at their final appeal hearing were ordered by a court to renounce their Christian faith to gain their freedom but they refused to do so.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide said the hearing took place on Tuesday in Tehran, where Christians Saheb Fadaie and Fatemeh Bakhteri were ordered by presiding judges Hassan Babaee and Ahmad Zargar to turn away from their religion.

The believers, who refused to comply, have been convicted of spreading propaganda against the regime, and are waiting to hear their final verdict. In September, Fadaie was sentenced to 18 months in prison, along with two years of internal exile, while Bakhteri was sentenced to one year in prison.

The Christians were arrested and convicted for discussing Christian doctrine in a house church, which was deemed to be an attack on Islam, the dominant religion in Iran.

Fadaie is already serving a 10-year prison sentence in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, convicted in July 2017 along with three other Christians for acting against national security by promoting Zionist Christianity.

CSWs Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas argued that Fadaie's and Bakhteri's convictions were not only go against their right to religious freedom, but also criminalizes the Christian faith, which the Iranian Constitution purports to recognize.

It is deeply concerning that Judges Babaee and Zargar are presiding over their appeal, especially in view of the unacceptable demand for them to renounce their faith; the rejection by these judges of a previous appeal involving Mr. Fadaie, and the allegations that both judges are implicated in human rights violations, Thomas added.

The CSW head insisted that the two Christians deserve due process and to have their verdicts overturned.

We also continue to urge the Iranian government to cease all forms of harassment and intimidation of peaceable religious communities, and to release all those detained in connection with their religion or belief, he said.

In October, a ministry helping Iranian believers told The Christian Post that it was witnessing one of the "fastest growing underground church movements" in the world.

Mike Ansari, president of Heart4Iran Ministries, told CP that "the persecution of minorities has been a constant under the current Islamic regime in Iran. The Iranian converts to Christianity have been systematically arrested and persecuted as heretics."

He attested that the persecution is stemming from a "historic and organic growth of Christianity inside Iran, evidenced by one of the fastest growing underground church movements in the world."

The ministry leader revealed that most Christians who are arrested "are coerced to divulge information about their house-church activities and those of their friends, under the threat of criminal persecution, or arrest of family members."

In a follow-up interview with CP in November, Ansari said it's important to remember that the Church was strong in Iran even before the rise of Islam.

"Much of today's Islamic world, including Iran, was once Christian. The churches across Iran and Iraq were once great and enduring churches, which sent the first missionaries to China. Yet with [the] emergence of Islam, these communities were marginalized and at times completely destroyed," Ansari said ahead of the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church that month.

"It seems there is an organic re-emergence of Christianity across Iran. God is on the move and building His Church. With growth comes persecution."Don't forget post-abortive fathers suffering in silence, Save the Storks leader says

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WASHINGTON  A leader in the pro-life movement says the conversation around abortion in America is changing, and urges supporters not to forget about post-abortive fathers who often suffer in silence.

"When people talk about how I'm pro-life and radical this and radical that, I let them know that I'm probably more pro-choice than they think I am. And that confuses people because they don't understand it," said Victoria Robinson, director of external relations for Save the Storks in a sit-down interview with The Christian Post at the Trump International Hotel before a black-tie banquet Thursday.

Nearly two-thirds of women feel pressured into an abortion, she recounted, stressing the need to lower that number through education, making sure women know all of their choices. And people are realizing that what they have done in the past hasn't worked.

"Attacking the other [pro-choice] side isn't a good way to handle anything. Nobody ever gets anything done screaming at each other. Because nobody is listening to each other," Robinson said.

The shift in conversation is personal for Robinson. Approximately 30 years ago, after her husband abandoned her and her two children, she got involved with another man and became pregnant and had an abortion. The abortion clinic staff told her that her pregnancy was at such an early stage it was just a clump of cells, that she would get over it, and that it was the best option for her given the circumstances.

"Immediately afterward, I knew it was something I would regret for the rest of my life. And it was," Robinson told CP.

A decade later she found help through a local pregnancy resource center and their post-abortive counseling ministry. It was there that she found hope that there is life and forgiveness after abortion. Today she urges those like her to share their stories, and believes it's essential for those voices to be elevated to frame the discourse.

"Stories sell. Facts tell people things, and people love to hear facts. Some people love all those numbers an stats. But to the majority of people, a story will sell them and move them to action," she explained.

The mission of her organization, Save the Storks, is about love, compassion, and action, "not about screaming in people's faces."

"You'll never see us walking around with dead babies on picket signs or calling people murderers if they're walking into an abortion clinic. We always lead with love compassion and action."

Far too often missing amid the swirl of strong feelings about abortion is how men are devastated by it. Nine out of 10 times couples split after an abortion, Robinson says. In her own journey after her abortion she grew to despise not only her ex-boyfriend but all men who left the women in their lives in similar situations.

"I felt it was his fault that I had to deal with all these ramifications from our choice. He's going on with his life, he seems so happy, we had a lot of the same circle of friends. I never ran into him but I heard about his life," she said.

"And it infuriated me. Here I was trying to get through my own healing, carrying all this hatred and unforgiveness toward this guy, as well as all other post-abortive men. I hated them all," she continued, recalling that she thought they seemed to move on with no sense of remorse.

But she knew when she wrote her book, They Lied to Us, a compilation of stories from women who had abortions, that her ex-boyfriend would probably hear about it. Even though she changed his name in her story to protect his identity she felt like she should call him. When he answered the phone and heard her voice he started weeping profusely, so much so that she could not understand what he was saying.

"I'm so sorry, I've waited for this call for over a decade, to beg for your forgiveness," he then told her though sobs, "to tell you how sorry I am for what I made you do, that I should have protected you and our child. It has haunted me all these years, and I've been in therapy for eight years trying to deal with it."

At that moment Robinson was able to release him from the hatred she had for him, and her soul was unburdened. But that phone call also shifted her perspective about post-abortive fathers.

"And it made me determined to be on a mission to make sure that not only should women have all the information about abortion but men as well. And to let them know that we are not going to forget you. We know there are 60 million plus of [them] in this country who are also hurting in silence and no one is talking about them."

"I don't know if I'll ever see Roe v. Wade overturned in my lifetime," she said, when asked what she makes of the political landscape and recent Supreme Court shift to what many are now calling a 5-4 conservative majority.

"But what I think has got to be overturned are the hearts and minds of people. That's what's got to change. And then if won't matter if Roe v. Wade is there."

Headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Save the Storks is a nonprofit ministry that partners with local pregnancy resource centers to inform an expecting mother of all of her options so that she can make the best choice for herself and give life to her baby.

The organization has built over 40 mobile medical units to help mothers make the choice to give life to more than 4,000 children, their website states.

At the banquet for the Save the Storks charity ball, Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence showed up as surprise guests. The nonprofit group garnered national attention after comedian John Oliver highlighted the organization in a hostile skit on his show "Last Week Tonight" where he mocked pregnancy centers. The organization believes that what the enemy meant for evil God used for good.Peter Patenge, general manager of Galeto Brazilian Steakhouse, which is just over the Interstate 10 hump off Ray Road, is ready to welcome carnivores to gorge on a wide variety of meat dishes.Actor Nick Loeb says 2 abortions haunt him every day, wants to see Roe v. Wade overturned

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Actor Nick Loeb, director of the upcoming film "Roe v. Wade," says he regrets being party to two abortions in his past and is hopeful the movie will influence more Americans to agree that Roe v. Wade needs to be overturned.

Loeb was in Washington, D.C. this week to premier a trailer of his film ahead of the 46th annual March For Life. In a Thursday interview with The Christian Post, Loeb said he knew he had to step up and take this project under his wings because its the most important story of our generation and the most famous court case in American History.

The Christian Post reported last year that Loeb encountered several obstacles in the making of the film, such as being banned from filming at public locations despite being authorized to do so, and having actors walk off the set.

While the cast includes famous Hollywood actors Jon Voight, Robert Davi, Corbin Bernsen, John Schneider and Stacey Dash, Loeb acknowledged in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that some actors had walked off the set and quit after finding out it would have a pro-life perspective.

The accusation is that the studio initially called the shoot, "1973" instead of "Roe v. Wade" and once the title changed, actors and crew walked off. Others reported that crew members only saw portions of the script and weren't aware of its pro-life stance.

When asked by CP if he ever worried about being blacklisted in Hollywood for tackling abortion, the Den Of Thieves star replied: I am not important enough in Hollywood to be blackballed.

During an interview with Fox News last March, Loeb revealed that Facebook had blocked their efforts to promote the film.

We knew we would have opposition but we also encountered a pouring out of support to the level I have never seen on any film, from free volunteers, free catering, free locations, etc., he told CP.

The "Roe v. Wade" film will show the history of "what happened from 1966 through 1973" that led to the Supreme Court's decision declaring existing laws against abortion unconstitutional. In the past, Loeb has said the pro-abortion movement was orchestrated around deception and it's all historically established despite it being a little-known fact.

As for what the 43-year-old hopes to accomplish with the pro-life movie, he simply said its to overturn Roe v. Wade.

When asked to explain his reasons for being pro-life, the entertainer shared his own personal experiences with abortion.

I went through two abortions myself when I was much younger and they haunt me to this day. If I had been educated to know that it wasnt just a clump of cells and that I was actually killing a human baby, I would have made a much different decision, he said.

Despite the setbacks, the filmmakers believe the timing of the film is perfect since pro-abortion activists said their opposition to Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court was largely due to fears that his being on the court would lead to Roe v. Wade being overturned.

Many pro-abortion groups have claimed that a conservative court would overturn Roe. v. Wade. But in an interview with CP, Pro-Life Action League Executive Director, Eric J. Scheidler, said claims that states would immediately ban abortion are exaggerated.

"At most, only a couple of states with extremely conservative legislatures might even attempt something like a total ban on abortion," Scheidler said.

"[It's] far more likely is that states would seek to further restrict abortion, in line with the view of most Americans," he added, "with measures like banning late-term abortion and holding abortion facilities to the highest health and safety standards."

Roe v. Wade the movie is in need of support for marketing since social media outlets like Facebook continue to ban their ads. To help support the movie or for more information, visit "Roe v. Wade" movie.com.Abortion is at 'tipping point' in society and gov't, pro-life leaders say at March for Life

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WASHINGTON  The decadeslong cause to defend the unborn is nearing the "tipping point" in society and in government, longtime pro-life leaders and legislators say.

"For the first time in my adult life I can see the light at the end of the tunnel on the issue of life," said Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women for America, in a Friday interview with The Christian Post on the National Mall behind the March for Life stage before the noon rally.

"And I feel more passionate and optimistic than I have about the cause in years," she said, mentioning President Trump's judicial appointments, including two Supreme Court justices.

Her organization is going to "stomp on the gas" to get the dozens of pending nominees through in the next two years, she explained, "and God willing another four with this president."

"And we don't wish any ill; in fact, we're praying for the health of [Supreme Court] Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But regardless of what happens, there might be a retirement and we're ready."

"We've had two Supreme Court justices confirmed with the most hostile conditions possible; the left has thrown everything at us that they possibly could. And make no mistake, the controversy around [Justice] Brett Kavanaugh was about one woman, and her name is Jane Roe," she said, referring to the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark case legalizing abortion nationwide.

Nance stressed: "And we will be ready to do the same with the next justice, whoever that is and whenever that is."

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life political action committee that works to elect pro-life women to Congress, shares Nance's optimism, particularly in light of the current data.

"We're just about at the tip of the tipping point," she told CP Friday.

"Some of the recent polling coming out is even surprising to me," she said, encouraged by Marist surveys showing self-described pro-choice people saying abortion should be restricted to the first trimester.

Dannenfelser is also buoyed by the pro-life majority in the U.S. Senate and believes that in the coming months and years the Supreme court will allow more humane laws to be tested.

"I don't take anything for granted, ever. But we're in a really good place and we need to keep going," she said.

Polling numbers among the millennial generation, regardless of their political affiliation, are also trending in a good direction, the SBA-List president said.

"It's not a conservative or liberal issue for millennials, it's a justice issue for them. It transcends the political boundaries and that's why we're looking at a tipping point."

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, concurs, noting that millennials understand science and believe abortion to be a fundamental human rights violation, and is an act of violence.

"Only 7 percent of millennials actual agree with the Democratic National Committee's official platform on abortion, which is abortion in all nine months for whatever reason, taxpayer-funded. They are the extremists on abortion, not us," she commented to CP in the March for Life press tent.

While it will be nearly impossible to get any meaningful legislation to the president's desk due to the Democrats winning control of the House of Representatives in November, almost all of whom support abortion rights, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., remains hopeful about meaningful government action for the unborn in the upper chamber.

"We're going to keep moving forward: solid, conservative judges, pro-life judges," Daines said in a CP interview, highlighting the record speed with which federal circuit court and appellate confirmations have occurred, in addition to the elevation of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

"President Trump is delivering results both in terms of policy and administrative actions in the White House combined with a pro-life Senate," he said, adding that he's bolstered by the higher number of pro-life senators elected in the 2018 election cycle.

But the Senate will also be on the defensive, he said, as he and his colleagues intend to block any legislation that expands abortion that passes the House under Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Daines, a chemical engineer by training, thinks the significant distaste for abortion among the millennial generation is in part due to advances in technology and science.

"As we've seen the developments in ultrasound technologies, the clarity with which we can see those babies now during pregnancy, it's conclusive that we're talking about a human being," he said.

"And there's the principle that people believe what they discover for themselves. Young people are discovering for themselves, as they develop their own convictions and beliefs on this issue, that the science and technology and their faith coming together say 'this is life.'"

During his remarks before tens of thousands gathered for the March for Life rally, the Montana senator announced the formation of the first ever pro-life caucus in the Senate.

The theme of the 2019 March for Life was "Unique from Day One: Pro-Life is Pro-Science."The Bucs of Boyd-Buchanan earned a big 53-41 district win over Notre Dame on Friday night. The Bucs improve to 8-1 in district play and 18-6 overall.

Boyd-Buchanan was led by Eli Evans with 16 points and Riley Covington with 11. The Bucs led 14-11 at the end of the first quarter and 24-21 at the half. The Bucs outscored Notre Dame 18-11 in the third quarter.

Boys Scoring Summary:



Boyd Buchanan 14 10 18 11 - 53

Notre Dame 11 10 11 9 - 41



Boyd Buchanan (53) Eli Evans 16, Riley Covington 11, Emrey 8, Edmondson 6, I Johnson 5, C Johnson 5, Oliver 2

Notre Dame (41) Derwin Lewis 20, Cal Price 11, Nelson 4, Robinson 3, Turley 2, Jones 1



3 point goals: Boyd Buchanan 4 (Evans 2, I Johnson, C Johnson); Notre Dame 4 (Price 2, Lewis, Robinson)

An investigation by special agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has resulted in the indictment of a Piney Flats woman on voter fraud charges.

In October, at the request of 2nd District Attorney General Barry Staubus, TBI special agents began investigating allegations of voter fraud involving Judy Guinn. During the course of the investigation, agents determined that Guinn cast a ballot during early voting for the November general election despite being a convicted felon.

Last week, the Sullivan County Grand Jury returned an indictment charging Guinn with one count of Illegal Voting. Today, she was arrested and booked into the Sullivan County Jail on a $5,000 bond.Governor Bill Haslam gave this farewell message on his final day in office:

Dear Fellow Tennesseans,

This morning, I walked up the stairs to the State Capitol for the last time as governor, and I can honestly say I felt the same sense of excitement as I did on January 15, 2011.

Every time I climbed those stairs over the past eight years, Ive looked forward to the work - doing what we could to help improve the lives of Tennesseans.

My hope is that weve made an impact.

By changing the culture of expectations around dinner tables, making college free to all Tennesseans and providing opportunities that will change the trajectory of their lives.

By strengthening the K-12 education we offer our children, watching Tennessee students become the fastest improving students in the country because of their hard work and the hard work of their teachers.

By fostering the best possible environment for job creation so businesses can thrive and grow, creating more than 450,000 jobs and maintaining a record low unemployment rate.

By coming out of years and years of federal oversight of the services we provide to children, families and the developmentally disabled.

By changing the way we hire and reward state employees. By being good stewards of taxpayers money, tripling the states rainy day fund, proposing and signing balanced budgets, including two that had no new debt, and earning the highest rating possible by all three bond agencies.

By putting money back into the pocketbooks of Tennesseans and the private sector, cutting $800 million in taxes.

Weve faced challenges too, and I always came away newly reminded of and inspired by your resolve and how you come together, Tennesseans helping Tennesseans, to get through the toughest of times.

I leave the State Capitol today with a heart overflowing with gratitude, incredibly thankful for this opportunity that, for some reason, was bestowed upon me.

Lamar Alexander told me shortly after I was first elected, Being governor of your state is a great job, unless your home state is Tennessee, and then its the best job in the whole world. And he is absolutely right.

Crissy and I are grateful for you calling on us to serve, for giving us the greatest jobs we could ever imagine.

Bill

BillThis story appears in the April 2011 issue of National Geographic magazine

In 1954 Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, signed Crimea over to Ukraine as a gesture of goodwill. Galina was 14 at the time.

Illegal, she said, when asked about the handover. There was no referendum. No announcement. It just happened.

What was Khrushchev thinking?

He wasnt, she snapped. Khrushchev had roaches in his head.

Crimea was a lovely present, but the box was empty. Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union anyway. My parents discussed the transfer, but we werent concerned, Galina said. Moscow was still in charge. No one could have ever imagined the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, when Crimea would be pulled out of the orbit of Russian rule along with an independent Ukraine.

Do you miss the Soviet Union? I asked Galina, as she reminisced about the stability of life under the Soviets. Prices were artificially low. You could get a kilo of sugar for 78 kopeks, she said. Butter, only 60! Now, I dont even buy it. Education and medical care were free. As for a vacation: I could go to a resortnow completely out of the question on her monthly pension of $130.

Yes, we have a longing for the Soviet Union, she said. But it cannot come back, no matter how much we wish. We can only toskavat.Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription, or activate your access, to continue reading.Skoda India and Volkswagen today opened a new technology centre in Pune, India. At the new Technology Centre, 250 engineers will develop vehicles tailored to the needs of customers in the subcontinent. To ensure maximum market proximity, Skoda aims to achieve radical localisation of 95 percent, meaning that almost all vehicle components will be made in India.

Commenting on the opening of the centre, Gurpratap Boparai, managing director of Skoda Auto India, said The technology center will lay the foundation for the development of products that are specially designed for Indian market. We expect to roll out the first products, for both the SKODA as well Volkswagen brands, by 2020-21; starting with a midsized SUV based on MQB A0 IN platform. A model campaign, led by Skoda, will follow. I am convinced that we can use all the strengths of Skoda to the great benefit of the entire Volkswagen Group, he added.



This mid SUV will make its debut in concept form at the 2020 Delhi Auto Expo with a production version expected to arrive later next year.

The opening ceremony was attended by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and other government officials. On behalf of the Volkswagen Group, Skoda is leading the INDIA 2.0 project, which sets out the Volkswagen Groups model campaign on the Indian market.

Skoda Kodiaq  N/A Onwards

Skoda | Skoda Kodiaq | Kodiaq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.

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Police are appealing for witnesses to an alleged road rage incident in Belconnen on Monday, January 7. The incident occurred on William Hovell Drive about 4.45pm, when a white Honda Jazz was travelling northbound in the right hand overtaking lane. It is alleged a vehicle, described as a dirty, light coloured, four-door sedan, travelling behind the Honda Jazz moved onto the incorrect side of the road and deliberately sideswiped the Honda Jazz. William Hovell Drive is an undivided major arterial road with a speed limit of 90km/h in both directions. The sedan was last seen heading towards Belconnen along William Hovell Drive. The driver is urged to contact police regarding the alleged incident. Police are also urging anyone who may have witnessed the incident, or have dash cam footage to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or via the Crime Stoppers ACT website. Please quote reference 6350141. Information can be provided anonymously.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/050e496f-77f6-4d38-b32a-b9054a2bc7af/r0_16_320_197_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgnews, latest-news

A Canberra company is bringing high quality healthcare to many more Fijians thanks to a new partnership with our Pacific neighbours. Aspen Medical has entered into a 23-year agreement with the Fijian government to deliver critical medical infrastructure and training at two hospitals in the north-west of Fiji's main island. The company, headquartered in Deakin, has a long history of working in the Pacific, being part of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands for 14 years and providing medical services in Paua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Kiribati and now Fiji. Aspen Medical chairman and co-founder Glenn Keys said the project would deliver much needed and worthwhile medical outcomes in Fiji. "To be helping someone that is our neighbour is really exciting," Mr Keys said. "I'm really impressed with how the Fijian government has approached this. "The 23-year partnership means we will be committed to the long term." Aspen Medical was chosen as the successful bidder by the Fijian government in November, with the contract officially signed on Thursday. Mr Keys said the company tailored each of their projects to the specific community and geographical needs of a certain location and could provide anything from staff, equipment, pharmaceuticals, ambulances and even aircraft. "It's a great example of Australian companies taking what we do well and delivering it around the world," Mr Keys said. With Fiji being an immensely popular destination for Australian tourists, Mr Keys said the partnership would also allow tourists to enjoy a Fijian holiday with the knowledge they would have access to quality health care if they needed it. Some of the aspects of the partnership will involve equipping the newly constructed 70-bed hospital in the town of Ba and revamping the 260-bed Lautoka Hospital to increase its output. Aspen Medical will also oversee the installation of new IT and administration systems and enhancing the hospitals' capabilities in a range of specialties including renal dialysis, chemotherapy, oncology, coronary care and maternity services. Mr Keys said the vast majority of staff will be Fijian and Aspen Medical will oversee the training of all staff to ensure their is a common standard across all areas at both hospitals. "We won't just be growing local capacity but local capability as well." Aspen Medical was announced as the National Exporter of the Year for 2018 in November, for delivering medical services around the globe. Outside their work in the Pacific, Aspen Medical operated seven Ebola treatment centres in two African countries during the Ebola epidemic and treated about 48,000 civilian casualties in Iraq, along with other projects globally.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/c955d69b-ff34-47f1-874d-40bce49c2a1e/r0_226_4288_2649_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgPresident Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late February as the U.S. pushes Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear and missile programs, the White House said Friday, CNBC reported.

The Trump administration said it would announce a location at a later date. The plans emerged after North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chols meetings Friday with both Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

President Donald J. Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and half, to discuss denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February, the White House said in a readout of Trumps meeting with the North Korean representative. The President looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date.Here you'll find our latest collection of Caledonian-Record reports on the coronavirus outbreak and local response, from the beginning of April. Our January, February and March stories are here: https://www.caledonianrecord.com/news/local/our-coronavirus-coverage/collection_5885178c-692e-11e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.The Gujarat government signed around 130 MoUs with investment commitments worth over Rs 56,000 crore in various sectors on the first day of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit here Friday, said officials.

A majority of the MoUs, also called Investment Intentions (IIs), were signed in the port and transport sector.

Also Read: Astronauts on Gaganyaan most likely to be pilots, hints ISRO

China-based Tsingshan group committed to investing Rs 21,000 crore to set up a steel plant and a facility to manufacture car batteries in Dholera SIR, said the officials at a press meet.

Besides this mega agreement, MoUs worth over Rs 35,000 crore was also signed during the opening day of the three-day business conclave which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A key MoU was signed with Petronet LNG Ltd with an intended investment of Rs 2,100 crore for expansion of their existing LNG Port Terminal at Dahej, said Sunaina Tomar, principal secretary, state port and transport department.

"Another MoU was signed with HPCL Rajasthan Refinery Ltd with an intended investment of Rs 1,400 crore for development of Single Point Mooring System and Crude Oil Terminal at Mandvi," she told reporters.

An MOU was signed with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd with an intended investment of Rs 1,350 crore for LPG import facilities along with a jetty at Dahej Port and LPG cavern and pumping facilities at Ankleshwar, Tomar said.

An MOU was signed with Adani Group with an intended cumulative investment of Rs 3,500 crore across three projects - development of a captive jetty at Kori Creek, cargo handling terminal at Mundra and Ro-Ro ferry facility at Mundra, she said.

"A MoU was signed with Essar Group with an intended cumulative investment of Rs 7,485 crore across two projects - development of port-based Smart City and an LNG terminal at Hazira, the IAS officer said.

Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd (APM Terminals Pipavav) has expressed interest in the development of a Ro-Ro terminal at Pipavav, she said.

"A tripartite MOU was signed between Gujarat Maritime Board, J M Baxi & Co and Port of Amsterdam with an intended cumulative investment of Rs 800 crore for development of cruise terminals at Mandvi, Dwarka, Porbandar and Verava," Tomar said.

An MOU was signed with Dahej Harbour and Infrastructure Ltd with an intended investment of Rs 700 crore for expansion of their existing port facility at Dahej, she added.

Two Rajkot-based firms have also signed MoUs to set up artillery factories after getting clearance from the Centre, said Air Marshal R K Dhir, advisor to the Gujarat government for the aerospace and defence sector.

Also Read: RBI will undertake policy measures after weighing challenges, opportunities: Shaktikanta Das on Brexit

Also Read: Former CFO Shashidhar Kotian arrested in Rs 5,600-crore NSEL scam

Also Read: Trump to hold second summit with Kim Jong-un in February: White HouseArcelorMittal SA, the world's largest steelmaker, is set to build its first-ever desalination unit in Brazil to handle unforeseen water needs at its plant in the eastern state of Espirito Santo, senior company executives said in an interview on Friday.

The unit is aimed at lessening the company's dependence on state water utility company Cesan and avoiding production cuts at times of water crises as the state suffered in 2015 and 2016, said Jorge Ribeiro, president of operations at ArcelorMittal's Brazilian flat steel division.

Also Read: RBI will undertake policy measures after weighing challenges, opportunities: Shaktikanta Das on Brexit

While the plant is ArcelorMittal's first, desalination facilities have already become fixtures at some rival steelmakers and multiple mining operations, which tend to be water-intensive.

The company is in the final stages of picking a firm to build the plant, Ribeiro said, adding that the decision will likely be taken next month, with companies from India, the United States and Spain among those interested.

The planned investment is about 50 million reais ($13.32 million) and the project should start operating in two years, he said.

In an initial module, the plant will be capable of desalinating 500 cubic meters (132,100 gallons)of seawater per hour.

"It's a modular process, more modules can be added in the future," said Ribeiro.

ArcelorMittal Brazil's chief executive, Benjamin Baptista Filho, noted that during the 2015 water crisis in Espirito Santo, the company was told by the state government to reduce its consumption from Cesan by 30 per cent.

"What we are doing is insurance, because if there is another rationing event, we can respond... if there is another rationing, without the desalination, we would have to stop some of the production," said Filho.

According to Filho, the desalination plant will be the first in Brazil to operate exclusively with seawater. The plant will use reverse osmosis technology and consume electricity produced by the steel mill itself.

Also Read: Former CFO Shashidhar Kotian arrested in Rs 5,600-crore NSEL scam

Also Read: Trump to hold second summit with Kim Jong-un in February: White HouseKUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysian judge on Friday ruled in favour of Wynn Macau in a case against a fund manager who owed the casino millions of dollars, the company's lawyer said, the first time a casino has been allowed to recover dues in the country.Wagering or gaming contracts are not recognised in Malaysia, which means casinos do not have legal recourse for the gambling dues owed to them by its clients. But in the Wynn case against the Malaysian fund manager, the casino's lawyers said they weren't seeking dues from a wagering contract but from a credit agreement that the Malaysian had ...UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres yesterday expressed frustration over the lack of progress in Myanmar's refugee crisis, Xinhua reported.

"I feel enormous frustration with the lack of progress in relation to Myanmar and with the suffering of the people, in particular, ... people living in Bangladesh in extremely difficult circumstances," Guterres told reporters.

"We insist in the need to create conditions for them to be willing to go back."

It is absolutely essential to create the conditions of confidence and trust. It's not only physical reconstruction; it's a matter of reconciliation of communities and strong commitment by the government for that reconciliation of communities to be possible and for the safety of the Rohingya population to be guaranteed, he said. "Unfortunately, the truth is that the situation on the ground has not been conducive to it. Things have been too slow."

One of the first steps is to solve the problem of the internally displaced, he said. Finding adequate solutions for the internally displaced would be a very good way to give credibility to the perspective of a future return of refugees.By Ricardo BritoBRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's president will outline his government's economic reform agenda and plans to increase trade with the rest of the world during a speech at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos next week, one of his aides told Reuters on Friday.Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain who took office on Jan. 1 vowing to end years of graft and crack down on violent criminals, will also pledge to lower rampant bureaucracy in Brazil, which many view as a drag on the country's stuttering economy, said the source, who asked not to be identified. ...The West Bengal CPI(M) Saturday criticised the Trinamool Congress for allegedly "destroying democracy and institutions" in the state and boasting of fighting against the misrule of the BJP at Centre.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) state secretary and politburo member Surya Kanta Mishra said, the TMC and BJP were two sides of the same coin and share several "undemocratic traits".

"The TMC should not talk about restoring democracy in the country. They (TMC) themselves have destroyed democracy in the state and have subverted every institution in the state since it came to power in 2011," Mishra said.

"The way they conducted the last panchayat polls is a blot on democracy," he added.

What the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been doing at the Centre since 2014, the TMC has been doing the same in West Bengal since 2011, she said further.

The TMC as a political party has neither any respect for democracy not for the constitutional norms, she added.

Issuing a war cry 'Delhi mein sarkar badal do' (change the government at the Centre), Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee Saturday asserted that the "expiry date" of the Narendra Modi government was over and a united opposition will win in the coming general elections.

Setting the tone for the Lok Sabha polls, leaders of 22 opposition parties came together at a mega rally here and declared to unitedly fight to oust the Modi government which had passed its "expiry date".

The CPI(M)-led Left Front which too was invited for the opposition rally decided to give it a miss.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The CBI Saturday filed a charge-sheet here against 26 persons who had allegedly rigged a recruitment test conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) or 'Vyapam' in 2012.

The charge-sheet is part of the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) probe into what is known as the Vyapam scam-- large-scale rigging of entrance and recruitment exams conducted by the MPPEB.

"We have filed a charge-sheet in the court of special CBI judge Suresh Singh," said the central agency's special prosecutor for the Vyapam scam Satish Dinkar.

The MPPEB is better known by its Hindi acronym 'Vyapam' (Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal).

"They have been charged with forgery, criminal conspiracy (under the IPC) as well as under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Information Technology Act," Dinkar said.

The accused include 19 candidates who allegedly tried to pass the test for transport constable's post by greasing the palms of middlemen and Vyapam officials, he said.

Besides, it names Vyapam officials including former controller of exams Pankaj Trivedi and three middlemen.

The Special Task Force of Madhya Pradesh police which investigated the scam initially had filed a case against the accused in October 2014.

A total of 56,450 candidates had appeared for the exam for transport constable's post in August 2012.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj Saturday assured African nations that India will continue to be their trusted partner and work closely for the economic and social empowerment of Africans.

Addressing ministers and representatives of around 50 African nations to mark the first-ever 'Africa Day' at the ongoing Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit here, Swaraj said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared Africa as the "top priority" in India's foreign and economic policy.

"As Africa marches in its journey towards security, renewal and prosperity, India will remain a trusted partner, working closely with Africa for the economic and social empowerment of its people," Swaraj said.

The minister said India dedicating a day to an entire continent for the first time during the investors' meet underlined the importance it accords to the African economies "in the development and growth map of the contemporary world".

Speaking before Swaraj, Uganda Foreign Affairs Minister Henry Okello said that due to stagnation in relationship between India and Africa, China has realised the potential of the continent and came out in a big way.

"Everybody knows that relations between India and Africa were very robust in the past, but in recent times they became stagnant. In the meantime, China realised the potential and came in a big way. Now, it should be set on the right track," Okello said.

Underlining the significance of the African Day event, Swaraj said it was held during 150th birth anniversary year of Mahatma Gandhi and the 100th birth anniversary of iconic African leader Nelson Mandela.

India has always shared a special bond with the people of Africa and supported their liberation from colonialism and apartheid (a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s), the minister said.

She said PM Modi has declared Africa as the "top priority" in the foreign and economic policy of India.

"In the last four years, our long-standing ties with Africa have acquired vibrancy and dynamism. There has been unprecedented intensification of our political engagement with Africa, with 29 visits to African countries at the level of President, Vice President and Prime Minister, apart from several ministerial visits," the minister said.

Swaraj also said that Africa has emerged as an important trade and investment partner of India.

"The trade between India and Africa stood at USD 62.66 billion for 2017-18 which reflects a nearly 22 per cent increase over the previous year. India is ranked as the third largest export destination in Africa," the minister said, adding that as many as 38 African countries are now enjoying the benefits of India's Duty Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) Scheme.

She exuded confidence that the recent signing of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement will boost trade and economic ties with Africa.

"In recent years, there has been a surge in Indian investment in Africa. India is the fifth largest investor in Africa with cumulative investments of USD 54 billion," she noted.

Swaraj identified minerals and mining, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, infrastructure, high-technology manufacturing and information and communication technology as the areas having a considerable potential to boost investment ties with African countries.

"Currently, 189 projects in 42 African countries for nearly USD 11.4 billion are being implemented under the Indian Line of Credits (LoCs). These projects have had a positive impact in many African countries and are changing the lives of its people by covering a range of sectors," she said.

The minister also touched upon the issue of terrorism, and called for a greater engagement to deal with it.

"One of the most serious challenges toward international peace and security is the menace of terrorism. Like India, many of the African countries are the victims of terrorism. Consequently, preserving peace and security, countering terrorism and extremism is an important element of our engagement," she said.

Underlining that India's relationship with Africa is on upswing, the minister also acknowledged that maintaining this momentum, building the foundation of security, and ensuring development and growth for the benefit of people are the major challenges.

"Strong relations between India and Africa will go a long way in redefining the contours of the international order on more egalitarian lines," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A key US senator on Saturday said the Saudi crown prince was responsible for Jamal Khashoggi's murder and must be "dealt with", as he threatened new sanctions.

Republican Lindsey Graham, an influential ally of President Donald Trump, has previously said that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was complicit in the grisly killing of Washington Post contributor Khashoggi in October.

"I have concluded that the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States cannot move forward until MBS has been dealt with," Graham said, using the initials for the crown prince.

Graham also threatened new sanctions against those suspected of involvement in the murder during a press conference in Ankara.

Western countries including the US, France and Canada have placed sanctions on nearly 20 Saudi nationals as the case has tarnished Riyadh's international reputation.

"We will start sanctioning those involved in the killing of Mr Khashoggi. We'll make a definitive statement that MBS knew about it and is responsible for it and come up with a series of sanctions," the South Carolina lawmaker said.

Turkey says Khashoggi was killed by a team of 15 Saudis who strangled him during a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to obtain paperwork ahead of his upcoming marriage.

The remains of the insider turned critic of the kingdom have yet to be found, three months after this murder.

Riyadh has denied any claims of the crown prince's involvement but the case has caused strains with Washington.

Earlier this month the trial of 11 accused opened in Saudi Arabia with the attorney general seeking the death penalty for five defendants.

Graham acknowledged that he had been "enthusiastic" in his support of Prince Mohammed but accepted he had been "wrong".

"What has transpired in the last couple of years is unnerving to say the least," he said.

Graham said the sanctions were intended to send the message that the murder was "not what you do if you're an ally of the United States".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The US military says it has carried out an airstrike in Somalia that killed 52 al-Shabab extremists in response to an attack on Somali forces.

The US Africa Command statement says the airstrike occurred on Saturday near Jilib in Middle Juba region.

The US says Somali forces had come under attack by a "large group" of the al-Qaida-linked extremists.

The statement does not say how many Somali forces were killed or wounded. There are no reports of Americans killed or wounded.

Al-Shabab controls large parts of rural southern and central Somalia and continues to carry out high-profile attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, and elsewhere. The group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on a luxury hotel complex in Kenya's capital on Tuesday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two women of menstruating age, who attempted to trek the hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa here early Saturday, were forced to return once again after the police informed them that it would be difficult to provide security as there was a possibility of protests from devotees.

Reshma Nishant and Shaneela Sajesh from Kannur had attempted to offer prayers at the temple on January 16 as well, but had to abandon their plans due to protests from devotees who spotted them.

The women, said to be in their late 30s, claimed that they had come to the temple after undertaking the 41-day "vritham" (penance).

The police said the women were told that it would be difficult to provide protection to them till the shrine as there was a possibility of protests.

There is a sizable crowd of devotees at the shrine on Saturday, as the "darshan" closes at 9.50 pm.

The two women reached the Nilackal base camp at around 5 am.

They were taken to the control room and informed of the difficulty in taking them to the shrine after which they agreed to leave.

A group of six people, belonging to the Purogamana Navothana Kootayimma -- a collective -- who came along with the two women, also returned.

They alleged that the police had "cheated" them after assuring that young women would be allowed into the shrine.

More women in the 10-50 age group would visit the temple on Saturday, they said.

Since it opened for the Mandalam-Makaravilakku festivities on November 17, the shrine has witnessed massive protests by devotees and right-wing outfits against the government's decision to implement the Supreme Court's September 28, 2018 verdict, opening its doors to women of all ages to offer prayers.

Traditionally, girls and women in the menstruating age group of 10-50 years were barred from offering prayers at the shrine, the presiding deity of which is "Naishtika Brahmachari" (perennial celibate).

The state government submitted in the on Friday that 51 women in the previously barred age group had come to through virtual queue booking.

However, a controversy erupted after some of those, whose names had figured in the list, appeared on television channels and claimed that they were over 50 years of age.

A native, whose name had appeared in the list, turned out to be a male devotee.

The temple shuts after the pujas on Sunday morning, bringing to close the two-month-long pilgrimage season which witnessed unprecedented protests from frenzied devotees over the entry of young women, following the top court's verdict.A solemn procession. A long salute. A chaplain's prayer.

President Donald Trump traveled to Delaware's Dover Air Force Base on Saturday to pay his respects to the returning remains of four Americans who were killed this week in a suicide bomb attack in Syria.

The bombing, which was the deadliest assault on US troops in Syria since American forces moved into the country in 2015, came as Trump prepares to pull US troops out of Syria.

The president stood solemnly and saluted the remains of civilian Scott A Wirtz of St Louis, Missouri, as his body was carried from a C-17 military aircraft into a waiting van.

Wirtz and the three other Americans were killed in a suicide bombing Wednesday in the northern Syrian town of Manbij. He had been assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency as an operations support specialist.

The three other transfers were to be conducted privately, with the president observing. He also spent time with the families of those killed.

Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Saturday that meeting the relatives of the country's fallen heroes "might be the toughest thing" he has to do as president.

The trip was not listed on the president's public schedule that was released Friday night, but he tweeted the in the morning.

"Will be leaving for Dover to be with the families of 4 very special people who lost their lives in service to our Country!" he wrote.

He later told reporters: "When I'm going to meet relatives of some of our great, great heroes that have fallen, I think it might be the toughest thing I have to do as president." The visit came during a budget fight that has consumed Washington for the past month, shuttering parts of the federal government and leaving hundreds of thousands of workers without pay.

Raising the stakes in his dispute with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, the president on Thursday abruptly canceled her military flight, hours before she and a congressional delegation were to depart for Afghanistan on a previously undisclosed visit to US troops.

Trump planned a Saturday afternoon announcement that was expected to outline a deal the White House hopes might pave the way for the shutdown's end.

Trump has made one other visit to Dover during his presidency, soon after taking office. On February 1, 2017, Trump honoured the returning remains of a US Navy SEAL killed in a raid in Yemen.

Chief Special Warfare Operator William "Ryan" Owens, a 36-year-old from Peoria, Illinois, was the first known US combat casualty since Trump became president.

In a December 19 tweet announcing the withdrawal from Syria, Trump said, "We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency."



He said the troops would begin coming home "now." That plan triggered immediate pushback from military leaders and led to the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

Over the past month, Trump and others have appeared to adjust the timeline, and US officials have suggested it will likely take several months to safely withdraw American forces from Syria.

A leading US voice on foreign policy, Sen Lindsey Graham, said during a visit Saturday to Turkey that an American withdrawal from Syria that had not been thought through would lead to "chaos" and "an Iraq on steroids."



Graham, R-S.C., urged Trump not to get out without a plan and said the goal of destroying Islamic State militants in Syria had not yet been accomplished.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack in Manbij, which killed 19 people, including the four Americans.

Trump said before arriving in Dover that IS has lost almost all its territory but "that doesn't mean you're not going to have somebody around."



He also said "we can be pulling back but we've been hitting ISIS very hard over the last three weeks...and it's moving along very well."



Manbij is the main town on the westernmost edge of Syrian territory held by the US-backed Syrian Kurds, running along the border with Turkey.

Mixed Kurdish-Arab Syrian forces liberated Manbij from IS in 2016 with help from the US-led coalition.

But Kurdish control of the town infuriated Turkey, which views the main US Kurdish ally, the YPG militia, as "terrorists" linked to Kurdish insurgents on its own soil.

Trump reinforced his withdrawal decision during a meeting with about a half-dozen GOP senators late Wednesday at the White House.

Sen Rand Paul of Kentucky, who was at the meeting, told reporters on a conference call that the president remained "steadfast" in his decision not to stay in Syria, or Afghanistan, "forever". But the senator did not disclose the latest thinking on the withdrawal timeline.

Paul said Trump told the group, "We're not going to continue the way we've done it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Thousands of anti-abortion activists rallied in Washington on Friday at the annual March for Life -- with the staunch support of President Donald Trump.

Trump, who became the first sitting president to address the demonstration last year, appeared once again by videolink, and Vice President Mike Pence made a surprise appearance at what organizers call "the world's largest pro-life event."



"Today, I have signed a letter to Congress to make clear that if they send any legislation to my desk that weakens the protection of human life, I will veto," Trump said.

Pence, with his wife Karen at his side, assured demonstrators: "From the White House to your house, life is winning in America once again." The march is organized each year on or near an anniversary that infuriates anti-abortion activists -- the Supreme Court's ruling in Roe v. Wade, which legalized the procedure nationwide on January 22, 1973.

The anniversary offers the religious right an opportunity to rally its forces and demand that the law be changed.

"Every life matters from the moment of conception until natural death, not just babies but every human being," Mary Ryback, a mother who traveled from Milwaukee to participate in the rally, told AFP.

She said she came to Washington to "pray to end the horrible things going on with the people in this country that think they have the right -- which is only God's -- to give life and take it away."



The crowd, which included students from religious schools around the country, carried many signs with various slogans: "Defend Life," "Love Life, Choose Life" or "Let God Plan Parenthood." Indiana resident Dave Doran called the decision in Roe v. Wade "an atrocity."He said that even if it is never reversed, "we can provide new laws that will define personhood and give the fetus and child the protection of our US Constitution." As it does each year, the march left the National Mall, and ended at the Supreme Court behind the Capitol building.

Since taking office in 2017, Trump has named two justices to the Supreme Court who oppose abortion, leading activists who support abortion rights to fear that Roe v. Wade could be overturned.

While Roe v. Wade remains the law of the land, numerous states have taken measures to limit access to abortions.

In November, voters in Alabama approved an amendment to the state constitution that affords a fetus the same rights as a newborn child. The text also says that the state does not protect the right to an abortion.

Alabama does not make exceptions in cases of incest, rape or danger to the mother's life.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump congratulated Nikol Pashinyan on his appointment as Prime Minister of Armenia. The relevant message was published on the official website of the head of government.

The United States supports a prosperous and democratic Armenia, peacefully coexisting with its neighbors. Together we can record progress in the deepening trade and economic ties between our countries, strengthening global security and fighting corruption, Trump said.

"A peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will contribute to these efforts," the American president emphasized.Seeking to end the federal government shutdown, President Donald Trump has offered temporary protection for people illegally brought to the US as children in exchange for USD 5.7 billion for constructing a wall on the Mexico border.

The impasse between the Trump-led Republican Party and the Democratic Party led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the border wall led to the shutdown, which has rendered 800,000 federal government workers without work and crippled key departments.

The shutdown-- the longest in US history-- entered its 29th day, as Trump Saturday made the announcement.

The president has also proposed protection to other groups of immigrants facing deportation.

Both sides in Washington must simply come together, Trump said in a White House speech, adding he is trying to break the logjam."



Defending his plan for the US-Mexico border wall, he said, "Walls are not immoral, in fact they are the opposite of immoral because they will save many lives."



Trump said he was offering a "commonsense compromise both parties should embrace."The president said he would give protection for young people brought to the country illegally as children and also extend it to those with temporary protected status after fleeing countries affected by natural disasters or violence.

The divide between the Republicans and Democrats, and the shutdown are fallouts of Trump refusing to sign spending bills without the USD5.7 billion to start constructing the border wall.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Donald Trump on Saturday alleged that House Speaker and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is being controlled by the "radical left", as he reiterated his demand for building a wall along the US-Mexico border to prevent the flow of illegal aliens and massive smuggling of drugs.

"Well I hope that Speaker Pelosi can come along and realise what everybody knows, that no matter who it is, they know that walls work. We need walls. Whether it's personal or not, it's not personal for me," Trump said at the White House before leaving for Dover Airforce Base for the return of remains of four Americans killed in Syria this week. He will also visit the families.

Trump was responding to questions about the unprecedented partial government shutdown that Saturday entered a record 29th day.

The shutdown because of the sharp differences between the Trump-led Republican party and the Pelosi-led opposition Democrats has resulted in throwing out of some 800,000 federal government employees temporarily out of work and without paychecks. This has paralysed the functioning of several key wings of the US federal government.

"She's being controlled by the radical left, which is a problem. And you know, she's under total control of the radical left. I think that's a very bad thing for her. I think it's a very bad thing for the Democrats," he said.

"Everybody knows that walls work. You look at different places, they put up a wall, no problems. You look at San Antonio, you look at so many different places. They go from one of the most unsafe cities in the country to one of the safest cities immediately, immediately. It works, we have to put them up, and we will put them up," said the president.

Trump is scheduled to deliver a major address to the nation later in the day on border situation and government shutdown.

Without giving details of his upcoming announcement, Trump said it will be an important statement, having to do with caravans, of illegal immigrants coming from several Latin American countries who are now headed towards the US-Mexico border to illegally enter the US.

"They (caravans) are coming up. They have a big one coming up now. I'm disappointed that Mexico is not stopping them. I mean, Mexico seems unfortunately powerless to stop them. Many got through, they broke through the Mexican area, where in theory they were guarded and they weren't so well guarded," Trump said accusing the Mexican government of letting illegal immigrants pass through the country.

"If we had a wall, we wouldn't have a problem. Now we have too many open areas. The walls that we've picked, the walls that we've built hold beautifully. We have a lot of open areas, and that's too bad. Now the previous caravans we've stopped. They're right now in Tijuana. I don't know what they're doing in Tijuana, but they're not in our country. That I can tell you," Trump said.

Responding to a question, Trump said that his administration is making a lot of progress with regard to building the border wall.

"I think we're making a lot of progress. You know, we're building wall as we speak. Nobody covers that. I understand that. But we're building wall as we speak, we're going to continue," he said.

He said America cannot be secure without the wall.

"You have human traffickers, you have criminals of all kinds, you have drug pushers and drug dealers, like at a level that people haven't seen...Over the last five-six years, it's gotten to a point, nobody's seen anything like it. The border patrol has done an incredible job. But we need the help and the backup on a wall," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Thousands of women marched Saturday in the US capital and across the country to convey a now-annual message opposing Donald Trump and supporting women's rights, but internal divisions appeared to steal some energy from the rallies.

In Washington, demonstrators arriving by car, bus or subway converged on the city's Freedom Plaza and marched defiantly past the nearby Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Many wore pink "pussy" hats to protest Trump's demeaning comments about women.

"We need to stand up for women all over the world -- for races, gender, sexual orientation," said Ann Caroline, 27, herself wearing a pink hat.

Some marchers carried posters portraying Trump as a Russian "puppet." Others decried his comments about women or minority groups, while many demanded his impeachment.

Just blocks away, the president spoke to reporters outside the White House before traveling briefly to Dover, Delaware for a ceremony to receive the remains of four Americans killed in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group in Syria. He made no public comment about the marches.

As in earlier years, thousands of women joined demonstrations in cities across the United States, and around the world, though most turnouts appeared far short of the earlier women's events.

In New York, several hundred people converged on Manhattan's Foley Square, near the Brooklyn Bridge. Many more took part in a separate march in Central Park organized by women angered by what they saw as the anti-Semitism of one women's march leader.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the newly elected Democratic congresswoman who has emerged as a progressive favorite and a bugbear of conservatives, spoke at both New York rallies.

"Last year we brought the power to the polls, and this year we need to make sure that we translate that power into policy," she said at the Central Park rally, to loud cheers. "That means we won't let anyone take our rights away."



Among the protesters was Nydia Leaf, an energetic, pink-hatted 86-year-old taking part in her third women's march.

She told AFP she would "keep opposing Donald Trump and his policies. Look at what he's done at the border, look at the shutdown -- every year there is a new atrocity."



In contrast to the 2017 march, which drew more than three million nationwide, and last year's event, when hundreds of thousands rallied, Washington police said they expected perhaps 20,000 demonstrators this year.

Fewer than 1,200 marched in Chicago, that city's Tribune reported. Internal divisions in Seattle resulted in three separate marches taking place, but police said only 4,000 to 5,000 people turned out, compared to an estimated 100,000 in 2017, the Seattle Times said.

The original marches in January 2017 helped spark a rise in women's political activism, with a record 131 women serving in the new US Congress. Last year, many women were galvanized by the confirmation of conservative judge Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court, despite allegations that he committed sexual assault as a teen.

Activists are also motivated by the fight over the Trump administration's policy -- since suspended -- of separating undocumented parents from children at the border with Mexico.

But the movement has been riven by controversy, including allegations of anti-Semitism and poor accounting of funds, and weakened, no doubt, by a general sense of political exhaustion.

The anti-Semitism controversy stems from march co-founder Tamika Mallory's ties to controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and her failure to condemn disparaging remarks about Jews he made at an event she attended.

Teresa Shook, the first woman to float the idea of a women's march, has called for the movement's four co-presidents -- Mallory, Carmen Perez, Linda Sarsour and Bob Bland -- to resign.

Sarsour pushed back, saying in a statement: "The Women's March exists to fight bigotry and discrimination in all their forms -- including homophobia and anti-Semitism."



Some progressive groups declined to take part in this year's marches, and several Jewish women said they felt torn and opted to take part in separately organized rallies.

For her part, Ann Caroline called the controversy "heartbreaking," but added that to march for women's rights "doesn't mean that I align myself with the founders' values." Ocasio-Cortez told New York marchers that the November election meant "the start of our advocacy." "We just captured the House," she said, "and now we got to show what we are going to do with it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav Saturday said the coming together of the SP and the BSP has led to a wave of happiness in the country and left a worried BJP to hold meeting after meeting to devise a strategy to win even one seat in Uttar Pradesh.

Speaking at a mega opposition rally here, Yadav also sought to give a reply to the BJP questioning the opposition parties about their prime ministerial candidate.

"They ask, who is PM candidate of opposition parties... We say people will decide the PM candidate from our side. But from their side, this name (Narendra Modi) has disappointed the country, who is your another name?" Yadav said.

He said while opposition parties have entered into alliance with the common people, the BJP has forged ties with the CBI and the ED.

The SP chief sat on the dais next to BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, who was participating in the rally as a representative of his party chief Mayawati.

RLD chief Ajit Singh and his son Jayant Choudhury, who are engaged in discussions with the SP to join their political alliance in UP, were also present on the stage.

Yadav said the people across the country were celebrating the arrival of the New Year and this happiness will increase manifold when they will have a new prime minister.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)As the Congress' Mallikarjun Kharge shared the stage here with the SP, BSP and AAP, which have been cold to a tie-up with his party, the veteran leader asserted that "even if hearts don't meet, hands should".

At the rally by Trinamool Congress which was projected as a show of opposition unity, Kharge appealed for a common meeting ground in pursuance of a bigger goal of removing the BJP from power at the centre.

At the end of his speech, the Congress leader said in Hindi, "Manzil door hain, rasta kathin hain, phir bhi pahuchna hain. Dil mile na mile, kamse kam haath mila kar chalo (The destination is far and the road is difficult, but still we have to reach there. Whether our hearts meet or not, we should walk holding hands)."



Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party senior leader Satish Chandra Mishra, fresh from entering into alliance in Uttar Pradesh, were all smiles sitting next to each other.

The Aam Admi Party and the Congress, which have never lost an opportunity to attack each other in Delhi politics, joined Mamata Banerjee's rally at Brigade ground. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi were present on one platform.

Kharge, who participated in the opposition parties rally as the emissary of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, said "till we (opposition parties) unite, we will have to continue seeing Modi and Shah trample democracy and secular values of the country."



"Even if the hearts don't meet, the hands should meet," he said.

But, beyond display of optics, a tie up between the AAP and Congress in Delhi for upcoming election seems difficult.

The AAP on Friday said it will not go for an alliance with the Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, accusing the Grand Old Party of being "arrogant", and added that it will field candidates on all the parliamentary constituencies of Delhi, Punjab and Haryana.

In Uttar Pradesh, traditional rivals SP and BSP have joined hands, ignoring the Congress. Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati's representative Satish Mishra missed no opportunity to show a united picture.

All the leaders, in their speeches, hailed the coming together of SP and BSP in the country's most populous state which sends 80 MPs to Lok Sabha.

The SP, BSP and AAP stressed on putting up a fight to oust the Modi government but remained mum on keeping the Congress out of their scheme of things in their respective states.

Ajit Singh and Jayant Choudhary of Rashtriya Lok Dal, another player in western Uttar Pradesh, were also present in the rally.

While the presence at the rally of all major parties with significant stake in UP assumes significance, their leaders sought to downplay it saying it was rather a congregation of all opposition parties, irrespective of states.

"This is an anti-BJP rally. So many opposition parties are taking part in it and we are also part of it. It has nothing to do with Uttar Pradesh as that is a completely different turf," Samajwadi Party vice president Kiranmoy Nanda had said Friday.

Kharge was sitting beside NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Six Nigerian soldiers were killed and 14 injured when Boko Haram jihadists raided a village near the army chief's family home, security and hospital sources said Saturday.

The jihadists attacked an army position overnight Thursday in Kamuya, a village in the northeastern state of Borno near the home of army chief of staff Tukur Yusuf Buratai's mother, the sources said.

"We lost six soldiers in the fight and 14 others sustained various degrees of injuries," an army officer said.

"The terrorists also suffered heavy losses," the officer added without giving figures.

A medic at the hospital in nearby Damaturu confirmed that the bodies of six soldiers were taken to the morgue on Friday.

Four military vehicles were also seized by the jihadists while two others were destroyed, said the military source who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak about the incident.

Security sources initially told AFP that troops had fought off the militants in a three-hour battle during which the jihadists failed to overrun the post.

It was not known which Boko Haram faction was behind the attack, although the IS-affiliated Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) is known to operate in the area.

Kamuya was hit twice by Boko Haram in December 2015, not long after Buratai, a lieutenant general, was appointed chief of army staff.

The latest attack came days after Boko Haram overran a military base in the town of Rann, near the border with Cameroon, forcing thousands of civilians to flee.

Fourteen people, including three soldiers, were said to have been killed in that attack, and aid workers said buildings used by humanitarian organisations had been burned to the ground.

The UN's humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, said Friday that the attacks -- and others like it -- were having a "devastating impact" on civilians and the relief effort.

Around 1.8 million people are still homeless because of the insurgency, which began in 2009 and has killed more than 27,000.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former union minister Arun Shourie on Saturday asked the opposition to work together to throw out the BJP government at the Centre in the coming Lok Sabha polls.

The opposition parties should unitedly pitch single candidates against the BJP contestants in the country to win the Lok Sabha poll.

Shourie, who was among the galaxy of speakers to address the united opposition rally of TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, said there are no two opinions on the need to oust the BJP.

"We (opposition parties and leaders) have to have a single aim - that is ousting the BJP in the next Lok Sabha election. Become Arjun (of Mahabaharata)," he urged the opposition leaders.

"It will not be an easy work - pitching a single opposition candidate in each seat against the BJP. But we must sacrifice for the country, with a sense of love for it," Shourie, who was minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government said.

He said the Modi-Shah duo of BJP has lost the trust of the people. "This government has lied on all counts ... Modiji knows that his hold over the country has loosened".

Congratulating Banerjee for holding the opposition rally, Shourie said other opposition parties should also hold such rallies and each of them should attend those and not merely send representatives.

"The Bengal tigress has given the call to oust BJP. I am sure it will be successfull," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)South Korea on Saturday welcomed a planned second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying it hoped the meeting would be a "turning point" for peace on the Korean peninsula.

The announcement from Seoul's presidential office came hours after the White House said Trump would again meet the North Korean leader "near the end of February" at a location yet to be announced.

"We expect the planned North-US summit would be a turning point in establishing a permanent peace regimen on the Korean peninsula," said Kim Eui-kyeom, South Korean President Moon Jae-in's spokesman.

South Korea would continue close coordination with its key ally US to achieve the goal of "complete denuclearisation," he continued. He added Seoul would expand dialogue with Pyongyang to make the planned summit "successful".

Kim and Trump first met in June in Singapore, where they signed a vaguely worded document in which with Kim pledged to work towards the "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula".

But progress stalled soon afterward as Pyongyang and Washington -- which stations 28,500 troops in South Korea -- disagree over what that means.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Security has been beefed up in the city a week before the Republic Day in the wake of series of grenade attacks on security establishments recently, officials said here on Saturday.

"Security measures have been put in place to ensure the Republic Day passes off peacefully," the officials said.

They said security has been beefed up in Srinagar especially in the wake of recent grenade attacks in the city.

"Security forces have been asked to remain alert and more check-points have been erected and vehicles entering the city were being checked randomly," the officials said.

On Friday, terrorists carried out two grenade attacks on security forces in Kashmir, including one in the Lal Chowk area of the city, but there were no reports of any casualty. Earlier on Thursday, militants hurled a grenade on police personnel at Zero Bridge here, resulting in injuries to three policemen.

They said a security grid has been put in place around Sher-e-Kashmir Stadium here the main venue for the January 26 function.

The traffic movement has been restricted near the stadium from Saturday till January 26, the officials said.

Confirming the restrictions, a police spokesman said the movement of traffic on road stretch from Radio Kashmir Chowk to Ram Munshi Bagh/Gupkar Crossing has been "restricted" till the Republic Day function.

"Due to security reasons, the road stretch from Radio Kashmir Chowk up to Ram Munshi Bagh / Gupkar Crossing has been restricted for general vehicular movement till 25th of January-2019 and there shall be a separate traffic regulation system for 26th of January-2019 which will be put out in due course of time, the spokesman said.

He said the motorists coming from Pantha Chowk and adjacent areas to the city centre should adopt Sonwar-Ram Munshi Bagh-Dalgate-M A Road stretch and vice versa to commute.

Motorists coming from Raj Bagh and adjacent areas intending to travel towards Pantha Chowk side should adopt Radio Kashmir Chowk-JK Bank Corporate Office Crossing-Dalgate-R M Bagh-Sonwar, the spokesman said.

Similary, he said, motorists coming from south Kashmir/Pantha Chowk area intending to travel Barzulla/Hyderpora/Rambagh areas are requested to prefer national highway and enter via Natipora/Sanat Nagar.

The spokesman regretted inconvenience caused to the public.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)About 6 thousand people celebrated Epiphany in the alpine Monastery of the Holy Dormition in North Ossetia, Russia, the press service of the State Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Republic reported.

According to the representative of the Vladikavkaz and Alan Diocese, the traditional Epiphany plunging was performed not only by residents of North Ossetia, but also by visitors from other regions. Believers come families with children.

Everyone had an opportunity to plunge into the font created in the mountain river Fiagdon, and then warm up by the fire with hot tea,TASS reports.(SBI) Saturday said Hitachi Payment Services (HPY) has agreed to pick up 26 per cent stake in SBI Payment Services Private Limited (SPSPL), a card acceptance and digital payment platform.

After allotment of the shares, SBI shareholding in SPSPL will become 74 per cent from existing 100 per cent, the bank said in a statement.

However, it did not disclose the financial details of the deal.

The JV will provide various payment options to customers and merchants focusing on areas such as rollout of a nationwide card acceptance infrastructure, quick response (QR) code acceptance, Unified Payment Interface (UPI), mass transit sector and e-commerce businesses.

Bombay Management Association (BMA) will hold a conclave next week to commemorate 65 years of its existence and support entrepreneurial innovation in India.

ALSO READ: SBI blames adverse policies for stranded private capital in infra projects

The conclave, which is set to take place on January 25, 2019, will be attended more than 300 delegates from corporate and startups operating across the country, BMA said in a statement.Crowds of Orthodox believers took the traditional plunge in freezing waters Saturday as they celebrated Epiphany across Russia, despite winter temperatures reaching -40 degrees Celsius in some regions.

Russian police estimated Saturday morning that over 2.4 million people in the country took part in Epiphany celebrations overnight, though it wasn't clear how many made the three dips in water according to custom.

Authorities cut ice and sometimes install wooden steps to ease access for worshippers wanting to descend into icy rivers and lakes and immerse themselves, to remember the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan.

In a park in eastern Moscow, worshippers clad in bikinis or swimming trunks splashed and crossed themselves, shivering under the watchful eye of police and emergencies ministry workers.

"It's great, it's the best Russian tradition," Muscovite Yevgeny Goloshchapov told AFP, a towel draped across his shoulders.

The tradition in recent years has been embraced by politicians and diplomats, with President Vladimir Putin participating last year, as well as the US Ambassador in Moscow Jon Huntsman Jr.

In Russia's coldest region of Yakutia, the local governor submerged himself in the Lena river despite temperatures of -42 degrees Celsius, his office said.

In a poll published Friday a fifth of all respondents said they planned to take the Epiphany dive, up from 15 percent last year.

Ironically, some Orthodox clerics say the ice dive challenge is not actually a canonical tradition and dismiss it as a fad.

"There is a trend that external rites of big church holidays become national traditions, and the original meaning of the holiday is forgotten," said Panteleimon, a high-ranking bishop in charge of charity at the Russian Orthodox Church.

"I never dive in an ice hole," he told the Izvestia newspaper.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Belarusian model who claimed she had proof of Russian collusion with the Trump election campaign, had her detention in Moscow extended by three days by a Russian court on Saturday.

Anastasia Vashukevich, also known as Nastya Rybka, has been held for questioning since Thursday after she was deported from Thailand as part of a group convicted of participating in a "sex training course".

"The court has decided to extend her detention by 72 hours," judge Natalya Borissenkova was cited as stating by the Ria Novosti agency.

She denied the accusation of prostitution, telling the court that "I am not guilty of what I am accused," Interfax reported.

In a case that veered between salacious and bizarre, Vashukevich has said she had travelled to Thailand after becoming embroiled in a political scandal with Russian aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska -- a one-time associate of US President Trump's disgraced former campaign director Paul Manafort.

She then set tongues wagging by promising to reveal "missing puzzle pieces" regarding claims the Kremlin aided Trump's 2016 presidential election victory.

But the material never surfaced and critics dismissed the claims as a publicity stunt.

Both Washington and Moscow publicly shrugged off Vashukevich's story, which the US State Department described as "bizarre".

She had been in custody in Thailand since a police raid in the sleazy seaside resort of Pattaya early last year.

She was arrested at Moscow airport on Thursday after being deported from Thailand where she had spent a year in prison for participating in a "sex training course".

During the hearing in Moscow, she said she did not want to "in any way compromise Oleg Deripaska".

"I have had enough," she added, according to Interfax.

Her lawyer Dmitry Zatsarinsky, told reporters that his young client "has committed no crime" and had "nothing to do with" Deripaska and "still less with Donald Trump".

On Friday he denounced her arrest, which happened while she was in transit from Thailand on her way to Belarus.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Comedian Roseanne Barr has called actor Natalie Portman "repulsive" for her decision to decline the Genesis Prize.

Last year, Portman was set to visit Israel and receive the award, which honours notable individuals "who inspire others through their dedication to the Jewish community and Jewish values" but the actor had backed out, saying she "disagrees with the policies of the government of Israel."



Portman, who was born in Jerusalem, has been a vocal critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Barr, who will visit the country later this month, criticised Portman over her decision in an interview published Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"It was really sickening, I find her repulsive. She was raised in incredible privilege of safety in the Jewish state and knows nothing about anti-Semitism," the comedian said.

Barr also called Portman a "darling of the left here, the Jewish left in Hollywood".

"She is a complete hypocrite who grew up in safety and privilege, like I said before, and knows nothing about what she speaks of," she added.

During the interview, Barr defended actor Kevin Hart, who recently stepped down as the host of 2019 Academy Awards after his old homophobic tweets resurfaced on social media.

"Largely they're digging up things that people did 15 and 20 years ago, and Kevin Hart, his statements were really old and people grow up and change, and he did say he was sorry over and over," she added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Minister Nitin Gadkari Saturday asked BJP workers to resolve to make Narendra Modi the country's prime minister again in 2019.

It was the BJP's might that has compelled the bickering opposition parties to come together, Gadkari said at the inauguration of the national convention of the party's Scheduled Caste Morcha here.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will work with full determination to make Narendra Modi the prime minister again, he said.

"I want to ask you to make a resolution to work with full conviction and strength so that in the coming elections we once again form BJP government with full majority and make Narendra Modi prime minister again for doing justice to backward sections and making India prosperous, progressive and powerful," Gadkari said.

The Union Transport Minister's statement comes after his recent remarks wherein he apparently asked the BJP leadership to take responsibility for setbacks in the Assembly polls.

He, however, denied that he ever targeted the party's leadership.

Socio-economic equality is the "conviction and ideology" of the BJP, Gadkari said.

"It is not bad performance but good work that invites more enemies. The people who could not see eye to eye, who have lost (political) ground, have come together," he said referring to the opposition's attempts to cobble together a grand alliance before the Lok Sabha elections.

"Had the BJP not been strong, why would the nephew go to his aunt (Bua)?" he said, apparently referring to Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav forming an alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh.

"Whoever wants to come together against the BJP... you all come together. Even then the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make you bite the dust," Gadkari said.

"The BJP is not a party of mother and son, father and son or a party of any family," he added.

Gadkari alleged that the Congress succeeded in creating a wrong perception that the BJP was a communal party representing only upper castes and was inimical to Dalit interests.

"There is this theory in ..either convince or confuse people. When you cannot convince, you start confusing," he said.

"Congress and those opposed to the BJP and RSS's ideology created this misunderstanding (about the saffron party being anti-Dalit)," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Alleging that the resort where Congress legislators were staying fearing poaching owes Rs 982 crores to the Karnataka government as a penalty in a land encroachment case, the state BJP Saturday asked the Congress leaders to collect the amount and use it to waive farm loans.

"Eagleton resort owe GOK Rs 998cr Penalty amount in land encroachment case.

"Now that Congress Party will spend time in resort we request 'Maryada Purushothama' Sri.@siddaramaiah,@DKShivakumar &@dineshgrao to collect this money while u return U can use it for farmer loan waiver," Karnataka BJP said in a tweet, citing media reports.

After the crucial legislature party meeting on Friday, the Congress had shifted all its MLAs to Eagleton Resort to "escape" allegedly from the BJP's "onslaught".

Recently, during the assembly session at Belagavi district, replying to a question raised by JD(S) leader A T Ramaswamy, Revenue Minister R V Deshpande had said the state government will take all measures to collect Rs 982 crores from the resort for encroaching upon 77 acres of government land.

Member of Parliament from Bengaluru (rural) D K Suresh, who was reportedly overseeing the stay of the MLAs at the resort, told reporters that the encroachment case was before the court and the facilities were not being provided for free.

"During the Siddaramaiah government itself, about 20 acre was got released and taken position after measurement. It (the case) was before the court. The resort will not provide us facilities for free," he said in response to a question on the issue.

He said the party will pay the money and submit a payment bill if anybody wants it to do that.

It was at this very resort that the Income Tax department had conducted raids on senior Congress leader and minister D K Shivakumar in 2017, when he was hosting 44 Gujarat MLAs to prevent the BJP from allegedly "poaching" them during the Rajya Sabha polls in that state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said Saturday that his party president Rahul Gandhi would raise issues relating to Rafale, farmers' distress, unemployment, demonetisation and interference into autonomous bodies like CBI by the Modi government in the budget session of Parliament.

Kharge, while addressing a conference here, said that the Parliament would resume on January 31 with President's speech.

"Then the Parliament would initiate the budget session where our leader Rahul Gandhi will raise these issues," the Congress leader said.

He said that the BJP government led by Narendra Modi was "destroying democracy" along with his aide Amit Shah.

Kharge said that the fight in 2019 elections would be for freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

"We re fighting for them. We will continue to fight for these," he said.

On Karnataka, Kharge said that the alliance between Congress and JD(S) will continue, adding that one MLA, who was untraced, would be served notice.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Accusing the opposition of spreading misinformation in the Rafale deal, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Saturday wondered whether these parties were becoming pawns in corporate rivalry and whether the procurement of 36 fighter jets was being "sabotaged".

During her address at an event here, Sitharaman said ever since the Modi government assumed office, there has been a conscious effort to keep middlemen at bay from the corridors of the Defence Ministry.

"I want every strand of this debate to be explained, as much as it can be, without any of us playing into the hands of international corporate warfare. None of us should play party to any corporate warfare.

"We cannot become pawns in the hands of the corporate giants to constantly bully the government, to constantly throw misinformation at the public, to misinform the public," she said.

Her attack on the opposition parties comes a day after a newspaper report claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to buy 36 Rafale jets, instead of 126 as negotiated by the previous UPA government, was taken while bypassing mandated procedures, pushing the price of each aircraft by 41.42 per cent.

The Congress has launched a fresh salvo at the government on the Rafale deal citing this report.

Sitharaman was addressing a seminar on 'India's Strategic Interest in Context of the Rafale Deal'. She accused the opposition of doing a "disservice" to the nation by misinforming the public on the fighter jet deal.

"You (opposition) are misinforming the public and doing disservice to the country if you are becoming pawns in corporate rivalry. Is India's interest at the top of your agenda or are you becoming a partner to some kind of corporate rivalry," she asked.

"Is your intention to sabotage this procurement? If the intention is to stop the purchase, (then) that's disservice to the nation," she said.

Responding to a question that before the announcement in 2015 to procure 36 jets in an inter-governmental agreement (IGA) was made, Dassault CEO Eric Trappier had stated negotiations for the procurement of 126 jet were on and then suddenly the deal was called off, Sitharaman said, "Dassault (Aviation) chief said negotiations were on. That's all true. Such things go on in a bureaucratic process."



She added that the Expression of Interest was signed since there was a deadlock in the negotiations that lasted for over a decade.

"After that the earlier RFI (Request for Proposal for 126 aircraft) was cancelled and IGA (Intergovernmental Agreement) was signed," she said.

Asked why the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was not present when Modi announced it, she said there was "nothing illegal" in it.

"The (then) Defence Minister signed the deal. To say there was a corruption since the defence minister was not there during the Expression of Interest is wrong," she said.

The negotiations took 14 months before the two sides signed the agreement, she said.

Sitharaman also hit out at the opposition for calling Chief of Air Force B S Dhanoa a liar for his statement that Rafale was a good aircraft.

"He didn't say he loves PM Modi or he likes BJP. He just said it is a damn good aircraft, that's his business to say," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday met his nonagenarian mother Hiraba in Raisan village near here after he made a brief stopover on his way to Ahmedabad Airport.

Hiraba lives with the PM's younger brother Pankaj Modi in the village.

The prime minister spent around 30 minutes with his mother and other family members in the morning and then left for Ahmedabad airport, sibling Pankaj said.

PM Modi is on a three-day visit to Gujarat since January 17.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday inaugurated the Armoured Systems Complex of Larsen and Toubro in Gujarat, the first private facility in the country where the K9 Vajra self-propelled Howitzer guns will be manufactured.

L&T had in 2017 won the Rs 4,500-crore contract from the Ministry of Defence to supply 100 units of K9 Vajra-T 155 mm/52 calibre tracked self-propelled gun systems to the Indian Army under the Centre's 'Make in India' initiative.

The company has set up the Armoured Systems Complex at Hazira, around 30km from Surat, to manufacture and integrate advanced armoured platforms, such as self-propelled artillery Howitzers, future infantry combat vehicles, future-ready combat vehicles and future main battle tanks.

The manufacturing complex is executing the 'K9 Vajra-T 155 mm/52-caliber tracked self-propelled Howitzer guns' programme.

K9 Vajra contract involves delivery of 100 such systems in 42 months, which is the largest contract awarded to a private company by the Ministry of Defence.

L&T had signed a transfer of technology contract for guns with South Korean company Hanwha Corporation.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was also present at the inauguration Saturday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The issue of the establishment of Syrias constitutional committee will be in focus of the consultations UN Secretary Generals Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen will have in Moscow next week, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Friday, TASS reported.

"I just spoke with him on the phone, he is in the middle of consultations with the Syrian negotiation committee and the opposition, these discussions are being very constructive. From there he is going to Moscow and then coming back to Damascus. The creation of constitutional committee will be central in the agenda of discussions of my Special Envoy," Guterres said. "We dont have any time frame now, but we want to do it as quick as possible."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Pedersen, who will visit Moscow on January 21, is expected to share his plans on how to launch the work of the Syrian constitutional committee. Lavrov expressed hope that the agreements reached at the recent Russia-Germany-France-Turkey summit in Istanbul, first of all the ones on the necessity of the swift launch of the Constitutional Committee, will be implemented as soon as possible.The Andhra Pradesh High Court Saturday declined to entertain a state government plea seeking emergency hearing on its plea for revocation of the Union Home Ministry's order handing over the probe into the knife attack on YSR Congress chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to the NIA.

The court said it would take up the petition in the regular course on Monday, according to Reddy's lawyer Sujata Sarma.

The state government has been opposing the handing over of the case relating to the attack on Reddy in the Visakhapatnam airport VIP lounge on October 25 to the National Investigation Agency.

The central agency had informed a special court in Vijayawada on Friday that the Special Investigation Team of the state police, which has been investigating the case, has declined to cooperate with the agency ever since it took over the case last week,



The NIA also informed the court that the SIT had also refused to hand over the case file to them, even as the main accused J Srinivasa Rao was taken into custody and interrogated by the central agency team,



The accused has since been shifted to the central prison in Rajamahendravaram.

Meanwhile, the NIA recorded statements of former MLAs and YSRC leaders Malla Vijaya Prasad, Chandrasekhar Reddy and others in Visakhapatnam Saturday.

These leaders were present with the YSR congress chief when Rao allegedly attacked him.

A team of NIA senior officials, led by Additional SP M A Khan, recorded the statements at the residence of Vijaya Prasad.

Jaga Mohan Reddy, the Leader of the Opposition in Andhra Pradesh assembly, escaped with a "deep" cut on his left shoulder in the attack by Rao, who had approached him when he was leaving the VIP lounge to board a flight to Hyderabad and requested for a 'selfie'.

As an unsuspecting Reddy posed for the picture, the man pulled out a small knife generally used in cockfights and plunged it into his left shoulder.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has claimed that she had to cancel her trip to war-torn Afghanistan as the White House had "leaked" her plans to fly commercially and caused a security risk.

US President Donald Trump had Friday denied Pelosi's "excursion" to Brussels and war-torn Afghanistan, a tit-for-tat retaliation for her suggesting him to reschedule his annual State of the Union address slated for January 29.The speaker had made the suggestion citing security concerns triggered by a nearly four-week federal government shutdown.

The developments have only deepened the divide between the Trump-led Republican party and Pelosi-led Democrats which are already at loggerhead over the US-Mexico border issue that led to the shutdown.

Speaker Pelosi accused Trump of endangering the lives of Americans by revealing to the world about her trip to Afghanistan.

She told reporters Friday that "any time anyone with a bright light, of the presence of a high-level, or any level of Congressional Delegation in a region, you've heightened the danger. And this was a high power."



Recounting the sequence of events, Pelosi said around 2 pm on Thursday she and other members of a Congressional delegation were in a bus to Andrews Joint Air Base for the military plane headed to Afghanistan.

Our Members who were on the bus - I was ready to join them for a 2:15 wheels up from here to Andrews Air Force Base to visit our troops, pay our respects; to thank them for their service, their sacrifice and their dedication; to get a measure of the leadership of Afghanistan, strength of their military, the morale of their people, she said.

The speaker said that "it's about governance, it's about security, it's about the civilian affairs in the country as we make our oversight decisions about our policy, the engagement that we have in Afghanistan."



She said the members were on the bus and she was about to join them when the president "cancelled the trip. "It was kind of a funny letter - saying seven days, going to Egypt - somebody didn't tell him it was a quick weekend trip, but nonetheless, that served his purpose, Pelosi said.

Forgetting him for a moment, not only that, but we had the prerogative to travel commercially and we made plans to do that until the administration leaked we were travelling commercially and that endangers us," she said.

Pelosi said they were not going to go, claiming that they had a report from Afghanistan that the president outing their trip had made the scene on the ground much more dangerous.

However, Trump alleged that Pelosi and the delegation were headed on an excursion trip.

Why would Nancy Pelosi leave the country with other Democrats on a seven-day excursion when 800,000 great people are not getting paid. Also, could somebody please explain to Nancy & her big donors in wine country that people working on farms (grapes) will have easy access in! Trump charged.

The White House denied Pelosi's allegations, with a senior administration official saying that. when the speaker and about 20 others from Capitol Hill decide to book their "own commercial flights to Afghanistan, the world is going to find out".

The idea we would leak anything that would put the safety and security of any American at risk is a flat out lie," the official said.

Speaker Pelosi said one never gives an advance notice of going into a battle area."You just never do. Perhaps the President's inexperience, didn't have him understand that protocol. The people around him, though, should have known that. That's very dangerous, she alleged.

The president's statement has made it "dangerous for our travel". The fact that they would leak that we were flying commercial is a danger not only to us but to other people flying commercially, Pelosi, who is third in line to the presidency, said.

"We'll go again. We'll go another time. This would have been my ninth trip, she said.

Earlier, her spokesman Drew Hammill said in a statement that "in the middle of the night, the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service provided an updated threat assessment detailing that the President announcing this sensitive travel had significantly increased the danger to the delegation and to the troops, security, and other officials supporting the trip.

He said the visit's purpose was to express appreciation to US troops and obtain "critical" briefings from them. The trip did not have Egypt as a stop.

Congresswoman Susan Davis, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, said for a president to cancel and leak the details of a speaker's trip to a war zone is beyond reckless.

The importance of confidentiality until members and those accompanying safely returned from their mission is paramount. Not only did he and his staff endanger the Speaker and other members on the trip, but he also endangered our troops, security personnel, and the other travellers on our flights, Davis said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump on Saturday alleged that House Speaker and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is being controlled by the "radical left", as he reiterated his demand for building a wall along the US-Mexico border to prevent the flow of illegal aliens and massive smuggling of drugs.

"Well I hope that Speaker Pelosi can come along and realise what everybody knows, that no matter who it is, they know that walls work. We need walls. Whether it's personal or not, it's not personal for me," Trump said at the White House before leaving for Dover Airforce Base for the return of remains of four Americans killed in Syria this week. He will also visit the families.

Trump was responding to questions about the unprecedented partial government shutdown that Saturday entered a record 29th day.

The shutdown because of the sharp differences between the Trump-led Republican party and the Pelosi-led opposition Democrats has resulted in throwing out of some 800,000 federal government employees temporarily out of work and without paychecks. This has paralysed the functioning of several key wings of the US federal government.

"She's being controlled by the radical left, which is a problem. And you know, she's under total control of the radical left. I think that's a very bad thing for her. I think it's a very bad thing for the Democrats," he said.

"Everybody knows that walls work. You look at different places, they put up a wall, no problems. You look at San Antonio, you look at so many different places. They go from one of the most unsafe cities in the country to one of the safest cities immediately, immediately. It works, we have to put them up, and we will put them up," said the president.

Trump is scheduled to deliver a major address to the nation later in the day on border situation and government shutdown.

Without giving details of his upcoming announcement, Trump said it will be an important statement, having to do with caravans, of illegal immigrants coming from several Latin American countries who are now headed towards the US-Mexico border to illegally enter the US.

"They (caravans) are coming up. They have a big one coming up now. I'm disappointed that Mexico is not stopping them. I mean, Mexico seems unfortunately powerless to stop them. Many got through, they broke through the Mexican area, where in theory they were guarded and they weren't so well guarded," Trump said accusing the Mexican government of letting illegal immigrants pass through the country.

"If we had a wall, we wouldn't have a problem. Now we have too many open areas. The walls that we've picked, the walls that we've built hold beautifully. We have a lot of open areas, and that's too bad. Now the previous caravans we've stopped. They're right now in Tijuana. I don't know what they're doing in Tijuana, but they're not in our country. That I can tell you," Trump said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A member of a Peace Committee was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, police said.

The man, identified as Malik Mir Alam Khan, was killed after some bikers ambushed his vehicle at Achini Khwar area in Khyber district, they said.

Five years ago, Khan was injured in a suicide attack in the same district, police added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Punjab Congress MLA Kulbir Singh Zira, who had embarrassed his party after boycotting a district-level event, was not allowed to participate in a meeting of legislators chaired by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh here on Saturday.

The legislator from the Zira seat, who had been suspended from the party's primary membership on the charge of indiscipline, was asked not to attend the meeting of party legislators as the matter related to his suspension was still pending, party sources said here.

Amarinder Singh Saturday held a meeting with Congress legislators of Malwa region as part of pre-budget consultations with them. Earlier, the CM had held meetings with MLAs of Majha and Doaba regions in the past three days.

The pre-budget meeting had been called to elicit views of MLAs on budget proposals to ensure holistic development of their respective assembly segments.

Talking to reporters after the meeting on Saturday, Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar said, "Zira submitted the demands of his constituency separately to the CM."



To a question, Jakhar further said, "The matter related to the suspension of Zira is still pending."



Zira on Friday had met the chief minister, in charge of state party affairs Asha Kumari and state unit chief Sunil Jakhar.

Cabinet minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa had accompanied Zira for a meeting with Amarinder Singh.

Zira had submitted an unconditional apology over the matter, Asha Kumari had told reporters on Friday.

Taking serious note of his public outburst, the Punjab Congress on Wednesday had suspended Zira from the primary membership of the party on the charge of indiscipline.

Zira had left his party red-faced after boycotting a district-level function on January 12 in protest against "no action" being taken against some liquor contractors who were indulged in selling illicit alcohol in Ferozepur.

He had also accused a few police officers including an IG rank officer of being in cahoots with some liquor contractors for allowing them to carry out illegal trade in return of money.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Pakistan Army has said that the country's parliament would decide about another extension in the tenure of the controversial military courts.

The military courts were first set up in January 2015 for two years for speedy trial of militants after the 2014 Peshawar school attack that killed nearly 150 schoolchildren.

Their tenure was extended for another two years in March 2017 and there is a debate in the country whether there should be another extension.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government of Prime Minister Imran Khan has shown willingness to give another term to the army-run courts but it needs the support of the opposition as the courts were created after an amendment in the Constitution which can be done by the support of two-third of lawmakers.

Army spokesman Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said that military courts were formed by the parliament after a consensus that the criminal judicial system of the country was not effective in dealing with terrorism cases, Radio Pakistan reported.

Ghafoor said parliament would decide about the further extension of the military courts.

He said such courts were not established on the desire of the army but because it was the need of the hour to deal with terrorism and to punish terrorists with speedy trials.

He said military courts had received 717 cases during their four years. Of these 646 cases were finalised in which 345 terrorists were awarded the death penalty out of which 56 were executed.

Ghafoor claimed that due to formation of military courts now terrorists and their organisations were more afraid of punishment.

So far it not clear if the government can win support of the opposition to amend the Constitution. The Pakistan Peoples Party of ex-president Asif Ali Zardari has said it would not support the government on this issue.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The over two-month long strike by para-teachers in Jharkhand pressing for various demands has ended, following a meeting with the state government.

The Ekikrit Para Shikshak Sangharsh Morcha said on Friday that it had called off the 63-day strike, after a meeting with and Literacy Department Minister Neera Yadav.

The para-teachers, who assist teaching in schools and are not employed full-time, have been demanding regularisation of jobs and enhancement of salaries, among others.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Rghubar Das, following a meeting with a delegation of para-teachers on Friday, said the state government is looking into their demands.

"Para-teachers have a significant role to play... Manuals are being prepared to safeguard their interests so they don't have to agitate for their demands repeatedly," Das said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Japanese US Open champion Naomi Osaka and sixth seed Elina Svitolina survived big scares but displayed fighting qualities to pull back from the brink at the Australian Open on Saturday.

On day six at Melbourne Park, fourth seeded Osaka looked down and out against Taiwanese veteran Hsieh Su-wei before battling back to win 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 and set up a last 16 meeting with Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova, who beat China's Wang Qiang in straight sets.

Pliskova struggled with a painful shoulder complaint that required treatment at every change of ends, and medical timeouts, before somehow beating China's Zhang Shuai 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 as the temperature rose in the centre court sunshine.

They played ahead of Serena Williams making another bow on Rod Laver Arena as she gathers steam in her bid to win a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title.

The American great takes on unseeded Ukrainian teenager Dayana Yastremska.

Misfiring world number one Simona Halep is also in action, testing herself against Williams' sister Venus on Margaret Court Arena with the winner potentially facing Serena for a berth in the quarter-finals.

Osaka's win equals the 21-year-old's best performance at the Australian Open, where she reached the last 16 in 2018 but lost to Halep.

But she looked headed for the exit when she conceded the first set and was down 4-1 in the second before winning five straight games to force a decider.

"I just didn't want to give up," said the Japanese, who made 42 unforced errors and received a code violation after throwing her racquet.

"I really love Grand Slams so I did anything I could do to stay here a bit longer."



Ukrainian Svitolina also staged an epic fightback and shrugged off an injury scare to reach the fourth round.

- 'Die or win' -



================Svitolina, who scored her biggest career win by clinching the WTA Finals in Singapore last October, received treatment on her neck and shoulder twice during the victory.

"It was very hot conditions, I was struggling a little bit. We left everything on court today. We practise every day for these kind of matches," she said, watched by boyfriend Gael Monfils.

"I just told myself 'you're going to die or win'. It was a mental game. I had to stay strong.

"We were fighting until the last point. I was just trying to stay out there as long as possible."



She will meet either Belgian 12th seed Elise Mertens or 17th seeded American Madison Keys in the next round.

Fourteen-time Grand Slam winner and top seed Novak Djokovic is gunning for a seventh Melbourne Park title and faces 25th-seeded Canadian Denis Shapovalov later, one of the NextGen stars who are out to topple the sport's big guns.

"I expect a really interesting encounter," said Djokovic.

"He will not have anything really to lose, so I'm sure he's going to come out really pumped."



Whoever wins will play either 21st seed David Goffin or 15th seed Daniil Medvedev.

Halep, who is returning from a herniated disc, has limped through her first two matches at Melbourne Park, taken to three sets in both, and knows she will need to up her game to make the last 16.

"Tough one, but for sure I'm not going to run that much," she said of facing the elder Williams sister, who is still going strong 21 years after playing for the first time at Melbourne Park.

"Because it's going to finish fast, the points. She's a great player, champion," she added ahead of the night match on Margaret Court Arena.

Others in action Saturday include men's fourth seed Alexander Zverev against young Australian Alex Bolt and Japanese star Kei Nishikori, who faces Portugal's Joao Sousa.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Leaders from over a dozen opposition parties came together Saturday, vowing at a mega rally here to put up a united fight in the coming Lok Sabha elections and oust Prime Minister Narendra Modi from power.

Over 20 leaders, including two from the Congress, attended the show of unity organised by Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

"The BJP government has crossed its expiry date, she said.

The leaders called for putting the differences between the parties aside, and said they can decide on issue of prime minister's post after the elections.

Some suggested that the opposition should aim at putting up a joint candidate against the BJP nominee in every constituency.

They also decided to hold more joint rallies ahead of the elections, which are to be held by May. The next public meetings will be in New Delhi and Andhra Pradesh capital Amravati.

The two top Congress leaders, party president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, skipped the Kolkata rally. But the party was represented by Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

Khare, who is leader of the party in the Lok Sabha, read a message from Sonia Gandhi wishing success to the rally.

H D Deve Gowda (Janata Dal-Secular), Sharad Pawar (Nationalist Congress Party) Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Farooq Abdullah (National Conference) and M K Stalin (DMK) were among the top leaders at the rally.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Karnataka counterpart and H D Kumaraswamy too attended.

Socialist leader Sharad Yadav, former Union ministers Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha, and BJP rebel Shatrughan Sinha also shared the dais.

"The BJP government has crossed its expiry date. We all have to fight together to ensure that they are defeated, Banerjee, the last speaker, said.

The issue of prime ministership won't be a problem," she added.

Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati didn't come to Kolkata, but BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra addressed the meeting and highlighted his party's recently announced alliance with the SP in Uttar Pradesh.

"The entire country is echoing with the demand to oust the BJP. We have to come together to save the Constitution of Babasaheb Ambedkar. The SP-BSP alliance had been formed to defeat the BJP," he said.

Echoing Mishra, SP president Akhilesh Yadav said many people had thought the SP and the BSP won't be able to clinch an alliance.

"The BJP is now thinking how to win at least one seat in UP, he said in an apparent reference to Modi's Varanasi constituency.

"Those who used to say 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas' have turned one against the other by infusing poison in the country. We will fight together to save the country and the Constitution," he said.

In an apparent hint at differences between the parties, senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge recited a couplet, which suggested that even if their hearts don't meet they should hold hands.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Describing the united opposition rally organised by TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee as a gathering of "opportunist elements", the BJP Saturday said those who could not see eye-to-eye have come together with the sole agenda of removing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and without any roadmap for the future of the country.

Asserting India of 2019 is not the India of 1990s, when the longevity of prime ministers ranged from several days to a few months, senior party leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the country needs "a mazboot sarkar and not a mazboor sarkar (strong government not helpless government)".

Taking a dig at the leaders' gathering in Kolkata, Prasad said all of them have the ambition to become prime minister, and therefore their most difficult task is to announce their leader.

Leaders of almost all opposition parties, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, BSP leader Satish Chander Mishra, DMK leader M K Stalin and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, attended the 'United India' rally organised by Banerjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister, in Kolkata's Brigade Parade Ground on Saturday.

The chief ministers of Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were also present at the rally.

BJP spokesperson Rajiv Partap Rudy termed the gathering an "anti-Modi exercise" and said, "It's a summit of contradictions and conflict." He exuded confidence that BJP would win the next general election and form the government again.

Prasad said these opposition parties have no plans for development of the country and their sole agenda is to defeat Modi.

"Those who could not see eye-to-eye have come together. From their speeches, it was evident that their only agenda was to remove Narendra Modi. They have no roadmap for the development of India. Someone in funny manner said their leader will be elected by the people of India, you have to name your leader to be elected by the people of India," Prasad said.

Prasad asserted that it is the most difficult task for the opposition to announce their leader as "Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee and some regional players, all have ambitions to become Prime Minister."



Claiming that people now need stable and strong government, the Law Minister underlined that India of 2019 is not the India of 1990s, "where the longevity of the Prime Minister ranged from 40 days to 11 months."



"Today's India is, India of hope, of aspirations, of development and therefore it wants a stable and effective government. The country needs a mazboot government, not mazboor government (strong government not helpless government)," he said.

Afraid of corruption charges against them, Prasad said, the political parties who have been opponent of the Congress party today are sitting with it.

"Most of the leaders of these opposition parties are facing serious allegations of corruption. They are scared, because Modi is trying make India transparent and taking firm action against corruption," he said, adding that one of the objectives of this grand alliance is to save those who are facing tough action for corruption.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)S&P Global Ratings affirmed Russia's "BBB-/A-3" credit rating on Friday, saying the country's solid external and public balance sheets should enable its economy to absorb shocks from possible new international sanctions, Euronews reported.

S&P believes that a scenario whereby the United States imposes sanctions on the secondary market for Russian sovereign bonds would be disruptive to financial markets.

"We could take a negative rating action in the next 24 months if geopolitical events result in foreign governments introducing materially tighter sanctions on Russia," the ratings agency said

S&P becomes the latest major rating agency to warn of the negative impact on the nation's credit profile if the United States introduces new sanctions against Moscow.

S&P kept the country's outlook unchanged at stable, factoring in the agency's assumption of an adequate government policy response in the event of additional sanctions.

Earlier on Friday, Moody's said that tougher U.S. sanctions would hurt Russia's credit profile.

Fitch last month said it would strip Russia's positive outlook rating this year if the United States brings in sanctions devised to hurt Russian government debt buying.The BJP Saturday described the united opposition rally organised by TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee "a rally of self interest and of conflicting ideologies", and exuded confidence of forming the next government in the country.

Speaking at a press conference at the party office here, BJP's national spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy termed the rally an anti-Modi exercise and said the party was not threatened by such events.

Banerjee Saturday organised 'United India' rally against the Narendra Modi government in Kolkata, which was attended by more than a dozen leaders of opposition parties, including SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, NCP president Sharad Pawar, TDP leader, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha.

"Don't know where the threat to unity is. While Mamata calls it United India, we can clearly see a divided leadership. It's a summit of contradictions and conflict. They talk of a new front but I am not sure if it's even the second or the third front," Rudy said.

He further said this rally has also exposed divisions in the opposition camp, "many of these parties are just snubbing each other."



"Left has refused their invitation. SP-BSP alliance snubbed Congress in UP which has now extended support to the rally. This is a rally of self-interest," he said.

People have seen the performance of the Narendra Modi government and the BJP will form the next government with full majority, Rudy said.

"Today's opposition rally in Kolkata is an anti-Modi exercise. Who is their leader," he asked.

On the question of BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha attending the opposition rally, he said BJP will take cognisance of it and said,"They make it a point to be present after party issues whip so that they don't lose their membership. At the same time they are so opportunistic that they want to climb the stage and be present at a conclave.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Michelin-star chef Vikas Khanna, who is making his directorial debut with "The Last Color", says he never planned his foray into films and it all happened organically.

The celebrated chef said he has no plans to pursue direction full-time.

"I am not changing gears, I am just adding something. It just came honestly. I had no aspirations to be a filmmaker. I am doing it for the love of art. If something moves I do it. I don't know what will inspire me next," Khanna, who has made documentaries in the past, told PTI.

The film "The Last Color", based on a book of the same name by Khanna, revolves around the Supreme Court order against an age-old tradition of not allowing widows in Vrindavan to play Holi.

Khanna's visit to Vrindavan in 2011 for his book 'Utsav: A Culinary Epic of Indian Festivals' gave birth to "The Last Color", which now has turned into a film.

"In Vrindavan while I was just crossing by a lane I saw hundreds of widows standing on the balcony, who were dressed in white while the streets, the walls and other people were in colors. This is so stark. As a chef, everything in my life has been about colors."



He went back to New York to his normal life but the image of widows remained with him. The celebrity chef went crazy after looking at a story that appeared in 2013 in New York Times about widows playing Holi for the first time, following the orders of the Supreme Court.

At that time a bereaved Khanna was unable to recover from the demise of his father and decided to visit his favourite city, Varanasi to get a closure.

A chance encounter with a young girl, who he called Chhoti, a tightrope walker approached him for money so that she could go to school and become a lawyer eventually, gave birth to a story for his book.

The book follows the friendship between a young girl and a widow named Noor in Vrindavan.

The Michelin star recipient says, "Chotti gave me the inspiration for my story about women whose life is colourless.

"Over the course of time, the book titled 'The Last Color' took a shape. Lot of people then had advised me not to write a fiction novel and that I should rather concentrate on writing books on cooking."



On his publisher's advice, Khanna decided to turn the book into a film. He also visited ashrams to do his research for the film.

"We started scouting for directors we did not find anyone who felt the pain and also sensitivity to color, so I came on board."



Khanna says he has dedicated this film to his father.

The film stars Neena Gupta in the lead and she was Khanna's first and only choice. He approached her while the actor was shooting for "Badhaai Ho".

For Khanna, to enter into the world of cinema and to be on the sets was akin to being in the kitchen.

"Making a film is exactly the same as running a kitchen. You should know the craft, understand the frame and emotion and it is like understanding the menu, where and how the food will be cooked.

"Like, how we decorate a restaurant and a dish similarly a film's scene are decorated with story, performances, etc. The dish that is ready on the table is just like a shot captured onscreen."



Khanna, who has taken the Indian cuisine on a global platform with his high-end restaurant Junoon in New York, says, "There is lot of food in the film but we are not keeping it in the forefront. I have touched upon lot of things in this film like caste system, food, it is all inter-layered."



The film was recently premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in California and it is likely to release in India this year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Noomi Rapace has revealed she decided to quit a play at the age of 20 when the director became ''aggressive'' after she rejected his advances.

The 39-year-old actor said such advances and reactions from the people in power were so common during her early days in the industry that she never thought anything out of the ordinary had happened to her.

''(It was) like the actresses were a buffet... I never gave myself to him, which provoked him so much. He became really aggressive and angry. I just thought that was the way it was, because you saw so many situations like that around you," Rapace told the Daily Telegraph.

The incident was an ''early wake up call'' for the Swedish actor who believes the movie industry can be ''dangerous'' for women.

''There's so much desperation in the acting world and a lot of people will do anything to get a part. It's dangerous.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow has played down reports of a breakthrough in US-China trade talks, but said progress had been made.

"We've made some progress with China in the deputy's meeting in Beijing," Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, told Fox Business.

But he added: "Nothing has been resolved, nothing on paper, no contracts." Recent reports of a deal being imminent were not accurate, he said.

Bloomberg had reported earlier Friday that Beijing had offered to eliminate its soaring trade surplus with the United States in five years.

The US sent a delegation led by Deputy Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish to Beijing earlier this month, where they held talks with China's foreign ministry to seek ways to end their trade war. China's chief negotiator on trade disputes with the United States, Vice Premier Liu He, is due in Washington on January 30 and 31 for the next round talks.

In December, President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed to a truce in their three-month trade war. Washington suspended plans to increase tariffs on Chinese goods, to give negotiators space to find a solution to the dispute, which has triggered fears of a global economic slowdown.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Saturday said the new Constitution would not change the unitary nature of the country.

Wickremesinghe's comments came in the wake of his political opponents headed by opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa alleging that his government is drafting a new Constitution to appease the main Tamil political party, Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

Addressing a gathering at Galle town, he said, "The United National Party (UNP) would not agree to abandoning the unitary state (of Sri Lanka)."



On January 11, Wickremesinghe tabled in Parliament a report of experts on drafting a new Constitution.

Stressing that the new Constitution is still a long way ahead, the prime minister said, "We have no new constitution or even a draft".

What was contained in the report was ideas from all parties, he said, adding, "Without two-third support in the constitutional assembly we cannot draft a new Constitution."



The Rajapaksa camp has also been accusing that the new Constitution will dilute the Buddhism's foremost position over other religions in the country. However, the prime minister emphasised that the foremost place given to the majority religion Buddhism has been preserved.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Expressing confidence that it will come to power on its own in Jammu and Kashmir, the National Conference Saturday ruled out any alliance in the upcoming assembly polls.

"Coalition culture does not suit a state like Jammu and Kashmir, which is confronted with numerous challenges with the people essentially craving for peace and normalcy, development and progress," NC's Provincial President Devender Singh Rana said.

He was addressing a meeting of the provincial body and senior leaders convened to chalk out strategies and draw a road map for the assembly elections, a party spokesperson said.

Rana said the NC would reach out to the people with its plank of development, peace, progress, employment and the agenda of preserving the special identity of the state and satiating the urges and aspirations of all the regions.

"Regional autonomy is a way forward to fulfil the urges of the people and empowering them at all levels with opportunities to all," he said.

The party has made it clear that it will not forge any alliance with any political party.

"People of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh have realised the crucial need of a strong and stable government as a dispensation on crutches cannot deliver on governance front, which has been proven many a times," he said.

Rana also reiterated the resolve of the NC to offer any sacrifice for preserving and strengthening Article 370 and Article 35A of the constitution which guarantees special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

"These articles are facing a threat from inimical forces, who have been engineering overt and covert machinations to weaken them," he said.

The people of the state, irrespective of their religious or regional affiliations have foiled all these attempts in the past and are ready to isolate proponents of weakening these constitutional guarantees.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said multilateralism is needed to solve global challenges such as climate change and terrorism.

Convinced that simply saying this will not make it happen, he said dismissing or vilifying the doubters of multilateralism will lead nowhere.

The truth is that many people around the world are not convinced of the power and purpose of international cooperation.We need to understand why - and act on that understanding, he told reporters Friday at a conference at the UN headquarters in New York.

Guterres said that as "we look to the challenges we face from climate change to migration to terrorism to the downsides of globalisation there is no doubt in my mind that global challenges require global solutions."



No country can do it alone. "We need today multilateralism more than ever, he said.

The UN secretary general said when he served in the government in Portugal in the 1990s, there was a "sense, a naive sense as it turned out," that globalisation and technological progress would solve all the problems in the world and the benefits would ultimately reach all.

Now, a generation later, the world has seen indeed many benefits. There has been a dramatic increase in global wealth, infant mortality is down, life expectancy has increased and there has been significant reductions in extreme poverty, he said.

But, inequalities have grown among countries, even more so within them. People, sectors, entire regions have been left behind, Guterres rued.

"They have been left behind in an atmosphere of overall global prosperity -- adding to their hurt and sense of unfairness. When people see a global economy that is out of whack, when they feel they have no chance, no hope, and no leader or institution tuned to their problems, instability and mistrust are sure to follow, he said.

Observing that there is a huge deficit of trust in governments, political establishments and international organisations, he said at such times, explanations can sound like excuses, and people can become easy targets for nationalists, populists and all those who profit from fear.

The best-selling brand in our world today is indeed fear. It gets ratings. It wins votes. It generates clicks. So I believe the biggest challenge that governments and institutions face today is to show that we care -- and to mobilize solutions that respond to people's fears and anxieties with answers, concrete answers, Guterres said.

The secretary general said the UN needs to demonstrate through concrete solutions that it is standing up for the people left behind and is connected to their needs, aspirations and everyday problems.

The key is a fair globalisation, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is the UN's blueprint for that fair globalisation, he said.

The world body also need to ensure education, training and safety nets to support all those who are sidelined by change and help them regain opportunity and hope for their future. Second, we need to show the added value of the United Nations, Guterres said.

Finally the UN needs to enlist every segment of society in the battle for values that the world faces today. In particular, to tackle the rise of hate speech, xenophobia and intolerance, he said.

We hear troubling, hateful echoes of eras long past. Poisonous views are penetrating political debates and polluting the mainstream, Guterres said



He added that hate speech and crimes are direct threats to human rights, sustainable development and peace.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Special counsel Robert Mueller's office on Friday issued a rare public statement disputing the accuracy of BuzzFeed News' report that said President Donald Trump's attorney told Mueller that the president directed him to lie to Congress.

BuzzFeed, citing two unidentified law enforcement officials, reported that Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate project and that Cohen told Mueller that Trump personally instructed him to lie about the timing of the project.

The report said Mueller's investigators learned about Trump's directive "through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents."



The report said Cohen then acknowledged Trump's instructions when he was interviewed by the Mueller team.

The statement by Mueller's office on Friday night doesn't cite any specific errors. In it, the special counsel's spokesman, Peter Carr, said, "BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the special counsel's office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's congressional testimony are not accurate."



BuzzFeed spokesman Matt Mittenthal said the publication stands by its reporting and urged readers to "stay tuned" as they worked to determine what Mueller was denying.

Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, also said the publication stands by its reporting and the sources who informed it.

"We urge the special counsel to make clear what he's disputing," Smith said.

Immediately after the special counsel's statement was issued, Trump retweeted several posts that called the story fake

Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, tweeted: "I commend Bob Mueller's office for correcting the BuzzFeed false story that Pres. Trump encouraged Cohen to lie. I ask the press to take heed that their hysterical desire to destroy this President has gone too far. They pursued this without critical analysis all day. #FAKENEWS." The extraordinary statement from Mueller's office came after Democrats had vowed to investigate whether the report was true, calling that possibility a "concern of the greatest magnitude."



House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., both said they would probe BuzzFeed's account. Some Democrats even said that if the report were true, then Trump should be impeached.

The Associated Press had not independently confirmed the report. Any evidence that Trump directed a witness to lie to investigators would place him in the greatest political and legal jeopardy yet.

Giuliani said in a statement earlier Friday that "any suggestion from any source that the President counseled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false." White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the allegation "absolutely ridiculous." On Twitter on Friday morning, Trump charged that Cohen was "Lying to reduce his jail time!" Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress to cover up that he was negotiating the Trump Tower project on Trump's behalf during the heat of his presidential campaign.

The charge was brought by Mueller and was the result of Cohen's cooperation with that probe.

Cohen admitted that he lied when he told lawmakers he had never agreed to travel to Russia in connection with the Moscow project and when he said that he'd decided by the end of January 2016 that the "proposal was not feasible for a variety of business reasons and should not be pursued further."



He was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to conceal his boss' alleged sexual affairs, telling a judge that he agreed time and again to cover up Trump's "dirty deeds" out of "blind loyalty."



Giuliani noted that Cohen had pleaded guilty to lying and quoted federal prosecutors in New York who chastised him for a "pattern of lies and dishonesty over an extended period of time." Mueller's team, however, had previously called him a credible witness.

"Today's claims are just more made-up lies born of Michael Cohen's malice and desperation," Giuliani said.

Lanny Davis, a Cohen adviser, declined to comment.

Cohen is scheduled to testify publicly before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Feb. 7. The top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, said Friday that he expects Cohen to talk to that panel in February.

Although House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has discouraged any talk of impeachment in the early days of her new majority, some senior Democrats said that if the BuzzFeed report was confirmed, Trump's actions could rise to that level.

"If the @BuzzFeed story is true, President Trump must resign or be impeached," tweeted Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, a member of the House intelligence panel.

Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline, also a Judiciary committee member, tweeted that if Trump directed Cohen to lie, "that is obstruction of justice. Period. Full stop." A Senate Democrat, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, tweeted that "we need to know this ASAP" if Mueller does have multiple sources confirming that Trump directed Cohen to lie.

"Mueller shouldn't end his inquiry, but it's about time for him to show Congress his cards before it's too late for us to act," Murphy tweeted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.): As many as 11 Parliamentarians from various political parties, were honoured for their outstanding performance in the 16th Lok Sabha by Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit at a function here Saturday.

Biju Janata Dal MP from Cuttack (Odisha), Bhartruhari Mahtab was honoured for his performance in initiating debates while BJP MP from Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, Anurag Singh Thakur received Jury Committee Special award in the Lok Sabha for his distinguished performance.

Parliamentarians of various parties were present at the 10th edition of Sansad Ratna Awards ceremony organised by city-based Prime Point Foundation to honour them for initiating debates, raising questions and attendance among others.

Former union minister and chairman of standing committee on finance, M Veerappa Moily and his team were selected for outstanding performance among the Parliamentary Standing Committees.

RSP (Revolutionary Socialist Party) MP from Kollam, Kerala, N K Premachandran, was selected for his performance in initiating debates, while National Congress Party MP from Baramati (Maharashtra) Supriya Sule, who is also the daughter of former Union Minister Sharad Pawar, was honoured in overall tally, questions and women MPs categories.

BJP MP from Godda, Jharkhand, Nishikant Dubey was awarded for his outstanding performance in private member bills and Indian National Congress, Hingoli, Maharashtra and first time MP, Rajeev Shankarrrao Satav was chosen for his outstanding performance among the first-time parliamentarians.

Shiv Sena MP from Maval, Maharashtra, Shrirang Appa Barne was selected for his outstanding performance while NCP MP from Kolhapur, Dhananjay Bhimrao Mahadik was selected for his performance under questions and overall tally category.

The youngest Parliamentarian, 31-year old Heena Vijaykumar Gavit of BJP, who raised 1,059 questions in the Lok Sabha and holds an attendance of 82 per cent was selected for her outstanding performance.

Indian National Congress, MP from Maharashtra, Rajani Patil was selected as the topper in overall tally among the retirees of Rajya Sabha while Ananda Bhaskar Rapolu, Congress MP from Telangana was selected for debates among the retirees of the upper House.

Speaking after presenting the awards, Purohit urged the MPs to make use of technology for the welfare of the people in their respective constituencies.

"I am sure the Honourable Members are aware of the positive role that technology plays in various spheres of life. I would suggest to the Honourable Members to make use of technology for the welfare of the people...," he added.

Noting that social media cannot be downplayed as it had greater reach among the youth and urban population, he said, "most of the members are making use of the social media to their advantage. Yet again, I urge them to use this platform for the betterment of their constituencies."



Holding that government plays a vital role in preparing legislations, he said, "yet the role played by the members of Parliament is also important."



"Right from the time of our independence, innumerable legislations have been passed. Some of our important legislations have been initiated by private members also. One can recall the Lokpal bill, the Freedom of Information Bill...," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday boarded a tank while inspecting Larsen and Toubro's Armoured Systems Complex facility here for manufacturing high-end guns.

The prime minister shared a brief video of himself standing in a tank on his Twitter handle.

"Checking out the tanks at L&T's Armoured Systems Complex in Hazira," Modi said in the tweet.

The Armoured Systems Complex, which Modi inaugurated earlier in the day, will be the first private facility in the country where the K9 Vajra self-propelled Howitzer guns will be manufactured.

The company has set up the Armoured Systems Complex at Hazira, around 30 kilometers from Surat, to manufacture and integrate advanced armoured platforms, such as self-propelled artillery Howitzers, future infantry combat vehicles, future-ready combat vehicles and future main battle tanks.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The First International Festival of Puppet Theaters The Festival of the Mountains will be held in Ingushetia as part of the Year of the Theater in Russia, the press service of the head of the republic reports.

The Ministry of Culture of Ingushetia sent applications to the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation to hold four creative projects within the Year of the Theater, including the International Festival of Puppet Theaters - The Festival of the Mountains, the Deputy Minister of Culture of the Region, Lyudmila Getagazova said.

She stressed that within the framework of other projects, theatrical plays will be organized even in the tower complexes of Ingushetia.Three minor girls, including two inmates of state-run residential schools, were found pregnant in different parts of Odisha, and another girl gave birth to a baby, police said.

The incidents came to light in Dhenkanal, Kalahandi and Jajpur districts, barely a week after a 14-year-old girl of a residential school, run by Odisha's ST and SC Development department, delivered a baby in her hostel in Daringibadi in Kandhamal district.

She had delivered the baby on January 12.

In Dhenkanal, the headmaster of a residential school at Saptasajya, Janardan Samal, filed a complaint at Sadar police station on Friday, alleging that a Class 8 girl student of the school was found pregnant.

On the basis of the headmaster's complaint, the statement of the 14-year-old girl was recorded and a 15-year-old boy from Kaliapani in Jajpur district was held, the sub-divisional police officer of Dhenkanal, S A Karim, said.

After preliminary inquiry it was found that the girl, who had gone to a relative's house a few months ago, was not keeping well of late.

During a medical check-up, it was found that she was pregnant, after which the headmaster filed the complaint with police, Karim said, adding, further investigation was on.

As the about the incident spread, BJP activists and local residents staged a demonstration and submitted a memorandum to the district administration, demanding stern action against those responsible for the incident.

In Kalahandi district, a student of class 9 of Navodaya residential school in Narla area had reportedly become pregnant and was suspected of taking abortion pills, officials said.

The 15-year-old girl from Bihar was admitted to the district headquarter hospital on January 14 and later shifted to Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR) in Burla on January 16, when her condition deteriorated, they said.

The Collector of Kalahandi, Parag Gavali, who is also the ex-officio chairman of the school, said the girl had conceived but aborted, and was sent to VSS Medical College, Burla.

He said a team consisting of a sub-collector, an SDPO and an official of Navodaya Vidyalaya has been formed to probe into the episode on Friday.

The inquiry is at a preliminary stage, Gavali said, adding, the girl's parents took her to Bihar after she was discharged from hospital on Friday, and her statement is yet to be taken.

In another incident in Kalahandi, a 24-year-old married man was arrested on Saturday for raping a 13-year-old girl and impregnating her.

The incident happened at Rankabahal village in Dharamgarh area, the SDPO of Dharamgarh, Surendranath Satpathy, said.

The SDPO said both the accused and the girl, a student of class 7, belong to same locality and she used to visit his house as the two families had close ties.

The accused, a father of a boy, had raped the girl once, when his wife was absent, he said.

The pregnancy of the girl was detected during a medical examination at a hospital here on January 15 after which the girl narrated the incident to her mother, who filed an FIR with the Dharamgarh police station.

After investigation and medico-legal examination of both of them the victim and accused, the man was arrested, Satpathy said.

In Jajpur district, a 15-year-old girl gave birth to a baby in Kalinga Nagar area on Thursday night after she returned from a local court where she had been taken by police to record her statement, about her sexual assault by a man that led to her pregnancy, police said.

Both the girl and her baby are undergoing treatment at the district headquarters hospital in Jajpur, they added.

According to the complaint filed by the family members of the girl, Pintu Jena (29) from Balasore district, who was working in a firm in Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex area, had engaged the minor girl for some work, they said.

Later, he sexually abused the minor girl on the pretext of marriage and impregnated her.

However, efforts to contact Pintu failed after which father of the girl lodged a complaint with the Kalinga Nagar police on December 26, alleging that his minor daughter was raped and impregnated by Jena on the pretext of marriage.

Meanwhile, police have launched a manhunt to nab the accused after the victim gave birth to the baby, and the incident became public.

"We are on the job and will arrest the accused soon," the inspector in-charge of Kalinga Nagar police station, R N Patnaik, said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Senior Congress leader and Minister D K Shivakumar Saturday said all ministers in the party including him were ready to step aside from the cabinet in the interest of the party to accommodate those MLAs who aredissatisfied.

"We are loyal soldiers of the party. When Dharm Singh government was there I was kept out of the government for political reasons...in the last regime I was MLA for sixthterm, Siddaramaiah could not include me in his cabinet (initially)," Shivakumar said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said this time it was a coalition government, and several legislators, who were senior to him- V Muniyappa, Ramalinga Reddy, Roshan Baig, H K Patil - are not part of the government.

"If need be, including myself, I'm telling you, we are ready to sacrifice for the party, for the workers, for legislators. Nothing is important.

Party is important to us we want to bring back our party with flying colours," he said in response to a question.

Shivakumar also said the "decision" was arrived at a meeting of Congress ministers held a few days ago.

He said "I voluntarily have offered (to step down).. In the interest of the party, if my leaders want, I'm ready."



To a question how many ministers were ready to resign, he said "All of us are ready..."



The statement by the Congress' "trouble shooter" gains significance as there is simmering discontent within a section in the party over not getting cabinet berth during the recent rejig.

To a question about getting in touch with MLAs, including Nagendra and Umesh Jadhav who were absent from the CLPmeeting on Friday, Shivakumar said, "I'm in touch with all MLAs...I don't want to disclose."



He said there were no "rebels" in the party and downplayed dissatisfaction within the party.

"Who is rebel? I don't know, I have not seen any rebels," he said.

To a question how long Congress legislators willstay in the resort, Shivakumar said "Let me see...discussionsare on district by district, constituency wise discussions areon (regarding Parliamentary election), also about the development work in each constituency."



Asked whether MLAs would return from the resort tomorrow, without giving any direct response, he said "Can they stay there itself?"



Congress on Friday had shifted all its MLAs to a resort to allegedly "escape" from the BJP's "onslaught."



On BJP going for a statewide tour to study drought, Shivakumar, terming it as a "good" move, assured full cooperation from the government.

He also asked BJP legislators still in Delhi, to put pressure on the Prime Minister and Rural Development Minister "to get back our MNREGA money" of about Rs 1,500 crore that ispending with the Centre.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Home Minister Rajnath SinghSaturday sought the assistance of National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) here to help de-stress the armed police forces across the country in the wake of growinginstances of suicide.

"Our central armed police forces and police forces need that services which help them de-stress and manage themselves better," he said.

"I urge NIMHANS to facilitate a nationwide programme to prevent suicides and to undertake a systematic intervention to help our forces handle situations successfully," Singh said.

In the 23rd convocation address at NIMHANS, he said he was confident that the institute had the capacity to take up the initiative nationwide.

In this context, Singh recalled an initiative of NIMHANS with the Tamil Nadu police department, wherein the institute planned to include the families in promoting wellness of the policepersonnel.

Singh voiced his concern over the growing cases of suicide and asked NIMHANS to take measures to reduce their numbers.

Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare J P Nadda expressed confidence that NIMHAN would play a lead role in responding to the challenges of mental health care.

"To be able to achieve this mission successfully, NIMHANS will have to nurture similar institutions regionally and if required, in the states of our country," Nadda said.

Highlighting the achievements of the union government in the last five years, Nadda said that since 2014-15, undergraduate and postgraduate seats have been increased by 18,000 and 13,000 respectively and the number of UG and PG seats in the country has gone upto 70,000 and 45,000 respectively.

As many as 118 new medical colleges have been added to the list of such colleges in the last five years, raising the total number of medical colleges to 499, which is the highest in the world with 70,000 seats.

Nadda said the existing medical colleges were beingupgraded by setting up of super specialty blocks in 70 suchcolleges in the entire country.

"We are expanding the network of our medical colleges in a big way by upgrading 82 district and referral hospitals to medical colleges," Nadda told the gathering.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 10-man Minerva Punjab FC scored an injury-time goal to snatch a 1-1 draw against Gokulam Kerala FC in their 13th round I-League match here on Saturday.

Gokulam Kerala drew the first blood in the 82nd minute through Debutant Marcus Joseph but defending champions Minerva equalized in the final minute of the additional time through Musa Caicedo (90+4 minute) to share the spoils at the Devi Lal Stadium here.

The visiting side made their intent clear as soon as the match began and in the second minute itself Pritam Singh found the back of the net off an Abhishek Das cross, but the referee disallowed the goal.

Minerva, who are now out of reckoning for the title, suffered a jolt in the 20th minute when forward Zacharie was red carded for an unnecessary foul against Gokulam keeper Arnab Das inside the box. Gokulam kept on attacking but the defending champions denied them any clear chance in the first half.

A major part of the second half was a midfield tussle with the home side mostly defending while Gokulam attacking in short bursts but was unable to create any clear chance.

Gokulam's efforts were rewarded in the 82nd minute when debutant Marcus Joseph from Trinidad and Tobago found the back of the net.

Minerva, who were on the verge of a seventh consecutive loss, did not stop trying and they were rewarded for their valiant efforts in the final minute of the injury added time.

Souvik Das sent a pass to Moinuddin inside the Gokulam box who, in turn, headed the ball to Caicedo who did not make any mistake in putting the ball home.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.):Microsoft India Saturday announced the launch of a new e-commerce platform here for handloom weavers under its Project ReWeave,as part of its philanthropic initiative.

The e-commerce platform would help connect artisans to the buyers directly enabling them to expand to newer customers and markets, a press release from Microsoft said.

A new e-commerce website hosts signature collections created by the weaver communities, showcase traditional designs and products created from natural dyes, the release said.

The e-market place would help sell to a broad set of customers, support weavers in increasing their income and earning a sustainable livelihood while also reviving traditional forgotten Indian art, it said.

Microsoft, in association with the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), has also curated a special curriculum in 'CAD and Colour for Handloom Weaving' to provide digital training in handloom design, it said.

At a ceremony hosted at NIFT, the first batch of 100 handloom weavers were awarded certificates for successful design course completion, the release said.

Telangana Principal Secretary, Industries and IT Jayesh Ranjan said in the release that "Working with global technology leaders like Microsoft has enabled us bring technology to the doorsteps of our large weaver communities in the remotest districts of Telangana."



These initiatives like e-commerce marketplace and design training would ensure weaver communities sustain themselves and provide livelihood to artisans, the release said.

This also is a practical solution to motivate younger generation of weavers to continue with their traditions and not divert into other professions, it said.

On the initiative, managing director of Microsoft India (R&D) Anil Bhansali said, With the introduction of our new e-commerce platform, digital empowerment centres and the new design curriculum, the weavers will be able to build on the rich handloom heritage of India and also reach out to a wider customer base.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Five-time major winner Phil Mickelson followed up his spectacular first-round 60 with a four-under par 68 to hold a two-shot lead after two rounds of the Desert Classic.

Mickelson birdied four of his last five holes on the Nicklaus Tournament course, one of three par-72 layouts in use in the US PGA Tour tournament in the California desert east of Los Angeles.

He overcame a double-bogey six at the par-four 18th -- his ninth of the day which saw him make the turn at even par for the round.

Mickelson's 16-under total of 128 put him two strokes in front of Australian rookie Curtis Luck, who grabbed his eighth birdie of the day at his final hole -- the ninth -- to post a 66 on the Nicklaus course and a 14-under par total of 130.

Canadian Adam Hadwin and American Steve Marino shared third on 131. Marino had five birdies and an eagle hole-in-one on the par-three seventh on the way to a seven-under par 65 at the La Quinta course.

Hadwin had seven birdies and one bogy in a 66 at La Quinta, where Mickelson fashioned his 60 a day earlier.

"I actually felt better striking it but I didn't putt very well today, certainly relative to yesterday where I was making everything," Mickelson said.

"But I finished strong, birdied four of the last five.

Mickelson, playing his first tournament of 2019, called it a "fun, if not surprising, start" to his year.

"It's fun to be in the mix," said Mickelson, whose two-round total is the second-best of his career, behind the 36-hole total of 125 to start the 2013 Phoenix Open.

Mickelson appeared to be picking up where he left off with back-to-back birdies at the 11th and 12th holes, but his approach at the 18th found the water and he took a double bogey.

- 'Keep firing' -



=================



An eight-foot birdie putt at the fifth sparked a string of three straight birdies and he picked up one more shot at the ninth.

"I turned a round that was not very good into a respectable round," said Mickelson, although he admitted that he would have liked to be even lower heading into a third round on the tougher Stadium course.

"If you shoot six-, seven-under par on the Nicklaus course that's a good solid round," he said.

"I shot four (under) so I'll just have to come out tomorrow and shoot six or seven (under) to make up for it."



Defending champion Jon Rahm fired his second straight 66 to head a trio of players on 132 alongside Wyndham Clark (67) and Joey Garber (64).

Mickelson said he would have to stay aggressive on the weekend.

"You just have to keep firing on all cylinders and going after birdies because this is a course where there's going to be a lot of birdies," he said.

"Usually when you play that well the first two rounds you're hitting the ball where you want and making some putts. I just have to keep that going the next couple of days.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)chief on Saturday sought the release of separatist leader Shahid-ul-Islam, who is in the NIA's custody, on humanitarian grounds as his wife was not feeling well.

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister spoke to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh over phone after reports of Islam's wife having suffered a brain hemorrhage emerged.

"I share your concern for Shahid Ul Islam. Have spoken with HM requesting his early release on humanitarian grounds as the wife has suffered a brain haemorrhage," Mehbooba said in a tweet, in response to a plea for the separatist leader's release by a Twitter user.

Waheed Parra, the youth wing chief of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) told PTI that Mehbooba also raised the concerns about the alleged "harsh treatment" of political prisoners from the state and the charges against Kashmiri students in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) case with the Union home minister.Mauritian Prime MinisterPravind Jugnauth will arrive here on Sunday on over a week-long visit during which he will hold talks with the top Indian leadership and attend thePravasi Bharatiya Divas in Varanasi.

Jugnauth will arrive here on Sunday morning and after spending a day in the capital, he will leave for Varanasi on Monday.

He will attend the inaugural session of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on Tuesday, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two leaders will also meet on the sidelines of the event that day.

During the visit, he will also call on President Ram Nath Kovind.

Jugnauth will also visit Prayagraj for the Kumbh Mela and then Maharashtra before heading home on January 28 morning.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his "the 'Mahagathbandhan' (grand opposition alliance) is against the people" remark, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu Saturday said the opposition leaders were not "bonded labourers" who would dance to the PM's tune.

Asked to comment on Modi's criticism of the opposition alliance at a meeting in Silvassa on Saturday, Banerjee said, "He (Modi) is not the 'Nawab' and we are not his slaves that we will dance to his tunes.

"We are free citizens of this country. He wants us to be his servants, but we are not."



Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who was present at the tea party hosted by Banerjee after the united opposition rally at Brigade Parade Ground, said, "We are only the servants of people of this country".

Asked to comment on Modi's remark that the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal was afraid of the BJP, Banerjee said, "The BJP is scared to face people of the state. Modi will get a befitting reply in the coming elections for making such comments."



Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi called for a one-on-one fight with the BJP in every constituency in the forthcoming general elections.

Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said BJP is anti-people and dividing the people by spreading hatred.

"In Uttar Pradesh, they (BJP) are sowing the seeds of hatred among the people on the basis of religion and caste," he said.

National Conference leader Farooq Abdulah said the Constitution of the country was under threat.

Besides Naidu, Singhvi, Yadav, Satish Mishra of BSP, Abdullah, former Arunachal CM Gegong Apang, Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani and Patidar leader Hardik Patel were present at the tea party.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump on Saturday alleged that the mainstream media has lost its credibility, a day after an investigative anti-Trump story published by a major online American publication turned out be wrong.

A report published by online portal BuzzFeed had reported that Trump directed Michael Cohen, who was his attorney, to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate project and that Cohen told special counsel Robert Mueller that the US president personally instructed him to lie about the timing of the project.

"It hurts me to say it. But mainstream media has truly lost its credibility," Trump told reporters at the White House a day after BuzzFeed's story on his Russian connections and 2016 US presidential elections turned out to be false.

"It was a total phony story, and I appreciate the special counsel coming out with a statement," Trump said as he praised Muller for issuing a clarification on the story.

Muller, a former FBI director is currently investigating the allegations of Russian interference into the 2016 US presidential elections and the links, if any, with the Trump campaign.

Trump said the Buzzfeed piece was a "disgrace" to the country and journalism.

"I think it's going to take a long time for the mainstream media to recover its credibility," he said.

While talking to reporters, Trump also insisted on bringing back US troops from Syria, asserting that they have achieved the objective of defeating the ISIS.

"At some point, you want to bring our people back home...We have done a very (good job in defeating the ISIS)...we are down to 99 per cent...and we are hitting the rest of it very very powerfully over the last three weeks," he claimed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze said that the investigation into the activities of TBC Bank, which is one of the largest financial organizations in the country, will not affect the stability of the financial sector.

The prime minister stressed that it is necessary to cherish the financial institutions represented on the international stock exchange.

The international financial institutions point out that our financial sector is particularly stable in the region and at the same time, this is a very important achievement," Bakhtadze said.Senior BJP leader Syed Shahnawaz Hussain Saturday hit out at the opposition's 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) and said the BJP was led by a "leader" while the former was helmed by a "dealer".

He said the opposition's alliance comprised leaders who all wanted to become prime minister themselves.

Addressing a press conference here, Hussain said, "The mahagathbandhan is completely fake. They cannot defeat the BJP because many of them sharing the dais are aspiring to be the next PM. It is just a show of unity."



Taking a swipe at the Congress, which was left out from an alliance between the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh, Hussain said it should have the "guts" to fight Lok Sabha polls in Amethi (Rahul Gandhi's seat) and Rae Bareli (Sonia Gandhi's constituency) without taking the BSP-SP's help.

Hailing Prime Minister Modi, Hussain said, "The PM is the world's most popular leader and a visionary. The BJP has the best leader. Our opponents don't have a leader, they have a dealer."



He said the NDA would once again come to power under PM Modi, adding only the "corrupt" wanted a "majboor" (weak) government.

The BJP national spokesperson attacked the Congress over the latter's allegations in the Rafale fighter jet purchase and claimed the opposition party was acting as it was bigger than the Supreme Court.

He said Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had given a befitting reply in Parliament to the Congress' allegations on Rafale.

Hussain claimed that, despite these replies from the Centre, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi failed to understand the issue.

He also attacked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the mega opposition rally held Saturday in Kolkata.

"Today, in Mamata Banerjee's rally, some (speakers) have supported Naxals. Some people have spoken about support to those who have been arrested for anti-national acts," he claimed.

He said the BJP would win future polls in West Bengal as well as the forthcoming LS polls nationwide.

"People will vote to make Modi Prime Minister again. Our strength is Narendra Modi and the opposition's weakness is Rahul Gandhi," he claimed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 16-month-old boy died and seven members of his family sustained severe burn injuries in a fire at their home in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district Friday night, police said.

The incident happened in Shevda village in Karmad police station limits, an official said Saturday.

"Javed Wahed Baig's house caught fire due to what seems like a short circuit. Eight members of the family, including five children, suffered severe burns. Of them, Noor Baig, 16 months old, succumbed to injuries in the Government Medical College and Hospital here," a Karmad police station official said.

The others are undergoing treatment at the GMCH, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump on Saturday said the location for the second US-North Korea summit, to be held late February, has been decided and would be announced in due course.

The White House confirmed on Friday that the second meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would occur next month, following a rare visit to Washington by a senior North Korean general.

Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol, a right-hand man to Kim, met the US president here as the two nations seek a denuclearisation accord that could ease decades of hostility.

"We had a very good meeting yesterday with North Korea...It lasted almost two hours. We agreed to meet sometime the end of February. We have picked the country, but we will be announcing it in the future," Trump told reporters here.

Trump said Kim is looking "very forward" to the next meeting with him and so does he.

The US president and Kim first met in June last year in Singapore where they agreed on a verifiable denuclearisation of North Korea.

Trump said a lot of progress has been made since then.

"We have made a lot of progress that has not been reported by the media...we have made a lot of progress as far as denuclearisation is concerned...We have made a lot of tremendous progress that has not been reported, unfortunately, but it will be. Things are going very well with North Korea," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Sri Lankan police has obtained a three-month detention order to interrogate four men, suspected to be the members of a radical Muslim group, arrested over the seizure of some 100 kilos of high explosives and 100 detonators in north western Sri Lanka.

The police's CID (Criminal Investigations Department), found some 100 kilos of high powered explosives, 100 detonators, 20 litres of nitrate acid, wire codes and two firearms at Wanathavilluwa police division on Thursday.

The four men arrested by the CID, includes the owner of the land where some of the explosives were buried.

The CID on Friday obtained a three-month detention order from the defence secretary to interrogate the four suspects.

The defence secretary is empowered to grant a detention order for 90 days.

Acoording to media reports, a radicalised local group of Muslims is said to be behind the explosives seized on Thursday.

Police are investigating if the explosives have any connection to a group of people arrested recently at Mawanella, a minority Muslim area in the south western region, who had attacked Buddhist statues in the country in an apparent attempt to spark tensions between majority Buddhists and minority Muslims.

The investigations on the Buddhist statue attacks had led to the information on the explosives, the police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A group of Kashmiri Pandits staged a demonstration outside the Raj Bhavan here Saturday to mark the 29th anniversary of their exodus and demanded a blueprint for their return to Kashmir Valley and rehabilitation.

The protest was organised by the All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference (ASKPC) and was attended by a members of other socio-political organisations of the community.

They submitted a memorandum to Governor Satya Pal Malik enlisting their various demands, ASKPC president Ravinder Raina said.

He alleged that the community had been deceived with "false and hollow promises" of return and rehabilitation by successive governments.

He demanded that the government immediately come out with a blueprint for the return of the community to Kashmir with honour and safety.

"Pending this, the community should be declared as internally displaced," he said.

All India Kashmiri Pandit Conference president H N Jattu reiterated the demand for an immediate blueprint for their return.

On this day in 1990 hundreds of thousands of protesters, along with armed militants, occupied streets of Kashmir shouting slogans against the minority community which eventually led to their exodus from the valley.

Panun Kashmir leader Shiban Khaibri asked for a probe into the events of 1990 by a Supreme Court judge and punishment against the culprits.

Former bureaucrat Kiran Wattal was of the opinion that the community should be brought under the purview of the recently-announced 10 per cent reservation in employment and educational institutions for economically backward category, as they have been deprived of their homes, agricultural land and lifelong earnings and properties.

Prem Nath Bhat Memorial Trust chairman R L Pandita demanded the passage of the Temples and Shrines Bill to protect the religious heritage of the community.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The US's first Indian-origin senator, Kamala Harris, has picked Baltimore as headquarters of her potential 2020 presidential campaign, a media report has claimed.

Harris, 54, who recently came out with two books including one for children, has not officially announced her 2020 presidential bid.But reports in mainstream US media suggest that it might be announced soon.

Local Baltimore Sun Friday reported that Harris has selected Baltimore for her campaign headquarters if, as expected, she runs for in 2020, according to sources familiar.

Harris picked Baltimore because of its diversity, its proximity to and because it is in the Eastern time zone, said the sources, who requested anonymity because Harris has not yet announced her plans, the daily reported.

The senator's office has declined to comment on the report.

It's the right choice," said Krish Vignarajah, a former Democratic gubernatorial candidate, told Baltimore Sun.

The race ought to focus on the future of cities like Baltimore. And Senator Harris is incredibly inspiring hard not to love a strong, vertically challenged woman of color! she said.

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, the first ever Hindu elected to the US House of Representatives, is among the several Democratic leaders to have announced to enter the 2020 presidential race.

Others so far being Senator Elizabeth Warren. The 2020 Democratic primary is expected to be a crowded race.

Among other potential candidates are former vice Joe Biden, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Congressman Beto O'Rourke of Texas and Senators. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.A court here questioned the Delhi Police on Saturday for filing charge sheet against former Students' Union (JNUSU) and others in the 2016 case without procuring the requisite sanctions.

The police told Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat they will procure the required sanctions within 10 days.

"Why did you file (the charge sheet) without approval? You don't have a legal department," the court said.

The court is likely to resume hearing on the matter soon.

The Delhi Police had on January 14 filed the charge sheet at a city court against Kumar and others, saying he was leading a procession and supported seditious slogans raised on the varsity campus during an event in February 2016.

Police also charged former students and Anirban Bhattacharya for allegedly shouting anti- slogans during the event held on February 9, 2016, to commemorate the hanging of Parliament-attack mastermindAuthorities in Leh district of Jammu and Kashmir Saturday ordered an inquiry into the circumstances that led to the death of seven people after an avalanche struck two vehicles on Friday.

Leh Deputy Commissioner Avny Lavasa has constituted an enquiry committee comprising Assistant Labour Commissioner Ghulam Nabi Tak and tehsildar Gurmet Namgail to conduct a thorough enquiry into the matter, an official said.

He said police has started an inquest proceeding in the matter.

An avalanche hit two trucks, carrying 10 people, atKhardungla pass -- one of the highest motorable roads in the world at 17,500 feet -- in Ladakh region at 7.00 am on Friday.

The two trucks were buried under an avalanche of 20 feet depth, nearly 800 metres from Khardungla Top towards South Pullu.

Five bodies were recovered on Friday, while two more found Saturday.

A search operation is on for the three missing persons.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor James McAvoy has revealed he was ''freaked out'' by Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise the Dancing Clown in "It - Chapter Two".

The 39-year-old actor features alongside Jessica Chastain, Jay Ryan and Bill Hader in the upcoming horror film directed by Andy Muschietti.

"He's amazing. The guy who plays the clown is terrifying. He's a lovely guy, and yet he really freaked me out.

''I remember standing there with the rest of the cast, all these adults, and we'd all done weird freaky stuff. And we are all looking at each other going, 'I don't like being here. I don't like being an actor today.' He really did, he really freaked me out. I never liked clowns as a kid," McAvoy said.

The actor was promoting his latest release "Glass" at "Good Morning America".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The issue of extradition of Niels Holck alias Kim Davy, the prime accused in the 1995 Purulia arms drop case, to India, has been resolved politically and independent authorities in his country are pursuing the matter, Denmark Prime Minister Lars Lkke Rasmussen said Saturday.

The case relates to the incident on the night of December 17, 1995, when an AN-26 aircraft dropped arms and ammunition in West Bengal's Purulia district. The consignment had hundreds of AK-47 rifles, pistols, anti-tank grenades, rocket launchers and thousands of rounds of ammunition, according to investigators.

The crew consisted of five Latvian citizens and British national Peter Bleach all of whom were arrested. Davy, a Danish citizen and the prime accused in the case, had escaped, according to details of the probe.

Responding to a question on the status of the extradition of Davy, Rasmussen said the issue has been resolved politically.

"This problem has been solved in the political sense. There is a dialogue between authorities and what we (India and Denmark) agreed upon last year in April was we should rely on these independent authorities to do their work," he told reporters on the sidelines of opening of the Danish Cultural Institute here.

India has been seeking extradition of Davy and the Danish government had accepted India's request but he challenged the proceedings in a city court in Copenhagen which rejected the extradition.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with Rasmussen on Friday in Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, 2019 in Gandhinagar.

"We did not touch upon the subject at all yesterday (in the meeting with Prime Minister Modi). The last we talked about it was in April in Stockholm," he said.

The bilateral meeting between the two leaders was held on the sidelines of the summit on Friday. They had earlier met during the first India-Nordic summit in Stockholm in April 2018.

During the meeting, Rasmussen said they deliberated upon various areas of bilateral cooperation and also exchanged views on multilateral issues of mutual interest.

Calling India a "very close friend" of Denmark, Rasmussen said that at these time of "uncertainty" there is a need to learn more about each other.

"Denmark values its friendship with India. We should take our friendship to higher level and opening of Danish Cultural Centre is a step towards it," he said.

On free trade, Rasmussen said Denmark is a true believer of it and said that at these times of "uncertainty" the EU should be among those advocating free trade.

"We are true believers of free trade specially at these times of uncertainty, the EU should be among those advocating free trade. We are double as open as we used to be. If you look at import and export then we are double as open and double as rich," he said.

The Danish prime minister is on a two-day visit to India from January 18 to 19, for the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, 2019 in Gandhinagar, where Denmark is participating as a 'partner country'.

Rasmussen is accompanied by a business delegation, including CEOs of major Danish companies, an External Affairs Ministry statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chancellor Angela Merkels Bavarian allies have elected a new leader, a change that offers Germanys centre-right a chance to put behind it persistent bickering over recent years, Windsor Star reports.

The 52-year-old Markus Soeder was elected unopposed in Munich on Saturday to lead the Christian Social Union, the Bavaria-only sister to Merkels Christian Democratic Union.

Soeder replaces the 69-year-old Horst Seehofer, the CSU leader for the past decade and the most prominent domestic opponent of Merkels welcoming approach to refugees in 2015. Soeder already succeeded Seehofer, now Germanys interior minister, as Bavarian governor last year.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday released a video accusing the media and left-wing opponents of pressuring the attorney general to indict him, ahead of April polls.

Police have recommended Netanyahu's indictment in three separate corruption investigations and the attorney general is expected to announce his decision on whether to charge the prime minister in the weeks or months ahead.

"For three years the Left and the media have been pushing the attorney general to file charges at any price," read a message at the start of a short video posted on Twitter by Netanyahu.

The video then showed footage of protesters brandishing placards calling for Netanyahu to be jailed during demonstrations outside the home of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.

"Will they succeed?" a closing message said.

The video sparked criticism from political opponents.

The justice ministry insisted to the Israeli media that the attorney general would not be influenced in his decision.

Polls show Netanyahu is likely to win the April 9 elections despite the investigations hanging over him, but a move to indict him pending a hearing could shake up the campaign.

If the attorney general announces his intention to indict the prime minister, Netanyahu gets a final chance to defend himself in a hearing before the charges are filed.

The premier says he has no intention of resigning if called in for such a hearing before the vote.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)RJD chief Lalu Prasad was on Saturday granted bail by a Delhi court in the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) scam case filed by the CBI.

Prasad, 70, who is serving sentences in fodder scam cases, is currently admitted at Rajendra Institute of Medical Science in Ranchi for treatment.

Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj here granted bail to Prasad on a personal bond of Rs one lakh and a surety of like amount.

Lalu was earlier granted interim bail in the matter.

Prasad's wife Rabri Devi and son Tejaswi Yadav were also earlier granted bail in the case.

The court also put various conditions on the accused, including that they will not leave country without prior permission and not tamper with the evidence.

Meanwhile, the court extended the interim bail of Prasad, Devi, Tejaswi and others till January 28 in a separate case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for alleged money laundering in the scam.

The cases relate to alleged irregularities in granting the operational contract of two IRCTC hotels to a private firm.

According to the charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), between 2004 and 2014, a conspiracy was hatched in pursuance of which BNR hotels of the Indian Railways, located in Puri and Ranchi, were first transferred to IRCTC and later, for its operations, maintenance and upkeep, given on lease to Sujata Hotels Private Limited, which is based in Patna, Bihar.

It is alleged that the tender process was rigged and manipulated and the conditions were tweaked to help the private party - Sujata Hotels.

Based on the CBI case, the ED also lodged a case of money laundering against Prasad, Devi, Yadav and others.

The court will pronounce order on January 28 on the regular bail application of Prasad and others in the ED case.

According to the charge sheet filed by CBI, between 2004 and 2014, a conspiracy was hatched in pursuance of which BNR hotels of the Indian Railways, located in Puri and Ranchi, were first transferred to IRCTC and later, for its operations, maintenance and upkeep, given on lease to Sujata Hotels Private Limited, which is based in Patna, Bihar.

It is alleged that the tender process was rigged and manipulated and the conditions were tweaked to help the private party Sujata Hotels.

Based on the CBI case, ED also lodged a case of money laundering against Prasad, Devi, Yadav and others.

Among others named in the chargesheet are then group general managers of IRCTC V K Asthana and R K Goyal and Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar, both directors of Sujata Hotels and owners of Chanakya Hotel.

Delight Marketing Company, now known as Lara Projects, and Sujata Hotels Private Limited have also been named as accused firms in the chargesheet.

The CBI registered a case in July 2017, and carried out searches at 12 locations in Patna, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar and Gurgaon in connection with the case.

The charges in the case include criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption, CBI had said.

It also claimed that on February 25, 2005, Vinay Kochhar sold commercial property in the form of three acres of land in Patna through 10 sale deeds for Rs 1.47 crore to Delight Marketing, in which Sarla Gupta was a director as a front benami holder on behalf of Prasad.

Between 2010 and 2014, this land was further transferred, CBI alleged.

In 2001, it was decided to handover the management of catering services of the Indian Railways, including of its hotels, to the IRCTC. Two such hotels BNR Hotels in Ranchi and Puri were also identified and a memorandum of understanding was signed between the railways and the IRCTC on March 19, 2004.

According to an FIR flied by CBI, Prasad, the then railway minister, entered into criminal conspiracy with the owner of Sujata Hotels, Sarla Gupta, wife of his close associate Prem Chand Gupta, a Rashtriya Janata Dal MP in Rajya Sabha, and IRCTC officials for "undue pecuniary advantage to himself and others".

The probe agency also alleged that BNR hotels were transferred to Sujata Hotels through a "rigged and manipulated" tender process managed by P K Goyal, the then managing director of IRCTC.

The CBI inquiry shows that the railways sought bids for developing, operating and maintaining Rail Ratna Hotels on September 16, 2006.

The probe agency has alleged that Prasad was aware about the whole process and was keeping a track of the tender proceedings.

It surfaced that while over 15 bid documents were received for both the hotels, IRCTC had no records of bidders other than Sujata Hotels.

It was also alleged that with an intention to render undue pecuniary gains to Sujata Hotels, the bid of another hotel was deliberately and unreasonably given low marks under technical evaluation.

Prasad became Bihar's chief minister in 1990, but had to resign in 1997 following corruption charges in the multi-crore rupees fodder scam. From 1997 to 2005 his wife Rabri ruled as the chief minister of the state and was replaced by JD(U) president Nitish Kumar.

Prasad also served as railway minister from 2004 to 2009.

The RJD again came back to power after forging an alliance with its bitter rival Janata Dal (United), led by Kumar in 2015, and Tejashwi Yadav became the deputy chief minister. However, Kumar parted ways from the RJD in July last year.

The RJD chief has been serving sentence in Ranchi jail since December 2017 following his conviction in fodder scam cases.

Earlier this month, the Jharkhand High court had rejected the bail plea of Prasad in three fodder scam cases.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 20 Islamic State group jihadists were killed Saturday in Iraqi air raids on their embattled enclave in eastern Syria, a war monitor reported.

The raids come a day after a US-led air strike on the Euphrates Valley village of Baghouz killed six civilians, including four children, and 10 IS fighters, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

There were no immediate comments from the Iraqi army or from the US-led coalition.

Baghouz is part of an enclave of less than 15 square kilometres (less than six square miles) that is all that is left of IS territory in eastern Syria after a gruelling Kurdish-led offensive launched with coalition support.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that Saturday's air strikes "carried out by Iraqi aircraft killed at least 20 IS fighters in Baghouz".

He said at the same time the Iraqi army units stationed nearby on the border with Syria fired artillery.

Abdel Rahman said the US-led coalition had stepped up its air strikes against IS since the jihadists killed 19 people, four of them Americans, in a suicide bombing on a restaurant in the flashpoint northern town of Manbij on Wednesday.

"The strikes are continuing, and have intensified since the Manbij attack," he said on Saturday.

"Residential buildings in Barghouz were hit," he said.

Wednesday's US losses were the biggest since Washington deployed troops in Syria in 2014 in support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Previously it had reported just two combat losses in separate incidents. The Manbij bombing rekindled controversy triggered by President Donald Trump last month with his surprise announcement of a full withdrawal from Syria.

The US president justified the order with the assertion that the jihadists had now been "largely defeated" in Syria, a claim that the attack threw into renewed question.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday said defence was a "key pillar" of relationship between India and Czech Republic as he called for mutual development and production of defence equipment by the two nations.

Kovind said this during a meeting with Czech Republic's Prime Minister Andrej Babis at Rashtrapati Bhavan, a spokesperson said.

He said Kovind welcomed the visiting dignitary and said that along with an economic partnership, defence is a key pillar of India-Czech bilateral relations.

The President expressed hope that the two countries will move forward from a traditional buyer-seller relationship to one where the two can co-develop and co-produce defence equipments, the spokesperson said.

Kovind also fondly remembered his own visit to the Czech Republic in September 2018 as he said that India counts the country as a key partner in its growth story.

He thanked the Czech Republic government for hosting the 'Czech Make in India' pavilion at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in Gandhinagar, the spokesperson said.

Kovind added that there are immense opportunities for Czech technology and manufacturing in India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Commerce and Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu Saturday said India has the potential to be a USD 5 trillion economy in the next 7-8 years.

Addressing a seminar on exports at Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit here, Prabhu said his department had prepared a road map to make this possible by focusing on manufacturing, service sector and agriculture.

"India has a potential to be a USD 5 trillion economy in 7 to 8 years, and definitely a USD 10 trillion economy before 2035," Prabhu said.

"Manufacturing should lead to export. This will bring quality and competitiveness. Our cumulative export stands at around half a trillion dollars. The challenge is to double it" he said.

"Today, we have great opportunity to increase exports. There are disruptions taking place in the world and India should take advantage of it," he added.

Prabhu said India can increase exports to Africa and Latin American countries.

To boost air connectivity in the country, Prabhu said 100 new airports will come up in the near future with a cumulative investment of USD 65 billion.

Two MoUs were Saturday signed between the Gujarat government and Airports Authority of India for establishing greenfield airports at Dholera and Ankleshwar.

The MOUs were inked in the presence of Prabhu and Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani.

As per one MoU, Dholera airport will be established at a cost of Rs 1500 crore.

The other MoU was for the development and operation of airport and MRO at Ankleshwar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The IMD Saturday issued warning of rain and snow for Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh in the next few days days.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), rain or snow will occur at most places in Jammu and Kashmir from January 20 to 22.

The IMD has predicted rain or snow at most places, with isolated heavy to very heavy falls, in Himachal Pradesh on January 21 and 22.

The IMD said hailstorm is very likely at isolated places over Jammu division, lower reaches of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, west Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh on January 20 and over Jammu division, lower reaches of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, west Uttar Pradesh and north Rajasthan on January 21.

There is a likelihood of strong surface winds over the plains of northwest India between the mornings of January 21 and 22.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)China would be the 'Guest Nation' and Gujarati the 'Indian language in focus' in the Hyderabad Literary Festival to be held here from January 25-27.

Panel discussion, readings, workshops, exhibitions, films would be part of the 'Guest Nation' event, coordinated by the China Writers Association.

An eight-member delegation of writers, festival directors, art managers from Australia would also participate in the festival, to be held at the Hyderabad Public School (HPS),according to a state government release.

Eminent Gujarati poet, playwright, translator, and academic SitanshuYashaschandra would be the key speaker in the 'Indian Language in Focus' section, it said.

Tributes would be paid to the legendary Mrinalini Sarabhai (1918-2016) and renownedUrdu poet and lyricist Kaifi Azmi (1919-2002) to mark their centenaries.

Mallika Sarabhaia and Shabana Azmi will present the work of their celebrated parents, the release said.

In a special tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhian scholars Sudarshan Iyengar and Sudhir Chandra would speak about the meaning of the Mahatma for the people today, it added.

The three-day literary event is expected to be attended by over 100 authors and artistes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Himachal Pradesh High Court has asked the state road transport corporation to look into a complaint filed by a lawyer, alleging a scam in the tendering process for buying electric buses.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ajay Mohan Goel said it was satisfied that the petitioner was sponsored by some manufacturer of vehicles, who did not qualify for the bidding process, according to the terms and conditions of the Request for Proposal (RFP) document.

The plea was filed in the backdrop of the RFP document published by the Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) for design, manufacture, supply and commissioning of 50 battery-operated passenger transport vehicles (EV buses) with chargers for operating in and around Shimla.

"On a query, it is admitted by his counsel that the petitioner is not a bidder or competitor for the allocation of the proposed work and thus, he, in our considered view, has no locus standi to file the instant writ petition.

"Though we are inclined to dismiss this writ petition on this score alone, nevertheless, the Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) will look into the issues raised by the petitioner in his complaint dated November 13, 2018 (Annexure P-4) with full objectivity," the bench said.

It, however, clarified that the direction would not give any cause of action to the petitioner "to ask for a reasoned order and/or to approach the court on the same cause of action".

The high court's order came on a plea filed by advocate Raghunath Mahabal, seeking constitution of an independent special investigation team of experts for a fair and impartial investigation into the tendering process and "to expose the unfair and illegal acts and book all the persons involved in the crime".

The petitioner had alleged that changes were made in the terms and conditions of the tendering process to avoid competition and favour certain parties by buying their vehicles at much higher prices.

He had also sought a direction restraining the HRTC from awarding the contract of sale of electric buses to the successful bidder.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Madras High Court bench here has said if a pregnant woman took 30 seconds extra time during the running test for the selection of Grade-II constable, the timing should be considered negligible and she should have been selected.

Justice S Vimala, allowing a petition of R Devika, said that according to norms, the petitioner had to qualify 100 metres running event by completing the run within 17.50 seconds. But the petitioner took .30 seconds extra, and was declared unsuccessful in the physical efficiency test.

This was objectionable, the judge said.

The participation by the petitioner in a running test itself is a sign of courage, as persons similarly placed would be afraid of a miscarriage, she said.

This aspect, though not a factor to be considered in the test, is the overall factor to be considered for selection to the post of the constable, the judge said.

Besides, the respondents were directed to take into account the constitutional provisions of India and the maternity protection and convention of the International Labour Organisation to frame guidelines by providing the best possible measures to support women candidates who are at difficult circumstances on account of pregnancy or maternity or other natural causes, she said.

Considering the fact that the petitioner would be in fifth or sixth month of pregnancy, the uniformed services recruitment board is directed to select the petitioner for employment as Grade II police constable or grade-II jail warden, as on October 31, 2018, with all attendant benefits, the judge said.

The concessions given to pregnant women shall not be construed as a concession towards their personal comfort, she added.

Child birth should be considered as a contribution to continuity of generations, without which the existence of the world is impossible,the judge said.

A pregnant woman cannot be denied an opportunity to have adequate means of livelihood merely on account of the biological reason that she was unable to appear for the physical efficiency test at a given point of time, she said.

Moreover, a pregnant woman cannot be compelled to undergo endurance test at a time when it was dangerous to her life and that of the baby in her womb, the judge said.

There is provision in the Constitution of India that women shall be given special treatment in the matter of employment in order to eliminate socio-economic backwardness and to empower them in a manner that would bring about effective equality between men and women, she said.

The petitioner states that she was eight weeks pregnant the day when the physical efficiency test was conducted and hence, she was not able to complete the running within the prescribed time, she should be selected, the judge added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Government Railway Police Saturday seized over 20 kg of ganja from a drug peddler at the Guwahati railway station here, GRP sources said.

Acting on a tip-off, the GRP detained the drug peddler identified as Majit Kumar, a resident of Haryana from platform number 1 of the railway station, the sources said.

The GRP seized three packets of ganja that Kumar was carrying. The ganja was worth several lakh of rupees, they said, adding further investigations were on.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Yesterday, the exhibition of the open-air works of printed graphics entitled Kubachi Tower kicked off in the Makhachkala historical park Russia - my history.

The works presented at the exhibition were created during a visit to the village of Kubachi. Earlier, the exposition was presented in the Derbent fortress of Naryn-Kala, now the Kubachi Tower relocated to the Dagestan capital, Yeto Kavkaz reports.A massive fire broke out at the site of an illegal fuel tap in central Mexico on Friday, killing at least 21 people and injuring scores more as rescuers struggled to contain the blaze.

Omar Fayad, governor of Hidalgo state, said at least 71 others were injured after an explosion in Tlahuelilpan, about 105 kilometers north of Mexico City, adding that locals at the site of a leak were scrambling to steal some of the leaking fuel.

"I am deeply saddened by the grave situation suffered by Tlahuelilpan because of the explosion of a pipeline," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador wrote on Twitter.

"I call on the whole government to assist people there." Scores of locals were collecting fuel in buckets and jerry cans from spouting leaks before the fire broke out and making off with the stolen gasoline, local media showed.

"What we know is that it was an illegal fuel theft site, and that authorities were aware of it" when it burned, Fayed added.

Hours later, and after sundown, the first images of the tragedy were shown on television, with desperate people fleeing the scene, screaming for help.

Federal and state firefighters and ambulances run by state oil giant Pemex were headed to the area to help burns victims, the governor added, as victims were ferried off to hospitals.

The tragedy comes as anti-corruption crusader Lopez Obrador presses implementation of his national fuel theft prevention plan.

Illegal taps of Pemex pipelines cost Mexico an estimated $3 billion in 2017.

The government has shut off key pipelines until they can be fully secured and deployed the army to guard Pemex production facilities.

But the strategy to fight the problem has led to severe gasoline and diesel shortages across much of the country, including Mexico City, forcing people to queue for hours -- sometimes days -- to fill up their vehicles. The president, who took office on December 1, has vowed to keep up the fight and asked Mexicans to be patient.

Meanwhile, authorities have opened 1,700 individual investigations for fuel theft, which became a massive black-market industry in Mexico under previous governments, involving powerful drug cartels and corrupt Pemex insiders.

Tanker trucks are being used to deliver fuel, but experts say there are not nearly enough of them.

Mexico City residents faced a second week of fuel shortages, though lines at service stations appeared shorter than the previous week.

Lopez Obrador called on private companies to step up gasoline imports, suggesting they bore some of the blame for the shortages.

The roots of the fuel theft problem run deep in Mexico, where the practice -- known locally as "huachicoleo," or moonshining -- is big business for some communities.

Lopez Obrador so far retains broad support: 89 percent of Mexicans back his crackdown on fuel theft, and his approval rating has even ticked up slightly, to 76 percent, according to a poll published Monday by newspaper El Financiero.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A third-year student of art direction at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) has gone missing after he was suspended for 'misbehaving' with a professor, the institute authorities said Saturday.

Manoj Kumar (31) and another student were suspended last month.

"We got to know about Kumar's disappearance on January 16 and immediately lodged a police complaint next day," said Bhupendra Kainthola, director, FTII.

As per the suspension letter dated December 21, Kumar and his classmate 'misbehaved' with Vikram Verma, head of the art direction and production design department, on December 19.

Kumar was given 24 hours to apologise to the teacher but as he did not respond, he was being suspended, it said.

Senior police inspector Bhaskar Jadhav of Deccan Gymkhana police station said a probe was on.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In an effort to strengthen the India-UK relationship, a friendly polo match was organised here on the eve of World TAMARA (To Augment Mutual Attachment & Respect Across) Day 2019.

The occasion brought together representatives from governments, leading think tanks, armed forces, corporate firms and art and culture sector to share their views to take the UK-India relationship to the highest level.

Rajasthan Tourism Minister and chief guest on the occasion Vishwendra Singh appreciated the initiative.

He said that the platform can be used to promote a close-knit human bond across borders, acknowledge the mutual respect for cultures between countries and support coexistence for a more strengthened and prosperous future.

He also mentioned that cultural events such as these will also help in promoting tourism in Rajasthan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Telangana government would establish food processing units across the state to ensure remunerative prices to farmers, Governor ESL Narasimhan said Saturday.

"Food processing units will be established across the state to ensure remunerative prices to the farmers. The responsibility of management of these units will be jointly done by the government, IKP (Indira Kranti Patham scheme) employees and women groups," he said in his address to the joint session of the state legislature here.

The first session of the Assembly after the December 7 elections began on January 17.

The "Rythu Beema" life insurance and "Rythu Bandhu" investment support scheme have been introduced by the government for the benefit of farmers, he said.

The "Ryuthu Bandhu" scheme inspired other states to introduce similar schemes, Narasimhan added.

Observing that the state government has achieved success due to robust administrative policies, strict financial discipline and corruption-free governance, he said it has resulted in substantive growth in state tax and non-tax revenues.

"I take pride in pronouncing that during the first four years from 2014-2018, the state achieved 17.17 per cent compound annual revenue growth rate and during the current 2018-19 financial year the growth rate so far stands at 29.93 per cent," he said.

Even in GST collections, Telangana stands first among all the states in the country, he added.

Under the government's industrial policy of TS-iPASS, as on date, 8,858 industries were given clearances with an investment of Rs 1.32 lakh crore. They are providing employment opportunities to 8.37 lakh individuals. A total of 5,570 industries have started production.

He said the government is initiating measures to pay Rs 3,016 as allowance to unemployed youth.

A mega "textile park" will be coming up in Warangal to provide employment opportunities to handloom workers and textile hubs are proposed to be established in Siricilla and Gadwal.

The value of IT exports from the state this year reached Rs one lakh crore, he said.

Under the "Mission Bhagiratha" drinking water supply scheme, he said by the end of March 2019, work will be completed "in toto" and that every household will get safe and pure drinking water at their doorstep through tap.

The government spent Rs 77,777 crore on the irrigation sector and in the future, itwill undertake works to a tune of Rs 1,17,000 crore, he said.

With regard to the power sector, he said only 7,778 mega watts of power was available at the time of formation of state (in 2014) which has increased to 16,503 MW.

Recalling that the Telangana Assembly had passed a resolution for provision of 10 per cent reservation to STs and 12 per cent reservation to minorities, he said the government will continue to raise the demand with the Central government for implementation of the proposed reservations.

For administrative convenience and to speed up implementation of government programmes, 21 new districts (in addition to the 10 existing) have been formed, he said.

Two more districts, namely Narayanpet and Mulugu, would be created soon, the governor added.

"On the basis of new districts and to protect the rights of locals, the government has formed new zonal system, to enable locals to get 95 per cent of opportunities in all local cadre jobs," he said.

The governor said the government brought in regulations forming seven zones and two multi-zones along with district cadres and added that recruitment in Telangana will take place in accordance with the provisions of new zonal regulation.

Expressing disappointment with the Governor's address, leader of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) M Bhatti Vikramarka alleged it had nothing for the people to cheer.

The government has not spelt out when is it going to take up recruitment in a way that benefited the unemployed, he said.

BJP MLC N Ramachander Rao alleged that the Governor's address would be a disappointment to the unemployed as it offered nothing concrete to them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Punjab police Saturday claimed to have busted an Army recruitment racket with the arrest of five people.

Rupnagar Senior Superintendent of Police Swapan Sharma said the police also recovered 29 Aadhaar cards, fake documents and Rs8 lakh cash from the possession of arrested persons.

Besides, 68 fake stamps of officials like SHOs, tehsildars, municipal councillors were found, he said.

In the last five years, the gang managed to secure recruitment of 26 individuals in the Sikh and J&K regiments by preparing fake caste and residential certificates, the SSP said.

Sharma said the accused used to charge Rs 3 to 5 lakh from every individual for the recruitment.

The SSP suspected involvement of some clerks of the Army recruitment centres in Patiala, Ferozpur and Ludhiana in the racket.

The scam was detected when the accused came to a police station for verification of documents, he added.

Initial investigations revealed that Yogesh of Salem Tabri, Ludhiana was the kingpin of this gang, which in last five years prepared fake documents of nearly 150 individuals hailing from Haryana, the police officer said.

Yogesh is son of an ex-serviceman, he said, adding that two other accused, Manjeet and Sunil of Jind, who ran an Army recruitment training academy there, used to trick aspirants from their state for recruitment in the Army.

Similarly, Manoj and Amit of Ferozpur used to send aspiring recruits to Yogesh from the districts of Fazilka, Moga, Faridkot and Ferozpur in Punjab.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra police arrested five Bangladeshi nationals from neighbouring Palghar district Saturday for allegedly entering India illegally.

They had entered the country without valid documents and were living in Tulij police station area in Nalasopara for the past two years, a police official said.

They were identified as Shamsur Sheikh, Moshiya Mullah, Kotil Khalifa, Jahangir Alam and Mofish Sheikh.

All five were booked under the Passport Act and Foreigners Act, the official said, adding that further investigation was underway.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A female prisoner of Dasna Jail has died of cancer, officials said Saturday.

On Friday evening, Satya, 43, alias Bati complained of severe breathlessness and was referred by the doctor of Dasna Jail Hospital to the district government hospital where the attending doctor declared her brought dead, officials said.

"Satya, a native of district Lohardaga in Jharkhand, was transferred to Dasna jail on August 26, 2017. On January 9 lastyear, Satya complained of a lump in her right breast. She was examined by a gynaecologist of the District Women Hospital here and was referred to GTB Hospital, Delhi where she was diagnosed with breast cancer," Jailor Anand Kumar Shukla said.

Her body will be handed over to her family members after completion of legal formalities.

Meanwhile, a 28-year-old female inmate in the same jail, who was suffering from HIV, died on Thursday night. The deceased was identified as Seema, a resident of Bulandshahr district.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Padma Bhushan winning neurologist Jagjit Singh Chopra has died here at the age of 84, the PGIMER said.

After suffering a stroke, Chopra had been admitted in the ICU of Post Graduate Institute of Medical & Research (PGIMER) for the past one month. Chopra is survived by his son and daughter.

A condolence meet was held on Saturday at the medical institute, under the chairmanship of Director Jagat Ram. Senior professors, former directors, PGI faculty members, administrative staff and resident doctors mourned the death of the eminent medical scientist.

He was the founder of the department of neurology at PGIMER, Chandigarh.

Born in Lahore, Chopra completed his initial studies at the Government Medical College in Patiala and pursued further studies in the United Kingdom.

He is credited to have published 235 scientific papers in various national and international journals.

He was the first Indian neurologist to be selected as the secretary general of XIV World Congress of Neurology, held at New Delhi in 1989.

He was awarded life-time achievement award by the World Federation of Neurology in 2017.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The ED has attached fresh assets worth Rs 16.40 crore in connection with its money-laundering probe against controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, it said on Saturday.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), in a statement, said it had issued a provisional order for attachment of assets registered in the name of Naik's family members, located in Mumbai and Pune, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The estimated value of the immovable assets was Rs 16.40 crore, the central probe agency said.

The ED identified the properties as Fatima Heights and Aafiyah Heights in Mumbai, an unnamed project in the Bhandup area of Maharashtra's capital city and a project named Engracia in Pune.

"In order to disguise the origin of funds and real ownership of the properties, the initial payments made from Naik's bank account were refunded and diverted to the accounts of his wife, son and niece and re-routed again for the purpose of making bookings in the name of the family members rather than Naik.

"This has been revealed from the money trail established by the ED," the agency said.

The ED had registered a criminal case against Naik and others in December, 2016 after taking cognisance of a National Investigation Agency (NIA) complaint filed under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

The NIA had also filed a charge sheet against Naik and others before a Mumbai court in October, 2017.

Quoting the NIA charge sheet, the ED said Naik "deliberately and maliciously insulted the religious beliefs of Hindus, Christians and non-Wahabi Muslims, particularly the Shias, Sufis and the Barelwis, with the intention of outraging their religious feelings".

It said Naik's organisation, the Islamic Research Foundation, and Ms Harmony Media "have been instrumental in the maximum circulation of such incriminating speeches".

"For such activities, the accused (Naik) was receiving funds from IRF as well as other unknown sources," the ED claimed.

This is the third such attachment by the ED in the case and with the latest order, the total value of assets attached by the agency stands at Rs 50.49 crore.

The ED, which functions under the Union finance ministry, is looking into the charges of laundering of illegal funds in the case and the subsequent proceeds of crime thus generated.

The attachment of assets action under the PMLA is aimed to deprive the accused from taking benefits of his ill-gotten wealth and such an order gets confirmed after an order is passed by the Adjudicating Authority of the PMLA within 180 days.

The ED said the probe against Naik, said to be based in Malaysia at present, was continuing.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A meeting of the Delhi University Executive Council was adjourned Saturday after some members protested against the proposal to fill 10 per cent permanent positions on contractual basis.

The Executive Council meeting began at 3 pm on Friday where some members had moved a resolution against the use of police force against protesting teachers from Delhi University Teachers' Association, alleging that it was done at the behest of the administration.

The DUTA Friday protested outside the vice chancellor's office against the proposal to fill 10 per cent permanent positions on contractual basis.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Lawyers have concluded that the documents of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which strip Russia of its voting rights, are in breach of the statutory documents of the council, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said, Sputnik reports.

"Legal conclusions have been prepared. The conclusion is rather straightforward  it shows the serious non-conformity of the PACE documents with the regulations and rules and the statutory documents of the Council of Europe," Grushko told reporters.

The diplomat reiterated that stripping Russia of its voting rights in the PACE contradicted the Council of Europe's charter which ensured legal rights for all member states, adding that no real moves have been made in order to reconsider a decision regarding Russia's voting rights in the PACE.

"The crisis situation in the Council of Europe has resulted from the illegal decisions which have been made by the PACE back in May 2014. We expected that the common sense would eventually prevail and the decisions which have been made will be reconsidered and the rights of our delegation in PACE will be fully restored. However, five years have passed but we cannot see any real moves," Grushko told reporters.

Grushko continued by noting fundamental divisions between the PACE and the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, saying that they should be overcome, because preserving them would mean that any country could face politically-motivated discrimination.

"Technically, the changes of the PACE regulations which have been made, represent amendments of the statutory documents of the Council of Europe, but they have not been adopted as the amendments  If they were amendments, the consensus and the ratification by every member state would be required," Grushko argued.

The deputy foreign minister also recalled that 25 out of 43 judges of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europes commissioner for human rights, have been elected without the participation of Russia.

Grushko maintained that no documents of the Council of Europe ensured the exclusion of any country from the voting on such candidacies.Actor Taraji P Henson has said she does not understand why men feel uncomfortable in the presence of strong women.

The 48-year-old actor believes strong women make men look better.

"I don't know why [they're uncomfortable]. We're only gonna make you look better. My mouth is just as crass. You can't crumble me with a sexist joke. If anything, I'm waiting for you to say something so I can check your a**," Henson told Net-A-Porte's weekly digital magazine.

The actor, who has been working towards creating powerful roles for women in Hollywood, especially for female actors of colour, said she never accepted the idea that there was not enough space for black actors to be successful.

''There was only one role for all of us black women when I came to Hollywood. But I always saw enough work for everyone. I never thought I was fighting. You create your own job. That's how I was raised," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Eleven days after police fired on Citizenship Amendment Bill protesters at Madhabbari in West Tripura, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb Saturday paid a visit to the area and assured to punish the offenders.

"No one would go unpunished if found guilty. We have ordered a magisterial enquiry into the incident and asked to identify the offenders," Deb told reporters.

A Tripura State Rifles (TSR) personnel and six members of Twipra Student Federation (TSF), who were protesting against the controversial bill, were injured when police opened fire and resorted to lathicharge to disperse the gathering on January 8.

The protesters alleged that the security force personnel also vandalised an ambulance, when it was carrying patients to hospital besides damaging a statue of Tripuras last king Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur in the area.

The police had said that the protesters damaged many shops in the area during the agitation.

Deb announced that his government would send cheques of Rs 1 lakh each to families of those hospitalised with bullet injuries during the police action and take responsibility for all hospital and treatment costs.

The local administration has already paid an immediate relief of up to Rs 10,000 to shop owners whose property were damaged during the protests.

"The local administration has given an immediate relief. I am promising that Rs 50,000 will be given to each of them. In cases where higher losses were incurred, we shall stand with necessary help, Deb said.

The Tripura king's statues crest was damaged by bullets and its left wrist was found broken.

The statue was found covered in black tarpaulin and surrounded by black flags today.

Deb said the government would pay for repairing the statue.

Tribal welfare minister Mevar Kumar Jamatia and local MLA Sushanta Choudhury joined Deb during his visit.

On Monday, former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar visited the violence-ht areas of Madhabbari and assured support to the people.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis Saturday said his country is ready to step up Indo-Czech cooperation in defence and other sectors, and its defence minister will visit Bengaluru next month to attend Aero India.

Interacting with reporters on the sidelines of an event at the Czech Embassy here, he also hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a "charismatic leader" with a "vision".

Babis was on an official visit to India from January 17-19. He led a Czech delegation at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2019, with Czech Republic as a partner country.

The two leaders also held a bilateral meeting on Friday on the sidelines of the Summit. The entire gamut of bilateral relations including important global and regional issues of mutual interest was discussed during the talks, officials said.

"We discussed concretely, defence cooperation, Tatra (trucks), Skoda, our investments, possibility of a direct airline service between Delhi and Praguie, tourism and other areas of cooperation," he said Saturday, when asked what the two prime ministers discussed.

Czech car maker Skoda Auto and Volkswagen Group India on Saturday inaugurated a new technology centre at its Chakan manufacturing plant in Pune as part of its 2.0 India project.

Babis attended the programme and also inaugurated a Center for European Studies at Symbiosis University in Pune.

On defence cooperation, he said, "We are ready to increase our defence cooperation in passive radars and other things... Our defence minister will visit India next month to participate in Aero India event in Bengaluru."



Aero India 2019 will be held in Bengaluru from February 20 to 24 and the defence exhibition will see participation of top fighter-jet manufacturers, defence equipment makers and companies related to the sector.

On bilateral ties, Babis said, "Both countries have a long history of cooperation. Old Czech brands like Skoda and Bata symbolise that tie. A lot of Indians think Bata is an Indian firm, which shows the deep connect."



He also pitched for extending cooperation in the education sector through students exchange programme.

Addressing a gathering at a reception held at the embassy in the evening, the Czech prime minister described his visit as "fantastic".

"We are looking forward to cooperate with Indian companies, universities, thinking about exchange of students. It was a great visit, and I leave with a lot of pleasant memories," he said.

Babis also unveiled a book on the journey of Ideal Jawa and Yezdi motorcycle brand in India, whose history is linked to the original motorcycle manufacturer Jawa which was founded in the then Czecholslovakia in 1929.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A constable was killed Saturday after he was shot at in the police lines here in Gaya district, police said.

The deceased constable has been identified as Kundan Kumar Yadav (25), the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) of Gaya Town, Raj Kumar Shah, said.

Kundan was the bodyguard of Mohammad Sabir, the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) of Gaya Police Lines.

Yadav was recruited as constable in 2015, Shah said adding that the constable was the resident of Vijval village in Nalanda district.

It is still not known as how Kundan received bullet injuries, the Deputy Surepintendent of Police (DSP) of gaya town, Raj Kumar Shah said, adding, the police are investigating the matter.

The deceased constable's wife is posted as a constable in Motihari district, he said.

The constable's body has been sent to Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College in the twon for post-mortem examination, the police officer said.

The members of the constable's family has bee infromedfamily members of the hat family members of the deceased have been informed about the incident.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao Saturday directed officials to spruce up every road in the state in the next two years and make it "appear like a mirror."



"Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has instructed the officers concerned to see that in the coming two years every road in Telangana should appear like a mirror," a release from the chief minister's office said.

Rao said top priority would be accorded to roads and highways, after irrigation, it said.

He suggested to the R&B (Roads & Buildings) officials to make an assessment about the prevailing condition of the roads and to prepare a plan of action.

According to the release, Rao also said construction of offices for MLAs has been taken up by the government for the first time in the state which is not seen anywhere in the country.

He instructed the R&B officials to expedite completion of construction of these offices.

The newly constructed quarters in Hyderabad would be allotted to the MLAs, the release added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former finance minister rejected the ruling BJP's claim of achieving the highest growth rate under the NDA government on Saturday, saying it was based on "bogus numbers" produced by the Niti Aayog.

The senior Congress leader took to Twitter to say that these numbers were rejected by every economist and statistician of repute.

"The BJP's claim of 'highest growth rate' under NDA is based on the bogus numbers produced by Niti Aayog," he wrote on the microblogging website.

Chidambaram claimed that the CSO numbers published earlier and those released by the NSC Committee on Real Sector Statistics in August last year were the only credible ones.

"UPA 1 years (2004-2009) were the best growth years since Independence and in fact the best ever," he said.

Another senior Congress leader, Ahmed Patel, also took to Twitter to criticise the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government's economic policies.

"In 4.5 years, India's debt increased by 50% to 82 lakh crore. Reckless spending & creating liabilities for future governments are key features of their so called 'Gujarat Model'," he said in a tweet.An officer of the Indian Coast Guard has died after suffering near drowning on January 15 while undergoing diving training here, a Defence release said Saturday.

Assistant Commandant Mohit Dalal, 28, was posted on board Indian Coast Guard Ship Rajvir based at Port Blair and was attached to Diving School, Naval Base, Kochi for 'Ship's Diver' course.

Following the near drowning, he was immediately admitted to the naval hospital, INHS Sanjivani, where despite their best efforts, doctors were unable to revive him and he died late evening on Friday, the release said.

Rear AdmiralR J Nadkarni, Chief of Staff, Southern Naval Command, along with senior officers of the Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard, laid wreaths in homage to the officer at a solemn ceremony at the Ernakulam Government Hospital, Saturday, it said.

Mohit Dalal is survived by his parents and a younger brother.

The last rites would be conducted with full military honours at his hometown, Narela in New Delhi.

The accident is under investigation by a Board of Inquiry, the release said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi Saturday approved the proposal of the Civil Supplies Department here to distribute cash to every family coming under the public distribution system under the direct benefit transfer (DBT) system instead of supply of rice or wheat through ration shops for November last.

A communication has been sent to mediapersons through whatsapp saying that Bedi had approved sanction of Rs 15.62 crore towards transfer of financial assistance in lieu of supply of rice or wheat to all cardholders for November 2018.

Also, the communication highlighted the files Bedi had approved during the last one week on various subjects and the sanction of funds to cardholders was one of the subjects.

Families holding yellow colour ration cards have been getting 10 kg rice every month through ration shops while those with red colour cards (below poverty line category) were getting 20 kg rice under free rice scheme.

Territorial Chief Minister V Narayanasamy had claimed that the recent Madras High Court order, permitting distribution of freebies to all ration cardholders in Tamil Nadu without any discrimination, was also applicable to Puducherry.

The chief minister, who has been at loggerheads with Bedi, charged the Lieutenant Governor with 'twisting and misinterpreting' the court order which, he said, had only restrained the Tamil Nadu government from distributing cash gift of Rs 1,000 to all families.

Bedi had hailed the court order directing the Tamil Nadu government to restrict the Pongal cash gift of Rs 1,000 to Below Poverty Line families.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Canada's public safety minister said Friday that the country won't be deterred by Chinese pressure after China threatened reprisals if Huawei was banned from supplying equipment for 5G networks, highlighting the growing rift between America's neighbor and the emerging superpower.

There are accusations that the telecom giant is controlled by China's ruling Communist Party or is required to facilitate Chinese spying. The U.S., Australia, Japan and other governments have imposed curbs on use of its technology.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Canada has been abundantly clear it will not compromise national security.

"It's a difficult challenge but we'll not be deterred by what we believe to be right and what we believe to be in the interests of Canada," Goodale said. Lu Shaye, China's ambassador to Canada, warned Thursday of repercussions if Canada bars the firm from its new 5G network.

"One of the things that is of concern in this situation is the blending of Chinese commercial interests with Chinese political positioning and consequences. That's something that I think should be of concern to Canadians and people around the world," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

Canada and its security agencies are studying whether to use equipment from Huawei as phone carriers prepare to roll out fifth-generation technology.

5G is designed to support a vast expansion of networks to facilitate medical devices, self-driving cars and other technology. That increases the risk of potential security failures and has prompted governments to treat telecom communications networks as strategic assets.

But the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Canada on Dec. 1 at the request of the United States has created a growing diplomatic rift between China and Canada. Meng is the chief financial officer of Huawei and the daughter of its founder.

The U.S. wants her extradited to face charges that she committed fraud by misleading banks about Huawei's business dealings in Iran.

China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor 10 days after Meng's arrest on allegations that they were "engaging in activities that endanger the national security" of China in an apparent attempt to pressure Canada to release her.

China also sentenced another Canadian, Robert Schellenberg, to death Monday in a sudden retrial of his drug-smuggling case.

John McCallum, Canada's ambassador to China, said the path that China is on is not in their interest.

"It's not in the interests of corporate China if when they run into trouble internationally the Chinese government arrests people to use as bargaining chips," McCallum said."That is the perception of much of the world and that is not good for the reputation of Chinese business people."



On Thursday, Lu warned Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland not to use next week's World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, to press for support against China. He also said Canada's arrest of Meng was an act of "backstabbing" by Canada and called it "politically motivated."



Freeland has said the detention of two Canadians will be at the top of her agenda in Davos and didn't back down from her position after hearing about the ambassador's remark.

Canada maintains Meng's arrest is a matter of rule of law and says it is acting according to its international treaty obligations.

Trudeau said Canada would continue to speak out. "A lot of countries share the concern," Trudeau said.

Huawei's image suffered a new blow last week when Polish authorities announced that a Chinese employee was arrested on spying charges. Huawei said it fired the employee and the allegations were unrelated to the company.

Meng is now out on bail in Canada and is awaiting extradition proceedings. A hearing is scheduled for next month.

McCallum said his top priority is to get the detained Canadians home and save the life of the third Canadian. He briefed lawmakers on Parliament Hill on Friday and said he's been talking to Canadian businesses that work in China.

He still thinks China will play an important role in Canada's future, noting that the country's tourism industry, farmers and universities are all highly dependent on China.

"I think it is best we move forward as much as we can under the circumstances," he said.

Canada had previously talked about doing a possible free trade teal with China, but McCallum said that's certainly not an issue Canada is considering now.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bulgaria has extradited a Russian indicted by a US court for mounting a complex hacking scheme to the United States, the Russian embassy in Washington said Saturday.

The Russian embassy, in a statement on its VK social network, said Alexander Zhukov had been extradited on January 18 and was being held in a jail in Brooklyn, New York.

"Employees of the Consulate General in New York will visit him in jail soon," the embassy said.

Zhukov is one of eight people, most of them Russian, indicted in November for creating fake advertising schemes through remote data centres and malware-infected computer networks.

Their activity cost businesses tens of millions of dollars, says the indictment. Zhukov's group is accused of organising two schemes in 2014 and 2015.

In the first, dubbed "Methbot," it rented computer servers and simulated humans viewing ads on webpages, tricking businesses into paying more than $7 million (6.16 million euros) for the fake views, according to US prosecutors.

In the second scheme, two of the group members operated a fake ad network through 1.7 million malware-infected computers to falsify billions of ad views, costing businesses $29 million for the views.

Zhukov, originally from Saint Petersburg, is known as Nastra in hacker circles, according to reports. He was arrested in Bulgaria, where he had lived since 2010, in November.

According to Kommersant newspaper, which claims to have spoken with a friend of Zhukov, the hacker stood out on the dark web for the selective way he chose his jobs, staying away from credit-card theft or child pornography.

Zhukov was earning about $20,000 per month on his fake ad-view contracts, but was exposed after a conflict with his US client, Kommersant said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The employees of Border Police of Georgia have detained two citizens of Turkey at Sarpi Border Checkpoint, InterPressNews reported citing the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

An investigation has established that the detainees illegally crossed Georgian-Turkish border by avoiding the BCP control.

The nvestigation is in progress on the fact of illegal crossing of the state border, article 344, II part, sub-paragraph A of the Criminal Code.

The detainees face 4-5 years in prison.The body of a woman in her early 20's was found dumped at an isolated place in central Delhi's Daryaganj here on Saturday, police said.

A passerby who spotted the body informed the police, they added.

The deceased is aound 25-years-old and is yet to be identified, Mandeep Singh Randhawa, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) said.

We are suspecting that she was murdered and dumped at the spot, he said, adding that profiles of missing women registered at the local police stations were being scanned.

The body will be sent for a post-mortem examination, they said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The body of a 61-year-old Tamil Nadu fisherman, who drowned in the sea after his boat capsized off Neduntheevu while being chased by the Sri Lankan Navy, was brought here from the island nation and cremated, a fisheries department official said Saturday.

K Muniasamy was part of a group of fishermen in two boats fishing off Neduntheevu on January 13, when they were allegedly chased by the Lankan naval personnel.

Both boats capsized as a result and the fishermen fell into the sea.

While eight of them were rescued, Muniasamy drowned.

His body washed ashore the coast in Jaffna on January 17, Ramanathapuram Fisheries department Deputy Director, E Kathavarayan said.

The mortal remains were brought to Tiruchirapalli airport from Colombo by a Sri Lankan airlines flight on Friday.

Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan paid homage to the deceased at the airport.

The body was handed over to his relatives at his native village Ilanthaikootam near here last evening, following which it was cremated.

Earlier, District authorities including Collector K Veera Raghava Rao also paid homage.

Condoling Muniasamy's death, Chief Minister K Palaniswami had on Wednesday announced a compensation of Rs five lakh to his family from the Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi unit of the BJP's youth wing will hold a rally on Sunday at the Ramlila Maidan where young workers will take a pledge to aware people at the booth-level about schemes and policies of the central government and to re-elect Narendra Modi as the prime minister.

The 'Yuva Vijay Sankalp Maha Rally' comes two weeks after the party hosted a grand 'khichdi feast' at the Ramlila Maidan to connect with Dalits, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said Saturday.

Tiwari said that on the one hand the trust of the people of Delhi in BJP is increasing and on the other India is emerging a great power in the world under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Important political resolutions connected with the interest of the people of Delhi and the country will be moved in this rally. Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP National Vice President Shivraj Singh Chouhan will address the rally in the presence of former Yuva Morcha president Anurag Thakur and current Yuva Morcha president Poonam Mahajan," Tiwari said.

The rally will be a positive beginning amidst increasing negativity in Delhi politics, he said.

Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha's Delhi president Sunil Yadav said, "With the pledge to re-elect Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of India, the youth will also be given information about the schemes of the central government for the youth of the country. On January 12, BJP Yuva Samvad was started and in continuation, a campaign 'Pehla Vote, Modi Ka Sankalp' will be launched."



The BJP, in order to connect with Dalits, hosted a grand khichdi feast at the Ramlila Maidan on January 6.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The BJP would not destabilise Karnataka's ruling coalition, party state chief B S Yeddyurappa said on Saturday, a day after the shifted all its MLAs to a resort near here fearing a poaching bid.

The former chief minister said he had asked all BJP MLAs camping at a Gurgaon hotel to return and they would now tour the state's drought-hit areas.

"I have directed all our MLAs in the resort to come to Bengaluru. They have all left, they are all coming (back)," Yeddyurappa said.

"Now our work is to tour the drought-affected areas where people are suffering and try to address the problems they are facing," he told reporters here.

"We will not try to destabilise this government for any reason, let them not have that fear. We will work as the opposition," Yeddyurappa said.

"Let the Congress-JD(S) leaders not have any doubt about it," he added.

The on Friday moved all its MLAs to a resort to allegedly "escape" the BJP's "onslaught".

According to top sources, at least eight party MLAs had decided to jump ship and the party's legislators were shifted to the resort on the outskirts of the city to avoid this.

ALSO READ: My govt is stable, I am totally relaxed: Kumaraswamy on two MLAs' exit

Exposing chinks in the ruling Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition in the state, four dissident MLAs of the former on Friday skipped the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting here that was called as a show of strength against an alleged bid by the BJP to dislodge the H D Kumaraswamy-led government.

CLP welcomed Yeddyurappa's decision to call back all BJP MLAs and asked him to "walk the talk" on not trying to destabilise the ruling coalition.

"I welcome Yeddyurappa's decision to call back the BJP legislators from and send them to monitor the drought management in the state," the Congress said in a tweet in Kannada.

"Yeddyurappa has said that they will not destabilise the state government, they will work as opposition. Let Congress, JD(S) leaders not fear. He should walk the talk and save the public's trust," said in another tweet.The BJP would not destabilise Karnataka's ruling coalition, party state chief B S Yeddyurappa said Saturday, as the state remained in the grip of political unrest with the Congress on tenterhooks to keep its numbers intact.

As the Congress MLAs remained sequestered in a resort on the city outskirts fearing a poaching bid by the BJP, Yeddyurappa said he had asked all his party lawmakers camping at a hotel in Gurugram to return and tour the state's drought-hit areas.

"We will not try to destabilise this government for any reason, let them not have that fear. We will work as the opposition," Yeddyurappa, whose party has been accused of having triggered the political crisis with its toppling game, said.

"Let the Congress-JD(S) leaders not have any doubt about it," he said, a day after chinks in the ruling coalition was exposed with four MLAs skipping the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meet.

As the fissures became evident, the Congress on Friday swiftly moved all its MLAs to the resort keeping them on leash to "escape" the BJP's alleged "onslaught" to woo its MLAs with money and other allurements.

Top Congress sources had said Friday that at least eight party MLAs had "committed" themselves to BJP to jump ship.

The BJP also announced that a seven-member team led by Yeddyurappa would tour the drought-hit districts from Monday.

CLP leader Siddaramaiah welcomed Yeddyurappa's decision to call back all BJP MLAs and asked him to "walk the talk" on not trying to destabilise the ruling coalition.

"I welcome Yeddyurappa's decision to call back the BJP legislators from Delhi and send them to monitor the drought management in the state," he said in a tweet in Kannada.

"Yeddyurappa has said that they will not destabilise the state government, they will work as opposition. Let Congress, JD(S) leaders not fear.

He should walk the talk and save the public's trust," Siddaramaiah said in another tweet.

Congress pointsman and frontline minister D K Shivakumar said he was in touch with all the MLAs.

Asked about senior ministers resigning to accommodate disgruntled legislators in the cabinet, he said, "I have voluntarily offered.. in the interest of the party if my leaders want I'm ready.

"



"All of us are ready," he said when asked how many were ready to quit.

On Yeddyurappa-led team's drought tour, Shivakumar said "good thing that at least now they have got enlightenment to study the drought situation. Karnataka government will give them all cooperation. My compliments to them."



As the state saw another return to resort politics, the BJP alleged that the resort where Congress legislators were staying owed Rs 982 crore to the government as penalty in a land encroachment case and asked Congress leaders to collect the amount and use it to waive farm loans.

"Now that Congress Party will spend time in resort we request 'Maryada Purushothama' Sri.@siddaramaiah,@DKShivakumar &@dineshgrao to collect this money while u return U can use it for farmer loan waiver," Karnataka BJP said in a tweet, citing media reports.

During the recent assembly session at Belagavi, Revenue Minister R V Deshpande had told the House that the state government would take all measures to collect Rs 982 crore from the resort for encroaching on 77 acres of government land.

In a clear sign that all was not well within the Congress, the CLP meet saw four absentees and the party later said it would issue notices to Ramesh Jarkiholi, B Nagendra, Umesh Jadhav and Mahesh Kumatahalli seeking explanation.

After the political drama unfolded on Monday, two Independents withdrew support to the coalition government.

The Congress has been accusing the BJP of making repeated attempts to bring down the government and targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah on the issue.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy Saturday hit out at BJP for speaking about fighting corruption and resorting to horse-trading on the same day in the southern state.

Kumaraswamy was referring to a recent political situation in Karnataka when two independent MLAs announced on January 15 they were withdrawing support to his government, leading to the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition and the BJP trading charges against each other of poaching their MLAs.

The move had reduced the ruling coalition's strength to 118, but still it was in the safe zone in the 224-member assembly.

"Democracy is being reduced to a number game ... Legislators are being treated as commodity," Kumaraswamy said the united opposition rally of TMC chief Mamata Banerjee here.

"The BJP talked about its fight against corruption in its (January 11-12) national executive (national convention in Delhi) and on the same day it resorted to horse-trading in Karnataka, revealing its double standards," he said.

Stating that India is one of the strongest democracies in the world, the Karnataka chief minister said, "but today we are witnessing a day where the democratic government (at the Centre) is led by some undemocratic persons."



"India is at a crossroads. Unity in diversity is our strength which is protected by our Constitution. But the present government at the Centre is trying to destroy it," he said.

Kumaraswamy said that demonetisation has taken a toll on the poor and those in rural areas have been affected the most.

"It is unfortunate that the Union government has turned deaf and mute to the needs of people ... It is turning a blind eye to the plight of people," Kumaraswamy said.

The present government at the Centre gives incentives, tax rebates and subsidies to industries, but farmers are treated differently, he added.

Kumaraswamy said the country has seen emergence of strong regional parties since Independence and they have played important roles to protect the interest of their states and their peoples.

M. Karunanidhi had done a lot to protect the interest of Tamil Nadu, in Uttar Pradesh SP and BSP are doing a "great job", N Chandrababu Naidu has done a lot for Andhra Pradesh, he said.

Mamata Banerjee is a role model for the women of the country, Kumaraswamy said, adding, she has empowered those in her state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)RJD supremo Lalu Prasads eldest daughter Misa Bharti Saturday came under sharp attack from the BJP for her remarks against Union minister Ram Kripal Yadav that she had felt like chopping off the hands of her fathers former confidant upon hearing the of his joining the saffron party ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Bharti, who lost to Yadav from Pataliputra Lok Sabha seat but got elected to the Rajya Sabha later, made the controversial remarks in presence of hundreds of RJD supporters in Bikram assembly segment which falls under the parliamentary constituency.

He (Ram Kripal Yadav) used to chop fodder and my father helped him in finding a foothold in politics. When I heard that he has joined hands with Sushil Kumar Modi (Bihar Deputy CM and BJP leader) I felt like chopping off his hands by the garansa he used for chopping fodder, Bharti was shown as saying in the video.

Although she reportedly made the remark on January 16, the matter came to light on Saturday when channels beamed its footage.

A loyalist of Lalu Prasad, who had risen from the ranks, Yadav had represented the now abolished prestigious Patna Lok Sabha seat three times including in 2004 when he wrested back the constituency for the RJD by defeating former Union minister C P Thakur, who had won from there for two consecutive terms.

In 2009, when following delimitation Patna was split into Patna Sahib and Pataliputra seats, Yadav had reportedly hoped to get a ticket for the latter, which comprises rural areas of Patna district.

He, however, had to sit back as Prasad himself entered the fray though he ended up losing.

Yadav was, meanwhile, placated with a berth in Rajya Sabha. However, in 2014 when the RJD supremo who was disqualified following conviction in a fodder scam case



chose to field Bharti, Yadav was won over by the BJP.

He won the seat for the party defeating his former mentors daughter by a slender margin and was rewarded with a berth in the Union Council of Ministers.

In a statement, BJP spokesman Nikhil Anand said Misa Bharti should apologize, in public and with folded hands, to Ram Kripal Yadav. If she fails to do so she will get a befitting reply from the people of Pataliputra in the Lok Sabha polls.

Speculations are rife that Bharti may again contest from Pataliputra as the party now claims that its chances are better with the Modi wave waning and the failing health and prolonged incarceration of Prasad rousing sympathy of voters.

Anand also alleged ever since Prasads younger son Tejashwi has taken over the reins of the party, Bharti and Tej Pratap the elder son have grown restless and seem to be competing for attention. The results are often ridiculous or downright disgusting. The partys senior leaders should ask her to apologize or, they should do so themselves on her behalf.

The BJP spokesman also alleged that experienced RJD leaders were often being humiliated by Prasads children and cited the example of Tej Prataps recent comment about Bhai Virendra Maner MLA and an aspirant for ticket from Pataliputra who was berated as having no standing.

Meanwhile, RJD national spokesman and Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha said in Delhi Bharti has expressed her pain over the betrayal of a man she once had great respect for. Please do not take the expression haath kaat dena literally. She has used it as a metaphor.

(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 on Saturday said the BJP has betrayed the people of the country by reneging on all the promises it had made before the 2014 general elections.

Naidu said the BJP has failed on its promises of a corruption-free government, to bring back black money from foreign shores and double farmers' income, among several other assurances.

"The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) is a publicity PM and not a performance PM," he said, while addressing TMC's mega opposition rally at the Brigade Parade Grounds here.

Naidu claimed that Modi has cheated the farmers of the country, who are ending their lives under financial stress.

"He promised doubling farmers' income, instead they are committing suicide now," the Andhra CM said.

Alleging corrupt dealings in buying Rafale fighter jets from French firm Dassault, he said 36 aircraft were being bought at the price of 126 jets.

Naidu said demonetisation caused immense hardship to people and called the GST a "fraud".

Unemployment has increased and new jobs were not being created due to lack of economic growth, he said.

"The BJP is trying to divide the people of the country and playing dirty .. The government is misusing the ED and the CBI to take on opposition leaders and parties," Naidu said.

He also claimed that Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) were a "big fraud" and demanded that paper ballots be brought back in the upcoming general elections.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Disgruntled and previous stalwarts of BJP like Shatrughan Sinha, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shorie, who held important position in the past NDA government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee,joined ranks with opposition leaders Saturday to call for ousting Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

Shatrughan Sinha, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, all members of the NDA cabinet under Vajpayee but, have fallen out with the present leadership, shared dais with senior opposition parties leaders at the rally which launched an attack on Modi and Shah.

Shatrughan Sinha, sitting BJP MP from Patna Sahib, called for changing the government in the 2019 Lok Sabha election and said he was not afraid of being removed from the ruling party.

He insisted he would continue to "show mirror" to the party and call "a spade a spade".

Sinha, who has been at odds with his party over several issues and has criticised the demonetisation exercise and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, said he was attending the rally hosted by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata as a representative of the Rashtra Manch, a political action group launched by former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha.

"If you keep suppressing facts, people will continue to say 'chaukidar chor hain'," he said, using the word Congress president Rahul Gandhi has been employing to criticise the prime minister on the Rafale jet deal issue.

The actor-turned BJP leader said there was "lokshahi" during Vajpayee's tenure and now it's "tanashahi" (dictatorship).

Former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha came down heavily on the Narendra Modi government saying that this was the first government after Independence which has been playing "mischief" with the developmental statistics are are quick at branding people who criticize the government as "desh drohi" (traitors)and those praising the government as "desh bhakt"(patriots).

Former union leader Arun Shourie also echoed the views of Sinha.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who had convened the rally, said BJP's misrule has crossed all levels and it has forced even BJP leaders like Shatrughan Sinha to come out in open against the government.

The BJP central leadership Saturday said the party will take "cognisance" of its MP Shatrughan Sinha's presence at the united opposition rally against the Narendra Modi government and termed the actor-turned-politician an "opportunist."



BJP's national spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy described Sinha as an "opportunist" and said he was in the party to enjoy the perks of being an MP, but at the same time seen making different voices at various platforms.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu Saturday cited the tension in Kerala over the entry of women of menstruating age into the Sabarimala temple to accuse the BJP of creating "strife" in temples across the country.

Naidu, who is in Kolkata for a mega rally of anti-BJP parties, addressed Telugu Desam Party leaders via teleconference and asked them to inform people about BJP's "vicious politics", a party release said.

He asked every TDP worker to become a "mobile media" and carry out door-to-door campaigns.

"The BJP is creating strife in temples. It is provoking tension in Sabarimala. It is raising the Ram temple issue once again. We have to be cautious against this," he told TDP leaders.

Referring to the political turmoil in Karnataka, he alleged that the BJP was trying to "purchase" legislators to dislodge the JD(S)-Congress government in the state.

"The BJP is making a mockery of democracy by indulging in vicious politics," the release quoted Naidu as saying.

Naidu termed "ridiculous" BJP's claim it gave "special treatment" to Andhra Pradesh.

"Is giving us an empty hand despite my 29 trips to New Delhi the special treatment? Is sprinkling chilli powder on injuries the special treatment?" he added.

He asked TDP workers to inform people about Telangana Rashtra Samiti leaders' alleged attacks on Andhra Pradesh and expose how YSR Congress president Jaganmohan Reddy was rubbing shoulders with them.

"Jagan compromised with (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi for his cases and with (Telangana Chief Minister) KCR for his ill-gotten wealth. You have to take this to people," he added.

Naidu said the target for the party is to win all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the general election and at least 150 out of the total 175 assembly seats in the state.

"We have to achieve this," he stressed.

Referring to the Kolkata rally, the TDP president said except KCR and Jagan, leaders of over 20 parties were attending it.

"All those who came to Kolkata are anti-Modi. It is clear that KCR and Jagan are with Modi. The so-called Federal Front is a big zero. It is only for the support of Modi and not an opposition to the BJP," Naidu claimed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Syrian Foreign Ministry handed over two letters to the UN Secretary-General and Security Council Chairman after the international coalition airstrikes of the village of Baguz-Tahtani in the south-east of Deir ez-Zor province, as a result of which 20 civilians died, including women and children. The relevant message was published at the official Facebook account of the ministry.

The ministry condemned the "continued attacks on civilians performed by the international coalition" and their damage to the infrastructure.The Assam government has increased the pension for freedom fighters of the state by Rs 1,000 per month with effect from January one.

Now the freedom fighters of the state will get a pension of Rs 21,000 per month.

The monthly pension has been enhanced from existing Rs 20,000 per month to Rs 21,000 per month and it will be applicable to all pensioners who are drawing the state freedom fighters' pension from the state exchequer, said a government release on Saturday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Alexander "asparagus" Zverev kept his quest for a maiden Grand Slam on track with a comprehensive 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 win over Australian wildcard Alex Bolt on Rod Laver Arena Saturday.

The 21-year-old German number four seed and flagbearer for the next generation of young players cruised into the last 16 of the Australian Open for the first time in just 112 minutes.

The tall German, who was pounding down serves at around 220 kph (135 mph), said he had been working hard in the gym.

With help from trainer Jez Green, who bulked up Andy Murray's physique, Zverev has put on weight in the last couple of years -- trouble is, no one has noticed.

"I'm disappointed," he joked. "I'm still the skinny dude on tour, even though I put on about 15 kg.

"When (Jez) started working with Andy, you can actually see he became one of the strongest dudes on tour, whereas I'm still looking like, I don't know.

"I have been called asparagus a few times." Zverev almost didn't make it to third round as he blew a two-set lead against France's Jeremy Chardy in round two before pulling through in five sets.

He clearly learnt from that experience and after again being two sets ahead, this time he kept his foot on his opponent's throat.

The 26-year-old Bolt, sporting a Neymar-style "pot noodle" hairstyle, had pulled off the greatest win of his career in beating 29th seed Gilles Simon in the second round.

But the world number 155 was never allowed a chance against the man who won the ATP Tour Finals, beating Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic on consecutive days in the process.

"Obviously I had to return well," said Zverev. "I did that and played my game. It all worked out well." Zverev will meet former world number three and fellow big server Milos Raonic of Canada on Monday for a place in the quarter-finals.

"To be honest I'm not expecting a lot of long rallies," he said, looking ahead. "We both serve pretty well." The young German has a poor record in Slams, only reaching one quarter-final in 14 previous attempts, but should hit the second week in Melbourne fresh and firing after being barely extended by the outclassed Aussie.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Asking Pakistan to stop meddling in Kashmir affairs, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi Saturday said the valley was and will always be an integral part of India, even as he stressed the need to have a consistent policy for the region.

The Hyderabad MP said whether it was the Congress or the BJP at the Centre, they have "no policy, no vision" to bring back normalcy in the Kashmir Valley.

"I feel that there has to be a consistent policy on Kashmir which unfortunately is lacking," he said.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader was replying to a question during a panel discussion organised at the Telangana Jagruthi International Youth Leadership Conference which began here Saturday.

Quoting a report, Owaisi accused the BJP-led central government of not doing anything for Kashmiri Pandits.

He said he has not seen so many lives being destroyed with pellet guns in the last eight years.

Owaisi said instead of having a policy for the region, the government was now aiming to have less lethal weapons which show where its priority lies.

"The Kashmir problem cannot be treated in a James Bond or a Rambo style... Someone will have to show a statesman-like approach. There is alienation and things have to be done in a proper way," he said.

Owaisi said Pakistan should stop meddling in Kashmir affairs.

He said IAS officer Shah Faesal, who recently resigned from the civil services, should chalk out his own independent political journey.

Faesal, who has been in the limelight since becoming the first Kashmiri to top the exam in 2009, resigned on January 9, protesting the "unabated" killings in Kashmir and the "marginalisation" of Indian Muslims



"... Let him chalk out his own independent political journey and that is what Kashmir requires. You do not want Kashmir's political journey to be controlled by babus or IB officers sitting in Delhi," Owaisi added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three men, including an Afghan national, with suspected links to the underworld were arrested for allegedly planning to kill prominent leaders in South India, police said Saturday.

The accused were identified as Wali Mohammad Saifi (45), a resident of Afghanistan, Sheikh Riyajuddin alias Raja alias Aalami (32), a resident of Madangir, Delhi and Muhthasim CM alias Thaslim (41), a resident of Kerala, they added.

On January 9, police received information that some India-based operatives of underworld, on the instructions of their handlers based abroad, are planning to kill some important persons in South India, Pramod Singh Kushwaha, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), said.

Later on January 11, two persons Wali Mohammed Saifi and Riyazudin Sheikh were arrested from Delhi. One pistol and three live cartridges were recovered from each accused, KushwahA said.

From their instance, one Muhthasim CM alias Thaslim was arrested from Kasaragod, Kerala with the assistance of local police, he said.

During interrogation, it was revealed that Muhthasim and Saifi were known to each other as they were having business in Dubai. Muhthasim had planned to eliminate important persons in South India and for this purpose, he roped in Saifi, who in turn, roped in Riyajuddin and thereafter, procured weapons for the task, the DCP said.

Two pistols, six live cartridges and mobile phones were recovered from their possessions, police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The and the engaged in a blame game on Saturday after a court questioned the department for filing a chargesheet in the sedition case against former president Kanhaiya Kumar and others without procuring the required sanction from authorities.

An spokesperson said no file seeking any prosecution sanction in any JNU-related case had so far been brought to the notice of any Delhi minister.

"If the are making any such claim, it is a complete lie and they are hiding something," he said.

However, a senior official said prosecution sanction is required at the stage of taking cognisance.

He said that while filing the chargesheet, the investigating officer had mentioned that he has applied for sanction from the

"It was applied for the same day," the spokesperson said.

Sources said the file for sanction was received by the home department and forwarded to the law department for necessary action.

Earlier Saturday, a Delhi court questioned police for filing a chargesheet against Kumar and others in the sedition case without procuring the required sanction.

"Why did you file (the chargesheet) without approval? You don't have a legal department," the court said.

On January 14, police filed the chargesheet against Kumar and others, saying he was leading a procession and supported seditious slogans raised on the campus during an event on February 9, 2016.

They previously claimed before the court that Kumar had raised anti-India slogans "to incite hatred and disaffection towards the government".

Police also charged former JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans during the event to mark the hanging of Parliament attack mastermind Afzal Guru.

The event had taken place despite the university administration cancelling the permission, following a complaint from ABVP, which had termed it "anti-national".

A case was registered on February 11, 2016 under sections 124A and 120B of the IPC against unidentified persons at Vasant Kunj (North) police station, following complaints from BJP lawmaker Maheish Girri and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.Pakistani counter-terrorism officers on Saturday killed four insurgents, including two women and a local ISIS commander, in an encounter in Punjab province.

The terrorists were killed when the police officials opened fire on a vehicle in the Sahiwal district.

"A counter-terrorism department (CTD) team tried to intercept a car and a motorcycle carrying the terrorists near the Sahiwal toll plaza, however, they started firing at them and a shootout ensued," the CTD spokesperson was quoted as saying by the Geo

"Four people, including two women and a local ISIS commander have been killed and one child has been injured in the cross-fire," the spokesperson said.

The suspects were kidnappers and three children were recovered from them, police said.

The CTD said that the deceased were high-level targets who were also involved in the kidnapping of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's son, the report said.

"Both the terrorists were travelling with their families to avoid police checking, the official said.

Today's encounter was in continuation of an operation conducted in Faisalabad in the Punjab province on January 16.

An official of the provincial CTD claimed that the law enforcers were tracking the terrorists on the basis of intelligence reports and had information that they were travelling towards Sahiwal.

Three terrorists, however, escaped from the scene of the incident and were being pursued by the police.

Following the incident, Punjab Police spokesperson Nabila Ghazanfar said, "If those killed were innocent citizens, then action will be taken against those who fired at them."



"Inspector General Punjab has sought a report from the regional police officer regarding the incident," the spokesperson added.

The Punjab police spokesperson has announced that a Joint Investigative Team (JIT) under Deputy Inspector General Zulfiqar Hameed has been formed to investigate the alleged shootout.

The JIT will present its report in three-day time.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Around 35 Trinamool Congress supporters were injured when a bus carrying them overturned in Howrah district on Saturday evening, police said.

The accident happened when bus was returning from the public meeting that was organised by Trinamool Congress, the police said.

The driver lost control of the vehicle and the bus overturned as a result, an officer of Domjur police station said.

The trapped passengers were rescued by locals and some of them were taken to nearby hospital, he said.

The passengers were treated and discharged later, the police officer said, adding, the driver of the bus fled the scene after the accident.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The police here have arrested two youths in connection with the killing of a mafia don in West Bengal on Monday, and recovered a firearm from their possession, police said on Saturday.

Rammurthi alias Ramua, a mafia don was shot dead at his home in North-24 Parganas district in West Bengal, the police said.

The West Bengal Police had arrested one Prasant Kumar, a resident of Zone 1 of Birsanagar while investigating the case and got information from him while interrogation, the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of East Singhbhum district, Anoop Birtharay said.

At present, Kumar was staying in Durgapur in West Bengal, the SSP said.

Addressing a press conference here, Birtharay said, based Prasant Kumar's confession, the city police here arrested two youths - S Shyam Sunder Rao and Vishal Menon, both residents of Zone 1 of Birsanagar.

Rao was a college mate of the slained mafia dons son in Visakhapatnam, he said.

Both Rao and Menon told police that they killed Ramua at the behest of victims son, the SSP said.

Ramuas son had provided the firearm to the accused and also informed them when his father would be sleeping, the SSP added.

Ramua's son had decided to kill him since he (Ramua) used to torture him and his mother, the police officer said.

Birtharay said a 9mm pistol used for killing Ramua and five live cartridges were recovered from their possession along with a cash of Rs 30,000, which they had taken as Supari (contract) for eliminating Ramua.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)As election fever rises, so does the anxiety of ticket seekers. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah was in hospital suffering from flu but even here, people wanting to press their claims for a BJP nomination in the Lok Sabha simply wouldnt stop calling on him.

The BJP is facing a funny kind of problem: Following announcements by a handful of its senior leaders that they would not fight the Lok Sabha elections, the party is besieged with people wanting to become their replacements. The problem is particularly acute in Uttarakhand where at least out of five BJP ...At least three people were killed and 38 others injured in road accidents in northern Turkey, Infosurhoy reported citing security sources.

In Amasya province, a passenger bus overturned while traveling from the Black Sea province of Ordu to Istanbul, leaving two people dead and 35 injured.

The bus was reportedly carrying people returning from a funeral service.

In a separate accident, a man was killed and three others inured when their car veered off the road in Espiye district of Giresun province due to snowy weather condition.US President Donald Trump said the location for his second meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been picked and will be announced "in the future".

"We've picked the country, but we'll be announcing it in the future," Trump told reporters at the White House on Saturday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Trump's remarks came a day after his meeting with Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of North Korea's ruling Korean Workers' Party Central Committee, at the White House.

"We had a very good meeting," Trump said.

"We've made a lot of progress that has not been reported by the media, but we have made a lot of progress as far as denuclearization's concerned," he added.

The White House announced on Friday following the meeting that the second summit between the two leaders "will take place near the end of February".

Both leaders of Washington and Pyongyang have said they look forward to the second summit. Trump and Kim Jong-un held a historic summit in Singapore in June last year.

Kim said during his January 7-10 trip to China, his fourth visit to China in less than a year, that Pyongyang will make efforts for the second summit between North Korea and US leaders to achieve results that will be welcomed by the international community, while thanking China for its efforts to push for progress in the Korean Peninsula.

Seoul has voiced similar appreciation.

At a press conference on January 10, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said: "Until now, China has played a positive role in helping very much the Korean Peninsula's denuclearization and improving inter-Korean relations."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor feels his party is "on the march" and even if it bags lesser seats than the ruling BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, it can still form a UPA-III government with the help of its allies.

"Congress is on the march. I can't give you an exact number because a lot of alliance determinations are yet to be finalised, but I would say that even if we got fewer seats than BJP, we would still have enough regional parties who would wish to ally with us.

"So, a UPA-III is far more likely than an NDA-III," Tharoor said during an interaction at the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Meet here late on Friday.

"The BJP is going to go from about 282 to at best somewhere around 160 seats," Tharoor predicted when asked about the polls later this year.

"They won't find the allies. They can look around the country, even the allies they had in 2014...some have deserted them.

"It's interesting to see that the RSS has predicted a hung parliament in their publication. I would say if you look across the heartland, the BJP is losing awful lot of votes.

"They did too well last time (2014) for their own good. It would have been impossible (for them) to replicate even if they had a successful government.

"Now that they are not doing well as a government, those numbers are going to be halved," he further added.

Queried about the reasons for his prediction that the government would fall, the 62-year old diplomat-turned-politician pointed out that not meeting promises and the growing communal discord in the country would dominate the election campaign.

"What happened to 'Acche Din'? You were promised better times. How many of you are better off as a result of this government's five years. And if they have failed, then why do they deserve a second chance?

"So the first and most important message is, kya aapke ke liye acchhe din aaye hai? If not, let's turf these fellows out for their pretences.

"Petrol price rise, taxation, job crisis and so on. A lot of this is going to dominate the election campaign.

"A second issue must be the growing communalisation of the society. Do we really want our children to be growing up in a country in which people are seeking to divide us in the name of hatred, in the name of communnalism or religion? Or do we want to live as we would live before that?"

Tharoor said the opposition alliance may vary from state to state and place to place. "But the support that the Congress is expressing through the presence of its leaders (at the rally) here is precisely because of the conviction at all levels of the party that the opposition must resist the very dangerous tendencies we saw in last five years," he later told reporters on the sidelines.

--IANS

dm/ssp/in/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The UN Security Council has condemned "in the strongest possible terms" Thursday's car bombing at a police academy in the Colombian capital of Bogota, which caused heavy casualties.

The members of the Security Council expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims, as well as to the people and government of Colombia, and wished a speedy recovery to those injured, said the council on Friday in a press statement, Xinhua reported.

The council members underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice and urged all states to cooperate actively with the government of Colombia and all other relevant authorities in this regard.

They reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security and stressed the need for all states to combat, by all means, threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist attacks.

Earlier on Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the car bombing that killed 21 people and wounded dozens of others.

"The secretary-general strongly condemns the car bombing at a police academy in Bogota," said Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric in a statement.

The Colombian authorities have indicated that the terrorist act was conducted by the rebel National Liberation Army.

--IANS

pgh/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Twenty three political parties, including the Congress and major regional parties like SP, BSP and DMK, came together on Saturday at a mega rally under the auspices of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to throw the gauntlet at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for defeating him in the coming general elections but kept the daunting issue of their prime ministerial candidate to be decided after the elections.

Banerjee, who organised the well-attended "United India" rally at the historic Brigade Parade Ground called for a 'collective leadership even as Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav said: "Whoever people decide, will become prime minister".

Later, the leaders met over tea and interacted with the media when they said demanded scrapping of the process of Electronic Voting Machines

(EVMs) and a return to ballot papers. The parties decided to form a four-member Committee consisting of Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Satish Chandra Mishra (BSP), Abhishek Singhvi (Congress) and Arivind Kejriwal (AAP).

Former prime minister and Janata Dal (Secular) president H D Deve Gowda conceded that it was a "herculean task to forget differences and come together" and said "the main task now is how we should move forward".

Chief Minister Banerjee, who was the last speaker, said everyone is a leader in the proposed alliance, and a "collective decision" will be taken after the polls once the BJP was defeated.

"This gathbandhan (alliance) has been formed to save the people of the nation and give them justice. You (BJP) have only President (Amit Shah) and PM. Here everybody is a leader, everybody is a worker, everybody is an organiser.

"There is no need to worry about who will be the Prime Minister. We will take a collective decision on that after the election. Now there is no question of holding discussion on that. Now, we must focus on removing the BJP from power," she said.

One city or state is not important but the country is very important. That's why collective leadership is vital," she said.

Some of the leaders, however, did try to give a roadmap for taking on the BJP jointly by emphasising on one-on-one fight against the BJP by putting up the strongest candidate in every seat.

"In every seat, there should be only one candidate and the strongest candidate against the BJP. They (the BJP) are the only beneficiaries of any division of votes, be it in Haryana, or Uttar Pradesh, or Bengal or Bihar. So our main aim should be to avoid any division of votes.

"Wherever we could prevent any division of votes, say in Gorakhpur or Phulpur (where the BSP and the SP came together to defeat the BJP in Lok Sabha by-polls last year) the BJP lost," said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

Banerjee repeated her known stand that the strongest anti-BJP force in a state should be allowed to decide on the alliance.

" Everyone has to come together for the sake of the nation. Whoever is powerful in a certain place should be allowed and strongly supported to fight there," she said.

Former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, who are now bitterly opposed to Modi, also stressed on engaging the saffron outfit in one-on-one fights. "In such an eventuality, the BJP will be finished," said Sinha.

Indicating the process of consultations and coming together would continue, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam chief Chandrababu Naidu announced that he would hold a similar opposition rally in Amaravati and invited all the leaders present on the stage..

Naidu dubbed Modi as a "publicity Prime Minister" and said the nation needs a new Prime Minister who can perform, "someone who would work for the betterment of the poor".

" The BJP and NDA want to divide India and we want to unite India. That is the purpose all the leaders have come here with one voice -- Save India, save democracy and also unite India -- that is the campaign we are going ahead with," he said.

After giving the rally a miss, along with her son and party president Rahul Gandhi, senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi sent a message calling for the programme's success and saying it was an "important attempt" to galvanise leaders across the political spectrum to fight the "arrogant and divisive" Modi-government.

Her message on behalf of the All India Congress Committee was read out by party's leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge at the ground.

A day back, the Congress president too had sent a message to Banerjee extending his support to the rally and hoping that the "show of unity" will send a powerful message of "a united India together" for ideas that the BJP and Modi were intent on destroying.

DMK President M.K. Stalin said the "only goal" of the opposition is to remove the Modi government from power.

--IANS

ssp/vsc

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee received a tumultuous welcome as she reached the Brigade Parade Ground for the opposition's mega anti-BJP rally on Saturday.

The Trinamool supremo, who earlier left her Kalighat residence to the blowing of conch shells and continuous slogans eulogising her from scores of TMC activists and supporters, was received by senior party leaders at the ground.

Lakhs of her party supporters, who have already reached the venue, cheered wildly and broke into spontaneous applause on seeing Banerjee -- affectionately called Didi (elder sister).

From early morning, thousands of Trinamool activists from the city and other districts of the state have been converging at the sprawling Brigade Parade ground, where a galaxy of senior political leaders from various parts of India would address the crowd, virtually kick-starting the Opposition's campaign ahead of the coming general election.

Many arterial roads of the metropolis were witnessing traffic congestion with the TMC activists hitting the roads with various sizes of processions amidst constant sloganeering "Modi hatao, desh banchao" (remove Modi, save country).

--IANS

ssp/in/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Donald Trump has promised a "major announcement" about the shutdown as it enters its 29th day on Saturday, while his opposition received a blow when the special investigator looking into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election refuted a widely reported story that his lawyer had claimed Trump asked him to lie to Congress.

Trump tweeted that he will be making the announcement at 3 pm (1:30 am Sunday in India) from the White House "concerning the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border".

While he left the nation in suspense about his plans, there was a small sign of progress in finding a solution to the shutdown with the Democrats offering to add $1.87 billion to the budget for border security, but not for the wall.

Democrats had hoped to increase pressure on his presidency by pursuing claims that Trump had made his former lawyer lie to Congress that was reported by BuzzFeed News, a website, and picked up by several major news outlets including the Washington Post. Now that has fallen apart.

A spokesperson for the special counsel investigating allegations of Russian interference took the unusual step of issuing a late night statement denying report that the lawyer Michael Cohen had told investigators that Trump had asked him to lie to Congress about Trump Organisation's plans for a hotel in Moscow.

Democratic Party leaders had seized on the now refuted BuzzFeed report based on anonymous sources involved in the investigation and demanded Congressional probes into the allegations with prospects of impeaching Trump.

Democrat Senator Ralph Blumenthal had said that if the reports were true, Trump would be guilty of obstruction of justice, suborning perjury, and conspiracy to violate laws prohibiting false statements to Congress.

Another Democrat, Representative Joaquin Castro tweeted that Trump "must resign or be impeached" if the report is true.

The official denial by the office of Robert Mueller, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director, who is heading the Russia probe, is a major setback for the credibility of US media that has relied on anonymous and unidentified sources for many reports about Trump.

It gives a measure of vindication for Trump, who has repeatedly accused the media of spreading "fake news".

Cohen's credibility was questionable because he has admitted in court in November that he had been sentenced to three years in prison after admitting to lying and been convicted of that and other offences.

Trump pounced on it immediately and tweeted that Cohen is "lying to reduce his jail time".

In a Saturday morning tweet after the Mueller's office denial, Trump tweeted: "Many people are saying that the Mainstream Media will have a very hard time restoring credibility because of the way they have treated me over the past 3 years (including the election lead-up), as highlighted by the disgraceful Buzzfeed story & the even more disgraceful coverage!"

The shutdown was caused by Trump's insistence on getting $5.7 billion in the budget to build a wall along the Mexican border, which the Democrats have refused with equal vehemence. Because of their disagreement there is no budget and all but the essential government operations have been shutdown temporarily because there is no money to pay for them.

About 800,000 workers are off work because of the shutdown and most, including those working, haven't been paid since January 11.

The standoff over the budget has descended into cheap drama with Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocking Trump from delivering the annual State of the Union Address to a joint session of the Congress and the President retaliating by refusing to let her use a government plane to visit US troops in Afghanistan.

Trump's planned speech on Saturday will come after a nation-wide Women's March starting that morning to protest his policies considered detrimental to women, demand the preservation of abortion rights and to promote their rights, as well as those of minorities and immigrants.

The March has been an annual event after the first massive event held in 2017 in Washington the day after Trump's swearing-in. Drawing abut 500,000 participants it is considered to be among the biggest demonstrations held in the nation's capital.

Reflecting the nation's deep polarisation, an anti-abortion rally was held in Washington on Friday with thousands participating. Trump sent a prerecorded message of support to the rally and Vice President Mike Pence attended it personally, telling them: "We will stand with you until that great day comes where we restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law."

Unlike in India, abortion continues to be a live issue with political conservatives, mostly in the Republican Party, constantly vowing to criminalise it - a position supported by Trump - making it a symbol of the nation's political divide.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)

--IANS

al/nir

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump has promised a "major announcement" about the ongoing government shutdown as it entered its 29th day on Saturday, while Democrats hope to increase pressure on his presidency by pursuing allegations by his former lawyer that Trump had made him lie to Congress.

Trump tweeted on Friday night that he will make the announcement at 3 p.m. on Saturday from the White House "concerning the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border and the Shutdown".

While he left the nation in suspense about his plans, there was a small sign of progress in finding a solution to the shutdown with the Democrats offering to add $1.87 billion to the budget for border security, but not for the wall.

Trump has been adamant about getting $5.7 billion in the budget to build the wall along the Mexican border, which the Democrats have refused with equal vehemence.

Because of their disagreement there is no budget and all but the essential government operations have been shutdown temporarily because there is no money to pay for them.

About 800,000 workers are off work because of the shutdown and most, including those working, haven't been paid since January 11.

At the border with Mexico, about 7,000 Central Americans who came in a caravan hoping to enter the US are camped out there in make-shift shelter and some have been repelled by the border patrol with teargas when they tried to crash the border. Another caravan of thousands is on its way.

Meanwhile, Democrats have found a new avenue to go after Trump from a report in the BuzzFeed News website that the President's former personal attorney , Michael Cohen, had told investigators looking into allegations of Russian interference into the elections that Trump had asked him to lie to Congress about negotiations for a hotel in Moscow.

If the website's report based on two unidentified sources from investigation is true, he could be guilty of crimes that could be grounds for impeachment.

Democrat Senator Ralph Blumenthal demanded that the Senate Judiciary Committee ask Cohen to testify.

He said that if the reports the reports were true, Trump would be guilty of obstruction of justice, suborning perjury, and conspiracy to violate laws prohibiting false statements to Congress.

Cohen is scheduled to testify before a House committee on February 7.

His credibility, though, is at risk because he has admitted in court in November that he had lied to Congressional committees investigating the Russian links about the Trump Organization's plans for building a hotel in Moscow.

After being convicted, he was sentenced to three years in prison for that and other offences and Trump pounced on it. Cohen is "lying to reduce his jail time," Trump tweeted.

Robert Mueller, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director, was appointed in 2017 to probe allegations of Russian involvement in the 2016 election as well as collusion by Trump or his campaign with Moscow.

After 20 months of investigations he has not come up publicly with any direct Russian connections to Trump and Cohen's allegations, if proved true, will give Democrats the anti-Trump ammunition they have been seeking.

The standoff over the budget has descended into cheap drama with Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocking Trump from delivering the annual State of the Union Address to a joint session of the Congress and the president retaliating by refusing to let her use a government plane to visit US troops in Afghanistan.

The Democrat's offer of additional money for border security is an attempt to show both that they are willing to make some compromise and to make clear that the mainstream of the party is against open borders and unchecked immigration, which some in the party advocate.

Trump's planned speech on Saturday will come after a nation-wide Women's March starting that morning to protest his policies considered detrimental to women, demand the preservation of abortion rights and to promote their rights, as well as those of minorities and immigrants.

The March has been an annual event after the first massive event held in 2017 in Washington the day after Trump's swearing-in. Drawing abut 500,000 participants it is considered to be among the biggest demonstrations held in the nation's capital.

Reflecting the nation's deep polarisation, an anti-abortion rally was held in Washington on Friday with thousands participating. Trump sent a prerecorded message of support to the rally and Vice President Mike Pence attended it personally, telling them: "We will stand with you until that great day comes where we restore the sanctity of life to the centre of American law."

Unlike in India, abortion continues to be a live issue with political conservatives, mostly in the Republican Party, constantly vowing to criminalise it - a position supported by Trump - making it a symbol of the nation's political divide.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)

--IANS

abl/ksk/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in late February as the both sides seek to jump-start denuclearization talks that have made little progress since their historic first meeting in Singapore last year.

The White House made the announcement after Trump met Kim Yong Chol, North Korea's lead negotiator on nuclear talks, in the Oval Office on Friday.

"The President looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date," said White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.

The nuclear talks have stalled since Trump, Kim's June summit in 2018. White House aides disclosed no other logistics, but one location that has been strongly considered is Danang, Vietnam, the Washington Post cited people familiar with the negotiations as saying.

It was unclear whether Kim Yong Chol and Trump discussed specific terms related to the second summit, but Vice President Mike Pence made it clear earlier this week that Washington was still waiting for Pyongyang to take concrete steps to denuclearize.

"We've continued to make progress," Sanders told reporters after the White House meeting. She said that the administration would "keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea until we see fully and verified denuclearization".

Sanders also characterized the meeting as "productive".

Kim Yong Chol had arrived at Washington on Thursday evening and brought with him a letter from Kim Jong-un meant for the US President, CNN reported. It was not clear what the letter contained. But it was expected to lay the groundwork for another summit, the report said.

South Korea's presidential Blue House welcomed the news and said Seoul would cooperate with the countries involved "to produce a specific and substantial outcome" for the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the establishment of a "peace regime".

"We expect this summit between North Korea and the US to be a turning point for building up permanent peace on the Korean peninsula," the Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-keum said in a statement on Saturday.

Trump said he was looking forward to the talks.

The US President and the North Korean leader's first summit ended with a commitment from the latter to "work towards complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula", but negotiations appear to have bogged down since then.

North Korea has refused demands from US negotiators to provide a detailed inventory of its nuclear and missile programmes as Kim Jong-un says doing so would be tantamount to giving Washington a list of targets.

Instead, Pyongyang has insisted that the US lift economic sanctions on North Korea and offer a security guarantee to the isolated regime before it makes any further concessions.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Thousands of demonstrators will take to the streets across the US on Saturday to protest against President Donald Trump and stand up for womens rights at the Womens March.

Though this year's event has been marred by controversy, participants will seek to channel the spirit of the first massive march in 2017 that saw hundreds of thousands of protests take over the nation's capital the day after Trump's inauguration, spurring activism and political campaigns by women around the country, reports the Guardian.

"It's time to march again. The 2017 Women's March inspired hundreds of women to run, millions more to vote, and dozens to win elected office. The 2019 Women's March marks two years of resistance to the Trump presidency, two years of training new activists, and two years of building power," the organiser said on its website.

"And this time, we're coming back with an agenda."

The organisers have planned to unveil a 10-part federal policy platform dubbed the Women's Agenda at the event, with proposals on combating violence against women, reproductive rights, and racial and economic fairness.

"Women are just not on the agenda in this current administration," the Women's March Chief Operating Officer, Rachel Carmona, said.

This year, the main event will again be in Washington D.C., kicking off at Freedom Plaza near the White House.

Speakers are set to include the professor and activist Angela Davis, film-maker Michael Moore, actors Scarlett Johansson and America Ferrera, and feminist writer Gloria Steinem.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The activities of the Belarusian opposition parties on the eve of elections do not affect the lives of ordinary people, the analyst of Vestnik Kavkaza, Artem Sokolov, said today in the National Question program on Vesti FM.

The National Question is a weekly program on Vesti.FM, during which various aspects of national relations, primarily in Russia, are discussed. Todays program was dedicated to the events in Belarus and Kyrgyzstan, where the opposition has called for restricting of Russian TV channels broadcasting and lowering the status of the Russian language.

According to the previous year data, 15 political parties are registered in Belarus. "At the same time, their ratings, for many years, have been at a very low level, within the statistical error. The most popular party has a rating of about 2.5-2.7%, and the most unpopular party - 0.7%, that is, the difference is only 1.5-2%. Experts believe that this happens due to the fact, that between elections, the activities of the parties are practically in no way linked to the lives of ordinary people, and the party activists do not know how to interact with their voters. The most numerous parties now are Liberal Democratic Party - about 50 thousand people - and Communist Party - about 6 thousand people. The rating of the last one fell 20-25 times for the past 20 years, Artem Sokolov said.

The analyst of Vestnik Kavkaza indicated that all political parties and movements in Belarus, both registered and unregistered, can be divided into three groups. "The first group is the so-called constructive opposition, which is ready to compromise with the authorities. The country's leadership does not consider them close allies, but at the same time, they do not consider them as enemies. These are the Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus, the Communist Party, which I already mentioned, also the Agrarian Party, the Patriotic Party, the Republican Party, the Green Party and the Social Democratic Party of Popular Accord,  he said.

The second group includes representatives of the unconstructive opposition, not ready to negotiate with the authorities. They are the United Civic Party, the Social-Democratic Peoples Assembly party. This group also includes the Belarusian Popular Front and the Conservative Christian Party - BNF. Both of them appeared as a result of the collapse of the Peoples Front in 1999. By the way, the Belarusian Popular Front, in a statement adopted at the congress held a week ago, demanded to reduce the broadcast of Russian TV channels in the country and declare 2019 the year of the Belarusian language. In the second group, there are also human rights movements - Movement For Freedom and Tell the Truth. Not so long ago they made quite loud statements on the bilateral cooperation between Russia and Belarus ", Artem Sokolov said.

"The third group is a group of loyal parties. It includes the Republican Party of Labor and Justice, the Belarusian Socialist Sporting Party, the Federation of Trade Unions, the Belarusian Public Association of Veterans, the Belarusian Republican Youth Union (BRYU), the Republican Public Association Belaya Rus, the Belarusian Union of Women ", the expert listed.

Returning to the call of the Belarusian Popular Front to restrict broadcasts of Russian TV channels, it can be assumed that this year there will be more such resonant statements heard in Belarus. This is due to the fact, that in 2020 Belarus will hold the presidential and parliamentary elections. The CEC of Belarus previously told that the election campaigns are likely to be divided in time since the elections politicize the atmosphere in the country, which does not benefit the society. It is planned that the first elections will be held at the end of this year. There is no decision on this issue yet, however, according to experts, the presidential elections will be held at the end of this year, Artem Sokolov concluded.Thousands of people on Saturday attended the funeral of Pawel Adamowicz, the Mayor of the Polish city of Gdansk, who succumbed to his injuries earlier this week after being stabbed by an assailant while taking part in a public charity event.

Adamowicz, 53, a well-known critic of his country's right-wing government, was laid to rest at the Basilica of St. Mary of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Gdansk, the Baltic port city where he was Mayor for 20 years.

Among notable attendees at the service were President Andrzej Duda and European Council President and former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the BBC reported.

Also in attendance were Polish Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former President Lech Walesa.

Adamowicz was known for his liberal policies and for being an opposition voice against the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which is currently in government.

The funeral ceremony was broadcast on large screens set up in several cities across Poland. Banners displaying black and white images of Adamowicz were draped over buildings across the country.

Adamowicz was attacked on stage on Sunday evening in front of hundreds of people while attending the Great Orchestra of Christmas charity -- an annual event where volunteers raise money for medical equipment in hospitals.

The assailant took the microphone to say that he had been wrongly imprisoned and tortured, apparently blaming Civic Platform, a centre-right political party to which the late Gdansk Mayor once belonged.

The alleged killer, who has previous convictions, was immediately apprehended.

Adamowicz died the following day from wounds to his chest after undergoing emergency surgery for five hours.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tens of thousands of enthusiastic workers and supporters, including a man on a wheelchair, attended the mega anti-BJP rally at the historic Brigade Parade ground here on Saturday raising their voices against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reached the venue almost an hour before the scheduled time while party leaders, MPs MLAs took their seats on the side stage.

Amidst elaborate security arrangements, the enthusiastic participants gathered waving giants flags. People were seen donning party symbols on hats and clothes.

Most of their sloganeering were centred around Modi, BJP National President Amit Shah and about the party's rule "finishing" in 2019.

Kamaludddin Khan came on a wheelchair came with a placard greeting the TMC chief and wished that she keeps moving ahead indirectly sharing his desire to see Banerjee as the next Prime Minister.

Finally, their wait was over as the rally, which is expected to kick-start the Opposition's campaign ahead of the upcoming general election, got going.

"We want to hear didi," Atish Chandra Bagdi, an avid supporter of the Trinamool supremo from Murshidabad district said. He painted himself in his party's colours.

Some people like Amzad Hossain from Coochbehar district donning dresses printed with the party's symbol, had arrived in the city on Friday.

"Let us take the pledge of building a progressive, strong and United India" read the backdrop of the main stage, where a number of Trinamool flags fluttered.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena lauded on Saturday the anti-drug campaign of the Philippines President, saying the world needs to respect the Rodrigo Duterte government's war on drugs.

During a visit to the main headquarters of the Philippines National Police (PNP), Sirisena said that he admired the Duterte administration's "bold commitment to address the drug menace", Xinhua news agency reported.

The Sri Lankan government would focus on the distribution hub of international drug trafficking in the country which had been a perennial problem in the area for years, a statement issued by the PNP quoted Sirisena as saying.

Sirisena, who arrived in Manila on January 15 for a five-day state visit, returned to Sri Lanka on Saturday.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress stalwart Sonia Gandhi on Saturday described the opposition rally here as an "important attempt" to galvanise leaders across the political spectrum to fight the "arrogant and divisive" Narendra Modi government.

In her message to the rally, which she and her son Congress President Rahul Gandhi decided to give a miss, she wished the event "all success".

"This rally marks an important attempt to galvanise leaders across the political spectrum to fight the arrogant and divisive Modi-rule. I wish them all the success," she said.

Her message was read out by Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, who represented the party, along with its spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi at the Brigade Parade ground organised by Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Senior leaders of 23 political parties attended the rally.

Painting a grim picture of the country, Gandhi said: "Crisis looms across our farmers and extends to our borders; the youth are jobless; rice and jute farmers are under stress and fishermen are incurring deep losses.

"The country at large is under immense strain -- economically our citizens have been screeched, politically our institutions have been undermined and socially our pluralistic fabric stands vitiated."

The former Congress president said the upcoming Lok Sabha election would not be an "ordinary one".

"This will be an election to restore the nation's faith in democracy, defend our secular ethos and heritage; and defeat the forces that are trying to sabotage the Constitution of India."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Admitting that he is a "rebel", Bollywood actor and dissenting BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha on Saturday stepped up his attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by adopting Rahul Gandhi's "chowkidar chor hai" jibe.

"People often ask me why I speak against Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) while being in it. If speaking the truth is rebellion, then, yes, I am a rebel," Sinha said at the United India Rally of opposition parties at the Brigade Parade Ground here.

The actor-turned-politician won over the massive crowd at the mega-rally by starting his speech with a filmy-style utterance: "Bahut jaan hai (it has a lot of life)."

Sinha was introduced by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as "Bihari babu" as the "khamosh" actor lived up to the billing every bit by calling for the youngsters as "aap sab mein bahut dam hai (you all have a lot of strength)".

Accusing the Modi government of being "autocratic" as compared to Atal Bihari Vajpayee's "democratic", Sinha said unless questions relating to the Rafale deal is answered, he will continue to be called "chowkidar chor hai".

Sinha also said the BJP was trying to "divert the attention of the public" ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by taking up Ayodhya Ram mandir issue instead of answering the queries.

"Now that polls are here they are trying to divert the attention by taking up the temple issue in Ayodhya. They (BJP leaders) would not answer anything on the questions of Rafale but will instead try to divert everyone's attention by bringing up the Ram Mandir issue," he said.

Sinha also added that he hasn't seen a better rally, also waxing lyrical about Banerjee.

"I haven't seen a better rally. This is Bengal's magic and moreover the magic of Mamata Banerjee," said Sinha also speaking in Bengali for a while much to the crowd's delight.

"We are here to give the country a new leadership. We are here to give the country a new direction," he said to loud cheers.

"We heard NEWS (North, East, West, South) leaders speak here.

There is a sense of the mood that all are working towards one goal. Change is the way forward," he added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has become an obstacle in improving the US-Saudi ties and must be "dealt with", US Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of President Donald Trump, said here on Saturday.

The Republican lawmaker said that ties between the two sides cannot move forward unless action was taken against Bin Salman, who faced international rebuke over his role in the murder of his supporter-turned-critic and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom consulate in Turkey in October.

"The relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia cannot move forward until Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is dealt with," Graham told reporters in Ankara on Saturday, a day after discussing issues related to Saudi Arabia with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He also said he will push for more US sanctions against those involved in the killing of dissident Saudi journalist, Turkish Yeni Safak newspaper reported.

After weeks of providing conflicting accounts of what happened to Khashoggi, the kingdom later said that he was killed "accidentally" in a fist fight at the consulate by "rogue" agents. However, it denied the ruling royal family's involvement in the killing.

Eleven individuals had been charged by Saudi prosecutors in the journalist's killing -- with five suspects facing the death penalty.

The US imposed economic sanctions on 17 Saudi officials in November for their role in the Khashoggi killing, and later, the US Senate unanimously passed a resolution holding the Crown Prince responsible for the murder.

Trump, however, had been reluctant to go after Bin Salman, who is widely believed to have ordered the hit job. He also refused to halt weapon sales to Riyadh, describing Saudi arms purchases as vital to the US economy.

Turkish and American intelligence reports stated that the body of Khashoggi was dismembered shortly after his murder inside the Saudi diplomatic mission. There were also reports of sound recordings and phone calls that directly tied Bin Salman to the murder.

Graham said that by ordering the brutal murder, Bin Salman violated "every norm of international behaviour".

--IANS

soni/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Telangana government's Rythu Bandhu Scheme to provide investment support to every farmer has become part of national agenda of action, Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan said on Saturday.

Addressing the joint session of both Houses of the state legislature, he said the scheme has become a role model for several states and has earned praise even in the international arena.

"It is a matter of pride that UN Food and Agriculture Organisation praised this scheme. Several states are preparing to adopt it," he said.

He claimed that the scheme has done away with the problem of agriculture investment faced by farmers.

"Farmers are happy as they are getting Rs 8,000 per acre annually, at the rate of Rs 4,000 per acre per crop," said Narasimhan.

He said the scheme was one of the several steps initiated by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government to revive, restore and revitalise the agriculture sector.

With 24 hours round-the-clock quality power supply, farmers are no longer confronted with power problems. Due to government's strategic actions, fertilisers, pesticides and seed are reaching the farmer in time, he claimed.

The government also introduced a novel Life Insurance Scheme for farmers termed "Rythu Bhima" to come to the rescue of the farmer's family in the event of his death, notwithstanding circumstances. Under this scheme, the farmer's family would get Rs five lakh within 10 days of the death.

Listing the schemes introduced and implemented for the welfare and development of people during the last four years, he said they brought about a better standard of living.

Narasimhan said Telangana has been progressing in every arena and positions itself as a leading state in the country, due to the effective governance under the leadership of K. Chandrashekhar Rao.

"This was reflected clearly in the electorate again reposing confidence overwhelmingly and returning the existing government to power with an emphatic majority in the recently concluded elections."

The Governor said the government would continue to press and fight for implementation of 33 per cent reservation to backward classes and 33 per cent to women in legislatures.

Recalling that the Telangana Assembly has already passed a resolution for provision of 10 per cent reservation to scheduled tribes and 12 per cent to minorities, he said to implement these reservations the government will continue to raise the demand with the Central government.

Narasimhan pointed out that the people of Telangana achieved a separate state for themselves in 2014 after six decades of relentless struggle. The government straightaway took up the process of reconstruction, according top priority to welfare of the poor.

He told the legislators that Telangana achieved one of the highest growth rates in the country. During the first four years from 2014-2018, the state achieved 17.17 per cent compound annual revenue growth rate and during the current 2018-19 financial year, the growth rate so far stands at 29.93 per cent.

Even in Goods and Service Tax collections Telangana stands first among all the states in the country.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said he will hold talks with the new UN envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen in Moscow on Monday next week.

"We will be interested in hearing how he plans to start the work of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, especially after he just visited Damascus on a two-day visit and held talks with the Syrian leadership," Lavrov said on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

He said that Moscow expected the agreement reached at a summit of Russia, Germany, France and Turkey in Istanbul in October on the need to start the work of the Syrian Constitutional Committee to be implemented as soon as possible.

Lavrov said the recent events in Syria, including the terrorist attack in Syria's Manbij on Wednesday, demand a more active involvement of those who want to help eradicate the terrorist threat.

Moscow is concerned about the situation in Idlib province bordering Turkey in the northwest of Syria, the last major hotbed of terrorists in the war-torn country, he said.

According to Lavrov, contrary to the agreement on the establishment of a demilitarized zone in Idlib, about 70 per cent of the zone is still occupied by terrorists, who are shooting at the positions of the Syrian army, local settlements and threatening the Russian air base in Hmeymim.

The Russian top diplomat also noted the necessity of transferring territories controlled by the US to the Syrian authorities after the announced US departure takes place.

Moscow is interested in ensuring that the decisions of the UN Security Council on the need to preserve the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria are translated into practical actions, Lavrov said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Calling upon all regional parties to come together, Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Saturday said they are the only ones who can fulfil the aspirations of the people and termed the Centre's ruling BJP a "paper tiger".

"The non-BJP leaders should join hands and root out the BJP. BJP is merely a paper tiger. We the regional parties are the only ones which can understand and fulfil the aspirations of the people," Kumaraswamy said at the United India Rally at the Brigade Parade Ground here.

"I firmly believe that regional parties have the strong instinct to connect with people and understand the common man's interest in their individual states."

Citing examples, he said: "In Tamil Nadu we saw the late M. Karunanidhiji who won the hearts of the people and met their aspirations.

"Similarly in Uttar Pradesh, the SP-BSP have been doing a great job. If you go to Andhra Pradesh, (Chief Minister) N. Chandrababu Naidu has taken the state to new heights.

"Mamata Banerjee has transformed West Bengal in the last seven years. She has empowered women in the state.

"All regional leaders have strived to protect the interest of their states. Real India is at the grassroots. It is one of the strongest democracies in the world."

Terming the Bharatiya Janata Party as "undemocratic and against the Constitution", Kumaraswamy said the Union government has turned deaf and blind to the plight of the common man.

"Today, we are witnessing a system where ironically a democratic government is headed by undemocratic, anti-constitutional leaders at the Centre. They do not respect people's aspirations.

"The Union Government has turned blind and deaf to the plight of the common man. The irony is that though the states understand their problems, their hands are tied. They were made mute spectators. This is not a healthy sign."

Kumaraswamy was all praise for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who organised the opposition rally, and urged her to look after the well being of the people.

"Mamata Banerjee's simplicity and the way she responds to their (people's) grievances, the urge she has for the well being of the people of the country have left indelible impression on me.

"Didi (elder sister, as Mamata Banerjee is affectionately called) has always been a role model for the country. She has always stood for women empowerment. I am happy to be part of this rally.

"We will march together to build a new, strong India. My father had taught me over the years the same lesson, to be simple and humble like Didi."

--IANS

bdc-dm/ssp/in/ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a major breakthrough, the Punjab Police on Saturday arrested five people in Ropar district for their alleged involvement in a state-wide Army recruitment scam.

An official spokesperson said the police recovered 29 Aadhaar cards, fake document sets of 48 individuals and Rs eight lakh from their possession.

Sixty-eight attestation and official stamps were also recovered. These stamps are of different official designations like those of SHOs, tehsildars, municipal councillors, the spokesperson said.

"In the last five years, this gang has secured recruitment of 26 individuals in the Sikh, J&K and Artillery regiments by preparing fake caste and residential proof certificates. They used to charge Rs three-five lakh from every individual for the recruitment process," the spokesperson added.

"Clerks of the Army recruiting centres in Patiala, Ferozpur and Ludhiana were hand in glove with these perpetrators, who, after taking their cut, verified the fake documents."

Initial investigations revealed that Yogesh of Salem Tabri, Ludhiana is the kingpin of this gang, which has, in the last five years, prepared fake documents of nearly 150 individuals hailing from Haryana.

"Aspirants from Haryana were roped in by Manjeet and Sunil of Jind as there is less competition in Army recruitment in Punjab. Both Manjeet and Sunil, who run an Army recruitment training academy in Jind, have also been arrested," he added.

Two other persons, Manoj and Amit of Ferozepur, used to provide recruits to Yogesh from the districts of Fazilka, Moga, Faridkot and Ferozepur.

"Names of several Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) posted in Ludhiana, Gwalior, Ferozepur and Bhuvneshwar have figured in the questioning of the suspects. These NCOs used to be a link between the recruiting authorities and the aspirants willing to join the Army," the spokesperson said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Seven Beauties exhibition held at the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Art, which features exhibits from collections of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the State Museum of Musical Culture of Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum, was so popular that it was extended until February 10. Yesterday, director of the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum, chairman of the ICOM National Committee of Azerbaijan, honored cultural worker, Shirin Melikova, gave lecture on history of carpet weaving in Azerbaijan at the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Art. Before her lecture, she answered some questions of Vestnik Kavkaza.

- Your museum is very popular, but media often call it differently. What's the correct name of your museum?

- Our museum was founded in 1967. At that time it was called the Museum of Carpet and Decorative Arts. Since 2014, when we moved to a new building, it's called the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum.

- Why did you decide to tell Moscow audience about carpet weaving art of Azerbaijan?

- We have been cooperating with the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Art for several years and have carried out several joint projects. Today our exhibits are presented displayed in this wonderful museum. Exhibition opened in November of 2018 and will run until February 10. In this exposition, we combined several types of art of Azerbaijan and showed immortal works of the greatest poet of Azerbaijan, Nizami Ganjavi. In addition, last year Azerbaijan celebrated centenary of its great composer, Qara Qaraev. We show the theme of Seven Beauties in various art forms, including in Qara Qaraev's ballet of the same name. After beginning of this exhibition, we, together with management of the museum, came to conclusion that it would be interesting to show the works of Nizami Ganjavi and Qara Qarayev. That's today I will give lecture on origins of carpet weaving. It's an excursion into history. Of course, I will talk about carpet museum, our collection, our new acquisitions, exhibits presented at this exhibition, projects that we carry out together with the Museum of Decorative Art and our plans for the near future in Moscow.

- How important is carpet weaving in the culture of Azerbaijan?

- Carpet is a symbol of Azerbaijan. Our entire story is reflected in carpets. We can trace all historical periods in compositions, in ornaments of carpets. Carpet has always been not only a part of the interior, it's an integral part of our houses, it was closely associated with life, with traditions and customs of Azerbaijani people. We say that people are born on carpets, that we spend entire life near carpets. All these traditions are still relevant today. There's no place in Azerbaijan that is not associated with carpers somehow. Carpet has always played and will play a huge role in lives of our people, reflecting spiritual, philosophical and aesthetic traditions of our people.

- Many peoples of Caucasus have their own traditions of carpet weaving. What makes Azerbaijani different compared to others?

- Caucasian carpets are a very interesting topic. Outstanding scientist, founder of the science of Azerbaijani carpet weaving, founder of the first carpet museum in the world, Latif Kerimov noted while conducted his research that 96% of the so-called "Caucasian carpets" are based on Azerbaijani carpets. According to Kerimovs classification, carpets are divided into four main types: Ganja-Gazakh, Kuba-Shirvan, Karabakh and Tebriz. All these carpets differ in technical and artistic design. Evry settlement and village used to wove carpets. Carpets were a part of urban culture, royal culture, as well as rural culture. All these carpets were different, both in composition and in color. People have always used natural dyes to create them. Azerbaijan's territory has 9 out of 11 climatic zones. Such a variety of raw materials made it possible to create amazingly beautiful colors.

- The art of carpet is an entire philosophy. Patterns have deeper meaning. How can someone learn to understan what particular carpets mean?

- You have to learn a lot to understand it. Carpets can have a lot of meanings: the more you learn about some type of art, the more you plunge into the world of ornaments, understand how deep it all goes into the depths of history. In order to understand the true meaning, you have to learn history, context of particular historical time, archeology, mythology. Even Soviet era is reflected in carpets that preserved their artistic language, as well as carried spirit of their time. Carpet are always interactive and have always been closely associated with the time they were created in.

- You mentioned that carpets accompany person from birth to death. Are there any more traditions associated with carpets?

- There are a lot of them. Carpets are still part of people's heritage. Best carpets are always inherited by future generations. Moreover, new carpets are being made when a child is born. Ability to weave carpet was one of the most important. Previously, all women had to be able to weave carpets. Since the age of five, young girls helped their grandmothers, mothers, took part in creation of carpets, and those carpets were later passed on to them. They worked without any sketches. These skills were passed down from generation to generation.

Girls received necessary materials and had to show that they are able to weave, wash, dry, and dye carpets before wedding. Latif Kerimov said that he could tell about women's nature based on carpets they created.

- After the Seven Beauties exhibition will end, what else do you plan to show to residents and guests of Baku and Azerbaijan?

- We always hope to exchange exhibitions, because our audience is interested in traditions of arts and crafts of Russia. Our museum is open for cooperation in this direction. Last year we signed memorandum of cooperation with the Russian State Museum of Oriental Art, which has collection of Azerbaijani art. In April, we are planning to hold joint exhibition in Moscow .A postgraduate student of Management Development Institute (MDI) was found dead on Saturday in the campus of the institute here under mysterious circumstances, police said.

The deceased has been identified as Juniad Taaz, 23, a resident of Delhi's Vasant Kunj.

Police said Taaz was a third year student of Post Graduate Diploma Management at MDI in Sector 17 in Gurugram.

The deceased's mother told police she received a message from her son on Saturday that "he was under tremendous stress."

"He might have jumped off, or pushed from one of the floors of the institute... the matter is under investigation," said a police officer.

A high-ranking MDI official said: "We extend our deep condolences to the family. We informed the police immediately after knowing about it and assisted them in the process. We also assure of full cooperation in further procedures to the best of our abilities."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)DMK President M.K. Stalin on Saturday said the "only goal" of all the secular parties is to throw out the Narendra Modi government at the Centre in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which will be the "country's second freedom struggle" and only option to save the nation by defeating BJP with an united opposition front.

"The 2019 elections in India will be India's second freedom struggle. The BJP at the centre is sowing the seeds of hatred and divisionism among people. We have to stop that any cost. That's why I call it India's second freedom struggle," Stalin said at Mamata Banerjee's 'United India Rally' here.

"It is heartening to see a number of parties aligned here on the stage. Our only goal is to send the BJP government packing and save the country," he said addressing the Brigade Parade Ground rally that saw tens of thousands of people attending to hear the Opposition.

Taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Tamil leader, who delivered his speech at the rally through a Bengali interpreter, said Modi was badmouthing and attacking the opposition leaders in his speeches as he is scared of the alliance.

"Modi used to say that he does not have enemies or opposition parties. But nowadays he is starting all his speeches by criticising and badmouthing the opposition. He is scared to see the opposition forces unite. He has understood that his defeat is confirmed," Stalin claimed.

"Before coming to power, he (Modi) used to say that he would bring development to the people of the nation but after becoming the Prime Minister he is only bringing despair and dismay to people," he said.

Stalin said the country's age-old concept of unity in diversity was under threat from the Modi government which was trying to foist one religion, one culture idea which has to be resisted at all cost.

He said the unity of the non-BJP parties displayed in Kolkata meant that "Modi's defeat and our victory is certain".

Stalin also accused the Modi government of working for and at the behest of the corporates and turning the central government into a private limited company.

Hailing Banerjee for bringing the Opposition on one stage ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Stalin said Bengalis and Tamils have played significant roles in India's freedom struggle and would continue to do so in future.

Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha, who severed his ties with Bharatiya Janata Party in 2018, said at his age he wanted nothing in life but the ouster of the Modi government for which the entire opposition should unite.

He suggested all the opposition parties should field one common candidate against the BJP across the country so that the NDA government could be "thrown out lock, stock and barrel".

Another former Union Minister Arun Shourie attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his demonetisation decision that set the economy backwards and inflicted misery on common man and for messing up with a simple idea like the Goods and Services Tax, making it cumbersome.

--IANS

vsc-mgr/in

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The issue of who would be the prime ministerial candidate of the anti-BJP political parties continued to remain a big question mark despite the approaching Lok Sabha elections, though 23 of the outfits came together at a mega rally here on Saturday, giving a call to defeat Centre's ruling Narendra Modi-led BJP.

While none of the leaders -- many of whom themselves harbour prime ministerial ambition -- present on the stage were in any position to give an emphatic answer, those who dwelt on the subject mostly made wishy-washy comments.

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, who organised the well attended rally at the historic Brigade Parade Ground, called for a "collective leadership".

Banerjee, who was the last speaker at the 'United India Rally', said everyone is a leader in the proposed alliance, and a "collective decision" will be taken after the polls once the BJP was defeated.

"There is no need to worry about who will be the Prime Minister. We will take a collective decision on that after the election. Now there is no question of holding discussions on that. Now, we must focus on removing the BJP from power," she said

The Trinamool Congress leaders had been unabashedly stating in the run up to the rally that it would propel Banerjee to the centre-stage of Indian so that she could emerge as the face of the opposition if the Modi-led BJP was defeated at the hustings and there was a hung parliament.

Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav said: "Whoever people decide, will become prime minister."

"They (BJP) say look how many prime ministerial aspirants the opposition has. At times, they say we have lot of grooms. I tell them, we will see to it," Yadav told the rally.

Telugu Desam chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said the entire country's mood is to have a new Prime Minister in 2019, but shied away from going into the issue further.

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Admi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal came up with a comment that the focus of the coming elections was removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, rather than electing a prime minister.

"Many people ask me who will become the Prime Minister, if not Modi. I want to tell you all, the 2019 elections will be not to elect a Prime Minister, but to remove the Modi-Shah (BJP president Amit Shah) regime," the AAP supremo said.

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, on the other hand, urged the leaders opposed to the saffron party not to eye the prime minister's post.

"Now it is your duty, and our duty that we should be together and not think that I will become prime minister. It will be seen later who will become prime minister. First we have to fight the election, fight it together and strongly that is the way to move forward."

Veteran political leader and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar, considered one of the prime ministerial aspirants, however, said he has not come to the rally for any position.

"We have not come to the united opposition rally for any ministerial positions. We all have come here to bring change in the nation and protect the people from atrocities of the BJP regime," he said.

Besides, apart from those on the stage, there were several leaders in the anti-saffron camp who skipped the rally.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi, BSP supremo Mayawati and TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao fall in that category.

After the rally, the issue of the prime ministerial candidate became the main weapon for the BJP to attack the opposition parties.

"The issue of 'mahagathbandhan' is a bogey and it cannot defeat the BJP because those who are on the dais have dreams to be the Prime Minister. Those dreams will be left unfulfilled," BJP national spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Odisha government showcased its investment opportunities at a roadshow during the "Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2019" in Gandhinagar on Saturday.

In all, 116 investors from Gujarat attended the investors' meet to learn more about the investment opportunities provided by Odisha.

These investors represented a variety of sectors in manufacturing ranging from textiles and apparel, chemicals and petrochemicals, food processing and downstream industries in metals, among others.

"Odisha is emerging as the preferred manufacturing destination and manufacturing hub of eastern India. With able and stable governance, progressive policies, competitive cost and ease of doing business, availability of raw materials, industry-ready infrastructure and skilled manpower, Odisha beckons Gujarat-based industries to explore new growth opportunities," said Nitin Jawale, MD, Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd (IPICOL).

He said the successful operations of companies such as Adani Group, Welspun and Manpasand Beverages are a testimony to Odisha's potential.

The government held a series of one-to-one meetings with investors who expressed their keenness to explore Odisha for greenfield projects and benefit from the state's proactive business reforms and facilitation mechanisms.

--IANS

cd/nir

(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 on Saturday termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the "publicity Prime Minister" and said the nation needs a new Prime Minister who can perform.

"This Prime Minister is a publicity Prime Minister, not a performing Prime Minister. He and his government have betrayed the nation.

"The country wants a performing Prime Minister, someone who would work for the betterment of the poor," Naidu said here at Mamata Banerjee's united opposition rally.

Accusing the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre of trying to divide the nation, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief said the opposition forces were getting united to save the democracy and urged people to carefully choose who they like to go with in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

"Today is a historic day. The BJP and NDA want to divide India and we want to unite India. That is the purpose all the leaders have come here with one voice -- Save India, save democracy and also unite India -- that is the campaign we are going ahead with," Naidu said.

"Do you want Modi and Shah to come back in power (after 2019)? Do you want change or not?" he asked the massive crowd at the rally.

Hailing West Bengal Chief Minister Banerjee's efforts to bring senior opposition leaders from across the country on one stage, Naidu said he would like to hold a similar opposition rally in Andhra Pradesh's Amaravati and invited all the leaders present on the stage at the Brigade Parade Ground.

"We want to organise another rally like this in Amaravati. I invite all the leaders there," he said.

He criticised a number of central government policies, including the demonitisation move, GST, agricultural policies and fuel price hike, claiming current regime has only given a "high performance in corruption".

"Modi betrayed farmers in a big way. A big fraud is going on in the name of agricultural policies. A number of states, including Andhra Pradesh and Bengal are doing far better than the Centre in terms of farmer welfare," he said.

He further accused the Centre of interfering with the federal set-up and harassing the states run by opposition parties' governments.

"The government is also interfering in the federal set up. They are harassing the states. They are creating problems in Kashmir and Karnataka. We want to warn the Centre from here today that if it misbehaves with Karnataka in any way, it will have to pay a big price," Naidu said referring to the claims of horse trading allegedly underway to destabilise the JD-S-Congress government.

Echoing former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, Naidu also termed the use of electronic voting machines (EVM) as a big fraud and said the country should go back to paper ballots in the next elections.

He said the entire country's mood is to have a new Prime Minister in 2019.

"In 2019 India is going to see a new Prime Minister. That is the mood of the nation. We are considering the nation first. To protect the nation and save democracy everyone in this country must be united," he added.

--IANS

mgr/in/ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office has disputed a BuzzFeed News story as "not accurate", after the outlet reported that President Donald Trump had directed his former personal attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress.

"BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the Special Counsel's Office, and characterisation of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's Congressional testimony are not accurate," Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller's office, said in a statement on Friday night.

It's highly unusual for the special counsel's office to provide a statement to the media, outside of court filings and judicial hearings, about any of its ongoing investigative activities, CNN reported.

In response, BuzzFeed said in a statement: "We are continuing to report and determine what the special counsel is disputing. We remain confident in the accuracy of our report."

Ben Smith, the editor-in-chief at Buzzfeed, echoed the outlet's statement, saying: "We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he's disputing."

The BuzzFeed story, by reporters Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier published on Thursday night, asserted that Cohen had told Mueller's investigators that "after the election, the President personally instructed him to lie - by claiming that negotiations (for a Trump development project in Moscow) ended months earlier than they actually did - in order to obscure Trump's involvement"

BuzzFeed attributed its assertion to two law enforcement sources.

The report also quoted the sources as saying that Mueller's office had corroborated Trump company emails, text messages and other documents, though the BuzzFeed reporters were unclear on Friday in television interviews about whether they had seen the documents described in their story.

The story made several other claims that remain uncorroborated by other outlets regarding Cohen's lies to Congress and communications with Mueller.

Trump addressed Muller's spokesman's statement Friday night, referencing how BuzzFeed had published a dossier in 2016 of uncorroborated intelligence compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, CNN reported.

"Remember it was Buzzfeed that released the totally discredited 'Dossier,' paid for by Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats (as opposition research), on which the entire Russian probe is based!" he tweeted. "A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!"

Steele worked for the intelligence firm Fusion GPS, which was retained by Perkins Coie, the law firm for the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani praised Mueller for issuing the disputing statement, and accused the press of showing bias against the President in its coverage of the BuzzFeed report.

A Trump Organization source told CNN on Friday that the company knew of no documents regarding the proposed Trump Tower in Moscow that reflected conversations about the matter after January 2016.

--IANS

ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Gegong Apang, who left the BJP after a four-year association earlier this week, said on Saturday the Narendra Modi regime has been a "testing time" for India's democracy and accused it of dividing the country.

"The people in Delhi are diving the country, especially the Northeast. The Citizenship Amendment Bill is an example how a political party is dividing the country," the leader from northeast said.

Apang, who was the longest-serving Chief Minister of Arunachal and had worked under a number of Prime Ministers starting from Indira Gandhi to Manmohan Singh, said all the previous governments at the Centre believed in federal democracy but the current regime at the centre is busy dividing the country.

"I have been fortunate enough to work under Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narsimha Rao, H.D. Deve Gowdaji, who is present here, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

"All those people believed in federal democracy. But the last four years have been testing time for Indian democracy," Apang said addressing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's 'United India Rally' here.

Claiming that the democracy in Arunachal Pradesh was going through "the worst phase", Apang said the state's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government has refused to start a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the suicide of former Chief Minister Kalikho Pul.

"In Arunachal Pradesh democracy is going through the worst phase. A former chief minister of my state has committed suicide while another minister has suffered a mysterious death.

"But the party in power in Arunachal does not want a CBI inquiry. The CBI has become a puppet in their hands.

"We all know how democratically-elected governments are being tortured by those sitting in power. It is a threat to the country's democratic ethos," he added.

--IANS

mgr/in

(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.)Mizoram has urged the Centre government to raise the coverage from 64.73 per cent to at least 80 per cent of its 12 lakh population under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in the state, an official said here on Saturday.

Chief Minister Zoramthanga raised the demand when he met Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan at Krishi Bhawan in New Delhi on Friday, according to an official of the state Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department.

"The Chief Minister told the Union Minister that after the implementation of the NFSA in the state, the allocation of foodgrain for the beneficiaries has come down. The remaining foodgrain is procured from open market by the state government," the official quoted the Chief Minister as saying.

The Union Minister told the Chief Minister that National Sample Survey Organisation's (NSSO) study is the basis for deciding the percentage of distribution of foodgrains and it is being uniformly applied throughout the country.

Paswan also said that allocation of foodgrains would be revised by the NITI Aayog based on a new NSSO Survey and it is not possible to make exceptions for Mizoram.

According to the official, NFSA was implemented in Mizoram in March 2016 to cover 706,296 people out of the total of 12 lakh. Currently, 662,440 people belonging to 146,876 families are covered under the scheme.

Mizoram has 267,606 ration card holders, of which 146,876 are under the NFSA.

Paswan assured Zoramthanga of construction of more warehouses by the Food Corporation of India and the pending issue of the hill state transport subsidy would be resolved in a joint meeting soon.

--IANS

sc/mag/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti spoke to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday seeking release of a separatist leader on humanitarian ground.

"Have spoken with HM requesting his (Shahid ul Islam's) early release on humanitarian grounds as his wife has suffered a brain haemorrhage," she tweeted.

Shahid-ul-Islam, belonging to the moderate Hurriyat group headed by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency in 2018 and was presently lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail.

Shahid's wife suffered the brain haemorrhage last week and has since been in hospital.

--IANS

sq/in

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)houses taking up arms against fake news, publishers looking towards subscriptions to make up for the losses, which may fuel lay-offs and thus weaken further their ability to hold politicians and tycoons to account, are the key trends in the sector in 2019, finds a report.

Titled 'Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2019' authored by Nic Newman, Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, the report said 2019 will be a critical year for both publishers and platforms in terms of rebuilding trust and credibility after years of self-inflicted wounds around quality, privacy, and user experience.

"This will be the year when the regulation of platform companies starts to bite following growing concern about misinformation, privacy, and market power. Something once considered unthinkable has become 'inevitable'...," reads the report.

"Meanwhile the spread of false, misleading and extreme content will continue to undermine democracies around the world with polarising elections in India, Indonesia and Europe likely flashpoints."

Newman said technology platforms will remain cautious and defensive in the light of regulatory threats.

The report predicted a renewed focus on trust indicators this year for news and better labelling designed to help consumers decide what and who to trust.

It said journalism will continue to be hollowed out by structural shifts that have already led to significant falls in advertising revenue.

"Publishers are looking to subscriptions to make up the difference but the limits of this are likely to become apparent in 2019. Taken together these trends are likely to lead to the biggest wave of journalistic lay-offs in years -- weakening further the ability of publishers to hold populist politicians and powerful business leaders to account," it says.

The report is based on the input of 200 editors, CEOs, and digital leaders from 29 countries, who responded to a survey around the key challenges and opportunities in the year ahead.

Subscription and membership is the key priority for the news industry going forward and it would be the main revenue focus in 2019, 52 per cent of the respondents believed, while 27 per cent opted for display advertising, eight per cent for native advertising and seven per cent for donations.

The report said the news industry is losing patience with Facebook and publishers are re-focusing attention elsewhere.

"Less than half of respondents (43 per cent) say the platform is likely to be important or extremely important this year, a similar number to Apple News and YouTube -- but far less than for Google (87 per cent)," reads the report.

Over 78 per cent of the respondents said it was important to invest more in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help secure the future of journalism as increased personalisation is as critical a pathway to the future.

They also believed that audio would become a more important part of the content, and commercial strategies and emerging voice-activated technologies, like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant would have a significant impact on how audiences access content over the next few years.

platforms are reconfiguring their algorithms to be more respectful of signals of meaningful content, which would provide a basis by which the problems of misinformation might eventually be solved, said the report.

--IANS

spk/vsc/in

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Turkey hosts over 3.5 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country in the world. Tens of thousands of refugees, whose humanitarian needs have been taken care of by the Turkish government and NGOs for years at modern facilities, pray for the end of the war and a safe return to their homes in Syria. As Anadolu Agency writes in the article Syrian refugees say they 'feel human' in Turkey, Syrians who have taken refuge in Turkey say they "feel human" in their host country and that they are hopeful about the future.

Shuhaida Osman, one of the Syrians who have been taking shelter in a refugee camp in Turkey's southeastern Sanliurfa province, told Anadolu Agency that she was rescued last minute by Turkey, and that the shock and trauma of the civil war were still not over. She said: "Syrian women are very happy to be in Turkey, where there is life. Despite being in a camp environment, we have very good conditions and a very good life here.

Many Syrians have gone to Lebanon and Jordan where they don't have these conveniences and suffer greatly. Syrians feel human in Turkey. At a time other countries have shut their doors to us, Turkey provides education to our kids, vocational courses to women and supports all Syrians," Osman said, adding: "May Allah be pleased with all Turks, be it seven year old or seventy."

Gayidah Najat, another refugee who lost her husband and two children in a bomb attack on their home by terrorist YPG/PKK in northern Syrian city of Ayn al-Arab, also expressed her gratitude, stressing that it was her only option was to take refuge in Turkey with her remaining seven kids.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- has been responsible for the death of some 40,000 people, including many women and children.The PYD/YPG is its Syrian branch.

"We couldn't have survived in the middle of the war, had to leave. We always heard all the good things from other Syrians who went to Turkey before us," said Najat.

"[President] Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the protector of all oppressed, he takes good care of us," she added. "We hope we will return to our countries one day, with wonderful memories."

Zaliha Badr, who came as a refugee five years ago after a long and painful journey from the northeastern Syrian city of Ras al-Ayn, said she saw Turkey for the first time and got used to everything very fast. "We fled the war and came here without expecting any of this good treatment. Thank God, we are very happy here," she said. "There is peace and security in the Turkish-controlled cities of Syria near the border. We look forward to the end of the war that has been ravaging our country for years. We will go back," Badr added.The mahagathbandhan, which is being propped against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by opposition parties, has many leaders who dream of becoming the Prime Minister but their dreams will remain unfulfilled, BJP national spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said on Saturday.

A people's coalition will ensure Modi's victory in 2019 and pull the curtains down on the ragtag mahagathbandhan, he added.

Hussain, who was addressing a press conference at the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) state headquarters here, also accused the Congress of spreading fake facts on key issues.

"The issue of mahagathbandhan is a bogey and it cannot defeat the BJP because those who are on the dais have dreams to be the Prime Minister. Those dreams will be left unfulfilled," Hussain said.

"There is nothing like mahagathbandhan. It is just a platform for betraying people and the people will respond to this. Today, there are many alliances against Modi but the people's coalition is with the Prime Minister. The people of the country have decided that Modi will be re-elected," he added.

He said the leaders who were addressing the mahagathbandhan rally in Kolkata on Saturday have been supportive of Maoist and anti-national forces.

In West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's rally, some people supported Maoists while some uttered words in support of those who have been caught for sedition. It is not correct, Hussain said.

Lashing out at the Congress for consistently spreading fake facts, he said Congress President Rahul Gandhi speaks fake things everyday.

"We believe these fake statements will not have an impact on the people. The whole country knows how fake the Congress is," he added.

--IANS

maya/mag/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Following are the snippets from the speeches of various leaders at the rally of anti-BJP parties at the Brigade Parade Ground here on Saturday.

* National Conference President Farooq Abdullah: "This (Electronic Voting) machine is not there in any part of the world. The machine is used for theft (of votes) and we have seen this in elections."

* West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee: "This 'gathbandhan' (alliance) has been formed to save the people of the nation and give them justice. Everyone has to come together for the sake of the nation."

* Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy: "The BJP leaders are offering huge amounts of cash to MLAs of Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) to resign and join them. Legislators are being treated as commodities."

* Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav: "You are making alliances with the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and ED (Enforcement Directorate). But we have alliances with the people."

* Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav: "Modiji is a factory, manufacturer and distributor of lies. He can give 10 lies free along with one lie. His promises are all fake, so we need to be cautious."

* CM of Andhra Pradesh N. Chandrababu Naidu: "Modi betrayed farmers... A big fraud is going on in the name of agricultural policies. A number of states, including Andhra Pradesh and Bengal are doing far better than the Centre in terms of farmer welfare."

* AAP chief and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal: "In the past 70 years, there has been repeated efforts by Pakistan to weaken the country. Pakistan has failed in planting hatred in the country... But Modi-Shah has done this in just five years."

* DMK President M.K. Stalin: "The 2019 elections in India will be India's second freedom struggle. The BJP at the Centre is sowing the seeds of hatred and divisionism among people. We have to stop that any cost."

* Zoram Nationalist Party leader Lalduhawma: "If that Bill (Citizenship Amendment Bill) is enacted, India will no longer be the place that it used to be ... we want a secular government at the Centre, so that this Bill is withdrawn or exemption given to Northeast."

* Patidar leader Hardik Patel: "Netaji fought against Britishers and we all have united to fight against the thieves. This massive gathering will start a revolution against corruption and loot."

* Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani: "Our country is currently passing through a unprecedented crisis. Our Constitution and country's democracy has been attacked for the last four-and-half years."

* Ex-Arunachal CM Gegong Apang: "I have been fortunate enough to work under Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narsimha Rao, H.D. Deve Gowda, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. They believed in federal democracy. But the last four years have been testing time for Indian democracy."

* NCP President Sharad Pawar: "We have not come to the united opposition rally for any ministerial positions. We all have come here to bring change in the nation and protect the people from atrocities of the BJP regime."

* Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha: "I know BJP will say that we have gathered to remove Narendra Modi from power. But it is not about one single man, it is against the thought process of this party. They have destroyed almost all institutions."

* BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha: "People often ask me why I speak against BJP while being in it. If speaking the truth is rebellion, then, yes, I am a rebel. Till you hide the details (on Rafale) and not answer the questions, the public will continue to say 'chowkidar chor hai'."

* Former Union Minister Arun Shourie: "We (opposition parties and leaders) have to have a single aim - that is ousting the BJP in the next Lok Sabha election. It will not be an easy work - pitching a single opposition candidate in each seat against the BJP. But we must sacrifice for the country."

* Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav: "Country's economy and almost 7 crore people have bore the brunt of demonetisation and GST. Country's freedom, farmers and youth, everyone is in danger."

* Former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda: "The entire country will stand together against the BJP that is misusing power to uproot democratic values of this nation... People want a new government which will protect the democratic system."

--IANS

bdc/nir

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Comedian Kevin Hart will show off his serious side in "Fatherhood", a big screen adaptation of the Matt Logelin bestseller "Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss & Love".

The film, which centers on a widower who must raise his daughter after his wife dies in childbirth, is directed by Paul Weitz, reported variety.com.

Hart recently starred in "The Upside". Success for the film came despite controversy surrounding Hart's selection as Oscar host.

He stepped down from job amid a row over homophobic jokes he made earlier in his career. Hart had been alternately apologetic and defiant while promoting "The Upside", a stance that further inflamed the controversy.

Hart will shoot "Fatherhood" after he wraps up the sequel to "Jumanji".

Sony is beginning a nationwide search for the actress to play Hart's daughter in the film.

--IANS

rb/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Stung by widespread criticism over the numerous errors in the list of women who prayed at the Sabrimala temple, the Kerala government has decided to re-prepare the list.

A counsel of state government had presented the list in the Supreme Court on Friday, which reportedly had discrepancies in the age and names of women. The list was taken from the records of the online system, through which pilgrims register for having "darshan".

The row erupted over flaws in the actual age of some of the 51 women, whom the counsel had referred to in the list as "banned" -- on account of they being of menstruating age group of 10 to 50 years -- who prayed at the temple this season.

State police chief Loknath Behera on Saturday asked senior officials to revise the list, which included even the name of men, besides several of the women above 50.

State Devasom (temples) Minister Kadakampally Surendran told the media that his department has no role in the preparation of the list, while the president of the Travancore Devasom Board - custodian of the temple, A. Padmakumar said they are not responsible for this as they do not prepare statistics of the pilgrims in the temple.

Kanam Rajendran, state secretary of the Communist Party of India - the second biggest ally of the ruling Pinarayi Vijayan government, said the entire responsibility of what has happened lies with the state government.

But the Industries Minister E.P. Jayarajan, the closest aide of Vijayan, defended him by saying that it is not just 51 women, but so many women have had "darshan" at the temple.

Kanaka Durga and Bindu Ammini, both in the "banned" age group of 10 to 50 years, prayed at the Sabarimala temple.

It was after they approached the apex court seeking security for having safe "darshan" that a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice L. Nageswara Rao and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari directed the state government to arrange adequate protection for them.

The list of 51 women is not part of an affidavit but only referred to by the state government counsel in his arguments. Soon the list was highlighted in the media.

"This goof-up reveals the abject failure of the way Vijayan is running the state," said state BJP president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai.

--IANS

sg/rs/nir

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress MLAs in Karnataka, who have been herded to a resort outside the city to keep them away from being poached, on Saturday held a meeting to discuss the political situation in the state.

"The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meet was held at Eagleton Resort. The meet discussed present political situation, drought situation and issues regarding Budget proposals," the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) said in a statement.

The legislators were shifted to the private resort on the city outskirts on Friday night after a CLP meeting was chaired by CLP leader Siddaramaiah at the state legislature building Vidhana Soudha, as a show of legislators' strength.

The Congress party over the past week has been accusing the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of allegedly poaching its legislators.

Karnataka Congress in-charge K.C. Venugopal will interact with the party legislators on Sunday, state unit President Dinesh Gundu Rao tweeted.

"K.C. Venugopal will interact individually with our MLAs regarding parliamentary elections and decision on our future course of action will be taken," Rao tweeted.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis on Saturday called on President Ram Nath Kovind, who said there are immense opportunities for Czech technology and manufacturing in India.

Along with an economic partnership, defence was a key pillar of India-Czech bilateral relations, and India counted the Czech Republic as a key partner in its growth story, Kovind said, according to an official release.

He expressed hope that the two countries would move forward from a traditional buyer-seller relationship to one where they could co-develop and co-produce defence equipment.

The President thanked the government of the Czech Republic for hosting the "Czech Make in India" pavilion at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2019 in Gandhinagar.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Opposition stalwarts from across the nation received huge applause for their repeated humorous digs at the Modi government during the anti-BJP rally at the historic Brigade Parade Ground here on Saturday.

"The expiry date of BJP-government is over. So the New Year will be a fresh change," Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, the organiser of the rally, said as she began her address.

Fond of poetry, the TMC leader coined interesting Bengali phrases "Bajar e legeche aagun jagun Bangla jagun' (Market is on fire, Bengal wake up), "Loot er takay vote lootche shob note" (Votes are conducted using looted money) and "Onek hoyeche Acche din, Ebar BJP ke baad din' (Enough of 'Acche Din', get rid of BJP now).

She mocked that the Bengal unit of BJP always plans meetings seeing her party but they will "always be a zero in Bengal'.

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah took a swipe at the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) calling it a 'chor machine' (stealing machine).

"The EVM is a 'stealing machine' and there are many countries in the world without such machines. It is not hidden how the votes are manipulated using this.

"We must appeal to the Election Commission to go back to the traditional ballot system of voting," Abdullah said.

Referring to what he called 'vindictive and undemocratic' nature of the present government, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: "Years ago after Laluji's (RJD chief Lalu Prasad) rally in Bihar, an income tax notice was issued but no one questioned Amit Shah's repeated rallies in Uttar Pradesh. This is this central government's double standard."

"Aaj agar kahe tussi great ho koi notice nahi aayega (If one praise the government and speaks of its greatness there would no notice be send against them)," Singhvi said in jest.

Urging the people not to vote in any BJP-led coalition again, Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav said 'the party must be submerged in the river Ganga'.

"Narendra Modi is scared of some people and Mamata Banerjee is one of them. That is why Modi and Amit Shah are afraid to come here," DMK President M.K. Stalin said.

Inviting a huge cheer from the audience, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said: "It is a fresh new year, we greeted each other. Just think if this New Year brings a change and gives us a new Prime Minister."

He said that they were teased for having too many 'grooms' vying against the BJP-led government meaning that there is no single prominent prime ministerial candidate from the grand alliance, but the voters will ultimately decide.

"If Tamil Nadu 'can make BJP zero' in their state it is the responsibility of other states to stop the party from winning any seat," he added.

"Modi aur Amit Shah jaane wale hai, aur Acche din aane waale hai (It is time for Narenda Modi and Amit Shah's exit which will be a harbinger of prosperous days)," Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal said, taking potshots at Modi's slogan of "acche din".

Dissident BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha criticised the government's policies and performances while charming the audience with his oratory skills.

"Ek taraf GST doosri taraf notebandi isse kehte hai Neem pe karela (The implementation of GST and demonetisation was like the combination of bitter gourd and neem). There is a huge gap between government's performance and promises," he said.

Directly targeting the Prime Minister, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav said: "Modiji is a factory, manufacturer and distributor of lies. He can give 10 lies free along with one lie. His promises are all fake, so we need to be cautious".

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday said the state is making all-out efforts to attract investment and is holding a global investor summit in Dharamsala on June 10 and 11.

The Chief Minister said the state has created a land bank for allocation to industries and information on this has been made available on the Revenue Department website.

"This is a major step which would help the interested entrepreneurs in getting information about the availability of land as per their choice at one click," he said here at a review meeting of the investor summit.

Thakur said the summit would go a long way in attracting investment of thousands of crores of rupees in tourism, hospitality, resorts, pharmaceutical, information technology, health, herbal and ayurveda, horticulture, power, food processing, real estate and education sectors.

Thakur said Himachal Pradesh has a peaceful environment which will help in attracting entrepreneurs.

He also launched the website and mobile app of the global investor summit.

Chief Secretary B.K. Agarwal said roadshows would also be organised in major cities across the country about the summit and the Chief Minister would participate in it in Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The hills of Himachal Pradesh on Saturday saw a marginal rise in the temperatures, but the Met Office here forecast crain and more snowfall in the next three days.

Residents and tourists have been advised not to venture out on the high hills till January 24 as chances of road links being snapped were high.

"There are chances of widespread rainfall and snowfall in the state from January 20 to 24," Meteorological Office Director Manmohan Singh told IANS.

He said the western disturbances - storm systems originating from Caspian Sea and moving across the Afghanistan-Pakistan region - would be active again in the region.

Most of the prominent tourist towns like Shimla, Narkanda, Kufri, Manali and Dalhousie might witness moderate snowfall mainly from January 20, he said.

The supply of essential commodities and transportation of people may get hampered in remote areas of the state with snowfall, a government official told IANS.

Keylong in Lahaul and Spiti district was the coldest in the state with a low of minus 5.2 degrees Celsius against Friday's minus 7 degrees.

Shimla recorded the minimum temperature at 7.7 degrees Celsius. It saw a low of 4.2 degrees on Friday.

Kalpa in Kinnaur district recorded a low of minus 1.8 degrees Celsius, while it was 3.2 degrees in Kufri, 5.7 degrees in Dalhousie and 6.2 degrees at Dharamsala.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for serious talks between the US and North Korea, and for a clear roadmap of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

"We believe it's high time to make sure that the negotiations between the US and North Korea start again seriously, and that a roadmap is clearly defined for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Guterres said on Friday at a press conference, Xinhua reported.

"We will not advocate for any anticipation of other measures before a clear negotiation is put in place, aiming at the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula with a roadmap," he added.

Guterres made the remarks when US President Donald Trump was meeting North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chol at the White House.

"We encourage both countries to move on with the negotiations. We need a clear roadmap, as I said, to clarify things, to allow us to know exactly what the next step will be and to have predictability in the way negotiations take place," he said.

The White House said Friday that Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will meet again at the end of February at a venue to be announced later.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Trade between Qatar and Turkey is estimated to have topped the $2bn mark in 2018, a 54 percent jump compared with the previous year, a Turkish official said, Al Jazeera reports. Speaking at a Turkish trade expo that kicked off in Doha on Wednesday, Deputy Finance Minister Osman Dincbas said Qatar was one of the fastest growing areas of trade for Turkey in 2018, and the $2bn figure was expected to grow.

Since the launch of the Saudi-led boycott of Qatar in June 2017, Ankara has emerged as one of Doha's top trading partners, sending additional troops, food, and other products to shore up the Gulf state's needs. The blockading quartet - including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain - accused Doha of supporting terrorism and siding with Iran, accusations Qatar has categorically denied.

Qatar last year pledged a $15bn package of economic projects, investments and deposits to Turkey that included an up to $3bn currency swap to firm up the country's battered currency, the lira. Dincbas said that "a portion" of the $15bn had so far arrived but declined to specify how much or in what form.

Qatar-Turkey trade volume for the first 10 months of 2018, according to the latest data available, indicates $1.7bn of total trade - higher than the $1.3bn in all of 2017, a Turkish trade official said. That figure includes goods such as Turkish food and building materials to Qatar and Qatari liquefied natural gas and aluminium to Turkey.

Abu Issa Holdings, one of the largest distributors and retailers of supermarket goods in Qatar, has seen its Turkish brands mushroom to about 25 percent of its portfolio from about 10 percent before the boycott, CEO Ashraf Abu Issa said.

At the expo, Abu Issa showcased Turkish honey and pasta introduced after the boycott that he said have become top sellers in Qatar, replacing Saudi and Emirati brands that once crowded shelves in Doha. Others, such as Kingspan, an importer of Turkish insulated panels for warehouses and cold storage, said volume nearly doubled last year.

Abu Issa said he would stick with Turkish brands that have become popular even if the boycott were lifted, despite higher shipping costs. "We will continue with Turkey for sure. They are not a replacement. This should have happened a long time ago. We discovered some amazing products and the quality is superior to what we would get from there," he said, referring to the blockading nations.National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah on Saturday urged the opposition parties to fight the coming Lok Sabha elections together to oust the BJP, not worrying about issue of prime ministership, which will be settled after the polls.

Addressing the mega opposition rally here convened by the Trinamool Congress, he termed the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) a "chor" machine which needs to be replaced with ballot papers.

He hoped that a new government will assume office after the Lok Sabha polls which will create a new India.

"We have to oust the BJP. We have to fight the election together, we are together. I hope there will be a new government this year which will give justice to the entire country, which will restore the dignity of institutions and will create a new India in which everyone will live with happiness and make progress," he said.

The former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister said that India cannot become strong by strengthening military alone but by "connecting hearts".

"India can become strong by connecting hearts. No one who lives here should feel that he does not belong to the country. Now it is your duty and our duty that we should be together and not think that I will become prime minister. It will be seen later who will become prime minister. First we have to fight the election, fight it together and strongly that is the way to move forward."

On the issue of EVMs, which the opposition parties have accused BJP of misusing in the past, Abdullah said "this machine should be destroyed."

"This machine is not there in any part of the world. The machine is used for theft (of votes) and we have seen this in elections. We should together move the Election Commission and approach the President on the issue and demand that this machine should be replaced with paper ballot," he said.

He accused the BJP-led government of doing little for women empowerment, saying women's reservation bill has been pending in parliament for many years.

"They stood for triple talaq bill but did not do anything for welfare of women. They will not get the women's reservation bill passed. We hope that such a government will come to power where out sisters get their rights, where they also feel that they are part of this country.

He thanked the people of Bengal for turning up for the rally in large numbers and invited them to come to Kashmir.

The mega rally has been convened by Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a fresh attempt to woo children into joining its network and boost user growth, Facebook is testing a new hub called "LOL" that will let kids share and post humorous meme content.

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch late Friday that it was experimenting with the "LOL" hub for kids. "We are running a small scale test and the concept is in the early stages right now," the spokesperson said in a statement.

Divided into categories like "For You", "Animals", "Fails" and "Pranks", "LoL" will be a special feed of funny videos and GIF-like clips.

The company is yet to decide if "LOL" will become a stand-alone app or be available in the main Facebook app.

"'LOL' is currently in private beta with around 100 high school students who signed non-disclosure agreements with parental consent to do focus groups and one-on-one testing with Facebook staff," said the report.

According to social media experts, this is yet another attempt by Facebook -- embroiled in several data breach and privacy violation cases -- to get into a yet-to-be-tapped market to boost its stalled user growth.

"It may not be a good idea to again start some specific social media platform for tender minds especially when the content is not guided. There has been a call globally to limit the screen time for kids and Facebook is somehow trying to hook them onto screens," Anoop Mishra, one of the nation's leading social media experts, told IANS on Saturday.

Despite call for withdrawal by experts, Facebook has decided to expand the reach of its Messenger Kids by introducing the video calling and messaging app designed for children under 13. The Messenger Kids app was launched in the US in 2017.

In 2018, more than 100 child health experts wrote an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, urging him to discontinue the app.

"At a time when there is mounting concern about how social media use affects adolescents' well being, it is particularly irresponsible to encourage children as young as pre-schoolers to start using a Facebook product," the authors wrote.

British Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt also warned the social media giant to stay away from his children.

"Facebook told me they would come back with ideas to PREVENT underage use of their product, but instead they are actively targeting younger children. Stay away from my kids please Facebook and act responsibly!" Hunt had posted on Twitter.

Responding to the backlash that Facebook's Messenger Kids is facing, a top executive of the social network said that families would be better off because the video calling and messaging app designed for the under 13s exists. "I firmly believe that it is a good product," said David Marcus, Facebook's Vice President of Messaging Products.

But experts feel that the app's overall impact on families and society is likely to be negative, and it could normalise social media use among young children by creating peer pressure.

"With the growing incidences of child trafficking, wrong marketing messaging amid absence of proper guidelines, such new apps meant for kids can be another cause of concerns for parents," stressed Mishra.

With over a billion users, Facebook-owned photo-sharing platform Instagram is currently very popular among teenagers.

Facebook has over 2.2 billion users globally, including 300 million in India.

The company last year launched a short-form video app called "Lasso" but the app did not gained much popularity.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Facebook is testing a new app for kids called "LOL" that will let users share and post humorous meme content.

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that it was experimenting with the "LOL" hub for kids.

"We are running a small scale test and the concept is in the early stages right now," the spokesperson said in a statement.

Divided into categories like "For You", "Animals", "Fails" and "Pranks", it will be a special feed of funny videos and GIF-like clips.

"'LOL' is currently in private beta with around 100 high school students who signed non-disclosure agreements with parental consent to do focus groups and one-on-one testing with Facebook staff," said the report.

Facebook-owned photo-sharing app Instagram is very popular among teenagers.

The company last year launched a short-form video app called "Lasso" but the app hasn't gained much popularity.

According to the report, Facebook is yet to decide if "LOL" will become a stand-alone app or be available in the main app.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Defence cooperation is a key pillar of ties between India and the Czech Republic, President Ram Nath Kovind said on Saturday when Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis called on him here.

"The President said that along with an economic partnership, defence is a key pillar of India-Czech bilateral relations," the Rashtrapati Bhavan said in a statement.

"He expressed hope that the two countries will move forward from a traditional buyer-seller relationship to one where we can co-develop and co-produce defence equipment," it stated.

Babis called on the President after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in Gandhinagar on Friday.

During that meting, Modi invited Czech companies to take advantage of huge opportunities that the Indian market offered for manufacturing in India, especially in defence, automotive and railway sectors.

On his part, Babis invited nomination of an Indian scientist for its prestigious Research and Development Council which hosts several international researchers of high repute and is headed by himself.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Defeating the ideology of BJP-RSS and removing Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be the primary focus of all opposition parties, Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said here on Saturday.

The leader said the matter of choosing a Prime Ministerial candidate can come later.

"First all of us have to come together to defeat the ideology of BJP and RSS and oust Modi. We will keep working to achieve this target. There is an old saying that if you can survive in Bakri Eid, you can think of dancing in Muharram. So, the possible Prime Ministerial candidate can be decided later," Kharge told the reporters at the state Congress headquarters here.

"I have come here to deliver Sonia Gandhi's message that AICC is ready to work with everyone across the country (to topple the BJP government)," he said.

Talking about the current political situation in Karnataka, where the ruling Congress accused the Narendra Modi regime at the Centre of attempting to "take control" of its party MLAs, the leader said his party is trying hard to keep the alliance with JD-S intact.

Congress accused the Centre of trying to topple the Karnataka government by scaring its MLAs using CBI, Income Tax and ED after four out of 79 Congress legislators skipped the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meet on Friday.

"The alliance with JD-S is still there. Congress is making all efforts to keep the alliance intact. BJP is trying divide, but we are trying to unite people. Two of the four MLAs who were absent have sent letters stating the reason of their absence. One had a case going on in the Supreme Court while the other was too far to attend the meeting," he said.

The Congress leader also said the party will send notice to the two absconding MLAs and take action against them as per the anti-defection law if their explanations are not found to be satisfactory.

When asked whether Congress would have any alliance with West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress in the state, Kharge said it is up to the party's state unit to take a call on that.

"There is a different situation in every state. We are aligning with the NCP in Maharashtra, with DMK in Tamil Nadu and with TDP in Andhra Pradesh. So, the strategy in Bengal will be decided by the party's state unit here. We will do whatever is good for the country and does not hamper the party ideology in any way," he added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The latest Ramcharan Teja starrer in Telugu, "Vinaya Vidheya Rama" (VVR), which opened on Pongal all across Andhra Pradesh, is a deeply offensive film on every possible level. It insults the female sex by lewdly objectifying the heroine Kiara Advani.

It also insults the audiences? basic intelligence by taking the most outrageous liberties with time and space. To give an early indication of the film?s topographical tyranny, in one sequence, the film?s super-duper-hero Rama crashes out of an airport?s check-in lounge, jumps on a speeding train-top from Gujarat which takes him to Bihar to save his brother.

Don?t ask how Rama is able to time his furious travel plan with the Bihar train timings. I think it was Dharmendra who first balanced himself on a speeding train roof to avenge the wrongs done to his onscreen family in "Yaadon Ki Baaraat". If he saw Ramcharan Teja?s loco-motivated homage to that old spirit of dada-giri Dharam Paaji style, Dharmendra would probably regret the day he agreed to travel ticketless.

There are many other absolutely unacceptable leaps of imagination in VVR that boggle the mind and do a great disservice to progressive cinema all across India.

As a Bihari, my biggest grouse against "Vinaya Vidheya Rama" is in the way Bihar and Biharis are shown as scruffy, sleazy, murderous bandits and outlaws. For years, filmmakers and actors in the South have complained about the way Hindi cinema depicts South Indians in a stereotypical ?Lungi Dance? avatar. In fact in the NTR biopic that opened this week, NTR (Balakrishna) is seen haranguing Mrs Indira Gandhi for referring to South Indians as ?Madrasis'.

I wonder what NTR would have to say about Ramcharan Teja?s licentious lies regarding Bihar and Biharis. For one, the film?s main villain, Raja Bhai played by Vivek Oberoi, is shown to be a Bihari running his own army in "Bihar"?or what passes off as Bihar in this madly confounded film which knows neither its history or geography well enough to make the narrative half-way coherent.

Raja Babu is shown to bully the Bihar Chief Minister, Mahesh Manjrekar, into perpetrating the worst havoc imaginable. The tyranny gets acutely unbearable when Raja Babu kidnaps the Election Commissioner and makes him dance in public wearing ghungroos(anklets) on his feet to humiliate him.

I really didn'?t get that one. Why would a dance in ghungroos be such an act of humiliation for a decent man whose nose the villain wants to rub in the ground? There are so many renowned much respected Kathak and Bharat Natyam dancers in India. Kamal Haasan and Birju Maharaja are names that come to mind.

This crass film moves forward on the strength of its own perverse definition of machismo and virility. The hero is shown literally beating up an army of ?Bihari? goons (all armed with guns, machets and other weapons) as the soundtrack emblasons his heroics with sounds that suggest a siren call for absolute anarchy.

My quibble with the film?s crass conflicts are with its ?Bihar? connections. The hinterland is replete with sandscapes and horses and outlaws who look like they are earning extra money by sneaking out of a Ram Gopal Verma action film and is no part of any Bihar that I know.

Why are Biharis considered to be so thick-skinned as to silently accept being portrayed as the worst scum of the earth? Isn?t that the image that chauvinistic political parties in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh favour in order to put migrants from UP and Bihar in place, namely back to their home states? And now, depicting Biharis as lumpen elements is taken to the next level. The hero must travel to Bihar(from Gujarat, on a speeding train upon which he jumps on from above) to rescue his Telugu family from North Indian pseudo-Maoists.

Dravidian rectitude survives.

(Subhash K. Jha can be contacted at jhasubh@gmail.com <mailto:jhasubh@gmail.com>)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Union Minister Srikant Jena and former MLA Krushna Chandra Sagaria have been expelled from Congress for alleged anti-party activities in Odisha, a senior party leader said.

In a late Saturday night press release, Odisha Pradesh Congress disciplinary committee convenor Ananta Sethi said the two leaders have been expelled from the primary membership of the party following the approval of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

They have been expelled on the charge of anti-party activities and issuing statements in media against the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) office bearers causing damage to the Congress, said Sethi.

While Jena was a former Union Minister in the previous UPA government, Sagaria represented Koraput assembly constituency.

Jena had earlier resigned from all party posts by openly challenging the state leadership in December last year. Sagaria formally resigned from the membership of the Odisha assembly on November 6, 2018.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Central government has removed two (PNB) Executive Directors -- Sanjiv Sharan and K.Veera Brahmaji Rao -- for the lapses in the Rs 13,500 crore fraud allegedly perpetrated by absconding diamantaire Nirav Modi.

The PNB has intimated the action to the stock exchanges on Friday.

"We welcome the Central government's action to dismiss the two Executive Directors. The scam of such proportions could not have happened without the knowledge of the top management," C.H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary, All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA), told IANS.

"Perhaps for the first time, the Centra has removed the Executive Directors of a nationalised bank under the Nationalised (Management and Miscellaneous Provision) Scheme, 1970. All these days it was said the top management of government-owned -- Chairman, Managing Director, Executive Directors -- are governed only by the contract of appointment.

"It is also good that the central government has followed the due process of giving the two PNB Executive Directors opportunity to put forth their views before dismissing them," Venkatachalam added.

According to the Central government's notification, on July 3, 2018, Sharan and Rao were issued a show cause notice as to why they could not be removed from office for having failed to exercise proper control over the functioning of PNB, thus enabling the fraud through the misuse of SWIFT at the bank's Brady House branch in Mumbai.

After considering Sharan and Rao's replies and the comments of the bank's Board, the Centre removed them from office as it found it was expedient in the interests of PNB.

According to the notification, the dismissal of Rao is subject to the outcome of a plea in the Delhi High Court.

"We are happy to see some action being taken. Whether it is only the two Executive Directors and other officials are also involved in the scam has to be probed in full," Venkatachalam said.

According to him, in the past, low-level officers would have been the scapegoats for such massive scams.

"With the action taken on the top management, people will be satisfied that public sector bank officials are answerable for their lapses," Venkatachalam added.The Border Security Force (BSF) has strongly refuted claims by Bangladeshi border guards' "unfounded allegation that the BSF have been pushing Rohingyas into Bangladeshi territory", an official release said here on Saturday.

"On Friday night, Border Guards Bangladesh's (BGB) Lt. Col. Gomal Kabir over phone informed BSF Commandant Ratnesh Kumar that they have detained 31 Rohingya Muslims along the International Border (with Western Tripura). The BGB commandant insisted the BSF Commandant to take over those Rohingyas inside the India-Bangladesh Border Fencing," a BSF release said.

It said that the BGB Commanding Officer, who is the commandant of 25 Battalion of the BGB, also alleged that the BSF have been pushing Rohingyas into Bangladeshi territory.

"BSF commandant firmly denied any such attempt and refuted the allegation as published in Bangladesh media," the release added.

It also said that during the search of the area and spot verification, there were no signs of any illegal crossing of Rohingyas from the Indian territory to Bangladesh.

A senior BSF official said that during the past one year, 62 Rohingya Muslims had entered India (Tripura) illegally.

He said that the Rohingyas have illegally entered Tripura and a few other northeastern states via Bangladesh in search of jobs and temporary works. But, subsequently they were pushed back following legal and security formalities.

Over 700,000 Rohingyas have fled Myanmar's Rakhine state since August 2017 after a wave of persecution and violence that the UN described as an attempt at "ethnic cleansing". Efforts are on to repatriate them.

Tripura shares an 856-km border with Bangladesh, most of which is fenced except a stretch of nearly 20 km.

Other than Tripura, the other northeastern states sharing the 1,880-km International Border with Bangladesh are Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km) and Assam (263 km).

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Assailing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for trying to poach his party's MLAs by offering "huge amounts of cash", Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumarasawmy on Saturday said legislators were being treated as commodities.

Addressing the rally of anti-BJP opposition leaders at the Brigade Parade ground here, Kumaraswamy accused the saffron party of "making a mockery" of democracy.

He said the developments needed to be looked at seriously as the honour and pride of the legislators is at stake.

"It has become a national issue today. The BJP leaders are offering huge amounts of cash for MLAs of Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) to resign and join them. Legislators are being treated as commodities.

"For us this is the worst phase where the honour and pride of legislators is at stake. They are making mockery of democracy in Karnataka. This needs a serious look."

The Congress has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of indulging openly in horse-trading to bring down the JD-S-Congress coalition government in the southern state.

Congress Legislative Party leader Siddaramaiah has claimed the BJP's top leaders, including national President Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, were behind the attempt to woo the MLAs, in order to come back to power in Karnataka.

The BJP, however, has rejected Congress allegations of attempts to destabilise the Kumaraswamy government.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Months after President Donald Trump announced that he and the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had fallen in love, a report from the Pentagon revealed that North Koreas nuclear weapons program still poses an extraordinary threat to the United States. As Newsweek writes in an article "North Korea Is Still an 'Extraordinary Threat' to the U.S." The report was released just one day before a top North Korean official would arrive in Washington to meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

While a possible new avenue to peace now exists with North Korea, it continues to pose an extraordinary threat and the United States must remain vigilant. In the past, North Korea frequently issued explicit nuclear missile threats against the United States and allies, all the while working aggressively to field the capability to strike the U.S. homeland with nuclear-armed ballistic missiles, the 2019 Missile Defense Review report released Thursday read.

Experts argued that President Trumps diplomacy with North Korea, while symbolically significant, has done little to obtain serious concessions from the rogue kingdom regarding its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. On Wednesday, Pompeo noted that North Korea had taken no concrete steps to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

Trump, however, has touted his high-level summit with Kim in Singapore last June as a major success and signaled that he trusts the North Korean leader because of their good rapport.

During a rally in late September, Trump claimed that he and Kim fell in love because the North Korean leader wrote the President nice letters. I was really being tough and so was he. And we would go back and forth. And then we fell in love, ok? No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters. And theyre great letters. And then we fell in love, he said.

Nevertheless, the diplomatic process appears to be largely stalled, and researchers have determined that North Korea has up to 20 undeclared operating missile bases. The 2019 Missile Defense Review, which Trump presented in a speech at the Pentagon, takes more of a bellicose line toward North Korea.

While acknowledging that a path to peace with North Korea may theoretically be possible, the review endorses a defense and defeat dominant posture toward rogue states, notes a review of the document from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank that has done extensive investigating of North Koreas weapons program.

Kim Yong Chol, a high-level politician in North Korea, is meeting on Friday with Secretary Pompeo in Washington. He will reportedly meet with Trump if the talks with Pompeo goes well.Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) legislators will return on Saturday from a private resort in Gurugram where they were lodged for the last few days, a party leader said.

"All our MLAs have been directed to return to the state," state BJP President B.S. Yeddyurappa told the media here.

The party was not trying to "destabilise" the coalition government as alleged by the Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), he said.

"We are not trying to destabilise the government. We will work as a strong opposition."

Meanwhile, Congress legislators headed to a private resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru after a party meet on Friday, in an attempt to "safeguard" the MLAs.

"The BJP is indulging openly in horse trading. We need to have all our MLAs in our place and deliberate on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections (in April-May)," state Congress President Dinesh Gundu Rao told the media earlier.

--IANS

bha/ksk/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Art, for long, has been a commodity manipulated by select czars of the space, but for British artist Sacha Jafri, works of art are "beautiful, meaningful and poignant" byproducts that spill out of artists' lives.

As he unveiled his Royal Polo Painting during the Argentinian Ambassador's Cup here last week, the artist, who has done paintings on Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and M. S. Dhoni, underlined why he raises funds for humanitarian causes through creation of art.

"An artist is someone who lives their life as an artist, and every now and then, things spill out of them as a byproduct of that life -- that is art. That is something beautiful, meaningful and poignant. Rest of it is a manipulated commodity. It's pretty disgusting to make money out of something soulful. Art becomes a piece of your soul, unfortunately that's being forgotten. Auction houses are not helping," Jafri, who studied fine arts at Oxford, told IANS.

The young Dubai-based artist, who is credited with raising millions of dollars for philanthropic causes across international boundaries, created the highly-valued Royal Polo Painting -- which incorporates the hand-prints and signatures of members of royal families in the United Kingdom and UAE, as also India's erstwhile royals, along with the world's leading Polo players Adolfo Cambiaso and Nina Clarkin, among others -- last June.

According to Jafri, the painting was auctioned to raise funds for the Royal Foundation, the charitable vehicle of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Interestingly, the painting went for 200,000 pounds and was bought by Sanjay Jindal, founder of Gurugram's La Pegasus Polo Centre -- where the painting was recently unveiled by the artist himself.

The unveiling happened during an exhibition match of a polo series between La Pegasus India and Argentina All Stars teams, which was also attended by Argentinian envoy Daniel Chuburu. The overall series ended in a tie.

Jafri, who has been recognised by the United Nations for his artistic and humanitarian feats, has done paintings celebrating the lives and careers of some of the world's best sportspeople -- David Beckham, Alex Ferguson, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Usain Bolt, apart from two on Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama, among others, and says he would never paint for "arrogant money-men".

"I don't wear anything designer; Money buys me time to paint and celebrate careers of people I believe in. I have rejected requests from arrogant money-men who don't really understand humanity or humility or the sense of the soul.

"My paintings are about universal consciousness, the idea that we're all connected, we're all one and we all need to feed back into the universe," the Esquire Middle East Man of the Year 2018 explained.

Saying that a limited set of auction houses have a "complete and utter monopoly on arts", and that they often manipulate the prices and the buyerss to make money, Jafri opined that the great period of arts is certainly not now.

"I'd fight for it and create soulful things, and through creation, raise money for causes of humanity. The fact that auction houses don't do that, I find extraordinary, and they're not feeding back into society, which is where art comes from in the first place. It has been a hypocritical load of smoke and mirrors for a long time, and it's time we stopped falling for it."

The Royal Polo Painting, which Jafri calls a beacon of the spirit of world Polo, is now mounted at Gurugram's La Pegasus Polo Centre for viewing by lovers of the sport.

(Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in <mailto:siddhi.j@ians.in>)

--IANS

sj/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Afghan Taliban on Saturday rejected Pakistani media reports of possible talks with the US in Islamabad and reiterated their refusal to deal directly with the Afghan government.

The news of possible talks between the militants and Washington emerged on Friday following the visit of US President Donald Trump's Special Envoy on Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, to Islamabad.

Refuting the media reports, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement that the group will not hold any talks with the US in Pakistan, Efe news reported. He rejected the reports as rumours.

The Pakistan media on Friday reported that a meeting between the Afghan Taliban and Khalilzad could be possible following his discussions with Prime Minister Imran Khan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and other officials.

Report had also claimed that Islamabad had invited a delegation of over 10 Taliban leaders to attend the talks with Khalilzad on Saturday and Sunday.

The US says that any settlement in Afghanistan must be between the government in Kabul and the Taliban. The Taliban, however, have so far refused to deal directly with the Afghan government, which they consider as "illegitimate".

Last month, Islamabad said it had arranged crucial peace talks between the US and the Taliban leaders in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in the latest push to end the 17-year-long conflict in Afghanistan. Representatives from Pakistan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia also attended the meeting.

The Taliban had also held talks with representatives from Iran in Tehran in December 2018, over Afghanistan situation.

The militants had earlier blamed the US of stalling the talks by refusing to withdraw foreign troops from Afghanistan.

--IANS

soni/nir

(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.)At least 21 people have been killed and 71 others injured in an oil pipeline explosion in central Mexico, authorities said.

It is believed the blast occurred after the pipeline was ruptured by suspected oil thieves in the town of Tlahuelilpan, in Hidalgo state, on Friday night, the BBC reported.

According to officials, dozens of people were scrambling around the ruptured pipeline to fill up containers when fire broke out. TV footage showed large flames and people at the scene with severe burns.

Hidalgo Governor Omar Fayad told the media that the explosion was followed by the fire.

Residents in the immediate vicinity of the pipeline, which runs from the cities of Tuxpan to Tula in the state of Veracruz, had been evacuated, state oil company Pemex said in the statement.

"I'm very sorry for the serious situation in Tlahuelilpan due to a pipeline explosion. I'm in Aguascalientes and since the Director of Pemex and the Defence Secretary briefed me, I gave instructions to contain the fire and treat the victims," tweeted Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Authorities have blamed fuel theft for previous explosions in Mexico. In 2010, a pipeline blew up in the state of Puebla, leaving 28 people dead and scores wounded.

--IANS

soni/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Residents of Zabul province on Friday called on Taliban to join peace talks with the Afghanistan government to bring an end to conflicts and violence in the state.

They also urged the Afghanistan government and Taliban to reach an agreement on a ceasefire in an effort to end the war and bloodshed, reported Tolo News.

The war-torn nation has seen violence for 14 years and the residents said it was time for the Taliban to talk to the Afghan government and end the war.

Tolo quoted a Zabul resident, Abdullah as saying, "First we want a ceasefire and then peace because Afghan people cannot tolerate the war anymore."

"All know that peace talks are underway and this will be a 'shame' for us that foreigners want peace for us and we are staying reluctant," said another resident.

Residents of the region asserted that there is a need for a ceasefire as a first stage. Another Zabul resident, Ehsanullah said people wanted both sides to end the violence.

According to residents , thousands of people in Helmand Province had lost their lives in conflict that has continued for the past 17 years.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Karnataka State President and former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa on Saturday called back all BJP MLAs camping in Gurugram.

The BJP MLAs from Karnataka said they were in Gurugram since Monday evening to devise strategies for the coming Lok Sabha polls, and not to avoid being "poached" by the ruling Congress-JDS alliance.

Earlier in the week, Yeddyurappa had alleged that Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy was indulging in horse-trading by offering money and ministerial posts to BJP MLAs.

"We are not indulging in any poaching. It is Chief Minister Kumaraswamy who is indulging in horse-trading. He himself is offering money and ministerial posts to our MLAs," he had said.

The charges of horse-trading were triggered after three Karnataka Congress MLAs visited Mumbai on Monday, reportedly along with some BJP MLAs. This was followed by the Congress' allegation that the BJP was trying to poach the ruling party's MLAs to destabilise the ruling coalition government in Karnataka.

Political turmoil intensified after two independent MLAs in the Karnataka Assembly - R Shankar and H Nagesh - withdrew their support from the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in the state on Tuesday.

The two MLAs had gone incommunicado two days ago before announcing their decision at a press conference in Mumbai.

In the 224-member Assembly, JD(S) has 37 MLAs and the Congress 80. The Congress-JD(S) alliance has the support of some Independents in the House where the majority figure is 113 stay in power.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The United States cannot enhance its diplomatic relationship with Turkey until Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MSB) is "dealt with", US Senator Lindsey Graham said here on Saturday.

Al Jazeera quoted Graham at a press conference here on Saturday that the US will reintroduce sanctions against those involved in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate building in the Turkish capital on October 2, last year.

The statement from the US Senator came after his meet with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday over the process of US troops' withdrawal from Syria.

Last year in November, after the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US confirmed that Khashoggi's murder was ordered by MSB, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on the 17 Saudi individuals who were allegedly involved in Khashoggi's murder, while the Senate adopted a resolution blaming the Saudi Crown Prince.

In addition, at least 21 Saudis nationals have reportedly been arrested in connection with the case, with five facing the death penalty.

On October 2, Khashoggi was reported missing after he stepped into Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul to collect paperwork that would allow him to get married to his Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz, who later said that he never appeared from the building.

After days of denial, Saudi Arabia confirmed its role in Khashoggi's killing after facing massive pressure from Turkey over its investigations on the issue. However, contradictory statements by Saudi Arabia resulted in an international uproar led by President Erdogan, who demanded Riyadh come clean and accept its role in the scribe's death.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Transgender Actor Zach Barack has made his way to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as he is all set to feature in 'Spider-Man

The actor, who first appeared in the film's trailer, posted a picture on Instagram suggesting he is playing the role of Peter Parker's friend.

While the exact details of Barack's role are being kept under tight wraps, the actor, according to The Hollywood Reporter, joins Parker on a class trip to Europe.

Barack is believed to be the first out transgender actor to appear in a superhero film. His past credit includes several episodes of L.A.'s Finest.

Directed by Jon Watts, the film would see Spider-Man dealing with the fallout from Infinity War, and as per the title, it will be the first Spider-Man solo movie to take the hero out of New York.

The film will feature British actor Tom Holland as Spider-Man, while Jake Gyllenhaal will be seen as the classic Spider-Man villain Mysterio.

'Spider-Man: Far From Home' is scheduled to release on July 5.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Taliban on Saturday refuted reports about their joining the second round of meeting with officials from the United States and Pakistan over Afghanistan peace and reconciliation process here in near future.

In a press statement released here, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid was quoted as saying, "We want to make it clear that we will not hold any meeting with Zalmay Khalilzad in Islamabad."

The decision to hold further talks with the Taliban was taken on Friday during an official meeting between the United States Special Representative for Afghanistan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, whereby Khalilzad stated that the Taliban were reluctant to meet the Afghan government and announce a ceasefire, Geo News reported.

Sources further confirmed Geo News that Pakistan had extended an invitation to attend to hold talks on the Afghan peace process in Islamabad. Pakistan Foreign Minister further promised Khalilzad that his government would cooperate with Afghanistan in having talks with the Taliban.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United States Senator Lindsey Graham on Saturday said he hoped that US will not withdraw from Syria until it formulates a proper plan, otherwise, it would lead to complete chaos in the Middle East, which will be then be similar to an 'Iraq on steroids'.

The US lawmaker further stated that the Donald Trump government would not initiate a complete withdrawal of troops until the Islamic State (ISIS) is entirely destroyed, Voice of America reported.

Addressing a meeting here Saturday, Graham said, "The goal of destroying ISIS is not yet accomplished."

The US Senator flew to Turkey on Friday to hold talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, apart from the country's defence and foreign ministers and intelligence chief, to discuss the process of US troop's withdrawal and ensure the safety of Syrian Kurds in the region after its withdrawal.

"I have long contended that there are elements among the Syrian Kurds that represent a legitimate national security threat to Turkey. Turkey's concern regarding YPG (PKK's Syrian affiliate, the People's Protection Units) elements must be addressed in a real way to ensure that Turkey's borders are secure and are protected from any threats," the US lawmaker said.

Turkey on Friday said that it would not step back until it drives out the terrorists from Syria and 'until justice is served' to the Turkish people who have 'suffered more than their fair share' due to the terrorist attacks planned in Syria.

Recently, Turkish President Erdogan lashed out at Washington following its demands that the Syrian Kurds should not be attacked after the US withdraws its troops from Syria.

Turkey's Anadolu news agency reported that the country will soon launch a counter-terrorist operation, targeting the US-back Kurdish forces in northern Syria, including the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and YPG.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)European shares jumped to their highest level in six weeks as signs of a detente in the trade war between the United States and China lifted markets from Wall Street to Beijing. As Reuters writes in the article European shares surf to six-week highs on U.S.-China trade progress, the pan-European STOXX 600 jumped 1.8 percent and Germany's trade-sensitive DAX .GDAXI climbed 2.6 percent, with industrials, tech and car stocks the biggest drivers of gains across the region.

Markets rose overnight after a report that U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discussed lifting some or all tariffs imposed on Chinese imports and suggested offering a tariff rollback. A Bloomberg report saying China has offered to ramp up imports from the United States in order to reconfigure trading relations between the two countries delivered an extra boost to equities on Friday.

It was not all good news for European stocks though. Telecom Italia (TLIT.MI) dropped 7.2 percent after it said it expected to report full-year organic core earnings of around 8.1 billion euros ($9.2 billion), a drop of under 5 percent compared to the year before.

Another profit warning by Ryanair (RYA.I), which blamed lower-than-expected winter fares due to overcapacity, spooked investors, initially dragging the stock down. By the close, shares in the budget airline were up 0.3 percent, underperforming the market, while rival easyJet also inched up 0.3 percent - one of the weakest FTSE 100 stocks. This announcement was not wholly unexpected so we do not expect the shares to react by the full potential consensus net profit adjustment, Citi analysts said. Among results on Friday was French supermarket retailer Casino (CASP.PA) whose shares rose 6 percent as traders and analysts said fourth-quarter sales had weathered Yellow Vest anti-government demonstrations in France. France has held up well despite disruption from protests, Jefferies said in a research note.

Optimism also came from small-cap German online meal-kit delivery service HelloFresh (HFGG.DE) whose shares surged 21.5 percent after it raised its revenue forecast. Investors are bracing for swings in European stocks as earnings test whether fears about slowing economic and corporate growth that punished equities in recent months are a reality.Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel likened the current NDA government to thieves and said while freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose fought with the Brithishers, the opposition parties along with the people of the country have to fight with theives.

Speaking at the United India rally on Saturday, he said: "Subhash Chandra Bose fought with the Britishers, we have to fight with thieves. All of us are here to save the country and the Constitution."

Addressing the gathering at the same event, Gujarat independent MLA and Dalit leader Jignesh Mewani accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government of destroying the Constitution and democracy. He also claimed that the country in today's time is suffering from an unprecedented crisis.

He said, "Today our country is suffering from an unprecedented crisis. Our democracy and Constitution have been attacked in the last four-and-half years. In the upcoming elections, it is going to be a vital task to defeat the RSS-BJP."

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier said that the rally will unite all opposition parties and it will be platform to fight the battle against the BJP.

According to her, the rally will be "historic" like the rallies organised by former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu in the year 1989 and anti-Emergency leader Jayprakash Narayan in the late 1970s.

She has been touring the country since the last one year in an effort to shore up a strong and united opposition front to fight the Lok Sabha elections against the BJP.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Purnea Lok Sabha Vikas Parishad (PLSVP) conferred the winners of a statewide essay competition for school and college students of Bihar.

The multilingual essay competition held in the fond memory of former Prime Minister Late Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, which was launched on October 2, last year and received a positive response from the students in the first year itself with more than 25,000 entries.

Former MP from Purnea Lok Sabha seat & PLSVP patron, Uday Singh, aka Pappu Singh selected seven school-level and seven college-level participants as the winners of the competition. The first-prize winners of college-level competition Shreyshri, Shail Kumari and Ghulam Mustafa were awarded a cash prize of Rs. 50000 each. "Atal Ji was a man of words and intellect with varied interest in poetry and writing. It's my tribute to late Atal Ji and I am sure the young generation will have a lot to learn from life of Atal Ji."

The winners under school-level category Gaurav Bhardwaj, Mohd. Aarif and Rohit Kumar received a cash prize of Rs. 25000 while Prem Kumar, Niharika Nigam were awarded Rs. 30000 each. Sammi Kumari and Sonam Kumari were awarded Rs. 15000 each, while Roshan Kumar was handed over a cheque of Rs. 10000. The students were also conferred with a certificate of participation. Niharika Nigam who won this prestigious prize said, "This prize is a great honor for me and this Essay competition gave me an opportunity to research and explore more about Atal Ji."

The results of the competition were declared on December 25th, 2018 (Atalji's birthday). 18 participating students from Purnea district were also selected in the competition and they will be provided with a monthly scholarship of Rs. 1000 each for the next 24 months. "I am elated to be selected for this Prize. Atal Ji was a great leader who worked for progress of our country. He respected every religion and we still remember him with lots of affection and respect.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hundreds of people bid an emotional farewell to slain Gdansk mayor Pawel Adamowicz, who was laid to rest, nearly a week after he was fatally stabbed during a charity event in the city.

Amid the chilly weather, the funeral procession commenced from the European Solidarity Center, a museum dedicated to Poland's pro-democracy Solidarity movement.

Citizens stood in long lines outside the museum to pay their last respects to Adamowicz, whose mortal remains were kept in a flower-banked coffin, CNN reported.

A huge crowd gathered in the street outside St. Mary's Basilica to watch the funeral service being conducted inside the church.

European Council President Donald Tusk, who is also a Polish national and hails from Gdansk, attended the funeral service, as well as Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa and Polish President Andrzej Duda.

Days before his funeral service, hundreds of people in Gdansk marched in solidarity of Adamowicz and also protested against the brazen attack on the Polish mayor, who was a well-known critic of Poland's right-wing government.

On Sunday, the 53-year-old mayor was stabbed in the heart and stomach at the stage of a children's hospital charity event when he was thanking everyone who had helped to raise funds for medical equipment.

Subsequently, he was rushed to a hospital, and a five-hour-long emergency surgery took place. Despite being in a critical condition, doctors tried their best to recuperate him, but the leader succumbed to his injuries on Monday.

Police arrested a 27-year-old suspect, who had convictions for bank robbery and had served jail sentences earlier.

A three-day national mourning was declared in the country in the wake of the incident.

Adamowicz entered local politics in 1990 as a local councillor, before serving the current post for over 20 years.

The Polish mayor was a staunch supporter of LGBT rights, immigrants and minority groups.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former BJP ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie on Saturday shared dias with a conglomeration of opposition leaders here and pushed for intensive efforts to oust the Narendra Modi government, feeling it was doable.

Both Sinha and Shourie suggested that opposition parties should field joint candidates against BJP nominees in every Lok Sabha constituency in the General elections.

"I request all the opposition parties to decide collectively and field a common candidate against the BJP candidate in every Lok Sabha constituency to ensure defeat of the BJP in the elections," Sinha said while addressing the grand opposition rally under the aegis of Mamata Banerjee-led All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) here on Saturday.

"If you oppose this government you will be tagged as anti- and if you appease the government you are nationalist and country lover. When I said that peace in Kashmir will come through love and harmony, I was dubbed as Pakistani agent and anti-national," he noted.

Sinha, who resigned from the BJP on April 21 alleging the government of undermining democratic institutions, said: "This is the first government since independence that plays with the figures, manipulates it and projects it as their big achievement."

Arun Shourie advocated that the Opposition must unite together for 'one goal, one vow' and that should be to "outcast the BJP". He said, "All of us should have one goal, one vow and that should be to outcast the BJP. Our focus should not be how to ally with. We must proceed with a sense of sacrifice and not with a sense of calculation."

He also claimed that the BJP could have been defeated in the Gujarat Assembly elections had the opposition united. Citing examples of the recent defeat of BJP in the Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh assembly polls, he asserted that it is not impossible to remove the party from power.

The former Finance minister accused the BJP of going to any extent to satiate their hunger for power. "Prime Minister Modi also realises that he is losing his grip over people. But they can go to any extent for power," he said.

Attacking the Amit Shah-led party over alleged poaching of MLAs in Karnataka, Shourie asserted, "Today we are seeing this in Karnataka, tomorrow it can be Madhya Pradesh. We have to be united and alert."

Suggesting that the opposition parties should unitedly pitch one common candidate against the BJP, he asserted: "People have lost faith in Shah-Modi. Now we have to give people the confidence that we are united."

He also claimed that initially the Opposition was united because of Prime Minister Modi but today it is because of Mamata Banerjee.

"One man who united the Opposition was Modi, but today it is the Bengal's tigress who has put in the effort by organising this rally. Such rallies should be conducted in other parts of the country also where the opposition parties are strong," Shourie added.

The TMC-led anti-BJP rally is being attended by a host of leaders including SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, ????.....among others.

Earlier in the day, union minister and BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had said opposition leaders were 'tired' and 'defeated' wrestlers who want to re-enter the ring to try their luck.

"They all are tired and defeated wrestlers who want to enter the ring again to try their luck. They are forming alliance to fight against the strongest government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he told ANI.

.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)AIMIM chief and Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday lashed out at Pakistan, saying that Islamabad should stop meddling in the affairs of Kashmir as the state will always remain an integral part of India.

"Pakistan should also stop meddling in Kashmir affairs. Kashmir is and will always be an integral part of India. Even Kashmir youth is an integral part and I hope IAS officer Faisal Shah won't join those two parties. Let him sought out his own political journey that is what Kashmir requires. You don't want Kashmir political journey to be controlled by Babus or IB officers sitting in Delhi," he said.

Owaisi was replying to a question from the audience during a panel discussion where he said that irrespective of whether the BJP or the Congress is in power at the Centre, none has a policy or vision to bring back normalcy in Kashmir.

"What we do is that we wait for normalcy and then forget about Kashmir, and whenever there is trouble in Kashmir, we immediately react. I feel that there should be a consistent policy on Kashmir, which unfortunately is lacking," he said.

"Instead of having a policy on Kashmir, the government is aiming to have less lethal weapons, which shows wherein lies the priority," added AIMIM leader.

"There is a lot of alienation. That is why we see that a by-election cannot be held, though more than eight months have passed. We can see Farooq Abdulla gets elected with only 10,000 votes. I feel that the Conference members just went out and voted for him," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Union minister and disgruntled BJP leader Arun Shourie said that the opposition must unite together for 'one goal, one vow' and that should be to "outcast the BJP".

"All of us should have one goal, one vow and that should be to outcast the BJP. Our focus should not be how to ally with. We must proceed with a sense of sacrifice and not with a sense of calculation," Shourie said while addressing at the United India Rally here on Saturday.

He also claimed that the BJP could have been defeated in the Gujarat Assembly elections had the opposition united. Citing examples of the recent defeat of BJP in the Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh assembly polls, he asserted that it is not impossible to remove the party from power.

He also accused the BJP of going to any extent to satiate their hunger for power. "Prime Minister Modi also realises that he is losing his grip over people. But they can go to any extent for power," he said.

Attacking the Amit Shah-led party over alleged poaching of MLAs in Karnataka, Shourie asserted, "Today we are seeing this in Karnataka, tomorrow it can be Madhya Pradesh. We have to be united and alert."

Furthermore, Shourie suggested that the opposition parties unitedly pitch one candidate against the BJP.

Sharpening his attack on the party, he asserted: "People have lost faith in Shah-Modi. Now we have to give people the confidence that we are united."

He also claimed that initially the opposition was united because of Prime Minister Modi but today it is because of Mamata Banerjee.

"One man who united the opposition was Modi, but today it is the Bengal's tigress who has put in the effort by organising this rally. Such rallies should be conducted in other parts of the country also where the opposition parties are strong," Shourie added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A research conducted by the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN) and the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) has shown that treatment using gene therapy leads to faster recovery after nerve damage.

The research combined a surgical repair procedure with gene therapy and stimulated the survival of nerve cells and the regeneration of nerve fibres over a long distance.

The findings, published in the journal Brain, are an important step towards the development of a new treatment for the people with nerve damage.

The study states that during birth or following a traffic accident, nerves in the neck can be torn out of the spinal cord. As a result, these patients lose their arm function and are unable to perform daily activities such as drinking a cup of coffee.

Currently, surgical repair is the only available treatment for patients suffering from this kind of nerve damage.

"After surgery, nerve fibres have to bridge many centimetres before reaching the muscles and nerve cells from which new fibres need to regenerate are lost in large numbers. Most regenerating nerve fibres do not reach the muscles. The recovery of arm function is therefore disappointing and incomplete," explains researcher Ruben Eggers of the NIN.

By combining neurosurgical repair with gene therapy in rats, many of the dying nerve cells can be rescued and nerve fibre growth in the direction of the muscle can be stimulated.

In this study, the researchers used regulatable gene therapy with a growth factor that could be switched on and off by using a widely used antibiotic. "Because we were able to switch off the gene therapy when the growth factor was no longer needed, the regeneration of new nerve fibres towards the muscles was improved considerably," says Ruben Eggers.

To overcome the problem of the immune system recognizing and removing the gene switch, the researchers developed a hidden version, a so-called 'stealth switch'. Professor Joost Verhaagen (NIN) explains: "The stealth gene switch is an important step forward towards the development of gene therapy for nerve damage. The use of a stealth switch improves the gene therapy rendering it even safer."

The gene therapy is not yet ready for use in patients. While the ability to switch off a therapeutic gene is a large step forward, the researchers still found small amounts of the active gene when the switch was turned off. More research is needed to optimise this therapy.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Karnataka chief minister and BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa on Saturday said the Congress and JD(S) have "nothing to worry" as BJP MLAs camping in Gurugram have been called back to Bengaluru.

"Our MLAs are returning to Bengaluru from Delhi. We will tour the state and analyse the situation of drought. We will not destabilise this government at any cost. Congress and JD(S) need not worry," Yeddyurappa told the media here.

The BJP MLAs from Karnataka said they were in Gurugram since Monday evening to devise strategies for the coming Lok Sabha polls, and not to avoid being "poached" by the ruling Congress-JD(S) alliance. However, the MLAs were called back earlier today.

Earlier in the week, Yeddyurappa had alleged that Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy was indulging in horse-trading by offering money and ministerial posts to BJP MLAs.

"We are not indulging in any poaching. It is Chief Minister Kumaraswamy who is indulging in horse-trading. He himself is offering money and ministerial posts to our MLAs," he had said.

The charges of horse-trading were triggered after three Karnataka Congress MLAs visited Mumbai on Monday, reportedly along with some BJP MLAs. This was followed by the Congress' allegation that the BJP was trying to poach the ruling party's MLAs to destabilise the ruling coalition government in Karnataka.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United States President Donald Trump on Saturday said that Mexican government is 'doing nothing' to stop the third caravan of migrants which has been 'fully formed' and is approaching the southern US border.

The US President took to Twitter, saying, "Mexico is doing nothing to stop the caravan, which is now fully formed and heading to the United States. We stopped the last two-many are still in Mexico but can't get through our Wall, but it takes a lot of Border Agents if there is no Wall. Not easy!"

The statement by the US President comes amid the long-standing impasse between Trump and his lawmakers over funding the US $ 5.7 billion on building a border on the southern US-Mexico border, at a time when the federal government is going through a shutdown recorded as the longest in the US history.

A Mexican immigration official stationed at the southern US-Mexico border informed Fox News on Thursday that a new caravan of migrants from Central America, including almost 1,000 people, have begun entering into Mexico from Guatemala.

A wall along the US-Mexico border was one of Trump's signature campaign promises which the Democrats are adamantly opposing, arguing that a wall would be costly and ineffective.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)As many as 21 people were killed in central Mexico after a broken gasoline pipeline exploded in Tlahuelilpan, a town about 80 miles north of Mexico City on Friday evening.

CNN quoted Hidalgo Governor Omar Fayad as saying that at least 71 people were injured in the explosion and the blaze is still continuing.

The state oil company, Pemex, in a statement said that the explosion was caused by illegal taps in the pipeline, following which Fayad called on the community not to steal gasoline.

Pemex also stated that people who reside in the immediate vicinity of the pipeline, which runs from the cities of Tuxpan to Tula in the state of Veracruz, have been evacuated. The oil company highlighted that the explosion would not impact gasoline distribution in Mexico City.

After being briefed about the explosion, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador tweeted, "I'm very sorry for the serious situation in Tlahuelilpan due to a pipeline explosion. I'm in Aguascalientes and since the director of Pemex and the defense secretary briefed me, I gave instructions to contain the fire and treat the victims".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A European Union official in Brussels denied an Iranian media report on Thursday that the special EU trade mechanism proposed to help Iran is ready to be activated, Radio Farda reports. Earlier, the official news agency IRNA had quoted an "EU spokesperson" as having said "on the condition of anonymity" that the Special Purpose Vehicle (SVP) for trade with Iran "is about to become operational."

Later Thursday, RFE/RL's correspondent in Brussels reported that a senior EU official told reporters the SVP is not ready yet and added that the trade issue is part of of a larger bundle of issues related to Iran. The official spoke at a briefing on the condition of anonymity. He added that the SPV "is not ready" yet.

After this statement, it remains unclear why Iran's official news agency made the claim that EU is ready to launch the SVP. The Iranian government has been under pressure by hardliners as EU did not meet the promise it made to facilitate Iran's international trade after the United States withdrew from the deal and imposed sanctions on Iran and vowed to punish foreign companies that would continue trading with Iran.

EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini had said on December 10 that "a system to facilitate non-dollar trade with Iran and circumvent U.S. sanctions could be in place by years end." The system has been provisionally called a Special Purpose Vehicle, which is supposed to facilitate trade with Iran, practically circumventing U.S. sanctions. However, this has not materialized, at least as of mid-January.

IRNA had quoted the anonymous spokesperson as having said that "EU has firm solutions for saving the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action)," the official name for the nuclear deal with Iran. Adding that "The SPV is currently at the last stages before becoming operational," IRNA's alleged source added, "We have updated the European Investment Bank's regulations, and European parties to the JCPOA, France, Germany and the UK are committed to preserve effective financial transactions with Iran especially via the SPV."

The comment came on the same day that Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the hardline secretary of the extremely influential Guardian Council, harshly criticized Iranian officials for not burning the JCPOA after the U.S. pulled out of the deal. Jannati criticized EU for delaying the SVP, adding that like America, "Europe was also Iran's enemy and will not do anything to help Iran."

Iranian officials have repeatedly criticized the EU for delaying the SVP. Earlier this week Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi warned that Iran might be prepared to resume Uranium enrichment at the 20 percent level within a few days. Salehi had said earlier that SPV would be operational by the beginning of 2019.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iranian officials in January not to pin their hope on what Europe had promised to do. Also, Iran warned on Wednesday that it might put an end to its cooperation with EU in the areas of immigration and anti-narcotics efforts.

In the meantime, no European country has accepted to host the financial mechanism to help Iran, fearing US secondary sanctions. Iranian Foreign Ministry officials had said earlier that European countries were taking secret measures to further the SVP. The EU is against Iran's missile program and has already condemned and punished Tehran for its "terrorist activities" in Europe. However, it has remained committed to its obligations under JCPOA.

This week Iran did not help its case by launching a ballistic missile carrying a satellite into orbit. The satellite failed, but Washington says that these launches violate UN resolution 2231, which calls upon Iran from experimenting with missile technology, which can be potentially used to carry nuclear warheads. France has joined in the criticism and has warned Iran not to launch ballistic missiles.

Following US withdrawal from the JCPOA, while criticizing Europe for its inaction, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has been trying to convince his critics and political rivals that differences between the U.S. and EU over the nuclear deal with Iran might provide opportunities for Tehran.US President Donald Trump on Friday said that the venue for the second meeting between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been finalised and the same will be announced in the coming days.

The second North Korea-US summit is scheduled to be held near the end of February, after Trump on Friday met senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol at the White House for fixing a meeting with the North Korean leader and to discuss the issue of denuclearisation.

"We had a very good meeting yesterday with North Korea. That was an incredible meeting," Trump was quoted by Yonhap News Agency as saying.

"It (The meeting) lasted almost two hours and we've agreed to meet sometime probably the end of February. We've picked the country but we'll be announcing it in the future," he added.

Kim Yong Chol arrived in Washington DC on Thursday, which was only his second visit to the US in less than a year. He last visited the country in June last year.

In his first visit that took place last June, the top North Korean official visited New York and held talks with Pompeo before travelling to Washington DC, where he met Trump for two hours and handed over a letter from Kim Jong-un to him.

In that visit, Kim Yong Chol managed to break the deadlock between the US and North Korea, leading to the first-ever meeting between Trump and Kim days later at Capella Hotel in Singapore.

Several media reports have indicated that Vietnam is likely the probable venue for the second meeting between Trump and Kim. It is worth mentioning here that both the US and North Korea have their respective embassies in the communist nation.

Trump claimed that a "lot of progress" was made during his first meeting with Kim Jong-un at Singapore last June, and the same was "not reported by the media." He further said that he was looking forward to meeting the North Korean leader.

"Kim Jong-un is looking very forward to it (the second meeting) and so am I. We've made a lot of progress that has not been reported by the media. But we have made a lot of progress as far as denuclearisation is concerned and we're talking about a lot of different things," the US President further said.

Kim Jong-un has repeatedly stated that his government is committed to fulfilling its promise of achieving denuclearisation and said the same even during his maiden meeting with Trump.

Even though engagements between Washington and Pyongyang reached new heights in 2018 with the unprecedented first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un, the last few months of the year saw a stalemate in relations.

Progress after the first summit has been slow as North Korea has been eyeing sanctions relief. However, the US has insisted that the sanctions would remain intact till the communist country took proper steps for ensuring "fully complete and verifiable denuclearisation."

Kim Jong-un, in his New Year's speech, had threatened that his country would have to "seek a new way" if the US "does not make good on its promises" with regard to denuclearisation and continues with sanctions.

In response, the US has remained firm that sanctions will remain "in full force and effect.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The army on Saturday re-commenced the Khardungla Rescue Operations to search for the five missing bodies of people, who were part of the 12 hit by an avalanche in the Khardung La region of Jammu and Kashmir's Ladakh, here on Saturday.

The search operation was launched to rescue the missing civilians who were buried under an avalanche on 18 January near Khardungla Top.

Rescue teams from the Fire and Fury Corps, mustered from the Base Camp and from Shyok Axis of the Siachen Brigade consisting of Avalanche Panther Teams along with avalanche rescue dogs and deep search radars were employed for the search.

In spite of the inclement weather conditions and snowfall in the area, troops of the Fire and Fury Corps have braved the extreme harsh terrain and severe sub zero temperatures and have been carrying out the the daunting task tirelessly with unflinching dedication and devotion.

A command and control center established at Khardungla Top under the aegis of the Fire and Fury Corps has been continuously coordinating the rescue operations round the clock.

GOC Fire and Fury Corps along with Commander Siachen Brigade carried out an aerial assessment of the incident site and issued further necessary directions for the smooth conduct of the rescue operations.

The search and rescue teams were able to extricate the bodies of two more civilians today, thus bringing the total number of bodies recovered so far to seven.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy claimed that the BJP advocates "horse-trading" in Karnataka while holding talks of weeding out corruption in India, thus highlighting the party's "double standards"

"BJP is offering huge cash to the MLAs of JD (S) and Congress to resign and join them. Legislatures are being treated as commodity and democracy is being mocked at," Kumaraswamy said at the anti-BJP rally here on Saturday. "On one hand in the executive meeting the BJP talks of weeding out corruption while on the other hand encourages horse-trading in Karnataka. This shows the double standards of BJP," he added.

The chief minister's comment comes in the backdrop of alleged political turmoil in Karnataka where the opposition is alleging that BJP is trying to poach Congress MLAs in a bid to destabilize the JD (S)-Congress coalition regime.

At the rally, which is being attended by a number of key Opposition leaders, Kumaraswamy said all leaders are steeping towards building a formidable alliance to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.

"I call all on all the non-BJP leaders to join hands and come together to fight BJP and get rid of anti-constitutional and non-responsive administration," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Sister Anupama along with three other nuns who had pledged support for the nun allegedly raped by Bishop Franco Mulakkal, have penned down a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking his intervention in the matter.

In their letter, the nuns stated that the Bishop is very powerful and can sabotage the case.

"We and Sr. Neena Rose who is also an inmate in the house are facing imminent threats from the de-facto complainant's side, in connivance with the authorities of our own congregation for supporting and helping the victim in the above crime. We think it is our duty to support and 'to be with' the victim of rape, who is our colleague/a sister. The recent developments show that we are not safe in any aspects considering the power, influence and the past activities of the other side. Needless to say, the accused Bishop Franco is very powerful in all aspects. His aim is to sabotage the case and to escape somehow, from the crime he had committed and to go scot-free," the letter read.

On the issue of transfer, the nuns said: "A few days ago, we received transfer orders from the Superior of the Congregation, Sr. Regina, who is always dancing to the tune orchestrated by Bishop Franco/the accused. As per the orders Sr. Anupama is transferred to Punjab, Sr. Josephine to Jharkhand, Sr. Alphy to Bihar and Sr. Aneitta to Kannur. The victim in the above-referred crime is actually living at the strength and support being extended from our side. Our presence itself is a great solace for her, who is totally in a broken situation. Bishop Franco is supported by some of the church authorities and his henchmen."

"They are making false propagations and character assassination against us. The aim of the present transfer is to pressurise and threaten us as we all are prominent witnesses in the case. They want to split all of us and put into different locations in India. We will not be able to appear and give evidence before the court at the trial stage in such situations. Our fate itself is unpredictable if we are transferred to distant regions. The memories of Fr. Kuriakose Kattutlatra make us scared. The transfer order is a strategy to put all of us under pressure. If the transfer is affected we will not be in a position to give evidence in the case daringly. We will not be allowed to live peacefully and we would be emotionally and mentally collapsed. Our life itself would be in danger and risk," the nuns further stated in the letter.

"Nowadays the local authority Sr. Anit Koovaloor the superior of the house where we are residing not providing us even for the minimum requirements for the subsistence including for our treatments. We have nowhere to go and no income also. If my fellow nuns are sent out of Kerala that would definitely affect the prosecution and a fair trial would not be possible and justice will not be delivered. Their aim is to 'single out me' and to harass and torture her. Their aim is to place us into unbearable situations and thereby to put into fear and anxiety in order to settle the case 'as they wish' for which we are not amenable. We admit that we are not strong enough or capable to fight with the mighty power of the institution and Bishop Franco," the letter read.

In his concluding statement, the nuns stated, "We humbly request your good self to interfere in the matter and to ensure that all us could live in St. Francis Mission Home, Kuravilangad itself, till the trial of the case is over, especially considering our safety. I am once again praying for the justice for myself and my fellow sisters, in the above-explained circumstances."

Bishop Mulakkal has been accused of raping and forcing unnatural sex on the nun multiple times between 2014 and 2016.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Displaced Kashmiri Pandits on Saturday commemorated their day of exodus from the Valley almost 30 years ago by holding a silent protest here.

Donning black headbands the protesters, including women and children took an oath pledging to return to their homelands, during the protest at Raj Ghat here.

The event marks the anniversary of January 19, 1990, which they call 'Exodus Day' as it marked the exodus of the community from the Valley in the wake of an outbreak of terrorism.

Suman Koul, a Kashmiri Pandit told ANI: "We are having a silent protest here with black bands on our head because we consider this day as black day." She requested the government to help them return to their homes in the valley.

Around 5 Lakh Kashmiri Pandits were forced to leave the Valley after January 19, 1990 as they were a target of extremist attacks.

Another Kashmiri Pandit Vanshika Bhatt told ANI," I haven't seen my Kashmir yet. Prominent personalities are tweeting about this but only Narendra Modi has the authority to do something for us. He can and he should do it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Special CBI court on Saturday granted regular bail to former Railways minister Lalu Yadav in the IRCTC scam case.

Special CBI judge Arun Bharadwaj directed the Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) supremo to furnish an amount of Rs 1 lakh as a personal bail bond and one surety of like amount. Yadav is already on an interim bail while the other accused in the case are on regular bail.

Meanwhile, in the case filed by the Enforcement Directorate, order on regular bail plea is already reserved by the court and listed for hearing on January 28.

Lalu is facing charges of misusing his position in the allotment of a contract to a private company for the maintenance of two IRCTC hotels located at Puri and Ranchi.

The prosecution report had stated that the two hotels of the Indian Railways were first transferred to IRCTC and was sub-leased to the Sujata Hotel Pvt. Ltd owned by Vijay and Vinay Kochhar for maintenance.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also filed a reply in the Delhi Court and opposed regular bail plea to all the accused in the case including Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi and others.

ED in its reply said that the offences were affecting the economy, thereby posing the serious threat to the financial health of the country.

Whereas Counsel for Lalu and family said, no one arrested during trial.

All documents seized, no vulnerable witness cited by ED and He (Laloo) is 69 year old and not well, Rabri is 63-year old. Tejaswi was in his teens when this conspiracy started, so it's matter of debate if he was in knowledge of what was going on.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)New Delhi [India], Jan 19 (ANI): Seeking to make up for the losses in different crashes, the Indian Air Force (IAF) is planning to place an order for eight new Su-30MKI combat aircraft from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), likely to be worth over Rs 3,000 crore.

"The plan is to acquire eight new Su-30MKI combat planes," top Indian Air Force sources told ANI.

"We have lost a few aircraft in accidents over a period of time and to make up for the losses, we are looking to place orders for eight new Su-30MKI combat aircraft," the sources said.

The IAF sources said media reports suggesting that the force was looking to acquire 40 new Su-30MKI planes was news to them.

As per reports, the HAL has made an offer of selling 40 Su-30MKI planes to the force with latest upgrades and the offer is seen as an emergency measure for the Air Force to meet its requirement for combat planes in view of the dwindling fighter squadrons.

The IAF has already inducted around 12 squadrons of the formidable heavyweight air superiority aircraft which were first inducted in the year 2000.

Sources said that the Air Force will have a total of 13.5 squadrons of the planes in service by the end of 2021-22, with few of them being in reserve.

A total of 272 Su-30MKI planes have been ordered from Russia in different batches by the Air Force to tackle the fall in the number of squadrons of the fighter planes.

The Su-30MKI was inducted by the Air Force to fill the gap created by the retiring MiG-21s, MiG27s, MiG-23s and the other older generation planes such as the MiG-29s and the Jaguars and is not in the four-plus generation planes like the Rafale fighter jets.

The Air Force has been sanctioned 42 squadrons of fighter planes by the government but due to the phase-out and number-plating of squadrons of older planes, it is now left with only 31 squadrons.

The Air Force is now looking at the induction of two squadrons of Rafale planes along with a plan for acquiring 114 multirole fighter planes to meet the shortfall.

The mainstay of the IAF is Su-30MKIs, MiG-21 Bisons, Mirage-2000, Jaguars and MiG-29s.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday said that the body has not received requests from other countries to initiate a criminal investigation into the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Guterres said that he himself does not have the power to launch any criminal probe unless the Security Council provides a mandate that recognises a matter could be a threat to peace and security.

Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi regime, went missing on October 2 last year after he stepped into Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul to collect paperwork that would allow him to get married to his Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz, who later said that he never appeared from the building.

"I don't have the right to launch any investigation, there is huge confusion about what the Secretary-General can and can't do. I do not have the right to launch a criminal investigation myself and no formal criminal investigation was requested to me by any member state," he was quoted by Anadolu News Agency as saying while briefing reporters at the UN headquarters here.

The UN chief underlined that the Human Rights Council has the power to investigate Khashoggi's killing.

"The Human Rights Council has the possibility to take decisions in relation to launching different forms of interaction. There are many instruments the Human Rights Council can use, requested by member states, and I am not in a position to encourage member states. I'm saying these instruments are available," Guterres added.

After presenting several contradictory theories, Saudi Arabia acknowledged that Khashoggi was killed in the consulate premises in what the country's then Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir had described as a "rogue operation" led by two officials - the Deputy Intelligence Chief Ahmad al-Assiri and the Royal Court Adviser Saud al-Qahtani - who have since been sacked.

Last December, UN Human Rights Chief Michele Bachelet said that the murder of the Saudi scribe does require an international investigation.

Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia held the initial hearing in the Khashoggi murder case, wherein the public prosecutor sought the death penalty for five of the 11 accused for their alleged direct involvement in the murder.

Investigations into Khashoggi's killing are still going on in both Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Furthermore, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report inferred the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman to be behind the scribe's death - the allegations of which have been repeatedly and strongly refuted by Riyadh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A man working at a night club as a bouncer allegedly shot dead a 22-year-old woman on Saturday for not withdrawing a rape case filed by her against him.

The victim's body was found lying near Khusboo Chowk situated on Gurgaon-Faridabad expressway by some commuters who informed the police control room.

Police said the accused, Sandeep Kumar, murdered the woman just a few hours before she was to record her statement in court.

Speaking to ANI, the victim's mother said, "The accused came to our house situated in Nathupur early morning and requested to speak to my daughter in his car. Later, my daughter along with her friend sat in the car. Around 6 am in the morning, Sandeep came to me and started pressurising me to take the case back, failing to do which he said he would kill my daughter."

The deceased's mother further said that an FIR was registered in March 2017 against Sandeep for allegedly raping her daughter, who was working with him in the same night club. "Gurugram police arrested the accused and he later got bail from court," she added

Gurugram ACP Shamsher Singh said a complaint has been filed against Sandeep on the basis of the statement recorded by the victim's friend who was seated in the car at the time of the incident.

Sandeep, a resident of Faridabad, is presently absconding.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Retired Short Service Commission (SSC) officers of the armed forces on Saturday held a protest at the Jantar Mantar here demanding pension and health facilities.

Retired SSC officer Major SS Pandey told ANI, "The grant of commission in the Army is prestige and we were given the opportunity to serve the nation. But the benefits associated with the rank are being denied to us."

The former officers claimed the post-retirement facilities and privileges accorded to them have been either diluted or withdrawn.

"All facilities including medical benefits have been withdrawn and the only facility available to us is the canteen, which too may be withdrawn soon," he added.

An Armed Forces tribunal verdict in favour of health facilities to the retired officers was challenged by the Defence Ministry and the case pending in the Supreme Court is scheduled to come up for hearing in the apex court on February 11.

Major Randeep Hundal, also president of All India SSC Society, said that the 10-year service of the officers is reversed to five years so that after that they could be hired by other private companies who look for young candidates.

SSC term, which was previously for five years was later increased to 10 years and now stands at 14 years of service.

The officers welcomed the decision of the Defence Ministry to allow women to join as jawans in the Corps of Military Police in the Army.

These ex-officers are amongst about 10,000 officers including veterans of 1965, 1971 and 1999 wars and also include officers who have fought the insurgency in Kashmir and North- East India during their tenure in service.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)New Delhi, (IANS) Sri Lanka wants to take back all Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who are now in India, countrys High Commissioner to India Austin Fernando said on Friday.

With around 5,000 of these refugees having already returned, we now want to take the rest of them back to their original places, Fernando said while delivering a speech on Post 2015: Reconciliation Milestones in Sri Lanka, organised by the Foreign Correspondents Club here.

According to Fernando, who took charge as the new Sri Lankan High Commissioner in November last year, there are around 100,000 of these refugees who had come to India during the civil war in the Indian Ocean island nation that ended in 2009.

He said that while some 20 to 30 per cent of these people would like to stay on in India, the rest would like to go back, adding that he would soon be going to south India to meet them.

We will tell them that we will look after them, the High Commissioner said.

They need a roof over their head, they should be safe, their children should get education, he stated.

They must also get employment after returning.

Asked whether Colombo has a deadline to take back these people, Fernando said there is no time frame as such but we would like to take them at the earliest.

There are many logistical problems as well, he said.

Stating that the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner is in close touch with these people, he said that Colombo and New Delhi need to have a serious dialogue on this issue.

Fernando also assured that immigration will not be a problem for those who are returning.Conference (NC) leader Farooq Abdullah said opposition leaders must not give thought to their individual prospects of becoming the next Prime Minister, rather fight collectively against the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Addressing the TMC-led opposition rally here, Abdullah said: "The leaders must not think about their chances of becoming the prime Minister, which will be decided afterwards. As of now we all should collectively concentrate on fighting the elections together so as to defeat the BJP and save democracy and the nation."

Raking up the broiling Kashmir issue, Abdullah said that people are being killed everywhere in Kashmir and are being dubbed as "Pakistani" and "anti-nationalist".

Accusing the BJP of playing communal politics, Abdullah stated that although he is a Muslim, he identifies himself as an Indian first.

"Though I am a Muslim but part of Bharat and Hindustan. Every Kashmiri wants to live with this country," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Police in Rajasthan's Pratapgarh arrested Manish Bairagi, a BJP worker, in connection with the murder of Madhya Pradesh BJP leader Prahlad Bandhwar.

Bandhwar, who served as the Mandsaur Municipal Corporation president, was shot dead in Nai Abaadi area on Thursday.

A day after the incident, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan expressed grief over Bandhwar's demise and said that he has requested Chief Minister Kamal Nath to order a top-level investigation into the matter.

"Prahlad Bandhwar was a well-known politician. He played a huge role in promoting the BJP in Mandsaur. Not just he used to work for the poor, he even fought for the rights of common people and was always concerned about the development of Mandsaur. I never thought that he had a personal problem with anyone. He was loved by all," Chouhan told ANI.

However, Kamal Nath said there was "no need for a big investigation" into the death of Bandhwar.

"The son of the victim himself registered the name of the accused in the FIR. There's no need for a big investigation, there are two eyewitnesses. Death should not be politicised especially when it's an internal matter of a party," Nath told media in Bhopal on Friday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday warned the ruling BJP about leaving behind a culture of misuse of central investigative agencies and said it should be ready to face the same in future.

"When BJP realised that Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party were looking forward to a grand alliance in Uttar Pradesh, they alerted the CBI and started planning to win at least one seat in Uttar Pradesh. BJP is leaving behind the culture of misusing the central investigative agencies and it should be ready to face the same in the future" the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said at the mega opposition rally here led by Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress.

The CBI is probing Akhilesh's role in the illegal sand mining case in Uttar Pradesh during his tenure as Chief Minister, when he had also held the mining portfolio of the state for a year.

The former UP chief minister spoke about the alliance formed by opposition parties to defeat the Modi-led government at the Centre in the upcoming Assembly polls.

"At present, we have an alliance of a few parties. However, we have learnt the art of forming an alliance from the BJP. BJP has an alliance of 40 political parties along with investigative agencies like CBI and ED. They inspired us and now this a beautiful bouquet of opposition parties here," Akhilesh said.

"They formed an alliance to benefit themselves. They know how to use their allies including CBI and ED, however, we are coming together for the people of this country. Our alliance will work for the people not to fulfil our own aspiration," he added.

The former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh alleged that BJP plotted against opposition parties and attempted to defame them. "They should be aware that if Tamil Nadu can make BJP zero in their state then they can get the similar results in the other states too," he added.

Referring to the ongoing tussle within the CBI the Samajwadi leader said, "Who will probe the CBI? There is so much fighting within the CBI with several allegations and counter-allegations taking place."

Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also took a dig at BJP. "Our party will make BJP zero in Bengal, you (Akhilesh) make it zero in Uttar Pradesh," he said.

Akhilesh also took lashed out at BJP for predicting the impossibility of a grand alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. "They said the mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) will never happen in Uttar Pradesh but last week we cleared their doubt. We made the impossible happen and credit goes to the BJP because they made us realise that they need to be defeated in the upcomng general elections," he said.

Continuing his tirade against BJP, Akhilesh said "Those who failed, deceived and betrayed people..... those who conspired and spread hatred...do they have any other name for the prime minister's role?" he asked adding that BJP was disturbing the communal harmony of the country.

Complimenting the TMC leader for hosting the grand meet, Akhilesh said, "We all are present here today to show our strength of unity. We have begun our battle from Bengal and the rest of the country will join. We are confident that we will win 2019 polls and the country will be happy to see a new prime minister.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A journalist, named Feroze Akhtar, was shot at by unknown assailants in Aurai area of Bihar's Muzaffarpur district on Friday.

The incident took place in on Friday evening. The assailants later decamped with Akhtar's bike, mobile phone and cash.

The journalist is currently undergoing treatment in a Primary Health Centre in the vicinity.

This comes over a week after a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader named Baiju Prasad Gupta was shot dead in Muzaffarpur district on January 10.

The incident occurred near Pakri Chowk area falling under the jurisdiction of Siwaipatti Police Station.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Leaders of around 20 non-BJP parties, joined by BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha, on Saturday came together at a rally organised by Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee here and pitched for unity for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections to oust the Modi government.

With Mamata anchoring the show, leaders from parties like Congress, DMK, TDP, JD(S), NCP, Samajwadi Party, BSP, RJD, AAP, Conference, RLD and AIUDF attacked the BJP-led NDA Central government and singularly targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However, parties like TRS, BJD and the Left chose not to attend the rally which was significantly attended by Shatrughan Sinha, actor-turned-Lok Sabha member of BJP, along with former BJP ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie.

The speakers at the rally pitched for changing the Prime Minister and expressed confidence that it would happen if the opposition parties stick together and jointly take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls due by May this year.

Shatrughan Sinha, Yashwant Sinha, and Shourie were stinging in their attack on Modi and his government. Shatrughan even went to the extent of saying that he was ready to be called a "rebel" if rebellion meant "speaking the truth" and "showing mirror" to his party.

"What Pakistan could not do in 70 years, the BJP government has done in four and a half years. They have destroyed all government institutions. They are promoting the of hatred," Mamata said at the mega rally.

Talking about the importance of the rally, the TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister said: "Everybody has to come together. The people strong in their region need to extend their support. One city is not important. This country is important. Collective leadership is important."

TDP leader and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu described Modi as "a publicity PM" and said "We want a performing PM." Naidu, whose party was a constituent of the NDA till last year, said almost five years ago, people gave the mandate to the BJP "but they betrayed the nation."

Questioning the performance of the Modi government, he said, "the BJP wants to divide the country but we all are here to unite the nation," he said. Mamata said the 2019 Lok Sabha elections are "all about ousting the BJP."

She said the question of a Prime Ministerial candidate was not important right now and that they would collectively decide about it after the elections. "Sometimes they ask who will be their leader. We have many leaders. Everyone among us is a leader, a worker, and an organiser," the West Bengal Chief Minister said.

Attacking the BJP, she said, "What Pakistan failed to do in 70 years, Amit Shah and Narendra Modi have done in the last around five years. They have pitted Hindus against Muslims and each and every community against each other."

Yashwant Sinha and Shourie felt that ousting the Modi government was doable and suggested that opposition parties should field joint candidates against the BJP nominees in every Lok Sabha constituency, with a spirit of "sacrifice rather than a sense of calculations."

"All the opposition parties should have one goal and one vow... This government can be ousted," Shourie said. He said even Modi has realised that his "grip has been shaken."

Describing Mamata as "Bengal's tigress", he said "the people's faith in Shah-Modi has got eroded" and now the opposition parties should give confidence of unity. He claimed that the BJP could have been defeated in Gujarat Assembly elections had the opposition been united.

Citing the example of the recent defeat of BJP in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh assembly polls, Shourie said: "It is not impossible to remove the party (BJP) from power."

Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that Prime Minister Modi and BJP chief Shah were "afraid" of the grand alliance of which they keep making fun. "Today, there is a feeling of fear in the country. There is a feeling of vengeance.Prime Minister Modi and Shah are afraid today. That is why they keeping poking fun at this grand alliance," he said.

However, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah had a word of caution for the opposition leaders present on the dais. "The opposition leaders must not think about becoming the Prime Minister. As of now, we all should collectively concentrate on fighting the elections together to defeat the BJP."

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal said if the BJP comes to power again in 2019, Modi and BJP president Amit Shah will operate in a manner similar to that of Adolf Hitler.

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy raised the issue of alleged "horse-trading" by the BJP in his state. "BJP is offering huge cash to MLAs of JD-S and Congress in a bid to make them resign. Legislators are being treated as a commodity and democracy is being mocked at," said Chief Minister Kumaraswamy.

Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel said: Subhash Chandra Bose fought with the Britishers, we have to fight with thieves. All of us are here to save the country and the Constitution." He also accused Prime Minister Modi-led Central government of destroying the Constitution and democracy.

Among those who also spoke on the occasion included DMK president MK Stalin, NC leader Omar Abdullah, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, BSP leader Satish Misra, RLD chief Ajit Singh and leader Jayant Chowdhary, former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Gegong Apang, former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Gujarat's independent MLA and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president MK Stalin on Saturday claimed that the upcoming Lok Sabha polls would be the country's second fight for Independence and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was fearful of the powrer of an united Opposition.

"Wherever Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going he is fiercely attacking the Opposition. Modi is fearful of the Opposition which is why he is also cursing us. He is afraid of our unity and we must come together to safeguard India," he said while addressing the mega opposition rally organised by West Bengal Chief Minister here.

Joining contention with Stalin, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the ruling NDA government has "institutionalised hatred and indecisiveness."

"We don't think that in past seven decades we have ever witnessed the of vengeance that we are seeing today. This government has institutionalised hatred and indecisiveness," he said.

"The Income Tax department had sent notices to Tejashwi Yadav after his father Lalu Prasad Yadav organised a rally. The government is misusing its powers. We will surely create a new India and will weed out BJP from power," he added.

Singhvi also accused the Centre of creating divisions in society.

"Our main goal is to prevent division of votes. Be it Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh or any other state, the BJP is the only party which has been benefited from the division of votes. The alliance between SP, BSP and RLD was a breakthrough as they won Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana (bypoll) seats," he said.

The Congress leader also spoke about BJP's Rath Yatra which was denied permission by the Supreme Court.

" BJP is not concerned about the lives of people, their safety and security. It just wants to create a divide among the brothers. I am very happy that both the High Court and the Supreme Court did not allow the 40-day yatra of the BJP" Singhvi said.

"What you are seeing today is a rainbow of parties that has brought together different regions, languages and flavours of states" he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal said if the BJP comes to power again in 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah will operate in a manner similar to that of Adolf Hitler.

"If Narendra Modi and Amit Shah will form the government in 2019, they will change the constitution and will do away with the system of elections in the country and will end democracy in the country. They will do the same thing that Adolf Hitler had done in Germany when he came to power," he said while addressing the anti-BJP rally on Saturday.

Upping the ante against the duo, Kejriwal said Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah have done what Pakistan failed to do in 70 years.

"What Pakistan failed to do in 70 years, Amit Shah and Narendra Modi have done in last 5 years. They have pitched Hindus against Muslims and each and every community against each other," he said.

Kejriwal also said that 2019 Lok Sabha elections are not about who gets elected as Prime Minister, but all about ousting the BJP.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)As many as 66 illegal migrants were apprehended across Turkey, said security sources on Saturday.

Security forces in the northwestern province of Kirklareli acted on a tip-off and arrested three groups of illegal refugees, who were trying to illegally cross Bulgaria, Anadolu News Agency quoted a security source as saying.

About 23 migrants, of whom they are Iraqi and Afghan nationals were apprehended in Demirkoy near the Derekoy border gate, a security source said.

Furthermore, 43 refugees were arrested by the Turkish Coast Guard off the coast of Ayvacik in the northwestern Canakkale province in a separate operation.

The migrants, who were of Afghan-origin, were reportedly attempting to cross to Greece, when they were apprehended and have been referred to provincial migration directorates, as per the report.

Turkish security forces have been engaged in an operation to detain the undocumented migrants who attempt to reach Europe by sea illegally by crossing Turkish waters.

Turkey has seen a major influx of migrants who have been trying to reach the European continent especially since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011 and the presence of the Islamic State terror group in parts of Syria and Iraq.

According to the Turkish Interior Ministry, over 2,65,000 refugees have been arrested in 2018.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two persons from Thane who were allegedly involved in illegal trade of firearms were arrested by the Special Operations Team of the Rachakonda police on Thursday.

Two pistols, two live rounds (7.65 and 7.62) and two mobile phones were seized from them. The accused have been identified as Datthu and Shyam Sunder.

Datthu, who is a resident of Bhiwandi's Thane, has reportedly been a part of illegal fire arms business and has contacts with illegal firearms traders in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Further investigation is underway.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President will hold a second summit with North Korean leader in late February on dismantling its nuclear and missile programmes, the has announced



The two leaders had met on June 12 last year in Singapore for the first summit.

The White House, however, did not identify a location for the second setting between the two leaders.

The announcement came after Trump met with North Korean envoy, Kim Yong Chol, on Friday for a discussion that included talk about Kim Jong-un's unfulfilled pledge to dismantle his country's nuclear weapons programmes.

President Trump sat down with Kim Yong Chol, a high-level official in North Korea's Communist government, in the Oval Office, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

"President Donald J Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and half, to discuss denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February.

"The president looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date. she said in a statement.

The press secretary told reporters: "We continue to make progress, we continue to have conversations."



The US is going to continue to keep "pressure and sanctions" on until "we see fully and verifiable denuclearization", she said.

"We had very good steps and very good faith from the North Koreans with the release of hostages and other moves and so we'll continue this conversation.And the President looks forward to it next February," Sanders' told reporters.

The North Korean envoy arrived at the after a closed-door meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US special envoy for Stephen Biegun at a hotel here.

Following the White House meeting the North Korean official and a delegation he was leading were invited to lunch by Pompeo at Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.

The Secretary, Special Representative Biegun, and Vice Chairman Kim discussed efforts to make progress on the commitments President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un made at their summit in Singapore. At the conclusion of the Secretary's meeting with Vice Chairman Kim, the two sides held a productive first meeting at the working level, State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino said.

Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman said that in Singapore, Trump capitulated to handing a propaganda coup in exchange for empty words.

During a second summit, he must deliver concrete, verifiable commitments from Pyongyang, he demanded.

Last year in Singapore, Trump had described his first-ever historic meeting with as "really fantastic" and said they had agreed to "sign" an unspecified document after their "very positive" summit, aimed at normalising ties and complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

The US president had said he believed he and Kim Jong-un will "solve a big problem, a big dilemma" and that by working together, "we will get it taken care of".

The summit at Singapore's Sentosa island - the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader - had marked a turnaround of relations between Trump, 72, and Kim, 36, after a long-running exchange of threats and insults.

The US insists it will accept nothing less than complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.Dubai's iconic Burj Khalifa last night lit the sky up with an enigmatic and enthralling light show focusing the spotlight on the Sharjah Light Festival 2019, a popular family event to be held in the northern emirate from February 6 to 16.

The exciting display of lights and images is a show of support to the efforts of the Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) and an opportunity to promote the dazzling show.

The Sharjah Light Festival 2019 will use light to showcase the artistic, cultural, heritage and aesthetics unique to the architectural landmark buildings of the emirate, reflecting the splendor of Arab and Islamic civilization.

During its 11-day run, the festival will attract over a million visitors including families to more than a dozen locations across the emirate, reaching as far as the east coast, said the organisers.

It will put Sharjahs landmark buildings in the spotlight, with spectacular images projected onto their facades using innovative light technology and accompanied by specially composed music.

Free shows will be held from 6pm to 11pm and will go on until midnight on weekends. In addition, a water carnival along the Khalid Lagoon takes place around 9pm every evening, to delight visitors and residents, they added.-TradeArabia News ServiceTomorrow, Members of Parliament will cast their votes on the Withdrawal Agreement on the terms of our departure from the European Union and the Political Declaration on our future relationship.

That vote in Westminster is a direct consequence of the votes that were cast by people here in Stoke, and in cities, towns and villages in every corner of the United Kingdom. In June 2016, the British people were asked by MPs to take a decision: Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or should we leave? In that campaign, both sides disagreed on many things, ...Prince Philip, the 97-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, overturned his Land Rover on Thursday in a car crash on a rural road north of London. He was unhurt; two women in an oncoming minivan suffered scrapes and a broken wrist. Its not known exactly what happened or who was at fault. The prince told police officers at the scene that he was momentarily blinded by the sun while pulling onto a main thoroughfare. The incident has prompted some reflection in Britain about when an aging driver ought to consider surrendering the car keys. Sound familiar? The ...A special medical board that examined Pakistan's former prime minister in Kot Lakhpat jail here has said that "he is not completely well" and more tests are required before suggesting treatment for him.

The medical board comprising Shahid Hameed, Sajjad Ahmed and Hamid Khalil of the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Lahore, had thoroughly examined Sharif and had his necessary tests done on Wednesday at the jail, where he is serving a seven years jail sentence in a corruption case.

Sharif, 69, has been serving a seven-year jail term in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills graft case.

A medical report released on Friday said that Sharif had "vague symptoms" of pain in both of his arms.

"Vague symptoms of pain in Sharif's both arms particularly at night and numbness of toes. He is on dual antiplatelets, beta blocker, amlodipine, ARB'S and stains with anti-diabetics treatment," the medical report said.

Earlier, the ex-premier's daughter Maryam Nawaz had claimed that Sharif's health has deteriorated and alleged that authorities were not letting his cardiologists examine him in the jail.

A jail spokesman, however, said jail doctors examined Sharif thoroughly and his health is fine. " is in good health," he said.

Sharif underwent Coronary Angioplasty twice in 2001 and 2017 and also had open heart surgery twice in 2011 and 2016, the special medical board said in its report.

The board examined the patient with fresh ECG and limited available laboratory investigations.

The special board has recommended more investigations (tests) of him that include TROP-I, Echocardiography and Stress Thallium Scan (if TROP-I test is Negative).

"After evaluating these test reports and availability of previous cardiac medical record further management plan will be proceeded," the board said.

Sharif has also been refused a prisoner who could serve as his orderly, media reported.

An anti-corruption court in Pakistan on December 24 sentenced the ousted premier to seven years in jail in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills graft case but acquitted him in the Flagship Investments case, concluding a series of three court cases against the Sharif family in the high-profile Panama Papers case.

The Al-Azizia Steel Mill case was about setting up steel mills in Saudi Arabia allegedly with corruption money.

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.At a time of national crisis, it is perhaps unsurprising to hear appeals to the national interest. Theresa May has called on it innumerable times when she has asked MPs to back her Brexit deal. Jeremy Corbyn uses the same concept to implore May to move aside and call a general election.

But times of crisis are in large part about the debasement of political norms and social mores. Old patterns and established behaviours crack. As with practice, so with thinking: concepts become twisted, bent out of shape. That, though, makes it all the more important to insist on accuracy in the ...Google's offices in the US, UK, Canada, India, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Sweden, Switzerland, and Denmark witnessed renewed protests by human rights groups over its plan to re-enter China through a censored search application code-named "Project Dragonfly".

The demonstrations were organised by a coalition of Chinese, Tibetan, Uighur, and human rights groups outside the tech giant's offices. The Tibetan advocacy groups that were protesting included Free Tibet and the Tibet Network.

"They fear that a censored search engine would lead to further oppression of the Tibetans, as filtered searches would erase terms such as 'Tibet' and 'Tiananmen Square' in line with the official narrative of the Chinese Communist Party," the Business Insider reported late on Friday.

The same concerns apply to the Chinese citizens, including other oppressed minorities such as Uighur Muslims and Southern Mongolian people, the report added.

The Internet giant designed a censored version for China search engine to blacklist information about human rights, democracy, peaceful protest, and religion in accordance with strict rules on censorship in the country that are enforced by its Communist Party government.

The dispute began in August 2018 when reports surfaced that staffers working on "Project Dragonfly" had been using a Beijing-based website to help develop blacklists for the censored search engine, which was designed to block out broad categories of information related to democracy, human rights, and peaceful protest, according to The Intercept.

Several employees, including former Senior Scientist Jack Poulson, resigned in September, citing a lack of corporate transparency in the wake of the censored search engine project.

In December, was forced to shut down a data analysis system that it was using to develop the search engine and the teams working on "Project Dragonfly" stopped gathering search queries from mainland China.U S President will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in late February on Pyongyang dismantling its nuclear and missile programmes, the White House has announced



The two leaders had met on June 12 last year in Singapore for the first summit.

The White House, however, did not identify a location for the second setting between the two leaders.

The announcement came after Trump met with North Korean envoy, Kim Yong Chol, on Friday for a discussion that included talk about Kim Jong-un's unfulfilled pledge to dismantle his country's nuclear weapons programmes.

President Trump sat down with Kim Yong Chol, a high-level official in North Korea's Communist government, in the Oval Office, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

"President Donald J Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and half, to discuss denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February.

"The president looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date. she said in a statement.

The press secretary told reporters: "We continue to make progress, we continue to have conversations."



The US is going to continue to keep "pressure and sanctions" on North Korea until "we see fully and verifiable denuclearization", she said.

"We had very good steps and very good faith from the North Koreans with the release of hostages and other moves and so we'll continue this conversation.And the President looks forward to it next February," Sanders' told reporters.

The North Korean envoy arrived at the White House after a closed-door meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US special envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun at a hotel here.

Following the White House meeting the North Korean official was invited to lunch by Pompeo.

Last year in Singapore, Trump had described his first-ever historic meeting with Kim Jong-un as "really fantastic" and said they had agreed to "sign" an unspecified document after their "very positive" summit, aimed at normalising ties and complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

The US president had said he believed he and Kim Jong-un will "solve a big problem, a big dilemma" and that by working together, "we will get it taken care of".

The summit at Singapore's Sentosa island - the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader - had marked a turnaround of relations between Trump, 72, and Kim, 36, after a long-running exchange of threats and insults.

The US insists it will accept nothing less than complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.has accused his former long-term personal lawyer of "lying to reduce his jail time", following a not-yet-confirmed media report claiming the President himself directed Cohen to lie to

"Don't forget, has already been convicted of perjury and fraud, and as recently as this week, the Wall Street Journal has suggested that he may have stolen tens of thousands of dollars..." Trump tweeted on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Lying to reduce his jail time! Watch father-in-law!" the president concluded in his tweet.

BuzzFeed News, citing two federal law enforcement officials, reported on Thursday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has evidence suggesting the president directed Cohen to lie to about talks over a possible Trump Tower project in Moscow. Other news outlets have not confirmed BuzzFeed's report.

"I'm not going to give any credence to Cohen," White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said on Fox News minutes after Trump's tweet, calling Cohen "a convicted liar."

Cohen admitted in the investigation that talks about plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow extended into June 2016, when Trump was the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Cohen initially told that the talks fizzled out that January.

Cohen is set to testify voluntarily before the US House Oversight and Reform Committee on February 7.

He was sentenced last month to three years in jail after pleading guilty to a series of crimes, including hush money payments prior to the 2016 presidential election to silence two women who claim to have had affairs with Trump.

Cohen is known to have cooperated with Mueller for a period of time. Trump has slammed Cohen as "a weak person and not a smart person" and has repeatedly called the Mueller probe a political "witch hunt".

In a statement posted on Twitter earlier this month, Cohen said he is "looking forward to having the privilege of being afforded a platform with which to give a full and credible account of the events which have transpired".Hundreds of Central Americans entered Mexico illegally as the latest trying to reach the began crossing the Mexican-Guatemalan border en masse Friday.

Not content to wait five days for the humanitarian visas Mexico is offering them, several hundred migrants took to make-shift rafts to cross the Suchiate River, which forms the frontier, or snuck across the loosely guarded border bridge overnight, AFP correspondents said.

Their advance could trigger a new Twitter firestorm from US President Donald Trump, who has urged Mexico to halt such caravans, and who tweeted early Friday: "Another big Caravan heading our way. Very hard to stop without a Wall!" Hundreds more of the 2,000 migrants in the caravan gathered patiently on the border bridge, trickling into Mexico as the authorities processed them.

The authorities will set up checkpoints in southern Mexico to make migrants who snuck into the country register for visas, said Alejandro Encinas, under-secretary for migration.

"We are informing all of them that they must comply with our country's laws," he said.

Caravans of migrants seeking safety in numbers have taken center stage in the raging debate in the over Trump's proposed border wall, which has led to a government shutdown that is now the longest in history.

The latest caravan is smaller than the one that swelled to 7,000 migrants late last year, leading Trump to warn of an "invasion" by "hardened criminals" and send thousands of troops to the US-Mexican border.

Mexican authorities are urging the migrants to arrive legally and offering expedited "visitor cards" that let them work and access basic health care in Mexico.

So far, 969 migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua have registered under the program, receiving bracelets that they can exchange for visitor cards in five days.

But hundreds more ignored the offer.

"A lot of us aren't interested in waiting five days. Our goal is to reach the United States," said Alma Mendoza, a nurse and single mother making the trip with her three children.

"We don't have food, much less money. We want to reach our destination," she told AFP.

Other migrants said they would consider staying in Mexico.

"My goal is to reach the United States, but if I can't I'll stay in Mexico and work. They're giving us an opportunity," said Christian Medrano, 33, an industrial technician.

Mexico meanwhile announced a fresh policy under which Central Americans fleeing poverty and violence with the intention of reaching the may remain in Mexico for a year.

The decision "recognizes the importance of our relationship with Central America," especially El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, said Tonatiuh Guillen, commissioner of the Mexican National Institute of Migration.

The caravan set out Tuesday from San Pedro Sula, in northwestern Honduras, and has grown along the way.

The migrants are mostly fleeing poverty and crime in Central America's "Northern Triangle" of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Brutal street gangs have made the three countries among the most violent in the world.

Another caravan of about 200 migrants set out Wednesday from El Salvador and is now in southern Mexico, possibly poised to join up with the first.

Many of the migrants are travelling in families, often with small children.

They have covered about 700 kilometers (435 miles) so far, and have roughly 4,000 kms to go if they take the same route as the last caravan, to Tijuana, across from San Diego, California.

When that caravan reached Mexico in October, the authorities tried to stop it with riot police. But the migrants stormed in anyway, tearing down border fences and crossing the river illegally when police refused to let them through.

Since then, Mexico has gotten a new government, led by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, an anti-establishment leftist.

"AMLO," as the new president is widely known, has promised to treat migrants more humanely than previous administrations. But he has also sought to stay on Trump's good side with talk of reducing migrant flows.

The October caravan largely dispersed after reaching Tijuana. US Border Patrol agents fought back two attempts by the migrants to rush the border, firing tear gas to disperse them.

Some have since found work in Mexico, some crossed the border and filed asylum claims, and many returned home. About 400 remain in a shelter set up for them in Tijuana that is slated to be closed on Wednesday.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday targeted the 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) mulled by opposition parties, calling it a combination of those he prevented from looting India.

He also took potshots at the TMC's opposition rally in Kolkata while addressing a public function at Silvassa, the capital of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

"My actions against corruption made some people angry as I prevented them from looting public money. They have formed the 'mahagathbandhan'," Modi said.

Our only aim is development. We want to work for 130 crore Indians. Speaking in Silvassa. Watch. https://t.co/siNw1l2lMI  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 19, 2019

"In Bengal, has only one MLA but they are so afraid of us that they are saying 'bachao' (save us)," he said.

"When those involved in suffocating democracy talk of saving it, then people will say 'wah kya baat hai'," he said.UAE-Esharah Etisalat Security Solutions will be showing its latest and innovative products designed for public safety at the upcoming Intersec 2019, a leading trade and networking event for safety and security, in Abu Dhabi.

An annual exhibition, Intersec will be held from January 20 to 22 at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre.

Esharah Etisalat Security Solutions is an expert in the field of wired and wireless telecom networks (Tetra & Public Safety LTE), and security solutions.

Esharahs participation in the worlds leading trade, networking and business development platform for safety and security reflects the dynamism and growing size of the region's security and safety market, said the company in a statement.

The company will be present at the event for all three days with its products and solutions which include a biometric checking via secnet, an electronic verification of the ID documents RFID chip providing facility to query central police databases, and an integrated operations center demonstrating Video Analytics (FR, Object Classifications, Behavioral analytics), Smart Environment monitoring, Smart Waste management and Smart Traffic solutions.

The company will also feature a live demo on the infection cycle of an IoT camera; demonstrating how the solution offers protection against malware through a combination of network, anti-virus protection and IoT anomaly detection.

In addition, Esharah will showcase Command and Control Software for Incident Management, latest mobile commands and patrols beneficial for police officers; and an Indoor Location Tracking solution used with Tetra radios to operate without the need for GPS satellites.

Ali Bahlooq, the general manager Esharah Etisalat Security Solutions, said: "Esharah has an accomplished history of bringing forth products, systems and services that contribute towards the safety and security of customers in all fields."

"In line with the revolutionary vision for Smart Dubai 2021, we are continuously working to implement systems that endorse the progression of security solutions in the market," stated Bahlooq.

Intersec continues to be the regions best platform for showcasing latest advancements in the sector, and at Esharah we aim to fully utilize this opportunity in order to highlight our services and products that are designed for governments, consumers and mission-critical sectors; built to enable a more smart, safe and sustainable Dubai, he added.-TradeArabia News ServiceThe Ministry of Commerce has floated proposed changes to the rules of the Indian patent Act. Two of the proposed changes are very concerning. It proposes a new mechanism which will expedite decisions on patent applications.

This proposed fast-track process seems to come with various other compromises on the functioning of Indias patent architecture and for protecting access to medicines, for example. The monopoly of patents is often justified as an incentive to promote R&D. But in practice, patents are used to control competition and give fewer options to consumers. ...Of these, while Rs 4.02 trillion were made by global and Indian corporate honchos during the inaugural ceremony on Friday, the remaining came during various sectoral events held as part of the summit, which is set to conclude on Sunday. In the two days of the biennial event so far, around 22,000 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) have been signed across sectors such as port and transport, Dholera special investment region (SIR), ...

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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.



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Digital EditorRosemary Patrizi, the Italy-based lawyer of British arms dealer Christian Michel  a suspect in the AgustaWestland VIP chopper scam  has assured the Enforcement Directorate (ED) she would cooperate with the investigation only if her client is granted bail. In an email sent to Naresh Malik of the ED on January 14, Patrizi said: "I'm trying to talk to my client. Until now, he was unable to make phone calls, and today he was authorised 15 minutes a week.

I do not know when he will contact me. In any case, I agree to cooperate with the investigations. My only ...The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has said that the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) should not hear any third party other than the applicant who has taken a company to the NCLT and the company which is the corporate debtor itself. We may observe that except the applicant (financial creditor) and the corporate debtor, there is no requirement of hearing a third party including intervenor at the stage of admission, the NCLAT said.

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In a bid to empower handloom weavers in Telangana, on Saturday announced the launch of a new e-commerce portal that will help the weavers optimise operations and engage better with customers.

The "re-weave.in" will host signature collections created by the weaver communities, and showcase traditional designs and products created from natural dyes.

"With the introduction of our new e-commerce platform, digital empowerment centres and the new design curriculum, the weavers will be able to build on the rich handloom heritage of India and also reach out to a wider customer base," Anil Bhansali, Managing Director, (R&D) said in a statement.

This e-market place would help sell to a broad set of customers, which would support the weavers by increasing their income and earning a sustainable livelihood while simultaneously reviving traditional but forgotten Indian art.

Microsoft also partnered with the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) to curate a special curriculum in 'CAD and Colour for Handloom Weaving' to provide digital training in handloom design.

The tech giant has also been steadily expanding digital empowerment centres to more weaver clusters in the state.

"ReWeave ties very well into Microsoft's mission to empower every person and every organisation in the communities we work in by using Project Sangam -- our Azure-based technology solution and expertise to democratise opportunities and bridge the digital divide," Bhansali said.

The first batch of 100 handloom weavers at NIFT have been awarded certificates for successful design course completion.

"These initiatives like e-commerce marketplace and design training will enable weaver communities to sustain themselves and provide livelihood to artisans," said Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Industries & IT,

"This also is a practical solution to motivate younger generation of weavers to continue with their traditions and not divert into other professions," Ranjan said.

Project ReWeave also aims to help the weavers with working capital support through non-profit organisations.

Weavers are trained in the use of natural dyes to enable them to make newer and sustainable handwoven products to meet the demands of the socially and environmentally aware consumer.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Bryan, OH (43506)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening. Showers and a possible thunderstorm developing after midnight. Low 67F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening. Showers and a possible thunderstorm developing after midnight. Low 67F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.Washington: US President Donald Trump will meet with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, in late February, the White House announced Friday, local time, continuing a high-level diplomatic dialogue that has eased tensions but shown little progress in eliminating the North's nuclear arsenal.

The announcement came after Trump met for 90 minutes in the Oval Office with Kim Yong-chol, the former North Korean intelligence chief who has acted as the chief nuclear negotiator for Kim.

The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said the date and the location of the meeting would be announced later, suggesting that the two sides were still haggling over the site or other logistical details. Vietnam, Thailand and Hawaii have all been mentioned as potential sites.

The very fact that Trump is agreeing to a second summit with Kim, after North Korea's failure to begin denuclearization after their first meeting in Singapore in June, is a sign of how quickly the President has backed away from his initial insistence on fast action by Pyongyang.The Liberal Party will search for another woman to replace Jobs Minister Kelly O'Dwyer after she shocked colleagues on Saturday by announcing she will quit politics at the federal election.

Her surprise announcement is a huge blow to the Liberal Party as it struggles with its level of female representation in Parliament and its image among women just months from the poll.

Kelly O'Dwyer at work with son Edward after his birth in 2017. Credit:Simon Schluter

Various women emerged as contenders for Ms O'Dwyer's blue-ribbon seat of Higgins, including serving senator Jane Hume, who is keen to move to the lower house.

Ms O'Dwyer has been one of the most senior women in the government and a prominent voice of the party's moderate wing. If her successor fails to retain Higgins, the Liberal Party could be left without any female lower house MPs from Victoria.Two parties hoping to lure conservative voters away from the Morrison government are locked in a bitter rivalry, with One Nation accusing the United Australia Party of poaching key candidates for the federal election.

Former One Nation candidates who have defected to Clive Palmer's party returned serve by saying Pauline Hanson only has herself to blame because she did not offer enough support in winnable seats during the 2017 Queensland state election.

While Mr Palmer is less established and less popular than One Nation, he threatens to disrupt the party's hold on right-wing voters with one distinct advantage: money. A spokesman for the mining billionaire said the United Australia Party would spend at least $50 million on the campaign - more than each of the major parties at the 2016 federal election.

"Clive is inducing candidates to go and run for his party by offering cash," Senator Hanson's chief of staff James Ashby said. "He dangles a carrot in front of people."A 26-year-old man is in hospital after being stabbed outside a brewery in Caversham on Saturday afternoon.

Just before 4pm, witnesses told Nine News Perth reporters at the scene the man was stabbed nine times in the car park of a brewery on Benara Road.

Police also want to speak to a large group of people also seen hanging around the scene.

St John Ambulance attended, and he was taken to Royal Perth Hospital.

It's understood his injuries were not life-threatening.A 20-year-old man is dead after an overnight brawl in Swan Hill, in north-west Victoria.

Police and emergency services were called to the fight on Campbell Street about 1.15am on Saturday.

Police cordoned off Campbell Street between McCallum and Pritchard streets after the incident. Credit:Swan Hill Guardian

The victim, a Swan Hill man, was treated by paramedics for a head injury but died at the scene.

A 40-year-old man, also from Swan Hill, was taken into custody but was released late Saturday night pending further inquiries.The man accused of killing 21-year-old international student Aiia Maasarwe has fronted court charged with her murder.

Codey Herrmann, 20, sat silent during the brief hearing at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Saturday afternoon, dressed in a green T-shirt, following his arrest on Friday.

Codey Herrmann arrives at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Saturday after being charged with the rape and murder of Aiia Maasarwe. Credit:Paul Jeffers

The court heard the aspiring rapper had also been charged with rape. Particulars of the rape charge have not been released, with the court told some of the "specific words" aren't yet known to the family.

A mental health assessment was requested for Mr Herrmann. He made no bail application and was remanded to reappear on Monday.Barbara Hall, assisted by her husband John Taylor, operates on a woman in Uganda. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size At the end of a bumpy eight-hour jeep ride to south-west Uganda, women wait eagerly on the grass outside the hospital for the arrival of a group of Brisbane surgeons. Many have been camping outside for days, waiting for a bed to free up inside. These women are outcasts, suffering the pain and humiliation of horrific gynaecological conditions. One has been bed-bound for three years. Witchcraft is blamed for the condition of others. The plight of these women has inspired one of Brisbanes most respected gynaecologists, Barbara Hall, to give up her thriving practice six years ago to become a volunteer surgeon in Africa. Her husband John Taylor, a retired general practitioner, has joined his wife as her surgical assistant. Some of their patients have endured days of obstructed labour without medical help which has left them with holes leaking urine and sometimes faeces, known as an obstetric fistula. These are rarely seen in Western nations since the end of the 19th century. If you have an obstructed labour in Australia, it is not a problem because you just have a caesarean and everyone is fine but if you are out in the bush somewhere and cant get access to medical care, they labour for three or four days, Dr Hall said.

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The babies are usually stillborn. Other women suffer from a prolapse, where their uterus has fallen out of their vagina and is dangling between their legs. Dr Hall has fixed about 400 prolapses since she began visiting Uganda in 2013. The team has done more than 1000 operations in that time. "Not only is a prolapse uncomfortable and disfiguring, but a lot of the women think they have been struck by witchcraft and quite often their husbands think they are turning into a man and leave them," she said. They are very socially ostracised. Doctors John Taylor and Barbara Hall with a group of happy post-op patients. Dr Hall and Dr Taylor have teamed up with long-serving Brisbane volunteer doctors Hannah Krause and Judith Goh to help these women.

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I couldnt retire and do nothing and I knew Judith was doing this in Africa, so we thought it would be a very rewarding thing for us to do, Dr Hall said. The team operate at St Pauls Health Centre in Kasese, eight hours from Ugandas capital, and Kagando Hospital, an old leprosy hospital about 40 kilometres out of Kasese. Dr Hall and Dr Taylor have visited Uganda 10 times since 2013. They pay for their airfares and accommodation to perform life-changing surgery on women who often cant even afford a bar of soap. It is pretty incredible. You get over there and treat these women and they are just so incredibly thankful for absolutely anything you do for them," Dr Hall said. But performing surgery in rural Uganda does present significant challenges never faced in the private hospitals of Brisbane, according to Dr Hall. For starters, they often have to operate with battery powered head torches because the power cuts out all the time. The volunteers decided to pay for a generator.

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And when the local council turns the water off without warning to conserve supplies, the surgeons have to scrub using buckets out the back of the hospital. It is pretty confronting. It really is the third world, Dr Hall said. We are eight hours away from the capital Kampala, so it is very, very rural. The power goes out multiple times a day. We stay at the hospital guest house and we didnt have power for at least half of the time we are there. They will sit outside the hospital grounds for three days waiting for you to get there and operate on them. Barbara Hall The Brisbane doctors have just arrived home after another trip to Uganda. Two paraplegic women  one with prolapse and one with a fistula  were among more than 100 patients treated during the visit.

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One patient had dragged herself along the ground to the ward, the other was carried in by her daughters. She had been lying immobilised on a mattress for three years - "never seeing the light of day, or breathing fresh air". Apart from relieving their gynaecological problems, the Brisbane team found two wheelchairs to boost women's independence. The volunteer group also pays the hospital for every operation they perform to cover patient transfer, staff and a cook. The cost is almost $350 for every prolapse and about $415 for every fistula operation. There is no kitchen at the hospital, so if you are a patient there, your relatives have to bring food in to feed you. When we are there we pay for a cook," she said. Women queue for gynaecological surgery in Uganda. "These people have absolutely nothing, a lot of them spend hours getting to the hospital on the back of a boda boda, which is kind of like a motorbike. "They will sit outside the hospital grounds for three days waiting for you to get there and operate on them. It is just incredible."

AdvertisementThere are calls to overhaul drinking water guidelines after a troubling new study suggested a weedkiller found in Australias waterways could be harming male fertility by reducing sperm counts.

In mice, a dose of atrazine at what the government says is a safe level appears to cut sperm counts, the new research reveals. Low levels of atrazine have been shown to turn male frogs into hermaphrodites.

The researchers believe the chemical could be linked to the more-than-50 per cent decline in human sperm count seen over the last 50 years.

Multiple government investigations have determined that low levels of atrazine do not pose a risk to human health based on long-term studies that showed exposed animals were not any more likely to develop human-relevant cancers, nor more likely to have reproductive problems.

That is the wrong test, says Dr Andrew Pask, the University of Melbourne scientist who led the research.Official Visitors at the Bimberi Youth Justice Centre have persistently raised concerns young people are spending too long on remand without a sentence.

They say it is having a negative affect on the detainees' mental health.

The grounds at the Bimberi Youth Justice Centre. Credit:Rohan Thomson

Official Visitors act as an oversight body of government institutions such as detention facilities to ensure people, in this case children, are receiving adequate care from the territory.

In three reports between April and September last year, released under freedom of information laws, Official Visitors Tracey Whetnall and Narelle Hargreaves noted their concerns children on remand were experiencing "a lag" in having their matters finalised.The deputy chairman of the ACT Heritage Council said he played no part in the decision to reject a proposed bike track in Hall, having declared a conflict of interest in all matters relating to the village because he lives there.

But Dr Ken Heffernan's public commentary on the issue, in which he sought to cast doubt on the validity of an independent survey about the bike track proposal, prompted a resident to complain to the ACT government.

A map showing the route of the rejected Hall bike track, after it was revised to avoid three sites where Aboriginal artefacts were found. Credit:Navin Officer Heritage Consultants

It was also Dr Heffernan's partner, Dr Jan Klaver, who discovered Aboriginal artefacts in the area surveyed for the proposed bike track, but Heritage Council chairman David Flannery said he was satisfied there was no conflict of interest.

The Heritage Council decided in October not to approve construction of the track, citing its effect on Aboriginal heritage despite consultancy firm Navin Officer assessing the project's impact as being minimal."Have you got a car? You'll need one, mate. Canberra's a car city."

It was almost a year ago, at the end of a job interview with The Canberra Times, that the all-important question was asked.

It's time to end our pain at the pump. Credit:Louise Kennerley

It had been a few years since I had got behind the wheel for the daily commute to the office. I was living in Manchester, making use of trams, trains and the busiest bus route in Europe. Before that, my feet were my vehicle in Wellington. If it rained, there was a reliable bus at the ready.

Canberra's a different kettle of fish. Few people have access to an efficient public transport route to work, so most of us have no choice but to jump behind the wheel.Fed-up drivers are challenging the assertion that a lack of competition is the major reason behind Canberra's stubbornly high petrol prices, pointing to the lower prices on offer in smaller surrounding areas of NSW.

Canberra woman Jane Penders bought a four-acre property in Gunning in 2018 and struggles to understand how fuel can be consistently cheaper in a town that is home to less than 1000 people and just one petrol station.

Jay Dryden and Jane Penders live and work in Canberra but spend weekends on a property they own in Gunning. They always fill up in Gunning because petrol is much cheaper than in Canberra. Credit:Dion Georgopoulos

At the same time drivers were being charged an average of 137.9 per litre for unleaded petrol in Gunning this week, according to the NSW government's Fuel Check website, price comparison website MotorMouth listed the average price across the ACT as 144.1 per litre.

Ms Penders and her partner Jay Dryden try and hold off on buying petrol in Canberra during the week so they can fill up on weekends, which they spend in Gunning.The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now.

Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market.

In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender.

India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex.

Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted.

But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted?

Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner.

If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems.

I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now.

I want more variation in masturbation

I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own.

If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end.

What is sex toys for Indian?

Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation.

It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms.

They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable.

Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner.

The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner.

It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past.

In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping.

Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order.

In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing.

Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome.

Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own.

But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance.

More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around.

Sextoy situation in India

Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years.

In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India.

Mumbai

Kolkata

Bangalore

Delhi

Chennai

Hyderabad

These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India.

In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well.

If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too.

If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it.

What are Sextoys for beginner?

Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms.

Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy.

I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion.

I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy.

If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma.

Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it.

Advantages of using sextoy for Indians

There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians

You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways.

Can have stimulating sex

Can develop new sexual zones

If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern.

However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways.

You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation.

Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever.

There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure.

This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it.

When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems.

It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms).

For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles

[Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou...

Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India.

Sextoy for beginner men in India

So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners.

For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men!

The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men

Masturbator

Cock rings

Love Doll

Sex Lubricants

Toys for the prostate

Lets check each one in detail.

Masturbator

The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products.

It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands.

Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands.

They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.)

Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much.

Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! !

Made in Japan is a wonderful kinky toy.#sextoysindia #SexToyIndia #Japanhttps://t.co/4k70QGzoTP pic.twitter.com/tRVdxTKPpa   SEXToys India PR  (@SextoysIndia) November 12, 2018

Some of them are disposable, while others can be washed and used over and over again, so its fun to buy a few to use depending on your mood.

If you want to know more about masturbator, please click here

Really pleasant male masturbation and how to do it Are you in a rut with your daily masturbation routine? I'm going to show you five ways men masturbate that you might ...

[For Beginners] How to choose and use a male masturbator without fail Gentlemen.Have you ever used a masturbator? The person who sees this article is probably the one who has not experien...

Cock Ring

A cock ring is literally a ring-shaped sextoy that is worn on a mans penis.

It maintains an erection by binding the penis with a ring of rubber and blocking blood flow.

It is sometimes used as an accessory to be worn on the penis, and may be made of metal or plastic as well as rubber.

In some cases, cock rings have parts or vibrators attached to them that stimulate the vagina, so they kill two birds with one stone, giving a woman pleasure while maintaining an erection.

Cock rings are also sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction.

It can help with erectile dysfunction, where the penis doesnt get hard when you get an erection or doesnt last long when you try to insert it.

Men who are prone to breakage or who are unsure of the hardness and size of their erections can use a cock ring to increase the size of their penis and maintain an erection for a longer period of time.

Cock rings vary in price from around RS700 to over RS2000 with a vibrator function.

Some of them do not fit your penis, so you should check the size of the cock ring before you buy.

You should know the size of your partners or your own penis when it is erect.

[Penis enlargement] What is a cock ring? Types and usage Cock rings can make your penis bigger and harder. It also makes sex with women more fulfilling and increases your sat...

Love Doll

Love dolls, also known as Dutchwives, are dolls with the appearance of a woman who can experience simulated sex.

There are dolls that look like a woman, but they have no face and only have their breasts and lower torso cut off, and some dolls are so realistic that they can actually be mistaken for real women.

Some expensive dolls can cost more than 1 million yen, and the quality of the doll is easily influenced by the price.

The higher the price, the higher the quality of the doll will be, the closer it will be to the real woman, and the cheaper the doll will be, the less elaborate it will be, making it look like a real doll! Something is wrong! That is also true.

You cant go wrong if you choose a balance between price and taste.

There are stores that allow you to make custom-made love dolls, so you can create a girl of your choice.

You can make a girl of your choice. You can start with inexpensive love dolls at first, and once you get used to it, you can try custom-made love dolls.

If you want to know more about Love doll, please click here

Thorough explanation of the charm of sex dolls! Have you ever heard of sex dolls that are used primarily for pseudo-sex purposes? It is a doll that is quite close to...

Sex lubricants

Sex lubricants are used as a substitute for lubricating fluid during sex or as a lubricant for men to use masturbator rules.

It is not uncommon for women to have difficulty getting wet, depending on their physical condition, or to have difficulty getting wet due to their constitution.

Forcing the penis into the vagina at such times can cause painful intercourse.

There are various types of Sex Lubricants, some with a warming effect, some with a cooling effect, and some with a scent.

Changing the Sex Lubricant used during play is recommended as a good sex accent.

If you want to learn more about Sex Lubricants, click here.

What is sex lubricant?Explain the difference and usage of each ingredient The word "sex toy" may seem like a hurdle to overcome, but lotion is actually one of the most familiar sex toys. Many...

Toys for the Prostate

Another sextoy for men is prostate toys.

The most famous prostate toys include Enemagra, which was originally a prostate massager developed by an American urologist to treat an enlarged prostate line.

Modern prostate toys are imitations of Enemagra that have spread as sextoy for men.

Many people think of prostate toys as being used by gay men, but in fact they are often used by straight men.

What is the prostate?

The prostate is an organ found only in men. It is a walnut-sized organ located deep in the pelvis, just below the bladder, and its primary role is to protect and nourish sperm.

You cannot touch the prostate gland from outside the body, but you can touch it by inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus.

By inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus and touching the prostate and developing it, you can feel intense orgasms.

Orgasms felt in the prostate are mainly dry orgasms, which are orgasms that do not involve ejaculation. (You can also feel orgasms with ejaculation through prostate stimulation.)

The prostate is called the male G-spot, and dry orgasms can be much more intense than ejaculation.

Therefore, men who are able to develop a prostate can become addicted to the pleasure.

sextoy for beinner women in India

The following are the recommended goods for Indian women who are new to sextoy.

The following three are recommended for use by women who are new to sextoy.

Vibrator.

Dildo

Electric Masserger

Lets check out what each one is in detail.

If you want to check out womens toys, click here.

[BEST25]Sex Toys for Women in IndiaThat Can Help You Have an Orgasm There are many women who pretend to feel orgasm during sex. But don't worry, you don't have to pretend to feel orgasm...

Vibrators

A vibrator is a sextoy that vibrates with an Egg-Vibrator to provide stimulation and is often referred to simply as a vibrator.

Some vibrate as well as rotate, and there are many variations of sextoy.

It is quite a popular sextoy, and is well recognized by people who do not know much about sextoy.

Its usage is similar to that of a massager, but it is more compact and easier to carry than a massager, and many of them look as cute as a lipstick or a macaroon, so they are popular among women.

For a while, a famous influencer on twitter said, This is good! You may have heard of the topic of this article by introducing the recommended vibrators.

Vibrators are great for women to use on their own, but they are also recommended for men who have difficulty satisfying women with sex.

Since it is powered by electricity, it is far less tiring than moving your hands by yourself.

This makes it easier to satisfy a woman with sex because you can caress her for longer than usual.

Vibrators are mainly used on the female side, but they can also be used on men.

When used on men, they are used to attack the nipples and glans, and in both cases it is recommended to wear a condom for hygiene reasons.

Introducing how to use the vibrator, its purpose, and how to choose it! Vibrator uses the vibrations caused by the rotation of the motor to provide stimulation. It is one or two of the most...

Dildo

A dildo is a model sextoy made to mimic a male penis.

It can be made of silicone, elastomer (think of it as a material similar to PVC), metal or glass.

A dildo can be used by a man for his female partner during sex, or by a woman for masturbation to get pleasure from it.

They are mainly inserted into women, but some can be used in the male anus as well.

It is sometimes used synonymously with vibrators, but the vibrator is not the same thing as a vibrating device.

A model of a penis that does not vibrate is a dildo.

Some of them have suction cups that can be attached to the floor or wall so that you can enjoy realistic masturbation without using your hands.

For fun, there is a dildo made in the shape of your partners penis.

This one is also popular as a gift, and if youve been together for a long time and are having trouble finding a gift for your partner, you might want to pick one.

To learn more about dildo, please click here.

What is Dildo: Orgasms with Dildos for Men and Women A dildo is a model of a male organ that is used by women for masturbation and by men to stimulate the prostate gland. Th...

Electric Masserger

A Electric Masserger is a hand-held electric massager, also known as a handheld massager, and can usually be purchased at electronics stores.

It was originally designed to relieve stiff shoulders and back pain, so the hurdle of buying one in a physical store is quite low.

Many people may have seen or used it in some form or another, as it is often installed in leisure hotels.

Such a massager is highly recommended for beginners because it is easy for women to get pleasure from it when they use it during masturbation.

It is larger than Egg-Vibrator and vibrations are stronger than those of Egg-Vibrators and vibrators, so even just hitting the clitoris can give you a great deal of pleasure.

For those women who have never had an orgasm during sex with their man, the massager may be a good way to get a feel for what it feels like to have an orgasm.

It looks and feels like an electric massager, so you wont have to feel awkward if your roommate finds out.

If you are in a rut of having sex with your partner, if you want to feel an orgasm through masturbation, or if you are thinking of using a sextoy, why dont you try it from a simple massager?

To learn more about Electric Masserger, click here.

What is a massager? Introducing types, selection methods, and usage Originally, the Magic-wand vibrator and the massage machine were sold as a home massage machine used for the back and th...

How to choose a sextoy for Indian

Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one.

Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points:  Does the size fit you (the partner)?

Does the size fit you (your partner)?

Is the environment able to produce sound without problems?

Price range

First of all, the choice of size is quite important.

Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women.

For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage.

Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems.

Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise.

If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level.

Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it.

Finally, there is the price range.

The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest.

Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy.

Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy?

I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance.

For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics.

If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out.

How to buy sextoys in India

The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping.

For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below.

Sextoy is one of them.

Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping.

SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India.

They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry.

Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card.

To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy.

ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal.

Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on.

Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture.

Cautions for Indians using sextoy

When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind

Keep sex toys clean

Watch out for electrical leakage

Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy

As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone.

Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there.

It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case.

In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness.

Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful.

If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it.

You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly.

Summary

What did you think?

In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India.

The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future.

As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values.

However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health.

If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try?

Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women.

I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it.New Celtic striker Timothy Weah grabbed a debut goal as the Hoops kicked off the latest stage in their quest for a treble-treble with a 3-0 win over Airdrie at Parkhead.

PSG loanee Weah - son of former World Player of the Year George - was introduced with 20 minutes left and put the seal on the William Hill Scottish Cup holders' fourth-round victory with a finish his father would have been proud of.

Scott Sinclair missed a first-half penalty but made amends with a two smart finishes as Celtic eased past Ian Murray's League One minnows to book their place in Sunday's last-16 draw.

While Weah started on the bench, Brendan Rodgers threw fellow January signing Oliver Burke straight into his line-up as Odsonne Edouard again sat out through injury.

Yet the contribution of the on-loan West Brom winger during the opening half hour was minimal as Airdrie did their best to make life difficult for the hosts.

The Diamonds worked tirelessly and did well to get their blocks in anytime Celtic threatened to cut loose early on - but with the hosts remaining patient it was only a matter of time they opened them up.

Celtic's relentless probing eventually led to a penalty after 32 minutes.

Anthony Ralston had a shot blocked after tip-toeing his way past three opponents into box and then laid off for Emilio Izaguirre, who was tripped by Chris O'Neil.

Airdrie skipper Sean Crighton was not happy with how easy the Honduran went down and referee Andrew Dallas was forced to intervene to prevent a melee getting out of hand.

The delay seemed to disturb Sinclair and his spot-kick was just far enough inside David Hutton's right-hand post to allow the Airdrie number one to pull off a brilliant stop.

The winger's day looked to be going from bad to worse as he somehow smashed a Ralston cross over the crossbar from point-blank range moments later.

But the Englishman made it third time lucky in the 36th minute as he did find the net.

James Forrest's cut-back teed-up Burke and while his shot was not the cleanest it still forced Hutton down to his right. The keeper could only palm the ball back into traffic and Sinclair pounced for the opener.

Yet Celtic were grateful to their own keeper Scott Bain not to be pegged back just before the break.

Scott Stewart forced his way past Izaguirre and threw across a great ball for Kyle Wilkie, who was denied as Craig Gordon's understudy pulled off a heroic block before leaping up to keep out two more efforts amid a chaotic scramble.

But progress to the next round was secured 11 minutes into the second half as Sinclair grabbed another close-range strike.

Dedryck Boyata got his head to a Ryan Christie corner, Hutton's reflexes prevented a ricochet off team-mate Kieran Millar flying into the Airdrie net but that left him powerless again to prevent Sinclair scoring.

Sinclair had the ball in the net again after 68 minutes as he jumped on another rebound but he was denied his hat-trick by the linesman's offside flag.

Sinclair made way for Weah midway through the second period and the 18-year-old took over the scoring duties with seven minutes left as he raced onto Boyata's through ball before calmly steering home the third.

PAThe biggest feminist conference for young women in Ireland is taking place today at Dublin's Liberty Hall.

Vicky Phelan, who was speaking at the conference in Dublin's Liberty Hall today said that young women need to know that leadership can come in any form.

The CervicalCheck campaigner says the traditional role of leadership is changing, and that it is now much more than just someone in a management role.

She says she hopes her experiences will help inspire young women to stand up and take the initiative if they feel something is not right.

Leadership in the hands of women is not about creating endless followers, but sparking change, and helping others. When women help other women, we are at our best, and better than any men #FemFest @PhelanVicky  Womenscouncilireland (@NWCI) January 19, 2019

"I think if you get them early and encourage them at an early, young age," said Ms Phelan.

"I have a 13-year-old daughter myself and she's very like me, she asks a lot of questions but I think that's the way to start.

"Start as you mean to go on, get them to start thinking that if something isn't right, go with your gut.

That's what I have done all my life - gone with my gut instinct - and if things aren't right I question it.

"I suppose it's just to instil that in them, that you know your own body."

Minister for Culture Josepha Madigan and Eileen Flynn from the National Traveller Women's Forum are just some of the other speakers at today's conference.

Director of the National Women's Council of Ireland, Orla O'Connor, says it is a way for young women to come together and define their own vision for change.

"It is the space where young women will come together, they will talk about their experiences of being a young woman in Ireland today and also their aspirations for the future," said Ms O'Connor.

"So it's really important for us in the National Women's Council to hear the issues that are of concern to young women so that we can act on them and bring them into the work of the National Women's Council."

Nothing about us, without us. I dont want the young generation of refugees and asylum seekers to believe that have to jump ten times higher. I want them to have a seat at the table, we have to be there @elliekisyombe1 #FemFest pic.twitter.com/k8rRgsdThL  Womenscouncilireland (@NWCI) January 19, 2019

Ms O'Connor said that young women are being represented in all their diversity at the event.

"There will be young women Travellers who will be speaking to us, Eileen Flynn will be speaking, disability rights campaigner Suzy Byrne will be speaking to us, Vicky Phelan was the guest speaker and young women particularly wanted to hear from Vicky as someone who is such an inspirational leader," said Ms O'Connor.

"There will be Ellie Kisyombe who is a woman who is standing for local elections and also has experience of being in Direct Provision."Two men have been arrested in the North in connection with an armed robbery in Derry.

It's after the driver of a red Volkswagen Caddy van was robbed at gunpoint on Meadowbank Avenue on Tuesday.A man has been questioned in Waterford overnight, following the discovery of a cannabis grow-house in Tramore.

He was arrested early yesterday, after Gardai found drugs worth more than 250,000.An image of Irish nurses in Australia standing in solidarity with their colleagues in Ireland has gained a lot of attention on social media.

The powerful photo which was posted earlier today shows a crowd of nurses along with a banner that reads 'Give us a reason to come home'.

Around 300 Irish nurses and midwives working in Sydney and New South Wales gathered on the steps of Sydney Opera House to show support for the impending strike action by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA).

"We stand with the INMO and the PNA who are fighting for us," said Laura Phillips in a video posted to Facebook.

"We will not come home until our skills are recognised and we are paid equally with other allied health professionals.

"It is not competitive pay rates that Ireland is offering and therefore there is a recruitment issue and a crisis in Ireland and at the end of the day this directly affects patient safety and that's why we're here.

"So we send a message to Leo, to Simon and all of the Irish government: Give us a reason to come home."

The photo has been widely shared online with the hashtags #GiveUsAReasonToComeHome and #StandWithNursesAndMidwives.

So proud of friends halfway across the world standing up for nurses and midwives at home. #giveusareasontocomehome As the daughter of a nurse, I am sending a massive THANK YOU back to #Sydney! @INMO_IRL #StandWithNursesAndMidwives pic.twitter.com/hULNMmPacb  Emma Archbold (@EmArchbold1) January 19, 2019BURNABY, B.C. - The federal Liberals have named a new candidate to run against NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh in the Burnaby South byelection.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 19/1/2019 (880 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MLA Richard Lee leaves Caucus in Victoria, B.C., Thursday March 14, 2013. he federal Liberals have named a new candidate to run against NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh in the Burnaby South byelection. They say former provincial legislator Richard T. Lee will replace Karen Wang on the ballot on Feb. 25.THE CANADIAN PRESS/CHAD HIPOLITO

BURNABY, B.C. - The federal Liberals have named a new candidate to run against NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh in the Burnaby South byelection.

They say former provincial legislator Richard T. Lee will replace Karen Wang on the ballot on Feb. 25.

Wang stepped aside Wednesday after she urged Chinese people to vote for her, the "only" Chinese candidate, instead of Singh, who she described as "of Indian descent."

The Liberals say Lee represented Burnaby in British Columbia's legislature for 16 years, serving for a time as deputy speaker.

They note that he has lived in the city for more than three decades.

The decision for them to run a candidate in the riding was not a given: Green Party Leader Elizabeth May urged the Liberals to follow her party's lead in offering a "leader's courtesy" to Singh by not running against him.BURNABY, B.C. - Inside a sunlit co-operative housing complex in Burnaby, B.C., federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh knocked on doors of residents whose first languages included Croatian, Filipino and Spanish. Often, to their surprise, Singh greeted them or said goodbye in their mother tongue.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 19/1/2019 (880 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh walks to another home after placing a sign on supporter Paul Pelletreau's lawn while door knocking for his byelection campaign, in Burnaby, B.C. on Saturday January 12, 2019. Inside a sunlit co-operative housing complex in Burnaby, B.C., federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh recently knocked on doors of residents whose first languages included Croatian, Filipino and Spanish. Often to their surprise, Singh greeted them or said goodbye in their mother tongue. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

BURNABY, B.C. - Inside a sunlit co-operative housing complex in Burnaby, B.C., federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh knocked on doors of residents whose first languages included Croatian, Filipino and Spanish. Often, to their surprise, Singh greeted them or said goodbye in their mother tongue.

The leader is staking his political future on a byelection in Burnaby South, an extremely diverse riding where nearly 55 per cent of residents were born outside Canada. But recent missteps by his former Liberal opponent, Karen Wang, highlight why politicians must be careful when discussing issues of identity.

Singh said he learned to say, "Hello, how are you?" in about 40 languages because when he was young, someone unexpected greeted him in Punjabi and he appreciated it as a sign of respect.

"I feel like it's my way of saying, 'I respect where you come from and your history, and who you are, and a part of what makes you, you. It says a lot without saying a lot. It just says, 'I value you,' " he said while on his recent door-knocking campaign.

The Liberals on Saturday announced a replacement for Wang: Richard Lee, a former provincial legislator.

The former Liberal candidate stepped aside Wednesday after she urged Chinese people to vote for her on social media platform WeChat. She contrasted herself, the "only" Chinese candidate, with Singh, who she described as "of Indian descent."

Wang held a tearful news conference a day after dropping out, in which she said a volunteer wrote the post and it's common in Chinese culture to mention someone's ethnicity. She said the Liberals asked her to resign, then wrote her apology, and she's considering running as an Independent.

The turmoil has sparked debate about how racial identity fits into Canadian politics. Some observers say parties have a long history of cynically appealing to the so-called "ethnic vote," and Wang's only fault might have been putting the strategy in writing. Others say her post crossed a line by pitting two groups against each other.

Peter Julian, the New Democrat MP for nearby New Westminster-Burnaby, said his party's approach is to consider how best to communicate with every community.

"There are over 100 languages spoken in Burnaby South. It is a remarkably diverse riding. So, what we talk about is how best to reach out to all of those 100 communities, and make sure that we're reflecting what the needs of the communities are," he said.

Wang's post was not at all in that spirit, as she didn't mention the needs of the community or the issues within it, said Julian.

"She was just really trying to divide people in Burnaby South, and that's why I think the reaction has been negative. People don't want to see division. They want to feel in unity or in solidarity with their neighbours."

The Liberals swiftly condemned the post and said it wasn't aligned with their values, adding they have long supported full and equal participation of all Canadians in democracy. Wang said the party did not have a strategy to capture Chinese-Canadian voters.

Mario Canseco, president of Vancouver-based Research Co., said he conducted polling in 2015 on what "multicultural voters" in the Lower Mainland are looking in a political representative.

"They're motivated, more than anything, by the same things that any other voter would be motivated by  the party policies, the structures, the candidates. There were less than five per cent who said their main motivator for choosing a candidate is ethnicity," he said.

"So there's not a lot of meat on those bones, in my view. But it's still something that many politicians spend time doing. Everybody celebrates the Lunar New Year, they go to Vaisakhi. ... But it's not going to be the main motivator for those voters."

Both former premier Christy Clark and current Premier John Horgan created profiles on WeChat, a Chinese-language platform, during the last provincial election in 2017, said Guo Ding, a producer at OMNI BC Mandarin News.

Wang's post was offensive to Chinese-Canadians who have worked hard not to be seen only for their ethnicity, said Alden Habacon, a diversity and inclusion strategist in Vancouver.

"They have value to bring as a creative person or a leader or a contributor that is more than just the Chinese person you see the first moment you see them," he said.

"For her to point that out right away kind of counters all that effort that a lot of Chinese-Canadians have made to push this idea that, 'I'm legitimate. I'm legitimately Canadian and I have something to offer.' "

Still, others argue Wang is being held up to more scrutiny because of her ethnicity, particularly at a time of tension between China and Canada on the world stage.

Other politicians have been able to bounce back from worse scandals, said diversity consultant Ajay Puri.

Puri said he believed it would be easier for a white politician to win in the riding, even though it is nearly 40 per cent ethnically Chinese. Puri noted the last municipal election in Vancouver ended with a nearly all-white council despite the diversity of its residents.

"It's harder for (white politician) to fail. But it's easier for a person of colour to fail because the scrutiny is that much harder on them."

 Follow @ellekane on Twitter.Submit your letter to the editor for publication in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. Letters should be no more than 300 words and must include the writer's first and last name (no initials), home address and daytime phone number.

SubmitCanada NewsWire

VANCOUVER, Jan. 18, 2019

VANCOUVER, Jan. 18, 2019 /CNW/ -

TSX VENTURE COMPANIES

BARD VENTURES LTD. ("CBS")BULLETIN TYPE: ConsolidationBULLETIN DATE: January 18, 2019TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Pursuant to a Directors' Resolution dated January 8, 2019, the Company has consolidated its capital on a 5 old for 1 new basis. The name of the Company has not been changed.

Effective at the opening January 22, 2019, the common shares of Bard Ventures Ltd. will commence trading on TSX Venture Exchange on a consolidated basis. The Company is classified as a 'Precious Metals Exploration and Development' company.

Post - Consolidation Capitalization:

Unlimited

shares with no par value of which

10,627,953

shares are issued and outstanding

Escrow

Nil

shares are subject to escrow

Transfer Agent:

Odyssey Trust Company

Trading Symbol:

CBS

(UNCHANGED)

CUSIP Number:

067396408

(new)

________________________________________

NOBLE MINERAL EXPLORATION INC. ("NOB")BULLETIN TYPE: Reinstated for TradingBULLETIN DATE: January 18, 2019TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Further to the TSX Venture Exchange Bulletin dated January 8, 2019, the Exchange has been advised that the Cease Trade Order issued by the Ontario Securities Commission dated January 7, 2019 has been revoked.

Effective at the opening, Tuesday, January 22, 2019, trading will be reinstated in the securities of the Company.

_______________________________________

NEX COMPANIES

NEWTON ENERGY CORPORATION ("NTN.H")BULLETIN TYPE: Resume TradingBULLETIN DATE: January 18, 2019NEX Company

Effective at the opening, Tuesday, January 22, 2019, the securities of Newton Energy Corporation (the "Company") will resume trading. Further to the Exchange Bulletin dated December 5, 2018, a news release was issued on January 17, 2019, announcing that the Company will not be proceeding with its proposed transaction. The transaction contemplated would have constituted a Reverse Takeover as defined under Exchange Policy 5.2.

_________________________________

PEDRO RESOURCES LTD. ("PED.H")BULLETIN TYPE: Resume TradingBULLETIN DATE: January 18, 2019NEX Company

Further to the TSX Venture Exchange's bulletins dated July 12, 2018 and July 16, 2018, effective at the opening on Tuesday, January 22, 2019, trading in the common shares of the Company will resume trading, an announcement having been made. On January 15, 2019, the Company announced the termination of the definitive purchase agreement entered into between the Company, Colorado Vanadium Corp. ("CVC") and the shareholders of CVC.

For further information, please refer to the Company's press release dated January 15, 2019, which is available on the Company's SEDAR profile.

________________________________________

TRIUS INVESTMENTS INC. ("TRU.H")BULLETIN TYPE: Resume TradingBULLETIN DATE: January 18, 2019NEX Company

Effective at the opening, Tuesday, January 22, 2019, the securities of Trius Investments Inc. (the "Company") will resume trading. Further to the Exchange Bulletin dated October 24, 2018, a news release was issued on January 18, 2019, announcing that the Company will not be proceeding with its proposed transaction. The transaction contemplated would have constituted a Reverse Takeover as defined under Exchange Policy 5.2.

_________________________________

19/01/18 - TSX Venture Exchange Bulletins

TSX VENTURE COMPANIES

BETTERU EDUCATION CORP. ("BTRU")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: January 18, 2019TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced January 17, 2019:

Number of Shares:

2,976,190 shares

Purchase Price:

$0.42 per share

Number of Placees:

1 Placee

For further details, please refer to the Company's news release dated January 17, 2019.

____________________________________

CHAINODE OPPORTUNITIES CORP. ("CXD.P")BULLETIN TYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: January 18, 2019TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at 5.00 a.m. PST, January 18, 2019, trading in the shares of the Company was halted pending closing; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules.

________________________________________

ELY GOLD ROYALTIES INC. ("ELY")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: January 18, 2019TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced December 06, 2018:

Number of Shares:

13,000,000 shares

Purchase Price:

$0.11 per share

Warrants*:

13,000,000 share purchase warrants to purchase 13,000,000 shares

Warrant Exercise Price:

$0.22 for a five year period

Number of Placees:

20 Placees

Insider Participation:

Insider=Y /

Name

ProGroup=P

# of Shares

Ron Husband

Y

122,500

Tuareg Consulting Inc. (Scott Kelly)

Y

52,500

William M. Sheriff

Y

100,000

Clarence (Trey) Wasser

Y

225,000

Thomas E. Wharton Jr

Y

500,000

Finder's Fee:

PI Financial Corp. - $1,320 cash and 10,000 Finder Warrants*

Sprott Global Resource Investments Ltd. - $66,000 cash and 500,000 Finder Warrants*.

Non-transferable Finder Warrants* are exercisable into one common share at a price of $0.135 for a period of two years.

*Warrants contain an acceleration clause.

Pursuant to Corporate Finance Policy 4.1, Section 1.11(d), the Company issued news releases dated January 02, 2019 and January 18, 2019 announcing the closing of the first and second tranches of the private placement setting out the expiry dates of the hold periods.

________________________________________

GESPEG COPPER RESOURCES INC. ("GCR")BULLETIN TYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: January 18, 2019TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at 12.10 a.m. PST, January 17, 2019, trading in the shares of the Company was halted pending clarification of news; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules.

________________________________________

NANO ONE MATERIALS CORP. ("NNO")BULLETIN TYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: January 18, 2019TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at 6.00 a.m. PST, January 18, 2019, trading in the shares of the Company was halted at the request of the Company, pending news; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules.

________________________________________

NRG METALS INC. ("NGZ")BULLETIN TYPE: Warrant Price AmendmentBULLETIN DATE: January 18, 2019TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has consented to the reduction in the exercise price of the following warrants:

Private Placement:

# of Warrants:

33,235,000

Expiry Date of Warrants:

2,000,000

Sept. 14, 2019

4,450,000

Oct. 6, 2019

12,150,000

Nov. 15, 2020

2,750,000

Mar. 14, 2020

250,000

Mar. 15, 2020

3,435,000

Mar. 28, 2020

6,200,000

Apr. 17,2021

2,000,000

Sept. 14, 2020

Forced Exercise Provision:

If the closing price for the Company's shares is $0.1375 or greater for a period of 10 consecutive trading days, then the warrant holders will have 30 days to exercise their warrants; otherwise the warrants will expire on the 31st day

Original Exercise Price of Warrants:

2,000,000 $0.20

4,450,000

$0.20

12,150,000

$0.20

2,750,000

$0.30

250,000

$0.30

3,435,000

$0.30

6,200,000

$0.20

2,000,000

$0.40

New Exercise Price of Warrants:

$0.11

These warrants were issued pursuant to four private placements totalling 33,285,000 shares and 33,285,000 share purchase warrants attached, which was accepted for filing by the Exchange effective October 6, 2017, April 2, 2018, May 31, 2018, and October 25, 2018.

________________________________________

PROAM EXPLORATIONS CORPORATION ("PMX")BULLETIN TYPE: Property-Asset or Share Purchase AgreementBULLETIN DATE: January 18, 2019TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for expedited filing documentation pertaining to an option agreement dated November 30, 2018 between ProAm Explorations Corporation and A. Krueger pursuant to which the Company has an option to acquire the remaining 70% interest in the Jet Property, located in Elko County, Nevada.

CASH

SHARES

WORK EXPENDITURES

Upon Exchange Approval

$2,000

200,000

nil

Within 1st year

$25,000

400,000

$50,000

Within 2nd year

$50,000

400,000

$150,000

Within 3rd year

$125,000

500,000

$500,000

Within 4th year

$250,000

nil

complete NI43-101 resource calculation

________________________________________

VITALHUB CORP. ("VHI")BULLETIN TYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: January 18, 2019TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at 7.15 a.m. PST, January 18, 2019, trading in the shares of the Company was halted at the request of the Company, pending news; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules.

________________________________________

VITALHUB CORP. ("VHI")BULLETIN TYPE: Resume TradingBULLETIN DATE: January 18, 2019TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at 8.45 a.m. PST, January 18, 2019, shares of the Company resumed trading, an announcement having been made.

________________________________________

SOURCE TSX Venture ExchangePR Newswire

SHANGHAI, Jan. 18, 2019

SHANGHAI, Jan. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- GreenTree Hospitality Group Ltd. (NYSE: GHG) ("GreenTree" or the "Company"), a leading franchised hotel operator in China, today announced that it has closed a HK$40 million investment to acquire 27,776,000 ordinary shares in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange ("HKSE") initial public offering of China Gingko Education Group Company Limited ("Gingko"). Gingko is a pioneer in developing and providing higher education services for the hospitality industry in China. Gingko was founded in 2002 by Mr. Gongyu Fang, a visionary entrepreneur in this field. With nearly 10,000 students on campus, Gingko is currently ranked as China's number one hospitality university by the "Gaosan Web Association", an authoritative website with introductions to and rankings of universities in China.

Mr. Fang, Chairman and CEO of Gingko, welcomed GreenTree's investment. "We are pleased to have GreenTree as our investor. This transaction is part of both companies' larger plan to cultivate professional talents for the hospitality industry in China. It is a truly win-win cooperation that combines Gingko's deep expertise in education with industry experience from GreenTree, a leading player." Mr. Alex Xu, Chairman and CEO of GreenTree, echoed, "Mr. Fang has done a tremendous job of building Gingko's superior educational platform. We feel privileged to work together with him and his team as part of our strategy to further enhance and develop talents for our companies and for China's hospitality industry generally."

About GreenTree Hospitality Group Ltd.

GreenTree Hospitality Group Ltd. ("GreenTree" or the "Company") (NYSE: GHG) is a leading franchised hotel operator in China. As of September 30, 2018, GreenTree had 2,558 hotels, among which 2,528 are franchised and managed hotels. The Company had the highest proportion of franchised-and-managed hotels among the top four economy to mid-scale hotel networks in China. In 2017, GreenTree was the fourth largest economy to mid-scale hotel group in China in terms of number of hotels according to China Hospitality Association. The Company has built a strong suite of brands including its flagship "GreenTree Inns" brand as a result of its long-standing dedication to the hospitality industry in China and consistent quality of its services, signature hotel designs, broad geographic coverage and convenient locations. GreenTree has positioned its brands to appeal to value-and-quality-conscious business travelers and leisure travelers.

For more information on GreenTree, please visit http://ir.998.com.

About China Gingko Education Group Company Limited

China Gingko Education Group Company Limited ("Gingko") (HKEX: 01851) is a higher education services provider in Sichuan Province focusing on cultivating professional talents for the hospitality industry in China. Gingko started to provide higher education services in 2002. For the 2017/2018 school year, Gingko enrolled nearly 10,000 students, among which 1,222 students enrolled in the hospitality management program. According to the Frost & Sullivan Report, by the end of 2017, among all 746 private higher education institutions in China, only 225 institutions offered hospitality management programs. Among such 225 institutions, Gingko's hospitality management program ranked second based on the number of students enrolled in the hospitality management program in the 2017/2018 school year. In a comprehensive assessment conducted in 2017 by Chinese Universities Alumni Association ("CUAA") of programs offered by all independent colleges in China, 24 out of Gingko's 25 bachelor's degree programs were named star-rated programs, among which its hospitality management program was named a six-star program, representing CUAA's highest award for undergraduate hospitality management programs offered by independent colleges in China.

For more information on Gingko, please visit http://www.chinagingkoedu.com/.

Safe Harbor Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements made under the "safe harbor" provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, these forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such as "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "aim," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "potential," "continue," "is/are likely to," "confident," "future," or other similar expressions. GreenTree may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with or furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Any statements that are not historical facts, including statements about or based on GreenTree's current beliefs, expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections about us and our industry, are forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors and risks include, but not limited to the following: GreenTree's goals and growth strategies; its future business development, financial condition and results of operations; trends in the hospitality industry in China and globally; competition in our industry; fluctuations in general economic and business conditions in China and other regions where we operate; the regulatory environment in which we and our franchisees operate; and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing. You should not place undue reliance on these 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. All information provided, including the forward-looking statements made, in this press release are current as of the date of the press release. Except as required by law, GreenTree undertakes no obligation to update any such information or forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which the information is provided or statements are made, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

For more information, please contact:

GreenTreeMs. Selina YangPhone: +86-21-3617-4886 ext. 7999E-mail: [email protected]

Mr. Nicky ZhengPhone: +86-21-3617-4886 ext. 6708E-mail: [email protected]

ChristensenIn ShanghaiMs. Constance ZhangPhone: +86-138-1645-1798E-mail: [email protected]

In Hong Kong Ms. Karen Hui Phone: +852-9266-4140 E-mail: [email protected]

In US Ms. Linda Bergkamp Phone: +1-480-614-3004E-mail: [email protected]

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/greentree-closed-investment-in-hkse-ipo-of-gingko-education-300780940.html

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Migration experts in UK and Japan focus on post-Brexit labour challenge

Tokyo

Migration experts from the University of Birmingham and Waseda University are launching a major new research partnership that will examine a key challenge faced by both the UK and Japan - a shortage of skilled and unskilled labour.

After leaving the EU on 29 March, Britain faces the prospect of looking for labour beyond Europe, whilst, one month after Brexit, Japan opens its doors to large scale labour migration for the first time and is faced with the new challenge of diversification.

The universities partnership brings together British and Japanese researchers with expertise in social sciences, arts and humanities  with Birmingham's Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS) and Waseda Universitys Institute for Asian Migrations (IAM) at its heart.

Backed by funding from the UKs Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC), the partnership begins with a workshop in Brussels, in June, when key IRiS and IAM academics outline five key research themes that will unite leading scholars in migration and superdiversity studies with early career researchers.

Professor Jenny Phillimore, of IRiS, commented: Japan and the UK have many political, economic and social differences, yet share one major challenge: a shortage of skilled and unskilled labour. Both have resisted mass migration but now understand that future prosperity depends on access to foreign labour.

As Britain re-embraces labour migration and Japans relatively homogenous society faces an influx of migrants, our nations have much to learn from each other. The University of Birmingham and Waseda University each have world-renowned expertise in migration and superdiversity. Were looking forward to establishing a new era of Japan/UK scholarship.

IRiS and IAM are well-networked in their countries and form the hub of the new research network. They will open a call for research papers to other migration academics within the UK and Japan  aiming to secure an equal number of Japanese and UK scholars co-authoring papers.

At a time that Japanese society is opening up, this collaboration presents a great opportunity to also link Japanese academia to the outside world, said Professor Gracia Liu Farrer, Director of IAM. Migration and diversity research is rapidly developing in Japan. IAM is a new institute. We hope to gain many inspirations and know-hows by working together with IRiS and the UK migration researchers.

The project will share existing knowledge and develop new ways of thinking to explore key questions identified in the Brussels workshop. A subsequent call for research papers will lead to a five-day Tokyo symposium, in December, which will unite leading scholars in migration and superdiversity studies with early career researchers, policymakers and practitioners.

The project complements a strategic joint research partnership between the Universities of Birmingham and Waseda, started in 2016, that is producing collaboration across areas such as robotics, corpus linguistics, atmospheric environmental science, urban studies, language education, creative writing and Shakespeare.

ENDS

For more information or to request interviews, please contact Tony Moran, International Communications Manager, University of Birmingham on +44 (0) 121 414 8254 or +44 (0)782 783 2312. Out-of-hours enquiries: +44 (0) 7789 921 165.

Notes to EditorsThe accuracy of a news report that said Donald Trumps lawyer told Robert Mueller that the president directed him to lie to Congress has been disputed by the special counsels office.

BuzzFeed, citing two unidentified law enforcement officials, reported that Mr Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate project.

The report also said that Cohen told Mr Mueller that Mr Trump personally instructed him to lie about the timing of the project.

The report said Mr Muellers investigators learned about Mr Trumps directive through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organisation and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents.

BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the special counsel's office, and characterisation of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's congressional testimony are not accurate.Robert Mueller's spokesman

The report said Cohen then acknowledged Mr Trumps instructions when he was interviewed by Mr Muellers team.

The statement by Mr Muellers office on Friday night did not cite any specific errors.

However the special counsels spokesman, Peter Carr, said: BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the special counsels office, and characterisation of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens congressional testimony are not accurate.

Buzzfeed spokesman Matt Mittenthal said the publication stands by its reporting and to stay tuned as they worked to determine what Mr Mueller was denying.

Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, also said the publication stands by its reporting and the sources who informed it.

We urge the special counsel to make clear what hes disputing, Mr Smith said.

In response to the statement tonight from the Special Counsel's spokesman: We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he's disputing.  Ben Smith (@benyt) January 19, 2019

Immediately after the special counsels statement was issued, Mr Trump retweeted several posts that called the story fake news.

He later tweeted: A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!

Mr Trumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, tweeted: I commend Bob Muellers office for correcting the BuzzFeed false story that Pres Trump encouraged Cohen to lie.

I ask the press to take heed that their hysterical desire to destroy this President has gone too far. They pursued this without critical analysis all day. #FAKENEWS.

The extraordinary statement from Mr Muellers office came after Democrats had vowed to investigate whether the report was true, calling that possibility a concern of the greatest magnitude.

I commend Bob Muelleras office for correcting the BuzzFeed false story that Pres. Trump encouraged Cohen to lie. I ask the press to take heed that their hysterical desire to destroy this President has gone too far. They pursued this without critical analysis all day. #FAKENEWS  Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) January 19, 2019

House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a Democratic Representative from California, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a Democratic Representative from New York, both said they would probe BuzzFeeds account.

Some Democrats even said that if the report were true, then Mr Trump should be impeached.

The Associated Press had not independently confirmed the report.

Any evidence that Mr Trump directed a witness to lie to investigators would place him in the greatest political and legal jeopardy yet.

Mr Giuliani said in a statement earlier on Friday that any suggestion  from any source  that the President counseled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the allegation absolutely ridiculous.

On Twitter on Friday morning, Mr Trump charged that Cohen was Lying to reduce his jail time!

Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress to cover up that he was negotiating the Trump Tower project on Mr Trumps behalf during the heat of his presidential campaign.

The charge was brought by Mr Mueller and was the result of Cohens cooperation with that probe.

Cohen admitted that he lied when he told lawmakers he had never agreed to travel to Russia in connection with the Moscow project and when he said that he had decided by the end of January 2016 that the proposal was not feasible for a variety of business reasons and should not be pursued further.

Expand Close Michael Cohen, former lawyer to Donald Trump, has been jailed for three years (AP file/Richard Drew) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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He was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to conceal his boss alleged sexual affairs.

He told a judge that he agreed time and again to cover up Mr Trumps dirty deeds out of blind loyalty.

Mr Giuliani noted that Mr Cohen had pleaded guilty to lying and quoted federal prosecutors in New York who chastised him for a pattern of lies and dishonesty over an extended period of time.

Mr Muellers team, however, had previously called him a credible witness.

Todays claims are just more made-up lies born of Michael Cohens malice and desperation, Mr Giuliani said.

Lanny Davis, an adviser to Mr Cohen, declined to comment.President Donald Trump has said he will make a major announcement on the government shutdown and the southern border on Saturday afternoon as the standstill over his border wall continues.

The White House did not immediately provide details on Friday about what the president would be announcing, but a person familiar with the planning said Mr Trump planned to outline a new deal with specific proposals that the administration believes could potentially pave the way to the shutdowns end.

The move, on Day 28 of a shutdown that has left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without pay cheques, represents the first major overture by the president since January 8, when he delivered an Oval Office address making the public case for his border wall.

The president and his aides have said he will not budge on his demand for 5.7 billion US dollars for his border wall.

Democrats have panned the offer and said they will not negotiate until the government reopens.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to discuss what Mr Trump might propose but said he was going to continue looking for the solution to end what the administration had repeatedly referred to as a humanitarian and national security crisis at the border.

While few would argue that a humanitarian crisis is unfolding as the demand for entry by migrants and the Trump administrations hardline response overwhelm border resources, critics say Mr Trump has badly exaggerated the security risks.

Expand Close House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Andrew Harnik/PA) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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The Friday evening announcement came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday cancelled her plans to travel by commercial plane to visit US troops in Afghanistan, saying Mr Trump had caused a security risk by talking about the trip.

The White House said there was no such leak.

But it was the latest turn, and potentially the most dangerous, in the high-stakes brinkmanship between Mr Trump and Ms Pelosi, playing out against the stalled negotiations over how to end the partial government shutdown.

And it showed once again the willingness of the former hard-charging businessman to hit hard when challenged, as he was earlier this week when Ms Pelosi suggested postponing his State of the Union address during the shutdown.

Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, said it gives new meaning to tensions between the executive and legislative branches.

Expand Close President Donald Trump boards Marine One (Evan Vucci/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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There are public back and forths, he said, citing relations between past presidents and House speakers.

But this kind of tensions, preventing the speaker from visiting the troops and the speaker suggesting the White House leaked information about a crucial flight, this is one more example of where Trumpism brings us into new territory.

The political stakes are high as the shutdown moves into a fifth week, with hundreds of thousands of federal workers going without pay and no outward signs of resolution.

Ms Sanders on Friday stressed the importance of a looming Tuesday deadline to process pay cheques, when the government will need to decide if workers get another round of zeros on Fridays payday.

One of the key reasons that the president did not want Speaker Pelosi to leave the country is because, if she did, it would all but guarantee the fact that the negotiations could not take place over the weekend, Ms Sanders told reporters.

It was an unusually combative week between the executive and legislative branches.

Expand Close More than two dozen federal employees and supporters demonstrate at the Sacramento International Airport (Rich Pedroncelli/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Tensions flared when Ms Pelosi suggested Mr Trump postpone the annual State of the Union address, a grand Washington tradition, and a platform for his border wall fight with Democrats, that was tentatively scheduled for January 29.

Mr Trump never responded directly.

Instead, he abruptly cancelled Ms Pelosis military flight on Thursday, hours before she and a congressional delegation were to depart for Afghanistan on the previously undisclosed visit to US troops.

Mr Trump belittled the trip as a public relations event, even though he had just made a similar stop in a conflict zone during the shutdown, and said it would be best if Ms Pelosi remained in Washington to negotiate to reopen the government.

Obviously, if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative, wrote Trump.

Ms Pelosi, undeterred, quietly began making her own preparations for the overseas trip.

But on Friday, Ms Pelosi said her plan to travel by commercial plane had been leaked by the White House.

Expand Close The president will speak from the White House (Alex Brandon/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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The administration leaked that we were travelling commercially, Ms Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol.

She said it was very irresponsible on the part of the president.

She said the State Department told her the president outing the original trip made the scene on the ground in Afghanistan more dangerous because its a signal to the bad actors that were coming.

The White House said it had leaked nothing that would cause a security risk.

President Trump denying Speaker Pelosi military travel to visit our troops in Afghanistan, our allies in Egypt and NATO is also inappropriate.  Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) January 17, 2019

Denying military aircraft to a senior politician, let alone the speaker, who is second in line to the presidency after the vice president, travelling to a combat region, is very rare.

Mr Trumps trip to Iraq after Christmas was not disclosed in advance for security reasons.

Democratic Representative Adam Schiff of California slammed Mr Trump for revealing the closely held travel plans.

I think the presidents decision to disclose a trip the speakers making to a war zone was completely and utterly irresponsible in every way, Mr Schiff said.

Some Republicans expressed frustration.

Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted: One sophomoric response does not deserve another.

He called Ms Pelosis State of the Union move very irresponsible and blatantly political but said Mr Trumps reaction was also inappropriate.

The White House also cancelled plans for a presidential delegation to travel to an economic forum in Switzerland next week, citing the shutdown.

And it said future congressional trips would be postponed until the shutdown is resolved, though it was not immediately clear if any such travel, which often is not disclosed in advance, was coming up.

The new White House travel ban does not extend to the first family.

Next week, House Democrats will pass bills to try to fund the government, including one adding one billion US dollars to border security  to hire 75 immigration judges and improve infrastructure.

The Senate, controlled by Republicans, has declined to consider any bills unless Mr Trump is prepared to sign them into law.Musician Billy Ray Cyrus sang a song he wrote for soldiers of the Vietnam War at a service for a 22-year-old police officer killed in the line of duty.

He said that Davis Officer Natalie Coronas smile touched his heart.

He called her a light in this world that wont be forgotten.

Many of you have been asking about standing out in support on the Procession route. Natalie loved this community. She loved on every person she came into contact with in our city and she would be honored to have you... https://t.co/yxNDfx4QHqa/police-dea/officer-corona-memorial  Davis Police Department (@cityofdavispd) January 17, 2019

Bagpipes played as pallbearers solemnly carried her flag-draped coffin to a packed memorial at the University of California, Davis.

All 8,000 seats are filled with officers, family, friends and members of the community to bid farewell to Ms Corona.

Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and a medal of distinction at a packed memorial service for Natalie Corona.

Expand Close Musician Billy Ray Cyrus performs a song (Rich Pedroncelli/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Ms Corona was shot and killed last week when she responded to a three-car crash.

Police are still investigating the motive for the attack.

The gunman has been identified as a 48-year-old convict who was banned from owning firearms and took his own life after shooting Ms Corona.

Mr Pytel says that although the person who committed this atrocity is known, why he did it may never be.Unionists and nationalists are deeply divided on whether there should be a second Brexit referendum

Unionists and nationalists are deeply divided on whether there should be a second Brexit referendum.

A LucidTalk poll published yesterday shows 70% of unionists against another vote on leaving the EU whereas 77% of nationalists want one.

Just over a quarter (27%) of unionists believe there should be a second referendum and 14% of nationalists oppose one.

Some 1,483 people making up a representative sample of the Northern Ireland population took part in the poll, which was conducted last week.

A total of 52% said there should be a second vote, with 43% against.

Those taking part were asked how they would vote if two options were on the ballot paper - Brexit on the terms of Theresa May's withdrawal agreement or a no-deal. Almost half (48%) chose the Prime Minister's plan, 37% a no-deal Brexit. Almost one in 10 said they wouldn't vote or would spoil their vote.

Mrs May's deal was more popular with 18 to 24-year-olds (51%) and 25 to 44-year-olds (56%), whereas just over four in 10 of those over 45 supported it.

A no-deal Brexit was most popular with the over-65s (46%) and 45 to 64-year-olds (43%), whereas just over a quarter of under-45s backed it.

The Prime Minister's plan was most popular with Catholics, with almost three-quarters (73%) choosing it and one in 10 opting for a no-deal.

But only a quarter of Protestants were behind the deal, with almost two-thirds backing a no-deal Brexit.

Support for the withdrawal agreement was most popular with wealthier people - 53% of ABC1s (middle class) supported it, with a third of them choosing a no-deal. Those less well off were evenly split, with 42% behind the Prime Minister's plan but 41% believing the UK should leave without a deal.

Participants were then asked how they would vote if the two options on the ballot paper were remaining in the EU or leaving on the terms of Mrs May's deal.

A total of 58% said they would vote to stay, with just 17% choosing the Prime Minister's plan and one in five saying they would spoil their vote or wouldn't vote.

Remain was far more popular with Catholics (83%) than Protestants (34%), and almost one in three Protestants were likely to spoil their vote or not vote if only Remain or Mrs May's deal was on the ballot paper.

Those taking part were then asked how they would vote if there was a straight choice of remaining in the EU or leaving without a deal.

A total of 57% said they would vote to stay, with 38% opting to leave with no-deal. Two-thirds of unionists would choose to depart with a no-deal, whereas only 6% of nationalists would.

Under a third (29%) of unionists would back remaining and 6% of nationalists would vote to leave without a deal.

The number of people spoiling their vote, not voting or unsure about what to do was lower (5%) when no-deal was on the table.

Some 60% of people believe that Brexit makes a united Ireland more likely in the next decade, with 10% saying it was less likely and a quarter believing Brexit would have no impact.

Nationalists were much more likely to believe Irish unity was likely (94%) with a third of unionists agreeing - 17% of unionists believe a united Ireland is now less likely and 43% say Brexit will have no impact.

Bill White of LucidTalk said: "Until last September there was no real change in people's position here on Brexit since the 2016 referendum. Since then, we have seen a 4-5% increase for Remain and this poll has reinforced that again."

Mr White said unionists were more divided than nationalists over Brexit, with a sizeable minority supporting Remain.Tudor Simionov was stabbed to death outside a private New Years party at the Fountain House on Park Lane (Metropolitan Police/PA)

Police investigating the murder of a security guard at a New Years Eve party in Park Lane have appealed for information about two dangerous individuals.

Tudor Simionov, 33, was working outside the private event at Fountain House in Park Lane in the capitals West End when he was attacked on January 1 at around 5.30am.

Scotland Yard is appealing for information about Ossama Hamed, 25, and 23-year-old Nor Aden Hamada.

Expand Close Nor Aden Hamada, 23, is wanted for questioning (Metropolitan Police/PA) PA / Facebook

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Detective Inspector Garry Moncrieff of the Homicide and Major Crime Command said: Ossama Hamed and Nor Aden Hamada are dangerous individuals who need to be apprehended. I would urge anyone who has seen them, or knows of their whereabouts, to contact police immediately.

These are live lines of enquiry, therefore I am not willing to speculate on where they may be but rest assured we are working with colleagues to ensure that if they are in this country, or overseas, we will track them down.

Expand Close Ossama Hamed, 25, is also wanted (Metropolitan Police/PA) PA / Facebook

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Mr Simionov was stabbed to death as he tried to stop gatecrashers storming into a party.

Two of his colleagues, aged 29 and 37, were also stabbed during an altercation, as was a 29-year-old woman. All have since been released from hospital, police said.Skengdo, known as Terrell Doyley (left) and AM, known as Joshua Malinga, have have been handed suspended jail sentences for breaching a gang injunction, police said (Finesse Foreva/PA)

Two of the UKs biggest drill artists have been handed suspended jail sentences for breaching a gang injunction imposed to prevent them from performing music that police said incited violence against rivals.

Terrell Doyley and Joshua Malinga, known as Skengdo and AM respectively, have appeared on BBC Radio 1, performed at the Reading and Leeds festivals and received a four-star review in the Guardian.

Scotland Yard said the pair, who are both 21, were sentenced to nine months imprisonment, suspended for two years, at Croydon County Court after breaching an interim gang injunction.

Their manager, TK, told the Press Association the musicians were not involved in gang violence, but pleaded guilty after a video of one of their live performances was uploaded to the internet without their knowledge.

The injunction was made against the men after the court found they were members of a south London gang, and linked with rising violence in the Lambeth borough on August 14, according to the Metropolitan Police.

The court found that violence in drill music can, and did in this case, amount to gang-related violenceDetective Inspector Luke Williams

The force said they breached it by performing drill music that incited and encouraged violence against rival gang members and then posted it on social media.

Detective Inspector Luke Williams, of Lambeth and Southwarks gangs unit, said: Gang injunctions are a great way to enable officers to tackle those involved in gangs and serious violence.

Where intelligence identifies somebody is a member of a gang and the requirements of the Policing and Crime Act are met, we will seek to obtain gang injunctions to suppress serious violence across the Capital.

I am pleased with the sentences passed in these cases, which reflect that the police and courts are unwilling to accept behaviour leading to serious violence. The court found that violence in drill music can, and did in this case, amount to gang-related violence.

Skengdo and AM, who are linked to Brixtons 410 group, are one of the countrys most well-known drill acts, selling out two tours last year.

Their YouTube videos, including a Radio1Xtra session uploaded this week, have racked up hundreds of thousands of views.

TK, the director of Finesse Foreva, said they were served with an injunction last year, banning them from going to certain areas, associating with named individuals, and placing restrictions on them making music and performing.

He said police at a hearing in January tried to link Skengdo and AM to the history of Brixton crime.

They didnt find nothing on them in terms of violence because they dont have nothing on them, he said.

Last time they might have had any run-ins with the law was when they were 16 and 17.

They started deciphering slang terms in court, it was all a bit weird.

Deciphering slang terms to an old-head white woman who probably lives in the countryside or something.

Two men who breached an interim gang injunction have been convicted. The injunction was breached when they performed drill music that incited and encouraged violence against rival gang members and then posted it on social media. https://t.co/Zi1A4JExJt  Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) January 18, 2019

TK said they basically beat the case, but had to plead guilty over a clip from a recent live performance of their track Attempted.

A music video entitled Attempted 1.0 on YouTube has repeated references to associates being cheffed, or stabbed, and the rappers make suggestions for alternatives to avoid violent situations.

In the song, one associate is attacked buying chicken wings, which prompts the lyrics: Dont nobody know about UberEats? When another is stabbed on the bus the lyrics ask: Dont nobody know about Addison Lee?

The chorus goes: Attempted? Shouldve been a murder. How you gonna run with your burner? Were active. Lets go halves on a burger. Big Mac-10, can I get fries?

TK said the rappers are still allowed to associate with each other and other 410 members, but cannot go to Kennington  the home of rivals Harlem Spartans, or mention their name.

TK also denied they had to pay for the Mets costs, as the force has claimed.

Why the Mets probably done that is because they want to affect their lives, scare big venue owners off, he added.A Co Tyrone ice cream van man who whipped up a storm on a Co Donegal beach has been fined 500 for using threatening and abusive language towards another ice cream seller in a row over "patches" on Rossnowlagh Beach.

Judge Kevin Kilrane described the matter as an "ice cream truck war" to laughter in court.

Tom Ward (65), from Drumnakilly Road, Omagh, rammed another van driven by Felim Kernan and then shunted it forward while the alleged injured party was serving customers, Ballyshannon District Court heard.

He also told Mr Kernan that he could get the 'f*****g gardai" if he wanted to during the altercation on the crowded beach that was filmed by a bystander.

Mr Kernan told the court he was parked 20 yards away from Ward.

He said the defendant rammed his vehicle once and then shunted him forward.

The witness was serving customers and suddenly his engine switched off as Ward had taken the keys from his ignition.

When he asked Ward to give back the keys, the latter initially refused.

Mr Kernan said the custom on the crowded beach was to sell ice cream and then move for about 20 yards down the beach to sell more ice cream.

He said he had suffered injuries to his back and had a personal injury claim.

He said the incident was witnessed by a number of people.

Ward told the court that he had been selling ice cream on the beach when Mr Kernan pulled his van directly in front of his vehicle.

"He parked in front of my bumper and I jumped out of truck and took the keys from the ignition," he said.

He admitted tipping the other van and then handed the keys back after "five minutes".

Ward said he thought the matter had ended and did not know that Mr Kernan was going to contact the Garda.

Judge Kilrane said there was a history between the parties, who were both looking for "purple patches" on the beach.

The judge said he was satisfied that Ward had used threatening and abusive language and fined him 500. But the judge dismissed a charge of careless driving against the defendant, even though he had pleaded guilty to that charge.

The judge said the injured party had given a "gross exaggeration" in connection with the alleged careless driving as there was barely a scratch on his vehicle.

He struck out the remaining charges of stealing keys, having no insurance and failing to produce insurance for an incident on July 18, 2017.

The defendant had pleaded not guilty to the charge of using threatening and abusive behaviour and of driving with no insurance and failing to produce insurance.Police at the scene of the shooting in Warrenpoint last night

Police at the scene of a shooting in Warrenpoint, Co Down after one man was shot dead. Photo by Matt Mackey / Press Eye.

Forensics at the Murder scene on the Lower Dromore Road in Warrenpoint on Saturday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Two "cold blooded killers" burst into the Warrenpoint home of Wayne Boylan and shot him in the head with a shotgun, police have said.

Detective Chief Inspector Geoff Boyce said Mr Boylan (37) was enjoying an evening with friends at his home in Lower Dromore Road when the incident happened at around 7.30pm. He had just come back from a local off-licence 15 minutes before the shooting.

The pair, who were both masked, fired at Mr Boylan with what police believe to be a shotgun, striking him in the head and fatally injuring him.

He died at the scene.

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Pellets from the weapon also struck his friend, a 21-year-old woman, in the face and neck. She has undergone emergency surgery and remains critically ill in intensive care at Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

The PSNI has said they have not ruled out paramilitary involvement in the murder.

DCI Boyce said: "This was a senseless and callous murder perpetrated on a completely unsuspecting man.

"Wayne was a father and his two young children have been left without their father.

"He was a son, a brother and a friend. His murder has caused his family and friends immeasurable pain and their lives will be forever changed by his loss.

"At this time no clear motive for the attack on Wayne has been identified, and today I am appealing directly to those who may have information about his murder. Do you know the people involved? Please tell us what you know.

"Were you in the Lower Dromore Road area last night between 6pm and 8pm ?

"Did you see the gunmen or any unusual vehicles in the area? Did you see any vehicles being driven erratically in the area of Lower Dromore Road or the dual carriageway between Newry and Warrenpoint yesterday evening around 7:30pm? Please tell us what you saw.

"We want to be able to give answers to a grieving family. To give them justice by putting his murderers behind bars."

The Major Investigation Team can be contacted by calling 02844 611001

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Community representatives last night told of their shock.

SDLP MLA Sinead Bradley (below) said: "It's awful. It's genuinely shocking.

"I just join with the community in telling of my absolute shock that this has happened.

"I dread the news that is going to someone's home this evening - for someone to find that somebody belonging to them has lost their life.

"Whatever the circumstances, it's the end of somebody's life, and it's extremely devastating news for anybody to hear."

Local councillor SDLP councillor Gillian Fitzpatrick said: "My thoughts are with those who are involved. It's absolutely shocking news. More details will come out as to what has happened but it is absolutely dreadful that this has happened in such a quiet community."

Sinn Fein MLA Sinead Ennis said the community had been left shaken.

"The community of Warrenpoint are shocked and stunned by this news," she said.

"Our first thoughts are with the family of the victim. The PSNI have the area sealed off and I would appeal to anyone with information to bring it forward to assist the investigation."

Local Independent councillor Jarlath Tinnelly also expressed shock at the murder.

"Warrenpoint generally would be a very quiet town and has seen nothing like this certainly since the end of the Troubles."Two men were arrested under the terrorism act (stock photo)

Two men have been arrested after a van driver was robbed at gunpoint in Londonderry.

The arrests come after detectives from the PSNI's Terrorism Investigation Unit (TIU) carried out searches in the Creggan and Strand Road areas of the city on Saturday morning.

The pair, aged 49 and 41, were detained under section 41 of the Terrorism Act.

They will be questioned on suspicion of robbing the driver of a read Volkswagen Caddy van at gunpoint on Meadowbank Avenue on January 15.Emergency services at the scene of a suspected car bomb attack in Bishop Street in Londonderry (Steven McAuley/PA)

Residents have been evacuated after a suspected car bomb exploded in Londonderry.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland as well as firefighters and the ambulance service sealed off the scene close to a courthouse on Bishop Street in the city.

Police have also indicated on their PSNI Foyle Facebook page that they are concerned about a second car on the street.

Witnesses earlier said they heard a loud bang and saw a large plume of smoke.

Local residents, including those in a sheltered housing complex for elderly people, are being evacuated.

There has been no reports of any casualties at this stage.

A photograph was tweeted from a Police Service of Northern Ireland Twitter account warning people to stay away from the area.

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The tweet from the PSNIs Derry City and Strabane District account also warns members of the public that Bishop Street is currently closed, adding the words suspected car bomb.

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A further update was posted on the PSNIs Foyle Facebook page.

As far as we know no one injured. There is another car we are not happy about. There are ongoing necessary evacuations.

Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster said it was a pointless act of terror which must be condemned in the strongest terms.

Only hurts the people of the City. Perpetrated by people with no regard for life, she said.

Grateful to our emergency services for their swift actions which helped ensure there have been no fatalities or injuries.

Derrys SDLP mayor John Boyle challenged those responsible on what the aim was.

He said: I would actually like to ask the people responsible for this what it actually was that they thought they were going to achieve.

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It achieves nothing, it didnt achieve anything in the past, it didnt achieve anything right now.

I have a question for them, what was this all about, because quite frankly this is not something that the people of this city wanted to see, its not something they support, and as Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, I have to say I feel it incumbent upon me to speak out on behalf of the vast, vast majority of people in Derry, Strabane and indeed across this island, this is not what we want.

This is the past and it has to stay in the past. We dont want to see any more of it.

Sinn Fein Foyle MP Elisha McCallion has condemned the explosion.

This pointless act of terror must be condemned in the strongest terms. Only hurts the people of the City.

Perpetrated by people with no regard for life.

Grateful to our emergency services for their swift actions which helped ensure there have been no fatalities or injuries. https://t.co/IMJ7Dn9rAa  Arlene Foster #WeWillMeetAgain (@ArleneFosterUK) January 19, 2019

This incident has shocked the local community, she said. In particular, there are many elderly residents who live in the area who have been alarmed.

Thankfully no-one appears to have been injured.

Derry is a city moving forward and no-one wants this type of incident. It is not representative of the city.

I would encourage anyone with information about this incident to bring it to the police.

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The Republic of Irelands deputy premier Simon Coveney tweeted his disgust at the incident.

I utterly condemn the car bomb terrorist attack in Derry this evening, he said.

There is no place and no justification possible for such acts of terror, which seek to drag Northern Ireland back to violence and conflict.

Very disturbing news from L~Derry this evening. Hope that no-one is hurt. Police now reporting a second suspicious vehicle in the area.



Please follow police advice: avoid the area around Bishop Street Courthouse and stay safe while @PSNIDCSDistrict do their job. https://t.co/pOdpGGorjb  Naomi Long MLA (@naomi_long) January 19, 2019

Local SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan tweeted: Whoever is responsible for this explosion outside Bishop Street Courthouse in Derry clearly hasnt got the message that the people of Derry DO NOT want this on our streets.

We are trying to move Derry forward and will not let anyone drag us back to the dark days of the past.

Local Democratic Unionist MLA Gary Middleton condemned the incident as a disgraceful act of terrorism.

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PSNI have confirmed there were no injuries in the serious incident at Bishops Street, he said.

Vehicle hijacked with explosion outside courthouse. Disgraceful act of terrorism.

Alliance Party leader Naomi Long has also voiced her concern about the incident on Twitter, describing it as very disturbing news.

The incident happened just a few miles from the Irish border as the Republic of Ireland prepares to mark the 100th anniversary of its war of independence.

The first shots of the war, which saw the southern 26 counties of Ireland become independent of the United Kingdom in 1921 before going on to become the Republic of Ireland, were fired at Soloheadbeg, Co Tipperary on January 21 1919.

PSNI have confirmed there were no injuries in the serious incident at Bishops Street. Vehicle hijacked with explosion outside courthouse. Disgraceful act of terrorism. pic.twitter.com/X0YoUT7ZUb  Gary Middleton MLA (@Gary_Middleton) January 19, 2019

Violent dissident republican groups have been responsible for a number of murders over the last 10 years.

They include the killing of Sappers Mark Quincey and Patrick Azimkar outside Massereene Barracks in Co Antrim in 2009 and PSNI Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon, Co Armagh in the same year as well as Constable Ronan Kerr in Omagh in 2011.

Expand Close Sappers Patrick Azimkar 21 (left) and Mark Quinsey, 23, who were shot dead outside the Massereene Barracks, Antrim, Northern Ireland in 2009. (MOD/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook

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Dissidents were also responsible for the murders of prison officers David Black in 2012 and Adrian Ismay in 2016.

There have also been a number of narrow misses, including the maiming of Constable Peadar Heffron in 2010, when an undercar booby trap bomb left him seriously injured.A counter-demonstration is planned over a 'yellow vest' protest being held in Belfast city centre today

A counter-demonstration is planned over a 'yellow vest' protest being held in Belfast city centre today.

Opponents claim the event is "the first step towards a hateful society".

The Yellow Vest Movement of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which has been criticised for displaying far right sympathies online, will hold a rally at Belfast City Hall this afternoon.

But left-wing organisation Yellow Vest Occupy Belfast, which held a protest at the same site last weekend, is organising the counter-demo with support from Nipsa and United Against Racism Belfast.

Yellow Vest Occupy Belfast said: "This rally is designed to divide."

PSNI Superintendent Muir Clark said: "Police have been notified of a number of events planned for Belfast city centre tomorrow afternoon.

"As with any public events, we will have an appropriate and proportionate policing plan in place."DUP MP Ian Paisley has been urged to repay the 6,000 he billed a charity to fly first-class to a conference in New York.

Other political figures who travelled to the event, which was held to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, flew in the much cheaper economy class.

The conference was organised by Co-operation Ireland, an all-island peacebuilding charity that encourages dialogue and collaboration between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

According to the House of Commons register of interests, he received 6,327.34 to cover a 5,925.11 flight and 402.23 for accommodation from the peace building charity Co-operation Ireland.

The North Antrim MP spoke on a panel at the "20 Years of Peace" conference alongside former SDLP MP Mark Durkan and ex-Sinn Fein MP Pat Doherty.

Tanaiste Simon Coveney also gave a speech at the event.

According to their respective parties, all three flew in the economy class - which can be as much as 10 times cheaper than the luxurious first class.

Attendees were asked to pay their travel costs up-front, which they could later claim back from Co-operation Ireland.

It is understood that participants travelling to the conference were told to bear in mind that Co-operation Ireland is a charity and the arrangement was done on a "trust" basis.

Mr Paisley's flights bill was reported by the Irish News.

Sinn Fein MP Michelle Gildernew has called on Mr Paisley to reimburse the costs to the charity.

She claimed she has been contacted by people who have participated in Co-operation Ireland fundraising events, and said they are "absolutely disgusted and sickened that this expense was covered".

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood also called on Mr Paisley to pay back the money for the New York event.

Co-operation Ireland said it did not wish to comment on the matter.

Mr Paisley, approached by this newspaper at an event in Ballymena yesterday, also declined to comment.

The DUP were contacted for comment but did not respond.

Last July, MPs voted to suspend Mr Paisley from the House of Commons for 30 sitting days for failing to declare two family holidays paid for by the Sri Lankan government in 2013, estimated to be worth around 50,000.

Then in December, it emerged that he was given a complimentary family holiday to the Maldives in 2016, which he also did not declare.

BBC Spotlight alleged that the visit was requested by the Maldivan government and facilitated b y the resort owner, who had political links, while Mr Paisley said that he had paid for part of the trip, while a friend paid for the rest.Logans Fashions is the centrepiece of the Cloughmills shopping complex

Logans Fashions is the centrepiece of the Cloughmills shopping complex

The founders of a well-known retail landmark are selling up after almost half-a-century at the helm.

The Logans Complex near Cloughmills, which houses independent retail brand Logans Fashions, has been 40 years in the making and is now on the market as owners Don and Joan Logan plan to retire.

The Logans store, which specialises in wedding and luxury branded clothing, is now owned and operated by Ivor Boyd and will remain open for business after the sale of the premises and surrounding land.

When the Logans ran the clothing store, the site housed only Logans Fashions.

However, a number of years ago the building was knocked down, remodelled and expanded into a shopping centre complex, and now houses around 20 other businesses.

The eight-acre site has recently secured planning permission for new developments.

These include a petrol service station and a fast food restaurant.

Located on Frosses Road, up to 18,000 vehicles pass on a daily basis.

The sale is being managed by AMG Property Sales.

AMG agent Bill Thompson said: "Logans Fashions is synonymous with quality wedding attire and high-end product.

"The Logans Complex was built up from Logans Fashion to north Antrim's primary out-of-town shopping centre.

"The reason for the sale of the complex and land is that the owners Don and Joan Logan, who are in their 80s, are quite rightly wanting to retire.

"There has been a lot of interest and lots of imaginative ideas put on the table."

Mid and East Antrim DUP councillor Audrey Wales has been a frequent customer at Logans Fashions over the years.

She said: "I would like to take this opportunity to wish Don and Joan the very best for whatever they have planned for the rest of their lives and thank them for establishing Logans.

"I have been shopping in Logans for many years.

"The staff are excellent, the clothes are on trend and there is a great selection, I cannot fault it. But it is not only great for shopping, there have been many times that I have just popped in for a cup of coffee; it is great for meeting people halfway, say, between Cloughmills and Ballymoney.

"The sale of the complex will bring a new beginning and new opportunities to the Cloughmills area."

Despite a turbulent year for the high street with big-name brands like House of Fraser going into administration, local independent retailers have been doing well.

In June 2018 Retail NI revealed that 60% of shoppers here were using local stores, with 84% of customers using them up to three times a week.

The report carried out by Perspective Insight also showed that 71% of consumers spent between 20 and 500 on a single visit to a local shop.

The poll revealed the biggest deciding factor for visiting an independent store was to support local businesses (62%), as well as better customer service (32%), and the convenience of local shops (36%).The sister of a homeless woman found dead in a shop doorway in Belfast city centre almost three years ago has called for more support for people suffering mental health issues.

The body of Catherine Kenny, from Downpatrick, was discovered at a derelict shop on Royal Avenue shortly after 9am on March 19, 2016.

The 32-year-old mother-of-one, who suffered psychiatric and addiction problems, was hospitalised three times before she passed away from an alcohol and drugs overdose.

She had lived on the streets for 11 months consecutively and her older sister Lee-Maria Kenny Hughes visited her on many occasions.

Mrs Hughes (39) said her sister's battle with addiction began when she was 16, but in her last years it took hold of her.

Mrs Hughes had attempted to get her sister - one of five homeless people found dead in Belfast city centre in just seven weeks in early 2016 - into rehab only days before she died.

As he walked to work yesterday morning, her brother David came upon the scene on High Street where a homeless man had been found dead.

Yesterday Mrs Hughes, who has a young son Jack with her transport manager husband Darren, said her "baby" sister's tragic death is always on her mind.

She said: "To be fair it doesn't take something like this to bring back what happened to Catherine on that day.

"We live with the loss of our baby sister every day. It's still very raw and the loss very great.

"When I heard the news this morning I just thought 'not again'. Three years on, unfortunately things haven't improved around homelessness and with the best will in the world I don't see the situation changing.

"We need to get to the bottom of why people have to live in this way and why they feel that that's all they're worth - to lie on the streets of Belfast, not go home to their families and not be part of normal society.

"As far as I'm concerned the only reason that people end up in that situation is because they have severe mental health issues.

"Perhaps if we had some sort of a government in place there would be some way to help people. But mental health is the major taboo that nobody wants to talk about and the politicians need to focus on that."

Mrs Hughes, a plumbing industry worker, wants to see proper channels in place for those with mental health problems.

She added: "It's very black and white for me - once you tackle mental health, the rest falls into place.

"I understand that some people don't want help but we can nip it in the bud before they become so reliant on alcohol and drugs to get through their day.

"The only thing they are trying to do is escape their own head, which ultimately leads to where I am today. When it gets to that stage it's very hard to bring them back as I well know.

"We have got to intervene sooner when someone confirms to themselves that they have a problem. That should then be nursed and nurtured to keep the person from drowning in addiction, self-harm and self-pity and believing that all they're worth is to be on the streets.

"I wasn't able to keep my sister safe and protected. She was so far gone with her own demons in her own head that I couldn't help her."

Mrs Hughes believes the system is at fault for what happened to her sister and that residential rehab could have saved her life.

At the inquest into Miss Kenny's death in January 2017, coroner Joe McCrisken said there were still insufficient rehabilitation services available in Belfast.

"Residential rehab was not at my beck and call for Catherine which was another massive bone of contention for me," Mrs Hughes added.

"Two weeks before she died, a rehabilitation unit told me they could only see Catherine six weeks later.

"When my sister finally came to me to say she wanted proper help, and then I went looking for that help from the professionals, they couldn't give it to me.

"If she had got the help she needed, I've absolutely no doubt that she would still be here with us today.

"My sister died two weeks later in a dirty shop doorway on the streets of Belfast. Where's the compassion and humanity in that? Nobody cared about her, she was just another statistic in Northern Ireland."

But Mrs Hughes has stressed that her sister was not "just a dead body in the doorway".

"Let's not lose sight of the fact that Catherine wasn't just some homeless girl in Belfast," she added.

"She was a person - a daughter, mother, sister and auntie - who was so well thought of her whole life and that was seen in the tributes and support we received following her passing."Police and forensics officers at the scene

Tributes at the scene of homeless mans death

A homeless woman who found her friend dead in a doorway in Belfast's High Street yesterday morning has warned there will be more tragedies unless action is taken.

Sheila Forgoine (40), who has been sleeping rough in Belfast for three-and-a-half years, said she was "traumatised" after her friend, who she named as Robert James, passed away while sleeping in the doorway of The Bed Linen Warehouse.

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She had last seen the Dubliner at around 2am yesterday, but when she went to speak to him a few hours later he was dead.

The PSNI confirmed officers attended the sudden death of a man in High Street.

Detective Inspector Kerry Brennan said: "A post-mortem is due to be carried out to establish the cause of death.

"Police enquiries are at an early stage and there are no further details at this time."

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Sandra Moore, chief executive of the Welcome Organisation charity, told BBC's Evening Extra radio programme that the deceased man was 27.

Yesterday homeless people in Belfast created a tribute of tea lights in the shape of a heart in the doorway as a mark of respect.

Ms Forgoine said "homeless people need help before we all end up the way Robert ended up".

"Seven of my mates have died since Christmas in Belfast due to drugs and tablets," she told the Belfast Telegraph.

"I was with Robert James last night, I tried to waken him but I heard him snoring, so I let him sleep.

"I knew him well, he had been up here from Dublin for a couple of weeks.

"I left about 2am and they were all sleeping. Later in the morning I went over and there he was, dead.

"I said to the others: 'He's dead, quick, get up!' Then the emergency services came."

She added that homeless people in the city "need help".

"I'm traumatised after what happened," she added.

"Not enough is getting done for homeless people. Homeless people need help before we all end up the way Robert ended up.

"We are going to see more deaths on the streets.

"We need help to get off these streets."

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Conaire Quinn, who is manager of the nearby Mace Express store, described the situation as "heartbreaking".

"We saw the CPR being done; I think that takes you aback," he added.

"There are up to six people in that doorway every morning.

"It must be a wee bit of a shelter.

"I'm starting to get used to the deaths. It's heartbreaking.

"We have a shop in Castle Street, and it used to be where the homeless people were, but I think because of Primark (the fire) they've been shifted down.

"I think more needs to be done to help the homeless in this area.

"It's devastating to see that in Belfast in 2019."

Expand Close Photograph by Justin Kernoghan Police and forensic experts at the scene on High Street Belfast this morning. Photograph by Justin Kernoghan Photopress Belfast / Facebook

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Lee Cochrane, who is manager of Cash Converters, said the numbers who are sleeping rough had increased in the city centre over the past year.

"I saw the blue flashing lights and a body lying," he said.

"People dying on the streets is becoming the norm in Belfast. It's not as shocking as it used to be, which is shocking in itself.

"I saw a homeless person overdosing across the road one day.

"Drug use is very much a part of city centre homelessness."

Security guard Robert Kelly has worked in the Middleton Building, beside the doorway where the man died, for almost five years.

"I saw the emergency services working on him, it was very distressing," he said.

"The weather had been brutally cold and it was raining too.

"Homelessness is getting more and more rife in this area.

"We would see a lot of drugs and alcohol in the street.

"There is an alleyway between the Middleton Building and the shop, and you would find used needles there or in the doorway where they were sleeping.

"I didn't see any needles this morning.

"It's very sad. I don't know what happened to that man, but he's someone's son."

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Ms Moore said staff from the Welcome Organisation's street outreach team found the man's body.

"Our thoughts are with the man's family and friends, some of whom are members of the homeless community and are very distressed and being supported by Welcome Organisation staff," she said.

"It is tragic that people continue to die on our streets despite the wide range of support being offered.

"The sad reality is that the individuals involved in rough sleeping are among the most vulnerable in society, all too often suffering mental ill health, drug or alcohol addiction, or all three.

"The reality is that if services like those provided by Welcome were not available, the number of street deaths would potentially be much greater."

Green Party leader Clare Bailey described the death as "a human tragedy in the heart of our city centre".

"A death on the street during a cold night is a cruel death," she said.

"The homelessness crisis is very real. We know that homelessness is on the rise across Northern Ireland and welfare reform is likely to exacerbate the problem. I would urge people to support others sleeping on our streets, particularly during this cold spell."

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Sinn Fein MLA Caral Ni Chuilin expressed "serious concern" at the death, and said her thoughts were with the man's family.

"No one should ever have to sleep on the street, particularly in the cold weather," she said.

"But sadly, over recent years, we have seen rising levels of homelessness around the city centre and across the north.

"Homeless charities have been doing great work but it is important that the Housing Executive and statutory bodies continue providing support to people sleeping on the street."

Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw said there had been a "failure to tackle" the root causes of homelessness.

"While many organisations and agencies are doing good work on the issue of homelessness, this fundamentally represents a failure to tackle its root causes," she said.

"We need to see more investment in support mechanisms, with resources put into mental health, addiction services, family reunification and other practical support."

Belfast UUP councillor Jim Rodgers also expressed his sympathies.

"We must all play our part in seeking to help vulnerable members of our society and doing everything humanly possible to prevent tragedies like this from occurring," he said.Queen's University is seeking to recruit more than 100 local smokers as part of a ground-breaking study into an incurable lung disease. (Jonathan Brady/PA)

Queen's University is seeking to recruit more than 100 local smokers as part of a ground-breaking study into an incurable lung disease.

The research seeks to identify individuals most at risk of contracting chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by focusing on the early stages of the condition.

It is hoped 125 of the total 1,000 young adult smokers aged between 30 and 45 needed to take part will be from here.

Lorcan McGarvey, professor of respiratory medicine at QUB, said the "landmark" study, which will track changes in the subjects' lung function for three years, is a great opportunity for smokers to have rigorous health checks.

"Ideally, we would like to know more about COPD at the very early stages and how to identify those most at risk of developing severe disease," he said.

"I believe this research will help us do just that, but it is a great opportunity for smokers to undergo lung scans and rigorous health tests to determine what impact smoking is having on their bodies.

"In a sample of this size it is inevitable that we will discover other issues that an individual will benefit from being aware of."

However, the overall aim is to identify and study men and women whose lung function is already beginning to decline.

Prof McGarvey particularly urged women, who may be more susceptible to the harmful effects of smoking, to consider taking part.

He said: "Northern Ireland has more than its fair share of COPD and we hope active smokers will help us identify why some people develop it and others don't. It could lead to some kind of test which would allow us to identify those most at risk and better treatment."

Smokers are at greater risk of contracting the condition, which affects three million people in the UK.

Ian Jarrold from the British Lung Foundation, which is supporting the project, said the "urgent need" to develop better treatment for the life-limiting condition depends on understanding how it develops. "This study will be invaluable," he said.

Around 10,000 people in the Belfast Trust area have the disease, which narrows the airway and is a significant cause of illness and death.

According to the British Lung Foundation, people with the condition here are more likely to be admitted to hospital than sufferers in Britain.One of three men awaiting trial over the murder of west Belfast man Christopher Meli was granted bail again yesterday by a senior judge, who warned any more breaches would result in an immediate return to custody.

Lee Smyth was not present for the successful bail application at Belfast Crown Court.

Despite objections from a Crown barrister - who listed numerous occasions that Smyth has either broken prison discipline while on remand or breached bail conditions - Mr Justice Colton released the 21-year-old.

Saying Smyth was "obviously a very troubled young man", Mr Justice Colton told his legal team: "I will give him one further chance. If he breaches these conditions he will be returned to custody, and he won't get bail from me or any other judge."

Smyth, who is originally from west Belfast, appeared in court with a number of co-accused last week, where he denied a charge of murdering 20-year-old Mr Meli, and other offences alleged to have occurred on December 12, 2015.

Prior to last week's arraignment, Smyth last appeared in court on January 7, when an application for bail was refused. This application was made after Smyth was arrested on suspicion of shoplifting on November 22, 2018, less than an hour after a judge agreed to relax his bail conditions to allow him to take up seasonal work. Smyth was arrested in Boots, was returned to custody and subsequently admitted the shoplifting charge at Belfast Magistrates Court, where he was handed a suspended sentence and remained in custody.

Following the unsuccessful bid for bail last month, a fresh application was granted yesterday, despite objections.

A Crown barrister highlighted Smyth's behaviour on remand and on bail. The examples included Smyth being banned from the tuckshop at Hydebank YOC for 20 days after he was found with drugs, and other occasions when he was disciplined in custody for attacking or fighting with other inmates.

The barrister also told Mr Justice Colton that when bailed to an address in Co Antrim that cannot be reported, Smyth breached conditions time and again. These included "a series of incidents at that address", failing to sign with police at the right time, breaching a no-alcohol ban and not adhering to his curfew.

Pointing out the serious charges Smyth faces at trial later this year, the prosecuting barrister told the court the concerns the Crown had were "obvious".

He said: "He is not a child. He should be of sufficient maturity to understand the need to comply with bail conditions. He faces a very serious charge and there are real concerns he simply will not comply with bail conditions. There is also a high likelihood of reoffending, as he has demonstrated."

Smyth's barrister Tom MacCreanor spoke of the "very considerable time" his client has spend in custody - around two years - since his arrest for murder.

Telling the court Smyth spent "his late teenage years in and out of custody" or on bail at an address where he feels isolated from his family, Mr MacCreanor said Smyth found his time in custody "difficult." Accepting that Smyth's attitude to bail in the past had sometimes been "tardy and slipshod", his barrister urged the judge to grant bail ahead of this September's trial.

After listening to arguments from both the Crown and defence, Mr Justice Colton said: "I will, with reservation, grant bail." He imposed numerous conditions, including a 7pm to 7am curfew, a ban on drink and non-prescribed drugs, reporting to police four times a week, and no contact with anyone involved in the pending trial.Primark has been urged to make public the cause of the fire that destroyed its historic Bank Buildings store five months ago.

The August blaze, which burned for three days, was a major blow to the centre of Belfast, badly hitting businesses, and was described as the biggest crisis to face the city since the Troubles.

A number of retailers forced to close have since reopened, while a walkway has helped bring some shoppers back, but there are fears that a weak January could spell disaster for the local economy.

Councillor Jim Rodgers said that after a five-month wait it is baffling why there are still no answers as to what caused the fire.

"We need to ascertain the cause of this fire sooner rather than later and that's why I'm asking Primark to tell us what happened," he said.

"I am calling on the company to tell the public what exactly the source of the inferno was. Five months is far too long to wait for answers. Retailers and traders want to know.

"People have a right to know what caused it because businesses have gone to the wall since it happened and many are still struggling. Primark has a public responsibility to be transparent."

He added: "I welcome the 500,000 that Primark put into the city regeneration fund after the fire. Nevertheless, I'm now asking for answers to the question on everyone's lips."

Primark said "the investigation is ongoing and is being handled by the Northern Ireland Fire Service", and referred the Belfast Telegraph to NIFRS for further comment.

NIFRS said: "The investigation into the cause of the Bank Buildings fire is still ongoing. We don't have a timeframe for the conclusion of the investigation."

Figures earlier this month showed an increase of almost 40% in shopper numbers in the city centre in the last week of 2018.

The good news boosted hard-pressed traders, who battled months of disruption caused by the blaze, which forced the closure of 14 shops within a safety cordon around Primark's charred shell, while other nearby retailers saw footfall virtually disappear as people stayed away.

Shoppers returned to the city, however, after the opening of a new store at Commonwealth House in December, and after the council opened the walkway beside the fire cordon, reconnecting a main shopping thoroughfare.

The partially tunnelled walkway enabled some of the closed shops to reopen, although restrictions remain in place as Primark continues work to dismantle and make safe the historic Bank Buildings ahead of a major rebuild.

Retail NI boss Glyn Roberts also said it was time for answers surrounding the fire.

"It's important that we get to the source of the problem and find out what caused the fire because it's something that other large retailers would want to try and avoid," he said.

"Lessons must be learned. Other retailers may want to review their fire precautions going forward so I hope that information will be forthcoming. I hope we get this information sooner rather than later."

Belfast City Council said: "The council's city growth and regeneration committee has agreed that officers should continue to liaise with Primark as part of our city centre recovery programme, and bring a report back to committee on this work.

"This does not include an investigation into the cause of the fire, which would be taken forward by relevant authorities and organisations.

"This decision is subject to ratification by full council at its next meeting on Monday, March 4."Bereaved families will not give up their fight for justice, a campaigner who turned 80 yesterday said.

The site of the former Andersonstown police station will be named Groves Reilly Corner today, after Clara Reilly (80) and her late friend, plastic bullet victim Emma Groves, in commemoration.

Relatives for Justice chairwoman Ms Reilly established the first monitoring organisation of alleged human rights infringements by the security forces at the outset of the Troubles.

She said: "Anybody deserves justice if they lost a loved one and they have not gotten the truth and answers - that is all they want. People are not afraid to go up front and fight for justice."

Ms Groves was blinded by a security force plastic bullet in 1971. She and Ms Reilly founded the United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets.An 80-year-old pedestrian has died after a road traffic collision in Killyleagh. PA Photo: Paul Faith.

An 80-year-old woman has died after being hit by a car in Killyleagh.

Jean Osborne was taken to hospital for treatment after the incident which occurred on Plantation Street at 1.15pm on Tuesday January 15.

Police said Ms Osborne died on Friday evening.

Inspector O'Connor said: I would appeal to anyone who was in the Plantation Street area on Tuesday afternoon around 1.15pm and witnessed the collision to contact officers in Downpatrick on 101, quoting reference number 522 of 15/01/19.

If you were driving in the area and might have dashcam footage of the incident, we would also like to hear from you as you may be able to help our investigation into what happened.The head of a homeless charity in Northern Ireland has called for owners of vacant buildings to consider making them available for those sleeping rough during winter cold snaps.

Shelter NI director Tony McQuillan also urged Belfast City Council to think about installing a large tent and heaters in the grounds of City Hall to protect the most vulnerable people.

Mr McQuillan said the problem of homelessness can't be ignored.

"It is not good enough to say there is space available in homeless hostels and then turn a blind eye," he said. "We need to be more creative in how we reach out."

Mr McQuillan recalled the public outrage expressed after the tragic deaths of five homeless people in a seven-week period at the beginning of 2016, which he said seemed to motivate government departments into action.

"Much of that never materialised and now we don't even have a government - sadly more people will inevitably die as a result," he added.

He described encountering destitute people who are "too frightened" to stay in hostels due to the nature of the environment, which can involve violence and drugs.

"If someone has a building that they don't mind being used on a temporary basis, then they should approach one of the many charities or statutory agencies trying to tackle this issue," he added.

"I think people who avoid hostels would be persuaded to come and stay somewhere warm if it was adequately staffed and managed responsibly."

"There's no reason why the grounds of City Hall cannot be transformed into a heated shelter during particularly cold weather."

Two other homeless charities said they would support the plan which could protect people from hypothermia - if managed by specialist staff and volunteers.

Sandra Moore, the chief executive of the Welcome Organisation, recalled how she once persuaded seven people to attend the organisation's drop-in zone the last time hours were extended due to freezing conditions.

But she warned there must also be a focus on coming up with long-term solutions and called for a better co-ordinated multi-agency response.

"Welfare reform and a housing crisis have created a perfect storm for homelessness and we expect it to get worse when the mitigating funding for Universal Credit is no longer available," she said.

The Simon Community's director of homelessness services, Kevin Bailey, also expressed his support but warned it is a short-term fix for a complex problem made worse by welfare reform, the absence of a functioning Assembly and an "ongoing housing crisis" in Northern Ireland. "A significant number of our tenants are ready to move on but cannot access the housing market - a shortage of housing is forcing people into private rentals which is driving up prices.

"Too many people find it unaffordable and inaccessible."

Belfast City Council said Lord Mayor Deirdre Hargey chairs regular meetings with statutory and voluntary partners to "develop and progress a co-ordinated approach in tackling homelessness" and that any request to use its facilities should be made through the proper channels.

The Department for Communities, which oversees the benefits system here, said it has no evidence that welfare reform is a factor in why people end up homeless.Police at the scene of a car bomb on Bishop Street in Derry on January 19th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Police at the scene of a car bomb on Bishop Street in Derry on January 19th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Police at the scene of a car bomb on Bishop Street in Derry on January 19th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The scene of a suspected car bomb on Bishop Street in Londonderry. Steven McAuley/PA Wire

The scene of a suspected car bomb on Bishop Street in Londonderry. Steven McAuley/PA Wire

Saturday 19th January 2019 Picture by Press Eye / Lorcan Doherty The scene outside Derry Court House on Bishop Street following a bomb explosion.

Saturday 19th January 2019 Picture by Press Eye / Lorcan Doherty The scene outside Derry Court House on Bishop Street following a bomb explosion.

Police at the scene of a car bomb on Bishop Street in Derry on January 19th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The scene outside Derry Court House on Bishop Street following a bomb explosion. Picture by Press Eye / Lorcan Doherty

There has been widespread condemnation after a suspected car bomb exploded in Londonderry city centre on Saturday night.

Police were on the scene when the device went off outside the courthouse on Bishop Street shortly after 8pm. They tweeted a picture of the car on fire after the blast, urging people to "stay away".

It is understood officers were only given a 15 minute warning to evacuated the area before the car bomb went off.

Eyewitnesses reported hearing a loud explosion in the area. It's understood the vehicle was hijacked from a delivery driver before it was abandoned outside the courthouse.

In a statement on Facebook, police in Derry said there were no reports of any injuries.

They said a second suspicious car they were concerned about "has been checked". "We are now just dealing with an extensive crime scene," they said.

A hotel and a number of bars and houses were evacuated.

The people of Derry are resolutely opposed to this. You represent no-one. Stop it now. SDLP leader Colum Eastwood

A PSNI spokesperson said: "Police are in attendance at the scene of an incident in Derry/Londonderry city centre. We would ask for patience and co-operation of the public and the business community as we carry out our initial investigations."

The @mayordcsdc John Boyle says that the city is shocked and saddened at tonightas explosion pic.twitter.com/Ze5dcnpODz  Leona O'Neill (@LeonaONeill1) January 19, 2019

DUP leader Arlene Foster said: "This pointless act of terror must be condemned in the strongest terms."

She said the attack had been "perpetrated by people with no regard for life".

"Grateful to our emergency services for their swift actions which helped ensure there have been no fatalities or injuries," she tweeted.

Expand Close Police at the scene of a car bomb on Bishop Street in Derry on January 19th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook

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Whatsapp Police at the scene of a car bomb on Bishop Street in Derry on January 19th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Earlier DUP MLA Gary Middleton tweeted: "PSNI have confirmed there were no injuries in the serious incident at Bishop Street. Vehicle hijacked with explosion outside courthouse. Disgraceful act of terrorism."

The smouldering remains of what looks like a transit van outside Derryas court house in Bishop Street. Bars and clubs in the area have all been evacuated pic.twitter.com/ouINZRat7w  Leona O'Neill (@LeonaONeill1) January 19, 2019

Condemning the bomb attack, Sinn Fein MP Elisha McCallion said: There are many elderly residents who live in the area who have been alarmed by this incident.

Thankfully no one appears to have been injured in this incident.

Derry is a city moving forward and no one wants this type of incident. It is not representative of the city.

I would encourage anyone with information about this incident to bring it to the police.

Expand Close Police at the scene of a car bomb on Bishop Street in Derry on January 19th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook

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Whatsapp Police at the scene of a car bomb on Bishop Street in Derry on January 19th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan said: "Whoever is responsible for this explosion outside Bishop Street Courthouse in Derry clearly hasn't got the message that the people of Derry do not want this on our streets.

"We are trying to move Derry forward and will not let anyone drag us back to the dark days of the past."

Alliance Party leader Naomi Long has also voiced her concern about the incident on Twitter, describing it as very disturbing news.

UUP councillor Derek Hussey said: Those who carried out this act had no thought for the safety and well-being of fellow citizens, much less the hard pressed economy and the impact this will have on the citys businesses, nor the impression given to visitors to our area."

In a statement, Secretary of State Karen Bradley said: "I am concerned at the reports coming from Londonderry and am being kept informed by the PSNI. I urge anyone with any information to contact the police or Crimestoppers.

The area remains sealed off.

Bishop Street Closed



STAY AWAY



Suspected Car Bomb pic.twitter.com/S3cFu3zy0i  Police Derry City and Strabane (@PSNIDCSDistrict) January 19, 2019A corner of the Falls Road area of west Belfast has been named after anti-plastic bullet campaigners, Clara Reilly (pictured) and the late Emma Groves (Rebecca Black/PA)

An area of west Belfast where a prominent police station once stood has been named after two local women who campaigned against the use of plastic bullets.

Located on the site of the former Andersonstown RUC Station, Groves Reilly Corner has been renamed in honour of the late Emma Groves and her friend, 80-year-old Clara Reilly.

Around 200 people, including West Belfast MP Paul Maskey, former MP Gerry Adams and Lord Mayor Deirdre Hargey, gathered on Saturday for the official unveiling ceremony.

Expand Close Former Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams was among the speakers who paid tribute to Clara Reilly and Emma Groves before the new sign was unveiled. (Rebecca Black/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Former Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams was among the speakers who paid tribute to Clara Reilly and Emma Groves before the new sign was unveiled. (Rebecca Black/PA)

Ms Reilly, a married mother of six, is chairwoman of Relatives for Justice.

She established the first monitoring organisation of alleged human rights infringements by the security forces during the earliest days of the Northern Ireland conflict.

Her friend Ms Groves was blinded by a security force plastic bullet in 1971.

She and Ms Reilly founded the Association for Legal Justice in the early days of the Troubles.

Expand Close Relatives for Justice chairwoman and anti-plastic bullets campaigner Clara Reilly at her home in Belfast ahead of the ceremony (Brian Lawless/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Relatives for Justice chairwoman and anti-plastic bullets campaigner Clara Reilly at her home in Belfast ahead of the ceremony (Brian Lawless/PA)

Andersonstown was where one victim, John Downes, was killed by the RUC with a plastic bullet in 1984.

This sparked the women to found the United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets.

Mark Thompson, director of Relatives for Justice, described the renaming of the site in honour of the women as a proud day.

It is a positive day for two wonderful lives who refused to be overshadowed by horrific events that impacted them in the worst imaginable way, he told those gathered.

When Emma Groves and Clara Reilly stood and spoke up, they commanded attention  it was because they were right and had right on their side.

Expand Close Belfast Lord Mayor Deirdre Hargey presented Clara Reilly with a certificate in recognition of her lifetime of advocating for the community. (Rebecca Black/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Belfast Lord Mayor Deirdre Hargey presented Clara Reilly with a certificate in recognition of her lifetime of advocating for the community. (Rebecca Black/PA)

They refused to remain silent in the darkest days and harshest of times, they are our champions, the peoples champions.

Mr Maskey, Mr Adams and Ms Hargey each paid tribute to the two women in speeches.

Ms Hargey went on to present Ms Reilly with a certificate in recognition of the moment and her lifetime advocating for the community.

Well done @RelsForJustice for hosting todayas event celebrating the lives of Emma Groves and Clara Reilly. CoirnAal Groves Reilly from this point on. Two fantastic women who were and are standing up against injustice and oppression. #BanPlasticBullets pic.twitter.com/IdZ3hnFCVp  Paul Maskey (@PaulMaskeyMP) January 19, 2019

Speaking ahead of the ceremony Ms Reilly said she was honoured.

She said: I was doing this since 1969 and I would do every minute of it again.

It is our history and what the nationalist people suffered, and I was not prepared to take it lying down.

I thought you had to speak out no matter what.North Antrim MP Ian Paisley declined to speak to the media as he attended an event at Ballymena Town Hall on Friday. (Rebecca Black/PA)

It was business as usual for Ian Paisley yesterday as he attended a special event at The Braid Centre in Ballymena to hand the Freedom of the Borough to Sir William Wright.

The under-fire MP for North Antrim sat quietly in the audience as the honour was bestowed on the 94-year-old businessman, boss of Wrightbus, for his services to the economy and community.

Not once was the latest allegation, surrounding a 6,000 expenses bill to Co-operation Ireland for a trip to New York last year, mentioned.

Mr Paisley himself brushed off questions with "no comment" when approached, preferring instead to focus on the matter in hand - the celebration of a local success story.

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He was among friends who backed him after his suspension from the House of Commons for 30 sitting days last year for not declaring two family holidays paid for by the Sri Lankan government in 2013, estimated to be worth around 50,000.

They backed him again in December when it emerged that the DUP MP was given a complimentary family holiday to the Maldives in 2016, which he also failed to declare.

His speech to the assembled dignitaries of the borough was akin to a man talking to an audience of friends. Preaching to the converted, not a murmur of a scandal.

He talked about family, about what the Wright family have done for Ballymena, the jobs they have brought to the area, the support the family have given to community projects, about the "obvious love" the workers at Wrightbus had for the man who employed them.

"They have put their faith in the people of Ballymena and the surrounding district and the people have not let them down," he said. He could easily have been talking about the Paisley family.

And as the MP remained to enjoy the complimentary lunch at the Braid Centre, it was clear that on the streets of his home town the wagons were already circling in defence of 'their man'.

David Gregg told the Belfast Telegraph: "I have known the Paisleys a long time and they're like family to many in north Antrim. That's why we will support him.

"Many would like to see the back of him, probably even from within his own party. They pushed his father out and he has the Paisley name so will always be a big target. This doesn't change anything. We're Ballymena people and Ian is our man."

And he pointed the finger at other politicians who, he says, have offended him much more.

He said: "I've watched Sinn Fein bring Barry McElduff back into politics after his actions with a loaf of Kingsmill on his head. To me, that is so much more hurtful."

Marcus Gregg (57) was also adamant that support for his MP will never change.

"I will always vote for the big man and that's that," he said.

"The Paisleys have done wonderful things for this area. That's what matters to me."

Heather McCrystal (56) added: "He's human like the rest of us. Would there be a story on the front pages if it was any other politician?

"He may not be his father, but times have changed. We've moved on and accept that Ian Paisley senior was a unique person.

"But we have to encourage Ian junior to continue to work for this town and the area.

"No-one is perfect and in Northern Ireland we can be very quick to judge people, but look at his record of good work done for this community."

William Reid (73) said: "I've lived in Scotland and England before and never had an MP as close to the people of his community as Ian Paisley.

"The majority of Ballymena people will always stand by him."

Mr Paisley has been MP since May 2010, taking the seat held by his late father, Lord Bannside, and had a 20,000-plus majority at the last election.

And it seems that no matter what others may throw in Ian Paisley's direction, he remains as popular as ever with many in his North Antrim heartland.Standing centre stage at Amsterdam's vast Ziggo Dome arena, Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody attempts to apologise for the fact that his band have not been on tour for six years, or released an album for seven. "What can I say? We're just really f****** lazy."

The line gets a laugh, but it isn't the truth. Wildness, the Northern Irish quintet's seventh album, was released last May, but almost didn't arrive at all due to Lightbody's crippling mix of writer's block, depression and heavy drinking. When the songs were finally written, the central sentiment of Life on Earth ("It shouldn't need to be so f****** hard") and titles such as Heal Me and Don't Give In were all clear signs of his struggles.

In contrast, when we meet in a backstage lounge a couple of hours before the show, the 42-year-old is in grand form, enjoying touring sober and looking down on his troubles from the safe hilltop of recovery.

"It's blown my mind that we've come back to the same arenas we toured last time," he says, anticipating imminent gigs in both of London's biggest indoor venues, the O2 and Wembley.

"I thought we'd have to work our way back up after seven years, but nearly all of them are sold out. I get emotional thinking about it."

The rest of the band - drummer Jonny Quinn, guitarist Nathan Connolly, bassist Paul Wilson and keyboard player Johnny McDaid - don't do interviews and don't tend to get involved in the song-writing process until it comes time to get into the recording studio. Long-term producer Garret 'Jacknife' Lee is generally the first pair of ears to advise, but for the most part it sounds like Lightbody toiled alone in the home he bought in Santa Monica, LA, in 2010.

"The best advice I got was 'Just write', which seems so simple, yet I wasn't doing it, he explains. "I was opening my laptop, seeing that cursor flashing on the white screen, and just going, 'No, not today'."

All the sun, sea and palm trees didn't help. "That sun can be misleading," Lightbody says. "You think you're in paradise, but when you're writing, you're better off being in rainy weather. It's too tempting to be outside."

These days, he's predominantly based in his other home in significantly rainier Bangor, where he grew up.

Then there was drink. He doesn't use the word 'alcoholic', but he doesn't sound far off. "I ended up drinking on my own a lot, which I'd always said I wouldn't do. That was the beginning of the end. I was always a happy drunk. I don't get into fights, I'm not dribbling or talking weird s***. I've always been told that I would make an event better, not worse. But what would happen when I got back from the party was that I would keep going on my own. That's when it started to get messier."

He still wrote music with relative ease but got more stuck with the lyrics. "I'll write hundreds of songs. Melodies come very easily," he says, touching the wooden table between us. "The writer's block that I have is with words. The lyrics would never catch up with the music."

I ask why he didn't ask for help with the writing. He wouldn't have had to look far. Bandmate McDaid has a booming second career as a writer of hits for others, his most notable co-writer credit being on Ed Sheeran's Shape of You, the most streamed song ever. In one week in spring 2017, five of the UK's 11 best-selling albums included his songs.

"When I'm standing on stage, I want to have written the songs," says Lightbody. "It's the same with (side-projects) Tired Pony and The Reindeer Section. I've never been very good at singing other people's songs, so the horrible Catch-22 is that as soon as you go, 'I need help with this,' your recovery isn't your own recovery.

"I wanted to come out of the tailspin myself. I've realised now that it wasn't the best course of action - it probably took longer - but I do look back and stand up straighter when I think about the journey that I took to make this record. If I'd said, 'I need help with my homework', it might not have felt like that."

Lightbody did need others to help with his personal problems, however. A doctor wanted to operate when he developed a serious infection in his ears, throat and sinuses. He went to an acupuncturist friend instead, who treated him on the condition he stop drinking. He also saw a therapist to explore his feelings about growing up during the Troubles. "I think people are realising now that we are suffering from a collective trauma, and that needs to be addressed by talking about it," he says.

Today he's a regular at the gym, he meditates almost every day and feels the benefit of the Chinese martial art qigong, too. He's enjoying life in the creatively dynamic Northern Ireland of today, as president of Belfast's Oh Yeah Music Centre, a music hub that is a charity and social enterprise, with a live venue, rehearsal space, recording studio and other bits.

"It's so different from the place I grew up in. It has culturally blossomed," he says. "The music scene is incredible, lots of people are doing great movies. It's an amazing place to make art. There's so much going on."

He says he's "well-known" here in Northern Ireland, rather than famous. "I don't cause mayhem. We've never gone anywhere and been screamed at." He seems content that although Snow Patrol continue to tour arenas, their fanbase is less huge than in the days of their biggest albums, Final Straw from 2003 (six-times platinum in the UK) and 2006's Eyes Open (eight-times platinum). Wildness has been certified gold so far, and is worth hearing for one of the band's most euphoric anthems, Empress, and one of their most moving ballads, What If This is All the Love You Ever Get?

The Amsterdam crowd this evening is mature and polite. Mayhem is definitely thin on the ground. Lightbody is an upbeat, funny, surprisingly sweary bandleader.

He divides the room into two halves to sing Shut Your Eyes, then says: "Of course, this is how the problem started in our country." It's obvious he feels at home up there, literally larger than life as he looms down in black and white from the video wall.

What would he have done if he never managed to get the songs on Wildness finished? "I don't know how to do anything else, so I probably would have written songs for other people or the movies, but I wouldn't have been living the life that I truly wanted to be living."

He understands much more clearly what that life is now. "To get to play in venues like this is what I wanted as a kid. I might also have wanted to be a rock star, but I didn't know what it entailed. Now I know.

"I've never really had to deal with fame in a real sense, but I've seen it up close with friends, and I don't want it. I have the life I truly want. I can forgo the rock-star bit."

Snow Patrol play the O2 Arena (the02.co.uk) on Jan 26 and the SSE Arena, Wembley (ssearena.co.uk) on February 2

 Evening StandardPaul McLaughlin (66) grew up in west Belfast. His father, Tommy, a Second World War Royal Navy veteran, worked as a barman, and his mother, Sally, stayed at home to look after Paul, his brother Jimmy and sisters Rosemary and Eileen.

He was educated by the Christian Brothers at St Mary's in Barrack Street, which he insists was "good craic", and has spent the majority of his working life in public relations in the corporate, voluntary and charity sectors.

For the past 10 years, he has been development officer at the Northern Ireland Mixed Marriage Association (NIMMA) and is editor of three NIMMA books on the subject.

"I am a firm believer that mixed marriage, with its recipe of compromise and accommodation, is a blueprint for a shared future and that a charity such as NIMMA, which offers pastoral care and challenges sectarianism, is deserving of great support," he says.

NIMMA has been lobbying for years for more shared social housing and greater availability of integrated education.

Paul is married to Julie and has one step-son and a son from a previous marriage.

He is a keen member of the South Belfast Manchester United Supporters' Club and says that he was a fan long before the "magical Geordie Best".

Q. How and when did you come to faith?

A. It was given to me by my mother Sally, who referred to the crucifix as the "wee God on the Cross". She taught me my prayers and said them with me every night before I started school. Faith was something comfortable and comforting.

Both my parents gave good examples, not just by going to Mass every Sunday, but mainly by being decent, Christian people, who taught us to treat other people as we would like to be treated.

I remained a lapsed Catholic for many years before becoming involved with St Joseph's Church in Belfast's Sailortown, which was closed in 2001. The campaign to have it reopened led me to take a long, hard look at my Catholicism and to question many of its man-made aspects.

I converted to the Church of Ireland 10 years ago, taking with me everything I had believed in, because I felt that I had to follow my conscience on matters such as the ordination of women and priests being allowed to marry.

I now enjoy that comfortable and comforting faith at St George's Church on High Street, Belfast.

Q. Have you ever had a crisis of faith or a gnawing doubt about your faith?

A. The simple answer to that question is no. There were many years when I did not go to church, but I always retained what I like to call 'the faith of the peasant'. I have never tried to rationalise it - I just believe. So, I consider myself very fortunate.

Q. Have you ever been angry with God and, if so, why?

A. I have never had reason to. Not yet, anyway. I've had ups and downs, like everyone, and not everything has gone to plan, even if I had one, but God has been good to me.

Q. Do you ever get criticised for your faith and are you able to live with that criticism?

A. I have had nothing but support from family and friends before and after I converted to the Church of Ireland. Although my denomination has changed, my faith remains the same. I believe Christ died for our sins and that all roads lead to Heaven.

Q. Are you ever ashamed of your denomination?

A. I was disappointed with the way the bishops dealt with child abuse within Catholicism. I was angry and ashamed for them and still feel that they betrayed the trust of the faithful.

Q. Are you afraid to die or can you look beyond death?

A. It's easy to say I am not afraid to die, because I am a Christian and I believe in the afterlife. That's my faith in a nutshell. However, I have never been in the position of having to put it to the test. I hope and pray I can show the same dignity that friends of mine without faith showed in the past.

I'm not a great man for pain, so whatever is waiting to get me, I hope that it's quick.

Q. And what about Hell? Do you worry about it?

A. I believe in a God of love and understanding, who recognises human faults and frailties like the many I've accumulated, but who still cares for me, warts and all. Hell is part of the Christian equation, but it's not something I think about, far less worry about.

Q. Do you believe in a resurrection? And, if so, what will it be like?

A. I believe very strongly in a resurrection. I can't explain it, but I am as certain as I can be that I will see my parents again. They have left me physically, but are with me spiritually every day, and there will be that togetherness after death.

Q. What do you think about people of other denominations and other faiths?

A. Belonging to a denomination, or faith, is very much an accident of birth, and I don't think that one denomination, or religion, is better than another. With our limited understanding of God, we should make the best of whatever faith we have while treating other people with respect and love.

Q. Do you think that the churches here are fulfilling their mission?

A. They are doing their best. We all have faults, but the ecumenical movement is gaining in strength, even as Christianity faces huge challenges. I would like to see all denominations embrace integrated education as a boon for our children.

Q. Why are many people turning their back on organised religion?

A. The God of my childhood, who was in every home and was talked about on a daily basis, has been airbrushed out of our lives. He is a stranger to two generations and, as a result, they are strangers to him.

We are too 'busy' to bother about God, and I think that is very sad. I turned my back on organised religion for many years, but I had something to turn back to. We all need that.

Q. Has religion helped or hindered Northern Ireland?

A. Religion was divisive in the past but is now trying to be more inclusive. There are too many grey heads, and we need to attract more young people. Some churches are reaching out to the youth, the homeless and the LGBT community, who were treated shamefully in the past, but others continue to let 'religion' blur their Christianity.

Q. What is your favourite film, book and music?

A. My favourite film is Random Harvest with Ronald Colman and Greer Garson. My favourite books are by James Lee Burke, who writes like an angel. To call him a crime writer is like calling Leonardo da Vinci a plasterer. I love the Beatles, Jethro Tull, Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, and am partial to Chopin and Cat Stevens.

Q. Where is the place where you feel closest to God?

A. At St George's, when the choir sings the Sanctus during Sunday Eucharist. Sunshine through the stained-glass windows is an added bonus.

Q. What inscription would you like on your gravestone?

A. Just my name and the dates. There's nothing more to say.

Q. And what about regrets? Any major ones?

A. There have been many things I shouldn't have done and more I should have done. What I can't fix, I try not to fixate on.Greg Maresca is a New York City native, U.S. Marine Corp veteran and graduate of Bloomsburg University. He has resided in Pennsylvania for more than 30 years.Here are the four of the biggest spine and orthopedic infection control stories in 2018.

1. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment determined human error caused an infection breach that may have affected up to 5,800 spine and orthopedic surgery patients at Denver-based Porter Adventist Hospital.

2. The FDA issued a warning against Genetech and its president Edwin Pinos for manufacturing stem cell products without FDA approval and deviating from current manufacturing practice requirements, which may have led to microbial contamination.

3. The Joint Commission and CDC came out with new infection control resources for podiatry, orthopedic and pain management settings.

4. Jonnie Vanderhoef, CRNA, settled a whistleblower lawsuit with Sparrow Carson Hospital in Carson City, Mich. Mr. Vanderhoef alleged he told hospital officials about how orthopedic surgeon Raymond Allard, DO, practiced poor infection control, but his complaints were ignored.The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services revoked the pharmacy license of a former pharmacy director at Children's Hospital & Medical Center accused of embezzling $4.4 million from the hospital, according to the World-Herald News Service.

Under the settlement agreement with the state, Lisa Kwapniowski, PharmD, agreed to admit to the allegations, relinquish her license for a minimum of two years and waive her right to a judicial review.

The settlement stems from allegations brought by the state that Ms. Kwapniowski created a company called RxSYnergy and submitted false invoices for a phony drug and other medications to the Omaha hospital.

Ms. Kwapniowski allegedly deposited the money obtained into a bank account created for RxSYnergy and eventually transferred the funds to her personal account. The petition claims she submitted 231 invoices from the company to the hospital between April 2012 and June 2018, totaling more than $4.4 million.

The children's hospital fired Ms. Kwapnioswski in June after she was accused of embezzling the money.Massachusetts became the first and only state to ban ambulance diversions in 2009, and other locations have moved to stop the potentially harmful practice of temporarily closing a facility to incoming ambulances, but it still occurs in most of the nation's largest cities, a review by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found.

Seven things to know:

1. Two-thirds of the nation's largest 25 cities allow ambulance diversion or practices like it, including nine of the top 10. These cities include New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Diego.

2. Ambulance diversion started in the 1980s in response to overcrowded emergency rooms, where patients could wait hours or even days to be admitted.

Several studies have found diversion fails to solve ER overcrowding and puts patients at risk by delaying care, according to the Journal Sentinel. But some healthcare officials have argued ending diversions would lead to catastrophic, dangerous crowding.

3. However, after Massachusetts banned the practice in 2009, an August 2014 federal study of the state's experience found that didn't happen.

"Despite fears that the ban would lead to increased emergency room crowding and ambulance delays, the steps hospitals took to improve patient flow in the wake of the ban prevented such problems," said the report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

4. In April 2016, Milwaukee County implemented a no-diversion policy. The hospitals removed diversions by making their whole operations more efficient, not just the emergency departments.

5. The county was heading toward ending diversion in 2014 when 37-year-old Milwaukee resident Tiffany Tate had a stroke during her shift at the Medical College of Wisconsin cafeteria.

She was only about 350 yards from Froedtert Hospital and its top-ranked stroke center but was not taken there because its ER was on diversion. It took almost four hours for Ms. Tate to get the care she would have gotten at Froedtert. She later died.

6. In Los Angeles County, hospitals still divert ambulances regularly. Each hospital in the county is on ambulance diversion about two hours each day on average, a 2017 report cited by the Journal Sentinel found. That number is down from about six hours per hospital per day in 2005.

7. Cathy Chidester, MSN, RN, director of the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency, said surrounding counties have "banned" diversion but their operations are the same. Hospitals have talked about improving practices, but nothing concrete has happened, and it may have been different if there had been a case such as Tiffany Tate's in Milwaukee, Ms. Chidester said.

"Efficiency is talked about all the time here," she said. "But without something horrifying happening, like what you had up there, it just reverts to the way it was."Physician burnout is a public health issue that "urgently demands action" from the rest of the healthcare industry, according to a report from Harvard University and Massachusetts trade groups.

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Harvard Global Health Institute in Cambridge, Mass., Massachusetts Medical Society and Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association partnered to develop the report, titled "A Crisis in Health Care: A Call to Action on Physician Burnout."

For the report, the organizations reviewed recent research on physician burnout and its consequences, as well as analyzed results of an informal survey of Massachusetts physicians at different stages of their careers, from medical students to senior practitioners.

The report outlines the state of physician burnout today and how healthcare stakeholders  such as hospitals, medical schools, EHR vendors, insurers and federal agencies  can work to fix the issue.

"We believe that physician burnout is a public health crisis, an assessment that has been echoed by others in both major medical journals and in the lay press," the report reads. "Driven by experience and the mountainous body of evidence on the causes and impacts of physician burnout, this report is a call to action to begin to turn the tide before the consequences grow still more severe."

Three recommendations to address physician burnout, as outlined in the report:

1. Support proactive mental health treatment for physicians experiencing burnout. "Physicians face stigma and professional obstacles to seeking appropriate care and treatment for burnout and related mental health concerns. Physician institutions  including physician associations, hospitals and licensing bodies  should take deliberate steps to facilitate appropriate treatment and support without stigma or unnecessary constraints on physicians' ability to practice."

2. Improve EHR standards with strong focus on usability and open application programming interfaces. "A major course correction to reduce physicians' burden of documentation is now overdue  One promising solution would be to permit software developers to develop a range of apps that can operate with most, if not all, certified EHR systems. This concept is similar to how the Apple and Google app stores can deliver an immense array of functionality on millions of different mobile devices according to user preferences."

3. Appoint executive-level chief wellness officers at healthcare organizations. "Effective CWOs will be senior, full- or part-time executives. Successful solutions will be tailored to the unique features of each healthcare organization, including patient population, human resources, specialization and many other factors. As such, successful interventions require senior, visible leadership equipped with a mandate and authority to work systemically across departments, portfolios and other silos."

To download the "A Crisis in Health Care: A Call to Action on Physician Burnout" report, click here.Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center in Houston added three executives to its leadership team.

John Byrne, MD, will serve as Baylor St. Luke's senior vice president and CMO. He most recently served as CMO of Clear Lake Regional Medical Center in Webster, Texas, a part of Houston-based HCA Gulf Coast Division. He has previous experience as COO and CMO of Pawtucket, R.I.-based Care New England Memorial Hospital as well as chief of cardiac surgery and co-director of cardiovascular center for Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Baylor St. Luke's named Loretta Lee, RN, acting chief nursing officer. She has held senior leadership roles at Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas and Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., over her more than 30-year career in nursing.

Megan Fischer is Baylor St. Luke's new vice president of quality. She most recently served as vice president of quality and patient safety at Clear Lake Regional Medical Center. She has also served as vice president of quality at Overland Park, Kan.-based HCA Midwest Health.

The three appointments follow the resignations of Baylor St. Luke's President Gay Nord, Chief Nursing Officer Jennifer Nitschmann, MSN, RN, and Senior Vice President of Operations David Berger, MD. T. Douglas Lawson, PhD, CEO of the Englewood, Colo.-based Catholic Health Initiatives' Texas Division, was named president of Baylor St. Luke's earlier this week.

In early 2019, CMS initiated a review of a patient death that occurred at the hospital. The patient died after receiving the wrong type the wrong type of blood during a transfusion.

"We are moving rapidly to recruit and onboard the executive expertise we need to address the deficiencies cited last week in a Centers for Medicaid and Medicare review, even before receiving the final report. Also, we are working on our 90-day plan to review current operations and to take every step necessary to keep us on the path of excellence and to earn the trust of our patients," said Dr. Lawson.

Editor's note: This article mistakenly stated Dr. Byrne's and Ms. Fischer's most recent roles. The article was updated Jan. 22 at 5:05 p.m.Physicians are skeptical of whether Apple's reputed move into the private Medicare market will truly improve medical care for seniors, according to the Politico Morning eHealth newsletter.

Apple reportedly is in talks with at least three private Medicare plans about subsidizing the cost of its Apple Watch  which runs from $279 to $399  for plan members over age 65, CNBC reported Jan. 16.

This program could be beneficial for seniors, since the newest Apple Watch includes features such as fall detection and an electrocardiogram to detect atrial fibrillation.

However, physicians expressed concern to Politico that these Apple Watch features hadn't been adequately studied. The EKG feature, for example, could result in false positives. They also noted the smartwatch detects falls, but doesn't have capabilities to predict or prevent them.

Michael Hodgkins, MD, CIO of the American Medical Association, told Politico Apple should work to "demonstrate both the safety and objectivity" of its alerts and their ability to cut costs before entering the Medicare market.

"Is it going to create more emergency room visits ... or fewer?" Dr. Hodgkins asked. "It's not clear to me."Members of the Virginia House of Delegate subcommittee on Commerce and Labor on Jan. 16 heard about how different bills would address balance billing, according to WWBT, an NBC-affiliated TV station in Richmond, Va.

Balance billing occurs when a patient is charged the remaining balance after the insurance company pays its part of the bill.

One bill, introduced by Delegate Lee Ware, addresses the issue in emergency situations. It requires that health carriers that provide individual or group insurance coverage that includes benefits for emergency services at a hospital "pay directly to an out-of-network healthcare provider the fair market value for the emergency services, less applicable cost-sharing requirements." The out-of-network healthcare provider would be prohibited from billing or seeking payment from the patient except for the applicable cost-sharing requirements.

Delegate Kathy Byron has also proposed legislation. The bill she introduced is similar to Mr. Ware's, WWBT reported. But under Ms. Byron's bill, there would be a new test for determining the benefit the insurer is required to provide to an out-of-network emergency services provider.

"The new test is the average of the contracted commercial rates paid by the health carrier for the same emergency service in the geographic region, which test replaces the amount negotiated with in-network providers for the emergency service, or if more than one amount is negotiated, the median of these amounts," the bill states.

According to the report, members of the Virginia House of Delegate subcommittee on Commerce and Labor recommended that Mr. Ware and Ms. Byron work together on legislation. The bills are expected to come up again at a future subcommittee meeting.

More articles on healthcare finance:

Ohio health system offers financial help to government workers amid shutdown

Rhode Island governor seeks to tax 'non-mission essential' hospital properties

Guide aims to help hospitals comply with accounting changesRhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo wants to give cities and towns the ability to tax "non-mission essential" properties owned by nonprofit colleges and hospitals, according to a WPRI-TV report.

The idea is part of the governor's proposed $9.9-billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The budget also reportedly lowers funding for the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program, which compensates municipalities for property tax revenue lost due to non-taxable properties. The proposed budget would cut $5 million from PILOT funding.

State officials said allowing cities and towns to tax properties owned by nonprofit hospitals and colleges would help offset the lower PILOT funding, according to WPRI-TV. But they said that cities and towns would have to do more work to determine whether a property is "non-mission essential" and would have to sign off on a new tax.

More articles on healthcare finance:

HCA reportedly selling $1B in debt to aid Mission Health acquisition

Universal Health Services finance chief Steve Filton on cost containment and challenges hospital CFOs face

Medicare payments not covering care costs, many physician practices sayCincinnati-based TriHealth is pausing its billing for patients affected by the partial U.S. government shutdown, according to a Cincinnati Business Courier report.

System spokesperson Mike Mattingly said federal workers who notify the medical office reception desk that they are government employees are eligible for financial assistance under the system's charity care policy. TriHealth also won't bill affected federal workers for care until the shutdown is over, according to the report.

"Federal workers should continue to seek needed care during the shutdown, and we are committed to providing assistance," Mr. Mattingly told Becker's.

TriHealth is a nonprofit system formed through a partnership between Good Samaritan Hospital and Bethesda Hospital. It has five hospitals and more than 130 locations.

More articles on healthcare finance:

HCA reportedly selling $1B in debt to aid Mission Health acquisition

Universal Health Services finance chief Steve Filton on cost containment and challenges hospital CFOs face

Medicare payments not covering care costs, many physician practices sayHere are five expert revenue cycle management tips, published by Becker's Hospital Review since Jan. 1.

1. Mark Spinner, CEO of AccessOne, a provider of patient financing solutions, said hospitals should give patients financing choices to drive more engagement, satisfaction and reimbursement.

2. Kevin Smith, vice president of product management at nThrive, a revenue cycle management company, recommended that hospitals update antiquated pricing benchmarks to boost revenue cycle integrity and performance.

3. Mr. Smith also recommended that hospitals ensure coding accuracy to increase revenue cycle integrity and performance.

4. James Zadoorian, PhD, managing principal at ARxChange, which designs patient financial revenue systems, said hospital revenue cycle leaders should take multiple approaches to understand the behavioral decisions that prompt patient payment activity.

5. James Dressman, executive director at Professional Medical Services, a claims management company, recommended implementing an efficient process to manage low-balance patient accounts can help ensure a hospital receives full reimbursement for its services.

More articles on healthcare finance:

Ohio health system offers financial help to government workers amid shutdown

Rhode Island governor seeks to tax 'non-mission essential' hospital properties

Guide aims to help hospitals comply with accounting changesJeffrey Hoffman, MD, is the chief medical information officer of Columbus, Ohio-based Nationwide Children's Hospital, which has more than 1,300 medical personnel and saw 1.4 million patient visits in 2017.

Dr. Hoffman started his work at Nationwide Children's 15 years ago as a pediatric emergency medicine physician, gradually shifting his expertise to clinical informatics as the healthcare industry evolved. In 2013, he became one of the first physicians in the county to become board-certified in clinical informatics.

Dr. Hoffman also works as a clinical associate professor of pediatrics, family medicine and biomedical informatics and chief of the division of clinical informatics at the Ohio State University.

Becker's Hospital Review caught up with Dr. Hoffman to discuss the primary initiative he will focus on in 2019 and his view on healthcare innovation.

Editor's Note: Responses were lightly edited for length and clarity.

Question: Which one strategic initiative will demand most of your time and energy in 2019?

Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman: The one that is going to demand most of my time is a large-scale program to modernize our enterprisewide EHR system, Epic. We implemented Epic nearly 15 years ago, at a time when major customizations were necessary to meet the unique needs of a pediatrics facility and pediatric providers.

Over the years, we have found ourselves allocating an increasing proportion of our IT resources to maintain these customizations. As Epic has evolved, many of these are no longer necessary or useful. To take full advantage of our EHR investment, we have committed to a complete overhaul of our Epic system, replacing customizations where appropriate and leveraging the technology as much as possible. This effort is going to require solid leadership and effective governance, much of which I will directly coordinate and oversee. In that regard, the year ahead will be both exciting and challenging.

Q: Healthcare takes a lot of heat for not innovating quickly. What's your take on this?

JH: I often hear this sentiment from physician colleagues, patients and families and friends in other industries. On the surface, healthcare looks like any other customer-centric service industry, such as retail or banking, where technological innovation is increasingly being demanded by customers and subsequently embraced by companies. However, healthcare organizations face unique challenges that dictate a narrower scope and slower pace of innovation.

The most obvious challenge is the regulatory environment in which healthcare operates, specifically HIPAA-related privacy and security requirements that often inhibit cutting-edge innovations. These limitations lead many healthcare institutions to use extreme caution when considering, much less implementing, new and innovative technologies.

Aside from the regulatory barrier, most institutions have a strong patient safety focus that forces examination of any new technologies in terms of the potential for patient harm. While I see great potential in a variety of technologies, including mobile apps, voice assistants, artificial intelligence and blockchain, I believe the healthcare industry will likely remain much more cautious in their innovations in comparison to others.

Q: When was the last time your organization responded to concerns or needs expressed by physicians? What unfolded?

JH: Physicians often point out the burdens EHR systems have placed upon them. Some of this may be unavoidable. Some burdens, however, can be addressed, and listening to provider concerns often leads to meaningful change.

A frequent complaint from providers is the large number of pop-up best practice alerts they are presented with and must address during their busy workday. Like most organizations, we have implemented many alerts over the years to address a variety of quality, safety and compliance needs. Although we closely scrutinize new requests, we had not been particularly diligent about keeping track of the overall volume and performance of alerts in the system. Not only was the ever-growing number of alerts and their individual performance creating frustration for our physicians, but they were also contributing to the potential for alert fatigue and subsequent patient harm.

In response, our leadership decided to substantially reduce the volume of these alerts while simultaneously maintaining the safety net of our alerting system. While it would have been easy to merely turn off high-volume alerts, we focused instead on improving the quality and targeting of these alerts to deliver the right message to the right physician at the right time in their workflow. We found other alerts that could be equally effective as passive notifications, such as a banner. In other cases, alerts were found to be no longer necessary and were safely retired.

In just a few short months, we were able to reduce the volume of these pop-up alerts by over 50 percent, and we now have a process in place to ensure new alerts are well-designed from the start and monitored on an ongoing basis. Although it was a challenging area to address, we have our frontline physicians to thank for bringing this important issue to the forefront.Arkansas Department of Human Services entered into an agreement with Medsphere Systems Corp., to implement its IT solutions at Arkansas State Hospital in Little Rock.

Arkansas State Hospital is a state-operated, 222-bed, acute psychiatric inpatient facility.

Medsphere will deploy its CareVue Cloud EHR and RCM Cloud revenue cycle management solution. Together, the two solutions will give Arkansas State Hospital employees access to a full suite of clinical, revenue cycle and financial tools available through Amazon Web Services.

"We're excited about the clinical and behavioral health-specific functionality of Medsphere's customized solutions and how these solutions can enhance our ability to meet our mission," said Arkansas State Hospital CEO Jay Battle.3 1 of 3 Houston Police Department Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Houston Police Department Show More Show Less 3 of 3





A Houston family can thank diligent police officers for reuniting them with their family dog after a burglary in December.

The dog, a bulldog named Max, was stolen from a home in the 500 block of Shawnee Street in southeast Houston on Dec. 30.The hardest part is getting people to ask for help.

What started as a folding table in a storage closet and a few donated supplies on Friday slowly grew to dozens of boxes of food ready to go to families and hundreds of nonperishable food items, baby supplies, items for pets and other necessities.

The Golden Triangle Chief Petty Officers Association is hosting supply drives across the area and expects to continue doing so until the federal government reopens.

Not knowing when (the shutdown) is going to end is where a lot of the fear comes from, said association member Christie Hamilton.

Many public servants try to stretch what they can as far as possible before asking for help, Hamilton said. Thats largely because, as a public servant, helping other is their job.

The association is doing what it can to tell workers and members of the Coast Guard they dont have to be afraid to ask for help. Donations from the community are making that easier.

Association member Chris Johnson said some 40 families came to get help this week. But he encouraged any federal workers who may need help to call. The area has some 450 Coast Guard employees and 800 employed with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

In addition to the donated items, many of the supply sites also have fuel and grocery gift cards.

More Information How to get or give help: Fundraiser: Firehouse Subs, 2780 Texas 365, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 26. Free chips and drink with donation to the Chief Petty Officers Association. A percentage of proceeds collected from 5 p.m. to close will be given to the organization. Silent auction: Madison's on Dowlen in Beaumont, 4020 Dowlen Road, 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Jan. 31. The association is accepting items for the silent auction. Donate: Items can be dropped off at several sites, below. Dr. Kyle Bess dental office, 3875 Laurel Ave., Beaumont Veterans' Affaors office at Lamar University, 4400 South Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, Beaumont Triangle Therapeutics, 2990 Laurel Ave., Beaumont United Way of Beaumont and North Jefferson County, 700 North St., Beaumont Port Arthur International Seafarer's Center, 401 Houston Ave., Port Arthur Triangle Therapeutics, 5957 9th Ave., Port Arthur More information: 409-223-8033. What to donate: Nonperishable items Fuel and grocery gift cards Paper products Household supplies Baby supplies Gift cards to local restaurants See More Collapse

Association treasurer Gregory Bailey said it didnt want to send people into a panic and ask for donations immediately when the government shut down. But when it became clear at least one paycheck would be missed or delayed, the association started to take action.

Everyone knows, he said. Its not a secret that there are federal employees and families that are affected and there is a need for support.

In addition to the collection of donated items, the Chief Petty Officers Association is planning a silent auction at Madisons on Dowlen in Beaumont, a fundraiser at the Firehouse Subs in Port Arthur and other other developing events.

If the government remains shut down, money raised will go to Golden Triangle government employees and families needing help. If it reopens, the event will still be on, but the nonprofit Association will donate the money back to the community where it sees a need.

If the shutdown ends we plan to pour this support back into the community at the right time, Bailey said.

Theres obviously a glaring need right now. But if that need goes away were going to move forward with our fundraising efforts to help people get back on their feet in other ways, he said.

Other local organizations are taking notice of the need and exploring options to contribute.

The Sabine Pass Port Authority on Thursday is expected to consider making a donation to the local Coast Guard, port manager Mic Cowart said.

We know the Coast Guard is not getting a pay check right now so we want to recognize their hard work, Cowart said.

The Port Authority has a unique relationship to the Coast Guard, as the local station helps keep shipping and passing lanes clear, enforces regulations and makes sure boaters are safe.

The authoritys commissioners still have to talk with their attorney to determine how the port can make a donation and what the right channels are to do so.

If youre a federal employee, call 409-223-8033 for more information on how to get help from the association.

kaitlin.bain@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/KaitlinBainUPDATE 5 P.M. MAY 29

County Judge Mark Allen issuing voluntary evacuation order as noted below.A voluntary evacuation order for all residents in the river corridor between the Sam Rayburn and Steinhagen reservoirs was issued at 5:00 p.m. today. The County Judge stated that currently we have Texas Task Force 1, along with members of the United State Army and the Texas Forest Service working with Jasper County and its Office of Emergency Management preparing to assist any citizens that voluntary wish to be evacuated to a temporary shelter location. We have them currently housed at the fire station at Jasper Countys Bell Field Airport.

Additionally according to Clay Church with the Army Corp of Engineers they expect Rayburn to be at 173.06 feet on Sunday. At that time they may begin releasing water as needed.

May 29 mid-afternoon

UPDATE- The water level on Sam Rayburn is at 172.75 feet and holding. The possibility of rains this weekend could affect that level. The Corp's Fort Worth office is closely monitoring the in flow to determine what action if any should be taken according to Bart Dearborn.

Currently Rayburn is not releasing any water into Steinhagen as they are monitoring its level along with the Neches river. They are hoping that Steinhagens level falls below 83 feet, stands now at 83.49, whereby if necessary they will release water into Steinhagen and not increase the Neches.

Dearborn stated that when Rayburn gets to a level of 173 they will assess the situation carefully both in Steinhagen and the Neches to see what if anything can be done. As a reminder Sam Rayburn was built as a flood control project and it is serving that purpose with the amount of water that has flowed into it. Flooding is occurring in South Tyler County as Steinhagen continues to release water but without rain this weekend that may ease next week depending upon additional releases.

May 27

As of today May 27th Sam Rayburn's water level was at 171.94 feet which represents 7.54 feet above full pool of 164.4. When visited, the dam was not releasing any more water nor generating any electricity. According to the Lake Manager, Bart Dearborn they are concerned with increasing possible flooding downstream on the Neches which is already out of its banks. This is at this time the right thing to do to try and protect homes and lives downstream and the Corp is to be commended for this action. According to Dearborn all decisions on generation and release of water comes directly from the Corp's district office in Fort Worth.

Today they were also working as shown in the picture above dumping loads of rock onto the levy just in front of the spillway. According to Dearborn this is necessary as the levy has been washed out somewhat from waves and the high water. When Dearborn was asked about when they would begin to worry about the integrity of the dam he stated "We can hold a lot of water". There is still more water coming into Rayburn and a look at the pictures show rattlesnake island, a favorite hangout, virtually under water. Several marinas along the lake are also experiencing some problems with the high water covering picnic areas and not having accessibility to docks.

As always it is good to be very cautious when launching your boat and being on the lake as many areas have water but are hiding obstructions underneath the water that have always been there but until now were exposed and easily seen. The lake is a tremendous resource for this area and it appears that the Corp is doing all the right things to protect this resource while protecting people downstream.Joseph Luiz can be reached at 395-7368 or by email at jluiz@bakersfield.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @JLuiz_TBC.Jason Barry is best known for his Dirty Dining Report which airs Fridays at 6:30 p.m. on CBS 5. He is also the storyteller behind CBS 5's Pay It Forward which airs every Thursday at 6:30 p.m.More than four years after 17-year-old Laquan McDonald died in a barrage of bullets, former Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke will be sentenced Friday for the fatal shooting.By Trend

Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Grigory Karasin held a meeting in Moscow with Ambassador of Turkmenistan Batyr Niyazliev, Trend reports referring to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Bilateral cooperation and preparation for high-level meetings were discussed during the conversation, the report says.

There are about 190 companies with Russian capital in Turkmenistan. ARETI has been operating in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea since 2009 based on a production sharing agreement.

Russia, a traditional trade partner of Turkmenistan, stopped the purchase of Turkmen gas in 2016. However, it was announced that the parties will start talks on resuming the Turkmen gas purchase by Gazprom.

A strategic partnership agreement between Turkmenistan and Russia was signed following the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Ashgabat in October 2017.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The Turkish people recall the victims of the January 20 tragedy with great sorrow, Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Erkan Ozoral told Trend.

On the day of the January 20 tragedy, we honor the memory of the heroic sons of Azerbaijan who died for the independence of their country, he said. We must remember these bloody events that took place 29 years ago. Undoubtedly, the Azerbaijani people will never forget these events, which are one of the important stages on the path to Azerbaijans independence, and will always honor the memory of the martyrs. The steps taken in this direction by the relevant agencies of Azerbaijan, headed by President Ilham Aliyev, are praiseworthy."

The diplomat said the Turkish people will always be beside the Azerbaijani people, both in joyful and sorrowful days.

January 20 is a day that went down in history of Azerbaijan's fight for independence and territorial integrity.

On January 20, 1990, the Soviet army forces entered Baku to suppress the masses protesting the USSR-supported Armenian aggression based on territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

The result was an unprecedented tragedy for Azerbaijan. Valiant sons and daughters of Azerbaijan put the country's freedom, honor and dignity above everything else, sacrificed their lives and became martyrs.

The January 20 tragedy brought huge losses and death of innocent people. But it also demonstrated the spirit and pride of Azerbaijani nation, which couldn't stand the betrayal of the criminal empire led by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Azerbaijanis gained the independence they were dreaming of, and the country achieved sovereignty.

Despite that many years have passed since those bloody days, Azerbaijanis remember the dreadful night that took many innocent lives and marks the anniversary of the January 20 tragedy every year.

January 20 is immortalized in the memory of Azerbaijani nation as a Day of the Nationwide Sorrow.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with President of Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnangagwa, who arrived in Azerbaijan for a working visit.

The head of state welcomed the Zimbabwean president.

The presidents then posed for official photos.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Everybody knows that the urgency resolution on Azerbaijani blogger Mehman Huseynovs case, which was adopted by the European Parliament, is a part of another biased campaign of pressure on Azerbaijan, editor-in-chief of the Ses newspaper, Azerbaijani political analyst Bahruz Guliyev told Trend on Jan. 18.

No one is surprised when the name of George Soros is mentioned, he added. "The matter rests in the fact that one of the co-authors of the resolution is the associate of George Soros - Rebecca Harms and she does not refute relationship with Soros."

"If we take into account that Soros has always led the anti-Azerbaijan activity, it is quite clear that he ordered the resolution," he said. "The resolution of the European Parliament is full of lies and slander. Moreover, it has been prepared as a result of duplicity."

"Harms' lie that she allegedly appealed to the Azerbaijani corresponding structures, while the Azerbaijani state and legislative bodies did not receive any appeals and requests, can be cited as an example," Guliyev said.

"Such biased actions have never led to the desired results, because they are lies."

"Duplicity, hypocrisy of such a structure as the European Parliament is obvious again," he said. "No one in Azerbaijan is subjected to political persecution. All fundamental freedoms are protected in the country, starting from freedom of speech and expression. Therefore, the anti-Azerbaijan stance of the European Parliament is a dead end."

Guliyev stressed that Azerbaijan successfully cooperates with international organizations.

"Azerbaijan cooperates with many UN commissions, OIC, Non-Aligned Movement, he said. The country operates in other international organizations and initiates global projects. The biased opinions expressed in the Council of Europe or the European Parliament at the instigation of Soros' accomplices and the unreasonable resolutions adopted against Azerbaijan cannot be taken as truth.

"I would say that such hypocrisy is a means of pressure directed against the will of the Azerbaijanis, Guliyev said. However, these attempts and their executors will fail. Unfounded resolutions adopted against Azerbaijan will never be regarded as truthful."

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The resolution of the European Parliament regarding the case of Mehman Huseynov in Azerbaijan is another example of hostility towards Azerbaijan as a whole.

The resolution is presented in the tone of demarche, and it is unacceptable, Chairman of Azerbaijans Press Council, Azerbaijani MP Aflatun Amashov told Trend Jan. 18.

He said that in general, when expressing opinion on some document, it is necessary to approach it in a complex way.

The resolution of the European Parliament is a complex expression of attitude towards Azerbaijan, he noted. The attitude is negative. Lets pay attention to the fact that the resolution expresses concern in connection with the LGBT community in Azerbaijan, and urges the government not to create obstacles for human rights activists working with the LGBT community, and not to frighten them. It is not clear how the European Parliament has identified the presence of concern in this area. I wonder which human rights activists wanted to cooperate with LGBT community, but faced restrictions?

It is clear that the resolution doesnt use a serious approach and is pretty vague, which is not coincidental.

The resolution says that the authorities in Azerbaijan allegedly got their hands on some members of the Council of Europe in order to soften criticism for violations in the country, Amashov said.

This kind of statement is another confirmation that some circles in Europe are able to resort to any means for the sake of their interests, he noted. This statement isnt only frivolous, but also goes beyond all ethical principles, and is generally an insult to European values, said the MP.

He noted that bringing journalists to legal responsibility, as well as depriving them of their freedom, in one way or another, harm the principles of freedom of speech and expression.

Thats because journalism is a profession of public weight and members of society, ordinary citizens take their cue from journalists, he said. However, the reality is that the unlawful actions of journalists also lead to even more unpleasant tendencies.

He added that the accusations made against the persons mentioned in the resolution are specific, it is wrong to associate these accusations with freedom of speech and expression.

Amashov also said that authoritative structures such as the European Parliament shouldnt take a controversial position, they should approach issues in a broader context and shouldnt become an instrument for certain political goals.

It is also known what political games are being conducted in relation to Azerbaijan and what means of pressure are used, he noted. I believe that it is necessary to stop applying this approach, build an equal level of relations based on mutual understanding.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Azerbaijan and Russia are equally sovereign states and speaking with an ultimatum voice with Azerbaijan is unacceptable and completely contrary to the ethical standards of diplomacy, the press service of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said on the comments of the press service of the Russian Foreign Ministry in connection with the non-admission of individual Russian citizens to Azerbaijan, Trend reports.

"The tone of the comment of the press service of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs on this matter was absolutely adequate to the communication style of the Russian Foreign Ministry's press service in this regard. Once again, we would like to remind that in 2018 only over 880,000 citizens of the Russian Federation visited Azerbaijan, the absolute majority of whom were satisfied and expressed gratitude for hospitality," the MFA said.

"The inexplicable persistence of the press service of the Russian Foreign Ministry in this matter is difficult to understand; it contradicts the basis of strategic relations between Azerbaijan and Russia. At the same time, such an approach does not in any way coincide with the will shown by the presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia and the work done by them for development of relations between the two states," the ministry said.

The non-admission of Russian citizens of Armenian origin to the territory of Azerbaijan was first announced by the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, at a briefing on Jan. 11.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation is well aware that for many years Armenia has been pursuing a policy of aggression against Azerbaijan, as a result of which the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and seven adjacent administrative districts were occupied, more than one million people were subjected to ethnic cleansing and became refugees and IDPs. As a result of the Khojaly genocide committed by the Armenian armed forces on February 26, 1992, 613 civilians, including young children, women and the elderly, were brutally killed. The four resolutions of the UN Security Council adopted in 1993 (822, 853, 874 and 884) demand the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of the Armenian occupying forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and the return of those forcibly expelled from these territories to their native lands. The Russian Federation, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, voted for the adoption of these resolutions. However, for over 25 years, the requirements of these resolutions have not been fulfilled and the Azerbaijani lands are still under occupation," Azerbaijani Foreign Ministrys spokeswoman Leyla Abdullayeva had earlier said commenting on the remarks made by Maria Zakharova

Azerbaijan is known in the world as a center of multiculturalism, she said, adding that Azerbaijan, unlike Armenia, is a multinational state.

Representatives of many nations, including Armenians, live together in peace and harmony in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Currently, more than 30,000 Azerbaijani citizens of Armenian origin live in our country. This is while Armenia is a mono-ethnic state. The efforts and activities of Azerbaijan in this sphere have always been highly appreciated by Russia in numerous bilateral meetings at the level of heads of state. While children of Armenian origin face restrictions in receiving education in Russian-language schools in Armenia, there are more than 340 Russian-language educational institutions in Azerbaijan. Such schools can be counted on the fingers in Armenia. Azerbaijan is always open to Russian citizens, said Leyla Abdullayeva.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Crimes committed on the night of January 20, 1990 in Baku mustnt go unpunished, Aurelia Grigoriu, chairperson of the Public Chamber of Moldova, politician, told Trend.

The tragedy of January 20, 1990 is forever inscribed in the modern history as a black page of disgrace of the USSR - the country that used regular army troops against own people, own citizens, she said. Peaceful demonstration held in Baku in support of the sovereignty and independence of Azerbaijan was shelled from guns and crushed by tanks of the Soviet army. The invasion of Baku by a major contingent of the Soviet army, internal troops and special forces was accompanied by special cruelty and unprecedented atrocities. Massacre was committed against the civilian population, hundreds of people were killed, injured and went missing."

Grigoriu noted that sending troops and declaring a state of emergency in Baku were a gross violation of the USSR Constitution (Article 119) and the Constitution of the Azerbaijan SSR (Article 71), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966 (Article 1).

"The sovereign rights of Azerbaijan were grossly and roughly violated, fundamental human rights, such as the right to life, the right to peaceful demonstration, the right to freedom of expression and the right to property were grossly violated, she said. "Unfortunately, little is known in the world about these events. The rapid collapse of the Soviet Union began namely from this disgraceful and bloody event. The state massively violated human rights, namely of own citizens, by committing a crime against its people, in particular, the population of Baku and the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.

People were shot at, as if they were targets, often in the back, for the sole purpose of killing, she noted. Such crimes mustnt go unpunished. In line with the norms of international humanitarian law, the perpetrators of this crime must be identified and brought to justice.

"To this day, many details of those tragic events may be considered from a legal point of view only as part of criminal cases regarding both the Soviet leaders of that time, authorities in the republic and also the direct perpetrators of those bloody crimes, she said.

"On the other hand, we shouldnt forget about the double standards that are taking place in the international community regarding observance of the principles of international law and the implementation of human rights as well," she noted.

"Today, we remember the victims of that terrible bloody night that took place from January 19 to January 20, 1990, and their death wasnt in vain," she added. "History's lessons need to be learned. No regime that orders the army to shoot at its own people will be able to stay in power afterwards.

January 20 is a day that went down in history of Azerbaijan's fight for independence and territorial integrity.

On January 20, 1990, the Soviet army forces entered Baku to suppress the masses protesting the USSR-supported Armenian aggression based on territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

The result was an unprecedented tragedy for Azerbaijan. Valiant sons and daughters of Azerbaijan put the country's freedom, honor and dignity above everything else, sacrificed their lives and became martyrs.

The January 20 tragedy brought huge losses and death of innocent people. But it also demonstrated the spirit and pride of Azerbaijani nation, which couldn't stand the betrayal of the criminal empire led by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Azerbaijanis gained the independence they were dreaming of, and the country achieved sovereignty.



Despite that many years have passed since those bloody days, Azerbaijanis remember the dreadful night that took many innocent lives and marks the anniversary of the January 20 tragedy every year.

January 20 is immortalized in the memory of Azerbaijani nation as a Day of the Nationwide Sorrow.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Abdul Kerimkhanov

The day of January 20, which will live forever in our memory, became not only a tragedy, but also a symbol of unshakable will in the name of national independence, freedom of our people.

January 20 was the first test and moral victory on the path leading the nation to independence, the restoration of national-spiritual and religious values. Azerbaijani people, subjected to punitive measures of an army armed to the teeth, did not break, did not lose their determination to independence, on the contrary, their righteous voice sounded even louder.

Despite 29 years have already passed since this tragic event, the day like the reel of film still scrolls in front of eyes of witnesses: anxious Baku, bullets glittering in the darkness, tanks and hum of armored vehicles, dead bodies scattered through the streets, hospital wards filled with hundreds of wounded.

Azerbaijan honors the memory of victims of the Black January events every year. The reasons leading to the January tragedy go deep into history, beginning from the territorial claims of Armenians against Azerbaijan.

Due to the aggravation of the Karabakh conflict, a national movement grew in Azerbaijan, the situation in the country became tense, the Popular Front of Azerbaijan (PFA) was created.

For this reason, USSR troops numbering more than 20,000 people, entered Baku on January 20, 1990 at 00:20, with the aim of preserving the power of the Communist Party in the country. The operation received the code name "Strike".

The Soviet army, without declaring a state of emergency, began military operations against Azerbaijan on the night of January 19-20, 1990. As a result of the military rally, 132 people were killed, including 117 Azerbaijanis. As many as 744 people were seriously injured, four were missing, 400 were arrested. After declaring a state of emergency, 21 more people were killed in Baku, 26 people were shot in Neftchala and Lankaran.

The operation was carried out under the command of the USSR Minister of Defense Yazov, by the forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the USSR State Security Committee, as well as regular units of the Soviet Army and Navy. As a result, in protest, several hundred cadets of various nationalities of the Baku All-Arms Higher Military School revolted, seizing part of the Salyan barracks with an ammunition depot in the central part of the city.

All the dead and missing in that Black January were named "Shahid of January 20" in accordance with the decree issued by Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev in 2000.

Crowded processions of Baku residents took place in memory of innocently executed residents of the city On January 22, 1991. The victims of the tragedy were buried as heroes of the struggle for independence in the park named after Kirov, which was later renamed the Alley of Martyrs.

In commemoration of the Black January events, the Baku Metro station called The 11th Red Army was renamed January 20.

"Black January" is forever inscribed in the country history as a day of heroic struggle in the name of the freedom and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. The day that led to serious losses and the killing of innocent people demonstrated the readiness for struggle, the pride of people who could not bear the policy of the USSR leadership treacherous towards Azerbaijan, raised their voice to gain freedom and independence.

---

Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The European Union (EU) sees positive signal for progress in peaceful settlement of Karabakh conflict, Trend reports citing a Statement by the European External Action Service (EEAS) Spokesperson on recent developments toward the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Exchanges in recent months between the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, and the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, as well as meetings of the Foreign Ministers under the auspices of the Co-Chairs of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, most recently in Paris on 16 January 2019, send a positive signal for progress in the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict,

reads the statement.

The European Union is looking forward to the full implementation of their outcomes, including the recent Foreign Ministers agreement on the need to take concrete measures to prepare the populations for peace, as well as the consideration of steps aimed at reinvigorating the negotiations, said the document.

The European Union continues to fully support the mediation efforts and proposals of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, including through the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia, as well as through civil society confidence-building measures across the conflict divide. All would stand to benefit from lasting peace, which would help to enable the South Caucasus region to fulfil its potential, reads the statement.

The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Stephane Visconti of France and Andrew Schofer of the United States of America) hosted consultations between Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov and Acting Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on 16 January in Paris.

The ministers discussed a wide range of issues related to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and agreed upon the necessity of taking concrete measures to prepare the populations for peace.

The Co-Chairs plan to meet the leaders of the two countries in the near future.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The European Union (EU) is committed to supporting the process of preparing the Azerbaijani and Armenian populations for peace, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar wrote on Twitter.

He was commenting on the recent statement issued following the meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers with participation of OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in Paris Jan.16, Trend reports.

Encouraged by the recent meeting in Paris of Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Preparing the populations for peace is crucial and the EU is committed to supporting this process, he wrote.

The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Stephane Visconti of France and Andrew Schofer of the United States of America) hosted consultations between Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov and Acting Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on 16 January in Paris.

The ministers discussed a wide range of issues related to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and agreed upon the necessity of taking concrete measures to prepare the populations for peace.

The Co-Chairs plan to meet the leaders of the two countries in the near future.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

In the near future, Azerbaijan will be able to achieve self-sufficiency in many types of goods and increase the potential to export non-oil products, Director General of the Azerbaijan Industrial Corporation (AIC) Kamran Nabizade said at an event on the AIC activities in 2018.

He noted that the main goal of AIC is to apply modern management standards, use modern technology at enterprises, manufacture products that meet consumer requirements, ensure the development of the non-oil sector and open new jobs.

Thanks to introduction of modern technologies, the quality of products has been brought to international standards, which will lead to export of products to world markets and increasing demand for Azerbaijani products. I think in the near future, Azerbaijan will become self-sufficient in many types of goods and the potential to export non-oil products, in particular aluminum, silk, cotton fiber and wine will increase, he said.

In the reported period, the state allocated funds for reconstruction of a number of enterprises, such as Azerpambiq OJSC, Azeripak OJSC, Azeraluminum, AIC Shusha and Azertutun OJSC.

New agriculture equipment worth 9 million manats was purchased, including cotton harvesters, 60 drying chambers for the primary processing of tobacco and equipment for silk production, he said.

Nabizade noted that the management system in the cotton industry has been changed, its material and technical sources have been updated.

He added that the Azerbaijan Industrial Corporation in the cotton industry cooperates with Turkey, Greece, China and Australia, and plans to adopt the experience of other countries in this industry in the coming years.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzGrace Meng, the wife of the former Interpol president who suddenly resigned and was detained in China last fall, has applied for asylum in France, the New York Times reports.

Details: Meng told the newspaper Liberation that she's afraid she'll be kidnapped if she goes back to China, where "such strange things happen" and "fundamental rights are not respected." According to the Times, Meng said she has not had contact with her husband since his arrest, which she believes was "for a political reason."

Go deeper: The new age of hostage diplomacyLast night's rare on-the-record statement from the Mueller team is a reckoning that journalism had coming: Amid some of the most impressive reporting of our lifetimes, there's plenty of questionable coverage in this shock-a-minute era.

Why it matters: BuzzFeed's report that President Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress, if true, would put this presidency at existential risk.

The story, as written, was as clean as it gets: Trump directed Cohen to lie about the Trump Tower in Moscow project, and theres tons of evidence to support that.

as written, was as clean as it gets: Trump directed Cohen to lie about the Trump Tower in Moscow project, and theres tons of evidence to support that. Very rarely has a story been so unequivocal  usually there are more hedges and acknowledgments of what isn't known.

has a story been so unequivocal  usually there are more hedges and acknowledgments of what isn't known. And unlike most other reportage in this saga, this accused the president of a felony  a very different bar.

Democrats read the story and began immediately dreaming up articles of impeachment.

Even some conservatives joined the "If true" chorus. Erick Erickson covered his bases: "If this is true, President Trump has committed an impeachable offense. ... [B]ut I would tread cautiously."

joined the "If true" chorus. Erick Erickson covered his bases: "If this is true, President Trump has committed an impeachable offense. ... [B]ut I would tread cautiously." The two BuzzFeed reporters Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier  have broken important news previously on the Russia beat, which is why major outlets took this report seriously.

BuzzFeed asserted that the accusation was supported by copious documentary evidence that wouldve cleanly fit attorney general nominee Bill Barrs on-the-record definition of obstruction: internal Trump Organization "emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents."

The WashPost reports: "Muellers denial, according to people familiar with the matter, aims to make clear that none of those statements in the story are accurate."

"Muellers denial, according to people familiar with the matter, aims to make clear that none of those statements in the story are accurate." The N.Y. Times got similar guidance: "One person familiar with Mr. Cohens testimony to the special counsels prosecutors said that Mr. Cohen did not state that the president had pressured him to lie to Congress."

Garrett M. Graff of WIRED, in an email to Axios, pointed out the new political context for journalistic bombshells:

"You have to think that the special counsel's office is thinking through how to respond to press reports in the era of a Democratic House  they need to now set reasonable (and timely) expectations in order to ensure that Congress doesn't [go] off the rails."

that the special counsel's office is thinking through how to respond to press reports in the era of a Democratic House  they need to now set reasonable (and timely) expectations in order to ensure that Congress doesn't [go] off the rails." Graff told me the statement appears to be very careful, disputing specific  although unspecified  allegations.

Some of the coverage suggested end times for Trump:

But now the "fake news" accusers are dunking on the press. Sean Hannity used a red "BuzzFeed Busted" graphic at the top of his Fox News show.

the "fake news" accusers are dunking on the press. Sean Hannity used a red "BuzzFeed Busted" graphic at the top of his Fox News show. Trump tweeted last night: "A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!"

last night: "A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!" And this morning: "Many people are saying that the Mainstream Media will have a very hard time restoring credibility because of the way they have treated me over the past 3 years (including the election lead-up)"

"Many people are saying that the Mainstream Media will have a very hard time restoring credibility because of the way they have treated me over the past 3 years (including the election lead-up)" Ultimately, Buzzfeed is reporting, based on two anonymous sources, that the president committed a felony. Thats an enormous claim to hang on two anonymous sources.

Be cautious: This story is moving so fast.

In the next 24 hours, BuzzFeeds sources could retract their claims or corroborate them.

BuzzFeeds sources could retract their claims or corroborate them. Relevant emails could become public, other outlets could find more on this  who knows.

could become public, other outlets could find more on this  who knows. Some pundits and lawmakers rushed to call this story the death knell of Trumps presidency. Don't make the same mistake about BuzzFeed  or journalism.

P.S. My email exchange with BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith:

How can you stand fully behind your reporting when Mueller says it's at least partly wrong?

fully behind your reporting when Mueller says it's at least partly wrong? We literally don't know what the special counsel is referring to.

Should someone lose their job if you or the reporters were wrong in accusing the president of a felony?

lose their job if you or the reporters were wrong in accusing the president of a felony? And I'm not going to speculate.

Smith said in a phoner with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow: "This is a line of reporting that has been repeatedly vindicated."

Go deeper:As the U.S. begins to withdraw troops from Syria, some Iraqi leaders are now demanding the same for their country, even as ISIS is making a comeback.

The big picture: Iraqi politicians and military leaders are divided on the presence of U.S. military forces in the country. Those wanting them out include Shia militias under the control of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which wants to gain more power, as well as Muqtada al-Sadr, the maverick cleric whose winning coalition in the May 12 national election gained popular support by running on pledge to secure the withdrawal of all foreign forces from the country.

Background: The U.S. had the greatest number of troops stationed in Iraq in 2007 during the surge, more than 165,000. Four years later, the number had decreased to 40,000, with the last major contingent withdrawing in December 2011.

What's new: Many Iraqis saw President Trumps unannounced December visit as a violation of their countrys sovereignty. Secretary of State Pompeos January trip was less controversial, but his push for the remaining 5,200 American troops to stay galvanized politicians who want them out.

Some Iraqi leaders say they no longer need the U.S. to fight ISIS, as they did in 2014 and 2015. They hold the U.S. 2003 invasion partially responsible for ISIS' ability to seize one-fourth of Iraqs territory.

Leading clerics, many of whom have become increasingly nationalistic, have also called for less foreign influence in the country.

The other side: Some Iraqi politicians and Iraqi army officials believe they need U.S. troops to prevent an ISIS resurgence. Others are focused on Iranian, rather than U.S., influence, following protests last year during which thousands of Iraqi Shia took to the streets in Basra and Najaf to call for the expulsion of Iranian forces from the country.

For its part, the U.S. military believes troops are needed to defeat ISIS, counter the influence of Iranian-backed militias, and deter Iranian encroachment from the west, most especially following a U.S. drawdown from Syria.

The bottom line: The issue of the U.S. troop presence is dividing the Iraqi military and Iraqi politicians alike. Expect the debate to intensify as Iranian-aligned militias and some politicians seek to mobilize the Iraqi electorate against the continued presence of U.S. forces, especially if the U.S. Syrian withdrawal proceeds.

Geneive Abdo is a resident scholar at the Arabia Foundation.More than 100 African migrants, including two toddlers and a pregnant woman, were killed this week after setting off from the coast of Libya "in a rickety, inflatable dinghy" that sank, the New York Times reports.

Details: The migrants are believed to have been from Sudan and countries in West Africa, and departed from Garabulli, Libya, on Thursday, according to the Times. Within 10 hours, the dinghy "started deflating and taking on water." Humanitarian workers said it was the deadliest incident for migrants traveling to Europe in the last several months.

Go deeper: How Western nations are closing the door on refugees and migrantsA Boeing 737 operated by Southwest Airlines slid onto a runway overrun area after landing at Eppley Airfield (OMA) in Omaha, Nebraska, on Friday afternoon. No injuries were reported among the 150 passengers and six crewmembers onboard. Officials at OMA said that Southwest Airlines Flight 1643 exited the end of Runway 14R following a landing. The airport closed for several hours after the incident but has since reopened. According to a statement from Southwest, the aircraft landed safely and slid onto a runway overrun area while taxiing.

Weather reports indicated that OMA had been experiencing freezing drizzle and occasional snow throughout the afternoon along with low ceilings and temperatures around -5.0C (23F). Southwest Flight 1643 departed from Las Vegas, Nevadas McCarran International Airport (LAS). This is the second Southwest aircraft to end up in a runway overrun area in the last six weeks. As previously reported on AVweb, Southwest Flight 278 slid off the end of the runway while landing at Californias Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR) on Dec. 6.Palmdale, CA (93550)

Today

A few passing clouds, otherwise generally clear. Low 74F. SSW winds at 15 to 25 mph, decreasing to 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few passing clouds, otherwise generally clear. Low 74F. SSW winds at 15 to 25 mph, decreasing to 5 to 10 mph.The Turkish government has donated military equipment to the Gambian army at the countrys defence headquarters in Banjul on 15 January bringing its support to countrys military to $1.4M from 2018 to now. The donated items include military boots, jackets, bags and non lethal weapons.



Turkey donates military equipment to the Gambian army (Picture source: Defense Imagery )

Ismail Sefa Yuceer, Turkish ambassador to Gambia explained that This cooperation scheme is a technical assistance program that has been going on during the last sixteen years and, in that respect, the total volume of the assistance (received from 2018 to 2019) is $1.4. In addition to these items we are expecting other items which will arrive soon. officials said 7,500 Gambian soldiers have been trained by the Turkish military, both in the country and in Turkey.Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.Online Access for Print Subscribers. Do you have a print subscription with the Argus-Press? If yes, then click here to enjoy complimentary access to our Online Content!Strasbourg, January 17, 2019 (SPS) - The Frente Polisario strongly condemns the illegal and shortsighted decision by the EU Parliament to extend the EU-Morocco trade deal to the occupied territories of Western Sahara. The vote taken today was upheld in an environment devoid of scrutiny and transparency. Its result represents a direct blow not only to human rights defenders and international law, but to the very UN-led peace process that the EU says it supports. We urge Member States of the European Union to reconsider todays nonbinding vote and change course immediately.

After 40 long years, a credible UN-led peace process is underway. Thanks to the stewardship of the Personal Envoy for the Secretary-General and the leadership of the United States, we have at last a real possibility to tackle the difficult challenge of forging a sustainable peace. But todays decision undermines such progress and prejudges the outcome of political negotiations. It is absurd that the EU regularly asks us to avoid steps that would undermine or prejudge the peace process - and yet the EU willingly takes such a clearly destabilising step itself against the rulings of its own court.

Rather than undermine the political process  as todays decision does  we urge the European Union to develop a consistent policy to peace in our region. The EU should explicitly delay implementation of this trade deal and instead articulate a plan for using trade as an incentive for a negotiated peace agreement.

In the meantime, the Frente Polisario, acting on behalf of the people of Western Sahara, will pursue every legal avenue to reverse todays illegal decision. We will launch an immediate legal challenge to this agreement. We have a high degree of confidence, backed up by legal advice, that the European decision will not survive legal scrutiny. While we regret that we have to go to such lengths, because we firmly believe that our energies are better invested in the UN-led process, we will not hesitate to uphold international law and the rights of the Sahrawi people.

The EU must now contemplate its posture. Peace requires everyone to play a constructive role. The UN is exercising its responsibility. And the Security Council has made its position clear, as has the United States and African Union. As a party to the peace process, the Frente Polisario is giving negotiation a real chance. Regrettably, the EU, with this decision, is exerting a negative influence on the collective international effort, and reinforcing an unsustainable status quo. We demand that the EU rethink this position, and use trade as a positive incentive for peace.SPS

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Residents of a quiet neighborhood south of Oakland Park Boulevard clapped and cheered on January 8th after city commissioners agreed to remove their street from a redevelopment plan they feared could destroy their peace and quiet.

The proposed Transit Oriented Corridor (TOC) would promote redevelopment by increasing density and allowing zoning changes that would allow a mix of uses.

Im very happy, said longtime resident Ron Burr, who lives in the 600 block of Northwest 30th Court. There is a huge unknown about what the TOC is going to do. We are a 100 percent residential neighborhood. There is no reason we should be part of a TOC amendment.

After months of protests from residents, city commissioners finally agreed to carve Northwest 30th Court out of a proposed redevelopment corridor that will extend east on Oakland Park Boulevard from Interstate 95 to Andrews Avenue and south on Andrews Avenue to the Wilton Manors city limits.

Northwest 30th Court is ashort residential street that runs parallel to the south side of Oakland Park Boulevard in an area east of Interstate 95 and west of Andrews Avenue. Approximately 75 single family homes line this quiet street, with the homes on the south side of Northwest 30th Court bordering the Middle River.

I dont want the city to initiate a change on a residential street because Ive seen that backfire, said Commissioner Gary Resnick. I dont see the City Commission necessarily protecting the interests of the residential character of the neighborhood. We havent done that.

Resnick said he understood why residents worried that a future commission might not look out for their interests.

City Manager Leigh Ann Henderson had asked the commission for direction on how to proceed after the city was flooded with complaints from residents who lived on Northwest 30th Court.

Burr, who attended the Jan. 8th commission meeting, spoke with passion before the commission agreed to remove the street from the redevelopment plan.

We ask that you take NW 30th Court out of the TOC and leave us alone, Burr said. We have a nice little community here, a close-knit neighborhood and we dont want to be destroyed. Its our neighborhood. Leave it alone.

In the end, commissioners did.

If Wilton Manors wants to add the street back into the TOC plan in the future, it will cost $2,500 in consulting fees and take about 60 days to make revisions.

Homeowners had worried that future commercial development could mar the tranquility of their quiet neighborhood.

Commissioners Paul Rolli and Julie Carson also agreed that the neighborhood should be pulled from the TOC. Mayor Justin Flippen supported the areas inclusion in the TOC but agreed to its removal in the spirit of consensus.

Vice Mayor Tom Green, however, was the sole dissenter. Green said that changing the areas land use plan would make residents property more valuable and urged the homeowners to consider their request carefully.

This land use change is literally a gift from the city to you for your property values. The triangle area in Wilton Manors was zoned residential, one home, and when we talked about a change there with the zoning everyone was afraid of what it would do to their property values, Green said. You know what? It did change their property values. They went up by 25 to 50 percent within two years. Anytime you make something thats higher in density or the possibility or the potential of it, again, it is a gift.

The citys Planning and Zoning Board in July 2018 recommended the TOC be approved, saying the changes would help improve the Oakland Park/Andrews Avenue corridors and encourage redevelopment.

Broward County, the state and several other agencies must evaluate the TOC proposal and take action on it before it is ultimately approved, said Robert Moore, Wilton Manors Director of Community Development Services.Those who find their news through Google may be in for a shock when the new EU copyright laws concerning news article snippets comes into effect, in the form of barren search result pages that show links and nothing more, or naked pages. This is a result of, among other factors, Article 11 of this new copyright directive. If nothing changes, the Copyright Directives finalized language will be released next week, and the process of a final vote, and possibly putting it into law, can begin.

Background: For the uninitiated, Copyright Directive is a sweeping set of EU-based copyright reform laws made to overhaul copyright for the digital age. This set of laws would have effects worldwide, not the least of which would be increasing the burden on large companies like Google and Facebook who are normally responsible for news articles getting around on the web.

Article 11 of the Copyright Directive is particularly rocky; it forces any company who shows a link to a news article with so much as a title to pay a licensing fee. This means that anybody operating a site that hosts links to news articles, such as a social media, search engine, or news aggregation and discovery website, would have to either blank results out or pay up, and keep careful track of all of those payments.

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Article 13 is just as far-reaching, and just as irksome for small and large web entities alike. It essentially says that the current systems for detecting copyrighted content being uploaded and ensuring that the copyright holders get paid are not enough. Instead, this law demands that all web entities keep a close eye out for copyrighted content, and work directly with copyright holders and their representatives in doing so.

To give a couple of examples, well start with social media. Many users choose, for one reason or another, to use a copyrighted character, perhaps from an anime or video game, as their avatar. Social media sites, forums, and the like would be required to watch closely for that sort of behavior, and make sure that copyright holders know about each instance. The same can be said of copyrighted content on YouTube, or in Facebook posts, for example.

Article 11 mentions that the copyright fees for news articles must be paid and cannot be voluntarily waived, meaning that the Googles and Twitters of the world would have to pay the news outlets if their stories are shared, surfaced, or otherwise featured. Even if a news outlet wanted to, it could not refuse to demand this money.

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A law similar to Article 11 came out in Spain not too long ago, and Google responded by simply shuttering its News product in the country wholesale. Publishers lobbied to have politicians try to force Google to keep Google News open, but with Google being an American company, any action it takes thats not discriminatory or exploitative in nature essentially did not fall under the purview of Spanish law.

Impact: There are a few ways this laws rollout could go overall, though its worth mentioning that interpretation and implementation will be left up to member states. If all goes according to plan, Google will simply begin reaching out to every news publisher it features and paying up.

If all goes as planned and online entities start to pay news publishers for the stories they feature, a new era of prosperity may overtake the online news scene. Revenues would be far higher than whats currently seen through ads or paywalls alone, theoretically, and the system would work similarly to how radio play royalties are paid out to musicians.

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Things could also go horribly wrong, of course. Article 11 would place a terrible financial burden on smaller companies that surface or link to news, while nothing in the provision prevents bigger companies like Google from simply packing up shop, as it did in Spain. Similarly, letting users enter their search terms and then choose from a list of links with no further context may also be on the menu, as seen in the screenshots below. Those were obtained via a test of sorts, wherein Google simulated compliance with Article 11, without paying anything to publishers.

Without the money to pay those mandatory fees, thats the kind of behavior that smaller search, media, and news aggregation sites may resort to. Entities like Digg, DuckDuckGo, and Mastodon may jump to mind, but independent app creators and owners of tiny sites and blogs would also be forced to either blank links out or pay up.

On the matter of smaller entities, small publishers and news outlets could also end up suffering. Many of those sorts of entities came out against Article 11 of the Copyright Directive, clashing with rallying support from larger publishers. The reason for that is that the fee is compulsory, and the copyright owner cannot choose to waive it. This means that sites may simply decide that articles from smaller sources arent worth the money and either selectively blank them out or ditch them outright.

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We could even end up in a scenario where Google and others begin charging news outlets to appear in their search results. This, obviously, throws smaller outlets and publishers under the bus. While that scenario is highly unlikely, its certainly not illegal. The same can be said of a number of potential nightmare scenarios involving potential censorship, online classism, and the limitation of consumer choice.

This risky new law was drafted up in no small part to save Europes struggling news industry as print revenues continued to plunge and online ad revenues werent enough to make up for it. This saving throw could be enough to make the web worth it for publishers in the EU, or it could cause any number of large-scale issues. Only time will tell if Copyright Directive will turn the internet into a barren wasteland, or enrich publishers as planned.Weird new frontiers in media bias: BuzzFeed versus Robert Mueller?

Thursday, BuzzFeed reported that President Trump had ordered Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. Friday, at a late hour (after a day of misinformation), Robert Mueller had his office refute the details of the report and its implications. This is a rare event by the special counsel office. Those on the right see this as further evidence of "fake news," and the left argues that this proves how fair Mueller will be. We must wonder how this story originated. BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith is still claiming that the story is accurate and wants Mueller to clarify his denial. Watching the reporters on CNN and MSNBC with downtrodden faces try to analyze how to turn this defeat around makes one cringe as journalism has taken another severe hit. BuzzFeed had reported on the Steele dossier, which was the source of the FISA warrants and shown to be false. Trump antagonists still see BuzzFeed as a serious media outlet.

Speculation regarding the sources leads one to consider several possible reasons why such a story could be reported. It is possible that a trap was set to uncover a government leaker of the special counsel's investigation. More troubling would be a planted story by a political operative within the congressional Democrat machine to justify high-profile hearings into Trump and his administration. In this scenario, a congressman's office would encourage this report to encourage impeachment hearings. Given the damaging nature of these claims by BuzzFeed, one would imagine that other network reporters would be careful repeating this story. They use the caveat that "if it were true," then this would be impeachment-worthy. But the glee in their voices was unmistakable yesterday morning and throughout the day. Now they are apoplectic because the lie was revealed. Perhaps this story was planted to take the attention away from the border wall issue and the government partial shutdown. I do not support conspiratorial theories generally, but could this be one time to consider such? A recent poll showed that Hispanic support for Trump has increased. We don't hear about many polls regarding the immigration issue and the migrant caravans, which leads one to suspect that the Democrats have some slippage in support. Yet the refusal of Speaker Nancy Pelosi to budge on the wall implies that she still thinks her view is prevailing among the public. The back-and-forth between Pelosi canceling the State of the Union invitation and Trump canceling the Pelosi trip to Belgium and Afghanistan revealed the bias in the media's reporting. It makes little sense for Pelosi to be so adamant about refusing any money for a border wall, a fence, or any physical barrier. After, all she voted for it in the past, as did Senator Chuck Schumer. If we consider that the Democrats continue to call for a technological barrier, then it makes sense why the Democrats have abandoned the working middle class in flyover territory. Silicon Valley money helps underwrite the Democratic Party. The factory and construction industries unions no longer have the serious money that helps fuel Democratic Party election campaigns. The tech leaders have their own agenda, which requires yearly updates and fuels their financial success. Why would Mueller issue a rebuttal to the BuzzFeed story? Maybe he feared that the incoming new attorney general-designate, William Barr (a friend of Mueller), will have no choice but to shut down his inquiry since it unfairly threatens the presidency. Perhaps Mueller feared that the report implies that the story came from his own staff, a violation of his legal responsibility. Maybe the inquiry is winding down, and he did not want to damage his credibility when the report is delivered to the Justice Department. The outcome of this error in reporting will be watched carefully, but probably no one will be punished. The result will be a stalemate that continues the animosity in Washington and threatens our republic.Not long ago, Raul Castro was hoping that the Obama approach would bring dollars and tourists to Cuba. He is getting a rude awakening.

We just got news that the Trump administration is looking to tighten the Cuba embargo, according to this story:

The Trump administration is weighing what could become the most serious tightening of the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba in more than two decades  a move that could unleash a flurry of lawsuits against foreign companies that have invested on the island. A 1996 law known as the Helms-Burton Act give Americans the right to sue companies profiting from properties confiscated by Cuba's government after its 1959 socialist revolution. That potentially could allow hundreds of lawsuits against corporations around the world, from Spanish companies that run Cuban hotels to Chinese and Turkish firms renovating Cuban ports. But every U.S. president since Bill Clinton has suspended the key clause, known as Title III, because of its potential to alienate U.S. allies and complicate any future American detente with Cuba.

This is very interesting  and is quite justified.

Over the last 50-plus years, the Castro regime has been doing business with stolen property. Castro's people confiscated hotels, breweries, manufacturers, and even individual brands. Cigars, for example, sold at duty-free shops without regard for patents or trademarks.

A few years ago, I saw these cigar brands sold in Mexico. I remember telling my father about the names, such as Partagas and H. Upman, and he said those were all private companies built by entrepreneurs over the years.

None of those investors or owners was compensated for what the Castros called "nationalization."

Good move by Secretary Mike Pompeo! The Castro regime got away with massive robbery, and it's time to hold it accountable.

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.A prominent Democratic Party donor and gay rights activist has been charged with sex crimes involving a child younger than 16. Real estate developer Terry Bean pleaded not guilty to two counts of sodomy and one count of sexual abuse Thursday in Lane County court. Prosecutors say the charges stem from an incident in September 2013. A grand jury voted to indict Bean earlier this month, but the indictment was secret until his arraignment.

His arrest follows the news from Los Angeles about the mysterious, sexually linked death of a second black man at the home of another bigfoot Democratic Party donor, Ed Buck, who's been called a "serial predator" by investigative reporter Jasmyne Cannick, who's been on his case for years. Democrats have maintained silence about this one, refusing even to say whether they'll return the political donations they took from Buck to their benefit. (Exception: Rep. Karen Bass, who returned her donation from him several years ago, after the first body turned up.) Still no word from Adam Schiff...

Over in Arizona this year, there was also the case of Democrat donor Sal James Rivera, who was busted for assaulting a woman in a car after asking her to take him home, claiming he was too drunk to drive. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Rep. David Garcia both took cash from this one.

Last year, there was Harvey Weinstein, who not only demanded casting-couch sex from starlets in exchange for movie roles, but also threatened and blackmailed any actress or reporter who tried to speak out and used his political muscle to keep news agencies from printing unfavorable stories carrying the truth. He had quite an operation going and was in tight with top Democrats such as Hillary Clinton and Planned Parenthood, both of which gave him a cover of respectability to operate as he operated.

Then there was billionaire Democratic Party donor Jeffrey Epstein, known for partying hearty (much more than originally supposed) with President Bill Clinton  and molesting little girls with the underaged sex he was convicted and jailed for, quite a thing for a billionaire to not be able to get out of.

A pattern is starting to show.

Democrats have always had problems with their bigfoot campaign donors, and some Republicans have, too. But in the past, the kinds of issues tended to be misuse of funds, fraud, sanctions violations, some kind of sellout to a foreign actor, and actual campaign finance violations.

Now it's all about perverts.

There must be some explanation for it. What stands out is Democrats' unwavering support for Planned Parenthood and other organizations with an anything-goes sexual ethic, no matter how many powerless people may be hurt by such endorsements and activism. That seems to be making the Democratic Party a magnet for people with more revolting sexual agendas and the money to pay for it. And with Democrats acting like whores in taking any cash from any donor in return for these services  money is power, baby  maybe this is what's going on. Anyone who favors any limits on any sexual behavior is a pariah in Democrat circles. Money buys this position, and the position buys the protection.

Hence #MeToo and the Weinstein scandal that put donations to Democrats in the spotlight.

With five and counting pervert donors to Democrats exposed (and who knows how many are yet to be exposed?), Republicans should be making an issue of this as it seeks to retake the House in 2020. Five perverts in just a few years is some kind of wave. Let voters know that Democrats succor perverts, and perverts flourish because Democrats take their money.State of Texas protects civil rights of a black man over objections of deep blue Austin city government

The mainstream media are doing their best to ignore a story that contradicts their partisan narrative about civil rights. In this case, the deep blue city of Austin, Texas has been fined $9,000 by a judge for infringing the civil rights of an African-American. And the champion of said victim was the deep red State of Texas attorney general. What makes the story all the more delicious for conservatives is the civil right in question: the Second Amendment. Ryan Autullo reports in the Austin American-Statesman:

A Travis County judge has ruled that the city of Austin violated state open carry gun laws when it blocked a licensed firearms and concealed-carry holder, Michael Cargill, from entering City Hall with a handgun on multiple days in 2016. (See Austin American-Statesman article, here.) The case was brought against Austin by the Attorney General's office as a result of a complaint from Cargill, a gun shop owner. David Paulin emails: While this is interesting in itself, what's perhaps more interesting is something that is not explicitly mentioned in the Statesman's story. And that is that Cargill is a black man  as can be seen in photos in the Statesman's story. So why is that interesting, you may ask? Well, Texas has in the past come under withering criticism for its voter ID law, which Democrats claim is intended to discriminate against blacks. (The state has ultimately prevailed, incidentally, in the courts regarding its allegedly racist voter ID law.) Here, however, is a case in which the state of Texas has vigorously defended the right of a black man to enter City Hall with a handgun. I don't know about you, but I find it interesting that state of Texas is, according to liberals, discriminating against blacks with its voter ID law  and yet, on the other hand, is defending the right of a black man to enjoy his rights under the 2nd Amendment and the state's firearms regulations. On top of this, I suspect that Mr. Cargill is a Republican, given that there is a hint of sarcasm in his statement that Travis County is a "blue dot in a sea of red." Expect zero coverage in the national media of this civil rights victory by a politician from the party of Abe Lincoln over politicians from the party of the KKK. Photo credit: Delwin Steven Campbell.Once again, France appears to be roiled by revolution. The yellow vest protests that have been going on since November are only the outward manifestation of an inward convulsion. But the cause is an old one: equality.

French history is one of revolution, sometimes bloody, but always accompanied by cultural and political upheaval. France is a far more revolutionary country than the U.S., although that may be due more to the political stability of the two-party system in America. There have been five different "republics" in France since 1790 as the French have tinkered with how their governments work. Will we see a sixth?

Far more than the U.S., French society is stratified and riven by class struggles. Today, those elites have gotten so out of touch with ordinary Frenchmen that many have taken to the streets. How far will this revolution go?

France 24:

The failure of Macron's bid to restore faith in politicians in France could have repercussions in a country where anti-establishment far-right and far-left parties have never been so popular. Research published last week by the Cevipof political institute at Sciences Po university found more than two thirds of the French people still had overwhelmingly negative views of politicians. When asked to sum up their feelings towards them, 37 percent said they felt "distrust", 32 percent "disgust", eight percent "boredom" and four percent "fear". Only France's roughly 35,000 mayors, seen as close to the people they represent, inspired confidence in a majority of people. Overall, cynicism was at its highest level since Cevipof began its surveys in 2007, before the presidencies of Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande, which were both judged harshly by French voters. "The surge in confidence hoped for by Emmanuel Macron after his election has not materialised," Cevipof director Martial Foucault commented last week, calling the results "alarming". Many of the new MPs in Macron's Republic on the Move (LREM) party have been shocked by the abuse directed at them since the "yellow vest" protesters from rural and small-town France took to the streets in late November.

Many of the new M.P.s are drawn from the middle and professional classes. They have had very little exposure to the difficulties of those in rural areas and lower classes. The hope they had when they first arrived in Parliament has been replaced by cynicism:

Macron has interpreted the protests as a sign of impatience from an electorate desperate for change  for lower taxes, better public services and democratic reforms. All of those were campaign promises from the 41-year-old ex-banker, who like many of his MPs had never been elected before becoming president. But analysts also see Macron's perceived arrogance, top-down governing style, and tax policies favouring high earners as reasons behind the "yellow vest" revolt.

The warning sirens for Macron are blaring:

"You can see in the 'yellow vest' movement the idea of what was called the 'abolition of privileges' during the Revolution," he said, referring to the 1789 revolt that toppled the monarchy. "There is this revolutionary idea, that is recurrent and cyclical in French society, of wanting to take revenge on people that are seen as the privileged," he said. "It's an old theme of the people against the elite."

This fifth republic in France is more stable than the others. But as the protests continue in the streets, the much larger number of dissatisfied citizens who aren't demonstrating might end up joining their comrades in the streets if they feel that Macron and the politicians are continuing to ignore their concerns.The new governor of California looks to my eye to be encouraging mass unemployment benefits fraud. Consider this report from the Los Angeles Times :

In a public display of defiance, Gov. Gavin Newsom encouraged Transportation Security Administration employees to apply for unemployment insurance through the state after the Trump administration warned California that the workers are ineligible for the benefits during the federal shutdown. "The good news is, we're going to do it and shame on them," Newsom said to TSA workers gathered at a hastily planned event at Sacramento International Airport on Thursday. "They are, in essence, threatening us for doing what we're doing." ... Since 1954, federal workers have been able to apply for unemployment insurance benefits through the state if they become unemployed or their hours are reduced through no fault of their own, according to the California Employment Development Department. Newsom first advised furloughed federal workers to apply to the program during a news conference last week to unveil his 2019-20 budget.

The problem is that TSA workers are not unemployed; they are being paid on a deferred basis. If they were to file for and receive unemployment benefits, when they receive their deferred pay after the partial shutdown ends, they will be in receipt of pay plus unemployment benefits. I don't know the ins and outs of California and federal unemployment law, but it certainly has the appearance of fraud to file for unemployment benefits when by law they will eventually be paid for their work.

Would they be forced to pay back their unemployment benefits? If not, haven't they defrauded taxpayers? Even if they did  no doubt after weepy media stories sympathetic to the difficulty of paying back the money they have already spent on necessities like food and insulin  unemployment insurance is not intended to be a loan when pay is delayed. It is for the unemployed. So the risk of fraud charges seems real to me.

Newsom has had his eye on eventually running for president for many years. He is handsome in a pretty boy way, has wealthy backers, and comes from the most populous state. He is also the sort of man who would have an affair with his campaign manager and best friend's wife. Adultery is one thing, but betraying your close associate this way bespeaks a moral rot that is too fundamental to ignore.

But he is busy virtue-signaling to a national audience of progressives that he is the most effective foe of President Trump.

Newsom inherited a surplus from Jerry Brown, thanks to the nation's highest tax burden and inflated capital gains revenue, generated mostly by the top couple of percent of income taxpayers. California charges ordinary income tax rates on capital gains, and those rates top off over 13%. When the stock market turns way down, capital gains revenue will also plummet, and California could well face deficits and the need to cut back.

Photo credit: Cropped from official portrait.Don't accept any Trump cigars

The din of Democrat backfires is deafening to all but the Democrats themselves. They are too busy howling from shooting themselves in the foot at every step of this no-holds-barred chess match. Pardon the mixed metaphors, but they have painted themselves into a corner even a rat would have trouble extricating itself from, leaving as the only option to burn down the whole house and start from scratch. At least that seems to be whirling around in Beto O'Rourke's foggy brain as he embarks on a soulful journey of self-discovery through the countryside, wondering if our Constitution is still relevant. "Can an empire like ours with military presence in over 170 countries around the globe, with trading relationships ... and security agreements in every continent, can it still be managed by the same principles that were set down 230-plus years ago?" Mr. O'Rourke mused in a recent interview with Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post.

He is apparently forgetting one of the great charters of the world, the Magna Carta, signed by the king of England in 1215. This tribute to human rights was a start and remains a solid foundation for governance because it placed limits on royal authority and determined that the monarch is not above the law. These principles never change simply by the passing of time or a new generation. Right will always be right. But Beto can be forgiven for his dreams of grandeur. It happened before his time. The left is beginning to appear like that hapless sap who is the unwitting victim of the oh, so funny exploding cigar. Smug in their tenuous grasp of power, leftists seem to be wasting political capital foolishly jousting with President Trump over border security and enforcement of immigration law, which many of them supported in recent years. Oops, sorry, I forgot  that was then, and this is now. The throwaway cards in this whole imbroglio are the American people. Madam Speaker Pelosi acts hurt and surprised by Angel Moms protesting outside her office. She seems impervious to their pleas for succor. The optics were not good when she and fellow Democrats planned a globe-hopping trip amid the government shutdown. Shaking with rage  or was she "cold"?  she was led back to her office at the Capitol when Trump postponed her all-expenses-paid trip around the world. Who can forget a reported $250,000 liquor bill on one of her trips during the Obama administration? Guess who paid. Give that girl a cigar. Requesting that the president forgo his SOTU blackened Pelosi's other eye. Appearing petty and churlish, she insulted the Secret Service by suggesting they could not provide adequate security  all the while forgetting she was planning an escape with her buddies to Brussels, Egypt, and Afghanistan, which, I presume, is still a war zone. Did she think about all the security that unmitigated move would require? Disinviting the president from his own address to the American people was thought brilliant by the Fourth Estate. Intelligencer pundit Frank Rich reported, "Pelosi Outmaneuvers Trump Once Again." Give that lady another Trump cigar. Heck, give Rich one, too. And where in the world is "Cryin'" Chuck Schumer during this debacle? Still trying to figure out how to hide his bald spot and nursing his grudge against Trump's hair? Trump's better at that, too, and his bald spot is well managed. Schumer is lying low because he has accepted Trump cigars before. And who's riding that train Sandy Cortez, aka Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is driving? She wants to "run train" on the Progressive agenda, and everyone on that impending train wreck had better jump off before it's too late. Was it an overblown desire to build her street cred with the crude and vulgar elements of our society that prompted her to use such a vile term, which, in street parlance, is gang rape of a female victim? It was an unfortunate choice of words that was meant to shock and garner attention. Not really a good idea when murderous MS-13 gangs, thugs, human-traffickers, and drug-runners become a segment you wish to attract. Cigar, please  in fact, just leave the whole box. The moral of this fable is, don't accept any cigars from President Donald J. Trump. It's going to backfire in your face, and the brouhaha it causes is humiliating and ridiculous. He's much better at this game: he'll never run out of cigars, and he plays it to win it. A big win for the American people.The government shutdown is in its fourth week, with no end in sight because our leaders in Washington don't seem to want an end that doesn't amount to political humiliation of the opposition.

The Drudge Report features a rare editorial as one of its headers: a call from the Dallas Morning News for President Trump and Congress to swap legalization for DACA recipients for a border wall. It's something that on the surface sounds like a reasonable enough compromise .

But imagine for a moment that President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer could see their way to a compromise that Americans would support and that would greatly benefit this country. To us, it would look like this: The president would get the funding he seeks to enhance border security, including some 230 miles of physical barrier, but also with more technologically sophisticated solutions. In return, the president would agree to a sweeping deal to protect young people who were brought to this country without authorization at ages when they had no say over what happened to them.

It's for sure a compromise, and it's likely that a compromise is going to be required to get the government reopened at all, given the intransigence of the Democrats over this piddly little request from Trump, very small in the scheme of federal funding.

President Trump is expected to give a major address on the shutdown today, so with Drudge running this editorial, one wonders if he knows that this might be what's ahead.

That said, such a swap is going to be a problem.

The wall halts incentives to migrate illegally. Rewarding DACA recipients is going to supercharge the incentive to migrate illegally, even if the compromise specifically says it won't include new migrants. It's an amnesty, and every amnesty brings in more migrants, all of them waiting for the next subway train to stop, because they know it will.

Now consider the impact of an amnesty with a wall. The wall won't completely cover the terrain, given the limits of geography, so the 230-mile or so stretch of it will merely drive migration out to the desert badlands. People will be incentivized to come with kids  in the hands of human-smuggling cartels  through the desert badlands instead of through the areas closer to urban centers with services. That sounds like a recipe for migrant child deaths. There likely will be, and lots of news coverage blaming the wall. None of the focus will be on the bad decisions of the migrants who are acting on the DACA incentive, that draw or pull that makes them want to undertake such a risky journey. If the journey looks risky now, imagine what it will look like with a wall up and the incentives to immigrate illegally still there.

All the same, a compromise means giving up something, so maybe the status quo will be preserved. The Dallas Morning News argues that DACA should be expanded, and all the people who were rejected for it due to their criminal records should be added in. (I don't think so  already DACA recipients are allowed at least two "free" misdemeanors to qualify, which pretty well signals a life of crime ahead.) Far better to allow kids who missed the cutoff for age by a few years than these budding thugs. Instead of expanding it by crime record, it would be better if DACA were narrowed, to strictly non-criminal applicants, with proof they haven't cast an illegal ballot to cancel out the vote of a U.S. citizen as well. There also should be no chain migration to reward the law-breaking parents, who really should be in the dock for child abuse as well as breaking immigration law, given that they've put their children into the hands of pirates on dirty, dangerous desert pathways. Perhaps a new law increasing penalties for such lawbreakers would be appropriate  anyone found bringing kids into illegal migration schemes can never become a citizen. Or perhaps all illegal migrants must provide the names and particulars of the cartel smugglers they paid in order to get any consideration for U.S. residency, whether by asylum or ordinary application. Helping to break up smuggling cartels, which profit so handsomely on the U.S.'s lax and easily manipulated immigration laws, might be a fair exchange for the interests of the U.S. citizens (and Mexican citizens, given the havoc the financially powerful cartels have wrought) if a wall is even to work.

There need to be some checks and balances so the incentive to migrate illegally becomes less attractive than the incentive to come legally. I'd be all in for asking DACA recipients to fly back to their home countries and apply legally, same as all other migrants. They could come back as they waited due to DACA provisions. That would make their immigration more of a normal thing, and we might even get some productive citizens out of it.

The incentive door remains open with a DACA-for-wall deal. If a wall is going to mean anything, that needs to be shut tight.Gillette may think it's "the best a man can get," but it would be sexist and misogynistic for a men's care brand to make a video condemning the caricatures of men without giving women the opportunity to have a video, too. Men already earn more in Hollywood, so it's important women are not left out. America awaits a women's hygiene brand to step up to the plate of caricatured gender stereotypes.

Moderator: Women, do you complain about how unfaithful and stupid the men in your life are? But here you sit, watching a television show that showcases women competing against each other for a man they don't even know so they can win an archaic marriage and ceremony.

Scene 2: Woman shopping at the mall with her daughter.

Moderator: Mom, did you really tell your daughter you both have to hurry home to hide the clothes you bought so her father wouldn't find out?

Scene 3: Man writing checks to his lawyer.

Moderator: Ex-wife, do you really use your kids as leverage for more child support money? Your ex-husband has already spent $30,000 in lawyer's fees so he can see his kids whom you have kept from him for two years. Yet every time he gets close to joint custody, you go to a different county and file the same child molestation charges against him to start the investigation all over. All so you won't lose a day of child support money.

Scene 4: Grade school classroom.

Teacher, is your go-to solution when you have a rambunctious boy in your classroom to recommend that he be checked for ADHD and placed on medication?

Scene 5: Abortion clinic.

Miss, did you really murder your unborn child, even after your boyfriend begged you to keep the baby and insisted that he would raise the child by himself?

Scene 6: Group of women at upscale bar in SoHo.

Ladies, do you complain about men catcalling you, yet when good men around you start to call them out, you stop them and say, "I can handle this myself?" Think about that.

Scene 7: Women wearing pussy hats.

Freedom-fighters, do you complain about toxic masculinity poisoning America's youth when, statistically, over half of boys grow up with no male role model or mentorship either at home or school? That means that the majority of "toxic masculinity" is learned through living in matriarchal homes...

Scene 8: Battered man with two black eyes.

Ladies, do you know that domestic violence is not solely initiated by men? In fact, one out of every four domestic violence issues is initiated by women.

Scene 9: Man crying in courtroom.

Miss, it was evil for you to accuse a man of rape that he did not commit. He was just released today after ten years of imprisonment. The strange and convenient thing for you is that no judge will send you to prison for lying before the court ten years ago.

Final scene: Women watching The Bachelor.

Women, are you still confused why there are no good men in your life?

Hopefully a feminine hygiene brand can remember that evil is evil. Bad men exist in the world and effect less than desirable outcomes in raising their children. Nevertheless, being a bad person is a universal problem that is not confined to a single sex. As an American society, let us link and lock arms to call out bad or evil behavior  not caricature a sex in order to appear like a socially conscious brand.At a meeting with President of the Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF) Douglas Foo in Hanoi on January 18, the PM highlighted the guests talks on important issues regarding innovation and creation in which Singapore has experience.



He also welcomed the SMF Presidents initiatives for cooperation in this sphere between Vietnam and Singapore.



Singapore is Vietnams important partners in economy, trade and investment, the leader said, adding that the two countries have nine industrial parks (VSIP) across Vietnam.



Therefore, Singapores innovative and creative models are significant to Vietnam, he stressed.



Phuc told his guest that innovation, creativity and technological incubators are new to Vietnam and can help spur the countrys development.



In reply, Douglas Foo said many Singaporean groups and businesses want to operate in Vietnam, noting that the successful VSIPs have been seen as a symbol of the bilateral relationship.



He suggested the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training to encourage Vietnamese students to participate in innovation and creativity, and expressed his hope that the two countries would closely cooperate in order to make Vietnam-Singapore innovation and creativity centres successful in the time ahead.



Pointing out limited production capacity of Singapore due to the shortage of human resources, he said the joint centres can ease the problem.



The guest also expressed his hope that Singapore will send scholars to Vietnam to help the country in this regard.



PM Phuc stressed that the initiative to build a large-scale innovation and creativity centre in cooperation between the two countries are necessary.Their resident scholar Omar Suleiman bills himself on his Twitter page as a Muslim for Humanity. Lover of Justice. Bridge Builder. Scholar. Activist. In December 2018, he and 32 others were arrested at the Tijuana -- San Diego Border as part of the Love Knows No Borders movement in support of immigrants and asylum seekers. On February 1, 2017, D Magazine wrote a glowing profile of Imam Suleiman titled,  Omar Suleiman is the Religious Leader Dallas Needs Right Now .

On the surface, Valley Ranch Islamic Center appears to be a liberal, modern Islamic center in Irving, Texas. Their website has a slick minimalist design. Their logo is an elegant series of colorful rounded squares meant to capture the essence of a dignified and unified resource for Muslims in the Valley Ranch area. On the home page , a photograph of their masjid members shows a smiling, prosperous-looking community, male members posing in the front, covered female members positioned in the back.

But is he really?

While popular in the press, particularly while working to promote progressive causes, there is a lesser known side to the popular shaykh. For example, Suleiman has posted without any explanation an image of the Rabia, a four-finger hand gesture used to demonstrate support for the Muslim Brotherhood. And while it was covered by the online publication The Algemeiner , there was little media coverage on Suleiman when he repeatedly called for another Palestinian intifada.

For example, on July 24, 2014, Suleiman posted the following message on Twitter and Facebook:

How befitting that the third Intifada starts on the 27th night of Ramadan as worshippers are denied prayer in Masjid Al Aqsa May Allah help us overcome this monster, protect the innocent of the world, and accept the murdered as martyrs. ameen

As Algemeiner author Petra Marquadt Bigman notes, Suleiman support of the Third Intifada is quite disturbing when one thinks that the Second Intifada in 2004 resulted not only in 138 suicide attacks on Israelis but also in more than 1,000 dead.

But beyond the questionable politics of their resident scholar, an equally unsettling aspect of Valley Ranch Islamic Center is its ownership by North America Islamic Trust (NAIT).

Based in Plainville, Indiana, NAIT was founded in 1973 in by members of the Muslim Student Association of the United States and Canada. Evidence submitted into the record during the Holy Land Foundation trial in the early 2000s showed that NAIT shared a bank account with the Holy Land Foundation, deposited checks made payable to the Palestinian Mujahedeen, and provided funds to Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzook. This led Federal Judge Jorge Jolis to write that the U.S. government provided ample evidence to associate NAIT with Hamas.

Despite its role in the Holy Land Foundation case, NAIT was never charged and remains a tax-exempt non-profit endowment that subsidizes the construction of new mosques in the United States. This financial control allows it to exercise authority over the teachings and activities at the various Islamic institutions that it owns.

According to The Investigative Project on Terrorism , a recently declassified FBI memo from 1988 advised that the IIIT, NAIT (North American Islamic Trust) and all the subsidiary and sponsoring Muslim organizations under the control of the IIIT and the SAAR Foundation are in fact IKHWAN organizations, Ikhwan being another name for the Muslim Brotherhood. NAIT was also named in a May 1991 Muslim Brotherhood document, called  An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America , as an ally of the Muslim Brotherhood. That document was entered into evidence during the Holy Land Foundation Trial as Elbarasse Search-3.

Other organizations named in that memo as affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood include Muslim Student Association (MAS), Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). Omar Suleimans connections to these three organizations are also easy to find. Suleiman is a member of ICNAs Shura Council. He is a confirmed speaker at this years ICNA-MAS Convention in Washington D.C. on April 19-21, 2019, Easter weekend. He was a speaker at the 40th annual ICNA-MAS Convention along with CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad and known-Islamist Siraj Wahhaj. Omar Suleiman also studied under two Salafist clerics who now head the radical Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America, Salah As-Sawy and Dr. Hatem Al Haj. That organization has called on Muslims in America not to participate in Americas legal system and to hate it in their hearts.

Its ownership by NAIT, its Islamist resident scholar, and its tight connections to other Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organizations such as MAS and ISNA make the Valley Ranch Islamic Center more than just a Potemkin Village, for a Potemkin Village has nothing behind it, but Valley Ranch has its global and national connections, its Salafi-Muslim Brotherhood ideology, and its title deed, which makes it the property of North American Islamic Trust. Despite the facade of peace, brotherhood and justice, Valley Ranch Islamic Center cannot properly cover up what it truly is.At the same time, Trump can get rid of dozens, possibly even hundreds of Deep State operatives in the government, handpicked by Barack Obama and Bill Clinton for their loyalty to the Democratic Party, not their country or the law.

The federal government shutdown has presented a unique opportunity for President Donald Trump to clear out the deadwood in the federal bureaucracy, saving U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars in salaries, perks, and rented office space for people who aren't doing anything productive.

These people leak like a screen door in a submarine, mainly to CNN and MSNBC, the twin headquarters of Trump-hatred on cable TV. Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were choreographing their leaks to the media via text messages. Even though Strzok was fired and Page resigned, it's clear there are many others. They actively resist Trump and the Republicans at every opportunity. This is the core of the Resistance.

A high-ranking Trump administration official wrote four days ago in the Daily Caller that the shutdown enables Trump to get rid of people like this. As members of the Senior Executive Service, many of them can't be fired unless they're convicted of a felony, or of committing some flagrant misconduct.

This is indeed Trump's chance to "smoke out the Resistance," but he must do it carefully. Thomas Lifson has published two columns in the American Thinker, here and here, explaining that SES employees cannot be furloughed (laid off) under normal circumstances, but they can be removed during a Reduction in Force (RIF) when their positions are found to be unnecessary.

In the D.C. article, our unnamed administration official explains that roughly 80% of the federal work force in many departments, including his own, simply don't do anything. They plan shopping trips and vacations. They send out resumes for better-paying positions, perhaps without realizing that any new employer might expect them to actually get some work done.

My experience in employment law teaches me that all federal employees are working under some kind of written contract, whether it's a collectively bargained contract with a union or an individual employment contract. As of today (January 18), the shutdown is in its 28th day. At 30 days, even SES executives loyal to the Democratic Party become vulnerable to the RIF monster.

Lifson believes, and I also suspect, that Trump suckered the Democrats into a battle royale over the southern border wall Trump has proposed. By refraining from declaring a national emergency and then building the wall (with Department of Defense funds saved from the withdrawal from Syria), Trump can simply bypass Congress. He can order the Army Corps of Engineers to build it.

I believe that by making that threat and repeating it, but not following through on it, Trump has created a lingering atmosphere in which Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer feel compelled to stop him at any cost. In political terms, they're willing to die on this hill.

Immigrants, when they gain the right to vote for the first time, almost always vote for Democrats. A recent Yale-MIT study reveals that the actual number of illegal aliens in the U.S. is 22 million, which is roughly the populations of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland combined. The largest landslide in U.S. presidential history (Reagan vs. Dukakis Mondale, 1980) was 17 million. And the Democrats want all 22 million to have amnesty, citizenship, and voting rights as quickly as possible.

So Chuckie and Nancy want no wall. They want no ICE. They may not have openly expressed the latter sentiment, but several prominent younger voices in their party have done so clearly.

The longer-term goal of a vastly larger, mostly Latino U.S. voting population would be an enormous gain for the Democratic Party, but Trump may bait them into losing their Deep State network of loyal Democratic Party operatives in the bureaucracy.

As Lifson explains, and Michael Roberts explains at The Balance Careers here, on Day 30 of the shutdown, a clause is triggered in these federal employment contracts that enables RIF. The Office of Personnel Management oversees the RIF process.

A downsizing plan must be presented to OMB on Day 31. Trump's team needs to act fast. The plan must include all of the people who just sit around texting each other about their next leak to MSNBC, or planning their next protest march in a pink hat. It will take another 30 days to implement the plan. Roughly 800,000 federal employees could be permanently removed under this plan, with an annual savings of roughly $80 billion in salaries alone. Including the pensions; the government vehicles; and the rented office space, furniture, and equipment, it could be $150 billion.

In particular, removing the SES employees and their hefty salaries represents a huge savings. After the massive RIF, Trump could go ahead with Plan B, declare an emergency, and send that order to the Corps of Engineers. The Democratic Party will be faced with a Hobson's choice: lose the Latino vote, or lose the Deep State. I suspect that when presented with this possibility, Chuckie and Nancy will immediately cave in (they aren't that stupid).

At that point, Trump should raise the stakes. "Approve all of my judicial nominees immediately, or the shutdown continues, and the RIF takes effect. Then I declare an emergency, and I get my border wall anyway."

Since the Latino vote isn't a sure thing, they'll choose to keep the Deep State, and they'll cave in. The Latino population will gradually go from mostly pro-Democrat to independent, or even Republican, as so many Latinos in the Rio Grande Valley have done. Most people outside Texas don't know this, but Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) won with a plurality of the Latino vote  and a slender majority (50%-49%) of Latino males. If we can duplicate that in the rest of the country, the Democratic Party is finished.

We didn't hire Trump to go to church with us. We hired him to clean house. This is the best chance to get it done.Impeachment Will Be Good for Trump

Since Trump's election, the dream uniting all Democrats is to impeach the president. Having won the House and with a mere majority necessary to initiate Articles of Impeachment, that dream will finally come true  never mind that chances of conviction in the Senate are near nil, with 67 votes required to sustain and Republicans still in the majority. They will impeach because, as with the scorpion, it's their nature. It doesn't matter that after more than two years of investigation, President Trump has not been found to have committed any crime. Impeachment is not a criminal proceeding; it is a political proceeding, and in the "People's House," the majority decides what constitutes "High Crimes and Misdemeanors."

Articles of Impeachment will soon pass in the House because Democrats will want the Senate trial to play out during the 2020 presidential election. Democrats are prone to overreach. When Obama was elected with a majority in the House and a filibuster-proof Senate, they ran amok. Convinced they would never lose again, their rule was uncompromising. Forgetting that nothing lasts forever, and the aphorism stating that if something can't go on forever, it will eventually end, Obamacare was rammed through Congress using legislative trickery and claims of saving money and keeping doctors and health plans. Democrats also passed Dodd-Frank financial legislation, which eliminated low-interest credit cards and prevented people and small businesses from getting loans and mortgages. Obama and the Democrats spent eight years throttling industry and the economy with regulatory zeal. Obama's reliance on executive orders to control all aspects of citizens' business and personal lives and the weaponization of federal law enforcement; intelligence agencies; and administrative agencies such as the FBI, DOJ, EPA, and IRS to pursue political opponents and extra-legislatively enact law slowly turned the voters against the Democrats. Their overreach cost Obama and Democrats the House and their super-majority in the Senate. In 2013, Senate majority leader Harry Reid triggered the "nuclear option" killing the filibuster (or cloture) rule, whereby three-fifths of the Senate or 60 members were necessary to advance judicial nominees  he made an exception for Supreme Court nominations, which retained the 60-vote threshold. Reid did this because he could. He was confident that with demographic changes, Democrats would never again be in the minority. Therefore, his rule changes would never come back to haunt him or his party. Reid was wrong. Democrats lost the Senate in 2014, ushering in the Mitch McConnell era. Reid's implementation of the "nuclear option," more than anything else, allowed the "radical transformation" of the Supreme Court. When Justice Antonin Scalia died, Obama nominated Merrick Garland to replace him. But with Republicans controlling the Senate and the rules, his nomination was ignored. When Trump became president, he instead nominated Neil Gorsuch, and, with Reid's precedent, McConnell dropped the hammer, dispensing with the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations as well. Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, both strict constructionists with lifetime tenure, changed the balance of the court in favor of conservatives. With Ruth Bader Ginsburg in poor health, there's a good chance the president will soon get to nominate his third Supreme Court justice. Along with scores of conservative federal judges already seated and those yet to be seated, Reid's conceit may cost Democrats the federal courts for a generation. It's all action and reaction; the Democrats overreached, with Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, over-regulation, and rule changes. Americans reacted by voting Democrats out. The Democrats, during the eight years of Barack Obama's presidency, lost nine Senate seats, 62 House seats, 12 governorships, and almost a thousand seats in state legislatures. Now having regained the House, they will overreach exactly as they did before: they will impeach Trump. With Democrats moving farther left each day and the ascendency of socialists like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and hard leftists Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris vying for the party's 2020 nomination, they have no choice. Recent developments in the Trump investigation have shown that what was portrayed as a stolen election was really a setup by the Obama administration and the media to deny Americans their vote and seat the inevitable Hillary Clinton. A recent New York Times piece admitted that the FBI opened multiple investigations on Donald Trump without evidence of a crime. Trump administration members were lured into perjury traps, others surveilled. This allowed surveillance of the president through the "2-hop rule." Spy on target A, and they can spy on person B, who communicates with A, and person C, who communicates with B  all this while maintaining the pretense that they are investigating only A. It is said that Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose improper appointment also started an investigation in search of a crime, will soon release his report and that it will be less than revelatory. This will put the onus on congressional Democrats to rid the nation of the meddlesome orange tweeter. Americans like fair play and understand that government is not supposed to scour a man's life to find a crime and that a crime must always precede an investigation. Before Republicans impeached Bill Clinton, his approval was in the 40s. After, his approval went up over 50% and never declined as the Republicans lost seats. The harder they pressed, the more popular Clinton became. The same can be expected with Trump. Most salient is that the Democrats are blinded by hatred of Trump, making them reckless and ignorant to the vast power the president retains. Trump will, a la Muhammad Ali, "rope-a-dope" the Democrats during Articles of Impeachment arguments in the House, lying back, presenting little counter-argument  perhaps sporadically tweeting something incendiary to make Democrats angry and off balance, while playing them and the media for maximum effect with an occasional sucker-punch. No businessman survives in New York City without being shrewd and ruthless, and, knowing he can't win in the House, Trump will astutely save himself for the later rounds. The Senate  that's where he will make his move... For Trump, the Senate trial is a "kill zone." This is a zone set up to lure the enemy into a specific area, where, upon entry, he is subjected to direct and overlapping fire of such intensity, coverage, and effectiveness that it is impossible to survive. The president cannot be criminally indicted because with effective prosecutors and ham sandwiches, every president would be indicted. He must be impeached. The House decides what is impeachable. Yet the president has the ultimate clearance. He decides what is secret and what is not  his decisions are not reviewable. Trump can classify or declassify at will. The Deep State has hidden its malfeasance through redaction. These are the blacked out portions of documents available to the public. Obviously, many redactions contain information hidden because it is exculpatory; embarrassing to the FBI, DOJ, CIA, et al. and to Obama and his administration's former members; or covering up criminal activity. Trump is a master negotiator. Negotiating is understanding opponents' motivations and desires, limning their fears, pushing where they are weak and giving where they are strong. It's about getting the most you can get while giving up the least. It is making a deal; it is judgment and nuance; it is understanding. And yes, it is an art. With every revelation during the Senate trial, Trump will selectively release exonerating information embarrassing to Democrats. Until now, he has been extremely cautious. Trump is a fighter, and this is his moment. He is not going to allow his impeachment for the sake of classified information. Impeachment will fail, and Trump will get stronger as he approaches re-election. Once again, the Democrats' arrogance will cost them dearly. This is Trump's game. To paraphrase Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quoting Watchmen, "Trump is not locked up in here with them. They're locked up in here with him." Please follow William L. Gensert on Twitter @williamlgensert.We have now entered hurricane season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency predicts a range of 13 to 20 named storms. Six to 10 of those could become hurricanes. Although an area of distributed weather in the Bay of Campeche could develop into a tropical depression by the middle of thWhite ex-officer sentenced to over six years in jail for on-duty 2014 shooting of teenager Laquan McDonald in Chicago.Vietnamese Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Vu Viet Dung took the occasion to update the participants on Vietnams outstanding achievements in 2018.



The ambassador also encouraged Vietnamese people currently living and working in Saudi Arabia to enhance solidarity, assist each other and comply with the host countrys laws.



Dung asked companies which are responsible of sending guest workers to Saudi Arabia to promptly report difficulties facing Vietnamese workers to the embassy, adding that it will spare no efforts to ensure citizen protection in accordance with Vietnams regulations.



The get-together brought warm moments to about 500 participants with traditional Tet dishes and songs about the motherland.Puri made the statement during his talks with VMMU Director Lieut. Gen. Do Quyet, who paid a working visit to India from January 14-17.



He said the Vietnamese delegations visit will contribute to consolidating defence ties between Vietnam and India, and opened up opportunities for cooperation in military medicine between the two countries.



While in India, Quyet and his entourage visited some local hospitals and universities, during which the two sides agreed to propose the Vietnamese and Indian Governments carry out cooperation in training and scientific research on military, aviation and naval medicine.



They suggested sending officials and doctors from the VMMU to India for training courses and experience exchange.Now, as support for Trump is waning, leftists need to stop playing-it-safe and present a new vision for this country.

This week, the White House Council of Economic Advisers doubled its estimate of how much the shutdown  the longest in US history  will cost the economy. Others are warning that it could push the US towards a recession. Families across the country are scrambling to feed their children, keep their homes, and pay for expensive medications. As hundreds of thousands of federal and contract workers continue without pay, Trump has demanded that workers return to their jobs, stating that the shutdown will continue indefinitely  for months or even years  until his racist, multibillion-dollar border wall is approved.

Despite Trumps claims that what he is doing is for the safety of everyday Americans, this moment could not make it plainer that he does not care about any of us  not even the working class white people he claims to represent. The walls aim is not to protect ordinary Americans, but to rile up Trumps base using racism.

This is a classic divide-and-conquer tactic, aiming to get poor white people to blame people of colour and not the political and corporate elite, for poverty. The wall will also make loads of money for an ever-growing corporate defence industry, who are deep in Trumps pockets, and see militarised borders, surveillance, deportation, war and incarceration as opportunities to make cash.

But polling shows that Trumps plan is backfiring. By refusing to back down, Trump is actually losing support among his base. This carves out a path for leftists to present a new vision for this country, one that sees the fate of everyday people  both within and outside the US border  as deeply connected. We have an opportunity to present a political pathway where there is enough for all of us. We have an opportunity to actually win more people towards our side, and away from Trump, the fascist far right, and the political and corporate elite.

A hard-lined shutdown for the poor, negotiations for the rich

A shutdown happens when Congress cannot agree on the budget. In recent years, weve become used to the threat of shutdown but no president has openly called for one. In May, Trump tweeted that our country needs a good shutdown.' Months later, he announced that he would not sign any spending bill that does not include $5.6b for a border wall  a demand that Democrats refuse to meet.

190107150120233

As a result, working-class people across the country  already struggling  have been pushed into an even more vulnerable position. Over 800,000 workers are being forced to work without pay  some will be reimbursed after the shutdown ends, others wont. Families are preparing to go without food stamps  and potentially, without their tax refunds  next month.

In New York City, imprisoned people at a local jail launched a hunger strike to protest the cancellation of family visits due to staffing shortages caused by the shutdown. Others have reported that they arent receiving their medication.

For Native American sovereign nations, the US has failed to maintain treaty agreements due to the shutdown. As a result, guaranteed funding for programs like healthcare, education and safety are all on the brink of collapse. On the Navajo Nation, many are stuck in their homes  unable to get to the grocery store or take care of vital needs, like getting to a pharmacy  because ploughs arent operating in the midst of heavy snowfall.

43,000 immigration hearings have been cancelled  the number set to grow by 20,000 weekly. People have been waiting years for these hearings and are now being told they might have to wait years more.

Small farmers arent receiving millions in payouts they were promised due to falling crop prices at the hands of Trumps trade wars.

All across the country, working-class families are struggling and, in a sign of how out of touch our politicians are, the Trump administration has told the country to treat the shutdown like a vacation or to do chores for their landlords in lieu of paying rent.

But the state of things  with people working for free and services to everyday Americans being cut  is not an inevitable byproduct of the shutdown. In fact, in the midst of the shutdown, the Trump administration has made changes to policy in order to serve the interests of the uber-wealthy and corporate class. As a result of the lobbying efforts of the credit-reporting companies and mortgage industry, IRS workers were called back to work (and are being paid) to carry out income verifications for lenders. This process earns the mortgage banking industry millions of dollars in fees each year.

While rules are being bent so big corporations can make even more money, a judge struck down a union lawsuit demanding workers be paid for their time immediately.

The shutdown is hard-lined for working class people and negotiable for the rich.

It is clear what this countrys priorities are

Long before Trumps demand for expanding the wall at the US-Mexico border, this countrys priorities were out of whack. Every year, US taxpayer dollars are used to cultivate a world of war, violence, incarceration and deportation  not one of safety and of meeting basic human needs.

Of our discretionary budget, the US spends nearly 10 times more on defence than health and human services, 9 times more than education and 9 times more than housing. Under Trumps proposed discretionary spending for 2019, these margins have increased.

Much of this money is going to private companies, who in the age of Trump see dollar signs in his tough on crime, hard-lined immigration, warmongering approach to governance. The fact that the shutdown is happening over a wall is a scary symbol of where society is and where it is headed.

We are living in an era where not social services and jobs for working class people but police, wars, border walls and prisons are the priorities of the government.

And this is not a purely American trend. All over the world, as communities are battling the devastating effects of climate change and poverty, governments are building walls, closing borders and abandoning green initiatives. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, at least 55 new border walls have been built all around the world. During this same period, poverty has been wrecking our society with at least 80 percent of humanity living on less than $10/day.

The answer is a clear political vision rooted in the idea that there is enough for all of us.

The need for a big-picture agenda

While the Democrats could use this moment to talk about comprehensive, human-rights based immigration policy or the ways shutdown policies have been shifted to serve the rich, they arent doing much other than condemning Trump for shutting down the government, while countering his proposal for a wall with negotiations focused on other forms of border security.

We should applaud the Democrats for not caving to Trumps wall demand, but we should also acknowledge that they have failed to raise the bar. A party that is trying to present itself as the only progressive alternative to Trump and his allies should have done a lot more. By reinforcing myths about the threats on our border, Democrats like Pelosi are not conducting political diplomacy, but instead casting long term damage to everyday peoples understanding of what our problems are and what solutions should be put forth.

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The majority of Americans dont support the border wall or Trumps family separation policy. Seventy-five percent of Americans say immigration is good for our country. So why arent Democrats using this moment to be visionary, pushing demands rooted in the basic idea that everyone has the right to move across borders as freely as money does in this society? Why arent they calling out Trumps IRS policy shift for the rich, while food stamps are being cut?

We need to use this moment to not only end the shutdown but to push out big ideas like the green new deal, wealth redistribution, medicare for all, abolishment of ICE and repeal of the 1994 crime bill. Policies like the conservative-austerity paygo measure that House Democrats approved in their rules package, which requires new spending to be offset with equivalent savings, should be abandoned. This policy will make it virtually impossible to pass any of the reforms mentioned above but only three Democrats voted no  Ro Khanna of California, Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. This is unacceptable.

We must reject the small, limited point of view shared by many prominent Democrats that sees unfettered capitalism and austerity measures as natural law. We need a clear, big-picture agenda that creates opportunities for working class people to organise and build bridges between our communities so we can expand the political imagination of the public to get behind big demands.

We cant wait for someone else to organise people during the shut down  the likely result of inaction would be more division and fascism. Without political clarity, we run the risk of people getting so tired and fed up that they give in and move to the right. Fine, build the wall is the other potential pathway we walk down.

Trump is making very intentional plays to pit working class people against one another. However, the experiences and grievances of poor people, whether they are immigrants or not, are not opposing, but shared. After 40 years of neoliberal economic policy, which has devastated communities all across the country and around the world, people are desperate and turning to xenophobia, white nationalism and fascism as a result. At this moment, when Trumps support is waning  and people are falling into an even more vulnerable state  we must present an alternative. We cannot rely on mainstream Democrats play-it-safe approach.

The path we are headed down will only get darker if we do not fight for a drastic reorganisation of our communities rooted in a new political vision that values the freedom of people over the profits of a few. We can live in a society where everyone has enough food to eat, a safe place to live and where parents and children have what they need to take care of each other. But this wont happen while our political system is drowning in dark, dirty corporate money and when politicians refuse to take a stand.

From the Right of Return protests in Gaza, to the immigrant caravan at the US-Mexico border, to the LA teachers strike and calls for TSA worker strikes  we have a real a opportunity to help people see the connections across our experiences and to rally behind a vision of solidarity rooted in the idea that our fates are tied, that we are in a shared battle against the corporate class and that if we come together to take them down, we can live in a society where there is enough for all of us.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.A 27-year-old suspect has been charged in the shooting death of another man earlier this month.

Birmingham police on Friday announced the arrest of Roderick King. He is charged with murder in the slaying of 46-year-old Charles Reese.

West Precinct officers were alerted at 3:42 a.m. that Saturday to a person shot near 16th Street and Avenue V, said Sgt. Johnny Williams. They went to that location but were unable to find a victim. They were able, however, to find a possible crime scene in the 2500 block of 16th Street.

Police later learned that Reese was taken by private vehicle to UAB Hospital. He was taken into surgery but later died.

King was booked into the Jefferson County Jail Friday afternoon and remains held on $300,000 bond. Authorities have not released a motive in the killing.An Oneonta man was killed in a crash Friday morning.

The incident happened at 11:31 a.m. Friday on Blount County 29, Senior Trooper Chuck Daniel said. Lawrence Layne Woods was driving a 2014 Nissan Rogue when his car left the roadway and struck a tree, approximately four miles east of Oneonta.

Woods, 59, was pronounced dead at the scene. Daniel said he was not using a seatbelt.

Alabama State Troopers are investigating the crash.Thirty six high schools in New Zealand took part in the scholarship program in order to encourage Vietnamese talents to discover good education in New Zealand with the different scholarship levels of 100 percent, 50 percent, and 30 percent for the first school year.



Vietnam is the only country to receive these scholarships, according to Education New Zealand (ENZ) aiming to strengthen the education relationship between the two countries.

On the occasion, ENZ and Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training signed a Memorandum of Understanding on education cooperation. As per the Memorandum, there will be numerous cooperation programs including fresher courses and exchanges to develop skills and knowledge for Vietnamese students, teachers and education managers in New Zealand.

By MINH QUAN  Translated by HAI SONWASHINGTON  In a bid to break the shutdown impasse and fund his long-promised border wall, President Donald Trump on Saturday offered to extend temporary protection for young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children. But while Trump cast the move as a common-sense compromise, Democrats were quick to dismiss it at a non-starter.

Trump declared from the White House that "both sides in Washington must simply come together," adding that he was there "to break the logjam and provide Congress with a path forward to end the government shutdown and solve the crisis on the southern border."

Hoping to put pressure on Democrats, the White House billed the announcement as a major step forward. But Trump did not budge on his $5.7 billion demand for the wall and, in essence, offered to temporarily roll-back some of his own hawkish immigration actions  actions that have been blocked by federal courts.

Democrats dismissed Trump's proposal even before his formal remarks. Reacting to the anticipated announcement earlier in the day, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the proposal was "a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable." The California Democrat said Trump's expected offer was "not a good-faith effort" to help the immigrants and could not pass the House. She again called on Trump to reopen the government, shut for a record 29 days.

Democrats made their own move late Friday to break the impasse when they pledged to provide hundreds of millions of dollars more for border security.

Partisan clashes between Trump and Pelosi marked the fourth week of the shutdown. It was not clear if the fresh offers would lead to serious steps toward resolving the partisan fight or if they were just acts of political posturing. The maneuvering came as hundreds of thousands of federal workers go without paychecks, with many enduring financial hardship. Many public services are unavailable to Americans during the closure.

Seeking to cast the plan as a bipartisan way forward, Trump said Saturday he had support from "rank-and-file" Democrats, as top Democrats made clear they had not been consulted. He also said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would bring the legislation to a vote this week, though Democrats appeared likely to block it. McConnell had previously stated that no vote should be held in the Senate until Trump and Democrats agreed on a bill.

Trump's remarks from the Diplomatic Room marked the second time he has addressed the nation as the partial shutdown drags on. On this occasion, he sought to strike a diplomatic tone, emphasizing trust and the need to work across the aisle. But he still maintained that a border barrier was needed to block what he describes as the flow of drugs and crime into the country, though he described it as a "steel barriers in high-priority locations."

To ensure wall funding, Trump said he would extend protections for young people brought to the country illegally as children, known as "Dreamers," as well as for those with temporary protected status after fleeing countries affected by natural disasters or violence.

Administration officials said the protections would apply only to those currently in the Obama-era program shielding them from deportation, and the temporary protected status would apply to those who currently have it and have been in the U.S. since 2011. That means people from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Haiti  countries that saw the status revoked since Trump took office  would get a reprieve.

Democrats criticized Trump's proposal because it didn't seem to be a permanent solution for those immigrants and because it includes money for the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, which the party strongly opposes. Democrats also want Trump to reopen government before talks can start.

Trumps son-in-law and senior aide, Jared Kushner, has led the work on the proposals, said three people familiar with White House thinking who were not authorized to speak publicly. Some said Vice President Mike Pence and chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen were involved, too.

-- By Jill Colvin and Catherine LuceyAlabama licensed five certified professional midwives on Friday, marking the first time in more than 40 years the state has issued licenses to out-of-hospital midwives.

The future of midwifery in Alabama is looking really good, said Kaycee Cavender, a member of the newly-formed Alabama State Board of Midwifery. Weve been waiting on this day for a long time."

Alabama last issued a midwifery license in 1976. Since then, its been illegal to practice midwifery without a license  effectively outlawing lay midwifery in the state. Alabama women could choose home births, but the births could not be legally attended by a midwife or other professional.

Then in 2017, Alabama lawmakers voted to legalize midwifery after more than a decade of lobbying by grassroots organizations  and over the opposition of some of the states largest professional medical associations. After some legal back-and-forth over rules and regulations, the board began accepting license applications at the end of 2018.

We have a responsibility as a board to ensure applications are complete and accurate," said Cavender. "We want to make sure we license the midwives that deserve to be licensed.

On Friday, the board approved the license of five certified professional midwives: Stacey Bufkin, Tori Dennis, Karen Brock, Rebekah Myrick and Layla Brown.

Myrick, who lives in Jefferson County, said that it felt surreal to watch the board vote to approve midwife licenses.

I was born and raised here in Alabama and it was always my dream to be able to serve here, but because of the law I felt forced to leave the state for my training and had to practice in Tennessee, said Myrick, who lives in Jefferson County. Shes been working as a Certified Professional Midwife for three years, traveling to Alabamas neighboring states to deliver babies.

To be able to come home and serve these women and do what I feel like is my passion and my God-calling is amazing," said Myrick.

Cavender said she expects the application for a sixth midwife, Lauren Collins, will come before the board for a vote at its next meeting.

Cavender said she has been pleasantly surprised at the number of applicants. Before the process began, she didnt expect to ever see more than about 10 certified professional midwives working in the state.

Most of the newly-licensed midwives live in Birmingham and North Alabama. Only one lives south of Birmingham, she said.

Certified professional midwives legally practice in about 33 other states, delivering babies in out-of-hospital settings. They receive certification through a testing and apprenticeship process accredited through the North American Registry of Midwives. The certified professional midwife credential is a requirement for being licensed in Alabama.

Theyre different from certified nurse midwives, which are registered nurses with education credentials on par with nurse practitioners. Nurse midwives work in hospitals and alongside obstetricians in medical clinics. They have always been allowed to practice in Alabama, though few of them do, relative to most other states. Alabama law requires them to be closely supervised by a doctor.

Alabamas certified professional midwives can only attend low-risk births and are required by law to transfer care of a mother over to an obstetrician if complications arise. Alabama does not have any birth centers, but they would be able to practice in a birth center should one open.

Unlike in some other states, Alabamas midwives wont be allowed to treat women who have had previous c-sections. Its a restriction that disappoints Myrick, but she said she is glad more Alabama women will now have the choice of using a midwife.

So many families will have the option of having a licensed provider at their home birth now, said Myrick. they wont have to go unassisted or go under the radar with an unlicensed midwife.

More information about midwifery licensing is available at the midwifery boards website, ALSBM.org.A Huntsville police officer says he was acting in defense of himself and others when he fatally shot a suicidal man this past spring.

Officer William Darby is asking a judge to grant him immunity and bar the Madison County District Attorneys Office from prosecuting him for murder.

For an officer to be convicted of Murder resulting from an on-duty shooting, the facts of the incident would have to be so bizarre that there is no rational explanation for the officers actions, Darbys defense attorney Robert Tuten wrote in court records on Friday.

Madison County Circuit Judge Donna Pate scheduled a hearing Feb. 28 at 1:30 p.m. Prosecutors havent yet responded to the defense request.

The defendant contends that, acting in his official capacity as a Huntsville Police Officer, he was acting in self defense and in the reasonable defense of others pursuant to ... (Alabama law), Tuten wrote in a motion for immunity.

Darby killed 49-year-old Jeffrey Parker on April 3, 2018. Parker called police that day, saying he was suicidal and had a gun, the authorities said. Officers said they briefly spoke to Parker at the scene on Deramus Avenue. Parker didnt comply with Darbys orders to drop the gun, the police department said, and Darby fatally shot him.

In August  months after the police departments internal review board cleared Darby of wrongdoing  a Madison County grand jury indicted the 25-year-old officer on a murder charge. District Attorney Rob Broussard said he was "gravely concerned" about Darbys actions after seeing body camera video of the shooting. His office is prosecuting Darby.

In their motion, the defense argued that Darbys actions didnt violate Alabama law, which says, a person who is justified in using deadly physical force is immune from criminal prosecution and civil action.

Alabama law says a person is justified in using deadly force, if the person reasonably believes that another person is using or about to use unlawful deadly physical force. The defense also cited Alabamas Stand Your Ground law, which says a person acting in self-defense doesnt have a duty to retreat.

...the Defendant acted in accordance with Alabama law, and within the policies and procedures established by the Huntsville Police Department, Tuten wrote in court records.

Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle and police Chief Mark McMurray have defended Darby, saying he isnt a murderer.

The city has refused to release to the public the body camera videos or other records related to Darby and the shooting. The city council  at the urging of the mayor  voted to pay for Darbys defense.

Darby, a 25-year-old from neighboring Morgan County, was on the police force for about two years at the time of the shooting, the department said.

Judge Pate has issued a gag order that prohibits public comments by lawyers and law enforcement regarding the case. Darby is represented by Huntsville attorney Robert Tuten. Madison County Chief Trial Attorney Tim Gann and Assistant DA Tim Douthit are prosecuting.

Darbys trial is scheduled April 8.There's a renewed effort to legalize medical marijuana in South Carolina, and at least one local lawmaker is supporting the effort.

Nearly identical medical marijuana bills have been filed  both this week  in the S.C. House and Senate, and state Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Aiken, stands behind them.

"I have been a supporter of the Compassionate Care Act since it was first brought into legislation four years ago, and I continue to be an advocate," Taylor said Friday, adding: "It's personal with me, very personal."

State Rep. Peter McCoy, R-Charleston, led the House version; state Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, led the Senate version. Together, they're companion bills.

The legislation, as introduced, would legalize, among other things, the licensed and regulated cultivation, transportation, purchase and consumption of medical marijuana.

The entire medical marijuana process would be monitored, tracked and essentially overseen by the state health department, per the bills.

Taylor on Jan. 15 posted on Facebook regarding the legislation, labeling it as "the most strictly regulated, socially conservative medical cannabis bill in the United States."

The Aiken Republican three days later lauded the bills for their shared rigidity.

"It was written for South Carolina because it includes all kinds of controls from SLED and DHEC, and criminal penalties if this is misused or diverted," Taylor said.

Licensed patients could have a combined total of 2 ounces of marijuana or marijuana product equivalents  foods and salves, tinctures and sprays  for every 14-day stretch.

The legislation, though, doesn't allow the marijuana to be smoked: "It is unlawful for a cardholder to smoke cannabis or use a device to facilitate the smoking of cannabis," the House and Senate versions read.

Those caught smoking would face a $150 fine.

"This is on the medical side," Taylor said, "there's no smoking of dope on this."

Medical marijuana would be made available to those with serious ailments or who are in end-of-life care. Both bills include a list of applicable conditions: post-traumatic stress disorder; epilepsy; Crohn's disease; cancer; multiple sclerosis; and persistent, severe nausea, for example.

"It's called the Compassionate Care Act for good reason," Taylor said.

Doctors familiar  who underwent training, per the legislation  would authorize the use of medical marijuana for a patient. An in-person evaluation would be necessary.

"This is not for everyone, nor is it a help to everyone," Taylor said. "But a doctor will help decide that, along with a patient. It's another option for them to look at."

Taylor believes the bills have traction, both in the public eye and in the Legislature.

"I hope the bill moves swiftly through both the House and the Senate," he said.Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier?

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Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page.YANKTON, S.D.  Farmers across the U.S. have started collecting their Market Facilitation Program (MFP) payments. These were 50/50 split payments starting last fall based on production. Farmers are now receiving the second half of that payment.

The MFP payment compensation was put out there to offset the price drop that we've seen in the market, said Howard Kathol, a farmer and commodity broker with Midwest Market Solutions Inc., during a recent phone interview. That was due mainly to the effect of, call it the trade war, call it the tariffs that we placed on the goods coming into the United States from China.

Soybeans fell the hardest as a result of Chinas retaliatory 25 percent tariff on many U.S. goods. With around 995 million bushels of soybeans on hand in the U.S. at the time that did not have a buyer anymore, soybean prices dropped fast.

Corn prices also dropped.

You could make the argument that corn prices came down due to the fact soybeans were plummeting, back in September, October, said Kathol.

As a result, producers can expect a $1.65 payment for every bushel of soybeans they produced last season. They will also receive a 1 cent payment for every bushel of corn.

There is an argument there that maybe corn is off more than it should be, but the fact of the matter is corn prices today are currently higher than they were a year ago, he said. China does not import much corn, although they have started a little bit.

It is a big cash injection to the producers, no doubt about it, he added.WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) - The Latest on the partial government shutdown (all times local):

4:50 p.m.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he plans Senate action this coming week on President Donald Trump's plan to end the partial government shutdown. But the plan faces an uphill path in the Senate and virtually no chance of survival in the Democratic-controlled House.

The Kentucky Republican calls Trump's proposal a "fair compromise" for ending the standoff.

Trump's plan would protect from deportation hundreds of thousands of young "Dreamer" immigrants in the U.S. illegally, in exchange for $5.7 billion to build 230 miles of border wall.

McConnell says, "Everyone has made their point - now it's time to make a law."

Top Democrats already oppose Trump's plan. It will be difficult for the measure to get 60 votes needed to survive in the Senate, and it seems certain to die in the House.

___

4:25 p.m.

President Donald Trump is offering to extend temporary protection for people brought to U.S. illegally as children in a bid to secure border wall funding.

Trump has struggled to find a way out of a four-week partial government shutdown over his demand to construct a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

Trump promoted his plan Saturday as a way to "break the logjam and provide Congress with a path forward to end the government shutdown."

Trump is also offering to extend protections for immigrants who came to the U.S. as a result of war or natural disasters in their home countries.

Trump says Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will bring the proposal for a vote in the Senate this week. But Democrats, who control the House, are already saying they find the president's offer unacceptable.

___

3:50 p.m.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says President Donald Trump's forthcoming proposal for ending the 29-day partial government shutdown is a "non-starter."

Minutes before Trump was to unveil his plan at the White House, the California Democrat said early reports about the proposal indicated it was insufficient.

Trump wants to trade temporary protections against deportation for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants for money to build his wall. Democrats want the protections to be permanent and want him to reopen government before negotiating on border security.

The California Democrat says Trump's expected offer is "not a good-faith effort" to help the immigrants and could not pass the House.

The White House has billed Trump's plan as an attempt to end the shutdown. But it's drawn nothing but negative reviews from Democrats so far.

___

2:55 p.m.

Democrats are disparaging a proposal that's expected to be coming from President Donald Trump that the White House has said is aimed at ending the 29-day partial government shutdown.

Trump is expected to say he'd accept temporarily protecting from deportation hundreds of thousands of young "Dreamer" immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally as children. In exchange, he wants $5.7 billion to start building a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

The second-ranking Democratic senator, Richard Durbin of Illinois, says Trump's proposal was unacceptable and couldn't pass the Senate, which Republicans control only narrowly.

Durbin and other Democrats want Trump to reopen government before talks can start.

Top Democratic aides are criticizing Trump's offer because it isn't a permanent solution for Dreamers and because it includes money for the wall, which the party strongly opposes.

___

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says President Donald Trump's forthcoming proposal for ending the 29-day partial government shutdown is a "non-starter."

Minutes before Trump was to unveil his plan at the White House, the California Democrat said early reports about the proposal indicated it was insufficient.

Trump wants to trade temporary protections against deportation for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants for money to build his wall. Democrats want the protections to be permanent and want him to reopen government before negotiating on border security.

The California Democrat says Trump's expected offer is "not a good-faith effort" to help the immigrants and could not pass the House.

The White House has billed Trump's plan as an attempt to end the shutdown. But it's drawn nothing but negative reviews from Democrats so far.

---

Here is the live stream from CBS News.

---

Updated 1:07 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019 - We are having technical difficulties streaming the remarks of President Donald Trump. We will post excerpts here as soon as we are able to. We apologize for any inconvenience.

---

The start time for President Trumps remarks on the southern border and the government shutdown has been moved to approximately 1:00 p.m. We will broadcast a special report from NBC News on KNVN, Channel 24.

---

11:50 a.m.

President Donald Trump is expected to announce later Saturday that he is open to trading protections for young immigrants in exchange for money for his long-promised border wall.

That's according to three people familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss them by name.

The dispute over Trump's border wall has caused a partial government shutdown now into its fifth week.

Vice President Mike Pence, along with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney have been working "non-stop" on the proposal, according to one of the people.

The proposal would protect immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children. It also would extend protections for those with Temporary Protected Status, a program that allows people from certain countries affected by natural disasters or violence to remain in the U.S.

Trump is scheduled to make the announcement from the White House at 4 p.m.

-Associated Press writer Jill Colvin

___

1 a.m.

President Donald Trump says he'll be making a "major announcement" on the government shutdown and the southern border on Saturday afternoon as the standstill over his border wall continues into its fifth week.

Democrats are now proposing hundreds of millions of dollars for new immigration judges and improvements to ports of entry from Mexico but nothing for the wall, a House aide said, as the party begins fleshing out its vision of improving border security.

After days of bitter clashes between Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, it was unclear if the twin developments represented serious steps toward resolving the fight. But they were the first tangible signs of movement in a dispute that has caused a partial government shutdown, which Saturday was entering its record 29th day.

The first tangible signs of movement may be emerging in the impasse that has shut down the government for weeks: President Donald Trump is promising a "major announcement" about the closure and the U.S.-Mexico border and Democrats are pledging more money for border security.

It was unclear whether the developments, following days of clashes between Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., might represent serious steps toward resolving the partisan fight or instead may simply be political posturing as the partial shutdown reached a record 29th day. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have gone without paychecks, enduring financial hardship. Many public services are unavailable to Americans during the closure.

The White House has declined to provide details about what the president would announce midafternoon Saturday. Trump was not expected to sign a national emergency declaration he has said was an option to circumvent Congress, according to two people familiar with the planning.

Instead, he was expected to propose the outlines of a deal that the administration believes could have the potential to pave the way for a shutdown end, according to one of the people. They were not authorized to publicly discuss details about the impending announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.

"I think it'll be an important statement," Trump told reporters Saturday before traveling to an air base in Delaware to honor four Americans killed in a suicide bomb attack in Syria this week.

Democrats are now proposing hundreds of millions of dollars for new immigration judges and improvements to ports of entry from Mexico but nothing for the wall, a House aide said, as the party begins fleshing out its vision of improving border security.

Trump's refusal to sign spending bills that lack $5.7 billion he wants to start constructing that wall, which Democrats oppose, has prompted the shutdown. "We need the help and the backup of a wall," the president said Saturday.

Whatever the White House proposed would be the first major overture by the president since Jan. 8, when he gave an Oval Office address trying to make the public case for the border wall. Democrats have said they will not negotiate until the government reopens, raising questions about how Trump might move the ball forward.

Democrats were proposing $563 million to hire 75 more immigration judges, who currently face large backlogs processing cases, and $524 million to improve ports of entry in Calexico, California, and San Luis, Arizona, the Democratic House aide said. The money is to be added to spending bills, largely negotiated between the House and Senate, that the House plans to vote on next week.

In addition, Democrats were working toward adding money for more border security personnel and for sensors and other technology to a separate bill financing the Department of Homeland Security, but no funds for a wall or other physical barriers, the aide said.

It was possible Democrats would introduce that measure next week as the cornerstone of their border security alternative to Trump's wall, the aide said. Earlier Friday, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., who leads the House Appropriations Committee's homeland security subcommittee, said in an interview that some Democrats were asking leaders, "What is our plan?"

The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the details publicly.

In a video posted on his Twitter feed late Friday, Trump said both sides should "take the politics out of it" and "get to work" to "make a deal." But he also repeated his warnings, saying: "We have to secure our southern border. If we don't do that, we're a very, very sad and foolish lot."

Few would argue that a humanitarian crisis is unfolding at the U.S.-Mexico border, as the demand for entry by migrants and the Trump administration's hard-line response overwhelm border resources. But critics say Trump has dramatically exaggerated the security risks and they argue that a wall would do little to solve existing problems.

Trump's Friday evening tweeted announcement came after Pelosi on Friday canceled her plans to travel by commercial plane to visit U.S. troops in Afghanistan, saying Trump had caused a security risk by talking about the trip. The White House said there was no such leak.

It was the latest turn in the high-stakes brinkmanship between Trump and Pelosi that has played out against the stalled negotiations.

Pelosi had suggested Trump postpone the annual State of the Union address, a Washington tradition and a platform for his border wall fight with Democrats. It is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 29.

Trump never responded directly. Instead, he abruptly canceled Pelosi's military flight on Thursday, hours before she and a congressional delegation were to depart for Afghanistan on the previously undisclosed visit to U.S. troops. He asserted on Saturday that Pelosi is "under total control of the radical left."

___

For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. government shutdown: https://apnews.com/GovernmentShutdown

___

Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann, Kevin Freking, Jon Lemire, Matthew Daly, Andy Taylor, Mary Clare Jalonick, Matt Lee, Lolita C. Baldor and Alan Fram contributed to this report.

(Copyright 2019 The Associated Press)WENN/FayesVision Celebrity

The 32-year-old actor steps out in an eye-catching outfit as he is wrapped up in a draped brown coat that boasts extensive draped detailing which further makes his look quirky.

Jan 19, 2019

AceShowbiz - Is that you, Robert Pattinson? The British actor was photographed attending the Christian Dior Homme show during Paris Fashion Week on Friday night, January 18. Instead of going with his usual dapper look, "The Lost City of Z" star stepped out in an extremely bizarre look, much to everyone's surprise.

The 32-year-old actor looked quirky as he wrapped up in a draped brown coat that boasted extensive draped detailing which further made his look quirky. He paired it with a tan-colored leather jacket and color-matching pants. The British heartthrob completed his eye-catching fashion with a brown turtleneck while breaking free from the color scheme with a pair of shiny black boots.

As for his hair, Robert opted for dishevelled locks. His brown hair was messily slicked down the side of his face. Nevertheless, the "Twilight" saga star was seemingly in high spirit as he showed his bright smile while gracing on the red carpet.

After looking at his style, fans took to social media to make fun of his outfit. One fan even said that he "looks like a deranged killer. I don't get this." Sharin the same opinion, another Twitter user wrote, "They said the Jedi were no more. They were wrong. #dior #RobertPattinson."

During the event, Rob arrived solo with girlfriend Suki Waterhouse nowhere to be seen. The lovebirds confirmed their romance by sharing a passionate kiss in the street in July of last year.

At that time, the pair, who have been romantically linked since last summer, allegedly remained at exclusive celebrity haunt Soho House until 1:10 P.M. They reportedly walked arm-in-arm back to Suki's abode, with Robert sharing another smooch with her before they entered her apartment.WENN Celebrity

The husband of Queen Elizabeth II has contacted the victims in the other vehicle and exchanged 'well wishes.'

Jan 19, 2019

AceShowbiz - Prince Philip has already got a replacement for his wrecked car. The Duke of Edinburgh got his new ride, a Land Rover Freelander, the same model that he rode during the collision, delivered to the Royal family's Sandringham Estate on Friday, January 18, less than 24 hours after the crash, TMZ reports.

Despite getting his new car, the 97-year-old British royal may not be allowed to drive again after the accident. While the incident left people asking why Philip was driving, a friend and biographer Gyles Brandreth says that the husband of Queen Elizabeth II may give up driving if he's advised to.

"He is a pragmatist and a realist and I'm sure he will accept that while possibly muttering under his breath," Brandreth tells PEOPLE. Prince Philip has given up flying planes and playing polo, and retired from his royal duties in 2017.

Of why Philip was still driving at the time of accident, Brandreth says on BBC Radio Four's "Today", "One of the frustrations of getting older is your world is shrinking. And his life has become more circumscribed." Brandreth adds, "He visits old friends but it's frustrating as you grow older to find your world is getting smaller. The independence for an old person to be able to get into their car and just go down the road is a wonderful thing."

But Philip may start considering his family's concern after the car crash. "He is 97 - and still walking without a stick, still carriage driving and still living his life his way. I'm sure this morning, as well as being grateful he's survived, he will be concerned for the other people involved and shaken by this experience," Brandreth continues.

Philip was behind the wheel when his Land Rover collided with a Kia. He left the accident without serious injuries although his car flipped on its side. Witnesses said he was lucky to escape alive. A witness said the Prince was lightly bleeding and appeared "very shocked." Bystander Roy Warne, who pulled Philip from the wreck, recalled, "I helped him move his legs which were a little trapped and a bit crushed, then I saw his face and I realized who it was."

Two women in the other vehicle were hospitalized with minor injuries. A nine-month baby was also found in the backseat of the car, but was uninjured. According to TMZ, the Prince has contacted the two women and exchanged "well wishes."

Field sobriety tests had been performed on both drivers at the scene and the results were negative for alcohol or any other substances. Police are still investigating the accident.WENN Celebrity

The late actor's memorial service includes a firing party, a bugler and the folding and presentation of the American flag.

Jan 19, 2019

AceShowbiz - "Full Metal Jacket" star R. Lee Ermey has been laid to rest with full military honours at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

The former Marine-turned-actor passed away from complications of pneumonia at the age of 74 in April (2018) and his cremated remains were buried on Friday, January 18.

According to TMZ, Ermey's memorial service featured a firing party, a bugler and the folding and presentation of the American flag.

The late actor enlisted in the military when he was 17 years old and served in Okinawa and Vietnam. He famously starred as Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in Stanley Kubrick's 1987 movie, a role which earned him a Golden Globe nomination.WENN/Dave Bedrosian Music

In announcing the 'Uptown Funk' hitmaker as Park MGM's first resident DJ, MGM Resorts International explains that the musician 'embodies musically what we're trying to achieve in the club.'

Jan 19, 2019

AceShowbiz - British producer and DJ Mark Ronson has landed a residency in Las Vegas.

The "Uptown Funk" hitmaker will be the first resident DJ at On The Record at Park MGM, making his 12-date debut on 2 February (18), according to the New York Post's Page Six.

"On The Record breaks the mold for nightlife in Las Vegas with (founders) Jonnie and Mark Houston's unique concept," Sean Christie, President of Nightlife and Events for MGM Resorts International, says. "It was important to us for Mark (Ronson) to be OTR's first resident because he embodies musically what we're trying to achieve in the club."

Ronson follows in the footsteps of frequent collaborator Lady GaGa, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, and Gwen Stefani, who all have residencies in Las Vegas.WENN/Brian To/C.Smith TV

After being met with backlash for insisting that Joe Goldberg 'isn't creepy', the 'Stranger Things' star admits that she 'gathered an analysis' after watching only two episodes.

Jan 19, 2019

AceShowbiz - Millie Bobby Brown has apologised after causing controversy by saying that Penn Badgley's stalker character in Netflix series "You", "isn't creepy".

The "Stranger Things" star hit headlines when she weighed in on Penn's character Joe, who develops an unhealthy and deadly obsession with Elizabeth Lail's Guinevere Beck.

"So I just started that new show You. He's not creepy. He's in love with her, and it's OK," she said in a video posted on her Instagram Story. "So I'm obsessed with it, I'm binge-watching it, absolute banger, Netflix."

In a second clip, Millie stated: "I know everybody's going to say, 'Uh, he's a stalker, why would you support that?' No, like, he's in love with her. And it's just like, just watch the show and don't judge me on my opinions."

"He's not creepy, he's in love with her" is she really that stupid lmao pic.twitter.com/0QfMb6pOyb  cait 48 (@ivarsforbes) January 15, 2019

Many of her followers quickly slammed the actress for romanticising stalking with her comments, with one writing: "Just heard about the Millie Bobby Brown/YOU thing and I'm just so horrified I don't have words. Stop romanticising and normalising abusive, unhealthy behaviour."

"millie bobby brown saying the guy from you is 'cute' and 'doing nothing wrong' because he's 'in love' actually scares me jfc he's literally a disgusting predator and she's 14 someone protect her help," another wrote.

millie bobby brown saying the guy from you is cute and doing nothing wrong because hes in love actually scares me jfc hes literally a disgusting predator and shes 14 someone protect her help  al (@alxroberts) January 15, 2019

Following the backlash, Millie returned to Instagram to apologise - admitting that she'd only been two episodes into the series when she made her first critique. After watching the entire series, she backtracked on her initial declaration.

"So I just finished You. And I guess the other day I made a video, I was on episode two, I guess I gathered an analysis too quickly," she admitted. "I watched episode 10 - most definitely is a stalker. But it was a really great show. So I'm really excited for season two. My bad if I upset anyone."

so y'all do viral the video of millie bobby brown starting the series "you" where she thinks that joe is only in love but u ignore this video where she already finished the series and says that joe is a stalker, you just want to attack her! pic.twitter.com/zSgQCiUPDC  luk  (@strengthmillie) January 17, 2019

Penn will be reprising his character for a second season of the Netflix show, which will see Joe head to Los Angeles.WENN/Ivan Nikolov Music

Shortly after the 'Thank U, Next' hitmaker drops her latest single, the Puerto Rican rapper uploads a video, asking followers if she is correct in thinking that the song ripped her 'Mine' tune.

Jan 19, 2019

AceShowbiz - Puerto Rican rapper Princess Nokia has slammed Ariana Grande, accusing the pop star of stealing her song.

The 26-year-old posted a video of herself reacting as she listened to Ariana's new tune, "7 Rings", online on Friday, January 18, and then played a taste of her "1992" mixtape track "Mine", insisting the two songs are very similar.

"Does that sound familiar to you?" she asked followers. "Cause that sound really familiar to me. Ain't that the lil' song I made about brown women and their hair? Hmm sounds about white!"

Nokia, real name Destiny Nicole Frasqueri, then retweeted a follower's post, which seemed to suggest she wasn't the only one spotting the similarities between the songs.

"I'ma big @princessnokia fan... AG's new album literally plagiarizes flows, words, bars from Nokia," Camouflage Don wrote. "yo what a shame, millions of dollars and a TEAM of people to make and write your music... yet they STILL STEAL."

Ima big @princessnokia fan... AGs new album literally plagiarizes flows, words, bars from Nokia... yo what a shame, millions of dollars and a TEAM of people to make and write your music.... yet they STILL STEAL https://t.co/7xa4zvk2ue  CAMOUFLAGE DON (@CAMOUFLAGEDON) January 18, 2019

Other followers later tweeted, "Helll yeah Ariana is always appropriating black culture...," and, "man she even attempted to copy your tone of voice," while another wrote, "SUE AND GET YOIR (sic) COINS."

Ariana released her new track, which she claims was inspired by a jewellery shopping trip she took with a friend following her split from ex-fiance Pete Davidson, on Friday morning. The track is a modern spin on "My Favorite Things from the Sound of Music" soundtrack.

Grande has yet to respond to the controversy.Instagram Celebrity

Taking to Twitter, Lauren Pesce tells her followers, 'It is truly heartwarming to have this support during this time.'

Jan 18, 2019

AceShowbiz - It's been two days since Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino began his 8-month jail stint, and it appears the reality TV star is doing all right. His wife, Lauren Pesce, took to Twitter on Thursday, January 17 to give fans an update on how the "Jersey Shore" star is doing behind the bars.

Thanking those who continue to support him amidst the difficulty, she said, "Mike would like to thank all of his fans worldwide for the unbelievable outpouring of love & support." She added, "We speak everyday & he's doing great."

Lauren went on saying that Mike received "thousands of letters" since he began his prison sentence. Even though he wasn't able to reply to them one by one, the "Jersey Shore: Family Vacation" star "wanted to express his gratitude to each and everyone of you." She said in another tweet, "Thank you from the both of us; it is truly heartwarming to have this support during this time. Lots of Love, Michael & Lauren Sorrentino."

Mike is currently serving his time at Otisville Federal Correctional Insitution in upstate New York. According to the FCI Otisville Inmate handbook, the star is ordered to take part in its Admission and Orientation Program -- which consists of a case management and medical screening, as well as a screening by the mental health staff. In addition, he is assigned a job based on institutional needs.

Mike was sentenced to eight months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of tax evasion in January 2018. After the MTV personality completes the eight months, he will have two years of supervised release and 500 hours of community service. In addition to that, he was ordered to pay $10,000 fine and $123,000 in restitution. Meanwhile, his brother Marc was handed a 24-month prison sentence for tax offenses........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

WASHINGTON  Amid internal controversies and a capital city deeply distracted by the partial government shutdown, the third Womens March returned to Washington on Saturday with an enduring message of anger and defiance aimed directly at President Donald Trumps White House.

The original march in 2017, the day after Trumps inauguration, flooded the city with pink-hatted protesters. The exact size of the turnout remains subject to a politically charged debate, but its generally regarded as the largest Washington protest since the Vietnam era.

This year was a more modest affair for multiple reasons. An estimated 100,000 protesters packed several blocks around Freedom Plaza, just east of the White House, holding a daylong rally. The march itself took about an hour and only moved about four blocks west along Pennsylvania Avenue past the Trump International Hotel before looping back to Freedom Plaza.

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Organizers submitted a permit application estimating up to 500,000 participants even though it was widely expected that the turnout would be smaller. The original plan was to gather on the National Mall. But with the forecast calling for snow and freezing rain and the National Park Service no longer plowing snow because of the shutdown, organizers on Thursday changed the marchs location and route.

As it turned out the weather was chilly but otherwise pleasant, and the mood among the marchers a now-familiar mix of sister-power camaraderie and defiant anger toward Trump and the larger power structure. As always the Trump administration was the direct target of most of the abuse  with fresh bitterness stemming from more recent events like Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaughs successful confirmation last fall despite a direct accusation of sexual misconduct when he was in high school.

One sign declared, Strong women only fear weak men. Another stated, MOOD: Still pretty mad about Kavanaugh.

Parallel marches took place in dozens of cities around the country.

In Los Angeles, a few hundred demonstrators gathered in Pershing Square downtown and marched to Grand Park as the crowd swelled to thousands.

Democracy is not a spectator sport and I came out to continue to stand for that proposition, said Ellen Klugman of Marina Del Rey. If I dont go, who will?

In San Francisco, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in the march and video on Twitter showed people clapping and cheering as she passed.

In Denver, protester Jacquelynn Sigl said its a mistake to focus solely on Trump.

Its not OK, the rhetoric the president has today, but its also important to know this isnt an anti-Trump rally, she said. This isnt about him. Its about the thought thats running across the country right now.

Preparations for this years march were roiled by an intense ideological debate among the movements senior leadership. In November, Teresa Shook, one of the movements founders, accused the four main leaders of the national march organization of anti-Semitism.

The accusation was leveled at two primary leaders: Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian-American who has frequently criticized Israeli policies, and Tamika Mallory, who has maintained a public association with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

Shook, a retired lawyer from Hawaii, has been credited with sparking the movement by creating a Facebook event that went viral and snowballed into the massive protest on Jan. 21, 2017. In a recent Facebook post, she claimed Sarsour and Mallory, along with fellow organizers Bob Bland and Carmen Perez, had steered the Movement away from its true course and called for all four to step down.

The four march organizers have denied the charge, but Sarsour has publicly expressed regret that they were not faster and clearer in helping people understand our values.

Despite pleas for unity, the internal tensions were most keenly felt in New York. An alternate womens march organization held a parallel rally a few miles away from the official New York Womens March protest, and one activist actually disrupted the main protest.

As New York march director Agunda Okeyo was making her opening remarks, an activist named Laura Loomer came on stage and shouted that the march does not represent Jewish people and called it the real Nazi march.

Loomer is a longtime political provocateur whose previous protests have included handcuffing herself to a Twitter office after the service banned her and jumping a fence at a home owned by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

As Loomer was ushered from the stage, Okeyo challenged her.

This is not a negative day, Okeyo said. Youre not coming with that. Were not doing that today. What were doing today is were going to uplift each other and were going to make sure we stay positive.

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Associated Press writers Michael Sisak in New York, Dan Elliott in Denver and Daisy Nguyen in San Francisco contributed to this report.

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Follow Khalil on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/Ashrafkhalil.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

Once again, well-intentioned legislation in the Roundhouse is being touted as a way to protect the identities of sexual assault victims, when in reality its a way to circumvent due process and shield those who would make false accusations.

Senate Bill 118, sponsored by Sen. Jacob Candelaria, D-Albuquerque, is a reconstituted version of his SB 149, which was vetoed in 2017. This time around, its on Democratic lawmakers rocket docket, meaning along with 37 other bills it will be fast-tracked through committees next week while receiving minimal, if any, scrutiny.

Top-ranking Democrats have said the rocket docket is a way to show New Mexicans that lawmakers are serious about having a productive session. Thats one interpretation. Its also a way to ram though legislation without having to answer too many questions. Its a way to disenfranchise 19 brand new House members who will get little chance to debate it in committee.

While most bills go to two or three committees in each chamber, those on the rocket docket only have one hearing.

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House Minority Whip Rod Montoya, R-Farmington, calls it a dereliction of duty.

And that methodology has no place when dealing with the legal system and crime victims.

SB 118 would amend the states Inspection of Public Records Act to allow law enforcement agencies to keep secret anything in police reports that would reveal the identity of victims of, or non-law enforcement witnesses to, six crimes before charges are filed.

Those are: assault with intent to commit criminal sexual penetration; assault against a household member with intent to commit criminal sexual penetration; stalking; aggravated stalking; criminal sexual penetration; and criminal sexual contact.

Those are awful crimes, and the desire to protect victims is understandable. Thats why local news media have policies against reporting alleged sexual assault victims names in criminal cases unless they choose to go public.

But go beyond the raw emotion a sexual assault evokes. Remember that our countrys system of jurisprudence and due process can be antiseptic, messy and everything in between, yet it remains the foundation of our legal system. And that includes a justice system based on due process, giving both accuser and accused their legal rights. And its based on the ability to follow an accusation through to see if law enforcement did its job or if justice was served.

Its much more difficult to follow a case and judge how law enforcement handled it without the identities of all involved. Do we as a state want to shield incompetency or worse when it comes to investigations of these crimes, adding insult to the victims injuries? Do we want to shield false accusers and leave the falsely accused out there alone?

Lets say youre a successful businessman or woman, and someone files a false allegation against you. What if its someone who has a history of filing false reports? This accusers name is kept secret while your name is public. That person is protected while your reputation alone is on the line for all to see. Is that justice?

Candelarias SB 118 preys on the reasonable desire of all New Mexicans to protect crime victims, especially those of sexual assault. We understand it has broad support among lawmakers. It will be heard in the Roundhouse as early as Monday before Senate Judiciary.

But a strong case can be made that it puts the states imprimatur on the kind of secrecy that gave the false University of Virginia rape allegations life.

No one wants to add to the pain endured by sexual assault victims. But our justice system and due process dictate that the rights of all those involved be protected  regardless of the allegations. SB 118 does the opposite.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

We talk a lot about sexual abuse and harassment here in the United States. We are a country with a heightened sense of whats right and wrong when it comes to sex crimes. We are also a nation that preaches to others around the globe about the evils of forced marriage and marriages involving children.

Our State Department has told officials in developing countries that forced marriage is a human rights abuse and, in the case of minors, a form of child abuse.

So why does our government actually encourage wedlock between girls as young as 13 and men in their 70s?

A new report from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs reveals that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has approved petitions facilitating such unions more than 8,600 times in the last decade! And 95 percent of the petitions involved an older foreign-born man with a child under the age of 17.

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After these 8,600 petitions were OKd by officials at the USCIS, they were then sent on to yet another government office  the U.S. State Department  for final approval, which almost always happened.

The Senate report says that while USCIS had no way of knowing how many applications the State Department finally approved, It is reasonable to conclude that the United States issued a visa to a significant number of the spouses and fiances named on the 8,686 petitions.

Some of the petitions screamed for more detail. So, why didnt anyone at the USCIS or State Department ask why a 14-year-old U.S. citizen petitioned to bring her 48-year-old spouse from Jamaica? Didnt the examiner think it odd that a 13-year-old American citizen would be asking for a spousal visa for her adult Pakistani husband? Had someone pressured the child into marriage? No one bothered to ask. The Senate investigation revealed the 13-year-olds parents had likely filed the petition under their daughters name after they took her to Pakistan and married her off to an older cousin.

These are just two of the thousands of cases of women and girls forced into marriage with an assist from the U.S. immigration system. Shameful.

Activists who help females caught in these marriages say this is akin to legalized human trafficking, and it is not uncommon for a family to pay back a debt or otherwise reward someone in their home country with the prospect of American citizenship, vis a vis marriage to their underage daughter. The beneficiaries of this scheme, according to the new report, most frequently hail from, in order: Mexico, Pakistan, Jordan, Dominican Republic, Yemen and Iraq. In a majority of the cases the foreign-born person went on to became a green card holder, which gave them permanent U.S. resident status.

And the loopholes in our federal laws dont stop there. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act any U.S. adult may petition for a visa for a minor spouse or fiance living abroad. For example, an American adult could travel to, say, Southeast Asia, where marriage laws are much less stringent, take a 13- or 14-year-old as a bride or groom and then legally bring them back to the U.S. to live. The youngster can then be threatened with deportation if they complain or reminded of the shame to their family if they break the marriage vow.

A USCIS official told Senate investigators that it is easier for a minor to file an immigration petition than it is to receive aspirin on a school field trip, thats how few questions the action raises. In a statement to the media, a USCIS representative said the office is simply following existing U.S. law.

Ultimately, it is up to Congress to bring more certainty and legal clarity to this process for both petitioners and USCIS officers, USCIS spokesman Michael Bars said.

Make no mistake, there are child brides taken here in the U.S. as well. Most states require brides and grooms be at least 18 but there are instances where parents have given consent  usually on religious grounds  for their younger children to marry. It is clear parental consent doesnt always come from a place of good judgment.

Human rights organizations like Unchained At Last and the Tahirih Justice Center believe the problem of forced and underage marriages is much more prevalent than the government figures indicate. Once caught up in one of these unions, the unwilling spouse often becomes a victim of domestic abuse and rape, enslavement, and enforced isolation. Any children in the household are likely made victims as well.

Look, the flaws in our immigration system are many and already the subject of much controversial debate. But this system, whereby the United States of America puts its imprimatur on child abuse, is not debatable. We are hypocrites if we preach to others about protecting women and children and then fail at it ourselves. Congress, with this new report as ammunition, needs to close these loopholes in the law, like, yesterday.

www.DianeDimond.com; e-mail to Diane@DianeDimond.com........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

Copyright  2019 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  In her ambitious State of the State address last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham urged New Mexicans to aim high.

The Democratic governor, who was sworn into office on Jan. 1, is also shooting high when it comes to the budget for her office, as she has proposed a 38.3 percent funding increase  from about $3.3 million to roughly $4.5 million  over current levels.

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The Governors Office says the increase is needed to pay for hiring more staffers, including additional policy advisers.

The rationale is the governor has a bold, aggressive agenda and feels she needs additional staff in the office to lead the formulation and implementation of it, Lujan Grisham spokesman Tripp Stelnicki said.

However, some Republican lawmakers have criticized the request, which comes after former Gov. Susana Martinez trimmed the Governors Office budget during her 8-year tenure.

House GOP Whip Rod Montoya of Farmington said workload levels dont appear to require the governors requested budget hike for her office.

This seems very self-serving, Montoya told the Journal. The lack of restraint on spending is showing no end.

Overall, the budget for the Governors Office represents a small slice  0.05 percent  of the states current $6.3 billion budget.

But Governors Office spending has come under scrutiny in recent years, including a governors spending on holiday parties and other social events from a contingency fund that, until this year, was not subject to state audit.

Although Lujan Grishams budget recommendation for her office would be a big jump over current levels, the requested amount would still be lower than the Governors Office budget from about a decade ago.

The state budget passed under former Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson in 2007, for instance, appropriated nearly $4.7 million for the Governors Office.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, suggested a funding increase for the Governors Office could be appropriate this year, given recent spending reductions.

I think with cutbacks in mind you can justify some increases, Smith said Friday.

But he stopped short of endorsing Lujan Grishams full budget request, saying the committee would have to look at historical funding levels more closely.

Already, Lujan Grisham has filled some key jobs in the Governors Office.

She said just before taking office on Dec. 31 that John Bingaman  son of former U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.  and former Santa Fe County administrator Teresa Casados had been hired to head up her office, operating as equals who report directly to her.

They will each be paid $130,000 a year, compared with the $110,000-per year salary the governor makes under state law.

Lujan Grisham, who served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before running for governor, has also picked some staffers from her gubernatorial campaign to work in her office, as well as former employees from her congressional office.

Some of the positions did not exist under the Martinez administration, such as the director of the Childrens Cabinet. The job duties of that role revolve around coordinating youth-related initiatives among various state agencies........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  On Sunday night, look up to the sky.

If all is clear, the supermoon total eclipse will be on full display.

The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science is staying open late to offer visitors an opportunity to see the astronomical wonder.

We had a total lunar eclipse on Jan. 31, 2018, said Jim Greenhouse, space science director at the museum. Were ending a period where we have had quite a few eclipses. Its a coincidence of the moon being on the far side of the Earth. We wont get another one for a couple of years.

A lunar eclipse happens when the moon moves into the Earths shadow.

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Lunar eclipses dont happen often, because normally the moon moves slightly over or under the shadow when its on the far side of the Earth from the sun.

The total length of the eclipse is going to be one hour and two minutes, Greehouse said. Thats plenty of time to see it. Its a natural phenomenon that still intrigues us.

The next total lunar eclipse wont happen until May 26, 2021, so this will be the last chance to experience this phenomenon for over two years.

Greenhouse said that on Sunday, the moon will also be relatively close to the Earth while its full, which has recently become known as a supermoon.

The entire eclipse will be visible from New Mexico, and the moon will be high in the sky.

During the January 2018 eclipse, we had to watch from the observatory deck because we had to be high enough, Greenhouse said. With this eclipse, our plan is to have telescopes around the museum because you can see it from anywhere as long as the weather is fine.

Informational videos, posters, and handouts will explain the term supermoon, what causes eclipses, and why eclipses make the moon turn red. A live video stream will show the eclipse from other locations around the world.

Last year, we had about 1,200 visitors who watched from the observatory deck, he said. This year, we can be more spread out and be able to explain more of what is happening. Eclipses are always intriguing, because theres so much more we continue to learn about it........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  New Mexico State Police seized close to 1,000 pounds of marijuana and paraphernalia over the past week at the port of entry in Gallup.

NMSP spokesman Dusty Francisco said the 956-pound haul came out of two separate busts involving vehicles crossing into New Mexico on Interstate 40 at the Arizona border.

He said the first bust was Tuesday, when officers found 391 pounds of pot on a car hauler carrying two sport-utility vehicles through the Gallup port of entry. Francisco said that bust is still under investigation and no arrests have been made.

The following day, two men were arrested after being caught in a semitractor-trailer with 381 pounds of pot and 183 pounds of paraphernalia.

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Eaid Gheith, 26, and Cemil Durgut, 30, both of Illinois, were booked into the Gallup-McKinley County jail on charges of distribution of over 100 pounds of marijuana, delivery or manufacture of drug paraphernalia and conspiracy to commit distribution.

The men were released after each posted a $20,000 bond........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

WASHINGTON  Special counsel Robert Muellers office on Friday issued a rare public statement disputing the accuracy of BuzzFeed News report that said President Donald Trumps former attorney told Mueller that the president directed him to lie to Congress.

BuzzFeed, citing two unidentified law enforcement officials, reported that Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate project and that Cohen told Mueller the president personally instructed him to lie about the timing of the deal. The report said Muellers investigators learned about Trumps directive through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents.

The report said Cohen acknowledged Trumps instructions when he was interviewed by the Mueller team.

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The statement by Muellers office on Friday night doesnt cite any specific errors. In it, the special counsels spokesman, Peter Carr, said, BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the special counsels office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens congressional testimony are not accurate.

BuzzFeed spokesman Matt Mittenthal said the publication stands by its reporting and urged readers to stay tuned as they worked to determine what Mueller was denying. Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, also said the publication stands by its reporting and the sources who informed it.

We urge the special counsel to make clear what hes disputing, Smith said.

Immediately after the special counsels statement was issued, Trump retweeted several posts that called the story fake news. He later tweeted: A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!

Trumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, tweeted: I commend Bob Muellers office for correcting the BuzzFeed false story that Pres. Trump encouraged Cohen to lie. I ask the press to take heed that their hysterical desire to destroy this President has gone too far. They pursued this without critical analysis all day. #FAKENEWS.

The extraordinary statement from Muellers office came after Democrats had vowed to investigate whether the report was true, calling that possibility a concern of the greatest magnitude. House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., both said they would probe BuzzFeeds account. Some Democrats even said that if the report were true, then Trump should be impeached.

The Associated Press had not independently confirmed the report. Any evidence that Trump directed a witness to lie to investigators would place him in the greatest political and legal jeopardy yet.

Giuliani said in a statement earlier Friday that any suggestion  from any source  that the President counseled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the allegation absolutely ridiculous.

On Twitter on Friday morning, Trump charged that Cohen was Lying to reduce his jail time!

Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress to cover up that he was negotiating the Trump Tower project on Trumps behalf during the heat of his presidential campaign. The charge was brought by Mueller and was the result of Cohens cooperation with that probe.

Cohen admitted that he lied when he told lawmakers he had never agreed to travel to Russia in connection with the Moscow project and when he said that hed decided by the end of January 2016 that the proposal was not feasible for a variety of business reasons and should not be pursued further.

He was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to conceal his boss alleged sexual affairs, telling a judge that he agreed time and again to cover up Trumps dirty deeds out of blind loyalty.

Giuliani noted that Cohen had pleaded guilty to lying and quoted federal prosecutors in New York who chastised him for a pattern of lies and dishonesty over an extended period of time. Muellers team, however, had previously called him a credible witness.

Todays claims are just more made-up lies born of Michael Cohens malice and desperation, Giuliani said.

Lanny Davis, a Cohen adviser, declined to comment.

Cohen is scheduled to testify publicly before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Feb. 7. The top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, said Friday that he expects Cohen to talk to that panel in February.

Although House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has discouraged any talk of impeachment in the early days of her new majority, some senior Democrats said that if the BuzzFeed report was confirmed, Trumps actions could rise to that level.

If the @BuzzFeed story is true, President Trump must resign or be impeached, tweeted Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, a member of the House intelligence panel.

Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline, also a Judiciary committee member, tweeted that if Trump directed Cohen to lie, that is obstruction of justice. Period. Full stop.

A Senate Democrat, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, tweeted that we need to know this ASAP if Mueller does have multiple sources confirming that Trump directed Cohen to lie.

Mueller shouldnt end his inquiry, but its about time for him to show Congress his cards before its too late for us to act, Murphy tweeted.

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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Zeke Miller in Washington and Jonathan Lemire and Jim Mustian in New York contributed to this report........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  Dozens of federal workers who are not receiving paychecks due to the partial shutdown of the federal government have contacted Roadrunner Food Bank seeking information about getting groceries.

And those are just the people who identified themselves as furloughed federal workers, so there are likely many more, Roadrunner Food Bank spokeswoman Sonya Warwick said Wednesday  the 26th day of the shutdown.

We began receiving calls a couple of weeks ago from federal employees who expressed concern about not having enough food for their families, she said. Weve been connecting them to food bank and pantry partners in their local communities where they can access food.

An estimated 10,700 federal workers in New Mexico are caught up in the government shutdown. Many are not working, and others are working without pay.

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In New Mexico, Roadrunner supplies food to nearly 500 locations through its sister food banks and pantries in Santa Fe, Clovis, Farmington and Gallup, helping to feed more than 70,000 people weekly, Warwick said. Whether someone is employed by the federal government is not a question typically asked at food pantries. People may be asked for identification to determine whether they live in the ZIP code being served by that pantry. If they have minors in the household, they may be asked to show birth certificates for those children.

From 20 to 25 percent of products in Roadrunners warehouse are U.S. Department of Agriculture commodities, Warwick said. The federal government shutdown has not affected that supply. Any USDA products that have been ordered, at least until March, will be delivered to food banks. Beyond that, the shutdown could impact USDA orders and deliveries, Warwick said.

Roadrunner is, however, in need of food donations.

Over the last six to eight months, there has been less food available at the food bank, but not because of the government shutdown, she said. Its just an unexplainable trend weve been seeing.

Roadrunner is in need of nonperishable items, such as canned soups, vegetables and fruits; boxed meals; and a variety of beans, either canned or bagged dry beans.

Any federal employee not getting paid who has concerns about food security can call the Roadrunner Food Bank food assistance line at 505-349-5340, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Calls can be anonymous.

Albuquerque Public Schools is also offering free or reduced-priced meals for families who need them. Federal employees affected by the government shutdown can apply online. Go to paypams.com/OnlineApp.aspx........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  Authorities are asking the publics help in identifying a suspect who they say fatally shot a man Wednesday morning at a bus stop near the bosque.

APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos released photos Friday afternoon of the suspect fleeing on a mountain bike after shooting Isaac Candelaria, 43.

He said the suspect quarreled with Candelaria over the mountain bike around 8 a.m. at a bus stop at Rio Grande and Central.

The suspect shot the victim and fled, Gallegos said.

The slaying set off a all-day manhunt throughout the bosque but police did not find the suspect and called off the search Wednesday night.

Tips: If anyone has information about the homicide or person(s) involved in homicide please contact Crime Stoppers at 843-STOP.

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BERNALILLO  Sandoval County Sheriffs deputies apprehended a man in a

stolen vehicle after a car chase Jan. 4 on I-25.

The pursuit began about 10:48 p.m. In the end, the suspect, 23-year-old Brock Henry Day, was arrested and taken to Sandoval County Detention Center, according to a news release from the county.

Our deputies, in cooperation with state, federal and tribal entities, were able to apprehend a potentially dangerous suspect and take him off the streets of our community, said Sandoval County Sheriff Jesse James Casaus in the release. Our team was able to end the pursuit safely, and without any injuries.

According to the release, the pursuit began when deputies stopped a red sport-utility vehicle on suspicion of reckless driving on northbound I-25 near Santo Domingo Pueblo. They determined the SUV had been reported stolen.

Deputies contacted the driver, who was later identified as Day, whos from Payson, Utah. He refused to obey deputies and attempted to flee in the SUV.

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Deputies deployed tire-deflation devices, but Day continued to flee on flat tires. He then drove the wrong way on I-25 and crashed through fencing along the interstate, with deputies pursuing him into an open field on Santo Domingo Pueblo.

Once in the field, the SUV became stuck, and Day fled on foot.

With the assistance of New Mexico State Police, Bureau of Indian Affairs and Santo Domingo Pueblo officials, a perimeter was set up. The Sandoval County Sheriffs Office Special Services Unit, which specializes in fugitive tracking and apprehension, was deployed.

After nearly two hours, Day was located hiding in a ravine close to a half-mile from where he ditched the SUV.

Day was arrested without any further incident. According to the county, the State of Utah was working to issue a probation and parole warrant for him.Staff reports

Aberdeen News

Dear Doctor: What is considered a normal blood pressure for a person in their late 70s? My doctor said it should be in area of 120/80. But I have read that older persons pressure may be higher  closer to 140/90  and that pressure would not be dangerous. Am I the only one confused by the new blood pressure guidelines?

Dear Reader: No, you are not alone in struggling to understand the revised blood pressure guidelines. They were issued in November 2017, and we have been receiving mail about them ever since. The questions arent limited to the lay public, either. Due to several issues, which well address in a moment, these more stringent guidelines are also an ongoing topic of discussion among health care providers. But lets start with your main question.

Youre correct that in the past, blood pressure goals for elderly adults were looser. They allowed for a slightly higher range for normal blood pressure compared to younger adults. However, the newest guidelines do not make the same allowances. As your doctor explained, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association now define normal blood pressure for adults as readings less than 120/80. If the top number falls between 120 and 129, even with a lower number of 80 or less, this is considered to be elevated blood pressure. Readings of 130/80 and higher are the threshold for several escalating stages of high blood pressure. At this time, these guidelines apply to all healthy adults, regardless of their age.

By some estimates, the updated guidelines have moved close to half of all adults into the hypertension category, basically overnight. Part of the thinking behind the update was that flagging potential hypertension earlier would encourage patients and their doctors to discuss appropriate lifestyle changes. However, the rigor of the new goals has caused quite a bit of discussion, and even discord.

The updated guidelines are based on results from a study known as the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial, or SPRINT. In the study, participants rested quietly for five minutes before their blood pressure readings, which were taken with an automated device. Three consecutive readings were then averaged together to arrive at a final number. This is different enough from the way in which blood pressure is typically measured in a doctors office that many health care professionals have made the argument that the methodology had a statistically significant impact on results. In addition, they address your question, saying its unreasonable to expect someone in their later years to have the same blood pressure as someone in their 30s.

None of this changes the fact that hypertension is dangerous. Blood pressure that is uncontrolled raises your risk of grave health problems, which include blood clots, stroke, kidney disease, heart disease and heart attack. Not only that, the higher the numbers, the higher the risks. Our advice is to discuss the issue with your primary care physician, who is familiar with your general health, your medical history and any specific risks that you face. He or she will help you set the blood pressure goals that are right for you.Weather Alert

THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS TRANSMITTED AT THE REQUEST OF THE MONTANA DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. RAVALLI COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE HAS ISSUED A MISSING ENDANGERED PERSON ADVISORY FOR KENDRA ARLENE ROSE ROBERTS. KENDRA IS A 16 -YEAR-OLD WHITE FEMALE, 5 FEET 7 INCHES TALL AND 140 POUNDS. WITH GREEN EYES AND BLACK HAIR. SHE WAS LAST SEEN IN DARBY, MT ON MONDAY, JUNE 14TH AROUND NOON. KENDRA RAN AWAY ON FOOT BUT MIGHT POSSIBLY BE WITH A FRIEND IN A BLACK LIFTED GMC TRUCK AND MAY BE HEADED TO MISSOULA. SHE WAS LAST SEEN WEARING A SWEATSHIRT AND BLACK NIKE SWEATPANTS. THERE IS CONCERN FOR KENDRAS SAFETY AND WELL- BEING. IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION ON KENDRA ROBERTS, CALL THE RAVALLI COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE AT (406) 363-3033 OR CALL 9-1-1.En espanol | As the longest government shutdown in U.S. history enters its fifth week, many services that older Americans rely on  from Social Security to the U.S. mail  remain intact. But the prolonged disruption of nine major agencies is still having a widespread effect.

About 800,000 of the nations 2.1 million federal workers were furloughed without pay, although an estimated 450,000 essential employees are continuing at their posts. This week, President Trump signed a bill that ensures federal workers will receive back pay, but that wont happen until the shutdown is over. And that legislation will not apply to the hundreds of thousands of contractors who work for the federal government.

The partial shutdown that began Dec. 22 affects the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Interior, Justice, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development. These agencies are responsible for everything from inspecting the nations food supply to security checks at airports to processing income tax returns.

The rest of the federal government is fully funded. That includes departments like Health and Human Services and the Social Security Administration, which pay Medicare claims and provide Social Security payments to retirees and people with disabilities.

And as the shutdown has progressed, more and more federal employees are being called back to work  most without pay.

The Food and Drug Administration has recalled about 150 furloughed employees who next week will resume safety inspections on some medicines and high-risk foods like cheese, fruits and vegetables, and infant formula. The State Department says it found enough unused money in last years budget to bring back 8,000 furloughed diplomats and pay them for two weeks. And early in the shutdown, the Internal Revenue Service announced that more than half of its employees  46,052  would be brought back unpaid so Americans could get their income tax refunds on time.

But other government services that Americans rely on are either slowing down or shutting down. Transportation Security Administration workers who screen passengers at airports are randomly calling in sick, leading to longer-than-usual lines at security checkpoints. While some states are stepping in to keep popular national park facilities like the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty open, most parks have no services, and even if their gates remain open, trash has been piling up for weeks. In addition, the Department of Agriculture has stopped issuing home loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers, and the Federal Housing Administration says it will not provide the approvals Americans need to get a reverse mortgage.

There are a lot of areas that still affect your life even if they are not the frontline ones of Social Security and Medicare, says Norm Ornstein, a resident scholar and veteran congressional expert at the American Enterprise Institute.

The practice of shutting down the government because Congress hasnt passed and the president hasnt signed the necessary funding bills dates back almost 40 years, to 1980. Since then, there have been 20 partial or full shutdowns. Prior to the current record-breaking shutdown, the longest in history was in 1995; it lasted 21 days.

The longer we have a shutdown, that can decrease peoples trust that government is capable of solving their problems, says Molly Reynolds, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. 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lieutenant governor for the past year-plus under Reynolds. But due to a lack of clarity in state law Gregg was not in the official line of succession. With his swearing-in Friday, Gregg officially becomes the lieutenant governor and next in line to the governors office.

My ask of all Iowans as we go into the next four years is that we devote less time to online political arguments and more time to each other. That we dont let a screen steal from our family and friends, from our communities and schools, Reynolds said. Because heres the thing: If we look up and to each other, well see that there are great things happening in this state. And if we put our energy into action instead of outrage, well find that there are even greater days to come.WATERLOO  The grandmother of a slain 4-year-old called out the man accused of beating him to death as he was sentenced to prison Friday.

God isnt pleased with you, Walter. Youve done wicked. Youve shown me what you are, an evil, wicked person, Ruthie Clay told Walter Cordell Williams. The way you smirked at us during trial, the way youre smirking at me right now. I know you aint sorry. Our tears are real. The pain you inflicted on us is real.

Walter Williams, 24, sat quietly smiling as he listened to Clay.

Clay  grandmother of Jaheem Harris, a child of Williams ex-girlfriend  told Williams she wished he would spend the rest of his life in prison.

But Walter Williams, who had been charged with murder, was convicted of lesser charges of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment causing death following an October trial. Sentences for the two charges merged under Iowa law, so Judge Kellyann Lekar imposed the only sentence allowed, 50 years in prison for the child endangerment charge.

+6 VIDEOS: Emotions erupt outside courtroom after guilty verdict against Walter Williams WATERLOO  A Black Hawk County jury convicted a Waterloo man of the lesser charge of manslau

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I started making a 'travel plan' three years ago, when I decided that my New Year should add positive plans to my life rather than omit sins. This year I pencilled in Middle East for December, with winter sun and a chance to chill out after a busy year in mind. After researching thoroughly, I settled on Bahrain, an unfamiliar destination to me (other than the fact it's previously hosted the Grand-Prix) and my friends alike, who were initially bemused by my long weekend location choice.



Yes, a long weekend; with only a 3-hour time difference and 6-hour flight (regular, direct flights arrive from the UK you can be from house to hotel in less time than a regular work day.

My hotel of choice was The Ritz Carlton; offering panoramic views of the Gulf of Arabia, this elegant award-winning hotel meets the ocean with an impressive span of soft sand beaches that wrap almost full circle to create a private lagoon, beside which sits a large fresh pool (heated so you can use it comfortably all year round) and a private harbour.

The hotel expanse is vast yet still somehow sublimely intimate. Decadent touches include access to a private lounge and personal concierge service for rooms, suites and club-level bookings, with a personal butler, infinity pool and a private beach available for larger group villa guests. Unsurprisingly, these are often occupied by celebrity guests or royalty (we'll keep our fingers crossed for Meghan and Harry to book in at the same time as us next time).

Tempting as it was to remain in the hotel I was also keen to see the city. I was recommended a tour with Visit Bahrain, allowing me to see lots of sights in a short space of time with the intimate knowledge of a local guide. First stop Qal'atal-Bahrain or the old fort classified by UNESCO as World Heritage site in 2005. The structure sits tall with spectacular, 180 views of the coastline in one direction and the city in the other.

Story continues

We explored the nearby maze of narrow residential streets, each lined by lengths of white walls with beautifully ornate wooden doors, each one different from the last (I'm told that traditionally each door has a story behind it, so dont be alarmed if you're encouraged to pop your head around and meet the local business people). Next up was visit to the Bab El-Bahrain souk where I tried Halawa; a sweet, nougat-like delicacy that feels delightfully indulgent/

Finally, a visit to Al-Fateh Mosque, a staggering construction regularly hosts up to 7,000 worshippers. The mosque was built using marble from Italy, teak wood from India, and glass from Austria, a giant chandelier hanging from it's expansive fibre glass ceiling (I'm told it's the largest in the world), which I found comically hard to capture on camera due to it's size.

With my tourist sights seen, I didnt feel guilty AT ALL with my decision to spend the rest of my day at the hotel. Needing to wind down, my first stop was the on-site hotel spa. For those wishing to expend energy, the hotel's recently refurbished gym is available, alongside an extensive programme of fitness classes. Alas, the only effort I exerted was shuffling between the spa's beautifully crafted marble Hamman and the 4 plunge pools; feeling lighter with each journey, as I felt my worries evaporate away. My next big decision involving which of the dead sea-inspired treatments to indulge in (I went for the Spa Cabana Private Island Massage  FYI).

The hotel's authenticity is what really sets the Ritz Carlton apart, but the stand-out factor for me, was the expansive restaurant offering (which can be enjoyed by guests and locals alike). I'm spoilt for choice with 11 on-site restaurants, all specialising in different cuisines, and all managing to deliver a unique and authentic experience to the relevant country, from the chefs, to the entertainers and the details in the decor. Attention to detail so great, you'd be forgiven for forgetting you haven't actually left the hotel! In the short time I had, I did a pretty good job of sampling most.

First up was Primvera, a modern Italian trattoria led by two-Michelin-starred chef Oliver Glowig, where my visit was perfectly timed to take advantage of their five-course truffle tasting menu (one can never tire of truffle, in my opinion). Next on the agenda, we tucked into Indian cuisine at Nirvana, where I sampled the best tandoor sea bass I have ever tasted, hands down.

The most opulent choice was saved for my last visit; Plums steakhouse, where dishes served by Yann Bernard Lejard are ALMOST too pretty to eat, served with the theatrical displays and flamboyant showmanship the chef is internationally renowned for, and wines perfectly paired by the restaurant sommelier.

The next two evenings were an altogether more casual affair, with Mexican at Cantina Kahola where Chef Hector Miguel Mendoza Becerra brings heritage from his home country to the kitchen. Serving a mix of classic traditional dishes, alongside his signature Sea Bass Ceviche, which is a must try! Finished up (sadly with a meal at the aptly named: Thai lounge, serving snack and pool-side food and cocktails in a more relaxed setting.

My time in Bahrain was just long enough for a mini-break, and as I sat and reflected on my last year, I realised it had been tiring, but ultimately, a successful one, so to reward myself, I booked onto the hotel's 'speedboat and picnic lunch' experience. Lunch being on a nearby private island so remote that no land could be seen from any angle, and dolphins jumped alongside our boat as we made our way back to hotel.

I think possibly the best aspect of my stay was the hotel staff, with each member making it their mission to ensure your day and holiday was as perfect as could be. From remembering your name, to your usual breakfast tea order, (plus, organising salon appointments when my hair straighteners failed me), spontaneously handing out flowers and small gifts, and arranging the above trips and experiences, all with such diligence. Their passion for their job was clear, and despite their motto being: Its our pleasure, it was really all mine.



HIGHS

THE DESTINATION: still relatively unknown

THE STAFF: uniquely personalised service

THE EXPERIENCE: private island picnic

LOWS

THE AIRPORT: basic and long waits for luggage

NEED TO KNOW

NUMBER OF ROOMS: 245

CHILD FRIENDLY: Yes (Very)

POOL: 1 Indoor, 1 outdoor

SPA: Yes

RESTAURANTS: 11

Rates at the Ritz Carlton Bahrain start at 290 based on two sharing a deluxe room. Other options are available.

BOOK NOW

('You Might Also Like',)A Facebook Live on January 18 shows a group of protesters marching in Sudans capital, Khartoum, and fleeing as the sound of gunfire rang out.

At least three people  two men, including a doctor, and a child  died on Thursday as a result of gunshot wounds inflicted by Sudanese security forces, according to Amnesty International, the Sudan Doctors Committee and other sources.

The demonstrations, which began in December, were sparked by rising prices and calls for President Omar al-Bashir to resign. Sudanese security forces responded with violent crackdowns, using tear gas and live ammunition against demonstrators on several occasions.

Amnesty International estimated on January 18 that more than 40 people had been killed in the protests. The organization called on Sudans security forces to end their ongoing deadly onslaught on protesters and medical personnel.

President Omar al-Bashir has been in power since 1989. On January 14, he reiterated that he would not step down, despite the protests. A constitutional amendment proposed this month would allow him to retain his position past the end of his term in 2020. Credit: Mosaab Hassouna via StoryfulWelcome Guest! You Are Here:AFP UK

Two centuries-old shipwrecks packed with ceramics and other artefacts have been found off Singapore in a rare discovery that will shed light on the city-state's maritime heritage, archaeologists said Wednesday. The prosperous island nation has long been a key trading hub on global shipping routes connecting the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. The first wreck, discovered after divers accidentally came across ceramic plates in 2015, was carrying Chinese ceramics that possibly date back to the 14th century, when Singapore was known as Temasek. Some of the items were similar to artefacts found in archaeological digs on land, which showed that Singapore was a trading hub well before the arrival of British colonisers in 1819.Prince Philip is a well-known name globally as he is the husband of the queen of England Elizabeth II. The prince is 97 years old and its a tribute to his fitness that he still drives a car. CNN has reported that the prince was driving a Land Rover on a public road near the Queen's Sandringham estate in Norfolk, the cause of the accident was perhaps a collision with another car and the vehicle flipped on its side, but by the grace of God, Prince Philip escaped unscathed.

The accident

The accident occurred on Friday afternoon at about 3 PM. BBC has shown footage of the accident side with the car an SUV lying on its side.

It does look like a miracle that the prince was not injured. In the UK there is no limit on upper age for a man to drive a car except that people above the age of 70 have to get their driving license renewed every three years. It appears that Prince Philip had a valid driving license.

The prince though 97, still loves to drive his Land Rover and is mentally and physically fit though he has scaled down his public engagements after 65 years and over 5000 speeches. Channel News Asia has reported that passers-by helped the prince get out of his car which had collided with another car. Two lady passengers in the other car suffered minor injuries and were taken to a hospital.

Almighty God, the Fountain of all Goodness,We humbly beseech thee to bless Philip Duke of Edinburgh:Endue him with thy Holy Spirit; enrich him with thy Heavenly Grace; prosper him with all happiness; and bring him to thine everlasting kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  John Sentamu (@JohnSentamu) January 17, 2019

Prince Philip

Prince Philip has now been in public life for 66 years after Queen Elizabeth was crowned in 1953.

Last year after 65 years of public life he had announced his retirement from Royal duties, but he still drives around in his Land Rover. The prince also is an airplane pilot, but he gave up flying planes in 1997. He continues to drive his car as he loves to drive. The prince during his younger days was accomplished horse rider and played polo, but he gave up the sport when he crossed 50.

Many in the modern age feel the Royal Family, and monarchy is outdated, but at present, it continues.

Land Rover

Land Rover and Jaguar are iconic British cars, but in the changing economic scenario in 2008 both the brands were bought by India's Tata Motors group headed by Ratan Tata. Tata Motors paid a price of 2 billion pounds in 2008, and the acquisition has been profitable for the Indian company.

Prince safe

The car crash of Prince Philip's Land Rover appears to have taken place when the prince's car collided with another car -a Kia after he had pulled out of a driveway to the main road. It can only be classified as an error judgment and does not reflect on the driving capability of the Queen's husband. The prince who was shaken after the accident is lucky to have escaped without an injury considering the car flipped on its side.Foreign Correspondents Adam Harvey is in Madagascar as the high-price for vanilla impacts on local wildlife.

Vanilla hustlers in dusty streets. Vanilla brokers in vanilla-built palaces. Vanilla crops threatening rare lemurs jungle homes. On a wild ride through Madagascar, Adam Harvey finds theres nothing plain about vanilla.

Behind our craving for vanilla-flavoured ice cream, cakes and chocolate, or for vanilla-scented perfumes, theres a rattling tale of fast money, skulduggery and the precarious fate of an iconic animal.

A few years ago, the humble vanilla bean sold for $80 a kilo. Now its $800. In vividly beautiful, dirt-poor Madagascar, supplier of most of the worlds vanilla, that means good times roll.

Vanilla is the best, vanilla is the crazy money. No income better in Madagascar  and I think the world! Yockno, who is swapping tour guiding for vanilla farming.

By day, Prisco is a hustler who buys and sells vanilla in the street. By night, in a seedy bar, he sings of his love for the bean, and what it can get him

Girl, come and weigh the vanilla, theres enough for whatever you want! Priscos song lyric.

Prisco is a bit player in a vast vanilla ecosystem. In the vanilla hub of Sambava, brokers plough money into shiny multi-story mansions. In big export warehouses, women sort their way through hillocks of beans. Theyre frisked before they go home, just in case theyve filched any.

In rural areas at harvest time, small farmers guard their crops overnight from roaming thieves. If the farmers catch them, justice is swift and sometimes deadly.They can do crazy things to them Yockno, tour guide and vanilla farmer.

Long before the tense harvest, theres an operation that demands the utmost delicacy. Each vanilla flower must be hand-pollinated  a trick invented by a 12-year-old slave boy in the 1840s. Using a tiny thorn, Yockno shows reporter Adam Harvey how its done.

So what I do is push this tongue up

Its all precision  and timing. Each flower is ready for pollination for only one morning each year.

. and I press softly the male to the female. So now its done.

Vanilla is surely sweet for Madagascars people, but not for its most celebrated characters  the exquisite lemurs popularised by the Madagascar movie. High vanilla prices are putting pressure on the lemurs habitat as forest is illegally cut to grow the beans.

But as Harvey and the Foreign Correspondent team trek deep into the jungle, they discover  to their delight  that lemurs are hanging on defiantly. Our cameras capture them  bamboo lemurs, white-headed lemurs and critically endangered silky safakas, one of the worlds rarest mammals  in all their glory.

8pm Tuesday January 22 on ABC.

RelatedABC music series Dont Stop the Music has raised more than 4200 instruments to benefit school children.

Instruments have been donated to local Salvation Army stores around Australia. A further $67,000 has been donated across both Musica Viva Australia and the Salvos Just Brass programs.

The series screened in November as part of AusMusic month.

The donation campaign has seen some generous contributions from businesses who heard the call out and wanted to support the campaign.

Fender Music Australia were so inspired by the series that they donated 300 brand new classical guitars to Musica Viva, a huge donation that will directly benefit students.

Brisbane Music store Simply for Strings donated 40 high-quality European violins and violas to the campaign.

The 3-part documentary series Dont Stop The Music, follows the journey of primary school students in an underprivileged area of Perth as they embarked on a music program. The students had no prior music knowledge, and many had never touched a musical instrument, but nearly 9 months later they performed on stage at the Perth Concert Hall.

During the series, the benefits of learning an instrument became clear; higher attendance rates, improved concentration and a sense of happiness and confidence amongst the students.

There is still time to donate unused instruments to your local Salvation Army Store or donate online abc.net.au/dontstopthemusic

Volunteers familiar with basic instrument repair and assessment are needed to help us sort through donations. Register through the Salvos volunteer portal

RelatedReserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das Friday said the central bank will undertake policy responses after carefully weighing the challenges and opportunities with regards to developments around Brexit.

He said there are consequential policy challenges for India which enjoys strong trade and investment relations with the UK and the EU.

Also Read: Gujarat govt signs 130 MoUs with investment commitments worth Rs 56,000 crore

India's external sector has remained resilient in the recent period despite terms of trade losses due to the firming up of international crude prices and uncertain global demand conditions, the RBI governor said while speaking at Investors' Roundtable, 9th Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2019 here.

With reference to Brexit, Das said Indian companies and policymakers need to suitably weigh challenges and accordingly re-strategise to respond appropriately.

As a few advanced economies are on the path of monetary policy normalisation, the RBI chief said there has been global portfolio rebalancing away from EMEs, including India.

Das also said while positive policy settings and continued macroeconomic stability helped contain India's external vulnerabilities, close monitoring of external sector is required, given the sharp movements in global crude oil prices and global financial market volatility.

"These are the two global shocks that have implications for our CAD and financial flows," he said.

Uncertainties prevail over Brexit after British MPs rejected the grand Brexit plan of British Prime Minister Theresa May earlier this week. She has called cross-party talks to put together a "Plan B" by Monday.

There is apprehension that the March 29 Brexit deadline could be pushed back give May more time to reach another deal or possibly call another referendum.

Also Read: Astronauts on Gaganyaan most likely to be pilots, hints ISRO

Also Read: Former CFO Shashidhar Kotian arrested in Rs 5,600-crore NSEL scam

Also Read: Trump to hold second summit with Kim Jong-un in February: White HouseHo Chi Minh City chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong has promised to use the citys own money to pay Japanese contractors working on a project to build its first metro line before the Lunar New Year while waiting for budget allocation from the central government.

Phong made the pledge at a meeting on Friday afternoon with Toshiko Abe, Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs, during the latters working visit to the southern metropolis.

Development for the Ben Thanh  Suoi Tien metro line, which began in 2007 using official development assistance (ODA) loans from Japan, stands as a testament to Vietnam-Japan cooperation, Phong said.

However, due to multiple procedural challenges including approval of the projects adjusted investment plan, payment of Japanese contractors involved in developing the metro line had been delayed, he elaborated.

While waiting for the new budget to be approved, Ho Chi Minh City will spend around VND2 trillion (US$86 million) of its own money paying the Japanese contractors, Phong said.

The city and relevant bodies are in the final steps of getting the budget disbursed, he said.

We will try our best to pay any unpaid contractors wage before entering the Tet holiday, which means by February 1, 2019, Phong pledged.

Chairman of the Peoples Committee of Ho Chi Minh City Nguyen Thanh Phong speaks at a meeting with a delegation of Japanese officials in Ho Chi Minh City on January 18, 2019. Photo: Duy Linh / Tuoi Tre

Other remaining obstacles slowing down development of the metro line will also be resolved in the fastest manner on the principle of protecting the contractors rights and interests, with the ultimate goal being to have the line ready and start operations at the end of 2020 as planned, the Ho Chi Minh City chairman said.

In a letter sent to the citys Party chief Nguyen Thien Nhan late last year, Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Umeka Kunio said unpaid contractors wage had amounted to more than $100 million as of November 2018.

The Japanese ambassador warned constructions on the project will have to be halted if the issue is not resolved by the end of 2018.

The first metro line in Ho Chi Minh City runs nearly 20 kilometers from Ben Thanh Market in the downtown area to the Suoi Tien Theme Park in District 9.

It is estimated to cost VND47.3 trillion ($2 billion) in investment capital, and will be capable of transporting 620,000 passengers per day upon completion.

Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Toshiko Abe speaks at a meeting with the Ho Chi Minh City administration in Ho Chi Minh City on January 18, 2019. Photo: Duy Linh / Tuoi Tre

In response to chairman Phongs uplifting promise, Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Toshiko Abe said thank you in Vietnamese and said she considers the gesture a meaningful Lunar New Year present that the city had prepared for the Japanese government and businesses.

Yesterday, when I arrived in Hanoi, I visited the Vietnam Military Hisotry Museum and was really moved and humbled by the perseverance of Vietnamese soldiers and people during the war, Abe said.

It gave me faith in Vietnam, that with determination your country can have anything done despite the difficulties, she said.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!A man who stole 14.3kg of gold over six years from a jewelry shop where he works in the central Vietnamese city of Hoi An was caught trying to sell the lot for money this week.

Nguyen Duc Tuan, 27, has been working for a big jewelry shop in Hoi An since 2012, where he is left in charge of looking over the gold jewelry displays.

On Tuesday, Tuan and his brother brought 14.3 kilograms of gold jewelry, including rings, necklaces and bracelets worth more than VND5 billion (US$215,000), to a gold shop in Da Nang, around 30km north of Hoi An, to try and sell them for money.

Finding them suspicious, the gold shop owner informed local police officers, who came and escorted the brothers to a police station for questioning.

After trying unsuccessfully to hide the truth, the duo eventually confessed to having stolen the gold items from the jewelry shop where Tuan works.

According to Tuan, over six years between 2012 and 2018, he had secretly stolen a small amount of gold every day from the shop so that his behavior would go unnoticed.

Tuan hid the gold away and waited for a chance to sell the properties for money.

The criminal police division of Quang Nam Province Police said on Friday evening they had made the urgent arrest of Tuan for investigation into his alleged theft.

Gold necklaces stolen by Nguyen Duc Tuan from a jewelry shop where he works in Hoi An City in central Vietnam. Photo: Manh Truong / Tuoi Tre

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Read whats in the news today!

Politics

-- Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc hosted separate receptions for former U.S Ambassador to Vietnam Pete Peterson and former U.S Secretary of State John Kerry in Hanoi on Friday

-- Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong stressed at a reception for visiting Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Toshiko Abe on Friday that Japan is one of the southern metropolis most important partners in many spheres, from economy and investment to education.

Society

-- As many as 54 second- and third-graders were hospitalized with unusual symptoms such as dizziness, vomiting, and diarrhea after having breakfast at the canteen of the Thanh Duc Elementary School in the southern province of Long An on Friday morning.

-- The Drug Crime Investigation Police Department (C04) said on Friday that the unit successfully destroyed three lines of trafficking and transporting bulk drugs involving several localities in northern Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City and Cambodia within six weeks of investigation, seizing 57 bricks of heroin and 50 kg of synthetic drugs.

-- The Bo Trach District People's Committee in the north-central province of Quang Binh said on Friday that it had just suspended Le Xuan Duan, chairman of the districts Ly Trach Commune, from work to review his responsibility after he allowed a wedding party to be held on the commune buildings grounds.

Business

-- IKEA, a world-class Swedish furniture designer and supplier, is considering building a US$450 million warehouse in Hanoi this year, the capitals chairman Nguyen Duc Chung revealed at a meeting on Thursday.

-- The Vietnam Sustainability Forum 2019 took place in Hanoi on Friday as a platform for policymakers, non-governmental organizations, businesspeople, and experts at home and abroad to exchange ideas to promote economic growth and sustainable society, following the successful organization of the first event last year.

Education

-- Up to 1,180 students of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign Language and Information Technology, who graduated last October, eventually had their graduation ceremony organized on Friday after nearly four months of delay as the universitys headmaster was dismissed for allegedly using an unaccredited doctoral degree.

Lifestyle

-- The Vietnam National Space Center (VNSC) has received several objects consisting of a Vietnamese flag and a video of greetings of Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai from the International Space Station (ISS), an ISS model, a model of the Japanese experiment module KIBO on the ISS, and a model of the H-IIA launch rocket, from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for exhibition at the countrys space museum.

-- A book themed Tourism Stories  The Vietnam Edition was launched on Friday within the framework of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Tourism Forum 2019 taking place in Ha Long, the capital of the northern province of Quang Ninh.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Ikea Vietnam, the Swedish furniture giants subsidiary in the Southeast Asian country, plans to invest on a EUR450 million retail center and warehouse system in Hanoi, the capitals chairman has said.

The information was revealed by Nguyen Duc Chung, chairman of the Hanoi Peoples Committee, at a conference held by the Ministry of Industry and Trade on Thursday, according to the Vietnam Television (VTV).

The center is expected to become Ikeas main supply hub for its Southeast Asian market and to boost the Swedish companys e-commerce business in the region upon its completion, according to Insider Retail Asia.

At present, all parties involved are in the process of negotiation, Chung said.

Ikea is now officially present in only three Southeast Asian markets, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, according to VTV.

Torbjorn Loof, chairman and CEO of Inter Ikea Holding, said in an interview with Bloomberg in 2017 that the company was planning to expand operation in Vietnam within five years from that point.

Ikea has steadily set its Southeast Asian footprint, with the latest largest store planned in the Philippines.

Founded in 1943, Ikea is the worlds largest furniture retailer with 400 stores in 49 countries all over the world. It is known for its ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances and home accessories

In recent years, Vietnam has been a potential hub for retailers to place their warehouses. Last November, Alibaba-backed online retailer Lazada finished a 4000-square-meter warehouse in the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Im totally giving you Syria. Crimea you can keep. You can kill as many dissidents and journalists as you like. I used your bogus line to explain why you invaded Afghanistan just the other day. Your oligarchs are protected by my Republican Senate. And NATO? Im still chipping away at that stupid thing. I sow chaos wherever I can, boss. And speaking of Europe, watching how Great Britain is collapsing into chaos over the Brexit mess is amazing. I know you had a hand in that, you genius.The district wont be able to make many of these suggested cost-saving fixes right now, though, because of its existing financial strife, according to board President Mark Stegeman.

A lot of this stuff is probably never going to turn into a board item, Stegeman said.

He added that though he thinks the enrollment decline is one of TUSDs most alarming issues, hearing the task forces recommendations and findings is not an urgent concern at the moment. He said this is a presentation thats been done before without avail, in a lot of ways.

Ill be more impressed with actions to deal with specific problems weve known for years, Stegeman said. He said the board does need to pay more attention to enrollment-decline-related issues in the coming months.

In a broad sense, the board hasnt paid enough attention to enrollment loss over the years. The lack of action is  frustrating.

Board members Adelita Grijalva, Rachael Sedgwick, Kristel Foster and Leila Counts did not respond to emails for comment from the Arizona Daily Star about the Enrollment Task Force.

The board was originally scheduled to hear the task forces presentation at its Nov. 12 meeting, but it got pushed to the next regular meeting in December. Then it got pushed to the first regular meeting of the year in January, where it was again postponed. Stegeman said he assumes the item will come up again on the Jan. 31 special meeting agenda.

Contact reporter Brenna Bailey at bbailey@tucson.com or 520-573-4279 . On Twitter: @brennanonymous

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 Tucson orthopedic surgeon was temporarily banned from practice and a Benson internist was stripped of his medical license in two recent misconduct rulings by the state Medical Board.

The surgeon, Dr. Luis A. Piedrahita, is accused of practicing medicine while drug-impaired, of refusing to submit to board-ordered drug testing and of failing to notify the board that numerous criminal charges were laid against him last fall, Arizona Medical Board records say.

The Pima County Sheriffs Department charged Piedrahita in October with six counts of domestic violence and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia after he became disruptive at a restaurant while at dinner with his estranged wife and children, the records say.

The surgeon has pleaded not guilty and intends to vigorously defend the criminal charges, said Stephen Weiss, his Tucson defense attorney.

In the meantime, Piedrahita consented to an interim Medical Board order that prohibits him from practicing medicine until he can show hes not an imminent danger to the publics health and safety.

The board investigation is ongoing and further action may be taken once it is complete, the records say.

Benson doctorYou might come in and have an IV, but there is a solution and drug that goes with that and tubing and a needle and someone to give it to you, and these are all listed separately, said Maria Persons, TMCs director of revenue cycle.

Arizona Daily Star reporters attempted to price compare common procedures, such as a colonoscopy, but were unable to do so, as charges for a single procedure are broken down by individual components.

Brent Hicks, TMCs director of finance, compared it to buying a car, but instead of buying a car whole, youre given a menu that breaks down the price by the cars component parts without you knowing what goes into a car.

All Tucson hospitals posted disclaimers noting that the amounts listed on the chargemasters are not what patients or insurers will actually pay. Out-of-pocket costs are based on many factors, including your form of insurance or if you lack coverage.

All local hospitals recommend patients consult their insurance providers for cost estimates or contact the hospitals financial-services department.

Additionally, every hospital negotiates down prices for patients. Even people working for the same employer might have picked different insurance plans and pay different amounts for the same procedure, Persons said.The Pima County Attorney's Office has asked for more time to consider the death penalty in the case of a man accused of killing two Tucson girls.

Christopher Matthew Clements, 36, was arrested in September in connection with the slayings of 6-year-old Isabel Celis and 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez.

He's facing 22 charges in connection with the girls' deaths, including two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping a minor under 15 and burglary. He's also facing 14 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, related to child pornography discovered in his possession.

The county attorney's office initially had until Nov. 24 to provide notice if they wished to pursue the death penalty, but requested an extension until Jan. 25.

On Monday, they asked for a second extension, requesting an additional 60 days to make a decision.

Judge Deborah Bernini granted the request Wednesday. The state now has until March 25 to provide notice.

Isabel went missing from her midtown home in 2012. Her remains were found in the desert northwest of Tucson in 2017. Clements led investigators to the remains in a deal he made to get unrelated burglary charges dropped.Prior to the A-F, most of the accountability requirements were from the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, he said. And we do have some copies of (school) reports from the 80s and 90s. But 2002, 2003 shows the beginning of a system to rate schools.

GROUNDS FOR APPEAL

Locally, the letter-grade appeals did little to change the overall picture of student performance for the 2017-18 school year, with Pima County gaining two more A schools, for a total of 65, compared to the initial grades released; having two fewer B-rated campuses for a total of 63; and one less failing school for a total of nine. There continued to be 72 C-rated schools and 35 campuses earning grades of D.

Grounds for appeal, according to the State Board of Educations website, are limited to environmental issues or events, adverse testing conditions, school or community emergencies, school tragedies or other similar, substantive events.

Additionally, the committee will consider whether the school took reasonable steps to minimize the impact of the event on test outcomes or if the opportunity did not exist for the school to minimize the impact on students. The committee also considers longitudinal school-level and student-level data, if relevant.

The committee, however, does not evaluate appeals based on concerns that some educators have expressed, including opposition to the accountability formula and the demographic makeup of a student population.

Contact reporter Brenna Bailey at bbailey@tucson.com or 520-573-4279 . On Twitter: @brennanonymous

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.US President Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in late February on dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes, the White House has announced

The two leaders had met on June 12 last year in Singapore for the first summit.

Also Read: Gujarat govt signs 130 MoUs with investment commitments worth Rs 56,000 crore

The White House, however, did not identify a location for the second set between the two leaders.

The announcement came after Trump met with North Korean envoy, Kim Yong Chol, on Friday for a discussion that included talk about Kim Jong-un's unfulfilled pledge to dismantle his country's nuclear weapons programmes.

President Trump sat down with Kim Yong Chol, a high-level official in North Korea's Communist government, in the Oval Office, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

"President Donald J Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and a half, to discuss denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February.

"The president looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date. she said in a statement.

The North Korean envoy arrived at the White House after a closed-door meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US special envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun at a hotel here.

Following the White House meeting, the North Korean official was invited to lunch by Pompeo.

Last year in Singapore, Trump had described his first-ever historic meeting with Kim Jong-un as "really fantastic" and said they had agreed to "sign" an unspecified document after their "very positive" summit, aimed at normalising ties and complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

The US president had said he believed he and Kim Jong-un will "solve a big problem, a big dilemma" and that by working together, "we will get it taken care of".

The summit at Singapore's Sentosa island - the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader - had marked a turnaround of relations between Trump, 72, and Kim, 36, after a long-running exchange of threats and insults.

The US insists it will accept nothing less than complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

Also Read: RBI will undertake policy measures after weighing challenges, opportunities: Shaktikanta Das on Brexit

Also Read: Astronauts on Gaganyaan most likely to be pilots, hints ISRO

Also Read: Former CFO Shashidhar Kotian arrested in Rs 5,600-crore NSEL scamPHOENIX  Nearly a year after Arizona received $56 million in federal aid for child care, Gov. Doug Ducey is calling on lawmakers to authorize its use.

The funding, which lawmakers failed to approve last spring, would expand the states child-care assistance to an estimated 5,100 children in low-income working families and foster care. It also would boost the rate the state pays to caregivers by 17 percent, according to Governors Office estimates.

Ducey is including the spending in his Friday budget proposal. It mirrors a request made last fall by the state Department of Economic Security, which oversees the child-care program.

It is still unclear why lawmakers balked at approving the extra money, made available last year by Congress through a child-care development block grant. The funding does not require matching funds from Arizona, and the families that qualify for the program have to make copayments.

Arizona last raised child-care rates in 2000, making the money it pays to child-care providers the oldest rate in the nation. Ducey proposes to split the federal grant evenly between a rate increase and an expansion of the number of children the program serves.That would end up costing more. First, the federal match for AHCCCS is just 66 percent of the cost. Corieri said that the lowest the federal match will be for KidsCare is 75 percent.

Theres also the fact that if the family income drops to AHCCCS-eligible levels, then the entire family would be enrolled and not just the children.

We want to support them in their work, Corieri said.

Whether state lawmakers go along is another thing. Last year Rep. Regina Cobb, R-Kingman, tried a similar repeal of the 2017 law, but with no cash attached. Instead, it would simply have required the director of AHCCCS to inform the Legislature of any financial shortfall in full funding and give lawmakers the option to keep the program in place with state dollars.

The measure cleared the House on a 46-12 margin but got stalled in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

At issue is the federal Childrens Health Insurance Program, or CHIP.

Approved in 1997, it provides low-cost health insurance for children whose parents make too little to afford private insurance, but too much to qualify for AHCCCS, the states Medicaid program. There, income eligibility is capped at $28,676 for a family of three, with higher limits for larger families.But in 2012, Taylor and others working on his behalf presented new evidence that they said showed the fire was not set. The government disputed the new claim, according to the court, but offered Taylor a deal: It would vacate his convictions and reduce his sentence to time served if he pleaded no-contest to the murder charges.

After his release, Taylor sued the county and the city of Tucson, claiming his rights to due process and a fair trial were violated in the original prosecution, including racial bias and withholding evidence, according to Schroeder.

A district judge rejected the countys claim that it was immune from the suit, but said Taylor could not recover damages for wrongful imprisonment.

The appeals court agreed. Judge Susan Graber wrote for the majority that under Supreme Court rulings, a plaintiff may not seek a judgment that would imply the invalidity of a state-court conviction, and while his original convictions were vacated, the no-contest plea is in essence a valid conviction on the same charges.

Schroeder said in her dissent that Taylor took the quickest route to getting out of jail instead of pressing for a new trial that could have taken years. She said the deal, offered to an inmate already in his 60s, was coercive.What makes all that significant is that, in concluding that patients can use only the plant parts themselves, the court effectively ruled that other things made from extracts also were illegal.

That ruling is awaiting review by the Arizona Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear arguments March 19. And if the justices side with the appellate court, that would bar the sale and possession of other nonplant forms of the drug, including not only lollipops, gummies, candy bars and drinks, but also liquids that can be put into vaping devices or taken orally.

Rivero said the appellate court ruling is based on a conflict in existing criminal law: It creates one definition for marijuana, which is legal for patients, and another for cannabis, which is not.

Its my opinion that the voters approved the AMMA to define marijuana as the extract or the separation, he said, not just the leaves and flowers.

His legislation would expand the definition of marijuana to be as broad as possible, including not just the resin but also every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture or preparation of the plant. And just to be clear, HB 2149 would strip state statutes of any definition of cannabis.The state cant begin enforcing the requirement until at least next January.

Also, the mandate approved by CMS  federal OK was required since it pays the lions share of the cost of Medicaid  applies only to those whose income is above the federal poverty level, which is $20,780 for a family of three.

AHCCCS provides coverage for those earning up to 138 percent of the poverty level, or $28,676 for that same family of three.

State officials figure the plan will apply to about 126,000 out of nearly 1.9 million Arizonans who get at least some care through AHCCCS.

In general, states cannot impose their own requirements on Medicaid recipients beyond what is permitted by federal law. But CMS does allow states to seek waivers if they can show good reason.

U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva said what CMS did here is a stretch of the law.

Congress never intended waivers to kick people out of the Medicaid program, and the law explicitly prohibits that, the Tucson Democrat said in a prepared statement.

He predicted the CMS decision will lead to lawsuits. Even it does not, Grijalva said the decision is bad public policy.Joe Barrios, a spokesman for Tucson Electric Power Co., said the company supports the draft interconnection rules.

Were satisfied with the draft rules, which preserve measures that allow for the timely installation of distributed energy systems without sacrificing reliability or safety, Barrios said, adding that the rules set clear expectations for utilities and installers alike.

In practice, Barrios said, TEP now connects most residential rooftop solar systems to the grid within several days of being notified that construction has been completed.

Environmental and energy-efficiency advocates cheered the Corporation Commissions move.

Without these interconnection rules, Arizonans seeking to install clean energy technologies often face a patchwork of requirements and procedures that differ from one utility to the next, which can be costly and time consuming to navigate, said Ken Wilson, an engineering fellow with the nonprofit environmental group Western Resource Advocates.

Wilson said the rules will create a bigger market for solar panels and other distributed clean energy and boost the number of projects, giving consumers more options and boosting the economy.During those years, Feldman was both fierce and patient, Levin wrote.

Times and cultures changed, and Feldman at age 70 had a bat mitzvah in the Mt. Sinai synagogue.

She also played a central role in a historic event in Lander.

Several years ago, when Gov. Jim Geringer was in office, the Aryan Nations were vocal about turning the Mountain West into a white supremacist homeland.

At the same time, the synagogue in Cheyenne was getting photocopies of swastikas shoved under the doors to the building.

Geringer went on television and radio to say that such hateful actions would not be allowed in this state.

Rabbi Levin, who was back east at the time, wrote to Geringer to thank him for his advocacy of the Jewish people. He also invited the governor to his home in Lander the following summer for a gathering of Wyoming Jews. Levin said he would teach a Torah portion in the governors honor.

Geringers reply was that he would choose the Torah portion, then he and a rabbi would join in teaching the sacred text they would team-teach.

Dorothy Feldman, who played a central role in establishing the Jewish gathering, drove to Lander to attend.

Has a sitting governor, ever, before or since, come to a rabbis home on Shabbat to join in teaching Torah? Only in Wyoming, in real measure because of Dorothys work in Cheyenne, over a lifetime, Levin wrote.

Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0The flier for the Pathfinder HAWG Ice Fishing Derby lists winnings of up to $57,000.

It sounds like a lot, and its for real.

The derby contracts with an insurance company to generate a random weight to the hundredth of a pound. If the fisherman with the largest walleye or trout matches the assigned weight  exactly  he or she could take home a check of $25,000. Each.

The heavy purse doesnt go out every year. In fact, the last winner was a Casper angler named Dustin Russell in 2010. His walleye weighed exactly 2.76 pounds.

But even if one of the hundreds of anglers that pay $35 each for the opportunity to try and catch a big money fish through the ice on Jan. 26 and 27 at Pathfinder Reservoir doesnt win the grand prize, first place is still a cool $1,000.

In 2017, the tournament drew more than 600 people. Last year it was cancelled because of thin ice.

This year, organizers are preparing for what could be the biggest event yet, said Jackie Martinez, commodore of the Pathfinder Boat and Fishing Club.

If it sounds like fun but youre no ice fishing professional, you should still give it a try, said Casper real estate broker and ice fisherman Todd Kittel.Christensen said the bill is just bad blood and a reaction to what happened at the end of 2018.

In October, Commissioner Clark Kissack resigned for unspecified reasons. After a four-hour meeting to find finalists for his replacement, the Campbell County Republican Central Committee selected Jeff Raney, Troy McKeown and Elgin Faber from a pool of 19 applicants.

Faber received support from two commissioners, which was one short of a majority, so the decision was then made by District Judge Michael N. Nick Deegan, who picked Del Shelstad.

The central committee is made up of precinct people, some of whom were elected in a primary, but there also are many who were selected by the local GOP, Christensen said.

If you dont keep the commissioners involved, youre letting a group of unelected people pick the replacement, he said.

He compared it to the president selecting members of his cabinet. He can choose anyone he wants, but those people have to be confirmed by the Senate first before they can begin serving.The economic offences wing of the city police, probing the Rs 5,600-crore NSEL scam, has arrested Shashidhar Kotian, the former chief financial officer of the now-shuttered commodities spot exchange, a senior official said.

Kotian was arrested in connection with the scam and was produced before a court Friday, which remanded him to police custody till January 28, an official said. The agency sought his remand on the ground that they have come across from fresh facts and need to confront with the same.

Also Read: Gujarat govt signs 130 MoUs with investment commitments worth Rs 56,000 crore

The NSEL scam refers to the payment crisis driven by the physical absence of the commodities against the invested money. As many as 13,000 investors have claimed losses after the trading platform faced a payment crisis, forcing the government to order its shuttering.

The crisis broke out on July 31, 2013, and since then ownership of NSEL was taken away by the regulators, calling original promoter Jignesh Shah "not fit and proper" for running an exchange.

On December 27, 2018, the Mumbai police filed charge sheets against 63 entities-- 27 individuals and 36 companies.

Companies named as accused in the charge sheet include NSEL, 63 Moons Technologies (which was earlier known as Financial Technologies), India Bullion Market Association; commodities brokerages like Anand Rathi Commodities, Geofin Comtrade and India Infoline Commodities among others.

Several other companies who also defaulted on paying back investors have also been named as accused in the charge sheet which lists cheating, criminal conspiracy under IPC and several sections of the Maharashtra Protection of Investors and Depositors Act and includes a statement of 520 witnesses and details of 509 bank accounts.

Earlier in 2014, the police had filed a charge sheet against six individuals and subsequently against NSEL founder Jignesh Shah who was arrested on May 7, 2014 and is now out on bail.

Also Read: RBI will undertake policy measures after weighing challenges, opportunities: Shaktikanta Das on Brexit

Also Read: Astronauts on Gaganyaan most likely to be pilots, hints ISRO

Also Read: Trump to hold second summit with Kim Jong-un in February: White HouseNationally, estimates suggest that hundreds of thousands of rape kits have been untested, prompting states to address their backlogs, Ellis said in a statement. Although we likely do not have a backlog in Wyoming, we simply do not know. Senate File 72 will give us that information and take action down the road, if needed.

According to numbers from the Wyoming Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, women and men in Wyoming are victims of rape at rates significantly higher than the national average.

Many of those victims, for myriad reasons, are often reluctant to come forward, Muir said.

I think the #MeToo Movement is helping people understand why people never report, she said. It was even alluded to in the hearing that theres a lot of self blame that goes on that victims need to work through, usually with someone in a very confidential way. But theres also the stereotype of not wanting to get someone in trouble, with the assumption that all rapists go to prison.

The legislation stops short of mandatory testing of rape kits, and instead requires the storage of and payment for processing those kits for the day when survivors of sexual assault feel its the right time to come forward.The meeting  while only laying the earliest stepping stones to increased government transparency  marked a commitment by the states top officials to move toward improving access to public records, with the group identifying ways to improve public records accountability, from small town clerks all the way up to the states top brass. That process, the group noted, would be a gradual one, particularly in rural towns where the mayor might also run a ranch or small business full-time on top of their civic duties.

The process, Racines noted, wont be completed in a day. Already working on a transparency plan that has carried over from her predecessor, Cynthia Cloud, Racines said her department would take a holistic approach to transparency reforms, focusing on the expenditures side of state government first.

Legislative priorities

As statewide elected officials examine their priorities to improve transparency, a number of bills in the Legislature could help to chip away at some of the barriers between citizens and their government.New Delhi: Abu Dhabi expects India to continue to be the largest source market for overseas arrivals in 2019 with a growth of around 10 per cent year-on year, a senior official said on Tuesday.



In 2018, the capital city of United Arab Emirates had around 3.35 lakh arrivals from India up to October."We expect India to continue to be the largest overseas market for arrivals in 2019. We are expecting around 10 per cent growth in the number of Indian arrivals in 2019," Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism, Travel Trade and Market Development Department Acting Director Anthony Rippingale told PTI.

As of October 2018, India is the largest source market for overseas arrivals to Abu Dhabi, he added.

"The growth we are expecting is despite this being an election year in India. This is on account of long historical ties between the two countries with strong person-to-person contact," Rippingale said.

When asked about the focus areas that the department is targeting here, he said: "We are focussing on all the segments such as MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) segment, leisure segment specially the families and on weddings and honeymoon segment."

The average stay per person in Abu Dhabi is 3 to 4 nights, he added.

On the initiatives being taken to promote Abu Dhabi as a preferred destination, Rippingale said: "We are expanding sales team in India. We are also creating regional sales teams to cater to the specific needs of various regions in India."

The efforts are also being made to promote culture tourism. Focus is also to promote cruise tourism. The efforts are being made to support the trade partners, he added.

"Apart from these initiatives, we are also connecting directly to the consumers. India is a key staregic focus market for Abu Dhabi," Rippingale said.Abdelaziz Bouteflika is Algeria's longest-serving president and a veteran of its independence struggle, who has clung to power for two decades despite years of ill health.

The 81-year-old head of state issued a decree on Friday setting April 18 as the date for the next presidential election.

Rarely seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013 that impaired his speech and left him confined to a wheelchair, Bouteflika has not confirmed whether he will seek a new mandate.

But many observers believe that he will seek a fifth term.

Even before his stroke, a year before the last presidential poll, Bouteflika had repeatedly marked himself out as a wily political survivor.

When he came to power, with the support of an army battling Islamist guerrillas, nobody expected him to stay in office for so long.

But "Boutef", as many Algerians nickname him, was instrumental in fostering peace after a decade-long civil war in the 1990s.

"I am the whole of Algeria. I am the embodiment of the Algerian people," he said in 1999, the year he became president.

A handout picture released by the official Algerian Press Service (APS) shows German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) meeting with President Bouteflika in Algiers on September 17, 2018 /  APS/AFP

But he has had a long battle with illness and frequently flown to France for treatment.

Known for wearing a three-piece suit even in the stifling heat, he gained respect from many for his role in ending the civil war, which official figures say killed nearly 200,000 people.

But he has also faced criticism from rights groups and opponents who accuse him of being authoritarian.

After his stroke, Bouteflika consolidated power in a country where the shadowy intelligence service has long been viewed as a "state within a state".

In early 2016, he dissolved the all-powerful DRS intelligence agency after dismissing its leader General Mohamed Mediene, known as "Toufik", who had clung to the post for a quarter of a century.

- Architect of peace -

Bouteflika was born in Morocco on March 2, 1937 to a family from western Algeria.

At the age of 19 he joined the National Liberation Front (FLN) in its struggle against the French colonial rulers.

When independence came in 1962, he was appointed minister of sport and tourism at the age of just 25, under Algeria's first post-independence president, Ahmed Ben Bella.

The following year he became foreign minister, a post he held for more than a decade.

But he was sidelined after the death of president Houari Boumediene in 1978 and went into self-imposed exile.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika casts his ballot on 16 September 1999 in Algiers /  AFP/File

While he was abroad, the military-backed government cancelled the 1991 elections, which an Islamist party had been poised to win.

That sparked a decade of bloodletting.

Bouteflika returned from Switzerland in 1999 to stand for president, with the backing of the army, which saw him as a potential figure of reconciliation.

He proposed an amnesty for rebels who laid down their arms and twice secured public endorsement for "national reconciliation" through referendums.

The first, in September 1999, was a major gamble -- but it paid off, leading to a sharp decrease in violence that helped propel Bouteflika to a second term in 2004.

A constitutional amendment was required to allow him to stand for a third term, which he won in 2009.

When the Arab Spring erupted in January 2011, Bouteflika rode out the storm by lifting a 19-year state of emergency and using oil revenues to grant pay rises.

His supporters argue that under his stewardship, public and private investment have created millions of jobs and dramatically lowered unemployment.

But a lack of opportunities and high youth unemployment continues to drive many Algerians to seek a better life abroad.

- Uncertain future -

In April 2013, the president was rushed to hospital in France after his stroke, and spent three months recovering.

He had already been hospitalised in Paris in 2005 because of intestinal problems, and in early 2006 spent a week undergoing post-operative medical tests at the same hospital.

In 2016, he flew abroad twice, to France and to Switzerland, for medical checks.

Fidel Castro and Abdelaziz Bouteflika attend a ceremony in Havana, Cuba on April 15, 2000 during an official visit by the Algerian president /  AFP/File

Bouteflika's decision to seek a fourth mandate in 2014 after 15 years in power sparked both criticism and derision from opponents, who questioned his ability to rule.

He did not even campaign, casting his vote from a wheelchair, but still officially won 81 percent of the vote.

There has been constant speculation over his health and his fourth mandate has been marred by falling oil prices, exposing the country's heavy dependence on hydrocarbons.

Critics argue that uncertainty over Bouteflika's fitness for a fifth term -- and speculation over possible successors -- has paralysed the government.

Political commentator Rashid Tlemcani argues that the president "should have left office at the end of his second term, after securing national reconciliation and conquering the hearts of a large part of the population".Even though it is only expected to peak in February, the flu has already reached the status of an epidemic in Luxembourg.

According to the head of Sanitary Inspection Dr. Pierre Weicherding, the flu has reached epidemic status in Luxembourg. Weicherding revealed this in an interview with the 100,7 radio station.

Between 5% and 20% of the Grand-Duchys population could become infected with the influenza virus this year. Last year's flu season already affected more people than in previous years.

However, a large number of individuals got the flu shot ahead of this year's flu season which lead to stocks being depleted early. Despite the fact that the shot is currently not available due to this shortage, it is possible that fewer people will develop complications in comparison to previous years.

The vaccine shortage triggered parliamentary questions from four MPs: Di Bartolomeo, Hahn, Halsdorf and Engelen all demanded answers from Luxembourg's minister of health Etienne Schneider.

For more on this topic, check out the link in the links box below:Luxembourg is the city everyone loves to leave (unfortunately), so you are spoilt for choice on who you can "blabla" with. As a semi-regular passenger over the past couple of years, here are my top 5 takeaways.

The car-sharing app/ site is particularly popular in the Benelux region. This level of popularity has yet to reach the British Isles. When I tried to explain the concept of riding amongst total strangers to non-believers, they really feared for my safety and I had to reiterate that its a perfectly acceptable method of transport here.

The top 5

1. If you dont feel like talking, use your linguistic inability to your advantage.

The vast majority of times Ive taken a blablacar, the "working language" is almost always French, when they can see you are struggling to keep up they will eventually disregard you from the conversation OR if you say you dont speak French from the outset the rest of the passengers will carry on as if you actually dont exist #winning.

Note : I think it only applies to French. When in a car with all Dutch passengers, they will happily speak English the entire journey once they realise you dont speak Dutch  I guess you could pretend you dont speak English if you really dont want to engage in the blabla aspect of the platform #culturalobservations

2. Never rely on blablacar if you are taking it to an airport (for a very important event such as a WEDDING).

The driver assured me he would meet me at 1pm, he showed up at 3.30pm because his dessert was delayed at lunch. Needless to say, when he finally arrived, I was beyond anger - almost in tears given the fact I was almost certainly going to miss my flight and therefore the wedding. The funny or actually not so funny thing, is when we arrived at Brussels airport, he asked me would I be available for dinner sometime back in Luxembourg? UM WHAT?!

P.s. thankfully the flight was delayed, I made it - no thanks to the Casanova of blablacar.

3. Working on those interpersonal skills: You will be forced into spending a relatively long period of time with people you would otherwise never even come across.

This does wonders for the development of your small talk ability and for perfecting your diplomacy. One example in which I should have gotten the gold medal for diplomacy, was when a beat up estate-wagon that had certainly seen better days pulled up at the agreed meeting point. I looked around anxiously to check no other passenger was waitingok just me.

The windows were a bit difficult to see through, I opened the passenger door to find a man smoking a cigarette with the windows up  giving the benefit of the doubt I just hopped on in, he uttered a "welcome" in a heavy Russian accent. Five minutes into the journey I decided to look behind me, to my surprise there were four young children in the back, the driver noted my surprise and to make things clear (again in the Russian accent) "These my children", I nodded to confirm I understood. The children, having been woken up, proceeded to start fighting the entire journey to Brussels, the man intermittently shouting at them in Russian and every so often threatening to stop the car and turn around (I presume, but my Russian is not great).

The driver appeared to be a chain smoker who didnt believe in second-hand smoke damage or ventilation for that matter, therefore windows remained up the whole time. Seeing my discomfort, I suppose he tired to offer me an olive branch with the sentence "Do you like music?" (again, in a heavy Russian accent), not sure if he meant in general or a specific genre but I just confirmed "Yes I like music". Cue the insertion of a CD, and thus we had some Russian folk music added into the mix, great!

Upon arrival in Brussels, after a very strained 3 hours of tobacco smoke, shouting in Russian, folk music and general carnage in the backseat, he turned to utter the immortal words "I like your blablacar picture" and with that I was off  my interpersonal and intercultural skills could not be tested any further that day.

4. Sometimes it completely restores all faith in humanity.

Case in point: I was arriving to Brussels Charleroi really late on a Sunday night, I had a blablacar booked to go back to Luxembourg instead of the dreaded 2 hour wait for the never-ending flibco. My flight was delayed by more than an hour, I lost all hope and assumed the driver would rightfully continue and leave on his own time schedule. NO, the blabla gods were shining down on me that day  he waited more than 1 hour and 15 minutes and dropped me right to my door. If I ever feel like the world is a cruel place, this thought restores faith.

5. The art of lying

If you dont want to reveal too much about yourself to these perfect strangers and you tell a teeny-tiny white lie about yourself, you then have to play a very fine balancing act to avoid it awkwardly snowballing during the duration of the trip. Consider the little lies you tell very carefully and keep a record of them somewhere for future trips. Luxembourg is a pretty small place , your chances of meeting a "blabla friend" again are exponentially high.

---

Christelle McKillen works in communications for RTL Group and in her spare time writes about expat life, like many a millennial she considers herself a budding Instagram aficionado @girlinluxembourgSUMMER SPECIAL!!! - Sign up at 20% OFF for Full Access to all of the online content and E-Editions on the www.thewordlink.com website here!

(The charge will appear as "Country Media Inc." on your credit card statement)Photo: Guido Bergmann/Bundesregierung via Getty Images

In the middle of January, the Russia investigation as we understand it ceased to be merely an inquiry into collusion. It was revealed as something far more portentous: an inquiry into whether President Trump, as the New York Times put it in one of the more breathtaking clauses it has ever published, had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests.

The discovery that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had opened a counterintelligence investigation into the president of the United States did contain a caveat: No evidence has emerged publicly that Mr. Trump was secretly in contact with or took direction from Russian government officials. Yet, the very next day, the Washington Post reported that Trump had gone to extraordinary lengths to keep his discussions with Vladimir Putin secret. Trump may not have been secretly in contact with the Russian leader  the whole world knew they were meeting  but nobody outside the Russian government and Trump himself knows what they discussed. Trumps efforts to conceal discussions with the Russian president went to almost comically suspicious lengths. He excluded any foreign-policy advisers, failed to debrief anybody in the U.S. government, and even confiscated his translators notes. American intelligence and foreign-policy officials  who, in theory, are supposed to implement the presidents agenda  have been reduced to spying on Russian communications about the meetings to attempt to suss out what their own president said.

Trumps private meetings with Putin are an apt metaphor for the entire bizarre relationship. The secret contacts are lying around in plain sight.

As for whether Trump took direction from Russian government officials, we dont know what directions, if any, Putin might be giving Trump in their secret meetings. But here, too, the indirect evidence is sitting right before us: Trump has said he takes Putin at his word that, contrary to the findings of U.S. intelligence, Russia did not hack Democratic emails. He has repeatedly asked his advisers about pulling out of NATO, questioned whether he would defend a NATO ally that faced an attack, and picked fights with leaders of Canada, Britain, France, and Germany. The splitting of the Western alliance would fulfill a strategic goal generations of Russians could only dream of.

These comments have often been explained away as idiosyncratic crankery. Trump resents questions about the legitimacy of his election so he absolves Russia of hacking; he instinctively trusts authoritarians over democratically elected leaders and views international relationships as business deals. It just so happens, according to this line of thinking, that Trumps peculiar stubbornness on these issues lines up with Russian foreign-policy goals.

But Trumps credulous acceptance of Russian views on other issues defies the search for an innocent explanation. Trump touted offers by Putin to form a joint U.S.-Russian cybersecurity unit and to interrogate various American critics. He canceled a joint defense exercise with South Korea at Putins suggestion. Trump has made several other weirdly Russophilic comments. He called Montenegro, a tiny NATO ally with a population smaller than Washington, D.C., a very aggressive people and warned it might attack Russia. He called the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan a justified defensive act against terrorists.

Obviously, the president has the right to change American foreign policy, and steering the United States closer to Russia and away from its long-standing partners is not a crime. The question is why he does these things. While Trumps fans may reluctantly follow his lead on these issues, they have never demanded he embrace Russia, nor have they rewarded him for his pro-Russian riffs the way they cheer Build that wall or Lock her up. Trumps displays of submission to Putin cut against his normal preferred posture of dominance, deepen his legal exposure, and raise the suspicions of Republicans in Congress.

At his summit with Putin in Helsinki last summer, Trump actually acknowledged the political cost of his persistent Russophilia. Nothing would be easier politically than to refuse to meet, to refuse to engage, but that would not accomplish anything, he told reporters. While its common for politicians to boast of bravely flouting public opinion, its not common for Trump to do so. His willingness to bleed political capital for a position that gains him nothing among either his base or the party elite stands out conspicuously.

The attempts to form innocent accounts of Trumps bizarre relationship with Russia keep foundering. Trumps gravitation toward Russia does not reflect a fleeting instinct, nor mere wounded pride at the insinuation his campaign victory had an asterisk attached to it. It appears to be a deep commitment for which he is uniquely willing to absorb political costs. BuzzFeed News reported that Trump directed his lawyer, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress about a building project in Moscow he tried to negotiate during the campaign. Why would Trump commit the grave offense of suborning perjury rather than admit he was trying to make a business deal? Such a risk would only make sense if there was more going on than just a business deal.

New revelations about Trumps campaign manager, Paul Manafort, underscore the same conclusion. Trumps defense has always maintained that Manaforts crimes have no bearing on Trump himself. The main charge against Donald Trump is poor judgment for hiring the notorious Beltway operator, editorialized The Wall Street Journal. It has grown all the more necessary to sever Manaforts culpability from Trump after Manaforts lawyers accidentally disclosed that their client had passed private campaign polling information to his business associate and suspected Russian spy Konstantin Kilimnik. But it has also become more difficult to do so: New court filings from the special counsel, Robert Mueller, allege that Manafort kept in contact with Trump well after his time in the campaign ended. Files on Manaforts computer show he had been in contact with an administration official as recently as May 2018, months after he had been indicted.

If Manafort was just a sleazeball who attached himself to absentee boss Donald Trump for his own ends and was cut loose when his Russian ties came to light, why did he maintain communication with the administration for years afterward? Why does his legal team have a joint defense agreement with Trumps? And why has Trump floated a pardon for him?

It would make no sense for the president to handcuff himself to a crook who was just short-term hired help. It would make a lot more sense if Manaforts dealings with Russia also implicate Trump. And this in turn suggests it might not be a coincidence that Manaforts last big job before running Trumps campaign was running the presidential campaign of a Ukrainian stooge who was taking money and orders from Moscow.

What we have learned in recent weeks is that whatever lies at the bottom of the Trump-Putin relationship likely goes beyond the two parties mutual interest in defeating Hillary Clinton. Collusion is a relationship with a defined chronological end point: November 8, 2016. A counterintelligence investigation presupposes furtive connections that may have compromised not only Trumps election but also his presidency.

The prospect that the president of the United States is being handled by Vladimir Putin also happens to be one of the few Trump-induced calamities to have inspired genuine alarm among Republicans in Congress. In the week after the revelations in the Times and Post, 11 Senate Republicans and more than 130 House Republicans voted with Democrats to disapprove of Trumps relaxation of sanctions on Russian oligarch and former Manafort benefactor Oleg Deripaska. This hardly proves that an incriminating conclusion to Muellers investigation will lead them to impeach Trump. But perhaps it shows that their patience is finite and is slowly wearing thinner.

*This article appears in the January 21, 2019, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!DENMARK  More than 100 Denmark residents lined up to receive free bottled water donated by Walmart during a distribution spearheaded by Denmark Citizens for Safe Water on Thursday.

Many of the city's residents are afraid to drink water from their taps after a CNN report in November revealed the non-EPA approved chemical HaloSan was used for a decade in one of the city's wells to kill iron slime. Last summer, regulators at Clemson University ordered the city to stop using HaloSan.

Citizens have complained for years about the rust-colored city water coming from their faucets, but DHEC has repeatedly assured them Denmark's water is safe.

Fred Brown, manager of the Barnwell Walmart, said 1,080 cases of water were donated by the Walmart corporation for the Jan. 17 distribution after Deanna Berry, founder of Denmark Citizens for Safe Water, contacted him for help.

Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

Brown said employees of the Barnwell Walmart came out to help him unload the truck that transported the water to Denmark.

We are also going to send two tractor-trailers full of water to the town for the walk (and rally on Saturday, Jan. 26). Its all about helping the community, he said.Dr. Susan Richardson, the USC professor who found the HaloSan and her team of students, will be there as well standing with Virginia Tech in unity, Berry said. We will have Flint, Michigan champion advocate LeeAnne Walters present.

She said activists from around the country have indicated they will attend the rally as well.

Also, food trucks will be offering food and coffee to citizens for free, and sorority groups will be providing blankets to citizens, Berry said.

"We will have a mass water distribution the same day by a national disaster relief agency from New Jersey that will bring over 5,000 cases of water" starting at 3:30 p.m. following the march, she said.

Berry said Denmark Citizens for Safe Water has been distributing free bottled water to citizens and personally delivering it to the elderly and disabled since the end of 2018. Other organizations and companies, such as Walmart and the law firms involved in the lawsuits, have helped with the bottled water distribution, she said.If the partial government shutdown continues past early February, justice may be seriously imperiled across Southern Illinois, said Chief Judge Michael J. Reagan of Federal District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.

The federal court is quickly running out of money to pay jurors, and to fund expert witnesses to testify on behalf of indigent defendants whose cases are being handled by private court-appointed attorneys, Reagan said. And those private attorneys, though they have continued to fulfill their duties, have been working without pay since December.

The federal courts roughly 100 employees in Benton and East St. Louis have not missed a paycheck yet, but they could soon as well. If the budget standoff continues, employees will only receive pay for one week in their Feb. 8 check instead of two, and they will not receive a salary after that until the government fully reopens, he said.

Weve got single moms here like the rest of the world that live paycheck-to-paycheck. Weve got people with mortgages due, he said. But the consequences of a lapse in funding will extend far beyond employee hardships and could undermine the entire judicial system, he said.

In just a few short weeks, Reagan said he may be forced to place a moratorium on all civil jury trials.AU Optronics Corp. researches, develops, produces, and sells thin film transistor liquid crystal displays and other flat panel displays. The company operates through two segments, Display and Solar. The Display segment designs, develops, manufactures, assembles, and markets flat panel displays for use in televisions (TVs), TV sets, and other related products; desktop monitors; mobile PCs, such as notebooks and tablets; mobile phones; and commercial and other applications, including displays for automobiles, industrial PCs, automated teller machines, point of sale terminals, pachinko machines, medical equipment, and others. This segment serves original equipment manufacturing service providers; and brand companies. The Solar segment manufactures and sells solar materials, including ingots, solar wafers, and solar modules, as well as provides technical engineering and maintenance services for solar system projects. This segment sells its ingot and solar wafer products primarily to solar cell manufacturers; and solar modules to installers, solar system integrators, property developers, and other value-added resellers. The company also engages in the renewable energy power generation; repairing and sale support of TFT-LCD modules, as well as sale support of solar-related products; injecting and stamping parts; manufacture and sale of molds, light guide plates, liquid crystal products, backlight modules, and related parts, as well as precision plastic and metal parts; IP related business; design, development and sales of software and hardware for health care industry; manufacture, assembly, and sale of automotive parts; manufacture and sale of motorized treadmills; and planning, design, and development of construction for environmental protection and related project management. It operates in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, and internationally. AU Optronics Corp. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

Read MoreAd Resource Stock Digest 2,038 Interested This Week

Could This Be the Biggest US Gold Discovery in Years?

See how this tiny, unknown gold company secured a prime land package right next door to the worlds two largest gold producers in Nevadas famed Carlin Trend where 84 Million gold ounces have already been extracted. Best of all, investors can still get in well below US$0.50 per share.An unexpected public statement from the special counsel. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

On Friday night, the special counsel issued a rare public statement, disputing the BuzzFeed News report that President Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about plans to build a tower in Moscow. BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the special counsels office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens congressional testimony are not accurate, said Peter Carr, spokesman for the Mueller investigation. It appears to be the first time the special counsel has publicly contested a news account, casting doubt on a major collusion break that had some Democrats talking potential obstruction of justice charges.

On Twitter, journalists weighed the details of the Mueller investigations decision to break radio silence and comment on the report  almost 24 hours after its initial publication in which they issued a no comment. Reporter Peter Sterne posed three possible options for the contention: There are minor inconsistencies in the report; its substantively incorrect; or it

correctly depicts what Cohen told federal prosecutors in a different office, like the Southern District of New York. Ronan Farrow, who broke the story of Trumps alleged affair with Karen McDougal, tweeted that he declined to run with parts of the narrative they conveyed based on a source central to the story repeatedly disputing the idea that Trump directly issued orders of that kind. Additionally, the New York Times claims that a source familiar with Mr. Cohens testimony to the special counsels prosecutors said that Mr. Cohen did not state that the president had pressured him to lie to Congress. BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith announced his confidence in his teams reporting and requested that Mueller make clear what hes disputing. On CNN, Smith also said that BuzzFeed was not playing any games with the characterization of their two federal law enforcement sources.

On Friday morning, House Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff announced that the committee was already working to secure additional witness testimony and documents related to the Trump Tower Moscow deal and other investigative matters. (As of publication, Schiff has not given a statement on the special counsels update.) Before the Mueller teams surprise announcement, Democrats were discussing impeachment en masse for the first time in a while, with at least four members of Congress using the word on Thursday and Friday  talk that will likely die down pending further investigation of the BuzzFeed account.

When the special counsel published its comment, Trump began retweeting takedowns of of BuzzFeed News. As New Yorks Olivia Nuzzi noted, Whatever ends up being the case about the BuzzFeed story, it sure is interesting to see the president and all of his supporters so eager to accept as fact the statement put out by the special counsels office. In this case of rare camaraderie, it appears that the enemy of the enemy of the people is his friend.11 hours ago

| June 17th | 2021 8:38 AM

Does Nike (NYSE: NKE) Have What It Takes To Get Back Running Again

For a company whose shares powered to new highs on what felt like a daily basis for much of last year, Nike (NYSE: NKE) has surprised many with its sluggish performance in the first half of 2021. Their shares are trading down more than 10% from the most recent all time high that they tagged at the end of December. In the grand scheme of things, this5 Secrets to Making Winning Trades (Ad)

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 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.The Undead Archives

I have finally salvaged my pre-Blogger TDR archives and added them into Blogger. They are almost totally in the form of one giant post for each month. And the formatting strayed from the originals. Sorry. But historians everywhere can rejoice that this treasure trove of my thoughts is restored to the world.Second Lady Karen Pence. Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP/REX/Shutterstock/Carolyn Kaster/AP/REX/Shutterstock

Karen Pence, second lady of the United States, is going back to work. But as the Huffington Post reported on January 15, theres an unsavory twist to this tale of female empowerment. Pence is resuming a position at Immanuel Christian School in Springfield, Virginia, and Immanuel refuses admission to LGBT students. And to students with LGBT parents. And to anyone who even condones sexual immorality, homosexual activity or bisexual activity. Its employment policies are similarly strict. Applicants have to prove that they, too, oppose homosexual or lesbian sexual activity, transgender identity, any other violation of the unique roles of male and female, and must affirm the notion that a wife is commanded to submit to her husband as the church submits to Christ.

Pences willingness to sign such a document doesnt really come as a surprise. Her husband, Vice-President Mike Pence, isnt exactly known for his embrace of LGBT rights. Wives may not be extensions of their husbands, but its reasonable to assume that the Pences share religious views. They did, after all, send their daughter Charlotte to this school, and friends of the couple previously described Karen as her familys prayer warrior in comments to the Washington Post. And Immanuels policies are common enough for conservative, Christian schools, a fact religious conservatives repeatedly pointed out following the Huffington Posts story:

Another way to state this is to say that a Christian school requires applicants to adhere to orthodox Christian theology. Just like my Christian college. Just like the Christian school my kids attended. https://t.co/1qIHaZguYC  David French (@DavidAFrench) January 16, 2019

The school does not ban LGBTQ students. It requires compliance with Christian moral teaching, which opposes *homosexual activity* not *being homosexual.* Thats a meaningful and relevant distinction. https://t.co/7m5jGGr49F  Alexandra DeSanctis (@xan_desanctis) January 16, 2019

These criticisms largely miss the point of the Huffington Posts article. Yes, Immanuels policies are common, and institutions like it have a First Amendment right to restrict admission on the basis of doctrinal conviction. The school also bans heterosexual sex outside marriage, as do most if not all Christian schools with similar views. Many a pregnant teen could attest that these institutions are not much more hospitable to students who obviously stray outside set behavioral parameters. Nevertheless, the distinction between behavior and identity is not as meaningful as Alexandra de Sanctis, of the National Review, suggests. These schools do not police queer and straight identity to the same extent, and thus queer and straight students do not experience equal levels of risk. A female student may face expulsion for getting pregnant, but she can at least call someone her boyfriend without getting dragged into a disciplinary hearing. Immanuels policy is especially broad, incorporating vague pronouncements regarding the unique roles of male and female, and in practice, institutions can wield these policies against students for a variety of infractions. Christian schools have expelled students for merely admitting theyre gay, for having LGBT relatives, and for wearing clothing that isnt traditionally masculine or feminine. (I attended a Christian high school like Immanuel for two years and graduated from a Christian college with similar policies.)

On Thursday, Vice-President Pence responded to the controversy, saying that while he and his wife are accustomed to criticism, to see major news organizations attacking Christian education is deeply offensive to us. Pence spokesperson Kara Brooks added: Its absurd that her decision to teach art to children at a Christian school, and the schools religious beliefs, are under attack.

Criticism aside, its obviously newsworthy that the second lady of the United States will take a paycheck from a school that discriminates on the basis of identity. It would be newsworthy under any president, but in Pences case, it has particular relevance. Her husband is part of the Trump administration, and officials like Education Secretary Betsy DeVos routinely back school choice policies that would financially benefit Christian schools like Immanuel. In fact, one of Immanuels accreditation bodies, the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), boasts on its website that member schools will benefit from a legislative affairs arm that lobbies for school choice, a broad category that includes things like school vouchers and scholarship programs funded by public tax credits. In states with voucher programs on the books, parents can directly apply public funds to tuition at schools that discriminate against LGBT students. One school, Lighthouse Christian Academy in Indiana, receives $650,000 in voucher money. In 2017, the Huffington Post reported that 76 percent of the schools that participate in school choice programs are religious, and of that number, 14 percent actively discriminate on the basis of sexual or gender identity.

Virginia doesnt have school vouchers, a situation unlikely to change with a Democratic governor in power. But it does award tax credits to businesses and individuals who donate to one of 31 approved scholarship programs. ACSI operates one of those scholarship funds. Its not immediately clear if Immanuel participates in that fund  according to its website, it operates its own scholarship funds for students  but the fact remains that in the state of Virginia, schools with policies like Immanuels do benefit from state tax incentives.

DeVos, meanwhile, wont publicly commit to blocking anti-LGBT schools from participating in school choice programs. And under her purview, the Department of Education has rolled back its enforcement of anti-discrimination policies designed to protect LGBT students who attend public schools. In this context, Karen Pences new job affirms the administrations hostility to the rights of LGBT students at large. Criticism hardly seems absurd.New study reveals local drivers of amplified Arctic warming

The Artic experienced an extreme heat wave during the February 2018. The temperature at the North Pole has soared to the melting point of ice, which is about 30-35 degrees (17-19 Celsius) above normal. There have also been recent studies, indicating the mass of Arctic glaciers has declined significantly since the 1980's by more than 70%. These sudden climate changes affected not just the Arctic regions, but also the water, food, and energy security nexus throughout the globe. This is why climate scientists from around the world are paying increasing attention to this accelerated warming pattern, commonly referred to as 'Arctic Amplification'.

An international team of researchers, including Professor Sarah Kang and DoYeon Kim in the School of Urban and Environmental Engineering at UNIST, has unveiled that local greenhouse gas concentrations appear to be attributable to Arctic Amplification.

Published in the November 2018 issue of Nature Climate Change, their study on the cause of Arctic Amplification shows that local greenhouse gas concentrations, and Arctic climate feedbacks outweigh other processes. This study has been led by Assistant Project Leader Malte F. Stuecker from the IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICCP) in Busan, South Korea and participated by researchers around the globe, including United States, Austrailia, and China.

Long-term observations of surface temperatures show an intensified surface warming in Canada, Siberia, Alaska and in the Arctic Ocean relative to global mean temperature rise. Arctic Amplification is consistent with computer models, simulating the response to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. However, the underlying physical processes for the intensified warming still remain elusive.

Using complex computer simulations, the scientists were able to disprove previously suggested hypotheses, that emphasized the role of transport of heat from the tropics to the poles as one of the key contributors to the amplified warming in the Arctic.

"Our study clearly shows that local carbon dioxide forcing and polar feedbacks are most effective in Arctic amplification compared to other processes", says Assistant Project Leader Malte F. Stuecker, the corresponding author of the study.

Increasing anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) concentrations trap heat in the atmosphere, which leads to surface warming. Regional processes can then further amplify or dampen this effect, thereby creating the typical pattern of global warming. In the Arctic region, surface warming reduces snow and sea-ice extent, which in turn decreases the reflectivity of the surface. As a result, more sunlight can reach the top of layers of the soil and ocean, leading to accelerated warming. Furthermore, changes in Arctic clouds and of the vertical atmospheric temperature profile can enhance warming in the polar regions.

In addition to these factors, heat can be transported into the Arctic by winds. "We see this process for instance during El Nino events. Tropical warming, caused either by El Nino or anthropogenic greenhouse emissions, can cause global shifts in atmospheric weather patterns, which may lead to changes in surface temperatures in remote regions, such as the Arctic", said Kyle Armour, co-author of the study and professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Oceanography at the University of Washington.

Moreover, global warming outside the Arctic region will also lead to an increase in Atlantic Ocean temperatures. Ocean currents, such as the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic drift can then transport the warmer waters to the Arctic ocean, where they could melt sea ice and experience further amplification due to local processes.

To determine whether tropical warming, atmospheric wind and ocean current changes contribute to future Arctic Amplification, the team designed a series of computer model simulations. "By comparing simulations with only Arctic CO 2 changes with simulations that apply CO 2 globally, we find similar Arctic warming patterns. These findings demonstrate that remote physical processes from outside the polar regions do not play a major role, in contrast to previous suggestions", says co-author Cecilia Bitz, professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington.

In the tropics - fueled by high temperature and moisture - air can easily move up to high altitudes, meaning the atmosphere is unstable. In contrast, the Arctic atmosphere is much more stable with respect to vertical air movement. This condition enhances the CO 2 -induced warming in the Arctic near the surface. In the tropics - due to the unstable atmosphere - CO 2 mostly warms the upper atmosphere and energy is easily lost to space. This is opposite to what happens in the Arctic: Less outgoing infrared radiation escapes the atmosphere, which further amplifies the surface-trapped warming.

"Our computer simulations show that these changes in the vertical atmospheric temperature profile in the Arctic region outweigh other regional feedback factors, such as the often-cited ice-albedo feedback" says Malte Stuecker.

The findings of this study highlights the importance of Arctic processes in controlling the pace at which sea-ice will retreat in the Arctic Ocean. The results are also important to understand how sensitive polar ecosystems, Arctic permafrost and the Greenland ice-sheet will respond to Global Warming.

###

Notes for Editors The above material has been provided by Institute of Basic Science.

Author contact

Malte Stuecker, IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICC), Busan, South Korea; email: stuecker@pusan.ac.kr; phone: +82-51-510-7862.

Journal Reference

Stuecker, M. F., C. M. Bitz, K. C. Armour, C. Proistosescu, S. M. Kang, S.-P. Xie, D. Kim, S. McGregor, W. Zhang, S. Zhao, W. Cai, Y. Dong, and F.-F. Jin, "Polar amplification dominated by local forcing and feedbacks", Nature Climate Change (2018), doi:10.1038/s41558-018-0339-y

About the Institute for Basic Science (IBS)

IBS was founded in 2011 by the government of the Republic of Korea with the sole purpose of driving forward the development of basic science in South Korea. IBS has launched 28 research centers as of August 2018. There are nine physics, one mathematics, six chemistry, eight life science, one earth science, and three interdisciplinary research centers.

This story has been published on: 2019-01-19. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.WASHINGTON  Presidents get too much credit when the economy is good, too much blame when the economy is bad.

That has been my mantra for months and months whenever people ask about unemployment, stock markets or any other economic or financial measure, and how President Trump stacks up to his predecessors. Presidents cant power-steer economies, I always say: They can affect things on the margins, through policy choices and leadership, but ultimately, business cycles are driven by forces beyond their control.

But given how many serious policy mistakes Trump has made lately, Im starting to rethink that response.

To be clear, the economy today still looks strong, according to most headline economic measures (well, at least the few measures not suspended by the government shutdown  more on that in a bit). Unemployment remains close to a 50-year low, for instance.

Even so, the risks of a recession in the near term appear to be rising. In a recent Wall Street Journal survey of economists, more than half said they expected a recession to start in 2020. The risk of recession in the next year predicted by the Treasury spread  the difference in yields of government bonds of different maturities  has climbed to 21 percent.The current clear and convincing standard made those assertions tougher to dispute.

Olson ultimately agreed in court papers that she faced a steep uphill battle to exclude them both from the money.

The case settled for $1.25 million. After attorney fees and other costs, $780,000 was left for Gloria Joyas heirs. Her parents each got $130,000, just like her four surviving siblings did.

While many parents may have a legitimate claim against the Department of Human Services after their children die in state custody, the current law makes it too difficult to keep truly absentee parents from receiving a financial windfall because of their childrens deaths, said Portland attorney Josh Lamborn.

Its not right for people to benefit from their childrens deaths when they barely participated in their life, especially after they already cost the state so much in Department of Human Services intervention, Lamborn said.

Really? Youre going to take the money when youve put (your kids) through all that? Lamborn said. And youre going to take the money from the state, when look what youve already cost the state.

Lamborn acted as a guardian ad litem for Gloria Joyas sister.The local steering committee  which consists of representatives from the cities of Longview and Kelso, the Port of Longview, Cowlitz County and the Cowlitz Economic Development Council (CEDC)  met with WSDOT officials Thursday about the future of the project. WSDOT stressed that the consultant recommendation was only a starting point, said Frank Green, the agencys regional assistant administrator for development and delivery.

Next, WSDOT will meet with a local technical advisory team of engineers to compare and possibly combine aspects of the consultant recommendation with the nine originally studied alternatives for the project. The goal is to create a range of options that meet community needs and still come within budget, Green said. And, if necessary, the project can move forward with an $85 million budget while local groups also look for additional funding.

I think we need to allow for possibility that it can be done, Port of Longview CEO Norm Krehbiel said Friday. We may have to get additional money, but perhaps it can be done for less than what we originally proposed. It seems like a worthwhile exercise to go through to get a project that works for everybody and is as cost effective as it can be.Two years after the Carls Jr. opened in Woodland, the cheeseburger chain is continuing its northern growth up Interstate 5, opening a restaurant in Longview on Wednesday at the former site of The Masthead.

The fast food joint is a franchise operated by Eugene-based KB Restaurants Inc.

Josh Veentjer, spokesman for KB Restaurants, said Adrian Acevedo Yanez, of Vancouver, will manage the Longview location and its 60 employees, half of whom are full time.

Tim White, director of operations for Carls Jr., said Yanez will relocate to the area after the opening.

Customers will be able to buy Carls Jr. burgers, fried chicken, salads, tacos and breakfast items from 6 a.m. to midnight Mondays through Saturdays and from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays.

The restaurant will seat 72, and will have a single-lane drive-through.

The building, at 1210 Ocean Beach Highway, is designed with a more modern version of the classic Carls Jr. look, similar to the Woodland location, Veentjer said.

(Longview) is really the next point north, as were growing up I-5, Veentjer said. Longview and Kelso is a great market (for fast food chains).You must be logged in to react.

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Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke. Photo: Antonio Perez/AFP/Getty Images

Jason Van Dyke was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison on Friday. The Chicago police officer was convicted in October of second-degree murder and aggravated battery for the 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald, a black 17-year-old. Van Dyke will probably not serve the entirety of the sentence  for second-degree murder charges, only half of the sentence is mandatory.

The murder likely would have gone unnoticed by the broader public had inconsistencies between the autopsy report and the narrative put forth by officers at the scene not prompted reporters to demand that dashcam video of the incident be released. The city denied at least 15 such requests before a judge compelled officials to do so. The footage showed Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times as the teen was walking away. More than a year had elapsed between the murder and the day in November 2015 when the people of Chicago  and the country  learned what had really happened.

It has long been clear that black Chicagoans have little reason to expect humane treatment from law-enforcement officials. A report published by the Department of Justice in 2017 affirmed what residents had known for decades: that local police engaged in a pattern or practice of unreasonable force on duty and tolerated racially discriminatory conduct that [undermined] police legitimacy. Such conduct went beyond the racial disparities in arrest and use-of-force rates that can be observed in many cities. Under the late Jon Burge, who was hired by the Chicago Police Department in 1970 and fired when he was a commander in 1993, the use of black sites, where black men were tortured with cattle prods and nightsticks into giving coerced confessions, was routine. Burge went to prison for his crimes, but accountability has otherwise proved largely elusive. Just this week, three officers present at the McDonald shooting were acquitted on conspiracy charges. They had exaggerated the threat McDonald posed in their reports, lending cover to the false claim that Van Dyke was justified in opening fire.

Van Dykes conviction represents something of an anomaly, as such. According to CNN, citing data compiled by Bowling Green University criminal justice professor Philip Stinson, who tracks such cases, only 35 percent of the 80 officers charged with murder or manslaughter for an on-duty killing between 2005 and 2017 were found guilty. Thats about two per year  a conviction rate that attests to both the broad latitude and vast protections which police are afforded when they take lives. Police prosecutions generally have to be more or less ironclad to secure convictions. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the general population murder conviction rate is twice as high, even as more than 90 percent of those cases are resolved through plea bargains.

Even so, and despite their rarity, criminal convictions remain among the few forms of recourse available to victimized black families and their communities, who must come to terms first with the abrupt demise of a loved one, friend, or neighbor, and second with the probability that nobody will be held accountable for it. Accountability, here, is a euphemism for punishment. Thats not to say punishment is unwarranted, but rather a clarification of how narrow this allocation of responsibility actually is. True accountability would indict the entire system that allowed McDonald to be killed. Punishment tends to concern itself with who can be proven guilty, and is more individual-focused as a result. But one man being sent to prison does not compensate for an atrocity whose dimensions transcend any individual. Nor is prison necessarily the answer. Perhaps the three officers acquitted of conspiracy for their role in shaping the narrative around McDonalds death really were not criminally liable. Perhaps Mayor Rahm Emanuels administration was not either, for withholding information about the crime for a year; nor, perhaps, was the ousted prosecutor Anita Alvarez, whose failure to charge Van Dyke until public outcry made her reticence untenable led to her being voted out of office in 2016.

But the absence of a provable crime does not mean that a greater wrong was not done, or that that wrong does not continue to rule the day in Chicago. The conditions that led to McDonalds death are still abundantly present  namely, that the city has chosen to address its history of redlining black residents into pockets of segregated disinvestment and entrenched poverty by submitting them to armed occupation. Sacrificial lambs like Van Dyke, Alvarez, and the dismissed former police superintendent Garry McCarthy give the impression that the city is cleaning house  that bad apples are being shaken out of the tree, paving a path to reform. In reality, it is the tree that needs uprooting, the earth razed around it. Van Dyke may be facing punishment. But it would be a mistake to confuse his punishment with recognition that the responsibility is far more widely distributed, and the wrong more fundamental.Trolley got the better of arch-rival Muscle Diamond for a second straight week in the feature and the Meadowlands paid tribute to civil rights legend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on an action-packed Friday night at the mile oval.

Trolley was at the top of his game once again, and while seven days prior he had luck on his side in the form of clearance in the stretch after a rail trip, this time around he determinedly earned his way to a third win in the $21,000 Preferred Handicap for trotters in his last four tries.

Trolley displayed early speed this time around  a completely different tactic than the week before  before yielding the point grudgingly to even-money favourite Muscle Diamond at the three-eighths.

The twosome sped clear of the field at the half in :55.2 as 5-2 third choice Meladys Monet was activated from fifth, but this would be a two-horse battle to the finish.

Marcus Miller popped Trolley out of the pocket around the far turn, briefly providing cover for Meladys Monet, and had 1-1/4 lengths to make up in the final three-sixteenths.

He chipped away at Muscle Diamonds advantage through the lane before wearing down that foe in deep stretch on the way to a 1-1/4-length win in 1:53.1. Meladys Monet finished third.

As the 9-5 second choice, Trolley returned $5.60 to his backers. He is trained by Erv Miller for owners Michael Anderson, Leland Mathias, Greg Gillis and Louis Willinger. The six-year-old son of Donato Hanover-Lakeside Bride has now won 13 of 27 career starts and earned $313,459.

KING WINS THE KING: Jim King Solomon guided Waltzacrossthewire (1:54 as the 7-5 favourite) to victory in the first race on the card, the Martin Luther King Remembrance Race, which exclusively featured African-American drivers. The event honoured the slain civil rights leader, who was born on Jan. 15, 1929.

Dr. King was always adamant about a better quality of life for black Americans, said Mike Cruse, one of the driving forces behind the event, and not only black Americans, but a better quality of life for all Americans. He was a powerful guy. We have a lot of admiration for him.

New Jersey Senator Shirley Turner (third from left) joins those who participated in the Martin Luther King Remembrance Pace at the Meadowlands on Friday night. Winning driver Jim King Solomon is on the far right. (Lisa Photo)

A LITTLE MORE: For all updates concerning if the Big M will race on Saturday given the impending inclement weather, check playmeadowlands.com.  Corey Callahan had a driving triple on the card while Marcus Miller and Anthony Napolitano had two apiece. Jenn Bongiorno had a training double.  The late 20-cent Jackpot Super High-Five was hit. The lone player holding a ticket with the combination 7-2-6-4-9 in the 14th race walked away with $43,014.58.  All-source wagering on the 14-race program totaled $2,741,370.

(With files from Meadowlands)Zuzana Krnacova was both tested and inspired while working a below-average job in the UK.

My first three years abroad were very difficult. I had a below-average job, with a below average salary. My husband and I lived in conditions I would never have accepted had we stayed in Slovakia.

I learned what poverty is

But things started to improve once I got a grasp of the English language. I started to read books again. Literature became my great step forward.

I gained access to new knowledge  these books were not available in Slovak

Read also: Slovak migrant shares the stories of other migrants to understand her own Read more

When I transitioned into a more profession-oriented job, my life changed. All of a sudden, I had colleagues to discuss things with. I started to feel inspired again. From a mental point of view, I began to develop. It was then that I enrolled in a top Masters program.

Upon returning, I found that I could not use my skills

Moreover, after being away for over 7 years, I didnt know anybody from the professional field. I had to rebuild my network from scratch. This stagnation came as a major shock considering my well-functioning work routine in the UK.

But I knew that I wanted to start something in Slovakia

I wanted to continue to provide therapies directly to schools, just as I had been doing in the UK. My goal was to work with difficult-to-reach children. Try as I might, I could not enter the system. I tried through education, then through health care and even social services. Nothing worked.

There was no tradition of my profession in this country

This led to the realization that it is not possible to directly bring knowledge from abroad. It is like trying to fit a large balloon into a much smaller pocket. In order to fit, it has to break. In order to submit to the system, I had to learn how to walk the line. I eventually began to implement projects in schools, but only under the condition that I would obtain my own funds.

Read also: Blog: Slovakia needs the next big thing, says bookstore CEO Read more

Thats when I began applying for grants

The goal was to help raise the profile of my profession and build a community. I helped to establish a national art therapy association and I joined OZ Artea. We began to organize workshops and conferences to raise awareness. We brought in leading specialists from abroad, and also translated a lot of material into Slovak.

Our vision is to build a center of high international quality

I did not study art psychotherapy with the intention to bring it here. I studied it because I wanted to learn. I would be happy if it was not only me working with these new methods. But I realize it is about finding ways to share your knowledge.

In the UK, the system is already built

In Slovakia, the field is still new. It is an uphill journey, but we are taking steps on different platforms to establish art therapy professionally and in schools.

I am enthusiastic to be part of that change

This testimony was originally published in Zuzana Palovics book, The Great Return. You can learn more about the book as well as Palovics own journey as a Slovak migrant that later returned to Slovakia at http://thegreatreturn.eu/.

19. Jan 2019 at 10:15 | Zuzana Palovic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.



Since the government shutdown began, President Donald Trump has suggested multiple times that the furloughed and unpaid workers are mostly just Democrats. Do the Dems realize that most of the people not getting paid are Democrats? he tweeted on Dec. 27, just days after the shutdown began. Trump repeated the claim a little more than a week later, tweeting that he didnt care that most of the workers not getting paid are Democrats and wanted to reopen the government anyway. The not-so-subtle hint here is that Democratic Partysupporting federal employees are the main ones harmed by the shutdown, so he doesnt have that much reason to care if theyre furloughed or working without pay, or at least he doesnt have as much reason to care as Democrats.

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He suggests that congressional Democrats should give into his wall demand because their constituents are being disproportionately harmed. If this is Trumps strategy, then he has a bigger problem than its ineffectiveness. Taking Democratic federal workers hostage because they are Democrats would violate their constitutional rights and their rights under the civil service laws.

First, some background. A recent analysis by the Washington Post suggests that in the 2018 election, federal employees did make significantly more donations to Democratic candidates than Republicans: Between 60 and 80 percent of donations went to Democrats. This may reflect a relatively small number of highly motivated Democrats making a large number of individual contributions, thanks to online donation systems like ActBlue, but it does suggest a Democratic lean in federal workers political activity. On the other hand, a 2010 Gallup survey (the most recent available) shows the two parties to be close in membership of the federal government: About 27 percent of federal workers in unions are Republican, and 39.5 percent are Democrats. But 32.5 percent of nonunion federal workers are Republican, and about 29 percent are Democrats. (Union membership accounts for only about one quarter of the federal workforce). So Trump is almost certainly correct that his shutdown disproportionately affects Democrats, though perhaps less than he might believe. (Congressional representation of federal workers, for example, is evenly split between the parties.)

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Public employee legal protections now extend to any form of discrimination based on political affiliation.

The bigger issue here is the law. Since the Pendleton Act of 1883, Americas federal workers have been protected from the political patronage systems familiar under President Andrew Jackson and in urban political machines, where political victors would dole out the jobs of the losers party members to their own supporters. Meanwhile, the landmark Supreme Court case of Elrod v. Burns (1976), which challenged the Chicago political machines, established that patronage practices infringe on the First Amendment rights of all public employees to engage in speech and private political activity without fear of reprisal. As the court recognized, allowing politics to determine who works for the public (outside top-level policy positions) harms both employees and the public.

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Public employee legal protections now extend beyond hiring and firing, to any form of discrimination based on political affiliation. Under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, all employees and applicants for employment should receive fair and equitable treatment in all aspects of personnel management without regard to political affiliation  and with proper regard for their privacy and constitutional rights. When the president, the chief executive of federal agencies, denies employees pay and forces them to work because of their party, he is engaging in unfair and inequitable personnel management. Note that a harmful act for the purposes of the law can constitute discrimination against members of a group even if it also affects some nonmembers, and it need not be motivated by a direct purpose of harming that group. Intentionally harming members of a protected group with the motive to extract concessions from someone else is also illegal discrimination.

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There will be some lawyers quibblesfor instance, that the president has not actually acted so as to directly cause harm to the employees (he has, instead, told Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he will not sign any budget unless his wall is funded) or that since the employees are likely to get back pay, they have not been harmed by a management action. But these are flimsy defenses: Trump expressly declared that he personally would own the shutdown as his choice of negotiating strategy. And the incremental decisions to recall more and more personnel to work without pay, evidently to minimize damage to the presidents base, certainly constitute employment actions. The more important barrier comes from the Supreme Courts decision in Trump v. Hawaii (2018), the Muslim ban case, where the court ignored a number of tweets and statements by Trump indicating an anti-Muslim bias. The court said, instead, it would accept the justifications for the immigration restrictions set out later by the Department of Homeland Security. With the Trump shutdown, however, there so far has been no careful elaboration of a legal justification. We have only the presidents tweets and statements. A lawsuit challenging the shutdown on discrimination grounds may be able to find further evidence showing that workers party identity was a central reason Trump chose this strategy.

So far, other constitutional attacks on the shutdown, based in the 13th Amendments protection against forced labor, have failed. Enterprising state attorneys general and employee lawyers should try the First Amendment and the Civil Service Reform Act instead. The integrity of our civil service depends on it.The third annual Womens March took place Saturday as thousands of women gathered in demonstrations across the country that were much smaller than the original march that took place the day after President Donald Trumps inauguration. In the months leading up to this years march, which took place in Washington and in cities across the world, controversy has engulfed the movement amid accusations of racism and anti-Semitism.

Once the march rolled around though none of that seemed to matter to those who decided to attend and demonstrate for womens rights plus a multitude of other issues. I came two years ago. Its definitely smaller, but the spirit is very much alive, a demonstrator tells the New York Times. Its a chance to march, to be with others who are like-minded, to be able to express my energy. People have a lot of say, and that doesnt change.

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As usual, many demonstrators went to the marches armed with funny and poignant sides. Here are some of the best ones.

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AdvertisementOn Monday, when the rest of the country is taking the day off in commemoration of one of Americas civil rights heroes, the denizens of two states will get a remarkable choice: You can celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., or you can celebrate that of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

In Mississippi and Alabama, those days are officially the same, and the civil rights icon and the commander of the Confederate army are celebrated jointly, as two equally noble characters of American history. In Alabama, Lee gets first billing. (Mississippi downplays Lee in official documents). The two states have celebrated Lees birthday since the 1800s and began celebrating Kings in 1983.

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Many in those states who defend the decision to honor Lee with King do so by whitewashing Lees actions and beliefs. In building upon Lost Cause myths and narratives, Lees defenders portray him as a reluctant hero, an honorable man who only with a heavy sadness took the job out of a sense of duty to protect his beloved South. Some will insist that he despised the institution of slavery, and others will emphasize he treated his slaves humanely. The reality, though, is this: Lee led an armyan army that conducted slave hunts of free black Americans and massacred black Union soldiers who tried to surrenderagainst the United States in an uprising for the explicit purpose of maintaining the institution of slavery. And while he was not the most ardent defender of slavery (he once wrote that slavery was a moral & political evil but also complained it was a greater evil to the white man and that black people needed to be enslaved in order to become civilized), he still ordered his slaves whipped and families separated. After the war, he continued to fight against efforts to give black Americans rights.

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As offensive as it is that these two states celebrate the two men togethera decision that, as Jamelle Bouie wrote in 2015, came about out of bureaucratic convenience and a loyalty to their own state holiday in dealing with the new federally mandated holiday for Kingpressure from civil rights groups and more progressive residents has successfully narrowed what was once a more common celebration across the South. In 2015, Georgia struck both Robert E. Lees birthday and Confederate Memorial Day from its state calendar. Two years later, Arkansas ended its practice of celebrating a joint MLK-Robert E. Lee day, instead moving Lee to a downgraded memorial day in October. There have been small movement to have Alabama and Mississippi end their celebration of Robert E. Lee Day, but none of these efforts has succeeded.

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Theres some reason to hope that the remaining few states will eventually abandon their celebration of Lee. Birmingham, the largest city in Alabama and a majority black one, fought a state law protecting Confederate monuments. (The Alabama Supreme Court upheld the state law in November 2019 and hit Birmingham with a $25,000 fine.) But even if King does eventually get sole recognition on the third Monday of January, there will still be more room to go: Several states stick to a Confederate Memorial Day, and Alabama remains the last state to hold onto its legal holiday for the birth of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

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Its true that even in the states where the two figures are celebrated together, most official statements will still focus more on King. Most teachers will focus holiday-related lessons on the civil rights leader as well, and there will be few Lee-focused public events. But there will still be some officials, and likely some educators, who will take the opportunity to repeat myths so often told about a confederate general responsible for a gruesome war in the name of human bondage.Algeria has finally announced the holding of presidential elections among indicators that ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika may run for a fifth term.

The 81-year-old president who has been in power since 1999 has not spoken in public since he suffered a stroke in 2013.

Yet, indicators show that the king makers within the Algerian regime have not agreed on a successor to Bouteflika as the generation that has fought the liberation war passed out.

Algerias ruling party, the FLN, wants the president to continue his mission he started in 1999, as head of the state, the partys Secretary General Djamel Ould Abbes said last year.

Analysts deem that the contending clans within the Algerian regime want to maintain Bouteflika in power as a time buying measure in a sign that bodes ill for the countrys future.

The Algerian regime was long distinguished by its opacity, where power is generally presumed to reside among groups of military leaders, intelligence officials, businessmen, and politicians collectively known as le pouvoir.

In 2014, in light of the presidents failing health, the military thought it unwise for Bouteflika to run for a fourth term. Yet, he did and he won.

If Bouteflika runs for a fifth term, the Algerian regime will leave little hope for a transparent and peaceful transition from Bouteflikas era to the next amid worrying indicators of dwindling oil revenues, social unrest and regional instability.Dont force me out: On a recent episode of Slates daily news podcast What Next, Dahlia Lithwick joined with host Mary Harris to talk about Ruth Bader Ginsburgs health and the people wondering why she didnt step down from the Supreme Court during Obamas presidency. You can read the transcript of their conversation here, in which Lithwick also discusses how the courts first female justice, Sandra Day OConnor, was pushed to resign.

McLosers: The European Union canceled the trademark for  Big Macs (you know, the burger) in favor of an Irish fast-food chain you have probably never heard of. Charles Star explains how the continental intellectual property office came to its antigolden arches stance.

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Actually, you dont gotta hear both sides: Jed Shugerman takes a look at the various government shutdowns of the 80s and 90s to provide some context for the ongoing crisis. One interesting note: Its almost always been Republicans fault, but not for the most obvious reasons.

Went out into the morning and sang: Pulitzer Prizewinning poet Mary Oliver died on Thursday, to the grief of fans everywhere. Rebecca Onion pays tribute by relating her personal history with Olivers work: adoring it early on, growing out of that love, and ultimately sharing in the joy her mother got out of poems like Snow Geese and The Summer Day.

For fun: The twist ending of Glass, explained.

Broken glass everywhere,

NitishWhat does it look like for a legislative stalemate of four weeks, during which time zero progress has been made toward a conclusion, to actually begin getting worse? It looks much like the two central players in the stalemate trolling each other through the cancellation of the others plans.

With progress toward ending the deadlock plunging toward absolute zero, President Donald Trump announced Friday evening that he would be making a major announcement concerning the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border, and the Shutdown, tomorrow afternoon at 3 P.M., live from the [White House]. Speculation was that this might be his long-rumored national emergency declaratione.g., a punt of his wall fight to the courtsand that it might not. But one thing was clear after the most cartoonish week of the shutdown yet: The only fresh ideas coming out of the White House or the Capitol are hijinks.

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Early this week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who determines who is and who isnt allowed to address the House of Representatives, suggested that Trump delay his State of the Union address until the government was reopened. Trump spent a day digging around for the proper countertroll and arrived at canceling her congressional delegations government transport to Brussels and Afghanistan, a trip that had previously been kept under wraps for security purposes. On Friday, the speaker and her delegation gave up on their commercial travel accommodations, blaming the White House for blowing the lid off of that too.

Well go another time, Pelosi told reporters on Friday, expressing unusual confidence that the government would ever reopen.

Its unclear what other items either Pelosi or Trump might have on the schedule that the other could cancel. If theres anything else, each side should pre-emptively cancel their own plans immediately so that we can move on to the next phase of shutdown prankerywhoopee cushions?and then, when all else is exhausted, perhaps some sort of negotiation.

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In other words, no progress was made at the meeting.

With competing pressures keeping the bulk of both parties firmly in their own corners, it has proved quite difficult for smaller, bipartisan gangs in either party to garner any support for even their most small-bore proposals. And really, these gangsone in the House, one in the Senatehave only considered variations of one proposal: Republicans reopening the government along with vague Democratic winking to the president that they might be open to some physical barrier in negotiations afterward.

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On Wednesday, members of the Houses bipartisan, centrist Problem Solvers Caucus visited the White House. The seven Democratic members who attended released a statement afterward saying that there is  strong agreement that if we reopen the government, the possibility exists to work together and find common ground to tackle some of our countrys toughest problems and fix them. Whoever penned that masterstroke of banality deserves a promotion.

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I asked Rep. Tom Reed, the Republican co-chairman of the Problem Solvers Caucus, what progress was made at the meeting.

The step was taken  with Democratic members going to the White House, Reed said. That was a good step. If youre not even going to the room, to the table, to have a conversation, then well never get anywhere. So hopefully this will breed more of those conversations. In other words, no progress was made at the meeting. The caucus was unable to solve this particular problem, where Trump wants wall money as a condition of reopening the government, and Democrats wont negotiate until the government is reopened.

In the Senate, a bipartisan group began meeting on Monday to solve the irresolvable problem. They drafted a letter in which they promised to debate and mark up the presidents border security requestif the president first agreed to sign a bill opening the government for three weeks. The letter, though, only said that the markup would include debating and voting on investments on the Southern border that are necessary, effective, and appropriate to accomplish that goal.

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Much like the statement from the Problem Solvers Caucus, this one wouldnt go so far as to say that Democrats would be willing to throw a few bucks toward the wall. The group had wanted to find language that could get signatures from 20 Republicans and 20 Democrats, but the White House successfully stanched the flow of Republican ink. The letter wasnt sent.

If Trump is refusing to consider anything less than guaranteed money for his wall, and Democrats arent willing to say that theyll give him wall money after he reopens the government, the fourth week of the shutdown ends the same way as the previous three did: with no legislative path out of the shutdown. The only progress made this week was toward a higher level of trolling.Special Counsel Robert Muellers office is normally a tight-lipped operation that almost never releases any kind of comment. But on Friday night the spokesman for the special counsel issued a rare statement to challenge certain aspects of a bombshell BuzzFeed News report that claimed President Donald Trump had directed his lawyer, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress. BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the Special Counsels Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens Congressional testimony are not accurate, the spokesman, Peter Carr, said in a statement. It appeared to mark the first time the special counsel had publicly challenged a news story.

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The BuzzFeed piece had ignited Washington, with several lawmakers saying that if true, the news could be grounds to launch impeachment proceedings against Trump. After the special counsels statement, Trump quickly took to Twitter to retweet several posts that characterized the story as fake news and then tweeted that it was a very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country! He ended a series of tweets on the piece writing, Fake News is truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!

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Remember it was Buzzfeed that released the totally discredited Dossier, paid for by Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats (as opposition research), on which the entire Russian probe is based! A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2019

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The president returned to the piece Saturday, writing that the disgraceful BuzzFeed story & the even more disgraceful coverage is an extreme example of how he has been treated badly by the Mainstream Media. Earlier, the White House had denied the report, with Sarah Huckabee Sanders calling it absolutely ridiculous.

Many people are saying that the Mainstream Media will have a very hard time restoring credibility because of the way they have treated me over the past 3 years (including the election lead-up), as highlighted by the disgraceful Buzzfeed story & the even more disgraceful coverage!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2019

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Trump is known for his regular criticism of Mueller and his team but on Saturday he had nothing but praise for the special counsel. It was a totally phony story, and I appreciate the special counsel coming out with a statement last night, Trump told reporters. It was very appropriate that they did so, I very much appreciate that.

President Trump commented this morning on what he said was a "phony" story by BuzzFeed News: "I appreciate the special counsel coming out with a statement last night. I think it was very appropriate they did so." pic.twitter.com/Lyiui0MKLm  BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) January 19, 2019

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BuzzFeed was standing by its report Friday night. We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what hes disputing, editor Ben Smith wrote on Twitter. In a statement, BuzzFeed said it remained confident in the accuracy of our report. No other publications have managed to independently confirm the story, which cites two unnamed federal law enforcement officials.

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In response to the statement tonight from the Special Counsel's spokesman: We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he's disputing.  Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) January 19, 2019

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The New Yorkers Philip Gourevitch points out that Muellers statement doesnt actually say the BuzzFeed story is false. We cant yet know if the BuzzFeed story is broadly true or false, only that the special counsel statement leaves that open, Gourevitch wrote on Twitter.Listen to Slates The Gist:

Get More of The Gist Slate Plus members get extended, ad-free versions of our podcastsand much more. Sign up today. Join Slate Plus Subscribe to The Gist Copy this link and add it in your podcast app. copy link copied! For detailed instructions, see our Slate Plus podcasts page.

Listen to The Gist via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

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On The Gist, BuzzFeeds new report on Trump.

Earlier this week Rep. Steve King was denounced by much of his party because of remarks he gave to the New York Times about white supremacy. He may have misspoken or chosen to change his wording if given the chance, but according to the Storm Lake Times Art Cullen, who has been covering King for years in Iowa and recently wrote about King in the Guardian, thats just not his style. But his straight talk wont work in Iowa if its riddled with dishonesty. Art Cullen is here to discuss.

In the Spiel, feeding the anger machine.

Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at Slate.com/gistplus.

Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook.

Email: thegist@slate.com

Twitter: @slategist

Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Pierre Bienaime.On Wednesdays episode of The Gist, Mike Pesca spoke with the New Yorkers Adam Davidson about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezs idea that Americas highest earners should have a marginal tax rate of 70 percent. A transcript of their conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, has been reprinted below.

Mike Pesca: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez injected the idea that maybe we should have marginal tax rates of or approaching 70 percent. The intellectual underpinnings of this idea was a paper that came out a few years ago by Peter Diamond and Emmanuel Saez, and they decided 73 percent would be a good rate. Its about twice as high as the highest tax rate on the federal level now. What do you think of it?

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Adam Davidson: There are a few ways to think about taxation. A lot of economists talk about tax efficiency or tax optimization, and that framework is very mechanistic. Its simply saying, all right, theres a country, and theres economic activity in that country, and theres a government that needs funding. What is the way to fund the government so that it has the least impact on the economic activity? If there are values there, they would be: We dont want citizens and business owners spending a lot of time thinking about tax policy, going into some businesses because theres a tax advantage, or leaving other activities because theres some negative tax implication.

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You dont want the tax rules warping the optimal way to organize society.

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Exactlyand for a whole host of reasons, including that that creates corruption. The oil and gas industry gets a lot of tax subsidies. Those make us poorer overall, those reward people not for adding productive goods and services to our economy but for just being able to lobby the right politicians to get a tax rate this way and that. In the long term, if you have an economy thats largely driven by government fiat, making tax policy out of a lobbying process, youre just not going to get as good an economy as you are compared to if people are making their own choices based on what will succeed or fail in the marketplace.

From a tax efficiency standpoint, theres actually fairly little distance between left-leaning and right-leaning economists.

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Good, consensus.

If I remember correctly, it might be off by a tiny amount, but it was like Mitt Romneys top marginal tax rate was 34.6 [Editors note: 28], Obamas was 39.6. So were talking about pretty small differences that somehow were turned into the difference between tyranny and freedom. Id say most economists do believe that poorer people should not only pay less tax, but they should pay a lower percentage of their incomes and that below some income level, poor people shouldnt pay any tax at all and could even, as we do, have an earned income tax credit, where theyre actually paid money.

Under that rubricand they run these mathematical models with artificial intelligence and machine learning, etc.theres something called the effective tax rate, which is basically: How much did you actually spend as a percentage of your income? You rarely get a tax rate above 30 percent, 28 percent, 30 percent. Again, this is with very few or no deductions.

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Listen to The Gist via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

We want to use the tax code to encourage certain actions.

And as a general rule, everyone likes the tax deductions they get and is against the tax deductions they dont get.

So why would you want to get all the way up to 73 percent? What would be the reason? It certainly creates distortions. When theres a marginal tax rate of 73 percent, very, very few people actually pay that, and that was true in America when we did have a marginal tax rate even higher, first of all. Second of all, theres just not a lot of people who make $10 million a year. So even if you taxed them at 100 percent, its just not that much money because theres so few of them.

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Right.

Its not going to really solve a lot of fiscal problems. Its not going to dramatically increase the amount of money coming into the government.

Proponents say it would create the opportunity to have Medicare for All.

Oh no, its not even a tiny fraction. Youre literally talking about a drop of water versus an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The numbers are so wildly out of whack.

People seem to gloss over the fact that, except for a few states, people also pay state tax and often local taxes. There was this example going around of how much The Rock (the actor) would pay, and I guess they were trying to point out it wouldnt be 70 percent of all his income. It would only be 70 percent of the income over $10 million, and the ultimate lesson was, Oh, look at how many millions he would still have. However, since hes a California resident making a lot of money, a lot of it gets taxed at 13.3 percent.

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So if the rate is 70 or 73 percent, hes paying about 86 percent in taxes. Not only are their calculations off, but at a certain pointand I would think around 86 percent would be that pointhes just going to turn down projects.

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Or hes going to do them in another country, where theyre different.

Sure, hes not going to make that 65 percent, if anything over $10 million will be, Oh, instead of your $8 million payday, it will literally be a $1 million payday. He is not going to do that for a $1 million payday! Thats distorting, I think would be the word that an economist would use.

Its a huge disincentive, and it distorts how the economy works.

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The big issue, and this is something Saez and Diamond talk about, is we dont have a global tax system, so you can relocate to another country, and countries can compete to attract wealthy people. We saw this with Gerard Depardieu saying hes going to move to Russia for tax reasons.

Steven Seagal just did it for artistic reasons by the way.

The classic example is Jamaica, where Michael Manley, the prime minister in the 70s, said, Were going to tax millionaires very heavily, and for any millionaire who doesnt like that, theres three planes a day to Miami, or something to that effect. And they took him up on it, and Jamaica is no question a poorer country.

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Now that doesnt then mean, Oh, so we have to do whatever the rich want because Im afraid theyre going to leave. And I tend not to be for pro-rich policies, and I would like tax rates higher, but I think, as a rule of thumb, certainly when you get above 50 percent as the marginal tax rate, youre really pushing people away. And thats the full marginal tax rate, so that would include state and local taxes.

This is why its always been compelling to me.

The Republicans will always argue, whenever you want to raise taxes a bit, Youre going to disincentivize work. And they do a lot of studies on this, and it shows that youre not going to disincentivize work from a highest federal tax rate of 35 to 39 percent. But, as you say, once you get over 50, you might, and back when the tax rate was 94 percent, of course it disincentivized work.

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I remember interviewing and reading the biography of Johnny Carsons accountant and lawyer, Henry Bushkin. And he would talk about how there were all these opportunities that Carson had and he just didnt want to take him up on them because he was getting taxed at the time at 94 percent. So of course he added less wealth to the economy.

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Another really good compelling argument is: A lot of times therell be a very rich person, and he might be married or she might be married, but almost always he might be married to someone who wants to be a teacher. But once you start filing jointly at 90 percent, do you really want to go and be a teacher for $13 a week?

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Yeah. What seems like a more radical idea but is probably more economically soundbut in an American context is super radicalis taxing wealth. Income is what I make this year. Wealth is what I have.

Youre literally talking about a drop of water versus an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The numbers are so wildly out of whack.  Adam Davidson

Is that doable, literally?

Technically doable. Its tricky. Youre literally looking at your computer and, like, how much value is left? Its kind of beat upis there $800 left? $300? So theres tricks and issues youd have to face because its not just money in the bank; its how much actual wealth you havehow much silverware you have, how many nice paintings you have. Its a costly process to assess.

Of course, the problem is that a wealth tax would be created like any tax: through a political process that is overly dominated by the wealthy. So it is very hard to conceive of, but if I had Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezs platform, I feel like the thing Id be lobbying for is a wealth tax.

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Wealth inequality is a huge problem.

Wealth inequality might be the problem.

How much of that problem is because of a screwed-up tax code? How much of that problem can be solved with anything related to taxes?

I think taxes are the main tool, and we know famously theres racial disparity and gender disparity in income. Wealth, especially multigenerational wealth, is a similar problem in which there are extreme racial and gender differences, but its a different sort of problem. A lot of intergenerational wealth is not Bill Gates deciding whether to leave billions of dollars to his kids.

But if youre in a world where youre going to get, say, $35,000 when youre 28, and that allows you to put a down payment on a home or to go to graduate school or to start a business  it sets you off on a totally different kind of income and wealth dynamic that will then transfer to your children and their children.

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And you want to take that, Adam? You want to take that $35,000 and make it $32,500 with your tax?

I do. Because, to oversimplify our economy, the shot we got at being good for everybody is growth, even though some people dont like the word growth in an economic context. That doesnt mean bigger buildings or faster cars. It simply means we know how to do more stuff. Theres more stuff out there, and that stuff comes from people thinking up new ideas, people making better products or making the same products cheaper. Growth is more like knowledge than things, and thats our shot. If someone else wants to come up with another shot, OK, but right now that is the economy we live in.

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If you want your life and your childrens lives to be better, and you want your neighbors life to be better in the future, that comes from growth. And having some significant percentage of economic activity focused on preserving wealth is the opposite of growth. It is holding on. Its preventing growth. Its stopping forward momentum.

And they start manipulating government. They start lobbying for their position. They start putting their cronies in power, etc. I think we clearly see that. The Trump administration is almost a comically extreme version of it, where you have someone who inherited his wealth, squandered much of it but kept enough, and hired a bunch of other people, many of whom inherited wealth, in order to make America even better for people who inherited wealth. Its a very bad system.

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Yeah.

I mean, my wifes great-grandfather invented something called the Banbury mixer.

Oh, sure, DJs everywhere use it!

No, no, no, its crucial in the rubber industry. It mixes rubber in a very special way that I dont understand.

Im thinking of a different one.

And his son, my wifes grandfather, never worked a day in his life. Now to my great frustration, he, I think, spent his last dollar on the day he died, so Im not benefiting from that. But we dont want an economy filled with people who dont have to work or whose work is preserving the wealth that their great-grandfathers made. Thats a bad economy. And so I dont think income tax is the best. I think its crucial, and Im for an income tax, but I think wealth tax is where its at.

Were going to have 20 people running for president on the Democratic side. If one of them said wealth tax, would your ears perk up, and youd maybe give that person an extra hard look?

Yes. Combined with the fact that obviously Im a political realist, and I know, oh, OK, that person is definitely not going to be president.

You really think so?

Preserving the wealth of very rich people: Thats our thing. I think you would lose a lot of the Democratic fundraising people, and I think theres a lot of not-rich Republicans who, for a whole host of complex reasons, have adopted an anti-tax view as some kind of moral core.

Like how estate tax polls poorly, even though it helps almost everyone and hurts almost no one.

Exactly. So I think wealth tax would be tough.This article is published through a partnership with New York Medias Strategist. The partnership is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. Every editorial product is independently selected by New York Media. If you buy something through our links, Slate and New York Media may earn an affiliate commission.

If you care about your fancy bras and underwear at all, you should be hand-washing them  or so the story goes. In reality, who has the time? I am a professional costume designer (shameless plug), paid to know how to take care of clothes  but even I toss my bras and underwear directly into the washing machine. While its not ideal, its also not as bad as you think  because I do take the time to pack them in a nifty zip-top, mesh lingerie bag first. I always knew those mesh washing bags (called lingerie bags because theyre used to launder sexy undergarments) were a good idea, but never used them religiously until there was an episode with a pair of tights and my washing machine that was so bad, scissors and a repairman had to get involved.

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After that experience, I now put everything that might need protection from an aggressive washing machine into the bags: tights, bras, underwear, stockings, leggings, slips, and swimsuits  basically anything delicate, prone to snagging, or silky. Even inexpensive polyester dresses from chain stores, linen pieces, and vintage items that may have fragile seams will benefit from the protection a mesh wash bag gives. They are also a good way to make sure your socks dont get lost in the washer or dryer, if you are a person who cares about wearing matching socks. I even put my dog leashes in one when they need a good wash, in order to keep them from clanging around in the wash and getting tied up in knots.

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But not all mesh lingerie bags are created equal  Ive owned a dozen different styles that stunk. They either ripped open in the middle of a wash cycle, had holes so large that bra straps could sneak out and hang themselves on other things I was washing them with, or featured zippers that either rusted (leaving brown spots on my fancy lingerie) or got bent out of shape and snagged the very items I was trying to protect. Thats why my new go-to set of lingerie wash bags is made of a superfine net material that allows soap and water in easily, but keeps all items safely inside. They feature a plastic zipper that obviously wont rust, and even have a flap that covers the zipper to keep it from catching, unzipping, or clinking against the inside of the machine annoyingly. The biggest ones are perfect for expensive gym clothes that need a little TLC, and the smallest size fits one bra nicely. They will change your laundry life for the better, forever. Just try not to think of all the ruined items you could have salvaged over the years by simply investing eight bucks in a set of these.

Other Laundry Products We Love

Writer Chris Cohen calls Fels-Naptha the best soap for workout clothes: Once Im done with my normal post-run rinse-off, I give the clothes a quick scrub with the soap, roll everything around for a few seconds, then hold them up to the shower head to wash the suds out. The whole process takes less than a minute, and the next day, I have dry, sweat-stink-free clothes ready to go.

Maxine Builder quickly follows her stains with a Spray n Wash Pre-Treat Stain Stick: Immediately after a stain happens, I rub the product onto the spot and the fabric, and let it sit for as long as possible. Before I go to sleep, Ill wash the product out in the sink with cold water, wring it out, and let it dry. When I wake up, the stain has lifted and the clothing is ready to wear again, with no one the wiser.

If youd still prefer to hand-wash delicates, try this Japanese washbasin recommended by Sadie Stein: I like to put my unmentionables to soak with a little Woolite, or Forever New; soak them overnight; and then give them a good swish and rinse. And its washboard, of course, is for cleaning underpants (or as some men like to call them, panties). I imagine if you were wanting to wash up any evidence of a murder, it would be very useful, too.

Slate has relationships with various online retailers. If you buy something through our links, Slate may earn an affiliate commission. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. All prices were up to date at the time of publication.Though theyre often mentioned in the same breath, Hitchcock and ScullyBrooklyn Nine-Nines laziest, most accident-prone detectivesare actually very different people. Michael Hitchcock (played by Dirk Blocker) is an incorrigible pervert and brimming with unearned confidence, ready to get an ill-advised tattoo of his own face or whip his shirt off at a moments notice. Norm Scully (Joel McKinnon Miller) is more of an unlucky schlub, susceptible to heart attacks and Nigerian email scams, with a hidden cache of surprising talents. He sings opera, speaks French, knows Morse code, and is a jigsaw puzzle wizard, but hes frequently interrupted before he can finish explaining how he mastered all those skills.

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Scully is well used to being interrupted, because he and Hitchcock are Brooklyn Nine-Nines go-to punching bags. Though they rarely get storylines of their own, theyre almost always the butt of the joke, even when theyre just hanging out in the background. For Halloween, they dress up as mustard and  mustard. They scarf down potato chips when theyre supposed to be on a hunger strike. And theyre dismissed and mocked by the rest of the squad for their ineptitude: When the precinct goes on lockdown and Hitchcock is trapped outside on a balcony, the captains response is Good, sounds like we dodged a bullet there.

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On paper, its hard to reconcile the squads treatment of Hitchcock and Scully with the overarching spirit of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which over its six seasons has distinguished itself from other, cringier workplace comedies with its optimism, inclusivity, and sweetness. The writers have had to walk a careful line to maintain that sweetness while the rest of the ensemble subjects Hitchcock and Scully to near-constant ridicule. If the audience feels too sorry for them, it could spoil the jokeor worse, make the heroes look like bullies. Somehow, though, that never seems to happen, maybe because weve seen prototypes of Hitchcock and Scully on other sitcoms. Theyre not just ordinary punching bags but a specific kind of character that has emerged over the past decade: the older white man who finds himself out of touch with the rest of the much younger and more diverse cast.

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Community had Pierce Hawthorne, the racist, misogynist heir to a moist-towelette empire whose desperation to be liked was matched only by his determined unlikability. Pierce was a punchline on Community from the very beginning, but the show was, true to form, self-aware about making him one; plus, as time went on and he grew more and more overtly villainous, it was difficult to argue that Pierce didnt deserve it. Parks and Recreation went in the other direction with Jerry Gergich, the affable klutz and office scapegoat. The disdain for Jerry (whose real name is Garry, but is such a pushover that he answers to Larry and Terry) was a rare mean streak on Parks and Rec that persisted even as the show grew gentler over time. The writers compensated by giving Jerry an idyllic home life: His daughters are devoted, his gorgeous wife adores him, and he has the biggest penis his doctor has even seen. He loves even the most menial, envelope-stuffing parts of his job, and he reacts to his colleagues barbs with a patience that borders on beatific.

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On the surface, Hitchcock and Scully are in the same mold as Pierce and Jerry, paragons of mediocrity who failed upward and are living in a changed world they cant fully understand. But they work so well on the show because they occupy a middle ground between the two, neither villains nor saints, just buffoons. It helps that there are two of them, too: Their colleagues might be cruel and their home lives might be a mess, but Hitchcock and Scully always have each otherand, as it turns out, theyre happy to be underestimated together. In Season 2s Sabotage, the show began chipping away at the partners characterization as useless, sloppy desk jockeys by putting them on an extortion case, where they prove to be perfectly competent when they want to bethough they urge Charles not to tell anyone about their success, lest they be given more responsibility. They did their field investigating in the 70s and 80s, they explain, and now they just want to sit in their chairs and do paperwork. If were away from our desks for too long, theyll update our computers, and well lose Minesweeper.

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Since then, though, Hitchcock and Scully have remained mostly sidelined, and even their subsequent victories have fed into their doofus personas, saving the day by sweating in abundance or performing Olympic-level feats of sitting. Until this week, that is, when they stepped into the spotlight once again, with an episode that opens on a flashback to their past adventures. The joke of the origin story is that everything went downhill for Hitchcock and Scully after a case in 1986, when Flat Top and the Freak, as they were known, were at the top of their gameand hot!but fell victim to the temptations of a Hooters-style restaurant called Wing Slutz. (Here, the writers engage in a little revisionism: Jake insists hes personality-shaming Hitchcock and Scully rather than body-shaming them, but the show has a well-established history of fat jokes.) Still, even that is tempered by some typical Brooklyn Nine-Nine compassion: Hitchcock and Scully only became addicted to Wing Slutz because they were helping an informant escape her vengeful husband.

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Community and Parks and Rec both acknowledged their punching bags as such, featuring storylines where that person was removed from the group and the other characters immediately started sniping at each other, the point being that in their absence, all that meanness had to go somewhere. Brooklyn Nine-Nine spreads it around a bit more (Charles and occasionally Amy get their share of the mockery) but is happy to keep firing most of the bullets at Hitchcock and Scully. After all, they can take ittheir bulletproof vests are made out of slut sauce.But Senate Republicans said that rule was excluded only because it was superfluous. They said other Senate rules make clear that all subcommittee meetings must be made public.

Subcommittee meetings were not always public; the rules being ditched by Senate Republicans in some committees were put on the books in the mid-2000s. But with the requirement that they be open to the public, subcommittee meetings have become the stage of the legislative process that features the most public participation.

When a bill is working its way through the Legislature, the subcommittee meetings are when any interest group, lobbyist or individual from the public can attend and express their feelings to legislators.

By the time a bill reaches the next step, the full committee meeting, the public cannot weigh in. The bill is debated only among legislators.

Eliminating that public subcommittee meeting would remove a crucial step in the legislative process. It would remove the ability for the public to offer support for or express concern over a bill, and it would hamper the ability of reporters to provide a complete picture of the debate around a piece of legislation.Kaylee Van Dyke, also 17, said the media "twists events, making people create negative thoughts." She said police officers don't care about people's color, "they care about your safety." She also said she regrets all the times she didn't hug her father.

Keith Thompson described his brother-in-law as a "gentle giant" and not a "monster." Thompson, who is black and whose wife is the sister of Van Dyke's wife, said he has never seen anything to indicate that Van Dyke is racist in the 13 years they've been acquainted.

Van Dyke's sister, Heidi Kauffunger, told the court that her brother has been abandoned by family and friends since he was charged. She begged the court for mercy and said if her brother goes to prison the family "will lose everything." She says Van Dyke's two daughters have been bullied and that the older one even had the words "16 shots" written on her school desk.

Because Illinois judges are typically required to sentence defendants for the most serious crime of which they are convicted, attorneys made arguments about the severity of the offenses, as governed by the state's complex guidelines. Judge Vincent Gaughan's decision on that point will help determine the sentence.We have seen this playbook before  like when the media tried to defeat President (Donald) Trump by calling him a racist, King wrote in a Wednesday fundraising email. "We know how that worked out, don't we?"

Twice in two weeks, two female Democratic U.S. senators came to Sioux City in their first Iowa swing while hearing out Iowans as they consider running for president in 2020.

The first was Elizabeth Warren on Jan. 5, and then Gillibrand on Friday. Earlier this week, Gillibrand announced forming an exploratory committee, the first step toward launching a presidential campaign. Her first stop in Iowa was in Sioux City, with subsequent events to come Saturday in Boone, Ames and Des Moines.

At Coffeeworks, Jeanette Hopkins said it is pleasing to see Sioux City figure prominently in the Iowa stops by Democrats who may pull the string on presidential campaigns.

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"It is really cool that they are coming and that they are coming early," Hopkins said.Weather Alert

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM CDT THIS EVENING... * WHAT...Heat index values 105 to 110 expected. * WHERE...Most of eastern Nebraska and southwest Iowa. * WHEN...Until 8 PM CDT this evening. * IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat illnesses to occur. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1. &&Inside an ordinary ancestral shrine in a village in southern China, where locals pay respects to their forebears, hang photographs of two unusual figures: former Thailand prime ministers Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra.

Everyone here knows about their ties to this place, for sure, said Xie Yimin, a home supplies shop owner in Taxia village in Guangdong province, four hours drive from Guangzhou.

Brother and sister Thaksin and Yingluck are fourth-generation Chinese immigrants in Thailand and descended from a family of Hakkas. Their great-grandfather Seng Saekhu, like many others from the Guangdong cities of Meizhou and Chaozhou, left China in the late 19th century for what was then Siam, where he grew wealthy from trading and taxation businesses.

Before each went into self-imposed exile after being ousted as Thai leader by military governments in 2006 and 2014 respectively, Thaksin and Yingluck had become familiar to Taxia. With the help of the Chinese government during his term as leader, Thaksin was able to trace their ancestral roots to the village. He first visited it in 2005, before returning with his sister in 2014.

The siblings portraits were placed in the centre of an array of photos of prominent descendants of the village with the clan surname Qiu.

Being distant relatives [of the Shinawatras] was something people liked to talk about, Xie said.

But not any more.

Thaksin  ranked 19th on US business magazine Forbes 2018 Thailands 50 Richest list, with a net worth of US$1.8 billion  was ousted as prime minister in a military coup in 2006, fleeing abroad to avoid a corruption charge. He was convicted in absentia in 2008 and sentenced to two years in jail.

Yingluck, who made her name as an executive in the telecoms and property businesses founded by her brother, was sentenced to five years in prison in absentia in 2017 for mishandling rice subsidies that resulted in huge losses to state coffers. She fled the country ahead of the verdict and said the case was politically motivated.

Story continues

The siblings have made plenty of high-profile trips in the past year, including appearances in China, Singapore and Japan. But it was quiet in Taxia when they arrived for their latest ancestral visit on January 5. According to the Chinese media, the pair stopped at the shrine to pay their respects.

This was nothing like their previous visit, said Xie, whose shop is a minutes walk from the shrine. Ever since Yinglucks scandal, we were asked to give the relations between them and our village a lower profile.

[Villagers] only found out they were coming half an hour beforehand because police started blocking the roads. We were informed a week in advance last time, Xie said, adding that villagers were asked to stay away, with only government officials and some distant relatives being allowed near the visitors. She said they stayed for half an hour.

As much as China loves to play up the ancestral roots of prominent and successful overseas Chinese figures, the red carpet that was once rolled out for the Shinawatra siblings has been rolled away.

During their previous return to Taxia, photos in the ancestral hall show, the local government organised a feast for them and locals to enjoy against a giant display that read Welcome back Thaksin and Yingluck.

This time, Yingluck posted a short video on Instagram of her and her brother visiting Taxia, showing them getting out of a car and being greeted by eager and smiling Chinese locals. However, all relevant Chinese state media photos and articles about their visit were deleted within a day.

Their brief stop also missed out one of the ports of call on Thaksins previous two visits: the ancestral home of their mother, an hours drive from Taxia.

The house sits on a small hill in Meijiao village, where pomelo trees are a common sight. A 2012 plaque on an outside wall of the 200-year-old yellow concrete building identifies it as a protected heritage site, commemorating the place where the mother of Thaksin and Yingluck lived. She resided there for two years in her brief return to China during the second world war, according to Chinese state media.

Five years ago, the siblings had a photo taken in front of the house with their oldest living relative, who state media reported was the wife of their mothers cousin. Aged about 90, she still lives alone in the run-down abode, her neighbours said.

With its shattered windows, broken doors and stove, and a floor covered in leaves and chicken droppings, it is a world away from the affluent lives of Thaksin and Yingluck.

When they visited last time, the local government did try to fix the house a bit, mend the walls and clean it, said Li Dongling, who runs a pomelo business in the village.

But they never came again. Sometimes I see the old lady and I feel sorry that she lives in such ruins  it looks like the house could collapse at any time, said Li, who has lived in the village for over 20 years.

But this [the association with the Shinawatras] doesnt bring any benefit to us as a village. We rely on ourselves for our living.

Qiu Mingqian, a Taxia village committee member of the Communist Party, said plans to preserve the Shinawatras family history had been put on hold indefinitely.

The government wanted to preserve some heritage related to them and revitalise the ancestor temple, Qiu said. Somehow the plan never went ahead, for political reasons.

While Chinas reception for the Shinawatras has cooled, the reverse has been true for the family heritage of another Southeast Asian leader, whose ancestral home is 80km (50 miles) away.

By the junction leading to Tangqi village in Dapu county, also in Meizhou, stands a large sign that reads Lee Kuan Yews Homeplace Tourist Area  referring to Singapores first prime minister, known as its founding father and a fourth-generation Straits Chinese.

In the village itself, newly paved roads, an artificial lake, security cameras and an automatic lighting system can be found alongside hundred-year-old traditional Chinese terraced houses with grey tilted roofs.

A new two-storey Lee Kuan Yew memorial hall and a tourist centre stand in the middle of the village, while a house described as Lees ancestral home is marked by two plaques about the architecture.

These form part of a 30 million yuan (US$4.5 million) project launched by the local government in 2014 to turn the tiny village of about 300 residents into a rural tourist site honouring the man who governed Singapore for three decades and oversaw its 1965 separation from Malaysia.

Lee, who died in 2015, had said that his great-grandfather Li Muwen came from Tangqi village and moved to Singapore to do business. Li later left his family  Lees ancestors  in Singapore to return to China in 1884, building the house and starting another family there.

Despite the efforts to tie Lees name to Tangqi, Lee and his descendants  including current Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong  have never set foot in the place.

This [entire project] was a Chinese initiative; the Singapore government never acknowledged it, said He Yaohong, a member of museum staff who is also a village cadre. The Lee family is already head of state of another country and would never want to be called Chinese.

She said visitors to Tangqi, numbering a few hundred to a thousand per month, were mostly Chinese or Singaporean Chinese.

There was a rumour that Lee Kuan Yews younger brother had visited in 2005, but no visits were expected from the more powerful members of the family, she said.

The government did inform Singapore about building this tourist spot, because we are using Lees name and image, He said.

We are just using his name for our own purpose, and as long as both sides are all right with this, everything is fine.

This article Shinawatras out, Lee Kuan Yew in: Asian leaders differing treatment by Chinas ancestry tourism 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:After being locked up and forced to work in harsh conditions in northeast China for up to six years, 52 men were freed in April last year when one of them finally escaped and reported the case to police.

The 13 men who ran the four syndicates that lured them into slavery were sentenced to jail terms of one to six years by a Harbin court in December.

Shocking details have now emerged in the slavery case, with two of the victims telling their stories to Chinese news site Thepaper.cn.

The men are from provinces across China but they all had one thing in common  they were struggling to find work because of physical disabilities, mental illness, a lack of education or homelessness.

The syndicates preyed on them as they looked for jobs in train stations or at labour markets, where rural migrant workers usually go to find employment in the city, the news outlet reported on Saturday.

They were taken to the northeast of the country, where they were locked up when they were not working and guarded by syndicate members around the clock. Their ID cards, mobile phones and money were taken away and the victims said if they tried to escape, they would be beaten with shovels and other tools.

We had to work every day and there was not a single day of rest, even during Chinese New Year, Sun Haida, one of the victims, told Thepaper.cn.

Syndicate members would take them to work at places such as construction sites, fertiliser plants, grain warehouses, logging operations and dairy farms in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang province, according to the report.

Wherever they were working, the syndicates rented accommodation nearby. More than a dozen men would have to share a small room, and they were locked in.

The victims told the news site the work day ran from early in the morning until late at night  sometimes until 2am.

Sun said at one stage they were forced to work for two days and nights without sleep at a fertiliser plant in Harbin, while at a state-run warehouse in the province, they spent three days and nights hauling bags of grain. He said anyone who slowed down or complained they were tired was punched or beaten with iron hooks and wooden sticks.

Story continues

According to the court documents, supervisors  some of whom had been slaves themselves  beat at least two of the workers so badly they caused internal bleeding.

The news website also quoted Sun and another victim as saying they had witnessed the deaths of at least two men, but those deaths were not mentioned during the court trial.

According to Sun, many of the men were unable to shower for several years and did not have access to basic necessities like a toothbrush and toothpaste.

They ate basic meals of rice and vegetables, and twice a month they were given roast duck.

Sun is from Qiqihar in Heilongjiang, and was one of the few victims who had been in good mental and physical health. Now 28, Sun was lured by syndicate members by the promise of work when he was at a railway station in Harbin.

He told the news site he had tried to escape during the five years he was kept as a slave  but his attempt to run away after being beaten failed when he was caught by the syndicate master, Liu Zhenhua. Sun said it had taken him a while to remember his name when he was eventually freed by police because for five years he had only been referred to by his captors as No 25.

Another victim, 36-year-old Zhou Gang from Liaoning province, also attempted to escape. He told the news site he decided to run when he had been set to work digging up wild medicinal herbs in the mountains. Zhou said he managed to run for 65km (40 miles) but eventually Liu caught him, and he was severely beaten with a shovel after he was taken back. Liu was jailed for four years.

Zhou, who has a seven-year-old daughter, was kept as a slave for four years and also sent to different locations to work. He also said he had been denied a shower in that time.

Since Zhou was rescued, he has struggled with health problems that began when he was locked up.

He has seizures that last for three to four hours every time, his father told Thepaper.cn.

Zhou and Sun were both carrying heavy bags of fertiliser at a private factory just 70km away from Harbin when they were found by police last year, after the escapee reported the case in March.

The factory owner said he had outsourced the work six months earlier and was not aware that the subcontractor was using forced labour.

Zhou and Suns families said they were now exploring legal options to seek compensation for their years of unpaid work.

This article Not a single day of rest: victims reveal details of modern slavery case in China first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019.Imam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Hafeez set up a five-wicket win for Pakistan in the first one-day international against South Africa at St George's Park on Saturday. The left-handed Imam made a cultured 86 off 101 balls and Hafeez hit an unbeaten 71 off 63 deliveries as Pakistan chased down a target of 267 with five balls to spare. Hashim Amla's 27th one-day international century was not enough for South Africa, who lost only two wickets in scoring 266 runs after winning the toss. Pakistan's bowlers deserved credit for their team's win, which came after the tourists were well-beaten in all three Test matches. Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed used his bowlers in short spells and their mixture of seam and spin proved better suited to a slow pitch than South Africa's attack. South African strike bowlers Kagiso Rabada and Duanne Olivier conceded a combined 124 runs in 19.1 overs. The Pakistan batsmen also proved better at rotating the strike, particularly during a 94-run second-wicket stand between Imam and Babar Azam (49). Amla (108 not out) and new cap Hendrick Rassie van der Dussen (93) put on 155 for South Africa's second wicket but although they gradually increased the tempo of their partnership they were unable to dominate the bowling. "Those two guys batted really well but there were probably 15 or 20 more runs that we could have scored if we had pushed a bit harder," said South African captain Faf du Plessis. "Pakistan bowled really well in the middle overs." Man of the match Hafeez said: "We were confident because we knew 266 was not a par score on this track. The first win of the series is very important." Hafeez said an aggressive opening stand of 45 off 50 balls by Imam and Fakhar Zaman had given Pakistan momentum which was continued during the partnership between Imam and Azam. Seamer Hasan Ali and leg-spinner Shadab Khan were the best Pakistan bowlers and the only two who bowled their full quota of ten overs, taking one for 42 and one for 41 respectively. Pakistan looked to be cruising to an easy win until Imam was dismissed in the 37th over when he stepped out of his crease and sliced an attempted drive to deep cover. Two more wickets fell cheaply before Hafeez and Shadab saw their side home, maintaining an unbeaten record for Pakistan in five one-day matches in Port Elizabeth, four of them against South Africa. Amla and Reeza Hendricks (45) put on 82 off 105 balls for the first wicket before Van der Dussen made a slow start in his first one-day international, taking ten balls to score his first run. Van der Dussen gained confidence as he hit six fours and three sixes in a 101-ball innings before hitting a full toss from Hasan to long-off in the 47th over. Amla made his runs off 120 balls with seven fours and a six.Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic's relentless drive towards more Australian Open glory cranked up another gear Saturday with third round drubbings, as Naomi Osaka and Elina Svitolina survived big scares to stay in the hunt. On day six at Melbourne Park, 23-time Grand Slam Williams crushed Ukrainian teenager Dayana Yastremska 6-2, 6-1 before consoling her at the net as she burst into tears. The 37-year-old, seeded 16, has dropped just nine games in her three matches so far and will face either sister Venus or world number one Simona Halep for a berth in the quarter-finals. "I just play each match at a time, play as hard as I can and do the best I can. That really is all you can do," she said as she zeroes in on an eighth Australian title. She also had some words of encouragement for 18-year-old Yastremska. "She was amazing, she came out swinging. To be so young she came out ready to go." Next up could be misfiring Halep, who is returning from a herniated disc and has limped through her first two matches, taken to three sets in both. Or it may be her sister, who is still going strong 21 years after playing for the first time in Melbourne. Fourteen-time Grand Slam winner and top seed Djokovic is gunning for a record seventh crown at the Open. He dropped a set for the first time this year against fast-rising Canadian Denis Shapovalov, before demolishing him in the final stanza to win 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0. "I just tried to be in the moment and weather the storm," said the Serb, who was unsettled when the lights were switched on in Rod Laver Arena for television reasons, despite it still being daylight. "Completely unnecessary to turn on the lights," he said in roasting the organisers. Djokovic's victory means he is guaranteed to stay world number one when the new rankings are released after the tournament. He next plays another young gun, Russia's 15th seed Daniil Medvedev, who eased past 21st seed David Goffin and has yet to drop a set. Fourth-seeded Osaka looked down and out against Taiwanese veteran Hsieh Su-wei before battling back to win 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 and set up a last 16 meeting with Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova. - 'Die or win' - Osaka's win equals the 21-year-old's best performance at the Australian Open, where she reached the last 16 in 2018 but lost to Halep. But she looked headed for the exit when she conceded the first set and was down 4-1 in the second, before winning five straight games to force a decider. "I just didn't want to give up," said the Japanese, who received a code violation after throwing her racquet. "I really love Grand Slams so I did anything I could do to stay here a bit longer." Svitolina struggled with a painful shoulder complaint that required treatment at every changeover, and medical timeouts, before somehow beating China's Zhang Shuai 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 as the temperature rose in the centre court sunshine. "We left everything on court today," said Svitolina, who scored her biggest career win by clinching the WTA Finals in Singapore last October. "I just told myself 'you're going to die or win'." She will meet 17th seeded American Madison Keys, who beat Belgian 12th seed Elise Mertens. Eighth seed Kei Nishikori made it back-to-back victories for Japan, following Osaka on court, by beating Portugal's 44th-ranked Joao Sousa in three sets. The 29-year-old has won all three of his first week matches on Margaret Court Arena to reach the last 16 for the seventh time in nine appearances. "I love to play this court, I'm very comfortable here," said the 2014 US Open finalist after delighting a large contingent of Japanese fans. He next plays Spain's 23rd seed Pablo Carreno Busta.Jose Bonilla-Mejia was indicted in February 2018 in Ohio along with 22 other defendants, all alleged to be members and associates of the ColumEarlier this week, we presented an ominous for the world economy chart: namely the collapse of global money supply which has been declining rapidly over the last year and a half. In fact, global money supply growth (using M1) is now flirting with the lows seen in mid-2008. And while some economies, such as China, are now desperately trying to pivot back to supportive measures, BofA's Barnaby Martin recently warned that high global debt will constrain enthusiasm for engaging in further rounds of stimulus. Meanwhile, as the chart below suggests, lower money supply growth has always pointed to weaker global economic momentum going forward. In fact, if one uses Global Industrial Production growth as a proxy for the global economic expansion, or contraction, the World is now almost certainly in a recession; the only question is when will economists acknowledge it.

(Click to enlarge)

The message from the chart above has also been heard loud and clear in high-frequency economic indicators (at least in those countries where the government is not shut down and where data is still being reported), with the number of consecutive days of negative global data surprises now approaching the longest since the financial crisis.

(Click to enlarge)

And just to confirm that the collapse in Global M1 growth is a major problem - perhaps the biggest for the global economy - Morgan Stanley showed the following chart which confirms that every time M1 has dipped negative - as central bank liquidity injection either slowed or went into reverse - there has been a financial crisis: whether the 2015 EM and Manufacturing Commodity Recession, the Sovereign Debt Crisis of 2011, the Global Financial Crisis and US Housing bubble burst of 2007/2008, the Tech Bubble burst of 2000 and so on.

(Click to enlarge)

So yes, there is little doubt that global growth is slowing the only question is how forcefully. Today, courtesy of BMO, we present another chart which shows that the world economy is as of this moment almost certainly in a recession. Related: Most Crypto Investors Dont Know This Tax Loophole

As economist Douglas Porter observes, the OECDs leading indicator is a good guidepost of what is coming just around the corner, although it doesnt lead broad GDP trends by much (perhaps a month or so). It was just released Monday, and dipped for the 11th month in a rowit peaked in December 2017clearly signaling a cooldown.

What the chart clearly shows is that the last three cycles all ended when the leading indicator dropped to where it is now (even though there have also been two false signals in that timeframeduring the Asian crisis in 1998, and during the Euro crisis in 2012).

So the question what happens next will have to be answered by policymakers who have no choice but to try and push higher the blue line in the chart above. In other words, the fate of this cycle will be determined by how policymakers now respond, and how markets and consumer/business sentiment hold up in coming weeks.

And since it is all up to central banks once again to boost liquidity, something they won't be doing during the current QT phase unless something drastically changes over the next 12 months...

(Click to enlarge)

... the above charts confirm that the key variable for the global economy is not whether the Fed stops hiking or starts cutting rates (although any further rate hikes will surely have an adverse impact on global liquidity), but whether the Fed - and other central banks - pause their balance sheet shrinkage, and once again start actively injecting liquidity into the global system, or soon enough we will be looking for the best description of "[insert here] crisis of 2019."

By Zerohedge

More Top Reads From Safehaven.comWith supply fantastically tight in the face of increasing demand and Chinese policy moves that will boost demand further, palladiumthe essential auto-catalyst metalis now doing better than gold.

On Thursday, palladium hit a milestone, crossing over the $1,400 mark for the first time in history and registering a 10-percent-plus gain since the beginning of the New Year.

Spot prices are now at $1,389.8, and the upside is looking great 

(Click to enlarge)

Source: Apmex.com

Since mid-August, in fact, palladium prices have gained an astonishing 60 percent. It is now the most expensive precious metal in the world. And the higher this market goes, the more buying is being triggered.

It is a good old-fashioned squeeze driven by tight fundamentals, strong momentum and low liquidity, Reuters quoted Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen as saying.

And no ones willing to sell 

We are seeing steady buying in modest amounts; just no supply and no one willing to sell because you dont know where it will stop, CNBC quoted Tai Wong, head of base and precious metals derivatives trading at BMO, as saying.

Thats not the case for gold, which had a slight reprieve as a safe-haven comeback when equities saw a serious stumble in Q4, but as of today, spot gold prices were down 0.7 percent to $1,282.92 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures were down 0.8 percent to $1,282.20 per ounce. Related: How Advertisers Are Forced Into Politics

The biggest driver of demand is, and will be, China. Thats because one of the biggest uses of palladium is as an emissions-reducing catalyst for the auto industry; more specifically, its used in pollution-control devices. And Chinas got a smog problem that its ambitiously attacking to the point that palladium is now the definitive kind of the precious metals space.

But its a global phenomenon, really, and demand has soared thanks to the worlds shift from diesel to gasoline and hybrids, with palladium used in catalytic converters for vehicles that run on gasoline.

It also means that global production isnt keeping up with demand, with production largely concentrated in Russia and South Africa, which together produce around 75 percent of global supply.

This is the eighth consecutive year where palladium is going to be in deficit and there are no signs that it is going to go away, Dominic Schnider, head of commodities and APAC forex at UBS Wealth Management in Hong Kong, told CNBC.

According to Zacks, A Citigroup analyst believes the palladium shortage will probably persist through 2020, leading to the tightest market in two decades.

Related: This Gold Deal Could Be A Boon For The Mining Industry

The question people need to ask here is how long it would take for the car manufacturers to switch to platinum, which is trading around $800, Schnider said.

The only thing that could chip away at that demand is if palladium becomes too expensive and ends up being replaced by platinum. But this is a back-and-forth game because the reverse situation has helped push palladium to its current peak. But it wouldnt be an easy switch.

We are told by the makers and buyers of [automotive catalytic converters] that it would take a $500 spread in platinum and palladium for at least two years to have the beginnings of switching, Market Watch quoted R. Michael Jones, chief executive of Platinum Group Metals, as saying.

By Fred Dunkley for Safehaven.com

More Top Reads From Safehaven.comJanuary 16, 2019

By Amanda Miller

Colorados aerospace industry is a booster rocket for the state's economy.

Not including classified military activity, the aerospace industrys economic impact in the state is at least $15.4 billion, said Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Jay Lindell of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. That makes the states aerospace economy the second-largest in the country, behind that of California.

Lindell, whose official title with the state is Aerospace and Defense Industry Champion, tracks those industries and helps guide stakeholders toward state policy consensus. Colorados vast small-business supply network helps support big contractors, he explained, adding up to the countrys highest percentage of private aerospace employment per capita.

How high will the aerospace industry  and the universities that fuel its workforce  lift the Colorado economy in 2019? Heres your guide to the upcoming year in air and space in the Centennial State.

SPACE VISION

Space data analytics and visualization will be a 2019 focus for Metropolitan State University of Denvers Department of Aviation and Aerospace Science, said Chair and Professor Jeffrey Forrest, Ph.D. That new focus involves looking at data from space vehicles and improving predictive capabilities by employing various data-visualization tools, he said. Being introduced in cooperation with the Universitys industry partners, the tools and software coming online will be viable for use in several classes, he said, and the department is developing a dedicated class in the subject as well.

POWER MOVES

MSU Denver and York Space Systems have been partners since 2017, when the firm specializing in complete space-segment customer solutions and the manufacture of small and medium-class spacecraft established an innovative manufacturing facility in the Universitys Aerospace and Engineering Sciences building. In 2019, the partnership is taking on the challenge of powering satellites through a new classroom-based project to design new spacecraft batteries. York Space Systems founder and CEO Dirk Wallinger told CBS4 that he hopes the partnership will create the future of satellite technology. It was a strong desire for us to work with a local university to help produce the best students. Hopefully, to produce the type of students we would want to hire, he said.

EARTH VIEWS

Satellite batteries arent the only new tech York Space Systems wants to put on the launchpad in 2019. The company could celebrate its first launch in 2019, depending on launch-provider schedules. York built the small satellite bus that will take Finnish startup ICEYEs X3 high-resolution, synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) sensors to space. ICEYE will provide near-real-time SAR data that analysts can reconstruct to create detailed Earth images. Research and spaceflight operations supporting Yorks mission will also be conducted out of MSU Denvers Aviation and Aerospace Science program.

COMMERCIALIZED SPACE

Heather Bulk, Special Aerospace Services CEO, is convening government and industry leaders to get candid about the commercialization of space at the fourth Biennial Human Spaceflight & Exploration Forum being held Jan. 23-24 at Boulders St. Julien Hotel. The invite-only forum will look at the evolution of NASA exploration missions, Commercial Crew developments and the direction of a potential U.S. Space Force. Bulk is a member of the MSU Denver Foundation Board of Directors, and in 2019 SAS, an 8(a) woman-owned certified small business, is partnering with MSU Denvers Department of Aviation and Aerospace Science on a plan to develop new space systems under Small Business Technology Transfer grant programs.

JOIN THE CAUCUS

Colorados legislative session launched Jan. 10, ringing in the opportunity to attend or address the Colorado General Assemblys Aerospace and Defense Caucus, a group of state legislators who advocate for and raise awareness of those two industries. The group meets monthly to provide a forum for discussion and action on key aerospace topics such as space exploration, cyber and workforce. For more information on caucus meetings, contact Vicky Lea of the Colorado Space Coalition.

ALL SYSTEMS GO

The Colorado Air and Space Port gets new branding and signs in 2019  not to mention a 30-plus-hangar expansion  after receiving a license from the Federal Aviation Administration in 2018 to operate as a spaceport. Most of the new aircraft hangars are already spoken for by private pilots, said Dave Ruppel, director of the Adams County-owned Air and Space Port east of Denver. The plan includes more development on the aviation side and ultimately the facilities to launch dual-propulsion spacecraft that would take off and land with jet engines  like the rest of the aircraft in the vicinity of Denver International Airport  and then fire rocket engines when they get above busy airspace.

SUPERSONIC FLIGHT RETURNS

Centennial-based Boom Supersonic kicked off 2019 by announcing it had raised $100 million in Series B financing to advance work on Overture, the worlds first economically viable supersonic airliner, according to Blake Scholl, the firms founder and CEO. The company expects the plane to begin passenger service in the mid-2020s. But first, Boom will finish and test-fly itsXB-1 Supersonic Demonstrator this year to test its supersonic flight technologies such as advanced composite materials, aerodynamics and its propulsion system. The one-third-scale manned prototype of the Mach-2.2 airliner will be flown by chief test pilot Bill Doc Shoemaker; if successful, the plane will be the first independently developed supersonic jet and the fastest civil aircraft ever built, according to the company. With business booming, Boom said it also plans to add more than 100 new employees in 2019.

CHASING SPACE DREAMS

Louisville-based Sierra Nevada Corp. Space Systems wrapped 2018 by announcing it had received the go-ahead from NASA to launch full production of the autonomous Dream Chaser space plane, which is scheduled to start delivering cargo to the international space station as soon as 2020. The cargo-servicing design includes a disposable external cargo module meant to burn up in the atmosphere after dropping off goods, while the Dream Chaser vehicle glides back to Earth just like the space shuttles of yore.

BACK IN ORBIT

United Launch Alliance may have the most important mission ahead for a Colorado space company in 2019. Centennial-based ULAs Atlas V rockets are scheduled to carry Boeings Crew Space Transportation-100 Starliner into orbit this year on its first two missions: an uncrewed test flight set for March and a crewed flight for August. The spacecraft is intended to carry up to seven astronauts and cargo to the international space station as part of NASAs Commercial Crew Program. Boeing and SpaceX have privately owned capsules headed for the ISS under the Commercial Crew Program, which helped fund the respective capsules development. SpaceX is scheduled to launch a crew two months earlier in its Dragon capsule via its own Falcon 9 rockets. The company that launches U.S. astronauts to space first will be the first to do so from U.S. soil since the space-shuttle fleet was retired in 2011.

MEET AND GREET

Join Colorados public- and private-sector aerospace leaders March 11 at the Capitol for Aerospace Day 2019. Sign up here to attend.

COME TOGETHER

Space Symposiumreturns to the Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs on April 8-11. Now in its 35thyear, the annual conference is organized by the nonprofit Space Foundation and strives to represent all sectors of the space economy, research institutions, governments and militaries, and the worlds spacefaring nations.

DISCOVER MORE

In addition to the yearly Space Symposium, the Space Foundation runs a Discovery Center education complex in Colorado Springs, featuring the El Pomar Space Gallery, Northrop Grumman Science Center and Lockheed Martin Space Education Center. In 2019, it will triple in size thanks to a $1.9 million donation from Grapevine Investments. The foundation bought new space adjoining its existing Discovery Center, bringing the centers total square footage from 45,716 to 131,035 for more learning labs, exhibits and educational programming.

COMPLETING THE CONSTELLATION

The first of 32 GPS III satellites being built on the factory floor at Lockheed Martin Space near Denver took up its position in medium Earth orbit in late 2018, with the second planned for 2019. GPS III is the newest generation of Global Positioning System satellites, designed to be three times as accurate as prior GPS satellites. Air Force Space Command operates the GPS constellation from Schriever Air Force Base near Colorado Springs, all combining for what Lindell describes as immeasurable impact in the state.

CELEBRATE APOLLO 11

Denvers Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum is planning a week of events in July to celebrate the 50thanniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Plans include seminars, presentations, educational activities and an astronaut brunch.

MAKE THE CONNECTION

Jefferson County Economic Development Corp. launches the fourth annual Aerospace and Defense Small Business Industry Day on Aug. 1. Small businesses learn about how to win contracts and work with the large prime government contractors in Colorado; and attendees get to pitch their companies in roundtable matchmaking sessions.

ENGAGE

The Rocky Mountain Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Annual Technical Symposium is a daylong event each fall. The date remains TBD, so be on the lookout for the 2019 announcement. The symposium includes speakers, exhibitors and research presentations on flight, spaceflight, space science, advanced manufacturing, employment and higher-education issues.

GO SUBORBITAL

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation and Boulders Southwest Research Group are bringing back the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in December for researchers and educators interested in reusable suborbital vehicles.Elevate Rapid City leaders sense a momentum shift in Rapid City. They hope to not only capitalize on it but augment it.

[This is] a very significant positive and a very critical time in Rapid Citys development, said David Lust, who is chairman of Elevate.

The publics support of a new, approximately $130 million taxpayer-funded arena at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, Lust said in a Journal interview Friday, was a symbolic moment signifying the communitys willingness to move forward. But there are plenty of other exciting opportunities to come.

The potential for Ellsworth Air Force Base to receive some of the new B-21 bomber planes currently under development, the construction of a new 40,000-square-foot entrepreneurship and innovation incubator  the Ascent Innovation Center  at 108 Main St. beginning this spring, the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment at the Sanford Underground Research Facility and a related new testing facility to be built near the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology campus, were all cited by Lust as signs that Rapid Citys future is bright.

All these great opportunities are coming, and I think its important that we manage our growth and economic development in a prudent manner and take advantage of those opportunities, he said.Last week Donald Trump gave a blistering speech in Brownsville, Texas, demonizing Hispanic workers and their families for just trying to make a living. This week, across the border from Brownsville, 70,000 auto parts workers are on strike against the companies and the unions, who like here, act as industrial police.

A more stark contrast between the events is not possible, one of division and hate, the other of solidarity and hope. These workers, the 150,000,000 workers have just pulled off a general strike in India, the 30,000 teachers in Los Angeles fighting for public education and the "Yellow Vest Movement" in France are pointing a way out of 50 years of defeat and demoralization.

Sorry to say, my old union, the UAW, is now falling in line behind Trump's ultra-nationalist stance. A recent demonstration by the Canadian Auto Workers featured a union member dressed in sombrero and a cape, representing the workers who "are stealing our jobs." The UAW's response to many factory closings is to place the blame, not on the auto companies, but the Mexican worker.

In 2015, The UAW barely kept the lid on the growing militancy of workers when they rammed through a sweetheart contract in the auto and farm implement negotiations.It was William P. Barr's confirmation hearing. But it was Robert S. Mueller III's affirmation hearing.

President Trump had nominated Barr to be his new attorney general to shield him from Mueller's hoax of a rigged witch hunt. But Barr spent much of his seven-hour confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday lavishing praise on his future boss' tormentor. And Republicans, for the most part, didn't defend Trump -- and occasionally joined in the Mueller veneration.

None of this guarantees that Mueller will be able to complete his work unhindered, or that Americans will ever know what work he did. Ominously, Barr, while promising "as much transparency as I can consistent with the law," suggested he might try to bury the special counsel's report by treating it as confidential and releasing only "certain information" himself.

Still, Mueller's de facto affirmation hearing should be of concern to Trump as the president tries to discredit whatever the special prosecutor comes up with in the coming weeks or months. Just about everybody but Trump regards Mueller as an upstanding man doing honest work. Even Trump's potential new attorney general.An existing marijuana growing facility was given the go-ahead Tuesday night by county board members to expand its operations.

Green Thumb Industries (GTI), will add an $8 million, 66,000-square-foot building at the current site, 8221 51st Street West, doubling the size of the facility. The business will hire an additional 70 employees.

Board members Robert Reagan, Dewayne Cremeens, Robert Westpfahl and Ron Oelke opposed.

"This is not worth one dollar in additional tax revenue, and it is not worth one additional job," Reagan said. "The Illinois Sheriff's Association, the Illinois Chiefs of Police Association are both in opposition to expanding marijuana production. I ask my colleagues to stand with the kids of Rock Island County and vote no to this agreement.

"We may not be able to stop recreational marijuana becoming legal, but we sure don't have to help it," Reagan said.

Board member Rod Simmer, a chiropractor, said he often treats patients in chronic pain.Last week, Quad Cities First signed a new contract with Washington, D.C.-area lobbying firm The Roosevelt Group as a way to keep an open line of communication with the bi-state congressional delegation. And theyve begun to prepare for a visit from the USDA under the assumption that the Quad-Cities will at least make it to the next round, Tallman said.

Several factors remain in flux. For one, there have been recent legislative proposals in Washington that, if enacted, would prevent the agencies from being allowed to leave the Beltway. Theres also the ongoing partial government shutdown, which has affected some USDA operations.

The Quad-Cities is only one of 136 different areas whose proposal is currently under review. The list of cities seeking the agencies spans the nation from Sacramento, Calif. to Rochester, N.Y.

Still, Tallman says the region offers several advantages that would align with the needs of the agencies, including an educated workforce, a good transportation network, low capital and operating costs and high quality of life. She also said the community has really shown our regional strength by assembling a desirable profile, saying the gamut of area stakeholders have truly banded together to go after a big whale.

Were treating this like our  Amazon headquarters, said Tallman, referring to Amazon's expansion decision last year that prompted cities and states around the country to offer billions of dollars in incentives as they sought to woo the tech behemoth. This is the big one and its very, very competitive. And we know going in that nothings a done deal. Its extremely hard to land one of these, but we are putting together really good teams and resources to make sure were at least being competitive and aggressively going after this.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0The federal initiative is intended to help schools and districts understand how federal law applies to the use of restraint and seclusion and will support those districts seeking resources and information on which interventions and supports are appropriate in addressing behavioral needs of students with disabilities.

The use of disproportionality in the state report refers to the disproportionate number and percent of students of color being identified for special education services, as well as those same students with IEPs receiving disciplinary action including suspension, expulsion, seclusion and restraint.

That said, the report also states that students who are African American are more likely to be secluded or restrained than other students [including]  students who receive special education services and those who do not.

According to a Fact Sheet on restraint and seclusion from the U.S. Department of Education, school districts are required to provide students with disabilities an equal opportunity to participate in the educational program. The use of restraint or seclusion may have a traumatic impact on students, which could create new academic or behavioral difficulties.About 300,000 federal employees have been furloughed -- sent home from their jobs without being paid, the article said.

The other 500,000 federal employees are deemed "essential." They are working but they are not receiving a paycheck. TSA agents and FBI agents are in this group. The 500,000 "essential" federal employees will receive back pay, the article said.

The 300,000 furloughed federal employees will not.

The article listed government officials who are getting paid:

The president

The vice president

Members of the House and the Senate

Some administration officials

Cabinet members

Supreme Court Justices

Service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines  they are funded through the Department of Defense budget which was passed late last year. However, members of the Coast Guard, which is funded through the Department of Homeland Security, are not being paid.

To read full articles visit qctimes.com/askthetimes and click on the links.

Ask the Times appears on Thursdays and Saturdays. You can call 563-333-2632, email ask@qctimes.com or write Ask the Times, Quad-City Times, 500 E. 3rd St., Davenport, IA 52801.

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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.But shes concerned how the amendment will be worded. To her, the best approach would be to say felons are eligible to have voting rights restored when they have completed their sentence and no longer are under the supervision of the Corrections Department.

Some lawmakers believe voting rights should not be available until restitution is completed. That would be problematic, Wolfe said.

People who sometimes for no fault of their own are only making minimum wage  cant ever pay their restitution, Wolfe said. Why should they be denied the right to vote if theyve done everything else?

Allowing felons who have completed their sentences to vote allows them to be full members of their community, advocates say.

Thats whats behind the proposal from Reynolds, who shared the story of a man who had his voting rights restored.

He said, I cant even begin to tell you the dignity that I felt because I had gotten my life back, to be able to go in and vote,  said Reynolds, who believes she got a second chance when she chose sobriety after her second drunken driving arrest 19 years ago.I, once again, feel the need to respond to a Letter to the Editor ("Fan even likes pathetic reader letters," Jan. 13 Viewpoints).

If I may quote: "After all, a country without border security is not a country." I am not quite sure if this was the writer's quote or the quote of another.

Either way, he judges by how "well written" letters are and how "pathetic and ridiculous" the others are. I wonder how he rates his letter?

He continues on that, "We are now dealing with a different class of immigrants than those that came to our country 150-200 years ago."

I must ask, is the writer so sure that all of these immigrants are so unskilled and uneducated, and are gang members and drug dealers, that the majority of Americans, all of a sudden, are being duped into believing that we are supporting "cheap labor" and "uninsured" people?

The only thing pathetic in my view is the lack of understanding of universal needs and empathy of other human beings.

Pathetic? That a sitting U.S. president has finally cornered himself!

As a proud U.S. Army veteran, and Donald Trump being the commander in chief, I strongly believe that our president should be tried as a traitor in a military court.Important political decisions and information have been leaked to newspapers for many years.

U.S. Supreme Court justices were especially concerned in earlier years that their important decisions were sometimes published before they were announced by the court.

In 1896, for example, the court made an important decision concerning the Interstate Commerce Commissions regulations of the railroads.

The decision as reported by the Daily Dispatch March 4, 1896, holds that under the laws of Congress a witness may be compelled to testify and that refusal to do so under the pleas of incriminating himself cannot be allowed. This 5-4 decision stunned the railroads.

Now the ICC had the ability to stop the railroads from cutting rates to favorite shippers by means of rebates. Railroads could no longer show favoritism to shippers without the knowledge of the ICC since railroads could no longer refuse to testify.

Before the Supreme Court could announce its decision, it was leaked to a Chicago newspaper that wasted no time publishing it with all the particulars.I want people to appreciate and love where they live, understand about where they live, and that they have a stake in it. This is their history, their culture, and theres an evolution to this.

Theres been a lot of talk of our community being able to come together and have pride in the Quad-Cities, she said. As Midwesterners, we dont have that. Were very humble and we dont want to brag about ourselves. But at the same time, we dont recognize the treasure that we have here. Unless we can internalize what a cool place this is, where we come from, and how fortunate it is that we live here, were not going to be able to move forward.

For two years, Linville-Mass has served as a mentor to Thomas, an Orion native whos worked for Exit Realty since 2015, a locally owned affiliate of an international company, in the process of renovating the historic Veits Vettes building in downtown Davenport. 221 E. 2nd St., for their new office.

The cool places that people like, tend to be the places that are going into renovated older buildings, Thomas said. There are really cool things going on in downtown Davenport now.I feel fortunate for the opportunity that I had to work with the staff of Women Lead Change  and with Iowa Women Lead Change before the rebrand  and all of the different committees when we launched here in the Quad-Cities, Woodall said.

Last May, Woodall also became Women Lead Changes new statewide events director.Women Lead Change CEO Tiffany ODonnell said Woodall was hired to oversee events across the state this upcoming season, beginning with the organizations leadership conference in Sioux City on Feb. 13.

She also would have overseen two upcoming events in the Quad-Cities. The second annual Quad-Cities leadership conference will be held March 7 at the Waterfront Convention Center in Bettendorf. The Athena and Male Champion of Change Awards Luncheon will be held April 4, also at the Waterfront Convention Center.

Our attendees wont notice a difference. It just means our organization has had to shift some responsibilities in the short-term, as we look for an amazing Quad-Cities regional manager, ODonnell said. Our office remains the same on River Drive (in Davenport), and teams from across the state will work out of that office until we find somebody.

Along with Woodall, one intern has been working out of the Davenport office, she said.The Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP-11), a trade pact among 11 Pacific Rim nations, officially opened its doors to new members on Saturday in a move aimed at bolstering free trade at a time when the U.S. and China remain locked in a trade war.

After holding its first ministerial-level talks in Tokyo since the so-called TPP-11 came into effect on Dec. 30, signatories agreed on the process for approving new members.

"There is a temptation toward protectionism, but we must not rewind the clock," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in his opening remarks. "For all countries that resonate with our philosophy and are ready to accept the TPP-11's high standards, the door is open. I expect participation from many countries seeking free and fair trade."

In a joint statement, the TPP-11 signatories also said the agreement "sends a strong signal in support of free trade."

The TPP-11 creates a trade bloc covering 500 million people and $10 trillion in gross domestic product -- around 13% of the world's total. Signatories, which include Japan, Australia, Canada and Vietnam, have pledged to slash tariffs on wine, fish and other agricultural products, and rules on data storage requirements were drawn up to cope with rapidly expanding digital industries.

The pact came into effect nearly two years after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal.

Countries and regions ranging from Thailand, Taiwan to Colombia and the U.K. have expressed interest in joining the TPP-11. Toshimitsu Motegi, Japan's minister in charge of the negotiations, did not comment on specific countries but said in a news conference that "extending the TPP-11's new rules to as many countries and regions as possible is our common goal."

Negotiations with Thailand are expected to start as early as this spring. Motegi also suggested that Japan would urge the U.S. to consider returning to the TPP. Japan has been particularly keen to position itself as a linchpin of free trade as it gears up to host the G-20 summit in Osaka this year.

But while expanding the pact may further boost trade activity, accepting new members is a grueling process. A country wishing to join needs the approval of all existing members, who discuss the issue in a working committee. In addition, four of the 11 current signatories -- Brunei, Chile, Peru and Malaysia -- have not yet ratified the pact, a process that Motegi said is the "top priority."Effects from the federal government shutdown are trickling down to the River Bend Foodbank in Davenport, which distributes food to partner agencies in 23 counties in eastern Iowa and western Illinois.

Wednesday was the 26th day of the shutdown, the longest in the history of the country.

If the shutdown extends into February, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP or food stamps, will be affected, said Mike Miller, food bank president and CEO.

While there is a $3 billion benefit reserve fund that had been used to pay SNAP benefits, monthly benefits are about $5 billion, Miller said. That means at some point the Secretary of Agriculture would need to tell states how to reduce February SNAP benefits to stay at less than $3 billion.

For food availability, orders for commodities the food bank buys through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) have been confirmed through February, he said.

TEFAP is primarily an agriculture support program, he said, and gave this example: If the price of corn is low today, the federal government might buy some corn options.

That makes the stock price on corn jump immediately, Miller said. Every farmer selling the corn today gets more return.ROCK ISLAND  An existing marijuana growing facility was given the go-ahead Tuesday night by county board members to expand its operations.

Green Thumb Industries (GTI), will add an $8 million, 66,000-square-foot building at the current site, 8221 51st Street West, doubling the size of the facility. As a result of the expansion, the business will hire an additional 70 employees.

Board members Robert Reagan, Dewayne Cremeens, Robert Westpfahl and Ron Oelke opposed.

This is not worth one dollar in additional tax revenue, and it is not worth one additional job, Reagan said. The Illinois Sheriffs Association, the Illinois Chiefs of Police Association are both in opposition to expanding marijuana production. I ask my colleagues to stand with the kids of Rock Island County and vote no to this agreement.

We may not be able to stop recreational marijuana becoming legal, but we sure dont have to help it, Reagan said.

Board member Rod Simmer, who is a chiropractor, said he often treats patients in chronic pain.Darrow said Thursday that he agrees demolition should be put on hold.

Until they get the necessary permit, they shouldnt demolish the courthouse, Darrow said. As I understand it, the city isnt going to issue a permit anyway. I would assume they cant proceed because they dont have a permit from the city of Rock Island. They wont get that permit until they get the permit from the state.

It sounds like they are at a standstill, Darrow said. I support (Landmarks Illinois) in what they are doing. Until the (commission) gets the permits, I dont think they should demolish the courthouse.

Public Building Commission Chairman Brent Ganahl could not be reached for comment.

Gilbane Building Co., project manager for the annex, submitted a permit request in December to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, notifying them of the stormwater runoff plan and stormwater pollution prevention plan for demolition of the courthouse.

Edward Cross, director of communications for Illinois Department of Natural Resources, said no decision has been made yet on granting a permit.ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL  First Army will host the annual Rock Island Arsenal Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance at 1 p.m. Thursday inside Heritage Hall.

This years Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day theme is Remember! Celebrate! Act! A Day On, Not A Day Off.

Sgt. Maj. Dwayne Cook, First Armys acting Command Sergeant Major, will serve as this years guest speaker.

A Detroit, Mich., native, Cook entered the Army in February 1990 and completed his Basic and Advanced Individual Training at Fort Benning, Georgia. Initially assigned as the G-3/5/7 (Operations) sergeant major for First Army, Rock Island Arsenal, on Oct. 10, 2015, he assumed duties as the acting command sergeant major in December 2018.

Other duties throughout his career include a deployment as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, along with other assignments in the United States and Europe.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The European Court of Human Rights has ordered Azerbaijan to pay almost 17,000 euros to investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova in connection with a blackmail campaign against her that included the online posting of a "sex video" filmed at her apartment without her knowledge.

The court's January 10 ruling said that "it had not been possible to establish 'beyond reasonable doubt' that the State itself had been responsible for the very serious invasion of Ismayilova's privacy."

But the court ruled that Azerbaijan failed in its duty under the European Convention on Human Rights "to investigate acts which had been an affront to Ismayilova's human dignity" and to protect her freedom of expression.

It ordered Azerbaijan to pay Ismayilova 15,000 euros ($17,300) for her pain and suffering and another 1,750 euros ($2,000) to cover her court costs and expenses.

Ismayilova, a former contributor to RFE/RL, had been reporting extensively on alleged corruption by the family of Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev in 2012 when she received a letter threatening to publicly humiliate her unless she stopped her investigative work.

The letter included still images from a video, shot using cameras hidden inside Ismayilova's apartment, that showed her having sex with her then-boyfriend.

The video was released online after Ismayilova refused to stop her investigative reporting about corruption and, instead, announced publicly that she was being targeted by a blackmail campaign.

Ismayilova later found the hidden cameras in her apartment and special equipment installed to transmit the video outside of her apartment.

When Ismayilova complained about the ineffectiveness of Baku's criminal investigation into the attempted blackmail, the authorities responded by releasing details from their probe that disclosed more information about her private life -- including the full names and occupations of her friends, colleagues, and family along with her home address and the identity of the boyfriend in the video.

The European Court's ruling on January 10 noted there was no material in the case file assembled by Azerbaijani authorities to show they had investigated the threatening letter.

"Another immediate investigative step could also have been to identify the owners and/or operators of the two websites used to post the videos online and to determine the source of the videos and the identify of their uploaders," the court said.

"Most importantly, no line of inquiry was developed to see if there had been a link between the fact that Ismayilova was a well-known investigative journalist highly critical of the government and the series of criminal acts committed against her," it added.

"No progress had been made in the investigation after August 2013," said the court, which also noted numerous other reports of "journalists in Azerbaijan being persecuted and the perceived climate of impunity for such acts."

In a statement on her Facebook page thanking her lawyers on January 10, Ismayilova said that "communication wasn't easy" during the trial because she was forced to spend "part of the time in prison" in Baku in connection with another case that she maintains was politically motivated.

During that time, Ismayilova said, "law enforcement of Azerbaijan continued creating obstacles" for her.Editor:

President Trump considers using presidential powers, bypassing Congress, and declaring a national emergency in order to pirate $5.7 billion in unused funds to fulfill a very silly Build that wall! campaign promise. Democrats are justifiably upset. But wait!

Presidents G.W. Bush and Obama used presidential powers, debatably granted by the War Powers Act, to bypass an all too compliant Congress. They initiated or expanded Middle East tribal wars. The Watson Institute of Brown University estimates that recent wars have cost American taxpayers $5.6 trillion. This cost estimate includes items like veterans care, weapons procurement and lost investment opportunity in American infrastructure, education, etc. For example, $1 trillion could hire 5.6 million teachers. Talk about Keep America Competitive!

In 1961, President Eisenhower warned of the growing power of the Military-Industrial Complex. Sixty years later, it is the neo-liberal idea of continuous war that supports this metastasized industrial behemoth infecting American economic and social life.News of this weekends winter storm, predicted to drop up to 20 inches of snow on the area, has forced the cancellation of most area events on Saturday and Sunday.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Day rally scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday at Glens Falls City Hall, which would have been followed by a march to Christ Church United Methodist for a 4 p.m. celebration service, Expressing the Dream through the Arts, is one of many weekend events halted by the storm.

In the 25-plus years we have been doing this, this is the first time that we had to cancel the event, said Lee Braggs, first vice president of the Glens Falls branch of the NAACP. We as an NAACP branch and the rest of the community participants look forward to this celebration of the legacy of Dr. King each year.

In Hudson Falls, the Strand Theaters fourth annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute, which had been set for 7 p.m. Saturday, has been postponed due to the weather forecast. The event, featuring an evening of music, a re-creation of the I Have a Dream speech and a presentation by state Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, will be rescheduled for early February, according to the Strands Jonathan Newell.U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, remains in support of an East Coast missile defense site at Fort Drum.

Stefanik responded on Friday to President Donald Trumps address Thursday at the Pentagon on missile defense strategy.

The announcement was the first update to the Missile Defense Review in nine years, but the president made no specific comment regarding a proposed East Coast missile defense site that could potentially be based at Fort Drum or at one of two other locations also under consideration.

I will still advocate for an East Coast missile defense site, Stefanik said.

She said Fort Drum should still host the site if it is announced. Camp Ravenna Joint Military Training Center in Ohio and Fort Custer Training Center in Michigan are also under consideration.

Whether its a shorter-range system or a third missile defense site, Stefanik said she would support Fort Drum.Her committee is considering a permit that all short-term rental owners would need to get. It would be free and would include data useful if theres a problem at the house. The owner would have to name a local contact for any late-night noise complaint, for example.

Someone who can react immediately, said Supervisor John Strough. You would have to secure a person locally who can take care of the problem if there is one.

Landlords could hire a property management company, among other options.

Switzer wants landlords to voluntarily sign up for the permit.

But board member Tony Metivier noted that as complaints roll in, the town would be able to quickly enforce the law.

Theres no charge for the permit, but if they dont have one, you fine them, he said.

Owners might also get fined for repeated problems from their renters.

The nuisance law may say, if we had to go to a property you own for noise issues, on the third time, were going to fine you, Strough said.

But when a Town Board member casually suggested that the law could impose quiet hours starting at 10 p.m. on weekdays, another rental property owner spoke up.European unification was conceived in fear  Europeans' fear of themselves, a residue of wars produced by various atavisms, including unhinged nationalism. For decades Britain's Tories have been bitterly divided about the project of "harmonizing" political practices and economic policies, with a probable consequence of homogenized national cultures. The embryo of the EU was a free trade zone  a single market. But as the unification project became more ambitious, it required the derogation of national parliaments and hence of nations' sovereignties. So, in 1988 Margaret Thatcher voiced what became Conservative Euroskeptics' cri de coeur: "We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels."The settlement agreement, part of which required Gov. Ralph S. Northam's approval, has been in the works for months but was finalized this week, according to court documents. In that time, the U.S. Justice Department released a scathing report that concluded the jail's treatment of inmates amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. One of the correctional officers named in the suit also was indicted on felony assault charges."It's easiest to work with Churchland Primary, the guys that are just three-quarters of a mile down the road, and we are looking forward to bringing ... their students out here for some field trips in the next few months," Bussey said.Lauren Antonio, an eighth-grader, enthusiastically points to her self-portrait at the Spotlight Show, an art show at the Pavilion 1 building on Parks Ave, that featured artworks from over 150 Gifted Visual Art students. The art show, which runs until March 28, covers five floors of the building with creative artworks from 3-8 grade students. Antonio said her self-portrait features her with an extra large camera to emphasize her passion for photography and film. I use photography to show my view and perspective of the world, she said. Its beautiful to show people how I see the world. (Lee Belote/For The Virginian-Pilot)Clark took a different route than McMahon, instead heading to Indiana and learning the basics from when a deer was brought in all the way to when it was handed over to a customer. His teacher was a Grand Master taxidermist. He immediately entered some of his work in contests to gauge how good he was getting. He sought more influence when he returned home to start what has been a 15-year career.Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A qualitative study carried out by a research group led by the UPV/EHU Professor Inaki Heras-Saizarbitoria, in collaboration with the Universite Laval of Quebec, concludes that fake ISO 9001 quality certificates are widespread across Chinese companies, and that the certification processes of the auditing companies lack credibility. Suggestions have also been offered for people in charge of companies and other interested parties.

The ISO 9001 standard is made up of a raft of requirements relating to quality and quality management drawn up by the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO). The ISO 9001 certificate guarantees the validity of the procedures so that they comply with the specifications established by customers. To obtain the ISO 9001 certificate a company has to undergo an audit by a third company, which tends to be an independent auditor, external to the company, and which certifies that a company is complying with the reference standard. And these audits need to be certified by a National Accreditation Body (in Spain, the ENAC).

The research group led by Inaki Heras-Saizarbitoria, professor of Business Administration at the UPV/EHU, has spent many years studying, among other things, the phenomenon of ISO quality and environment certificates. "When working with companies here we hear that products or components imported from China have often been found wanting when it comes to correctly complying with the specifications," explained Heras.

Following this, in-depth interviews were held using a systematic methodology, with 40 people who work in Chinese companies personnel with broad experience and who hold high-level positions in quality, consulting and auditing, among other things. Although subsequently, "we were contacted by a larger group of professionals, after we had reported on our study at various congresses," said the UPV/EHU researcher.

Faking certificates is easy; finding out is also easy

The conclusions drawn from these conversations "paint a disturbing picture. While it is true that many Chinese companies correctly implement and comply with the certification, there are many other cases in which this certificate is faked in one way or another. The reliability of Chinese certificates is very low," he declared.

As the professor points out, there are four ways of faking the certificate: "By creating a certificate directly in Photoshop; by fraudulently obtaining the official certificate (declaring that things are done in a specific way, when this is not in fact the case; doing them solely for the purpose of the external audit); buying the official certificate without implementing any kind of system; and obtaining the certificate from a certification body that lacks the relevant accreditation, and in this case without implementing any system whatsoever, either."

The research group has also launched a series of recommendations to the interest groups to address this situation. They suggest to the public bodies that "transparency should be improved. In other words, the certifying bodies should be required to have their databases updated on their websites, that they should display the list of certified Chinese companies. Despite the fact that this is a requirement, it is not met," he stressed. "The political will is needed for this, but in this field many interests come together, in China as well as in world organisations." Companies are recommended "not to trust certificates of this type coming from China. The problems could be very serious if some item that the company uses in one of its products fails to comply with the proper specifications."

"From our point of view, the problem is pretty widespread, even though it is true that in some countries, it is particularly serious, as in China or Pakistan, for example. But in other countries, such as Russia or the United States, cases have also been spotted," he explained.

As regards the European Union, Heras says that there is greater regulation, because there have been many complaints and problems, "but the situation varies between one European country and another. Each national body is a world unto itself, and each one establishes its limits and obligations. At the end of the day, standardization is a highly paradoxical regulation tool which is growing in strength in this era of globalisation and liberalisation."

Explore further Flipped classroom enhances learning outcomes in medical certificate education

More information: Inaki Heras-Saizarbitoria et al, Faking ISO 9001 in China: An exploratory study, Business Horizons (2018). Inaki Heras-Saizarbitoria et al, Faking ISO 9001 in China: An exploratory study,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2018.08.008UTA researchers found a new species of snake. Credit: University of Texas at Arlington

Herpetologists at The University of Texas at Arlington have described a previously unknown species of snake that was discovered inside the stomach of another snake more than four decades ago.

The new snake has been named Cenaspis aenigma, which translates from Latin as "mysterious dinner snake." It is described in a recent paper in the Journal of Herpetology titled "Caudals and Calyces: The Curious Case of a Consumed Chiapan Colubroid." The paper was co-authored by Jonathan Campbell, UTA professor of biology; Eric Smith, UTA associate professor of biology; and Alexander Hall, who earned a UTA doctorate in quantitative biology in 2016.

The researchers' work identifies Cenaspis as not only a new species but also an entirely new genus.

The specimen was found in the stomach of a Central American coral snakea species that has been known to eat smaller snakesby palm harvesters in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas in 1976. The 10-inch long specimen was preserved in a museum collection. Amazingly, a live specimen has never been found in the ensuing 42 years.

"This small snake was obtained now over 40 years ago, and the report of its discovery has been a long time in coming," the co-authors wrote in the Journal of Herpetology paper. "We were optimistic that additional specimens might be secured, but after at least a dozen more trips into the region spanning several decades, we have been unrewarded."

Cenaspis has several unique features that defy placing it in any known genus and clearly distinguishes it from all known genera. These include undivided subcaudal scales, or enlarged plates on the underside of its tail; a lack of spines and presence of cup-like structures called calyces on its hemipenes, or paired male reproductive organs found in snakes and lizards; and the shape of its skull.

The first two of those features are not found in any other known snake in the family Colubridae in the Western Hemisphere. Colubridae is the largest snake family and includes just over 51 percent of all known living snake species.

Utilizing the vast resources of UTA's Amphibian and Reptile Diversity Research Center for comparative purposes, the researchers made CT scans of dozens of specimens of snakes. The biologists believe that due to some of the specimen's physical features, Cenaspis is likely a burrowing snake that feeds on insects and spiders. Campbell believes that Cenaspis is not extinct but has eluded capture due to its burrowing lifestyle and other elusive habits.

"This provides evidence of just how secretive some snakes can be," Campbell told National Geographic, which ran a story about the discovery in its Dec, 19, 2018, edition. "Combine their elusive habits with restricted ranges and some snakes do not turn up often."

He noted said that because of the snake's unique nature, the Chiapas highlands area of southern Mexico where it was found all those years ago should be considered for protected status, so that more unknown species can be discovered and not face possible extinction.

Explore further First fossilized snake embryo ever discovered rewrites history of ancient snakes

More information: Jonathan A. Campbell et al, Caudals and Calyces: The Curious Case of a Consumed Chiapan Colubroid, Journal of Herpetology (2018). Journal information: Journal of Herpetology Jonathan A. Campbell et al, Caudals and Calyces: The Curious Case of a Consumed Chiapan Colubroid,(2018). DOI: 10.1670/18-042Phuket  18 January 2019: JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa is honored to bring Chef Prasertchai Trongvanichnam also known as Chef Jack, Chef de Cuisine of Flavor Restaurant, Renaissance Bangkok Ratchaprasong Hotel to Phuket. The rising star Chef Prasertchai recently won the prestigious title of Iron Chef Thailand Competition on Television. The award-winning Chef Prasertchai ready to excite the palates of diners with his exceptional Modern Thai dishes, an upcoming Marriotts guest chefs pop up event, Thai Tapas with a Modern Twist, will be taking place from 4  7 February 2019 at Ginja Taste & Ginja Cook.

The programs for the extraordinary cooking and dining experience are as follow:

4  7 February, from 6.00 onwards at Ginja Taste: Tantalize your taste buds with a mouthwatering Thai Tapas with a modern twist. Select either 6 or 10-course set menu, created by Chef Prasertchai, the Iron Chef Thailand Champion. The Thai Tapas degustation menu featuring stunning dishes revolving around the theme of molecular gastronomy and story behind each course. Sampling menu included Ceviche  flamed tuna topped with coconut drops, lemongrass & onion powder and mint gel; 24-Hour Sous Vide Black Angus (grass fed) short ribs massaman crusted & coconut gnocchi; Truffle potato in mushroom dust & pumpkin puree; Crispy pork belly, steamed kale, turnip and chili pesto; Butterfly pea granite just to name a few. A dinner is not complete without desserts, choice of chili & chocolate sphere with pineapple textures and Mango Sticky rice. Price is THB 2,800++ per person for 6-course set menu and THB 3,500++ per person for 10-course set menu. The Iron Chef Thailand Winners a la carte menu is also available too.

5 February, from 11.00 am to 2.00 pm: Chef Prasertchai will hold a live cooking demonstration at Ginja Cook followed by a 3-course Thai molecular tapas menu. The highlight dishes include Miang Kam Foie Gras; Tom Yum Espuma; Inked Barramundi and sea grapes seaweeds. The intimate cooking class and limited to just 10 seats. Price is THB 2,400++ per person food only.

For more information or reservations, kindly contact our Food & Beverage dining experience team. Tel +66 (0)76 338 000 or Email: fbdiningexperience@marriotthotels.comFILE PHOTO: Admiral John Richardson, Chief of U.S. Naval Operations, waits for Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before their meeting at the Prime Minister's official residence in Tokyo, Japan, 18 December 2017. REUTERS/Franck Robichon/Pool/File photo

By Tim Kelly

TOKYO (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy has not ruled out sending an aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait, despite military technology advances by China that pose a greater threat to U.S. warships than ever before, the chief of U.S. naval operations said on Friday.

Washington sent ships through the strategic waterway three times last year as it makes more frequent transits of the strait that separates Taiwan from the Chinese mainland, but it has not dispatched a carrier in more than 10 years.

During that time, China has modernized its forces with missiles designed to strike enemy ships.

"We don't really see any kind of limitation on whatever type of ship could pass through those waters," Admiral John Richardson told reporters in the Japanese capital, when asked if more advanced Chinese weapons posed too big a risk.

"We see the Taiwan Strait as another (stretch of) international waters, so that's why we do the transits."

Aircraft carriers, typically equipped with about 80 aircraft and crews of about 5,000, are key to the U.S. military's ability to project power globally.

On Tuesday, a U.S. official told Reuters the United States was closely watching Chinese intentions toward Taiwan as advances in military technology give Beijing's forces greater capability to occupy an island it considers a breakaway province.

In a report, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency called Taiwan the "primary driver" for China's military modernization.

Richardson, who visited China before travelling to Japan, said he told his Chinese counterparts the United States was opposed to any unilateral action by Beijing or Taipei.

He also urged China to stick to international rules during unplanned naval encounters at sea.

That request came after a Chinese destroyer approached the USS Decatur in October and forced it to change course as it challenged Chinese territorial claims in the contested South China Sea with a freedom of navigation operation (FONOP).

Story continues

"We have made this very clear that this was an excursion, a departure from the normal adherence to those rules and we would hope that behaviour in the future would be much more consistent," Richardson said.

"We should not see each other as a threatening presence in these waters."

The U.S. Navy continues to pass through waters in the South China Sea that Beijing considers its territory.

On Jan 7, a U.S. guided-missile destroyer sailed within 12 miles of a Chinese-occupied island, prompting Beijing's rebuke that it had "gravely infringed upon China's sovereignty".

China, which claims almost all of the strategic waterway, says its intentions are peaceful. Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have competing claims.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)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.President Donald Trump will meet for the second time with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un around the end of February, the White House said Friday, after a top general from Pyongyang paid a rare visit to Washington. Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol, a right-hand man to the North Korean strongman, met the embattled president at the White House for an unusually long 90 minutes as the countries seek a denuclearization accord that could ease decades of hostility. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said that Trump -- who has opined that he and Kim Jong Un fell "in love" after last year's landmark first summit -- would again meet the North Korean leader "near the end of February" at a location to be announced later. The flurry of diplomacy comes little more than a year after Trump was threatening to wipe North Korea off the map, with Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests rattling nerves in East Asia. Sanders praised North Korea's efforts to reconcile but ruled out, for now, a key demand of Pyongyang -- a lifting of sanctions. "The United States is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea until we see fully and verified denuclearization," Sanders told reporters. "We've had very good steps in good faith from the North Koreans in releasing the hostages and other moves and so we'll continue those conversations," she said. She was referring to Pyongyang's quick deportation last year of an American. In 2017, a US student returned home comatose from North Korea and died within days after what a US judge said was torture. - Results or photo-op? - Kim Jong Un and Trump first met in June in Singapore, where they signed a vaguely worded document in which Kim pledged to work toward the "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula." But progress stalled soon afterward as Pyongyang and Washington -- which stations 28,500 troops in South Korea -- disagree over what that means. Critics say that the Singapore summit was little more than a photo-op. The second round with the young and elusive North Korean leader will again offer a change of headlines for Trump amid a barrage of scandalous allegations and a political deadlock that has shut down the US government. "Let's hope the second summit produces real results, but don't hold your breath as we wait for episode two of the Trump-Kim show," said Michael Fuchs, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress who worked closely with former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Abe Denmark, director of the Asia program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said the Singapore summit had thrown into question the security of US allies with little in return. "With another summit in the making, I hope for tangible progress and fear for a repeat: little movement from Kim, major concessions from Trump," he said. But Trump has pointed to the halt in missile launches by North Korea and recently said there would have been "a nice big fat war in Asia" if it were not for his efforts. Kim Yong Chol is the first North Korean dignitary in nearly two decades to spend a night in Washington, staying at a fashionable hotel a short drive from the White House. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed Kim at the hotel, posing briefly for pictures near a shelf with a framed portrait of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., and later invited the delegation to lunch. The State Department said that Stephen Biegun, the US special representative on North Korea, would carry on discussions at a conference in Sweden starting on Saturday that will involve Pyongyang officials. - Vietnam ready to host - While no decision has been made on location, a Vietnamese government source told AFP that "logistical preparations" were under way to host the summit, most likely in the capital Hanoi or coastal city of Danang. Vietnam's cooperation with the United States has been growing for years as Hanoi -- much unlike Pyongyang -- sets aside memories of war. US-North Korea tensions began to abate a year ago with the encouragement of South Korea's dovish president, Moon Jae-in. Moon's office Saturday said the new summit could be a "turning point" in bringing peace to the Korean peninsula. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters that the second summit should set a clear roadmap on how to scrap North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missiles. The Singapore summit marked the first-ever meeting between sitting leaders of the United States and North Korea, which never formally ended the 1950-53 Korean War. The United States expects Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arsenal, doggedly built by the Kim dynasty despite sanctions and famines. Kim, whose family has ruled North Korea with an iron fist for three generations, is seeking guarantees of the regime's survival as well as relief from biting UN sanctions. North Korea sees the denuclearization goal more broadly, seeking an end to what it sees as US threats on the peninsula.Pork meat seized by the Bureau of Customs at the

Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) for not having health clearances |Photo by BOC

MANILA, Philippines  The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has seized a total of 1,151 kgs of pork meat without health clearances at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) since the outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) was first recorded in January this year.

The Department of Agriculture has banned the entry of imported meat as the deadly pig virus is now affecting large pig farms in China and other countries in Europe.

Customs frontliners strictly inspect meat products for sanitary and phytosanitary clearance and beef up security in ports against entry of pork and pork-based products from ASF affected countries including China, Hungary, Belgium, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Moldova, South Africa, and Zambia.

Such measures aim to protect the countrys hog industry not only from the ASF virus but from any possible swine and agricultural epidemic, according to the BOC.  UNTV News and Rescue

The post NAIA Customs intensifies drive vs. African Swine Fever; seizes 1,151kg meat appeared first on UNTV News.China, Fukushima and inflatable poop: how Taiwan got frozen out of Asias biggest trade deal

Taiwan will be looking on enviously as trade officials meet in Tokyo this weekend to discuss expanding one of the worlds largest free trade agreements (FTA).

The eleven members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will be meeting for the first time since it came into force at the end of last year.

And while many potential new entrants  including Colombia, South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand  are high on the agenda, Taiwan faces an uphill struggle for admission.

Its diplomatic stand-off with China has left it frozen out of most multilateral organisations. The fact that many nations refuse to recognise its nationhood means it does not have a seat at the United Nations, for instance.

Many suspect that Beijing is also blocking its membership in the CPTPP, which consists of Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam, and which the Taiwanese government is desperate to join.

Malaysia will not be pressured into CPTPP: trade minister Darell Leiking

Chinas influence also means Taiwan has struggled to sign FTAs with other countries, despite being a relatively open economy, compared to some of those under consideration in the CPTPP.

They are  by far  the most prepared, and even adjusted their domestic laws for intellectual property to match CPTPP rules already, said Deborah Elms, executive director of the Asian Trade Centre, a free market lobby group.

Taiwan currently has only a handful of free trade deals, with mainly peripheral economies: Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, New Zealand, Paraguay and Singapore.

Most of those were signed when it was under the rule of the Kuomintang (KMT) and so on friendlier terms with China.

Taiwan has been struggling to conclude some FTAs for many years because Chinas good at blocking them at the diplomatic level, said John Marrett, Asia analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Story continues

If Taiwan joined, it would be the signatory in most dire need of joining. Many of those involved have deals with one third or one half of the other nations already under their belt in bilateral or multilateral terms, he said.

The impetus is not as strong as for Taiwan. Its a massive deal for Taiwan, so you can understand why theyve put so much effort into this, and theyre ready to go. But theyve got this massive issue of China blocking its entry, Parrett added.

Compare that with Hong Kong, which is likely to conclude an FTA with the Asean group of 10 nations this year, is negotiating with the Pacific Alliance (Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru), and which already has deals with Australia and New Zealand.

Whether it is in the benefit of Hong Kong to enter into the CPTPP because it does not have an FTA or plan to forge an FTA with Canada [the only CPTPP country it has yet to negotiate with] maybe we have other priorities, said Louis Chan, assistant principal economist at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.

The Taiwanese premier, Lai Ching-te told local media last year that the difficulties facing Taiwans accession are completely because of Chinas political obstacles.

This view was confirmed by former Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop, who told Fairfax Media that China had blocked a potential FTA between Australia and Taiwan.

The Chinese government made it clear to me that circumstances had changed between Taiwan and mainland China and that China would not look favourably on Australia seeking to pursue an FTA with Taiwan, she said.

For a new country to join the CPTPP, all the member nations must agree. For a small nation such as Brunei, one of the CPTPP-11, it may be difficult to face down any pressure from Beijing.

In an email exchange, Andres Rebolledo a trade economist who, until last year, served as the energy minister of Chile, told the South China Morning Post that in a scenario in which these economies [Hong Kong and Taiwan] request to enter, the member countries of CPTPP-11 should also consider the impact on their relationship with China.

However, China is not the only hurdle facing Taiwan in joining the worlds third largest trade deal, which is being gradually ratified by its member states, with Vietnam the latest to pass it into law.

When the US dumped the original Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) after Donald Trumps election, there were hopes that it might lower the barriers to entry for Taiwan.

The two countries have clashed repeatedly on trade and investment negotiations, particularly over agriculture.

Taiwan (along with other Asian nations) banned US beef imports after traces of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE  also known as Mad Cow Disease) were found in American cattle.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang invites harsh words on economy from private sector top brass

The ban was lifted in 2016, but US pork remains under an embargo, due to the use of ractopamine, an additive commonly fed to US livestock. The bans have angered generations of US trade officials, who have found negotiating with their Taiwanese counterparts challenging, but it looks unlikely that Taiwan will budge on pork.

One US trade delegation was greeted in Taiwan by protesting farmers, brandishing a big inflatable poop, said a former trade negotiator, speaking on background.

The farmers control trade policy and Taiwan has very crazy farmers just like Korea, Japan, the US and the EU, the official recalled.

The US exit made Japan the most significant economy in the CPTPP, but it has also clashed with Taiwan over agricultural products.

In November, Taiwan voted in a referendum to uphold a ban on food imports from the areas around the Fukushima nuclear plant site, infuriating the Japanese government.

The Japanese foreign minister said the results were extremely disappointing, and its expected that this could also hold up Taiwans progress toward joining the CPTPP.

Such trade irritants are viewed as standard operating procedure in Taiwan by the US source.

A Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson told local press this week that the government will be watching the Tokyo round closely.

We are continuing our talks with Tokyo to convince them that the food ban issue and Taiwans inclusion in the CPTPP should be discussed separately, they said.

But all the signs suggest that for the foreseeable future, Taiwan will continue to look on from the outside.

This article China, Fukushima and inflatable poop: how Taiwan got frozen out of Asias biggest trade deal first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019.Eastern Libyan forces, who launched earlier this week a military operation in Libyas south to fight extremists and secure oil facilities, have killed a senior operative for Al Qaeda, a spokesman for the eastern Libyan forces said on Friday.

The Libyan National Army (LNA)based in the eastern city of Benghazi and led by eastern strongman General Khalifa Haftarkilled Abu Talha al-Libi, a commander in Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and two other militants, including one Egyptian, Reuters quoted LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari as saying on Friday.

Libyas southwest, where the senior Al Qaeda commander was killed, is being used by extremists to launch attacks in the country and in the neighboring countries in North Africa. The same area is also home to the largest oil field in Libya, Sharara, which has been closed since early December, due to security breaches by armed groups.

On Tuesday, the LNA said that they had started a military operation to secure oil sites and facilities in Libyas south, where Sharara is located.

Shararas shutdown will result in daily production losses of 315,000 bpd, plus a loss of 73,000 bpd at the El Feel oil field because it depends on Sharara for electricity supply, Libyas internationally recognized National Oil Corporation (NOC) said last month, noting that the combined daily cost to the Libyan economy of this unnecessary shutdown is US$32.5 million.



Related: Low Oil Prices Are Not The Only Problem For The Permian

According to NOC, Oil production will now only restart at Sharara after alternative security arrangements are put in place.

Libyas crude oil production and exports have been severely disrupted since early December due to port closures courtesy of bad weather as well as security incidents and issues at Sharara.

As a result, Libyas crude oil production in December plunged by 172,000 bpd from Novemberto 928,000 bpd from 1.1 million bpd, according to OPECs secondary sources in the cartels Monthly Oil Market Report released on Thursday. The drop in Libyas oil production last month was the second steepest decline among OPEC producers after Saudi Arabia, which cut production by 468,000 bpd from November to 10.553 million bpd in December.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Russias proposed pipeline to bring more gas from Russian fields into Europe via an undersea pipeline to Germany seems to be unable to shake both geopolitical maneuvering as well as headline-grabbing quotes from both sides of the divide.

On Thursday, Wolfgang Ischinger, chairman of the Munich Security Conference, and a seasoned diplomat said Germany should finish the Russian-backed Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline despite U.S. opposition and growing domestic concerns, but future energy projects should be coordinated by the EU.

He added that the initial birth defect of the $11 bn pipeline project was the fact that European treaties had allowed the German government to deem the project as purely commercial. He also added, (what U.S. government officials have been claiming for quite some time, but most EU officials have been denying) that it was clear such a large project clearly had a political nature, particularly given Russias annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014 and other actions in recent years.

According to a Reuters report yesterday, Ischinger cautioned against abandoning the project as it neared its completion date of late 2019, citing German foreign policys focus on consistency and sustainability. Saying forget it now would not be good German foreign policy.

The $11 billion gas pipeline will stretch some 759 miles (1,222 km), running on the bed of the Baltic Sea from Russian gas fields to Germany, bypassing existing land routes over Ukraine, Poland and Belarus. It would double the existing Nord Stream pipelines current annual capacity of 55 bcm and is expected to become operational by the end of next year. Related: Low Oil Prices Are Not The Only Problem For The Permian

Geopolitically charged pipeline

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline has also been a point of contention, perhaps even on a personal level, between Trump and Germany as well. In a televised meeting with reporters and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg before a NATO summit in Brussels last year, Trump said it was very inappropriate that the U.S. was paying for European defense against Russia while Germany, the biggest European economy, was supporting gas deals with Moscow. Russia, for its part and unsurprisingly, deems the pipeline as a purely commercial venture.

Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany stoked a media firestorm in the country earlier this week after he told German companies involved in the Nord Stream 2 project that they could face sanctions if they continued with the plan that is already far advanced. German media group and broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) said that Grenell's latest move remains highly unusual and is likely to prompt fresh tensions between Washington and Berlin.

Though Trump has also been criticized for politicizing the pipeline, both of his predecessors Barack Obama and George W. Bush also opposed the pipeline amid security concerns. And at the end of the day, given Russian President Vladimir Putins unorthodox and even aggressive moves during his two stints as president for a total of some 15 years, these security concerns are founded. Related: U.S. Refiners Rush To Buy Heavy Oil As Trump Looks To Punish Maduro

Moreover, there is a growing, but often silent group inside Russia that disapproved of Putins geopolitical actions that has brought multiple sanctions on the country and considerable economic hardship. As a young, lower level manager for a well-established Russian energy company told me last year at a conference in Vietnam, hey dont blame all Russians for Putins actions, the guy has been president since I was in grade school. We cant control what he does

Nord Stream 2 likely to proceed on schedule

Yet, going forward it seems probable that the pipeline will be built on schedule, all the while prolonging Europes reliance on Russias decades-old gas monopoly in Europe. The way forward, for some EU countries already tried of Russian interference and geopolitical hegemony using the gas weapon in the region, including Poland and several Baltic states, will be to procure more U.S.-sourced LNG, as well as from Qatar and other players. To this end, however, LNG is currently and will be in the future at a decided pricing disadvantage compared to cheaper Russian pipeline gas.

Finally, Germany has also indicated recently, likely bowing to pressure from Trump, that it will expand its LNG infrastructure, including signing more LNG deals with U.S. producers. While this will not be enough to nullify the enormous stakes and risks of an operational Nord Stream 2 pipeline, it will at least offer marginal diversity of supply.

By Tim Daiss for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Israel has confirmed it is in extensive talks with Egypt to build a new sub-sea natural gas pipeline between the two countries as part of a previously agreed $15 billion deal to export Israeli gas to Egypt over a decade. Most significant is that the new line would hugely expand Israel's export capacity to its southern Arab neighbor, taking it far beyond the maximum 7 billion cubic meters per year currently able to flow through the existing EMG pipeline to Sinai.

(Click to enlarge)

Theoretical map produced early in prior controversial talks to export Israeli gas to Egypt, via Middle East Eye

Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz proclaimed the ambitious project under negotiation to be part of broader "efforts to transform the eastern Mediterranean into an energy export hub on the doorstep of Europe," according to Bloomberg.

Theres no final decision yet, but there are talks, Steinitz told Bloomberg while attending the Cairo-sponsored first East Mediterranean Gas Forum, a cooperative forum aimed at expanding east Mediterranean energy transformation and joint ventures.

Related: Russia Looks To Build LNG Island To Supply Booming Asian Market

Notably, oil ministers from Israel, Greece, Egypt, Cyprus, Jordan, Italy, and the Palestinian Authority took part, and are set to participate again at another meeting in April. Reporting from the conference, Bloomberg described a common agreed upon goal "to work together to monetize reserves by using existing infrastructure and adding more capacity."

Also significant is that this marks the first time an Israeli energy minister has visited Egypt since 2011, when "Arab Spring" demonstrations eventually brought down Hosni Mubarak, ushering in uncertainty and chaos, including brief Muslim Brotherhood rule, which for the first time brought the future of Egypt's peace treaty with Israel into question.

Steinitz described further to Bloomberg that , "Construction could begin as early as next year on the pipeline that would transport gas from Israels offshore Leviathan and Tamar fields to Egypts existing liquefied natural gas plants for processing and re-export."

And separately, concerning the bigger project of the sub-sea East Med pipeline supplying energy-hungry Europe  first proposed by Greek energy minister Yannis Maniatis in 2014  Steinitz confirmed it is moving forward, touting the ambitious project as "the longest and deepest gas pipeline in the world," and an initial estimated cost of $7 billion, to be financed by "private companies and institutional lenders," according to the Israeli energy minister.

The separate, long in the works "East Med Pipeline" that could turn the region into an energy hotspot supplying Europe, via The Weekly Standard.

Related: Oil Rises After Choppy Start To The Week

The underground, sub-sea pipeline is proposed to connect Israel, via Cyprus, to Greece and Italy, in a massive construction project estimated to take five or six years to complete, with work to begin as early as next year.

The transformation of the eastern Mediterranean into an "energy hotspot" could have huge global geopolitical implications, especially given that currently, the E.U. relies on Russia for a third of its gas. It's especially southeast Europe that's been entirely reliant on Russian gas, given its lack of infrastructure.

In the past during shortages  or especially during a rare January 7, 2009 delivery shutdown by Gazprom - southeastern European countries experienced industrial shutdowns as well as broad swathes of residential areas without heat, victims of worsening tensions in Ukraine. No doubt the EU ministers that have driven the major East Med pipeline have as a prime motivator Europe's energy independence, something Israel is keen to push forward as well, given its own delicate diplomatic dance with Russia in Syria and the broader Middle East.

By Zerohedge.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Papuan landowners and communities in the vicinity of Exxons Papua New Guinea LNG project are growing increasingly disgruntled about how the company and the national government are handling royalty distribution, a Reuters investigation has found. This sentiment has led to inter-communal clashes in some areas and might lead to more serious trouble for the project.

Our clans fought each other, but now there is peace; we are one team fighting Exxon. These are the words of a local clan leader, Johnson Tape, one of 16 such leaders who are claiming rights over the Komo Air Field, which is used by the PNG LNG project, Reuters Jonathan Barrett and Tom Westbrook write.

They also relate the story of one local landowner who was promised a much higher royalty once PNG LNG began operating than she actually received. This landowner and others blame both the local government and the project operator for failing to fulfill their compensation promises. For now, it seems that this disgruntlement is more of a passive attitude, but Tapes words could be an early warning for something worse to come.

There is a precedent. Last year, a devastating 7.5-magnitude earthquake shook the country, suspending operations at PNG LNG. The earthquake came amid growing tensions among local landowners already unhappy with Exxons project and with the government, sparking protests among the locals. In one part of the country, the Southern Highlands, the protests were violent enough to prompt the government to declare a state of emergency for the province.

In the Hela province, where a lot of PNG LNG production and transport facilities are located, protesters set some construction equipment on fire and landowners blockaded a wellhead in the production part of the PNG LNG project, threatening to shut it all down. That spurred the authorities into action and a little later representatives of the landowners said they were getting close to a deal with the government. Apparently, they havent gotten close enough to end the bad blood to date.

Related: There Is Still Room To Run For Oil Prices

The PNG LNG project cost US$19 billion and had a nameplate annual capacity of 6.9 million tons of liquefied natural gas. Yet in 2017, the project yielded as much as 8.3 million tons of LNG, according to the Reuters investigation. Since 2014, when production began, Exxon has raked in some US$18.8 billion in revenues, also according to Reuters since the company does not release figures for PNG LNG.

However, the Papuan governments expectations for its own revenues were revised substantially down from the initial 2012 estimate of US$22 billion over the productive lifetime of the project, until 2040. Last year, these were calculated at just half the initial amount, on the back of tax deductions for the operator and its partners, and lower gas prices.

An investigation by the World Bank found that the companies behind the project had developed a complex web of exemptions and allowances that effectively mean that little revenue is received by government and landowners. This doesnt really bode well for the future of PNG LNG unless Exxon and its partners somehow renegotiate the terms of their agreement to avoid a buildup of tensions with unpleasant consequences all around.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:UK oil and gas giant BP is planning to launch an ambitious two-year exploration and drilling program in Azerbaijan's sector of the Caspian Sea aimed at confirming new oil and gas reserves for export, a spokesperson for BP in Baku has confirmed to Eurasianet.

The company's plans for this year involve drilling four new exploration wells in three separate blocks, all of which are thought to hold substantial gas reserves, and to conduct seismic surveys of a fourth block, thought to hold either oil or gas.

Another three exploration wells are planned for 2020, added the spokesperson, Tamam Bayatli.

The spokesperson cautioned that all the exploration wells are by their nature "exploratory" and there is no guarantee that commercial volumes of oil or gas will be discovered.

However, BP and Azerbaijani officials have long predicted that some of the fields to be explored hold substantial reserves of gas, with seismic surveys of one of them, the Shafag-Asiman block, suggesting reserves of up to 500 billion cubic meters. If those projects are borne out the block would be the second-largest gas field discovered the Caspian, behind only the Shah Deniz field and its estimated 1.2 trillion billion cubic meters of gas. Related: This Is How Much Each OPEC+ Member Needs To Cut

Alongside Brazil, Azerbaijan stands out in terms of the areas of focus for the next few years, Gary Jones, BPs regional president for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, recently told Bloomberg. Its a very significant exploration program for us, which demonstrates the confidence and the role that we see in the Caspian. BP potentially could take this source of supply of gas well into the middle of the century, Jones added.

Two of the planned wells will be drilled this year in the Shallow Water Absheron Peninsula block, about 30 kilometers southeast of Baku, which BP owns in an equal partnership with the Azerbaijani state oil company, SOCAR. A third well in that block is slated for exploration next year.

A third well planned this year is in the Shafag-Asiman block in deeper waters about 125 kilometers southeast of Baku, which BP also shares with SOCAR. The fourth well slated for this year is the Gobustan block, in an inland field about 50 kilometers west of Baku, in which BP owns a 61 percent share, with SOCAR and the Geneva-based Vitol owning the rest.

In addition, BP will this year conduct seismic surveys of Block D230, a deepwater area 135 kilometers north of Baku, with a first exploration well slated for 2020. Related: Low Oil Prices Are Not The Only Problem For The Permian

Also planned by BP for 2020 is a first exploratory deep well into the existing Shah Deniz gas field. Shah Deniz has been producing gas since 2006, now exporting it to Turkey via the South Caucasus Gas pipeline. Exports onward to Europe, via the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), are due to start in 2020.

However, BP officials have long predicted the existence of a second "deep" gas reservoir below the existing Shah Deniz field, which the planned well is expected to confirm.

While company officials emphasize that the drilling is only exploratory, well-drilling  in particular deep-water drilling  is an expensive business, and the new program indicates some confidence that new reserves can be located. The new reserves would seem to be earmarked for export to Europe, given the excess capacity available in TANAP. That pipeline, constructed at a cost of $8.5 billion, has a total capacity of 31 billion cubic meters per year and Azerbaijan currently is producing only enough gas to fill half of it

By Eurasianet

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Coming to ones senses, quoting Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., may well be an understatementbut the release of funds for salary increases for government workers has a rippling effect in many work zones across the country. Andaya, who has been at daggers with Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno during the past weeks, has welcomed the release of funds, underlined in two Department of Budget and Management Circulars, which authorize Local Government Units and Government-Owned and -Controlled Corporations to release the fourth tranche of the wage hike to their employees under the Salary Standardization Law.

The DBM CircularsLocal Budget Circular No. 118 and Corporate Budget Circular No. 23were both signed by Secretary Diokno on Jan. 15, 2019. Both took effect on Jan. 1, 2019. According to Andaya, the twin circulars only mean that what legislators have been saying is true: that the DBM has the tools to implement the salary increases for at least 1.4 million employees even under a reenacted budget. Secretary Diokno can use these tools to release the salary increase for other civil servants in the executive, legislative and judicial branches as well as in constitutional offices. Secretary Diokno is just taking these employees hostage in a desperate bid to force Congress to approve his pet projects the soonest time possible, Andaya said. He added: Finally, Secretary Diokno has come to his senses. Now, he realizes that he has to implement the law granting salary increases to civil servants even under a reenacted budget.The government employees, from where we are and given the present state of affairsprices of prime commodities, among others, hurtling to a gallopdeserve the immediate compassion and increase of the government as their employer. Salary delayed is salary denied. And while we do not begrudge those in the bureaucracy who would eventually have a fatter take-home pay envelope on time, the Department of Budget action is a saga worth emulating. Lets bring it on.New Zealand

Police authorities investigating this weeks $2.5 million hack of New Zealand-based Cryptopia have admitted the case is a complex matter. While the exchange is duly coordinating with authorities to net the accused and the proceedings remain at early stages, all possibilities  including Cryptopias role in the attack  are being considered.

Crypto Attackers have the Cops on Trail

An official release on January 16 has confirmed investigations are ongoing at Cryptopias headquarters in Christchurch. Authorities acknowledge the companys full coordination in the matter, putting to rest any rumors of an internal hack or exit scam. A large investigative team is said to be deployed at the exchanges offices, including members from the Canterbury CIB and New Zealands dedicated cyber crime task force, the High Tech Crime Unit.

The small-scale cryptocurrency exchange, which handled just over $2 million in daily transactional volume before the incident, has lost between $2.5 million to $3.5 million worth of Ether (ETH) and Centrality (CENNZ) tokens according to estimates. An official figure is yet to be released, with police stating its a significant amount.

The existing figures come from a tweet by blockchain security firm Hacken, which observed a 19,870 ETH transfer from Cryptopia wallets when the exchange was in a maintenance period.

This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it.

At the time of writing, theres limited information on the type of measures taken to trace the accused. But police mention the inquiry remains in its early stages with a focus on examining the offices security mechanisms both physically and digitally. No timeframe for the investigations progress or completion has been provided.

Authorities noted the online speculation in cryptocurrency circles as a result of the hack, presumably pointing towards community outrage about Cryptopias weak security practices and even Binance CEO Chanpeng Zhaos opinions on the matter. However, despite the exchanges coordination in the investigation, police have not ruled out the possibility of an internal attack and are keeping an open mind while gathering the requisite information.

Story continues

The release added:

A priority for police is to identify and, if possible, recover missing funds for Cryptopia customers; however there are likely to be many challenges to achieving this.

Concluding the brief update, police called out claims about authorities storming Cryptopias offices and asked anyone with information on the subject to contact crypto@police.govt.nz.

Little-known Cryptopia now holds the distinction of being the first crypto-exchange to be hacked in 2019, and joins an ever-growing list of businesses facing the wrath of hackers. In the past, several trusted exchanges which boasted high-security practices  such as Bitfinex, CoinCheck, Poloniex, and BitFloor  have fallen victim to theft surpassing billions of dollars.

Featured image from Shutterstock.



The post New Zealand Police Investigate Complex $2.4 Million ETH Cryptopia Hack appeared first on CCN.

Thousands of demonstrators will take up the streets of the Big Apple this weekend for the third annual Womens March in New York City.

The mass protest began in January 2017 on the inauguration of President Donald Trump to protest his election win, notably racist and sexist policies, and his history of alleged sexual misconduct. Last year, in the second annual Womens March, an estimated 200,000 people from all across the country took part in the protests in their local cities.

But this year, there is a caveat with the New York City planned demonstrations on 19 January: There are two marches, and only one of them are authorized to march throughout the city. One of the marches, organised by the Womens March Alliancethe same organisation that spearheaded the 2017 and 2018 marches in New Yorkwill start from the Upper West Side and into Midtown. The other march is organised by the Womens March NYC and be held as a rally in Foley Square in lower Manhattan.

Here is everything else you need to know about the Womens March events taking place in New York City.

When and where are the marches meeting up?

The authorised march and the rally are both held on Saturday, January 19. For the Womens March Alliance event, demonstrators will convene at Central Park West and 72nd street at 10am ET (3pm GMT), and after their rally, theyll begin marching down through Midtown until 44th Street and Sixth Avenue.

For the rally in Foley Square, demonstrators will meet at 10am near the intersection of Centre and Lafayette street across from the New York state Supreme Court building. The rally will end at 2pm.

What if we need special accommodations for the Womens Alliance March?

Those with disabilities, and are in need of accomodationslike an ASL interpretermay participate in the march by meeting at the 61st and Broadway cross street.

What streets will be closed for the march?

For the march starting at the Upper West Side, several streets will be closed for the demonstration. Central Park West between 61st Street and 77th Street will be closed. The entire march route will also be closed, which consists of Columbus Circle between Central Park West and 59th Street, 59th Street between Columbus Circle and 6th Avenue, and 6th Avenue between 59th Street and 45th Street.

Story continues

The march will disperse at the following locations, which will also result in road closures: 6th Avenue between 45th Street and 43rd Street, 45th Street between Broadway and 5th Avenue, 44th Street between Broadway and 5th Avenue, and 43rd Street between Broadway and 6th Avenue

As for the Foley Square rally, only Lafayette Street between Reade Street and White Street will be closed.

What is the easiest way to get to the marches?

The easiest way to commute to the events will be through public transportation. To get to the Upper West Side march, the trains you should take are the 1/2/3 and C trains to 72nd Street. For the Foley Square rally, you should look to arrive at the 4/5/6 trains to Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall or the J train to Chambers street.This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it.

WASHINGTON  Despite internal power struggles, including accusations of anti-Semitism, tens of thousands of activists braved cold temperatures Saturday at the third Women's March to show opposition to President Donald Trump, demand an end to violence against women and push for equality.

Protesters also turned out at "sister rallies" in hundreds of other U.S. cities.

While spirits remained high and marchers displayed determination to fight for women's issues, this year's march paled in numbers to the hundreds of thousands who roared onto the political scene in 2017 in the nation's capital after Trump's presidential election.

The original plans to gather at the National Mall were scrapped because the National Park Service, in shutdown mode, was not able to plow in the event of snow. In the end, organizers shifted the march route to begin at Freedom Plaza, a few blocks from the White House, and head down Pennsylvania Avenue past the Trump International Hotel.

At the rally, participants found their voice on a wide range of topics.

Amid chants of the people united will never be defeated, Womens March co-president Tamika Mallory called on Congress not to pass budget funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall when she addressed the crowd in Washington.

I want to tell members of Congress to listen to me very carefully. You will not negotiate on the backs of immigrants, on the backs of people of color, Mallory said. We dont care what you got to offer because our answer to a wall is absolutely not. No questions asked.

Nationwide, the 2017 march drew 3.3 million to 5.2 million nationwide  making it likely the largest demonstration in U.S. history.

This year, organizers of the Washington March estimated the turnout at 60,000, considerably below an estimated 500,000 to one million two years ago.

Marches kicked off across the country, from Boston, to Los Angeles, to Dallas, Houston, Nashville, and in smaller cities like Burlington, Vermont, and Grand Junction, Colorado.

Story continues

Alana Torracam, of Fairfax, waits for the start of the Women's March on Montpelier on Saturday morning, Jan. 19, 2019. on the steps of the Statehouse. Torracam said, This is my personal motto this year.

In Montpelier, Vt., hundreds of marchers turned out on the steps of the state capital, despite 7-degree temperatures, to listen, chant and find common ground for political action on environmental, health and civil rights issues.

Alexis Dubief, of Essex Junction, says Brett Kavanaughs confirmation to the Supreme Court was a big reason shes attending the march. Im not over it yet, she said.

In New York, because of internal disputes between organizers, rival marches turned out, one along Fifth Avenue and the other some 50 blocks away in Foley Square.

"Last year we brought the power to the polls, and this year we need to make sure that we translate that power into policy," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told marchers

In Phoenix, where this year's theme is "Rising Together," thousands 3,000 people marched in a one miles loop that began at the Capitol. Among the chants: "Tell me what democracy looks like: This is what democracy looks like," "My body, my choice," and "Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go."

Rallies were also held in almost a dozen foreign cities, including Berlin, Rome and Kabul.

Unlike the first Womens March in 2017, protesters battled harsh winter weather this year, turning out in scarves and gloves. The cold did not dampen the mood, however, as protesters marched and chanted this is what democracy looks like and womens rights are human rights.

Many also sported the pink pussy hats made popular by the first march through the nation's capital.

Winnie Wong, an organizer with the Womens March, todl USA TODAY that the march represents issues ranging from racial justice to healthcare. She cited the womens agenda, a new platform released by march officials that details their calls for civil rights and liberties, reproductive rights, violence against women and femmes and other issues.

We will be fighting not just to protect our care, but to move towards universal healthcare, to move towards Medicare for all, Wong said. We state very clearly in our agenda that we demand an end to war. We demand an end to imperialism. We demand the ERA be added to the constitution. We have a lot of demands.

Stephanie Helton, 52, attended the march with her husband, Joe Helton, 53, from Port Huron, Michigan. She decided to show up immediately after Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaughs confirmation amid sexual assault allegations.

Helton said the energy at the march has been wonderful.

Weve been worried about the direction of the country for a really long time, the assault on access to healthcare for millions and millions of Americans, the fact that we have a government that focuses on the issues that degrade members of our society and culture, Helton said. So, its great to be out here. We have lots of friends at home who told us represent us! Represent us!

The Bugnitz family flew from Columbus, Ohio, to attend the march after Sadie, 10, Chris and Kristins daughter, learned about the gathering from a teacher.

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Its really important to our family that girls and boys are all treated equally and we can listen to all voices, Kristin Bugnitz said.

A lot of people like Trump are being rude and sexist and trying to make sure that men only have the rights to do stuff, Oliver Bugnitz, 7, said. Its not fair.

Noe Torres, came to the march with a group from Los Angeles. He wanted to attend to stand with the women in his life.

Some of the strongest people in my life are the women in my life: my mom, my sister and my girlfriend, Torres said. I want to do my part in helping to undo the systemic oppression thats keeping these amazing people from flourishing and thriving and doing something for this world.

The march also brought out a small group of counter protesters who did attend the march, opposing the events stances on civil rights and abortion.

Evangeline Dunn protested at the event for the anti-abortion group Created Equal.

Its important to have a presence of the victims at the womens march, the most pro-abortion event of the year, Dunn said. Weve been engaging with people. The most important thing today is to represent the victims, and we know with this kind of crowd were not going to have much dialogue.

The movement that galvanized the nation's capital has morphed from a show of force on the streets and sidewalks, into a mobilizing force at the polls.

As the movement has grown into a political powerhouse, it has also run into headwinds in the form of a splintered leadership and accusations of anti-semitism against some of the original organizers.

The controversy, which prompted the Democratic National Committee and other groups to distance themselves from the Washington event, threatens to erode the movements gains, or at least slow its progress.

Without the motivation of Trumps election or the midterms, the marches this year face such obstacles as travel inconveniences from the federal shutdown as well as harsh weather Saturday from the Midwest to New England.

This is the heaviest lift theyre going to have, said University of Maryland sociology professor Dana Fisher, author of the upcoming book American Resistance.

In general, getting people to march in the winter is tough. Its a hard ask, and right now theres not an obvious goal, except for perhaps 2020 (the general election). I know Womens March Inc. says theyre trying to use this as a pivot to start talking about doing more policy-based work, but I think thats not a good mobilizer.

In some ways, the movement is a victim of its own successes, the power of women at the ballot box  a direct result of the strong showing in the 2018 midterms that sent a record number of women into politics and into Congress.

Women, especially those in the suburbs, helped drive the Democrats 40-seat gain in the House of Representatives, flipping control of that chamber. A record 102 women  89 of them Democrats  were voted into the House in November.

You can draw a direct line from the 5 million who marched that day and our effort after that to impact elections to the makeup of the current Congress as the most diverse Congress thats ever been elected, said Vanessa Wruble, one of the leading organizers of the first march. Already you see the movement shifting from reactive to proactive.

However, with the growth has come distrust and division.

Much of the controversy stems from Women's March co-president Mallory's refusal to condemn Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, a proponent of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories who recently described Jews as "termites."

A detailed story by the Jewish online magazine Tablet said Womens March board members Mallory and Carmen Perez  whom Wruble recruited to add diversity to the original organizing group of four  confronted her about the role Jews had in oppressing minorities.

Wruble, who is Jewish, was asked to leave the group shortly after the first march, and she told The New York Times her religion was a factor. She later co-founded March On, an organization that provides support and guidance to women-led groups throughout the country, and estimates 50 percent of Saturdays "sister marches" will have gotten help from the group.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.), who attended the Women's March in 2017, published an op-ed in USA TODAY on Friday saying that she is "walking away" from the Women's March.

"I cannot associate with the national marchs leaders and principles, which refuse to completely repudiate anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry," Wasserman-Schultz wrote. "I cannot walk shoulder to shoulder with leaders who lock arms with outspoken peddlers of hate."

Carmen Perez Jordan, a Womens March organizer, addressed the allegations of anti-Semitism during her remarks to the Washington, D.C., crowd.

Over the last year, my sisters in Womens March and I have faced accusations that have hurt my soul, charges of anti-Semitism and neglecting our LGBTQIA family, she said. I want to be unequivocal in affirming that Womens March and I and my sisters condemn anti-Semitism and homophobia and transphobia in all forms. There is no excuse of bigotry.

Fisher said the controversy is taking a toll.

Womens March Inc. does not own the womens movement, and it certainly does not own this march, which has been so much a combination of all of these locally distributed efforts across the country, she said. Its a shame all of the bad press is having this effect.

While Women's March Inc. has repeatedly denied charges of anti-Semitism, the issue was further inflamed when Mallory, a Womens March co-president, appeared on ABCs The View on Monday and declined to denounce the frequent anti-Semitic statements by Farrakhan, whom she has publicly lauded.

Women's March Inc. provided a statement about the "sister marches" Saturday, most of which are not affiliated with the group.

Women's March is an organic movement, made of the fierce energy and power of millions of women and those who support them, the statement said. We're thrilled to see hundreds of marches sprout up in small towns, suburbs, and cities across America and around the globe. In 2017, we marched. In 2018, we took our power to the polls. In 2019, we're coming with an agenda created by women and for the people.

In addition to addressing violence against women, that agenda includes items such as reproductive rights, racial justice and immigrant rights. The objectives are worthwhile enough for sponsors like the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood to remain on board.

A coalition of more than 100 supporters of the Jewish Women of Color signed a letter standing firm with the Womens March.

On the other hand, the Jewish Democratic Council of America issued a statement joining the DNC and other groups pulling away from the Womens March organization, though not the cause itself.

Contributing: Jorge L. Ortiz; Nicole Higgins DeSmet, Burlington Free Press; Pamela Ren Larson, Grace Palmieri and Rachel Leingang, Arizona Republic

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Represent us!': Women's March returns amid controversy over anti-SemitismA month has gone by since the last earnings report for Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA). Shares have added about 4.1% in that time frame, underperforming the S&P 500.

Will the recent positive trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is Walgreens due for a pullback? Before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late, let's take a quick look at its most recent earnings report in order to get a better handle on the important drivers.

Walgreens Boots Beats on Q1 Earnings, Margins Decline

Walgreens Boots reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.46 for first-quarter fiscal 2019, up 14.1% year over year (same at constant exchange rate or CER). The figure surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.43.



On a reported basis, net earnings came in at $1.12 billion, reflecting an 36.8% surge from the prior-year quarter. Reported EPS came in at $1.18, up 45.7% on a year-over-year basis.



Total Sales



Walgreens Boots recorded total sales of $33.79 billion in the fiscal first quarter, up 9.9% year over year and up 11.4% at constant exchange rate or CER. The top line exceeded the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $33.58 billion.



Segments in Detail



Walgreens Boots reports under three operating segments: Retail Pharmacy USA, Retail Pharmacy International and Pharmaceutical Wholesale.



Retail Pharmacy USA



The segment recorded sales of $25.7 billion in the first quarter, highlighting an improvement of 14.4% year over year. Excluding the benefit from acquired Rite Aid stores, organic sales growth was 4.6% year over year.



Pharmacy sales, which accounted for 74.4% of the Retail Pharmacy USA divisions sales in the quarter, increased 17.5% from the year-ago quarter on higher prescription volume from the acquisition of Rite Aid stores and central specialty. Pharmacy sales at comparable stores improved 2.8% while prescriptions filled in comparable stores increased 2% year over year in the quarter. With the addition of Rite Aid stores, retail sales increased 8.3% year over year. However, comparable retail sales dropped 3.2%.



Retail Pharmacy International



Revenues at the Retail Pharmacy International division dropped 5.9% on a year-over-year basis to $2.9 billion in the first quarter. Sales were down 3.6% at CER considering the negative impacts of the divestiture of Boots Contract Manufacturing in the prior year quarter and a change in loyalty accounting. In the United Kingdom, comparable pharmacy sales dropped 3.5% and comparable retail sales decreased 2.6% in the reported quarter.



Pharmaceutical Wholesale



The Pharmaceutical Wholesale division recorded quarterly sales of $5.7 billion, down 0.2% year over year (up 6.6% at CER banking on continued strong growth in emerging markets).



Margins



Gross profit in the reported quarter increased 4.1% year over year to $7.64 billion. However, gross margin contracted 127 basis points (bps) to 22.6%.



Selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses increased 6.3% year over year to $6.3 billion. Adjusted operating income declined 4.9% to $1.4 billion. Overall, operating margin contracted 63 bps to 4%.



Financial Condition



Walgreens Boots exited the fiscal first quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $980 million, compared with $785 million at the end of fiscal 2018. Long-term debt was $11.64 billion, compared with $12.43 billion at the end of fiscal 2018. In the first quarter, the company generated operating cash flow of $460 million compared with $1 billion a year ago.



Guidance



Walgreens Boots maintained its fiscal 2019 adjusted EPS guidance in the range of $6.40 to $6.70 (a 7% to 12% growth at CER). The Zacks Consensus Estimate of $6.53 per share is within the guided range.



The company has also announced the launch of a new transformational cost management program, which is targeting annual cost savings of more than $1 billion by the end of the third year.

Story continues

How Have Estimates Been Moving Since Then?

In the past month, investors have witnessed a downward trend in fresh estimates.

VGM Scores

Currently, Walgreens has an average Growth Score of C, though it is lagging a bit on the Momentum Score front with a D. However, the stock was allocated a grade of B on the value side, putting it in the top 40% for this investment strategy.

Overall, the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of C. If you aren't focused on one strategy, this score is the one you should be interested in.

Outlook

Estimates have been broadly trending downward for the stock, and the magnitude of this revision indicates a downward shift. Notably, Walgreens has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). We expect an in-line return from the stock in the next few months.



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



Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) : Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.Ankara (AFP) - A key US senator on Saturday said the Saudi crown prince was responsible for Jamal Khashoggi's murder and must be "dealt with", as he threatened new sanctions.

Republican Lindsey Graham, an influential ally of President Donald Trump, has previously said that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was complicit in the grisly killing of Washington Post contributor Khashoggi in October.

"I have concluded that the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States cannot move forward until MBS has been dealt with," Graham said, using the initials for the crown prince.

Graham also threatened new sanctions against those suspected of involvement in the murder during a press conference in Ankara.

Western countries including the US, France and Canada have placed sanctions on nearly 20 Saudi nationals as the case has tarnished Riyadh's international reputation.

"We will start sanctioning those involved in the killing of Mr Khashoggi. We'll make a definitive statement that MBS knew about it and is responsible for it and come up with a series of sanctions," the South Carolina lawmaker said.

Turkey says Khashoggi was killed by a team of 15 Saudis who strangled him during a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to obtain paperwork ahead of his upcoming marriage.

The remains of the insider turned critic of the kingdom have yet to be found, three months after this murder.

Riyadh has denied any claims of the crown prince's involvement but the case has caused strains with Washington.

Earlier this month the trial of 11 accused opened in Saudi Arabia with the attorney general seeking the death penalty for five defendants.

Graham acknowledged that he had been "enthusiastic" in his support of Prince Mohammed but accepted he had been "wrong".

"What has transpired in the last couple of years is unnerving to say the least," he said.

Graham said the sanctions were intended to send the message that the murder was "not what you do if you're an ally of the United States".By Alexandra Alper

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Saturday to receive the remains of four Americans killed in a suicide bombing in northern Syria.

Trump, locked in a battle with congressional Democrats that has led to a nearly month-long partial government shutdown, announced his trip via a pre-dawn tweet, saying he was going "to be with the families of 4 very special people who lost their lives in service to our Country!"

Related Video: 4 Americans Killed In ISIS Attack

Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House prior to departure that he planned to meet the families, a duty which he said "might be the toughest thing I have to do as president."

He was greeted by military staff at Dover Air Force Base after a short flight from Joint Base Andrews, but did not speak to reporters before entering his motorcade.

Flanked by military officials, Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan filed up a ramp leading onto a military transport aircraft, where a prayer was given to honor the memory of Scott Wirtz, a civilian Department of Defense employee from St. Louis.

Trump filed down the plank and saluted while six service members clad in fatigues and white gloves carried an American flag-draped casket carrying Wirtz to a waiting gray van.

The Dover base is a traditional hub for returning the remains of American troops abroad.

The United States believes the attack that killed the Americans was the work of Islamic State militants.

Trump announced last month that he planned to speedily withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, but has since said it does not need to go quickly as he tries to ensure safety of Kurdish allies in northern Syria who are at risk of attack from neighboring Turkey.

Trump told reporters on Saturday that his Syria policy has made progress but that some work remained in destroying Islamic State targets. He defended his plans for a withdrawal.

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"It's moving along very well, but when I took over it was a total mess. But you do have to ask yourself, were killing ISIS for Russia, for Iran, for Syria, for Iraq, for a lot of other places. At some point you want to bring our people back home," he said.

In addition to Wirtz, those who died during the Wednesday attack in Manbij, Syria, were Army Chief Warrant Officer Jonathan Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Florida, and Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician Shannon Kent, 35, identified as being from upstate New York, the Department of Defense said in a statement.

The Pentagon did not identify the fourth person killed, a contractor working for a private company. U.S. media identified her as Ghadir Taher, a 27-year-old employee of defense contractor Valiant Integrated Services.

(Reporting by Alexandra Alper; Writing by Steve Holland and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Leslie Adler)By Steve Holland and David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he had "an incredible" meeting with North Korea's nuclear envoy Kim Yong Chol and the two sides had made "a lot of progress" on denuclearization. The White House announced after talks between Trump and Kim on Friday that the U.S. president would hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late February, but would maintain economic sanctions on Pyongyang. "That was an incredible meeting," Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said of the talks. "We've agreed to meet sometime, probably the end of February. We've picked a country but we'll be announcing it in the future. Kim Jong Un is looking very forward to it and so am I," Trump said. "We have made a lot of progress as far as denuclearization is concerned and we are talking about a lot of different things. Things are going very well with North Korea." Trump and the White House have given no details of the talks, and despite his upbeat comments there has been no indication of any narrowing of differences over U.S. demands that North Korea abandon a nuclear weapons program that threatens the United States and Pyongyang's demands for a lifting of punishing sanctions. A first summit in June in Singapore - the first-ever between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader - produced a vague commitment by Kim Jong Un to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, but he has yet to take what Washington sees as concrete steps in that direction. Critics of U.S. efforts say the first summit only boosted Kim's international stature without much to show for it, and some believe Trump may see a second meeting as a way of distracting from his domestic troubles. Trump did not elaborate on the country chosen to host the summit, but Vietnam has been considered a leading candidate. Kim Yong Chol, regarded as a member of Kim Jong Un's inner circle, also had talks on Friday with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the U.S. special representative on North Korea, Stephen Biegun. The State Department said the two sides had "a productive first meeting at the working level" and Biegun would travel to Sweden at the weekend to attend an international conference. The conference is also being attended by North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui. Washington has been keen to set up talks between Biegun and Choe but North Korea has resisted, apparently wanting to keep exchanges high-level. Asked if the two would meet in Stockholm, a State Department spokeswoman said: "We have no meetings to announce." (Reporting by Steve Holland and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Tom Brown and Leslie Adler)WashingtinSpecial Counsel Robert Muellers office took the rare step Friday of disputing a news report on his Russia investigation, saying a BuzzFeed article alleging that US President c directed his former lawyer to lie to Congress is not accurate. Trumps lieutenants had already strongly pushed back against the report, which said that the president ordered Michael Cohen to lie about a Russian skyscraper project they pursued during the 2016 election. BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the Special Counsels Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens Congressional testimony are not accurate, spokesman Peter Carr said in a statement. Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 vote and possible collusion between Trumps campaign and Moscow is the subject of frequent articles and even more frequent speculation. But it is extremely rareif not unprecedented for Muellers office to issue such a statement. BuzzFeeds editor-in chief however said the news organization stood by its work. We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what hes disputing, Ben Smith tweeted. The statement was nevertheless a cause for celebration for the president, who retweeted numerous supporters slamming BuzzFeed and later wrote it was A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country! Fake News is truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! he added, a now familiar refrain when talking about critical media. Trumps lawyer Rudy Giuliani had earlier called the allegation in the BuzzFeed report categorically false in a comment sent to several White House reporters, while Deputy White House Spokesman Hogan Gidley labeled the report ridiculous. He said Cohen is someone who now quite frankly has been proven to be a liar. Democrats in Congress had pledged to investigate the report to see if the president had committed an impeachable felony. These allegations may prove unfounded, but, if true, they would constitute both the subornation of perjury as well as obstruction of justice, said Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. BuzzFeed reported late Thursday that Cohen, who worked for Trump for more than a decade, has told investigators that the president personally instructed him to lie about the Moscow Trump Tower plan in testimony in 2017 to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. The BuzzFeed article was based on interviews with two anonymous federal law enforcement officials who are familiar with Cohens testimony to the investigation led by Mueller. Any suggestionfrom any sourcethat the president counseled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false. Michael Cohen is a convicted criminal and a liar, Giuliani said in a statement quoted by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.Lying to reduce his jail time! Trump said on Twitter of Cohen, who was convicted last year of fraud and perjury. No other media have confirmed BuzzFeeds reporting. It came two months after Cohen pleaded guilty in a New York court to making false, fictitious and fraudulent written testimony to the House and Senate intelligence committees in August 2017 in connection with the Moscow project. A statement of the facts in his November 29 plea deal with Muellers prosecutors suggested that his testimony had been prepared in consultation with unnamed people in the White House. Cohen had told the two committees that the Moscow project talks ended in January 2016, when in fact, as he later admitted, they went on at least six months longer, to June 2016 when Trump had already secured the Republican nomination for president. Cohen had also testified that others in the campaign, including Trump, were not informed about the project. But in the November plea deal, Cohen also admitted the project had been discussed with Trump -- designated Individual 1 in court documents -- several times in early 2016. Cohen made the false statements to minimize links between the Moscow project and Individual 1... in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations, prosecutors wrote. Cohen was the presidents right-hand man for years at the Trump Organization, the umbrella company, often relied upon to quietly fix difficult problems and negotiate deals for the real estate mogul. But he turned on his former boss after he was charged with giving hush money to women alleging affairs with Trump ahead of the 2016 election -- payments that violated campaign finance laws. Cohen, who has been sentenced to three years in jail, said Trump ordered him to make the payments, and now says he regrets his work for the president. While Democrats could not confirm the BuzzFeed report, they said they were poised to further probe the allegations. Our committee is already working to secure additional witness testimony and documents related to the Trump Tower Moscow deal and other investigative matters, said Intelligence Committee chairman Schiff.US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday excoriated her political nemesis, President Donald Trump, for "outing" her commercial trip to Afghanistan after he barred her from using a military aircraft, forcing her to scrap it entirely over security concerns.

The brawl between the no-nonsense Republican leader and the take-no-prisoners Democrat is the latest round in their showdown, which could take a new turn with Trump announcing he will be making a "major announcement" Saturday regarding the partial government shutdown and the situation on the US-Mexico border.

The federal government has been shuttered for four weeks over Trump's insistence that a wider federal budget measure include billions of dollars for a border wall -- and Pelosi's refusal to go along.

Their spat spilled into the diplomatic arena Thursday when, after Pelosi suggested Trump postpone his State of the Union address until government reopens, the president grounded the military plane set to transport her delegation.

Pelosi accused Trump of being "very irresponsible" in breaching security protocol.

"We had a report from Afghanistan that the president outing our trip had made the scene on the ground much more dangerous because it's just a signal to the bad actors that we're coming," she told reporters.

The administration strongly denies that it "leaked" any plans about the trip to a war zone.

"The idea we would leak anything that would put the safety and security of any American at risk is a flat-out lie," a senior White House official said.

- Tit-for-tat -

The US government shutdown, which has left about 800,000 federal workers without a paycheck, is now the longest in the country's history -- and there is no sign of a compromise.

The Office of Management and Budget reportedly issued a memorandum saying that "under no circumstance during a government shutdown" can a congressional delegation use government aircraft for travel.

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However, Republican Representative Lee Zeldin led a delegation to Iraq and other countries since the shutdown began.

With the two sides showing no sign of a breakthrough, some cash-strapped federal workers -- many working without pay, others forced to stay home -- are tapping life savings, selling possessions or taking advantage of food pantries to help make ends meet.

Amid the bickering, a former president called for a truce.

"It's time for leaders on both sides to put politics aside, come together, and end this shutdown," George W. Bush said on Instagram, where a photograph shows him handing pizzas to members of his Secret Service detail who are protecting him without pay.

Pelosi's office sounded off on the administration's handling of her trip, which had not been announced for security reasons.

The State Department released an updated assessment stressing that Trump's announcement of the Pelosi travel "had significantly increased the danger to the delegation and to the troops," her spokesman Drew Hammill said.

"This morning, we learned that the administration had leaked the commercial travel plans as well."

Democratic lawmakers have expressed outrage.

"Disclosing ANY Members' travel into a war zone is disgraceful and dangerous," tweeted congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, who has traveled to Afghanistan and Iraq as a lawmaker.

Republicans have spoken out too, including Senator Rob Portman who criticized the Pelosi-Trump back and forth. "They're both making it more difficult, not easier, for us to find a resolution to this impasse," he said.

Trump harangued Pelosi on Twitter, asking why she and other Democrats would leave the country "on a seven day excursion when 800,000 great people are not getting paid."

His re-election campaign team then released a tongue-in-cheek shutdown-related campaign fundraising request.

For a contribution of $20.20, a reference to the next election year, the campaign told supporters it would send a fake red brick to Pelosi and Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer -- to build a wall.By David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late February but will maintain economic sanctions on Pyongyang, the White House said on Friday after Trump met Pyongyang's top nuclear negotiator. The announcement came amid a diplomatic flurry in Washington surrounding the visit of Kim Yong Chol, a hardline former spy chief, and marked a sign of movement in a denuclearization effort that has stalled since a landmark meeting between Trump and the North Korean leader in Singapore on June 12. "President Donald J. Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and a half to discuss denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said. She said a location would be announced later. The summit was announced even though there has been no indication of any narrowing of differences over U.S. demands that North Korea abandon a nuclear weapons program that threatens the United States and Pyongyang's demands for a lifting of punishing sanctions. Sanders said that Trump's talks with the North Korean envoy were productive but added that the United States "is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea." South Korea's presidential office said it expected the upcoming summit to be a "turning point to lay the firm foundation for lasting peace on the Korean peninsula." South Korea will work with the United States and other countries to "achieve concrete and practical results toward complete denuclearization and a lasting peace regime through the North Korea-U.S. summit...," presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in a statement on Saturday. South Korea will also expand inter-Korean dialogue to help a successful meeting between Trump and Kim, he added. The first summit produced a vague commitment by Kim Jong Un to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, but he has yet to take what Washington sees as concrete steps in that direction. Nevertheless, both he and Trump had expressed an interest in arranging a second meeting, something some U.S.-based analysts see as premature. Critics of U.S. efforts say the first summit only boosted Kim's international stature without much to show for it, and some believe Trump may see a second meeting as a way of distracting from his domestic troubles. Trump declared just after the Singapore meeting that the nuclear threat posed by North Korea was over. But hours before Kim Yong Chol's arrival on Thursday, the U.S. president unveiled a revamped U.S. missile defense strategy that singled out the country as an ongoing and "extraordinary threat." Harry Kazianis, an analyst at the conservative Washington-based Center for the National Interest, called the agreement to hold another summit positive. But he added: "Both nations must now show at least some tangible benefits from their diplomatic efforts during a second summit, or risk their efforts being panned as nothing more than reality TV." Communist-ruled Vietnam, which has good relations with both the United States and North Korea, has been widely touted as the most likely site of the next summit. There has also been speculation about other possible venues, including Bangkok, Hawaii, or a return to Singapore. TRUMP SEEKING 'WIN'? A senior U.S. administration official said there was an exchange of letters for the leaders during the White House meeting, but gave no details of their content. On his last visit to Washington in June, Kim Yong Chol delivered a letter from Kim Jong Un to Trump that helped overcome obstacles ahead of the summit in Singapore. Kim Yong Chol, regarded as a member of Kim Jong Un's inner circle, also had talks with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. special representative on North Korea, Stephen Biegun. A State Department statement said that after Pompeo and Kim met, the two sides had "a productive first meeting at the working level", and that Biegun would travel to Sweden at the weekend to attend an international conference. The conference is also being attended by North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui. Washington has been keen to set up talks between Biegun and Choe but North Korea has resisted, apparently wanting to keep exchanges high-level. South Korea's nuclear negotiator, Lee Do-hoon, also would attend the conference, the country's foreign ministry said, although it gave no indication of whether he would meet with Choe and Biegun. U.S.-based analysts said that North Korea, which has developed missiles and nuclear weapons in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions, would likely be seeking a clearer message from the Trump administration on any concessions it may be willing to make. "The North Koreans need a real indication of what the U.S. is willing to put on the table," said Jenny Town, a North Korea expert at 38 North, a Washington-based think tank. South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said on Wednesday that if North Korea took concrete steps toward abandoning its weapons programs, Washington could offer a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War, humanitarian aid or a permanent channel for bilateral dialogue. Victor Cha, a former White House adviser on Asia under President George W. Bush, suggested that Trump may be so desperate for a policy "win" that he could be vulnerable to a bad deal with North Korea. "I worry that the timing works to North Korea's benefit," Cha said, citing pressures on Trump such as the partial U.S. government shutdown and the ongoing investigation into alleged Russian ties to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Earlier this month, Trump defended the stuttering progress on North Korea by saying that Pyongyang had stopped missile and bomb testing and if it had not been for his administration "you'd be having a nice big fat war in Asia." (Reporting By Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom; additional reporting by Steve Holland and David Alexander and Lesley Wroughton in WASHINGTON, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, and Hyunjoo Jin and Hyonhee Shin in SEOUL; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Stephen Coates)President Trump will meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un at the end of February, the White House announced Friday.

President Donald J. Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and half, to discuss denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement, referencing the former North Korean spy chief who is Pyongyangs lead negotiator in the nuclear talks. The President looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date.

Before meeting with the president, Kim Yong Chol met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in order to address the months-long stagnation in denuclearization talks. State Department deputy spokesperson Robert Palladino told NBC the pair had a good discussion regarding their efforts to make progress on the commitments President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un made at their summit in Singapore.

Negotiations appeared to break down following Trumps historic summit with Kim in June as North Korean officials publicly refuted the Trump administrations claim that they had pledged to begin working toward complete denuclearization. But Trump has touted Kims efforts to rekindle negotiations through a series of flattering letters.

We fell in love. Trump said of his relationship with Kim in September. No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters.

Trump replied to Kim in a letter of his own, which was delivered over the weekend and reportedly contained details about the upcoming summit.

South Korean president Moon Jae-in, who was instrumental in orchestrating the first summit in June, endorsed the idea of a second summit, which he referred to as a potential turning point that will firmly solidify peace on the Korean Peninsula in comments to reporters this week.

We will not loosen our guard until the promise to denuclearize the Peninsula is kept, and peace is fully institutionalized, Moon added.

More from National ReviewDonald Trump's attempt to strike a deal with Democrats and reopen the federal government appears to have failed, after the terms of his offer were firmly rejected.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer both dismissed the president's compromise, which was unveiled during a live television address.

In a relatively diplomatic address the president offered extensions to protections for certain undocumented immigrants in exchange for $5.7bn (4.4bn) to go towards his proposed border wall along the US-Mexico border. "Rank and file" Democrats had contributed to the plan, he said, adding that it was aimed at alleviating a "humanitarian crisis".

Mr Trump has been in a standoff with Democrats in Congress for the past 29 days after he refused to sign a government funding bill without the money. The federal government has been partially shut down throughout this period.

Ms Pelosi lambasted the president's offer in a statement released before Mr Trump spoke. "Initial reports make clear that is a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and in total, do not represent a good faith effort to restore certainty to peoples lives," she said.

"It is unlikely that any of these provisions alone would pass the House and taken together, they are a non-starter."

In the latest instance of political brinkmanship over the shutdown, Ms Pelosi cancelled her plans to travel by commercial plane to visit US troops in Afghanistan, saying the president had caused a security risk by talking about the trip.

Mr Schumer also rejected Mr Trump's proposal.

"It was the president who single-handedly took away DACA and TPS protections in the first placeoffering some protections back in exchange for the wall is not a compromise but more hostage taking," he said.

Around 800,000 federal employees are on leave or working without pay since the shutdown began and nine of the 15 cabinet-level departments have not been funded in almost a month.

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The long shutdown may be hitting home for the president. Just 21 of the roughly 80 people who tend to his needs at the White House  from butlers to electricians to chefs  are reporting to work. The rest have been placed on leave.

See below how we covered this story live:TOKYO (AP)  The U.S. Navy's top officer said he urged China to follow international rules at sea to avoid confrontations and insisted Friday that ships should be able to pass safely though disputed areas of the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.

Chief of U.S. Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson told reporters in Tokyo that U.S. Navy ships will continue to operate freely in international waters, including the possibility of an aircraft carrier navigating through the Taiwan Strait.

Richardson, who held meetings in China earlier this week, said he told Chinese officials that the U.S. is committed to a one-China policy and is opposed to any unilateral action "from either side of the strait" to change the status quo.

Richardson said the U.S. considers the Taiwan Strait as international waters. "We don't see any kind of limitation on whatever type of ship could pass through those waters," he said.

His comment follows new tensions between the U.S. and China over Taiwan that have already been frayed over military and trade issues.

A report issued earlier this week by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said China's growing military capabilities could pose a threat to Taiwan, angering Beijing. Washington is concerned that China is opting to use military force to deter Taiwan's possible independence. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said "we use rules rather than weapons to safeguard and promote our own interests," and that the U.S. should focus on cooperation with China instead of issuing such a report.

In recent years the South China Sea  with rich fishing grounds, undersea resources and vital shipping lanes  has become a focus of contention. China claims virtually the entire waterway on historical grounds and has strengthened its hold over islands there. While five other governments have overlapping claims, the U.S. takes no formal position on sovereignty but insists on the right to freedom of navigation and overflight.

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Richardson said China should not see the U.S. naval operations in the area as a threat. He urged China to "be consistent" with international rules to avoid risks and confrontations, and said he told Chinese officials that communication channels are important in de-escalating tensions. Richardson met with Vice Adm. Shen Jinlong and leaders of China's Central Military Commission.

Last year, a near-collision occurred when a Chinese destroyer approached the USS Decatur, forcing it to change course.

"As we manage these differences and continue to operate in each other's company in the South China Sea and increasingly around the world ... we've got to behave in ways that don't make this more of a tense situation," Richardson said.

___

Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchiBy Kane Wu and Heekyong Yang HONG KONG/SEOUL (Reuters) - Chinese gaming titan Tencent Holdings Ltd is considering a bid for the holding company that controls South Korean gaming company Nexon, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Tencent is looking to enlist co-investors, the sources said. One of the sources also said private equity firms are studying options for a deal, including taking the listed company private. Nexon founder Kim Jung-ju plans to sell a controlling 98.64 percent stake in Nexon's holding firm NXC Corp, held by himself and related parties including his wife, the Korea Economic Daily newspaper reported this month. The stake is worth between 8 trillion and 10 trillion won ($7.1 billion and $8.9 billion), according to reports from Korea Economic Daily and the Maeil Business Newspaper. Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley are running the sale, sources told Reuters. The two banks declined to comment. The Maeil Business Newspaper said Tencent has picked Goldman Sachs as adviser, citing unidentified sources. It added that other potential bidders include KKR & Co Inc, TPG Capital, Carlyle Group and MBK Partners. NXC and Tencent declined to comment. Founded in 1994, Nexon has developed more than 80 live games in over 190 countries, including IP-franchise hits such as MapleStory, Dungeon & Fighter, Sudden Attack, and KartRider. Tencent, the worlds largest gaming company by revenue, owns the exclusive licence to operate Dungeon & Fighter in China. The social media-to-payments firm, and its gaming peers, faced a crackdown from Chinese authorities, which stopped approving new titles from March amid a regulatory overhaul triggered by growing criticism of video games for being violent and leading to myopia as well as addiction among young users. The freeze was lifted in December, when Tencent had already lost billions in its market value. (Reporting by Kane Wu and Julie Zhu in Hong Kong and Heekyong Yang in Seoul; additional reporting by Cate Cadell in Beijing; editing by Sayantani Ghosh and Stephen Coates)By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Negotiators for 30,000 striking Los Angeles teachers and America's second-largest school district returned to the bargaining table on Saturday for a third day of contract talks mediated by the mayor, as educators took a weekend break from picket lines.

Union leaders have said they expected talks to stretch through the three-day holiday weekend. Teachers staging the first strike against the Los Angeles Unified District in 30 years were pressing demands for higher pay, smaller class sizes and expanded support staff.

School district Superintendent Austin Beutner said on Friday he was determined to clinch a deal in time for teachers to return to the job on Tuesday, avoiding a second week of disrupted classes for nearly 500,000 students.

While insisting he shared many of the same goals as the teachers, Beutner also repeated his contention that the district lacked enough funds to fully meet their demands.

The president of the United Teachers Los Angeles union, Alex Caputo-Pearl, has countered that budget constraints have been overblown.

Both men have suggested that sufficient money to close a deal may ultimately have to be found at the state level, and Caputo-Pearl has said he believes Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, may end up playing a key role.

The union staged a mass rally on Friday near City Hall, where tens of thousands of teachers, parents and students in red T-shirts filled a downtown park and surrounding streets.

It was the first day of sunny weather in Los Angeles, after four days of rain that doused teachers on picket lines across the sprawling school district, which had been keeping its 1,200 campuses open on a limited basis with administrators and substitute teachers. The strike started on Monday, and a majority of students have stayed home each day.

At the urging of Mayor Eric Garcetti, the sides resumed negotiations on Thursday for the first time since talks broke off the previous week. They stayed at the table past midnight and returned on Friday but offered no further clues about progress after agreeing to a news blackout.

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They returned for a third session on Saturday shortly before 11 a.m. local time, Garcetti's office said in a statement.

Garcetti lacks direct authority over the school district but is mediating the renewed bargaining. He has described the talks as "productive."

Last year saw a wave of teacher walkouts over salaries and school funding in several U.S. states including West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona. The Los Angeles work stoppage differs in that educators face a predominantly Democratic political establishment more sympathetic to their cause.

Several possible contenders for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, Garcetti among them, have voiced solidarity with the strike, as have many parents of students at the school district.

Caputo-Pearl has said disagreements over proposals to reduce class size pose the biggest stumbling block to a settlement.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by David Gregorio)Riyadh (AFP) - Syria's opposition chief on Saturday said peace efforts were "paralysed" amid a lack of will from key international powers, after meeting the latest UN envoy tasked with ending the civil war.

Norwegian Geir Pedersen replaced Staffan de Mistura this month to become the fourth United Nations negotiator aiming to resolve almost eight years of conflict.

The diplomat faces the daunting task of rekindling moribund peace talks and succeeding where his three predecessors failed.

He met opposition leader Nasr al-Hariri on Friday in Riyadh, where the Syrian lives in exile, after holding talks with regime representatives in Damascus.

"Pedersen is the fourth emissary and was preceded by other respected envoys," Hariri told AFP.

"The absence of international will to push towards a political solution has hampered the UN and its envoys from doing anything."

De Mistura ended his four-year tenure with an abortive push to form a committee tasked with drawing up a post-war constitution after seeing repeated rounds of talks in Geneva come to nothing.

During his time he saw the UN-led efforts overshadowed by separate negotiations backed by regime allies Russia and Iran and opposition supporter Turkey in Kazakhstan's capital Astana.

"Some parties from Astana who support the regime are continuing to obstruct the formation of the (constitutional) committee," Hariri said.

"The political process is paralysed," he said, calling for the different international efforts to work hand-in-hand and not compete against each other.

Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since the war started with the repression of anti-government protests in 2011.

With key military backing from Russia, Assad's forces have retaken large parts of Syria from rebels and jihadists, and now control almost two-thirds of the country.

A drive to bring the Syrian regime back into the Arab fold also seems underway, with the United Arab Emirates reopening their embassy in Damascus last month.

Hariri insisted that it remained "impossible" for millions of Syria refugees living oversees to return or for the country to be rebuilt "without a political solution" to the war.

"The countries of the free world will not pay money to a criminal regime to rehabilitate infrastructure it has destroyed itself," he said.BangkokGunmen in Thailands deep south shot dead two Buddhist monks and wounded two others inside a temple, police said Saturday, capping a week of deadly violence as the prime minister vowed to punish those responsible. Black-clad assailants carrying rifles crept into Rattanaupap temple in Narathiwat province near Malaysias border on Friday evening and started firing, local superintendent Pakdi Preechachon told AFP. The attack took place around 7:30 pm (1230 GMT) when an unknown number of gunmen dressed in black entered the temple through a rear area via a creek, Pakdi said. Two monks were shot dead at the temple while two others were wounded. Since 2004 clashes between ethnic Malay-Muslim rebels and the Buddhist-majority Thai state that annexed the region a century ago have killed nearly 7,000 people, mostly civilians of both faiths. The death toll in the south dropped to a record low last year as Thailands junta tightened its security web but violence has boiled over in recent days, raising concerns about soft targets at schools and religious institutions. In the past, Buddhist monks have been targeted only infrequently. But they have been told to suspend morning alms collection starting from Saturday in three southern provinces and the southern army commander has instructed security officials to step up safeguards of Islamic leaders who could also be at risk. Junta leader and prime minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha condemned the temple shootings. The prime minister denounced such a brazen attack and instructed officials to investigate and find the assailants to punish them, said government spokesman Buddhipongse Punnakanta. Human Rights Watch, which said in a statement that at least 23 monks had been killed since the outbreak of the insurgency in 2004, called the assault ghastly and a war crime because gunmen went after civilians and a place of worship.The Sheikhul Islam Office, a national representative of Muslim communities in Thailand, denounced the violence against the monks and expressed sorrow over the incident. There are no religions that teach people to kill innocent people, its the work of some group of people who want to create divisiveness, it said in a statement Saturday. Pictures taken in the aftermath show monks standing next to heavily armed Thai soldiers and an alms bowl inside the temple compound with bullet holes in it. No one has claimed responsibility, but that is not unusual for the conflict. Last week, an imam in the same province was shot dead but it was unclear if the temple attack was related. Fridays shooting came the same day as four security officials were wounded by two separate roadside bombs and an insurgent was shot dead in a clash near a school that sent students home for the day. Four civil defense volunteers were also killed in a drive-by shooting outside a school on January 10 in the souths Pattani province, with security forces injuring a boy as they gunned down rebels believed to be responsible. In a rare public statement dated January 4 the main Malay-Muslim rebel group -- the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) -- which has command and control over most of the insurgent foot soldiers, swore to keep fighting. Siam (Thailand) cant hold out, the BRN wrote, signing off with a warning: Do not help and support Siam. Security analyst Don Pathan said the uptick in violence was connected to efforts from Thai negotiators and Malaysian facilitators across the border to pressure the BRN ruling council to come to the table without offering possible concessions.The Supreme Court justices were expected on Friday to discuss a request from a foreign mystery company thats reportedly part of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian collusion in the U.S. presidential campaign, CNN reported.

The unidentified corporation owned by a foreign government has been battling a subpoena from a District of Columbia grand jury, arguing that compliance would violate its countrys laws. The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the company must comply and imposed fines until it did.

Now the company wants to file an appeal with the Supreme Court  but under seal to keep details about the corporation and the case quiet. The seal issue is the only one the justices were to consider Friday. The request itself was made in sealed documents.

The company already owes some $500,000 in fines for refusing to comply with the subpoena, according to CNBC.

Its not known what kind of operation the targeted corporation is or which foreign government its linked to. But a law firm involved in the subpoena challenge, Alston & Bird, has represented a Russian oligarch and a contractor for the Russian government, CNN has reported.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a motion earlier this month to intervene in the case so it can move for unsealing the case and making the documents public  with appropriate redactions for sensitive information.

The right of access is fundamental to a democratic state because it ensures that the public can scrutinize the conduct of its court system, participate in debates about public affairs, and contribute to self-governance, stated the motion.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Beirut (AFP) - At least 20 Islamic State group jihadists were killed Saturday in Iraqi air raids on their embattled enclave in eastern Syria, a war monitor reported.

The raids come a day after a US-led air strike on the Euphrates Valley village of Baghouz killed six civilians, including four children, and 10 IS fighters, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

There were no immediate comments from the Iraqi army or from the US-led coalition.

Baghouz is part of an enclave of less than 15 square kilometres (less than six square miles) that is all that is left of IS territory in eastern Syria after a gruelling Kurdish-led offensive launched with coalition support.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that Saturday's air strikes "carried out by Iraqi aircraft killed at least 20 IS fighters in Baghouz".

He said at the same time the Iraqi army units stationed nearby on the border with Syria fired artillery.

Abdel Rahman said the US-led coalition had stepped up its air strikes against IS since the jihadists killed 19 people, four of them Americans, in a suicide bombing on a restaurant in the flashpoint northern town of Manbij on Wednesday.

"The strikes are continuing, and have intensified since the Manbij attack," he said on Saturday.

"Residential buildings in Barghouz were hit," he said.

Wednesday's US losses were the biggest since Washington deployed troops in Syria in 2014 in support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Previously it had reported just two combat losses in separate incidents.

The Manbij bombing rekindled controversy triggered by President Donald Trump last month with his surprise announcement of a full withdrawal from Syria.

The US president justified the order with the assertion that the jihadists had now been "largely defeated" in Syria, a claim that the attack threw into renewed question.ANKARA (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said on Saturday he hoped President Donald Trump would slow the U.S. withdrawal from Syria until Islamic State is destroyed, warning that, if not thought through, the pullout can create an "Iraq on steroids".

Speaking in Ankara, Graham also said he believed U.S. Chief of Staff Joseph Dunford was working on a plan with Turkey to move Kurdish YPG elements away from the Turkish border.

Related Video: US Forces Begin Withdrawal Process From Syria

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Trump announced last month that Islamic State had been defeated in Syria and he would pull U.S. forces out of the country.

The decision injected new uncertainty into the eight-year-long Syrian war and spurred a flurry of contacts over how a resulting security vacuum will be filled across northern and eastern Syria where the U.S. forces are stationed.

The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011, nine years after the 2003 U.S-led invasion, left space for the rise of Islamic State militants, prompting the United States to intervene again.

A bomb attack this week claimed by the militant group killed two U.S. troops and two civilians working for the U.S. military in northern Syria, along with other civilians.

The attack in Manbij appeared to be the deadliest on U.S. forces in Syria since they deployed on the ground there in 2015. The town is controlled by a militia allied to U.S.-backed Kurdish forces.

It remains unclear when U.S. forces will leave northern Syria, where both Turkey and the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad are ready to fill the vacuum. The YPG militia allied to the fighters holding Manbij last month invited Assad into the area around the town to forestall a potential Turkish assault.

Erdogan said last week he had discussed a safe zone with Trump, which Turkey would set up inside Syria along their border.

"Here's the good news: General Dunford, I think, has a plan that he's working on with the Turkish military that can accomplish these objectives and they are to move the YPG elements away from Turkey," said Graham, adding heavy armaments should be taken from the Kurdish groups.

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Turkey says the YPG is a terrorist organization and an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Graham also said the political arm of the YPG was interlinked and interconnected with the PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil.

"A withdrawal that does not outline the points I have made will not end the war against ISIS (Islamic State), it will start a new war," he said.

"This war will be a necessity by Turkey, to go into Syria and clear out armed elements that Turkey believes poses a threat to its sovereignty."

A Turkish official told Reuters that the United States should consider Turkey's priorities, not those of the YPG.

"After (Graham's) meetings in Turkey, (with) Erdogan and other officials, we hope the U.S. will understand more the situation," the official said.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Additional Reporting by Orhan Coskun; Writing by Sarah Dadouch; Editing by Ros Russell)The Telegraph

Vladimir Putin has seen US presidents come and go in the past 22 years. Joe Biden was the fifth incumbent of the White House to hold talks with Mr Putin in his capacity as Russian president or prime minister. In short, Mr Putin is something of a seasoned summit veteran and at times it showed. Given the parlous state of relations between Russia and America, he could arguably claim that holding a summit so early in the Biden presidency was a victory in itself.The off-duty SAS soldier ran back into the hotel compound several times to rescue more trapped civilians - Reuters

The SAS soldier who saved dozens of lives in the Nairobi hotel massacre is in line to receive the George Cross for his remarkable bravery.

The trooper was off-duty when he dashed to the scene of intense fighting after Islamist terrorists laid siege to the DusitD2 five-star hotel.

At least 21 people were killed in a drawn-out assault that saw hundreds of civilians trapped in the hotel complex.

A well-placed source said the SAS man - understood to be a Senior Non-Commissioned Officer - will be recommended for one of the highest medals for gallantry and likely the George Cross. Only the Victoria Cross is more prestigious.

Just two George Medals - the civilian equivalent of the George cross - were awarded last year while the last George Cross was handed out in June 2017 to Dominic Troulan for his bravery in the Westgate Mall terrorist attack, that also took place in Nairobi.

The identity of the SAS soldier is being kept secret in line with Military of Defence protocol not to name members of the Special Forces. The medal will be given secretly and with no fanfare for fear of revealing the soldiers identity.

The senior military source said: This man has shown remarkable bravery. He has saved dozens of lives. You can fully expect him to receive one of the highest gallantry awards and most likely the George Cross. It wont be announced. It will be given to him secretly.

There are fears that the soldier's extraordinary actions may have compromised his personal security because photographs and videos of him pulling civilians to safety have been published and broadcast around the world.

He wore a balaclava as he fought the al-Shabaab terrorists in a gun battle.

On Thursday police in Kenya arrested the wife and mother of one of the jihadists as they launched a manhunt for the mastermind behind the attack.

The SAS soldier enters the DusitD12 hotel alongside Kenyan special forces Credit: AFP

Investigators said they had been able to identify one of the five gunmen involved in the assault through a mobile telephone left on his corpse.

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They named him as Ali Salim Gichunge. Police said they had detained his wife Violet after discovering that she had posted an advertisement on Facebook attempting to sell many of their household goods the day before Tuesdays attack.

We are moving out of Nairobi this week so it is a quick sale, she wrote. Prices slightly negotiable.

Neighbours described the couple, who moved to the outskirts of Nairobi in October, as quiet and fond of cats, local newspapers reported. Police said they had arrested a total of 11 people, including Ms Gichunges mother Mariam.

The Somali militant group Al-Shabaab, which has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda and adheres to a violent and rigid interpretation of Islam, on Wednesday claimed responsibility for the assault.

Kenyan special forces protect people at the scene Credit: AFP

Over the past six years, the movement has launched numerous attacks on Kenya and is fighting a low-level insurgency in the northeast of the country close to the Somali border.

But in a statement it also sought to justify this weeks slaughter on a decision by Donald Trump, the American president, to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in defiance of Palestinian claims to a share of the city.

Tracking down the al-Shabaab commanders behind the assault will be far from easy, however. Kenya mounted an invasion of southern Somalia to hunt down the jihadists in 2011 but with little success.

Even though US forces stationed in Africa say they killed 300 al Shabaab fighters in air and missile strikes last year, the group has remained remarkably resilient.By Anthony Esposito

TLAHUELILPAN, Mexico (Reuters) - At least 71 people were killed after a pipeline ruptured by suspected fuel thieves exploded in central Mexico, authorities said on Saturday, as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador defended the army despite its failure to clear the site before the blast.

Forensic experts filled body bags with charred human remains in the field where the explosion occurred on Friday evening by the town of Tlahuelilpan in the state of Hidalgo, in one of the deadliest incidents to hit Mexico's troubled oil infrastructure in years.

One witness described how an almost festive atmosphere among hundreds of local residents filling containers with spilled fuel turned to horror as the blast scattered the crowd in all directions, incinerating clothing and inflicting severe burns.

A number of people at the scene told Reuters that local shortages in gasoline supply since Lopez Obrador launched a drive to stamp out fuel theft had encouraged the rush to the gushing pipeline.

"Everyone came to see if they could get a bit of gasoline for their car, there isn't any in the gas stations," said farmer Isaias Garcia, 50. Garcia was at the site with two neighbors, but waited in the car some distance away.

"Some people came out burning and screaming," he added.

To root out the theft, Lopez Obrador in late December ordered pipelines to be closed. But that led to shortages in central Mexico, including Hidalgo, where local media this week said more than half of the gas stations were at times shut.

In an interview with local television, Hidalgo State Governor Omar Fayad said 71 people were killed and 76 people injured in the explosion, which happened as residents scrambled to get buckets and drums to a gush at the pipeline that authorities said rose up to 23 feet (7 meters) high.

The crackdown on fuel theft has become a litmus test of Lopez Obrador's drive to tackle corruption in Mexico - and to stop illegal taps draining billions of dollars from the heavily-indebted state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

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Video on social media showed people filling buckets from the pipeline during daylight hours in the presence of the armed forces before the blast.

But Lopez Obrador, who vowed to continue the crackdown on theft, defended the army in the face of questions about why soldiers failed to prevent the tragedy.

"We're not going to fight fire with fire," the veteran leftist said. "We think that people are good, honest, and if we've reached these extremes ... it's because they were abandoned."

In the aftermath, soldiers and other military personnel guarded the cordoned-off area that was littered with half-burned shoes, clothes and containers.

Hundreds gathered at a local cultural center on Saturday afternoon, hoping to get information about loved ones who disappeared after the explosion. Officials had posted information about DNA tests for identification, and a list of people who had been taken to hospitals.

'LIKE A PARTY'

Lopez Obrador said the army had been right to avoid a confrontation due to the large number of people seeking to make off with a trove of free fuel - a few liters of which are worth more than the daily minimum wage in Mexico.

Blaming previous governments for neglecting the population, he said the priority was to eradicate the social problems and lack of opportunities that had made people risk their lives. He rejected suggestions the incident was linked to his policy.

Still, Lopez Obrador had vowed to tighten security in sensitive sections of the oil infrastructure, and the ruptured pipeline was only a few miles away from a major oil refinery.

Pemex's Chief Executive Octavio Romero told reporters that there had been 10 illegal fuel taps in the same municipality in the last three months alone. Neither he nor the president said exactly when the valves to the pipeline were closed.

Relatives of victims stood huddled together, some of them crying, after the massive blast. Much of the rush to siphon off fuel and the chaos of the explosion was captured on mobile phones and began quickly circulating on social media.

Mexican media published graphic pictures of victims from the blast site covered in burns and shorn of their clothes.

Local journalist Veronica Jimenez, 46, arrived at the scene before the explosion where she said there were more than 300 people with containers to collect fuel.

"I saw families: mother, father, children," she told Reuters. "It was like a party...for a moment you could even hear how happy people were."

When the blast hit, people ran in different directions, pleading for help, some burned and without clothing, she said.

"Some people's skin came off...it was very ugly, horrible, people screamed and cried," she said. "They shouted the names of their husbands, brothers, their family members."

Grief-stricken family members blocked access to the field for over half an hour, saying they would not let funeral service vehicles pass until they were told where the dead were being taken.

Lopez Obrador has said his decision to close pipelines has greatly reduced fuel theft, but the death toll has raised questions about potentially unintended consequences.

"There was a gasoline shortage, people one way or another wanted to be able to move around," said local farmer Ernesto Sierra, 44. "Some even came with their bean pots."

(Reporting by Anthony Esposito and Miguel Angel Gutierrez; Writing by Dave Graham and Christine Murray; Editing by Alexander Smith and Marguerita Choy)Dublin, IrelandIn a vault under the streets of Dublin a pot of gold owned by anxious investors is growing every day Britain edges closer to leaving the European Union without a deal. Theyre worried about a significant devaluation in sterling if theres a hard Brexit, said Seamus Fahy. Fahy is co-founder of Merrion Vaults, a gold brokerage and safe deposit facility in the centre of the Irish capital. Over 2018as the prospect of Britain crashing out of the EU turned from a scare story into a very real prospecthe has seen a 70 percent rise in clients from the British province of Northern Ireland. Customers are taking moneyphysical moneyout of the bank and theyre buying gold bullion with us to store it, and its a hedge, Fahy explained. There is no equivalent facility in Northern Ireland. With the border only an hour away it is no long trip to secure peace of mind as Britain risks a split with the EU critics are branding a cliff-edge Brexit. Set in the basement of an unassuming grey office block, Merrion Vaults does not advertise its presence to passersby, marked only with a coy plaque reading Merrion Private. Down an elevator, past a manned security booth and a fingerprint scanner as well as a hefty metal safe dooris a caged vault, ranked with 3,000 double-locked deposit boxes. Their full contents are known only to clients. But Fahy knows that inside many are glimmering stashes of gold. Numerous customers have spent over 500,000 (560,000 euros) on their precious nest eggs. The most popular items are one ounce (30 gram) gold bars and coins: handsomely polished South African Krugerrands, Canadian Maple Leafs and British Britannias worth in the region of 1,100 (1,200 euros) each. They have increased in value by around 10 percent in the past six months, according to Fahys ledger.When news of the 2016 Brexit vote broke, gold surged as sterling plunged to levels not seen since 1985. The result was a historic 22 percent jump in gold valued in British currency terms. In December, when British Prime Minister Theresa May pulled the parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal, Fahy also saw a big uptick in demand. Pundits saw that as the most foreboding indication yet of a no-deal Brexit on March 29.The prospect of the fallout sinking sterling seems to be making investors skittish. In times of crisis you always see whats called this flight to safety -- so people go into US government bonds, gold bullion, Swiss francs etc., said Fahy. The future status of Northern Ireland -- the so-called Irish backstop -- is at the crux of the Brexit conundrum and has added particular concerns on the island. You often see local events driving local demand, said Alistair Hewitt, head of market intelligence at the World Gold Council. But Hewitt said that the Brexit gold rush may have already peaked in the rest of Britain, with an upsurge of activity around the vote itself. Over the course of the past two years, thats probably petered out a little bit. I think lots of investors have probably suffered a bit of Brexit fatigue.An Iowa pet rescue says it has taken in a puppy that survived attempted euthanasia.

King's Harvest Pet Rescue  a self-described no-kill shelter in Davenport, Iowa  posted the story in a Wednesday social media post. The shelter says that Rudolph, a dog estimated to be 7 or 8 months old, came to the rescue after a failed euthanasia attempt by another shelter.

"But God had a different plan because he woke up," the Facebook post reads.

Local TV station WQAD reports that the puppy came from a crowded shelter in Oklahoma. The station reports veterinarians had found the puppy alive after having been given medicine meant to euthanize the animal.

Hes a miracle dog, absolutely, the station quotes Kylie Jo Mitchell, who works at King's Harvest Pet Rescue. Ive never heard of anything like this ever, this is a first.

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The station reported Friday that Rudolph has been adopted but that the shelter has not confirmed or released all the adoption details.

Reports of dogs surviving attempted euthanasia have circulated in the past. In 2011, ABC reported on a puppy from Oklahoma who was up for adoption after surviving injections that were supposed to be fatal.

The Austin American-Statesman reported last year that a Texas dog was rescued on the side of the road after it was left blind, likely by a failed attempt at euthanasia.

King's Harvest Pet Rescue did not immediately respond to USA TODAY Network requests for comment on Thursday and Friday.

Contributing: Linh Ta, Des Moines Register

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rudolph the puppy was 'euthanized but lived,' pet rescue saysRobert Mueller has issued a rare statement dismissing a news report that claimed Michael Cohen had informed prosecutors Donald Trump had told him to lie to Congress.

After Democrats seized on the report by BuzzFeed News and said they would open hearings into whether the president had indeed ordered his former personal lawyer to lie about a Trump Tower project in Moscow, the special prosecutor appeared to pour cold water on the story.

BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the special counsels office, and characterisation of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens Congressional testimony are not accurate, Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mr Muellers office, said in a statement emailed to the media on Friday evening.

Mr Muellers statement, one of just a handful that have been issued since he was appointed in May 2017 to investigate Russias alleged interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign, was leapt on by Mr Trump and his supporters.

The president retweeted a comment posted underneath a post by BuzzFeed saying that it had updated its story with Mr Muellers comment. Sadly so many will never get the memo that it was fake, the person had written.

His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, tweeted: I ask is that CNN gives equal time to the retraction....(um obliteration you got hit with from Special Counsels Office) that you gave to the #fakenews part of the story you all so desperately wanted to be true. Seems fair, right?

The statement by Mr Mueller was issued several hours after Mr Trumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, had issued a categorical denial of the claim.

Any suggestion  from any source  that the president counselled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false, he said. Cohen has traded on a pattern of lies and dishonesty over an extended period of time and he is going to pay a very, very serious price. Todays claims are just more made-up lies born of Michael Cohens malice and desperation in an effort to reduce his sentence.

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On Thursday night, when the article was first published, Mr Giuliani, had said: If you believe Cohen I can get you a great deal on the Brooklyn Bridge.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters of the claim: Look, thats absolutely ridiculous.

At the same time, BuzzFeed News said it was was standing by its report.

BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief Ben Smith tweeted: In response to the statement tonight from the special counsels spokesman: we stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the special counsel to make clear what hes disputing.

Cohen is due to show up to prison in March to serve a three-year sentence as part of the deal brokered last November in which he admitted arranging payments to Stormy Daniels and former model Karen McDougal  a breach of campaign finance laws  on the eve of the 2016 election.

During his guilty plea negotiation, Cohen, 52, admitted he lied when he told Congress in August 2017 that the Moscow Trump Tower project, an idea that dated back as far as 1996, had collapsed by the end of January 2016, when Trump was one of just many candidates seeking the Republican nomination.

In fact, it did not end until June 2016, by which point Trump was the only candidate still in contention, other than John Kasich.

In truth and in fact, Cohens representations to the Senate select committee on intelligence and the House committee about the Moscow Project were false and misleading, said a document filed by federal prosecutors in the southern district of New York.

BuzzFeed said the two sources had revealed Cohen also told special counsel Robert Mueller that after the election, the president personally instructed him to lie in order to obscure Trumps involvement.Prince Philip is uninjured after he was involved in a car crash near Queen Elizabeths Sandringham estate on Thursday, according to a statement from Buckingham Palace.

BBC News reports that the 97-year-old Duke of Edinburgh  who was driving at the time  was pulling out of a driveway onto a main Norfolk road when the collision occurred. Police were called to the scene of the accident and two people in the other vehicle were reportedly treated for minor injuries.

Eyewitnesses told BBC News that the Range Rover the Duke was driving was overturned in the crash and that he was very, very shocked and shaken after being helped out of the car. A doctor has since confirmed that he was unhurt.

The Duke of Edinburgh was involved in a road traffic accident with another vehicle this afternoon, Buckingham Palaces statement read. The Duke was not injured. The accident took place close to the Sandringham Estate. Local police attended the scene.32-year-old machinist Henry Cooper in his car after he collided with Prince Philip in 1964 - www.alamy.com

The Duke of Edinburghs crash on Thursday was not the first he has been involved in.

After the news made headlines around the world, locals reminisced about crashes and near misses they had encountered over the decades with Prince Philip, who is a keen driver.

Norfolk businessman Patrick Daynes ended up up in neck brace and with whiplashe injuries in January 1996 after the Prince steered his Land Rover into the back of his Mercedes 190 as he let an elderly lady across a zebra crossing.

Mr Daynes said: The Princes Range Rover came into the back of my Mercedes while I was waiting at a pedestrian crossing. It was entirely his fault.

It was about 8.45am and I was on my way to a couple of appointments in London. It's a route I know well and I haven't been involved in any similar accidents. I noticed that I was being followed by a rather smart Range Rover, but at the time had no idea that Prince Philip was driving. I stopped at a pedestrian crossing to let a lady cross the road and suddenly there was an almighty bang. My car jolted forward and I knew immediately that it had been seriously damaged.

It was then that I noticed through my rear-view mirror that it was the Duke of Edinburgh who had been driving. It was quite a surprise.

At the time, Royal sources confirmed the accident occurred, and said the Duke apologised afterwards.

There were questions even in the 1940s whether Prince Philip should be driving the Queen Credit: PA/ Steve Parsons

Others have spoken of alleged near-misses with the Duke, who locals often see driving around the area.

Sue Brown claimed on social media: Many years ago, my uncle had a similar incident around the same area.

Prince Philip pulled out in front of him but my uncle was able to stop in time. It was not until both drivers got out of their cars that my uncle realised he was shouting at the Prince, telling him to be more careful.

Charlotte Tuffnell, a teaching assistant from nearby Fakenham, said: He nearly ran my dad off the road at Sandringham a few years back he needs to pack it in!

A man named Nicholas called into LBC and said that he had also been involved in a collision with Prince Philip in 1987.

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He said: It was the second or third week of August in 1987 at around 6 o'clock. I was driving north on the A93 between Blairgowrie and Spittal of Glenshee and he came down the road, driving right down the middle of the road, chatting to ex-King Constantine of Greece. He wasn't concentrating. "He crossed the white line and came right at us. Me and my passenger thought that our last seconds had come. "I had to swerve out the way, knocked the wing mirror off, lost a quarter-bumper and a couple of wheel trims.

He said he did not report the incident at the time.

The Queen has been in the car in the past while her husband was involved in accidents, including in June 1964, when 32-year-old machinist Henry Cooper was driving to the Rising Sun public house at Holyport, near Madienhead, in his 89 Ford Popular. As he was pulling into the yard of the pub, his car collided with a Rover 3 litre coming in the opposite direction.

To his surprise he found that the driver of the Rover was none other than Prince Philip, who was driving back from polo in Windsor Great Park with the Queen. Both the Queen and the Prince were shaken but unhurt.

A biography of the Duke by Basil Boothroyd, published in 1971, notes that Prince Philip has often been accused of being a less-than-steady driver.

It says: After the engagement there were motherly gasps from the papers. Philip: Take it Easy (Sunday Pictorial). Lt Philip Hurt in Car Crash (Daily Mail). This was to do with a skid and a twisted knee a month before the wedding [to Queen Elizabeth].

They got a bit sterner after the marriage, with another crash in February 1948. It only dented the wing of a taxi at Hyde Park Corner, but Elizabeth was with him.

Ten years later, the Daily Express was able to scrape together a total of seven incidents, headed Should Philip drive the Queen? (Three of them were only reports of high speeds, none in this country, clocked by someone at 70, 85 and 75mph).This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it.

President Donald Trump postponed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip overseas this week after she requested that the president reschedule the address due to the partial government shutdown. Trump reportedly canceled the delegation trip to Brussels and Afghanistan just an hour before Pelosi was set to depart. Earlier in the week, the White House announced that Trump signed a bill ensuring back pay for federal workers impacted by the shutdown.

Other major headlines of the week included Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand announcing a planned 2020 White House bid, U.K. Parliament striking down Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal and a deadly extremist attack on a luxury hotel and shopping complex in Nairobi, Kenya.

Click through the slideshow above to see photos from all of these events and more, and be sure to check back next weekend for our selection of the best photography from the week.A bipartisan group of senators got involved. The presidents son-in-law and the vice president took a shot. A group that calls itself the Problem Solvers Caucus tried its hand.

But in the end, none of them were able to resolve the impasse leading to the longest shutdown in U.S. history.

As the partial government shutdown heads toward the one-month mark, its become clear that only two people can end it: President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And neither one is budging from their position.

Trump continues to maintain that he will only sign spending bills that include his request for $5 billion for a border wall, while Pelosi insists that any negotiations over immigration come after the government is reopened. Although he could force the issue as well, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has stayed on the sidelines, making clear that he will only allow a vote on Democratic bills to do that with Trumps approval.

In a way, the shutdown is simply the most visible manifestation of the fact that Trump has met his match with Pelosi, who commands half of a coequal branch of government and remains a formidable foe.

Meantime, the toll continues to grow. Federal workers who have missed their paychecks are applying for unemployment and food stamps. Government contractors are struggling to discern how they will pay their bills, sometimes resorting to online fundraising.

Lawmakers remain frustrated.

The reasons that were in this shutdown is because both sides are unwilling to sit down and talk, Republican Sen. Rob Portman said on the Senate floor Friday. That makes this shutdown particularly stupid.

Some Republicans are trying to get Trump to find a way out.

Democrats are not going to negotiate with the government shut down. If people in the White House dont like hearing that I dont know what to tell them, a visibly agitated Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters Wednesday. Im running out of ideas.

One of more Grahams more recent ideas was to draft a a bipartisan letter to Trump urging the President Trump, urging him to re-open the government for three weeks while negotiations continue on a more permanent solution for border security. Democratic Sens. Joe Minchin and Chris Coons signed onto the effort, as did Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski.

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Theres a lot of people that want to be involved and move [negotiations] forward. But if its just no no and hell no, its hard on either side, said Manchin. But as of Friday, that letter was in what one aide called a holding pattern. Senators, it appeared, seemed reluctant to sign on to a letter that would not yield anything.

I dont think it makes sense to arbitrarily do that until there is at least a roadmap for what we will accomplish in those 21 days, said Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, one of the lawmakers who have been more vocal in calling for a compromise.

Officials from the White House and the House of Representatives also seemed to be making overtures. On Wednesday, seven Democratic members of the House of Representatives accepted an invitation to join the President in the Situation Room.

Ill work with anyone to try and end this shutdown as quickly as possible, said Rep. Max Rose, one of the lawmakers who attended the meeting. The next day, Vice President Mike Pence and Jared Kushner met with McConnell in his office. Although attendees of both meetings remained tight-lipped about what went on, the government remains shut down.

Part of the reason all of these actions seemed so fruitless was because they failed to convene the two major players. Pelosi and Trump have not sat at the negotiating table since Jan. 8, when the President walked away.

Instead of working on a deal they have been counterpunching each other to showcase their leverage: Pelosi by essentially disinviting the President from the State of the Union, and Trump by grounding the military plane Pelosi was planning on using for a congressional delegation visit to Afghanistan. (The lawmakers were subsequently planning on flying commercial, but decided to postpone the trip after claiming the Administration had leaked the plans).

This tit-for-tat appeared to do nothing to break the impasse. If anything, it dug both sides in further. Which probably means things will get worse before they get better.A Southwest Airlines plane went off the runway Friday after landing at Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska, resulting in the airport's closure and the suspension of all flights.

The airport reopened late Friday following the closure, with a statement on Twitter warning there would be continued flight delays.

"Initial reports indicate Southwest flight #1643, a Boeing 737-800, traveling from Las Vegas to Omaha, slid onto a runway overrun area after landing and while taxiing to the terminal," Southwest confirmed to USA TODAY in a statement.

Omaha was the final destination for all passengers.

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The airport tweeted a statement about the incident.

"A Southwest Airlines aircraft is off the end of Runway 14R after landing at Eppley Airfield. There are no injuries and airport fire crews are working with Southwest to deplane the passengers and take them to the terminal," the airport wrote.

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National flight update: Snow: Flight cancellations now stretch into Sunday

Passengers exit Southwest Airlines flight 1643 after the plane slid off the runway at Eppley Airfield Friday, Jan 18, 2019, in Omaha, Neb.

There were 150 customers and six crew members onboard the aircraft," Southwest added. "We are working quickly to retrieve their luggage. We are gathering more details while working with the Omaha Airport Authority and will post additional media statements on SWAMedia.com as we learn more. Safety is always our top priority at Southwest, and we thank our Customers for their patience and understanding."

Passengers have documented the incident on social media.

Another Southwest Airlines plane skidded off the runway due to rainy weather in southern California at the end of last year.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Omaha airport reopens after Southwest Airlines plane goes off runwayJos (Nigeria) (AFP) - A surging crowd of supporters thronged Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in the central city of Jos Saturday forcing him to cut short a campaign rally as he seeks re-election in polls next month.

The former military ruler was whisked away still waving at the crowd after supporters of his All Progressive Congress (APC) rushed the podium at the 28,000 capacity Rwan Pam stadium, tripping over public address system cables in a frenzy to catch a glimpse of him.

Buhari, 76, has brushed off questions about his health to campaign for the February 16 vote in Africa's most populous nation and leading oil producer, which is expected to be a closely fought race.

At the Jos rally Buhari managed to present APC candidates in the state for the governorship and legislative elections before he was ushered out of the stadium through a backdoor, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.

In a statement released after the event, Buhari's office said the president thanked the "ecstatic supporters", but asked for those attending future events to tone down their enthusiasm.

APC supporters had earlier besieged the president's motorcade as it made its way into the stadium, forcing him to stay in his car for 20 minutes while military and police personnel struggled to push back the crowd.

Buhari's security detail then continued to push back fans cheering "sai Baba", a popular campaign slogan, while he waded through the crowd to his seat.

- Decades of conflict -

Plateau State, of which Jos is the capital, has born the brunt of decades of conflict between settler Muslim Hausa and Fulani herders, and indigenous Christian farmers.

Buhari, a northern Muslim, has come under intense criticism in connection with deadly farmer-herder clashes in central Nigeria.

His critics accuse him of failure to end the violence because Fulani herders are his kinsmen, a charge that could potentially cost him support in the so-called Middle-Belt, a mixed but mostly Christian region that separates the predominantly Muslim north and the largely Christian south.

Story continues

The conflict, which began over land and grazing rights, has taken on an ethno-religious dimension and entrenched identity politics in which ethnic and religious affiliations determine voting patterns.

Buhari secured the Middle Belt in the 2015 presidential election on the belief he would end the decades old conflict.

The killings have continued however, and political analysts believe Buhari might not do well there in the February polls.

This year's elections will be the fifth time Buhari has stood for the presidency. He lost in 2003, 2007 and 2011, and disputed the results in court.

He was finally successful in 2015 in what was the first victory for an opposition candidate in Nigeria's history.

Buhari is expected to face stiff competition in the vote from former vice-president Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The pair were set to go head-to-head in a televised debate scheduled in Abuja on Saturday, but Buhari declined to attend, causing Abubakar to storm out in protest.UPDATE: 2:45 p.m. Jan. 21  More footage has emerged of the viral moment between a Native American man and a white teenager, complicating perceptions of the incident. Please see the updated story here.

PREVIOUSLY:

A group of teens wearing Make America Great Again hats harassed a Native American Marine veteran during Fridays first Indigenous Peoples March. Now the Native American elder is speaking out about the ordeal.

Video posted online captures the unsettling incident in Washington, D.C., after a group of teens surrounds Nathan Phillips, mocking and harassing him as he sang the American Indian Movement song on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Phillips served in the U.S. Marines and is the former director of the Native Youth Alliance, according to Indian Country Today.

The video, posted to YouTube by user KC Noland, also went viral on Twitter.

One teen, in particular, is seen blocking Phillips, smugly staring at the elder as he performs his song. Teens in the background appear to encourage the harassment.

Users on social media identified the teens as students from Covington Catholic school in Kentucky because of the insignia on some of their clothing. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington confirmed the teens were from Covington in a statement published Saturday:

We condemn the actions of the Covington Catholic High School students towards Nathan Phillips specifically, and Native Americans in general, the statement, obtained by WLTW, said. The matter is being investigated and we will take appropriate action, up to and including expulsion.

There also appeared to be at least one student from an Owensboro Catholic School saying on video that land gets stolen all the time, its how it works.

Fridays Indigenous Peoples March took place on the same day as the anti-abortion rally March for Life, and Covington Catholics website shows that students and faculty attended the rally. The schools Twitter was made private following the viral video. Owensboro Catholics website also said its middle school students attended the rally.

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HuffPost reached out to Covington and Owensboro Catholic schools for comment but did not receive a reply at the time of publication. President of Owensboro Catholic Schools Tom Lilly told the Owensboro Times the student seen wearing his school shirt made a flippant remark when he talked about land being stolen.

Was that comment any more than a cynical remark? I hate for a kid to have made a flippant remark and get lumped in with Covington Catholic, Lilly told the publication. If the kid hadnt had an Owensboro sweatshirt on it wouldnt be an issue, but he did. Hes a good kid and I hate this.

A video of Phillips response that appears to have been recorded Friday was posted Saturday to Twitter.

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I heard them saying build that wall, build that wall, Phillips said while wiping away tears. This is indigenous land, youre not supposed to have walls here. We never did for a millennia. We never had a prison; we always took care of our elders, took care of our children, always provided for them, taught them right from wrong. I wish I could see that energy ... put that energy to making this country really, really great.

Congresswoman Deb Haaland (D-N.M.)  one of the first Native American women to be elected to Congress  said the students displayed blatant hate against Phillips.

This Veteran put his life on the line for our country, Haaland said on Twitter. The students display of blatant hate, disrespect, and intolerance is a signal of how common decency has decayed under this administration. Heartbreaking.

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Phillips also faced racial discrimination in 2015 when he said Eastern Michigan University students were dressed up in feathers with their faces painted, mocking the elder leader.

[The students] started whooping and hollering, Phillips told FOX 2 News at the time. I said that wasnt honoring, that was racist. Then at that time, it really got ugly. Phillips said he was subjected to racist slurs from the group during that incident.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article, citing The Washington Post, referred to Phillips as a Vietnam veteran. He was a U.S. Marine who did not serve in Vietnam, according to The Post.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.READ: Duterte to attend

assemblyWASHINGTON  In a rare public statement, special counsel Robert Mueller's office on Friday disputed a blockbuster report from BuzzFeed News that alleged President Donald Trump directed his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to lie in his testimony before Congress.

Despite worldwide coverage and intense interest, Mueller's office has stayed mostly quiet on reports regarding the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. But on Friday, Mueller's office took the rare step of calling BuzzFeed's story "not accurate."

"BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the Special Counsels Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens Congressional testimony are not accurate," said Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller's office.

The BuzzFeed report alleged that Trump instructed Cohen to lie to Congress about the Trump Organizations pursuit of a deal to build a luxury residential high-rise in the center of Moscow, hoping to conceal these actions during his presidential bid.

The story also asserted that Mueller's office knew of the president's alleged actions after obtaining information through internal emails, text messages and multiple interviews.

The report revived discussions about the possibility of impeaching Trump and emboldened House Democrats who vowed to investigate the allegations.

While Mueller's office disputed how BuzzFeed characterized statements, documents and testimony in its story, the statement did not include specifics or a sweeping denial of the story's overall theme: that the president directed Cohen to lie to Congress.

BuzzFeed responded Friday, saying the news organization remained confident in the accuracy of our report.

We are continuing to report and determine what the special counsel is disputing, BuzzFeed said in a statement.

The news organization's Editor-In-Chief, Ben Smith, asked that Mueller's office be more clear as to what was inaccurate in the story.

Story continues

"In response to the statement tonight from the Special Counsel's spokesman: We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he's disputing," Smith said on Twitter.

Nevertheless, the response from Mueller's office is sure to embolden the president and his supporters. Trump called news of the Mueller team statement a "sad day for journalism" but a "great day" for the country.

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Within minutes of the statement being aired on cable news shows, the president started retweeting supporters who called BuzzFeed fake news and the story "nonsense." Some of those he retweeted, including his campaign manager Brad Parscale, used this as a chance to attack other stories over the years about Trump and his Russian contacts as "fake news."

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Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, also responded on Twitter by praising Mueller's office for disputing the report, attacking the press and calling for an investigation into who leaked information to BuzzFeed for its story.

"I commend Bob Muellers office for correcting the BuzzFeed false story that Pres. Trump encouraged Cohen to lie," Giuliani said. "I ask the press to take heed that their hysterical desire to destroy this President has gone too far."

Even before Mueller's team got involved, Trump, who frequently calls the media "fake news," lashed out about the report and Cohen's credibility.

"Lying to reduce his jail time!" the president wrote on Twitter.

More: Impeachment talk revived after report says Donald Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress

Opinion: BuzzFeed Michael Cohen bombshell could be game changer for Trump, Republicans and history

Cohen, 52, is expected to begin a three-year prison sentence in March after pleading guilty to federal financial crimes, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress, which was at the heart of the BuzzFeed story.

Cohen admitted he wasn't truthful when he told the Senate and House Intelligence Committees that all discussions about a Moscow development had ceased in January 2016, knowing that such efforts had continued through at least June  in the heat of the campaign and as Trump repeatedly denied any links to Russia.

Prosecutors have asserted in court documents filed late last year that the tower project "likely required the assistance of the Russian government. And if completed, the company stood to gain hundreds of millions of dollars from Russian sources in licensing fees and other revenues."

The court documents did not address whether Cohen's false statements about the Moscow tower discussions were prompted by any other consideration than an attempt to personally shield the campaign from public association with Russia.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mueller's office disputes BuzzFeed story about Trump directing Cohen's false testimonyThe Telegraph

When Bruce Springsteen returns to the stage in New York next week, fans wont have to have been born in the USA to get in - but it will help if theyve been vaccinated there. The first Broadway show to reopen since last March will require attendees to show proof of their inoculations. However, only vaccines approved by the US Food and Drug Administration will be accepted. So far, that list is limited to Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson, meaning any prospective concert-goers who havMichael Cohen has said he is prepared to reveal the truth about Donald Trump during a televised hearing next month  but first, the presidents former personal lawyer required surgery.

Cohen was spotted returning home from a pre-scheduled hospital visit on Friday afternoon after receiving surgery on his shoulder, his adviser Lanny Davis confirmed.

Photos showed the presidents former fixer clutching a full-size pillow that was held in front of his left arm, which was in a sling. He appeared to have bandages covering an incision from intravenous therapy (IV) and was quickly assisted into the residence by a doorman.

The surgery arrived the same day an explosive report in BuzzFeed News suggested Mr Trump told Cohen to lie to Congress  an illegal and arguably impeachable offence  about a Trump Tower project in Moscow he was supposedly working on throughout the 2016 presidential election.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the presidents lawyer Rudy Giuliani have both called the report categorically false, though a spokesperson for the White House stopped short of denying the assertion that Mr Trump coerced Cohen into committing perjury.

The premise is ridiculous, White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said on Friday. We're also talking about a person, in Michael Cohen, who quite frankly has now been proven to be a liar. He self-admits that he's a felon.

Cohen is not one of the anonymous sources included in the report, according to the outlet.

Mr Trump shared quotes from Fox News attacking his longtime confidant on Friday morning, quoting Kevin Corke with a tweet that read, Dont forget, Michael Cohen has already been convicted of perjury and fraud, and as recently as this week, the Wall Street Journal has suggested that he may have stolen tens of thousands of dollars.

Lying to reduce his jail time! The president added.

Michael Cohen arrives at his home in New York with his left arm in a sling supported by a pillow Friday (AP)

Cohen will speak to the House Oversight Committee on 7 February to discuss his tenure serving as one of Mr Trumps closest aides.

Story continues

In furtherance of my commitment to cooperate and provide the American people with answers, I have accepted the invitation by Chairman Elijah Cummings to appear publicly, he said in a statement earlier this month.

He pled guilty to campaign finance violations, as well as tax evasion and bank fraud, before later also pleasing guilty to lying to Congress about the timeline surrounding the Trump Tower proposal in Moscow.

I look forward to having the privilege of being afforded a platform with which to give a full and credible account of the events which have transpired, he added in his statement.

Cohens testimony will arrive before he begins serving his three-year prison sentence.

The president responded to questions about the upcoming testimony last week, telling reporters, Im not worried about it at all.Berlin was perhaps destined to be a meaningful place for Martin Luther King Jr.; it was the city that, in some ways, gave him his name. And for a man who preached against walls that divided humanity, a 1964 visit to the then-three-year-old Berlin Wall, which divided the Soviet-occupied East side of the city and the U.S.-occupied West side of the city, offered a chance to add another layer to that significance.

The visit came about after West Berlins Mayor Willy Brandt invited King to participate in a memorial ceremony for President John F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated the year prior, less than six months after his own famous visit there. King also received an invitation to speak in East Berlin from Heinrich Gru?ber, who had been a pastor at a church there and a prisoner in a concentration camp for three years during World War II for openly criticizing the Nazi Party.

It would be risky for King, as Gru?ber had driven out because of his anti-government views, and had been living in West Berlin himself. I write in the bond of the same faith and hope, knowing your experiences are the same as ours were, he wrote in a letter to King, according to historian Britta Waldschmidt-Nelsons account of the visit. During the time of Hitler, I was often ashamed of being a German, as today I am ashamed of being white, Gru?ber wrote. I am grateful to you, dear brother, and to all who stand with you in this fight for justice, which you are conducting in the spirit of Jesus Christ.

King decided to take that risk and accepted both invitations.

On Sept. 13, 1964  two months after the Civil Rights Act was enacted and a month before he won the Nobel Peace Prize  King addressed 20,000 people at a rally at the outdoor stadium Waldbuhne in West Berlin. He also visited the spot where, earlier that day, East Berlin guards had shot and wounded a resident who was trying to climb over the wall into West Berlin. King also delivered the same sermon at St. Marys Church in East Berlin, which was over its 2,000-person capacity, and then gave another, unscheduled speech to the overflow crowd at Sophia Church, similarly over its 2,000-person capacity.

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And, in a city with a division that could not be avoided, he said that, while he was no expert in German politics, he knew about walls.

It is indeed an honor to be in this city, which stands as a symbol of the divisions of men on the face of the earth, he told East Berliners. For here on either side of the wall are Gods children and no man-made barrier can obliterate that fact. Whether it be East or West, men and women search for meaning, hope for fulfillment, yearn for faith in something beyond themselves, and cry desperately for love and community to support them in this pilgrim journey.

He talked about the similarities shared by the clash between African Americans and white people in the United States and that between communism and democracy in Berlin, which he described as the hub around which turns the wheel of history. Just as America is proving to be the testing ground of races living together in spite of their differences: you are testing the possibility of co-existence for the two ideologies which now compete for world dominance, he said. Quoting Ephesians, he spoke of his assumption that wherever reconciliation is taking place, wherever men are breaking down the dividing walls of hostility which separate them from their brothers, there Christ continues to perform his ministry of reconciliation.

The sermon was particularly moving to East Berliners, especially his passages on the readiness of Negroes to suffer and if necessary die for their faith and his emphasis on common struggles, common faith, and common suffering, according to a telegram rundown of Kings trip that the U.S. Mission in Berlin sent to the Secretary of States office, European embassies and the Moscow embassy.

The U.S. State Department nervously monitored the visit, worried about anything that would heat up the Cold War or undermine its agenda to prove democracy was the better system of government.

King is determined to cross the wall and see East Berlin, and its very clear, at this point, that the U.S. embassy does not want him to do this. They do not want the press, historian Michael P. Steinberg has explained. Officials were particularly concerned as racial violence in the United States was frequently held up within East Germany and the Soviet Union as an indication of the failure of American society. If King drew attention to those conflicts, they worried, it could be bad news for the American agenda.

The embassy confiscated Kings U.S. passport upon his arrival on Sept. 12, hoping it would deter him from crossing into East Berlin, but he managed to get in just by flashing his American Express card. As the detailed official telegram described, local media eagerly covered the sermons and the press conference held shortly after he arrived. (Asked about the upcoming U.S. presidential election, the preacher of non-violent resistance warned that African Americans would revolt violently if Republican nominee Barry Goldwater won.) German scholars have written that the visit was key not only to raising Germans awareness of the American civil-rights struggle, but also to sowing the seeds of non-violent resistance there. Some say it inspired participants in the Prague Spring four years later, and those who campaigned for the Berlin Wall to be torn down in 1989. Waldschmidt-Nelson points out that East German opposition movements marched to We Shall Overcome in the 1980s.

The visit was enlightening for King, too. The past few days here in Europe have brought me face to face with the most powerful ally that the Negro struggle made, King wrote on Sept. 17, referring to the impact of global public opinion. Amazed at the knowledge which one finds of the United States racial situation here in Europe and feeling like the world is in sympathy with the Negro, he saw that the racial inequality issues in the U.S. had seen the light of world exposure.

In the U.S. however, the visit didnt get much media attention. (TIME didnt cover it.)

King was not the media figure he became after getting the Nobel Prize, I think particularly with respect to foreign issues. Going to Berlin was not expected of him, explains historian Clayborne Carson, and Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. But in Berlin, It was a big deal. It was major. In fact some people compared it to Kennedys visit to Berlin.

Carson points out that the message King preached to those Berliners who were so moved was not a new one. In a 1953 sermon, for example, hed urged the audience to transcend the narrow confines of nationalism. The Berlin Wall was a vivid and literal example of those confines, but the world was full of metaphorical walls and King had long advocated for tearing them down.

I think that that message has greater relevance today than it even had at the time when he was alive, says Carson, speaking as a partial government shutdown prompted by debate over the construction of a border wall continues into Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend. It seems like nationalistic sentiments are overwhelming our sense that were all in this together, in terms of humanity, particularly with issues like war, the environment, climate change, poverty. Theyre not going to be solved in one country. They always are related.By Karen Freifeld and David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Investigators in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives said on Friday they plan to examine whether U.S. President Donald Trump directed his former lawyer to lie to Congress, prompted by a report by Buzzfeed News. Leading Democrats in the House of Representatives said they would seek to verify the story, saying that if true it would be evidence of criminal activity by the president. Buzzfeed, citing two unnamed law enforcement sources, said Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who is going to prison for lying to Congress, told investigators working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller that Trump had directed him to lie about efforts to build a skyscraper in Moscow while he was running for president. The White House said the story was false. "Look, that's absolutely ridiculous," spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters. The report said Mueller's office learned of Trump's instructions to Cohen through internal Trump Organization emails, witness interviews, text messages and other documents, and that Cohen told prosecutors about the directive in an interview. Trump said on Twitter that Cohen was lying in order to get less prison time. Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said in a statement that any suggestion that Trump told Cohen to lie is "categorically false." Mueller's office declined to comment. Cohen, who once said he was so loyal to Trump that he would "take a bullet" for him, is scheduled to begin a three-year prison sentence in March after pleading guilty to charges including campaign finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress. If Trump did tell Cohen to lie, that would constitute criminal activity, said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, who said he would look into the matter. "Directing a subordinate to lie to Congress is a federal crime," Nadler said on Twitter. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said the allegation that Trump may have directed Cohen to lie under oath "is among the most serious to date." "We will do what's necessary to find out if it's true," he said on Twitter. Some Senate Intelligence Committee investigators hope to ask Cohen about the BuzzFeed report when he testifies behind closed doors in February, a committee source told Reuters. He also will face questions about it in testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Feb. 7. NEW EXPOSURE Legal experts say the allegation exposed Trump to a new level of risk in an investigation that has already resulted in convictions of or guilty pleas from four former campaign aides, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. "It's a seismic event," Andy Wright, an associate White House counsel under former Democratic President Barack Obama, told Reuters. Cohen, his left arm in a sling, did not comment as he entered his apartment building in New York on Friday. His adviser, Lanny Davis, also declined to comment, and his lawyer, Guy Petrillo, did not respond to a request for comment. Trump denounced Cohen as a "rat" after he began cooperating with investigators while Cohen, whose duties included making payoffs to two women who had affairs with Trump, said on Thursday he regretted giving "my blind loyalty to a man who doesn't deserve it." Directing or encouraging someone to lie under oath is a crime known as subornation of perjury but the report also raises questions about obstruction of justice and conspiracy. William Barr, Trump's nominee to be attorney general, said at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday that a president would be committing obstruction if he directed a subordinate to lie under oath. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. While the Justice Department has previously concluded that a sitting president cannot be charged while in office, such an allegation, if found true, could fuel impeachment proceedings in Congress. "Suborning perjury has been a key part of earlier instances where the House has decided to move against a president in the extreme grounds of impeachment," Democratic Senator Tim Kaine told reporters. Trump repeatedly has denied collusion with Russia and slammed Mueller's investigation as a "witch hunt." Russia also has rejected U.S. intelligence findings that Moscow interfered in U.S. politics in the 2016 election in an effort to boost Trump. Trump said repeatedly during the presidential campaign that he had no ties or business dealings with Russia. Representatives for the Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment on the BuzzFeed report. Democrats, who took over the U.S. House of Representatives this month, have generally been cautious regarding any talk of impeachment to remove Trump from office although some rank-and-file members have pushed for such a resolution. It would face an uphill battle in the Senate, where Trump's fellow Republicans have a majority. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office had no comment on the BuzzFeed report but other Republicans said it raised troubling questions. "Lying to Congress is a whole different issue, obviously, if there was direction to do that. But weve got to hear both sides of the story on this," Senator James Lankford told Reuters. BuzzFeed also reported that Cohen regularly updated Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. and his daughter Ivanka Trump, who is now a top White House adviser, about the Moscow project. A spokesman for Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Ivanka Trump, said she was minimally involved in the development. Trump Jr., who has also testified previously before Congress, called the Buzzfeed report "fake news" on Twitter. (Additional reporting by Nathan Layne, Mark Hosenball, Steve Holland, Andy Sullivan and David Alexander; Writing by Andy Sullivan and Susan Heavey; Editing by Bill Trott)TLAHUELILPAN (Mexico) (AFP) - An explosion and fire in central Mexico killed at least 73 people after hundreds swarmed to the site of an illegal fuel-line tap to gather gasoline amid a government crackdown on fuel theft, officials said.

Hidalgo state governor Omar Fayad announced that the toll had increased to 73 after the discovery of five additional bodies.

The blast -- which Fayad said injured 74 people -- occurred near Tlahuelilpan, a town of 20,000 people about an hour's drive north of Mexico City.

As soldiers guarded the devastated, still-smoking scene, forensic specialists in white suits worked among the blackened corpses -- many frozen in the unnatural positions in which they had fallen -- and grim-eyed civilians stepped cautiously along in a desperate search for missing relatives.

The pungent smell of fuel hung in the air. Fragments of burnt clothing were strewn through the charred brush.

When the forensic workers began attempting to load corpses into vans to be transported to funeral homes, some 30 villagers tried to stop them. They demanded their relatives' bodies, saying funeral homes were too expensive. The bodies were ultimately taken to a morgue, authorities said.

On Friday, when authorities heard that fuel traffickers had punctured the pipeline, an army unit of about 25 soldiers arrived and attempted to block off the area, Defense Secretary Luis Crescencio Sandoval told reporters.

But the soldiers were unable to contain the estimated 700 civilians -- including entire families -- who swarmed in to collect the spilled gasoline in jerrycans and buckets, witnesses said.

The armed soldiers had been moved away from the pipeline to avoid any risk of confrontation with the crowd when the blast occurred, some two hours after the pipeline was first breached, Sandoval said.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a leftist who took office only weeks ago, traveled to the scene early Saturday.

He did not fault the soldiers, saying, "The attitude of the army was correct. It is not easy to impose order on a crowd." He vowed to continue fighting the growing problem of fuel theft.

Story continues

"I am deeply saddened by the suffering in Tlahuelilpan," Lopez Obrador wrote on Twitter. He called on his "whole government" to extend assistance.

The US Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, tweeted that her department "stands ready to assist the first responders and the Mexican government in any way possible."

Video taken in the aftermath showed screaming people fleeing the scene as an enormous fire lit up the night sky.

"I went just to see what was happening, and then the explosion happened. I rushed to help people," Fernando Garcia, 47, told AFP. "I had to claw through pieces of people who had already been burned to bits."

The tragedy comes during a highly publicized federal government war on fuel theft, a problem that cost Mexico an estimated $3 billion in 2017.

Acting attorney general Alejandro Gertz described the latest disaster as "intentional" because "someone caused that leak. And the fire was a consequence of the crime."

But he acknowledged that investigators would be hampered by the fact that "the people closest to the explosion died."

Federal and state firefighters and ambulances run by state oil company Pemex rushed to help victims with burns and take the injured to hospitals.

Local medical facilities struggled to cope with the flood of arriving victims, said AFP correspondents at the scene.

The fire had been brought under control by around midnight Friday, the security ministry said.

Pemex said it was also responding to another fire at a botched pipeline tap in the central state of Queretaro, though in that case there were no victims.

Mexico is regularly rocked by deadly explosions at illegal pipeline taps, a dangerous but lucrative business whose players include powerful drug cartels and corrupt Pemex insiders.

Fayad said that two hours after the pipeline was punctured, "we were informed that there had been an explosion" and the flames "were consuming everything around."

About 15 oil pipeline explosions and fires causing more than 50 fatalities each have occurred around the world since 1993. Most were in Nigeria, where in 1998 more than 1,000 people died in such a blast. A fire after a pipeline rupture in Brazil killed more than 500 people in 1984.

- Rampant fuel theft -

The tragedy comes as anti-corruption crusader Lopez Obrador presses implementation of a controversial fuel theft prevention plan.

The government has shut off major pipelines until they can be fully secured and deployed the army to guard Pemex production facilities.

But the strategy to fight the problem led to severe gasoline and diesel shortages across much of the country, including Mexico City, forcing people to queue for hours -- sometimes days -- to fill up their vehicles.

The president, who took office on December 1, has vowed to keep up the fight and asked Mexicans to be patient.

At the scene, some locals blamed the shortages for the tragedy.

"A lot of people arrived with their jerrycans because of the gasoline shortages we've had," said Martin Trejo, 55, who was searching for his son, one of those who had gone to collect the leaking fuel.

He also lashed out at the army for failing to stop the looters.

"These lives would have been saved if they had done their jobs to remove people and not let them get close. They never did anything."

Tanker trucks are being used to deliver fuel, but experts say there are not nearly enough of them.

Mexican bank Citibanamex estimated Wednesday that the shortages would cost Latin America's second-largest economy around $2 billion, "if conditions return to normal in the coming days."

The roots of the fuel theft problem run deep in Mexico, where the practice -- known locally as "huachicoleo," or moonshining -- is big business for some communities.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen is reconsidering his plan to testify publicly to the U.S. Congress next month because of intimidation by the president, an adviser to Cohen said on Thursday. Lanny Davis, an attorney who has been advising Cohen on his media strategy, said in an interview with MSNBC that some remarks made by the Republican president about Cohen amounted to witness tampering and deserved to be criminally investigated. "There is genuine fear and it has caused Michael Cohen to consider whether he should go forward or not, and he has not made a final decision," Davis said. Last week Cohen agreed to appear before a congressional panel on Feb. 7, as U.S. House of Representatives Democrats began kicking off numerous investigations of Trump, his business interests and his administration. Cohen was sentenced in December to three years in prison for his role in making illegal hush-money payments to two women to help Trump in 2016 in violation of campaign laws and for lying to Congress about a proposed Trump Tower project in Russia. In a Fox News interview on Saturday, Trump suggested he had damaging information on Cohen's father-in-law. "That's the one that people want to look at," Trump said in the interview. Davis said: "There is no question that his threatening and calling out his father-in-law, who - quote - has all the money, is not only improper and unseemly for a bully using the bully pulpit of the presidency, but the very definition of intimidation and witness tampering." He said Trump's remarks "could be obstruction of justice." Trump called Cohen a "rat" in a tweet last month for cooperating with prosecutors. Cohen had been Trump's self-described longtime "fixer" and had once said he would take a bullet for the New York real estate developer. At a hearing in federal court in New York in August, Cohen testified that Trump had directed him to commit a crime by arranging payments before the 2016 election to two women who said they had engaged in extramarital affairs with Trump. Cohen said on Thursday he had paid a firm to manipulate online polling data "at the direction of and for the sole benefit of" Trump. (Reporting by Tim Ahmann; editing by James Dalgleish and Cynthia Osterman)WashingtonPresident Donald Trump will meet for the second time with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un around the end of February, the White House said Friday, after a top general from Pyongyang paid a rare visit to Washington. Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol, a right-hand man to the North Korean strongman, met the embattled president at the White House for an unusually long 90 minutes as the countries seek a denuclearization accord that could ease decades of hostility. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said that Trumpwho has opined that he and Kim Jong-un fell in love after last years landmark first summitwould again meet the North Korean leader near the end of February at a location to be announced later. The flurry of diplomacy comes little more than a year after Trump was threatening to wipe North Korea off the map, with Pyongyangs nuclear and missile tests rattling nerves in East Asia. Sanders praised North Koreas efforts to reconcile but ruled out, for now, a key demand of Pyongyanga lifting of sanctions. The United States is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea until we see fully and verified denuclearization, Sanders told reporters. Weve had very good steps in good faith from the North Koreans in releasing the hostages and other moves and so well continue those conversations, she said. She was referring to Pyongyangs quick deportation last year of an American. In 2017, a US student returned home comatose from North Korea and died within days after what a US judge said was torture.Kim Jong-un and Trump first met in June in Singapore, where they signed a vaguely worded document in which Kim pledged to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. But progress stalled soon afterward as Pyongyang and Washington which stations 28,500 troops in South Koreadisagree over what that means. Critics say that the Singapore summit was little more than a photo-op. The second round with the young and elusive North Korean leader will again offer a change of headlines for Trump amid a barrage of scandalous allegations and a political deadlock that has shut down the US government. Lets hope the second summit produces real results, but dont hold your breath as we wait for episode two of the Trump-Kim show, said Michael Fuchs, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress who worked closely with former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Abe Denmark, director of the Asia program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said the Singapore summit had thrown into question the security of US allies with little in return. With another summit in the making, I hope for tangible progress and fear for a repeat: little movement from Kim, major concessions from Trump, he said.But Trump has pointed to the halt in missile launches by North Korea and recently said there would have been a nice big fat war in Asia if it were not for his efforts. Kim Yong Chol is the first North Korean dignitary in nearly two decades to spend a night in Washington, staying at a fashionable hotel a short drive from the White House. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed Kim at the hotel, posing briefly for pictures near a shelf with a framed portrait of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., and later invited the delegation to lunch. The State Department said that Stephen Biegun, the US special representative on North Korea, would carry on discussions at a conference in Sweden starting on Saturday that will involve Pyongyang officials.While no decision has been made on location, a Vietnamese government source told AFP that logistical preparations were under way to host the summit, most likely in the capital Hanoi or coastal city of Danang. Vietnams cooperation with the United States has been growing for years as Hanoimuch unlike Pyongyangsets aside memories of war. US-North Korea tensions began to abate a year ago with the encouragement of South Koreas dovish president, Moon Jae-in. Moons office Saturday said the new summit could be a turning point in bringing peace to the Korean Peninsula. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters that the second summit should set a clear roadmap on how to scrap North Koreas nuclear and ballistic missiles. The Singapore summit marked the first-ever meeting between sitting leaders of the United States and North Korea, which never formally ended the 1950-53 Korean War. The United States expects Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arsenal, doggedly built by the Kim dynasty despite sanctions and famines. Kim, whose family has ruled North Korea with an iron fist for three generations, is seeking guarantees of the regimes survival as well as relief from biting UN sanctions. North Korea sees the denuclearization goal more broadly, seeking an end to what it sees as US threats on the peninsula.The circumstances of Jermaine Marshalls death are currently unknown. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Former Penn State and Arizona State guard Jermaine Marshall was found dead while playing overseas with Frances Hermine Nantes Basket, the club announced Friday. He was 28 years old.

While no additional information has been released about Marshalls death, Nantes has requested that its scheduled game against ADA Blois on Saturday be postponed by the Ligue Nationale de Basket.

Per EuroHoops, Marshall had filled out his passport with professional stops in the leagues of Italy, Greece, Netherlands and Finland before landing in France. Before his professional career, Marshall spent the first three years of his collegiate career at Penn State, then transferred to Arizona State for his senior season.

Marshall steadily improved through his Penn State career, going from just 2.5 points and 9.0 minutes per game his freshman year to averaging 15.3 points per game and receiving an All-Big Ten honorable mention during his junior year.

The Etters, Pennsylvania, native later landed in Tempe, Arizona, as a graduate transfer, where he made an immediate impact in the Sun Devils backcourt. He ranked second in both minutes (31.7) and points (15.1) per game on a team that made the NCAA tournament for the first time in five years.

The highlight of Marshalls career might have come during ASUs rivalry game against Arizona in which he went off for 29 points in a double-overtime 69-66 win over a No. 2-ranked Wildcats team.

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NORTH HANOVER, N.J.  A veteran from Atco, New Jersey with no known family died alone, but he was neither forgotten nor alone Friday.

Roughly 1,000 caring strangers gathered for Peter Turnpu's funeral at the Brigadier Gen. William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery in North Hanover.

Groups of veterans, government officials and others from South Jersey attended to show their appreciation for Turnpu's service to the country during the Vietnam War era and to ensure he wasn't buried as a forgotten former soldier.

One of those strangers is the director of LeRoy P. Wooster Funeral Home and Crematory in Atco, who not only volunteered to handle the funeral but arranged for Turnpu to be buried with military honors at the state cemetery and put out a call to the public to remember him.

"I thought handling his funeral was the right thing to do," said funeral director Wooster, adding he was overwhelmed by cemetery staff estimates on the number of people who turned out to honor Turnpu. Not everyone who attended was able to reach the graveside for the service because of the crowd size, he said.

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"It shows a great amount of support for our veterans. Everyone was pleased to see the number of people who came. They came together like one big family and the procession that began from a nearby church had more than 200 cars."

Wooster said he did not want Turnpu to be buried without anyone recognizing his service to the country.

Sgt. Jose Burgos pauses for a moment at the casket of Vietnam veteran Peter Turnpu as several hundreds gather for a funeral Friday, Jan. 18, 2019 in Wrightstown, N.J.

"I thought he deserved more than that and that the community should honor him for his service to the country and recognize his death, so I reached out via social media  and the phone rang off the hook."

The funeral director said the 77-year-old man's lifeless body was found inside his home on Third Avenue in Atco on Dec. 9 by a neighbor who sometimes checked on him. After the neighbor called 911 and paramedics arrived to find Turnpu unresponsive, local police contacted Wooster, who agreed to pick up the veteran's body and began gathering information about him in preparation for a funeral service and burial.

Story continues

"He had no one, and the neighbor told me he was a loner," Wooster said.

"There were veterans from all the armed services. I lost count of all the cars in the procession," said Kryn Westhoven, a state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs spokesman.

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He also said the department was "happy to have provided a proper and dignified burial" for the veteran.

Vietnam Veteran Peter Turnpu

Wooster said he determined through some documentation he gathered that Turnpu was an immigrant born in Estonia, arrived in the U.S. in 1955, became a citizen in 1963 and served in the Army from 1964 to 1966, including a tour in Vietnam.

He said the veteran was divorced, had no children and apparently lived in Atco for at least 40 years.

Others at the funeral became aware of the veteran's story by spotting it on social media this week.

Camden County Freeholder William Moen attended the funeral service Friday after hearing of Turnpu's story.

"It was an overwhelming sentiment for one of our county's veterans in a solemn sendoff," Moen said of the outpouring for the funeral.

Unfortunately, this happens more than it should to veterans that have courageously and honorably served their country, Moen said of Turnpu's circumstances at the end of his life.

"I think it is so important the community come together for him."

Moen's father, also a Vietnam veteran, has shared stories with him about how many veterans of that war were not welcomed home, celebrated or respected when returning from the unpopular war.

Members of the Warriors' Watch Riders motorcycle club, American Legion and VFW members from various counties were among those who came.

We definitely want to honor him. No veteran should pass on alone, Tony Meade, state coordinator for the Warriors Watch Riders of South Jersey, said.



Follow Carol Comegno on Twitter: @carolcomegno

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Forgotten no more: Hundreds of strangers gather to honor veteran who died aloneBy Josephine Mason, Abhinav Ramnarayan and Helen Reid

LONDON (Reuters) - BlackRock and Goldman Sachs Asset Management both plan to temporarily move some British-based fund managers to New York in the event of a no-deal Brexit, two sources told Reuters.

The portfolio managers would eventually be transferred to mainland Europe to handle client accounts there once Britain and the European Union agreed a regulatory framework, they added.

But neither of the firms, who together employ more than 10,000 people in London, expects a chaotic exit that would force them to carry out the emergency relocation, the sources said.

A spokeswoman for BlackRock, which is the world's biggest asset manager and manages around $6.3 trillion, declined to comment on the plan but in an emailed response to Reuters said:

"BlackRock maintains extensive regulatory licenses and permissions across Europe and globally to ensure it can continue to serve its clients post-Brexit."

To avert such moves, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is in talks with Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on agreements which would oversee cross-border asset activity and managers.

The U.S. makes sense as a temporary base for Goldman and BlackRock as Europe has cooperation agreements with U.S. regulators, so managers could handle European clients' accounts from there until ESMA and the FCA have theirs.

"By pulling the UK out of Europe, there's potentially a regulatory hole because the UK doesn't have a cooperation and information sharing agreement with each EU country," said Neil Robson, regulatory partner at law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman.

An ESMA spokesman said it expects to have agreements in place before the end of March. If not, BlackRock will move around 10 equity portfolio managers to New York, one source said, adding they would later move to the euro zone.

Goldman's asset management business GSAM, with 50 managers in London, has plans to send "a handful" to the U.S. financial capital until a framework is in place, the second source said, adding they too would eventually relocate to the euro zone.

Story continues

GSAM has picked Dublin as a center for administrative staff when it no longer has access to the single market from London following Brexit. https://reut.rs/2QUGhAr

"We continue to monitor the situation and are prepared to serve clients whatever the outcome," a GSAM spokesman said.

It is not known whether other big U.S. asset managers are drawing up similar plans and State Street, Fidelity Investments and Northern Trust all declined to comment.

"EXTREME SCENARIO"

Although concerns about a chaotic no-deal exit have eased since the defeat of Prime Minister Theresa May's draft plan in Parliament on Tuesday, the contingency plans highlight efforts by money managers to avoid major disruption before the March 29 deadline for Britain to leave the EU.

For BlackRock, the strategy expands on plans announced in October in which it said "only very few" roles would be moved from London as a result of Brexit.

Although London-based asset managers already operate funds listed in Luxembourg and Dublin, holding more than a trillion euros of assets for customers across the bloc, they would not be able to continue operating as they do now post-Brexit.

"Until such time as the UK has that agreement in place with each of the EU 27 member states or with ESMA on behalf of all of them, UK managers would find it difficult to conduct marketing of their funds in such countries," Robson said.

Adam Jacobs-Dean, managing director, global head of markets regulation at the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) in London, said most of its member firms are working on the assumption that new agreements will be in place in time.

"It's an extreme scenario. Hopefully soon we'll see agreements being finalised and this falls away in terms of Brexit planning."

(Reporting by Josephine Mason, Abhinav Ramnarayan and Helen Reid; additional reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Alexander Smith)By Suzannah Gonzales and Robert Chiarito CHICAGO (Reuters) - White former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was sentenced on Friday to nearly seven years in prison for shooting black teen Laquan McDonald to death in 2014 in a landmark case that highlighted racial tensions in America's third-biggest city. After a jury convicted Van Dyke, 40, of second-degree murder last fall, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Vincent Gaughan sentenced him to 81 months in prison and said he would have to serve at least two years before he was eligible for parole. Activists wanted a longer sentence. Van Dyke could have received up to 20 years in prison for second-degree murder and up to 30 years for each of 16 counts of aggravated battery - one count for each shot he fired at 17-year-old McDonald, who was carrying a knife. During sentencing, Van Dyke sat expressionless, unshaven and wearing a yellow-orange jail uniform. In a statement he read before the sentence, Van Dyke, said he was scared of McDonald and called the shooting "the worst day of my life." "The last thing I wanted to do was shoot Laquan McDonald." Prosecutor Joseph McMahon, who had sought between 18 and 20 years, said he was satisfied with the sentence. "There's nothing to celebrate here.  There is no good outcome. This is a tragedy on so many different levels," McMahon said. The verdict in October marked the first time an on-duty Chicago police officer was criminally convicted for the killing of a black person and touched off celebratory street demonstrations in Chicago. The release of a police dashboard camera video, compelled by a lawsuit more than a year after the Oct. 20, 2014, shooting, ignited protests. The ensuing firestorm over the case prompted the dismissal of the city's police superintendent and calls for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign. Emanuel is not seeking a third term in next month's mayoral election. His office on Friday called for unity and said work to reform the Chicago Police Department would continue. VIDEO KEY TO CASE Police killings of mostly unarmed black men and teens elsewhere in the United States helped fuel the Black Lives Matter movement and were a topic of the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Gaughan did not sentence Van Dyke for the aggravated battery conviction, explaining second-degree murder was the more serious crime. The hearing came a day after another judge acquitted three of Van Dyke's former police colleagues of conspiring to protect him after he killed McDonald, saying the prosecution lacked evidence. Prosecutors showed the video of the shooting repeatedly during Van Dyke's three-week trial. Jurors said they faulted Van Dyke for escalating the incident when he could have waited for an officer with a non-lethal Taser weapon. The altercation began with a call that a knife-wielding man was trying to break into trucks to steal radios. Van Dyke argued that the angle of the video did not show his point of view. Prosecution witnesses testified that Van Dyke was violent and swore at them during traffic stops. State witness Edward Nance, who is black, said through tears he had required surgery for both shoulders after Van Dyke pulled him over and slammed him against his car in 2007. Nance was later awarded $350,000 in a federal lawsuit over the incident. Van Dyke's relatives described the former officer as a great father and husband, gentle and not racist. (Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales and Robert Chiarito in Chicago; Editing by Caroline Stauffer, Sonya Hepinstall, James Dalgleish and Cynthia Osterman)Reuters

Joseph Cirincione

Security, Americas

After spending over $300 billion on missile defense programs since 1983, America has the ability to deter short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. Expanding that to a global defense system is undoable and unaffordable.

Donald Trump's Mission Impossible: Making His Unrealistic Missile Plan Work

Missile defense is the longest running scam in the history of the Department of Defense. The new Missile Defense Review continues that proud tradition.

It scares us with warnings of more than 20 nations with missile technology when there are really only three nations we have to worry about: Russia, China and North Korea. It promises a near-perfect shield, but offers very little in specific, workable programs. Worse, the review and the inflated rhetoric around its release worsen the very problem it claims to solve: an uncontrolled new arms race.

I have boxes of Congressional testimony in my office from Pentagon officials who solemnly swore in the 1980s that they had promising, cost-effective, new technologies that would soon give the United States the abilityas President Donald Trump claimed on Thursdayto terminate any missile launches from hostile powers . . . regardless of the missile type or geographic origins of the attack.

True believers have long held out that goal for missile defense. It has proven impossible to achieve. Instead they have left behind a legacy of inflated threats, lofty promises, and grandiose plans followed by the deployment of quite limited and flawed defensive systems.

President Ronald Reagan began this tradition with his launch of the famous Star Wars program on March 23, 1983. Ten years later, after spending tens of billions of dollars on X-ray lasers, directed energy weapons, particle-beam weapons, space-based kinetic interceptors and brilliant pebbles, the Pentagon was forced to conclude that none of these fanciful concepts would work. We ended up with a concept of limited, ground-based interceptors that might be able to intercept one or two primitive long-range warheads.

Story continues

Since then, we have concentrated largely on defenses against short- and medium-range missiles traveling under three thousand kilometers or so. These can work. The THAAD and Aegis programs have had fairly good test results. The review would take the Aegis, in particular, and try to morph it into a system that could hit ICBMs. That is unlikely to be successful, but it is not crazy to explore the possibility.

The review would add new radars and another twenty ground-based interceptors to the only long-range intercept system now deployed, the Ground-based Missile Defense System. That could be good, because at least thirty-four of the forty-four interceptors now deployed are thought to have faulty circuit boards that likely will cause the interceptors to miss their targets, according to a Los Angeles Times investigation. But the system itself has a very poor test record. Even under ideal conditions, it has succeeded in a hit to kill in only 40 percent of the last ten tests. And none of these tests have included the kind of realistic counter-measures and decoys the interceptors would have to overcome in real combat.

These modest steps could be seen as a sign of failure on the part of the reviews authors, who clearly wanted something more ambitious. What they lack in real programs, though, they make up for in new objectives. This is the great danger of this review. It opens the door to impossible new goals, changing the program from one designed to hit a few missiles from a small nation to one designed to defeat all missiles from all nations.

Trump proclaimed: Our goal is simple: to detect and destroy any missile launched against the United States anywhere, any time. Simple to say, perhaps, but impossible to do.

Today, after spending over $300 billion on missile defense programs since 1983, we have the ability to try to defend against short- and medium-range ballistic missiles and a limited capability to engage and perhaps hit a few primitive long-range missiles (if the enemy cooperates by not deploying countermeasures). Expanding that to a global, perfect defense system is undoable and unaffordable.

It would cost trillions of dollars to develop and deploy the space-, air-, sea- and land-based systems envisioned by Trump and this review. For example, there are roughly two thousand active satellites from all nations in orbit today. A 2012 National Academies study estimated that even an austere and limited-capability space-based missile defense system to defend against a handful of North Korean missiles would require 650 new satellites at a cost of $300 billion. Scaling that up to a global system would mean, according to a 2003 American Physical Society study, a constellation of at least 1,600 weaponized satellites in order to have one interceptor above a launch site an any given time. And yet, conclude my Ploughshares Fund colleagues, Tom Collina and Zack Brown, the systems could easily be overwhelmed by an adversary launching multiple, inexpensive missiles at once.

This essential truththat it is far easier for an adversary to deploy more missiles and counter-measures than it is to deploy expensive defenseshas been known since the dawn of the atomic age. In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower famously warned those who wanted to spend lavishly on defenses:

The awful arithmetic of the atomic bomb doesn't permit of any such easy solution. Even against the most powerful defense, an aggressor in possession of the effective minimum number of atomic bombs for a surprise attack could probably place a sufficient number of his bombs on the chosen targets to cause hideous damage.

True then. True now.

President Trump seems to know little of this history. Nor did his advisors restrain him in his rambling, boastful remarks. We will protect the American people from all types of missile attacks, he said, defending against hypersonic and cruise missiles. Most strikingly, he blew right past the caveats that more sober defense officials had inserted in the written review. We will ensure that enemy missiles find no sanctuary on Earth or in the skies above.

These boastful claims actually worsens the very problem the review says it is trying to solve. China and Russia will have to act on our intentions, not just our likely capabilities. They cannot count on the systems not working. They will have to start accelerating their existing offensive programs and increase their nuclear deployment goals. This reality is exactly the opposite of what the review claims when it states, An adversarys uncertainty regarding the effectiveness of its attack plans, combined with the prospect of an effective U.S. response to aggression, provide strong incentives for adversary restraint if ever contemplating missile attacks. No, it does not. It incentivizes more offense.

How do we know? Because that is what we did. The Joint Chiefs were never worried when the Soviet Union first deployed a system of nuclear-armed missile interceptors around Moscow. The Soviets deployed sixty interceptors; we targeted a one hundred warheads on the city. It did not matter if their system worked perfectly; we just overwhelmed it. That is precisely what China and Russia will now do.

They have already begun. When Russian president Vladimir Putin announced five new nuclear weapons programs last year, including hypervelocity glide re-entry vehicles and long-range cruise missiles, he said that he undertook these programs precisely to counter the missile defense efforts of the George W. Bush administration. Russia warned U.S. officials in 2004, Putin said, that Bushs abrogation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 had removed all restraints from U.S. missile defense and that he would be forced to respond. They didnt listen then, Putin said, Well, listen to us now. China is following suite, with its own new programs to overcome any conceivable U.S. defenses.

Trump has just poured gasoline on an already raging nuclear arms race. Simultaneously, he is removing the few restraints we have on Russias weapons. He seems intent on killing the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty and allowing the New START treaty to expire. That means that by 2021, the U.S. and Russia will be without any limitations on offensive nuclear forces for the first time since 1972.

So what should we do? What would a reasonable missile defense program look like? What could Democrats in Congress advocate?

Rep. Adam Smith, the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, detailed some core principles just after Trump spoke. First, it is essential that we ensure we are spending money on programs that are reliable and rigorously tested before they are deployed. Bing. This common sense procurement approach is not what we do now.

Second, we must avoid missile defense policies that will fuel a nuclear arms race. Bing. Again, not what we are doing now. Finally, while Smith supports investing in proven missile defense systems, he does not believe that space is the place. These proposed systems, he concludes, have been studied repeatedly and found to be technologically challenging and prohibitively expensive. Bing.

We can be even more precise on what a responsible approach to missile defense should look like.

We should dissolve the Missile Defense Agency. The agency, under a variety of names and directors, has proven a deeply flawed development and procurement vehicle. The best chance of restoring balance to the programs is to devolve the various elements back to the services from whence they came. The services are in the best position to weigh the costs and benefits of the systems against other military needs.

We should, as Smith says, restore normal test and procurement procedures to these programs. All weapon systems, including anti-missile systems, must be rigorously tested under battlefield conditions before they are given to the troops or deployed in protection of the nation. The current strategy of deployment without realistic tests risks commanders committing troops to battle believing they have protection when they do not, or committing the nation to a course of action believing there are defense options when there are not.

We should produce an integrated, objective threat assessment. The threat from ballistic missiles should be evaluated in its entirety and in the context of all threats to the United States. Efforts to cherry-pick intelligence to support a particular point of view or to commit funding on mere speculation or threat exaggeration should be rebuffed.

We need an independent technological assessment. Congress should request an independent organization review of the progress and prospects of the various proposed anti-missile technologies. A 1987 report by the American Physical Society (APS) helped refocus the Star Wars program with its detailed assessment that the feasibility of directed energy weapons would not be known for at least two decades. A similar study by the APS on current systems could greatly inform Congressional oversight.

Finally, we have to restore fiscal discipline. Pending these recommended reviews, the budgets for anti-missile systems should be concentrated on deploying capable systems against the short- and medium-range threats confronting American troops and allies. Funding for defenses against long-range threats should focus on research and development. No funding should be allocated to systems that have not proven their operational capability. Contractors should not be rewarded for failure.

A little common sense could go a long way on missile defense. We are not going to see it from this administration, but it is not too soon to plan for the next.

Joe Cirincione is president of Ploughshares Fund, and MSNBC nuclear security expert and a former member of the International Security Advisory Board to the Secretary of State.

Image: Reuters

Read full articleWASHINGTON  President Donald Trump took an unusual step Saturday: He thanked Robert Mueller.

Normally a critic over the Russia investigation, Trump said he is gratified that Mueller and the special counsel's office disputes a highly publicized news report that had accused the president of ordering former attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress.

"I appreciate the special counsel coming out with a statement last night," the president told reporters at the White House. "I think it was very appropriate that they did so, I very much appreciate that."

In a rare public statement, Mueller's office on Friday criticized a BuzzFeed News report saying that Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress about the timing of talks on a proposed Trump project in Russia.

"BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the Special Counsels Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens Congressional testimony are not accurate," said Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller's office.

President Donald Trump

Trump, speaking with reporters on the South Lawn, railed against BuzzFeed and the media as a whole, saying journalists have lost "tremendous credibility."

"I think that the Buzzfeed piece was a disgrace to our country. It was a disgrace to journalism, and I think also that the coverage by the mainstream media was disgraceful," the president said, adding that it "hurts" him to see the media lose its credibility.

BuzzFeed's bombshell story took over the news cycle and cable news shows had wall-to-wall coverage of both the impact of the report and the legal jeopardy it put the president in.

Democrats vowed an investigation while some called for the start of impeachment proceedings.

But on Friday, Mueller's office took the unprecedented step of calling out the story.

Despite worldwide coverage and big interest, Mueller's office has stayed mostly quiet on reports regarding the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Story continues

The BuzzFeed report alleged that Trump instructed Cohen to lie to Congress about the Trump Organizations pursuit of a deal to build a luxury residential high-rise in the center of Moscow, hoping to conceal these actions during his presidential bid.

The story also asserted that Mueller's office knew of the president's alleged actions after obtaining information through internal emails, text messages and multiple interviews.

The report revived discussions about the possibility of impeaching Trump and emboldened House Democrats who vowed to investigate the allegations.

While Mueller's office disputed how BuzzFeed characterized statements, documents and testimony in its story, the statement did not include specifics or a sweeping denial of the story's overall theme: that the president directed Cohen to lie to Congress.

Trump and aides denounced both the story and the media for reporting on it.

"It's a total phony story," Trump said.

On Saturday, BuzzFeed continued to defend its reporting.

"As we've re-confirmed our reporting, we've seen no indication that any specific aspect of our story is inaccurate," Matt Mittenthal, a BuzzFeed News spokesman said in a statement. "We remain confident in what we've reported, and will share more as we are able."

The publication's editor-in-chief, Ben Smith, also called on Friday for Mueller's office to "make clear what he's disputing."

This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it.

Cohen, 52, is expected to begin a three-year prison sentence in March after pleading guilty to federal financial crimes, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress, which was at the heart of the BuzzFeed story.

Cohen admitted he wasn't truthful when he told the Senate and House Intelligence Committees that all discussions about a Moscow development had ceased in January 2016, knowing that such efforts had continued through at least June  in the heat of the campaign and as Trump repeatedly denied any links to Russia.

Prosecutors have asserted in court documents filed late last year that the tower project "likely required the assistance of the Russian government. And if completed, the company stood to gain hundreds of millions of dollars from Russian sources in licensing fees and other revenues."

The court documents did not address whether Cohen's false statements about the Moscow tower discussions were prompted by any other consideration than an attempt to personally shield the campaign from public association with Russia.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump thanks Mueller for disputing Buzzfeed report that claims president directed Cohen to liePresident Donald Trump speaks about American missile defense doctrine on Jan. 17 at the Pentagon

WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump traveled to the Dover, Delaware, military base Saturday to meet with relatives of four U.S. service members killed in an attack in Syria.

"I think it's the toughest thing I have to do" as president, Trump told reporters as he left the White House.

Earlier in the morning, Trump tweeted that he would be "leaving for Dover to be with the families of 4 very special people who lost their lives in service to our Country!" He did not provide further details.

The Department of Defense identified three of the Americans killed in the Wednesday attack by a suicide bomber: Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan R. Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Florida; Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician Shannon M. Kent, 35, of upstate New York; and civilian Scott A. Wirtz of St. Louis, Missouri.

The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack, which came less than a month after Trump declared victory over ISIS and announced a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria.

In his remarks to reporters, Trump claimed the U.S. has recaptured more than 99% of territory once held by ISIS, and "we're hitting the rest of it very powerfully."

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump to speak with families of four Americans killed in SyriaDonald Trump's ties to Russia are again under the spotlight after reports emerged alleging he directed his estranged ex-lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about his companys plans to build a new Trump Tower in Moscow.

According to law enforcement sources who spoke to Buzzfeed News, the president instructed his one-time confidant to say negotiations over the proposed construction project had been curtailed much earlier in 2016 than they actually were.

Since May 2017, special counsel Robert Mueller and his team have doggedly investigated ties between the Trump camp and the Kremlin to determine whether Americas former Cold War foe attempted to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election to win the White House for its preferred candidate.

Mr Mueller has secured the co-operation of ex-national security advisor Michael Flynn, former campaign manager Paul Manafort and now Cohen in exchange for more lenient sentences after they were charged with an array of misdemeanours, financial and diplomatic, exposed by his investigators.

A backdrop to all this has been Mr Trumps personal admiration for Russias authoritarian president Vladimir Putin. Below is a collection of the billionaire's statements about his Kremlin counterpart, from the campaign trail to the Oval Office.

2013

While he was still best-known as the host of the NBC reality show The Apprentice, Donald Trump visited Moscow in November 2013 to host the Miss Universe Pageant, a trip on which the events recorded on the mythical pee tape are said to have occurred.

In advance of his jetting out, Mr Trump said he had invited President Putin to attend the gala and speculated on whether the strongman would become my new best friend.

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He praised Mr Putin for his criticising the long-standing notion of American exceptionalism on CNN on 13 September 2013: You think of the term as being fine, but all of sudden you say, what if youre in Germany or Japan or any one of 100 different countries? Youre not going to like that term. Its very insulting and Putin really put it to him [President Barack Obama] about that.

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In October, he told Larry King Mr Putin had done a really great job outsmarting our country and told David Letterman that he himself had done a lot of business with the Russians and that Mr Putin was a tough guy.

Interviewed by MSNBC ahead of the pageant, he said: I do have a relationship [with Vladimir Putin] and I can tell you that hes very interested in what were doing here today... Hes probably very interested in what you and I are saying today, and Im sure hes going to be seeing it in some form, but I do have a relationship with him and I think its very interesting to see whats happened.

2014

Subsequently reflecting on the ceremony in an interview with Fox and Friends on 10 February 2014, Mr Trump commented: When I went to Russia with the Miss Universe pageant, [President Putin] contacted me and was so nice. I mean, the Russian people were so fantastic to us.

Ill just say this, they are doing  theyre outsmarting us at many turns, as we all understand. I mean, their leaders are, whether you call them smarter or more cunning or whatever, but theyre outsmarting us. If you look at Syria or other places, theyre outsmarting us.

A month later, he returned to the same show to discussion Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Well Mitt Romney was so right [in calling Russia a geopolitical foe], and nobody knew how right he was going to be, and you look at Obamas response and just take a look at whats going on... Syria was propped up by Russia. Syrias now back in their fold 100 per cent and that whole deal is coming to an end because Russias taken over.

Russia is not strong economically and we could do a lot of different things to really do numbers on them if we wanted to.

No longer boasting of Mr Putin as an influential friend, preferring to use his flouting of international law as a stick with which to beat President Obama, Mr Trump told NBCs Today Russia should face sanctions: We have to show some strength. I mean, Putin has eaten Obamas lunch, therefore our lunch, for a long period of time.

And I just hope that Obama, whos not looking too good, doesnt do something very foolish and very stupid to show his manhood. I just hope that doesnt happen.

More dramatically, he tweeted on 21 March: I believe Putin will continue to re-build the Russian Empire. He has zero respect for Obama or the U.S.!

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He returned to Fox on 24 March to repeat his praise of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romneys foresight about the threat Russia represented before completely reversing his position on 12 April, saying how nice Mr Putin had been at the pageant and praising the annexation of Crimea: Hes done an amazing job of taking the mantle.

That same day, Mr Trump said at an event in New Hampshire that: Russia is like, I mean theyre really hot stuff... and now you have people in the Ukraine  who knows, set up or not  but it cant all be set up, I mean theyre marching in favor of joining Russia.

On 28 April, the real estate mogul tweeted: Putin has shown the world what happens when America has weak leaders. Peace Through Strength!

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Interviewed by The American Spectator, he repeated his endorsement of President Putins attack on American exceptionalism: You know, he said, Why are they exceptional? They have killings in the streets. Look at whats going on in Chicago and different places. They have all of this turmoil, all of the things that are happening in there.

Returning to his characterisation of Mr Putin as the bogeyman of world politics, Mr Trump tweeted on 25 November: Can you imagine what Putin and all of our friends and enemies throughout the world are saying about the U.S. as they watch the Ferguson riot.

2015

Donald Trump gives an interview to The Daily Mail in the UK in March in which he addressed his great relationship with the Russian premier, revealing the latter gave him a gift  an award and a beautiful letter in Moscow.

In a brace of interviews on Fox News with heavyweight anchors Bill OReilly and Sean Hannity in June, Mr Trump continued glorying in his memories of the Miss Universe Pageant and claims Mr Putin hates President Obama, refusing to elaborate when pushed.

On 8 July 2015, he toldAnderson Cooper of CNN the Russians would release whistleblower Edward Snowden to US custody if he were to become president, adding: He hates Obama. He doesnt respect Obama. Obama doesnt like him either. But he has no respect for Obama. Has a hatred for Obama. And Snowden is living the life.

In August, he told Fox of his hopes of meeting with President Putin when he next visited New York to attend the UN General Assembly: Frankly, Id get along great with him. You gotta get along with these people.

I actually think that he is somebody that can be dealt with, he told Maria Bartiromo, of the same channel. I think his dislike of President Obama is so intense, that it really has affected the whole relationship.

Weve driven them into the arms of China, so that now these two are together, which is also a been the great sin. Dont ever let Russia and China get together. Weve driven them together. I think he is somebody that I would have a very decent relationship with if I ever win.

Interviewed by OReilly again on 29 September, he speculated on what grade he would give Vladimir Putin if political leadership were assessed like school homework: I will tell you that I think in terms of leadership, he is getting an A and our president is not doing so well. They did not look good together.

On 11 October, he congratulated CBS on Face the Nation for an earlier 60 Minutes feature comparing the two men: I think the biggest thing we have is that we were on 60 Minutes together and we had fantastic ratings. One of your best-rated shows in a long time. So that was good, right? So we were stablemates.

Two days later, Mr Trump told The Guardian he believed Russia would move in to Syria to fight Isis: Hes going to want to bomb Isis because he doesnt want Isis going into Russia and so hes going to want to bomb Isis. Vladimir Putin is going to want to really go after Isis and if he doesnt itll be a big shock to everybody.

Asked at a Republican debate on 10 November what he would do as president in response to Russian aggression, Mr Trump dissembled: Well, first of all, its not only Russia. We have problems with North Korea where they actually have nuclear weapons. You know, nobody talks about it, we talk about Iran, and thats one of the worst deals ever made.

Speaking to Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBCs Morning Joe, on 18 December, Mr Trump attempted to refute allegations that President Putin kills journalists that dont agree with him.

I think our country does plenty of killing also, Joe, so you know. Theres a lot of stupidity going on in the world right now, a lot of killing going on, a lot of stupidity.

2016

Donald Trump again appeared on Ms Bartiromos Fox Business show and this time answered questions about state involvement in the 2006 murder of ex-secret service agent Alexander Litvinenko in London.

Have they found [Vladimir Putin] guilty? I dont think theyve found him guilty. If he did it, fine. But I dont know that he did it. You know, people are saying they think it was him, it might have been him, it could have been him. But Maria, in all fairness to PutinI dont know. You know, and Im not saying this because he says, Trump is brilliant and leading everybody the fact is that, you know, he hasnt been convicted of anything.

By 17 February, Mr Trump had begun to deny any association with Mr Putin, but not without repeating some possibly exaggerated praise: I have no relationship with him other than he called me a genius. He said, Donald Trump is a genius and he is going to be the leader of the party and hes going to be the leader of the world or something.

That spring, the Republican presidential candidate began to claim he would make a better negotiator with the Kremlin than his rivals as a key selling point and, outrageously, attacked the media for falsely claiming he admires Russia's premier.

US President Donald Trump (R) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin talk during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit (AFP/Getty)

Putin said good things about me. He said, Hes a leader and theres no question about it, hes a genius. So they all said, the media, they said  you saw it on the debate  they said, you admire President Putin., he told a rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on 15 March 2016.

I said, I dont admire him. I said he was a strong leader, which he is. I mean, he might be bad, he might be good. But hes a strong leader.

On 28 April, he told OReilly: If we can make a great deal for our country and get along with Russia that would be a tremendous thing. I would love to try it. He repeated this line throughout the campaign, regularly expressing his respect for the premier as a strong leader while distancing himself incrementally from Moscow.

Speaking to a CBS-affiliated local broadcaster in Miami, Florida, on 27 July, Mr Trump completes his about-turn: I have nothing to do with Russia, nothing to do, I never met Putin, I have nothing to do with Russia whatsoever.

Repeating the line at a press conference later that day, he went even further: I dont know who Putin is.

Later, the candidate told George Stephanopoulos on ABC: Hes not going into Ukraine, OK, just so you understand. Hes not going to go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down. You can put it down. You can take it anywhere you want.

As the presidential campaign reached its climax, Mr Trump was more ambiguous, telling a rally on 5 October: I dont love, I dont hate. Well see how it works. Well see. Maybe well have a good relationship. Maybe well have a horrible relationship. Maybe well have a relationship right in the middle.

Accused by Democratic rival Hillary Clinton at the third presidential debate on 19 October of being Russias puppet, he responded: No puppet. Youre the puppet.

2017

Since securing his shock election victory, President Trump has been much more cautious about even mentioning the Russian leader although he has continued to be asked about him.

Bill OReilly wondered whether he considered President Putin a killer on 16 February 2017, provoking the surprising answer: There are a lot of killers. Do you think our country is so innocent? Do you think our country is so innocent?

The presidents spoke on the phone in April regarding the St Petersburg subway attack and in May on strategy in Syria before meeting at the G20 in Hamburg, Germany, on 7 July. Twelve days later, he assured CBS he would hold Putin responsible if election meddling could be proved.

Asked about Russias human rights record on 60 Minutes on 15 October and whether the Putin adminstration had ordered the Sergei Skripal poisoning in the UK, Mr Trump said, probably... but its not our country.

They met again in person at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Meeting in Da Nang, Vietnam, on 11 November and Mr Trump addressed the election meddling accusations by saying: Every time he sees me he says, I didnt do that, and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it. I think he is very insulted by it, which is not a good thing for our country.

2018

President Trump was explicitly briefed by aides not to congratulate his Russian counterpart on his re-election victory over suspicions about the fairness of the contest, but ignored them and called up the Kremlin to do exactly that on 20 March.

He was criticised for his performance when the pair met for a bilateral summit in Helsinki, Finland, in July 2018, having pledged to ask the American people about the interference allegations while warning there would be no gotcha moment.

All I can do is ask the question  my people came to me, Dan Coats [director of national intelligence] came to me and some others, they said they think its Russia, he said.

I have President Putin here, he just said its not Russia. I will say this, I dont see any reason why it would be but I really want to see the server but, I have confidence in both parties.

The naval crisis in the Kirch Strait in November found Mr Trump caught in a difficult position and his response was non-commital: We do not like whats happening either way. We dont like whats happening, and hopefully it will get straightened out. He subsequently cancelled a proposed meeting between the pair at the G20 in Argentina.Maj. Gen. Felimon Santos Jr.

Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Benjamin Madrigal has designated a military strategist in Eastern Mindanao to boost peace and security in the region, particularly in fighting terrorists and insurgents. Madrigal said Maj. Gen. Felimon Santos Jr., former commander of the 7th Infantry Division based in Fort Ramon Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija, will assume office as the new commander of the Eastern Mindanao Command on Monday, coinciding with the Bangsamoro Organic Law plebiscite.Santos was branded as a strategist by his peers in the military due to his immense contribution in critical aspects of the AFPs mandate, especially in dealing with peace and security in the country, particularly in Mindanao. Major Gen. Santos is not new in the Mindanao situation. He is adept in wide-ranging peace and security programs not only in Mindanao but in the whole country, having been assigned with the strategic offices of the AFP dealing with operations, intelligence and civil-military operations, Madrigal said.Santos once headed the 11th Intelligence Service Unit based in Davao City and subsequently became the Group Commander of the Intelligence Service Group of the Philippine Army. Santos was a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy Class 1986. Shortly, after his graduation, he assumed as commander of the 39th Infantry Battalion, a unit with jurisdiction in various provinces of Mindanao. Aside from operations and intelligence, his experience in civil-military operations having been assigned to the Civil Relations Service of AFP and having previously headed the Civil Military Operations Group of the Philippine Army, is expected to boost the peace and security effort in Eastern Mindanao, more so in the advent of the implementation of Executive Order 70 which institutionalize whole of nation approach in fighting insurgency in the country, Madrigal said.DETROIT  Inside a room in his aunt's home in Mexico, Jorge Garcia spends most of his days alone.

Separated from his wife and two children in metro Detroit, the 40-year-old father feels isolated, struggling to find work and make connections in a land he hasn't lived in for 30 years.

One year ago, the man from Lincoln Park, Michigan, was deported to Mexico. His emotional departure was captured in a Detroit Free Press story and picked up by media across the U.S. as immigration emerged as an explosive issue over the past year.

Born in Mexico, Garcia was brought to the U.S. when he was 10 years old by an undocumented adult and had lived in America for 30 years, working and paying taxes to help support his wife and two teenage children. He had no criminal record, but was too old to qualify for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which allows the children of undocumented immigrants to live in the U.S.

Now, amid divisive debate in the country over immigration and President Donald Trump's calls for a border wall, Garcia remains stuck in Mexico, unable to even get an appointment with the U.S. Embassy's office in Juarez, the first step for possible readmission into the U.S.

"It's been tough," Garcia, 40, told the Free Press by phone from his home about one hour from Mexico City. "I'm still trying to adjust to living in a different country."

He tries to talk often with his wife and children by phone, but it's not the same as being with them. From helping them with their homework to driving them to school, he's missing out on their lives.

"It's been pretty stressful," he said of being separated from his 16-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son. "Even though you can talk on the phone, it's not the same as talking to them in person."

His wife, Cindy Garcia, is also struggling without her husband at home.

Born and raised in Detroit, Cindy, 46, married Jorge in 2002. She's on retired disability after going through two C-sections and years of heavy lifting at work in a truck plant in Dearborn.

Story continues

More: Too old for DACA, man who spent 30 years of his life in U.S. is deported

More: Michigan father deported to Mexico: 'I feel lost'

"It's harder when you drop off the kids at school," Cindy said. "You're at home by yourself and your mind starts to wander. You get sad and depressed knowing your spouse is not there when you need the moral support."

Cindy and her two children, Soleil Garcia, 15, and Jorge Garcia Jr., 13, miss Jorge especially during special moments, like birthdays. Last year, Jorge missed his daughter's Quinceanera, the 15th birthday celebration popular among Mexican-Americans, which often includes a father-daughter dance.

"It's been rough mentally, knowing that he is in a country that he doesn't know," Cindy said. For the children, "it's been hard because they lack their father in their lives. They're used to doing their homework with him, and now their dad is not here with them. It's very hard."

More: Ripped apart by deportation of dad, the Garcia family struggles to cope

Cindy and her two children are currently on a holiday vacation, staying with Jorge in Mexico at his place in Nicolas Romero. They were able to celebrate Christmas, New Year's Day, and Jorge's birthday, and they were there to mark the one-year anniversary of him being deported.

"It's a day that is going to be stuck in my mind," Jorge said. When he was deported on Jan. 15, 2018, "I didn't think I would be separated from my family ... this long."

Jorge has been fighting to obtain legal status since 2005, hiring attorneys and spending fees in an attempt to get U.S. citizenship. In the past, he was allowed by immigration authorities to remain in the U.S., but that changed as Trump cracked down on immigration. In November 2017, he was told he had to leave by Jan. 15.

Escorted by federal agents, he hugged his crying wife and children on Martin Luther King Jr. Day before boarding the gates in a moment captured by the Free Press that went viral.

Jorge's attorney, Marya Lorenzana-Miles, said they are waiting to get an appointment with the U.S. Embassy. After that, they then have to apply for a waiver before Jorge can be readmitted. His wife has to show she is suffering from hardship in order for Jorge to get the waiver, she said.

Lorenzana-Miles said it's taking longer for deported immigrants to get appointments with embassies.

"The system does not work properly," she said. "The system does not care about the family. The system is creating bigger problem and more problems."

The State Department, which oversees foreign embassies, referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not return a request seeking comment on Jorge's case.

In a statement last year, the Detroit office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Garcia was "an unlawfully present citizen of Mexico" who "was ordered removed by an immigration judge in June 2006." ICE said it had previously "exercised prosecutorial discretion on multiple prior occasions" before deciding to deport him.

Immigrant advocates say that across the U.S., deportations are ripping apart families, leaving kids without parents to support them, both financially and emotionally. Jorge worked as a landscaper and was active in his children's lives.

"It's not just my kids, it's a lot of kids being affected," Cindy said. "They all need their parents, to have them back in their lives to give them guidance. They're teenagers, they need that extra help and guidance."

Jorge wants to work in Mexico, but he said it has been difficult dealing with the local bureaucracies that require paperwork and other hurdles. One of his cousins occasionally helps him get small jobs in construction when they are available, but most of the time, he's unable to find work.

"It's hard to get jobs," he said.

Jorge said he hopes that the U.S. can pass immigration reform that would give a path to citizenship to people like him with no criminal records brought to the U.S. as children.

For now, he waits, filling his time with calls to his wife and thinking of his children. He remembers how easy it was to get around Detroit, while in Mexico, "I don't even feel comfortable going out to places here by myself."

Follow Detroit Free Press reporter Niraj Warikoo on Twitter: @nwarikoo

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Deported after 30 years in US, father still stuck in Mexico one year later, without wife and kidsSome of the most tempting stocks in the energy and materials industry are companies looking to develop a new mine or other large-scale projects from scratch. These companies tout the incredible economics of these potential projects and how, at today's stock prices, the company is an absolute steal. Denison Mines (NYSEMKT: DNN) very much falls into that category. Based on the estimates management has put together for its uranium mine in Canada, you would be crazy not to invest in this company.

What investors should consider, though, is how reliable those numbers really are. So let's dig into Denison's claims and put them to the sniff test to see if Denison Mines' stock is a buy now.

Underground uranium mine.

Image source: Getty Images.

The siren song of a slide deck

When a company is a prospective mining or energy company and doesn't have any currently producing assets or operations, investors are betting largely on what management says in its investor presentation. Reading through Denison's investor presentation, it's easy to see why investors are attracted to the prospective uranium miner.

According to Denison, it owns one of the largest undeveloped uranium deposits in the Eastern Athabasca region of Canada. This region is rich in uranium ore and is home to some of the largest producers, including Cameco (NYSE: CCJ) and Orano. On top of this deposit, known as Wheeler River, the company has leases and exploratory licenses on several other tracts of land in the region that management believes hold an immense amount of potential further down the road. The focus for now, though, is on Wheeler River and exploiting its 104 million pounds of high-grade uranium ore.

What's perhaps more impressive than the size of Denison's ore deposits is the seemingly off-the-charts profitability the company claims it can achieve once operational. Denison's claim is that it can use in-situ recovery methods that will cost about $3.33 per ton of triuranium octoxide, the common ore form of uranium also known as yellowcake. With current yellowcake prices around $28 per pound, the profit margins here are incredible.

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With a deposit as large and as profitable as Wheeler River, Denison claims the entire project can generate internal rates of return greater than 38%. With numbers like that, how can any investor not be tempted to invest in this company?

When paper runs into reality

Before you go rushing to hit the "buy" button after reading Denison's sexy slide deck, it's worth taking a step back and looking at the uranium market as well as scrutinizing some of those numbers. For one, the future of nuclear power is throwing off some mixed signals and may not be as rosy as some uranium miners claim it will be. One thing that miners continue to point at is the amount of nuclear facilities under construction around the world. Cameco notes on its investor presentations that there are 55 new nuclear power plants under construction and that "many more" are planned. The International Energy Agency estimates that nuclear power will grow about 1.8% annually between now and 2040.

The question investors need to ask themselves is how much faith we can put in these planned facilities actually getting built. For example, there are seven nuclear plants considered in the planning phase, but none of those seven have gone past the initial licensing phase for years. Also, according to financial advisory firm Lazard, the levelized cost of energy for a new nuclear plant is, at its most economical, double the cost of the least-economical onshore wind farm on a per Megawatt-hour basis. Lazard even estimates that the costs for building a new onshore wind farm without any government subsidies are on the low side of maintaining current operations at an existing nuclear facility.

As the costs for wind, solar, and battery storage precipitously decline -- not to mention natural gas being cheap and abundant -- that cost advantage will only get wider. That will likely lead to several of those nuclear plants in the planning phase not becoming a reality. What's more, continued cost declines could potentially accelerate the pace at which existing nuclear facilities get retired. If that is the case, then demand for uranium could be much lower than what these mining companies anticipate. That's not good news for an industry that is already cutting production to handle oversupply issues.

The other point to consider is that Denison's projections for profitability could be overly optimistic. Denison says that it can achieve an 89% operating margin for its phase one in-situ recovery project with uranium ore prices close to what they are today. When compared to the financials of currently operating facilities, that seems far-fetched. For the first nine months of 2018, Cameco's gross profit margins were only 7%. Kazatomprom, the world's largest uranium supplier that also uses similar in-situ recovery methods, reported that gross profits for the first six months of 2018 were around 26%.

With two of the three largest uranium miners -- Cameco, Orano, and Kazatomprom produce 51% of the world's uranium -- reporting much lower gross margins from existing mines than what Denison claims it can get from a mine that is not yet built, it's hard to believe that the company can achieve these levels of profitability over the long term.

DNN Chart

DNN data by YCharts.

Too much hype, not enough performance

As wonderful as Denison's plans look on paper, they don't really hold up well against the realities of the uranium market and the performance of its peers. The idea that a company can build a new mine and instantly have cash costs 75% lower than those of every other company in this business seems almost detached from reality.

Keep in mind, too, that it's not as though Denison is a young company. It has been publicly traded for close to 20 years. While it takes some time to go from prospecting on a plot of land to fully operating a facility, it certainly doesn't take that long.

If Denison can actually get this mine up and running by 2024 as its current plan suggests and it can deliver the kinds of financials it claims it will have in this slide deck, then it will be certainly worth considering. But the chances of that actually happening seem so incredibly low that it's not worth it for investors to even take a flyer on this stock.

More From The Motley Fool

Tyler Crowe has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.B

uzzFeed published an explosive allegation that the president of the United States ordered his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to lie to congressional committees investigating Russias interference in the 2016 election. Specifically, in a news story sourced to two anonymous law-enforcement officials said to be involved in an investigation of the matter, the site reported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had learned, though multiple witnesses and documents, of President Trumps alleged instruction to Cohen; subsequently, upon being confronted by prosecutors, Cohen had supposedly admitted that Trump gave the order.

As a rule, Mueller does not comment on press reports about his probe. Yet, in a highly unusual move Friday night, the prosecutor refuted the story by reporters Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier. Through a spokesman, Mueller asserted:

BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the special counsels office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens congressional testimony are not accurate.

Clearly, Mueller did the right thing. The reporting had triggered a frenzy of commentary by Trump critics that impeachment was imminent, and even many chagrined Trump supporters conceded that, if the report was true, the presidency was in grave peril. Had Mueller stood idly by, the administration, and thus the governance of the nation, would have been engulfed in a ruinous storm of suspicion. It is not the special counsels job to correct bad reporting, but it would have been irresponsible to stay mum in these circumstances if the story was false.

Nevertheless, this incident highlights how investigative secrecy has wrongly been given pride of place. In the Mueller probe, the desire of prosecutors to go about their business in stealth  to attempt to build a case on undisclosed crimes based on unknown evidence; to prevent witnesses from gaming their testimony and evidence from being tampered with  has been prioritized over the presidents ability to govern the country.

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Even in the rare situation when they are actually necessary, special-prosecutor investigations against a president are bad for the country. When the president is the subject of a criminal investigation, when the specter of impeachment hovers, it wounds the executive branch. The political bleeding makes it difficult for the president to deal with Congress, foreign governments, and myriad challenges of governance. The administration finds it ever harder to recruit talented people for jobs in which we desperately need talented people  no worthy person wants to leave safe, professionally rewarding, and financially lucrative opportunities in the private sector to come serve the country if it may mean having to hire lawyers and go through the anxiety of investigations.

The president is not above the law. Consequently, we must tolerate these challenges when there is evidence of a presidents involvement in a serious crime. But thats why we should be told exactly what the serious crime is and what evidence allegedly implicates the president.

Were constantly told, however, that such information cannot be disclosed because it will compromise the integrity of the investigation. That is absurd, especially after over two years.

In most cases  those not involving the president of the United States  investigative secrecy will be the most critical concern. Usually, when a serious crime has been committed, vindicating the rule of law is the most significant public interest. Moreover, secrecy is required to protect the reputations of Americans who are presumed innocent and who, though actually innocent, would be tainted if they were known to be under law-enforcement scrutiny.

When the president is the subject of an investigation, however, the public-interest balance is different. Law-enforcement scrutiny of a duly elected president harms the capacity of the country to govern itself. Again, we must accept this fact and navigate through the fallout if there are strong indications that the president may have committed a serious crime. But that is why we need to understand exactly what the charges and evidence are: The public must be able to weigh whether the investigation is worth pursuing  whether there really is a serious crime, whether there is real evidence of the presidents guilt  in light of the harm that the probe necessarily does to the country.

In this instance involving Cohens false testimony to Congress (for which he pled guilty in November), an apparently incorrect story about the presidents complicity was damning  so much so that many Democrats and pundits had the president on the verge of being removed from office. The president was in a position of dealing with this profound political damage while trying to address a border-security emergency; a government shutdown; the status of American forces in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan; and various other vital matters.

If you dont like Trump, of course your first impulse is to scoff, Too damn bad for him. But the point is: It is bad for America. It is not a question of whether we agree politically with the president; it is a matter of having a government that is capable of functioning, regardless of who is president. It is a matter of not undermining the republic unless we are certain there is a compelling reason to do so.

Special Counsel Mueller was thus right to shoot down the BuzzFeed report. Did he do it because he believed the story was damaging to the country? Id like to think so. Unfortunately, there have been many sensational allegations that have not been shot down in the last two years, based on fabricated evidence and deceptively selective intelligence leaks. We still do not know for sure whether the president is the subject of a criminal investigation, the crimes alleged, and what if any evidence implicates him. That has gone on for a very long time.

To his credit, and notwithstanding the presidents unseemly witch hunt riffs, the special counsel has never said a word, or written a single sentence in the many charges he has filed, that hints at criminal culpability on the part of the president. But the specter of prosecution and impeachment has hovered every day.

As a result, I cant conclude that the special counsel is especially worried about the damage that inaccurate and politically damaging reporting does to the Trump administration. Rather, the BuzzFeed story was different because Muellers own reputation was at stake. Because of the way the report was framed, many readers naturally believed Muellers own investigators were the source of the leaked  and apparently incorrect  allegations that Trump told Cohen to lie to Congress. Mueller thus corrected the story.

Of course, it is not the special counsels job to police the media. But he is in that position only because secrecy has been given too wide a berth in the probe. It is long past time that the public was told exactly what the president is alleged to have done, and how strong the evidence is that he has done it.

More from National ReviewScotland Yard is appealing for information about Ossama Hamed, 25

A pair of dangerous individuals are being hunted by police following the murder of a Park Lane security guard.

Police investigating the fatal stabbing of the door man at a New Years Eve party in west London have appealed for information about the two dangerous individuals.

Tudor Simionov, 33, was working outside the private event at Fountain House in Park Lane in the capitals West End.

He was attacked in the early hours of January 1, at around 5.30am when he tried to prevent gatecrashers storming the party.

Tudor later died of stab wounds, he was one of two people to die in knife-related attacks in London over New Year.

Two of his colleagues, aged 29 and 37, were also stabbed during an altercation, as was a 29-year-old woman.

Scotland Yard is now seeking information about Ossama Hamed, 25, and 23-year-old Nor Aden Hamada.

Scotland Yard is appealing for information about 23-year-old Nor Aden Hamada

Tudor was working a private party when he was killed

Detective Inspector Garry Moncrieff of the Homicide and Major Crime Command said: Ossama Hamed and Nor Aden Hamada are dangerous individuals who need to be apprehended.

I would urge anyone who has seen them, or knows of their whereabouts, to contact police immediately.

These are live lines of enquiry, therefore I am not willing to speculate on where they may be but rest assured we are working with colleagues to ensure that if they are in this country, or overseas, we will track them down.

The two surviving security guards and woman injured in the incident have since been released from hospital, police said.The BuzzFeed report that former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen has told investigators that, after the election, President Trump instructed him to lie to Congress has raised new calls for impeachment. But impeachment is far from the only concern Trump should consider now.

On one hand, Cohen is merely providing potential testimony of what most keen observers assumed to be true. There could be no doubt that Cohen was still taking orders from the boss when he testified to Congress about a negotiation regarding a Trump real estate deal in Moscow  or that he would do so without first discussing the matter with Trump, his client. Even less surprising were the Trump tweets and current Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani interviews that called Cohen a liar.

But what is new is the BuzzFeed revelation that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has not just Cohens testimony but documentary evidence (the story mentions internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents) and witness corroboration that not only the President, but others in his family  specifically his children, Ivanka and Donald Trump, Jr.  knew the details of Cohens secret dealings with Russia on behalf of Trump. Therefore, the family members knew his testimony was false and had what BuzzFeed describes as deep involvement in the discussions with Russia  a subject theyve denied in the past. BuzzFeed writes that Cohen had extensive discussions with the family members. The outlets two unnamed law enforcement sources said he gave them very detailed updates. If this is true, it is their criminal exposure that increases the pressure on Trump exponentially.

There are two areas the President needs to worry about:

First is the question, Will Trumps firm support in the Senate  which is responsible for trying impeachment charges lodged by the House  dissolve because the Senators see this as different? After all, Cohen lied directly to them. At some point, enough of them may conclude that enough is enough.

Story continues

But the Presidents immediate concern is Mueller. This is not like Trump firing of thenFBI Director James Comey, which lawyers can challenge because it was technically within the Presidents constitutional power to do so for any reason, good or bad. This is conspiracy and aiding and abetting in the commission of a felony. There can be no argument that the President has the Constitutional authority to conspire to, say, cause somebody to rob a bank  or commit any other felony, such as giving perjurious testimony concerning the Presidents conduct.

Dont forget: While the President may be immune from prosecution while he remains in office, his children are not. Can he politically survive pardons for Donald Jr. and Ivanka? What about his son-in-law Jared? And his excampaign chairman Paul Manafort? And possibly even himself? (Though this last one is probably not even legal anyway.)

As the Presidents power weakens because of the shutdown, and the Mueller pressure increases, there must be some level-headed people on his team that are considering the advantages of a resignation deal, as Vice President Spiro Agnew took in 1973 when I was his lawyer  and as I wrote the President should consider in August, if it means Mueller would end his investigation. Or failing that, even a non-deal resignation, a la Richard Nixon. Would President Mike Pence emulate President Gerald Ford and pardon his predecessor?

At some point, this for-now President must start to contemplate the future: It is not his back-slapping commentator-supporters or his Mar-a-Lago glad-handers or his Twitter followers who face a term of imprisonment. The longer the President waits, the more evidence piles up, and the tougher it will be to get a deal. Mueller already has a federal grand jury hearing evidence that just received a six-month extension. The President should make his deal before that body completes its work. The Mueller report may accompany a clutch of Mueller indictments.David Axe

Security, Asia

Japan's cabinet on Dec. 18, 2018 approved a plan to modify the Japanese navy's two Izumo-class helicopter carriers to embark F-35B stealth fighters.

China's Worst F-35 and Aircraft Carrier Nightmare Is About to Come True

If other navies' experiences are any indication, the Izumos could embark a dozen or more F-35s plus supporting helicopters. It's worth noting that the Japanese army is buying V-22 tiltrotor transports that also could operate from the navy's carriers.

Japan's cabinet on Dec. 18, 2018 approved a plan to modify the Japanese navy's two Izumo-class helicopter carriers to embark F-35B stealth fighters.

(This first appeared last month.)

The modifications should result in the Japanese fleet operating, for the first time since World War II, flattops with fixed-wing aircraft. With the two ships and their new planes, Tokyo could be able to duplicate the United Kingdom's own 1982 campaign to retake the Falkland Islands from invading Argentine forces.

"You can still do a lot with a small air wing," Eric Wertheim, an independent naval analyst and author of Combat Fleets of the World , told The National Interest. "Especially when it contains advanced stealth aircraft like the F-35B."

At the same time the Japanese cabinet approved the ship modifications, it also endorsed the purchase of 42 F-35Bs from Lockheed Martin, an acquisition that could cost up to $5 billion but should provide the Japanese air force more than enough fighters for the new carriers.

Navies tend to buy their most important ship types in twos or threes, so that at least one vessel is ready for combat while the others conduct training or undergo maintenance. But navies also plan for surge operations, in which as many ships as possible deploy for war, even if that means deferring maintenance or training.

The U.S. Navy possesses 10 Nimitz- and Ford-class supercarriers. It plans to deploy six of the ships within 30 days of a crisis, plus at least one more within 90 days.

Story continues

With 42 F-35Bs, Japan conceivably could surge both Izumos.

Officials have not announced the composition of the Izumos' air wings. Japan aims to acquire its first 18 F-35Bs -- enough for one squadron -- by 2023. In the meantime, the carriers could require significant rework in order to accomodate the planes.

At the least, the Izumos' flight decks need a heat-resistant coating to protect them from the F-35B's downward-blasting lift fan, which allows the plane to take off and land vertically.

At present, Izumo and her sister ship Kaga normally embark just nine aircraft -- a mix of H-60 anti-submarine and rescue helicopters and MCH-101 minesweeping helicopters. But the 814-feet-long ships, each displacing around 27,000 tons of water while fully loaded, in theory can accommodate 28 aircraft.

If other navies' experiences are any indication, the Izumos could embark a dozen or more F-35s plus supporting helicopters. It's worth noting that the Japanese army is buying V-22 tiltrotor transports that also could operate from the navy's carriers.

The Italian navy routinely deploys six jump jets -- Harriers at present, F-35Bs in the future -- from its 800-feet-long, 30,000-ton-displacement flagship carrier Cavour. The Royal Navy's two Queen Elizabeth-class carriers, each 920 feet long and displacing 65,000 tons, could embark up to 24 F-35Bs plus helicopters.

The U.S. Marine Corps has drawn up plans to squeeze 20 F-35Bs plus helicopters and tiltrotors aboard the U.S. Navy's 850-feet, 40,000-ton Wasp- and America-class amphibious assault ships.

The Royal Navy is buying 48 F-35Bs and planning for 24 of them to be deployable at any given time while the rest are in maintenance or conduct training. With roughly the same number of fighters, the Japanese navy could form two, 12-jet wings -- one for each Izumo.

A 30,000-ton carrier with a dozen fighters could represent a significant capability. In 1982 the Royal Navy's now-decommissioned light carrier Invincible, displacing just 22,000 tons, deployed to the Falklands with eight Harriers. The 28,000-ton carrier Hermes, also long decommissioned, sailed with 12 Harriers and later added another 14 of the fighters.

"The successful defensive role played by a very limited number of British Sea Harrier fighters over the Falklands and operating from small Royal Navy carriers proved in many ways to be the decisive weapon that enabled British operations to continue in the face of withering Argentine air attacks," Wertheim said. "Small numbers of F-35Bs could play a similar role for Japan."

David Axe serves as the new Defense Editor of the National Interest. He is the author of the graphic novels War Fix, War Is Boring and Machete Squad.

Read full articlechile bitcoin crypto

Taxpayers in Chile are reportedly going to have to pay taxes on cryptocurrency earnings this year, as the countrys Internal Revenue Service (Servicio de Impuestos Internos, SII) has included a section for cryptoassets in a form that has to be filled on taxpayers Annual Income Tax Returns.

According to local media, last year the countrys government ruled cryptocurrencies arent subject to Value-Added Tax (VAT), as these are seen as intangible assets. Chilean taxpayers will pay taxes on crypto-related earnings as these will swell up their total income. In Chile, income taxes are paid annually in April.

Per Diario Bitcoin, the Chilean government has, for the first time ever, included a section in its forms for cryptocurrencies, which will be declared as other own income and/or third-party income from companies that declare their effective income.

The same news outlet details that according to an official letter signed by the director of the SII, Fernando Barraza, those who trade cryptocurrencies have to register their operations through tax-exempt invoices so the agency can monitor them. Diario Bitcoin notes that a cryptocurrency boom within Chile saw the government start monitoring cryptos, as people are using them as valid currencies to trade products and services.

Although Chileans will have to pay taxes on their cryptocurrency earnings, the legal status of these currencies is still being discussed. Nevertheless, the report adds some see the SIIs move as positive as it offers legitimacy to cryptocurrencies.

Santiago Chile Bitcoin

CriptoNoticias, another local news outlet, reportedly spoke with tax attorney Patricio Bravo, a member of a non-government organization called Bitcoin Chile, that revealed the cryptocurrency community in the country was waiting for the SIIs input.

He was quoted as saying:

[The SII] has arranged taxation in the broadest possible way, this is apparently due to two objectives: on one hand expand the tax structure as much as possible to cover all types of cryptoassets and, on the other hand, due to the current lack in Chilean legislation of figures specifically designed for this type of instruments, which makes it difficult to generate more specific items.

Story continues

As CCN has covered extensively, cryptocurrency exchanges in Chile have been struggling as last year they were struck with a banking blockade, that saw financial institutions shutter their accounts.

In various legal battles that ensued, initially cryptocurrency exchanges seemed to have been getting the upper hand as the Fourth Chamber of the Court of Appeals of Santiago ruled that state-owned Banco Estado had to reopen accounts. Later on, however, the Third Chamber of the Chilean Supreme Court rejected appeals, siding with the banks.

Nevertheless, cryptocurrency adoption has been growing in the South American nation. Chilean exchange Crypto MKT partnered with an online payments platform to allow 5,000 local merchants to accept cryptocurrencies, while Buda has added Lightning Network support.



The post Chilean Citizens Will Begin Paying Cryptocurrency Taxes in 2019 appeared first on CCN.

Washington (AFP) - A white former Chicago police officer was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison on Friday for fatally shooting a black teenager in 2014, an incident that triggered months of protests in the city.

Jason Van Dyke fired 16 bullets into 17-year-old Laquan McDonald during the confrontation, which occurred while he still a member of the force.

The slaying was captured on police video that showed the knife-wielding teen appearing to walk away from officers when he was shot.

"My findings are an appropriate sentence would be 81 months in the Illinois Department of Corrections, two years mandatory supervised release," Judge Vincent Gaughan said.

In October, a jury had convicted Van Dyke of second-degree murder over the killing.

Three of Van Dyke's fellow officers were charged with conspiracy, official misconduct and obstruction of justice for allegedly filing false reports about what happened.

They were acquitted on Thursday.

The city's police chief and lead prosecutor both lost their jobs after the McDonald shooting, one in a series of fatal encounters between US police and African Americans, who formed the Black Lives Matter movement in response.President Donald Trump has proposed extending protection for some illegal immigrants in the U.S. in exchange for wall funding along the Mexican border. The offer, which was announced Saturday after 4:00 p.m. ET, presents Congress with a new pathway to ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

A Presidential Compromise

Speaking live from the White House, President Trump provided a path forward to end the government shutdown. In a common sense compromise, both sides can embrace, Trump said he is willing to grant three-year extended protection for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients if House Democrats approve the $5.7 billion see-through steel barrier with Mexico. The proposal also extends to immigrants with Temporary Protected Status, all of whom will be able to remain in the country if a new deal is reached.

Some of the concrete proposals include:

$800 million in urgent humanitarian assistance;

$805 million in drug protection technology to secure ports of entry;

More than 2,000 additional border agents;

75 immigration judge teams to clear the backlog of 900,000 cases.

The presidents address was presented via a live stream on YouTube:

Trumps offer to protect the children of illegal immigrants, known as Dreamers, is seen as a major concession for an administration that has vowed to stem the flow of illegal aliens from across the southern border. It also reflects Trumps long-standing commitment to negotiate in the face of new political obstacles.

Anticipation leading up to the announcement led to speculation that Trump was prepared to declare a national emergency in order to unlock funding for his proposed border wall. A national emergency, if declared, would reallocate funds from the Department of Defense to the construction of the proposed steel barrier. Last week, Trump said he would utilize his executive powers if Congress refused to make a deal.

Story continues

Pelosi Responds

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi caught wind of Trumps proposal before it was made public Saturday afternoon. In an advanced statement, Pelosi said Democrats will reject Trumps proposal on grounds that it is merely a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and in total, do not represent a good faith effort to restore certainty in peoples lives.

She added: It is unlikely that any one of these provisions alone would pass the House, and taken together, they are a non-starter.

This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it.

Build That Wall

The partial government shutdown affecting 800,000 federal workers entered its 29th day on Saturday. Disagreement over border-wall funding has prevented the formation of a new budget that would re-open the government. Trumps latest proposal has been in development for at least a week and follows several failed attempts at breaking the impasse.

On Jan. 8, Trump delivered his first prime-time address from the Oval Office, where he spoke to the American people about the need for increased border protection. The speech was delivered mere hours after Senate Democrats prevented the chamber from reviewing bipartisan legislation in an effort to pressure Republican lawmakers to reopen the government.

Talks have broken down several times in the interim, with Democrats unwilling to budge on the issue of a border wall.

The Trump White House is prepared for a very long shutdown and has taken measures to mitigate the impact. This includes allowing the Internal Revenue Agency (IRS) to process tax refunds once filing season begins, enabling hundreds of billions of dollars to flow to households.



The post Build That Wall: Trump Offers DACA Protection for Border Funding as Shutdown Hits Day 29 appeared first on CCN.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines on Saturday expressed support for the proposed partial nationalization of the Hanjin NJIN shipyards at Subic by the Department of National Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. In a statement, the TUCP said there is a need to emphasize a Philippines-first strategy to ensure that Hanjin is rehabilitated under Philippine management, perhaps through a management contract with the Philippine Navy. TUCP reminds the five creditor banks of Hanjin that national security interests and saving the jobs of Filipino workers makes economic sense. We urge the creditor banks to be prudent and cautious in their rush to look for a white knight investor lest they unwittingly actually compromise our national security and open us up to a hostile dragon, TUCP president Rep. Raymond Mendoza said. The big labor group said that there are natural ups-and-downs in the shipbuilding industry, saying that when demand for ships once more increases, the Philippines will have world-class workers and a world-class shipyard ready and perfectly positioned to take advantage of the renewed demand. Only recently, the Philippine Coast Guard acquired three modern fast patrol craft from a French firm. This is proof that there is an existing market as under the Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Program, our naval fleet and coast guard fleet have to be modernized to fight smuggling and the threat of terrorism, Mendoza said. He said that instead of buying ships from the French or the Israelis, the Philippines can produce ships in Subic, and improve the internal capacity to equip the country.In the process we also save the jobs of Filipino workers in Hanjin, Mendoza added. TUCP insists that if there are any existing corporate liabilities that is due to the workers earlier laid off, the creditor banks must proritize this. Again, we caution the creditors from following the path of least resistance and trying to cut off the assets of Hanjin into pieces and selling it at a firesale at discount rates. We fear the creditors may pick an investor to step up and come in who will begin by laying off the remaining workers, who will lower occupational safety and health standards to bring down operational costs, or who will re-classify existing regular workers as contractual labor. These are highly-skilled workers so let us make use of their strategic value as a specialized team. Let us put Filipino worker interests first also, he said. While the five creditor banks have pledged that they will coordinate, the TUCP proposes that an interagency team be established to firm up the rescue efforts to refloat the Hanjin operations. TUCP believes that the international goodwill of the Filipino seafarers should also be tapped to mobilize the international manning agencies and the shipping lines to market the services of Hanjin abroad, Mendoza added.Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage took to a stage in London late last week and delivered the news that his audience didnt want to hear.

A rerun of the 2016 EU referendum could be on the cards. Speaking to a pro-leave audience, Farage was blunt and to the point.

It is now quite possible that we will see an extension of Article 50. When Ive talked in the past about being worried that they may force us into a second referendumI dont want it any more than you do, but we have to face reality.

Nigel Farage was a key campaigner in the original Brexit campaign. He now fears that the House of Commons could extend Article 50 and overturn the initial vote. Triggered in 2017, Article 50 is the legal procedure by which a country can withdraw from the EU following a two-year negotiation period.

That two-year period is set to come to an end on March 29, 2019.

Article 50 Supposedly a Point of No Return

Despite a statement issued by the EU Commission on the day Article 50 was triggered that stated it represented a point of no return, we may be seeing a softening of that stance. The EU Parliaments legal service has hinted that Britain could extend its membership beyond summer 2019. There are EU elections scheduled for May, but concerns over how this would play out appear to be an afterthought at most.

A potential sticking point for an extension of Article 50 isnt upcoming elections. Its the requirement of unanimity among all EU states. Would the required consensus be forthcoming if the belief is it would just prolong the current meaningless discussions? I doubt it.

What if the extension was required to allow preparation time for a fresh referendum? This would no doubt pique the interest of the EU member states. Last week we saw reports from Germany urging Britain to rethink its stance. Its also the outcome that would have Farage and other Brexiters very nervous.

european union eu cryptocurrency ico regulation

The Independent has reported that UK voters currently back remaining in the EU by the most significant margin seen since the 2016 referendum. A lead of four points secured by the Leave campaign has now shifted to a twelve point lead for remain. This amounts to 56 percent of voters now backing remaining in the EU.

Story continues

Speaking to the UKs Sky News the day after the Leave rally, Nigel Farage hammered home his point once again.

There could be another referendum. The remain side is well-funded and well-organized. They are getting ready for another referendum. It would be negligent of the Eurosceptics not to do so.

A No Deal Outcome Would Be a Catastrophe

Weve seen polls get it wrong in the past, but the current chaos looks to be heading towards Britain asking for an extension of Article 50. With no extension and no agreement in place, a no deal outcome looms large. Last week UK finance CEO Stephen Jones described such an outcome as a catastrophe.

Second Referendum Would Be an Outrage

When pressed by the BBC in another interview if he would welcome a second referendum his reply was unequivocal.

A second referendum would be an outrage. We had a referendum. We were promised it was our decision, that it would be implemented.

Farage continued that now piece by piece, Brexit is being betrayed by the political class. Hes bang on the money when he says that those who voted to leave did so for Britain to become an independent country. Cutting through all of the political doublespeak weve heard, that is the one constant running through the argument of those who wish to leave the EU. Independence.

Nigel Farage believes weve now reached a stage where the Government will ignore the will of the people. Addressing the BBC, he claimed that Brexit is what we voted for, and is what Parliament is set to deny us.

With all of that said, the fact is that were closing in on decision time. Little more than two months remain before the March 29 deadline.

An extension is looking like the only realistic option. If and when that happens, the upper hand lies with the EU. Their legal team is already clearing the way for an extension. The demand for another vote in exchange for an extension is a real possibility.

With Prime Minister Theresa May seemingly stuck between a rock and a hard place, is there any alternative if the EU offers an ultimatum? Nigel Farage has been called many things over the years, but an idiot isnt one of them. He sees the storm on the horizon and is seemingly readying himself and his followers.



The post Brexit Deadlock: Is a 2nd Referendum Looming? Nigel Farage Thinks So appeared first on CCN.

Private equity titan Tony James, the executive vice chairman of The Blackstone Group, is taking on the student loan crisis by advocating for an alternative to traditional student loans.

The 67-year-old investor is a supporter of something called an Income Share Agreement (ISA). Here's how it works: In exchange for an education, students agree to pay a set percentage of their income after graduation for a certain period.

"Our thinking is to put a floor on it, so people who are low-income don't have to pay anything," James told Yahoo Finance. "The income percentage will be affordable for anyone. Even if you're just barely over the floor, it doesn't cost you much, and if you make a lot of money you pay a little bit more for your education, but you can afford it."

James set up the Education Finance Institute and brought on Jim Runcie, the former COO of the Office of Federal Student Aid and a long-time investment banking veteran, as its executive director and president to explore how an ISA can be more widely adopted.

A $1.5 trillion crisis

More than 44 million Americans collectively owe about $1.5 trillion in student loans, making it the second most significant form of consumer debt behind mortgage loans.

"I think it is a crisis," James said. "In fact, if you go back to the great financial crisis it was the one thing that we've made no progress on solving. The impact on lives is huge  students come out burdened with that. It gets worse and worse and worse. It's a big source of financial stress, emotional stress."

Jim Runcie (L), executive director of the Education Finance Institute, and Tony James, executive vice chairman of The Blackstone Group, support income share agreements as an alternative to traditional student loans.

What's more, tuition, fees, room, and board for colleges has ballooned over the years.

"[There's] no real alignment of interests. The colleges don't have a lot of incentive to keep the cost of education down, and that's one of the great things about ISAs," James said. "If you get a percentage of someone's income it will be determined by that person's income. This gives an alignment for colleges not only to keep costs reasonable but also the quality of education high so that people can go get jobs."

Story continues

A 'liberating approach

One of the challenges the Education Finance Institute will face is addressing the stigma around the criticism that an ISA is a form of "indentured servitude."

"[It's] actually the opposite  it's more liberating than it is anything else," Runcie said. "It allows you to be able to choose whatever job or career path that you want without being forced to pay some fixed level of payment. But, if someone decided they didn't want to work for a couple of years or decided to go to graduate school it doesn't accrue the interest, you don't capitalize it, so it doesn't grow."

While ISAs aren't close to being mainstream, they do already exist.

Purdue University was the first major university to start offering ISAs during the 2016-2017 academic year. The Purdue Research Foundation's "Back A Boiler" income share agreement program raised millions from institutions and wealthy individuals, along with a hedge fund and a family office.

Andrew Hoyler, a 22-year-old airline pilot and a graduate of Purdue, used an ISA to fund part of his education.

"I decided to give it a try because I knew how low the starting salaries of pilots could be," Hoyler said. "I wanted more breathing room and flexibility with my life the first few years after college since I was making so little. It provided a safety net."

As a pilot for a regional airline, Hoyler pulls in around $36,000 per year, working out to be just under $2,000 per month after taxes.

An out-of-state student in the aviation program, Hoyler used traditional loans to fund his education. Since graduation, hes paid interest on those loans and hasnt hit the original principal yet.

An ISA won't accrue interest like a traditional loan, but it's likely that the student will pay back more than the initial amount borrowed.

As Hoyler's pay increases over time, he realizes that he will likely hit the cap of 2.5 times the initial funding amount of $16,000, meaning he may pay back $40,000. That doesn't bother him, though.

"It's worth the piece of mind for the first couple of years out of college not having to work two or three jobs to make minimum payments," he said.

Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.VIENNA (Reuters) - Apple and Amazon are among eight tech firms named in a complaint filed in Austria by non-profit organization noyb, which cited their failure to comply with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The action by noyb, chaired by data privacy activist Max Schrems, also named Netflix , Spotify and YouTube , after it tested them by requesting private data the companies hold about the user. "No service fully complied," noyb said in its statement. The GDPR, implemented in May, gives users the right to access their data and information about the sources and recipients of the data. Social networks must regain Europeans' consent every time they want to use their data in new ways, including for targeted advertising. The GDPR foresees fines of up to 4 percent of global revenues for companies that break the rules. In response to the complaint, Amazon said it has introduced a new "Privacy Help" page which shows customers how they can manage their information across its platforms. "We comply with any request from a data subject to provide access to the personal data that Amazon is processing," Amazon said on Friday. A spokeswoman for Spotify said: "We are committed to complying with all relevant national and international laws and regulations, including GDPR, with which we believe we are fully compliant." Noyb said it filed its complaints with the Austrian authority on behalf of 10 users. The Austrian watchdog would have to work with its counterparts at the streaming services' main establishments. "Many services set up automated systems to respond to access requests, but they often don't even remotely provide the data that every user has a right to," Schrems said. "This leads to structural violations of users' rights, as these systems are built to withhold the relevant information." Schrems is a veteran privacy campaigner who took his first legal action against Facebook as a student in 2011. Now a lawyer, Schrems filed complaints last year against Google, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, arguing they were acting illegally by forcing users to accept intrusive terms of service or lose access. (Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; additional reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Edmund Blair/Jan Harvey/Alexander Smith)A photo of Jerry David from a letter he wrote in the 2006 Reno Rodeo program.

The couple found dead in their south Reno home Wednesday were beloved members of the Reno Rodeo Association and community.

Jerry David was president of the Reno Rodeo in 2006 and his wife, Sherri David, was a Rodeo Association member. The couple was found dead at about 4 p.m. Wednesday in their home in South Reno. According to property records, the couple had owned the home since 1986.

"This is just a hard day for everyone," said Mike Torvinen, the rodeo's current president, in an interview with the Reno Gazette Journal. He said word about the couple's death spread quickly.

Longtime friend Alan Squailia was a governing member of the Elks Lodge of Reno with Jerry David.

"This is a wonderful couple," said Squailia, who knew the Davids for 50 years. "To hear them referred to as just an elderly couple, is so not them. They are so much more."

More: Authorities probe possible connection in deaths of 4 elderly people in Reno area

He talked about the couple's love of animals and how they regularly rode their horses.

David often invited Squailia to his cabin in the Ruby Mountains.

"We often traveled together," he said.

David, Squailia said fondly, could get competitive when it came to a game of cards, and he could command a room.

"I mean that in a great way," he said. "He just would walk in a room and be noticed."

Police have not identified the Davids as the couple found dead in the South Reno home, where an active homicide investigation is underway.

During a Thursday press conference, Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam released few details into his department's investigation into the deaths. He referred to the victims as an unnamed elderly couple in south Reno, saying it's too early to make many details public.

"We have all come together to make sure the public knows we are working together as a region to keep our community safe and to bring those responsible for the crimes to justice," Balaam said.

Story continues

Sherri David, director of the Reno Rodeo, shares her hat with Marvin Picollo student Jennifer Marinez at the ground breaking for a new indoor facility at the school in 2002.

A beloved couple

Friends remembered Jerry and Sherri David in interview with the Gazette-Journal.

"He was just always a gentleman," Torvinen said of Jerry David. Torvinen said David mentored him and always made it clear that he was available to help.

"I never heard him say a bad word about anyone," Torvinen said.

According to the Reno Rodeo, David grew up in Susanville and joined an electrical apprenticeship program. He was a journeyman electrician and estimator and retired as business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Sherri David in 2001.

He served as the exalted ruler of the Reno Elks Lodge in 1981, and still was active in the service organization, according to Squailia.

"I'm doing an annual crab feed next week and I knew I could count on him to buy a bunch of tickets and bring his rodeo friends."

Dee Boskie first met the Davids as members of the Elks in 1980.

"They were just the type of couple who would give you the shirt off their backs," Boskie said.

"She was the more outgoing one, but when he had something to say, he said it," Boskie said.

The 2002 Reno Rodeo Association officers were, from left, Jerry David, treasurer; Tom Cates, second vice president; Garry Jackson, president; Jim Carpenter, first vice president and Bill Summy, secretary.

Sherri David said in a special advertising section in the Gazette-Journal in 2003 that she and her husband loved the camaraderie of the rodeo and had become collectors of old bits and spurs and horse-related tacks and memorabilia.

"I have learned so much about this cowboy way of life we love," she said.

The couple had been involved in the rodeo since 1991. It was the same year she won a prize for her chocolate cake at the Nevada State Fair.

The biggest reason I volunteer is the friends Ive met. My two best friends I met at the rodeo. I love to be around horse people  good, community-minded people who want to be involved," she said in 2001.

This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: 'This is a wonderful couple': Former Reno Rodeo president and wife found slain in homeAs the longest government shutdown in history drags on for nearly four weeks and counting, its economic impact could have a long-term effect on many federal employees and contractors across the United States.

Taylor Gautreaux, who is expecting a baby in March, works in software development for a private company under a government contract. After her work came to a halt under the shutdown, she was told by her company to use any remaining paid time off and then take leave without pay. She has been advised by her company to seek other forms of employment as the shutdown drags on.

The timing to find a new job is far from ideal  and would be even if she wasnt in her third trimester.

People dont want to hire someone whos going to leave in three months, Gautreaux tells TIME. Its definitely going to have a long term effect.

Gautreaux has about 24 hours of paid time left over. Shell get a partial paycheck this Friday that she says will help, but she says its not nearly enough to cover her mortgage, car loans and upcoming medical bills related to her pregnancy. Giving birth in Louisiana, where she lives, can cost on average $5,590 for a vaginal delivery and nearly $8,000 for a Caesarean section, according to FAIR Health. While Gautreaux has health insurance that could help defray the costs, she is not receiving a paycheck from which any contributions to her benefits could be deducted. When the government reopens, she expects to be charged for those deductibles. Her employer did not immediately return a request for comment.

I have no idea how were going to pay for the medical bills, she says. Its put a lot of unneeded stress on me during this pregnancy.

Gautreaux is among the many government contractors unlikely to receive any retroactive pay once the government reopens. She and her husband are also among the nearly 80% of full-time workers in the U.S. who live paycheck to paycheck. Gautreaux says they have taken steps to lessen the impact of the government shutdown on their finances by drastically lowering their spending, creating a fundraiser on GoFundMe and reaching out to their lenders to defer payments. That approach has worked to an extent, but the bank has told the couple they cant push payments back for more than two months. She says they are financially prepared to make it under the shutdown for another month. After that, everything gets murky.

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If it lifts before I have the baby, it will be easier for us to recoup, she says. If not, its going to be very, very challenging. Well have no other option other than declaring bankruptcy.

The costs of the shutdown for the 800,000 affected federal employees  as well as a range of government contractors numbering in the hundreds of thousands to potentially millions, according to the Washington Post  could cause lasting damage to their finances well after the government reopens, according to Matthew Shapiro, an economist at the University of Michigan who studied how federal workers coped with the major government shutdown in 2013.

Back then, Shapiro says the situation was less dire because it was clear the shutdown would resolve.

There was less of a risk on the part of government workers getting paid late and people, like lenders, getting paid late, he says. They knew workers would get their retroactive pay, that those who did defer payments on mortgage, rent and credit cards quickly made it up either at the end of the month or the next month.

With no clear end to the current shutdown emerging, government contractors and furloughed employees are quickly approaching an impasse as bills pile up and paychecks dont arrive. Shapiro says that if the shutdown wraps up by the end of January, the financial damage is likely to be small, with workers quickly making any payments they deferred. But if the shutdown creeps into February and beyond, workers are likely to get behind on their monthly payments in a serious way that could impact their credit scores and financial future. President Donald Trump signed a bill on Wednesday that will guarantee back pay for furloughed federal workers once the shutdown is over, but that bill does not apply to contract workers like Gautreaux.

Overall, Shapiro says the bigger economic effects will be subtle, but add up. Without any pay, government workers will likely cancel any potential travel, curb spending at restaurants and other businesses, and delay purchasing any big-ticket items. These small decisions could quickly multiply, depending on how long the shutdown lasts. Already, companies have reported losses in revenue due to the shutdown. Delta Airlines said this week that it lost about $25 million this month due to a drop in bookings as fewer government employees travel.

The number of contractors missing out on pay has reached the point that it has slowed down the U.S. economy, Bloomberg reports. As the shutdown approaches its fifth week, experts note that the economic damage could be long-lasting. S&P Global Group estimated on Jan. 11 that if the shutdown lasts another two weeks, the total cost to the economy would hit $6 billion, CNBC reported.

The macroeconomic effects could potentially be noticeable, Shapiro says. If its resolved this month, and federal workers are paid retroactively, some of that spending will be made up. For contractors, thats not the case. Those are dollars which are permanently lost.

On Tuesday, economists with the White House acknowledged that the shutdown has already had economic consequences, as the effects of losing work from contractors and furloughed employees add up. Kevin Hassett, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters that the shutdowns cost to the economy was bigger than anticipated.

Weve been watching the actual effects, and noticing that the impact that we see on government contractors is bigger than the sort of staff rule of thumb anticipated, he said. And we subsequently, right now, think that its about a tenth of a percent a week, not a tenth of a percent every two weeks.

Government employees and contractors are all too aware of the impending hits to their personal finances. Sunny Blaylock, a government contractor for the U.S. State Department, was laid off in January after her company said it could no longer afford to pay for benefits without having any hours to bill.

She says her family had just gotten to a place of relative financial stability before the shutdown began. Now, they are surviving off savings originally set aside to pay off her husbands student loans. The shutdown has also motivated her to start looking for work in industries unrelated to the government  both to help out the family in the interim and to guarantee against going through something like this again.

It just feels like such a betrayal, says Blaylock, whose husband is a diplomat currently working without pay. I have a lot less optimism that everything is going to be okay. This whole thing is making us question that maybe we need to rethink our priorities as a family.

Blaylock and her husband went through the 2013 shutdown as well, but this one is different.

The length of time, for one thing, she says. The last time, I dont feel like we missed a paycheck. I never felt there was not an end in sight.

Prior to this point, paying bills on time and in full was a priority for Blaylock. Now, shes considering letting her credit card bill carry a balance so she can keep enough money close in case of emergencies. She says that even if the government reopens as soon as next week, the effects of the shutdown on her finances will be felt for a long time.

It will take me months, if not years, for me to feel like we can splurge or go out or plan a trip, she says. Thats not going to happen for us personally until far after we are able to repair the cost to our savings.By Katharine Jackson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump spoke in a prerecorded video to thousands of anti-abortion activists in Washington on Friday for the 46th March for Life, vowing to veto any legislation that "weakens the protection of human life."

The event is the largest annual gathering in the United States of opponents of the Supreme Court's 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade. That ruling found that certain state laws outlawing abortion were an unconstitutional violation of a woman's right to privacy, effectively legalizing abortion nationwide.

"I will always defend the first right in our Declaration of Independence, the right to life," Trump said in remarks recorded in the Oval Office, a right he said extended to "unborn children."

Vice President Mike Pence appeared onstage at the rally to introduce the video, calling Trump, who before entering politics said he supported abortion access, "the most pro-life president in American history."

During his 2016 campaign, Trump vowed to appoint Supreme Court justices he believed would overturn Roe. He has since appointed two justices to the court, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, cementing the court's 6-3 conservative majority.

Since the heated Senate confirmation hearings for Kavanaugh, the court has steered clear of some cases on volatile social issues, including abortion.

Marchers trudged through muddy slush on the National Mall holding signs saying "Pray to End Abortion," "My unexpected pregnancy is now 30!" and calling for the federal defunding of Planned Parenthood, a national healthcare provider that offers abortions as well as birth control and cancer screenings.

One marcher said she had had an abortion at the age of 17 but had been opposed to abortion ever since she became religious.

"No matter how you look at it, it's taking a life and it's wrong," said Marcy Blunier, a 57-year-old real estate broker from New Mexico.

Story continues

A circle of women bowed their heads in prayer as they waited to start the march down Constitution Avenue to the Supreme Court. Two men navigated the crowd hauling a large wooden cross.

Supporters of abortion access say bans infringe on women's rights and health, and lead to greater rates of injury and death among pregnant women.

About half of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll last year, with about 68 percent of Democrats supporting abortion access compared with about 31 percent of Republicans.

The anti-abortion march comes a day before thousands of women descend on Washington for their third march opposing Trump's presidency.

(Additional reporting and writing by Jonathan Allen; editing by Scott Malone editing by Jonathan Oatis)SUNDAY UPDATE: Its been a rough holiday weekend for air travel. Airlines have canceled more than 4,100 flights in the United States since Friday, with disruptions already extending into Monday. The hardest-hit for Sunday: Boston's Logan airport. Full update: Storm: 4,100 flights already axed as cancellations stretch into Monday

PREVIOUS UPDATE (Saturday, 8:25 p.m.): Flight headaches were on the rise Saturday as a potent winter storm moved from the Midwest into the Northeast.

Airline cancellations mounted, with some flights on Monday already off the books. In total, about 3,900 flights had been canceled from Friday through Monday. That number was likely to grow as the storm moved into the Northeast. All big U.S. airlines were waiving change fees at many airports in the storms path.

For Saturday, more than 2,125 flights had been canceled nationwide and another 2,570 delayed as of 8:25 p.m. ET, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.

Even for Sunday, airlines already had pre-emptively canceled nearly 1,160 flights in the anticipation of poor weather. Even Monday flights were affected, with about 100 already canceled. Those totals came on top of 522 mostly-storm-related cancellations on Friday.

The storm, dubbed Winter Storm Harper by The Weather Channel, was dumping snow, ice and rain across the Great Lake and Ohio Valley early Saturday morning. By evening, poor conditions were forecast to expand into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

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The hardest-hit airport on Saturday was Chicago OHare, where a combined 1,080 departures and arrivals had been axed as of 8:25 p.m. ET. That accounted for close to a half of the entire days schedule there, by FlightAwares count.

Saturdays flight problems were widespread. Among the dozens of airports where FlightAware showed significant cancellations were New York JFK, New York LaGuardia, Newark Liberty, Chicago Midway, Boston, Indianapolis, Washington Reagan National, Baltimore/Washington, Buffalo, Detroit and Cleveland.

Story continues

Looking to Sunday, Boston had the most pre-emptive cancellations, with more than 465 combined departures and arrivals already off the schedule. That accounted for about half of the Sundays entire schedule at Boston, according to FlightAware. New York JFK had about 100 combined arrival and departure cancellations for Sunday.

Many of those came on JetBlue, which counts Boston and JFK as its two busiest hubs. JetBlue had already canceled about 430 for Sunday and another 46 for Monday, FlightAware showed.

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Numerous other airports were already seeing dozens of cancellations for Sunday, including Newark; Washington Reagan National; Philadelphia; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Hartford, Connecticut. Even Florida airports were feeling the effects; dozens of Sunday were already canceled at airports like Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, with the disruptions coming mostly on flights that had been scheduled to operate to airports in the Midwest and Northeast.

Flyers on all airlines should brace for a spike in cancellations and delays at least through Monday. Using previous storms as a yardstick, flight cancellations seem likely to continue to spike into early next week if current forecasts hold.

Flight delays could last even after the storm. Bitter cold is predicted to blast into the Midwest and Northeast in the storms wake, bringing the possibility of de-icing delays at busy airports that could last at least through Monday.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Airlines already canceling flights into Monday from Winter Storm HarperSouthern Police District operatives have apprehended more than 900 individuals in the continuing police campaign against the so-called tambays or street loiterers violating city ordinances. The police operations is in line with the governments anti-crime policy initiated by President Rodrigo Duterte to ensure a peaceful community, especially at night. In its Jan. 13 to 19 accomplishment report, the SPD, with the help of local police stations, apprehended a total of 946 individuals during a series of night operations in the cities of Muntinlupa, Taguig, Makati, Pasay, Paranaque and Las Pinas, and the town of Pateros. SPD spokesperson Supt. Jenny Tecson said most of those brought to the police stations violated the curfew for minors (ordinance) totaling 378. She added that 346 persons were also caught smoking in public places while 143 others were apprehended for drinking on the streets. The rest of those apprehended were brought to police stations for littering and urinating in public. Most of the apprehended 138 minors were caught in the City of Makati followed by Paranaque (115) and Taguig (52). The City of Muntinlupa got the highest number of apprehended smokers with 190 while Makati caught 98 others. Paranaque City also has the highest number of arrest against street drinkers (75) followed by Pasay City (30). In June 2018, President Duterte ordered police commanders to go against idlers to get rid of people loitering in the streets, especially at night.But the Chief Executive reminded that the police should arrest only those who will violate municipal or city ordinances like urinating and drinking in public places, half naked, making loud noises, and violating the curfew for minors, among others. The President also clarified that he never ordered law enforcement agents to arrest the so-called tambays, saying as a lawyer, he is fully aware of the rights of every person and clearly stated under the Constitution that loitering was not a crime on its own, except those who violate specific ordinances. If you are drinking in the alley, in the squatters area. If you are there, making a sala out of the road there, Ill have you arrested. Here in Davao, you cannot see [anyone] doing it, Duterte had said. Duterte said as the father of the nation, he could still order the arrest of loiterers especially the unruly ones who might pose danger to other people especially women and children. The police can also question any suspicious person loitering but not necessarily violating any specific above cited ordinance with regards to their presence and business in the area. These persons should not be apprehended but instead be advised to be cautious or rather leave the area so as not to be victimized by lawless elements. The police said that the governments efforts to rid the streets of loiterers could help lessen crime and maintain peace and order, especially since the problem on illegal drugs has become far worse.The Save the Children Philippines and the United Nations Childrens Fund are opposing Congress move to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 15 to nine years old. In a statement, the SCP said the proposal, which is being finalized at the House of Representatives, would not be for the best interest of the children. This will only push them to further discrimination, abuse and eventually, into more anti-social behavior, the group said. What we need is for the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act to be fully implemented with clear programs and services for prevention, response, and the reintegration of children back into their families and communities, he added. Meanwhile, UNICEF cited the lack of evidence and data that children are responsible for the increase in crime rates committed in the Philippines. It said that pushing through with the proposal will not deter adult offenders from abusing children to commit crimes. Lowering the age of criminal responsibility is an act of violence against children, the UNICEF said in a statement released Friday. UNICEF explained that children exploited by adults to commit crimes must be protected and not further penalized. Citing scientific studies, it noted that brain function reaches maturity only at about 16 years old. Proposals to lower the age of criminal responsibility argue that children as young as nine years old are criminally mature and are already capable of discernment. If this was the case, then why is the legal age to enter marriage, legal contracts and employment in the Philippines at 18 years old? it said. It also underscored the risk of exposing these children from cohabiting with hardened criminals in jail, while waiting for their sentence for the crime they committed. Branding children as criminals removes accountability from adults who are responsible for safeguarding them. If children who have been exploited by criminal syndicates are penalized instead of the adults who abused them, we fail to uphold the rights and well-being of children, it stated. The House committee on justice, chaired by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Doy Leachon, will hold a hearing on Monday to repeal the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, by lowering the age of criminal liability from 15 years old to nine. Leachon earlier said the House bill is considered a priority matter of legislation.On the other hand, a similar bill filed at the Senate seeks to set the minimum age of criminal liability at 13. Meanwhile, Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said she will not watch the fight of Senator Manny Pacquiao with challenger Adrie Broner in order to personally shepherd the passage of the bill lowering the age of criminal responsibility to nine from 15. Pacquiao earlier personally invited thr Speaker to watch the fight in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Sources said Arroyo is convinced that the present law that pegs the age of responsibility at 15 has resulted in the use of children as accomplices of gangsters and other criminals. Leachon, meanwhile, said that his panel is set to finalize on Monday the passage of the bill that lowers the minimum age of criminal liability from 15 to nine. Leachon said the committee aims to pass the bill before the end of the 17th Congress. Leachon said the measure seeks to amend the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 or Republic Act 9344, which sets the minimum age for criminal liability at 15. The Committee, after months of deliberation and consultation with stakeholders and experts, is now finalizing the bill hoping that the matter will be passed into law before the end of the 17th Congress, said Leachon. He said he was saddened by the involvement of minors in various criminal activities, prompting President Rodrigo Duterte and Congress to work on a legislation that would address the problem. Recent news and reports show an alarming increase in the number of syndicates using minors to perpetrate criminal acts and it is but the time to pass this bill to protect our children from being used by ruthless and unscrupulous criminal syndicates to evade prosecution and punishment, he added. Leachon said Congress will work on the passage of the measure to ensure a better Philippines in the future. The current Congress gives utmost importance to legislative measures that ensure the safety of our future generation. The Committee recognizes that the youth is an integral part of nation-building and the State must ensure and preserve their overall well-being, Leachon said.YEREVAN.- Among the issues discussed at the meeting of the executive body of the Republican Party of Armenia were the issues of external challenges facing the country, in particular, concerns about the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the RPA press secretary Edward Sharmazanov told journalists.

The statement that followed the meeting of the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan was not enough.There was no word about the three principles, about the right to self-determination. Moreover, Pashinyan says that there is no negotiation process either. But what then did the ministers talk about for four hours, if there is no negotiation process? Did they talk about the weather?" Sharmazanov wondered.

According to him, however, this does not mean that they claim that the new authorities intend to lead the country to failure or are ready to make unilateral concessions - this is the inexperience of the new authorities, as a result of which we lose ground in the Karabakh issue.

When Mamedyarov declares that he is ready to give Artsakh the status of autonomy within Azerbaijan, and , besides Ashotyan, Sharmazanov and other representatives of the RPA and ARFD, no one in Armenia gives a harsh assessment, concern increases, the RPA press secretary said.YEREVAN.- As expected, Nikol Pashinyan deceived Alaverdis voters during the election campaign. The spokesman for the Republican Party of Armenia, Eduard Sharmazanov, told reporter on Friday, commenting on the information that a large number of former Alaverdi copper smelter workers are expected to emigrate from Armenia in the spring of 2019.

According to him, now that the Republican Party of Armenia is not the ruling force, the responsibility lies with the political team of Nikol Pashinyan.

I suggest Pashinyan again to go to Alaverdi and repeat the statement that the plant (Alaverdi copper smelter - ed.) will work. Our party has talked about the serious consequences of the closure of the plant over the past 9 months. In response, there were thoughts that Sharmazanov wants to attract opposition-minded employees of the plant to his side. Now the power is in their hands, let 630 people decide the issue of employment, he stressed.

Emigration of former employees of the Alaverdi copper smelter will lead to a multiplicative effect.

As a result of the fact that more than 600 families will not receive money, the cash flow in the city will decrease, which will have a negative impact on the socio-economic situation of Alaverdi as a whole, concluded Edward Sharmazanov.An opposition lawmaker on Saturday expressed his dismay over Malacanangs response on the reported massive presence of Chinese fishing vessels in the West Philippine Sea. Malacanang has dismissed the matter as mere speculation even in the face of clear documentation of the presence of Chinese fishing vessels in the West Philippines Sea. The government also seems unfazed by the possibility that these Chinese fishing vessels are getting our resources and source of food, Magdalo Party-List Rep. Gary Alejano said. Alejano made the statement after Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said that Malacanang sees no problem if the Chinese vessels are fishing in the West Philippine Sea saying, Walang problema kung fishing-fishing lang. Alejano reminded the administration that the area where Chinese fishing vessels are clustering is part of the Philippines Exclusive Economic Zone. Only Filipino fishermen can fish within the Philippines EEZ as affirmed by the arbitral ruling. Filipinos have exclusive sovereign rights over our EEZ. Hindi pwedeng sabihin na walang problema. The statement of Malacanang can be taken by China as a waiver of Philippine sovereign rights, Alejano said. According to the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in July 2016, Mischief Reef is part of the Philippines EEZ which means that the Philippines has sovereign rights in the area. The tribunal also said that China has violated the rights of the Philippines when Chinese vessels fished in Mischief Reef and other areas within the Philippine EEZ. Meanwhile, Chinese-occupied Subi Reef was found to be a low-tide elevation by the tribunal which does not generate entitlement to a territorial sea, exclusive economic zone, or continental shelf for China. Given this, Alejano, a.former Marine officer, called on the government to be careful on its assertions regarding our claims and rights in the West Philippine Sea. He said that officials must be aware of the repercussions of their official statements on the countrys national interest and security.The Philippines won a favorable decision against China in the UN arbitral ruling. We should capitalize on this and assert our rights instead of waiving them. The West Philippine Sea is ours and Filipinos have exclusive rights on exploiting the resources there. Those who argue otherwise are threats to our national security and food security, Alejano said. Meanwhile, Alejano advised the Duterte administration to assess its strategy with China and listen to the Defense Department after Secretary Delfin Lorenzana expressed alarm over Chinas intentions in the West Philippine Sea. The administration must heed the warnings shared by no less than the Defense Secretary. Chinas actions, including its militarization of reclaimed islands in the West Philippine Sea and harassment against Filipinos, is a threat to our national security. The administration should re-think their strategy with China, Alejano said. During the Senate deliberation on the budget of the Department of National Defense yesterday, Defense Secretary Lorenzana had said China was clearly trying to extend its influence and establish their control in the West Philippine Sea by reclaiming islands and turning them into a military or naval base. While the administration continue to cozying with China and even praise the aggressor publicly, China continues to encroach in our territory and slowly deplete our resources. Chinas attempt to control the South China Sea is a detriment to our fisherfolks who rely on our maritime resources for their livelihood, Alejano said.Armenia 1st President delivers message to citizens

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Armenia 2nd President: Government must take care of basic needs of all citizens

Bright Armenia Party leader says they are 3rd in big citiesOlder adults, especially those beyond an age they can work, are increasingly becoming homeless because of a lack of money to keep up with rent increases or health care costs. Imagine your parent in this situation and multiply by tens of thousands of people.

Families are on the brink of homelessness or already homeless because of the lack of emergency assistance or affordable homes where they work and go to school.

We get phone calls every day from people looking for housing. They dont ask where they can find a navigation center. They want to know where they can find an affordable apartment.

We applaud the governor for proposing incentives to motivate jurisdictions to create more affordable homes. At the same time, we look forward to working with the administration to refine his budget proposals.

His budget proposes a new program that provides incentives to motivate jurisdictions to create more affordable homes. However, cities and counties would be allowed to use this $700 million in incentives for general purposes. Thats nearly a third of new housing and homelessness funding in the budget that wouldnt be used to directly address housing and homelessness.The news that the FBI opened an investigation in 2017 as to whether President Donald Trump was actually working for the Russians shouldnt have come as a shocker.

No public evidence has yet emerged from the FBI probe or from special counsel Robert Muellers investigation that the president took orders from the Kremlin. And Trump has been furious in his denials.

Yet over and over this president makes common cause with the Kremlin with his statements, his policies, the many contacts between his team and Kremlin operatives. Not to mention and his bizarre bromance with Vladimir Putin. Meantime, William Barr, Trumps nominee for attorney general, has suggested to Congress that Muellers final report may be kept secret, even though polls show around 75 percent of Americans want it to be made public.

However, even before the Mueller report is issued, I think one can see why Trump is so useful to Putin. I dont believe its due to Kremlin payoffs or blackmail.

Its because Trumps core attitudes and beliefs play into the hands of a Russian leader whose primary goal is to weaken the West.

Lets look at a few of the biggest gifts that Trump has handed to Putin.Years into a sweeping revival, downtown Napa continues to rise. Flush with development, the heart of the city long thought of simply as a pit stop for tourists on their way to wine country is now steadily drawing in its own visitors and, increasingly, the world-famous wineries that bring them to Napa Valley.

Within the first few months of the year, a new wave of tasting rooms will open downtown, giving an urban presence to a cast of established Napa wine companies. The new tenants include Rutherford Bench hotspot Alpha Omega, Mount Veeder classic Mayacamas Vineyards and WALT Wines, the Pinot Noir partners of St. Helena staple HALL winery.

Though downtown Napa is no stranger to urban tasting rooms from smaller, generally estate-less wineries, the new wave of openings from well-known Napa names, each tied to Upvalley estates, signals a growing interest in the city from the upper reaches of the areas wine industry and a new benchmark in downtowns image as a wine destination unto itself.

Beyond downtown, wineries renewed interest in the city is also highlighting the question: what is the future of winery hospitality in Napa Valley?

We started noticing, theres a lot of visitors that are just going downtown, said Robin Baggett, owner of Alpha Omega winery, and so I guess our opinion is theyre getting more than their fair share down there, which is good.

Baggett hopes to see the new tasting room up and running by February, culminating a plan thats been about six months in the making. Replacing the Capp Heritage tasting room on the corner of First and Randolph streets, the new tasting room will sit directly across from the Archer Hotel, which opened last year as the epicenter of downtowns revival.

A trade-off will also make the space the tasting hub of the other wines in the new Alpha Omega Collective, an umbrella for wines from Tolosa, a Burgundian-centric winery in San Luis Obispo and Perinet, a Grenache and Carignan-based winery in Priorat, Spain. Instead of being poured at Alpha Omegas estate in Rutherford, a legal limit on tasting locations prompted the wines to go to downtown Napa, though the apparent boom of tourists on the citys streets also played a role.

Ive noticed over the years, with all the new infrastructure, hotels, restaurants, et cetera, in downtown Napa that a lot of visitors to Napa Valley are staying downtown at least for a day or two, Baggett said.

I think it goes without question; the Napa Valley is the wine capital of America, he added. And with the amount of visitors that come through here, itll be really a great opportunity for these other two brands.

In general, Napa Valley visitorship has been on the rise for several years. Biennial reports from Visit Napa Valley track visitor numbers rising from 2.9 million in 2012 to 3.5 million in 2016. A spokesperson said the group had not yet seen the results from its 2018 study, which would include visitor numbers since the Archers opening. The next results will be released in March.

Statistics aside, the surge of city visitors has been obvious enough to draw investment from others, like WALT Wines, which will take its place at the opposite end of First Street, a short walk away from Alpha Omegas space.

If we can find new areas with a lot of energy, we want to be there, said Jeff Zappelli, general manager of WALT Wines. Filling the space of the former Uncorked at Oxbow tasting room on First Street, the new WALT Oxbow Tasting Room may see its opening by late spring, Zappelli said.

A partner of St. Helenas HALL winery, and owned by vintners Kathryn and Craig Hall, WALT specializes in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Oregons Willamette Valley down to the Sta. Rita Hills of Santa Barbara County. Apart from an existing tasting room in downtown Sonoma, the brand is without a brick-and-mortar base just yet, though a winery in Sebastopol is in the works.

Theres a number of tasting rooms youre seeing starting to open downtown, Zappelli said of the push into Napa. We think we can differentiate and compliment those with something that is a little bit different and rare, which is Pinot Noir from a bunch of different regions.

Set across from the bustling Oxbow Market, the space will be partially renovated and designed by the same architect behind HALL winery in St. Helena. The 1892 building that will house the tasting room also plays a side role juxtaposing sites like the Oxbow Market and Archer Hotel, the contemporary buildings of downtown Napas revival.

Then you have these old buildings that are the old soul of Napa, Zappelli said.

For visitors seeking out old Napa in terms of wine, a walk back down First Street will lead to the First Street Napa complex adjacent to the Archer and the new tasting room from Mayacamas Vineyards. The winerys first urban tasting room, an eclectic luxury experience, is slated for a soft opening in February.

The notion of a downtown location for the 130-year-old winery came after the Nuns fire destroyed the tasting room at its Mount Veeder estate in 2017. General manager Brian Baker wrote in an email, the team has grown to see this as a wonderful opportunity to bring the Mayacamas winery experience to the thriving, urban epicenter of food and wine in Napa, while owner Jay Schottenstein said in a release from the winery this month, The revival of the downtown area is certainly something that we are eager to be a part of...

Beyond downtown, the success of the areas revival may represent a turning point in the path between old and new Napa Valley, adding a new layer to the countys most pressing issue today: an identity crisis wedged between an agrarian past and a future woven with world fame and the valleys status as a destination.

The resulting struggle has played out in a tug-of-war over the definition of agriculture and how far winery hospitality can sustainably and legally go in tasting rooms Upvalley.

Throttled options for distribution have pushed winery business models to rely ever more on tasting room sales, while a revised definition of agriculture in the countys general plan opened the doors to ancillary uses at wineries, blurring the lines between commercial activity and agriculture in the unincorporated parts of the county.

In one of the latest tugs, the county is attempting to reel in the recently opened tasting room of the Prisoner Wine Company in St. Helena with a notice of code violations, ordering the winery to scale back its food service and sales that were unrelated to wine.

As Baggett put it, for wineries today, Basically you can have a fruit stand, and those fruit stands have expanded a little bit.

For some, the answer to Napas hospitality hurdle lies downtown.

When you have hotel rooms and restaurants, I think its a perfect setting for tasting rooms, Baggett said.

Founded in 2006, Alpha Omega was built on a direct-to-consumer business model, Baggett said, with the vast majority of its sales made through hospitality. Now with downtown Napa I think well increase our brand exposure, but not necessarily at our facility in Rutherford, he said.

As far as other wineries looking downtown for their hospitality needs, Baggett added, I think its a total positive for the valley, because it lessens the pressure to expand these types of uses in the ag zone.

Grape grower Andy Beckstoffer feels similarly.

The future of the Napa Valley over the next 10 years is going to be the future of the city of Napa and how they work with the Upvalley, he said.

The Beckstoffer family in 2014 bought the old Napa Register building on First Street, near the Archer Hotel and First Street Napa complex, across the street and down from Alpha Omegas new space. The renamed Beckstoffer Building today hosts the tasting room for Brown Estate winery.

I think whats going in the right direction is the city of Napa is taking on some of the major wine hospitality function for the Napa Valley, Beckstoffer said in a phone interview. They should be a big part of the Napa Valley wine hospitality effort.

Most people come to the Napa Valley for some sort of a wine experience and if it can happen right in the city of Napa, Beckstoffer said, to some important extent, itll benefit everybody.

Pop the cork on Napa Valley wine! Discover the hidden stories of Napa Valley wine and the people behind it -- plus expert analysis from our columnists and more with our weekly email newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.The crowd filled Third Street from Main to Coombs streets, and the rally began with words from the first speaker, Napa Womens March organizer and chair Irit Weir. The theme of this years rally, she said, was speaking truth to power.

Weir celebrated the Congressional elections of U.S. Reps. Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland, the first Native American women elected to Congress; U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, the first Muslim women elected to Congress; and Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest women elected to Congress. Weir implored Congress to take steps to preserve the environment and show compassion to youth, undocumented immigrants and others.

This breakthrough moment shows that we women are ready to step forward without an apology and own leadership and visibility, she said to the crowd. Enough silencing our discomfort, enough.

Next came Nikki Silvestri, who led the crowd in a song to the tune of Queens We Will Rock You.

Women are strong, weve got a big, bold voice and were shoutin in the streets to hold that choice!, she sang. We got the strength to stop disgrace, kickin injustice all over the place.Marie Andrea Gutierrez, resident of Napa, California, passed away peacefully in her home on January 7, 2019, surrounded by her loving family. Marie was born in Suffolk County, England to Dorothy & George Storelli on August 19, 1944 where she resided for approximately 1 1/2 years before traveling across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States. She attended California schools and graduated from Napa High in June of 1962. Upon graduation Marie attended cosmetology school and became a hair dresser prior to working for the Napa Valley Unified School District for 27 years. She first met her husband Ray Gutierrez at Mare Island in Vallejo, California, and they recently celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary. With a union of this length its no wonder they not only grew up together, but were best friends and each others better half.

When asked the best way to describe Marie, Lady was the answer from all who knew her. At the young age of 15, she was like a mother to her four younger sisters. With both her parents working in the hospitality field during afternoons and evenings, it became her responsibility to tend to her younger sisters.

Marie had many hobbies including monthly Bingo with family & friends. She loved to play games and couldnt pass up a good game of cards, specifically Shanghai. She also loved casino trips as long as they didnt interfere with Wednesday lunches with her friends. Marie loved to dance and was always the first and last one on the dance floor. She loved to cook and was very good at it, but her true passion was her grandchildren. She loved being present at their sporting events or any other activity that included them. Spending time with her family, whether it was at home or at one of her many favorite vacation destinations, gave her so much joy and happiness. Marie will be greatly missed by her large family, including family across the big ocean, as well as her large circle of friends. She is survived by her husband, Ray Gutierrez, her daughter Lori Rhym, husband Reggie, and their daughter Morgan, her son Danny Gutierrez, wife Laura, and their two children Julia & Elise, her mother, Dorothy Storelli, sisters Diane Chiamparino, Nadine Storelli, Georgeann Klew, & Debbie Abraham, numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins. She is predeceased by her father, George Richard Storelli.GVM Law, LLP, announced the launch of its cannabis law department, led by partner Marc Hauser.

Based in Napa Valley, with offices in Fairfield and Roseville, GVM Law provides California winery, vineyard, farm and small business owners with service for estate planning, wine law and business transactions, said a news release.

The emerging cannabis industry is a natural extension for GVM Law as the team brings unrivaled expertise to businesses in California and across the nation, said the release.

I am excited to be part of this industry as state legalization grows nationally, said Hauser.

The legalization of cannabis brings a lot of opportunity for business and investors, and we can help our entrepreneurial clients navigate these new waters successfully. We focus on investment and growth strategies for companies and investors nationwide, from those are just getting started to multi-state operators growing their national footprint.

Hauser brings decades of experience in complex transactions, investment structuring, and capital markets, and has become a leader in cannabis law and made deep connections throughout the emerging industry, said the release.The Internet in South Africa, and the telecommunications sector in general, would have looked very different if it werent for passionate techies.

South Africas history is filled with people who challenged Telkoms monopoly, for example, and helped drive down the cost to connect.

This includes those who worked to overcome the technical and institutional barriers to establishing South Africas first Internet link, to those who helped build the vast networks we connect with today.

Selecting just a handful of legends from South Africas tech and telecoms space is a tall order, so for this article we set a few limits to keep it manageable.

Mainly, we looked at significant contributions to Internet access in the country.

For a different perspective, the Internet Society also maintains a list of African Internet Pioneers.

Mike Lawrie

A logical place to begin is the man who is credited with setting up South Africas first TCP/IP link to the United States.

In 1988, Mike Lawrie lead an informal team at Rhodes University which used donated equipment to salvage their own Internet gateway.

By 1990 they attempted their first TCP/IP connection, linking computers at Rhodes and the University of Cape Town via UNINET. In 1991, the first international TCP/IP connection was made between Rhodes and the home of Randy Bush in Portland, Oregon.

Two men from other universities helped Lawrie in achieving the milestone: Alan Barrett from the University of Natal, and Chris Pinkham from the University of Cape Town.

Gerrit van der Veer



While Mike Lawrie is known for establishing the first Internet links, there were people involved in transcontinental networking initiatives before that.

Specifically, a US delegation helped a team from the South African Railways department to set up a local Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) node in 1974.

Gerrit van der Veer, the CEO of SAA during the Helderberg disaster, was one of the engineers who worked on the project with one of the fathers of the Internet, Vint Cerf.

Alan Barrett

After helping Lawrie set up the first international Internet links, Alan Barrett cofounded the countrys first Internet service provider  The Internetworking Company of Southern Africa (TICSA).

TICSA later became UUNET Internet Africa, which was acquired by Verizon in 2006 and traded as Verizon Business. MTN bought Verizon Business South Africa in March 2009.

Barrett also got involved in Internet governance, joining AFRINIC and was appointed as CEO of the organisation in 2015.

Chris Pinkham

Although born in Singapore to a military family, Chris Pinkham moved to South Africa when he was 9 and was forced to naturalise in the 1980s.

Pinkham cofounded TICSA with Alan Barrett, and later went on to work at Amazon.

He co-developed the idea that would become Amazon Web Services, and headed up the team that built the technology in Cape Town.

From 2015 until 2017, he was vice-president of engineering at Twitter, and in July last year he joined the board of Jumo  a financial technology startup based in Cape Town.

Alan Knott-Craig

Alan Knott-Craig was the first CEO of Vodacom, the first and largest mobile operator in South Africa.

With the help of other industry heavyweights such as Pieter Uys and Jannie van Zyl, Vodacom under Knott-Craig became one of the first mobile networks in the world to launch 3G data services.

Not only did Knott-Craig lead the construction of the largest cellular network in the country, he came out of retirement to take the reins at upstart mobile network Cell C.

There he lead a drive to reduce prices and increase network quality until he suffered a stroke in 2013, resulting in his departure as CEO.

He remained in an advisory role as an executive director for Cell C.

Ronnie Apteker

Ronnie Apteker co-founded a company called The Internet Solution in 1993 with two friends from university, Thomas McWalter and Philip Green, along with David Frankel.

The Internet Solution (TIS) would ultimately become Internet Solutions (IS), and be sold to Dimension Data.

In a report titled Internet Access in South Africa 2010, Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx, stated that TIS was one of Barrett and Pinkhams first clients at TICSA.

While TICSA clearly gave birth to the Internet Service Provider industry it was the arrival of TIS that commercialised the Internet access business, said Goldstuck.

Apteker remains at Internet Solutions, but is also an author and film producer. He joined Thinkst Applied Research in 2016.

Rudi Jansen

Rudi Jansen served as the CEO of MWEB from 2005 until 2012, and his stint there will be best remembered for introducing affordable uncapped ADSL in 2010.

When many other players in the industry were saying that uncapped data was unsustainable, Jansen doubled down and said anyone who thinks we could go back to a capped world is misguided.

Jansen was right, with even staunch opponents like Internet Solutions and Telkom offering uncapped broadband services in the end.

Jansen also fought for free and open peering. Combined with the availability of international content at NAPAfricas peering points, this resulted in dramatic reductions in the bandwidth costs of Internet service providers.

Jansen holds an independent non-executive directorship for CapeVin Investments, and is an independent non-executive director at Dark Fibre Africa.

Niel Schoeman

While Niel Schoemans presence in South Africas telecommunications sector has been relatively short, his impact has been tremendous.

His fibre infrastructure company emerged on the scene to win a bid from the Parkhurst Residents Association to roll out a fibre network, and the name Vumatel made headlines.

It opened a veritable floodgate, with neighbourhoods across South Africa launching bids to get infrastructure companies to roll out fibre.

Other companies who had been rolling out fibre slowly suddenly kicked into high gear. Vumatel continued rolling out its network across Johannesburg, eventually expanding to cities across South Africa.

Adding to this, Schoeman announced that Vumatel is rolling out fibre to townships.

Provided they can prove the business case for offering 100Mbps uncapped fibre for R89 per month in Alexandra, Shoeman believes they can connect 2.5 million households, or around 10 million people, within two years.

Schoeman recently stepped out of the role as CEO of Vumatel, and became its executive chairman.

Mike Silber

You will find few people with a CV as impressive as that of Mike Silber.

Silber served as a non-executive director at the .ZA Domain Name Authority from 2003 to 2015. He was also a non-executive director of TENET: The Tertiary Education and Research Network of South Africa from 2011 to 2017.

He was an adjudicator for the Wireless Application Service Providers Association from 2005 to 2009, and he was a consultant attorney for Michalsons from 2005 to 2009.

His involvement with the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) dates back to 2005, when he served as a regulatory adviser until 2009. Since August 2009, he has been an ISPA director.

From 2009 to 2011, Silber was Neotels regulator counsel for policy and special projects. In January 2011, he moved to Liquid Telecom as head of legal and commercial, a position he still holds.

Silber is also a director of the FTTX Council Africa since 2016, and has been an ICANN director since 2009.

Now read: The History of Internet access in South Africa"It's been a great experience," he said, "a lot of different classes, of course, that you need to go through. A lot of clinical hours. It's all good experience you get exposed to in the ER to see what it's like to be a paramedic in the ER versus ride time out in the field."

He said he applied for the job because he wanted to help people.

"I've always loved to be out serving my community, setting an example for people, really being there for people to help them on their worst day," he said, "so, that's really why I got into the job. It's a very rewarding career. I did a lot of the volunteer fire service, and it's always been my dream since I was in high school to be on a full-time fire department. Being that I like EMS and fire, Muscatine was a great choice for me."

Howell said having paramedic skills will provide better care for patients, especially during long transports.

"Having your paramedic and being able to do those extra things is going to be able to improve the patient's condition along the way," he said.

Help available in-house

Lt. Roy Patterson said hiring applicants with EMT certification may encourage some firefighters working in other communities such as Fruitland to come to Muscatine to get their paramedic training.Tacloban CityA veteran lawmaker in Eastern Samar is charged before the Office of the Ombudsman over alleged graft and corruption charges amounting to P5.37 million when he was a provincial governor 10 years ago. Edilberto Grata Jr., a private citizen, accused Eastern Samar congressman Ben Evardone of violating section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act when he granted financial assistance to the Liga ng mga Barangay of the Province of Eastern Samar. Grata, in his complaint, said that Evardone also entered into an informal agreement with an airline company, SEAIR, to exclusively transport the barangay chairpersons to Luzon in the guise of Lakbay Aral (Study Tour). He said that the conduct of the seminar-workshop in Luzon in February 2009 was to lure and entice the barangay chairpersons to travel to a prime tourist destination ensuring their attendance. Grata said that Evardone, who had expressed his intention to run as congressman in the 2010 elections as he was on his last term as governor during that time, also personally gave P1,000 to each barangay chairperson during the seminar. Evardones alleged actions caused undue injury to the provincial government, Grata said in his Jan. 14 complaint.According to Grata, his case is anchored on the COA Resolution decided by the Supreme Court with finality finding the disbursement of public funds by Ben Evardone to be excessive, unjustified and unreasonable. But Evardone, who is running as governor in the 2019 elections, said that the filing of the case is purely politically motivated. He added that the fund in questions were an aid to barangays which transferred to the Liga ng mga Barangays through a memorandum of understanding. It was the Liga that disbursed the funds, which were fully liquidated and supported by official receipts and airline tickets. So not a single centavo passed through me, said Evardone in a press statement.Not all of the 40 to 60 teams who are expected to participate in Snoflinga's skijoring runs will be beginners, though. Hansen, Kunesh, and Downey will all take part, as will competitors from around the state and region.

That the event is taking place at all was a relief to organizers, considering a mild winter that has led to the cancellation of skijoring events in Helena and Kalispell. But even in Butte on Friday, there was barely enough of the white stuff to get by.

"This is all of the snow in Butte," Downey said, surveying the course and explaining that county workers had been trucking snow into the lot at 2900 Hansen Road, near the YMCA, to make it.

As for the Brandenbergers, they were eager to give the sport  and the course  a try.

"I like to ride, and he likes to ski, so we figured we'd find a sport where we could meet in the middle," explained Kendall, a student in the University of Montana Western's Natural Horsemanship program.

While neither had tried the sport before, Seth noted it wouldn't be his first time being pulled at a high rate of speed on skis.

"In the '70s, I was pulled by a VW Bug around our house, and I was turned in by every neighbor," said Seth, who lives in Helena.Thanks for visiting !

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Thank you for your support!A woman who vanished from Great Falls last month has been found safe in Browning.

Brook-lyn Arrowtopknot had last been seen in Great Falls on the morning of Dec. 26 in the company of Guadalupe Pablo Galicia, who had previously been convicted of robbery and aggravated assault in connection with a 2014 gas station robbery, according to law enforcement. On Dec. 27, the Great Falls Police Department issued an Attempt to Locate bulletin.

On Friday, the Great Falls Police Department announced via Facebook that Arrowtopknot "has been located and she is safe."

"After receiving some very credible information, Detective [Doug] Mahlum traveled to Browning and, working closely with law enforcement officers from the U.S. Marshal Service Montana Violent Offender Task Force, Blackfeet Law Enforcement Services, Glacier County Sheriff's Office and the FBI. Arrowtopknot was found and Guadalupe Galicia was taken into custody."

The announcement said that the investigation was ongoing, and more information would be shared when possible.

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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.Kathleen Williams raised a record amount of money in 2018 for a Montana Democrat running for U.S. House in a general election.

The Bozeman Democrat who filed her year-end campaign reports Jan. 11, raised $4.1 million in her challenge to Republican incumbent Rep. Greg Gianforte. To put Williams fundraising in perspective, Denise Juneau, the Democratic House candidate in 2016, raised $2.7 million.

Only 2017 special election House candidate Rob Quist did better, raising $6.7 million in what was one of only seven federal elections that year, each pulling in extraordinary amounts of money.

Gianforte finished the election year with $3.7 million in total contributions, plus a $1 million personal loan. Gianforte made a fortune building the Bozeman software company RightNow Technologies, which was later sold to Oracle in a $1 billion stock purchase.

Williams told Lee Montana newspapers Wednesday that the amount of support she received, $1.1 million of which came from donations of $200 or less, was humbling. She plans to run for public office again, but hasnt chosen a race.The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes say their government has enough funds to continue operating  with caution amid the federal shutdown.

The four-week-old federal shutdown has stirred concerns and challenges throughout Indian Country, where tribal governments receive major financial support and services from federal agencies.

Last week Rick Eneas, the tribes director of financial management, stated that the tribes had enough of their own funds to operate as normal at least through Jan. 18.

In a message to tribal staff this past Thursday, shared with the Missoulian by tribal spokesperson Rob McDonald, he said the tribes plan to keep their services running.

He wrote there are no current plans to require any CSKT staff to be furloughed or have normal working hours reduced. All staff should continue to report to work according to their normal schedules.

Secondly, even though CSKT is in a strong enough position to avoid staff reductions, the shutdown is having a large impact on CSKTs finances so we are keeping the current spending restrictions in place. Eneas advised tribal staff to continue abiding by travel, personnel and other spending restrictions.

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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 former undersheriff in a Montana Hi-Line town is denying his second felony sex crime charge.

Luke Strommen, of Glasgow, has pleaded not guilty to two felonies: sexual intercourse without consent and sexual abuse of children.

During his recent arraignment in Valley County District Court on the rape charge, District Court Judge John Larson, of Missoula County, allowed Strommen to remain released on his own recognizance and remain free of a GPS monitor.

Strommen has been allowed similar conditions since his original felony was charged in October, but prosecutors argued new restrictions were necessary after charging him with rape in December.

Assistant Attorney General David Buchler had asked the court to impose a bond and require GPS monitoring.

It is the states position that the additional charge represents a change in circumstances in that instead of an isolated incident, (Strommen) is alleged to have engaged in a course of criminal sexual activity with underaged females, and that he utilized electronic devices in communicating with the alleged victims, Buchler wrote in a filing before the hearing.Friday was Rosie the Riveter Day, and Maynard and 20 or so other women and girls wore the familiar garb of the female work force that built such planes in bulk during the war.

Randy Schonemann of Neptune Aviation is the crew chief of Miss Montana. He said only a small percentage of workers at the Douglas Aircraft plant in Long Beach, California, were females when the war began. By 1944, they made up more than half the work force.

Miss Montana rolled off the assembly line there in May, a month before D-Day. Theres a good chance, Schonemann said, that her rivets were installed by women just like Maynard and the others at the museum Friday.

Its just very exciting to be able to take part in such a crazy idea. I love it, said Crystal Schonemann, Randys wife and second mechanic.

The two of them have headed up the disassembly and reassembly of Miss Montana that began last June and will be flying each leg of the journey to Europe for the D-Day celebration.

We are making leaps and bounds now, Crystal Schonemann said. It took some time to get the maintenance schedule and all that stuff rolling, but now that we got that its all coming together. The last three weeks weve really made a lot of progress.Usually, we say you dont give up public space because you will never get it back, but we cant find any other way to pay for the improvements that people are looking at now, he said. This is one that our team had very mixed feelings about.

The feedback on proposed changes to the Hip Strip were less supportive than those for Caras Park, with only about half voting in favor of the suggestions.

So a lot of people are not feeling this idea. Thats good, and well give this idea short shrift, King said. We dont want divisive ideas. We are searching for consensus ideas that everyone agrees upon.

The parking garage and proposed improvements near the depot and north in the old rail yard rated high in the unscientific poll, too.

King said theyre also suggesting Missoula incorporate more big art overall, showing photos of Chicagos silver bean or Cloud Scape sculpture in Millennial Park. Missoula is starting down the right path with the XXXXs near the depot and the Go with the Flow blue swirl near the Park Place parking structure.

You need more big art overall, King said, adding the city should erect walls around the downtown electrical substation and adorn them with murals. Small art is beautiful too."I am so happy I made it. Yes, the Filipino brand can."

Oryspa Spa Solutions Inc. founder and president Sherill Quintana

A Laguna-based entrepreneur who formulated rice bran-based health and beauty products became the first Filipino woman to win the Asia Pacific Women Entrepreneur Award conferred by the Confederation of Asia Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry at Carigan Palace, Kempinski, Istanbul, Turkey.The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry congratulated Sherill Quintana, the founder and president of Oryspa Spa Solutions Inc., for winning the prestigious award. Quintana serves as PCCIs Committee Chair for Women and Social Entrepreneurship. Quintana is a multi-awarded entrepreneur, educator and well-known in the country, particularly among micro, small and medium enterprises as mentor and advocate of the Filipino brand. Prior to her latest award, Quintana was named Outstanding Citizen of Los Banos 2017, while Oryspa was recognized as the Most Promising Franchise at the 2015 Franchise Excellence Award. She also won the Asean Business Awards for Excellence in Healthcare at the Asean Business Summit in Vientiane, Laos in 2016. Quintana, who obtained a degree in Sociology from the University of the Philippines, worked for the US Agency for International Development and World Wife Fund for Nature before establishing her business, with the support of her husband. The selection process was very rigorous. The panel of judges was composed of business leaders from different countries. I am so happy I made it. Yes, the Filipino brand can, Quintana said after winning.

Quintana teams up with Card Mutually Reinforcing Institution to come up with a lotion and beauty oil out of turmeric.

CACCI, a network of National Chambers of Commerce and Industry from 27 countries in Asia and the Western Pacific recognizes women entrepreneurs who are outstanding in entrepreneurial and leadership contribution to the social well-being of the local community, practice of good business ethics, and support of the chamber movement in the region. I am a living witness as to how Sherill struggled in her early years as a start-up entrepreneur. I am one of her mentors and I am proud how she is reaping the fruits of her labor and hardwork. It is indeed a well-deserved win PCCI president Ma. Alegria Limjoco said. Limjoco was with Quintana during the gala awards ceremony at the 32nd CACCI Conference on Nov. 24, 2018. Oryspa Spa Solutions Inc. is the number 1 maker of 100-percent rice bran based spa products in the Philippines. Quintana incorporated the health benefits of rice bran into personal care products such as shampoos, soaps, lotions, body scrubs under the Oryspa brand and launched the business in 2010. Oryspa opened its first stall in SM Calamba. Oryspa won the Asean Business Excellence Award in Healthcare 2016, Best in Social Responsibility Program and Most Outstanding Filipino Franchise of the Philippine Franchise Excellence Awards 2017.It inspires other MSMEs to level up, go mainstream and export their brands prompting its founder Quintana to launch the advocacy project Yes The Filipino Brand Can and publish the book A Small Entrepreneurs Journey: How to Start, Survive, Succeed in 2016.Frenchtown School District officials plan to resume classes as normal Tuesday, as they and police continue to investigate a threat of violence.

According to the Missoula County Sheriffs Office, that agency's detectives have been working with the Missoula County Attorney's Office and Frenchtown school administrators about an incident in which a student reportedly raised the possibility of a school shooting.

Speaking with the Missoulian Friday morning, Superintendent Randy Cline said that it was just basically a verbal threat that was made in front of other students. Those students informed their parents, and those parents were concerned enough to give us a call.

Classes at Frenchtown High School were cancelled Friday. In a news release, the district explained that school officials determined it would be best to cancel school on Friday and give the District and law enforcement time to fully investigate the threat before bringing students back to school.After it was uncovered Thrush had ingested meth before testifying, District Judge John Parker reversed the Great Falls man's conviction and issued a grave rebuke of Thrush's actions.

"The manifest hypocrisy in this situation  when a Montana Department of Justice employee with meth in his system testified and helped secure another man's meth possession conviction  is abhorrent," Parker wrote.

In testimony on Friday, Thrush admitted to taking between two-tenths and six-tenths of a gram of meth each time he skimmed the drug off the testing table.

"That's impressive," McCubbin said, "considering that most of the cases we charge are less than that."

The weight of drugs destroyed are not recorded or audited, Thrush said, so no one would have known he was taking it instead of disposing it.

Thrush said Friday he had begun taking the meth to cope after he began having delusions and hallucinations.Introducing The Main Index

There are now over 41,000 individual posts here on A Light In The Darkness. They have all been individually added into Main Index categories.



To get the full experience out of A Light In The Darkness and its very extensive library of items, covering virtually all things paranormal, supernatural etc ... we recommend that you flick down the Main Index, which runs down the right hand side of the blog page ... to find the indexed category in which the subject matter you seek is located.



Alternatively, why not use long search bar you will find towards the top of the blog page ...



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Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on Jan. 18

POCATELLO  Police have charged a Pocatello elementary school teacher with two sex crimes against a child.

Tiffany Marie Petersen was charged in Bannock County on Wednesday with one count of rape of a child under 16 and lewd conduct against a child, according to the Idaho Repository.

Petersen, 46, teaches fourth grade at Syringa Elementary School in the Pocatello-Chubbuck School District. She was arrested Wednesday and released on her own recognizance Thursday, according to state court filings.

The district announced Jan. 18 that it placed a teacher on administrative leave until further notice.

This is a decision that was in the best interest of our students and the district, said Superintendent Douglas Howell. As a public school district, we accept the responsibility to protect the safety and well-being of our students and staff in a positive learning environment.

If convicted, Petersen could receive a life sentence.

Petersens arraignment is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Love 1 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 17TWIN FALLS  A judge denied a post-conviction relief request earlier this month from a former College of Southern Idaho employee who embezzled more than $530,000 from the college.

Dawn Marie Orr  a former CSI business office employee  pleaded guilty to five felony counts of grand theft. She was sentenced in July 2015 in Twin Falls County Fifth District Court to at least 10 years in prison, with the potential of serving up to 70 years. Orr was also ordered to pay $677,735.58 in restitution.

Orr filed a petition for post-conviction relief in August 2017. In a judgment Jan. 10, Judge Benjamin Cluff dismissed the case.

Orr has not borne her burden in proving that she is entitled to post-conviction relief, according to a memorandum decision.

In her petition, Orr made nine claims, which she alleges provide her relief from her conviction, according to the memorandum decision. Those are ineffective assistance of counsel, improper consideration of evidence by the District Court, bias by the District Court and the states alleged breach of a plea agreement.Some days the daughters struggle to honor their principles when caring for their mothers emotional needs, and some days they dont do a good job of caring for themselves. Often, they are befuddled by the emotional whirlpool caused by living so close to someone who is nearing the end.

How can they help each other? The three women are working with others to form communities that offer support, resources and sometimes just evenings of whining with wine.

The public is welcome to hear about Daughterhood at the Magic Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at 160 Ninth Ave. E., Twin Falls.

Unitarian Universalism honors the differing paths individuals travel. Congregations are places where people celebrate, support and challenge one another as they continue on their spiritual journeys.

Unitarian Universalists covenant to affirm and promote: the inherent worth and dignity of every person; justice, equality and compassion in human relations; and acceptance of one another.

Newcomers of all religious paths, or none at all, are always welcome. Child care is available. The center is handicapped-accessible.Near the end of the Secretarys term, he confided in me that during his time in the Senate he believed the accomplishments of state government were due to the efforts of the Legislature and governor. Only after his time working with state employees did he come to understand and appreciate their valuable contributions. I will never forget his concluding comment: The state gets its work done because folks in agencies like this one get up, head out and do their jobs every day.

The governor and Legislature are entitled to respect as political leaders whose positions reflect the trust placed in them by Wisconsin voters. They establish the laws and set the general policy direction for the state. But state employees deserve respect as well. Im not talking about honors, accolades or pay increases. Im talking about simple respect for the day-to-day work they do in carrying out the laws, furthering the policies, and administering the programs established by the governor and Legislature.

Consistent with the new governors executive order, heres hoping that he, his agency leaders and both houses of the Legislature acknowledge that morale of state workers is a priority. Workers should be respectfully considered a part of the team in tackling myriad complex issues state government faces.

The states motto provides the impetus for creating the collaborative work environment essential to moving Wisconsin forward.

Stier, of Madison, is a public health law consultant and former chief legal counsel for the state Department of Health Services, senior policy analyst with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and national director of the Network for Public Health Law: danstierllc@gmail.com.Pearson said the first Womens March in 2017 was a reactionary moment in response to Trumps election to express outrage, but the Womens March movement plans to continue pressure no matter what administration is in office.

People are realizing more and more that no matter who it is at the helm, we still have problems that we have to solve, and were going to have to stay in this longer than a Donald Trump presidency to do so, Pearson said.

The national Womens March group has been lambasted in past months for alleged anti-Semitism, stemming from accusations made by one of its founders, Teresa Shook, in November.

Pearson said the group has noted those claims and is working with rabbis and Jewish leaders to be more inclusive of the community and counter any prejudices among members of the movement.

We all come to this, we have biases and baggage and trauma and things that we need to sort of dismantle and heal from, and I think thats something we see on the national level, Pearson said.

She also said that the Womens March movement needs to work through those issues. She said others who are against the movement may try to pit the marginalized groups in the movement against each other to break it.The Madison Diocese has been watching closely the growing trend across the United States of conducting similar investigations by a number of dioceses and religious communities, King said.

The investigations have followed a grand jury investigation in Pennsylvania that identified nearly 300 predator priests dating back seven decades. It also accused church leaders of covering up the abuses.

Since last August, about 50 dioceses and religious orders have publicly identified more than 1,000 priests and others accused of sexually assaulting children and nearly 55 more have announced plans to do the same, the Associated Press reported. That is more than half of the nations dioceses.

About 20 local, state or federal investigations have been launched since the release of the grand jury findings, according to the AP. That could lead to the identification of more clergy members with allegations of sexual abuse of minors, fines against dioceses and more court-ordered safety measures.

Thats the way Wisconsin should move, said Peter Isely of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Other states have launched their own investigations and theres more evidence of abuse and cover-ups among the dioceses in Wisconsin than in many of those states, Isely said.The Dane County Medical Examiners Office has identified the man who was found dead in a field in Marshall on Thursday as Kurt Meyer, 47, of Cottage Grove.

Meyers body was found in a field behind the 300 block of Fir Lane at about 10:20 a.m.

An autopsy did not reveal any evidence of external-inflicted life-threatening trauma, Medical Examiners Office spokesman Barry Irmen said.

A cause and manner of death has not been identified, Irmen said.

Before finding the body, Marshall police said officers had been called to the Evergreen Village mobile home park at 100 Evergreen Boulevard at about 9:10 a.m. to assist the state Department of Corrections Probation and Parole Office with a suspicious vehicle complaint.

Both incidents appear to be linked, police said.

The Marshall Police Department, state Division of Criminal Investigation, Dane County Sheriffs Office and Medical Examiners Office are continuing to investigate the death.

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.Jeff Knitter, director of planning for wholesale energy at WPSCs parent company, WEC Energy Group, said customers in general  including those of WPSC  have an interest in replacing coal and natural gas generators with renewable energy based on reports in the news media, trade publications and protesters outside our offices.

There were no public comments made at Fridays hearing. The PSC received two written comments on the utilities proposal. One was a letter from Madison Mayor Paul Soglin in support of the utility plans; the other referenced a different issue.

It will be up to the three-member PSC to determine whether purchasing the solar farms will impair the utilitys efficiency, exceed their future needs or increase the cost of service without also increasing the value or quality of service.

Earlier this week Newmark heard evidence in a parallel case to consider whether to allow the private developers to build the solar farms. Under the proposed arrangement, the utilities would take over the project once the commission approves it for the developers.

In an unusual step, the commission has scheduled a March 6 hearing for oral arguments where utilities and other parties can make their case and commissioners can ask questions of the applicants.A notice submitted Friday to the state by Shopko reveals in at least one way the struggles for the Wisconsin-based retailer.

When the two Shopko stores in Madison close in April, only 63 people will lose their jobs, according to a notification submitted by the company to the state Department of Workforce Development. The number is significantly lower from when the two stores opened in the 1980s, when they combined to employ nearly 600 people, according to stories published in the Wisconsin State Journal at the time.

The Ashwaubenon retailer announced this week that as a result of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing it would close 38 stores nationally, including 10 stores in Wisconsin. The workforce reduction notice, submitted Friday, listed only the Madison stores at 7401 Mineral Point Road at West Towne Mall and on the East Side at 2201 Zeier Road.

When the West Side Shopko opened in 1980, the company hired 325 people. The East Side store, which opened in 1988, had 260 employees at its opening, according to State Journal reports at the time.The shutdown, he said, has left the laboratory unable to meet its obligations under research agreements.

Many of these cooperators have put money and time into projects we are working on together, he said. Right now we are unable to hold up our end of these agreements and are not meeting our deadlines for developing scientific information to help them and the American public.

He called the impact on employees huge.

He said some have found themselves in financial straits. For example, one scientist has tapped his 401(k) to make ends meet, he said. Another employee has a spouse who also works a federal job. The couple, deprived of two paychecks, is struggling with a new mortgage and a young child.

He also said that a Ph.D. student at the lab who is supposed to graduate in May could be forced to delay her graduation because she cant pay her tuition.

These are hardworking, educated, solid citizens that want to do their jobs, he said. They did not go on strike, they are not poor performers, the only thing stopping them from doing their job is that the United States government has not passed a budget for 2019!

Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less.In that decision, Peterson also ruled that expired but otherwise qualifying student IDs could be used to vote, and that temporary IDs issued by the state for voting must be valid for 180 days.

How did Peterson decide the most recent challenge?

About a month after the challenge was filed, Peterson ruled that the three provisions in question could not be enforced.

"This is not a close question: the three challenged provisions are clearly inconsistent with the injunctions that the court has issued in this case," he wrote.

Although the defendants in the case  at the time represented by now-former Attorney General Brad Schimel  argued it was not their intent to violate Peterson's original ruling, the judge found that it did not matter why the Legislature enacted the law, only that it violated the court's decision.

What happens next?

Attorney General Josh Kaul was sworn in on Jan. 7. Before his campaign, he represented One Wisconsin Institute and Citizen Action of Wisconsin in the 2016 lawsuit. Because of that, he is walled off from the case.Local men David Valenzuela and George Corrales, who both served in World War II, were awarded the French Legion of Honor medal during a ceremoLunaticoutpost.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program , anaffiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.Amazon, the Amazon logo, MYHABIT, and the MYHABIT logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.Don't be a pest to the forum.No profanity in thread-titles or usernamesNo excessive profanity in postsNo Racism, Antisemitism + HateNo calls for violence against anyone..This website exists for fun and discussion only. The reader is responsible for discerning the validity, factuality or implications of information posted here, be it fictional or based on real events. The content of posts on this site, including but not limited to links to other web sites, are the expressed opinion of the original poster and are in no way representative of or endorsed by the owners or administration of this website. The posts on this website are the opinion of the specific author and are not statements of advice, opinion, or factual information on behalf of the owner or administration of LunaticOutPost.Com. The owners or administration of this website can't be hold responsible for content hosted on sites that posters link to in; including, but not limited to, posts, signatures, private messages and such. This site may contain content not suitable for minors and if you feel you might be offended by such content, you should log off immediately.This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Users may make such material available in an effort to advance awareness and understanding of issues relating to civil rights, economics, individual rights, international affairs, liberty, science & technology, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.In accordance with industry accepted best practices we ask that users limit their copy / paste of copyrighted material to the relevant portions of the article you wish to discuss (no more than 50% of the source material) provide a link back to the original articleIf you are a legal copyright holder or a designated agent for such and you believe a post on this website falls outside the boundaries of "Fair Use" and legitimately infringes on yours or your clients copyright please contact [email protected] This website is owned by :Marco ZwaneveldDrijfriemstraat 522516 XR The HagueNetherlands.I will not rent, sell, share or otherwise disclose your personal information to any third party.We might contact you from time to time regarding your purchases or the services (like forums and announcement lists) you have subscribed to.Some of the 3rd party advertisers on lunaticoutpost.com may use cookiesto track peformance and/or to serve relevant ads.If you wish to read more and/or opt out of such cookies, please visit: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/An electric pickup would be ideal for customers with the right needs, said Jim Farley, President of Global Markets at Ford. A gasoline-powered truck is shown here.The district will agree to lease the ground to the LPS Building Corporation that the Sandoz addition will be built upon. This ground lease will automatically terminate when construction is completed and the district has made its lease-purchase payments, which is the cost of the additions construction, said Hakonson. The lease agreement was approved.

The board then considered approval of a memorandum terminating the lease-purchase and site lease agreement for the Lexington High School project. Hakonson said this simply puts into writing that the high school project is indeed finished and that the leases have terminated. The memorandum was approved.

During the reports and comments period, Hakonson reviewed highlights from the District report card for the 2017-18 year. The information came from the most recent AQuESTT student performance data.

In the student demographics section Hakonson noted 76 percent of the LPS students are eligible for free and reduced lunch prices compared to the states average of 46 percent. The Lexington school district has the second highest poverty rate, only behind Madison."We need to find a platform which can handle all these different components," said Doyle, "There are two ways to anticipate technology, one is considering how long the current set up will last and second, consider what components can you upgrade."

Attorney Dean gave the commissioners an example of a shortfall with the current technology set up. If a defendant is being tried in the courtroom, who does not speak English and an interpreter is not on hand at the courthouse, the court must place call, from the phone on Judge Doyles bench, to the state where an appropriate interpreter can be found. This can take several minutes, said Dean.

Then the phone must be physically brought down from the bench, Dean said, and the lawyer, defendant, judge and prosecutor must crowd around the phone listening as the information in English, gets translated into the defendants language. The interpreters response must also be relayed back in English to the rest of the group.

Doyle said when a defendant witnesses this whole process; he said he wonders if the defendant thinks they are actually receiving due process. Doyle said he tries to put himself in the place of the defendant and said he wondered, "Do they know what they are doing, they dont even speak my language."An Oregon State University graduate student who was convicted of hate crimes has re-enrolled at the university following his release from jail.

An attorney for Andrew Oswalt also has filed a notice of intent to appeal the judgment against Oswalt.

Oswalt was sentenced Dec. 12 to 40 days in jail after being convicted of three counts of first-degree intimidation and two counts of third-degree criminal mischief in November. He was discharged early on Jan. 10.

According to a university spokesperson, Oswalt was not enrolled for winter term at the time of his sentencing, but he was enrolled as a part-time student for winter term as of Thursday.

Oswalt, 28, was found guilty by Benton County Circuit Court Judge David B. Connell of targeting the cars outside a meeting of activists at the First Alternative Co-Op south and placing racist bumper stickers on them.

Steve Clark, OSU vice president of university relations and marketing, said OSU policy allows people convicted of felonies to enroll. He said as of February last year, the university does require all new and continuing students to self-report felony convictions before enrolling.

Thousands of Belgian students stayed away from school the past two Thursdays to join protests in Brussels.

The protesters have been demanding action to fight climate change.

The first demonstration took place on January 10. Organizers have announced plans to keep holding demonstrations every Thursday. Many students have promised to skip classes and join the protesters.

About 3,000 Belgian students attended the first protest, called Youth for Climate, the Brussels Times reported. More than 10,000 students joined the second demonstration, held on January 17. The number included young people from both the countrys Flemish-speaking north and French-speaking south.

That day, protesters faced cold and wet weather conditions in Brussels. They carried signs with messages like School strike 4 Climate and Skipping school? No. We fight for our future. The demonstrations were peaceful, with no incidents reported.

More than 75,000 people took to the streets of Brussels last month in Belgiums largest-ever climate march. But the latest protests were held especially for school-aged students who chose to miss class.

The student protesters have demanded stronger government environment policies relating to climate change.

Before the first protest, school officials warned students that missing school  even to attend a demonstration  violated school and government policies.

But before the second protest, many schools decided to give students permission to take part, the Brussels Times reported. The newspaper said students would be asked to prove their presence by showing a picture of themselves at the protest.

Patrick Lancksweerdt is the director of one school. He told De Standaard newspaper that education has to turn youngsters into mature citizens. By their actions, they proved that they are.

The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) has expressed support for the student marches. The EEB is a collection of environmental activist groups across Europe. It has urged European leaders to support action to reduce dependence on coal, oil and natural gas.

The EEB says the idea for school strike movements centered on the Earths environment came from Swedish student activist Greta Thunberg. She received attention for skipping school one day a week so that she could demonstrate in front of Swedens parliament building.

The movement started in Sweden seems to be growing. On January 18, thousands of students in Germany and Switzerland chose to skip class to press for more action against climate change.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English. His report was based on information from the Associated Press and Brussels Times. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

skip  v. not do something you would usually do

mature  adj. fully developed physically and emotionallyPeople in many parts of North and South America will be able to see a total lunar eclipse Sunday night and early Monday morning.

A lunar eclipse happens when the moon passes through Earths shadow as our planet goes around the Sun. This kind of event does not happen every year. The last lunar eclipse seen in the United States took place in September 2015.

The eclipse this weekend is special. The moon will be a little closer than it normally is to the Earth. For this reason, it will appear brighter than usual. Such a moon has come to be called a supermoon.

Astrophysicist Patrick Hartigan told the Associated Press, It not only is a supermoon and its a total eclipse, but the total eclipse also lasts pretty long. Its about an hour. Hartigan works at Rice University in Texas.

If skies are clear, the total lunar eclipse also will be partly visible in western Europe. It will be fully visible in Greenland and Iceland.

When the moon is completely eclipsed, it looks darker and appears to have an orange or even a red color. That is because the reduced amount of sunlight which reaches the moon is scattered by the Earths atmosphere. A sunset on Earth looks orange for a similar reason.

Because of its reddish color, an eclipsed moon is sometimes called a blood moon.

In North America, there are traditional names given to each of the 12 full moons that happen throughout the year. Januarys full moon is known as the wolf moon or the great spirit moon. So this weekends eclipse is being called a super, blood, wolf moon by some people.

The eclipse will begin shortly after sunset in eastern North America and South America depending on where you are. A total lunar eclipse can be seen easily with the unaided eye.

Hartigan said, Its just a wonderful thing for the whole family to see because its fairly rare to have all these things kind of come together at the same time.

While the moon, Earths only natural satellite, will be closer than usual, it still will be 357,000 kilometers away from our planet. This will be the first of three full-moon supermoons this year.

The next total lunar eclipse visible anywhere in the world will not happen until May 2021.

Im Mario Ritter Jr.

Mario Ritter adapted this AP story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

Are you going to watch the lunar eclipse? We want to hear from you. Write about it in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

lunar  adj. related to the moon

eclipse  n. an event in which either the sun is hidden by the moon or the moon is hidden by the Earths shadow

shadow  n. an area of darkness created when a source of light is blocked

scatter  v. to divide into small parts or pieces; to cause to separate widelyFriday, January 18, 2019



The Sahara, photo by Luca Galuzzi

Isn't that a wonderfully click-baity header? Where, pray tell, are anti-trafficking laws having a major impact? It's not the United States. It's in Niger.

As the BBC reports, Niger has been criminally prosecuting people smugglers since 2015. The crime is punished by a hefty jail sentence and confiscation of the vehicle used for smuggling.

Prior to the enactment of this law, which was passed under European pressure, people smuggling was entirely legal. And just one region of Niger, the Agadez Region (bordering the Sahara), hosted some 6,000 smugglers. It was profitable work, earning smugglers upwards of $6,000 a week to shepherd migrants across the Sahara to the Libyan border.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants crossed by this route. Now migration is a "relative trickle" and a far more dangerous undertaking.

The entire article is worth reading. The BBC details the horrors facing migrants both in crossing the dessert (near death, violence) and in Libya itself (slavery, extortion).

-KitJ

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2019/01/where-anti-trafficking-laws-are-reducing-migration.htmlThe Government Shutdown: Another Storm for Black Farmers, Cooperatives, and Southern Rural Communities

Storm-weary Southern Farmers now face fresh economic fears amid a political storm which seems to have no end in sight. While there is no worry about wind or water this time, farmers still recovering from the impacts of Hurricanes Michael and Florence are now feeling the impact of the government shutdown.

It was anticipated that the new Farm Bill would offer hope for improving farming economies into 2019  especially after major 2018 farm losses from natural disasters and the trade war. However, the government shutdown now in its 19th day has had a chilling effect on economic outlook and optimism for the new year. Farmers waiting for direct payments, market assistance loans, market facilitation payments and disaster assistance program payments, particularly in a time of farm crisis, are being left high and dry.

The unexpected disruption in government services means that farmers are looking for support and guidance from farm organizations like the Federation to help them stabilize their farms. The Federations Georgia Field Office which is typically busy providing technical assistance to farmers and helping with farm loan applications are getting phone calls from very worried farmers. Cornelius Key, the FederationsGeorgia State Coordinator, who is also a farmer and rancher says, Small farmers that normally submit farm loan applications in December and January cant submit loans at the moment. The shutdown will have a domino effect as it ultimately leads to a decreased harvest, greater farm debt, and loan defaults that could translate to land and farm losses. As a leading non-profit cooperative association representing over 20,000 rural black farmers and landowners, cooperatives, credit unions, and community based economic development groups across the rural south, the Federation historically plays a pivotal advocacy role in bringing equity for black farmers and rural communities through many efforts.

ADVERTISEMENT

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is one of the Federations major partners supplying resources through various agencies including Natural Resource and Conservation Service, Rural Development, Farm Service Agency, and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. While the government is shutdown, we are unable to access needed resources as part of our contracts and agreements with the USDA agencies and continue to provide valuable education, outreach, and technical assistance to our membership. The shutdown also makes it difficult to fulfill the financial obligations the Federation has to its staff, partners and vendors. We would like the President and Congress to understand the crippling effect of this shutdown, Cornelius Blanding, Executive Director of the Federation said.

No matter what side of the political fence one falls, farm and rural development advocates will agree that the shutdown will cause much harm if not resolved very soon. Ben Burkett, the Federations Mississippi State Coordinator, and a fourth-generation farmer states that  The soybean farmers are anxiously awaiting delayed payments they were promised because of losses from the trade war. Farmers implementing conservation practices that allow them to manage their farms in the protection of air, water, and soil are delayed.

The overall sentiment is hopeful while weathering this storm. For an organization that is 51 years old, this isnt the worst the Federation has endured; but that all depends on how long this shutdown lasts and the economic impact it has on farms and rural communities.

Farm Bill Fact Sheet

The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, entering its 51 st year, assists limited resource farmers, landowners, and cooperatives across the South with business planning, debt restructuring, marketing expertise, and a whole range of other services to ensure the retention of land ownership and cooperatives as a tool for social and economic justice. The overall mission is to reverse the trend of black land loss and be a catalyst for the development of self-supporting communities via cooperative economic development, land retention and advocacy.Advertisement

Documents Detail Nancy President President Pelosis $185,000 CODEL to Italy and Ukraine in 2015

Washington, DC)  Judicial Watch announced today that it obtained documents through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Air Force detailing $134,587.81 plus $50,000 for an advance of funds for an escort officer for a total of $184.587.81 for then-House Minority Leader Nancy President President Pelosis (D-CA) Congressional delegation (CODEL) to Italy and Ukraine in 2015.

The documents show that from July 30 to August 6, Pelosi took a trip to Milan, Rome and Naples, Italy, and Kiev, Ukraine, for herself, her husband, several members of congress and their spouses. The Italy trip included Milan, Rome and Naples with visits to the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, Duomo and viewing Da Vincis Last Supper.

The documents also show the Air Forces negative response to a Pelosi staff request for a specific crew for Pelosis flight. An official notes that it: would be a disastrous precedent to set even if it were possible. The Air Force further points out: Our ARC crews have plenty to balance already with military duties and their civilian employers.

The documents also detail a CODEL trip for Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO), who traveled commercial flights to Asia, including Tokyo and Okinawa, Japan; Seoul, Korea; plus Beijing and Hong Kong, China. This trip, with flights and per diems, cost at least $26,009.03.

Judicial Watch previously uncovered that Pelosis military travel cost the United States Air Force $2,100,744.59 over one two-year period  $101,429.14 of which was for in-flight expenses, including food and alcohol.

Judicial Watchs work exposing Pelosis travel abuses resulted in her successor John Boehner declining to use Air Force luxury jets to travel to his Ohio congressional district.

Judicial Watch filed a December 2015 FOIA lawsuit after the Air Force failed to respond to an August 2015 request (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Defense (No 1:15-cv-02236)) for:All records regarding mission taskings of flights escorting members of CongressAll records concerning transportation costs for transporting members of CongressAll passenger manifests (DD-2131) for transporting members of CongressAll weekly travel reports for members of CongressSpeaker Pelosi has a demonstrated record of abusing the perks of office that give her access to military luxury travel paid for by taxpayers, said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.Harris on Unpaid Government Workers: They dont need a wall. They need a paycheck.

U.S. Senator Kamala D. Harris spoke on the Senate floor this week to call on her colleagues to immediately take up bipartisan legislation to re-open the government and put federal employees in California and across the country back to work. In her remarks, she noted that before the holidays the Senate unanimously passed legislation to re-open the government and that the president has consistently stood in the way of ending the shutdown.

Key Points from Senator Harris Remarks:

The real obstacle to ending this shutdown is in the White House. The President is holding the American people hostage over his vanity project on the southern borderand hes peddling his usual propaganda to distract from a crisis of his own making.

Last week for example, I heard from a woman named Trisha. Trisha and her husband are both air traffic controllers with nearly 40 years of federal service combined. Trishas husband served in the Navy. He now has to work long hours of overtime to compensate for the workers who are absent because theyve been furloughed. And hes not being paid. Trishas job was deemed non-essential, so shes also not being paid. 

Americans need their government to do its job. They dont need a wall. They need a paycheck. Congress is a coequal branch of government. We dont need a permission slip before we can vote on a bill. So on behalf of Trisha and hundreds of thousands of Americans like her, lets take up the legislation that we already approved. Lets send it to the President.

ADVERTISEMENTColumbia Borough police

CRIMINAL MISCHIEF

COLUMBIA: Joshua H. Tober, age and address unknown, was charged with criminal mischief after police received a call of damage to an automobile on the 100 block of South 6th Street on Jan. 13, police said. The caller said Tober caused the damage to their vehicle, a 2005 Dodge Ram 3500, police said. Damage of the vehicle is estimated at more than $2,300, according to police.

DUI

COLUMBIA: Ricky Dale Heyn, 61, of Columbia, was charged after a traffic stop Jan. 7 near South Fourth and Manor streets, police said.

COLUMBIA: Joseph Lamont Thomas, 29, no address given, was charged after he admitted during a commercial motor vehicle check Dec. 19 near Route 30 West and Malleable Road to smoking marijuana, police said.

East Cocalico Township police

BURGLARY

DENVER: Scott P. Wentzel, 28, of Ephrata, was charged with burglary and theft by unlawful taking after taking cash and gift cards between Dec. 7 and 9 from a home in the first block of North Third Street, police said.

DUI

EAST HEMPFIELD TWP.: Sally A. Kirkpatrick, 43, of Ephrata, was charged after a traffic stop Dec. 26 in the 900 block of North Reading Road, police said.

EAST COCALICO TWP.: Luis O. Cabrera-Ayala, 22, of Berks County, was charged with DUI and possession of marijuana after a vehicle stop for a traffic violation Nov. 4 in the 2000 block of North Reading Road, police said.

THEFT

DENVER: Brent C. Bowman, 41, of Ephrata, was charged with retail theft and possession of drug paraphernalia after being arrested on an outstanding warrant Jan. 16 at a home in the 800 block of Oak Street, police said. Bowman had drug paraphernalia with him, and he also allegedly stole about $20 in food earlier in the day from Turkey Hill in Denver, police said.

Ephrata Borough police

HIT-AND-RUN

EPHRATA: Police are investigating a hit-and-run crash at the intersection of South Reading Road (Route 272) and Meadow Valley Road on Jan. 16. A green Ford Mustang was hit by a small, light colored car, causing severe body damage to the Mustang, police said. The driver of the light colored vehicle fled the scene. Anyone with information is asked to contact Ephrata Borough police at 717-738-9200, ext. 272.

SIMPLE ASSAULT

EPHRATA TWP.: Ashley A. Young, 28, was charged after a domestic dispute at a home in the first block of Regan Drive on Jan. 8, police said.

Lititz Borough police

FALSE ID

LITITZ: Michael C. Sanchez, 27, of Lititz, was charged after giving police an incorrect name and date of birth after a traffic stop Jan. 8 in the 100 block of Owl Hill Road, police said.

Manheim Township police

CRIMINAL MISCHIEF

MANHEIM TWP.: A window of a home in the 100 block of Canterbury Turn was smashed between Dec. 20 and 24 for a loss of $500, police said.

DRUG CHARGES

LANCASTER TWP.: Sawyer Christian Smith, 19, of Hummelstown, was a charged with possession with intent to deliver marijuana, LSD, cocaine and THC oil and possession of drug paraphernalia and prohibited offensive weapons after a traffic stop for erratic driving, police said

MEGANS LAW VIOLATION

MANHEIM TWP.: Ralph Eugene Smith, 56, who is homeless, was charged with failure to comply with registration requirements after updating his address Nov. 20 to residing at Walmart, 2030 Fruitville Pike, police said. He is required to update his address every 30 days as a lifetime Megans Law offender, police said. A warrant was issued for his arrest, and anyone with information is asked to call 717-569-6401.

THEFT

LANCASTER TWP.: A pistol was stolen Jan. 15 or 16 from a vehicle in the 1000 block of Wheatland Avenue, police said.

MANHEIM TWP.: A resident of the 1900 block of Glendower Drive wired rent money to a source incorrectly believed to be the property owner Jan. 14 for a loss of $2,445, police said.

MANHEIM TWP.: A male left his wallet at LA Fitness, 1300 Lititz Pike, Jan. 11 and found the next morning that $210 had been taken from it, police said.

THEFT CHARGES

LANCASTER TWP.: Fernando Cruz Doitteau, 37, of Lancaster, was charged after he was seen stealing two bags of shrimp worth $69.90 on Jan. 5 from Weis Markets, 1204 Millersville Pike, police said. A warrant was issued for his arrest, and anyone with information is asked to call 717-569-6401.

MANHEIM TWP.: Anthony Joseph Selkirk, 26, no known address, was charged with forgery and theft after he stole three letters containing checks Nov. 19 or 20 from the mailbox of Kids Cowboy Dentistry, 394 Roseville Road, police said. He allegedly increased the amounts and cashed them using a mobile deposit, police said. A warrant was issued for his arrest, and anyone with information is asked to call 717-569-6401.

Mount Joy Borough police

DISORDERLY CONDUCT

MOUNT JOY: Jeremy Donald Wade, 44, of Lititz, was charged with DUI after he was seen swerving and stopped Jan. 12 in the 900 block of West Main Street, police said. Around 1:30 a.m. Jan. 13, he was found intoxicated and being loud in the 400 block of West Main Street, and was charged with disorderly conduct and public drunkenness, police said.

ENDANGERING CHILDREN

MOUNT JOY: Karen M. Landis, 32, unknown address, was charged Jan. 10 with endangering the welfare of children and possession of drug paraphernalia after having children, ages 14 months and 7, in her care with drug paraphernalia in reach Sept. 27, 2017, in the 400 block of West Main Street, police said.

FALSE REPORT

MOUNT JOY: Richard Martin Decker, 30, of Conestoga, was charged with false alarms to agencies of public safety and false reports to law enforcement authorities after reporting to police that his vehicle was stolen at gunpoint and his girlfriend kidnapped Jan. 3 in the 100 block of Delta Street, police said.

ROBBERY

MOUNT JOY: Brian Charles Conrad, 37, of Columbia, was charged with robbery and theft by unlawful taking after displaying a weapon and taking a Salvation Army donation can and $31.10 from a cash register Dec. 21 at Turkey Hill, 703 E. Main St., police said.

THEFT CHARGES

MOUNT JOY: Randy Lee Witherspoon, 27, of Mount Joy, was charged with retail theft after taking merchandise worth $10.60 on Jan. 1 from Dollar General, 553 W. Main St., police said.

New Holland police

DRUG CHARGES

NEW HOLLAND: Tyler Kuster, 28, of New Holland, was charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia after police responded to a report of a suspicious activity Jan. 12 behind a church in the 200 block of West Main Street, police said.

DUI

EARL TWP.: Christopher Millisock, 43, of New Holland, was charged after a vehicle accident Jan. 16 at Rank and East Earl roads, police said.

EARL TWP.: Durrell Seibel, 19, of Narvon, was charged after a vehicle accident Dec. 30 in the 600 block of Martindale Road, police said.

State police

BURGLARY

CONESTOGA TWP.: Sometime between Dec. 5 and 18, someone stole several rifles from a residence in the 6000 block of River Road, police said.

DUI

WEST EARL TWP.: David Joseph Donahue, no age given, Akron, was charged after a vehicle stop Dec. 22 at Route 222 North and West Main Street, police said.

West Hempfield Township

DRUG CHARGES

WEST HEMPFIELD TWP.: Ryan Daniel Dunn, 37, of Columbia, was charged with possession of marijuana after a traffic stop Jan. 13 on Columbia Avenue, police said.Three J.P. McCaskey High School students were charged after getting in a physical confrontation with a manager at a McDonalds in Lancaster on Monday, according to police.

All three female students were charged as juveniles with trespassing, disorderly conduct and harassment following the incident.

Staff at the McDonald's at 575 N. Franklin St. called police shortly after 1:30 p.m. Monday after the students were being unruly and refused to leave. Police said by the time they arrived, the students had left the restaurant and were unable to be located.

However, the three students later returned and confronted the restaurant manager.

A physical altercation ensued with the three students pulling the managers hair and striking her, police said.

Other McDonalds employees intervened to separate the manager from the students and called police to the scene again.

The students left the restaurant a second time, but police were able to identify them with the help of staff at the School District of Lancaster.

School district superintendent Damaris Rau released a statement on the incident at the McDonalds along with another incident the district said occurred on Thursday between a parent of a student and a peer.

I want to be clear that violence is unacceptable, inside or outside of school, Rau said on both incidents. We are cooperating fully with these police investigations and support all appropriate charges in these cases.A central Pennsylvania lawmaker announced Friday he is resigning his seat midway through his third term.

Republican state Sen. Richard Alloway II, of Chambersburg, said he is leaving his seat on Feb. 28 "to move on to other endeavors and pursue new opportunities."

Alloway did not say what those pursuits would be, and he was not available for comment.

In a written statement, Alloway wrote:

It has been an honor and a privilege to hold this position and to be the voice for local communities in Harrisburg for the past decade in the Senate. I am extremely grateful for the trust that has been placed in me by community residents, and from the bottom of my heart, I thank all of my constituents for giving me that amazing opportunity and for helping me to be a better elected official.

I treasure the personal relationships that I have forged over the years with various citizens and with my colleagues in the Capitol. Every single one holds a special place in my heart. However, our forefathers never envisioned public service as a lifetime vocation. After a decade of fighting to ensure our interests are represented in the General Assembly, the time has come for me to move on to other endeavors and pursue new opportunities. I wish all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle nothing but the best.

Alloway's announcement was unexpected in the Capitol. Earlier this month, he wrote that the 2019-20 legislative cycle "brings abundant promise."

"With much work to do, it is my hope that lawmakers can work together in achieving a number of goals that our constituents have cited as priorities," he wrote on his legislative website.

And on Jan. 2, he tweeted: "I'm eager to work with my colleagues in the 2019-2020 legislative session!"

Asked about the tweet and whether any event since then prompted Alloway's sudden retirement, chief of staff Mike Rader said, Certainly nothing I am aware of.

As for Alloways immediate plans, Rader said the senator, a lawyer, will explore opportunities.

He feels its the right time, personally.

The official Swearing In Ceremony for newly-elected Senators occurred New Years Day at the Capitol. I'm eager to work with my colleagues in the 2019-2020 legislative session! @PASenateGOP @senatorscavello @LtGovStack @senatorlaughlin pic.twitter.com/PPts49cEm7  @SenatorAlloway (@SenRichAlloway) January 2, 2019

Alloway has served in the Senate since 2009. His four-year term expires in 2020. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is expected to set a special election date to fill the remainder of Alloway's term.

According to the state government website PennWATCH, Alloways salary is $101,040.

The Senate district includes Adams County and parts of Cumberland, Franklin and York counties.

Alloway, a former magisterial district judge, had served as a majority caucus secretary for the Senate Republicans, as well as majority caucus administrator and as chairman of the Senate Game and Fisheries Committee.

He is a 1993 graduate of Shippensburg University and a 2002 graduate of the Harrisburg-based Widener Law School, according to his legislative webpage.

Brad Bumsted and Paula Knudsen are reporters for The Caucus, a publication of LNP Media Group. Angela Couloumbis is a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer.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

With each passing day of the LAUSD strike, Helen Han has gotten increasingly worried that some of the school district's Chinese-speaking families don't fully understand why she and other teachers are striking.

That fear was realized when one student's father yelled at her in Cantonese.

"He got really upset and said, 'You guys should go back to work!'" said Han, who teaches Mandarin at Castelar Elementary School in Chinatown. "He was saying, 'I send kids to get educated, not to be babysitted.'"

Han said some immigrant parents incorrectly think that teachers are getting paid during the strike while their children miss out on schooling. To clear up any misperceptions, Han and several other Mandarin-language teachers on Friday morning led a rally outside Castelar, as parents dropped off students.

Mixing Mandarin, Cantonese and English, members of United Teachers Los Angeles, surrounded by dozens of supportive parents and students, explained that the strike was not just about higher pay.

This rally outside Castelar is partly an explainer for non-English speaking parents with questions about why the strike is happening. Teachers are making the case for smaller class sizes and more school nurses + mental health counselors pic.twitter.com/cSN2MRrQHP  Josie Huang (@josie_huang) January 18, 2019

Ying Yang, a Mandarin-language teacher, said one of UTLA's demands -- restricting class size -- is critical for a school like Castelar, where many students come from households that primarily speak Spanish or Asians languages such as Vietnamese and Khmer. She wants to give students more individual help in the classroom since they may not get much educational support at home.

"Most parents are from low-income families," Yang said. "They work from day to night. They don't know English. They can't help their kids academically and they don't have money to help their kids."

Edwin Fang, an architect whose daughter attends Castelar, said class sizes can approach 50 students in his native Taiwan. He wanted to remind other immigrant parents of why many wanted to come to the U.S. in the first place: a better education for their children.

"As an immigrant, we can all understand we want the best for our kids, the next generation," Fang said. "Being in the public system, you actually have the opportunity to voice your opinion and make changes for your kids."

Edwin Fang and his daughter show up in support of striking LAUSD teachers outside Castelar Elementary School in Chinatown. (Photo by Josie Huang/LAist)

Organizers hoped the rally, attended by at least one reporter from a Chinese-language news site, would counter the rumors on Chinese-language social media, like the one about the union paying teachers during the strike.

Castelar parent Martin Wong showed up in support of the teachers, whom he credits with building a vibrant school community.

Wong said he's noticed a divide between how Castelar's immigrant parents and American-born Asian parents are viewing the strike.

"In Asian culture, we're raised to be rule-followers," Wong said. "But I think, as a third-generation Chinese-American, we're raised differently, and try to fix things. We'll break a rule to make something better."

While Wong can't speak Chinese, his 10-year-old daughter Eloise is a fifth-grader enrolled at Castelar's dual-language Mandarin program. She showed off her language skills as she spoke out in support of her teachers.

Cantonese, Mandarin, English languages spoken by teachers, students and parents supporting teachers strike outside Castelar Elementary. Eloise Wong, 10, says she loves and appreciates her teachers: pic.twitter.com/w1Xx1EA1gt  Josie Huang (@josie_huang) January 18, 2019

It's unclear whether the marchers' pro-UTLA message is reaching the broader Chinatown community. Across the street from the teachers' demonstration at Castelar, Pei Li did stretching exercises outside the Alpine Recreation Center with a friend.

The home health aide said she had heard of the strike from Chinese-language radio and her social circle. Asked why the teachers were striking, she answered in Cantonese, "They want to raise their salary?"

Any other reasons? Li shook her head.The government is very limited in its ability to regulate speech, and Conley was clear that in almost no instance can it regulate speech on the basis of its content. If it does, it must meet a high level of scrutiny that Vos, Nygren and Kremer were not able to meet.

Conley wrote the Republicans directly or indirectly indicated they did not approve of OWNs liberal viewpoint and that it contributed to blocking OWNs account.

For example, court documents show Kremer, who views his Twitter account as a forum for constituents, said it is not for Dane County liberals to carry on conversations with me, adding, Dane County is obviously a very liberal, socialist area, progressive area.

Vos has two Twitter accounts: one for his role as speaker and one as representative of the 63rd Assembly District, which is the account that blocked OWN on Twitter. Vos has maintained he cannot recall why he blocked OWN.

Nygren in the court filing said he blocked the OWN account for its crude comments on Wisconsin politics, although he was unable to identify any such comments.It took 14 months for the noose to show up.

Fourteen months where Marcus Boyd says he endured racist comments, slights, even threats in a hostile workplace run by General Motors.

A workplace where people declared bathrooms were for "whites only," where black supervisors were denounced as "boy" and ignored by their subordinates, where black employees were called "monkey," or told to "go back to Africa."

A workplace where black employees were warned a white colleague's "daddy" was in the Ku Klux Klan. Where white workers wore shirts with Nazi symbols underneath their coveralls.

In Ohio.

In 2018.

All those allegations are detailed in a lawsuit filed against GM in which eight workers say managers at the Toledo Powertrain plant did little or nothing to stop racism.

For Boyd, it began on his first day. He said he could feel the glare from white team members as if they were saying, "Who's he to be in charge of them?"

All the other supervisors, who were white, received training before their jobs, Boyd said. Boyd, an experienced supervisor albeit in a different industry, was given a clipboard and told to start.

But if he wondered if he was making too much of that, the situation crystallized when some of his juniors ignored him, refused to follow his directions and called him the N-word, though he could never see exactly who said it.

When he reported the insubordination to upper management, he said he was told to deal with it himself, to counsel his workers who'd used the slur.

The message he said he took from his leaders at the plant: Be happy you're here. Deal with it.

But it got harder each day to ignore, he told CNN in an interview.

A white employee Boyd oversaw told him: "Back in the day, you would have been buried with a shovel."

In his role as supervisor, Boyd reported that, too. The worker was taken to a disciplinary hearing with a union official and business leader where he freely admitted what he had said, Boyd recalled. But then Boyd himself was pulled aside and advised to let the matter go if he wanted to get along at the plant, he said. No disciplinary action was taken, Boyd said.

Boyd and other workers of color learned there was a coded language to talk about them, according to the lawsuit. White employees kept calling them "Dan." They thought some people didn't respect them enough to learn their names. But other colleagues told them it was a slur, an acronym for "dumb ass nigger."

The N-word was a regular part of life at Toledo Powertrain, where components are made for various Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles, Boyd said. A white woman seen walking with him later found "Nigger lover" written on her pizza box.

When Boyd and others reported the abuse, their leadership told them to handle it themselves, he said.

Even more violent situations were brushed away. Boyd said he feared for his life when a member of his team, irate about a vacation request, yelled and raised a heavy, metal clutch assembly as if he was going hit him.

Boyd said he reported it. This time the offender was punished by losing one day's salary. "One day!" Boyd repeated, frustrated. For what felt like a direct threat to his life. One swing with that clutch could have been deadly, Boyd said. He said he believes there's a simple reason why.

"You have management people in high places, and union officials in high places, that work together to protect people ... that are white," Boyd said.

'Like being at war'

It got to the point where Boyd began asking God to protect him.

"I used to have to pray. Literally, 'Lord protect me,'" Boyd said.

"It was like being at war," he added.

He said he and another black supervisor, Derrick Brooks, who was a former Marine, treated their workplace almost like it was a battlefield. When they saw each other or checked in by phone, as they did every day, they would let the other know, "I got your six," the term soldiers use to say they have your back.

It was the kind of reassurance they felt they were not getting from GM management.

And then Brooks found a noose hanging in the area where he worked. As the only black employee in that space on his shift, he believed it was aimed to intimidate him.

It was a breaking point, the beginning of the end of his career -- and that of Boyd -- at GM. Not just because the noose had been hung. But because of how GM allegedly reacted.

GM: Every shift was trained

That first noose, and then a second, then third, fourth and fifth were all reported to GM, according to the lawsuit Boyd and eight other black employees have filed against the company for allowing an "underlying atmosphere of violent racial hate and bullying."

GM rejects that characterization.

The company declined to be interviewed but provided a statement that it held mandatory meetings and closed the plant for a day to have training for every shift.

"Every day, everyone at General Motors is expected to uphold a set of values that are integral to the fabric of our culture," GM said in the statement. "Discrimination and harassment are not acceptable and [are] in stark contrast to how we expect people to show up at work."

It continued: "We treat any reported incident with sensitivity and urgency, and are committed to providing an environment that is safe, open and inclusive. General Motors is taking this matter seriously and addressing it through the appropriate court process."

Boyd, Brooks and other black workers said initial meetings after the noose focused on violence, but not racial discrimination or intimidation.

GM, which declined to answer questions on the record after supplying the statement, placed an article about harassment in the employee magazine. The company replaced all ropes in the plant with yellow chains in an effort to stem the noose incidents.

But Boyd, Brooks and other black workers say that just removed an object, not the hatred.

The union at the plant also disagreed that any practices were discriminatory.

Dennis Earl, who was elected UAW local president in 2017, said: "Union people protect employees no matter what race, ethnicity."

Of Boyd's allegations, he said: "Punishments were equal across the board. If he feels management was being more lenient -- I don't see that. I've never seen that. It's pretty colorblind, if you ask me."

Earl, who is white, has worked for the plant for 34 years. He told CNN there could be "bad actors" like there can be anywhere, but there was no widespread intentional racism.

"Do I believe people are a little too sensitive these days? Absolutely," he said. "What passed 20 years ago doesn't pass today."

"You can't say the things you used to say off the cuff. It doesn't excuse it, but it's not racially motivated statements," he added.

"It's just bad judgment."

Great salary, but too high a cost

Brooks and Boyd both wanted to keep their supervisor jobs. They had worked hard to get these jobs, very good jobs with a six-figure salary, far higher than most in Toledo.

Brooks used his salary for his eight children and Boyd takes care of his mother, a double amputee.

Both felt they had an extra requirement to draw their paycheck, beyond the work they did -- be grateful, do not complain. "There's unwritten rules with regards to manufacturing plants and when it comes to management," Brooks said. "When it comes to us being black supervisors, you need to be more appreciative of the job title that you have and go along and do the job that we're asking you."

But the noose felt like a direct threat.

"How rough and tough can you be when you got 11 to 12 people who want to put a noose around your neck and hang you 'til you're dead?" Brooks asked.

As with Boyd's experiences, Brooks was told to investigate the incident himself, he said. One person told him in a blatant lie: "That's not a noose used for hanging, it's a noose maintenance operators use to tie off a line."

Brooks shook his head as he recalled the scene. "Being in the military I know plenty about knots," he said, "and I know there is no reason whatsoever to tie a knot like that other than to use it for hanging a person."

For Boyd, the noose was a threat filled with deeply racist roots, capping the fear he felt each of the previous shifts over 14 months in a workplace where he says racism was often ignored and allowed to thrive. "A noose just represented everything that happened to me every day before that."

And then two colleagues said they had heard alarming rumors and advised Boyd to get a gun, he said.

"There were eight white males that was supposedly plotting to sabotage and to follow me out," Boyd said.

It got to the point he was terrified. He feared that he'd be on the news after being found dead after an incident at the plant.

His mother urged him to quit the job, however much it paid. He left. So did Brooks.

Not just two men

It wasn't just Boyd and Brooks complaining. Another employee made a police report about the nooses and conversations about guns being brought to work. Others filed complaints with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.

The commission, which enforces state laws against discrimination, announced the findings of a nine-month investigation last March: GM did allow a racially hostile environment.

Darlene Sweeney-Newbern, the commission's director of regional operations, said racist behavior was so prevalent at Toledo Powertrain that she'd rank it among the worst cases her team has seen. Incidents continued while the commission was investigating, according to Sweeney-Newbern.

And she rejected GM's defense that it had taken appropriate action.

"GM did not deny that these things were taking place. They simply said, 'Hey as soon as we heard of these things we moved in and we took action.' That is not what we found in the investigation," she said.

One example came from a former union president's testimony, Sweeney-Newbern said, that at a meeting to address the placing of nooses a white supervisor bemoaned that "too big of a deal" was being made.

That supervisor went on to say, "There was never a black person who was lynched that didn't deserve it."

"That shows part of the culture problem at the plant," Sweeney-Newbern said.

"This is the individual that's going to go back and explain how wrong it is to the staff?" she exclaimed.

With no hope of change at the plant, Brooks took another job that paid a lot less. He is working on his Ph.D. Boyd is back in school with plans to go into a different industry.

Both say they can't believe that in this day and age they experienced the racism they did at work for one of the United States' oldest and most storied companies, still a key part of the economy at No. 10 on the Fortune 500 list.

And they hear it's continuing at the plant, which is why, they said, as part of their lawsuit they want the court to dictate procedures and policies to address incidents of harassment, as well as compensation for their suffering.

"There hasn't been anything put in place with regards to trying to deal with the issue," Brooks said. "They are not doing anything with regards to really getting into the crux of what the issue is."

GM has not identified who was responsible for hanging the nooses so no one has been fired for those incidents. However, a GM representative said there have been some people dismissed in Toledo during the entire process of extensive anti-discrimination, anti-harassment work, which is continuing across its plants with cooperation from the union.

Lawyers for the men suing GM say there continue to be hateful and racist remarks at the plant to this day, which they plan to include in the lawsuit.

On Wednesday, lawyers showed photos including one showing a message scrawled on a cart on the plant floor that says: "You only need to hang mean bastards, but mean bastards you need to hang."

GM said it is aware of the incidents and has retained a handwriting expert to analyze the graffiti, noting that the police are involved.

Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 2 Sad 4 Angry 6Kleefisch said the bill will give parents the ability to make choices for their children. The measure also will resolve conflicts for mentors who want to hunt themselves but dont have much time to spend in the woods by allowing them to teach and hunt simultaneously, he said.

He submitted data from the Sportsmens Alliance and Families Afield to the natural resources committee that show children younger than 10 can participate in mentored hunts in 34 of the 41 states that offer programs and that Wisconsin is one of only four states that limit mentor-student teams to a single weapon.

Our utmost goal is to look at safety first, Kleefisch said. So many other states have safely introduced new hunters to hunting without the burdensome regulation we have in Wisconsin.

The National Rifle Association, the gun rights group Wisconsin FORCE, Whitetails of Wisconsin and the state bear hunters association all have registered in support of the bill, according to state Government Accountability Board records.

Opponents maintain young children cant handle large-bore rifles and shotguns. Ray Anderson, a Madison-area hunting safety instructor, submitted remarks to the committee saying he tells parents not to even enroll their children in training until theyre at least 12.The Monroe County Sanitation and Zoning Committee will consider early next week whether to add provisions for sand mining to the county zoning ordinance.

The five-member committee decided to discuss the issue after members of the public raised concerns about sand mining operations near their homes, said committee chairman Douglas Path. The meeting will be at 6 p.m. Monday at the Monroe County Justice Center.

We have several sand mines in the area, and we just approved one over by Oakdale, Path said. The committee thought it was a good idea to review our ordinances.

Monroe County currently considers conditional use permits for sand mines on a case by case basis.

There are 92 active sand mines in Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, including seven active sand mines in Monroe County. Buffalo, Trempealeau and Jackson counties are also home to active sand mines.Most pastors, said Weiss, realize that many of these sexuality issues are linked to the growing digital screens culture found in modern homes. Pastors struggle with tech issues just as much as talking about sexuality.

Recently, he said, a church invited him to do two sessions during their class for new members, focusing on the impact of mass media on the sexual health of adolescents.

When he was done, the pastor told him: Glad you helped out. That will cover us for the next three years or so on that topic.

Weiss was not amused.

The irony is that large chunks of the New Testament are full of St. Pauls practical advice for Christians struggling to live in a pagan culture. Where, asked Weiss, is that kind of candid advice being offered to people in our own church pews?

The bottom line: Seminaries and denominational bureaucracies have failed to teach and promote what Weiss called a true discipleship mindset in most churches. The result is a consistent failure to help our people live their faith day after day in the real world.Jourdan Vian Reporter Jourdan Vian is a reporter and columnist covering crime and courts for the La Crosse Tribune. She can be reached at 608-791-8218. Follow Jourdan Vian 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

I dont mean to be cheesy, but Sunday is going to be a grate day.

According to a Wisconsin Cheese email that landed in my inbox this week, Jan. 20 is National Cheese Lovers Day, and I dont know about you, but this is a fake holiday created by marketing professionals that I plan to celebrate. Though to be fair, I eat enough cheese that its unlikely to look different from my normal day.

In queso you dont know, cheese makes everything cheddar. It makes me melt. Its a gouda addition to any meal. Is your pasta lackluster? Feta will fix it. Will pepperjack improve your chili? You better brie-lieve it. Theres no holes in the Swiss cheese strategy, and while bleu cheese leaves me blue, plenty of people love it.

During times I havent lived in Wisconsin, one of the first questions people ask me is Do you like cheese? It is always worded the same way and everyone always emphasizes the E in cheese for some reason.Southwest Health and the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services recently hosted a roundtable discussion on the states opioid crisis and the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program at the Southwest Health EMS Building in Platteville. Representative Travis Tranel, R-Cuba City, and I attended with a wide array of health care professionals, law enforcement, public health and others who have been fighting the battle against opioid addiction.

Since the 2013 legislative session, the legislature has been working on a series of bills to fight opioid addiction. This is our HOPE Agenda because it addresses our challenges related to Heroin, Opioid Prevention and Education. There is a terrific, comprehensive website that provides a wealth of information, including a list of the specific bills we worked on in this effort. You will find the site here: http://legis.wisconsin.gov/assembly/hope/legislation,

The net effect of our combined efforts is that the quantity of pills dispensed per capita has decreased by 37 percent between 2015 and 2018 in the counties of the 17th Senate District. Iowa county (-44 percent), Richland (-43 percent) and Monroe (-41 percent) counties have seen the biggest decrease in prescription pills dispensed.

The smallest change is in Lafayette County, but its numbers are still down by 29 percent! We are making a dent!The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is suing Epic Systems Corp., one of the nations largest electronic health records developers, saying the Verona companys software discriminates against blind people who work in the health care industry because it doesnt give them access to the computerized records.

At issue is the compatibility of screen reading technology that converts written data to the spoken word or to Braille.

The organization says Epics software does let blind patients access their records using screen readers but it does not allow the same for health care employees who have to input and read the data.

Because blind individuals cannot use Epics software on the clinical or administration side, they are effectively barred from employment at hospitals and facilities that use Epics software, says the complaint filed for the National Federation of the Blind.

The lawsuit was filed in December in Massachusetts state court and was moved, later in the month, to U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, at Epics request.- Henry Sy, known as the country's richest man and SM Group's founder passed away on Saturday, January 19

- The late business tycon was named by Forbes as the Philippines' richest man

- He passed away at the age of 94

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Henry Sy, 94, passed away n Saturday, January 19. He was known to be the country's richest man and SM Group's founder.

According to a statement released by SM Super malls COO Steven Tan, passed away peacefully in his sleep early Saturday morning.

"With deep sadness, I would like to inform the group that our beloved Chairman Tatang, Mr. Henry Sy Sr, passed away peacefully in his sleep early Saturday morning. Please pray for the eternal repose of his soul," said Tan in a statement.

He was named the Philippines' richest man by Forbes with an estimated net worth of $20 billion.

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Aside from being a well known business tycoon, Henry Sy had been active in giving help through donating in charitable institutions.

Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news!

Social Experiment: Dropping Wallet in Quiapo and Cubao | HumanMeter

A social experiment testing people's honesty was done in Quiapo and Cubao. The experiment was done by dropping a wallet on purpose to find out how many of the respondents would return it. Click the play button and restore your faith in humanity.

Source: Kami.com.phWASHINGTON  U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., is starting his political career in an intense time in our nations capital.

The partial government shutdown over border security is officially the longest in history, and President Donald Trumps campaign is being investigated for possible connections with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential campaign; former FBI Director Robert Mueller is serving as special counsel to investigate the matter.

It is against this backdrop that the freshman congressman, representing Wisconsins 1st District, steps into an unfamiliar role as elected public official.

On Wednesday, during his first speech on the House floor, Steil tried to push his colleagues to find an end to the shutdown.

Put all 435 of us in a room with no phones and no televisions until the job is done, Steil said. I came from the private sector, and in the private sector you do not leave until the job is done. Is our job done here in Washington?

Republicans are in the minority in the House, and Steil said the Democratic House leadership has refused to bring any serious attempt to open the government and address critical border security needs to the House floor.'A small part'

Smet began his education career in the Wisconsin Dells, where he started out as a teacher, and then moved up to becoming the head of vocational education.

He transferred to BASD in 1988 as the vocational education and computer systems coordinator. During his time with the district, he was promoted to higher positions during times of instability.

He became the district's business manager in 1996, after Tom Lebak was removed by the board after a poor audit report came in. The district had requested the audit after learning it had a budget deficit of $200,000. Later Journal Times articles found that figure had risen to $500,000. The discrepancy was not well timed, since the district had scheduled a referendum for $26 million for that fall seeking funds for a new high school. Smet oversaw the budget cuts to right the ship.

In 2012, Smet was promoted to superintendent. His predecessor, Dave Moyer, had been on the job for just 18 months when he announced he had taken a position with the Illinois Moline-Coal Valley School District.

Smet was reluctant to take credit for the stability and growth the district has seen.More than half of American adults say outside support can help them keep their resolutions.

Each year, millions of Americans resolve to get in better shape and become healthier versions of themselves. According to a recent YMCA survey of more than 1,000 adults, less than a quarter of respondents kept their resolution last year. An overwhelming 71 percent said they tried but fell short, and 40 percent confessed that they made it through only a couple of weeks or months.

However, there is hope. One-third of survey respondents who were making resolutions believe they will stick to it and reach their goals, with more than half believing that encouragement from others will keep them committed.

Finding a supportive community like the Y can be beneficial in keeping resolutions on track, because our organization is so much more than just a gym, said Jeff Collen, president/CEO, of the Racine YMCA. Its a community of supportive neighbors that offers more health, more hope and more opportunity for the new year and years to come.

A positive outlook doesnt always translate to action without setting manageable goals and leaning on the support of health and wellness communities. Here are five tips the YMCA recommends to help make a healthy New Years resolution stick:Sen. Lou Ann Linehan's comment (" Linehan moves into tax reform leadership role in Legislature ," Jan. 13) as to reliance on the governors office for facts and figures is only one resource, but it reflects the evolution of a weakened (read: term-limited) Legislature coming under the influence and dependence upon increasingly aggressive governors.

An independent (and extremely competent) Legislative Fiscal Office, along with the other divisions of the Legislature, are essential to the defense of the Legislative institution. They should be respected and called upon to do their jobs. The integrity of the Legislature is at stake.Again, ensuring the drawing of fair districts is of the utmost importance. No better way to achieve that end exists than by reducing the influences political parties have on the process.

Furthermore, the creation of a commission that presents six maps to the Legislature, as McCollister proposes, would allow state senators to carry out their constitutional requirement to have the final say on redistricting.

In his veto of a 2015 bipartisan redistricting compromise, Gov. Pete Ricketts cited concerns about its constitutionality. The Nebraska Constitution declares the Legislature shall redistrict, meaning any suggestion by an independent commission would have to be ratified by the Legislature and governor before taking effect.

Several states have moved to commissions or other nonpartisan methods of creating districts every decade, with the pace accelerating in recent years. Perhaps no better model exists than Iowa, which has a nonpartisan legislative office draw maps using computer programs like those suggested by McCollister and DeBoer and submit them to its Legislature for approval.

Despite the Hawkeye States history as a purple state, its found a way to make redistricting  long a wellspring of controversy in Nebraska  a nonevent. Wed love to see the same thing happen west of the Missouri River.

When taken together, these bills promote the fair, contiguous, compact congressional and state legislative districts required by the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court precedent  that would help fulfill the 2011 redistricting resolution.

Love 1 Funny 2 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0The personal-finance website WalletHub released its report on 2019s States with the Most Racial Progress

Over 50 years ago Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech calling for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States. Although America has made progress towards realizing Dr. King's visions, segregation and discrimination continue to exist.

The personal-finance website WalletHub Friday released its report on 2019s States with the Most Racial Progress as well as accompanying videos.

WalletHub measured the gaps between blacks and whites across 22 key indicators of equality and integration in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Their data set ranges from median annual income to standardized-test scores to voter turnout.

Racial Integration RankingLegal Aid of Nebraska has filed a lawsuit in an effort to keep a Scottsbluff couple from losing their home of two decades over $588 in back property taxes.

Attorney Mike Meister of the Scottsbluff office, who represents Kevin and Terry Fair, said: "People need to pay their taxes, but we believe the process allowing the county to take the property of one person and transfer it to someone else that stands to make a substantial profit, is unjust.

He said the couple, both in their 60s, couldnt afford the $588.21 in back property taxes after medical issues caused Terry Fair to lose her job, leaving them with a single income to make ends meet.

Continental Resources, a financial investor, paid $5,965.74 to buy the "right" to the back taxes and the house, leaving the Fairs without their home and the nearly $50,000 of equity that came with it.

Meister is working to keep the tax sale from going forward.

"The Fairs simply want to keep their home, work hard to catch up with their taxes, and keep what little wealth they have in their property," he said. "Thats not too much to ask, and we believe its both wrong and unconstitutional to let the county and investor seize over $50,000 in equity and kick the Fairs out in the process.Allo Communications announced Friday that it will provide relief for furloughed federal workers and those who are working without pay during the government shutdown.

Starting Saturday, the Nelnet company will allow qualified federal workers to defer payments on Allo's internet, TV and phone service until the federal government has reopened.

"Allo recognizes the financial and emotional impact on the 420,000 federal workers without pay, as well as the 380,000 furloughed workers and their families, Allo President Brad Moline said in a news release. We are here to help Nebraska and Colorado federal workers stay connected during this difficult time.

The deferred-payment offer is available to new and existing customers with federal employee status in Alliance, Bridgeport, Gering, Hastings, Lincoln, North Platte, Ogallala, Scottsbluff and Fort Morgan, Colorado.

The company urged qualified customers to call 855-559-2708 or visit their local Allo store to speak to a representative to coordinate the arrangement.

Love 6 Funny 2 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0When a state law kicks into effect in the summer of 2020, it's doubtful the state prisons will meet the prescribed goal of getting the inmate population below 140 percent of design capacity, the state Department of Correctional Services director told state senators Friday.

"Absent a reversal on the number of people coming in versus the number of people leaving, no, I don't expect that we're going to be below 140 percent by July 1, 2020," Director Scott Frakes said while briefing the Legislature's Judiciary Committee and other interested senators.

The law says if the prisons' population is certified at more than 140 percent beginning July 1 next year or after that, an emergency will exist. If that happens, the Nebraska Board of Parole must consider which prisoners can be safely paroled to get the prison population down to operational capacity.

That could be a large number of inmates.

As of Friday, the prisons housed 5,407 inmates, with 110 more in some of the state's county jails. Design capacity is 3,435.

With the current numbers, the population would need to go down by more than 700 inmates, said Judiciary Committee Chairman Steve Lathrop.Savvier leaders in the news business know they have to make the transition to digital delivery, which is how readers increasingly receive their news. That means changing to a subscription model in which the readers pay directly for content.

That requires more investment, not less. Gannett has been trying to move in that direction, as have other locally-oriented chains such as Sacramento-based McClatchy. But thats not Aldens playbook.

Their focus is on a race to the bottom, collecting all the money they can on the way down, Doctor told me. Alden is not alone. Its more brutal about cutting and not trying at all to find a digital future, he says, but he forecasts that eventually 65 percent to 85 percent of local newspapers eventually will fall into the hands of those harvesting profits and not investing.A handful of the more than two dozen elderly care facilities that were taken over by the state last year are likely to close.

Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Leah Bucco-White said the company operating Wausa Care and Rehabilitation Center nursing facility, Sidney Care and Rehabilitation Center nursing and assisted-living facilities, and Sorensen Care and Rehabilitation Center nursing facility in Omaha has requested to close them.

The four were among 21 nursing homes and 10 assisted-living facilities the state was forced to take over in March because of financial problems of their owner, Cottonwood Healthcare, also known as Skyline.

The centers were put into receivership and the state hired Klaasmeyer and Associates to manage them.

Klaasmeyer has sought district court permission to close the four facilities, Bucco-White said. The company cited low resident numbers and poor financial performance as the main reasons for seeking closure of the facilities.

Klaasmeyer said in court filings that the Wausa Care and Rehabilitation Center has averaged only 15 residents on a daily basis since Klaasmeyer took over and the Sidney facilities have averaged only about 30 residents.MATTOON -- Michael Henry Maguire, age 72, of Mattoon passed away at 4:20 a.m. on Friday, January 18, 2019 at Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center.

Funeral Services honoring his life will begin at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 20, 2019 at Schilling Funeral Home. Burial will follow at Dodge Grove Cemetery. Visitation for family and friends will be held from 12:00 p.m. until the time of the service on Sunday at the funeral home.

Mike as he was known by friends and Papaw as he was known by his grandchildren, left this earthly confine after a prolonged illness. His last days were spent in the presence of his beloved wife Linda, his children Gwena, Landon, John and his eldest granddaughter, Topanga.

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Mike was born on November 29th, 1946 in Springfield, Ohio to Jack Cuthbert Maguire and Thelma Leola (Garland) Maguire. Sadly, Mike's father passed away in March of 1949 and Mike and his Mom made the trip back to St. Louis, Missouri where they resided with Thelma's family. During these early years Mike was blessed with his beloved cousin Becky who became his playmate and lifelong friend. Thelma later married Charles Joseph Chick Bird and Mike joined them at their home in Mattoon, Illinois. Mattoon became home and it's where Mike graduated high school, met and married his beloved wife Linda Kay (Gillespie) on November 4, 1966 and where they raised their three children, Gwena, Michael Landon and John. Mike began working at Illinois Consolidated Telephone Company in the late 1960s and remained with the company until his retirement several years ago. Mike and Linda instilled in their children a strong work ethic and Mike also instilled in them a low tolerance for BS. Mike's grandchildren will remember him as a loving man who was devoted to his wife and someone who loved to tease them and cheat at UNO.

Mike was preceded in death by all three of his parents listed above. He is survived by his devoted wife, loving children, son-in-law Darren Zike, daughter-in-law Kristen Maguire and the following grandchildren: Topanga Zike, Charisma Zike, Bodaway Zike, Michael James MJ Maguire, Mason Maguire and Weston Maguire. He is also survived by his beloved cousin Becky and numerous nieces and nephews.

"Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak Thomas Carlyle

Memorial donations in his honor may be given to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, 1702 East Highland Avenue, Suite 400, Phoenix, Arizona 85016. Online condolences may be expressed at www.schillingfuneralhome.net or Schilling Funeral Home's Facebook page.Twenty-two students from the CHS choir department, along with Mrs. Juliane Sharp, Mrs. Kristin Runyon, and Mr. Charlie Jaques, attended the VoicePlay concert in Terre Haute at Rose-Hulman Institutes Hatfield Theater on January 11th. VoicePlay is an all-male acapella group with five members that is based in Florida.

The performance demonstrated for the audience how acapella is more than just a group singing without instruments and that it can be entertaining and inspiring. VoicePlay used their musical skills in skits and videos, too. Their concert gave members of CHSs acapella group Maximum Forte ideas for their spring showcase, as well as inspired choir members to want to try singing acapella music.CHARLESTON  People are often quick to shovel off driveways, but the same cannot always be said for clearing paths to their doors and mailboxes, according to local officials.

So, ahead of the snowstorm to come, the United States Postal Service is asking that people shovel pathways for mail carriers.

In a statement, the U.S. Postal Service asks customers to help letter carriers deliver mail safely by clearing snow and ice from sidewalks, stairs and mailboxes.

Got any snow photos? Send us your snow photos from the weekend by emailing editorial@jg-tc.com.

"It can be treacherous," Shelly Martin, Charleston Postmaster, said speaking from recent experience.

In the aftermath of last weekend's snowfall, Martin recalled having to deliver an express package, and she said the home had porch steps that were "caked" in ice.

"I had to hold on (to the rail) for dear life to get off the porch," Martin said.

According to a statement from the USPS, customers receiving door delivery should make sure their sidewalks, steps and porches are clear. Customers receiving curbside delivery are asked to remove snow piles left by snow.

"Everybody wants their mail, and we want to deliver your mail," Martin said.

But if the mailbox is inaccessible or too dangerous for the carrier to get to, the mail won't be delivered to that property that day.

Chris Shafer, Charleston mail carrier, said they always give it a shot, but he can tell when it is not a safe enough to reach the home. Most recently, he said one home had water dripping from an awning and on to the stairs leading up to the home and had iced over. He knew he shouldn't risk it after slipping after only one step up.

"Their safety is first," Martin said.

Leading up to snow events like what is expected Friday night and Saturday, safety is stressed upon the carriers. They bring snow cleats with metal spiky soles and even sand for traction. Depending on the load of packages that day, there might not be enough room for sand, though.

Despite these precautions, falling is unavoidable especially when walking 10-14 miles, like some carriers do.

Shafer said it is inescapable sometimes, at least to slip if not fall entirely, recalling a few times he slipped getting out the vehicle in the most recent snow storm. He said snow is often piled and packed in a way that makes it hard to get a strong footing.

"It just happens," Martin said.

Depending on snow or ice, Shafer said he simply layers up with an overboot geared with a flat sole to keep his feet dry and have better footing on thick snow.

Outside of the safety risks, Martin said it is simply a courtesy to clear off the sidewalks for your carriers.

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"When you are walking in that, it is quite a workout," she said. And, after trekking miles through snow on foot, it can be exhausting, she indicated.

It wears on a person after a full day of it, Shafer indicated. Snowfall can add one or more hours to a route, especially with unclear paths.

"It makes for a very exhausting day," he said.

Charleston residents are fairly good at clearing their sidewalks and stairs, according to Shafer and Martin, but it depends on the property. Schafer noted areas around the college typically see less maintenance, but foot traffic helps pack the snow down. Some will deliberately cut out a path for carriers. And in those instances, it is an appreciated relief for the carriers, or more accurately their legs.

"It is almost like a bonus check," he said. "Your legs get a break, at least for one house length."

Shafer said he understands, though, many can't shovel their sidewalks and stairs. He just anticipates a long day when snow is forecasted as it is this weekend.

In the statement, the USPS also stressed keeping blue collection boxes clear for our customers to deposit their mail. Residents and businesses with collection boxes near their property are asked to keep them clear of snow and ice.

Also, Shafer asked residents for patience as routes are tweaked to better accommodate the weather.

Falling in the Charleston area

Despite the slippery weather over the last week, it seems falls and other weather-related calls have been fairly non-existent.

There was one accident in the middle of the week, but Charleston Fire Chief Steve Bennett said outside of that incident, the weather did not make for busier shifts for firefighters.

Falling is the biggest reason for the emergency medical services (EMS) calls Charleston firefighters respond to; however, most are elderly and most are in the home. This week has made for a slippery week, yet there are currently no weather-related falling calls.

Bennett said he hopes this means people are taking heed of warnings ahead of these winter storms. Bennett reiterated that those who could get seriously injured taking a fall should be careful, use railings or others for support, and throw down ice melt.

Forecasts for the weekend

Charleston and Mattoon are under winter weather advisory, according to the National Weather Service. The area is approximately 20-30 miles away from the northern edge of the advisory, a dividing line between an advisory and a warning like Champaign is under currently.

Forecasts show rain and snow hitting the area sometime just before 1 a.m., then rain. Wind will pick up reaching 10 to 18 mph with gusts as high as 26 mph. Less than an inch is expected during the night.

On Saturday, rain, snow, and freezing rain are forecast before 9 a.m., then it is expected to snow, possibly mixed with freezing rain, for an hour after. It forecast to snow after 10 a.m. with "patchy blowing snow" after 11 a.m. Wind will pick up again throughout Saturday. Wind speeds are forecasted to hit 18 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 39 mph.

Charleston and Mattoon are expected to get 2 to 4 inches Saturday.

Contact Jarad Jarmon at (217) 238-6839. Follow him on Twitter: @JJarmonReporter

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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.This story has been updated to include corrected information regarding Charleston EMS calls to Mattoon.

CHARLESTON -- It is nothing new to the Charleston Fire Department that calls, specifically medical calls, are going up. For several years now, medical calls in the city have gone up.

But last year saw a significant spike in calls, and it was not because of the recently shuttered Mattoon ambulance services.

Even with a notable dip in fire calls for 2018, the total amount of calls in the city grew from 4794 in 2017 to 5268 in 2018.

Medical calls boom

This increase in the call volumes for the year are directly attributed to the emergency medical service calls. While fire calls dropped from 746 to 680 year to year, EMS calls reached 4,588, an increase of 540 from the previous year.

Charleston firefighters anticipate 100 to 200 more a year, but this year made for a quick jump in medical calls.

Charleston Fire Chief Steve Bennett said a number of factors contributed to the increase, one of which included a growing elderly population in the city.

Bennett noted, though, that the number of calls was surprisingly high. He said they regularly ensure they have a capable staff to handle the load, mentioning the addition of a few new firefighters in recent years.

Mattoon ambulance issue's part in increase

Among the list of factors that play into the spike, the loss of the Mattoon Fire Department ambulances was not one of them, a least not a major one.

As previously reported in the JG-TC, the Mattoon Fire Department's ambulance service was shuttered on July 25.

Despite this, Bennett said it did not make as big an impact as one might think on Charleston's call volumes.

In the first couple of months, Bennett said they were called out to Mattoon to transport, but the ambulance services in Mattoon added more ambulances to their existing fleets. The private services "stepped up," he said.

Last year, Charleston firefighters were called to Mattoon for an EMS-related matter 36 times, 19 of which they were disregarded en route. Bennett noted many of these calls were at the beginning of the transition.

Though, in 2017, the number was 14 and, in the five years preceding, Charleston firefighters were not called more than four times in a year.

Without the Mattoon Fire Department's service, it does leave the county in a more vulnerable position, though. Bennett said there are less ambulances in the county to go on calls.

What are the EMS calls?

Of the medical emergency calls Charleston firefighters are running into, many of them were the same in 2018, but like the year before, psychiatric calls are making up a more significant amount of the calls throughout the year.

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Last year, psychiatric-type calls, which are predominantly suicide threats or attempts, accounted for the one of the highest number of calls Charleston firefighters responded to, only seconded by falling-type calls.

As previously reported, this was not really the case a few years ago, but that has changed.

Bennett said mental health is becoming a bigger issue not only in the city or in the county, but also at the national level.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide has become a leading cause of death in the US with suicide rates increasing in nearly every state from 1999 through 2016.

This was not only due to mental illness either, according to the CDC.

They say suicide is rarely caused by any single factor. In fact, many people who die by suicide are not known to have a diagnosed mental health condition at the time of death, according to the CDC.

Other top calls included chest pain and breathing problems as in past years.

Heroin overdoses rising

Heroin is another national issue that has shown its face in the community.

While not the most common call for Charleston, it is certainly growing. City firefighters responded to 42 heroin overdose calls last year. The city has only been able to track these numbers for a couple of years, but Bennett said the problem has grown rapidly, even within a year.

Not only that, it is becoming more severe. Bennett said the effects have been much worse because some of the stuff is getting laced with stronger drugs. In many of these cases, they are unresponsive and barely breathing when firefighters arrive.

Notably, heroin overdoses were an issue in the front half of the year but not the latter. Bennett did not know why, but was sure of one thing:

"If (the firefighters) weren't there, they'd be dead."

Major fires topped first part of 2018

Fire calls did not make up a big part of their calls, but the fires they faced were destructive. Charleston had a string of notable structure fires in the area in the earlier part of the year. Most notably, the Mother's Bar, a longstanding establishment in the area, was consumed by a fire allegedly started by 29-year-old Charleston resident Brian T. Griffin, who was arrested for aggravated arson.

Locations of most notable fires in 2018 1001 Elm Ave., which was undetermined, possibly electric

506 Monroe Ave. (Mother's Fire), caused by alleged arson

308 N Seventh St., accidentally caused by candle

514 N Sixth St., accidentally caused by a space heater

325 Van Buren Ave., caused by cooking fire

19 First St., caused possibly by a cigarette but undetermined.

10 Fifth St., caused by lightening

Bennett said he was proud of their efforts to remove occupants that lived in the apartments above and keep the fire contained to one building, which was a concern at the time.

He said the radiating heat coming off the fire concerned firefighters that it would jump to adjacent buildings.

"The guys did a tremendous job," Bennett said.

It was one of the biggest fires the city fire department had faced in recent years. Since, the building has been demolished.

Other than Mother's, several homes had caught fire in a relatively short span of time.

Contact Jarad Jarmon at (217) 238-6839. Follow him on Twitter: @JJarmonReporter

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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.When filmmakers make movies set in a specific world capital, they're drawing from their own memories and impressions of that city. It's urban planning, plus a little poetry. Often a director films on location; other times, a production design team fabricates a corner or a neighborhood from scratch, a long way from the real thing.

This brings us to "Roma," director Alfonso Cuaron's drama now streaming on Netflix and playing a handful of theaters.

Shot in 65 millimeter black and white, set in 1970 and 1971-era Mexico City and environs, "Roma" is a work of fastidious visual detail, much of it inspired by Cuaron's own childhood home in the Colonia Roma neighborhood of Mexico City.

There's a simple analog component to the subtle magic of "Roma." Earlier this week, Cuaron's fellow Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro tweeted a 10-part appreciation of the film, relaying why he loves his longtime friend's panoramic canvas of a family, a nation and a distinct point in time. He's not alone in his admiration. "Roma" very likely will pick up several Academy Award nominations Jan. 22.

"In every sense," del Toro tweeted Monday, the film is "a fresco, a mural, not a portrait." And "the fact that Cuaron and (production designer) Eugenio Caballero BUILT several blocks (!) of Mexico City in a giant backlot (sidewalk, lampposts, stores, asphalted streets, etc.) is not well-known. This is a titanic achievement."

Without seeing a complete screenplay, "Roma" production designer Caballero ("Pan's Labyrinth") constructed a 1970-accurate six-block stretch of a busy Mexico City street, Avenida Insurgentes. It's used in a long, lateral tracking shot, for the scene of the live-in nanny Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) and the children running through traffic on the way to a movie theater.

It looks terrifically convincing. The open-air industrial space used to build the streetscape was then augmented in postproduction with digital effects. (You can catch glimpses of the digital flourishes when Cleo and company cross a side street that goes on seemingly forever.) Cuaron told American Cinematographer magazine that the pretend street scene was built in the middle of nowhere. "There was no sidewalk, nothing, not even asphalt ... it was an archaeological situation, finding the buildings, how they were in the period."

Then, in the fall of 2016, as "Roma" was being filmed in sequence across an unusually generous, nearly four-month period, they got what they wanted: a visualization of the Mexico City bustle Cuaron remembered from his childhood.

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Cuaron is hardly the first filmmaker to imagine a favorite locale on a large scale. Here are four earlier examples of how to dream a city on screen.

"PlayTime," directed by Jacques Tati, released in 1967. Tati made a widescreen comedy about then-contemporary Paris, full of glass, steel, modernist architecture and creeping urban loneliness. But he built his own Paris outside Paris, erecting buildings of various scales and perspectives, and a variation on Orly Airport. "Tativille," they called it.

Tati took three laborious years to shoot "PlayTime." He started conceptualizing the script's ideas and framework in 1959; eight costly years later, the film's commercial fortunes were unfortunate, and Tati never fully regained his footing. It's a grand achievement. The star, as Tati told Chicago film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, "is the decor."

"New York, New York," directed by Martin Scorsese, released in 1977. A notoriously troubled shoot, full of cocaine and affairs, Scorsese's largely improvised examination of golden-age Hollywood melodramas and musicals starred Liza Minnelli and Robert De Niro. It begins in 1945 on V-J Day in Times Square, with Times Square built the old-fashioned studio way: in a huge soundstage on the other coast.

"I wanted to make it in the style of the '40s films," Scorsese said in a later interview, "with all their artifice and the idea of no reality." The thinking was that "the sets would be completely fake, but the trick would be to approach the characters in the foreground like a documentary, combining the two techniques." In a gentler vein, director Damien Chazelle acknowledged the same deliberate clash of styles in his musical "La La Land."

Throughout his career, New York native Scorsese has met the task of putting his hometown on screen, often shooting on location, more or less realistically ("Mean Streets," "Taxi Driver"), other times diving into the sumptuous, well-appointed fakery of period settings ("The Age of Innocence"). For "Gangs of New York," Scorsese oversaw the construction of production designer Dante Ferretti's expansive 19th century Manhattan sets in Rome's Cinecitta Studios.

"One from the Heart," directed by Francis Coppola, released in 1982. Like Scorsese, Coppola loved the musical form and its dramatic possibilities, along with the visual landscape of soundstage illusions. This Las Vegas love story was shot in the Zoetrope facilities in San Francisco. According to production designer Dean Tavoularis, interviewed for a behind-the-scenes video feature, "Francis said, 'Why don't we do the whole movie on the stage?'" Tavoularis doubted he could do that, given the script's scenes depicting traffic jams along the Strip and shots of McCarran Airport. "Well," the director said, "think of a way to do it." Tavoularis' solution included a 50-foot chunk of a real DC-7.

None of it was supposed to look realistic; "One from the Heart" lived in fantasy, not documentary. It cost a then-staggering $26 million; in the U.S., it sold fewer than $650,000 in tickets.

"Big Hero 6," directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams, released in 2014. This animated feature from Disney and Marvel took place in a brilliantly realized combination of San Francisco and Tokyo called "San Fransokyo," exploiting two world capitals in one witty stroke. The animation team had access to San Francisco's city property data, so they started with reams of real-world facts, figures and context for their leap into an urban center with super-tall hills and buildings.

Anything can happen in animation; anything can happen in live-action filmmaking, too, in this fully digital era of mundane wonder. It takes filmmakers of real vision and discernment, however, to create a San Fransokyo. Or Tati's miniature Paris. Or Cuaron's memory of Mexico City.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0NEW YORK (AP)  U.S. national player Keaton Parks has been acquired by New York City FC on loan from the Portuguese club Benfica for the 2019 season.

The 21-year-old Texan is a versatile central midfielder. He joined Varzim of Portugal in 2015 when he turned 18 and then signed with Benfica in 2017.

He made his national team debut in May, entering in the 62nd minute of a 3-0 victory over Bolivia in Philadelphia.

New York sporting director Claudio Reyna said Saturday that Parks "comes to us highly motivated" and can "make a strong impact" in midfield.A bouncer allegedly shot dead a 22-year-old woman on the morning of Friday, 18 January, for not withdrawing a rape case against him, hours before she was to record her statement in court, police said.

According to the victim's mother, Sandeep Kumar had gone to their house early morning and abducted the woman who worked as a dancer at a night club.

She was shot four times by the accused, the police said.

The woman's body was spotted at Khusboo Chowk at the Gurgaon-Faridabad expressway by some passersby who informed the police control room.

According to the mother, Kumar was pressuring her to withdraw the rape case against him that she had lodged in March 2017.

Also Read: Mentally challenged man kills woman in Meghalaya

"Kumar came to my house at Nathupur early morning and requested to speak to her for few minutes in his car. But he sped away as soon as she sat inside. A few hours later at 6 am, he threatened me over phone to withdraw the case, saying he would kill her." - Victims mother

The woman's mother said the hearing of rape case was scheduled on Friday, and hence she came from Karnal to Gurgaon to record her statement along with of her daughter in court.

The victim, who was working at the night club for four years had befriended Kumar, who was employed there as bouncer, the police said.

Also Read: Three Cops Suspended After Gang-Rape Accused Escapes in Goa

In March 2017, the victim had alleged that she was raped by Kumar and an FIR was lodged in a women police station. Gurgaon Police arrested the accused, and he later got bail from court, they said.

"On the statement of victim's mother, we have registered an FIR against Sandeep in DLF phase 1 Police Station. The accused, a resident of Tigaon in Faridabad, is at large," said Gurgaon Police PRO Subhash Bokan said.

. Read more on India by The Quint.RSS & BJPs Nehru-Netaji Cosplay: Irony Dies a Thousand DeathsLet Pandya & Rahul Play While Inquiry Is On: BCCI President to CoA . Read more on India by The Quint.After refusing to accept Delhi Polices charge sheet in the 2016 Jawaharlal Nehru University sedition case on Saturday, 19 January, the Patiala House court asked it to procure the requisite sanctions from the Delhi government by 6 February, when it will hear the matter next.

Days after the Delhi Police filed the charge sheet naming Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and seven Kashmiri students, the court asked why the charge sheet was filed without procuring the requisite sanctions from the Delhi government under Section 196 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

Taking permission is a mandatory requirement in sedition cases.

"Why did you file (the charge sheet) without approval? You dont have a legal department." - Patiala House Court

Also Read: JNU Sedition Charge Sheet: All 14 Student Witnesses Linked to ABVP

The police told Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat they will procure the required sanctions within 10 days.

The court is likely to resume hearing on the matter soon.

The Delhi Police had on 14 January filed the charge sheet against Kumar and others, saying he was leading a procession and supported seditious slogans raised on the varsity campus during an event in February 2016.

Police also charged former JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans during the event held on 9 February 2016, to commemorate the hanging of Parliament-attack mastermind Afzal Guru.

Also Read: JNU Sedition Row Serves Right-Wing Govts Agenda: Aparajitha Raja

Delhi Govt to Decide on Sedition Charge Sheet

According to a Delhi Police source to The Quint, the charge sheet could become a problem for the Delhi government.

If the government accepts it, then it will affect them politically. And if they reject, then Kanhaiya and others will go scot-free, the source said.

There is no stipulated time to accept or reject the charge sheet.

Also Read: JNU sedition row BJP creation, says ex-ABVP member

. Read more on Politics by The Quint.RSS & BJPs Nehru-Netaji Cosplay: Irony Dies a Thousand DeathsRewarding to See People Hate My Character in Homeland: Nimrat . Read more on Politics by The Quint.Former United States President George W Bush on Friday turned into a Pizza delivery man for a day as he gave a stack of pizzas to his Secret Service detail, who are working without a paycheck after the partial government shutdown.

Washington, January 19: Former United States President George W Bush on Friday turned into a Pizza delivery man for a day as he gave a stack of pizzas to his Secret Service detail, who are working without a paycheck after the partial government shutdown. The 43rd US president while sharing the image on Instagram also made a political statement asking "both sides to put politics aside, come together, and end this shutdown." US Government Shutdown Enters Day 26, Workers Continue Sans Pay.

Also Read | Second Donald Trump-Kim Jong-un Summit Likely to be Held in Vietnam

Bush said in his Instagram and Facebook posts that he and wife Laura "are grateful to our Secret Service personnel and the thousands of federal employees who are working hard for our country without a paycheck". He added: "And we thank our fellow citizens who are supporting them. It's time for leaders on both sides to put politics aside, come together, and end this shutdown." Donald Trump Walks out of Meeting to End US Government Shutdown.

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The message from Bush comes after the shutdown, longest in history, as Donald Trump demands 5 billion funding for the proposed southern border wall which has met the harsh reality of a divided government. Some employees are working without being paid, while more than 8,00,000 federal employees have been off work since 22 December.

US Representatives, mostly from Democrat party, have taken to social media to share their stories how their life is going without pay due to the shutdown.

"A woman from NH wrote to me & said the #TrumpShutdown has impacted her & her daughters tremendously. Without the financial support of their father, a government worker, they will soon be unable to buy food, pay bills & buy gas. This is appalling. #EndTheShutdown #ShutdownStories," US Representative Ann McLane Kuster stated.

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"Flying to Washington yesterday I met a TSA agent working without pay because of the shutdown. She is a single mother raising a 15-year-old daughter, & her family is struggling to make ends meet without her paycheck. #ShutdownStories, " Brad Schneider, the US Representative from Illinois' 10th Congressional District shared.xi jinping us-china trade war

China has extended the olive branch back to the United States by offering a path to eliminate Washingtons burgeoning trade deficit with the country, Bloomberg reported Friday. The news comes less than a day after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration was considering lifting tariffs amid the ongoing trade war.

China Proposes Six-Year Buying Spree

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported Friday that China has offered to significantly boost its purchase of U.S. goods over a six-year period in an effort to re-balance trade between the two superpowers. By increasing its annual imports from the United States, Beijing would reduce its trade surplus to zero by 2024. That would require a spending boost of more than $1 trillion.

Last year, Beijings surplus with the U.S. stood at $323 billion.

Trade War Truce?

Trade talks between the U.S. and China are progressing at breakneck speed, a strong sign that both sides are looking to end the tariff dispute before March. Thats when the 90-day truce agreed to by President Donald Trump and Chinas Xi Jinping is set to expire.

U.S. officials are reportedly considering lifting tariffs on Chinese imports to give Beijing a bigger incentive to negotiate a fairer trade deal. Last year, the Trump administration announced duties on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods and threatened additional tariffs if Beijing responded. Tensions have simmered down since December when the leaders of both countries met face-to-face on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Last week marked the first face-to-face meetings between Chinese and American trade delegates since the G20 summit. The meetings, which went a day longer than planned, resulted in China agreeing to purchase more U.S. farm and agricultural commodities. Chinese officials have also agreed to grant wider access to mainland markets to U.S. firms.

Several risks stand in the way of a comprehensive end to the trade war. Chief among them is the ongoing drama involving Huawei Technologies Corp. U.S. federal prosecutors are following up on civil lawsuits against the tech giant by launching a wider investigation into the company. According to The Wall Street Journal, the investigation has reached an advanced stage and could lead to an indictment shortly.

Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock.



The post Bye Bye Trade War? China Plans $1 Trillion Buying Spree to Reduce US Trade Deficit appeared first on CCN.





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.



DECATUR  Standing in front of a near-capacity crowd Friday at the Decatur Conference Center and Hotel, Roland Martin posed a question to his audience: "Why are you here?"

Martin, an award-winning journalist, was the keynote speaker of the 33rd annual Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Banquet. As the legacy of King continues to be celebrated in various ways throughout the nation, Martin said it's important for people to consider why they attend events like the banquet.

It shouldn't just be treated as a yearly opportunity to solely talk about King's life and impact, he said. It should also serve as a call to action.

"That's why I have to ask the question, 'Why are we here?'" said Martin, who is known for his work on CNN, TV One and his online news show #RolandMartinUnfiltered. "The event should not serve as an annual event that you go to ... and then go home and you actually don't do, or operate in the same vein of which he lived.

"So therefore, we should be making what he did a reality in our own lives," he said.

The annual banquet is organized by the Decatur Human Relations Commission. It's the first part of the commission's yearly observances of King's legacy, which also includes an essay contest for elementary, middle and high school students, and a Freedom March on Monday along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

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Martin encouraged people to consider the fact that while King was the face of the Civil Rights movement, it took the efforts of many other activists to advance the cause  such as Fannie Lou Hamer and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Because of this, he said, each celebration of King's birthday and the federal holiday in his honor is a celebration of their legacies, too. Today's society should be willing to follow their examples and fight for the causes they believe in, as there's still work to be done in the quest to provide equality for all Americans; and not just a select few.

Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe also had a question for the audience to consider: If King were still alive today and came to Decatur, what would he see?

She highlighted some of the community's progress in recent years, citing such things as the efforts of Caring Black Men and the new teen center that opened at the Boys and Girls Club of Decatur. She also noted works in progress, like addressing job vacancies and drop-out rates.

While there are many things the community should be proud of, Moore Wolfe said it has a long way to go.

"There is no magic answer, or one group or governmental body that can solve all of our problems," she said. "But together, we have a chance to fix some of them.

"I hope we can join together to make a real difference," Moore Wolfe said. "One that would make Martin Luther King proud."

Contact Jaylyn Cook at (217) 421-7980. Follow him on Twitter: @jaylyn_HR

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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.DECATUR  New legislation signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker to require state licensing of gun dealers is the latest in a series of gun control measures taking effect this year in Illinois  and more could be coming.

Under the new law, which takes effect in six months, firearm stores must have a state license certified by the Illinois State Police. A five-year permit costs $1,500 for retail shops and $300 for independent dealers.

Licensed dealers must provide annual training for employees, have video surveillance in their stores and be open to inspection by state police and local law enforcement. Opponents have characterized it as unnecessary bureaucracy and a financial burden for smaller gun dealers, specifically because the federal government already licenses gun dealers.

"This bill does nothing to curb gun violence at all," said Stacey Hagan, office manager and certified instructor at The Bullet Trap, an indoor shooting range and gun seller in Macon. "The criminals are out there. They're not purchasing guns from gun stores. They're getting them on the streets. Our shops have nothing to do with what's going on in the streets, and we're being penalized with more fees."

The law also requires state police to publish key information related to crime-related firearms, and there are penalties for individuals who fail to maintain records of private sales. It passed the General Assembly last year, but Democrats used procedural rules to prevent it from being vetoed by outgoing Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. It was sent to Pritzkers office on Wednesday.

"We can prevent someone from buying a gun for someone else who is not legally allowed to own a gun," Pritzker said, speaking at a Chicago elementary school where he held the bill signing Thursday. "Many of the incidents of gun violence that occur in our city and all across our state occur with illegal guns."

Opposition arises

Opponents moved swiftly after Pritzker signed the legislation, with the Illinois State Rifle Association immediately promising to pursue a legal challenge.

The action taken today is another assault on our Second Amendment rights, executive director Richard Pearson said in a statement. Nothing in this bill is going to enhance public safety in Illinois. The only thing that is being accomplished here is the creation of a bureaucratic nightmare for gun dealers.

Pritzker said gun-rights organizations were wrong in their criticism of the legislation, and signaled that more fights may be ahead: "I'm going to continue to make sure that we're standing up to the voices like the Illinois State Rifle Association and the National Rifle Association to protect our families and our children," he said.

Decatur-area gun dealers said the move will hurt their businesses without making people any safer.

"People that buy guns from stores like ours, they are not the ones getting illegal guns," said Rick Drew, firearms department manager at Decatur Jewelry and Pawn. "Youre talking people who steal guns, whether through UPS or breaking into homes, things like that. Thats where the illegal guns come from."

At The Bullet Trap, employees are all trained to look for "red flags" with any gun purchase, and they won't go through with a sale if they find any, Hagan said. That's in addition to safeguards from a state police background check, a three-day waiting period and presentation of two forms of identification.

"This has nothing to do with gun violence. This is all political," she said. "All of it is infringing on more Second Amendment rights. Nothing about it is going to stop gun violence on the streets. They are focusing again on the law-abiding citizens, not the criminals."

Drew said the additional expense of a state license would wind up being passed on to customers. Smaller gun shops and individual dealers, who already follow federal guidelines, would be especially hurt, he said.

"All it is is to tax us to get more revenue for a state that is broke,"Drew said. "I mean, what more can they do to us? The state is taxing us to death, all it is is tax more of us and run us out of business."

Other gun legislation

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The legislation follows two other gun-related measures that began Jan. 1. One requires a 72-hour waiting period before all gun purchases, an expansion from the previous waiting period for handguns only. Another new law creates a process that allows law enforcement to take firearms from a person deemed dangerous to themselves or others.

Supporters have said such laws allowed for a cooling-off period that could prevent someone from making a rash decision and being able to purchase a gun and have it in hand within a day.

George Mocsary, co-author of "Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights, and Policy, said he saw little value in the expanded waiting period legislation. In addition to the existing wait to buy a handgun, Illinois also requires a background check and 30-day waiting period as part of the application for a firearm owner's identification, or FOID, card required to possess a firearm in Illinois.

I find it pointless, said Mocsary, an associate professor of law and director of faculty development at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. It doesnt seem to be much of a deterrence value.

He added there is little to no evidence that so-called cool down periods have any effect. If someone plans to commit a violent act, an extra day or two of waiting for their firearm is unlikely to change their mind, he said.

The second piece of gun legislation signed last year by Rauner is the so-called red flag law, which authorizes judges to take weapons from people who show warning signs of being a danger, such as making threats on social media. The law is meant to prevent domestic violence, suicide and mass shooting incidents.

Police and family members can petition the courts for an emergency order, and the judge must find probable cause that someone is an immediate threat to themselves or others. Local law enforcement officers are responsible for executing a search warrant and seizing a persons firearms. A person who has an order against them will also have their FOID card suspended.

The law comes, in part, as a response to last years shooting at a Tennessee Waffle House, where four people were killed by a Morton, Illinois, resident with a history of having his firearms taken away for erratic behavior.

While the state rifle association generally opposes gun restrictions, Pearson said he supports the idea of taking away firearms from someone who is clearly a threat. It is in how the law will be carried out that gives him pause.

Its one we will be watching very closely, Pearson said. If anyone uses it for harassment, we will go after them.

What concerns Mocsary about the law is due process, especially when it concerns a constitutional right like firearm ownership.

If a judge issues an emergency restraining order, a persons firearms can be taken away without certainty he or she has been notified or have had the chance to defend themselves. It could take up to four weeks for the person to be able to appear in court and offer a defense.

Nobody wants someone with a mental health problem or is acting erratically to have a firearm. ... The problem is, we do not want to sweep the net so wide that the law-abiding person loses their rights, Mocsary said. If they had a chance to appear in court in two days or so, I dont think anyone would have a problem with that. ... But 28 days is too long, thats a problem.

The two acts were signed into law last year by Rauner.

Neither of the two laws that went into effect on Jan. 1 will have much of any effect on his business, but Dan Cooley, owner of the Bullet Trap in Macon, said its the precedent that concerns him. He said in an interview last week that it seems like its just additional regulations being placed on an industry that state lawmakers have long looked down on.

They keep nibbling away at (the industry). What will it be next time? he said. The gun-grabbers are never happy, they will want something else down the road.

Those laws, as well as Thursdays signing, are sure to set off what Pearson says will be tough years for gun supporters with Pritzker in office and a Democratic supermajority in the General Assembly. He said he expects every bad gun law imaginable to come up for discussion in the next few years, from extended waiting periods to purchase guns to taxes on ammunition sales.

Expecting the worst would be optimistic, Pearson said. It could be worse than that.

The Associated Press and Tom Lisi of the Herald & Review contributed to this story.

Contact Ryan Voyles at (217) 421-7985. Follow him on Twitter: @RVVoyles

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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.DECATUR  While some areas of the Midwest received as much as 10 inches of snow, Decatur on Saturday dodged a bullet, dealing instead with freezing rain and heavy winds.

Much of the region, including Macon County, remained under a winter storm warning from the National Weather Service because of the heavy winds, even after the precipitation left the area.

Heather Stanley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service at Lincoln, said wind from the north affected travel conditions on roads running east-west, where visibility was limited by blowing snow.

Bruce Bird, county engineer for Macon County Highway Department, said it was easy to see which areas were affected by the storm. Roads north of U.S. 36 were partially covered with ice and snow throughout the day.

There is line drawn where you can see the difference, he said. Macon County was split in half.

The storm hit harder in parts of the region north of Macon County. About 3 inches of snow fell on Bloomington-Normal, and Knox County received more than 5 inches. Illinois State Police said Illinois 10 west of Lincoln was nearly impassable Saturday afternoon, with multiple cars abandoned in the middle of the road.

Elsewhere in the Midwest, a plane carrying 129 people skidded Saturday from a slick runway at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago; no injuries were reported. A plow driver was killed when his truck rolled over outside Kansas City, and 15-vehicle crash blocked a section of Interstate 55 in southeastern Missouri near Ste. Genevieve.

The storm moved toward the Northeast and New England, where meteorologists say some places could see up to 18 inches of snow.

In Decatur, the storm warning and cold temperatures were enough to keep most people inside.

Tiffany High, 37, ventured out to take part in the United Cerebral Palsys fundraiser Barstool Open, in which teams travel to various bars and restaurants in Decatur playing indoor golf. Although the event organizers offered participants transportation to each establishment via busses, whenever possible, High and the other three members of her team, the Par-T Girls, walked to the next bar.

We werent waiting for the bus, said High, of Decatur. It was cold and very slippery, but we did fine.

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Par-T Girls team captain Jenna Devore, 33, planned to attend the event no matter the weather. Its for charity, she said. We were going to do this anyway.

Conditions will remain the same from tonight into Monday morning. Overnight low temperatures will be in single digits with high temps around 17.

The highway crews had few problems on the north-south roads, Bird said. East-west roads had drifting and blowing snow. But people seem to behaving themselves, he said.

State police in Central Illinois had responded to several crashes and vehicles sliding off the road. Roads were ice covered in patches because of strong winds and blowing snow, especially before overpasses and on curves.

City street and maintenance workers were prepared for the freezing rain and potential for snow.

But everybody needs to slow down, said Dan Mendenall, Municipal Services Manager.

The crews spent the morning salting the streets and keeping a close eye on bridges and overpasses, according to Mendenall.

Early on Saturday, the Macon County Sheriffs Office assisted a driver in a ditch near Harristown. They responded to another call later in the afternoon. Although they expected the area to have treacherous road conditions as the day continued, Macon County sheriff's Sgt. Jason Brown said the area they closely watched north of Decatur.

But people are cautious, he said. It helps there isnt much traffic. It is normally less on Saturday.

Check out photos of Decatur having fun in the snow

Contact Donnette Beckett at (217) 421-6983. Follow her on Twitter: @donnettebHR

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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.FFA chapter gets award

CLAY CITY  The FFA chapter at Clay City has been named to the to 15 in Pioneer's Brand A-Series Soybeans Big A challenge.

A panel selected the top 15 chapters in a collaboration between Pioneer and FFA that focuses on the next generation of soybean varieties and growers. The chapters were chosen based on an essay highlighting how A-series soybeans benefit farmers and a sample design of their Big A statue. Chapters will decorate the statues through May and the top three will win cash prizes at the 2019 Farm Progress Show.

Student wildlife art contest

DECATUR  Rock Springs Center will sponsor a wildlife art contest for students in grades K-12.

Students may create an original work in any medium of their choice except photography depicting native Illinois plants or wildlife in their natural habitat. Entries are due Friday, Jan. 25.

Submit entries by mail or in person, and include the artist's name, age, grade, school and a phone number where the artist's parent or guardian may be reached. Send in care of Alysia Callison, Rock Springs Center, 3939 Nearling Lane, Decatur, IL 62521. Winners will be notified Feb. 11.

MLK Day celebration

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DECATUR  Millikin University will welcome Willie Rockward, president of the National Society of Black Physicists, to a public presentation 3 p.m. Monday, Jan. 21, in the Bob and Debi Johnston Banquet Room on the third floor of the University Commons.

The event is free and open to the public. Rockward's talk is entitled, Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Einstein and You.

Science Explorers 4-H Club

DECATUR  Millikin University will offer a 4-H Club for students in grades 9-12 who are interested in any kind of science.

The club is free and will meet 4 to 7 p.m. Thursdays, from Jan. 24-Feb. 21 in the Leighty-Tabor Science Center on campus. Projects will be exhibited at a science fair 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21. Call the Macon County Extension, (217) 877-6042.

Family Reading Night, auction

WARRENSBURG  Family Reading Night and a silent auction will be 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 22, at the Warrensburg-Latham Elementary School.

Doors open at 6 p.m. for space stations, book fair, games, snack, book walk songs, bingo, crafts, reading and writing. There will also be an all-school read aloud featuring Jessica Dobson from WAND and door prizes.

Contact Valerie Wells at (217) 421-7982. Follow her on Twitter: @modgirlreporter

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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.MACON  A 30-year-old woman was arrested Thursday after Macon County sheriff's deputies said she and a man sexually touched three children on several occasions and encouraged the children to sexually touch each other at a residence in Macon.

Ashley N. Jobe faces a preliminary charge of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child. Sheriff's Sgt. Roger Pope said an arrest warrant has been signed for Jesse Demascal, 30, on eight preliminary charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of a child.

Demascal was being held in the Christian County Jail on Friday on an unrelated preliminary criminal damage to property charge. Pope said he will be released from Christian County custody Tuesday and will be arrested and booked in the Macon County Jail that day. His bond has been set at $500,000. His Christian County booking photo was unavailable.

A signed affidavit of Jobe's arrest said deputies initially responded to a report from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services on Nov. 11.

Deputies conducted interviews with the three children  each younger than 13  and each gave accounts on several instances when Jobe and Demascal either sexually touched the children, made the children touch them sexually or touch each other, the affidavit said.

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Jobe told deputies that while she believed one of the children's accounts of her performing a sexual act on him, she said she didn't remember it happening because she might have been intoxicated, the affidavit said. When asked about sexually touching another of the children, Jobe admitted to doing so, the affidavit said.

Demascal denied allowing the any of the children to touch his private area, the affidavit said, but said two of the children entered a room he was in and witnessed him performing a sexual act. He said one of the children accidentally touched his private area when jumping on his back.

Preliminary charges are subject to review by the Macon County State's Attorney's Office.

Jobe was held in the Macon County Jail Friday on $750,000 bond. If she makes bail, she is ordered to stay away from the three children and any minor younger than 18.

2018 mug shots from the Herald & Review

Contact Jaylyn Cook at (217) 421-7980. Follow him on Twitter: @jaylyn_HR

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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.DECATUR  Police said two 18-year-old women were arrested Thursday after an Eisenhower High School student said they punched and kicked her during lunch on Jan. 3.

A signed Decatur police affidavit said that between noon and 1 p.m. that day the student said she got into an argument with one of the 18-year-olds, and the other punched her in the back of the head.

The student fell to the ground and was punched and kicked by the other two, the affidavit said. Other people were involved in the incident, the affidavit said, one of whom is a juvenile the attacked student named. The student was treated for injuries at HSHS St. Mary's Hospital, the affidavit said.

The affidavit did not specify if the two 18-year-olds who were arrested were Eisenhower students. The Decatur School District did not immediately return a request for comment.

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During an investigation by Eisenhower staff, the affidavit said, two videos of the fight were found posted on Facebook. Another one was found in which one of the women admitted to punching the student during the fight, the affidavit said.

Both women face preliminary charges of aggravated battery at a school and mob action, which are subject to review by the Macon County State's Attorney's Office.

Both were released from the Macon County Jail on Friday after posting $10,000 bond.

2018 mug shots from the Herald & Review

Contact Jaylyn Cook at (217) 421-7980. Follow him on Twitter: @jaylyn_HR

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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.DECATUR  With the region in the grips of its second winter storm in a week, meteorologists with the National Weather Service at Lincoln said there is another concern beyond snow: the wind.

Wind gusts could reach at high as 40 mph today, (Saturday) on top of an expected 4 to 6 inches of snow. While last week's storm brought 9 to 10 inches of wetter, heavier snow across Central Illinois, this storm will bring different conditions, said meteorologist Ernie Goetsch with the weather service.

The lighter-weight snow is ideal for blowing and drifting, causing dangerous driving conditions, Goetsch said, and the snow remaining from last week will also affect roads. The temperatures will dip significantly lower, too.

The leftover snow will cause a wind break, making the roads close up fast, he said.

A winter storm warning was in effect for Piatt, Champaign, Vermilion and Macon counties until midnight Saturday. In addition to the blustery, snow conditions, temperatures were expected be 31 degrees Saturday this morning before plummeting to 10 degrees at night. Wind chills will be between minus 3 and 7 degrees. It will still be blustery, with a north northwest wind 11 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph.

City and county road crews were preparing on Friday afternoon for another busy weekend.

We are make sure equipment is running, said Dan Mendenall, Decatur municipal services manager. And we are resting up.

Mendenall said his staff has been preparing for the storm since the last one. For them, responding to the storm means business as usual.

We are used to this, Mendenall said. Weve been doing snow removal all week long.

Macon County Engineer Bruce Bird said his Macon County Highway Department crews are scheduled to cover shifts for 24 hours while the storm sweeps in across our portion of Central Illinois.

We have a night crew and a day crew, each are working 12 hours from 6 to 6, he said. We will keep the plows moving until the wind stops blowing.

Bird has been studying the forecast: We will have our crew out again on Monday, he said. We probably wont have clean pavement until early next week.

The crews will be driving trucks, motor graders and front-end loaders to make the roads safer for drivers, but they know it's always a tough battle to keep them clear when the wind gets involved.

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With the winds that we are expected, we are going to have severe problems with blowing and drifting, Bird said.

Road crews are recommending drivers to be cautious or remain indoors during the storm. For those who will be staying home, Friday was a day to resupply.

The winter storm warning brought residents out in droves, again to stores to stock up on necessities before another snowed-in weekend. Among them was Cindy Wickline of Decatur, who was shopping at Menard's on Friday.

She said she wasnt prepared last week.

I just didnt believe (the forecast), she said. Ten inches, thats ridiculous. I never thought we would get that much.

This latest storm is expected to end about midnight. Saturday The weather service website warns drivers to plan on slippery road conditions: Areas of blowing snow could significantly reduce visibility."

Illinois State Police reminded motorists to be cautious but recommended that people avoid travel whenever possible.

If traveling is necessary, police said drivers should dress warmly and in layers, fill their gas tank, clear ice and snow from car windows and lights, keep your distance from snowplows, watch out for black ice (a sinister patch that is transparent and can look like dry pavement), have an emergency car care kit and carry a cellphone and charger.

While the clouds will give way to some sunshine on Sunday, temperatures won't do much to melt the snow, with a high of 17 degrees and wind chills between minus 4 and 6. Overnight temperatures will drop to 6 degrees.

Although Wickline had to remove a large amount of snow from her driveway last Sunday, she is prepared for this weeks storm, she said, after purchasing pet-friendly ice melt to spread on her driveway.

I dont want the dog to get sick, or the wildlife, she said. It does also track into your home.

Photos of fun in the snow from around Decatur

Contact Donnette Beckett at (217) 421-6983. Follow her on Twitter: @donnettebHR

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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.Maggie Kreuzer said she's "the perfect age" to illustrate the value of the HPV vaccine, now approved for women and men ages 27 to 45.

"I'm in that age gap that didn't receive the vaccine as a child," Kreuzer, 32, of Shirley, said of the human papillomavirus vaccine that reduces the risk of cervical cancer in women and several other cancers in women and men.

For several years, the vaccine has been approved and recommended  but not required in Illinois  for males and females ages 9 through 26. Most health care providers recommend that children ages 11 or 12 get the vaccine when they receive other shots during their sixth-grade physicals.

But people like Kreuzer, who were that age before the recommendation, never got vaccinated.

That's why the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in October approved the vaccine for women and men ages 27 to 45.

And that's why Kreuzer got vaccinated by nurse Geri Miller at Obstetrics and Gynecology Care Associates in Bloomington earlier this week and why several Central Illinois health care professionals applaud the expansion.

"I would absolutely recommend it without hesitation," said Jean-Marie Tyner, nurse practitioner with Advocate Medical Group in Lexington.

"This is a great tool to limit the risk of cancers in men and women," said Dr. Richard Ginnetti, medical director for primary care for OSF HealthCare's Eastern Region.

"This protects against the (nine) most common strains of HPV," said Kreuzer, also a medical assistant at the obstetrics and gynecology practice. "HPV causes cancer and that's why we care so much."

"This is a cancer-prevention vaccine," said Carol Carlton, Macon County Health Department director of clinical nursing services. "This is very valuable for males and females."

HPV, which is spread by sexual contact, is the most common sexually transmitted virus, causing 14 million new infections a year in people ages 15 through 59, with about half of those among people ages 15 to 24, said Dr. Joe Santiago of Obstetrics and Gynecology Care Associates.

"There are many different strains of the virus," Tyner said.

Most people with HPV have no symptoms. But HPV causes 13,000 cases of cervical cancer in women in the United States each year, according to the American Cancer Society, as well as vaginal, vulva, anal, penile and throat cancers and genital warts. The vaccine reduces the risk.

"Most people think only women need it, but men and women need it because HPV causes cancer in men and women," Kreuzer said. "There has been a decrease in cervical cancer and in pre-cancerous cells in women who have received the vaccine."

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"Since the introduction of the vaccine, I have seen a dramatic decrease in high-grade (cervical cancer screening) Pap smears, which tend to progress to cancer, and in genital warts" and in procedures needed to treat those conditions, Santiago said. "It's really impressive."

Because HPV is spread by sexual contact, some parents are reluctant to have their 11- and 12-year-olds vaccinated before they are sexually active.

"But the earlier you get vaccinated, the more it can prevent cancer," Kreuzer said.

When some people aren't vaccinated as children, they don't get vaccinated as adults, even after they become sexually active. But the vaccine offers protection even after sexual activity begins because adults may be exposed to strains of HPV to which they weren't exposed when they were younger, medical professionals said.

That's why FDA has approved the vaccine for 27-to-45-year-olds.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is expected to follow suit in February and expand its recommendation for people ages 9 through 45. After the ACIP acts, health insurers should begin to cover the vaccine for 27- to-45-year-olds, medical professionals said.

Most insurers already cover it to age 26.

Insurance coverage is important because the vaccine, which is a three-shot series over six months for people 15 and older and a two-shot series for ages 9 to 14 over six to 12 months, costs $200 to $300 per dose.

"Working in an OB/GYN office, I see patients with pre-cancerous cells and cervical cancer on a daily basis," Kreuzer said.

"It's devastating to give women that news," Santiago said.

"This is an effective vaccine to prevent that," Kreuzer said. "I was excited they expanded the age range so I could be protected."

"Eighty-eight percent (of eligible youth) get the first dose," Carlton said. "Thirty-two percent of eligible female patients and 27 percent of eligible male patients complete the recommended series.

"We're working on strategies to increase that," Carlton said. "But they do get some protection with one shot."

Tyner said, "If time lapses, you don't need to start the series all over again. You just need to get the last one and you can finish it at any time."

Medical professionals recommended that women and men ask their doctors about the vaccine for themselves and their children. For patients ages 27 to 45, some medical professionals are taking names of interested patients and will call them back when insurers cover the vaccine.

"We have a vaccine that reduces our risk for cancer," Tyner said. "Why would you not line up for that?"

Contact Paul Swiech at (309) 820-3275. Follow him on Twitter: @pg_swiech

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Build your health & fitness knowledge Sign up here to get the latest health & fitness updates in your inbox every week! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.Fielder recalled speaking on the Senate floor in a previous session in support of the personhood amendment. While she did not use the word abortion directly, she talked about how a choice she made as a young woman has affected her life and views. She was thankful for high school students in attendance during her floor speech that opened up afterwards, sharing their personal hardships, regrets and difficult choices, she said.

Briana Morgan became involved with Saints for Life at Carroll College and spoke of a difficult upbringing. As she grew up her parents divorced, and while attending public schools, the morality of abortion was a conversation topic among her friends.

Id hear people say that if a child were to be born into a situation of poverty, or a situation where they werent loved or fed properly, that means their life should be terminated before it started, she told the crowd. Morgan soon realized that her life of hardship was the life others theorized should have been terminated, but she is convinced that every life has dignity at every stage.

This cause that we stand for is not a mere difference of opinion, the right to be born is a matter of life and death, she said.The Helena Police Department responded to 86 calls for service on Friday. Of those, they responded to six vehicle crashes, eight welfare checks, four trespassing complaints and five suspicious circumstance calls.

As of Saturday morning, the county jail held 106 inmates (97 for felonies and nine for misdemeanors). In total, the county has 135 inmates at various detention facilities. There are 104 clients serviced by the 24/7 sobriety program. Of these, 49 are on Personal Breath Test, 35 are on Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor bracelet, 13 are on GPS and seven are on house arrest. Pretrial Services is currently working with 288 clients.Jan. 18

As of Friday morning, the county jail held 102 inmates (95 for felonies and 7 for misdemeanors). In total, the county has 130 inmates at various detention facilities. 104 clients are serviced by the 24/7 sobriety program. Of these, 49 are on PBT (Personal Breath Test), 35 are on SCRAM (Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor bracelet), 13 are on GPS, and 7 are on house arrest. Pretrial Services is currently working with 288 clients.Officials from Northwestern Energy, Montana's largest monopoly utility, say new sources of energy will have to be found in the future as consumer demand increases and parts of the Colstrip power plant start to shut down.

The observations came Friday during an informational hearing Friday in Helena before the Montana Legislature and Public Service Commission.

Colstrip Units 1 and 2 will close no later than 2022 to settle a pollution lawsuit and as a result there will be less firm power in the northwestern United States. So-called for its reliability, firm powers availability doesnt fluctuate as hydroelectric or wind power does.

NorthWesterns preferred firm power source is a gas-fired power plant, said John Hines, the utilitys vice president of supply. The company does not consider renewable energy sources like wind and solar power reliable enough, even with battery storage back up.

The company expects the Colstrip power plant, of which it has an ownership share, to be generating power for another 23 years. Several companies, however, disagree with the utilitys assertion that Colstrip will be around until 2042. NorthWestern co-owns the power plant with five other power providers, four of which are preparing to leave the power plant within eight to 16 years.



The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul. Korea Times file

South Korea expressed hope Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's ongoing trip to China will help the denuclearization and peace process.



"The government expects that high-level exchanges between the North and China, including a meeting between Chairman Kim Jong-un and President Xi Jinping, will contribute to the complete denuclearization and establishment of permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula," a foreign ministry official said.



South Korea would continue to foster the "virtuous cycle" of denuclearization and related diplomatic activities by the Koreas and regional powers, the official said.



Earlier in the day, the North's state media confirmed that Kim was on a four-day trip to China that started Monday. Chinese news outlets carried similar reports.





ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  The University of New Mexico womens swimming and diving team will be competing against long-time rival New Mexico State in Las Cruses on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. MT.



The last time Lobos competed against the Aggies was a home meet for Senior Day in which UNM celebrated a 192-108 win. The Lobos took 13 out of the 16 total events and extend their winning-streak versus NM State to six.



There were two relay teams and seven current swimmers who placed first in last seasons dual-meet. Konoha Shinada and Adriana Palomino each had two individual wins with Shinada winning the 200-yard butterfly (2:04.44) and the 100-yard butterfly (56.94), and Palomino finishing first in the 500-yard freestyle (5:01.13) and the 1000-yard freestyle (9:54.54).



Carol De Groote Tavares had one individual win in the 100-yard backstroke (1:47.06). Meanwhile, Emily Huffer took first in the 200-yard backstroke (2:02.49) and Klara Farkas won the 200-yard freestyle (1:52.68). Matea Sumajstorcic claimed a podium spot, topping the 200-yard IM (2:09.95).

Hannah Tiendas captured her first-ever collegiate win in the one-meter dive against NMSU last year, making the NCAA Zone Cut with a score of 273.13.

The Lobos will be competing in 16 events on Saturday at the NM State Swimming and Diving Complex.



UNM will be competing in the following events:



200-yard medley relay

1,000-yard freestyle

200-yard freestyle

100-yard backstroke

100-yard breaststroke

200-yard butterfly

50-yard freestyle

1m dive

100-yard freestyle

200-yard backstroke

200-yard breaststroke

500-yard freestyle

100-yard butterfly

3m dive

200-yard IM

400-yard freestyle relay

NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Ternium S.A. (Ternium or the Company) (NYSE: TX). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980.



The investigation concerns whether Ternium and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here to join a class action]

On November 27, 2018, Bloomberg reported that Terniums Chairman Paolo Rocca was indicted for his role in a graft scheme. Specifically, it was reported that [t]he judge charged Rocca after the Argentine billionaire testified that one of his companys executives paid an undisclosed amount of cash to government officials in monthly installments from 2009 to 2012. It was further reported that [t]he officials were allegedly working for then-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchners administration to speed up a compensation payment from Venezuela[] for the nationalization of Sidor, a unit that had been seized by Venezuela [and which]. . . Roccas group was [paid] $1.95 billion for[.] Consequently, the judge ordered a bond of $103 million and banned Rocca from leaving the country.

On this news, Terniums securities fell $1.42 per share or nearly 5% to close at $28.02 per share on November 27, 2018.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

rswilloughby@pomlaw.com

888-476-6529 ext. 9980"People's time is valuable so it can be hard to get people involved," Ragan said, adding that it's part of the reason while listening posts are held. They're an opportunity for legislators to hear from their constituents.

The discussion turned to making Iowa a place people want to move to and the obstacles the state must overcome.

Iowa EMS Association President Mark Sachen, of Mason City, said that while he has concerns about mental health services for adults, he is concerned and about the long distance transport and care of children who need mental health services.

"The governor can talk all she wants about how she wants better mental health for children, but how are we going to get there?" Gooch asked.

Gooch mentioned an increase in school threats and violence as part of the mental health issue.

"How bad does it have to get before people get invested?" Gooch said.

Concerns were raised about opioids in Iowa.

"We're on the edge of the opioid crisis," Steckman said.Online searches of Heather Veld's name tell two stories.

One shows her barrel racing. Veld has been riding and racing her whole life.

My dad has me on a horse when I was 2, she said.

The other shows a mugshot and articles about a bogus theft charge that's impacted her mental health and her children.

I keep my shades down," Veld said. "I don't sleep well. I have nightmares. I wake up punching and kicking.

Five years have passed since Veld was accused of theft in Mason City.

The charge and subsequent arrest lead to a civil lawsuit, which was settled just weeks before her trial in December 2018.

Cerro Gordo County agreed to pay Veld, 41, of Brandon, South Dakota, $260,000 to end the lawsuit. Days before the check was cut, the charge was also dropped.

I dont think you can put it all behind you knowing that you did nothing wrong, Veld said.

Velds attorney, Jack Bjornstad of Spirit Lake, claims Cerro Gordo County violated her constitutional rights.

Alleged theft

On Jan. 4, 2014, Veld traveled to Mason City to buy a truck. She, with assistance from investors, was starting a horse training and boarding company.

Veld wrote a check for the truck, and the auto dealership agreed to hold the check until she confirmed with the dealership that funds were moved into her account.

She was waiting for funds to be put into her bank account by an investor.

The dealership promised it would work with her, according to Veld.

They knew that I did not have the funds available at the time, she said.

After she left with the truck, she and the dealership discovered that her financing fell through.

She had the truck for three days total, put $500 into work on the truck and drove a few hundred miles.

When the investor bailed, Veld arranged with the dealership to return the truck to a Ford repo agency in Sioux Falls. The lawsuit states Veld returned the truck, as agreed, on Jan. 22, 2014.

Veld had no prior criminal record, and she left a front and back copy of her debit card, personal references and her personal banker's info with the dealership.

I dont go around stealing cars or trucks, Veld said.

She contacted the dealer after she returned the truck and apologized, saying she would do what she could to make it right.

The day after returning the truck in Sioux Falls, Velds vehicle slid into a mailbox on a gravel road in South Dakota. The owner was not home so she wrote a note with her information for the owners to contact her for payment.

A Brandon Police Officer drove by and asked for her license and registration. The officer said she had an outstanding warrant from Cerro Gordo County, confusing Veld.

The officer told her that the charge was equivalent to a grand theft charge in South Dakota, she said.

The criminal complaint filed by Mason City Police Officer Cam Theilen on Jan. 22, 2014, the day Veld took the truck to Sioux Falls, charged Veld with felony first-degree theft. The complaint said Veld wrote a bad check for $65,058 to purchase a pickup from Mason City Ford.

According to the original warrant, the warrant was "statewide" and indicated Veld could be held for $10,000 cash bond upon arrest.

The officer did not arrest her because the warrant was for Iowa only, Veld said. She drove to feed her horse and tried to call the Cerro Gordo County Attorneys Office.

The secretary kept blowing me off, she said.

Veld picked up some groceries and drove home in Brandon.

Law enforcement vehicles, with lights and sirens, boxed her vehicle in when she arrived. Her four children, ranging in age from 4 to 17 at the time, watched from their home.

They had their heads glued to the big picture window, Veld said.

Veld was taken inside to take her medication and say goodbye to her crying kids and now ex-husband before arrest.

The South Dakota law enforcement officers placed her in handcuffs outside, away from her children, but she knows they saw everything from the window.

Veld was arrested Jan. 23, 2014, on an Iowa-only warrant for first-degree theft, a Class C felony, for allegedly writing a bad check to purchase a pickup truck from Mason City Ford.

She was taken to the Minnehaha County Jail in Sioux Falls, 10 miles southwest of Brandon.

Jail

Behind bars, her main concern was safety.

Veld previously worked for seven years at a South Dakota prison, and she was concerned that she would interact with inmates and parolees who might know her from that time.

She left the corrections job in May 2013 to be at home with her children and focus on barrel racing.

Veld voiced concerns at the jail and was placed in the drunk tank, away from the general population.

But they put my name in big bold letters where anyone could see, she said. Right away, they put me in danger.

Her first court hearing was Jan. 24, 2014.

Veld says her public defender urged her to sign an extradition order, poorly explaining to her that it would "make it go faster." Veld took that to mean that the issue would be resolved quickly.

She spent 12 days in the drunk tank crying as she waited for the Cerro Gordo County Sheriff's Office to transport her.

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Veld suffers from severe migraines, requiring medication. She did not receive medication until her 10th day in jail.

Cerro Gordo County Corrections Officer Brenda Crom transported Veld from South Dakota to Cerro Gordo County Jail on Feb. 3.

The emotional damage that has happened since I was in the jail for 12 days has been horrible, she said.

Cerro Gordo hearing

Veld made her initial appearance before Cerro Gordo County Magistrate Patrick Byrne on Feb. 4, 2014. She was released on her own recognizance.

Byrne also ordered Cerro Gordo County Attorney Carlyle Dalen answer, in writing, how Veld was arrested in South Dakota on a warrant valid only in Iowa, according to court records.

No written report was ever filed, according to court records and to Bjornstad, Veld's attorney.

He believes the Cerro Gordo County Attorney and Sheriffs Office changed the warrant from a statewide warrant to a nationwide warrant.

They believe its in their power to change something that a judge ordered, Bjornstad said.

Dalen dropped the charge against Veld on Feb. 18, 2014, citing insufficient evidence.

Cerro Gordo County's chief prosecutor deferred comment to Smith, Mills & Schrock, the firm that represented the countys insurance carrier in the lawsuit.

Some of the questions asked of Dalen and the law firm included: why was the document explaining the warrant arrest never filed and why was the statewide warrant not obeyed?

They would be the best source of information regarding this case, Dalen said.

The law firm did not return a request for comment Friday afternoon.

Lawsuit and settlement

Bjornstad, Veld's attorney, noted that the civil lawsuit was a slow process, covering about three years.

The key questions about the range of the warrant and the prosecutor's ignorance to the court order remain.

Bjornstad said it is very odd for a court order that direct to not be followed.

When a judge orders me to do something, I do it, he said.

Theilen and Crom were both named individually as a defendant in the lawsuit. Attorneys for the Mason City and Cerro Gordo County called the lawsuit baseless in court documents.

In the civil lawsuit, Veld sought compensation for mental and emotional harm and anguish, anxiety, fear, depression, loss of enjoyment of life, degradation, disgrace, uncertainty, apprehensiveness, grief, restlessness, dismay, tension, unease, and pain and suffering

The trauma this has caused I will be working through for a long time, Veld said. Its not something you get over.

The trial for Veld's civil claim was scheduled for Dec. 11, 2018.

Veld dropped the civil suit with prejudice following a settlement with the county, meaning the lawsuit cannot be filed again. She was awarded $260,000.

While the settlement provides Veld with some compensation, she said no amount will make up for what she went through.

Jack and I have done something incredible, she said. We have held them accountable for what they did.

Bjornstad said Veld's strength was the key.

That took so much courage, he said of sharing her story and pursuing a lawsuit. She fought for her right to be heard.

Moving forward

The settlement didn't end the impacts.

Veld said she still has nightmares that the police are at her house. From her incarceration, she recalls her daughter bawling and her son seeing the school counselor every day.

And today, there are reminders.

Her youngest child is scared of police.

How do you explain that to a child? she asked.

And then there's the internet.

Veld has an associates degree in criminal justice, serving as dispatcher and prison counselor for years before her arrest. To get a job in the field now would almost be impossible, she said.

Veld, currently working at a senior living facility, said applying for jobs can be difficult even though the charge was dismissed. She believes she's lost out on job opportunities.

Her children are also challenged.

My 14-year-old son has to do a project for school, has to Google his mom, she said.

Right now, Veld is looking forward to barrel racing season. Most of her competitions are with the Better Barrel Racing Association.

She and her horse Angel, also known as BA Daddy Wuza Rocker, share a special bond.

She dont talk back, she said, laughing.

Shortly after the charges were dismissed, Veld went to a competition in Texas. She said she was nervous and traumatized. She frequently turned to see what was behind her.

But racing with BA Daddy Wuza Rocker gave her confidence.

When I was on her back, nobody could touch me, Veld said.

Contact Courtney at 641-421-0534 or on Twitter @CourtneyFiorini.

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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.North Iowa Gives Back has received more than 300 prom dresses, including some with price tags, and its accepting more.

Girls come in all sizes, so we have them all, Torres said.

This years giveaway will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26, at the Mason City High School Commons, 1700 Fourth St. SE. Another giveaway is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 23 depending on the weather.

Dresses, as well as shoes, jewelry and other accessories, will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis, Torres said, noting each girl is only allowed to take home one dress.

Volunteers will be available to alter and repair dresses.

During the events, Mason City High School volunteers with Iowa Jobs for American Graduates, or ISAG, will be helping girls locate dresses, try them on and put them back.

We do a lot of volunteering and giving back in the community, said Skylar Shannon, 9-10 ISAG president.Beneath the hills and valleys, cliffs and woodlands that bejewel the landscape around Duluth, Minn., scientists have discovered a figurative gold mine in the form of actual mineral mining potential  and Iowa researchers believe something at least as valuable could be hiding in this states northeast corner.

The prospect has University of Iowa-based geologists consumed with answering the question of whether an underground formation spanning 10 Iowa counties is similar to the geologic complex beneath the Duluth area  which analysts say contains minerals worth up to $1 trillion.

If the UI-based Iowa Geological Survey finds the Northeast Iowa Formation is roughly the same age as its Minnesotan counterpart, researchers believe the Hawkeye state could be harboring economically-valuable deposits of copper, nickel, platinum and other minerals.

The more data we collect, the better picture we can paint, said Ryan Clark, a geologist with the Iowa Geological Survey. If its promising, then a mineral company could come in and do its own testing.

Researchers are basing their optimism on analyses by the U.S. Geological Survey, which has been assessing the countrys mineral resources in response to rising global demand for the materials used in industrial, medical and technology products.

The governments interest in the billion-year-old Midcontinent Rift System  a formation stretching from Kansas to Michigan  led it to Iowa, where airborne assessments produced evidence of economically valuable geology.

Specifically, USGS findings signaled underlying geology in the form of a horse shoe-shaped complex in Decorah and similar rings in the area of Elkader, Manchester and Vinton.

There are a lot of minerals up there, Clark said. From what Ive been told by the USGS, if one or a few of these anomalies do end up being similar to the Duluth Complex, what we have is larger.

It could be a significant find, if in fact it turns out, he said. But we are still a long way from proving that.

'Needle in a haystack'

Right now, only one window into the regions mystery mineral prospects exists  a core drilled near Elkader by a mineral company in the 1960s. UI researchers are pulling rocks from that core and testing the age of minerals found within.

We have used modern techniques to try to find a needle in a haystack, Clark said, noting colleagues have been going through with fine-toothed combs for anything we can find that could possible yield an age.

The Iowa Geological Survey could seek funding to drill a second core for further research in the hilly region. The USGS had a plan to do just that before its budget was cut last year.

We are sitting and waiting to see if the funding is restored or not, Clark said.

If it is, Iowa could pursue financing for underground monitoring. If its not, the state could take the helm in creating a new core, or a mineral company could come in and pay to drill.

But their purpose might be different from ours, Clark said. Our job is to get a better understanding of what the whole formation is.

Should Iowa geologists achieve adequate access to the untapped trove, Clark said, I really believe we would get the information of what this rock formation is, and prove that its similar to the Duluth Complex.

Public vs. private land

One known difference between the Duluth and Northeast Iowa complexes is ownership of the land under them.

Much of the Duluth Complex is on public property, managed by the states Department of Natural Resources.

That includes School Trust Lands, which is property the federal government granted Minnesota at statehood for schools, according to Minnesotas DNR. The state today boasts 2.5 million acres of School Trust Lands, along with another 1 million acres of severed mineral rights, which occurs when the state sells the land but retains the rights to subsurface materials.

For revenue generated from the School Trust Lands, Minnesota established a permanent school fund for the benefit of K-12 public schools, according to Peter Clevenstine, assistant director of minerals in Minnesotas Division of Lands and Minerals.

Leasing land to mining companies has produced hundreds of millions in revenue for the K-12 and public university trusts, according to Clevenstine.

Although the mineral-rich public property has been known about for decades, Minnesota only now is pursuing its mining potential.

We have three deposits of nonferrous metals that are not producing, he said. If they do start producing, we could put another $2 billion into the permanent school trusts for K-12 education.

Mining operations must complete environmental reviews and jump through permitting hoops before that can happen. But one company is close to meeting its requirements  recently landing a permit from the state and waiting on its last from the federal government, according to Clevenstine.

We have the opportunity now in the next 30 years from three operations to have $2 billion added to that trust, he said.

Iowas situation is different. Most of its underground potential sits under privately-owned land, according to Clark. That means any company  or state or government entity, for that matter  must negotiate with individual landowners over access and royalties.

The lack of public land has been an issue, Clark said.

Hes found a defunct limestone quarry that owns land in the target area and is willing to provide access for research.

That is the closest thing Ive found to being able to drill this next research hole, Clark said. If it does go to the exploration phase, where a company can come in, they would have to enter into an agreement with whoever owns the land.

That commercializing side is where the economic potential for Iowa lies. Arriving mineral companies would create jobs and generate revenue through taxes, fees and the like.

'Balance and protect'

But Clark and Clevenstine stressed this work requires care in protecting the land while also exploring the potential benefits.

Its our job to balance and protect those natural resources and also provide economic opportunities for the wide use of these resources, Clevenstine said.

So long as Iowa maintains that bilateral view, Sen. Dan Zumbach, R-Ryan, said hes OK with further research and even exploration into the hidden potential of the region he represents.

I think its important that no matter how you use your resources, you need to be thoughtful, he said. Its always exciting to see new potential for job opportunities, and you need to look at those things. But you always want to be respectful to the environmental as well.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0City Editor

Tom Roeder is the Gazette's City Editor. In Colorado Springs since 2003, Tom has covered the military at home and overseas and has cover statehouses in Denver and Olympia, Wash. His main job, though, is being dad to two great kids.A storm that crossed up forecasters with heavier snow than expected swept through the Pikes Peak region Friday, causing havoc for drivers north of Colorado Springs.

About 24 vehicles were involved in a pileup around 10:30 a.m. in the southbound lanes of Interstate 25 near Monument, Colorado State Patrol Trooper Gary Cutler said. No serious injuries were reported.

Its just been a mess ever since, Cutler said.

What had been predicted as a minor dusting turned into a full-blown snowstorm beginning Friday morning.

Areas around Monument got more than 8 inches of snow, National Weather Service meteorologist Klint Skelly said.

It was not well forecast, Skelly said. Typical Rocky Mountain Colorado weather.

And just as typically for Colorado, snow totals varied widely.

About 7 inches fell northwest of Black Forest, while 1 inches fell northwest of Peterson Air Force Base, Skelly said.

The unexpected dumping in northern El Paso County made travel nearly impossible most of the day, with vehicles trying to avoid or get around the pileup continuing to crash, Cutler said.

Weve got so much traffic coming down the roadway at this point that they cant get the tow trucks in to move some of these vehicles out and its backing everything up, Cutler said Friday evening. Weve actually been requesting that everybody avoid the area and were asking people if they could exchange info just so we can get the roadway clear.

Just before 6 p.m., the Colorado State Patrol tweeted that vehicles were moving 5 mph between Castle Rock and Monument.

A jackknifed semi on Colorado 105 was blocking the parallel road west of the interstate, Cutler said.

Colorado 83, running parallel to the east of the interstate, was blocked in both directions just north of the El Paso County line, the Colorado State Patrol tweeted around 4 p.m.

Another head-on crash, southwest of Black Forest at Old Ranch and Milam roads, sent one person to a hospital as a precaution, Cutler said.

Eastbound traffic was blocked on Old Ranch Road and vehicles were alternating use of the roadway, Cutler said.

The roads pretty icy in that area, he said.

Skelly said snowfall was expected to end Friday evening ahead of Saturdays rebound to 46 degrees under sunny skies.Natural Grocers specializes in organics, natural foods and health-conscious items, while Woodland Park is a mountain community known for its active lifestyle.

That makes the two a perfect match, the Lakewood-based grocery chain says.

Natural Grocers will open its newest Pikes Peak region store at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at 916 Paradise Lodge Lane in Woodland Park, about 20 minutes west of Colorado Springs. The newly constructed store is just off U.S. 24 and north of Ent Credit Union.

We are expanding into more mountain communities, Natural Grocers spokeswoman Amber Dutra said. We just find it has a great fit with the lifestyles of the communities, the people that live in mountain towns. Theyre healthy, active, outdoor. And we want to be able to bring organic and natural (products) to people who may lack access. So, those in mountain communities who may only have one store offering. Providing more options to those communities.

Woodland Park isnt so isolated, however. Residents are a short drive from Colorado Springs via Ute Pass, while Safeway, City Market, a Walmart Supercenter and locally owned Mountain Naturals Community Market also sell groceries in Woodland Park.

The 13,300-square-foot Woodland Park store will be Natural Grocers 39th in Colorado, Dutra said. The chain has locations on North Academy Boulevard and South Nevada Avenue in Colorado Springs and another in Monument.

Natural Grocers will employ 18 full- and part-time workers at its new store, similar to other locations, Dutra said.

As part of the Woodland Park store opening, nine Natural Grocers customers will win gift cards of $10 to $100 per week for six months. Eligible customers must submit an entry form at the store between 7:30 and 8:25 a.m. Wednesday for the 9 a.m. drawing.

The first 100 customers also will receive free gift bags with a breakfast recipe and ingredients, along with a Natural Grocers kitchen set with an oven mitt and utensils.The Fremont Area Community Foundation has announced the date of the 2019 Fremont Area Big Give event.

This years fundraiser is set for May 7, according to a Facebook post by the community foundation.

New and returning nonprofits in the Dodge County Area are invited to register for the event by visiting https://fremont.civicore.com/index.php?action=userLogin. The deadline to register is Jan. 31.

During the annual event, the Fremont Area Community Foundation challenges residents to donate online to nonprofits of their choice, with the goal of raising as much as possible in a 24-hour period.

The Fremont Area Community Foundation has already seen registrants  and theyve even seen some interest from new non-profits, who may help bring this years number of participants up even more than last year, said Fremont Area Community Foundation Executive Director Melissa Diers.

Last year, 56 nonprofit organizations participated in the event, and according to the most recent numbers available on the Fremont Area Big Give Website, $355,022 were raised.

That was more than the prior year, when the event netted $260,816.

Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}If revoked, a probationer could be incarcerated in either prison or jail to serve out the remainder of their time. But data released by the states Office of Probation Administration in November shows that burden is increasingly falling on county jails.

In the 2015-2016 fiscal year, 57 percent of all individuals revoked from felony probation and post-release supervision in the state were sent back to prison, compared to 43 percent to the county jails. This past fiscal year, those numbers reversed: prisons housed 37 percent of revoked probationers, while jails housed 63 percent.

Seventy percent of traditional probationers successfully complete probation, according to statewide data. Only 35 percent of discharges from post-release supervision last year were successful. Another 32 percent were classified as unsuccessful completion, where they were not revoked but failed to fulfill all the requirements. And another 32 percent were revoked.

Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

Even those who were discharged successfully may have faced custodial sanctions at some point in their term. -- there were 1,795 custodial sanctions issued statewide last year, up from 1,056 the year before.

Many, Hall and Glass included, see the value of LB605, and understand the states need to find solutions to its prison conundrum.That location would let staff in the terminal better monitor the runway and be able to see incoming planes, said Dave Goedeken, Fremonts director of public works.

The new terminal would be on the northeast side of the new parking apron.

Newton said the current apron is worn out and needs to be expanded to accommodate more activity and larger planes.

The new parking apron will encompass an area of approximately 6,000 square yards. The apron will fit up to 10 smaller or four larger aircraft.

Plans are to extend Taxiway B to connect the existing terminal area.

Newton said there currently are no plans to expand the airport other than the terminal and apron.

The existing runway will stay the same length in the foreseeable future, but at some point, a parallel concrete taxiway will be extended, Goedeken said.

Future plans include adding and centrally locating aircraft hangars in the new terminal/apron area.For those turning 65-years-old, along with plenty of birthday candles, can come plenty of questions about just how to navigate the Medicare system.

There are a lot of different variables, Mary Loftis, trained Senior Health Insurance Information Program (SHIP) counselor and Nebraska Extension associate, said.

According to Loftis, some of the questions include: If I am still working and have insurance do I need to sign up for Medicare? If my spouse is still working and has me covered under their insurance do I need to sign up for Medicare? If I have a Health Savings Account do I need to sign up for Medicare?

To help answer some of those questions for area residents, Loftis is leading a Welcome to Medicare! informational session to help area residents navigate the Medicare system.

Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

As a SHIP counselor I am trained by the Nebraska Department of Insurance, and it fits in with Extension programming very well because the Extension is known for providing unbiased information, we dont sell anything, and that is exactly what I do at these programs, Loftis said. Just give people in information so they can go into this new phase of their life just a little more knowledgeably, because you do get overloaded with information.First National Bank is issuing a request for proposals for its upcoming Community Development grant cycle, focused on programs related to stable housing, neighborhood revitalization and strong local economies, announced Alec Gorynski, vice president, community development and corporate philanthropy.

Programs must be implemented for the benefit of low- or moderate income individuals, families and/or communities within the First National Bank footprint, and must align with one of the following three goal areas:

Stable Housing: Increasing access to safe, affordable and quality housing through construction, site development, housing rehabilitation, homeownership education or foreclosure prevention programs and services.

Neighborhood Revitalization: Stimulating revitalization that attracts or retains individuals and/or businesses to blighted, underserved and distressed communities.

Strong Local Economies: Growing local economies through small business and entrepreneurial development and job creation by supporting training, technical assistance, education and microfinance.

First National Bank will operate two grant cycles in 2019, dedicated to specific focus areas.(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration is preparing an executive order that could significantly restrict Chinese state-owned telecom companies from operating in the U.S. over national security concerns, according to people familiar with the matter.

The order, which hasnt yet been presented to the president, would not mention companies such as Huawei Technologies Co. or ZTE Corp. by name and would not outright ban U.S. sales by the firms. But it would give greater authority to the Commerce Department to review products and purchases by companies connected to adversarial countries, including China, one of the people said.

Huawei is pushing to take a global leadership position in 5G, but many American officials suspect the companys products could be used by Beijing to spy on Western governments and companies. Both Huawei and ZTE have also been targeted by the U.S. for alleged schemes to dodge American sanctions on Iran.

Huawei executives have denied that the company is controlled by Chinas government or that its involved in espionage.

Rumors have abounded that the Trump administration would target Chinese telecom companies with an executive order to ban their U.S. sales. Reuters reported in December that Trump would consider an order declaring a national emergency related to the firms.

Some U.S. companies are preparing for a possible executive order by the Trump administration in the next few weeks that could inflict serious harm on Huawei, perhaps making it impossible for the company to operate, according to James Mulvenon, a China specialist formerly for the Rand Corp. who now works for defense-contractor SOS International of Reston, Virginia.

The maximal version is that they would have a death sentence for Huawei like they threatened to do to ZTE," the Chinese network-equipment supplier that President Trump spared last year from a threatened cutoff from crucial U.S. parts. The minimal version is that Huawei will be banned from sales in the U.S.

Story continues

An order could be presented to Trump as soon as next month, according to one person familiar with the discussions who asked not to be identified. The order the person outlined would give the Commerce Department discretion to decide which companies and which products to scrutinize.

The preparation of the order comes against the backdrop of Trumps trade war with Beijing. But national security, not economic concerns, are driving the discussion, the person said.

A spokesman for the White House National Security Council wouldnt confirm whether an order is in the works.

The United States is working across government and with our allies and like-minded partners to mitigate risk in the deployment of 5G and other communications infrastructure, the spokesman, Garrett Marquis, said in a statement. Communications networks form the backbone of our society and underpin every aspect of modern life. The United States will ensure that our networks are secure and reliable.

--With assistance from Todd Shields.

To contact the reporters on this story: Margaret Talev in Washington at mtalev@bloomberg.net;Sheridan Prasso in Hong Kong at sprasso@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, John Voskuhl

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

2019 Bloomberg L.P.FILE PHOTO: Festive lights decorate the Tiffany & Co store on New Bond Street in central London, Britain, on December 16, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo

(Reuters) - Tiffany & Co (TIF.N) tempered its yearly profit forecast on Friday after the luxury jeweler's holiday sales fell unexpectedly as Chinese tourists spent less globally due to a stronger dollar and demand softened in Europe and at home.

Like other luxury goods firms, Tiffany relies on spending by China's burgeoning middle class as consumer demand remains subdued in the United States and Europe, weighed down at the moment by uncertainties such as a partial U.S. government shutdown and Britain's plan to exit the European Union.

During the crucial November-December period, Tiffany's worldwide same-store sales fell 2 percent while net sales dipped 1 percent, against its expectations of modest increases.

Tiffany Chief Executive Alessandro Bogliolo blamed softer spending globally by foreign tourists, primarily Chinese, and "a lot of uncertainties and volatility" which may have hit customer demand in Europe and the Americas.

"We see Chinese tourists spending abroad going down heavily, minus 20-25, 30-35 percent, and this is in many, many countries ... in the U.S., but it's also Hong Kong and now it's spreading to Southeast Asia," Bogliolo told Reuters. "For sure it's due to the exchange rate."

Shares of Tiffany, which have fallen 22 percent in the past 12 months, were up 3 percent in morning trade.

"Tourism is the culprit for TIF's underwhelming holiday numbers, but this is not a surprise to us given the stronger dollar," Jefferies analyst Randal Konik said.

Bogliolo also said issues such as Brexit, protests in France and the U.S. shutdown, now in its 28th day, "makes me more cautious" about sales and earnings forecasts, but he expects a couple of "very tough" quarters.

A slowdown in spending by Chinese tourists prompted Tiffany to shy away from raising its yearly profit targets in November. On Friday, it said it expects full-year earnings for fiscal 2018 around the lower end of its estimated range of between $4.65 and $4.80 per share.

Story continues

Still, customer demand at Tiffany stores in mainland China remained strong during the holiday season, the company said.

Consumer Edge Research's David Schick said that strength "supports the view of continued brand relevance, which is important to the long-term story."

The New York-based jeweler's holiday period results mirror similar reports from other U.S. retailers. Macy's (M.N), Kohls (KSS.N) and others reported disappointing results even as overall shopping during the 2018 U.S. holiday season reached a six-year high.

Smaller U.S.-based jeweler Signet (SIG.N) on Thursday reported lower holiday period sales and slashed its full-year profit forecast, driving its shares more than 20 percent lower.

Tiffany, known for its engagement rings and robin's egg blue boxes, said holiday sales of engagement and designer jewelry fell 3 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

Annual sales should rise 6 to 7 percent, the company said. It had earlier estimated growth in the high single percentage digits.

For the year ending January 2020, Tiffany expects earnings per share to rise in the mid-single digits and net sales to grow in low-single digits.

(Reporting by Nivedita Balu and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru and Melissa Fares in New York; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar and Susan Thomas)south africa bitcoin ransom

By CCN.com: Two people have been arrested by police in Mpumalanga, South Africa in connection with the kidnapping of a 13-year-old boy in Witbank whose family was then told to pay the equivalent of $120,000 in bitcoin (approximately 32.89 BTC at press time).

Local Police Nab Crypto Kidnappers

South Africas Times reports that following the May 2018 kidnapping, the South African Police Service (SAPS) created a special task team to deal with the hitherto unprecedented threat of kidnappers attempting to facilitate their criminal activity using cryptocurrencys relative anonymity.

Speaking to the Times, SAPS Brigadier Leonard Hlathi said:

These cases were the first of their kind in Mpumalanga and a task team comprising of different units within the South African Police Service was immediately established by police management to investigate this matter.

On May 20, the victim was snatched on his way back from a shop with his friend. The kidnappers grabbed and forced him into a silver Toyota Corolla and sped off in broad daylight while a neighbors CCTV camera captured the kidnapping. The boys parents  who at the time did not even know what bitcoin was  came home to a ransom note demanding bitcoin worth 1.5 million rands.

According to the special task force team instituted to investigate this case, the first suspect was caught in Germiston, Gauteng in November while the second suspect was apprehended on December 30 in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal. It was established during questioning that both suspects  aged 30 and 31  had the same plan to request for ransom via bitcoin payment in a botched kidnapping attempt. On Tuesday, they both appeared in court and bail has been set at 1,000 rands each.

Bitcoin Ransom Demands Grow More Common

bitcoin crime

In September, CCN reported that a similar incident took place in Cape Town, South Africa when local businessman Liqayat Parker was kidnapped on his way to work, with his abductors demanding a 50 BTC ransom from his family. It is unclear whether the ransom was actually paid before Parker was released after a 2-month ordeal, but in some notable cases elsewhere around the world, bitcoin ransoms have been paid to kidnappers.

Story continues

In December 2017, about $1 million worth of bitcoin was paid to kidnappers who abducted crypto exchange executive Pavel Lerner in Kyiv, Ukraine. A month before, Turkish police in Istanbul announced the arrest of a group of local gangsters who specialised in extorting bitcoin amounts from targets they identified on social media.

The use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to facilitate low-level offline crime remains something of a black spot with law enforcement, who tend to focus on its role in organised crime and cybercriminal organisations. With this and other incidents in South Africa and around the world, however, it looks to be a matter of time until authorities create dedicated law enforcement divisions to deal with cryptocurrency-related kidnappings.

Images from Shutterstock



The post South Africa: Two Arrested for Kidnapping Boy, Demanding Bitcoin Ransom appeared first on CCN.

The Washington offices of international law firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP are seen in downtown Washington, U.S., February 20, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/Files

By Nathan Layne and Mark Hosenball

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A prominent law firm whose work has come under scrutiny in U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe reached a settlement with federal prosecutors on Thursday, acknowledging it should have registered as a foreign agent for a 2012 report aimed at discrediting a former prime minister of Ukraine.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP agreed to turn over $4.6 million, the amount it was paid for the report, and retroactively register as a foreign agent as part of the deal with the U.S. Justice Department.

The department said in a news release that a Skadden partner in 2013 had provided false statements to agents overseeing foreign lobbying disclosures, masking "that its report was part of a Ukrainian foreign influence campaign."

One former Skadden lawyer, Alex van der Zwaan, has already been caught up in scrutiny over the report, serving 30 days in prison last year for lying to FBI agents. He had worked on the report for Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, two senior officials in Donald Trump's 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign who have also pleaded guilty in connection with Mueller's Russia probe.

Skadden said in a statement that the settlement brought "closure with the U.S. government" on the matter and vowed to take steps to "prevent anything similar from happening again."

The deal highlights the outsize role the Foreign Agents Registration Act - a rarely prosecuted law requiring disclosure of advocacy work on behalf of foreign interests - has played in Mueller's investigation and a series of spin off probes.

Manafort, Gates, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and his ex-business partner Bijan Rafiekian, and political consultant Samuel Patten were all ensnared by inquiries that in part focused on possible violations of that law.

Skadden produced the 187-page report in 2012 at Manafort's behest. Ostensibly it was meant to be an objective review of the Ukrainian government's prosecution of Yulia Tymoshenko, the country's former prime minister who was convicted in 2011 on corruption charges and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Story continues

But in reality the report was used by the government of Viktor Yanukovych, who was then one of Manafort's main clients, to justify Tymoshenko's pretrial detention to the European Court of Human Rights, as well as to influence U.S. lawmakers.

While the Ukrainian government disclosed a $12,000 contract with Skadden, the law firm was covertly paid $4.66 million by a Ukrainian businessman through a Cypriot bank account controlled by Manafort. Skadden also advised Ukraine on a second potential prosecution of Tymoshenko, the Justice Department said.

"The arrangements with the Ukrainian business person, the amounts paid, and advice on a second criminal prosecution of Tymoshenko were not disclosed in connection with the issuance of the Report," the Justice Department said in its release.

One of the leading Skadden partners involved in producing the report was Gregory Craig, who once served as White House counsel for President Barack Obama. Craig left Skadden last year. Former Republican Congressman Vin Weber with the Mercury lobbying firm and prominent Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta, brother of longtime Clinton and Obama adviser John Podesta, were also engaged at one point or another to represent the same Ukrainian political faction that had hired Manafort.

Last year Mueller referred investigations into the Ukraine-related work of Craig, Weber and Podesta to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, according to multiple media reports. James Margolin, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan, declined to comment.

While the Justice Department's release on Thursday did not name the partner who allegedly provided false information to investigators, they were almost certainly referring to Craig, said Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor in Illinois.

As part of the settlement, Skadden agreed to continue to make its employees available for interviews or testimony, including before any federal grand juries or trials.

Mariotti said the settlement appeared to be "setting the stage for Skadden to cooperate against Gregory Craig."

Craig, Weber and Podesta did not respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington and Nathan Layne in New York; additional reporting by Lisa Lambert and Karen Freifeld; editing by Richard Changand Leslie Adler)(Bloomberg) -- The Dutch government will need to make a decision this year on whether to restrict Chinese state-owned telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co. from playing a role in building a fifth-generation wireless network in the Netherlands, local daily Trouw reported.

The economy ministry is set to auction 5G mobile frequencies this autumn, with the criteria for selection depending on the governments China strategy, due to be presented before the summer, the Dutch newspaper said on Saturday, citing a ministry spokesman. Part of the strategy to be outlined is an assessment of how the country can protect critical technology from Chinese state-owned enterprises.

The Netherlands would potentially follow allies including other European nations and the U.S., Canada and Australia if it opted to restrict the Chinese telecom firms operations due to concerns about Chinese state-backed espionage, the newspaper said. Huawei , which currently delivers equipment to nearly all the Dutch telecom providers, is confronting increasing speculation that its products could be used by Beijing to spy on Western governments and companies. The smartphone maker has repeatedly denied any involvement in spying on Chinas behalf.

In the latest incident involving Huawei, Polish authorities this month arrested a senior company executive on suspicion of espionage. The Chinese firm fired sales director Wang Weijing following his detention, and said it had nothing to do with his alleged actions.

Last year, the Dutch Parliament announced it will seek to build a 5G network. At the same time, the General Intelligence and Security Service warned against Chinese espionage, spurring a government probe into the telecom sectors dependence on foreign technology.

A government spokesman confirmed to Bloomberg that the ministry aims to auction the frequencies at the end of 2019 or in early 2020.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ellen Proper in Amsterdam at eproper@bloomberg.net

Story continues

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Davis at abdavis@bloomberg.net, Chitra Somayaji

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

2019 Bloomberg L.P.Members of the US military are working without pay for the first time in history

The current partial shutdown of the U.S. government has now lasted 27 days. There have been 20 government shutdowns since 1976  this one is the longest in U.S. history.

Much of the shutdown can be attributed to a standoff over President Donald Trump's demands for $5.7 billion in appropriations to fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border .

The shutdown impacts about a quarter of the government, including nine federal departments and several other agencies. According to The New York Times , roughly 800,000 government workers are currently going without pay and more than 50 percent of these workers are still expected to come to work.

Among those workers are members of the U.S. military. Navy Times estimates that as many as 43,000 Coast Guard employees are working through the shutdown without pay.

On Tuesday, they did not receive their scheduled paychecks . Admiral Karl L. Schultz , Commandant the U.S. Coast Guard, issued a statement .

"Today you will not be receiving your regularly scheduled mid-month paycheck," wrote Admiral Schultz. "To the best of my knowledge, this marks the first time in our Nation's history that service members in a U.S. Armed Force have not been paid during a lapse in government appropriations."

He continued, "I recognize the anxiety and uncertainty this situation places on you and your family, and we are working closely with service organizations on your behalf. To this end, I am encouraged to share that Coast Guard Mutual Assistance (CGMA) has received a $15 million donation from USAA to support our people in need. In partnership with CGMA, the American Red Cross will assist in the distribution of these funds to our military and civilian workforce requiring assistance."

Schultz continued, "It is also not lost on me that our dedicated civilians are already adjusting to a missed paycheck  we are confronting this challenge together."

The statement ends with with encouragement to Coast Guard members to "stay the course, stand the watch and serve with pride."

Story continues

The Coast Guard is the only branch of the military that does not receive funding during the government shutdown, because it falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security, and not the Department of Defense.

"We don't know how long the government shutdown will last, but the Coast Guard is statutorily obligated to maintain the essential safety, security and environmental protection services the public expects during the government shutdown," Coast Guard Lt. Commander Scott McBride told CBS in a statement . "Absent an approved budget, the longer the shutdown lasts, the more difficult it will become for the Coast Guard to maintain mission readiness."

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Nidec Corp's logo is pictured at an earnings results news conference in Tokyo, Japan, July 25, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

By Stanley White and Yoshiyasu Shida

TOKYO (Reuters) - Two prominent Japanese electronics and equipment makers warned of profit declines over the past week due to the impact of the U.S.-Sino trade war, stoking worries of widespread cuts to corporate earnings forecasts and a hit to economic growth.

Nidec Corp, whose tiny motors are found in phones, PCs, cars, and robots, slashed its annual operating profit outlook by a quarter on Thursday, saying the trade war and a slump in smartphone demand is discouraging manufacturers in China from spending.

And Yaskawa Electric Corp, maker of robots used in factory automation, also lowered its annual operating profit outlook for the second time in three months on Jan. 10 because of the trade war.

Japan sends around a quarter of its electronics and heavy machinery exports to China, so it is heavily exposed to the current bout of weakening demand in the world's second-largest economy.

And because companies quickly cut employee bonuses and capital expenditure when sales fall and inventories start piling up, the potential blow to Japan's growth is significant, economists say.

"I suspect a lot of economists will downgrade Japan's growth forecasts for the first quarter of this year, because downside risks have clearly increased," said Norio Miyagawa, senior economist at Mizuho Securities.

"Electronics and capital goods drive Japan's manufacturing, but China is slowing, and we cannot be optimistic."

Washington's attempt to lower the U.S. trade deficit has triggered tit-for-tat tariff hikes with Beijing that has put business leaders and policymakers on edge.

China's economy is taking a big hit as exports slow, factory activity drops off, and consumers' demand for the latest tech gadgets evaporates.

China's woes are now rippling across the globe, triggering warnings on sales or profits from Apple Inc to Samsung Electronics to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

HIGH INVENTORIES

Nidec's output of parts for autos and home appliance manufacturers in China tumbled by 30-40 percent in November and December as these customers adjust for high inventories, which could last for another six months, said Nidec chief executive Shigenobu Nagamori who founded the company in 1973.

Story continues

"In my long management career I have never seen a downturn like we've seen in November and particularly in December," Nagamori said. But he ruled out changing business plans for now.

There are many Japanese companies who make goods for similar customers and are now in the same position as Nidec. Around 37 percent of Japan's exports are made up of either electronic parts or manufacturing equipment, which leaves it vulnerable to fluctuations in global demand.

Japan's overall exports slowed to a crawl in November as shipments to China weakened, finance ministry data showed. During the same month machinery orders, a leading indicator of capital expenditure, also stalled as manufacturers cut their orders.

Amid the weakening data, some Japanese electronics makers remain optimistic that they can offset declining sales by tapping demand for parts used in electronic vehicles and self-driving cars.

One example is parts maker Alps Electric Co, which derives around 60 percent of its revenue from its auto business.

"We are a little worried about China," said Takashi Sogo, group manager of public and investor relations at Alps Electric.

"However, our products in the auto segment tend to go to luxury cars, and we think this business will remain stable."

(Reporting by Stanley White and Yoshiyasu Shida; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)Matera (Italy) (AFP) - European Capital of Culture status has shone a spotlight on Italy's oldest city, whose previous claims to fame were as a cinematic "New Jerusalem" but also its "shameful" slums.

Matera, around 9,000 years old and one of the world's longest continuously inhabited cities, after Aleppo and Jericho, was Saturday embarking on a 48-week extravaganza ushering it out of the shadows into the global cultural limelight.

The city shares its mantle this year with Bulgaria's similarly ancient provincial city of Plovdiv, which is known not least for its 4th Century BC conquering by the father of Alexander the Great.

But Matera's story is quite literally one born of a down-at-heel experience, the southern city nestling close to that part of Italy's boot-shaped peninsula.

Centuries of poverty have been a curse and yet the 'blessing' of sorts which eventually put Matera on the map.

Since time immemorial, many residents had lived in its caves, called 'Sassi', dating from prehistoric times.

But in 1993, UNESCO designated the 'Citta dei Sassi' (City of Stone) with its exquisite rock-hewn churches a world heritage site.

- Source of shame -

The labyrinthine settlements had been a source of shame -- shame is one of the cultural programme's leitmotifs harking back to the forced clearances of the Sassi in the 1950s -- as well as disease.

In those days the caves were a byword for squalor and the social deprivation of much of Italy's deep south.

With the chance now to showcase its heritage, Matera is seeing tourism soar with official numbers having risen 170 percent since 2010.

The city's stunning rock churches and cave dwellings, boutiques and luxury hotels -- some with rooms dug out of the rock beneath ground level -- have finally allowed it to shed its old reputation of "la vergogna nazionale" (national shame).

UNESCO's heritage move was, however, not the first bright spotlight shone on the ancient cave city.

Story continues

- Celluloid attraction -

Matera's spectacular backdrop gave several film directors their temporary 'new' Jerusalem, with Mel Gibson's 2004 Drama The Passion of the Christ as well as the earlier King David starring Richard Gere shot there.

Cast in its current role of cultural mecca, Matera is now rising above its poor connections to the rest of Italy and its own Basilicata region to showcase its rugged, if crumbling limestone beauty.

Matera was chosen in 2014 to co-host this year's cultural extravaganza with its Bulgarian counterparts and Saturday will see 54 bands from EU cultural centres launch the official proceedings in a blaze of colour and sound.

A total of 2019 musicians will converge on the old centre to serenade culture vultures and Italian President Sergio Mattarella and dignitaries including European Commissioner of Culture, Hungarian Tibor Navracsics.

Italian television will broadcast the proceedings live -- but authorities are offering 19-euro ($22) passes for those preferring to taste the atmosphere on the spot.

Each visitor will have the "right" to register, coupled with the "duty" to bring with them an object of their choice, thereby creating their own artistic contribution which will go to make up a final exhibition of its own.

Matera will host four major exhibitions across the year, beginning with "Ars Excavandi," showcasing centuries of rock art running from Sunday to July 31.

In all, Matera will host some 60 projects including British composer Brian Eno's "Apollo" soundtrack's European premiere on July 18.

"Nobody in Matera will be a mere tourist but will have the possibility of joining in with the community dimension which characterises Matera 2019," says the organisers' artistic director Paolo Verri, formerly behind Turin's prestigious book fair.

Organisers forecast around a million visitors to the town in the coming 12 months.

Mayor Raffaello De Ruggieri warns against the excesses which can accompany mass tourism but readily admits that "it's true, we have gone from shame to glory."Carlos Ghosn, once considered the most powerful man in the industry, resigned his position at Renault last month after being arrested on financial misconduct charges (AFP Photo/Yasuyoshi CHIBA)

Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn received nearly eight million euros in "improper payments" from a Netherlands-based joint venture, the Japanese car giant alleged Friday, threatening to sue to recover the funds.

Nissan said Ghosn entered into a personal employment contract with Nissan-Mitsubishi B.V. (NMBV), a company formed "with the mission of exploring and promoting synergies within the Nissan-Mitsubishi Motors partnership."

"Under that contract, he received a total of 7,822,206.12 euros (including tax) in compensation and other payments of NMBV funds," Nissan said, citing an ongoing investigation into alleged wrongdoing by Ghosn.

The firm said the contract was signed without consultation with current Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa or Mitsubishi Motors CEO Osamu Masuko.

"Nissan views the payments Ghosn received from NMBV to be the result of misconduct and will consider measures to recover from Ghosn the full sum," the firm said in a statement.

Since his out-of-the-blue arrest on November 19, Ghosn has been kept in a Tokyo detention centre and has made only one public appearance in court when he passionately rejected the accusations against him.

Ghosn faces three formal charges.

First, he is accused of under-declaring his income by five billion yen ($46 million) between 2010 and 2015 in official documents to shareholders, apparently to fend off criticism he was overpaid.

Second, he stands accused of continuing this practice for three more years, understating his pay by a further four billion yen.

A third, more complex, charge relates to allegations he sought to transfer personal investment losses to the firm and paid a Saudi intermediary from company funds to stump up collateral for him.

- 'Global Donation Advisory Council' -

The 64-year-old auto tycoon rejects all the charges, arguing in court that he has been "wrongly accused and unfairly detained based on meritless and unsubstantiated accusations."

Story continues

He has appealed several times to be released on bail and filed another appeal earlier Friday.

So far, the appeals have all been rejected, with the court reasoning that he is a flight risk and could tamper with evidence.

His lawyers have vowed to lodge an appeal with the Supreme Court against his continued detention, but even his lead attorney has told reporters it is unlikely he will taste freedom before a trial -- and that could take six months at least.

Meanwhile, the allegations continue to stack up against Ghosn -- once revered as a corporate genius who saved Nissan from the verge of bankruptcy.

He is said to have had luxury houses in Beirut and Rio de Janeiro paid for by the company -- plus costly renovations for the first property.

It is also alleged one of his sisters received $755,000 for work carried out between 2003 and 2016 as part of a "Global Donation Advisory Council" -- a body which has never existed according to sources close to Nissan.

Nissan is thought to be looking into other payments such as donations to universities in Lebanon or a subscription to a yacht club in Brazil for $63,000.

Ghosn has been unable to defend himself against these new allegations and they do not form part of the formal charges against him.

But the Japanese firm is ramping up its probe into its former leader and more revelations are likely as it continues.

Nissan has also been slapped with formal charges over the affair as they submitted the documents to shareholders that allegedly under-declared the executive's income.BERLIN (Reuters) - The German government wants to extend beyond 2020 CO2-related compensation for companies that are heavy energy consumers as Europe's largest economy shifts towards renewables, several sources close to a government coal commission told Reuters.

Companies want some protection from the rise they fear they will see in electricity prices when coal-fired power plants and nuclear power plants are taken off the grid in the coming years.

The Economy Ministry proposed that the compensation - a refund for surcharges on the electricity price that reflect the carbon emissions prices paid by generators - be extended beyond 2020, several people said on Thursday.

The coal commission is working on a plan to phase out brown coal mining and coal-fired power plants without causing further economic weakness in affected regions and triggering thousands of job losses. [nL8N1ZG4CX]

The European Union's Emissions Trading System (ETS) charges power plants and factories for every tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2) they emit.

The latest available data shows compensation amounted to around 300 million euros of relief for companies in 2016. But because carbon prices have drastically increased, the amount is expected to be far higher in future.

The German Economy Ministry declined to comment.

(Reporting by Markus Wacket; Writing by Michelle Martin; Editing by Andrea Shalal)Foxconn May Slow Pace of Recruitment at New Wisconsin Plant

(Bloomberg) -- Foxconn Technology Group may hire workers at a slower pace for its new Wisconsin plant, adding to mounting gloom over the state of the technology industry and global trade.

The biggest assembler of Apple Inc.s iPhones, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. in Taiwan and Asia, said it has adjusted the timeframe for recruitment and hiring at its $10 billion manufacturing facility in the U.S. state.

While Foxconn remains committed to creating 13,000 jobs in Wisconsin, we have adjusted our recruitment and hiring timeline, the company said in a statement Friday. We need to have the agility to adapt to a range of factors, including global economic conditions.

The company in a separate emailed statement on Saturday said that hiring for the facility is still ongoing. Foxconn, which set up its North American headquarters in Milwaukee, said earlier the factory has already created more than 1,000 jobs.

The announcement comes amid mounting signals demand for Apples iPhone is flagging. Apple is said to plan hiring cutbacks for some divisions.

In November, Bloomberg News had reported that Foxconn is planning steep reduction in its expenses in 2019.

(Updates with additional comments from Foxconn in fourth paragraph.)

To contact the reporters on this story: Debby Wu in Taipei at dwu278@bloomberg.net;Samson Ellis in Taipei at sellis29@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Subramaniam Sharma

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

2019 Bloomberg L.P.FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser John Bolton and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a working dinner after the G20 leaders summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 1, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

By Michael Martina and Chris Prentice

BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is pushing for regular reviews of China's progress on pledged trade reforms as a condition for a trade deal - and could again resort to tariffs if it deems Beijing has violated the agreement, according to sources briefed on negotiations to end the trade war between the two nations.

A continuing threat of tariffs hanging over commerce between the world's two largest economies would mean a deal would not end the risk of investing in businesses or assets that have been impacted by the trade war.

"The threat of tariffs is not going away, even if there is a deal," said one of three sources briefed on the talks who spoke with Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Chinese negotiators were not keen on the idea of regular compliance checks, the source said, but the U.S. proposal "didn't derail negotiations."

A Chinese source said the United States wants periodic assessments but it's not yet clear how often.

It looks like humiliation," the source said. "But perhaps the two sides could find a way to save face for the Chinese government."

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed import tariffs on Chinese goods to put pressure on Beijing to meet a long list of demands that would rewrite the terms of trade between the two countries.

The demands include changes to China's policies on intellectual property protection, technology transfers, industrial subsidies and other trade barriers.

An enforcement and verification process is unusual for trade deals and is akin to the process around punitive economic sanctions such as those imposed on North Korea and Iran.

Disputes over trade are more typically dealt with through courts, the World Trade Organization (WTO) or through arbitration panels and other dispute settlement mechanisms built into trade agreements.

Trump's team has criticized the WTO for failing to hold China accountable for not executing on promised market reforms. The U.S. has also criticized the WTO's dispute settlement process and is seeking reforms at the organisation.

Story continues

(For an explainer on how the U.S.-China talks differ from any other trade negotiation, see: )

Regular reviews would be one potential solution to address a demand from U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer for ongoing verification of any trade pact between the two countries, three sources familiar with the talks told Reuters. The threat of tariffs would be used to keep reform on track, the sources said.

Lighthizer is leading negotiations with China. A USTR spokesman declined to comment on the possibility of regular assessments.

The idea of quarterly reviews of quarterly reviews was part of a U.S. negotiating document leaked after talks in May 2018, before the United States had slapped its first round of duties on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods.

The renewed focus on regular reviews in current negotiations - this time carrying the threat of tariffs - underscores the growing distrust between the two countries.

The extra scrutiny is needed and should be based on clear benchmarks - with consequence for failing to meet them, said Erin Ennis, Senior Vice President of the U.S.-China Business Council, a trade group representing American companies doing business in China.

It needs to be tied to removing or reducing the tariffs," Ennis said. "If China can show compliance through a process like this, it would also be a trust-building measure for both sides.

BROKEN PROMISES

Trump's administration has accused China of repeatedly failing to follow through on previous pledges to implement reforms sought by the United States.

Washington often cites as an example the difficulties still faced by foreign payment card operators in entering China's market despite a 2012 WTO ruling that Beijing was discriminating against them.

A separate industry source said it is likely that different agreement on separate issues - forced technology transfer, intellectual property, changes to China's legal system - would require separate verification processes, all of which will need to be hammered out by negotiators.

"The challenge of verification and enforcement stems from the fact that China has made promises it hasn't kept," the source said.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a 90-day truce in the trade war in December to give their teams time to negotiate a deal. Nearly 50 days later, there is little sign that China will make the concessions the U.S. is seeking.

Lighthizer saw no progress on structural issues at three days of mid-level talks in Beijing last week, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said on Tuesday.

China's Vice Premier and lead negotiator Liu He is due to visit Washington for the next round of talks with Lighthizer and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin at the end of the month.

(Reporting by Michael Martina in Beijing and Chris Prentice in Washington; Additional reporting by David Lawder in Washington; Editing by Simon Webb and Brian Thevenot)Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale on Friday said Canada won't be browbeaten by Beijing as it mulls whether or not to ban Huawei equipment from new telecommunication networks.

His comments come after China's ambassador to Ottawa, Lu Shaye, on Thursday warned of "repercussions" if Canada joins intelligence-sharing allies in barring the Chinese telecom firm from its 5G cellular networks over security concerns.

Ottawa and Beijing are locked in a diplomatic row that began in early December with the arrest in Canada of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou on US fraud charges related to alleged Iran sanctions violations.

"We've made abundantly clear that we will not compromise national security. We will take the appropriate analysis and take the decision ultimately that we believe to be in Canada's interest," Goodale said, adding that Ottawa "will not be deterred" by China's threats over 5G.

Fifth generation or 5G mobile networks promise a quantum leap in wireless communication speed, and will be key to developing the internet of things, including self-driving cars.

Several countries have followed Washington's call for a Huawei ban, but the picture in Europe is more nuanced because Huawei's 5G capabilities are well ahead of Sweden's Ericsson, Finland's Nokia and South Korea's Samsung, analysts say.

Goodale said Canada's evaluation of 5G continues.

"We are examining the security issues as well as the technical issues with a great deal of care," he said.

Goodale dismissed China's threat of retaliation, saying the same was made against Australia, for example, before it joined New Zealand and the United States in banning Huawei gear over its alleged links to Chinese intelligence services.

Last month, Britain's largest mobile provider BT said it would remove existing Huawei equipment, leaving Canada the only country in the "Five Eyes" intelligence network not to take steps against the Chinese firm.

Story continues

Huawei's reclusive founder Ren Zhengfei stepped out of the shadows this week to give a rare media interview, forcefully denying accusations that his firm engaged in espionage on behalf of the Chinese government.

The company also fired a Chinese employee arrested in Poland on espionage allegations.

In October, Canada's spy agency urged top Canadian universities to be cautious about their extensive research relationships with Huawei.

Oxford University in Britain this week said it has decided to forgo further funding from the firm.

In a move observers see as retaliation for the Meng case, Chinese authorities detained two other Canadian citizens -- a former diplomat and a business consultant -- on suspicion of endangering national security.

A third Canadian was sentenced to death on Monday for drug trafficking, increasing an earlier 15-year prison term.By Khanh Vu and Mas Alina Arifin

HANOI/BANDAR LAMPUNG (Reuters) - Vietnam's coffee prices fell on Thursday ahead of a week-long Lunar New Year holiday early next month, while Indonesian premium widened on empty stock.

Traders forecast Vietnam's January coffee exports will fall to 150,000 tonnes from 153,906 tonnes in December.

Markets, businesses and government offices in Vietnam, the world's largest robusta producer, will close during the first week of February for the holiday, locally called Tet.

"Many coffee farming and processing firms in the Central Highlands have started allowing their workers to go home for Tet and I think trading activities won't pick up until after the holiday," said a trader based in Dak Lak province.

Farmers in the Central Highlands, the country's key coffee growing area, sold coffee at 32,900-33,600 dong ($1.42-$1.45) per kg on Thursday, down from 3,500-34,000 dong a week earlier.

"Farmers will hold their beans if prices stay low, but I think they won't be able to hold for long, given that Brazil is expected to start their robusta harvest sometime in April," the trader said.

Traders in Vietnam offered 5 percent black and broken grade 2 robusta at a $20-$30 per tonne discount to the March contract, compared with $40 discount last week.

Government customs data released last week showed Vietnam exported 1.88 million tonnes of coffee in the calendar year 2018, up 19.9 percent.

In Indonesia, premium for the grade 4 defect 80 robusta widened to $50-$60 to the March contract on Thursday, after staying at $20-$30 for four straight weeks.

However, trade remained muted as inventory in Indonesia's province of Lampung has run empty, a trader in the province said.

"Trade is expected to pick up pace in coming months as some areas in southern Sumatra will pick beans in a mini harvest around April," the trader said.

($1 = 23,196 dong)

(Reporting by Khanh Vu and Mas Alina Arifin; Editing by Rashmi Aich)Airlines are waiving change fees as winter storm Harper approaches the East Coast.

The storm is bringing rain, sleet and snow to a large swath of the northern U.S.

Airlines waived date-change fees for travelers scheduled to fly from more than two dozen northern U.S. airports as a rapidly moving winter storm is forecast to bring snow, ice, sleet and heavy winds from the Midwest to New England.

Flight cancellations were minimal on Friday as winter storm Harper dumped snow on the Midwest. Airlines canceled 116 flights for Saturday in and out of Chicago O'Hare International Airport, less than 2 percent of the schedule, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.com.

American Airlines AAL , United Airlines UAL , JetBlue Airways JBLU and Delta Air Lines DAL said travelers booked this weekend to or from airports in the Midwest and Northeast, including those serving New York and Boston, can change their tickets to fly as late as Jan. 23. Southwest Airlines LUV doesn't charge customers to change their travel dates but said travelers with tickets to cities that will likely be affected by the storm can fly up to two weeks later without paying a difference in fare.

Airlines urged travelers to check their airline's website for travel information. Even if flights aren't canceled in the storm, travelers can expect delays as airports de-ice planes.

The travel disruptions come amid an already higher-than-usual absence rate among Transportation Security Administration airport screeners, who have been without regular paychecks since the partial U.S. government shutdown began on Dec. 22.

The TSA said Thursday that the unpaid workers are not showing up because of financial strain . The staffing shortages have led to longer security lines at some of the country's busiest airports, including in Atlanta, Houston, Washington, D.C., and Miami. Most security lines were within TSA standards, the agency said.

The TSA workers are among the some 420,000 government employees who have been deemed essential and have been ordered to work during the shutdown. That group also includes air traffic controllers.

Story continues

Airports are bracing for an increase in travelers during the busy Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend. The TSA estimates it will screen 8 million travelers from Friday to Monday, an 11 percent increase compared with the holiday weekend in 2018.

Federal forecasters expect a blast of bitter cold to follow the storm, which could create additional bad road conditions and slow commutes.

WATCH: It's not just your eyes. Airline seats really are getting smaller.





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In the absence of Trump, Brazil's Bolsonaro likely to be the star attraction at Davos

Thousands of business, political and cultural leaders are scheduled to return to the Swiss Alpine town of Davos on Monday.

The annual forum is seen as an opportunity for international heads of state to come together to try and put the world to rights.

The absence of the U.S. president is likely to thrust Brazil's Bolsonaro into the spotlight, less than three weeks after his inauguration.

Brazil's newly-elected populist President Jair Bolsonaro will take center stage at the World Economic Forum ( WEF ) next week, taking the baton from Donald Trump after the U.S. president announced he would not be joining the rich and powerful in Davos this year.

Thousands of business, political and cultural leaders are scheduled to return to the Swiss Alpine town of Davos on Monday. The annual forum is seen as an opportunity for international heads of state to come together to try and put the world to rights.

This year's five-day event is without its main attraction of 2018, after Trump abruptly scrapped plans to join other world leaders at the forum due to the ongoing government shutdown.

But, the absence of the U.S. president is likely to thrust Brazil's premier into the spotlight, less than three weeks after his inauguration.

"Bolsonaro will be the first LATAM (Latin America) speaker at Davos, speaking for 45 minutes  but that's where the danger is," Carlos Caicedo, senior principal analyst for Latin America at IHS Markit, a London-based research firm, told CNBC via telephone on Friday.

"At his inauguration, he only spoke for 10 minutes, meaning his advisors could keep him on message. But, this is a man who has made a name for himself by saying whatever he wants and only worrying about the consequences later  Thankfully there is no question and answer session afterwards," Caicedo said.

Bolsonaro 'unlikely to provide leadership' at WEF

On his first international trip since becoming president of Latin America's largest democracy, Bolsonaro is scheduled to deliver a keynote address to attendees at Davos on Tuesday afternoon.

Story continues

Yet, while he is likely to come under fire from some Davos attendees on issues ranging from climate change to human rights, analysts told CNBC he is likely to try to focus on how his administration plans to tackle pension reform.

"As he's the new big president on the block and represents an important swing from left to right in Latam's biggest economy, he will doubtless attract attention in the press," Robert Wood, a Brazil analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, told CNBC via email on Thursday.

"But, as he is unlikely to provide leadership in global discussions at Davos, he is likely to be overshadowed by those who do," Wood said.

Bolsonaro secured a sweeping election victory in October last year, promising to drain the political swamp and fight corruption in South America's largest country.

Dubbed as the " Trump of the Tropics " by the country's media during a deeply divisive presidential campaign, the 63-year-old reportedly said he wanted to show "a different Brazil, free of ideological ties" at the forum.

"His main focus will be to put Brazil firmly back on the investor radar, by talking up the free-market reforms and restating his pledges to enact pension reforms to bring greater order to the public finances," the EIU's Wood said.

The main theme of this year's WEF meeting is "Globalization 4.0: Shaping a New Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution."





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TORONTO, ON (Canada) - An international team of scientists is challenging our understanding of a part of Earth's history by looking at the Moon, the most complete and accessible chronicle of the asteroid collisions that carved our solar system.

In a study published today in Science, the team shows the number of asteroid impacts on the Moon and Earth increased by two to three times starting around 290 million years ago.

"Our research provides evidence for a dramatic change in the rate of asteroid impacts on both Earth and the Moon that occurred around the end of the Paleozoic era," said lead author Sara Mazrouei, who recently earned her PhD in the Department of Earth Sciences in the Faculty of Arts & Science at the University of Toronto (U of T). "The implication is that since that time we have been in a period of relatively high rate of asteroid impacts that is 2.6 times higher than it was prior to 290 million years ago."

It had been previously assumed that most of Earth's older craters produced by asteroid impacts have been erased by erosion and other geologic processes. But the new research shows otherwise.

"The relative rarity of large craters on Earth older than 290 million years and younger than 650 million years is not because we lost the craters, but because the impact rate during that time was lower than it is now," said Rebecca Ghent, an associate professor in U of T's Department of Earth Sciences and one of the paper's co-authors. "We expect this to be of interest to anyone interested in the impact history of both Earth and the Moon, and the role that it might have played in the history of life on Earth."

Scientists have for decades tried to understand the rate that asteroids hit Earth by using radiometric dating of the rocks around them to determine their ages. But because it was believed erosion caused some craters to disappear, it was difficult to find an accurate impact rate and determine whether it had changed over time.

A way to sidestep this problem is to examine the Moon, which is hit by asteroids in the same proportions over time as Earth. But there was no way to determine the ages of lunar craters until NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) started circling the Moon a decade ago and studying its surface.

"The LRO's instruments have allowed scientists to peer back in time at the forces that shaped the Moon," said Noah Petro, an LRO project scientist based at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Using LRO data, the team was able to assemble a list of ages of all lunar craters younger than about a billion years. They did this by using data from LRO's Diviner instrument, a radiometer that measures the heat radiating from the Moon's surface, to monitor the rate of degradation of young craters.

During the lunar night, rocks radiate much more heat than fine-grained soil called regolith. This allows scientists to distinguish rocks from fine particles in thermal images. Ghent had previously used this information to calculate the rate at which large rocks around the Moon's young craters - ejected onto the surface during asteroid impact - break down into soil as a result of a constant rain of tiny meteorites over tens of millions of years. By applying this idea, the team was able to calculate ages for previously un-dated lunar craters.

When compared to a similar timeline of Earth's craters, they found the two bodies had recorded the same history of asteroid bombardment.

"It became clear that the reason why Earth has fewer older craters on its most stable regions is because the impact rate was lower up until about 290 million years ago," said William Bottke, an asteroid expert at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado and another of the paper's coauthors. "The answer to Earth's impact rate was staring everyone right in the face."

The reason for the jump in the impact rate is unknown, though the researchers speculate it might be related to large collisions taking place more than 300 million years ago in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Such events can create debris that can reach the inner solar system.

Ghent and her colleagues found strong supporting evidence for their findings through a collaboration with Thomas Gernon, an Earth scientist based at the University of Southampton in England who works on a terrestrial feature called kimberlite pipes. These underground pipes are long-extinct volcanoes that stretch, in a carrot shape, a couple of kilometers below the surface, and are found on some of the least eroded regions of Earth in the same places preserved impact craters are found.

"The Canadian shield hosts some of the best-preserved and best-studied of this terrain--and also some of the best-studied large impact craters," said Mazrouei.

Gernon showed that kimberlite pipes formed since about 650 million years ago had not experienced much erosion, indicating that the large impact craters younger than this on stable terrains must also be intact.

"This is how we know those craters represent a near-complete record," Ghent said.

While the researchers weren't the first to propose that the rate of asteroid strikes to Earth has fluctuated over the past billion years, they are the first to show it statistically and to quantify the rate.

"The findings may also have implications for the history of life on Earth, which is punctuated by extinction events and rapid evolution of new species," said Ghent. "Though the forces driving these events are complicated and may include other geologic causes, such as large volcanic eruptions, combined with biological factors, asteroid impacts have surely played a role in this ongoing saga.

"The question is whether the predicted change in asteroid impacts can be directly linked to events that occurred long ago on Earth."

The findings are described in the study "Earth and Moon impact flux increased at the end of the Paleozoic", published in Science. Support for the research was provided by the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, and the Natural Environment Research Council of the United Kingdom.

###

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Sara Mazrouei

Department of Earth Sciences

University of Toronto

+1 416 569 2600

sara.mazrouei@gmail.com

Rebecca Ghent

Department of Earth Sciences

University of Toronto

+1 619 481 4321

ghentr@es.utoronto.ca

Sean Bettam

Communications, Faculty of Arts & Science

University of Toronto, Canada

+1 416 946 7950

s.bettam@utoronto.ca

William Bottke

Southwest Research Institute

Boulder, Colorado

bottke@boulder.swri.edu

Tom Gernon

National Oceanography Centre

University of Southampton

Thomas.Gernon@noc.soton.ac.uk

Lonnie Shekhtman

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

lonnie.shekhtman@nasa.govThe Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (MPFI) announces a new "labs@location" partnership agreement between the MPFI Electron Microscopy (EM) Core Facility and Germany-based microscopy company ZEISS, known for its cutting-edge imaging technologies. As a "labs@location" partner institution, MPFI will have access to state-of-the-art ZEISS technology before it is commercially available, providing researchers with innovative imaging tools that will empower their search for new insights into how the brain works. MPFI is the only the third institution in the United States to earn the labs@location designation.

"ZEISS and MPFI have a long-standing relationship--we have been closely cooperating to push the boundaries of visualizing the brain ultrastructure since MPFI was established in 2012," said Dr. Naomi Kamasawa, Head of EM Facility. "Our facility might be small compared to other institutions, but the scientific excellence and technology feedback we provided, together with the continuous effort and passion to push boundaries in our research, made us a special partner for ZEISS."

Kirk J. Czymmek, Head of the Global ZEISS Microscopy Customer Centers praised the EM Lab in his remarks, saying "The team that you have here is special, and they are internationally recognized for their expertise."

MPFI and ZEISS launched the partnership on January 17, 2019 at an event that included lectures focused on Correlative Light-Electron Microscopy (CLEM), facility tours, and a partnership signing and reception held in MPFI's Dreyfoos Atrium.

The first piece of equipment made available to MPFI scientists is known as the "Focal Charge Compensation module (FCC)", which is integrated onto a Serial Block Face Scanning Electron Microscope system. The FCC introduces a local stream of nitrogen gas onto the sample inside the microscope, which absorbs unwanted electrical charges that interfere with imaging. "This new technology results in much higher quality images and allows us to collect data from even more challenging samples," Dr. Kamasawa explained. "Anything that allows us to better visualize the structure of neurons and correlate it to their function will allow us to achieve a more complete understanding of neural networks, and ultimately, of the brain itself." MPFI received the FCC equipment in August of this year, and was the first institution in the United States to use the technology after ZEISS made a number of significant improvements to the current commercially available model.

"The role of high-resolution imaging in unraveling the functional complexity of the brain cannot be overstated. This partnership is a great recognition of the unique know-how and research expertise provided by our electron microscopy facility. It underlines the importance of connecting core facilities, scientists and commercial partners, providing MPFI access to cutting edge technologies to push the boundaries of neuroscience research" said Dr. David Fitzpatrick, Scientific Director and CEO of MPFI.

"Science is transitioning to utilizing 3D data sets and correlative microscopy, to this end we are pleased to partner with Max Planck Florida. These types of relationships are vital for us to better understand the issues and advantages of our hardware and software," said James A. Sharp, President Carl Zeiss Microscopy LLC.

###

In attendance were: Abdel Barraj, Head of Sales at ZEISS Microscopy North America; Kirk J. Czymmek, Head of the Global ZEISS Microscopy Customer Centers; Geoff Perumal, Academia Life Science EM/XRM Specialist at ZEISS Microscopy; Roger Unger, Regional Sales Manager, ZEISS; Oliver Tress, Systems Specialist, 3D Imaging, ZEISS; Robert Celestine, Area Manager, MICRO OPTICS OF FLORIDA, INC.

About the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience

The Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (MPFI), a not-for-profit research organization, is part of the world-renowned Max Planck Society, Germany's most successful research organization with over 80 institutes worldwide. Since its establishment in 1948, 18 Nobel laureates have emerged from the ranks of its scientists. As its first U.S. institution, MPFI brings together exceptional neuroscientists from around the world to answer fundamental questions about brain development and function and to develop new technologies that make groundbreaking scientific discoveries possible. Their research is shared publicly with scholars, universities and other organizations around the globe, providing the necessary foundation of knowledge to develop treatments and cures for brain disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. For more information, visit http://www. maxplanckflorida. org .

About ZEISS

ZEISS is an internationally leading technology enterprise operating in the fields of optics and optoelectronics. The ZEISS Group develops, produces and distributes measuring technology, microscopes, medical technology, eyeglass lenses, camera and cinema lenses, binoculars and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. With its solutions, the company constantly advances the world of optics and helps shape technological progress. ZEISS is divided up into the four segments Research & Quality Technology, Medical Technology, Vision Care/Consumer Products and Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology. The ZEISS Group is represented in more than 40 countries and has over 50 sales and service locations, more than 30 manufacturing sites and about 25 research and development centers around the globe.

In fiscal year 2016/17 the company generated revenue approximating 5.3 billion ($6.1 billion US) with around 27,000 employees. Founded in 1846 in Jena, the company is headquartered in Oberkochen, Germany. Carl Zeiss AG is the strategic management holding company that manages the ZEISS Group. The company is wholly owned by the Carl Zeiss Stiftung (Carl Zeiss Foundation).Harare: An interesting news came from Zimbabwe's where public workers have rejected a second offer to increase their salaries.

As per the reports employess rejects salary raise and demanded to be paid in dollars, days after at least three people died in violent anti-government protests. Hundreds of citizens were detained on public order charges on Friday, as the United Nations urged an end to a security crackdown and an internet blackout.

Zimbabweans says that President Emmerson Mnangagwa has not delivered on pre-election pledges to kick-start growth after the exit of Robert Mugabe. Mnangagwa has promised a clean break from the 37-year era of Mugabe, who was forced out in a de facto coup in November last year but the economy is afflicted by a severe shortage of dollars which has led to shortages of medicines and fuels.

Thomas Muzondo, deputy chairman of the Apex Council, a grouping of all civil service unions, said, adding that a third round of talks was scheduled for next week. He further added that we insisted on U.S. dollar salaries but the government totally rejected this, saying they do not manufacture dollars. We are now consulting our membership but we told the government that their offer is nowhere near our expectations.Lima: On Friday, an earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale shattered Peru. The quake recorded as to strike 169 km north of Barranca at around 9:26 pm (UTC). The temblor was situated at a depth of 99 km, No tsunami warning has been issued and no casualties or damage to property has been reported so far.

Peru is situated on the 'Ring of Fire', an area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean which is vulnerable to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Peru is essentially a tropical country, with its northern tip nearly touching the Equator. Despite its tropical location, a great diversity of climate, of way of life, and of economic activity is brought about by the extremes of elevation and by the southwest winds that sweep in across the cold Peru Current (or Humboldt Current), which flows along its Pacific shoreline. The immense difficulties of travel posed by the Andes have long impeded national unity. Iquitos, on the upper Amazon, lies only about 600 miles (965 km) northeast of Lima, the capital, but, before the airplane, travelers between the cities often chose a 7,000-mile (11,250-km) trip via the Amazon, the Atlantic and Caribbean, the Isthmus of Panama, and the Pacific, rather than the shorter mountain route.

also read :Indian Army?s aggressive response toward repeated ceasefire

Peru is traditionally described in terms of three broad longitudinal regions: the arid Costa on the west; the rugged Sierra, or Andes, system in the centre; and the wet and forested Amazonia?the tropical Amazon Basin?on the east.

Last year, On January 14, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the Arequipa coastal area, while two people died and over 120 people sustained injuries when the temblor destroyed hundreds of buildings and left thousands of others displaced. Further details in the matter are awaited.

also read : Iran?s American-born journalist appears in US, held over by FBIHamid Nehal Ansari, finally returned home today. He is a young engineer from Mumbai, who went missing in 2012, Ansari crossed Wagah Border this evening to the Indian side. After spending six years in detention, Ansari, who had illegally entered Pakistan, was today, sent back to India.

As per the Source report. Ansari amid tight security left from Mardan jail for Lahore. Ansari's lawyer Qazi Anwar also confirmed the release of his client.

Anwar statement for that, "I talked to [the] superintendent of Mardan jail and he informed me that Ansari was released at 7:25 am from the jail and shifted to Lahore in high security,"

Dawn reported, Ansari was taken into custody by the police and Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials in Kohat in November 2012 and was later court-martialled by a military tribunal. He was convicted and sentenced to three years in jail in December 2015. He was lodged in the Peshawar central jail.

The Indian national completed his three-year sentence for spying and other crimes on Saturday.

also read : BS Yeddyurappa calls back BJP MLAs of Karnataka, to avoid being "poached"

Sedition Case: Delhi Court rejects chargesheet against Kanhaiya KumarThailand: Boodsabann Chanthawong recently joined a growing number of women defying generations of Thai Buddhist tradition by becoming ordained as novice monks at an unrecognised all-female monastery outside Bangkok.



Leading a procession of 21 other women  from teenagers to senior citizens  to a chapel in the Songdhammakalyani monastery in Nakhon Pathom province, Boodsabann teared up as she prepared to exchange her white garments for the distinctive saffron robes otherwise seen almost exclusively on male monks.

"I'm going to overcome this obstacle and become ordained like I've always wanted," the 49-year-old businesswoman said before the ceremony on December 5, where she would have her head shaved. She stayed for nine days at the temple.

Officially, only men can become monks and novices in Thailand under a Buddhist order that since 1928 has forbidden the ordination of women. The country does not recognise female monks or novices.

One option for devout Thai women is to become white-clad Buddhist nuns, who follow a less-strict religious regimen than monks and are often relegated to housekeeping tasks in temples.

In recent years, more Thai Buddhist women seeking to become full-fledged 'bhikkunis,' or female monks, have been defying the tradition by pursuing the other option: getting ordained overseas, usually in Sri Lanka or India.

Dhammananda Bhikkhuni, the 74-year-old abbess of the Songdhammakalyani monastery, flew to Sri Lanka to be ordained in 2001 as Thailand's first female monk.

Since then, she has helped women like Boodsabann join the Buddhist order as novices at the monastery's ordination ceremonies every April and December.

"It's been 90 years and the social context has changed, but they still don't accept us," Dhammananda told Reuters in an interview at the temple's library, where an entire shelf is dedicated to books about women's rights and role in religion.

"It's a shame that women aren't allowed to make decisions for their own lives. You have to rebel against injustice because this is not right," she added.

While Dhammananda's monastery ordains female novices, it cannot do the same for those seeking to become female monks. Such a ceremony would require not only 10 female monks but also 10 male monks, who are forbidden under Thailand's 1928 order to participate in it.

There are about 270 female monks across Thailand and they were all ordained abroad, Dhammananda said, adding that her monastery houses seven of them. In contrast, Thailand has more than 250,000 male monks.

Efforts in the past by advocates to undo the 1928 order have been futile. It has been officially upheld during meetings of the Sangha Supreme Council, the council of top monks, in 2002 and most recently in 2014.

The government says this is not gender discrimination but a matter of long-held tradition, and women are free to travel abroad to be ordained, just not in their own country.

"Women can't be ordained here, but no one stops them from doing that overseas. They just can't be ordained by Thai monks, that's all," said Narong Songarom, spokesman of the National Office of Buddhism.Washington: US President Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late February but will maintain economic sanctions on Pyongyang, the White House said on Friday after Trump met Pyongyang's top nuclear negotiator.

The announcement came amid a diplomatic flurry in Washington surrounding the visit of Kim Yong Chol, a hardline former spy chief, and marked a sign of movement in a denuclearisation effort that has stalled since a landmark meeting between Trump and the North Korean leader in Singapore on June 12.

"President Donald J Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and a half to discuss denuclearisation and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said. She said a location would be announced later.

The summit was announced even though there has been no indication of any narrowing of differences over US demands that North Korea abandon a nuclear weapons programme that threatens the United States and Pyongyang's demands for a lifting of punishing sanctions.

Sanders said that Trump's talks with the North Korean envoy were productive but added that the United States "is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea."

South Korea's presidential office said it expected the upcoming summit to be a "turning point to lay the firm foundation for lasting peace on the Korean peninsula."

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo escorts Vice Chairman of the North Korean Workers' Party Committee Kim Yong Chol, North Korea's lead negotiator in nuclear diplomacy with the United States, as they meet at a hotel in Washington, US, on Friday. Photo: Reuters/Joshua Roberts

South Korea will work with the United States and other countries to "achieve concrete and practical results towards complete denuclearisation and a lasting peace regime through the North Korea-US summit...," presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in a statement on Saturday.

South Korea will also expand inter-Korean dialogue to help a successful meeting between Trump and Kim, he added.

The first summit produced a vague commitment by Kim Jong Un to work towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, but he has yet to take what Washington sees as concrete steps in that direction.

Nevertheless, both he and Trump had expressed an interest in arranging a second meeting, something some US-based analysts see as premature.

Critics of US efforts say the first summit only boosted Kim's international stature without much to show for it, and some believe Trump may see a second meeting as a way of distracting from his domestic troubles.

Trump declared just after the Singapore meeting that the nuclear threat posed by North Korea was over. But hours before Kim Yong Chol's arrival on Thursday, the US president unveiled a revamped US missile defence strategy that singled out the country as an ongoing and "extraordinary threat."

Harry Kazianis, an analyst at the conservative Washington-based Centre for the National Interest, called the agreement to hold another summit positive. But he added: "Both nations must now show at least some tangible benefits from their diplomatic efforts during a second summit, or risk their efforts being panned as nothing more than reality TV."

Communist-ruled Vietnam, which has good relations with both the United States and North Korea, has been widely touted as the most likely site of the next summit. There has also been speculation about other possible venues, including Bangkok, Hawaii, or a return to Singapore.

Trump seeking 'win'?

A senior US administration official said there was an exchange of letters for the leaders during the White House meeting, but gave no details of their content.

On his last visit to Washington in June, Kim Yong Chol delivered a letter from Kim Jong Un to Trump that helped overcome obstacles ahead of the summit in Singapore.

Kim Yong Chol, regarded as a member of Kim Jong Un's inner circle, also had talks with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US special representative on North Korea, Stephen Biegun.

A State Department statement said that after Pompeo and Kim met, the two sides had "a productive first meeting at the working level", and that Biegun would travel to Sweden at the weekend to attend an international conference.

The conference is also being attended by North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui. Washington has been keen to set up talks between Biegun and Choe but North Korea has resisted, apparently wanting to keep exchanges high-level.

South Korea's nuclear negotiator, Lee Do-hoon, also would attend the conference, the country's foreign ministry said, although it gave no indication of whether he would meet with Choe and Biegun.

US-based analysts said that North Korea, which has developed missiles and nuclear weapons in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions, would likely be seeking a clearer message from the Trump administration on any concessions it may be willing to make.

"The North Koreans need a real indication of what the US is willing to put on the table," said Jenny Town, a North Korea expert at 38 North, a Washington-based think tank.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said on Wednesday that if North Korea took concrete steps towards abandoning its weapons programs, Washington could offer a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War, humanitarian aid or a permanent channel for bilateral dialogue.

Victor Cha, a former White House adviser on Asia under President George W Bush, suggested that Trump may be so desperate for a policy "win" that he could be vulnerable to a bad deal with North Korea.

"I worry that the timing works to North Korea's benefit," Cha said, citing pressures on Trump such as the partial US government shutdown and the ongoing investigation into alleged Russian ties to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

Earlier this month, Trump defended the stuttering progress on North Korea by saying that Pyongyang had stopped missile and bomb testing and if it had not been for his administration "you'd be having a nice big fat war in Asia."Mexico City: At least 73 people were killed after a pipeline ruptured by suspected fuel thieves exploded in central Mexico, authorities said on Saturday, as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador defended the army despite its failure to clear the site before the blast.

Forensic experts filled body bags with charred human remains in the field where the explosion occurred on Friday evening by the town of Tlahuelilpan in the state of Hidalgo, in one of the deadliest incidents to hit Mexico's troubled oil infrastructure in years.

One witness described how an almost festive atmosphere among hundreds of local residents filling containers with spilled fuel turned to horror as the blast scattered the crowd in all directions, incinerating clothing and inflicting severe burns.

A number of people at the scene told Reuters that local shortages in gasoline supply since Lopez Obrador launched a drive to stamp out fuel theft had encouraged the rush to the gushing pipeline.

"Everyone came to see if they could get a bit of gasoline for their car, there isn't any in the gas stations," said farmer Isaias Garcia, 50. Garcia was at the site with two neighbors, but waited in the car some distance away.

"Some people came out burning and screaming," he added.

To root out the theft, Lopez Obrador in late December ordered pipelines to be closed. But that led to shortages in central Mexico, including Hidalgo, where local media this week said more than half of the gas stations were at times shut.

Hidalgo Governor Omar Fayad said 73 people were killed and 74 people injured in the explosion, which happened as residents scrambled to get buckets and drums to a gush at the pipeline that authorities said rose up to 23 feet high.

Fayad said the condition of many of the injured was deteriorating, and that some had burns on much of their body. Some of the most badly injured minors could be moved for medical attention in Galveston, Texas, he added.

Hidalgo Attorney General Raul Arroyo said 54 bodies were so badly burned that they could take a long time to identify.

The crackdown on fuel theft has become a litmus test of Lopez Obrador's drive to tackle corruption in Mexico - and to stop illegal taps draining billions of dollars from the heavily-indebted state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

Video on social media showed people filling buckets from the pipeline during daylight hours in the presence of the armed forces before the blast.

But Lopez Obrador, who vowed to continue the crackdown on theft, defended the army in the face of questions about why soldiers failed to prevent the tragedy.

"We're not going to fight fire with fire," the veteran leftist said. "We think that people are good, honest, and if we've reached these extremes ... it's because they were abandoned."

In the aftermath, soldiers and other military personnel guarded the cordoned-off area that was littered with half-burned shoes, clothes and containers.

More than 100 people gathered at a local cultural center on Saturday afternoon, hoping to get information about loved ones who disappeared. Officials posted information about DNA tests for identification and a list of people taken to hospital.

'Like a party'

Lopez Obrador said the army had been right to avoid a confrontation due to the large number of people seeking to make off with a trove of free fuel - a few liters of which are worth more than the daily minimum wage in Mexico.

Blaming previous governments for neglecting the population, he said the priority was to eradicate the social problems and lack of opportunities that had made people risk their lives. He rejected suggestions the incident was linked to his policy.

Still, Lopez Obrador had vowed to tighten security in sensitive sections of the oil infrastructure, and the ruptured pipeline was only a few miles away from a major oil refinery.

Pemex's Chief Executive Octavio Romero told reporters that there had been 10 illegal fuel taps in the same municipality in the last three months alone. Neither he nor the president said exactly when the valves to the pipeline were closed.

Relatives of victims stood huddled together, some of them crying, after the massive blast. Much of the rush to siphon off fuel and the chaos of the explosion was captured on mobile phones and began quickly circulating on social media.

Mexican media published graphic pictures of victims from the blast site covered in burns and shorn of their clothes.

Local journalist Veronica Jimenez, 46, arrived at the scene before the explosion where she said there were more than 300 people with containers to collect fuel.

"I saw families: mother, father, children," she told Reuters. "It was like a party...for a moment you could even hear how happy people were."

When the blast hit, people ran in different directions, pleading for help, some burned and without clothing, she said.

"Some people's skin came off...it was very ugly, horrible, people screamed and cried," she said. "They shouted the names of their husbands, brothers, their family members."

Grief-stricken family members blocked access to the field for over half an hour, saying they would not let funeral service vehicles pass until they were told where the dead were being taken.

Lopez Obrador has said his decision to close pipelines has greatly reduced fuel theft, but the death toll has raised questions about potentially unintended consequences.



"There was a gasoline shortage, people one way or another wanted to be able to move around," said local farmer Ernesto Sierra, 44. "Some even came with their bean pots."Silvassa: On a day when many opposition parties came together on a common platform in Kolkata, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at their proposed 'mahagathbandhan' or grand alliance, saying it is a combine of those who are angry at his stringent action against corruption as they have been stopped from looting public money.

"The 'mahagathbandhan' or grand alliance is not just against Narendra Modi but also against the people of India.... They can make any number of gathbandhan to save their parivars, their sultanates... but they will never be able to win hearts of the people ," the prime minister said on Saturday while addressing a public function at Silvassa, the capital of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

In a dig at the opposition rally organised by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Kolkata, he said the BJP has only one MLA in West Bengal, "but still they are so afraid of us because we follow the path of truth that they have gathered parties from across the country and are crying 'bachao, bachao, bachao' (save us)".

"... their world is centred around the progress of their families, their kith and kin. In their world, there is no vision for India," Modi said, adding the countrymen are his family and his sole aim is the progress of the nation.

"They are troubled as to why Modi is taking stringent action against corruption. Should I not fight against corruption....they are troubled as to why Modi has banished the middlemen from the corridors of power....

"They are so angry that I prevented them from looting public money that they are trying to form the 'mahagathbandhan'," Modi said, adding that these leaders have come together out of fear.

"They can make any number of gathbandhan to save their parivars, their sultanates, but they cannot run away from their karmas. Their karmas are following them on each and every step," Modi said.

"Their politics, which is centred around hatred for Modi, can get traction in newspapers and television channels, but it will never be able to win hearts of the people who are watching their every move," the prime minister said, after laying a foundation stone for a medical college.

Against the backdrop of the West Bengal government denying permission to BJP to organise yatras in West Bengal, the PM said political parties in the TMC-ruled state are not even allowed to carry out their programmes.

"Party workers are killed there during elections and they talk about saving democracy. When those involved in suffocating democracy talk of saving it, then people will say 'wah kya baat hai...'," he said, mocking the parties opposing the BJP.

Leaders of an array of opposition parties are taking part in the 'United India Rally' in Kolkata, where Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee gave a call for changing the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Modi said all these parties once used to abuse the Congress, but now their leaders are together as the ground is slipping beneath their feet.

"Their world starts with hatred for Modi and ends by hurling abuses at Modi. Their world is centred around the progress of their families, their kith and kin. In their world, there is no vision for India," Modi said.

"While my world starts with how to bring changes to the life of 1.25 crore people of the country without any focus on family and with a vision to make India the foremost developed country in the 21st century," Modi said.

In the 60-year rule of one party, not much work was done as they gave more importance to names instead of work, he said. In the last four-and-half years many new schemes have been launched but none of them are associated with the name Modi, he said.

"This shows that our intention is to ensure the progress of the people and not just one family.. this is not our culture.. for me the 1.25 crore country men are my family," Modi said.Welcome to Air Force Station (AFS) Sulur! An airbase locked on to future. And, tipped as the Indian Air Force's (IAF) most critical base in years to come.

When Onmanorama visited AFS Sulur, the base was abuzz with a series of upgradation works. From runway to ATC tower to new hangars, it for a while looked like a massive stadium getting ready for a big game. And, those who have flown in know how significant this game is going to be for the IAF in the future.

The boss of this base is Air Cmde Ashwin Keshav Puntambekar, who is the Air Officer Commanding (AOC). A product of National Defence Academy (NDA) 71st course, this Mumbaite is a helicopter pilot and a Qualified Flying Instructor with over 5,800 hours of flying to his credit, in his 31 years of service.

The second in command here is Gp Capt Gopal Swami, who passed out of NDA almost 11 summers after the AOC. This Jaguar pilot from Mysuru is the Chief Operations Officer with close to 2,900 flying hours across platforms to his credit.



Changing dimensions

The shifting of the No 45 Squadron, Flying Daggers, operating the Tejas, from Bengaluru to here on June 12, 2018, probably changed the dimensions of this base on all counts.

With the moving in of 45 Sqn, similar to the Sarangs, the Old Bangalore airport (HAL) got decluttered of post-production aircraft, making it easier for more platforms to be produced and test-flown. The spares flow is easy to sustain over a 365-km separation and crucially, Tamil Nadu gained an asset class over which it is proud, says Air Cmde Puntambekar.

He said the modern infrastructure accretion that was created to house the Tejas has changed the erstwhile skyline at Sulur making its transformation markedly profound.

It has also changed the frame of reference of viewers from being benign to being serious. AFS Sulur has accommodated the new accretion with pride and it will graduate on the lines of a modern airbase of the IAF, he says.

No 45 Squadron, Flying Daggers, operating the Tejas will complete one year at the base this June.

According to him, the footfall in terms of increased takeoffs and landings is expected to go up as a natural corollary.

Sulur is the only station in the IAF where a mix of fighters, transport fleets, helicopters, microlites and para-hang gliders fly in perfect harmony.

Crucially, Sulurs USP (unique selling point) gets accentuated when an event that has gone unnoticed by many, is brought to their notice. While older aircraft types are being phased out in the rest of the country, it is the only AF Station where a birth of a new aircraft class has occurred. The nation will celebrate this birth, he says.

Inspiring students

To inspire air warriors of future and to spread general awareness on military aviation, AFS Sulur was tasked last year by the Southern Air Command to host an air festival for the local schools.

It was big draw on impressionable young minds and a cross section of boys and girls evincing interest in joining the IAF. I am convinced the IAF would have created a niche in these young minds with a long term view to eventually join the IAF. The Tejas with its afterburner is sounding the wake up call to young inhabitants around each morning. And, the alarm reminds: Come and join me, says Air Cmde Puntambekar.

Air Cmde Ashwin Keshav Puntambekar, AOC, AFS Sulur, with the schoolchildren during the air festival.

When asked about the future roles being played by AFS Sulur keeping in mind the operational requirements of the IAF, he said: Why was Tejas brought to Sulur? It is a thought that will come up in the minds of many. The Indian Navy likes to look at the map of India the other way round; with peninsular India as the North with a large sea front dominating the view. This infectious idea is here to stay. Assets like these get created as there was a felt need to work on an increased maritime footprint. The IAFs operational edge thus gets a big fillip as a result of this thought.

He says the credit for the base coming up one year in advance (first planned for July 1, 2019,) goes to two other individuals Gp Capt L T J Antony, Chief Engineering Officer and Gp Capt Rajesh Chembath, Chief Administrative Office.

In fact this base is passionately built by the entire team of personnel at AFS Sulur, adds Air Cmde Puntambekar.

AFS Sulur comes under the purview of the Southern Air Command headquartered at Thiruvananthapuram, currently headed by Air Marshal B Suresh, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C).

Air Cmde Ashwin Keshav Puntambekar with a visiting foreign delegation.

His predecessor, Air Marshal R K S Bhadauria, presently the AOC-in-C, IAF Training Command in Bengaluru, played a key role in fixing operational, maintenance and administrative issues, before the Flying Daggers moved to Sulur.

Inspiring history

The construction of the Sulur airbase was started by the Royal Navy and the air field was commissioned in 1942-43, during World War II. The base was placed under the South East Asian Command. During the August Movement of 1942, the base bore the brunt and was burned down.

Later, it became operational as HMS Vairi in 1945 and Hellcats, Barracudas and Sea Otters of Royal Navy operated detachments from here. Royal Indian Air Force also operated from Sulur during this period.

The Kiran MK1s (HJT16) lined up at the base many decades ago. The Gnats and the Canberras were too repaired here.

After World War II, the Indian Army used a part of airfield and number of hangars as MT Vehicle Park. Post-Independence, the Indian Navy established INS Hansa to operate Hawker Sea Hawks. The liberation of Goa saw INS Hansa being shifted to Goa's Dabolim airfield. (Interestingly, to this day, a small Aircraft and Engine Holding Unit continues to be housed at Sulur.)

In 1956, the air field was taken over by the IAF to set up a Care and Maintenance Unit. It was re-designated as Aircraft Storage Unit under Maintenance Command in 1957 and later renamed as Air Force Storage Depot.

A vintage picture of an official event at the base with the HT-2 in the forefront.

In April 1966, the Air Force Storage Depot was re-designated as 5 Base Repair Depot and assigned the task of repair and overhaul of Gnat aircraft. 33 Equipment Depot too was established at Sulur in 1967 for providing equipment support to 5 BRD but later merged with 5 BRD.

Today, 5 BRD overhauls Avro and Dornier fleet of IAF, though it was earlier used for storage and repair of Gnat, Kiran, Canberra, Chetak and Cheetah aircraft. (In fact, IAF officials confirm that the 5 BRD will receive the Presidential Colours on March 4, 2019.)

In 1984, carving the land assets from 5 BRD, 43 Wing Air Force, an operational formation was established in Sulur. The major area of operation of this Wing is southern peninsula of the country.

Vintage picture with a guard of honour in progress.

After its formation, 18 Sqn, which had moved from Srinagar became a lodger unit to 43 Wing. 18 Sqn later moved to Jammu in the year 1988. 119 HU moved in 1989 but soon after moved out to Jamnagar within a period of less than two years. A detachment of 11 Sqn (Avro aircraft) started operating from the Wing in the month of June 1992. In the year 1996, all Avro aircraft were de-induced and ferried out from the base.

Today, AFS Sulur has become one of the most modern air bases of IAF, equipped with Category-II Instrument Landing System and is home for many squadrons.

Tejas is the fourth squadron currently to have made its base at AFS Sulur, along with the Sarangs (151 HU), Mi-17 V5 Knights (109 HU) and the AN-32 (33 Sqn) Soaring Storks.

The base also houses a Radio and Maintenance Unit, a Transportable Radar Unit and a Garud commando unit.

For the IAF, in the coming years, AFS Sulur would be the fulcrum of operations whenever the country would look forward to meet any contingencies south of latitude 11 degrees North.

And, that will be a developing story to be written in future!

(The writer is an independent aerospace and defence journalist, who blogs at Tarmak007 and tweets @writetake.)Hazira (Guj): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday boarded a tank while inspecting Larsen and Toubro's Armoured Systems Complex facility here for manufacturing high-end guns.

The prime minister shared a brief video of himself standing in a tank on his Twitter handle.

"Checking out the tanks at L&T's Armoured Systems Complex in Hazira," Modi said in the tweet.

The Armoured Systems Complex, which Modi inaugurated earlier in the day, will be the first private facility in the country where the K9 Vajra self-propelled Howitzer guns will be manufactured.

Checking out the tanks at L&Ts Armoured Systems Complex in Hazira. pic.twitter.com/zf7wRrbX7Y  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 19, 2019

The company has set up the Armoured Systems Complex at Hazira, around 30 kilometers from Surat, to manufacture and integrate advanced armoured platforms, such as self-propelled artillery Howitzers, future infantry combat vehicles, future-ready combat vehicles and future main battle tanks.New Delhi: Hima, 9, is courage personified. She was unruffled when her mother's palm was shattered. She was unflappable as militants pointed a gun at her head; not to forget her gently reminding them of the worthiness of humaneness.

On Republic Day, the nation will honour Hima for her bravery. Himapriya is a class IV student of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Udhampur. Her father is an Army jawan from Andhra Pradesh posted in Kashmir.

On the night of February 10, Jaish militants infiltrated the Army's Sunjuwan camp where the family resided. Her father was on duty and at home were her mother, Padmavathi; and siblings Rishita and Avantika. Padmavathi's palm had shattered as a grenade thrown by the militants exploded.

Hima opened the door and was held captive by the militants. She engaged them in a conversation, for about four hours. This prevented further assault on her mother and siblings. Her repeated pleas to allow her mother to be taken to the hospital were allowed. Hima alerted the Army after they reached a safe distance. The Jaish militants were subsequently captured.

The Army said Hima's intervention not only led to the capture of the terrorists but also limited casualty escalation.

The Indian Council for Child Welfare said that she was picked for the bravery award considering these factors.

Hearing the news of bravery award, Padmavathi hugged her daughter tight, unmindful of the pain of the debilitated palm, its fingers lost. Hima too was teary eyed, probably anguished by her mother's pain.

Read more: Latest India news

New Delhi: The ED has attached fresh assets worth Rs 16.40 crore in connection with its money-laundering probe against controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, it said on Saturday.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), in a statement, said it had issued a provisional order for attachment of assets registered in the name of Naik's family members, located in Mumbai and Pune, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The estimated value of the immovable assets was Rs 16.40 crore, the central probe agency said.

The ED identified the properties as Fatima Heights and Aafiyah Heights in Mumbai, an unnamed project in the Bhandup area of Maharashtra's capital city and a project named Engracia in Pune.

"In order to disguise the origin of funds and real ownership of the properties, the initial payments made from Naik's bank account were refunded and diverted to the accounts of his wife, son and niece and re-routed again for the purpose of making bookings in the name of the family members rather than Naik.

"This has been revealed from the money trail established by the ED," the agency said.

The ED had registered a criminal case against Naik and others in December, 2016 after taking cognisance of a National Investigation Agency (NIA) complaint filed under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

The NIA had also filed a charge sheet against Naik and others before a Mumbai court in October, 2017.

Quoting the NIA charge sheet, the ED said Naik "deliberately and maliciously insulted the religious beliefs of Hindus, Christians and non-Wahabi Muslims, particularly the Shias, Sufis and the Barelwis, with the intention of outraging their religious feelings".

It said Naik's organisation, the Islamic Research Foundation, and Ms Harmony Media "have been instrumental in the maximum circulation of such incriminating speeches".

"For such activities, the accused (Naik) was receiving funds from IRF as well as other unknown sources," the ED claimed.

This is the third such attachment by the ED in the case and with the latest order, the total value of assets attached by the agency stands at Rs 50.49 crore.

The ED, which functions under the Union finance ministry, is looking into the charges of laundering of illegal funds in the case and the subsequent proceeds of crime thus generated.

The attachment of assets action under the PMLA is aimed to deprive the accused from taking benefits of his ill-gotten wealth and such an order gets confirmed after an order is passed by the Adjudicating Authority of the PMLA within 180 days.

The ED said the probe against Naik, said to be based in Malaysia at present, was continuing.Pamba: Two Kerala women who attempted to trek to the Lord Ayyappa Temple in Sabarimala were forced to return on Saturday.

The women who reached Nilakkal early morning held talks with the police, who convinced them to return. They have been taken to Erumely.

This is the second time Reshma Nishanth and Shanila Sajeesh are attempting to visit Sabarimala. The duo's attempts to visit the hill shrine on Wednesday were thwarted by devotees. Reshma had then said she would offer prayers at the temple.

The women had come along with a group of men, including Shreyas, a member of Facebook group Navothana Keralam Sabarimalayileku. He alleged that the police could have taken the women to Sabarimala. He claimed that more women would attempt to visit the temple on Saturday.

On January 2, two Kerala women had entered the temple, three months after the Supreme Court allowed women of all groups to enter the shrine.

Kanakadurga (44), a civil supplies department employee from Angadipuram in Malappuram, and Bindhu (42), a college lecturer and CPI(ML) activist from Kozhikode district's Koyilandy, had entered the hill shrine, despite dire threats from right-wing groups.

Following their entry, the head priest decided to close the sanctum sanctorum of the temple in order to perform the purification ritual, which used to be carried out during the time of the violation of temple customs.

The Kerala government on Friday submitted in the Supreme Court that 51 women in the 10-50 age group had entered the temple after the ban was lifted.

Read more: Latest Sabarimala news

Kochi: Organ trade rackets too had reached Munambam, from where more than 200 people illegally fled to Australia by sea recently with the assistance of suspected human traffickers.

Most of those who left for Australia illegally by sea through Munambam were living as refugees in India.

Many of them were able to raise the amount demanded by traffickers.

Those who could not pay were not let onboard the boat. Some of them returned to New Delhi. Reports say these people were approached by organ trade agents and offered money.

A total of 230 people left the shores on the boat Daya Matha early on January 12.

Some, who fell short of the money traffickers demanded, stayed back but sent their wives and children on the journey.

Eyewitnesses said they heard loud wails as some people boarded vehicles the previous night at a lodging facility near the Kodungallur Temple.

Traffickers dropped the plan to use two boats and left on one overloaded vessel after some had to stay back. The refugees had to dump some of their belongings on the shore to include as many people as possible. The police believe middleman Sreekanth from Thakkala is also on the boat.

Many Indian citizens are believed to be among the group.

The traffickers have their base in Java, Indonesia. It is near impossible to get to Australia or New Zealand directly from India. Hence the racket uses isolated small Indonesian islands as pit stops.

Statements taken from two returnees

The police have registered statements of two people  Deepak, 39, and Prabhu Dantawani, 31,  who could not pay the sum traffickers asked for. The were held by the police in Delhi on Friday and will be brought to Kochi soon for further investigation.

Their wives and children are on the boat that left Munambam last week. Each family had to pay Rs 5 lakh but they had only Rs 3 lakh with them. They were sent back with the promise that they would be ferried when they raise the remaining amount.

They told the police that the boat left the shore at 6am on Saturday.

Sreekanthan, Thiruvallur Ravi and Selvam took money from the refugees, who do not seem to be aware that the trip amounts to illegal immigration.

The police team that reached Ambedkar Nagar here were recording statements late on Friday night also.Thiruvananthapuram: After doubt was cast about the list of 51 young women who entered Sabarimala, Kerala Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran on Saturday said that there was no confusion regarding the government list submitted to the Supreme Court.

He said if there was any confusion regarding the list submitted in the Supreme Court, a probe would be initiated into it.

However, Travancore Devaswom Board president A Padmakumar said that the board did not have any responsibility over the list.

"The board has neither taken any numbers, nor submitted any list. It's for those who made the list who alleviate the doubts regarding it, he added.

The Kerala government on Friday informed the Supreme Court that 51 young women had entered the Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala since the apex court allowed women of all age groups to enter the hill shrine. The government listed the names of 51 women, along with other

details including Aadhaar card and addresses. Most of the women are from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Goa.

However, doubts were raised after several people named in the list refused to confirm whether they entered Sabarimala.

Onmanorama called up the numbers of 10 people given in the government affidavit. All the calls were taken by men. Except for three, the rest said no women from their families, or even their lady friends, had gone to Sabarimala. Even the three, who said women did accompany them to Sabarimala, said their age was over 50. In short, at least 10 of the 51 women the state government had claimed had entered Sabarimala had either not done so or were above 50. The government affidavit has shown the age of all the 51 women as below 50.

Meanwhile, TV reports said that the name of another man was also included in the list. Devasikhamani of Villupuram in Tamil Nadu had conducted darshan on December 17. Paranjothi, 47, of Tamil Nadu too turned out to be a man.Kochi: Six Kerala nuns, who have been leading a campaign against rape accused Jalandhar bishop Franco Mulakkal, have written to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, seeking his urgent intervention in the case.

The nuns, four of them have been transferred to different locations from Kuravilangad Convent where they are posted now, shot off the letter days after they received the transfer order from the Missionaries of Jesus. Sr Anupama, Sr Alphy, Sr Josephine, Sr Ancita, Sr Neena were the protesters who had sought justice for the victim nun in the rape case.

In the letter to the CM, the nuns have alleged that the bishop was powerful enough to sabotage the case. They urged Pinarayi to ensure that they are not transferred.

Sister Anupama, a Missionaries of Jesus nun who led the agitation, had told Onmanorama that they were being victimised and the transfer of the four was an attempt to harass them. She also alleged that nuns holding key posts in Punjab were being purposefully brought to Kuravilangad Convent (in Kerala's Kottayam district) to torture them.

Bishop Franco was arrested on September 21, 2018, on charges of rape, unnatural sex, criminal intimidation and illegal confinement, three months after the complaint by the victim and protests by her fellow nuns in Ernakulam.

In the complaint filed on June 28, 2018, he was accused of raping her 13 times from 2014 to 2016 at Kuravilangad.

Franco, who got bail on October 15, received a rousing welcome from his followers in Jalandhar when he reached there.

Read more: Latest Kerala newsRajakumari (Idukki): The motive behind the murder of a cardamom planter and his aide at an estate in Chinnakkanal in Kerala's Idukki district was money, the police said.

The cops revealed this after prime accused Bobin, 36, was questioned for hours at an undisclosed location. He was arrested by a police team from Madurai late Thursday, Idukki district police chief K B Venugopal said.

According to police, Bobin was arrested from Madurai in Tamil Nadu when he was leaving a theatre after watching the new Rajinikanth film 'Petta'.

Cardamom estate owner Jacob Varghese, 40, and worker Muthaiah, 50, were found dead on Sunday and the police had arrested second and third accused Chitravel, 30, and his wife, Kapila, 23, both natives of Cheriyar, earlier. They had confessed that Bobbin had committed the crime.

The police said Jacob Varghese was killed by stabbing him on the neck and the chest while Muthaiah was clubbed.

The police said Bobin executed the killings single handed and intended to tour the country with whatever he could make.

Jacob Varghese had a deep stab wound on the body. The police initially suspected a bullet-inflicted death. Muthaiah's body too was found with similar wounds.

The police said Bobin and Muthaiah had gone to sleep in separate rooms on the night of Saturday. The next morning, he woke Muthaiah up and clubbed him to death, the police said.

He then went to Jacob Varghese's room. He told the latter that he had a back pain and had to go to a hospital. As Jacob Varghese was handing over the car keys to Bobin, he stabbed his employer, the police said.

As Jacob Varghese tried to fight back, Bobin stabbed him again, piercing the left chest. Bobbin also sustained a deep cut on the left hand, the police said.

Bobbin took a four-soverign gold chain which was on the victim. He also took 143kg of cardamom on a car and sought treatment at a private hospital in Rajakumari. On seeing the wound, the hospital refused treatment. After this, he proceeded to the residence of Chitravel, a friend in Cheriyar.

Both of them then proceeded to Pooppara and sold the cardamom for Rs. 1.70 lakh. They then reached Chitravel's residence. From here, Bobin was accompanied to a private hospitals by Chitravel's wife Kapila. A false address was furnished at the Nedunganadam hospital.

Bobbin returned to Chitravel's residence and he handed over Rs 25,000 to the latter.

He secured a new SIM card and abandoned the car at Murukumthotti. Later, he proceeded to Madurai.

Police to list three accused

The police said Bobin, who committed the crime, would be the first accused.

The co-accused were Chitravel, 30, and his wife, Kapila, 23, who sheltered the prime accused and helped him escape. The police had arrested the couple and a court had remanded them.

The two firearms seized from the estate had been sent for forensic examination. One of the guns was licensed in the name of Jacob Varghese's father, K K Varghese.

The police team planned to take the surgeon who performed the autopsy and a forensic team to the crime spot for scene evaluation and re-creation.

Forensic experts would be asked to examine the weapons recovered from the plantation since both the victims had deep wounds on their body.

The 143kg of cardamom which Bobin had sold to a trader had been handed over to the Nedumkandam first-class judicial magistrate court. The police have also produced the vehicle which Bobin used after the crime.

Forensic evidence such as the hair of the accused and the victims and blood-stained clothes had also been produced in court.

Read more: Latest Kerala newsIndian Navy Commander Abhilash Tomy, who is recovering from a grievous back injury which he suffered while participating in the Golden Globe race in last September, says that he is eager to head back to sea.

Four months have passed since he was rescued in a dramatic multi-national effort, but he can recall in great detail every moment of that once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The 39-year-old, who is the first Indian to circumnavigate the globe solo, rejoined duty the other day. A reconnaissance pilot, he has been given a desk job by the Navy till he recovers completely.

Im 80 percent fit now and I hope to recover fully in near future. I want to get back to the sea immediately after that," he said during a media interaction here the other day in which he also shared his experiences and challenges faced during the gruelling contest.

Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba visiting a recuperating Abhilash Tomy at the Army Hospital in New Delhi.

Meeting with Sir Robin Knox-Johnston

I had a chance to meet Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first man to sail solo non-stop around the world about fifty years ago, when I reached Falmouth in England with my yatch SV Thuriya ahead of the Golden Globe Race. He is one of my role models and I admire him a lot. Sir Robin's race began from Falmouth on June 14, 1968, and he completed the 30,000-mile sail in 312 days. When I met him, he teased me asking how many days it would take for me to complete the race. I playfully told him I would finish it in 311 days. You are young, but too ambitious, he said, grinning. Sir, you are too old and jealous, I quipped. He laughed heartily at the joke and wished me good luck.

The flag goof-up

I was attending the customary photo session before we set out on the voyage from Les Sables-d'Olonne, a seaside town in France, when I noticed a Pakistani flag among the national flags of the participants. There was no sailor from that country in the fray. It was a goof-up on the part of the Chinese firm which supplied flags for the event. The company delivered Pakistans flag instead of Palestines by mistake. Though I brought it to the notice of the organisers, they didnt pay attention. So I took the flag down with utmost respect and folded it carefully before handing it to the race organisers.

A gesture that has a lot to cheer about!

Abhilash onboard Thuriya.

There were hundreds of people of different nationalities who thronged near the starting point to cheer their countrymen taking part in the race. Some of the Irish people in the crowd started shouting my name and when I looked back I saw them holding the Irish national flag horizontally so that it would look like the Indian tricolor. We are your fans too, Abhilash, they screamed. It was a heartwarming gesture.

A Malayalee on the high seas!

During the course of the race, I happened to meet a cargo vessel named BW Lilac. One of the crew members was a Keralite. When I told him I was a participating in a global circumnavigation race, he said he knew someone from Kerala who takes up such globe-trotting expeditions. He was stunned when I revealed to him that he was talking to the same person. We exchanged pleasantries in Malayalam before bidding goodbye to each other.

With love, to Urmimala

The captain of another ship which I came across during the sailing race was an Indian. I requested him to send a WhatsApp message to my wife Urmimala. He readily fulfilled my request and texted her in English. She replied instantly. Seeing the deluge of messages, the captain called her and put the phone in speakerphone mode. I heard her voice while sailing on the high seas!

A melodious gift

Abhilash Tomy with wife Urmimala.

During the journey, Urmimala sent me a gift through satellite phone. We were sharing messages through a satellite radio operator stationed in South Africa. One day he contacted me and told there was a message for me. I feared something bad has happened. But when he opened the message a song started to play - the Manjerum Vinnoram number from the movie Guppy.

The worst fear is over!

I was scared to get married. Thankfully I have overcome it! Now I fear nothing. Im deeply and madly in love with the sea. I am raring to go back to the seas, once I am deemed fully fit. While I was recuperating, I asked Urmimala whether she would have fallen in love with me if I were an IT engineer. She replied in the negative. I take it as the green light for my future endeavours!

Raring to go

Im 80 per cent medically fit now. I will return to my original job once I regain the fitness. Till then I will be working with the newly created Ocean Sailing Node in Goa.A Muslim League meeting held in Kozhikode on Wednesday was keenly watched by the Congress, which was obviously worried about the allied leaders demand for another Lok Sabha seat to contest from Kerala. The meetings timing was also important, a day ahead of a meeting of the United Democratic Front.

However, the Muslim League meeting did not provide reasons for Congress to worry. There was no formal demand for another Lok Sabha seat for the party to contest.

Yet the Muslim League may not have backtracked from its ambitious track. The party is eyeing Vadakara, Wayanad or Kasaragod seats. The strength in the state legislative assembly is often used as an indicator of the popular bases of the parties. If the Congress, which has only 22 MLAs to boast of in the assembly, can contest in 15 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the Muslim League could stake claim for more than its current share of two seats. After all, it has 18 members in the assembly.

Muslim League leaders often cite an example in the rival camp, where the CPI is allowed by larger ally CPM to contest in four parliamentary seats because it has 19 seats in the state assembly.

Both the ruling Left Democratic Front and the opposition United Democratic Front are faced with the challenge of accommodating all conflicting claims from aspiring candidates. Even the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance has this problem.

The LDF and the UDF meetings on Thursday did not get into seat divisions but the constituent parties have already started the groundwork for hard bargains. The Muslim League could be a hard nut to crack in the UDF though the party does not want to ruffle feathers in the Congress. The partys trust in the Congress has got a lift after Rahul Gandhis visit to Dubai. The Muslim League had worked to make the Congress presidents visit to Dubai a success.

After all the Muslim population in north Kerala, a major constituency of the Muslim League, views Rahul Gandhi as a saviour.

The Congress is expected to take back the Palakkad seat, which it had set aside for Janata Dal leader M P Veerendra Kumar, who has since switched sides to the LDF. Yet it can claim status quo since it allowed N K Premachandran to contest from Kollam in 2014. Kottayam is promised to another ally, the Kerala Congress.

Yet a section of the Congress leaders want former chief minister Oommen Chandy to contest in the party banner from Kottayam. The Kerala Congress, however, has big plans for Kottayam.

The LDF, on the other hand, has a problem of plenty. The expanded front has nine constituents vying for posts. The Janadhipathya Kerala Congress is likely to stake claim for Pathanamthitta for former MP Francis George. NCP state president Thomas Chandy is also eyeing the constituency. K B Ganesh Kumar is also being considered for the sensitive constituency.

Veerendra Kumars Janata Dal may not be contended with the Rajya Sabha seat offered to the leader. The party is likely to claim the Vadakara constituency. The INL is eyeing the Kasaragod constituency.

The CPM, however, is in no mood for a bargain. It could part with a seat only if an outsider offers a greater chance of winning it. Janata Dal (S), which was the only party in the LDF to contest the general election in 2014, no longer wants Kottayam. The state committee meeting of the party agreed to stake claim for Thiruvananthapuram for A Neelalohitha Dasan Nadar.

If the CPI refuses to part with Thiruvananthapuram, the Janata Dal may ask for Pathanamthitta or Ernakulam. The party can throw its weight around as the ruling party in neighbouring Karnataka though many within the CPM is not open to the idea of letting the newcomer walk away with a seat.

The LDF may also want to acknowledge the support of community organisations which stood by the government in the Sabarimala-related standoff.

The BJP faces a curious situation in Kerala. Though the party never entertained any hopes of winning a Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, it had no dearth of seats to contest. Now the picture has changed with allies piling pressure for more seats. The Bharat Dharma Jana Sena has already asked for eight seats to contest. This is the first general election after the formation of the SNDP-backed party.

The BJP contested 18 seats in 2014 but it might have to concede more seats to its allies. The Kerala Congress (Nationalist) and the RSP (Bolshevik) were the only other parties to contest the general election under the banner of the NDA in Kerala last lime.

The BDJS contested 36 seats in the assembly election and expects a proportional share in the Lok Sabha seats. Yet the BJP might go for a hard bargain given the BDJS leaders inability to secure the total support of the SNDP in matters of importance.

The BJP is frustrated at SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappalli Natesans continued support of the LDF government. He remains to act as the chairman of a government-sponsored Navothana Samithi. That is not an ideal situation for the BJP which promoted the BDJS to ride on the SNDP base.

The only other constituent to get a chance to contest under the NDA banner may be P C Thomas. The other members may have to wait.Gandhinagar: Invoking Mahatma Gandhi's movement against colonisation, Reliance Industries chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lead a fight against 'data colonisation', saying that Indian data must be 'owned and controlled' by Indians.

"I pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of our Nation, in the year of his 150th birth anniversary. Gandhiji led India's movement against political colonisation... Today, we have to collectively launch a new movement against data colonisation," he said addressing the 'Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2019' here inaugurated by Modi.

Asserting that the data is the 'new oil and wealth' in the new world, he said India's data must be controlled and owned by Indian people and not by corporates, especially global corporations. "Honourable Prime Minister, I am sure you will make this one of the principal goals of your Digital India mission."

"For India to succeed in this data-driven revolution, we will have to migrate the control and ownership of Indian data back to India... in other words, Indian wealth back to every Indian. India's data must be owned and controlled by Indians only, not the global corporates. There is a need to launch a movement to bring back the control of data in our hands," he said.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had in October said that all digital payment firms like Google Pay, WhatsApp and the likes, must store data locally for their businesses in the country.

During the event, Ambani also announced that Reliance, which he said had invested Rs 3 lakh crore and catalysed one million jobs in Gujarat, would double its investment and employment numbers over the next decade.

He said Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail would soon launch a new commerce platform for small retailers -- a mega mission which will first be launched in Gujarat and then across the country.

He also announced his plans to create a "fully digital Gujarat" by connecting every home, office, school, college and market through Jio.New Delhi: Online education start-up Byju's Thursday said it has acquired US-based learning games developer Osmo for $120 million (nearly Rs 850 crore).

Osmo provides a playful learning system, bringing physical toys into the digital world through augmented reality and its proprietary reflective artificial intelligence.

Osmo will continue as a standalone brand since Byju's taps the company's physical-to-digital technology and content to expand and enhance its current offering, Byju's said in a statement.

"This new acquisition will bolster team Byju's' international plans...With the integration of Osmo, Byju's will also look to offer a unique, customised, engaging and fun learning solution for younger kids," it added.

Osmo chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder Pramod Sharma and his core team will continue to remain at Osmo's helm.

"We were captivated by Osmo's physical-to-digital approach to learning and fun from our first introduction," Byju Raveendran, founder and CEO of Byju's, said.

He added that the company's vision is to make learning fun and engaging across age groups, across geographies.

"Together with Osmo, we have the critical elements needed to build out an unprecedented library of engaging and entertaining educational content for a global pre-K-12 student audience. We are excited by what we are planning to launch in the coming months," he said.

BYJU's, which has recently raised $540 million (about Rs 3,865 crore) from Naspers and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), said it has been growing at 100 per cent for the past three years, and is on target to triple its revenue to Rs 1,400 crore this year.

"Byju's has aggressive plans for international market expansion and will continue to make big investments in technology that will help to further personalise learning for students," it added.

Launched in 2015, Byju's offers personalised learning programmes for school students in grades 4-12 in India. It has 30 million students cumulatively learning from the app and over 2 million annual paid subscriptions.KYODO NEWS - Jan 19, 2019 - 21:16 | All, World

(EDS: ADDING JAPAN DEFENSE MINISTER'S QUOTE, OTHER INFO IN LAST 3 GRAFS)

Japan plans to release new evidence it says proves its claim that a South Korean warship locked its fire-control radar on a Japanese plane, a government source said Saturday.

It is considering making public an audio recording from the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force patrol plane that it claims was targeted over the Sea of Japan on Dec. 20, the source said.

In response, South Korea's Defense Ministry issued a statement urging Japan not to "distort the facts" and release "incorrect" information with the intention of causing further confrontation between the two countries.

Tokyo released in late December video footage of the alleged incident in which it says the vessel engaged a radar system that measures how far away a target is and its direction of travel.

South Korea maintains Japan has presented no definitive proof to back its claim.

The intensity of radio waves used by the radar tend to be constant and powerful, and the footage showed an MSDF crew member remarking on the Japanese plane's systems picking up an "extremely strong" reading.

Japan will decide on whether to release the audio recording after Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya returns from the United States on Sunday, according to the source.

"We should avoid any misunderstanding among Japanese citizens and the international community. We have to explain what happened," Iwaya told reporters while visiting Hawaii.

Japanese and South Korean officials have held talks but so far failed to overcome their differences.US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he had a very good meeting with North Koreas nuclear envoy Kim Yong Chol and the two sides had made a lot of progress, Trend reports citing Reuters.

The White House announced after Fridays talks that Trump would hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late February but will maintain economic sanctions onPyongyang.

Kim Jong Un is looking forward to it, Trump told reporters at the White House. Weve made a lot of progress.U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said on Saturday he hoped President Donald Trump would slow the U.S. withdrawal from Syria until Islamic State is destroyed, Trend reports referring to Reuters.

Speaking in Ankara, Graham also said he believed U.S. Chief of Staff Joseph Dunford was working on a plan with Turkey to move Kurdish YPG elements away from the Turkish border.

Trump announced last month that Islamic State had been defeated in Syria and he would pull U.S. forces out of the country. A bomb attack this week claimed by the militant group killed two U.S. troops and two civilians working for the U.S. military in northern Syria, along with other civilians.

The attack in Manbij appeared to be the deadliest on U.S. forces in Syria since they deployed on the ground there in 2015. The town is controlled by a militia allied to U.S.-backed Kurdish forces.

It remains unclear when U.S. forces will leave northern Syria, where both Turkey and the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad are ready to fill the vacuum. The YPG militia allied to the fighters holding Manbij last month invited Assad into the area around the town to forestall a potential Turkish assault.

Erdogan said last week he had discussed a safe zone with Trump, which Turkey would set up inside Syria along their border.

Heres the good news: General Dunford, I think, has a plan that hes working on with the Turkish military that can accomplish these objectives and they are to move the YPG elements away from Turkey, said Graham, adding heavy armaments should be taken from the Kurdish groups.

Turkey says the YPG is a terrorist organization and an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Graham also said the political arm of the YPG was interlinked and interconnected with the PKK.

A withdrawal that does not outline the points I have made will not end the war against ISIS (Islamic State), it will start a new war, he said.

This war will be a necessity by Turkey, to go into Syria and clear out armed elements that Turkey believes poses a threat to its sovereignty.White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Friday that the United States and China were making progress on trade negotiations but reaching a deal would take time, Trend reports referring to Reuters.

Were making progress in negotiating on the grandest scale between the two countries ever, were covering everything, Kudlow told reporters.

Its going to take time. We are moving, he said. Id love to make a deal. Im a free trader but its got to be a great deal.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will visit the United States on Jan. 30 and 31 for the next round of trade negotiations with Washington.

Lius visit follows lower-level negotiations held in Beijing last week to resolve the bitter dispute between the worlds two largest economies by March 2, when the Trump administration is scheduled to increase tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported they arrested the largest group of illegal immigrants crossing US-Mexico border on their record earlier this week, Trend reported citing Sputnik.

According to the CBP, there were 376 people in the group, including 179 children; 30 of those children were unaccompanied, the agency says.

"In my 30 years with the Border Patrol, I have not been part of arresting a group of 376 people," Anthony Porvaznik, the CBP sector chief in Yuman, said in an interview for ABC. "That's really unheard of."

The group was arrested near San Luis, Arizona, according to a report by The Hill.

Speaking in an interview, Porvaznik said CBP needs "better barriers" on the border to mitigate the influx of illegal immigrants from Central America.

Most of the migrants come from Central American countries, such as Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. They form huge caravans, which sometimes include thousands of people, and march across Mexico in hopes of crossing the US border, apparently seeking US-grade social benefits, as evident by their mass neglect for Mexico's invitation to stay and apply for refugee status there.

In the meantime, Democrats, who dominate the House of Representatives, have blocked Trump's funding requests for his border protection project, which involves a $5.7 billion investment in construction of physical barrier on the border, forcing the government into longest shutdown in US history and furloughing hundreds of thousands of government employees without payment.

In a January 8 television address, Trump called the migrant situation a "humanitarian crisis," citing the flow of heroin and other drugs being smuggled from Mexico.

According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) fiscal year 2018 Enforcement and Removal Operations report, ICE arrested 2,028 illegal immigrants who had homicide offense histories. A similar report from 2017 indicated 1,886 arrests of illegal immigrants with homicide histories.Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 19

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

US Senator Lindsey Graham, who is in Ankara, called the YPG the Syrian wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorist group, Trend reports Jan. 19 with reference to the Turkish media.

He said that the YPG is the political wing of the PKK, and there are facts proving this.

Commenting on the withdrawal of the US troops from Syria, Graham said that the early withdrawal of the US troops from Syria may lead to serious problems in the region.

He also said that the US should solve the problem that they once created for Turkey.

On Dec. 12, 2018, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Turkish Armed Forces will launch a new military operation in Syria against PYD/YPG.

Erdogan claimed there were US soldiers in the detachments of the terrorists in Syria.

Despite that the US promised it would not support PYD/YPG, Washington did not keep its word, said Erdogan.

On Jun. 4, 2018, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed a roadmap on Syria's Manbij during talks in Washington.

Earlier, Cavusoglu and Pompeo had a meeting in Brussels and discussed the Operation Olive Branch, as well as other issues.

On Jan. 20, 2018, Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Free Syrian Army, launched the Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, Syria.

On Aug. 24, 2016, the Turkish Armed Forces launched the Operation Euphrates Shield against the "Islamic State", and with the support of the Syrian opposition liberated the border town of Jarablus, as well as Al-Bab in northern Syria.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizogluBaku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 19

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Some 53,900 Syrians, who received Turkish citizenship, will be able to vote in the Turkish municipal elections on March 31, Trend reports citing the Turkish media.

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu stated that on the municipal elections day, 547,000 police officers will provide security in the country.

Earlier, Soylu said there are 3,611,834 Syrian refugees in Turkey.

Municipal elections in Turkey are held every five years.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu1. Yes. Its important to address the problem before it gets worse. A bond is needed.

2. Yes. Its fine, as long as the bond isnt too large. The city doesnt need more debt.

3. No. A bond issue would just put the problem back on the taxpayers. Not acceptable.

4. No. Certificates of obligation, targeting the worst roads, would be a better choice.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say without knowing the details of what a bond would entail.

Vote

View ResultsThe Russian government has reportedly asked Israel to halt its airstrikes against Iranian targets near the Damascus airport, the pan-Arab al-Quds al-Araby reported on Friday, Trend reports referring to The Times of Israel.

According to the report, Russian military officials said Moscow was preparing to renovate the airport that has been damaged in the eight years of fighting in the Syrian civil war. The unnamed officials said the Israeli strikes on Iranian and Hezbollah targets in the vicinity of the airport were causing foreign airlines to reconsider resuming flights to the Syrian capital.

Israel in recent years has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria against targets linked to Iran, which alongside its proxies and Russia is fighting on behalf of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. A number of the strikes have targeted the Damascus airport in a bid to halt weapons transfers from Iran to its militias in Syria and Lebanon.

Israel has accused Iran of seeking to establish a military presence in Syria that could threaten Israeli security and attempting to transfer advanced weaponry to the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.

The reported Russian request comes less than a week after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke with longstanding Israeli policy and publicly acknowledged the IDF was behind a raid in Syria days earlier. The strike destroyed a number of weapons caches in the Damascus airport, Netanyahu said.

The number of airstrikes in Syria attributed to Israel has dropped in recent months, after a Russian military plane was downed by Syrian air defenses during an Israeli attack on Latakia, killing all 15 servicemen aboard.

Russia blamed the Israeli military for that incident  a charge rejected by Jerusalem  and has supplied Syria with the advanced S-300 air defense system. The systems were delivered to Syria late last year, but they are not yet believed to be in use, as the Syrian air defense teams still need to be trained to operate them.

At a farewell ceremony for outgoing IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot this week, Netanyahu said Israels intention to strike only the Iranian and Iranian-linked targets in Syria was understood by all, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and his military chief.

The prime ministers remark appeared to be an effort to assuage concerns that Israels ability to operate in Syria was being curbed by Russia at a time when the US is withdrawing its military presence from the country.

Trumps abrupt decision to pull Americas 2,000 troops from Syria stunned regional players, US politicians, and military leaders, who expressed surprise that such a major decision would be announced after apparently so little advance consultation, and against the advice of his national security advisers. Trumps secretary of defense, James Mattis, resigned over the withdrawal.

US soldiers have been leading the coalition against the Islamic State terror group, while also helping to thwart the establishment of permanent Iranian military infrastructure in Syria.

Israeli officials have warned that Americas absence would open the door for Tehran to create a so-called land bridge from Iran, through Iraq and Syria, into Lebanon and to the Mediterranean Sea.

Trumps announcement also was the first significant point of contention between Washington and Jerusalem since he took office  Netanyahu reportedly pleaded with him to rethink the decision  and has fortified the perception that he views the US relationship with Israel as transactional.

Last month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Netanyahu the planned withdrawal of ground forces from Syria would not alter Americas commitment to countering Iranian aggression and maintaining Israels security.

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.

Last week, a US official said Washington would be very supportive of Israeli strikes against Iranian targets in Syria. Speaking ahead of a visit to Israel by National Security Adviser John Bolton, the source said the White House had sent Bolton to Israel to ally its fears regarding the growing Iranian activity in the region.At least 21 people were killed after a ruptured gas pipeline exploded in the Mexican state of Hidalgo, the state's governor Omar Fayad wrote on his Twitter account, Trend reports referring to TASS.

"Im at the scene of the Tlahuelilpan incident. At the moment 21 dead and 71 injured are reported. I keep in touch with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to help the affected families," Fayad wrote.

The gas pipeline exploded near the town of Tlahuelilpan where dozens of people were collecting fuel.

The authorities of the Mexico City sent four helicopters to Hidalgo to assist those injured in the incident.Siemens and Alstoms plan to create a European rail champion to take on a Chinese rival has failed to win over EU antitrust regulators despite German and French backing, people familiar with the matter said on Friday, Trend reported citing Reuters.

The EU veto, to be announced early next month, could push Siemens to float its own in-house rail technology division, called Siemens Mobility, while keeping a stake.

The rail merger deal would have created the worlds second largest rail company with combined revenues of around 15 billion euros ($17.05 billion), roughly half the size of Chinas state-owned CRRC Corp Ltd (601766.SS) but twice the size of Canadas Bombardier (BBDb.TO).

Germany and France support the deal, saying it would help secure the competitiveness of the European rail industry. However, European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager has said Europe cannot build industrial champions by undermining competition.

Her veto could spur the two countries to step up efforts to modify the blocs competition rules, among the most powerful in the world, to take into account unfettered non-EU rivals and U.S. tech giants, although it will not be an easy battle.

German conglomerate Siemens has already offered to license parts of its high-speed train business and sell parts of its signaling operations after the European Commission voiced concerns.

Siemens had initially offered to share its high-speed train technology, which allows trains to travel faster than 250 kilometers per hour, for five years with third parties.

The EU competition enforcer, however, wanted a longer duration, a demand which the company rejected. Siemens Velaro is the worlds fastest high-speed train.

There were also competition concerns regarding the companies market power in rolling stock and signaling. The Commission - which has rejected an imminent Chinese threat in the rail industry - Siemens and Alstom all declined to comment.

The deal triggered criticism from the German cartel office, Britains CMA competition watchdog and its counterparts in the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain, which say concessions from the companies fell short.

The regulators expressed concerns about the supply of very high-speed rolling stock for trains such as the Eurostar which links the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Alstom unions have also dismissed the Chinese threat.The death toll of the violent clashes in south of the Libyan capital Tripoli between government-allied forces and an armed group rose to 13, the Ministry of Health said, Trend reported citing Xinhua.

"The clashes south of the capital Tripoli have killed 13 and 52 were wounded, including women and children, according to the statistics of the Health Ministry's Central Operating Chamber," the ministry said in a brief statement.

Southern Tripoli has been witnessing violent clashes between government forces and an armed group called the Seventh Brigade since Wednesday morning.

Residents said heavy gunfire and explosions could be heard in the area, as many civilians already fled the conflict area.

The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) warned the warring factions against breach of the cease-fire agreement concluded in September 2018, saying the escalation undermines the stability in the capital and endangers the lives of civilians and their properties.

The Seventh Brigade on Tuesday warned the UN-backed Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Serraj against "military escalation" in southern Tripoli.

In August 2018, violent clashes broke out in southern Tripoli between government forces and the Seventh Brigade militia, killing 117 and injuring more than 500 others, mostly civilians.

The clashes ended with the warring parties signing a UN-sponsored cease-fire agreement, after which the government approved new security arrangements in Tripoli that focus on replacing armed groups with regular police and security forces.

Following the 2011 uprising that toppled former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the country has been suffering escalating violence and chaos, as well as political division.Currently, the police are working at the site of the emergency in Northern Ireland's city of Derry. No further details of the incident were reported, the Belfast Live website said Saturday, Trend reports citing Sputnik.

According to the publication, on Saturday evening, eyewitnesses heard a "loud explosion" at Derry's Bishop Street. The police published a photo showing a burning car. The police also noted that there has been no information about the victims of the incident.

Police officers have evacuated people from the street, since there is another car in the area that seems suspicious to the police. Police of Northern Ireland reported on Twitter that an "initial investigations" was being conducted in connection with the incident.

Elisha McCallion, a parliamentarian from Sinn Fein party, confirmed Saturday that no one was injured in the incident.

"Thankfully no one appears to have been injured in this incident. Derry is a city moving forward and no one wants this type of incident. It is not representative of the city," the parliamentarian said in a statement.

In the 1970s and 1990s, clashes between local Catholics and Protestants occurred in Northern Ireland, accompanied by terrorist attacks. The attacks also occurred in the 2010s. For instance, on 22 February 2017, the New IRA (Irish Republican Army) terrorist group attempted to blow up a police car in Derry.Former British prime minister John Major urged Theresa May on Saturday to drop her red lines on Brexit or allow parliament to find a way forward to avoid a damaging no-deal departure from the European Union in March, Trend reports referring to Reuters.

Major said he compromised on key decisions on the Northern Irish peace process and the first Gulf War while prime minister between 1990 and 1997, and May should do the same after her Brexit plan was rejected by a huge majority in parliament.

Her deal is dead and I dont think honestly that tinkering with it is going to make very much difference if any difference at all, Major, who campaigned to stay in the EU ahead of the 2016 referendum, told BBC Radio.

May is due to tell parliament on Monday how she intends to proceed on Brexit. Lawmakers may then propose alternatives to see if any could command majority support.

If we leave in chaos and without a deal, that seems to me to be the worst of all outcomes, Major said.

May should therefore go around lawmakers in her party who say they are ready to accept a no-deal Brexit and drop her opposition to key issues in the negotiations, Major - who also faced a revolt inside the Conservative Party over Europe - said.

May has ruled out staying in the EUs single market, an option that is considered less economically damaging, because Britain would not be able to control immigration from the bloc. She has also rejected staying in a customs union with the EU.

If May cannot compromise, she should allow parliament to find a way to overcome its splits, Major said. I think there are signs parliament might be able to reach consensus, he said.

Failing that, Britain should have a fresh referendum on its membership of the EU.

In the meantime, delaying Brexit was wise, Major said.

Majors comments were rejected as Remainer elite views by a Conservative lawmaker who said May would break her promises to voters if she considered staying in the EUs single market or a customs union or holding a second referendum.

Brexit would become meaningless. We wouldnt be leaving the European Union, we would be staying in the European Union, Suella Braverman told the BBC.A freelance photographer who works for the Associated Press was killed in clashes between rival militias in the Libyan capital Tripoli, a government official and family said, Trend reports citing Reuters.

Mohamed Ben Khalifa died of a random shell in the Libyan capital while covering the clashes.

The fighting broke out this week, breaching a shaky ceasefire brokered by the United Nations in September.Saudi Arabias Ministry of Health clarified on Wednesday expecting mothers rights when it comes to childbirth procedures and medical intervention, Trend reports referring to Al Arabiya.

In a post on their official Twitter account using the hashtag You Have The Right To, the ministry listed eight cases where the women could make their own decisions without the consent of a guardian. This includes their right to know the state of pregnancy, the gestational age and the expected date of birth, as well as the expected method of delivery.

The ministry also said that it is up to the expecting mother if she would like someone to accompany her at the birth, whether it be a family member or friends, as long as the hospital room can accommodate them. They also said that the presence of the companion should not violate the privacy of others who are giving birth.

They also announced that is within pregnant womens rights not to cut the perineum at birth, unless it is necessary and after oral consent, as well as after all information and options have been provided to the expecting mother.

This comes as part of the ministrys efforts to engage the community and raise awareness about health issues and procedures in the kingdom.Saudi Arabia plans to build an oil refinery and petrochemicals plant in South Africa as part of $10 billion of investments in the country, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Friday after talks with his South African counterpart, Trend reports referring to Al Arabiya.

The announcement is a much-needed vote of confidence in Africas most industrialized economy, where President Cyril Ramaphosa is trying to attract $100 billion of new investments to rekindle growth.

The new refinery would reduce the need for refined product imports and cement Saudi Arabias dominant position in South Africas oil sector. The Gulf kingdom already supplies 40 percent of the crude oil consumed in South Africa.

Saudi Aramco and South Africas Central Energy Fund are moving forward with the feasibility study and identifying the parameters of the project, Falih told reporters in Pretoria, South Africas administrative capital.

South African Energy Minister Jeff Radebe said a location for the refinery and petrochemicals plant would be finalized in the coming weeks. The capacity for the refinery is yet to be determined.

South Africa has talked about building an extra refinery for a decade, but it has struggled to agree commercial terms with investors.

It has six refineries, four using crude oil and two synthetic fuel as feedstock. Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Total and Sasol are among major refinery operators.

Falih said Saudi Arabia had held discussions with Ramaphosas predecessor, Jacob Zuma, about building a refinery in South Africa but the proposed location was not attractive.

The two governments are now considering Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal province, home to South Africas major coal export terminal, among potential locations for the refinery.

State oil giant Saudi Aramco is also studying whether to use South African oil storage facilities in Saldanha Bay, while Saudi power firm Acwa Power is looking at investing in South Africas revamped renewable energy program.

Falih confirmed there were discussions about the kingdom investing in South African state defense company Denel, as exclusively reported by Reuters in November.This is the first time China exported its commodities via land to Iran through the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan to be later sent by sea, Trend reports citing IRNA.

The first cargo shipment sent from the far-eastern China has made its way to Iran through Kazakhstan.

The cargo that includes bicycle and industrial machinery parts, wallpaper, brake pads, among other items, was sent from the Ningbo Port in the East China Sea on December 18. It was put on freight trains towards the Khorgos on the border with Kazakhstan.

The shipment continued its journey through the Kazakh territory via raidroad to Port of Aktau on the eastern bank of the Caspean Sea. From there, it was loaded into 42 containers on Diba bulk carrier heading for the Caspin Port in Anzali Free Zone.

This is the first cargo that arrives in from the eastern-most part of China through the Kazakhstan corridor. Previous shipments used to be sent via the Indian Ocean arriving at the southern Iranian Port of Bandar Abbas in the Persian Gulf.

Ningbo is a city in the northeast of Jijiang Province of China, 25 kilometers east of the Sea of China as one of the most important industrial and commercial ports of the country. It is considered as a small sample of Shanghai in the Chinese economy and its port has been ranked second in terms of operational capability in commercial shipments.

The capacity of the multi-modal transit route is estimated to be at 10 million tons of cargo. It also cuts short both the distance and the costs incurred.

Anzali is Iran's only free zone in the north and connects the country to the Commeanwealth of Independent States (CIS), Russia and other Caspean Sea nations.

'This is a great opportunity for Iran,' Said Mostafa Salari, governor of the norther Iranian Gilan Province, who received the ship accompanied by local officials and some lawmakers.

'The Caspian Port in Anzali is exempt from the problems that southern coasts are facing,' added Salari, referring to the difficulties in port use and other maritime services that have been caused by renewed US sanctions on Iran when Donald Trump Administration walked out of the 2015 international nuclear treaty with Iran.

The Caspea Sea is shared by Russia, Kazakhistan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, all of which have reiterated their support for the nuclear deal in the face of the unilateral US sanctions that went into effect last November.

The Iranian official siad he hopes cargo transit through this new route increases so Tehran can upgrade its foreing trade.Trump, North Korea's Kim to hold second summit in late February

U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late February but will maintain economic sanctions on Pyongyang, the White House said on Friday after Trump met Pyongyangs top nuclear negotiator.Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 19

By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:

Some 11,500 tons of cement worth $322,000 were exported to the UAE from Irans Qeshm Island, Hormoz Amiri, director of the Customs and Transit Department of Irans Qeshm Free Trade Zone, told IRNA, Trend reports.

He said that this Iranian year (started March 21, 2018), nine trucks for cement export were sent to different countries.

He noted that nine cargoes of 150,000 tons of cement and clinker, totaling $4.27 million, were exported to the UAE, Ghana, Somalia and Sri Lanka.

The Qeshm Cement Company was established in 2000. For the time of its operation, its products were exported to 13 Asian and African countries, including Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, Egypt, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Oman, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan.

There are 204 industrial companies operating on the Qeshm Island with investments worth 14 trillion rials (about $335 million).Tehran, Iran, Jan. 19

Trend:

Irans parliament has proposed several suggestions to control pollution and preserve the environment in big cities.

The parliament has been active during past two years and has held useful sessions over the environmental issues, including preserving wetlands, soil and air, said Ali Akbari, a member of the Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Commission, in an interview with Trend.

The parliament has proposed to allocate financial aid from national development fund to solve the environmental issues, including controlling dust storms and preserving lakes and wetlands. However, allocation of funds from the budget for these plans will take time, he added.

Dust storms have already caused havoc in the southern and southwestern provinces for extended periods. Drying wetlands in southeastern Iran, like Hamoun Wetland, are major sources of the sand and dust storms.

Irans capital and other populous cities are challenged with air pollution problems that seem to be growing rapidly due to rise in carbon emissions. The dangerous levels of air pollution have led to schools shut down in Tehran and many other cities.Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 19

By Taleh Mursagulov  Trend:

In the near future, Azerbaijan will be able to achieve self-sufficiency in many types of goods and increase the potential to export non-oil products, Director General of the Azerbaijan Industrial Corporation (AIC) Kamran Nabizade said at an event on the AIC activities in 2018.

He noted that the main goal of AIC is to apply modern management standards, use modern technology at enterprises, manufacture products that meet consumer requirements, ensure the development of the non-oil sector and open new jobs.

Thanks to introduction of modern technologies, the quality of products has been brought to international standards, which will lead to export of products to world markets and increasing demand for Azerbaijani products. I think in the near future, Azerbaijan will become self-sufficient in many types of goods and the potential to export non-oil products, in particular aluminum, silk, cotton fiber and wine will increase, he said.

In the reported period, the state allocated funds for reconstruction of a number of enterprises, such as Azerpambiq OJSC, Azeripak OJSC, Azeraluminum, AIC Shusha and Azertutun OJSC.

New agriculture equipment worth 9 million manats was purchased, including cotton harvesters, 60 drying chambers for the primary processing of tobacco and equipment for silk production, he said.

Nabizade noted that the management system in the cotton industry has been changed, its material and technical sources have been updated.

He added that the Azerbaijan Industrial Corporation in the cotton industry cooperates with Turkey, Greece, China and Australia, and plans to adopt the experience of other countries in this industry in the coming years.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @TalehMursagulovBaku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 19

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

The traditional opposition of Azerbaijan could not find a place in the political structure of society, Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy Chairman - Executive Secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (NAP) Ali Ahmadov said, commenting on the rally of the so-called "National Council" on Jan.19.

The rally was held with no success as before, said Ahmadov.

He believes the main purpose of the opposition is to show its existence by holding this rally.

If the opposition holds a rally to show its existence, then it does not exist as a political force. On the other hand, the activities of the so-called National Council have nothing to do with what the people want. The rally organized by them has no relation to the issues of concern for the people. Today, the opposition is far from the issues of relevance for the Azerbaijani society. Therefore, today's rally is irrelevant for the people. Believe me that even one percent of the population is not aware of the fact that the opposition has held a rally today. The society has long been indifferent to the opposition and its small, insignificant meetings," said Ali Ahmadov.

At the same time, he noted that the peoples support to the government is quite strong and decisive.

"The security, stability, development, optimism for the future, appeasement and other positive aspects created in Azerbaijan are the basis of the peoples positive attitude to the government. During the presidency of President Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan has fundamentally changed and developed. Currently, positive changes more intensively continue in the country. Large-scale projects are being implemented for the future of Azerbaijan. Accordingly, the people's optimism is growing, and small meetings of the small opposition cannot be a source of danger for the government," added Ali Ahmadov.

He also noted that in the last 10-15 years much has changed for the better in Azerbaijan, except for the opposition.

"Todays opposition remains an inert, small marginal group that is a carrier of ideas that have lost relevance. The New Azerbaijan Party does not consider it a political force," he added.Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 20

Trend:

Today, Azerbaijan commemorates the 29th anniversary of the January 20 tragedy.

January 20 is a day that went down in history of Azerbaijan's fight for independence and territorial integrity.

On January 20, 1990, the Soviet army forces entered Baku to suppress the masses protesting the USSR-supported Armenian aggression based on territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

The result was an unprecedented tragedy for Azerbaijan. Valiant sons and daughters of Azerbaijan put the countrys freedom, honor and dignity above everything else, sacrificed their lives and became martyrs.

On the night of January 19-20, 1990, 147 people were killed, 744 were injured and 841 were illegally arrested after Soviet troops entered Baku. The Soviet troops also destroyed 200 apartments and houses, as well as private and public property.

The January 20 tragedy brought huge losses and death of innocent people. But it also demonstrated the spirit and pride of Azerbaijani nation, which couldn't stand the betrayal of the criminal empire led by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Azerbaijanis gained the independence they were dreaming of, and the country achieved sovereignty.



Despite that many years have passed since those bloody days, Azerbaijanis remember the dreadful night that took many innocent lives and marks the anniversary of the January 20 tragedy every year.

January 20 is immortalized in the memory of Azerbaijani nation as a Day of the Nationwide Sorrow.Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 19

By Elchin Mehdiyev  Trend:

The latest hearings in the European Parliament on Azerbaijan and its biased and slanderous resolution are absolutely impermissible, MP Bakhtiyar Aliyev told Trend commenting on the European Parliaments resolution on Mehman Huseynov.

He stated that this greatly harms the partner relations between the European Union and Azerbaijan.

Certain forces are seeking to subjugate Azerbaijan, which pursues a successful policy and has a say on the global arena. These circles must, however, understand once and for all that it is impossible to influence the will of Azerbaijan, said the MP.

Those circles had better speak about more than one million Azerbaijanis, who became refugees and internally displaced people as a result of Armenias military aggression against Azerbaijan, he added.

Bakhtiyar Aliyev stressed that Azerbaijan is a strong country, having its say, and it fully protects the rights of its people.

According to him, Europe needs Azerbaijan, as Azerbaijan provides both Europes energy and economic security and is its most reliable partner.Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.19

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

The events of January 20, 1990 helped crystalize key elements of the Azerbaijani social and political identity, Trend reports citing an article by Azerbaijans Ambassador to the US Elin Suleymanov.

The author notes that despite a history of imperial domination, the people of Azerbaijan persevered, sacrificed and ultimately won the freedom and independent future they sought. In fact, Azerbaijan was the first nation of the Soviet Empire or Eastern Europe to become free of any foreign military presence on its soil, added the ambassador.

The Soviet effort to crush the growing Azerbaijani pro-independence movement culminated in the largest massacre in a generation, it but failed miserably, hastened the end of the USSR, and led directly to our formal declaration of independence two years later. The Soviet troops who shot and killed so many citizens of Azerbaijan indiscriminately that day gunned down a diverse group of freedom lovers, including Azerbaijanis, Russians, Tatars, Jews and others. People of all ethnicities and faiths were killed by the troops of a collapsing Soviet empire that night, and people of all faiths and ethnicities of Azerbaijan came to mourn the victims, said Suleymanov.

He noted that on that day a quarter-century ago, an independent nation was reborn.

In todays world, where differences seem to matter more than common humanity, Azerbaijans vision of inclusive intercultural dialogue enriched by the experience of creating in 1918 the first-ever democratic republic with a predominantly Muslim population sets a valuable global example.

This tradition continues today under the current Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The nations commitment to inclusiveness and openness is widely recognized in the world, be it among the Muslim nations, by the Vatican or by Israel, an important partner of Azerbaijan, said the ambassador.

It is a truly independent, successful and diverse Azerbaijan that is the best tribute to the sacrifice of those who died on the streets of Baku at the hands of a collapsing Soviet regime, said the diplomat.

He pointed out that independence has given Azerbaijan the ability to act in the best interest of its own people without outside interference.

Azerbaijans strengths today include energy security, a growing economy, modern infrastructure and a remarkable degree of stability. Independence has allowed us to pursue and achieve our peoples centuries-long dream of a prosperous and successful nation, added Suleymanov.Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 19

By Elchin Mehdiyev  Trend:

The solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not only the top priority of Azerbaijans foreign policy, but also sets the restoration of the territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders as a goal for the national diplomacy, MP Hikmet Babaoglu told Trend.

Azerbaijan conducted a deep strategic policy last year to this end and managed to achieve new conditions for the solution of this problem, according to him.

Firstly, a policy of increasing the authority of Azerbaijan was conducted on international arena to ensure the equal partnership with international organizations.

Secondly, a policy was implemented to turn the countries, which have traditional ties with Armenians and are better known as partners of Armenia, into Azerbaijans partners.

The MP stated that the relations with Russia have reached the level of a strategic alliance since 2007.

The presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia met six times in 2018 alone. This is a clear indicator of a new stage in relations, he said.

At the same time, high level relations have been achieved with Iran.

In the case of sanctions applied by some European countries against our northern neighbor [Russia], Azerbaijan followed a principle of good neighborliness, and, despite the different sanctions against Iran, Azerbaijan did not change its policy of good neighborliness and brought the relations with its southern neighbor to a high level.

We can also observe the same thing with respect to Georgia and Turkey, said Babaoglu.

Thus, he noted, Armenia has been driven into a corner, both in the region and on the international arena and has lost its traditional allies.

Azerbaijan entered 2019 with new political realities and they are certainly favorable for the country, according to him.

They also create new prospects for resolving the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

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. 19

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

The Turkish people recall the victims of the January 20 tragedy with great sorrow, Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Erkan Ozoral told Trend.

On the day of the January 20 tragedy, we honor the memory of the heroic sons of Azerbaijan who died for the independence of their country, he said. We must remember these bloody events that took place 29 years ago. Undoubtedly, the Azerbaijani people will never forget these events, which are one of the important stages on the path to Azerbaijans independence, and will always honor the memory of the martyrs. The steps taken in this direction by the relevant agencies of Azerbaijan, headed by President Ilham Aliyev, are praiseworthy."

The diplomat said the Turkish people will always be beside the Azerbaijani people, both in joyful and sorrowful days.

January 20 is a day that went down in history of Azerbaijan's fight for independence and territorial integrity.

On January 20, 1990, the Soviet army forces entered Baku to suppress the masses protesting the USSR-supported Armenian aggression based on territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

The result was an unprecedented tragedy for Azerbaijan. Valiant sons and daughters of Azerbaijan put the country's freedom, honor and dignity above everything else, sacrificed their lives and became martyrs.

The January 20 tragedy brought huge losses and death of innocent people. But it also demonstrated the spirit and pride of Azerbaijani nation, which couldn't stand the betrayal of the criminal empire led by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Azerbaijanis gained the independence they were dreaming of, and the country achieved sovereignty.

Despite that many years have passed since those bloody days, Azerbaijanis remember the dreadful night that took many innocent lives and marks the anniversary of the January 20 tragedy every year.

January 20 is immortalized in the memory of Azerbaijani nation as a Day of the Nationwide Sorrow.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizogluBaku, Azerbaijan, Jan.19

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Crimes committed on the night of January 20, 1990 in Baku mustnt go unpunished, Aurelia Grigoriu, chairperson of the Public Chamber of Moldova, politician, told Trend.

The tragedy of January 20, 1990 is forever inscribed in the modern history as a black page of disgrace of the USSR - the country that used regular army troops against own people, own citizens, she said. Peaceful demonstration held in Baku in support of the sovereignty and independence of Azerbaijan was shelled from guns and crushed by tanks of the Soviet army. The invasion of Baku by a major contingent of the Soviet army, internal troops and special forces was accompanied by special cruelty and unprecedented atrocities. Massacre was committed against the civilian population, hundreds of people were killed, injured and went missing."

Grigoriu noted that sending troops and declaring a state of emergency in Baku were a gross violation of the USSR Constitution (Article 119) and the Constitution of the Azerbaijan SSR (Article 71), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966 (Article 1).

"The sovereign rights of Azerbaijan were grossly and roughly violated, fundamental human rights, such as the right to life, the right to peaceful demonstration, the right to freedom of expression and the right to property were grossly violated, she said. "Unfortunately, little is known in the world about these events. The rapid collapse of the Soviet Union began namely from this disgraceful and bloody event. The state massively violated human rights, namely of own citizens, by committing a crime against its people, in particular, the population of Baku and the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.

People were shot at, as if they were targets, often in the back, for the sole purpose of killing, she noted. Such crimes mustnt go unpunished. In line with the norms of international humanitarian law, the perpetrators of this crime must be identified and brought to justice.

"To this day, many details of those tragic events may be considered from a legal point of view only as part of criminal cases regarding both the Soviet leaders of that time, authorities in the republic and also the direct perpetrators of those bloody crimes, she said.

"On the other hand, we shouldnt forget about the double standards that are taking place in the international community regarding observance of the principles of international law and the implementation of human rights as well," she noted.

"Today, we remember the victims of that terrible bloody night that took place from January 19 to January 20, 1990, and their death wasnt in vain," she added. "History's lessons need to be learned. No regime that orders the army to shoot at its own people will be able to stay in power afterwards.

January 20 is a day that went down in history of Azerbaijan's fight for independence and territorial integrity.

On January 20, 1990, the Soviet army forces entered Baku to suppress the masses protesting the USSR-supported Armenian aggression based on territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

The result was an unprecedented tragedy for Azerbaijan. Valiant sons and daughters of Azerbaijan put the country's freedom, honor and dignity above everything else, sacrificed their lives and became martyrs.

The January 20 tragedy brought huge losses and death of innocent people. But it also demonstrated the spirit and pride of Azerbaijani nation, which couldn't stand the betrayal of the criminal empire led by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Azerbaijanis gained the independence they were dreaming of, and the country achieved sovereignty.



Despite that many years have passed since those bloody days, Azerbaijanis remember the dreadful night that took many innocent lives and marks the anniversary of the January 20 tragedy every year.

January 20 is immortalized in the memory of Azerbaijani nation as a Day of the Nationwide Sorrow.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_ZeynPMs Office directs probe into Nepalis with offshore investments

The Prime Ministers Office has directed the Financial Information Unit under the Nepal Rastra Bank to expedite probe into businesses and businesspeople following media reports of their involvement in establishing companies in tax haven countries and bringing in foreign direct investment from there.Ahmad Tavakoli, an Expediency Discernment Council member in Tehran told reporters on Saturday that the EDC meeting on the bill for joining the UN Convention on Transnational Crime has remained inconclusive and the Council will meet once again next Saturday for the final review of the bill.

The EDC is the constitutional arbiter between the Iranian Parliament (Majles) and the hardliner-dominated Guardian Council that endorses or rejects Majles legislations.

The international watchdog, Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has demanded Iran to approve legislation complying with conventions against money laundering terrorism financing and transnational crime.

For more than a year, Irans political factions have been wrestling with FATF demands; with parliament drafting laws and the conservative body constitutionally tasked to approve all legislation, opposing some of the new laws. Now the pending legislation is with the EDC, which will have the final say on the matter.

Without the internationally required legislation Iran will have a tougher time to do business and banking with the rest of the world.

President Hassan Rouhani's deputy for Legal affairs, Laya Joneydi January 18 called on the EDC to accelerate the procedure of reviewing the bill on Iran's accession to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC).

The EDC met with the speaker of parliament and foreign minister attending to add weight to the governments demand for approval, but Iranian media says details were not discussed and the meeting did not resolve anything.

The convention is part of four bills Iran has to officially approve as required by the FATF. The legislation of the bills would pave the way for Iran to meet the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crimes (UNTOC), Combatting Financing Terrorism (CFT), and the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) -- in the hope of reducing international pressure on Irans already deteriorating economy.

Originally proposed by President Hassan Rouhani in November last year, the bills have met staunch resistance from hardliners, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who says the agreements have been cooked up by foreign enemies.

Nevertheless, the most important part of the bills, CFT, has been rejected as "flawed", and the Majles is currently working on the points found "problematic" by the GC.

Time is running out for Tehran, since FATF has given the Islamic Republic until late-February to either endorse the UNTOC or be added to its blacklist of countries refusing to cooperate in the fight against money laundering and financing terrorism.

Furthermore, although the passage of the bills is not directly connected to EU-Iran talks on keeping Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers alive, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi, has admitted that it would help the negotiations.

Echoing Araqchi's remark, Laya Joneydi also acknowledged on Friday that the passage of the bills will "pave the way" for the SPV, which is a proposed European mechanism to facilitate trade with Iran in the face of U.S. economic sanctions.

The Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) is designed to act as a kind of clearinghouse that could be used to help match Iranian oil and gas exports against purchases of EU goods in an effective barter arrangement. However, no EU country has come forward as a potential host - delaying the plans.

Moreover, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also urged Tehran to endorse the laws against money laundering and financing terrorism, before the deadline (next month) set by FATF.Reports from Iran say that four political activists in the town of Songhor were taken to the intelligence ministry and questioned for their activities in cyberspace and one of them was arrested.

Songhor is located in the western Kermanshah province.

Kiyoumars Vaezi, a high school teacher told the U.S. based Center for Human Rights in Iran that in the past few days, he and three other political activists were called to the intelligence ministry branch and interrogated for long hours.

Vaezi said that Ehsan Darabi was arrested after interrogation on January 16 and in a phone call to his family asked them to prepare bail money for him.

Apparently, the reason for the interrogations of the activists and the arrest was an independent channel on the messaging app Telegram they set up, where they were relaying news from various cities.

Mr. Vaezis wife has also been asked to go to the intelligence ministry in Kermanshah city. She is law student and was involved with President Hassan Rouhanis election campaign.

In recent days more than a dozen environment activists were also detained for questioning in Kurdistan provine.The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Germany, Pavlo Klimkin and Heiko Maas, have agreed on a meeting at the expert level to discuss a common vision of the monitoring mission in the Kerch Strait.

"We have agreed that we will have a meeting of experts in a short term. There are political, legal and technical issues. If we have a joint vision, we can continue to work with the Russian side," Klimkin said at a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Kyiv on Friday.

In turn, the German Foreign Minister is convinced that it will be possible to agree on such monitoring. According to him, it is necessary to de-escalate the Azov Sea region.

"This is a hotbed of hazards for both the region and the parties involved, which may have long-term consequences," the minister explained.

Maas said that the German and French sides are ready to take on the costs of the monitoring mission.President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has signed a decree on the establishment of the military-civil administration of the town of Shchastia in Novoaidarsky district of Luhansk region.

The text of relevant decree No.13/2019 of January 18, 2019 was published on the presidential website.

According to the document, the commander of the joint forces, the head of the Donetsk Regional State Administration should take all measures envisaged by the law "On Military-Civil Administrations" related to the creation of this military-civil administration.

The decree comes into force from the date of its publication.JFO HQ records nine cease fire violations by Russia-led militants in Donbas over past day

Russian-led forces have mounted nine attacks on Ukrainian troops in Donbas in the last 24 hours, the press centre of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) has reported.

"In the combat area of the operational-tactical grouping "North," the enemy fired at the positions of our troops from large-caliber machine guns near the village of Khutir Vilny in the Luhansk sector," the JFO staff said on Facebook on Saturday morning.

In addition, Russian occupation forces opened aimed fire from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms attacking the defenders of Hnutove, Krasnohorivka, Vodiane and Pisky.

"There were no Ukrainian army casualties in the past day due to criminal shelling of the Russian occupation forces," the JFO staff said.

According to Ukrainian intelligence, one militant was killed on January 18.

"Since Saturday midnight, Russian-led forces haven't attacked the Ukrainian positions yet," the report said.Ukraine, the European Union and Russia will discuss further steps to agree on a new contract for the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine to the EU from 2020, with Brussels expecting the parties to take firm commitments to make progress on this issue.

The 2nd round of political trilateral talks with Russia and Ukraine on the future of gas transit via Ukraine will take place on Monday 21st January 2019 in Brussels. The meeting will take place with the participation of Vice-President responsible for the Energy Union Maros Sefcovic, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and Mr Andriy Kobolev, CEO of Naftogaz on the Ukrainian side and Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Mr Alexander Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of Gazprom on the Russian side, the European Commission reported.

"I welcome very much that both sides have agreed to come to Brussels for the second round of negotiations at ministerial level. I welcome also the presence of top representatives of the two incumbent gas companies. Exactly six months have passed since we met in this format for the first time in Berlin. A couple of talks at senior expert level have taken place since then and it is time to take stock of where we are in the process and discuss the way forward on the key parameters agreed in Berlin. We need a strong commitment by the two sides to advance in the talks, given that the existing transit contract expires at the end of this year," Sefcovic said before the talks.

The trilateral meeting starts at 3:00 p.m., preceded by bilateral meetings between Vice-President Sefcovic and each of the ministers.

It is expected that the parties will discuss the results of the trilateral negotiations at the technical level, which took place after the first round of political negotiations held in Berlin on July 17, the agreement between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on the compatibility of transit system operators, the current state of gas supplies to the EU and the next steps.

At present time, two rounds of technical negotiations have already been taken place, but representatives of the Russian side have not arrived at any of them; progress in negotiations is negligible.

As it is known, the term of the current contract, which was signed in 2009, expires at the end of this year. In addition, the legislative field has significantly changed, in particular, the EU has adopted the Third Energy Package, and the Ukrainian side has pledged to apply European energy legislation in full.

Ukraine and the European side, which mediates in these negotiations, insist that the new transit contract fully complies with European legislation.Nevada may have been slammed by a massive Blue Wave in November but theres no need to throw out life jackets.

Steve Sisolak  the states first Democratic governor in more than two decades  delivered his inaugural State of the State address this week, calling for pay raises for public workers and teachers without new taxes.

That was good news to taxpayers and even earned praise from the Senate Republican Caucus.

You can see it everywhere: The Nevada economy is strong, Co-Minority Whip Heidi Gansert said after the speech.

And indeed it is, thanks to the strides made by Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval over the past eight years.

Nevadas economy was still reeling from the Great Recession when Sandoval took office. By the time he left, the states economy was humming along at a record pace.

Sisolak graciously gave him credit.

Nevadas economic growth happened under our current revenue structure  and as they say, if it aint broke, dont fix it, he declared in his speech.

Tax revenues are expected to keep increasing as the state capitalizes on the business investments attracted under Sandovals administration.In a series of videos last year, the Knights highlighted some everyday heroes. It wasnt so much a commercial for the organization  though it certainly couldnt hurt  as a challenge to us all to be better. Thats what the Knights are about. They make money helping families with life insurance and spend it helping families. They help men know how to be good husbands and fathers who care about whats going on in their communities. They help families rebuild after a hurricane. Theyve advocated for and helped displaced Middle Eastern Christians rebuild in the face of a genocide there that most of the country is ignoring.

They are good neighbors. They are mentors.

Carl Anderson, the head of the Knights of Columbus since 2000, wrote one of the most sensible books about politics in recent years, Beyond a House Divided. Backed by deep-dive polls the Knights have been commissioning for over a decade now, he nudges us toward a better way, finding opportunities for common ground on some of the most contentious issues of the day.Anil Giri is a reporter covering diplomacy, international relations and national politics for The Kathmandu Post. Giri has been working as a journalist for a decade-and-a-half, contributing to numerous national and international media outlets.Find out how many job openings there are in the U.S., plus how much the ultra-rich pay in taxes, and more of this week's trends in data with tThis is the time to make your voice heard, not after youre upset when the huntings not there, said sportsman Justin French. Thats the wrong time to come into the argument.

Patrick Donnelly, state director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said thanks to opposition from the Legislature last summer and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, the draft decision has already been delayed a year, but he wants to see the Rubies fully protected with oil and gas leasing taken off the table permanently.

How do we prevent this from happening again? Are there long-term protections that the Rubies can have so that this doesnt happen again? Donnelly asked.

Some of the area  not a ton of acreage  targeted for leasing was burned in the Range 2 fire, Donnelly said, which adds to the idea that these places are just too important to drill.

We need to let these places heal, do restoration, Donnelly said. So the idea you would take a freshly burned area and then potentially expose it to road building and drilling is just crazy.

However, should the Forest Service approve the leases, Donnelly said that as a last resort the organization would fight the decision because the Rubies are worth fighting for.Production began in 1903 and he sold a total of 51 razors at the steep price of $5 each ($138 in 2017 dollars) or roughly half the average working mans weekly paycheck. The second year was better, over 90,000 razors sold with an eighth of a million blades! Some say his razor was sold under-priced but he made the loss up with the blade sales and eventually coining the slogan: Give em the razor; sell em the blades.

By 1915, he produced over 70 million blades, often out of cheap carbon steel that would rust very quickly, sometimes requiring the user to insert a new blade every day. In 1917, when the U.S. entered World War I, Gillette provided all American soldiers with a field razor set, paid for by the U.S. government.

Producing a sharp and usable blade from thin, cheap steel was a complicated task at first because the material was prone to bending and difficult to sharpen. William Nickerson, an expert machinist and partner of Gillette, changed the original model somewhat, improving the handle and frame so that it could better support the thin steel blade.

Today, most razor blades are made of an alloy of chromium steel called 303, a stainless type. For the record the first stainless steel razor blades appeared in 1960, manufactured by the British firm Wilkinson Sword. You may recall their swordplay adds on TV.Prejudice is a funny thing. When a city slicker or a dude comes meanderin into the Montana bar in Glasgow hes liable to get a lot of hard stares. But, Im here to tell ya, when the shoes on the other foot, it can be mighty uncomfortable.

Years ago in Kansas City, I set out one night to find one of them down home guitar blues pickers that I had read about in the Sunday paper. I was drivin around Saturday night lookin for Walters Crescendo Lounge. I had some ribs at Moneys on Prospect and asked directions. The feller told me not to go over there after dark. Then, after thinkin about it, he scribbled his name and phone number on a piece of paper and said, When you git in trouble, havem call me. Nice of him, I thought.

Somehow I never found Walters but at the corner of 39th and Jackson I spied Willies Total Experience Lounge. I recognized the name from the paper so I went in.

I was dressed normal; hat, Levis and boots. The bartender was a lady named Bert. She served me a scotch and creme soda. I sat at a table in front of the band. As the clientele came in they all sat around by the walls. Kind of like they were circlin me. Nobody said much and they werent real friendly. Finally the band leader, Freddy, came over to my table and asked me, Hey man, what are you doin here?SPRING CREEK  Nineteen seventy-two was the last time Vic Kingwell, a teacher at Ukiah High School in California, and Ukiah High School student Darlene Riley saw each other.

A few days ago they were reunited for the first time in 46 years. Their story is a fun one.

A couple of years ago Kingwell happened into the Spring Creek Christian Academy to chat with office staff, as is his custom. Darlene Riley is also a volunteer at the Academy and is a grandparent of a student. She also stops by the school often. Both have frequented the school for the past seven years and for seven years have likely passed each other in the halls without recognizing one another.

It was a chance statement made years ago by Kingwell about a former student that ultimately brought these two together. He mentioned that author and International Christian speaker Rick Warren was his student in the 1970s. Fast forward to a couple days ago when Darlene Riley mentioned that she, too, had a fellow student who is now a theologian named Rick Warren!

With puzzled looks we asked Mrs. Riley if she had a math teacher back then by the name of Kingwell. Without missing a beat she responded, Yes!US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (R) welcomes North Korean General Kim Yong Chol to talks at a Washington hotel. Photo by AFP/Saul Loeb

President Donald Trump will meet for the second time with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un around the end of February.

Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol, a right-hand man to the North Korean strongman, met the embattled president at the White House for an unusually long 90 minutes as the countries seek a denuclearization accord that could ease decades of hostility, the White House said Friday.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said that Trump -- who has opined that he and Kim Jong Un fell "in love" after last year's landmark first summit -- would again meet the North Korean leader "near the end of February" at a location to be announced later.

The latest flurry of diplomacy comes little more than a year after Trump was threatening to wipe North Korea off the map, with Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests rattling nerves in East Asia.

Sanders praised North Korea's efforts to reconcile but ruled out, for now, a key demand of Pyongyang -- a lifting of sanctions.

"The United States is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea until we see fully and verified denuclearization," Sanders told reporters.

"We've had very good steps in good faith from the North Koreans in releasing the hostages and other moves and so we'll continue those conversations," she said.

She was referring to Pyongyang's quick deportation last year of an American. In 2017, a U.S. student returned home comatose from North Korea and died within days after what a U.S. judge said was torture.

Results or photo-op?

Kim Jong Un and Trump first met in June in Singapore, where they signed a vaguely worded document in which Kim pledged to work towards the "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."

But progress stalled soon afterward as Pyongyang and Washington -- which stations 28,500 troops in South Korea -- disagree over what that means.

Critics say that the Singapore summit was little more than a photo-op. The second round with the young and elusive North Korean leader will again offer a change of headlines for Trump amid a steady barrage of negative reports, including explosive allegations published Thursday by BuzzFeed that he pressured his lawyer to lie to Congress about a project in Russia.

"Let's hope the second summit produces real results, but don't hold your breath as we wait for episode two of the Trump-Kim show," said Michael Fuchs, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress who worked closely with former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Abe Denmark, director of the Asia program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said the Singapore summit weakened the security of U.S. allies with little in return.

"With another summit in the making, I hope for tangible progress and fear for a repeat: little movement from Kim, major concessions from Trump," he said.

But Trump has pointed to the halt in missile launches by North Korea and recently said there would have been "a nice big fat war in Asia" if it were not for his efforts.

Kim Yong Chol is the first North Korean dignitary in nearly two decades to spend the night in Washington, staying at a fashionable hotel a short drive from the White House.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed Kim at the hotel, posing briefly for pictures near a shelf with a framed portrait of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., and later invited the delegation to lunch.

The State Department said that Stephen Biegun, the U.S special representative on North Korea, would carry on discussions at a conference in Sweden starting on Saturday that will involve Pyongyang officials.

Vietnam ready to host

While no decision has been made on location, a Vietnamese government source told AFP that "logistical preparations" were under way to host the summit, most likely in the capital Hanoi or coastal city of Da Nang.

Vietnam's cooperation with the United States has been growing for years as Hanoi -- much unlike Pyongyang -- sets aside memories of war.

U.S.-North Korea tensions began to abate a year ago with the encouragement of South Korea's dovish president, Moon Jae-in. The Singapore summit marked the first-ever meeting between sitting leaders of the United States and North Korea, which never formally ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

For Kim, whose family has ruled North Korea with an iron fist for three generations, the stakes are existential as he seeks guarantees of the survival of his regime.

The United States expects Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arsenal, doggedly built by the Kim dynasty despite sanctions and famines.

But North Korea sees the denuclearization goal more broadly, seeking an end to what it sees as U.S. threats as well as strict sanctions on its economy.Military personnel watch as flames engulf an area after a ruptured fuel pipeline exploded, in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo, Mexico, near the Tula refinery of state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), January 18, 2019. Photo by National Defense Secretary/Handout via Reuters

An explosion and fire in central Mexico killed at least 73 people at the site of an illegal fuel-line tap on Saturday.

Hidalgo state governor Omar Fayad announced that the toll had increased to 73 after the discovery of five additional bodies.

The blast -- which Fayad said injured 74 people -- occurred near Tlahuelilpan, a town of 20,000 people about an hour's drive north of Mexico City.

As soldiers guarded the devastated, still-smoking scene, forensic specialists in white suits worked among the blackened corpses -- many frozen in the unnatural positions in which they had fallen -- and grim-eyed civilians stepped cautiously along in a desperate search for missing relatives.

The pungent smell of fuel hung in the air. Fragments of burnt clothing were strewn through the charred brush.

When the forensic workers began attempting to load corpses into vans to be transported to funeral homes, some 30 villagers tried to stop them. They demanded their relatives' bodies, saying funeral homes were too expensive. The bodies were ultimately taken to a morgue, authorities said.

On Friday, when authorities heard that fuel traffickers had punctured the pipeline, an army unit of about 25 soldiers arrived and attempted to block off the area, Defense Secretary Luis Crescencio Sandoval told reporters.

But the soldiers were unable to contain the estimated 700 civilians -- including entire families -- who swarmed in to collect the spilled gasoline in jerrycans and buckets, witnesses said.

The armed soldiers had been moved away from the pipeline to avoid any risk of confrontation with the crowd when the blast occurred, some two hours after the pipeline was first breached, Sandoval said.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a leftist who took office only weeks ago, traveled to the scene early Saturday.

He did not fault the soldiers, saying, "The attitude of the army was correct. It is not easy to impose order on a crowd." He vowed to continue fighting the growing problem of fuel theft.

"I am deeply saddened by the suffering in Tlahuelilpan," Lopez Obrador wrote on Twitter. He called on his "whole government" to extend assistance.

The US Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, tweeted that her department "stands ready to assist the first responders and the Mexican government in any way possible."

Video taken in the aftermath showed screaming people fleeing the scene as an enormous fire lit up the night sky.

"I went just to see what was happening, and then the explosion happened. I rushed to help people," Fernando Garcia, 47, told AFP. "I had to claw through pieces of people who had already been burned to bits."

The tragedy comes during a highly publicized federal government war on fuel theft, a problem that cost Mexico an estimated $3 billion in 2017.

Acting attorney general Alejandro Gertz described the latest disaster as "intentional" because "someone caused that leak. And the fire was a consequence of the crime."

But he acknowledged that investigators would be hampered by the fact that "the people closest to the explosion died."

Federal and state firefighters and ambulances run by state oil company Pemex rushed to help victims with burns and take the injured to hospitals.

Local medical facilities struggled to cope with the flood of arriving victims, said AFP correspondents at the scene.

The fire had been brought under control by around midnight Friday, the security ministry said.

Pemex said it was also responding to another fire at a botched pipeline tap in the central state of Queretaro, though in that case there were no victims.

Mexico is regularly rocked by deadly explosions at illegal pipeline taps, a dangerous but lucrative business whose players include powerful drug cartels and corrupt Pemex insiders.

Fayad said that two hours after the pipeline was punctured, "we were informed that there had been an explosion" and the flames "were consuming everything around."

About 15 oil pipeline explosions and fires causing more than 50 fatalities each have occurred around the world since 1993. Most were in Nigeria, where in 1998 more than 1,000 people died in such a blast. A fire after a pipeline rupture in Brazil killed more than 500 people in 1984.

Rampant fuel theft

The tragedy comes as anti-corruption crusader Lopez Obrador presses implementation of a controversial fuel theft prevention plan.

The government has shut off major pipelines until they can be fully secured and deployed the army to guard Pemex production facilities.

But the strategy to fight the problem led to severe gasoline and diesel shortages across much of the country, including Mexico City, forcing people to queue for hours -- sometimes days -- to fill up their vehicles.

The president, who took office on December 1, has vowed to keep up the fight and asked Mexicans to be patient.

At the scene, some locals blamed the shortages for the tragedy.

"A lot of people arrived with their jerrycans because of the gasoline shortages we've had," said Martin Trejo, 55, who was searching for his son, one of those who had gone to collect the leaking fuel.

He also lashed out at the army for failing to stop the looters.

"These lives would have been saved if they had done their jobs to remove people and not let them get close. They never did anything."

Tanker trucks are being used to deliver fuel, but experts say there are not nearly enough of them.

Mexican bank Citibanamex estimated Wednesday that the shortages would cost Latin America's second-largest economy around $2 billion, "if conditions return to normal in the coming days."

The roots of the fuel theft problem run deep in Mexico, where the practice -- known locally as "huachicoleo," or moonshining -- is big business for some communities.Men are seen at a booth set up by local authority to educate workers on Chinese labour law, near a Maersk container factory in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China January 7, 2019. Photo by Reuters/Stella Qiu

Businesses are shutting earlier than usual this year as the prolonged trade war curtails orders.

Wang Zhishen was thrilled when Danish shipper A.P. Moller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) gave him two months paid leave, relishing the chance to spend time with his wife and daughters in Chinas remote northwestern Gansu province.

But his euphoria over what he thought was an unexpected bonus quickly turned to despair when Maersk fired Wang on January 3, less than a month after he packed his bags in the southern Chinese manufacturing center of Dongguan.

Wang said he was one of 2,000 workers laid off at the companys Dongguan transport container factory which has been idle since early December, as the impact of a trade war between Washington and Beijing ripples through industries from logistics to autos and technology.

"I was sure it was a holiday," said Wang, 35, who said he worked as a painter at Maersk for nearly six years until he was sacked two weeks ago via Chinas WeChat messaging service.

Maersk, the worlds biggest container shipper, confirmed in an email to Reuters it had laid off 2,000 workers through "one-on-one" phone calls and WeChat messages.

In November, the company warned the trade war between China and the United States would hit demand for container shipping as the volume of goods shipped slides.

Two subsidiaries of Chinas COSCO Shipping, in a direct response to the trade war, have reduced the number of vessels in Guangdong, causing a plunge in regional shipping freight turnover, according to Guangdongs statistics bureau.

"I heard most container factories started letting people go on leave early this year, so I felt it was normal for us to have a few more days off as well," said Wang, who earned a base salary of 3,900 yuan ($574) per month.

Around the Lunar New Year holiday, this year scheduled for early February, millions of Chinese, including tens of thousands of migrant workers, travel back home for family reunions in what is the worlds largest annual human migration.

While many factories traditionally close ahead of Chinas most important holiday, Reuters interviews with more than a dozen workers, business owners, labor activists and trade lawyers revealed businesses are shutting earlier than usual this year as the prolonged trade war curtails orders.

A recent Reuters visit to three once-thriving towns in Dongguan in Guangdong province showed clear signs of a slowdown. Scores of shops and restaurants were shuttered, some factories idled and many up for rent.

Danny Lau, a Hong Kong factory owner in Dongguan, said some businesses had closed around 40 days ahead of Lunar New Year.

"Dongguan used to be bursting with factory workers but now with factories gone, people are gone as well," one taxi driver told Reuters.

"This complex used to be full of workers, eating and chatting when they got off work. Now look at this," he said, pointing to empty dark alleys in an open air dining place one recent weekday evening.

Exports fall

The slowdown comes as data on Monday showed Chinas exports unexpectedly fell the most in two years in December and imports also contracted, pointing to further weakness in the worlds second-largest economy in 2019.

Policy sources told Reuters last week China plans to set a lower economic growth target of 6-6.5 percent this year compared with last years target of "around" 6.5 percent.

A recent UBS China survey of 200 manufacturing companies with significant export business or supply to exporters revealed the trade war has had a negative impact on 63 percent of those businesses.

A quarter of those affected have cut jobs, 37 percent have moved production out of China in the past 12 months, while 33 percent plan to move in the next 6-12 months.

Chinas giant manufacturing sector was already under pressure from rising labor costs, tighter regulations and a shift towards higher-end production and domestic consumption. But the risk of more and higher U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods has seen the trend rapidly accelerate as more companies look to move supply chains away from China.

U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to increase tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports on March 2 if Beijing fails to take steps to protect U.S. intellectual property and allow more market access for U.S. businesses, among other steps.

The two sides held face-to-face talks last week, with Trump hailing "tremendous success" and Chinese officials noting "progress", but few details have been made public.

Slowdown building

Guangdong, home to more than 100 million people, is Chinas biggest provincial economy, with its $1.3 trillion GDP comparable to that of Australia or Spain. A slowdown in Guangdong bodes ill for other export-oriented provinces along the Chinese coast, and would also drag on national growth should the trade war persist.

"As a major export province, Guangdongs economy has been greatly affected by the trade war," said Shenzhen-based independent economist Song Qinghui. "Many enterprises have suffered from bleak business, orders have fallen sharply, and the number of factories deciding to shut down their business is not in minority."

Determining the scale of the slowdown through data is difficult, however, given Guangdong province recently stopped publishing a monthly economic indicator that gauges manufacturing growth momentum.

Other data shows Guangdongs manufacturing workforce dropped more than 6 percent in the third quarter of last year to 12.71 million from a year earlier.

In a further bearish sign, the value of export orders to the United States signed in November at Chinas largest trade fair in Guangdong dropped 30.3 percent on the year.

"If you are servicing a U.S. brand, U.S. market, then of course the company will be in very deep trouble," said Sunny Tan, deputy chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, which represents more than 30,000 Hong Kong-owned factories in Chinas Pearl River Delta.

While some may not be hurting badly financially right now, "they know its going south," he added.

Runaway bosses

As orders trickle in and some production lines grind to a halt, many businesses have cut hours and done away with overtime.

"Without overtime, we dont have much salary left if you deduct social security and food. All we care about is the tangible money that we can see," said Ye Minghua, 25, a worker at Kam Pin Industrial Ltd, which has a metal-coating factory in Dongguan.

Around a fifth of the factorys 200 employees have already left for the holidays, while some production lines have been suspended, said King Lau, assistant to the managing director at Kam Pin.

New orders were expected to fall by 30 percent if tariffs are increased to 25 percent in March, he added.

More factories are likely to shutter their gates for good over the next few weeks, with industry watchers forecasting some owners, unable to bear the hefty cost of bankruptcy, will simply disappear.

"Its tough to close down a manufacturing factory in China these days ... its easier to bail," said trade lawyer Sally Peng of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg. "After Chinese New Year, when all the workers go, they may not come back."Foreign tourists wear national flag t-shirts and cheer Vietnamese football team on Bui Vien pedestrian street in District 1 during a match at AFF Cup 2018. Photo by VnExpress/Phong Vinh

Singapore-based travel site Kayak says Ho Chi Minh City will be a top 10 destination for international visitors this year.

Vietnams commercial hub, Ho Chi Minh City, figures prominently this year among travel plans of vacation enthusiasts around the world.

The city, which received more than seven million foreign arrivals last year, comes third on the list of top 10 trending global destinations this year, based on data collected by Kayak.

Kayak is a popular travel booking site that allows people to look for cheap flights and hotels for holidays.

A Kayak survey found a year-on-year surge of 49 percent in flight searches by its readers and users.

The survey results, published earlier this month, also said round-trip flights from the U.S. to Saigon in 2019 ranged from just under $700 to upwards of $1,000, and hotel rates were reasonable, too.

Tourists have food and beer around sidewalk tables of a restaurant in Saigon's backpacker street Bui Vien. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Quy

On top of the list of trending destinations was Mexico, followed by Indonesias Bali, known as the Island of the Gods.

The rest of the top 10 were the Bahamas, Guadalajara, Lisbon, Paris, Rome, Maui and Munich.

International visitors to HCMC spent $145 a day on average and stayed for 5.21 days in 2017, according to a survey on the citys tourism market carried out by its Tourism Department and the General Statistics Office.

Saigon is both a modern commercial center with skyscrapers and a city that carries its historical vestiges well, be its French colonial buildings or more recent war related monuments like the War Remnants Museum and the Independence Palace.

Ho Chi Minh City was named among the 15 fastest-growing tourist cities in the world by the Travelsupermarket website when it is forecast to welcome 10.2 million international tourist arrivals by 2025.

Price of Travel, a travel cost database, in 2017 ranked Saigon the worlds third cheapest city, where backpackers only need $18.33 a day for meals, beer, a place to stay, public transport and an entrance fee to a top attraction.Nepal Medical Association to protest in Dr KCs support

Nepal Medical Association (NMA), the umbrella organisation of medical and dental doctors in the country, has hinted at organising a protest programme in support of fasting surgeon Dr Govinda KC.Prominent Vietnamese designer Vu Viet Ha has come up with a new collection inspired by folk tale imagery.

Ha has used traditional embroidery techniques to depict images from Thanh Giong, a popular folk story about a war hero in Vietnamese history. These images were originally painted by artist Nguyen Tu Nghiem.

In the folk story, the boy Giong grows in size to be a giant hero, who rides on an iron horse leading the Van Lang kingdom (ancient name for Vietnam) to victory against northern invaders (Han Chinese).

Brocade fabric with natural colors created by the Ta Oi ethnic minority group residing in central Vietnam gives the new collection a special look and feel.

Vu Viet Ha has chosen a fabric traditionally made by the ethnic minority community for his latest collection.

"I am always inspired by folk materials. On the background of the ethnic minority peoples traditional fabric, I attached raw silk and hand embroidery to create a visual stimulation," Ha said.

He also chose images from the Thanh Giong story for the collection, since it celebrates the power of national unity.

Ha is one of the contemporary designers who advocate the preservation of traditional materials and promotion of the traditional dress ao dai. He often uses cultural images and historical landscapes in his designs.

A velvet dress with a pocket of brocade details combines a traditional vibe with the modern.

When he created the Thanh Giong collection on brocade fabric, Ha thought of Dang Linh Nga, a famous Vietnamese dancer, to model it.

Linh Nga, often referred to as the "swan of the Vietnamese dance scene" has become the muse of many designers, and Ha is no exception. He thinks that her beauty is both traditional and modern.

Ha said his latest collection also hopes to pass on an appreciation of folk culture to the younger generation.

Through the design, Ha hopes to convey the love for folk culture to the younger generation.

The Thanh Giong collection was showcased by Vu Viet Ha in the 'Brocade Cultural Festival', first held in Dak Nong Province in Central Highlands Vietnam on January 15.

Designer Vu Viet Ha is one of the contemporary designers who advocate the preservation of traditional materials. Photo by Vnexpress/Mai Nguyen

The statue of Thanh Giong, the folk tale hero who inspired Vu Viet Ha's latest collection, in Den Soc (Soc Temple) in Phu Linh Commune, Soc Son District, Hanoi. Photo acquired by VnExpress

Photos by Kieng CanDuong Minh Cuong makes traditional musical instruments, which are becoming increasingly rare since most others make guitars and mandolins instead.

Dao Xa in Dong Lo Commune, Hanois Ung Hoa District, was designated as a craft village for the production of traditional musical instruments such as erhu, zither and two-chord guitar three years ago, but visitors here can hardly see any musical instruments or hear music.

Nguyen Ngoc Tua, chairman of Dong Lo Commune, says despite being named a traditional craft village, Dao Xa has less than 10 craftsman and they make few instruments.

Duong Minh Cuong's is the only family that is able to make a living from this profession, he says.

In the last 2 years Cuong has borrowed money to buy machines to make instruments, and his production has tripled. Photo by VnExpress/Trong Nghia.

Situated in a small lane in the middle of the village is Cuong's house. The house is unlike most others in the village, with the smell of paint and wood drowning out the odor of poultry in the surroundings. It is also filled with the sound of music and machinery noises.

In the beginning Cuong, 37, specialized in making guitars and mandolins. In 2004, realizing that more and more people were making guitars while traditional instruments were becoming increasingly rare, he decided to learn to play these instruments.

Within a year he could play nearly 10 different instruments and started making them.

However, his income was meager. In 2010 he and his wife moved to the capital and set up a north-south transportation service. With two years they ran up a debt of nearly VND1 billion (VND43,100).

They returned to their hometown and to instrument making. But their difficulties persisted when Cuong was diagnosed with depression. He refused to communicate with anyone and it took two years for him to finally get over it.

As the illness wore off, Cuong was keen to find business partners and spent a lot of time talking to customers to find their needs.

Though many local artists specialized in making erhu, most customers preferred Chinese products. Realizing this, Cuong bought 10 erhus from various places in China for more than VND20 million ($862) to study their composition.

It turned out the instruments were made using seven or eight layers of wood, and they produced good sounds but flaked quickly while their prices were no cheaper than that of Vietnamese products.

He later chose solid wood with the same thickness as the Chinese ones to ensure good sounds. His erhu was well received because of its durability, sturdiness and low price. In just one year the number of his customers has tripled and he also sells other products.

Cuong also studies other instruments to improve his design. He says: "Although this method might be expensive I consider it tuition. I can't become better on my own."

With the erhu, he used to ruin hundreds of pieces of varanus skin and python skin. Stretched over the sound diffuser of the erhu, the skin sagged within a month and needed to be replaced. He later learned to stretch the skin in proper weather, which is neither too wet nor too dry. It was only after this problem was overcome that his products became profitable.

A unique feature of his instruments is that many of them are engraved with patterns that are distinctly different from products made by most craftsmen in Vietnam.

Cuong checks his instruments carefully before handing them over to customers. Photo by VnExpress/Trong Nghia.

"Buying an instrument is [tantamount to] buying music, so the sound must be perfect in order to sell."

Cuongs wife, Nguyen Thi Nga, 34, says: "He often stays up all night to search for beautiful sounds. My sleep was often disturbed by the sound of my husband playing instruments. I slowly got used to it".

Six years after returning to the profession, he has a workshop measuring hundreds of square meters and is trusted by many artists.

He personally delivers his products to retail customers even if they live hundreds of kilometers away. His products are sold in more than 10 shops in Hanoi.

Cuong invested in a modern sound system so that online customers can feel the sounds. Photo by VnExpress/Trong Nghia.

Every day after finishing work Cuong spends around 10 minutes playing his instruments on live stream for customers. Every time he gets on "stage", he attracts hundreds of followers. After two years of promoting his instruments in this manner, his revenues have increased significantly.

This year he plans to expand production and train more workers to preserve the traditional craft in his village.

"I have seen customers who traveled hundreds of kilometers to buy his instrument," Tua, the commune chairman, says. "He not only creates jobs for dozens of locals but also helps preserve Dao Xa villages craft village status."Phung Dinh Giap of Bac Ninh Province is one of the few remaining craftspeople to make these once-popular traditional figurines.

Clay statues have been a traditional type of toys in Vietnam, and are popular during the Mid-Autumn Festival and Lunar New Year. They are usually figurines of animals like turtles, birds and people in traditional clothes.

Today they have lost their popularity, and Phung Dinh Giap, 67, and his wife Nguyen Thi Dieu are among the last artisans to still make them.

"The technique of making these figurines is simple, but the entire process, from preparing the materials to completing the product, requires a lot of meticulous work," Giap says.

A traditional set of statues comprises five images: turtle, bird, an elderly person, a baby, and a Buddha in the middle. A craftsman can also make customized statues on orders.

To make a clay statue involves various tasks, from preparing the clay to painting the finished statues. The most challenging one is to soak do, a kind of traditional paper made from tree bark in villages. The craftsman needs to soak the paper sheets for seven days until the paper becomes soggy.

"When I was young, I start making simple figures. At the time, the clay statues were popular toys during the Mid-Autumn Festival. They seemed to be disappearing because kids only like modern toys, but in the last two years people have been coming back to order statues of Zodiac animals or some other shapes," says Giap.

The clay is dug up from a depth of 2.5 meters to have the required smoothness and cleanness.

Nguyen Thi Dieu filters clay to make it smoother.

Dieu says: "After letting the clay dry in the sun, we pound, grind and filter it. To be usable the clay needs to feel smooth and cool and be gray in color."

The clay is mixed and kneaded with paper powder to make the material for making the statues.



All the statues are hand-made. As the 2019 Lunar Year of the Pig approaches, many people are asking Giap to make pig figurines, both plain and painted.

A set of pig figurines representing a family of pigs. There is one mother pig and five piglets.

The clay statues are not baked in the kiln but are durable.

The craftsman covers the statues with a white powder before painting them.

To complete a set of six statues, it takes a craftsman around a week.

"Making clay statues does not involve sophisticated details, but it is important to create an elegant, rustic image and to present traditional images," Giap says.

A set sells for VND300,000 ($13) though small items can be had for less than VND100,000 ($4.3).A Vietnamese man receives fines of $6,000 for carrying undeclared cash exceeding the permitted amount into Singapore. Photo by Shutterstocks/Nawadoln

A Singapore court Friday fined a Vietnamese man S$8,000 ($5,886) for carrying undeclared cash far exceeding the permitted amount.

Nguyen Thanh Thuy, 25, who works as a mobile phone salesman for a shop in Ho Chi Minh City, was held at the Changi Airport on January 30 last year after a baggage screening officer found S$380,000 in cash in his luggage that was not declared to the customs, the Today Online news site reported.

Thuy failed to explain why he was carrying such a large amount of cash into Singapore, the report said.

The court found Thuy guilty of violating the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act, which states that the highest amount of cash a Singaporean citizen or foreign tourist can carry into the island-state without declaration is S$20,000.

Violating this rule could result in a fine of up to S$50,000 and imprisonment of up to three years.

Police investigations revealed that the money belonged to Thuys employer, who'd asked him to buy mobile phones from a local supplier, which would be taken to Vietnam.

The declaration of physical currency or bearer negotiable instruments is part of Singapores efforts to combat transnational crime. The amount includes both Singapore and foreign physical currency, travelers checks, bills of exchange, checks and promissory notes.

The aim is to facilitate detection and monitoring of cross-border cash movements as well as enforcement action against cash couriers who support money laundering and even terrorism financing activities.Part of the first metro line of Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExress/Quynh Tran

HCMC will use its own budget this month to pay Japanese contractor Sumitomo Corporation for work done on first metro line.

While waiting for funding disbursement from the central government, the city will use more than VND2 trillion ($86.2 million) from its own budget to pay for the work that the contractor has completed during last year and so far this year.

"The city will do its best to make the payment before February 1," municipal Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong told Japans state minister for foreign affairs Toshiko Abe at a Friday meeting.

In late November last year, Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Umeda Kunio had said that unpaid bills for the Japanese contractor had climbed to $100 million.

If the city failed to pay that bill by the end of 2018, the contractor might have to stop its work, he said in a letter sent to the government, ministries and the HCMC Peoples Committee.

Kunio said the Vietnamese government and HCMC had been "seriously" late in disbursing funds for the Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien metro line, even after the problem had been discussed several times by the governments of Japan and Vietnam.

Before Vietnam's authorities received that letter, the HCMC Urban Railways Management Authority had already said it needs nearly VND2.25 trillion ($96.52 million) from the city's own budget to pay the contractor.

This will be the fifth time the city is making an advance payment (before getting funds from the central government) for the contractor of its first metro line since 2017.

The payments the city made had climbed to VND3.27 trillion (over $141 million) by the end of last year, but the city has only received VND591 billion ($25.41 million).

Work on the first metro line started in August 2012. It runs 20 kilometers (12.43 miles) through the five districts of 1, 2, 9, Binh Thanh and Thu Duc, as well as Di An District in the neighboring province of Binh Duong.

It will run underground from Ben Thanh Market for 2.6 km past the Opera House and Ba Son Shipyard, and then cross the Saigon River on an elevated track that passes through District 2 on the way to Suoi Tien Park and the terminus at Long Binh in District 9.

So far, 60 percent of the project has been completed.

The line, approved by the city back in 2007, was to be built using official development assistance (ODA) from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), but a delay in approving a revised plan to adjust the investment cost upwards has resulted in a lack of funding for the project.

The initial cost of the project was estimated at VND17.4 trillion ($740 million). At this estimate, the project did not fall under the category that needs to be reviewed by the National Assembly (NA), Vietnams national legislative body.

In 2009, consultants recalculated the investment needed at VND47.3 trillion ($2 billion).

In 2011, the Prime Minister agreed that HCMC can revise the original estimate, but the revised cost pushed the project into the category needing NA approval.

The metro system is now considered a key national project requiring the NAs approval before the government makes any financial decision. While that approval is pending, there is no point in conducting capital assessment and investment disbursement surveys, officials have said.

The central government early this month had eventually approved an upward revision in the cost of the line, but its not clear when the funding will be disbursed to the city administration.The Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien Metro Line lies to the right of major roads in HCMC's District 2. Photo by VnExpress/Huu Khoa

Vietnams two largest metropolises are among top 10 fastest growing cities in the world for the third year in a row.

However, Ho Chi Minh City has slipped five places from last year to eighth position on the City Momentum Index 2019 recently published by American investment management company JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.).

Vietnams capital city, meanwhile, has made major gains, climbing five places to third position in the ranking that covers 131 major established and emerging business hubs around the globe, and focuses on short-term momentum over a three-year period, tracking a range of socio-economic and commercial real estate indicators.

"Both cities perform very well for socio-economic momentum with fast-growing populations and economies," the report says.

HCMC, southern economic hub, has a reputation for being a business friendly destination, helping it attract more foreign direct investment and foreign companies.

The city of 13 million people attracted $6.22 in foreign investment in the first 10 months of last year, up 23.7 percent from a year ago, according to the municipal Department of Planning and Investment.

Hanoi, home to 8.2 million, achieved an average growth of 7.37 percent last year, the highest in the past three years. It also took the lead in attracting FDI for the first time with commitments of $6.5 billion.

The capital city sees science and technology key development factors in the coming years and expects to strengthen its retail sector and improve its transport infrastructure significantly by 2020.

The Cat Linh-Ha Dong metro line, the first in Hanoi, made its trial run last September and is expected to help ease heavy congestion triggered by the rapidly growing population.

Both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi are eyeing huge investments from large multinational technology firms, including Microsoft, LG, Intel and most notably Samsung, the JLL report says.

It also notes that Vietnams real estate investment market has been coping with issues such as low transparency and a limited volume of investment grade stock.

Asia Pacific is home to 19 of the top 20 cities in this years global index, reflecting the regions continued rapid urbanization and economic growth.

Two other Southeast Asian cities are in the top 20, with Manila in 12th position and Bangkok placed 18th.

India dominated the rankings, with Hanoi the only non-Indian city to make it into the top five, joining Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi and Pune.

Nairobi is the only city outside the Asia Pacific region to break into the top 10 ranks, thanks to huge investments from China, mainly in infrastructure projects.

A new study by the U.K.-based Oxford Economics in 2017 has predicted that Ho Chi Minh City would become the second fastest growing economy in Asia by 2021, with an annual growth rate of 8 percent.A man sails a boat near a cargo ship of Vinalines, Vietnam's largest state-owned shopping firm and port operator. Photo by Reuters/Stringer

Vietnam needs to make a breakthrough this year in state divesting from enterprises, says Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue.

Hue said at Fridays cabinet meeting that divestment doesnt necessarily require a preservation of the state capital.

Even when the market price of the capital is lower than its book value, the state can still divest, as the longer it holds the capital, the less benefit it will receive, he said.

Hue also noted that weak state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that can be developed to privatize and divest should not be sold at an early stage as that could cause harm to the state.

All violations in the privatization and divestment process will be strictly punished. Leaders and authorities who delay and slow down the privatization and divestment process will be held accountable, he added.

The government plans to have only 150 wholly state-owned enterprises by 2020, from 526 in 2017, and 1,369 in 2011.

The speed of privatization and divestment has slowed recently years, the Deputy Prime Minister noted.

The country privatized only 32 SOEs last year, but its target was 85, a government report released at the meeting said.

The state divested its ownership in only 52 businesses last year, although its goal was 181. In 2017, the state divested only 17 out of 135 businesses.

The plans were not achieved because there were many large-scale businesses with complicated financial situations and a lot of property involved, the report said.

Some ministries, provinces, cities and businesses have not been determined in furthering the process, it added.

Last year, the state collected VND24.25 trillion ($1.04 billion) from initial public offerings and selling stakes to strategic partners. This was almost five times the figures in 2017.

The state also collected over VND16 trillion ($688 million) in divestment, 2.58 times that of the original value of its ownership in SOEs.Japan is expected to receive more Vietnamese workers this year, having become the most attractive labor export market in 2018.

Last year marked the first time Japan became the most popular destination for Vietnamese migrant workers with over 68,700 people finding jobs there, beating Taiwan with nearly 60,400 people and South Korea with over 6,500, according to statistics released by the Department of Overseas Labor.

The department's deputy director, Nguyen Gia Liem, said the Japanese market's rise in popularity was due to the implementation of a new law that allows migrant workers to stay for five years instead of three.

Furthermore, Vietnam was the first country to sign with Japan a memorandum of cooperation on the latter's technical intern training program, which came into effect last June.

In 2018, a total of 13 Vietnamese businesses were also licensed to directly bring Vietnamese citizens to Japan to work as caregivers. The long language and skill training required, however, limited the number of Vietnamese citizens taking this route last year.

However, Liem asserted: "These establishments would help increase even further the number of Vietnamese laborers going to Japan."

Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, Doan Mau Diep, has said the ministry will reduce the number of labor export firms. The move follows last October's request by Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that Vietnam shut down bad labor export agencies and reduce costs for people wanting to work abroad.

"The country currently has 2,000 companies taking workers overseas, which is too many, causing companies to compete with each other for contracts, and they collect high fees," Diep said.

The ministry would also review current regulations on overseas students to prevent this system from being abused as many Vietnamese citizens wanting to work in Japan have been using student visas in recent years to reduce cost and time spent on language and skills training.

Last year, Japanese authorities already reviewed and suspended multiple companies for taking Vietnamese workers to Japan under the guise of international students.

Diep also warned that citizens wanting to work overseas need to use legal labor export firms and not use tourist visas, as happened in the recent infamous case in Taiwan.

"If going on a worker's visa the fees can be expensive, such as about VND80 million [$3,400] for Taiwan. The travel route meanwhile only costs flight tickets and visa fees so many still choose to travel then escape to work, but they will face many risks," he said.

A Vietnamese migrant worker can make $1,000 to $1,200 a month in Japan and South Korea, four times the average monthly salary in Vietnam, which was VND6.5 million ($290) last year.

A total of over 142,800 Vietnamese laborers went to work overseas in 2018, a six percent increase compared to the previous year.

With this number, which includes about 50,300 female workers, 2018 became the fifth consecutive year in which the number of Vietnamese working overseas exceeded 100,000 people.Murder charge filed against ruling party leader in Dolakha

A leader of the ruling Nepal Communist Party has been charged with murder that was committed nearly two decades ago. The District Attorneys Office registered a case against Shankar Lama in the Dolakha District Court on January 13 over the murder of Chakra Bahadur Budhathoki of Fasku on January 15, 1999.During the last decade, I have become more aware of many friends, family members and acquaintances suffering through major traumas and tragedies. My attention has slowly pivoted towards others rather than solely being consumed with my own stress and struggles. I have found this pivoting to bBut I dont want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you cant help that," said the Cat: "were all mad here. Im mad. Youre mad."

"How do you know Im mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldnt have come here.

 Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland





With freedom comes responsibility.

 Eleanor Roosevelt



Sex abuse  Colton Michael Rash of Lebanon was charged with second-degree sex abuse, third-degree rape and contributing to the sexual delinquency of a minor. The crimes allegedly occurred between Dec. 26 and Tuesday, and the Lebanon Police Department investigated the case.

From Thursday afternoon

Child pornography  Bryson Tieler Ray, 21, an inmate at Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario, was charged with using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct. The crime allegedly occurred between Feb. 1, 2017 and March 31, 2017. Ray did unlawful and knowingly employ, authorize, permit, compel or induce a child to participate or engage in sexually explicit conduct for a person to observe or to record in a visual recording, according to the charging document. APD was the investigating agency.

Forgery  Jordan Curtis Wiard, 25, of Lebanon, was charged with first-degree forgery. The crime allegedly occurred between Jan. 2 and Saturday. He created forged checks totaling $1,000 or more, according to the charging document. APD investigated the case.

From Friday afternoonCOLUMBUS, Ohio  The Ohio Parole Board on Friday rejected a clemency request by a condemned man who says hes innocent of the fatal shooting of a volunteer addiction counselor and is asking that his life be spared.





Warren Keith Henness, who goes by his middle name, was convicted of killing 51-year-old Richard Meyers in Columbus in 1992.





Myers was a lab technician at a veterans hospital in Chillicothe in southern Ohio and frequently volunteered with Alcoholics Anonymous to assist people with addictions. He had been helping Henness find drug treatment for his wife, according to authorities.





The board said in a unanimous ruling said that Henness claim of innocence was not persuasive and his account of the killing not reliable.





Henness admitted he had told his attorneys so many stories that they did not know what was true, the board said.





The inmate is set to die by lethal injection on Feb. 13 at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. Gov. Mike DeWine has the final say, his first death penalty decision as governor. His office is reviewing the decision, a spokesman said.





Following the ruling, Henness attorneys immediately asked the state Supreme Court to delay the execution. They cited a federal judges ruling earlier this week that called the constitutionality of Ohios three-drug lethal injection system into question, although the judge didnt halt the execution.





Judge Michael Merz said the evidence is now overwhelming that the first drug, midazolam, a sedative, does not render inmates so deeply unconscious as to prevent harm from the next two drugs. As a result, Henness will experience severe pain and needless suffering, the judge said.





Under a test created by a previous U.S. Supreme Court ruling, however, Henness couldnt demonstrate that a feasible execution alternative exists, and thus the execution can proceed, Merz said.





Prosecutors are expected to oppose the request for a delay.





Prosecutors said Henness kidnapped Myers, bound and then shot him at an abandoned water treatment plant, and then stole his credit cards, checks and car.





Henness, 55, his wife Tabatha Henness, and friend Ronald Fair drove around in Myers car for several days afterward, forging the checks and using the credit cards, according to prosecutors.





Henness wife and their friend were also implicated in the killing and provided the only evidence of Henness guilt, according to court records. The two pleaded guilty to minor charges of forgery and then testified against Henness at trial.





Henness attorneys have argued he deserves mercy because of lingering questions about the others involvement in the killing.





In addition, they say Henness lawyers at the time failed to fully investigate the case ahead of trial. Henness distrusted one of his attorneys so much that he rejected a plea deal that would have spared his life, according to Henness clemency petition.





Prosecutors argue Henness has a history of lying and refusing to take responsibility for the killing.





David Stebbins, a federal public defender, also argued in a filing with the board this month that Henness has a consistent record of good behavior in jail and on death row, also making him a good candidate for mercy.





The parole board disagreed, noting Henness has a history of alcohol infractions in prison and contributed to problems with his attorneys through his unwillingness to provide consistent details.





Stebbins called the ruling disappointing and urged DeWine to judge the request for mercy independently.





Henness is facing execution next month because of the failures of the legal system, not because he is one of the exceptional few worthy of the ultimate punishment of death, Stebbins said.





Ohioans To Stop Executions, the states largest anti-death penalty group, urged DeWine to postpone executions until problems with Ohios capital punishment system identified by a state Supreme Court commission are addressed.

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar WildeSHIMADA, Shizuoka -- A former death row inmate who was acquitted 30 years ago in a retrial has expressed concerns about an 82-year-old former boxer and death row inmate who is seeking a retrial.





"I'm worried about him," Masao Akahori, 89, said of Iwao Hakamada who was released in 2014 after a district court decided to open a retrial of his case. A high court subsequently scrapped the decision and Hakamada is appealing to the Supreme Court.





Akahori still harbors a sense of distrust toward the judicial authority that falsely convicted him over a 1954 murder case.





The resident of the central Japan city of Nagoya complained, "Police wouldn't listen to whatever I said." He often reads books about cases in which innocent people were falsely convicted, say his supporters.





Akahori visited his hometown Shimada in the central Japan prefecture of Shizuoka on Jan. 13 to pay his respects at his family grave.





On that night, he dined with his supporters in Shimada. "I was really glad," Akahori said as he remembered his release after being acquitted by the Shizuoka District Court on Jan. 31, 1989. A smiling Akahori added that the past 30 years "passed like a flash."





Four death row inmates, including Akahori, have been acquitted since the Supreme Court released the criteria for opening retrials of convicts in 1975.





Akahori asked a Hakamada supporter who was present at the dinner meeting if Hakamada was doing well.





Since his own acquittal, Akahori has been involved in activities to support those who were convicted and are demanding that their cases be retried.





He has also appealed for the abolition of the death penalty. In a lecture meeting, he said he "felt frightened every morning about the possibility of being sent to the execution chamber."





In 2012, Akahori was selected as a candidate for a lay judge but he declined the offer saying, "I distrust the judicial system."





Akahori now lives at a nursing care facility for the aged in Nagoya. He occasionally goes out with his supporters and enjoys karaoke.





His doctor has told him that he is in good shape saying, "You can live to be 100."





Naoko Shimaya, a supporter for Akahori, expressed hope that he will remain healthy and demanded that the judicial authority prevent false convictions.





"For Mr. Akahori, the Heisei era is the 30 years after his release, when he was free. I hope he'll continue to be fine. Relevant authorities should stick to the principle of the benefit of the doubt to prevent false convictions," she said.

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar WildeConvicted terrorist Abu Bakar Baasyir will be unconditionally released from Gunung Sindur prison in Bogor, West Java, as he has received a pardon from President Joko Jokowi Widodo.





Abdul Rahim, a son of Ba'asyir, said on Friday that the family had received news of the pardon from the Presidents lawyer Yusril Ihza Mahendra. Yusril had visited Baasyir to tell him that Jokowi had agreed to set him free despite him having over six years left to serve in prison.





He would be released early next week pending an administrative process.





This is purely for humanitarian reasons. He is old, so the president will release him unconditionally, Abdul said.





He said Baasyir would return to Surakarta and live with him.





Baasyir has been in prison for eight years after being sentenced to 15 years by the South Jakarta District Court in 2011. The court found him guilty of funding a military training camp for terrorists in Aceh.





Yusril, who is also an adviser to the Jokowi-Maruf Amin presidential campaign team, said because Baasyir is now 81 years old and has a deteriorating health condition, it was time to release him.





Jokowi said he was very concerned about Baasyirs condition and therefore asked me to examine [his release], start a dialogue and meet him at the prison, Yusril said in a statement.





Ba'asyir also expressed gratitude and thanked all those who had taken the initiative to release him.





Jokowi confirmed the clerics release on humanitarian grounds but he refused to expand on the details of the legal mechanism that enabled the release.





Please ask the National Police chief about the details, he told reporters on the sidelines of his visit to an Islamic boarding school in Garut, West Java.

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar WildeIran's chief prosecutor has tried to walk back his own suggestion that the country's courts sometimes avoid amputations or controversial punishments when sentencing criminals due to UN human rights criticisms.





Mohammad-Jafar Montazeri was initially quoted expressing regret at a law enforcement conference in the capital that such pressure had forced Tehran to limit the number of "divine punishments" it carried out, referring to the severing of convicted thieves' hands.





Many rights groups in Iran and abroad say such punishments amount to torture.





Iran's religiously dominated system frequently organizes hangings and corporal punishments as public spectacles to discourage would-be criminals and has been called out over its rights record, including the frequent use of the death penalty and occasional reports of blindings or stonings.





The January 16 comments appeared to be a rare acknowledgement by an Iranian official that international pressure can be effective in forcing the heavily Shi'ite country to improve its human rights record.





"One of the mistakes we have is that we are worried about propaganda under the excuse of human rights -- that they say we treat thieves with violence," Montazeri said on January 16, according to the semiofficial Fars News Agency.





He added that the Koran prescribes that any man or woman caught stealing and meeting certain Islamic criteria must have their hand chopped off.





"But, unfortunately, to avoid being condemned for human rights issues by the United Nations, we stopped implementing some divine punishments," he said.





The remark caught the attention of close followers of Iran's legal and rights policies, who noted hundreds of amputation sentences in the decade to 2017, for instance.





But Montazeri appears to have quickly walked back his comments.





Quoted elsewhere on the sidelines of the same conference, Montazeri said human rights concerns will not compel the powerful Judiciary branch into leniency when implementing religiously prescribed punishments.





"We do not retreat from the implementation, or moderate treatment, of our punishments," another semiofficial agency, ISNA, quoted Montazeri as saying.





ISNA added that Montazeri's comments came in response to a question about whether "human rights excuses" would push the Judiciary to adjust Islamic punishments.





In 2010, the secretary of Iran's state High Council for Human Rights, Mohammad Javad Larijani, told the UN Human Rights Council that many of the much-criticized punishments handed down in Iran were "culturally and religiously justified."





Iranian officials publicly condemn human rights concerns expressed by rights organizations and Western governments as interference in the country's internal affairs, and they frequently jail or harass Iranian rights activists or their lawyers.





Yet they are also sensitive to how the country is seen by the outside world.





Montazeri suggested that fewer offenders might get sentenced to hand amputations because "the rules of Islamic jurisprudence" make it less likely that a convict meets all the criteria.





Nevertheless, he added, once the decision is made by a judge, the Judiciary "is not wary of implementing the law."





In the past, Iran has imposed multiple Koranic punishments that are described by rights groups as "cruel" and "inhuman," including stonings, amputations, blindings, and floggings.





In 2002, the Judiciary introduced a moratorium on stoning. Such cases are difficult to track in Iran's secretive judicial system, but several stoning sentences were said to have been issued and carried out in the years since.





In 2010, following an international outcry, a stoning sentence was overturned for an Iranian woman accused of adultery.





Only a small number of the reported amputations are carried out publicly.





In January 2018, local media reported that a 34-year-old man had one of his hands chopped off publicly as punishment for stealing livestock in the northeastern province of Razavi Khorasan. The amputation was condemned by Amnesty International as an "unspeakably cruel" punishment that highlighted Iranian authorities' "complete disregard for human dignity."





In one particularly gruesome case, authorities in Shiraz amputated the hand of a man convicted of robbery in April 2017 before executing him 10 days later for murder.





At the January 16 conference, Montazeri also acknowledged a rise in property crime in Iran and hinted that the country's economic situation was a contributing factor.





"The crime rate increases when people and the society face economic problems," he said.





Joblessness and price rises have sparked angry protests over the past 13 months, and Iran's currency has plummeted as the United States returned to economic sanctions to punish what Washington sees as Iranian misbehavior.





Montazeri said prison sentences are not enough to fight theft and robbery.





"Jailing has negative consequences for the prisoner and for the family of the prisoner. And increasing the number of prisoners is not in our interests," Montazeri told journalists. "It is not logical for us to think that we can stop a thief from committing the crime of theft through imprisonment."





He added that "there are definitely other" methods to discourage crime and urged pundits to send their suggestions.

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar WildeMexican pipeline blast during fuel raid kills at least 21

At least 21 people were killed and 71 were injured on Friday when a pipeline ruptured by suspected fuel thieves exploded in central Mexico as dozens of people tried to fill up containers, state and federal authorities said.President Trump's political strategy is completely clear: use his persistent promotion of a border wall to energize his core supporters. His campaign manager, Brad Parscale, told Fox News that "border security" is the "No. 1 reason" those ardent advocates will vote to re-elect him. Trump himself tweeted as the partial government shutdown began, "We have the issue, Border Security, 2020!"

Are Trump and Parscale correct? What is the president's real base? And will it be sufficiently motivated to deliver Trump a second term?

Many Republican strategists say the answer is no. "The problem is that the base is nowhere close to a majority of the nation," GOP pollster David Winston told The Washington Post. "In a government of the people, for the people and by the people, it sure helps to have a majority of the people behind what you are trying to do."

We calculate that Trump's true base is about 37 percent, far from the number needed to win -- unless a third-party candidate divides the vote. But Trump has defied conventional wisdom before and could again. Anybody who thinks he's fatally weakened is not paying attention.

All votes and all voters are not equal in politics. Intensity matters -- a lot. And Trump's ability to maximize the loyalty of his supporters is the biggest variable in next year's campaign.The Missouri House took action this week to implement the rules members will follow and operate under for the 100th General Assembly. The rules govern everything from the authority granted to the Speaker to refer bills, to the makeup and responsibilities of House committees, to the decorum that must be maintained in the House Chamber.

The rules adopted this week also contain a new provision meant to address the sensitive and private information that constituents sometimes share with their elected officials. Voters approved Amendment 1 in November to make member emails and correspondence subject to the states sunshine law. Members are working diligently to fulfill the sunshine requests they have received, and to make government as open and transparent as possible. At the same time, they remain sensitive to the need to maintain the privacy of constituents who share personal information that is not meant for public consumption.It is no secret that the Department of Corrections is facing many challenges, from the rising costs of incarceration to finding and retaining talented, qualified corrections officers.

During my time in office, I have had numerous conversations with the governor and department director regarding higher pay for our correction officers, and finally, those efforts have paid off.

During the governors address, he announced that two of the states corrections facilities would consolidate their operations  Crossroads Correctional Center and Western Missouri Correctional Center. According to the governor, this decision was largely based on the desire to find efficiencies in state government. He believes that by consolidating these two facilities, the state can improve security at all of its correctional facilities and offer a much needed pay raise to Missouris correctional officers. This pay raise is especially important to our community because of the number of correctional officers living in the 3rd Senatorial District.DEAR ABBY: I'm a widowed senior who has been dating a very kind man, "Ben," for three years. He's retired; I am not. He does things for and with me, and we enjoy traveling together.

The problem is, Ben usually starts drinking about 3 p.m. at the neighborhood bar. I'm welcome to join him, but I prefer to work at my job or volunteer in the community. By the grace of God, Ben has made it home safely every night, but I'm afraid he will eventually hurt someone.

My son came home for a month because of a job change, and tonight he found Ben passed out in the front yard. I told my son I was sorry, and he said not to be, but he does not want his family -- my grandchildren -- around when Ben is like this.

I am so embarrassed. I would miss this relationship, but I'm wondering if you think I should end it. -- MISSING THE GOOD IN HIM

DEAR MISSING THE GOOD: It must have been clear to you for some time that Ben has a serious drinking problem that needs to be addressed. Whether you should end the relationship depends upon whether he is willing to admit that he has a problem and is willing to do something about it.Wright said having his office close to Henderson is great, making it easier to work together.

Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

"He has the western half of Farmington and I've got the eastern half so we work together for the good of Farmington," Wright said. "Then, Nancy already knows a lot of the constituents, so it's just been a really nice transition."

Wright said he is currently working on a way to bring school and industry together.

"Right now schools are kind of leaning towards trying to get students to into college," Wright said. "The problem is only 60 percent of high school seniors go to college and of those, 60 percent don't make it. So, in other words, when it is all said and done, only 20 percent of high school seniors graduate from college."

Wright said what they are trying to do is get Mineral Area College, high schools, trade schools and all the industries to come together and make a curriculum to address those who are not on the college path, so that they will have jobs waiting for them.

"They will actually get school credit for being on-site, maybe at U.S. Tool," Wright said. "They will be learning how to run machines and they will get school credit for it. It's really exciting."

Wright said what this is doing is getting ahead of the problem."I talked to Tony to make sure he knew it was not directed at any individual, or him, and that it was directed at all Democrats who were vacationing in Puerto Rico," Smith told the Post-Dispatch after speaking to Missourians attending Friday's Right to Life rally on the National Mall. "He had taken great offense. He had planned that trip to Puerto Rico, which I didn't know. And so I told him that the outburst was unacceptable on the floor."

Smith continued: "I should not have done it, the outburst on the floor. It was a reaction to them vacationing while the government was shut down. I was up here last weekend working with (Republican House Leader) Kevin McCarthy and everyone else, trying to come up with a plan" to end the shutdown.

There is no sign of that ending, with House Democrats and President Donald Trump dug in on their respective positions on Trump's call for a wall on the border with Mexico and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's opposition to it.

But there was at least some common ground identified between Smith and Cardenas. Cardenas said he and Smith resolved to get to know one another better when the House returns to session on Tuesday.

"I told him I look forward to having a nice and respectful conversation when we return to D.C. on Tuesday," Cardenas said. "We agreed that we should get to know each other better. I appreciate his call and our future relationship. There is a saying that I was taught by my parents, 'De todo lo malo, siempre sale algo bueno,' which in English means, "'From everything bad, something good will come of it.' "

Love 2 Funny 3 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2A big chunk of the Anak Krakatau volcano collapsed last month off the coast of a couple of Indonesian islands, with the collapse of that 158-acre section into the water transforming the volcano into basically a flat pancake of its former self. Post-collapse, the volcano that used to tower more than 1,100 feet into the sky was now just a quarter of that size.The collapse also had a deadly consequence. It triggered a tsunami with waves of up to 10 feet tall that slammed into the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. More than 400 people were killed, 1,400 were injured and thousands more were left without homes.Don't Miss:Dwikorita Karnawati, who heads up Indonesia's meteorological agency, told The Guardianthe volcano had been belching lava and ash for months until the chunk of its south-west side collapsed. 'This caused an underwater landslide and eventually caused the tsunami.'ystein Lund Andersen is a nature photographer who regularly takes shots of volcanoes in the area. He posted these dramatic images on Twitter last week. On the left, you can see the volcano earlier in 2018, before the collapse, and another image captured just a few days ago that makes it seem like a giant hand basically flattened the volcano:Image-comparison of Anak-Krakatau before and after collapse, showing the major changes to the volcanic Island. First photo captured 5th August and second photo taken by @EarthUncutTVtoday. 1/3 #AnakKrakataupic.twitter.com/uXcU3cGydt ystein Lund Andersen (@OysteinLAnderse) January 11, 2019This episode has reportedly spurred calls for an improvement in Indonesia's tsunami-warning apparatus. Because it was a volcano and not an earthquake that triggered the tsunami, no warning was issued. Residents along the coast also didn't see or note any warning signs  until the waves began to arrive.16-year-old Azki Kurniawan told The Guardianthat when people started rushing into the lobby of the Patra Comfort hotel is when he knew something was wrong.He'd been crying, and his eyes were red, as he explained: 'Suddenly, a one-meter wave hit me. I was thrown into the fence of a building about 30 meters from the beach and held on to the fence as strong as I could, trying to resist the water, which felt like it would drag me back into the sea. I cried in fear  'This is a tsunami?' I was afraid I would die.'Life and art are inextricably blended into each other

Mekh Limbus art needs little elaboration. It speaks the truth, laid out for all to see and reflect on. Its real; its quiet, keening and sharp. Take his installation How I Forgot My Mother Tongue, for instance, which was part of the Opposite Dreams exhibition displayed during the Photo Kathmandu festival last year.The ailing 80-year-old radical cleric who inspired the Bali bombers and other violent extremists in Indonesia will be released from prison, Indonesia's president says, slashing a 15-year sentence.The announcement of Abu Bakar Bashir's imminent release came during campaigning for a presidential election due in April in which opponents of President Joko Widodo have tried to discredit him as insufficiently Islamic.'I have considered this decision for a long time, involving the National Police chief and legal experts,' Widodo told reporters.'This release was decided because of humanitarian considerations and also related to his health care.'The 2002 bombings on the popular Indonesian tourist island of Bali by al-Qaeda-affiliated Jemaah Islamiyah militants killed 202 people, many of them foreigners including 88 Australians.Australia urged Indonesia last March against any leniency toward Bashir when the government was considering house arrest and other forms of clemency.'Stunned that he is about to be released,' said Jan Laczynski, an Australian who lost five friends in the bombing of the Sari Club in Bali and narrowly avoided being at the venue himself.'Truly devastating news as effectively he gets on with his life whilst everyone else suffers from seeing him walk out of jail,' he said.Bashir's lawyer, Muhammad Mahendradatta, said Bashir, who was sentenced and imprisoned in 2011, would be released within days.'We haven't had the exact date of his release, but because Bashir badly needs serious health care the release will be carried out no later than next week,' he told The Associated Press.Mahendradatta said he wanted Bashir's release to be without any conditions, enabling him to meet supporters and give sermons.However, another Bashir lawyer who is also an adviser to Widodo, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, told Indonesian TV that the cleric accepted conditions and would do nothing except rest and be close to his family.Widodo said Mahendra was among the legal experts he sought advice from.The firebrand cleric was arrested almost immediately after the Bali bombings. But prosecutors were unable to prove a string of terrorism-related allegations. He was instead sentenced to 18 months in prison for immigration violations.In 2011, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for supporting a military-style training camp for Islamic militants.The 2002 bombings were a turning point in Indonesia's battle against violent extremists, making heavy security a norm in big cities and forging closer counterterrorism cooperation with the US and Australia.The Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurated the 426.60 m long Pre Stressed Concrete Box Girder type Diffo bridge over Diffo river on Roing  Koronu- Paya road in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Diffo bridge will provide for uninterrupted access between Dibang Valley and Lohit valley region of Eastern Arunachal Pradesh together with providing an all-weather road to our troops deployed on the China border.

The construction of the Bridge was undertaken by the Project Udayak of the Border Roads Organisation.

Project Udayank

Project Udayank of the Border Roads Organisation was raised on June 1990 at Doomdooma Assam. The name of the project Udayank is synonymous to the land of rising sun which fits appropriately to the area it operates. It consists of two border road taskforces undertaking construction activities in the northeastern region.

Border Roads Organisation

Border Roads Organisation (BRO) develops and maintains road networks in Indias border areas and friendly neighbouring countries. Border Road Organisation has also undertaken the infrastructure development activities in neighbouring countries such as Afghanistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka.

During the peacetime, the BRO is vested with responsibilities to

Develop & Maintain the Operational Road Infrastructure of General Staff (GS) in the Border Areas.

Contribute to the Socio-Economic Development of the Border States.

During Wartime, BRO is responsible for

Developing & Maintaining Roads to Keep Line of Control through in Original Sectors and Re-deployed Sectors.

Executing Additional Tasks as laid down by the Govt Contributing to the War Effort.

The Border Roads Organisation works under the Ministry of Defence.PITTSBURGH  A jury on Friday found a Westmoreland County prosecutor guilty of obstructing justice and misusing the power of his office by improperly intervening in criminal cases involving a woman who the prosecution says was his girlfriend.

Mercer County District Attorney Miles Karson, 73, was found guilty on 10 charges, including obstruction of government functions, officially oppressing an arrest or search warrant, and hindering prosecution.

Karson was accused of asking the woman's probation officer to not put her in jail after she acknowledged using heroin. He also allegedly tried to get a judge to release her on bond instead of jailing her in criminal cases by claiming to be a family friend when he was actually her boyfriend.

Karson, a Republican, was elected in 2015 in the largely rural county 60 miles north of Pittsburgh that borders Ohio.

He took the witness stand on Wednesday, insisting he was just trying to help her and didn't break the law, and denying the two had a romantic relationship.

Since he was charged by the state attorney general's office in 2017, Karson had been silent on the accusations made against him, aside from a blanket denial of wrongdoing, until Wednesday's testimony, the Tribune Review reported.Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

The time changes are also in keeping with a district initiative to provide secondary school teachers more time to collaborate in their daily schedules. The community meeting drew input from parents and grandparents for and against the swap.

Some people were concerned the earlier start time for elementary students could put them at bus stops in the dark before sunrise and present a safety risk, Berk said. He said there was also concern the swap could mean an earlier bed time that could cut into the after-school extracurricular activities of elementary school students.

There was concern about the impact the swap would have on vo-tech students and whether it is prudent for the district to move the high school resource period to the end of the day, Berk said.

ABC27 reported that many parents were worried the swap would only allow some students to grow and succeed.

We need to see more data on the effects to elementary school children, said Steve Thorne, who has children in both age groups. The results could be a zero-sum game, potentially placing one groups problems over another age group.

Berk said at least one person suggested the district start everyone at the same time. But there are logistical concerns with that approach.SEEKONK, Mass. A wheeled robot named Marty is rolling into nearly 500 grocery stores to alert employees if it encounters spilled granola, squashed tomatoes or a broken jar of mayonnaise.

But there could be a human watching from behind its cartoonish googly eyes.

Badger Technologies CEO Tim Rowland says its camera-equipped robots stop after detecting a potential spill. But to make sure, humans working in a control center in the Philippines review the imagery before triggering a cleanup message over the loudspeaker.

Rowland says 25 of the robots are now operating at certain Giant, Martin's and Stop & Shop stores, with 30 more arriving each week. Carlisle, Pennsylvania-based Giant says it has two robots now working at stores in the state, and plans to expand to all 172 Giant stores by the middle of this year.

The chains are all part of Dutch parent company Ahold Delhaize.

The robots move around using laser-based "lidar" sensors and pause when shoppers and their carts veer into their path.

The googly eyes are fake, but each robot has eight cameras  some directed down at the floor and others that can see shelves. Rowland said the robots can eventually be repurposed to help monitor a store's inventory.By Michael Pettis

This post first appeared on China Financial Markets at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and has been cross-posted with the permission of the author.

The Chinese economy is not growing at 6.5 percent. It is probably growing by less than half of that. Not everyone agrees that the rate is that low, of course, but there is nonetheless a running debate about what is really happening in the Chinese economy and whether or not the countrys reported GDP growth is accurate.

The reason for the widespread skepticism is the disconnect between the official data and perceptions on the ground. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Chinas economic growth in every quarter last year exceeded 6.5 percent. While that is much lower than the heady growth rates China has experienced for most of the past forty years, it is still, by most measures, a very brisk rate of growth.

And yet, when you speak to Chinese businesses, economists, or analysts, it is hard to find any economic sector enjoying decent growth. Almost everyone is complaining bitterly about terribly difficult conditions, rising bankruptcies, a collapsing stock market, and dashed expectations. In my eighteen years in China, I have never seen this level of financial worry and unhappiness.

These concerns have even breached academia. One of my students told me yesterday that there was a huge increase last semester on the university website in the number of students selling their belongings because they are hard up for cash. They are selling their phones, computers, clothing, and lots of other possessions. He said the amount of selling is noticeably higher than last year, enough so that everyone is talking about it. And he indicated that this is apparently happening at other schools too. It seems that the poor and middle-class kids are squeezed for cash because they are getting much less money from home than they have in the past.

This isnt what youd expect to hear from an economy growing at more than 6.5 percent. So what does it mean exactly to say that Chinas GDP is growing at that pace? It turns out that there are three completely different sets of problems that affect how Chinas GDP growth statistics should be interpreted. Analysts must keep these three problems straight and make sure that they dont confuse matters by conflating these separate issues.

What Does GDP Measure?

The first set of problems relates to the meaning of GDP itself. This challenge affects not just China but the rest of the world as well. This is especially true for advanced economies with substantial technology and service sectors that employ technology whose value may be substantially understated by an inability to count it accurately.

GDP is typically assumed to measure the creation of real economic value. If a countrys GDP rises by 5 percent over the course of a year, for example, this is interpreted to mean that the amount of wealth the country produced in the last year is 5 percent greater than in the previous year. In other words, it would be assumed that the countrys ability to service debt would have increased by 5 percent, which means roughly the same thing.

But there is no way to truly measure a countrys creation of real economic value, as GDP is just a proxy for whatever it is thought to measure. Economists have agreed which measurements go into calculating GDP, and the resulting sum is referred to as a countrys aggregate GDP, or the value of everything produced locally in that economy.

Of course, not all value-creating activities are counted when GDP is measured. For instance, if you teach your friend Spanish for free, you add to the wealth of the economy, but you do not add to GDP. By contrast, if he does pay you, the countrys GDP does increase by the amount of money you are paid, even though you are adding exactly the same value to the economy itself whether he pays you or not. In addition, not all measured activity actually creates value: building a bridge to nowhere, for example, creates exactly the same increase in GDP as building a much-needed bridge.

No proxy of economic value is perfect, of course, but there are real questions about whether GDP is imperfect to the point of being useless as a proxy. Does GDP really do a good job of capturing all the value creation in an economy? While this is a serious problem everywhere, it may be even more of a problem in China because of the huge amount of investment in nonproductive activities that is counted in Chinas GDP data even though this investment does not add to the countrys wealth or its debt-servicing capacity.

How Accurate Are Chinas GDP Statistics?

The second set of problems has to do with how carefully and faithfully Chinese statisticians at the National Bureau of Statistics are calculating the agreed-upon elements that go into measuring GDP. Do they tend to collect the data in the way that introduces mistakes that are systematically biased (upward, to show higher than actual GDP, I would assume)? Or are they actually lying to please their political bosses?

I am pretty sure that Chinas economic data collection is distorted in ways that smooth out volatility, but otherwise I assume, at least until very recently, that the National Bureau of Statistics has followed generally accepted rules for calculating GDP more or less correctly. I dont have a high level of confidence in my assumption though: as I pointed out earlier, it is hard to find any sector of the Chinese economy that is behaving the way youd expect a country growing at more than 6.5 percent to behave. Furthermore, especially in recent years, it has been hard to reconcile other economic proxies with the GDP numbers. (See, for example, this article by Johns Hopkins University economists Bob Barbera and Yinghao Hu, which itself refers to a satellite imaging study.)

What is more, people whose work I greatly respect, like Anne Stevenson-Yang of J Capital, seem very much to doubt the data and argue that Chinas actual growth rate is much lower than the posted numbers, largely because the data is falsified at some level of the collection process. But whatever the case may be, if there is indeed a substantial discrepancy between what the statisticians actually measure and what they are claiming to measure, it is very hard to make predictions about how long the overstatement will continue and how much of an adjustment it will eventually undergo.

Is GDP Measured as an Output or an Input?

The third set of problems with GDP occurs in a very limited number of cases globally (today, China is the main example). But the implications are much greater. This has to do with whether GDP is even being used as a proxy for economic activity. In China, reported GDP does not tell observers about the economys performance; rather, it tells people how rapidly Beijing thinks it can impose the necessary adjustments on the Chinese economy. This is because GDP means something different in China than it does in most other major economies.

In any economic system, GDP is supposed to be a measure of output, and in most countries that is exactly what it measures, however messily. The economy does what it does, in other words, and at the end of a given time period, statisticians measure the things economists agree to include in the relevant calculations, and they express the change over time as the scale of GDP growth for that period.

This is not what happens in China, where GDP is actually an input determined annually as the countrys GDP growth target. The growth target of a given time period is decided well ahead of time, and to achieve it, various entities, including local governments, engage in the requisite amount of activity, usually funded by debt. As long as China has debt capacity, and as long as it can postpone the writing down of nonproductive assets, Beijing can achieve any growth target it desires.

But this arrangement changes the meaning of GDP. Reported GDP in China is no longer a measure of economic growth, but rather a measure of political intention. As any systems theorist knows, input data reveals nothing about the performance of a system. So when analysts discuss what reported GDP indicates about the health of the Chinese economy, such thinking involves a very basic mistake in systems theorya systems input can only offer insights about the goals of the operators, never about the performance of the system itself.

In practical terms, this means that once Beijing sets a GDP growth target, local governments are expected to generate enough economic activity to reach that target, and they are able to borrow as much as they need to do so. If this activity were productive, there wouldnt be a problem, although it would be an amazing coincidence (or a truly incredible feat of prognostication) for the amount of productive activity truly to equal the growth target. What would be more likely in that case is that GDP growth would consistently exceed the target, which is indeed what happened until about a decade or so ago.

But if the economic activity isnt productive, there are two requirements that allow China to set GDP growth as a systems input in a way other countries are unable to do. First, there must be no hard budget constraints, so as to allow economic entities to persist in value-destroying behavior year after year. Second, the resulting bad debt cannot be written down. Once these two conditions are metand they are in Chinas caseBeijing can set any growth target it likes and, as long as it has the necessary debt capacity, it can achieve that target.

But notice that achieving the target reveals nothing about the countrys real economic growth, for which GDP is supposed to be (however imperfectly) a proxy. Once GDP growth becomes a systems input, rather than an output, it does not indicate anything about the economys health or performance.

Conclusion

There is likely to be no end this year to the discussions about Chinas economic growth rate and its relationship to GDP. By now, observers widely agree that Chinas economy is not as strong as the GDP data suggests. And I suspect that only a handful of the least imaginative resolutely-mainstream economists (and, weirdly enough, this is more likely to be true of foreign than Chinese ones) still believe that Chinas economy is as healthy and brisk as would be expected from a country whose GDP is growing at 6.5 percent and is expected to grow next year by more than 6 percent.

The problems facing the Chinese economy, and the worries expressed by Chinese leaders, are so deep that it no longer requires much imagination to figure out that reported GDP in China simply does not represent what we think it represents elsewhere. Yet some economists have not always understood the implications, and they often seem to refuse to adjust their methodologies to take into account the aforementioned problems with Chinas reported GDP data. Yesterday, for example, I read a report written by an economist that discussed the implications of Chinas PPP-adjusted GDP being the biggest in the world.

But any observers that are at all skeptical about the relationship between the Chinese economy and its reported GDP must dismiss the PPP-adjustment as almost complete nonsense. (I dont mean that the PPP-adjusted data is less accurate for China than it is for other countries: I mean, quite literally, that it is almost complete nonsense). Any ratio based on reported GDP figures can only be comparably meaningful for China to the extent that Chinas reported GDP numbers have the same relationship to the underlying economyor to whatever GDP is thought to meanas corresponding numbers in other countries do. But surely few observers still believe that.

The point is that if there has been a divergence between Chinas reported GDP figures and the countrys underlying economy, there are at least three completely different ways that this discrepancy can manifest itself. Observers too often confuse the three, however. For example, I have said many times that I believe that if Chinas GDP were to be expressed in a way that is comparable with that of other countries, it would be growing at less than half the current reported growth rate.

A lot of people interpret this to mean that I think Beijing is falsifying the data, but I dont mean that at all. In my mind, the biggest problem is that Chinas reported GDP is an input into the economic system, not a measured output. To make Chinas GDP figures comparable to those of other countries, the input numbers would have to be adjusted with some relevant output, such as the amount of bad debt that should be (but isnt) written down in a given time period. If this amount were subtracted from Chinas nominal GDP growth rate, the resulting adjusted growth rate probably would be a lot closer to what economists think of as GDP than the countrys actual reported GDP data is.

Aside from this blog I write a monthly newsletter that covers some of the same topics covered on this blog. Those who are interested in receiving the newsletter should write to me at [email protected], stating affiliation.

Correction: The original version of this article included the sentence In addition, not all measured activity actually creates value: building , for example, would create exactly the same increase in GDP as building a much-needed bridge. The phrase building a bridge to nowhere was accidentally lost during the process of posting the piece to the website and has been put back in.



1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.Delhi accepts envoy nominee Acharya

New Delhi has accepted Nilamber Acharya as Nepals ambassador to India, more than two months after the government nominated him.He was sentenced to 100 to 140 years in prison.

While the case was on appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court last summer decided Carpenter v. U.S., finding that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the record of physical movements captured by cellphone towers.

The state conceded that getting the information without a warrant supported by probable cause had violated Brown's right to be free from illegal search and seizure, given the ruling.

But, the Nebraska Supreme Court determined that Brown's conviction should stand because police had been reasonable in relying on a statute, later found to be unconstitutional, to obtain the information.

Papik said: "By obtaining the CSLI (cell site location information) in this case under the Stored Communications Act and without the benefit of the U.S. Supreme Courts not-yet-issued decision in Carpenter, officers were merely following the statute as written. That is not the type of police activity the exclusionary rule seeks to deter."

The officers, in other words, were acting in good faith, as the state had argued.

It was one of a number of issues Brown's attorney raised and the state Supreme Court rejected on appeal.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSpilger.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0Wilson & Company and Confluence, hired by the Nebraska Department of Transportation, are working on the streetscaping elements.

NDOT has indicated that the project will take place regardless of what else may be attempted on 23rd Street, Bogus told The Telegram on Friday. The city will use the street construction as an opportunity to conduct much-needed repairs and replacement of worn out storm drains and water pipes, he said.

Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

While we piggy-back on that operation, the streetscape work can be completed as well, Bogus said. Citizens could see a whole new 23rd Street corridor when everything is complete.

Bolte presented what she described as a kit-of-parts for the beautification venture. Kit-of-parts construction grants flexibility and efficiency in assembly. A kit-of-parts concept can be assembled and taken apart in a variety of ways like a construction toy.

Attendees were presented with a smorgasbord of options for the enhancement aspect of the operation. Not all elements proposed are expected to be incorporated into the final draft. With a budget of $500,000, it will have to be decided what to take and what can be left behind - like a buffet. The money for streetscaping will come out of the citys general fund, according to Columbus Mayor Jim Bulkley, as previously reported.On Thursday, Jonathan Yosten, of Clarkson, turned himself in at the Platte County Detention Facility. He was wanted on a Platte County warrant for operating a motor vehicle to avoid arrest and willful reckless driving, said Wemhoff. He was released on a $10,000 Personal Recognizance bond.

Also on Wednesday, Taylor Krzycki, of Columbus, and Louis Rodriguez-Serrano, of Columbus, were brought in on separate charges. Krzycki had appeared for a court appearance when it was discovered he had an outstanding Platte County warrant for possession of a controlled substance, according to Wemhoff. Rodriguez-Serrano was apprehended without incidence at his residence by a deputy. He was arrested for contempt of court and failure to pay a fine, said Wemhoff. After paying his fine he was allowed to leave.

Also on Thursday, a deputy was called to investigate an alleged fraud claim. The deputy found that the caller had sold something on Craigslist, but had been defrauded by the purchased for a reported $3,250.

Court sentencesIn secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!Next month Crowned Heads will release a new installment of its annual exclusive cigar for the State of Hawaii. The Paniolo Especiale 2019 marks the fifth installment of this exclusive regional release. The cigar will have an official launch at the Prince Waikiki Hotel hosted by R. Field Cigar Company.

Paniolo is a name that refers to a Hawaiian Cowboy. While the previous four installments were produced by My Father Cigars, the Paniolo Especial 2019 will be produced at La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate, becoming the second Crowned Heads cigar produced at Drew Estate, joining the Buckeye Land. Its a blend that features a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper over a San Andres Mexican binder, and fillers from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. The cigar comes in one size  a 5 1/2 x 48 parejo.

Were extremely excited for this years Paniolo Especiale as it will mark the first time weve utilized a Connecticut (Broadleaf) wrapper on this annual Hawaii-exclusive release since the inaugural edition back in 2015, commented Crowned Heads co-founder Jon Huber in a press release.Insofar as the Paniolo marca is concerned, I feel as though the 2015 OR has held up as the grail blend, and both R. Field Wine and Crowned Heads really wanted to bring the Broadleaf back. While the blend is entirely different than the 2015, I sincerely feel that smokers will find that this years rendition stacks up very nicely against the 2015. This is truly an exceptional smoke.

In announcing the Paniolo Especiale 2018, Crowned Heads also showed off a new cap to commemorate the release.

The Paniolo Especiale 2019 will be presented in 12-count packs and have an SRP of $9.80 per cigar. The total production is being limited to 5,000 cigars.

Photo Credit: Crowned HeadsTransport Canada recently added more rules on who can operate drones, where they can fly and what they can carry and it's sparked mixed reaction for people in the drone business on P.E.I.

Last Wednesday, the federal government adopted strict new regulations for using drones in Canadian airspace.

Drones are prohibited from flying near airports and emergency scenes, and people are not allowed to operate them while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

They also require that drones be registered and that operators of larger drones be certified. Most of the changes are scheduled to go into effect June 1.

New rules bad for business

Jim Soutar, operations manager of Great Hobbies in Charlottetown, said while he's happy to see an emphasis put on safe flying, the rules feel too heavy handed.

"There's a lot of people that it will change how they enjoy their hobby and unfortunately it might mean some people won't continue with that hobby," he said.

Soutar said the amount of work it takes to get necessary licences will dissuade drone users who would otherwise be safe flyers.

Since regulations were first announced two years ago, Soutar said that the store has seen a decline in sales of drones and other remote controlled aircraft.

Safer flying

Lee Dodson owns a videography and aerial drone business based in Summerside and has worked with drones for over 10 years.

He said he's been anticipating the new rules for the last few months and is happy to see that what has been put in place.

Getty images

"Having to do an online test and having to certify yourself as an approved pilot to be able to use a drone means you have had to at least read the regulations and you have had to at least read basic aviation communications," he said.

Dodson said too often he sees people operating drones illegally or dangerously.

"People fly in and they come on holiday and they bring their drone with them and they don't understand the regulations of Canada and that when you're in a park or a private place, the regulations tend to be even more strict."

Story continues

Regulations should include smaller drones

But Dodson said he would like to see drones weighing under 250 grams be bound to Transport Canada's regulations. Currently, anything lighter is exempt.

"They can cause havoc, they can invade privacy," he said.

"To see these small drones flying around ... I think we're going to see a lot more of them and cause a bigger problem than first thought."

Dodson added that there should be a push for more education around the rules and that as they're listed now, regulations can seem unclear to unprofessional drone fliers.

"People could still be unknowingly breaking the law unless they really understand and read those regulations."

More P.E.I. newsSaint John Energy is looking for a developer to build a wind energy project in Spruce Lake Industrial Park.

"Quite frankly, this is a great project," said Ray Robinson, the utility's president and CEO.

"You can increase the amount of renewables on the system and reduce greenhouse gases  while significantly reducing the cost of energy."

Robinson said Saint John Energy has already done about 10 years of research to support the project, including five years of wind data collection, business case analyses, environmental studies and market testing.

"All of those indicators are showing there's a fantastic opportunity for wind development here in Saint John, Robinson said.

Robinson said the wind data indicates Spruce Lake Industrial Park in the western reaches of Saint John has a "very good wind regime," so the output from the project should be "quite impressive."

CBC

The development will likely be able to generate 20 to 40 megawatts of electricity, said Robinson, or eight to 16 per cent of the utility's requirements.

Last year, 95 per cent of the customers who responded to a survey said they would support renewable generation, as long as it doesn't increase rates, he said.

"We're of the belief that this will be driving significant savings to the bottom line."

The utility added that it would not sign a power purchase agreement if that's not the case.

Forbidden from generating power

Much more preliminary work will be required before the project becomes a reality, including an environmental impact assessment and community consultation, said Robinson.

Saint John Energy is not currently allowed, under the Electricity Act, to generate electricity.

"We have aspirations for that, and we're working with the Province of New Brunswick to see if that can happen sometime in the future."

For now, they utility is looking for a third party to build and own the project. Saint John Energy would simply buy the power.

Story continues

CBC

"The long-term play is having legislation changed," said Robinson, "to enable Saint John Energy to effectively implement a growth strategy and through financial performance being able to flow dividends through to the owner, to the city."

According to a timeline on the utility's website it hopes to select a developer by summer and to see the project in operation by late 2021 or early 2022.

"The sooner something like this can be part of the mix the better  for our customers, for the utility, for the city and for the province," said Robinson.

Tried wind before

This isn't Saint John Energy's first attempt at a wind energy project.

It was involved in a failed bid about a year ago, with two other municipalities, for a project under NB Power's Locally Owned Renewable Energy Project, or LORESS, program.

No one at NB Power or Saint John Energy would say exactly why the project was not successful.

But Saint John Energy said it doesn't need the approval of NB Power or the Energy and Utilities Board to proceed this time around.

NB Power said a total of 35 submissions were received under the LORESS program.

Submitted

2 First Nations launch projects

It said the successful ones were chosen based on technical ability, finance capacity, terms, conditions, price and utility policy.

Two LORESS projects have been announced so far. One, involving Pabineau First Nation, near Bathurst, is being built in the Richibucto area. The other, called the Wocawson Energy Project, involves Tobique First Nation and is being built about 20 kilometres east of Sussex.

Both projects are through renewable energy developer Natural Forces NB Inc. and both are expected to be up and running by the end of this year.

Another LORESS project is expected to be announced in the coming weeks, said Marc Belliveau of NB Power media relations.

And submissions are under review now for a fourth and final 20-megawatt project, he said.

NB power has a goal of 40 per cent renewable energy by 2020. It has now signed power purchase agreements taking it to 37 per cent.

"As years go on, we are always approached and will discuss more potential renewable energy projects if they are a good economical fit with our generation fleet and in keeping our rates stable," said Belliveau.

Not in NB Power's mandate

Green Party leader David Coon suggested this week that if the province wants to develop more renewable energy for economic and environmental benefits it will need some other body besides NB Power to drive that development.

"Because it's really not in their mandate," Coon said, following what he described as a lengthy meeting with the chair of NB Power.

"In that light, they just do what the law tells them to do. And the law now tells them they've got a particular target to supply customers from renewable sources of energy by 2020 and they are on track."Good morning, Europe. Today we're watching: French cardinal trial: French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin is going on trial, starting today. Barbarin and five of his colleagues are blamed for staying silent in the case of Father Preynat - who allegedly abused more than 70 boy scouts in the 1980s and '90s. | Read more Golden Globes 2019: Hollywood's biggest stars gathered on Sunday night for the annual Golden Globes. Queen movie "Bohemian Rhapsody" was the big winner of the night, taking home the prizes for best film and best actor. Read more: Full list of Golden Globes winners In pictures: Highlights of the Golden Globes 2019 Golden Globes red carpet: All the must-see fashion from Hollywood's big night Christian Bale credits Satan for Dick Cheney inspiration in 'Vice' Gabon coup attempt: Soldiers in Gabon staged an apparent coup early Monday morning, seizing the state radio station and declaring their dissatisfaction with President Ali Bongo, who is recovering from a stroke in Morocco. | Read more Stranded migrants: The Pope has urged European leaders to end a diplomatic stand-off over the fate of 49 migrants stranded in the Mediterranean for weeks. Follow our live updates here:The Canadian Press

DHARMSALA, India (AP)  The new president of the Tibetan exile government said on Thursday he will do his best to resume a dialogue with China after more than a decade, and that a visit by the Dalai Lama to Tibet could be the best step forward. The Buddhist spiritual leader has expressed his wish to go to Tibet to his birthplace, Lhasa and some other places depending on his physical condition, Penpa Tsering said in an interview with The Associated Press. The Dalai Lama lives in the northern In4 nabbed for journalists murder in Hetauda

Four persons have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the murder of radio journalist Manohar Dhakal in Hetauda.Many investors dream of owning a real estate empire  assets that spin off hundreds of dollars a month in steady, risk-free cash flow.

Id like to advocate a better solution than the usual suggestion of buying a few condos in your city. Instead, the strategy should be to buy core positions in some of Canadas best real estate investment trusts (REITs). These securities offer instant diversification, world-class management teams, and true passive income. All you need to do is watch the income trickle into your account.

The best part? These investments offer comparable yields versus doing all the work yourself and capital gains potential as the value of the property goes up. In other words, you get all of the benefits and none of the drawbacks of physically owning properties.

Lets get started. Heres are two great REITs you can buy today to start making your passive-income empire a reality.

SmartCentres

SmartCentres REIT (TSX:SRU.UN) owns fantastic assets, is run by arguably the best REIT management team out there, and has ambitious growth plans. Can it get much better than that?

The bedrock of the company is its retail portfolio. It has become Walmarts landlord of choice in Canada, with approximately 70% of its properties either anchored or shadow anchored by the worlds largest retailer. This relationship then attracts other retailers that like how busy Walmart is.

Smarts next step is a two-part expansion project. Like many other Canadian retail REITs, it has ambitious plans to redevelop older retail space into something that is combined with office or residential property. The company has also entered a series of joint ventures that will see it expand into areas like self-storage and seniors living.

Some investors might be attracted to REITs with higher yields, but SmartCentres still offers a nice 5.6% distribution. It can also boast nice dividend growth; the company has increased its payout each year since 2013.

Northview Apartment

Story continues

Northview Apartment REIT (TSX:NVU.UN) isnt like its peers. It focuses on owning apartments in secondary markets versus Canadas largest cities. It has a large concentration of suites in places like the Atlantic provinces and northern regions.

These apartments have a couple of advantages compared to other markets. They come with higher returns on investment because there are fewer investors looking to buy in these places. And its more difficult for developers to build in these remote locations.

One of the nice things about owning apartment blocks is, theres limitless expansion potential. The company has grown to more than 27,000 suites across eight provinces and two territories. It spent some $400 million acquiring new properties over the last couple years, and the company plans to shell out $100 million developing properties in 2019.

Northview offers an attractive 6.2% yield, which is a big premium versus its peers. Those stocks all have yields in the 3-4% range.

Collect $500 per month

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That might seem ambitious to some of you, but even a smaller investment can make a big difference. Buying 100 shares of each will cost less than $6,000 today, and the investment will spin off $28.60 each month in passive income, or $343.20 annually. Thats enough for a dinner out for two each and every month.

The bottom line? If you start buying great REITs today, youll build up an empire in no time. The important thing is to get started.

More reading

Fool contributor Nelson Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.Buddhist Poker Player Wins $671,000 and Is Donating His Profits to Charity

Trending News: Amateur Wins $671K After Making a Deal With the Poker Gods

Canadian Scott Wellenbach recently raked in $671,240 at a poker tournament in the Bahamas, and hes giving it to charity.

The 67-year-old from Halifax, Novia Scotia, who works as a translator of Buddhist documents, says hes donating the cash he won after finishing third at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event due to a pact he made with the poker gods.

"The deal that I have with them  has been an excellent one and I will do nothing to change it, he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. I might start losing."

Related: Want to Start a Poker Tournament at Home? Here's What You'll Need

A Buddhists Practice

Wellenbach, who meditates an hour every day, told BBC News poker is a microcosm of life.

"Poker gives you a tremendous opportunity to work with the heavens and hells of your mind," he said. "You're winning and losing every minute and a half, and so some sense of how your hopes and fears go up and down with the passing circumstance of the world is brought to fore at the poker table."

Wellenbach, who donates to Buddhist charities as well as Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam, also said the card game has helped him be a better human being.

"I really feel the poker environment is greatly enhanced by friendliness and conversation and decency amongst the players, he told CBC.

The Peoples Hero

This isnt the first time Wellenbach has given away his winnings. Hes become renowned in the poker world for giving his winnings to charity, giving him the moniker the peoples hero, according to Newsweek.

The amateur player did clarify to the PokerStars blog that hes not giving away all of his money. For many, many years now, Ive been giving all my net profit  not my winnings because some nights youre playing poker and you win, and the next night you lose, right?  so my net profit to charity, he explained in a video.

How can you not love this guy? Scott Wellenbach explains why he will be giving all of his winnings away. Watch that and then check our live #PCA updates as Wellenbach continues to compete for $1.5 million. Updates: https://t.co/kuymOUG1Mf pic.twitter.com/S3WA9YFPkT  PokerStarsBlog (@PokerStarsBlog) January 16, 2019

The last time he took home a big cash haul was in 2017. After that win of a little more than $72,000, he donated to a Buddhist nunnery in Nepal.

You Might Also Dig:Opinion / Columnist

So you are telling me that the whole acting president of the Republic of Zimbabwe failed to bring to an end the strike by the skilled labourers - I mean the junior doctors? But it took Auxilia a few hours to end the strike by the skilled labourers kkkkkkkk its very telling who is more powerful than the other.Mapombi needs to be skilled though; does being first lady automatically makes one fits into government structures? I am not so learned saka ndibatsireiwo vehama because I am failing to understand it kuti the acting state president failed to end the junior doctors strike but Auxilia wouya woita meeting kuState House and suddenly the doctors resume operations, what kind?I am a gentleman ndinofira kureva chokwadi nguva dzese; Auxilia proved beyond doubt that she is more powerful than the acting president. Yes, Kedha is powerless! Kkkkk do you still remember that young man from Zinasu who once warned Kedha that you can bleach your skin but not our nurses and doctors? Kkkkk kairotswa kamufana kaye karipiko ndimbokapa Coca-Cola kamwe  aaah by the way Mapombi cannot afford to buy it anymore because hanzi yava kudhura yoshura. I heard at one point Delta yakatomboti Coca-Cola yava kutengeswa nehard currency kuti zvizipe!But why not allow Delta sell its products in hard currency when government wants citizens to pay duty for luxury vehicles in hard currency? ED said citizens should pay in hard currency kuti zvizipe so Delta should also charge in hard currency kuti zvizipewo futi.In fact all retailers should be allowed to charge any currency of their own choice because it is the government that started to demand hard currency from citizens. Ko handiti muri kuti inonzi mu;lti-currency system her? Mapombi now knows that Kedha is not so intelligent; how can he say that we do not print US$ but the same government is demanding payment of vehicle duty in hard currency kuti zvizipe? Mr Kedha may you please work up and smell the coffee? Do citizen s print the US dollar?No wonder why Auxilia proved more powerful than the acting president; but Mapombi can safely tell you that this is another Grace Mugabe in the making. Speed dzacho dzinoendera  the only difference is that the former was a Doctor, PhD, and uyu haasati adzidzawo to that level. Mapombi knows that very soon UZ will doll out one for her ko rinombonetsa here doctorate pachikomo chedzidzo within a mother Auxilia will be a doctor.I would like to salute those who are trying to rebrand Auxilia; she has slightly changed from the one andaiziva kuChirumhanzu-Zibagwe uku; she mastered the soft-speaking concept very well. Keep it up Auxilia! Give her few years I tell you she will be exactly like Dr Gire; very powerful and would literally run this country takatarisa. At least we now know that she is more powerful than Chiwenga! We saw it all saka musandiitisa nharo zvenyu.Anyway, can someone ask Mthuli  we want to know what is he doing to solve the current economic crisis? Civil servants have been reduced to beggars and they cannot afford to send their children to boarding schools. There paltry salaries they are receiving are not enough pay school fees for one child. Prices of goods and services are going up every day and there is no explanation for that; why nhai Mutuvi?Mapombi thought since ED was forced to abandon his leave, he would come and solve the economic challenges bedeviling our nation but things even got worse atodzoka kudaro kkkkkk kutozosvika pakutuma mukadzi kuti taurawo nema junior doctors, aka skilled labourers according to Chiwenga!Mapombi heard ED is flying to East Europe to try and sign more mega deals but I can assure you nothing will come out of that. Ndopika namai vangu kudai hapana chinouyiwa nacho. ED has betrayed a lot of Zimbabweans who had expected that he would improve the economic situation in the country.In fact, many people now understand what Mugabe meant when he said there was no suitable successor amongst his deputies; kamudhara kaye kaireva chokwadi wena! We have a serious leadership crisis as a nation. Mapombi no longer agrees with suggestions that ED is intelligent.hee hee give him a chance.Zviri nani titopa zvedu Auxilia nyika yacho nekuti anoedza kugadzirisa zvinhu chero zvazvo pasina chinobuda  at least on paper the doctors are back at work thanks to her efforts. Those few doctors sympathetic to government are the ones who resumed work, of course.Anyway, it's almost lunch time let me go ndindokanga zvangu maputi angu and look for rotten bananas. Things are getting tough every day to an extent that even smart people are eating from the dirty rubbish bins. Yes, come to Chitima market so that you can see it for yourself. People are struggling. Where is Mphoko by the way? Tell him he now has a friend in Mthuli Ncube. Hanzi Mthuli ari kugarawo muhotera kubva zvaakapiwa basa nevakomana vechinhu chedu. But Mphoko was a better VP kwete zvana Kedha izvi. Mboko imboko!News / National

by Staff reporter

As normalcy returns to Bulawayo, parents who were traumatised by the violence, looting and destruction of property by hooligans remain skeptical about the safety of their children and have delayed sending them back to school.A snap survey in the City of Kings revealed schools were open, but the pupils were in no show as parents remained doubtful.Some parents, however, said the high transport charges of $2 from the initial $0.50 was unsustainable for them.Government has allayed the fears by advising it has deployed adequate security to maintain security and a tranquil environment in the aftermath of the disturbances witnessed this week.The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has also issued a statement urging parents to allow children to attend school.Over 700 hooligans have so far been arrested for the violence and these are being charged with crimes ranging from arson, barricading roads, looting, violence and attempted murder.Meanwhile, authorities in Matabeleland South have urged parents to heed government's call to allow children to go back to school as it has put in place enough security personnel for their safety.Matabeleland South Province stood out as an example of peace with no looting and property damage incidents recorded except children were detained from going to school by their parents.Provincial education director Mr Lifius Masukume said parents should now feel safe to let their children return to school as security and normal learning environment is guaranteed."From the survey we have made in schools in Matabeleland South teachers are there at schools but learners are not there, so we are urging the parents to send their children because they are losing out," he said.The parents expressed displeasure at the fact that their children lost learning time despite them having paid school fees."Our children are losing out and we are only waiting for them to tell us when we should send our children back to school," said some of the parents.We heard reports of children being beaten in Bulawayo and Harare so we were not sure what would happen to our children that's why we had them stay.Government has assured the nation it has put adequate security to ensure the safety of citizens in the aftermath of disturbances caused by hooligans in some parts of the country.News / National

by Staff reporter

Zimbabwe National Liberations of War Veterans Associations (ZNLWVA) national political commissar, Francis Nhando has praised Chiredzi town chairperson Gibson Hwende as an exemplary leader.Hwende is an MDC Alliance councillor and he recently shocked Zanu-PF after he won the town chairperson position despite the fact that his party has fewer council seats than the ruling party.His victory triggered a witch-hunt in Zanu-PF which accused and suspended two of its own councillors for selling out to the opposition.Nhando, however, is of a different opinion as he feels none of the ruling party's four councillors in the town was competent enough for the job."Hwende was the right candidate for that post as there is no candidate in Zanu-PF who could match him. That guy has more leadership qualities than anyone else in council so I am convinced the councillors made the right choice," said Nhando.He warned Zanu-PF not to expel the councillors it suspects of voting for Hwende, saying they just needed orientation on party ideology."Our councillors displayed a very clear and assessable training need. This deficiency extents to the local provincial leadership which itself has identifiable training needs. All is clear that our party's school (The Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology) must teach its cadres on the consequences of their actions," said Nhando.He attacked corruption in government and the ruling party, saying there was no way towns and cities in the country could develop with the kind of corruption currently taking place."Stands corruption has become a national disaster involving big thieves. Today, as has happened in Chiredzi, our councils have been invaded by looting gangsters zvaana Mashayamombe kuHarare. Land is sold and council is left with no development capital. The result is poor service delivery while gangsters with unexplained wealth roam free," said Nhando.He was referring to former Zanu-PF Harare province chairperson Shadreck Mashayamombe who has often been accused of being a land baron.He warned that the criminals that surrounded former president Robert Mugabe before his overthrow in November 2017 were still free."Our problem is with the bureaucratic comprador. It looks like they are planted to make it impossible. How is it that chidudu chiye chekuGwanda Solar Project is not in prison? Kuwanza tenderpreneurship. This week we heard of those two guys from the Public Service (Commission). We can't be friends with anyone if we play chimuramu nemacriminals akadero," said Nhando.Nhando was referring to Wicknell Chivhayo who failed to implement the Gwanda Solar Project despite being paid US$5 million in advance.He was also referring to chief paymaster at the government Salaries Service Bureau (SSB), Brighton Chiuzungo and former permanent secretary in the Public Service ministry Ngoni Masoka.Chiuzungo was recently suspended from work without pay on countless fraud allegations including making arbitrary allowance and salary increases of 40 percent for himself and collecting back pay of $6 600 backdated to January 2018. His alleged fraud prejudiced taxpayers of tens of millions of US dollars over several years.Masoka on the other hand, is accused of irregularly employing dozens of his own relatives and registering hundreds of ghost workers in a coordinated scam that allowed him to siphon-off millions of dollars from the civil service since 2014.In another scam, Chiuzungo and Masoka allegedly worked in cahoots and implemented a fraudulent vehicle scheme by which they would allocate luxury cars to the ghost workers on a yearly basis. They would then write off the previous vehicle allocations as old' and allow themselves to buy the old' vehicles at unbelievably low prices and claim the vehicles had been sold to the workers'.News / National

by Mandla Ndlovu

Associated Press has released a video of soldiers beating up citizens in Harare Central Business District. The video is one of the footage that the government did not want leaked to the world hence the internet shutdown.The video was alleged filmed on Wednesday.The United Nation, European union and the United Kingdom and USA have condemned the brutal manner in which the state has crushed the citizens after Monday protests.News / National

by Mandla Ndlovu

MDC leader Nelson Chamisa on Friday visited hospitals where victims of state crackdown are being house d and prayed for them laying hands that they may be healed.Nelson Chamisa is an ordained pastor the Apostolic Faith Mission Church.More continue to be arrested as police and army are looking for looters who destroyed property on Monday.News / National

by Mandla Ndlovu

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights have revealed that members of the Zimbabwe Defense Forces have abducted Chairperson Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition leader Rashid Mahiya's mother in a bid to force him to avail himself so that they take him him."Soldiers pick up Mrs Mahiya (Rashid Mahiya's mother) to put pressure on Rashid." ZLHR said. "ZLHR condemns this illegal act which is unconstitutional."On Zimbabwe Peace Project leader Justina Mukoko announced that members of the ZRP Law and Order session stormed the house of ZimRights Director Okey Machisa claiming they are looking for Rashid Mahiya."I just got a distress call from Okay Machisa who reports the presence of an unmarked vehicle and a kombi at his residence the occupants claim they are looking for Rashid Mahiya."Mukoko revealed that the police made the Machisa family to do a parade before leaving the house."Machisa says they asked him to parade his entire family at the gate before leaving but we are not sure for how long they will be gone. They claimed to be from Law and Order."Police and Army details are doing a crackdown on citizens after Mondays' violent protests that rocked the whole country.More details to follow....News / National

by Mandla Ndlovu



Perhaps by some divine coincidence I need not explain, earlier I had a deeply worrying chat with MDC Alliance Vice President Senator Morgan Komichi who's in Harare over a cell phone line. I cannot live with my conscience without sharing what Senator Komichi told me.

Senator Komichi said the second total Internet shutdown was effected around 10pm yesterday. The military and Zanu PF militia used that Internet shutdown along with nightfall to unleash untold horror upon residents of high density suburbs in all cities across Zimbabwe!



Senator Komichi said while Bulawayo and Harare are the most affected, all cities and towns in the country are suffering the same assaults. He said he and his colleagues have been overwhelmed by desperate SoS messages of killings, torture, rape, injuries and abductions!



Senator Komichi said the besieged high density areas have run out of food; there's no access to treatment or transport for the injured; there's widespread internal displacement of persons and the Internet shutdown has made affordable communication next to impossible!



As reported to Senator Komichi and his colleagues, a notably insidious stain of the Army's siege of Zimbabwe's high density areas is that the marauding military units are carrying out their dastardly acts with armed ZanuPF milita gangs, some of them in army uniforms!



The systematic involvement of Zanu PF militia gangs in the military onslaught on residents in high density areas under the cover the Internet shutdown, especially at night, has raised grave concerns given the fact that only non ZanuPF residents are being targeted!



Under the false guise of containing demonstrations against Mnangagwa's cruel hike of fuel prices, the Army and ZanuPF milita gangs are now carrying out a CLEANSING OPERATION in high density areas, reminiscent of gukurahundi, targeting perceived regime opponents!



The Army and ZanuPF siege of Zimbabwe's high density areas under the cover of the Internet shutdown raises key legitimacy questions:

1. Who deployed the Army to besiege high density areas and under what law?

2. Who authorized the Internet shutdown, under what law?



As I listened to Senator Komichi's cracking and emotionally drained voice over the phone, it became clear to me that Zimbabwe no longer has a constitutional government that's bound by the rule of law and which understands that its first duty is to protect the citizens!



I asked Senator Komichi what he and his colleagues are doing about the SoS messages they are getting from the besieged residents of high density areas across the country. He said they're helpless because they're grounded and besieged themselves. They need urgent help!



While Sadc and the AU see the situation in Zimbabwe as demos caused by Mnangagwa's hike of fuel prices, the reality is that the price hike and demos are symptomatic of a constitutional crisis that has become humanitarian. Engaging now than later will save lives!



Professor Jonathan Moyo claims that on Friday during the internet shutdown managed to talk to MDC Vice President Morgan Komichi to ascertain the damage that is being done by the security forces during the crackdown that is happening.Moyo says Komichi revealed that the country has been taken under siege and the MDC is inundated with SOS messaged from citizens reporting murder, rape, arrests and beatings.Find Moyo's full statement below:News / National

by Staff reporter

Zimbabweans are turning to VPNs to find a way around an apparent government internet shutdown, Zim Techreview reported.As a result, VPN comparison site BestVPN.com experienced a 1,560% increase this past Monday and Tuesday, compared to the same period the week before.https://walkersands-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=1nCxTQC4YCzNmkQXZX9EaKtp9ZoKpgldZS5_nw62KTjk-1909795273&key=YAMMID-63491490&link=http%3A%2F%2FBestVPN.comThe government ordered another nationwide internet shutdown Thursday - the second this week - ignoring local and global condemnation of its brutal crackdown against protestors and the adverse impact of the cyber-censorship on an already tanking economy.The country's largest mobile phone network, Econet Wireless, said in an early morning SMS to its over 6,5 million subscribers on Friday that authorities had ordered them to switch off the internet.An earlier internet blackout was in place from around 11AM on Tuesday until 4PM on Wednesday when the government allowed internet service providers to restore internet services, but block access to social media sites and apps.Reports from Zimbabwe indicate that access to the internet appears to have been restored, but that access to social media platforms and messaging apps such as WhatsApp remains blocked.Many Zimbabweans rely on platforms like WhatsApp as a key source of information.Econet said: "At 2205hrs 17/01/19, we were served with another directive for total shutdown of the internet until further notice. Our lawyers advised we are required to comply with the directive pending the court decision on its legality. The earlier directives are already the subject of a pending High Court application. We sincerely apologise for all inconvenience caused by the acts of government which are beyond our reasonable control."Following the restoration of internet services, many Zimbabweans had circumvented the social media restrictions by routing through Virtual Private Networks to maintain contact with the rest of the world.The earlier directive, according to Econet, came in the form of a warrant signed by State Security Minister Owen Ncube and Central Intelligence Organisation boss, Isaac Moyo.The internet blackout appears designed to make it hard for Zimbabweans to coordinate protests and to prevent images and video of the crackdown from seeping out and prompting international criticism.Said Econet in the message to its network users; "we were served with another directive for total shutdown of the internet until further notice."Our lawyers advised that we are required to comply with the directive pending the Courts decision on its legality."The earlier directives are already the subject of a pending High Court Application. We sincerely apologise for all inconvenience caused by the acts of government which are beyond our reasonable control."The High Court challenge was filed by advocacy attorneys, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and the local branch of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) after the first two-day blockade on Tuesday and Wednesday.Apparently responding after, local and international outrage, the government partially lifted the first blockade late Wednesday.Service providers were told to restore access but not for social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the popular text messaging platform WhatsApp.Even so, tech-smart Zimbabweans found ways around the social media blockade by switching to alternatives for WhatsApp as well as Virtual Private Networks (VPN), the latter a common anti-censorship tool.Realising that the social media censorship was not working, the embattled administration reverted to a full internet ban Thursday evening.There was no government confirmation of the latest ban though.Raamesh Koiralas book about Charles Sobhraj is confused, leaving the reader unsure of whether this is a memoir or a novel

Raamesh Koiralas new book about the notorious serial killer Charles Sobhraj is a strange animal. Although ostensibly presented as a non-fiction memoir written by the cardiac surgeon who operated on Sobhrajs heart, the copyright page of the book asserts that This is a work of fiction. Perhaps this was an (glaring) oversight on the part of the publisher, but given the manner in which the book unfolds, it might be an accurate characterisation.News / National

by Mandla Ndlovu

A local rights group Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR Zimbabwe) has written to the President of Switzerland to bar President Emmerson Mnangagwa from entering Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos.The organization alleged that Mnangagwa has implemented gross human rights abuse in Zimbabwe include murder of innocent civilians and shutting down internet to prevent victims from communicating with the outside world.The letter was sent to the Ambassador of Switzerland in United Kingdom Alexander Fasel for transmission to the President. the Embassy acknowledged receiving the letter and said they will transmit the message forward.We publish the full letter below:The Zimbabwe 'President', Emmerson Mnangagwa and his delegation, will be arriving in Switzerland for the World Economic Forum Summit in Davos. This is amid torture, abductions, brutality by state apparatus (military, police, Central Intelligence Organisation and ruling party ZANU PF hit squads) currently underway in our country.The Government of Zimbabwe has shutdown internet services in order to stop the flow of information and to hide the brutality from the international community. Zimbabwe citizens are being slaughtered, using live ammunition, like chickens, in the townships, yetSwitzerland will allow the President Mnangagwa who is responsible for such massacres to eat, wine and dine on their soil.The number of those arbitrarily arrested exceeds 500 so far according to Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights [ZLHR] and Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights [ZDHR], and these include minors. These organisations have issued a statement saying they are treating hundreds of injured civilians for various violence related injuries. The number of deaths is not yet clear as communication is being tampered with and manipulated by state agents.Though we do not support violent protest we feel that the Zimbabwe state security arms in association with militant Zanu pf Hit squad reaction is disproportionate for the required level of engagement.The whole World understands and appreciate the fact that Switzerland prides herself as a neutral country. However, the clear evidence of state sponsored massacres currently happening in Zimbabwe need acknowledging. 'President' Mnangagwa and his delegation must be barred fromentering your country under humanitarian reasons.Let me take you back to 2011 when your predecessor Madam President Micheline Calmy-Rey denied the Zimbabwe government officials visas to attend a United Nations ICT conference. They immediately changed for a short period their abusive behaviour and human rights violations. Hence, by denying them entry now, 'President' Mnangagwa and his cronies will head home tails between their legs. The clear message from your government may be instrumental in ending these Human Rights violations, as it once did before.Switzerland should come to the rescue of suffering Zimbabweans by putting a bold statement that yes WEF in Davos is for business but countries should respect and honour UN declaration of human rights.Looking forward to your cooperation and response on this matter.Yours SincerelySilvanos MudzvovaOn behalf of other activists karen nhakaniso , Delina T Mutyambizi , Precious N Moyo , Olive RRuzvidzo, lilian Nleya Representing Restoration of Human Rights ( ROHR ZIMBABWE) a charity thatdefends rights in Zimbabwe.With the tragic train accident last week, and Minister Blade Nzimande rebuking the inaction of PRASA recently, there is a spotlight on the safety of the rail system. Briefly.co.za explores key issues and the progress of promises and plans.

PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed!

A tragic train accident saw the death of 3 people and more than 600 injuries last week. Transport Blade Nzimande recently condemned the inaction of PRASA, saying they had underspent by R20 billion.

Rail services in the country has gone off the tracks. Countless incidents of derailments, vandalism, assaults and even arson have seen a drop in Metrorail's consumer satisfaction from 70% to 52%.

Despite endless promises from officials to better service, commuters have had no choice but to endure.

PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data with FreeBasics: Briefly is now available on the app

Briefly.co.za explores the key issues and the promises made by PRASA to address them:

1. Issue: Vandalism and safety

Solution: Introduction of a rail unit

In the period of two years, between 2015 and 2017, over 700 incidents of cable theft were reported as well as over 1300 incidents of contact crimes on rail property were reported in the Western Cape alone.

PRASA also reported 45% of rolling stock had been vandalized nationally from the end of 2016 to September 2018.

So what was done about it? In 2018 PRASA, the City of Cape Town and the provincial department of Transport and Public Works created a joint rail unit to ensure the safety of not only commuters but infrastructure.

The unit comprises of 100 trained rail officers on Cape Town's trains for the period of one year. The relatively new unit has enjoyed some success with nearly a ton of rail signal cables confiscated and 36 arrests.

However, this unit is only a temporary one, with no indication on whether it would be made permanent or not.

2. Issue: Erratic leadership at PRASA

Solution: A stable and functional board

In October 2018 Khanyisile Kweyama, interim PRASA board chair, revealed that:

We have inherited an organisation that is almost broken and has reached crisis point,

In April Blade Nzimande had said that the issues surrounding management at PRASA needed to be addressed permanently. Since August 2014 there have been 8 board changes, with the call for stability in leadership increasing.

Kweyama, as well as the remainder of the interim board, had been appointed by the Transport Minister in April.

The rail agency's secretary Lundikhaya Zide had maintained that the government had not taken the entity seriously because of the lack of permanent leadership.

The interim board will stay on at PRASA for a year, ending in June 2019.

3. Issue: Lack of financial statements

Solution: Statements would be submitted by the end of June 2018

The interim board had promised that the rail agency's 2016/2017 financial statements would be handed in to Parliament by June 2018. The documents had been delayed until the end of September, but did little to restore the entity's image.

The financial statements for the 2016/2017 had revealed a loss of R928 million. Irregular expenditure had stood at almost R20 billion.

However, the 2017/2018 financial statements had shown an improvement, with irregular expenditure at R4 billion and losses at R925 million.

4. Issue: Safety plan

Solution: PRASA would release a safety plan

One of the primary objectives of the interim board had been to focus on the creation of a safety plan, this followed PRASA and the Railway Safety Regulator being called to Parliament to explain a train collision.

Kweyama had promised that the agency would present a 12-point plan to the Department of Transport. No deadline had been given for the submission of this plan.

To date, no safety plan had been presented by the rail agency.

READ ALSO: Transport Minister rebukes PRASA for risking lives with R20bn underspending

5. Issue: Maladministration accusations

Solution: State Capture Inquiry

The transport portfolio committee is one of the four parliamentary committees addressing State Capture and maladministration at the government-owned entities in SA.

The committee is posed to explore allegations of maladministration proposed by the former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's 2015 report 'Derailed'.

The rail agency is plagued by allegations of maladministration, irregularities concerning tenders and financial mismanagement.

As it currently stands, no date has been set yet for the investigation.

In conclusion, there appears to be very little hope for PRASA. Commuters on the ground will bare the brunt of the pain while the rail agency attempts to create a state of functionality within itself.

Enjoyed reading our story? Download BRIEFLY's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major South African news!

Source: Briefly.co.zaWhat Bruce Ohr Told the FBI Kimberley A. Strassel January 17, 2019

Everybody knew. Everybody of consequence at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department understood fully in the middle of 2016as the FBI embarked on its counterintelligence probe of Donald Trumpthat it was doing so based on disinformation provided by Hillary Clintons campaign. Thats the big revelation from the transcript of the testimony Justice Department official Bruce Ohr gave Congress in August. The transcripts havent been released, but parts were confirmed for me by congressional sources.

Mr. Ohr testified...

Justice Department official Bruce Ohr arrives for a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., Aug. 28, 2018.Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press

Everybody knew. Everybody of consequence at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department understood fully in the middle of 2016as the FBI embarked on its counterintelligence probe of Donald Trumpthat it was doing so based on disinformation provided by Hillary Clintons campaign. Thats the big revelation from the transcript of the testimony Justice Department official Bruce Ohr gave Congress in August. The transcripts havent been released, but parts were confirmed for me by congressional sources.

Mr. Ohr testified that he sat down with dossier author Christopher Steele on July 30, 2016, and received salacious information the opposition researcher had compiled on Mr. Trump. Mr. Ohr immediately took that to the FBIs then-Deputy Director Andy McCabe and lawyer Lisa Page. In August he took it to Peter Strzok, the bureaus lead investigator. In the same month, Mr. Ohr believes, he briefed senior personnel in the Justice Departments criminal division: Deputy Assistant Attorney General Bruce Swartz, lawyer Zainab Ahmad and fraud unit head Andrew Weissman. The last two now work for special counsel Robert Mueller.

More important, Mr. Ohr told this team the information came from the Clinton camp and warned that it was likely biased, certainly unproven. When I provided [the Steele information] to the FBI, I tried to be clear that this is source information, he testified. I dont know how reliable it is. Youre going to have to check it out and be aware. These guys were hired by somebody relating towhos related to the Clinton campaign, and be aware.

He said he told them that Mr. Steele was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected, and that his own wife, Nellie Ohr, worked for Fusion GPS, which compiled the dossier. He confirmed sounding all these warnings before the FBI filed its October application for a surveillance warrant against Carter Page. We broke some of this in August, though the transcript provides new detail.

The FBI and Justice Department have gone to extraordinary lengths to muddy these details, with cover from Democrats and friendly journalists. A January 2017 memo from Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence Committees top Democrat, flatly (and incorrectly) insisted the FBIs closely-held investigative team only received Steeles reporting in mid-September. A May 2018 New York Times report repeated that claim, saying Mr. Steeles reports didnt reach the Crossfire Hurricane team, which ran the counterintelligence investigation, until mid-September.

This line was essential for upholding the claim that the dossier played no role in the unprecedented July 31, 2016, decision to investigate a presidential campaign. Former officials have insisted they rushed to take this dramatic step on the basis of a conversation involving a low-level campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, which took place in May, before the dossier officially came into the picture. And maybe that is the case. Yet now Mr. Ohr has testified that top personnel had dossier details around the time they opened the probe.

The Ohr testimony is also further evidence that the FBI misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in its Page warrant application. We already knew the bureau failed to inform the court it knew the dossier had come from a rival campaign. But the FISA application additionally claimed the FBI was unaware of any derogatory information pertaining to Mr. Steele, that he was reliable, that his reporting in this case was credible. and that the FBI only speculates that Mr. Steeles bosses likely wanted to discredit Mr. Trump.

Speculates? Likely? Mr. Ohr makes clear FBI and Justice officials knew from the earliest days that Mr. Steele was working for the Clinton campaign, which had an obvious desire to discredit Mr. Trump. And Mr. Ohr specifically told investigators that they had every reason to worry Mr. Steeles work product was tainted.

This testimony has two other implications. First, it further demonstrates the accuracy of the House Intelligence Committee Republicans memo of 2018which noted Mr. Ohrs role and pointed out that the FBI had not been honest about its knowledge of the dossier and failed to inform the court of Mrs. Ohrs employment at Fusion GPS. The testimony also destroys any remaining credibility of the Democratic response, in which Mr. Schiff and his colleagues claimed Mr. Ohr hadnt met with the FBI or told them anything about his wife or about Mr. Steeles bias until after the election.

Second, the testimony raises new concerns about Mr. Muellers team. Critics have noted Mr. Weissmans donations to Mrs. Clinton and his unseemly support of former acting Attorney General Sally Yatess obstruction of Trump orders. It now turns out that senior Mueller players were central to the dossier scandal. The conflicts of interest boggle the mind.

The Ohr testimony is evidence the FBI itself knows how seriously it erred. The FBI has been hiding and twisting facts from the start.

Write to [email protected]q q q

"We've been at this a long time with our battles with saltwater and also have a genuine interest in protecting our precious land in western North Dakota."

-- Daryl Peterson, of Bottineau County, who along with his wife, Christine, have donated $250,000 to promote education about cleaning up brine spills.

q q q

"I believe if we can be patient and we can wait a bit longer that this fund can provide a large amount of wealth to the people of North Dakota."

-- State Treasurer Kelly Schmidt, urging legislators not to tap the Legacy Fund.

q q q

"Infrastructure is a huge component of every city, and when you look at the expense that comes with maintaining and improving a city's infrastructure, it's very hard to do inside of the current special assessments and the current financial structure."

-- Rep. Todd Porter, R-Mandan, on House Bill 1066, which would help fund infrastructure.

q q qNorth Dakota lawmakers would meet in regular session more frequently under proposals introduced in the state Legislature.

Lawmakers currently meet during odd-numbered years, but some argue moving to annual sessions would allow them to be more responsive on budget and policy matters. The state constitution limits lawmakers to 80 days in regular session every two years.

State Rep. Karla Rose Hanson, D-Fargo, introduced two bills on annual sessions. One would require the Legislature to save at least five days to meet in the even-numbered years and another would limit lawmakers to 65 days in the odd-numbered years.

Both of Hansons bills are scheduled to be heard by a House committee Thursday.

Republican Sen. Brad Bekkedahl of Williston also introduced an annual session bill.

North Dakota is just one of four states to hold a regular legislative session every other year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Diversion funding

The Republican majority leaders in the North Dakota House and Senate disputed Gov. Doug Burgums assertion that fully funding the Fargo-Moorhead flood diversion is a no-brainer.Like the human version, bovine tuberculosis primarily affects the airways and lungs of the animals and can be deadly.

Keller said the family and veterinarians are puzzled as to how the cattle contracted tuberculosis, especially a strain not previously identified in the U.S. The strain is most similar to cases associated with cattle in Mexico.

She said possible risk factors were not found in the Sargent County operation as there were no other cattle from Mexico found in the area, the cattle had been purchased privately and not from a large-scale sales barn and there were no employees from Mexico involved in the family business.

Keller said perhaps it's a factor that's too often overlooked that humans can spread tuberculosis to cattle or other animals.

There were no other cattle herds in the Sargent County area that had direct contact with the herd, Keller said.

She added that animals which test negative may move to slaughter, but other movements are not allowed. Cattle with the disease are put down. Meat from animals that pass inspection is safe to consume, she said.

There is a nationwide bovine tuberculosis eradication program, a cooperative state-federal effort. But because of the federal government shutdown, Keller said federal funding and field staff "are currently limited in their ability to assist."

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1"I have to go to an audit client of mine to seek services," Gallion said.

The auditor's mission is unique, he added  being "the eyes and ears of the public on all government."

"If you think of the executive branch as the continental United States, I'm Hawaii," Gallion said. "I'm part of the team, but I just can't touch the team."

Sen. Kyle Davison, R-Fargo, carried the bills, urging no votes due to planning concerns and an emphasis on cybersecurity.

Both bills failed by 0-47 votes.

This and that

Other notable bills saw some movement this week.

HB1097, which would repeal North Dakota's Sunday morning shopping ban, passed the House Thursday in a 56-35 vote.

In his opposition to the bill, Minot Republican Rep. Jeff Hoverson invoked a scene from "Ghostbusters"  when the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man steps on Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Manhattan.

"Nobody steps on a church in my town!" Bill Murray's character exclaims in the scene.The North Dakota Industrial Commission voted unanimously Friday to change how it monitors oil conditioning standards that aim to make Bakken crude oil safer for transportation.

The commission will now require companies to submit vapor pressure tests twice a year instead of quarterly, focused on winter months when problems are more likely to arise, said Lynn Helms, Department of Mineral Resources director.

The state requires companies to remove the most volatile gases from crude oil and test the vapor pressure to ensure it doesnt exceed 13.7 pounds per square inch.

Since the regulations took effect in 2005, the industry has conducted more than 60,000 vapor pressure tests and about one in 1,000 tests exceeded the states limit, according to Helms.

The new requirements will focus enforcement to winter months, requiring one vapor pressure test between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31 and a second between Jan. 1 and March 31.

In addition, Helms said all pipeline companies and many rail facilities have adopted the states vapor pressure limit.In Nepal, a womans identity is still tied to their male kinfolk -- first father, then husband

In 2015, when I appeared for a job interview at a popular Kathmandu school, the very first question the principal asked me was, Are you a Newar?Monday's Gazette included a letter from an august group of clergy-persons calling for a nondiscrimination ordinance. I offer three observations in response.

1. They accuse cities and the state of ignoring the rights of people of various sexual orientation. They offer no evidence of the charge. This was one reason the NDO was defeated the first time. Why add another law with no evidence of need?

2. They quote the Constitution, but handily leave out the sentence that follows theirs. "Neither the state nor any person, firm, corporation, or institution shall discriminate against any person in the exercise of his civil or political rights on account of race, color, sex, culture, social origin or condition, or political or religious ideas." The Constitution already clearly prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. Why pass another law to say the same thing?In reaction to lackluster Wall Street returns, rising income inequality, corporate losses (Sears and Macys) and gains (Amazon), and the government shutdown, there has been increased attention of late to the pluses and minuses of capitalism. Many social theorists and activists may not realize that a century ago in America the prominent voices analyzing capitalism were associated with the Social Gospel movement. Such Christians as Shailer Mathews, Walter Rauschenbusch, Washington Gladden, and Charles Clayton Morrison (founder of the still influential magazine, The Christian Century) were mightily disturbed by the poverty, working conditions, malnutrition and economic imperialism created by the excesses of capitalist industry and commerce.

Identifying with currents of socialism, pacifism, and religious liberalism (openness to modern science and rational biblical analysis) in America at the turn of the century, the social gospelers optimistically advocated that America become a community of communities in which social and economic power is democratically accountable, thereby moving this nation ever closer to the just and compassionate ideals of the Kingdom of God. This vision was shattered politically by World War I, economically by the Great Depression, and theologically by the trenchant analysis of Reinhold Niebuhr in his 1932 book, "Moral Man and Immoral Society".CASPER, Wyo.  A federal trial in February will consist of an allegation of sex discrimination against the Wyoming Highway Patrol, after a judge last month pared down three types of complaints against the agency.

The agency's first female K-9 handler, Delsa B. Sanderson, brought the case early last year, alleging she was harassed by male troopers while stationed in Laramie. An internal rumor accused Sanderson of having a sexual relationship with a supervisor in exchange for a new car, and she was also the recipient of a sexually explicit nickname, according to the suit.

Although Sanderson alleged she worked in a hostile environment and was retaliated against for complaining to her superiors, Judge Scott Skavdahl in December dismissed those allegations, ruling that she had not exhausted other remedies for the retaliation claim and could not show she was subject to the type of harassment that would constitute a hostile environment.

In the same ruling, Skavdahl declined a highway patrol request to dismiss a sex discrimination claim against the agency. The judge wrote that the highway patrol's explanations for demoting Sanderson were inconsistent.

A highway patrol spokesman said Friday he could not comment for this story and referred comment to the attorney general's office, which is handling the case.BOZEMAN  Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 25, at all Bobcat ticket outlets for the April 4 lecture at Montana State University by Capt. Scott Kelly, a history-making U.S. astronaut who spent a year in space.

Kelly, who is also a bestselling author, is expected to discuss his space travel, share lessons on leadership, reflect on his commitment to discovery and tell stories of perseverance at the lecture, which is scheduled at 7:30 p.m. at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. Doors will open at 6:45 p.m.

Kellys achievements during his two-decade career earned him the coveted position as Americas first year-round astronaut. On his mission that began in March 2015 and ended in March 2016, Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko conducted experiments, reconfigured station modules and captivated millions with live interviews and never-seen-before photos from the International Space Station.

Kellys New York Times bestselling memoir, Endurance: My Year in Space and Our Journey to Mars, was published in 2017 and has been optioned as a Hollywood film by Sony Pictures. Infinite Wonder, a book of photographs that Kelly took from space, was published this fall.The senator said he was also worried about how the bill would affect the agricultural community, as some common agricultural practices are considered cruel by some people.

Gierau could not be reached for comment. But Lisa Kauffman, the Humane Societys Idaho director whos also temporarily serving Wyoming, said Wednesday that she was disappointed by the bills defeat.

Although she does believe that harsher fines would have sent a message that animal abuse is a serious offense, Kauffman would eventually like to see a bill that requires animal abusers to undergo counseling.

People who torture animals often have underlying mental illnesses or anger management problems and could likely go on to harm a human at some point, she said, adding that many mass shooters and serial killers started out by hurting animals.

If they get that counseling, a trained professional will be able to pick up on that and hopefully get them treatment that could deter a murder or a domestic violence case down the road, she said.

Kauffman said she plans to meet with state legislators this year to discuss why animal cruelty should be viewed as a red flag.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund, a national legal advocacy organization for animals, and the Humane Society of the United States both cited Wyoming as one of the five worst states in the nation for animal protections in 2017.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 6The 36-year-old Gillette man who died in October following an explosion and fire at an oil field site in Campbell County was a recent hire to the company with limited training, according to the Wyoming Occupational Safety and Health Administrations preliminary narrative of events.Movie reviews: 'Glass' twist-o-rama proves more is not more

Richard Crouse Contributor, CTV News Channel and CTV News Digital

Film critic and Pop Life host Richard Crouse reviews three new movies in theatres now: 'Glass,' 'Stan & Ollie,' and 'Replicas.'

Samuel L. Jackson in a scene from M. Night Shyamalan's 'Glass.' (Jessica Kourkounis / Universal Pictures via AP)

GLASS: 2 STARS I'll start this review with a spoiler to a movie that came out almost three years ago. This will be the last spoiler you'll see here. Here we go, the twist at the end of M. Night "Let's Twist Again" Shyamalan's "Split" revealed that his story of serial killer with twenty-three established personalities also had a twenty-fourth, a superhuman character known as The Beast. What's more - because why settle for one twist when you can have two? - The Beast lives in the same universe as the 2000 film "Unbreakable." Shyamalan's new film "Glass" acts as a sequel for both films, bringing together James McAvoy as "Split's" Kevin Wendell Crumb and "Unbreakable" stars Bruce Willis as the heroic David Dunn and Samuel L. Jackson's mass murderer Elijah Price, a.k.a. Mr. Glass.

Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson and James McAvoy at the 'Glass' premiere in London, on Jan. 9, 2019. (Vianney Le Caer / Invision / AP)

Here's the spoiler-free synopsis: Dunn, the invulnerable security guard with the extrasensory ability to sense the crimes people have done by touching them, is hot on the heels of Crumb's collection known as The Horde, looking to end his killing spree.

Sarah Paulson, left, and Samuel L. Jackson in M. Night Shyamalan's 'Glass.' (Jessica Kourkounis / Universal Pictures via AP)

"When I find the Horde," Dunn says, "I'll take a mental health day."

Following a confrontation between Crumb and Dunn, psychiatrist Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) captures them, placing them in Ravenhill Memorial Pyschiatric Research Hospital, the same institution as Price. "It's a place for people who think they are comic book characters," says Hedwig, one of Crumb's personalities. Convinced they all suffer from delusions of grandeur, her treatment involves convincing them that they are human, not superanything.



That's all you get from me. Cue the plot twists. I like a twist as much as the next person. I still remember having my head knocked back by movies like "The Crying Game" and Shyamalan's "The Sixth Sense" but can we now call a moratorium on multiple twists? Shyamalan has made a career out of subverting people's expectations but there are more twists in the last twenty minutes of "Glass" than you can shake a Syd Field book at. In this case more is not more. Leading up to the twist-o-rama is an examination of what would happen if we learned that superheroes are real. To accomplish this Shyamalan has Paulson's good doctor spend a good portion of the running time trying to convince the superheroes that there is nothing special about them. It's less than dramatic. Worse, the film's ideas on the existence of extraordinary beings (AGAIN, NO SPOILERS HERE) have been beaten to death in everything from the "X-Men" films to "Watchmen" and "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice." Despite a bit of fun from McAvoy's ever shifting characters and Willis's Gandalf / action hero robe "Glass" is a slog. Talky and meta, it's being billed as a "film that took 19 years to make," but doesn't feel worth the wait. Read another take: The underwhelming rollercoaster of 'Glass'

John C. Reilly as Oliver Hardy in 'Stan & Ollie.' (Sony Pictures Classics via AP)

STAN & OLLIE: 3  STARS

For twenty-three years, between 1927 and 1950, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy worked non-stop. According to The Sons of the Desert, their official international fraternal organization, they appeared in 106 films together, including feature films, featurettes, short subjects and cameo appearances. This year we can add one more to the list, sort of. It's not a recently uncovered long lost reel of film or a documentary. This time around the comedic duo get into "another nice mess" in "Stan & Ollie," a new biopic starring Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly that lovingly looks back on the double act's 1953 farewell tour. The action begins with the pair's best days behind them. Their heyday a memory, the ageing duo reteam after a betrayal that blew apart their friendship. "We're getting to know one another again," says Stan. "It's complicated." Booked on a variety hall tour of post-war Britain the pair trot out some of their best known routines to small audiences. "We're getting older," says Ollie, "but we're not dead yet."

John C. Reilly and Steve Coogan on the Rome Film Fest red carpet for 'Stan & Ollie,' on Oct. 24, 2018. (Alessandra Tarantino / AP)

A slow start gives way to bigger and bigger crowds as audiences rediscover the pair's wit and charm. Behind the scenes, however, tensions arise. Stan felt betrayed when Ollie didn't back him up in a power play with producer Hal Roach years before, effectively ending their professional relationship. "The only reason we were in this situation," scolds Stan, "is because you didn't have the guts to ask Hal Roach for the money we deserved." In a stinging rebuke Ollie says, "You love Laurel and Hardy but you didn't love me."

Those frictions, a hectic schedule and Hardy's failing health complicate things but with the help of their strong-willed wives, Lucille (Shirley Henderson) and Ida (Nina Arianda), the comedy legends rekindle their love of performing and one another. Never before has Laurel and Hardy's signature "Dance of the Cuckoos" been more poignant. The story is a show biz tale but at its heart it's the story of two very different men, thrown together on a film set, who formed an unbreakable bond.

Steve Coogan at the London Film Festival premiere of 'Stan and Ollie,' on Oct. 21, 2018. (Vianney Le Caer / Invision / AP)

John C. Reilly at a party for the film 'Stan and Ollie' in London, on Oct. 21, 2018. (Vianney Le Caer / Invision / AP)

The film begins with a long tracking shot as the men walk from their dressing room to the set. It tells us everything we need to know about Stan and Ollie in one five-minute tour de force shot. Stan is the funny one, considered in his approach with a head for business. Ollie is impulsive, going broke and many times married. They are an odd couple with unmistakable chemistry. It's a lovely way to familiarize the audience with these almost-forgotten characters and showcase the easy chemistry between the leads, Coogan and Reilly. By the time the end credits roll it's that chemistry and the just-as-entertaining double act of Henderson and Arianda that elevates this story of friendship and loyalty.

Keanu Reeves in Sanremo, Italy, on Feb. 8, 2017. (Ettore Ferrari / ANSA via AP)

REPLICAS: 1  STARS

Near the end of "Replicas," a new sci film starring Keanu Reeves, a clone assesses the state of her being. "I am dead." She's referring to her former self, the template for her current physical state, but she could just as easily have been talking about her film, a movie about creating life that arrives DOA in theatres. Reeves plays William Foster, a scientist with a genius IQ and family man with a wife (Alice Eve) and three kids (Emily Alyn Lind, Emjay Anthony and Aria Lyric Leabu). By day he works for BioNyne, a Puerto Rico-based biotech firm, toiling to place the sentient minds of dead soldiers into synthetic bodies. If successful the procedure could change the world but so far the results have been uneven. An early test subject spent his final seconds engulfed in existential angst, repeatedly yelling, Who am I?" as it examined its new metal body. "You can't keep bringing back people from the dead while you figure this out," scolds wife Mona. On a rare break from the lab William loads the family into the car for a weekend getaway. Driving in terrible weather he veers off the road, tumbling into a lake. He survives but the family perish. Stricken with grief he has a Eureka moment. The dedicated father and even more dedicated scientist decides to get his family back the only way he knows how - cloning and neural transmission. Enlisting lab partner and clone master Ed (Thomas Middleditch) he sets out to grow a new family in pods in his garage. "What if something horrible goes wrong?" asks Ed. "Something already has," comes William's reply. Layer in some corporate greed and scientific mumbo jumbo and you have a film with all the emotional depth of one of the robots William makes at BioNyne. The creation of life has always fascinated storytellers and audiences alike but "Replicas" is so scattershot - Cloning! Artificial Intelligence! Robots! - it likely should have been titled "Replican't" for its inability to interestingly explore any of its unfocused ideas. With no interest in the ethical or theological ramifications of the work the movie simply becomes a thriller and not a good one at that. Reeves looks like he's putting in some effort - he has more dialogue here than in his last three movies combined - but is in full blown "Sad Keanu" meme mode. Downtrodden and desperate, he veers from monosyllabic to bug-eyed, delivering lines with a gravitas that borders on camp. Once upon a time "Replicas" would have gone straight to DVD, decorating delete bins and quickly forgotten. On the big screen it makes no impression, neural or otherwise.Kathy Manos Penn with Lord Banjo

I have one general guideline for myself in writing my columns: refrain from expressing anger or writing anything controversial -- anything that might cause folks to get up in arms, or worse, angry with me. That's why I don't mention politics or roadwork and traffic irritants even when I have an opinion. I do occasionally write a thought-provoking column, but I lean more towards the lighthearted.With that guideline in mind, I will attempt to "report" the news I've gathered from the PC Police without expressing my opinion about said news lest I offend someone. Chances are If you've been reading my columns long enough, you can probably guess my opinion on all of this.First, I caught wind of the banning of the Christmas songI saw a brief mention of the ban online and thought I'd misunderstood. Then, a British Facebook group went into more detail about a newscaster reporting how inappropriate and offensive the song lyrics are. An AJC article on the topic came next.I laughed when the Brits followed up with a tongue-in-cheek list of additional Christmas songs that were offensive to one group or another and should also be banned. Next, the same British group requested that parents cease telling their children that their tablets, phones, and computers came from Santa because the children who didn't get those gifts might feel unworthy.Last, I picked up the AJC to read that a high school in England had banned kids from wearing certain expensive jackets to school. Why? Because seeing the jackets caused students who couldn't afford them to feel bad. The school powers that be went so far as to deem the wearing of expensive jackets a form of bullying.In the same article, I read that Journalism professors at Leeds Trinity University, also in England, had been told to avoid using the words "do" and "don't" in class and in writing and also to avoid using all caps for emphasis. Finding this bit of news weirdly fascinating, I turned to the internet to dig deeper. An internal university memo explained that these words can cause anxiety, and anxiety can lead to failure. The word "don't" in all caps is considered especially egregious.As I pondered why only Journalism students were receiving protection from anxiety-provoking language, I read that the University of Manchester's student union voted to ban clapping and cheering at events like debates, panel discussions, and talks because the noise could cause anxiety in students with sensory issues. There was no concern expressed for the speakers and debaters.Using jazz hands was designated the preferred way to cheer. A visit to my trusty online dictionary revealed the definition of jazz hands asI wonder whether the use of jazz hands will catch on here in the States at colleges and universities. I can see it now: Unpopular speakers could speak and be heard if students and staff were banned from jeering, booing, and using profane language to run them off the stage. Would college students see that as a welcome or unwelcome change on our campuses?All of this news from the PC Police makes me think of the law of unintended consequences. As I'm coming dangerously close to expressing an opinion and maybe even climbing on my soapbox, I think I'll go to my room and practice my jazz hands.Kathy Manos Penn is a Georgia resident. Her latest book,and her collection of columns,are available on Amazon. Contact Kathy atRepublican legislative leaders say the NAACP deliberately omitted them from a federal lawsuit seeking to kill newly enacted voter ID legislation. They are asking the court to add them as defendants so they can fight to keep the law in place.Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, filed a motion Monday, Jan. 14, in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina to be admitted as intervenors to oppose the suit. Berger and Moore said in a news release Monday the NAACP suit named only Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and the defunct State Board of Elections as defendants in "an obvious effort to keep lawmakers who wrote the law from defending it."Fifty-five percent of voters approved the voter ID constitutional amendment referendum in November. The North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and six of its local branches say Senate Bill 824 , the law spelling out rules to implement the amendment, is designed to suppress minority voting strength.Democratic state Attorney General Josh Stein likely would represent Cooper and the state elections board, although the board was dissolved.the lawmakers said of Cooper and Stein.Cooper vetoed S.B. 824, saying it "was designed to suppress the rights of minority, poor and elderly voters," despite the fact that it was co-sponsored by former Democratic Senator Joel Ford of Mecklenburg County, who is black.Cooper also opposed the General Assembly's enactment of a 2013 voter ID law while he was attorney general. Berger and Moore noted he posted a petition online for opponents to ask then Gov. Pat. McCrory to veto it, and urged McCrory by letter to veto the bill.Cooperand didn't participate in a U.S. Supreme Court appeal to overturn an order by the the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals striking down the 2013 law, the news release said.Stein opposed the 2013 voter ID bill while he was in the Senate. After taking over as attorney general in 2017 Stein moved to dismiss the state's petition seeking a Supreme Court review, effectively derailing the state's case.Hans von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Elections Commission who now is senior legal fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation, thinks the 2018 voter ID law is constitutional, and Stein violated ethics rules by refusing to defend the 2013 law.von Spakovsky told Carolina Journal in November. Stein's office has rejected that contention.The Southern Coalition for Social Justice filed the state court lawsuit seeking to strike down the voter ID law.In the federal suit, the NAACP says provisions of S.B. 824 violate Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act, and the 14th and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution.Boston Mayor Wants to Mandate

Doctors to ask if Patients own Guns

By Dean Weingarten. January 17th, 2019

Original Source

Boston Mayor Martin Walsh wants to mandate that Doctors teach patients about gun safety. It appears to be another Orwellian definition. Gun safety in these circumstances seems to mean getting rid of guns. There is no mention of using known gun safety experts who have been working on the subject for decades. From bizjournals.com:

Involving doctors in gun safety: This act would require medical professionals to ask patients about guns in the home, and bring up the topics of gun safety. The goal, Boston Police Commissioner William Gross said, is to identify those at risk for domestic violence, suicide or child access to guns in order to guide people to mental health counseling, resources or other help. "We're just asking them to help identify ways to save lives," Gross said. The fact that a patient owns guns would not be put in their medical record, and is not intended to have physicians help solve crimes. Chief of Health and Human Services Marty Martinez said that while the program is already common practice at many of the city's community health centers, legislation would broaden the program statewide.

The claim is the ownership of guns will not be put in a patients medical records. If not, how will the ownership of guns help to "guide people to mental health counseling, resources, or other help"? Maybe the information will be stored somewhere else.

This is part of the Progressive push to medicalize all of society. Some of the first big wins of Progressives were to exclude medical issues from most Constitutional protections, in the name of "safety". The big issue was mandatory vaccinations. Mandatory vaccination arguably violates the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution.

That is the model being pushed with guns.

There are big differences.

No one claims smallpox is a Constitutional right.

Half, or more, of the population understands that being armed offers many advantages to the person armed. It is why Americans tenaciously support the Second Amendment.

The tactic used by Progressives to undermine and destroy the Second Amendment is to propagandize the population into believing they are safer when they are disarmed. Rudyard Kipling had an answer to in his poem, Gods of the Copywrite Headings:

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.

They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.

But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

It is a longtime tactic of those who want the population disarmed.

Nearly all health journal studies about firearms have the same basic fallacy: They assume that firearms only have bad effects. They fail to consider positive effects. It is as if they tested a new treatment, and only checked to see if there were bad side effects, and never considered if the treatment worked.

Most of the health journal studies have this blind spot, because the authors have chosen to be unarmed. They do not wish to learn that being armed has positive effects. To do so would challenge their world view. People become very uncomfortable when their world view is challenged.

There is at least one study about firearms and outcomes, published in a medical journal, that did not assume firearms always resulted in bad effects. Their finding was the increases in the legal carry of firearms had no effect on homicides or violent crime.

Requiring doctors to ask patients about gun ownership stigmatizes gun ownership. It is a way of chilling the exercise of Second Amendment rights.

Mayor Walsh is not part of the Massachusetts legislature. But he has a large influence in state politics.

Massachusetts is one of the least Second Amendment friendly states in the Union.

Will the legislature require doctors to ask about gun ownership in Massachusetts?

They may. It diverts attention away from the high homicide rate in Boston.

2019 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included. Gun Watch

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Here are three good ones: Chuck Norris told Dirty Harry, "Yes, I do feel lucky." Only Chuck Norris can prevent forest fires. Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.Yes, Chuck Norris, who starred in a bunch of martial arts movies, is still a bada** at age 78. And although he hasn't been in a movie since 2012, Norris has kept busy writing several books on martial arts, exercise, philosophy, politics, Christian religion, and westerns, twice earning the title of New York Times best-selling author.On Sunday, Norris penned a piece for WND, formerly known as World Net Daily. In the piece, headlinedNorris backs a proposal to have Mexico's biggest drug lord fund construction of a barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border.he writes.Cruz put out the proposal in April 2017, but it's been forgotten (at least until Chuck Norris got his hands on it). Cruz wants "El Chapo" (real name Joaquin Guzman) to forfeit his $14 billion in assets to the U.S. government, which could then use the money for the barrier.Cruz said in a statement at the time.The senator's bill is known as EL CHAPO, which stands for the Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order (EL CHAPO) Act. You can read the bill here.Norris writes.Is Sen. Cruz's EL CHAPO Act not a brilliant idea to fund the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico? And guess what? A Mexican pays for it after all - one evil hombre who has repeatedly raped America's communities and the souls of precious millions through narcotics and other criminalities for the past three decades.Think of the impact passing the EL CHAPO Act could have. First, El Chapo's drug monies could fully fund the completion of the entire U.S. southern border wall without a single dime more from the federal government or American taxpayers. Second, simultaneously the majority of El Chapo's own drug trafficking into our country would be greatly diminished using his own monies. Third, president Trump could fulfill his primary campaign promise. Fourth, the Democrats would be able to open their government the same day the EL CHAPO Act passed.Let it be clear: Passing that single bill could be the compromise they all are looking for, and it is the best win-win-win-win solution the Congress and president could ever enact!And if this idea fails, we could always just send Chuck Norris to the border to roundhouse kick anyone who attempts to enter the U.S. illegally.There are three theories, perhaps even four, upon which President Trump can close our southern border, including providing a permanent, physical barrier:(1) IMMIGRATION AUTHORITY. The President can suspend entry of individuals from Mexico and countries of Central and South America, per an express provision of the US Immigration & Nationality Act, and per the opinion of the Supreme Court in the recent case of the so-called "Muslim ban." Since the restraints in place at the order are currently ineffective to prevent the uncontrolled illegal entry into our country, a physical barrier would be necessary (under the "Necessary & Proper Clause")If Trump takes this option, he neither needs to get Congressional approval nor approval of (or review from) the courts. Neither can stop him because they have already given him that authority and recognized that he was given that authority. Congress did so in federal law (Title 8, Chapter 12 of the US Code - "Immigration & Nationality Act") and the Supreme Court re-affirmed (in Trump v. Hawaii, June 2018).Title 8, Chapter 12 of the U.S. Code, which governs "inadmissible aliens," reads:Notice some key language in that statutory provision:andAgain, every power that Congress is delegated (Article I, Section), including the power it willingly delegated to the President on this particular immigration issue, is subject to the "Necessary & Proper" Clause which the Supreme Court interpreted asThe president has the authority to close the borders. And no lower court can stop him with an injunction..... if he chooses to go this route.(2) DUTY TO REPEL INVASION. Congress can seal off the border pursuant to the authority granted to it to call up the militia ("to repel invasions"; Article I, Section 8) and pursuant to the DUTY delegated to the federal government in general to repel invasion (Article V, Section 4). Additionally, Article II, Section 3 requires the President, as the Chief Executive of government power, to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.Article I, Section 8 authorize s Congress to call up of the Militia for three (3) purposes: To execute the Laws of the Union; To suppress Insurrections: and To repel Invasions.Article IV, Section 4 reads:Article IV talks about a GUARANTEE. It delegates an absolute responsibility on the federal government to provide certain protections for the States - to guarantee each State a republican form of government and to protect each against invasion. States are entitled to EXPECT this absolute guarantee. So, if Congress refuses to do its part, then the responsibility shifts to the President. In the end, the federal government MUST - absolutely MUST - protect all states against an invasion.Indeed, there is an invasion of illegal aliens into our country, imposing severe burdens on our resources (including education, health services, social services, our tax dollars, and our law enforcement system. Taxpayers are entitled to the expectation that the money siphoned off their hard work and property will go only to those who are legal citizens in this country. More seriously, there is an invasion of illegal criminals, gangs, drug cartels and drug traffickers, and human traffickers. Prisons house disproportionate numbers of Hispanic criminals.There are 48 US-Mexico border crossings - LEGAL crossings. But thousands upon thousands each year evade these legal points of entry to come to this country illegally, hoping to take advantage of our government's refusal to enforce our country's immigration laws and to take advantage of every benefit that America offers. (Note though that is the US were to go to war and impose a draft, illegals would not be called). There are approximately 414,000 illegals apprehended each year by a severely-limited and constrained task force of border agents. Imagine how many make it across the border and are not able to be apprehended. The numbers are staggering. And in the past several months, the rate of illegal crossings has increased 37%. New American (online journal) estimates that 14,000 of these are violent criminals.Most aliens that come to the United States illegally do so for a better life, for a chance to make more money. But the open border and uncontrolled illegal immigration brings other problems into our country. The United States is one of the key destination countries, if not the key destination country, for thousands of men, women, and children trafficked from all areas of the world. These victims are trafficked for the purposes of sexual and labor exploitation. Many of these victims are lured from their homes with false promises of well-paying jobs; instead, they are forced or coerced into prostitution, domestic servitude, farm or factory labor, or other types of forced labor. Between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into our country each year, certainly prompting a humanitarian crisis.And then there is the increase in drug smuggling across the border. Seizures of hard drugs like heroin, methamphetamine (meth), cocaine, and fentanyl spiked to the highest levels in years. The numbers reflect the trend of cartels turning to more potent drugs in pursuit of profits, as many of the individual states have decriminalized the use of marijuana, both for medicinal and recreational purposes. In the past two years, enough fentanyl (a synthetic opioid which is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, and can be fatal the first time a person takes it) came into our country from across the southern border to kill every person in the United States. Two Hispanic men were arrested last year in NJ with enough fentanyl to kill the entire population of New Jersey and New York City (with intent to distribute). In NJ alone, in 2016, there were over 800 overdoses from fentanyl, and fentanyl was found in 2% of heroin that was tested in the state. Users are unaware of this. Just recently, in Nebraska, two Hispanic men were arrested for possession of enough fentanyl to kill about 28 million people (with intent to distribute and sell).Finally, there is a significant increase in MS-13 gang membership and activity. MS-13 is a notoriously brutal gang based in El Salvador. In 2005, the Bush administration waged war on the deadly gang (similar to what President Trump is doing), and gang activity was stifled, but under the Obama administration, especially from 2012-2016, the gang has been able to rebuild itself. This resurgence represents a very serious threat to public safety in communities where MS-13 has rebuilt itself. The resurgence is directly connected to the illegal arrival and resettlement of more than 300,000 Central American youths and families that came here, undeterred, during the Obama years. All criminal gangs are a threat to public safety, but MS-13 is a unique problem because of the unusually brutal crimes its members have committed, its success in using intimidation to victimize and control people in its territory, and its focus on recruiting young members, often in schools. Technically, because most of the gang members are illegal, they could be targeted and removed from the communities they terrorize by law enforcement and ICE. However, because of sanctuary policies, and the proliferation of sanctuary states, cities, and communities, these gang members are protected from apprehension.Taken together, it sure sounds like our country is being invaded. And that being so, every state is entitled to protection against it by the federal government. The simplest way to protect the states is simply to enforce our immigration laws and to seal and secure the border with a physical barrier. Make no mistake, we are suffering an invasion of individuals who are first seeking to evade our laws (the cornerstone of our society), and secondly, to do us harm (whether intentional or not, and whether violent or simply by overloading our resources, inciting protests and instability, or presenting a political crisis).(3) DECLARE A NATIONAL EMERGENCY (pursuant to the National Emergencies Act). The goal of this approach is to get border wall funding thru the National Emergencies Act, by diverting money allocated to the military to use to build the wall. The reason this option is an attractive option to President Trump is because once he declares a "national emergency," a decision that is entirely within his discretion (and which many presidents before him did, for much more urgent matters), he is able to set aside many of the legal limits on his authority. He would become vested with certain "emergency powers," such as by instantly becoming Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, or by vesting in him a broad, undefined executive powers. President FDR used national emergency powers to intern Japanese-Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Bush used them to pursue warrantless wiretapping related to the war on terror, and President Obama on account of the Swine Flu outbreak in 2009. (Actually, Obama claimed a state of emergency, thus invoking the Act, a total of 12 times].The National Emergencies Act of 1976 authorizes presidents to issue an emergency declaration, but under certain constraints; he can only use powers Congress has already codified by law and he has to say which powers he's using. The 1976 law was actually passed to rein in presidential abuse with relation to national emergencies. Past presidents such as FDR, Truman, and Nixon abused the power [In the 1952 case, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, the Supreme Court addressed the constitutionality of President Truman's seizure and control of most of the country's steel mills, in anticipation of a strike by the United Steelworkers of America. The Court ruled that Truman had over-stepped his authority].The first thing President Trump would need to do is issue an emergency proclamation, explaining the nature of the emergency. Then he would need to identify which powers he intends to use. If Trump were to try to get border wall funding through the National Emergencies Act, the question then becomes which existing laws he could use to get the money. The Brennan Center for Justice believes there are at least 130 laws that contain special powers Trump could access (other legal experts say there are as much as 136 laws). Apparently, the law Trump is particularly interested in is one that allows him to reallocate military spending on construction projects for the wall. One law allows the defense secretary, after a national emergency declaration, to direct the army's civil works program to construct a structure needed for national defense and use the military budget to do it. Another lets the secretary direct other military services for construction projects. For example, money could come out of the budget for building housing on military bases for service members and into the budget for the wall.The White House has also reportedly directed the Army Corps of Engineers to take a look at its budget for potential funds to divert to the wall, including $13.9 billion from a disaster spending bill passed by Congress last year designed for relief projects in California, Florida, Texas, and Puerto Rico.Alternatively, Trump could declare a "state of immigration emergency," which unlocks an immigration emergency fund, which is generally supposed to be used to help states feed and house migrants and process their claims. The problem with this choice is that the immigration emergency fund doesn't have nearly enough money to meet the amount requested - $5.7 billion.Note, though, that the National Emergencies Act contains a mechanism for Congress to overrule the president by passing a joint resolution (both House and Senate). With Democrats in control of the House, it would presumably pass there easily, but most likely it would not pass the Senate, where Republicans recently increased their majority.(4) THE PRESIDENT'S DUTY TO ENSURE THE LAWS ARE ENFORCED. Again, as mentioned above, Article II, Section 3 requires the President, as the Chief Executive of government power, to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. If Congress won't provide the necessary funding (less than 1% of the total US budget, and a fraction of what Congress spends on "pork" projects), than President Trump may have to accept funding from other sources, including donations.Those are my thoughts anyway.The real authority, however, is my good friend, renown Constitutional attorney and activist, Publius Huldah. In her latest article , "Yes! Trump Has the Constitutional Authority to Secure Our Southern Border," she goes into detail as to why President Trump has the authority to secure our southern border. Please take a read:YES!! TRUMP HAS CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY TO SECURE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER, by Publius HuldahInstead of reading our Constitution and seeing what it says, Americans get their legal advice from what "everybody says."Now, they are hearing about "emergency powers", and are in a tail spin. Did Congress' "Emergency Powers Act" delegate to the President the power to call whatever he wants an "emergency" and then do what he deems best?Our focus shouldn't be on what can be called an "emergency," but what does our Constitution authorize the federal government to do (if anything) with respect to the hot topic of the day?Let's look at Migration (immigration) in the context of the hordes of aliens storming thru our Southern Border. What does our Constitution say about it?President Trump is moving toward his 2024 candidacy as per all indications from his enlightening address to the NC GOP on June 5, 2021. Considering this political vector as a distinct possibility: What is your electoral pleasure as an integral cog in this Representative Republic?

No Vote: Mr. Trump will never be president again as we boldly march toward a Socialist society.

Yes Vote: Mr. Trump was the best president since Ronald Reagan, and we need a real leader, who is fully cognitive of that responsibility in these tumultuous times..Emma J. Johnson, 23, 906 Ella St. $500, seven days jail, license revoked six months for first offense DUI, seven days jail concurrent for no valid registration.

Nicholas J. Umphenour, 33, 1510 High St. $100 for harassment order violation.

Todd R. Manes, 39, 1023 Grant St. $500, seven days jail, license revoked six months for first offense DUI.

Hunter W. Rohr, 20, 1336 E. Hoyt Road. $100 for each of two counts zero tolerance violation, license impounded 30 days.

Remington L. Holes, 28, 423 Helen St. $500, license revoked 60 days, six months probation for first offense DUI.

Justin A. Thomsen, 39, 319 N. 12th St., Wymore. $100 for driving under suspension.

Diane M. Tiemann, 54, Wymore. $75 for animal neglect, $25 for no pet license, $25 for no rabies vaccination.

Travis A. Hamilton, 29, 1223 Market St. $150 for each of two counts shoplifting.

Chad K. Street. 29, 1518 N. Eighth St. $300 for possession of marijuana.

Phillip W. Olin, 42, 415 N. 13th St. $75 for no operators license, $100 for no proof of insurance.Ahram Online, by Azza Radwan Sedky

Here is his tweet in its entirety. As I looked at last year in search of the real hero of our nation, I found that the Egyptian citizen deserves the title.

Egyptians bravely confronted the battle of survival and construction, in addition to bearing the cost of economic reforms so as to achieve a better future for the coming generations.

And so I invite state institutions and civil society to come together to galvanise the efforts of the nation to provide a decent life for needy communities in 2019.

I must hail this Initiative as a much-needed and urgent enterprise, for according to the UN childrens fund UNICEF poverty in Egypt stood at 28.7 per cent in 2015 and increased to over 30 per cent in 2016 and has fluctuated around that figure since.

Egypts constitution also calls for raising standards of living, eliminating poverty and unemployment, [and] increasing opportunities for all.

According to the United Nations, the notion of a decent life means eradicating extreme poverty and providing sustainable development, but what exactly does this mean and how can it be applied?

The basis for a decent life is shelter and sustenance, and since the initiative is aimed at the most underprivileged, it is an appropriate starting point.

Psychologist Abraham Maslows hierarchy of needs affirms that only after an individual fulfills his or her needs for the basics such as food and shelter can he or she attend to growth needs such as self-esteem and self-actualisation and hence productivity.

A decent life entails more than shelter and sustenance, and it is an umbrella of sorts. It translates into the ability to first find and then work at a steady, rewarding job in order to provide sustenance and shelter for ones family.

It comprises living a healthy, productive life in a safe environment with a developed infrastructure such as access to clean running water, electricity, a proper sewage system and a sturdy roof over ones head.

It means that ones children should receive a proper education and suitable medical treatment.

Just as important, it should generate an awareness of how to improve ones life culturally and socially, to take better care of ones children, to realise not only ones rights, but also ones responsibilities, and to be better off with only two children. A decent life clearly encompasses much.

It will take time to pan out the methods of implementation for such an immense project.

However, many Egyptian officials, especially Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali, immediately reacted to the presidents call and conducted a flurry of interviews on several media outlets to explain the initiatives methods of implementation and the role of the various players.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli then directed the government to take the necessary steps to implement the initiative and improve services to those in need in Egypts villages.

The same thing went for civil-society organisations and NGOs, which showed their swift reaction by expressing their support for the initiative, especially with regard to multi-dimensional poverty and the various interventions that lead to improving peoples lives, Wali told a press conference at the cabinet headquarters in Cairo.

She confirmed the availability of a database of the most impoverished villages in Egypt, saying that the focus of the initiative would be on 100 villages in 12 governorates where those in need form up to 70 per cent of the population.

These villages are concentrated in Giza, Minya, Assiut, Sohag, Qena, Luxor, Aswan, Al-Wadi Al-Gadid, Qalyubia, Beheira, Marsa Matrouh and North Sinai, all of them having a poverty rate of 70 per cent or more.

The data is based on studies conducted on 32 million low-income citizens in various regions around Egypt and covers financial, health, education, income and employment aspects to produce multi-dimensional poverty maps providing detailed pictures of the conditions of the poorest villages.

This information will allow those involved in the initiative to hit the ground running.

Meetings have already been held between stakeholders including municipalities and non-governmental organisations to pool suggestions, discuss intervention strategies and begin the ground work.

Our plan is for the initiative to act as an umbrella for a number of already existing civil-society initiatives on employment, healthcare, services and infrastructure, Wali said.

The initiative will also focus on cultural conditions as well as supporting marginalised groups such as orphans and the physically challenged, she said.

According to the Arabic daily Al-Ahram, the cost of the initiative, estimated at LE2 billion, will be partially funded by the Ministry of Finance and the rest will come through NGOs that take part in it.

The Ministry of Religious Endowments plans on supporting the initiative with LE100 million, and other institutions, organisations and the general public will surely add to it as time goes by.

The Decent Living Initiative will spearhead society towards the achievement of Egypts ambitious Vision 2030, which aspires to improve the quality of life for all Egyptians by investing in them so as to achieve sustainable development.

If performed with the anticipated energy and resilience, the initiative will be a very worthwhile enterprise, and as has been seen before with similar presidential initiatives, such as the Tahya Masr Fund and the 100 Million Healthy Lives, it should also ignite the enthusiasm of all Egyptians and galvanise all agencies and institutions, the media, academia and parliament included, to collaborate in its implementation.

*The writer is a political analyst. *A version of this article appears in print in the 17 January, 2019 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: The Decent Life InitiativeAs for national parks, about two-thirds remain open but have limited services, so visitors shouldnt expect the same level of sanitation or monitoring that is customary. While there is no one to collect entrance fees, likewise there is no one to pump out toilets, empty trash or intervene in case of interpersonal disputes or wildlife encounters. All National Parks Service (NPS) personnel (except firefighters monitoring active burns or watch areas and essential leadership at headquarters) have been furloughed.

The Department of Interior has authorized individual parks to dip into their entrance and recreation fees to help pay for essential/emergency services during the shutdown, although the use of these funds will likely slow down maintenance projects by months or years as a result.

While this closure of national parks is an annoyance to Americans planning a visit, its also an economic problem. The nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) reports that NPS has lost upwards of $5 million in entrance fee revenue since the shutdown began, while local businesses and concession operators dependent upon servicing park visitors are also losing out on much-needed income.

Despite closures at the EPA, the NPS and other agencies related to the environment, the federal push to open up more land and offshore waters to fossil fuel extraction continues unabated. According to The Guardian, the Interior Department hasnt slowed down efforts to issue permits for oil drilling on federal land and in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaskas Arctic.

EarthTalk is produced by Roddy Scheer & Doug Moss for the 501(c)3 nonprofit EarthTalk. To donate, visit www.earthtalk.org. Send questions to: question@earthtalk.org.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0WASHINGTON  Despite a partial government shutdown, the Grand Canyon appears to be doing a brisk business  based on the amount of toilet paper workers are taking in to the park and the amount of trash theyre taking out.

Local business officials say that park workers have hauled off 106 tons of trash and stocked more than 472,000 feet of toilet paper during a busy three-week period over the holidays. Thats an extra 14 tons of trash and 147,000 feet more toilet paper than in a typical Dec. 22-Jan. 5 period in other years at the park.

From the waste increase, we feel that there was an increase in park visitation, said Laura Chastain, general manager of the Grand Canyon Chamber of Commerce, who provided the numbers. She said the park is running at almost 100 percent.

Thats good news for nearby businesses that depend on the park and the millions of visitors it draws every year. Jan Bardwell, information specialist at the Williams visitors center, said business slowed recently with the turn in the weather and the end of holiday attractions, but that it had been steady despite the shutdown.

We were running 300 or 400 people a day through the visitors center, Bardwell said. Usually if we get 60 to 100 a day we are doing pretty good.The Society of St. Vincent de Paul has finished another year of helping those in need in our community during the holidays. This included our Annual Christmas Food Distribution and Adopt A Family Christmas programs. These events were supported by many in our community. We could not do it without your support.

On Saturday, Dec. 15, The Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP) continued our Christmas food giveaway tradition that has been going on every year for the past 27 years. In partnership with the Flagstaff Family Food Center: Food Bank and Kitchen (FFFC), this years event provided a food box with an assortment of goods and either a frozen turkey or ham to 150 Flagstaff families to use for their Christmas dinners.

We had some tremendous food drives in November and early December to help fill these boxes. Contributions from San Francisco de Asis Parish, Holy Trinity Newman Center, DeMiguel Elementary School, Knoles Elementary School, Mt. Elden Middle School and San Francisco de Asis Catholic School totaled over 6,200 pounds.Cheating on a girlfriend is hardly ever a good idea, and when being in a one-on-one situation with a super-sexy girl in a club or a private lounge, sometimes it is really hard to stay loyal. One of the premium VR porn moviemakers, Virtual Reality Bangers, know that for sureand thus came the inspiration for its latest VR porn fantasy, "Broken Heart" with Kendra Spade. Even though the girl is extremely beautiful, the main character of this VR porn experience has cheated on her, and now it is the time for her to understand why.

The idea for this VR porn movie came into our heads almost by an accident, as something relatively similar has happened to one of our co-workers, explained Xander Jones, the producer of Virtual Reality Bangers. The aforementioned guy has cheated on his girl with a young slut that he has met on a party, and apart from all the rage and disappointed expressed by his leaving girlfriend, she has also done one more thing, as she simply had to understand how come could this happen.

In the VR porn scene in question, Kendra believes that if you have decided to visit another pussy, then there must be something wrong with hers and she has to understand what that is before proceeding with her life. This pretty much means that even though you are about to leave each others lives forever, there is one last banging waiting for every member of the VR Bangers membership. After all, the girl really needs to prove something and will not allow you to finish with her like that.

Kendra is a great actress and she played her role flawlessly, added Jones. Even though she has never had a situation similar to one inside of this VR porn scene, she could successfully impersonate it in a really natural manner, thus playing her part better than we expected her to. And if you liked her acting, then you will fall in love with her fucking

This one last sex is about to be wildest and kinkiest of everything she has ever done with her boyfriend before, as the girl is really determined to prove that she is no worse than other sluts and can be as filthy as them if she wants. This mean some hardcore gagging on a cock and even harder fucking in the true VR Bangers stylewhich is a really nice thing to watch, especially since it all happens in full 6K ultra high definition.

To check that out, fans can watch this latest VR porn scene over here, and if they are interested in other VR porn movies from Virtual Reality Bangers, head straight to their main page here.CHATSWORTH, Calif.Three visionaries in the world of pleasure products are the latest class of inductees into the AVN Hall of Fame - Pleasure Products Branch.

Sara Lee Goff of Saras Secret and Condoms to Go, Helene Kusens of Honeys Place and Michael Trigg of Trigg Laboratories mark the ninth class of inductees into this branch of the Hall of Fame. The inductees represent the retail, distribution and manufacturing segments of the pleasure products industry.

The induction officially takes place at the 2019 AVN Awards Show. The ceremony will be hosted by adult stars Romi Rain and Bailey Rayne on Jan. 26. MyFreeCams is the presenting sponsor of the 2019 AVN Awards.

In addition to the co-hosts, the AVN Awards Show also features comedian Esther Ku, as well as musical guest Cardi B.

Goff opened her first Condoms to Go store in 1992 in Dallas, a relatively conservative major city. At the time, Goff was looking for ways to promote the use of condoms for a few reasons: one, she had several friends who died of AIDS, and two, she and several friends found themselves divorced and once again entering the dating scene, which had changed drastically.

But Condoms to Goand its sister Saras Secret storesobviously stock more than condoms. The boutique-style stores were a far cry from the adult bookstores that peppered Dallas red-light district at the time, and still cater to women and couples.

She also helped other store owners in Texas, fighting a court battle many would have passed on. In 1995, after granting Goff a certificate of occupancy for a new location in Carrollton, Texas, city officials there filed criminal charges alleging the store was in reality a sexually oriented business. In less than 10 minutes, the jury ruled in Goffs favor. The case was used as leverage over other Texas cities, and in 2008 a ruling in a federal appeals court opened up sales of pleasure products throughout the state.

Honeys Place was founded in 1994 by Helene Kusens, mother of the current owner, Bonnie Feingold. Kusens had years of experience as a sales rep in the adult business when the company she was working for went out of business. So she started up her own enterprise, Honeys Place, in a former beauty shop in Los Angeles.

As a small boutique-style distributor, Kusens carved out a niche for herself by focusing on customer service. And not just any customer serviceshe would go to stores and help the retailers think strategically about their clientele. Her advice on redoing wall displays, making the atmosphere softer and more inviting, and following trends in the novelty business had clients coming back to Honeys Place again and again.

When Kusens passed away in 2002, Feingold took over the reins, expanding on everything her mother started.

Michael Trigg founded Trigg Laboratoriesmakers of the Wet family of personal lubricants and and other sexual wellness and consumer healthcare productsin 1989. Trigg initially opened a 1,000-square-foot facility in Southern California by maxing out $150,000 on his credit cards and selling off real estate investments hed made throughout the 1980s. Trigg soon became well known for helping to develop premium personal lubricants with brightly colored, fun packaging.

"In the late '80s, everyone was very concerned about the transfer of HIV. We saw the growth of condoms skyrocket," Trigg noted in an AVN interview in 2007. "Because condoms are more likely to break without the use of a lubricant, the timing was right to hit the market with a 'fun' packaged lubricant. At the time, lubricant use was increasing 15 percent per year. People were beginning to understand that a lubricant not only eased condom use but enhanced their pleasure a great deal."

Initially marketed to gay men, Wet soon found a wider audience amongst straight women, men and couples. As the sales grew, so did the company: first, the manufacturer moved to a 63,000-square-foot facility in Valencia, Calif., and a few years ago relocated to a 70,000-square-foot plant in Las Vegas.

The Wet brand is available in all major drugstores and mass-market retailers in the U.S. and Canada, as well as in adult specialty boutiques and online stores in more than 60 countries around the world.During his 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trumps core promise to his voters was that he would build a wall on the border between the United States and Mexicoand Mexico would pay for it. Now, Trump has forced the government to shut down for four weeks and counting, forcing 800,000 federal employees to go without pay, because he demands that the U.S. taxpayer fork over $5.7 billion for the wall.

But an Arizona state lawmaker on Friday says she has a better ideamake online porn users pay for the wall. According to a report by The Arizona Republic, state rep Gail Griffin has introduced a new bill that would force internet users to cough up $20 just for the ability to access adult sites online.

The money would go into a newly created account called the John McCain Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Fund, with the proceeds to be used for one of 10 things, The Republic reported.

But the top item on the list of 10 is: Build a border wall between Mexico and this state or fund border security.

The tax would work by requiring makers of internet devicescomputers, smartphones and so onsold in Arizona to pre-load software that somehow blocks access to all porn sites, according to The Arizona Mirror news site.

Users could unblock the sitesby paying a $20 fee that would go into the proposed John McCain Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Fund.

The idea of requiring porn sites to be blocked with users paying an unblocking fee is not anything new. As The Mirror reported, six other states have at least considered similar laws. However, the border wall twist is new, Free Speech Coalition spokesperson Mike Stabile told the site.

Stabile did not seem overly worried that Arizonas porn users would soon be forced to fund Trumps dreamed-of border wall, however. The proposed porn tax is pretty clearly unconstitutional, he told The Mirror.

Photo  Tomas Castelazo, www.tomascastelazo.com / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0Cuomo is not backing in or limiting the plan to some small subgroup of cars. It's full speed ahead. There is no other way.

 The Daily News, New York

If there was ever a time for the Problem Solvers Caucus to shine, this is it. The shutdown of the federal government is well into its second week after the House of Representatives, the Senate and President Donald Trump were unable to come to an agreement over the budget legislation, with the biggest disagreement coming over $5.7 billion Trump wants for a southern border wall (which he once promised Mexico would pay for).

On Dec. 19, Rep. Tom Reed, a Republican from western New York, joined with Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-New Jersey, and Problem Solvers Caucus co-chairman, to urge "leaders on both sides of the aisle to work together, in good faith, and find a solution to keep the government open. Americans expect and deserve much more than more gridlock and more shutdowns."

The very next day, Reed joined with fellow Republicans in Congress to vote to provide funding for the border wall  something he had to know wouldn't sit well with the very Democrats with whom Republican members of the Problem Solvers Caucus need to work. That makes us question Reed's statement that he was "proud to vote to keep our government open for the American people."A Cortland County farmer who previously pleaded guilty in relation to the death of a 14-year-old boy employed at the dairy was sentenced Thursday, the New York Attorney General's Office announced.

Luke Park, owner of the Park family Farm in Homer, was sentenced to 60 days in jail with three years of probation and restitution payments of $10,500. Park pleaded guilty in September to endangering the welfare of a child, willful failure to pay a contribution to the unemployment insurance fund and the prohibited employment of a minor.

The case stemmed from the July 2015 death of Alex Smith, a 14-year-old who worked at the dairy. While operating a piece of machinery, something prohibited by child labor laws, Smith was crushed underneath a bale of hay and the machine's hydraulic lift.

It is unconscionable that any individual would knowingly put a child in harms way, said Attorney General Letitia James. This incident is a tragic reminder that child labor laws exist for a reason. My office will continue to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law employers who unlawfully put children in danger.

Park, according to the release from the Attorney General's Office, paid the majority of his employees off-the-books. The $10,500 in restitution required as part of the sentencing reflects the amount Park owed the state unemployment insurance fund.

Staff writer Ryan Franklin can be reached at (315) 282-2252 or ryan.franklin@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @RyanNYFranklin

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 5 Angry 0"Safety is our number one priority and with the anticipated storm impacting most of New York state, we are implementing this ban on tractor trailers and buses so our plow operators, fire, law enforcement and emergency personnel can keep roads clean and respond to emergencies as quickly as possible," Cuomo said.

Within the Thruway system, the ban will be in effect for Interstate 90 from the Pennsylvania line to exit 24 (Albany), Interstate 87 from Albany (exit 24) to the New York City line, Interstate 287 from Suffern to Interstate 95 and the Berkshire Spur from the Thruway mainline to the Massachusetts state line.

The bus and tractor-trailer ban won't be in effect for the stretch of I-95 within the Bronx and Westchester County.Gunmen in Thailand's deep south shot dead two Buddhist monks and wounded two others inside a temple, police said Saturday, capping a week of deadly violence as the prime minister vowed to "punish" those responsible. Black-clad assailants carrying rifles crept into Rattanaupap temple in Narathiwat province near Malaysia's border on Friday evening and started firing, local superintendent Pakdi Preechachon told AFP. "The attack took place around 7:30 pm (1230 GMT) when an unknown number of gunmen dressed in black entered the temple through a rear area via a creek," Pakdi said. "Two monks were shot dead at the temple while two others were wounded." Since 2004 clashes between ethnic Malay-Muslim rebels and the Buddhist-majority Thai state that annexed the region a century ago have killed nearly 7,000 people, mostly civilians of both faiths. The death toll in the south dropped to a record low last year as Thailand's junta tightened its security web but violence has boiled over in recent days, raising concerns about soft targets at schools and religious institutions. In the past, Buddhist monks have been targeted only infrequently. But they have been told to suspend morning alms collection starting from Saturday in three southern provinces and the southern army commander has instructed security officials to step up safeguards of Islamic leaders who could also be at risk. Junta leader and prime minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha condemned the temple shootings. "The prime minister denounced such a brazen attack and instructed officials to investigate and find the assailants to punish them," said government spokesman Buddhipongse Punnakanta. Human Rights Watch, which said in a statement that at least 23 monks had been killed since the outbreak of the insurgency in 2004, called the assault "ghastly" and a war crime because gunmen went after civilians and a place of worship. The Sheikhul Islam Office, a national representative of Muslim communities in Thailand, denounced the violence against the monks and expressed sorrow over the incident. "There are no religions that teach people to kill innocent people, it's the work of some group of people who want to create divisiveness," it said in a statement Saturday. Pictures taken in the aftermath show monks standing next to heavily armed Thai soldiers and an alms bowl inside the temple compound with bullet holes in it. No one has claimed responsibility, but that is not unusual for the conflict. Last week, an imam in the same province was shot dead but it was unclear if the temple attack was related. Friday's shooting came the same day as four security officials were wounded by two separate roadside bombs and an insurgent was shot dead in a clash near a school that sent students home for the day. Four civil defence volunteers were also killed in a drive-by shooting outside a school on January 10 in the south's Pattani province, with security forces injuring a boy as they gunned down rebels believed to be responsible. In a rare public statement dated January 4 the main Malay-Muslim rebel group -- the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) -- which has command and control over most of the insurgent foot soldiers, swore to "keep fighting". "Siam (Thailand) can't hold out," the BRN wrote, signing off with a warning: "Do not help and support Siam." Security analyst Don Pathan said the uptick in violence was connected to efforts from Thai negotiators and Malaysian facilitators across the border to "pressure the BRN ruling council to come to the table without offering possible concessions." Buddhist monks and armed Thai police at the compound of the Rattanaupap temple, which was attacked by gunmenA senior Republican senator on Saturday urged President Donald Trump to slow down the withdrawal of US ground troops from Syria until jihadists were defeated to avoid a "nightmare" for Washington's allies. "I would hope that President Trump would slow the withdrawal until we truly destroy ISIS," Lindsey Graham told a press conference in Ankara, using an acronym for the Islamic State extremist group. He warned any hasty pullout could lead to a "nightmare" scenario for Israel because of increasing Iranian influence in the war-torn country and for Turkey because of its national security concerns. The South Carolina lawmaker was in Turkey from Friday for a two-day visit during which he met Turkish officials including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. His talks with Erdogan lasted for over two hours after which he was invited by the Turkish leader to a concert on Friday night by pianist Fazil Say. Ankara welcomed Trump's announcement last month that the US would pull out its 2,000 military personnel from Syria but American officials and security experts have been more cautious, worried about withdrawing too early. Graham, who as a member of the Senate Armed Services committee has frequently visited US troops in combat zones, said he believed the "goal of destroying ISIS is not yet accomplished". Their defeat had been "accomplished territorially" but there were "thousands of ISIS fighters that lurk in Syria", Graham warned. Four Americans, including two service personnel, were among those killed in a suicide attack this week claimed by the group in the key city of Manbij in Syria's north. Washington has also expressed concern over Turkey's plans to launch a cross-border military operation against the US-backed Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia. Trump last weekend warned of devastating economic consequences for Turkey over any attack on Kurdish forces. US support for the YPG has caused tension with Ankara which views the militia as a "terrorist offshoot" of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The PKK, which has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984, is blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the US and the European Union. Graham previously warned that "Kurds will get slaughtered" if the US withdrew immediately. But on Saturday, the senator said the YPG's political branch, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), "is interlinked with the PKK" as he acknowledged Turkey's concerns over the militia. US Senator Lindsey Graham warned that thousands of Islamic State jihadists still 'lurk' in Syria South Carolina lawmaker Lindsey Graham, who met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for two hours, said he believed the 'goal of destroying ISIS is not yet accomplished'Woburn, MA (01801)

Today

Clear skies. Low near 55F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low near 55F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.Thousands of Poles gathered in the Baltic port city of Gdansk on Saturday to bid an emotional farewell to murdered liberal mayor Pawel Adamowicz, whose public stabbing has raised questions about hate speech in politics in the country. Adamowicz, 53, who was mayor of Gdansk for 20 years, was stabbed in the heart in front of hundreds of people at a charity fundraiser last weekend by an ex-convict wielding a knife. "It's as if we have lost a member of our family," said Gdansk resident Rafal Jankowski. Around 3,500 people, including President Andrzej Duda and EU Council President Donald Tusk, a longtime friend of Adamowicz, attended the ceremony at St Mary's Basilica, one of the largest brick churches in the world. Nobel Peace laureate Lech Walesa, another former president, also attended the ceremony, being held on what Duda has declared a day of national mourning. - 'My duty to be here' - Giants screens were set up in several parts of Gdansk to allow people to watch the ceremony and photos of the mayor were displayed in numerous shops, cafes and restaurants in the city. "I am 24 years old and he was in power for all of my life," said Tomasz Ceglinski. "Every year, we saw changes in the city: investments, new roads, shopping centres and cultural institutions all thanks to him. It's my duty to be here." The mayor's 27-year-old attacker, who reportedly has a history of mental illness, had previously been sentenced to more than five years in jail for armed robbery. Recently released, the man claimed he had been wrongly imprisoned by the previous government -- led by the centrist Civic Platform (PO) party, to which Adamowicz once belonged. - 'Killed by hatred' - For many Poles however, the mayor's murder was fuelled by online hate speech and toxic divisions between the main political parties. "We must eradicate forever from political life and the public arena, the language of contempt, of humiliation, denigration, lack of respect and dignity towards our loved ones," Gdansk archbishop Slawoj Leszek Glodz said in his homily. Politicians from PO and the ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party have traded barbs for years, as have their supporters online, with critics accusing the government of tacitly condoning the atmosphere of hostility. "It's hatred that killed Pawel," PO leader Grzegorz Schetyna told lawmakers on Wednesday. "A well-organised, crazy hatred directed at a man who with the help of thousands of Gdansk residents was building this great, proud and free city." Numerous media outlets have compared Adamowicz's murder to the 1922 assassination of president Gabriel Narutowicz by a fanatical nationalist at a time of rampant hatred. Since Adamowicz's death, police have detained several individuals for uttering or writing threats against other politicians. Tens of thousands of people have already queued for hours to see the late mayor's casket, covered in white flowers and the city's red flag, and to sign a book of condolence at the city's European Solidarity Centre. Gdansk, a city of around half a million people, was the cradle of Poland's anti-communist Solidarity movement in the 1980s. Adamowicz, mayor of Gdansk for two decades, was backed by the PO party in 2018 municipal polls and won re-election with 64 percent of the vote. The capital Warsaw has named Adamowicz an honorary citizen. The attack on Adamowicz is unusual in Poland, where political violence is rare. The last attack on a political figure was in 2010, when a man fatally shot an aide at a regional PiS office before stabbing another employee, who survived. Crowds gathered to watch the ceremony at St Mary's Basilica Gdansk mayor Pawel Adamowicz was killed by a knife-wielding assailant in front of hundreds of people at a charity event Poles have staged vigils for the slain mayor Tens of thousands of people turned out to pay their respects at Pawel Adamowicz's coffinUS President Donald Trump on Saturday offered to temporarily shield a million immigrants from deportation if Congress authorizes funding for his Mexican border wall -- an idea Democrats rejected, making the US government shutdown likely to grind on. Trump attempted to seize the initiative in ending the 29-day partial shutdown, a funding freeze that has left many important government departments relying on unpaid or highly reduced staff. His bargain, announced in a televised White House address, held out the carrot of protection from deportation for two categories of immigrants. These include 700,000 so-called "Dreamers," children of people who settled illegally in the United States, and who have become a favorite cause of the Democrats, as well as 300,000 other immigrants whose protected status is expiring, Trump said. The president said these concessions would "build the trust and goodwill necessary to begin real immigration reform." In return, Trump demanded the $5.7 billion he says is needed to extend fences on the border with Mexico, something the opposition Democrats have repeatedly refused to authorize. That has prompted the president to retaliate with the government shutdown, which he triggered by not signing off on funding to swaths of departments. The president also called for $800 million in "urgent humanitarian assistance" and $805 million for drug detection technology to help secure US ports of entry. "I'm here today to break the logjam and provide Congress with a path forward to end the government shutdown and solve the crisis on the southern border," Trump said in his address. Trump describes the US-Mexico border -- for decades a magnet for migrants and asylum seekers, as well as a major drug smuggling route -- as overwhelmed, posing a threat to US national security. Democrats, who accuse Trump of using his illegal immigration crackdown to score political points with his right-wing base, spurned the latest negotiating offer as soon as it was leaked in the media prior to the speech. "His proposal is a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and in total, do not represent a good faith effort to restore certainty to people?s lives," said Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives and the face of Democratic opposition to Trump. "They are a non-starter." And Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the US Senate, noted that Trump himself had scrapped previously existing protection for the immigrants whom he is now offering to shield. "Offering some protections back in exchange for the wall is not a compromise but more hostage taking," Schumer tweeted. - Getting personal - Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell meanwhile hailed Trump's proposal as a "bold solution to reopen the government, secure the border, and take bipartisan steps toward addressing current immigration issues," saying he planned to bring it to a vote. Trump's speech was the latest sign that both sides may slowly be grasping for a way out of an impasse that has turned into a test of brute political strength. The New York Times reported that Democrats have added more than $1 billion to their previous offer of $1.3 billion for new border security, even if that is still far short of Trump's $5.7 billion figure. The Times said roughly half the additional $1 billion being offered by Democrats would go to improve infrastructure at ports of entry, and the other half would fund 75 new immigration judges -- but with no new money for a wall. While each side waits for the other to blink, some 800,000 federal employees have been caught up in the shutdown, waiting for paychecks. They include members of the Coast Guard, FBI and airport security staff. All are expected to receive back wages once the shutdown ends, but in the meantime, many have had difficulty paying bills or even feeding their families. The partial government shutdown -- a disruptive political weapon almost unique to the American system -- began on December 22 and is now the longest ever. While polls show more Americans blame Trump and the Republicans than the Democrats, both sides are feeling pressure, as disgust rises across the country with the paralyzed political leadership in Washington. Adding to the sense of chaos, the dispute has turned deeply personal, with Trump and Pelosi exchanging what to many seem like almost playground-level jibes. After Pelosi suggested shelving Trump's upcoming State of the Union address before Congress -- one of the key set-piece political appearances of the year -- the president abruptly revoked her right to use an air force plane for a trip to Afghanistan. Both cited difficulties caused by the shutdown as justification. On Saturday, Trump said Pelosi "is under total control of the radical left." US President Donald Trump's dispute with Democrats over border wall funding has led to the longest-ever US government shutdown House speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected President Donald Trump's proposal to end the partial US government shutdownScores of migrants were feared missing off the Libyan coast, the IOM said Saturday after the Italian navy flew three survivors to the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa. The International Organization for Migration said the three, who were suffering from hypothermia, had reported that there were initially 120 people on board their inflatable boat. That meant "there would be 117 missing, including 10 women and a 10-month-old baby," IOM Italia said in comments posted on Twitter. Earlier the Italian navy said that three migrants had died and about 15 remained missing, after it staged a rescue operation in the Mediterranean. The navy intervened on Friday and a helicopter rescued the three people, one plucked from the sea and two from life rafts dropped by an air force plane, Admiral Fabio Agostini said. Air force pilots had "spotted a dinghy in distress carrying about 20 people," he told Italian television in an interview tweeted by the navy. "Three corpses were seen floating in the water during the operation," he said, adding that the rescuers had been unable to locate the dinghy. The IOM said that most of the migrants were from Cameroon, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Sudan. The three survivors said they had been in the sea for about three hours before help arrived. The German charity group Sea Watch said Saturday that it had rescued 47 migrants from an inflatable boat, but it was not known if they belonged to the same group. A Red Crescent spokesman meanwhile said 16 bodies had been found on the beaches of the Libyan city of Sirte between January 2 and 15. According to the IOM, 83 people have died so far this year trying to cross the Mediterranean. It said the number of migrants and refugees landing on European shores had almost doubled in the first 16 days of this year to 4,216 against 2,365 over the same period in 2018. The German charity Sea Watch said it rescued 47 migrants from an inflatable boat in the Mediterranean, but it was unknown if they were from the same group of those missing off the Libyan coastFrance's "yellow vests" took to the streets Saturday for a 10th straight weekend of anti-government protests, despite attempts by President Emmanuel Macron to channel their anger into a series of town hall debates. The president, who was caught off guard when the protests began late last year, went on the counter-offensive this week, spending hours in rural France debating with disgruntled mayors. But tens of thousands of yellow vests refused Saturday to demobilise. In Paris, several thousand people, many waving placards calling for Macron to resign or condemning police violence, marched through the Left Bank in freezing temperatures. "Parisians, rise up!" they chanted, urging residents of the capital to join the movement which has been led by rural and small-town France. The rally in Paris -- as well as those in Rennes, Toulouse, Lyon and several other cities -- ended in sporadic clashes, with police using tear gas and water cannon to disperse hooded protesters who threw paving stones and bottles. But for the second consecutive week there were no signs of the chaos and destruction seen over several successive weekends in the capital. Turnout was closely watched for signs of possible fatigue in the movement as it enters its third month and Macron's "great national debate" gains momentum. The interior ministry said 84,000 protesters took to the streets across the country, matching the number of demonstrators a week earlier. In Paris attendance fell to 7,000 from 8,000 last week. Some 80,000 police were deployed to keep the peace. "Police everywhere, justice nowhere," protesters in Toulouse chanted. - 'Divorcing our elites' - By giving the protesters a forum to debate their grievances Macron hopes to draw them off the streets. This week, he kickstarted two months of nationwide discussions on issues ranging from taxes to public services, spending more than 12 hours debating with mayors in the north and southwest of the country. Michel, a stocky 53-year-old computer engineer from the Paris suburbs, who returned to the capital Saturday for his ninth demonstration in as many weeks, said he would boycott the discussions. "It's over. We're divorcing our elites and there can be no getting back," the father of three, who did not wish to give his full name for fear it could cost him his job, told AFP. - 'Not addressing real issues' - Macron was elected at the head of a grassroots movement that went door-to-door asking the French what kind of changes were needed. But once in office he adopted a top-down approach more in keeping with that of post-war president Charles de Gaulle. A prodigious debater, he vigorously defended his reforms in the town hall meetings but assured he was open to making adjustments. Many "yellow vests" however see the debates as an attempt to drain support from their movement, which erupted in mid-November over fuel taxes but quickly grew into a broader anti-Macron, anti-elites, anti-globalisation revolt. Marie-Helene Guais, a well-dressed 60-year-old marching in Paris, accused the government of "not addressing the real issues". "What I want is citizen-sponsored referendums so that citizens can repeal laws, oversee spending and recall senior officials or even the president if they want," she said, echoing one of the protesters top demands. The growing number of demonstrators to suffer serious injuries at the hands of the police has compounded their hostility towards the state. The "Disarm" collective, a local group that campaigns against police violence, has counted 98 cases of serious injuries, including 15 cases of people losing an eye to rubber bullets. Several demonstrators in Paris carried white roses in honour of the injured. The police have pointed to repeated attacks on officers as justification for their tactics. - Fortune tax impasse - Macron, who had never held office before being elected president, has struggled to find ways to overcome the biggest challenge yet to his presidency. In December, he scrapped the fuel tax increase the sparked the protests by car-dependent rural dwellers. He also unveiled a 10-billion-euro ($11.5-billion) package of wage increases and tax relief for low earners and retirees. But the measures fall short of the mark for the protesters, who demand a radical policy shift in favour of low earners, buoyed by opinion polls that show widespread sympathy for their cause. Macron has refused to row back on reforms aimed at making France more competitive, including his cuts to fortune tax on high earners. The 41-year-old former investment banker argues the tax repelled investors but polls show more than two-thirds of the French want it reinstated. burs-cb/klm/wai Demonstrations took place in a number of cities across France The scene in Paris towards the end of Saturday's 'yellow vest' protest 'Yellow vest' protesters clash with riot police in Paris French President Emmanuel Macron has launched a series of town hall meetingsEuropean Capital of Culture status has shone a spotlight on Italy's oldest city, whose previous claims to fame were as a cinematic "New Jerusalem" but also its "shameful" slums. Matera, around 9,000 years old and one of the world's longest continuously inhabited cities, after Aleppo and Jericho, was Saturday embarking on a 48-week extravaganza ushering it out of the shadows into the global cultural limelight. The city shares its mantle this year with Bulgaria's similarly ancient provincial city of Plovdiv, which is known not least for its 4th Century BC conquering by the father of Alexander the Great. But Matera's story is quite literally one born of a down-at-heel experience, the southern city nestling close to that part of Italy's boot-shaped peninsula. Centuries of poverty have been a curse and yet the 'blessing' of sorts which eventually put Matera on the map. Since time immemorial, many residents had lived in its caves, called 'Sassi', dating from prehistoric times. But in 1993, UNESCO designated the 'Citta dei Sassi' (City of Stone) with its exquisite rock-hewn churches a world heritage site. - Source of shame - The labyrinthine settlements had been a source of shame -- shame is one of the cultural programme's leitmotifs harking back to the forced clearances of the Sassi in the 1950s -- as well as disease. In those days the caves were a byword for squalor and the social deprivation of much of Italy's deep south. With the chance now to showcase its heritage, Matera is seeing tourism soar with official numbers having risen 170 percent since 2010. The city's stunning rock churches and cave dwellings, boutiques and luxury hotels -- some with rooms dug out of the rock beneath ground level -- have finally allowed it to shed its old reputation of "la vergogna nazionale" (national shame). UNESCO's heritage move was, however, not the first bright spotlight shone on the ancient cave city. - Celluloid attraction - Matera's spectacular backdrop gave several film directors their temporary 'new' Jerusalem, with Mel Gibson's 2004 Drama The Passion of the Christ as well as the earlier King David starring Richard Gere shot there. Cast in its current role of cultural mecca, Matera is now rising above its poor connections to the rest of Italy and its own Basilicata region to showcase its rugged, if crumbling limestone beauty. Matera was chosen in 2014 to co-host this year's cultural extravaganza with its Bulgarian counterparts and Saturday will see 54 bands from EU cultural centres launch the official proceedings in a blaze of colour and sound. A total of 2019 musicians will converge on the old centre to serenade culture vultures and Italian President Sergio Mattarella and dignitaries including European Commissioner of Culture, Hungarian Tibor Navracsics. Italian television will broadcast the proceedings live -- but authorities are offering 19-euro ($22) passes for those preferring to taste the atmosphere on the spot. Each visitor will have the "right" to register, coupled with the "duty" to bring with them an object of their choice, thereby creating their own artistic contribution which will go to make up a final exhibition of its own. Matera will host four major exhibitions across the year, beginning with "Ars Excavandi," showcasing centuries of rock art running from Sunday to July 31. In all, Matera will host some 60 projects including British composer Brian Eno's "Apollo" soundtrack's European premiere on July 18. "Nobody in Matera will be a mere tourist but will have the possibility of joining in with the community dimension which characterises Matera 2019," says the organisers' artistic director Paolo Verri, formerly behind Turin's prestigious book fair. Organisers forecast around a million visitors to the town in the coming 12 months. Mayor Raffaello De Ruggieri warns against the excesses which can accompany mass tourism but readily admits that "it's true, we have gone from shame to glory." Matera has shed its image of slums which once led to it being dubbed a 'national shame' Nestled deep in Italy's south Matera, one of the world's oldest inhabited centres, hopes around one million tourists will visit this year Getting the best out of Matera's historical offerings such as this religious fresco in an ancient cave dwelling known as "Sassi" requires looking deep below the surface As seen from the old front door -- a panoramic view looking out from a cave dwelling onto the centre of MateraImam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Hafeez set up a five-wicket win for Pakistan in the first one-day international against South Africa at St George's Park on Saturday. The left-handed Imam made a cultured 86 off 101 balls and Hafeez hit an unbeaten 71 off 63 deliveries as Pakistan chased down a target of 267 with five balls to spare. Hashim Amla's 27th one-day international century was not enough for South Africa, who lost only two wickets in scoring 266 runs after winning the toss. Pakistan's bowlers deserved credit for their team's win, which came after the tourists were well-beaten in all three Test matches. Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed used his bowlers in short spells and their mixture of seam and spin proved better suited to a slow pitch than South Africa's attack. South African strike bowlers Kagiso Rabada and Duanne Olivier conceded a combined 124 runs in 19.1 overs. The Pakistan batsmen also proved better at rotating the strike, particularly during a 94-run second-wicket stand between Imam and Babar Azam (49). Amla (108 not out) and new cap Hendrick ?Rassie? van der Dussen (93) put on 155 for South Africa's second wicket but although they gradually increased the tempo of their partnership they were unable to dominate the bowling. "Those two guys batted really well but there were probably 15 or 20 more runs that we could have scored if we had pushed a bit harder," said South African captain Faf du Plessis. "Pakistan bowled really well in the middle overs." Man of the match Hafeez said: "We were confident because we knew 266 was not a par score on this track. The first win of the series is very important." Hafeez said an aggressive opening stand of 45 off 50 balls by Imam and Fakhar Zaman had given Pakistan momentum which was continued during the partnership between Imam and Azam. Seamer Hasan Ali and leg-spinner Shadab Khan were the best Pakistan bowlers and the only two who bowled their full quota of ten overs, taking one for 42 and one for 41 respectively. Pakistan looked to be cruising to an easy win until Imam was dismissed in the 37th over when he stepped out of his crease and sliced an attempted drive to deep cover. Two more wickets fell cheaply before Hafeez and Shadab saw their side home, maintaining an unbeaten record for Pakistan in five one-day matches in Port Elizabeth, four of them against South Africa. Amla and Reeza Hendricks (45) put on 82 off 105 balls for the first wicket before Van der Dussen made a slow start in his first one-day international, taking ten balls to score his first run. Van der Dussen gained confidence as he hit six fours and three sixes in a 101-ball innings before hitting a full toss from Hasan to long-off in the 47th over. Amla made his runs off 120 balls with seven fours and a six. Victory salute: Mohammad Hafeez celebrates victorySerena Williams and Novak Djokovic's relentless drive towards more Australian Open glory cranked up another gear Saturday with third round drubbings, as Naomi Osaka and Elina Svitolina survived big scares to stay in the hunt. On day six at Melbourne Park, 23-time Grand Slam Williams crushed Ukrainian teenager Dayana Yastremska 6-2, 6-1 before consoling her at the net as she burst into tears. The 37-year-old, seeded 16, has dropped just nine games in her three matches so far and will face either sister Venus or world number one Simona Halep for a berth in the quarter-finals. "I just play each match at a time, play as hard as I can and do the best I can. That really is all you can do," she said as she zeroes in on an eighth Australian title. She also had some words of encouragement for 18-year-old Yastremska. "She was amazing, she came out swinging. To be so young she came out ready to go." Next up could be misfiring Halep, who is returning from a herniated disc and has limped through her first two matches, taken to three sets in both. Or it may be her sister, who is still going strong 21 years after playing for the first time in Melbourne. Fourteen-time Grand Slam winner and top seed Djokovic is gunning for a record seventh crown at the Open. He dropped a set for the first time this year against fast-rising Canadian Denis Shapovalov, before demolishing him in the final stanza to win 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0. "I just tried to be in the moment and weather the storm," said the Serb, who was unsettled when the lights were switched on in Rod Laver Arena for television reasons, despite it still being daylight. "Completely unnecessary to turn on the lights," he said in roasting the organisers. Djokovic's victory means he is guaranteed to stay world number one when the new rankings are released after the tournament. He next plays another young gun, Russia's 15th seed Daniil Medvedev, who eased past 21st seed David Goffin and has yet to drop a set. Fourth-seeded Osaka looked down and out against Taiwanese veteran Hsieh Su-wei before battling back to win 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 and set up a last 16 meeting with Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova. - 'Die or win' - Osaka's win equals the 21-year-old's best performance at the Australian Open, where she reached the last 16 in 2018 but lost to Halep. But she looked headed for the exit when she conceded the first set and was down 4-1 in the second, before winning five straight games to force a decider. "I just didn't want to give up," said the Japanese, who received a code violation after throwing her racquet. "I really love Grand Slams so I did anything I could do to stay here a bit longer." Svitolina struggled with a painful shoulder complaint that required treatment at every changeover, and medical timeouts, before somehow beating China's Zhang Shuai 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 as the temperature rose in the centre court sunshine. "We left everything on court today," said Svitolina, who scored her biggest career win by clinching the WTA Finals in Singapore last October. "I just told myself 'you're going to die or win'." She will meet 17th seeded American Madison Keys, who beat Belgian 12th seed Elise Mertens. Eighth seed Kei Nishikori made it back-to-back victories for Japan, following Osaka on court, by beating Portugal's 44th-ranked Joao Sousa in three sets. The 29-year-old has won all three of his first week matches on Margaret Court Arena to reach the last 16 for the seventh time in nine appearances. "I love to play this court, I'm very comfortable here," said the 2014 US Open finalist after delighting a large contingent of Japanese fans. He next plays Spain's 23rd seed Pablo Carreno Busta. Serena Williams crushed Ukrainian teenager Dayana Yastremska 6-2, 6-1before consoling her at the net as she burst into tears Serbia's Novak Djokovic is gunning for a seventh Melbourne Park title Japan's Naomi Osaka looked down and out against Taiwanese veteran Hsieh Su-wei before battling back to win 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 Romania's Simona Halep, who is returning from a herniated disc, has limped through her first two matches at Melbourne ParkAn explosion and fire in central Mexico killed at least 73 people after hundreds swarmed to the site of an illegal fuel-line tap to gather gasoline amid a government crackdown on fuel theft, officials said. Hidalgo state governor Omar Fayad announced that the toll had increased to 73 after the discovery of five additional bodies. The blast -- which Fayad said injured 74 people -- occurred near Tlahuelilpan, a town of 20,000 people about an hour's drive north of Mexico City. As soldiers guarded the devastated, still-smoking scene, forensic specialists in white suits worked among the blackened corpses -- many frozen in the unnatural positions in which they had fallen -- and grim-eyed civilians stepped cautiously along in a desperate search for missing relatives. The pungent smell of fuel hung in the air. Fragments of burnt clothing were strewn through the charred brush. When the forensic workers began attempting to load corpses into vans to be transported to funeral homes, some 30 villagers tried to stop them. They demanded their relatives' bodies, saying funeral homes were too expensive. The bodies were ultimately taken to a morgue, authorities said. On Friday, when authorities heard that fuel traffickers had punctured the pipeline, an army unit of about 25 soldiers arrived and attempted to block off the area, Defense Secretary Luis Crescencio Sandoval told reporters. But the soldiers were unable to contain the estimated 700 civilians -- including entire families -- who swarmed in to collect the spilled gasoline in jerrycans and buckets, witnesses said. The armed soldiers had been moved away from the pipeline to avoid any risk of confrontation with the crowd when the blast occurred, some two hours after the pipeline was first breached, Sandoval said. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a leftist who took office only weeks ago, traveled to the scene early Saturday. He did not fault the soldiers, saying, "The attitude of the army was correct. It is not easy to impose order on a crowd." He vowed to continue fighting the growing problem of fuel theft. "I am deeply saddened by the suffering in Tlahuelilpan," Lopez Obrador wrote on Twitter. He called on his "whole government" to extend assistance. The US Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, tweeted that her department "stands ready to assist the first responders and the Mexican government in any way possible." Video taken in the aftermath showed screaming people fleeing the scene as an enormous fire lit up the night sky. "I went just to see what was happening, and then the explosion happened. I rushed to help people," Fernando Garcia, 47, told AFP. "I had to claw through pieces of people who had already been burned to bits." The tragedy comes during a highly publicized federal government war on fuel theft, a problem that cost Mexico an estimated $3 billion in 2017. Acting attorney general Alejandro Gertz described the latest disaster as "intentional" because "someone caused that leak. And the fire was a consequence of the crime." But he acknowledged that investigators would be hampered by the fact that "the people closest to the explosion died." Federal and state firefighters and ambulances run by state oil company Pemex rushed to help victims with burns and take the injured to hospitals. Local medical facilities struggled to cope with the flood of arriving victims, said AFP correspondents at the scene. The fire had been brought under control by around midnight Friday, the security ministry said. Pemex said it was also responding to another fire at a botched pipeline tap in the central state of Queretaro, though in that case there were no victims. Mexico is regularly rocked by deadly explosions at illegal pipeline taps, a dangerous but lucrative business whose players include powerful drug cartels and corrupt Pemex insiders. Fayad said that two hours after the pipeline was punctured, "we were informed that there had been an explosion" and the flames "were consuming everything around." About 15 oil pipeline explosions and fires causing more than 50 fatalities each have occurred around the world since 1993. Most were in Nigeria, where in 1998 more than 1,000 people died in such a blast. A fire after a pipeline rupture in Brazil killed more than 500 people in 1984. - Rampant fuel theft - The tragedy comes as anti-corruption crusader Lopez Obrador presses implementation of a controversial fuel theft prevention plan. The government has shut off major pipelines until they can be fully secured and deployed the army to guard Pemex production facilities. But the strategy to fight the problem led to severe gasoline and diesel shortages across much of the country, including Mexico City, forcing people to queue for hours -- sometimes days -- to fill up their vehicles. The president, who took office on December 1, has vowed to keep up the fight and asked Mexicans to be patient. At the scene, some locals blamed the shortages for the tragedy. "A lot of people arrived with their jerrycans because of the gasoline shortages we've had," said Martin Trejo, 55, who was searching for his son, one of those who had gone to collect the leaking fuel. He also lashed out at the army for failing to stop the looters. "These lives would have been saved if they had done their jobs to remove people and not let them get close. They never did anything." Tanker trucks are being used to deliver fuel, but experts say there are not nearly enough of them. Mexican bank Citibanamex estimated Wednesday that the shortages would cost Latin America's second-largest economy around $2 billion, "if conditions return to normal in the coming days." The roots of the fuel theft problem run deep in Mexico, where the practice -- known locally as "huachicoleo," or moonshining -- is big business for some communities. A Mexican soldier works at the scene of the deadly blaze that occurred during an illegal pipeline tap in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state, Mexico The death toll, initially 21, rose to at least 73 Federal and state firefighters and ambulances run by state oil giant Pemex headed to the area to help burned victims, the governor said The government's strategy to fight the problem has led to severe gasoline and diesel shortages across much of the country, including Mexico City, forcing people to queue for hours -- sometimes days -- to fuel up their vehiclesAfrican nations on Sunday began recognising Felix Tshisekedi as DR Congo's incoming president after the Constitutional Court upheld the vote results, rejecting claims by his main rival of an election stitch-up. The 16-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) along with Kenya have congratulated Tshisekedi and called for a peaceful handover of power. After the court dismissed runner-up Martin Fayulu's call for a recount as "absurd", Tshisekedi was declared the winner with 38.5 percent of the vote, paving the way for him to take over from the country's longtime leader Joseph Kabila. The 55-year-old should be sworn into office on Tuesday, according to his entourage. It would mark the first peaceful transfer of power from one president to another in the Democratic Republic of Congo since independence from Belgium in 1960. The African Union, which had expressed "serious doubts" about the election figures, said on Sunday it has "taken note" of the court's ruling and postponed sending a high-level delegation to Kinshasa. The dispute over the election has raised fears of fresh bloodshed in the vast and volatile central African nation, but calls by Fayulu to protest did not lead to large demonstrations. "SADC calls upon all Congolese to accept the outcome, consolidate democracy and maintain a peaceful and stable environment," its chairman Hage Geingob, president of Namibia, said in a statement "The SADC reiterates the need to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the DRC," Hundreds of Tshisekedi's supporters celebrated by blowing whistles and horns near his party headquarters in the capital Kinshasa, where the atmosphere was otherwise calm on Sunday. - Fayulu alleges 'coup' - Fayulu has described the outcome as an "electoral coup". He has alleged that Tshisekedi promised to protect Kabila's political and financial interests in return for helping to ensure his victory. "I ask the entire international community not to recognise a power that has neither legitimacy nor legal standing to represent the Congolese people," he said of Tshisekedi. Tshisekedi called for unity, saying in a video message that "this is not a victory for one side or the other. "The Congo we are going to build will not be a Congo of division, hate and tribalism -- it will be a Congo that is reconciled, a strong Congo, looking towards development, peace and security for all." Tshisekedi's victory was provisionally announced earlier this month by the Independent National Election Commission (CENI) but was challenged both at home and abroad. On Sunday, the Constitutional Court, which is made up of Kabila's allies, said Fayulu had failed to prove any inaccuracies in the figures. It described his call for a recount as "absurd". But the influential Roman Catholic Church, which says it deployed 40,000 observers to monitor the poll, has dismissed the official outcome. - Violent precedents - Leader of the country's oldest and biggest opposition party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress, 55-year-old Tshisekedi has never held high office. His late father Etienne Tshisekedi had contested Kabila's re-election in 2011. There are concerns that political crisis that began when Kabila refused to step down at the end of his constitutional term in office two years ago could turn into a bloodbath. The vast country suffered through two regional wars in 1996-97 and 1998-2003. The previous two elections, in 2006 and 2011, were marred by bloody clashes. At a summit on Thursday, AU leaders had voiced "serious doubts" about the election figures, and initially planned to send its current chairman, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, to Kinshasa on Monday. But DR Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende rejected the AU's concerns and said the new president would "probably" be sworn in Tuesday along with a new legislature -- dominated, according to official election results, by Kabila allies. They are thus set to nominate the prime minister who will work alongside Tshisekedi. Felix Tshisekedi was declared president by DR Congo's top court, but the opposition cried foul DR Congo's Constutional Court upheld the electoral commission result that gave Tshisekedi 38.57 of the vote, against Fayulu's 34.8 percent Martin Fayulu claims he was cheated of victory in the presidential polls Lawyers representing Felix Tshisekedi celebrated the Constitutional Court ruling that invalidated Martin Fayulu's appeal and sealed Tshisekedi's victory Felix Tshisekedi, former exile, now declared winner of presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of CongoAustralian police on Saturday charged a man with the rape and murder of Israeli student Aiia Maasarwe, some three days after her body was found in Melbourne. The 21-year-old was speaking to her sister on the phone when she was attacked just after midnight on Wednesday, on the way home from a comedy show. Her body was found in bushes near a tram stop by passers-by several hours later. Victoria police, who have described the attack as "horrific", arrested 20-year-old Codey Herrmann in the outer suburbs of Melbourne on Friday. He appeared in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Saturday to face charges of rape and murder. He was remanded in custody and is due to re-appear in court on Monday. Maasarwe was killed after getting off a tram near the university where she was completing a year-long exchange. Hundreds of people dressed in black held several vigils in Melbourne for Maasarwe on Friday, including filling the 86 tram, which she was believed to have ridden on her way home, with flowers. Her father Saeed broke down at the crime scene, where dozens of flowers and messages from the public were left nearby in support. "I feel very, very sad from one side, but from another side, when I get this support and this help -- from the people, from the community, from the police -- it makes the suffering to feel a little more better," he told reporters. "I want to be with her for more time, but someone decided I cannot be." Hundreds of people dressed in black held several vigils in Melbourne for Israeli student Aiia MaasarweWest Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini admitted he left Marko Arnautovic out of the squad for Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth because the Austrian is distracted by talk of a potential lucrative move to China. Arnautovic is looking to force through a transfer to the Chinese Super League after Shanghai SIPG had a reported 35 million ($44 million) bid rejected by the Premier League club. And Pellegrini decided he wasn't in the right frame of mind to feature at Dean Court. "Marko has his head on another issue so I thought it was not a good idea for him to play today," Pellegrini said. "I don't think we need to continue talking about players that are not in the squad in this moment. I never complain about players who are not here. "We couldn't win and, if Marko Arnautovic didn't play, we have another player that must do it." Shanghai are said to be willing to improve their offer and Pellegrini conceded on Thursday that the 29-year-old would be allowed to depart, subject to a "good deal for both parties" being agreed. Arnautovic, the club's joint leading scorer with eight goals, played in last weekend's 1-0 win over Arsenal following the first reports of the China offer. West Ham's Marko Arnautovic missed the defeat at Bournemouth due to speculation over his futureThe photograph shows armed clan warriors, who have decided to give up more than three months constant confrontation with a neighbouring village, on their way to a peace-making ceremony.

It also contradicts a post-independence view, put forward by a number of opinion formers, that before 1975 many PNG policemen were self-serving individuals more interested in feathering their own nest than promoting social stability at village level.

NORTHUMBRIA, UK - This photograph was taken at Minj in the Western Highlands early in 1972 and supports Phil Fitzpatricks view that good bush policemen made their own special contribution to the development of rural Papua New Guinea.

A local policeman joins the front rank to show his enthusiasm to put a stop to inter-clan fighting, Minj, 1972 (Robert Forster)

They are led, and this was no surprise to the kiaps who had organised the lull in hostilities, by a senior policeman (two stripes, probably a corporal) who lived close to the feuding communities.

Can anyone looking at this 47-year old photograph doubt his enthusiasm for what is about to take place?

His behaviour is active not passive, he has a front row position among clan leaders, he is part of the initiative  not a spectator - and he is waving his baton with all the eagerness and authority of a conductor leading an orchestra.

Some may say he should not have being taking part so directly.

However it would have been difficult to stop him.

He had nagged local kiaps incessantly in his efforts to encourage the restoration of village stability and must be credited with a positive contribution to the welcome halt in what had been regular and destructive fighting.It would stand as a serendipitous moment in the convergence of literary activities I undertook in 2018.

Yet, being closely mentored by Jackson throughout the pilot phase of the My Walk to Equality project through preparing media releases and participating in print and radio interviews, I accepted the opportunity he was championing for me.

Without any journalism or media training, I wavered as to my suitability of being seated in the same room as a bunch of over-achieving women in the context of the high-powered organisations headlining the event.

BRISBANE - In October 2017, Keith Jackson AM enquired whether I would be interested in attending the Women In Media Conference and, if so, he would sponsor my attendance at the two-day event at Bond University on the Gold Coast.

Enmeshed in stories of professional battle scars and tales of tested wisdom, I walked away from the near-filled auditorium with a key message: If you believe you are deserving and are willing to back it up by working hard - ask! If you dont ask, someone less deserving will be granted the opportunity.

This philosophy with the aid of Jackson and Phil Fitzpatrick, encouraged my proposal to Paga Hill Development Company (PHDC) for a writers fellowship. On International Womens Day 2018, PHDC awarded me the inaugural My Walk to Equality fellowship.

As a beneficiary over the past two years, I have experienced and observed first-hand the impact of PHDCs commitment to fostering the development of Papua New Guineans (especially women) who write creatively, critically and strive to engage in public discourse through informed, independent-thinking, articulate and structured prose.

Sincere thanks for this go to PHDC chief executive Gummi Fridriksson and his colleagues for their unwavering support of Papua New Guinean writers.

The increasing activity and influence of a number of Papua New Guinean writers is due to PHDCs sustained collaborative efforts with the PNG Attitude virtual community.

I should also take this opportunity to thank the invaluable mentoring team of Keith Jackson, Phil Fitzpatrick, Bob Cleland, and Joan and Murray Bladwell and the continuing support of Betty Wakia, Elvina Ogil, Vanessa Gordon, Betty Chapau, Dominica Are, Alurigo Ravuriso-Kali and Emma Wakpi.

The constant chatter and encouragement motivates me to keep on with what we started with the publication of our anthology in 2016.

I also want to express appreciation to Charlie Lynn OL OAM and the Adventure Kokoda team, chief executive Rebecca McDonald, Dr Lara Cain Gray and the Library For All team, whose time and generosity encouraged me to contemplate (and act upon) what I had not thought possible in the arc of creativity.

My home of writing, PNG Attitude, has long been instrumental in editing, publishing and facilitating a wide readership (in the Pacific and globally) on those regular occasions when I have reported about my fellowship and its related activities.

Accessibility to this effective online-platform has been invaluable in encouraging and promoting Papua New Guinean-authored literature. And yet, the circulation of my activities on other platforms has subjected me to uninformed criticism.

On those occasions, I have been sincerely grateful for the public solidarity demonstrated by informed readers when I needed it most.

Like the MWTE Project Report 2017, a document has been prepared to PHDC to account for the financial sponsorship, demonstrate key learnings and skills acquired and demonstrate how these were shared with the PNG Attitude community.

Some of the highlights of the fellowship have been:

A letter of commendation from the Brisbane Writers Festival 2018 volunteer team supervisor, Meg Vann.

Country nomination for the My Walk to Equality project in the United Nations Girls and Womens Education Prize 2018. This was submitted by Ponabe Yuwa, director of the education program in the PNG National Commission for UNESCO and endorsed by His Excellency Joshua Kalinoe, PNGs Ambassador to Belgium.

Podcast interview with Elvina Ogil, creator of Papua New Guinean women-focused feminist podcast Who Asked Her. As one of two guests for the first episode I was able to discuss my personal experience as a Papua New Guinean woman writing and publishing in PNG Attitude, the MWTE project and the PHDC Fellowship. The episode remains the most popular so far with 1,296 listens (excluding downloads).

Panelist at the My Fathers Daughter: Telling Stories Series pilot event organised by Vanessa Gordon. This was a sold-out live-audience discussion about mental health and Pacific Islanders.

Invitation by Paige West, Professor of Anthropology at Barnard College and Columbia University, to submit PNG-related blog posts to http://www.envirosociety.org.

Development and publication of the Trail of Woe series, a seven-part documentary narrative of observations and feedback from carriers, guides and communities impacted by the present-day operation of the Kokoda Trail trek tourism industry. The series was written following the completion of a 10-day trek of the Kokoda Trail with Adventure Kokoda under trek leader Charlie Lynn. The series can be accessed at the PNG Attitude blog here.

Print and radio interviews regarding the Kokoda Trail trek tourism industry on ABC Pacific Mornings, the ABC Wantok program, Radio New Zealand Pacific and the Pacific Media Centre.

Sponsorship by Keith Jackson to attend screenwriting with Wendall Thomas lecture series in Brisbane. My article on the seminar article may be read here.

Interview with Dr Ceridwen Spark, the vice chancellors senior research fellow at RMIT University, Melbourne. I was interviewed to provide commentary for publication on my personal views of current and future directions of Papua New Guinean women in the leadership of Papua New Guinea.

All in all, it has been a busy, enthralling, fulfilling and educational period of my life. Im now looking forward to applying these skills and more in the pursuit of a brighter literary future for Papua New Guinea and especially for Papua New Guinean women.KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA  At a court hearing in Goroka in 1978, Wayne Ryan  who grew up in the Papua New Guinea highlands and lived there in the 1960s and 1970s - was found guilty of the manslaughter of Caroline Benny after a domestic argument.

Mr Justice Pritchard said the death of Miss Benny, 21, from Losuia in the Trobriand Islands, had occurred in distressing circumstances during an emotionally violent scene.

Ryan, who was 23 at the time and originally charged with murder, spent three years in gaol in Lae. His family still believe the death was an accident.

Susan Francis is completing a memoir, which will soon go to the publisher, and had been urgently seeking further information on this matter.

Many thanks to Arthur Smedley from Milne Bay who provided some first rate detail for which Susan Francis has expressed deep gratitude. She will soon be rushing to the publisher with the final manuscript.YEREVAN, JANUARY 19, ARMENPRESS. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has s ent a congratulatory message to Nikol Pashinyan on being appointed Prime Minister of Armenia. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Prime Ministers office, the message runs as follows,

Your excellency, please accept my congratulations on being appointed Prime Minister of Armenia. The recent parliamentary elections in Armenia, with the technical support of the UN, became an important point for the democratic development of Armenia. I hope that your country will record progress in the future in the spirit of inclusiveness and transparency.

I am confident Armenia will continue supporting the UN principles and goals under your leadership. In line with your ambitious reform agenda, the UN expects to closely cooperate with you and your Government for the implementation of sustainable development goals, as well as for the protection and strengthening of human rights and rule of law.

Taking the opportunity, I also want to reassure that the UN is ready to support the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs, aimed at the peaceful settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Edited and translated by Tigran SirekanyanYEREVAN, JANUARY 19, ARMENPRESS. Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Maja Kocijancic issued a statement on recent developments toward the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

ARMENPRESS reports the statement runs as follows,

Exchanges in recent months between the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, and the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, as well as meetings of the Foreign Ministers under the auspices of the Co-Chairs of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, most recently in Paris on 16 January 2019, send a positive signal for progress in the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

The European Union is looking forward to the full implementation of their outcomes, including the recent Foreign Ministers agreement on the need to take concrete measures to prepare the populations for peace, as well as the consideration of steps aimed at reinvigorating the negotiations.

The European Union continues to fully support the mediation efforts and proposals of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, including through the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia, as well as through civil society confidence-building measures across the conflict divide. All would stand to benefit from lasting peace, which would help to enable the South Caucasus region to fulfil its potential.

Edited and translated by Tigran SirekanyanYEREVAN, JANUARY 19, ARMENPRESS. President of the United States of America Donald Trump has sent a congratulatory message to Nikol Pashinyan on his re-appointment as Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, the government's press service said.

The message in part reads:

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

Congratulations on your appointment as Prime Minister of Armenia and your coalitions success in the December 9, 2018 parliamentary elections.

The United States supports a prosperous, democratic Armenia at peace with its neighbors. Together, we can make progress on deepening trade between our countries, strengthening global security, and combating corruption. A peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will help these efforts.

Best wishes to you and the people of Armenia.A group of diverse but like-minded individuals, the members of ARC have come together in their common desire to fight hatred, bigotry, intolerance and violence because of the harm these antisocial behaviors cause to our society. In that effort, we will not use or sanction the use of illegal actions (such as violence or intimidation) in pursuit of our desired aims and if we learn of anyone who does use these unethical methods we will report those individuals to the authorities. Instead, we will use the guarantees found in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that ensure freedom of legal speech and expression.The two homes are located in Lima districts of San Isidro and Cieneguilla.

Travel restrictions

On the other hand, a Peruvian judge barred the former leader from leaving the country, following a request from the Prosecutor's Office.

The order prohibits Kuczynski from leaving the Inca nation for 18 months while the investigation is ongoing.

President's resignation

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski offered his resignation on March 21 following the release of secret recordings that entangled him in a scandal on the eve of an impeachment vote.





Back then, a group of legislators from opposition parties had filed a presidential impeachment motion on the grounds of moral incapacity after he survived a previous impeachment vote back in December.





This new motion was intended to oust Kuczynski for alleged links with Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.Showtimes fast-talking, hardworking financial comedy Black Monday takes viewers back to Oct. 19, 1987, when the worst stock market crash in Wall Street history wiped out economies across the globe. To this day, no one knows exactly what caused it. Created and written by David Caspe (writer-creator of such vaguely memorable series as ABCs Happy Endings and NBCs Marry Me), Black Monday imagines a fictionalized rogues gallery of Wall Street types who took on the blue-blood, old-boys club and ended up crashing the worlds financial system, a Lamborghini limousine, Don Henleys birthday party and the glass ceiling.

Don Cheadle (Boogie Nights, Captain America: Civil War) headlines the 10-episode, half-hour comedy/drama as Maurice Monroe, the flamboyant, cocaine-loving, robot-butler-having manager of the number 11 trading firm on Wall Street. Among his staff of money-hungry day traders are Regina Hall (The Best Man, Girls Trip) and Paul Scheer (Human Giant, The League). One fateful day, Mo bumps (literally) into recent business school grad Blair Pfaff (Tony Award-winner Andrew Rannells from The Book of Mormon). Blair is a grade A dork straight out of the background cast of Revenge of the Nerds. But at the urging of his ball-busting girlfriend Tiff (Caspes wife Casey Wilson from Happy Endings and Marry Me), Blair is bucking for a job in high finance. Fortunately for Blair, hes developed a magical computer algorithm that predicts stock prices. But after running afoul of crazy money man Mo, his future career seems in jeopardy.

Mo, meanwhile, is busy begging, borrowing and stealing his way to a multimillion-dollar stock deal, taking over a jeans-manufacturing concern sitting on some prime New York real estate. His various machinations put him in contact with assorted criminal types and set him against financial district bigwigs the Lehman brothers (Ken Marino from The State playing a double role). So how, exactly, does Blair fit into all this? And what does it have to do with the stock market crash? Well have to wait and see.

Superbad, Pineapple Express and This Is the End duo Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg direct the pilot (and executive produce the series) and infuse it with some manic energy. You can tell its set in the 80s thanks to the nonstop barrage of references: Gremlins, the Challenger disaster, Jazzercise, Downtown Julie Brown, Top Gun, Crystal Pepsi, crack cocaine, Mayor Marion Barry, Debarge and TCBY Yogurt to name a few. Some of the references are too old (Jane Fonda made Jazzercise popular in 1982), some are too premature (Crystal Pepsi didnt hit store shelves until 1992). The rapid-fire cultural references, the over-the-top energy of the actors and the raunchy humor mean that a lot of the jokes dont have time to stick the landing.

The show does have an intriguing setup, exploring (mockingly, anyway) a dark period in our nations financial history. But even the plotting tries too hard. At the end of the shows frenetic pilot, the campy time capsule of a story has morphed into a twist-filled mystery driven more by crazy coincidence than logic. Like a cocaine high, its fun in the moment, but youll probably regret it afterward.The New Yorker

A Monocle of Recency

Running in The New Yorkers Jan. 21 issue, staff writer Charles Betheas Dont Call It Weed, and Other Tips from the Cannabis Media Summit proffers canny insight into an inaugural conference hosted at law firm Duane Morris midtown Manhattan office. As Bethea notes, The National Law Journal recently put out a list of cannabis-law trailblazers, which included David Feldman, a partner at Duane Morris, who moderated a panel called Ethics in Cannabis Reporting. 

The biannual summits cannabis reporting panel discussion found the green press conversing about everything from style guidelines and word usage to getting stoned with sources; the latter ethical discourse segued into compulsory expectations of and presumptions about genre journalists personal cannabis use and ingratiation with potential sources by misrepresenting said use.

Betheas reportage lets us selectively eavesdrop on industry reps confab on down-low in-flight vaping strategy while the fourth estate tackled topics spanning dispensary line items, expense reimbursement and a punny headline epidemic. Savvy Leaflet subscribersjoin our ranks at bit.ly/LeafletSignupmay recall cannabis lifestyle magazine EstroHaze from last weeks News on the Green column.

Epigenetics | Taylor & Francis

Seminal Genetic Science

As recreational and medical cannabis gain traction in American hearts, minds and legislative bodies, the impetus to gain a modicum of understanding about how cannabis impacts human health takes on new urgency. Recent research by Duke University Medical Center confirms that male cannabis users' THC exposure triggers both regulatory and structural changes in sperm via DNA methylation. That epigenetic signaling mechanism allows cells to control gene expression by fixing them in the off position.

Published by peer-reviewed journal Epigenetics on Dec. 18, the findings of Cannabinoid exposure and altered DNA methylation in rat and human sperm underscore the importance of further research into the state-regulated drugs effect on users sperm and children conceived during periods of cannabis use. Significant increases in cannabis potencyachieved via selective breeding and technological advancementjoin decreased perception of risk in underlining the essential nature of scientific research into the benefits and hazards of human cannabis use.

New Mexico Cannabis Expo Exhibitor Deadline: Jan. 31

P.S. The deadline to reserve and pay for booth space at Weekly Alibis Organabus CBD-sponsored 2019 New Mexico Cannabis Expo is Thursday, Jan. 31 at 5pm. Secure exhibitor space now by phone (346-0660 x 248) or via email (advertising@alibi. com). Visit bit.ly/NMCannaExpo to RSVP to the New Mexico Cannabis Expo, happening Saturday, March 23 from 11am to 5pm at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.During the search, the police found a device similar to the one that exploded in the church

Blast in Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral in Sumy pravoslavie.sumy

The police and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) established those involved in the airsoft explosion in Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral in the city of Sumy. It was reported by the press service of the National Police of Sumy region.

Both suspects are young people, the local residents. At the moment, investigative actions are being carried out in their regard.

Law enforcers seized a pyrotechnic device from one of the young people during a personal search. The device is similar to the one that was used yesterday in the cathedral on Soborna Street, police said.

As it was reported earlier, some unknown young people tried to seize a church of Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Olenivka village, Borznyansky district of Chernihiv region.

On January 15, the meeting of the community took place and about 25 unknown people joined it. They demanded to put the issue of the transition of the local religious community from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) to a vote.

Earlier the activists of Svoboda far-right party along with head of the council of Vorsivka village, Malyn District of Zhytomyr region forcefully hindered the believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to hold the divine service event on the territory of the church.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew passed over 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.The funds shall be assigned for Ukraines 39 infrastructure projects

Open source

The European Commission plans to allocate 4.5 billion Euros for Ukraines integration into the Trans-European Transport Network. Ukrainian Center for Transport Strategies reported that.

39 Ukrainian infrastructure projects specified in the Drive Ukraine 2030 strategy are now included into an indicative plan of construction of the TEN-T trans-European transport network, reads the message.

The plan is prepared by the EU and the World Bank to develop transport communication in the countries of the Western Partnership.

When we say that the implementation of the Drive Ukraine costs about 60 billion dollars, it means that at least 50% of the sum is funded by the state budget and 10% by our European partners, international financial organizations and at the expense of public-private partnership, Volodymyr Omelyan, the Minister of Infrastructure, states.

According to the Minister, implementing these 39 projects shall enable deeper promotion of Ukraines infrastructural integration and Ukraine will become an integral part of the European transport network eventually.

As we reported earlier, Ukraine officially became part of the all-European transport network TEN-T on November 24. Ukraine and the European Union concluded a document on "High Level Understanding on TEN-T core network extension maps to Ukraine".

The TEN-T trans-European network is an infrastructure project of the European Union, which envisages the creation by 2050 of a new transport system in the EU, comprising 94 ports, 38 airports and about 15,000 km of high-speed railways.Ukraine celebrates Epiphany with bathing in icy-holes 112 Agency

Today, on January 19, Ukraine celebrates the Epiphany  one of the most significant holidays for Orthodox and Greek Catholic Christians. This Christian holiday honors Jesus Christ's baptization in the river of Jordan. It is also a Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation of God incarnate as Jesus Christ. The God the Holy Spirit in the shape of a dove descends from heaven.

Theres a folk custom to fortune tell on Epiphany (though any fortune telling is prohibited by the church), which is a relic of the pagan culture.

January 19 traditionally proved to be a true holiday for many churchgoers, who celebrate Epiphany. In many cities, town and villages across the country priests sanctify water while believers bathe in the icy water. The holiday also closes the Christmas holidays.

The water is considered to be sacred. It is unique and is not spoiling for weeks. A lot of people showed true courage and willpower  well, just enough to jump in an ice-hole amidst the freezing temperatures. Emergency and rescue teams observe the situation across the country.Open source

Employees of the Russian Border Service detained a young Ukrainian near the administrative border with mainland Ukraine in annexed Crimea, He allegedly was there without special permits. TASS reports this with reference to the press service of the Federal Security Service of Russia in Crimea.



It is noted that the incident occurred in early January, but the information was published only now.



"On the first holidays of January of this year, officers of the Frontier Directorate of the Federal Security Service of Russia in the Republic of Crimea detained a Ukrainian citizen born in 1992 who was in close proximity to the state border of the Russian Federation without relevant documents, reads the message.

It clarifies that the incident occurred away from the Dzhankoy automobile checkpoint.



A man is detained for violating the rules of entry into the border zone, temporary stay and movement in it according to part 1.1 of article 18.2 of the Code on Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, the report said.Russia did not provide the European Court of Human Rights with information about the Ukrainian political prisoner Pavlo Gryb's health status. His father Igor Gryb reported that on Facebook.

Today, on January 18, a regular court hearing took place in Rostov-on-Don. Pavlo made a statement regarding his poor health and asked to postpone the meeting, but the court rejected it, motivating it with a medical certificate from the remand centre, the father wrote.



According to him, Pavlo also reported about the beatings during the arrest, about how the kidnappers choked him, how they scoffed and beat to receive the testimony. However, the court ignored this statement.



The requirement of the European Court of Human Rights to conduct additional professional examinations and provide materials on this by January 2, 2019 has not been fulfilled, said the father of the political prisoner.



He also said that the next court sessions will be held January 24-25. Pavlo asks Ukrainian journalists to be present at the sessions, the report stresses.According to the law, the bullying is 'an act of moral or physical violence, aggression in any shape or any other actions aiming to cause fear, anxiety, subdue a person to one's interests, which contain the signs of the deliberately violent treatment'

Illustrative photo of bullying Open source

A law on countering bullying at schools and setting fines for violations in Ukraine comes into force today, on January 19.

According to the law, the bullying is 'an act of moral or physical violence, aggression in any shape or any other actions aiming to cause fear, anxiety, subdue a person to one's interests, which contain the signs of the deliberately violent treatment'.

The fine for this particular violation makes from 30 to 60 U.S. dollars or public works from 20 to 40 hours in total. If the bullying act was committed by a number of people or the act was committed again during one year, the fine will make from 60 to 120 dollars or public works from 40 to 60 hours in total. If the crime is committed by minors from 14 to 16 years old, their parents or patrons are the ones to be fined for bullying.

Besides, any school principal who fails to report such cases to the police will be fined as well.

The law stipulates typical signs of bullying: the systematic nature of the crime; the presence of sides involved in the act - the bully, the bullied person, and the witnesses (if any); actions or lack of action, which resulted in emotional and/or physical damage, humiliation, fear, anxiety and/or social isolation of the affected person.

The rights and responsibilities of participants in the education process were increased in order to deter the acts of bullying. The founder of the education facility is obliged to offer the psychological assistance for all sides to the conflict, including the witnesses. The person in charge of the education facility must create a safe education environment, freed from violence and bullying; he/she develops the plan of actions to counteract bullying, considers the appeals on such cases and makes decisions on holding investigations, informing the National Police.

Both students and teachers have the right to be protected from bullying.

As it was reported, Ukraines Parliament adopted this document with 228 votes of the peoples deputies in December 2018. Ukraines President Poroshenko signed a law on December 17.He attacked a woman with a knife in Oslo supermarket

Open source

Norwegian police suspected a Russian citizen of terrorism, who attacked a woman with a knife in a supermarket n Oslo, as Reuters reported.

The man said under questioning that he wanted to kill several people and that this was an act of terror, the police reported.

The attack occurred when woman was paying at a cashier desk. Later, after the knife attack, the police detained a 20-year-old Russian.

He arrived in Oslo on Thursday, traveling from Russia to Sweden.

Police is investigating his ties with Islamic extremists.

The injured is at a hospital; she's in critical condition now.The U.S. President Donald Trump told his former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie concerning the talks about the construction of Trump Tower in Moscow, as Buzzfeed reported.

Trump directed his lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations on the construction on a residential building Trump Tower in Moscow in 2016, the message says.

According to Cohen, Trump supported his idea to visit Russia during the presidential campaign to meet Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, and begin talks on the construction.

Make it happen, Trump told him.

Trump denied that he has some business interests in Russia during his presidential campaign.

On the campaign trail, Trump vehemently denied having any business interests in Russia. But behind the scenes, he was pushing the Moscow project, which he hoped could bring his company profits in excess of $300 million. The two law enforcement sources said he had at least 10 face-to-face meetings with Cohen about the deal during the campaign, the news agency reads.Javelin is the American man-portable missile launcher designed to take down the enemy ground vehicles, drones and helicopters

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stated that Ukrainian military have not yet applied Javelins, UkrInform reports.

Why Javelin was so important? Because this is a very modern anti-tank weapon, as the saying goes, shoot and forget  the missile will find the Russian tank and destroy it. And not a single shot was made from Javelin on the front yet, the President says.

According to him, since it became known that the Ukrainians have Javelins on their possession, Russian tank crewmen renounce tank rides and they have simply ceased tank fire.

Its been a year since it became known that Ukrainian possess Javelins, Russian tanks crew members refuse to send tanks on the contact line. Just imagine, how many lives we saved when we bought Javelins, the President underlined.

As it was reported earlier, the U.S. State Department announced the Javelin anti-tank missile system delivery to Ukraine.

Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's military aggression in the spring of 2014 was negotiating with the United States on the supply of lethal weapons. Previously, Washington supplied Kiev with only non-lethal assistance (including armored Humvee cars, RQ-11B Raven drones, and counterbattery radars) and helped in the training of Ukrainian servicemen.

Javelin is the American man-portable missile launchers. It is designed to take down the enemy ground vehicles, drones and helicopters. The price of one unit, including the payload of six missiles, makes 1.3 million U.S. dollars.The Ukrainian Armed Forces in Donbas combat area shot down the drone of Russian militants. This was reported by the press service of the 93rd Detached Brigade on Facebook.

"Russian mercenaries put fragmentation explosives on a standard Phantom-4, the Chinese drone of DJI company. They installed a recycled VOG-17 fragmentation round with a shank printed on a cheap 3D-printer," the message reads.

It is noted that the militants tried to drop fragmentation ammunition to infantry positions from a small height. "Probably, the occupants took over a similar tactic from the militants of Hamas and the Islamic State".

As it was reported earlier, Ukraine purchases Bayraktar TB2, the combat drones developed by Turkish designers; they can carry missiles and are capable of engaging the naval targets. Petro Poroshenko, the Ukrainian leader said this.

Bayraktar TB2 are capable to develop the maximum speed of 222 km per hour. The effective flight range makes 150 kilometers; it can be armed with anti-tank guided missiles and aviation bombs.Martin Sajdik said that the Organization did not come out with the proposal to send the joint OSCE and UN mission to Donbas

Martin Sajdik, the representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the Tripartite Contact Group on Donbas conflict settlement said that the Organization did not come out with a proposal to send a joint OSCE and UN mission to Donbas, according to his comments to Deutsche Welle.



According to him, the OSCE did not approve sending the joint OSCE and UN mission to Donbas.



Thus, Sajdik refutes the statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin, according to which at a meeting of the tripartite contact group in Minsk, OSCE representatives proposed to create a joint peacekeeping mission with the UN in Donbas.



At the same time, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported that "they welcome any additional measures that would help reduce the existing threats."

Earlier, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin intended to discuss Russian aggression in the Kerch Strait, Donbas issue and release of the Ukrainian prisoners during the World Economic Forum in Davos.

My priorities will be Azov and Kerch Strait, Donbas and release of our political prisoners and hostages. I want to show those, who will be present there that today Russia violates everything that was possible and will only raise the stakes, Klimkin said.

He also added that the closed sessions with frank discussions will take place, despite a few open meetings during the forum in Davos.The 'police' of self-proclaimed 'Donetsk People's Republic' recruited him when he was 15 years old

Horlivka resident who participated in the combat actions in Eastern Ukraine on the side of the illegal armed formations was detained in Marinka checkpoint, as the press office of Ukraines State Border Guard Service reported.

Officers of Donetsk and Luhansk regional department of Ukraines State Border Guard Service prevented an attempt of a citizen who participated in the activity of the illegal armed formations to get on the territory beyond Ukraines control. It was a 19-year-old Ukrainian from Horlivka, the message says.

As it was defined, the detained joined the illegal armed formations in 2015, before he reached 16. After a military training he was serving on a checkpoint between Horlivka and Donetsk till 2018. As the militants himself said, he was responsible for watch at the checkpoint, inspection of the vehicles and personal things, extortion of money from the travelers.

In late 2018, the detained robbed a private house in Horlivka. For this he was arrested by DNR police. He was released after giving them a bribe in the amount of $151, 12. Then, he left to the Ukraine-controlled territory.

It was noted that the border guards detained 154 militants in 2018.Open source

On Saturday, January 19, the Russian occupant forces violated the ceasefire in Donbas conflict zone four times. No losses among the Ukrainian military were reported during the current day. This was stated on the JFO press center's Facebook page.



The enemy opened fire with small arms on the positions of our troops near the village of Stanytsia Luhanska. They also fired at the positions of Ukrainian defenders near the Volny settlement.



The hostile troops fired at the positions of the Ukrainian military near the village of Pisky, using grenade launchers. The militants also used automatic grenade launchers and small arms to attack the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near the village of Shyrokyne.

Sajdik, the

Sajdik

Earlier, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin intended to discuss Russian aggression in Kerch Strait, Donbas issue and release of the Ukrainian prisoners during the World Economic Forum in Davos.

My priorities will be Azov and Kerch Strait, Donbas and release of our political prisoners and hostages. I want to show those, who will be present there that today Russia violates everything that was possible and will only raise the stakes, Klimkin said.

He also added that the closed sessions with frank discussions would take place, despite a few open meetings during the forum in Davos.WASHINGTON: Women marched in hundreds of US cities and overseas on Saturday to mark the second anniversary of demonstrations that drew millions of protesters to the streets the day after Republican President Donald Trump`s inauguration in January 2017.

Women`s March, a national nonprofit organization that evolved from the initial Washington march, again hosted its main event in Washington, with hundreds of "sister" marches in other cities.

March On, a separate grassroots coalition that also grew from the original march, coordinated hundreds of marches in cities such as Boston, Houston, Baltimore and Denver.

Leaders of both groups said they would use this year`s marches to push policy related to raising the minimum wage, access to reproductive and healthcare and voting rights, among other issues. They are aiming to mobilize women to vote ahead of the 2020 elections, when Trump is expected to be the Republican nominee for president.

"There is definitely huge, huge focus on the 2020 elections," said March On`s Natalie Sanchez, an organizer of the 2017 Boston Women`s March who is also with March Forward Massachusetts, which organized Saturday`s march there.

Sarah Sportman, a 40-year-old archeologist from Connecticut, said she came to Washington to protest Trump`s presidency and march for protecting the environment and immigration rights. "I just don`t like the direction our country is going in and I think that we can do a lot better," she said.

Activists say the marches were also a chance to celebrate the gains made in the 2018 elections, which saw more women elected to the U.S. Congress than ever before.

The newly elected women - nearly all Democrats - include the first Muslim women and first Native American women in Congress, as well as the first black women to represent their states in New England. Many cited Trump`s presidency among the reasons they decided to run for office.

As the political movement that grew out of hundreds of loosely affiliated marches in 2017 has grown, divisions have emerged.

In some cities, like New York and Washington, there were more than one march or demonstration due to criticism that some Women`s March leaders are anti-Semitic - a charge those leaders have sought to dispel in recent interviews and statements.

The marches also have been criticized as being unwelcoming to conservative women, who may support Trump`s presidency and oppose abortion rights. The "March for Life" by anti-abortion campaigners was in Washington on Friday, attended by Vice President Mike Pence.

Leaders of Women`s March and March On say there is a role for everyone. "We are all part of the same movement, regardless of any divisiveness or any drama that goes on," Sanchez said.New Delhi: Director Kajri Babbar, daughter of producer Kishan Babbar and niece of actor-politician Raj Babbar, says she was raised as a feminist. She is now speaking up for the "untold voices of women" through her films that deal with a topic like Indian brides being deserted by their NRI husbands.

"My family has brought me up as a feminist. And with a Bachelors degree in Journalism and Masters in Social Communication Media from Sophia College, Mumbai as well, I was groomed and nurtured to speak for the untold voices of women," Kajri told IANS in an email interview.

She feels that women make for great complex characters.

"They can be strong and weak at the same time," she said.

Her short film "Khoj", which tells the journey of a teenage Punjabi bride -- from being abandoned and betrayed to the pursuit of redemption -- released on January 13 on ZEE5.

"I graduated from the Arts University Bournemouth in 2018. By mid-2017, I had started to look for a topic of a long short film (30 to 40 minutes). While searching around topics on British Indians, I came across an article about how NRI wife abandonment has increased tremendously post-Brexit. The economic tensions and uncertainty in the country had increased the dowry demands in Indian origin marriages as well," said Kajri.

It started with one news article and she went on to research further.

She found that "more than 100 brides are abandoned every year. The heart breaking part is that they are still in their teens with a lifetime of sorrow and hardships ahead".

"In most cases, the women have no legal proof of their marriage. Hence, they are left very helpless. Governments abroad do not agree on photographs or rituals, a marriage certificate is a must," she said.

"I am really waiting to see how the new bill by the government and (External Affairs Minister and senior BJP leader) Sushma Swarajji for NRI wife abandonment would be. Lately, they caught about 25 such NRI men who were about to abandon their wives in November 2018," she added.

"Khoj" had premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 2018 and was also a semi-finalist at Student Academy Awards 2018 established by The Academy to encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level.

"After its success at film fests, my main thing was to get it out to the masses. It is a film about an issue that needs to be discussed and known. Zee5 is not just an OTT platform for the metropolitan cities, but has its reach in the interior as well, with a wide range of international and as well as regional content," she said.

After working on shorts, she is set to make her first feature film titled "Burning Bride".

"We are currently in the writing (stage). I was in the UK until August 2018 for the research of `Burning Bride`. Right now, I am just getting everything right on the Indian part of the story. Historically, I want it to be factual and authentic. It`s a huge responsibility," she said.

Her cousin Juuhi will co-produce the film.

"I have been working with family since I was eight years old. I was acting on a play called `Suman and Sana`, under the direction of my aunt, Nadira Zaheer Babbar. I have also worked under the direction of my sister Juuhi. It was a blessing to be able to grow up with your idols in your own family," said Kajri.

"Even though didi is older than me, she always gives me the confidence and respect of being my own individual. Our relationship is beautiful where she is always there to protect and guide me, but at the same time give me my freedom to grow up and be myself," added the young artiste.

Veteran actor Raj is someone she looks up to the most.

"No matter what I do and make, I will always discuss it with him. So, he is always involved in the projects that I do," she said.This item is available in full to subscribers.

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Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.New Delhi: One of the cutest couples of Bollywood, Shahid Kapoor and Mira Rajput are quite active on social media and often share deets from their lives. The couple was blessed with Misha in the year 2016 and became parents for the second time in 2018 after their son, whom they named Zain Kapoor was born.

And though, Shahid has never shied away from showing off his love and admiration for his wife Mira, this is perhaps the first time when he admitted that he is lucky to have her in his life.

On Friday, Mira took to Instagram to share a stunning picture of herself on Instagram. And surprisingly, her doting husband was quick to leave a reaction on it.

Bollywood's Maharawal Ratan Singh commented on the post, saying, "Look at that beauty. Lucky to have you in my life."

Recently, Shahid, along with his stepbrother Ishaan Khattar, appeared on Karan Johar's 'Koffee With Karan' where he had revealed that he has no social life ever since he got married to Mira. The actor also spoke about his equation with Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Sanjay Leela Bhansali post-Padmaavat and he said that his relationship with most of the industry people is 'zilch'.

"Ever since I got married, I have literally not had a social life. I dont know if thats a good thing I probably think thats a really bad thing because I was a bit of recluse anyways and now Im so into my kids that every time I finish shooting Im only with them. Im not in touch with most people," the actor said on the show.

On the professional front, Shahid is busy with 'Kabir Singh', which is a remake of Telugu hit 'Arjun Reddy'. The film also features Kiara Advani, who has collaborated with Shahid before in a music video, 'Urvashi' and is slated to release on June 21, 2019

Speaking of 'Kabir Singh', the film is the Hindi remake of Telugu hit 'Arjun Reddy' and also features Kiara Advani and Nikita Dutta. It is written and directed by Sandeep Vanga and is jointly produced by Cine1 Studios and T-Series.

The film is scheduled for a theatrical release on June 21, 2019.BENGALURU: Taking a dig at former Karnataka Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader KS Eshwarappa called him pagal (insane) for attacking state party chief BS Yeddyurappa.

Siddaramaiah lost the CM post. Since then, he has become like a 'pagal' that is why he is targeting (Karnataka BJP president) BS Yeddyurappa, he said on Saturday.

Amid the exchange of horse trading charges, Eshwarappa added, All BJP MLAs are united, they will return today.

He further added, Congress has no plans for development of Karnataka, gradually 20-25 MLAs will leave Congress.

Earlier, Yeddyurappa said some Congress MLAs skipped the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting and that the deep differences between the ruling coalition partners are an indication that a volcano may erupt in the coming days.

His remarks came after four dissident Congress MLAs on Friday skipped the CLP meeting that was called as a show of strength against an alleged bid by the BJP to dislodge the H D Kumaraswamy-led Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) government.

"The absence of Congress MLAs from the CLP meeting and deep differences between the coalition partners are an indication that this is likely to erupt as a volcano in the next coming days," Yeddyurappa said late Friday evening.

The Karnataka BJP chief on Saturday called back all BJP MLAs camping in Gurugram.The BJP MLAs from Karnataka said they were in Gurugram since Monday evening to devise strategies for the coming Lok Sabha polls, and not to avoid being "poached" by the ruling Congress-JDS alliance.

With Agency InputsNEW DELHI: Accusing the Opposition of spreading misinformation in the Rafale jet deal, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday wondered whether they were becoming pawns in corporate rivalry and whether the procurement of 36 fighter jets was being "sabotaged."

During her address at an event here, Sitharaman said ever since the Narendra Modi government came to power, there was a conscious effort to keep middlemen at bay from the corridors of the Defence Ministry.

"I want every strand of this debate to be explained, as much as it can be, without any of us playing into the hands of international corporate warfare. None of us should play party to any corporate warfare,'' she said.

"We cannot become pawns in the hands of the corporate giants to constantly bully the government, to constantly throw misinformation at the public, to misinform the public," she said.

Her attack on the opposition parties comes a day after a newspaper report claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to buy 36 Rafale jets, instead of 126 as negotiated by the previous UPA government, was taken while bypassing mandated procedures, pushing the price of each aircraft by 41.42 percent.

The Congress has launched a fresh salvo at the government on the Rafale deal citing this report.

Sitharaman was addressing a seminar on 'India's Strategic Interest in Context of the Rafale Deal'. She accused the opposition of doing a "disservice" to the nation by misinforming the public on the fighter jet deal.

Nirmala Sitharaman: If their intention is to sabotage even this procurement (Rafale), to stop the purchase even now, that's the icing on the cake as regards disservice to the nation. Icing on the cake is a wrong expression but just the cruel last hit towards serving this nation. pic.twitter.com/I9MCNptrrJ  ANI (@ANI) January 19, 2019

"You (opposition) are misinforming the public and doing a disservice to the country if you are becoming pawns in a corporate rivalry. Is India's interest at the top of your agenda or are you becoming a partner to some kind of corporate rivalry," she asked.

"Is your intention to sabotage this procurement? If the intention is to stop the purchase, (then) that's a disservice to the nation," she said.

Earlier, attacking the Congress party, BJP said that Rahul Gandhi was raking up the Rafale issue because AugustaWestland case middleman Christian Michel was spilling beans on the VVIP chopper scam case.

BJP national spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, at a press conference at the party state headquarters in Goa, questioned Congress president Rahul Gandhi`s repeated raking up of the Rafale deal despite the fact that Defence Minister Sitharaman and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley explained the nuances of the fighter jet deal for hours in Parliament.

"To distract people from the issue (VVIP chopper scam), they are raking the issue of Rafale. They even made a doctored tape in Goa. They know Congress is a party of frauds. They only make fake allegations," he said.

The national spokesperson said the Congress had to face a setback on the Rafale deal often, and that its leaders kept lying over and over again to keep the facade going.

"Congress kept lying on it. Congress thinks it is above the Supreme Court and the Parliament," he said.SILVASSA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday made a blistering attack on the attempts being made by various opposition parties to form a 'mahagathbandhan' or a 'grand alliance' ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha elections to be held this year with a sole aim of ousting the ruling BJP from power.

Attacking those propagating the idea of 'Mahagathbandhan', the PM said it was a 'gathbandhan' (alliance) not just against his party, but also against the people of this country.

My actions against corruption have infuriated some people. Its but natural for them to get angry as Ive prevented them from looting public money. Consequently, they have now formed an alliance called Mahagathbandhan, the PM said.

PM Modi in Silvassa: My actions against corruption have infuriated some people. It's but natural for them to get angry as I've prevented them from looting public money. Consequently, they have now formed an alliance called Mahagathbandhan pic.twitter.com/3WPyJtKRx5  ANI (@ANI) January 19, 2019

PM Modi made these remarks while addressing a public function at Silvassa, the capital of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

He went on to add that the Opposition leaders werent even united and that they have already started bargaining for their share.

''This 'ganthbandhan' is not against Modi but against the people of India. Currently, they are not even properly together and already that have started bargaining for their share,'' the PM said.

The Prime Minister further added that he finds Oppositions remark of saving the country and democracy funny.

"When those involved in suffocating democracy talk of saving it, then people will say 'wah kya baat hai'," he said.

Those who crushed democracy in their own state are now preaching about saving the democracy. It's truly ironical : PM Modi in Silvassa  BJP (@BJP4India) January 19, 2019

The PM also took potshots at the mega opposition rally  United India Rally  called by West Bengal Chief Minister in Kolkata on Saturday.

"In West Bengal, BJP has only one MLA but they are so afraid of us that they are saying 'bachao' (save us)," he said.

PM Modi earlier laid the foundation stone of Medical College at Sayli. The College will improve three-tier health care facilities in Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu and adjoining areas. He also launched the m-Arogya app and door to door waste collection, segregation and digitally processing of Solid Waste in Dadra & Nagar Haveli.

PM Modi on Saturday dedicated to the nation L&T Armoured Systems Complex at Hazira in Gujarat. It will produce 100 Howitzer artillery guns, christened K9 Vajra-T under the make in India programme. The Prime Minister also laid the foundation stone of Nirali Cancer hospital in Navsari which will benefit cancer patients of South Gujarat and neighbouring states.NEW DELHI: The ruling BJP on Saturday said that its MP from Patna Sahib Shatrughan Sinha will face "action" for attending the mega Opposition rally in Kolkata as the party stated that it has taken "cognizance" of his presence there.

"He is likely to be suspended from the party after president Amit Shah returns from AIIMS. He has now crossed all the limits as he directly attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi," a senior BJP functionary was quoted as saying by IANS.

Earlier, BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy too attacked Sinha and called him an "opportunist".

"The party would take cognizance of it (his presence in the anti-BJP rally)," Rudy told reporters.

Rudy, who also hails from Bihar like Sinha, alleged that the MP from Patna Sahib constituency was enjoying all perks and facilities available to a Member of Parliament but was constantly speaking against his own party.

"Some people want to carry the banner of BJP to enjoy the perks of being an MP. Such people make it a point to be present in Parliament when the party issues whip so that they do not lose membership (of the House). But at the same time, they are so opportunist ... they voice different opinions from different platforms," he told a press conference.

Calling him "very clever", Rudy accused Sinha of never being present in any BJP activity in the last five years.

"I have never seen him present in any party activity for the last five years. He is very clever and takes decisions on the basis of his political understanding. He calls himself of BJP and attends opposition rallies. So, I am sure the party will definitely take a call on it," he added.

Meanwhile, Bihar BJP president Nityanand Rai too hinted that "appropriate action will be taken against Sinha at an appropriate time."

Sinha was among top Opposition leaders who attended the mega rally called by West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata.

The rally was attended by top leaders of 23 opposition parties.

Sinha, while addressing the rally, said that he was not afraid of being expelled from his party.

"I dont't mind if am ousted (from the party). I am in BJP because of people of the country. So, what I say or do is in the interest of the country," Sinha said.

Speaking on the Rafale controversy, he said, "I am not saying you are guilty, neither saying you are innocent. But if things are not answered, people will say 'chowkidaar chor hai'."

Sinha has been speaking against the party and has been critical of government's decisions like GST and demonetisation.

(With IANS inputs)NAGPUR: A two-day mega national convention of Bharatiya Janata Party's Scheduled Caste Morcha will begin in Nagpur on Saturday, January 19. The convention will be attended by senior party leaders including Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Thawarchand Gehlot and Ram Madhav.

The event  'Bhim Vijay Sankalp'  will be held at the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS). Vinod Sonkar, BJP SC Morcha chief, said that the motive of the rally is to dispel 'illusion' that the BJP was a party of upper castes only. "This illusion needs to be removed from the Scheduled Caste society," he said.

Nearly 5,000 workers from across the country, including 250 from Rajasthan, are expected to take part in the convention, BJP MP Satyanarayan Jatia told reporters at a press conference here.

Information related to the work done by the Centre for the welfare of scheduled castes will be provided to participants in the convention, he said.

'Bhim Vijay Sankalp Rashtriye Adhiveshan, 2019,' and 'Bhim Vijay Sankalp Rally' at Nagpur is relevant as it is associated with the life of B R Ambedkar, Sonkar said.Madurai: The Madras High Court bench here has said if a pregnant woman took 30 seconds extra time during the running test for the selection of Grade-II constable, the timing should be considered negligible and she should have been selected.

Justice S Vimala, allowing a petition of R Devika, said that according to norms, the petitioner had to qualify 100 metres running event by completing the run within 17.50 seconds. But the petitioner took .30 seconds extra, and was declared unsuccessful in the physical efficiency test. This was objectionable, the judge said.

The participation by the petitioner in a running test itself is a sign of courage, as persons similarly placed would be afraid of a miscarriage, she said. This aspect, though not a factor to be considered in the test, is the overall factor to be considered for selection to the post of the constable, the judge said.

Besides, the respondents were directed to take into account the constitutional provisions of India and the maternity protection and convention of the International Labour Organisation to frame guidelines by providing the best possible measures to support women candidates who are at difficult circumstances on account of pregnancy or maternity or other natural causes, she said.

Considering the fact that the petitioner would be in fifth or sixth month of pregnancy, the uniformed services recruitment board is directed to select the petitioner for employment as Grade II police constable or grade-II jail warden, as on October 31, 2018, with all attendant benefits, the judge said.

The concessions given to pregnant women shall not be construed as a concession towards their personal comfort, she added. Child birth should be considered as a contribution to continuity of generations, without which the existence of the world is impossible,the judge said.

A pregnant woman cannot be denied an opportunity to have adequate means of livelihood merely on account of the biological reason that she was unable to appear for the physical efficiency test at a given point of time, she said. Moreover, a pregnant woman cannot be compelled to undergo endurance test at a time when it was dangerous to her life and that of the baby in her womb, the judge said.

There is provision in the Constitution of India that women shall be given special treatment in the matter of employment in order to eliminate socio-economic backwardness and to empower them in a manner that would bring about effective equality between men and women, she said.

The petitioner states that she was eight weeks pregnant the day when the physical efficiency test was conducted and hence, she was not able to complete the running within the prescribed time, she should be selected, the judge added.Srinagar: Former Jammu and Kashmir finance minister Altaf Bukhari, who was expelled by the PDP on Saturday, said he was happy over the party's decision.

"It has been a long association with PDP, especially with its founder Late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. My association with this party has been enriching in many ways. It not only gave me a chance to work for my constituency but provided me with an opportunity to contribute my bit in the development across the nook and corner of the state," Bukhari said in a statement here.

He said power and position have never been an allurement for him "as the history bears testimony to that fact".

"During my journey of active politics, I have witnessed agreements and disagreements, gratification and obstructions, brewing resentment and misguided notions. I also got a chance to witness the downfall of so-called popular leaders and rise of those who were hitherto unknown in the arena of politics," he said.

Bukhari said while he was happy over the party's decision, "the reasons given for my expulsion are debatable". "I am also equally happy for this decision of the party as my conscience is clean and I never compromised on my principles.? I wish the J&K PDP all the very best," he said.NEW DELHI: On the first day of the 9th edition of Vibrant Gujarat in Gandhi Nagar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had bilateral meetings with four world leaders during which he discussed issues from ranging from investment to geopolitics to artificial intelligence. He met President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Prime Minister of Denmark Lars Lkke Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Malta Dr. Joseph Muscat and Prime Minister of Czech Republic Andrej Babis. The 3-day investment summit from 18 to 20 January is a biannual event which was started in 2003 when PM Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

Uzbekistan:

Uzbekistan's President and PM discussed the 1st India-Central Asia Dialogue which happened in Samarkand, Uzbekistan last week. According to a statement released by the ministry of external affairs (MEA), the Prime Minister thanked President Mirziyoyev for his support for the First India-Central Asia Dialogue "where important discussions also took place on support to peace and development in Afghanistan". President Mirziyoyev said the dialogue "demonstrated India's positive impact on the Central Asia region and the joint quest of the participant countries for peace in Afghanistan." Uzbekistan's Novoi Minerals & Metallurgical Company signed an agreement with Department of Atomic Energy on long-term supply of Uranium Ore Concentrate for India's energy requirements. This is the second visit of Uzbekistan's President to India in 6 months. He visited New Delhi from 30 September-1 October for a state visit.

Denmark:

With Denmark's PM, India focused on technology cooperation. Rasmussen is the second Nordic leader to visit India this month after the visit by Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg 2 weeks ago. Ties between the 2 countries had taken a dip after no progress in the extradition of Kim Davy but both India and Denmark agreed to revive ties, especially after the 1st India Nordic summit in Stockholm last year when PM Rasmussen met PM Modi. Around 130 Danish companies have invested in India in areas such as shipping, renewable energy, environment, agriculture and food processing.

Malta:

Indian Pharma, IT industry especially Artificial Intelligence dominated talks between Malta's PM and PM Modi. Malta's PM invited India to cooperate with his country on advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Block-chain and financial technologies. Malta which has been unofficially known as the "1st blockchain island" last year brought in formal legislation on Block-chain technology and sees Indian IT playing an important role.

Czeck Republic

During his interaction with Prime Minister of Czech Republic, PM Modi invited Czech companies to invest in defence, automotive and railway sectors. The Czech PM invited nomination of an Indian scientist for its Research & Development Council. President Ram Nath Kovind visited the central European country in September last year.

Fifteen countries - Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Japan, Morocco, Norway, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, The Netherlands, UAE and Uzbekistan - are partners for this year's Vibrant Gujarat.New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached fresh assets worth Rs 16.40 crore in connection with its money-laundering probe against controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, it said on Saturday.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), in a statement, said it had issued a provisional order for attachment of assets registered in the name of Naik's family members, located in Mumbai and Pune, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The estimated value of the immovable assets was Rs 16.40 crore, the central probe agency said.

Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached properties worth Rs. 16.40 Crores in Mumbai and Pune, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Zakir Naik case. (File pic: Zakir Naik) pic.twitter.com/vjkx0D7yot  ANI (@ANI) January 19, 2019

The ED identified the properties as Fatima Heights and Aafiyah Heights in Mumbai, an unnamed project in the Bhandup area of Maharashtra's capital city and a project named Engracia in Pune.

"In order to disguise the origin of funds and real ownership of the properties, the initial payments made from Naik's bank account were refunded and diverted to the accounts of his wife, son and niece and re-routed again for the purpose of making bookings in the name of the family members rather than Naik,'' the ED said.

"This has been revealed from the money trail established by the ED," the agency said.

The ED had registered a criminal case against Naik and others in December 2016 after taking cognisance of a National Investigation Agency (NIA) complaint filed under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

The NIA had also filed a charge sheet against Naik and others before a Mumbai court in October 2017.

Quoting the NIA charge sheet, the ED said Naik "deliberately and maliciously insulted the religious beliefs of Hindus, Christians and non-Wahabi Muslims, particularly the Shias, Sufis and the Barelwis, with the intention of outraging their religious feelings".

It said Naik's organisation, the Islamic Research Foundation, and Ms Harmony Media "have been instrumental in the maximum circulation of such incriminating speeches".

"For such activities, the accused (Naik) was receiving funds from IRF as well as other unknown sources," the ED claimed.

This is the third such attachment by the ED in the case and with the latest order, the total value of assets attached by the agency stands at Rs 50.49 crore.

The ED, which functions under the Union finance ministry, is looking into the charges of laundering of illegal funds in the case and the subsequent proceeds of crime thus generated.

The attachment of assets action under the PMLA is aimed to deprive the accused of taking benefits of his ill-gotten wealth and such an order gets confirmed after an order is passed by the Adjudicating Authority of the PMLA within 180 days.

The ED said the probe against Naik, said to be based in Malaysia at present, was continuing.Gool: Union Minister Jitendra Singh said Saturday his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was ready for assembly and parliamentary polls in Jammu and Kashmir.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function here in the hilly Ramban district, he said, "It is not in my control to say when the elections will take place or whether parliamentary and assembly elections in the state will be held together."

"The Election Commission is an independent constitutional body and will take a decision on the schedule of the elections in the state on its own after a review... The BJP is ready for the elections, even if it is held today," he said.

Jammu and Kashmir is currently under President's rule.

Accusing the previous governments of neglecting the hilly districts of the state, the Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office said,

"Development of hilly and far-flung areas, including the Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir, is the priority of the central government."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given clear-cut directions for accelerating the pace of development in the mountainous areas to bring them at par with the plains, he said.

He said a major bridge over the Chenab river is coming up in Ramban. The project has been sanctioned and the work will start anytime soon. He directed the deputy commissioner of Ramban to submit a proposal ? for a Kendriya Vidyalaya in Gool.

Earlier, the minister lauded the Army for organising a two-day multi-speciality medical camp under Operation Sadbhavna in the area. The camp, organised by the Army Medical Corps in association with the district administration at the Government Higher Secondary School, Gool, drew a large number of patients.

Singh interacted with some patients and reviewed the facilities in the camp in the presence of Director General of Army Medical Corps Lt. Gen Manmoy Ganguly and other senior Army and civil officials.KOLKATA: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Shatrughan Sinha on Saturday lashed out at his party for questioning him for speaking against the party line. Speaking at the Opposition's United India Rally, Sinha said he only speaks for the benefit of the country.

"I am not answerable to the people of the country not to the BJP. If I am speaking for the benefit of the country, how can I be speaking against the party," he said.

He also said that people of the country want a change in leadership. "The mood of the nation is Parivartan. People want a new leadership. When we will seek answers on Rafale, they will take us back to issues like Ram Mandir. Why suddenly just before the elections?," the BJP MP asked.

Earlier in the day, BJP had reprimanded him for attending the opposition's rally. BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy labeled the Patna Sahib MP as an opportunist who is unwilling to quit the BJP.

"They make it a point to be present at the whip so that they don't lose their membership. At the same time they are so opportunistic that they want to climb the stage and be present at a conclave. BJP will take cognisance of it.

He also said that Sinha wants to enjoy the perks of being a BJP MP. "Some people are intelligent in a different way. Some people want to carry stamp of BJP for the facilities that come as an MP," he said.HYDERABAD: AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday warned Pakistan from interfering in the internal affairs of the country while maintaining that Kashmir will always remain an integral part of India.

''Pakistan should stop meddling in Kashmir affairs. Kashmir is and will always be an integral part of India. Even Kashmiris and Kashmiri youth are an integral part of the country, '' the AIMIM MP from Hyderabad told ANI.

Asaduddin Owaisi, AIMIM in Hyderabad: Pakistan should stop meddling in Kashmir affairs. Kashmir is and will always be an integral part of India. Even Kashmiris and Kashmir youth are an integral part. pic.twitter.com/fuf8kd1gsV  ANI (@ANI) January 19, 2019

The Hyderabad MP made these remarks while participating in a panel discussion organised at the Telangana Jagruthi International Youth Leadership Conference which began here Saturday.

During the discussion, he said whether it was the Congress or the BJP at the Centre, they have "no policy, no vision" to bring back normalcy in the Kashmir Valley.

"I feel that there has to be a consistent policy on Kashmir which unfortunately is lacking," he said.

The stern warning from the AIMIM leader came a day after Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi raised the Kashmir issue during his meeting with the visiting UN General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espionosa.

Espionosa arrived in Islamabad on Friday on her first official trip to the Asia-Pacific region since assuming office in September last year.

She met Qureshi in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where the two sides also held talks on different issues.

Qureshi said that he discussed the regional and international issues, including Kashmir with the UNGA chief and "apprised her of Pakistan's grave concern over the gross human rights violations" in Kashmir.

The Pakistan FM called for implementing the UN Security Council's resolutions on Kashmir in letter and spirit to resolve this long-standing issue.

Qureshi alleged that India was continuously violating the ceasefire agreement on the Line of Control (LoC) and urged the international community to help resolve the issue.

He said Pakistan agreed with the UNGA president that a strong and vibrant UN was vital for lasting peace and stability in the world.

The Foreign Office later said in a statement that the two sides had useful discussions on the on-going process of UN Security Council reform and "the need for this process to be led by the Member States and a consensus-based way forward.''

(With Agency inputs)New Delhi: Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor is busy shooting for his upcoming film 'Kabir Singh'. The film has been high on buzzword from the day it was announced and is a remake of Telugu blockbuster 'Arjun Reddy'.

The actor took to Instagram recently and shared a picture from sets of the film in which he can be seen having that charming smile on his face.

Check it out here:

The caption aptly says, Happy happy #kabirsingh

Coming to the film, Kiara Advani plays the female lead in the film and fans eagerly await more details about the venture.

In November last year, Shahid had shared his first look from the film leaving us all surprised. The actor got rid of his beard for the film and looked handsome as ever.

The film is being helmed by Sandeep Vanga, who also directed the original 2017 Telugu blockbuster.

Earlier, actress Tara Sutaria who will make her Bollywood debut with 'Student of the Year 2' was to play the lead but she backed out of the project. To replace Tara, Kiara was roped in.

Expressing her happiness over being a part of the film, Kiara had earlier written on Twitter, "#WaitForIt This is NOT a still from the Arjun Reddy remake but our film shoot begins today! wishing the team an amazinggg start!!! All the best @shahidkapoor @imvangasandeep @ashwinvarde @TSeries @MuradKhetani and team #ArjunReddy cant wait to join youll super soon

'Kabir Singh' will hit the screens on June 21, 2019.The Karni Sena on Saturday warned Kangana Ranaut that if she continues to voice dissent against the outfit, they would ruin her career prospects and burn her film sets. The statement from the group came a day after the actress issued a statement saying that she will destroy the Karni Sena if they continue to harass her over the release of 'Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi.'

According to reports, the Maharashtra wing of the Karni Sena protested against the film on Thursday alleging that the period drama "alludes to Rani Laxmibai`s relationship with a British officer".

The outfit -- which led a long protest against "Padmaavat" in 2017 -- also claimed that the film shows the queen dancing to a special number, saying that it is against tradition. They asked the makers of the film to show them the movie before its release.

However, Kangana is determined to fight against the Shri Rajput Karni Sena. She said that if they don't stop harassing her, she will destroy them. "If they don't stop then they should know I am also a Rajput and I will destroy each one of them," added the actress, who has directed the film along with Krish.

Reflecting on Kangana's statement, Ajay Singh Sengar, president of Maharashtra Karni Sena said, "If she continues to threaten the members of our outfit, we will not let her walk freely in Maharashtra and will burn her film sets."

He also claimed that if the film, in any way, insults the queen of Jhansi, the Hindu society will not forgive her.

Earlier this week, when Mid-Day contacted Karni Sena national head on the issue, he revealed the reason behind their objection, saying that they won't tolerate any changes made to the history of our country. "Time and again, we have seen that filmmakers try to take liberties by showing certain scenes [with the purpose of] adding titillation. We won't tolerate such nonsense."

"We had raised concerns in February last year. Despite the Supreme Court judgement, we didn't allow Padmaavat to release in many states. Manikarnika will face the same consequence. We have requested the producers to show us the film before its release. If they release it without showing to us, we will damage property and won't be liable for it," he added.

National Award-winning lyricist and Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairman Prasoon Joshi has penned the songs for `Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi" which captures the life story of Rani Laxmibai.

The film, also featuring Ankita Lokhande, Atul Kulkarni, Vaibhav Tatwawaadi, Danny Denzongpa, Suresh Oberoi and Jisshu Sengupta, will be screened for President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi on Friday.

Produced by Zee Studios in association with Kamal Jain and Nishant Pitti, the movie will release on January 25, 2019.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-20 05:55:03|Editor: yan

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RAMALLAH, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian official on Saturday condemned the Israeli decision to close schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) from early 2020.

"The Israeli decision was made to complete the U.S. government's measures of targeting the global agency and seeking to end its activities in Jerusalem," Adnan Husseini, Palestinian minister for Jerusalem affairs, told Xinhua.

Husseini, also a member of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee, accused both Israel and the United States of trying to remove the two crucial issues of Jerusalem and the refugees from the negotiating table.

"The Palestinians' right of return is a basic legitimate and personal right and it will never be dropped or cancelled," Husseini said, referring to earlier debates in the Israeli government on closing UNRWA's offices in East Jerusalem.

Israeli Channel 12 reported earlier that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the decision with members of the Israeli National Security Council during a meeting last week.

The TV channel reported that no permissions will be issued for UNRWA schools to act in East Jerusalem from early next year, saying they will be replaced by schools run by the Israeli municipality of the city.

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement said in a press statement sent to Xinhua that the Israeli decision "is an organized escalation to carry out aggression against the Palestinian people."Mayor of Brussels Philippe Close dressed up as a giant panda attends a reception of a Chinese lantern exhibition in Brussels, Belgium, on Feb. 22, 2018. The exhibition Light the Heart of Europe with gigantic Chinese lanterns was held in Brussels on Thursday to celebrate the Chinese Lunar NewYear and the year of tourism between the European Union and China. (Xinhua/Ye Pingfan)

by Fu Yiming, Ren Liying, Zhang Man

STOCKHOLM, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- With a boost of the EU-China Tourism Year (ECTY) in 2018, Chinese tourists visiting Europe enjoyed more convenient ways of traveling, methods of payment, and much closer appreciations of European cultures.

DEEPER AND WIDER

Unlike previous patterns of quick sightseeing and shopping, Chinese tourists to Europe have been seen visiting many destinations for much longer time, and with more interests to interact with the local population, art and culture, said Wolfgang Georg Arlt, director of China Outbound Tourism Research Institute to Xinhua in a recent interview.

In what Arlt called the "Second Wave" of outbound tourism from China, he witnessed in the past few years, "authentic experiences", "living like a local", increased interest in regional food and drinks, the step from "taking a photo of" to "taking part in", have became buzzwords especially among the younger Chinese travelers.

"Unlike traditional group tours, more and more Chinese young people are choosing to travel in France in a free-flowing way. They pay more attention to culture and art, and want to go to other cities outside Paris. We have seen these changes," Patricia Barthelemy, Head of Promotion/Leisure Marketing at the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau, said in the first edition of Sino-French Tourism Forum earlier this month.

This trend has also been revealed by Eva Recordier, promotion manager of Pont du Gard, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.

Recordier told Xinhua that "we feel that Chinese tourists are in search of rather new things, the original activity, and want to live a little French experience in authentic places."

These changes are also being observed in the northern parts of the continent.

Flemming Bruhn, Director of VisitDenmark, told Xinhua that routes around Denmark outside the capital Copenhagen are welcomed by Chinese tourists.

"During 2018 we have introduced five signature routes of Denmark that takes you from Copenhagen and around the whole country... The routes have worked very good and we start to see the Chinese tourists coming more around to the rest of Denmark outside Copenhagen," said the director.

"More Chinese come to Denmark as part of a smaller group. They still buy it through a travel agent in China but they travel and decide more themselves. Also we see a new trend that the Chinese want to travel in Denmark for a longer time to see more than just Copenhagen. So our new signature routes are also a good way to experience and travel deeper," Bruhn added.

Chinese tourists are not only interested in deeper European tours but also wider ones.

"If we look at the arrival numbers for 2018, we can see that some Eastern and Southeastern EU countries including Czech Republic, Slovenia and Croatia saw substantial increases in arrival numbers, as also did the Southwest of the EU with Spain and Portugal," said Arlt.

CUSTOMIZED EXPERIENCES

Aside from promoting lesser-known destinations, EU-China Tourism Year 2018 is also aimed to improve travel and tourism experiences for Chinese tourists.

"European destinations and service providers have done a lot in the last years to provide services from payment systems to a choice of food to specific activity offers for Chinese," said Arlt.

The Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau attaches great importance to the Chinese market, and is particularly interested in Chinese individual visitors, in full expansion, said Pierre Schapira, president of Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau, adding that "the Chinese market is undoubtedly one of the most promising ones for which we have to find adapted technological solutions".

To attract this new generation of ultra-connected travelers, the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau launched in March 2018 its official account at Weibo, China's leading social media platform, and has since attracted nearly 10,000 followers. Three months later, the bureau opened its account at WeChat, another popular social media platform in China, Schapira said.

"Many things have been done to facilitate the life of the Chinese tourists in the hotels, of course, but also by the means of payment. Now Chinese tourists can pay by smartphone, through Alipay or WeChat pay, avoiding the risk of carrying cash," said Schapira.

To help facilitate Chinese tourists travelling to Europe, visa facilitation and more convenient air connectivity were also seen in some European countries.

"In 2018, more direct flights from Chinese cities (Jinan, Fuzhou, Chongqing and Shenzhen) to Paris have been launched, making it easier for Chinese tourists to travel in France and Europe," said Schapira.

Denmark has also taken measures to facilitate the travels by Chinese.

"Denmark has during 2017 and 2018 opened nine new visa-centers in China and we have also introduced a new Preferential Scheme that gives easier access to visas to Denmark," said Bruhn.

FURTHER GROWTH EXPECTED

Looking ahead, European tourism industry hopes to see more advances of EU-China people-to-people exchanges on top of the achievements of the EU-China Tourism Year.

"The agreement to celebrate a Tourism Year between not just one country, but all countries of the EU. And China underlined the importance given to the European Union in China and the importance China has for all member states of the EU," said Arlt.

"During 2018, the need to work together to keep the world moving in the direction of free trade and free exchanges of persons, goods and ideas has become even clearer given the nationalistic and xenophobic tendencies becoming dominant in a number of countries. The ECTY2018 has been one element supporting the increase in cooperation between China and the EU," he added.

"Certainly the tourism between China and Europe will continue to grow, both for business travel, including those based on the Belt and Road Initiative as well as for leisure tourism based on the huge number of cultural and natural treasures both areas are offering," Arlt emphasized.

"We hope to see the trends from the last years continuing. That means that the groups will be smaller and more individual and that they want to travel more 'deep', and therefore stay longer and see more of Denmark," Bruhn said.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-20 03:24:35|Editor: yan

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Photo taken on Jan. 18, 2019 shows the White House in Washington D.C., the United States. The White House said Friday that the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), "will take place near the end of February." (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the location for his second meeting with top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un has been picked and will be announced "in the future."

"We've picked the country, but we'll be announcing it in the future," Trump told reporters at the White House on Saturday morning.

Trump's remarks came a day after his meeting with Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the DPRK's ruling Korean Workers' Party Central Committee, at the White House.

"We had a very good meeting," Trump said.

"We've made a lot of progress that has not been reported by the media, but we have made a lot of progress as far as denuclearization's concerned," he added.

The White House announced on Friday following the meeting that the second summit between the two leaders "will take place near the end of February."

Both leaders of Washington and Pyongyang have said they look forward to the second summit. Trump and Kim Jong Un held a historic summit in Singapore in June last year.

Kim said during his Jan. 7-10 trip to China, his fourth visit to China in less than a year, that Pyongyang will make efforts for the second summit between DPRK and U.S. leaders to achieve results that will be welcomed by the international community, while thanking China for its efforts to push for progress in the Korean Peninsula.

Seoul has voiced similar appreciation. At a press conference on Jan. 10, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said, "Until now, China has played a positive role in helping very much the Korean Peninsula's denuclearization and improving inter-Korean relations."Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter walks past a poster during a symposium at the Carter Center in Atlanta, the United States on January 18, 2019, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of U.S.-China diplomatic relations. (Xinhua/Liu Pinran)

ATLANTA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The 40-year-long diplomatic relationship between the United States and China has contributed to peace, stability and prosperity of both countries and beyond, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said here Friday.

In late 1978, Carter and then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping reached the historic decision to establish the full diplomatic relationship between the United States and China on Jan. 1, 1979, laying the foundation for the rapid growth of bilateral relations.

"At this moment, my heart is filled with thanksgiving to Deng Xiaoping, who had the wisdom, strength, and confidence in the Chinese people ... (and) decided to build the relationship between the U.S. and China," the former president said during a symposium at the Carter Center to commemorate the 40th anniversary of U.S.-China diplomatic relations.

Carter's breakthrough with China was also one of the major foreign policy accomplishments of his presidency from 1977 to 1981.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter speaks during a symposium at the Carter Center in Atlanta, the United States on January 18, 2019, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of U.S.-China diplomatic relations. (Xinhua/Liu Pinran)

In front of over 200 leading scholars, experts and veterans of statecraft from both countries, Carter pointed out that since 1979, peace and stability have prevailed in East Asia, the hotbed of conflicts and wars for long, and that both China and the United States have been blessed with economic growth.

The 94-year-old said that both countries could realize further cooperation in areas such as the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsular and the blossoming of less-developed countries.

Many African and Latin American countries, Carter noted, would like to see the United States and China cooperate in harmony to address their economic and social challenges, instead of choosing between the two countries.

Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai (R) and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (L) smile at each other during a symposium at the Carter Center in Atlanta, the United States on January 18, 2019, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of U.S.-China diplomatic relations. (Xinhua/Liu Pinran)



Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai said during the event that the entire region and the world have benefited enormously from the bilateral relationship.

"If we compare the past 40 years to a test, then we have delivered impressive scores to both our peoples and the world," said the ambassador. "Let's work even harder to get another A-plus on our score report."

Cui said that it has never been so important for China and the United States to work together in a world undergoing tremendous changes.

"The people of our two countries and the whole world are looking to us to do more for the shared interests of mankind," he added.

Echoing Carter and Cui, Susan Thornton, former acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, depicted the U.S.-China relationship as the most consequential relationship in the world.

The long-term peace, stability and prosperity depend on continued ability to navigate differences and find common ground between the two countries, said Thornton.

In her speech, she also refuted strategies to contain China or calling for a decoupling of the two countries, saying they are "hyperbolic and a huge waste of time."

The United States and China could work out a satisfactory outcome that will allow us to continue a productive relationship that will pay dividends to both countries and the world for the next 40 years and beyond, she said.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-20 00:39:08|Editor: Li Xia

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Chinese workers cast concrete at the site of the first cast-in-place continuous beam of the China-Laos railway at the under-construction Nathon Station Double-track Super Major Bridge, some 360 km north of Vientiane, capital of Laos, on Jan. 19, 2019. China Railway No. 5 Engineering Group (CREC-5) completed the closing of the first cast-in-place continuous beam on Saturday. The China-Laos railway has a length of over 414 km with bridges of 62 km under construction, linking Mohan-Boten border gate in northern Laos and Vientiane. (Xinhua/Huang Zongwen)

NAMOR, Laos, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese engineering company has completed the closing of the first cast-in-place continuous beam on Saturday.

China Railway No. 5 Engineering Group (CREC-5) told Xinhua that at 03:20 local time on the same day, the company successfully completed the closure with cradle construction technique, at the under-construction Nathon Station Double-track Super Major Bridge, some 360 km north of Lao capital Vientiane.

The cast-in-place continuous beam is of 36+64+36 meters, part of the 1,195.822-meter bridge.

The construction of the railway bridges along the China-Laos railway made a breakthrough in 2018. China Railway No. 2 Engineering Group (CREC-2) has completed the main work construction of Nam Khone super major bridge, the longest bridge along China-Laos railway, also the longest-ever bridge in Laos in June. In July, all the foundation construction work of all the two cross-Mekong River super major bridges, namely the the Luang Prabang bridge and Ban Ladhan bridge, has been completed by CREC-8.

The China-Laos railway has a length of over 414 km with bridges of 62 km under construction, linking Mohan-Boten border gate in northern Laos and capital Vientiane. Operating speed on the route is designed at 160 km per hour.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-20 00:29:06|Editor: yan

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TEHRAN, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday that the country will support the "legal" government of Venezuela in the face of U.S. "illegal meddling", state TV reported.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran supports Venezuela's legal government as well as its nation in the face of Washington's illegal interference," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said.

On Jan. 12, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described Venezuela's government under President Nicolas Maduro as "illegitimate," saying the United States would work with like-minded countries in Latin America to restore democracy there.

Any foreign intervention in Venezuela's domestic affairs would be "unconstructive" and would merely further complicate the situation in the country, Qasemi was quoted as saying.

Tehran believes the solution to Caracas's domestic problems is a dialogue among the country's political officials within legal frameworks, he added.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-20 00:03:58|Editor: yan

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Photo taken with a mobile device shows army working at the site of an explosion in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state, Mexico, Jan. 18, 2019. At least 20 people were killed and 54 others injured in a pipeline explosion in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo on Friday, local authorities said. (Xinhua)

MEXICO CITY, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from a pipeline explosion in central Mexico has risen to 66, the governor of the state of Hidalgo said on Saturday.

Seventy-six people had also been injured in Friday evening's explosion, Hidalgo Governor Omar Fayad said at a press conference Saturday morning in Mexico City with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The explosion and blaze occurred at around 7:00 p.m. local time (0100 GMT) at a pipeline spot in the community of San Primitivo in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan when hundreds of people gathered around a leak to collect fuel.

Fayad said the death toll could still rise as many of the injured are struggling between "life and death."

Lopez Obrador said he is dismayed by the tragedy. He offered his deepest sympathy to the families of the victims and ordered the government to offer its support.

Attending to the injured in order to save people's lives is now "the most important thing," the president said.

The accident is one of the worst tragedies due to pipeline explosions in Mexico in recent years.

In December of 2010, 30 people were killed and 52 others injured in a series of explosions involving two oil pipelines in central state of Puebla.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 23:53:56|Editor: yan

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MOSCOW, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in the traditional mass bathing in the icy waters to celebrate Epiphany, a major holiday of Orthodox Christians, the Kremlin said Saturday.

Putin, who took a dip in the Moscow region, has been participating for several years in the Epiphany bathing event, which takes place overnight to January 19 on Epiphany, the 12th day after Orthodox Christmas by the old Julian calendar.

According to the Russian Interior Ministry, more than 2.4 million people in Russia participated in celebrations of Epiphany including mass bathing and church services.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 23:43:53|Editor: yan

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BANGKOK, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Five wild elephants in northeastern Thailand finally came out from a farm pond after being trapped there for a few hours with the help of local residents and authorities on Saturday.

The five elephants, including three calves aged around one to two years, were found stunk in a farm pong behind Nong Sai village, Khon Buri district of Nakhon Ratchasima province on Saturday morning, according to local media Posttoday.

Wichit Kitwirat, chief of Khon Buri district and officials from Thap Lan National Park and soldiers rushed to the site after being alerted.

Local residents said these elephants must come out from Thap Lan National Park last night in search of food and accidentally got stuck in the pond.

They said the pond is deep with slippery and sticky land around it, which made it difficult for elephants to get out.

Local residents joined hands with authorities in digging a pathway for elephants to walk out as the animals looked exhausted.

At first, the animals appeared to be scared by so many people around them. Local authorities then ordered people to move away to make room for elephants.

The elephants successfully found the newly-dug way and came out at around 2 pm, running back to the forest.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 23:43:53|Editor: yan

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Photo taken with a mobile device shows army working at the site of an explosion in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state, Mexico, Jan. 18, 2019. At least 20 people were killed and 54 others injured in a pipeline explosion in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo on Friday, local authorities said. (Xinhua)

MEXICO CITY, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from a pipeline explosion in central Mexico has risen to 66, the governor of the state of Hidalgo said on Saturday.

"The latest death toll ... is 66 dead, and 76 are being treated in hospital," Gov. Omar Fayad tweeted.

The pipeline went ablaze around 7:00 p.m. local time Friday (0100 GMT) in the community of San Primitivo in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan when dozens of people gathered around a leak spot to collect fuel.

According to Fayad, local government was coordinating rescue efforts and helping the injured was top priority.

State-owned petroleum company Pemex said the pipeline had been illegally tapped.

"What happened today in Tlahuelilpan should not be repeated," said Fayad, warning locals against fuel theft, noting that "besides being unlawful, it puts your life and that of the families at risk."

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador expressed regret over the incident on Twitter, saying he had instructed emergency workers to bring the fire under control and treat the victims.

Fuel theft has been a pressing problem in Mexico, as Lopez Obrador has said it makes the country lose between 2.9 and 3.9 billion U.S. dollars per year.

The government unveiled a plan to combat fuel theft in December, and had launched a major crackdown on increasing fuel theft in the country, which cost it some 3 billion U.S. dollars in 2017.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 23:33:51|Editor: yan

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ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian government revealed on Saturday it has arrested 140 individuals for their suspected roles in armed rebellions.

The individuals are accused of participation in armed rebellions in parts of Ethiopia's Oromia regional state, located in the central part of the country.

Abebe Legesse, Crime Investigation and Justice Department Chief of Oromia Police Commission, said the individuals are accused of involvement in armed rebellions that had left scores of people dead, reported state media outlet Ethiopia Broadcasting Corporation (EBC).

Legesse said the individuals are also accused of conducting a spree of bank robberies and arson attacks on public properties.

He further called on the public to assist law enforcement agencies in their efforts to ensure rule of law prevails in all parts of Oromia regional state.

Earlier this week, the Oromia regional state government said gunmen have robbed 18 private and state owned banks across various parts of the region.

The statement did not specifically mention possible suspects behind the armed robberies.

However, the affected bank branches operate in parts of Oromia regional state that they have been insecure for months due to a low level conflicts between the Ethiopian government and the rebel group Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).

OLF is an armed group claiming to fight for the rights of ethnic Oromos who make up about 35 percent of Ethiopia's estimated 105 million population.

It is estimated there are around 2,800 OLF fighters based mainly in the western and southern parts of Oromia regional state, the principal operating ground of OLF.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 23:33:51|Editor: yan

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TUNIS, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Two days after the first general strike in the public service, the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT) on Saturday declared that a second one would be held on Feb. 20-21.

The UGTT made the decision following the failure of negotiations with the government on wage increases in favor of more than 750,000 civil servants, said UGTT Secretary-General Noureddine Taboubi.

"The general strike aims to restore a calm social climate, to complete the establishment of constitutional institutions, and to make the next parliamentary and presidential elections successful," Taboubi added.

On Thursday, thousands of civil servants put on a general strike to demand higher wages.

Last November, the Union organized a similar strike to request an increase in the wages of the public employees. However, the government did not agree to a longstanding rise in public-sector salaries.

Since Tunisia's popular uprising in 2011, the country has witnessed several general strikes protesting deteriorating economic conditions.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 23:33:51|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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TOKYO, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Japanese government said Saturday that it welcomes the second summit between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) scheduled to take place in late February.

The Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya said that he hoped the summit will produce tangible results towards achieving the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

"We hope there will be more concrete results toward denuclearization than in the first summit," Iwaya said.

The White House said Friday that the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, top leader of the DPRK, "will take place near the end of February."

The announcement was made after Trump met with Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the DPRK's ruling Korean Workers' Party Central Committee.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 23:18:49|Editor: yan

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DUBAI, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- India is expected to become the top trade partner of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2020 through doubling their annual trade volume, a UAE minister said Saturday.

The annual trade volume between India and the UAE, which stood at 57 billion U.S. dollars in the past few years, could exceed 100 billion dollars by 2020, the official news agency WAM quoted Thani Ahmed Al-Zayoudi, the UAE minister of climate change and environment, as saying.

Thani made the remarks after meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India's western state of Gujarat, where he is attending the ninth Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, which runs from Jan. 18-20.

The summit is a platform for brainstorming on the agenda of global socio-economic development.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 22:48:41|Editor: yan

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ANKARA, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Defense Ministry said on Saturday that a total of 2,442 terrorists were "neutralized" by Turkish forces in 2018.

Some 74 senior members are among the "neutralized" terrorists, according to the ministry.

Turkish authorities use the word "neutralize" in their statements to imply that the terrorists either surrendered or were killed or captured.

Meanwhile, 88 members of Turkish security forces were killed in anti-terror operations over last year, the ministry said.

Since 2016, Turkey has conducted two cross-border operations in Syria to clear Islamic State (IS) militants and Syrian Kurdish militia, which Ankara considers as outlawed separatists, of the border area.

The ministry said that Turkish army neutralized 3,000 and 4,608 terrorists respectively during the two operations.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 22:43:39|Editor: yan

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CAIRO, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Egypt to meet with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi late January, the Akhbar el-Yom newspaper reported Saturday.

The two sides will discuss a number of issues of mutual interest, including stability in the Middle East, counter-terrorism, illegal immigration and economic relations, the report said.

This will be Macron's first visit to Egypt since he took office in 2017.

French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire will visit Cairo on Sunday to prepare for Macron's visit.

In a statement on its website, the French embassy in Cairo said Le Maire will hold talks with a number of Egyptian officials headed by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly.

Le Maire will discuss the means to boosting economic cooperation between Egypt and France, it said.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 22:18:35|Editor: xuxin

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DAMASCUS, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- At least 20 Islamic State (IS) militants were killed in eastern Syria on Saturday by Iraqi airstrikes and shellings from pro-government fighters, a war monitor group reported.

The Iraqi warplanes and the pro-Syrian government fighters targeted the last IS-held pocket on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River in eastern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The shellings and airstrikes were coupled with clashes between IS militants and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on the ground.

The Britain-based watchdog group said a total of 1,159 IS militants have been killed since the SDF launched their offensive in the eastern Euphrates region on Sept. 10, 2018.

A total of 626 SDF fighters and 373 civilians in that area were killed during the fightings, according to the monitor group.

The SDF and Syrian Army are fighting IS, which is still holding two towns in the eastern Euphrates region, separately.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 22:18:35|Editor: xuxin

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MANILA, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena lauded on Saturday the anti-drug campaign of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, saying the world needs to respect the Duterte government's war on drugs.

During a visit to the main headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Sirisena admitted that he admired the Duterte administration's "bold commitment to address the drug menace."

The Sri Lankan government would focus on the distribution hub of international drug trafficking in Sri Lanka which had been a perennial problem in the area for years, a statement issued by the PNP quoted Sirisena as saying.

Sirisena, who arrived in Manila on Jan. 15 for a five-day state visit, left for Sri Lanka on Saturday.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 22:18:34|Editor: zh

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ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese cultural troupe on Friday evening staged colorful performances to celebrate the upcoming Spring festival in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.

The cultural event which saw acrobats, ethnic songs and dances by the troupe from north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was attended by people including Chinese and Ethiopian nationals who are living in Addis Ababa.

Speaking to Xinhua, Yang Ying, Chinese Director of Confucius Institute at the Addis Ababa University, said the Chinese Lunar New Year is the most important festival in China bringing family and friends together.

The Year of the Pig in the Chinese lunar calendar will begin on Feb. 5, 2019.

Genet Dagnchew, an Ethiopian attendee of the Chinese cultural troupe's performance, said the cultural show will further the already strong Ethiopia-China ties.

"The cultural show was very entertaining. I liked the diversity and beauty of Chinese culture. This kind of cultural performances will further strengthen the Ethiopia-China countries ties," Dagnchew told Xinhua.

She said the cultural performance she witnessed gave her the idea of traveling to China to experience the country's culture and lifestyle first hand.

"I have never been to China, but from what I have heard and the culture performance I saw, I want to visit China to observe Chinese culture," said Dagnchew.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 21:48:29|Editor: xuxin

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NAIROBI, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Getting into buildings, office and shopping complexes in Kenyan capital Nairobi has become a little harder as security is beefed up following a terror attack at the upscale dusitD2 Hotel in the expatriate district of Westlands.

Kenyan police confirmed that 21 people were killed and dozen others injured in the terrorist attack by Somali militant group al-Shabab.

While some of the business premises have added more security guards, others have enhanced surveillance and security checks to ensure criminals have little chance to get in.

Vehicles are being checked thoroughly unlike in the past weeks as individuals are also frisked, with some buildings allowing in only those who produce National Identity Cards while others asking visitors to leave their luggage at the entrance.

Idling around buildings, a common practice in Nairobi as most of them are reference points for those who want to meet, is now being discouraged, and so is the parking of vehicles at undesignated places near the buildings.

There is certainly a new security order in the capital Nairobi and citizens are feeling it as companies don't want to take chances following the terror attack.

At the Nation Center, one of the iconic buildings in the city and popular meeting point for city residents, the number of security guards has been added both at the entrance and around the building, with the management discouraging idling.

"Please move away from here. We do not encourage holding of informal meetings around this place," a security guard told a group of four young men who were engaging in banter on Saturday.

Before the attacks, most supermarkets in the capital Nairobi were allowing their customers to get in with bags after being frisked, which they will pack in goods bought following a national ban on plastic bags.

But since Tuesday, a number of supermarkets have become strict, with customers asked to leave anything they are carrying at the luggage section before getting in.

"Leave the bag here," a security guard ordered a customer at one of the branches of Tuskys Supermarket on Saturday.

"You will come for it after paying for the goods and put them in," he added as the male customer's protests fell on deaf ears.

Kenyans have welcomed the new security measures, noting that they would help keep terrorists at bay.

"I am impressed by the increased security checks at buildings in Nairobi but I hope they would last because initially they have been enforced for about two weeks after a terror attack and then forgotten until the next incident," said Moses Njenga, a primary school teacher in Nairobi.

However, some are skeptical if the measures would really deter terrorists and called for a better strategy to deal with the crime.

"There was a working security check at the dusitD2 hotel yet it did not stop the terrorists from getting in. We need to rethink of a better way of stopping terror activities from being planned," said banker Tina Kimonge.

Kenya on Friday announced that in six months' time, it would issue private security guards manning malls, banks, supermarkets and even some residential areas with guns to curb terrorist attacks.

Private Security Regulatory Authority director Fazul Mohamed noted that the guards are usually the first point of contact with the criminals in case of a terror attack, therefore, they must be equipped to respond appropriately.

"The selected security guards will also be taken through counter-terrorism training," he said.

After the atack, the East African nation is believed to be dealing with an even more complex problem of radicalization, with experts calling for empowerment of youth to help stem the vice.

"We must all engage them - the government, religious entities, corporates, community leaders and families. We can no longer be casual, security alertness is crucial," said James Ole Kiyiapi, a former permanent secretary of the Ministry of Education.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 21:43:27|Editor: zh

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BEIJING, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- A former senior political advisor of northeast China's Jilin Province has been expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) and dismissed from public office over serious violations of discipline and laws, according to a statement by the top anti-graft body Saturday.

The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Supervisory Commission said in the statement that they had conducted an investigation of Wang Erzhi, former vice chairman of the Jilin Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

"As a senior official of the Party, Wang lost his ideals and convictions and showed no commitment to Party principles," the statement said, citing that the probe found Wang had turned public power into means of seeking benefits for himself and for his relatives.

He was found to have taken advantage of his posts to help private business owners obtain projects, traded power for money and collected huge amounts of money and property through his relatives.

"Wang has been disloyal and dishonest to the Party, resisted the investigation by authorities and refused to tell the truth," according to the statement.

Wang had severely violated the Party discipline and was suspected of the crime of taking bribes, the statement said, adding that he showed no sign of restraint even after the 18th CPC National Congress.

"Wang's case is serious in nature and has a bad influence, and he should be harshly punished," the statement said.

Wang's qualification for delegate to the 11th CPC Jilin Provincial Congress had been terminated, his illicit gains were confiscated and his case has been transferred to the procuratorate organs.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 21:38:25|Editor: zh

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Nairobi, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Kenya should improve quality of manufactured goods to enhance their competitiveness in the Chinese market, experts said on Friday evening.

Bitange Ndemo, professor of economics at University of Nairobi, said conducting a research on possible deficiencies in the Chinese market would be the beginning of enhancing competitiveness of Kenyan products in the world's largest economy.

"We cannot say we want to increase our exports to China without precisely knowing what they want," Ndemo said.

Taking into account its population, Ndemo noted an existing gap for food supply which Kenyan producers can bridge if they produce en masse.

"Considering their population they need a lot of food to consume. We need to know how much they import, where they import it from and what capacities do those countries have," he added.

Ndemo proposed that in order for Kenya to have a competitive leverage in China, the government should implement a land subdivision hindering policy to encourage large scale farming to ensure a consistent adequate supply of the produce exported.

"We need to have a huge production to compete against other countries," said Ndemo.

He also appealed for development of an initiative that would give preferential access to African goods to influence the growth of Africa's exports.

Phyllis Wakiaga, chief executive officer of Kenya Association of Manufacturers, said importation of mechanized solutions into farming as well as knowledge transfer will play a huge role in increasing productivity per acre of which the firm outputs could be agro-processed locally or exported to China.

Kenya is eager to export to China products including flowers and vegetables, analysts said.

Fruits, vegetables and flowers are already a key foreign exchange earner for Kenya, bringing in about 1.15 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, according to Kenya's statistics bureau.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 21:14:49|Editor: zh

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A teacher (2nd, L) demonstrates baby care skills during a training course in Dongshanpo Village of Jingyuan County, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Jan. 18, 2019. Jingyuan County is a national-level poor county with a large number of left-behind women. A free training course of baby care skills was held here to help these women gain a skill as well as to satisfy the large market demand for baby carers. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 20:03:12|Editor: zh

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BEIJING, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Education (MOE) said China will tighten regulation of after-school training institutions as the winter holiday draws near.

The ministry urged local educational departments to intensify supervision over extracurricular training, as institutions providing such training tend to be much sought after by parents during student holidays.

It also underlined the need to finish a database of after-school institutions, where the public can acquire information.

The ministry said that as of Dec. 30, 2018, 269,911 after-school institutions, nearly 99 percent of the 272,842 institutions that were found to previously have problems, had completed rectifications.

The campaign, initiated by the MOE in February 2018, aims to rectify after-school institutions providing students with lessons beyond their level or intensive exam-oriented training.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 19:43:08|Editor: zh

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Chinese President Xi Jinping's special representative Yang Jiechi (L), also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committe, meets with Cameroonian President Paul Biya in Yaounde, Cameroon, on Jan. 18, 2019. (Xinhua/Zhang Yu)

YAOUNDE, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's special representative Yang Jiechi and Cameroonian President Paul Biya agreed on Friday to further boost bilateral cooperation.

Yang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, said the China-Cameroon friendship has a long history and has withstood the test of time and international vicissitudes.

President Paul Biya paid a visit to China last year and attended the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), reaching important consensus with Xi, said Yang, adding that the bilateral relations has come to a new starting point in history with important opportunities for development.

Yang said the visit is aimed at strengthening communication with Cameroon and boosting the implementation of the consensus reached by the two presidents and the outcome of the summit, so as to elevate the friendly cooperation to a higher level.

Yang called on both sides to broaden friendly exchanges at all levels, jointly push forward the Belt and Road construction, deepen pragmatic cooperation in various fields, and promote people-to-people exchanges.

China will help Cameroon develop its economy and improve people's livelihood, continue mutual support on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns, and promote communication and collaboration on international and regional issues, said Yang.

For his part, Biya said Cameroon attaches great importance to the ties with China, appreciates its support and assistance, and hopes that China will make greater achievements in its development.

Biya said that Cameroon highly appreciates the Belt and Road Initiative, and supports the cooperation under the framework of the FOCAC.

Cameroon is ready to work with China to implement the results of the Beijing Summit, and advance the bilateral relations to a new stage, said Biya.

The country is willing to communicate and coordinate with China more closely in multilateral affairs, Biya added.

During the visit, Yang also met with Cameroonian Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute and Foreign Minister Lejeune Mbella Mbella.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 19:43:08|Editor: xuxin

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MEXICO CITY, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- At least 800 Central American migrants from a new caravan entered Mexico early Friday morning from its border with Guatemala, local authorities said.

According to local media, the migrants illegally crossed the border bridge that connects the Mexican city of Hidalgo with the Guatemalan city of Tecun Uman. They are part of the caravan that left Honduras on Monday with intention of arriving in the United States.

The entry occurred despite the fact that Mexico offered the members of the new caravan legal entry if they presented identification and registered at the border entry with the National Institute of Immigration (INM).

In a radio interview, Mexico's National Coordinator of Civil Protection David Leon said he did not have precise figures of the number of migrants that entered, but it was estimated to be about 800.

The Mexican police were guarding the group's route along the road that connects Hidalgo with the neighboring city of Tapachula and there were no plans to stop it, the official said at the interview.

Images released by local media show men, women and children walking along the edge of the highway that connects the border with Tapachula, located some 37 km away and where they are expected to make a stop.

The civil protection agency of the state of Chiapas said on Twitter that they would provide humanitarian assistance on their journey and published photos in which personnel can be seen providing water to women and children.

,The first few hundreds of Central Americans that arrived at the southern Mexican border solicited legal entry and began the process to obtain a visitor card, which the INM offered to provide no later than five days.

On Thursday alone, the INM registered more than 1,100 migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua, giving them a bracelet with a hologram that contains their information for processing.

,The new caravan departed from the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula after being gathered through social media. Its objective is to reach the Mexico-U.S. border, seeking to follow the example of October's massive mobilization of migrants.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday acknowledged the new caravan by posting on his Twitter account that it would be very hard to stop it without a wall, keeping in line with the rhetoric of the past few weeks of building a wall along the Mexico-U.S. border.

The new migrant mobilization was undertaken despite the fact that Honduran authorities warned its participants that so far none of the members of the first caravan have been allowed into the United States, contradicting what organizers led them to believe.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 19:43:08|Editor: xuxin

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ATHENS, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Anarchist group "Iconoclastic Sect" claimed on Saturday responsibility for the explosion of a bomb device outside a central Athens Greek Orthodox Christian church in late December 2018.

The blast on Dec. 27, 2018, slightly injured a church employee and a policeman.

Greek media quoted the group's proclamation released on Saturday as reporting that the newly emerging group, which said it hates religion and society, warned that more such attacks would follow.

No warning telephone call was made before the December's explosion, and according to the proclamation, the group's goal was to cause injuries.

Greek anarchist and urban guerilla groups who have been operating in the country for decades targeting politicians, police, media and financial targets, usually make warning calls to media outlets to avoid casualties.

This was the case on Dec. 17, 2018, when a bomb blast caused extensive material damages, but no injuries at the headquarters of local media group SKAI.

The Greek urban guerrilla group "Group of Popular Fighters" (Omada Laikon Agoniston -- OLA) claimed responsibility for the attack earlier this January.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 19:38:07|Editor: xuxin

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MOGADISHU, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- A senior al-Shabab fighter was arrested during a security operation conducted in Somali capital Mogadishu on Friday evening, the authorities said Saturday.

Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency said the militant, who is a member of al-Shabab's intelligence branch Amniyat, was arrested by security forces in a major operation in Mogadishu on Friday night.

The arrest came hours after the militants reportedly attacked the Ethiopian forces under the framework of African Union Mission in Somalia in southern Somalia.

The Ethiopian Defense Force confirmed that the attack on the Ethiopian forces happened on Friday near Burhakaba town in Bay region, without indicating the extent of the damage and the number of casualties.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 19:33:06|Editor: xuxin

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ALGIERS, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- As many as 4,000 Algerian illegal migrants died in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach Europe in 2018, Algerian Interior Minister Noureddine Bedoui said on Saturday.

Some 36,000 others have gone missing in the past year while attempting to get to Europe, Bedoui said in his opening remarks to the National Forum on Illegal Migration held in Algiers.

The minister called for a comprehensive strategy to be created by all concerned parties, including the authorities, experts and civil society, in a bid to reach sustainable solution to illegal immigration.

The Algerian authorities have busted some 200 cases of illegal migration and human trafficking, in which 24 people were arrested, said Bedoui.

The minister also noted that social media has emerged as an efficient platform for human traffickers to promote and organize illegal migration to Europe.

Bedoui said that security services have managed to detect 51 pages on Facebook that promote illegal migration, and the operators are subject to trial over charges of human trafficking.

The forum, held on Saturday and Sunday, is held under the them of "the future of our youth, a shared responsibility."

It serves as a platform for different actors to discuss, analyze and provide solutions and recommendations to help authorities to implement a comprehensive plan of action to fight illegal migration.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 19:18:04|Editor: zh

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BEIJING, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- As China faces a low fertility rate and an aging population, what can be done by the government and the civil society to encourage child birth?

Dr. Babatunde Ahonsi, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) China Representative, said at a policy dialogue in Beijing that the solution was more than simply encouraging couples to have more children.

"It needs to be accompanied by well-designed and comprehensive policy responses to support all couples and individuals to make fertility decisions of their own," Ahonsi said.

According to figures released by the National Health Commission (NHC), a total of 17.58 million new babies were born in Chinese hospitals in 2017. The figure for 2016 stood at 18.5 million.

Han Junli, an official of population monitoring and family development at NHC, said China would work on improving daycare services for children under three years and build more daycare centers with participation from society.

"We will also see that women's legitimate rights such as employment are guaranteed," she said, adding that employers who were found to discriminate against pregnant women would be "severely punished."

Anne-Mari Virolainen, minister of foreign trade and development of Finland, said at the event that it was important to make having children economically viable for educated and ambitious young adults.

Finland is known for its child-friendly social welfare system, including quality maternal and childcare services and free school meals.

Feng Yuan, co-founder of Beijing Equality, a non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting gender equality, said family members, particularly fathers, should also be encouraged to better help with childcare.

"Traditional Chinese culture believes childcare is the responsibility of women, but in modern times many working women find it very hard to balance work and family," she said, calling for more concrete measures to help achieve real gender equality.

China is home to about 240 million people aged 60 or above. In response to the aging problem, China allowed married couples to have up to two children from 2016, ending its decades-long one-child policy.

The China Family Planning Association said last month it will continue providing guidance on reproductive health and childbirth, helping raise public willingness to have children, and resolving childcare difficulties.

Wang Peian, deputy head of the association, said the association would explore more services in childcare and early child development for children aged under three years in 2019.

A total of 28 cities in China established guidance centers for childbirth in 2018, to provide standard and convenient services for young couples and growth trainings for children under three years.

In 2019, the association will help set up more guidance centers and online information platforms for marriage and pregnancy check-ups.

In addition, Chinese parents can now also enjoy tax benefits. From Jan. 1, 2019, a couple can enjoy a deduction of 1,000 yuan (about 148 U.S. dollars) per month from their taxable incomes for each child receiving education from kindergarten all the way to doctoral studies.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 19:03:01|Editor: xuxin

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MEXICO CITY, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Mexican economy will see a limited impact from recent fuel supply shortages, though some sectors will be affected, rating agency Moody's Investors Service said on Friday.

In a special report, the agency said that Mexico is projecting a growth of 2.2 percent for the economy in 2019 despite the recent fuel supply crisis caused by government's plan to combat fuel theft.

"Like the effects of other transitory shocks, such as strikes, pandemics, and natural phenomena, the impact of fuel shortages on economic activity will normalize throughout the year," the Moody's report stated. "In the same way, it is unlikely that the crisis will have a significant impact on the fiscal and external accounts of the country."

The administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador unveiled a plan soon after his induction in December to end fuel theft from pipelines, a problem which has grown in recent years.

The government's plan included changing the mode of fuel distribution from pipelines to trucks, which has caused a gasoline supply crisis for consumers in some areas of the country, although the government has asserted that the situation is temporary.

A prolonged shortage could alter the logistics of Mexican companies that depend on distribution and supply chains. Most of these companies, however, are large and diversified, with operations outside central Mexico, compensating for the supply problems that the country has been experiencing since the end of December.

"Diesel fuel supplies that many trucks use have remained more stable than gasoline during the current crisis," the agency said.

According to official estimates, the Mexican economy could grow between 1.5 percent and 2.5 percent in 2019.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 18:57:59|Editor: xuxin

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ATLANTA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The 40-year-long diplomatic relationship between the United States and China has contributed to peace, stability and prosperity of both countries and beyond, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said here Friday.

In late 1978, Carter and then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping reached the historic decision to establish the full diplomatic relationship between the United States and China on Jan. 1, 1979, laying the foundation for the rapid growth of bilateral relations.

"At this moment, my heart is filled with thanksgiving to Deng Xiaoping, who had the wisdom, strength, and confidence in the Chinese people ... (and) decided to build the relationship between the U.S. and China," the former president said during a symposium at the Carter Center to commemorate the 40th anniversary of U.S.-China diplomatic relations.

Carter's breakthrough with China was also one of the major foreign policy accomplishments of his presidency from 1977 to 1981.

In front of over 200 leading scholars, experts and veterans of statecraft from both countries, Carter pointed out that since 1979, peace and stability have prevailed in East Asia, the hotbed of conflicts and wars for long, and that both China and the United States have been blessed with economic growth.

The 94-year-old said that both countries could realize further cooperation in areas such as the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsular and the blossoming of less-developed countries.

Many African and Latin American countries, Carter noted, would like to see the United States and China cooperate in harmony to address their economic and social challenges, instead of choosing between the two countries.

Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai said during the event that the entire region and the world have benefited enormously from the bilateral relationship.

"If we compare the past 40 years to a test, then we have delivered impressive scores to both our peoples and the world," said the ambassador. "Let's work even harder to get another A-plus on our score report."

Cui said that it has never been so important for China and the United States to work together in a world undergoing tremendous changes.

"The people of our two countries and the whole world are looking to us to do more for the shared interests of mankind," he added.

Echoing Carter and Cui, Susan Thornton, former acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, depicted the U.S.-China relationship as the most consequential relationship in the world.

The long-term peace, stability and prosperity depend on continued ability to navigate differences and find common ground between the two countries, said Thornton.

In her speech, she also refuted strategies to contain China or calling for a decoupling of the two countries, saying they are "hyperbolic and a huge waste of time."

The United States and China could work out a satisfactory outcome that will allow us to continue a productive relationship that will pay dividends to both countries and the world for the next 40 years and beyond, she said.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 18:57:58|Editor: xuxin

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SEOUL, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- South Korean presidential Blue House on Saturday welcomed the second Kim-Trump summit, which the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States agreed to hold in late February.

Kim Eui-keum, spokesman for President Moon Jae-in, said in a statement that the upcoming DPRK-U.S. summit was anticipated to be a turning point solidifying permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to hold their second meeting in February, according to the White House. Kim and Trump had their first meeting in Singapore in June, 2018.

The Blue House spokesman said South Korea will cooperate with relevant countries, based on a close coordination between Seoul and Washington, to produce a substantive, detailed outcome for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the settlement of lasting peace through the second DPRK-U.S. summit.

The spokesman said South Korea will play all roles to help the upcoming DPRK-U.S. summit be held successfully in a close cooperation with the United States while expanding inter-Korean talks.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 17:57:49|Editor: Yamei

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Photo taken on Jan. 18, 2019 shows the White House in Washington D.C., the United States. The White House said Friday that the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), "will take place near the end of February." (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- With the United States on Friday announcing a forthcoming summit between President Donald Trump and top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un, experts called for enhanced diplomatic efforts by both sides to achieve denuclearization and resolve other issues in their bilateral relations.

Following a meeting in the White House between Trump and Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the DPRK's ruling Korean Workers' Party Central Committee, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said a leaders' meeting between the two countries "will take place near the end of February."

"President Donald J. Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and half, to discuss denuclearization and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February," Sanders said in a statement. "The President looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date."

Kyle Ferrier, a U.S.-based scholar of Korean studies, told Xinhua in an interview that Kim Yong Chol's visit to Washington suggests both sides are close to agreeing on the details for another summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un, the second after the one held in Singapore last June.

"It's not clear what exactly would be on the table in a second summit, but it would need to meaningfully advance diplomacy," said Ferrier, director of academic affairs and research at Korea Economic Institute of America, a Washington think tank.

Kim Yong Chol, who arrived in Washington on Thursday night, held what the U.S. State Department said was "a good discussion" with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Stephen Biegun, U.S. special representative for the DPRK on Friday noon. He then went to the White House to meet Trump.

Robert Palladino, deputy spokesman of the State Department, said in a statement that Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol discussed efforts to make progress on achievements at the Singapore summit, and that Biegun will travel to the Swedish capital of Stockholm Saturday through Tuesday "to participate in an international conference hosted by the Swedish foreign ministry."

The Swedish foreign ministry confirmed on Friday that DPRK Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui had arrived in Stockholm for meetings with international experts, without providing further details.

Advancement of diplomatic engagement between Washington and Pyongyang, Ferrier said, "could include initial steps of denuclearization from Pyongyang" in exchange for "concessions from Washington."

The DPRK and the United States remain divided on what denuclearization implies.

Pyongyang insists that denuclearization should cover the entire Korean Peninsula and be achieved through a phased approach, whereas Washington demands a "complete, verifiable and irreversible" denuclearization of the DPRK, without which sanctions against Pyongyang - including those adopted by the United Nations Security Council and those imposed unilaterally by the United States - will be kept in place.

"The biggest obstacle with the denuclearization process right now is getting one side to budge from their entrenched position first," Ferrier said, adding that the announcement of a second summit "suggests that the U.S. is more open to a step-by-step process, which will help keep talks going."

Positive development emerged from both the DPRK and the U.S. sides after the Singapore summit, at which Washington pledged it would provide a security guarantee to Pyongyang in return for the latter's commitment to denuclearization.

Since the summit, the DPRK has halted nuclear and ballistic missile tests, dismantled the Tongchang-ri missile engine test site, and resumed the handover of the remains of U.S. soldiers who were buried in the DPRK during the war.

The United States, for its part, has suspended some of its joint military drills with South Korea. Earlier this month, the State Department signaled its intention to ease restrictions on humanitarian aid destined for the DPRK, allowing U.S. and international aid groups to deliver the assistance and supplies, according to reports by Foreign Policy magazine.

However, discussions between Washington and Pyongyang have reached a low after the Singapore summit failed to yield substantive results.

"For the moment, diplomacy remains preferable to alternatives. Talking has achieved more than symbolic gains," Patrick Cronin, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, wrote in an article published Monday on the Foreign Policy magazine's website.

Cronin, who chairs the study of Asia-Pacific security at the Washington-based think tank, argued in the meantime that it is difficult for the United States and the DPRK to address reciprocity.

"Reciprocity works in theory but perhaps not in practice, when comparing the apples of peace agreements and sanctions relief with the oranges of denuclearization," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 17:32:44|Editor: xuxin

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Photo taken with a mobile device shows army working at the site of an explosion in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state, Mexico, Jan. 18, 2019. (Xinhua)

MEXICO CITY, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- At least 21 people were killed and 71 others injured in a pipeline explosion in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo on Friday, local authorities said.

"I am at the scene ... At the moment, 21 deaths and 71 injured are reported," tweeted Omar Fayad, governor of Hidalgo.

Fayad said the local government was coordinating rescue efforts and helping the injured was top priority.

He warned locals against fuel theft, noting that "besides being unlawful, it puts your life and that of the families at risk."

"What happened today in Tlahuelilpan should not be repeated," Fayad said.

The accident occurred at around 7:00 p.m. local time (0100 GMT) at a pipeline spot in the community of San Primitivo of the municipality of Tlahuelilpan, when dozens of people gathered around the leak to collect fuel.

Video footage showed that the oil sprouting metres into the air as people approached with buckets at about 5:04 p.m. local time (2304 GMT).

State-owned petroleum company Pemex said that the pipeline had been illegally tapped.

Specialized staff are responding to the fire on the site, which is not yet under control, Pemex said.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador expressed regret over the incident on Twitter, saying that he had instructed emergency workers to bring the fire under control and treat the victims.

He has launched a major crackdown on increasing fuel theft in Mexico, which cost the country some 3 billion U.S. dollars last year.

The death toll from the blast could rise further as 48 people have been badly injured.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 17:12:40|Editor: Yamei

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BOGOTA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Colombia's high commissioner for peace Miguel Ceballos said Friday that the guerrilla group National Liberation Army (ELN) has no intention of making peace with the government of President Ivan Duque.

"All the information revealed by the Ministry of Defense and the Attorney General's Office confirms the ELN's unwillingness for peace," Ceballos said.

The ELN is accused of planting and detonating a car bomb in the Thursday attack at the General Santander National Police Academy in southern area of the capital Bogota, which left at least 21 dead.

Ceballos said the ELN is found responsible for more than 400 criminal cases including kidnappings and the murders of more than 100 people since President Ivan Duque took office in August 2018, demonstrating no will for peace.

"For this reason, the president had not sent a spokesperson to negotiate with the ELN unless these criminal acts ... would cease," said Ceballos.

According to Ceballos, the ELN's violent acts have impeded the process of its peace talks with the government, which began in 2017 under the leadership of former President Juan Manuel Santos.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 16:42:35|Editor: zh

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BEIJING/TIANJIN, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Beijing will attract international financial and service institutions to set up regional headquarters or branches, the city mayor Chen Jining said at the ongoing annual session of the municipal legislature.

"High-level opening-up" is a key phrase in the latest annual government work reports of Beijing, its neighboring port city of Tianjin, and Hebei Province--a regional city cluster being promoted by China.

The country initiated a strategy to coordinate the development of these three places five-years-ago through exploring a new growth model in densely-populated areas, featuring a better economic structure, a cleaner environment and improved public services.

In recent years, a growing number of foreign-funded firms have settled down in the national capital.

In 2017, China's first foreign-controlled joint venture in aircraft maintenance was founded in Beijing's Shunyi District. Last year, the world's three major rating agencies -- Fitch Ratings, S&P Global and Moody's -- registered wholly-owned subsidiaries in the capital.

The number of foreign-funded companies in CBD in Chaoyang exceeded 10,000 last year, or nearly one-third of the capital's total of foreign firms, the CBD administrative committee said. Foreign-funded companies have become the major driver of economic development in the area.

Sun Yao, deputy director with the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau, said the industrial structure of foreign investment had been optimized since the central government allowed Beijing to pilot policies opening the service industry wider in 2015.

In sectors of finance, science and technology, and culture, Beijing relaxed market entry rules for foreign capital. "The service industry has become more open, attractive and competitive," he said.

EFFICIENT SERVICE

The actual use of foreign capital in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region accounted for 3.3 percent of the area's total GDP in 2010. In 2017, the figure rose to 4.8 percent, according the National Bureau of Statistics.

Experts attributed the progress to better government services and a series of integrated policies.

Thanks to the tailored policy by the Tianjin entry-exit inspection and quarantine bureau, the Tianjin plant owned by Denmark-based Novozymes, the world's largest producer of industrial enzymes, has seen improved logistics efficiency and less costs.

Shi Jia, the marketing communications manager of Novozymes (China) Investment Co. Ltd., said all imported goods can be delivered directly to the plant's warehouse, and quarantine work can be carried out at the company.

In 2014, an integrated customs clearance reform was launched in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, which began to share a new information system for customs declaration, risk control, data checks and site work. Around 8,600 firms in Beijing benefited from the program by the end of 2018, according to Beijing customs.

The efficient customs clearance supervision and service have bolstered export growth. In the first three quarters of 2018, the total import and export of goods in Beijing surpassed 2 trillion yuan (around 295 billion U.S. dollars), up more than 25 percent year on year.

On Thursday, Beijing issued a series of policies and measures to streamline administration and optimize the business environment, involving business registration, tax payment, cross-border trade and access to the power grid.

Wang Hongcun, deputy inspector of the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau, said the capital will set up 10 new demonstration shops in 2019 to boost cross-border e-commerce.

MORE REFORMS SERVE HIGH-LEVEL OPENING-UP

Beijing mayor Chen Jining said the city would exert greater efforts for reforms in investment, customs management, trade facilitation, cross-border service trade, financial service, e-commerce and intellectual property protection in the future.

Hebei will speed up opening-up in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, education, medical services and cultural industry, according to the provincial governor Xu Qin when delivering a government work report.

The province will put more efforts into 10 Sino-foreign cooperation industrial parks this year, and seek approval for Hebei pilot free trade zone as early as possible.

To advance high-level opening-up, Tianjin mayor Zhang Guoqing said in this year's municipal government work report that the city would continue to deepen reform of its Free Trade Zone and build a more open and transparent market access model.

Beijing Daxing International Airport, scheduled to open in September, sits at the junction of Beijing's Daxing District and Langfang, a city in Hebei. The new airport is expected to handle 45 million passengers annually by 2021 and 72 million by 2025.

Hendrick Sin, a Tianjin political advisor and president of Hong Kong Internet Professional Association, said Beijing had the country's leading research and talent resources.

"The coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei will make the region into a cluster of high-tech enterprises and an innovation center in China," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 15:57:30|Editor: xuxin

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MAIMANA, Afghanistan, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- An eminent commander of the hardliner Islamic State (IS) was arrested in Maimana, the capital city of Afghanistan's northern Faryab province on Friday, an army spokesman in the northern region Abdul Hadi Jamal said Saturday.

"An IS notorious commander who disguised himself as ordinary man and was planning to move to some unknown place was identified by law enforcing agencies in Maimana city on Friday afternoon and arrested," Jamal told Xinhua.

Without revealing his name and providing more details, the official said the investigation is underway.

The armed militant group has yet to make comment.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 15:32:28|Editor: xuxin

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JAKARTA, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- A total of five people including three children were found dead and two others missing after a minivan plunged into a river in West Sumatra province of western Indonesia, a senior rescuer said Saturday.

The incident occurred when a big wooden boat carrying the minivan was crossing Wampu river in Stungkit village of Langkat district, head of operational unit of provincial search and rescue office Agus Wibisono told Xinhua over phone from the province.

"The engine of the vehicle remained on when it was on the boat. But suddenly the car moved and plunged into the river," said Wibisono.

The minivan was retrieved from the river bed, but five of the people inside the car were dead, and two others went missing, he said.

Search for the missing people got underway, involving personnel of search and rescue office and volunteers, according to Wibisono.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 14:07:13|Editor: Chengcheng

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BANGKOK, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha Saturday condemned the gun attack in Thailand's southern province of Narathiwat that has killed at least two monks on Friday, ordering a hunt for the attackers.

Prayut has instructed officials to urgently investigate the incident and step up security measures in the province. He asked the public to have confidence in the government's commitment to restore peace in the county, said government spokesman Puttipong Bunnakun.

About 10 militants in camouflage black uniforms stormed the temple and opened fire with automatic weapons on Friday night, killing the temple abbot and another monk.

Two other monks were seriously injured and were later rushed to the district hospital by security forces.

Witnesses said the attackers shot randomly inside the temple.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 13:52:11|Editor: Yang Yi

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BEIJING, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Legal aid institutions across China handled a total of 413,000 cases involving migrant workers, and 515,000 migrant workers benefitted from legal assistance, according to China's Ministry of Justice.

In 2018, the ministry initiated a campaign directing local legal aid institutions to provide migrant workers with timely legal assistance, while appointing capable lawyers to handle disputes regarding unpaid wages and other issues.

The campaign is among the latest efforts enhancing the legal support system. China handled more than 1.45 million legal aid cases in 2018, benefitting about 1.52 million people.

In addition, 5,900 legal aid stations have been set up at criminal detention centers and courts to improve the duty-lawyer system, according to the ministry.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 13:37:08|Editor: Yang Yi

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BEIJING, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- China-Europe freight trains made 6,363 trips in 2018, surging 73 percent from 2017, according to the China Railway Corporation.

Freight traffic has been more balanced, with the number of trips from Europe to China accounting for 72 percent of trips, up from 53 percent in 2017.

The trains connect 59 Chinese cities with 49 cities in 15 European countries.

The freight service, a crucial part of the Belt and Road Initiative, began operation in March 2011.

For the past years, trains have rumbled along the route, taking garments, auto parts, chemicals and other Chinese goods to European consumers, while bringing back European food, machinery, equipment and timber.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 13:02:03|Editor: xuxin

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Photo taken with a mobile device shows army working at the site of an explosion in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state, Mexico, Jan. 18, 2019. At least 20 people were killed and 54 others injured in a pipeline explosion in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo on Friday, local authorities said. (Xinhua)

MEXICO CITY, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- At least 20 people were killed and 54 others injured in a pipeline explosion in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo on Friday, local authorities said.

The accident occurred around 7:00 p.m. local time (0100 GMT) at a pipeline spot in the community of San Primitivo of the municipality of Tlahuelilpan, when dozens of people gathered around the leak to collect fuel.

Omar Fayad, governor of Hidalgo, told local TV that the explosion followed by a fire killed at least 20 people and injured 54.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 12:47:01|Editor: Yang Yi

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GENEVA, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has ordered an internal inquiry after receiving anonymous emails that alleged racism, sexism and misspending within the UN health agency, according to a statement released on the WHO website recently.

"The allegations are being investigated according to WHO's established procedures," the statement said, adding that the anonymous allegations have been circulating internally and WHO has "zero tolerance" for the alleged misconduct.

The Associated Press (AP) reported on Thursday that it has obtained three emails addressed to WHO directors, which claimed that some WHO senior officials were involved in "systematic racial discrimination" against African staffers and other cases of misconduct including misspending of the money intended to fight Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo last year.

WHO said it has established mechanisms including an independently-run integrity hotline which anyone can use to report concerns confidentially and anonymously, by which anyone inside or outside the organization can report concerns about any form of suspected misconduct by WHO personnel.

Established in 1948 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, WHO is a specialized international agency which carries on the mission of providing global leadership in public health within the United Nations system.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 12:31:58|Editor: Yang Yi

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Friday announced that the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro will be the World Capital of Architecture for 2020.

Having defeated Paris and Melbourne, Rio will be the first city to receive the title under a program launched together by UNESCO and the International Union of Architects (UIA) in November 2018. The city will host the World Congress of UIA, an event that occurs every three years, in July 2020.

"The World Capital of Architecture initiative underscores the common commitment of UNESCO and the UIA to preserve architectural heritage in the urban context," said UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Culture Ernesto Ottone R.

"Through the range and quality of its activities, the World Capital of Architecture in Rio de Janeiro will demonstrate the crucial role of architecture and culture in sustainable urban development," Ottone R said.

According to UNESCO, the World Capital of Architecture is intended to become "an international forum for debates about pressing global challenges from the perspectives of culture, cultural heritage, urban planning and architecture."

Some 25,000 people are expected to attend the World Congress of UIA to discuss subjects such as town planning, mobility, public works, and sustainability. In addition, there will be several events during the year of 2020 to promote the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development's 11th Goal -- to make cities safe, resilient and sustainable.

As one of the oldest cities in Brazil, Rio has a mix of modern and colonial architecture, with world-renowned sites like the statue of Christ the Redeemer and contemporary constructions like the Museum of Tomorrow. The city is also home to works of renowned architects such as Oscar Niemeyer, who also designed Brazil's capital city Brasilia.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 12:16:57|Editor: Yang Yi

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (Xinhua)-- Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren on Friday asked U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to explain why he made unusual calls with executives of six major U.S. banks during a stock market tumble in December.

"Does the Treasury Department have information indicating that the nation's financial institutions are facing liquidity risks, clearance or margin risks, or other risks to market operations that could negatively impact the U.S. economy? " Warren wrote in a letter to Mnuchin.

The letter came after Mnuchin announced on Dec. 23 that he called the CEOs of the six largest U.S. banks about whether they had adequate liquidity during a sustained period of stock market selloff.

On the day after the calls were announced, the S&P 500 declined by 2.7 percent, partly due to concerns about Mnuchin's talks with bank executives.

"The public announcement of these calls was a rare step for a Treasury Secretary to take," Warren said. "Moreover, your calls sought to assuage a concern - the liquidity of banks - that neither banking regulators nor executives had publicly indicated was a problem."

The senator of Massachusetts asked Mnuchin to provide more information about the calls no later than Jan. 28.

"Given the outsized role of liquidity problems in the 2008 financial crisis, we would like to better understand the risks to the U.S. banking system that triggered your concerns and prompted this rare public statement," she said.

In separate letters sent to the CEOs of the six major banks -- Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo, Warren also requested additional information about their calls with the treasury secretary.

Following the 2008 global financial crisis, Warren emerged as a fierce critic of Wall Street, advocating tougher regulation and oversight of the financial industry. She has also formed an exploratory committee to move toward a presidential run in 2020.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 12:06:54|Editor: Yang Yi

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BANGKOK, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- A Belgian man charged with stealing other's luggage has been arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport in suburban Bangkok, Thailand, said the airport.

According to a press release on Friday, Belgian man Patrica Fernand M Courier, 58 years old, was arrested on Wednesday at the airport while he was checking in for his flight to Da Nang, Vietnam.

Suvarnabhumi Deputy General Manager Kittipong Kittikachorn was quoted as saying that a Chinese tourist departing from Hang Zhou, China reported to the airport on Jan. 2 that he could not find his luggage on the carousel, which contained his belongings worth some 100,000 baht (3,150 U.S. dollars).

The airport authorities thus checked the CCTV footage and found out a suspect and later confirmed the man as Courier.

The released CCTV footage showed that the man walked around the carousel and dragged a luggage away.

After arresting the man, authorities also found the stolen goods. The Belgian man admitted his acting of stealing.

According to Thai law, the Belgian man might be sentenced to a maximum of five-year jail term and be fined from 20,000 to 100,000 baht.(1 US dollars equals to 31.75 Thai Baht)Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 12:06:54|Editor: Yang Yi

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BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Brunei's national carrier Royal Brunei Airlines (RB) has announced that they will resume flights to Australia's Brisbane four times a week starting from June 11, 2019.

Brisbane was the second city in Australia that RB flew to in 1994 via Darwin, while its inaugural direct flight was operated in 1997. The services were suspended in 2011.

Karam Chand, Royal Brunei Airlines' chief executive officer, told Xinhua on Friday night that the flight service to Brisbane will help the national carrier expand its route network.

"We have very good connections from United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, East Asia and Southeast Asia to/from Brisbane," said Chand.

"We offer great value to our Australian guests and exciting destinations such as Brunei, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Ho Chi Minh City to name a few which could be packaged as single or dual destination holidays," he added.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, meanwhile, pointed out in a press release that securing flights to Brisbane with the international carrier was a win for the Australian state.

"Royal Brunei will fly four times a week to Brisbane, which is set to attract up to 30,000 visitors to Queensland and support more than 720 jobs," she said.Sport

Southgates perfect start gives England momentum

Gareth Southgate won over an English public who were sceptical about his ability to lead the Three Lions with a run to the World Cup semi-finals three years ago and is already silencing his critics at Euro 2020. For the first time at a European Championship,Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 11:01:47|Editor: Chengcheng

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UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- A 3-percent gap in the UN peacekeeping budget as a result of the United States withholding part of its assigned share of payment is unsustainable, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday.

The United States insists on paying no more than 25 percent of the UN peacekeeping budget, instead of the 28 percent assigned to it by the UN General Assembly. The withholding of the funds creates a 3-percent gap in the current overall budget for UN peacekeeping, said Guterres.

The issue turns out to be an extremely tricky one for the United Nations, he told a New Year press conference.

"Now, the problem is that I cannot successfully solve this problem by simply reducing the expenditure by 3 percent," he said.

According to the rules, all member states that contribute to the budget have the right to get their share of the savings, therefore, the saved expenditure has to be given back to the contributing countries, "which makes the situation completely unsustainable," Guterres said.

Until now, the situation has been relatively under control as the gap is being funded by countries contributing troops and police officers.

According to Guterres, most of these countries are of the poorest ones. "So, it's totally unacceptable from the moral point of view and totally unsustainable to keep this situation forever."Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 10:56:47|Editor: Chengcheng

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MEXICO CITY, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- At least 20 people were killed and more than 50 others injured in a pipeline explosion in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo, local media quoted its governor as saying on Friday.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 10:21:43|Editor: Chengcheng

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BEIJING, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will pay an official visit to China on Jan. 20-23 at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Hun Sen was born in Cambodia's Kampong Cham Province in August 1952. He joined the fight against the United States in 1970 to protect his home country, and served successively as company commander, battalion commander and regimental commander. He participated in more than 100 battles and suffered multiple injuries.

He has held different positions in the Cambodian administrations since 1979, including foreign minister, deputy prime minister and prime minister.

Hun Sen served as second prime minister of Cambodia and co commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces after the first general election in 1993.

He became the Cambodian prime minister after winning the general election in 1998 and was reelected in 2003, 2008, 2013 and 2018.

Hun Sen is married and has five children. His wife Bun Rany serves as the president of the Cambodian Red Cross.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 10:06:41|Editor: Chengcheng

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STOCKHOLM, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Senior representatives from Pyongyang and Washington met here to prepare for a second summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) reported on Friday.

The report said Choe Son Hui, vice foreign minister of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), was in the Swedish capital for roundtable talks with a small team of international experts at an undisclosed site.

Stephen Biegun, the U.S. special representative for the DPRK, was among the foreign diplomats participating in the talks, according to the report.

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom and State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Annika Soder met the representatives, said the report.

The report said that Trump and Kim, who met in Singapore last June, are expected to meet soon again.United Nations special envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen arrives in Damascus on January 15, 2019. (AFP Photo)

MOSCOW, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that he will hold talks with the new UN envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen in Moscow on Monday.

"We will be interested in hearing how he plans to start the work of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, especially after he just visited Damascus on a two-day visit and held talks with the Syrian leadership," Lavrov said.

He said that Moscow expected the agreement reached at a summit of Russia, Germany, France and Turkey in Istanbul in October on the need to start the work of the Syrian Constitutional Committee to be implemented as soon as possible.

Lavrov said the recent events in Syria, including the terrorist attack in Syria's Manbij on Wednesday, demand a more active involvement of those who want to help eradicate the terrorist threat.

Moscow is concerned about the situation in Idlib province bordering Turkey in the northwest of Syria, the last major hotbed of terrorists in the war-torn country, he said.

According to Lavrov, contrary to the agreement on the establishment of a demilitarized zone in Idlib, about 70 percent of the zone is still occupied by terrorists, who are shooting at the positions of the Syrian army, local settlements and threatening the Russian air base in Hmeymim.

The Russian top diplomat also noted the necessity of transferring territories controlled by the United States to the Syrian authorities after the announced U.S. departure takes place.

Moscow is interested in ensuring that the decisions of the UN Security Council on the need to preserve the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria are translated into practical actions, Lavrov said.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 08:34:05|Editor: Chengcheng

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People hold placards during a rally to protest against the partial government shutdown at Federal Plaza in Chicago, the United States, on Jan. 18, 2019. Dozens of federal employees and activists gathered here on Friday to protest against the ongoing partial government shutdown, which is now the longest in U.S. history. (Xinhua/Wang Ping)Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 08:06:27|Editor: Lu Hui

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CANBERRA, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Australia's peak scientific body has launched the most comprehensive voyage ever to study blue whales in Antarctica.

A team of 28 scientists from around the world set sail on the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) research ship RV Investigator on Saturday.

During the seven-week voyage the team will seek to determine the relationship between the blue whale, the largest animal known to have ever existed, and krill its prey.

They will investigate a theory that blue whales, which can grow up to 30 meters in length and 100 tonnes in weight, act as deep-sea farmers by fertilising the sea with their waste, thus growing more algae for krill to eat.

"Knowledge about the whale-krill relationship and the role of whales in maintaining ecosystem health is key to understanding the ecology of the Southern Ocean," Mike Double, voyage chief scientist and head of the Australian Marine Mammal Centre (AMMC), told News Corp Australia on Saturday.

"We have a world-class combination of people, research ship, and cutting-edge technologies. It's going to be an incredible seven-week voyage."

In addition to using traditional marine research methods, the voyage will also see drones deployed to photograph, measure and identify blue whales.

In a world-first, the vessel's multi-beam echo-sounders will be used to develop three-dimensional models of krill swarms.

"We'll sample water in areas with whales and krill, whales only, krill only, and neither species," deputy chief scientist Elanor Bell said.

"The sampling will reveal where the iron goes, how fast it sinks, and whether primary production increases over time."Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 07:56:25|Editor: Lu Hui

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YAOUNDE, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Cameroon's President Paul Biya said on Friday he was "very" concerned about rising insecurity in the two English-speaking regions and in its mountainous Adamawa region. He pledged efforts to restore peace.

In the Adamawa region, "shepherds are victims of criminal groups specialized in kidnappings with ransom demands," Biya said while presiding over the graduation ceremony of the Combined Services Military Academy in the capital, Yaounde.

"The situation in the Northwest and Southwest is and remains at the center of my concerns. The armed groups have in recent months engaged in killing spree. The populations are the main victims of these groups," Biya added.

The president raised the concerns amid increasing calls across the country for peace and stability to be restored in the aforementioned regions.

"I will spare no effort to ensure that this legitimate aspiration to peace is realized. I reiterate my appeal to our young people who have let themselves be dragged into a dead end to return to the right track," Biya said.

Local authorities said last week Adamawa region was going through its "worst moments" in history with about 150 cases of kidnapping recorded in the region last year.

In the two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest of the largely French-speaking African country, armed separatists have been clashing with government forces to create a nation called "Ambazonia."Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 07:56:25|Editor: Lu Hui

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HOUSTON, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. oil sector growth cooled at the end of 2018, and lower oil prices eroded expectations for capital spending in 2019, a report released by Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said Friday.

According to the Energy Indicators, initial estimates of Texas mining employment showed growth moderating over the three months ending in November. Support activities for mining-mostly oilfield services companies and the more cyclical part of the industry slowed to an annual growth rate of 9.4 percent. Extraction-mostly exploration and production firms fell 2.1 percent. The slower growth was likely driven by limited pipeline capacity and flattening drilling and completion activity.

Outside of Texas, mining job growth was much more muted, said the report. Mining support activities growth was essentially flat at an annual rate of 0.1 percent for the three months ending in November 2018.

Oil prices fell further in December 2018 as international benchmark Brent crude slipped to 57 U.S. dollars a barrel. Strong supply growth in the United States, rising liquids inventories, waivers from United States sanctions for importers of Iranian crude oil, and uncertainty about the demand growth picture weighed on prices even after OPEC, Russia and Canada announced their intentions to cut production in 2019, the report concluded.

In the United States, limited takeaway capacity and surging production have kept crude oil prices relatively lower to global benchmarks. This condition is expected to ease over 2019 as new pipelines are completed and come into service, said the monthly released report.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 07:46:21|Editor: Lu Hui

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HOUSTON, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The number of active drilling rigs in the United States decreased by 25 to 1,050 this week, or 114 more than that this time last year, according to the weekly data released by the Baker Hughes on Friday.

The number of rigs operating in U.S. oil fields fell by 21 to 852 rigs this week, and more than half of them were located in the Permian Basin region of western Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The number of gas drilling rigs decreased by four to 198 rigs.

"The market doesn't panic a lot about the decrease because a number of factors, such as the cold weather, the delay of drilling projects, could contribute to the fall," an oil and gas market researcher from the University of Texas (UT) at Austin said.

"What matters is the trend that we have a larger amount of active drilling rigs than last year. This shows that the industry is optimistic about future," he said.

The Houston-based oilfield services company reported that the number of land drilling rigs decreased by 23 to 1,029 rigs. The number of inland waters drilling rigs remained level at two, while the number of offshore drilling rigs decreased by two to 19 rigs.

The number of directional drilling rigs decreased by seven to 55 rigs, the number of horizontal drilling rigs decreased by 19 to 929 rigs, while the number of vertical drilling rigs increased by one to 66 rigs.

The U.S. state of Texas decreased the most by 11 rigs to 521 rigs. Oklahoma also decreased largely by 10 to 126 rigs. Alaska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, West Virginia and Wyoming all increased by one rig.

U.S. oil prices settled higher on Friday. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for February delivery added 1.73 U.S. dollars to settle at 53.80 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.TORONTO, Jan. 19, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Sunday, Jan. 20, the Fraser Institute will release its annual Report Card on Ontarios Elementary Schools, the go-to source for measuring school performance.



It provides parents with information they cant easily get anywhere else by ranking more than 3,000 Ontario elementary schools, based on nine academic indicators derived from provincewide test results.

A news release with additional information will be issued via GlobeNewswire on Sunday, Jan. 20 at 5:00 a.m. Eastern.

The complete results for all 3,046 elementary schools included in the Report Card will also be available at www.compareschoolrankings.org .

MEDIA CONTACT:

Peter Cowley (in Toronto)

Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute

Cell: (604) 789-0475

Office: (604) 714-4556

E-mail: peter.cowley@fraserinstitute.org

Angela MacLeod

Senior Policy Analyst, Fraser Institute

Bryn Weese

Senior Media Relations Specialist, Fraser Institute

Cell: (604) 250-8076

Office: (604) 688-0221 Ext. 589

E-mail: bryn.weese@fraserinstitute.org

Follow the Fraser Institute on Twitter | Become a fan on FacebookSource: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 07:11:17|Editor: Lu Hui

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LIMA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Four people have been missing after a mudslide hit the town of Calicanto, in Peru's southern Ayacucho department, the National Civil Defense Institute (Indeci) reported Friday.

Indeci chief Jorge Chavez said the mudslide occurred in the early morning of Friday and was caused by heavy rains in the area during the past several hours.

The landslide destroyed 20 of the 70 homes in the town, located in the valley of the rivers of Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro (Vraem).

Local people affected by the disaster have received help from firefighters from the Kimbiri district, as well as personnel from the Ayacucho Civil Defense.

Another landslide was reported in the town of Tutumbaru, in the province of Huanta, also in the Vraem area, which blocked the road connecting other points of Ayacucho.

Chavez said a military contingent has been sent to the affected areas to help the victims.

Once the weather conditions improve, a helicopter will be sent to Calicanto, according to the official.

Tutumbaru mayor Roberto Huaman asked the government for help to send heavy machinery to clear the roadway.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 06:01:02|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday said that there is no timeframe to launch the constitutional committee in Syria, but the work needs to be done as quickly as possible.

The UN chief told a press conference at UN headquarters in New York that Syria needs a constitutional committee that is "indeed balanced" and accepted by all Syrian people.

Guterres said additional consultations will be needed since the UN's list for the constitutional committee was rejected by the Syrian government last year. Geir Pedersen, the new UN envoy for Syria, will visit Moscow next week to discuss the work of the Syrian constitutional committee with the Russian government.

Pedersen just visited Damascus for two days this week and held talks with the Syrian leadership. Guterres said the talks were "very constructive."

"There is no resolution to Syrian problem without political solution, and the UN has a key role to play," said the UN chief, adding that the work of UN is not to "find a plan B," so the plan of Syrian constitutional committee has to work.

The launch of Syrian constitutional committee has become the centerpiece of UN peace efforts in the country, and its goal is to set up elections that can end seven years of devastating war.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 05:56:00|Editor: Chengcheng

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ALGIERS, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- An announcement made by Algerian president on Friday to organize presidential elections on April 18 has put an end to the possibility of postponing elections.

"The presidential decree, which calls for presidential elections on April 18, is the first indication that there will be regular periodic elections," Mustapha Sayej, a professor of political science and international relations with the University of Algiers, told Xinhua.

The professor said that the Algerian political arena has been dominated by three main trends. The first one is represented in some opposition forces, which were demanding the postponement of the presidential elections.

Another trend suggested setting up a transition cabinet, as if Algeria was facing a political vacuum. The third trend was betting on chaos in streets through manipulating some social cases.

Meanwhile, some opposition parties suggested several political initiatives to solve this political stalemate.

The most noticeable initiative is the one put forward by the Islamist Movement for Society of Peace, the largest opposition party and the third power in the parliament.

The initiative suggests postponing the presidential elections for one year while launching major political reforms that would result in setting up a national unity government, dissolving the parliament and then holding general elections supervised by an independent committee.

For now, the incumbent president is set to take a decision on whether to run for a fifth term or not.

In this regard, political analyst Salim Hammadi told Xinhua that the Friday's statement means that the regime has finally chosen its own consensus candidate for the upcoming elections, whether it is the current president or another person.

Those who wish to run for the presidential elections have 45 days to submit their candidacy to the Constitutional Council, provided that they meet legal requirements stipulated in the Constitution, including being Algerian Muslim for 40 years or more, and collecting 60,000 signatures across a minimum of 25 provinces.

Some 23 million Algerians out of more than 42 million are eligible to vote, according to official figures.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 05:40:58|Editor: Chengcheng

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses a press conference at the UN headquarters in New York, on Jan. 18, 2019. Guterres on Friday strongly condemned the car bombing at a police academy in the Colombian capital of Bogota, which caused heavy casualties. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Friday condemned "in the strongest possible terms" Thursday's car bombing at a police academy in the Colombian capital of Bogota, which caused heavy casualties.

The members of the Security Council expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims, as well as to the people and government of Colombia, and wished a speedy recovery to those injured, said the council in a press statement.

The council members underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice and urged all states to cooperate actively with the government of Colombia and all other relevant authorities in this regard.

They reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security and stressed the need for all states to combat, by all means, threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist attacks.

Earlier Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the car bombing that killed 21 people and wounded dozens of others.

"The secretary-general strongly condemns the car bombing at a police academy in Bogota," said Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric in a statement.

The Colombian authorities have indicated that the terrorist act was conducted by the rebel National Liberation Army.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 04:30:47|Editor: Chengcheng

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MOSCOW, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that he will hold talks with the new UN envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen in Moscow on Monday.

"We will be interested in hearing how he plans to start the work of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, especially after he just visited Damascus on a two-day visit and held talks with the Syrian leadership," Lavrov said.

He said that Moscow expected the agreement reached at a summit of Russia, Germany, France and Turkey in Istanbul in October on the need to start the work of the Syrian Constitutional Committee to be implemented as soon as possible.

Lavrov said the recent events in Syria, including the terrorist attack in Syria's Manbij on Wednesday, demand a more active involvement of those who want to help eradicate the terrorist threat.

Moscow is concerned about the situation in Idlib province bordering Turkey in the northwest of Syria, the last major hotbed of terrorists in the war-torn country, he said.

According to Lavrov, contrary to the agreement on the establishment of a demilitarized zone in Idlib, about 70 percent of the zone is still occupied by terrorists, who are shooting at the positions of the Syrian army, local settlements and threatening the Russian air base in Hmeymim.

The Russian top diplomat also noted the necessity of transferring territories controlled by the United States to the Syrian authorities after the announced U.S. departure takes place.

Moscow is interested in ensuring that the decisions of the UN Security Council on the need to preserve the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria are translated into practical actions, Lavrov said.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 04:15:44|Editor: Lu Hui

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by Gao Yang, Dana Halawi

BEIRUT, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has generated positive influences on economy in the Arab world, said Lebanese experts in light of the upcoming Arab Economic and Social Development Summit in Beirut.

"We started to feel the positive impacts of the initiative in the Arab world at all levels," Mahmoud Raya, editor-in-chief of "China in Arab Eyes" news website, told Xinhua.

Scheduled on Jan. 19-20, the Arab economic summit in Beirut addresses economic and social development among Arab League member states. Besides the hot regional issues, the growing influence of China's BRI on Arab economy is also widely discussed among local experts.

Raya emphasized that trade between the Arab world and China has remarkably increased, citing that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become the second largest trade partner with China with a volume of trade exchange that mounted to 41 billion U.S. dollars in 2017.

"The UAE, for instance, has become a hub for Chinese companies and businesses in the Arab region," he said, adding that the UAE and China have recently signed a currency swap deal to facilitate trade between the two sides.

Over the past few years, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of summits and events gathering Arab and Chinese officials to enhance economic and political relations among them.

The total volume of trade exchange between Arab states and China reached 192 billion dollars in 2017, according to previous remarks from Arab League Assistant Secretary General Hossam Zaki.

Proposed by China in 2013, the BRI refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aimed at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa through the revival of ancient trade routes.

Within the framework of the initiative, China and Arab states have carried out several joint projects and investments, including power plants, businesses, factories, industrial zones and infrastructure projects in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan, and Oman.

"Lebanon is also important for China as a gate for the Chinese companies that seek to take part in rebuilding Syria," Raya said.

For his part, Nabil Srour, a Lebanese writer and researcher of international affairs, said that China helps many Arab countries construct their infrastructures.

Srour, author of a book on the Chinese development experience, illustrated that China helped Sudan build a bridge spanning over the Nile River and contributed to road construction in Somalia.

China also sent experts to Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Mauritania, and Yemen to offer financial and advisory support to develop economy in these Arab countries.

"All Arab countries have opened channels with China but a whole network of maritime and land roads must be created to fully benefit from the interconnection," Srour told Xinhua.

According to China's first "Arab Policy Paper" issued in 2016, Arab countries as a whole have become China's biggest supplier of crude oil and the seventh biggest trade partner.

Lebanese political researcher Adnan Bourji said that the BRI brings mutual benefits to both sides as Arab countries have recently witnessed economic improvement thanks to their growing cooperation with China.

"China helps with the construction of infrastructures and provides training for Arabs, while importing oil, gas, minerals, and raw materials from the Arab world," Bourji said.

Boosting mutual trade and cooperation among Arab states has always been the focus of previous Arab economic summits and it is a key topic on the agenda of this year's summit in Beirut.

Bourji believes that inter-Arab cooperation is necessary for better Arab cooperation with China.

"Arab states have complementary resources and their unity and cooperation with China will reduce Western pressures and empower both side," Bourji told Xinhua.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 03:40:30|Editor: yan

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VILNIUS, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The number of Ukrainians living in Lithuania has increased by almost 42 percent in 2018, making them the largest foreign community in Lithuania, the country's Migration Department announced on Friday.

According to the department, on Jan.1 2019, 16,873 Ukrainians lived in Lithuania, an increase of 41.9 percent compared with the number a year ago.

During 2018, Ukrainians became the largest foreign community in Lithuania, a Baltic country with population of around 2.8 million, leaving Russians at the second place with 12,433 living in Lithuania. The third largest foreign community in Lithuania are Belarussians with 12,162.

"Citizens from these countries account to 84 percent of all foreigners living in Lithuania," said the Migration Department in the announcement on Friday.

The number of Ukrainians living in Lithuania has been growing amid influx of Ukrainian workers to Lithuania and strengthening cooperation between Lithuania and Ukraine.

According to Lithuania's Social Security and Labor Ministry, in 2018, around 60 percent of Lithuanian multi-entry national visas based on labor permits were granted to Ukrainians, around 60 percent of temporary permits were also granted to Ukrainians.

Last month, Lithuania and Ukraine agreed to strengthen social guarantees to Ukrainian workers in Lithuania and fight illegal work.

In recent years, Lithuanian companies have turned to Ukrainian workers amid growing shortage of labor force following years of Lithuanians' emigration to western and northern Europe over higher pay.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 03:25:28|Editor: Chengcheng

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A Palestinian protester uses a slingshot to throw back a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops during clashes on the Gaza-Israel border, east of Gaza City, on Jan. 18, 2019. At least 30 Palestinians were injured in clashes on Friday between hundreds of protesters and Israeli soldiers stationed at the borderline of eastern Gaza Strip, according to Gaza medics. (Xinhua)

GAZA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- At least 30 Palestinians were injured in clashes on Friday between hundreds of protesters and Israeli soldiers stationed at the borderline of eastern Gaza Strip, according to Gaza medics.

At least 30 Palestinian demonstrators were shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers' gunfire during clashes in eastern Gaza Strip, said Ashraf al-Qedra, a spokesman of the Health Ministry in Gaza.

The Gaza-based Al-Sha'b (people) Radio reported that demonstrators threw stones at the soldiers stationed on the border, who fired back tear gas and live gunshots at the demonstrators.

Since March 30 last year, people in Gaza started the weekly anti-Israel rallies called the "Great March of Return."

"All the casualties were either treated in the field or transferred to the hospitals," said al-Qedra.

Around 20,000 demonstrators gathered in eastern Gaza Strip close to the border with Israel, waving Palestinian flags and chanting anti-Israel slogans, said the eyewitnesses.

The protesters demand for allowing the shipment of the 15 million U.S. dollars, a third installment of the Qatari grant to Gaza to pay the salaries of Hamas employees, and relaxing a blockade that Israel has been imposing on the Gaza Strip since 2007.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 03:15:26|Editor: yan

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MAPUTO, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi welcomed on Friday the election of Ossufo Momade for the main opposition Renamo's leadership and his committed effort to achieve an effective peace.

"I wish that we shall continue working on the full implementation of the memorandum of understanding on military matters, to achieve a sustainable peace to benefit all Mozambicans," said the president in a statement.

Ossufo Momade was elected the president of Renamo on Thursday. Since the death of Afonso Dhlakama in May 2018, Momade has been acting as the party's interim leader.

"Aware of that peace is one of the noblest values of the Mozambican people, we reaffirm our commitment until we achieve a definitive peace," said the statement.

During his speech as Renamo leader, Momade said the party doesn't want war, and promised the country and the world that they shall continue the dialogue with the government.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 03:00:24|Editor: yan

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TIRANA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Albanian President Ilir Meta has decided to dismiss Ditmir Bushati as Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs and appoint Prime Minister Edi Rama to replace him in office, a spokesperson of the President Office informed in a press release on Friday.

According to the press release, Meta received on Jan. 14 the new proposal for appointment of Prime Minister Rama in the post of Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

The press release added that in reviewing this proposal, the president has also considered the importance of avoiding any possibility of institutional crisis that would damage the position of Albania in international relations.

Four days ago Rama appointed himself as Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, underlining that President Meta refused to decree the discharge of the outgoing Foreign Affairs Minister Bushati.

Earlier, Meta refused to approve the proposal of Gent Cakaj as Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, claiming he was not up to the challenge of running diplomacy.

Cakaj, aged 28, was chosen by Prime Minister Rama for this key position after he decided to reshuffle about half of his cabinet last December in response to students protests against a law on higher education.NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Danske Bank A/S (Danske or the Company) (OTC MKTS: DNKEY). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980.



The investigation concerns whether Danske and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here to join a class action]

On September 5, 2017, Reuters reported that Danske had hired the former head of Denmarks intelligence agency to help it in its effort to counter money-laundering claims. Then, on September 21, 2017, the Company issued a press release revealing that it had expand[ed] its ongoing investigation into the situation at its Estonian branch. Two months later, on December 21, 2017, Reuters reported that Danske had been fined 12.5 million Danish crowns ($2 million) by Denmarks Financial Supervisory Authority (the DFSA) for violating anti-money laundering rules in relation to the monitoring of transactions to and from correspondent banks, and that Danske was examining whether its Lithuanian and Latvian branches had been involved in money laundering, expanding an investigation beyond its Estonian operations.

On May 3, 2018, Reuters reported the DFSA issued a report stating it had identified serious weaknesses in Danskes governance and that the Company was exposed to significantly higher compliance and reputational risks than previously assessed.

On July 18, 2018, Danske stated that it wished to pay back approximately $230 million earned in connection with its alleged role in an international money laundering scheme involving illicit funds from Russia, Azerbaijan, and Moldova, calculated based on profit from Danskes Estonian office. On this news, Danskes American depositary receipt price fell $1.43, or 9.42%, to close at $13.81 on July 18, 2018.

On September 14, 2018, The Wall Street Journal disclosed that a whistleblower had approached the SEC at least two years earlier, and, as a result, U.S. law enforcement agencies had begun investigating the scandal.

On October 23, 2018, the full extent of the Companys misconduct was releveled when The Wall Street Journal published an article disclosing that in 2013 the whistleblower had alerted Danskes senior executives and that Danske sought to silence the whistleblower for years.

Upon the full revelation of the Companys misconduct and the extent to which it relied upon the illegal profits, the price of the Companys American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) had plummeted approximately 54%, from a high of $20.90 on February 16, 2018, to a low of $9.50 on October 23, 2018.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

rswilloughby@pomlaw.com

888-476-6529 ext. 9980Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 02:55:21|Editor: yan

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GENEVA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The UN refugee agency UNHCR on Friday welcomed Ethiopia's historic new refugee law which will now allow refugees to obtain work permits and other relevant documentation.

In a statement, UNHCR said the new law would also allow refugees to access primary education, obtain drivers' licenses, legally register life events such as births and marriages and open access to national financial services, such as banking.

"The passage of this historic law represents a significant milestone in Ethiopia's long history of welcoming and hosting refugees from across the region for decades," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

Ethiopia currently hosts over 900,000 refugees, primarily from neighboring South Sudan, Somalia, Sudan, and Eritrea, as well as smaller numbers of refugees from Yemen and Syria.

The UN refugee agency noted that Ethiopia's parliament adopted revisions in its existing refugee law on Jan. 17, making it one of the most progressive refugee policies in Africa.

"By allowing refugees the opportunity to be better integrated into society, Ethiopia is not only upholding its international refugee law obligations but is serving as a model for other refugee-hosting nations around the world," said Grandi.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 02:30:18|Editor: Chengcheng

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The third annual Women's March, expected to bring thousands of protesters to Washington D.C. and about 350 sites across the United States on Saturday, has been shadowed by accusations of anti-Semitism against some of the original organizers.

At least one march has been canceled in California, and in New York, two competing marches are expected to take place as their leaders were at odds, according to a New York Times report.

The controversy has prompted the Democratic National Committee and several other groups to distance themselves from the upcoming Washington D.C. event, local media reported.

Recent reports from Jewish magazine Tablet and The New York Times allege that anti-Semitic comments were made at the march's planning meetings.

The controversy deepened as Tamika Mallory, a Women's March co-president, appeared on ABC's "The View" on Monday and declined to denounce the frequent anti-Semitic statements by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, whom Mallory has publicly lauded.

However, the Women's March has issued multiple statements rejecting anti-Semitism on their website, including: "We recognize the danger of hate rhetoric by public figures. We want to say emphatically that we do not support or endorse statements made by Minister Louis Farrakhan about women, Jewish and LGBTQ communities."

The first Women's March drew drew 3.3 million to 5.2 million across the country in the wake of President Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony two years ago, according to local media reports, noting the marches now also face increased travel inconveniences due to ongoing partial government shutdown and harsh winter weather in midwest and east coast.

The event is aimed to maintain the grassroots momentum that has taken hold around North America to resist white nationalism, misogyny and xenophobia and to stand-up for women, girls, indigenous peoples and minorities of all types.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-19 02:15:16|Editor: Chengcheng

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Bodies of four lion cubs that died in a zoo, are seen in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Jan. 18, 2019. A severe cold wave swept the region recently and claimed the lives of four new-born cubs in the zoo in Rafah city. (Xinhua/Khaled Omar)

GAZA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- A wave of a severe coldness swept the region over the past two days, leaving the death of four new-born cubs in a zoo in Rafah city in southern Gaza Strip.

Fathi Jumaa, one of the zoo's owners, told reporters on Friday that "a lioness called Laila had given birth to four cubs on Wednesday morning; two of them died immediately and the two died later."

The zoo owner explained that when he waked up on Wednesday at dawn time to look after the lioness mother, he was not expecting the mother's delivery.

He was surprised when she gave birth to four cubs.

"Two cubs died directly, so I took the other two babies to my house to keep them warm. Then, I brought them back to their mom to get breastfeed, but they died," Jumma added with sadness.

He pointed out that he intended to sell the cubs so that he could feed the rest of the animals in the zoo and protect the zoo that has been continuously exposed to raids and wars waged by the Israeli army against the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Jumaa has appealed to the associations of animals welfare to rescue the other animals, including cubs, monkeys and other rare birds.

A local Gaza-based committee to resist the Israeli blockade has warned in an official statement late on Thursday that 12 years of a tight Israeli blockade have led to a severe humanitarian determination in all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip.

The committee said in a press statement that 90 percent of factories in the impoverished densely populated enclave have been badly damaged due to the Israeli blockade and the growing rates of unemployment among young men.

The committee showed that the per-day income of the Palestinian individual in the Gaza Strip, which has a population of around 2 million people, was only 2 U.S. dollars, adding that 85 percent of the people are living under the poverty line.

Not only the Israeli blockade, which exhausted the Gaza Strip, but also 12 years of internal split between Hamas movement, which rules the enclave, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement have badly influenced the situation there, according to observers.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-18 02:34:07|Editor: yan

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TEHRAN, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said Thursday that the United States is not entitled to influence the ties between Iran and Iraq, official IRNA news agency reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other U.S. officials have no right to "meddle" in neighborly ties between Iran and Iraq, Zarif said in the Iraqi city of Najaf.

Iran's relations with Iraq are not superficial and are deeply-rooted in the history and culture, he was quoted as saying.

"Outsiders will eventually leave the region, and it is the regional nations that will remain" to live with each other, said Zarif.

He stressed "I am confident that Iran-Iraq relations have a bright future."

On Jan. 9, Pompeo paid a surprise visit to the Iraqi capital Baghdad to meet with Iraqi leaders to discuss bilateral relations and regional issues.

Following that, the Iranian foreign minister arrived in Iraq on Sunday for talks with senior Iraqi officials in diverse areas, including U.S. "intervention" in the mutual ties between Tehran and Baghdad.

The visit of Zarif to Iraq came against the backdrop of Iran's efforts to boost its trade with traditional economic partners to counter the U.S. sanctions.

The U.S. has reimposed sanctions on Iran, including its oil exports and banking sectors, following its exit from the landmark Iranian nuclear deal last May.

However, Washington has agreed to let eight countries, including Iraq, keep temporarily buying Iranian oil.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) -During times of crisis scam artists tend to come out of the woodwork preying on people in desperate situations and the government shutdown is no exception.

Whether you are a federal employee or just someone who wants to help those in need, here are a few things to look out for.

Shutdown scams come in all shapes and sizes. According to Consumer Reports, fake employers are taking advantage of cash-strapped federal workers by offering them bogus side jobs.

"Just make sure that you research the company that is advertising. Sometimes these can be scams. A lot of times they will ask you up front for your info such as your drivers license, social security and birthday, so they can get your information processed," said Officer Damon Miller with the Tallahassee Police Department.

Officer Miller also said never give a potential employer your personal information over the phone.

New technology is allowing scammers to spoof the actual phone numbers of government agencies, so even though the number of the call coming in may look legit it may not be.

"Research the number. You can always check on any internet search engine to see if the number pops up," said Miller. The results might surprise you, many people online may be complaining about calls from that same number.

Sometimes people will do car washes and bake sales to help support victims of this disaster and that disaster and a lot of times the money never even goes toward that. Although it is a great gesture just be wary about whose taking the money what they are doing with it and if they have been ever convicted of fraud.

Officer Miller said it may be safer to give donations to the major agencies or organizations with a proven track record so you know, for sure, that the money is going to the victim's.WAKULLA COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - Long before Wakulla Springs became the site of a state park it appears the area drew a different kind of visitor.

For the past 3 weeks, divers from the Aucilla Research Institute have been searching the waters at Wakulla Springs State Park.

The search is an effort to research the ancient "Mastodon" a relative of the modern elephant and see if the animal had ties to other areas of the park.

"We are just trying to see by chance, what was going on land with what was going on with what is now underwater," said James Dunbar, a researcher at Aucilla.

James Dunbar and his team received a more than 300,000 dollar grant from the Division of Historical Resources to survey the park. A hunt one of the divers says is a unique and fun experience.

"So few people get to dive in Wakulla so we get to see something that is as close to a pristine nature as anything going in Florida these days," said diver, Andy Hemming.

Dunbar said the group is not sure if they will be able to date how old these Mastodons are but will know around May.

According to Hemming one of the most important things found at the site is a leaf, because leaves can be dated easier than most things found.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - One 75-year-old man is fighting for justice for his wife trekking from from New York to Florida seeking support for a bill meant to protect patients from being abused by hospital and nursing-home workers.

Edward Bowman wrote Clara's Law after his wife was sexually assaulted in a Florida hospital 10 years ago.

The proposed bill would require facilities to report similar incidences to the state Health and Education departments within 30 days.

It would also alert other healthcare facilities if a care giver has abused a patient.

"We've got to look out for the people that can't look out for themselves. I choose to do this because my wife did not deserve, she lived two and a half years with post traumatic stress. She didn't have to, she didn't deserve that, no one else does either, and I'm here by the grace of God to see that they don't," said Edward Bowman.

Bowman said this bill is being reviewed by the New York state senate in the upcoming session.

Florida law currently states "sexual abuse of a patient by a member of the hospital must be reported to law enforcement."Graduate who secured dream job at Bentley returns to uni to help others follow in his footsteps

This article is old - Published: Saturday, Jan 19th, 2019

Glyndwr graduate who secured a role at a major motoring company has returned to Wrexham Glyndwr University to help others follow in his footsteps.

Jose Maria Ortega, who is originally from Spain, works at Bentley motors headquarters near Crewe in the Electrical Engineering Department.

He visited the university recently to talk to current students about his new role, the opportunities available at Bentley  and the best way to secure a career with the company.

A graduate from the BEng (Hons) Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering course, Jose initially came to Wrexham Glyndwr University on the advice of his friend Alvaro  who now works at Rolls-Royce and who also visited the university after graduating to pass on careers advice and tips.





I had a great time at Wrexham Glyndwr University, and being here really helped prepare me for my role at Bentley, he said.

Now I am working in industry, I wanted to come back and pass some tips on to current students so they, too can secure a role with a world-leading company like Bentley.

Engineering lecturer Ikeya Uria said: It was great welcoming Jose back and hearing about how he is getting on in his new role.

This is the second event of its kind in the past few months, where students hear about how their studies prepare them for an industry career from one of our graduates.

That one-to-one advice and support from someone who has sat where they are sitting and taken their studies into industry is invaluable and Id like to thank Jose for his time today.

Find out more about Wrexham Glyndwr Universitys B Eng (Hons) Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering degree here.Officials in the city of Suining, southwest China's Sichuan Province, organizes a special conference to carry out a new round of anti-drug campaigns. [snxw.com]

Southwest China's Sichuan Provincial Narcotic Control Committee (SCNCC) held a special conference on December 11 to carry out a new round of its anti-drug campaign.

According to officials, over 3,000 micro bases and anti-drug promotion sites have been set up in the province as of this year.

In 2015, some 14 departments including the Office of the China National Narcotic Control Committee (CNNCC), the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Education jointly promulgated an education program, namely the "627" project, to prevent drug use among young people nationwide.

The project focused on teenagers from 10 to 25 and aimed to construct a comprehensive drug prevention system in schools within three years so as to strengthen teenagers' anti-drug consciousness.

In the same year, the CNNCC launched another three-year project aiming to fight drug addiction and start rehabilitation work in communities.

The year of 2018 is the final stage of the two projects and relevant work should be paid close attention to, officials said, and the provincial public security department has deployed the work of the new round of anti-drug campaigns from 2018-2020.

During the promotion conference, Hu Gang, deputy director of SCNCC and deputy Party secretary of Sichuan Public Security Department, demanded that strict prevention and control methods should be taken to carry out anti-drug education and treatment.

Hu said the new campaign was targeted at teenagers. Relevant departments will innovate publicity methods in anti-drug education bases and organize drug prevention activities in schools, he added.

Sichuan planned to set up some 4,500 anti-drug micro bases and bulletin boards in schools by the end of 2020, according to a reporter.

In addition to schools, families are also major bases to carry out drug control activities, Hu said.

According to officials from the Legal Department of Sichuan Women's Federation, women's federations at all levels have carried out thousands of online and offline activities to fight narcotics, playing an important role in the drug control campaign.

(Source: cnwomen.com.cn/Translated and edited by Women of China)NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of DXC Technology Company (DXC Technology or the Company) (NYSE: DXC). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980.



The investigation concerns whether DXC Technology and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here to join a class action]

On October 24, 2018, it was reported that Karan Puri, who headed the Companys Americas sales force was fired due to a sharp double digit decline in the regions revenue. The article also suggested that an internal Company source had indicated that DXC Technology had been struggling to efficiently serve the demand from its customers.

On this news, the Companys stock price fell 16%, to a low of $69.51 per share on October 24, 2018.

Then on November 6, 2018, the Company reported its second quarter 2019 financial results, and that the Company would reduce its FY19 revenue outlook by $800 million.

On this news, the Companys stock price fell 13%, to close at $63.21 per share on November 7, 2018.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

rswilloughby@pomlaw.com

888-476-6529 ext. 9980Mueller Disputes Report Trump Told Cohen to Lie

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Special counsel Robert Muellers office on Friday issued a rare public statement disputing the accuracy of BuzzFeed News report that said President Donald Trumps former attorney told Mueller that the president directed him to lie to Congress.BuzzFeed, citing two unidentified law enforcement officials, reported that Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate project and that Cohen told Mueller the president personally instructed him to lie about the timing of the deal.The statement by Muellers office on Friday night doesnt cite any specific errors. In it, the special counsels spokesman, Peter Carr, said, BuzzFeeds description of specific statements to the special counsels office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohens congressional testimony are not accurate.BuzzFeed spokesman Matt Mittenthal said the publication stands by its reporting and urged readers to stay tuned as they worked to determine what Mueller was denying. Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, also said the publication stands by its reporting and the sources who informed it.We urge the special counsel to make clear what hes disputing, Smith said.Immediately after the special counsels statement was issued, Trump retweeted several posts that called the story fake news.The extraordinary statement from Muellers office came after Democrats had vowed to investigate whether the report was true, calling that possibility a concern of the greatest magnitude.PREVIOUS STORY:The Democratic chairmen of two House committees pledged Friday to investigate a report that President Donald Trump directed his personal attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations over a Moscow real estate project during the 2016 election.The report by BuzzFeed News comes as House Democrats have promised a thorough look into Trump's ties to Russia, and as special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and contacts with the Trump campaign.A White House spokesman did not specifically deny the report, but Trump, in a tweet, accused Cohen, who has cooperated with Mueller, of lying.BuzzFeed, citing two unnamed law enforcement officials, said Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress and that Cohen regularly briefed Trump and his family on the Trump Tower project in Moscow  even as Trump said he had no business dealings with Russia. BuzzFeed said Cohen told Mueller that Trump personally instructed him to lie about the timing of the project in order to obscure Trump's involvement.BuzzFeed said Mueller's investigators learned about Trump's directive "through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents." The report says that Cohen then acknowledged Trump's instructions when he was interviewed by the Mueller team.House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said "we will do what's necessary to find out" if the report was true. He said the allegation that Trump directed Cohen to lie in his 2017 testimony to Congress "in an effort to curtail the investigation and cover up his business dealings with Russia is among the most serious to date."Calling the allegations a "counterintelligence concern of the greatest magnitude," Schiff said his committee had already been working to secure witness testimony and documents related to the Moscow Trump Tower deal.The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, said directing a subordinate to lie to Congress is a federal crime. "The @HouseJudiciary Committee's job is to get to the bottom of it, and we will do that work," Nadler tweeted.On Twitter Friday morning, Trump charged that Cohen is "Lying to reduce his jail time!" even though Cohen has already been sentenced.Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress to cover up that he was negotiating the Trump Tower project in Moscow on Trump's behalf during the heat of his presidential campaign. The charge was brought by Mueller and was the result of Cohen's cooperation with that probe.He was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to conceal his boss' alleged sexual affairs, telling a judge that he agreed time and again to cover up Trump's "dirty deeds" out of "blind loyalty."White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told Fox News Channel that taking the BuzzFeed story seriously was "absolutely ludicrous," but he repeatedly refused to deny the central allegation that Trump directed Cohen to lie.The Associated Press has not independently confirmed the BuzzFeed report.OPINION: PACRO Confident about Growth in 2019

By Scott Darnell, Executive Director of PACRO

PADUCAH - The Paducah Area Community Reuse Organization (PACRO) held its first meeting of the year on January 16, 2019 at the CFSB location on Irvin Cobb Drive. PACRO is appreciative of the strong support from CFSB, the leading regional bank in Western, KY. As a pubic board, our meetings are supported by our regional media and other partners.The board appointed McCracken County Judge Executive Craig Z. Clymer and Commissioner Eddie Jones to the Board. These terms will expire in April of 2019, when Judge Executive Clymer will choose 3 appointments from McCracken County to serve for the next 1-year term. PACRO welcomes the new leadership from the McCracken County Fiscal Court and excited what 2019 will bring. As the host community, the strong leadership from the McCracken County Fiscal Court and partnership with the Department of Energy will continue to provide many great opportunities locally and regionally.The mission of PACRO is to help create jobs regionally, offsetting job losses from the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. PACRO set a goal to create 500 primary jobs and an additional 250 indirect jobs for the year. The PACRO meetings this year will give an opportunity for additional collaboration to take place and the discussion around regional economic development opportunities will be ongoing. The board remains committed to transparency and fiscal responsibility of all PACRO funds for economic development and creating a strong relationship with our local government member counties.In 2018, PACRO committed grant funding for economic development for the member counties of Ballard, Graves, Marshall, McCracken and Metropolis, IL. These awards in 2018, were $1 million. In 2019, each community will receive an additional $140,000 to support their economic development efforts. The Fiscal Courts in KY and City of Metropolis, IL, have the responsibility of grant requests as well as strategy for the funds in their communities. These funds have been used to match local, state, and federal funding opportunities, furthering the impact economically.Regionalism is at a level many say has never occurred in the Western, KY and Southern, IL areas. The leadership of Chairman Kevin Neal (Judge Executive, Marshall County) and Vice Chairman Betsy Flynn (President/CEO, CFSB), have created a working partnership that is bringing economic development collaboration to new levels. Our board is excited about 2019 and confident our efforts will continue to move our Region forward.Scott DarnellExecutive DirectorPACROSouthside Robbery Suspect Arrested in Metropolis

By West Kentucky Star Staff

METROPOLIS - A Louisville man wanted for walking away from a halfway house in Paducah was arrested Thursday afternoon, and has been charged with robbing a southside convenience store.According to Paducah Police, 28-year-old Kennedy L. Hale was arrested by Metropolis Police at a home on East 6th Street in Metropolis.Paducah Police were investigating the robbery of Fivestar Food Mart at 3474 Wayne Sullivan Drive on January 12th. An employee told police a man walked into the business just after 1:30 am Saturday and said, Give me all the money, several times. She said he then gave her a note demanding money. The employee gave him an undetermined amount of cash and he fled from the store.The investigation led Paducah Police detectives to Hale, who was staying with an acquaintance in Metropolis. They, along with Metropolis Police, conducted surveillance and arrested Hale at the Metropolis home on an absconding charge. Hale admitted to robbing the convenience store during an interview with detectives.A warrant was obtained Friday, charging Hale with second degree robbery. He remains in the Massac County Detention Center, in Metropolis.Hale was sent to Keeton Correctional Facilitys halfway house in Paducah in November of 2018, after serving time in prison on a 2014 robbery conviction in Jefferson County. He walked away from the facility in December.McCracken Jail Inmate Release Protocol Changed

By West Kentucky Star Staff

Chief Deputy Jailer Stephen Carter told West Kentucky Star that inmate Sean Irons had come to the McCracken County Regional Jail from federal prison. He was in the McCracken facility for a cocaine charge. He also had six prior drug charges.





Since Irons had received a new drug trafficking charge, there was some question as to if he had completed his sentence. After checking with a probation officer, it was determined that the sentence was properly completed.





The confusion that surrounded this case prompted Jailer David Knight to begin a new protocol for inmate releases.





Carter said that now the jail staff will check with the database of the National Crime Information Center to make sure there are no other indictments or pending charges, and also jail supervisors will check the inmate's paperwork.



He said this should eliminate any confusion about sentences being properly completed.



PADUCAH - Confusion around whether an inmate had completed his sentence has led to new protocols at the McCracken County Jail.Sterling Heights, MI (48312)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to cloudy skies and rain overnight. Thunder possible. Low 64F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to cloudy skies and rain overnight. Thunder possible. Low 64F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against, Tenaris S.A. (Tenaris or the Company) (NYSE: TS) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, and indexed under 19-cv-00174, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities, other than Defendants and their affiliates, who purchased or otherwise, acquired Tenaris securities between May 1, 2014 through November 27, 2018, both dates inclusive (the Class Period), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials.



If you are a shareholder who purchased Tenaris securities between May 1, 2014, and November 27, 2018, both dates inclusive, you have until February 11, 2019, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

Tenaris, a holding of Techint Holdings S.a r.l., was founded in 2001. Tenaris is headquartered in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, and produces and sells seamless and welded steel tubular products and related services for the oil and gas industry, as well as for other industrial applications.

Paolo Rocca (Rocca) is Tenaris Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman of the Board (Chairman). Rocca has also been the Chairman of Ternium S.A. (Ternium) since 2005.



Ternium is also based in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, and was formed in 2005 through the consolidation of Siderar of Argentina, Sidor of Venezuela, and Hylsa of Mexico. Ternium, through its subsidiaries, manufactures and processes various steel products in the United States and throughout Latin America. Ternium is Latin Americas leading flat steel producer with an annual crude steel production capacity of 12.4 million tons.

Rocca and Tenaris have a significant investment in Ternium, holding 11.46% of Terniums share capital (including treasury shares) as of December 31, 2017.

Siderurgica de Orinoco C.A. (Sidor), of which Ternium held a 59.7% stake, was nationalized by the Venezuelan government in 2008 when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed a decree ordering the renationalization of Sidor.

The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding Tenaris business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Tenaris CEO and Chairman, Rocca, knew one of his companys executives was involved in a graft scheme whereby government officials were bribed for Defendants personal gain, specifically, to expedite compensation payments due from the sale of Ternium Sidor unit; (ii) the foregoing conduct foreseeably placed Tenaris, its affiliates, and executives in greater risk of heightened regulatory and criminal scrutiny and investigation, thus depreciating Tenaris stock value; and (iii) as a result, the Companys public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On November 27, 2018, in an article titled Tenaris Plunges in Italy as Billionaire Chairman Indicted, Bloomberg reported that Rocca was indicted for his role in a graft scheme.

According to Reuters from the same date, [t]he sprawling notebooks corruption case, centered on bribes allegedly paid by businesses to secure contracts from the administration of former President Cristina Fernandez, has already ensnared dozens of business owners and politicians. The article also noted that Rocca was charged with illicit association and payment of bribes.

Bloomberg published an article on November 27, 2018, reporting that Rocca wanted to speed up the approximate $1.65bn compensation payments due from the Argentine government when it seized Sidor in exchange for Terniums 59.7% stake in Sidor. Tenaris was implicated because it has a significant investment in Ternium, and Rocca is Tenaris CEO and Chairman of both Tenaris and Ternium.

On this news, Tenaris stock fell $2.64 per share, or nearly 10%, to close at $24.36 per share on November 27, 2018, damaging investors.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

rswilloughby@pomlaw.com

888-476-6529 ext. 9980NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against, Liberty Health Science Inc. (Liberty or the Company) (OTCMKTS: LHSIF) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, and indexed under 19-cv-00161, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities, other than Defendants and their affiliates, who purchased or otherwise, acquired Liberty common stock between June 28, 2018, and December 3, 2018, both dates inclusive (the Class Period), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials.

If you are a shareholder who purchased Liberty Class A common stock between June 28, 2018, and December 3, 2018, you have until March 8, 2019, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

Liberty was incorporated under the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) on November 9, 2011, as SecureCom Mobile Inc. The Companys principal business activity is the production and distribution of medical cannabis through its wholly-owned subsidiary DFMMJ LLC (d/b/a Liberty Health Sciences Florida Ltd.)

Aphria Inc. (Aphria), which also produces and distributes cannabis, has had longstanding ties with Liberty, starting from the very beginning of both companies. When Aphria was founded in 2014, Victor Neufeld (Neufeld) joined the firm as CEO and co-founder. One of Aphrias other early institutional backers included The Delavaco Group, Front St. Capital, York Plains, and Broadband Capital of NYC.

Neufeld became the Chairman of Liberty while Cole Cacciavillani, Aphrias chief agronomist and co-founder, also became one of the executives at Liberty. Liberty was heavily influenced by Aphria and individuals involved in the management of Aphria. Neufeld and the Serruya are large shareholders in both companies.

The complaint alleges throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Companys business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Liberty, in conjunction with Aphria, was involved in a scheme whereby numerous fraudulent acquisitions and transactions were made to provide undue benefits to both companies insiders; and (ii) as a result, Libertys public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

In September 2018, Aphria announced that it had sold off its stake in Liberty. On December 3, 2018, Quintessential Capital Management and Hindenburg Research issued a report entitled Aphria: A Shell Game with a Cannabis Business on the Side, claiming that Aphria was part of a scheme involving the acquisition of shell companies at artificially inflated prices. Specifically, the report alleged: Aphria is part of a scheme orchestrated by a network of insiders to divert funds away from shareholders into their own pockets. The article detailed a thorough and on-the-ground investigation into Aphrias latest investments that revealed the poor quality and worth of the assets of those investments. For example, the article was accompanied by pictures showing that Aphrias latest investment in Jamaica was an abandoned building on dilapidated property.

On this news, Libertys stock fell $0.36, or nearly 34%, over the next two trading days to close at $0.70 on December 4, 2018.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

rswilloughby@pomlaw.com

888-476-6529 ext. 9980The train hit the truck toward the rear of the vehicle on the passenger side and flipped the truck onto its roof. The train didnt derail. A mobile home sustained damage and another vehicle was damaged by flying debris, according to the release.Much of what the president did depended on the mood of the times: both Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt acted with a scope and breadth that today we would call imperial, if not dictatorial. Lincoln [a very successful lawyer] selectively suspended habeas corpus two years before Congress gave him that power and even was able to ignore the Chief Justices condemnation of usurping legislative authority; it was 1861, the Union was in grave peril, and in any event, the act was overturned  in 1864, after the tide of the war had decidedly turned in the Unions favor.One [woman] who had a hole in her heart, who was on birth control but got pregnant anyway, had to make the terrible decision to terminate that pregnancy or risk her life, McClellan said. I have always been pro-choice. This took on extra passion for me because so many people have told me in the grocery store, Thats my story.Columns and letters of The Daily Beacon are the views of the individual and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Beacon or the Beacon's editorial staff.Welcome Guest! You are here: Home  India

Delhi court refuses to accept chargesheet against Kanhaiya Kumar, others

The Delhi court asked the police to get Delhi government's approval before filing the chargesheet

New Delhi: A court in Delhi on Saturady refused to accept the chargesheet filed against Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and others in a 2016 sedation case. The Delhi court asked the police to get Delhi government's approval before filing the chargesheet.

"You don't have approval from the legal department, why did you file chargesheet without approval?" the court told the police.

The Delhi police said it will get approval from the government in 10 days.

As per the law, a chargesheet in any case has to be filed within 90 days. The Delhi police however filed chargesheet against the former JNU Students' union leaders after three years.



The Delhi Police filed a 1200 page chargesheet against Kanhaiya Kumar, former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) president, Umar Khalid and others in a sedition case lodged in 2016 last Monday.

The chargesheet also named former students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans during the Feb 9 event that was organised to mark the death anniversary of the Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

Both Jatin Goraiya and Pradeep Narwal left the ABVP, immediately after the controversy broke out in Feb 2016. Goraiya stated that he left the ABVP because he was against the ABVPs stand on Dalits.

As we are Dalits, we were told repeatedly to appear for TV interviews and defend ABVP after Vemulas suicide. But, we refused to do so since they kept referring to him as a terrorist. With the February 9 event, they saw an opportunity to divert attention, Narwal said at the conference.

Eever since filing the chargesheet, the Delhi police is being criticised. While the accused said the case against them is fabricated, opposition parties questined the timing of the move which came few months before the 2019 General Elections.

Earlier, former JNU ABVP unit vice-president Jatin Goraiya and former joint-secretary Pradeep Narwal claimed that the anti-India sloganeering on February 9, 2016 on the varsity campus was by their own men.

Goraiya and Narwai said ABVP members raised ant-India solgans at the JNU event to divert the media attention from the death of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula.

Vemula, a PhD student at the University of Hyderabad and author of the book "Caste is Not a Rumour" had committed suicide on January 17, 2016 blaming the university administration of expelling him at the behest of ABVP - students' wing of the BJP.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday, they claimed that the students seen in videos raising Pakistan Zindabad" and Bharat tere tukde honge" slogans belonged to the ABVP.

For all the latest News, Opinions and Views, download ummid.com App .

Select Language To Read in Urdu, Hindi, Marathi or Arabic.Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), the leading national entity for international development aid, has financed hundreds of development projects worth Dh4.4 billion ($1.18 billion) in the renewable energy sector around the world.

Driving the objectives of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), these projects have contributed to the production of about 2,584 MW of renewable energy in different countries.

Since 1974, ADFD has contributed to financing about Dh2.7 billion ($737 million) in renewable energy projects through joint financing agreements with the governments of many developing countries.

The remaining funds were allocated through innovative and strategic partnerships including the seven-cycle Dh1.285 billion ($350 million) Irena/ADFD Project Facility, the Dh183.4 million ($50 million) UAE-Caribbean Renewable Energy Fund (UAE-CREF), as well as the UAE-Pacific Partnership Fund, UAE-PPF, valued at Dh183.4 million ($50 million).

Director-General Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi said: "ADFD believes in the vital role the renewable energy sector plays in attaining the sustainable development goals in developing countries. "

"This important sector stimulates economic growth, creates employment opportunities, drives innovation, supports the advancement of other key sectors, and optimises the use of natural resources  all crucial factors in improving peoples lives," noted Al Suwaidi.

"Over the past four-and-a-half decades, ADFD has financed projects in the renewable energy sector that meet the national priorities of developing countries," he noted.

"Through securing sources of energy, these projects have enabled the production of low-cost, affordable electricity and improved standards of living in these countries," he added.

In addition to supporting sustainable development in key socio-economic sectors, ADFD has funded important renewable energy projects.

In Jordan, the ADFD contributed Dh550 million ($150 million) to fund the Sheikh Zayed Solar Power Complex in line with the Jordanian governments objective of generating 20 per cent of energy from renewables by early-2020.

The project involved the installation of 328,320 photovoltaic panels that will produce 227 GWh of solar power annually over a period of 20 years, enough to illuminate about 50,000 homes.

The plant contributed to the creation of about 1,000 jobs during the construction phase and is set to provide 30 permanent jobs for its sustained operation and maintenance.

In Eastern Sudan, the ADFD allocated a $90 million concessionary loan and contributed to the construction of the Upper Atbara and Setit Dam Complex.

In north Sudan, it provided Dh735 million for the construction of the Merowe Dam. This strategic project helps the country fill its power deficit by producing electricity totalling 1,250 megawatts, benefitting more than 30 million people.

ADFD said it had allocated a Dh121 million ($33 million) concessionary loan for the development of a waste-to-energy facility in the Sharjah.

Expected to treat more than 300,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) each year, or 37.5 tonnes per hour, the plant will have the capacity to generate around 30 megawatts of energy.

Due for completion by early 2021, the facility aims to help attain Sharjahs zero-waste-to-landfill target and the UAEs objective of diverting 75 per cent of its municipal solid waste from landfills by 2021.

In the Republic of Seychelles, ADFD had allocated Dh103 million ($28 million) to produce clean electricity using wind turbine technology.

Diesel-powered electrical power plants were replaced with wind power. This project included the supply, installation and activation of wind turbine farms for electric power generation in several different areas of the island of Mahe.-TradeArabia News ServiceBin Sulayem at the panel discussion with Sall and Mahatir Mohammed.

The key to improving prosperity and economic development in African region lies in the removal of barriers, increased connectivity between nations and infrastructure development, said a top official of DP World, a global operator of shipping terminals based in Dubai.

We believe in the viability of Africa, we believe in investing in the continent during our investment in Senegal we improved efficiency and volumes 135 per cent in 10 years, remarked Group Chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem.

He was speaking at the Africa Emergence Conference 2019 held in Dakar, Senegal.

Addressing a panel on how private institutions can help support emergence in Africa with President Macky Sall of Senegal and Prime Minister Mahatir Mohammed of Malaysia Bin Sulayem explained how economic emergence was dependent on increasing inter African trade and infrastructure development.

"The removal of trade barriers is very important. In Africa, tariffs are 50 per cent higher in than in Latin America and Asia," he said.

Intra regional trade in Africa is only 12 per cent while in Europe, Asia and Latin America is over 50 per cent, we need to improve this to prosper, he added.

Bin Sulayem reiterated the companys commitment to supporting the economic growth of Senegal and developing Dakar into a major logistics hub and gateway for West Africa.

He stressed that as a smart trade enabler, DP World has the extensive expertise and know-how that could help African countries realise their trade and infrastructure goals, while assisting countries to address national ports and logistics infrastructure challenges.

He also highlighted the importance of developing a logistics infrastructure reflecting DP Worlds activities in Rwanda and Mali.

We believe in connecting landlocked nations to the world and international markets. Our logistics park in Rwanda will reduce costs across the country and region, he said.

The price of container moving from Shanghai to an East African port is anywhere between $500 to $1000, the price of same container from the port to Kigali is $5000, he added.

Sall told the audience that DP World had helped in the development of Senegal.

What the CEO said is the truth, in Senegal we have experienced a change because DP World was present before I became President with a concession of 25 years at the Port of Dakar, he stated.

He pointed out that the government had a consolidation of DP Worlds presence and were working together finalise new port investments by DP World in Senegal.

Country stability is essential but also the stability of the contracts between the a state and the private sector to develop foreign investment. It is evident that the public investment cannot satisfy the basic needs of the population so we need to work with private sector, he added.

DP World has operations in Senegal, Egypt, Mozambique, Somaliland, Rwanda and Algeria and has recently signed an agreement with the Republic Mali to develop a logistics platform and the Democratic Republic of Congo for the countries first deep-sea port.-TradeArabia News ServiceBahrain FinTech Bay is set to organise its second biggest conference RegFact, an event dedicated exclusively to the regulation and compliance ecosystem targeted at regulators, senior executives responsible for risk, compliance, financial institutions, technology vendors, and industry thought leaders and consultants.

RegFact will be held on February 25 from 8am to 4pm in The Diplomat Radisson Blu under the patronage of the Central Bank of Bahrain.

The one-day event will provide financial services players insightful perspectives, and highlight the significance on the processes relating to regulatory compliance in a collaborative, open and transparent manner.

RegFact will bring leaders leading the way in RegTech innovation and adoption to discuss the Bahrain Regulatory Landscape, regulation transformation, adoption and implementation within the region, and much more, stated the leading FinTech Hub in Middle East, located conveniently in the Arcapita Building, Bahrain.

The event will include a set of programmes which build on RegTech including interactive panels, speakers, country case studies, and an in-depth Technical and business training track.

In addition, it will create a platform to exchange ideas and carry out dialogue on the use of RegTech tools, challenges and implications, said a statement from Bahrain FinTech Bay.

It provides a physical hub to incubate insightful, scalable and impactful FinTech initiatives through innovation labs, acceleration programmes, curated activities, educational opportunities and collaborative platforms.

Bahrain FinTech Bay CEO Khalid Al Saad said: "We are delighted to be hosting our second conference RegFact on February 25. RegTech, which is the intersection of regulations and technology is not only standardising regulation but also increasing transparency, consistency and lowering cost."

"It is transforming not only financial services but industries overall globally. With RegFact, we aim to make sense of this transformation and what it means to you," he noted.

RegFact is a regulatory technology platform comprising of local and global regulators, policy makers and policy advocates, stated Al Saad.

"The platform aims to find solutions and promote best the innovative RegTech practices in a collaborative, open and transparent manner. RegFact will be a day of inspiring talks and networking with key players in the policy and RegTech community. We look forward to seeing you there," h e added.-TradeArabia News ServiceNEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (Goldman Sachs or the Company) (NYSE: GS) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, and indexed under 18-cv-12084, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities, other than Defendants and their affiliates, who purchased or otherwise, acquired Goldman Sachs securities between February 28, 2014, and December 17, 2018, both dates inclusive (the Class Period), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials.



If you are a shareholder who purchased Goldman Sachs securities between February 28, 2014, and December 17, 2018, both dates inclusive, you have until February 19, 2019, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869 and is headquartered in New York, New York. The Company operates as an investment banking, securities, and investment management company worldwide, serving corporations, financial institutions, governments, and high-net-worth individuals.

According to 2016 data compiled by Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs has worked on $18.8 billion of Malaysian mergers and acquisitions over the past five years, making it the top foreign adviser with a 20.5[%] market share. Goldman Sachss business in Malaysia included, inter alia, raising funds for 1Malaysia Development Bhd. (1MDB), a Malaysian state-owned investment fund set up in 2009, four months after Najib Razak (Razak) became Prime Minister of Malaysia. 1MDB was initially established to finance infrastructure and economic deals in Malaysia.

In 2012, officials from 1MDB met with Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong to discuss a bond deal. Goldman Sachs subsequently raised $6.5 billion for 1MDB, earning approximately $600 million in fees.

Since early 2015, 1MDB has been the subject of international criminal and regulatory investigations for suspected fraud and money laundering after missing $11 billion in payments owed to banks and bondholders.

On June 18, 2015, The Wall Street Journal published an article entitled Fund Controversy Threatens Malaysias Leader, detailing how 1MDB indirectly funded Razaks 2013 election campaign. A probe into 1MDB subsequently followed.

On July 2, 2015, The Wall Street Journal published another article, entitled Investigators Believe Money Flowed to Malaysian Leader Najibs Accounts Amid 1MDB Probe, reporting how Malaysian investigators traced nearly $700 million in deposits to what they believed to be Razaks personal bank accounts.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, high-level 1MDB officials and their associates misappropriated an estimated $4.5 billion from 1MDB between 2009 and 2014. Implicated in the 1MDB scandal were two former Goldman Sachs managing directors Tim Leissner (Leissner) and Ng Chong Hwa, also known as Roger Ng (Ng).

Leissner was Chairman of South East Asia and Vice Chairman of the Investment Banking Division in Asia Ex-Japan (i.e., Asia, excluding Japan) for Goldman Sachs.

Ng was a former Goldman Sachs banker, managing director, and deputy to Leissner. Ng most recently was the head of South-East Asian sales in Goldman Sachss fixed-income, currencies, and commodities unit.

The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Companys business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Goldman Sachs participated in a fraud and money-laundering scheme in collusion with 1MDB; (ii) the foregoing conduct, when revealed, would foreseeably subject Goldman Sachs to heightened regulatory investigation and enforcement; and (iii) as a result, Goldman Sachss public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On March 7, 2016, Bloomberg News published an article entitled Ex-Goldman Banker to Malaysia Fund Said Subpoenaed in U.S. Probe, reporting that the U.S. Justice Department had subpoenaed Leissner in late February in connection with a probe linked to 1MDB. Goldman Sachs has since been the subject of investigations by the U.S. Justice Department regarding the multibillion-dollar fraud and money-laundering scheme involving 1MDB, for which Goldman Sachs was the primary bond underwriter.

Following this news, Goldman Sachss stock price fell $3.75 per share, or 2.41%, to close at $151.60 on March 8, 2016.

On November 1, 2018, U.S. federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York (E.D.N.Y.) unsealed indictments against Leissner and Ng related to the 1MDB probe, explicitly describing them as agents acting within the scope of their employment on behalf of the Company with the intent, at least in part, to benefit Goldman Sachs. That same day, the United States Attorneys Office for the E.D.N.Y. announced that Leissners guilty plea was unsealed for a two-count criminal information charging Leissner with conspiring to launder money and conspiring to violate the FCPA [Foreign Corrupt Practices Act] by both paying bribes to various Malaysian and Abu Dhabi officials and circumventing the internal accounting controls of the Financial Institution while he was employed by it. The U.S. Attorneys Office also stated that, [a]ccording to court filings, Leissner has been ordered to forfeit $43,700,000 as a result of his crimes.

On November 8, 2018, a report by Bloomberg News detailed the personal involvement of Goldman Sachss then-Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Lloyd Blankfein, in a meeting to establish ties with Malaysia and its new sovereign wealth fund that was referenced in the court documents unsealed the prior week. In a November 8, 2018 article entitled Goldmans Blankfein Said to Have Attended 2009 1MDB Meeting, Bloomberg News noted that Blankfein was the unidentified high-ranking Goldman Sachs executive referenced in U.S. court documents who attended a 2009 meeting with the former Malaysian prime minister, and that [t]he meeting was arranged with the help of men who are now tied to the subsequent plundering of the 1MDB fund[.]

On this news, Goldman Sachss stock price fell by $9.00, or nearly 4%, closing at $222.65 on November 9, 2018.

On November 12, 2018, Malaysian government officials denounced Goldman Sachss role in the 1MDB scandal. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad stated that [t]here is evidence that Goldman Sachs has done things that are wrong and [o]bviously we have been cheated through the compliance by Goldman Sachs people. Meanwhile, the countrys Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said that Malaysia would seek a full refund of the approximately $600 million in fees that the Company earned in connection with 1MDBs $6.5 billion bond deal.

Following this news, Goldman Sachss stock price fell $16.60 per share, or nearly 7.5%, to close at $206.05 on November 12, 2018.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

rswilloughby@pomlaw.com

888-476-6529 ext. 9980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.MBABANE  January appears to be a month of worry for government. While trying to get to grips with the proposed national strike action by public servants scheduled for January 28, government will now also have to deal with a looming industrial action by employees of the Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC).



Employees of the countrys power utility yesterday decided to down tools and march to their head office  Eluvatsini House - in Mbabane on Thursday to deliver a petition regarding their remuneration.



The decision was taken yesterday during a meeting held at the Bosco Skills Centre in Manzini under the employees union  the Swaziland Electricity Supply, Maintenance and Allied Workers Union (SESMAWU).



NO EMPLOYEES



As a result, it is expected that on the Thursday, there will be no employees at regional offices and service centres.

Should management fail to address the employees concerns to their satisfaction, they have resolved to then engage on a strike action and if this continues until January 28, they would join the public servants nationwide mass action.



Secretary General Maureen Nkambule said the employees were fed up hence they had decided to personally go to the head office to confront management regarding failure to give them what is due to them.



There are only two issues that the workers want addressed and these are the opening of negotiations regarding cost-of-living-adjustment (CoLA) and implementation of Circular No. 2 of 2016 which would result in salary alignment.



With CoLA, we just want to be engaged in the negotiation table because this is being denied to us. Employees therefore want an explanation on why this platform is being denied.



The last time they engaged us was around November last year. Initially, management said they could not engage us because there was no Cabinet in place, so we gave them indulgence. Once Cabinet was in place we went back to management to raise the CoLA issue, but they told us that they could not negotiate without getting a mandate from Cabinet, Nkambule said.



She said they were told that a request had been sent to Cabinet and they were still awaiting a response.

However, she said they doubted that there was ever such a request that was sent to Cabinet and they raised this concern during one of their meetings.



We demanded that they show us the correspondence to Cabinet to prove if what they were saying was true and this caused havoc and we had to leave the meeting on sour terms. So we are still not sure if such a request was sent to Cabinet, she said.

Regarding the salary alignment, Nkambule said management was not coming out clear why this was not being implemented.



They keep telling us that the board approved the alignment but when we tell them to implement, they say there are some things they were still addressing. But we dont know what it is that is being addressed.

They do not even want to give us the report as leaders of the workers union, said the secretary general.

She added: There will be no one in the offices. If we are not satisfied with the managements response, the employees will not return to work and if this continues until the 28th, we will join the nationwide strike.



Public servants are also demanding a CoLA adjustment, which they have not received in the past two financial years as government has maintained a zero per cent offer and cited lack of finances as the reason.



public sector associations



The public sector associations that will take part in the strike action include the National Public Service and Allied Workers Union, the Swaziland National Association of Teachers, the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union and the Swaziland National Association of Government Accounting Personnel.

The associations said once the strike action kicked off, nothing would stop them unless government tabled a CoLA offer for them.







LOZITHA  There is a feeling among prominent politicians in the country that government should co-own Royal Villas Hotel with Tibiyo TakaNgwane.



The claim was necessitated by a story which appeared in the Times SUNDAY a few weeks ago to the effect that government was in the process of paying Tibiyo a sum of E40 million for the land on which the International Convention Centre and Five-Star Hotel are being built.



The land on which the two facilities are built belong to Tibiyo TakaNgwane.

After the publication of the story, this newspaper was inundated with calls from senior public officers arguing that government contributed a substantial amount of money to the construction of Royal Villas, formerly Smart Partnership Village.



Our three-week investigation into the issue did not show us specific amounts of money from government being channelled directly to the construction of the hotel.



Royal Villas was built in 2003.

A sum of E40 million was used to build the village-turned hotel. Costs for upgrades were not ascertained.



On March 24, 2004, Majozi Sithole, the then Minister of Finance, and now Governor of the Central Bank of Eswatini, delivered his budget speech; in it noting that the country hosted the Smart Partnership Dialogue in 2003.



He could only say the event brought about some infrastructure development at the Ezulwini Village in terms of the road network, a facelift of the airport (referring to a revamped Matsapha International Airport) and the village itself.

This also helped to improve the countrys profile in the international community as well as demonstrating that we have the potential to host meetings of such magnitude, partly read his speech.



None of the current politicians seemed to be abreast with developments regarding the issue. However, one politician (name withheld) said government partly built Royal Villas, and should be a shareholder.



I am sure government paid a lot of money for the construction of Royal Villas, but its a pity government is not a shareholder, he said.

Percy Simelane, the Government Press Secretary, said the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development was the right ministry to direct questions; with senior officials there clueless about the issue, suggesting that the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs be contacted.



Reacting to concerns by certain MPs who spoke to this newspaper about the issue, Simelane said: the MPs can raise it in Parliament and the responsible minister will respond.

Moses Vilakati, the Minister of Tourism and Environmental Affairs, said he had tried to enquire about the issue, but none of the officers whom he contacted were of assistance. I just dont know anything about the issue, he said.



Bheki Bhembe, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, said he needed substantial time to thoroughly investigate the matter to see if there was a portion of public funds allocated to the construction of the hotel.

The principal secretary in the ministry of finance at that time was the late Musa Fakudze.LOZITHA  Dr Absalom Themba Dlamini needs no introduction in the corporate world and political sphere.



Experienced in politics and administration, Dlamini has been the managing director for Tibiyo TakaNgwane for over two decades. He was the prime minister of the kingdom of Eswatini from November 2003 to September 2008.



The Times SUNDAY had the privilege to talk to the 69-year old statesman about his professional work and achievements, and his working relationship with the countrys authorities, with particular or special reference to his longevity in office and loyalty or allegiance to Their Majesties.



The man known as AT has apparently worked hard for Tibiyo TakaNgwane, and played a huge part in transforming this organisation into what is it today.

Times SUNDAY (TS) - how long have you been an MD for this esteemed investment company  Tibiyo TakaNgwane?



AT  23 years



TS  What have been your challenges and successes?

AT  Tibiyo has walked side by side with the nation for 50 years. I have had the honour of serving this prestigious organisation at different phases of its growth, in different capacities, including as the current managing director.

In all these years, I have seen the best and the worst in terms of our operations, achievements and struggles. We have, and continue to face challenges, yet we also have some success stories to tell.

TS  Can you expand on that?



AT  Business for an organisation such as this one is not always rosy, particularly because the socio-economic conditions are always changing  at times not favourably  which affects the way we do business, our profit margins and others.

TS  What do you mean Dr. Dlamini?



AT  As you know, Tibiyo Taka Ngwane was established to support the cultural, social and economic growth of the nation; our nation has evolved over the years, and so have the socio-economic dynamics and needs of our people. That has placed a huge responsibility on the organisation in terms of finding new ways of upholding our mandate even as our resources become limited.



TS  Go on sir, explain

AT  Currently, our sugar is facing one of its biggest challenges due to shifts in the markets where we trade. This comes after we have just recovered from the worst drought.



These developments inevitably stretch our operational costs, income and profits, and since sugar accounts for a major portion of our revenue, this affects our bottom line, and constrains other functions of the organisation as well as our social development mandate. In the midst of the challenges, we have succeeded in many ways.



TS  Mention some of those successes

AT  For example, we have maintained our education support to thousands of emaSwati to acquire secondary and tertiary education through our yearly bursaries and scholarships. That means we contribute massively to the skills pool in the economy. We have also invested in many successful ventures, both in business, community development, as well as cultural and social cohesion initiatives.



These include purchasing land for the resettlement of many communities across the country, supporting national cultural events, and several agricultural projects in several sectors, such as the sugar industry in the lowveld. We have also partnered successfully with the government on a number of infrastructure development projects.



An example of these projects is the construction of the traffic circle and the overhead bridge at Matsapha (Mahhala) along the Mbabane-Manzini MR3 Highway, where Tibiyo TakaNgwane contributed a significant amount of money. In short, our story is a mixed bag of encouraging and successful adventure and complex challenges.



TS  I understand Tibiyo is now the second largest employer in Eswatini after the government of Eswatini, how many emaSwati are directly employed by Tibiyo? How many emaSwati are employed by Tibiyos subsidiaries?



AT  Through direct and indirect employment in companies across all sectors of the economy  mining, agriculture and agro-processing, property, financial services, manufacturing and others  Tibiyo has created thousands of employment and entrepreneurial opportunities.



Currently, over 70 emaSwati are employed directly by our organisation on a full-time and contract basis, and hundreds are employed occasionally during key national assignments such as Incwala, Umhlanga, Buganu and others. Around 10 000 people are employed by companies where Tibiyo Taka Ngwane has invested. A vast majority of these are emaSwati.



TS  Perfect, this is very interesting Dr. Dlamini, what have you learnt from His Majesty and Her Majestys leadership capabilities?

AT  I have had the honour to serve His Majesty Ingwenyama, and Her Majesty Indlovukazi and the nation of Eswatini for 28 years now, both here at Tibiyo Taka Ngwane and as prime minister of the Kingdom of Eswatini. This for me is a huge honour, and I feel humbled and deeply grateful.



In my interactions with His Majesty and Her Majesty, I have benefitted from their rich wisdom and unequalled passion for this country and its people. His Majesty, as the Head of State, always speaks of empowering his people through education and economic participation, either in business or employment. I have drawn many life lessons on the complexities of leadership from His Majesty and equally from Her Majesty.



TS  Whats one of your biggest highlights of your career in terms of recognition by His Majesty?

AT  One of the biggest highlights of my service to the Monarchy and the country was when His Majesty, in his capacity as the Chancellor of the University of Eswatini, bestowed on me an Honorary Doctor of Laws. That gesture taught me that as a leader you must pay attention to, and honour hard work and commitment. The lessons are just too many to list.



TS  Through the scholarship and bursary grants offered to emaSwati, how many of them have received educational grants from Tibiyo since the scholarships/bursaries were introduced? You can make an estimate.



AT  Tibiyo TakaNgwane understands the pressure borne by the government and parents in ensuring that our children have access to education, both at secondary and tertiary levels. Education support is not just a by the way gesture; it is our core business. The organisation understands that through education, the child of a domestic worker can become a pilot or a doctor.



His Majesty has also consistently emphasised that we should, at all cost, give this support to the children and young people of this nation. Since the 1990s, the organisation keeps at least 1 000 secondary pupils in our bursary system every year.



Between 1997 and 2018, 1 769 emaSwati received scholarship support from Tibiyo to pursue tertiary education in a wide range of disciplines  from business and studies, management, human sciences, applied and computer science, engineering, medicine and arts, among others. We have also trained emaSwati who have gone to become entrepreneurs. Others have become leaders in economies and professions beyond our borders.



TS  It sounds excellent, but why is Tibiyo a minority shareholder at FINCORP because this company was actually formed by Tibiyo through the popular E44 million Fund?





mfanukhona@times.co.sz



MBABANE  Emaswati have been cited for the wrong reason in Namibia. In a 2018 report on dagga smuggling in that country, Namibian police say most of the suspects who bring the illegal herb in large quantities were citizens of the Kingdom of Eswatini.



Inspector General Sebastian Ndeitunga from the Namibian Police Service reported that E500 million worth of dagga was intercepted and confiscated by the law enforcers since 2017.



He said a large consignment of the drug came from emaSwati. It is reported that there are about 20 emaSwati languishing in Namibian jails. Other locals are serving jail time in Botswana.



Other nationals blamed for the influx of cannabis were South Africans, Angolans, Malawians and Zambians.

Police said people from these four nations traded with their Namibian counterparts.



In fact, of the E421 372 503 (N$421 372 503) worth of illicit drugs confiscated, nearly half, which is E206 million was seized in a single bust in May 2018 at the Walvis Bay port.

It was the largest bust in Namibian history as 412kg of illicit drugs was intercepted by the police and customs officials.



Ndeitunga told law enforcement officers at Walvis Bay on Monday that statistics showed that drugs mostly abused in Namibia included dagga, mandrax, cocaine, crack and ecstasy. Dagga, mandrax and cocaine are also the most trafficked drugs into Namibia.



He said since January last year, 35 suspects have been arrested at various entry points while in possession of drugs, and some of these apprehended people were emaSwati.

Most of the suspects are Namibian, South African, Angolan, Swazi, Malawian and Zambian nationals, he said.



Over 20 in Namibian jails



It has been established that more than 20 emaSwati have been arrested in Namibia for dealing in dagga, and others have been sentenced to imprisonment without an option of a fine.



It is understood that Namibia and Botswana have well paying hotspots for dagga. South African drug dealers also consider these two countries as new fascinating dagga trade destinations.



During mid-May 2018, police in Namibia arrested a South African and a Swazi (Liswati) national for possessing dagga weighing 171 kilogrammes with a street value of E171 050.

They were given effective five-year jail terms after they had pleaded guilty.



In 2016, an appeal lodged by an Eswatini national against a three-year sentence he received for dealing in dependence-producing drugs, namely 4 384kg of cannabis, was dismissed Appeal Judges Dinah Usiku and Alfred Siboleka.



three-year imprisonment

The name of the Liswati cannot be revealed because he is presumably out of jail after he was sentenced to three years imprisonment, and one year was suspended.

He was found guilty on his own admission of transporting drugs into Namibia via the Trans-Kalahari border post for the purpose of selling it in Walvis Bay.

The total street value of the drugs was estimated at E21 290 calculated at E5 per gramme.

Testimony led during the trial is that Deseree Beukes, who at the time was attached to the Drug Law Unit of the Namibian police, received a phone call from the Trans-Kalahari border post about a man who was found in possession of cannabis. She and another officer then proceeded to the border post where they found Dlamini already detained.



He was handed to them together with five parcels of cannabis that were allegedly found on his person.

His vehicle was then searched and six more parcels of cannabis were recovered.



It was also established that the appellant had travelled from Eswatini en route to Walvis Bay. He explained to the police that he had friends in Namibia and that he was to deliver the drugs in Walvis Bay.



The parcels of cannabis were weighed in his presence and weighed 4 384kg.

The cannabis was properly identified by its unique smell, colour and its uneven leaves containing seeds.



Court judgment



It was further mentioned in the judgment that the Eswatini national did not deny being in possession of the cannabis at the time of his arrest and that he confirmed that he wanted to come and sell the cannabis, thereby admitting to dealing in cannabis.



He further confirmed that at the time he arrived in Namibia he had hidden the cannabis, which he intended to sell in Walvis Bay, Judge Usiku who wrote the judgement, said.



He was thus sentenced to three years imprisonment, with one year suspended for five years on condition that he is not found in possession of dependence-producing drugs during the time of suspension.MBABANE  Its only a matter of time before 101 rapists names are published for all to see. These are rape convicts who have been convicted after the enactment of the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence (SODV) Act in June last year.



According to the dictates of the Act, a National Register for Sex Offenders and designation of Registrar of the Register has to be established.

This will contain particulars of persons convicted of any sexual offence or who have been dealt with in terms of the law.

The objects of the register are to protect victims of sexual offences, particularly children and persons who are physically or mentally disabled against sexual offenders, Section 57 of the Act states.



The details to be contained in the Register are the persons title, actual or estimated age, full names and surname, any known nickname, the profession and trade of the person, last known physical address, identity number, passport number and drivers licence number.



erased



Worth noting is that the names will appear in the list for 10 years after which it will be erased if the offender has not committed a similar crime.

The list will then be placed in public spaces for all to view, for now, the Ministry of Justice and DPMs office are places most likely to have the list as soon as it is released. His Majestys Correctional Services has confirmed that 101 inmates were convicted of the crime of rape last year.



Gugu Dlamini, the Public Relations Officer, said the 101 were convicted specifically for rape between the month of May and December 2018.

Swaziland Action Group aga- inst Abuse Communications Officer Silindelo Nkosi said: We have had consultations with the Gender Unit under the Deputy Prime Ministers Office and other stakeholders over the establishment of the register. We are only tying up a few logistics which include who will be the custodian of the register.



Minors



When asked about sexual offenders who are minors at the time of conviction, Nkosi said her understanding was that cases of minors were handled differently.

Save the Childrens Lusito Tsela said early in the week his organisation approached the Royal Eswatini Police Services as a first step to compiling the list.

We are almost reaching conclusion of the first step from our side, he said.



Consultations made by this reporter revealed that South Africa is among the few countries that have such a register. South Africas National Register for Sexual Offenders was established in 2007 and completed in 2010. The report is released annually by the National Department of Justice, said a source.

SAs Registrar for NRSO is Ntombi Matjila.



In Nigeria in the Lagos state, there are currently 12 000 sex offenders registered since 2015 .

Botswana is said to be in the process of setting up one. President Mokgweetsi Masisi mentioned these intentions of registering sex offenders in his inaugural State of the Nation Address in November 2018, said a journalist from Botswana.



Ghana and Kenya did not seem to have one in place as the responses obtained from journalists from that country were to the negative.



prosecutor



A prosecutor for SODV cases, Futhi Gamedze, said the register should have been in place by now, considering that the Act came into effect on August 1, 2018.

When asked about cases of minors who are convicted of rape, Gamedze said there were various categories of minors. The Child Protection and Welfare Act states that a childs criminal capacity starts at the age of 12 years. We also have the 12 to 14 category where we need to determine if that child appreciates if they have committed a crime. At the age of 15 to 18 the children can be declared sexual offenders.



Gamedze, however, said the relevant stakeholders have not yet determined whether those childrens names will go into the register. She said there could possibly be exceptions just like minor offenders fingerprints are no longer taken.



When asked what would be done to ensure that people who were taken in for rape would have actually committed that crime to prevent a situation whereby innocent people would be convicted for a crime they have never committed, Gamedze said, The prosecution is very critical on that. That is why we only prosecute cases where there is sufficient evidence.MANZINI  When a door closes another opens for commercial sex workers. The workers have since taken advantage of another abandoned government structure to conduct their business.



A couple of years ago, they used to host their customers at the Ministry of Agriculture building situated next to the Manzini Market.

Currently, they are using one of the oldest buildings in the city, which is situated opposite the Somhlolo Park, formerly known as the Jubilee Park. The building houses the Manzini Swazi National Court.



It was once occupied by the Manzini Regional Administrator, then known as the District Commissioner (DC), before the office was moved to a new building situated next to the Manzini Magistrates Court.

During a visit to the historic building early this week, used condoms were found littered inside one of the offices. The building is slightly over 65 years old.



Marriage



It is flanked by offices of the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, TB and Malaria Clinic and the Manzini Post Office.

The office was once used as a conference room. It is directly opposite the courtroom.



The conference room is a sore sight as used condoms, tissues, foam plates, beer cans, cigarettes butts, plastic bags, peeling floor tiles, old furniture and many other things are littered all over.



Worse, the ceiling is falling while the paint on the four corners of the room is also peeling off.

The corridors leading to the offices around the building are also not in a good state.



Some sex workers who were engaged by this publication on Thursday evening confirmed that they used the rooms to service their clients.

Even though the ladies were sceptical to speak to the reporter, they claimed that the place was quiet and private.

The locks to the doors were broken, but not by us. It would be sad if the place could be demolished, one of the ladies said.



refused

When asked about their services, the workers refused to go into details, stating that it was private.

About three weeks ago, Swazi News published that a certain sex worker claimed to make approximately E20 000 from the trade.

Worth noting, the building is approximately 200 metres from where the ladies usually showcase their business.



The sex workers are normally found standing near the King Somhlolo Park and the Manzini Post Office, which are both situated along Nkoseluhlaza Street.

In some instances, the workers flag down motorists with the intention of offering them the services.

Once they reach an agreement on the price, the client is led to the abandoned government building.



In an earlier interview with one of the workers, she stated that they usually carry condoms for safety.

Drawn for a comment about the night activities, Mathokoza Thwala, the Public Relations Officer of the Municipal Council of Manzini, said prostitution was illegal in Eswatini.



continue



We can only hope that the police, who are security agents of the city, will continue to patrol and monitor that area so that in the event they find people engaged in illegal activities  they handle them in terms of the law, Thwala pointed out.



Also, Thwala encouraged owners of properties in the city to make sure these were in a good state so that they are not abused by people who are not authorised to have access to them.



He then advised that the Ministry of Public Works and Transport would be the best to comment on the maintenance of government structures.



sentiments



Thwalas sentiments were shared by the Manzini Regional Administrator (RA), Prince Gcokoma.

The prince succinctly stated that the building was under the ministry.



He explained that they moved out of those offices because they were condemned by the ministry of health.

Those who wanted to continue to utilise them, were doing so at their own risk, he added.



When told that the offices have been converted into a sex haven, the administrator stated that sex workers might have taken an opportunity after realising that the fence erected behind the building had been vandalised.

The institutions that occupied the building did not have strong night watchmen to provide security, the RA said.

In jest, Prince Gcokoma stated that sex workers were found everywhere around the city.



Ministry of Public Works and Transport Communications Officer Mayibongwe Dlamini reported that the officer who was supposed to issue a comment on the matter was on assignment.

Dlamini stated that the ministrys Chief Building Engineer, Mkhululi Mamba, was held up in parliament.



various



In August last year, a total of 30 sex workers were arrested in an attempt to clean-up the city centre. These women were found along various streets of the city.

The several suspected hotspots which were raided by the police, included areas such as Liqhaga Flats, Foodliner, Kowloon, Autozone, Nkoseluhlaza Street, near the National Library and Bhunu Mall.

The accused persons charge sheets stated that they were found loitering for purposes of prostitution in different public places.

According to Wikipedia, it was estimated that there were around 4 000 sex workers in the country in 2015, with the highest concentrations in Matsapha, Manzini, Malkerns and Ezulwini. Most sex workers are Mozambicans or emaSwati. It is reported that sex workers are subject to abuse and forced sex by police. Some sex workers occasionally travel to other countries, especially Maputo in Mozambique, to work on a temporary basis. Many women and children turn to prostitution because of poverty.MBABANE  Some civil servants are crying foul over the non-payment of their stipend of E150 for attending a meeting in December 2018.

Approximately over 2 000 civil servants attended the meeting as members of Bunye Betfu Buhle Betfu Savings and Credit.



Concern



A concern that was raised by some attendees of the meeting was that they were now ordered to write letters to the Board to justify why they should be given the money.



We have been getting this money religiously each time after attending the meetings and we are used to being paid out instantly at the end of the meeting.

However, on this day, it was not paid out at the meeting place and we assumed this was because there was commotion resulting from the days discussions, said an aggrieved member.



Evidence



The member explained that at the end of the meeting on this day they were told to produce evidence that they had registered before the start of the meeting, which they did, apparently in the form of some coupons that came in different colours.



She said the officials who were responsible for registration and payments also took down all the members cellphone numbers and banking details, saying the money would be paid out at a later stage through Mobile Money and via the bank.



Inquire



When we realised that the money was not coming through after some time, we went to inquire at the Bunye Betfu offices where we were told to justify in writing.



This came as a surprise to us because we had never been told to do it before.

The members preferred to speak on condition of anonymity as they were still hoping to get the payments.



Another member said when she asked for her money she was told that she had not arrived at the meeting on time.

I was shocked because I was there during the registration process and also when the meeting started. I can even tell you the exact words that were used in the opening prayer.



The bitter members said they were very concerned about this because they fully subscribed to the cooperative hence they failed to understand the reason for the non-payment of the money.



The Manager of Bunye Betfu, Mpumelelo Ginindza, said he was not in a position to discuss the matter.

The Secretary, Eric Seyama, said there were terms and conditions regarding the eligibility for members to benefit from the E150 payout.



Reimbursement



The money is intended for transport costs reimbursement. But some members attend the meeting and leave before it ends, so such people are among those we usually request to justify in writing.

Seyama said the writing of letters to the Board was considered as an appeal.



Those who arrived on time and left after the meeting got their payment.

However, the Board also looks into the reasons cited in the letters and may take a decision on that, he said.

He could not state whether the cooperative had evidence that the aggrieved members had either arrived late for the meeting or had left prematurely.NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against, XPO Logistics, Inc. (XPO or the Company) (NYSE: XPO) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, District of Connecticut, and indexed under 18-cv-02062, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities, other than Defendants and their affiliates, who purchased or otherwise, acquired XPO securities between February 26, 2014, and December 12, 2018, both dates inclusive (the Class Period), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials.



If you are a shareholder who purchased XPO securities between February 26, 2014, and December 12, 2018, both dates inclusive, you have until February 12, 2019, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

XPO provides transportation and logistics services in the United States, North America, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Europe, Asia, and internationally, through its Transportation and Logistics segments. The Company offers its services to customers in various industries, such as retail, e-commerce, food and beverage, manufacturing, technology and telecommunications, aerospace and defense, life sciences, healthcare, medical equipment, and agriculture.

XPO was formerly known as Express-1 Expedited Solutions, Inc. (Express-1). On September 2, 2011, Defendant Bradley S. Jacobs (Jacobs), through an equity investment led by Jacobs Private Equity, LLC, acquired a 71% ownership interest in Express-1. Jacobs assumed the roles of Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and renamed the Company XPO Logistics, Inc. XPO has completed seventeen acquisitions since Jacobs took control of the Company, deploying $6.1 billion of capital.

Prior to acquiring XPO, Jacobs had leadership roles in several other companies, having, inter alia, founded United Waste Systems, Inc. (UWS) in 1989 and co-founded United Rentals, Inc. (URI) in 1997, which eventually collapsed after an accounting scandal under Jacobs leadership.

Jacobss tenure at XPO has been characterized by aggressive mergers and acquisitions (M&A) strategy. After Jacobs took control of the Company, Fortune Magazine noted that XPO has grown from $177 million in sales in 2011 to $17 billion today, thanks largely to an incredible run of acquisitions. On August 2, 2017, Jacobs announced plans to earmark up to $8 billion for additional acquisitions.

The complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Companys business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) XPOs highly touted aggressive M&A strategy had yielded only minimal returns to the Company; (ii) XPO was utilizing improper accounting practices to mask its true financial condition, including, inter alia, under-reporting of bad debts and aggressive amortization assumptions; and (iii) as a result, the Companys public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On December 12, 2018, Spruce Point Capital Management (Spruce Point) published a report regarding XPO, entitled Trucking Ridiculous; End of the Road. The Spruce Point report asserted that a forensic investigation into XPO had revealed, financial irregularities that conveniently cover [the Companys] growing financial strain and inability to complete additional acquisitions despite repeated promises. Spruce Point reported that it had uncovered, among other issues, concrete evidence to suggest dubious tax accounting, under-reporting of bad debts, phantom income through unaccountable M&A earn-out liabilities, and aggressive amortization assumptions: all designed to portray glowing Non-GAAP results. The Spruce Point report further stated that XPO insiders have aggressively reduced their ownership interest in the Company since coming public, and recently enacted a new compensation structure tied to Adjusted Cash Flow Per Sharedefined in such a non-standard way that it is practically meaningless. Spruce Point also reported that [i]n our opinion, XPO has used a nearly identical playbook from [URI] leading up to its SEC investigation, executive felony convictions, and share price collapse.

Following publication of the Spruce Point report, XPOs stock price plunged $15.77 per share, or 26.17%, to close at $44.50 on December 13, 2018.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.comMBABANE  Two days before schools open, a child is stuck in the middle of a family controversy that might possibly jeopardise his chances of learning this year.



While adults, who are ideally responsible for the safety and wellbeing of children, squabble over personal issues, a 16-year-old child has been caught in the middle. As a result of the deep feud between the childs grandmother, *Gladys, and his aunt *Sibongile, he might not attend school this year. Notably, the child will be doing Grade VII this year. The names of the relatives and child are known to this publication but will not be revealed to protect the minor.



It has been established that Gladys, who was the minors guardian until last August, secured a transfer letter moving *Linda (16) from his current school, Thembeni Primary School to be enrolled in a school around Malindza. This did not sit well with Sibongile and Lindas mother, *Thuli who are both against the transfer.



As the tug of war continues and with schools opening on Tuesday, it is uncertain where Linda will attend classes as the adults are fiercely fighting for him to go to different schools.



transferred



It is uncertain whether Linda has applied and was accepted at the Malindza school but what is for sure is that he has been transferred from his previous school. This then means he is no longer enrolled at his previous school, Thembeni Primary School.



Linda and Gladys are not new to making newspaper headlines as in 2017, this publication reported that the elderly woman assaulted the minor with a brick on the head at his school. At the time, the boy was 14 years old and had allegedly stolen E100 belonging to his grandmother.



grandfather



In an interview, Thuli narrated that Gladys transferred her child from Thembeni Primary School without her knowledge and consent. She said her concern was that her child would possibly stay alone at Malindza as his grandfather had reportedly married another woman and moved in with her. She said she also feared that Linda would be subjected to child labour in the form of rearing cattle, milking them and taking them to the dip tank before school among other things.



When asked why she did not stay with Linda as she was his biological mother, Thuli only said she could not stay with the minor at the moment. Even when pressed to state why, she did not divulge her reasons. She only said the minor was well taken of by his aunt. She revealed that even at a tender age, Linda stayed at her parental home but went for a visit to Gundvwini and never returned.

She said this was the childs first visit to Gundvwini, his paternal home.

Thuli suggested that Linda should stay with her uncle who was reportedly more than willing to stay with him. She said she also did not have a problem with the minor staying with his aunt as she kept him in check. She said she was informed that Gladys wanted Linda to move to Gundvwini because she did not approve of him staying with Sibongile, whom she no longer saw eye-to-eye with. There are personal issues between the two (Sibongile and Gladys) which I do not want to be part of, Thuli said.



confronted



Sibongile, when confronted on the issue, said she started staying with Linda last year around August. She confirmed that her relationship with Gladys was not good and further made serious allegations about the elderly woman which cannot be repeated in this publication. She alleged that the minor moved in with her after he was kicked out by Gladys.



Sibongile said she was not sure why the elderly woman suddenly wanted Linda to relocate to Malindza as he was living peacefully with her. She said she had not complained about the minor to anyone but took care of him like her own child. She feared that if the minor would return to the elderly womans care, something worse than the assault she meted on him in 2017 might happen.



Sibongile stated that Gladys successfully got a transfer letter from Thembeni Primary School with the purpose of having Linda moved to a school in Malindza. She also stated that the 16-year-old was not for the idea of relocating to Malindza such that he personally went to the school to ask that the transfer be revoked.



Sibongile made it known that she wanted Linda to stay with her for his safety and for educational reasons. When informed that in 2017, Gladys alleged that Linda was a wayward child who often stole from her, she did not dispute that. She, however, was quick to state that Linda had since changed to a responsible and obedient young man. I will not deny that he was wayward but he behaved the way he did because of hunger, Sibongile said.



stolen



Sibongile stated that since last year, Linda had not stolen a cent from her and community members also did not complain about him. She also stated that the community members approached her and praised her for changing Linda for the better.



Meanwhile, Gladys said she facilitated Lindas transfer for his own good. She alleged that Linda was not in good hands and based the claim on that Sibongile was not the ideal guardian. The elderly woman alleged that they were not in good terms with Sibongile because of false rumours spread by Linda about her (Gladys).



She further said Sibongile had no legal right to stay with the minor as she was not related to him. He is currently staying with someone purported to be his aunt but it is about time he comes back to his family, Gladys said.



It was established that there were issues of paternity regarding Sibongile. Gladys when asked why she opted to transfer Linda to another school while he was set to start Grade VII, a class where he would sit for external examinations, alleged that the minor had failed.



She alleged that she was in possession of his report which stipulated that he had failed and had to repeat Grade VI. She alleged that school gave them the transfer card on the basis that he had to repeat Grade VI.

*Not their real names to protect minor.Posted Friday, January 18, 2019 9:31 am

The House Committee on Commerce and Gaming took up a bill that would include preschools and school bus stops within the buffer requirements of state-licensed marijuana businesses.

House Bill 1003, introduced by Rep. Brad Klippert, R-Kennewick, would further restrict marijuana businesses from operating in areas frequently visited by children.

The Liquor and Cannabis Board is barred from issuing a marijuana license to any business within 1,000 feet of an elementary or secondary school, playground, recreation center, child care center, public park, public transit center or library.

This bill would also prohibit the board from issuing or renewing a license for any locations within 1,000 feet of any preschool or bus stop.

Seth Dawson testified in general support of the legislation on behalf of the Washington Association for Substance Abuse.

The negative effect of marijuana on youth brain development and his desire for children to be protected from advertising near bus stops and institutions prompted the bill.

I have six schools that I am responsible for and kids are a passion of mine, Klippert said during the hearing. Protecting them is my lifes goal.

Klippert is a law enforcement officer and also serves as a school resource officer. He has taught kids about the dangerous effects of marijuana for many years.

Klippert filed HB 1003 on behalf of one of his constituents.

He explained times he walked into homes and found parents legally smoking marijuana while they still had children in diapers. Klippert ended the testimony by telling the story of a boy who smoked marijuana before school, at lunch and after school. Stopping improved the adolescents grades and life substantially, he said.

The location of pot shops close to bus stops has been a hot-button issue in Klipperts district for a couple years.

According to the bill, this act is necessary for the health and safety of public institutions.

The bill contains an emergency clause and would take effect immediately if signed into law.Posted Friday, January 18, 2019 9:30 am

The creation of a Statewide Broadband Office and an initial investment of $25 million into getting broadband into every nook and cranny was announced by Governor Jay Inslee on Wednesday.

We know the reality on the ground is that there are just too many places that do not have access, said Inslee.

Inslees proposal targets extending the reach of broadband through a variety of programs, including partnerships with public and private providers.

Inslee gave a press conference on his broadband initiative that included Sen. Lisa Wellman, D-Mercer Island, and Rep. Zack Hudgins, D-Tukwila, who will sponsor the bill along with Sen. Shelly Short, R- Addy. The conference also included Washington State Public Works Board Chair Scott Hutsell, Harrington Mayor Justin Slack, and Colville Tribal Council Member Susie Allen.

Slack is a telecommuter for the bank he works for on the west side of the state. He told how access to broadband changed not only his life but the town of Harrington.

Its been great. You know, our schools use the internet. Kids come to the library, they sit out front of our city hall, they come to the coffee shop so they can use the internet, after school- after hours, said Slack.

Increased economic opportunity, access to telemedicine, and educational resources are among other issues mentioned by Inslee as key reasons for access to broadband in rural communities.

Inslee believes a small but focused Statewide Broadband Office is necessary to get results on this issue. The office would be under the Department of Commerce and cost $1.2 million. The governor also proposed a separate capital funding to create a grant and loan program, administered by the Public Works Board. The board would also award funding for research into feasibility and strategic planning.Posted Friday, January 18, 2019 9:07 am

Clark County Council Chair Eileen Quiring isnt new to county government, though now her expanded role representing citizens has kept her on her toes in the first few weeks.

I would say its a lot busier, Quiring remarked, speaking with The Reflector during an interview on Clark County Focus, a monthly program featuring Clark County Councilors on CVTV. Quiring won a close election last year for the at-large chair position, having previously served as councilor for District 4.

Quirings career-long championing of making efficient use of taxpayer funds would continue in her role as chair, she said, something that would be affected by the countys recent switch to annual budgeting. She likened Clark County Manager Shawn Henessees budget proposal to that of the governors own request for the state that goes to the legislative body  in the case of the governor the state legislature, and for the county the Clark County Council  for them to make changes and approve the final document.

For the first annual budget completed last year Henessee, who started at the end of July, was playing catchup to get together his proposal, though Quiring said for this year the executive planned on going through department revenues and expenses line by line, something the councilor was very supportive of.

Quiring and the rest of the council will also be looking at recommendations from the county Corrections Facility Advisory Commission that would be made in May at the latest, she said. Quiring also talked priorities the council has for state lawmaking this year. The first she mentioned was getting needed funds for development along the Discovery Corridor, land flanking Interstate 5 especially focused around the Clark County Fairgrounds exit at 179th Street.

Quiring said that generally, the countys lawmakers at the state level were very cooperative in addressing local needs. One issue shed like to see addressed was sales tax leakage from people in Clark County shopping across the Columbia River due to Oregons lack of the tax.

Its been an ongoing problem. Its almost something that we have to live with, Quiring remarked.

The new council chair also addressed the perennial issue of bridges and tolls. Following Gov. Jay Inslees recent statements on an Interstate 5 bridge replacement Quiring said she was very disappointed with the governors insistence on light rail for any project.

Most everybody here was kind of in agreement that (bridge replacement) didnt have to require light rail, Quiring said. She went on to say the metropolitan area wasnt big enough to require the rapid transit mode, pointing to places like Washington, D.C., and Boston where the infrastructure made sense.

If I-5 bridge is going to be replaced, we need to immediately be planning when the other (bridges) are going to happen, Quiring said, referencing local sentiment on additional crossings over the Columbia River being a priority, in some cases moreso than replacing the current bridge.

But it doesnt seem like were going to have the political will to do that, she acquiesced.

Quiring also responded to recent news from the Federal Highway Administration regarding tolling on I-5 and Interstate 205. The federal agency asked for more information on Oregons scheme but said that the plan was likely eligible to move forward.

Quiring noted that any tolls were several years down the line, adding that what was planned for I-205 wasnt as much a concern as I-5 given the formers tolls would be fairly far south and would eventually lead to additional lanes.

The I-5 tolls, which would be on all lanes from Going Street to Multnomah Boulevard, were of greater concern for the councilor.

Its so congested now that I dont think that people are taking these unnecessary trips during rush hour, Quiring said. She was more open to having a tolled express lane as opposed to the whole of the thoroughfare.

With tolls farther down the line, Quiring said it gave the county time to put more jobs on this side of the river.

Economic development is really high on my list, Quiring said, adding that this year the county hopes to hire someone to serve as an economic development liaison to help facilitate that group.

That position could be done in a national search, similar to how they found Henessee. She hoped the individual would help in some of the ways that the Columbia River Economic Development Council has in identifying the types of incentives that would attract industry to Clark County.

We can place a certain type of emphasis on the businesses that we want to come here, Quiring said.Posted Friday, January 18, 2019 9:05 am

The Clark County Republican Central Committee has selected its three nominees for the open seat on the Clark County Council and one could be appointed as early as Tuesday evening, Jan. 22.

Close to 120 Republican Precinct Committee Officers (PCO) cast votes at the Luepke Center Jan. 15, selecting John Ley, Brook Pell and Gary Medvigy.

Their selections have been forwarded onto the four sitting county councilors, who will conduct interviews and pick one to serve in the District 4 seat left open after councilor Eileen Quiring was elected as Clark County Council Chair in November.

Voting was done in two rounds to whittle the 11 applicants to three, with Ley, a pilot and vocal opponent of Oregons plans for transportation over the Columbia River, receiving a majority of votes in the first round. PCOs were allowed three choices in the first round and two in the second, with three candidates dropping out of the running based on first-round tallies. Both Pell and Medvigy received majority votes in the second round.

Who is John Ley?

Ley, whose name can often be spotted on The Reflectors opinion page, said hes been a Clark County resident since 1991 and pointed to his time spent pushing back against the Columbia River Crossing and, more recently, the potential for tolls on Portland-area interstates.

That tolling, as well as other Columbia River bridge issues, were areas he felt would be at the forefront for the next few years, as well as decisions around the countys implementation of the state Growth Management Act.

Weve got government having far, far too much influence on our citizens and what their private property rights are or arent, Ley said.

Who is Brook Pell?

Pell, who says shes a Clark County native who grew up in District 4, was recently elected Clark County Republican Party Vice Chair. She said defending property rights and finding fiscally responsible transportation solutions while respecting taxpayer dollars was her main focus. She said her experience as a commercial property manager and paralegal would be assets in her potential role on council.

Pell also referenced a letter of support recently sent out by Quiring, who she served as campaign manager for last year.

Who is Gary Medvigy?

Medvigy, a retired U.S. Army general, prosecutor and judge said he and his wife chose Clark County to retire based on its quality of life and natural beauty.

But for me first and foremost I moved here because of each of you, to be among like-minded people with strong moral and core values, Medvigy said.

Medvigy, a relative newcomer to local political discussions, took shots at Democrats and Hillary Clinton in his speech, affirming that he voted for President Donald Trump in the election. He said that government in America should never be viewed as a growth industry while adding that the county citizens should be put first, not elsewhere in the state, referencing Gov. Jay Inslees recent comments on the inevitability of light rail on an Interstate 5 bridge replacement.

We must stand united in our narrative for both our legislators and governor that the will of Clark County must be respected, Medvigy said.Posted Friday, January 18, 2019 9:11 am

William Haynes, one of roughly a dozen individuals implicated in 2017s massive poaching investigation in Washington and Oregon, pleaded guilty Thursday morning to 15 charges related to illegally hunting big game with dogs and leaving the corpses to rot.

Haynes, a Longview resident, will be sentenced on Feb. 28, but his plea in Skamania County Superior Court leaves only one major defendant in the Washington portion of the massive, high-profile case.

For several minutes, Skamania County Superior Court Judge Randall Krog read off 15 charges spanning Haynes alleged illegal hunting activity from August 2015 and September 2016, each time asking Haynes for his plea. All 15 times, Haynes replied: Guilty.

Thats the most Ive ever heard someone plead guilty to, said Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Captain Jeff Wickersham, one of the WDFW authorities who investigated the poaching ring, which authorities allege operated in Cowlitz, Skamania and Lewis counties. All four major defendants are Cowlitz County residents.

Five of Haynes charges were felonies, and its very rare for someone to plead guilty to even one felony fish and wildlife crime, Wickersham said.

The prosecution and defense agreed to recommend a year-long jail sentence for Haynes, 25, but his sentencing was put off because he is expected to testify in an Oregon case involving another alleged poaching ring member. He had previously maintained a not-guilty plea since he was charged late in 2017. Haynes was previously convicted of second-degree unlawful hunting of big game in Cowlitz County in 2013.

One of the requirements of his plea deal is an interview with Fish and Wildlife officials.

If Judge Krog accepts the recommendation, Haynes would also lose his right to own firearms or own hunting dogs and be required to not contact Erik Martin or father-and-son duo Eddy and Joseph Dills, three of the other alleged major members of the ring. He would likely lose his hunting rights as well.

Martin, the last of the group of four awaiting adjudication of his case in Skamania County, had been expected to reverse his plea and admit guilt Thursday. However, Martin is currently serving a sentence in Oregon, and a scheduling or transportation conflict may have led to him not appearing in court Thursday, Wickersham said.

Haynes, Martin and the Dills also all face fish and game violations in Oregon stemming from the same investigation.

Haynes, Martin and the Dills were four of the original seven suspects charged in the investigation. Many of the dogs used in hunting belonged to Joseph or Eddy Dills, and many of the killings of wild game were recorded or found on Haynes and Martins electronic devices.

Skamania County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Dan McGill told Judge Krog on Thursday that Haynes was part of a poaching ring which, over the course of two or three years, hunted year-round for black bears with hounds and left their carcasses to rot.

Prosecutors across at least seven counties in Washington and Oregon have filed cases against roughly one dozen people alleged to have been involved in the ring, which operated mostly in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and allegedly killed more than 50 animals.

The investigation led to accusations of the killing of dozens of deer, elk, bears and bobcats. Investigators found a trove of digital evidence after Haynes and Martin filmed and photographed more than 20 alleged brutal killings. In some cases, bears were still alive as Dills dogs gnawed on their flesh, according to Washington Fish and Wildlife Sergeant Brad Rhoden.

Haynes on Thursday pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree unlawful hunting of big game (a felony), five counts of first-degree waste of fish and wildlife (a gross misdemeanor), and five counts of illegal hunting with the aid of a dog (a gross misdemeanor).

Haynes has been cooperative with authorities, attorneys said, although he has occasionally had trouble making court dates. He was arrested earlier this month and returned to court on a bench warrant.

Jail sentences in some counties have interfered with the trial schedules for some of the accused in other counties, and Wickersham said the number of people who could be charged has changed since the investigation began.

Joseph Dills pleaded guilty in Skamania County and was convicted of four counts each of first-degree big game hunting, illegal hunting with dogs and wasting wildlife in late October. 52 other charges against him were dropped. He will be sentenced in February.

Eddy Dills pleaded guilty in Skamania County and was convicted of first-degree big game hunting, illegal hunting with dogs and wasting wildlife in November. He was sentenced to 23 days of home confinement.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.The Perspective

Atlanta, Georgia

January 19, 2019

With outright discontent and disillusionment, SUP vehemently cautions and calls on authorities of UL to immediately reverse or revoke its unlawful decision to suspend political activities at the State-run University of Liberia. The rushed, ill-informed and unwarranted move to suspend student politics on Friday, January 11, 2019, is a vicious crackdown on those cherished ideals of our nations nourishing democracy.



SUP considers such unjustified action, which was mainly influenced and engineered by government and pro-regime stooges, as thoughtless, undemocratic, and a provocation for mass civil disobedience and uproar across Liberia. Our striving democracy is under attack and those democratic gains made so far are fast diminishing under President George M. Weah  a Head of State who has grossly violated almost all of our laws including our Constitution in less than a year.



In this 21st century when freedom of speech, freedom of association, and political freedom have become indispensable democratic values, it is unreasonable and inconsiderate for any university or regime to callously cease the political rights of over 19,000 conscious students. The banning of student political activities reechoes Liberias gloomy past and there are enough signs to prove that dictatorship is virulently evolving.



The latest resolution does not only disenfranchise emerging leaders of our country from participating in politics, but it grossly violates these sacred Laws and Statutes which guarantees political freedom and free speech:

The 1952 Charter of UL The 2012 Student Handbook of UL The 1986 Constitution of Liberia The 1986 African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Furthermore, this indefensible and anti-democratic tragedy abrogates/invades Article 15 and Article 16 of our 1986 Constitution. This tragic contradiction is emerging after 39 years. The disgusting odor of military junta and authoritarianism is resurfacing in a kangaroo form. SUP has a historical and revolutionary obligation to disfigure and deconstruct any form of dictatorial predisposition and conspiracy.

We, therefore, caution UL along with GoL to abandon this premature plot and feeble gimmick which may soon backfire and degenerate into unintended consequences. Since Cde. Martin K. N. Kollie was overwhelmingly elected as Standard Bearer of SUP through a democratic process, there have been increasing contradictions and uproars especially fueled by pro-regime elements and renegade groups. The root cause of this illegal ban is the fear of comrade Kollie ascending as President of ULSU. The government is unsettled by his resilient courage and prowess. Upon hearing his ascendancy as Standard Bearer, GoL has been uneasy and belligerent.

The commotion on the campuses of the University of Liberia this gone Friday was orchestrated by thugs and renegade groups hired by Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Koijee, Minister of State for Presidential Affairs Nathaniel McGill, Representative Acarous M. Gray, and Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah, the brother of Atty. Norris Tweah under whose signature the release to ban student political activities was issued. After consistently attacking the Media, they have now turned to the student community.

It is glaring that SIM, STUDA, FENSA and CDC LINSU have become hired guns of this pro-poor government. SUP will not accept any further provocation in such manner. While we remain peaceful and proactive in pursuing this matter which serves as a recipe for democratic disorder and national upheaval, we want to call on all international bodies especially the UN, AU, US Embassy near Monrovia, ECOWAS, and EU to promptly intervene.

We are also calling on the Board of Trustees of UL, the National Legislature, the Liberia Council of Churches, the National Muslim Council, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Justice to step in before this situation goes out of hand. It is our right to participate in politics  it is our right to assemble and associate  it is our right to speak freely  it is our right to critique. And no one can take these rights from us or freeze our political freedom, not even UL or GoL. We will defend these fundamental rights to death.

In addition, we want to reiterate that SUP and ULSU do not recognize the current leadership of LINSU  a once independent student organization that has fallen prey to this regime. CDC LINSU will only represent students who are diehard partisans of CDC. Therefore, we are pleased to announce an Ad hoc Leadership of the newly formed alternative voice of all students across our Republic, the Liberia National Conscious Students Union (LINCSU):

Cde. J. Butu Levi  President Cde. Clint Paawah Layweh  Vice President for National Affairs Cde. Jusu Kamara  Secretary-General

This acting leadership will work closely with SUP, solidarity forces and other prominent student organizations to carry out the following mandates:

Conduct a free, fair and democratic National Congress in four (4) months Temporarily fill in all other executive member positions required until National Congress Establish High School, University, Vocational Institution, District, Community, and County Leaderships Begin mass mobilization of universities, high schools, vocational institutions, and student organizations Engage the National Legislature to enact LINCSU into Law.

SUP will remain engaged with all stakeholders to ensure that the democratic credential of Liberia is not mutilated by pro-fascists and opportunists. We will stand in defense of the rights of all students and Liberians in general. From banning student politics, national politics and political parties will soon be banned. The ban on student political activities is the beginning of a new revolution  a revolution that will subvert any intent to even ban national political parties. We call on all patriots to join us against this NIGHTMARE.

Long Live SUP  Long Live Massescracy. In pursuit of social justice, academic freedom and peace, the STRUGGLE for an equal and a just society remains unceasingly progressive. Done and issued on this 16th Day of January A. D. 2019.

Signed ________________________________ Approved: _________________________

Cde. S. Ephraim T. Nyumah Cde. Carlos Tingban Edison

Secretary-General, SUP Chairman, SUP

The Perspective

Atlanta, Georgia

January 19, 2019

From its founding to the 1980 coup, Liberia was a beacon of hope and enlightenment for Africa and many nations around the world. It served as an education Mecca. Nationals of other countries flocked to Liberia in search of greener pastures, an excellent educational system, and an intellectual culture steeped in free expression of ideas. These inducements encouraged many thinkers to visit. Proponents of the Back to Africa movement, including W.E.B. Dubois, Edward W. Blyden, Marcus Garvey, and Paul Cuffee came calling as visitors to and even as residents of the first independent black nation in the world. These great men viewed Liberia, with a deep sense of racial pride, as an outpost for their aspirations of cross-continental migration. Their pilgrimage followed Liberias past, which is crisscrossed with a pattern of migration. Paradoxically, one day, Liberia would become a place of emigration.



After the 1980 coup, scores of Liberians, mainly those from the ruling class fled the country because of fear of reprisal and persecution. The mass exodus of former government officials and their families began the downward spiral of the countrys intelligentsia and its brain drain. The problem was further exacerbated when the nation once again faced a dark moment, marked by the 1990 civil conflict. As violence engulfed the nation, a huge outflow of Liberians led to swells of diasporic communities in the 1990s and 2000s, draining the nation of its most valuable asset-its human capital.



As many Liberians, who fled the motherland to safe havens in other countries, watched their nation being ripped apart, some patriots worked odd jobs while acquiring education with hope of returning home, someday. One of those people was Dr. Emmanuel T. Dolo. Although Emmanuel spent a good portion of his adult life abroad, his dreams and aspirations were securely wrapped in his desire to return to his native land to participate in the recovery process. Hence, he deliberately and purposefully orchestrated his life to that end.



Dr. Dolo hailed from Ganta, Nimba County, where he was born and raised by his father, a junior high school drop-out and his mother who had no formal education. In spite of his parents limited education, they deemed education as an escape route out of the cycle of poverty. His dad worked as a security officer for LAMCO, where Emmanuel would many years later, serve as head of administration. His mother sold cold bowl to support her son in private schools. He later matriculated to the University of Liberia, on a scholarship from LAMCO and with financial support from his family.



In 1988, Dr. Dolo fled to the United States as he was being hunted by the Doe government for harshly criticizing its dictatorial tendencies. While in the United States, husbands pursuit of better opportunities led him in many different directions. However, he remained steadfast and never lost focus. At times, he held down menial jobs with meager pay and forewent his comfort in order to create the future he had envisioned for himself and his country. His commitment and diligence paid off. In 2003, he was awarded a Ph.D. in Research, Social Policy, Refugee Mental Health, and Youth Development from the University of Minnesota.



Even though Dr. Dolo held several high profile positions in the US, he had a deep yearning to return home to serve his country. His conversations centered on Liberia and the need for progressive leadership to end the social and political paralysis that existed. He spent many long hours, nightly, researching how the nation could be pulled from the ashes of destruction. He was a crusader, igniting patriotism in fellow Diaspora Liberians. I remember us having long discussions about Liberia, in bed at night.



In 2003, when we became pregnant, my husband was overwhelmed with joy, yet, he was scouting out opportunities to return to Liberia. His love of country often made me feel like Liberia was a rival, as my Emmanuel personified her like a woman he was deeply in love with. When I asked him to explain his quest to leave his pregnant wife and return to Liberia, he replied: Liberia lies in ruins with her hands stretched forth to her children to save her. He furthered How can I resist? From that moment, I understood that Emmanuels desire to serve his country was more than I could ever understand. His unflinching love and faith in the nations future, later, converted me into a die-hard patriot.



Dr. Dolos love for his country was selfless. While we resided in Minnesota, our home became an informal university as many of our compatriots sought his assistance for their academic work. He was always willing to give his hundred percent to assist his fellow Liberians in the area of academia. He believed that Diaspora Liberians focus should be education in order for them to return home and transfer knowledge. I am a beneficiary of Emmanuels zeal for Liberians to achieve higher education. Not only did he encourage me to go to graduate school, but also invested all that he had in my education. I did not qualify for student loan at the time of my enrollment in graduate school due to my immigration status. Therefore, my husband sacrificed our life savings and his earnings for me to attend graduate school. I know many others who can attest that they have obtained higher education because of his encouragement and assistance.



On January 15, 2006, as Liberians around the world waited in anticipation for their new president to take office, Dr. Dolo awoke that morning and called the family to pray for the birth of the new nation. He was ecstatic that the way to recovery and reconstruction was finally in sight. Thus, he became even more embroiled in Liberian politics. Immediately, he began analyzing and critiquing the performance of the new government. Many times, we had heated debates about the manner in which he criticized the government. I would realize, later, that his opinions were not personal, but were driven by deep passion for his country. Dr. Dolo became a loud voice for thousands of voiceless Liberians. One of his commendable achievements is that he always proposed solutions to the issues he raised. Often, his criticisms were supported by empirical evidence. His writings were carried by Diaspora online media groups such as the Perspective, Bush Chicken and FrontPage Africa, to name a few. Many people looked up to Dr. Dolo for political guidance and analysis.



While Dr. Dolo and other critical voices spoke out against societal ills, President Sirleaf exerted every power to reverse the brain drain that plagued the nation. To mitigate the situation, she created thriving conditions to attract top talents to aid in the reconstruction process. Several programs to attract brain gain were initiated. These programs included UNDPs Transfer of Knowledge through Expatriate Nationals (TOKTEN), Senior Executive Service (SES), and Scott and Fellows programs. Dr. Dolo watched these developments from afar while strategizing how he could become a part of the brain gain.



In 2007, Emmanuels dream of returning to his motherland to participate in its development was finally realized. He was recruited by UNDP as a consultant to develop a social policy framework for the Government of the Republic of Liberia. That document serves as the foundation for the governments current social policies and programs, affecting vulnerable populations including; resettlement, livelihood restoration, and community development activities, etc. Equally, Dr. Dolo developed a comprehensive and culturally-appropriate social welfare policy and action plan in accordance with international standards.



Dr. Dolos contract ended after seven months and he returned to the United States. Back in the US, he held several high profiles jobs, including serving as Director of Research and Policy, Minnesota Minority Education Partnership. However, he remained unrelenting in his quest to return home. He believed that his country was at a critical juncture where his expertise was more needed and contribution would matter.

Friday, April 10, 2009, was just an ordinary day for many Americans who lived in Minnesota, but not for hundreds of Liberians who congregated at the University of Minnesota to witness President Sirleaf present the Distinguished Carlson Lecture Series. At the end of her presentation, Madam Sirleaf called on Liberians to return home to rebuild the country. After that encounter, Dr. Dolo became increasingly restless as he believed that clarion call was for him. He spent his time on the internet, keeping abreast of the happenings in Liberia. As a result, in 2010 when he was offered the opportunity to transition to Liberia as Head of General Administration at Arcelor Mittal/Liberia, he did not hesitate to return home. His decision to return to Liberia and leave the family behind didnt happen without a major family crisis. I understood his love for country and his civic responsibility to nation-building, but I believed that all paled in comparison to the being with his family. I watched my husband torn between two loves. It became clear to me that we would not get the best of him, even if he remained in the US, due to family pressure. We, finally, compromised when a clause to return home quarterly was included his contract...



While serving at Arcelor Mittal, Dr. Dolo advocated for the labor union and instituted policies that favored workers and improved working conditions. He remembered the days that he lived with his father who was a laborer at the former organization, LAMCO where he was, now, serving as Head of General Administration and Government Liaison. Emmanuel ensured that the companys corporate social responsibility component addressed beneficiaries needs and strengthened its community engagement programs. He also served as the organizations compliance officer for labor and Liberianization-related matters. He was instrumental in advocating for Liberians to hold senior management positions in the organization. He also challenged his home county, Nimba, authorities to use the social development fund from Arcelor Mittal for the benefit of the citizens.

After many years of being a fierce critic of the Sirleaf led government, Dr. Dolo was appointed by President Sirleaf to serve as National Youth Policy Advisor. He accepted the offer because, with time, he realized that he could more effectively promulgate the change he advocated as an insider. He led the team that developed the current Technical-Vocational Education and Training (TVET) policy of the Republic of Liberia. He also provided strategic leadership and professional guidance on all matters of youth development, social protection, and social welfare in the Presidents office. In his role as Youth Policy Advisor, Dr. Dolo identified emerging social development issues of potential concern to the government of Liberia, particularly those with significant implications for youth development as well as stability and growth of the Liberian economy. He undertook in-depth analysis of national and international youth development trends, including employment and social disparities and assessed the implications of these trends for sustainable development outcomes and other elements for the Government of Liberias development agenda.



In 2014, as the country, once again, seemed to, finally, be on pace to achieving its developmental goals, the nation suffered yet another form of war- the devastating setback brought on by the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). President Sirleaf called the disaster an unknown enemy. She said In a traditional war, you know where the gun is, you know where the solider is, you know where the rebel is. With this one, you just dont know. The outbreak of the virus was an existential threat to our nation. In the Mano River Basin and the entire West African region, where EVD had its largest toll, knowledge of the virus was limited. In the history of the regions infectious disease epidemics, an Ebola epidemic had never occurred. As a result, not only was the general population unaware of the virus, but also the healthcare workers had very limited knowledge of the virus and how it could be spread. The limited knowledge amongst healthcare workers also caused them to respond to patients hazardously, resulting in increased infection in that segment of the population. WHO reported in 2015 that nearly 700 healthcare workers in the Mano River Basin were infected by the end of pandemic.



On the other hand, the lack of knowledge led to denial among the population, which contributed to the initial apathetic response from government to adequately finance control measures to prevent the spread of the virus. Equally, intervention from the international community was slow and disjointed. As a result, the disease crippled every facet of the country, including the economy. Reflecting the alarm associated with the disease, as well as EVD-related mortality and morbidity, economic activities shrunk. The nation watched in fear as the economy came to a grinding halt. The government instituted measures including a state of emergency and restrictions on peoples movements. Schools were shut down, elections were postponed, foreign companies withdrew, farmers abandoned theirs fields, and government used only essential staff. Economic activities for restaurants, hotels, public transport, construction and educational institutions diminished daily, as activities among foreign companies slowed down and many expatriates fled the country for safety. The EVD ravaging effects on Liberia renewed the risk of political instability in a country, barely recovering from a fourteen-year civil conflict.

In September 2014, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicted that if nothing was done to curtail the spread of EVD in Liberia and Sierra Leone, there would be 1.4 million cases of the disease in both countries by January 2015. The predicted exponential increase in EVD cases made it more likely that the virus would become entrenched in the sub-region. More alarming was the prospect that the disease would spread consistently, rather than in sporadic outbreaks, as in the past. Moreover, in October 2014, while EBOLA ravished Liberia, the World Health Organization (WHO) predicted that by December 2014, there would be 10, 000 new cases reported weekly within the Mano River countries. In September 2014, the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution, declaring the Ebola crisis in West Africa a threat to international peace and stability.

In response to the international communitys grim forecast for EBOLA in Liberia, Madam Sirleaf challenged the estimates by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the WHO, stating that those predictions were flat-out wrong because the Liberian government was taking steps to eliminate the spread of the virus. In this light, the President called for all hands on deck. As a result of its determination to build local ownership for the response, in early August, the Liberian government decided to adopt the Incident Management System (IMS) approach, with UN organizations and the international community playing support roles. In an effort to contain the outbreak, the Ministry of Health formed a National Public Emergency Task Force. Initially, the effort appeared to have been successful. However, the success was short-lived as the movement of people from one place to another exasperated the spread of the disease.

While our nation wallowed in panic, destitution, and hopelessness, a group of non-medical Liberians galvanized themselves to help save the country from the devastating destruction of the EVD. One of those gallant Liberians was Emmanuel. Although he had no prior knowledge of the disease, he spent many long days and sleepless nights researching it. After he had adequately informed himself about the disease, Emmanuel stepped out and took on the challenge to join others to redeem our nation from the peril of the EVD. I vividly remember exchanging ideas about how he would take up a deadly challenge as most of us remained locked up in our secured environments for fear of contracting the disease.

In early August, while safety was most peoples priority, my husband called to inform me that he was working alongside the EBOLA burial team to ensure that scores of EBOLA victims were safely buried. I worried about his safety, but he convinced me that we would be safe if only the larger population was safe. I said a prayer with him on the phone and he disappeared for many hours. Around 2:00 am, the following morning, Emmanuel came home drenched in water and mud. I was petrified when I saw him. He entered our home, sat on the living room floor and cried like a wounded child. For over an hour, I inquired about what was wrong and got no response. Around 4:30 a.m., he calmed down and narrated a horror story to me.



The government had difficulties finding burial grounds for Ebola victims because the NIBY (not in my back yard) mentality had permeated most communities. Eventually, the government purchased a burial site in a remote area of Johnsonville. One sad day, Dr. Dolo went out to assist the burial team, but the backhoe that was hired to dig the grave was faulty. He, then, went to a company in Bomi County to secure another machine. When he brought the machine to start the grave digging, the people from the nearby community objected that they didnt want the bodies buried there. That altercation resulted in a clash. Dr. Dolos devotion and commitment to ensuring that victims of this horrible disease were interred with respect and dignity, as well as providing safeguards for the living guided his decisions, during that trouble period.



As the EVD scourge ravished our country, Madam Sirleaf realized that lack of coordination between different government agencies, as well as the Liberian government and international partners, presented the most pressing challenge to her governments efforts to contain the virus. Amidst the rapidly increasing scale of the epidemic, the emergency task force was unable to effectively mount a large-scale response. With local government offices, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and ministries trying to sort out their roles and reach thousands of citizens in distant communities, the National Public Emergency Task Forces capacity was severely strained. The lack of proper coordination severely hampered the governments efforts.



On July 26, Liberias Independence Day, Madam Sirleaf declared a national state of emergency and announced she would personally chair a new Ebola National Task Force. The presidential task force consisted of high-level representatives of Liberian government, foreign governments, and international organizations. President Sirleaf appointed Mr. Dukuly, and then Minister of Internal Affairs, as co-chair, but the urgency of finding a better system for managing the day-to-day response remained.



Carrying out case management, disease surveillance, logistics, and communications functions, while coordinating the large number of Liberians and outside groups required ingenuity. As a result, President Sirleaf renamed the Ebola National Taskforce the Presidential Advisory Committee on Ebola (PACE), as the highest decision-making group on the Ebola response, chaired by the President herself. To ensure that the government continued to be in charge of policy decisions and to provide a forum for building coordination across ministries, Madam Sirleaf also moved to complement the work of the IMS by defining the role of her presidential task force. She appointed Dr. Dolo head of secretariat for PACE.



Dr. Dolo attended IMS meetings as a representative of the president. The practice enabled him to identify issues, firsthand, and furnish Madam Sirleaf information in real time so that critical decisions could be made timely. Other than the day-to-day operations of the national response, his leadership at PACE provided a mechanism that accelerated issues, including the restoration of normal health-care services. Additionally, he and his colleagues provided a platform whereby the President and her cabinet could stay abreast of the latest developments in the response. He provided the checks and balances, necessary, to ensure response coordination, collaboration, and effectiveness. PACE, with President Sirleafs leadership and Dr. Dolos coordination, was regarded as a high-level strategic decision-making and monitoring system within the overall organizational structure. Moreover, Dr. Dolo was the principal who dealt with policy issuesand their potential implications. He assisted the government to understand the response, as it related to issues like school closures and elections decisions that were beyond the IMS. He made PACE a good venue to interact with other governments, international stakeholders and partners.



Anyone who knew Dr. Dolo knows that he was very passionate about his country and made no apology for same. In November 2014, at one of the Ebola meetings with international partners, Dr. Dolo, in a heated debate, accused the donor of showing a level of disrespect by judging Liberian community groups by harsh standards and western standards. He insisted that Liberian communities had the solution to curb the spread of the EVD, but the international partners who came to assist the country discounted the local efforts.



Dr. Dolos love of country fueled his uncompromising stance against the international partners biases towards Liberians communities ability to drive the response. New York Times carried an article on November 19, 2014, entitled EBOLA Response in Liberia is Hampered by Infighting. The article describes what took place in a meeting between the international partners and their Liberian counterparts. Dr. Dolos name and no-nonsense position on issues, affecting his country were specifically mentioned in the article.



As a social scientist, Dr. Dolo was able to capably draw a causal link between the EBOLA outbreak and the trauma it imposed on the populace. In the December 2014 edition of the prestigious Foreign Policy Magazine, Laurie Garrett refers to a meeting she had with President Sirleaf where Dr. Dolo was present. She quoted him as saying this disease equals trauma and its a real culture shift. Its the first time in their lives that Liberians are seeing high amounts of deaths without people shooting in the streets. She further quoted him We need to give credit to the public for what has been done The sentiments expressed here by Dr. Dolo informed the body of literature he produced on the involvement of local communities in disastrous emergencies such as the Ebola outbreak.



Emmanuel, by all accounts, believed in the prosperity of Liberia despite its conspicuous challenges. He fought to make his motherland a better place and remained optimistic about its future. In his short life, he contributed immensely to the recovery and reconstruction of our country. He traversed the landscape of the country, leaving his mark in academia, politics, policy development, and implementation, health, social justice, youth development, and many other disciplines. His demise is an irreparable loss for Liberia. We must never allow his talents and vision for Liberia to die in the grave with him, but we must uphold the legacy of a brilliant Liberian who defiled the status quo ante and excelled to the highest levels both nationally and internationally.



About the Author: Aba Hamilton-Dolo is the widow of Dr. Emmanuel T. Dolo and can be reached at [email protected]The Perspective

Atlanta, Georgia

January 19, 2019

The Internet Penetration on the Rise in Liberia:

Few years ago, it was widely and internationally reported that the Liberian Internet system was entirely shut down by 30 years old British hacker Mr. Daniel Kaye, whose case has recently been adjudicated by the United Kingdoms judicial system at Blackfriars Crown Court in London. the Varus that was used to jeopardize the Internet Providing System (IPS) in Liberia is known as Mirai #14 botnet, which is one of the dangerous distributed denial of service (DDoS) botnet that cause Internet to sustain serious shutdown at a large scale.



Therefore, Mr. Daniel Kaye has been sentenced under the UKs Computer Misuse Act of 1990 to three years in jail because of his hacking activities on Liberias internet infrastructures in 2016 that caused millions of dollars in damages on businesses and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) mainly Lonestar Communication Incorporated (MTN).



Ironically, this event occurred, the local authorities did not know about unless when it was headlined by international Information Technology sites and news outlets. This was due to lack effective and sophisticated defense system of this newly engaged and highly saturated space with data, information and other valuable materials of the public sector, private enterprises and individuals in Liberia. Besides, the Internet penetration is on the exponential rise in the country as depicted in the below Chart (Figure 1), which shows the rise from 0% in 2000 to 8.6% in 2016 that comparably higher than some its neighboring countries such Sierra Leone (2.4%) and Guinea (1.8%) as for 2016 . Therefore, this calls for a need to protect the cyberspace through legislative and technological intervention against illegal intrusions; hacking the banks accounts, extrajudicial accessing to the nations critical IT infrastructures and causing financial and technical harms to businesses.

Figure 1



Source: Internet Live Stats (www.InternetLiveStats.com)

Global Movement of Stringent Legislation of Cybersphere:

The seriousness and danger of the illegal intrusion of Cyberspace and computer misuse have persuaded many countries around the World to revisit their traditional laws and legislative instruments in order to harmonize them with the threat and opportunities carried by Cyberspace. For instance, Singapore, Malaysia, USA, UK, South Korea Saudi Arabia and Estonia some leading jurisdictions that in this movement. It is, however, imperative to note that this movement is not only for the high- tech countries as it may be claimed by some people, it nonetheless, for every nation due to highly connectedness, cyber-globalization, and smelliness of our World because of technology and heavily usage of smart instruments and IT-connected activities; phones, personal computers and e-banking, e-commerce state but a few.



I and many concerned-IT guys have been calling on the government through publications and policy dialogues, and advocating for further regulation of Cyberspace in Liberia since 2016 internationally acclaimed hacking happened. However, some of those who have to really push the button told me in a policy dialogue on this issue that Liberia is not an high-tech country hinting that there is less need for rigorous regulation of the visual and Cybersphere. That means Cybersecurity law isnt matter of concern. Now, the UK judiciary had jailed his own citizen for extrajudicially tempering our cybersecurity in Liberia. The point here is, we need a proper and effective cybersecurity law as a further deterrent measure for both internal and external intrusions into our Cyberspace. This move had been taken by most of our neighboring and African nations such as Ghana ( Data Protection Act 2012, Economic and Organized Crimes Act, 2010), Nigeria ( Cybercrime Act, 2015) Kenyan ( The Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act of 2018), Uganda, ( Computer Misuse Act of 2011) and South Africa has prepared its Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity Bill but it yet to be passed into the law.

Technical and Financial Impacts of Kayes Hacking Action in Liberia:

According to Dominic Casciani, BBC Home Affairs Correspondent, Mr. Kayes attack on Lonestar Communication Incorporated (MTN), one of the Liberian largest ISPs caused the company serious damages in its revenues. In the years preceding the DDOS attacks, Lonestar's annual revenue exceeded $80m (62.4m). Since the attacks, revenue has decreased by tens of millions and its current liabilities have increased by tens of millions. Furthermore, former Chief Executive Officer of Lonestar Babatunde Osho said describing the magnitude of Kaye s criminality and hacking as devastating. Further, the action also denial thousands of Lonestar subscribers from calling one other during the period of the shutdown.

Technical and Policy Recommendation:

It is, therefore, recommended to the government of Liberia to first recognize the fragility of its cyberspace. Secondly, the fragility cybersphere is not less important than the fragility of its real space because thousands of transactions that can take place through the usage of the Internet. Thirdly, the authority has to emulate other advanced cyberlaw jurisdictions by legislating laws and design policies as a measure of further deterrent for any internal and external illegal intrusion into our cyberspace. It has to noted that Telecommunication Act of 2007 was a great step because it has some provisions criminalizing certain behaviors and activities by using computers. Nevertheless, there is still a need to further deepen legislative and technical interventions, especially by legislating a comprehensive and wholistic cybercrime act. Fourthly, as the nation trains its real space law-enforcement officers, Liberia has to invest in technology to train a team to at least minimize the fragility of our cyberspace in general and personal data of private citizens in particular from being criminally accessed thus causing financial damages and other ramifications of insecurity of Cyberspace. All in all, these proposed measures need to be instituted by the Liberian government Actions and measures, both technical and non-technical, with the express purpose of protecting computers, networks, software, data and other related digital technologies from all threat Professional activity of implementing the above-mentioned actions and measures, including research, analysis and policy development

About the Author: Mory DA Sumaworo is a Ph.D. Researcher at Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyah (Faculty) of Laws, International Islamic University, Malaysia. A Trained Internet Policy Researcher, Internet Policy Observatory, University of Pennsylvania and the Founder and Executive Director of the African Institute for Development Research (AIDER). @MSumaworo Email: [email protected]

Endnotes:The Perspective

Atlanta, Georgia

January 19, 2019

Liberian Lawmakers

The National Investment Commission (NIC) has announced the Liberian government and the Hummingbird Resources Inc. have signed a Gold-Mineral Development concession worth over US$ 250 Million. The Gold-Mineral Development agreement between the government of Liberia, and the Hummingbird Resources Inc. was negotiated and signed, but very little was known about the contents of these negotiations, and actual terms of the agreements, due to opaque processes, and reasons of confidentiality often invoked in relation to the contracts.



There is no doubt why it, like almost all agreements of this kind of, was kept secret from the Liberian people. The Hummingbird Resources Inc. agreement awarded exploration licenses for all minerals, covering over 7,000 square kilometers located within a significant proportion of eastern Liberia (Sinoe, Grand Kru, River Gee, and Maryland counties). Further according to reports, the company is expected to mine about 14 trillion ounces of gold over the 25-yr life span of the project. The World Bank affiliate, International Finance Corporation (IFC), is said to have invested US$8m in the project.



It is remarkably disadvantageous to the country of Liberia and its people. Liberian negotiators failed to understand that mineral development is a long term investment, and contracts must establish how rents will be divided between governments and companies as well as how costs and risks will be shared. Hummingbird will pay a signature fee of US$3 million to the Government of Liberia, with US$1.5 million to be paid within 15 days of the effective date and thereafter, US$1.5 million to obtain the license. A Royalty of 3% is given to the Government of Liberia on gold revenues. Additionally, the agreement allows 10% percent shares for Liberians. How could Liberians negotiators give away so much to the Hummingbird Resources Inc.? Why the National legislature failed to critically analyze the Hummingbird Mineral Development Agreement, but recommended the ratification of the mineral agreement?



The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), despite the agency role in the formulation of the mining sector policy, was left out of the negotiation process of Hummingbird Resources Inc., why? Why critical issue such as environmental management was not discussed and that certain environmental experts were not allowed to speak on the issue of extraction, processing, and transporting of minerals and it impacts on the environment, as well as on the potential health and safety of those working in the industry during the process leading to signing of the Hummingbird Mineral Development Agreement? Didnt President Weah veto the Act to ratify the Mineral Development Agreement (MDA) between the Government of Liberia and Hummingbird Resources (Liberia) Incorporated for several reasons? According to the President, the Special Presidential Concessions Review Committee overall conclusion was the agreement didnt meet a fair business arrangement, and few critical aspects needed reconsideration in order to bring a protracted benefit with mutual balance for each of the comparing parties. Did the Liberian negotiators know the combined income statement of Hummingbird Resources Inc. did not show any revenue but reported losses? Did our negotiators know that in Mali three people were killed and many others injured in May of 2018 at the Komana West deposit owned by Hummingbird? Also, did our negotiators know Hummingbird decided to provide a $2 million convertible loan to the U.S. zinc mining company Bunker Hill (OTC: BHLL), and many investors of Hummingbird Resources Inc. didn't like the Brunker Hill deal as the company was turning away from gold or mineral exploration? Did our negotiator know that the company managed to secure additional funding from its lenders due to loses? Did we award gold minefield covering 7,000 square kilometers to a company that has zero revenue, and has accumulated over the $24M net operating loss from 2008 through 2016 because of the World Bank which invested US$8m into the company and is also Liberias lender and economic adviser?



Hummingbird Resources Inc. is not NAIVE and it knows for sure that they will find good quantities of high-quality minerals in Sinoe, Grand Kru, River Gee, and Maryland counties. They are going to reap so much and give Liberia so little. Considering the 10% royalties stipulated in this agreement, Liberia stands to get ten cents for every dollar earned, $10 for every $100 earned, and so forth. A Royalty of 3% may sound a lot but I am afraid it is peanut for a post-conflict country that is so desperately needed for roads, schools, hospitals, etc.



Another concern of mine pertaining to estimated US$250million agreement is there is a known fact that deposits of iron ore, gold and diamonds are in Liberia, however, and there is considerable potential for additional discoveries. A wide range of other mineral resources are present and minerals with known potentially economic targets in Liberia. These include barite, bauxite, manganese, heavy mineral sands, kyanite, phosphate, kaolin-rich clay, silica sand, copper, lead, nickel, tin, tungsten, zinc, and range of technology metals, such as niobium, tantalum zirconium, and rare earth elements. What happens when Hummingbird Resources Inc. discover other mineral resources? She would reap the amount of the increase which would equal almost millions or billions of dollars per year when mining resume in Liberia. These types of contracts normally have a windfall tax to cover this eventuality. Unfortunately, those that negotiated the agreement were unaware of this possibility due to the lack of in-depth inquisition or should I say greed.

The present regime under President Weah leadership like its predecessor (Madam Sirleaf) failed to recognize that if we do not reinvest in Liberia resources wealth into productive investments above ground, Liberia is actually becoming poorer. Our leader including the member of the national legislature continues to use their access to financial resources from extractive industries to advance their own personal agendas, instead of using them in the best interest of the nation as a whole. Natural resources are a public resource and the negotiations between Liberia and foreign companies should be transparent, accessible and easily understandable by citizens, unfortunately, this is not the case in Liberia. Communities are not given the opportunity to review contracts and find out how much revenue has been generated and what development projects the revenues have been spent on. Sadly, the new pro-poor government had re-introduced the failed policies of plantation economy which afford investors to loot Liberias resources while the political elites ripped the benefits at the expense of ordinary Liberians.



It is time that President Weah insists on the imposition of a windfall-profit tax on these long term concession agreements. All over the world, countries have been renegotiating or imposing a windfall-profit tax if renegotiation is impossible. According to Former World Bank Chief Economist and a Nobel laureate in economics; and University Professor at Columbia University, Joseph E. Stiglitz, natural-resource foreign companies will push back, emphasizing the sanctity of contracts, and threaten to leave. But the outcome is typically otherwise. A fair renegotiation can be the basis of a better long-term relationship.



I tend to agree with Professor Stiglitz argument and Botswana is a prime example. Botswana's renegotiations of such contracts laid the foundations of its remarkable growth for the last four decades which led to an immense reduction of poverty. Moreover, it is not only developing countries, such as Ghana. Botswana, Bolivia, and Venezuela, that renegotiate bad contracts; developed countries such as Israel and Australia have done so as well. Even the United States has imposed a windfall-profits tax. South Africa, home to the greatest mineral wealth in the world, estimated to be worth $2.5 trillion, is considering imposing a swinging 50% windfall tax on mining super profits and a 50% capital-gains tax on the sale of prospecting rights. Those are among the proposals put forward by an independent panel of experts, set up by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to study the possibility of greater state intervention in the mining sector. Ghana, Africa's second-biggest gold producer, recently announced a review and possible renegotiation of all mining contracts to ensure that mining profits are maximized [For] the good of the country. It plans to raise taxes on mining companies, from 25% to 35%, and a windfall tax of 10% on super profits in addition to existing royalties on output metal, to 6%. Guinea, home to the world's largest bauxite reserves as well as one of the world's biggest iron-ore deposits, is helping itself to a 15% stake in all mining projects and an option to buy a further 20%. In Guinea, mining companies are legally obliged to pay a tax to the owners of the land on which they mine. They are also required to support local development projects. Namibia has decided to transfer all new mining and exploration to a state-owned company. Algeria has become the latest African country to consider slapping windfall profit taxes on foreign oil companies. According to report, Algerian government says the tax will be applied in months when the price of Brent crude averages above $30 a barrel and will vary from 5% to 50%, depending on the company's total production. As we speak Brent Crude Oil is averaging $107 per barrel. The same can be said of Ivory Coasts government which recently adopted a 19% tax on gold profits, seeking to capitalize on current high gold prices to help fund reconstruction following a decade-long political crisis. The new 19% windfall tax would yield some 40 billion CFA francs ($79.1 million) in additional income to the state annually. Zambia, for example, had hoped to impose windfall profit taxes on copper mining to finance an infrastructure fund.



Poor management of our natural resources results to No Economic Growth and No Growth, No Pro-Poor Agenda. It is that Simple! Mineral exploration is exhaustible, unless we use it prudently now when commodity prices are good, well regret later. And so, while the going is promising, we must make sufficient revenue from it and we can diversify to other areas in our economy. Liberians are sitting on huge natural resources and we ought to find a way of rewarding ourselves something from that ownership. It is up to Liberians to know what it is entitled to and claim it accordingly. If they dont, they will have nobody to blame. Information and economic methodologies exist which Liberia can use for bargaining. If Ghana, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Algeria, and other African countries can do it, I am sure Liberia can do it as well. Its time we get the right remittances from our natural resources. Therefore, it is no longer wise to allow investors to invade Liberia, and let them exploit its resources at will. We must do something about the exploitation of our natural resources by the selected few at the expense of the majority.



Poverty in Liberia cannot possibly be eliminated unless the poor themselves say we insist on justice with regard to the equal distribution of wealth, not CHARITY. One example of that justice is to end privatization of natural resources or obtain the right remittances from our natural resources. Shine your eyes, my people!!





Hummingbird financial statements from the years

2011 http://hummingbirdresources.co.uk/_downloads/HBR_Annual_Report_2011.pdf

2013

http://hummingbirdresources.co.uk/_downloads/Hummingbird_Resources_Plc_Annual_report_2013.pdf

2015

http://hummingbirdresources.co.uk/_downloads/2015_Annual_Report.pdf

2016

http://hummingbirdresources.co.uk/_downloads/2016_annual_report.pdf

Hummingbird $2 million convertible loan to U.S. zinc mining company Bunker Hill

http://bunkerhillmining.com/news/index.php?content_id=69

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.Content warning: Article contains description of a sexual assault

Callous sex attacker Felix Beck was sentenced to three years in prison and put on the sex offenders register for life last week after being found guilty of sexual assault by penetration and sexual assault of an 18 year old female student. He was also tried in a seperate trial for the rape of another student but was aquitted of this charge last month.

Photo: Theoden sA CC BY-SA 3.0

Both complainants alleged he attacked them in the first term of the 2016/17 academic year. Edinburgh say they initally received allegations naming Beck in an incident involving the first complainant on 21 October 2016. This was two days after Beck attacked the second complainant, choking her and penetrating her vagina with his fingers, before biting her thighs and private parts. The University did not become aware of this attack on the second complainant until 16 November 2016. The University of Edinburgh told us they suspended Beck from campus on 17 November 2016 for the remaining 2016/17 academic year, the day after they received allegations from the second woman. However, the University allowed him to continue studying remotely, a decision they say was made on the basis of Universities UK Guidance For Higher Education Institutions on handling sexual misconduct complaints. Beck was readmitted to campus for the 2017/18 academic year but banned from University accommodation. The attack for which he was convicted took place in a halls of residence bedroom. For 2018/19 he was suspended from campus again but allowed to study remotely - his two criminal trials were both held in 2018. He was aquitted of raping the first complainant but in a seperate trial in November 2018 was found guilty by a jury of sexual assault by penetration and sexual assault of an 18 year old female student. On 17 January 2019 Beck was handed a three year custodial sentence and placed on the sex offenders register for life. Now Beck has been found guilty and his sentencing has taken place, Edinburgh University have confirmed his case will be passed on to the Student Discipline Committee for further action. A University spokesperson told The National Student: This has been an upsetting case for our entire University community. It is completely unacceptable that any student should suffer such a traumatic experience. The safety of our students is of the utmost priority, so when such distressing incidents occur we take them extremely seriously. In this instance, we acted swiftly and carefully to manage the risk to the University community as soon as we were informed. In addition, support and counselling was offered to all the students affected. Following the official guidance from our umbrella body, Universities UK, we liaised with the police and gathered further information before taking any precautionary action. We do, however, have to operate under the premise that the accused is innocent until proven guilty, as per the guidelines. In this case, a second allegation about the student in question was received while this was in process, at which point he was suspended with immediate effect. We are always working to ensure the University is a safe place to study and work but we remain acutely aware of the wider issue of sexual violence on campuses and we know there is always more we can do. In conjunction with our Students Association, we are putting significant resource towards tackling the problem with campaigns and training programmes as well as revised policies and procedures. We also offer support through our counselling service and alongside agencies such as Rape Crisis Scotland.A University of Leicester student has been killed after being hit by a car which had earlier failed to stop for police.

The incident happened at 12.30 am this morning (19 January) in Oadby, Leicestershire. A 30-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of drink-driving and is in custody.

Photo: Mat Fascione CC BY-SA 2.0 / Brightened from original

In a statement a police spokesperson said: Shortly after 12.30am today officers became aware of a suspect vehicle in Stoughton Drive South, Oadby.

The vehicle failed to stop for police and in making off from the scene, was in collision with a pedestrian. Officers stopped to attend to the pedestrian and the East Midlands Ambulance Service was also called.

However the pedestrian was pronounced dead a short time later.

The University of Leicester expressed their sadness in a series of tweets this afternoon and confirmed any students and staff affected by the tragic death are being offered support.

With great sadness, we can confirm that one of our students died in the incident in Oadby last night. Our thoughts are with their family and friends at this difficult time. We are working with Leicestershire Police and currently supporting all of those affected.  Uni of Leicester (@uniofleicester) January 19, 2019

A mandatory referral has been made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, Leicestershire Police said.A former Edinburgh University student who was once dubbed Maddest Fresher has been jailed for three years after a depraved sex attack on a teenager.

Felix Beck, 22, collapsed as he was led from the dock in handcuffs on Thursday (17 January) after being sentenced to three years in prison and placed on the sex offenders register for life.

Photo: Felix Beck / Facebook

He was convicted at the High Court in Aberdeen of sexual assault by penetration and sexual assault of an 18 year old female student

Beck chocked and bit his victim who he had earlier met through Tinder.

The woman - also an Edinburgh University student - had invited him to her halls of residence bedroom on 19 October 2016. They kissed and agreed to begin sexual contact but things became nonconsensual when Beck started choking her. He then penetrated her vagina with his fingers, forcing her on her knees while uttering abusive remarks, pushing her on to a bed, forcing her legs apart and biting her thighs and private parts before masturbating and ejaculateding on her.

The sick attacker told his victim he wouldnt have become aggressive if she hadnt given him a shit blow job.

Handing down the sentence, Judge Lord Uist told him: "The way you treated your victim both during and after your violent attack was callous and disgraceful."

The woman was a fresher at the time of the attack, having only joined Edinburgh University a few weeks beforehand, she was diagnosed with PTSD in 2017 and has since transferred universities.

Photo: Theoden sA CC BY-SA 3.0

Remarkably, at the time of the attack, Beck was being quizzed over a rape allegation made by another woman - for which he was acquitted at a trial last month. Beck was well known among his peers on campus for his party antics and lavish lifestyle and was even entered into The Tabs Maddest Fresher competition where he was described as the epitome of the Canada Goosers - a reference to the expensive designer coat, which is, colloquially, seen as a symbol of wealth among students. The Tab claimed you can always find him in the LED room with the Goose Squad and a bottle of Moet in each hand. Sentencing Beck on Thursday, Judge Lord Uist said : "You come from a comfortable, indeed privileged background, and are in the fourth year of your studies. You have only yourself to blame for the situation in which you now find yourself which arises out of the lifestyle you were leading and your sense of sexual entitlement and arrogance.Salida, CO (81201)

Today

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Low 59F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

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Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Low 59F. Winds W at 5 to 10 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Pay Compensation to Farmers, says KCR

Hyderabad, Jan 19 (INN): Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao instructed the officials to pay the compensation to the farmers who lost their land in the construction of Canals of Kaleswaram Project immediately.



MLA G Vittal Reddy requested the Chief Minister for the sanction of compensation for the farmers of Mudhole constituency. He responded positively and instructed the officials of finance department to issue orders pertaining to the payment of compensation.



MLA requested CM for compensation and RR package to the farmers whose land was submerged in the construction of Chinna sudda vagu Project. He also requested for the upgradation of Mudhole community Hall.









News Posted: 19 January, 2019







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Today

A few passing clouds. Low 64F. WNW winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph..

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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.Schools foisting low-quality uniforms on children in voucher trade By Chrishanthi Christopher View(s): View(s):

Four schools in the Wattegama zonal division have come under fire for selling uniform material and shoes to schoolchildren.

It is learned that two teams from the Education Department of the Central Province were interrogated last week over their alleged actions in compelling children to buy uniform material and shoes at Vipulanatha Tamil Vidyalam (TV), Gombara TV, Hagala TV and Kurungi TV.

The Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) said officials at several Central Province schools had been busy trading uniform material and shoes for vouchers given to schoolchildren by the government.

CTU Secretary V. Indraselvan said principals and teachers in the plantation sector were conniving with traders and selling uniform material and shoes on school premises.

This activity was occurring at the Walapane Zonal Liddesdale Tamil Maha Vidylayam (TMV), Silverkandy TMV, Nuwara Eliya Holirindy College, Nuwara Eliya Primary, Nuwara Eliya Navalar College, Nuwara Eliya Navalar Primary and Nuwara Eliya Carlaback TV, the CTU in Nuwara Eliya claimed.

Uniforms and shoes were also being distributed at the Nuwara Eliya Wanigeoya TV, Nuwara Eliya Galganthawatha TV, Nuwara Eliya Gradwestran TV, Nuwara Eliya Palmastran TV and Nuwara Eliya Matekell TV Talawakelle.

Mr. Indraselvan said substandard uniforms and shoes were being handed out to unsuspecting parents who would otherwise have had the choice of shopping for the best material and shoes for their children with their vouchers.

He said the very same activities took place last year but on a smaller scale. Children had complained that the material handed out to them was of low quality and easily became worn out. The shoes, they claimed, were ill-fitting and many of the children had developed painful cuts on their feet.

When we wore slippers to school because of the wounds from the shoe cuts we were reprimanded for not wearing shoes, one student said.

CTU General Secretary Joseph Stalin said some schools in Colombo were also reportedly selling uniform material.

He also said a school in Colombo 10, Central Hindu College, had demanded that parents donate Rs. 300 to the building maintenance fund to receive the vouchers. One parent said he had only been given his childs vouchers after an argument with the school authorities.

The distribution of uniform vouchers for 2019 was delayed as a result of the dissolution of parliament by President Maithripala Sirisena on October 26, 2018. The government has extended the validity of the vouchers up to February 28, 2019.Haitian women struggle to get help for children fathered by UN troops By Anastasia Moloney View(s): View(s):

BOGOTA, (Thomson Reuters Foundation)  The United Nations is failing to give Haitian mothers who say their children were fathered by peacekeepers the help it promised in their legal battle for financial support, human rights groups helping the women have said.

The Haiti-based Bureau des Avocats Internationaux and the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) filed a lawsuit against the UN in Haiti in 2017 on behalf of 10 mothers seeking child support.Living in the poorest country in the Americas, they say the Haitian mothers are struggling to bring up children fathered by soldiers from Uruguay, Argentina, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka who were stationed in Haiti as UN peacekeepers.

Women are afraid, discouraged and are fighting just another day to feed their kids. What they want is child support so their kids can eat and go to school, said Brian Concannon, head of the U.S.-based IJDH.Its practically impossible for these Haitian mothers to enforce their right to get child support, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Sexual relationships between peacekeepers and residents of countries hosting a UN mission are strongly discouraged. But the U.N.s peacekeeping arm does not take responsibility for financial assistance to children fathered by peacekeepers.

Paternity or child support entitlements depend on the legal processes in the state of nationality of the mother and child and/or that of the father, said Vannina Maestracci, a U.N. spokeswoman, in an email.

Nonetheless, the United Nations continues to make concerted efforts to engage member states and support claimants in addressing paternity and child support claims arising from sexual exploitation and abuse. The struggle to force peacekeepers to contribute is faced by thousands of women in countries where the troops are deployed, from Mali and the Central African Republic to the Democratic Republic of Congo, said Concannon. There are no figures available for the number affected in Haiti, where Concannon said the UN had helped in providing DNA testing to some but not all of the women involved. Some had not received the results.

The U.N. promised to help with the legal cases, cooperate with the local justice and Haitian government and not evoke immunity in such cases. But the UN has so far failed to do much of what it had promised, he added.Some are homeless, while several children have severe health problems, the rights groups said.

The paternity and child support issue is another controversial legacy of the 13-year UN mission, which left Haiti in 2017 after being sent in to stabilize a country plagued by political turmoil.UN peacekeepers have been dogged by accusations of sexual assault and were blamed for introducing a cholera epidemic in 2010 that has killed more than 10,000 Haitians.

Maestracci said the UNs victims rights advocate had engaged with the rights groups representing the Haitian women, and was working to ensure they were supported.The victims rights advocate is aware that more remains to be done and is committed to supporting and empowering the victims, she said.When the lit buzz hit Galle Fort By Sashini Rodrigo View(s): View(s):

The unmistakable smell of salt in the air greets you as you enter the Galle Fort. This is aside from the feeling that youve stepped into a different time. Rooted in its rich history, the Fort is redolent of tales of a once bustling port that was the centre of activities of the Dutch empire. This year, it shared more stories  of Racing Demons, murderers, Italian sons- in-law and the renowned James Bond himself with an eager public.

In its tenth year, the Fairway Galle Literary Festival, that opened on Wednesday January 16, saw the Fort buzzing with activity and a cluster of artistic delights. The panel of participants at FGLF was a vibrant eclectic mix with some notable names: Sir David Hare, Sir Don McCullin, Anthony Horowitz, Anne Enright, Kamila Shamsie, Mohammed Hanif, Rachel Johnson, Romesh Gunesekera, Nandana Sen, Bachi Karkaria, Nicole May, Justine Picardie, Herve le Tellier, Vahni Capildeo to name just a few. Be it the excursions- exploring the artistic and architectural marvels of Galle, panel discussions, musical performances, literary workshops, culinary sessions and even a virtual reality installation exploring the world of Kafkas Metamorphosis, the 2019 edition of the festival has a varied programme.

Just as was its aim, it has attracted visitors from all across the globe.

The opening ceremony of the 2019 edition of the festival on Wednesday evening was not only a celebration, it was also a reminiscence of ten years, building a connection between creative ideas and the community. It brought with it a message that literature helps the world see beyond the wall which it has built around itself.

Addressing those present, in a marquee packed to the edges, Festival Curator Jill McDonald dived into the early days, when the fest was first launched by hotelier and entrepreneur Geoffrey Dobbs back in 2006.

She explains that it was held for the first time in 2007 with the intention of reviving the Southern Province with an infusion of creativity after the devastating tsunami of 2004.

In 2015, the festivals baton was taken over by Fairway Holdings, which became the events title sponsor.

A literary festival like no other, in a land like no other, was how Festival Director Sunela Samaranayake rightfully described the programme. Indeed, over the years the festival has evolved into a looked forward to literary event in this part of the world. But its not just that alone. The festival has also provided a platform for both local as well as foreign literary works to be appreciated internationally and this year was no different.

As Sunela notes, the sponsors, despite not deriving a direct benefit from the event, have made every effort to focus the spotlight on Sri Lanka and in turn, Galle.

Im positive that something wonderful is going to happen. Tonight and the days to follow are for making memories, she said.

The Fairway Galle Literary Festival 2019 ends this afternoon after four full days of artistic exploration.

Please see Page 3 for interview with British author Anthony Horowitz

Snapshots from Day 1 of FGLFWelcoming the Chinese Year of the Pig View(s):

Cinnamon Lakeside

Cinnamon Lakesides Chinese Food Festival in celebration of the Chinese New Year, will kick off on January 25 and run until February 7 giving diners in Colombo an opportunity to savour over 90 dishes,inspired by Chinas rich culinary heritage. The sumptuous buffet will also include 15 action stations serving popular Chinese specialty items, a Kung Fu noodles demonstration and a kebab counter.

To capture the diversity of Chinese cuisine, the Master Chefs have created a menu that includes 16 appetizers, two soups, 31 main dishes featuring seafood, meats (pork, chicken, beef, duck) and vegetables taking in the influences of Cantonese, Sichuan, Shanghai and Beijing styles of cooking.

A Dim Sum Bar featuring 21 varieties of dim sum and pan-fried dumplings and 20 desserts with some unique ingredients is a highlight.

Special beverage discounts and traditional music will further enhance the dining experience.

The festival is on for dinner from 7 p.m.- 11 p.m. at the Long Feng terrace.For reservations call 011 249 1949. Follow all the excitement on Facebook: www.facebook.com/cinnamonlakeside

The Kingsbury

The Kingsbury is celebrating Chinese New Year to welcome the Year of the Pig from January 18-25 at Yue Chuan with a distinct a la carte menu that has been carefully curated to suit the palate for those in search of authentic flavours from the Orient.

Chef Cui has prepared a feast that includes Hunan style crispy prawns, Xinjiang style lamb and Kung Pao Chicken to name a few as the restaurant transports you to China. In addition, guests will be able to get into the spirit of the new year as the hotel welcomes local patrons and Chinese guests with an array of celebratory cuisine.Letters to the Editor View(s):

Lets send qualified people to Parliament and PCs

For too long we have witnessed the recurring, unprofessional conduct of many of our politicians, who make a mockery out of august assemblies such as the Provincial Councils and Parliament. The disillusioned voting public now crave for a decent, honest, ethical and principled set of politicians who will always place the country first.

Our voters have consistently exhibited a fifth sense in changing Governments. But with regard to the selection of candidates both the parties and voters have failed miserably. In this scenario, the simple alternative is to abolish the abominable Preference Voting (PV) system which is only an optional adjunct to the main Proportionate Representation (PR) system. This minute change will compel the parties to select and field their best teams of political professionals in District-wise merit order instead of the existing alphabetical order. The parties themselves can muster their best District level teams to achieve the goals of the country as laid down in their Party Election Manifestos. Political parties should be legally required by the Elections Commission to introduce a robust, unbiased and transparent process of screening followed by a meticulously structured interview method to select their nominees. The screening criteria already set out by PAFFREL through the All-Party March 12 declaration surely had a salutary effect on party nominations at the last General election. Now, it must be further strengthened and given legal teeth by the Elections Commission. I suggest the following methodology to achieve the objective.

1) Strengthen Paffrel pre-interview criteria with the following additional requirements.

i) The applicant should have at least 2 passes in GCE (A.Level ) in not more than 3 sittings. (It is not a tall order in the present times.)

ii) Should possess at least one added professional qualification from a recognized professional body (even a Diploma would do)

iii) Should produce at the interview, a less than one month old good health record certified by a Registered Medical Practitioner. This can be updated on the nominations date.

iv) Should be below 75 years of age as at the last date for nominations.

v) Should furnish an Assets declaration as at the date of nomination.

2) Under the structured interview method, numerical values shall be adduced to voter preferred traits such as multi-lingual skills, debating ability, social integration, political/ legal/ general knowledge, good moral character and acceptance to the society. Special weightage should be added to women caqndidates.

3) The basic screening and interview criteria should be published by the Elections Commission/Dept. well in advance of the date of nominations. Thereafter, parties can complete the screening and interview process; prepare their preliminary District wise merit lists of candidates and publish them in at least one national newspaper in Sinhala, Tamil and English well in advance for the public to lodge any objections with the Elections Dept.

4) If there are valid objections conveyed by the Elections Dept. the parties should amend their lists accordingly, and submit the final District wise merit list on the nominations date.

5) The parties should certify the correctness of the pre-interview information to the Returning officer through an affidavit. Any wrongful information or variance with the mandatory qualifying criteria should allow the Returning officer to immediately reject the name/s of such nominee/s. If disqualifications are detected after the election, voters should be allowed to challenge such elections through election petitions. If such petition is successful, ideally the next candidate in the District Party merit list shall fill the vacancy.

We appeal to all genuine politicians, the Elections Commission and civil activists to support this proposed system of Modern Representative Democracy as a priority.

Bernard Fernando Moratuwa

Why are the Malays in Gampaha being deprived of a community centre?

One of the largest concentrations of Malays in Sri Lanka live in the Gampaha district. Representatives of the Siyane Malay Association which comprise Malays in the Gampaha, Nittambuwa and Veyangoda areas have been trying to establish a Community Centre for the past two years. As most of them are middle-class wage earners who cannot afford to buy a plot of land and put up a building for the purpose or even purchase a suitable building on their own they made representations to the Parliamentary representative of the Gampaha electorate who is also the Speaker of Parliament. He was supportive and referred it to the Minister of Housing Construction who in turn called for a report from the Divisional Secretariat.

The Grama Niladhari of Nittambuwa too gave his report. But the Malays were dismayed to find that a couple of irresponsible members of their own community had given negative inputs to the Buddhist prelate of the area to take a stand against the creation of a Community Centre for the Malays in the area, even though the Ven. Thera had earlier agreed to the request.

The thousands of Malays who live in the Gampaha district need a place to meet and undertake their social activities without any political agenda. This is a simple, most reasonable cause, without any strings attached. The Community Centre is expected to provide the members the opportunity to work and organize activities for the benefit of local Malays who live far and wide throughout the district. The community needs adult education, social and cultural activities, social support, public information and can only promote peace and harmony among all communities in the area. It will also be the point of contact with other Malays in the country directly or through various Malay Associations.

Here is a community which has always stood by the majority community through thick and thin, even with supreme sacrifices to the country during the separatist conflict. Infact, some Malay war veterans have settled down in the area. This episode as a whole is a prime example why the Malay community needs to be represented in the countrys Parliament.

Anver Kamiss Colombo 5

Our country is where it is because of bigoted views like these

I was surprised to hear a former Education Minister of this country, waxing eloquent about how students from international schools should not be allowed to enter our state universities. He maintained that it would be the end of free education in this country! They, after all, are our children, of Sri Lankan parents and if they so qualify at the A level, please let me know why such barriers are even considered?

I personally feel that such bigoted views held by mediocre politicians of the past, are some of the reasons why this country is where it is.

If syllabus problems do not enable such an opportunity to sit for the state A levels, I can understand, but to deprive such children who have competed at the same exam and qualified, seems moronic.

Further with the area rule in place, it prevents educated parents from sending their children to a school of their first choice. They are even willing to pay for the early education of their loved ones. When such students wish to proceed for higher education, if they are suitably qualified, they must be given an opportunity to enter a state university.

I have taught at a state university for four decades; to discriminate against students on the basis of their parents choice of early education, would be disgusting. Such a view voiced by the particular ex-Education Minister, only speaks volumes for his erudition.

Dr Channa Ratnatunga Via emailColomboscope: A brush with marine life By Sandev Handy View(s): View(s):

Art festivals have historically offered possibilities for strengthening, and galvanizing local and regional identities, to artistically influence and advocate for social change. Yet as they grow in scale, absorbing powerful, private and state financial interests, they have a reputation for becoming platforms where cultural impact becomes replaced by cultural spectacle. The sixth edition of Colomboscope however, has decidedly taken a different path. Independently organised by the team Festival Works, Sea Change invites over 30 visual artists, filmmakers, musicians, cultural practitioners, scientific experts and the public into a sustained and stimulating dialogue.

Many events at the festival will feature immersive interventions into Sri Lankas geographic diversity and its interactions with society. Cooking Sections (Daniel Fernandez Pascual and Alon Schwabe)  a duo of spatial practitioners based out of London, will ask what it means to be a Climavore, hosting a performative dinner event prepared with foraged ingredients from mangrove wetlands in Sri Lanka. Diners at Climavore: On Mangroves & Mudflats will sit among branches and roots, to imagine an eventuality of an infrastructure of food production and consumption, that would emerge as a result of man-induced climatic events.

Danish artist Sren Dahlgaard will host a participatory performance that involves an inflatable island along the beach where participants may encounter and engage in collective movements with the floating sculpture drawing attention to the threats facing Sri Lankas marine ecology.

A Youth Forum with the Blue Resources Trust and the German Embassy, will provide a platform for young conservationists, artists and nature enthusiasts to share knowledge about marine archaeology, and coastal conservation efforts. The forum will be hosted by marine biologists Nishan Perera and Daniel Fernando as they document the beauty, threats, and conservation of coral reefs and manta rays in Sri Lanka. A beach clean-up at the Dehiwala beach will be part of this effort.

Looking at the islands trade and seafaring histories, the TBA21 Academy at the Goethe-Institut on January 25 titled The Ocean is on Air will lead artists, scientists, and thought-leaders in fostering a deeper understanding of the ocean and creative solutions to its most pressing issues. Conceived by Chus Martinez in collaboration with festival curator Natasha Ginwala and Julieta Aranda, the event will screen documentary series by the Inhabitants to tackle the subject of deep-sea mining and a better understanding of the ocean floor. Bangladeshi artist Shadman Shahids Another day in Paradise features photographs of the coral landscape and communities of St. Martin Island, an eight-kilometre island in the northeastern Bay of Bengal that seemingly materialized out of nothing after an earthquake hit the Bay of Bengal a few centuries ago. Subsequently settled on, its fragile ecology has endured a tourism boom, coral bleaching and escalating violence between the fishing community and has been estimated to disappear by 2050.

The Many Headed Hydra formed by artist Emma Haugh and curator Suza Husse in dialogue with Lankan artists, graphic designers, and writers will present a collaborative feminist and decolonial art project. Meanwhile, Sissel Tolaas, a smell researcher, artist, chemist, and smell theorist will present her smell archive of olfactory information collected in the Southern and Western coastline of Sri Lanka. She will also host childrens workshops that relate collective memory to scent, address the dangers of pollutants and explore the shared heritage of marine resources.

Bookended by the musical performances Eternal Tides and Samudram, Hania Luthufi brings together various musicians to musically interpret various temperaments of the sea.

Port infrastructure and urban development along the coast, is yet another essential component to having holistic conversations around the topic of Sea Change. Robin Meier will compose a performance cycle dedicated to the wild birds of Slave Island. Meiers daily performance with local musicians, Collective Feeding sees crows, mynahs and many other bird species, dialogue with humans.

The Taste Karaththe, an animated public installation by artist Firi Rahman will be on the move between Rio Complex and Galle Face Green. Through oral histories, it catalogues the degradation occurring within water-based ecosystems as a result of rapid urban growth and commercial infrastructural development. Fort Trails- Chryshane Mendiss heritage tour meanwhile will trace colonial-era buildings and hidden locations in the Colombo Fort, unveiling their layered histories.

Colomboscope will be held from January 25-31 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Rio Complex and Barefoot Gallery and the festival night venue, B52 at the Grand Oriental Hotel from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. For more information visit www.colomboscope.lk

See also www.sundaytimes.lk for an exploration into the Colombos ports history as a preview to the festivalWanathavillu explosives: CID probes possible links to militant group By Asiri Fernando View(s): View(s):

The discovery of a variety of bomb-making materials has prompted the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe whether they were for use by a newly emerging militant group. Suspicions have been fuelled after a raid on an 80 acre coconut estate bordering Kalpitiya lagoon at Karadipuval in Wanathavillu (Puttalam District) came after information relating to one of seven suspects now in custody over the vandalising Buddha statues. They were arrested in Mawanella.

Though it was first claimed that 100 kilograms of C4 explosives were found, it has now been established that the items discovered were 100 detonators, 75 kgs of ammonium nitrate and potassium chlorate and six 20 litre cans of nitric acid. Explosive experts the Sunday Times spoke to but did not wish to be identified said the items could have been used to manufacture Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). However, they did not rule out their use at quarry sites.

What has fuelled the suspicions of CID detectives is the link between those responsible for the alleged

Mawanella incidents and the find in Wanathavillu. They remain tightlipped and four suspects taken into custody under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) have been served with detention orders for three months.

A CID source said, We are probing all aspect with an open mind. However, he said it was premature to disclose details.

Also found in the coconut estate were a shotgun,an air rifle, two tents, religious publications and dry rations. They were found inside a warehouse.Three big LNG power projects on hold as engineers protest By Damith Wickremasekara Govt. forced to buy power at high price from private suppliers; CEB's 2018 loss Rs. 50 b View(s): View(s):

Three. international liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects set to generate more than 1,400 MW of power or almost half the daily electricity requirement have been put on hold due to objections by engineers  forcing the government to depend on emergency power supplies at higher cost.

The problems arose after three cabinet-approved LNG projects from China (400 MW), Japan (500 MW) and India (500 MW) were delayed with Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) engineers, most of whom make up the Engineers Union, objecting to the projects on the grounds they were not compatible with the existing system.

Power and Energy Ministry Secretary Suren Batagoda said the ministry was not accepting the objections raised by the Engineers Union as the ministry was in a position to negotiate with the foreign companies to reduce the generation capacity and ensure that the LNG projects were compatible with the current

system.

He said that as a result of the delay, the ministry had already got cabinet approval to buy 100 MW of power, for which tenders would be called next week. The ministry would also be compelled to buy more emergency supplies from independent power plants in the coming months.

CEB Engineers Union President Saumaya Kumarawadu told the Sunday Times that though the main reason for their protest was that the proposed projects were not compatible as they could trigger power breakdowns affecting large areas, the union was also opposed to the projects as they were unsolicited.

The Government has not disclosed the unit cost at which it would be buying electricity from these projects. This raises questions about the high cost which the people will have to pay for electricity, he said.

Meanwhile, the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), which is entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring uninterrupted electricity supply, has blamed, both the Government and the unions for the delay in implementing the proposed power projects.

PUCSL spokesman Jayanath Herath said the proposals put forward by the PUCSL to the CEB during the past three years also had been ignored leading to the current crisis where the CEB had to depend on emergency purchases.

He said the emergency power purchases were higher in price with the cost varying from Rs 26 to Rs 40 a unit, while the CEB sells a unit at Rs 16 to the consumers. The emergency power purchases could lead to an increase of the unit price paid by the people, he added.

He revealed that last year, the CEB lost about Rs 50 billion.

The PUCSL has refused a CEB request to carry out emergency power purchases from three private power plants on the grounds that the cost per unit was high. The power plants are Embiliptiya (100 MW), Matara (25 MW) Asia Power (50 MW).Sparks fly over tuition ban plan on Sundays, Poya Days By Kasun Warakapitiya Whats more important: Spiritual growth or higher exam marks? View(s): View(s):

Educationists, teachers, trade unions and parents are urging the government to review its proposed ban on tuition classes on Sundays and Poya days, calling it impractical.

Teacher unions strongly oppose the plan, saying if the government wanted to promote students religious interests it should remove the competitiveness in government examinations that forced students to augment school studies with extra tuition.

Ceylon Teachers Service Union leader Dammika Alahapperuma said without extra classes Advanced Level students were unable to obtain a university entrance score high enough to receive free education.

Mr. Alahapperuma pointed out that most A/Level students attend at least three tuition classes  theory, paper and practical  for each subject.

They dont care whether its Sunday or Poya: they are trying to qualify for free higher education because there is only a slim chance to obtain it, he said.

He questioned the logic of a tuition ban on Sundays as A/Level students usually did not attend Dhamma (Buddhist) or church Sunday school.

Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) General Secretary Joseph Stalin agreed, saying: Banning classes on Poya or on Sundays is an impractical stunt. The government can do better by abolishing the exam-driven education system that drives students to tuition classes.

The Minister for Buddhasasana and Wayamba Development, Gamini Jayawickrama Perera, said the proposed ban had been prompted by requests from religious groups that wanted the government to encourage religious study.

He said Buddhist and Catholic leaders had requested at least a four-hour ban on tuition in Sundays and a total ban on Poya days and that President Maithripala Sirisena had appointed a special committee to discuss the matter and produce a cabinet paper.

One aspect of the plan was to have Dhamma studies on Sundays in English as well as Sinhala and Pali, thus educating students on several levels, Mr. Perera said.

Discussions were also underway between the Buddhasasana Ministry and Education Ministry over a plan to include Dhamma school exam marks in GCE Ordinary and Advanced Level scores.

Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam said the plan was only in discussion as the President had appointed a committee to discuss banning tuition on Sunday and Poya days. He said he was making observations about the governments plans.

Sri Jaywardenapura Chief Sanganayaka Chief Prelate of Sri Mahindarama Temple, Ven. Meegahathanne Chandasiri Thero, said religious days allowed people the privilege of attending to religious matters.

But lately the younger people have strayed from religious activities due to the competitive education system, he said.

Students must be given moral knowledge from their parents and religious leaders.

The spiritual conduct of students must come from within them; it is better if they are given the liberty to become spiritual rather than being forced into this by law, he emphasised.

A/Level and O/Level tuition teachers also oppose the governments plan saying students have a right to learn and better themselves through tuition classes.

They pointed out that tuition classes helped students learn lessons that they missed at school or found difficult to understand.

The National Director of Catholic Sunday Schools, Rev. Fr Piyal Janaka Fernando, said Archbishops House had requested the Department of Christian Religious Affairs to at least stop Sunday tuition classes from being held between 8am and 1pm and for tuition to be banned altogether on Poya Days as that was the day on which Buddhists attend their religious activities.

We would be happy if tuition classes are banned on Sundays as some churches have Sunday mass in the evening but we can be content if at least half a day of Sunday is kept free of group and mass tuition classes, Fr Fernando said.

He also said the Church proposed a system of certification by Sunday schools for students facing O/Level examinations. He added the points or certificate must be given job validity.

A/Level lecturer Upali Saputhanthri, who offers Sinhala and political science tuition, said the governments plan to ban tuition classes on Sundays and on Poya was humorous.

The government sees tuition classes as a business  some actually can be  but what I see is that classes give students an advantage when they face examinations: students who go classes more often gain more scores than ones who dont, he said.

Mr. Saputhanthri pointed out that if the government was banning classes on Sundays because of Sunday school then it must at least recognise Sunday school certificates as a job entry certificate.

He added: If a tuition class teacher decides to give students a free religious lesson on Poya Day, how would the authorities react? Can they take action? The government should be concerned about other issues facing the country instead of supplying jokes, he said.

Danuka Ranasinghe, who provides tuition for A/Level students, also said providing education was not a business but a way of helping children to get better results.

It is unfair to ban classes on Sunday as Advanced Level students dont have Dhamma school and Catholic religion classes on weekends  Dhamma school exams finish after Grade 10. he said.

Also, religious studies already exist in the Ordinary Level syllabus, he pointed out.

School principals had mixed views on the proposed tuition ban.

The Principal of Isipathana College, Premasiri Epa, said he welcomed the governments action and that tuition classes should not only be banned on Sundays but also on every religious holiday as those days had significance.

Learning is not memorising answer papers and identifying question paper patterns, he said, indicating that that is what happens at tuition classes. On the other hand, schools teach children by allowing them to research, think and create with the theories taught by the teachers, he said.

He also agreed, however, that if the government did away with the competitive educational system, children could develop quality education skills rather than learning to repeat what tuition teachers force them to memorise.

The Principal of Viharamadevi Balika Vidyala in Kiribathgoda, Anoma Shyamali Abeyratne, said that the government should restrict the planned ban on tuition classes on Sundays to primary and A/Level pupils as those students had religion as a subject.

The case was different for A/Level students because they faced a very competitive exam and should be given the liberty go classes on weekends.

She denied claims by tuition teachers that syllabuses were not covered adequately in schools.Lufthansa sought exclusive deal to settle US$ 1.1 million dispute View(s):

A German-based aeronautical maintenance company sought from SriLankan Airlines an exclusive contract outside the tender procedure to settle a US$ 1.1 million dispute pertaining to questionable invoices, according to a top audit official of the national carrier.

Testifying before the Commission to inquire into irregularities in SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering Ltd., and Mihin Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, Group Assurance and Advisory Services Senior Manager Mahesh Nanayakkar said Lufthansa Technik (LHT) had used the disputed invoices that were rejected by SriLankan Airlines as bargaining tool to secure a new contract on the maintenance of an A320 aircraft.

LHT even insisted that the airline not issue a Request for Proposals (RfP) and, instead, give the contract exclusively to it, Mr Nanayakara told the Commission when he was asked about the role the airlines audit department played in settling disputed invoices rejected by the engineering division.

Last week the Commission was told that the national carrier paid US$ 1.1 million more to LHT on some 15 invoices sent by LHT for services obtained from 2014 to 2016, though they were found to be inaccurate and rejected by the engineering division. SriLankan could not get the money back as it took up the matter with LHT only after the stipulated period had lapsed. In terms of the agreement, any dispute over an invoice had to be brought to the notice of LHT within six months.

State Counsel Fazly Razik, who led the evidence, accused the airlines audit department of failing to act promptly when internal audit reports indicated that the disputed-unsettled invoices put a huge strain on the drying cash flow of the national carrier which was running at loss at that time.

Appearing before the commission on Wednesday, Mr Nanayakkara said SriLankan paid Rs. 120 million in the financial year 2017/18 as deportation costs to bring back Sri Lankan citizens. The commission was told that most of these deportees were sent back mainly due to improper documentation. State Counsel Razik said document checkers and check-in counter staff should be held responsible for this. The bulk of the costs, Rs. 89.6 million, was spent on air tickets.

The commission was told that a forensic audit highlighted several shortcomings in the security and investigation divisions, which handled forged documents, pilfered, mishandled and lost baggage, cases of gold smuggling and similar matters.

Asked whether the two departments were subjected to an internal audit scrutiny, Mr. Nanayakkara said they could only look into the two divisions if a special request was made by the management. He said that with regard to security matters, they had to rely on external audits as they were not competent enough to do that.

However, the commission was told that what Mr. Nanayakkara meant by external audits were reports made by the airlines Security Striker Team. State Counsel Razik pointed out that being an arm of the security division, the striker teams reports and findings were not audits.

In another development, five witnesses told the commission on Thursday that SriLankan Airlines experienced losses of up to Rs. 1.72 billion between 2006 and 2018 owing to its failure to return 14 leased aircraft to the lessor before the re-delivery deadline. Some of these delays had dragged on for more than three months.

Technical Services Engineer Asitha Fernando, who appeared first, said the delays occurred mainly due to lack of staff to repair and refurbish the aircraft on time as specified by the lessor. Among the other reasons was the poor maintenance of technical records. Besides, the aircraft were old and quick to corrode and found to be damaged during inspections.

Production Planning Assistant Manager Samantha Liyanage said SriLankan was in the habit of acquiring aircraft that were midway through their lifespan. Airlines like Emirates would not procure aircraft older than six years and not keep aircraft in their fleet for more than 10 years. In contrast, SriLankan possessed airplanes that were 26-years-old.

At this stage, the commissions chairman, retired Supreme Court Justice Anil Gooneratne, asked who was responsible for getting those mid-life aircraft. Mr. Liyanage said he believed it was the senior management.

Deputy Solicitor General Milinda Pathirana, who led the evidence, asked the witness whether the senior management had ever requested for a report from the engineering division prior to striking up a procurement deal.

No they didnt. The decision to procure airplanes rests with the senior management, Mr. Liyanage said. We only carry out technical assessments if requested to do so by the management. It is not possible to carry out a complete and comprehensive study to determine whether an aircraft is good or not.

Mr. Liyanage said the general assumption was the management acted in the best interests of the company and, therefore, its decisions were to be trusted.

Commenting on the damages found in the aircraft and if these would have an impact on the flights air-worthiness, the witness said that in terms of the Geneva Convention any well-maintained aircraft that flew could be considered air-worthy.

In one particular instance, an airplane that required extensive repairs was delayed by 54 days.

Mr. Liyanage explained that this was because it was the first aircraft to be returned and the airline lacked experience with regard to the re-delivery process.

Amila Waidyaratna, another technical services engineer, who testified regarding two other aircraft, said a shortage of maintenance staff was the main reason for the delay.

We ground the aircraft when we think it is time to do so, but due to the lack of staff and coordination between various departments we fail to finish the task on time, he said.

Charith Agulugala and Amila Thodugala of the Technical Division also appeared before the commission to answer questions over the delay in delivering leased aircraft on time.

The commission comprises retired Supreme Court Justice Anil Gooneratne (Chairman), Supreme Court Justice Gamini Rohan Amarasekara, retired High Court Judge Piyasena Ranasinghe, retired Deputy Auditor General Don Anthony Harold and Sri Lanka Accounting & Auditing Standards Monitoring Board Director General Wasantha Jayaseeli Kapugama. The sittings will continue tomorrow.

Commission seeks 3-month extension By S. Rubatheesan

The Commission probing large scale frauds and financial malpractices at SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering Ltd. and Mihin Lanka has urged President Maithripala Sirisena to extend its mandate by three more months, as key witnesses are yet to testify, the Sunday Times learns.With the commissions earlier extended term expiring on February 15, its Chairman wrote to President Sirisena seeking a three-month extension, as more time is needed for the commission to complete the workload and for its investigative unit to conduct an in-depth probe before key personnel of the airlines management are summoned to testify, a commission source said.

He said the commission is expected to receive an official reply once the President returned from the Philippines.The commission was established on January 31, 2018 by the President to look into alleged irregularities in the national carrier and allied companies. Last month President Maithripala Sirisena conferred additional powers on the commission to enable it to obtain bank details of those under investigation and details pertaining to them from the Inland Revenue Department.Indian fishermen back in large numbers in Lankan waters View(s):

Indian fishermen are back, poaching in Sri Lankan waters in large numbers after keeping away for months, this time emerging from the Mannar side in the North-West.

On the night of January 12 and early morning of the next day, the Navy spotted multiple clusters of Indian trawlers  an estimated 500  in Sri Lankan waters, said Navy Spokesman Commander Isuru Sooriyabandara. The largest collection was between Delft and Iranativu, while another two were closer to Mannar Island. They were chased away.

Three boats and a total of 28 Indian fishermen were apprehended off Mannar and Delft, but not before a minor clash occured. Fishermen on board one of the trawlers violently resisted arrest and attempted to escape, the Navy claimed. This vessel allegedly collided with the naval craft and sank as a result.

Three fishermen were rescued but a fourth  Karuppaiah Munnasami, 55, from Ramanathapuram in India  drowned as he was trapped in the pilot room. His body was recovered by the Navy. A post-mortem concluded he had drowned.

The detained fishermen were remanded for two weeks after being produced before the Mallakam Magistrates courts. Speaking to local media after their arrests, the fishermen who had been on board the damaged vessel alleged that the Navy had sunk their trawler, then failed to search for the missing man immediately after the incident. Had this been done, he might have been saved, they claimed.

Despite the outcry, the Sri Lanka Navy has vowed it will continue to arrest anybody engaging in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in territorial waters. They will safeguard local fishermen and marine resources amidst renewed poaching by Indian fishing vessels.

Meanwhile, experts who have studied the issue said the relevant authorities in Colombo are yet to realise that the issue of Indian trawlers in Sri Lankan waters was re-emerging. It had stopped, said Prof Oscar Amarasinghe, who is President of the Sri Lanka Forum for Small-Scale Fisheries. The fishermen said so. My contacts also confirmed that it had stopped in the North. But why it is re-emerging is something we have to look into. There must be some reason why it is happening, and not in Jaffna, only in Mannar.

Prof Amarasinghe studied illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing for five years, from 2010-15. Articles were written, policies were drafted and the Sri Lanka Government was repeatedly asked to intervene.

Everybody thought the issue was settled, he said. Very stringent measures were taken. The Navy was vigilant. The new law, Fisheries (Regulation of Foreign Fishing Boats) Act, came into effect and the Indian trawlers were reluctant to cross over.

The State Government was also working towards moving the fleet into deep seas. They were training people, institutes were established, Prof Amarasinghe said. The Tamil Nadu Government was very serious. At a meeting that I attended in Colombo a few months ago on destructive fishing practices, a fisher leader from the North said the Indian issue was no longer there and that the problem was with Sri Lankan trawlers fishing in areas where there was small-scale fishing.

But, suddenly, he started receiving calls from Mannar saying, They are coming back again. Prof Amarasinghe flagged this to the authorities in Colombo, including the Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a lecture he delivered in December on conflicts in the Palk Bay.Four-year blood feud behind Hekitta fatal shooting By Damith Wickremasekara View(s): View(s):

A near four-year blood feud between two drug trafficking gangs was believed to be the most likely reason for Sundays fatal shooting of two people in Wattala.

The incident happened around 3 p.m. on the busy Hekitta Road, near a Hindu temple, according to Police. They said the gunmen came in a white car and obstructed the victims vehicle which was coming in the opposite direction. Armed with T-56 rifles, the gunmen got off their vehicle and sprayed bullets at the victims car, as shocked residents and passers-by looked on.

Eyewitnesses said the gunmen appeared unperturbed and confident as they sped in their car towards the busy Wattala junction instead of choosing the Mattakkuliya-Elakanda end which had several byroads and escape routes.

The shooting bore a similarity to the recent Modera killing. In that incident, too, the assailants came in a vehicle and opened fire at a three-wheeler in broad daylight, injuring four persons. This shooting incident was also related to a drug feud.

Colombo North Deputy Inspector General Deshabandu Tennakoon said the Wattala shooting appeared to be a revenge killing over a 2015 incident in Mattakkuliya.

In that incident, a woman known as Kudu Selvi was killed by rival drug gang leader Kanna who then fled to India. Selvis three sons then took over her drug business, while Kanna appointed a person known as Stanley Fernando to operate his drug distribution business. Since this killing, the rivalry has been going on.

The DIG said Selvis three sons were in prison now but the two sides were engaged in shootings, sword and knife attacks.

Selvis son Shiran is believed to be directing the drug business from prison, through his agents.

One such as agent was Shirans 31-year-old brother-in-law Steven Ramanathan. It was Steven who was gunned down in Wattala on Sunday. The other victim was his assistant Madhi Annan, 37. While they were being shot, seated in the rear were Stevens wife (Shirans sister) and two of their children. They escaped unhurt.

DIG Tennakoon said that they believed the killing was carried out by the Stanleys group and it was related to the rivalry over drug distribution in the Wolfendhal and Jinthupitiya areas in Colombo.

Steven, his family members and Madhi were reportedly heading back to their house at Hunupitiya in Wattala after visiting the temple, when the shooting took place.

Police have gathered vital evidence, including CCTV footage.

Investigations have revealed that Stanley had obtained weapons from former LTTE cadres.

The DIG said that, as part of the continuous crackdown on drug traffickers, the Police would introduce a mobile unit to enable residents to complain regarding drug-related incidents, a drug addict or the drug menace in general.

He said a progrmme to prevent poverty-stricken children from being lured into drug trafficking was also part of the plan to reduce the drug menace.Beware, Sena worm killer could affect you through animal products By Chris Kamalendran View(s): View(s):

Plants sprayed with chemicals to counter the spread of the Sena worm should not be used as animal feed as they could affect the people who consume animal products, Agricultural and Livestock officials warned.

Agriculture Department Director General W.M.W. Weerakoon told the Sunday Times that five liquid chemicals had been identified to be sprayed on plants, including maize, infested with the Sena worm.

However, the plants, once sprayed should not be immediately used as animal feed as the chemical residue in the plant could enter the system of the animal and its products could have an impact on the people who consume them, he explained.

He said farmers were advised to use the silage process whereby the plant was kept for a prolonged period before being used as animal feed.

The Sena worm, meanwhile, had spread throughout the country by Friday affecting maize, vegetable crops and sugar cane, with farmers complaining their cultivations had been destroyed.

Dr. Weerakoon said they believed that the particular moth had come from India with the winds as it had the capability of travelling about 80 km a day.

He said the maize harvest period would end in two weeks and there was a danger that the worm could spread to other crops. He said that of some 80,000 hectares of maize, 20,000 hectares had been destroyed due to the worm.

The DG said the Department had sought advice from the Food and Agricultural Organisation, while four Thai experts are due to here to help in the battle against the worm.

Meanwhile, the Health Departments Animal Production Director General, K.D. Ariyapala, told the Sunday Times said large scale dairy farms were rejecting maize-based animal feed. He said they would meet President Maithripala Sirisena to discuss measures to counter the epidemic.

Agriculture Minister P. Harrison said he would seek cabinet approval to pay compensation to maize farmers whose crops had been destroyed.The charade of new constitution View(s):

Predictable opposition has begun at the very mention of a new Constitution. The public announcement by a TNA MP that the draft for a new Constitution would be presented before February 4, the countrys Independence Day, provoked nationalist forces to raise their voice, if it did happen.

Instead, the Prime Minister presented a voluminous report of a Committee of Experts whose members were not named therein. And for good measure, the Prime Minister, sensing trouble from a section of the populace, not quite disowned the report, but said his party has made no comment on its contents. The fact that the now sole ruling party keeps its options open reduces the weight of the report to a mere scrap of paper.

The blunt reality is that there will be no new Constitution, at least not this year. This Parliament will never get to pass a new Constitution with a two-thirds majority which means it will not go to the people for a Referendum either  even if it reaches the Supreme Court in the unlikely event that it comes to that stage as a draft Bill.

Then what is all this hot air? The only reason for this rushed and virtually anonymous report is for the ruling UNP to accommodate the TNA for its parliamentary majority for the rest of its term and for the TNA to pacify its constituency with an element of bragging rights to say what they achieved. One might call it a high voltage pretense at taking the Northern masses for a ride, not just by the ruling party, but their own representatives who are having their own difficulties with the even more radical political entities in the North.

For that very reason, there may be some grounds to strengthen the hand of the TNA, as the lesser of the evils in the North. The UNPs apparent willingness to consult the TNA in the development of the North is very acceptable proposition as the TNA remains the elected representatives of the North. It seems even the JVP recognises this as a fact of life though the main Opposition in the South is waiting to take political advantage of any given opportunity where they can cry Rata bedanawa (they are going to divide the country) and refer to, inter-alia, this report as a new Constitution, even if it is not, and marked clearly across each page that it is only a discussion paper.

There are, however, some crucial changes that are required to the Constitution, none so important to the country as a whole as the Executive Presidency. Either they must do away with it, or further whittle down the Presidents executive powers. This doesnt need a new Constitution. The Executive Presidency itself was introduced by way of only an amendment to the 1972 Constitution. There is no reason to be shy of the number of Amendments to a Constitution. India now has 103 Amendment acts to its original 1950 Constitution.

Arguably, the other controversial issue is that of decentralisation or devolution. Again, the Experts report which has TNA finger-prints all over it, has Land and Police powers to the provinces which are contentious issues.

Political leaders might want to take a look at countries around the world that have, in recent decades, been carved up, largely with Western intervention on ethnic and religious lines. Take, the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the federal states that were drawn up after ethnic wars within that once united country. Yugoslavia broke up into six independent, sovereign states in the 1990s. Bosnia & Herzegovina (BH) is one of them. And BH itself has 10 autonomous cantons (provinces) in a Federal set-up.

Backed by the US and the European Union, BH was bankrolled by the IMF, which has now stopped disbursing loans to it. A report by Freedom House, an international watchdog think-tank refers to over-lapping jurisdictions, numerous institutions without real power, political pressures and entities that ignore implementing even verdicts of the states Constitutional Court. It refers to how ethnic relations are much more tense than in recent years. The hybrid system of the many cantons within one state had much to do with the confusion. So much for devolution in such a small country.

While the debate on the existing Provincial Councils here is unfortunately limited to the need to hold elections, little is being discussed on the pros and cons of devolution. Even the southern parties that opposed this system are not thinking clearly due to the fog of election rhetoric.

For now, one can only say of the Experts report which some call a new Constitution seems a mere a kite-flying exercise to pacify the TNA in the least, and much ado about nothing at best.

Carbon Tax: Doing the right thing the wrong way

The Governments proposal for a carbon tax is already fouling up the atmosphere sending smoke signals; as it were, that the Government is bent on doing anything and everything to collect revenue to sustain an economy in peril rather than seriously tackle environmental problems.

Clearly, the quality of clean air and air pollution is a factor, especially in overcrowded cities of South Asia. But pollution from vehicle emissions is only part of the problem. Is the Government doing the right thing the wrong way?

Environmental pollution  linked to Climate Change is now for real. But bringing in green policies and green taxes has met with violent reactions like in France these past weeks where the masses have turned to nation-wide protests saying it is the poor that are being hit, not the privileged.

The proposed carbon tax in Sri Lanka is limited to emissions from vehicles and critics complain they hit those who have older vehicles, not those with new vehicles. On the other hand, successive governments have been unable to curb the import of two-stroke tuk tuks that emit carbon monoxide like nobodys business because there are a million of them on the streets and so, as many voters.

At least now, the Government has decided to extend the carbon tax to official vehicles, including state buses rather than mere see they have a conformity test for road worthiness. Limiting a carbon tax to vehicle emission is not enough. Coal fired power plants for the future are still being discussed despite its environmental hazards. Deforestation and sand mining are major issues that governments and citizens must confront now very seriously  not leave it for later. Environmental degradation and carbon foot calculations are now very much part of the modern lexicon world-wide and Sri Lanka must join in the conversation. Planet Earth is warming up.Who is best to run the race? View(s):

My dear Gota and Chamal maama,

I thought I should write to you to congratulate you when I heard that both of you have announced that you are ready, able and willing to stand as a candidate for the next big elections, which are due some time later this year. However, most of us found those announcements amusing  and Ill tell you why.

Gota, hearing that you are ready to take the plunge came as no surprise. It would have been surprising if you hadnt done that because for the past few months you were going around as if you were indeed the next candidate  if not the next big boss, already  addressing seminars, meetings and the media.

Still, there are some questions about your ability to run the race because you are involved in several high-profile cases that are now being heard on a daily basis. So, if you were to be convicted of an offence in any one of them, your chances of running the race would suddenly become zero.

There is also the other issue of being a citizen of Trump land. Much has been made about this and you have said that you will renounce this at the right time. You havent told anyone whether you have already done so  or whether you would be able to do so within a short period of a few months.

Then, there are chaps like Welgama and Vasu. The former is a man who speaks his mind without fear or favour. The latter is a revolutionary whose use by date has long since passed. Vasu can be ignored, but I dont think you could say the same about Welgama who does have a following.

Both of them oppose your candidacy. They want their candidate to be a true democrat. They dont think you fall into that category. If Mahinda maama cracks the whip and asks them to support you, I think old Vasu will meekly agree, but Welgama has enough of a backbone to say no to you, Gota.

Because of all this, the pohottuwa needs a Plan B, just in case you, Gota, fail to make it for one reason or another. Mahinda maama cant run again. Basil Malli loves being a US citizen more than being Sri Lankas boss. That is when Chamal maama would rush in, where Gota would fear to tread.

That makes us wonder whether the pohottuwa chooses its candidates only from the R clan, like the Blues did only with the B clan? Ah, well, the Blues led their party with one or another of the Bs for 50 years, so why shouldnt you do the same with the pohottuwa for the next 50 years?

So, this is why, Chamal maama, on the day after Gota said Im ready, if you are ready you said Im also ready. What a smart move that was from the Medamulana boys, trying to convey the impression that the sahodara samaagama (company of brothers) is now squabbling with each other.

Do you want us to believe, Gota and Chamal maama, that the sahodara samaagama, of which one was the boss, and the others were Speaker, all-powerful Minister and Defence Secretary, are now not talking to each other and issuing statements on their own, trying to outdo each other? Nice try!

You didnt fool us with that, Gota and Chamal maama, but I think most people  perhaps except one very important person  realised what other message you were trying to send. That message is that, no matter what happens, there will be one of the Rs as the pohottuwa candidate at the next election.

The important person who seems not to have got that message is Aiyo Sirisena. He still thinks the pohottuwa will merge with the Blues for the next election and that he will be their common candidate. Even someone with his level of intelligence knows that he cant run by himself and win!

That is why he is bending over backwards to please the pohottuwa camp. He has now appointed a commission to probe corruption over the last four years. That is a good move, but he has conveniently forgotten that he was elected with a mandate to probe corruption in the preceding 10 years!

When he went to the Philippines last week, most of his entourage of MPs were from the pohottuwa camp. They seemed utterly clueless and watched open-mouthed at what was going on around them but Aiyo Sirisena didnt seem to mind, as long as he was in the good books of the pohottuwa chaps!

Gota and Chamal maama, we wish you well. However, beware, not so much of the Greens, but of Aiyo Sirisena. When he realises that you are planning to go ahead on your own, there is no predicting what he will do. As we saw in the last few months of last year, hell hath no fury like Sira scorned!

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS: I hope you have discussed the line of succession with Mahinda maama. It is all well and good for one of you to run the race this time around, but I hope you dont have any ideas for a second term. Remember, that is reserved for the Crown Prince, Namal baby, when he comes of age in 2025!Presidents support for Duterte makes world headlines View(s):

Unlike all his previous foreign visits, President Maithripala Sirisena was not accompanied by any media personnel when he made a five-day state visit to the Philippines.

Instead, his media office in Colombo was distributing to local news rooms statements and photographs of what he did. That included his meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte.That, however, did not mean President Sirisena did not receive worldwide publicity over the Phillippines visit. Here is a report from CNN which speaks for itself:

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 16)  Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said he admires the way President Rodrigo Duterte is handling the issue of illegal drugs in the country, adding he feels the same should be done in his own.

In his speech at the state banquet given in his honour in Malacanang during his state visit Wednesday, Sirisena said, The war against crime and drugs carried out by you is an example to whole world and, personally, to me. The drug menace is rampant in my country and I feel that we should follow your footsteps to control this hazard.Duterte, in his press statement after the bilateral meeting earlier, said Sri Lanka could be a partner to address the trafficking of illegal drugs.

Duterte is a hardliner when it comes to addressing the problem of illegal drugs, including it in his campaign for the presidency in 2016. He has discussed it in many of his speeches since becoming president, including stories of him warning those involved in the drug trade to stop or he would kill them.

In a speech in October 2018 he said dead drug suspects were just carcasses to him. In another speech in November last year, he said he would reward cops who kill superiors involved in drugs.His administration, however, has defended the war on drugs, saying it protects Filipinos.Dutertes campaign against illegal drugs has left more than 4,000 killed in various police operations, while human rights groups peg the number beyond 12,000.

MiG deal dead rope: Top officer sees conspiracy to oust him

A tweet by an unidentified person caused a furore at the highest levels of the Police Department on Wednesday.

It said: Wrecking the MiG deal probe? Disturbing news that a very senior police officer with access to the case may have copied records of highly sensitive evidence and is heading to Singapore, where several co-conspirators are domiciled. No check at airport? No electronic surveillance?

Within minutes of the tweet becoming public, top brass at one of Police Departments premier investigative arms received calls. They were being told that the senior Police officer was still at the departure lounge and that they should check his baggage.

At least one top officer was aware there was no such thing. He urged the caller to make a complaint. The very senior police officer concerned had in fact called upon him to act in his place when he was abroad for medical treatment for a knee ailment. Prior leave has been obtained by him.

Now, the officer who faced the accusation has appealed to the Ministry of Defence to conduct a full investigation into the incident. He claims there is a new conspiracy to oust him from his job.

New Southern Governor misses U

Is there a Sothern Province in Sri Lanka? At least those who believe in the Facebook of the Governor, Rajith Keerthi Tennekoon, would think so. See picture.

The Governor has also given his other vocations. He works at the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections and the Centre for Human Rights Sri Lanka.

MoD directive on high-profile arrests

Top cops have been advised that investigations or arrests of persons in cases politically linked should be made known to the Ministry of Defence.

Particular reference has been made to arrests. They have been told that directives from those outside the force, except President Sirisena under whom the Police Department functions, should be notified.

Ministers brotherly concerns

After two Committees  one under the Prime Minister and the second under the President  cleared him, Kavan Ratnayake has been appointed Chairman of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA).

He is the brother of Ports and Shipping Minister Sagala Ratnayake, under whom the SLPA functions.

This is the second time under the UNF government that a minister has appointed his own brother as Chairman of an institution within the purview of his Ministry. Both for the countrys harbours.

The first was Arjuna Ranatunga. He appointed his brother Dhammika Ranatunga as SLPA Chairman when he was the minister in charge of ports.

Later, as Petroleum Resources Minister, Mr. Ranatunga appointed his brother Dhammika as Chairman of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC).

IMF team to assess situation before approving loans

Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera and non-Cabinet rank minister Harsha de Silva braved the cold weather and snowstorms in Washington DC for a meeting with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Christine Lagarde.

In fact, Dr de Silva was thoughtful enough to phone media offices in Colombo to say the first scheduled meeting did not take place due to the snowstorm. After all, Sri Lankans have to be kept informed. Even US government offices were closed on top of the longest shutdown in the countrys history.

The Sri Lankan duos mission was to plead for IMF help to make a quick recovery after the economic downturn caused by the 52 days of turmoil  the result of President Sirisenas October Revolution which ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his ministers.

Top sources at the Finance Ministry now say the outcome of the visit will be the arrival of an IMF delegation in Sri Lanka to assess Sri Lankas requirements. Until then, the Fund has not made any commitment to Sri Lanka, these sources say, notwithstanding the fact that there is an IMF office in Colombo already.

Official and unofficial cabinet meetings

Every week, there are now two different meetings of the Cabinet of Ministers of the United National Front (UNF). One is official and the other unofficial. The official one, as is known, is made up of ministers or those acting in their place and is held at the Presidential Secretariat. The other, the unofficial one, is at Temple Trees and takes place a day ahead of the official event  without the President.

The difference? Taking part in the unofficial meeting are not only the Ministers who have been sworn in. There are also those who served as ministers in the previous cabinet.

They also air their views on matters which the ministers would discuss officially in the Cabinet, now limited to 30 by the 19th Amendment.

MP breaks into ministers office

This is the case of an MP breaking the door to enter a Ministry to meet the minister.

Kalutara District MP Lakshman Wijemanne, who only recently sought a ministerial position, wanted to meet Minister Kabir Hashim.When he turned up at the Ministry, there was no one to meet him. An angry Wijemanne broke through a room to find officials there.

Minister Hashim was enraged. He told the MP he should not have done that. However, Mr. Hashim apologised to Mr. Wijemanne because none of his officials was on hand to greet him.

Now, the Ministry is to bear the costs of repairing the damaged door.

Sirisena quietly visits Thailands sacred isle

President Maithripala Sirisena, contrary to earlier reports, did not spend all his six-day private visit to Thailand in the capital Bangkok.

He also made an overnight trip to a tourist resort in Koh Samui, the countrys second largest island in the Gulf of Thailand. The palm fringed resort is located near a tiny island where lies a 12 metre tall Buddha statue at the Wat Phra Yai Temple.

Koh Samui is linked to the tiny island by a causeway.Diplomats as our image boosters View(s):

So this is what we have come to. Our budding (and some budded) diplomats will, over the coming years, be let loose in the capitals of the world to tell whoever is willing to listen that Sri Lanka is a country like no other.

In some ways it is truly a country like no other. The way some of our politicians conduct affairs and still others have their hands dipped in even more dubious deals leave more than a lasting stench in the civic nostril.

When one heard the other day about advice proffered by Minister Tilak Marapana to our diplomats in the making, it seemed that something was decidedly wrong. It seemed as though Minister Marapana had switched portfolios and had taken to promoting age-old products such as spices and tea  with or without sympathy  without even a word to us faithful followers of the political gymnastics that our leaders and the lesser political breeds engage in providing the world-weary citizens of our motherland with much-needed delectation.

Unable to believe the story one heard from Sri Lankan diplomatic sources, who would not say whether the news appeared in the print media or it was picked up from one of the numerous electronic media outlets that parade as authentic news sources, one searched vigorously in the local newspapers and websites.

Lo and behold there it was and prominently displayed too.

After a two-week training course, the Foreign Ministry helped by some contribution from the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI), a bunch of probationers and a few who are already serving in the ministry were told all about public diplomacy and how to convince the foreign media and others what a wonderful place is Sri Lanka.

In short, some of these trainees will someday play the role of travelling sales persons spreading the good word so that those who will be subject to verbal bombardments from our new breed of diplomats will say hail three times and return to sleep dreaming dreams of the sweet voices selling their wares in the market place of ideas and more mundane products.

One media report said the minister has instructed the newcomers on what and how they should propagate the values, virtues and products of our blessed isle.

At first, I thought it was some light-hearted moment to test the mental agility and the sensitivities of our new crop of diplomats. For the report said: Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana has called on Sri Lankan diplomats to boost the image of Sri Lanka overseas through efficient and effective execution of public diplomacy, utilising its intrinsic brands such as Buddhism, gems, tea, spices, high-end export products and the warmth of traditional Sri Lankan hospitality.

Oh for heaven sake! Has anybody ever heard of Buddhism being described as a brand? Apart from the denigration of Buddhism and the sacred teachings of the Buddha being lumped together with tea and spices how are our diplomats engaged in public diplomacy expected to sell Buddhism? What should it be called  Theravada sugar free, in keeping with medical advice?

And which brand of Buddhism is to be popularised? Would it be the brand that has been spread by the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), for instance? One only hopes that the Buddhism that is to be marketed is not videos of Galagoda-Atte Gnanasara Thera spreading his words of wisdom with fiery intent and choice vocabulary that is nowhere to be found in the teachings of the Buddha.

Or maybe a new brand of Theravada Buddhism whence Sri Lankas aspiring leaders are advised to adopt Hitlerite policies and actions that would impose a rigorous authoritarian discipline on the Sri Lankan people.

Is brand Buddhism that our travelling salesmen and women are expected to popularise in public discourse the sullied teachings of Gnanasara thera now taking a break from his multiple activities in a prison cell (or is it in a hospital room?).

While this attempt to commercialise Buddhism by the untrained is horrendous enough, there are fundamental issues that need to be explored. Minister Marapana and the ministry he oversees expect these probationers when the time comes to give a turbo-boost to Sri Lankas image, which in the last few months has been badly discoloured.

That is the crux of the problem. Sri Lankas image suffers because of the antics of our politicians and their hangers-on. Surely Minister Marapana knows of the violence and physical clashes that occurred in the chamber of parliament a couple of months back, even if he was not physically present.

That is not the first time that the parliament chamber has been reduced to a scene of chaos and disgrace. But no previous degradation of the legislature could surpass the despicable conduct and thuggish behaviour of some elected representatives that November day last year.

Within minutes of the havoc starting, images of the chaos were already in cyber space and being aired to different parts of the country. Some minutes later this spectacle was reaching audiences in other parts of the world.

The distressing image of Sri Lanka reaching the world was created by some of our lawmakers who had little consideration about breaking the law or what the world thought of them. Maybe the people could be told how diplomats already based in their respective missions are expected to present a positive image of the country when the chaotic happenings have already appeared on their TV screens thousands of kilometers away?

Perhaps the diplomats are expected to make use of those great visuals and promote our parliament as a must-see place where violence and disgraceful conduct are provided free of charge.

Image-building exercises promoting tea and spices are way outdated

The basic issue here is that diplomats are being asked to perform tasks when most of the time their roles are being undermined by the political class and the governments elected and defeated.

By the time these probationers are stationed media operations and international interests would have changed. If the minister wants to sell tea among other commodities why he must get diplomats like our former Ambassador to Washington and the former ambassador to Moscow who knew their business.

The task today is increasingly turning out to be to defend the doings of government and the corruption and nepotism that have proliferated in the last couple of decades. But it is not a task that they could or would undertake without consequences.

The problem is that defending government policies is not an easy or comfortable undertaking especially if these diplomats work under heads of missions who fight shy of the media, who do not cultivate the media which can help with polishing Sri Lankas image. That cannot be done by trying to promote tea and spices.

If these young diplomats are to play a frontline role at some stage they must be proficient in the English language as they will be serving abroad, and be articulate and confident enough to face the media.

In most western countries there are powerful and articulate diaspora groups who over time have cultivated politicians in their countries of domicile. Those politicians and the media provide important forces in promoting minority causes and anti-Sri Lankan government rhetoric. How is that situation to be confronted and dealt with? Promoting tea is hardly a counter to the political thrust of these diaspora groups who are well organised. Polishing the image must begin in Sri Lanka with conduct worthy of our leaders and legislators.If Sirisena refuses to swear-in the rebels, action may follow in Supreme Court

Sirisena leans towards Rajapaksa as Gotabaya and Chamal say they are ready to run for presidency

TNA also in trouble now because of its support for PM, but new constitution unlikely this year

Provincial polls  Opposition wants old system but UNP not keen on it Though it brought suffering, the 52-day old political turmoil last year gave the United National Party (UNP) a new face lift and re-invigorated their ranks to rise up to their embattled onetime partner, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

Sworn in for a second time during a single term Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe returned with considerable lusture and some lament. He appeared stronger than before. The lusture was over the new opportunity to preside over his party during a critical phase of the country, to be voter centric and place it on track for victories at upcoming polls, both presidential and parliamentary. The laments were many.

He declared there was an economic downturn and vowed to put it right. He needed more ministers for twin reasons. One was the clamour from his close backers, including those who held portfolios earlier, for ministerial positions. Many initiatives have been launched towards this. One is to explore the prospects for a group of SLFP parliamentarians, now backing President Sirisena, to support the UNP led United National Front (UNF) in an alliance. However, there is a hitch. If they leave on their own, he will not swear them in.

To overcome this, the UNP has in fact consulted legal opinion. Plans are afoot to get an SLFP MP to resign and for the Premier to recommend his name for appointment as a Minister. If that is refused, we want to file action in the Supreme Court as a test case, said a senior UNPer. The name of septuagenarianformer minister A,H.M. Fowzie is being mentioned as likely to resign. Whatever the outcome is, that would place the President on a collision course with the UNP albeit the UNF government.

On the other hand, the SLFP MPs who number around 18 believe an alliance with the UNP will give them ministerial positions. They want to seek an urgent meeting with President Sirisena who arrived in Sri Lanka yesterday after a state visit to the Philippines. One of them who spoke on grounds of anonymity declared we want to ask him bluntly what he wants us to do. We face a bleak political future. The MP said Since October 26, when he chose to replace Premier Wickremesinghe, President Sirisena kept us in the dark. He has not taken us into his confidence and tell us what he had planned to do. We ended up in political disaster. We not only lost our positions but also found ourselves placed in great uncertainty. At least in our own interests, he should allow us to decide and play fair by us. If Sirisena allows them to leave, there will only be a just a handful of SLFP parliamentarians left to back him  the remnants of what was historically one of the largest political parties.

On Tuesday (January 15  Thai Pongal Day), after the weekly ministerial meeting, three members of the UNF  Kabir Hashim, Malik Samarawickrema and Rishad Bathiuddin  met President Sirisena. Hashim made a plea to him that Ranjit Madduma Bandara be re-appointed as the Minister of Law and Order, a portfolio currently held by the President. Hashim told the President they were not expecting an immediate response from him. Hence, he said, he could consider the matter whilst he is in the Philippines and make his decision known when he returned.

UNPers were hopeful that their request would be heeded but sources close to the Presidency said it was highly unlikely. At the same meeting, Samarawickema told Sirisena that he was willing to quit his own portfolio if the President would consider Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka for a ministerial appointment. He has criticized me viciously even a few days ago, he replied declaring that I will not appoint him. He warned that if Fonseka continues to abuse him in the most foul language, he would not hesitate to strip him of his rank as Field Marshal. He urged the UNP trio to convey this message to the former military strongman. Sirisena elevated Fonseka to that highest military rank for supporting him at the 2015 presidential elections. It was a quid pro quo as reported in these columns then.

Now, the new won glory of the UNP, that heads the UNF, is slowly but surely chipping away. That the main cause is one of their strongest allies, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). If they were a passive supporter of the government in the past four years, their 14 MPs, in an unexpected move, extended support in Parliament for Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe. This helped him receive a majority of over 113 in a 225 member House. The results for the TNA  particularly for its front runners Rajavarothayam Sampanthan and Abraham Sumanthiran  is one of falling badly between two stools. The first casualty was Sampanthan who lost his office as Leader of the Opposition.

Second was Sumanthiran who proudly boasted from public platforms that a new draft Constitution would be tabled in Parliament before February 4  Sri Lankas 71 independence anniversary. At least officially what was tabled has been labelled as only reports though it contained a comprehensive 151 page draft Constitution. It is no secret that TNAs passive but yet strong support for the UNP is in return for their demands on behalf of the Tamil people they represent. It is also known that a new Constitution, which they are seeking with more devolution, was the subject of discussion between the TNA and the UNP around the time the latter was seeking their support in Parliament for Wickremesinghes Premiership. The TNA backed the UNF government to introduce laws to postpone Provincial Council elections. As a result, some of these councils are not functioning raising serious issues over whether they have ceased to become instruments to share power. More so when these councils were set up at their own behest.The TNA is hurt but helpless.

Yet, Sumanthiran has declared that there is still hope. Like the vast majority in their own vote base in the north and east, the alliance had banked on the UNP for a new Constitution. They believed it was only Wickremesinghe who could deliver it to them. The Rajapaksas are not popular in their own areas and remain largely a bad name. Thus, the alliance has no option but pressure the UNP to win whatever they could ahead of elections and plead to their electorate to wait for more time. Their moves to have Mahinda Rajapaksa to commit publicly to promises after he took over as Premier did not materialise denying them any other option.

The TNA is unable to go public and explain to their electorates their sad plight.With the growing unlikelihood of a new Constitution being adopted, their worry is about the future of the Steering Committee as well as the Constitutional Assembly. The Joint Opposition appears to have got a strong handle to oppose the reports presented in Parliament. Though it is described as a product of the experts panel, they alleged that it was formulated by TNAs Sumanthiran, a lawyer with UNPs Constitutional Advisor Jayampathy Wickremeratne, also a lawyer. The latter was earlier a member of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP).

We know the duo was responsible since most experts were not in favour of what was produced, said JO leader in Parliament, Dinesh Gunawardena. He re-iterated that their action was contrary to the assurance Prime Minister Wickremesinghe had given that the Steering Committee would examine proposals for a Constitution which would thereafter be formulated by the Constitutional Council. Eventually, an entire draft had been hurriedly rushed in, he told the Sunday Times. Why then is the hurry, he asked and added that we are opposed to more funds being spent on this futile exercise that lacks transparency. SLPP de facto leader Mahinda Rajapaksa told the Sunday Times the UNP has no mandate to present this draft Constitution. TNAs Sumanthiran is running the government and the UNP. He has even said he can bring down this government at any time.

The prelates of the Malwatte Chapter Most Venerable Tibbotuwawe Sri Siddharatha Sumangala Thera and the Asgiriya Chapter Most Venerable Warakagoda Sri Gnanaratna Thera have also expressed concerns.The Sunday Times learnt that a senior influential UNP leader assured them that the draft constitution would not be passed in that format and no decision has yet been reached on its contents. On Friday, a UNP delegation led by Minister Lakshman Kiriella met the two prelates and briefed them on the reports tabled at the Constitutional Assembly. They told them that no draft Constitution has been formulated yet and what has been tabled was only reports. They also acknowledged that in any case the government did not have two thirds majority in Parliament to pass a new constitution.

Sections of the Buddhist clergy have already launched protests or are making strong statements which could pave the way for a polarisation of minority communities during an election. This is when one looks the rising propaganda pitch. A counter move by sections of the government, backed by their passive partners as well as NGOs supporting them, to force the media to play down coverage of those matters misfired badly. The excersie took the character of an operation to intimidate the media. Known associates of UNF politicians were present wearing black cloth to cover their faces. This is at a time when there is some reluctance on the part of even the UNF for a stepped up media campaign for fear of unpopularity in the south.

There was also a snub of sorts to the TNA when Premier Wickremesinghe told the Constitutional Assembly on January 11 that his United National Party will not allow any amendments to the Second Article of the Constitution which affirms that the Republic of Sri Lanka will be a unitary state. He also said that similarly he would also not allow any amendments to Article 9 which says that Buddhism be given its foremost place.

The 151 page draft constitution had worded it differently. It says Sri Lanka (Ceylon) is a free, sovereign and independent Republic which is an aekiya rajyaya / orumiththa nadu, consisting of the institutions of the Centre and of the Provinces which shall exercise power as laid down in the Constitution.

In this Article aekiya rajyaya / orumiththa nadu means a state which is undivided and indivisible, and in which the power to amend the Constitution, or to repeal and replace the Constitution, shall remain with the Legislature and the People of Sri Lanka as provided in this Constitution.

However, with regard to Buddhism, it states Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana, while treating all religions and beliefs with honour and dignity, and without discrimination, and guaranteeing to all persons the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

Adding to the UNP woes was a new blow President Sirisena delivered this week. It seemed the beginning of an exercise to destroy the UNPs credibility and the public confidence that remains ahead of elections. Before leaving for Philippines, he had in consultation with his close legal advisors, finalised arrangements to establish a Presidential Commission of Inquiry in essence to probe the UNF Governments reign from 2015 to 2018. Though a Gazette notification has still not been released, an announcement from the Presidents Media Division had this to say in their own English and their own arithmetical calculations:

. President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed a Presidential Commission of inquiry to investigate into the acts of corruption and frauds that have been alleged committed in state institutions during the period from January 15, 2015 to December 31, 2018.

The responsibility of this Presidential Commission is to summon public complaints, information and other details and to swiftly conduct impartial and comprehensive investigation into allegations against individuals who held or remain in political positions as well as against the public servants and officers of the statutory boards, who held or remain in those positions, regarding serious losses or damage caused to state assets and revenue as a result of the acts of corruption, frauds and criminal breach of trust, criminal misappropriation of property, cheating and abuse of power or authority, state resources and privileges, committed by those individuals during the period from January 15, 2015 to December 31, 2018 at the state institutions. The Commission also identifies persons who were responsible or those who are currently responsible in accordance with the regulations and laws and to collect evidence on those offences or acts.

Retired Supreme Court Judge Upali Abeyrathne was appointed as the Chairmen of this Presidential Commission and other members are retired High Court Judge Sarojani Kusala Weerawardhana, retired Auditor General Pasdun Korale Arachchige Premathilake, retired Ministry Secretary Lalith.R.De Silva and retired Deputy Inspector General of Police M.K.D. Wijaya Amarasighe.

Instructions are made to handover the first report within three months, the final report composed of conclusions and illustrations within six months to President Maithripala Sirisena. 62,50,000 lacks of people of this country voted Maithripala Sirisena on 8th of January 2018 in order eradicate fraud and corruption in the country. President Sirisena who took steps for that within his tenure has taken another step for this objective by establishing this commission. This will enable to make the theme, A Sri Lanka without corruption, a reality.

To the UNP led United National Front (UNF), one need hardly say, the move will come as a major blow. President Sirisena, who has vowed to fight bribery and corruption this year his priority, has placed a deadline of three months for the Commissions Interim Report and six months for its complete findings. One need hardly point out that such findings would impact on the UNP during election time. These factors are without taking into consideration the internal squabbles within the UNP and the battle by sections within to seek a new presidential candidate.

Mounting a heavy assault on the UNF albeit the UNP has its own ramifications. President Sirisena is the head of that government and chairs meetings of the cabinet of ministers. The accountability factor in this instance flows from the President downwards. Therefore, it reflects the absence of a very essential element  the need for checks and balances  during four years of Presidency. Of course, President Sirisena has given some form of explanation that he bore many things under Prime Minister Wickremesinghes regime to show his gratitude for making him President. Hence, he had chosen then to ignore them.

And now, he has decided to bring such actions and others under a microscope. Not that bribery and corruption under any regime should not be probed. It should and must be done no matter who is involved. Not surprisingly, the UNP is also busy preparing their own counter measures. Researchers are busy and that may set the ground for a slanging match. These, if they go ahead, could also could widen the gulf between President Sirisena and the UNF.

However, there was also a paradox at the same time. When Sirisena was away on the state visit, his Co-ordinating Secretary Shiral Lakthilaka met Prime Minister Wickremesinghe for a 30-minute meeting on January 12 (Saturday) afternoon at Temple Trees. A source close to the presidency said the meeting was the outcome of a study carried out by presidential staff on how and why relations between President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe broke down. One of the main findings was the absence of any engagement between the duo.

Instead of depending on his new advisors from the UNP, President Sirisena had sent one of his own. Premier Wickremesinghe did admit to some of the fault lines but defended his position on others the President has been told, said the sources. However, Lakthilaka declined comment saying he did not wish to talk on confidential matters and addedI can only confirm the meeting. The question is whether Sirisena, or for that matter, Wickremesinghe, or both would now mend their ways just when they are taking concretised positions on several issues that have heightened the acrimony between the two.

Yet, the UNP position was defended by their Chairman Kabir Hashim. He told the Sunday Times we are preparing ourselves for any eventuality. We re setting up a team to prepare for national level elections (meaning the presidential and parliamentary). This team will handle all our campaign. We are also setting up mechanisms to reach out to the grassroots level. Going along with the SLFP for nearly four years have caused us both social and political problems. We will agree on a Constitution on consensus reached by all concerned. Sadly, the Rajapaksa clan with others are making this a racist issue. We want to abolish the Executive Presidency in keeping with the pledge we made to the country and the late Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera.

Adding to that is another factor unknown to most Sri Lankans. President Sirisena is leaning heavily on Mahinda Rajapaksa, the de facto Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) leader to forge an electoral alliance. That he hopes would make him the presidential candidate of both the SLFP and the SLPP. In a move that appeared to appease Rajapaksa, Sirisena spoke to him on the telephone just ahead of his state visit to the Philippines. He asked him to nominate three SLPP parliamentarians to accompany him.He asked that their passports be sent to his office. What turned out was acute embarrassment for both Sirisena and Rajapaksa.

The first three nominated by the former President though their names are not clear changed their mind. Their passports were sent but they chose not to travel. They had been persuaded by their colleagues not to go. Another three were named thereafter. The wife of one of them said Moley nedda? Naa Ganna epa or dont you have a brain? Dont bathe yourself  a colloquial Sinhala way of saying not to be ridiculed. The other two also backed out later. Thus, Sirisena was able to take along with him only a group of SLFP parliamentarians, who are technically now in the opposition, on an all expenses paid holiday. He was one of those strongly critical when his predecessor Rajapaksa took a large number of MPs and others to New York for the United Nations sessions. There was none from his ruling UNF government either. This time Sirisena chose not to ask media representatives to accompany him.

These notwithstanding, as revealed last week, there is still a very slim chance of Sirisena being successful in forming an electoral alliance with the SLPP and thus becoming a joint candidate with the SLFP at the presidential election. Though he is now constitutionally empowered to call for a presidential election, the exercise appeared to hinge very much on how the SLPP would react. If they had agreed on the name already, the SLPP is not only insisting on 51 per cent of the stake in the joint board of management of a new alliance, but also their Pohottuwa (budding lotus flower) as their joint symbol. That will mean hard bargaining for Sirisena or a virtual surrender of the SLFP. The Sunday Times learns that a meeting between Maithripala Sirisena and Mahinda Rajapaksa over the electoral alliance is likely. As revealed in these columns last week, Sirisena took the initiative to revive the talks due to a delay after the previous round.

Yet, Rajapaksa is coming under heavy pressure from seniors in his party over both the electoral alliance and Sirisenas candidature. Views opposing the move were being aired by SLPP members prompting suspicions that they were voicing the views of the leadership. Asked for his comments, Mahinda Rajapaksa told the Sunday Times we have to select the person who can win.

His remarks came as his brother and former Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa told a meeting of Viyath Maga, a group of professionals, that I am ready if you are. He was alluding to the presidential elections. The remarks received wide publicity and was interpreted by sections of the media as Gotabaya Rajapaksa announcing his candidature. He had made similar remarks earlier too. However, this time, when he was abroad he had spent time in Washington DC than in Los Angeles where he had been living as a US citizen. His close associates said he had already handed in his application to renounce his US citizenship and was now awaiting confirmation. Just a day after his remarks, elder brother Chamal Rajapaksa also declared he was willing to come forward as a presidential candidate.

The Sunday Times asked Mahinda Rajapaksa for his response, This is how the conversation went.

The Sunday Times: Your brothers, both Gotabaya and Chamal have announced their availability as likely candidates for the presidential elections. What is your partys position?

Rajapaksa: We have still not decided. We will wait. Everyone can canvass. Of course we have to select someone who will be a winner.

The Sunday Times: When will your party decide? When do you hope to make the announcement?

Rajapaksa: We will do so after the United National Party (UNP) announces their own candidate.

With prospects of a parliamentary election uncertain with the UNP not in favour until its development programmes reach fruition and a presidential election hinging on an SLFP deal with the SLPP, President Sirisena has opted for the next choice  conduct provincial council elections. He asked a meeting of former SLFP organisers to prepare themselves for PC polls. He even met the former organisers province by province to urge them to prepare the party machinery.

Last Friday, the SLFP acting General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekera told a news conference there was a need to hold these elections since they have been delayed for over a year and four months.

The first PC whose term lapsed was the Sabaragamuwa on September 27, 2017. The others were East on October 1, 2017, North Central on October 2, 2017, Central on October 9, 2018, North Western on October 10, 2018 and the North on October 25, 2018. The terms of other councils  South will lapse on April 22 and Uva on October 19. West and South on April 22 and Uva on October 9.

Jayasekera said the provincial councils are not meeting anymore. As a result the Councils where the terms had lapsed are run by the respective Governors. The Secretaries of Ministries have to get Governors approval for expenditures carried out by the PC Ministries and therefore problems have risen within the provincial council system

Jayasekera added: During the debate held on August 24 2018, Minister Lakshman Kiriella told that if the election to be held according to the new system it will take one and a half years.This action is being delayed from some time the Minister who tabled the Delimitation Committee report voted against in parliament. A review committee was appointed on August 28, 2018. That committees recommendation was expected in two months but even though many months have passed they have not submitted their recommendations.

We can see this delay as an action of the UNF Government. They are doing everything in their power to delay the elections. We (SLFP) can clearly tell the government to at least to bring the cabinet paper that we approved on 13 November 2018.

The subject of PC elections also figured at a meeting which Mahinda Deshapriya held with representatives of political parties. It was to ascertain their views on how to conduct these polls particularly in the light of the all important question  under which system of elections would it take place. The previous one was on a proportional representation system. However, what has been proposed now and not finalised is a mixed system where 40 per cent are elected on a first past the post basis or those elected by a majority. Details related to the proposed system remain to be finalised and would have to be voted into law by Parliament. In the light of the urgency, both the SLFP and the SLPP are now in favour of going back to the old system of proportional representation. The question is whether the UNP would agree. A bad defeat for them, ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections, may come as a deterrent.

In all this, there are tough challenges for both President Sirisena and Premier Wickremesinghe. Of course they are for different reasons. Sirisena sacked his own government and they are now back in his fold though his relations remain in at a low ebb. His SLFP parliamentarians are now looking for a make or break meeting with him to decide their own future. He has become increasingly dependent on Mahinda Rajapaksa to ensure his political future and candidacy at the next presidential elections. This is whilst the SLFP is at their weakest. The crisis he set in motion last October, like the eye of a storm, is still developing.

For Premier Wickremesinghe, the cumulative effect of insulating himself with selected friends and running a government, has become the costliest. He had made enemies of most media that were, ironic enough, friendly towards him. His coterie of friends exploited his confidence resorting to bribery and corruption or were grossly unpopular with the people due to their conduct. Some shades of goings on before Sirisenas October Revolution are reflected even when he picked a new Cabinet. If they were butter on two slices of bread for a sandwich, the filling is coming in the form of newer problems  a brand new Constitution at the behest of TNA, a rapidly deteriorating economy, public discontent and an exasperated private sector to name a few. The UNF would have to stomach all this and moreto regain public confidence that turns into votes.With the growing literacy of voters, moneyalone is not going to victory at an election campaign.SA economics students meeting on Jan. 21 in Colombo View(s):

The 15th South Asian Economics Students Meet (SAESM  2019) will be held in Colombo on January 21 at the auditorium of the University of Colombo, School of Computing.

SAESM is a well-established regional forum of the South Asian undergraduate students, recognised by the World Bank and other donor agencies, government bodies, corporate sector and the higher educational institutes in the region. The event provides an opportunity for the undergraduate students to write academic papers on timely issues in the region, to present the papers at the conference, to share the experience, and to learn from each other, while promoting their knowledge on development and cooperation in the South Asian countries.

The annual SAESM usually consists of a conference of the undergraduates in which they present country research papers, a quiz contest, budding economist competition, etc and a sightseeing retreat for all the delegates, the local organisers said in a media statement.

It is being organized by the Department of Economics, University of Colombo in collaboration with the World Bank. Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy will be delivering the keynote address which will be followed by a panel discussion on the South Asian Economic Focus.

Also scheduled to address the gathering is Chief Economist for South Asia, World Bank, Dr. Martin Rama.Non-Cabinet Ministers with limited powers handle key ministries View(s):

Sri Lanka government is facing an uphill task of politically controlling the administrative machinery in several state institutions coming under the purview of non-Cabinet ministers owing to their limited powers in decision-making on policy matters, informed official sources said.

Five non-Cabinet ministers have been appointed to the subject ministries of Economic Reform and Public Distribution, Digital Infrastructure and Information Technology, Science, Technology and Research, Labour and Trade Union Relations and Special Area Development.

These non-Cabinet ministers who were appointed under the other ministers category stipulated in the constitution are responsible to the President, the Prime Minister, Cabinet of Ministers and Parliament.

Several state institutions and departments have been allocated as subjects coming under the purview of those ministries.

According to Article 44 (2) of the Constitution, the President may, in consultation with the Prime Minister where he considers such consultation to be necessary, determine the assignment of subjects and functions to Ministers and the Ministries, if any, which are to be in charge of, such Ministers.

Non-Cabinet ministers cannot participate in Cabinet meetings and their Cabinet papers should be submitted to the Cabinet by the President, a senior Public Administration Ministry official told the Business Times.

Secretaries of these five ministries bear the responsibility as the ministry accounting officer while the Secretary to the President is the chief accounting officer, he disclosed.

Under these circumstances non-Cabinet ministers will have to function under the President as he may at any time change any assignment, subjects and functions and the composition made under paragraph (2) of Article 44 (3) of the Constitution.

They will be allowed to attend Cabinet meetings when subjects relevant to their Ministries are taken up for discussion or respective cabinet papers or memorandums are presented for approval, he disclosed.

State Ministers and Deputy Ministers are also categorised as non-Cabinet ministers but they have no powers to submit cabinet papers even through the President.New IT/BPM Industry Annual Compensation and Benefits Study View(s):

The Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) has released the Compensation and Benefits Study for the IT and BPM industry for the eighth successive year.

The study was conducted during September through December with the participation of 54 SLASSCOM member companies. This years study was conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which has partnered with SLASSCOM to compile this report on six previous occasions as well, the IT industry body said in a media release.

The IT/BPM industry is recognised as a thrust industry within the National Export Strategy (NES) and is promoted globally as the Island of Ingenuity for world-class knowledge solutions. The industry goal is to reach US$ 5 billion by 2022, powered by 200,000 skilled jobs in the industry, along with a thriving ecosystem for start-up companies.

The SLASSCOM Compensation and Benefits study provides value to multiple stakeholder groups in the knowledge solutions space. For companies, it provides the ability to align their compensation strategies based on their overall employee value proposition. Companies are also able to compare the local benchmarks across streams such as Software Engineering, Software Quality Assurance, Business Process Support, Business Analysis, Project/Program Management, Network Administration and other industry specific roles. The study is also structured to provide these insights across different sizes of companies in order to benchmark a company effectively. This study is also a reliable tool for investors to assess Sri Lankas attractiveness when looking at entry or expansion opportunities in the knowledge solutions industry, the release said.

The study covered an analysis of 150 job positions across a wide range of job families, representing the compensation practices and perspectives of small, medium and large IT and BPM companies.

The report provides details on:

1) The emerging HR trends and practices and covers a comprehensive understanding of the compensation strategies, employee attraction, retention and engagement strategies executed by industry players

2) A skill-based analysis of common skills identified to provide an understanding of the variance in pay associated with such skillsets

3) A statistical analysis of the market mean, median and percentiles for job positions in the IT and BPM sector, and

4) Graduate salary scales of select job positions to provide a benchmark to the entry level salary scales in the IT/BPM sector.

The publication team consisted of Lasanga Abeysuriya, Head of Strategy and Human Resource Consulting Services and Zeidi Daniel, Analyst, Human Resource Consulting Services of PricewaterhouseCoopers; Chandi Dharmaratne, Senior Director Human Resources  Virtusa and Director, SLASSCOM; Ranil Rajapakse, Senior Vice President and COO of IFS R&D Ltd and Vice Chairman, SLASSCOM; and Didula Perera, Associate Manager, SLASSCOM.

For more information on the publication or to purchase the report, contact Didula Perera (didula@slasscom.lk) at the SLASSCOM Corporate Office.New DG at Sri Lanka Standards Institution View(s):

Dr. Siddhika G. Senaratne recently assumed duties as the Director General/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI).

Dr. Senaratne completed her primary education at Sirimavo Bandaranaike Vidyalya, Colombo and her secondary education at Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo. At the University of Colombo she completed the Bachelor of Science Degree Specialising in Chemistry with second class honours. She obtained her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of London (St Georgess Hospital Medical School) UK.

Her PhD research work gave rise to a breakthrough finding in discovering the direct induction of breast cancer cell death by the drug bisphosphonates and its suitability for pharmacological interventions in patients with breast cancer and the research publication so far has received more than 498 citations in other peer-reviewed journals. The recognition of her doctoral research work and her wide spectrum of knowledge in the cancer field is well demonstrated by the two post-doctoral fellowships awarded by John Hopkins University Medical School, US in 2002 and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,US in 2004, the SLSI said.

Dr. Senaratne, on her return to Sri Lanka, commenced work at the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI), Sri Lanka. With her futuristic initiatives and persistent drive, she was able to steer ITI to establish a Biotechnology Unit with a State-of-the-Art Biotechnology laboratory. Through this unit she introduced and developed Biotechnology Research and Research Services to ITI. She was also instrumental in setting up a state affiliated laboratory service for Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) Testing and Certification at ITI.

Thereafter, extending her competencies further in the government sector, she joined the Vocational Training Authority of Sri Lanka as Director Research, Planning and Development.

Dr. Senaratne with her vast experience and splendid leadership skills, is setting the stage to make SLSI, a flagship institution, the organization said.Mt. Lavinias grand ole lady gets luxury makeover By Sunimalee Dias View(s): View(s):

Sri Lankas iconic Mt. Lavinia Hotel besotted with a fairy tale of love, of a Governor and a fair maiden, will become the next grandeur of luxury as it readies for major renovation plans scheduled for 2020.

The present Mt. Lavinia Hotel is tipped to commence major renovations scheduled for the summer of next year starting May at a cost of about US$25 million (nearly Rs. 4.5 billion), the hotels Chairman Sanath Ukwatte told the Business Times on Wednesday.

One of the key aspects of going forward would be the upgrading of the hotel to a five star property with a luxury branding catering to a niche clientele and redesigning its brand name from the existing to the Mt. Lavinia Grand Hotel.

Mr. Ukwatte explained that the rebranding of the hotel name itself was required since the hotel is considered to be one with a history and location and only a few of them were found in this region.

The renovations would take place wing by wing in a bid to not disrupt the running of the hotel, he explained.

Work is expected to commence with the original building and later shift to the public areas with restaurants and the back of the house.

At present there are currently two restaurants in operation at the hotel and with the renovations carried out the hotel would be opening up its dining experience to new concepts, Mr. Ukwatte said.

In this respect, the hotel has had discussions with international brands to ensure that some unique concepts could be worked out and the hotel would eventually also increase its restaurants to four.

The capacity on average would be about 50-60 people and these would be specialty restaurants, it was noted.

In addition, other plans at the hotel would include the conversion of a few more rooms into suites due to the increasing demand for suite space by the Mt. Lavinia Hotel patrons as opposed to rooms, Mr. Ukwatte said.

The loyal regular clientele on average would stay from a period of a few weeks to months at the hotel, he explained.

In this respect, they hope to create more space to cater to the growing demand for suites and where there are currently 10 the number would increase to 36. We are more interested in quality than quantity, he said.

Mr. Ukwatte pointed out that they were looking at establishing an integrated hotel as well with expansion plans in the horizon for a MICE centre, with a theatre for 600 persons and a reception hall catering to 2000, and 20-floor apartment space, on about three acres of adjoining land available to the hotel.

The residencies would comprise 180 apartments on over 20 floors with a five storey car park available; he said adding that it would be unique in the fact that it would be having direct beach access.

Mr. Ukwatte also stated that the hotel would be offering a unique dining experience in the restored tunnel used by the lovers by opening up the tunnel more.

The over 210-year old Mt. Lavinia Hotel holds the history to the unique age old love story of Governor Sir Thomas Maitland and the local damsel Lavinia.More countries fault Ceylon Tea View(s):

Sri Lankan authorities are worried over the concerns raised by a number of other countries pertaining to the residue levels found in Ceylon Tea after Japan in 2017, subjected imports to stringent checks.

Though the re-introduction of glyphosate on the plantations is likely to bring relief during its absence authorities state that even countries like Taiwan and Europe raised issues of maximum residue levels found in teas from Sri Lanka.

Regaining the lost glory of Ceylon Tea has become an issue and authorities have now informed Japan about the re-introduction of the use of glyphosate on the estates.

However, the authorities are still carrying out tests on the residue levels in tea exports resulting in high cost to exporters as the impact of the use of glyphosate would take time.

Tea Board officials told the Business Times that the re-introduction of glyphosate on the plantations was likely to bring hope and some solution to the crisis of residues found in Ceylon Tea shipped to Japan.

Sri Lanka banned the use of glyphosate on agricultural produce three years ago but subsequently in March last year the authorities lifted the ban on tea production.

Meanwhile, authorities note that another key issue pertaining to the testing of sugar in teas has been worked out by the Tea Research Institute (TRI).

They explained that the TRI had established the baseline data to be obtained in a bid to ensure that the authorities could carry out necessary testing of teas produced to detect the sugar added to the product.

The necessary guidelines to carry out such testing would be given out to the industry once the SLTB obtains the required approvals within the next few months.

It was noted that approval needs to be obtained once the boards are appointed that was likely to take place by around next week.

(SD)Milk powder importers suspend port clearance of stocks View(s):

Several leading Sri Lankan milk powder companies have suspended clearing their stocks from the port after discussions this week on prices held with the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) and the Treasury ended in a deadlock.

Milk powder companies cannot continue to run their business as the authority is resorting to delaying tactics rather than solving the problem promptly and they are left with no choice but to stop imports, placing new orders and also stop selling existing stocks of whole milk powder, importers warned.

There could be a milk powder shortage in the country within a couple of weeks if the government does not allow companies to increase the price of a milk powder packet, several milk powder company heads told the Business Times.

Milk powder companies are incurring a loss of Rs. 30 to 40 million per month and are now compelled to close down their operations if the government fails to grants them permission to increase milk powder prices by Rs. 100, they said.

Along with the devaluation of the rupee and the increase in total taxes including the Rs.15 as duty, 15 per cent VAT, 7.5 per cent PAL and 2 per cent NBT to Rs. 170 from Rs. 135 per kg, the import cost of milk powder has been increased, they pointed out. In addition the world market price of milk powder is now at a high level.

(BS)IPS: Research Proposals for SK Memorial Research Grant View(s):

The Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS) is calling for proposals for the Saman Kelegama Memorial Research Grant 2019.

The Saman Kelegama Memorial Research Grant is an annual, merit-based grant awarded to an outstanding undergraduate studying in a university in Sri Lanka. The grant aims to promote policy entrepreneurs amongst undergraduate students by encouraging policy relevant, rigorous and innovative socio-economic research. The Saman Kelegama Memorial Research Grant is financed by a fund created by the IPS, the research agency said in a media release.

The grant is open to fourth year undergraduate students studying economics or a related subject in a University Grants Commission approved university or higher education institute in Sri Lanka.

The beneficiary will be awarded a one-time research grant of Rs.150,000 to carry out the proposed research and a three-month internship at the IPS. The recipient will be able to seek guidance from senior researchers and benefit from IPS resources to complete the proposed study during the internship.

The grant was established in 2018, to honour Dr. Saman Kelegamas legacy of independent research and public policy engagement in the arena of socio-economic development in Sri Lanka and the wider South Asian region. Through the grant, IPS intends to honour Dr. Kelegama  who was the Executive Director of the IPS from 1995 to 2017  and his role as an eminent economist, policy advisor and public policy advocate by fostering independent research nationally. The first Saman Kelegama Memorial Research Grant was awarded to Thisali de Silva, a student of the University of Colombo. The proposal must be e-mailed to nilmini@ips.lk in word format, on or before February 15, 2019, IPS said.CB lends Rs 90 bn to Govt. to settle loans View(s):

The Central Bank (CB) has subscribed to Treasury bills (T-bills) amounting to Rs. 90 billion so far this month (January) at the request of the Treasury to assist financing needs of the government, it was announced on Thursday.

The CB said this was due to the delay in receiving expected foreign currency financing arrangements as envisaged in the Treasurys cash flow for the month of January.

The Monetary Board has acceded to the Treasurys request in the national interest and under exceptional circumstances. Having reviewed the macroeconomic consequences of subscribing to T-bills by the CB, the Government has agreed to reverse part of the transaction in February and the balance during the first quarter of 2019 once the Governments borrowing programme is brought back on track with realisation of expected financial arrangements, the CB statement said.

On Tuesday, non-Cabinet Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution Minister Harsha de Silva was quoted in the local media as saying that the government had on January 15 settled the US$1 billion borrowed by the previous regime in January, 2014 by way of international sovereign bonds.

Meanwhile the International Monetary Fund(IMF) has decided to resume the 3-year US$1.5 billion Extended Fund Facility Programme discussions from February 16. It will then release the sixth tranche of about SDR 177.77 or $250 million which was suspended as a result of the political impasse instigated by the President on October 26.

The IMF has decided to resume discussions on a funding programme with Sri Lanka soon, said Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), when she met with Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera and Central Bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy in Washington on Tuesday.

The IMF Communication Department quoted Ms. Lagarde as saying The IMF remains ready to support the Sri Lankan authorities in these endeavours and an IMF team is scheduled to visit Colombo in mid-February to resume programme discussions.

Sri Lankas unexpected change in government, political instability and policy paralysis compelled the IMF to delay the release of the sixth tranche of EFF.

The suspension of the sixth tranche came soon after the sudden change in Government on October 26 at a time where the Executive Board of the IMF was due to complete the fourth review of Sri Lanka s three-year EFF following the conclusion of its annual meetings in October. It was scheduled to be released in December this year.

Ms. Lagarde noted that she met with Minister Samaraweera and Governor Coomaraswamy and discussed the challenging economic environment and the policy priorities for the country.

The government authorities stressed Sri Lankas continued commitment to their economic reform agenda under the IMF-supported programme, Ms. Lagarde said following the meeting.

Ms. Lagarde said they agreed that a strong policy mix, with effective implementation of that agenda, is key to strengthening confidence, while putting Sri Lanka on a sustainable, high-quality growth path that would benefit its people.Below the belt View(s):

A.E. Gunasinghe, widely regarded as the Father of the Labour Movement in Sri Lanka must surely be turning in his grave these days (figuratively speaking)!

Why? Because his beloved labour movement, including the rights of workers and employees, has been downgraded by the current administration.

I didnt realise this..and this applies to many in the trade union movement itself, until H.R. Perera, the human resource pundit, brought it to my notice.

It all began on this warm and sunny Thursday just as Kussi Amma Sera was chatting at the gate with her friends Serapina and Mabel Rasthiyadu. From the snatches of conversation I heard, they appeared to be discussing a strike at a garment factory outside Colombo.

Apey gama langa garment factory ekaka, giya sumane weda varjanayak thibuna (There was a strike at a garment factory near our village), said Kussi Amma Sera.

Weda kerana lamai-te prashnayak wuna-da (Was that a problem for the workers)? asked Mabel Rasthiyadu.

Also interjecting with a question was Serapina: Padi-adu prashnayak da (Was it a wage issue)?

Ov..dawas thunak witharai, eeta-passe, visadanna wuna (Yes, the issue was there for three days and then resolved), responded Kussi Amma Sera.

It was at this point that the phone rang with H.R. Perera on the line. Machan, did you hear? The labour portfolio is no longer a Cabinet position. It has been given non-Cabinet portfolio status, he said.

Whaaaat? I blurted out loud, incredulously, adding: What on earth have they gone and done this time?

I then vaguely recalled a government announcement where the labour portfolio held by Minister Daya Gamage was re-assigned as the Social Empowerment Minister and parliamentarian Ravindra Samaraweera assigned as the non-Cabinet Minister of Labour and Trade Union Relations. Earlier all subjects were held by Gamage, as a cabinet minister.

This is a major mess up, said Perera, adding: A real faux pas by the authorities.

A new Cabinet of Ministers was appointed after the 52-day political impasse brought about by the President sacking Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Cabinet, only to restore the status quo after the Supreme Court ruled that the Presidential decree had violated the Constitution. However, in order to give many party faithfuls positions in a limited Cabinet of 30 and in non-Cabinet positions, some changes were made like in the case of Daya Gamage.

Labour is an integral component of any society and as important as education, health and defence. The government by assigning labour to a non-Cabinet minister has devalued the position that labour holds in the countrys economic and social development status and is akin to relegating either education or health to a non-Cabinet position.

Consider these statistics: In 2017, the countrys employed population (in the 18 years and over category) was 8.1 million with almost 7 million being in rural areas. This means that nearly 40 per cent of the total population of 21.4 million was employed or doing some kind of work. The employment rate was 95.9 per cent of the labour force with 4.1 per cent being unemployed (which technically means the country has achieved full employment status).

Look at the subjects assigned to the Cabinet ministers: Defence, Mahaweli Development, Vocational Training, Tourism, Finance, Public Enterprises, City Planning, Foreign Affairs, Health, Education, Power and Energy, Home Affairs, Industry and Commerce, Megapolis, Agriculture, Public Administration, Highways, Housing, Lands, Transport and Civil Aviation, Justice, Ports, Telecommunication, etc.

In fact, when Gamage was first named the Cabinet minister, the portfolio was listed as Labour, Trade Union Relations and Social Empowerment which implied that labour was more important than Social Empowerment (which continues to be assigned Cabinet status). Furthermore, there was a time when foreign employment was assigned Cabinet status, the portfolio read as Labour and Foreign Employment.

Many of the subjects assigned above are not as important as labour. On the other hand, what is tourism without labour? What is education without labour  since children are educated eventually to join the labour force of the country? Why is foreign employment (1.5 million workers overseas) more important than labour (over 8 million workers)?

Shocking, was also how veteran trade unionist Palitha Athukorala, who wears many hats in the trade union movement, described the development.

Trade union leaders, including those from politically-affiliated government unions, are planning to raise this issue at the next meeting of the National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC) and protest over its downgraded status, he said, when I asked about the issue. Sri Lanka has had some fine Labour Ministers over the years like T.B. Illangaratne, M.H. Mohamed, C.P.J. Seneviratne, etc. Even former Presidents D.B. Wijetunga and Mahinda Rajapaksa once served as Labour Ministers.

For the record, A.E. Gunasinghe was the founder of the Ceylon Labour Party, Sri Lankas first labour movement, at a time when there were only plantation unions in the country. According to records, the first Labour Day was held in 1927 under his leadership.

The importance of labour and trade union relations was also recognised by employers resulting in the formation of the Employers Federation of Ceylon (EFC), a union or body representing employers in the country. The EFC last year marked its 90th anniversary since being formed during British colonial rule.

This is the first time that labour has been left out as a full Cabinet subject. In the recent reshuffle, five non-Cabinet ministers have been appointed to the subject ministries of Economic Reform and Public Distribution, Digital Infrastructure and Information Technology, Science, Technology and Research, Labour and Trade Union Relations and Special Area Development.

So, what is the role of the non-Cabinet labour minister? He can attend Cabinet meetings only if there is a subject being discussed pertaining to labour or a Cabinet paper has been submitted on labour or trade union issues. Cabinet papers prepared by a non-Cabinet minister have to be submitted to the Cabinet through the President, on the formers behalf.

In such a case, decision-making becomes an issue particularly when urgent decisions have to be taken over a knotty labour issue or trade union problem.

Finally, I echo the words of H.R. Perera who said the composition of the Cabinet subjects is akin to playing the childrens game Tak tik tuk by a koheda yanne malle pol administration. Its still not too late to bring labour back to Cabinet status, even given to another Minister if there was a problem with Gamage handling this subject. However, in doing so, as vividly seen in recent times, this should not create other problems by removing another important Cabinet subject to be replaced by labour.Changes to the SunCommercial's back end processing means the e-edition is getting a facelift. The biggest change is the e-edition, by default, is now presented in Text view.Hundreds of thousands of federal workers responsible for our safety and security are working without a paycheck and are unable to support their families. So why is Congress getting paid for doing nothing? Why isn't the national media publicly asking lawmakers like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell how they can justify accepting a paycheck when so many people are not? These people should be ashamed of themselves. Congress continues to do what they think their job is, and that's nothing! We have had a "do nothing" Congress for over 15 years now, why should anybody expect things to change, doing nothing has become the norm?In truth, the wall is vital only to Trumps ego and to the support of his hard-core voters, a bloc that a new poll suggests is finally shrinking. There has never been a wall, fence, moat, or fortification that deterred people desperate enough to circumvent it. The governments own data show that nearly half of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are people who overstayed visas, meaning they entered the country legally at an airport or border crossing point  not climbing over a fence or wall. The people fleeing extreme violence and poverty in Central America are mostly presenting themselves at ports of entry to petition for asylum, which they have a legal right to do. Most illegal drugs are smuggled through those ports of entry as well, ingeniously hidden in products and vehicles. Thats where more money needs to be spent.It turns out Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner arent the only ones moving to the ultraexclusive Billionaires Bunker near Miami. According to Page Six, Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen are the latest couple to have purchased a slice of Indian Creek Island, for a cool $17 million.Its exactly what she wanted, Norris-Weeks said. This puts her in the same position that she would have been in when she resigned. Its as if the suspension never took place.The move  on Day 28 of a shutdown that has left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without paychecks  represents the first major overture by the president since Jan. 8, when he delivered an Oval Office address making the public case for his border wall. The president and his aides have said he will not budge on his demand for $5.7 billion in funding. Democrats have panned the number and said they will not negotiate until the government reopens, raising questions about how Trump might move the ball forward.Beruff, whom Scott named to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission on his last day in office, ran for U.S. Senate with the help of Scotts political advisers in 2016 but would not back out of the race when incumbent Marco Rubio opted to run for re-election.However, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reviewed resumes of nine other School Board secretaries and found that at least two hired in the past decade also lacked the minimum qualifications. One had no prior secretarial experience at all, while the other had two years of experience with a liberal arts degree.I dont really care who we work with, Republican or Democrat here in Palm Beach County, as long as we can avoid some of the problems in the supervisors office, said Michael Barnett, chairman of Palm Beach Countys Republican Party. Were very grateful that Ron DeSantis took this action after only two weeks on the job. It had to be done.We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

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Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.by Anwar A. Khan





At the outset, I wish to quote from the book of Rise Up and Salute the Sun written by famed Egyptian-American author Suzy Kassem, Choose a leader who will invest in building bridges, not walls. Books, not weapons. Morality, not corruption. Intellectualism and wisdom, not ignorance. Stability, not fear and terror. Peace, not chaos. Love, not hate. Convergence, not segregation. Tolerance, not discrimination. Fairness, not hypocrisy. Substance, not superficiality. Character, not immaturity. Transparency, not secrecy. Justice, not lawlessness. Environmental improvement and preservation, not destruction. Truth, not lies, and a Doctor for Healing of Patients, not killing of them. As a matter of fact, Dr. Bernard B. Nath who loved to give or bring back a patients life passed away from this mundane world on 16 January, 2019. He was a tested and trusted physician, and the patients drank his remedy for more than four decades in silence and tranquility and got relief.





Dr. Bernard B. Nath is an allopathic physician of medicine by profession. He did his Doctor of Medicine from Italy. Being a very kind-hearted Doctor of medicine, he had been treating his patients with strong dedication, medical skills and kindness; and he always remained concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through his excellent treatment. He used to take a very insignificant fee per medical consultation. Every patient is a true votary of him because of his kindness and his very high quality of treatment. I know him since 1983. He is a perfect Doctor, perfect in all respects and a perfect human-being. Innumerable patients took his quality treatment with great satisfaction. Everyone respected him highly from the bottom of their hearts because of his excellent treatment to his patients. But he always kept a very low profile. He died at the age of only 68, but he should have lived for so many years more to serve his patients.





Bernard B. Nath

He is rare species of Doctor and one will not be able to find another physician to his level of quality in the present time in Bangladesh. Dr. Bernard is an excellent medicinal physician and professional and every sense of the word. He is truly the finest and most gifted medicine specialist in Bangladesh. He was a true asset to the country. His talent and expertise are superb! What a fabulous field of medicine; watching the transformation and joy of patients. One had to be filled with gratitude for his dedication to his field of activities and tender care of his patients.





I am grateful to know what a special person he has been since 1983. He enriched the lives of so many people. I hope all of his patients have the same respect and admiration for him that I do. He is truly a master in his field and has changed many lives. Many patients are now healthier, happier, and more confident and are committed to getting in good shape and health. Dhaka is blessed to had such a kind-hearted physician who cared about his patients and he was a consummate professional. He was an incredible doctor and I imagine he did wonderful things for his patients every day. Patients are also grateful for his tranquil reassurance that is always calm but always beneficial.





He was truly the best of the best in the field of medical treatment in our country! His professionalism, kindness and expertise are highly praiseworthy. He knew how happy he was making his patients every day but as I said earlier, he always kept a very low profile. He is a gifted general physician in the discipline of medicine. He was so very special to every patient. When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace and I think Dr. Bernard strongly believed and have truly internalised these words of Dalai Lama in his inward soul to render his services to the patients.





Simply put, a great doctor is a great human being, who happens to have the capacity to restore health. The greatest doctors are those who know when to stop and pull out. A doctor, like anyone else who has to deal with human beings, each of them unique, cannot be a scientist; he is either, like the surgeon, a craftsman, or, like the physician and the psychologist, an artist. This means that in order to be a good doctor, a man must also have a good character, that is to say, whatever weaknesses and foibles he may have and he must love his fellow human beings in the concrete and desire for their good before his own.





An enlightened Master Jaggi Vasudev has said, In terms of the real quality of a human being, only when suffering comes, when pain comes, does a man stand up as a human being. Similarly, until and unless, we fall in sick, we cant fathom the sufferings of illness. I am sexagenarian; so I frequently encounter physical sickness and try to get some relief for which I used go to consult with a noble physician like Dr. Bernard B. Nath. He always treated me as his own man and as his own friend. I feel proud of him and shall do so unto my death.





I am deeply saddened to have heard of his sudden death and when I was writing this piece, my eyes were welling up every moment in remembrance of this pure gentleman physician that Bangladesh has ever produced. Bangladesh does have serious dearth of good doctors in the related field of illness. And we shall feel more so in absence of a great physician like Dr. Bernard B. Nath.





The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them has been aptly said by Dr. Bernard M. Baruch and any sort of illness or disease is nothing but a trouble and we should not carry on with it. Seeking a doctors advise for remedy is the right thing to do. Whenever I fell into sickness, I prefered to consult with humanist physicians like Dr. Bernard B. Nath, MD (Medicine), Italy and maybe, because we also are in the same age group. There is, within physicians, special breeds who have honed the uncanny ability to simply feel what is wrong with a patient, and pursue this observation appropriately. This is the breed of Dr. Bernard, a man perhaps most famously known for being the real-life inspiration behind all patients. He asserts in the tone of Dr. Abraham Verghese, I grew up and I found my purpose and it was to become a physician. My intent isn't to save the world as much as to heal myself. But in entering the profession, we must believe that ministering to others will heal our woundedness.





Before you examine the body of a patient, be patient to learn his story. For once you learn his story; you will also come to know his body. Observation, reason, human understanding, courage; these make the physician. To array a man's will against his sickness is the supreme art of medicine. The physician should look upon the patient as a besieged city and try to rescue him with every means that art and science place at his command. The doctor should be opaque to his patients and, like a mirror, should show them nothing but what is shown to him. It is the duty of a doctor to prolong life and it is not his duty to prolong the act of dying. Dr. Bernard B. Nath always tried his best to prolong a patients life with his kindness.





Men, who are occupied in the restoration of health to other men, by the joint exertion of skill and humanity, are above all the great of the earth. They even partake of divinity, since to preserve and renew is almost as noble as to create. Ernest Hemingway said, Deceive not thy physician, confessor, nor lawyer. In nothing do men more nearly approach God, than in giving health to men. The doctor is the servant, not master for teaching Nature. Dr. Bernard B. Nath was simply like a servant to his patients.





A physician is obligated to consider more than a diseased organ, more than even the whole manhe must view the man in his world. Carl Wilhelm Hermann Nothnagel said, All knowledge attains its ethical value and its human significance only by the human sense with which it is employed. Only a good man can be a great physician. In fact, Dr. Bernard is a human being of morally admirable and as such, he is a physician of uppercase and major significance or importance. But nothing is more estimable than a physician who, having studied nature from his youth, knows the properties of the human body, the diseases which assail it, the remedies which will benefit it, exercises his art with caution, and pays equal attention to the rich and the poor. He was a great friend to the poor patients and sometimes, he treats his patients without any fees or with a very nominal fee.





Let the physician take care to regulate the whole regimen of the patient's life for joy and happiness by promising that he will soon be well, by allowing his relatives and special friends to cheer him and by having someone tell him jokes, and let him be solaced also by music on the viol or psaltery. The physician must forbid anger, hatred, and sadness in the patient, and remind him that the body grows fat from joy and thin from sadness.





Medicine rests upon four pillarsphilosophy, astronomy, alchemy, and ethics. The first pillar is the philosophical knowledge of earth and water; the second, astronomy, supplies its full understanding of that which is of fiery and airy nature; the third is an adequate explanation of the properties of all the four elementsthat is to say, of the whole cosmosand an introduction into the art of their transformations; and finally, the fourth shows the physician those virtues which must stay with him up until his death, and it should support and complete the three other pillars has correctly been spelt out by Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus. And Dr. Bernard B. Nath was the physician who possessed all those qualities.





Only the healing art enables one to make a name for him and at the same time give benefit to others. Only those who regard healing as the ultimate goal of their efforts can, therefore, be designated as physicians. Physicians are many in title but very little in reality. Dr. Bernard comes under the purview of that very few little in reality. Physicians still retain something of their priestly origin. The best physician is also a philosopher and he is like a philosopher.





There are some arts which to those that possess them are painful, but to those that use them are helpful, a common good to laymen, but to those that practise them grievous. Of such arts there is one which the Greeks call medicine. For the medical man sees terrible sights, touches unpleasant things, and the misfortunes of others bring a harvest of sorrows that are peculiarly his; but the sick by means of the art rid themselves of the worst of evils, disease, suffering, pain and death. The ideal doctor would be a man endowed with profound knowledge of life and of the soul, intuitively divining any suffering or disorder of whatever kind, and restoring peace by his mere presence as spelt out by Henri-Frederic Amiel, has been interanlised in the heart and soul of Dr. Bernard B. Nath.





To end up, we wish to say Allah and the Doctor we alike adore. Dr. Bernards achievement of his happiness is the only moral purpose of his life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of his moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of his loyalty to the achievement of his values. Without continual growth and progress, such words as, improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning. Restore a man to his health; his purse lies open to thee. To us, the ideal doctor would be a man endowed with profound knowledge of life and of the soul, intuitively divining any suffering or disorder of whatever kind, and restoring peace by his mere presence. Each patient ought to feel somewhat the better after the physician's visit, irrespective of the nature of the illness. "In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity. We must go through the storm to appreciate the sunshine! as defined aright by Albert Einstein and Dr. Bernard is the sunshine; he is one of few finest gentlemen physicians of the country. As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all directions. Goodness is about character - integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people. And Dr. Bernard treats patients in an exceptionally different way to heal them. He is now more with us. We are weeping. His hundreds of thousands of patients are sobbing for his death. We shall miss him so dearly. We pray for and shall pray for him. May his soul rests in peace in Heaven. Dear Dr. Bernard B. Nath, we are remembering you with tearful eyes; and you will always remain in our thoughts and prayers.





-The End 

The writer is a senior citizen of Bangladesh, writes on politics, political and human-centred figures, current and international affairs.



The first large Maginot fort was built in the 1920s north of Nice

Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2019

`Good fences make good neighbors, wrote American poet Robert Frost. But not according to President Donald Trump whose proposed Great Wall is supposed to protect the nation from hordes of rabid, murderous, drug crazed rapists and unwhites from south of the border.Im a life-long student of military architecture, with a particular passion for modern fortification, chief among which is Frances own Great Wall, the magnificent and unfairly reviled Maginot Line.Given the heated debate in America over Trumps proposed barrier along the Mexican border, its worth looking back to the Maginot Line. It was supposed to have been Frances savior after the bloodbath of World War I.Proposed by Deputy Andre Maginot in the 1920s, the Line was supposed to cover key parts of Frances frontiers with German and Italy. Due to the terrible losses of the Great War, France did not have enough soldiers to properly defend its long frontiers. So it made sense to erect fortifications to compensate for manpower weakness and to block surprise attacks from next door enemy forces.The first large Maginot fort was built in the 1920s north of Nice to protect the Cote dAzur from possible Italian attacks. Mussolini was demanding France return the Riviera coast to its former Italian rulers. Work on the principal Line along the German and Luxembourg borders began soon after. Phase one covered 260 miles from near the Rhine to Longuyon, a rail junction south of the Belgian border.The Line consisted of hundreds of steel and concrete machine gun and anti-tank casemates with interlocking flanking fire. They were surrounded by upright rails designed to halt tanks and dense belts of interwoven barbed wire covered by machine guns. Artillery casemates with 75mm, 81mm and 135mm guns covered the forts fronts and sides.Within and behind the Maginot Line were based an army of specialized fortress troops and hundreds of field artillery guns. The eras most advanced electronic communications systems meshed the defenses together. The big forts were mostly buried 90 feet underground, proof from any projectiles of the era.But the problem was that a wall or barrier is only effective so long as there are adequate troops to man it.In the spring of 1940, France had deployed nearly a third of its field army behind the Maginot Line. But then the Germans staged a brilliant breakthrough north of the Line across the supposedly impenetrable Ardennes forest region. In 1938, a French parliamentarian named Perrier (from the French water family) had toured the Ardennes area and warned the military that it was very vulnerable to a German breakthrough. The generals scoffed at this civilian and ignored Perriers warning.Sure enough, the German armored and infantry assault came right through this Ardennes weak point near Sedan, forcing a rapid retreat by French and British forces in the region that ended up at Dunkerque.As outflanked Allied forces pulled back from the frontier, they exposed the northern flank of the Maginot Line. The French high command, fearing their armies around the Line would be encircled, ordered the interval forces to retreat towards the highlands of central France. The Line was thus denuded of its troops and artillery. These units, who were armed and trained for static defense, had to make their way cross country on foot. Most were captured en route by advancing German forces.In spring 1940 the Line was unfinished with large gaps and open flanks due to budgetary constraints caused by the 1930s depression. The Germans drove through them, wisely avoiding most of big forts, and attacked the Line from the rear. Ironically, in 1944/45, German troops ended up defending the Maginot Forts from the advancing US Army.The Line worked as planned, protecting vulnerable areas. But it was never extended to the Channel due to Belgiums high water table and reluctance to fortify behind the French ally. The Belgians believed their powerful forts near Liege would delay the Germans until the French Army could intervene. They were wrong.The French public ascribed almost magical powers to the Line. It would keep them invulnerable they believed. Building the fortifications became a national works project during the Depression, rather like the US WPA labor program. But Adolf Hitler vowed he would go around the Line and chop it up. He did.A Trump wall or barrier will cost far more than believed and be likely unfinished, with large gaps like the Maginot Line. Some better way of blocking the border must be found. If not, we may end up having to wall and garrison the Canadian border as well.



by Rajan Philips





"Man by nature is a social animal " ~ Aristotle





"Human beings are social animals. They are not individuals." ~ Gotabhaya Rajapaksa at Waters Edge





Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (GR) has announced that he is ready to be a presidential candidate if the people are also ready for it. Not to be outdone, his oldest brother Chamal Rajapaksa has also declared his readiness: If Gota is ready, so am I! It is immaterial whether these are conditional declarations, trial balloons, or, plain bravado to enthuse their respective sponsor groups. Gotabhayas sponsors are the upstart professionals of Viyath Maga who see their Messiah in Gota. For Chamal, the instigators are the degenerate progressives like Vasu, Dinesh, et al who are alarmed by the prospect of a Gotabhaya candidacy and are clinging on to Chamal to protect their placements at the Rajapaksa political table. It is immaterial as well even if their declarations are co-ordinated mixed signals from the Rajapaksa house to keep Sirisena worrying and Ranil Wickremesinghe guessing. And who cares if the signals are only aimed at the decision-making Rajapaksas-Mahinda-Basil-Namal and no one else.





The crux of his message is that Sri Lankans must celebrate nationalism as opposed to globalism

What matters is the political universe that GR seems to be sketching for the benefit of his followers and the attention of all others. At their most recent gathering, after being sidelined for nearly three months by the tumults of the Sirisena-Rajapaksa power-grab antics and aftermaths, Rajapaksa addressed his faithful in esoteric terms  lauding the virtues of nationalism as opposed to globalism, pitching for a Sri Lankan identity rising above the islands ethno plurality, and asserting (falsely) the collective rights of society over the individual rights of its members. He got into some terminological twists (Jathikathwaya vs Jathiwadaya) in differentiating between racism or communalism (even casteism) and nationalism in the national language (a terminological pitfall in articulating the theory and experience of nationalism, that is common to almost all South Asian languages), but rescued himself by claiming that diaspora Sri Lankans, given their life on the global platform, appreciate the attributes of Sri Lankan nationalism better than resident Sri Lankans.





The simple difference is that to every diaspora group, long-distance nationalism of the old country is the convenient antidote to the social and political alienation that a good number of diaspora members experience in their immigrant countries at least in the earlier years after their relocation. GR himself is a perfect illustration of this duality. A dual citizen of Sri Lanka and the United States, he successfully fought a war for the Sri Lankan government and now wants to be its President. But he must first renounce the US citizenship. Ay, theres the rub, and more on it later.





The crux of his message is that Sri Lankans must celebrate nationalism as opposed to globalism, must privilege collective rights over individual rights, and as "social animals" work together to liberate Sri Lanka and the poor among Sri Lankans out of their poverty. There could not have been a more glittering gathering in Sri Lanka, or elsewhere, for a political homily on poverty, than the Viyath Maga audience, who assembled in their Saturday best to hear and cheer their political neophyte. And no one goes to Waters Edge to talk poverty. No, poverty eradication is not on the agenda of the Colombo busybodies who are flocking behind Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.









They want to get back to the levers of power and influence at the commanding heights of politics and the economy from which they were suddenly wrenched off in January 2015. They want to restart from where they left and to them GR is the man who can take them back to the seats of power. They are fed up with the self-gratifying politics of Ranil Wickremesinghe and frustrated after the Maithri-Mahinda power grab cockup in October-December last year. The Gota-for-President campaign they launched last May with the Shangri La bash has since been sidelined and ambushed by developments within the Rajapaksa tent and outside it. Now, they want their man front and centre both inside tent and in the country at large.





Yet, the Gotabhaya candidacy is not a certainty. It is certainly more potent than the mendicant candidacy of Maithripala Sirisena. GL Peiris could not and did not brush aside Gotabhayas declaration of presidential readiness the way he (GLP) dismissed Sirisenas vicarious overture through Nimal Siripala de Silva. Only Mahinda Rajapaksa can decide who the presidential candidate will be  that was Peiris putdown to Sirisena and Siripala. But commenting on Gotabhays candidacy is clearly above GL Peiris pay-grade in the Rajapaksa universe. Leaving Peiris aside, Mahinda Rajapaksas apparent reluctance to forthrightly endorse his brothers presidential candidacy might be due to his caution about GRs ability to successfully transition from his military background to a winning presidential candidate. Many other reasons have also been suggested for the former Presidents reluctance about his younger brothers candidacy.

Individual rights in a social animal farm

A few days after the Waters Edge scripted remarks on social animals and individual rights, GR seemingly tripped himself up talking about his US citizenship. Given the speculation that he may not be able to give up his citizenship in time to be eligible to be a presidential candidate, he spoke like an American. He told reporters after appearing before the Special Corruption High Court in Colombo, that his US citizenship was an entirely personal choice and he could withdraw it at any moment. "It is a personal choice and I can make any decision on that. I can either seek to withdraw it or continue with it . The US is the father of Liberal Democracy. The country cannot make a person a US citizen by force."









Personal choices are individual rights by another name, and by GRs Waters Edge logic what is sauce for him as an American citizen may not be sauce for other Sri Lankans as Sri Lankan citizens. Sri Lanka is not in any enviable position like the US in having to deal with one of its (dual) citizens renouncing his American citizenship to be President in another country. But many Sri Lankans may consider themselves to be in unenviable positions if GR were to become Sri Lankas President in the next presidential election. And they are the experiential victims of the illiberal effects, putting it mildly, of the Mahinda Rajapaksa presidency especially after 2009. GR, as Defence Secretary, overseeing everything from national security to urban development to legal drafting, was a huge part of it.









Every illiberal effect of those years and the direct or indirect experience of it involved individual rights. What was involved was the violation by the state and its official and unofficial agents of basic individual rights  the right of personal security, the right to personal liberty, and the rights involving private and public property. People were arrested without cause; people were kidnapped and tortured or killed; and people were just killed in broad daylight. Private and public properties were sequestered and abused for the corrupt benefits of those in power. None of them have been proven in a court of law, but there is no doubt that every one of them happened and there are direct and indirect victims and survivors, the living but helpless proofs, carrying the physical and mental scars of the violations of individual rights. The litany of victims is long and old and needs no recounting here.





No one is accusing GR or any of the prospective presidential candidates of anything. But is it unreasonable to ask every one of them, including GR what their position is in regard to unresolved crimes and unexposed corruption, and what they will do differently, if elected as President, to address them? Will GR give the country the benefit of his understanding and the assurance that as President he will get cracking on them until every crime is investigated and resolved? He could, of course, ignore this plea and it would mean by implication that these individual loses are not worth the bother in the context of the larger schemes that he has in mind for the country.





GRs Viyath Maga professionals will, of course, wholeheartedly agree. And that will take the country back to the slippery slope to the social animal farm, where it was heading until Maithripala Sirisena came out of nowhere and interrupted the slide. Given the special role he played as Defence Secretary under Mahinda Rajapaksa, the younger Rajapaksas Waters Edge lecture on social animals and individual rights take on an ominous meaning for the future. It is too fanciful, and dangerously so, to dismiss individual rights to life and against arbitrary actions by the state as western constructs that are not relevant in Asian societies. These rights may have been formalized and codified in legal texts starting in the West, but they embody the basic human urge and aspiration to enjoy them anywhere and anytime. They are also internalized as constitutional rights in Sri Lanka, India and every Asian country that is a constitutional democracy. The alternatives are social animal farms.





Are GR and his professional faithful telling us that we put aside constitutional democracy in order to uplift Sri Lanka from its lower middle income status to the higher middle income status? Just how many more people need to be kidnapped, forced to disappear, or killed, before our average annual income goes up by a few hundred dollars? There is no political or economic project that is worth the deliberate sacrifice of even a single human life. When human lives are expended and individual rights are infringed by the state, the real reason is not any larger economic or political goal for the greater good; the real reasons are corruption, cronyism and family bandyism, and the narrow political agenda to sustain them at all cost. And, nationalism, without constitutional democracy and individual rights, has a different name: fascism. Be a Hitler, so to speak.



Six Nigerian troops killed in Boko Haram raid



Kano, Nigeria, Jan 19 (AFP) Jan 19, 2019



Six Nigerian soldiers were killed and 14 injured when Boko Haram jihadists raided a village near the army chief's family home, security and hospital sources said Saturday.

The jihadists attacked an army position overnight Thursday in Kamuya, a village in the northeastern state of Borno near the home of army chief of staff Tukur Yusuf Buratai's mother, the sources said.

"We lost six soldiers in the fight and 14 others sustained various degrees of injuries," an army officer said.

"The terrorists also suffered heavy losses," the officer added without giving figures.

A medic at the hospital in nearby Damaturu confirmed that the bodies of six soldiers were taken to the morgue on Friday.

Four military vehicles were also seized by the jihadists while two others were destroyed, said the military source who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak about the incident.

Security sources initially told AFP that troops had fought off the militants in a three-hour battle during which the jihadists failed to overrun the post.

It was not known which Boko Haram faction was behind the attack, although the IS-affiliated Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) is known to operate in the area.

Kamuya was hit twice by Boko Haram in December 2015, not long after Buratai, a lieutenant general, was appointed chief of army staff.

The latest attack came days after Boko Haram overran a military base in the town of Rann, near the border with Cameroon, forcing thousands of civilians to flee.

Fourteen people, including three soldiers, were said to have been killed in that attack, and aid workers said buildings used by humanitarian organisations had been burned to the ground.

The UN's humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, said Friday that the attacks -- and others like it -- were having a "devastating impact" on civilians and the relief effort.

Around 1.8 million people are still homeless because of the insurgency, which began in 2009 and has killed more than 27,000.Location of next summit with Kim chosen, says Trump



Washington, Jan 19 (AFP) Jan 19, 2019



US President Donald Trump said Saturday that the location has been decided for his next summit with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, around the end of February.

"We picked a country," Trump told reporters, without giving more details.

A Vietnamese government source earlier told AFP that "logistical preparations" were under way to host the encounter, most likely in the capital Hanoi or coastal city of Danang.

The White House on Friday confirmed that the second Trump-Kim meeting would occur next month, following a rare visit to Washington by a senior North Korean general.

Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol, a right-hand man to the North Korean strongman, met Trump at the White House on Friday for an unusually long 90 minutes as the countries seek a denuclearization accord that could ease decades of hostility.

On Saturday, Trump said a "lot of progress" has been made on the issue.

Kim Jong Un and Trump first met in June in Singapore, where they signed a vaguely worded document in which Kim pledged to work toward the "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."

Progress stalled soon afterward as Pyongyang and Washington -- which has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea -- disagree over what that means.

The United States expects Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arsenal, doggedly built by the Kim dynasty despite sanctions and nationwide famines.

Kim, whose family has brutally ruled North Korea for three generations, is seeking guarantees of the regime's survival as well as relief from biting UN sanctions.

Analysts say that a second summit has to make tangible progress on the issue of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons if it is to avoid being dismissed as "reality TV."Three migrants dead, 15 missing off Libya: Italian navy



Rome, Jan 19 (AFP) Jan 19, 2019



Three migrants died and about 15 were missing off the Libyan coast, the Italian navy said Saturday, after staging a rescue operation in the Mediterranean.

The navy intervened on Friday and a helicopter rescued three people suffering from hypothermia who were flown to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, Admiral Fabio Agostini said.

This was after Italian air force pilots "spotted a dinghy in distress carrying about 20 people," he told Italian television in an interview tweeted by the navy.

"Three corpses were seen floating in the water during the operation," he said, adding that the rescuers had been unable to locate the dinghy.

A Red Crescent spokesman meanwhile said 16 bodies had been found on the beaches of the Libyan city of Sirte between January 2 and 15.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 83 people have died so far this year trying to cross the Mediterranean.

It said the number of migrants and refugees landing on European shores had almost doubled in the first 16 days of this year to 4,216 against 2,365 over the same period in 2018.Trump, Kim to meet anew in month after N.Korean visits White House



Washington, Jan 19 (AFP) Jan 19, 2019



President Donald Trump will meet for the second time with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un around the end of February, the White House said Friday, after a top general from Pyongyang paid a rare visit to Washington.

Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol, a right-hand man to the North Korean strongman, met the embattled president at the White House for an unusually long 90 minutes as the countries seek a denuclearization accord that could ease decades of hostility.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said that Trump -- who has opined that he and Kim Jong Un fell "in love" after last year's landmark first summit -- would again meet the North Korean leader "near the end of February" at a location to be announced later.

The flurry of diplomacy comes little more than a year after Trump was threatening to wipe North Korea off the map, with Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests rattling nerves in East Asia.

Sanders praised North Korea's efforts to reconcile but ruled out, for now, a key demand of Pyongyang -- a lifting of sanctions.

"The United States is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea until we see fully and verified denuclearization," Sanders told reporters.

"We've had very good steps in good faith from the North Koreans in releasing the hostages and other moves and so we'll continue those conversations," she said.

She was referring to Pyongyang's quick deportation last year of an American. In 2017, a US student returned home comatose from North Korea and died within days after what a US judge said was torture.



- Results or photo-op? -



Kim Jong Un and Trump first met in June in Singapore, where they signed a vaguely worded document in which Kim pledged to work toward the "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."

But progress stalled soon afterward as Pyongyang and Washington -- which stations 28,500 troops in South Korea -- disagree over what that means.

Critics say that the Singapore summit was little more than a photo-op. The second round with the young and elusive North Korean leader will again offer a change of headlines for Trump amid a barrage of scandalous allegations and a political deadlock that has shut down the US government.

"Let's hope the second summit produces real results, but don't hold your breath as we wait for episode two of the Trump-Kim show," said Michael Fuchs, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress who worked closely with former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Abe Denmark, director of the Asia program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said the Singapore summit had thrown into question the security of US allies with little in return.

"With another summit in the making, I hope for tangible progress and fear for a repeat: little movement from Kim, major concessions from Trump," he said.

But Trump has pointed to the halt in missile launches by North Korea and recently said there would have been "a nice big fat war in Asia" if it were not for his efforts.

Kim Yong Chol is the first North Korean dignitary in nearly two decades to spend a night in Washington, staying at a fashionable hotel a short drive from the White House.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed Kim at the hotel, posing briefly for pictures near a shelf with a framed portrait of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., and later invited the delegation to lunch.

The State Department said that Stephen Biegun, the US special representative on North Korea, would carry on discussions at a conference in Sweden starting on Saturday that will involve Pyongyang officials.



- Vietnam ready to host -



While no decision has been made on location, a Vietnamese government source told AFP that "logistical preparations" were under way to host the summit, most likely in the capital Hanoi or coastal city of Danang.

Vietnam's cooperation with the United States has been growing for years as Hanoi -- much unlike Pyongyang -- sets aside memories of war.

US-North Korea tensions began to abate a year ago with the encouragement of South Korea's dovish president, Moon Jae-in. Moon's office Saturday said the new summit could be a "turning point" in bringing peace to the Korean peninsula.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters that the second summit should set a clear roadmap on how to scrap North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missiles.

The Singapore summit marked the first-ever meeting between sitting leaders of the United States and North Korea, which never formally ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

The United States expects Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arsenal, doggedly built by the Kim dynasty despite sanctions and famines.

Kim, whose family has ruled North Korea with an iron fist for three generations, is seeking guarantees of the regime's survival as well as relief from biting UN sanctions.

North Korea sees the denuclearization goal more broadly, seeking an end to what it sees as US threats on the peninsula.Seoul welcomes planned second Trump-Kim summit: presidential office



Seoul, Jan 19 (AFP) Jan 19, 2019



South Korea on Saturday welcomed a planned second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying it hoped the meeting would be a "turning point" for peace on the Korean peninsula.

The announcement from Seoul's presidential office came hours after the White House said Trump would again meet the North Korean leader "near the end of February" at a location yet to be announced.

"We expect the planned North-US summit would be a turning point in establishing a permanent peace regimen on the Korean peninsula," said Kim Eui-kyeom, South Korean President Moon Jae-in's spokesman.

South Korea would continue close coordination with its key ally US to achieve the goal of "complete denuclearisation," he continued.

He added Seoul would expand dialogue with Pyongyang to make the planned summit "successful".

Kim and Trump first met in June in Singapore, where they signed a vaguely worded document in which with Kim pledged to work towards the "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula".

But progress stalled soon afterward as Pyongyang and Washington -- which stations 28,500 troops in South Korea -- disagree over what that means.Trump, Kim to meet anew in February after N.Korean visits White House



Washington, Jan 18 (AFP) Jan 18, 2019



President Donald Trump will meet for the second time with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in February, the White House said Friday, after a top general from Pyongyang paid a rare visit to Washington.

Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol, a right-hand man to the North Korean strongman, met the embattled president at the White House for an unusually long 90 minutes as the countries seek a denuclearization accord that could ease decades of hostility.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said that Trump -- who has opined that he and Kim Jong Un fell "in love" after last year's landmark first summit -- would again meet the North Korean leader "near the end of February" at a location to be announced later.

The latest flurry of diplomacy comes little more than a year after Trump was threatening to wipe North Korea off the map, with Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests rattling nerves in East Asia.

Sanders praised North Korea's efforts to reconcile but ruled out, for now, a key demand of Pyongyang -- a lifting of sanctions.

"The United States is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea until we see fully and verified denuclearization," Sanders told reporters.

"We've had very good steps in good faith from the North Koreans in releasing the hostages and other moves and so we'll continue those conversations," she said.

She was referring to Pyongyang's quick deportation last year of an American. In 2017, a US student returned home comatose from North Korea and died within days after what a US judge said was torture.



- Results or photo-op? -



Kim Jong Un and Trump first met in June in Singapore, where they signed a vaguely worded document in which with Kim pledged to work towards the "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."

But progress stalled soon afterward as Pyongyang and Washington -- which stations 28,500 troops in South Korea -- disagree over what that means.

Critics say that the Singapore summit was little more than a photo-op. The second round with the young and elusive North Korean leader will again offer a change of headlines for Trump amid a steady barrage of negative reports, including explosive allegations published Thursday by BuzzFeed that he pressured his lawyer to lie to Congress about a project in Russia.

"Let's hope the second summit produces real results, but don't hold your breath as we wait for episode two of the Trump-Kim show," said Michael Fuchs, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress who worked closely with former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Abe Denmark, director of the Asia program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said the Singapore summit weakened the security of US allies with little in return.

"With another summit in the making, I hope for tangible progress and fear for a repeat: little movement from Kim, major concessions from Trump," he said.

But Trump has pointed to the halt in missile launches by North Korea and recently said there would have been "a nice big fat war in Asia" if it were not for his efforts.

Kim Yong Chol is the first North Korean dignitary in nearly two decades to spend the night in Washington, staying at a fashionable hotel a short drive from the White House.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed Kim at the hotel, posing briefly for pictures near a shelf with a framed portrait of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. before a morning meeting.

Pompeo, who traveled to Pyongyang four times last year to seek progress, later invited the North Korean delegation to lunch at their hotel after they returned from the White House.



- Vietnam ready to host -



While no decision has been made on location, a Vietnamese government source told AFP that "logistical preparations" were under way to host the summit, most likely in the capital Hanoi or coastal city of Danang.

Vietnam's cooperation with the United States has been growing for years as Hanoi -- much unlike Pyongyang -- sets aside memories of war.

US-North Korea tensions began to abate a year ago with the encouragement of South Korea's dovish president, Moon Jae-in. The Singapore summit marked the first-ever meeting between sitting leaders of the United States and North Korea, which never formally ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

For Kim, whose family has ruled North Korea with an iron fist for three generations, the stakes are existential as he seeks guarantees of the survival of his regime.

The United States expects Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arsenal, doggedly built by the Kim dynasty despite sanctions and famines.

But North Korea sees the denuclearization goal more broadly, seeking an end to what it sees as US threats as well as strict sanctions on its economy..                 ,      ,   ...Bulgaria extradites Russian hacker to US: embassy



Moscow, Jan 19 (AFP) Jan 19, 2019



Bulgaria has extradited a Russian indicted by a US court for mounting a complex hacking scheme to the United States, the Russian embassy in Washington said Saturday.

The Russian embassy, in a statement on its VK social network, said Alexander Zhukov had been extradited on January 18 and was being held in a jail in Brooklyn, New York.

"Employees of the Consulate General in New York will visit him in jail soon," the embassy said.

Zhukov is one of eight people, most of them Russian, indicted in November for creating fake advertising schemes through remote data centres and malware-infected computer networks.

Their activity cost businesses tens of millions of dollars, says the indictment.

Zhukov's group is accused of organising two schemes in 2014 and 2015.

In the first, dubbed "Methbot," it rented computer servers and simulated humans viewing ads on webpages, tricking businesses into paying more than $7 million (6.16 million euros) for the fake views, according to US prosecutors.

In the second scheme, two of the group members operated a fake ad network through 1.7 million malware-infected computers to falsify billions of ad views, costing businesses $29 million for the views.

Zhukov, originally from Saint Petersburg, is known as Nastra in hacker circles, according to reports. He was arrested in Bulgaria, where he had lived since 2010, in November.

According to Kommersant newspaper, which claims to have spoken with a friend of Zhukov, the hacker stood out on the dark web for the selective way he chose his jobs, staying away from credit-card theft or child pornography.

Zhukov was earning about $20,000 per month on his fake ad-view contracts, but was exposed after a conflict with his US client, Kommersant said.Rep. John Petersburg, R-Waseca, is the state representative for District 24A, which includes Owatonna and Waseca. He can be reached by phone at 651-296-5368 or by email at rep.john.petersburg@house.mn.Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.Earlier on Friday, Kim Yong-chol met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a Washington hotel. The meeting's aim was to revive nuclear negotiations, which have been postponed for months over what U.S. officials say is Pyongyang's refusal to meet Washington's demand for a detailed inventory of its nuclear and missile programs.

"The United States is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea until we see full and verified denuclearization," Sanders said, adding they have seen "good faith from the North Koreans in releasing the hostages and other moves."

Trump's meeting with the former North Korean spymaster, who often is referred to as Kim Jong-un's right-hand man, lasted 90 minutes. After the meeting, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters the administration is continuing "to make progress" on this front.

The announcement was made after Trump met Friday with Kim Yong-chol, North Korea's top nuclear envoy in the Oval Office, which the White House said was to "discuss efforts to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear program."

The White House has announced that a second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will be held at the end of February, at a place to be announced "at a later date."

The latest announcement is being met with some skepticism by analysts about whether enough progress has been achieved in the negotiations to justify a second summit.

There is a "missing ingredient," said Scott Snyder, senior fellow for Korea Studies at the Council for Foreign Relations. "Is there some kind of understanding behind the scenes, even at the framework level, that provides a basis or justification for going forward that simply can't be seen based on public evidence today?"

Snyder said that from Trump's perspective, a second summit is to be expected because the first summit generated "good ratings." He noted, however, that in order for a second summit to be successful, "the bar will be higher."

 Denuclearization

On several occasions Trump has expressed his confidence about North Korean denuclearization. "With North Korea, we have a very good dialogue," the president said on Jan. 6, adding that it's "very special" and that with "anybody else but me, you'd be in war right now."

But critics point out that Pyongyang has not taken measurable steps toward disarmament since the first Trump-Kim historic summit in Singapore last June.

At the United Nations on Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres encouraged both countries to continue talks. "We believe it's high time to make sure the negotiations between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea start again seriously and that a road map is clearly defined for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Guterres told reporters. "We won't advocate for any anticipation of other measures before a clear negotiation is put in place, aiming at denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula with a road map."

The White House has not confirmed the location of the next Trump-Kim summit, but American media reports have quoted sources as saying that Danang, Vietnam, is being discussed as one of the likely venues.

Weather Alert

The National Weather Service in the Twin Cities has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Northeastern Le Sueur County in south central Minnesota... Southeastern Scott County in east central Minnesota... Northwestern Rice County in south central Minnesota... * Until 730 PM CDT. * At 638 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 6 miles north of Le Center, or 25 miles northeast of Mankato, moving east at 35 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * This severe thunderstorm will be near... New Prague and Montgomery around 650 PM CDT. Other locations in the path of this severe thunderstorm include Lonsdale, Webster and Elko New Market. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. && HAIL...1.00IN; WIND...60MPHSystem error

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context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951

/var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



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context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

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Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7fbff50119e8)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7fbff54c08b0)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7fbff50119e8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7fbff54c08b0)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7fbff501aa58)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7fbff54c08b0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7fbff54c08b0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7fbff4b37b38)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7fbff54c7270)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7fbff54c7270)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0New Delhi: The Defence Ministry on Friday dismissed as "factually inaccurate" a media report that talked of a 41 per cent increase in the price per aircraft of the 36 Rafale fighter jets from Dassault saying it had got "better price, delivery period and terms" compared to the of the UPA era proposal for purchase of 126 bare-bones aircraft.

It also asserted that the Supreme Court has not found anything adverse in the deal and the CAG has been given access to all files.

The reaction came in response to an article published in the daily "The Hindu" which said that the Modi government's decision to buy 36 Rafale jets shot up the price of each aircraft up by 41 per cent, mainly because of the deal "bypassing" mandated procedures and attributed to "Design and Development" of 13 "India Specific Enhancement" spread over 36 instead of 126 aircraft.

A response from the Defence Ministry spokesperson said that the pricing details, which are of confidential nature and covered by the Indo-French security agreement of 2008, were shared with the Supreme Court in a sealed cover which has gone through the details of pricing and commercial advantage and asserted that the apex court has not found anything "adverse" in the deal and has refused to order an investigation as sought by the petitioners.

The ministry said that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has been given access to all the files related to the deal advising to "await the report".

Referring to the media report and political parties comparing the cost of the basic aircraft of 2007 with the cost of fully-loaded aircraft in 2015, it said the cost of the basic aircraft in the 2016 deal was better than the offer of 2007.

"The India Specific Enhancements were part of the requirements of the Indian Air Force to achieve tactical superiority over our adversaries. These were part of the 2007 bid and continued to be part of the 2016 deal. The cost of the India Specific Enhancements was on a fixed basis in the 2007 bid which was negotiated down in the 2016 deal.

"However, to compare the cost for the MMRCA contract, which never materialized with the cost of the 36 aircrafts procured in 2016 is fallacious. The author while indicating the price of ISE as 1.4 billion Euro in 2007 has failed to include the in-built escalation factor that would have worked between 2007 and 2015," said the ministry.

Surprisingly, the ministry contended that in the headline of the article, the author has compared the un-escalated price of 2007 with the price of 2016 without considering the escalation factors inherent in the price bid.

"Later, hidden deep in the article itself it is stated that the price is 14.2 per cent higher compared to the escalated price as probably this figure does not attract as much attention as a 41.4 per cent higher price. The author has also missed the main advantage in terms of price obtained by the Government in 2016 deal which was mentioned by the Raksha Mantri in Parliament.

"This change from a firm and fixed price to a flexible rate was possible only because the deal was structured under an IGA. This factor is expected to lead to a substantial commercial advantage over the delivery period of 36 Rafale aircrafts," the ministry said.

It further said a negotiation, especially, between two countries is a comprehensive deal and by selectively picking certain aspects while ignoring others, creates doubts by vested interests on a matter of vital national security. "This has been repeatedly pointed out by the Government and accepted by the Supreme Court."

"The issue of dissent within the Indian Negotiated Team has also been answered by the Raksha Mantri in the Parliament, it said, adding in the highest traditions of the Civil Service, all views are aired and recorded and a collegiate decision taken after considering such opinions.

The spokesperson said the decisions on the deal were taken after due process of inter-ministerial consultation and the issue of benchmarking and the offer of "EADS to give a 20 per cent discount are related".

He said even the UPA government had rightly rejected the EADS offer of 20 per cent discount in 2012 after opening of bids as violative of procedure.

"Consideration of this offer by the government would have again made the Government subject to charge of violating basic procedure. It is best to avoid the pitfalls of a corporate battle which has been going on since 2012 which has adversely affected the capabilities of the Indian Air Force. The controversy should be put to rest in the interest of national security," the ministry added.Press Release

January 19, 2019 Bam seeks monetary compensation for SK officials Senator Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV has introduced a bill seeking to expand the benefits of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials by providing them with monetary compensation. Aquino said Senate Bill No. 2140, or the Act Providing Compensation to Sangguniang Kabataan Officials, seeks to ensure that SK officials are free from partisan politics. "Providing regular compensation for SK officials through the law will ensure that our youth leaders will not be dependent nor feel indebted to local government officials and politicians for resources and support," Aquino explained. Under the bill, the SK secretary and treasurer will be entitled to compensation and allowances equivalent to three-fourths (3/4) of the monthly allowance received by the Sangguniang Kabataan chairperson. On the other hand, the other SK officials will be entitled to P500 per month in addition to any other compensation provided by this act. The honorarium will be granted at the end of every regular monthly SK meeting, provided that the official is present during the meeting. The current law does not provide monetary compensation for the SK secretary, treasurer and other officials. They are, however, exempted from paying tuition and matriculation fees in any public tertiary schools, including state colleges and universities as well as locally funded educational institutions; provided with Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) coverage; exempted from taking the National Service Training Program-Civic Welfare Training Service (NSTP-CWTS) subjects, excused from attending regular classes, if currently enrolled in school, while attending the regular or special SK meetings and the sangguniang barangay sessions; and entitled to travelling reimbursements as may be authorized by law and subject to the availability of funds. Under Republic Act No. 10742, also known as the Sangguniang Kabataan Reform Act of 2015, the SK chairperson automatically serves as an ex-officio member of the sangguniang barangay upon assumption to office and as such enjoy the same privileges as regular sangguniang barangay members. He or she is also entitled to pro-rate honoraria for every session of the sangguniang barangay he/she has attended. Aquino worked for the passage of the SK Reform Act to encourage and inspire more youth to participate in nation building. "Encouraging the spirit of volunteerism in the SK was one of the main principles behind our pushing for the SK Reform law back in 2015. But we also recognize the need to compensate the SK officials for the work that they do and the time and resources that they give as we expect them to deliver the best leadership and service to their youth constitutents and community," Aquino said.Press Release

January 19, 2019 Dispatch from Crame No. 450:

Sen. Leila M. de Lima's statement on the Presidential Spokesperson's accusation of the Catholic Church's interference in State Affairs 1/19/19 Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo's call to the Catholic clergy to stop interfering in State affairs can only come from a regime that is blind to the reality of what the drug killings are doing to the moral fabric of Philippine society. Extra-judicial killings, human rights violations, misogyny, and other forms of degradation of human dignity are not purely secular affairs on which the Church ought to be silent. When the government has made the killing of its own people a policy in its so-called "war on drugs", the Catholic Church is put in a position where it has no choice but to demand that the killings are stopped. And when government does not listen, because it believes that it has the right to kill its own citizens, it cannot expect the Church to stop condemning the killings and the State's implementation of the murderous policy. Taking the life of a human being is not only against the law of the State, it is also against both natural and divine law. When the State itself chooses to violate this law, which is also one of the most basic commandments of all religions, the Church must protest, or it becomes irrelevant as the representative of Christ on earth. "Thou shall not kill" is the law of both God and man. The State therefore has no monopoly in assuring that this law is followed, especially when its leadership itself has chosen to violate it with impunity. When the Church defends the right to life and the right to human dignity, especially of the poor, against a government that treats them as less than human, it is not interference in State affairs. It is protecting the people from the tyranny of its leaders who have already become the very embodiment of evil in this country. Fighting for what is right transcends any barrier - political, social or spiritual.ANGARA URGES PEACEFUL, CREDIBLE VOTE AHEAD OF BOL PLEBISCITE

Senator Sonny Angara called for a "peaceful and credible" plebiscite for the ratification of Republic Act 11054 or the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) that is taking place on January 21.

"We call on all stakeholders to ensure that the plebiscite is conducted in a peaceful and credible manner," said Angara, who co-sponsored the BOL in the Senate as chairman of its Committee on Local Government.

Angara likewise urged the Bangsamoro people to turn out in the largest numbers for the referendum that would determine the fate of the BOL, which provides for the establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

"We urge our Bangsamoro brothers and sisters to go out and vote and make their voices heard," Angara said.

The lawmaker called the plebiscite a "significant milestone" towards ending decades-old armed conflict in Muslim Mindanao and creating a new political entity that would genuinely fulfill the aspirations of the Bangsamoro people.

"Ito ang natatanging hakbang upang sa wakas ay magkaroon na ng katuparan ang layunin nating masolusyunan ang mga 'di pagkakaunawaan at nang sa gayon ay umusad ang kapayapaan at kaunlaran sa Bangsamoro region," Angara said.

Once ratified, the BOL will pave the way for the replacement of the 29-year-old Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with BARMM.

The BARMM is envisioned as a political entity that would realize the aspirations of the Bangsamoro people for genuine self-determination under a ministerial form of government and ensure autonomy far more than what the present ARMM provides.

It is seen as a solution to the problems that the ARMM failed to address, such as poverty and unstable peace and order situation.Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/19/2019 -- According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research, the global voice biometric solution market is expected to reach a value of US$ 13,049.2 Mn by 2026 on account of growing adoption of voice biometric solutions and biometric technology across various industries. The market is projected to expand at a CAGR of 17.3% during the forecast period from 2018 to 2026.Asia Pacific is anticipated to experience healthy growth which is expected to be followed by Middle East & Africa during the forecast period.The authentication speech recognition software segment is expected to see flourishing growth, owing to rising demand for authentication and client and customer verification solutions.



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Adoption of voice biometric solutions driving the global voice biometric solution market



Rapid developments in technologies for authentication and payment purposes have made it possible for the biometrics industry to increase the number of consumers across the world. There has been a significant need for technological solutions in biometric technology due to its advance features that helps in enhancing authentication and verification solutions. This is likely to create strong demand for voice biometric solutions in the near future. Similarly, vendors across countries such as China, India, the U.S., Australia, Germany, Finland, Singapore, and Denmark are focusing on enhancing voice biometric technological aspects of the biometric technology. Public agencies as well as private companies are also emphasizing on providing voice biometric solutions mainly due to the benefits offered by biometric technology, as these solutions are highly effective for improving the performance and infrastructure of organizations across regions.



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Voice Biometric Solutions Market: Scope of the Report



The voice biometric solution market is segmented based on solution, application, end-user, and geography. According to the research study, the automatic speech recognition software market is anticipated to experience flourishing growth during the forecast period. This is mainly due to its multiple applications in most industries such as BFSI, government, healthcare, call centers etc. In addition to this, various users across regions prefer speech recognition to be the reliable authentication solution compared to PINs and passwords. By 2026, automotive speech recognition software is projected to cover more than 60% of the global market. Apart from this, access security application also plays a vital role in supplementing the growth of the voice biometric solution market. Vendors are integrating voice biometric solutions due to the rise in need for authentication and fraud detection and customer verification solutions. Furthermore, the payments segment is likely to hold a significant share of the voice biometric solutions market.Sarasota, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/19/2019 -- Global TV White Space Spectrum Market: Overview



Frequencies that are made available for unlawful usage of the spectrum at areas where licensed services are not being used are known as TV white spaces spectrum, such as television broadcasting. This spectrum can be located in the UHF and VHF bands.



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Global TV White Space Spectrum Market: Segmentation



The global TV white space spectrum market is bifurcated based on the component segment as backhaul and services, antennas, power supplies, radios, and cables. Based on the application, the global market is classified as IoT and M2M, emergency and public safety, transportation and logistics, rural internet access, vehicle broadband access, urban connectivity, and smart grid networks. The global market is further categorized based on devices as portable white space devices and fixed white space devices. Of these, portable white space devices are the dominating device segment in the global TV white space spectrum market. However, increasing usage of the laptops, smartphones, personal digital assistance devices, and tablets, may influence the global market growth positively. These devices are operating worldwide on the high power.



Global TV White Space Spectrum Market: Growth Factors



In order to improve rural broadband connectivity, TV white space spectrum is extensively adopting in rural areas, which enhances the overall market growth of the global TV white space spectrum market. TV white space spectrum is very cost-effective and remote areas are served with rural broadband, which may fuel the global market growth. Many innovations are carried out in the developing and developed countries which may positively impact the global market. Conversely, poor regulations and standards adopted for TV white space spectrum may hamper the global TV white space spectrum growth of the market.



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Global TV White Space Spectrum Market: Regional Analysis



The global TV white space spectrum market is categorized based on the geography as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. North America holds the largest market share in the global market owing to the widespread network of the TV white space spectrum technologies. The Middle East & Africa is emerging as a new niche market; however, the reach of broadband Internet connectivity in the remote areas is anticipated to witness growth in the future. In addition, it is widely spread in the African countries such as Tanzania, Mozambique, Botswana, South Africa, Kenya, Namibia, Malawi, and Ghana. The aim of the TV white space spectrum trail is to provide broadband Internet connectivity to those areas that are under-developed or witness the lack of proper infrastructure.



Global TV White Space Spectrum Market: Competitive Players



Key players in the global TV white space spectrum market are Telcordia Technologies, Inc., Carlson Wireless Technologies, Inc., Spectrum Bridge Inc., KTS Wireless, Alphabet Inc., Telcordia Technologies, Inc., and MELD Technology Inc. Other players influencing the global market are Adaptrum, Inc., Shared Spectrum Co., ATDI S.A., Metric Systems Corp., Key Bridge LLC, Aviacomm Inc., and Microsoft Corp.



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About Zion Market Research

Zion Market Research is an obligated company. We create futuristic, cutting edge, informative reports ranging from industry reports, company reports to country reports. We provide our clients not only with market statistics unveiled by avowed private publishers and public organizations but also with vogue and newest industry reports along with pre-eminent and niche company profiles. Our database of market research reports comprises a wide variety of reports from cardinal industries. Our database is been updated constantly in order to fulfill our clients with prompt and direct online access to our database. Keeping in mind the client's needs, we have included expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends in this database. Last but not the least, we make it our duty to ensure the success of clients connected to usafter allif you do well, a little of the light shines on us.San Jose, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/18/2019 -- "Pneumatic Rollers Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking: Global Market Insights 2018 to 2028" is an analytical study that offers actionable intelligence on several segments of the pneumatic rollers market. The report also reveals the sales and demand scenario of pneumatic rollers across key regions globally. Comprehensive report on pneumatic rollers market covers analysis on various dynamics impacting growth. It also provides historical data, current market scenario and future insights on pneumatic rollers market. The pneumatic rollers market report is skilfully drafted with a chapter wise analysis for convenience of the reader.



Chapter 1  Executive Summary



This chapter provides an in-depth overview of the pneumatic rollers market. It also includes opportunity assessment along with wheel of fortune that reveals segmental assessment of pneumatic rollers market. The chapter highlights various mega trends that influence the growth of pneumatic rollers market along with key insights provided by XploreMR analysts.



Chapter 2  Introduction



The pneumatic rollers market report covers a brief introduction on the market. It provides opinions of key participants, overview of construction industry, outlook on construction equipment across key regions (BRIC & TRIAD), financial services, potential of aftermarket services and challenges in the pneumatic rollers market.



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Chapter 3  Scope



This chapter covers market segmentation along with definition of pneumatic rollers. It defines the entire scope of the report and various facets it is describing.



Chapter 4  Associated Industry Assessment



This chapter covers road infrastructure scenario, major construction projects worldwide, need of compaction machines and compaction machine value and volume sales and forecasts.



Chapter 5  Market Dynamics & Key Indicators



This chapter includes key dynamics focusing on drivers, restraints, opportunities and trends in the pneumatic rollers market. It also highlights value chain analysis, product life cycle and technology roadmap.



Chapter 6  Pricing Analysis



This chapter provides price point analysis by region, by loading capacity and other forecasts. This delivers intelligence on various pricing aspects influencing sales of pneumatic rollers.



Chapter 7  Pneumatic Rollers Market Analysis and Forecast



This chapter of the pneumatic rollers market report includes a year-on-year growth assessment, absolute dollar opportunity analysis, pneumatic rollers market volume forecasts, and impact analysis. This chapter further covers intelligence on sales and demand of pneumatic rollers across key regions, and segmental information on pneumatic rollers by engine capacity, by operating capacity, and by drum width. It also reveals market attractiveness index of each segment and region.



Chapter 8  North America Pneumatic Rollers Market Analysis



This chapter includes assessment on pneumatic rollers sales across major countries of United States and Canada along with detailed segmental outlook across these countries for the forecasted period.



Chapter 9  Latin America Pneumatic Rollers Market Analysis



Major countries of Brazil, Chile, Peru, Argentina, and Mexico are assessed apropos to the adoption of pneumatic rollers. Potential of these countries complementing to the growth of the Latin America pneumatic rollers market with y-o-y growth assessments are revealed here.



Chapter 10  Europe Pneumatic Rollers Market Analysis



This chapter of the pneumatic rollers market report includes insights on demand and sales of pneumatic rollers across Germany, France, United Kingdom, Spain, BENELUX, Nordic and Italy. Revenue generation through sales of pneumatic rollers and their demand in these countries is provided in this chapter.



Chapter 11  CIS & Russia Pneumatic Rollers Market Analysis



The demand for pneumatic rollers in CIS & Russia is analyzed and future potential of the pneumatic rollers market in this region is revealed in the chapter. Segmental snapshot of pneumatic rollers market is chalked in this section.



Chapter 12  Japan Pneumatic Rollers Market Analysis



The sales of pneumatic rollers in Japan are assessed and future projections of the Japanese pneumatic rollers market is revealed in this chapter. Segmental analysis of pneumatic rollers market in this country is included in this section.



Chapter 13  Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ) Pneumatic Rollers Market Analysis



Countries of Greater China, ASEAN, India, and Australia & New Zealand are assessed and sales assessment of pneumatic rollers in these countries is covered. A market attractiveness index and incremental opportunity along with year-on-year growth rate of APEJ pneumatic rollers market is provided here.



Chapter 14  Middle East and Africa (MEA) Pneumatic Rollers Market Analysis



This chapter focuses on pneumatic rollers market scenario across GCC countries, Israel, South Africa, and Turkey. Application wise analysis of pneumatic rollers market in these countries is covered in this chapter.



Chapter 15  Pneumatic rollers Market Competitive Assessment



This extensive section provides competitive intelligence to the reader by covering major companies participating in manufacturing and dealership of pneumatic rollers. This chapter provides market structure analysis, company share assessment including Tier 1 and Tier 2 players and region wise positioning assessment.



Chapter 16  Company Profiles



This chapter includes profiling of key market players involved in manufacturing of pneumatic rollers and their distribution. In-depth company share analysis along with company overview, key design innovations and developments, SWOT analysis and key financial aspects are covered.



Chapter 17  Research Methodology



This section gives a brief overview on the entire research process carried out to garner key information and statistics on pneumatic rollers market. It also covers detailed intelligence on various sources used. A brief overview of secondary sources used to glean the market information and details on primary interviews initiated with opinion leaders, market observers and other stakeholders in the pneumatic rollers market is covered here.



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Bluetooth smart is a new concept in the whole industry of mobile connectivity. The central concept behind this new technology is that it can connect the devices that have Bluetooth connectivity to interact with one another. In addition to this, efficiency of power is one of the biggest factors that is driving the widespread adoption of Bluetooth Smart technology compared to the conventional Bluetooth technology. Presently, wireless sensors are embedded in most of the electronic devices and customer wearable devices. These wireless sensors can interact with each other with the help of suitable technology such Bluetooth.



Scope of the Report:

This report focuses on the Bluetooth Smart & Smart Ready 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.

The North American region has the largest market size, followed by the Asia Pacific and European regions. The increase in the number of products connected with each other via the internet and the growing adoption of IoT technology are projected to drive the Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready market in the North American region.

The worldwide market for Bluetooth Smart & Smart Ready is expected to grow at a CAGR of roughly xx% over the next five years, will reach xx million US$ in 2023, from xx million US$ in 2017, according to a new GIR (Global Info Research) study.



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Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers

Texas Instruments Incorporated

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Nordic Semiconductor ASA

Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Microchip Technology Inc.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd.

Dialog Semiconductor

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation

CEVA, Inc.

Broadcom



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

Bluetooth Smart

Bluetooth Smart Ready



Market Segment by Applications, can be divided into

Automotive & Transportation

Consumer Electronics

Home Automation

Medical & Health

Retail & Location-Based Services

Wearables



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Manufacturing cost structure:

The Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready Market report also studies the manufacturing cost structure and presents the various details such as raw material, overall production process, and the industry chain structure. Every region key factors are provided which is attracting this market towards growth. The report also elaborates on the opportunities the emerging markets of Asia Pacific and Latin America offer and Globally.



Important Facts About Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready Market Report:

-This research report reveals Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready business overview, product overview, market share, supply chain analysis, demand and supply ratio and import/export details.

-The Industry report features different approaches and procedures endorsed by the Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready market key players to make vital business decisions.

-Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready market depicts some parameters such as production value, Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready marketing strategy analysis, Distributors/Traders and effect factors is also mentioned in this Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready research report.



Detailed TOC and Charts Tables of Global Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready Market research Report available at : https://www.reportsmonitor.com/report/289317/Bluetooth-Smart-and-Smart-Ready-Market



Reasons to Purchase Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready Market Report:

1.Current and future of Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready market outlook in the developed and emerging markets.

2.Analysis of various perspectives of the market with the help of Porter's five forces analysis.

3.The segment that is expected to dominate the Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready market.

4.Regions that are expected to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period.

5.Identify the latest developments, Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready market shares, and strategies employed by the major market players.



About Reports Monitor

Reports Monitor is a market research and consulting company that provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries including Healthcare, Technology, Chemicals, Materials, and Energy. With an intrinsic understanding of many business environments, Reports Monitor provides strategic objective insights.San Jose, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/19/2019 -- The report on crawler cranes market forecast, trend analysis and competition tracking  global market insights, 2018-2028 is a comprehensive study revealing various facets of crawler cranes market. The crawler cranes market report covers various insights with respect to sales and adoption of crawler cranes across various end use industries. The crawler cranes market report presents historic data, current crawler cranes scenario and forecast apropos to sales of crawler cranes for a period of 10 years (2018-2028).



Chapter 1  Executive Summary



Executive summary in the crawler cranes market report covers overall crawler cranes market summary, gist of analysis on crawler cranes market, mega trends in the crawler cranes market, opportunity assessment, wheel of fortune and analyst view point.



Chapter 2  Crawler Cranes Market Overview



This chapter in the crawler cranes market report covers a brief introduction to the crawler cranes market, along with market definition and scope of the crawler cranes market report. It also includes segmentation of the crawler cranes market.



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Chapter 3  Key Indicator Assessment



This extensive chapter includes supply chain assessment, investment feasibility matrix, Porter's five forces model, PESTLE analysis, and overall crawler cranes market forecast scenario. The chapter also covers difference between crawler and wheeled cranes along with list of various construction projects worldwide.



Chapter 4  Market Dynamics



This chapter in the crawler cranes market report highlights various aspects influencing the growth in sales of crawler cranes across the globe. Various macroeconomic factors, growth drivers and trends impacting demand for crawler cranes are covered here. This chapter also includes detailed impact analysis of these factors.



Chapter 5  Crawler Cranes Market  Price Point Analysis



This chapter in the crawler cranes market report includes price point assessment on crawler cranes boom type across major countries in the globe. It also covers pricing forecasts till 2028.



Chapter 6  Crawler Cranes Market Analysis and Forecast



This extensive chapter includes analysis on crawler cranes market outlook covering value and volume projections of crawler cranes in terms of sales and demand. Regional demand assessment on crawler cranes market, y-o-y growth and market attractiveness index is also included in the chapter. It includes detailed analysis on every segment of the crawler cranes market, including boom type, maximum lifting capacity (tons), and end use industry.



Chapter 7  North America Crawler Cranes Market



This chapter in the crawler cranes market report covers analysis on demand and sales of crawler cranes across key countries of United States and Canada. Detailed crawler cranes segmental outlook in North America is covered here.



Chapter 8  Latin America Crawler Cranes Market



Analysis of crawler cranes market across countries of Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Peru is covered in this chapter of the crawler cranes market report. Value and volume projections on every segment of the crawler cranes market across Latin America is included here.



Chapter 9  Europe Crawler Cranes Market



Market attractiveness of European countries such as EU-4, United Kingdom, Benelux, Nordic and countries in Eastern Europe is covered in the chapter. Assessment of sales and demand of crawler cranes across these countries is included in the chapter.



Chapter 10  CIS & Russia Crawler Cranes Market



This chapter in the crawler cranes market report provides a thorough assessment on demand for crawler cranes in Russia during the period of forecast along with detailed segmental snapshot.



Chapter 11  Japan Crawler Cranes Market



This chapter reveals the lucrativeness of Japan in terms of adoption of crawler cranes during the forecast period. Sales of crawler cranes in Japan in 2017 and 2028 are provided with forecast highlights till 2028.



Chapter 12  Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ) Crawler Cranes Market



Assessment on crawler cranes demand and sales across countries of Greater China, India, ASEAN, and South Korea is included in this extensive chapter. Various factors fuelling crawler cranes market growth in APEJ are also included.



Chapter 13  Middle East and Africa (MEA) Crawler Cranes Market



This chapter in the crawler cranes market report covers analysis on use of crawler cranes across GCC countries, Turkey and Iran. It also includes attractiveness of these countries presenting an overall outlook on key revenue pockets in MEA.



Chapter 14  Competitive Assessment



This chapter provides a detailed competitive dashboard to the reader along with market structure and company share assessment.



Chapter 15  Company Profiles



This chapter in the crawler cranes market report covers profiles of key participants involved in the distribution and manufacturing of crawler cranes. Various facets of competition such as SWOT analysis, product overview, key developments, geographical presence and new developments are included in this chapter.



First Time Buyer, Get Discount on this report @ https://www.xploremr.com/connectus/check-discount/3089Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/18/2019 -- Latest research study from HTF MI with title Global Business Etiquette Training by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023. The Research report presents a complete assessment of the market and contains Future trend, Current Growth Factors, attentive opinions, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry validated market data. The study is segmented by products type, application/end-users. The research study provides estimates for Global Business Etiquette Training Forecast till 2023.



If you are involved in the Business Etiquette Training industry or intend to be, then this study will provide you comprehensive outlook. It's vital you keep your market knowledge up to date segmented by Applications Personal & Group/Company, Product Types such as [, Workplace Etiquette, Table Manner and Meal Etiquette, Professionalisn & Communications Etiquette] and some major players in the industry. If you have a different set of players/manufacturers according to geography or needs regional or country segmented reports we can provide customization according to your requirement.



Request Sample of Global Business Etiquette Training Market Size, Status and Forecast 2018-2025 @: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1495730-global-business-etiquette-training-market-2



This report focuses on the global Business Etiquette Training status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the Business Etiquette Training development in United States, Europe and China.



Key Companies/players: Suneeta Kanga, Etiquette & Image International, Pria Warrick Finishing Academy, The Standard Companion, Academie de Bernadac, Institute Sarita, Image Consulting Business Institute, Ecole Solitaire, Cegos, Styl. Inc Image Management Consultant, Protocol Academy, Professional Development Training, The Australian School of Etiquette, The Good Manners Company, TMAC Indonesia, Communicaid, Imago Image & Princeton Academy.



Application: Personal & Group/Company, Product Type: , Workplace Etiquette, Table Manner and Meal Etiquette, Professionalisn & Communications Etiquette.



The research covers the current & Future market size of the Global Business Etiquette Training market and its growth rates based on 5 year history data. It also covers various types of segmentation such as by geography [United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India & Central & South America]. The market competition is constantly growing higher with the rise in technological innovation and M&A activities in the industry. Moreover, many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. On the basis of attributes such as company overview, recent developments, strategies adopted by the market leaders to ensure growth, sustainability, financial overview and recent developments.



Stay up-to-date with Business Etiquette Training market research offered by HTF MI. Check how key trends and emerging drivers are shaping this industry growth as the study avails you with market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional breakdowns, competitive landscape, shares, trend and strategies for this market. In the Global Business Etiquette Training Market Analysis & Forecast 2018-2023, the revenue is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2018 and 2023. The production is estimated at XX million in 2017 and is forecasted to reach XX million by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2018 and 2023.



Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1495730-global-business-etiquette-training-market-2



Key questions answered in this report - Global Business Etiquette Training Market Size, Status and Forecast 2018-2025



What will the market size be in 2023 and what will the growth rate be

What are the key market trends

What is driving Global Business Etiquette Training Market?

What are the challenges to market growth?

Who are the key vendors in Business Etiquette Training Market space?

What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the Global Business Etiquette Training Market ?

What are the key outcomes of the five forces analysis of the Global Business Etiquette Training Market?

What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the Global Business Etiquette Training market? Get in-depth details about factors influencing the market shares of the Americas, APAC, and EMEA?



Enquire for customization in Report @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/1495730-global-business-etiquette-training-market-2



There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Business Etiquette Training market.



Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Global Business Etiquette Training, Applications of Business Etiquette Training, Market Segment by Regions;

Chapter 2, to analyze the Manufacturing Cost Structure, Raw Material and Suppliers, Manufacturing Process, Industry Chain Structure;

Chapter 3, to display the Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of , Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, Export & Import, R&D Status and Technology Source, Raw Materials Sources Analysis;

Chapter 4, to show the Overall Market Analysis, Capacity Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment);

Chapter 5 and 6, to show the Regional Market Analysis that includes United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India & Central & South America, Business Etiquette Training Segment Market Analysis (by Type);

Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Business Etiquette Training Segment Market Analysis (by Application [Personal & Group/Company]) Major Manufacturers Analysis;

Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [, Workplace Etiquette, Table Manner and Meal Etiquette, Professionalisn & Communications Etiquette], Market Trend by Application [Personal & Group/Company];

Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;

Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Global Business Etiquette Training by region, type and application ;

Chapter 12, to describe Business Etiquette Training Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source;

Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Business Etiquette Training sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.



Buy this research report @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1495730



Reasons for Buying this Report



This report provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamics

It provides a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining market growth

It provides a 5-year forecast assessed on the basis of how the market is predicted to grow

It helps in understanding the key product segments and their future

It provides pin point analysis of changing competition dynamics and keeps you ahead of competitors

It helps in making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market and by making in-depth analysis of market segments



Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.

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.INTRO COPY

Next weeks cartoon is below. Please remember to limit your submissions to three and keep em brief. Good luck!

Winner

Alexa! Bark like a dog! Dorothy Bacarti, El Cajon

Finalists

I told you the 360-degree view wasnt worth it. Lou Obermeyer, Escondido

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Hopefully, hes just window shopping. Joie Nolasco, San Diego

HEY, MITTENS...MOMS OPENING A CAN OF TUNA IN THE KITCHEN! Susan Wiczynski, La Jolla

If he swallows us whole, pray for a hair ball. Mandy Burgess, Rancho Santa Fe

K-12

I guess we arent quite off the hook. Emily Beneventi, seventh grade, Correia Middle School

Harold, what are you doing? Friends, not food, remember? Enzo Bernal, sixth grade, Dana Middle School

Well, apparently, when the cats out of the bag, were in his stomach. A.J. Anderson, seventh grade, Correia Middle School

Next weeks cartoon

(Steve Breen)

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To enter, email entries to cartooncontest@sduniontribune.com by 10 a.m. Tuesday. Please remember to limit your submissions to three and keep em brief. View last weeks winners.Reporters strive to include details in articles. They help readers see, hear, feel and understand. There are times, however, when details can be unneeded. In the case of crime stories, some details can be too gory, too invasive and too painful. They can be left out of an article, while still giving readers enough news to understand what happened.

A story on an arraignment in a rape case angered reader Karen Blevins of San Carlos. Blevins is a registered nurse and public health nurse who has met hundreds of rape victims, she said.

The defendant in the story is accused of raping a neighbor. He is an ex-con living in a halfway house in City Heights. Prosecutors said he sneaked into the home of a neighbor through an unlocked door about 1:30 a.m. on a Sunday. The 21-year-old victim lived in a small house with her boyfriend. At the time of the attack she was waiting for him to arrive home.

As the woman sat on her bedroom floor in her nightie, looking into a mirror to remove her makeup, she saw a strangers face reflected in the mirror, the story read.

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The man stepped into the room with a knife, put his finger to his lips and told her, Shhh, the story reported a prosecutor as saying.

The rape occurred after that, the prosecutor said.

Blevins objected to the amount of detail, particularly the reference to the nightie and shhh.

The content of the article is inappropriate relative to the sensitive subject matter, she emailed. To describe in detail exactly what happened prior to the rape is not important. ...

Nightie? Really? How is what she was wearing, or that she was sitting on the floor taking off her make up, relevant at ALL? To go into such a detailed description about the alleged rapists actions leading up to the rape, that ...he put his finger to his lips and told her, Shhh, is so entirely inappropriate.

She said the article was disturbing.

I asked Blevins in an email to expand further on her objections.

When did what she was doing, what she was wearing, who she was waiting for, or even whether her door was unlocked become relevant to the CRIME of RAPE? A senseless, violent crime!

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Furthermore, to elaborate on the fact that the rapist put his finger to his lips and told her, Shhh did not help make sense of this crime ... but rather it simply added details that spoke more to the gratuitous leap the writer had taken throughout the article, Blevins said.

Dana Littlefield, the U-Ts public safety editor, edited the story. She has 14 years experience covering courts in the county.

She said she believed the details showed how vulnerable the woman was while in her own home, where she felt safe.

This was information provided to us by the prosecutor, Littlefield said. The information helps set the scene as to what happened to this woman and how she, according to the prosecution, was interrupted in her home at night while she was preparing for bed. The detail about seeing the strangers face reflected in the mirror she was peering into is particularly chilling.

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Prosecutors often provide details about how a crime occurred not only to convey the timeline of what happened, but in some cases to paint a picture of how vulnerable a victim was. The latter can be used by the lawyers to help bolster an argument for conviction and later, if there is a conviction, to argue for a tougher sentence.

I thought some details were relevant. The unlocked door explains how the attacker entered the home. If it did not say that, as a reader, I would wonder how the person got inside. I think that is a key piece of information that needs to be included in a crime story.

I believe what she was doing in the perceived safety of her home shows her vulnerability. I thought shhh and nightie could have been deleted. Reporting her routine task and that the attacker held a knife provided enough information.

More on descriptions in crime stories

Littlefield provided additional insight on the decision making about what information to include in stories about sex crimes.

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We try to include as much information as we can to describe the crime itself, without getting too graphic. Of course, intelligent minds can disagree on how much information is too graphic, and we have those conversations in the newsroom frequently. We try not to include information or descriptions that would needlessly embarrass a victim or that would victimize that person further.

Also, we do not report the names of victims of sex crimes except when that person has given us permission to do so. (This is not to be confused with lawsuits weve written about in which a person sues another for sexual harassment.)

adrian.vore@sduniontribune.comLast June, a McClatchy investigation found that 360,000 California residents were served by unsafe water systems with high levels of toxins, primarily in rural agricultural communities. Last November, as a massive wildfire threatened the rural town of Paradise in Northern California, some residents may have died because they never got warnings from an outdated emergency alert system.

Both these problems must be addressed. Luckily, the state government is so flush with revenue that new Gov. Gavin Newsoms proposed 2019-20 budget both offers expanded services and hefty contributions to prepay unfunded pension liabilities. With the unsafe water systems, already-approved state bonds also may be able to help out.

Instead, Newsom wants to fund needed fixes with regressive new levies. Hes embraced a call for a first-ever tax on water consumption and wants to add a 911 fee on phone bills to help pay for an improved emergency communications system.

While both levies would initially be small, that doesnt make them defensible. Heres hoping enough of Newsoms fellow Democrats grasp the incongruity of one of the most heavily taxed states increasing taxes while running a substantial budget surplus. Its not just a bad look. Its a bad idea.

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Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & OpinionNo matter how long this government shutdown lasts or how many more follow, 2020 will be a national security election. We cannot ignore the world no matter how much some wish we could.

In the wake of Secretary of State Mike Pompeos trip to the Middle East and national security adviser John Boltons visit to Israel and Turkey, we have to focus on what former NATO supreme allied commander and retired Navy Adm. James Stavridis told me last week: Conditions in the Middle East right now echo the combustibility in the Balkans in the run-up to World War I. In Asia, China is embarked upon the new millenniums version of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. And, yes, theres a new nuclear arms race.

In the 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the United States traveled a path from euphoria through catastrophe into confusion, one which ultimately led President Barack Obama into the fantastical view that he could remake the world by ignoring its truths. The Nixon Trap  the attempt to turn the world upside down via a deft diplomatic move  ensnared Obama and led him to abandon realities around the world.

He gave away the store to Irans mullahs. He offered a reset button to Vladimir Putin (which when pushed gave Moscow Crimea) and legitimacy to the remnants of Castroism, while turning a cold shoulder to Israel and a blind eye to the misery in Venezuela. The chaos of Libya that followed our intervention there was swept under the rhetorical rug. The Syrian genocide was met with shrugged shoulders and erased red lines. Our troops were abruptly pulled from Iraq in 2011, while the president deemed the then-fledgling Islamic State a JV team. North Koreas sprint to a 60-weapon nuclear arsenal was hidden from public view. China was emboldened to militarize the South China Sea even as its Belt and Road strategy indebted many countries rulers to Beijings agenda.

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President Donald Trump inherited a set of national security perils unlike any since Ronald Reagan walked into the Oval Office in 1981. And Team Obama had simultaneously spent eight years clearing out the pantry of Pentagon assets.

Trump has found in Pompeo and Bolton two long-standing advocates of Reagans core strategic doctrine: peace through overwhelming military strength, backed by the assistance of reliable, powerful allies. NATO, of course, is the key alliance, but it needed the kick in the rear Trump administered. And China needed the confrontation with us and the world engineered by Trump on many fronts.

On my radio show last week, Bolton spoke of Israels right of self-defense but in a way unmistakably connected to Americas as well. Article 51 in the U.N. Charter embodies what the text of the charter calls the inherent right of individual and collective self-defense, he explained. And thats something we have stressed over and over again for Israel.

People would like to criticize Israel or constrain Israels options both for its own sake and because they know ultimately its the same argument to limit Americas ability to defend itself, Bolton continued. So were very interested in maintaining the unfettered right Israel has of, and as the U.N. Charter itself calls it the inherent right of individual and collective self-defense.

We are back in the era many thought wed left forever in 1989: superpower competition at every level, often just under the kinetic phase.

It turns out that ship counts and strategic bombers, a new generation of ballistic-missile-carrying submarines and a new group of offensive capabilities such as hypersonic missiles and cybersleuths are critical to not just prosperity but also survival.

Trump has Pompeo and Bolton to help him navigate this course, and perhaps the Pentagon will soon deliver an actual plan on how to achieve Trumps promise of a 355-ship Navy, as well as the details on the new nuclear arsenal.

So 2020 is going to be a national security election: More of Trump and his policies and people or back to Obama-era make-believe?

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The inherent right of self-defense. A much larger Navy. A rapid growth in defense outlays. A rebuilt nuclear arsenal. The Reagan Doctrine is back, fully embraced by Trump. Just in time to define the Democratic presidential primaries and the 2020 election.

Hewitt is on Twitter, @hughhewitt. For a different view on the 2020 election, read David Ignatius column in Sundays opinion section.

More of Trump and his policies and people, or do we go back to Obama-era make-believe?More than a year after the #MeToo movement rocked the Capitol, the California Legislature on Friday announced several appointments to a new workplace conduct unit and panel of legal experts to review and investigate sexual harassment claims in the Senate and Assembly.

Legislative leaders hailed the unit, which will work independently within the Legislative Counsels Office, as a national first expected to provide more worker protections than any state Legislature in the country.

Last year we made a commitment to our Capitol community that action must be taken and it is my hope that today marks a big step in achieving the trust of our legislative employees, Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) said.

Beginning in October 2017, the #MeToo movement in Sacramento unearthed a wave of misconduct allegations in the Capitol that led to the resignations of several state legislators accused of sexual harassment.

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The Legislature formed a bicameral committee of lawmakers last year to determine the best way to reform the culture in the Capitol, protect alleged victims of harassment and independently investigate claims. In June, the committee proposed sweeping changes, which included the new unit and panel of legal experts.

Legislative leaders said Friday that Legislative Counsel Diane Boyer-Vine independently selected Julia V. Johnson, a former attorney at the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and an administrative law judge for the State Personnel Board, to serve as executive director of the workplace conduct unit. The unit will accept reports of misconduct in the Senate and Assembly, independently investigate the claims and draft a summary of the evidence for the panels review. Johnson will receive a salary of $173,00 a year, said Lizelda Lopez, a spokeswoman for Atkins.

After the unit completes an investigation, three of the five panelists will be chosen to review the findings and recommend appropriate responses for the Assembly or Senate. Each panelist will be paid up to $100,000 a year, depending on hours worked, Lopez said.

The Assembly appointed Connie Broussard, a 15-year veteran of the California attorney generals office who now heads her own law firm, and the Senate tapped Vicki Laden, a labor and employment law attorney who manages the whistleblower program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as panelists.

California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye appointed three additional panelists: Linda Foy, an attorney who previously worked at the Judicial Council of California; Crystal Miller-OBrien, a lawyer for a national human resources firm; and Fred Plevin, managing partner of Paul, Plevin, Sullivan & Connaughton LLP.

The appointments came days after the Assembly released the findings of an investigation that determined former Assemblyman Sebastian Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) likely made an unwanted sexual advance toward a female Capitol staffer two years ago and made another employee uncomfortable. Ridley-Thomas, who denied the allegations, resigned in December 2017, saying his departure was due to health issues.

Legislative leaders said they will continue to release the findings of substantiated misconduct claims against lawmakers and senior legislative employees. The workplace conduct unit and panel will begin on Feb. 1.

Get the latest California politics news 

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taryn.luna@latimes.com

Follow @tarynluna on Twitter and sign up for our daily Essential Politics newsletter.President Trump on Saturday suggested a compromise for fully reopening the government that would temporarily protect certain refugees and immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally years ago as children if Democrats back a scaled-down version of his proposed border wall.

The proposal, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) plans to bring up for a vote within days, almost certainly wont be enough to end the standoff that has closed government agencies for more than four weeks, depriving some 800,000 workers of paychecks. Even before Trump spoke, Democrats rejected his offer as inadequate.

But, along with steps by Democrats in the House to provide additional money for border security, it marked the first moves toward compromise after days in which the tension between Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ratcheted up significantly and no negotiations took place between them.

In notable contrast with his statements over past weeks, Trumps televised address from the White House Diplomatic Reception Room included no direct jabs at Democratic leaders. Instead, he called repeatedly for compromise, saying that both sides should put down their armor.

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He also, more explicitly than ever, acknowledged the reality that his current plans are a far cry from his campaign pledge of a wall along the entire southern border. The current proposal would provide a $5.7-billion installment to build steel fencing along 230 miles of the frontier, he said. As recently as December, Trump emphatically denied that hed abandoned his idea of a concrete wall, after his former chief of staff, John F. Kelly, said otherwise in an interview with The Times.

Its not a 2,000-mile concrete structure from sea to sea, the president said, but steel barriers in high-priority locations.

With polls showing that most Americans blame him for the unpopular shutdown, Trump said, I am here to break the logjam.

So far, his plan doesnt appear likely to meet that goal.

In a statement released before Trump spoke, Pelosi called the proposal a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and in total, do not represent a good faith effort to restore certainty to peoples lives. It is unlikely that any one of these provisions alone would pass the House, and taken together, they are a nonstarter.

In particular, she noted, the protections for the immigrants known as Dreamers, as well as for certain refugees, would be temporary, lasting only three years. Democrats have insisted that those immigrants who arrived so long ago as children  and who were protected by President Obamas program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA  should receive permanent legal status and an opportunity to achieve citizenship.

Trump ordered an end to the program in 2017, but federal courts have mostly blocked him. With current DACA beneficiaries protected by the courts likely into at least 2020, pending a Supreme Court review, the presidents temporary proposal is even less enticing to the Democrats and immigrant advocates.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Senate Democratic leader, echoed Pelosi, and both leaders reiterated the partys insistence that the president and McConnell must fund and reopen the government before any negotiations on border security funding take place.

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In addition to offering limited protection for the roughly 700,000 DACA beneficiaries, Trump also offered a three-year extension of the three-decades-old Temporary Protected Status program that covers more than 300,000 people in the United States, mostly from Central America. The president moved to end that protection soon after taking office, putting those people, many of whom have lived legally in the U.S. for decades and have children born here, at risk of deportation. In October, a federal judge blocked the administration from ending the protections for many of those people.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, the Democratic minority leader from New York, in a tweet noted the presidents contested efforts to end both programs as he dismissed Trumps offer: It was the President who singled-handedly took away DACA and TPS protections in the first place  offering some protections back in exchange for the wall is not a compromise but more hostage taking.

The president touted a third program hed tried to kill. He proposed a new system that would protect migrant children from exploitation and abuse by allowing Central American minors to apply for asylum in their home country rather than at the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2017 he abruptly ended Obama-era programs to do just that.

While Democrats consider the presidents overall proposal inadequate, Trump also risks attack from immigration hard-liners who have derailed several previous efforts at compromise. They consider both the DACA program and extension of the Temporary Protected Status program as forms of amnesty.

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Ann Coulter, the conservative commentator, tweeted: Trump proposes amnesty. We voted for Trump and got Jeb  a reference to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, an immigration moderate whom Trump defeated for the 2016 Republican nomination. Coulter was among the conservative critics who last month prompted Trump to reverse his support for Senate Republicans Senate bill funding the government, but not the wall  precipitating the partial shutdown on Dec. 22.

This is not an amnesty bill, Vice President Mike Pence told White House reporters, adding, There is no pathway to citizenship in this proposal.

As for Democrats, when Pence was asked why they should see the DACA extension as a concession given that federal courts currently are preserving the program, he replied by echoing Trump, I think most legal experts believe the Supreme Court will strike down DACA.

Trumps DACA overture only added to the frustration of people reliant the protections available since 2012.

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Bryan Pena, a 19-year-old beneficiary in Los Angeles Lincoln Heights neighborhood, said he thinks Democrats should hold out for comprehensive immigration reform.

Three years is nothing, he said. If we take that compromise, then someone else is going to suffer. I think there should be a new pathway to citizenship for everybody, not just DACA people.

Pena, who studies nursing at Cal State Los Angeles, said he has worried about losing the only home hes ever known and being deported since Trumps election.

I wear running shoes every day, because I feel like I always have to be ready to sprint, he said.

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Karla Estrada, another DACA recipient in Los Angeles, called Trumps proposal unacceptable and a classic divide-and-conquer strategy.

Instead of finding real solutions for immigrants, they want a temporary fix, she said. We need real solutions, not alleviation tactics that play with the lives of undocumented immigrants. The exchange of real lives for a wall is immoral.

Trump began the day standing his ground on a border wall. Everybody knows that walls work, he said earlier Saturday, emphasizing the main sticking point on the nearly month-old stalemate. Democrats are dead-set against it, but he has refused to sign funding for about a quarter of the government unless they acquiesce. His demand for an installment of $5.7 billion is several times more than he sought during the two years that Republicans controlled both houses of Congress.

Democrats, now a majority in the House, to date had refused to agree to more than $1.3 billion for border security measures, and not for a wall. House Democrats are planning to hold votes next week on funding bills for the closed agencies that would include roughly $1 billion more for additional border security improvements, Pelosi confirmed.

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That additional money, which would amount to an increase of $328 million over last years funding, would be allocated not for a wall but to improve infrastructure at ports of entry and to pay for additional immigration judges to process asylum cases at the border. Most drugs and many asylum-seekers come through the official entry points, according to the government, and not across the border expanse where the president wants to have a wall.

The latest developments follow days of escalating skirmishes.

After the Speaker informed the president Wednesday that he would need to postpone or cancel his scheduled Jan. 29 State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress because of security concerns, given limited resources during the shutdown at the Secret Service and Homeland Security Department, Trump responded Thursday by canceling Pelosis secret weekend trip to visit troops in Afghanistan.

Its not personal for me, Trump said Saturday morning. Pelosi, he told reporters, is being controlled by the radical left.

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I think thats a very bad thing for her. Its a very bad thing for the Democrats, he said during brief remarks to reporters on the South Lawn before departing for Dover Air Force Base to meet with the families of four Americans, including two service members, killed last week in an attack in Syria.

Continuing to depict the situation along the border as a crisis that demands a federal response, though illegal entries continue their two-decade decline, Trump pointed to another caravan of Central American migrants heading north through Mexico.

Caravans are coming up. They have a big one coming up, he said. Im disappointed Mexico is not stopping them.

He continued: If we had a wall, we wouldnt have a problem. But we dont. We have too many open areas.

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Yet migrants in past so-called caravans have sought to enter legally at check points, to seek asylum. Inexplicably, Trump pointed to the city of San Antonio,which is not surrounded by a wall and is about 150 miles from the border at its closest point, as proof of his argument.

You look at San Antonio, you look at so many different places, he said. They go from one of the most unsafe cities in the country to one of the safest cities, immediately.

Times staff writers Molly OToole and Jennifer Haberkorn contributed to this report. Staff writers Jack Dolan and Cindy Carcamo contributed in Los Angeles.

The latest from Washington President Donald Trump on Saturday offered Democrats three years of deportation protections for some immigrants in exchange for $5.7 billion in border wall funding, a proposal immediately rejected by Democrats and derided by conservatives as amnesty.

Aiming to end the 29-day partial government shutdown, Trump outlined his plan in a White House address in which he sought to revive negotiations with Democrats, who responded that they would not engage in immigration talks until he reopened the government.

Trump proposed offering a reprieve on his attempts to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and temporary protected status (TPS) for immigrants from some Latin American and African nations, in exchange for building hundreds of miles of barriers on the southern U.S. border and hiring thousands of new law enforcement agents to be deployed there.

This is a common-sense compromise both parties should embrace, Trump said. He added: The radical left can never control our borders. I will never let it happen.

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But the initial reaction to the offer from Democrats and conservative border hawks was hostile, raising doubts that it would be enough to break an impasse that has resulted in 800,000 federal workers being furloughed or forced to work without pay and numerous government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, operating at minimal staffing levels.

The shutdown has become the longest in U.S. government history.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., dismissed the proposal as a non-starter and vowed that Democrats would pass legislation next week to reopen the government, putting the onus on the Republican-led Senate to follow suit.

The president must sign these bills to reopen government immediately and stop holding the American people hostage with this senseless shutdown, Pelosi said. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., also said he opposed the plan.

Moving ahead on Trumps plan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced that he would put the legislation on the Senate floor for a vote next week. And Trump heralded the package as a bipartisan, compassionate response that would offer humanitarian relief on the border and curb illegal immigration - while allowing the government to reopen.

McConnell laid out his plan in a private call with GOP senators late Saturday afternoon, where there was little dissent, according to an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

In addition to its immigration provisions, the package - which McConnell could move to advance as early as Tuesday, although a Thursday vote appears more likely  would reopen all parts of the government that are closed. It also would provide emergency funding for U.S. areas hit by hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters.

The package would include an extension of the Violence Against Women Act.

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Senior White House aides cast the proposal as a good-faith effort from the president to incorporate ideas from Democrats during weeks of talks with a negotiating team led by Vice President Mike Pence and senior adviser Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law.

In a briefing for reporters after Trumps remarks, the aides acknowledged that the bill faces a difficult path in the Senate, where it would require 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. But they predicted that ordinary Americans would view the plan as a compromise and pressure lawmakers to make the deal.

I hope once people get past their initial statements, initial reaction, they will really look at the legislation that comes to the floor and see what it is  a sincere effort by the president of the United States to take ideas from both political parties, Pence said of lawmakers.

The shutting down of some 25 percent of the federal government was triggered by Trumps demand for $5.7 billion to build more than 200 miles of new wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Pelosi has called the wall immoral, and Democrats are refusing to offer more than $1.3 billion, maintaining existing funding levels for border barriers and fences. Democrats also frequently point out that Trump long claimed that Mexico would pay for the wall.

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Trumps offer would not provide the path to permanent legal status  or citizenship  for DACA beneficiaries that many Democrats have sought in any immigration deal that dramatically ramps up border security. The DACA program, which began in 2012 under President Barack Obama, has provided renewable work permits to more than 700,000 undocumented young immigrants, known as dreamers, who were brought into the country when they were children.

Trump appealed to rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers, hoping to peel them away from leadership, but many issued statements of opposition moments after his 13-minute speech.

Trumps proposal also was pilloried by some of the most influential border hawks, including conservative author and commentator Ann Coulter, who said in a tweet that the proposal was amnesty.

We voted for Trump and got Jeb! she wrote, referring to former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who had a more moderate immigration position when campaigning for the presidency.

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Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, a longtime anti-immigration voice in the House, blasted Trumps offer, and the conservative news website Breitbart noted that most of the border would remain without a wall under the plan.

Pence vehemently disputed the suggestion that the plan was a betrayal of Trumps hard-line border agenda. This is not an amnesty bill, he said, noting the deportation protections are temporary under the plan.

Some congressional Republicans tried to bolster the president.

This bill takes a bipartisan approach to reopening the closed portions of the federal government, McConnell said in a statement.

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Yet McConnells decision to advance the bill to the Senate floor in the coming days marks a reversal of his promise not to hold votes on legislation that did not already have explicit support from the White House and Democratic leaders.

The calculus for the majority leader changed as the shutdown has dragged on, people familiar with his thinking said, pointing to Pelosis letter to Trump on Wednesday suggesting he postpone his Jan. 29 State of the Union address until the government reopens. That moment, the sources said, convinced McConnell that Pelosi would not negotiate without further incentives.

McConnell spoke to Trump that afternoon, asking the president to add legislative sweeteners for Democrats, and Trump agreed, the official said.

Saturdays offer also marks a reversal for Trump, who had indicated for weeks that he would not include DACA in the talks.

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Trump had said he was hoping the Supreme Court would hear an appeal to a lower courts injunction on his attempt to end the program; a high court ruling in his favor would give him more leverage.

But the Supreme Court signaled Friday that it might not take the case, meaning Trump cannot end the program for the time being.

On TPS, Trump has declared an end to a program that has offered hundreds of thousands of immigrants from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti and Sudan the right to remain in the United States after they were uprooted from their home countries during natural disasters and other emergencies. But that move also has been enjoined by federal courts.

White House aides said the presidents proposal was an echo of a bipartisan bill called the Bridge Act, previously offered by Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that would have provided a three-year renewal of DACA-style protections from deportation  a period in which it was hoped lawmakers would pass a comprehensive immigration bill that included a permanent solution.

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But Trumps proposal was far smaller in scope, covering fewer immigrants, and Democrats said his plan was akin to trading permanent border wall for temporary protections for immigrants that Trump could reverse in a second term.

Asked about that criticism, Pence replied: I read that turn of phrase. He then paused and changed the subject.

Durbin issued a statement saying he opposed the offer.

After his speech, Trump joined a call with House Republicans, stressing his desire to finalize a deal with Democrats, according to an official on that call. Kevin McAleenan, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, also detailed to Republican lawmakers the administrations case for a wall, as well as for additional border security resources to stop the flow of crime, drugs and trafficking coming over the southern border, the official said.

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Other Trump aides said they think the president has the legal authority to declare a national emergency at the border, which could allow him to redirect Pentagon funding to a build a border wall, but they said Trump prefers a negotiated solution.

At the White House on Saturday morning, Trump continued to point to a new caravan of Central American migrants crossing into Mexico from Guatemala, which was featured on Fox & Friends, a show the president watches regularly.

If we had a wall, we wouldnt have a problem, Trump told reporters.

Ahead of his afternoon remarks from the White House, Trump oversaw a naturalization ceremony in the Oval Office for five new Americans, who recited the Oath of Allegiance, led by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. They had come to the United States from Iraq, Bolivia, Britain, South Korea and Jamaica.

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The image of the new citizens raising their hands in the Oval Office was meant to underscore Trumps support of foreigners who enter the country through legal immigration programs, even as his administration has supported policies to slash overall immigration.

Each of you worked hard for this moment, Trump told them. You followed the rules, upheld our laws, and contributed to the strength and success and vitality of our nation.

The Washington Posts Paige Winfield Cunningham and Erica Werner contributed to this report.

First published in The Washington Post.President Donald Trump said hell be making a major announcement on the government shutdown and the southern border on Saturday afternoon as the standstill over his border wall continues into its fifth week.

The White House declined to provide details late Friday about what the president would be announcing. But Trump was not expected to sign the national emergency declaration hes been threatening as an option to circumvent Congress, according to two people familiar with the planning.

Instead, Trump was expected to propose the outlines of a new deal that the administration believes could potentially pave the way to an end to the shutdown, according to one of the people. They were not authorized to discuss the announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The move  on Day 28 of a shutdown that has left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without paychecks  represents the first major overture by the president since Jan. 8, when he delivered an Oval Office address making the public case for his border wall. The president and his aides have said he will not budge on his demand for $5.7 billion in funding. Democrats have panned the number and said they will not negotiate until the government reopens, raising questions about how Trump might move the ball forward.

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In a video posted on his Twitter feed late Friday, Trump said both sides should take the politics out of it and get to work to make a deal. But he also repeated his warnings, saying: We have to secure our southern border. If we dont do that, were a very, very sad and foolish lot.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said only that Trump was going to continue fighting for border security and going to continue looking for the solution to end what the administration had repeatedly referred to as a humanitarian and national security crisis at the border.

While few would argue that a humanitarian crisis is unfolding at the U.S.-Mexico border, as the demand for entry by migrants and the Trump administrations hardline response overwhelm border resources, critics say Trump has dramatically exaggerated the security risks and argue that a wall would do little to solve existing problems.

Trump will be speaking from the Diplomatic Room at 3 p.m.

Trumps Friday evening tweeted announcement came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday canceled her plans to travel by commercial plane to visit U.S. troops in Afghanistan, saying Trump had caused a security risk by talking about the trip. The White House said there was no such leak.

It was the latest turn  and potentially the most dangerous  in the high-stakes brinkmanship between Trump and Pelosi that has been playing out against the stalled negotiations over how to end the partial government shutdown.

And it showed once again the willingness of the former hard-charging businessman to hit hard when challenged, as he was earlier this week when Pelosi suggested postponing his State of the Union address until after the shutdown.

Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, said the back-and-forth gives new meaning to tensions between the executive and legislative branches.

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There are public back and forths, he said, citing relations between past presidents and House speakers. But this kind of tensions, preventing the speaker from visiting the troops and the speaker suggesting the White House leaked information about a crucial flight, this is one more example of where Trumpism brings us into new territory.

The political stakes are high as the shutdown moves into a fifth week, with hundreds of thousands of federal workers going without pay and no outward signs of resolution.

Sanders on Friday stressed the importance of a looming Tuesday deadline to process paychecks, when the government will need to decide if workers get another round of zeros on Fridays payday.

One of the key reasons that the president did not want Speaker Pelosi to leave the country is because, if she did, it would all but guarantee the fact that the negotiations couldnt take place over the weekend, Sanders told reporters.

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It was an unusually combative week between the executive and legislative branches.

Tensions flared when Pelosi suggested Trump postpone the annual State of the Union address, a grand Washington tradition  and a platform for his border wall fight with Democrats  that was tentatively scheduled for Jan. 29.

Trump never responded directly. Instead, he abruptly canceled Pelosis military flight on Thursday, hours before she and a congressional delegation were to depart for Afghanistan on the previously undisclosed visit to U.S. troops.

Trump belittled the trip as a public relations event  even though he had just made a similar stop in a conflict zone during the shutdown  and said it would be best if Pelosi remained in Washington to negotiate to reopen the government.

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Obviously, if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative, wrote Trump.

Pelosi, undeterred, quietly began making her own preparations for the overseas trip.

But on Friday, Pelosi said her plan to travel by commercial plane had been leaked by the White House.

The administration leaked that we were traveling commercially, Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol. She said it was very irresponsible on the part of the president.

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She said the State Department told her the president outing the original trip made the scene on the ground in Afghanistan more dangerous because its a signal to the bad actors that were coming.

The White House said it had leaked nothing that would cause a security risk.

Trumps trip to Iraq after Christmas was not disclosed in advance for security reasons.

Denying military aircraft to a senior lawmaker  let alone the speaker, who is second in line to the presidency after the vice president, traveling to a combat region  is very rare.

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Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California slammed Trump for revealing the closely held travel plan, calling it completely and utterly irresponsible in every way.

Some Republicans expressed frustration. Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted, One sophomoric response does not deserve another. He called Pelosis State of the Union move very irresponsible and blatantly political but said Trumps reaction was also inappropriate.

The White House also canceled plans for a presidential delegation to travel to an economic forum in Switzerland next week, citing the shutdown. And it said future congressional trips would be postponed until the shutdown is resolved, though it was not immediately clear if any such travel  which often is not disclosed in advance  was coming up.

Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann, Kevin Freking, Jon Lemire, Matthew Daly, Andy Taylor, Mary Clare Jalonick, Matt Lee and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.The Rev. Simeon Engl, a Catholic priest who served in the San Diego diocese from 1955 through 1969, was credibly accused of molesting several boys in 1950, when he was working in the diocese of Green Bay, Wis.

Engl is not known to have assaulted anyone during his years in California, although the San Diego diocese received two inquiries about the man after his death in 1989.

One person said he and his brother had been molested by Father Engl in the 1950s, said Kevin Eckery, a spokesperson for the local diocese. Another Wisconsin resident suggested there may have been a case when he was in Norco, in San Bernardino County.

Simeon Engl, also known as Samuel Engl, was attached to St. Mels in Norco from January 1959 through December 1964. At the time, the San Diego diocese included San Bernardino County.

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The allegations against Engl came to light this week, when the Green Bay diocese issued an updated list of 47 priests who had been the subject of one or more substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. Engl, who had been ordained in 1930, served in 10 Wisconsin parishes across 25 years.

His time in Wisconsin included a two-year leave, 1950-1952.

When he arrived in San Diego, Green Bay did not alert local church authorities about any allegations made against him. Officially, he seemed to have a clean record.

During his lifetime, Eckery said, we got nothing in terms of complaints.

In 1955 and 56, Engl trained at a series of parishes, spending three months each at St. Joseph parish in Upland, Our Lady of Guadalupe in Calexico and Precious Blood in Calexico.

Then he spent almost three years at St. Jude in San Diego, from February 1956 until January 1959. Five years at St. Mels in Norco followed, then a two-year-plus assignment at San Diegos Mercy Hospital, from January 1965 to June 1967,

His final assignment was as a parish administrator at St. Mary Magdalen in Jacumba, June 1967 until his retirement on July 2, 1969.

He died Jan. 4, 1989, at Mercy Hospital. He was 85.

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Details on the allegations lodged against him in Wisconsin are scarce. Well be contacting Green Bay, Eckery said, to see what they have.A fight between siblings in Escondido early Friday sent a 27-year-old woman to a hospital in grave condition, while her 25-year-old brother was in custody on suspicion of attempted homicide, police said.

The incident occurred around 12:45 a.m. on East 15th Avenue near South Juniper Street, Escondido police Lt. Chris Lick said. Police and firefighters were sent to the location after receiving a report of a woman in need of medical attention.

When police and fire crews arrived, they found the 27-year-old woman unresponsive, Lick said. She had severe, life-threatening injuries, and was in grave condition when she was admitted to a hospital.

The womans brother, 25-year-old Jose Enrique Bautista, was detained at the scene and later arrested on suspicion of attempted homicide, according to Lick.

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Based on a preliminary investigation, police learned that Bautista and his sister were involved in a fight stemming from a family argument, Lick said. Bautista was arrested after further investigation by Escondido detectives and forensic specialists.

Lick said the investigation was ongoing Friday afternoon, and anyone with additional information was asked to call Detective Ross Umstot at (760) 839-4463. Callers can also contact the Escondido Police Departments anonymous tip line at (760) 743-TIPS (8477).

Twitter: @Alex_Riggins

(619) 293-1710

alex.riggins@sduniontribune.comEven with 26 years on the Board of Supervisors under her belt, theres no shortage of things Dianne Jacob still hopes to accomplish.

Last week, as two new supervisors joined the board for the first time in decades, Jacob was unanimously elected by colleagues to serve as chairwoman for her seventh and last time. She last held the post in 2017.

The change on the board is good, said Jacob, who is the longest-serving supervisor in county history. It is a time to challenge the institution of county government in terms of why are we doing things the way we are doing it and is there a better way?

Although she has taken the helm several times as chairwoman, this time the boards resident maverick is faced with a markedly different landscape.

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Prior to the arrival of new Supervisors Nathan Fletcher and Jim Desmond this year, the board has had almost no turnover in membership since 1995. And Fletcher is only the second Democrat on the board in 25 years, though the office is technically a nonpartisan position.

Jacob views the boards changes as invaluable for developing new approaches to attack a range of county problems, such as homelessness and housing.

The old ways are not working; just poring money into a problem is not helping people, Jacob said, adding that shes excited about exploring new ideas and the possibility of more public/private partnerships.

Even with changing faces on the board, Jacobs priorities for her final term are unlikely to come as a surprise to those familiar with her career.

A former teacher who built a reputation as a straight-talking champion of East County and back-country interests, Jacob said she will continue to promote the preservation of open space.

She also is eager to continue her work on the Alzheimers Project, and to look at ways to increase the competitiveness of the energy market in San Diego  an issue that would likely bring her toe-to-toe with a familiar foe, San Diego Gas & Electric.

Jacob also highlighted creating more libraries, fields and recreation areas as ongoing goals.

But for Jacob, a pivotal figure in creating the San Diego County Fire Authority after the Cedar Fire in 2003, the top priority remains public safety.

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People expect government to keep us safe, so that will continue to be a big issue, both on having enough deputies on patrol and on the fire protection front, Jacob said, noting she still wants a new sheriffs station in Ramona as well.

Jacob said addressing homelessness and housing remain priorities, as does maintaining the countys sound fiscal standing. She noted that the countys nearly $700 million in unrestricted reserves will enable it to address the issues.

She is excited about the countys recently approved five-year trial program which will waive fees and promote the creation of accessory dwelling units  sometimes called granny flats  in the countys unincorporated areas.

In her position as chair, and as a veteran of the board, Jacobs priorities include supporting collaboration among supervisors on the board.

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We are starting a new era in county government, she said. As chair it is going to be my job to make sure we work together to achieve the goals. Were going to be dealing with issues that impact peoples lives and we may have different ideas on how to get to a certain goal. But the important thing is that we try and work it out together to try and come to an agreeable conclusion.

Jacob said she will provide more details about this years goals during her State of the County address, Feb. 6 at the County Administration Building.Colombians had hoped that decades of civil conflict were behind them, but a massive explosion that left 21 people dead is renewing fears of a return to terrorist violence.

The government on Friday announced that it had arrested a suspect affiliated with one of the countrys last remaining leftist rebel groups on charges stemming from the car bombing at a police academy in the capital, Bogota. In addition to the 21 dead, 68 people were injured in the blast, which occurred Thursday morning.

The government signed a peace agreement in 2016 with the countrys largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC, but it still faces a challenge from two smaller groups, including the one blamed for the police academy attack: the National Liberation Army, better known by its Spanish initials, ELN.

President Ivan Duque called for Colombians to unite in repudiating terrorism and to help the armed forces bring those responsible for the bombing to justice. The president also announced police and army reinforcements in regions where the ELNs presence is strongest.

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In a news conference at the presidential palace, Defense Minister Guillermo Botero said investigators have tied both the driver and the bomb-laden vehicle to the ELN, which has been at war with the government since the 1960s. Authorities said the driver died in the blast at the Francisco de Paula Santander Police Academy. It was the deadliest attack in 15 years in the country.

Chief Prosecutor Nestor Martinez identified the driver as Jose Aldemar Rojas, 56, a reputed ELN member who is known by the alias Mocho Kiko. He reportedly lost his arm manipulating explosives during a long clandestine career with an ELN cell near the border with Venezuela.

The Defense Ministry identified Rojas as a member of the ELNs Domingo Lain Saenz front, which operates in the eastern province of Arauca, extorting from businesses, kidnapping oil field workers and perpetrating bomb attacks on the oil pipeline network.

Authorities also announced the arrest in Bogota of another man, Ricardo Carvajal Salgar, and said he had admitted to involvement in the bombing. They declined to give details on what role he allegedly played.

All the evidence collected in the first 22 hours after the attack point clearly to the ELN as the author of this criminal act, said Botero, describing the bombing as a cowardly attack on unarmed cadets aged 18 to 22. An Ecuadorean cadet, Erika Chico, was among the dead and several Panamanians were injured.

This deplorable act is a flagrant violation of human rights, Botero said.

Colombians wondered whether the attack presaged a resurgence of the violence that plagued the country for decades.

I hope not, but everything indicates a return to terror, said William Gil, owner of a Bogota-based apparel manufacturing firm. The truth is we are children of war. Im 52 years old and Ive experienced violence all my life.

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Half a century of conflict in Colombia comes to close as FARC rebels disarm 

The blast blew bodies apart, and only seven of the dead have been positively identified so far, officials said.

Investigators estimated that the bomb contained 180 pounds of the powerful explosive pentolite placed aboard a pickup. It exploded amid a crowd of police cadets gathering for an honors assembly at the academy in south Bogota. The force of the blast disintegrated the truck and blew out windows blocks away.

Rojas drove the 1993 Nissan through the academys main entrance and raced past guards after police dogs indicated the presence of explosives in his truck, National Police commander Oscar Atehortua told reporters. The bomb exploded 100 yards from the gate.

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We can verify legally that the material actor of this terrorist act is a member of the ELN, Martinez, the chief prosecutor, said at the news conference. He noted that previous owners of the vehicle also had links to the rebel group. The truck was last purchased and serviced in Arauca.

Peace negotiations with the ELN, which began two years ago under Duques predecessor, Juan Manuel Santos, are likely to be formally called off because of the attack. The talks stalled under Santos, and Duque had refused to meet with rebel negotiators until the group released kidnapped hostages and renounced its criminal activities, including drug trafficking and extortion, steps the ELN has declined to take.

Since Duque took office in August, the ELN guerrillas have been responsible for nine kidnappings and 63 bomb attacks on Colombias second largest oil pipeline, from Cano Limon to Covenas, presidential peace commissioner Miguel Angel Ceballos told reporters.

There is no space for dialogue with a group that continues with criminal activities. We wont give way and we wont negotiate, Ceballos said, adding that Duque has reactivated arrest warrants for 14 ELN leaders that had been suspended during peace dialogues.

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Since its founding in 1964 by Colombians studying in Cuba, the ELN has vowed to overthrow the government by armed struggle and install a communist government. Until recent years, its warfare has been financed mainly by extortion from businesses and by collecting ransom for kidnap victims.

Since the FARC disarmed and forswore illicit businesses, the ELN has tried to fill the vacuum by taking over its rivals drug production and trafficking operations.

The group has been blamed for 5,700 kidnappings since 1996 and 328 pipeline bombings since 2012, said security consultant Orlando Hernandez of Medellin-based Agora Consulting. Among recent kidnap victims are a three-man crew of a helicopter taken this month as they ferried cash in rural North Santander province. The rebels destroyed the chopper.

ELN membership has waxed and waned over the years, falling from about 9,000 in the early 1990s to 1,500 in 2015, said Hernandez. Over the last two years, the ELN has added to its ranks up to 1,000 former FARC rebels who refused to lay down their arms, bringing the current total to 2,500, he said.

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Special correspondent Kraul is based in Bogota. The Associated Press contributed to this report.They were warned to stay away from the geyser of gasoline gushing from the illegally tapped pipeline in central Mexico, but Gerardo Perez says he and his son joined others in bypassing the soldiers. As they neared the spurting fuel he was overcome with foreboding.

Perez recalls telling his son: Lets go ... this thing is going to explode.

And it did, with a fireball that engulfed locals scooping up the spilling gasoline and underscored the dangers of an epidemic of fuel theft from pipelines that Mexicos new president has vowed to fight.

By Saturday evening the death toll from Fridays blaze had risen to 73, with another 74 people injured and dozens more were missing.

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Perez and his son escaped the flames. On Saturday, he returned to the scorched field in the town of Tlahuelilpan in Hidalgo state to look for missing friends. It was a fruitless task. Only a handful of the remains still had skin. Dozens were burned to the bone or to ash when the gusher of gasoline exploded.

Just a few feet from where the pipeline passed through an alfalfa field, the dead seem to have fallen in heaps, perhaps as they stumbled over each other or tried to help one another as the geyser of gasoline turned to flames.

Several of the deceased lay on their backs, their arms stretched out in agony. Some seemed to have covered their chests in a last attempt to protect themselves from the blast. A few corpses seemed to embrace each other in death. Lost shoes were scattered around a space the size of a soccer field. Closer to the explosion, forensic workers marked mounds of ash with numbers.

On Friday, hundreds of people had gathered in an almost festive atmosphere in a field where the duct had been perforated by fuel thieves and gasoline spewed 20 feet into the air.

State oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said the pipeline, which supplies much of central Mexico with fuel, had just reopened after being shut since Dec. 23 and that it had been breached 10 times over three months.

The tragedy came just three weeks after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador launched an offensive against fuel theft gangs that have drilled dangerous, illegal taps into pipelines an astounding 12,581 times in the first 10 months of 2018, an average of about 42 per day. The crackdown has led to widespread fuel shortages at gas stations throughout the country as Pemex deviates distribution, both licit and illicit.

Lopez Obrador vowed on Saturday to continue the fight against a practice that steals about $3 billion per year in fuel.

He said the attorney generals office will investigate whether the explosion was intentional  caused by an individual or group  or whether the fireball occurred due to the inherent risk of clandestine fuel extraction. He called on townspeople to give testimony not only about Fridays events in Hidalgo, but about the entire black-market chain of fuel theft.

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I believe in the people, I trust in the people, and I know that with these painful, regrettable lessons, the people will also distance themselves from these practices, he said.

Lopez Obrador faces an uphill fight against a practice that locals say is deeply rooted in the poor rural areas where pipelines pass, covered by only a foot or two of dirt. In some cases, locals support the fuel thieves.

Tlahuelilpan, population 20,000, is just 8 miles from Pemexs Tula refinery. Pemex Chief Executive Octavio Romero said an estimated 10,000 barrels of premium gasoline were rushing through the pipeline with 20 kilograms of pressure when it was ruptured.

Locals on Saturday expressed both sympathy and consternation toward the presidents war on fuel gangs.

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Arely Calva Martinez said the recent shortages at gas stations raised the temptation to salvage fuel from the gusher.

Her brother Marco Alfredo, a teacher, was desperate for gas to drive 90 minutes back and forth to work when word spread via Facebook that fuel spewing into the field. Marco Alfredo and another brother, Yonathan, were in the field when the fire erupted. They havent been seen since.

I think if there had been gas in the gas stations, many of these people wouldnt have been here, Calva Martinez said while holding a picture of her brothers.

Tears streamed down Erica Bautistas cheeks as she held up her cellphone with pictures of her brother, Valentin Hernandez Cornejo, 24, a taxi driver, and his wife, Yesica, both of whom are also missing. Valentin faced enormous lines for a limited ration of gas, she said. Then he received a phone call alerting him to the fuel spill.

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We want to at least find a cadaver, she said while weeping.

Health officials were taking DNA samples from direct relatives at the local community center in Tlahuelilpan to aid in identification. Outside, a long, chilling list of the missing was taped to a window.

Wrapped in a blanket, Hugo Olvera Estrada said he had gone to six nearby hospitals looking for his 13-year-old son, who had joined the crowd at the fuel spill. He hasnt been seen since.

Ay, no, where is my son? he wailed.

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Lopez Obrador launched the offensive against illegal taps soon after taking office Dec. 1, deploying 3,200 marines to guard pipelines and refineries. His administration also shut down pipelines to detect and deter illegal taps, relying more on delivering fuel by tanker truck.

Mexican Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio said there are 50 soldiers stationed every 12 miles along the pipelines, and that they patrol 24 hours a day. But the soldiers have been ordered not to engage with fuel thieves out of fear that an escalation could result in more shootings of unarmed civilians or more soldiers being beaten by a mob.

We dont want this sort of confrontation, Cresencio said.

A second pipeline burst into flames Friday in the neighboring state of Queretaro as a result of another illegal tap. But in this fire there were no reported casualties.

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In December 2010, authorities also blamed thieves for a pipeline explosion in a central Mexico near the capital that killed 28 people, including 13 children.

Associated Press writer Amy Guthrie contributed to this story from Mexico City.A group of 376 Central Americans was arrested in southwest Arizona, the vast majority of them families who dug short, shallow holes under a barrier to cross the border, authorities said Friday.

The group dug under a steel barrier in seven spots about 10 miles east of a border crossing in San Luis and made no effort to elude immigration agents. They included 176 children.

The unusually large group was almost entirely from Guatemala. They were taken to Yuma after entering the country Monday.

The area became a major corridor for illegal crossings in the mid-2000s, prompting the federal government to weld steel plates to a barrier made of steel bollards that had been designed to stop people in vehicles, not on foot, Border Patrol spokesman Jose Garibay III said. In those spots, there is no concrete footing to prevent digging.

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The group used multiple holes in an apparent effort to get everyone across the border quickly, Garibay said.

On Wednesday, the Border Patrol arrested a group of 247 people, mostly from Central America, who turned themselves in to agents in a highly remote part of New Mexico, where authorities have found 25 groups of more than 100 people since October. A group of 115 was found in the same area Thursday.

Large numbers of Guatemalan families and unaccompanied children are surrendering to immigration agents in Antelope Wells, New Mexico, where 7-year-old Jakelin Caal and her father were found Dec. 6 with 161 others.

Caal started vomiting on the bus ride to the nearest Border Patrol station 94 miles away and had stopped breathing by the time she arrived. She died at a hospital in El Paso, Texas.

The southwest Arizona desert is less remote but arrests have also sharply increased after years of relative quiet. The Border Patrols Yuma sector made 7,857 arrests in October and November, more than double the same period a year earlier.

Despite a surge in asylum-seeking families from Central America in recent months, border arrests remain low by historical standards.

The Border Patrol made 396,579 arrests on the Mexican border in the 2018 fiscal year, up 30 percent from a 46-year low during the same period a year earlier but still well below a high of more than 1.6 million in 2000.Hundreds of Central American migrants broke their way into a federal port of entry on Mexicos southern border early Friday, authorities said, bucking efforts by Mexican immigration officers to register their arrival in an orderly manner.

Mexicos top immigration official, Tonatiuh Guillen, said the group broke a lock early Friday at the federal port of entry in Ciudad Hidalgo at about 4 a.m., and crossed over to Mexico from the town of Tecun Uman in Guatemala.

The migrants are members of a caravan that left northern Honduras earlier this week. By 8 a.m. Friday, they were miles from the border, marching down a four-lane highway that leads to the city of Tapachula. Most were young men, but the group included women as well as children, some being pushed in strollers, others holding their parents hands.

They are brothers who need our help, said Carlos Munoz, a member of a local Catholic group that was offering water to the migrants as they passed. A few of the migrants boarded three-wheeled taxis, but most kept walking as some shouted Fuera (Out) JOH, the initials of the president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez.

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Luis Cardona, a 22-year-old from El Salvador, said he just passed through the Mexican port of entry without interference from Mexican authorities. He did not stop, because we would be registered, and then immigration could return us.

The politically sensitive situation has come as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office on Dec. 1, has vowed to give humane treatment to migrants in Mexico. His administration is offering one-year humanitarian visas to those members of the caravan who register with the Mexican government.

Speaking to Mexican broadcast journalist Denise Maerker, Guillen said the groups action breaks the generous offer made by the government of Mexico. Authorities are in a dialogue with members of the group, trying to persuade them to register, he said, adding that there is interest in not taking a position of force.

Members of Mexicos Federal Police escorted several hundred members of the group who walked down a highway in Tapachula on Friday afternoon after stopping to rest in the shade on a stretch of grass outside a restaurant. At the head of the group, someone carried a large Honduran flag. Farther back, others limped and complained of blisters.

Edgar Corzo Sosa, an official with Mexicos National Human Rights Commission, estimated that the undocumented group numbered close to 1,000. Meanwhile, another 1,700 members of the caravan had registered with Mexican authorities, and another 600 were waiting to do so, according to Mexicos National Migration Institute.

There is one very strong point and that is trust, how to win the trust of a migrant, to tell them, this is our commitment, Corzo said, so that the migrant can see that this is no lie, that its no trap.

As they register, the migrants are being given wristbands, and being told that they will have a wait of up to five days to receive the humanitarian visa. Many of those waiting in line on Rodolfo Robles Bridge, which leads to the Mexican port of entry, said they were grateful to Mexican authorities for this opportunity.

But at a public park in Tapachula, where hundreds of other caravan members prepared to spend the night after walking 25 miles from the border, the crowd Friday night cheered a man who said: if we didnt accept a bracelet in Guatemala, were much less going to do so here.

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The migrants are part of the third caravan in less than a year that has brought large groups of Central Americans to Mexico, most from Honduras. Many have come with hopes of crossing to the United States.

sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com

@sandradibbleYoga, meditation, acupuncture and chiropractic are not usually discussed as solutions to homelessness, but a new housing program for San Diego youth is exploring how the practices might help stabilize lives.

Eric Lovett, founder and executive director of Urban Street Angels, said the program  which he described as the first of its kind  will monitor how certain holistic practices could help people with mental health issues that often are associated with homelessness.

We believe in a sustainable answer and not putting Band-Aids on issues, but really getting to their root cause, he said Friday at an opening ceremony for his programs new home in downtown San Diego. Were going to change the face of how we deal with mental illness, starting in San Diego.

Formerly homeless young people who have experienced mental issues will wear Apple Watches to respond to surveys about their mental state following various holistic exercises, he said.

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The participants are among 35 people ages 18 to 25 years who will be residents in the former Toussaint Academy building owned by Father Joes Villages on Fifth Avenue.

Homeless people in that age group, known as transitional age youth, are estimated to be about 1,100 in San Diego County.

Its just unacceptable, said Chris Ward, a San Diego City Council member and chair of the Regional Task Force on Homelessness. Now, 35 of those youths will have a safe place to be, to get well, and to begin a life plan and have a support network.

Urban Street Angels began in 2012 with Lovett, a MissionGathering pastor at the time, handing out backpacks, socks and sleeping bags to homeless people twice a year. He soon took homeless youths into his home. He then started the business 8 West, putting the young people to work making soap and candles while helping them acquire other job skills.

In September, the program moved into dorms and office spaces in three floors of Toussaint Academy. Father Joes Villages had used the dorms to house homeless teenagers, but ended the residential program in 2016.

Urban Street Angels operates two housing programs in the building. A nine-month bridge housing program will have up to 15 people and a three-month Just Be U supportive housing program can have 20 people.

Just Be U is specifically for homeless youths with severe mental illness. Funding over five-years will come from an annual $1.3 million county grant which will pay for a variety of services, including yoga, Reiki and other holistic healing practices.

Nick Macchione, director and deputy chief administrative officer for county Health and Human Services Agency, said the county is investing about $8 million in all for the Urban Street Angels programs.

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Autumn Rapson, 24, moved into the building in September as part of the nine-month housing program.

Originally from Waco, Texas, Rapson said she moved to San Diego when she was 18 and was homeless for a while but began living in a supportive residential program.

Around the time she learned that program was leaving the city, Rapson said, she heard a woman she described as the love of her life had killed herself in Texas. Rapson ended up in a psychiatric hospital, but then learned about Urban Street Angels.

She now has a job as a recreational therapist at a psychiatric hospital and hopes to continue work in the field. For now, she said she is comforted by the support she receives in her new home, where a case worker is one door away.

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I cant tell you the number of times in the middle of the night they come and sit or talk to me on the phone, she said.

Father Joes Villages still owns the building but is not part of Urban Street Angels, which is renting 12,000 square feet from the nonprofit.

Its perfect for me, Lovett said about the programs new home, where dorms for one to three people range in size from 200 to 300 square feet. When I moved in here, I almost tripled our enrollment.

Father Joes Villages President and CEO Deacon Jim Vargas spoke at the Friday ceremony and said he was pleased the building would continue to serve young people in need.

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We truly are at the precipice of making a tremendous difference, Vargas said. I think were making inroads with those 1,000 youths who are out on the street.

Lovett said the need for housing and support is much greater than he is providing, but he hopes the program will grow and more partners will be found in other cities.

Fridays ceremony included elected officials and other representatives from Chula Vista, Carlsbad, Imperial Beach, Vista and the San Diego, Sweetwater and Southwestern community college districts.

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Homeless Playlist  On Now San Diego hepatitis outbreak continues to grow: 481 cases On Now Homeless entrenched in booming tent city along Santa Ana River On Now San Diego mayor agreed to homeless hub, then delayed, advocates say On Now Homeless outreach in San Diego On Now Video: Street Art: Portraits of San Diego's Homeless #8 On Now In poverty himself, 'Water Man Dave,' is the fearless saint of San Diego's homeless 5:41 On Now Video: Homeless living in cars find safe havens 2:21 On Now Street Art: Portraits of San Diego's Homeless #7 On Now Pitching a tent plan for San Diego's homeless On Now Homeless efforts get $80M boost for various services

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gary.warth@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @GaryWarthUT

760-529-4939The San Diego County Vector Control Program reminded residents Friday to protect themselves from the potentially deadly hantavirus after five mice around the county tested positive for it.

The positive tests are the first instance of the virus in San Diego County this year, according to county officials. Wild rodents are the primary carriers of hantavirus.

Residents are advised not to sweep or vacuum wild rodent nests or droppings as doing so can send the virus into the air. Residents should instead use so-called wet cleaning methods like a bleach solution spray and a sponge or mop.

The infected mice were trapped in the Bonsall, 4S Ranch and Potrero areas, according to the county. Hantavirus isnt uncommon in San Diego County,especially in undeveloped areas, Vector Control officials said.

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There is no current vaccine or cure for the virus, which can trigger fatal infections. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms can include fever, aches in the large muscle groups, dizziness, digestive problems and abdominal pain.

However, exposure and infection is unlikely as long as residents keep wild mice and other rodents out of their houses and apartments.

According to Vector Control, residents can avoid exposure by sealing external holes in their homes or adjacent structures larger than a dime, avoiding areas of rodent infestation and using wet cleaning materials to dispose of droppings.

Residents can call the countys Department of Environmental Health at (858) 694-2888 for more information about avoiding hantavirus infection.A priest who had been assigned to a Carlsbad church was sentenced Friday to 60 days in jail, a month after he was found guilty of groping a seminary student at a local bar.

The Rev. Juan Castillo, 35, was also placed on probation for three years and ordered to register as a sex offender following his conviction for misdemeanor sexual battery in the incident that occurred sometime after midnight Feb. 4.

In handing down the punishment, Vista Superior Court Judge Sim von Kalinowski said he wanted to send a message to others to avoid such conduct.

Custody is appropriate here, for the deterrent (aspect), von Kalinowski said.

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The judge also noted that as a priest, Castillo had been in a position of trust, and that the victim had been vulnerable.

The victim, the judge said, was very credible.

(photo courtesy Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego)

Deputy District Attorney Joshua Brisbane had asked the judge to sentence Castillo to 120 days in custody. Defense attorney Victor Pippins asked that no jail time be imposed. Pippins argued that his client was already looking at significant sanctions, including the sex-offender registration and the loss of his vocation.

Castillo started pursing the priesthood when he was 17, the attorney said. That is his world, Pippins said. It is an absolute calling.

Brisbane countered that Castillo had abused his position, and that the victim trusted Castillo because he was a priest.

Castillo is a member of the Eudists, which has ministries at locations around the world. At the time of the incident, he was assigned as an associate priest at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Carlsbad.

The Diocese of San Diego removed Castillo from his assignment the day the student came forward with the allegations. On Friday, Pippins said he expects there will be a formal and permanent separation from the priesthood for his client.

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After the sentencing, a spokesman for the San Diego diocese said in an email that it is highly unlikely Castillo would ever return to the ministry.

Everybody needs to be held accountable for their actions, spokesman Kevin Eckery said.

In an email after the hearing, Pippins said he and his client were disappointed that jail time was imposed in this case, given all the other consequences of the conviction. But my client accepts the decision of the court.

At trial, the victim testified that Castillo had invited him out for drinks after a Saturday evening at church. The victim said he asked a fellow seminary student to come along. Both students were in their 30s.

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The three men met up at a Carlsbad brewery and hung out there for nearly five hours. The accuser said the conversation had turned bizarre after midnight, after the priest started talking about the finer points of celibacy and chastity.

The accuser also said Castillo  whom hed met for the first time that day  goaded him into drinking heavily.

The seminary classmate testified that the conversation at the bar turned weird and that Castillo had been paying an unusual amount of attention to the victim.

Sometime before 1 a.m., the victim headed to the bathroom to throw up.

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While he was standing in the stall and vomiting, the victim said, Castillo reached around and groped his genitals in a sexual manner.

I couldnt leave because I was puking, the accuser testified. I was panicked.

He said he tried to shrug Castillo off, but said the priest did it a second time.

Castillo testified said he was trying to help the ailing seminary student, and might have accidentally touched his genitals.

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The victim had been a Navy attorney  including time as a prosecutor  when he left the military to join the priesthood. He came forward with his allegations in the hours after the Feb. 4 encounter.

Before the end of the day, the bishop had removed Castillo from his assignment.

In May, three months after the incident was reported to police and church officials, the District Attorneys Office filed one count against Castillo, charging him with misdemeanor sexual battery.

Castillo had to pay for his own legal defense.

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Following a three-day trial in December, a North County jury deliberated for about two hours before finding him guilty.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

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Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUTA man who fired a BB gun in his Poway home as sheriffs deputies tried to get him to come outside was sentenced Friday to 180 days in custody.

After 60 days, Bryon Edward Henry can be released to a residential alcohol treatment program, San Diego Superior Court Judge Polly Shamoon said.

Henry, 33, pleaded guilty last month to a felony charge of resisting an executive officer while armed with a shotgun and a BB gun.

He admitted everything that he did, defense attorney Ashby Sorensen told the judge. He wants to move on with his life and prove that hes not a danger.

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Deputy District Attorney Michael Runyon said Henry was on misdemeanor probation for driving under the influence when the incident occurred the night of May 9, 2018.

Deputies were sent to the defendants home on Utopia Road about 7:30 p.m. in response to a report that he was behaving in a threatening manner toward a former romantic partner, according to authorities. An 8-year-old boy was also in the residence, Runyon said.

When patrol deputies tried to make contact with Henry, he retreated into his residence along with the 31-year-old woman, and refused repeated orders to exit and surrender, authorities said.

As deputies tried in vain to persuade Henry to give himself up, they heard shots  from a BB gun  coming from inside the home. Authorities evacuated several nearby residences as a precaution during the encounter, sheriffs officials said.

Runyon said the 13 deputies who responded to the residence showed great restraint in the incident.

Mr. Henry could have been shot that day,' the prosecutor said.

Eventually, the woman walked out of her former boyfriends home and was taken into custody on suspicion of violating a restraining order. A short time later, deputies arrested Henry.

No one was injured during the standoff.

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dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @danalittlefieldSeveral times in the last few years my family headed up to the Bay Area thinking it would be the last chance to see my mother alive.

She had a bum heart and kidney disease, and shed get confused in the middle of a sentence, like a hiker lost in a heavy fog. She had said many times since the death of my father seven years ago that she wanted to die, and there were days she didnt get out of bed.

Over the recent holidays, it became clear the end was near. She took a fall, went to the hospital in a state of delirium and refused to eat. A feeding tube was suggested, but in her advance healthcare directive, my mother had declined any life-extending medical procedures. And she checked a box that said this:

I direct that treatment for alleviation of pain or discomfort be provided at all times, even if it hastens my death.

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She was frail as a leaf in the hospital, and when her eyes were open, she didnt know her three children. I thought shed die in the hospital, but on a Thursday evening, my brother and sister and I were told our mother would be discharged to hospice as soon as possible.

In our rapidly aging country, more than a million older Americans receive hospice care each year. Its covered by Medicare, and hospitals often recommend it when they know death is near and have nothing left to offer.

In retrospect, we could have done some advance research, but like a lot of families, we hadnt and so had to scramble, making quick decisions at a time we were already overwhelmed and trying to keep grief at bay.

One of my mothers doctors recommended a particular hospice agency, so we met with its representative at the hospital, I asked about staffing, because my father was in hospice care at home, and we were shocked by how spotty the service was. When nurses failed to show up, we were told that holiday staffing was a problem.

The hospice rep expressed surprise that wed had such an experience. The moment my mother left the hospital shed be in the care of the hospice medical team, the rep said, and a care plan would be drawn up. My mother would see a nurse three times a week, more if needed, and home health aides would also make visits.

My mothers doctor recommended against hospice at home, partly because my mother was agitated and aggressive in her state of delirium, and partly because my sister has health issues of her own. Shes amazingly capable, but ovarian cancer metastasized to her brain many years ago. After several surgeries, shes doing well, but the illness has taken a toll.

The hospice agency doesnt find the care facility for you, so we used a broker to tell us what was available in Contra Costa County.

On Friday morning at the hospital, the push for discharge was stepped up. Two doctors said my mother didnt need the level of care provided by a hospital, and it was time to move on. They said she might last another seven to 10 days. As the hospital prepared the discharge papers, my sister and I drove to a private home with several hospice beds in eastern Contra Costa to see if we had a good feeling about the place.

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Its not easy to make a decision like this. We were in a strangers home. The place where our mother would die.

But the owner, a woman named Esther, struck us as caring and straightforward. As she walked us through the home, she knew each patient by first name, and she knew something about their life stories. Esther showed us an available bedroom, with good natural light, and through the sliding door, we could see a bird feeder like the one my mother had outside her kitchen. The price was $200 a night, and we agreed.

I had to return home briefly, but that night I asked my sister how things were going.

Its horrible, she said.

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The agency had delivered a bed to Esthers home. But when my mother arrived a few hours later, she was in distress, writhing, resisting, moaning. Esthers attendants suggested they might have to send my mother somewhere else. They had expected a sedated patient, with meds, and an initial evaluation by the hospice nurse.

My sister tried frantically, for hours, to calm my mother while the attendants called the hospice agency repeatedly. But they couldnt get a good read on what had gone wrong or when a nurse might arrive.

My parents were the children of immigrants. They clipped coupons, preferred used cars to new ones, bartered over prices and often remarked at restaurants that my mother could have made the same dish, only better, for a fraction of the cost. Especially if it was Italian food. When my father began fading, he took many falls but never wanted to pay for an ambulance ride. One night, he fell and couldnt get up, and my mother got down on the floor next to him and pulled a blanket over them.

With my mom, it was all about family. She took care of her father when he was ill, then my dad, and she wanted nothing more than for her three kids to be comfortable, cared for and loved. Now it was our turn, and we wanted her to die peacefully, with as little pain and discomfort as possible. That is supposed to be the goal of hospice, too.

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When more than five hours had passed, I got hold of a nurse who told me she was at an all-night pharmacy. Thered been a complication getting the right meds, and the nurse assigned to my mother was with another patient. She told me the agency had failed my mother, and she was sorry, but she was doing her best to remedy the situation. Friday discharges could be complicated, she said.

First of all, thats unacceptable, and if its really the case, why the rush to discharge her? Shouldnt the hospice and hospital have coordinated the handoff? Its hard not to think the obvious  that in this case, as in so many areas of healthcare, money drives medical decisions, and patients sometimes suffer the consequences.

A nurse turned up with the medication, roughly six hours after my mother had arrived at the home, but my mother remained restless through much of the night. It wasnt until the next morning that another nurse arrived to do a full assessment, and the pain management still wasnt working.

A supervisor apologized to me and said her team would investigate what had gone wrong and get back to me, but nobody did. So we fired that agency, signed a contract with another one, and finally, five days after my mothers initial discharge, her pain and discomfort were brought under control.

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By the way, the attendants at the home my mother was taken to did a terrific job of caring for her. And generally speaking, I think hospice nurses do difficult tasks with great skill and compassion. One of them, a nurse for 28 years who tended my mother gently, told me she considers hospice work a privilege.

The nurse explained that impending death is signaled by changes in body temperature, heart rate, breathing patterns, darkening urine and the mottling of skin. She leaned down one day, put her face close to my mothers, and told me she could sometimes smell when death was near. She believed my mother had a couple more days, and she was right.

This past Tuesday, at 3:10 p.m., Grace Lopez died peacefully with my sister and brother at her side. She was six weeks shy of her 90th birthday.

I dont think it would be appropriate for me to name the hospice agencies involved because I wasnt interacting with them as a journalist. And I should note that I believe in hospice care. This form of end-of-life care began several decades ago as a small nonprofit enterprise and social movement designed to allow terminally ill patients to unplug the wires and tubes and die peacefully in non-hospital settings.

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Today, with support from Medicare and with an aging boomer population, it has grown into a multibillion-dollar, mostly for-profit industry, with huge national corporations dominating. Medicare now writes roughly $17 billion a year in checks to hospice agencies.

But recent years have seen a spate of massive Medicare billing-fraud cases against hospice agencies, and last year, the federal Office of the Inspector General released the results of an industry probe that found evidence of shoddy care, billing for services never provided and enrolling patients not eligible for hospice care.

A hospice is paid for every day a beneficiary is in its care, regardless of the quantity or quality of services provided on that day, said a summary of the report.

It also said beneficiaries and their families and caregivers do not receive crucial information to make informed decisions about their care.

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One of the most damning conclusions was this:

In some cases, hospices were not able to effectively manage symptoms or medications, leaving beneficiaries in unnecessary pain for many days.

I encourage you to share your own hospice experiences with me. Ive been talking to local and national authorities about the strengths and weaknesses of hospice care and about their recommended reforms, and Ill have more on that in coming weeks.

In my mothers memory, its the least I can do.

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steve.lopez@latimes.com

@LATstevelopez

Get more of Steve Lopezs work and follow him on Twitter @LATstevelopezThousands of women turned out Saturday to participate in Womens March 2019 in downtown Los Angeles and dozens of other cities across the country in a push for social justice and federal policies that promote equality for all.

With a record number of women elected to Congress in the 2018 midterm election, organizers said their agenda this year includes an Equal Rights Amendment, expanding the Violence Against Women Act, universal healthcare, reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, the decriminalization of sex work and campaign finance reform.

Large rallies were also planned in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, New York, Houston and Chicago. The global gatherings were launched two years ago in protest of the inauguration of President Trump, who was caught on tape bragging in crude terms about groping women without their consent.

Hundreds of women and their supporters gathered early Saturday at Pershing Square in downtown L.A., some carrying rainbow flags or sporting pink knitted hats.

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The screams of the crowd sounded like a rock concert as Rep. Katie Hill (D-Agua Dulce) took the stage. Her campaign to unseat Republican Rep. Steve Knight in the midterm election benefited from a wave of volunteers inspired by the womens marches and other resistance actions against Trump.

 Hundreds of women and their supporters gathered early Saturday at Pershing Square in downtown L.A., some carrying rainbow flags or sporting pink knitted hats.

The activism has just started, Hill vowed as she urged participants to start working to support progressive candidates for the 2020 presidential campaign. Get back to work!

Jax Koch, 24 of Beverly Grove, held a sign mocking the Trump administration that said, Ive seen better cabinets at IKEA. Hes attended all three womens marches in Los Angeles, and said that while the crowds were smaller this year, being around other activists was invigorating.

I feel like were going back in time, for everything that weve worked for, including civil rights and environmental protections, Koch said. Sometimes it feels like people dont care about these issues, and Im reminded that Im not the only one.

In Washington, D.C., thousands of women braved the cold to rally at Freedom Plaza. Winnie Wong, a member of the Womens March national steering committee, said this years rally is different because the effects of the partial government shutdown  the longest in U.S. history  can be felt all over the country.

We are shocked by the actions of the [Trump] administration and deeply impacted by its cruel motivations, she said.

Norm Farley, 67, joined his wife Maureen Haugh, 59, at the D.C. rally. The pair traveled from Naples, Fla., for the event. He stood near the front with his wife, who is in a wheelchair, as activists chanted nearby.

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This was Farleys first Womens March. He said he has spent the last two years dismayed by Trumps actions.

I just couldnt sit around and do nothing, he said. It was completely energizing to march and hear the group of speakers.

Amani Al-Ahmadi, 27, didnt expect to speak at the Womens March in Seattle. Her voice cracked as she told the crowd what it was like growing up under male guardianship in Saudi Arabia and of the need to stand up for women around the world.

I wanted to stand in solidarity with women back home and explain to people the severity of the situation, she said.

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It was Al-Ahmadis first time at a Womens March rally. She left Saudi Arabia five years ago but continues to worry about the Trump administrations policies toward women and minorities.

This was a great moment to voice my concern for women, she said.

In L.A., participants marched about a mile from Pershing Square to a larger gathering at Grand Park in front of City Hall.

Maria Frusteri, 55 of Palos Verdes, brought her friend Deanna Spencer, 50, to the march. Spencers sign read, My name is not, Smile, darling.  The march was smaller this year, Frusteri said, which was concerning, because it could signal that people are getting complacent about things that arent normal.

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This march was Frusteris third. After marching in Washington, D.C., in 2017, she joined a group of women whom she met through the march to support progressive causes. They met at the library to write postcards to voters in key states, urging them to vote in the midterm election.

Eventually, Frusteri and Spencer said, a group of about 30 women had handwritten and mailed more than 10,000 postcards.

The group grew and grew, she said, We had to get a bigger room.

At an afternoon rally outside Los Angeles City Hall, a balloon showing Trump as a giant, orange baby in a diaper floated over the crowd. Speakers included actresses Laverne Cox and Connie Britton, singer Lance Bass and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was working at City Hall to broker a deal between United Teachers Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Unified School District.

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Garcetti told women he was proud of the role they played in the midterm: There wasnt just a blue wave  there was a pink wave, and were proud of it.

The Womens March organization has faced its own problems, including accusations of anti-Semitism. Leaders of the national group came under fire last year after co-chair Tamika Mallory attended a February event with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, in which he said, The powerful Jews are my enemy.

Between March and November, the larger group issued three statements in response to allegations that Womens March leaders were anti-Semitic and homophobic, and it has repeatedly expressed support for its leaders, including Mallory.

Its become clear, amidst this media storm, that our values and our message have  too often  been lost, the national group said. That loss caused a lot of harm, and a lot of pain. We should have been faster and clearer in helping people understand our values and our commitment to fighting anti-Semitism. We regret that.

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laura.nelson@latimes.comThe former chief executive of the Los Angeles-based charter school network Celerity Educational Group has been charged with conspiracy to misappropriate and embezzle public funds  money that was intended for students at Celeritys schools but was used for lavish travel and the purchase of a property in Ohio, according to court papers.

In a 23-count indictment filed Thursday, a federal grand jury accused Grace Canada, 45, of participating in the scheme with Celeritys founder, Vielka McFarlane, to unlawfully direct millions of public education dollars for outlays such as first-class plane tickets, fine dining, custom bikes and a Beverly Hills shopping excursion.

Canada was also charged with making false statements to federal investigators during an interview last summer about paying for the Columbus, Ohio, building  a purchase that executives hoped would expand Celerity into a national charter education brand.

McFarlane pleaded guilty earlier this month to one count of conspiracy to misappropriate and embezzle public funds, a charge that carries up to five years in federal prison. As part of her plea agreement, McFarlane, 56, admitted to much of the conspiracy that Canada is now accused of joining.

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Reached by phone late Friday, Canada did not comment on the indictment. She left Celerity in 2017 and is now a principal at an elementary school in Compton. An attorney for Canada could not be reached.

Los Angeles Unified School District first noticed something amiss with the finances of Celerity around 2012. The charter network submitted credit card statements to the school district with some expenditures redacted, ultimately sparking an investigation by L.A. Unifieds inspector general. Later, federal agents launched an inquiry and seized computers and other records from Celeritys offices in early 2017.

The network of charter schools, however, will not face criminal charges.

Celerity Educational Group, now known as ISANA Academies, reached a non-prosecution agreement in 2017 and is cooperating with the federal investigation. ISANA Academies runs six charter schools in L.A. and Compton.

In court papers, McFarlane admitted that she relied on public money meant for the charter schools network to underwrite her personal life and launch a charter school in Columbus. Her plea agreement outlined how the organizations credit card paid for $3,347 of goods from Salvatore Ferragamo in Beverly Hills, $914 at the Arroyo Chop House in Pasadena, and $7,742 for round-trip airfare to Washington for President Obamas 2013 inauguration.

According to Canadas indictment, she and her spouse joined McFarlane and others on the trip to Obamas second swearing-in, with plane tickets purchased on Celeritys dime.

The indictment alleges that Canada conspired in the misappropriation scheme from 2009 until 2017, a period when she was a senior national vice president and, starting in 2015, CEO of Celerity Educational Group.

The majority of the funds, more than $2 million, went toward purchasing and renovating an office building in Ohio for a new Celerity school.

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The charging document alleges that McFarlane and Canada conspired to complete the sale, first by transferring more than $1.4 million intended for students to buy the building.

The purchase depleted Celeritys accounts, and they obtained a $1.5 million loan that was meant for the property but was instead used to cover payroll and other operating expenses, according to the indictment.

At one point, Canada told McFarlane in a text message that another Celerity executives name should go on the Ohio charter schools paperwork so they could avoid rais[ing] an[y] flags, according to the indictment.

The next year, Canada asked Celerity board members to retroactively approve a loan between two Celerity-related entities. Prosecutors allege that this was part of a scheme to conceal from the board how public funds were used to buy the building in for the Ohio charter school, which has since closed.

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At the meeting, McFarlane described the loan as a cleanup operation that ensured Celerity didnt get nailed with an audit.

Time staff writer Anna M. Phillips contributed to this report.

matt.hamilton@latimes.com

Twitter: @MattHjournoMilitary prosecutors will begin court martial proceedings Tuesday against a Navy SEAL platoon commander they say was complicit in alleged war crimes committed by one of his troops in Iraq in 2017.

Lt. Jacob X. Portier will face charges of conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman, willful dereliction of duty, failure to obey orders, obstruction of justice and making false official statements.

Those charges are connected to allegations that a member of his platoon, Navy SEAL Edward R. Gallagher, a chief special warfare operator, committed several war crimes in Mosul, Iraq. Gallagher has been charged with premeditated murder, shooting civilians and attempting to intimidate witnesses after he learned he was under investigation.

Gallaghers case has generated international headlines. He was arraigned in San Diego earlier this month and is scheduled for trial on Feb. 19.

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Members of Gallaghers platoon reported that while they were in Mosul, a wounded teenage ISIS combatant was brought to Gallagher  who is a medic  and while he was providing medical care, the SEAL used his knife to stab the fighter in the neck, killing him.

Some time after this, Gallagher reenlisted in a ceremony held next to the fighters dead body.

Two of Portiers charges stem from that reenlistment.

Prosecutors say Portier not only conducted the ceremony, but he ordered members of the platoon to pose for photos with SOC Gallagher and the corpse of the combatant.

Navy prosecutors also said that throughout the deployment, other SEALs in the platoon came to their commander with reports about Gallaghers conduct in battle, including an incident in which Gallagher allegedly shot two civilians: an old man and a little girl.

This case is about a Navy lieutenant who didnt possess the moral courage to do the right thing, said Marine Capt. Conor McMahon, in closing comments during a November preliminary hearing.

Lt. Portier didnt take out a hunting knife and stab a prisoner in the neck. He didnt get behind a sniper rifle and shoot at a little girl trying to escape from ISIS and he didnt shoot an old man taking water jugs to the river. But he knew about it and he did nothing, McMahon said.

Portiers defense attorney, San Diego-based Jeremiah Sullivan, told the Union-Tribune in November that there are contradicting stories from members of Portiers platoon which will undermine the prosecutions case.

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Its not going to go well for the government, he said.

Portier also is charged with obstruction of justice and two counts of making false official statements.

The obstruction charge stems from an allegation that the naval officer destroyed evidence. The false statements were allegedly made after the unit returned to San Diego.

Portiers charge sheet details one incident in which the SEAL, when asked if anything criminal happened in connection with Gallaghers reenlistment ceremony, allegedly responded, There was nothing criminal; it was just in poor taste.

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He also is alleged to have made a deceptive statement to a higher-ranking officer when he denied being aware of any specific violations of the law of armed conflict during his platoons deployment.

One charge related to the allegations that Portier engaged in a cover-up was dropped.

Portiers court martial begins Tuesday with an arraignment on Naval Base San Diego, where charges will be read and a trial scheduled.

Navy officials would not say how much prison time Portier might face. He is not in custody.

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Gallagher has been held in a Navy brig on Marine Corps Air Station Miramar since his arrest Sept. 11.

His case continues to generate widespread interest.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, who is facing trial in September for alleged campaign finance violations and wire fraud, recently visited Gallagher in the Navy brig.

Hunter has issued statements to the media and sent a letter to President Trump asking him to intervene on behalf of Gallagher. In the letter, Hunter alleged the Navy was treating Gallagher harshly and that privileged attorney-client conversations were under surveillance.

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The Navy has denied those allegations.

Contact Andrew Dyer via email or Twitter.Although Joaquin Ortizs start at the Museum of Photographic Arts was a part-time way to support himself while finishing graduate school, its led to 10 years and a full-time position at a place that he sees as supporting change and improvement.

I stayed because, every day, I saw the museum working to improve what we do, and wanting to do more for everyone who participates in what we do, he says. This museum embraces change and knows that we can do more to make ourselves connect with people, locally and beyond.

One of the ways they do that is through their participation in the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, which screens films in more than 20 cities around the world, focused on human rights issues and creating spaces for people creating and watching the films to learn, discuss, and potentially take action on the issues theyre seeing. Ortiz has been overseeing the San Diego edition of the festival for the past seven years, and this years festival is from Jan. 31 to Feb. 2 at the Museum of Photographic Arts.

Ortiz, 39, lives in the Midway District and is the director of innovation at the museum, overseeing the staff who work on the museums educational programs, film festivals, and exhibits while also looking for ways that the museum can grow and better serve its visitors. He took some time to talk about the upcoming film festival, how the films being screened in San Diego were chosen, and which ones he connected with the most.

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Q: Why was overseeing the Human Rights Watch Film Festival at the Museum of Photographic Arts a role you wanted to take on?

A: I believe that the festival gives the people of San Diego an opportunity to see films they might not have access to otherwise. I also feel that seeing these films and hearing the local and national speakers helps all of us to understand these issues and get involved.

Q: Tell us about the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

A: The festivals programming committee operates out of the New York office to screen more than 500 films each year. Through a rigorous vetting process that includes review by Human Rights Watchs programming staff, the festival chooses approximately 40 films each year to participate in various festivals. The San Diego edition of the festival at MOPA (Museum of Photographic Arts) started in 2011 as an effort to bring socially-conscious filmmaking and discussion to our movie theater.

The team at MOPA selects a handful of films that we feel are relevant to the people of San Diego. Our goal is to give the people of San Diego a chance to see these films and hear from experts about these issues so they can be aware and take action.

Q: What led you and your programming committee to select the films that are being screened here in San Diego at the end of this month?

A: We always want to choose subjects that we think are relevant to the people of San Diego, and that are addressing social topics that are affecting our world. This years films were selected because they touch upon important issues such as urban poverty, climate change, the military, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. These are topics we are seeing on the news and talking about at home. For example, the film Roll Red Roll speaks to the cultures that promote sexual violence against women. In the #MeToo era its important for all of us to think about how a boys will be boys culture impacts the lives of women. Seeing these personal stories helps us to reflect on our own actions, and how we can all be part of protecting human rights.

What I love about the Midway District...

Midway District is great because it is very walkable, and it is close to lots of great food and shops. I am close to Liberty Station, Ocean Beach and Old Town.

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Q: Which of the final selections did you connect with the most?

A: The film The Unafraid. Its an intimate look into the personal lives of three DACA students in Georgia, a state that has banned them from attending their top state universities and disqualifies them from receiving in-state tuition at any other public college. It was personally relevant to me as a Chicano, and as a person who has friends who are DACA recipients. The ongoing struggle for these young people to maintain their lives in this country, and the work they do to make our world a better place, is inspiring to me. With us living in a city on the U.S.-Mexico border, its a topic that is deeply familiar.

Q: What are the films on the schedule and what are the human rights abuses they highlight?

A: On Jan. 31, we have our opening reception before the film Transmilitary, which follows four transgender troops who risk their livelihoods to attain equal rights to serve. On Feb. 1, we show Roll Red Roll, a film about the sexual violence toward a 16-year-old girl by star athletes, and the role social media played in exposing the truth of the rape and the communitys response to the event. On Feb. 2, we show three films, starting at noon with Charm City, a film short-listed for an Oscar about Baltimore and the work done by community members, police and government officials to build opportunity and fight poverty to end violence. Later that afternoon, we will show Anotes Ark, a film that follows the former president of the nation of Kiribati, an island that is being swallowed by the sea due to environmental change. Finally, that evening will have The Unafraid, the story of DACA recipients in Georgia as they fight to access to higher education.

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Q: What do you hope audiences take away from this selection of films?

A: I hope that audiences who attend these screenings feel inspired to get involved. We want attendees to learn from the films and the speakers, and to walk away feeling that they can do something to make change locally, nationally, and internationally.

Q: What is the best advice youve ever received?

A: To be patient! Change takes time. Whats most important is investing in the people around you, and growing their expertise so we can all make the journey together.

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Q: What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you?

A: A lot of people dont know that I write and produce music. Along with my production partner from Chicago, I released an album of instrumental, experimental hip-hop under the pseudonym Normal Dudes. The name comes from when we both used to live in the Normal Heights neighborhood. I think that having creative output is an important part of all of our lives, and though I dont make films anymore, this serves as my way to express ideas.

Q: Describe your ideal San Diego weekend.

A: My best weekends are when I wake up late, grab some Chinese food in City Heights, do some grocery shopping in that area, visit my dad in the College Area (hes a professor at San Diego State University), have some dinner in my own neighborhood, and end the evening watching a movie or working on some art. Any time I have on the weekends is best used when I get out and try a new restaurant with friends or explore a neighborhood I havent seen before. I grew up in San Diego, but theres always something new to discover.

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Email: lisa.deaderick@sduniontribune.com

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Twitter: @lisadeaderickSparkling water behemoth LaCroix seems to be facing a bit of social media backlash targeted toward two products designed to honor culture in South Florida. In a press release, the brand said new Coffea Exotica, Coconut Cola and Cubana flavors were created to celebrate the Cuban, Hispanic and South American influences that give Miami its lively and exotic personality, but some think the cans street scene designs are tone-deaf.

18 Things People in Florida Do That Everyone Else Thinks Is Strange

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The Coconut Cola can merely features a coconut, but the other two flavors show a tall and slender, yet curvy half-naked woman. On the Coffea Exotica label shes dressed in a shirt, short skirt and heels, posed so that her knee is on top of a cup, which reads habana. The can for the Cubana - flavored with rum, mint and lime - shows her in a bikini perched at the rim of a mojito glass.

The can designs were not well received by public relations professional JennyLee Molina, who runs the Instagram account for 305 Cafecito. On January 3, she posted a photo of the new cans writing: Can we all agree that the cheesy depiction of Cuba and our heritage by people who dont understand the U.S. Hispanic culture is a little insulting? This is a brand known for impeccable design and branding which we REALLY love but when they launched this product they completely missed the mark. Was this designed in 1996? These fonts are hurting our eyes, @lacroixwater. And whats with the bikini-clad girl? You can do better than that! And what is coffea? (Coffea is a coffee plant.)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BsL-ZVxAFK6/

People in the comment section agreed with Molina, calling the new designs a mockery, cheap, a mega fail, tacky, and a joke. According to a spokesperson for National Beverage Corporation, which owns LaCroix, the cans were already tested by 35,000 consumers - many of whom reportedly live in Cuban-American communities - who gave mostly positive feedback, so they are expected to rollout nationwide nonetheless.

A National Beverage Corporation spokesperson told Today.com the company was a little taken aback by Molinas post. The spokesperson also reportedly alleged that the Instagram account holder was someone who had interviewed to potentially be involved in the launch [of the new sparkling water line], but wasnt hired.

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The Daily Meal reached out to LaCroixs parent company for comment, but has not received a response. Only time will tell whether or not LaCroix Cubana will become just another product that failed miserably.

View slideshowThe lead-up to the Los Angeles teachers strike was loud and acrimonious  as was the start of the walkout. Now the labor dispute has entered a quiet phase, but its too early to tell if it is nearing an end.

Bargaining teams for striking teachers and the Los Angeles Unified School District were behind closed doors at City Hall for the third straight day on Saturday.

They were back at work just before 11 a.m. Saturday, after a more than 10-hour session Friday that the mayors office said had been productive.

Wrapping up an agreement over the weekend  and getting teachers back in classes after five missed days  would be difficult but is not entirely out of the question.

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Student attendance on the fifth day of the strike remained low  and just about flat compared to the previous day. The district said 85,274 students attended Los Angeles Unifieds 1,240 elementary, middle and high schools on Friday. The district serves nearly half a million students. Officials estimated its net losses for the day in terms of funding based on student attendance at $18.1 million.

L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner said in a Friday news conference that keeping schools open despite the low numbers was a solemn duty.

L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner and school board President Monica Garcia brief the media after the fifth day of the teachers strike. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

We have to keep that child safe, Beutner said. We have to give that child an opportunity to learn. The parent needs to work.

Fridays negotiations at City Hall began just before 11 a.m., early enough for bargaining teams to see  and probably hear  thousands of union members and their supporters rally at Grand Park across from City Hall.

The last five days of striking have stunned our naysayers, Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, told the crowd.

If you are a boxer, do you know what you do with a stunned opponent, he asked, before answering his own question: You double down and keep on punching.

He told teachers that they need to be prepared if necessary to maintain strong picket lines throughout the coming week.

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After the rally, he also pledged that union negotiators would work through the weekend to try to close a deal.

As things stand, there are three major parties working to broker this dispute: the union, the school district and the mayors office, which is mediating.

From the unions perspective, the strike has been nearly an unqualified success  so far. Members of the public have identified strongly with teachers and their descriptions of overcrowded classrooms and schools without nurses and other support staff on hand every day.

Caputo-Pearl and his senior aides have to ponder whether an extended strike could yield more gains  in public perception, changes to state law and district concessions. Theres a risk, however, that an extended strike would begin to erode the public standing of UTLA and decrease its leverage.

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The union team also faces the difficult task of working through the genuine give-and-take of negotiations over a complex contract, detail by detail, some of which could have been accomplished weeks or months ago, some observers say. Now this painstaking task must be managed speedily.

The unions leadership bench is thinner than the districts. The people running the strike are the same people doing the negotiating, so the long holiday weekend could prove crucial.

The school district, meanwhile, has to consider what more it can offer, based on improved state revenues and what sweeteners it can add that would not cost money.

Those close to the process say Beutner needs to accept that the concerns of teachers and their union go beyond the contract. Union leaders frame the dispute as a fight over the future of public education.

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Beutner has to consider what he can do to reassure the union that his long-term strategy is not to accelerate the growth of privately operated charter schools  assuming that is the case. He has been superintendent since May and led a task force examining the district for nearly a year before that, but has yet to put forward his strategic plan.

Union leaders and the rank and file have assumed the worst.

Charter schools now enroll about 1 in 5 district students and are popular with many families. They also have wealthy supporters, including some who strongly back Beutner, but would question his leadership if he gave away what they considered to be too much in negotiations.

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti may be in the strangest position of all. Unlike mayors in New York City and Chicago, he has no authority over the school system. But the strike is among the biggest crises hes faced, both in its sweeping effect on the city and the thorniness of its resolution.

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His civic duties as well as his political future  if he wants to run for president  could depend on more than simply saying all the right things.

He appears to understand that, making resolution of the strike his primary job of the moment. And his role extends beyond mediation. To close a deal, his office needs to help pull in outside leaders and other government agencies that also are outside his direct control. Los Angeles County supervisors have agreed to find up to $10 million to expand district nursing services for next year. And Gov. Gavin Newsom has taken advantage of improved tax revenue to plug in new funding for education statewide.

Beutners wealthy philanthropic allies and the powerful state teachers unions could lend helpful assistance from the outside. These forces, however, will probably land on opposing sides if state policymakers begin to discuss new rules to rein in charter schools. The union wants a moratorium on new charter schools. When district students enroll in charters, L.A. Unified loses the attendance-based funding that goes with them. Staff at charter schools also mostly are non-union.

In a promising sign, both the union and district have shifted their rhetoric. Caputo-Pearl has eased back from direct attacks on Beutner  even if many union members have not. Beutner has credited the union for putting the needs of public education front and center in the public consciousness.

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If a settlement is reached, dont expect warm embraces. But a spirit of compromise could lead to a firm handshake.

Striking teachers and supporters turned out by the thousands, making a sea of red Friday in a rally at Grand Park. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

howard.blume@latimes.com

Twitter: @howardblumeIt was chilly, even for a December day, and the pattering of raindrops on the hood of my parka was out of character for a desert hike.

With head down, I continued to walk through the light rain, knowing that each drop brought hope for another beautiful spring wildflower bloom in just a few months.

I was hiking from Indian Hill back to my truck in the southern part of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Little did I know then that this would be the beginning of what is shaping up as at least a good wet winter, and perhaps another epic spring wildflower season.

Since that time, a series of storms have made their way over the coastal mountains, bringing precious moisture to the arid sands of San Diegos eastern desert.

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December rains are not unusual in the desert, but the storms that followed this season have been ideally spaced and abundant. And Nature abides.

Already, eastern portions of Anza-Borrego have come alive with unseasonably early blooms of desert sunflowers, clusters of purple sand verbena and beautiful displays of the large, white desert lilies.

Ive written before about the eternal optimism of veteran desert travelers. With the first drops of rain each winter our hopes soar for an epic bloom. Thankfully that is more often not the case.

If every spring wildflower show was spectacular, it would become ho-hum and routine.

There are always spring wildflowers, but some years desert visitors must hunt for the isolated pocket of blooms. It might be five, 10 or 20 years between those memorable spring shows that will be talked about for a long time.

While our last super bloom was just two years ago in the spring of 2017, conditions right now are pointing to another spectacular event this year.

Time and conditions will tell.

The miracle of a truly beautiful wildflower bloom lies with water, wind and temperatures.

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The water already seems to be there. This week, the latest storms dumped more than a half inch of rain from Borrego Springs to Ocotillo Wells. Combined with other storms that began in December, including a New Years downpour that brought snow to some areas, sands are wet.

Spring also brings two things that can hurt emerging delicate blossoms. Sudden spikes in temperature can wilt the flowers, and harsh winds can dry and shred them.

In 2017, conditions meshed nicely, and the desert was alive with a blanket of flowers.

It was also hard on the tiny community of Borrego Springs that normally hosts about 3,000 residents.

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You might call 2017 the first social media flower season. When as many as 200,000 arrived in the tiny remote community to see the flowers, many wondered why?

The answer seemed to be news of bloom spread through social media. Borrego had never experienced this before and had to scramble to provide additional restroom facilities and services. It was challenging to say the least.

Here are a few survival tips if Super Bloom 2019 happens this year.

The biggest crowds are on weekends. If you can get away during the week, you will have smaller crowds to deal with.

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Pack a picnic and enjoy a quiet lunch in the beauty of nature.

Bring plenty of water. Even in winter, it can get warm in the desert.

Go out early. It takes about two hours from San Diego, so an early start will let you see the flowers and enjoy wandering back through places like Julian and Ramona.

Get away from the crowd. If you have a high clearance vehicle, many roads within the park will allow you to get into more remote areas. Most wildflower hunters stay on paved roads.

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Hiking is also a good way of getting away from the crowds. Maps and trail guides are available at the park visitor center and at the State Park Store operated by Anza-Borrego Foundation in the Borrego Springs Mall.

As we move into spring, visitors can expect the bloom to progress westward as temperature climb.

Brittlebush are already growing nicely and soon will be offering a crown of happy yellow flowers clustered along the edges of Montezuma Grade from Ranchita into Borrego like a welcoming committee.

Ocotillo, that look lifeless and dead most of the year, are already covered in clusters of green leaves. Soon the tips of the whip-like branches will catch fire with bright red, waxy flowers.

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Vast fields of verbena, primrose and sunflowers will provide splashes of color across the desert, while keen-eyed hikers can discover more singular treasures like the desert five-spot or the elusive ghost flower.

For the latest bloom information, call the Anza-Borrego Wildflower Hot Line at (760) 767-4684.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Email ernie@packtrain.com or visit erniesoutdoors.blogspot.com.PHOTO:

Quilts, Cigars and Murder was the topic of a recent talk at the Daughters of the American Revolution, Santa Margarita Chapter. Speaker, Gena Philbert-Ortega, a genealogist who researches the life and style of women in history, discussed the history of a quilt top she picked up at a local quilt show. She found that the quilts history went back to the Fedrich Cigar Factory in Evansville, Indiana. Further research revealed that a woman who had worked at the factory was murdered by a rejected boyfriend. From left, Philbert-Ortega and DAR First Vice Regent Laura Horn. At the chapter meeting, two new members were welcomed: Terra Carlson, whose ancestor is Henry Merrill of Massachusetts, and Jacquie Williams, whose ancestor is Aaron Packer of Pennsylvania. The group is open to women age 18 and older lineally descended from an ancestor who aided the colonists in their fight for independence in the Revolutionary War. Visit santamargarita.californiadar.org.

North County community news, events

DEL MAR

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Tree planting at Gonzales Canyon

The San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy is seeking volunteers to help plant native trees in Gonzales Canyon from 9 a.m to noon Sunday at 13510 Sword Way. Street parking is available on Sword Way. Gloves, tools, and water will be provided. All ages are welcome with a waiver. Email jonathan@sdrvc.org or call (858) 344-6654.

ENCINITAS

Hutchins Consort

to give concert

The Hutchins Consort will give a concert featuring music by Mendelssohn at 8 p.m. Friday at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, 890 Balour Drive. Visit hutchinsconsort.org.

Pottery exhibit on display at City Hall

A pottery exhibit, The Art of Raku, by Alex Long will be featured through Jan. 24 at the Civic Center Gallery in the Encinitas City Hall, 505 S. Vulcan Ave. Call (760) 633-2600. Visit alexlongart.com.

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ESCONDIDO

Volunteers sought

to help prepare taxes

Interfaith Community Services is looking for volunteers to help needy community members prepare taxes through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. The program runs at community centers in Oceanside, Carlsbad, Vista, San Marcos and Escondido. Training is offered. Email dsullivan@interfaithservices.org.

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Library puts on piano concert Saturday

Escondido Public Library hosts the 2nd Saturday Concert Series, featuring Louis Landon in a solo piano concert 3 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday in the Turrentine Room, 239 S. Kalmia St. Landon, a Steinway artist and Pianist for Peace who has given concerts around the world, will perform his own original compositions. Visit escondidolibrary.org or call (760) 839-5458.

YMCA runs Zumbathon fundraiser Saturday

The Palomar Family YMCA holds a Zumbathon fundraiser from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at 1050 N. Broadway. Participation costs $10 minimum. Call (760)749-7490.

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OCEANSIDE

Yoga event Saturday

at Linksoul Lab

A Yoga Day will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Linksoul Lab, 530 S. Coast Highway. The event features live music followed by sound bowl healing and gourmet vegetarian food. Acupuncture and Reiki will also be offered. A portion of the proceeds go to SPOT, which rescues dogs and cats. Bring pillows or blankets. Cost is $75 at door or $65 in advance; $50 for seniors 65 and older and military, and $20 for youths, ages 14-18. RSVP at davidphears@gmail.com.

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Library provides free tutoring Mondays

The Oceanside Public Library offers tutoring to high school students from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Mondays led by volunteers at its Civic Center location, 330 N. Coast Highway, in the Teen Zone while Oceanside Unified School District is in session. The library offers Brainfuse HelpNow  on demand, e-learning for all ages and levels. Students communicate with online tutors using an interactive, virtual whiteboard. HelpNow offers personalized homework help in core subjects (math, reading, writing, science and social studies), including SAT preparation. Visit oceansidepubliclibrary.org.

RANCHO BERNARDO

Make a Joyful Noise concert at library

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The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Choir presents a concert, Make a Joyful Noise at 3 p.m. Feb. 2 as part of the free Discover Concert Series at the Rancho Bernardo Branch Library, 124 Mission Road. The choir performs traditional and contemporary spirituals and gospel music, celebrating the history of the Negro Spiritual. Call (760) 731-4650.

SAN MARCOS

Bruno Groening film screening Saturday

A presentation and film on Bruno Groening and his history of healing will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Valle Verdi Mobile Estates Club, 1286 Discovery St. The event features the screening of the documentary film, The Phenomenon of Bruno Groening. The event is organized by the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends. Free admission; donations appreciated. Visit bruno-groening-film.org; call (760) 724-0677.

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History group holds genealogy class

The San Marcos Historical Society holds a genealogy class on Interpreting your Ancestry DNA test results from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Heritage Park in Walnut Grove Park, 1952 Sycamore Drive. The class is taught by Julie Miller, genealogy researcher, and will focus on how to make the test work for you. Fee is $15. Register at (760) 743-8591 or email jjmill@peoplepc.com.

VISTA

Moonlight hosts Evening with Lorna Luft

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An Evening with Lorna Luft is at 6 p.m. Saturday in ClubM at the Moonlight Amphitheatre, 1250 Vale Terrace Drive. Doors open at 6 p.m.; the performance is at 7:30 p.m. Dinner seating includes three-course meal and cash bar. Tickets are $85. Call (760) 724-2110 or visit moonlightstage.com.Next month Balboa Parks California Tower will close to the public for an extended period as city and museum officials seek to better guard the structure against potential earthquake damage.

The tower, part of the Museum of Man, is expected to be closed for seven to 10 months starting on Feb. 18, when the city will start its seismic retrofit, which includes improvements based on the latest building codes. The upgrades will cost around $5.7 million, with a bulk of the funding supplied by the city and $1 million provided by a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant, a spokesperson for the city said.

A landmark attraction, the California Tower was originally built for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition and was closed to the public in 1935. Eighty years later, and after $750,000 in improvements, the tower reopened on Jan. 1, 2015, with the museum allowing guided climbs up eight tower floors to a public viewing deck 357 feet above sea level.

Once construction starts, tours will be on hiatus. The Museum of Man will continue with its regular tour schedule  from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily  through Feb. 17. Visitors can purchase tickets, which cost $23 a piece, at CaliforniaTower.org or at the museum.

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Business

jennifer.vangrove@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1840 Twitter: @jbruinWith the first ever onsite brewery at Disneyland, San Diego-based Ballast Point hopes to expand its Southern California footprint and increase its global reach with beer drinkers around the world.

The brewer will feature 50 core, seasonal and rotating beers on 100 taps as well as the research and development beers brewed at the Downtown Disney location.

Ballast Point is a Southern California brand with deep roots and commitment to the community, so when we were approached by Disney about opening this location, it felt like a good fit, said Ballast Point President Ben Dollard. The new brewpub at the Downtown Disney District allows us to strengthen our presence in Southern California and specifically the Anaheim community.

The Ballast Point brewpub opened Wednesday. The new Anaheim eatery also marks Ballast Points first location in Orange County.

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With Disneylands steady flow of visitors, this new location will allow fans across the globe to enjoy the Ballast Point experience first hand, Dollard said.

The new Disney brewpub could be a good fit for Ballast Point with a few potential risks, said San Diego restaurant consultant John Gordon.

Thats a nice flagship location assuming they can get the right rent and the right clientele mix, said Gordon, with Pacific Management Consulting Group.

Started in 1996 by a group of San Diego homebrewers, Ballast Point grew to become San Diegos largest craft brewer by 2017. The brewery was purchased for $1 billion in 2015 by Constellation Brands.

The Disney brewpub is the brewers ninth tasting room, with locations in San Diego, Long Beach, Virginia and Chicago. Ballast Point plans to open its first Northern California brewpub in the spring.

With the highly anticipated June debut of Disneylands Star Wars: Galaxys Edge, Downtown Disney will offer Ballast Point plenty of foot traffic and brand exposure, said Gonzalo Quintero, who serves on the San Diego State Business of Craft Beer advisory board.

From a business standpoint, its probably good to align yourself with anything Disney, said Quintero, known as Dr. Q in the San Diego craft beer community. The danger is this is the ultimate in selling out and cashing in. Youre literally a Disney brand. Any semblance of street credibility is out the door at that point.

Ballast Point plans to create specialty brews exclusively available at the Downtown Disney location. Brewing manager Chris Klein hopes to collaborate with Disneyland restaurants and food stands on innovative new beers.

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I really want to do something with the ice cream shop on Main Street, he said, referring to the Gibson Girl ice cream parlor, which serves mocha almond fudge, cookie dough and other flavors of hand-scooped ice cream in cones, sundaes and floats.

The brewerys boutique three-barrel, two-fermenter system is designed to serve as a testing ground for innovative, small batch experiments, Klein said.

Were trying to do crazy R&D stuff, Klein said. Ideally, hed like to offer up a new beer every week, but its all going to depend on what style of beer they are making.

Thats the cool thing, Klein said. People will come out here and they may be the first person to ever try a beer.

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The first batch of beer in the tanks for opening day was a single-hop Simcoe session IPA. It didnt last long. The small brewing system only yields about five kegs per batch, which the Anaheim location will likely blow through in a day, Klein said.

The new Ballast Point brewpub sits at the center of the Downtown Disney outdoor shopping mall that stretches from the Disneyland Hotel to the main gates of the two Disney theme parks.

Its always good energy here, said Ballast Point retail project manager Maddie Tomey during a recent tour of the new location. Its buzzing all the time.

Naturally, the brewpub kitchen incorporates beer into much of its cooking and encourages beer pairings with many dishes.

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Ballast Point is known for big, bold flavors, said executive sous chef Joey Lerma.

The sweet potato & ricotta cavatelli vegetarian dish is glazed with Longfin lager and pairs nicely with Piper Down Scottish ale, Lerma said.

The cavatelli is one of several dishes exclusive to the Downtown Disney brewpub that also includes the soyrizo & cauliflower tacos, glazed pork belly and smoky bourbon-glazed wings.

The menu will also feature popular staples like the Bavarian pretzel with Sculpin beer cheese and Fathom beer mustard as well as the Wahoo beer-steamed mussels.

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Lerma expects the Disney brewpub to be Ballast Points highest volume location.

Currently our busiest location is our Long Beach location and were probably looking to double that here, he said. Were at Disneyland. This is about as big as you can get as a brewery.

The wave-themed Art Deco-inspired building done in greys, golds and coppers is flanked by a recently renovated Wetzels Pretzels on one end and a soon-to-open Black Tap craft burgers and shakes restaurant on the other. The second-floor Ballast Point restaurant and bar takes over a location that once housed Build-a-Bear and Ridemakerz retail shops.

A Ballast Point tap handle blade sign marks the first-floor lobby entrance. The interior of the new brewpub boasts nautical and beer-making touches throughout, paying tribute to the San Diego brewers maritime theme. Wooden barrels that once held Victory at Sea imperial porter blended with Three Sheets rum line the wall behind a hostess station crafted from beer kegs.

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The elevator is wrapped with a life-sized rendering of the scuba diver from the Fathom IPA beer label who ascends and descends with each underwater trip on the lift. More than 400 tap handles line the staircase from Ballast Point variants like Ginger Big Eye, Coconut Victory at Sea and Thai Chili Wahoo.

Upstairs, the ship-shaped wooden-topped main bar is wrapped in a gunmetal grey steel hull dotted with rivets. The wall behind the bar pays homage to the wooden hull of a ship. Pendant lights hang from rigging ropes. Wooden propeller blades spin on the ceiling fans above.

The 4,000-square-foot main dining room wraps around the glass-enclosed three-barrel boutique brewery. The back wall of the dining area is covered with an enormous version of the Sculpin IPA label, the flagship beer that put the brewery on the map and still keeps the lights on.

Like the indoor bar area, the 3,000-square-foot outdoor patio offers first come, first served walk-up counter service with a panoramic view of Disneys Arts and Crafts-style Grand Californian Hotel.

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And just like any good Disneyland attraction, you exit the new brewpub through the gift shop. A hefty chandelier made from 168 beer bottles hangs above the retail shop which offers branded souvenirs and beer to go in cans, 6-packs, bomber bottles, crowlers and growlers.

Brady MacDonald is a freelance writer based in Orange County who has written about theme parks for the past decade.Egyptian Eman Ragab has received a fellowship diploma from the NATO Defense College in Rome in the area of counterterrorism policies.

During the fellowship, Ragab worked on policy research focusing on NATOs counterterrorism cooperation with Egypt and Tunisia in the light of the alliances Projecting Stability Policy.

She conducted more than 20 face-to-face interviews with officials from NATO, defence and foreign ministries in Tunisia and Egypt in order to freshly assess the level of counterterrorism cooperation and the challenges faced, and came up with policy recommendations.

The Commandant of the NATO Defense College Lieutenant General Chris Whitecross honoured Ragab and other Egyptian delegations taking part in the various courses organised at the college.

Ragab is a senior researcher in regional security and the head of military and security research unit at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, as well as a visiting professor of political science at the American University in Cairo.

She is a graduate of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University (2004), and received M.A. and PhD. degrees from the same faculty (in 2009 and 2014 respectively).

She is also a graduate of the National Defense College at Nasser Academy for Military Sciences.

She has been honoured by the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the ministers of defence and military production as a "distinguished civilian.

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Sonja and Tony Robins from South Australia love the beauty of Samoa and her people.

But its their fishing trip with Troppo Fishing Adventures they will remember for a long time to come, and one of the reasons they will return to Samoa.

While Sonja hooked a sailfish, Tony battled and landed a blue marlin on a great fishing adventure.

It is just one of the things they love about Samoa.

As far as Samoa goes, we hope it doesnt change much, they said.

Beautiful place and it is what it is and thats what we love about it.

The couple arrived last Sunday and have not wasted a minute.

On Monday we took a quick tour around the island and got to see a few waterfalls and swimming spots which were very pretty, said Sonja, who also celebrated her 51st birthday on Thursday.

On Tuesday we went fishing. Tony caught a marlin and I caught a sail fish and had a fantastic adventure with Troppo Fishing Adventures Samoa.

On Wednesday we stayed in the resort and Thursday we hired a car.

The Australians say there cannot be any other people more lovely than the locals.

Such lovely people. At the markets, they came up to us and asked if we needed help, people were showing us where to go which it was lovely and very clean; I like that.

Everybody is very friendly, everybodys very helpful and we feel safe here.

The couple said they wanted to head over to Savaii for more sightseeing but have struggled to find a tour in Savaii.

If there was something I would love to see improve, it would just be the organizing of the tours and probably the roads, a little bit bumpy to drive, laughed Sonja.

Tony says every place they go to is different and he appreciates what Samoa has offered him and his wife during their trip.

We hadnt been here before and where we come from, hardly anyone speaks of Samoa, they dont know it, know of it so its a destination no one we associate with have thought of.

The couple has a farming business back home. They are parents to two children.

Sonja and Tony are in Samoa for the duration of 10 days and are enjoying the comforts of Taumeasina Island Resort.George Nabil and Manoli Senel are convinced that coming to Samoa is one of the best things that has happened to them for a long time.

This is their first time in Samoa and George believes the Samoan people are blessed with what they already have.

What more do you need other than the nice ocean, nice people, nice land, and nice weather, what more do you need? he asked.

I have two words for you: The best, he said about Samoa.

The pair of Turkish and Spanish descent live in Sydney Australia. They came to Samoa for their sons wedding, which was held on Wednesday at the Taumeasina Island Resort.

Our son and his wife came here last year to check out the place, probably had an idea and my son fell in love with the place so they decided to have their wedding held here, Manoli said.

The people are very friendly and its very relaxing so we are just very happy that were here.

We got to know a lot of people that we did not know before from the wedding and they were just super friendly so we just love every minute of it.

They are here until Wednesday; staying at Taumeasina and planning to spend the rest of their trip sightseeing and enjoying Samoa.

And when they return, they say they will do their best to spread the word and get more people to visit beautiful Samoa.The Acting New Zealand High Commissioner to Samoa, Mike Walsh, has responded to criticisms of the new online system for the selection process of students eligible for New Zealand scholarships.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi said some 20 highly ranked Samoan students could not secure scholarships due to the new system.

Government has had to fund 20 scholars, due to them not securing scholarships overseas despite having high ranking grades which was a direct impact of the newly introduced online application selection process undertaken by the New Zealand authorities that took effect last year, Tuilaepa said.

The basis for selection applied in the past years, under the scholarship harmonisation arrangement based on academic merit, is a very transparent and easy acceptable process.

That I intend to push for and have reinstated, and because of this change imposed on us, the 20 highly ranked Foundation students who should have qualified have now been funded by our Government.

But Mr. Walsh said they are working closely with Samoa to resolve any issues with the roll out of the new application and selection process.

Officials have met this week in Apia and have discussed lessons from the 2018 process and a number of improvements have been identified for further discussion, he said.

Both New Zealand and Samoa are looking for the best outcomes for students and to help develop future leaders and a workforce that can contribute to Samoas development.A Samoan Economics Professor, who spoke to the Samoa Observer on the condition of anonymity, believes Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi has a moral obligation to raise Samoas minimum wage, regardless of the impact on the private sector.

This week Tuilaepa said he would consult firstly with the private sector on whether Samoas businesses can afford to pay their workers more.

But the Professor said he is just passing the buck.

A responsible government has to ensure a level playing field and a fair distribution of wealth, he said. I dont think the business community would be severely affected if the minimum wage increased.

The professor said already, in his experience, various businesses are already paying their workers above the minimum wage of T$2.30.

He said while he might expect some in the business community to hesitate over a minimum wage increase, the leader of a country should not.

When you measure the two tala thirty T$2.30 with the current cost of living, its quite ridiculous yet [Tuilaepas] cabinet has approved another 3 per cent increase of government salaries.

Its evident now that his policies encourage the gap between the rich and the poor.

Last December, in his supplementary budget address, Finance Minister Sili Epa Tuioti told cabinet that in accordance with a Cost of Living Salary Adjustment (C.O.L.A), all public servants would see an increase in their pay from January 2019.

The implementation of the C.O.L.A will begin with a 5% increase for all personnel from Principals and below and a 3% increase for all A.C.E.O positions up to below C.E.Os, he said, going on to detail the increases for 2020 and 2021.

The professor contests the Prime Ministers claim that any private sector minimum wage increase would have to be done carefully to avoid economic problems.

He said too much emphasis is put on the private sectors concerns shows little political will to improve the lives of people earning the minimum wage.

There should be enough time to be given for consultations, he acknowledged.

It is one thing to listen to the private sector but he has to make sure their concerns are genuine and not one sided.

But then on the other hand all those consultations are useless if the government does not have the political will to raise the minimum wage.

The professor said he was worried that businesses might point to large upfront losses if minimum wages increased, and lobby against changes to legislation.

If you look at it from that way, using that figure it looks like a large amount of money but that is perception, he said.

You cannot measure it by looking at how much you expend, because the more employees you have thats how large [your business] is. You are expected to earn more money.

Ultimately, paying workers more will lead to better results on the job, the professor said.

If you want to get the best out of your employees then give them the due reward that they should be getting.

If you dont what youre going to get is dishonesty, which leads to a lot of unnecessary costs in the business because of inefficiency. That is something we do not want to encourage.Brothers Danger Boe and SJ Demarco are in Samoa to give back to the community through their musical talents.

The sons of Church Ministers Reverend Fomai and Rasela Lafaialii will headline the Milly Rock concert at X-Club tonight.

Speaking to the Weekend Observer, Danger Boy, whose real name is Faaiuaso Lafaialii, and SJ Demarco, real name, SJ Lafaialii, said they are looking forward to their first performance in Samoa.

The brothers will be joined by a host of other big local names like Mr. Tee, Ben Petana, Avia Brothers, Joanna Failautusi and Faith25.

The main reason behind this concert is to give back to the community and working to promote Samoa with our music. Every music tells a story and this is ours to tell, the brothers said.

It is always great to be back home and its very important for us to be here for our first concert since the establishment of our music. Before we even perform in the countries that we are residing in at the moment, we want to first perform where everything started from.

Danger Boe resides in Australia while SJ is based in New Zealand. Both were born in Samoa where they say their passion for music started from church with their parents being Methodist church Ministers.

The fact that we were their children meant we had to set good examples for the people especially the youth of the church.

It was a must for us to attend all the choir practices and all the items of the Sunday school leaving us no choice. And we cannot complain as this was where our passion about music started from.

Danger Boe told the Samoa Observer the journey has been challenging.

There was a lot of doubt when we first started. People telling us that we can never do it. People throwing us a lot of negatives but all those built us and challenged us for the better.

 Me and uso sat down and I said to him, Look this is what we love and we got to keep on doing what we love and here we are and this will be our first ever concert. It is just a blessing working hand in hand with my brother and I could never ask for anyone like him.

This is just the start of everything for us. Time doesnt wait for anybody and while we are still young we got to do it because we wont be young forever and I know one day we will fade as well because nothing lasts forever so we just go with the time.

And the future?

We are hoping to take our music to the world because we Samoans, despite the fact that we are just a small Island but we are destined for greater things and this is why we are doing what we do best.

The brothers acknowledged the love of their sponsors including X-Club Samoa, Adaway Samoa, Best Value Supermarket Samoa, Taula Beverages Samoa, Tanoa Tusitala Hotel Samoa, TRANSAM, Duty Free Samoa, West style beauty salon, Farmer Joes Samoa, S.S.A.B, Apia Samoa and Urban Sounds.Samoa Stationery and Books has responded to calls from their customers living on the west side of Upolu by opening its eighth and newest store at the Faasootauloa Taulapapa Pati Investment building at Vaitele-tai.

The Companys Chief Executive Officer, Tofilau Fiti Leung Wai, said the opening is part of the companys mission to take their business to their customers.

We have always thought of opening up our own branch here a couple years ago, she said. But I just did not feel that it was the right time, until now.

Yesterday morning, Taituuga Kuini Leung Wai and Nino Stanley Fuimaono cut the ribbon, opening the shops doors to the public.

Pastor Segi Bee Leung Wai and Pastor Ruby Sabbath conducted the blessing.

It is a wonderful opportunity especially in this establishment, Tofilau said. We have a lot of customers who have requested to us to have a branch here.

She added that their approach was to make stationery, all their products and services accessible as well as convenient to their customers.

We understand the hassle it is for a lot of customers who need supplies and stationery to drive all the way to town. But now that our shop here is opened we will be able to manage and tend to customers and businesses in this area.

Preparations and renovations for the two-story building began early this week and within four days, S.S.A.Bs newest outlet was ready for opening. The store will be manned by six staff members and managed by Janet Faumuina.

To celebrate the milestone, the company is running a number of opening specials at Vaitele.

Tofilau and her husband Aumua Ming Leung Wai give all the glory to God and they acknowledge their families, friends, staff and supporters for their prayers and well wishes.Tupuivao Seiuli Tuala has been re-appointed to another term in office as the Chief Executive Officer of Samoa Airways.

This is Tupuivaos third term.

His contract for the next three years was endorsed and approved by Cabinet on Wednesday.

This was confirmed by the Minister of Samoa Airways, Lautafi Selafi Purcell.

We are fortunate to have our C.E.O. for the next three years," Lautafi told the Samoa Observer.

"His appointment was approved by Cabinet this week."

Tupuivaos leadership brought to life the governments vision of re-establishing its own airline and changing its name from Polynesian Airlines to Samoa Airways.

During the first year, the national carrier expanded its sales and travel agency reach, with its availability in the Sabre global distribution system.

Sabre is a publicly listed travel technology company based in Texas, U.S.A.

As the largest Global Distribution System provider for flight bookings in North America, Sabre is also the preferred travel commerce platform for many meta search engines, online travel agencies, tour companies, travel agencies, travel consolidators and travel management companies around the globe.

During its first year in operation the Samoa Airways was highlighted for bringing in the highest number of passengers into the country for the month of November 2018, according to recently released data from the Samoa Bureau of Statistics.

This week, the Samoa Airways signed a dry lease with Air Lease Corporation for a new Boeing 737-Max 9 aircraft, that will replace the current Boeing 737-800, which is owned by Iceland Air.

The new aircraft is expected to land in Samoa in March. Tupuivao Seiuli was not immediately available for a comment.A 22-year-old man has been charged by the Police, after an incident where he punched a Chinese woman in the face, and allegedly ran off with money from her store.

The incident took place last Saturday morning at Kavana Avealalo Store at Falelauniu.

It was captured on CCTV, with the footage handed to the Police.

It was also shared on social media where members of the public have condemned the attack as cowardice and heartless.

When the Weekend Observer visited the store yesterday, the Owner of the Shop, who was identified as Ming, was still recovering.

The woman, who is in her 50s, had her left eye heavily bandaged. There are other bruises on her chin and face.

It still hurts, she said. I cannot believe it happened.

Ming declined to discuss the incident further, saying the matter has been handed to the Police.

One of her employees, Brenda Namulauulu, said since the attack, her boss has been staying in her room most of the time.

Its very sad what happened, she said. Its a clear indication that some Samoans are racist. I know for a fact that if this woman was a Samoan this would have never happened, never.

The employee went on to explain that the incident occurred early Saturday morning.

The video footage tells the whole story, she said.

He walked in and while the cash register was opened, he punched my boss on the face.

You've seen her face, it is still all bruised and that tells you that he punched her face real hard.

The Police confirmed that a 22-year-old man has been charged with assault with intent to rob.

He has been remanded in custody to await his Court appearance on 22 January 2019.The Government celebrated the commissioning of a $5.39 million tala 200 Kilowatt Hydro Power plant at Vailoa Palauli, yesterday.

The occasion was hailed as a milestone for the big island of Savaii, with Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi officially opening the project.

The project is part of the Governments plan to achieve its 100 per cent goal of renewable energy generating power by 2025, and reduce the emission of poisonous gas into our environment that has resulted in major changes in climate, Tuilaepa said.

Last year, the Prime Minister said 48 percent of the total electricity demand for Samoa was generated from renewable energy, the rest came from diesel.

For the island of Savaii, only one percent was generated from renewable energy.

This is why the new power plant is important for Samoa, Tuilaepa said.

The Vailoa hydro power plant is one of the three new hydro power plants that have been constructed as part of Renewable Energy Development and Power Sector Rehabilitation Project.

The other two include the Tafitoala-Fausaga Hydro Power Plant and the Fuluasou Hydro Plant.

The power plants are part of the Renewable Energy Development and Power Sector Rehabilitation Project which are funded by grants from the Asian Development Bank, European Union, government of New Zealand, government of Samoa, and the Electric Power Corporation (E.P.C.).

The capacity of this new hydro power plant is 200 kilowatt and produces 500,000 kilowatt hour units of electricity per year which is about 4 per cent of the total annual electricity demand in Savaii. This will provide electricity to some 800 families in Savaii.

This plant will save about 167,000 litres of diesel fuel per year that would normally be used to generate electricity from diesel generators or a saving of $526,000 Samoan Tala per year.

The plant will also reduce 450 metric tons of carbon dioxide gas emission to the atmosphere.

He also said that the power plant uses water from the same river that supplies water to Samoa Water Authority (S.W.A) Water Treatment Plant which is designed to first use water to generate electricity and then the same water discharges to S.W.As Vailoa water treatment plant for water supply for all of Faasaleleaga, from Vailoa to Faga villages.

The new power plant includes a buried fiberglass pipe from the river intake to power station, surge chamber, and power station installed with one vertical 200 kilowatt Pelton turbine with three jets and generator and electrical equipment.

The plant is connected to the Saleologa through the Asau Distribution feeder to supply power to customers in Vailoa, neighboring villages in the south side of Savaii. The Plant is remotely controlled from EPCs Salelologa Control Center through telecommunication links using microwaves, radio signals and fiber optic cable.

Plant is also monitored and controlled from the National Control and Dispatching Centre at Fuluasou in Upolu. This enables the new plant to be integrated with rest of EPCs network in Savaii for improve efficiency and reliability of operation with maximum output power dependent on river flow. This is the first ever Hydro Power Plant in Savaii and it wont be the last, he added.

He also thanked all the people and companies who were involved in this project.

The contractor and their team of local and off-island subcontractors, village council of Vailoa - for your support of Government Development Projects like this new hydro.

I also would like to thank the 15 families who agreed on Governments taking of part of their lands to build this new Hydro Power Plant; to benefit not only Vailoa but all of Savaii.

I would also like to thank our Development Partners, the Asian Development Bank, European Union, and Government of New Zealand as well as all other donor partners such as Australian Government, Japanese Government and JICA, for help in funding this and other development projects.

May God continue to bless you all so that you will continue to help Samoa with all its developments especially the development of renewable energy resources like this new hydro power plant in order to reduce the impact of climate change on our communities and people.

The project was carried out by Pernix Group and MAP Projects Joint Venture from New Zealand, United States of America and Fiji with assistance from subcontractors; Bluebird Construction Ltd, Vortex Group Ltd, MTL Design Ltd, Maskell Production Ltd, and Gabot Holding Communications.Dear Editor,

Congratulations to Samoa for again showing leadership to the world in protecting our planet!

Working and living in Samoa for 3 years, Ive applauded the Prime Ministers strength and leadership in making world leaders accountable for taking action for climate change resilience.

And now, the Ministry of the Environment just passed a law banning the use of plastic bags, awesome! Countries that pass laws to ban plastic bags are successful in reducing our carbon footprint, like Denmark, Germany and now Samoa.

Countries like my native Canada that only encourage people to use canvas or cloth bags have virtually no impact. Not using plastic bags is something everyone can do, so Im hoping that everyone in Samoa will switch to non-plastic, re-usable bags so we can all benefit from a cleaner, greener Samoa.

Janis Fedorowick

SamoaEgypts JW Marriott Hotel launched its roof-top solar power station on Saturday, a statement by the United Nations Information Centre in Cairo said.

The solar energy station has a capacity of 150 KW and was established through technical and financial support from the UNDP-GEF Grid Connected Small Scale Photovoltaic System Project, which is implemented by the Industrial Modernization Center.

The objective of the project is to support expansion of roof-top solar energy systems in residential, commercial and industrial buildings and develop the small-sale renewable energy technology market in Egypt.

The launch was marked by a ceremony attended by Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker, Minister of Tourism Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of Environment Yasmin Fouad, Executive Director of the Industrial Modernization Center Ahmed Taha, and UNDP Resident Representative Randa Aboul-Hosn.

According to the statement, Aboul-Hosn said the project supports the implementation of the countrys sustainable development strategy and capitalises on Egypts abundant solar energy.

The solar station is the first solar energy station that the UNDP-GEF project has implemented at a hotel in Cairo.

It is hoped it will help encourage the hotel sector in Egypt to establish similar stations, according to the statement.

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At the beginning of the week, a young man was jailed for life for one of the most gruesome killings to have taken place in this country in recent memory.

On Monday, 24-year-old Simanua Manuele, of Falefa and Toamua, was jailed over the horrific double killing of two men, one aged 69 while another 42 at Leulumoega in November last year.

Apart from the fact he used a machete to commit the crime, why Manuele did what he did and what went through his mind when he committed the unthinkable has never been told.

And we probably might never find out now that he has been locked behind bars where murderers like him truly belong. Thats because when the Court proceedings started, the accused immediately pleaded guilty to the charges against him so that the details we would have otherwise been privileged to as part of a murder trial were spared.

Still, the thought of a double killing happening on these shores is quite chilling. It is sending out a shockwave across the country with the idea that something is terribly amiss in the make up of Samoan society today.

This is a Christian-state after all where just about everyone dresses up in their Sunday best to attend church services where we sing and talk about love, forgiveness and all those wonderful Biblical principles.

As if thats not enough, there are curfews in most villages to minimise disruption while villagers have their evening prayers. Which is great when things go well. But when something like this happens, its natural that we stop to look at ourselves to try and determine how we arrived where we are today.

Truth be told, there are just too many petty crimes happening in Samoa today, from theft, rape, incest to murders and the lot.

What is going on in our country? We talk about so much progress; is that really the case? Are cases like double murders, robberies and all these horrible criminal incidents we keep seeing every other week a sign of progress?

We dont think so.

Development, progress and all the other fancy stuff we have in Samoa have obviously come with an expensive price tag. Part of it is an increasing crime rate, leaving massive unanswered questions about the state of our morals and values.

Ua sui lava Samoa, it translates to Samoa has changed a lot. This is quite a popular saying casually used in conversations, which is quite true.

Ladies and gentlemen, Samoa of today is very different from the one many of us know from a few years ago. For one thing, some people are no longer afraid to commit crimes.

Its almost like its the norm to beat other people up out in the open. Some people find it so easy to wave guns around and to shoot someone else. Theft and robbery have become so commonplace. With the advent of CCTV, weve never seen so many different ways where Samoan people are stealing things, from money to anything they can get their hands on.

In bars, nightclubs and restaurants, many of them have become very unsafe. Patrons are alarmed and some are afraid to go there anymore. Some people behave like caged animals that have just been released. Others act like its a circus, its horrible.

This week, the video showing a young man walking into a store and punching a woman shopkeeper on the face, before taking off with her money, is the latest shocking incident to have emerged.

So what is going on in Samoa today? And where do we go from here?

Well here is the thing, in times like this; we look to our leaders for answers.

Leaders after all determine the destiny of their followers. If they do the right thing, their followers cannot do wrong. But if the followers are misbehaving and doing what they are not supposed to do  including breaking the law and becoming wanton criminals  you can only wonder what their leaders are doing?

The question we should ponder upon this weekend is; where is the leadership of this country today? And what are they going to do about the rise of petty crimes that is threatening the good name of this country and endangering the innocent lives of the people they are supposed to be responsible for?

Have an enjoyable weekend Samoa, God bless!Tens of thousands of enthusiastic workers and supporters, including a man on a wheelchair, attended the mega anti-BJP rally at the historic Brigade Parade ground here on Saturday raising their voices against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reached the venue almost an hour before the scheduled time while party leaders, MPs MLAs took their seats on the side stage.



Amidst elaborate security arrangements, the enthusiastic participants gathered waving giants flags. People were seen donning party symbols on hats and clothes.



Most of their sloganeering were centred around Modi, BJP National President Amit Shah and about the party's rule "finishing" in 2019.



Kamaludddin Khan came on a wheelchair came with a placard greeting the TMC chief and wished that she keeps moving ahead indirectly sharing his desire to see Banerjee as the next Prime Minister.



Finally, their wait was over as the rally, which is expected to kick-start the Opposition's campaign ahead of the upcoming general election, got going.





"We want to hear didi," Atish Chandra Bagdi, an avid supporter of the Trinamool supremo from Murshidabad district said. He painted himself in his party's colours.



Some people like Amzad Hossain from Coochbehar district donning dresses printed with the party's symbol, had arrived in the city on Friday.



"Let us take the pledge of building a progressive, strong and United India" read the backdrop of the main stage, where a number of Trinamool flags fluttered.

Espanola Police Department Officers arrested Jeremy Martinez, 30, of Espanola, Jan. 10 after Officer Cory Atencio caught him in a brief but muddy foot pursuit. He was booked into Rio Arriba County Detention Center for resisting, evading or obstructing an officer, and outstanding warrants for possession of a controlled substance and shoplifting.Support local journalism

Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution.You have permission to edit this article.

Edit CloseThe head of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Angel Gurria has hailed the economic reforms that adopted by Egypt over the past four years.

The OECD secretary-general made the remarks during the inaugural session of the "Private Investment for Sustainable Development" conference which is currently being held in Paris as part of the week on the role of responsibilities of the private sector in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Gurria cited Egypt's promising economic programme which is aimed at achieving inclusive growth with effective and sustainable participation of all parties.

The legislative reforms that have been carried out by Egypt recently created a suitable business climate that is capable of luring more investments to the country, Gurria said.

In her speech, Egyptian Investment Minister Sahar Nasr underlined the major role played by the private sector in achieving the SDGs at both national and international levels, said a statement released by the ministry.

Nasr said that Egypt is committed to working on achieving fair economic and social development by engaging all parties concerned with the development file.

Nasr highlighted Egypt's reforms which created an environment that encourages the private sector to participate in the development process, citing the investment law which offers tax incentives ranging between 30 and 50 percent for investing in the national projects and small and medium-sized enterprises.

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Do you want to manage your remote workers effectively? If yes, you are in the right place. In this article,...RTHK: Two monks shot dead in Thailand's deep south

Gunmen in Thailand's deep south shot dead two Buddhist monks and wounded two others inside a temple, police said on Saturday, capping a week of deadly violence as the prime minister vowed to "punish" those responsible.

Black-clad assailants carrying rifles crept into Rattanaupap temple in Narathiwat province near Malaysia's border on Friday evening and started firing, local superintendent Pakdi Preechachon said.

He said the attack took place around 7:30pm local time, when gunmen dressed in black entered the temple.

"Two monks were shot dead at the temple while two others were wounded," Pakdi said.

Since 2004 clashes between ethnic Malay-Muslim rebels and the Buddhist-majority Thai state that annexed the region a century ago have killed nearly 7,000 people, mostly civilians of both faiths.

The death toll in the south dropped to a record low last year as Thailand's junta tightened its security web but violence has boiled over in recent days, raising concerns about soft targets at schools and religious institutions.

In the past, Buddhist monks have been targeted only infrequently.

But they have been told to suspend morning alms collection starting from Saturday in three southern provinces and the southern army commander has instructed security officials to step up safeguards of Islamic leaders who could also be at risk.

Junta leader and prime minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha condemned the temple shootings.

No one has claimed responsibility, but that is not unusual for the conflict. (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2019-01-19. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.